Japan commits Yen 2,606 million for Dedicated Freight Corridor Project (Phase-I)

Press Information Bureau Government of India ****** Vice President addresses Second International Conference on "Terrorism – National and International"   New Delhi : October 27, 2009   The Vice President of India Shri M. Hamid Ansari has said that it is  important to remember that those advocating extremist, fundamentalist and terrorist causes constitute a tiny minority.  They neither have the religious nor political mandate for their abhorrent actions and ideologies. Delivering inaugural address at the "Second International Conference titled "Terrorism – National and International" organized by Jama Masjid United Forum here today, he said that a majority of humanity is too poor and is focused on trying to survive. Their vulnerability lies in their poverty; it is this that provides an opportunity to peddlers of extremism. This opportunity gets fructified only because those tasked with political governance and religious and moral leadership have failed.    He said that the pedigree of terrorism in modern times can be traced to the policies of the colonialists. The label of 'terrorist' was liberally used by the British against Indians, Burmese and Malays and by the French against the Algerians. More or less every movement in the modern era had been labeled 'terrorist' by different parties – whether it was the Jewish Underground in Mandate Palestine, the ANC in South Africa or various Palestinian groups.   The Vice President expressed his concern that it is not thus of recent origin but globalization and technology has now made it trans-national in reach and devastating in its impact. It has surfaced in most parts of the world and is not country, region or community specific. It has been resorted to by the oppressed as well as the oppressors. It is disruptive of normal life and its principal targets are innocent bystanders. For this reason alone, it is cowardly, unethical and immoral. It cannot be, and has not been, condoned in any belief system and yet at different points of time, adherents of various religions have been labeled as terrorists. Those trying to locate the origin of terrorism in Islam or in any other faith display ignorance of history or downright prejudice.   Following is the text of the Vice President's inaugural address :   "It gives me great pleasure to inaugurate the Second International Conference on Terrorism organized by the Jama Masjid United Forum.   The Forum's effort to promote inter-faith understanding and confront national challenges and social evils through its awareness programmes is commendable. The Resolution adopted by the first conference last year was significant in urging that "all methods of non-violence should … be exhausted to change the psyche of a terrorist." It condemned "all acts of racial profiling and abuse of basic human rights" and urged that acts of terrorism, or of individual terrorists, should not be categorised "knowingly or unknowingly" in community terms.   Terrorism is understood to be any act "intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants with the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a government or an international organization to do or abstain from doing any act".    The pedigree of terrorism in modern times can be traced to the policies of the colonialists. The label of 'terrorist' was liberally used by the British against Indians, Burmese and Malays and by the French against the Algerians. More or less every movement in the modern era had been labeled 'terrorist' by different parties – whether it was the Jewish Underground in Mandate Palestine, the ANC in South Africa or various Palestinian groups.   It is not thus of recent origin but globalization and technology has now made it trans-national in reach and devastating in its impact. It has surfaced in most parts of the world and is not country, region or community specific. It has been resorted to by the oppressed as well as the oppressors. It is disruptive of normal life and its principal targets are innocent bystanders.   For this reason alone, it is cowardly, unethical and immoral. It cannot be, and has not been, condoned in any belief system and yet at different points of time, adherents of various religions have been labeled as terrorists. Those trying to locate the origin of terrorism in Islam or in any other faith display ignorance of history or downright prejudice.   The human and political context of the phenomenon nevertheless needs to be explored. The religious commandments of right and wrong have been supplemented in the modern era with precepts and instruments of international and national law and the elements of what constitute the inalienable rights of humans, irrespective of nationality, race, religion or class. The steps taken so far by individual states and the international community are essentially preventive or punitive, aimed at dismantling the infrastructure of terrorism, and do not deal sufficiently with the mental orientation that leads to terrorist acts. The latter emanate from a radicalization of the mind propelled by perceived grievances and sought to be anchored on ideology or faith. Combating terrorism thus becomes a sociological, psychological and political effort as much as a security one; the corrective effort on each of these needs to begin simultaneously rather than sequentially.   