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NTPC bags three SCOPE Corporate Communication Awards

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NTPC -indianbureaucracy
NTPC -indianbureaucracy

NTPC has bagged 1st Prize of SCOPE Corporate Communication Excellence Awards 2016 in the Category of “Brand building through inclusive Growth initiatives”, 2nd Prize in the Category of “Best Internal Communication Programme ” and Consolation Prize in the Category of “Crisis Handling” at the Corporate Communication Summit organised by SCOPE in New Delhi today on 21st July, 2016.

Shri Saptarshi Roy, ED to CMD & ED (Corporate Planning and Corporate Communication) and Shri P.K Sinha, GM(Corporate Communication) received the award from Shri Sudhir Chaudhary, Senior Editor & Business Head of Zee News and Padma Shri Dr. K.K. Aggarwal, in the presence Shri Nirmal Sinha, Chairman, SCOPE & CMD, HHEC; Dr. U.D. Choubey, Director General, SCOPE amidst other dignitaries.NTPCC_indianbureaucracy

IndianBureaucracy.com wishes the very best.

Scientists and Zoos team up on landmark Elephant Welfare Project

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Elephant Welfare Project_indianbureaucracy
Elephant Welfare Project_indianbureaucracy

Summary:Social and environmental interactions may be far more important for elephants than simply the size of their enclosures, reports a team of researchers conducting this largest ever, multi-institutional zoo-elephant welfare project.

Given that elephants are the largest land mammals on the planet, one might expect that when it comes to enclosures for zoo elephants, size matters.

However, a newly released study in which the University of California, Davis, played a key role reveals that social interactions and having an array of opportunities to engage with their surroundings may be more important for elephants than space.

The research effort is the largest multi-institutional zoo-elephant welfare project conducted to date and includes nine studies that analysed the lives of 255 African and Asian elephants in 68 accredited North American zoos. The results will be released July 14 as a special collection in the open-access journal PLOS ONE, published by the Public Library of Science.

The goals and comprehensive findings of these studies will be presented in a companion overview.

“This is the first coordinated set of studies aimed at evaluating a number of behavioural and physical aspects of welfare for the North American zoo elephant population and, importantly, identifying the most important aspects of elephant management, housing and care,” said Cheryl Meehan, a UC Davis staff research associate in the Department of Population Health and Reproduction, School of Veterinary Medicine. Meehan provided consulting services to the project through her organisation, AWARE Institute, and is the lead author for the overview.

Time alone is risk factor for zoo elephants

The full research collection contains studies on elephant welfare factors including behaviour, body condition, foot-and-joint health, female reproductive function and walking distance.

Some of the results confirmed the researchers’ expectations. For example one of the studies found that spending time on hard flooring was the No. 1 risk factor for both foot and musculus skeletal health problems, which were common in the elephant population.

Other findings revealed previously unknown links between elephant management and welfare. For example, a research team led by Joy Mench, professor in the UC Davis Department of Animal Science, and graduate student Brian Greco found that more than three-quarters of the elephants studied performed stereotype behaviours such as swaying or rocking.

These types of behaviours are considered to be among the most important behavioural indicators that the welfare of a captive animal is compromised, but their causes are difficult to pinpoint.

The researchers also found that for elephants, spending time alone was an important risk factor, while spending more time in larger social groups, particularly those that included young animals, had a protective effect. Additionally, having experienced multiple inter-zoo transfers increased an elephant’s risk of performing stereotype behaviour.

The authors interpret these results to mean that the social lives of elephants play a large role in their behavioural health and recommend that zoo elephant programs consider management changes to support larger, multi generational social groupings.

Meehan said that some of the other results were quite surprising.

Enclosure size was surprisingly less important

“We expected to find associations between the size of zoo exhibits and welfare, but space ended up being of minor importance when compared to social factors and management practices such as enrichment programs,” she said.

For example, female elephants who experienced a wide variety of enrichment opportunities and feeding options, such as puzzle feeders that require work to gain access to food, were more likely to have normal reproductive function. This result indicates that day-to-day management practices could be an important tool in addressing the reproductive issues that are particularly common among female African elephants.

