UK Autmotive: An expertise Seminar for Investment in UK

6022014

Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art awarded with industry award and significant role at India Art Fair 2014

FICA is a not-for-profit foundation that encourages, promotes and supports innovative work in the field of the visual arts.

Recently awarded the 'Not-for-Profit Art Initiative of the Year’ at the inaugural Forbes India Art Awards, FICA has been officially recognised for outstanding initiatives and contributions to the art world in the areas of outreach, education, residencies, research, grants and any other activity that promotes the cause of Indian art either in India or globally.

FICA is leading the way in promoting collaborative outreach in India, notably with a resounding response at this years’ India Art Fair through their inspirational collaboration with FLOW India, who work with children connecting culture with the school curriculum. FICA’s presence at the fair was notable for their book launches, talks, debates and child-based workshops - establishing, alongside the Speakers’ Forum, one of the few serious platforms for educational outreach and support.

Vidya Shivadas, Director commented:

The Forbes India Art Award is an indicator of the art community's faith in FICA and we value this a great deal. FICA's motto is to support practice and research and generate platforms for further dissemination and education. If you look at the great demand there has been for the children's workshops at the India Art Fair you can see how much people want to engage with art and establish a meaningful relationship with it.

Additionally, FICA’s educational and outreach activities are gearing up for an exciting year ahead of projects that will be realised by various grantees in 2014. Chosen with the help of independent juries made up of curators, artists, filmmakers and pedagogues in 2013, the grantees will develop their projects and practice through the course of the year.

The FICA Emerging Artist Award winner Kartik Sood will make his way for a residency to Switzerland in the summer, while the Samudra Kajal Saikia, the first recipient of the newly instituted Ila Dalmia FICA Research Grant, begins year-long-research on Performance Art in India, specifically focusing on practitioners in New Delhi.  Srajana Kaikini has just returned from her three month research residency in London, as a part of FICA’s Research Fellowship, having immersed herself into the Goldsmith’s PhD Knowledge/Curation seminars, and programming at Iniva and Delfina Foundation.  FICA is also instrumental in supporting Indrani Baruah, who will develop her public art project working with the site and communities of the Uzan Bazaar Ghat, on the River Brahmaputra in Guwahati, in a project titled Cultural Re-imaginations Stage III: New Collective Cultural Journeys and Initiatives.

About FICA

The Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA) was launched in 2006 to support artists and educational activities in the visual arts, benefiting both emerging and established artists, art historians, curators, art critics, and other professionals devoted to the study of contemporary Indian art. With the initial support of Vadehra Art Gallery, FICA is a self sustaining organisation, raising their own funds, not-for-profit entity through various fundraising activities and generous private contributions. FICA’s annual programmes include the Public Art Grant, the Research Fellowship for visual artists and writers and the Emerging Artist Award.FICA is also focused on children’s’ programming as well as the setting up of an archive of Contemporary Indian Art. FICA also has an exhibition grant, through which it aims to support Indian art exhibitions in museums abroad, and hopes to bring these groundbreaking exhibitions to India. FICA has supported London’s Serpentine Gallery’s travelling exhibition Indian Highway, an exhibition of contemporary Indian art curated by Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Julia Peyton Jones. It has also supported the recent exhibition Where Three Dreams Cross - 150 Years of Photography from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, which was curated by Sunil Gupta.

To interview Vidya Shivadas, Director of FICA, or for any further information please contact nidhi.awasty@flint-pr.com or call +919899598586

Aam Aadmi Party action on promises

 

As promised, Aam Aadmi Party government has sent files related to Street Light scam worth Rs 92 crore in CWG to Anti-corruption branch.

The Delhi government has asked anti-corruption bureau to probe a number of cases of corruption relating to alleged irregularities in Commonwealth Games projects.

Earlier in the month, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had promised to initiate action against the previous Shiela Dikshit government on corruption allegations. ...

"We are studying CWG files and all (Delhi) Jal Board files. We have set up an anti-corruption branch. In a few days we will start acting against the previous government. We won't spare the Congress," he had said.

