| National Level City Stakeholder Consultation held to finalize guidelines for HRIDAY Scheme; Shri Venkaiah Naidu emphasizes that the future development of any city must take into consideration its nature, history, and culture |
| In an effort to finalize the guidelines with respect to the Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) to be launched by the Ministry of Urban Development, a National Level City Stakeholder Consultation was organized today here. The Consultation Workshop was presided over by the Minister of Urban Development Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, and the Minister of State for Urban Development, Shri Babul Supriyo. Shri Venkaiah Naidu emphasized that the future development of any city must take into consideration its nature, history, and culture, thus capturing its unique heritage. He also elaborated on four thrust areas for holistic development, namely, Physical Infrastructure, Institutional Infrastructure, Economic Infrastructure & Social Infrastructure and suggested that they should be included in the Guidelines. These, he stressed, are essential for reviving and revitalizing the ‘soul’ of our Heritage Cities. Shri Babul Supriyo stressed upon the significance of developing and incorporating intangible heritage, such as performing arts, local cuisines, and craftsmanship into every aspect of the cities’ functioning. The joint consultation included Municipal Commissioners, District Magistrates and other representatives of the Heritage Cities. Other participants included, representatives of institutions and organizations like INTACH, UNESCO, CEPT University, Indian Heritage Cities Network, SAHAPEDIA, India City Walks and Cities Alliance. Participants agreed that the HRIDAY Scheme should focus on engagement with the entire city ecosystem including citizens, tourists and local businesses. It was jointly agreed that 85% of the total outlay will be earmarked for project formulation and execution. The remaining 15% shall be utilized for other critical components, such as capacity building, establishment of Project Management Units, preparation of Heritage Management Plan (HMP), stakeholder engagement. Based on inputs from the consultation, the Ministry finalizes the guidelines for the HRIDAY Scheme with a total outlay of Rs 500 crores. The Scheme is set to be launched shortly. Scheme HRIDAY will focus on development of 12 heritage cities namely: Amritsar, Ajmer, Mathura, Gaya, Kanchipuram, Vellankanni, Varanasi, Puri, Dwaraka, Badami, Warrangal, Amrawati. Additional cities may be explored after consultations. |
21 December 2014
HRIDAY Scheme
review of winter session
| Winter Session of Parliament enters final lap; Rajya Sabha still to decide on crucial Bills Lok Sabha’s productivity rises to 105% while that of Rajya Sabha declines to 68% Lok Sabha so far clears a record 17 Bills and Rajya Sabha only 11 Introduction of GST Bill in Lok Sabha, passing of labour reform Bills mark the high points of session | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The current Winter session of Parliament enters the final lap with only two scheduled sittings left next week even as the Rajya Sabha which is passing through a stalemate is still to take up crucial Bills relating to facilitation of auction of coal blocks, enhancing FDI limit in the capital starved insurance sector and enabling extension of Delhi Special Provisions Act that expires by the end of this month.
Marking a sharp contrast in the functioning of the two Houses of Parliament during the first four weeks of the Winter session, Lok Sabha functioned for over 126 hours during the stipulated 20 sittings with a productivity of over 105%. As against this, the productivity of Rajya Sabha has been only 68%. During this period, Lok Sabha has passed 17 Bills as against only 11 by the Upper House.
Lok Sabha has lost only 2 hours and 10 minutes so far due to interruptions. The Lower House witnessed interruptions during five of the 20 sittings losing time in the range of 12 to 55 minutes on each of these days. The House however, worked over time on eight days for a total additional duration of 8 hours 36 minutes with a net gain of additional working hours of 6 hous 26 minutes.
Rajya Sabha on the other hand witnessed interruptions during 15 of the 19 sittings (for which data is available) losing a total time of 44 hours 09 minutes. Time lost on each day of such interruptions ranged from 45 minutes to 323 minutes (5 hours 23 minutes). However, members of the Upper House worked over time on seven days making up 8 hours 46 minutes. The net loss of time on account of interruptions in Rajya Sabha has been 35 hours 38 minutes.