Mench said that the research team hopes the results of these studies will provide zoos with “objective information about how elephants are faring behaviourally, physiologically and emotionally, and the positive and negative outcomes of various zoo housing and management practices.”

More: Science

NITI Aayog & Intel sign SoI to kick-off Atal Tinkering Lab Initiative for Young Innovators

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NITI Aayog_IndianBureaucracy
NITI Aayog_IndianBureaucracy

NITI Aayog has introduced the Atal Tinkering Laboratories (ATL) initiative as a part of its flagship programme – the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM). As part of a crucial effort to efficiently implement the initiative, NITI Aayog  signed a Statement of Intent (SoI) with Intel India.

The key objectives of setting up Atal Tinkering Laboratories is to build relevant skill sets among youngsters and to provide access to technology that will enable solutions. Intel will co-lead the creation and management of ten ATLs as State Hubs. These laboratories intend to impact 250,000 youth with innovation skills & skills for the future across 500 communities & schools.

Intel will support NITI Aayog in building capacities of mentors and developing linkages with Maker ecosystem for quality improvement of projects made by youth, facilitating ideation, design thinking and prototyping workshops through industry experts and co-lead an innovation festival which reaches out to 500,000 young innovators.

The SoI between NITI Aayog and Intel was signed in the presence of NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, Senior Advisor, NITI Aayog, Dr. C. Muralikrishna Kumar, Vice President – Corporate Affairs at Intel Corporation, Ms. Rosalind Hudnell and Kishore Balaji, Director of Corporate Affairs Group, Intel South Asia.

CEO, NITI Aayog Amitabh Kant said that If India needs to grow consistently at 9 to 10 percent over the next three decades, it is absolutely essential that we are able to build innovative solutions to our unique problems. NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission, especially the Atal Tinkering Labs, will enable the creation of millions of child innovators who will bloom into young entrepreneurs, thus enabling India’s unprecedented growth.

On this occasion President, Intel Foundation & Vice President, Intel Corporation Ms. Rosalind L. Hudnell said, Intel believes that it is more important than ever to invest in youth and innovation. That’s why we are proud to be a part of the Atal Innovation Mission to launch tinkering labs throughout India, which will ultimately help millions of children across the country develop the skills they need to be competitive as tomorrow’s workforce.

Earlier in the day, NITI Aayog, organised an ‘Expert Consultative Group Meeting’ to help create and put in place a framework for operationalizing the Atal Tinkering Labs that will be established in schools all across the country. The technical support was provided by Intel Technology India Pvt. Ltd.

The maker community deliberated on the type of equipment (must have, good to have) in a lab, success indicators and engagement with the community. It was brought out that the Atal Tinkering Labs in all schools should be entirely student-centric and ought to function with critical involvement of all stakeholders at the school level – teachers, parents, makers and other private organizations – to make the initiative a grand success.

CEO, NITI Aayog, Amitabh Kant, Secretary, Department of School Education & Literacy, MHRD, Dr. S. C. Khuntia, Senior Advisor, NITI Aayog, Dr. C. Muralikrishna Kumar and Director of Corporate Affairs Group, Intel South Asia Kishore Balaji makers, practitioners, schools and civil society attended the meeting.

Highest ever domestic production of Urea in 2015-16

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DAC&FW-indianbureaucracy
DAC&FW-indianbureaucracy

Minister of State (MoS) in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers Sh. Mansukh L. Mandaviya has conveyed that the Department of Fertilisers is mandated to provide all subsidised chemical fertilisers to the States/UTs as per requirement projected by the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare (DAC&FW) in consultation with States. In order to meet the gap between domestic demand and indigenous production, urea is imported. In the year 2015-16, domestic production of urea was the highest ever. Import is going to reduce gradually as production of urea increases.

