Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel Shri Dharmendra Pradhan today launched a scheme of SAIL to promote Voluntary Philanthropist Activities (VPA) by its employees.    The scheme called “SAIL Employee Rendering Voluntarism and Initiatives for
Community Engagement (SERVICE)” will promote and facilitate philanthropist activities by the employees in a structured manner.

The Minister also launched a portal for the employees to register for the scheme. The dedicated interactive “SAIL SERVICE” portal for implementation of this Scheme shall act as a platform for enabling faster interaction and communication amongst the various stakeholders.  It shall eventually be developed as a repository of knowledge management in this regard.

Speaking on the occasion, ShriDharmendraPradhan said that it is a great initiative of SAIL to encourage its employees and their families to give back to society in a positive manner.  He said “This year marks 70 years of our Constitution coming into effect. Honorable President of India ShriRamnathKovindji has said that while being alert about their rights, citizens should also be conscious of their duties. Through SERVICE, employees of SAIL will come forward to perform their social duties voluntarily and contribute towards social welfare and nation building.”

ShriPradhan called for mass scale mobilisation of employees towards achieving social good through voluntary activities, based on their interest areas. He said that the SAIL employees and their families can contribute in nation building and community development.  He called upon the SAIL employees to participate in this Scheme whole-heartedly andmake the habit of helping others an integral part of their lives.He also called for incentivising initiatives taken by employees aimed towards social welfare.

There are about 70,000 regular employees of SAIL and 60,000 contractual employees in various plants of SAIL.  All these employees and their families will be encouraged to come forward and undertake such VPA for community development.  They will be encouraged to undertake Voluntary Philanthropist Activities preferably under the identified thrust areas under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).  These include education and health, women empowerment, sustainable income generation, assistance to Divyangjan, access to water and sanitation, village development, environment sustenance, sports coaching, and traditional arts and culture.  The Scheme may also promote other related VPAs by employees which should not be related to any other organisation or receiving any funding from any organisation.

SAIL will undertake mass mobilisation programmes in its plants and units to spread awareness about this scheme and to encourage employees to participate in VPS.  A pledge shall be administered at all plants and units of SAIL on the SAIL Foundation Day i.e. 24^th January for VPS towards community development.

SAIL shall provide logistic support to such employees or groups for undertaking the VPAs, subject to evaluation and assessment.   Due recognition will also be given for the employees or groups under the scheme, based on their contribution.

On this occasion, Shri Anil Kumar Chaudhary, Chairman, SAIL, also apprised the media about the SERVICE scheme.

 

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ment in Central Government posts & for admission in Central Government Educational Institutions are expected to be benefitted upon implementation of the recommendations of the Commission. The Commission is likely to make recommendations for benefit of such marginalized communities in the Central List of OBCs.

 

Financial Implications:

The expenditure involved are related to the establishment and administration costs of the Commission, which would continue to be borne by the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment.

 

Benefits:

All persons belonging to the castes/communities which are included in the Central List of SEBCs but which have not been able to get any major benefit of the existing scheme of reservation for OBCs in Central Government posts & for admission in Central Government Educational Institutions would be benefitted.

 

Implementation strategy and targets:

Orders for extension of the term of the Commission and addition in its Terms of Reference will be notified in the Gazette ‘in the form of an Order made by the President, after receipt of the approval of the Hon’ble President to the same.

 

Background:

The Commission was constituted under article 340 of the Constitution with the approval of President on 2^nd  October, 2017. The Commission, headed by Justice (Retd.) Smt. G. Rohini commenced functioning on 11th October, 2017 and has since interacted with all the Stats/UTs which have subcategorized OBCs, and the State Backward Classes Commissions. The Commission has come to the view that it would require some more time to submit, its report since the repetitions, ambiguities, inconsistencies and errors of spelling or transcription etc appearing in the existing Central List of OBCs need to be cleared. Hence the Commission has sought extension of its term by six, that is upto 31st July 2020 and also addition in its existing Terms of Reference.

 

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The Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), for furthering their mutual objectives of strengthening grassroots institutions of the rural poor. The MoU was signed by SmtAlkaUpadhyaya, Additional Secretary and Mission Director NRLM on behalf of MoRD and by Shri AlkeshWadhwanion behalf of BMGF in presence of Secretary, Shri Rajesh Bhushan who appreciated the initiative and collaboration between the two parties.

The MoU reiterates DAY-NRLM and the Foundation’s shared focus on improving the lives of India’s poor and the marginalized with the aim of reducing poverty through institutions of marginalized rural women for promotion of diversified and gainful self-employment while creating skilled wage employment opportunities.

