Bhubaneswar: Joining hands with the rest of the world, Tata Steel today observed World Environment Day in Bhubaneswar and all its operational locations. The observance was in keeping with the global theme for the present year’s World Environment Day, ‘Many Species. One Planet. One Future’.

In Orissa, the day was flagged off by a tree plantation by Mr Hridayeshwar Jha, Vice President (Orissa Project), Tata Steel in the IM Section of the upcoming Steel Plant at Kalinganagar. While speaking on the occasion, he stressed the need for industries such as ours to invest in R&D to find newer methods to reduce consumption of all inputs to address the future challenge that climate change will bring about. “If we don’t care for environment, nobody will care for us,” said Mr Jha.

Tree plantation drive also took place in a major way in the other areas of operations in Orissa. Under the guidance of Tata Steel Rural Development Society (TSRDS) major plantation drive was undertaken in Sukinda, Joda and Gopalpur.

In Sukinda, a large number of villagers, prominent citizens, PRI members and Tata Steel officials joined a rally on environment protection from Kakudia village in Sukinda area. The rally was led by Mr Sushanta Kumar Mishra, Head (Mines), Mrs Bhagabati Mohanta, Zilla Parisad Member, Sukinda and Mr AK Ghosh, Head-Admin, FA&M.

In Joda, Tata Steel also joined hands to observe the day. Prabhat Pheri, mass scale fruit bearing sapling plantation and mass rally from Centenary Park to proposed park inJCO Joda formed primary part of the Environment Day observances by Tata Steel. In addition, participation of school children to ensure that all its citizens formed part of the awareness drive. Tata Steel organized essay, debate and art completion amongst school children in Joda. Prominent speaker, Mr K C Das, senior environmentalist, Tata Steel, Mr Rabindra Kumar Das, Chairman, Joda Municipality and Tata Steel Joda head, Mr Sailesh Verma addressed a large gathering of senior executives, senior citizens and school children. Mr Verma informed that the company would be planting 40,000 plants in the proposed park which will be constructed at an area of 8 acres.

In order to give all these initiatives a comprehensive structure and motivate employees and all others to become environment conscious citizens, Tata Steel unveiled its unique campaign ‘Greenfection’ to spread the green message to the people of India through TV and other mass media, besides rolling out its ‘You click and we plant a tree’ campaign nationwide.

Bhubaneswar: Tata Steel extends healthcare services in Orissa to 500 villages under it’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) plan. To achieve its motto healthcare for the villages, the Tata Steel has adopted a number of initiatives like that of setting-up of hospitals in rural interiors, mobile health care units, health camps apart from hosting of the Life Line Express. While the steel major’s healthcare centres at Sukinda, Joda, Bileipada, Bamanipal and Belpahar have been established long time ago, the recent addition has been the one at Gobarghati in Kalingamagar Industrial Complex. The hospital at Gobarghati has been constructed on a land of 4 acres recently. It has the facility of round-the-clock service, pathological lab and outdoor complex. The hospital was set-up for the families affected in its green field steel project at Kalinganagar and also for the people in the periphery villages. In a phase-wise manner, the number of beds in the hospital would increase to 200. Apart from, the Tata Steel Parivar families, the hospital is expected to cater to around ten thousand people from the nearby villages. The steel major has not restricted itself to serve the only people in its surrounding, it also takes care of the needy at various remote locations. In this regard, the company has renovated the district hospital at Keonjhar and constructed an ICU with modern facilities and infrastructures at Bolangir Hospital. It has also set up community health centers (CHC) at Kuhika and Bari in Jajpur district. The Tata Health Care facilities serve more than 4 lakh people annually. Tata Steel has sponsored Lifeline Express, the hospital on rail, 5 times in Odisha at Jajpur Road, Joda, Meramunduli, Gopalpur and Daitari.

Hyderabad: The Chief Minister Dr K Rosaiah today directed the AP Transco to go in for Accelerated Power Development Reforms Plan and Reduction in Transmission and Distribution losses in a big way. He said since power has become most precious in today’s life and the demand is ever increasing and is always more than the supply, there is every need for further reduction in T&D losses.

