Monthly Archives: June 2016

India’s first mangrove centre to be set up in Vizag

Agriculture, Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature, Records, All

Visakhapatnam:

Around 100 acres of land has been identified by the district administration at Yerrakonda near Simhachalam for setting up India’s first exclusive Centre for Mangroves and Coastal Ecology under the Institute of Forest Biodiversity which is under the aegis of the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education  (ICFRE).

Vizag district collector N Yuvaraj said the foundation stone would soon be laid at the site. It would be a centre dedicated to study and research on mangroves ecosystem. “Considering that mangroves have been fast depleting due to shore-based development, the Vishakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT) would take up professional regeneration and replantation of mangroves in 50-acres of area within the port at its own expenditure,” said VPT chairman M T Krishna Babu.

Both the district collector and VPT chairman were speaking at the inaugural of the second national seminar on conservation, restoration and sustainable management of mangrove forests in India, hosted by the Institute of Forest Biodiversity (IFB), Hyderabad, being held in the Port City from June 15-16.Mangroves are trees that grow in coastal saline or brackish water in estuarine environment, where marshy soil conditions prevail.

The district collector further said, “The Kerala model of identifying, notifying and conserving mangroves should be replicated in the rest of India. As a case study, AP forest department should also study it and begin the conservation work from Vizag. The district administration would provide all support.”
VPT chairman Krishna Babu said there’s a need for a systematic action plan to improve the biodiversity index of various places, especially with respect to the native species. “Awareness generation should be through introduction about biodiversity in school curriculum, organising field trips and quiz and so on. When it comes to mangroves, around 100 years ago, Vizag was full of it. But now, most of it has been lost.

Mangroves ecosystem support many species to thrive, absorb carbon dioxide and help tackle beach erosion. As a first step towards conservation, we need to identify and notify the mangrove patches on government lands (irrespective of their being patta lands) as reserve forests and conserve them. Also, since VPT has been held responsible for disappearance of mangroves due to our shore-based development works, we will therefore regenerate 50 acres of mangroves in our land with our own expenditure and take technical support from the scientists of the forest institutes concerned.”

At his welcome address, GRS Reddy, director, Institute of Forest Biodiversity, thanked the district administration for allotment of 100-acre land to set up the mangroves research institute and said, “Considering the ecological importance of mangroves and the need for their conservation, an institute exclusively for research on mangroves is needed in Vizag. Work would begin this year and the foundation stone laying may happen by this month-end.”

D Jayaparasad, additional principal chief conservator of forests, IFB and organising secretary of the seminar stated that Vizag has been chosen for setting up the mangroves research institute as it’s situated in the middle of the eastern coast and there’s a vast stretch of mangroves (59 %) on the east coast with 44% being in the Sundarbans. An interesting talk on ‘Mission Mangroves’ was delivered by the guest of honour and district collector of Kannuar  district P Bala Kiran. He deliberated on how 600 acres of land was surveyed and notified as mangroves reserve forest and how the remaining 1225 acres are being acquired from private parties so that the mangrove lands can be conserved.

Another speaker Surendra Kumar, IFS and director of Institute of Wood Science and Technology, Bangalore said India has around 4,640 square kilometre of mangrove area and recently 112 sq km were added. “Three districts have registered good growth including Krishna district, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Raigarh district, each adding around 15 sq kilometre mangroves. For better mangroves conservation, all stakeholders should be involved together,” he said.

The inaugural session was followed by technical session, where K Kathiresan, professor of Annamalai University delivered his keynote address on ‘Mangrove Forests in India: Conservation, Restoration and Sustainable Management’.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Visakhapatnam / Sulogna Mehta, TNN / June 16th, 2016

Innovation Society to control Sunrise village

Business & Economy, Education, Science & Technology
The Sunrise Startup Village on Rushikonda Hill No 3 in Visakhapatnam.
The Sunrise Startup Village on Rushikonda Hill No 3 in Visakhapatnam.

MobMe to focus on technical side, create 1,000 student startups

In a significant development, Innovation Society, an autonomous body formed by the Andhra Pradesh Government to spread culture of innovation, will take the physical possession of Sunrise Startup Village here, the first one started in Visakhapatnam about one-and-a-half years ago.

Enquiries by The Hindu revealed that MobMe Wireless Solutions of Kochi Startup Village, which was entrusted with the job of incubating startups at Visakhapatnam on the model of technology incubators of the Silicon Valley following an MoU at the CEOs’ Conclave here on September 29, 2014, has agreed to reorient its strategies.

Sources said Innovation Society CEO Nikhil Agarwal, who is based at Tirupati, will visit the city shortly. The village housed in Technology, Research and Incubator Park (TRIP) built by the APIIC at sea-facing Rushikonda virtually took a leap in January 2015 with the organising of bootcamps for students.

Kochi Startup Village Chairman and MobMe Wireless Solutions co-founder, Sanjay Vijayakumar, denied they were exiting the Sunrise Startup Village. He told The Hindu , in an email interview, that the MoU signed with the AP Government was valid for five years to help build 1,000 student startups.

“What we are doing is changing our role from managing the physical infrastructure to going deeper into the school and college education system to build a culture of entrepreneurship. After a year of operations, we realised that the technical and entrepreneurial depth of teams is weak and needs to be strengthened from the college side to create strong founders,” he said.

Tie-up with JNTU

Mr. Vijayakumar said that to achieve it they had been working with JNTU-Anantapur and Kakinada to roll out “minors in entrepreneurship” programme for college students.

“This is exactly the same what we are doing in Kerala and Gujarat with the State technical universities here,” he claimed.

