MNEWS

A Loan Agreement for IBRD loan of USD 48 million for the “Meghalaya Community - Led Landscapes Management Project (MCLLMP)” was signed here today with the World Bank. The Loan Agreement was signed by Mr. Sameer Kumar Khare, Joint Secretary (MI), Department of Economic Affairs on behalf of the Government of India and Mr. Hisham A Abdo Kahin, Acting Country Director, World Bank (India) on behalf of the World Bank. A Project Agreement was also signed by Mr. P. Sampath Kumar, Commissioner & Secretary to the Government of Meghalaya & CEO, Meghalaya Basin Development Authority (MBDA) and Mr. Hisham A Abdo Kahin, Acting Country Director, World Bank (India). The Objective of the Project is to strengthen community-led landscapes management in selected landscapes in the State of Meghalaya. The Project consists of three components: (i) Strengthening Knowledge and Capacity for Natural Resource Management; (ii) Community-led landscape planning and implementation and (ii...

Plans to install at least 5 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2022 The National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) an autonomous body under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has called for ‘Expression of Interest’ (EoI) for the first offshore wind energy project of India. The global EoI is intended to shortlist prospective offshore wind energy developers for a  1000 MW offshore wind energy project in Gulf of Khambat, off the coast of Gujarat . The proposed area is located 23-40 km seaward side from Pipavav port. MNRE plans to install at least 5 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2022.  As per the National Offshore Wind Energy Policy notified on October, 2015, National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE), Chennai is the nodal agency to carry out the necessary studies/surveys before final bidding and act as a single window for facilitating necessary clearances required for development of offshore wind project in India. The first offshore LiDAR was instal...

Raksha Mantri Smt Nirmala Sitharaman , who is on three-day visit to Russia to attend ‘VII Moscow Conference on International Security’ from 03 to 05 April 2018, addressed the II Plenary Session of the Conference on the theme titled ‘Global Security in a Polycentric World’ covering aspects related to current global defence, security and strategic scenario on April 4 in the Russian capital.  Raksha Mantri stated that for India, cooperation with Russia is vital in ensuring stability and security in our shared Eurasian neighbourhood, especially in addressing the menace of terrorism. She also spoke about terrorism in the region, persistence of instability in Afghanistan, rising threats to security in the wider Asia Pacific region, non-traditional security challenges such as climate change, food and energy insecurity, financial instability and the need for cooperation amongst the countries to address these issues. Following is the full text of the address delivered by Rak...

The Defence Accounts Department is entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining the pay accounts of million plus Jawans and JCOs of Indian Army . The Pay Accounts Offices (PAOs) of this department are at the forefront of the concerted efforts that are being put in to ensure that these men get their correct dues within reasonable time frame. An important requirement to meet the expectations of the end user and ensuring their contentment is that the JCOs/ORs understands their dues and their entitlement. If they further appreciate the processes involved in acceptance or denial of any dues, it would equip them with enough knowledge to have better awareness to contest entitlement inconsistencies, if any. This handbook was conceptualized with the aim to provide more grasp on the rules of entitlement as well as to have complete transparency of procedures in the PAOs. This first edition contains all the procedures right from the inception stage of publishing and processing o...