Saturday, 18 March 2017

TR: Appel à communications avant le 4/05/2017

UN Broadband Commission: Time for a “New Deal” if Broadband is to reach everyone, everywhere

UN Broadband Commission: Time for a “New Deal” if Broadband is to reach everyone, everywhere 
Innovative industry collaboration and new public-private partnership models essential if broadband is to accelerate SDG achievement
Geneva, 17 March – The Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development held its 2017 Spring Meeting in Hong Kong, SAR China, yesterday, and committed to concrete actions that will spur the roll out of broadband around the world. Currently, some 5 billion people are without mobile broadband access, meaning that the paths to access digital services and applications are currently blocked for much of the world’s population – holding back progress towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The need to come up with a new deal between all players was roundly debated, with renewed commitment to work towards concrete actions that will effectively connect the unconnected with broadband – especially to support Least Developed Countries. In particular, emphasis was placed on remote and rural areas which represent the biggest challenge and where barriers to access need to be also viewed through the prism of affordability and content, notably local and multi-lingual content.
Co-Chair of the Broadband Commission, President Paul Kagame underlined that “ICT and broadband are linking everyone and everything for the betterment of economies and societies. We are motivated by wanting to have the global community connected, especially the billions of unconnected.  We will succeed when we work together: government, industry and civil society leaders.”
Houlin Zhao, Secretary-General of ITU and co-Vice Chair of the Broadband Commission stated, “Our central conviction is that broadband and ICTs are critical if we are to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. ICTs underpin vital achievements and modern services in many sectors, and governments and industry must increasingly work together to create the conditions so badly needed to facilitate the growth of broadband for sustainable development.”
The 2030 Agenda provided the context for discussion. Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director-General and co-Vice Chair of the Broadband Commission noted, “The framework for all our work is the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 new Sustainable Development Goals. We must ensure the digital revolution is a revolution for human rights, in order to promote technological breakthroughs as development breakthroughs.”
The importance of scaling efforts on digital education and mobile learning was a matter which received full support and agreement. In advance of UNESCO’s Mobile Learning Week, many Commissioners singled education out as one of the most fundamental areas for action where the Commission can fuel effective change.
A recurrent issue under discussion was the need to strike a workable balance between investment and taxation, for the benefit of all members of society – to promote human development and sustainable growth, while spurring innovation. On top of this are issues associated with the cost of spectrum auctions, often in key markets where the digital divide is most prevalent.
The Commission underlined the need to build an ecosystem with government, including all ministries, and private sector working together, for more efficient investment and taxation, to empower all. In this respect, it was recommended to work more closely with Ministries of Finance to better promote the development potential of broadband.
In the run up to the day-long meeting of the Commission there was a series of four Working Group meetings focused on a range of broadband-related issues, notably: education,outer space technologies, a new pilot initiative to index the pace of digitalization at national level, and the digital gender divide.
In addition, a number of broadband commission partners – the United Nations University and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society and Harvard University – joined forces to launch a new data research group into the digital gender divide.
Comprised of leaders from government, industry, international organizations and academia, the Broadband Commission was established in 2010 as a top-level advocacy body promoting broadband as an accelerator of global development. The Commission is chaired by President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Mexico’s Carlos Slim Helú. In September 2015 it was re-named the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development with the specific purpose of working to help achieve, through the power of broadband connectivity, the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Commission’s Spring Meeting 2017 was hosted by Huawei Technologies which also included a visit to Huawei headquarters in Shenzhen on 17 March 2017.
***
Contact:
UNESCO
George Papagiannis 
Chief, Media Relations
Mobile: + 33 6 82 94 89 54
E-mail: g.papagiannis@unesco.org
ITU
Paul Conneally
Head, Corporate Communications
Mobile: +41795925668
E-mail: paul.conneally@itu.int

CPR Land Rights Initiative Report on “Land Acquisition in India

17 Mar at 4:23 PM

Ambassador Alexandre Ziegler celebrates French gastronomy


 Goût de /Good France 2017 in India
with renowned Parisian Chef Akrame

Tuesday, 21st March 2017

New Delhi, 16th March 2017

Tuesday, 21st March 2017, will see the third annual edition of the international culinary event celebrating French gastronomy, “Goût de/Good France”. In India, 66 restaurants – including 14 from Delhi – will take part in Good France, ranking it a global third in terms of the number of participating restaurants. This figure has been increasing steadily in India every year.

The complete list of participating restaurants is available on http://www.ambafrance-in.org/Gout-de-France-Good-France-2017. Foodies can also book a table on the Zomato website and win a trip for two to France. For contest details: http://in.france.fr/en/eventstriptofrance.

On the occasion of this event, the Ambassador of France to India, H.E. Mr Alexandre Ziegler, will host a special dinner at the Residence of France on Tuesday, 21st March 2017.

This year’s Good France dinner will be dished up by none other than famous Michelin-starred French Chef Akrame Benallal, who is known for his flair for blending the unexpected with the traditional, and ever renewing his “collections” of dishes, instead of maintaining signature courses.

On the eve of this event, Chef Akrame will also hold a masterclass for chefs of Delhi restaurants participating in Good France. In the spirit of Indo-French cultural cooperation, he will also conduct a gastronomy workshop for French business school Vatel’s hospitality programme in India at Ansal University.