On the occasion, SmtAlkaUpadhyaya, Additional Secretary and Mission Director NRLM, Ministry of Rural Development, expressed happiness on signingof the MoU with the Gates Foundation. She said that the Ministryis striving to remove barriers such as poor health, gender inequality and lack of opportunities for women’s entrepreneurship while providing them access to financial institutions and markets. She further added that the Ministry is glad to make use of the foundation’s expertise, and leverage its network, to provide technical assistance and support to the DAY-NRLM.

Shri Alkesh Wadhwani from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation saidthat India is a focus country for many of the foundation’s programs and is glad to partner with DAY-NRLM on improving the lives of India’s poor and marginalized, especially women. He said that the foundations support will include assistance in improving implementation quality, documenting best practices, and designing of monitoring learning and evaluation. Shri Wadhwani also expressed happiness towardsthe collaboration on India’s vision of eradicating poverty from the grassroots.

The foundation is already working with self-help groups (SHGs) for layering Maternal and Child Health interventions where rural women from marginalized communities come together to work collectively towards empowerment and poverty alleviation. Such efforts help to remove barriers facing women and girls, to ensure they have an equal chance to thrive and lead healthy, productive lives.

The scheme lays special emphasis on targeting the poorest and the most vulnerable communities, as it recognizes the need to address barriers to their development. DAY-NRLM is also building social capital and ensuring financial linkages to alleviate poverty and enhance the quality of the life of rural poor women. It has ambitious plans on innovations for alternate channels of financial inclusion like digital finance, creating value chains around rural products, improving market access, rural enterprise and also creating awareness on social development issues and services.

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(IR) is moving towards the adoption of automation and instrumentation in its maintenance practices for detecting defects/deficiencies in rolling assets. The objective is to achieve machine assisted automatic identification of defects in the Rolling Stock, well before any catastrophic failure. This will lead to a paradigm shift in maintenance practices of Rolling Stock of Indian Railways from “Time Based Maintenance” to “Condition Based Predictive Maintenance” with a view to enhance reliability and availability along with improved safety of Rolling Stock during run.

For this, to begin with, On-line Monitoring of Rolling stock System (OMRS) is being adopted in Indian Railways. OMRS is a way-side inspection system consisting of Acoustic Bearing Detector (ABD) or Rail Bearing Acoustic Monitor (RailBAM) and Wheel Impact Load Detector (WILD)/Wheel Condition Monitor (WCM) to detect the faults in the bearings and wheels of rolling asset. This is an automated system for detecting defective wheels and bearings, and catching the same before it fails, thus resulting in efficient utilization of the coaches, wagons & locomotives. OMRS monitors the health of each Rolling Stock of the train in order to identify defective bearings & wheels. Defect report generation and alert communications takes place in real time for taking corrective action, accordingly.

The current practice of inspection of Rolling stock over Indian Railways is largely based on manual inspection, which is either track side Rolling-in-Examination or pit examination of Rolling Stock in stationary or slow moving condition. The visual inspections are done by trained manpower either in a pit or track side location but this relies on the individual judgment.  Therefore, an automated defect detection system viz. OMRS is being adopted by Indian Railways which consists of following sub-systems:

• Acoustic Bearing Detector (ABD)/ Bearing Acoustic Monitor (RailBAM) gives an early warning on possible defects in the bearing box, before reaching the stage of hot box.
• Wheel Impact Load Detector (WILD)/Wheel Condition Monitor (WCM) system measures the wheel impacts on tracks to identify the flat surface on wheels in Rolling Stock. This system is based on Accelerometer device to measure the wheel impacts.
• PhotoTAG system is used for vehicle identification using Visual (photographic) identification technique.

 

 

Status of implementation of OMRS:

• Installation of 25 OMRS systems at 20 locations is in progress over entire Indian Railways’ network in phase-I on the sections identified by a high-level multi-disciplinary committee of Railway Board.
• 1^st OMRS system has been installed at Panipat in Ambala-Delhi section of Northern Railway in November 2017 and a Central Control Room termed as “National Command Centre (NCC)” for monitoring of all OMRS sites has been set-up at Delhi Kishanganj in March 2018.
• After successful performance of 1^st OMRS system at Panipat in March 2018, progressive installation of the remaining systems is being done.
• As on date, 6 OMRS systems have been installed and 10 systems are expected to be installed in current financial year 2019-20. The project of installation of remaining OMRS systems over Indian Railways is likely to be completed in the current calendar year 2020.

