Credit plan envisages over 12 % growth in loan disbursements next fiscal
Coimbatore District is expected to see credit outgo of Rs. 18,525 crore from April this year to next March, according to the annual credit plan released by the District Lead Bank on Thursday.
The credit outlay for next year is 12.95 % higher than the estimates for the current financial year.
According to the credit plan, agriculture and allied activities will see 11.98 % hike in loan disbursement, the MSME sector will witness 12 % credit growth and for other priority sectors it will be 18 % more than the disbursements this year.
The plan was prepared based on the potential linked credit plan released recently by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development. It also took into account the new priority sector guidelines including social infrastructure and renewable energy, the backward and forward linkages in the district, infrastructure facilities, etc.
In the agriculture sector, which is expected to get loans to the tune of Rs. 7,202 crore, the focus will be on high technology, horticulture crops, wasteland development, food processing, and minor irrigation.
In the case of micro, small and medium-scale enterprises (MSMEs), the credit estimates for next financial year is Rs. 8,237.6 crore as against Rs. 7,355 crore this year. For the other priority sectors, it will be Rs. 3,085.7 crore compared to Rs. 2,615 crore this year.
Target
In 2017-2018, the target was Rs. 16,401 crore and the loans disbursed till the end of December were to the tune of Rs. 12,808 crore. In the past years, the district has registered 100 % or more than the estimates.
District Lead Bank Manager A. Kanagaraj said with 820 bank branches, Coimbatore district will achieve the target for the current financial year too.
TNAU farm workers stage protest
Demands include regularisation, wage hike and retirement benefits
Members of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University Farm Workers’ Union staged a token protest at the University on Friday demanding permanent employment for its members.
‘Fill vacancies’
The Union said its members had been working as daily wagers for 10 years without regularisation and attendant benefits. It wanted the University administration to fill vacancies at entry level seats with its members who were eligible.
Likewise, it wanted the administration to raise the wages for its ITI and diploma-holder members at Rs. 12,000 and Rs. 15,000 a month respectively. The University administration should also provide the retirement benefits right at the time of retirement for its members and consider the MTSP service period as probation and also provide them with earned leave facility.
The Union also sought appointment under compassionate ground for kin of its members and set right the anomalies in deducting employee provident fund for daily wagers; and, a minimum of five days work for daily wagers.
It said it raised the aforementioned demands and a few others with University and State Government officials as well but was yet to get relief. The last meeting with University Registrar and Vice Chancellor was in November 2017, where the members were promised relief at the earliest. But since the members were yet to get relief, they were observing a one-day token strike, the Union said and sought relief at the earliest.
Around 900 daily wagers including 600 women participated.
Over 43,000 students appear for SSLC examination
3,805 officials deployed for free and fair conduct of examination
As many as 41,235 Class X students took the board examination in Coimbatore on Friday.
A release from the district administration said 2,024 private students also took the examination. There were 290 differently abled students as well.
The School Education Department in Coimbatore district had established 147 examination centres and 13 examination control centres to oversee the conduct of the examination. To supervise the preparations and prevent malpractices, the Department had deployed Joint Director, Examinations, and nine other officers.
The Department had also deployed 26 officers as question paper controllers, 147 officers as principal supervisors, and 259 as flying squad members, the release said.
In all, the Department had deployed 3,805 officials for the smooth and free and fair conduct of the examination.
District Collector T.N. Hariharan inspected the examination centre established at R.K. Sreerangammal Hr. Sec. School. The Collector wished the students to do well in the examination, the release added. Chief Education Officer Ayyakannan coordinated the efforts.
Tirupur
The Class X examination commenced at 92 centres in the district on Friday. Official sources said a total of 29,495 students, including 28,816 students who studied in 336 schools and 679 private students, had registered from the district for the examination. Of them, 634 students were absent on the first day. District Collector K. S. Palanisamy carried out a random visit to the examination centre at Nanjappa Corporation Boys Higher Secondary school.
