Shri Kalraj Mishra, the Union Minister for MSMEs, applauded the efforts of the National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC), especially through its Rapid Incubation programme , to create opportunities for self employment. Going around NSIC`s Rapid Incubation Centre in Okhla, he appreciated NSIC for its active role in skill development and entrepreneurship training for unemployed and startup entrepreneurs. He gave away certificates for those trainees who completed the three month long incubation programme successfully.
Foreign Secretary says China’s new map does not change facts on the ground
India’s Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh stood by the statement of Foreign Ministry which said that “cartographic depiction does not change the reality on the ground” after the Chinese government, in a new vertical map had shown Arunachal Pradesh as a part of its territory. Singh addressed a news conference in Beijing after Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari’s meeting with Chinese premier Li Keqiang to brief on the issues discussed between the delegations of the two countries.
CII welcomes notification on list of defence items requiring industrial licenses
CII welcomed the much awaited joint initiative of Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Commerce and Industry to streamline procedures pertaining to Industrial Licenses.
Ministry of Commerce and Industry has issued a notification on List of Defence Items Requiring Industrial License. “We are happy to see that Ministry of Defence has taken cognizance of CII’s recommendations to prune the list and keeping it to the bare minimum” said Baba N Kalyani, Chairman, CII National Committee on Defence.
CII’s recommendations were guided by only one objective – simplification of the current policy and procedures. This step is important as it would bring more clarity to the procedures and will encourage new entrants into the defence sector.
Indian Defence Industry is already at the bottom of the value chain and there is very less incentive for anyone to set up a defense industry in India, for various reasons. CII has earlier recommended that by clearing ambiguities, ensuring transparency, offering a level playing field, laying down clear procedures, MoD can create conducive environment for the growth of the Indian defence industry as envisaged in the Defence Production Policy.
It is important to maintain a fair balance between addressing genuine security concerns and promoting India’s defence industry. Given the opportunity, this industry has the potential to generate large employment opportunities and provide much needed impetus to India’s manufacturing sector leading to its professed goal of self-reliance.We are also hopeful that the delays in granting / renewing Industrial Licensing would also be addressed at the earliest.
Holy Month of Ramzan begins today
Muslims all over the country started the holy month of Ramzan by offering prayers at mosques on Monday.
In a statement issued in New Delhi, the Shahi Imam of the Fatehpuri Mosque, Maulana Mufti Mukarram Ahmed on Sunday had said that since the new moon was not sighted on Saturday, the month of Ramzan will start on Monday.
He said that had the moon been sighted on Saturday, the fasting month of Ramzan would have commenced from Sunday.
Ramzan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, is observed as a fasting period by Muslims, who abstain from food and water from sunrise to sunset.
During Ramzan, Muslims wake up early morning for the pre-dawn ‘sehri’ meal renouncing food and water during the day before breaking their fasts in the evening. The sumptuous evening meals are known as ‘iftaars’.
The month-long fasting will culminate in the Id-ul-Fitr celebrations next month.
As Islam follows a lunar calendar, the holy month begins every year about 11 days earlier and its commencement is traditionally determined by the appearance of the new moon.
Indian rocket carrying French, German satellites blasts off
An Indian rocket carrying a French earth observation satellite and four other foreign satellites blasted off from Sriharikota.
Exactly at 9.52 a.m., the rocket – Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C23 (PSLV-C23) – standing around 44.4 metres tall and weighing around 230 ton tore into the bright morning skies with orange flames fiercely burning at its tail.
The rocket port is around 80 km from Chennai,in TamilNadu.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday congratulated space scientists and department of space for a successful launch of PSLV C23 and said that he felt privileged to witness this launch in person.
S Selvakumar to join as Director in PMO
Karnataka cadre (1997 batch ) IAS officer S Selvakumar to join as Director with Prime Minister’s Office.
Anjani Kumar Singh to be Chief Secretary of Bihar
Bihar government has appointed 1980-batch IAS officer Anjani Kumar Singh as the new Chief Secretary. According to a government notification issued, Singh, currently posted as Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, will take charge after the present chief secretary Ashok Kumar Sinha retires on June 30.
DoPT tells 300 officers to share asset details
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has made a list of 300 officers working with various Central government ministries to file the Immovable Property Returns(IPR) online. If they do not, the vigilance enquiry on matters related to promotions, deputations, and deployment will be stopped.
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has directed the DoPT to appoint officers with prior experience in respective ministries. Earlier, the Cabinet Committee for Appointments had barred officers, who have worked as personal secretaries of UPA government ministers, from working in the new ministries.
FCI on a new path
In an Indian Bureaucracy PSU news update, there are many a crossed fingers to unknot and bureaucratic hurdles to leap before the infamous starvation pictures recede from our collective memory. Electronic public distribution system (e-PDS) is working on improving the supply side of TPDS. Under this mission mode project (MMP), a module to integrate release orders of FCI with TPDS is being developed. Release orders are official documents that authorise departments to source grains from the FCI godowns according to their requirements.
