The fourth meeting of the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GAMADA) under the chairmanship of Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal today approved the construction of 4-laned road from PGI to Siswan T- junction within the jurisdiction of Punjab territory.
Disclosing this here today a spokesman of the Punjab government said that the proposed road project would be executed by the GAMADA.  The authority also gave approval for the execution of land for the mix land use and for the construction of the road from Kharar to Mohali.  The authority also approved the land acquisition for the construction of road connecting knowledge city in Sector 81 with Kharar Banur highway.
In another significant decision the authority also approved to allot permanent booths to the shopkeepers of unauthorized Khoka Market of phase 3B-1 at the old rates.
Prominent amongst others who attended the meeting included Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, Chief Secretary RI Singh, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister DS Guru, Principal Secretary Finance SC Aggarwal, Secretary Housing & Urban Development Arun Goel, Chief Administrative PUDA VP Singh, MD Punjab State Infrastructure Development Board Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Chief Town Planner Rajinder Gupta.

Ind Swift Communications Pvt Ltd. (ISCPL), a part of Rs. 1100 Crore Ind- Swift Group, today launched “Tri-city Calling”, a monthly update and infotainment magazine for the tricity residents. The magazine was unveiled by Ms. Frainy Ahuja, Mrs. India 2006-07 and Dr. Gopal Munjal, Editor- in- Chief, Tri-City Calling at PHD Chamber, Sector 31, Chandigarh.Mr. S R Mehta, Chairman, Ind Swift Group; Dr. N R  Munjal; Dr. V R Mehta; Mr. V K Mehta and Mr. Himanshu Jain (All Directors) were also present
Addressing the audience, Ms. Frainy Ahuja said that Chandigarh is having many life style daily paper but a month information magazine is required in the city. Dr. Gopal Munjal said that the success of Trendz, Pharma Buzz, Ayurvedic Drug Index (ADI), Agrovet Buzz, Clinical Research Book, this is 6th product of fast emerging ISCPL.
Mr. Hatish Kataria, CEO, ISCPL said that we are targeting a subscription base of 50,000 within one year through aggressive marketing. We have Chalked out door to door marketing plan and we are giving full value subscription offer to increase the readership base.
The event was also graced by Mr. Pawan Nagrath, & Suraj Saxena (Mansa Prints), Mr. O.P. Thaplyal, (VP-HR), Mr. Amit Tarafder (VP-Finance), Mr. Gaurav Aggarwal (VP- Commercials) and Mr. Anshu Kataria ( Advisor, Ind Swift).
Tri-City Calling is an infotainment magazine designed to cater the needs of the city residents and visitors for giving them update on the happenings, events, fashion update, new product launches, eating joints, Night Clubs, Pubs, Tourism Guidance and important contact numbers of the Tricity along with the category wise listing for the shopping places. The highlight of the Magazine is the discount coupons with special discounts offered for the subscribers and readers of the Magazine.

The Punjab Government today signed an agreement to set up an Indian School of Business (ISB) in the Knowledge City in SAS Nagar (Mohali).
The agreement was signed by Anjali Bhawra, Secretary Higher Education on behalf of the Punjab Government and Rajat Gupta on behalf of ISB along with four Founder Supporters Analjit Singh of Max India Ltd, Rakesh Bharti Mittal of Bharti Enterprises, Sunil K Munjal of Hero Corporate Services Ltd and Atul Punj of Punj Lloyd Ltd. to establish this premier management institute of excellence at Mohali.
Giving details, a spokesperson of the Punjab Government stated that the prestigious Institute will be established under a unique model of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) whereby the State Government would be leasing out 70 acres of land in Knowledge City in Sector 81, Mohali for a period of 99 years at a rate of Re 1/- per acre annually to ISB to establish the second campus of ISB with the support of the four Founder Supporters.
The Founder Supporters, leading corporate houses with strong linkages to Punjab, would be contributing a sum of Rs. 50 crore each i.e. a total of Rs. 200 crore towards the establishment of ISB’s second campus at Mohali.  Besides the Management Institute, the Mohali campus of ISB will also have four specialized institutes termed as Centers of Excellence, for promoting research and offering the following additional specializations in the Post Graduate Programme - Max India Institute of Healthcare Management; Bharti Institute of Public Policy; Hero Institute of Manufacturing Sciences; and Punj Lloyd Institute of Physical Infrastructure Management. These institutes would focus on doing research, developing teaching material and engaging in policy dialogue in their respective areas.
The first Academic Session at the ISB Campus in Mohali is expected to commence in 2012. The Campus proposes to have 280 seats in its Post Graduate Management Programme and 750 seats in its Executive Education Programme.
Speaking on the occasion, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal termed the signing of the Agreement as a “red-letter day” for Punjab and hoped that ISB would be the harbinger of growth of quality higher education in the State. He thanked the ISB management as well the four Founder Supporters who had underscored their strong ties with the State through their investment and commitment in this Project. The proposed educational cluster in the Knowledge City would prove to be a gateway for the youth of this region for accessing quality higher education, said the Chief Minister.
Mr. Rajat Gupta, Chairman of Board of Governors of ISB expressed gratitude to the Chief Minister and assured the State Government that the ISB at Mohali would be developed as “flagship institution”. He thanked the 4 Founder Supporters for their generous endowments for the project.
Established by some of the well known industry and academic leaders around the world to meet the growing need for management talent in India and the Asian region, the ISB has emerged in the last decade as a world-class business school. The vision of the ISB is to be an internationally top-ranked, research-driven management institution that grooms leaders for India and the world. The ISB has academic associations with the world’s leading business schools like Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. The ISB is supported by some of the best professionals in the world. Its Governing Body consists of heads of some of the Fortune 500 companies. The Executive Board (Board of Directors) comprises of some of India’s most successful entrepreneurs and business leaders. The high quality of ISB’s education is attested by the record-breaking placements which they have been able to achieve within a short span of six years. Its Centre for Executive Education is the largest executive education provider in India and has been attracting senior and top management professionals from India’s leading private and public sector companies. All these factors put together have helped the ISB achieve one more laurel: 20th rank in the World MBA rankings brought out by Financial Times, London. It is the first Indian School to have achieved this distinction and possibly the youngest school in the world to enter this league.
The ISB will offer the same one-year Post-Graduate Programme (PGP) in Management at Mohali with additional specializations in Healthcare Management, Manufacturing Sciences, Public Policy and Physical Infrastructure Management among others. Like Hyderabad, the ISB campus at Mohali will also be a residential programme. The internationally acclaimed ISB faculty will be available for teaching on both campuses and faculty recruiting would also be common. Similarly, student admissions would be common to both campuses, to ensure no dilution in quality. Since it would be vital that the high standards of quality and culture of excellence prevalent at the ISB be retained intact at both the campuses, the ISB leadership team would have complete autonomy in academic decision making regarding the aspects of quality of faculty, quality of students, curriculum design and research agenda at the ISB-M’s functioning.
In addition, all standards and processes would be common in both the campuses of ISB. The ISB campus at Mohali would lead the ISB efforts to establish close linkages with other academic institutions proposed as part of the Knowledge City and those situated elsewhere in Punjab. Given the ISB’s experience in creating a world-class management institution in India and the support and commitment of the four Founder Supporters, the Punjab Government is confident of replicating the success of the Hyderabad campus in the ISB’s campus at Mohali.
Among the prominent who were present on the occasion included Bikram Singh Majithia Information & Public Relations Minister, Prof. JS Bajaj Vice-Chairman Punjab State Planning Board, Mohinder Kaur Josh, Chief Parliamentary Secretary (Education), Harcharan Bains Media Advisor to CM, Ramesh Inder Singh Chief Secretary, Pawan Kant Munjal of Hero Group, Secretary Housing & Urban Development Arun Goel and Dean ISB M. Rammohan Rao.

