Latest news with #GDR
The Hindu
a day ago
- Business
- The Hindu
Efforts on to revive effluent plant project in Edayar industrial area
The government is exploring options to revive the project to set up a common effluent treatment plant (CETP) for industrial units along the Eloor-Edayar stretch of the Periyar. The much-delayed project was expected to get a push after the government had earmarked around ₹30 crore towards a ₹250-crore assistance promised by the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) for setting up CETPs in various industrial estates in the State. However, the Centre's borrowing restrictions on the State had delayed its implementation. Industries Minister P. Rajeeve said on Tuesday that the restrictions on taking loans had impacted the CETP project under assistance from the SIDBI. However, the government was looking at whether it could be included under the Guarantee Redemption Fund (GDR), which was meant to cover government guarantees offered for loans availed by public sector entities and cooperatives, he said. The monthly progress report on the updated status of the short- and long-term projects for the rejuvenation of the Periyar submitted before the Ministry of Jal Shakthi for May had quoted a decision taken at a meeting called by the Chief Secretary on February 9, 2023 saying that the CETP project might be dropped. All the units may be advised to have their own facilities for treatment of effluents. The fund allotted for the project may be utilised for any other liquid waste treatment project, it said. According to the detailed project report for the CETP in Edayar, the proposed plant will have the capacity to treat two million litres per day. A preliminary report prepared by the Kerala Water Authority said that the site identified for the project was close to the north-western portion of the industrial estate, which was previously occupied by the now defunct Periyar Chemical Industries. There was sufficient land with a facility to discharge to the downstream of the Pathalam regulator-cum-bridge of the Periyar, it said.
Times
6 days ago
- General
- Times
Cold War watchtower for sale. It's a bit of a fixer-upper
By the standards of the auctioneer trade, the listing for the period property in rural Brandenburg is strikingly restrained. Situated in the 'picturesque' district of Cumlosen with 'numerous opportunities for nature lovers', it says, the five-storey building is of solid construction but requires quite considerable repairs and renovation work. All offers in excess of €5,000 are welcome. The sober language has a lot to do with the period in question: during the Cold War, the structure was built as a watchtower to prevent people from fleeing communist East Germany across the River Elbe. The listed building, which will be sold on Friday by the German federal government's auctions agency, consists of a tiled ground-floor hallway with an office annex, and concrete and iron staircases leading up to what used to be the guards' lounges and the observation deck on the top floor. The total indoor space is 180 sq m (1,940 sq ft). Before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the watchtower overlooked the frontier between East and West. Many people on the socialist German Democratic Republic's (GDR) side of the Elbe valley in this region had their homes demolished and were resettled. Stretches of the riverbank were fenced off with barbed wire and there was a 9pm curfew. That did not prevent some East Germans from swimming across the river, or even crossing it on foot when it froze over. After the collapse of the GDR, the watchtower at Cumlosen was transferred to the federal government and abandoned, with much of the guards' electrical equipment left to moulder in the basement. It has been repeatedly vandalised and the paint is peeling from the walls. The building has often been vandalised and paint is peeling from the walls OLIVER GIERENS/DPA/ALAMY LIVE NEWS However, the local district council in Prignitz said it had received a number of expressions of interest from potential buyers. 'It is certainly a subject that interests many people,' Bernd Atzenroth, the council's spokesman, told RBB, the regional public broadcaster. The district tourism association has suggested that the watchtower, which is located on a fairly popular cycle path along the bank of the Elbe, could be converted into a visitor centre.
The Hindu
20-06-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
Kerala's internal revenue generation tipped to cross ₹1 lakh crore in 2025-26, says Finance Minister
Kerala's own revenue is projected to cross the ₹ 1 lakh crore-mark in 2025-26, signalling that State finances will continue in recovery mode despite severe challenges on the fiscal front, Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal has said. Mr. Balagopal said the Finance department expected internal revenue generation, from both own tax and non-tax sources, to touch ₹1.05 lakh crore in the current fiscal. The estimated growth, he said, was the outcome of improved efficiency in tax collection enabled by a comprehensive overhaul of the Taxes department in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. Under the present Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front government, the State's own tax revenues (SOTR) had steadily improved from ₹47,661 crore in 2020-21 to ₹76,656 crore in 2024-25. Non-tax revenues grew from ₹7,327 crore to ₹16,568 crore during the same period. The government, Mr. Balagopal said, had succeeded in pulling up the State from a Central policies-induced 'nosedive' to a position where it was equipped for 'take-off' to the next phase. 'We have achieved this in a situation where Kerala was deprived of about ₹50,000 crore annually due to the shrinkage of borrowing space and discontinuation of the revenue deficit grant and GST compensation,' he said. Mr. Balagopal said there was continued scope for finetuning tax collection. On the Integrated GST (IGST) front, systemic issues in the mechanism of its settlement with all States had deprived Kerala of ₹956.16 crore. Kerala had taken up the matter with the Centre, Mr. Balagopal said. Mr. Balagopal said the State expected to allocate ₹600 crore this year towards the Guarantee Redemption Fund (GDR). The GDR was meant to cover government guarantees offered for loans availed by public sector entities and cooperatives. According to Kerala, the Centre had reduced the State's borrowing limit by a further ₹3,300 this year citing the GDR as a requirement. Mr. Balagopal also swept aside reports that the State's debt would touch ₹6 lakh crore this year-end. It would increase to about ₹4.7 lakh crore, but the State had been able to reverse the previous trend where debt doubled every five years. As part of the drive against tax evasion, the State GST department was planning action against traders/businesses who evaded taxation by deploying street vendors to sell their products, the Minister said. 'Such practices take unfair advantage of the benefits enjoyed by genuine street vendors,' he said. In May, the SGST department had busted an organised racket engaged in the manufacture and sale of spurious diesel, he said.
