Delhi : The international crude oil price for Indian Basket as computed/published today by the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas decreased to US$ 111.79/barrel (bbl) on 17.10.2012. This was lower than US$ 112.45/bbl on the previous trading day’s figures 16.10.2012.
In rupee terms also, the crude oil price went down to Rs 5896.92 per bbl on 17.10.2012 as compared to Rs 5939.61 per bbl on 16.10.2012. This was due to fall in crude oil prices dollar terms and helped by rupee appreciation with rupee-dollar exchange rate on 17.10.2012 at Rs 52.75/US$ against Rs 52.82US$ on 15.10.2012.
The table below gives details in this regard:
Particulars | Unit | Price on 17 October,2012 (previous trading day i.e. 16.10.2012) | Last Fortnight October 1-15,2012 (previous fortnight 16-30 September, 2012) |
Crude Oil (Indian Basket) | ($/bbl) | 111.79 (112.45) | 110.56 (109.91) |
(Rs/bbl | 5896.92 (5939.61) | 5806.61 (5896.67) | |
Exchange Rate | (Rs/$) | 52.75 (52.82) | 52.52 (53.65) |
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Public Sector Oil Companies spent Rs. 383.74 crore during 2011-12 on various Activities under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Scheme
With a view of fulfill their socio economic obligation, the Public Sector Oil Companies spent approximately Rs 367.57 crore in carrying out various activities under the CSR Scheme during the financial year 2011-12. ONGC spent the highest amount of Rs. 121.08 crore, followed by IOCL with Rs. 82.73 crore. Oil PSUs wise expenditure is given in the following table:-
S.No | Name of the PSU | Expenditure made during 2011-12 |
1. | ONGC | 121.08 |
2. | OIL | 50.19 |
3. | IOCL | 82.73 |
4. | HPCL | 26.54 |
5. | BPCL | 7.76 |
6. | GAIL | 70.6 |
7. | CPCL | 3.73 |
8. | MRPL | 3.26 |
9. | NRL | 5.86 |
10. | Balmer Lawrie & Co Ltd. | 2.57 |
11. | EIL | 9.42 |
Total | 383.74 |
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Pranay Sahay to hold Additional Charge of DG, SSB
Shri Pranay Sahay, IPS (MT:75) DG,CRPF will hold the charge of DG,SSB in addition to his regular charge of DG,CRPF till a new incumbent takes over the charge of the post of DG,SSB or until further orders, whichever is earlier.
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Education for Biodiversity Conservation CoP-11, Hyderabad
At a side event held during CoP-11 Smt Jayanthi Natarajan, Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Government of India, released the Outcome Document on Education and Biodiversity Conservation. The Outcome Document was the output from the two day International Conference on Biodiversity Conservation and Education for Sustainable Development – Learning to Conserve Biodiversity in a Rapidly Changing World held as a parallel event on 13-14 October at Hyderabad during CoP-11. The Conference was attended by over 250 participants who deliberated in 4 working groups namely Formal Education, Non Formal Education, Education for Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Livelihoods and Education for Biodiversity Conservation in Urban and Industrial Areas.
The Outcome Document came out of a consultative process which began prior to the Conference and this draft was shared and deliberated on in the working groups. The inputs from the working groups were then incorporated into the draft and this was shared among the participants and the ESD community including UNESCO and CBD. The Minister has released this outcome document which will now be used to develop the strategic action plan for Education which will enhance the processes leading to achieving the Aichi Biodiversity targets.
The Minister also announced the National Microbe for India which was selected by children who had visited the Science Express Biodiversity Special, a train which has been visiting various stations across the country. Voting for the National Microbe took place in these stations and the children have selected the Lactobacillus (Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus) to be the National Microbe for India.
Another publication released in the presence of the Minister was the “Handprint – Positive Action towards Biodiversity Conservation” by Mr Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, Executive Secretary of the CBD.
Mrs. Delphine Batho, French Minister for Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy was also present at the event and expressed her appreciation in the education efforts being encouraged for biodiversity conservation in India.
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Domestic Market to be Integrated for Agriculture Products
The Government is working on the issues for internal trade reforms and making a common market for agriculture products across the country. A high power committee is being set up by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution in this regard. This was stated by Prof. K.V. Thomas, Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution while addressing the seminar on “Inter-State Trade Barriers –Concerns & Solutions” organised by ASSOCHAM here today. The minister said the Govt. is aware of all the issues and challenges for integrating domestic markets for goods and services. Efforts have to be made to remove all restrictions and barriers for this purpose and tackle the issue in a systematic manner, he added.
