Latest news with #GreenBook
Perth Now
04-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Halle Berry and Djimon Hounsou cast in Red Card
Halle Berry and Djimon Hounsou are to star in the trafficking thriller Red Card. The duo have signed up to feature in the Africa-set movie that is being directed by Rust helmer Joel Souza from a script written by Bad Boys creator George Gallo and Green Book scribe Nick Vallelonga. Djimon plays Max Elmi, a veteran ranger battling poachers in Kenya, who teams up with Dane Harris - a tenacious special agent and a member of a team led by FBI supervisor Amanda Bruckner (Berry) working with international law enforcement to combat trafficking rings overseas. When Max's son, a talented footballer, falls prey to a deceitful sports agent and vanishes into the North African criminal underworld - he will stop at nothing to find his child, leaving Dane to decide how far he is prepared to go. The pair's odyssey takes them from quiet villages in Kenya to the simmering streets of Casablanca and the film has been endorsed by the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children. Souza said: "Red Card is a fantastic script, from writers who have created film classics, and Djimon is an actor of uncommon power and depth. "Together, we all look forward to telling a thrilling story we truly believe will grip audiences worldwide." Casting is underway to decided who will play the role of Dane, whilst filming is scheduled to take place towards the end of the year. Halle became the first - and remains the only - African-American woman to win the Best Actress Oscar in 2002 for her role in Monster's Ball but previously lamented how the historic success didn't lead to more satisfying roles. The 58-year-old star said: "I was very disheartened after winning that gorgeous guy. I was sure the script truck would just back itself up to my front door. That's what I thought would happen. Like: now I'm going to get all the great parts. But unfortunately for me, that was not my reality. I've been continuing to try to make ways for myself. Because it's hard. I don't often find great parts that I really, really love to sink my teeth into." Despite her lack of satisfaction, Halle is determined to remain positive. The Moonfall star said: "I'm generally a very positive person. I'm a glass-half-full kind of person. I'm not going to sit around bashing things. I'm here to work. I have more hills to climb as long as I'm here. I've got more things to learn. I've got more challenges to face. I can continue to get better." Halle also played Bond girl Jinx in the 2002 film Die Another Day - in which she starred opposite Pierce Brosnan's 007 - and admits that appearing in the long-running spy franchise "wasn't on her wish list" initially. She said last year: "Bond wasn't on my wish list, no, to be in one, but I loved the movies, always, but having been in one, I feel like I'm a part of cinematic history. Those movies are iconic. They will forever be a part of our history, and I'm really honoured to have been a part of one, especially with Pierce."
Belfast Telegraph
22-07-2025
- Business
- Belfast Telegraph
Shake-up of UK investment strategy should now prompt Stormont to end ongoing regional bias
The bulk of public money is spent in greater Belfast area, leading to serious variations in economical and social outcomes. Surely the purpose of government is to improve the wellbeing of the population as a whole, not just a part Investment is needed to produce returns that can be measured in economic, social or environmental terms — sometimes all three. That can be true for businesses, but also for governments. All of which makes public sector investment choices important and politically contentious. There have been criticisms for decades the UK Government prioritised investment in the most wealthy areas at the expense of deprived regions. HM Treasury uses its 'Green Book' as part of its assessment of investment proposals. The government recently completed a review of the Green Book and its use.
BBC News
14-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Will a Green Book revamp help bridge the North-South divide?
Changes to the way the government hands out money to the North have been welcomed - but cynicism remains about whether anything will actually improve. BBC Yorkshire Political Editor James Vincent investigates whether a rewrite of the Green Book will help to bridge the North-South Green Book, the government's document that guides decisions on whether projects are value for money, will be updated by Chancellor Rachel the past, the rules have been seen to favour the South because returns on investment are easier and quicker. Not many people have heard of the Green Book and - if you're not knee-deep in politics like some (hello!) - there is no reason why you should not a book of policies or plans that the government wants to achieve - it's the next level of decision making, behind the a project value for money? How much risk is there? Will it have an impact?Civil servants use it to say yes or no to investment plans and some in Yorkshire think it's holding us back. Sir Steve Houghton has been on Barnsley Council since 1988 - and though there is a risk of him sending me an angry text if I say this - he's been around local government for longer than most."Changes to the Green Book are really, really welcome. We've been calling for this for years and years," he says."To ask places, small towns in the North to give economic returns at the same rate as London for public investment has been a nonsense and still is a nonsense."Sir Steve knows that something built in Barnsley will not have the same immediate financial impact as it would in the South East - but says that's why it is needed more here."Having recognition that you're going to get different returns, you're going to get different benefits in different parts of the country, is a real win for us."It might not hit the public agenda, the Green Book, but in terms of making sure the government can invest in places other than those big cities like London, it's a real step forward." For a long time, whether you had a good business case defined whether you were going to get government money or Cost Ratios (BCR) are the assessments of what the number crunchers in the Treasury think they might get of the changes to the Green Book is to rely on BCRs less and have other benefits included, like societal ones, rather than just government also wants the Treasury to look at what transformational changes might happen in an area because of also wants the Green Book to be smaller. At the moment the guidance can run into thousands of pages. We've been here before though. The Conservatives changed the Green Book under Rishi Sunak's said it was to help areas in the North, but that was undermined by the PM's comments to voters in Tunbridge Wells where he told them he had taken money out of urban deprived Conservatives' Levelling Up Fund was also criticised for weighting the prime minister's constituency of Richmond as in higher need than asked the Conservatives for their view on these changes but they did not respond. 'Raise investment across the country' I sat down with Treasury Minister Torsten Bell to ask him whether Labour would also be accused of funding bias."You obviously do need cost benefit analysis of transport schemes but what we can't have is a system for doing that that is biased against certain parts of the country, that only funnels money to parts of the country that are already successful," he says."We all deserve a public realm that functions, and just because somewhere has lower incomes today doesn't mean that is always the case, in fact our policy should be to start turning that around."But are they heading down the same road as the Conservatives in favouring their own areas?"No, what we're doing is saying we need to raise public investment levels right across the country and we're making sure Yorkshire benefits from that like we are for every region."It's not about setting parts of the country against each other." The reality is that different parts of the country are wealthier than that ever changes is a huge question, and one that has faced every new the gap between North and South is the aim of these structural long will we have to wait to find out if it works? Well, no government has cracked it so far.
