Coal India applies for surrender of Mozambique mines

Kolkata: Coal India Ltd (CIL) on Monday said it has submitted an application to the National Institute of Mines (Instituto Nacional de Minas) of Government of Mozambique to surrender prospecting licences awarded to its wholly-owned subsidiary Coal India Africana Limitada (CIAL), Mozambique since mining would be “technically not feasible” in the licence areas.

In its annual report, Coal India said a mineability study has been undertaken based on the findings of the geological report, which revealed that it is technically not feasible to do mining in the licence areas of Coal India Africana. The response of the Mozambique government is awaited, the report said.

The licences, covering a total area of 224 sq. km, were awarded to the company’s African subsidiary with validity from August 2009 to August 2014 and subsequently extended up to August 2019. Out of the total mining area, as per the report, there was no occurrence of coal horizon till a depth of 500 m in the area of 170 sq. km. This has been surrendered to the Mozambique government. The remaining 54 sq. km area has been retained for which the Government of Mozambique has issued new licences till August 2019, the report added.

The company, however, has completely surrendered the prospecting licences covering the total 224 sq. km based on the geological report.

Bharat Bandh: Trade unions refuse to budge, reject govt's proposal to postpone strike on Sept. 2

Central trade unions (CTUs) across India have rejected the Union government's efforts for the nationwide bandh on Sept. 2, 2016 to be called off. As a result, all banks, factories and other organised sectors are expected to come to a standstill on Friday. 

Leading trade unions, including the All India Trade Unions Congress (AITUC) and Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), have refused to call off the strike, saying that the government failed to meet their 12-point charter of demands. 

The demands include raising the minimum wage from Rs. 9,000 to Rs. 18,000 per month, stopping the disinvestment of Coal India, ending allocations of coal blocks to private companies, sorting out the wage revision of contact workers as well as outsourced workers in the coal industry. The CTUs also objected to the government's decision of foreign investment, especially in the pharmaceutical and defence sectors, on grounds of threat to national security.

Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya had urged CTUs to reconsider their decision of going on a nationwide strike. But they rejected it saying that the status report on the demands was almost identical to what was circulated one year ago. A joint meeting between the two was held on Aug. 26-27, 2015, ahead of the general strike that year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also convened an emergency meeting with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal and Dattatreya regarding the matter. A new offer may be made to the CTUs that will hopefully lead them to call off the strike.

Almost 5 lakh bank union workers and officers will reportedly join the strike to protest against the "anti-people, anti-national and anti-worker" policies of the Modi government. Workers and employees of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will also join the protest.

The All India Reserve Bank Employees' Association (AIRBEA) and the All India Reserve Bank Workers' Federation (AIRBWF) said in a joint statement that their employees "all over the country will participate in September 2 industrial strike in support of the demands of the country's working class."

The CTUs had requested Dattatreya to hold a meeting with the five-member panel of ministers dealing with labour issues to look into their demands in July this year. However, no such meeting was held. 

The Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), an RSS-affiliated union, had opted out of the last Bharat Bandh that was held on Sep 2, 2015 following the Centre's assurance to work on nine of the 12 demands put forward by the trade unions. The BMS has still not decided on joining the strike this year.

Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has opposed the strike and directed all employees to report to work on Sept. 2, adding that all vehicles would ply and shops would remain open."We are against bandh. A bandh means loss of thousands of crores of rupees a day. Those who lost the election and those who were rejected by the people have called the bandh which will harm people... We will keep everything open. Vehicles will ply and shops will open. If vehicles and shops are damaged (by bandh supporters), we will take strong action. We will also give compensation," Banerjee told reporters, adding that the state cannot afford a bandh when it is under a debt of Rs. 40,000 crore.

Fuel for Future: India to Develop Coal Fields and Mines in Russia

Russia is slowly becoming a theatre of competition for India and China to secure energy to fuel their industries.

In a race to catch up to China, India plans to further enlarge the scope of investment in the Russian commodity market to fuel its industries for coming decades. As part of this strategy and also because of favorable commodity prices, India has offered to jointly develop coal fields and mines in Russia.

