PRESS RELEASE   |    Wednesday, November 12, 2014 Contact: Gaelle Gourmelon, ggourmelon@worldwatch.org , (+1) 202-745-8092, ext. 510 For more information: ECOWAS Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Status Report          West Africa Emerges as Leading Region in Africa for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency          Although access to energy services remains severely constrained in the region, renewables and energy efficiency measures contribute to improved access Washington, D.C.---     The ECOWAS Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Status Report,  produced collaboratively by REN21 and ECREEE with lead authorship from the Worldwatch Institute, provides a regional perspective on the renewable energy and energy efficiency market and industry development in West Africa. Launched on November 10, 2014, the report concludes that renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies have rapidly become cost effective solutions for overcoming the diverse energy challenges facing the ECOWAS region  (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo). "It is clear that the ECOWAS Member States acknowledge the enormous potential that renewables and energy efficiency bring to accelerating energy access and meeting the region's energy needs," says Christine Lins, Executive Secretary of REN21. "Through their commitment to developing renewable energy and energy efficiency across the region, ECOWAS Member States have taken a proactive role in ensuring their ability to address current energy sector challenges through the uptake of renewables, while simultaneously building a resilient system that prepares the region to effectively meet future energy needs and ensures sustainable energy access for all." The Executive Director of ECREEE, Mahama Kappiah, says that non-availability of reliable and up-to-date energy information in West African countries constrains opportunities for investments in the energy sector. The ECOWAS Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Status Report is therefore a "tool to make information on these activities in the ECOWAS region readily available to different stakeholders, as well as to local and global investors, developers, and project promoters by showcasing the ECOWAS region as one of the most active regions in Africa for the promotion of renewables and energy efficiency." "This report presents countries undergoing rapid change, including in the energy sector," says Alexander Ochs, Director of the Worldwatch Institute's Climate and Energy Program. "While we are witnessing important projects throughout the region, most ECOWAS countries are just starting to make use of the enormous renewable energy potentials at their doorsteps-and on their roofs, too. With national policies and regional cooperation just taking shape, the big renewable energy boom in West Africa is yet to come. An economically, socially, and environmentally prosperous Africa can only be built on the foundation of a sustainable energy system." The ECOWAS Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Status Report, covers recent developments and trends in the energy sector in the ECOWAS region. It uses up-to-date renewable energy data, provided by network of contributors from and around West Africa, and is targeted at policymakers, industry, investors and civil society to enable them to make informed decisions about the diffusion of renewable energy. By design, the report does not provide any analysis or forecasts. Some Key Findings: As of early 2014, the ECOWAS region had an installed capacity of 39 megawatts (MW) of grid-connected renewable electricity (excluding hydropower). The total installed renewable capacity, including hydro, was 4.8 gigawatts (GW). Renewable energy technologies account for an estimated 28.8 percent of the region's total installed capacity of grid-connected electricity. Regional new investment in renewable power and fuels from six leading ECOWAS Member States (Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, and Sierra Leone) was USD 29.7 million in 2013, down significantly from the peak of USD 370 million in 2011. Guinea-Bissau, Ghana, and Sierra Leone are regional leaders in the contribution of renewables to their final energy consumption-at 30.3 percent, 22.4 percent, and 19 percent, respectively, in early 2014-largely as a result of their use of modern biomass. Hydropower accounted for 57 percent of total installed electricity capacity in Ghana; it also played a significant role in Guinea (34.2 percent), Togo (28.8 percent), Côte d'Ivoire (28.2 percent), and Nigeria (16.2 percent). As of early 2014, only 19 percent of the ECOWAS region's estimated 25 GW of hydropower potential had been exploited. Wind energy provided 27 MW of installed electricity capacity, with 25.5 MW of this coming from Cabo Verde's Cabeolica wind farm, sub-Saharan Africa's first commercial-scale public-private partnership. Cabo Verde leads the ECOWAS region in installed capacity of grid-connected solar photovoltaics (PV), with 6.4 MW. Ghana has an installed capacity of 1.92 MW. The region's use of solar PV technology is limited largely to distributed and off-grid functions. Senegal leads with installed capacity of 21 MW, followed by Nigeria with 20 MW and Niger with 4 MW. By the end of 2014, 13 ECOWAS Member States had adopted renewable energy support policies,with all 15 Member States having at least one policy or one target at the national level promoting renewable energy technology development. As of early 2014, feed-in tariffs had been adopted by Ghana and Nigeria and were being developed in the Gambia and Senegal. Cabo Verde became the first and only country within the ECOWAS region to adopt net metering. As of early 2014, the share of the population using improved biomass cook stoves was 20 percent in the Gambia, 16 percent in Senegal, 10 percent in Sierra Leone, 6 percent in Nigeria, and 2.1 percent inBurkina Faso. As of early 2014, eight ECOWAS Member States-Benin, Cabo Verde, The Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, and Togo-had energy-efficient lighting initiatives. Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, and Nigeriahave established domestic programs for energy efficiency in the building sector.

