Jawaharlal Nehru Port Gets ISO Certification

Shri G. K. Vasan, Union Minister of Shipping awarded ISO certification to Jawaharlal Nehru Port at a function in Mumbai today. The following is the full text of his speech:

“I am happy to be in your midst at this function for the award of ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 Certifications to the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust by the Indian Register for Quality Systems (IRQS). With the addition of these certifications, JNPT has achieved the distinction of becoming the first major port to achieve the three certifications from the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and an Occupational Health and Safety Management System certification, in keeping with its status of a world class port. I extend my hearty congratulations to the management and staff of JNPT for this unique achievement.

The major ports play a key role in facilitating external trade which contributes to 40% of India’s GDP. Container volumes in India are expected to witness very high growth in the years to come. We also expect that in future, high demand for energy will result in increased import of coal and oil. For our ports to gear up for the growing demand, we must bear in mind that the growth is not just quantitative, but qualitative in terms of services which depends on human capital development, information, management and environment protection.

JNPT has already addressed the information security aspect by developing its own Information Security Management System certified complying with norms of the ISO a year ago and is conforming to the Quality Management Systems since 2001.

As we achieve higher economic growth and use modern technology, we often tend to ignore the human factor which is responsible for managing the new technology and fuelling the growth. I am very pleased that JNPT has addressed this core issue by adopting the Occupational Health and Safety Management System which identifies the hazards and risks arising out of routine and non-routine tasks to human life and takes effective measures to at least reduce them substantially.

Maintaining high standards of occupational health and safety is important not only for employees, but also for customers and other stakeholders. The OHSAS 18001 certification demonstrates the commitment of JNPT to occupational health and safety, and continuous improvement of their related management systems.

JN Port`s conformance to OHSAS 18001 safeguards that its employees, clients and all parties in question are exposed to as few risks as possible, while third-party certification authenticates that an organization has taken steps to avoid accidents and hazardous situations using a comprehensive and effectively implemented system. This would assure the compliance with present legal requisites and reduces the risk of various penalties & possible litigation.

Our country is endowed with a rich natural bounty of flora and fauna. India is one of the twelve countries where more than two-thirds of the world’s biodiversity exists. India has rich traditional knowledge and wisdom as well as respect for the conservation of nature and natural resources through religious beliefs, culture and folklore. Conservation and protection of the environment and love for nature have always been an integral part of the Indian ethos and culture.

Independent India has travelled on the path of progress and industrialization at a fast pace. Though the process of development has given us a better quality of life, we realize that development without care for our natural eco-systems will pose threats to the very existence of life itself. The air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat must be protected from pollution. Development and environment should go hand in hand. Sustainable development is the new paradigm.

The UPA Government, under the dynamic leadership of Dr. Manmohan Singh and able guidance of Shrimati Sonia Gandhi, has taken a lot of initiatives in the maritime sector for prevention of harm to the environment.

India is a party to the International Convention on Safety of Life (SOLAS) and International Convention on Marine Pollution (MARPOL) which are the main safety and pollution related conventions of the IMO. In the last two years the Cabinet has approved accession to three conventions, namely, Nairobi International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks, Protocol of 1996 to the Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims and MARPOL Convention Regulations for the Prevention of Air Pollution from Ships. We are in the process of acceding to other important conventions like the Bunker Convention and Oil Pollution Response Convention (OPRC) and Oil Pollution Response Convention-Hazardous and Noxious Substances (OPRC-HNS) and I am confident that the process will be completed soon.

I am delighted that JNPT has obtained ISO 14001 certification by identifying the importance of sustainable development and has demonstrated its commitment to social and environmental responsibility by developing an Environment Management System beyond legal requirements, promoting maritime trade with pollution control, reducing waste and creating environmental awareness in the Port community. I am informed that the port has already replaced its streetlights and other electrical appliances with energy efficient devices like CFL lamps, solar heaters etc. The port is keenly working on projects like wind-based and solar energy farms for meeting its energy requirements. Rain water harvesting and vermi-composting have also been taken up.

All the major ports under the Ministry of Shipping are ISO 9001 certified signifying establishment of Quality Management Systems and about half of them have earned ISO 14001 certification by developing environmental management systems. Today JNPT is the first Major Port to have achieved the four certifications, namely, ISO 9001 / 14001 / 27001 and OHSAS 18001. While I compliment the management of JNPT for taking the lead in achieving this feat, I also urge the other ports to develop systems conforming to international standards in respect of information security, environmental management and occupational health and safety.

Besides earning certifications, JNPT has been contributing handsomely to the economic prosperity of the country. The container traffic handled by the Port accounts for 56.66% of the total container handling of 7.54 million TEUs by all the major ports in the country in 2010-11. The Port is about to sign an MOU with PSA for development of Phase I of the Fourth Container Terminal at a cost of Rs. 4,100 crore. Upon completion, the terminal is expected to handle 2.4 million TEUs. A project to deepen and widen the channel of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port and Mumbai Port is also being taken up at a cost of more than Rs. 1,500 crore which will provide the channel a length of 34 kilometres and width of 370 metres.

I again extend my heartiest congratulations on my behalf and on behalf of the Ministry of Shipping to the Chairman, Board of Trustees, officers and staff of the Port and its customers on this happy occasion. I also extend my best wishes the officers and staff of JNPT for success in all their endeavours towards achieving excellence.”

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal Addresses Post Winter-Session Press Conference
17 Bills passed by both Houses of Parliament during the Session

The Winter Session, 2011 of Parliament which commenced on Tuesday, the 22nd of November, 2011, concluded on Thursday, the 29th of December, 2011. The Session was originally scheduled to conclude on Wednesday, 21st December, 2011, but the sittings of both the Houses were extended up to Thursday, 29th December, 2011 to transact essential Government Legislative Business. The Session provided 24 sittings spread over a period of 38 days.

During the Session, Supplementary Demands for Grants (General and Railways) for 2011-12 and their related Appropriation Bills, were discussed and passed by the Lok Sabha. Thereafter, the Rajya Sabha considered and returned the Appropriation Bills.

In Lok Sabha, Adjournment Motion moved on 14.12.2011 by Shri L.K. Advani, on “situation arising out of money deposited illegally in foreign banks and action being taken against the guilty persons” was discussed for about 6 hours. The motion was negatived by voice vote.

One Bill replacing the Ordinance, namely, the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Amendment Ordinance, 2011 which was promulgated by the President, was considered and passed by both the Houses of Parliament during the Session.

In the Lok Sabha, two Short Duration Discussions under Rule 193 were held on (i) Inflation situation in India; and (ii) Threat posed to the very existence of river Ganga and Himalayas due to their ruthless exploitation.

In the Rajya Sabha, two Short Duration Discussions under Rule 176 were held on (i) Unprecedented rise in prices of food and other essential commodities; and (ii) Agrarian crisis resulting in suicide by the farmers in the country. Besides, 3 Calling Attentions on (i) Non-revision of wages of employees of IDBI Ltd.; (ii) Adequate safety measures to protect the life of Safai Karmacharis (Sewer Cleaner); and (iii) Spread of Encephalitis and Brain Fever in various parts of the country, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar, were discussed in Lok Sabha.

During the Session, 30 Bills (27 in the Lok Sabha and 3 in the Rajya Sabha) were introduced. The Lok Sabha passed 18 Bills and the Rajya Sabha passed 18 Bills during the session. Total number of Bills passed by both Houses of Parliament during the Session is 17. A list containing the titles of the Bills introduced and considered and passed during the Session is as follows:



I – BILLS INTRODUCED IN LOK SABHA
The Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Amendment Bill, 2011
The Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2011
The Appropriation (No.4) Bill, 2011
The North-Eastern Areas (Re-organisation) Amendment Bill, 2011
The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2011
The Warehousing Corporations (Amendment) Bill, 2011
The Export-Import Bank of India (Amendment) Bill, 2011
The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Bill, 2011
The Arms (Amendment) Bill, 2011
The Enforcement of Security Interest and Recovery of Debts Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2011
The National Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Second Bill, 2011
The Companies Bill, 2011
The Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Second Amendment Bill, 2011
The Press and Registration of Books and Publications Bill, 2011
The Consumer Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2011
The Appropriation (Railways) No.3 Bill, 2011
The National Highways Authority of India (Amendment) Bill, 2011
The Right of Clients for Time Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill, 2011
The Regional Centre for Biotechnology Bill, 2011
The Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development Bill, 2011
The National Food Security Bill, 2011
The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill, 2011
The Constitution (One Hundred and Sixteenth Amendment) Bill, 2011
The Prevention of Money-Laundering (Amendment) Bill, 2011
The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Second Amendment) bill, 2011
The Electronic Delivery of Services Bill, 2011
The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill, 2011



II – BILLS PASSED BY LOK SABHA
The Appropriation (No.4) Bill, 2011
The Damodar Valley Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2011
The New Delhi Municipal Council (Amendment) Bill, 2010
The National Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Second Bill, 2011
The Life Insurance Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2009
The Petroleum and Minerals Pipelines (Acquisition of Right of User in Land) Amendment Bill, 2010
The Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2011
The Appropriation (Railways) No.3 Bill, 2011
The Chartered Accountants (Amendment) Bill, 2011
The Cost and Works Accountants (Amendment) Bill, 2011
The Company Secretaries (Amendment) Bill, 2011
The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2011
The Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Amendment Bill, 2011
The Regulation of Factor (Assignment of Receivables) Bill, 2011
The Export- Import Bank of India (Amendment) Bill, 2011
The Constitution (One Hundred and Eleventh Amendment) Bill, 2009
The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill, 2011
The Public Interest Disclosure and Protection to Persons Making the Disclosures Bill, 2010

