Press Meet : Th 37 PSPB Inter Unit Golf Tournament 2016 – 2917
The 37th Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) Inter Unit Golf Tournament 2016-17 at Noida Golf Course, Noida from 21st to 24th March, 2017.
Press Meet organized on 21st March, 2017 as per the following details:
Time: 1200 hrs.
Venue: 1st Floor Lounge,
Noida Golf Course.
Press Meet addressed by:
1. Shri Shibu Ganguly , General Manager (HR) GAIL
2. Shri S.Halder,Secretary Petroleum Sports Promotion Board
3. Reputed players
4. Main Referee
The Disappearing Hotels of Wales
Mumbai, 21st March, 2017 – Two hundred fortunate visitors will get a chance to book themselves in hotels which will vanish gradually. These boutique hotels will emerge at three spectacular secret locations across Wales. This unique concept is a part of Welsh Tourism Planner as a part of Welsh 2017 “Year of Legends”.
The concept is a perfect blend of luxury and adventure, where eight bespoke cabins pop-up in unheard of places; in a mystical and epic land of entailing tales which is called Wales. Only a select few will be able to access these privilege sites. The guests will be treated to exclusive Welsh experiences during their stay inspired by their location, ranging from fishing, to beer tasting, to Welsh cuisine prepared by top chefs of the region.
The cabins are specially designed for the project by the most sought after designers of Wales namely, Timber Design Wales & Newcastle Emlyn’s Rural Office for Architecture Ltd. The designs of each cabin are completely unique and speak of the famous legends and rich heritage of Wales.
The themes of these boutiques are meant to resemble various icons of the Welsh history owing, to its different eras. ‘Black hat’ cabin is designed in the fashion of a traditional hat worn by Welsh women. ‘Arthur’s cave’ is yet another theme of this project, probed by the legend of King Arthur and a cave where he and his knights slept while travelling. ‘Miner’s hut’ pays tribute to the revolutionary industrial era of Wales. The ‘Skyhut’ is another such cabin being designed especially for star gazing that does justice to the ‘International Dark Sky’ area of Wales. Some of the other design themes for this project are ‘slate cabin’, ‘cabin in the woods’,’ little dragon’ and ‘dragon’s eye’. The project is a part of Epic Retreats in partnership with Best of Wales, Cambria Tours and George + Tomos Architects partly supported by the Welsh Government’s Tourism Product Innovation Fund.
Embassy of France in India to launch France Alumni West India Network in Mumbai
Embassy of France in India to launch
France Alumni West India Network in Mumbai
Thursday, 23March 2017
The Embassy of France in India is pleased to announce the launch of France Alumni network in western India. France Alumni is a multilingual online platform that connects professionals who have completed a part of or all their higher studies in the French education system.
An initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development, France Alumni was unveiled in Paris by Campus France in November 2014. France Alumni India was first launched in September 2016 by French Ambassador H.E. Alexandre Ziegler in Delhi, while Mr Jean-Marc Ayrault, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, launched the South India section in Bengaluru in January 2017.
The France Alumni West India Network will be launched by the French Counsellor for Cultural Affairs, Mr Bertrand de Hartingh, in the presence of the Consul General of France in Mumbai, Mr Yves Perrin
on Thursday 23rd March 2017, at 7.00 pm
Royal Opera House, Mumbai
The launch will see a panel discussion with three alumni from diverse fields sharing how France and French education shaped their career.
Paris-based international news network France 24 will be the prime sponsor of the event. French multinational video game publisher Ubisoft will showcase innovative and interactive video games for learning French.
Looking ahead to the occasion, Ambassador of France to India, H.E. Mr Alexandre Ziegler said, “The establishment of the France Alumni network will further strengthen the bonds of friendship between former Indian students from France and the France Alumni youth worldwide. We want to stay in touch with our alumni, to help them on an ongoing basis in their various endeavours, and enable them to connect with their batchmates, seniors and juniors. The India alumni community are ambassadors of France. They are instrumental in promoting prestigious French institutions that advance Indian students’ ambitions. By fostering academic and professional partnerships they help create further opportunities for both returning and aspiring scholars.”
Press Contact: Danial Nathan
Institut Français India. 2, Dr. A.P.J Kalam Road (formerly Aurangzeb Road), New Delhi 110011
NOTE TO EDITORS
Over 1 000 registered alumni members use the France Alumni India network, which connects them to a larger global France Alumni network of over 52,000 members. Members can connect with each other and learn of job offers and internships from over 400 French companies in India, which employ 300,000 skilled Indian workers. Member companies also develop their brand and recruit Indian talents through France Alumni India.