 

Panipat OMRS site

Benefits from OMRS:

Summary of defects detected by OMRS in rolling stock upto June 2019 –

• Number of faults identified in Bearings by RailBAM : Wagons- 33, Coaches – 6, Locomotives -1
• Number of faults identified in Wheels by WCM : Coaches – 7

Encouraged by the results of deployment of OMRS, including some critical detection which could have potentially been cause of an accident, not otherwise detectable by normal maintenance procedure, Indian Railways is now going ahead with greater adoption of track side based maintenance systems with an aim towards predictive maintenance.

Further, moving towards predictive maintenance practices in yards, Indian Railways is envisaging to convert its “freight examination yards” into technology driven “Smart Yards” for automatic detection of faults/defects/deficiencies in freight wagons. These Smart Yards will predict anomalies like Hot Wheel Hot Axle, defective bearings, defective wheels, hanging/loose/missing parts etc. long before any failure actually happens. Smart Yards will be equipped with various automated technology driven systems including OMRS, Hot Box Detector, Wheel Profile Recorder and Machine Vision Equipments etc.

The concept of smart yard is to use modern repair facilities, infrastructure, tools, automatic defect detection equipments and digital technology to enhance safety, reliability and productivity in freight trains operation.

The automatic defect detection equipments of Smart Yard shall provide advance data about hot axles and wheels, wheel flats, wheel profile & diameter, load imbalance, spring breakage, loose and hanging parts, wear condition of brake blocks etc. even before the rake arrives at the maintenance yard. It will then use this information for objective fault assessment and proactive staffing, thereby, reducing turn-around time while boosting safety and improving productivity.

Status of implementation of Smart Yard:

• Initially in 1^st phase, 40 identified yards will be converted into Smart Yards.
• COFMOW (a unit of Indian Railways) has been nominated for carrying out the overall work of Smart Yards.

 

The implementation of afore mentioned technology driven automatic predictive maintenance practices for up-keep of Rolling Stock not only will benefit Indian Railways on account of efficient/safe operation of trains but will also benefit on economic ground.

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Crude oil production[1] during December, 2019 was 2650.81 TMT which is 10.85% lower than target and 7.39% lower when compared with December 2018. Cumulative crude oil production during April-December, 2019 was 24375.57 TMT which is 6.01% and 6.02% lower than target for the period and production during corresponding period of last year respectively. Unit-wise and State-wise crude oil production is given at Annexure-I. Unit-wise crude oil production for the month of December, 2019 and cumulatively for the period April-December, 2019 vis-à-vis same period of last year has been shown in Table-1 and month-wise in Figure-1.

Table-1: Crude Oil Production (in TMT)

Oil Company	Target	December (Month)				April-December (Cumulative)
	2019-20 (Apr-Mar)	2019-20		2018-19	% over last year	2019-20		2018-19	% over last year
		Target	Prod.*	Prod.		Target	Prod.*	Prod.
ONGC	22153.90	1985.59	1748.63	1761.22	99.29	16161.21	15386.96	15908.16	96.72
OIL	3424.90	294.75	207.74	274.93	75.56	2559.29	2354.74	2516.56	93.57
PSC Fields	9463.34	693.02	694.44	826.17	84.06	7214.10	6633.87	7512.84	88.30
Total	35042.15	2973.36	2650.81	2862.32	92.61	25934.60	24375.57	25937.56	93.98

Note: Totals may not tally due to rounding off.                                       *: Provisional

Figure-1: Monthly Crude Oil Production

Unit-wise production details with reasons for shortfall are as under:

1.1        Crude oil production by ONGC during December, 2019 was 1748.63 TMT which is 11.93% lower than the target and 0.71% lower when compared with December, 2018. Cumulative crude oil production by ONGC during April-December, 2019 was 15386.96 TMT which is 4.79% and 3.28% lower than target for the period and production during corresponding period of last year respectively.

Ø  Non realization of production from WO-16 cluster due to unavailability of MOPU.

Ø  ESP issues in wells of NBP field and Ratna R-series.

Ø  Less production from B-127 Cluster due to increase in water cut.

Ø  Increase in water cut in certain wells of Mumbai High, Heera, Neelam & B173A.

Ø  Disruption in field activities in Assam due to protests.

1.2         Crude oil production by OIL during December, 2019 was 207.74 TMT which is 29.52% lower than monthly target and 24.44% lower when compared with December, 2018. Cumulative crude oil production by OIL during April-December, 2019 was 2354.74 TMT which is 7.99% and 6.43% lower than target for the period and production during corresponding period of last year respectively. Major reasons for Disruption in field activities in Assam due to protests.

