The Minister for Electronics & IT, Communications and Law & Justice, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad inaugurated the National Showcase and Felicitation Ceremony here today as a part of the National Challenge titled ‘Ideate for India – Creative Solutions using Technology,’ organised by Ministry of Electronics & IT. The top 50 team were selected based on their ideas and working prototype solutions.

Speaking on the occasion, he called on the winner innovators to work towards making innovation a national movement. He said young India must inculcate a spirit of innovation and empowerment among under privileged youth and this movement can fulfill Prime Minister’s dream of creating digital India having exemplary governance and leadership qualities.

Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Prime Minister has given a call for Five Trillion Dollar Indian Economy by 2024. “Our Ministry in interaction with Industry has identified trillion-dollar opportunity in digital space itself and has also carved out the areas where we need to introduce digital emerging technologies such Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Data Analytics, Geo-Spatial, Drone, Blockchain, 3D Printing, etc in a big way. The identified priority sectors are Agriculture, Health, Education, Logistics etc. Future Skills that is training our workforce on emerging technologies is also an important area,” he said.

The government is promoting Start-ups in a significant way. Ministry of Electronics and IT has recently initiated MeitY’s Start-up Hub programme, wherein support to 51 Incubators and 2,000 Technology Start-ups are envisaged.

The main aim of the National Challenge was to give school students across the country an opportunity to translate their ideas to a working solution or prototype. The theme areas included healthcare services, education services, digital services, environment, women safety, traffic, infrastructure, agriculture, social welfare, disability and tourism. The Challenge was designed and launched by the National e-Governance Division, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology in collaboration with Intel India, with support from the Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSE&L), and Ministry of Human Resource Development.

The National Challenge was open to students of classes 6 – 12 all across the country. 1,33,661 students registered for this Challenge from 1,160 schools across India (both Government & Private schools) out of which 360 ideas were picked up. Four regional tech-creation boot camps were organized in North, West, South and East zones wherein students were trained by technology experts and mentors. The demonstrated prototypes included (1) Carbon Controller (device that sucks carbon monoxide from tailpipes of vehicles, (2) A smart automated BOT to maintain health, clean surface and deep water weeds in ponds and lakes, (3) Systems to preserve water, (4) Planting tree seeds using a drone) (5) health-related solutions (Diabetes monitoring App, ECG Monitoring App, Device to translate sign language into spoken words) and (6) Municipal related solutions (Smart Garbage Tank, Mosquito Eliminator, etc).

 

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School children from three Delhi schools and a cultural centre of Udaipur will take part in the cultural programme during the Republic Day Parade to be held at Rajpath on January 26, 2020. Ministry of Defence and Directorate of Education, Government of NCT of Delhi have selected 636 children – 474 girls and 162 boys – from Arvind Gupta DAV Centenary Public School, Model Town, Delhi; Vinay Nagar Bengali Senior Secondary School, Sarojini Nagar, Delhi; Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya, B-Block, Janak Puri, New Delhi and West Zone Cultural Center, Udaipur.

‘Yog – Vishwa Shakti ki Ore’ is the theme of Arvind Gupta DAV Centenary Public School, Model Town, Delhi. ‘The Baul’, a group of mystic minstrels from the historical Bengal region, is the theme of Vinay Nagar Bengali Senior Secondary School, Sarojini Nagar, Delhi. The children from Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya B-Block, Janak Puri, New Delhi will perform on the theme ‘Mharo Rang Rangilo Rajasthan’. West Zone Cultural Centre, Udaipur will present ‘Garba – the folk dance of Gujarat’ during the parade.

During their press preview held here today, the young participants expressed their happiness to be part of Republic Day Parade. They said, they were overwhelmed with a sense of pride as they have got a chance to showcase their talent and ability before the high national and international dignitaries.

 

GeM Samvaad, a two month long national outreach programme was launched on 17^th December 2019 to reach out to stakeholders across the country and also local sellers in order to facilitate on-boarding of local sellers on the marketplace while catering to specific requirements and procurement needs of buyers.

The outreach programme took off from 19^th December 2019 and during the launch week the States of Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh were covered.

GeM Samvaad is being conducted in all States and Union Territories. After the first four states the outreach programme has been held in J & K on 5^th January, Ladakh on 7^th January, Assam and Bihar on 9^th January and in Chandigarh on 8^th January 2020. All the outreach programmes witnessed overwhelming participation of buyers and sellers. GeM senior officers are steering the programmes. They are also interacting with buyers and sellers attending the events. Arrangements for the outreach programmes including logistics are made by the respective State Governments. The target is to reach out to all stakeholders and learn from their experiences on their usage of GeM portal. Through this outreach programme, GeM expects to make the actual users aware about the new features and functionalities of the portal and collect feedback, which is the first step towards GeM’s ‘Voice of Customer’ initiative.

