infradebt

Infradebt, India's first infrastructure debt fund (IDF) is set to kick-start its formal operations. Finance minister P Chidambaram handed over the license to the fund's promoters including ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda, Citibank and Life Insurance Corporate of India.The infra debt fund has equity capital of Rs 300 crore.The non-banking financial company (NBFC) includes independent management with LIC, Bank of Baroda, ICICI Bank and Citibank among the major participants. The infra debt fund projects can finance projects up to Rs 200 crore
ICICI Bank (together with a wholly-owned subsidiary) is the largest shareholder in Infradebt with 31 percent stake holding followed by Bank of Barodaat 30 percent, Citibank at 29 percent and LIC at 10 percent.Infradebt would seek to raise debt capital from domestic as well as foreign resources and would invest in infrastructure projects under the Public-Private Partnership model that have completed one year of operations. Infradebt will expand and diversify the domestic and international sources of debt funding to meet the large financing needs of the infrastructure sector.

What is "Infrastructure Debt Fund" ?
Earlier, Pranab Mukherjee, the then finance minister had announced the setting up of IDFs in his budget speech for the year 2011-2012. The objective was to facilitate the flow of long-term debt into infrastructure projects.The IDF will be set up either as a trust or as a company. A trust based IDF would normally be a mutual fund (MF) while a company based IDF would normally be a NBFC. IDF - NBFC would raise resources through issue of either rupee or dollar denominated bonds of minimum 5 year maturity," RBI had said in a notification issued on November 21, 2011.

Trophies & Cups Associated with Sports

Trophies & Cups

Associated with Sports

International

American Cup  : Yacht Racing Ashes : Cricket Benson and Hedges : Cricket Canada Cup : Golf Colombo Cup : Football Corbitton Cup : Table Tennis (Women) Davis Cup : Lawn Tennis Derby : Horse Race Grand National : Horse Streple Chase Race Jules Rimet Trophy : World Soccer Cup King's Cup : Air Races Merdeka Cup : Football Rydet Cup : Golf Swaythling Cup : Table Tennis (Men) Thomas Cup : Badminton U. Thant Cup : Tennis Uber Cup : Badminton (Women) Walker Cup : Golf Westchester Cup : Polo Wightman Cup : Lawn Tennis World Cup : Cricket World Cup : Hockey Reliance Cup : Cricket Rothman's Trophy : Cricket William's Cup : Basketball European Champions Cup : Football Eisenhower Cup : Golf Essande Champions Cup : Hockey Rene Frank Trophy : Hockey Grand Prix : Table Tennis Edgbaston Cup : Lawn Tennis Grand Prix : Lawn Tennis World Cup : Weight-lifting

National

Agarwal Cup : Badminton Agha Khan Cup : Hockey All-India Women's Guru Nanak Championship : Hockey Bandodkar Trophy : Football Bangalore Blues Challenge Cup : Basketball Barna-Bellack Cup : Table Tennis Beighton Cup : Hockey Bombay Gold Cup : Hockey Burdwan Trophy : Weight-lifting Charminar Trophy : Athletics Chadha Cup : Badminton C. K. Naydu Trophy : Cricket Chakoia Gold Trophy : Football Divan Cup : Badminton Deodhar Trophy : Cricket Duleep Trophy : Cricket D. C. M. Cup : Football Durand Cup : Football Dhyan Chand Trophy : Hockey Dr. B. C. Roy Trophy : Football (Junior) Ezra Cup : Polo F. A. Cup : Football G. D. Birla Trophy : Cricket Ghulam Ahmed Trophy : Cricket Gurmeet Trophy : Hockey Gura Nanak Cup : Hockey Gyanuati Devi Trophy : Hockey Holkar Trophy : Bridge lrani Trophy : Cricket I. F. A. Shield : Football lndira Gold Cup : Hockey Jawaharlal Challenge : Air Racing Jaswant Singh Trophy : Best Services Sportsman Kuppuswamy Naidu Trophy : Hockey Lady Rattan Tata Trophy : Hockey MCC Trophy : Hockey Moinuddaula Gold Cup : Cricket Murugappa Gold Cup : Hockey Modi Gold Cup : Hockey Narang Cup : Badminton Nehru Trophy : Hockey Nixan Gold Cup : Football Obaid Ullah Gold Cup : Hockey Prithi Singh Cup : Polo Rani Jhansi Trophy : Cricket Ranjit Trophy : Cricket Rangaswami Cup : Hockey Ranjit Singh Gold Cup : Hockey Rajendra Prasad Cup : Tennis Ramanujan Trophy : Table Tennis Rene Frank Trophy : Hockey Radha Mohan Cup : Polo Raghbir Singh Memorial : Football Rohinton Baria Trophy : Cricket Rovers Cup : Football Sanjay Gold Cup : Football Santosh Trophy : Football Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee : Football Subroto Cup : Football Scindia Gold Cup : Hockey Sahni Trophy : Hockey Sheesh Mahal Trophy : Cricket Todd Memorial Trophy : Football Tommy Eman Gold Cup : Hockey Vittal Trophy : Football Vizzy Trophy : Cricket Vijay Merchant Trophy : Cricket Wellington Trophy : Rowing Wills Trophy : Cricket