            The details of annual requirement/demand, production and import of major fertilisers during the last three years are given below:-

                                                                                                            (Figure. in LMT)

Name of the Product Requirement/Production/Import 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16
 Urea Requirement/Demand 316.90 306.71 313.35
Production 227.15 225.85 244.75
Import 70.88 87.49 84.74
 DAP Requirement/Demand 109.86 95.94 102.34
Production 36.11 34.44 37.87
Import 32.61 38.53 60.08
 NPK Requirement/Demand 107.36 99.81 105.89
Production 69.13 78.32 83.01
Import 3.62 2.91 6.29
 MOP Requirement/Demand 35.13 30.26 36.08
Import 31.80 41.97 32.43

Boosting indigenous Defence Production

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Defenceproduction_indianbureaucracy
Defenceproduction_indianbureaucracy

The Defence Production Policy promulgated by Government of India aims at achieving substantive self-reliance in the design, development and production of equipment, weapon systems, platforms required for defence in as early a time frame possible; creating conditions conducive for the private industry to take an active role in this endeavour, enhancing potential of SMEs in indigenisation and broadening the defence R&D base of the country.

In pursuance to the aforesaid policy, progressive development of competence level of Indian public and private industry and in line with the ‘Make in India’ initiative, the Government has taken several policy measures to give a boost to indigenous production of defence equipment requirement, which inter-alia, include preference to ‘Buy (Indian-IDDM)’, `Buy (Indian)’ and `Buy & Make (Indian)’ categories of acquisition over ‘Buy (Global)’ category in defence procurement; liberalisation of Foreign Direct Investment and Industrial Licensing Policy; level-playing-field between private sector and public sector through removing anomalies in taxation in Customs / Excise duty etc.

HAL is an autonomous entity and therefore based on the available opportunities, it takes decisions for diversification into other areas of aerospace sector which includes manufacture of commercial aircrafts also. However, such diversification plans are contingent upon financial viability of the projects and the requirements of Indian Armed Forces.

IT Dept signs contract with L & T Infotech for implementation of Project Insight

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CRSCRS
CRS

In the last decade, the Income Tax Department embarked on an ambitious computerisation plan which developed voluminous databases of IT returns, IT forms, TDS/TCS statements, Annual Information Return (AIR) etc. The large volumes of data necessitated development of a comprehensive platform for effective utilisation of information. The Department initiated Project Insight to strengthen the non–intrusive information driven approach for improving tax compliance and effective utilisation of information in tax administration.

The Income Tax Department has today signed a contract with L & T Info tech Ltd for implementation of Project Insight.  The Project will be rolled out in three phases and the first phase is expected to go live in May 2017.

This integrated platform would play a key role in widening of tax-base and data mining to track tax evaders. The new technical infrastructure will also be leveraged for implementation of Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act Inter Governmental Agreement (FATCA IGA) and Common Reporting Standard (CRS). Implementation of reporting compliance management system will ensure that the third party reporting by reporting entities is timely and accurate. A streamlined data exchange mechanism will also be set up with other Government Departments and exchange partners.

A new Compliance Management Centralized Processing Centre (CMCPC) will also be setup as part of the Project for handling preliminary verification, campaign management, generation of bulk letters/notices and follow-up.  The new CPC will not only promote voluntary compliance but also enable taxpayers to resolve simple compliance related issues in an online manner without visiting the Income tax office.

The project ensures the continuation of the Department’s goal towards business transformation through technology.

Deadlines for completing Strategic Road Projects

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road-safty-indiabureaucracy
road-safty-indiabureaucracy

73 roads are identified as strategic Indo-China border roads (ICBR), out of which 61 roads have been entrusted to Border Roads Organisation (BRO) with a length of 3417 km which were planned to be completed by 2012. Out of which 22 roads of length 707.74 km are completed. The revised completion schedule of 39 ICBRs is as under:

• 2016 – 5 Roads

• 2017 – 8 Roads

• 2018 – 12 Roads

• 2019 – 8 Roads

• 2020 – 6 Roads

Ministry of Home Affairs is the nodal agency for the fencing along the border regions. The status of fencing works is as under:

• Indo-Bangladesh border (Phase-I): 857.37 km of fencing in the states of West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram has been completed in 2000.

• Indo-Bangladesh border (Phase-II): Out of 2468 km of fencing, 1872 km has been completed. The completion schedule is March 2019 for ongoing works.