A Roundtable with Ministries/Departments & Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) was held on 14 January 2020 in New Delhi as part of GeM Samvaad. It was chaired by Secretary, Department of Commerce, Government of India and CEO GeM.

 

More than 100 participants including Financial Advisors & nodal officers of Ministries, Departments, and representatives of CPSEs participated in the Roundtable and shared their feedback, challenges and suggestions.

Commerce Secretary highlighted the need for full utilization of the potential of GeM. He stated that Rule 149 of GFR and directives of the Department of Public Enterprises make the procurement of goods and services by Ministries and CPSEs mandatory for goods and services available on GeM and the same should not be violated.

GeM is continuously working to bring all the items on-board and buyers should accelerate this process by providing specifications of categories and asking sellers to onboard GeM. He further emphasized the importance of timely payments to sellers and stated that buyers should ensure payments to sellers on time.

State Departments and Organizations and Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) have been using GeM for their buying needs. Sellers from the States are also benefitting through the access to national Public Procurement market using the portal. Through GeM Samvaad the marketplace is looking forward to receiving feedback from users which will be used for making improvements and advancements in the system.

GeM has more than 15 lakh products and around 20,000 services, more than 3 lakh registered sellers and service providers and more than 40,000 Government buyer organizations. In its short journey of three years, GeM has processed more than 28 lakh orders worth Rs. 40,000 crores in Gross Merchandise Value out of which 50% has been transacted by MSMEs.

 

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Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) initiated 34 anti-dumping (AD) investigations (both fresh and review), 4 countervailing duty investigations, and 6 safeguard investigations during the period from 01.04.2019 to 31.12.2019. Final Findings in 14 anti-dumping investigations, 4 countervailing duty investigations and Provisional Findings in 5 investigations were issued during this period.

 

Time taken in issue of final findings from the date of initiation, has come down to 234 days in 2019 – 2020 from 478 days in 2014-15.

 

Average time taken to initiate an Anti-Dumping investigation has also come down to 33 days in 2019-20 as compared to 43 days in 2018-19.

DGTR has also started using all available options for providing relief against unfair trade practices like the first ever Safeguard Quantitative Restrictions investigation on imports of Iso-propyl Alcohol initiated under the FTDR Act, 2002 on 04.11.2019; three Bilateral Safeguard Investigations initiated (Refined Bleached Deodrized Palmolien against Malaysia; Phthalic Anhydride and Polybutadiene Rubber against Korea); two global Safeguard investigations initiated under the Custom Tariff Act, 1997 (Phenol and Single Mode Optical Fibre) and nine Countervailing Duty investigations completed and five are underway.

Anti-circumvention provision was introduced in Customs Tariff Act, 1975 for Counter-vailing Duty (CVD) investigations. Rules of circumvention for AD and CVD are being simplified for providing relief to the domestic industry so that increased instances of circumvention in AD/CVD can be addressed. Six cases of anti-circumvention have been completed so far.

DGTR has initiated outreach programmes to sensitize stakeholders about the available trade remedy measures. The outreach programmes were conducted by officers of DGTR in Gurugram on 25.06.2019, Mumbai from 26.09.2019 to 27.09.2019 and Ahmedabad on 13.12.2019.

Training programmes were held during August-September, 2019 to sensitize the officers of Indian Trade Service, Indian Cost Accounts Service and officers from select Administrative Ministries regarding the available trade remedial measures.

Commerce and Industry Minister held a stakeholder meeting on Regulatory Instruments for formulation and implementation of an effective Trade Policy and Development Strategy on 11.09.2019. A help desk and Facilitation Centre were established on 23.09.2019 to facilitate optimal utilization by different stakeholders of available trade remedial measures aimed at curbing unfair trade. A total of 62 different issues have been dealt by the Centre since its setting up in September, 2019.

DGTR has launched an online portal – ARTIS (Application for Remedies in Trade for Indian industry and other Stakeholders) on 30.09.2019 to enhance transparency, efficiency and provide expedited relief to the domestic producers for different trade remedies like anti-dumping duty, safeguard duty and countervailing duty. Applicants can also monitor the current status of their applications through this portal. The portal will be further improvised so that it can in real terms bring about transformative change in the process of filing, tracking and monitoring the Trade Remedy applications.

 

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The Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers, Shri D.V. Sadananda Gowda launched the “APNA UREA – SonaUgle” brand of Hindustan Urvarak&Rasayan Limited (HURL) at a function here today. On the occasion, he also unveiled the Company’s logo.

HURL is Joint Venture Company promoted by the three Maharatna Companies i.e. Coal India Limited (CIL), NTPC Limited (NTPC) and Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) as the lead promoters with FCIL and HFCL as other two partners.

