Kuala Lumpur,,

Malaysia,,

India and Malaysia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to promote technical assistance services in the field of highway management and development in India. The MoU was signed by Shri Kamal Nath, Minister of Road Transport and Highway, Government of India and Dato’ Shaziman bin Abu Mansor, Minister of Works, Government of Malaysia, in the presence of H.E. Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia at Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday. The MoU will further enhance participation by Malaysian engineering and consultancy companies in the development of national highways in India. The presence of the Malaysian Prime Minister at the official signing ceremony underscores the potential for collaboration between India and Malaysia in the economic and commercial field, particularly in the infrastructure sector.

The signing ceremony was preceded by calls by Minister Kamal Nath on the Prime Minister of Malaysia Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib and the Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Dato’ Haji Muhyiddin Bin Mohd Yassin. Both the Malaysian leaders warmly recalled the visit of Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh to Malaysia in October 2010 and spoke about the strong potential for bilateral cooperation, including in the economic sphere.

The MoU will strengthen, promote and develop cooperation with Malaysia in relation to the provision of technical assistance services on highway management and development. Such services include technical assistance in upgrading Design Project Report (DPR) procedures, developing procedures for peer review of tunnel design, toll optimisation studies and establishing information management procedures for the setting up of an Asset Management System for highways and expressways. The technical assistance will be of considerable benefit to India in view of Malaysia’s long experience in implementing road and highway projects.

The MoU also envisages foreign direct investment from Malaysia / Malaysian companies for Built-Operate-Transfer (BOT) / Expressway projects, subject to the approval of the regulatory authorities of both countries. Such projects, subject to mutual agreement, will be implemented through bilateral negotiations on the basis of a mutually agreed price discovery mechanism and appraisal by Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC)/ Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure as applicable, to all projects executed under the PPP mode in India.

Minister Kamal Nath and Dato’ Shaziman had fruitful discussions on how to strengthen existing bilateral collaboration in infrastructure development, including the involvement of Malaysian companies in infrastructure projects particularly in the highway sector.

This is the first high ranking visit from India since the official visit of Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India in October 2010, during which the Governments of India and Malaysia agreed to establish a Strategic Partnership and to deepen bilateral relations through all round cooperation and engagement.

Shri Kamal Nath, Minister of Road Transport & Highways of India, is on an official visit to Malaysia from 20 to 22 December 2010, at the invitation of Dato’ Shaziman bin Abu Mansor, Minister of Works of Malaysia.

The Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Shri Kamal Nath signing the MoU in the field of highway management and development in India with the Minister of Works, Government of Malaysia, Dato’ Shaziman bin Abu Mansor, in the presence of the Prime Minister of Malaysia DatoSri Mohd Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak, at Kuala Lumpur

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Delhi,,

As per a study got conducted by the Ministry of Urban Development, the total requirement of funds for urban transport in 87 identified cities by 2030 is roughly estimated at Rs.4,35,380 crore. This was stated by Shri Saugata Roy, Minister of State, Urban Development in reply to a question in Lok Sabha Today.

The gap between the demand of investment and likely availability of funds from budgetary sources of Central, State and Urban Local Body level is quite wide. The actual amount is difficult to be ascertained due to uncertainty of firmed up proposals from State Governments/Urban Local Bodies with details of financing arrangements. However the State Government and Urban Local Bodies have been advised to set up dedicated urban transport fund at State and city level to mitigate this gap, he added.

He said that the Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA) has been set up by the States of Andhra Pradesh (for Hyderabad), Karnataka (for Bangalore), Maharashtra (for Mumbai), Rajasthan (for whole state), Tamil Nadu (for Chennai), Orissa (for Bhubaneswar) and Nagaland (for Kohima).

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Delhi,,

Indian Railway Catering Corporation Limited (IRCTC) received the prestigious ICWAI National Award of Excellence in Cost Management-2009 in the “Public – Service Sector – Medium” category. Shri Rakesh Kumar Tandon, Managing Director/ IRCTC along with ,Shri Vishwa Ranjan Gupta, Director (Finance), Shri M. P. Mall Group General Manager (Finance) and Shri Rakesh Gogia, Company Secretary received the award from the Hon’ble Union Minister of State for Corporate Affairs, Shri Salman Khurshid at a glittering ceremony at the SCOPE Complex,  New Delhi, on 8^th July 2010.  Also present on the occasion were Shri R. Bandyopadhyay, Secretary Ministry of Corporate Affairs and a host of guests from the corporate world.