Individuals that have studied in France can register at the digital platform.
MUMBAI LAUNCH – ALUMNI PROFILES
The alumni panel discussions will comprise of the following alumni:
- Manoj RAO (PhD Mech.Eng.): Manoj Rao, has completed his PhD in France (Lyon laboratory CETHIL), 2011-2015 with CEFIPRA funding (project with IIT Kanpur where he completed his Master’s degree, he is a native of Indore, Bachelor’s degree at the University). He is currently Senior Application Developer – Godrej Innovation and Development Center in Mumbai.
- Amitabh TIRIAR: He is the Managing Director at Roquette India and Head of Manufacturing, IMEA. He graduated from ENSAM (Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts et Métiers) Paris Tech and ENSC (Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie) Mulhouse.
- Neisha Machado FERNANDES: Neisha is the Country Manager at Hermès and holds an MBA from HEC, Paris.
HIGHLIGHTS – FRANCE ALUMNI INDIA
What the alumni panellists have to say of their academic experience in France:
Manoj Rao
“It was a great experience to get into a world-class institute like INSA de Lyon, where many opportunities await scholars. The various hurdles and afflictions that were a part of my life as a research scholar have eventually proved to be an enriching experience.”
Amitabh Tiriar
“France has given me a significant opportunity to enrich my career in Chemical Engineering. The ENSAM, Paris curriculum was holistic with focus on industry-based learning, which provided in-depth understanding of concepts. Besides this, living in France exposed me to people from multiple cultures and ethnicity, which has shaped my perspectives – personally as well as professionally.”
MORE INFO:
France Alumni is an initiative of Campus France, which operates under Institut français India, the cultural service of the Embassy of France in India.
Visa facilitation is one of the services extended to France Alumni.
France has eased visa issuance for Indian students, alumni and academics:
- Simplified visa procedure: Through its Campus France offices, the Embassy of France in India has simplified visa procedures for Indian students wishing to study in France. Also, visa applications by Indian faculties and officials are now processed as a matter of priority.
- Work visa for students: This measure, introduced in May 2012, enables students graduating from French business and engineering schools to extend their stay and acquire work experience in France.
- Grant of long-term visas: Since July 2013, Indian alumni with Master’s or higher level degrees from French higher education institutions are being granted tourist or business visas with a long validity period.
Institut français India is the cultural service of the Embassy of France in India. IFI promotes French action overseas via artistic and cultural exchange (including literature, cinema, music) as well as exchange in language, and academic, research and sciences.
Campus France, the governmental agency promoting French higher education, functions under the aegis of the Embassy of France in India, and Institut français India. It currently has offices in twelve Indian cities: Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai and Pune.
Any Indian student can schedule a meeting with a Campus France counsellor, who provides all documentation and advice on studies in France, and, if requested, contacts the student’s target French institutions with their application. Campus France organizes direct meetings between French academies and Indian students in various Indian cities on a biannual basis.
France 24 is a 24-hour international news and current affairs television network, broadcasting in French, English and Arabic to 325 million households across the world. From its newsroom in Paris, France 24 gives a French perspective on global affairs through a network of 160 correspondent bureaus located in nearly every country. The three channels have a combined weekly viewership of 50.9 million viewers (measured in 65 of the 183 countries where the channel is broadcast). Launched in India in 2013, the country now represents the channel’s single largest market. France 24 is available in English in India on Dish TV, Tata Sky, Reliance Digital TV and on more than 200 cable offers.
Ubisoft: French gaming giant Ubisoft, in partnership with Alliance Française de Bangalore officially launched the Ubisoft Gaming Lounge in 2016 at AF Bangalore. A first-of-its-kind space in India dedicated exclusively to Ubisoft video-games, the Ubisoft Gaming Lounge consists of a cozy area of 27 sq. mts. attached to the AF Bangalore library, equipped with a large TV screen and a Playstation 4. Students can play and discover a rich variety of the latest Ubisoft games whilst learning French in the process.
New Development Bank through Peoples’ Lens
30th March 2017
Conference Room – 313, Indian Social Institute, New Delhi
INVITATION
The New Development Bank (NDB), popularly known as the BRICS Bank, was set up by the BRICS Countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) along with a Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) based on the agreement in BRICS summit in Brazil 2014. The purpose of the Bank is to mobilize resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS, other emerging economies and developing countries while CRA proposes to provide short-term liquidity support to the members through currency swaps to help mitigate any future crisis.
