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| Feb 10, 2007 |
Prabhat Khabar on sale
"Negotiations are in an advanced stage" is the only comment that stakeholders were willing to make today.
But the buzz is that Jharkhand's leading newspaper, Prabhat Khabar, is all set to change hands.
Unconfirmed reports put the UP-based Jagran group and MP-based Dainik Bhaskar group, the latter also the publishers of the English daily DNA (Daily News & Analysis ) in Mumbai, as front-runners to buy Neutral Publishing, the firm that publishes Prabhat Khabar and is about to launch FM radio stations in Ranchi and Jamshedpur.
While Dainik Bhaskar does not have a presence in the east, Jagran has editions in Patna, Ranchi, Jamshedpur and also Bhagalpur. It is not clear at this point whether the group, if it manages to buy Prabhat Khabar, will opt to retain both the brands and all the editions.
Usha Martin Industries Ltd (UMIL) bought Prabhat Khabar, which was launched in 1984, from Congress leader Gyan Ranjan in 1989 for Rs 2.5 crore.
Usha Martin, a company registered at Calcutta , last year appointed merchant bankers, Edelwiess Capital to do the valuation and find strategic investment partners. While UMIL initially planned to sell a part of the equity to raise funds to finance the radio stations, expansion of PK and re-launching its Patna edition, it was advised to sell out after merchant bankers received bids ranging from Rs 100 to 120 crore.
The industry grapevine held on Friday that Jagran had emerged as the most eligible suitor by topping the highest bid by over Rs 20 crore. A formal announcement is expected 'in the near future' , maintained these sources. But Sunil Gupta , one of the directors of Jagran, K.K. Goenka, the PK general manager and Harivansh, the newspaper's chief editor, declined comment.
Several reports had earlier reported that since 1996 , Usha Martin had not invested anything for the newspaper. " Harivansh, Goenka and R.K. Dutta were told to fend for themselves," claimed an insider, " and the understanding was that the newspaper could swim or sink on its own steam."
Creation of Jharkhand gave the newspaper a fresh lease of life and it began to expand vigorously. It successfully warded off competition from both Hindustan and Jagran and overcame a crisis when as many as 33 trained journalists walked over to join Hindustan at more fancy salaries. Strong identification with the new state, vigorous marketing and readers' meets, bold and brave exposes and content helped the newspaper overcome the odds.
Prabhat Khabar, which apparently sold just 600 copies daily in 1989, has at present seven editions, spread across three states. The Audit Bureau Of Circulation ( ABC) put its circulation at 2.28 lakh copies in its report for the period January to June, 2006. The Hindi Hindustan was a distant second at 1.69 lakh copies. Since then, according to some surveys, Hindustan has overtaken PK as the most circulated Hindi daily in the state.
The annual advertisement revenue of Prabhat Khabar is estimated to be in the region of Rs 35 crore , which prompted some bidders to question the abnormally high valuation of the company. But Advertisement growing in the East at a fast clip, at nearly 19 per cent a year compared to the national average of 15 per cent, Jharkhand has suddenly become attractive to the media. The Times of India too has been planning to extend its footprint to the state.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070210/asp/jamshedpur/story_7374487.asp
Jharkhand milk production on decline
Absence of a breeding policy has caused a decline in milk production in Jharkhand.
Experts say milk production in the state is declining day by day as the number of quality hybrid cows is dwindling. Jharkhand produces only 35 percent of its consumption of milk.
'At present Jharkhand has only 2 percent hybrid cows and the rest are conventional,' said N.N. Singh, vice-chancellor of Birsa Agriculture University -, Ranchi.
The conventional cows produce scanty milk that hardly makes any difference to the state's milk production.
Experts say that in absence of breeding policy the cows are inseminated uniformly whereas the same should be done depending on the variety of the cows.
'There is a need to look into the genetic resources of our domestic animals. There are 140 breeds of major livestock, cattle, camels, horse and others in India. We feel that breeding policy should be framed considering the economy of the state and country,' said Singh.
To increase milk production, BAU will also prepare a horoscope of the cows, based on their DNA, which will reveal the generations of cows' quality and their capacity to produce milk.
The horoscope will indicate the quality of the cows and how their breeding should be done to increase milk output.
http://www.rxpgnews.com/business/Jharkhand-milk-production-on-decline_14817.shtml
Oraon tribals turn modern while sticking to traditions
THROUGH A unique study involving undergraduate students, the Anthropology department of the Allahabad University's (AU) has established that one of the oldest tribal groups of the country— the Oraon of Jharkhand— have managed to achieve a rare feat: Prospering on the benefits of modernity and yet managing to preserve their ancient traditional customs and values.
