Standing Committee on Defence visits MDL

The Standing Committee on Defence visited the country’s premier warship building yard, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited, on 21 April 2018. A warm welcome was extended to the Committee by Cmde Rakesh Anand, Chairman & Managing Director, MDL and thereafter they were taken around the yard showcasing the warship and submarine production facilities, modernisation projects and other state-of-the-art infrastructure.   Shri Thupstan Chhewang, Officiating Chairman of the Committee stated that, ‘We, the member of the Parliamentary Committee on Defence compliment the CMD & Directors of MDL for their achievement in raising…

KIOCL celebrates Swachhta Pakhwada

KIOCL Limited is putting all its efforts in realizing the Dreams of ‘Swacch Bharat Mission’ and in the continuance of the same, Swachhta Pakhwada (Fortnight) was observed from 15th March 2018 to 30th March 2018. The Company has organized various cleaning programmes in and around the Company during this period. At its corporate office, Bengaluru, Shri MV Subba Rao, inaugurated the Swachhta Pakhwada Campaign. The Pledge was administered to the employees. A special awareness drive was conducted for the vendors of Madiwala Market. Cleanliness drives were also arranged. The market…

Bhubaneswar Town Official Language Implementation Committee meeting held at NALCO

The 8th half-yearly meeting of Bhubaneswar Town Official Language Implementation Committee was organized at NALCO’s Corporate Office. Dr. Tapan Kumar Chand, CMD, NALCO, presided over the meeting.   In his address, Dr. Chand, expressed his pleasure for the special programs that were organised by the members to increase the use of Hindi in day to day official correspondence. Terming Hindi as a source for National Integrity, he stressed on increasing sales of products through releasing the advertisement in Hindi. Dr. Chand informed about NALCO’s Hindi Mobile App ‘NALCO NISARG’ that…

Tech giants showing interest in setting up smart city centres

Global technology giants, including Cisco, IBM, and Bosch, are showing keen interest to participate in setting up of smart city centres or integrated command and control system under the Centre’s flagship programme Smart City Mission, a senior official said today.   According to the housing and urban affairs ministry official, HP and Siemens are working to set up such a centre in Bhopal, while Bosch, Cisco, Efkon and Rolta are participating in the development of a ‘smart’ centre in Varanasi.   Honeywell’s expertise would be used for Bhubaneswar, while Schneider,…

Mumbai Development Plan 2034 focuses on affordable homes and job creation

The Mumbai Development Plan (DP) for 2034 speaks about creating 1 million affordable houses and 8 million jobs in the city. The DP envisages creating theatres, museums, parks, playgrounds, theme gardens, old age homes and shelters for the homeless.   However, with BMC’s development plans have had a very dismal record of completion, this might be just in papers. Brihanmumbai M u n i c i p a l Corpor a t i on Commissioner Ajoy Mehta h i m s e l f admitted that only 20% of what…

UP tops the PMAY-G scheme with more 7 lakhs units constructed

Uttar Pradesh topped the list of all states in the country under the centre’s flagship scheme Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana- Gramin (PMAY-G). More than seven lakh dwelling units were constructed in UP last year.   Addressing a press conference at media centre in Lucknow, Mahendra Singh, Minister of State (I/C) Rural D e v e l o p m e n t , said, “UP achieved 85% of its target by constructing 7,71,073 houses in one year to claim the top position while the national average in the implementation of…

IGBC green cities rates Amaravati as ‘Platinum’ city

Amaravati, the capital of Andhra Pradesh has been designated as the ‘Platinum’ city by Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) green cities rating. It is for the first time in the country that an entire city has been given a ‘platinum’ rating.   The IGBC has given the rating on the basis of the parameters including; city planning, heat mitigation, green building, public space and regions under green cover, environmental monitoring and others. A city is given a platinum rating if its score is between 76 and above, on whole Amaravati…

AIBEA asks RBI to come up with mechanism to protect consumers

The banking industry has requested the RBI to come up with a mechanism to protect consumers from unauthorised transactions following the increase in use of payments through the digital mode.   The All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA), representing public and private sector banks, has presented a memorandum to the Reserve Bank of India Governor and Finance Ministry in this regard.   In the memorandum submitted recently, AIBEA General Secretary C H Venkatachalam alleged that the Centre was pushing customers to take to digital transactions,but banks do not adopt global…

Internet shutdowns costing the economy approximately $678.4 million

With the government ordering frequent internet shutdowns, approximately $3.04 billion has been lost due to interrupted economic activity as India faced around 16,315 hours of internet shutdown during 2012-2017, a report released by Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) said.   The report also states that as of September 2017, India with 54 shutdowns had topped the list of 30 countries that witnessed shutdowns in the preceding 21 months. In 2017, the number of internet shutdowns in India more than doubled from 2016, while the total hours…

Digital universities to soon offer higher education

As part of its Digital India programme, the government has started the process of formulating a policy for digital universities across the country.   Once formulated, such universities will be set up to enable people to access high-level education at their convenience. These universities will be given accreditation and courses will also be recognised by the government, a senior official from the ministry of IT and electronics told DNA Money on condition of anonymity.   In India, online education mainly for schools has been gaining steam over the last many…