The NDB is seen as a response to the slow pace of quota and governance reforms of the traditional Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to that of one which reflects the current Global and social realities. The purpose of the NDB is to mobilise resources for the targeted increase in infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS and other developing countries, and to supplement the existing efforts of multilateral and regional financial institutions for economic growth and development. The NDB has an initial authorized capital of USD 100 billion and initial subscribed capital of USD 50 billion of which USD 10 billion will be paid-in capital. The initial subscribed capital is equally distributed amongst the founding members.
The Bank, which is headquartered at Shanghai, China, entered its formal business cycle in 2015 with KV Kamath from India as its first president. In 2016, the Board of Directors of the Bank approved seven investment projects in all member countries for a total of over USD 1.5 billion. All projects are coherent with the Bank’s mandate of supporting infrastructure projects, with more than 75% of projects dedicated to sustainable infrastructure, mainly renewable energy generation. The approved projects will support the creation of about 1500 MW of renewable energy capacity and are estimated to result in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by over 4 million tons per year. The NDB decided to provide $300 million to Brazil, $81 million to China, $250 million to India and $180 million to South Africa. Recently, Kamath announced that the Bank would double its lending every year over the next 2-3 years to leverage its USD 10 billion capital in first 6-7 years.
However, the Bank is shrouded under a veil of secrecy. The website of the Bank lacks information about its activities to the extent that more than official records, one has to rely on secondary and tertiary sources of information. Not that such information isn’t forthcoming officially, it is the nature of
unproven, untested environmental and social safeguards that is the point of contentious concern for the communities who might adversely impacted by the projects financed by the Bank in their backyards.
Unlike the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, which somewhat robust safeguards to be followed and grievance redress mechanisms (not discounting sometimes questionable efficacies though), the NDB is yet to draft any such operational guidelines and redressal. Although speculative at large, such an absence could be well off the mark in meeting established benchmarks. Due to the lack of such mechanisms, communities may face threats of displacement, evictions, ecological destruction, loss of livelihoods, and severe curtailment of basic rights to life. These issues have recurred for decades due to projects funded by other multilateral development banks. Moreover, as a co-financier with other development institutions, the intensity of NDB’s seriousness on the objectives of promoting transparency, accountability and probity stands questioned.
Furthermore, the NDB intends to be “fast, flexible and efficient”, without sacrificing quality. The Bank will use various financial instruments to ‘efficiently’ meet the demands of member states and clients. This is where things could get a little murkier, as NDB too has agendas of economic development dominating social and political developments, and the possibilities of statistical number jugglery to establish the supremacy of the ‘gross economic development’ sometimes trampling on human rights and environmental concerns. Consequently, the economic measures taken on many occasions forgo the human capital in a relentless pursuit of development agenda.
The NDB is having its Second Annual Meeting in New Delhi from March 31-April 2, 2017. The meeting is expected to discuss the strategy plan for the Bank. The functioning of the Bank so far has been highly opaque with no civil society consultations or inviting comments on their policies. The minimal disclosure of its investments and documents has raised serious questions on its transparency and accountability intentions .
The annual meeting becomes the most opportune time to ask questions that have long been considered difficult to answer by the multilateral development banks. It is also an appropriate time to generate awareness about how the NDB could likely put issues concerning the marginalized on the backburner in its accelerated economic means without justifying the ends. Whatever be the underlying philosophy of development finance, questions of sustainability from both social and ecological perspective should always be decided along with genuinely informed peoples’ participation. This is possible only when the information is transparently disseminated and there are measures for qualifying accountability rather than quantifying it.
It is with this intent, “New Development Bank through Peoples’ Lens”, a day-long convention is planned in New Delhi on the 30th of March 2017. The convention would look at various trends in development finance, mechanisms to monitor trade and finance in BRICS, and what is at stake with the emergence of these new players.
VENUE: Conference Room – 313, Indian Social Institute, New Delhi
TIME: 9:30 am – 5:00 pm
We look forward to being with you!
