Ghulam Nabi Azad Chairs the Opening Session of International Conference on Population and Development at Dhaka

Partners in Population and Development (PPD) is an intergovernmental initiative created specifically for the purpose of expanding and improving South-to-South collaboration in the fields of reproductive health, population, and development.

PPD was launched at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), when ten developing countries from Asia, Africa and Latin America formed an intergovernmental alliance to help implement the Cairo Program of Action (POA).

PPD has presently 25 members countries committed to the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action, willing to provide political, technical and financial support to South-South Cooperation. While there were only 10 developing countries at the time of formation of the Organization in 1994, over the years PPD’s membership has increased to 25 developing countries across Asia, Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America covering more than 57% of total world population. The PPD member countries are: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Thailand, Viet Nam, Colombia, Mexico, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Uganda, Benin, Senegal, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Nigeria.

PPD is currently chaired by Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, who has been unanimously elected to the post in the 16^th Annual Board Meeting of PPD held in Pretoria, South Africa in 2011.

Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, who is currently on an official tour to Bangladesh capital Dhaka, today participated in the opening session of the two-day International Conference on “Evidence for Action: South-South Collaboration for ICPD beyond 2014”, organized jointly by Partners in Population and Development (PPD) and the Government of People’s Republic of Bangladesh. 

CHOGM 2011

The 2011 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) was held at Perth, Australia. India was represented by Vice-President Hamid Ansari.

Solar developers want ‘visibility' of future projects

Land acquisition and clarity on project pipeline are the biggest challenges that developers of solar power projects face today, even as finding financiers and skilled manpower still remain issues.

These difficulties were highlighted in a panel discussion at Solarcon India 2011, an international conference of the solar power industry, here on Thursday.

Clarity on how many solar projects would be put up for bidding each year in the coming few years is something that the developers find important. “Visibility for (even) 2012 is just not there,” said Mr Pasupathy Gopalan of SunEdison, a US-based company that has a clutch of projects in Gujarat and Rajasthan. “We have recruited over 200 people,” he said, wondering what the company would do with them after the on-hand projects are completed.

Agreeing with co-panelist, Mr Alan Rosling of Kiran Energy, Mr Gopalan said project visibility was crucial to attract investors.

Mr Gopalan said while the Government had done a “fantastic job of managing subsidies”, ensuring that the outgo from the exchequer was kept at the minimum, he would urge the policy makers to think in terms of the next 3-5 years.

Land acquisition was flagged as a major issue that requires policy intervention. SunEdison has nine projects underway in India. “Each of the nine projects has enormous land issues,” Mr Gopalan said.

It is a sore point with the developers that while there is a deadline for completion of the projects, with stiff penalties for failure, there are issues, such as land and linkage to the grid, over which they have no control.

Mr Srini Nagabhairava of AES Solar recalled that he had raised these points at Solarcon India 2009, and pointed out that over the two years the challenges haven't changed.

While agreeing that land was a big issue, Mr Vish Palekar of Mahindra Solar, struck a different chord saying the issue could be tackled by “social and local inclusiveness”.

Beside securing funding and finding and keeping talent, some developers noted that the credibility of the engineering, procurement and construction contractor was crucial in convincing bankers to fund projects.

At the question-and-answer session, a participant suggested a renewable energy finance obligation to be put on banks to enable funding to solar projects even if they exceed sector limits.

G-20 leaders must address global economic crisis

The upcoming G-20 summit should find solutions to the “frustrations” of the people hit by the global economic crisis and not just focus on domestic financial concerns, the UN chief, Mr Ban Ki-moon, has said.

“That is what you are seeing all around the world, starting from Wall Street. People are showing their frustrations by trying to send a very clear and unambiguous message to the world,” he said.

He asked world leaders to use the upcoming G-20 summit in Cannes to find solutions for the entire global economy and not focus merely on domestic financial concerns.

In a message to the G-20 leaders, the UN chief said: “business-as-usual or just looking at their own domestic economic issues will not give any answers to the current very serious international economic crisis.”

The G-20 leaders have a very “broad and important, crucial, responsibility to perform...towards the global economy,” Mr Ban, currently on a visit to Switzerland, told reporters there yesterday.

He said leaders of the developed and emerging economies should restore confidence and trust of the people and come out with a broader perspective to tackle the economic crisis.

He said the G-20 nations constitute 80 per cent of the world’s GDP and 85 per cent of the world’s population.

“We have to really address this issue with a sense of flexibility and compromise, and come out with actionable plans,” he said.

Protesters inspired by the “Occupy Wall Street” movement camped out in many European cities to protests against corporate greed and state cutbacks.

From London and Frankfurt to Madrid and Amsterdam, hundreds of demonstrators pitched tents following a global day of action on Saturday and vowed to maintain their campaign.

The G-20 summit will be held on November 3-4 in Cannes, France.

India to host World Steel Conference next year

In an indication of India's emerging importance on the world steel map and massive growth it is poised for in this sector, India has been awarded the right to hold the World Steel Conference in October next year.

The governing body of the World Steel Association, representing 170 producers and accounting for 85 per cent of world steel production, has decided to give the rights to hold the World Steel Conference in India from October 8 to 12 next year, according to an official announcement made  on October 14.

State-run Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) Chairman C. S. Verma made this offer in Paris on October 14 on behalf of India's committee consisting of six leading steel producers of India. He extended a warm invitation to all CEOs of leading steel producing countries and companies to attend the conference to be held in New Delhi.