He disclosed that the Department of Science and Technology Government of India last week approved their plans to align with Startup India Action Plan and build Startup Village into a digital incubator platform (www.sv.co) for scaling up.

Physical infrastructure has limitations as students cannot come every day from all parts of Andhra Pradesh. Currently, 28 teams are in the pilot programme, including six student teams from the State. “Instead of exiting, we are going to scale this up now to 100 teams this academic year together with the two universities in AP,” he pointed out. When MobMe entered AP, the AP Innovation Society was not formed as well but now a CEO had taken charge and things had stabilised.

This allows for the Society to manage the physical infrastructure which is similar to how the physical infrastructure is managed by the Kerala Startup Mission in Kochi, Mr. Vijayakumar averred.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Visakhapatnam / by Santosh Patnaik / Visakhapatnam – June 07th, 2016

Guizhou-Andhra Pradesh link shows rising clout of provincial power

Business & Economy, World Opinion
Photo shows the Guizhou International Investment Corporation team in Visakhapatnam. Photo: Special Arrangement
Photo shows the Guizhou International Investment Corporation team in Visakhapatnam. Photo: Special Arrangement

“Love Indian culture more than Indians do. Do not impose, but align with the flow. Change only what you can.”

An infra company based in the southwest province of Guizhou — known for its role in Mao Zedong’s Long March — has emerged as one of the prime investors in Andhra Pradesh, showcasing the role of Chinese provinces and Indian States in driving a new phase of India-China ties.

The Guizhou International Investment Corporation (GIIC) is undertaking the Detailed Master Plan for infrastructure in Amaravati, Andhra’s new capital, and Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s pet project.

Geography has played a major role in turning GIIC into an infra heavyweight. Extensive tunnelling, bridge construction and power generation was required for lifting development in coal-rich Guizhou — a province mostly known for its hills and hollows. The company became well known for building a tunnel that established Guizhou’s new link with the famed Stilwell road, which once routed military supplies to Chongqing from India during World War II. The Stilwell road is now the backbone of the proposed Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) economic corridor.

In a freewheeling conversation with The Hindu, Zhang Zhao, vice-chairman of the GIIC explained how Chinese companies were teaming up for a deeper economic engagement with India. “A symbiotic relationship has indeed emerged between China and India. Chinese companies have developed capacities, out of their own reform experience, which India requires,” says the GIIC’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO). But, Mr. Zhang stressed that understanding and appreciating each other’s distinct business cultures is also an equally formidable barrier.

As a result his message to his employees and Chinese partners is to engage India with humility and respect, rooted in Confucian principles. “Love Indian culture more than Indians do. Do not impose, but align with the flow. Change only what you can,” Mr. Zhang observed. Consequently, the company and its partners are consciously aligning with New Delhi’s flagship Make-in-India campaign to channel investment flows.

Like many others in Guizhou’s business circles, Mr. Zhao draws inspiration from Wang Yangmin. The fifteenth century philosopher and practitioner stretched the Confucian tradition to emphasise that theoretical knowledge was useless without its application to resolve real-life problems. Another revered figure is Deng Xiaoping, the architect of reforms, who guided China out of the trauma of Mao’s Cultural Revolution.

The GIIC’s forays in Andhra have triggered a “collegiate approach” among Chinese businesses, wanting to invest in India. “We cannot do everything ourselves. For example we need partners in the development of ports, which Andhra requires, or real estate, which has not been our expertise. So we looked for allies within and outside Guizhou, and our effort to build teams have yielded satisfactory results,” observes Binod Singh, a senior advisor to GIIC.

The synergetic approach, pursued by local Chinese enterprises, is already making headway in India. Negotiations have reached an advanced stage between the Guizhou Kailin Group and India’s Coromandel International Limited for establishing a $1 billion fertilizer plant in the Kakinada Special Economic Zone.

Real estate investment in India could ride on the model of Garland City, a massive undertaking of “affordable housing” in Guiyang, where four lakh people reside in a dense, but neatly planned cluster of vertical structures. “This is the scale of operations that India needs and we are ready for it,” says Mr. Zhao, scanning the area, with considerable pride, from the rooftop of a 72 floor building that towers over the City. The project is the result of a partnership between the Guizhou Architecture Institute, and the China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC), the state-owned civil engineering giant.

The Chinese consortium approach could also work in the development of a building-material park in the Vijayawada airport area, which could cater to the bulk of Andhra’s construction material needs, says Mr. Singh.

Analysts point out that growing tie between Guizhou and Andhra Pradesh demonstrate the rise of Chinese provinces and Indian states as the core drivers of Sino-Indian ties. Earlier in a conversation with The Hindu, former Indian ambassador to China Ashok Kantha acknowledged that New Delhi-Beijing ties were being rapidly decentralised. “Chief Ministers are taking ownership of the relationship with China. New projects are coming up, and specific initiatives are being taken,” he observed.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National / by Atul Aneja / Guiyang (SouthWest China) – June 05th, 2016

Campaign in the U.S. to promote Andhra Pradesh

Business & Economy, Nri's / Pio's, World Opinion

Andhra Pradesh Non-Resident Telugu Society (APNRT Society) CEO Ravikumar Vemuri who was kick-started his 25-day tour from Texas, US, to promote Andhra Pradesh as an apt place for investment, said Telugu people from all fields took part in the campaign.

So far Houston, Dallas in Texas and Georgia in Atlanta were covered. He said a large number of Telugu people from IT, medical fields, including CEOs of companies, are being addressed during the campaign.

The campaign will be held in all 21 cities of the United States.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Vijayawada / by Staff Reporter / Vijayawada – June 03rd, 2016