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Tag: Finance Minister

  • Single window service for film shooting to become operational shortly: Tewari

    Single window service for film shooting to become operational shortly: Tewari

    NEW DELHI: A single window service for promoting cinema tourism is all set to become operational shortly.

     

    Speaking at the Cinemascape 2013 conclave in Mumbai today, Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari observed that India with its rich heritage and diverse geography has great potential as a destination for film shooting but the current system of multiple clearances at various levels made it an unattractive destination for filming.

     

     “Increasingly therefore, most Indian filmmakers have gravitated towards foreign destinations for outdoor shoots. Any lost opportunity is a revenue loss for the country,” he remarked.

     

    Tewari said the government has now decided to address the issue by establishing a single window service for granting clearances for film shootings in India. He informed that a Committee on Promotion and Facilitation of Film Production in India has been set up. It is chaired by the secretary in the ministry, with senior representatives from the Ministries of External Affairs, Home Affairs; Tourism; Culture; Railways; Civil Aviation; Defence and Department of Revenue etc.

     

     The state governments have been asked to nominate the nodal officers for film clearance. The minister said Standard Operating Procedures are being developed to accord clearances for film shooting by domestic and foreign producers in India.

     

    Tewari stressed on the need for a sound legal architecture for promoting cinema as a form of creative expression. While conceding that law and order is a state subject, he said film certification falls in the central domain. He said, “There is an urgent need to update laws relating to film certification and exhibition and I am happy to inform that the committee headed by Justice Mukul Mudgal has submitted its recommendation along with a model bill to replace the existing Cinematograph Act 1952.”

     

     He said the recommendations of the committee as well as the model bill will be published on the website of the ministry to seek wider public consultation. The minister assured the film fraternity that by the middle of 2014, India would have a contemporary law to deal with cinema.

     

     Dwelling on the issue of taxation and fiscal incentives for the film and entertainment sector, the minister called upon the industry representatives to set up a committee of experts to draw a comprehensive strategy, which could then be submitted to the Finance Minister on behalf of his ministry.

     

    Participating in a panel discussion, noted film maker Mukesh Bhatt said 76 different permissions have to be obtained for film shooting in India, while Indian producers are given a red carpet welcome in some of the cine-tourism nations like Switzerland, New Zealand, South Africa, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Bhatt acknowledged that the Ministry’s effort is a welcome first step.

     

  • Efforts on to make IT available to rural areas: economic survey

    Efforts on to make IT available to rural areas: economic survey

    NEW DELHI: The Government has formulated a proposal to establish 100,000 Common service Centres (CSCs) in rural areas, which will serve not only as the front-end for most government services but also as a means to connect the citizens of rural India to the World Wide Web.

    According to the Economic Survey 2006-07 tabled in Parliament today by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, the scheme will be implemented through Public Private Partnership (PPP). An outlay of Rs. 57.42 billion has been approved of which the share of the Central Government and the State Governments would be Rs 8.56 billion croe and Rs 7.93 billion, respectively. The balance would be invested by the private sector.

    Listing the Policy Initiatives For Electronics and IT Sector, the Survey says that In order to ensure that the benefits of IT reach the common man, the Government has initiated a move to make available tools and fonts in various Indian languages freely to the general public. Tamil, Hindi and Telugu software tools and fonts have already been released. All Indian languages are expected to be covered in the next one year.

    A proposal for Electronics and IT Hardware Manufacturing Policy is also under consideration which aims to rationalize tariff structure on capital goods and inputs, unify manufacturing for domestic market and exports, facilitate registration of international patents, transfer state-of-the-art technology (TOT) and enhance Research and Development.

    The Information Technology Amendment Bill has been introduced in the Parliament on 15 December, 2006 to put in place technology applications, security practices and procedures relating to such applications. Furthermore, it addresses the issue of technological neutrality in IT laws as recommended by UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Signature.