The integration will enable transparency between state governments and others (the demand side) with FCI (the supply side) as far as grain collection is concerned. It will help curb misuse by enabling the corporation to ascertain the amount of grain collected from godowns under the PDS scheme. “Our release order module will ensure all demands are made only through the system. The TPDS officials would be given login IDs access to our systems through which they will project their requirement to us. Similarly, when we issue our release orders it will be communicated to them,” said Abhishek Singh, executive director (engineering/IT/S&C and silo), FCI.
The software for the module is being developed by the national informatics centre (NIC), Delhi. “It would be ready in six to eight months,” said Ranjana Nagpal, scientist-G, agriculture, food and consumer affairs, NIC. “It would be implemented at all 195 FCI offices simultaneously.” This integration is expected to change the image of FCI as a place of foodgrain diversions. “Our storage losses are 0.22 percent and transportation losses are 0.43 percent. Considering we manage 200 lakh metric tonnes of grain every year these losses are miniscule. They are comparable with similar operations elsewhere in the world,” said Singh.
With a major task done, a host of other e-governance applications at FCI will ensure that grains are procured, stored and distributed without any bottlenecks. Singh revealed plans about a local area network that will connect all depots with software to indicate stock positions in real time. “We can get to know the stock positions online at any point in time through the IISFM rapid reporting system (IIRS) solution. It also tells us about the inflow and outflow of food grains and how much has come from which scheme and district. This precise information helps us in chalking out our movement plans for where grains need to be sent,” he added. The FCI is also additionally creating a wide area network (WAN) for all their 195 region offices for dedicated information exchange.
The biggest challenge of all e-governance projects is their interlinking and the lack of their ‘talking to each other’. Different modules are automated, but hardly a thought is spared for them to be connected for data and information sharing. “We are planning to integrate the stock, depot and release order management module on an integrated logistics ERP solution. This will ensure we optimally utilise all our storage capacities and send food grains only to godowns where there is capacity and requirement of food grains,” he said.
Singh explained that there are 2,100 FCI godowns in India situated in consuming states and producing states (with surplus grains). The procurement from some states is only for some months but consumption for every state is on a monthly basis in all districts. To achieve this, grains have to be moved back and forth across India. “Thus an ERP-based logistics management system will help optimise the movement and storage of the food grains in the most economic and efficient manner,” he said.
These changes are expected to take around 18-24 months. Currently the FCI is in the process of selecting a consulting agency to undertake a study of the entire processes of the organisation. “It is only after we study the present processes that we would know how to re-engineer them for an integrated system,” he said. The study, aptly named ‘To build a strategic roadmap for IT intervention in FCI’ will prepare a five-year roadmap for modernising the organisation. The most critical findings of the study will be implemented in the first two years. “Changing the processes is very important. For example, we still have the challan system for procurement of grains, which needs to become electronic. We need to have least human intervention at all levels of procurement, storage and distribution to increase efficiency,” said Singh.
Credit : GovernanceNow
Rohatgi appointed Attorney General of India
The Narendra Modi government on Thursday appointed senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi as the new attorney general of India.
Rohatgi, who appeared for the Gujarat government in several 2002 post-Godhra riot-related cases, will serve as attorney general of India for a period of three years, a statement said.
He succeeds G.E. Vahanvati who resigned following the rout of the Congress-led UPA in the 2014 general election.
Environment ministry clearances to be ‘policy based’
New Delhi, June 12 (IANS) Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar on Thursday said the government will evolve “policy based solutions” for the pending environment clearances, adding the delay in clearances for defence projects has been due to their case-by-case consideration.
“We are evolving new ways of solutions to the existing problems of environment clearances by evolving policy based solutions,” Javadekar told reporters here.
“Delay in the defence projects were due to case-by-case decision making process. We will put policies in place and make policy based decisions,” he said.
The environment minister said giving clearance to defence projects will be the priority for his ministry.
Javadekar said he will meet the defence secretary and discuss the pending projects.
As the environmentalists were concerned over the clearance to proposed radar station in Narcondam island of Andaman and Nicobar, the minister said environment protection will be kept in mind while framing the policies.
“In Narcondam and other areas, we will ensure complete protection of nature, including of hornbills. We won’t compromise on environment protection,” Javadekar said.
He also said forest clearances along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the working boundary line between India and China, will be given by the concerned state government.
“The 100-km area within the LAC is for defence purpose, but you need forest clearance… It will be brought under general approval mode (under state government) so that defence projects can be expedited and forests can also be conserved,” said Javadekar.
The minister said he will discuss the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley.
India committed to collaborating with Germany
New Delhi, June 11 (IANS) Human Resource Minister Smriti Irani said Wednesday India is committed to collaborating with Germany in the field of higher education.
In a meeting with German ambassador Michael Steiner, who called on Irani here, the minister reiterated India’s commitment to collaborate with Germany and appreciated the Indo-German Strategic Partnership (IGSP) in higher education.
The ambassador mentioned the demographic advantage of India and reiterated his country’s commitment to strengthen partnerships with India in higher education, research, vocational education and training, said a statement.
He also reinforced the need to further expand the current IGSP in higher education, it added.