III – BILLS INTRODUCED IN RAJYA SABHA
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2011
The National Commission for Human Resources for Health Bill, 2011
The Higher Education and Research Bill, 2011



IV – BILLS PASSED BY RAJYA SABHA
The Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Amendment Bill, 2010
The Chartered Accountants (Amendment) Bill, 2010
The Cost and Works Accountants (Amendment) Bill, 2010
The Company Secretaries (Amendment) Bill, 2010
The Appropriation (No.4) Bill, 2011
The National Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Second Bill, 2011
The Life Insurance Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2011
The Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2011
The Damodar Valley Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2011
The Petroleum and Minerals Pipelines (Acquisition of Right of User in Land) Amendment Bill, 2011
The Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research Bill, 2011
The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2011
The Appropriation (Railways) No.3 Bill, 2011
The Railway Property (Unlawful Possession) Amendment Bill, 2008
The New Delhi Municipal Council (Amendment) Bill, 2011
The Factoring Regulation Bill, 2011
The Export- Import Bank of India (Amendment) Bill, 2011
The Constitution (One Hundred and Eleventh Amendment) Bill, 2011



V - BILLS PASSED BY BOTH HOUSES
The Appropriation (No.4) Bill, 2011
The National Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Second Bill, 2011
The Life Insurance Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2011
The Chartered Accountants (Amendment) Bill, 2011
The Cost and Works Accountants (Amendment) Bill, 2011
The Company Secretaries (Amendment) Bill, 2011
The Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2011
The Damodar Valley Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2011
The Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Amendment Bill, 2011
The Petroleum and Minerals Pipelines (Acquisition of Right of User in Land) Amendment Bill, 2011
The Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research Bill, 2011
The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2011
The Appropriation (Railways) No.3 Bill, 2011
The New Delhi Municipal Council (Amendment) Bill, 2011
The Factoring Regulation Bill, 2011
The Export- Import Bank of India (Amendment) Bill, 2011
The Constitution (One Hundred and Eleventh Amendment) Bill, 2011



VI – BILL WITHDRAWN IN LOK SABHA
The Companies Bill, 2009
The Lokpal Bill, 2011

IBM's Corporate Service Corps: Beyond Profit

By Kathryn McConnell

Kathryn McConnell is a staff writer with the State Department's Bureau of International Information Programs.

Work in the private sector means more than helping a company turn a profit. It means contributing to communities.

That's why in 2008 computer giant International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) started its Corporate Service Corps linking its employees to governments and nonprofit organizations in developing countries. It is part of a new era of international volunteerism.

Based in Armonk, New York, IBM spends $60 million a year on the corps. "It's at the intersection of technology, economic development and job creation," said Stanley Litow, IBM's vice president of corporate citizenship. Since the program began, IBM has sent some 1,400 of its employees to work on projects in about 50 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Litow said that's more than any other company doing pro bono work in the developing world.

The Corporate Service Corps enables IBM to identify and train its next generation of skilled leaders while helping developing nations solve pressing problems, Litow said. "This is a model that increasingly other companies will be emulating."

The program offers a triple benefit, Litow said: technical assistance for the communities it serves, a chance for employees to hone their leadership and technical skills, and inroads for sales in expanding markets.

Teams consisting of six to 12 employees with skills in technology, science, marketing, finance or business development immerse themselves in places like Cross River State, Nigeria; Chiang Mai, Thailand; and Johannesburg for up to one month while developing solutions to local challenges. "They are providing those skills to make a real difference," Litow said.

Team members come from IBM locations around the world. They have 2 1/2 months of preparation before they leave home, meeting with fellow team members via phone, over the Internet and in person. They receive information about project goals and their host country's culture.

The Johannesburg team was asked to recommend ways to use information technology to improve the city's public safety infrastructure. "Public safety is so linked to economic development and livability," Litow said. "The project required people with expertise in safety, software development, business processes, government, law and finance."

Ron Dombroski, an IBM marketing executive, went to Johannesburg as part of the six-member team that included colleagues from India, Brazil and the United States. He said the team proposed a five-year plan calling for installing security cameras to deter crime and aid emergency workers and adapting mobile terminals like smart phones to provide maps of the locations of fire hydrants and power switches to aid firefighters responding to emergency calls.

Beginning a Relationship

Another IBM team went to Nigeria and worked on a health care project for pregnant women and young children in remote villages in Cross River State. The IBM team networked each clinic into a cloud computing environment, with fingerprint reader cards to ensure that medical records for each mother and child are accurate and complete. That gave doctors quick access to information needed to make good decisions. (In cloud computing, an organization rents excess server capability from another entity, freeing it from the need to acquire its own data center.)

With IBM's help, the Cross River State health project expanded the number of people it served from 1,000 to 20,000 in a short time, Litow said.

In Jakarta, the Corporate Service Corps is helping to improve the city's transportation system. In Chiang Mai, an IBM team is working on an information system that will help the city expand its health tourism industry. In Cebu, Philippines, corps members are helping officials develop a land-use plan.

The idea of corporate volunteerism is catching on with companies like Dow Corning, PepsiCo, Novartis and John Deere, which are looking at IBM's model, Litow said. IBM is also working with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and CDC Development Solutions, a consulting firm, to build a website for international corporate volunteerism where companies can share information about their programs.

"If businesses share their skills and knowledge with governments and people of the developing world, we'll all be better off," Litow said.

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.) 

Achievements and Initiatives of the Ministry of Steel in the Year 2011

Year End Review

Trends and Developments in Steel Sector
Steel sector trends

· India became the 4th largest producer of crude steel in the world in 2010 as against the 8th position in 2003 and is expected to become the 2nd largest producer of crude steel in the world by 2015.

· India also maintained its lead position as the world’s largest producer of direct reduced iron (DRI) or sponge iron.

· Ministry’s National Steel Policy (NSP) 2005 projection of 110 million tonnes of finished steel production per annum by 2019-20 is likely to be exceeded by 2012. The country is likely to achieve a crude steel production capacity of 112 million tonnes by the year 2011-12.

· Going by estimate of Rs.4,000 crore investment per million tonne of additional capacity, intended steel capacity build up in the country is likely to result in an investment of Rs.8,70,640 crore by 2020.

· 222 MoUs have been signed with various states for planned capacity of around 276 million tonnes by 2019-20.

· Major investment plans are in the states of Orissa, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal.

· The steel sector contributes to nearly 2% of the GDP and employs over 5 lakh people.

· The per capita steel consumption during the last six years has risen from 38 kg in 2005-06 to 55 kg in 2010-11.

Production, consumption and demand of Steel

· In the next five years, demand of steel is likely to grow at a higher annual average growth of over 11-12% as compared to the average annual growth of 8% achieved between 1991-92 and 2010-11.

· Capacity for crude steel production expanded from 51.17 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) in 2005-06 to 78 mtpa in 2010-11.

· Crude steel production grew at 8% annually (CAGR) from 46.46 million tonnes in 2005-06 to 69.57 million tonnes in 2010-11.

· Production for sale of finished steel stood at 66.01 million tonnes during 2010-11 as against 46.57 million tonnes in 2005-06, an average annual (CAGR) growth of 7%.

· Consumption of finished steel has grown at a CAGR of 9.6 % during the last six years.

· Export of finished steel during 2010-11 stood at 3.36 million tonnes while imports during 2010-11 stood at 6.54 million tonnes.

Major initiatives and achievements

(i) Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) became a Maharatna company and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd. (RINL) became a Navratna company during 2010.

(ii) Mega Expansion Plans of SAIL, RINL & NMDC Ltd.

The Steel PSUs are in the midst of ambitious expansion plans. The major thrust of the modernization and expansion plans is to adopt the best modern technology, which in addition to being cost effective should also be energy efficient and environment friendly.

· The expansion plans would increase the capacity of SAIL from 12.84 million tonnes (in 2006-07) per annum crude steel production to 21.40 million tonnes in the first phase to be completed by 2012-13, at an estimated cost of around Rs. 70,000 crore, which includes Rs. 10,000 crore for mine development.

· Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) is at an advanced stage of commissioning it crude steel capacity expansion project from 2.9 million tonnes to 6.3 million tonnes per annum. The project is likely to be completed by 2010-11 at an estimated cost of Rs. 15,525 crore.

· NMDC plans to increase the production of iron ore from the present level of around 24 million tonnes to 40 million tonnes by 2014-15.

· NMDC is setting up a 3 million tonne per annum (mtpa) capacity Integrated Steel Plant at Nagarnar, Chhattisgarh with an estimated cost of Rs. 15,525 crore.

· NMDC is also setting up a 1.2 million tonne per annum (mtpa) capacity pellet plant at Donimalai, Karanataka.

(iii) Merger/acquisitions/revival/restructuring/Joint ventures of the Steel PSUs

· Maharashtra Elektrosmelt Ltd (MEL), the 99.12% subsidiary of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), has been merged with SAIL with effect from 01.04.2010.

· ‘SAIL Refractory Company Limited’ – a subsidiary company of SAIL for transfer of the Refractory unit of BSCL incorporated in August, 2011

· SAIL- SCL Limited - Joint ventures (JV) with Govt. of Kerala to revive existing facilities at Steel Complex, Calicut has been effective from 30.12.2010. SAIL has formally taken over the management of the JV Company. Govt. of Kerala has been requested to expedite approval of rolling mill by JV Board.

· JV with Kobe Steel for ITmk3 Technology envisages installation of a 0.5 MTPA Iron Nugget plant at ASP, Durgapur. This unit will produce premium grade Iron Nuggets from iron ore fines and non-coking coal. Proposal for formation of a JV Company with M/s Kobe Steel (50:50 equity participation) has been put up for consideration of SAIL Board on 29.11. 2011.