1.3        Crude oil production by Pvt/JVs during December, 2019 was 694.44 TMT which is marginally higher by 0.20% than the monthly target and 15.94% lower than December, 2018. Cumulative crude oil production by Pvt/JVs during April-December, 2019 was 6633.87 TMT which is 8.04% and 11.70% lower than target for the period and production during corresponding period of last year respectively. Reasons for shortfall in production are as under:

Ø RJ-ON-90/1-MANGLA (CEIL): Delay in making 45 FM-1/4 infill wells on line. Lag in liquidating the inventory of planned workover and production optimization jobs. ESP failure in FM-3 well M-357, M-359 and M-387.

Ø Operational issues in Bhagyam, Aishwarya and ABH fields. (CEIL)

Ø CB-ONN-2005/9 (Mercator): Oil production from Jyoti-1 is stopped. Well closed for long term pressure build up study and could not be put back in production due to non-grant of EC for development campaign.

Natural Gas

Ø   Natural gas production during December, 2019 was 2640.80 MMSCM which is 11.13% lower than the monthly target and 7.87% lower when compared with December, 2018. Cumulative natural gas production during April-December, 2019 was 23850.36 MMSCM which is 6.95% and 3.24% lower than target for the period and production during corresponding period of last year respectively. Unit-wise and state-wise natural gas production is given at Annexure-II. Unit-wise natural gas production for the month of December, 2019 and cumulatively for the period April-December, 2019 vis-à-vis same period of last year has been shown in Table-2 and month-wise in Figure-2.

Table-2: Natural Gas Production (MMSCM)

Oil Company	Target	December (Month)				April-December (Cumulative)
	2019-20 (Apr-Mar)	2019-20		2018-19	% over last year	2019-20		2018-19	% over last year
		Target	Prod.*	Prod.		Target	Prod.*	Prod.
ONGC	25848.00	2260.13	1998.37	2196.99	90.96	19011.12	17918.28	18416.25	97.30
OIL	3309.59	273.53	225.98	232.65	97.13	2533.82	2077.79	2060.79	100.82
PSC Fields	5395.20	437.76	416.44	436.86	95.33	4087.42	3854.29	4173.16	92.36
Total	34552.79	2971.43	2640.80	2866.49	92.13	25632.36	23850.36	24650.21	96.76

Note:  Totals may not tally due to rounding off.                                      *: Provisional

 

Figure-2: Monthly Natural Gas Production

2.1    Natural gas production by ONGC during December, 2019 was 1998.37 MMSCM which is 11.58% lower than target and 9.04% lower when compared with December 2018. Cumulative natural gas production by ONGC during April-December, 2019 was 17918.28 MMSCM which is 5.75% and 2.70% lower than target for the period and production during corresponding period of last year respectively.

Ø  Non-realization of gas production planned from WO16 cluster from Dec’19 in absence of MOPU.

Ø  Less Gas production from Vasistha/S1 wells in EOA due to sand incursion issues.

Ø  Less production due to less gas off take by OTPC, Tripura.

Ø  Disruption in field activities in Assam due to protests.

Ø  Less gas off take by gas consumers.

2.2         Natural gas production by OIL during December, 2019 was 225.98 MMSCM which is 17.38% lower than monthly target and 2.87% lower than December, 2018. Cumulative natural gas production by OIL during April-December, 2019 was 2077.79 MMSCM which is 0.82% higher than the production during the corresponding period of last year but 18% lower than the cumulative target. Major reason for shortfall in production is less gas withdrawal by major customers owing to shutdown of their plants.

2.3        Natural gas production by Pvt/JVs during December, 2019 was 416.44 MMSCM which is 4.87% lower than monthly target and 4.67% higher than December, 2018. Cumulative natural gas production by Pvt/JVs during April-December, 2019 was 3854.29 MMSCM which is 5.70% and 7.64% lower than target for the period and production during corresponding period of last year respectively. Reasons for shortfall in production are as under:

Ø  RJ-ON/6: Production is lower due to less offtake by consumers. Production also lowers due to zone pressure depletions in some wells, water ingress and tubing damage. (FEL)

Ø  Sohagpur West: Dewatering wells gas breakout awaited, slow gas ramp up in pilot wells and scaling in producing wells. (RIL)

.

3. Refinery Production (in terms of crude oil processed)

 

Refinery production during December, 2019 was 20829.85 TMT which is 1.00% higher than the target for the month and 0.96% lower when compared with December, 2018. Cumulative production during April-December, 2019 was 190384.89 TMT which is 0.94% higher than the target for the period but 1.19% lower than production during corresponding period of last year respectively. Unit-wise production is given at Annexure-III. Company-wise production for the month of December, 2019 and cumulatively for the period April-December, 2019 vis-à-vis same period of last year has been shown in Table-3 and month-wise in Figure-3.

