Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh will be making an aerial survey of flood-affected areas of Nagaon, Morigaon and Kaziranga in Assam tomorrow. He will also be visiting Bhagatgaon Camp of flood-affected residents in Morigaon district.
Shri Rajnath Singh will hold a meeting with the Chief Minister Shri Sarbananda Sonowal and other State Government Officers in Guwahati before returning to Delhi in the evening.
Industry is a State subject, hence no centralized data regarding setting up of heavy/small industries for unemployed people is maintained in the Department of Heavy Industry (DHI). The role of DHI is confined to the administration of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) and Sectors under its administrative control.
Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports (I/C) Shri Vijay Goel here felicitated Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra who has just returned home from Poland after his remarkable feat in Under 20 IAAF World Athletics Championship. Congratulating the young Athlete from Haryana, the Minister said that the entire nation is proud of Neeraj Chopra’s record breaking performance. He expressed hope that with his determination and dedication he will be front ranking Athlete in the world who will vie for top honours at the 2020 Olympics.
Shri Goel said all facilities and support will be extended to the young talent by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and sports under existing policies for players.
Ministry has already announced a cash award of Rs. Ten Lakh to Neeraj Chopra for his world record performance in Poland.
Summary:Working memory can be thought of as short-term memory, temporarily holding ideas and recent events in the mind for quick recall. Working memory often declines with age; it may also be susceptible to interactions between age and alcohol use. Frontal theta power (FTP) and posterior alpha power (PAP) are electrophysiological measures of brain activity associated with cognitive effort and maintenance of visual information. A new study looks at alcohol effects on FTP and PAP during a working memory task in younger and older social drinkers.
Working memory can be thought of as short-term memory, temporarily holding ideas and recent events in the mind for quick recall. Working memory often declines with age; it may also be susceptible to interactions between age and alcohol use. Frontal theta power (FTP) and posterior alpha power (PAP) are electrophysiological measures of brain activity associated with cognitive effort and maintenance of visual information. This study looks at alcohol effects on FTP and PAP during a working memory task in younger and older social drinkers.
Researchers recruited two groups of participants for this study: 51 older (55-70 years of age; 29 women, 22 men), and 70 younger (25-35 years of age; 39 women, 31 men) moderate drinkers living in the community. Participants were given either a placebo or an active dose designed to produce a breath alcohol concentration of 0.04 or 0.065 g/dL. Following absorption, participants completed a visual working-memory task in which they were required to remember briefly-shown images during a nine-second delay period. FTP and PAP were recorded during this delay.
During working memory maintenance, PAP was lower in the older than the younger adults. In addition, active alcohol doses increased PAP in younger adults but decreased PAP in older adults. These results support a small but growing body of evidence that older adults are more sensitive than younger adults to the neuron behavioural effects of moderate alcohol use, and further demonstrate that PAP activity may help to identify alcohol’s negative effects on working-memory efficiency in older adults.
The Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) under the Department of Heavy Industry (DHI) are engaged in various training and skill development activities through various programmes such as Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Core Programme, Functional & Technical Management Programmes, Strategic Management Programmes, Quality Management Programmes, Competency Programmes, Craftsman Training Scheme, Nursing Training Scheme, Vocational Training Scheme, Apprenticeship Training Scheme, Training on Computer Applications, Industrial Safety, Training for Fitters/Mechanists/Electricians etc.
Further, DHI has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 8th December, 2015 with Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship to develop and implement National Action Plan for Skill Development in Capital Goods Sector, Automotive Sector and CPSEs under DHI with common objective of fulfilling skills needs of the Sectors and at the same time provide quality opportunities for employment/entrepreneurship.
These CPSEs undertake such programmes for in – house regular employees, and also for non-company personnel including Customers, Apprentices, Vocational & Industrial Trainees, Engineers, Graduates, ITI passed & Diploma Holders, non-statutory trainees (CA,ICWA, NIIT certified), local tribal and less educated youths etc.
Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL), a CPSE under DHI has three manufacturing units (Trichy, Ranipet and Thirumayam) in Tamil Nadu which provided training to nearly 1800 apprentices during 2015-16 in various trades such as Mechanist, Turner, Fitter, Welder, Mechanic etc. Further, Welding Research Institute under the aegis of BHEL Unit located at Trichy in Tamil Nadu has been conducting skill development programmes for ITI Welder passed candidates as well as other sponsored candidates.