Full text of the minister’s Speech is as follows:-
It gives me immense pleasure to be amongst all of you at the seminar on “Inter-State Trade Barriers – Concerns & Solutions” being organized by the ASSOCHAM with The Institute of Cost Accountants of India and the ITC Limited as partners to understand the issues and challenges being faced by the Trade and Industry including concerns of the supply chain domain. The issues are quite complex as they encompass a vast area that include laws, which most of you feel are outdated, problems being faced by transporters of goods as they traverse through different States and Union Territories, with each region having its own sets of rules and regulations on trade and industry, not to mention environmental issues that pose a challenge, rightly so if seen from its angle, to economic development.
The Government is quite aware of all these issues and the challenges they post to a vibrant economic order in the country. I could only recall what our Hon’ble Prime Minister had said while inaugurating the Agriculture Summit 2005, when he emphasized that an important commitment of the Government was to integrate the domestic market for all goods and services. He further said that the time had come for us to consider the entire country as a common or single market for agricultural products and added that we had to systematically remove internal controls and restrictions to enable direct marketing between farmers and NGOs, Cooperatives and Private Companies. You will agree with me that what holds good in respect of agriculture will equally hold good in respect of other economic sectors of the nation as well. What needs to be done is finding ways and means of doing that in a systematic manner so that we ensure a vibrant industrial and economic development in the country through cooperation and coordination with all agencies concerned, especially the State Governments and the Union Territories.
You will agree that the setting up of the National Spot Exchanges, like the National Spot Exchange of India Limited and the NCDEX Spot Exchange Limited, was an important landmark towards creation of the single market in the agricultural commodities in pursuance of the national agenda given by the Prime Minister in his above mentioned address. The Department of Consumer Affairs had taken the above initiative to create an alternative marketing channel which would facilitate a transparent system of direct marketing. It was felt that direct marketing will ensure that there is no credit and quality risk resulting in low transaction costs. It was also to integrate the physical market spatially and temporally by integrating it with the futures market.
Now, a word about the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2006. The Act, enacted in December, 2006 and which came into effect from 12.02.2007, prescribe Stock Limits as ‘temporary measure’ during periods of price rise due to a shortfall in the domestic availability of the relevant commodities. Stock limit has been presently imposed only on a few commodities like rice, paddy, pulses, edible oils/oilseeds and sugar. The limit is withdrawn when the availability and price situation improves as in the case of wheat. The result is that these measures ensure that transport barriers are not created.
One more important initiative taken by my Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution concerns The Warehousing (Development and Regulation) Act, 2007. The Act provides for the establishment of a Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority for the development and regulation of warehouses, negotiability of warehouse receipts and to promote orderly growth of the warehousing business. Negotiable Warehouse Receipts (NWRs) issued by warehouses registered under the Act would help farmers to avoid distress sale of their produce by ensuring finance against their produce stored in registered warehouses. It will improve the bargaining capacity of farmers. The pledging/collateralization of agricultural produce with a legal backing in the form of NWR will lead to increase inflow of credit to the rural areas, reduce the cost of credit and will spur other related activities like standardization, grading, packaging and insurance services in the agricultural sector. I am sure, this will, to a great extent, limit the concerns of the industry insofar as putting in place a vibrant and improved system of marketing techniques of farm produce is concerned.
Similarly, the Ministry of Agriculture had formulated a model law on agricultural marketing in consultation with the State Governments. The draft model legislation provides for establishment of private markets/yards and direct purchase centres. The law will also facilitate Consumer/Farmers market for direct sale and promotion of public private partnership in the management and development of agricultural markets in the country. It is gladdening that as on date, most of the State Governments have either amended their APMC Acts or have initiated action in this direction. The Ministry of Agriculture is also working on formulation of an Inter-State Agricultural Produce Trade and Commerce (Regulation) Bill to make provisions for development and regulation of Inter-State Trade and Commerce of agricultural produce and other related commodities.
You may also recall that the Government of India had worked with the State Governments in the introduction of State level VAT to establish a uniform tax structure throughout the country and that VAT had been introduced by all the States/UTs now.
I have just put forth some of the major initiatives undertaken by the Government of India in agriculture and allied sectors to ensure that trade barriers between different States and the Union Territories do no strangulate an efficient and vibrant structure of trade transactions among different parts of the country. It is quite a complex issue, which as I said earlier, needs to be tackled in a systematic manner that would offer permanent solutions. It cannot be denied that State Governments and Union Territories have their own concerns as the issues involve revenue generation.
