<!--emo&:cool--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/specool.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='specool.gif' /><!--endemo--> Now, a rickshaw on call!
Praful C. Nagpal
Fazilka, June 18
To check pollution and enhance the beauty of Fazilka town, the Graduates Welfare Association (GWAF) has come up with an idea to put the town on the global map. According to a decision, the town has been linked with the Czech-based World Car Free Network, which already has 100 members. With this decision, each resident of the town will have access to rickshaw on telephone. The scheme will be launched on June 20, 2008.
<b>Trump Jr. Plans $1 Billion Fund for India Property Acquisitions </b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->July 22 (Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump Jr., whose father built a multibillion dollar fortune in real estate, plans to set up a fund of as much as $1 billion to buy property in India, betting on the nation's economic growth.
Trump may create the privately held fund together with investors including an Indian family, he said in a telephone interview from New York yesterday.
``The fund will be for acquisitions of real estate in the high end and across the spectrum,'' said Trump, 30. ``I see a lot of opportunities. We'll start it off relatively small and grow it as we get more familiar with the Indian market.''
New York-based Trump Organization Inc. also plans a residential and hotel project in Mumbai with a local partner to tap the growing wealth of middle- and higher-income Indians. The city is India's biggest trading center for stocks, bonds, commodities, diamonds and gold, and home to some of the country's largest companies including Reliance Industries Ltd. and State Bank of India.
<b>Road to nowhere</b>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>In May 2004, the UPA inherited a booming road sector. Five years down the line progress of highway development has been tardy and international funding agencies like the World Bank are crying foul</b>. Nidhi Sharma analyses what went wrong
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Well Indians had re-elected them now why to cry?
08-17-2009, 06:53 AM (This post was last modified: 01-26-2011, 12:34 PM by Capt M Kumar.)
We have decided on the kind of toilets to be constructed, how water would move out from homes to streets and how it would be taken to village ponds where treatment plants would be installed for it to be used in irrigation?, said Gurmeet Singh. ?We have planned the sewerage and drinking water supply system keeping in mind the population growth in the village over the next 50 years?, said Parshotam Singh, a village nambardar. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2009/20090817/main8.htm
Itââ¬â¢s finally official. A nexus between contractors and Government officials has been operating to deliberately delay highway projects and increase the cost incurred for the National Highway Development Programme (NHDP). And this with the full knowledge of top-level Government officials.
The first official admission of this nexus comes in a statement given by Secretary (Road Transport) Brahm Dutt before the parliamentary standing committee on transport, tourism and culture. The parliamentary panel report has expressed shock over this ââ¬Åcandid admissionââ¬Â.
Pulling up the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) over several delayed projects, the panel stated, ââ¬ÅAs regards corruption and unholy collusion between contractors and authorities, the Secretary was candid enough to accept the operation of such a nexus.ââ¬Â
The Secretary has said that the contractors, engineers and consultants join hands to create disputes. These disputes, in turn, delay the highway projects and push up costs.
Though Minister Kamal Nath has been trying to pin the blame on the model concessionaire agreement (MCA), Dutt told the panel that there was ââ¬Ånothing wrong with the contract, rules or regulationsââ¬Â and that the real problem related to their enforcement. Referring to a blacklist of contractors, he said there was a need to ââ¬Åpursue them and penalise themââ¬Â.
Putting the onus on MPs, the Secretary appealed to the panel members to make a law so that the errant officers and corrupt contractors are punished. The report quotes him, ââ¬Åââ¬Â¦ it is these areas where you, as a member of the standing committee, must come out and pass some law and those fellows should be punished mercilesslyââ¬Â¦ which is not happening.ââ¬Â
He added, ââ¬ÅEven in land acquisition for NHAI projects, directors and contractors join hands and delay projects. The question is how we can improve the system.ââ¬Â
Interestingly, Dutt said he himself was part of the system. The report observes, ââ¬ÅThe Secretary submitted that he was not excluding himself.ââ¬Â
These babus are cogress goons, when NDA was in power they always came out with some scandal, Babus were working as mole but when Congress is in power all are enjoying loot.
[size="5"][color="#FF0000"]Dry taps, untreated sewage and piles of solid waste strewn all around.
