Cabinet nod for rail infra projects worth Rs 10,736 cr

Businesstoday, May 25, 2016

Railway projects worth Rs 10,736 crore were cleared by the government on Wednesday for improving infrastructure in various states, including Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat that go to polls next year.

The projects, including three for doubling of existing rail lines and two for laying a third rail line on busy routes, were cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) at its meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"I am happy to say that the CCEA has approved projects worth Rs 10,736 crore for doubling and tripling (of railway lines). There are a total of five new projects, three doubling projects for 763 kms and two third line projects for 514 kms.

"The benefit of these projects obviously will go to several states but two important states will benefit immensely, one is Gujarat and the other is Uttar Pradesh," Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said at a press conference after the meeting.

Providing details of the projects, he said, in Gujarat the CCEA has given approval for doubling of Surendranagar-Rajkot project at an estimated cost of Rs 1,002.39 crore with expected completion cost of Rs 1,137.17 crore with 5 per cent escalation per annum.

The length of the railway line will be 116.17 kms. The completion period of the project will be four years.

"It is a major push to Gujarat's industrialisation ability," he said.

He said the doubling of this line will greatly ease the ever increasing freight traffic between Okha-Rajkot, Porbandar-Kanalus, Veraval-Rajkot and Maliya Maiyana - Navalakhi-Dahinsara-Wankaner sections.

In UP, he said the doubling of Roza-Sitapur Cantt-Burhwal broad gauge single line project has been approved at an estimated cost of Rs 1,295.42 crore with expected completion cost of Rs 1,486.46 crore with 5 per cent escalation per annum.

The length of the railway line will be 180.77 kms. The completion period of the project will be five years.

The doubling of this line between Burhwal junction and Roza junction will fulfill the demand of the increasing traffic leading to socio-economic development of the area.

Besides, there will be continuous double line track available from Gorakhpur to Delhi via Sitapur Cantonment and Moradabad.

Barabanki and Sitapur districts of UP would also be benefited through this project.

Prabhu said the CCEA also gave its nod for doubling of Pune-Miraj-Londa railway line in Maharashtra at an estimated cost of Rs 3,627.47 crore and expected completion cost of Rs 4,246.84 crore in five years keeping in view the 5 per cent escalation per annum.

The length of the railway line will be 467 kms.

Besides the travelling people, industries in and around Miraj-Londa section will have additional transport capacity to meet their requirements.

Doubling of this line will greatly ease the ever increasing freight traffic on the Pune-Miraj-Londa section thereby increasing the revenue of the Railways, a railway ministry statement said.

The Pune-Miraj section is non-electrified single line on diesel traction and it is oversaturated.

"The additional traffic running over and above 100 per cent of utilisation is proposed to be diverted on the proposed doubling. The doubling of the section would come as an advantage as it would strengthen the rail network necessary to operate more passenger trains with increased speed and better efficiency," it said.

Prabhu said the CCEA also granted approval for the Vizianagaram and Titlagarh third line project at an estimated cost of Rs 2,335.68 crore. The length of the railway line will be 264.6 kms. The completion period of the project will be five years.

The third line is an alternative route to the over-burdened existing line and this link will also open an alternative route to oversaturated Kharagpur Jharsuguda section Howrah-Mumbai Grand Trunk Route and Howrah-Chennai section main line of East Coast Railways.

Rayagada and Kalahandi districts of Odisha and Vizianagaram and Babbili districts of Andhra Pradesh will benefit from this project.

The section is oversaturated with present capacity utilisation of 106 per cent and there is a huge detention to rolling stock.

The Bina-Katni third line project under West Central Railway (WCR) was also approved at an estimated cost of Rs 2,478.23 crore and expected completion cost of Rs 2,917.06 crore in five years. The line will be 278.7 kms long.

Besides facilitating passenger travel, the thermal power plants in the area will get a third line for transportation.

It will also greatly ease the ever-increasing freight traffic between Bina-Katni section increasing the railways' earnings. Sagar, Damoh and Katni districts of Madhya Pradesh will benefit from this project, the ministry said.

The Bina-Katni is critical and busy section of WCR serving coal rakes for thermal power plants at Chhabra Gugur and Jhalawar in Rajasthan and paints, oils and lubricants (POL) traffic for Mahadevkhedi in Madhya Pradesh. At present, the capacity utilisation of the section is 136 per cent, the statement said.

Asked if the approved projects had been accounted for in the Rail Budget, Prabhu said, "Most of them are a mix, but some projects mentioned are with trans-budgetary support and some with extra-budgetary support."

The completion of these projects, he said, will be between three to five years but the time limits given are outer limits and the government will be able to complete the projects earlier.

