Dec/03/2011

Government offices, websites to be disabled-friendly: Wasnik----World Disabled Day-(Nov/03/2011)(Bhopal Tragedy today)

Aiming to empower people with various forms of disabilities, government will soon introduce a new act which will be in sync with international regulations, Social Justice Minister Mukul Wasnik said here on Saturday.

He said the committee formed in this regard has submitted the draft of the new act and it is being studied by the government for a final decision.

“We have started the process and the committee formed in this regard has submitted the draft. It is being examined and we are consulting people. The decision would be taken soon,” he told reporters on sidelines of a function on occasion of International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

Government is reviewing the existing act — Persons With Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, formed in 1995 — to incorporate new sections for empowering people with various disabilities and for providing them more opportunities in education and career.

For better accessibility of government websites and departments by the disabled, Mr. Wasnik unveiled a set of 40 templates used as public information circulars, forms, gazettes and notifications developed by IT giant Microsoft.

“Access to information is an important aspect for providing equal rights to all sections of society, including disabled people. Our Ministry has taken the lead step in making its website accessible to all people by various means.

The templates developed by Microsoft will further ease the process,” he said.

Replying to a question on ways to increase accessibility for disabled in government departments and industries, Mr. Wasnik said his ministry has written to the state governments, central government departments and various chambers of commerce and industries to take necessary steps.

“We have requested the Union Ministries, Chief Ministers and various chambers of commerce and industries to impress upon their member companies to make their websites accessible,” he said, adding that guidelines from Department of Administrative Reforms were issued only recently for this.

Earlier in his address, Mr. Wasnik stressed on the need for attitudinal changes in all section of society to break their mental barriers against disabled people.

“Biggest need is to break attitudinal barrier in mindset of society and people. It requires a herculean effort both on part of government and society. Activities to bring attitudinal changes have to be undertaken and there are several role models in disability sector for this purpose,” he said.

Observing that equal opportunity is not a welfare aspect but the right of disable people, he said government has taken a decision to organize a national festival for them in April every year.

In this festival, attempt will be to provide those working in this sector and persons with disabilities, an inter-phase with the policy makers, Parliamentarians, academicians and captain of the industry to promote a meaningful dialogue on aspects related to empowerment of disabled people, he said.

Now, for a Britannia breakfast

Traditionally known as a biscuit maker, Britannia Industries has already undergone a major metamorphosis to become a snack brand in India. In the changed modern environment, it is now pining to become more of a foods company.

“We are slowly moving from side of plate to centre of plate with a range of breakfast products,” says Vinita Bali, Managing Director.

In a free-wheeling chat with this correspondent here recently, Ms. Bali asserted that, “we are looking not just at foods which a lot of people are doing but at a range of what we can do with oats.'' This perfectly fitted with Britannia's slogan “eat healthy, think better.''

Pointing out that “India is changing,'' she said “people are looking for convenient options.'' In this context, she felt that addition of oats would be an extension of the company's offerings in the breakfast product category.

Britannia, she said, had launched a range of breakfast foods under the brand Healthy Start. Four variants of oats had been test-marketed in Mumbai a few months ago. These had now been launched in the south, she added. Britannia had launched plain, strawberry, savoury and a multi-grain porridge in oats. The Rs.200-crore oats category, she pointed out, had seen 25-30 per cent growth rates. She attributed this primarily to changes in breakfast habits, in particular, lifestyles, in general. The Mumbai launch, she said, had fetched Britannia a 15 per cent share of the category. In the light of this, Britannia was now planning to take these products to other parts of the country. Britannia, Ms. Bali, said, also had a small range of Indian breakfast options: a plain, broken wheat and a poha upma.

Fielding a range of questions, she said, “we are becoming a complete foods company with these launches. Britannia, she pointed out, “operates in the space between snacks and foods.'' The consumption behaviour had been influenced by very many changes happening these days, she said. “You have more women working, more people are crunched for time and looking for smart solutions from a time and convenience perspective,'' she pointed out. “All these have created opportunities for companies like us,'' she added.

RIL's plan for satellite fields spiked

The company and its partners need to re-work on the financial plan

In yet another setback to Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), the Petroleum Ministry and the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) are understood to have refused approval to RIL's $1.5 billion investment plan for developing satellite fields to compensate for the gas output loss in the KG-basin D6 block.

The Petroleum Ministry and the DGH, during a meeting of the management committee (MC) here, refused to approve the investment stating that RIL and its partners, BP Plc of Britain and Niko Resources of Canada, need to re-work the financial plan, as the original proposal was submitted in 2009 and since then there have been vast changes in the prices of energy and services. The investment plan has been pending for approval with the DGH and the Petroleum Ministry for almost two years now. RIL has already served a notice for arbitration proceedings on the Petroleum Ministry and the DGH over the move to disallow a part of the $5.8-billion expenditure that it had made so far to develop the Krishna Godavari (KG)-D6 block.

The Ministry had convened the meeting of the MC for Friday. Interestingly, the DGH, S. K. Srivastava, and the Joint Secretary (Exploration), D. N. Narasimhan Raju, skipped the meeting and instead deputed junior officials.

The MC also declined to approve the $30-million RIL plan to carry out engineering studies to submit a new field development plan (FDP), officials said. U.K.-based BP, which had earlier this year bought 30 per cent stake in KG-D6 and 22 other blocks of RIL for $7.2 billion has been banking on ‘next wave' strategy of developing satellite fields to reverse the fall in output at KG-D6 field, which has dipped to 41 million metric standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) from 61.5 mmscmd achieved in March last year.

Officials said that without engineering studies, an accurate financial estimate was not possible. RIL had, in 2009, submitted an FDP for four satellite fields surrounding the currently producing Dhirubhai-1 and 3 fields in the KG-D6 block. It proposed to invest $1.529 billion for producing up to 10 mmscmd of gas from the D-2, D-6, D-19 and D-22 fields by 2016. The company has so far made 18 gas discoveries in the KG-D6 block. Of these, D-1 and D-3, the largest among the lot, were brought into production from April, 2009.

However, it had been directed by the Petroleum Ministry to dig four more wells before the April 30 deadline. The company, however, refused to do so.

RIL had, in July 2008, submitted an FDP for nine satellite gas discoveries with an estimated Capex of $5.6 billion and reserves of 1,708 billion cubic feet.It later submitted an optimised development plan for the four satellite gas fields.