Credentials for the award were evaluated by 15 Member Jury of eminent professionals led by Justice J.S. Verma, Former Chief Justice of India. The Jury critically evaluated IRCTC’s efforts in bench marking fuel consumption, standardization of recipes, long term agreements with suppliers, dexterous redeployment of manpower and enhancing the competitiveness through vigorous training, quality improvement at introduction of basket system of procurement to reduce inventory holdings, etc. The efforts at cost reduction and control, regular cost review meetings at different levels, use of six sigma technique/ TQM and adoption of Enterprise Risk Management have also worked in favor of IRCTC.

Shri Rakesh Tandon, Managing Director of Indian Railway Catering Corporation Limited received the ICWAI National Award of Excellence in Cost Management for the year 2009 in the “Public – Service Sector - Medium” category from the Hon ’ble Union Minister for Corporate Affairs, Shri Salman Khurshid. Also seen in the picture is Shri Vishwa Ranjan Gupta, Director (Finance), IRCTC.

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Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, has announced a new Scheme for assistance towards damaged immoveable/movable property during action by CPMFs and Army in Jammu & Kashmir. The Scheme is effective from 3rd June, 2010.

The new Scheme provides for compensation of up to Rs. 10 lakhs with a proviso that of this 70% maximum can be given for the capital assets (i.e.) houses etc., destroyed during anti militants operations and the rest 30% maximum for the other household moveable property either of the owner(s) or the tenant(s). The compensation package will be scrutinized by a Committee of Deputy Commissioner, Senior Superintendent of Police, Executive Engineer, Representatives of Ministry of Defence and Central Paramilitary Forces before it is sanctioned. By provision of compensation to the tenant(s), the new Central Scheme also addresses the needs of tenants. There is no provision for compensation to tenants in the present Scheme of the State Government. This scheme subsumes the existing scheme of J&K Government.

The earlier scheme of the Government of Jammu & Kashmir provided for an ex-gratia relief equal to 50% of loss or Rs. one lakh, whichever is less due to Bomb Blast or other kind of sabotage. Since the quantum of relief being provided by the Government of J&K was inadequate, Ministry of Home Affairs formulated the new Scheme with the objective to provide adequate relief for damage caused to the immovable/moveable property during action by CPMFs/Army and in which there has been no involvement of the owner/tenant in the subversive activities.

The expenditure for the Scheme would continue to be met from the budget of the Ministry of Home Affairs under Security Related Expenditure (Relief and Rehabilitation).

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Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd.(PHLL), a Government of India Undertaking with Ministry of Civil Aviation, has entered, into an MOU with Indiaposts of the Department of Posts under the Ministry of Communication & IT to provide complete logistics solutions to PHHL.

The MOU was signed on 21 December 2009 by Shri R.K.Tyagi CMD PHHL and Shri John Samuel, GM, Business Development, Indiaposts.

The MOU has been signed initially for a period of 2 years which is renewable on mutually acceptable terms and conditions for support within India and will be open for International logistics solutions also depending upon performance

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New Delhi. Cardiovascular disease as an underlying cause of death accounts for more than one-third (36.3 percent) of all deaths.

The prevention lies in the phrase: “walk more, eat well and live more” said Dr. K K Aggarwal, President, Heart Care Foundation of India.

Dr Aggarwal said that walking is the easiest, most convenient form of activity — and it’s free. You don’t need special skills, the training of a marathon runner, or a membership at an expensive gym to benefit from walking.

In fact, one study shows that if you get just one hour of regular exercise, you can increase your life expectancy by two hours. Walk one hour on a regular basis; expect to live two hours longer…Do the math. Imagine what you could do with all that extra time! said Dr. Aggarwal.

Each year, over 25 lac Indians die from sudden cardiac arrest, and more than 95 percent of all sudden cardiac arrest victims die before reaching the hospital.

Walking is not only good for the heart patients but also for patients with paralysis and peripheral vascular disease.

Apart one should do more simple exercise at home

·        Do housework yourself instead of hiring someone else to do it.    

·        Work in the garden.

·        Go out for a short walk before breakfast, after dinner or both!  Start with 5-10 minutes and work up to 30 minutes.    

·        Walk to the corner store instead of driving.    

·        When walking, pick up the pace from leisurely to brisk.  Choose a hilly route.  When watching TV, sit up instead of lying on the sofa.  Better yet, spend a few minutes pedaling on your stationary bicycle while watching TV.  Throw away your video remote control.  Instead of asking someone to bring you a drink, get up off the couch and get it yourself.    