· Hajigak Iron Ore Deposits, Afghanistan

SAIL led Consortium which submitted bid in September’2011 has been alloted mining blocks B, C & D of the Hajigak Iron ore deposits (reserve of 1770 MT). The total investment estimated at US $ 10. 8 Billion in phases (includes development of mine, installation of 6.12 MTPA Steel plant in two phases, 800 MW Power plant, Rail & Road infrastructure and CSR activities).

(iv) Special Purpose Vehicle

· A Joint Venture Company(JVC) called “ International Coal Ventures Ltd” comprising of SAIL, RINL, CIL, NTPC and NMDC has been set up for acquisition of coal mines in overseas territories, with an equity base of Rs.3000 crore to be leveraged with around Rs. 7000 crore of debt. The ICVL will function like a Navratna company with powers to clear proposals involving investment of upto Rs.1500 crore. The company has already initiated efforts to acquire coal properties abroad with specific countries like Australia, Mozambique, Canada, Indonesia and USA.

(v) Enhancing steel distribution network

· Public sector steel units are expanding their dealer and distributor networks to reach district centers and remote areas of the country. Presently SAIL has a total marketing network of 2700 dealers in 626 districts, 66 warehouses, 37 branch sales offices and 27 customer contact offices in the country. RINL has over 150 dealers. Private sector steel companies have also been asked to expand their distribution network to cover almost all the major districts of the country.

· Ministry of Steel has evolved a scheme for routing the allocation of iron and steel materials from main producers like SAIL, RINL and Tata Steel to SSI units and other Government Departments through the Small Scale Industries Corporations (SSICs) and the National Small Scale Corporation (NSIC) and provides handling charges of approximately Rs.500-550 per tonne to the Corporations so that the Corporations supply the steel materials at the doorsteps of the SSI units.

(vi) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

· CSR has been identified as an important parameter in the MoUs drawn up by all the PSUs with the Ministry. CSR activities focusing on environmental care, education, health care, cultural efflorescence and peripheral development, family welfare, social initiatives and other measures are underway in the PSUs.

· All profitable Steel PSUs have earmarked certain amount based on the net profit of last year in terms of DPE Guidelines.

(vii) Promoting R&D in Steel Sector

In order to encourage R&D activities in iron and steel sector, Ministry of Steel is providing financial assistance under the following two schemes:

(A) Financial assistance from Steel Development Fund (SDF) under the mechanism of Empowered Committee (EC)

· 68 R&D projects have been approved costing Rs. 544.34 crore with SDF assistance of Rs. 263.48 crore. So far Ministry of Steel has released Rs. 145.63 crore from Steel Development Fund (SDF). Out of 68 R&D projects, 35 projects have been completed yielding benefits to the industries, 9 projects have been stopped after midterm review and 24 projects are in progress.

(B) Financial assistance from Government Budgetary Support (GBS) under the mechanism of Project Approval and Monitoring Committee (PAMC)

· Under this scheme R&D project proposals in three broad areas namely (i) development of innovative /path breaking technologies (ii) improvement of quality of steel and (iii) beneficiation of raw materials in the Iron and Steel Sector are being proposed. So far 8 R&D projects have been approved costing Rs. 143.87 crore with Government Budgetary Support of Rs. 111.11 crore. So far Rs. 31.18 crore has been released up to 2010-11. The projects are at their initial stage.

(viii) Assessment of steel demand

· The Ministry has initiated a study to assess the steel demand in the rural areas of the country and to examine the potential of increasing the level of steel consumption. The study would cover 300 districts, 1500 villages, 4500 manufactures and 8000 retailers spread over all the 35 states and union territories of the country.

(ix) Disinvestment of Steel PSUs

· Disinvestment of 10% Government of India’s shareholdings in MOIL has been completed. The Government earned Rs. 618.76 crore by disinvestment of MOIL.

· In accordance with the Cabinet Decision, 51% shareholding (i.e. 7, 36,638 shares) of Government of India in Eastern Investments Company Limited (EIL) under Bird Group of Companies was transferred to Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL). Thus RINL has become the holding company of Eastern Investments Company Limited (EIL) and its subsidiaries Orissa Minerals Development Corporation (OMDC) and Bisra Stone Lime Company Ltd. (BSLC) are now subsidiaries of RINL w.e.f. 05.01.2011.

RAILWAYS REVENUE EARNINGS UP BY 10.20 PER CENT



FIRST EVER AC DOUBLE DECKER TRAIN FLAGGED OFF



HIGH LEVEL SAFETY REVIEW COMMITTEE SET UP



AN EXPERT GROUP FOR MODERNIZATION OF INDIAN RAILWAYS


FRESH MEASURES TAKEN TO PREVENT MISUSE OF ‘TATKAL’ SCHEME



REAL TRAIN INFORMATION SYSTEM OPENED TO PUBLIC



SETTING UP OF NATIONAL HIGH SPEED RAIL AUTHORITY



‘VIVEK EXPRESS’ - NEW TRAIN ON LONGEST EVER ROUTE FLAGGED OFF



RAILWAYS GREEN INITIATIVES



The year 2011 has been significant for the Railways in achieving goals and targets with regard to the following:



REVENUE GENERATION

The total approximate earnings of Indian Railways on originating basis during 1st April to 20th December 2011 is Rs. 71613.12 crore registering an increase of 10.20 per cent in comparison to Rs. 64982.35 crore achieved during the same period last year. During this period, the total goods earnings have gone up from Rs. 43257.89 crore to Rs. 47653.34 crore, an increase of 10.16 per cent. The total passenger revenue earnings at Rs. 20249.84 crore increased by 9.45 per cent when compared to Rs. 18501.61 crore during the same period of last year.



The total approximate numbers of passengers booked during the period 1st April to 20th December 2011 were 5986.86 million compared to 5691.04 million during the same period last year, showing an increase of 5.20 per cent.



Railways have carried 618.00 million tonnes of revenue earning freight traffic during 1st April- to 30th November 2011. The freight carried shows an increase of 24.56 million tonnes over the freight traffic of 593.44 million tonnes actually carried during the corresponding period last year, registering an increase of 4.14 per cent.



In the calendar year 2011, Indian Railways has achieved scrap sale of Rs. 3748.68 crore till November 2011.



SAFETY PERFORMANCE

Safety in train operations is accorded the highest priority by Indian Railways and all measures are being taken on a continual basis to prevent accidents and enhance safety. A High Level Safety Review Committee, headed by Dr. Anil Kakodkar, Former Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission was set up. The Committee would lay down the road map on safety related issues which need to be addressed in the short term and the long term and would give invaluable recommendations which would have a significant bearing on further improvement in the systems and protocols. Indian Railways would make all efforts to address the recommendations of the High Level Committee with a view to achieve further improvement in the safety environment on the Indian Railways. The Committee had already held several meetings with senior functionaries in Railway Board, Zonal Railways, Divisional Railways level and RDSO. Besides making an assessment of the existing safety practices, the Committee is also soliciting feedback from general public in Indian Railway’s official website.



The number of consequential train accidents reduced in 2010-11 in comparison to the previous year (141 as against 165) registering a decline of 14.5%. In the current year also, a similar declining trend has been observed as 91 consequential train accidents took place during April to 15th December, 2011 in comparison to 97 during the corresponding period of the previous year.



Accident per Million Train Kilometres is an important safety index used by most of the Railways in the world. This has also come down from 0.44 Accident per Million Train Kilometers during 2002-2003 to 0.15 in 2010-11 despite quantum increase in the volume of traffic carried by Indian Railways over the years.



A vigorous special campaign was organised during the year to create awareness among the road users regarding precautions to be observed at level crossings which included newspaper advertisement, distribution of pamphlets and posters, radio TV programmes, public announcements, counselling at schools, interactions with village Panchayats and safety seminars.



Service Trials of Train Protection Warning System (TPWS) project on non-suburban section are in progress on Delhi-Agra Section (200 RKMs) of National Capital Region. Works of provision of TPWS have been sanctioned over 895 Route Kilometres of important Automatic Block Signalling Sections of high density network spread over five Railways, viz. Eastern, North Central, Southern, South Eastern and Western Railways in 2010-11. A pilot project of TPWS was commissioned on suburban section (50 Route Kms) of Southern Railway.



MODERNIZATION OF INDIAN RAILWAYS

In a significant move to give further impetus to Railways’ modernization plans, an Expert Group has been constituted under the Chairmanship of Mr. Sam Pitroda to recommend ways and means to modernize Indian Railways to meet the challenges of economic growth, the aspirations of the common man, the needs of changing technology and the expanding market while at the same time ensuring adequate focus on addressing social and strategic requirements of the country. The Committee will inter alia address issues connected with organization, management and resource mobilization and professionalization of manpower on Indian Railways.







STRENGTHENING OF SECURITY ON RAILWAYS

The Railways Property (Unlawful Possession) Amendment Bill, introduced in the Parliament in the year 2008, has been passed by the Rajya Sabha on 22.12.2011. The above amendment envisages widening the ambit of penal sections of the Act and to empower an Railway Protection Force (RPF) Officer to conduct enquiry on receipt of information about occurrence of an offence against Railway property. A proposal for further legal empowerment of RPF, under the RPF Act, to deal with passenger related offences, has been mooted for approval of the Cabinet. Presently RPF is engaged in escorting of 1275 important mail/express trains, access control at important railway stations of the country, prosecution of offenders (under 29 sections of the Railways Act ) involved in unauthorized activities in trains/station premises viz. alarm chain pulling, unauthorized vending/hawking, unauthorized entry into ladies and reserved compartments etc, and prosecution of offenders, apprehended with stolen railway property, under the Railway Property (Unlawful Possession) Act 1966.



