International Earth Day being observed today.

विश्वभर में आज 'विश्व पृथ्वी दिवस' मनाया जा रहा है।
International Earth Day being observed today.
‪#‎WorldEarthDay‬

इस साल के पृथ्वी दिवस की थीम है- 'ट्री फॉर द अर्थ' यानि पृथ्वी के लिए पेड़। यह खास दिन हमें याद दिलाता है कि हम अपने ग्रह को सुरक्षित रखने के दायित्व आपस में बांटे

World Earth Day is being observed today. The Day is celebrated every year on 22 April, and encourages people to look after the planet by being environmentally friendly. The Theme for 2016 is Trees for the Earth, with organisers announcing their most ambitious goal - to plant 7.8 billion trees over the next five years. Earth Day 2016 is particularly important as it will see nations across the world sign the Paris Agreement on climate change, set out in COP21 last year. The historic agreement saw countries pledge to limit global warming to below 2C on pre-industrial levels. From 22 April, it will be open for signatures for one year. The agreement will come into effect in 2020. Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970. The idea for it was first proposed at a UNESCO conference a year earlier, when activist John McConnell suggested a day to honour the planet and the idea of peace.

10 mn give up LPG subsidy, says govt

10 mn give up LPG subsidy, says govt

As many as 10 million households have surrendered their cooking gas subsidy, leading to savings of around Rs 5,178 crore for the government on the petroleum subsidy bill, the petroleum ministry has said. This comes about a year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the GiveItUp campaign, urging the well-to-do to voluntarily surrender the subsidy.

The ministry will on Friday officially announce the achievement at an event.

The latest numbers indicate each of the 10 million families has shed an annual subsidy worth around Rs 5,000 on an average. The initiative has been on since 2012, but picked up pace in 2014, thanks to the massive door-to-door campaign run by the ministry.

Indane, the cooking gas service of the nation's largest fuel retailer Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), alone accounts for 35 per cent or Rs 1,705 crore of the savings accrued to the three oil marketing companies (OMCs). Bharat Petroleum Corporation's Bharat Gas clocked savings of Rs 1,804 crore, while Hindustan Petroleum Corporation's HP Gas has accounted for the rest of the savings of Rs 1,668 crore so far.

10 mn give up LPG subsidy, says govt The number of those who gave up the subsidy grew from 2,500 in August 2014 to 12,471 in December that year. However, over the next six months till June 2015, the number grew to 764,266. Modi had launched the campaign on March 27, 2015, saying more than 280,000 people had given up the subsidy leading to savings of around Rs 100 crore in the initial 10 months of his government.

OMCs lost Rs 11,000 crore between April and December in the previous financial year on subsidised LPG sales to around 150 million registered consumers. Each such consumer is entitled to 12 subsidised cylinders in a year, each of which is available at Rs 419 in Delhi.

Any requirement above that is to be met through purchase of cooking gas at the market price of Rs 513 per bottle. Consumers can opt out of the subsidy by submitting a written request to the distributor or electronically via mylpg.in.

Raghuram Rajan in TIME's 100 most influentials list

Raghuram Rajan in TIME's 100 most influentials list

Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan and India’s most successful start-up entrepreneurs Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal (not related), co-founders of the country’s largest online marketplace Flipkart, are among six Indians who have have made it into TIME magazine’s list of 100 most influential people in the world.

The Bansals and Rajan feature with environmentalist Sunita Narain, tennis ace Sania Mirza, actress Priyanka Chopra and Indian born Google CEO Sundar Pichai in the Time annual list that showcases those who have significant influence on people. Others in the top 100 list include Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Sundar Pichai (Google) and Tim Cook (Apple), Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, Pope Francis, WWE star turned Hollywood actor Dwayne Johnson and others.

“...he steered India through the global crisis and fallout, playing a large role in making it one of the emerging-market stars of the moment,” says TIME’s profile on Rajan, who is named as India’s prescient banker.

Raghuram Rajan in TIME's 100 most influentials list Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal became the first startup entrepreneurs from India to become billionaires, each controlling 7.5 per cent stake in their company which was valued at $15.2 billion (Rs one lakh crore) when it raised $700 million (Rs 4,600 crore) in July 2015. They are also seen as the poster boys of India’s e-commerce space, just as Flipkart is considered to be the benchmark player.

“Binny and Sachin do have modest lifestyles, by billionaire standards, but they’re also nimble tacticians and hardheaded realists, and they dream big,” read TIME’s profile of the Bansals. “They’ll have to fight it out with foreign heavyweights like Amazon and Alibaba, but it’s safe to say that no one is going to underestimate Binny and Sachin again.”

India is the last large markets in the world, with the US market being saturated and China being a walled garden for global companies. Flipkart, which opened its doors in India in 2007, is currently valued at $13 billion (Rs 85,800 crore) and has 75 million users, nearly two-thirds more than its closest competitors Snapdeal and Amazon.

“This is truly a recognition of the Indian internet ecosystem and its role in using technology to solve local problems that is enabling Indians to lead a better life. This acknowledgment validates that the path we have chosen of creating a world-class Indian internet company that delivers quality products and reliable service at an affordable price to millions of families across India,” said Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal in a joint statement.

