by rakesh | Nov 14, 2006 | India News
Children will not be required to pay any charges for watching CFSI films from next year. This was announced by the Minister of Information and Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs, Shri P. R. Dasmunsi at the inauguration of the Golden Jubilee Film Festival organised by Children’s Film Society, India (CFSI). Shri Dasmunsi also assured that the amount of grant to CFSI will be raised three-fold in the next years budget. He said that the Government will not shy away from lending support to the children’s cause. Shri Dasmunsi exhorted the CFSI to encourage production of films on rural children and the under privileged ones. He highlighted the importance of good stories, adequate finances and good producers for producing meaningful and entertaining films from children’s point of view. During 2005-06, CFSI reached out to 24.37 lakh children by arranging 5689 film shows all over the country.
UPA Chairperson, Smt. Sonia Gandhi in her address said that making films for children with a socially relevant message is not an easy task and entertainment has to be mixed with education for meaningful cinema for the children. She said that the Government has taken various steps to increase children’s awareness about their own rights so as to check their exploitation in any form. She felt that the children’s films should be directed at bringing them together and inculcating in them the scientific approach of mind. Staying firm in one’s roots and knowing more about our country and culture for living harmoniously with people from various parts of the country should be the focus of CFSI supported films, she added.
Chairperson, CFSI, Ms. Nafisa Ali in her remarks delineated the activities and role of CFSI. She announced that CFSI is considering to institute a national award for the best children’s film from next year. She felt that finances was the major hindrance in supporting children films as more and more focus was going towards commercial cinema. In order to come out with good quality children cinema for more support, commitment from the Government. A souvenir giving details of all films of CFSI was released on the occasion.
During the five-day Golden Jubilee Film Festival, 7 classic films, 10 most popular films and 12 films in various regional languages will be screened. A section on digital films is also included to highlight the advance technology in film making. The event was organised to commemorate the completion of 50 years of CFSI.
by rakesh | Nov 14, 2006 | India News, National
The President, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, met more than 450 children from various Schools of Delhi and surrounding areas on the occasion of Children’s Day at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi today. The children represented the age group 5-18 years.
Dr Kalam impressed upon the children the need to acquire knowledge to make progress in their careers. The President told the assembled children that they should contribute to the development of the nation by using their spare time on Saturdays and Sundays to teach people in rural areas who cannot read or write. Similarly, the children should utilize their spare time to plant saplings in their School campus as well as in their surroundings. Dr Kalam spoke about the country’s vision to become a develop nation by the year 2020. The President said a developed India would be a nation with economic prosperity, and a good value system.
Earlier, the President met writers of children’s literature at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The President said, children’s hopes and aspirations should be reflected in the writings of children’s literature. If the children’s hopes and aspirations are reflected in the writings, children will be benefited. The writers explained to the President that many of the stories written by them find a place in the School primary and secondary syllabi. The writers said that the Government should popularize children’s literature and felt that a National Children’s University should be established in the country. The writers also explained some of the problems, which they face in their work, to the President.
by rakesh | Nov 14, 2006 | Business
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, Tuesday, November 14, 2006 — (Business Wire India) — Indians in England can now look forward to owning a piece of their motherland. In an endeavour to facilitate the Indians in England acquire property in India, Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited (HDFC) has launched its operations in London. It will provide advisory services on housing finance and property acquisition in India. HDFC’s office will be located at 403, 1 Northumberland Avenue Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5BW.
Commenting on this occasion Mr Keki Mistry, Managing Director, HDFC said, “The buoyancy in Indian economy, coupled with the recent Real-Estate boom is attracting a large number of Indian’s abroad to invest in a property in India. It is estimated that the total Asian Population in the UK is around 3.5% of which over 1.8% are Indians, with London having the largest concentration. This new office will provide us an excellent strategic position in assisting Indians in owning a property in their home land.”
Ms. Renu Sud Karnad, Executive Director, HDFC added, “Our presence in UK comes at an appropriate time when Indian real-estate is on an upswing. With twenty-nine years of existence in the industry, HDFC has gained an in-depth knowledge of the real estate market, and the expertise to guide customers through their entire property buying process. Now Indians based here can avail of our services, whether it is assistance in property search, builder credibility evaluation, expert advice on the legal processes, technical evaluation of the property, or with their home loan requirements. Our endeavour is to empower customers to make a more informed decision while buying the property.”