The AU team, comprising 28 UG students, three guest faculty members and led by the head of the AU Anthropology department Prof Vijoy Shankar Sahay is just back after a 15-day field study trip to Jharkhand's Gumla district during which they carried out an in-depth study on the effects of modernity on Oraon tribals especially after the formation of Jharkhand as a separate State.
"We camped at Gumla and concentrated on the nine tolas of Pugu village
located 9 kilometres from the district headquarters where a substantial number of Oraon have settled. The reason we concentrated on Oraon was that though noted anthropologists like late DN Majumdar and late PK Bhowmick did work on Pugu village of Oraons in the 1940s and 1950s, a need of a latest study on the new situation and with a new approach was being felt for quite some time now," Prof Sahay said.
Prof Sahay said that the students collected data on various aspects of the Oraon like their family, marriages, kinship, religion and political organisation and put their class room knowledge to practical use during the visit.
Prof Sahay explained that the Oraon, or Uraon, having Jharkhand as their home state, today inhabit various states across central and eastern India as well as Bangladesh.
"Traditionally they depended on the forest for their rituals and economic livelihood. But in recent times, they have become mainly settled agriculturists.
Small numbers of Oraon, have also emigrated to the north-eastern part of India, where they are mainly employed as labourers on tea estates," he added.
During the study the team found that members of the tribe have embraced modernity and are prospering. "Today they are in government jobs and studying in the best of the institutions like even the IITs. However, most of them make it a point to make an annual visit to their village and participate in all their festivals and observe most traditions. They maintain clean houses and good health too. A close observation is enough to find the reason as to why despite being late comers to Jharkhand among the region's 32 tribal groups, they have managed to emerge as the most dominant economically, educationally and even numerically," Prof Sahay said.
Informing about the Oraon, Prof Sahay said that their language is Kurukh which belongs to the Dravidian family, and is most closely related to Brahui and Malto, the only two other languages of North India that belong to the Dravidian speech family.
"The Oraon people make an interesting study as they have a rich and vast range of folk songs, dances and tales, as well as traditional musical instruments. Both men and women participate in dances, which are performed at social events and festivals. There are 13 kinds of dances and songs, which are performed and sung on different occasions through out the year. Mandar, Nagara and Kartal are the main musical instruments of Oraon," he added.
"Majority of Oraon write their gotra like Kerketta, Xalxo, Xaxa, Xess, Tirkey, Kujur, Minz, Barla, Indwar, Lakra, Beck, Dhanwar, Baghwar, Toppo, Son, Rawna, etc with their name. Large percentage of population are Sarna and many are Christians. However now the impact of Hinduism too is very visible," Prof Sahay said.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5922_1923927,0015002500010000.htm
Bengal For Overcoming Obstacles
THE last Assembly elections have seen a greater victory for the Left Front and a bigger defeat of the opposition. The policy and programme of the Left Front government for the advancement of West Bengal, for the development of agriculture and industry, for the task of improving services in cities and villages have been appreciated in a greater measure.
When equipped with this welcome verdict of the people the Left Front government has taken an all-out initiative to cater to the hopes and aspirations of the mass of the people by accelerating the developmental programme with transparency. The forces, big and small, of the ultra right, the ultra left, the fundamentalists, the separatists, and the reactionaries have cobbled themselves together to impede the developmental activities. As they are alienated from the people, they have chosen as the weapon of impediment the creation of anarchy, disorder, and of violent acts of commission.
One-and-a-half decades ago, the union government began following the Fund-Bank directed policy of neo-liberalism to tackle the economic and financial crisis. As a result, the problems of daily life and livelihood have increased, economic problems have grown as well, the rate of increase of employment has fallen and crisis in agriculture has escalated. In the past, West Bengal and quite a few other states were victims of discrimination because of the license-permit system and the injudicious freight equalisation policy of the union government.
The opposition has created all kinds of obstacles on the path of development and of industrial growth over the past thirty years. The list of the conspiracies they have hatched to create anarchy and disorder misusing the democratic rights in the state is long. Overcoming these obstacles, West Bengal has succeeded unprecedentedly in various sectors utilising an alternative policy and outlook.
