Shri Anurag Singh Thakur, Union Minister of I&B and Sports & Youth Affairs will felicitate/honour the players of Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), Amritsar at Annual Sports Prize Distribution Function of the University on September 20.
The Union Minister of Information & Broadcasting and Sports & Youth Affairs, Shri Anurag Singh Thakur will felicitate/honour the players who brought laurels to the Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), Amritsar in various sports disciplines at the International, Khelo India and All India Inter-University levels during its 52nd Annual Sports Prize Distribution Function on September 20, 2022 with cash awards for outstanding athletes & trophies to overall best performing Colleges.
Shri Anurag Singh Thakur will be the chief guest and Shri Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, Cabinet Minister Department of Sports & Youth Services, Punjab will give presidential remarks. Besides this, Vice- Chancellor Prof. Jaspal Singh Sandhu will address the players and guests on this occasion.
Guru Nanak Dev University has made phenomenal progress in the field of sports and won India’s prestigious Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy for a record period of 23 times. It has produced 35 Arjuna Awardees, 6 Padma Shri Awardees and 2 Dronacharya Awardees. Each year, Department of Physical Education (Allied Teaching) organizes more than 90 Guru Nanak Dev University Inter-College (Men and Women) Championships and sends more than 70 University teams (Men and Women) for participation in All India Inter-University Championships. Sports Authority of India has set up Khelo India Centres in Sports disciplines Hockey and Handball and Khelo India Academies in Sports disciplines Fencing and Archery in the University Campus.
Every year, the University organizes Annual Sports Prize Distribution Function, in which about 250 sportspersons (International / Khelo India / Inter-University levels) are awarded with cash prizes worth about Rs. 2.00 crore.
Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh today paid glowing tributes to Indian National Army (INA) veteran Major Ishwar Lal Singh at a memorial service held in New Delhi. After laying a wreath, at the urn containing ashes of Major Ishwar Lal Singh, the Raksha Mantri fondly recalled his meeting with the INA veteran about three years ago in Singapore. He said that India will not forget the sacrifices made by the soldiers of the Indian National Army (INA) and its leader Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. Shri Rajnath Singh said Netaji was the epitome of values and ideals and he fought for values and never compromised on the ideals of freedom.
The Raksha Mantri added that contrary to perception Netaji had great respect for Mahatma Gandhi and he took lead in terming Mahatama Gandhi as the Father of Nation. Netaji even designated one of his Brigades as Mahatma Gandhi Brigade, Raksha Mantri added.
The memorial service in honor of Major Ishwar Lal was organized by Ministry of Culture and Archeological Survey of India. Many Army veterans were present on the occasion and paid their tributes to mortal remains of INA veteran.
Major Ishwar Lall Singh, a 92-year-old Singaporean veteran of the Indian National Army served under the leadership of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. In his early teens, his father had arranged for him to join the Indian National Army (INA). He was a resident of the Sree Narayana Mission Nursing Home in Yishun. He died on 5th August, 2022.
The Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, today said the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF), launched by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi under the AatmaNirbhar Bharat campaign, is scaling new milestones. Underlining the role of AIF in bridging the Agri Infra gap by empowering agriculture and villages and boosting private investment, Shri Tomar said the Agri Infra Fund has been brought to increase agricultural productivity, increase agricultural exports, make agriculture sector employable and attract the new generation. Shri Tomar was addressing the Agri Infra Fund Awards ceremony in New Delhi today.
“In the AatmaNirbhar Bharat campaign, more than Rs. 1.5 lakh crore are being invested in Agriculture and allied sectors. This should be used by the State Governments and banks together in the development of the Agriculture sector. This is a great opportunity for the States to fill the gaps in funding agricultural infrastructure. State governments should use it to make Agriculture strong and prosperous, which will make the country develop at a faster pace,” he said.
Shri Tomar said that agriculture sector is important for India. “The primacy of Agriculture has proved itself from time to time. Agriculture helped India come out of the Covid crisis and made a significant contribution to the economy at a time when other sectors were badly affected. Today India is one of the leading countries in the world in terms of agricultural produce,” said Shri Tomar.