No human society has attained perfection. Shortcomings and grievances do exist, sometimes in aggravated forms that outrage human sensibility. The allure of a response through "resistance" and "revolution" that political extremists and religious fundamentalists peddle in our times has been facilitated by mobility and communications. The call for extremism and resort to mindless violence is an easier alternative to political struggle and the painstaking path of empowering common people through education and by patiently and peacefully mobilizing them for their chosen cause. This is particularly so in open societies where correctives can be sought through peaceful and democratic means.   By the same logic, societies must address grievances in a timely manner and not seek to avoid them on specious considerations of law, procedures or traditions. The solution lies in according equality of status and opportunity and socio-economic and political justice to all through a system of democratic and responsible governance. Laws must be equitable and must be applied fairly.     It is also important to remember that those advocating extremist, fundamentalist and terrorist causes constitute a tiny minority.  They neither have the religious nor political mandate for their abhorrent actions and ideologies. A majority of humanity is too poor and is focused on trying to survive. Their vulnerability lies in their poverty; it is this that provides an opportunity to peddlers of extremism. This opportunity gets fructified only because those tasked with political governance and religious and moral leadership have failed.    Initiatives such as this Conference by the Jama Masjid United Forum would contribute to better understanding of the phenomenon of terrorism and means of tackling it, both nationally and internationally.   I thank Syed Yahya Bukhari saheb for inviting me today. I wish the deliberations of this Conference all success." ****** SK/RS/spandey         Press Information Bureau Government of India ****** MHA advises Indian pilgrims to avoid visiting Pakistan in view of security situation there   New Delhi : October 27, 2009   MHA has advised Indian pilgrims to avoid visiting Pakistan in view of deteriorating security situation there. In an advisory, MHA has said that the Government of India is of the view that it is not advisable for the Indian pilgrims to visit Pakistan in the prevailing situation when frequent terrorist attacks are taking place in Punjab province of Pakistan, where all Gurudwaras are situated. Accordingly, the Government advises all Indian citizens to avoid undertaking any visit to Pakistan for this purpose, till the security situation in Pakistan improves.   RS/KS  /spandey Press Information Bureau Government of India ****** Japan commits Yen 2,606 million for Dedicated Freight Corridor Project (Phase-I)   New Delhi : October 27, 2009   Government of Japan has committed an amount of Yen 2,606 million (Rs.130 crores at current exchange rate) for the Engineering Services Loan under Dedicated Freight Corridor Project (Phase-I). The objective of the project is to cope with the increase of freight transport demand in India by constructing new dedicated freight railway system, thereby promoting comprehensive regional economic development along the freight corridor, through improvement and modernization of inter-modal logistic system handling considerable freight. The Notes to this effect were exchanged between Shri Kumar Sanjay Krishna, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Mr. Hideaki Domichi, Ambassador of Japan to India, here today.   India and Japan have had a long and fruitful history of bilateral development cooperation since 1958. In the last few years relations between India and Japan have steadily progressed based on India-Japan Global Partnership. The visits of the Indian Prime Minister to Japan in 2006 and 2008 and the visit of Japanese Prime Minister to India in 2007 have further strengthened the India-Japan Global Partnership by adding greater substance to the bilateral relations based on India-Japan Global Partnership.   BSC/GN-359/09  /spandey       Press Information Bureau Government of India ****** State Industry Secretaries meeting convened on 30th Oct TO DELIBERATE ON WAYS TO ACCELERATE INDUSTRIAL INVESTMENT   New Delhi : October 27, 2009   Industrialization is considered to be the prime engine of economic growth due to its significant role in value addition and national capacity building. While India has now become one of the fastest growing economies in the world, it does not rank so favourably in terms of assessments regarding ease of doing business. To the extent we are able to improve the business environment; we would attract greater investment, generate more employment and achieve higher growth rates.   Since there are several areas of industrial development which fall within the purview of the State Governments, the Dept. of Industrial Policy and Promotion has been conducting meetings from time to time with the States. A number of valuable suggestions for promoting industrial growth emerged from these discussions. These meetings were also followed up with a detailed study of 17 Indian cities with respect to licensing and clearances required for starting and operating a business in India (Doing Business in India 2009), and the launch of the eBiz project to create a one-stop portal for offering investment related services.   