·        Stand up while talking on the telephone.    

·        Walk the dog.

·        Park farther away at the shopping mall and walk the extra distance.  Wear your walking shoes and sneak in an extra lap or two around the mall.

·        Stretch to reach items in high places and squat or bend to look at items at floor level.    

·        Keep exercise equipment repaired and use it.

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Indore. Amrita Pancholi, an IIM professor who was found dead in her house at the IIM Indore Campus last week was allegedly killed by her driver for her ATM card. She died after being stabbed repeatedly. The police have arrested her driver, Anil Patel.

Confessing before the police officials here Patel said that he hid in her house late at night on December 10. After she fell asleep, he started searching for her purse. He wanted her ATM card because he thought that as a single working woman, she would have a hefty bank account. Amrita heard him and started shouting for help. The driver then tried to force her to reveal the pin for her ATM card. When she refused, he stabbed her.

 Amrita who was an Associate Professor of Human Resources Management had been at IIM Indore campus for 18 months. Her family is from Udaipur. They reached her house the morning she died, for a pre-planned family vacation with her.

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Hyderabad. The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhar Rao reacting to the oppose against the statehood for Telangana has now warned that 100 MLAs cutting across party lines will quit if the Centre goes back on the move to create a separate Telangana state.”If anything goes wrong on formation of Telangana, it will lead to a constitutional crisis. All MLAs are in touch with me. More than 100 MLAs and more than 12 MPs will resign from Telangana,” Rao said on Tuesday.

The ruling Congress’ own leaders from Telangana have also warned of a people’s struggle. “We are ready to give in not just our resignations but our lives as well. Not just elected representatives of all parties, but the four crore people of Telangana will join this struggle,” said Congress MP Madhu Goud Yaskhi. The pro-Telangana warning comes even the ‘United Andhra’ lobby has been hinting at a compromise formula. On Tuesday, Vijayawada’s Congress MP L Rajagopal formally gave up his fast but not before declaring that KCR’s fast-unto-death had been a fraud and that the Centre had succumbed to blackmail.

Meanwhile the pro telangana activists disrupted the shooting of a film here that stars actor Mohan Babus’ son.

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New Delhi. Finance Secretary, Shri Ashok Chawla yesterday launched an e-platform ‘NTREES’, an acronym for Trade Receivables Engine for E-discounting. Promoted by SIDBI & NSE, NTREES will facilitate discounting of MSME bills on their supplies to large purchaser companies.

Reiterating the importance of the historic event, Shri Chawla discussed the journey of MSMEs that have been recognized as the true engines of growth not just in India but all over the world. In India, their contribution to manufacturing and exports is significant, apart from providing gainful means of employment opportunities to large number of people.

Over the years, MSME needs have gradually expanded with credit being one of the critical requirements which is provided to them by banks, as well as, specialised financial institutions, such as the SIDBI.

NTREES provides a qualitative approach to addressing their needs and he expressed his hope that this will take off and become an optimum framework and institutional mechanism. In the next phase, as more and more banks adopt this platform, the platform could also emerge as a price discovery mechanism.

Congratulating SIDBI and NSE on this path breaking endeavour, Shri Chalwa extended his best wishes towards the success of NTREES.

The launching occasion at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi witnessed the presence of bankers, corporates, MSMEs, industry associations, bureaucrats, international experts and the press and electronic media.

Shri Ravi Narain, MD and CEO of NSE stated that major challenges facing the MSMEs today are meeting their capital requirements at reasonable cost. NTREES is a unique and exciting platform to address these challenges for MSMEs. Shri Narain expressed his acknowledgement towards SIDBI’s partnership for this unique platform and hoped that NTREES – which has received encouraging response, becomes an industry-wide platform and goes a long way in its mission.

Shri R M Malla, CMD, SIDBI, informed that the Bank’s Bill Discounting mechanism called Receivable Finance Scheme, has grown in popularity over the years to reach out to more than 17,000 MSME suppliers related with about 250 large corporates. NTREES replaces the paper-based physical mechanism with e-trading which will make discounting of bills transactions cost-effective, expeditious, and more transparent.

Shri Malla mentioned that NTREES is a part of SIDBI’s financing and developmental support to MSMEs. While mentioning various diverse activities of SIDBI, he said that with GOI support, SIDBI has set up Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) for encouraging collateral free lending to MSEs.