Apex committee to recommend railways for alternative industry in Kalahandi

Times of India, May 9, 2016
BHUBANESWAR: A meeting of an apex committee took place at the state secretariat here on Monday to study the feasibility of a proposal for setting up of an alternative industry for Narla in Kalahandi district against the proposed railway wagon repair workshop which was allegedly shifted from the district to Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

The apex committee comprised of chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi and East Coast Railway (ECoR) general manager Rajiv Vishnoi discussed thoroughly on the proposal. "After detailed study and consultation with different departments of the state government and district administration of Kalahandi, the committee will submit its report to Ministry of Railways on the proposal," official sources said.

Shifting of the proposed wagon repair workshop from Narla to Andhra Pradesh had created hue and cry in the state. Ruling party BJD and opposition congress had strongly opposed the move of the Railway Board by raising the issue in the assembly. Congress had staged Kalahandi bandh last month demanding set up of the project in the district.
Later railway minister Suresh Prabhu had met chief minister Naveen Patnaik here on April 16 and discussed with him about the controversy. He had told Naveen that the proposed factory was not in the pink book, an official register of railways with information on allocation of funds to different projects.

During the conversation, he had assured the chief minister that his ministry is planning a new project for Kalahandi. Then a high-level committee had been constituted to study the feasibility of the new industry in the district.

According to Prabhu's proposal, the committee was formed last month. The apex committee has already conducted two meetings to work on the issue.

Padhi said he and Vishnoi has discussed at length about the proposal. "We will send our report to the central government about the setting up of the alternative industry for Kalahandi," he added.

Vedanta to close down Lanjigarh refinery due to falling metal prices

The Indian Express, Aug 26, 2015
The Niyamgiri hilltop, which Vedanta wanted to mine, contained an estimated 72 million tonnes of bauxite. 

Written by Debabrata Mohanty | Bhubaneswar | Published:August 27, 2015 1:19 am

Anil Agarwal-owned Vedanta has decided to close down its one million tonne alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district due to non-availability of bauxite ore and falling global metal prices.

Vedanta’s chief operating officer KK Dave said with the current market turmoil, “which is not likely to improve soon and in absence of access to bauxite ore from within the state,” the company was forced to start the process of closure. He said the plant is operating with a daily loss of Rs 3 crore. The Niyamgiri hilltop, which Vedanta wanted to mine, contained an estimated 72 million tonnes of bauxite. But the company could not mine due to opposition from Dongaria Kondh tribals residing on the hill slopes.

The Odisha government also showed its helplessness today saying it can’t provide bauxite as no lease was available with its mining PSU Odisha Mining Corporation. State steel and mines minister Prafulla Mallick said OMC has no running bauxite mine. In 2009, OMC had formed South West Bauxite Mining Company, a joint venture with 26 per cent equity of Vedanta for supply of bauxite from deposits in Kalahandi and Rayagada districts to feed the alumina refinery. Though Vedanta officials did not say when the refinery would be shut down, they indicated that it may be done in a fortnight. The shutdown would affect over 1000 employees. In December 2012, Vedanta had shut down its unit temporarily for over 7 months due to economic non-viability and shortfall in bauxite ore supply. Earlier in August, Vedanta decided to suspend production at the rolling mill at Korba in Chhattisgarh as aluminium prices dipped down. 

NATIONAL LEVEL HEALTH INSTITUTE CAN END K’HANDI STIR

The Pioneer, Aug 18, 2015

The State Government has maintained a devilish silence over agitation in Kalahandi over a sorry state of affairs in the Sardar Raja Medical College in Jaring despite the stir has entered its 13th days.

It should be noted that Selvam Educational Trust had signed a MoU with the Odisha Government in 2004 to establish a medical college in Kalahandi. The State Government had provided Rs 10 crore during 2004-07 besides 25 acres of free land to the trust. As per the MoU, the  trust should have established the medical college within five years since signing the MoU. But it took almost a decade when the Medical Council of India (MCI) approved the medical college to take 100 students in 2013-14. Subsequently, in 2014-15, the MCI rejected the approval based on poor infrastructure. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court ruling for private medical college came as a relief and the college took another about 30 students in the year 2014-15. Now all these 130 students are nowhere in their medical education and their dream to be doctors has fallen like nine pins. Thanks to poor infrastructure, faculty crunch and administrative hurdles created by MCI and Sambalpur University, the college’s fate is hanging in balance.

The local people had warned the State Government about the duplicity of the Selvam Educational Trust which was not able to invest adequate amount to improve the infrastructure in the Sardar Raja Medical College in past 11 years. Its track record makes it clear that the trust has minimum expertise in establishing a medical college. Almost all the physical infrastructure building of the Sardar Raja Medical College has come from the Rs 10 crore given by the State Government through the Western Odisha Development Council (WODC) and free land given to the trust. Since from the beginning the trust had not taken the project seriously, people of Kalahandi have been appealing to the State and Central Governments to establish a Government medical college (instead of WODC initiated private medical college) that would benefit poor and tribal population locally.

