by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Corporate, Corporate Governance, Economy, Entrepreneurship, Events, Investing, Markets, News, Politics, Startup Basics
Lucknow : A robot created by a group of students engaged in a startup will welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the inaugural session of the “Investors Meet” here on Wednesday, an official said on Tuesday.
The Special Protection Group (SPG) has given clearance for the proposal mooted by the organisers of the mega event. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has already seen a presentation of the robot, an official said.
The robot will greet the Prime Minister and other dignitaries by saying “Athithi Devo Bhava” (guests are gods) and by gifting them a rose bud. The robot can speak English and Hindi and has been created by an engineer of Lucknow Milind Raj and his team. The robot identifies persons through their retina scan and can be used in emergencies such as fires, the makers informed.
It can be operated both manually and automatically. Prime Minister Modi will arrive at the Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport at Amausi in a special Indian Air Force (IAF) plane, after which his cavalcade will drive straight to the Indira Gandhi Pratishthan in Gomtinagar where he will first view an exhibition and then address investors, industrialists, officials, ministers and other lawmakers.
He is later scheduled to have tea with select industrialists like Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani and others.
Security has been beefed up in the state capital ahead of the Prime Minister’s visit. More than two dozen envoys from over a dozen countries will also take part in the mega two-day event, which is aimed at attracting investment for the state.
President Ram Nath Kovind will be attending the valedictory session on Thursday.
More than two dozen chartered flights are scheduled to land at the airport and over 100 luxury cars including a fleet of Mercedes cars have been booked by the state government for the VIP guests.
All hotels are chock-a-block with investors and Chief Minister Adityanath is hosting a dinner for some 155 top CEOs at his 5-Kalidas Marg official residence on Tuesday night.
More than 900 MoUs have been signed between investors and the state government in various sectors like skill development, IT, food processing and agro-industries, among others, officials said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, News, Politics
Raigad (Maharashtra) : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday laid the foundation stone of the Rs 16,000-crore Navi Mumbai International Airport and inaugurated the country’s largest container terminal at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, constructed at a cost of Rs 4,719 crore here.
He performed the ground-breaking ceremony and the inauguration electronically in the presence of Maharashtra Governor C.V. Rao, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari, Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Ramdas Athawale and state ministers.
The Navi Mumbai International Airport will be the second international aviation hub for the financial capital, presently served by the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport that has almost reached saturation point.
The new airport will be constructed by GVK Power and Infrastructure Ltd (GVKPIL) as per a concession agreement signed on January 8, with the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), the nodal authority of Maharashtra to oversee the project implementation.
The agreement has created a special purpose vehicle – Navi Mumbai International Airport Pvt. Ltd (NMIAL), in which the GVKPIL, through its subsidiary, Mumbai International Pvt Ltd, holds 74 percent equity, while the rest is held by CIDCO.
The initial concession period is 30 years, from the appointed date, which is extendable by another 10 years, for the project in which GVKPIL was declared the successful bidder in February 2017.
The NMIAL, a greenfield airport, will be constructed in the PPP mode on 1,160 hectares on the mainland in Navi Mumbai, across the Mumbai harbour, with the advantage of the upcoming Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, a Special Economic Zone and other major infrastructure developments coming up.
The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust’s Fourth Container Terminal (FCT)’s Phase I in this Maharashtra district has been completed in a record time at a cost of Rs 4,719 crore and is expected to boost container trade and logistics in a big way.
In October 2015, Modi had laid the foundation stone for this terminal which will double JNPT’s current container handling capacity.
The FCT will add capacity of 24 lakh containers per annum in the first phase and after completion of the second phase in 2022, the capacity will be quadrupled to a whopping 100 lakh containers per year.
Gadkari said the FCT was developed on Design, Build, Fund, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis for a concession period of 30 years with an estimated investment of Rs 7,915 crore for both the phases.
The terminal will be able to dock mother vessels, handle the biggest container ships from a quay length of one km, handle three container ships simultaneously with sufficient yard space, and cranes which can reach 22 rows wide or more.
The FCT will be linked to the dedicated road access and a rail freight corridor and will receive around 350 containers per rake besides provision for storing 1,600 refrigerated (reefer) containers for perishables, agriculture and horticulture produce.
The commencement of operations at FCT will offer immense opportunities for the EXIM community so that trade flourishes.