India overtakes China as top FDI destination: Report

India overtakes China as top FDI destination: Report
In a comparison between Indian and Chinese states, Gujarat emerged as the top ranked state in terms of FDI

India has knocked China off the pedestal of being the world's top foreign direct investment (FDI) destination, says a report from fDi Intelligence — a division of Financial Times.

Citing the report, the Financial Times reported that India, with $63 billion of FDI announced in 2015, has taken the top rank in the list of countries in terms of greenfield capital investment.

Additionally, according to the report, India's project numbers increased by 8% to 697, although they still lagged behind China’s 789 projects.

The report said: "For the first time in many years, China was a laggard on regional FDI growth rather than an engine: it saw a 23 per cent decline in capital investment and a 16 per cent drop in FDI projects due to plateauing economic growth and rising costs."

Citing the reason behind India usurping China's position, the report said: "India replaced China as the top destination for FDI by capital investment following a year of high-value project announcements specifically across the coal, oil and natural gas and renewable energy sectors."

The report comes even as the Indian government finally allowed 100% FDI in the e-commerce sector.

The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) statement from earlier this month supports the report's findings.

The RBI, on April 11, said that FDI in the country increased to $42 billion during April-February in 2015-16, up 27.45% from the inflows in the corresponding period of the previous financial year.

According to the report, in a comparison between Indian and Chinese states, Gujarat emerged as the top ranked state in terms of FDI — attracting $12.4 billion of capital investment in 2015.

A comparative table, titled "FDI into Chinese and Indian states by capital investment", from the report shows that Gujarat took the top spot ahead of China's Shanghai Municipality — which attracted $10.57 billion in FDI in 2015.

China's Jiangsu came in third on the list with $9.53 billion, followed closely by Maharashtra at $8.28 billion.

Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Jharkhand were the other Indian states featured on the list.

NITI ayog Presentation

NITI ayog Presentation


http://pibphoto.nic.in/documents/rlink/2016/apr/p201642101.pdf

BGR-34, the country's first anti-diabetic ayurvedic drug designed for Type-2 diabetes mellitus

Dr. Harsh Vardhan, launched the "CSIR-NBRI Herbarium Online" on the CSIR-NBRI website (www.nbri.res.in), thus making One Hundred Thousand Herbarium collections accessible worldwide. He also released a flyer "CSIR-NBRI HERBARIUM ONLINE" on the occasion.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan specifically directed CSIR-NBRI to take up on an urgent basis the work of scaling up of ‘Herbi Chew’ on a priority basis as a potentially useful product to replace the cancer causing tobacco-based GUTKA currently available in the market. He was very happy to learn about the progress in the development of ‘Muktashree’, a low Arsenic uptake variety of Rice, developed by CSIR-NBRI and Department of Agriculture, West Bengal and envisaged earliest release of this variety for the benefit of citizens living in Arsenic affected areas.

The Minister appreciated the effort of scaling up of CSIR-NBRI and CSIR-CIMAP (Central Institute for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Lucknow) joint product BGR-34, the country's first anti-diabetic ayurvedic drug designed for Type-2 diabetes mellitus. He noted that there is an overwhelming response to this drug among Diabetes Type-II patients throughout India.

PM exhorts civil servants to become “agents of change”; calls upon Government officers to engage with people

PM exhorts civil servants to become “agents of change”; calls upon Government officers to engage with people

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, today exhorted civil servants to become “agents of change” in their respective organizations and departments. Addressing civil servants on Civil Services Day, the Prime Minister said that in the 21st century, civil servants need to redefine their role, and move beyond controlling, regulating and managerial capabilities, and think of themselves as change agents.

The Prime Minister urged civil servants to build teams. He said that his mantra of “Reform to Transform”, should be interpreted by civil servants as “Reform to Perform to Transform.” He said if civil servants were able to perform, the transformation on the ground would be evident.

The Prime Minister said that ‘Jan Bhagidari’ (public participation) is the key to success, as highlighted by the initiatives which have received awards today. He therefore urged civil servants to engage with the people, so that the Government’s schemes and initiatives can be better implemented on the ground.

The Prime Minister described Civil Services Day as an occasion to reflect and undertake a critical evaluation of the journey so far, and resolve to move ahead with fresh determination.

Congratulating the awardees for their successful initiatives, he said their success could prove inspirational for other civil servants. The Prime Minister noted that 74 success stories were shortlisted for consideration for awards this year, which represents a substantial jump over previous years. Nevertheless, he added, this represents only about 10 per cent of India’s districts. He urged all districts to become more proactive in this regard.

The Prime Minister urged civil servants to be bold enough to experiment and look at new ways of achieving objectives in the interest of the people.

Recalling the recent Committees of Secretaries which had been formed at his initiative to look into key areas of governance, he said that officers worked on these tasks voluntarily, after office hours and on holidays. He said these teams had successfully broken silos, and presented fresh ideas and suggestions. They had devoted 10,000 manhours to this work, he added.