To build upon the earlier discussions and initiatives, and to accelerate the process of industrial reforms in India further, a conference of State Industry Secretaries is proposed to be held on 30th October, 2009, in New Delhi. The meeting is being convened in the backdrop of a recently commissioned study by the World Bank on 'Doing Business (DB) in India' comparing major Indian cities in terms of ease of starting and operating businesses. The study shows that while overall there is a need to simplify and reduce our regulatory procedures, there are a number of best practices developed by different states which can be replicated without much difficulty and without significant allocation of resources. According to the study, if each state/city were to adopt the best practices available within the country, India's rank would improve by as much as 55 positions in the global ranking. This would have a significant impact on the global perception of India as an investment destination.   RJ/spandey       Press Information Bureau Government of India ****** ICT Ministers meet for speeding-up delivery of e-Services gets underway   New Delhi : October 27, 2009   Over 55,000 Common Service Centres (CSCs) of the 1, 00,000 planned, have been rolled out by various State Governments across the country, under National e-Governance Plan (NeGP). Department of Information Technology (DIT) has prepared a plan to position additional 1, 50,000 CSCs to cover all Panchayats bringing the total number to 2,50,000. This was stated by Shri A. Raja, the Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology while addressing a conference of ICT Ministers here today. The Minister said these CSCs will deliver services under Bharat Nirman and provide support to other flagship programmes such as National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and National Rural Health Mission etc.   Currently more than 100 public services are available online including services pertaining to registration and filing of returns by corporations under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, e-filing of Income Tax returns as well as refunds by Department of Income Tax, e-payment of Direct and Indirect Taxes through 28 National Banks, e-Services for Pensioners through Pensioners' portal. In addition to these national services, several states have computerized land records to deliver computerized Record of Rights (ROR), registration of property and conversion of paper based driving licenses to Smart Cards. These have brought considerable relief to the common man especially those who reside in rural underserved areas.   Mr. Raja said, with setting up of CSCs and solving the last mile connectivity hurdle, common man has also to be empowered to reap the benefits. In order to make the access and use of technology and technology enabled services pervasive, the Government has brought out a GNU/ Linux localised desktop distribution, titled Bharat Operating System Solutions (BOSS), targeting to Indian requirements with Indian language support and is expected to meet the various needs of e-Governance and e-Education.   In addition to this, both the industry and the Government need to work closely and the participation of industry in this endeavour is necessary to ensure speedy implementation. To offer industry an opportunity to participate in the delivery of public services, the necessary legal framework has already been enabled. The Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008 effectively enables public-private partnership to execute projects in the area of e-Governance quickly and effectively. As a result manifold increase in the interest as well as implementation of e-Governance projects by the industry has been witnessed. MCA21, Passport and CSCs are shining examples of participation by the Industry in the delivery of Public Services.   Speaking on the occasion Shri Sachin Pilot, MoS, C&IT called for taking necessary steps to intensify the pace of implementation of NeGP. Referring to challenges related to CSCs and connectivity issue, he said the task of the DIT is to provide broadband access to all CSCs. As there is a direct connection between the broadband connectivity and growth digital inclusion of rural areas will greatly contribute to economy, he added..   Earlier, the Secretary, DIT, Shri R. Chandrashekhar, said that we are at a very important thresh hold of this exciting journey and have to move fast from creating infrastructure to actually delivering the services so that the citizens can experience the benefit.   GG/AT/PB  /spandey       Press Information Bureau Government of India ****** Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008 comes into force   New Delhi : October 27, 2009   The Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008 has come into force today. The Rules pertaining to section 52 (Salary, Allowances and Other Terms and Conditions of Service of Chairperson and Members), section 54 (Procedure for Investigation of Misbehaviour or Incapacity of Chairperson and Members), section 69 (Procedure and Safeguards for Interception, Monitoring and Decryption of Information), section 69A (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Access of Information by Public), section 69B (Procedure and safeguard for Monitoring and Collecting Traffic Data or Information) and notification under section 70B for appointment of the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team have also been notified.   The Information Technology Act was enacted in the year 2000 with a view to give a fillip to the growth of electronic based transactions, to provide legal recognition for e-commerce and e-transactions, to facilitate e-governance, to prevent computer based crimes and ensure security practices and procedures in the context of widest possible use of information technology worldwide.   