“If you want to move forward in this field, then you have to identify the challenges and overcome them. There are 86 percent small farmers in the country, who own less than two hectares of land, while 55 to 60 percent of the country’s population is dependent on Agriculture. In such a situation, continuous efforts are being made for the last eight years under the leadership of the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to upgrade the Agriculture sector. KCC has been increased from Rs 7 lakh crore to Rs 16.5 lakh crore. Banks are offering simple loan facility. Along with this, work is being done to form 10,00 FPOs so that the area under cultivation is increased, the quality of production is improved and the farmers can get good price for their produce,” he added.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Kailash Choudhary dwelled on the role of Banks and Government agencies in empowering farmers and make the nation self-sufficient. Prime Minister Modi took a bold step by paving easy farm loans as he scrapped the need for a collateral, saying the Government of India will stand guarantee, he said.
In his address, Secretary, DA&FW, Shri Manoj Ahuja, called for improved monitoring to make the loan process faster in line with the promptness of the portal based loan approval mechanism.
Joint Secretary, DA&FW, Shri Samuel Praveen Kumar made a detailed presentation on the two year-journey of AIF. While showering accolades on the Bankers and State Governments for their contribution, he urged them to reinvigorate their teams to make the on-going NOBOL (Nationwide One Branch One Loan) Campaign a grand success.
On the occasion, Shri Tomar gave away the awards under various categories to honour Banks and State Governments for their valuable contribution in financing under the Central Sector Scheme of ‘Agriculture Infrastructure Fund’.
आज नई दिल्ली में आयोजित कृषि अवसंरचना कोष पुरस्कार वितरण समारोह में सर्वश्रेष्ठ प्रदर्शन करने वाले बैंकों के प्रतिनिधियों को पुरस्कार प्रदान किये। आप सभी को हार्दिक बधाई एवं शुभकामनाएं।#AIF #Aatmanirbharkrishi pic.twitter.com/5a6W0XC3gy
— Narendra Singh Tomar (@nstomar) July 30, 2022
Among the Best Performing Banks, State Bank of India was awarded as numero uno followed by Punjab National Bank and Bank of India. In the second category where banks were awarded for their valuable contribution, Bank of Baroda followed by Central Bank of India, Canara Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank were honoured. In the Target Achievers Category during the Campaign, awarded Banks were Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, HDFC Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Punjab & Sind Bank and Karnataka Bank. Among the Best Performing Regional Rural Banks, Madhya Pradesh Gramin Bank followed by Madhyanchal Gramin Bank, Maharashtra Gramin Bank, Baroda Rajasthan Kshetriya Gramin Bank were awarded.
In the State category, Madhya Pradesh was adjudged the best performing State, whereas Andhra Pradesh was recognised as best performer in sanction of PACS applications. As the best performer in faster disposal of PACS applications, Karnataka was awarded and Rajasthan was declared the Rising State under AIF. NABARD Consultancy services, the Knowledge Partner for this Scheme was honoured for the laudable contribution in carrying forward the Scheme.
Shri Tomar and General Manager, Bank of India also handed over the sanction letter to one of the Beneficiaries of Drone project. Later, the Award winning Bankers and States and successful beneficiaries shared their experience with the audience.
Addl. Secretary Sri Abhilaksh Likhi, Senior Officials from the Ministry and Government Officials from various States, Top Executives and senior officials from Banks, NABARD, NABCONS and Beneficiaries of AIF scheme and others participants joined the event.
Agri Infra Fund, under the ambitious AatmaNirbhar Bharat Package as a dedicated central scheme providing medium-long term credit facility for creation of post-harvest management infrastructure and community farming assets, will be celebrating its 2nd foundation day next month. This facility comes with financial support by way of three percent Interest subvention from Government and credit guarantee by CGTMSE up to Rupees 2 crore. This scheme can be converged with most of the existing Central schemes in terms of combination of benefits of different schemes. This has immensely benefitted stakeholders in the agricultural ecosystem – Farmers, Agri-entrepreneur, FPO, SHG, JLG, PACS, APMC, Startups, Central Marketing Cooperative Societies and State Agencies.
