- Amitabh Kant made NITI Aayog CEO
- In a significant secretary-level reshuffle at the Centre, the Prime Minister-led Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has transferred Disinvestment Secretary Aradhana Johri and given Industry Secretary Amitabh Kant the additional responsibility of being Chief Executive Officer of NITI Aayog.
- With NITI Aayog CEO Sindhushree Khullar’s extended tenure coming to an end this month, the appointments panel has assigned the additional charge of this role to Kerala cadre officer Mr. Kant who is presently, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and is expected to retire in March 2016
- Karan Adani takes over as CEO of Adani Ports and SEZ
- Karan Adani, son of Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani, has been appointed as the CEO of Adani Ports and SEZ (APSEZ) with effect from January 1, 2016.
- He will take over the top job from outgoing CEO Sudipta Bhattacharya, who is moving to the US as the CEO for North America, APSEZ
- Karan, who looks after strategic development of Adani ports across India, has been involved in managing various port operations for the firm since 2009.
- He is an economics graduate from Purdue University, the USA.
- RBI released report of Deepak Mohanty Committee on Medium-term Path on Financial Inclusion
- The committee was constituted on 15 July 2015 by the RBI with the objective of working out a medium-term (five year) measurable action plan for financial inclusion.
- The 14-member committee was headed by RBI Executive Director Deepak Mohanty.
- According to report, Banks have to make special efforts to step up account opening for females, and the Government may consider a deposit scheme for the girl child – Sukanya Shiksha – as a welfare measure.
- Given the predominance of individual account holdings (94 per cent of total credit accounts), a unique biometric identifier such as Aadhaar should be linked to each individual credit account.
- Civil Aviation Ministry Gives Clearance For 4 Greenfield Airports
- The Civil Aviation Ministry has given clearance for four greenfield airports including the Rs. 1,378 crore international airport at Dholera in Gujarat, which is expected to reduce air traffic load at the existing Ahmedabad airport.
- The three other greenfield airports are proposed to be set up in Andhra Pradesh, with two of them likely to be no-frills ones.
- The GMR-run Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamsabad near Hyderabad and GVK-Group run Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru are greenfield airports.
- Vijay Hazare Trophy: Gujarat annex maiden title
- Powered by skipper Parthiv Patel’s ton, Gujarat beat Delhi on Monday to clinch their maiden Vijay Hazare title.
- Patel flayed the Delhi attack, scoring a 119-ball 105 with 10 boundaries.
- Shikhar Dhawan scored 5, while Gambhir was dismissed for 9.
- Kelkar panel suggests easy funding for PPP projects in infra sector
- A committee that reviewed the public-private partnership (PPP) model for infrastructure projects has recommended several measures for easy financing of these, including issuance of zero coupon bonds by banks to developers, equity divestment by the government from completed projects and removing bars on monetisation of viable projects after the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) work is finished.
- The committee, headed by former finance secretary Vijay Kelkar, recommended that that next generation of PPP contracts should have an ex-ante provision for renegotiation in the bid document itself and suggested a thorough assessment of risk probabilities to be undertaken by either department of economic affairs or the proposed PPP institute for specific Model Concession Agreements. Some of the recommendations are:
- Encourage banks to issue zero coupon bonds
- Equity divestment by government from stable projects
- Amend Prevention of Corruption Act to shield officials from errors originating from bonafide intentions
- Review model concession agreements (MCAs) to ensure equitable risk distribution
- Provide provision of renegotiation of MCAs in documents itself
- Set up sector specific regulators, PPP institute and tribunal
- Discourage PSUs from PPP projects unless strategically necessary
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