FRESH PROSPECT FOR INDUSTRIALISATION
The freight equalisation policy and the license-permit raj became infructuous because of the neo-liberal policy. As a result, a new prospect of industrialisation has come up before West Bengal. One of the principal aims of our alternative policy is to increase production in agriculture and industry, basing ourselves firmly on the massive success achieved in agriculture, and to increase employment by an expansion of trade-and commerce and of the service sector.
The success of West Bengal in achieving the highest rate of production of food crops has its roots in land reforms and in the firm stand taken up by the decentralised panchayats and the state government in support of the peasants. In West Bengal, almost 80 percent of land belongs to marginal (less than 2.5 acres) and small (2.5 to 5 acres) peasants whereas the rate is at most 35 percent in the rest of the country.
West Bengal possesses only 2.5 percent of cultivable land of the country, but it has 20 percent or one-fifth of the total land redistributed in the country. There is no trace of any land reforms in states under Congress, BJP, and non-Left governments. In West Bengal, the anti-LF Congress and other reactionary forces organised violent impediments on the path of land reforms that were in the interests of agriculture and peasants.
At a time when these enemies of the peasants have organised themselves together and have raised the plea of peasants' interests to impede and oppose development of agriculture, industrialisation, employment generation, and development, it devolves on the people of West Bengal to come forward unitedly and strongly to defeat their intention and expose their conspiracy.
In West Bengal alone, there has been a stable government for 30 years. It is here that the law-and-order situation, peaceful ambience, democratic rights, and communal harmony are safe and secure. Here, there is an upward rise of agricultural success, a responsible trade union movement, and a corruption-free, pro-people, and pro-development government. That is why in a competitive market, the industrial investors are becoming interested about this state.
INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT
Only a few years back, Haldia in Midnapore was a neglected village of the fishingfolk, and now with the industrial richness it occupies a special place in India and abroad. Investors are continuously coming to Haldia. Besides the industrially advanced districts, the state government is also encouraging investors to invest in the backward districts including those in north Bengal. Haldia and the nearby area have become one of the chief attractions for investment because of the presence of the port.
Here there has been a total investment of 11.5 thousand rupees in 33 industrial units, including Rs 6 thousand crore in Petrochemicals, Rs 1.5 thousand crore in the Indian Oil Corporation Project, and more than Rs 1.5 thousand crore in the MCC factories. Eight industrial concerns have taken the initiative for investment. Between 1991 and 2005, there has been a total investment of Rs 29,195 crores in 1218 industrial units.
Utilising modern science and technology and knowledge technology, the challenge of industrialisation with an alternative policy approach has resulted in once-industrially backward West Bengal moving forward relentlessly to capture the position of primacy in India. Based on per capita growth, West Bengal is second on the all-India scene right behind Karnataka. The average rate of national growth is 4.2 percent and that of West Bengal far surpasses that figure.
The industrial development has been made possible because of the massive success in agriculture. Then again, industrialisation is essential to consolidate the development of agriculture. Otherwise, despite all efforts, agricultural development will be endangered. In the development of agriculture, industry, and services, the priority of the Left Front is to develop economically the poorest section of the society and to secure and protect the interests of the mass of the people of the state.
Added to the overall industrialisation has been the biggest automobile factory of the country at Singur in Hooghly and the biggest steel industry at Salboni in Midnapore west.
SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONES
In the meanwhile, in the year 2000 it was decided to set up 'Special Economic Zones' (SEZs) as an ancillary to the import-export policy to establish infrastructure equal to the international standards, export of industrial goods, and for the generation of employment. The central legislation was framed in 2005. Besides the central legislation, several states framed their own regulations in this regard.
In 2003, West Bengal took a leading role in the framing of the legislation. Recently, the union government has decided to put a stop to all proposals for the setting up of SEZs. Welcoming the step, we have demanded that the present central legislation must be fundamentally changed so that a proviso is added for fixing a land ceiling for land utilisation, a complete rehabilitation of the affected people has to be ensured, no tax and other concessions should be given, and labour laws have to be ensured in the SEZs.
Of the several SEZs, some have been established in West Bengal: two at Bidhannagar on the outskirts of Kolkata, one at Falta in south 24 Parganas, while work is going on for multi-faceted production at Kulpi and for leather goods at Bantala. 17 more SEZs would be set up and work has been taken up. Included in this list are information technology, electronics, chemicals, and automobile parts. Of the proposals received by the union government from states for setting up big chemical hubs, the competitive choice has been areas abutting Haldia.