INTRODUCTION OF NEW TRAINS

In Railway Budget 2011-12, a total number of 131 new trains were announced, out of which 70 new trains have been introduced and 61 new trains are yet to be introduced. Out of extension of 33 trains, 29 trains have been extended and 4 trains are yet to be extended. Out of increase in frequency of 17 trains, frequency of 15 trains has been increased and frequency of 2 trains are yet to be increased. Earnest efforts are being made to meet all the budget targets by the end of the financial year.


FRESH MEASURES TAKEN TO PREVENT MISUSE OF TATKAL SCHEME

The Tatkal booking system was introduced on Indian Railways to enable passengers needing to travel in emergency to avail reserved accommodation at a short notice. The scheme has been modified from 21.11.2011 to eliminate the possibility of misuse of the facility by touts/miscreants by exploiting the vulnerability of needy passengers, wanting to travel at a short notice by charging a high premium.



Under the modified scheme, the Advanced Reservation Period (ARP) has been reduced from 2 days to 1 day, excluding the journey date. Rail travel agents/rail travel service agencies (RTSAs) have been restricted from booking tatkal tickets at the reservation counters/over the internet between 8 hours to 10 hours and booking can now be done only on presenting self-attested photocopy of identity proof of at least one of the travelling passengers.



RESERVED TICKETING THROUGH MOBILE PHONE

To bring further convenience to the rail users, Indian Railways has offered the service of booking E-Ticket over the mobile. The detailed procedure of booking through mobile is available on the IRCTC website namely www.irctc.co.in. Whenever a passenger books a reserved ticket through Mobile phone, he will receive a message through SMS with full details of the ticket including PNR, Train No., date of journey, class, etc. This virtual message would be treated at par with the print-out of the e-ticket which at present is taken out by the passengers and is known as Electronic Reservation Slip (ERS). Hence, with this virtual message, passengers would not be required to take a print-out of e-ticket to be carried with them.



REAL TRAIN INFORMATION SYSTEM OPENED TO PUBLIC

In a major passenger friendly move, Indian Railways opened the first phase of the Real Train Information System (RTIS) in October 2011 to public for accurate train tracking thus heralding a new era of application of advanced communication and information technologies in various Railway related activities. This new tracking system is based on Satellite Imaging for Rail Navigation (SIMRAN) and has been developed jointly by the Ministry of Railways’ Research arm namely Research, Design and Standards Organization (RDSO), Lucknow and IIT, Kanpur. This facility provides accurate train running information on a click of a button or through SMS thereby overcoming limitations of the existing train information dissemination through telephone number 139 which is mainly dependent on manual collection of train running information. This information is available on website “http://www.simran.in”. To begin with, at present, this service is available for six pairs of Rajdhani & Shatabdi trains and would be expanded further in due course of time.



DEVELOPMENTS ON DEDICATED FREIGHT CORRIDOR PROJECT

The progress on the two ambitious Railway projects of construction of Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC) namely Eastern Corridor from Dankuni to Ludhiana and Western Corridor from JNPT (Mumbai) to Dadri (near Delhi) has been good. Major portions of Western Corridor are being funded with Japanese assistance and Eastern Corridor with World Bank assistance. World Bank approved loan of US $ 975 million for Khurja-Bhaupur section of Eastern Freight Corridor on 31.5.2011. Two loan agreements have already been signed with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for Western DFC which includes loan agreement for Phase-I (Rewari-Vadodara) and Engineering Services Loan agreement for Phase-II (Mumbai-Vadodara and Rewari-Dadri).



ADARSH STATION SCHEME

The scheme of Adarsh Station has been introduced from the year 2009. Adarsh Stations are provided with basic facilities such as drinking water, adequate toilets, catering services, waiting rooms and dormitories especially for lady passengers, better signage etc.



During 2009-10, 378 stations on Indian Railways were identified to be developed under Adarsh station scheme. Work at 365 stations under the scheme has been completed and work at remaining 13 stations is targeted for completion in 2011-12.



During 2010-11, 201 stations were additionally identified as per budget to be developed under Adarsh stations scheme. Work at 73 stations has been completed and work at remaining 128 stations is targeted for completion in 2011-12.



During 2011-12, 266 stations were additionally identified to be developed under Adarsh station scheme. Out of this work at 9 stations has been completed and work at another 109 stations is targeted for completion in 2011-12 and at 148 remaining stations in 2012-13.



DEVELOPMENT OF MULTIFUNCTIONAL COMPLEX

A new concept of development of MFCs with Budget Hotels, was introduced in Rail Budget 2009-10 so that important facilities may be available to the rail users in a separate complex in the vicinity of circulating area in station premises. So far 17 Multi Functional Complexes (MFCs) have been completed viz. Anandpur Sahib, Aurangabad, Baraddhaman, Digha, Durg, Ghatsila, Haldia, Kakdwip, Manmad, New Alipore, Parasnath, Rajgir, Rampur Hat, Shirdi, Tarapith Road, Tarakeshwar and Tiruvalla. Process of leasing/licensing of these MFCs is underway. So far, a total of 198 stations have been identified since 2009-10 (67 in 2009-10, 93 in 2010-11 and 38 in 2011-12). Task of development of 198 MFCs has been assigned to Zonal Railways and various executing agencies under the Ministry of Railways.







NEW TRAIN ON LONGEST EVER ROUTE FLAGGED OFF

“Vivek Express” on longest ever route from Dibrugarh to Kanyakumari covering a distance of 4286 kilometers was flagged off on 19th November, 2011. This weekly trains leaves Dibrugarh on every Saturday and reaches Kanyakumari on Wednesday. In return direction, it leaves Kanyakumari on every Saturday and reaches Dibrugarh on Wednesday. This train is having 18 coaches which include six general coaches, seven sleeper coaches, two third AC coaches and one second AC coach and two SLR coaches. It runs via Goalpara-NewBonagigaon – Alipurduar Jn. – Maldah town – Durgapur- Asansol – Adra – Midnapur – Vijaywada, Jolapettai – Salem Jn. – Coimbatore Jn – Ernakulam – Trivananthapuram – Kanyakumari.



A number of more than 130 new trains, announced in Rail Budget, were also flagged off during this year.



NATIONAL HIGH SPEED RAIL AUTHORITY

In the Railway Budget 2010-11, the Ministry of Railways has announced for setting up of a National High Speed Rail Authority (NHSRA) for planning, standard setting, implementing & monitoring of High Speed Rail projects. A proposal in this regard has been moved for Cabinet approval. The Ministry of Railways has selected following six corridors for conducting pre-feasibility studies. These are; Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar (450 km approx.), Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad (650 km approx.), Hyderabad-Dornakal-Vijaywada-Chennai (664 km approx.), Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore-Ernakulam (649 km approx.), Howrah-Haldia (135 km approx.), Delhi-Agra-Lucknow-Varanasi-Patna (991 km approx.). Consultants for pre-feasibility study of four Corridors except Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar and Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore-Ernakulam-Trivandrum have already been engaged.



E-PROCUREMENT AND E-PAYMENT SYSTEM ON RAILWAY

Indian Railways have implemented e-procurement system for All Zonal Railways and Production Units. So for 2.5 lakh e-tenders have been uploaded on central web site www.ireps.gov.in and more than 15,000 vendors have registered with the site. Electronic procurement has facilitated vendors and the participating industry to gain free access to Railway’s procurement tenders and has improved transparency and competitiveness in the tendering process. Indian Railways issues computerized railway receipts for more than 99.9% of its freight loading. This has helped in collection of approximately 69.9% of freight payment through e-payment contributing around Rs. 4000 crore per month from the participating major customers, thus cutting down wasteful manual processes both for Indian Railways and their principal freight customers. Facility of enquiring the last location of rakes on Indian Railways has been launched from 12th October 2011 for freight customers.

COUNTRY’S FIRST EVER AC DOUBLE DECKER TRAIN FLAGGED OFF
Country’s first air conditioned superfast Double Decker train was flagged off from Howrah station for Dhanbad on 1st October 2011. This train consists of 9 coaches including 7 air-conditioned Double Decker chair cars having 128 seats in each coach and 2 generator cars. This train stops at Barddhaman, Durgapur, Asansol, Barakar and Kumardhubi on both ways en-route. This train will have maximum permissible speed of 110 kilometre per hour and will run via Howrah-Barddhaman chord line. Introduction of Double Decker train was announced in Railway Budget earlier. The successful development of AC Double Decker train is a clear illustration of Indian Railways` capabilities in design and manufacturing.







LONGEST TUNNEL MADE THROUGH PIR PANJAL IN JAMMU & KASHMIR

Indian Railways achieved another milestone with final breakthrough of Pir Panjal Railway tunnel in Jammu and Kashmir on 14th October 2011. This Tunnel with a length of 11.176 Kilometers is not only the longest Transportation Tunnel in the country but has also the highest point (1753 Meters above sea level) on Broad Gauge Railway System in the country. This methodology planned in year 2003-2005, is now being adopted for many long tunnels across the Himalayan Ranges in the country. This tunnel shall be fully lined and equipped with state of the art ventilation and its control system, air quality monitoring system, fire detection and rescue plan, CCTV, communication system and Tunnel Control Room at both the ends with provision for a service road by the side of a single line BG Railway track. After laying of track and completion of adjacent railway works, it will be possible to run train form Kashmir Valley to Banihal on the other side of Pir Panjal Range. These works are expected to be completed by December 2012. With the operation of Railway line upto Banihal, there will be an all weather Rail route across the Pir Panjal Mountains, benefiting the entire Kashmir Valley.



SETTING UP OF RAILWAY STATIONS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION LTD PROPOSED

It has been decided to set up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) “Railway Stations Development Corporation Ltd to meet the aspirations of rail users and to provide better passenger amenities & facilities at railway stations. This SPV will be constituted with equity participation of Ircon International Ltd. (IRCON), a Public Sector Undertaking under the Ministry of Railways and Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA), a statutory authority under the Ministry of Railways.