I N V I T A T I O N

        IAF TO ORGANISE PLACEMENT FAIR 2014

Dear Sir/Madam   

1.         Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Arup Raha PVSM AVSM VM ADC will be inaugurating the 7^th edition of  Indian Air Force (IAF) Placement Fair 2014 for retired IAF personnel.   You are cordially invited to cover the function as per the following details.

            Date :        14 November 2014

            Function :  Placement Fair 2014

            Venue :      Air Force Auditorium, Subroto Park (Near Dhaula Kuan)

            Time :        1030 hrs

2.         You are requested to depute your correspondent/Cameraman/ Photographer to cover the event.  An IAF mini coach will leave Shastri  Bhawan (Opp Gate No. 3) at sharp 0925 hrs.  Those who intend to reach directly, are requested to reach latest by 1030 hrs.

INVITATION

      Dear Sir/Madam,

            

     You are cordially invited to cover the following event.

Event	Shri J P Nadda, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare will be the chief guest at CRPF Blood Donation Camp organized at AIIMS Trauma Center.
Date	14th November (Friday)
Time	10.00 am
Venue	Trauma Center, AIIMS, New Delhi

Stop playing with lives of women!

NAPM calls for stringent action in incident of death of women at Government run Sterilisation camp in Chhatisgarh

                                              

Ensure gender just and human rights approach to family planning!

12^th Nov, 2014, New Delhi: The tragic incident of death of 13 women, with more than 20 women presently in critical condition, at the Government Sterilization ‘camp’ in Kanan Penderi village of Bilaspur district of Chhatisgarh is yet another instance of serious violations of medical guidelines and brutal repression of reproductive rights and health of women in India. It is a painful reminder of not just the inadequacies of our public health system  but more importantly a reminder of the wrong focus of health programmes in India, which should focus on health of women, not just on sterilisation. In a state like Chhatisgarh, which has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality, the state government organizes such camps regularly with the motive to control population while turning a complete blind eye to other more important health care needs of women. Furthermore, the incident exposes how human lives are being risked in these botched, ill-equipped and target driven camps. Shockingly, at this camp, 83 women underwent laparoscopic tubectomies with only one instrument in less than 5 hours i.e. less than 4 minutes per operation, completely flouting the central government’s guideline (Standard Operating Protocols for sterilisation camps), of not conducting more than 10 tubectomies with a single instrument, and not more than 30 by a single doctor, in a day. This clearly points out that the operations were performed in a rush and without adequate equipment, thereby blatantly ignoring important hygienic considerations.

While organizing free public health camps is a welcomed strategy to counter the increasing commercialization and privatization of health delivery systems, the general trend to have one-day camps with unsaid high targets to do as many operations as possible within a single day is clearly a flawed strategy. Furthermore, the fact that there are monetary incentives for the doctors and the health workers as per the number of operations they conduct add to the problem of rushing and undermining of ethical and medical procedures.

India’s Family planning programme, in recent decades, has been targeting only women and almost negligible number of vasectomies are being performed on men, which in fact is a far safer method with zero side effects and post-surgery recovery period unlike tubectomy or hysterectomy for women which has post-surgery hormonal disturbances and health implications. Furthermore, targeting with monetary incentives to women is problematic as it also suggests coercion especially when the women are from poor and marginalized communities.