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New Delhi.The HRD Ministry is mulling close co-operation with the recently set up UID Authority. The HRD Ministry is keen on this as this will provide all school going children and teachers with a UID number, so that a countrywide monitoring of schooling and educational outcomes can be undertaken.  This was stated by Shri Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Human Resource Development, during the meeting of the Consultative Committee of Parliament for the HRD Ministry held here yesterday. The subject of the meeting was, ‘The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009’.

The Ministry officials made a brief presentation on the salient features of the Act. These include , besides the right of a child to free and compulsory education in a neighbourhood school till completion of elementary education, the consequent duties of the appropriate Government and Local Authority. It was also shown how the Act provides for minimum qualifications for teachers in elementary schools. The academic and infrastructure standards which schools are required to adhere to as per the Act were shown as was the requirement of the Constitution of school management committees.

Many members of Parliament gave their views regarding the Act. Most members,  while appreciative of this landmark initiative,  were of the view that the actual implementation of the Act will face challenges, especially in terms of monitoring and accountability, retention of poor students, teacher quality and absenteeism, ability of states to finance the implementation of the Act and adequate infrastructure. Shri D. Raja  called for the strengthening of the government school system and that  attempts must be made to build a common school system. Shri Mohammed Shafi suggested that states be categorized as per their requirements for RTE. While Shri Sucharu Ranjan Haldar and Shri Kabindra Purkayastha wanted to know how it will be ensured that children go to school, Smt. Vasanthi Stanley wanted clarity on the provisions for specially abled children. Shri Jagdanand Singh and Smt. Rama Devi  wanted the parents/guardians to be given the right to judge the teachers. Shri Prem Das Rai was for the RTE and UID schemes to be put together.  Shri Baija yanta “Jai” Panda wanted to know the timelines for the framing of rules and for the notification of the Act. Shri Lalji Tandon  stated that masses will need to be involved for successful implementation of the Act. Dr. Chinta Mohan expressed the concern that states would not have the finances of the scale required for the implementation of this Act. He also suggested that Gram Panchayats must have a say. Dr. (Smt ) Kapila Vatsyayan said that the schooling must not result in deculturisation or in parochialism and a balance needs to be created so that the children are locally rooted and globally relevant. Shri Jose K. Mani stressed upon the need for counseling in schools.

Shri Kapil Sibal assured the members that the people are very keen to get their children to school and there will be pressure from the public on the  appropriate governments to get the Right to Free and Compulsory Education for their children. He stated that with 93 percent of the schools in the country being government schools, the main  purpose of the Act is to improve the quality of the government school system. The Minister underlined that the provision in the Act of School Management Committees with 50% women would ensure  the schools’ monitoring and they would be accountable, besides monitoring being done through the proposed association with the UID. The Minister also explained that there were laid down norms for infrastructure, teacher qualification and student-teacher ratio in the Act,  which would ensure certain standards. As regards specially abled children, he said that the government’s policy is to encourage inclusive education. He said that to ensure children going to school, while there is a provision in the Act for the authorities to ensure and monitor admission of children in school, the civil society and stakeholders will have to come forward in a big way to help make this ‘National Mission’ a success. He said that the Act would be notified after the sharing pattern of the finances,  between the centre and the states, is decided by the government.

Smt. D. Purandeswari, Minister of State for HRD was also present in the meeting .Members of Parliament who attended the meeting included Dr. Chinta Mohan, Shri Jose K. Mani, Shri Jagdanand Singh, Dr. Nirmal Khatri, Shri Ghanshyam Anuragi, Shri Ganeshrao Nagorao Dudhgaonkar, Shri Prem Das Rai, Shri Baijayanta “Jai” Panda, Shri Kabindra Purkayastha, Smt. Rama Devi, Shri Lalji Tandon,, Shri Sucharu Ranjan Haldar, Shri Ishwar Singh, Smt. Vasanthi Stanley, Shri Mohammed Shafi, Dr. (Smt )Kapila Vatsyayan and Shri D. Raja.

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New Delhi. Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. and NTPC Ltd., the two best governed companies, were presented the “ICSI National Award For Excellence in Corporate Governance 2009” at Mumbai today by Shri Vilasrao Deshmukh, Union Minister for Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises, in the presence of Justice R.C. Lahoti, Former Chief Justice of India and Chairman of the Jury for the Award. The Company Secretaries of the two companies were also honoured for their contribution in adhering to good corporate governance practices.

