Union Minister for Ports Sarbananda Sonowal inaugurates BIMSTEC Conclave in Visakhapatnam
Welcoming the representatives, Visakhapatnam Port Authority Chairman M Angamuthu highlighted the strategic importance of Visakhapatnam in maritime trade and logistics. He called for greater collaboration among BIMSTEC countries in port-led industrialisation, digital infrastructure integration, and maritime skill development. He also underlined the contribution of the Centre of Excellence in Maritime Skill Development (CEMS) in positioning Visakhapatnam as a training hub for the maritime sector.
In his address, the Union Minister laid out key components of the Union government's long-term maritime vision, in line with the Prime Minister's Vision 2030 and 2047. BIMSTEC Secretary General Indra Mani Pandey shared the framework of BIMSTEC Vision 2030 and noted that 267 transport connectivity projects are currently in progress under the master plan. He proposed setting up a BIMSTEC Centre of Excellence in Maritime Transport in Visakhapatnam and outlined plans for real-time cargo tracking and sustainable port practices.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
19 minutes ago
- Time of India
Lok Sabha passes bill to increase production, processing of critical minerals
Lok Sabha passes bill to increase production, processing of critical minerals Lok Sabha passes bill to increase production, processing of critical minerals 1 2 NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha on Monday passed a bill which seeks to provide a simpler regime for promoting conservation of minerals, zero waste mining and support the objectives of the National Critical Mineral Mission, given the significance of critical and strategic minerals in the development of the country. The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2025, was passed after brief debate, with Union Minister for Coal and Mines G Kishan Reddy stating that every sector is dependent on critical minerals. The significance of critical and strategic minerals in the development of the country is continuously increasing and recent global geo-political developments has constricted the supply-chains of these minerals. The Centre launched the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM) in 2025 to establish a robust framework for self-reliance in the critical mineral sector. Under this mission, the Geological Survey of India (GSI) has been tasked with conducting 1,200 exploration projects from 2024-25 to 2030-31. The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill was passed amid sloganeering by opposition members over their demand for debate on Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar. In his reply to the debate on the bill, G Kishan Reddy said that India has less production of critical minerals and is largely dependent on imports. The bill seeks to amend the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 and also seeks to promote extraction of deep-seated minerals. The minister said efforts have been stepped up since 2015 to boost the availability of critical minerals in the country. "We are moving in the right direction," he said. He emphasised that everyone should understand the value of critical minerals, as every sector, "from electricity and medical equipment to automobiles, defence, solar, and space, is heavily dependent on them". Kishan Reddy said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his visits abroad, seeks to expand cooperation in critical minerals. He also attacked opposition parties over disruption in the House, saying they "do not have faith on the Supreme Court, Election Commission". The minister said the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2025, is an important bill for the mining sector. "Mining sector will be an important pillar and will have a big role in India's journey to Viksit Bhart by 2047," he said. In his brief remarks while moving the bills for passing, Kishan Reddy said critical minerals is the need of the hour and sought unanimous support for the legislation. The bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday. The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 has been amended several times over the years. The last amendment made in the Act in 2023 focused on increasing exploration and production of critical and strategic minerals in the country by introducing a new list of 24 critical and strategic minerals; empowering the Central Government to auction mineral concessions in respect of such minerals and introduction of exploration licence for critical and deep-seated minerals. According to the Statement of Objects and Reasons of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2025, there is need to provide a dynamic market mechanism for minerals backed by a robust regulatory regime with the increased availability and demand of minerals in the country. "Setting up of mineral exchanges will help miners and end-users of minerals in determining fair and transparent market prices based on supply and demand dynamics, stabilise markets and aid in budgeting and planning. This will promote investment in mining sector and infrastructure related to transport and storage," the statement said. The bill seeks to remove the limit on the sale of minerals from the captive mines so that miners can sell