Delhi government has asked the region's power regulator to revoke the licences of two electricity distributors if they fail to supply power, drawing criticism from the companies.

The distributors are BSES Yamuna Power Ltd and BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd, run by billionaire Anil Ambani's Reliance Infrastructure Ltd.

"Anil Ambani playing politics with delhi's electricity? Whose politics is he doing?," Mr Kejriwal tweeted....
Both companies have been warned by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal that they must clear their bills with power providers and cannot threaten the city with large blackouts on account of a cash crunch. Reliance Infrastructure runs the distribution companies, with the Delhi government holding a 49% stake.

In the event of the licences being revoked, "suitable officers" would be appointed to administer the distribution companies and keep power switched on, the government has said.

State-run power producer NTPC has said that BSES Yamuna Power, which sells electricity in the central and eastern parts, must pay its bills or be cut off from February 11.

Today at 12:21 PM

Government Public Enemy - RIL & Ambani Companies
February06, 2014

To, DERC, ATE, CAG,
Entire Power Sector Comes Under The Jurisdiction of ATE, CAG - It
Should INVESTIGATE PUBLIC LOOT OF ALL RIL & Ambani Companies.  Ambanis
are Looters Number One - RIL acquired 25-28 Oil & Gas blocks from 1999
but invest just $15 million on one drilling in 6-8 years when each
block required 50 drillings a years at least, but capitalized over
$10b against $1b for PETROBRAS P-52 or P-56 Deep Sea projects much
bigger in scale and depth. Gas production by RIL from OIL & Gas Blocks
is practically nothing - [1] Instead of cheap gas promised for 100
years we are paying 10 times more for meager supply - most of Gas
Based Power Plants are down. [2.] SASAN Project with 800 million tones
of Cheap Coal & Rs.1.19/unit PPA is delayed.

Ambanis are Criminal Minds - in first picture BRPL provides Lame Duck
service through unskilled Labor Hired On Contract NEXT to DERC Office.
[3] THIS RESULTS IN LONG FREQUENT POWER CUTS & CONSUMERS & FORCED TO
INSTALL INVERTORS & GENERATIONS AND INCUR Rs.5000 to Rs.8000 THEIR O&M
COST ANNUALLY and as given second picture Their Meters are run fast -
at Distribution Transformer single phase supply voltage is 230V but at
tail end consumer 248V this is say 10% more than required or 20% more
Units Billed for most loads. [4] This 20% Fast Running of meters
INCEASE CONSUMER BILLS BY 30% CHARGED AT HIGHER SLAB.

BRPL-BYPL hired Teams of Meter Checking & Bill Recovery Agents fully
recovered in 60 days- a] Billing Loss, b.] Metering Loss, c.]
Collection Loss, which adds up to 30 points but Didn't Declare
Recovery - [5]  25% Siphoning of Collections.

BRPL-BYPL - DIRECT+INDIRECT PUBLIC LOSS = Rs.50,000 Cr

   

Thank you,
Faithfully,

Ravinder Singh*
Inventor & Consultant
Y-77, Hauz Khas,
New Delhi - 110016
Ph: 9650421857
*Ravinder Singh is a WIPO awarded inventor specializing in Power,
Transportation, Water, Energy Saving, Agriculture, Manufacturing,
Technologies and Projects.

Delhi Scouts for Cos to Replace Discoms
Appellate tribunal stops power regulator from passing an order on
termination of discoms' licence without its consent

OUR BUREAU NEW DELHI

    The Kejriwal government raised the pitch in its battle with
Delhi's power distribution companies by reaching out to companies to
replace the incumbents but an appellate tribunal intervened and asked
the regulator not to pass an order on termination without its consent.

Official sources said the Delhi government had begun exploratory talks
with several distribution companies from across the country, which can
step in if licenses of BSES Yamuna and BSES Rajdhani of Anil Ambani's
Reliance group are terminated. "Several power distribution companies
have shown interest. However, most of these meetings are
unstructured," a source in the Delhi government said.

