Notifications & Circulars
Press Information Bureau
22.11.2018
Environment
India gets UN Environment award for combating trans-boundary environmental crime
MANU/PIBU/1539/2018
United Nation Environment has awarded Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India with Asia Environment Enforcement Awards, 2018 for excellent work done by the Bureau in combating transboundary environmental crime.
Congratulating the Bureau Union Environment Minister said that the Asia Environmental Enforcement Award, recognizes the excellent work done by Government officials and teams from the bureau who are diligently involved in combating trans boundary environmental crime.
The Asia Environment Enforcement Awards publicly recognize and celebrate excellence in enforcement by government officials and institutions/teams combating transboundary environmental crime in Asia. The awards are given to outstanding individuals and/or government organizations/teams that demonstrate excellence and leadership in enforcement of national laws to combat transboundary environmental crime in one of the following eligibility criteria areas: collaboration; impact; innovation; integrity and gender leadership.
WCCB has been conferred this award in Innovation category. WCCB has adopted innovative enforcement techniques that have dramatically increased enforcement of transboundary environmental crimes in India. Notably it has developed an online Wildlife Crime Database Management System to get real time data in order to help analyze trends in crime and devise effective measures to prevent and detect wildlife crimes across India.
This system has been successfully used to analyse trends, helping put in preventive measures as well as for successfully carrying out operations such as Operation SAVE KURMA, THUNDERBIRD, WILDNET, LESKNOW, BIRBIL, THUNDERSTORM, LESKNOW-II along with other enforcement agencies resulting in the arrest of 350 wildlife criminals and huge seizures of Tiger/Leopard Skin/bones and other trophies, Rhino Horn, Elephant Ivory, turtles/tortoises, Mongoose raw hairs as well as Mangoose hair bruses, protected birds, Marine products, live Pangolin as well as its scales, deer antlers etc. across all the states.
In order to involve the public in the fight against wildlife crime, WCCB has also developed a scheme to enroll willing persons as WCCB Volunteers.
The award was decided upon by a selection panel set up by the UN Environment and this is the second time in a row the awards are being given by UN Environment to India.
Tags : Award Trans-boundary Environmental crime
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Press Information Bureau
22.11.2018
Civil
Cabinet apprised of Agreement between India and Uzbekistan on Cooperation in the field of Science, Technology and Innovation
MANU/PIBU/1536/2018
The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has been apprised of an Agreement on Cooperation in the field of Science, Technology and Innovation between India and Uzbekistan. The Agreement was signed on 1st October 2018 at New Delhi in the presence of the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and President of Uzbekistan Mr. Shavkat Mirayoyev, by the Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Dr. Harsh Vardhan on the Indian side and Minister of Innovative Development, Mr. Ibrohim Abdurakhmanov on the Uzbek side.
Benefits:
Signing of the Agreement will open a new chapter in bilateral relations, as both sides will now leverage complementary strengths spurred by a significant convergence of mutual interests in science and technology. The objective of the Agreement is to promote cooperation in the fields of science, technology and Innovation between the two countries. The stake-holders will include researchers from scientific organizations, academia, R&D laboratories and industries from India and Uzbekistan. Agriculture and Food Science and Technology; Engineering Sciences; Information and Communication Technology, Applied Mathematics and Data Science and Technology; Health and Medical Technology; Materials Sciences; Life Sciences & Biotechnology; Physics and Astrophysics and Energy, water, climate and natural resources were identified as potential areas for immediate collaboration.
Tags : Agreement Science Technology Innovation
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Press Information Bureau
20.11.2018
Civil
Prime Minister Launches Ease of Doing Business Grand Challenge
MANU/PIBU/1530/2018
The Prime Minister of India launched a Grand Challenge on resolving seven identified Ease of Doing Business problems with the use of cutting edge technologies. The objective of this Challenge is to tap the potential of young Indians, startups and other private enterprises to provide solutions to complex problems using current technology.
The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, at a programme organized at his residence, yesterday, interacted with select CEOs from Indian & foreign companies. The Prime Minister apprised CEOs of the efforts being made by the Government to ensure that India consistently improves its business environment. The Prime Minister reiterated his resolve to make India one of the easiest places to conduct business in the world. He congratulated all government officials from the reforming Ministries and Departments as well as states & municipal corporations for their achievements in the last 4 years and exhorted them to work towards reforms with greater zeal and energy.
Mr. Hartwig Schafer, Vice President, South Asia of the World Bank Group, also addressed the gathering and appreciated the enormity of India's achievement. He also stressed that it gets tougher to improve ranks as a country moves higher up in the ranking and expressed his belief that India will continue to maintain the momentum it has gained over the last four years in its efforts in improving Ease of Doing Business.
In the World Bank's Doing Business Report (DBR, 2019) released on 31st October 2018 India has recorded a jump of 23 positions against its rank of 100 in 2017 to be placed at 77th rank among 190 countries assessed by the World Bank. As a result of continued efforts by the Government, India has improved its rank by 53 positions in the last two years and 65 positions in the last four years [2014-18].
Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, Environment Minister, Harshvardhan and Housing & Urban Affairs Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri were also present on this occasion.
Tags : SEZ Policy Report Submission
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Press Information Bureau
20.11.2018
Media and Communication
Launch of Media Registration: Aero India 2019 Website
MANU/PIBU/1531/2018
The 12th edition of 'Aero India 2019' would be held at Air Force Station, Yelahanka, Bengaluru, (Karnataka) from 20 to 24 February 2019.