The Ministry of Food Processing Industries has approved 10 "Mega Food Parks".

       The Ministry of Food Processing Industries has approved 10 Mega Food Parks in Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Jharkhand, Assam, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Bihar and Tripura. In-principle approval has been accorded to 5 projects and Expression of Interest (EoI) issued for another 15 projects.

The Mega Food Parks Scheme (MFPS), a flagship programme of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MFPI) aims at accelerating the growth of food processing industry in the country through facilitating establishment of strong food processing infrastructure backed by an efficient supply chain.  The scheme provides for a capital grant of 50 percent of the project cost in difficult and ITDP notified areas(with a ceiling of Rs 50 crores). The grant is utilized towards creation of common infrastructure in the park. A Mega Food Park takes about 30-36 months to be completed.

Scheme for Cold Chain, Value Addition and Preservation Infrastructure

Eight out of ten cold chain projects approved by MFPI have started commercial operation. Substantive value addition, reduction in wastage and enhancement in farmers’ income is evident from concurrent evaluation of these projects. 39 projects have been approved in 2011. The approved projects envisage a total investment of about Rs. 850 crore. 

These 49 projects would create cold chain capacity of over 2.30 lakh MT. 

            The cold chain scheme was approved in 2008 with an objective to provide integrated and complete cold chain, value addition and preservation infrastructure facilities without any break, for perishables from the farm gate to the consumer. The assistance under the scheme includes financial assistance (grant-in-aid) of 50%  of the total cost of plant and machinery and technical civil works in general areas and 75% for NE region and difficult areas subject to a maximum of Rs 10 crore.

Taking note of the high demand and the gap in the requirement of cold storage, processing, preservation and cold logistics facilities in India, “creation & management of cold chain infrastructure for agriculture” has been recently identified as a thrust area by the Prime Minister.

Modernization of abattoirs

In the year 2011, two projects at Ahmednagar in Maharashtra and Dimapurin Nagaland have been completed. Ten projects for modernization of abattoirs are at various stages of progress.   A proposal for up-scaling the scheme is under consideration.

Technology Upgradation/Establishment/ Modernization of Food Processing Industries

            A sum of Rs. 488 crore is likely to be spent by March 2012 on the scheme for technology upgradation and modernization of food processing industries. This scheme is adding huge processing capacity to the food processing industry which in turn has resulted in significant reduction of wastages.

New ‘Mission on Food Processing’ on the anvil

            The Working Group on Food Processing for the XII Plan has recommended a new centrally sponsored scheme in the form of National Mission on Food Processing proposed with seven components. Four components, namely, (i) Technology up-gradation / setting up / modernization of food processing industries, (ii) HRD, (iii) Modernization of Abattoirs and (iv) Promotional Activities are being implemented in 11^th Plan as Central Sector Schemes which will form part of the National Mission on Food Processing. Three new activities, namely, (i) Modernization of Meat Shops, (ii) Cold Chain, Value Addition & Preservation Infrastructure for non-horticulture produce, and (iii) Creation of on-farm PPC/CCs are proposed as new components. Planning Commission has given in-principle approval. 

Launching of National Mission on Food Processing is likely to have greater involvement of State Governments and all stakeholders resulting fast growth of the food processing sector.

