Recently a Dubai based marine firm DP World has partnered with NIIF to create an investment platform for ports, terminals, transportation and logistics businesses in India.
National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) is set-up to function as a major platform in India for attracting foreign investments to fund stalled infra projects.
The NIIF is being operationalized by establishing three Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) under the SEBI Regulations.
The proposed corpus of NIIF is Rs. 40,000 Crores (around USD 6 Billion).
GOI’s contribution to the AIFs under the NIIF scheme shall be 49% of the total commitment.
NIIF has mandate to solicit equity participation from strategic anchor partners, like overseas sovereign/quasi-sovereign/multilateral/bilateral investors.
International Dam Safety Conference
India will be hosting the International Dam Safety Conference 2018 at Thiruvananthapuram on January 23-24.
Central Water Commission is organizing the event in association with Kerala state government.
Dam safety conferences is an annual event under the Dam Safety Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP) project, the conferences will be conducted in DRIP states.
The key recommendations emerging from the deliberations of the conference will be circulated to stakeholders as well as policy makers for implementation.
DHARMA App
Dam Health and Rehabilitation Monitoring Application (DHARMA) will be launched during the international dam safety conference.
The app will serve as a web tool to digitize all dam related data effectively.
It will help to document authentic asset and health information pertaining to the large dams in the country, enabling appropriate actions to ensure need based rehabilitation.
DRIP
Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP) was implemented by Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR) with assistance from the World Bank.
The Central Dam Safety Organisation of Central Water Commission is coordinating and supervising the Project implementation.
The main objectives of DRIP are
To improve the safety and performance of selected (223 dams across 7 different states) existing dams in a sustainable manner.
To strengthen the dam safety institutional setup in participating states as well as at central level.
The Seven DRIP States includes Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Uttarakhand.
CWC
Central Water Commission is a technical organization functioning under the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.
The Commission is entrusted with the general responsibilities of initiating, coordinating and furthering in consultation about the water resources to the concerned state governments.
Central Water Commission CWC is headed by a Chairman, with the status of Ex-Officio Secretary to the Government of India.
The work of the Commission is divided among 3 wings namely,
Designs and Research (D&R) Wing.
River Management (RM) Wing.
Water Planning and Projects (WP&P) Wing.
Road kills App
Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT) a wildlife NGO has developed a mobile appcalled Road Kills.
This app will help citizens to report wildlife deaths by uploading geo-tagged photographs to a public forum.
The information generated from the application can help identify crucial sections of roads or railway lines where animal deaths are high to pinpoint regions that require urgent mitigation measures.
The data can also help determine what species are more at risk on specific road or rail stretches.
Nation Year of Millets
Union government is about to announce 2018 as National year of millets.
Under which union government will adopt a mission-mode approach to promote the nutrient-rich cereals, including sorghum, ragi and foxtail millets.
The millet mission will boost production of these cereals, which are naturally rich with protein and nutrients such as iron, calcium and zinc, and also consume less water and inputs, thus being ecologically sustainable.