An official team led by Ramesh Abhishek, secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion conveyed India’s willingness to invest in Russia’s coalfield and mining sector.  “The Indian side expressed interest in joint development of coal fields and iron ore mines in Russia. They agreed to exchange information on such areas having potential for cooperation,” the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said.

© SPUTNIK/ NATALYA SELIVERSTOVA

UK Business in Russia Gives Way to China, India Competitors Amid Sanctions

In the recent past, investment in the Russian coal sector has declined drastically to a level below USD 1 billion in comparison to more than USD 2 billion in 2013; mostly due to low commodity prices and higher expenses of domestic companies. In absence of high level of investment, Russia may lose its competitive advantage in the international market.

India is taking this situation as an opportunity to grab for future needs. India has already made investments in Russia’s oil and gas fields in a big way and has plans to increase investments in future as well. As Sputnik reported earlier, ONGC Videsh Ltd. (OVL), the overseas arm of Indian state-owned petroleum company Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), is exploring the opportunity to acquire a 49% stake in Russian oil producer Rosneft Oil Co.'s Tagul field.

During the 5th meeting of the India-Russia Working Group on Modernization and Industrial Cooperation, both sides expressed mutual interest in developing the long-term and mutually beneficial cooperation in the field of mineral fertilizers. Both sides also identified specific areas of cooperation in the field of mining and metallurgy. Other specific fields identified for enhancing cooperation included technology for production of CRGO steel in India, the pharmaceutical industry, the modernization of steel manufacturing facilities in India and participation of Indian power equipment supplier in modernization of Russia’s power sector. 

Balochistan, KPK special priority in CPEC: Ahsan Iqbal

August 16, 2016

Balochistan, KPK special priority in CPEC: Ahsan Iqbal

QUETTA, Aug 16 (APP): Federal Minister for Planning and Development, Ahsan Iqbal has said that Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhawa (KPK) provinces were being given special priority in China Pak Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects, adding that US $ 35 billion out of US $ 46 billion of CPEC would be spent on energy production projects.
He said that Balochistan was ignored in past in term of development and added that we all of us were responsible for this negligence.
“Balochistan is also being given special priority in Prime Minister, Muhammad Nawaz Sharif Vision Program 2025,” he said.
He was addressing ceremony held in connection with inauguration of different projects executed at the University of Balochistan, Quetta in collaboration with Higher Education Commission (HEC). Earlier, he inaugurated these projects.
The Federal Minister said that 650 kilometers long Gwadar Quetta road project will be completed by December this year and added that work on new international airport in port town of Gwadar has been started.
“We have asked the provincial governments to submit their plans on proposed industrial zones along CPEC,” he said. “Development projects being executed in Balochistan funded by the federal government would be completed in time”.
Minister Iqbal said that we would have to adopt a positive thinking and mindset to obtain goals of progress and prosperity. Replying to questions asked by teachers and students of the varsity, the Federal Minister said, “There will be no change in the designs of CPEC. Work on western route of CPEC is underway”.
He said that work on ongoing development projects in port town of Gwadar including international airport, free trade zone, five star hotel, modern hospital, supply of potable drinking water, vocational training centers and others was underway. “Premier Nawaz Sharif will soon inaugurate the projects being completed in Gwadar in near future,” he said.
Vice Chancellor, University of Balochistan, Prof Dr. Javed Iqbal, Provincial Minister for Education, Abdul Raheem Ziratwal, Provincial Education Minister Omar Babar and a large number of teachers and students attended the ceremony.

Cabinet approves new mechanisms for licensing imports, orders sending more food supplies to Aleppo

Damascus, SANA – The Cabinet discussed in its weekly session on Tuesday a number of issues including the issue of the families of martyrs and injured people, and the economic and services situation in Aleppo.