The choice was made by the specialists deputed by the chemicals and fertilisers department of the union government. The principal entrepreneur selected for this project is Indian Oil Corporation, a government of India enterprise. The industrial area when set up will certainly transform the life of the backward Nandigram and of the whole surrounding area. It will make the economy of the district and of the state enjoy a faster growth. Over and above the large chemical industry, there are developmental projects in the offing, like ship building and ship repair factories and port improvement schemes.
Realising the purpose and significance of industrialisation, the peasants of the Singur block, along with the people of West Bengal and Hooghly, have come forward to help set up a big automobile industry. In order to open cracks in the deep trust of the workers-peasants and of the mass of the people in the Left that has been the dedicated torch-bearer as the traditional upholder of their interests, the anti-Left forces of every political colour have united to spread slander and confusion, indulging in acts of violence.
LAND POLICY FOR INDUSTRIALISATION
The landowners have transferred their land to the state government, the state government in turn has fully secured their interests, and a vista has been opened out in the days ahead for employment from amongst the agriculture-dependent families. At this, the votaries of anarchy and disorder have become pushed into a corner and they have opted for a path of violence to disrupt the Nandigram project in despair.
It is not the general policy of the Left Front government to take over agricultural land, especially fertile agricultural land. If a continuous and contiguous area of several hundred or several thousand acres is needed for a project, such may not be available in the area marked for the industrial unit. Even if such area is located, the investors may not consider it suitable on the score of ports, infrastructure, and other concerned matters. The factors that must be prioritised in this respect are to take over as little fertile land as feasible, to protect places of religion, and to provide ample assistance to the land-loser etc. No other state government and not even the union government consider these factors save and except the Left Front government—there are innumerable examples of this aspect.
When industries had been set up during the Congress regimes, we had welcomed industrialisation but had insisted on the securing of the peasants' interests and rehabilitation. We are for industrialisation and all kinds of development without forcing the decision on the peasants and the mass of the people and incorporating the assistance of all concerned. No other state government other than the Left Front government bothers about these processes and concerns about security.
Over and above land under forest cover, cities-towns-market places, and roads, the agricultural land of West Bengal works out at 62 percent of the total landmass, with less than one per cent being used for industrial purposes. A big industry cannot be set up on island-like pieces of land parcels. In the process of development of industries, it is the peasants and the mass of the people who will stand to benefit. Thus, the campaign that once the less-fertile land of Nandigram is utilised for a large industrial township, food production will fall, and religious places will be taken over is palpably slanderous and aimed at creating confusion.
DASTARDLY ACTS
On the strength of spreading the dastardly rumour that the state government is forcefully occupying and taking over land at Nandigram, for the past two months the forces of religious fundamentalism, Naxalites, Congress, and Trinamul Congress and their running mate the SUCI have united to spread incitement in the area. They have organised a cache of deadly arms, demolished bridges and cut up roads to isolate the area, torched Party offices, attacked the police, burnt police vehicles, extracted several lakhs of rupees from the people through force and loot and attacked the houses of CPI (M) leaders and workers. Nearly 500 families were dislodged from home and hearth, of whom 219 families are still in the shelter of relief camps.
Early in the morning of January 7, these violent rampaging elements attacked the relief camps, looted the house of CPI (M) panchayat member Shankar Samanta, and burned him alive in a stack of hay. Four people in all died in this unfortunate incident. The attackers themselves gave a call for a Bangla bandh on January 8 to create disorder. The state government repeatedly asked everybody concerned to sit across the table for discussion. A large industrial complex will be set up in this area with the comprehensive support of the mass of the people and the peasants. The state government is determined to set up the industry with the cooperation of the people and to do away with the impediments being created through anarchy and chaos.
The violent anti-Left Front elements alienated from the people have been up and about indulging with impunity in violent acts like those at Singur, organised blockades and bandhs, attacked police, issued threats creating fear and carried out dastardly rampage in the state Assembly. The cruelty perpetrated on CPI (M) workers and the mass of the people at Nandigram, torching of houses, offices, and vehicles along with the communal incitement of the fundamentalists are some of the acts of these anti-Left Front elements. They are out to put up a falsely unpleasant picture of the development of West Bengal before the entire country through these anarchic acts. We issue an earnest appeal to all sections of the people of the state to be united in vociferous protest and resistance against the conspiracy, and to make sure in a bigger way the continuance of the trend of development of West Bengal.
http://pd.cpim.org/2007/0211/02112007_bengal.htm
Villagers in India fight back over state's plan for chemical factory
The road to Nandigram ends abruptly in a trench. This used to be a sleepy huddle of villages in a corner of West Bengal where few outsiders ever bothered to come. Now the villagers have dug up the roads or blocked them with logs and rubble to stop anyone coming. It looks like a war zone, and in a sense it is. The villagers here have declared war on the Indian government.
