Ganga Sanskriti Yatra showcasing & discovering Culture Heritage of Ganga to begin at Gangotri on 14 February, 2016

“Ganga Sanskriti Yatra” showcasing & discovering culture heritage of Ganga will begin at Gangotri on 14 February, 2016 at 6:56 am (at the time of sunrise). The Yatra will be inaugurated at Gangotri by Shri K.K. Mittal, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Government of India. The closing ceremony will be held at Kapilmuni Ashram, Gangasagar, the summit of Ganga. The objective of ‘Ganga Sanskriti Yatra’ is to showcase and discover the cultural diversity and heritage of Ganga river basin and also to spread necessary awareness to the masses about its safeguarding and rejuvenating. Ganga is the lifeline and national heritage of India and is also the multiple streams of Indian Culture. This is the time to safeguard the cultural heritage. In view of that, the festival namely,“Ganga Sanskriti Yatra” has been planned. The festival is being organised from Gangotri to Gangasagar from 14 February to 13 March, 2016 in 262 different venues connecting with over 2.5 crore people.

Apart from the main venues of Yatra i.e, Gangotri, Haridwar, Bijnor, Farukkabad, Kannuj, Kanpur, Allahabad, Mirzapur, Varanasi, Gazipur, Baliya, Buxur, Chhapra, Vaishali, Patna, Begusarai, Munger, Sultanganj, Bhagalpur, Rajmahal, Murshidabad, Baharampur, Dakhineswar and Ganga Sagar, the festival will cover all the confluences of the tributaries of Ganga and the places of historical and cultural importance.

This Yarta is also concentrating on pursuing of cultural exchange. In view of this, the yatra is divided into part, the central point being Varanasi. The art forms from confluence to Varanasi will be presented in the lower part. During the Yatra, a survey and documentation on the art forms and cultural heritage of Ganga will be published at the commencement of the series. The Departments of Culture. Scholars, student, dignitaries have been invited to join the festival.

The main concentration of the festival is to present art forms of Ganga basin which are deeply associated with the river, including Folk songs, Folk dances, Folk Theatre, Dance Drama, Documentary/ Films Shows, Street Plays, kavi sammelan, photography exhibitions, film shows, quiz competitions, seminars and Poster campaigns. In the seminar, cultural diversity and heritage of Ganga river basin and challenges for its safeguarding will be discussed. The venues of the seminars have been finalized - Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University, Srinagar, Garhwal; Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi; Jayprakash Narayan University, Chhapra; Patna University, Bhagalpur University, Tilka Majhi University, Bhagalpur; Presidency University, Jadavpur University and Calcutta University, Kolkata; Kalyani University and Barasat University, West Bengal.

The Ganga is one of the major rivers of the Indian subcontinent; it is the longest river in India and flows for around 1,569 miles (2,525 KM) from the Himalayan Mountains to the Bay of Bengal and heavily populated with over 400 million people living in the basin. From origin to confluence, the Ganga flows through the state of Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal are under the EZCC.

The Ganga has been declared as a National Heritage by Government of India and above all is the river of India and above all is the river of India, Ganga has held India’s heart captive and drawn uncounted millions to her banks since the dawn of history. The story of Ganga is the history of Indian civilization and culture. The great Janpada and Empire was built and flourished on the bank of Ganga. Ganga is also the river of creation. The cultural diversity of the Ganga basin is highly considerable. About 62 tunes, 254 types of songs and ballads, 122 dance forms, 200 crafts, 12 styles of folk paintings, 26 languages and dialects grew along the waves of Ganga. In the mythology and epics, Ganga has been considered as a holy river. It is regarded by all religions and paths. The Ganga has fascinated several poets and litterateur since ancient times. Today, about 100 festivals and 50 major fairs are celebrated annually at the bank of the Ganga and more than 4-5 billion people yearly visit them. About 1 crore people make their living.

The Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre (EZCC) under Union Ministry of Culture has Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Manipur, Odisha, Sikkim, Tripura, West Bengal and Andaman & Nicobar Islands as the member States. As per the approved scheme, every Zonal Culture Centres have to organize a series of festivals namely- Cultural Yatra, beyond their zone. The Swach Bharat Abhiyan has also been taken up by EZCC.

