Using the occasion of the World Public Service Day, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today told civil servants to ensure that the decision-making process is transparent and that government spending did not give rise to corruption.

Observing that the Right to Information Act empowered people to secure information on matters relating to governance and policy, he said, “I do believe that free citizens in free societies must not live in fear of arbitrary governments. This too is an important responsibility of the civil services.” In a message on the occasion, Singh said, “Nearly a third of national expenditure is accounted for by the government. It is very important that this expenditure is wisely incurred, and that decisions are taken democratically and transparently.” Noting that in modern societies, people expected governments to deliver basic services like education, healthcare and water, he said the UN Millenium Development Goals cannot be met unless governments are pro-active.

“Unless people view government as their benefactor, governments will not be able to raise resources or maintain law and order. But government is nothing more than the people who make it work,” Singh said adding public service “is nothing more than helping people help themselves”.

He said he did not believe that government needed to interfere in the process of wealth creation and on the contrary, the administration must create the space in which the creativity and enterprise of people can freely express itself. PTI

A sudden communication failure between a special IAF jet carrying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the air traffic control at the airport here on Saturday is being probed by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), airport sources said today.

Preliminary reports indicated the likelihood of the problem emanating from the failure of ground equipment. The VHF communication system went dead as soon as the plane, on which the prime minister was returning from Bangalore, touched down, they said.

Alarmed ATC officials re-established links with the aircraft from the IAF’s VIP squadron by switching to an alternate frequency, the sources said.

When contacted, an IAF spokesman told PTI that “the aircraft was in continuous radio telephony (RT) communication with the Palam ATC throughout”.

The failure at the crucial post-landing stage could have led to a mishap as the pilots could not have been alerted about which taxiway to take to the parking bay or if there was an aircraft approaching or cruising on the runway or a vehicle was coming on route.

The DGCA is also checking the entire communication equipment installed at the airport, the sources said.

The aircraft of the VIP squadron have a completely separate frequency for communications with the ATC. These planes are equipped with the Quadruple Redundancy System having four stand-by systems that automatically take over if one fails. PTI

The Union Cabinet today approved the proposal to open an embassy in Slovenia and reopen the one in Congo, besides opening consultates in three other countries.
The aim of creating these missions and posts was to safeguard and promote India’s strategic, economic and political interests in these countries, Parliamentary Affairs Minister P R Dasmunsi told reporters after a meeting of the Cabinet.

While an Indian Embassy would be opened at the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana, the one at Congo would be reopened at its capital of Kinshasa, he said.

A decision was also taken to open Consultates General Melbourne (Australia), Juba (South Sudan) and Phuentsholing (Bhutan).

The Cabinet also approved creation of 20 India-based and 25 local posts to man these missions and posts, besides a one-time incurring expenditure of over Rs two crore to set them up. PTI

The Cabinet today agreed to extend the deadline by three months for implementing the revised guidelines for Foreign Direct Investment in telecom sector.

The Cabinet has extended the time by another 3 months, Parliamentary Affairs Minister P R Dasmunsi told reporters after the meeting.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) is sorting out some of the security-related issues while implementing the enhanced FDI of 74 per cent from 49 per cent.

The issue of FDI in telecom has become a tug-of-war between National Security Council (NSC) and the DoT and various issues still need to be resolved, sources said.

On March 7, the government announced changes in the guidelines governing increased FDI from 49 per cent to 74 per cent and had then extended the time limit for the telecom service provider companies for four months (from March 3 to July 2) to comply with the guidelines.

The ministry officials involved in the process said the Department had sought uniform guidelines for companies up to 49 per cent and between 49-74 per cent FDI.

The current guidelines, which deal with two sets of norms — one for companies up to 49 per cent FDI and the other for between 49-74 per cent FDI — should not have been agreed in the first place when it was being worked out because implementing two sets of norms is not workable. PTI

Terming energy independence as India’s “highest priority”, President A P J Abdul Kalam today said power generation in the country needs to grow over three-fold to 4,00,000-mw by 2030, including 50,000-mw by way of nuclear energy.

“Based on the progress visualised for the nation during the next two decades, the power generating capacity has to increase to 4,00,000-MW by 2030 from the existing 1,30,000-mw,” he said at a fuction organised by TERI.

The President said with depleting reserves of fossil- based oil, coal and gas reserves, alternate sources of energy needed to be seriously considered.

“Energy independence has got to be achieved through three different sources namely hydel capacity, nuclear power and non-conventional energy sources primarily through solar energy, apart from thermal power,” Kalam said.

He said while hydel capacity was expected to contribute an additional 50,000 MW, solar energy farms would contribute another 55,000 MW. “The nuclear power plants should have a target of 50,000 MW of power while the balance 115,000 MW has to be generated through the conventional thermal plants through coal and gas and other renewable sources such as wind power, biomass, municipal waste and solar thermal power,” he said.

The President said power generated through renewable energy technologies has to be increased to 25 per cent from the present five per cent.

On nuclear energy, Kalam envisaged rise in generation capacity from the current 2,700-mw to a massive 50,000-mw by 2030. “There is a need to plan right from now to icrease this capacity to 50,000 MW by 2030,” he said. PTI

Government today approved a 250 million dollar (nearly Rs 1,125 crore) National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) for fine tuning agricultural research in the country.
The six year project, involving a 200 milion dollar credit from the World Bank, would be implemented from July 1 this year, Information and Broadcating Minister P R Dasmunsi told reporters after a Cabinet meeting.