HDFC, set up in 1977, is India’s premier housing mortgage company, which has turned the dream of owning a home into a reality for millions of Indians. It defined standards in the housing sector, be it in processes, service or product innovations and has grown to provide not just finance but also complete solution to the customers’ housing requirements. Its strength has been its pioneering value-added services, with a specialist team of trained staff that empathises with customers and offers free counselling and legal assistance for a variety of individual housing needs, while ensuring that customer interests are protected.
HDFC has grown from a humble beginning of Rs 71 million (GBP 8,33,000) in home-loan approvals in its first year of its operations to over Rs 1,272 billion (GBP 15.14 billion), as of Sept. 2006 in cumulative home-loan approvals. The organization has assisted 2.9 million families in owning their own Home, while maintaining gross NPAs at less than 1% – the lowest in the industry. Asset per employee has grown from Rs. 69 million in 1995 to Rs. 381 million in 2006 and the cost income ratio has gone down from 22.3% in 1995 to 12.2% in 2006 and is among the lowest in the financial sector in Asia. The market capitalization is over Rs 388 billion (GBP 4.62 billion). Foreign Institutional Investors hold over 79.58 % of equity in HDFC, the highest for any Indian company.
Service excellence and customer convenience has always been the guiding philosophy for HDFC. Its specialised team of trained counselors provides the customers expert advice on legal & technical aspect of property buying, liaison with property developers to locate the ideal property anywhere in the country, assist in making the right choice in determining the financing mix / products and hand-holding the customer through the whole transaction of property purchase. The company has developed advanced capabilities in the area of processing loan applications. It has a wide network over 228 outlets reaching out to 2500 towns and cities across India. Internationally HDFC has been present in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar. providing seamless service across geographical boundaries.
HDFC has grown phenomenally and has transformed into a financial conglomerate. It has diversified into banking with HDFC Bank, life insurance – HDFC Standard Life Insurance in association with Standard Life Assurance of UK, general insurance – HDFC Chubb General Insurance with Chubb Corporation of USA, asset management – HDFC Asset Management Company with Standard Life Investments of UK, BPO – Intelenet Global Services with Barclays Plc of UK, credit bureau – CIBIL and real estate venture capital – HDFC Venture Capital Limited. The HDFC group has assets of over Rs.1,500 billion (GBP 17.86 billion) and a customer base of over 12 million. Today, the brand HDFC has evolved to become a household name in India.
by rakesh | Nov 11, 2006 | Health & Fitness
New Delhi, Delhi, India, Saturday, November 11, 2006 — (Business Wire India) — The first ever Global Youth Meet 2006 (GYM 2006) will be held in India between November 14 to 19. GYM 2006 is being organized by HRIDAY-SHAN (Health Related Information Dissemination Amongst Youth and Student Health Action Network) to empower young people to become informed advocates for policies towards promoting health.
National and international health experts, about 10,000 students and 270 delegates from 37 countries will participate in GYM 2006. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will inaugurate the meet on November 14, 2006 at the National Stadium in New Delhi.
The Global Youth Meet will travel to Agra from November 15 to 18 and a total of 220 youth leaders in the age group of 14-19 years will engage in four days of extensive deliberations. International experts from the World Health Organization, World Heart Federation, American Cancer Society, UNAIDS, UNESCO, UNDP, Clinton Global Initiative, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Bank as well as a host of Indian experts and health advocates will interact with the students. Health-related subjects, such as health and development, appropriate diet and nutrition, physical activity, stress management, environment conservation, tobacco and alcohol avoidance, healthy gender relations and promotion of peace and non violence will be discussed over several sessions during the meet.
Explaining the objectives of GYM, Hony. Executive Director of HRIDAY-SHAN Dr. K. Srinath Reddy said ” The present and future health of children across the world is threatened by many factors such as a degraded environment, unhealthy foods, tobacco marketing, unsafe roads, physical inactivity and HIV-AIDS. While it is important to provide young people adequate information about how to protect their health, it is also essential to ensure that governmental and societal policies promote and support health and not create unhealthy living conditions”.
“At this unique health meet we aim to discuss health issues and encourage students to actively articulate their demands for appropriate governmental policy to create a healthy living conditions. We will also use skill building workshops where they will increase their capacity to promote healthy environments at school, home and the community,” Dr Reddy added
International experts like Janet Voûte, Chief Executive Officer, World Heart Federation Geneva; Dr. Chris Dawe from Clinton Global Initiative Dr. Carolyn Dresler, Head of the Unit for Tobacco and Cancer at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France; Ms. Anna White, Coordinator of Global Partnerships for Tobacco Control (GPTC), and Dr. Robert Beaglehole, Director of Chronic Diseases and Health Promotion at WHO, Geneva will be participating in this youth meet. Several eminent Indians will also be among the resource persons.