Indian Express
30-06-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Vadodara's green financing model: VMC launches book on successful bond issue
The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC), in partnership with Deloitte, launched 'The Green Book: On Climate Finance and Green Municipal Bonds' in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, on the sidelines of a Security Exchange Board of India (SEBI) event, following the successful Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) listing of Municipal Green bonds in March 2024. Taking VMC's success as a case study and benchmark for other civic bodies eyeing the stock exchange for generating funds, the Green Book shares the efforts undertaken by the VMC in launching Asia's first and a pioneering green bond. 'The Green Book, compiled through a joint effort of VMC and Deloitte, is an attempt to document the success and achievement of the VMC along with details of the efforts that went into listing the Green bond that will inspire other urban local bodies to take similar steps… The process and rules of SEBI are also included in the book,' said VMC Chief Accountant Santosh Tiwari. Tiwari has also been instrumental in the previous successful listing of a five-year Rs 100 crore bond at the BSE on March 23, 2022, for 14 projects under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) scheme and had received 36 bids on the BSE BOND platform for Rs 1,007 crore, which was 10 times the issue size. The success of the listing had also enabled the VMC to become eligible for an incentive of Rs 13 crore from the Central government. The BSE BOND platform is an electronic platform provided by the BSE for the private placement of debt securities. It facilitates online bidding for these securities, aiming to improve price discovery and transparency in the fundraising process. The Green bond was VMC's second market issue. On Monday, Vadodara Mayor Pinky Soni, Municipal Commissioner Arun Babu, Deputy Mayor Chirag Barot, Standing Committee Chairman Dr Sheetal Mistry and Chief Accountant Santosh Tiwari, remained present at the event where SEBI whole-time member Ashwini Bhatia as well as SEBI Executive Director Pramod Rao and Deloitte Executive Director Vivek Mittal released the book. Babu, who took over as the Municipal Commissioner of Vadodara earlier this year, said, 'The bond is an innovative mechanism for green financing in the urban sector. Vadodara is playing a pioneering role in green financing.' The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) in March 2024 had successfully raised Rs 100 crore from the Certified Green Municipal Bond for Sustainable Water Infrastructure, which opened for bidding on the Electronic Bidding Platform (EBP) of BSE. The VMC received 44 bids on the BSE BOND platform for Rs. 1,460 crore within a second of opening the bid. The VMC said that the funds received from the bonds would be deployed in three projects — a 100 Million Litres per Day (MLD) sewage treatment plant (STP) at Sherkhi, a 21 MLD STP and pumping station at Undera and building new auxiliary pumping station (APS), pressures lines and drainage network at Bil village, which will help in disposal of sewage water effectively. Standing Committee Chairman Dr Sheetal Mistry said, 'The VMC has set a regional precedent with the success of the Green bond, which is certified by the Climate Bond Initiative (CBI) as a first for India and Asia. The book will provide other urban local bodies to take inspiration and follow the path set by the VMC in raising funds for infrastructure projects without depending solely on Central government grants.' Aimed at fostering sustainable urban development aligned with the Paris Agreement, these bonds are dedicated to enhancing liquid waste water management infrastructure across Vadodara, according to the VMC statement.
Time of India
30-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
VMC releases book on Green Bonds issue at Sebi event
Vadodara: The successful issuing of Green Bonds by the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) has become a case study for other civic bodies in the country. The VMC has come up with a book titled 'The Green Book', which can be a guide for those wanting to study the process and utilization of the bonds. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The bond issue of the civic body, which opened on March 1, 2024, was oversubscribed, getting bids amounting to Rs 1,460 crore. It was brought out with the help of the US Treasury office and Deloitte and is considered a landmark in the history of municipal finance using bonds. These bonds were the most subscribed municipal bonds ever in the country. The Green Book, drafted with Deloitte, provides detailed information about how the civic body went about the process of bringing out the bonds. It also talks about the challenges faced by the civic body. The booklet was released at a workshop for municipal corporations organized by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on 'pool financing' and 'being market ready'. "The event focused on alternative and smart initiatives to raise money for municipal projects," said VMC standing committee chairman Sheetal Mistry. The workshop was attended by mayor Pinki Soni, VMC commissioner Arun Mahesh Babu, chief accountant Santosh Tiwari and others.