RAILWAYS GREEN INITIATIVES

Indian Railways has taken several environment friendly steps. A project based on clean development mechanism to distribute over 14 lakh CFLs free of cost to Railway employees housed in Railway colonies, in exchange of energy intensive incandescent lamps was launched. This project is expected to reduce around 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emission annually and has been acknowledged as one of the biggest initiatives in sensitizing people towards environment.

In a significant move towards clean environment in platforms and railway tracks, Indian Railways has inducted biotoilets (green toilets) in Guwahati, Gwalior, Varanasi and Chennai express trains with effect from 14th October 2011. This type of toilets has been designed jointly by Indian Railways and DRDO.

With these toilets fitted in the coaches there will be no discharge of human excreta falling in platforms or at nay other places enroute. The bacteria inside the toilets eat away human excreta and convert it into water and gas. The water so generated after passing through chlorine tank discharges out and the gas generated thereby evaporates out side the atmosphere. It also prevents damages of tracks and rolling stock components by way of corrosion.

Several designs of biotoilets are being tried in different passenger carrying trains. Indian Railways proposes to achieve the milestone of 500 green toilets in service in different trains by March 2012.





NEW RAIL AXLE MANUFACTURING FACTORY

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Ministry of Railways and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), a central Government PSU under Ministry of Steel, in January 2011 for setting up of a new Rail Axle Manufacturing Factory at New Jalpaiguri in West Bengal. This comes in pursuance of announcement made, in the Railway Budget 2010-11 regarding setting up of such a factory to achieve self-sufficiency in axle manufacturing and eliminating present dependence on imports. The 300 crore project will manufacture and supply rail axels for BOX N wagons and others to meet the growing requirement of Indian Railways.



NEW AC CONTAINER & BOGIE MANUFACTURING FACTORY

The foundation stone was laid by the Railway Minister for AC Container & Bogie Manufacturing Factory at Budge Budge near Kolkata in West Bengal in January 2011. This came in pursuance of announcement made in the Railway Budget 2010-11 regarding setting up of such a factory with a view to mitigate the farmers’ plight and save agricultural produce worth crore of rupees from perishing. This new AC Container & Bogie Manufacturing Factory will be set up at an estimated investment of Rs. 59.3 crore. This factory will manufacture air conditioned containers on a demand driven basis and 600 bogie frames per annum on a regular basis.



MODERN LUGGAGE TROLLEY SERVICE FOR SENIOR CITIZENS

The Indian Railways introduced modern luggage trolley service at New Delhi Platform No. 1 and 16), Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram and Howrah stations to assist senior citizens and women passengers in boarding and alighting from coaches along with their luggage comfortably. The service has been launched as a pilot project for a period of one year and handled by uniformed attendants called ‘Rail Yatri Sevaks’. The service is being run in collaboration with State Bank of India and passengers are charged only Rs 35/- for this unique passenger friendly facility. The trolley can be booked in advance.

MORE CONCESSION FOR SENIOR CITIZENS, THE PHYSICALLY CHALLENGED, MEDIA PERSONS & GIRL STUDENTS

Ministry of Railways has decided to reduce the minimum age for availing concession from 60 years to 58 years in case for women senior citizens. It has also been decided to increase the element of concession in case of men senior citizens from 30 per cent to 40 per cent with effect 1st June 2011. Concession has also been extended in Rail fares admissible to orthopedically/paraplegic persons to Rajdhani/Shatadbi trains also. The same concession is also admissible to one escort accompanying the concerned handicapped person. It has been decided to extend the 50 per cent concession to family (Spouse/.companion and dependent children up to 18 years) of accredited correspondents twice during the financial year with effect from 1st June 2011 instead of once in the financial year. It was also decided to extend free Monthly Season Tickets (MSTs) to girl students who are pursuing professional/vocational courses also upto the level of Graduation like M.B.B.S., B.E., B. Tech., B.B.A., B.C.A. etc.



CAG LAUDS RAILWAYS EFFORTS DURING CWG 2010

Appreciating the significant work of Indian Railways during Commonwealth Games 2010 (CWG 2010), Computer Auditor General of India (CAG), in its audit report tabled in August 2011 on Commonwealth Games 2010, said that status of the Railway projects in April 2010 reveals satisfactory progress both in construction of Rail Over/Under Bridges and development of the facilities at the Railway stations. CAG also appreciated the progress in infrastructure work and provision of passenger amenities at New Delhi Railway Station considering that about 290 trains pass through this station every day with approximately five lakh passengers commuting on a daily basis. CAG also highlighted the Railways achievements regarding all the major activities relating to makeover of New Delhi Railway Station which were completed before the Games. These achievements were possible due to guidance of Ministry of Railways and tight monitoring and execution of the developmental plans of Northern Railway and its Delhi Division.



RAILWAY ELECTRIFICATION PROJECTS

A total of 897 Route Kilometers have been energized between January 2011 to November 2011. Electric traction on the newly electrified sections introduced after obtaining Commissioner of Railway Safety’s sanction are (i) Vikarabad-Tandur, South Central Railway (45 RKm), (ii) Tiruchchirappalli-Dindigul, Southern Railway (92 RKm) and (iii) Keonjhar-Jaroli, East Coast Railway (40 RKm), New Railway Electrification projects sanctioned are (a) Laksar-Dehradun section of Northern Railway (79 RKm), (b) Vizianagram-Raipur of East Coast Railway (465 RKm), 9c0 Rosaa-Sitapur-Burhwal of Northern and North Eastern Railway (181 RKm) and (d) Alwar-Rewari of North Western Railway (982 RKm).



RAILWAYS’ TRIBUTE TO KAVIGURU TAGORE & VIVEKANAND

For this year’s Republic Day Parade on 26th January 2011, Indian Railways presented a special tableau which was a replica of the railway coach used by the Kaviguru Rabindranath Tagore for his travels between Bolpur and Kolkata in West Bengal during his life time. This tableau came as a tribute of Ministry of Railways to Kaviguru, the doyen of art, music and literature on 150th year of his Birth Centenary. A special exhibition train “Vivekananda Express” showcasing the life and philosophy of the great spiritual leader Swami Vivekananda was flagged off from Howrah station in January 2011. This train was also a tribute from Railways on the occasion of 150th Birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekanand.



BCCI AWARD FOR RAILWAY SPORTS PROMOTION BOARD

Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) of the Ministry of Railways has been selected for award in the category of Best Overall Performance by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for the year 2010-11. RSPB shares this award with Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA). The awards ceremony was held in Chennai on 10th December 2011 where the trophy was presented. Railways has sixteen Padamshree, three Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, five Dronacharya Sammaan, Six Dhyanchand Sammaan and 134 Arjun Puraskar to its credit which have been awarded to its sports persons. Indian Railways is proud to have 140 Arjuna Awardees and 7 Dhyyanchand Awardees in its family.



RWWCO ORGANIZES SPORTS MEET FOR CHILDREN OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES

Working under the guidelines of the apex body of Railway Women’s Welfare Central Organization (RWWCO), the women organisations across Zonal and Divisional Railways have been voluntarily rendering yeoman service in welfare related activities for railway-men and their families and the society at large. RWWCO has organized various welfare functions during this year. These include organizing sports meet for the children of railways officers and staff in the month of December 2011, Balmela in November 2011 and organized Painting and Essay Writing competition for children of railway employees in September 2011. In addition, RWWCO also released an in-house magazine in May 2011. The contribution of RWWCO in the sphere of providing constructive employment to destitute women towards elementary education to the under privileged and in the sphere of health-care has been exemplary. Their activities also help in enhancing the sense of belonging of the railway-men towards their organization by providing the much needed healing touch.

3815 MW Grid Connected Renewable Capacity Added During 2011

Year End Review – 2011




High lights of the year 2011

· The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has intensified the deployment of various renewable energy technologies in the country for grid connected power generation and to improve energy access in rural areas.



· In the recent competitive solar tariff bidding, the tariff quoted are 50% less than they were when the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission was launched just two years ago.



· Renewable power is now being extensively propagated and used to provide energy access to the remote, inaccessible and difficult areas of the country. During 2011 around 965 villages have been covered with solar lights and 30 villages have been covered with biomass gasifiers.



· The Ministry has undertaken an intensive exercise during the year to review its programmes through various working groups set up for preparation of the 12th Plan. The Ministry is envisaging a capacity addition of about 30,000 MW from renewable during the 12th Plan.



Major Achievements in 2011

The Year 2011 has seen a significant growth with a number of new initiatives in the renewable energy sector. The wind energy sector picked up momentum again by adding over 2800 MW capacity resulting in grid-connected renewable power capacity crossed the 22,000 MW milestone which is about 11% of the total power generation capacity of the country. During the year grid-connected solar power plants crossing the 100 MW milestone. In fact, SPV power plants of over 180 MW were set up in the country. Over 1000 remote villages were electrified through renewable energy systems during this year. Over 50 MW off-grid installations were completed. Another initiative of the Ministry was to launch a comprehensive project to popularize renewable energy systems in the Ladakh







Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission

The Mission aims at adding 20,000 MW solar power capacity in the country by 2022. Implementation of the Phase – I of the Mission started during the year. One of the target areas is promotion of grid-connected solar power in a big way with the objective to bring cost of solar power generation to grid parity levels. In this year 180 MW of grid-connected solar power projects have been commissioned in the country and this figure will cross 400 MW by the end of this financial year. Projects totaling 350 MW have been allotted in batch-II of phase–I in December,2011 through competitive bidding. The tariff quoted are amongst lowest tariffs anywhere in the World with an average Rs.8.77 per kWh and a bid lowest of Rs.7.49 per kWh. If compared with the tariffs of over Rs.18 per kWh at the start of the Mission, this is a reduction of more than 50%.