The authorities want to build a giant new chemical plant in Nandigram. The villagers are refusing to move away. They have turned down offers of compensation and virtually declared independence. It has turned violent, with at least six people killed so far in clashes between villagers and government supporters.
India is the second fastest-growing economy in the world, and foreigners are queuing up to invest. An Indonesian company is set to build the chemical plant here. Suddenly, everybody wants to be a part of emerging India - but not the villagers of Nandigram.
"I will never give this land up," says Mohammed Mujibur Rahman Khan. "I refuse it 100 times over." This is the other story of India's emergence - one you rarely hear.
Mr Khan is a dirt poor farmer. His home is a simple wooden shack where he lives with his wife and six children, and his two brothers and their families. There is no electricity in the villages here. No water. There are only two televisions in the entire area, both black-and-white and run on car batteries, and hundreds of villagers crowd around each one to watch old videos of Bollywood movies.
The government is offering Mr Khan money that could transform his life. At the moment he makes 22,000 rupees (£255) a year. With the money the government is offering, he could move to the city and get a job that pays more. But he says he is not interested.
"It doesn't matter how much they offer me," he says. "They can offer me 10 million rupees (£120,000). It is my motherland. How can I leave it?"
While the middle classes in India's cities eagerly embrace the rush to economic development and the trappings of consumerism, here in the villages an older India is refusing to die quietly. Mr Khan's eldest son has left home to work in the neighbouring state of Orissa, but Mr Khan insists that when he dies, his son will return to take over the family farm.
Another of the villagers, Sheikh Mohinuddin, explains: "I was born here. So was my father and my grandfather. My family was here in the British times, we were here 200, 300 years ago. We have spent our whole lives here. We love this place. We want our land."
The villagers have united against the planned chemical plant. From the moment you arrive, they carefully look you over at the roadblocks and decide whether you are welcome. Everyone you speak to is adamant: they will not give up their land.
What they are standing against is India's grand plans to build special economic zones (SEZs) across the country, modelled on the ones that were at the heart of China's rapid industrialisation and emergence as a global economy.
Despite its fast growth, India has struggled to keep up with China in industrialisation. The SEZs are supposed to change all that. With low taxes to attract foreign investors, they will not house just one factory, but will cover huge expanses of land with factory complexes,worker housing and amenities. Nandigram is not planned to be a single chemical plant, but a major hub for the chemical industry, spread across 19,000 acres.
The federal Commerce Ministry says the first 63 SEZs around the country will bring in £6.8bn in investment and create 890,000 jobs. Indonesia's Salim Group is set to start building at Nandigram, and the government of West Bengal has undertaken to buy up the land compulsorily from the farmers. But the farmers are not budging.
Their greatest scorn is for the chief minister of West Bengal state, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, who they say signed the deal with the Indonesians without ever consulting his own people here. What makes the row especially explosive is that Mr Bhattacharya is, in name at least, a communist. West Bengal has elected a communist government for decades. But to the dismay of villagers, the West Bengal Communist Party, and especially Mr Bhattacharya, have recently fallen in love with big business.
At first, young Communist Party supporters tried to silence the villagers with muscle, turning up to a rally and beating up some of those present. Things got ugly and someone opened fire, and at least six villagers were killed. Mr Khan says he watched as two died on the spot. The other four died of their injuries in hospital.
But that incident has only made the villagers even more determined, and now it seems they have the government worried - and not just in West Bengal. Stung by the degree of passion at Nandigram, the federal government in Delhi has put plans for hundreds of SEZs around the country on hold. In West Bengal, Mr Bhattacharya's government, already facing violent protests over a proposed car factory at another site, has announced it is freezing action on Nandigram for now, to allow tempers to cool. But it insists the project will go ahead in time.
The villagers are adamant that it will not. Their children still run free among the betel nut palms and banana groves of Nandigram. The sunset is mirrored on the pond where Mr Khan farms fish. The life he and his friends are bent on defending is a tough one. But as more details emerge by the day of a serial killer who preyed on children in the slums of Delhi, which are full of immigrants from the villages, you can see why it is a life they might want to keep.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2251361.ece
IITs fuel political passions
Indian Institutes of Technology seem to not only fuel student dreams but intense political passions as well. If students compete to secure a place in an IIT, politicians spearhead agitations to get them located in their areas of influence.