Lok Sabha has already set up a record in terms of number of Bills passed and productivity vis-à-vis the last Budget session of this year and the Winter session of last year. The Lower House has so far passed 17 Bills during the current Winter session so far as against 12 Bills during the last Budget session and 17 Bills passed during last year’s Winter session. Productivity of Lok Sabha during the current session so far has been 105% as against 104% during the last Budget session this year.
On the contrary, productivity of Rajya Sabha so far during the current winter session has been 68% as against 106% during the Budget session this year. The Upper House passed 12 and 17 Bills respectively during this year’s Budget session and last year’s Winter session.
The remaining two sittings as per the schedule assumes importance as the Rajya Sabha is still to consider some crucial Bills, passed by Lok Sabha. These include : The Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Bill, 2014 that seeks to facilitate auction of coal blocks further to the Supreme Court striking down allocation of over 200 coal blocks, holding the allocation process arbitrary and illegal. The Upper House is also to take up the National Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Amendment Bill, 2014. This Bill, passed by the Lok Sabha seeks to extend the validity of an Act that gives protection to unauthorized constructions and which is to expire by the end of this month. Consideration and passing of the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, pending since 2008 in the Rajya Sabha has been held up on account of the prevailing stalemate in the House.
Details of Bills passed during the first four weeks of winter session are as below:
Six Bills withdrawn by the Government from the Rajya Sabha include: The Higher Education and Research Bill, 2011, The Protection and Utilisation of Public Funded Intellectual Property Bill, 2008, The Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Amendment Bill, 2000, The Delhi Hotels (Control of Accommodation) Repeal Bill, 2014, The Food Safety and Standards (Amendment) Bill, 2014 and The Anti-Hijacking (Amendment) Bill, 2014.
Introduction of the 122nd Constitution Amendment Bill, 2014 in the Lok Sabha seeking to introduce Goods and Services Tax (GST) with the aim of ‘One Nation, One Market, One Tax’, described by the Government as the most far reaching tax reform since Independence, passing of two labour reform laws by both the Houses, passing of The Companies(Amendment) Bill, 2014 that seeks to enhance the ease of doing business by the Lok Sabha and introduction in Lok Sabha of The Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2014 that seeks to infuse competition among power suppliers have been some of the high points of the Winter Session so far.
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Renewable Energy Programmes Gets A New Impetus; Focus on Development of Energy Infrastructure
Giving a fillip to the country’s renewable energy programme, the new government led by Shri Narendra Modi has taken a slew of decisions in a span of six months to boost “Clean Energy” in the country. These include providing support to Rs 1000 crore to Central Public Sector units to set up over 1,000 MW grid connected solar photovoltaic power projects, setting up of 25 solar parks each with a capacity of 500 MW requiring financial support from the centre of Rs 4050 crore and setting up of over 300 MW of solar power projects by Defence and Para military establishments. With these decisions, India will emerge as a major solar power producing country as nowhere in the world are solar parks are being developed on such a large scale.
The Government restored Accelerated Depreciation benefit in the Union Budget 2014 to give much-needed relief to wind power developers and to ensure ramp-up of production. This will enable to kick start & ramp up wind capacity addition expeditiously. The Government amicably resolved the anti-dumping duty dispute. A whole host of measures have been undertaken to make India “Solar manufacturing” hub with priority for domestic players in line with “Make in India” programme. With these initiatives, domestic manufacturers will have greater visibility on order books, have an opportunity to upgrade technologically and be able to reduce costs.
 
In order to facilitate speedy growth of Renewable energy Power generation in the country, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is preparing a Renewable Energy Bill. This apart, the Ministry is also preparing a scale up plan for the development of Solar in the next five years.
Outlining the new government’s priorities in the energy sector, President Shri Pranab Mukherjee, while addressing the first session of both Houses of Parliament after the elections to the 16th Lok Sabha, said that the government will come out with a comprehensive National Energy Policy and focus on development of energy related infrastructure, human resource and technology. The aim of the government will be to substantially augment electricity generation capacity through judicious mix of conventional and non-conventional sources. It will expand the national solar mission and connect households and industries with gas-grids.
