Thursday, November 21, 2013
writingonblog uncensored: Reservoirs have only 3.5 tmc ft as water woes cont...
writingonblog uncensored: Reservoirs have only 3.5 tmc ft as water woes cont...: C Shivakumar Chennai: As severe cyclonic storm ‘Helen’ is set to hit Andhra Pradesh, water managers in the city are looking at the s...
Reservoirs have only 3.5 tmc ft as water woes continue to haunt Chennai
C Shivakumar
Chennai:
As severe cyclonic storm ‘Helen’ is set to hit Andhra
Pradesh, water managers in the city are looking at the sky with hope of some
showers to tide off the impending water woes.
Although weathermen state that the city only has remote
chances of rain, Metro Water officials are still keeping their fingers crossed
even as the city has a deficit of 36 per cent rainfall from October to November
20, 2013 when compared to last year during the same period.
A senior Metro Water official said that the catchment areas
of the city this year has received less rainfall than the previous year adding
to the water woes of Metro Water which had been struggling to maintain the
supply of water in the city.
This year the water levels in the four reservoirs ---
Poondi, Cholavaram, Red Hills and Chembarambakkam is only 3.5 thousand million
cubic (TMC) feet of water as compared to last year’s 4.44 tmc feet of water.
This could last for only four to five months.
Surprisingly, last year the city had inadequate rains and
this year it seems worse. With barely a week left for the month to end, Metro
Water officials feel this is really a bad sign and hope the fortune could turn
round provided the skies open up by next week.
Currently, Poondi has 729 million cubic feet, Cholavaram 165
mcft, Red Hills 1,647 mcft and Chembarambakkam 999 million cubic feet of water.
The city requires 830 mld of water per day and Metro water
has been supplying only 600 MLD of water per day with the limited resources. “The city could have run dry had it not been
for Minjur and Nemelli desalination plant, that was opened by Chief minister J
Jayalalithaa recently, besides 180 mld of water from Veeranam lake and another
40 to 50 MLD of ground water. This adds to 400 mld of water,” a senior Metro
water official said.
writingonblog uncensored: PMEGP in TN hit due to banks delay in sanctioning ...
writingonblog uncensored: PMEGP in TN hit due to banks delay in sanctioning ...: Chennai: The Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), a credit linked scheme that is implemented by Khadi and Villag...
PMEGP in TN hit due to banks delay in sanctioning loans
Chennai:
The Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme
(PMEGP), a credit linked scheme that is
implemented by Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) to nurture first generation entrepreneurs,
has been hit with banks being slow in disbursal of loans.
The
issue was highlighted during the state level workshop on PMEGP, which is one of the important schemes of Ministry
of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. The scheme is implemented by KVIC which
is the nodal agency at national level while at the field level, the State
Offices of KVIC, State Khadi and Village Industries Boards (KVIBs), District
Industries Centres (DICs) are the Principal implementing agencies.
While
top officials including commissioner of industries and commerce Swaran Singh
and MSME secretary K Dhanavel did not come out openly in criticizing the banks,
a Tamil Nadu Khadi Village Indistries Board official T Muthulingam put it
bluntly by asking the banks to clear the applications to improve the state
board’s target.
Interestingly,
the delay in sanctioning of applications has also drawn the ire of Reserve Bank
of India. S Raja, general manager of RBI, Chennai, said that he has asked the
banks not keep the applications pending. He also highlighted that the
applications particularly in Ariyalur, Salem, Nilgiris, Tiruvarus, Trichy, and
Dindigul has been delayed while urging the bankers who were also present in the
event to clear it soon.
As
per statistics available, a total of 3,539 applications have been sent to the
banks for loans. The banks however, sanctioned only 1,266 applications.
D R
Sree Prakash, assistant general manager of Indian Overseas Bank vowed that banks will ensure that Rs 1,379
crore target set by the state would be
met.