Companies from Gujarat, Maharashtra and West Bengal have responded,
the source said, without identifying them. Apart from the Tatas and
Reliance Infrastructure of the Anil Ambani group that supply
electricity in Delhi and Mumbai, companies involved in distribution in
other regions include CESC in Kolkata, Torrent in Ahmedabad,
Gandhinagar, Surat, Agra and Bhiwandi, GTL in Maharashtra and DPSC in
West Bengal and Bihar.

A director of one of these firms said the management was not aware of
any such discussion but he could not rule out that the promoter may
have been sounded. Another top executive at a discoms said the
Kejriwal government would face huge regulatory and legal challenges in
its bid to replace the licensees. In any case no private player would
be willing to take over Delhi's distribution infrastructure in present
circumstances particularly if BSES does not cooperate, the executive
said. The Delhi government holds 49% equity in the discoms.

Earlier, the Delhi government asked the regulator to terminate the
licenses if the companies carry out their threat of large scale power
cuts on the ground that they have no money to purchase electricity.
The government has argued that the regulator would have fixed the
tariff keeping the costs in mind, as required by the law, and in this
circumstance it is unlawful to blackout parts of Delhi by saying the
discom has no money.

In an on-going case between BSES and the state electricity regulator
on claims of money to be recovered from customers the tribunal
restrained the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) from
taking any hasty step. BSES claims that it needs to recover over Rs
15,000 crore from 32 lakh electricity consumers of Delhi - a move that
the regulator has opposed. During the hearing of this case on
Wednesday, BSES discoms advocates expressed their apprehensions before
the tribunal that the DERC may pass orders that may be prejudicial to
the his clients. They requested tribunal members to prevent DERC from
passing final order in the matter relating to suspension of licenses.

Tribunal Chairman Justice M Karpaga Vinayagam and member Rakesh Nath,
in their order said, "Having regard to the urgency of the matter, we
deem it appropriate to direct the Appellants (BSES discoms) to appear
before the Delhi Commission on 6.2.2014 and make their submissions
with regard to the letter of Government and Delhi Commission may
continue to proceed with the matter by hearing the parties concerned,
but the Commission is directed not to pass the final order in the
above proceedings without leave of the Tribunal during the pendency of
these IAs (Interim Applications)."

Commenting on the development, DERC chairman PD Sudhakar said, "We
will go by the order from the Appellate Tribunal. We have heard about
such order but DERC has not received its copy from the appellate
during the day." He has asked the BSES discoms executives to appear
before the commission on Thursday with regard to the Kejriwal
government's demand for cancellation of their licenses.

A spokesman for BSES Rajdhani, which is also claiming to have lack of
funds to pay its lead power supplier and state run NTPC, said that the
company has sought cooperation of Delhi government and to resolve
matter in interest of its 19 lakh consumers. "For issuing letters of
credit, BSES Rajdhani requested NTPC to follow consistent practice of
past 18 months and allow us reinstatement in 30 days. However, NTPC
rejected plea and sought LCs within 7 days," said the spokesperson. He
added that there is no current default in payments to NTPC against
power supplies and the power producer is not at any risk of default.

This week, Delhi Power Secretary Puneet Goel wrote to the regulator to
cancel the electricity distribution licenses of private discoms, which
are unable to supply reliable power to the consumers in view of lack
of funds. Subsequently, Arvind Kejriwal himself wrote to Lt Governor
Najeeb Jung saying that there may not be any option with electricity
regulator but to revoke licenses of discoms and take over their
operation.

AAP keen on Tata Power if BSES discoms suspended
Govt Prefers 'Good Boy' Distributor, But It's DERC's Call
Richi Verma TNN

New Delhi: The inability of Reliance Infra's BSES discoms to handle
their finances might help competitor Tata Power Delhi land a windfall.
According to sources, Delhi government, which is seriously thinking of
suspending the licence of BSES Rajdhani and BSES Yamuna if there are
outages from next week, is also exploring the option of handing over
administrative control of the two utilities to the Tata company.