Figure 3: Monthly Refinery Production  

 

  

Table 3: Refinery Production (TMT)

Oil Company	Target	December (Month)				April-December (Cumulative)
	2019-20 (Apr-Mar)	2019-20		2018-19	% over last year	2019-20		2018-19	% over last year
		Target	Prod.*	Prod.		Target	Prod.*	Prod.
CPSE	147944.81	12414.54	11662.07	12752.29	91.45	108045.09	107892.32	113137.37	95.36
IOCL	71900.25	6115.68	5363.46	6329.93	84.73	52400.80	52316.44	54464.61	96.06
BPCL	30900.00	2640.00	2753.80	2216.36	124.25	22969.99	23339.76	22754.95	102.57
HPCL	16499.00	1116.00	1246.17	1491.18	83.57	11808.00	12639.35	13842.12	91.31
CPCL	10400.00	930.00	936.78	977.65	95.82	7670.00	7625.26	7805.48	97.69
NRL	2799.80	133.70	0.00	263.51	0.00	2047.60	1759.48	2199.15	80.01
MRPL	15400.00	1475.00	1354.75	1468.35	92.26	11115.00	10146.38	12027.39	84.36
ONGC	45.76	4.16	7.10	5.31	133.84	33.70	65.65	43.67	150.34
JVs	18755.00	1588.00	1827.67	1658.13	110.23	14093.00	14969.09	13069.40	114.54
BORL	7800.00	660.00	717.45	572.90	125.23	5860.00	5821.02	3659.80	159.05
HMEL	10955.00	928.00	1110.23	1085.23	102.30	8233.00	9148.07	9409.61	97.22
Private	88040.52	6621.50	7340.11	6621.50	110.85	66474.38	67523.48	66474.38	101.58
RIL	69145.00	6139.41	5635.15	6139.41	91.79	52654.58	51975.64	52654.58	98.71
EOL	18895.52	482.09	1704.96	482.09	353.66	13819.80	15547.85	13819.80	112.50
TOTAL	254740.32	20624.04	20829.85	21031.92	99.04	188612.47	190384.89	192681.14	98.81

Note: Totals may not tally due to rounding off.                       *: Provisional

               

3.1         CPSE Refineries’ production during December, 2019 was 11662.07 TMT which is 6.06% lower than the target for the month and 8.55% lower when compared with December, 2018. Cumulative production by CPSE refineries during April-December, 2019 was 107892.32 TMT which is 0.14% and 4.64% lower than target for the period and production during corresponding period of last year respectively. Reasons for shortfall of refinery production in some CPSE refineries are as under:

Ø IOCL-Guwahati & Digboi: Lower due to Bandh.

Ø IOCL- Barauni and Panipat: Lower due to high DHDT feed stock.

Ø IOCL- Gujarat: Lower due to high VR (Vacuum Residue) stock.

Ø IOCL- Haldia, Bongaigaon & Paradip: Lower due to deferment of shutdown.

Ø IOCL- Mathura: Lower than due to deferment of BS-VI shutdown.

Ø BPCL- Kochi: Lower due to operational issues.

Ø HPCL- Visakh: Lower due to primary unit shutdown.

Ø NRL- Numaligarh: Lower due to refinery turn around

Ø MRPL- Mangalore: Lower due to ullage constraint.

3.2    Production in JV refineries during December, 2019 was 1827.67 TMT which is 15.09% higher when compared with the production of December, 2019 and 10.23% higher than the target for the month. Cumulative production by JVs refineries during April-December, 2019 was 14969.09 TMT which is 6.22% and 14.54 higher than the target for the period and production during corresponding period of last year.

3.3    Production in private refineries during December, 2019 was 7340.11 TMT which is 10.85% higher than the target as well as corresponding month of last year. Cumulative production by private refineries during April-December, 2019 was 67523.48 TMT which is 1.58% higher than the target as well as corresponding period of last year.

3.4    Refinery-wise details of the capacity utilization and production of petroleum products during the month of December, 2019 and cumulatively for the period April-December, 2019 vis-à-vis April-December, 2018 are given at Annexures – IV and V respectively.

Click here to see Annexure I

Click here to see Annexure II

Click here to see Annexure III

Click here to see Annexure IV

Click here to see Annexure V

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The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has given its approval for the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Republic of India and Federative Republic of Brazil on cooperation in the field of oil and natural gas.

The MoU will enhance cooperation between the two sides in oil and natural gas sector. Under the MoU, both sides will work towards establishing cooperation in the E&P initiatives in Brazil and India, research & development in this sector, explore collaboration in Liquefied Natural Gas projects in Brazil, India and third countries, and also encourage collaboration in oil energy and environmental issues, including energy policies such as energy efficiency, energy research development and expansion of the regional energy infrastructure networks.