On November 19, 2006, the Global Youth Meet will conclude with the launch of the Youth for Health (Y4H) campaign. Y4H, an initiative on a global scale, will conduct regular exchange of views on policy issues related to health, have concerted global e-advocacy and regularly coordinate national and international action programmes. Y4H envisages a worldwide movement of health advocacy by young change agents and will provide a powerful global platform of advocacy for health-promoting policies. This network will be facilitated by e-connectivity and assisted by HRIDAY-SHAN, WHO, World Heart Federation and GLOBALink.
About HRIDAY-SHAN
HRIDAY (Health Related Information Dissemination Amongst Youth) – SHAN(Student Health Action Network) is a voluntary organization of health professionals and social scientists, engaged in activities aiming to promote health awareness and informed health activism among social and college students in India, since 1992. Its work won international recognition through the WHO Tobacco Control Award in 2002.
by rakesh | Nov 10, 2006 | Business
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, Friday, November 10, 2006 — (Business Wire India) — VFS (India) Private Limited, a trusted outsourcing partner to diplomatic missions worldwide has bagged the mandate to provide the administrative services required to facilitate travel & business Visa for Belgium.
The Belgium government has witnessed a quantum increase in the number of visitors from India to Belgium towards both leisure and business purposes. To simplify and facilitate speedier processing of visa for the people of India, the government of Belgium has appointed VFS, India as a specialist agency to manage the entire Visa application process. India is the first location in the world where such a facility encompassing a 360 degrees service would be made available. India is the natural choice owing to its high quality of human resources, advance technological developments and the strong historical trade relations shared between both countries.”
VFS, India will manage the Belgian visa application centre to help Visa applicants from the business, student and leisure traveling community through voice, e-mail and face-to-face communications. VFS will help in dissemination of information, pre-scrutiny of Visa applicants, database creation and scheduling of interviews. VFS is a leader in providing specialist business process outsourcing services targeted at diplomatic missions in managing the administrative tasks aimed at fulfilling the Visa application services. In the past five years since its inception, VFS has developed strong capability in Visa facilitation through continuous investments in trained human resources, proprietary software and cutting-edge technology.
by rakesh | Nov 10, 2006 | India News
To ensure safe movement of passengers, the trains are run at lower speeds. However, the slow movement of trains causes bunching on the tracks and at terminal stations, making it difficult to move all the trains. More trains, both passenger and freight, are expected to be delayed due to onset of winter and thickening of fog in the days to come.
Passengers and other concerned persons are requested to check up train arrival/departure timings through internet, voicemail or telephone service of the railways. The website addresses of Indian Railways and Northern Railway are www.indianrail.gov.in and www.nr.indianrail.gov.in.
by rakesh | Nov 2, 2006 | India News
Rajasthan’s Industry Commissioner Smt Usha Sharma reviewed the preparations at Rajasthan Pavilion and instructed accordingly.
The Director of Rajasthan Pavilion Shri Ravi Agarwal told that this year a tableau of Royal Court of Bikaner’s Anupgarh Palace would be showcased priorly and noted that the Facade would be decorated with traditional paintings of ”Pichchewai Art.”
In Pavilion various models would depict progress and development made by Tourism and Industrial departments of the State.
In the theme area Langa and Manganiar artists of the state costumed in traditional Rajasthani dresses with textile designs making scintillating performance and spreading songs in sanddumes would be a source of attraction.
In Pavilion the tableaus of Business Information Centre, Agriculture, Mines and Mining, Rajasthali, Rajasthan Electricity Corporation, RIICO, Tourism, Information Public Relations and cooperative Departments would also be decored. Besides this, Rajasthani Handicrafts, Art and delicious Rajasthani dishes would attract the visitors.
by rakesh | Nov 2, 2006 | Business
Amul Kool Café is targeted at ‘Generation X’ who is in search of a healthy beverage which is tasty, trendy, and nutritious. Amul plans to launch in the near future Coffee Mocha, Coffee Sugar free and decaffeinated flavours.
With this launch, the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd., Asia’s largest integrated dairy products manufacturing and marketing organization and India’s largest food company, further consolidates its position in the beverage market. The non-carbonated drink market has been showing a hefty double digit growth since the last couple of years. GCMMF is now a leading player in the Indian Dairy beverage market with over 90% market share in branded packaged dairy drinks segment.