The Government of India, the State of Manipur and the DISCOM of Manipur signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) under the Scheme UDAY – “Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana” today for operational turnaround of the DISCOM.
Manipur is the fourteenth State to join UDAY. It is also the first North Eastern State to opt for UDAY for improving the efficiency of the DISCOM. The combined DISCOM debt (including CPSU dues) that would be restructured in respect of these states is around Rs.2.16 lac crore as on 30th September, 2015.
Today the Government of Manipur has taken a positive step towards supporting its DISCOM by signing the MOU under UDAY for improving its operational efficiency. Through compulsory Distribution Transformer metering, consumer indexing & GIS mapping of losses, upgrade/change transformers, meters etc., smart metering of high-end consumers, feeder audit etc. AT&C losses and transmission losses would be brought down, besides eliminating the gap between cost of supply of power and realisation. The reduction in AT&C losses and transmission losses to 15% and 3.20% respectively is likely to bring additional revenue of around Rs.208 crore during the period of turnaround.
While efforts will be made by the State Government and the DISCOM to improve the operational efficiency of the DISCOM, and thereby reduce the cost of supply of power, the Central government would also provide incentives to the DISCOM and the State Government for improving Power infrastructure in the State and for further lowering the cost of power. The Central schemes such as DDUGJY, IPDS, Power Sector Development Fund or such other schemes of MOP and MNRE are already providing funds for improving Power Infrastructure in the State and additional/priority funding would be considered under these schemes, if the State/DISCOM meet the operational milestones outlined in the scheme. The State shall also be supported through additional coal at notified prices and in case of availability, through higher capacity utilization, low cost power from NTPC and other CPSUs. Other benefits such as coal swapping, coal rationalization, correction in coal grade slippage, availability of 100% washed coal would help the state to further reduce the cost of Power. The State would gain around Rs.32 crore due to these coal reforms.
Demand Side interventions in UDAY such as usage of energy-efficient LED bulbs, agricultural pumps, fans & air-conditioners and efficient industrial equipment through PAT (Perform, Achieve, Trade) would help in reducing peak load, flatten load curve and thus help in reducing energy consumption in the State of Manipur. The gain is expected to be around Rs.17 crore
Improvement in operation efficiency would enable the DISCOM to borrow at cheaper rates in future, for their infrastructure development and improvement of existing infrastructure. The expected benefit to the State on this account is around Rs.6 crore during the turnaround period.
An overall net benefit of approximately Rs.263 crore would accrue to the State by opting to participate in UDAY, by way of cheaper funds, reduction in AT&C and transmission losses, interventions in energy efficiency, coal reforms etc. during the period of turnaround.
The ultimate benefit of signing the MOU would go to the people of Manipur. Reduced levels of transmission and AT&C losses would mean lesser cost per unit of electricity to consumers. Improved operationally efficiency would also improve the DISCOM’s financial health. A healthy DISCOM would be in a position to supply more power. Thus, the scheme would allow speedy availability of power to around 188 villages and 2.43 lac households in the State that are still without electricity. Availability of 24×7 power to hitherto unconnected villages/households etc. would boost the economy, provide more employment opportunities for the people of the State and thereby, improve the standard of living of the people of the State.
The Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Shri Nitin Gadkari has said that the quality of road engineering in the country needs to improve drastically and should be aligned to international standards. He was speaking at the Inception Day celebrations of National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL) in New Delhi .
Citing the high number of road accidents in India and the resultant fatalities, Shri Gadkari said that preparation of very high quality of Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) is the very first stage in ensuring road safety. He said that DPRs should incorporate the latest technology, safety features like crash barriers in hilly terrain, intelligent traffic plans, proper signages etc, and should also rectify identified black spots. In addition to being perfect from the engineering perspective, the Minister said that DPR making should be time bound. Decision making at every level should be quick and transparent. He called for audit of decision making process and said unnecessary delays will not be tolerated.