The project would have four components including one in which the Indian Council of Agricultural Research would be the catalysing agent for the management of change of the Indian National Agricultural System, the minister said.

The other components would be research in production and consumption systems, research on sustainable rural livelihood security and basic and strategic research in the frontier areas of agricultural sciences.

The decision would result in about 15 value chain development reports for serving as models for other potential areas and investment planning.

It also aimed to produce about 20 sustainable rural livelihood models for replication in other disadvantaged areas and generation of about 25 patents of scientific and economic significance, Dasmunsi said.

About 100 research papers are also aimed to be published in high quality and impact research journals as part of the project. PTI

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today asked public sector banks to explore the possiblities of consolidation to take on their bigger rivals — foreign banks in India — and increase their presence in overseas market.

“They (PSU banks) need to seriously examine possibilities for consolidation of PSU banks to give them both depth and reach. They must also devise effective global strategies for improving their international presence,” Singh said at the centenary celebration of Canara Bank here.

Pointing out that increased presence of foreign banks over time will pose further competitive challenges to domestic banks and also to the regulator, he said domestic banks are smaller in size relative to their international competitors, which are now very large indeed.

“If these large banks have emerged as a result of real economies of scale and scope, our own banking system will have to respond in kind both domestically and abroad,” the Prime Minister said.

Singh said agriculture credit has been cause for considerable concern to his government as high interest rates and a serious debt overhang still affect millions of farmers.

“In spite of a doubling of agricultural credit in three years, which we will achieve by the end of the year, there are vast uncovered gaps. Many regions and many classes of farmers are completely outside the institutional credit delivery systems. This cannot be allowed to persist,” he said.

The Prime Minister suggested to Finance Minister P Chidambaram to constitute a group to formulate policies that will promote financial inclusion. PTI

The Union Cabinet today approved a new 15-point programme to prevent and control communal incidents and take care of minorities welfare and decided to earmark 15 per cent of funds in various schemes and programmes for nationally declared minorities.
The 15-point programme has been recast to focus action sharply on issues intimately linked with the social, educational and economic uplift of minorities and provide for earmarking of outlays in certain schemes so that the progress was monitorable, Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters after a meeting of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The Cabinet decided that 15 per cent of the funds may be earmarked wherever possible in relevant schemes and programmes for the nationally declared minorities, he said.

The revised programme is also aimed at taking care of prevention of communal riots, prosecution of communal offences and rehabilitation of riot victims.

Under the category of enhancing education opportunities, equitable availability of ICDS services, improving access to school education, greater resources for teaching Urdu, modernising Madarsa education, scholarship for meritorious students from minority communities and improving educational infrastructure through the Maulana Azad Education Foundation would be covered. PTI

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today launched the Rs 63.95 billion Bangalore Metro project, as he decried attempts from “some” quarters to divide the people by “pitting one against another in the development debate”.

Laying the foundation stone for the project that envisages a 33-km Metro rail network to ease traffic congestion in the country’s technology hub, he said along with Bangalore’s progess, “we must also work for Karnataka’s development. I don’t see any contradiction between the two.

“Some try to divide our people by pitting one against another in the development debate. This is wrong. India cannot develop if only a few benefit from that process. We want both our urban areas and rural areas to develop,” he said.

Singh’s remarks assume significance in the backdrop of former Prime Minister and JD-S chief H D Devegowda’s perceived bias against the IT industry, with which he had locked horns over the issue of land allotment.

Gowda, whose son H D Kumaraswamy is the Chief Minister heading the JDS-BJP coalition, had also opposed the Bangalore- Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project for being allegedly used by its builders Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise for real estate benefits.

“We want both our urban areas and rural areas to develop. We want to build an India in which scientists and engineers, farmers and workers, artists and enterpreneurs can all find the space to express their creativity and enteprise,” Singh said.

Work on the first phase comprising a seven-kilometre Metro rail route will begin in October and is expected to be completed by December 2009. The full network in this phase is expected to be commissioned by September 2011. PTI

Real estate is the buzzword for this season. Carlyle-sponsored Santa fey & UK’s stargate capital, the two real estate funds are entering India in the next three-month with a combined corpus of $500 million.

Santa fey is planning a $300 million fund and stargate capital is looking forward for a real estate investment of $186 million in India.

The list of equity players rising funds & scouting the market for investment opportunities in real estate is huge & Santa fey & stargate capital are soon planning to join the group.

Both domestic as well as foreign funds have found a new asset class. The funds include the following
• Kotak realty fund
• HDFC India Real Estate fund
• Pantaloon Retail’s Kshitij Real Estate fund
• Morgan Stanley
• Bessemer venture partners
• Ne Vernon
• Tishman spyers ICICI Ventures
• Sequoia Capital
• Trikona capital
• IL & FS
• IDFC
• Warburg Pincus
• UTI Venture fund
• Ascendas IT Park fund
• Cal PERS
• Lehman Brothers
• Goldman Sachs

Kotak Realty fund has already raised $100 million in its first tranche & the trend is followed by Morgan Stanley that has made an investment of $68 million in an Indian property firm Mantri Developers.

RBI has gone ahead & enhanced the risk weight-age to VC funds & commercial real estate. Real estate has really emerged as the hottest sector this season.