‘Modern Lifestyle is The Reason for The Condition of Our Forests, Rivers, Air and Land”: Dr Harsh Vardhan

“The condition of our forests, rivers, air and land is a matter of serious concern for us.  The reason for this is the modern lifestyle adopted by us”, Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Dr. Harsh Vardhan has said.   Leading the plantation drive at District Park, Paschim Vihar to mark Van Mahotsav celebrations here today, the Minister said, “Plants are another form of God, they give us free oxygen and absorb carbon-dioxide”.  He added that climate change and global warming are burning issues of the world and attempts are being made at various levels to resolve these issues. Dr. Harsh Vardhan pointed out that in this fight against global warming and climate change, the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi figures among the prominent leaders of the world.  He also said that the International Solar Alliance (ISA) was established at the initiative of Shri Narendra Modi and with the cooperation of France, ISA’s office was established in Gurugram and funds have been made available.

“Environment protection is connected to our culture, but we have forgotten this cultural heritage”, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said.  He also emphasised that had we continued with this heritage of protection of environment, today we could have presented a big example before the world. 

Dr. Harsh Vardhan also paid rich tributes to Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee.  He said that today is the birth anniversary of one of the great sons of India.  “His life was full of sacrifice, he devoted his life and gave a new direction to politics”, the Minister said.

Dr Harsh Vardhan also recalled the contribution of former Environment Minister, Shri Anil Madhav Dave, to environmental issues.  He said that today is Dave ji’s birth anniversary and also reminisced that Dave ji used to say that if one wants to remember him, one should plant saplings. 

Defence Minister releases Booklet highlighting efforts to achieve Self-Reliance in Defence Production

Defence Minister Shri Arun Jaitley released a booklet here today highlighting efforts made by Department of Defence Production in the last three years in pursuance of self-reliance in defence sector. It is a compilation of the achievements of the Department of Defence Production in the field of indigenous production of weapon systems/platforms and policy initiatives undertaken in the past three years.

Ever since the launch of ‘Make in India’ initiative in September 2014, the focus has been to improve the business environment by easing processes to do business, encourage participation of Indian public and private sectors in defence production and promote innovation and indigenous development of equipment and weapon platforms.

The booklet mentions a number of policy initiatives which have been taken by the Department of Defence Production. These are relaxation in Foreign Direct Investment policy, providing exchange rate variation protection to domestic industry, level-playing field to private sector in terms of excise duty/custom duty at par with public sector, liberalising licensing policy and extending the validity of industrial licensing to 15 years, streamlining defence offset guidelines and restoring services as an avenue for discharge of offsets. It also includes facilitating exports by issuing NOC online, hosting procedure for issue of NOC and list of military stores in public domain besides doing away with end-user certificate, revising make procedure to promote design and development, promulgating green channel policy, categorising certain Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) products as non-core, aligning payment terms of Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs), etc. It also mentions about ‘Make in India’ portal for defence production which is a very industry-friendly website covering all policy procedural issues.

The booklet also mentions that Ordnance Factories and DPSUs, working under the administrative control of Department of Defence Production, have not only enhanced their production from ₹ 44,000/- crore to ₹ 56,000/- crore but have also delivered many state-of-the-art platforms to the Armed Forces, including Light Combat Aircraft ‘Tejas’, Surface to Air Missile System ‘ Akash’ . During the last three years, 128 industrial licences have been issued.

Other highlights are, all naval ships and submarines on order are being constructed in Indian shipyards and percentage of capital procurement from Indian vendors has gone up from 47 to 61 in the last three years.

A number of steps are being taken to augment production capacity by DPSUs, such as infrastructure building for Mine Counter Measure Vessel at Goa Shipyard Ltd., new helicopter manufacturing facility at Tumakuru, second production line for Dhruv at Kanpur, manufacturing capacity for T-90 and PINAKA Rockets and manufacturing facilities for Medium Range Surface to Air Missile (MRSAM) at Ibrahimpatnam, Hyderabad.

Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Wreckage Located

On 04 Jul 17, an ALH of helicopter unit based at Tezpur had gone missing while carrying out an HADR mission near Itanagar. The helicopter had carried out five sorties evacuating stranded people near Itanagar due to landslides between Naharlagun and Sagalee. There were three crew members and a Arunachal Pradesh police personnel on board, when the aircraft was reported missing at approx 1550 hrs. While the search and rescue operations were initiated immediately, however the process was hampered frequently due to bad weather in the area. 

Joint rescue teams of Army, NDRF, Arunachal Pradesh Police and IAF were launched to locate the helicopter. The Arunachal Pradesh Police team spotted the wreckage of the helicopter in the evening of 05 Jul 17. On 06 Jul 17 morning, rescue parties comprising IAF Garuds and medical team, Army, NDRF were able to reach the crash site alongwith the Arunachal Pradesh Police team who had sited the wreckage. The bodies of three personnel have been recovered so far. A Court of Inquiry has been ordered to investigate the cause of the accident. 

Dr Mahesh Sharma participates in ‘Second Meeting of BRICS Culture Ministers’ in Tianjin, China

Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State (Independent charge) for Culture and Tourism has said that India attaches importance to its engagements with BRICS which has emerged as a valuable forum for consultation, coordination and cooperation on contemporary global issues of mutual interest and has helped promote mutual understanding. Addressing at the “Second Meeting of BRICS Culture Ministers” in Tianjin, China today, he said that India held the BRICS Chairmanship in 2016 and hosted the 8th BRIGS Summit on 15-16 October, 2016 in Goa under the theme ‘Building Responsive, Inclusive and Collective Solutions’. Each of the BRICS country possesses rich cultural heritage and traditions and we share goodwill, understanding, respect and interest for each other's cultural heritage. This respect and interest will in times to come contribute towards developing even stronger bonds of friendship, empathy and cooperation.

Dr Sharma said that India will work with China and other BRICS countries on Chair's priority areas, viz Global economic partnership, global governance, people-to-people exchanges, macroeconomic coordination, Agenda 2030, International peace and stability, open world economy, IMF reform, media, sports, education, traditional medicines, and exchanges among students and scholars and culture. India has bilateral cultural agreements and specific cultural exchange programmes with each of the BRIGS countries. We have been showcasing our rich cultural heritage through Festivals of India organized in China and South Africa already. Preparations are afoot to organize a similar festival in Brazil in September this year and in Russia in the early next year.

The Minister said that today we are in the midst of a tremendous shift in the way of growth and modernization, but Libraries continue to play a central role in providing open and free access to information and ideas. As gateways to knowledge and culture, libraries play a fundamental role in society. The resources and services they offer, create opportunities for learning, support literacy and education, and help shape the new ideas and perspectives that are central to a creative and innovative society.

He said that the museum, as an institution tells the story of man the world over and how humanity has survived in its environment over the years. It houses things created by nature and by man and in our modem society, it houses the cultural soul of the nation. It holds the cultural wealth of the nation in trust for all generations and by its function and unique position, it has become the cultural conscience of the nation. The National Museum of India has since been organizing exhibitions overseas. Presently, an exhibition on “Across the Silk Road: Gupta Sculptures and their Chinese Counterparts during 400-700 AD” is on show in various Museums of China since September, 2016.

Dr Sharma said that under Cultural Mapping of India Scheme, a web portal has been developed for collection of online data from artistes for cultural mapping, which will serve as an artist repository. A sub scheme as a National Mission on Cultural Mapping and Roadmap with a Financial Outlay of Rs 469.40 crore for 2017-2018, 2018-2019 & 2019-2020 has been approved under the umbrella of "Kala Sanskrit! Vikas Yojna".

Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India invites comments from public on the Regulations notified under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (Code) is a modern economic legislation. Section 240 of the Code empowers the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) to make regulations subject to the conditions that the regulations: (a) carry out the provisions of the Code, (b) are consistent with the Code and the rules made thereunder; (c)are made by a notification published in the official gazette; and (d) are laid, as soon as possible, before each House of Parliament for 30 days.

