Shri A.K. Jain, (IRS 1978) presently posted as Member, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has appointed as Chairman, CBDT vice Ms. Anita Kapur, (IRS 1978).
IndianBureaucracy.com wishes the very best.
Government of India Signs MoU to establish 3 IIITs
The Central Government signed Memorandum of Understanding and documentation for establishing three Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIITs) at Ranchi, Nagpur and Pune. These IIITs are operated on a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) mode with participation of State Government and Industry, apart from the Central Government. The IIITs are expected to bring out high quality IT manpower required for building up IT industry in the country. The agreement has been signed by Shri Vinay Sheel Oberoi, Secretary, Department of Higher Education from the Central Government side and by Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Motors, M/s ADCC Infocad, Nagpur and M/s Hubtown, Mumbai.
IIIT-Ranchi will operate from the Old Judicial Academy in the Administrative Training Institute, Ranchi admitting 120 students for the year 2016-17 through JEE 2016 examination. The partners for IIIT-Ranchi – the TCS and Tata Motors have committed participation in developing curriculum which is required by the industry. The institution will be mentored by NIT-Jamshedpur.
IIIT-Nagpur will be set up in the BMIT Campus (temporary campus) with the participation of M/s ADCC Infocad and TCS. Government of Maharashtra has identified 88 acres of land for setting up a permanent campus. The BNIT will be the mentor institution. It has proposed to admit 120 students in the CSE and ECE branches in 2016 through JEE-2016 examination.
IIIT-Pune will be set up in the Siddhant Engineering College (temporary campus) and the permanent campus will be constructed at Chakan for which the State Government has identified 100 acres of land. The industry partners are M/s Hubtown Mumbai and M/S Roltas have agreed to develop the curriculum suitable to the industry. The Institute will start functioning under the mentorship of COE Pune and 120 students will be admitted in 2016 through JEE-2016.
With this, the total number of IIITs in the PPP mode has gone up to 16, leaving 4 more to be set up for which scheduled has been fixed in the month of January 2016.
Mohd. Jamshed Takes Charge as New Member Traffic, Railway Board
Shri. Mohd.Jamshed has taken over as the new Member Traffic, Railway Board. Prior to this, he was General Manager of Northeast Frontier Railway.
During his long career, Shri. Mohd. Jamshed has held several important assignments in the Ministry of Railways and on Northern, Eastern and Central Railways including- Additional Member Railway Board, Chief Operations Manager, Chief Vigilance Officer, Chief Safety Officer, Divisional Railway Manager, and Executive Director Railway Board.
Shri Jamshed during his previous posting as Additional Member Railway Board, was Chairman of the Committee on Traffic Optimisation set up by Minister for Railways Shri Suresh Prabhu. He was Member of the Advisory Council for developing Indian Railway’s IT Vision and also co-ordinated Indian Railways Freight and Passenger outreach initiatives. He was also instrumental in Paperless Mobile Based Ticketing systems, launched by Indian Railways recently.
In addition, Shri Jamshed has also authored the SAARC Regional Multimodal Transport Study adopted by SAARC for regional connectivity initiatives. Trained in HEC Paris and GM Institute Chicago, Shri Jamshed has also led Indian Railway delegations to Japan, Sri Lanka, and Tehran. He was also associated with United Nations Economic and Social Council for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP)’s Trans Asian Railway project during his tenure as Executive Director PP in Railway Board.
A gold medalist from Allahabad University, Shri Jamshed belongs to the1980 batch of Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS).
He served as the General Manager of Northeast Frontier Railway from 24th October 2015 to 14thDecember, 2015.
J S Randhawa appointed as DCP (Urban)- Ambala, Haryana Police
Shri Jashandeep Singh Randhawa IPS (Haryana 2012) presently posted as ASP, Hisar, has been appointed as DCP (Urban), Ambala, Haryana Police.
IndianBureaucracy.com wishes the very best.
Arun Kumar Gupta appointed as Advisor Civil Aviation &Secy.Civil Aviation – Haryana
Shri Arun Kumar Gupta IAS (Haryana 1992) presently posted as Labour Commissioner, Labour Department, Haryana has been appointed as Advisor, Civil Aviation and Secretary Civil Aviation Government of Haryana.
IndianBureaucracy.com wishes the very best.
Sanjay Kumar appointed as IGP-Administration, Haryana Police HQ
Shri Sanjay Kumar IPS (Haryana 1997) presently posted as DIG, CID on promotion, has been appointed as IGP/Administration (PHQ) Haryana Police.
IndianBureaucracy.com wishes the very best.
I S Uboweja to be Additional Judge of Chhattisgarh High Court
In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (1) of article 224 of the Constitution of India, the President is pleased to appoint Shri I S Uboweja to be Additional Judge of Chhattisgarh High Court, for a period of three months with effect from 27th January, 2016.
IndianBureaucracy.com wishes the very best.
Poorna Shakti Kendra Project on Pilot Run in 12 states
Minister of Women and Child Development, Smt Maneka Sanjay Gandhi has informed. The Poorna Shakti Kendra (PSK) project is being implemented in a pilot mode in selected districts Under the Scheme National Mission for Empowerment of Women.