KBK region is one of the most backward and tribal dominated pockets in India. The health scenario, especially secondary and tertiary health facilities, is extremely poor. Kalahandi is a central district and Bhawanipatna is a central town in the KBK region. A Central Government medical institution at Bhawanipatna will give additional advantages in terms of secondary and tertiary health need for the poor people in an affordable way who are now forced to depend on hospitals outside the State. Such institution will also meet human resource requirement in the Health Department at the local level and poor and lower middle class students in the region can access medical education unlike in the private medical college.

Since the Odisha Government has failed to take appropriate steps and has ignored the genuine need of public demand in last five years, the public in Kalahandi has lost faith on it. It is unfortunate that when the Central Government is planning to establish 60 new Government medical colleges across India, it failed to take note of the need of a backward region like Kalahandi.

The situation in the district is deteriorating by the day. The Centre needs to intervene immediately and establish a Post Graduate Medical College and Research Center or KBK Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences in Bhawanipatna, which would be in the line of North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences and resolve the ongoing strike in Kalahandi.

(The writer is Associate Professor of Chemistry, American University of Beirut, Lebanon and a native of Kalahandi)

IISER Odisha to come up at Berhampur

Note: What about Second Agriculture University and a General University in Kalahandi?

Business Standard, Aug 1, 2015

IISERs are a group of premier science education and research institutes in the country

The Indian Institute of Science Education & Research (IISER) would come up in the southern city of Berhampur.

"The state government would provide 200 acres of land for IISER. Academic session would commence from 2016-17", said state minister for employment, technical education & training Sanjay Das Burma.

Union finance minister Arun Jaitley had announced the establishment of IISER in Odisha in the Budget for 2015-16.

"Today is a historic day for the people of Odisha since chief minister Naveen Patnaik today decided to set up IISER at the life line of southern Odisha, Berhampur in Ganjam district", Dasburma told reporters here.

"Berhampur has necessary infrastructure like road, rail and air connectivity, which is in conformity with the central guidelines. This apart, the state government is committed to provide temporary campus facility for this institute of national importance in and around Berhampur", he added.

The IISERs are a group of most premier science education and research institutes in the country. These institutions have been declared by an Act of Parliament as institutions of national importance and are intended to be the IITs of basic sciences. The institutes were created by the Government of India, through the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), under The National Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2010.

Five IISERs have already come up in the country at Kolkata, Pune, Mohali, Bhopal and Thiruvnanthapuram. In the 2015-16 Budget, two new IISERs were announced for Odisha and Nagaland.

Rebidding for Bhedabahal UMPP by September

Business Standard, July 22, 2015

Decision taken at a meeting convened on Tuesday by the Union power ministry to take stock of status of UMPPs

Jayajit Dash  |  Bhubaneswar  

July 22, 2015 Last Updated at 20:39 IST

Fresh bids for the ultra mega power project (UMPP) proposed at Bhedabahal near Sundargarh are set to be invited by September this year as the Union power ministry hopes to finalise the revised standard bidding documents (SBDs) for UMPPs within 15 days.

The decision was taken at a meeting convened on Tuesday by the Union power ministry to take stock of status of UMPPs.

“The Union power ministry has said that rebidding for Bhedabahal UMPP would be initiated by September. The ministry also decided to have a re-look at two more UMPPs proposed at Bijoypatana in Bhadrak district and Narla in Kalahandi districts, both of which were shelved though they were identified as potential sites in 2012. Apart from Odisha, the ministry approved two more UMPPs one each in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh”, said Hemant Sharma, special secretary (energy), Odisha and chairman cum managing director at Gridco.

Bankhui coal block has already been allocated for the Bijoypatana UMPP while the central power ministry will move the Coal ministry, seeking allocation of Ghogarpalli block for the Narla UMPP, he said. In December last year, the Union power ministry decided to cancel the bidding process for Odisha and Tamil Nadu UMPPs. The bidding process was initiated in 2012. The ministry instead, decided to have a re-look at the SBDs and constituted a committee for the purpose.

The power ministry's decision to revise the SBDs stemmed from the pull-out of the private players from the bidding process. Adani Power Ltd, CLP India Ltd, Jindal Power Ltd, JSW Energy Ltd, Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T), National Hydro Power Corporation Ltd (NHPC), NTPC Ltd, Sterlite Infraventures Ltd and Tata Power Ltd had initially responded to applications of Odisha Integrated Power Ltd (OIPL), a subsidiary floated by Power Finance Corporation (PFC) for Bhedabahal UMPP.