The IBBI has evolved a transparent and consultative process to make regulations. It has been endeavor of the IBBI to effectively engage stakeholders in the regulation making process. The process generally starts with a working group making draft regulations. The IBBI puts these draft regulations out in public domian seeking comments threon. It holds a few round tables to discuss draft regulations with the stakeholders. It takes advice of its Advisory Committee.The process culminates with the Governing Board of the IBBI finalising regulations and the IBBI notifies them. This process endevours to factor in ground reality, secures ownership of regulations and makes regulations robust and precise, relevant to the time and for the purpose.

Public consultation enables collective choice and hence plays an important role in evolution of regulatory framework. The participation of the public, particularly the stakeholders and the regulated, in the regulatory process ensures that the regulations are informed by the legitimate needs of those interested in and affected by regulations.

Usually, a regulator prepares draft regulations and presents these to the stakeholders to revalidate its understanding of the issue the said regulations seek to address, and the appropriateness of such regulations to address the issue. Based on the inputs from the stakeholders, the regulator finalizes the regulations with modifications, as may be warranted. The IBBI has been essentially following this approach and will continue to do so.

Despite the best of efforts and intentions, a regulator may not always have the understanding of the ground realities, as much and as early as the stakeholders and the regulated may have, particularly in a dynamic environment.The stakeholders could, therefore, play a more active role in making regulations. They may contemplate, at leisure, the important issues in the extant regulatory framework that hinder transactions and offer alternate solutions to address them, in addition to responding urgently to draft regulations proposed by the regulator. This is akin to crowdsourcing of ideas. This would enable every idea to reach the regulator. Consequently, the universe of ideas available with the regulator would be much larger and the possibility of a more conducive regulatory framework much higher.

Keeping in view the above, the IBBI invites comments from public, including the stakeholders and the regulated, on the regulations already notified under the Code. The comments received between 4^th July, 2017 and 31^stDecember, 2017 shall be processed together and following the due process, regulations will be modified to the extent considered necessary. It will be the endeavor of the IBBI to notify modified regulations by 31^st March, 2018 and bring them into force on 1^st April, 2018. 

It is clarified that this is in addition to the extant approach of inviting public comments on draft regulations before notifying them.

For providing comments, please follow the process as under:

(i)                 Visit IBBI website, www.ibbi.gov.in;

(ii)               Select ‘Public Comments’;

(iii)             Provide your Name, and Email ID;

(iv)             Select the stakeholder category, namely,

a.       Corporate Debtor;

b.      Creditor to a Corporate Debtor;

c.       Insolvency Professional;

d.      Insolvency Professional Agency;

e.       Insolvency Professional Entity;

f.       Academics;

g.      Investor; or

h.      Others.

(v)               Select the regulations, you wish to make a comment upon, from the dropdown menu, as under:

a.       Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (Model Bye-Laws and Governing Board of Insolvency Professional Agencies) Regulations, 2016;

b.      Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (Insolvency Professional Agencies) Regulations, 2016;

c.       Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (Insolvency Professionals) Regulations, 2016;  

d.      Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (Insolvency Resolution Process for Corporate Persons) Regulations, 2016;

e.       Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (Liquidation Process) Regulations, 2016; 

f.       Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (Information Utilities) Regulations, 2017;  

g.      Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (Voluntary Liquidation Process) Regulations, 2017;

h.      Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (Fast Track Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process) Regulations, 2017; or

i.        Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (Inspections and Investigations) Regulations, 2017.

Kindly note that the selected regulations can be found by clicking the pdf icon right next to the ‘select regulations’ option. 

(vi)             Select the kind of comments you wish to make, namely,

a.       General Comments; or

b.      Specific Comments.

(vii)           If you have selected ‘General Comments’, please select one of the following options:

a.       Inconsistency, if any, between the provisions within the regulations (intra-regulations);  

b.      Inconsistency, if any, between the provisions in different regulations (inter-regulations); 

c.       Inconsistency, if any, between the provisions in the regulations with those in the rules; 

d.      Inconsistency, if any, between the provisions in the regulations with those in the Code;

e.       Inconsistency, if any, between the provisions in the regulations with those in any other law; 

f.       Any difficulty in implementation of any of the provisions in the regulations; and

g.      Any provision that should have been provided in the regulations, but has not been provided; or

h.      Any provision that has been provided in the regulations, but should not have been provided.

And then write comments under the selected option.

(viii)         If you have selected ‘Specific Comments’, please select regulation number and then sub-regulation number, and write comments under the selected regulation / sub-regulation number.