The South African
17-06-2025
- Politics
- The South African
SA Gamechangers: SA High Commissioner, Kingsley Mamabolo on Fighting for Freedom, Peace, and the African Future
Interview by Gordon Glyn-Jones | Part of the SA Gamechangers series Born in Soweto, his journey began in the burning streets of 1976 and led through ANC training camps in Angola and the GDR, to global diplomacy with the African Union and United Nations. Now South Africa's High Commissioner to the UK, he reflects on decades in service to the continent and on the release of his new memoir, which launched this year in London and will soon be available in South Africa. In this wide-ranging conversation, he talks about exile, justice, rebuilding South Africa, and what the next generation needs to know. You describe your early years in Soweto as being marked by both hardship and political awakening. What first drew you towards the liberation movement? For anyone who grew up under apartheid, the wrongness of the system was obvious. You didn't need to read philosophy to see it. The signs were everywhere: 'Whites Only' and 'Non-Whites.' You'd go to the park, the hospital, or a restaurant. Everywhere was divided. I remember reading a story in a local paper about an abandoned baby. The child's race couldn't be determined immediately and there was this whole debate: do we send a black ambulance or a white ambulance? And then should we admit them to a white hospital? All while the child was possibly dying. That kind of thing really showed the insanity of apartheid. Then there were people like Mandela. Though his name was banned, his words moved around underground. I remember reading his speech from the Rivonia Trial, 'I am prepared to die.' That line hit hard. And on shortwave radio I once stumbled on a Zanla broadcast from Mozambique. The announcer's voice said, 'People of Zimbabwe, you will break the chains of slavery.' I thought, why not us too? Some people might agree with a cause in life, but wouldn't be brave enough to take action. What made you take the leap to risking arrest, going into exile, even taking up arms? It builds up. Slowly, you realise no, this is unacceptable. And once you see it, you can't unsee it. Eventually I was being pursued by the security police. I was part of the student movement after the 1976 uprising. We all knew what would happen if we got caught. So I left, no passport, just a will to get out and the help from ANC operatives who smuggled me through Swaziland into Mozambique, and eventually Angola. We believed we were going into exile briefly, just to train and come back. But I ended up being out of my country for almost 20 years. What surprised you most when you got to exile? One of the first things that struck me was the ANC's policy: South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white. Coming from a Black Consciousness background, that was a real jolt. We'd only known whites as the face of our oppression and here we were, being told we'd one day live together. There were other movements like the PAC who said the opposite, blacks only. But when we looked closer, the ANC was more organised, more disciplined. And then we started to meet white comrades who had given up everything. Ronnie Kasrils, Joe Slovo, Albie Sachs. These were people who had lost family, been jailed or exiled, just like us. You trained in the GDR. What was that experience like? Ah, the GDR. They were extremely disciplined, very serious people. The training was intense. And no excuses were accepted. You were being prepared for life and death situations. Failure wasn't tolerated. But the cultural adjustment? Huge. When we arrived, they gave us winter clothes, including the long thermal underwear (which we jokingly called 'Vasco-pyjamas'). And they told us, 'Just throw your laundry, including underwear, into these big baskets.' Old white ladies would come collect them, wash them and return them folded. Now, imagine us, from apartheid South Africa, where white women wouldn't even speak to us. Suddenly they're washing our underwear? I couldn't handle it. None of us could. I used to sneak out late at night, wash my own clothes in the dark. One night I'm crouched at the basin, and I hear someone behind me, two of my comrades doing the exact same thing. No one had talked about it. We just couldn't bring ourselves to hand over our underwear to old white women. That's how deep apartheid had scarred our minds. What helped shift that mindset? It was seeing white comrades take the same risks we did, and sometimes more. Some had their families killed. They were jailed. We saw them suffer for the same cause. That changed us. Also, the support we received across Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, Angola, showed us that solidarity wasn't about colour. It was about justice. Even in the West, where governments sometimes called us terrorists, ordinary people supported us in their millions. The UK had the biggest anti-apartheid movement in Europe. The American supporter numbers were also vast. People defied their own governments to support us. 