This five-day event will combine a major trade exhibition of the aerospace and defence industries with public air shows. Besides global leaders and big investors in aerospace industry, the show will also see participation by think-tanks from across the world. Aero India will provide a unique opportunity for exchange of information, ideas and new developments in the aviation industry. Besides giving a fillip to the domestic aviation industry it would further the cause of Make in India.
In Aero India, close to 500 companies, both Indian and foreign, are expected to participate.
Registration for media personnel to visit the exhibition has been opened from today, 20 November 2018. The registration closes on 31 December 2018 and is to be done online on the Aero India 2019 website. There is no fee for media registration, however foreign journalists who wish to cover the event would require to be in possession of a valid 'J visa'.
The website https://aeroindia.gov.in has the requisite button for registration of media personnel and would require a valid media identity card number and a photograph of less than 500 Kb.
It is expected that in addition of 1200 Indian and foreign journalists would visit the venue.
Tags : Launch Media registration Aero India
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Press Information Bureau
19.11.2018
Commercial
SEZ Policy Report Submitted to Commerce Minister
MANU/PIBU/1529/2018
The Baba Kalyani headed committee presenting SEZ policy report to Commerce Minister
The Baba Kalyani led committee constituted by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry to study the existing SEZ policy of India submitted its report to the Union Minister for Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, in New Delhi today.
The objectives of the committee were to evaluate the SEZ policy and make it WTO compatible, suggest measures for maximizing utilisation of vacant land in SEZs, suggest changes in the SEZ policy based on international experience and merge the SEZ policy with other Government schemes like coastal economic zones, Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor, national industrial manufacturing zones and food and textiles parks.
While submitting the report to the Commerce Minister, Baba Kalyani, Chairman, Bharat Forge Ltd., said that if India is going to become a USD 5 trillion economy by 2025 then the current environment of manufacturing competitiveness and services has to undergo a basic paradigm shift. The success seen by services sector like IT and ITES has to be promoted in other services sector like health care, financial services, legal, repair and design services.
The Government of India has set a target of creating 100 million jobs and achieving 25% of GDP from the manufacturing sector by 2022, as part of its flagship 'Make in India' programme. Furthermore, the Government plans to increase manufacturing value to USD 1.2 trillion by 2025. While these are ambitious plans to propel India into a growth trajectory, it requires evaluation of existing policy frameworks to catalyse manufacturing sector growth. At the same time, policy needs to be compiled with the relevant WTO regulations.
In his interaction with the committee Suresh Prabhu said that the suggestions of the committee are very constructive and the Commerce Ministry will immediately begin formal consultations with the Finance Ministry and other Ministries so that implementation of the committee's recommendations may be done without any delay.
Tags : Report Submission SEZ
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Reserve Bank of India
19.11.2018
Banking
RBI Central Board meets at Mumbai
MANU/RPRL/0110/2018
The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Central Board met today in Mumbai and discussed the Basel regulatory capital framework, a restructuring scheme for stressed MSMEs, bank health under Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework and the Economic Capital Framework (ECF) of RBI. The Board decided to constitute an expert committee to examine the ECF, the membership and terms of reference of which will be jointly determined by the Government of India and the RBI. The Board also advised that the RBI should consider a scheme for restructuring of stressed standard assets of MSME borrowers with aggregate credit facilities of up to ` 250 million, subject to such conditions as are necessary for ensuring financial stability. The Board, while deciding to retain the CRAR at 9%, agreed to extend the transition period for implementing the last tranche of 0.625% under the Capital Conservation Buffer (CCB), by one year, i.e., up to March 31, 2020. With regard to banks under PCA, it was decided that the matter will be examined by the Board for Financial Supervision (BFS) of RBI.
Tags : Central Board Meeting Capital framework
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Press Information Bureau
19.11.2018
Commercial
Commerce Minister Releases Report on Industrial Park Rating System
MANU/PIBU/1528/2018
Suresh Prabhu releasing the report on Industrial Park Rating System
The Union Minister for Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, released the report prepared by the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce & Industry, on Industrial Park Rating System. Speaking on this occasion, Commerce Minister said that manufacturing has emerged as one of the high growth sectors in India and it has moved 23 places up in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business (EODB-2019) and achieved rank 77 out of 190 countries. In order to ensure that India moves into the top 50 countries in Ease of Doing Business the Ministry has undertaken this exercise in studying infrastructure across states and in 3354 industrial clusters in order to assess quality of infrastructure in industrial parks.
Suresh Prabhu stated that this will be a useful tool for policy makers and investors at the click of a button. 3000 parks are on the database and the industrial parks have been rated on 4 points: internal infrastructure, external infrastructure, business services and facilities and environment, safety management.
To optimise resource utilisation and enhance the efficiency of the manufacturing sector, DIPP launched the Industrial Information System (IIS), a GIS-enabled database of industrial areas and clusters across the country in May 2017. The portal serves as a one-stop solution to the free and easy accessibility of all industrial information including availability of raw material - agriculture, horticulture, minerals, natural resources, distance from key logistic nodes, layers of terrain and urban infrastructure.
Over the last one year, State Governments and Industrial Development Corporations have actively used the portal and nominated over 200 parks for their assessment along the above parameters.
IPRS is proposed to be translated into an annual exercise covering all the parks across India. Coverage would be widened and updated to bring in deeper qualitative assessment feedback, bring in technological intervention and develop it as a tool that helps effectively for demand driven and need based interventions both by policy makers and investors.
On this occasion Secretary DIPP, Ramesh Abhishek, Country Director of Asian Development Bank, Kenichi Yokoyama and other senior officials were present.
Tags : Report Release Industrial Park Rating System
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