Farooq Meets ADB President, Calls for Increased Push to Renewable Financing

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From: Press Information Bureau Ministry of I&B <pib.kolkata@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Jun 23, 2010 at 1:45 PM
Subject: Releases..........pt2ress Information Bureau

Government of India

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Ministry of New and Renewable Energy                   

Farooq Meets ADB President, Calls for Increased Push to Renewable Financing

New Delhi: June 23, 2010

 

Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy called upon Asian Development Bank (ADB) and other multilateral agencies to considerably step up their support to renewable energy projects in developing countries. He was speaking at the Asia Clean Energy Forum organized by the ADB at its headquarters in Manila. While delivering the keynote address at the Forum, Dr. Abdullah highlighted that India today stands among the top five countries of the world in terms of renewable energy capacity with an installed base of over 15 GW, which is around 9 per cent of India's total power generation capacity. He spoke of the role of the renewable energy in promoting inclusive growth and explained the various projects initiated by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy in providing energy access to remote and hill communities of Gurez, Jammu & Kashmir and the forested regions of Madhya Pradesh. He also spoke of India's flagship programme - The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission and called up the ADB to step up its engagement both in the public and private spheres. He also emphasized the need for easier transfer of technology in the field of renewable energy and welcomed the initiative of the ADB in setting up a technology transfer exchange to examine the issue.

 

Earlier, Dr. Abdullah called on Mr. Haruhiko Kuroda, President of the Asian development Bank (ADB). In the meeting that took place on the sidelines of the Forum, the two dignitaries discussed various issues relating to renewable energy. Dr. Abdullah urged the President to support demonstration projects under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission and also requested him for creating a guarantee facility for banks for stepping up lending to grid connected solar power projects. He also sought the support of ADB for setting up large solar parks in the country under the national solar mission. President Kuroda emphasized that India is an important destination for investments. He also informed the Minister that under the Tashkent initiative, which was attended by the Indian Finance Minister, the ADB would look at supporting a number of initiatives in clean energy in India. He also informed the Minister of the 'Energy-for-all' initiative of the ADB which focuses on scaling up access to reliable and modern energy services for the poor.

 

pra/skk/dk/kol/13:43 hrs.

 

Press Information Bureau

Government of India

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Ministry of Coal                     

The Government will Provide Policy Support to Develope Project Management as Specilised Displine - Shriprakash Jaiswal

New Delhi: June 23, 2010

 

The Government will provide policy support to recognize project management as specialized discipline and to put in place institutional arrangements to develop it as an important stream of management studies. Addressing the National Consultation on Certification of Project Managers organized by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation here today, Minister for State of Coal and Statistics and Programme Implementation, Shri Sripraksh Jaisawal said that India's growth story lies heavily on the effective management of its huge infrastructure agenda, and in particular on the successful and timely completion of major projects. Therefore, learning and using the best project management practices is crucial ingredient for high GDP growth in India in coming years, he observed.

 

Expressing concern over time and cost overruns in some Central Sector Projects, Shri Sriprakash Jaisawal said it is major problem affecting these projects, however due to monitoring by his Ministry the cost of overruns has come down from 62% in 1991 to 13.9% in December, 2009. He said that there is need to develop a cadre of professionally trained Project Managers so that complex and large infrastructure projects are professionally managed.

 

Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) has been monitoring central sector projects on monthly basis in 16 key infrastructure sectors with respect to time and cost overrun in to flag the issues and to suggest to the corrective action.

 

It is estimated that the country has about 1.8 lakh Project Managers in various sectors. About 20,000 or so in all are certified till date by various agencies. The strength of Project Managers in India is growing by about 36,000 yearly but the country is still short of trained and certified Project Managers in line with the requirements.

 

A major step up in infrastructure is contemplated in the current 11th Plan with an estimated investment of over Rs.20 lakh crore in key infrastructure by Central Government, State Government and Private Sector. This would not be possible within the stipulated time and funds if the skill of our Project Managers is not improved.

 

A National Consultation in Certification of Project Managers has been organized by MOSPI at Vigyan Bhawan on with the following objectives:-

 

(i) To assess the training & certification needs of existing and future Project Managers working in the country both in Public and Private sectors in consultation with representatives of Ministries, CPSEs and Private sector.

 

(ii) To assess to what extent these needs can be met by B-schools and by PMI, IPMA and other institutions of higher learning.

 

(iii) To assess Government intervention required.

 

It is being attended by over 150 delegates from Central Government Ministries, CPSEs, Private sector, B-schools, Academics and Certification Institutes.

 

ncj/dk/kol/13:44 hrs.

 

--
Palash Biswas
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