During the session, which was chaired by Prime Minister Imad Khamis, the Cabinet approved a new mechanism for granting licenses for importation that seeks to achieve justice and competitiveness and prevents importers from monopolizing importation of goods, with emphasis on importing essential products and the requirements of the agricultural and industrial sectors.

The Cabinet also allowed the External Trade Establishment to import goods and granted it wider jurisdiction and authorities.

The Ministers then discussed the situation in Aleppo city, deciding to send large amounts of food items, vegetables, fruit, and fuel to it.

The Cabinet also decided to expand the citizen services centers after they proved to be successful, and decided to increase gasoline allotments for each province and to begin distributing heating oil as of August 20th at 400 liters in two batches per family.

Hazem Sabbagh

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News For Health-

By Andrew M. Seaman

(Reuters Health) - People should get about 30 minutes of exercise each day to counteract the potentially harmful effects of being inactive for too long, according to a new statement from a leading U.S. heart group.

Research suggests inactivity may be linked to increased risk for diabetes, other blood sugar problems, heart disease, stroke and an earlier death, according to the statement from the American Heart Association.

"Be conscious of how much time you're spending sitting, and try to move more," said Dr. Deborah Rohm Young, chair of the AHA committee that authored the new statement.

"At least when you’re at home, try not to sit on the couch the whole time," said Young, who is also director of behavioral research at Kaiser Permanente Southern California in Pasadena.

Results from national health surveys in the U.S. suggest that adults spend an average of six to eight hours a day inactive, or sedentary, the committee writes in the journal Circulation. People over age 60 spend up to an average of 10 hours a day sedentary.

There could be a number of explanations for people being sedentary, the committee writes. Evidence suggests that people with mental health issues may spend a larger amount of time inactive, for example. Additionally, there may be a genetic component to people being sedentary.

There is also evidence that inactivity is a risk factor for a number of health conditions, and that taking breaks from being inactive may be protective of health.

Most of the existing studies of inactivity show a link between time spent being sedentary and an increased risk of diabetes, for instance. Several studies also show a link between sedentary time and heart disease.

One European study found that each hour of being inactive and watching TV increased a person's risk of fatal and nonfatal heart disease by about 6 percent. Each extra inactive hour was also tied to an 8 percent increased risk of coronary heart disease, which includes plaque buildup in the arteries.

Other studies tie increasing sedentary time to earlier death, the committee writes.

The connection between poor health and being sedentary may be independent of the link connecting more physical activity with improved health, Young told Reuters Health. So, people should likely break up prolonged periods of inactivity even if they meet the AHA's physical activity recommendations.

The quality of the current evidence prevented the committee from being able to say that people should stop being sedentary at particular intervals, the authors note.

• 
  

The current AHA recommendation is that adults should get 150 minutes of moderate physical activity or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity each week.

Getting people who are mainly inactive to move just a bit can likely lead to big gains in health, said Dr. John Bisognano, president of the American Society of Hypertension and a preventive cardiologist at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York.

"Just encouraging people to do a little bit can make a big difference," said Bisognano, who was not involved with the new statement.

For example, he said, people could get up and walk around their building every hour.

"Motivating people to go from sedentary to physically active is a good focus," said Bisognano.

SOURCE: bit.ly/1GwHxg0 Circulation, online August 15, 2016

कश्मीर संबंधी फैसला भारत और पाकिस्तान को करना है: अमेरिका

 

पीटीआई-भाषा संवाददाता 

:ललित के झा: वाशिंगटन, 16 अगस्त :भाषा: अमेरिका ने कहा है कि कश्मीर पर किसी भी वार्ता की गति, गुंजाइश एवं स्वरूप के बारे में निर्णय भारत एवं पाकिस्तान को लेना है।