(ix)             You can make comments on more than one regulations, or more than one regulation / sub-regulation number, by clicking on more comments and repeating the process outlined above from point 8(v) onwards.

(x)               Click ‘Submit’, if you have no more comments to make.

Illustration

9. If you are a creditor to a corporate debtor and wish to make a specific comment on the sub-regulation 1 of regulation6 relating to Eligibility for appointment of Liquidator as specified in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India(Voluntary Liquidation Process) Regulations, 2017. The steps that you need to follow are:

        i.            Visit IBBI website, www.ibbi.gov.in;

      ii.            Select “Public Comments”;

    iii.            Provide your Name and Email ID.

    iv.            Select the stakeholder category, which in this case is “Creditor to a Corporate Debtor”

      v.            Select the regulations, which in this case is “Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (Voluntary Liquidation Process) Regulations, 2017;

    vi.            Select ‘Specific Comments’;

  vii.            Select the regulation / sub-regulation number, which in this case is “Regulation 6” and “Sub Regulation (1)”;

viii.            Write comment in the box “Comments”;

    ix.            If you wish to make comment on another regulations, or another regulation number of the same regulations,repeat the process from ‘v.’ onwards by clicking the icon ‘More Comments’;

      x.            Click ‘Submit’, after you have made all comments.

India declares itself free from Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (H5N1 and H5N8)

India had reported outbreaks of Highly Pathogenic Avian influenza at various epicenters in Delhi, Gwalior (MP), Rajpura (Punjab), Hissar (Haryana), Bellary (Karnataka), Allappuzha and Kottayam (Kerala), Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Daman (Daman) and Khordha and Angul (Odisha during October, 2016 to February, 2017.

All the outbreaks of Avian Influenza (HPAI) mentioned above were notified to OIE and the control and containment operations were carried out as per the Action Plan on Preparedness, Control and Containment of Avian Influenza. 

            Surveillance was carried out throughout the country and around the areas of the outbreaks since completion of the operation (including culling, disinfection and clean-up) and surveillance in the states showed no evidence of presence of Avian Influenza Virus.

  

            In view of the above, India has declared itself free from Avian Influenza (H5N8 and H5N1) from 6^th June, 2017 and notified the same to OIE.

Shri Achal Kumar Joti takes over as new Chief Election Commissioner of India

Shri Achal Kumar Joti has assumed charge as the 21^st Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India, succeeding Dr.Nasim Zaidi here today. Dr. Zaidi demitted office yesterday after completing his tenure.

After the assumption of charge, Shri Joti spoke about the priorities of the Commission and said that the Commission shall pursue vigorously its commitment to hold free, fair, inclusive and credible elections throughout the country. Secondly, the Commission will also pursue its mission to ensure that “No Voter to be Left Behind”. Thirdly, the Commission shall actively promote e-Governance for holding of elections to the State Assemblies and Parliamentary Elections in the country, Shri Joti added. 

Shri Joti has served as Election Commissioner since 13^th May, 2015. During his tenure as Election Commissioner, State Assembly elections in the States of Bihar, Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakand, Manipur and Goa were successfully conducted. Some of the initiatives undertaken during these elections are IT initiatives including the one for service voters through Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System(ETPBS), along with National Voter Service Portal (NVSP) –an e-portal for easy registration of eligible voters, voter awareness and educational initiatives and stringent expenditure monitoring mechanism etc.

Before joining the Election Commission of India, Shri Joti has served the Nation as a longtime Civil Servant of Indian Administrative Service (1975 Batch). He brings with him a rich experience of Public Administration of 42 years. During his distinguished career, he served as DM and Collector of Districts Surendranagar, Godhra and Kheda. He held various significant assignments as Secretary (Water Supply), Secretary (Industries), Principal Secretary (Finance), along with serving as the Chairman of the Kandla Port Trust, on Central Government deputation with Ministry of Shipping, Government of India, between 1999 and 2004, as the Managing Director of the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd(SSNNL) and Additional Chief Secretary (General Administration Department). Shri Joti superannuated as Chief Secretary to the Government of Gujarat in January 2013 after completing a three-year tenure.