Private players, in prior communications with the ministry of power, had raised concerns on the design, build, finance, operate, and transfer (DBFOT) model for the UMPP. They argued that under the DBFOT model, the risk was not distributed equitably as all losses go to the power producer while gains are appropriated by the procurer.

On revision of terms of SBDs, Sharma said, “The clauses relating to fixing responsibility on the host state over land acquisition and rehabilitation & resettlement (R&R) have been significantly diluted. Now, a decision has been taken that bidding would be done only for those UMPPs where substantial progress has been achieved on critical parameters.”

The Bhedabahal UMPP needs 3246 acres land in all that includes 2733 acres private land, 444 acres government land and the rest 69 acres revenue forest land. Total cost of procuring land has been worked out at Rs 718 crore. Compensation of up to 91 per cent has been disbursed to the affected families. Meenakshi, Meenakshi-B and dip side of Meenakshi coal blocks have been allocated for the 4000 Mw UMPP. The annual requirement of fuel for the Bhedabahal UMPP has been estimated at 19-20 million tonne of coal.

Central PSU Mineral Exploration Corporation Ltd (MECL) has been assigned the job of carrying out detailed exploration of the coal blocks and preparation of the geological report.

Centre's Lakshman Rekha for NGO Tactics

The New Indian Express, July 11, 2015

Increasingly, the question is being posed in public discourse: Who should govern the country and how?  Should an elected government with an elected Parliament under a Constitution with all its built-in checks and balances take decisions or should the many thousand privately run organisations called collectively as non-governmental organisations (NGOs)? The question is increasingly becoming relevant as the Central government has sought to curb the NGOs and bring their funding and functioning under the scanner of the law of the land. The Green Peace affair is only one of several such events that continue to dog public discourse.

 Not that such curbs are the handiwork of the NDA government only. UPA also had a run with several NGOs. The core influence of several NGOs on the Manmohan Singh-led government through the extra-constitutional authority like the National Advisory Council created by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and headed by her, notwithstanding that government had to come down heavily on several NGOs as these organisations moved to obstruct development projects. One such NGO was working among the poor fishermen at the southern end of the peninsula. It used the fishermen as a human shield against the nuclear power project at Koodankulam going ahead and succeeded in delaying it by several years. All the while Tamil Nadu itself was suffering of as much as a 10-hour power cut almost every day.

  When the UPA-2 regime blocked the pipeline that it found was being used to funnel foreign funds into this NGO, the agitation also tapered off and the project went on to being commissioned. The 2,000 MW project began to provide a lifeline to Tamil Nadu’s industries and also feed into the national grid. Whether it is NGO Green Peace or others like it that claim to have all the wisdom in development economics, there ought to be some Lakshman Rekha to their agitational tactics.

India’s power, steel, aluminium and other industries need coal. The coal reserves are largely in forested areas or even in marginal land where residents eke out a hard  and marginal life.

 If you reduce the entire coal mining project as a People versus Government issue, and then insist that the only solution is for the project to exit and people be allowed to be where they are, no new mines can be opened unless you mine the coal in the sky. A rational answer would be to find a solution that causes the least pain to the residents and yet gets the projects through. However, such a solution would mean that the NGO spearheading the agitation against the project loses out in its battle to get the project scrapped, virtually its raison d’etre  to exist. Foreign funding or political undercurrents behind these NGOs cannot be ignored by any government worth its salt.

 No one suggests people’s right to protest should be curbed. Governments in any democracy cannot claim all the wisdom; nor could NGOs.

What is needed is a fair understanding of the issues involved and a fair solution that enables both development, ecology and people to find their common interest and move ahead.

 Every industry anywhere will disturb the environment in some way or the other. We need industry to create more jobs with at least 10 crore young people looking out for jobs in the next ten years. Governments that continually outsource their right to decide what development is needed to NGOs will finally end up creating no new jobs .

 Several major projects have been stalled by the ability of these NGOs to make groups of farmers, adivasis, fishermen and forest dwellers believe that development projects are their enemy. Of course the people’s concerns may be genuine in most cases but why not let expert bodies take a call.

This is not an authoritarian government but a democratic one with a vibrant media and active opposition parties.

 Several major projects remain stalled by NGOs and other groups organising people to physically prevent installations leading to law and order issues and even force being used by governments that unfortunately end up in police firings and deaths. Just as in Koodankulam, the 2,000 MW nuclear power plant was sought to be physically stalled by  an NGO using the fishermen even after all the experts inside and outside government convincingly showed that the fishermen’s concerns have all been met, in Jaitapur on the west coast of  Konkan the proposed 6,000 MW nuclear power project has been attacked this time by a political party. Maharashtra is the industry and business centre of the country.  It too cries for more bulk power. Konkan is an underdeveloped area in the state and power, oil, gas are some of the installations that could create jobs and change the economic profile of the coast. Can people depend entirely on fishing and farming to get rising incomes and improve their living standards?