The rail facilities will be the largest in India with the only on-dock Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) compliant facility in the country, capable of handling 1.5-km long, 360 Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (TEU) container trains on completion of the DFC, said Gadkari.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, News, Politics
New Delhi : India and Iran on Saturday pledged to stop the forces of terrorism and extremism, delinking it from religion and agreed that there should be an end to terror sanctuaries even as the two countries broad-based their relationship by signing nine agreements, including one on connectivity relating to the strategic Chabahar port.
Reflecting the deepening of ties between the two countries, visiting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who held one-on-one and delegation-level talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said energy and transportation were two great potentials for building strategic cooperation between Iran and India.
In his remarks at a joint press conference with his guest, Modi spoke of the Sufi links between the two countries and the determination to tackle terror.
“People of both India and Iran believe in peace and tolerance drawing from the values of Sufi philosophy. Taking into account our mutual benefits, we are both committed to stop the forces of terrorism, extremism, illegal drug trafficking, cyber crime and other international crimes,” Modi said.
Rouhani described terrorism as a problem not only for the entire region but for the whole world saying: “We must fight the roots of terrorism which are mainly intellectual and cultural stemming from promoting extremist, violent ideas and we are ready to cooperate with friendly countries, including India, in this field.”
He said relations between India and Iran were “not detrimental to any country and there are vast opportunities and potentials to deepen ties between the two countries that must be taken the best advantage of to contribute to a better future for the two nations and the region”.
A joint statement issued after the talks said the two leaders welcomed the growing interaction between their National Security Councils and agreed to enhance regular and institutionalised consultations between them and others concerned on terrorism, security and related issues such as organised crime, money-laundering, drug trafficking and cyber crime.
According to Deepak Mittal, Joint Secretary (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran), the two sides shared their concern over terrorism and agreed that this global menace cannot be linked to any religion.
“The two sides discussed both the regional and international situation,” Mittal said while briefing the media after the talks.
“There was a unanimity between both sides that terrorism needs to be condemned and there should be an end to sanctuaries for terrorism,” he said.
Modi congratulated Rouhani for his leadership in the development of the “golden gateway” of Chabahar port in Iran that has boosted connectivity to landlocked Afghanistan and Central Asian countries.
Rouhani said Chabahar port, as a bridge connecting India to Afghanistan, Central Asia and Eastern Europe can further strengthen historical ties between the two countries and the entire region.
“Transit ties between the two countries will create multilateral and regional potentials with the countries of the region and we are ready to have trilateral and multilateral agreements to turn the transit route from Chabahar into a strategic route for regional relations,” he said.
Stressing that Iran can supply India’s energy needs within the framework of long-term strategic contracts, the Iranian President said: “These long-term contracts in the fields of energy and transportation will make the two countries strategic and trustful partners.”
During Modi’s visit to Tehran in 2016, India, Iran and Afghanistan signed a trilateral agreement to jointly develop the Chabahar port. The first phase of the port became operational in December last when the first consignment of wheat from India to Afghanistan was sent through it, bypassing Pakistan.
Among the agreements signed on Saturday, one was a lease contract between Port and Maritime Organisation (PMO), Iran and India Ports Global Limited (IPGL) which envisages IPGL taking over the operations of a part of the area of the multipurpose and container terminal for a period of 18 months.
Modi assured India’s support for the development of the Chabahar-Zahedan railway line to harness the full potential of the Chabahar port.
Apart from the one on connectivity, the other agreements signed included double taxation avoidance, an instrument of ratification that that brings into effect the extradition agreement that the two sides had signed in 2008 and cooperation in the areas of health, traditional systems of medicine and agriculture and allied sectors and establishment of an expert group on trade remedy measures.
In his address, Modi said that both India and Iran want to see their close neighbour Afghanistan as a “peaceful, secure, stable, prosperous and pluralistic country”.
“We want to see our region and the world free of terrorism,” he said.
He also said that both sides wanted to increase cooperation in the areas of economy, connectivity and energy while strengthening the age old cultural ties.
According to Mittal, the two sides discussed taking energy cooperation beyond the buyer-seller relationship.
Stating that a number of issues in this connection were discussed and some decisions taken, the Prime Minister said: “Whether it be tax or investment, effective banking channels or cooperation between trade bodies, we have taken several significant steps for the future.”