NHIDCL had organized a conference on Appropriate Technologies for Soil and Slope Stabilization and Road Construction in High Rainfall Areas earlier during the day. NHIDCL has been entrusted with the task of building roads in the North Eastern states and hilly parts of the country. These areas have very heavy rainfall. Stabilization of soil and slopes are a major concern here. The conference provided a platform for technical experts, contractors, government officials, material providers and other stakeholders to come together and discuss the latest, appropriate technology and the best way to put these into use in road construction. Technical experts Mr Giorgio Giachetti from Italy and Mr Leigh Brown from Australia made presentations on soil and slope stabilization and roadside safety in hilly terrain infrastructure respectively.
Referring to the conference and the presentations made by the technical experts Shri Gadkari said that he was very happy that a major concern like soil and slope stabilization has been discussed and was hopeful that NHIDCL would soon be able to use the latest and most appropriate technologies for building safer roads in the North East and hilly areas of the country. He also called upon the corporation to set up a pre-casting unit in the North East so that pre – cast bridges and other structures could be made here. He also said that locally available material should be used in construction work. All this, he said, would go a long way in lowering costs. In addition, he said that concessionaires must train local youth so that they can get some employment at these road projects. Also, all efforts should be made towards greening of highways.
The Minister of State for Road Transport& Highways, Shipping and Chemical & Fertilizer Shri Mansukh Lal Mandaviya expressed satisfaction at the fact that so many stakeholders of the road sector were working in close cooperation to make Indian roads safer and of high quality. He expressed hope that this sort of cooperation would continue and be emulated in other areas of working too.
Shri Anand Kumar, Managing Director of NHIDCL gave an overview of the work being done by the corporation. He informed that NHIDCL was handling 133 projects of about 8000 km and costing about 8000 crores in 14 states.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) operates a dedicated weather and climate monitoring, detection and warning services useful for various sectors of economy. The weather forecasting systems in the country are comparable to most of the countries in the world with respect to weather forecasting. Efforts are continuously made to enhance the level of efficiency of the forecasting systems. During the past few years, the IMD has been continuously improving weather prediction services in terms of accuracy, lead time and associated impact. Manifestation of such quantitative improvement may be seen with accurate prediction of Monsoon 2015 and Very Severe Cyclonic Storms “Phailin”, “Hudhud” and the heavy rainfall events during monsoon season of 2014 and 2015. The Deep depression 8-10 November, 2015 which crossed Tamilnadu coast near Pudduchery was correctly predicted. The severe weather resulted from the extremely heavy rainfall had been accurately predicted well in advance by IMD.
Year wise allocation of funds in IMD during 12th Five Year Plan is indicated below:
| Financial Year | Funds allocated (Rs. In Crores) |
| 2012-13 | 206.00 |
| 2013-14 | 200.00 |
| 2014-15 | 190.00 |
| 2015-16 | 174.18 |
| 2016-17 | 241.60 |
However, augmentation of the observing system networks for the upgradation of IMD is a continuing process that shall be taken up as per the emerging needs from time to time.
A conference on implementation of National Pension System (NPS) in Central Autonomous Bodies (CABs) was organised by PFRDA at New Delhi. The prime objective of the conference was to understand and address the concerns of the Central Autonomous Bodies who have not yet registered for NPS.
Shri Hemant Contractor, Chairman, PFRDA in his key note address stressed on the need for a regular and steady source of income for old age income security. He informed the participants that it was mandatory for all CABs which had offered CPF to its employees earlier to switch to NPS, but some CABs had not done so, and he urged them to adopt NPS without further delay, in view of the benefits of doing so, apart from the mandatory requirement. He gave the example of State Governments which had voluntarily adopted NPS in view of its merits. He further mentioned that it was important for CABs to offer a pension benefit to their employees in view of the many advantages, which could never be matched by lump sum payments such as CPF payment. He urged the CABs to comply with the Government directives and join NPS at the earliest so that the employees could get the benefit of pension under NPS for their old age income security.
Dr. B. S. Bhandari, Whole Time Member (Economics), PFRDA, while speaking on the occasion highlighted on the introduction of NPS for all Central Government Employees (except armed forces) joining services on or after 01st January 2004 and also informed the participants about the various notifications issued by Government for implementation of NPS in the Central Autonomous Bodies. He also briefed about the basic operational aspects of the NPS, investment pattern & NPS architecture. He also illustrated the benefit of higher return under NPS and power of compounding on this higher return resulting to better yield in comparison to other superannuation benefits.
