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1. We should actively confront the policy of state support to terrorism being practiced by our common neighbour: Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu

During their meeting the Vice President said that India has commenced supply of 1,70,000 tonnes of Wheat grain assistance to Afghanistan via the Chabahar Port in Iran, since the recent inauguration of the first phase of the strategic port with Indian investment and funding. Shri Venkaiah Naidu also mentioned that more than 50 flights have been undertaken from Afghanistan to India since the launch of the Air Freight Corridor in June 2017.

The Vice-President said India has provided assistance to Afghanistan to the tune of US$ 2 billion till last year. In September 2016, our Prime Minister announced an additional assistance of US$1 billion for the people of Afghanistan. All these led to the “New Development Partnership” in September 2017, he added. Shri Venkaiah Naidu said under this Partnership, already 116 ‘High Impact Community Development Projects’ have been identified in 31 of 34 provinces in Afghanistan and several other Medium to Large New Projects announced. He said Afghanistan can truly emerge as an important Trade, Investment and Connectivity junction for the entire Asian and Eurasian Region.

Voicing concern over the huge challenges facing Afghanistan and confronting issues of safe havens and other forms of cross-border support enjoyed by terrorists, the Vice-President said we should actively confront the policy of state support to terrorism that is being practiced by a certain neighbour of ours. Pointing out that last year was the most violent year since 2001 for Afghanistan with over 10,000 causalities of whom 25% are civilians, Shri Venkaiah Naidu said we must work for setting up of an international verification mechanism for action taken in fighting terrorism and elimination of safe havens and other support, he added.

2. India had announced in 2015 concessional loans of US $10 billion to African countries: Shri Singh

Shri Singh concluded that India and Nigeria enjoy warm and friendly relations, the two nations are large developing countries with multi-religious, multi-ethnic societies. We share values such as democracy, pluralist tolerant societies, respect for human rights and rule of law. India would be glad to contribute to Nigerian Government’s priorities in the field of agriculture and allied sectors.

The Minister said India was a food deficient country till the mid-1960s. But now we have produced more than sufficient for domestic consumption. India is now a major exporter of agricultural commodities. He said India will be only too happy to share its experience and expertise in any area of agriculture that Nigeria may identify.

Shri Singh said that India had announced in 2015 concessional loans of US $10 billion to African countries. He said that he was informed that more than 20 officials have participated in short-term capacity building programmes in agriculture-related areas. More recently Indian had increased training slots under Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Programme from 200 to 310 annually to Nigeria, which also include short-term training programmes in agriculture and allied sectors. He urged the Nigerian Minister to take advantage of this concessional loan (Lines of Credits) and training programme for agriculture and allied sector.

3. India to host 3rd Annual Meeting of Board of Governors of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

India will host the 3rd Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of AIIB at Mumbai on 25th and 26th June 2018. The Theme of the Annual Meeting, 2018 will be “Mobilizing Finance for Infrastructure: Innovation and Collaboration”. The Government of India and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) Secretariat today signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to delineate the duties and responsibilities of major stakeholders who would be involved in organizing the aforesaid Annual Meeting.

AIIB will continue to develop the Bank according to “Lean, Clean and Green” core values”, Mr Alexander added. He also said that AIIB looks forward to continuing to work with the Indian Government and India’s business community to further develop solutions to fund vital sustainable infrastructure projects across the country.

4. Government issues new guidelines for grant of rewards to be paid to officers, informers and other persons in case of seizures of Narcotics drugs, Psychotropic substances etc.

The Government of India has issued new reward guidelines called “The guidelines for grant of rewards to be paid to the officers, informers and other persons, 2017” on October 10, 2017 to regulate the grant and payment of reward to informers and government officers.

As per this policy, an officer is eligible for Rs. 20,00,000/- reward during his entire career and Rs. 50,000/- at a time. However a maximum reward of Rs. 2,00,000/- may also be given to an individual in exceptional cases by the Apex Central Rewards Committee. Up to 50% of the total admissible reward amount can be given at pre-trial stage if the test report from chemical lab turns positive. As per this policy, the reward sanctioning authority should also consider the factors while granting reward to informers, like accuracy of the information, degree of risk involved, extent and nature of the help rendered by the informer and whether the information also gave clues of the person involved in the drug trafficking racket. Narcotics Control Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs has been made the coordinating agency to process the reward proposal of other Central and State agencies working in the field of drug interdiction.

5. 27th National Energy Conservation Day to be celebrated on 14th December, 2017

The Energy Conservation Day is organized on 14th December each year by Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), under Ministry of Power, with an aim to demonstrate India’s achievements in energy efficiency and conservation, while working for its ambition of holistic development as part of the nation’s overall effort towards climate change mitigation.

In order to realize its development goals, India’s energy demand is expected to double between 2013 and 2030, to approximately 1500 million tonnes of oil equivalent. The mission of BEE is to assist in developing policies and strategies that will help reduce this energy demand by promoting widespread adoption of energy efficiency measures.

The National Energy Conservation Awards Programme recognizes the energy efficiency achievements in 56 sub sectors across industry, establishments and institutions such as thermal power stations, office and BPO buildings, hotels, hospitals, shopping malls, zonal railways, railway workshops and stations, municipalities, State Designated Agencies and manufacturers of BEE Star labeled appliances/equipment and electricity distribution companies.

In the last 19 years (1999-2017) of the award scheme, the award participants have collectively invested over Rs. 48,000 crores in energy efficient technologies and processes, and saved nearly Rs. 38,000 crores through reduced electricity bills and avoided capacity generation. In energy terms, they have saved over 44 Billion kWh of electrical energy, 5.1 billion litres of oil, 22.6 million metric tonnes of coal and 250 billion cubic meters of gas.