The agreement on avoidance of double taxation aims at promoting flow of investment and services between the two countries.
Modi said that the talks also focused on people-to-people exchange, while noting that this continues between the students and intellectuals of the two countries.
“We also discussed solutions to the problems faced by fishermen and seafarers,” he said
“We discussed cooperation in new areas like infrastructure, health, traditional medicine, agriculture, labour, entrepreneurship and communication.”
Modi and Rouhani also released a joint postage stamp depicting the Kandla port in India and the Chabahar port.
Rouhani, who arrived here on Friday evening from Hyderabad, was a accorded a ceremonial welcome at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. This is the first presidential visit from Iran to India in 10 years.
Later, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj also called on the visiting dignitary.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Amulya Ganguli,
For the Bharatiya Janata Party’s supporters, the growing belief that the party is no longer as favourably placed as before must be both bewildering and disheartening.
They must be wondering what could have gone wrong when the BJP was looking forward to not only a comfortable victory in 2019 but was also planning to celebrate the 75th year of India’s independence in 2022.
The talk of a “New India” under the BJP’s near-permanent control was in the air with both Nitish Kumar and Omar Abdullah from two opposite sides of the political spectrum saying that Narendra Modi faced no challenge.
Yet, the scene has changed. What is more, it has happened so over a rather short period of time. Among the reasons for it may be the BJP’s electoral setbacks in, first, the Chitrakoot assembly byelection in Madhya Pradesh in November last year, the near-defeat it faced in the Gujarat assembly polls in the following month and finally the huge margins by which it recently lost three byelections in Rajasthan.
Before these contests, the successes of the Congress’s student wing in the Delhi University and of a leftist union in the Jawaharlal Nehru University student union elections over the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the saffron brotherhood’s student wing, were significant pointers to the emerging trends.
The new scenario has now led to conjectures about a fall in the BJP’s number of Lok Sabha seats to 200/220 from the present 282 in a House of 545. Since these figures have been mentioned by a saffron scribe, it is obvious that assessments on these lines are currently on in the BJP. Another scribe has identified the absence of effective speakers other than Modi as one of the factors behind the BJP’s slide in popularity.
Perhaps one of the first to say openly that the Modi magic was fading was a Shiv Sena spokesperson, who also noted the change in Rahul Gandhi’s “body language” and his transformation into a credible leader. Not long after, the Sena decided not to align with the BJP in 2019.
The BJP’s old ally is not the only party to begin thinking of greener pastures. The Telugu Desam Party, too, has expressed its displeasure over the “neglect” of Andhra Pradesh in the Union budget. To forestall a rupture, the BJP has offered the Shiv Sena 144 seats in Maharashtra in an assembly of 288 seats, but the generous gesture is more indicative of the BJP’s nervousness than of magnanimity.
So, what went wrong for a party which was riding high during the first three years of its tenure?
First and foremost reason is its failure to usher in the promised “achhe din” or better days because of a sluggish economy. The scene might have been better but for the twin blows of demonetisation, which dealt a blow to small businesses, and the shambolic rolling out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which also unsettled the traders and businessmen.
The second reason is the widespread rural distress which eroded the BJP’s influence in Gujarat. As a party essentially of urban lower middle class areas, the BJP’s connection with the countryside has never been very strong. In its Jan Sangh days, the party once even forgot to adopt a resolution on agriculture till the lapse was noticed at the last minute.
Modi is now said to have sought the advice of farming experts to reach out to the cultivators. But the move is unlikely to pay immediate political dividends.
To compound the BJP’s problems, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), the Sangh Parivar’s labour wing, has raised the red flag over the “disappointing” Union budget.
Another explanation for the BJP’s woes is undoubtedly the inability to control the saffron goons, who have been running amok to impose their diktats on diet, inter-faith romance and film scripts, among other things.
The rampages of the cow vigilantes have hit the meat and leather industries and resulted in ageing cows being let loose by their owners to roam the countryside and city streets to forage on their own. Hence the proposal to impose a fine on the “guilty” owners.
The result is the prevalence of an atmosphere of intolerance of the kind which made a section of the intelligentsia return the awards which they had once won in protest against the deteriorating state of affairs in the country.