Earlier, Shri Datla Hanumanta Raju, President of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI), while delivering the welcome address said that the issue of corporate governance should remain more at the forefront of the development agenda in hard times, than in good times. He expressed that good corporate governance should be upper most in board rooms to ensure rapid, sustained and inclusive growth and it should cover social and economic aspects of human endeavour.

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The Government has launched Handicraft Mega Clusters at Moradabad and Narsapur to provide a comprehensive range of services in these clusters to make handicrafts products more innovative and export friendly. In coming days, clusters like Mysore, Channapatna, Saharanpur, Jodhpur and Jaipur will also be taken up for holistic development. Thiru. Dayanidhi Maran stated this , while addressing the handicrafts exporters at the 16th Export Award presentation function organized by the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) here today in the presence of Tmt. Panabaaka Lakshmi, Minister of State for Textiles.

The Textiles Minister said that the Government is establishing Common Facility Centres (CFCs) at 25 identified clusters to provide full range of services like design support, technology support, materials inputs and marketing linkages to artisans. It is imperative that products of Handicrafts clusters and Towns with handicraft traditions should be given publicity and Buyer-Seller meets, mega shows should be organized to showcase the products. As a part of this imitative, the first mega festival is being planned at Jodhpur in March 2010.

While giving an overview of the stimulus packages announced by the Government as well as measures taken in the Foreign Trade Policy 2009-2014 to boost handicraft exports, Thiru. Dayanidhi Maran directed EPCH to make an appraisal of these initiatives and prepare an action plan to reverse the declining trend in handicrafts exports. He told the export community to innovate and explore new markets as 60% of handicrafts exports are concentrated in four countries namely in the USA, UK, Germany and France. He impressed upon the exporters to adopt E-commerce to cut down the transaction cost and develop new clientele. Expressing optimism, Thiru. Dayanidhi Maran said that this financial year handicrafts exports will regain the lost ground and declining trend will be reversed. The handicrafts exports reached a peak figure of Rs. 20,963 crore in 2006-07, and declined to Rs. 10,892 crore in 2008-09, which was a fall of 48% on year on year basis. This fall was mainly due to recessionary conditions in developed market appreciation of rupee, credit and rising inputs prices, he added.

On the occasion , Thiru. Dayanidhi Maran gave away awards to 166 handicraft exporters, and launched Indian Handicrafts Design Bank Portal.

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Shri Sushilkumar Shinde, Union Minister for Power has said that every citizen must practice energy conservation so as to make it a mass movement. Addressing a large gathering at a function to mark the National Energy Conservation Day today in Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, he said that every small effort is a big step in achieving consciousness of one and all. Stating that eradication of poverty and rapid economic growth are the two most important priorities for India, the Minister noted that Energy Efficiency is a vital policy tool in our quest to promote energy efficiency as a cost effective and environmentally benign supplement to the overall energy sector strategy. He also reaffirmed the commitment of the Government to pursue a credible and sustainable national energy efficiency and conservation agenda to stimulate a market transformation in favour of energy efficient technologies and products.

Observing that enhancing energy efficiency is a major and probably the quickest effective means of our climate change mitigation measures, Shri Shinde announced that the implementation plan for the National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency prepared by Ministry of Power and the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, approved by the Prime Ministers Council on Climate Change earlier this year, will be implemented from the 1st of April, 2010. He said that in addition our international efforts are focussed on ways to accelerate the adoption of the latest energy efficiency technologies from all over the world. Shri Shinde expressed hope that the climate change negotiations that are currently going on in Copenhagen would result in a technology mechanism for this purpose.

Listing out the key features of the National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency (NMEEE), the Minister observed that the mission seeks to upscale efforts to create a market for energy efficiency which is estimated to be around Rs. 74,000 crores. The Mission will create a conducive regulatory and policy regime to foster innovative and sustainable business models to unlock this market. As a result of the implementation of this Mission over the next five years, it is estimated that at by 2015, about 23 million tons oil-equivalent of fuel savings- in coal, gas, and petroleum products, will be achieved every year alongwith an expected avoided capacity addition of over 19,000 MW. The consequential carbon dioxide emission reduction is estimated to be 98.55 million tons annually.

Shri Shinde said that the National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency seeks to implement an Action Plan based on four major initiatives. The mission will commence implementation from April, 2010. The flagship of the mission is the Perform Achieve and Trade (PAT) initiative which is a market based mechanism to enhance cost effectiveness of improvements in energy efficiency in energy-intensive large industries and facilities, through certification of energy savings that could be traded. Energy efficiency improvement targets will be set under section 14 of the Energy Conservation Act, 2001 in a manner that reflects their current energy intensity as compared to other units in the same sector, and the economic effort involved. Units that achieve savings in excess of their target will be provided the excess savings as Energy Savings Certificates. Units that underperform can buy these certificates to meet their target compliance requirements. This will ensure that the total desired savings are achieved in the most cost effective manner.

