Access to Justice for Marginalized People
The Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India is implementing a Project on ‘Access to Justice for Marginalized People’ with support from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The Project, being implemented in 7 states (Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh), aims to strengthen access to justice for the marginalized - particularly women, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and minorities - by supporting strategies and initiatives that seek to address the barriers they face. The Project focuses, on the one hand, on improving institutional capacities of key justice service providers to enable them to effectively serve the poor and disadvantaged and on the other hand, on directly empowering the poor and disadvantaged men and women to seek and demand justice services. The Project, started in 2009, has completed two years of implementing activities.
Delhi Ministerial Dialogue on Green Economy and inclusive Growth
Key Points : Integrating green economy strategies and policies into poverty eradication, food security and energy security is an imperative for sustainable development. The issues to be addressed at the two-day 2011 Delhi Ministerial Dialogue on ‘Green Economy and Inclusive Growth’ include sustainable management of sectors like agriculture, industry, energy and transport, urgent adoption of sustainable life styles and consumption patterns through reduction in per capita ecological footprint, appropriate population policies, equity concerns, poverty eradication and developmental imperatives. Designed properly, green economy policies and programmes can directly contribute to poverty eradication. Successful examples can offer lessons and possible models for replication. For instance, India’s rural employment guarantee programme is at one and the same time an anti-poverty programme and an ecosystem restoration programme.
The main challenge facing the international community today is to sustain and accelerate the process of poverty eradication and ensure food and energy security, particularly to developing countries while shifting gradually to a Green Economy. Agriculture plays a critical role in determining food, water, ecological and livelihood security. Sustainable development and management of agriculture would benefit from sharing of best practices including farm and non-farm development, improved post-harvest management, integration of supply chains and strengthening of public distribution systems. Eradicating poverty is an indispensible requirement for sustainable development. A major cause aggravating poverty is the unsustainable pattern of consumption and production. Poverty eradication remains an overriding objective of governments in developing countries, and efforts to build green economies should contribute substantially to realizing that objective.
Energy security is a multi-faceted concept. In the current context, the primary focus is on poor people’s securing adequate energy supplies to raise their living standards, including through improved income generation, health and education. Renewable energy should be considered as an integral part of the solution to the energy needs of the poor, but that will only be feasible if it is affordable and technologically accessible.
PM at 9th ASEAN-India Summit in Bali, Indonesia
Keypoints of Dr. Manmohan Singh’s statement at the 9th ASEAN-India Summit
1. India's partnership with ASEAN is one of the cornerstones of our foreign policy, and the foundation of our ‘Look East’ Policy.
2. India-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement for Trade in Goods has come into effect in all ASEAN Member States and India following its ratification by Cambodia on 1st August, 2011.
3. India’s trade with ASEAN has increased by 30% in 2010-2011 and has crossed the 50 billion US dollar mark. With such a rate of growth we should be able to achieve our trade target of 70 billion US dollar by 2012.
4. The visa on arrival facility for six ASEAN countries is now in place.
5. India proposed to send a Sail Training Ship “Sudarshini” on an expedition to ASEAN countries along the route of the monsoon trade winds.
6. Greater physical connectivity between India and ASEAN remains our strategic objective. There are several proposals under consideration with regard to land and sea connectivity. These include the India-Myanmar-Thailand Highway, its extension to Laos and Cambodia and the development of a new highway also linking Vietnam.
Increase in Current Limit of Foreign Institutional Investors
Government of India has decided to increase the current limit of Foreign Institutional Investors’ (FIIs) investments in Government Securities by US$ 5 billion raising the cap to US$ 15 billion. The incremental limit of US$ 5 billion can be invested in securities without any residual maturity criterion. Besides it, the Government has also decided to increase the investment of FIIs’ investments in corporate bonds by US$ 5 billion raising the cap to US$20 billion. The policy has been reviewed in the context of India’s evolving macroeconomic situation, the need for enhancing capital flows and making available additional financial resources for India’s corporate sector.
Exim Bank
The Export Import Bank of India, herein after referred as Exim Bank, was set up as a Corporation in 1982 under the Export Import Bank of India Act, 1981 for providing financial assistance to exporters and importers and for functioning as principal financial institution for coordinating the working of institutions engaged in financing export and import of goods and services with a view to promoting the country’s international trade and connected matters. The Union Cabinet approved the introduction of “The Export Import Bank of India (Amendment) Bill, 2011” to amend the Export – Import Bank Act, 1981 (the Act) in the Parliament. The Bill seeks to increase the authorised capital of the Exim Bank from Rs.2000 crore to Rs.10,000 crore with the provision that the Central Government may, further, by notification, increase the said capital. Increase in the authorised capital would enable the bank to take higher export credit exposures, enable it to borrow funds to disburse under export line of credits.
India Launches new Generation Strategic missile AGNI 4
India successfully test fired the most advanced long range missile system Agni-4 today. The missile followed its trajectory, in a text book fashion, attained a height of about 900 kms and reached the pre-designated target in the international waters of Bay of Bengal. All mission objectives were fully met. The Missile System is equipped with modern and compact Avionics with Redundancy to provide high level of reliability. The indigenous Ring Laser Gyros based high accuracy INS (RINS) and Micro Navigation System (MINGS) complementing each other in redundant mode have been successfully flown in guidance mode for the first time. Smt. Tessy Thomas, Project Director AGNI-4 and her team prepared and integrated the Missile System and launched the Missile successfully.
Indian vaccine market reaches $ 900 million
India produces 60 percent of the world’s vaccines and account for 60-80 percent of annual UN vaccine purchases. Several Indian vaccine manufacturers are WHO pre-qualified. The current Indian vaccine market is estimated at around $ 900 million and targets $4.6 billion revenue by 2017. Vaccines are the most cost-effective public health products known to us. And they are means to prevent or the potential to develop preventive solutions. Every year, about eight million children globally never make it to their fifth birthday that can be saved with vaccines.
"I have always held that the time for congratulation is not when a man is appointed to an office, but when he retires” - Dr. Rajendra Prasad on his election as the first President of independent India
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