Governance Community

Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs Launches Light House Projects in India Under the Global Housing Technology Challenge India New Delhi: Light House Projects (LHPs) are model housing projects with houses built with shortlisted alternate technology suitable to the geo-climatic and hazard conditions of the region. This will demonstrate and deliver ready to live houses with speed, economy and with better quality of construction in a sustainable manner. The period of construction is a maximum of 12 months from the date of handing over of sites to the construction agency after all statutory approvals. Approvals will be accorded through a fast track process by the concerned State Government. These LHPs shall serve as live Laboratories for different aspects of transfer of technologies to field application, such as planning, design, production of components, construction practices, testing etc. for both faculty and students, builders, professionals of private and public sectors and other stakeholders involved in such construction. Six technology providers have been selected through a rigorous online bidding process for the construction of Light House Projects (LHPs) at six different locations in six states including Indore, Rajkot, Chennai, Ranchi, Agartala and Lucknow.  Salient Features: – LHP shall mean a model housing project with approximate 1,000 houses built with shortlisted alternate technology suitable to the geo-climatic and hazard conditions of the region. This will demonstrate and deliver ready to live houses with speed, economy and with better quality of construction in a sustainable manner. – The minimum size of houses constructed under LHP shall be in accordance with the prevailing guidelines of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban). – Constructed housing under LHP will include on-site infrastructure development such as internal roads, pathways, common green area, boundary wall, water supply, sewerage, drainage, rainwater harvesting, solar lighting, external electrification, etc. – Houses under LHP will be designed keeping in view the dimensional requirements laid down in the National Building Code (NBC) 2016 with good aesthetics, proper ventilation, orientation, as required to suit the climatic conditions of the location and adequate storage space, etc. – Convergence with other existing centrally sponsored schemes and Missions such as Smart Cities, AMRUT, Swachh Bharat (U), National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM), Ujjwalla, Ujala and Make in India shall be ensured during the designing of LHPs at each site. – The structural details shall be designed to meet the durability and safety requirements of applicable loads including earthquakes and cyclones and floods as applicable in accordance with the applicable Indian/International standards. – Cluster design may include an innovative system of water supply, drainage and rainwater harvesting, renewable energy sources with a special focus on solar energy. – The period of construction will be a maximum of 12 months from the date of handing over of sites to the successful bidder after all statutory approvals. Approvals will be accorded through a fast track process by the concerned State/UT Government. – Technology Providers successfully completing the construction of LHPs within the stipulated 15 month’s period of the contract (including 3 months for preparing relevant drawings and taking all statutory approvals from various agencies in the State followed by 12 months period for actual construction) will be rewarded with USD 20,000 each. A further incentive for early completion is being provided wherein technology providers who complete LHPs in less than 12 months will receive an incrementally higher bonus of USD 2,000 for each month less than the stipulated period of 12 months. – For the subsequent allotment of constructed houses under LHPs to the eligible beneficiaries in States/ UTs, procedures of existing guidelines of PMAY (U) will be followed. Source and Credit: GHTC-India, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs Image to be shown while posting the article online:Source of the Image to be mentioned compulsorily as caption below the image. Source: GHTC-India

The Minister commented on Koo that new rules will protect users. In the recent cabinet reshuffle, Ashwini Vaishnaw was appointed as the new IT and Communications minister. He is of the view that new IT rules are ‘empowering’ and ‘will ensure a safer and responsible social media ecosystem’. The Minister of State for IT, Vaishnaw along with his colleague Rajeev Chandrasekhar reviewed the implementation and compliance of the Information Technology Rules, 2021 and posted on the made-in-India social media platform Koo, “Reviewed the implementation and compliance of Information Technology Rules, 2021 along with my colleague Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar Ji. These guidelines are empowering and protecting users and will ensure a safer and responsible social media ecosystem in India.” After the major cabinet reshuffle, the newly inducted IT Minister Vaishnaw made his debut on the social media platform Koo with the username @ashwinivaishnaw. Koo’s co-founder and CEO Aprameya Radhakrishna welcomed the minister on his platform by saying, “We congratulate Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw on his induction into the Union Cabinet and are glad to welcome him to Koo. We look forward to enabling him to connect with people across the country as he shares plans and developments at the Ministries he manages.”Koo is a microblogging social media network and was launched in March 2020 by a Bengaluru based start-up. It is being popularly called India’s homegrown alternative to Twitter and has around 6 million users as of May 2021. Recently, in June 2021, Koo’s CEO Aprameya announced the confirmation of Nigeria’s government’s presence on Koo. He said, “A very warm welcome to the government of Nigeria on @kooindia. Spreading wings beyond India now.” However, recently the app found itself in a bit of a tough spot due to the delay in complying with India’s new IT rules for social media platforms.