To showcase India's renewable energy potential globally, the MNRE in partnership with Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Limited (IREDA), the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) is organizing the Global Renewable Energy Investment Promotion Meet (RE-INVEST) from 15-17 February, 2015 as a follow-up to the 'Make in India' initiative launched by the Prime Minister . RE-INVEST will enable the global investment community to connect with the renewable energy stakeholders in India.
The details of the major initiatives of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy to boost “Clean Energy” in the country are as follows:
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20 December 2014
Steps for the development of knowledge based industries
| The Government of India has taken various steps for the development of knowledge based industries in the country. The major steps taken in this direction are as follows: • In the Union Budget 2014-15, the Finance Minister in his speech has inter alia announced as under: “In order to create a conducive eco-system for the venture capital in the MSME sector it is proposed to establish a ₹ 10,000 crore fund to act as a catalyst to attract private Capital by way of providing equity, quasi equity, soft loans and other risk capital for start-up companies”. “To establish technology centre network to promote innovation, entrepreneurship and agro-industry, a fund with a corpus of ₹ 200 crore is proposed.” • The Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India has set up National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB) which supports Technology Business Incubators (TBIs) where innovation, technology and knowledge based industries are incubated and supported. • The Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India has setup Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a Public Sector undertaking to foster and nurture innovation, research and entrepreneurship development in the Biotech Sector. This information was given by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Planning, Shri Rao Inderjit Singh in a written reply in Lok Sabha today. The Minister added that Planning Commission had constituted a Working Group on Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Growth for the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17), under the chairmanship of Secretary (MSME) in May, 2011. The recommendations made by the Working Group were duly considered in formulating the strategy for ‘Promoting MSMEs’ in the 12th Five Year Plan that has been approved by the National Development Council (NDC) |
Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012
| The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 deals with sexual offences against persons below 18 years of age, who are deemed as children. The Act for the first time, defines “penetrative sexual assault”, “sexual assault” and “sexual harassment”. The offence is considered graver if it is committed by a police officer, public servant, any member of the staff at a remand home, protection or observation home, jail, hospital or educational institution, or by a member of the armed or security forces. The Act has come into force on the 14th of November, 2012, along with the rules framed thereunder. The Act is a comprehensive law to provide for the protection of children from the offences of sexual assault, sexual harassment and pornography, while safeguarding the interests of the child at every stage of the judicial process by incorporating child-friendly mechanisms for reporting, recording of evidence, investigation and speedy trial of offences through appointment of Special Public Prosecutors and designated Special Courts. The Act incorporates child friendly procedures for reporting, recording, investigation and trial offences. The Act provides for stringent punishments which have been graded as per the gravity of offence. Section 39 of the POCSO Act requires the State Governments to prepare guidelines for use of NGOs, professional and experts or persons to be associated with the pre-trial and trial stage to assist the child. On request from several State Governments, Model Guidelines were developed by the Ministry of Women and Child Development and sent to all the State Governments/UT Administrations in September, 2013, which can be adopted or adapted by them for better implementation of the said Act. Further, as per the report of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), seven States/Union Territories (excluding Uttarakhand) have confirmed formulation/acceptance of guidelines for various stakeholders. Section 44 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 empowers the NCPCR and State Commission for Protection of Child Rights for monitoring the implementation of the provisions of this Act in such manner as may be prescribed. In discharge of its duties NCPCR has been taking up the matter with regard to implementation of the POCSO Act in respect of following aspects:- (i) Designation of Special Courts; (ii) Appointment of Special Public Prosecutors; (iii) Formulation of Guidelines u/s 39 of POCSO Act for various stakeholders; (iv) Designation and implementation of modules for training of various stakeholders; (v) Steps taken for spreading the awareness on the provisions of the POCSO Act; (vi) Setting up of child Welfare Committees (CWCs), District Child Protection Units (DCPUs) and Special Juvenile Police Units (SJPUs); (vii) The number of FIRs filed under the Act, cases in which charge-sheet filed, compensation awarded to the victims, number of cases in which accused convicted/acquitted, number of cases in which witness turned hostile, cases in which appeal has been filed etc. (vii) Number of trial of sexual abuse cases which have been pending with Special/Session Court for more than a period of one year; (ix) Number of applications for compensation received by District Legal Services Authority, number of cases compensation awarded by the Special Court, number of cases pending for receiving the amount of compensation for more than 30 days etc. |
19 December 2014
NASA’s Kepler mission discovers ‘super-Earth
The planet is 2.5 times the diameter of Earth and follows a close, nine-day orbit around a star that is smaller and cooler than our Sun.
NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft, which is carrying out a new mission has made its first exoplanet discovery — a ‘super-Earth’ located 180 light-years from Earth.
Lead researcher Andrew Vanderburg, a graduate student at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, studied publicly available data collected by the spacecraft during a test of the new K2 mission in February 2014.
This led to the discovery of a planet, HIP 116454b, which is 2.5 times the diameter of Earth and follows a close, nine-day orbit around a star that is smaller and cooler than our Sun, making the planet too hot for life as we know it.
HIP 116454b and its star are 180 light-years from Earth, toward the constellation Pisces.
The discovery was confirmed with measurements taken by the HARPS-North spectrograph of the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo in the Canary Islands, which captured the wobble of the star caused by the planet’s gravitational tug as it orbits.
HARPS-N showed that the planet weighs almost 12 times as much as Earth. This makes HIP 116454b a super-Earth, a class of planets that does not exist in our solar system.
The exoplanet discovery was made after astronomers and engineers repurposed Kepler for its new mission.
“Last summer, the possibility of a scientifically productive mission for Kepler after its reaction wheel failure in its extended mission was not part of the conversation,” said Paul Hertz, NASA’s astrophysics division director at the agency’s headquarters in Washington.
“Today, thanks to an innovative idea and lots of hard work by the NASA and Ball Aerospace team, Kepler may well deliver the first candidates for follow-up study by the James Webb Space Telescope to characterise the atmospheres of distant worlds and search for signatures of life,” Dr. Hertz said.
Since the K2 mission officially began in May 2014, it has observed more than 35,000 stars and collected data on star clusters, dense star-forming regions, and several planetary objects within our own solar system.
The research paper reporting the latest discovery has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.
A significant achievement
It has been a glorious year for the Indian Space Research Organisation. The successful launch of Mangalyaan into Mars orbit on September 24 on its maiden attempt was the crowning glory. On December 18, the space organisation followed it up with another stupendous success with the first experimental launch of a GSLV Mark III vehicle and the safe splashdown of an unmanned crew module in the Bay of Bengal off the Andaman and Nicobar Islands after re-entry into the atmosphere. These two achievements best exemplify the maturing of the Indian space programme and its capability to take the country’s space missions to greater heights. The experimental flight of Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III carrying a Crew module Atmospheric Reentry Experiment (CARE) as its payload is remarkable for a few reasons. Unlike Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) launches, GSLV launch history has been trouble-prone. Making it all the more challenging is the fact that the GSLV Mark III vehicle is heavier, taller and more advanced than others. The rocket has the capability to put into orbit communication satellites that are as heavy as 4 tonnes — twice as heavy as the ones that are currently carried by GSLV rockets. Once the new vehicle becomes fully operational, India may well stop relying on other countries to launch satellites weighing up to 4 tonnes. The space organisation is confident of launching in two years a developmental flight of this vehicle with a fully operational cryogenic engine.
Thirty long years after Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian to travel into space aboard a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft, India has now come a step closer to realising its long-held dream of sending humans into space, with the successful test flight of GSLV Mark III and the safe splashdown of the unmanned crew module. The capsule performed as expected after re-entry into the atmosphere and, remarkably, decelerated to 7 metres a second before splashing into the Bay of Bengal. This is the first time India had ever tested the deployment of parachutes for deceleration. But more than understanding the re-entry characteristics of the crew module, the primary objective of the current mission was to test the new design of the rocket, particularly at the time of lift-off and passage through the atmosphere. The fact that there was little deviation from the flight path during its entire course till it reached an altitude of 126 km, was proof that the two large solid boosters fired simultaneously at take-off. Also, the vehicle withstood the atmospheric loading as it travelled through the atmosphere. Tall and heavy rockets encounter greater atmospheric loading than smaller vehicles.
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