The Chief Minister hailed the AP Transco since the A.P. is always the best in the country as far as reducing the T&D losses are concerned. Dr Rosaiah also complimented the A.P. Power Sector since we were the first in power sector reforms and won many awards in power sector efficiency. However, we have to still a long way to go to catch up with the international standards, he said. The Chief Minister directed the AP Transco and AP Discoms to implement the Restructured Accelerated Power Development Reforms Programme (R-APDRP) efficiently as per the guidelines of Government of India. The Chief Minister discussed implementation of the R-APDRP and Village Electrification (RGGVY) with Chief Secretary S V Prasad, Principal Secretary, Energy, Suthirtha Bhattacharya, CMD, AP Transco, Ajay Jain and other officials.

AP Transco officials explained to Dr Rosaiah that The R-APDRP is the flagship programme of Government of India which aims at actual demonstrable performance in terms of sustained loss reduction. Projects under this scheme will be taken up in two parts. First Part include the projects for establishment of baseline data and IT applications for energy accounting/auditing & IT-based consumer service centres. Second Part include regular distribution strengthening projects such as Renovation, modernization and strengthening of 11 KV level substations, Transformers/Transformer centres, Re-Conductoring of lines at 11 KV level and below, Load Bifurcation, feeder separation, Load Balancing, HVDS (11kv), Aerial Bunched Conductoring in dense areas, replacement of electromagnetic energy meters with tamper proof electronic meters etc. Towns and cities with population of more than 30,000 will be covered. In addition, in certain high-load density rural areas with significant loads, works of separation of agricultural feeders from domestic and industrial ones, and of High Voltage Distribution System (11KV) will also be taken up.

The Power Finance Corporation (PFC) has sanctioned Rs.388.02 crores and released Rs.116.43 crores as advance under the first part of the R-APDRP. +After evaluation of bids, M/s TCS has been selected as the IT implementing agency (ITIA) for R-APDRP. M/s TCS has been issued LOA by the four DISCOMs for a total value of Rs. 231.59Crs excluding the cost of Ring fencing and bandwidth charges. Towns having population of 4 lakhs and more (as per 2001 census) and an annual energy in put of 350 MU and more are eligible under this scheme.Under the second part. M/s PFC has sanctioned the following amounts for reduction of AT&C Losses APEPDCL—Rs.3.31 Crs.( 1 Town), APSPDCL—Rs.68.43 Crs. (12 Towns), APNPDCL—Rs.160.94 Crs. (22 Towns) and an amount of Rs.34.40 Crs has been released as 15% advance by the PFC. Meanwhile the outlay of Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) is fixed as Rs.830.03 crores for Andhra Pradesh i.e., for four DISCOMs & 4 RESCOs for electrification of 14,309 un-electrified habitations and 25,48,149 BPL Rural households including development of necessary rural electricity infrastructure.

The cost of the scheme includes Rs. 420.02 crores for infrastructure development and Rs.408.37 crores for electrification of 25,48,149 BPL rural households. Under RGGVY programme, so far,13,292 un-electrified habitations and 23,13,523 BPL Rural Households have been electrified up to the end of April 2010. So far, AP Transco have incurred an expenditure of Rs.724.96 crores under RGGVY and so far the REC has released Rs.597.07 crores to DISCOMs. It is programmed to complete all the works envisaged under RGGVY by the end of December 2010. The Chief Minister further directed the top officers of Power Sector to closely monitor all the rural electrification programmes and ensure execution of RGGVY works as per schedule.

Nimapara: The Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has  inaugurated a multipurpose cold storage of 25000 Ton capacity at Nimapara and  which has been constructed  at an estimated cost of Rs 3.50 crore and also laid foundation stone of Gop Tahasil office , which will be constructed at an estimated expenditure of Rs 90 lakh on Monday .The Chief Minister also laid foundation stone of reconstruction  of Gop- Balighai Road in an estimated expenditure of Rs 6.50 crore.

Addressing the public meeting , The Chief Minister said that the state government is striving at the development of 80 per cent farmers in the state and listed out the steps taken by his Government for the development of horticulture and agriculture, besides informing on the opening up of the proposed terminal markets in the state.Local MLA Samir Ranjan Das presided over the occasion.  Agriculture Minister DrDamodar Rout said that the state government has initiated steps for the revival of two old cold storages out of the former 18 besides listing out his Ministry’s pro-farmer policies and programmes for the development of agriculture in the state.