The MoU is expected to be signed during the visit of President of Brazil to India later this month.

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In a step that will further strengthen the relations between India and Ghana, Indian Oil has signed a MoU with the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) of Ghana for providing its assistance and technical expertise in the implementation of Ghana’s National LPG Promotion Policy. With India’s emergence as a world leader in provision of clean energy to its citizens by the expansion of its LPG network, Ghana sought assistance from India in its own efforts to promote to safe, clean and environmentally friendly LPG for increased domestic, commercial and industrial usage.

The MoU was exchanged between NPA of Ghana and Indian Oil in the august presence of Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, and H.E Mr. Michael Aaron, High Commissioner of Ghana at New Delhi.

Mr Alhassan SulemanaTampuli, Chief Executive, NPA, Ghana and Mr. L.K.S Chauhan, Chief General Manager (LPG Operations), Indian Oil signed the MoU.

The purpose of this Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is to strengthen cooperation between the Parties in the field of Petroleum in particular LPG by which Indian Oil would support the NPA on the successful implementation of the Re-circulation Model (CRM) of LPG.

In this regard, Indian Oil, the country’s flagship oil marketing company would on behalf of India provide support to the National Petroleum Authority of Ghana in several areas such as development of Health, Safety, Security and Environment (HSSE) Standards, development of Licensing, permit and legal framework, development of economics for LPG bottling plant, pricing structure, and communication strategy. Indian Oil will also assist in areas of infrastructure development for the new LPG Value chain, support for upgrading capacities of institutions along with policy development and review.

The MoU also provides for administrative assistance to Indian Oil in case it decides to participate as a commercial participant in Ghana’s downstream petroleum sector.

The MoU between the two countries symbolizes India’s recognition as leader in providing clean energy access to millions of Indians through the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana successfully implemented by Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas with the support of oil marketing companies like Indian Oil and others.

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In the recent days, Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has taken various initiatives for protection and promotion of Khadi as a brand in India and internationally and are the registered proprietors of over a hundred trademarks registrations including the symbol of ‘Charkha’ in India and other countries like Russia, China, Germany, Australia, UK and Bhutan. These trademark and symbols, however have been misused time and again by private players for material benefits. In an initiative to prevent such misuse any further, for the first time KVIC has taken up the matter with the Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Commerce and Permanent Mission of India at UN, Geneva seeking International Trademark protection of symbol of ‘Charkha’ under the article 6ter of the Paris Convention.

Article 6ter of the Paris Convention for the protection of Industrial property of 1883 (1967 Stockholm Act) protects armorial bearings, flags and other State emblems as well as official signs and hallmarks of the States party to the Paris Convention. The signs published with World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) under this act are prevented from being registered or used as trademarks, across the world, without authorization. Quite noticeably, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has been endorsing Khadi and due to his appeals the sale of Khadi has gone up manifolds.

Speaking about the initiative, Chairman KVIC Shri VK Saxena said, “KVIC is one of those unique institutions in India that links the nation’s past, present and future on its functional plane, through – self-reliance and sustainability. Ever since the pre-independent era, Khadi has been considered as the national symbol for Swadeshi. The word marks “KHADI”, “KUTIR”, “SARVODAYA” and the logo of Khadi India and Charkha are the harbinger of this spirit of Swadeshi, hence, must be protected at all cost”.

Considering historical and national importance of the trademarks, Shri Saxena has written to Commerce Minister Shri Piyush Goyal seeking his intervention so as to expedite the matter pending with the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) which comes under the Ministry of Commerce.

KVIC is fighting cases in several countries for violation of the Khadi Mark Regulations. The regulations issued in 2013 by the Ministry of MSME, empowered KVIC to grant ‘Khadi Mark’ registration and take royalties from any producer using the Khadi Mark. In continuation, KVIC has issued notices against 600 entities in India, including a renowned garment chain and 3 entities in the International market for misusing these symbols and indulging in unfair trade practices in the recent past.

 

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The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has given its approval for the proposal of the Legislative Department for allowing the Election Commission to enter into Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with the Independent High Authority for Elections of Tunisia (ISIE) and the Papua New Guinea Electoral Commission(PNGEC) for elections for cooperation in the field of electoral management and administration.

Impact:

The MOUs would promote bilateral cooperation, aimed at building technical assistance/ capacity support for the Independent High Authority for Elections of Tunisia (ISIE) and the Papua New Guinea Electoral Commission(PNGEC) for elections for cooperation in the field of electoral management and administration, envisaging cooperation in the field of electoral management and administration and providing a leg-up to such bodies in conducting elections in their respective countries. This would also result in bolstering India’s international relations.

