Day: September 18, 2012

MNS:- The Minister for Rural Development and Drinking Water and Sanitation Shri Jairam Ramesh said that there is need for de-bureaucratising the sanitation issue in the country and to make it truly a people’s movement. Speaking at a National Workshop for State and District Level Swachchhta Preraks here, he expressed the hope that India will become an open defecation free country in the next ten years. He said, Sikkim has already achieved the ODF ( Open Defecation Free) status and the States like Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Maharashtra are on way to achieve the sanitation goals in coming one to two years. He said, for the first time 600 Swachchhta Preraks have been appointed at the district level, who will be given job cards to spread the message of Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan. Shri Ramesh said, the services of about eight and a half lakh Accredited Social Health Activists, ASHA workers and 13 lakh Aganwadi sevikas will be taken for spreading the message of sanitation in rural areas and every ASHA volunteer will be given 75 rupees for construction of one household latrine. He said, 25 lakh women self help groups in the country will also be roped in to drive home the message of sanitation scheme. The Minister said, henceforth ODF will be the only indicator of Nirmal status of any gram panchayat. He said, while 28,000 Gram Panchyats have achieved the Nirmal status in the last ten years, this year alone the target is to make 29,500 gram panchayats open defecation free. He said, a forum of 30 NGOs in different states will be formed for evaluation of the work of Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/india-to-become-open-defecation-free-in-10-years-jairam/

MNS:- The Culture & HUPA minister Kumari Selja has said India is concerned and committed to ensure sustainable management of its urban historic areas. Speaking at the Ministers meeting AT 5th ASEM Meet “Managing Heritage Cities for a Sustainable Future” in YOGAKARTA, INDONESIA today she said, India recognises Quality of living of a city, satisfaction with cultural infrastructure such as concert halls, museums, libraries etc., satisfaction with public spaces including markets and pedestrian areas, satisfaction with public parks and gardens as well as beauty of streets and buildings and the attractiveness of cities towards tourists as important indicators to benchmark the governance of historic cities. She said approximately 30% of India’s one billion population lives in urban areas and the cities of India are growing at an unprecedented scale and speed. Urbanisation is taking place at an unparalleled speed throwing a challenge at the traditional historic cities. She said historic cities are yearning for a more inclusive and sustainable process of urban development.
The Minister said, the draft National Conservation Policy envisages strengthening the role of crafts people whose knowledge of building materials and traditional systems in conservation works is indispensable. The emphasis here is on sustainable livelihoods as an integral part of sustainable development. She said New legislations of the Ministry of Culture AMASR Act 2010 [Ancient Monuments and Archaeological and Remains and Sites (Amendment and Validation) Act] provides for Heritage Byelaws to be prepared for every single monument of national importance. Kumari Selja Said her country has been instrumental in supporting the preparation of the UNESCO/UN-HABITAT Toolkit on ‘Historic Districts for All – India: A Social and Human Approach for Sustainable Revitalisation’, comprising of a Manual for City Professionals. This is a powerful instrument for raising awareness and building capacity for the Urban Local Bodies and our State Governments to design and implement policies and programmes for the present and future inhabitants of city cores.
She said ,An apex body – The National Monuments Authority has been set up with the aim of introducing new ways of sensitive planning, using tools such as ground surveys and ‘Cultural Impact Assessment’ to ensure that mega infrastructure and other developmental projects do not harm the historic environment. The authority is also equipped with enforcement powers and can impose stringent penalties for violations in heritage landscape. This applies equally to private citizens and government functionaries who allow such violations to take place.
The minister said that the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD), Government of India and UNESCO, New Delhi Office have developed a partnership “Moving towards Heritage based urban development” to help safeguard and promote the sustainable use of India’s unique

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/india-is-concerned-and-committed-to-ensure-sustainable-management-kumari-selja/