विदेश मंत्रालय की प्रवक्ता एलिजाबेथ ट्रुडो ने कहा, ‘‘कश्मीर पर हमारा रख बदला नहीं है। कश्मीर पर किसी भी वार्ता की गति, गुंजाइश एवं स्वरूप के बारे में दोनों पक्षों को निर्णय लेना है। हम हर प्रकार के और उन सभी सकारात्मक कदमों को समर्थन देते हैं जो भारत और पाकिस्तान निकटतम संबंधों के लिए उठा सकते हैं।’’ उन्होंने कल एक दैनिक संवाददाता सम्मेलन में कहा, ‘‘हम संघषरें के बारे में जानते हैं। हम हिंसा को लेकर चिंतित हैं और सभी पक्षों को एक शांतिपूर्ण समाधान तलाशने के प्रयास करने के लिए प्रोत्साहित करते हैं।’’ विदेश मंत्रालय की प्रवक्ता ने स्वतंत्रता दिवस पर दिए गए प्रधानमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी के संबोधन के दौरान उनके द्वारा कही गई बातों के संबंध में पूछे गए किसी भी प्रश्न का उत्तर नहीं दिया।

एलिजाबेथ ने कहा, ‘‘मैं मोदी के बयान के बारे में टिप्पणी नहीं करूंगी।’’

BMW recalls over 156,000 cars for child seat defects in China

Source: Xinhua   2016-08-16 18:49:36

BEIJING, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- German automaker BMW will recall 156,922 cars in China over defects in their child seats, China's top quality watchdog said Tuesday.

Starting Sept. 1, the recall will involve more than 134,000 X3 models produced between November 2010 and April 2016 and over 22,000 X4 models produced between March 2014 and April 2016, according to a statement from the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

Welding problems were found in the lower anchors of the child seats on those models, which may prevent the seats from being secured properly and raise the possibility of passenger injuries during accidents, the administration said.

BMW China Automotive Trading Co., Ltd. will repair the anchors of the recalled cars for free, according to the statement.

Coal India identifies 445 mines for closure

NEW DELHI, AUGUST 12:  

Coal India has identified 476 mines for closure and mine closure plan has been prepared and approved for 445 mines till July 31, Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power, Coal, Mines and New & Renewable Energy, informed the Parliamentary Consultative Committee on Thursday.

Further, as per guidelines, ₹4,387 crore has been deposited in an escrow account by Coal India for the mine closures. The money deposited is mainly for restoration work.

“The Ministry of Coal has undertaken special plans for studying each coal mine for preparing its closure plans. In the plan, special emphasis has been placed on efficient usage of water for the purposes of drinking, irrigation after appropriate treatment and ground water recharge,” an official statement said.

In a presentation made by Coal India at the Parliamentary Consultative Committee meeting, an overview was given on the guidelines, major initiatives and activities being undertaken by Coal India and its subsidiaries under the mine closure plan.

The Parliamentary Consultative Committee members appreciated the efforts taken by the Ministry and Coal India with regard to mine closure, a statement added.

In another Parliamentary Consultative meeting on Power, Goyal informed the members that villages in Naxal affected areas and other inaccessible regions are being expeditiously connected with off-grid power solutions.

Village electrification

The Minister informed the members that according to the latest figures, 10,007 villages have been electrified in the country as on July 31 and ₹42,392 crore has been sanctioned for various rural electrification projects under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana.

MINING INDUSTRY NEWS-

SC order will hit start of mining in Goa

• PRAKASH KAMAT

MoEF told to issue hearing notice, hold consultations

Goa’s iron ore mining and exports industry is headed for another setback with the Supreme Court directing the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) to proceed afresh, issue a notice of hearing to the appellant, and hold consultations with the concerned experts, before passing appropriate orders.

It set a timeframe of three months for this process.

The order came during a hearing in Shankar Jog versus Talaulikar & Sons Pvt. Ltd case on mining lease.

The order could be of use to the Goa Foundation, enabling it to seek similar action against at least 40 of 61 lease holders who were gearing to resume mining after the monsoons, after a gap of nearly three years.

“We are studying actual implication of the Supreme court’s order. The mining lease holder will have to apply for new EC after holding a public hearing,” Claud Alvares, Director, Goa Foundation, which isfighting the legal battle against illegal mining in Goa told The Hindu on Friday.