Looking forward to the occasion, Ambassador Ziegler said: “Goût de France celebrates the vitality of French cuisine. Through this festive moment, it creates a dialogue between cultures by offering the common language of a shared French meal. We are proud that India ranks third internationally in terms of participating restaurants, reflecting the Indian public’s growing interest in discovering new flavours, especially the subtle and innovative palette of French gastronomy. Goût de France will highlight the French “art de vivre” and thus contribute, I hope, to attract a greater number of Indian visitors to France.”


Note to editors:

  • Chef Akrame Benallal

Chef Akrame opened a restaurant in Tours at the age of 25, after training with Michelin-starred chefs, and invented his own way of cooking. He reinterprets the codes of contemporary French cuisine and highlights the products he uses as a tribute to the environment they belong to. In 2011, he opened his eponymous restaurant in Paris, which was soon awarded a Michelin star. He later opened a second gastronomic restaurant in Hong Kong as well as several other restaurants in Paris.

  • Goût de /Good France 2017:

2 000 chefs, 2 000 menus, 71 culinary schools and 150 embassies over 5 continents

Following the success of the 2016 edition, which witnessed the participation of 1750 chefs in 150 countries, the 2017 edition of Good France was launched by Jean-Marc Ayrault, French Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, and Chef Alain Ducasse, on 7th March 2017 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris.

Thus, over five continents, 2 000+ restaurants, 71 culinary schools, and 150 embassies of France abroad will be mobilized on 21st March 2017. All kinds of eateries are involved, from haute cuisine restaurants to quality bistros.

The aim of Goût de / Good France is to highlight art de vivre à la française and French regional produce. Indeed, gastronomy is one of the cornerstones of French heritage, and the unique nature of France’s products and wines reflect the diversity of its landscapes and typical regional products. The savoir-faire of French chefs and French art de vivre continue to attract greater number of tourists and travellers from all over the world.

With close to 83 million tourists in 2016 – including half a million from India – France is the top global tourist destination. Of these, one-third declare that their travel to France was spurred by French cuisine, especially “the gastronomic meal of the French”, which has been inscribed in the UNESCO list of intangible heritage.

Apart from food- and wine-loving tourists, foreign chefs and students, too, come to France to train in the culinary arts taught in prestigious French gastronomy and hospitality management schools.

By bringing together 2 000 chefs, 150 embassies of France and around 250 000 persons worldwide, Goût de/Good France celebrates cuisine and the art of living à la française. It also reminds us that French cuisine continues to be enriched thanks to spreading knowledge of French culinary arts on the one hand, and the influence of the chefs in various countries who interpret it according to their vision, on the other.

Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh Addresses Curtain Raiser,on ‘India Steel-2017

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Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh Addresses Curtain Raiser Media Conference on ‘India Steel-2017 3rd International Exhibition-Cum-Conference on 19-21 April 2017 in Mumbai’ 
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New Delhi, March 17, 2017
Phalguna 26, Saka 1938
The Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh addressed a Curtain Raiser media conference on ‘India Steel-2017 3rd International Exhibition-cum-Conference to be held on 19-21 April, 2017, in Mumbai’ on the theme “Indian Steel Industry: looking up to 2030- Raw material, production, demand and logistics”, in New Delhi today.
In his opening remarks, Chaudhary Birender Singh said that the past 3 years have been quite challenging for the steel industry. Government of India intervened strategically to provide policy and regulatory support from time to time, which has given desired results like improvement in capacity utilization to over 78%, reduction in imports by 39% and significant increase in exports by 78% in the 11 months of current financial year.
He said, at present, the steel industry in India is on a path of growth and soon will become the 2nd largest steel producer in the world. Steel Ministry is ready with a National Steel Policy 2017, which is in the final stages. The two regional conferences for increasing steel consumption in India were held recently in Gangtok and in Ludhiana and another three such regional conferences will be held in other parts of the country in coming months. A national conference of secondary steel producers is also on the anvil on 5th April 2017 in New Delhi. Talks are going on with other user ministries to recommend use of steel in infrastructure, housing and related sectors. Inter-ministerial consultation is going on for maximising use of Indian made steel in key projects, the Minister said.
On raw material front also lot of new developments have taken place. Railways have accorded permission for laying of slurry pipelines along railway tracks, coal washeries are being planned to increase usage of domestic coking coal, diversion of coking coal to thermal power plants is being reviewed and iron ore availability has improved. The ‘India Steel 2017’ will be highlighting India’s strength in steel sector to the world. All stakeholders from the steel industry will come together on this occasion including raw material suppliers, technology providers, steel producers, logistics partners and buyers.
Unique features of ‘India Steel 2017’ this time include a Reverse Buyer Seller Meet, exclusively for the steel sector, that is, instead of going out to buyers of steel in other countries, the international organisations are coming to India to view our product offerings and have buyer-seller meetings. Around 200 international buyers of steel products are being invited from more than 75 countries to forge business alliances with Indian steel producers.
Delegates are mainly from the developing nations like Middle East, CIS, SAARC, Africa and CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam). Another first is a dedicated session for women as women can be perfect brand ambassadors for steel, as also influencers and opinion makers. FICCI Ladies Organization will conduct one session exclusively dedicated to the women in their different roles.
The Minister urged the Media to play an important role in disseminating the advantages of steel to different stakeholders and the end consumer of steel through human-interest stories on how steel can help them in various walks of life.
Dr. Aruna Sharma, Secretary Steel, Shri S. Abbasi, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Steel and Shri Manab Majumdar, Assistant Secretary General, FICCI were present on the occasion and interacted with the media.
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