Hyderabad got a Rs 43 crore facelift for Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2017

HYDERABAD: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has so far spent nearly Rs 43.50 crore on various developmental works in the last one month.However, the money was not spent on addressing civic woes, but on beautification ahead of the GES summit.

A total of 94 works were taken up for the GES at a cost of Rs 43.44 crore which includes laying of BT roads (Rs 26.98 crore for 40 works), footpaths (Rs 12.22 crore for 30 works), lane marking  (Rs 3.14 crore for 17 works) and other works like road cutting restoration, table drains, CC patches (Rs1.10 crore for seven works). As the city faced an extended monsoon, the works could be started only on Oct 27.  
The initial sanctions were given for 100 works costing Rs 45.64 crore of which six, costing Rs 2.20 crore were cancelled.

As many as 105 km of BT roads were laid which include South Zone (11.25 km), West Zone (59 km) and Central zone (35.30 km). Similarly, footpaths were laid in the South, West, and Central zones. The total works completed so far stands at 95 percent and the balance works of lane marking and paintings will be completed by Monday night.

The civic body took a lot of aesthetic measures like encouraging local artists to showcase their talent on roads. The painting material was procured under CSR initiative and the artists did not charge for their services.

These works could be completed as strict tender conditions were kept with very tough time lines for completion of these works as there was hardly less than one month for completion of all the works as some of them are sequential. Strict qualification criteria  was followed.

Will Ivanka visit Golkonda?
Ivanka’s full schedule for Wedesday has not been made public yet. She was to share a meal with KCR at Golkonda fort. Aside from a panel discussion and some meetings, her Wednesday plan has not been confirmed.

Ivanka to take part in two panel discussions
Ivanka Trump will take part in two panel discussions One called  ‘Be the Change: Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership’. The other titled ‘We can do it! Innovations in workforce development and skills training’ which will be moderated by  IT minister KT Rama Rao.

What does GES mean to Telangana?
What is in the offing for Telangana by hosting the GES? Will investments pour in? A question asked by many had a simple answer by Amitabh Kant and others who said that GES is not for singing of MoUs or for attracting investments. “It’s a platform for investors and young entrepreneurs to exchange ideas.”

Government to use blockchain tech to purify land records
The government plans to embrace blockchain technology to purify land records in the State. It has already invited Request For Proposal (RFP) from companies. Blockchain is a decentralized and distributed digital ledger that is used to record transactions across many computers so that the record cannot be altered retroactively

52.5% GES delegates are women
Of the 1,500 delegates, 52.5 per cent are women. More than 10 countries will be represented by an all-women delegation, including Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Israel.  The youngest entrepreneur is 13 years and the oldest entrepreneur to attend would be 84 years old.

Teen tech star steals the Road to GES show
Fifteen-year-old Saad Nasser is not any other teenager. The co-founder of ATI Motors,  a Bengaluru based all-electric autonomous cargo vehicle start-up, Nasser is the youngest panellist on the Road to GES, Nasser is a school dropout. A self-taught data scientist, Saad is part of a 25 member team that is creating solutions for cargo movement in factories through his three-wheel electric vehicle. “The vehicle we are creating has two front wheels and one back wheel that helps it to have a near to zero degrees turning radius which adds to its important strength of manoeuvring in a congested factory space,” he says. In fact, the government should try our product, he suggests.

Hope Ivanka comes often, Cong pricks government
Congress Party hoped that the US president’s daughter Ivanka Trump would visit Hyderabad city often, at least once in two to three months, so that the city’s roads will be repaired in time and footpaths will be kept free of vendors and encroachments. Party leader Mohammed Ali Shabbir on Monday said that the State government had suddenly woken up and unleashed sporadic city cleaning and beautification measures beacuse US dignitary Ivanka Trump is visiting the city. “The government that was unmoved by citizens’ woes after floods and rains have made huge preparations for just for 36 hours of Ivanka Trump’s visit,” he said.

Fired techies start online stir against Ivanka’s visit
Groups of retrenched techies from IT corridor of Hyderabad started an online campaign protesting the arrival of Ivanka Trump for the GES. They have blamed Trump’s America First policy for their protest, saying the American President is harming the Indian outsourcing industry. “I do not understand why the State government is going crazy for a multi-national company expanding to Hyderabad, even if it is a warehouse. They are not tech jobs, but jobs which require less cognitive skills,” observed Praveen Chandrahas, a techie and member of ForIT.

All party rally to raise demand for metro in Old City held, 3 detained
Representatives from various political parties came together to form a Joint Action Committee to intensify the demand for extension of Metro to the Old City. They took out a rally for the same. Public of Old City along with politicians of TRS, Congress, BJP, TDP, CPI and Welfare Party of India took out a short rally before being detained by police.