 These questions have been repeatedly asked but NGOs who object to projects refuse to answer them by merely fogging off some vague beliefs as answers. On  the east coast, the 12 million tonne Posco steel plant has remained on paper for over 15 years now. Activism of Rahul Gandhi, the Congress vice-president brought the proposed aluminium project in Kalahandi to a dead stop — and Kalahandi, we know, is  an area of persistent poverty for all the romanticism around some local tribal people. Building of national highways, opening of waterways, coal and iron ore mining have all suffered in the country and yet we want high GDP growth and elimination of poverty. In international reports, India is seen in poor light compared to China.

 In the most recent United Nations report on Millennium Development Goals, titled ‘Making It Happen’,  China gets the credit for reducing poverty from 60.7 per cent of the population in 1990 to a mere 6.3 per cent by 2011. India on the other hand is listed as a laggard compared to China with reduction in poverty ratio from 49.4 per cent in  1994 to a still significant 24.7 per cent by 2011.

Prima facie, this gives a leg up for communism which is the political doctrine in China. The government in Beijing does not have to contend with NGOs physically trying to stall development projects or a Supreme Court that could declare a government decision as illegal.

 Dissenters in China are shut up in jail and government and ruling party are supreme authority. Of course this is not an argument to follow China.

However, if democracies have all the time to keep arguing and avoid taking decisions, there can be no progress and high levels of poverty will continue to besmirch India’s  image as it used to do for a long time after independence.

The author is a senior columnist and one of the vice presidents of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Sahitya Akademi opens new centre for oral literature

Times of India, June 14, 2015
If proof of the pudding is in the sampling, so too are pleasures of an oral language manifest in the listening. Keenly aware that an orality possesses more in its audible parts than the sum of its literation in a borrowed script, Sahitya Akademi has set out to document and archive in audio and visual form, samples of oral and tribal literatures of India.This means you can soon animate your reading of Toda folklore in Tamil with audio clips of the real thing. 

What started as a 'project' in the mid 90s to preserve oral languages, has gained solidity and singular purpose with the institution of an independent department called the Centre For Oral and Tribal Literature. Formalized in January, the Centre is headed by noted linguist and former JNU academic, Dr Anvita Abbi. She was awarded the Padma Shri for her work on endangered languages in India and the Kenneth Hale Award by the Linguistic Society of America, and is presently president of the Linguistic Society of India. 

While she's still outlining her broad agenda, Dr Abbi has decided that she will start at the very beginning - with creation myths. "I've already been sent recordings from Kalahandi, the Nilgiris, and I have my own recordings of the creation myths of the Andaman Islands," says Dr Abbi. "Every tribe has its own myths about the origins of their community and the world. These myths tell you about human migration, evolution, innovation and so on. In Great Andamanese for example, the first human is said to be born of bamboo. And he sculpts woman from the five elements and bakes her at a high temperature," she says, acknowledging that although many oral narratives have already been recorded and transcribed by enthnographers, some stories have slipped between the gaps. 

It will be a mammoth task to document the 1000 or so spoken mother tongues in India, but the Centre has already reached out to a national network of linguists, anthropologists and ethnographers for their collaboration. Dr K Sreenivasarao, secretary, Sahitya Akademi, who declined to put a figure to the budget allocated for the purpose, said the Todas of Nilgiris will be the first to be documented, and will later be the subject of a linguistic conference. 

Last week, Sahitya Akademi opened a North-East Centre for Oral and Tribal Literature (NECOL) at Manipur University, Imphal. The centre was formerly at Agartala. The centre in Delhi will oversee the documentation and promotion of oral and tribal literature from the rest of the country.

Small country with big past and future

News Asia One, May 29, 2015

Singapore's success story as a small country with an immaculate global reputation is a role model many Indian states can emulate. That was the view of five Indian members of parliament, who were here for a three-day visit last week.

They came from a cross-section of the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament): Mrs Meenakashi Lekhi, 48, MP for New Delhi from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP); Mr Arka Keshari Deo, 36, MP for Kalahandi (Odisha) from the Biju Janata Dal; Mr Bhagwant Mann, 41, MP for Sangrur (Punjab) from the Aam Aadmi Party; Mr Dushyant Chautala, 27, MP for Hisar (Haryana) from the Indian National Lok Dal; and Mr Rahul Kaswan, 38, MP for Churu (Rajasthan) from the BJP.

"Small country but with a big past and big future," Mrs Lekhi, a lawyer, said with a smile when asked to sum up Singapore. She points to the continuing need for Singapore and India to further strengthen ties by elevating bilateral relations to a strategic partnership in order to achieve concrete deliverables in areas such as "Smart Cities" and "Skills Development".