The Ministry is giving special focus on research in solar energy. 36 R&D projects in solar thermal and photovoltaic technologies are under implementation. A Centre for Solar Thermal Research has been set up at IIT Rajasthan, Jodhpur. Under R&D Projects sponsored to industries in public-private partnership mode, a 30 ton Solar air conditioning system using concentrating parabolic troughs and triple effect vapor absorption machine has been developed and demonstrated at Solar Energy Centre, MNRE. It is a stand-alone system for day time use and can take care of intermittent clouds through small storage. The system once tested for its satisfactory performance, could be useful for offices and institutions working during day time when solar radiation is also available. In another project, a State of the Art fully automatically tracked paraboloid dish of 90 sq. m. area has also been developed and demonstrated at Solar Energy Centre. The dish is expected to find good opportunity in industries for processed heat applications as it is installed on a pillar and the space below dish could be utilized for other purposes.



Grid Connected Renewable Power

A capacity addition of 3815 MW have been achieved during 2011 from various renewable energy sources. This includes 2827 MW from wind, 310 MW from small hydro, 498 MW from biomass and 180 MW from solar energy. With this, the total installed capacity from renewable has reached 22,447 MW.



Wind power is the fastest growing renewable energy option today. A total capacity of 15,880 MW of wind power has been installed in the country. The progress during the current year has been very good. A capacity of around 2827 MW has been installed during the year. It is expected that it will touch around 3500 MW upto March,2012. It would be a significant improvement as compared to figures of 1485, 1565 and 2350 MW in 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11 respectively. As per the recommendations of Working Group for 12th Plan, a target of 15,000 MW has been proposed for 12th Plan.



The Small hydro power programme in India is now by and large private investment driven. 24 States have announced their policies to invite private sector to set up SHP projects. Since SHP projects have reasonably good economic viability, a number of financial institutions and banks are ready to finance these projects. Accordingly, a major part of capacity addition and exploitation of SHP potential in future is expected from private sector projects. With a capacity addition of 310 MW during 2011, the total installed capacity from SHP projects is 3210 MW. The Ministry is also focusing on developing micro hydel projects and watermills for electrification of remote areas. As per the recommendations of Working Group for 12th Plan, a target of 2,100 MW has been proposed for 12th Plan.



The Biomass Power and Bagasse Co-generation Programme is implemented with the main objective of promoting technologies for optimum use of country’s biomass resources for grid power generation and maximizing power generation from bagasse produced in sugar mills. During 2011 a capacity of 498 MW have been added. The cumulative biomass power/bagasse cogeneration based power capacity has reached 3056 MW. During the year the Ministry has continued the existing scheme with two modification related to (a) Cogeneration projects through Build, Own, Operate, Transfer (BOOT) model in cooperative sugar mill (b) Boiler upgradation of cogeneration projects in cooperative sugar mills. A target of 2600 MW is proposed for the 12th Plan period.



Off - Grid Renewable Energy applications

Energy Access: Renewable power is now being extensively propagated and used to provide energy access to the remote, inaccessible and difficult areas of the country. Lakhs of solar lights, solar water heating systems ,biogas plants have been installed in the country and so far over 9000 remote villages have been illuminated through solar photovoltaic systems and biomass gasifiers



Biomass Gasifier: During the year, the Ministry has promoted multifaceted Biomass Gasifier with a view to utilize locally available surplus biomass resources such as rice husk, corn cab & stalks, arhar stalks, cotton stalks, small wood chips, other agro-residues available in surplus to meet the unmet demand of electricity for villages for lighting, water pumping and micro enterprises. In addition, it is promoting small biomass gasifier and combustion based power plants up to 2 MW capacities connected at the tail end of grid and captive power and thermal applications in rice mills and other industries. The Ministry is focusing on promoting rice husk based gasifier projects for decentralized and distributed power generation to provide unmet demand of electricity in villages.



During 2011, about 70 remote villages/hamlets of Bihar in District East Champaran, West Champaran, Muzaffarpur and Sitamarhi benefited by installation of about 25 rice husk based gasifier systems for distributed power generation based on a sustainable model. In addition, about 120 rice husk gasifier systems are under installation in various villages of Bihar. In addition, about 30 rice mills have installed rice husk gasifier systems retrofitted with existing diesel generating sets saving about 13 lakh liters of diesel annually and installation are underway in about 60 rice mills in different States. During the year, biomass gasifier based tail end grid connected projects of 1.20 MW in Gujarat and 500 kW in Tamil Nadu have been successfully installed.



Biogas : The National Biogas and Manure Management Programme of the Ministry mainly caters to setting up of family type biogas plants for meeting the cooking energy needs in rural areas of the country. During the year, about 45000 family type biogas plants have been installed. With this the cumulative installation of 4.44 million family type biogas plants, about 35.70% of the estimated potential has been realized so far. Apart from setting up family type biogas plants, the Ministry started a new initiative for demonstration of Integrated Technology package in entrepreneurial mode on medium size mixed feed Biogas-Fertilizer Plants (BGFP) for generation, purification/enrichment, bottling and piped distribution of biogas. 21 such projects with aggregate capacity of 37016 cum/day have been sanctioned, out of which 2 BGFP projects have been commissioned. Under Biogas based Distributed/Grid Power Generation Programme (BPGP) so far 158 projects have been commissioned with a total installed capacity of about 2 MW.

Remote Village Electrification: The Ministry is implementing Remote Village Electrification Programme for providing financial support for lighting/basic electrification through various renewable sources, to those remote unelectrified census villages and unelectrified hamlets of electrified census villages where grid extension is found not feasible by the State Governments and hence are not covered under the Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojna. The programme is implemented in States by the State notified implementing agencies. During the current year, 836 remote villages and hamlets have been completed.



Electrification/illumination of border Villages of Arunachal Pradesh: Implementation of the project for electrification/ illumination of border Villages of Arunachal Pradesh further progressed and out of 1058 villages, 726 villages have been illuminated / electrified. These include, 523 villages, where all households have been provided with solar home lighting systems and balance villages are given electricity from small / micro hydel projects. Further, work in 107 new micro/ small hydro projects is in progress. The project is being monitored by a Steering committee and is targeted to be completed by March, 2012.



Ladakh Renewable Energy Initiative: The Ministry has initiated the implementation of a Rs. 473 crore Special Project for the Ladakh region for large scale use of renewable energy systems in order to provide energy access and minimize use of diesel in the most difficult part of the country and thereby open the doors for coverage of other similar areas. Solar PV lights and solar water heating systems have been intensively promoted in the last one year and 28 villages and 78 institutions in the district stand covered through solar power plants with over 90% house hold coverage. 930 households are using solar water heaters even at sub-zero temperature for their hot water needs. Over 1800 green houses have also been constructed for growing vegetables.



Human Resource Development: In view of rapid growth of renewable energy sector in the country, Ministry has initiated the process to institutionalize the renewable energy education in the country to enable the existing educational institutions to introduce courses related to renewable energy in their regular curriculum. With this initiation, solar street lights, solar hot water systems and small hydro have already been incorporated in the two-year ITI syllabus. Course material for this has been developed and faculty of it is now being trained. In addition, State Renewable Energy Agencies are being supported to organize short-term training programmes for installation, operation and maintenance and repair of renewable energy systems in such places where intensive RE programme are being implemented. Renewable Energy Chairs have been established in IIT Roorkee and IIT Kharagpur.



National Solar Science Fellowship Programme has been launched and process for selection for the National Solar Science Fellows initiated. These efforts, while generating pool of trained manpower at all levels, will also create a system, under which the ensuing requirement of qualified and trained personnel will be met in future. Solar Energy Centre of the Ministry in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs has been providing training to participants from different developing countries.



Renewable Energy and Climate Change:

Renewable energy is central to climate change mitigation efforts. Broad estimates indicate that mitigation from existing renewable energy portfolio is equivalent to around 4-5% of total energy related emissions in the country. Further, the vast market potential and well-developed industrial, financing and business infrastructure, has made India a favorable destination for Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects, with renewable energy projects having the major share. National renewable energy plans offer ample opportunity for CDM projects and technological innovations.



India had 727 registered CDM projects, which is around 21% of worldwide registered projects. With 520 projects, renewable constitute around 72% Indian CDM registered projects. Within renewable, wind has the maximum number of 225 projects followed by hydro 82 and 6 for solar energy.

Achievements of Ministry of Heavy Industries During the Year 2011



A number of milestones were achieved by the Ministry of Heavy Industries in the year 2011.

Automotive Sector



· Based on the approval accorded by Union Cabinet for Department’s proposal on National Mission on Electric Mobility, National Council for Electric Mobility (NCEM) and National Board for Electric Mobility (NBEM) were set up on 27th May, 2011.

· Union Cabinet, in its meeting held on 16.11.2011, approved Department’s proposal for signing of Joint Declaration of Intent (JDI) and setting up of an Indo-Netherlands JWG on Automotive Sector for strengthening the cooperation in the field of Automotive Sector.



National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRIP)

· Jaffirbund campus, Silchar was operationalised on 15th July, 2011.

· FAT Lab & EMC Lab at GARC, Chennai were completed on 15 May, 2011 and 16 June, 2011 respectively.

· MACD lab at iCAT at Manesar was operationalised on 31st May, 2011. General Storage & Client Workshop, iCAT II at Manesar was completed on 16th August, 2011.

· General Storage & Client Workshop at NATRAX, Indore was completed on 16th August, 2011.

· The revised cost of the project, to be completed by December, 2012 is ` 2,288.06 crore.