‘Sadhana Cut’ continues to live
Some mahouts have walked the extra mile to make their elephants have a style statement of their own. Elephants sporting stylish hairdos were spotted at the special rejuvenation camp that began at Thekkampatti near Mettupalayam on Thursday. Adhinayagi, the 20-year-old elephant of Adhinatha Azhwar temple in Azhwar Tirunagari, was one of those which had well maintained hair. Karim Seth, the 55-year-old mahout says he uses a brush to clean Adhinayagi’s hair while bathing her. “Usually we rub her with a stone to scrape off dirt when we wash her. But we use a brush for her head. If we use a stone, hair wouldn’t grow,” Seth says. R Balan, the mahout of Lakshmi, the 19-year-old elephant of Aravindalochanar Temple from Sri Vaikundam, says he uses coconut oil to maintain the elephant’s hair. “Lakshmi is like my child. I wanted her to have a special look,” Balan says. He says he uses around 100g of coconut oil for Lakshmi’s hair daily. “When I bathe her, I wash away the oil using soap,” he adds. Rajkamal, 30, the mahout of Sengamalam, takes his elephant’s style statement to another level. Sengamalam has been brought from Rajagopalaswami temple, Mannargudi. He says he uses shampoo to clean his elephant’s hair. “We clean Sengamalam’s hair by using shampoo five times,” he says. “It will completely remove dirt from her head. Or else, it would feel itchy and she would scratch away all her hair with a twig or a shoot,” he says.
With thick, neatly cropped and copper-tinted hair, Sengamalam stands nearby and nods as if in agreement. Earlier in the day, ministers Dindigul C Srinivasan and Sevvoor S Ramachandran inaugurated the special rejuvenation camp for temple elephants, organised by the state government, at Thekkampatti near Mettupalayam.
Source : The Times of India
All set for elephant camp at Thekkampatti
The banks of River Bhavani at Thekkampatti, near Mettupalayam, is all set for the annual rejuvenation camp of temple and mutt elephants which will start on Thursday.As on Tuesday evening, 24 elephants from various temples were brought to the camp site. As many as 33 elephants are expected for the camp. Temple and mutt elephants from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry will be taken to the 48-day-long camp organised by Department of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment (HR&CE) Department. Abhayambigai, an elephant belonging to Mayuranathaswami Temple at Mayiladuthurai was the first to arrive at the camp on Wednesday.The elephant was brought to the camp in a lorry. As a gesture of greeting, the elephant waved its trunk at those present in the camp. Kalyani of Perur Patteeswarar Temple was taken to the camp on Wednesday after special prayers. Apart from facilities for the elephants, the camp also has an office, watch tower and facilities for veterinarians, Forest Department staff and mahouts. Electric fencing has been set up to prevent wild elephants entering the camp. Officials of HR&CE Department are present at the camp, which will be inaugurated at 9.30 a.m.
Source : The Hindu.
Stable outlook for TANGEDCO bonds from ratings firm
Ratings firm India Ratings and Research has assigned the final rating of ‘IND A(SO)’ to the ₹100 crore-bond programme of Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (TANGEDCO), with a stable outlook.
“The ratings remain supported by the credit profile of the government of Tamil Nadu which has guaranteed TANGEDCO’s bond issuances,” India Ratings said.
“The State’s own revenue contributed, on average, around 75 per cent to the total revenue receipts and the balance came from the Union government during FY01-FY15. The State’s credit profile is strengthened by its low reliance on the Central government for revenue. Higher reliance on its own sources of revenue is likely to insulate State finances from the fiscal performance of the Central government,” it said. The ratings firm said revenue receipts are estimated at ₹1,38,300 crore in FY16 and ₹1,48,175 crore in FY17.
“The State’s high level of committed expenditure reduces its flexibility around expenditure decisions and curtails the government’s ability to generate a surplus on the revenue account, which is credit negative for the state. Unlike revenue- surplus States, surplus revenue is not available to Tamil Nadu to fund capital outlay on the productive sectors of the economy. On the contrary, since the revenue balance will remain in deficit in FY17, capital expenditure along with the revenue deficit will have to be financed out of budgetary borrowings,” India Ratings said.
It also said the state needs to augment the spending on capital formation to maintain its position as a major industrial state. Earlier this month, Crisil had revised its rating outlook on bond programmes of Tamil Nadu government’s power firms to negative from stable, citing increasing pressure on state finances due to the widening revenue deficit.
Now, rich treat awaits foodies at Poompuhar
New café serves millet-based dishes and South Indian delicacies
For people visiting the Poompuhar showroom on Anna Salai, there is more than just traditional artefacts and handicrafts up for sale. Tucked away at the back is a café that has been serving traditional delicacies for over a month now.