Orissa is objecting to an IIT, originally meant for it, being awarded to neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. In Andhra, on the other hand, two districts of Telangana — Adilabad and Medak — are squabbling for the institute.
The Chandrababu Naidu government had campaigned for an IIT at Basara in Adilabad, while Chief Minister YS Rajashekhara Reddy has plumped for Medak, from where late Indira Gandhi had once secured passage to the Lok Sabha.
Telangana Rashtriya Samithi leader and former union minister A Narendra has alleged that Reddy is using the IIT card to divide and weaken the Telangana movement for a separate state.
Meanwhile, AP minister for marketing, Botsa Satyanarayana is advocating the cause of Vishakapatnam to house the IIT.
Amid all the churning in Andhra Pradesh, a "shocked" Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik wrote in protest to the prime minister last Wednesday. He pointed out that Orissa was promised an IIT in the 11th five-year plan. The Centre's reported decision to establish new IITs in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan was not cricket, Patnaik told Dr Manmohan Singh.
Human Rescource Development Minister of State MM Fatmi had announced on August 28 in Patna that three IITs, including one in Orissa, were being set up.
Similar passions are in evidence in four Rajasthan cities — Jaipur, Udaipur, Kota and Jodhpur — for an IIT. Students of Ajmer consider their city too has a claim.
The rapidly expanding Pink City, with a sprinkling of engineering colleges, industrial units and infrastructure and proximity to Delhi, greater road, rail and air connectivity, seems to have the more aggressive campaign. The highest number of 200 IIT entrants per annum are from Jaipur.
The Pink City also has a more concrete proposal. It is ready to provide 400 acres and an administrative building free 25 kms from Jaipur. A Sambhar-based NGO, Sri Gopal Gowshala, will donate the land and building, said Suresh Kalani, the NGO office bearer. Delegations from the four cities have met Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje with their claims for the IIT. Raje's office confirmed the claims on Monday but said "no real progress was made on the ground".
The state has nominated additional chief secretary DC Samant to the HRD ministry committee that will finalise the location of the new IIT. While Udaipur has its strong points as tourism, business and trading, Kota said it already has 30,000 students preparing for the IITs at the various coaching institutes there.
Meanwhile, the demonstrations, sit-ins and signature campaigns continue to bring the IIT into the neighbourhood.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1924353,0008.htm
Tata Power signs MoU with Govt of Chhattisgarh for power
The Tata Power Company Ltd. announced the signing of a MoU with the Government of Chhattisgarh for the setting up of a 1000 MW coal fired mega power plant in the State. The project is estimated to entail an investment of Rs. 5000 crore and will require approximately 1200-1300 acres of land. On the basis of preliminary feasibility study, a suitable site in the Raigarh district of the State has been identified. The Company is now in the process of carrying out a detailed feasibility study for the project.
The Government of Chhattisgarh has actively sought private sector participation towards improving infrastructure and taking substantial initiatives towards economic progress of its people on the back of inherent natural advantages of the State. To this end, the State has sought to provide comprehensive cooperation to Tata Power in acquiring necessary clearances and approvals that fall under the purview of State Government and also facilitate the allotment of captive coal mining facilities for necessary coal linkages. The power from this Independent Power Project will be sold substantially to distribution companies in the aforesaid region.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Prasad Menon, Managing Director, The Tata Power Company Ltd. said, "We are happy to make our maiden foray into the State of Chhattisgarh. We believe this will be the beginning of a long and mutually beneficial relationship. This agreement signifies Tata Power's commitment towards the State of Chhattisgarh for bridging the power requirements of the state and the country. With this MoU, Tata Power has taken another step towards its growth plans and increasing its national footprint."
Tata Power has been recently awarded a Letter of Intent (LoI) for the 4000 MW Ultra Mega Power Project based on imported coal at Mundra, Gujarat. The Company has also inked similar MoUs with the Government of Orissa for a 1000 MW thermal project and with the Government of Maharashtra for an over 2000 MW coastal power project, towards which it has already invited bids. The Company has also done ground-breaking on the 1,000 MW Maithon Right Bank project in Jharkhand and is currently setting up 350 MW of additional capacity to address the power needs of Mumbai.
http://news.moneycontrol.com/india/news/pressmarket/tatapowercompanymou/tatapowe
rsignsmougovtchhattisgarhforpower/market/stocks/article/264128
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