minerals after meeting the requirements of the end-use plant linked with the mine and on payment of an additional amount specified in the Act. It seeks to allow the sale of dumps which have been stacked up to such date as may be specified by the Central Government in captive leases which cannot be captively utilised to reduce environmental hazards and increase safety in mine workings, bring more minerals to the market and provide additional revenue to the States. India is mostly dependent on the import of critical minerals. A National Critical Mineral Mission has been launched to increase domestic production, including from the offshore areas of India, secure supply chains from outside India and promote processing of critical minerals. "There is an urgent need to further amend the Act to support the National Critical Mineral Mission in its objectives," the statement said. The bill seeks to empower the Central Government to promote the development of the market, including trading, of minerals, their concentrates or their processed forms (including metals) through mineral exchanges. It seeks to widen the scope and territorial domain of the National Mineral Exploration Trust to enable the use of the funds accrued to the Trust within India, including the offshore areas, and outside India for the purposes of exploration and development of mines and minerals. The bill seeks to enable one-time extension of the area under a mining lease or composite licence to include therein a contiguous area not exceeding ten per cent. or thirty per cent., respectively, of the existing area under the lease or licence subject to such terms and conditions and additional payment as may be prescribed in rules by the Central Government. "This will promote optimal mining of deep-seated minerals which are locked up in contiguous areas and may not be economically viable to be extracted under a separate lease or licence," the statement said. The bill seeks to rename the Trust as the National Mineral Exploration and Development Trust to reflect its enlarged scope and increase the amount of payment to the Trust by the lessees from present two per cent. of the royalty payable to three per cent. of the royalty payable; It seeks to enable the inclusion of any new mineral in a mining lease, subject to the conditions prescribed by the Central Government and the additional amount payable as specified in the proposed Eighth Schedule to the Act. No additional amount is applicable on inclusion of critical and strategic mineral or minerals specified in the Seventh Schedule to the Act to incentivise production of these minerals which are found in small quantity and are difficult to mine and process.
Mint
33 minutes ago
- Mint
Cabinet approves ₹18,500 crore semiconductor, infrastructure projects
NEW DELHI: The Union cabinet on Tuesday approved key manufacturing and infrastructure projects worth approximately ₹ 18,500 crore. Among the approvals are four new semiconductor projects in Odisha, Punjab, and Andhra Pradesh; a 700 MW Tato-II hydroelectric project in Arunachal Pradesh; and the expansion of the Lucknow metro over the next five years. With Tuesday's approvals, the total number of semiconductor projects officially sanctioned by the Centre's India Semiconductor Mission has risen to 10, since Micron's memory chip packaging plant was approved in Sanand, Gujarat, in June 2023. Of these, four projects, including India's only modernized chip fab by Tata Electronics, are located in Gujarat, two in Odisha, and one each in Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Andhra Pradesh. Industry stakeholders noted that while the four new projects may not involve large capital outlays, they are strategically important as part of efforts to consolidate investments under the India Semiconductor Mission's first tranche of nearly $10 billion. Ankush Wadhera, managing director and partner, and India semiconductor practice head at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), said that the biggest project under Tuesday's announcements, the SicSem compound chip fab, 'is crucial in various high voltage industrial applications.' 'The list of approved projects until yesterday had one silicon fab, a chip testing and packaging setup, and four chip testing and assembly plants. Even with the modernization of the Centre-owned SCL (Semi-Conductor Laboratory, Mohali), there were some gaps in our nation's semiconductor ecosystem that the new announcements will help address,' he said. Wadhera added that the new announcements could also increase the pace of development and output at the traditional outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (Osat) plants. The four newly approved proposals carry a cumulative investment of around ₹ 4,600 crore and are expected to generate employment for approximately 2,034 skilled professionals, according to an official statement. A silicon carbide semiconductor plant will be set up in Bhubaneswar by SiCSem Pvt Ltd. 