With proliferation of information technology enabled services such as e-governance, e-commerce and e-transactions; data security, data privacy and implementation of security practices and procedures relating to these applications of electronic communications have assumed greater importance and they required harmonization with the provisions of the Information Technology Act. Further, protection of Critical Information Infrastructure is pivotal to national security, economy, public health and safety, thus it had become necessary to declare such infrastructure as protected system, so as to restrict unauthorised access.   Further, a rapid increase in the use of computer and Internet has given rise to new forms of crimes like, sending offensive emails and multimedia messages, child pornography, cyber terrorism, publishing sexually explicit materials in electronic form, video voyeurism, breach of confidentiality and leakage of data by intermediary, e-commerce frauds like cheating by personation - commonly known as phishing, identity theft, frauds on online auction sites, etc. So, penal provisions were required to be included in the Information Technology Act, 2000. Also, the Act needed to be technology-neutral to provide for alternative technology of electronic signature for bringing harmonization with Model Law on Electronic Signatures adopted by United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL)   Keeping in view the above, Government had introduced the Information Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2006 in the Lok Sabha on 15th December 2006. Both Houses of Parliament passed the Bill on 23rd December 2008. Subsequently the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008 received the assent of President on 5th February 2009 and was notified in the Gazette of India.   GG/AT/BS  /spandey               Press Information Bureau Government of India ****** CWC presents dividend cheque to Shri Sharad Pawar   CWC ACHIEVES IMPRESSIVE PERFORMANCE   New Delhi : October 27, 2009   The Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) presented a cheque of Rs. 11.22 crore as dividend for the year 2008-09 to Shri Sharad Pawar, Minister of Agriculture, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution here today. The cheque was presented by the Managing Director, Shri B.B. Pattanaik.   Despite economic slow down, the CWC achieved yet another record turnover of Rs. 849.25 crore during 2008-09 as against Rs. 776.23 crore during last year thus posting a growth of 9.41%. This high performance could be achieved due to increase in storage capacity by about 6.5 lakh MT and substantial increase in capacity utilization to 82% as against 73% of the previous year. This happened mainly on account of increase in storage of foodgrains and cotton procured by FCI and CCI and NAFED. Besides, handling of containers, revenue earned out of container rail transport operations and pest control activities also registered growth. Keeping in view the excellent performance during the year, CWC declared a dividend of 30% second time in a row.   The CWC is also exploring several new avenues in the fields of warehouse receipt financing and warehousing and logistics consultancy. It also intends to participate in the mega Food Park and national horticulture mission schemes and undertake development of cold chain infrastructure and terminal markets.   *******   MP:SB:CP:dividend (cwc)27.10.2009  /spandey                             Press Information Bureau Government of India ****** Mineral production during August 2009   New Delhi : October 27, 2009   The mineral production from mining and quarrying sector in August 2009 was higher by 2.94% compared to that of the preceding month. However, the mineral sector has shown a positive growth of 8.38% during the current financial year i.e. April- August 2009-10 as compared to that of the previous year. The mineral production in August 2009 was higher by 12.88% as compared to that of the corresponding month of previous year.   The total value of mineral production (excluding atomic & minor minerals) in the country during August 2009 was Rs. 8336 crore. The contribution of coal was the highest at Rs. 3001 crore (36%). Next in the order of importance were: iron ore Rs. 1679 crore, petroleum (crude) Rs. 1546 crore, natural gas (utilized) Rs. 1182 crore, lignite Rs. 202 crore and limestone Rs. 216 crore. These six minerals together contributed about 94% of the total value of mineral production in August 2009.   Production level of important minerals in August 2009 were: coal 381 lakh tonnes, lignite 24 lakh tonnes, natural gas (utilized) 3788 million cu. m., petroleum (crude) 28 lakh tonnes, bauxite 1017 thousand tonnes, chromite 304 thousand tonnes, copper conc. 10 thousand tonnes, gold 201 kg., iron ore 174 lakh tonnes, lead conc. 9 thousand tonnes, manganese ore 201 thousand tonnes, zinc conc. 102 thousand tonnes, apatite & phosphorite 147 thousand tonnes, dolomite 387 thousand tonnes, limestone 176 lakh tones, magnesite 22 thousand tones and diamond 1737 carats.   In August 2009, the output of diamond increased by 55.09%, chromite 22.29%, manganese ore 19.44% apatite & phosphorite 15.85%, iron ore 8.15%, coal 4.9%, natural gas (utilized) 3.24% and lignite 1.05 percent. However, the production of bauxite decreased by 0.20%, gold 0.5%, petroleum (crude) 0.54%, limestone 2.06%, dolomite 4.06%, magnesite 5.31%, copper conc. 6.30%, zinc conc. 6.7% and lead conc. 20.92 percent.   NSK/AK/spandey     PIB Kolkata