Among others, Revenue Minister Surya Narayan Patra, Jagatsinghpur MP Bibhu Prasad Tarai , Kakatpur MLA Rabindra Mallick and Block Chairman Pradipta Khatoi also spoke. Local farmer Jibanananda Mahapatra proposed the vote of thanks.

New Delhi: The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) has proposed to the government to bring down its stake in 45 state-owned undertakings in areas of banks, power, oil & gas and others to 51% in phases to help it reduce it’s fiscal deficit.

According to ASSOCHAM, if the government is able to curtail it’s stake in suggested utilities by curtailing it at 51%, over Rs. 4.5 lakh crores can be generated in current fiscal itself to bridge fiscal deficit which has posed a serious challenge for policy makers.

In a statement, ASSOCHAM said that the it has identified 20 PSU banks for offloading government equity in them  upto 51%.  Other PSUs recommended for similar exercise comprise 4 power sector companies as many in metal.  From oil sector, 7 companies have been identified by the ASSOCHAM and 4 belonging to engineering and 6 from miscellaneous business.

The Chambers has added that the proposed amount would help government not only to contain its fiscal deficit but the suggested move could further push up stock markets as also open up channels for infusing funds to support it’s infrastructure expansion drive which requires thousands of crores of rupees.

Among power sector PSUs, whose disinvestment has been recommended by ASSOCHAM include NTPC, PFC, POWERGRID and Rural Electrification Corporation (REC). In NTPC, government stake is currently 89.5%, PFC, it is 89.78%, POWERGRID 86.36% and REC 81.82%.  In these four companies, if considerable government stake is divested to bring down its equity to 51%, it would earn a revenue of Rs.99044 crore.  Moreover, the government will not loose its controlling stake in such a manner of disinvestment.

No. of shares proposed to be diluted in the power sector consist of 5372518581. In metal sector, 4 companies are recommended for disinvestment, which include Hindustan Copper, National Aluminum Co. Ltd., Navyeli Lignite Corpn., Ltd. and National Mineral Development Corporation.  These companies have respective government stake of 99.59%, 87.15%, 93.56% and 98.38%. Total amount by bringing down government stake in these upto 49% could be around Rs.97735 crores.

In oil sector, proposed disinvestment should take place in Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum, Indian Oil, Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals, ONGC, Chennai Petroleum Co. Ltd. and Dredg Corporation.  The government enjoys 54.93%, 51.11%, 78.92%, 88.57%, 74.1%, 51.89% and 78.5% respective stake in these oil PSUs.  Suggested disinvestment in these can bring in Rs.78857 crore to government.
There are 4 engineering companies in the PSUs recommended for disinvestment by ASSOCHAM which include Bharat Earth Movers, BHEL, EIL and BEL.

54.03% controlling stake lies with government in Bharat Earth Movers against 67.72% of BHEL, 90.4% in EIL and 78.86% in BEL. Proposed disinvestment in the engineering sector can fetch govenment a revenue of Rs.23659 crore, says ASSOCHAM.

There are 20 banks identified in the ASSOCHAM Study for disinvestment upto 51% to help government garner Rs.22302 crore. The government stake in 20 banks including varies between 76% to around 52%. These include Allahabad Bank, Andhra Bank, Bank of Mahaashtra, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Canara Bank, Central Bank, Corporation Bank, Dena Bank, IDBI Bank, Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, J&K Bank, Oriental Bank, Punjab National Bank, SBI, Syndicate Bank, UCO Bank, Union Bank and Vijaya Bank.

Likewise, there are 6 miscellaneous business in which if disinvestment is accelerated, it can fetch government a revenue of Rs.83648 crore, said Mr. Jindal. Significant among them included Containers Corporation of India Ltd., GAIL, MMTC, Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilisers Ltd., Shipping Corporation of India Ltd,, State Trading Corporation.  In these companies, the government stake is respectively at 63.09%, 57.34%, 99.3%, 92.5%, 80.12% and 91.02%.