Achievements of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL)

Up to November of the current financial year (2011-12), BHEL has achieved a Turnover of Rs. 24,826 Crore. The Turnover of the company in the first two quarters of 2011-12 (April-Sep, 2011) was Rs. 18,190 Crores, an increase of 18% over that achieved in the same period during 2010-11. Similarly the net profit during April-Sep, 2011 was Rs.2227 Crores, an increase of 23 % over that achieved during April-Sep,2010.

In the current financial year (2011-12) during April to December, 2011 the company has booked orders worth Rs. 15,305 Crore. The total order book position as of stands at Rs 1,61,000 crore.

Major Project Milestones:

· The total Capacity addition from April, 2011 stand at a level of 3,525 MW in addition to the synchronized sets of 1298 MW awaiting capacity addition.



Major Project Milestones in International Operations:



· Synchronisation & Base load operation of Unit-1 of 2 x Fr-9E (2 x 126 MW) Amal Power Project, PDO Oman

· Completion of Performance Guarantee test for both units of 2x126 MW Gas based Power Project Siddhirganj, Bangladesh.

· Completion of Performance Guarantee test for both units of 2 x Fr 5 Gas Turbine Generator based Power Plant, HICO – Muscat, Oman.

· Completion of 96 Hrs reliability run of 1 x 62.5 MW Bihai HEP, Taiwan.

· 3x5 MW Devighat Hydro power plant handed over to Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) after successful Renovation & Modernisation.

India’s External debt Stood at US$ 326.6 billion at End-September 2011; an increase of 6.6 per cent over the Level of US$ 306.4 billion at End-March 2011

At end-September 2011, India’s external debt stock was US$ 326.6 billion reflecting an increase of 6.6 per cent over the level of US$ 306.4 billion at end-March 2011. The rise in external debt is largely attributed to increase in external commercial borrowings, export credits and short term debt.



Short-term debt accounted for 21.9 per cent of India’s external debt at end-September 2011 while the rest (78.1 per cent) was long-term. Component-wise, the share of external commercial borrowings stood highest at 30.3 per cent in total external debt followed by NRI deposits (16.0 per cent) and multilateral debt (15.0 per cent).



Between end-March 2006 and end-March 2011, commercial borrowings have registered a compound annual growth rate of 27.4 per cent. The increase in external commercial borrowings reflects some concern, given that the depreciation of the Rupee leads to higher debt service burden in Rupee terms that could impact profitability and the balance sheets of corporate borrowers.



The shares of Government (Sovereign) and non-Government in total external debt were 24.3 per cent and 75.7 per cent, respectively, at end-September 2011.



The share of debt denominated in US Dollar was the highest in India’s external debt stock at 55.8 per cent at end-September 2011, followed by the Indian Rupee (18.2 per cent) and the Japanese Yen (12.1 per cent).



India’s foreign exchange reserves provided a cover of 95.4 per cent to the total external debt stock at end-September 2011 vis-à-vis 99.5 per cent at end-March 2011. The ratio of short-term external debt to foreign exchange reserves stood at 22.9 per cent at end-September 2011, as compared to 21.3 per cent at end-March 2011.Other indicators of India’s external debt remain within manageable limits.

The ratio of concessional debt to total external debt declined to 14.7 per cent at end-September 2011 from 15.5 per cent at end-March 2011.



The detailed Report on India’s external debt as at end-September 2011 is available on the website of Ministry of Finance – www.finmin.nic.in.

New System of Coal Grading from January 2012

The Ministry of Coal is migrating to Gross Calorific Value (GCV) based grading system fro non-coking coals from the existing Useful Heat Value (UHV) based system with effect from 1st January 2012 which is an international practice. The new system is being introduced based on the recommendations of the Integrated Energy Policy Committee and the Expert Committee on Road Map for Coal Sector Reforms. The proposed new system of grading will create a win-win situation for both the coal consumer and producer by incentivizing improvement in quality resulting in better quality of coal to the consume and commensurate realization for the coal companies. The new system is not likely to lead to any significant change in the pricing.

2011 Marked by Important Initiatives in Oil and Gas Sector


Year End Review - 2011


The Year 2011 has been marked by significant developments in the Oil and Gas sector as the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas took several important initiatives for the growth of the sector. Some of these include approvals for induction of new partners in upstream-projects, commissioning Bina Refinery, bidding for NELP-IX blocks and acquisition of 25% equity stake by OVL in Satpayev block in Kazakhstan. The prices of sensitive petroleum products i.e. Diesel, domestic LPG and PDS Kerosene were maintained at affordable levels by substantial duty cuts, Government’s cash assistance to OMCs and contribution of upstream PSUs.

Exploration and production

To give a boost to domestic exploration & production efforts, bidding process for exploration blocks under Ninth Round of New exploration Licensing Policy (NELP-IX) was completed with a number of Indian and Foreign oil companies bidding for these blocks. The decision on award of blocks would be taken soon. The government also approved the induction of BP as RIL’s partner in their fields and the strategic sale by Cairn PLC, UK of its stakes in Cairn India Ltd to Vedanta Resources PLC. These measures are expected to accelerate the E& P activities in the country.

Augmenting supply of natural gas

Besides efforts to increase domestic gas production, discussions were further held in the direction to implement proposed cross border Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project. The Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline project is also under consideration/discussion for sourcing natural gas. Liquefied Natural Gas(LNG) imports have picked up to meet domestic needs. Along with other projects, LNG import terminal is being built at Kochi which is progressing well. India is increasing its current RLNG regasification capacity from the current 13 million tons per annum to well over 30 million tons, by 2015. The Government is also endeavouring to increase the pipeline infrastructure in the country especially in southern and eastern regions of the country. To carry gas across the length and breadth of India, 8,000 kms of gas pipelines are being laid while another 5,000 kms are under the bidding process. The City Gas Distribution projects to supply Piped Natural Gas (PNG) and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) are also being encouraged to expand availability of cleaner fuels.

Oil diplomacy in higher gear

In order to achieve the objective of oil security, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas engaged several countries/for a in bilateral/multi-lateral talks. These include attending/holding international meets like International Energy Forum meet at Riyadh, ASEAN Energy Ministers Summit at Brunei, WPC at Doha, India-Africa Hydrocarbon Conference in Delhi and 4th Asian Energy Ministerial Roundtable at Kuwait. Indian delegations also had bilateral talks with various oil rich countries including Saudi Arabia, Canada, Iran, Qatar, UAE, Nigeria, Oman, Kazakhstan, Bahrain, Turkmenistan, Indonesia, etc. to enhance cooperation in hydrocarbon sector. These engagements create conducive environment and lead specific projects and activities for mutual benefits.

Among major successes in the oil diplomacy during the year include signing of an agreement between national oil company of Kazakhstan and ONGC Videsh Ltd. (OVL), for 25% participating interest in Satpayev field. The Indian proposal for formulating a joint strategy to maintain stability in global oil prices endorsed by 60 odd countries at the International Energy Forum (IEF) meet in Mexico, was re-enforced at the Extra-ordinary Ministerial IEF meeting at Riyadh.

Augmenting Surplus refining capacity for value addition

The refining capacity in the country has been augmented to about 194 Million Metric Tonnes Per Annum (MMTPA), with the completion of commissioning of the refinery project at Bina, (6 MMPPA). The refining capacity is well above the annual demand of about 142MMTPA. This is significant for a heavily import-dependent country like India as domestic value addition helps earn foreign exchange by way of exports. Oil sector maintained its status of the highest export revenue earner amongst mercantile products with the country exporting about 59 MMTPA finished petroleum products valued at US$ 43 billion during 2010-11. The momentum has been sustained during current fiscal with an exports of about 42 MMT in the period April-November 2011 valued at US $ 38 billion. Further, other refinery projects both grass-root and expansion are underway so as to increase the refining capacity to 238MMTPA by 2013.

Expanding infrastructure for LPG to rural households

To provide clean cooking fuel in rural areas and to achieve 75% population coverage with domestic LPG a number of LPG distributorships are being set up transparently under Rajeev Gandhi Grameen LPG Vitrak Yojna (RGGLVY). Launched in March 2010, Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have so far advertised over 3700 locations in rural areas to open LPG agencies under this scheme. Nearly, 800 RGGLVs have already been commissioned. This measure will greatly improve the cooking conditions in the kitchens of rural house-holds. The scheme also provides new employment opportunities for the rural population leading to overall economic prosperity. Youth in the age group of 21-45 years are being appointed as distributors under the scheme.

Equitable burden-sharing marks pricing reforms

As part of major pricing reforms, prices of Petrol were reduced twice by OMCs in the second half of the year. The OMCs are revising petrol prices since its deregulation on 26.6.2010. The Government effected significant central duty reductions on diesel, crude oil and petrol products in June in order to keep prices at affordable level in case of diesel, domestic LPG and PDS Kerosene. Despite this, OMCs are expected to incur under-recoveries of over 1,30,000 crore during the current fiscal year. Thus consumers have been greatly insulated from the impact of high global oil prices which have ruled at about US $ 110/bbl this fiscal against US$ 84.09/bbl in 2010-11.

Promoting Ethanol blending with petrol

Petroleum Ministry continued to pursue implementation by the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme during the year. Though faced with shortage of supply by ethanol manufacturers, the OMCs still managed to procure 36.19crore litres of ethanol during the supply cycle October, 2010 to September 2011 for blending with petrol at the level of 5 % against 55.87 crore litres committed by them. Besides non-supply of sufficient quantity by ethanol manufacturers, the programme also faced the challenge of state specific issues in some states. The OMCs further issued tender notice to seek supply of 101 crore litres of ethanol in the annual season commencing October 2011. However, the response by the ethanol manufacturers accounts for only about 60% ethanol needed for 5% EBP in the notified States/UTs.