Shri R V Verma, Whole Time Member (Finance) PFRDA, also urged to all the CABs present in the conference to be part of NPS and said that there is no reason why CABs have not implemented despite all the benefits in NPS. He informed that though the scheme is mandatory for all Central Autonomous Bodies having contributory Provident fund, many of the CABs are yet to join NPS. He expressed PFRDA is confident that this conference will help the participating CABs to understand NPS in a better way and will help them to join NPS at the earliest without further delay.
. Currently, NPS has more than 1.30 crore subscribers with total Asset Under Management (AUM) of more than Rs.1.37 lakh crores.
As per budgetary approval for the current year, Internal Extra Budgetary Resources (IEBR) amounting to Rs.59,279 crore has been allotted to NHAI. NHAI has been already authorised to raise Rs.25,000 crore (taxable) and Rs.5,000 crore (54EC) for construction and maintenance of National Highways.
A proposal for monetization of completed public funded national highway projects through Toll-Operate Transfer mode based on the expected collection of user fee receivables, through private sector efficiency and expertise is under active consideration. Proceeds from such monetization of completed national highway projects shall be utilized for construction, operation and maintenance of national highways.
The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the revised cost estimate for Rs. 3727.30 crore for the National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRIP). This approval ensures completion of the projects under NATRIP which is an important Initiative by the Government of India for the establishment of the global test centres in India. This will address the R&D requirements of the automotive industry, full-fledged testing and homologation centres. The places are within the Northern auto-cluster at ICAT-Manesar, Haryana and Southern auto-cluster at GARC-Oragadam, Chennai, Tamil Nadu and up-gradation of existing centers at ARAI- Pune and VRDE-Ahmednagar in Maharashtra for Western auto-cluster.
The NATRIP project is required:
The essential components include world class labs for Powertrain, Passive Safety Tests l (including crash tests), Tracks for proving technology (including the High Speed Track at Indore), fatigue and certification, Electro-magnetic Compatibility tests, Noise Vibration & Harshness tests, CAD & CME and Infotronics. Many of the labs are already operational. These infrastructure will also enable the vehicle and component manufacturers to develop and get certificates in the country, for automotive products which confirm to the world standards thus implementing the ‘Make in India’ objective.
The following is the summary of the automotive client base and services offered, in order to make NATRiP centres locally and globally competitive and to make them fully integrated with the established Auto Hubs so that Indian industry is world class and export competitive by giving impetus to the “Make in India” program as well.
(a) Categories of customers served:
Four wheeler manufacturers/Commercial vehicle manufacturers/ Three wheeler Manufacturers/ Two wheeler Manufacturers/Construction equipment vehicle manufacturers/ Agriculture equipment (Tractors) manufacturers/E-Rickshaw manufacturers/ Bus body Manufacturers/ CNG-LPG kit retrofitters/Automotive & Non-Automotive engine Manufacturers/DG set manufacturers/Automotive Component Manufacturers.
(b) Services offered:
Certification of various vehicle categories, including HEV/EV/Diesel/Gasoline/CNG/LPG etc. as per CMVR-1989.
iii. Export certification for vehicles and components for Europe/South Africa/Malaysia/ Indonesia/Brazil etc. for Indian manufacturers, in collaboration with other authorized agencies.
vii. Technology development and R&D projects
viii. Data collection for new regulations framing.
Minister of State (Independent Charge) for AYUSH, Shri Shripad Yesso Naik has informed that the Ministry of AYUSH is mandated to promote and propagate AYUSH systems of medicine across the globe. To achieve the objective, the Ministry of AYUSH signs Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) for ‘Country to Country’ cooperation in the field of Traditional Medicines; sets up AYUSH Academic Chairs in foreign Universities/ Educational Institutes; establishes AYUSH Information Cells in the premises of the Indian Missions abroad or Indian Cultural Centres for dissemination of authentic information about AYUSH Systems of medicine and enters into MoUs with foreign institutes for undertaking collaborative research.
As a result of concerted efforts, for the first time India has successfully engaged USA in the field of Traditional Medicine. An India-US workshop on Traditional Medicine with special focus on cancer was organized on 3-4 March, 2016 at New Delhi. A US team comprising of experts from National Cancer Institute (NCI) took part in the two day exhaustive deliberations that have resulted into significant leads.
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