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ASSOCHAM welcomes FM’s push to infrastructure sector

Mumbai/ New Delhi (NVI): Business chamber ASSOCHAM today welcomed the unveiling of Rs 102 crore of infra projects over the next five years by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, saying it will create new jobs, support related industries as also enhance the nation’s growth into the 5 trillion dollar economy.

The Indian Government has been working towards the agenda of giving infrastructure development its due, especially in the scenario where the economy needs a fillip, ASSOCHAM President Niranjan Hiranandani said.

The MD of Hiranandani Group said the importance of infrastructure development in GDP growth has been apparent, the world over.

“We have seen governments giving a push to infrastructure with the aim of giving a fillip to economic growth,” he said.

Referring to the Finance Minister’s announcement today, he said, “It dovetails with other positive moves which the Indian government has recently unveiled, and the positive effects should be visible sooner rather than later.”

Indore ranks as the cleanest city in Swachh Survekshan League 2020

New Delhi (NVI): Indore city in Madhya Pradesh has been ranked the cleanest city in India for the fourth time in Swachh Survekshan League 2020 (SS League 2020) among the cities where population is more than 10 lakh.

Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri announced the results of Swachh Survekshan League 2020 (Quarter 1 and Quarter 2) here today.

According to the Swachh Survekshan League 2020, Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal ranked second in the first-quarter results (April-June), while Gujarat’s Rajkot grabbed the second spot in second-quarter results (July-September).

The third position was bagged by Gujarat’s Surat in the first quarter and Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra in the second quarter. This time, a total of 4,237 cities participated in the league.

Speaking at the event, Puri said that Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) launched in October 2014 by the prime minister has completed five years of its journey. Today, urban India has become Open Defecation Free1. More importantly, there has been a perceptible and visible change in the condition of public toilets in the country.

“The focus of the Ministry has always been on ensuring the sustainability of the sanitation value chain as is evident in the SS 2020 parameters where wastewater treatment and reuse, and faecal sludge management have been given special attention,” he said.

“The ODF+, ODF++ and Water+ Plus Protocols by the Ministry work as the guiding document for cities in this regard,” he added.

Swachh Survekshan League 2020 (SS League 2020) was introduced with the objective of sustaining the onground performance of cities along with continuous monitoring of service level performance when it comes to cleanliness.

SS League 2020 is being conducted in 3 quarters, that is April- June, July – September and October- December 2019 and has 2000 marks for each quarter evaluated on the basis of monthly updation of SBM-U online MIS by cities along with citizen’s validation on the 12 service level progress indicators through outbound calls.

Ranks have been assigned in two categories, namely, cities with population of one lakh and above (with two sub-categories, that is 1-10 lakh and 10 lakhs and above) and cities with population of less than 1 lakh (under the < 1 lakh population category, the rankings are given zone and population wise).

The performance of cities in SS League 2020 is crucial to their ranking in Swachh Survekshan 2020 due to the 25% weightage of the quarterly assessments to be included in the annual survey scheduled to commence from January 4 till January 31 2020.

the fifth edition of the annual urban cleanliness survey conducted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA),Government of India, scheduled to commence from 4 January 2020 across India, was also rolled out on the occasion.

India needs to spend $1.4 trillion in infra sector in next 5 years: FM

New Delhi (NVI): Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today unveiled contours of the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP), saying the country will need to spend around $1.4 trillion over the next five years on the sector to become a 5 trillion dollar economy.

Between the financial years 2008 and 2017, about $1.1 trillion were invested on infrastructure.

“The challenge is to step up annual infrastructure investment so that lack of infrastructure does not become a binding constraint on the growth of the Indian economy,” Sitharaman said addressing a press conference here.

She said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day 2019, speech had highlighted that Rs.100 lakh crore would be invested on infrastructure over the next five years, including in social and economic infrastructure projects.

Subsequently, to achieve this objective, a Task Force was constituted to draw up the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) for each of the years from FY 2019-20 to FY 2024-25 with the approval of the Finance Minister.

As per the NIP, total capital expenditure in infrastructure sectors in India during the fiscals 2020 to 2025 is projected at over Rs 102 lakh crore.

During the fiscals 2020 to 2025, sectors such as Energy (24%), Roads (19%), Urban (16%), and Railways (13%) amount to around 70% of the projected capital expenditure in infrastructure in India.