Shri Shinde also announced that the National Mission will also institute two innovative fiscal instruments namely the Partial Risk Guarantee Fund (PRGF) and Venture Capital Fund for Energy Efficiency (VCFEE). The PRGF will be a risk-sharing mechanism that will provide commercial banks with partial coverage of risk exposure against loans made for energy efficiency projects. This will reduce the risk perception of the banks towards lending for new technologies and new business models associated with energy efficiency projects. The VCFEE will ease a significant barrier from the viewpoint of risk capital availability to the ESCOs and other companies who invest in the supply of energy efficient goods and services.

In order to develop a viable ESCO industry, and also to undertake the market based implementation actions under the National Mission, the creation of a new commercial organisation named Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) was announced in November. Shri Shinde observed that EESL has since been incorporated as a Joint Venture of NTPC, PFC, REC and POWERGRID to facilitate market implementation of energy efficiency projects. EESL will work as ESCO; as Consultancy Organization for CDM, Energy Efficiency; and as a Resource Centre for capacity building of SDAs, Utilities, financial institutions, etc. EESL will also lead the market-related actions of the NMEEE. The equity of EESL will be Rs. 190 crores with equal contribution from the 4 promoters.

Recognizing the need to enhance partnership with states, BEE has conducted a study through the National Productivity Council (NPC), an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India, to estimate the electricity saving potential in key sectors of each state and UT. The study has highlighted a saving potential of 75.4 billion kWh through the implementation of energy efficiency in identified sectors. It is significant to note that this savings more than the overall national electricity deficit of 73.1 billion kWh reported during 2007-08. The study is intended to serve as a guiding factor in policy development at State level, and help in preparing actionable sector specific roadmaps. It would also form the basis of BEE’s engagement with SDAs. The study brings forth the fact that the current situation of power shortages can be significantly eased by capturing the savings possible in these areas. Most of these energy efficiency projects have payback periods between one to four years, and can yield quick results. Shri Shinde released the report on the occasion. Terming it as a landmark study, Shri Shinde said that he would write to Chief Ministers of all States to initiate action to harness this electricity savings potential in a fixed time frame.

Union Minister for Power also announced that an energy labeling programme for passenger cars will be initiated shortly to provide consumers with comparative information about fuel economy of various models in the market. Initially this programme will be voluntary. It will be expanded to cover other forms of vehicular transport in a phased manner. This program will be in line with the other labeling programs being successfully implemented for ACs, Refrigerators, tubelights, fans, Distribution transformer, etc. Preliminary estimates suggest that the combined fuel economy standards and labelling program will result in up to 20% reduction in oil use in year 2030. Given that 2 million cars are added every year, it could lead to savings of about 15 million tons of oil by 2015.

A portal on demand side management www.dsm-bee.in was also launched on the occasion.

National Awards for Energy Conservation were given away and the winners of National Painting Competition were also honoured on the occasion. Shri Bharatsinh Solanki, Minister of State for Power presided over the function. In his address, he announced that there will be a star rating scheme for buildings which house the BPOs. Shri H.S. Brahma, Secretary, Ministry of Power, Shri Rakesh Nath, Chairman, CEA, Shri Devender Singh, Joint Secretary (Power), Dr. Ajay Mathur, DG, BEE and other senior officials from the Ministry as well as luminaries from power sector were present on the occasion.

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The Government has said that the National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation ( NMDFC ) has prescribed its lending policy to be followed by its implementing agencies viz. State Channelising Agencies as well as Non-Governmental Organizations for proper implementation of its schemes. Giving this information in the Rajya Sabha today Shri Salman Khurshid, Minister of Minority Affairs, said that these guidelines are meant to ensure simplification of formalities and charging concessional rate of interest from the beneficiaries. The formalities & loan documentation requirements are similar to other social lending programmes.

            Shri Khurshid informed the House that during the last three years and the current financial year the allocations provided to NMDFC by the Government of India are as given below.:

Year                            Allocations                
2006-07                      Rs. 18.29 crore                                   

2007-08                       Rs. 70.00 crore                                   
2008-09                       Rs. 75.00 crore                                   
2009-10                       Rs. 125.00 crore          

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