New Delhi: Mr Rajiv Gauba, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests proposed that “both Central and State Government to share 25% capital expenditure each for creating recycling facilities in the Public-Private-Partnership mode“ at the CII organized “National Forum on eWaste” on 26th May 2010 in New Delhi. He said “Government with support from Industry has to take a practical and pragmatic approach for effective implementation of the upcoming e-waste policy” and invited suggestions from all stakeholders.  He added that the draft policy is based on concept of extended producers’ responsibility and focuses on the infrastructure creation for e-waste refurbishing, recycling and awareness creation at all levels.

Mr Gauba said that e-waste generation is expected to touch 8 lacs tonne by 2012, which is 5 times growth in less than 5 years, even when the per capita generation of ewaste in India is very low in global comparisons. He complimented Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for creating a an interactive platform for multi-stakeholders at the opportune time to discuss the challenges, issues and bring ideas and suggestions for draft National Policy on e-Waste.

Dr Saroj, Director, Ministry of Environment & Forests, Govt of India, while discussing the draft policy on e-waste, said “As per India’s culture and heritage, the concept of positive reuse will be promoted through refurbishing and only something which cannot be reused must be recycled in a scientific manner.” She emphasized that the main focus should be on efficient collection centres that can be made through industry consortiums, state agencies etc. She also requested for comprehensive proposals for financial support systems in this regard.

Dr Saroj informed that the draft policy puts more responsibility on Producers and Dealers and it is suggested that Dealers for electronic products would need to be registered with State Pollution Control Boards and have efficient buy-back policies and mechanisms in place. She also said “MoEF does not want India to become a dumping ground on plea of charity”.

Mr. Kensaku Konishi, President & CEO, Canon India Pvt Ltd said “The electronics manufacturers’ and large users of IT & electronics products need to effectively participate in e-waste management programmes and cultivate an eco-friendly culture.” He added that “the need of the hour is to take a business approach which is socially responsible and economically logical – as we do at Canon and believe that we are building a better world for future generations.” He further said “Unique challenges of Indian unorganized sectors, skilling, training and awareness creation along with thoughtful refurbishing and dismantling – to extract precious metals in safest manner are some other areas to be worked upon.”

Ms Ritu Kappal, COO, Greenscape Eco Management Pvt Ltd applauded the fact that the Policy encourages producers to strengthen their reverse logistical processes and collaborate with authorized recyclers’ so that a framework develops for appropriate implementation of the policy”.

Some other key speakers and participants represented companies like HP, Nokia, Wipro, HCL, Ramky, MAIT, CEAMA, ELCINA, Toxic Links, Greenscape, E-Parisaraa, Greenpeace.

New Delhi: While The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) favors consistent reform oriented approach for opening up of domestic retail to established retailers worldwide, it, however, holds that 100% foreign equity in multi-brand retailing shouldn’t be offered to MNCs “in a single stroke” as is being proposed by Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

The Chamber has argued that organized retailing in India is just growing at a steady pace which so far gone to an extent of 12% of entire retailing and until it picks up a scale of 50%, 100% equity in single brand retail be avoided under current FDI’s regime.

Consequences for 100% opening up of multi brand retail sector for MNC ought to be weighed in a caliberated manner and a cooling off period of minimum 5 years be provided before India is able to create a space for established retailers overseas to open up their shops for selling off items and products under the Sun without any restriction, said Dr. Swati Piramal, ASSOCHAM President.

The ASSOCHAM has, therefore, prescribed a suggestion for the government to first consult domestic industry before finalizing and announcing entry of overseas mega malls in the country. ‘’Consultation with the domestic players is needed before any policy announcement is made’’, the Chamber further stated.

In response to the ASSOCHAM questionnaire circulated to the domestic players, one of the leading retailing companies which runs value-buying chains throughout the country and is expanding very fast, wanted a period of two to three years for the domestic industry to consolidate.  It has argued that the organized retail is still at a very nascent stage and forms only three per cent of the entire retail trade.

“If we open up the sector now, the country will attract small sum of foreign investments compared to what we can attract a few yeas later. In a few years, the share of organized retail will be significantly higher and the country will be far more attractive and ripe to attract higher levels of FDI”, this firm, which is aggressively opening retail stores, share his views to the Chamber.

In support of its arguments, it wrote to the Chamber that China opened up its retail sector to FDI only after the domestic organized retail industry was large enough to face competition from the foreign players.

