MOU signed for linking Lesotho with Pan African e-Network
Gurudas Kamat, Minister of State for Communications
and Information Technology, Govt. of India signed a Country Agreement
with Mr. Mothetjoa Metsing, Minister of Communications, Science
and Technology, Kingdom of Lesotho here today for linking Lesotho
with Pan African e-Network. Kingdom of Lesotho is the 36th African
country who has signed the Agreement. Speaking on the occasion,
Kamat said that that the signing of Country Agreement with Kingdom
of Lesotho, is an example of South-South cooperation. Assuring
all cooperation in fields of Telcom and IT, the Minister added
that telecom revolution is taking place world over and this sector
generally has remained untouched from recession. The Pan-African
e-Network will provide e-services with priority on tele-education
and tele-medicine services and VVIP connectivity (for Video-conferencing
and VoIP services) among the Heads of the States.
The basic objective of the project is to help
Africa in capacity building by way of imparting quality education
to African students from Indian Universities / Educational Institutions
and to provide tele-medicine services by way of on-line medical
consultation in the patient-end locations from Indian medical
specialists in various disciplines selected by African Union
for its member States.
PAN AFRICA e-Network project is being funded
by Ministry of External Affairs, Govt. of India with an approved
budget cost of Rs.542.9cr.. Telecommunications Consultants India
Limited (TCIL), a Government of India enterprise, is designated
as turnkey implementing agency for the project with a role to
design the network, procure and install the equipments and provide
operation and management services for five years after commissioning
of the network in the respective countries. TCIL is in advance
stage of commissioning the project. Network has already been
commissioned in 20 countries. TCIL had earlier commissioned Ethiopia
Pilot Project on Tele-education and Tele-medicine in February,
2006.
Indian
Construction Company Expands Middle East Presence
The slowdown in construction and infrastructure
projects in India is driving leading Indian firms to explore
new markets in the Middle East. Navayuga Engineering Company
(NEC), an Indian construction company in Abu Dhabi has undertaken
piling work for ten residential cum commercial towers for two
projects within Al Reem Island in Abu Dhabi. In all, 1,496 deep
piles were laid for the two projects, and were executed as per
schedule, highlighting the project development expertise of the
company. Antony A. David,
General Manager, NEC said: “Infrastructure
support projects are one of our core competence. We have an established
track-record of on-schedule completion of complex projects by
leveraging our extensive expertise and large profile of modern
machinery. The piling work for City of Lights and Pearl Bay further
highlights our credentials as a strong partner in infrastructure
projects.”
Navayuga Engineering Company Limited (NECL),
Abu Dhabi Branch, is a part of CVR Navayuga Group, a leading
Indian infrastructure development company. Claimed to be one
of the top three construction companies in India the firm is
establishing its presence in key foreign markets. The infrastructure
work was undertaken for the City of Lights and Pearl Bay mixed
development in Al Reem Island, developed by Al Tamouh Investments.
For City of Lights, NEC completed piling work for five towers
of 35 to 54 floors and for Pearl Bay, the company undertook piling
for another five towers of over 30 floors each. Presently the
main Superstructure works have started by major Chinese and Korea
controllers. He said that the company is focusing on diversifying
the project portfolio in the UAE and also expanding to other
markets in the region. “We are on course to achieving our
growth targets and are in the process of finalizing strong orders
in various construction sectors.”
Already regarded as one of the top ten piling
companies in the UAE, Navayuga attained the impressive growth
in a very short span of time. “We mobilized a large fleet
of equipment and have a team of over 500 professionals and skilled
workers. The manpower and machinery resources give us an upper
hand in undertaking complex projects,” said Mr David. NEC
recently opened its branch office in Dubai to explore new growth
opportunities across the UAE. The company has a strong track-record
in India, where it is involved in the construction of ports,
flyovers, elevated highways and other mammoth construction projects.
NEC established its first overseas piling business branch in
Qatar in 2006, and is currently involved in major projects in
Qatar – outside Doha.
Inspectors Nab 201
Street Vendors, Beggers and Car Washers
Dubai Municipality inspectors, in cooperation
with Dubai Police and the Dubai Naturalization and Residency
Department, nabbed last month 201 persons including street vendors,
beggars and illegal car washers. The sweep against the law-breakers
had also resulted in the seizure of several low-quality goods
and pirated CDs. Civic inspectors conduct daily spot checks in
streets and public places to prevent street vending, begging
and car washing in public places by individuals in violation
of a ruling by the Ministry of Labour in this regard. Inspectors
at the Control Unit of the Markets Administration Section in
the Assets Management Department carry out regular checks in
this regard.
In June 2009, they caught a total of 201 people
including 131 street vendors, 28 beggars, 28 car washers and
14 illegal butchers and fish cleaners. A total of 2,474 counterfeit
products including ready-made garments, perfumes, cameras, and
watches that were fake international brands were confiscated.
Also, some 2,435 DVDs with pirated films, 62 pornographic movies,
218 foodstuff items including boxes of fruits and vegetables
were seized last month. The law-breakers, who belong to various
nationalities, would be handed over to the Dubai Naturalization
and Residency Department for deportation in coordination with
Dubai Police. The seized goods would be destroyed and disposed
off safely after legal actions were taken against the violators.
Be an
Ambassador of Dub ai Municipality
Dubai Municipality has launched an initiative
called "Ambassadors of the Municipality," which is
a project for the preparation of a voluntary group to clarify
and explain the leadership role of the municipality and respond
to all queries and comments received from the municipality.
Khalid Mohammed Badri, Director of Corporate
Marketing and Relations Department said that the project aims
to highlight the positive image of the municipality as a service
organization, which has its services and duties towards the society
and the promotion of municipality projects and facilities, and
work together as a team with various administrative levels, and
the project will adopt positive ideas, and work on opening channels
of communication with other bodies such as the government departments,
media, companies, educational entities and individuals.
He added that the project seeks to highlight
the different roles played by the Municipality in the cultural
community such as setting up of libraries and museums, and maintenance
of playgrounds and the creation of sports facilities (like the
Olympic swimming pool), parks, recreational areas, and environmental
activities, monitor the pollution level of and the preservation
of public health and other topics.The project will contribute
to the creation of positive outlook towards the Municipality
and market the municipality facilities and projects in an indirect
way, and work with the media.
The scope of the project include web sites
of the newspapers and magazines, radio programs such as direct
broadcasting, letters to the editor in the newspapers, electronic
forums, workshops and conferences and private meetings. The project
will be run on two phases and during the first phase is the nomination
of associates by officials in order to ensure selection of appropriate
staff, who will be spreading the idea of the project to his colleagues
in order to create interest in order to reach the large segment
of the staff of the Municipality.
The Municipality has identified a set of specifications
that must be characterized by the Ambassador of the Municipality
that include job loyalty, sufficient knowledge of the functions,
services and details of the work in the municipality, have an
internal desire, true to do the job, good hearing and the ability
to make cool analysis, eloquence, balance, training and qualification
and cooperation with the implementation of Human Resource Department
for implementing training courses to enable them to do this work
very nicely and the adoption of the scientific tools to gain
influence and develop a work program for the refinement of skills,
particularly with regard to dealing with the media.