Background

The Election Commission has been participating in promoting cooperation in the field of election matters and electoral processes across the world with certain foreign countries and agencies by adopting the mode of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the concerned parties. The Election Commission, a constitutional body, conducts the largest electoral exercise in the world. It is the responsibility of the Election Commission to organise free and fair elections in the country of about 85 crore voters with diverse socio-political and economic backgrounds. In recent years, the role being played by the Election Commission ensures greater participation of people in political affairs. India, today, is considered as the world’s ‘largest’ democratic country. The success of democracy in India has attracted the attention of almost every political system around the world.

In its pursuit of excellence, the Election Commission has been receiving various proposals from foreign electoral bodies for developing bilateral relations in the field of election and matters connected therewith. The Election Commission forwarded a proposal to the Ministry of Law and Justice, Legislative Department relating to signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by it with the Election Commission of Maldives on cooperation in the field of electoral management and administration.

These MoUs contain standard articles/clauses which broadly express promotion of cooperation in the field of electoral management and administration including promotion of exchange of knowledge and experience in the field of organizational and technical development of electoral process; support in exchanging information, institutional strengthening and capacity building, training of personnel, holding regular consultations; etc.

 

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The Department of Justice, Government of India celebrated 1,50,000 registrations for advice on Tele-Law, which is an initiative to provide pre-litigation advice to the needy people, here today. The event was organized by CSC Corporation in association with the Department of Justice.

The workshop was attended by a large number of Para Legal Volunteers and Village Level Entrepreneurs of Common Service Centres (CSCs). It was highlighted in the workshop that Tele-Law provided a platform give pre-litigation advice to the needy and unreached sections of the society. A need was felt to strengthen this programme to combine digital technology with persons having knowledge of law for better functioning.

Speaking on the training programme, the Secretary, Justice, Ministry of Law & Justice, Dr. Alok Srivastava said that the Tele-Law Team has trained 930 Master Trainers who will in turn train about 56 thousand Para Legal Volunteers (PLVs) and Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) all over the country. A better and regular training is needed for PLVs and VLEs for providing a better advice to the people, he added.

The participants were also addressed on the subject of Citizen Duties. It was stressed that one must always remember that we have rights along with duties and we have to perform our duties with highest degree of sincerity.

The Tele-Law initiative was launched on April 20, 2017 with an aim to provide legal advices in the villages through CSCs. A Pilot project started in 1800 CSCs in 11 States in UP, Bihar, North Eastern States and UT of Jammu and Kashmir. This scheme has been expanded to 115 Aspirational Districts in 100 days programme of the Government of India.

A dedicated website on Tele-Law is maintained by the Department of Justice which has been designed with support from CSC eGovernance and has translated in to 22 languages. A Tele-Law mobile application is available for the PLVs to pre-register Tele-Law cases. A Tele-Law Dashboard is also developed with decentralized features for login and registration of cases and view the status of cases added for Panel Lawyers, Para Legal Volunteers etc.

Top 3 transacting VLEs under Tele Law were awarded on this occasion. A Memorandum of Understanding between CSC Academy and Capgemini was exchanged on the occasion. A Quiz programme was organized on the Constitution Day.

The Secretary, Justice, Ministry of Law & Justice, the Addl. Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, MD to CSC Corporation, Senior Officials from Law and IT Ministries were present on the occasion.

 

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BN/BK

The 3^rd Apex Conference of the Smart Cities is being organized on 24^th-25^th January, 2020 at Andhra University Convention Center, Beach Road, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.  The progress of implementation of projects under the Smart Cities Mission has seen tremendous growth.  The value of tendered smart city projects is over Rs. 1,62,000 crores, the value of work orders issued is around Rs. 1,20,000 crores and the value of all completed projects is more than Rs 25,000 crores.

Since, the 1^st Apex Conference, the Mission has seen tremendous progress in the implementation of projects by the Smart Cities. Shri Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs has informed that there has been a growth of 224% in the number of projects tendered, a growth of 300% in the projects grounded and 421% growth in the number of projects completed.

In Rupees Crores
Apex Conference	Date	Tendered	Grounded
1st Apex Conference, Bhopal	7/8 May 2018	50,000	30,000
2nd Apex Conference, New Delhi	26/27 February 2019	1,22,000	75,000
3rd Apex Conference, Visakhapatnam	24/25 January 2020	1,62,000	1,20,000

As implementation of Smart Cities Mission is only possible through a strong coordination between Municipal Administration, State Governments and the Central Government, Principal Secretaries (Urban Development)/State Mission Directors along with Municipal Commissioners/CEOs of Smart Cities, representatives of Bilateral/Multilateral Institutions and other key stakeholders have been invited to attend the Event. The conference will have a large gathering from all over the country participating in the conference.