Many of the retail firms in the domestic sector favoured export commitments on the FDI investment;  by as much as 20 times. They also wanted FDI investment in backend infrastructure like cold storage so that the  supply chain becomes smooth.

As against 10,15 or may be 20 stores, the foreign players run a huge number of stores worldwide giving them the economies of scale and managing their global supply chain. The annual turnover of Wal-Mart of over 250 billion dollar is much higher than the total size of the Indian retail industry (both organized and unorganized). As against 10 or 15 large format stores, Wal-Mart has over 5000 stores world wide.

Besides,  the domestic players suffer from the lack of infrastructure – the biggest bottleneck being the prohibitive prices of large retail spaces in the upmarket or central locations in the large Indian cities. This is primarily because the private holdings are fragmented and the impact of the Urban Land Ceiling Act. The pro-tenancy Rent Control Acts have distorted the property markets in the cities leading to exceptionally high prices.

A plethora of bureaucratic hurdles and high capital cost also place the domestic retailing firms at a disadvantage against the international players who have over the years placed efficient chains in order at a low capital cost. It is estimated that for opening a single store in the country as many as 13 licences are required.

‘’Absence of single window clearance, coupled with other issues like lack of property infrastructure, work as a major impediment to the growth of the retailing’’, ASSOCHAM said.

Notwithstanding the policy issues, the retailing has a great future in India since its total size  of over 200 billion dollar comes close to being one-third of the size of the total economy. However, the share of the organized sector in the retail trade is only three per cent but it is expected to reach 10 per cent by 2010, throwing big  opportunities for the prospective new players.

Thiruvananthapuram: The Central Board of the Reserve Bank of India met today in Thiruvananthapuram after a span of six years. The meeting reviewed key economic, monetary and financial developments.

Dr D. Subbarao, Governor, Reserve Bank of India chaired the meeting. Shri Y.H. Malegam, Prof. Suresh Tendulkar, Prof. U. R. Rao, Shri Lakshmi Chand, Shri H.P. Ranina, Shri Azim Premji, Smt. Shashi Rajagopalan, Dr. A. Vaidyanathan, Prof M. M. Sharma and Shri Sanjay Labroo were present at the meeting of the Central Board. Deputy Governors of the Reserve Bank, Smt. Shyamala Gopinath, Dr. K.C. Chakrabarty and Dr. Subir Gokarn were also present.

The Central Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank meets at least once every quarter. The Board has scheduled meetings in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata each year. The post-budget meeting of the Board, traditionally held in New Delhi, held in Mumbai this year in view of Platinum Jubilee of the Reserve Bank, was addressed by the Union Finance Minister. The other meetings of the Board are held in the remaining state capitals by rotation. The main function of the Central Board of the Reserve Bank is to provide overall direction to its affairs.

The day before the Board meeting, Governor and the Deputy Governors addressed the local chapter of Bankers’ Club and interacted with members of the Club on the current domestic and international economic issues. Subsequently, Governor, along with Deputy Governors and Executive Directors met Minister of Finance, Minister of Industries, senior officials of the State Government and controlling heads of banks and financial institutions represented in Kerala. The meeting focussed on banking related issues, such as, increasing the flow of credit to SME sector, need for resumption of adequate refinance to the co-operative sector, strengthening of co-operative structure in the state and execution of Memorandum of Understanding under Vaidyanathan Committee recommendations, ATM facilities for the Treasuries, setting up a NBFC in consonance with Shariat law, etc.

Before the Central Board meeting, held today, Governor called on Shri V.S. Achuthanandan, the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Kerala and discussed the current economic situation of the country in the aftermath of global financial crisis. Other issues discussed related to the fiscal position of Kerala, adoption of Vaidyanathan Committee recommendations, setting up of overseas subsidiaries of Kerala state financial enterprises, financing of SMEs, refinance to Co-operative sector, financial literacy initiatives and menace of fake currency notes. It was decided to hold a special SLBC with focus on SME sector and the Chief Minister has kindly agreed to chair that meeting, reflecting the importance Government of Kerala attaches to the credit flow to the SME sector. The Government also agreed for introduction of financial education in the forthcoming school curriculum.