This can become a stark reality of our urban landscape by 2030, when Indiaââ¬â¢s urban population will grow from 340 million in 2008 to 590 million ââ¬â 40 per cent of the total population ââ¬â and twice the present population of the United States, predicts a report by McKinsey & Company.
Quote:India, ranked below war-ravaged Ivory Coast and Sri Lanka for the quality of its infrastructure, spent 6.5 percent of its gross domestic product in 2009 on infrastructure, compared with about 11 percent by China, according to an Ernst & Young India report. Failure to lift investment may imperil Prime Minister Manmohan Singhââ¬â¢s target of boosting economic growth to 10 percent needed to pull 828 million people living on less than $2 per day out of poverty.
The fund is a ââ¬Ågood start but it wonââ¬â¢t be enough,ââ¬Â said Prasanna Ananthasubramaniam, chief economist at ICICI Securities Primary Dealership Ltd. in Mumbai. ââ¬ÅOne fund cannot take all the risks of infrastructure projects.ââ¬Â
Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the nationââ¬â¢s Planning Commission, said in a report in March that India may need as much as $1 trillion in investment between 2012 and 2017.
The proposed fund will sell bonds and lend to projects, he said yesterday. India is ranked 89 out of 133 nations for its infrastructure, according to the World Economic Forumââ¬â¢s Global Competitiveness Index.
Quote:India produces about 10 percent less electricity than it needs. The roads, which account for 65 percent of Indiaââ¬â¢s cargo, are plagued by single lanes and irregular surfaces, slowing trucks to an average speed of about 20 kilometers per hour, said a 2009 study by Transport Corp. of India and the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.
The average time taken by ships to unload and load at Indian ports is almost 96 hours, about 10 times longer than in Hong Kong, the government said in its latest annual economic survey.
[quote name='Capt M Kumar' date='23 April 2010 - 05:16 AM' timestamp='1271979512' post='106052']
[size="5"][color="#FF0000"]Dry taps, untreated sewage and piles of solid waste strewn all around.
This can become a stark reality of our urban landscape by 2030, when Indiaââ¬â¢s urban population will grow from 340 million in 2008 to 590 million ââ¬â 40 per cent of the total population ââ¬â and twice the present population of the United States, predicts a report by McKinsey & Company.
[/quote] It has planned to set up two new cities in Maharashtra, and one each in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, the official said.
"The Government is planning to spend around Rs 2,500-crore for each city over the next five-years, which will be developed on around 540-square kilometres of area in six states. The cities will be developed with cutting-edge technology to provide all the necessary infrastructure," Joint Secretary (Industrial Policy and Promotion) of Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Talleen Kumar, told reporters on the sidelines of the CII Partnership Summit.
This is a part of the Government''s target to develop 24 cities over the next 30-years. All these cities will be along the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial belt, he said. http://news.oneindia.in/2011/01/26/govtt...d0126.html
[url="http://sarvesamachar.com/click_frameset.php?ref_url=%2Findex.php%3F&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnarendramodi.in%2Fnews%2Fnews_detail%2F1285"]Shri Narendra Modi launches ââ¬ËUrban Health Missionââ¬â¢ for 42% of Gujarat living in towns, to set up solid waste management and wastewater treatment plants[/url]
Quote:The two projects are Rs.25-crore for Jamnagar underground sewer project and Rs.30-crore for Vajpayee urban development project
He said that Gujarat has urged the Government of India and Planning Commission to treat the unique project as a model for the entire country, but added that Gujarat would go ahead with the project, without waiting for the Centre's nod.
Mr. Modi said Rs.7,000-crore have been allocated for infrastructure development as part of Gujarat's Golden Jubilee Urban Development Programme this year. He listed 108 Emergency Service, ââ¬ËMission Mangalam' as some of the other projects taken up in the right earnest.
DEHRADUN: A 34-year-old ascetic, Swami Nigamananda , died here after fasting for two and a half months to save the river Ganga from pollution, yoga guru Baba Ramdev said Tuesday.
Nigamananda died here Monday at the same hospital where Ramdev was being treated until his discharge Tuesday.
"The saint was fasting for the Ganga since the last many days. He laid down his life for the Ganga. I pay my tribute to Swami Nigamananda," Ramdev told reporters.
