The Cabinet on Wednesday approved public private partnership mode for the rollout of BharatNet project for broadband services in villages in 16 states with viability gap funding of Rs 19,041 crore, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said. Prasad said the decision to involve private players was taken after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on August 15, 2020 that around 6 lakh villages in the country will be connected with broadband in 1,000 days. "The Cabinet has in-principle approved implementation of BharatNet in 16 states in a public private partnership model with total expense of Rs 29,430 crore.
Tata Consultancy Services on Friday said it has been selected by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) for the second phase of the Passport Seva Program. In the next phase of the programme, TCS will refresh existing facilities and systems, and develop innovative solutions to enable the issuance of e-passports and further enhance the citizen experience, using technologies, such as biometrics, artificial intelligence, advanced data analytics, chatbots, auto-response, natural language processing, and the cloud, a statement said. Launched in 2008, the Passport Seva Program saw TCS transforming the delivery of passport-related services, digitising the processes, and setting global benchmarks in timeliness, transparency, and reliability.
The first public-private partnership (PPP) initiative in bottled drinking water has taken shape at Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, with a Rail Neer plant set for commissioning.
The company is also exploring the markets of Bangalore, Nashik, Panvel, Thane and Pune among other cities for the same.
At the World Bank Banga will be replacing David Malpass, a former Trump treasury official, reports axios.com. Malpass had already announced that he will resign by July, months ahead of his term expired. "Ajay is uniquely equipped to lead the World Bank at this critical moment in history," President Biden said in a statement. Banga, 63, currently serves as vice chairman at General Atlantic.
The Delhi government has announced that vehicles older than 15 years will be denied fuel at petrol pumps starting April 1.
Day 5 of Parliament's monsoon session 2020. Watch all the action in both houses LIVE here.
'Unless a comedian is involved in something society deems unforgivable...'
A Rs 7,056 crore outer harbour project by VO Chidambaranar (VOC) Port in Tuticorin is garnering interest from domestic and global majors in the sector, such as Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, Singapore's PSA International, Dutch major Van Oord, JM Baxi, and JSW, among others, according to sources close to the development. The project aims to capitalise on the newfound investor interest in the region, spurred by mega investments such as the Rs 16,000 crore electric vehicle manufacturing unit by Vietnamese major VinFast, the Indian Space Research Organisation's second spaceport in Tamil Nadu's Kulasekarapattinam, and Singapore's Sembcorp's Rs 36,238 crore investment in renewable energy.
In sectors like IT, cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing, and transportation, the H-1B One Workforce grant programme would be used to upskill the present workforce and train a new generation of workers.
To facilitate foreign direct investment (FDI) in high- speed rail projects, the government is likely to allow private sector entry in operations.
A grooming branch network for servicing HNIs is a stepping stone for a full-fledged wealth management business.
The metro rail commenced its operations between Miyapur and Nagole, having a total distance of 30 kilometre and 24 stations.
Parliament's standing committee report on the government's land acquisition Bill has sought a thorough tightening of the provisions to ensure involvement of local institutions and an "informed and transparent process".
While the private sector has been involved in a small way in upgrading government-owned Industrial Training Institutes and certain health initiatives, the PPP projects have not really taken off in a big way in these areas, PM said.
The United Kingdom extracted USD 64.82 trillion from India over a century of colonialism between 1765 and 1900 and USD 33.8 trillion of this went to the richest 10 per cent -- enough money to carpet London in notes of 50 British pound almost four times over.
Ajay Banga will be a 'transformative leader', who will bring expertise, experience, and innovation to the position of World Bank President, United States President Joe Biden has said after the top Indian-American business executive was confirmed as the new head of the international lender.
These airports are those at Amritsar, Varanasi, Bhubaneswar, Indore, Raipur and Trichy.
The railways, whose performance in public-private partnership projects has been dismal, will try five different models for inviting private sector participation for last-mile connectivity projects.
"The performance of the public part of the (PPP) project should be subject to proper scrutiny but obviously where the private sector (is given) flexibility ... you cannot subject that to CAG scrutiny," Montek Singh, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman said when asked whether there is case for CAG scrutiny of PPP projects.
India is trying hard to erase Indonesia's wariness about New Delhi, building security cooperation in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean. If Indonesia decides to buy the Brahmos missile, it would further strengthen relations between the world's most populous nation and the most populous Islamic country.
The move is part of a larger initiative by the government to speed up work in the highway sector.
Airports hold pride of place in the government's National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) programme to monetise public assets. Private airport operators, including the Adani group, Fairfax, GMR and Zurich Airport, are expected to evince interest in the next round of public private partnership (PPP) development of state-owned Airport Authority of India (AAI) airports. Industry analysts, however, do not expect bids to be as high as the last round, which saw Adani group gain control of six airports.
Dengue has become a major public health concern in India with 289,235 cases reported last year. This year there were 19,447 cases of dengue which resulted in 19 deaths till April 2024.
As per the detailed project report, submitted to the Union HRD Ministry by National Association of Software and Service Companies, each new IIITs will come up in partnership with a group of private companies. Each IIIT will have a capital base in which the government's contribution will be less than that of the partnering companies.
'Most of the testing capacity in India is in the private sector.' 'Whether it is the established RT-PCR test for COVID-19, or it is other innovations in testing that are now coming up, all these are fully within the capabilities of the private sector.' 'Health policy should harness these capabilities,' says Ajay Shah.
On Wednesday, Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal announced an across-the-board hike in fares of all classes from midnight of January 21 to net an additional Rs 6,600 crore (Rs 66 billion) a year.
Elections are not won or lost by expounding on such macro-economic matters. For the aam admi, what matters in manifestos are promises that will improve their quality of life, notes Vinayak Chatterjee.
India on Thursday unveiled a new science policy that lays greater thrust on innovation, establishing research institutes and encourage women scientists with an aim to position itself among the top five scientific powers in the world by 2020.
"The Council will inform and provide advice to the President and other senior US officials on US global development policies and practices, support new and existing public-private partnerships, and increase awareness and action in support of development by soliciting public input on current and emerging issues in the field of global development," the White House said.
The six Pinaka Regiments comprise of 114 Launchers with automated gun aiming and positioning system and 45 command posts to be procured from M/s TPCL and M/s L&T, and 330 vehicles to be procured from M/s BEML.
PPPs in infra are on the cusp of disaster. The country needs a different strategy to build public services infrastructure.
The final draft of the bill now proposes consent of two-third of "land losers" (from whom land would be purchased) for acquiring land for public-private-partnership and private projects, sources said.
The government is trying to promote infrastructure development through PPP projects and has suggested the state should pick projects under this mode in a big way.
The private sector accounted for 30 per cent of all investment in infrastructure in the last Plan period and is supposed to mobilise 50 per cent ($500 billion) of the planned infrastructure spending for 2012-17.
The Comptroller and Auditor-General's report on the Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) as a public-private partnership (PPP) project makes several valid points, but presents a seemingly factual but fundamentally misleading picture of the total financial outcome.
The Finance Minister's concerns come at a time when delays in 110 central infra projects due to regulatory hurdle issues have resulted in over Rs 1.57 lakh crore cost overruns.
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad on Wednesday described the railway budget as 'disappointing' and said the ministry's attempt to attract private firms to fund the rail projects is like 'chasing a dream'.
As domestic opportunities diminish, investors look abroad for these projects.
The controversial Land Acquisition Bill was on Thursday cleared by the Union Cabinet, making mandatory the consent of 80 per cent of people whose land is taken for private projects.
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