New Delhi: Nearly 20% of Indian firms are unable to produce quality products as these have machineries and equipment, already having life span of over 20 years and thus turned out to be obsolete enough not to absorb latest technological infusions for making quality products, says a Paper on Indian Manufacturing brought out by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

As a result, defect rates of final products in such companies are between 5-10 times than those manufacturing units in economies of scale such as USA, EU, Japan including ASEAN etc., adds the Paper.

It, however, points out that India has the technical abilities to achieve a high level of precision, yet 1/5th of Indian firms in manufacturing are unable to produce quality products.

The reason is not only that many an Indian firms has equipment and machineries which are obsolete and lacks absorption of supporting technologies, such as precision measuring, material engineering and product control, added the Chamber while releasing findings of the Paper here today.

It may be mentioned here that even the best of machineries and equipment have life span of nearly 25 years and thereafter start depreciating beyond repairs.

The research and development activities in India have been primarily government driven and private sectors  have  traditionally  made  little  investment  in  R&D.  India  has  achieved  great  success  in developing and educating a significant chunk of human resources. The technical capabilities of these resources are well and truly recognized across the world.

According to ASSOCHAM, the government allocates a budget of scientific and technological (S&T) activity under an R&D fund. The total expenditure on R&D including from industry, is about 0.8 percent of GNP for the past several years. Compared to most advanced countries, which spent between 4 and 6 percent on R&D, this proportion is quite low.

Indian manufacturing in unorganized sector has been constantly under attack.  But the fact is a good number of domestic manufacturing processes have not been able to improve upon their precision measuring, material engineering and product control methods because extension of funds have been a major problem for industry.

The prime lending rates (PLR) in India still remain high. PSUs owned banks PLR is between 12-13% as against 17% in the private sector compared to international rates ranging from 0.5% to 4%. This increases the cost of capital for manufacturing. Therefore, Indian industry can resort to innovative methods of improving upon its value engineering  processes provided funds extended to it are at competitive rates of single digit to enable them absorb technology which in current context is highly extensive.

The other reason as to why Indian manufacturing will take longer to come up to global levels is because of availability of quality power which is relevant for its strong linkages with economies of scale.

The government launched programme for promoting power generation from renewable sources since last 25 years, unfortunately the cumulative power generation from these sources is around 12,000 megawatt.

A wide variety of technologies have been developed by India to harness solar energy.  As the country is quite advanced in solar technology and solar photovoltaic production with 85 per cent being exports to developed countries. But its applicability by the Indian citizens is seen to be quite low with 1.4 million solar PV systems, 7,068 solar PV pumps and 6,17,000 solar cookers. There are 61,549 solar street lighting systems, 3,63,399 home solar lighting system and 5,85,001 solar lanterns

India is also lagging behind in power generation from biomass, bagasse and waste despite its high potential. Industrial power in India continues to be among the most expensive in the world. It is about 50 per cent more expensive than in China.

The study also points out that Indian firms appear to have trouble scaling organically to world standards, carrying out R&D, innovating,  creating  brands,  investing  in  long  term  capacity,  building  human  resources  and infrastructure.

The manufacturers face a daunting array of opportunities in the transition from being solely a low- cost manufacturing center to competing on the basis of innovation. Use of non-standard tools and methods of production have locked a large number of firms into low- quality production. Firm level innovation is very low in India. Indian machine tools firms source technology, but very few of them improve upon it. The research spending, as a percentage of sales amongst Indian firms are low when compared to the R&D spends of companies in Taiwan and Korea

In addition, there are logistics problems that add to manufacturing costs because of India’s poor infrastructure and top of it, the manufacturing equipment machinery are highly taxed both on import and excise front. The Chamber has suggested that until the issue raised are addressed, India’s competitive edge in manufacturing would constantly come under attack.

Bhubaneswar: Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS), a leading finance firm has proposed to set up educational complexes in the undivided Koraput, Balangir and Kalahandi districts.

In this connection, a high-level delegation of IL&FS met chief minister Naveen Patnaik at the State Secretariat here on Wednesday. The schools will be set up in line with Delhi Public School (DPS) on public private partnership (PPP) mode. The firm has proposed to set up at least 200 such schools in the KBK region.  The state government will take a decision on this very soon.