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J&K Govt amends rules to benefit Pahari speaking population

Lieutenant Governor GC Murmu

Jammu (NVI): In a significant development that would benefit at least nine lakh Pahari speaking people in Jammu and Kashmir, the UT administration today approved various amendments in the reservation rules.

The Administrative Council which met under the chairmanship of Lieutenant Governor GC Murmu today approved several amendments in the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Rules, 2005.

There are around 9.6 lakh Pahari Speaking People (PSP) across Jammu and Kashmir spread over mainly in Rajouri, Poonch, Baramulla (Uri and Boniyar), Kupwara (Karna and Keran) and pockets of Anantnag, Budgam, Bandipora, Ganderbal, Kulgam, Pulwama and Shopian.

Following the reorganization of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, and enactment of the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Act, 2004, it had become imperative to rationalize the existing reservation percentages to give representation to the PSP in the matters thereto.

For this purpose, necessary amendments have been approved in the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Rules, 2005 to include PSP in the category of socially and educationally backward classes.

As per the extant reservation rules, the percentage of reservation in direct recruitments is 8 per cent to Scheduled Castes (SCs), 10 per cent to Scheduled Tribes (STs), 2 per cent to weaker and underprivileged classes (Social Caste), 3 per cent to residents of areas adjoining Line of Actual Control (ALC)/International Border (IB), 20 per cent to residents of backward areas (RBA). There is also a horizontal reservation of 6 per cent available to Ex-Servicemen and 3 per cent to Physically Challenged Persons (PHC).

Following rationalisation of the percentage of reservation of different categories in direct recruitment, the residents of backward areas will now have 10 per cent reservation, Pahari speaking people (4 per cent) and Economically weaker sections (10 per cent).

For claiming the benefit of PSP Category, a person must be a member of the Pahari Clan, Community or Tribe having distinct cultural, ethnic and linguistic identity; must be speaking Pahari language and his/her mother tongue must be Pahari.  He/She must possess a valid identity proof which can be either Aadhar Card or Domicile Certificate.  Tehsildar shall be competent authority to certify the claim of persons belonging to PSP.

Administrative Council has directed the Social Welfare Department to redraw the reservation roster upon fixation of the new percentages. The decision will not only help to rationalize the reservations across Jammu and Kashmir but will also give equitable representation to the Members of Pahari Community thereby meeting their long-pending demand.

One killed as avalanche hits Ganderbal in J&K

Mubashir Bukhari

Ganderbal (NVI): A man was killed while three others suffered injuries after being buried under snow in an avalanche in Ganderbal district of Kashmir today.

According to officials, four persons who were working with IFFCO Company came under several feet of snow after the avalanche hit while they were working at Z-Morh tunnel in the area.

The deceased was identified as Ashok Rao. The three injured persons were identified as Surjeet Singh, Sukmeet Singh and Suraj Lal Singh.

SSP Ganderbal, Khalil Poswal said four people were trapped under the snow in the avalanche. “One person died, while three others were rescued,” he said.

Soon after the incident, the locals and Police jointly launched a rescue operation and shifted all the four injured to nearby Public Health Centre Kullan, where one of them was declared brought dead.

Efforts being made to repatriate Indians from China, says MEA spokesperson

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson, Raveesh Kumar

New Delhi (NVI): India is awaiting China’s response to it’s request to evacuate its nationals from the Hubei province in two flights, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson said.
India has been conducting a regular review on the situation arising out of the outbreak of novel coronavirus in China.

Meanwhile, the government have been able to establish contact with over 600 Indians across the Hubei province and are individually ascertaining their willingness to be repatriated, Raveesh Kumar said.

The spokesperson also said, “We have put out regular updates on the arrangements which are being made.”

“You are aware that we have made a formal request to the government of China for bringing back Indian nationals from the Hubei province in two flights. We are awaiting for the necessary approval from the Chinese side. We hope this will be granted soon,” he added.

The Mission in Beijing is working round-the-clock on the ground to work out the necessary logistics. Arrangements are being put in place for people to travel to the airport.

“We remain committed to the safety and well-being of our nationals abroad. We appreciate the support extended by the Government of China and other Ministries in the Government of India in putting this process together,” MEA spokesperson further added.

Lanka PM to visit India from Feb 7

New Delhi (NVI): Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa will undertake State visit to India from February 7 to 11, the Ministry of External Affairs said today.

He will be here at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the two leaders will hold talks to see how the bilateral relationship can be given a boost.