With warm regards, National Committee of People’s forum on BRICS
For further details, please contact: Himshi Singh | himshi@napm-india.org |9867348307
Maju Varghese | maju@cenfa.org | 8826249887
Himanshu Damle | himanshudamle@pfpac.net |7042381825
NATIONALLY ENDORSED BY:
Adivasi Moolvasi Astitva Raksha Manch | All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC)-Goa| All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP) | All India People’s Science Network (AIPSN) | All India Secular Forum | All India Forum of Forest Movements (AIFFM) | Bailancho Ekvott –Goa | Bailancho Saad –Goa | Beyond Copenhagen Collective | Centre for Finance Accountability (CFA) | Citizen’s Forum for Mangalore Development | Citizens for Peace and Justice | Centre of Indian Trade UnionsGoa | Centre for Responsible Tourism – Goa | Council for Social Justice and Peace-Goa | Centre of Science and Technology For Rural Development (COSTFORD) | Darshan Organisation | Delhi Forum | Delhi Science Forum (DSF) | Delhi Solidarity Group (DSG) | Domestic Workers Union | Dynamic Action| FIAN India | Focus on the Global South | Forum Against Disastrous Projects in Konkan | Forum Against FTAs | Garment Labour Union | Gomantak Mazdoor Sangh | Green Brigade –Goa| Human Rights Law Network –Goa | Goa Bank Employees’ Association | Goa Domestic Workers’ Movement | Goenchea Ramponkarancho Ekvott (GRE)-Goa |India Climate Justice Collective | Indian Christian Women’s Movement (ICWM) | Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF) | Intercultural Resources | India Palestine People’s Forum | Jan Jagran Shakti Sangathan | Jan Sangharsh Vahini | Joshi Adhikari Institute of Social Studies | Jharkhand Mines Area Co-ordination Committee (JMACC) | Kisaan Sangharsh Samiti | Khudai Khidmatgar | Kosi Navnirman Manch | Lok Shakti Abhiyan | Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM) | Matu Jan sangathan | Nadi Ghati Morcha | Nagpur Municipal Employees Union | National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) | Narmada Bachao Andolan | National Fishworkers Forum (NFF) | National Hawkers Federation | New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI) | Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti | Partners in Justice Concerns | Paryavaran Suraksh Samiti | Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre (PMARC) | People’s Movements Against Nuclear Energy | Posco Pratirodh Sangharsh Samiti | Programme Against Custodial Torture & Impunity (PACTI) | Peoples Front against IFIs | People Tree | Programme on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (PWESCR) | Public Finance Public Accountability Collective (PFPAC) | Rashtra Cheneta Jana Samakhya (RCJS) | Sahas-Goa | Social Justice Action Committee- Goa | Solidarity for Sustainable North East | South Solidarity Initiative | South Asia Dialogues for Ecological Democracy (SADED)| Toxics Watch Alliance (TWA) | Unorganised Sector Workers Federation | Video Volunteers | Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam | Vasudha Foundation | VIBGYOR | Yuvasamiti –Kerala Shastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP) | Gujarat Collective | Shala Mitra Sangh | The Research Collective
1st edition of Corporate Baseball League in India
Bad Bulls Sports Club organizes 1st edition of Corporate Baseball League in India
21st March 2017, New Delhi: Bad Bulls Sports Club organized the first edition of Corporate Baseball League 2017 in India held at Embassy of United States, in the presence of was Mr. Richard Verma, Former-US Ambassador. The league was recognized by American Embassy Baseball & Softball Community and supported by GENES, T-10 Sports & BG Films. Employees from HCL Technologies won the league against Ernst & Young.
Mr. Britto Stephen, Organizing Secretary and Treasurer, Bad Bulls Sports Club said “The Corporate league is our next step to promote this game which is equivalent to any other sports loved in our country, we are sure the more we reach out with this game to the Indian masses the more it will be loved.”
A corporate baseball team can be a great way to encourage teamwork and give staff something to feel proud about outside of the office. The feeling of fun, companionship, and pride that having a corporate baseball team brings can enhance the productivity at work.
Mr. Stephen, further added “Bad Bulls Sports Club is a Group of passionate sports persons who have been devotedly nurturing the game at not only at the National level but also at International level. The loyal and devoted members of this Group are volunteers from all strata of the society.”
Mr. Anthony Vanarajah, General Secretary, Bad Bulls Sports Club said “Partnering with Corporate teams will help us to improve the visibility of the game in the Indian Market”.
Such events will give a platform to Corporates to bring their employees,where they can learn a different ball game “Baseball” and at the same time enjoy the evening with their fellow-mates and families, whether they are playing or not. Considering our prime focus we want Indian parents to be aware of Softball as sport.
Baseball is a kind of game that requires all kinds of support personnel to help the team perform its best. There will be plenty of activity for everyone to do and plenty of ways that you can get the entire company involved.