As of now, there has been sanction of 13,700 projects, costing investment of around Rs.17,500 crore with a sanction of Rs 10,131 crore loans. On an average 30 agriculture infrastructure projects per day are being sanctioned under the scheme all over the country in shape of warehouses, assaying units, primary processing units, custom hiring centres, sorting & grading units, cold store and cold chain projects, bio-stimulant manufacturing facilities, seed processing units, etc. which will have huge impact in changing the agriculture landscape of the country.
आज नई दिल्ली में आयोजित कृषि अवसंरचना कोष पुरस्कार वितरण समारोह का दीप प्रज्वल्लित कर शुभारम्भ किया… pic.twitter.com/ZwnFeHGnnl
Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Shri Anurag Singh Thakur reviewed India’s preparation for the Commonwealth Games 2022 at a Mission Olympic Cell (MOC) meeting on Thursday. A total of 215 athletes will be representing India at the upcoming CWG.
Present at the MOC meeting were former long jumper Anju Bobby George, former hockey player Viren Rasquinha, former Table Tennis player Monalisa Baruah, former Wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt, former Badminton player Trupti Murgunde.
“The preparation of the athletes is going on in full swing. I am happy that the momentum of training and competition has been enhanced post Olympics and we can hope for continued success post Olympic and Paralympic,” Shri Thakur said while reviewing the preparations.
During the review, various aspects of India’s preparation came to the fore. Post the Tokyo 2020 Olympics the athletes have gone back to full fledged training including training at national camps and multiple international exposures in training and competition. As of now, the Government of India has helped facilitate 111 exposure trips in disciplines that India will be compete in Birmingham2022.
The National Sports Federations (NSFs) are also working in tandem to organize national camps.
Several elite athletes have been training abroad post-Olympics at government cost, as per their training plan. Since return to training after Olympic Games, Javelin Thower Neeraj Chopra has been based in Chula Vista (US), Antalya (Turkey) and Finland, Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu spent time in St. Louis (US), training with specialist coach Dr. Aaron Horschig, Steeplechaser Avinash Sable has been based in Colarado Springs (US) with coach Scott Simons since April 2022 and Cycling team has been based in Slovenia and Portugal for three months. Recently, exposure trips in Portugal and Republic of Ireland for the Table Tennis and Boxing contingents have also been sanctioned ahead of the CWG 2022.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is organising a National Conference on Competition Law as part of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) Iconic Week celebrations under Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav (AKAM) tomorrow in New Delhi.
Shri Rao Inderjit Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Statistics & Programme Implementation; Planning and MoS, Corporate Affairs will deliver the inaugural address as the Chief Guest.
Shri Singh will release a film on the journey of CCI, advocacy booklets in regional languages, and a special issue of CCI’s quarterly newsletter, Fair Play, and felicitate winners of the essay and quiz competitions.
Shri Rajesh Verma, Secretary, MCA, will deliver the special address, while Shri Ashok Kumar Gupta, Chairperson CCI, in his address will spell out the various initiatives taken by CCI.
The conference will also feature two technical sessions on ‘Emerging Issues in Antitrust Enforcement’ and ‘Emerging Issues in Regulation of Combinations’, which will have representation from diverse sectors.
The session on ‘Emerging Issues in Antitrust Enforcement’ will be chaired by Dr. Sangeeta Verma, Member, CCI. Ms. Nisha Poddar, Editor, CNBC TV18, will be the moderator of the session.
The session on ‘Emerging Issues in Regulation of Combinations’ will be chaired by Shri Bhagwant Singh Bishnoi, Member, CCI, and moderated by Shri Arijit Barman, Deputy Resident Editor, The Economic Times.
AKAM celebrations were inaugurated by the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in March 2021 and marks the 75-week countdown to the 75th anniversary of India’s independence in August 2022. The AKAM celebrations are slated to take place till August 2023.