This year, the two countries commemorate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations. India was among the first countries to set up bilateral ties with Singapore on Aug 24, 1965, after the Republic gained independence.

She said Indian prime minister Narendra Modi's approach towards South-east Asia, previously called "Look East" and now renamed "Act East", has sought to be comprehensive with more focus on economics, soft power, connectivity and maritime security.

'Smart power'

She added: "Mr Modi has been deft at using what Mr Joseph Nye (US political scientist and former US assistant secretary of defence) has dubbed 'smart power' - the right blend of soft power and hard power."

Mr Deo, who hails from the Kalahandi royal family in Odisha, urged more Indian states to foster stronger bilateral relationships, especially in a new era where India has moved from idealism to pragmatism in a number of its relationships.

- See more at: http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapore/small-country-big-past-and-future#sthash.vuwfCtuE.dpuf

Digitisation is changing the way poor access TV, says study

Business Standard, May 7, 2015

Digitisation is changing the way the poor access TV and terrestrial broadcasting reception has almost disappeared in rural and urban India, says a study which looks at its impact on working class television viewers.

The study by Delhi-based Media Foundation conveys snapshots from the ground in over four states and is based on data from some of the districts considered backward including Kalahandi and Dantewada.

The first-of-its-kind study says that digitisation of TV signals was putting an end to free-to-air telecast regime.

Reporting on how digitisation was impacting people at the bottom of income pyramid, the study says that new TV households in the villages now go straight to Direct to Home (DTH) operators except in Andhra Pradesh where cable covers much of the rural population.

"Yet a substantial part of Prasar Bharati's annual budget allocations each year are absorbed by the salary and hardware costs of maintaining its terrestrial network of 1400 transmitters."

The study says that growth of television access in rural India is riding on the digital revolution.

"Post digitisation, driven by content demand, rural India has overtaken urban India in TV ownership. 2011 was the first year to record this change," it says.

The study says that majority of TV households opt for paid DTH over Doordarshan's free dish because they want content choice.

"In not a single state do even 50 percent of alll DTH households opt for Doordarshan's free dish - DD Direct."

"The absence of popular entertainment channels as Colors and channels such as Discovery and National Geographic and private regional language channels such as OTV in Odisha or Zee Chhattisgarh or numerous private channels in Andhra Pradesh on the DD direct bouquet has led to demand for DD free dish declining between 2006-07 and 2012-13," it said.

The main areas of study were Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Delhi and were supplemented with additional group interviews conducted in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Govt to bring backward areas of Odisha, NE on rail map

Business Standard, April 30, 2015
The government today said it was committed to bring the backward areas in Odisha and Northeastern states in the railway map. 

Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha told Rajya Sabha said that his ministry is working with Odisha government through Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV) and five projects would be taken up under it. 

"Through SPV involving the ministries of railways, coal and Odisha government, we would be carrying out five projects at an investment of Rs. 3689 crore. We would be covering 731 kilometres through the process," he said. 

He was replying to a Private Member Resolution on various railway issues connected with Odisha, which was moved by BJD member Bhupinder Singh, but was withdrawn later. 

The Minister further said that over Rs. 41,000 crore worth of railway projects were sanctioned for Odisha. 

Sinha also promised to bring the rail density in Odisha on par with the national average. 

He lamented about "politics" of granting rail stoppages, saying it leads to reduction in the speed of trains, including Rajdhani Express. 

Requests for only valid stoppages would be approved in the future, he said. 

Earlier, moving the private members' resolution, Bhupinder Singh said even after 67 years of independence, many districts of the country have not yet been connected with railway lines. He noted that seven districts of Odisha have no railway line. 

Demanding more railway connectivity and facilities in Odisha, Singh said about 10 per cent of the total revenue of the railways has been contributed by the state during 2013-14. 

Satyanarayan Jatiya (BJP), Narendra Kumar Kashyap (BSP), Kanak Lata Singh (SP), E M Sudarsana Natchipappan (Congress), Dilip Kumar Tirkey (BJD), Chaudhary Munnavver Saleem (SP) and A V Swamy (Independent) spoke on the resolution.

More Questions Than Answers From Rahul Gandhi's Sunday Noon Show

NDTV, April 19, 2015
(Ashok Malik is a columnist and writer living in Delhi.)

Rahul Gandhi's comeback event at the Congress' "farmers' rally" in Delhi this afternoon was not so much to prove to the Indian voter that he could lead the country. It was to tell the Congress worker that he has it in him to run the party.

With his mother, Sonia Gandhi, now close to 70, a generational change in the Congress is on the anvil. Rahul, as Congress vice-president, is likely to be the next Congress president. However, in recent weeks many senior Congress politicians, including Amarinder Singh and Shiela Dikshit, both former chief ministers, have suggested a succession be postponed indefinitely and Sonia stay put.