National Alliance of People’s Movements expresses its outrage and strongly condemns the medical negligence and failure of the government to ensure safe health care to women. We demand an immediate and independent inquiry into the incident by a team comprising of women’s organisations and civil society networks working on health issues and its report be made public. We demand that stringent punishment be given, including disqualification of medical practitioners involved. A broader investigating body must be set up to look at the phenomenon of sterilizations of women on the national scale so that this once incident doesn';t get cast as a one off incident. The Government must ensure that medical, procedural and ethical guidelines are strictly followed in every government run hospital and health camps. We strongly demand that the focus must shift to expansion and availability of non-surgical contraception to women and enhancing their contraceptive choices, along with programmes to women’s empowerment and counseling around medical needs and reproductive choices.  

Medha Patkar - Narmada Bachao Andolan and the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM); Prafulla Samantara - Lok Shakti Abhiyan & Lingraj Azad– Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti, NAPM, Odisha; Dr. Sunilam, Aradhna Bhargava - Kisan Sangharsh Samiti & Meera – Narmada Bachao Andolan, NAPM, MP; Suniti SR, Suhas Kolhekar, Prasad Bagwe - NAPM, Maharashtra; Gabriel Dietrich, Geetha Ramakrishnan – Unorganised Sector Workers Federation, NAPM, TN; C R Neelakandan – NAPM Kerala; P Chennaiah & Ramakrishnan Raju – NAPM Andhra Pradesh, Arundhati Dhuru, Richa Singh - NAPM, UP; Sister Celia - Domestic Workers Union & Rukmini V P, Garment Labour Union, NAPM, Karnataka; Vimal Bhai - Matu Jan sangathan & Jabar Singh, NAPM, Uttarakhand; Anand Mazgaonkar, Krishnakant - Paryavaran Suraksh Samiti, NAPM Gujarat; Kamayani Swami, Ashish Ranjan – Jan Jagran Shakti Sangathan & Mahendra Yadav – Kosi Navnirman Manch, NAPM Bihar; Faisal Khan, Khudai Khidmatgar, NAPM Haryana; Kailash Meena, NAPM Rajasthan; Amitava Mitra & Sujato Bhadra, NAPM West Bengal; B S Rawat – Jan Sangharsh Vahini & Rajendra Ravi, Madhuresh Kumar and Kanika Sharma – NAPM, Delhi

AAP press release on Maharashtra trust vote

From: Media Cell AAP  Wed, 12 Nov '14 7:29p

To: undisclosed-recipients:;

Show full Headers

                                  Press Release

Aam Aadmi Party strongly condemns the highly immoral manner in which the BJP Govt in Maharashtra proved  it’s majority on the floor of the Vidhan Sabha.This is a gross violation of the first principle of parliamentary democracy .A vote of confidence involves the unambiguous recording of division of votes in order to secure the trust of the people of the state.Bynot doing so,the BJP in connivance with the speaker of the house has made great travesty of democracy.The people need to be convinced beyond doubt that their Govt is in absolute majority.The electorate has a right to know whether their elected representative has voted for or against the Govt and a division of votes is necessary for the same.

It must be noted that as per parliamentary procedure,the Speaker has no choice but to concede to a division of votes should it be sought even by a single legislator and can only be waived by absolute unanimous consensus of all legislators of the house.The Speaker is constitutionally mandated to be neutral but by taking sides,the newly elected Speaker-Haribhau Bhagde has shown utter disregard for the Constitution of India.Moreover,in the pandemonium of a voice vote with 140 odd people on both sides,it is impossible to precisely ascertain which side has clear majority and hence the Speaker’s decision to go with a voice vote and not concede to demands of a Vote Division is shocking.

PM Modi had himself referred to the ‘NCP’ as the ‘Naturally Corrupt Party’ while campaigning in Maharashtra and CM Devendra Fadnavis had categorically stated that there is no question of a partnership with the NCP.Despite such vociferous declarations,today’s act of forming a Govt with the tacit support of the NCP is the epitome of political hypocrisy.

The AAP has in the past exposed the unholy nexus between top BJP and NCP Leaders who have been benefeciaries of the humongous irrigation scam.Today’s events have only strengthened the beliefand perception that BJP’s Anti-Corruption Stand is mere lip service and grossly insincere.This has set a dangerous precedent for our democracy and the BJP has further lowered the standard of politics in this country.

Regards.

AAP Media Cell