With the objective of making the country self-reliant in Urea, the Governmentapproved in 2016 the revival of three sick Urea plants located at Gorakhpur, Sindri and Barauni. The task of the revival of these three Units has been undertaken by HURL. “The Prime Minister has directed for the revival of five major sick/shutdown fertilizer plants, three of which have been undertaken by HURL. The other two plants at Ramagundam and Talcherwill also commence production soon,” said Shri Gowda. “We are importing 70-80 LMT fertilizer every year. After the commissioning of these five units, the total production of Urea will increase by 63.5 Lakh Metric Tonne Per Annum (LMTPA),” he added.

Lauding HURL for setting in place the delivery system and supply chain ahead of schedule, the Minister encouraged the Company’s Board to continue the momentum and hoped the commissioning of the three plants will also be advanced.

Speaking on the occasion, the Secretary, Department of Fertilizers, Shri ChhabilendraRoul stressed on the balanced use of fertilizers including organic ingredients and micro-nutrients.

The HURL is being looked as a major emerging player in Urea market due to revival of the three closed units in 2021 having total installed production capacity of 38.1 LMT of Neem Coated Urea per annum. The Company will establish and operate state-of-the-art environment friendly and energy efficient Natural Gas based new Fertilizer Complexes with the annual installed capacity of 1.27 MMTPA neem coated Urea at each of the three locations which are expected to be commissioned in February 2021 (Gorakhpur, UP) and May 2021 (Barauni and Sindri). The feedstock to the plants i.e. Natural Gas will be supplied by GAIL under the Pooled Price Mechanism.

The commissioning of the HURL’s three Units in the states of UP, Bihar and Jharkhand will open forward and backward linkages for business activity in the Eastern part of India. It will be instrumental in opening new avenues for generation of income and employment in the Eastern part of our country.

The other two Urea Units being revived are Ramagundam unit by M/s. Ramagundam Fertilizers & Chemicals Limited (RFCL), a Joint Venture of National Fertilizers Limited (NFL), EIL & FCIL, and Talcher unit by M/s. Talcher Fertilizers Limited (TFL), a Joint Venture of Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers Limited (RCF), CIL, GAIL & FCIL.

The details of the expected commissioning dates of the above units are as follows:

 

Units	Expected commissioning Date
Barauni (Bihar)	May, 2021
Ramagundam (Telangana)	December, 2019
Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh)	February, 2021
Sindri (Jharkhand)	May, 2021
Talcher (Odisha)	September, 2023

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

India’s average urea import is to the tune 63.12 LMT while the average total production of urea in the country is around 241 LMT and the total consumption (Sales) is 305.48 LMT approximately. The gap is fulfilled through imports.

 

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GeM Samvaad, a two month long national outreach programme was launched on 17^th December 2019 to reach out to stakeholders across the country and also local sellers in order to facilitate on-boarding of local sellers on the marketplace while catering to specific requirements and procurement needs of buyers.

The outreach programme took off from 19^th December 2019 and during the launch week the States of Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh were covered.

GeM Samvaad is being conducted in all States and Union Territories. After the first four states the outreach programme has been held in J & K on 5^th January, Ladakh on 7^th January, Assam and Bihar on 9^th January and in Chandigarh on 8^th January 2020. All the outreach programmes witnessed overwhelming participation of buyers and sellers. GeM senior officers are steering the programmes. They are also interacting with buyers and sellers attending the events. Arrangements for the outreach programmes including logistics are made by the respective State Governments. The target is to reach out to all stakeholders and learn from their experiences on their usage of GeM portal. Through this outreach programme, GeM expects to make the actual users aware about the new features and functionalities of the portal and collect feedback, which is the first step towards GeM’s ‘Voice of Customer’ initiative.

A Roundtable with Ministries/Departments & Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) was held on 14 January 2020 in New Delhi as part of GeM Samvaad. It was chaired by Secretary, Department of Commerce, Government of India and CEO GeM.

 

More than 100 participants including Financial Advisors & nodal officers of Ministries, Departments, and representatives of CPSEs participated in the Roundtable and shared their feedback, challenges and suggestions.

Commerce Secretary highlighted the need for full utilization of the potential of GeM. He stated that Rule 149 of GFR and directives of the Department of Public Enterprises make the procurement of goods and services by Ministries and CPSEs mandatory for goods and services available on GeM and the same should not be violated.

GeM is continuously working to bring all the items on-board and buyers should accelerate this process by providing specifications of categories and asking sellers to onboard GeM. He further emphasized the importance of timely payments to sellers and stated that buyers should ensure payments to sellers on time.

State Departments and Organizations and Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) have been using GeM for their buying needs. Sellers from the States are also benefitting through the access to national Public Procurement market using the portal. Through GeM Samvaad the marketplace is looking forward to receiving feedback from users which will be used for making improvements and advancements in the system.

GeM has more than 15 lakh products and around 20,000 services, more than 3 lakh registered sellers and service providers and more than 40,000 Government buyer organizations. In its short journey of three years, GeM has processed more than 28 lakh orders worth Rs. 40,000 crores in Gross Merchandise Value out of which 50% has been transacted by MSMEs.

 

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MM/ SB

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