To be fair, there is no competition between mother and son. Sonia and Rahul are on the same page and are far from being factional rivals. However, the point is substantial sections of the party don't quite trust Rahul's instincts, judgement and ability to manage a complex political situation. If Rahul was attempting to change their minds today, after his 56-day holiday, he didn't quite pull it off.

A modern political meeting is a televised spectacle. It is as much about theatre as about substance. Rahul's limitations as an orator became apparent soon enough. What is more, so did his inability to stick to a coherent line and train of thought.

While his mother is no fiery orator either, her speech was much sharper and much more disciplined. It focused on the subject at hand - the plight of Indian farmers and how the Narendra Modi government's amendments to the Land Acquisition Act of 2013 would apparently hurt agriculturists. In contrast, Rahul's speech was all over the place. If a Congress worker had to choose his immediate leader solely on the basis of those two speeches, he would deliver a simple message to Rahul: Let's keep Mum.

In some senses, Rahul seems not to have recovered from the defeat of 2014. Listening to him, there was this inescapable feeling that he was in a time warp. It was not helped by the fact that he referred repeatedly to his experience of visiting drought-hit farmers some years ago. The crowd he was addressing was of north Indian farmers worried by a spell of unseasonal rain that has damaged a crop ripe for harvesting.

His mother, in her speech, took care to recall the unseasonal rain and the labour of harvesting, which the farmers had set aside to attend the political meeting. Did she have a better speech writer or simply better political judgement?

Rahul may as well have given this speech in April 2014, in the midst of the Lok Sabha election campaign. He has not moved on. He referred to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme, the write-off of farmers' loans, his excursions to Bhatta Parsaul (Uttar Pradesh) and Niyamgiri (site of a Vedanta bauxite mining project and aluminium plant that Rahul and the UPA government thwarted). He announced these as his - and the UPA's - exemplary deeds. This was all very well, but it was yesterday's story. It was voted upon, one way or the other, in 2009 and 2014.

Indeed, in Kalahandi (the parliamentary constituency of which Niyamgiri is a part), Bhakta Charan Das, the sitting Congress MP, finished a distant third in 2014. One interpretation of this was that while a few hundred people wanted the mining project blocked, many thousand more saw benefit in industrialisation. If there was a learning here for Rahul and the Congress, it was obviously lost on the Congress vice-president.

Clearly, popular positions in Niyamgiri and Kalahandi were not as cut and dry as Rahul claimed they were.

The wider issue is Rahul was and is still expected to shape a platform for the future, and for the period leading up to the 2019 election. This platform cannot simply be an iteration of the initiatives and achievements, such as they were, of the UPA government, especially in the 2009-14 period. The platform's elements have to be forward-looking and contemporary. Where does Rahul stand on this?

The Congress has little idea.

In the weeks to come, there are mundane challenges for Rahul to tackle. His engagement with mass politics cannot be limited to guest appearances at stage-managed (pun intended or otherwise) party jamborees. His associates say he will take to the roads in Bihar and then other states; he has to prove he has the stomach to sustain it.

That apart, who will coordinate with non-BJP parties in Parliament as the debate and possible vote on the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill comes up? Who will take a call on the Congress' choice of chief ministerial candidate in Punjab? Who will negotiate with Laloo Yadav and Nitish Kumar, as the Congress seeks a junior role in the emerging anti-BJP alliance in Bihar? Who will sort out the civil war in the Assam Congress?

Will it be the mother or the son? Does Rahul have it in him to do any of these? The Sunday noon show provided no answers, only further questions.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. NDTV is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, suitability, or validity of any information on this article. All information is provided on an as-is basis. The information, facts or opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.

Nagaland, Odisha to get research institutes: will KBK be considered as a location?

 Nagaland, Odisha to get research institutes: Jaitley
Business Standard, Feb 28, 2015

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Saturday said that institutions of science and educational research would be set up in Nagaland and Odisha.

"I propose setting up of institutions of science and educational research in Nagaland and Odisha," Jaitley said, presenting the union budget in parliament.

The finance minister also proposed to set up three national institutions of pharmaceutical education and research in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.

This apart, Jaitley said a post-graduate institute of horticulture research would be established in Amritsar, Punjab.

"In Kerala, I propose to upgrade the National Institute of Speech and Hearing into a university of disability studies and rehabilitation," he said.

