22-Sep-2017: Prime Minister dedicates Deendayal Hastkala Sankul to the Nation
The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, dedicated to the nation, the Deendayal Hastkala Sankul – a trade facilitation centre for handicrafts – at Varanasi. The Prime Minister had laid the foundation stone of this Centre in November 2014. Today, he visited the Centre, and was given an overview of the facilities developed there, before arriving on the dais for the dedication.
He described the Trade Facilitation Centre as one of the biggest projects for Varanasi for a long time. He said this Centre would help the artisans and weavers showcase their skills to the world, and facilitate a brighter future for them. He asked the people to encourage all tourists to visit this Centre. He said this would result in increased demand of handicrafts, and also boost the tourism potential of Varanasi, and indeed the economy of the city.
The Prime Minister said the solution to all problems is through development. He said the Government is focused on bringing about positive change in the lives of the poor and of succeeding generations. In this context, he praised the efforts of Utkarsh Bank.
The Textiles Minister said that Government wants every member of the families of weavers and artisans to be able to fulfil their dream of acquiring good education. She informed that towards this, the Ministry of Textiles has entered into MoUs with Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), whereby children of weavers and artisans are able to avail school and university education, with 75% of fees being borne by the Government of India.
Speaking about the success of the MUDRA scheme, the Minister said that beneficiaries receive security-free loans ranging from 50,000 rupees to 10 lakh rupees under the scheme. She said that more than 33,000 weavers have benefited by MUDRA scheme, receiving loans worth more than 170 crore rupees. She added that weavers receiving MUDRA loans have been able to increase their income by more than 50% within just two months. The Minister said that the Government will reach out to artisans across the country, in order to provide them benefits of MUDRA loans and other facilities.
A Brief on Deendayal Hastkala Sankul: The Finance Minister in the Budget 2014-15 had announced setting up of a Trade Facilitation Centre and a Crafts Museum to develop and promote handlooms, handicrafts and silk products of Varanasi and to provide necessary help to weavers, artisans and entrepreneurs of Varanasi in strengthening their marketing activities in domestic as well as international markets and in carrying forward the rich tradition of handlooms at Varanasi.
A Trade Facilitation Centre is an indispensable step to help weavers/artisans of Varanasi to integrate into the global economy. There is a need for trade facilitation and advisory services to provide support for compliance with trade procedures, formalities and legal and regulatory requirements; this is needed to make entrepreneurs aware of new rules, regulations, thereby facilitating their import/export activities and enhancing their competitiveness. There is also a need to showcase the rich tradition of Varanasi through museum, live demonstration and audio visual medium to domestic and international tourists.
The Sankul will facilitate the weavers/artisans/exporters in promotion of handlooms/handicrafts in both domestic and international markets. The Crafts Museum in the Sankul will preserve the traditional handloom/handicrafts products of Varanasi and showcase the handloom & handicraft products, which will be an inspiration for the new generation, scholars, designers and tourists.
The project consists of five blocks: Marts-cum-Office, Convention hall-cum-Exhibition, Food court-cum-Guest House, Shopping Arcade and Crafts Museum. It has double-basement parking facilities with parking capacity of around 370 cars and 430 two-wheelers.
9-Aug-2017: Approval of Industrial Parks in Andhra Pradesh
Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) under Ministry of Commerce and Industry has approved two projects under ‘Modified Industrial Infrastructure Upgradation Scheme (MIIUS)’ for development of industrial clusters at Hindupur and Bobbili in the respective districts of Anantapur and Vizianagaram of Andhra Pradesh. Upgradation of Hindupur Growth Centre & IP Gollapuram, Anantapur District and Upgradation of industrial Growth Centre, Bobbili, Vizianagaram District.
The objective of the above projects is to provide quality and reliable infrastructure to industrial units located in these clusters; specifically these projects aim to provide road network, drainage, power and water supply networks and some other common services like health centres, canteens, crèches, dormitories, parking areas, etc. These projects are likely to be functional by 31st March, 2018.
21-Aug-2017: India’s Exclusive Rights to Explore Polymetallic Nodules from Central Indian Ocean Seabed Basin Extended by Five Years
India’s exclusive rights to explore polymetallic nodules from seabed in Central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB) have been extended by five years. These rights are over 75000 sq. km of area in international waters allocated by International Seabed Authority for developmental activities for polymetallic nodules. The estimated polymetallic nodule resource potential is 380 million tonnes, containing 4.7 million tonnes of nickel, 4.29 million tonnes of copper and 0.55 million tonnes of cobalt and 92.59 million tonnes of manganese. This has been approved unanimously in the 23rd session of International Seabed Authority (ISA) concluded on August 18, 2017 at Kingston, Jamaica.
India is the first country to have received the status of a pioneer investor in 1987 and was allocated an exclusive area in Central Indian Ocean Basin by United Nations (UN) for exploration and utilization of nodules. India is one among the top 8-countries/ contractors and is implementing a long–term programme on exploration and utilization of Polymetallic Nodules through Ministry of Earth Sciences. This includes survey and exploration, environmental studies, technology development in mining and extractive metallurgy, in which significant contributions have been made.
While, the extraction of metals from the polymetallic nodules lying at the deep ocean floor is not yet found to be economically viable at this stage, an area of about 7860 square km has been identified in the CIOB for the First Generation Mine Site on the basis of detailed surveys and analysis. Environmental studies for mining of deep-sea polymetallic nodules were also carried out to evaluate the possible impacts of mining on deep-sea environment.
A Remotely Operable Submersible (ROSUB 6000), capable of operating at 6000 m water depth was also developed and tested successfully at a depth of 5289 m. A remotely operable in-situ soil testing equipment was also developed for obtaining detailed geotechnical properties of the mining area at CIOB and tested successfully at 5462 m water depth.
A mining system is under development which has been tested for 500m water depth. Metallurgical process routes for extracting copper, nickel and cobalt from polymetallic nodules have been developed and tested in a demonstration pilot plant set up on semi-continuous basis at Hindustan Zinc Limited, Udaipur with a capacity to process 500 kg nodules per day.
International Seabed Authority (ISA) is a UN body set up to regulate the exploration and exploitation of marine non-living resources of oceans in international waters. India actively contributes to the work of International Seabed Authority. Last year, India was re-elected as a member of Council of ISA. India’s nominees on Legal and Technical Commission and Finance Committee of the ISA were also elected last year.