The project entails setting up of convergence centres at the district, block and Gram Panchayat (GP) level. The convergence centres are meant to facilitate greater access for women to government schemes/programs, create awareness on gender issues and facilitate/handholding of women in need/affected by violence.
The number of Poorna Shakti Kendras presently functional in the country, State/ UT-wise is given below:
| State/UT in which Poorna Shakti Kendra is functional under NMEW Scheme | |||||
| S.No. | State | PSK District | S. No | State | PSK District |
| 1. | Telangana | i. Medak | 2. | Rajasthan | ii. Pali (in 150 GP) iii.Bundi |
| 3. | Bihar | iv.Aurangabad | 4. | Chandigarh | v. Chandigarh |
| 5. | Gujarat | vi. Sabarkantha | 6. | Assam | vii. Kamrup, Metro |
| 7. | West Bengal | viii. Malda | 8. | Meghalaya | ix. Jaintia Hills, Jowai |
| 9. | Mizoram | x.Champai | 10. | Uttarakhand | xi. Haridwar |
| 11. | Himachal Pradesh | xii. Solan (under process for continuation) | 12. | Nagaland | xiii. Kohima |
Each Kendra at Gram Panchayat level has two Mahila Gram Samanvyaks (Women Village Coordinators) who act as motivators for the women in the area and are also responsible for providing support/awareness on various issues related to empowerment of women. A monthly honorarium of Rs 4000 has been provided for each Village Coordinator at the Gram Panchayat level.
FICCI joins Green Infrastructure Investment Coalition at COP21 in Paris
FICCI has joined the Green Infrastructure Investment Coalition launched at the ongoing COP 21 in Paris, which aims to bring together investors, governments and development banks to help increase the flow of institutional investor capital to green infrastructure investments around the world. Shifting infrastructure to being low-carbon and climate-resilient (for example, clean energy, low carbon transport, green buildings) will require more investment upfront.
The Green Infrastructure Investment Coalition aims to address the investment challenge of building green infrastructure as it cannot be met with public sector funds and bank finance alone. A key task for the Coalition will be to look for ways to bridge risk gaps to ensure investment profiles can meet the needs of institutional investors. Apart from FICCI, around 11 other organisations from across the world have confirmed their participation in the Green Infrastructure Investment Coalition, including: the Institutional Investor Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), Legal & General Investment Management, AB (global investment-manager with USD464 billion under management); Pax World Management; The Regions20 Coalition; The European Investment Bank; IDBI; India’s Export Import Bank, the National Institute of Public Finance & Policy, Deutsche Bank and Investor Group on Climate Change. The Coalition will help its members to better understand the pipeline of green infrastructure investments; examine barriers to capital flows and propose solutions; shape the capital market instruments needed to ensure capital flows; and also support investors to review asset allocation strategies to make sure they will be able to take advantage of the huge deal flow on the horizon.
The Coalition will hold roundtables to find out about and discuss government green investment plans, including specific pipelines being developed by individual agencies such as State energy and rail companies. Major Coalition activities will include mapping of information such as infrastructure deals by governments to identify deal attributes and participating investors; constituting a Climate Finance Aggregation Platform to tap low-cost capital from bond markets; developing Green Bond Markets in countries such as India, Mexico, Turkey, Canada, California and Brazil; and launching of a “Guide for Scaling-up Green Bond Markets for Sustainable Development” for governments. The Coalition will also help countries to develop green investment plans needed to meet their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs). FICCI had undertaken few initiatives in the realm of sustainable financing in the run up to COP 21, such as the “UNEP Conference on Delivering a Sustainable Financial System in India” and a “Conference on Green bonds”. By joining the Green Infrastructure Investment Coalition, FICCI has strengthened its support towards the need for bolstering sustainable financing in the country.
ISRO Performing Post Launch Orbit Raising Manoeuvres
Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space Dr Jitendra Singh has updated that as per the planned sequence of events, all the three post launch orbit raising manoeuvres for GSAT-15 spacecraft were carried out successfully during November 12-14, 2015. With this all the orbit raising manoeuvres have been completed.
The orbit raising, deployment, parking of satellite in designated orbit of 93.5 degree and three-axis stabilisation of the Ku-band satellite, GSAT-15, have been completed successfully. The payloads have been turned on and the satellite will be ready for use after the completion of the in-orbit testing.
IndianBureaucracy.com wishes the very best.