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Minister for Telecom & IT to Launch Electronics Development Fund (EDF)

Department of Electronics & Information Technology and M/s. Canbank Venture Capital Fund Ltd will Launch Electronics Development Fund (EDF) on Monday in Mumbai. Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Hon’ble Minister for Communications & Information Technology” will formally announce the launch with handing over of the letter of commitment to the first group of Daughter Funds under EDF.

The Electronics Development Fund Policy was launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, during the inauguration of Digital India Week on 1^st July 2015.Government of India has appointed M/s. CANBANK Venture Capital Fund Pvt. Ltd. (CVCFL) to house Electronics Development Fund (EDF) on 04.09.2015.

Electronics Development Fund (EDF) an initiative of IT Department is formulated as a “Fund of Funds” to participate in “Daughter Funds” which in turn will provide risk capital to companies developing new technologies in the area of electronics, nano-electronics and Information Technology (IT). The target beneficiaries of the EDF will be Daughter Funds (set up to achieve the objectives of the EDF policy) registered in India and abiding by the relevant rules and regulations including the SEBI regulations on Venture Funds.

The corpus of a Daughter Fund will be determined by market requirements and the capacity of its Fund Manager to cater to the requirements of the Fund. The supported Daughter Funds will promote innovation, R&D and product development within the country in the specified fields of electronics, nano-electronics and IT. They will also support acquisition of foreign companies and technologies for products imported in India in large volume. The core focus of the Daughter Funds would be to develop domestic design capabilities. The Daughter Funds supported will create a resource pool of IP within the country in the specified fields.

EDF therefore enables creation of an ecosystem for providing risk capital to both industry and academia to undertake research and development in these technology areas. It will, in the process, enrich the intellectual property in the country and encourage more entrepreneurs towards product and technology development.

Details at http://deity.gov.in/esdm/edf

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Ministry of Culture to add Cultural colours to “Make in India” week, Mumbai

Ministry of Culture is all set to participate in ‘Make in India (MII)’ week to be held from February 13^th to 18^th, 2016 at MMRDA Ground, Bandra-Kurla Road, Mumbai. The MII week is being celebrated by the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce & Industry to showcase innovation, design and sustainability driving India’s new manufacturing revolution, which will be the biggest-ever exhibition of its own kind in the world in which Ministry of Culture is co-partner. To promote appreciation of India’s rich art and culture, the Ministry of Culture has appointed South Central Zone Cultural Centre (SCZCC), Nagpur as nodal agency to showcase the rich cultural heritage of India during ‘Make in India’ week.

The event will be inaugurated by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on 13^th February, 2016. To display country’s soft power, the Ministry of Culture has finalized the following programmes which will be organized by various cultural institutions working under the aegis of Ministry of Culture including Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Sangeet Natak Akademi (SNA), National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Nehru Science Centre and all Seven Zonal Cultural Centres of India.

The programmes to be showcased by Ministry of Culture at MII week from 13^th to 18^th February, 2016 at MMRDA Ground, Bandra-Kurla Road, Mumbai are as follows:

All seven Zone Cultural Centres will send 21 groups of folk artists, selected from all over India, who will give performances at the six-day long event. The art forms are: Bazigar (acrobats from Punjab), Rauf Dance (J&K), Been Jogi (Haryana); Mayur Dance (Uttar Pradesh), Kalaripayattu (martial art of Kerala), Thapetta Gullu (Andhra Pradesh), Panchavadyam (traditional orchestra of five instruments from Kerala), Rathwa Tribal Dance (Gujarat), Bahurupiya (mimicry artists from Rajasthan), Manganiar (folk singers of Rajasthan), Cheraw ( ‘Bamboo dance’ of Mizoram), Thang Ta (martial art form of Manipur), Pungcholom (Manipur), Singhi Cham (The Snow Lion Dance’ of Sikkim), Mallakhamb (gymnastic performed on a vertical wooden pole or rope of Maharashtra), Badhai Dance (Bundelkhand), Panthi Dance (Chhattisgarh), Dollu Kunitha Dance (Karnataka), Pandavani (Chhattisgarh), Gotipua Dance (Odisha), and Purulia Chhau (West Bengal)

Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) will be highlighting World Heritage Monuments like Elephanta Caves, Ajanta and Ellora Caves, and Bhaja Caves through decorative lightings. A short trip for MII delegates to these monuments have also been organized by ASI. The ASI will also conduct a workshop on ‘Project Mausam’- a project by Ministry of Culture that envisages the re-establishment of India’s ancient maritime routes.

