Indian Link media group

Earlier, Biden called on Vice President Hamid Ansari where he outlined President Barack Obama’s and his “personal commitment and interest” in expansion of India-US relations and said India’s Look East policy was complementary to America’s “rebalancing towards Asia”.

Ahead of his trip, Biden had said his visit to India and Singapore was intended to reinforce the White House strategy of ‘rebalancing’ towards Asia and the Pacific.

The Democratic Party politician, who is visiting India with his wife Jill Biden, also called on President Pranab Mukherjee, and met United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

Taj Mahal to be adopted under Clean India campaign

The Taj Mahal, a Unesco World Heritage site, will be adopted under the Clean India Campaign, the tourism ministry and Agra officials said recently.

The Taj Mahal will be adopted by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) at a function to be attended by Tourism Minister K. Chiranjeevi.

“It is the crown jewel among the tourist destinations in India and naturally is a priority destination under the campaign Clean India programme,” the ministry said.

Agra district authorities said the minister will first visit the Taj Mahal with officials of the ministry and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) director general and then inaugurate the Clean India campaign from the Taj Khema Hotel with the Taj Mahal in the backdrop.

The ONGC has taken the responsibility to clean up the area within and outside the 17th century marble mausoleum.

District Magistrate Zuher Bin Sagir said, “It’s a very important programme for us and we have made elaborate preparations. Agra deserves higher standards of cleanliness”.

Agra Municipal Commissioner D.K. Singh said at present the ASI looks after cleanliness inside the Taj Mahal complex and the roads leading to the monument are maintained by the Agra Development Authority.

He said the Taj Ganj neighbourhood close to the monument and the lanes and streets around the monument are maintained by the municipal corporation.

At the initiative of the tourism ministry, the ASI has agreed to the proposal of ONGC for adopting five more monuments under the Clean India campaign.

The monuments, besides the Taj, are Ellora & Elephanta Caves in Maharashtra, the Red Fort in Delhi, Golkonda Fort near Hyderabad, and Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu.

The Clean India campaign is part of the central government’s strategy for 12th Five Year Plan for improving the quality of services and the environ in and around tourist destinations across India.

“The campaign is aimed at undertaking both sensitisation and action at field level on bringing tourism destinations and their surroundings to an expectable level of cleanliness and hygiene,” it said.

The campaign is being implemented with the involvement of private and public sector stakeholders.

Indo-Swiss project to frame green buildings guidelines for builders

An Indo-Swiss joint project on energy-efficient buildings will be coming up with guidelines that can be used by builders and contractors, Swiss Ambassador Linus von Castelmur said in New Delhi recently.

“The urban residential sector is growing rapidly. The energy needs of such buildings are also growing and represent a huge opportunity for energy conservation. The project has studied such buildings in the Delhi and Chennai regions.

“It will be coming up with guidelines that can be used by the builders and contractors to make homes more energy-efficient. This way, the house owners will face a win-win situation,” said the ambassador.

Discussions are also on with the government of Karnataka on how to develop standard design features that could be incorporated as part of standard building practice.

Castelmur was speaking at a seminar on sustainable architecture organised by the Swiss embassy and the Bureau of Energy Efficiency.

The ongoing Indo-Swiss Project on Building Energy Efficiency Project (BEEP) in partnership with the BEE is bringing Swiss experts and state agencies to enhance energy efficient design of new buildings in India.

BEEP is a bilateral cooperation project between the Ministry of Power, Government of India, and the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) of the Swiss Federation. The BEE is implementing agency on behalf of the MoP while the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation is the implementing agency on behalf of the FDFA.

The BEEP aims at creating a culture of energy efficient building design through the organisation of Integrated Design Charrettes (interdisciplinary design workshops) for 24 large commercial building project over a period of five years.

BEE director general Ajay Mathur said around 400 professionals will be trained in this BEEP project across the country in the next three years on building energy efficient buildings. IANS