The ‘Craft Café’, an initiative of the Tamil Nadu Handicrafts Development Corporation Ltd, popularly known as Poompuhar, and Sanskriti, a Chennai-based store, serve a mix of millet-based dishes and popular South Indian delicacies.
“The showroom sees a good number of tourists as well as visitors who like to take their time and browse through the handicrafts on display and make their purchases. While we initially made arrangements to serve refreshments for them a few months back, we realised then that there was empty space which could be used for a small café,” said Santhosh Babu, Chairman and Managing Director of the Tamil Nadu Handicrafts Development Corporation Ltd. “A café in Mahabalipuram is being conceptualised as a space which can also host small events and for tourists to lounge at, apart from having a similar menu of traditional delicacies,” Mr Santhosh added.
Mital Surendra from Sanskriti, who runs the café, said that they had conceptualised the menu keeping in mind traditional dishes which were completely free of preservatives or artificial additives.
108 ambulances to be on extra vigil
Emergency medical response service provider GVK EMRI will be on an extra vigil this New Year with prime focus on zero delay response by its fleet of ‘108 ambulances’ in the district.
GVK EMRI’s Programme Manager for Coimbatore V. Muthukrishnan said 29 ambulances will be stationed at strategic locations in the district to provide emergency medical response service when revelry peaks to herald the new year.
“Our fleet consisting 27 ambulances and two motorcycle-borne ‘first responders’ will be on extra vigil as chances for road traffic accidents are high during the revelry. While six ambulances will be positioned within city limits, the remaining ones will cover rural areas of Coimbatore,” said Mr. Muthukrishnan. The 108 ambulances are placed at locations on the basis of an accident hot spot review conducted by GVK EMRI.
While four persons were killed and 12 injured on New Year eve night in 2015, two casualties and 12 non-fatal accidents were reported on New Year day in 2016.
Why continue restrictions on withdrawing money: Chidambaram
“Will all ATMs be functional and have sufficient cash from Jan 2? If not, why not?”
Congress leader and former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Saturday targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and asked the Centre why restrictions continued on withdrawing money after the deadline of December 30 for restoring order post-demonetisation had past.
In a tweet, Mr. Chidambaram asked: “PM (Prime Minister) asked for forbearance until December 30. That is over. Why are restrictions on withdrawing money continuing?”
“Will all ATMs be functional and have sufficient cash from Jan 2? If not, why not?”
“Will there be no demand hereafter for black money capitation fee for admission to medical and engineering colleges,” he asked.
“Will no bribes be given or taken after Jan 2?”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the scrapping of high-denomination currency notes on November 8, and subsequently sought 50 days to put things in order.
India to start taxing capital gains to Singapore investors from April
The move to tighten tax treaties is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s anti-corruption drive
India will start imposing capital gains tax on investments coming from Singapore from April and fully withdraw exemptions in two years as the two countries agreed to amend a decade-old treaty after New Delhi rolled back similar concessions to Mauritius and Cyprus earlier this year.
With the amendments, announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, investors based in Singapore will no longer benefit from tax exemptions on capital gains taxes.
Changes to the treaty with the Asian financial centre had been widely expected after India this year similarly re-drafted a 33-year old tax treaty with Mauritius.
The tax treaty between India and Singapore had a provision that any changes in the Mauritius treaty would automatically apply to the one with the Asian country.
The move to tighten tax treaties is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s anti-corruption drive, which includes tightening loopholes for firms or rich individuals setting up a presence in jurisdictions with tax exemption treaties.
Regulators have long suspected rich Indians were routing cash through these tax jurisdictions, and channeling money back to India in a practice known as “round tripping.”
“We are able to give a reasonable burial to this black money route,” Mr. Jaitley told reporters at a news briefing.
Capital gains tax will be imposed on investments from Singapore that are made from April onwards. The tax rate will behalf the prevailing Indian rate for the next two years and rates will then be equated by April 2019, Mr. Jaitley said.
Singapore has been an increasingly popular source of foreign investment into India.
Foreign direct investment flows from Singapore stood at$50.6 billion between April 2000 and Sept 2016, contributing more than 16 percent to total capital inflows during that period, second only to Mauritius
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