Mr. Verma said the views expressed by the global steel barons would go a long way in making the steel industry more sustainable, in the backdrop of the global economic uncertainties and volatilities in the recent past. “The conference in New Delhi will give a glimpse of the rich heritage and culture of India,'' he added.

He informed that the Indian steel industry had grown multi-fold from a production of about two million tonnes of crude steel in 1950-51 to nearly 70 million tonnes in 2010-11. Indian economy has recorded an impressive GDP growth in the last few years.

A report released by the World Steel Association, based on the just concluded conference, has forecast that apparent steel use will increase by 6.5 per cent to 1,398 mt in 2011, following growth of 15.1 per cent in 2010. In 2012, it is forecast that world steel demand will grow further by 5.4 pr cent. The WSA also projected that India's steel consumption is likely to grow by 4.3 per cent to reach 67.7 million tonnes due to economic growth. In 2012, the growth rate is forecast to accelerate to 7.9 per cent.

The member steel companies representing host country committee from India include JSW Steel, SAIL, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam, Tata Steel, Essar Steel and JSW Ispat Steel.

National HRM meet

The Employers' Federation of India will hold a two-day summit on human relations management in Mumbai from October 21. The summit with the theme ‘Fair Employers Finish First', is designed around case studies of organisations that have been fair and have gained competitive edge as a result, said a press release issued by the Federation. The success stories of these organisations will be treated as learning models for the summit because of their fair practices. National awards on ‘Excellence in Employee Relations' will be presented at the event.

Delhi Ministerial Dialogue on Green Economy and Inclusive Growth

The 2011 Delhi Ministerial Dialogue on ‘Green Economy and Inclusive Growth’ will begin New Delhi  from October 03. The Government of India and the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD Secretariat are jointly hosting it. The Delhi Dialogue aims to support the preparations for Rio+20 by providing a platform for international deliberations on opportunities for a green economy to reinforce countries’ poverty eradication and social development agendas, including enhancing food security and energy security of the poor. It is expected that a shared vision on these issues would be the main outcome of this Dialogue.

The Delhi Dialogue is a step forward in preparations for the UNCSD, also known as Rio+20, scheduled to take place in June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It aims to provide a platform for international deliberations on the integration of green economy architecture and global challenges of poverty eradication, food security, and energy security. Eradicating poverty is an indispensible requirement for sustainable development. A major cause aggravating poverty is the unsustainable pattern of consumption and production. The Delhi Dialogue will be an opportunity for high level government officials and UN agencies to explore in depth the linkages of a green economy for poverty eradication and broad-based, inclusive growth. Integrating green economy strategies and policies into poverty eradication, food security and energy security is an imperative for sustainable development. The issues to be addressed include sustainable management of sectors like agriculture, industry, energy and transport, urgent adoption of sustainable lifestyles and consumption patterns through reduction in per capita ecological footprint, appropriate population policies, equity concerns, poverty eradication and developmental imperatives.

Government officials and delegates from 54 countries and 12 UN agencies are expected to attend it. Smt. Jayanthi Natarajan, Minister of State for Environment and Forests (I/C) and Shri Vilas Rao Deshmukh, Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, along with Mr Sha Zukang, Secretary General, UNCSD will address the delegates at the inaugural. It is also expected that Dr. Maurice Strong, Dr. Martin Khor, Executive Director, South Centre, Mr. Steven Stone, Dr. R K Pachauri, Director General, TERI, Dr. M S Swaminathan, Chairman, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), Dr. Ashok Khosla, President, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Dr. Kirit Parikh, former member, Planning Commission, and other international speakers will address the conference.

India-Japan Global Partnership Summit 2011

India-Japan global partnership summit 2011 was held in Tokyo, Japan on 5-7 September 2011. To mark 10 years of the announcement of India-Japan Global Partnership Agreement, the India Center Foundation organized this summit.

Apart from socio-cultural exchanges, this summit provided a platform for face to face discussion among the top business leaders, policy makers, opinion leaders and academicians from both nations.

India Center Foundation is a non-partisan and not-for-profit organization working as a catalyst in nation building processes of India through its various socio-economic initiatives. India Japan Global Partnership is one of such initiatives.

Unravelling bio-informatics

A two-day workshop on bio-computing, being jointly organised by the National Institute of Technology, Calicut (NITC) and the US-based Indian University Perdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), was inaugurated here on Monday by the Union Minister of State for Human Resources Development and External Affairs, Mr.E. Ahmed.

The workshop aims at providing a synergic platform for researchers in computer science and life science disciplines to exchange their ideas and to promote future collaborations towards the development of improved and highly efficient bio-informatics algorithms and tools.

The technical session began with a lecture by Dr Rajanikant from NITC on ‘Meeting the challenges of neuro-therapeutics development with computational tools.

He emphasised the role of bio-informatics in drug discovery, assessment and drug development.

2-day international bio meet to be held in Hyderabad

The two-day, BIO India international conference will be held in Hyderabad during September 21-22. It will bring together biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies from North America, Europe and Asia to meet and explore business opportunities with India's emerging biotech sector.

Keynote addresses by Mr G.V. Prasad, Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Ltd., Aaron Schacht, Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, Global External R&D, Eli Lilly & Company and Mr Glenn Saldanha, Managing Director and CEO, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, will be the highlights.

The conference will also feature company presentations, exhibition and networking opportunities.

Experts will discuss innovation and financing, global biopharma and examining a high-profile deal between a multi-national pharma and an Indian biotech company.