Perhaps the BJP’s only solace at the moment is that its opponents haven’t been able to get their act together. Moreover, the fissures in their ranks are palpable with a rift in the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) over whether to align with the Congress in an anti-BJP front, and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) teaming up with the Janata Dal (Secular) in Karnataka on the eve of the assembly elections.
There are also said to be reservations among the senior opposition leaders about accepting Rahul Gandhi as the leader of an alliance.
Karnataka will be the next big electoral battle for the BJP. If it can dislodge the ruling Congress in the state, it will be able to brush aside the party’s setbacks in Gujarat and Rajasthan. Otherwise, the road to 2019 will seem steeper.
(Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at amulyaganguli@gmail.com)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Frank F. Islam,
For the last half of the 20th century, the United States was the world’s beacon for democracy and economic development and India was a laggard. These roles are reversing as the end of the second decade of the 21st century approaches.
India is becoming a beacon and the US is becoming a flashlight. In large part, this is a consequence of leadership.
India has a leader in Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is pursuing the future. The US has a leader in Donald Trump who is pursuing the past. President Trump is emphasising individualism and isolationism. Prime Minister Modi is stressing engagement and expansionism.
Freedom House, in its annual report titled “Freedom in the World 2018” released in January, noted that “A long list of troubling developments contributed to the global decline of democracy, but perhaps most striking was the accelerating withdrawal of the United States from its historical commitment to promoting and supporting democracy.”
The report’s aggregate Freedom Score rating (aggregate score) for the US in 2017 was 86 out of 100 points. Its aggregate score for India was 77. This shows that, overall, on the dimensions being measured, the US scores higher. But its score has dropped substantially from 94 in 2008.
Today the majority of the countries that rate 90 and above on their aggregate scores are older and smaller. They do not have the size or stature to assume the international democratic leadership mantle if America under the Trump Administration relinquishes it.
India does. In the last part of 2017, as Prime Minister Modi called for more democratic processes and participation in India’s political parties, it appears that he may encourage the country to step forward to take on that obligation.
Time will tell how this plays out. What is certain, at this point, based upon Modi’s opening address at the Davos Word Economic Forum on January 23, is that the Prime Minister is using India’s democracy as a selling point and putting the country centre stage in terms of its own economic growth and promotion of international cooperation.
In his Davos remarks, Modi stressed that India is the “largest democracy on planet Earth” and provided a litany of the enormous opportunities for companies to invest in “inclusive economic development”. He also struck a strong free-trade, globalisation note while calling for international unity to address the issues of climate change, terrorism and protectionism.
Modi didn’t directly say that India is open for business. But his message, throughout his comments, was that it is.
Trump, on the other hand, in his closing address at Davos, stated explicitly that “America is open for business…” But the implicit message, throughout his comments, was that it is not.
At various points during his speech, Trump asserted: “As President, I will always put America first…”; “The United States will no longer turn a blind eye to unfair economic practices…”; “My administration is proud to have led historic efforts… to de-nuke the Korean peninsula”.
According to press reports, Trump’s speech was fairly well received while he stayed on script. Trump was, however, booed when he answered a question after concluding his prepared remarks by declaring, “…it wasn’t until I became a politician that I realised how nasty, how mean, how vicious and how fake the press can be.”
Therein lies the rub. Even in a setting where President Trump was trying to present his more cooperative side, his inherent combative nature and self-centred perspective came though. By contrast, Prime Minister Modi was collaborative and ecumenical in his presentation of self and India. This was most evident when he concluded his speech by observing:
“If you want wealth with wellness, work in India; if you want peace with prosperity, live in India; if you want health with whole life, be in India. And our promise is that your agenda will be part of our destiny. We both will have a shared and successful future.”
To sum up: Trump’s nationalistic communication to the world at Davos was “My way or no highway.” Modi’s was “Our way is the skyway.”
America’s retrenchment under Trump leaves a leadership vacuum in the world. India under Modi appears poised to fill that vacuum.
What stands out and is differentiating about Modi is his espousing a positive and constructive agenda in terms of world involvement. There is no assurance exactly where India will conclude its journey to world leadership. It can however be stated unequivocally near the beginning of 2018 that India is on the right trajectory and climbing upward.
It can be stated with equal certainty that the US is not. It is on a glide path headed downward. This is true because those who live in the past and retreat from the playing field are restricting their future.
(Frank F. Islam is an entrepreneur, civic and thought leader based in Washington, DC. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at ffislam@verizon.net)