Justifications for Rail Network in KBK region

Lanjigarh road-Amaguda route

Kalahandi-Balangir- Koraput (KBK) region in Odisha is a multi-facet backward region due to hilly backwardness, tribal populated backwardness and backward due to natural calamities. Similar backward regions in India like North Eastern States have received special treatment by railway board where as KBK region has been neglected since decades. Even hilly region like Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand have received special package in railway by Govt. of India. Many of the railway projects in North Easter states have been declared as national project. Coincidentally, for irrigation projects KBK region is considered long with North Eastern states by the central Government. Nevertheless, railway projects in KBK region have not received any special treatment as national projects. Naxal activities are predominantly high in KBK region due to poor communication and poor infrastructure. It is also important to note that railway infrastructure in Odisha and Chhatisgarh is substantially low compared to national average despite both the states are in the profit making zones, where as railway infrastructure in Bihar and West Bengal are remarkably high though they are in the loss making zones. East Coast Railway Zone is one of the larger profit-making zones, and a large portion of this profit comes from Kothavalasa-Kirandul (KK) line passing through KBK region. In this KK line, railway lines between Koraput-Kothavalasa is e-special category railway route where many tunnels and high-level bridges are present, which limits the speed to less than 50 kmph. At the same time number of wagon can’t exceed 30 during mineral transportations in these this routes. Similarly, other possible railway route, Koraput-Rayagada is also e-special category railway route having many tunnels and high-level bridges. Thus, a new route that will increase the speed limit and number of wagon during mineral transportation from Jagdalpur (Chhatisgarh) to Visakhapatnam is needed. In fact, in 1962-63 it was pointed out in the parliament that Mr. Parkers had done a railway line survey from Kesinga to Nabarangpur to join Kothavalasa-Kirandul (KK) line. Subsequently, in 1990-91 Amabguda-Lanjigarh road railways line was proposed to make mineral transportation from Kirandul to Visakhapatnam faster and easier.  In 1991, Lanjigarh road-Junagarh line was approved and this 56 km line took 25 years to get completed due to negligence by railway ministry. At the same time survey of Junagarh-Ambaguda portion of this route has been completed, but this portion of this route has not yet been approved. There are other industrial proposals in this region, which will be benefited from the proposed railway route. Therefore, Junagarh-Amaguda line should be immediately approved and completed.

Lanjigarh road-Talcher route or Kharagpur-Bhadrachalam road route

Proposed Lanjigarh road - Phulbani – Talcher railway route is another important rail network in KBK-Kandhamal region, which is under survey. This line will connect Kandhamal, Kalahandi, Nuapada, Titilagarh (Balangir dist), Nabarangpur and Rayagada districts with Bhubaneswar (Odisha’s state capital) by joining with Khurda-Balangir line near Boudh. This will not only bring first time railway network to Kandhamal district but also make accessible to large part of inaccessible KBK and Kandhamal region from the state capital directly. Beside that this line will facilitate alumina/coal transportation for NALCO from its refinery in Damajodi to its Smelter in Angul by reducing distance about 100 km. Other industries like Utkal alumina, Vedanta alumina (now Sesa Sterlite) etc in this region will also be benefited. Most importantly, Howrah-Chennai route has been congested and a route via Kharagpur, Baripada, Talcher, Lanjigarh road, Junagarh, Nabarangpur, Jeypore, Malkangiri, Bhadrachalam road and Vijaywada will not only decongest the route but also bring development to many tribal dominated districts of the nation. The proposed route also makes another possible route to connect Hyderabad directly with Ranchi and Patna (via Titlagarh-Junagarh) or Kolkata (via Baripada-Lanjigarh road-Bhadrachalam road). Thus, Lanjigarh road - Phulbani – Talcher line should be immediately approved for construction.

Raipur-Lanjigarh road-Gopalpur port route

This Lanjigarh road – Berhampur-Gopalpur line along with Raipur-Rajim-Junagarh will make direct connection between Nagpur/Bhilai and Gopalpur via Raipur. This route will make access South East Asian countries from Raipur, Bhilai, Nagpur and central India via Gopalpur port. This will further reduce distance between Gopalpur port and Nagpur and make Gopalpur port as competitive as Mumbai port from Nagpur or central India region. At the same time it will bring railway infrastructure to the Maoist and tribal dominated region and connect Behrampur, Kalahandi and Debhog (Raipur) region with Raipur and Nagpur. Survey work of Raipur - Rajim - Debhog - Junagarh is almost complete and this route should be approved immediately. This will also establish a direct connection between Raipur and Talcher along with Talcher-Lanjigarh road route. Similarly, new survey should be done for Lanjigarh road-Gopalpur railway line to directly connect Bhilai steel plant with Gopalpur port. Beside social development in KBK-Kandhamal-Ganjam region, this line may be exploited commercially by many steel, iron and coal plants in Bhilai and Raipur regions to connect with Gopalpur port as well as coal rich Talcher/Angul region.

KBK line covering 5 KBK districts

Similarly, Kantabanji-Jeypore railway route will connect Balangir, Nuapada, Kalahandi, Nabarangpur and Koraput. It will also help in directly connecting Koraput with Raipur region. The route has been surveyed and should be immediately approved.