The function was organised by the Department of Official Language (Ministry of Home Affairs). The Union Home Minister, Shri L.K. Advani Chaired the function. State Minister of Home Affairs, Shri Ram Naik, Union Home Secretary, Shri Kamal Pande and other Senior Officials of the Ministry also attended the function.

    In his welcome address, Union Home Minister, Shri L.K. Advani said that Official Language Hindi is playing an important role in uniting the people of this country. The effort of the Government should be that the progressive use of the Official Language may be brought about by goodwill, cooperation and encouragement. The Minister expressed the hope that Hindi would carve out a place for itself in the Comity of nations in the days to come.

    In his address, the Vice-President of India, Shri Krishna Kant called upon the people to work with dedication and patience for developing the Official Language. He said that the Hindi is the only language which connects one corner of the country to another. It is like a mirror in which we can see the real picture of our country. It is, therefore, essential that we should work hard to see that Official Language is used more and more in our day-to-day work. He called upon the winners to set an example for others to follow.

    Shri Krishna Kant said that we should not hesitate in adopting workds from other regional languages or foreign languages in Hindi. He further added that the Official Language should be flexible and should be in the language that common people of the country use in their day-to-day work.

The awards for the year 1996-97 and 1997-98 have been given to the following Ministries/Departments:-
 
 

• Indira Gandhi Rajbhasha Shield For Banks/Financial Institutions:

    The following Banks are being awarded for the years 1996-97 and 1997-98

 

YEAR: 1996-97




First	:	Bank of India, Mumbai
Second	:	Allahabad Bank, Calcutta
Third	:	Punjab National Bank, New Delhi
Consolation	:	Central Bank of India, Mumbai Bank of Maharashtra, Pune Industrial Development Bank of India

YEAR: 1997-98




First	:	Oriental Bank of Commerce
Second	:	Allahabad Bank
Third	:	Bank of India
Consolation	:	Punjab National Bank Bank of Baroda Industrial Development Bank of India

• Rajbhasha Shield For Public Sector Undertakings:

    The following Public Sector Undertakings are being awarded for the years 1996-97 & 1997-98:

• Indira Gandhi Rajbhasha Awards For The Town Official Language

    Implementation Committees.

    Indira Gandhi Rajbhasha Shields are awarded since 1990-91 to the Town Official Language Implementation Committees for their best efforts in the sphere of implementation of the Official Language Policy of the Union. Three awards one each for ‘A’ ‘B’ and ‘C’ Regions, are granted each year under this scheme.

    The following Town Official Language Implementation committees are being awarded for the years 1996-97 & 1997-98.

• Indira Gandhi Rajbhasha Awards for writing Original Books in Hindi:

The authors of the following books are being awarded for the year 1996-97 & 1997-98:

    It has been decided in the meeting that this year the festival will be held from 28^th July to 29^th July. Home Minister, Shri L.K. Advani will inaugurate the Festival. Minister of Communication, Shri Jagmohan announce that a postal stamp on Indus will be released at Leh on 28^th July. Minister of State for Tourism of J&K, Shri T. Namgyal said that Sindhu Darshan Festival will be included in the annual calender of Tourist Festival of J&K. Director General, Tourism of the Union Government, Shri Ashok Pradhan said that a new website on the subject by the Ministry would be launched on this occasion.

    The two day Sindhu darshan Festival which started in 1997 is aimed to strengthen national integration and to convey the respect and admiration of the country for the jawans defending the border.
 
 

    The estimated cost of the Barrage is Rs.263.40 crores. The cost includes both Barrage and water supply components of the project.

    Fifty percent of the estimated cost, which is Rs.131.70 crores, will be provided by the Government of India through the Ministry of Urban Development as loan assistance to the State Government of Uttar Pradesh.

    The Barrage across the river Ganga is intended to augment water supply to Kanpur city which is facing acute drinking water shortages. This Barrage is also intended to improve urban water supply infrastructure for Kanpur.
 
 

    To expedite the settlement of claims, constant monitoring is done in Zonal level. Full powers have been delegated to General Managers for settling time-barred cases. Earlier, cases beyond Rs.50,000 were required to be approved by Railway Board. Financial concurrence has been completely dispensed with in decreed claims cases. Strict instructions have been given to the Railways to ensure that cheques are issued and dispatched within a period of 15 days after the decretal amount for claim has been sanctioned.

    The average time taken in settling claims by Indian Railways during the year 1997-98 was 33 days.
 