Out of the total expected capital expenditure of Rs. 102 lakh crore, projects worth Rs 42.7 lakh crore (42%) are under implementation, projects worth Rs 32.7 lakh crore (32%) are in conceptualization stage and rest are under development.

It is expected that projects of certain states, which are yet to communicate their pipelines, would be added to the pipeline in due course.

Centre organises a workshop with States, UTs and other stakeholders on “Shehri Samridhi Utsav 2020”

New Delhi (NVI): In an effort to set out framework for Shehri Samriddhi Utsav (SSU) 2020, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has organised a consultative meeting with all states and UTs and other stakeholders like Flipkart, Sector Skills Councils and State Skill Development Missions (SSDMs).

Shehri Samriddhi Utsav is an initiative that aims to extend the outreach of Deendayal Antyodaya Mission – National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) to the most vulnerable.

The workshop focused on learnings from the first edition of the SSU 2019 and chalking out the strategy and roadmap for the SSU 2020, scheduled from March 28 to April 12, 2020.

The planned activities for SSU 2020 include onboarding of SHG products on e-commerce portals, skill development in plumbing sector, saturation of top 100 cities with Smart ID cards and certificates of vending to Street Vendors; national competition on implementation of Street Vendors Act and Swachhata Excellence Awards.

While appreciating the States for their active participation, MoHUA Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra shared that the set of activities planned for Shehri Samriddhi Utsav 2020 would not only provide momentum to the Mission but will also be contributing towards realising the dream of making India a $ 5 trillion econom .

Speaking about the workshop, DAY-NULM Joint Secretary cum Mission Director Sanjay Kumar shared that while the SSU 2019 focussed on reduction of the social vulnerabilities of the urban poor; the focus of SSU 2020 is on activities which seek to reduce the occupational vulnerabilities of the urban poor.

During the workshop an MoU was signed between DAY-NULM and Flipkart for on- boarding of high-quality products made by Self Help Groups (SHGs) on Flipkart portal.

The initiative looks to build capacities of the women entrepreneurs in the skills of branding, digital marketing and financial management in addition to providing access to a wider customer base to locally made products of SHGs.

Another MoU was signed between DAY-NULM and Indian Plumbing Skills Council to give boost to skill development in plumbing sector.

The initiative seeks to train 30,000 candidates in different job roles of plumbing sector by March 2020 as part of SSU.

Good performing States in implementation of DAY-NULM in 18-19 were felicitated.

These included Andhra Pradesh- Winner, Kerala – Ist Runner up & Gujarat – 2nd Runner Up. Himachal Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh were felicitated as winner and Ist Runner up respectively amongst the Himalayan and North Eastern States.

Aiming at protection of interests of urban street vendors, a detailed session on Street Vendors’ Act and its effective implementation was also undertaken.

Shehri Samriddhi Utsav is a platform of making a more significant, out of the ordinary impact in the lives of the most vulnerable and the poorest of the poor urban natives.

Gen Rawat assumes charge as first CDS

New Delhi (NVI): General Bipin Rawat today assumed charge as India’s first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), a post created for better synergy between the Army, the Indian Air Force and the Navy.

Gen Rawat was appointed to the post yesterday, a day ahead of his retirement as the Army Chief. He will head the newly-established Department of Military Affairs in the Ministry of Defence.

The CDS will function as a single-point advisor to the government on matters related to the military.

The CDS will be the “first among equals” with respect to the three service chiefs, all four-star officers themselves who will retain the operational command of their respective forces.

The post of CDS, recommendation regarding which was under consideration for two decades, was created recently.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi finally promised to create the post when he addressed the nation on this year’s Independence Day, his first in the second term.

The government on December 24 took the decision to establish the post, saying it would be occupied by a four-star officer from the Army, the Navy or the Air Force.

Subsequently, the rules of the three Services were amended to allow a CDS to serve until the age of 65.

Till now, a Service chief retires after either completing three years in office or attaining the age of 62, whichever is earlier.

According to a government order, Gen Rawat will be the CDS from today “until further orders and extension in service”.

He was commissioned into the Indian Army in December 1978.

Gen Rawat was succeeded as the Army Chief by Lieutenant General Manoj Mukund Naravane.