PFRDA Chairman calls for increasing coverage of State Autonomous Bodies
The Chairman, PFRDA, Shri Hemant Contractor stressed the need for increasing the coverage of State Autonomous Bodies (SABs) and bring the unorganised workers like Anganwadi workers, Asha workers and SHGs within the ambit of National Pension System (NPS) so that they may also benefit from the scheme. Shri Contractor commended the substantial increase in the subscriber coverage of the State Governments’ subscribers which crossed the figure of 28 lacs and the increase in Asset under Management (AUM) of the State Governments’ subscribers which crossed Rs. 50,000 crore in November 2015. Shri Contractor was delivering the Welcome Address at the Conference on implementation of National Pension System (NPS) by the State Governments organised by the Pension Fund Regulatory & Development Authority (PFRDA). Senior officials from almost all the State Governments attended the conference. The prime objective was to provide a forum to all the State Governments where the progress in the implementation of NPS with respect to subscriber coverage and services could be brought to the fore and a way forward could be provided. Shri Contractor said that PFRDA was intent on achieving its twin objective of ensuring orderly growth of pension sector and protection of subscribers’ interest. He informed that barring two States viz. Tripura and West Bengal, all other States have notified NPS and have registered subscribers under NPS. He further informed that the main areas of concern while implementation of NPS by the State Governments include coverage gaps and process related issues at the level of nodal offices. He insisted the State Governments for improving the IRA compliance and updating subscribers’ details to avail of the latest technological benefits in provision of subscriber services and to avail smooth exit/ withdrawal process.
Earlier, Shri Ajay Narayan Jha, Special Secretary (Expenditure), Ministry of Finance (MOF) in his Keynote Address informed that a third of the total staff enrolled in both the Central and the State Governments are registered in NPS and the pension liabilities of all the State Governments was around 3% of total revenue expenditure excluding salary and interest payment in 2004-05 which increased to 12.30% in 2012-13. NPS can be instrumental in reducing liabilities of the Government and the challenges include providing optimum returns on the deposits and for that ensuring timely collection of contributions by the nodal offices across all the Government offices.
Dr Shashank Saksena, Economic Advisor, Dept. of Financial Services(DFS), Ministry of Finance (MOF) urged the State Governments to generate awareness with a sense of urgency and maximise coverage under Atal Pension Yojana (APY) as the benefit of Government co-contribution would be available to those subscribers only who join APY before 31st December, 2015. Currently, NPS including APY has more than 1.02 Crore subscribers with total Asset Under Management (AUM) of more than Rs.1, 05,000 crores.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri R. V. Verma, Member (Finance), PFRDA, congratulated the State Governments for their efforts in increasing the coverage of subscribers under NPS. He highlighted the robust mechanism put in place by PFRDA through notification of important regulations like Grievance Redressal and Exit & Withdrawals. He emphasised the need for enhancing capacity building of the nodal officers especially in view of their enhanced role as envisaged in the regulations and the provisions of the PFRDA Act. He stressed on maintaining discipline of timely remittance of subscriber contribution, ensuring 100 percent IRA compliance, reducing coverage gaps and subscriber grievances among others.
Full: Pension Fund Regulatory & Development Authority -PFRDA
Solar Power Systems on Railway Stations and Airports
Government is encouraging installation of solar power systems particularly on rooftops all over the country including on railway stations and airports as well. Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal & New and Renewable Energy (IC) had stated that so far as aggregate capacity of 17.69 MWp solar power systems have been installed at airports and 1.5 MWp in railway stations .
Details of solar power systems installed at airports and railway stations
| Sl.No. | Name of Airport/Railway Station | Solar power (ground mounted) (MWp) | Solar power rooftop (MWp) |
| A | Airports | ||
| 1. | Cochin | 13 | 0.10 |
| 2. | IGIA, New Delhi | 2.14 | — |
| 3. | Mumbai | — | 0.65 |
| 4. | Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan, Safdarjung Airport | — | 0.25 |
| 5. | Bhopal | — | 0.10 |
| 6. | Indore | — | 0.10 |
| 7. | Bhubaneswar | — | 0.10 |
| 8. | Raipur | — | 0.10 |
| 9. | Jaiselmer | — | 0.10 |
| 10. | Amritsar | — | 0.40 |
| 11. | Lucknow | — | 0.50 |
| 12. | Guwahati | — | 0.05 |
| 13. | Jaipur | — | 0.10 |
| Total | 15.14 | 2.55 | |
| B | Railways | — | |
| 1. | Katra railway station | — | 1.00 |
| 2. | Other railway stations | — | 0.50 |
| Total | — | 1.50 |
The Minister further stated that the Government is promoting use of renewable energy systems all over the country which includes airports and railway stations and other public places in the country for which the following steps are being taken:
- Ministry of Railways has set a target for setting upof 1,000MWp solar power plants on railway/private land and railway buildings in next 5 years.
- Financial support in the form of generation based incentives and viability gap funding for solar power projects.
- Subsidy for grid connected rooftop solar systems, solar pumping systems, concentrated solar thermal and other off-grid solar applications.
- Fiscal incentives such as accelerated depreciation, concessional custom duty, excise duty exemptions, income tax holiday for 10 years
- Concessional loans from Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency
- Loans under Priority Sector Lending uptoRs. 15 crore for renewable energy projects.
- Bank loans as a part of home loan/ home improvement loan for solar rooftop systems
- Capacity building and public awareness through electronic and print media.
IndianBureaucracy.com wishes the best for this novel approach and initiative.