Despite the global economic meltdown, US based MERIAL the only global pharmaceutical company exclusively devoted to animal health today firmed up $100 million dollars (Rs.500 crore) Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Punjab by setting up a Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccine manufacturing project at Lalru in district SAS Nagar (Mohali).
An assurance to this effect was given by President MERIAL Dr. Jean-Loius Crosia during a meeting with the Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal here at his official residence this morning.
Dr. Crosia informed the Chief Minister that MERIAL was a world leading, innovation-driven animal health company providing a comprehensive range of products to enhance the health, well-being and performance of a wide range of animals.  He pointed out MERIAL employed approximately 5000 people and had world wide operations in more than 150 countries.  MERIAL is the joint venture between Merck & Co., Inc. (USA) and Sanofi-Aventis (France).
Dr. Crosia further said that the MERIAL scouted for investment destination in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka, after getting favourable response from Punjab Government and on-spot delivery of services had firmed up investment in the state. This would be the fourth FMD Vaccine manufacturing plant in the country and three other such plants were located in South and West. It was also informed in the meeting that first phase of the project would be completed by 2010 and the second & third phases would be functional by 2011 & 2013 respectively.
Dr. Crosia revealed that MERIAL India Pvt. Ltd. with an investment of Rs.250 crore would also set up a R&D centre to explore India’s domestic requirements of F&D vaccine, besides a full-fledged production plant being established in Punjab. He further informed that the company had already purchased 20 acres of land in Lalru.
Dr. Crosia said, “This new Biotechnology facility with world-class process and standards for production and R&D of FMD vaccines in Punjab will be comparable to our facilities in UK, Brazil and France.”
The Chief Minister thanked Dr. Crosia for reposing confidence in Punjab keeping in view congenial investment climate which it offered to the prospective investors added that the FDI worth Rs.500 crore would act as a catalyst to attract much more such investments in the state, besides giving impetus to the local employment potential both direct as well as indirect.  Mr. Badal said that the upcoming FMD vaccine project would certainly give a boost to the dairy industry in the state as Punjab had the highest per capita availability of milk per day i.e. 901 grams which was 3.88 times higher than National average.
Mr. Badal further said that it was the high time to adopt allied farming in the fields of dairy, fishery, bee-keeping, piggery etc. to supplement the farmers’ income as the traditional agriculture had already reached a point of saturation due to low returns as compared to higher input costs.  The Chief Minister assured Dr. Crosia that Punjab government would provide all possible infrastructure back-up support and also depute a nodal officer to oversee the progress of the project on day to day basis and to offer one stop services.
Prominent amongst others who were present in the meeting included Local Government & Industries Minister Manoranjan Kalia, Chief Secretary RI Singh, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister DS Guru, Principal Secretary Animal Husbandry SC Aggarwal, Principal Secretary Industries & Commerce SS Channy, Additional Principal Secretary to Chief Minister AK Mahajan, chairman, Punjab pollution Control Board Yogesh Goel, Director-cum-Secretary VN Janjua besides the representatives from MERIAL India Pvt. Ltd. comprising Finance Director Ms. Samia Jaber, Country Head Mayank Parekh, Anil Nagpal and SD Rampal.