After his official engagements in Delhi, the Sri Lankan Prime Minister will travel to Varanasi, Sarnath, Bodhgaya and Tirupati, External Affairs Ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar said.

The visit is in continuation of the tradition of high-level exchanges between India and Sri Lanka,  the spokesperson said.

Earlier, President Gotabaya Rajpaksa visited India in November 2019 immediately after his election victory.

Pak violated ceasefire 3086 times in 2019

Alert issued in Poonch, Rajouri after militant movement detected near LoC
(File/Representational Image)

New Delhi (NVI): Pakistani troops violated ceasefire along the Jammu and Kashmir border 3,086 times in the year 2019, nine times higher than the number of such instances in 2013.

In 2013, there were 347 such border incidents in J&K, the Union Home Ministry said in an RTI reply.

There were 583 such incidents in 2014, 405 in 2015, 449 in 2016 and 917 in 2018, it added.

During this period (2013-2019), a total of 96 personnel from the Army and Border Security Force (BSF) got killed, while 489 were injured, the MHA said in reply to the RTI query of social activist Nutan Thakur.

The highest number of security personnel killed or injured was 145 (29 killed and 116 injured) in 2018, followed by 132 in 2019 and 112 in 2016. This figure was 38 in 2013 and 33 in 2014, she said.

According to reports, a huge number of ceasefire violations have taken place after August 2019, after the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.

India’s energy consumption to be second highest by 2050: EIA

Representative image

New Delhi (NVI): India has the fastest growing rate of energy consumption globally and by 2050, it will consume more energy than the US and its consumption will remain second only to China through 2050, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) International Energy Outlook 2019 (IEO2019).

Long-term energy consumption projections in India are uncertain because of its rapid rate of change magnified by the size of its economy, it says.

In the IEO2019 Reference case, EIA projects the economy of India to surpass the economies of the European countries that are part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the United States by the late 2030s to become the second-largest economy in the world, behind only China.

In EIA’s analysis, gross domestic product values for countries and regions are expressed in purchasing power parity terms.

It says that India’s economic growth will continue to drive the country’s growing energy consumption.

In the IEO2019 Reference case, India’s total energy consumption increases from 35 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) in 2018 to 120 quadrillion Btu in 2050, growing from a 6% share of the world total to 13%. However, annually, the level of GDP in India has a lower energy consumption than some other countries and regions.

EIA’s analysis shows that the country’s industrial activity has a greater effect on India’s energy consumption than technological improvements. In the IEO2019 Composition and Combination cases, where the assumption is that economic growth is more concentrated in manufacturing, energy use in India grows at a greater rate because those industries have higher energy intensities.

China responds on safety of Indian citizens in Wuhan

New Delhi (NVI): As China races against time to control the situation arising out of coronavirus outbreak, the Chinese Embassy in India today said Beijing is trying its best to address the concerns of Indian citizens in Wuhan, the epicentre of the epidemic.

“The Chinese government attaches great importance to safeguarding the safety and health of every foreign national in China, and address their legitimate concerns timely,” said Ji Rong, the spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in India.

“We also hope Indian side could continue to render understanding and support to China’s efforts in epidemic prevention and control,” the Chinese spokesperson added.

The official made the remarks while addressing the Indian government’s concern on pneumonia epidemic caused by the novel coronavirus, and particularly the safety of its citizens in Wuhan which falls in Hubei province. The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak has climbed to 170.

The Chinese Embassy Official’s remarks also come after India reported its first confirmed coronavirus case in Kerala.

“The Chinese side pays close attention to the report of the emergence of one confirmed case of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus in India and will cooperate with the Indian side to jointly strengthen the epidemic prevention and control,” said Ji Rong, while referring to a Kerala student studying in Wuhan University who has been tested positive for the virus.

The Ministry of Health today confirmed the case, saying that the patient has been kept in isolation at a hospital where his condition is stated to be stable.

Media reports have also said that a 23-year-old Tripura man has died due to the virus at a Malaysian hospital. His family members have claimed that the death occurred due to coronavirus but the Ministry of External Affairs has given no official confirmation in this regard.

GBG broadens fight against modern day financial crime

Representative image

New Delhi (NVI): The global technology specialist in fraud & compliance management, GBG, today announced the launch of four fraud solutions, including its flagship Instinct Hub now as a platform solution.