Speaking
on the occasion, Dhanavel also highlighted that in Tirunelveli district the
state found it difficult to provide
relief to the drought hit farmers in Tirunelveli district under direct
beneficiary scheme as 90 per cent don’t have
bank accounts. Interestingly,
this also highlights that the ‘no-frills account’ initiative has yet to reach
the nook and corner of India.
Dhanavel
said that MSME sector plays a key role in helping realize the state government’s
role of creating 15 lakh jobs by 2023.
Meanwhile,
it is estimated that Rs 23,400 crore is the estimated total credit flow in the
scheme for setting up of micro enterprises across the country and rs 7,800
crore government subsidies will be provided during the 12th plan.
writingonblog uncensored: Infuse Ventures sets India’s Most Promising Clean ...
writingonblog uncensored: Infuse Ventures sets India’s Most Promising Clean ...: New Delhi: Some of India’s most promising early stage cleantech entrepreneurs were set well on their way to success through “PowerStart...
Infuse Ventures sets India’s Most Promising Clean Tech Start-ups on Road to Success
New Delhi: Some of
India’s most promising early stage cleantech entrepreneurs were set well
on their way to success through “PowerStart”, an intensive bootcamp
and accelerator programme launched by Infuse Ventures – an early stage
cleantech-focused venture fund hosted at and managed by IIM Ahmedabad’s
Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE).
The PowerStart
Bootcamp was held from 10 to 14 November at
CIIE’s premises as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, the
world’s largest celebration of entrepreneurs, innovators and job
creators. The PowerStartprogramme has been designed specifically for both
current (recently formed) cleantech start-up teams as well as ‘aspiring
entrepreneurs’ (individuals with significant experience in the space
exploring a cleantech business idea of their own). PowerStart is actively supported
by the Asian Development Bank through their ‘Pilot Asia - Pacific Climate
Technology Network and Finance Center’ project.
Over the course of the five-day
bootcamp, 30 selected participants – including 12 start-up teams and 6
‘aspiring entrepreneurs’ – got to meet, network, and learn
from over 30 leading industry experts and ‘mentors’ encompassing a
wide variety of topics of relevance to early stage cleantech entrepreneurs.
The
bootcamp featured talks and discussion by experts such as V. Subramanian
(former Secretary – Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Govt. of
India), Aniruddha Patil (Senior Investment Specialist at the Asian Development
Bank), Ashish Sethia (Country Manager & Head of Research at Bloomberg New
Energy Finance) and Vineeth Vijayaraghavan (Editor of Panchabuta). Since
‘financing’ is a critical issue faced by nearly all cleantech
entrepreneurs, the bootcamp had several sessions on various options and methods
of raising finance – some of the speakers included Jaisingh Dhumal (Chief
Manager of ICICI Bank’s Technology Finance Group) and Ravi Tyagi
(General Manager of Small industries Development at the Bank of India). In
addition to financing, participants were also introduced to indispensable
business skills like financial modeling, legal matters, pitching to investors,
design thinking, etc.
The third day of the bootcamp saw the participants attending an 2-hour workshop on the ‘business
model canvas’, following which there were over 4 hours of individual
‘one-on-one mentoring’ sessions during which 19
‘mentors’ sat down with the participants individually, reviewing
their business plans, refining their ‘business model canvases’ and
helping them prepare ‘booster plans’ – essentially an outline
of their targets, milestones and activities for the immediate and short term
following the bootcamp.
Participants presented these ‘booster
plans’ on the final day wherein they received additional feedback and
comments from the Infuse team and other mentors present. Speaking of the bootcamp,
Kunal Upadhyay, CEO – CIIE and Infuse Ventures, said, “It’s
amazing to see how the participants have refined their business models or ideas
since the first day of the bootcamp – they seemed to have really heeded
the advice received from the mentors / speakers and have been keenly
incorporating these ideas into their respective business model canvases and
booster plans.”
writingonblog uncensored: Tamil Nadu should start new born screening to save...
writingonblog uncensored: Tamil Nadu should start new born screening to save...: Chennai: Tamil Nadu government should start newborn screening programmes in the state to save babies from neo-natal disorders, accordin...
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