• Indo-Myanmar border: Out of the 9.12 km fencing, 2.79 km has been completed.

Government has taken following measures to expedite the pace of road projects:

• States of Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, J&K, Himachal Pradesh and Tripura have constituted the Empowered Committee to resolve issues related to land acquisition, forest / wildlife clearance, allotment of quarries etc.

• Ministry of Environment & Forest (MoEF) has given the General Approval under section 2 of forest (conservation) Act, 1980 for diversion of forest land required for construction / widening of roads entrusted to BRO in the area falling within 100 kilometers aerial distance from the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and for link roads between Border Roads in the area within 100 kilometer aerial distance from the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and National Highways / State Highways / Other roads subject to certain conditions.

• Outsourcing has been allowed to augment capacity of BRO.

• Long Term Roll On Work Plan (LTROWP) and Long Term Equipment Plan (LTEP) have been approved.

• Enhanced financial and administrative powers have been given to the executives of BRO.

Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-NULM guidelines recast to benefit more Urban Poor

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Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana_housing_indianbureaucracy
Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana_housing_indianbureaucracy

Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation has made substantial changes in the Guidelines for implementation of Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana- National Urban Livelihoods Mission to benefit more and more urban poor by relaxing the norms for implementation of the Mission.

The National Governing Council of the Mission, an inter-ministerial body chaired by the Minister of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu approved several changes in the operational guidelines of the Mission after detailed deliberations. Minister of State for Urban Development and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Shri Rao Inderjit Singh also attended the meeting.

Banks have now been allowed to directly accept applications from the beneficiaries for extending subsidized loans for setting up individual and group enterprises under the Self-Employment Programme component of DAY-NULM dispensing with the need for sponsorship by concerned urban local bodies. One bank will be designated as the Nodal Agency for each State to coordinate with all other banks to increase banking linkages for loan support under this component.

Norms for formation of Self-Help Groups of urban poor have been relaxed allowing up to 10 members to form a group in hilly tracts and tribal areas as against the earlier norm of 20 members. Men involved in vulnerable occupations like sanitation workers, rag pickers, rikshaw pullers etc., are now allowed to form such Groups who would be eligible for bank loans and revolving fund of Rs.10,000/- per each group.

The Governing Council allowed construction of shelters for urban homeless with CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) funds and other donations allowing display of names of such donors. Construction of multi-storied shelters for urban homeless keeping in view land constraints has also been permitted besides allowing attendants of patients to use such shelters. CCTVs are to be provided in shelters for women and children to ensure their security.

The Council has permitted convergence of DAY-NULM with other schemes like Prime Minister’s Kaushal Vikas Yojana, Skill Development, Prime Minister’s Jan Dhan Yojana and various social security schemes like Pradhan Mantri Jivan Jyoti Bima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri  Suraksha Bima Yojana etc. , besides ensuring Aadhar linkages.

After reviewing the physical and financial progress under DAY-NULM during the last two years, Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu said that the performance vis-à-vis targets has been satisfactory but there is need for States to do more.

As against the target of formation of 70,062,  Self-Help Groups, actual performance has been 1,05,958. Under Self-Employment Programme component, 94,549 beneficiaries have been given subsidized bank loans for setting up individual and group enterprises against the target of 90,062. A total of 4,36,110 urban poor have been imparted skill training during the last two financial years and another 1,38,385 have so far been skilled during the current fiscal. 336 shelters for urban homeless have been so far made operational.

Vijay Goel congratulates Mr World Title winner Rohit Khendelwal

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rohit-mrworld_indianbureaucracy
rohit-mrworld_indianbureaucracy

Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports (I/C) Shri Vijay Goel has congratulated Shri Rohit Khendelwal on wining Mr. World title. In a message he said the success of Shri Khendelwal at the competition reflects that Indian Youth is committed to do positive things in life and bring laurels to the country at the world arena.

IndianBureaucracy.com wishes Rohit Khendelwal the very best.