'We broke the back of apartheid. That was the big obstacle. Now the struggle is to make sure we don't leave anyone behind, not black, not white. The fight continues.' What was it like returning to South Africa after nearly 20 years in exile? We weren't sure it was real. I thought we'd be in exile for a short time, but it became decades. When the call came that we could go home, it felt sudden and surreal. We had fought for a democratic South Africa, political freedom. But once we got it, I think we made a mistake. We relaxed. We thought the fight was over. But political freedom doesn't automatically bring economic justice. That's where we faltered. We had leaders like Mandela, Mbeki, people with real vision. But eventually, the movement lost its way somewhat. What would you say to an 18-year-old South African today who wants to build a better future? I'd say, we broke the big obstacle. Apartheid laws are gone. Now the fight is about inclusion and opportunity. The country has so much: minerals, tourism, technology. But we must think bigger. And we must think together. The future isn't black or white. It's South African. These two worlds, the privileged and the deprived, must come together. If we don't create a society that includes everyone, we'll face another kind of explosion. Not a racial one, a social one. 'We broke the back of apartheid. That was the big obstacle. Now the struggle is to make sure we don't leave anyone behind, not black, not white. The fight continues.' Telling the story You've just written a book. What made you want to tell your story now? At first I asked myself, who am I to write a book? I'm not Mandela. But I realised every story matters. People today forget what was sacrificed. The youth must know, what they enjoy now came at a cost. People died. Others were exiled or jailed. That can't be forgotten. Also, I've been lucky. I served under every democratic South African president, from Mandela appointing me as High Commissioner to Zimbabwe, to Mbeki sending me to the AU, Zuma to the UN, and now Ramaphosa to the UK. I wanted to document those moments, mediating in the Congo, leading UN missions in Darfur, helping shape African Union policies like NEPAD and the Peace and Security Architecture. We laid a vision for Africa. Now we must ask: are we implementing it? Do you have a next mission, or are you retiring? Retirement? No such thing. Maybe I'll step back from formal roles, but I'll never stop contributing. The continent still needs us. Africa has the youngest population on Earth. We have minerals, intellect, and talent. What we lack isn't vision, it's implementation. We need leadership that thinks beyond national borders. South Africa can't go it alone. Africa must act collectively. That's the only way forward. Where can people get your book? The book is called: Let Not The Sun Set On You: The Journey from Anti-Apartheid Activist to Seasoned Diplomat. It's available on Amazon UK now, and will soon be out in South Africa through Exclusive Books. A more affordable softcover version is coming in the next few months. For more SA Gamechangers, click here.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Bunker Talk: Memorial Day Weekend Edition Part 1
Welcome to Bunker Talk, Memorial Day Weekend Edition Part 1. For all our American readers/commenters, I hope you have a great Memorial Day weekend. And, of course, I want to give a huge thanks to all of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country. No words are enough. No debt of gratitude can ever be paid off. We are going to break up the long Memorial Day weekend Bunker into two parts so we don't end up with 6,000 comments on a single post. The caption to this week's top shot reads: 06 April 2019, Brandenburg, Prötzel Ot Harnekop: A general's jacket hangs in the Harnekop bunker in the army command room. On three floors 30 meters below the ground, the GDR defense minister and his high-ranking commanders wanted to entrench themselves in the event of war. The current owner has assigned the site and the bunker to various leaseholders who are in dispute over the rights of use. Photo: Bernd Settnik/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa (Photo by Bernd Settnik/picture alliance via Getty Images) Also, a reminder: If you want to talk politics, do so respectfully and know that there's always somebody that isn't going to agree with you. If you have political differences, hash it out respectfully, stick to the facts, and no childish name-calling or personal attacks of any kind. If you can't handle yourself in that manner, then please, discuss virtually anything else. No drive-by garbage political memes. No conspiracy theory rants. Links to crackpot sites will be axed, too. Trolling and shitposting will not be tolerated. No obsessive behavior about other users. Just don't interact with folks you don't like. Do not be a sucker and feed trolls! That's as much on you as on them. Use the mute button if you don't like what you see. So unless you have something of quality to say, know how to treat people with respect, understand that everyone isn't going to subscribe to your exact same worldview, and have come to terms with the reality that there is no perfect solution when it comes to moderation of a community like this, it's probably best to just move on. Finally, as always, report offenders, please. This doesn't mean reporting people who don't share your political views, but we really need your help in this regard. The Bunker is open! Contact the editor: tyler@