Over 1.15 core FASTags has been issued till date 

New Delhi (NVI): FASTag rollout has gathered massive momentum since it was made mandatory on national highways across India from December 15 this year, the government said.
Over 1.15 Crore FASTags have already been issued, with more than 1 lakh being issued every day, an official statement said.
FASTag provides smooth journey to commuters through toll plazas on National Highways. It has proved to be instrumental as a fast and convenient tool on the highways that upholds the true essence of digital India.
With the concerted efforts of field officers and diligent monitoring at HQ level to resolve all the teething issues, NHAI is setting new milestones every day in FASTag transaction at toll plazas on National Highways.
With the transaction number crossing 30 lakh, the daily transactional worth of Electronic Toll Collection has crossed Rs 52 crore.
Easy to adapt FASTag has already made a positive impression in the mind of the smart NH commuters helping to reduce bottlenecks on toll plazas and ensure seamless movement of traffic.
In order to simplify the recharge of FASTag, the Government of India has recently included BHIM UPI app amongst many other modes of recharge.
It has resolved the issue of recharge of FASTag through any of the UPI registered banks.
Implementation of FASTag is one step in the direction of providing safe, smooth and seamless journey to commuters on National Highways.

Bit improvement in Delhi temperature

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Indian Railways all set to launch Tejas Express on Ahmedabad-Mumbai Route

New Delhi (NVI): After the successful run of Lucknow-Delhi Tejas Express, the second premium Tejas train is all set  to run between Ahmedabad and Mumbai.
This will be yet another step of the Ministry of Railways in its endeavour to improve the overall traveling experience to rail passengers by providing state of the art facilities.
The inaugural run of this second Tejas Train will be flagged off from Ahmedabad on January 17, 2020.The commercial run of the train will start with effect from January 19, 2020 from Ahmedabad.
The train to be operated by IRCTC which also operates the first Tejas Train, shall be equipped with all modern facilities on board for ensuring a high level of comfort to the passengers.
To start with, this fully air-conditioned train shall  have two Executive Class Chair Cars having 56 seats each and Eight Chair Cars having capacity of 78 seats each. The total carrying capacity of the train will be 736 passengers.
This Tejas Train will have scheduled commercial halts at Nadiad, Vadodara, Bharuch, Surat, Vapi and Borivali.
The train will run on all days of the week except Thursday.
The booking for this train has commenced and passengers can book their tickets exclusively on IRCTC website www.irctc.co.inand its mobile app “IRCTC Rail Connect”.
There will be no booking at railway reservation counters.  The train will also be available for booking through IRCTC’s online travel portal partners.

Jammu industrialists seek revamp of industrial policy

Jammu (NVI): Industrialists of Jammu today sought revamping of the Industrial Policy and a number of concessions as they met Lt Governor G C Murmu here.

A delegation of Federation of Industries, Jammu, submitted a memorandum of demands, which also related to purchases through GeM portal by Government departments, special incentive packages for Small Scale Industries, freight subsidy for the purchase of raw material and industrial consumables.

It also demanded sale of finished goods, reimbursement of SGST, CGST and IGST on self credit mode, conversion of lease hold status into free-hold rights and a host of other issues important for the promotion of local Micro and Small Scale industry.

The Lt. Governor assured them that their genuine demands would be addressed, an official statement said.

A joint delegation of Jammu Fruit Association and Jammu & Kashmir Chemists and Druggists Association also met the LG separately and apprised him of their concerns.

The demands of Chemists and Druggists Association related to renewal of Trade licence and Pharma Certificates while the Jammu Fruit Association Narwal raised the issues pertaining to renewal of lease deeds and their conversion into free hold rights

The Lt Governor assured them that their genuine issues would be addressed, the statement said..

PFS gets Rs.500 crore loan for infrastructure projects

New Delhi (NVI): PTC India Financial services (PFS)  has received sanction of fresh long term loan of Rs 500 crore for onward lending to infrastructure projects and other operational requirements.

The loan has been sanctioned from Bank of India for a period of ten years at an interest rate of 8.50% per annum.

PTC Financial Services Limited (PFS) is a systemically important non-deposit taking NBFC classified as“Infrastructure Finance Company (IFC)” by RBI.

“We will use this loan to further expand our lending portfolio in Infrastruture projects and other operational requirements,” CEO and Managing Director of PFS Dr Pawan Singh said.

“Our portfolio quality has been improving with the passage of each quarter and in the last one year period we have resolved stressed assets considerably,” he said, adding, “We will continue to focus on quality assets and put our efforts to become a sustainable financing company.”

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