In the Talaulikar case, the local villagers had complained about depletion in ground water levels due to mining. After the Supreme Court order, leaseholders will have to submit a fresh hydro-geological report and recommendations of a public hearing to apply for fresh environmental clearance.

The State government had renewed nearly 88 leases last year, and 61 were ready to resume mining in October with their previous environmental clearances.

The Supreme Court had first banned the mining of iron ore and exports from Goa but on May 2013 relaxed its order, allowing mining with an annual cap of 20 million tonnes.

The Goa Foundation has challenged this again in the Supreme Court.

Afghan Taliban free six crew of Pakistani helicopter captured after crash

By Mehreen Zahra-Malik and Amjad Ali | ISLAMABAD

Five Pakistanis and a Russian who were captured by the Afghan Taliban after their government helicopter crashed in eastern Afghanistan have been released and returned to Pakistan, the foreign ministry said on Saturday.

The Russian-made transport helicopter belonging to the Punjab provincial government was en route from Peshawar in northwest Pakistan to Uzbekistan for maintenance on Aug. 4 when it suffered a technical failure and crash-landed in a Taliban-held area of Logar province in eastern Afghanistan.

The crew's release was arranged through a handover between tribes in the border region, from where they were transferred to Islamabad by helicopter, the ministry said in a statement.

"The six member crew of Punjab government helicopter that went missing in Afghanistan on 4th August 2016 has been recovered and arrived in Islamabad today," it said.

Whereas Pakistan acknowledges that it wields some influence with the Afghan Taliban, it denies Afghan and U.S. accusations that it provides support and sanctuary for the Afghan Taliban and its leaders.

Pakistan says it has been a victim of terrorism, much of it from groups based in Afghanistan, for years.

Initial reports after the crash had indicated that there were seven passengers but Foreign Ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria said on Saturday that it turned out there were only six on board.

One of the seven people listed on the flight manifest had been unwell and decided not to fly, a ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

(The story corrects that helicopter crashed in Taliban-held area of Logar province. Taliban do not control all of Logar province)

(Additional reporting by Saud Mehsud. Writing by Kay Johnson and Mehreen Zahra-Malik; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Adrian Croft)

Science News-

China Exclusive: Chinese scientists a step closer to studying Einstein's confusion

Source: Xinhua   2016-08-13 10:07:41

By Xinhua writers Yang Chunxue and Yu Fei

BEIJING, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Amid the intense preparations for the launch of China's first quantum communication satellite, scientists hope it can help unravel one of the strangest phenomena in quantum physics -- quantum entanglement.

By beaming individual entangled photons between space and ground stations, the satellite should be able to test whether the quantum's entanglement property extends over the record-breaking distance.

"We have the technology to produce pairs of entangled photons on the satellite," said Pan Jianwei, academician of Chinese Academy of Science and chief scientist of Chinese quantum communication satellite project.

One photon of an entangled pair will be beamed to a station in Delingha, northwest China's Qinghai Province, and the other to a station in Lijiang, southwest China's Yunnan Province, or in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China. The distance between the two ground stations is about 1,200 kilometers.

"SPOOKY ACTION"

Quantum physics is the study of the basic building blocks of the world at a scale smaller than atoms. These tiny particles behave in a way that could overturn assumptions of how the world works.

One of the strange properties of quantum physics is that a tiny particle acts as if it's simultaneously in two locations -- a phenomenon known as "superposition." The noted interpretation is the thought experiment of Schrodinger's cat -- a scenario that presents a cat that may be simultaneously both alive and dead.

If that doesn't sound strange enough, quantum physics has another phenomenon that so confounded Albert Einstein that he described as "spooky action at a distance" in 1948.

Scientists found that when two entangled particles are separated, one particle can somehow affect the action of the far-off twin at a speed faster than light.

Scientists liken it to two pieces of paper that are distant from each other; if you write on one, the other immediately shows your message.

In the quantum entanglement theory, this bizarre connection can happen even when the two particles are separated by the galaxy.