    However, the BSES companies can breathe somewhat easy as
suspending their licence won't be simple. The Appellate Tribunal of
Electricity on Wednesday directed Delhi Electricity Regulatory
Commission (DERC) not to pass any final order on the matter without
its consent.

    Power sector officials said only DERC had the authority to grant
administrative control to another entity if a licence was suspended.
Delhi government officials conceded this matter was not in their
jurisdiction but sources said they were looking at other discoms.
"Administrative control can be given to any organization, government
body or private individual. This is a decision that has to be taken by
DERC,'' said a top government official.

    But sources indicated that Tata Power may be approached as it has
experience in distributing power in Delhi and a much better track
record than BSES. POWER GAMES

    Tata Power has experience of distributing power in Delhi and a
much better track record than the BSES discoms

    NTPC says it has never faced any payment problems with Tata Power
while the BSES companies are regular defaulters

    BSES discoms say any move to suspend their licences would be
arbitrary and illegal; blame DERC for their financial mess NTPC sticks
to 1-wk ultimatum

    The National Thermal Power Corporation, which has put BSES discoms
on a week's notice over dues, is not willing to give an inch in its
dealing with the BSES discoms. While BSES Yamuna was silent on the
regulation notice from NTPC, sister concern BSES Rajdhani is battling
it out. Delhi is staring at 10-hour outages from next week if the
NTPC-BSES standoff continues.

BSES won't back off without a fight

DERC officials on Wednesday said it was too early to comment on
suspension of licence of the BSES discoms and they would not speculate
on administrative control being handed over to anyone else.

    "Alternative arrangements will have to be made in the event of
suspension. We will hear the BSES discoms on Thursday to see what can
be done in the current situation with NTPC,'' said chairperson P D
Sudhakar.

    Administrative control for the duration of licence suspension is
given for a maximum of one year under Electricity Act and can be
withdrawn by the regulator any time if it feels the suspended discom
has improved its situation. It could also open the doors for Tata
Power to get into distribution in parts of Delhi outside its
jurisdiction of north and northwest Delhi. The government is also
looking at other power distribution firms outside Delhi.

Transmission utility Delhi Transco is also being considered for the job.

    Tata Power CEO Praveer Sinha told TOI they would require a lot of
preparation before committing on any new venture. The discom's
positive track record gives it a huge advantage. Barring the CAG
audit, Tata Power so far has not had any confrontation with the AAP
government on performance issues and was even praised by then chief
minister Sheila Dikshit on several occasions. NTPC has also said on
record that they have never faced any payment problems with this
company while the BSES companies were regular defaulters.

    Tata Power has also consistently over-achieved on AT&C loss
reduction target levels and has successfully paid dividends from 2005
to 2009 to the government in a range of 10%-18%. The AT&C loss level
in north Delhi was 53% during privatization in 2002 and the latest
target level was 11% set by DERC. Tata Power officials say they have
brought it down to less than 10%. The total dividend paid to the
government is Rs 117.21 crore.

    BSES Rajdhani and BSES Yamuna, however, have no intention of
backing off without a fight. They say any move to suspend their
licence would be arbitrary and illegal and have blamed DERC for their
current financial mess. The tribunal order on Wednesday came as a huge
relief for the two power companies as it can stall any suspension
order. "The tribunal's direction is a judicial order and will have to
be followed,'' confirmed Sudhakar. The tribunal's direction came as
part of an ongoing case of the BSES discoms against DERC over the
issue of pending regulatory assets. The BSES companies had appealed to
the tribunal "not to proceed with the said proceedings and pass a
final order in the matter relating to suspension of licence.''

    Licence suspension is a long drawn out process under which a show
cause notice will be served to the defaulting discoms and adequate
hearings held where BSES will be allowed to present their case. In
December 2011, the regulator had served a suspension notice to the
BSES discoms who were facing similar financial difficulties and could
not pay generating stations due to a cash flow crisis.

    At that time, the situation was resolved only when the Sheila
Dikshit government infused Rs 500 crore as equity in the debt-ridden
BSES companies to enable them get a bank loan.