OROP Scheme

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one-rank-one-pension-indianbureaucracy
one-rank-one-pension-indianbureaucracy

A Judicial Committee on OROP headed by Justice L. Narasimha Reddy, Retired Chief Justice of Patna High Court has been appointed vide Government order dated 14.12.2015 to look into anomalies, if any, arising out of implementation of OROP. The Committee shall make its recommendation within one year of the date of its constitution.

IndianBureaucracy.com wishes the very best.

PMO seeks views on role of Appellate Tribunal, SEBI & CCI

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FICCI
FICCI_logo_indianbureaucracy
The Prime Minister’s Office is taking a long, hard look at the role of appellate tribunals that hear pleas against orders by the capital market regulator and competition watchdog, said people with knowledge of the matter. PMO has asked trade bodies to collect feedback from leading lawyers and market participants on whether these tribunals are really required as appeals to the high court are admitted in such cases.
It has also sought suggestions on how to make Sebi and Competition Commission more effective.
 Currently, all petitions against Sebi’s orders go to the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) and those by Competition Commission to the Competition Appellate Tribunal (Compat).
 Appeals against these tribunals are made at the Supreme Court. However, appellants can pursue petitions at the high courts, which have the power to issue writs if the aggrieved parties can demonstrate that moving the tribunal won’t be effective.
The reasons behind PMO seeking feedback on the role of appellate tribunals and on the effectiveness of regulators could not be ascertained.
PMO has sought the opinion of members of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), said a spokesperson for the industry lobby but declined to provide details.
ET has reviewed the letter from FICCI to industry participants seeking feedback on the queries from PMO on the functioning of tribunals and the effectiveness of regulators. The letter was sent in the second half of June and recipients were asked to reply by June 29.
Lawyers and consultants who have also received the queries are also not clear about the purpose of the exercise.
They feel, however, that it could be part of the government’s push to improve the ease of doing business in India.
The government is keen on ironing out issues related to disputes over securities and competition law to encourage foreign investments.
‘APPELLATE TRIBUNALS NEEDED’
Lawyers said appellate tribunals are needed for the development of the financial markets.
“The existing tribunal framework has acquired the knowledge and experience in dealing with disputes arising out of respective laws whereas the civil courts deal with all forms of disputes. This will have to be weighed,” said Mukesh Butani, managing partner, BMR Legal.
SAT, a quasi-judicial body set up in 1995, also hears appeals against the Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority and the Pension Fund Regulatory & Development Authority. Compat was formed in 2009 to hear appeals against CCI.
“Continuing to have specialised tribunals like SAT and Compat will be important for growth and development of securities market as well as competition sector,” said Sumit Agrawal, partner, Suvan Law Advisors, a law firm specialising in regulatory matters.
“High courts can continue to deal with constitutional issues only.” Some experts also pointed out that India’s judicial system is already overloaded with a backlog of cases.
There are more than 40 tribunals across the country that hear appeals against various regulators.
They were set up to ease the burden on high courts and help in the speedy disposal of cases.
While some are defunct, a good number of them has been successful, said lawyers.
“If the proposal is to replace the various tribunals with the high court, it could either mean elimination of tribunals altogether or (making) the tribunals part of the high court infrastructure,” said BMR’s Butani.
“This will require amendments to the respective Acts.”
Lawyers and consultants said regulators such as Sebi are effective enough.
“Sebi already has a lot of powers. There is no need to bring in new rules to make it more effective. All it (Sebi) needs to do is to put its existing powers to good use,” said a securities lawyer who did not wish to be identified.

Home Minister speaks to Bihar CM regarding CRPF ambush in Aurangabad

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crpf-indianbureaucracy
crpf-indianbureaucracy

The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh spoke to the Bihar Chief Minister Shri Nitish Kumar regarding the ambush on Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) team in Aurangabad region. The Home Minister has instructed DG, CRPF to rush to Aurangabad to assess the situation post the ambush.

Shri Singh expressed his heartfelt condolences to the families of martyred CRPF personnel. He also prayed for the speedy recovery of the injured.

IndianBureaucracy.com conveys its condolences to the martyred and get well soon wishes to all injured. Jai Hind