Cooperate in developing 'little Singapore' in India: Sushma Swaraj

August 17, 2014

Sushma SwarajSingapore, Aug 17: Singapore could cooperate with India to develop a 'little Singapore' along the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor under the new government's 100 smart cities project, this was conveyed by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to top leaders here.

The External Affairs Minister, who arrived here late last night along with senior officials of her Ministry, held a series of meetings including with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

During her meetings, Swaraj briefed the Ministers about her government's plan to build 100 smart cities.

Apart from calling on the Prime Minister, Swaraj held talks with her Singaporean counterpart K Shanmugam and also called on former premier Goh Chok Tong.

On its part, Singapore has expressed keenness to cooperate with India in specific areas of its expertise like water management and urban rejuvenation, officials said.

In the budget, the new Indian government had proposed to develop 100 'smart cities' as satellite towns of larger cities and allocated Rs 7,060 crore for the ambitious project.

The Government has proposed to develop the smart cities to take the load off from the mega cities.

It is estimated that by 2051, half of India's population would reside in urban settlements with contributions of 75-80 per cent to the GDP.

Smart City uses technology to transform its core system through the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to optimise best use of its finite resources.

Under smart city project, government plans to use innovative mobile and communications technology for efficient delivery of public services and management of water, waste, energy, health, transport and public infrastructures.

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News Network
July 24,2020

Lucknow, Jul 24: A special CBI court on Friday recorded the statement of veteran BJP leader LK Advani in the Babri mosque demolition case.

The statement of the 92-year-old former deputy prime minster was recorded through video conferencing in the court of special Judge S K Yadav.

On Thursday, the court recorded the statement of BJP veteran Murli Manohar Joshi in the case. 

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Agencies
June 22,2020

Mumbai, Jun 22: After downgrading India's outlook to negative from stable, Fitch Ratings on Monday revised the outlook on nine Indian banks to negative.

The outlook on the Long-Term Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) was revised to negative from stable due to the banks' high dependence on the Centre to re-capitalise them.

Accordingly, the IDR outlook of the Export-Import Bank of India, the State Bank of India, the Bank of Baroda, the Bank of Baroda (New Zealand), the Bank of India, the Canara Bank, the Punjab National Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank Ltd have been downgraded to negative.

"At the same time, Fitch has affirmed IDBI Bank Limited's (IDBI) IDR while maintaining the outlook at negative," Fitch said in a statement.

The rating actions follow Fitch's revision of the outlook on the 'BBB-' rating on India to negative from stable on June 18, due to the impact of the escalating coronavirus pandemic on India's economy.

"The IDRs for all the above Indian banks are support-driven and anchored to their respective SRFs," the statement said.

"They are based on Fitch's assessment of high to moderate probability of extraordinary state support for these banks, which takes into account our assessment of the sovereign's ability and propensity to provide extraordinary support."

According to the statement, the negative outlook on India's sovereign rating reflects an increasing strain on the state's ability to provide extraordinary support, due to the sovereign's limited fiscal space and the significant deterioration in fiscal metrics due to challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The rating action does not affect the banks' Viability Rating (VR). EXIM does not have a VR as its role as a policy bank makes an assessment of its standalone credit profile less meaningful."

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News Network
April 2,2020

Chandigarh, April 2: A 59-year-old woman and her 10-month-old granddaughter have tested positive for novel coronavirus in Chandigarh on Thursday.

According to the Chandigarh Health Department, they are family contacts of the NRI couple that tested positive for COVID-19 earlier.
With this, the total cases in the Union Territory rose to 18.

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country climbed to 1,965 on Thursday, after as many as 328 new cases were reported, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. So far, at least 50 people have lost their lives due to the virus.

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