National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Mumbai will conduct exhibitions at various art galleries of Mumbai and curatorial walks during 13th to 18th February, 2016. The curatorial walks will be conducted by Shri Ranjit Haskote and Shri Kaiwan Mehta.

Sangeet Natak Akademi (SNA), New Delhi in association with SCZCC will put up an exhibition to showcase making of musical instruments, different masks, headgears and jewellery, Portrait Rangoli art, Buddhist sand art, Kathakali make up with natural stone colours and Thathera traditional utensils making at the Pavilion No. 27 of MMRDA Ground, BKC Road, Mumbai during MII week.

Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai will host two unique exhibitions titled: Cricket Connect and Cinema (Bollywood) during MII week at Nehru Science Centre, Dr. E. Moses Road, Worli, Mumbai. The SCZCC will also provide more than 100 artists to perform in the famous “Kala Ghoda” festival during MII week.

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CIL’S Performance Q3 and April-December 2015

Coal India Limited (CIL) posted 10.7% growth in its coal supplies during the quarter ending December 2015 of the fiscal 2015-16. CIL as a whole supplied 137.90 Million Tonnes of coal to its customers during October-December 2015, up by 13.33 Million Tonnes, compared to 124.57 Million Tonnes during the same quarter of the last fiscal.

Interestingly, CIL continued its high orbit growth in coal supplies for the nine month period of April-December 2015 also registering 9.8% growth on a year-on-year comparison. The total coal supplied to its customers was 389.27 Million Tonnes during April-December 2015 against 354.66 Million Tonnes during the same period last year, the increase in volume terms being 34.61 Million Tonnes.

The company in the recent times has stepped up its coordination with Indian Railways in a bid to get more rakes and this appears to have paid off in terms of increased supplies. CIL has been able to maintain growth trajectory in its supplies despite slowdown in the demand for the fuel from coal fired power utilities which account for around 77% of its overall coal supplies.

Production

The company clocked 9.4% growth in production during Q3 of the current fiscal, i.e, October-December 2015 on a quarter-on-quarter comparison. The third quarter of the fiscal witnessed coal production of 143.97 Million Tonnes against 131.64 Million Tonnes, with the production increase in volume terms at 12.33 Million Tonnes.

CIL held steady its production tempo for the nine months of April-December 2015 also registering a growth of 9.1%. Coal production during April-December 2015 was 373.51 Million Tonnes against 342.38 Million Tonnes on a year-on-year comparison with a whopping 31.13 Million Tonnes increase in absolute terms.

CIL's strategy of mine wise monitoring, pressing for faster environment clearances, coordination between Centre and State authorities working in unison in removing hurdles helped maintain its production growth throughout the year.

Coal Supplies to Power Utilities

Coal fired power utilities of the country received 108.2 Million Tonnes of coal during October-December 2015 against 103.58 Million Tonnes during same quarter last year. The quarter-on-quarter growth has been 4.5% with 4.62 Million Tonne absolute increase.

Growth in coal supplies to power utilities surged ahead to 6.8% for the period April-December 2015. CIL moved 299.15 Million Tonnes of coal to the power plants during the nine month period ending December 2015, compared to 280.22 Million Tonnes Million Tonnes on a like-to-like comparison. In absolute terms the increase has been a healthy 18.93 Million Tonnes.

Power Utilities of the country are flush with coal as coal stocks at their end as of 31 December 2015 at 31.05 Million Tonnes was more than double compared to same period previous year. The stock amounted to average of 24 days with no power utility at critical or supercritical condition. Compared to this, as of 31 December 2014, coal stock at power utilities was 13.97 Million Tonnes equivalent to 9 days with 42 utilities in critical condition and 19 utilities reeling under supercritical condition.

Wagon Loading

During the third quarter of the fiscal CIL’s average loading of rakes per day grew by 9.2%. On an average 220.2 rakes were loaded per day during October-December 2015 against 201.6 rakes/per day on quarter-on-quarter comparison. On an average, CIL managed to load 18.6 rakes more per day during the quarter.

The transfer of coal through rail mode saw a remarkable growth of 10.1% during April-December 2015 as 207.4 rakes per day were loaded on an average during this period against an average of 188.4 rakes/day compared to same period last year. The increase in average loading per day has been 19 rakes.