MNS:- • Broadly two types of commitments are undertaken in an international investment agreement i.e. market access and national treatment.
• FDI policy is amenable to both market access and national treatment issues
Market access in the context of FDI policy implies the ability of a foreign investor to enter the investment space in India and the limitations thereon. For example, a foreign multi brand retail investor can invest in India only after the government decision is notified. Thus, access to the Indian market for multi brand retail is blocked for foreign investment till then.
National treatment implies that a domestic and foreign investor are treated equally. The FDI policy itself envisages unequal treatment in a range of sectors which is embodied in the sectoral caps, security restrictions, etc. This means, for example, that while an Indian investor can invest 100% in multi brand retail trading in India, a foreign investor will still be allowed to invest only 51%. Further, all the attendant conditions of the policy have only to be complied with by the foreign investor and not an Indian investor setting up a multi brand store without foreign investment.
• BIPA: The BIPA is a post-establishment investment agreement. This implies that once an investor enters the country, that investor must be treated the same as a domestic investor unless the limitations to national treatment are clearly spelt out at the pre-establishment stage. The FDI policy is a pre-establishment instrument and therefore not covered by BIPA.
• CECA/CEPA: In these agreements, India has taken both pre and post establishment commitments. In the pre-establishment commitments, the FDI policy has been bound which means that any rollback would require consultations with the partner country and could entail quid pro quo in terms of concessions in some other area. Within the FDI policy, commitments may be taken only in some specified sectors (positive listing). Since FDI in multi brand retail trading was not allowed when these agreements were negotiated, none of these agreements is affected by the recently approved policy. Moreover, state and local regulations are not a part of the commitments.
• Multilateral/WTO: Multi brand retail trading is classified as a service and therefore covered by the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). India has not undertaken any commitments in this area under the GATS. As such, there is no impact of the policy on our commitments under the WTO. Investment is not a part of WTO disciplines except through Mode 3 under GATS.
• The recently approved policy on FDI in multi brand retail trading provides, inter-alia, that it would be the prerogative of the states to allow a multi brand store. The policy nowhere provides that it is applicable only to certain states. The policy itself is a national policy and can potentially be applicable to all the states that are desirous of implementing it. The local and state-level regulations which govern shops and establishments are the prerogative of the respective state governments. The policy explicitly acknowledges this position. The opening up of FDI in multi brand retail trading is a liberalization measure and remains so with all the conditionalities, given the fact that currently FDI in multi brand retail trading is not allowed at all in India. The decision does not violate any commitments/obligations arising out of India`s international agreements.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/fdi-policy-on-multi-brand-retail-trading-and-indias-commitments/

Shillong, Sep 18- Stating that UPA II is a well tested government, Union Power Minister Veerappa Moily Monday said that the UPA government would not succumb to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s pressure to roll back FDI in aviation or multi-brand retail.
“It is not a question of succumbing to this and that, but we are living with our democracy and no one can stop us from achieving development in the 11th plan and nobody can stop us now,” Moily told journalist.
Moily’s statement assumed siginificance in the wake of the Trinamool Congress’ 72-hour deadline to roll back retail FDI and hike on petroleum products.
“It (Foreign Direct Investment in multi-brand retail) is a strong decision that we have taken and this is going to transform the entire economic scenario in India,” he added.
Banerjee government faces challenges on several fronts after the central government decided to allow up to 51 percent foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail and raised diesel prices steeply.
Allaying that farmers and conseumers will affected by the FDI, the Congress leader claimed that consumers would be get competitive rates and farmers should get a matching price for their produce.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh – who had so far been accused of struggling with policy paralysis – cleared the major reform agenda a day after raising diesel prices by a steep Rs. 5 per litre and restricting the supply of subsidised cooking gas to households.
This enraged the Trinamool, the United Progressive Allaince government’s second-largest constituent, which gave a 72-hour deadline to the Congress to rethink the decisions.
The Trinamool, which is ruling West Bengal, took no time to call a meeting of its parliamentary party Sep 18. The meet will be attended by party supremo and Chief Minister Banerjee.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/upa-will-not-succumb-to-mamatas-pressure/

MNS:- Union Minister of Civil Aviation Ch. Ajit Singh has asked Air India to submit to him in a week’s time a plan to enhance its share in the domestic passenger market. The detailed plan has to include month-wise targets of market share alongwith corresponding strategy to achieve these targets for the next one year. While noting that the share of Air India in the domestic passengers carried by Indian Schedule Airlines has been maintained at the level of 18.2% (same as for July’12), the Minister has emphasized that a number of efforts have to be made by Air India to regain its number one position in terms of market share. He has asked Air India to come out with innovative and customer focused strategies to achieve optimum utilisation of all planes and also maximum utilisation of each plane.
As per passenger traffic data submitted by various domestic airlines, the number of passengers carried by them were 398.21 lakhs between January-August 2012 as against 396.31 lakhs during the corresponding period of the previous year showing the passenger traffic growth of +0.5%.
The total domestic passengers carried by the scheduled domestic airlines for the month of August 2012 were 43.69 lakhs. The total domestic passengers carried by the scheduled domestic airlines in the month of July 2012 were 45.37 lakhs. The break-up for the month of August 2012 is as follows: Air India – 7.94 lakhs, Jet Airways –8.16 lakhs, Jet Lite – 2.85 lakhs, IndiGo – 12.05 lakhs, Spice Jet – 8.07 lakhs, Go Air – 3.24 lakhs, Kingfisher – 1.38 lakhs, Religare- 0.001 lakhs.
The market share of scheduled domestic airlines for the month of August 2012 is as follows: Air India-18.2%, Jet Airways-18.7%, JetLite-6.5%, IndiGo-27.6%, Spice Jet- 18.5%, Go Air- 7.4% and Kingfisher- 3.2%.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/civil-aviation-minister-asks-air-india-to-work-out-plan-to-raise-its-share/