Businesses across the globe are enabled to onboard quality customers more swiftly, while simultaneously protecting their organizations and their customers against losses from fraud and financial crimes in an increasingly complex digital landscape.

GBG’s fraud and compliance management product suite is accredited by Chartis as best of breed anti-money laundering (AML) and watchlist solutions, for their strong case management and analytics capabilities, focused functionality and ability to integrate with other best-in-class point solutions.

“Nearly one in two enterprises in Asia Pacific are falling victim to fraud, money laundering, or other forms of financial crime. Financial institutions find themselves facing unprecedented diversity of application and transactional channels — from branch to online and e-wallets.

These channels and criminal activities are evolving at a speed and complexity that these enterprises, and the financial institutions that support them, are hard-pressed to keep up with,” said June Lee, Managing Director of APAC, GBG.

To aid in that fight, GBG offers a layered digital fraud and compliance solution which unifies data across vertical silos to improve financial crime detection accuracy across the customer journey.

At the foundation of GBGs offering sits Instinct Hub, a key solution to its digital risk management and intelligence platform, which manages swift and frictionless new customer digital onboarding. Instinct Hub is upscaled to combat complex financial crimes 4.0 attacks against a customer identity and perpetrated across online, mobile and branch networks.

GBG Instinct Hub is designed for organizations who are embracing digital transformation, e-banking channels and launching digital banking products.

Other solutions include:

Predator 5.0, GBG’s autonomous solution for identifying and ceasing suspicious transactions and payments that can cost financial institutions billions in losses.

Orchestration, a module for Instinct Hub that can raise fraud detection up to 30 per cent by dynamically activating the desired best of breed cyber, identity, geolocation and bespoke third party calls such as to proprietary banking systems and fraud bureaus.

Machine Learning, a module for Instinct Hub that uses advanced modelling techniques to detect complex criminal attacks, augment detection accuracy and reduce false positives.All of GBG’s solutions can be supported across a range of infrastructure models, from full on-premise to private, public, and hybrid cloud.

“Financial institutions and other enterprises must increasingly balance the imperatives of digital transformation with the need to maintain watertight defences against financial and cybercrimes,” said June Lee. “With that in mind, GBG’s solutions are designed especially to provide frictionless and fully-automated layers of protection which evolve to the changing customer experience, payments models, and infrastructure choices that digitally transforming organizations may employ.”

India reports first confirmed coronavirus case in Kerala

Representational image

New Delhi (NVI) A Kerala student studying at Wuhan University in China has been tested positive for Coronavirus, becoming the first confirmed case affected by the deadly virus in India.

“One positive case of Novel Coronavirus patient, of a student studying in Wuhan University, has been reported in Kerala,” the Ministry of Health today said in a release.

The patient has been kept in isolation at a hospital where his condition is stated to be stable, the ministry added.

The infections disease known as novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) has claimed around 170 lives so far while wreaking havoc on Chinese Province Hubei, the epicentre of its outbreak.

Yesterday, Indian government has requested China for permission to operate two flights to bring back its nationals from Hubei Province, the epicenter of the deadly disease.

Citizens trying to make pollution a poll issue in Delhi

New Delhi (NVI): With Delhi set for Assembly elections, some citizen groups are making the political parties and their candidates commit to work for clean air in the national capital which has been witnessing spells of severe pollution.

The #DilliDhadakneDo campaign, led by My Right to Breathe (MRTB), is organising town hall meetings to raise the issue of poor air quality and hold the political leaders or legislators accountable for it.

Citizens groups in Delhi, including MRTB and United residents Joint Action (URJA), have released a Clean Air Public Manifesto ahead of the February 8 Assembly elections and are making political parties and candidates to commit to it.

MRTB, the organisation behind the movement, has also asked the citizens to sign an online petition to demand clean air from the leading political parties in Delhi this election.

With the spike in health problems due to degraded air in the city in the last two years, the seasonal debates on the matter have transformed into a matter of huge concern among general public.

Now, for the first time, political leaders and candidates in the city are talking about possible solutions for air pollution, thanks to the citizens’ movement that has led to thousands gathering across Delhi and raising the issue.

The ongoing campaign started on January 27, with a series of town halls in 15 different constituencies across the city. Representatives of various political parties such as Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Indian National Congress (INC) attended the three town hall meetings on January 27 which were held at Karawal Nagar, Delhi Cantonment, and RK Puram.

At another such town hall organised in Dwarka, representatives from AAP and BJP pledged their support to Clean Air Manifesto 2020.

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