'The SicSem project in Odisha is an integrated semiconductor project, which means that it will have both a compound semiconductor fabrication plant, as well as a chip testing and packaging unit. The second Odisha project with HIPS is an advanced packaging plant for glass substrates, which are applicable in crucial industries. The applicant is also making the substrates innovatively, in order to maximize yield—which makes the project very interesting,' said a senior government official close to the developments. Compound semiconductors are made from silicon combined with other elements. They require different fabrication techniques and are primarily used in strategic industrial applications such as space launches, high-intensity sectors like automotive and railways, and resilient systems including power grids and oil rigs. Ajai Chowdhry, industry veteran and cofounder, HCL, added that the announced 'mark a very good move by the Centre to diversify the range of semiconductor projects at hand.' 'A compound chip fab was absolutely the ask of the hour, and the Centre has done well to make a well-strategized announcement with it. The announcements also showed the range of excellent state-level semiconductor policies, and many states are offering excellent benefits to the technical firms in the form of land parcels and other advantages. This will contribute further to the overall semiconductor supply chain, which will all go in to support the outright silicon fabs in the industry,' Chowdhry added. Heterogenous Integration Packaging Solutions Pvt Ltd will establish a vertically integrated advanced packaging and embedded glass substrate facility in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, with a planned annual capacity of approximately 69,600 glass panel substrates, 50 million assembled units, and 13,200 3DHI modules, according to the official statement. Advanced System in Package Technologies (ASIP) will establish a semiconductor manufacturing unit in Andhra Pradesh under a technology tie-up with APACT Co. Ltd, South Korea, with an annual capacity of 96 million units. The manufactured products will serve applications in mobile phones, set-top boxes, automobile systems, and other electronic products. 'ASIP's Andhra Pradesh project is also an advanced packaging project for industrial chips, while Continental's project—the smallest of the lot—is a brown-field expansion of India's oldest existing and running chip testing plant. Overall, the projects come to add significant depth to the overall semiconductor ecosystem,' the government official added. Separately, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved an investment of ₹ 8,146.21 crore for the construction of the Tato-II Hydro Electric Project (HEP) in Shi Yomi district, Arunachal Pradesh, with an estimated completion timeline of 72 months. The 700 MW project (4 units of 175 MW each) is expected to generate 2,738.06 million units of energy. It will be implemented through a joint venture between the North Eastern Electric Power Corp. Ltd. (NEEPCO) and the Arunachal Pradesh government. The Centre will provide ₹ 458.79 crore in budgetary support for enabling infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and transmission lines, along with ₹ 436.13 crore as central financial assistance towards the state's equity share, according to another official statement. Arunachal Pradesh will benefit from 12% free power and an additional 1% allocation towards the Local Area Development Fund (LADF), it said. This development aligns with the government's goal to reach 500 GW of non-fossil fuel power generation capacity by 2030 as part of its energy transition and net-zero carbon emission targets.
Time of India
43 minutes ago
- Time of India
Karnataka HC declines to quash notice insub judice land grabbing case
Bengaluru: The Karnataka high court has refused to quash a show-cause notice issued to five people under the Karnataka Tank Conservation and Development Authority Act, 2014, over alleged encroachment of land near Vibhuthipura tank in KR Pura, east Bengaluru. Dismissing petitions filed by GV Manjunath and others, Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum said, "Although the petitioners contended that the Karnataka Land Grabbing Prohibition Act, 2011, alone governs the dispute and that proceedings under any other statute are barred as the matter is sub judice before the Special Court, such an interpretation does not hold merit…" The show-cause notice, dated Nov 29, 2024, was issued by the prescribed officer, tank and eviction execution engineer of BBMP, following a complaint lodged by the tahsildar. The complaint also led to Bengaluru Metropolitan Task Force police registering a case under Sections 192A and 192B of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act. You Can Also Check: Bengaluru AQI | Weather in Bengaluru | Bank Holidays in Bengaluru | Public Holidays in Bengaluru | Gold Rates Today in Bengaluru | Silver Rates Today in Bengaluru The petitioners claim ownership of residential properties in Vibhuthipura village. Their main grievance was that the matter is already pending before a special court under the 2011 Act, making parallel proceedings under the 2014 Act unsustainable. The court held that the prescribed officer could independently inquire into the alleged encroachment, and if established after hearing the petitioners, order their summary eviction in accordance with the 2014 Act. The petitions were accordingly dismissed. Stay updated with the latest local news from your city on Times of India (TOI). Check upcoming bank holidays , public holidays , and current gold rates and silver prices in your area.