I hope this would be opportune to mention here, as many of you would have already heard, that the Union Cabinet had recently entrusted my Ministry to look into all Issues connected with internal trade reforms with a view to suggest necessary modifications. We have started working out the modalities, including the terms of reference of the high powered committee to be set up under the Consumer Affairs Minister. I look forward to having constructive interaction with all stakeholders once the committee starts its operations.
With these words, I conclude my speech and hope that that the deliberations that we are going to have now will throw light on all important issues under discussion, enabling the Government and other connected agencies to formulate cogent and forceful policies in future.
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Antony Envisages a Proactive Role for Navy in the Indian Ocean Region
Defence Minister Shri AK Antony has underlined the key role of Indian Navy in our engagements with countries of Indian Ocean Region. Addressing the biannual Naval Commanders` Conference here today, Shri Antony said our strategic location and the professional capability of our Navy places a responsibility on us to play a more mature and stabilizing role in the region.
He said, “Our Government is pursuing a string of proactive engagements with countries in the Indian Ocean Region to ensure peace and stability in the region, which is also related to our economic and wider security interests”. In this context, he assured Indian Navy’s full support to all maritime neighbours of its unstinted support for their security and economic prosperity.
Highlighting the fragile security environment in the region, he said, “our own security interests require the Indian Navy to respond to all challenges in quick time”. He expressed his satisfaction over the Indian Navy’s brisk operational tempo over the last six months.
“Maintaining high levels of vigilance and security 24×7, collecting and analyzing information, material and physical security and maintaining the high morale of the personnel both at professional and personal levels, needs to remain a constant focus of our Armed Forces”, he added.
“Indian Navy’s overseas deployment in the South China Sea, East China Sea, the Western Pacific Ocean, Red Sea and the Meditarrean Sea carrying out exercises with the navies of these regions not only shows our capabilities but will also go a long way in reassuring the Indian diaspora in these countries”, the minister added.
Dwelling upon various measures to enhance coastal security, he said that the setting up of Sagar Prahari Bal, establishment of Joint Operation Centers, induction of 15 First Interceptor Crafts and various other coastal security initiatives will definitely strengthen the coastal security network.
“The recent installation of Coastal Radar Network Chains in Gujarat and Maharashtra and establishment of the National Command, Control, Communication and Intelligence network (NC3I) would establish a real-time maritime domain awareness link between Operations Rooms of the Navy and the Coast Guard, both at the field and apex levels” he observed.
Emphasizing on the urgent need to reduce the long construction periods of warships, Shri Antony opined the adoptionof `modular construction` and `integrated construction` methods to speed up the Ship construction activities in a time bound manner.
The conference was attended by the Chief of Naval Staff Admiral DK Joshi, Defence Secretary Shri Shashikant Sharma and Senior Commanders and Flag Officers of the Indian Navy.
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NIOS to Reach out for Skill Development using Open Distance Learning (ODL) Mode
An International Symposium on “Flexible Models for Skill Development” was jointly organized by the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) and Open Polytechnic of New Zealand, here, yesterday. Thanking the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand for sharing their experiences in the field of vocational education, Sri Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Human Resource Development, pointed out the enormous potential of the work force in India which was growing at a rate of 1.7% annually. However with a capacity for vocational training limited to just 3 million annually vis-a-vis the demand of about 10 million, the challenge is to bridge this gap by providing the required skill base. He added that imparting these skills should include an element of continuum giving students the ability to learn and unlearn making the system flexible. This also requires development of standards in skill development by recognizing existing skills, getting State Education Ministers to map the skills required in various localities of their states, by means of which industry can work with these localities would provide skill training in these areas.
Speaking on the importance of vocationalisation of education starting from the school stage, Smt. (Dr) D. Purandeswari, Minister of State, Ministry of Human Resource Development, said that there is an urgent need for innovation which need to be learner-centric. Vocational institutions facing these challenges with changing technologies should meet this need to provide a system of certification empowering individuals to contribute to the national economy. She hoped that this one day symposium will come out with strategies to meet the diverse needs of manpower by 2020.
Addressing the gathering, Mr. Steven Joyce, Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills & Employment, Govt. of New Zealand expressed hope that this symposium will provide a tangible opportunity for learning through collaboration, keeping in view the massive challenge of providing skills to 500 million people in India by 2022 and with the long tradition of innovation in the field of vocational education possessed by New Zealand.