    The Survey noted that the Indian IT-enabled Services and Business Process Outsourcing (ITES-BPO) have demonstrated their superiority, sustained cost advantage and fundamentally-powered value proposition in the international market. The software and ITES exports from India grew from $12.9 billion (Rs 582.4 billion) in 2003-04 to $17.7 billion (Rs 782.3 billion) in 2004-05. Software and ITES exports from India estimated at $23.4 billion during 2005-06 was up 32 per cent from the previous year.

    This sector is growing with Indian companies expanding their service offerings, enabling customers to deepen their offshore engagements and shifting from low-end business processes to high-value ones.

    While there have been no spectacular achievements in the hardware segment as in the case of the software segment of the IT sector, there has been a steady progress in production and exports of hardware.

    Contrary to some popular misperceptions, the growth of the IT and ITES sector has had a salutary effect on the employment scenario with total number of professionals employed in this sector growing from an estimated 284,000 in 1999-2000 to
    1,287,000 in 2005-06. The increase in the number of employed person in the sector wasas high as 230,000 in 2005-06 itself. In addition, Indian IT-ITES is estimated to have helped create an additional 3 million job oppurtunities through indirect and induced employment in telecom, power, construction, facility management, IT transportation, catering and other services. Government has taken several steps to further enhance this industry.

    With strong demand over the past few years placing India among the fastest growing IT markets in the Asia-Pacific region, the industry’s contribution to GDP rose from 1.2 per cent in 1999-2000 to an estimated 4.8 per cent in 2005-06. Indian companies are enhancing their global services delivery capabilities through a combination of greenfield initiatives, cross-border mergers & acquisitions, partnerships and alliances with local players. This is enabling them to execute end-to-end delivery of new services. Global software giants such as Microsoft, Oracle and SAP, have established their captive development centres in India.

    A majority of the companies in India have already aligned their internal processes and practices to international standards such as ISO, CMM, and Six Sigma. This has helped establish India as a credible sourcing destination. As of December, 2006, over 400 Indian companies have acquired quality certifications with 82 companies certified at SEI CMM Level 5 – higher than any other country in the world.
     

  • Finance Minister P Chidambaram voted Mantri No. 1 in IBN 7

    Finance Minister P Chidambaram voted Mantri No. 1 in IBN 7

    MUMBAI: Manmohan Singh led UPA government having completed half of its five-year tenure was indeed a noteworthy landmark. With the UPA government crossing the 30-month halfway mark of its tenure, IBN 7, CNN-IBN and ibnlive.com invited their viewers to vote for their favourite minister on ‘Mantri No.1’. The results for the online poll are out and India’s Finance Minister P Chidambaram is voted ‘Mantri No. 1’ of the Cabinet.

    Viewers were invited to vote on www.ibnlive.com for their favorite ministers on the basis of their performance during this tenure. The online poll received an overwhelming response of over twenty thousand votes from across the country. The performance-based results rated the Union Finance Minister highest on the performance scale and picked him as the favourite among the 33 ministers in the Manmohan Singh Cabinet. Railway Minister Lalu Prasad ended up as the second best choice, but Chidambaram led the race by a very comfortable margin.

    The voters picked Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran as their third choice while External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee made it to the fourth slot. Commerce and Industries Minister Kamal Nath finished fifth. Kamal Nath narrowly beat his Cabinet colleague and Union Minister for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal, who ended up on the sixth slot.

    “The online poll conducted tries to ascertain the opinion of our viewers on the performance of their leaders. We strongly believe that the citizens of the country have the right to judge the performance of the decision makers. I am glad that viewers have appreciated our initiative and have voted generously.” said Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor-in-Chief, CNN-IBN and IBN 7.

    Our aim is to try and ascertain the opinions of our viewers on issues that are of national interest. Mantri No I is a valuable barometer to gauge the public mood. We are glad that our efforts have been duly appreciated and acknowledged by the viewers” added, Ashutosh, Managing Editor,IBN 7.

    Some other ministers who featured in the survey were Kapil Sibal, Prem Chand Gupta, Ambika Soni, Kamal Nath, S Jaipal Reddy, Sharad Pawar, Ram Vilas Paswan etc.