Bird species reported from India which are listed as Critically Endangered in IUCN Red List version

Details of bird species reported from India which are listed as Critically Endangered in IUCN Red List version 

S. No.	Common Name	Scientific Name	Family	Status
1	White-rumped Vulture	Gyps bengalensis	Accipitridae	CR
2	Indian Vulture	Gyps indicus	Accipitridae	CR
3	Slender-billed Vulture	Gyps tenuirostris	Accipitridae	CR
4	Red-headed Vulture	Sarcogyps calvus	Accipitridae	CR
5	Pink-headed Duck	Rhodonessa caryophyllacea	Anatidae	CR
6	White-bellied Heron	Ardea insignis	Ardeidae	CR
7	Sociable Lapwing	Vanellus gregarius	Charadriidae	CR
8	Christmas Frigatebird	Fregata andrewsi	Fregatidae	CR
9	Jerdon's Courser	Rhinoptilus bitorquatus	Glareolidae	CR
10	Siberian Crane	Grus leucogeranus	Gruidae	CR
11	Bengal Florican	Houbaropsis bengalensis	Otididae	CR
12	Himalayan Quail	Ophrysia superciliosa	Phasianidae	CR
13	Spoon-billed Sandpiper	Eurynorhynchus pygmeus	Scolopacidae	CR
14	Forest Owlet	Heteroglaux blewitti	Strigidae	CR

CR: Critically Endangered.

UN Women Report

UN Women Report

The report titled, “Progress of the World’s Women: In Pursuit of Justice 2011-12” was launched by UN Women on 7 July 2011. The Report offers a comprehensive global review of women’s rights around the world. By focusing on the issue of women’s access to justice, or lack thereof, it highlights the many ways in which injustice against women still continues- in a home or the work place, in politics and in justice systems. The Report has both positive examples from across the world of progress in women’s access to justice as well as areas where more action is needed. The Report does not mention about “Khap” Panchayats. The Minister of Women & Child Development Smt. Krishna Tirath revealed this in Rajya Sabha recently in written reply to a question. 

The Minister further stated that as Khap Panchayat is a gathering of the members of particular caste or clan of the village or from a group of neighbouring villages and are informal bodies, they don’t have legal status. 

As per the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India ‘Police’ and ‘Public Order’ are State subjects and, as such, the primary responsibility of prevention, detection, registration, investigation and prosecution of crime, lies with the respective State Government/Union Territory Administration. Existing provisions of the IPC cover crimes such as murder and, therefore, provisions for punishment to people who abet crime. Further, MHA has sent detailed advisory to all State Governments/Union Territory Administrations advising them to take appropriate measures in cases of crimes against women including the violation of women’s rights by so-called ‘Honour Killings’. 

National Mineral Policy

National Mineral Policy

The National Mineral Policy, 2008, seeks to address areas of serious concern in mining sector relating inter-alia to:

(i)                 making the regulatory mechanism more conducive to technology and investment flows by ensuring greater transparency in allocation of mineral concessions, seamlessness and security of tenure in the concession processes,

(ii)               strengthening the role of Geological Survey of India, Indian Bureau of Mines, and State Directorates of Mining and Geology,

(iii)             developing and enforcing a Sustainable Development Framework ensuring stakeholder rights to the indigenous population and that the mining activity takes place along with suitable measures for restoration of the ecological balance,

(iv)             discourage and prevent sub-optimal and unscientific mining by promoting zero-waste mining,

(v)               developing new concession instruments to attract high technology for incentivizing exploration of large areas, and

(vi)             developing a cluster approach to mining of small deposits in a scientific and efficient manner.

OVL showed keen interest in participating in the Sakhalin-3

OVL showed keen interest in participating in the Sakhalin-3 and other fields. It was pointed out that the Company is in close talks with Gazprom to jointly develop projects to produce LNG, gas pipelines, its transportation and marketing. Indian side suggested swapping LNG imports of Japan from Qatar with the LNG that could be available from Russian sources like Sakhalin. Indian side also proposed participation of PLL in the projects along with OVL. 

PLL informed that they would be soon finalizing the agreement for sourcing LNG from Russia under the pact arrived at with Gazprom. The Heads of Agreement for supply of about 2.5 million tones of LNG were signed recently at Singapore. The LNG is proposed to be sourced from Shtokman field. PLL further showed interest in importing more LNG as the demand in India was growing rapidly