Anti - Adulteration Drive intensified

The drive to check adulteration of petroleum products and prevent its misuse, the Ministry directed OMCs to intensify their drive against the malpractices in distribution. The support of OMCs was offered to State Governments to introduce vehicles tracking system for transportation of PDS Kerosene by the state Government administration. OMCs also introduced transparency portal carrying information about PDS Kerosene dispatches from OMC depots and about the domestic LPG Cylinders supplied by distributors. These information now available in public domain could help the consumers and the discerning public so that any misuse is reported to appropriate authorities for strict action. The OMC have carried out intensive inspections across their distribution networks to ensure better products/services to the consumers.

The year 2011 has thus been very significant in terms of taking the sector ahead in exploration and production, effective harnessing of oil diplomacy for oil security, increasing refining capacity, ensuring affordable prices of sensitive petroleum products, intensive drive to ensure availability of better products & services.

Year-End-Review of the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs for the year 2011

Several Social Security and Labour Agreements signed for Welfare of Overseas Indians

2011 was an eventful year for Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs with several Labour and Social Security agreements signed with foreign countries for protection and betterment of Indian workers and professionals. An equally large number of initiatives were taken for constructive and mutually beneficial engagement with the Indian Diaspora. Some highlights are given below.

Bilateral Labour Agreements for Migrant Workers

Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs has entered into Bilateral Labour Agreements with UAE, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan and Malaysia. Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs has taken several initiatives for safeguarding the welfare and protection of Indian workers going abroad. The Bilateral Labour Agreements include (i) Establishment of Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF) in the Indian Missions to provide immediate relief to the Indian workers in need and distress, (ii) Overseas Workers Resource Centre (OWRC) at New Delhi. This centre has 24x7 helpline and walk-in counseling centre to provide information and to handle workers problems. This centre uses 8 Indian languages and has a toll free number. (iii) Bilateral Social Security Agreements (SSA) for protection of the interests of Indian professionals going abroad and (iv) Indian Workers Resource Centre (IWRC) at Dubai for providing information to the Indian workers and to handle their problems.

Revised MoU on Manpower with UAE

A revised Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on manpower was signed in September 2011. The MoU will strengthen the symbiotic relationship and mutual cooperation between the two countries. The revised MoU will boost the initiative of the Ministry in implementing Web Based Attestation Procedure for employment contracts for emigrant workers in UAE by the Embassy of India, Abu Dhabi. A need has been felt over the years to revise the MoU, which was signed between India and the UAE in December, 2006 to address various problems faced by the Indian emigrant workers in the UAE. The MoU in the field of manpower between India and the UAE provides (i) Facilitation of the recruitment of Indian manpower for working in the UAE (ii) Broad procedure for employment of workers; Responsibilities of the employers and workers (iii) Exchange of knowledge and experience in job-creation and generation of employment opportunity iv) Protection and welfare of workers under the labour laws and regulations of the host country (v) Authentication of the work contract between the Employer and the employee by the Ministry of Labour, Government of UAE (Vi) and (vii) Constitution of a Joint Committee comprising of at least three Members each from both the Governments to implement the provisions of the MoU.

Social Security Agreements

The Ministry has concluded the Social Security Agreements (SSA) with Belgium, France, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Denmark. A comprehensive SSA was signed with Germany at Berlin in October, 2011. The SSA between India and France came into force with effect from 01.07.2011 and the SSA between India and Luxembourg came into force with effect from 1st June, 2011. The administrative Arrangement of the SSA between India and the Republic of Korea was signed at Seoul in July this year. A Norwegian Delegation and a Japanese delegation visited New Delhi this year for finalization of forms of the SSA. Countries with which India has already signed SSA but the agreements have not come into force due to finalization of forms being under process are; Netherlands, Hungary, Czech Republic, Norway. The Government is in negotiations on Social Security Agreements with Portugal, Canada, Finland, Austria, Sweden, Australia and Japan. The bilateral Social Security Agreements protect the interests of Indian professionals by providing following benefits:

Exemption from social security contribution for the posted (detached) workers (provided the worker is covered under the Indian social security system and continues to pay his contribution to the Indian system during the period of contract).

Exportability of benefits in case of relocation to India or any other country after having made social security contribution.

Totalization of the periods of contribution pertaining to both countries for the purpose of assessing eligibility for benefit/pension under the legislation of each country.

Social Security Agreements provides for pension and insurance benefits to Indian workers working abroad in the countries with whom India has entered into an SSA.

9th Pravasi Bhartiya Divas

Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) convention is the flagship event of the Ministry organized every year in January since 2003, with a view to connect India to its vast Indian diaspora and bringing their knowledge, expertise and skills on a common platform. The 9th edition of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas convention was held in New Delhi from 7th to 9th January, 2011. The Convention was inaugurated by the Prime Minister and the valedictory address was delivered by the President. The President also conferred the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award to the eminent Overseas Indians. The theme of the event was “Engaging the Global Indian”. Sir Anand Satyanand, Governor General of New Zealand was the Chief Guest for 9th PBD.

Regional Pravasi Bhartiya Divas, Canada

The fifth Regional Pravasi Bhartiya Divas (PBD) was held in Toronto from 9th and 10th June 2011 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The theme of the Conference was “Building bridges: Positioning strategies for the Indian diaspora”.

Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra

The Ground-breaking ceremony of the Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra (PBK) was held in April 2011 and the construction work of building has been commenced. The PBK will be the prominent centre for Overseas Indians. It will serve as the focal point of the institutional framework to benefit from networks with and among overseas Indians. The Kendra will develop into the hub of activities for sustainable, symbiotic and mutually rewarding economic, social and cultural engagement between India and its Diaspora. The Kendra would have the facilities such as library/research centre, flexible capacity meeting rooms, Indian Cultural Centre, art auditorium and fully fledged business centres etc. The PBK will be established on three plots of lands, measuring about 9800 sq. mts. at Chanakyapuri, New Delhi.

Unveiling of Memorial plaque at Kolkata

A Memorial plaque in honour of Indian Indentured Labourers was unveiled at Kidderpore Dock, Kolkata Port to commemorate the thousands of indentured Indian workers who sailed from Kolkata Port between 1834 and 1920, to lands far away, seeking better livelihoods for themselves and their families. This memorial symbolizes the deep emotional connect the descendants of those Indians, who are now living in different countries of the world. During the indenture system, which lasted from 1833 to 1920, more than 1,190,000 Indians were sent to work to different parts of the world. About 453,000 went to Mauritius, 239,000 to British Guiana, 144,000 to Trinidad and 152,000 to Natal, South Africa. This is the first ever Memorial established in India in honour of Indian Indentured Labourers that travelled from India in the 19th & 20th centuries. The Kolkata Memorial recognizes and honours the indomitable spirit and heroism of all Indians who left the shores of their motherland from 1833 to 1920 to embark a long and hazardous journeys to far away

Web-Based Attestation Procedure for Overseas Indian Workers

The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs announced to implement a web-based attestation procedure for the benefit of Indian workers going to the UAE for employment. The Web Based Attestation Procedure will include registration of employers, online filing of the demand, online receipt of documents from Indian Missions, filing of details of employees selected and finally the Emigration Clearance of the Protector of Emigrants (POE). This system will provide access to all data/information related to the recruitment of Indian Emigrant Workers in the country of destination to the Indian Mission, the employer, the Protector General of Emigrants (PGE) and the Protector of Emigrants (POE). Thus, the system will provide a data bank of the employer, the Indian worker, contract validation, control on recruitment and grievance redressal and the resolution of labour disputes.

6th Head of Missions Conference

The 6th Annual Conference of the Head of Missions was held in New Delhi. Heads of Indian Missions of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries as well as Jordan, Yemen, Malaysia, Maldives, Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa and Iraq attended the conference. The Agenda of the Conference was, the new initiatives in the Emigration Policy being framed by the Ministry, review of various welfare measures at the Mission level, strengthening Grievance Redressal Mechanism at the Mission level, follow up on the Joint Working Group meetings’ decisions, pursuant to labour MoUs with five GCC countries etc. The two day Conference was an important institutional initiative to discuss various issues and problems relating to the Overseas Indian Community, especially the expatriate workers and to further develop an institutional framework and operational mechanism to effectively address the concerns of Overseas Indians.

4th Consultation meeting with State Governments

The 4th Consultation Meeting with State Governments on Emigration Management held in New Delhi. The two-day consultation meeting is being organized to discuss various emigration and Diaspora related matters and how best the Ministry can partner with the State Governments to provide required support and guidance in effectively addressing the concerns of Overseas Indians. The aim of this consultation meeting was to take this engagement of the States to the next level in Emigration Management. This meeting is an important initiative of the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) for providing a platform for the State Governments to make suggestions and recommendations to the Government of India in the matter of emigration and overseas Indians.

Know India Programme

35 participants from 12 countries (Australia, Canada, Chile, Fiji, New Zealand, Peru, Suriname, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, UK and Zimbabwe) participated in the 16th Know India Programme from 5th- 26th January 2011. A group of 24 diaspora youth from seven countries attended 17th Know India Programme (KIP) from 28th April to 18th May, 2011. The Programme was conducted by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs. The 18th Know India Programme (KIP) of this Ministry held from 21st September, 2011 to 11th October, 2011 with partner State of Rajasthan. 28 Diaspora Youth in the age group of 18-26 years (12 girls and 16 boys) from six countries (Australia, Fiji, South Africa, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago and Malaysia) took part in the progrmme.

The Know India Programme, by the Ministry of Overseas Indian affairs is organized for diaspora youth, in the age group of 18-26 years is conducted by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs. The programme is held in partnership with one or two State Governments with a view to promoting awareness on the different facets of life in India and the progress made by the country in various fields e.g. economic, industrial, education, science & technology, communication and information technology and culture.