SKY IS NOT THE LIMIT

The mystery of quantum entanglement has been puzzling scientists since it was detected.

"If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics," said Richard Feynman, the late Nobel physics laureate.

Nobel Prize winner Murray Gell-Mann has described quantum mechanics as "that mysterious, confusing discipline, which none of us really understands, but which we know how to use."

Pan and other scientists desperately want to understand the mystery.

To his delight, the quantum communication satellite project he's leading might soon reveal the secret.

If you want to explore new physics, you must push the limits, Pan said in an interview with scientific journal Nature in January.

Pan believes that quantum entanglement exists over any distance in principle, but he wants to see if there's some physical limit with the help of the satellite.

"People ask if there's some sort of boundary between the classical world and the quantum world: we hope to build some sort of macroscopic system in which we can show that quantum phenomena can still exist," he said.

Pan also revealed that they also want to see if it's possible to distribute entanglement between the Earth and the Moon in future.

UK fracking revolution calls for national thinking

UK fracking revolution calls for national thinking

By Andy Critchlow

August 12, 2016

Tags:

 DRILLING | ENERGY | EXPLORATION | FOSSIL POWER | POLITICS | SHALE | UNITED KINGDOM

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist.  The opinions expressed are his own.

British Prime Minister Theresa May probably has the right idea trying to encourage a shale gas fracking industry. But she may have the wrong strategy to implement it. Instead of doling out handouts to persuade disgruntled communities there is a tangible benefit to having a gas well in their back yard, or even generous tax breaks for investors, a better policy could be to cut out the middle man and create a national energy titan to drill the first holes and share the profits.

North Sea oil in the 1970s came with similar issues to shale. Keen to secure a home-made energy supply, Britain and Norway created national oil companies, of which only one now remains. Norway’s Statoil has since bloomed into one of the world’s biggest offshore producers, while the defunct British National Oil Corporation (BNOC) was folded into Britoil and eventually sold to BP in the 1980s.

Britain has relied on the private sector since then. The government wants to offer tax breaks to investors to frack along with handouts to local communities and land owners. May said on Aug. 7 that 10 percent of taxes siphoned into a Shale Wealth Fund could be given directly to households affected by drilling. Neither tax breaks nor handouts offer many long-term benefits.

Even with these payments and subsidies shale gas extraction may not be that profitable for companies that do the fracking. Although deliveries from overseas are up by about a quarter since 2008, prices over the same period have actually fallen. Wholesale prices for same-day delivery gas have halved in value to around 31 pence per thermal unit over the same period even as production has fallen. In any case, technically recoverable reserves may be just a fifth of those in the United States, according to estimates from the Energy Information Administration.

All that makes it hard to justify fracking based on normal market forces. That could make luring private sector participants prohibitively expensive. Look at the controversy over a planned nuclear plant at Hinkley Point, where the UK government has had to offer exorbitant prices to French energy group EDF. Given the challenges, a better strategy to get Britain fracking could be to reprise BNOC, take the risk and reward through the public purse. That way if there is a profitable future for shale, the benefit can be more widely spread instead of just the risk.

At least 21 killed in central China power plant blast

At least 21 killed in central China power plant blast                 Source: Xinhua | 2016-08-11 20:07:21 | Editor: huaxia

Photo taken by cellphone on Aug. 11, 2016 shows the explosion site at a power plant in Dangyang, central China's Hubei Province. At least 21 people were killed and five others were injured, three seriously, after a pipeline explosion hit a power plant in central China's Hubei Province Thursday afternoon, local authorities said. (Xinhua) YICHANG, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- At least 21 people were killed and five others injured, three seriously, after a pipe explosion hit a power plant in central China's Hubei Province Thursday, local authorities said. A high-pressure steam pipe exploded at the Madian Gangue Power Generation Co. Ltd. in Dangyang City around 3:20 p.m.. The injured have been rushed to hospital, according to local authorities. The cause of the blast was not immediately known. Rescue efforts are underway.