• State Principal Secretaries (Urban Development)
• State Mission Directors (Smart Cities)
• Municipal Commissioners/CEOs of 100 Smart Cities
• Heads of PMCs engaged in Smart Cities
• Senior Representatives of Multi-Lateral agencies

During the Conference, Smart Cities Awards will be distributed amongst the Smart Cities under 7 urban themes, Innovative Ideas, Round-wise Recognition of Cities and Overall City Award.

The Outcomes of ClimateSmart Cities Assessment Framework, Data Maturity Assessment Framework will also be presented to the participants and presentations on Ease of Living and Municipal Performance Index will also be made.

With regard to the way forward, States & Cities will present key ideas for better implementation of the Mission going forward. The Award-Winning Cities will share their perspectives with regard to “What makes them Best?”, their Best Practices and HR Management and the details of citizen- engagement and communication strategies adopted by them will also be shared with the participants.

On 25^th January, 2020, Site visits will be carried out by CEOs of few Smart Cities to the projects of Vishakhapatnam Smart City and in the Wrap Session, presentations will be made by CEOs of select Smart Cities.

SMART CITIES MISSION IMPACT

1. Development initiatives under the Mission have catalyzed business in several sectors such as ICT solutions, mobility, water and waste management, energy and environment etc.
2. 100 Integrated Command and Control Centres  will augment public safety with 50,000 cameras, of which more than 12,000 linked with 45 ICCCs already installed/operational
3. More than 32,000 km of fibre optic cable laid to improve delivery of services to citizens
4. More than 40,000 cycle trips per day already being generated for enhanced use of bikes/cycles as mode for public transport, promotion of environment-friendly non-motorized transport, and improved last mile connectivity
5. 19,000 KW of solar and 15,000KW of wind energy generation capacity has already been installed resulting in reduced GHG emission and dependence on fossil fuel.
6. Waste Processing Plants with capacity of  nearly 650 TPD has been completed under the Mission
7. More than 700 Smart Classrooms across various Smart Cities have been implemented to provide improved education to students
8. 84,000 metres of Smart Streets completed For improved safety through better walking and crossing facilities for pedestrians
9. More than 100 open air gyms have been installed in various cities across the country to improve the health and fitness of citizens.

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The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has approved amendments/extension/repeal in the following Acts and Regulations dealing with Goods and Services Tax (GST), Value Added Tax (VAT) and State Excise, and for designation of Daman as Headquarter:

 

1. the Central Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 (No.12 of 2017) to be amended as Central Goods and Service Tax (Amendments) Regulation, 2020;
2. the Union Territory Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 (No. 14 of 2017) to be amended as Union Territory Goods and Service Tax (Amendments) Regulation, 2020;
3. the Dadra and Nagar Haveli Value Added Tax Regulation, 2005 (No.2 of 2005) to be amended as Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu Value Added Tax (Amendments) Regulation, 2020;
4. the Daman and Diu Value Added Tax Regulation, 2005 (No.1 of 2005) to be repealed as Daman and Diu Value Added Tax (Repeal) Regulation, 2C20;
5. the Goa, Daman and Diu Excise Duty Act, 1964 (No.5 of 1964) to be amended as Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu Excise Duty (Amendment) Regulation, 2020;
6. the Dadra and Nagar Haveli Excise Duty Regulation, 2012 (No.1 of 2012) to be repealed as Dadra and Nagar Haveli Excise Duty (Repeal) Regulation, 2020;

• vii. Designation of Daman as Headquarter of Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

 

These amendments will lead to “Minimum Government, Maximum Governance” by way of having common taxation authorities: better delivery of services to the citizens by reducing duplication of work and improving administrative efficiency, will help in bringing more uniformity in Laws relating to GST, VAT and STATE EXCISE and it will also help to avoid any legal complications in the levy and collection of GST Tax, VAT, State Excise, including recovery of arrears Moreover, the said amendments not only bring uniformity in taxation laws but also strengthen the system of laws.

 

The U.T. Administration of Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu have taken a big step to realize vision of “Minimum Government, Maximum Governance” for the people of the two UTs, besides saving to government exchequer and ensuring uniformity, stability and consistency in day to day functioning of taxation authorities. This is achieved by making Amendments/extension/repeal in Acts dealing with Goods and Services Tax (GST), Value Added Tax (VAT) and Excise, and by designation of Daman as Headquarters of UT of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu in view of merger of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu on appointed date of 26.01.2020.

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