Daily News Mail - News of 28/06/2015

Digital India to bring investments in ‘billions’

• The Digital India Week, to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 1, is likely to see commitments of “billions of dollars” of investments by foreign and domestic firms, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on June 27.
• “A number of memorandums of understanding for investment proposals will be signed. We except large-scale investments in electronic manufacturing and Digital India … should be billions of dollars. The industry leaders will announce their plans at the event,” Mr. Prasad said.
• The investments will also generate employment for lakhs of people, he added.
• “The Digital India programme can help India make rapid strides in business and technology. Private participation is one of the factors that will determine its success,” the Minister said.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while sharing the roadmap for Digital India, will unveil various e-governance schemes such as Digital Locker, e-education and e-health at the Digital India Week, beginning on July 1.

States must strengthen urban local bodies, says Venkaiah

• The government on June 27 asked the States to strengthen urban local bodies by transferring funds and powers for successful implementation of new urban initiatives.
• “Countdown for urban transformation has begun. States and ULBs have a critical role to make the schemes a reality,” Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu told presspersons.
• “Without devolution of powers and funds to urban local bodies as per the 74th Amendment, urban schemes cannot be successfully implemented,” he said.
• Mr. Naidu said the 14th Finance Commission had granted Rs. 87,143 crore against Rs. 23,111 crore by the 13th Finance Commission, which was a substantial increase of four times for urban local bodies.

Nadia gets U.N. pat for achieving total sanitation

• The district Magistrate of Nadia along with chief of Nadia Zilla Parishad in West Bengal was on June 27 presented the United Nations Public Services Award 2015 for eliminating open defecation in the district.
• Nadia district, located in south Bengal, had half of its population defecating in open till October 2013. The district administration, under a programme called Sabar Souchagar, built 3.56 lakh toilets in the district. As a result, the number of people continuing with the practice dropped to mere 0.2 per cent.