In keeping with its goal of emerging as the single largest entity in the dairy beverage market, Amul introduced low calorie thirst quenching drinks, nutritious and tasty Amul Masti Buttermilk in addition to Amul Kool range of flavoured milk and also India’s first Sports and Energy drink Stamina. In keeping with this trend it has now launched Kool Café targeted towards the youth.
The Indian soft drink market is worth about Rs. 6000 crores per annum. The soft drink market can be broadly divided into two major segments – carbonated soft drink and non-carbonated soft drinks. The carbonated drinks account for 85% of the total soft drink market. However, the growth rate has been stagnant and in fact declining over the past few years. The non-carbonated drinks category includes special categories like fruit drinks, juices and dairy drinks, etc. With the changing lifestyles, the growth in non-carbonated drink category has been much higher than the carbonated category. There is an inherent need in the mind of the Indian consumer for a healthy drink. Amul Kool Café satisfies this need.
by rakesh | Nov 2, 2006 | Env & Geography
The combined live storage in these 76 reservoirs at the beginning of monsoon i.e. 1st June, 2006 was 22 per cent of their designed capacity and stood at 82 per cent of the designed capacity as on 26th October 2006. The present storage is 105 per cent of the last year’s storage and 124 per cent of last 10 years average storage during the same period. Out of these 76 reservoirs there are presently 4 reservoirs where this year’s storage is 80 per cent or less than the average of previous 10 years.
In order to derive the best possible benefits from the available water, Central Water Commission is keeping in touch with the Department of Agriculture and Co-operation and providing information of the weekly storage position to the Crop Weather Watch Group for evolving suitable crop strategies and also appraising the situation to various Departments and Ministries involved in Water Resources Planning.
Basinwise storage position as on 26th October’06 is as follows:
The storage position in all the basins namely Indus, Ganga, Tapi, Mahi, Sabarmati, Narmada, Rivers of Kutch, Godavari, Krishna, Mahanadi and Neighbouring East Flowing Rivers, Cauvery and Neighbouring East flowing Rivers and West Flowing rivers of South is better than average of previous 10 years.
Out of 31 reservoirs with significant hydro potential, 4 reservoirs have storage build up less than the average of last 10 years capacity and no reservoir has negative storage i.e. less than MDDL.
by rakesh | Nov 1, 2006 | India News
“Habitat for Humanity builds cannot succeed without volunteerism, preparation and planning,” said Waugh. “Volunteers have to bring passion to what they believe in and what they are creating.”
More than 2,000 volunteers from North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and from across India are taking part in building homes in partnership with low-income families from the Lonavala area.
“We are grateful for Steve’s support at this year’s JCWP,” said Steve Weir, senior vice president of Habitat’s Asia Pacific Area office.”He is making a difference in the life of a family in need of housing and also helping to inspire others to join us.”
Waugh is known as the “man with nerves of steel” for his skills on the cricket field.Waugh served as captain of the Australian team from 1999 to 2004.He also is the most experienced Test cricketer in history, making 168 appearances.Waugh is a philanthropist, who supports many causes including the Steve Waugh Foundation – Australia .He was named Australian of the Year in 2004 for his achievements in cricket and charity. Waugh and his wife, Lynette, have three children.In 2005, he was named Australian Father of the Year.
This year’s JCWP is associated with Habitat for Humanity India’s ” indiaBUILDS” program.The five-year campaign plans to engage 1 million volunteers in helping to provide shelter in partnership with 250,000 people.The campaign also seeks to raise funds for a sustainable revolving fund worth US$50 million.
The Carters are Habitat’s most famous volunteers.Each year since 1984, the Carters have given one week of their time to build homes and raise awareness about the need for simple, decent and affordable housing.Previous JCWP events have been held in the United States (in New York City, Georgia and Michigan), the Philippines, Hungary , South Korea and South Africa.Habitat’s JCWP 2007 will be in Los Angeles,California in USA.
For more information about Habitat for Humanity’s Jimmy Carter Work Project, visit www.habitat.org/jcwp/2006/.
Major partners include Citigroup, Dow India, Vedanta Resources, Posco India, Whirlpool Corporation, Cisco, HDFC Ltd., Aditya Birla Group and Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.
About Habitat for Humanity International
Habitat for Humanity International is a global non-governmental organization that welcomes to its work all people dedicated to the cause of eliminating poverty housing. Since its founding in the United States in 1976, Habitat has built more than 200,000 houses in nearly 100 countries, providing simple, decent and affordable shelter for more than 1 million people. For more information, visit www.habitat.org/ap
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