TRACKPAD

States Should Follow the Path of Fiscal Discipline: FM

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has asked the states to follow the path of fiscal discipline. He appealed to the State Governments to spend effectively and within their given resources. “There is more fiscal space available to the States nowadays after implementation of the 14th Finance Commission recommendations and now the Centre has no discretion as far as allocation of resources to the States are concerned,” he added. FM was addressing the 2nd meeting of State Finance Secretaries in Delhi. He asked the States to spend more on development of infrastructure; also social and rural sectors which deserve more attention of the government today, as public expenditure is the main driver of growth in view of the challenging global situation. He asked the State Governments to spend effectively in such a manner that there is optimum use of resources without leakages.

Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said that the Centre and the States have to work in tandem to achieve the common goal for common good and ensure that benefits of various schemes reach the lowest possible level. He asked the State Governments to use the Direct Benefit Scheme (DBT) and JAM Trinity i.e. Prime Minster Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), Aadhaar and Mobile connectivity (JAM) vehicle, to ensure that the benefits of various schemes reach the lowest level without delay and any pilferages.

Dharmendra Pradhan Calls for Greater Economic and Strategic Ties between India and UAE

Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas has called for stronger economic and strategic cooperation between India and UAE. Addressing the eminent industry captains in Dubai recently, Pradhan said India-UAE trade has increased phenomenally in the last half a century. The trade, valued at US$ 180 million per annum in the 1970s, is today around US$60 billion, making UAE, India’s third largest trading partner since 2014-15. “On energy front India genuinely believes that there is potential to transform the buyer-seller relationship with UAE into a genuine energy partnership,” he added.

Pradhan, who has been accompanied by the CEOs of companies like Indian Oil, BPCL and HPCL said India today provides the best investment opportunities in the oil and gas sector as government has allowed 100% FDI in all segments including exploration, production, refineries, pipelines, marketing, etc. “We are keen to make India’s oil & gas sector fair, transparent and attractive for domestic and foreign investors through appropriate policy, regulatory and fiscal interventions,” he noted. Importantly, government has recently announced Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy (HELP) to streamline the awarding of hydrocarbon acreages in line with the new contractual system and fiscal model. Highlighting the major points in HELP he said the operator can now explore and produce conventional as well as un-conventional hydrocarbon such as CBM (coal bed methane), shale gas etc. under a single license.

NSPCL Receives Scope Excellence Awards

NSPCL, a joint venture of NTPC Ltd. & SAIL has won the Commendation Certificate “SCOPE Award for Excellence and Outstanding Contribution to the Public Sector Management- Institutional Category III (Other Profit Making PSEs)” 2013-14. NSPCL has also been awarded a Gold Trophy & a Citation in Institutional Category III (Other Profit Making PSEs) for the year 2011-12. K. K Sharma, chairman, NSPCL and director (operations), NTPC; and Manash Sarkar, CEO, NSPCL received the awards from President of India at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.

These awards aim at promoting excellence, also all-round growth and development in organisations, while recognising outstanding contributions made by enterprises. Areas like financial performance; corporate strategy and governance; HRM; CSR; customers & operations are evaluated based on stringent criteria and judged by a distinguished panel of eminent persons for deciding the eligibility of this award.