 

    In order to derive the best possible benefits from the available water, Central Water Commission is keeping in touch with the Dept. of Agriculture and Co-operation, Ministry of Agriculture and providing information on the weekly storage position to the Crop Weather Watch Group for evolving suitable crop strategies and also apprising the situation to various Departments and Ministries involved in water resources planning.

    Out of these 64 reservoirs, there are presently only 25 reservoirs where this year’s capacity is less by 20% or more than the average of previous years. However, out of the 24 reservoirs with significant hydro-potential, there are only 7 reservoirs which have storage build up less than average of previous years.

    The basin-wise storage position is better than average of previous years in the Narmada, Tapi, Mahi, Godavari, Krishna, Cauvery & Neighbouring East-flowing rivers. It is less than 20% of average of previous years in Ganga and West-flowing rivers of South. It is less by 20% or more than the average of the previous years in the Indus, Sabarmati, Rivers of Kutch, Mahanandi & Neighbouring East-flowing rivers.
 
 

    The All India Consumer Price Number for April,1998 had increased by 3 points.

    The point to point rate of inflation, based upon the CPI-IW has decreased from 8.9 per cent in March, 1999, to 8.4 per cent in April, 1999. In April, 1998 it was 8.2 per cent.

    The Rise/Fall in the index varies from centre to centre. In 43 centres,the increase in index was noticed between 1 to 22 points, in 5 centres it remained constant and in 22 centres it recorded an decrease of 1 to 19 points when compared to previous month.

    The index in respect of six main centres for April, 1999 stood at the following level:-

1. Ahmedabad             406

2. Bangalore                400

3. Calcutta                   422

4. Chennai                   440

5. Delhi                        471

6. Mumbai                  464
 
 

    National Chemical Laboratory, a pioneering research establishment under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, is already participating in a number of contract research programs worldwide and has strategic tie-up with multinational companies.

    At HOCL, the Sub-Committee has already met, took stock of the present status, discussed future growth plans and directions required in research and development. A five year R&D plan is being reviewed with greater emphasis on value addition.

    R&D forms an integral part of the corporate strategy at HOCL to provide in-house support to operations and development of new products with focus on technology absorption, cost reduction in various plants, improvement of yield and quality of end products, reduction of waste and responding to changing market needs. A strong team of 20 highly qualified and experienced personnel man the R&D group.

    HOCL realised that optimising available R&D facilities is a challenge to researchers as new investments are expected to be very expensive. It, therefore, decided to sponsor certain schemes at a number of pioneering national institutes which are engaged in R&D with most modern facilities. The company has set aside 30 per cent of its R&D budget for these sponsored schemes aimed primarily at developing new molecules or develop in-house process for the products with established application thereby responding to new market for HOCL. The institutions involved are Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad and National Chemical Laboratory.

    HOCL’s in-house R&D group carried out significant work during 1998-99. At the company’s Rasyani Plant, regeneration and utilisation of absorbents in the hydrogen plant resulted in a saving of about Rs.55 lakh, reuse of oil contaminated catalyst of cyclohexylamine plant saved Rs. 5 lakh, studies on energy conservation in the sulphuric acid plant has the prospect of saving about Rs. 8 lakh in capital cost and a recurring direct savings in steam consumption, recovery of paranitrotoluene from the nitrotoluene plant backends has the revenue generation potential of Rs. 30 lakh per annum, the economic benefit of the effluent minimization studies upon implementation in the aromatic plants will be Rs. 10 lakh per annum, chrome free catalyst for production of aniline is expected to give 15,000 MT of aniline against 10,000 MT produced by the standard commercial catalysts, utilisation of sodium sulphite solution of the sulphuric acid plant in the caustic soda plant has the potential of saving Rs.2 lakh per annum and the process development for NN Dimethyl cyclohexylamine is likely to generate an annual revenue of Rs.30 lakh. And finally, at the Cochin Unit, the capacity of the phenol plant was enhanced by 20 per cent.

    A few of the major R&D achievements of HOCL in the last three years include utilisation of waste ends in the nitrochlorobenzene plant, increased availability of orthonitochlorobenzene, a pesticide intermediate by 75 tonnes per annum, and improving the efficiency of the concentrated nitric acid plant leading to higher capacity utilisation. The overall recurring savings to the organisation in the last three years has been Rs. 6 crore per annum and an one time saving of Rs. 2.6 crore as a result of these efforts.