Saturday, July 5, 2025
Home Blog Page 1375

Delhi Book Fair starts, theme based on Mahatma Gandhi

New Delhi (NVI): The 28th edition of New Delhi World Book Fair 2020 (NDWBF), with the theme based on Mahatma Gandhi, began here today.

Human Resources Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nisank’ inaugurated the fair, whose theme is ‘GANDHI: WRITERS’ WRITER’, saying, “we are celebrating 150 years of Mahatma Gandhi in times when we need him the most.”

He said the world today is facing several challenges including terrorism and “The world, the nation, the society and all individuals, need Gandhi because of his vision and his philosophy of peace and non-violence.”

The Minister said the books help youth of India to come across new thoughts.

“We are in the midst of ocean of books and this ‘Mahakumbh’ of books is filled with thoughts, the thoughts which give power to humanity. This book fair is a place where people meet each other, and generate and share new thoughts and ideas,” he said.

The Minister urged publishers to promote books and the habit of reading as people are moving away from books, and a book fair like the NDWBF ensures that books and reading is preserved and increases.

He also appreciated the fact that the New Delhi World Book Fair is arguably Asia’s biggest book fair and he was hopeful that this fair would soon become the world’s biggest book fair.

LeT militant arrested, grenade attack on CRPF

Srinagar (NVI): Jammu and Kashmir Police today said it has arrested a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant who had escaped from an encounter some time back.

Nisar Ahmad Dar, a resident of the Hajin area of Bandipore district in north Kashmir, was arrested by the Special Operations Group.

Imtiyaz Hussain , SSP Security Kashmir in a tweet said, “Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Nisar Dar arrested by J&K Police & Security Forces. He had escaped from an encounter in Kullan Ganderbal in which one Pakistani terrorist of proscribed terror outfit was killed. This dreaded terrorist was wanted in many terror crimes.”

Meanwhile, suspected militants hurled a grenade at Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel in Kawdara locality in Srinagar today.

However, there was no immediate report of any casualty or injury.

Children’s deaths: Central team in Kota

Jaipur (NVI): A multi-disciplinary central team, including top paediatricians, has reached Kota in Rajasthan where it is assessing the reasons for the death of 107 children in government-run J K Lon Hospital over the last one month.

The team of experts has been sent to carry out a joint gap analysis along with the state government in terms of clinical protocols, service delivery, manpower availability and equipment for maternal, newborn and paediatric care services in the Kota Medical College.

A joint action plan is to be developed based on gap analysis for providing required technical and financial support to Kota Medical College through National Health Mission and State Medical Education Department.

Fire-fighting apparatus being upgraded in Srinagar as part of Smart City project

Srinagar (NVI): Work is underway on developing Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir as a Smart City, which involves improvement in services.

As part of the programme, the fire service apparatus in Srinagar is set to see major upgradation with all stations across the city being strengthened through a host of measures.

The project includes strengthening of all 23 fire stations and their integration and development of over 100 fire hydrants at different locations the aim being to strengthen the fire and emergency response apparatus across the Srinagar city.

It also includes enhancing capabilities of each fire station through equipment with requisite fire-fighting apparatus including fire tenders of different capacities and sizes.

The latter involves procurement of 15 small-size fire tenders, which are being introduced here for the first time to enable access to congested locations where normal-size tenders cannot reach.

Large fire tenders with 7500-litre capacities are also being procured as part of the project for enhancing relevant capabilities of the fire service department of the district.

Other major components of the project are development of a smart control room and setting up of a trusted wireless apparatus at 80 different locations.

Strengthening of fire service response mechanism for areas in and around the Dal Lake

Continue

Temperature rises in Delhi

New Delhi (NVI): Delhi witnessed further respite from chill today as the minimum temperature rose to 8.0 degrees celsius from 7.6 degrees Celsius recorded yesterday.
The maximum temperature  today is expected to be around 23.0 degrees celsius, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
The weatherman stated that the flow of chilly northwesterly winds stopped due to the easterlies which are comparatively warm and humid in nature.
It also forecast that there are chances of rainfall in Delhi in the next 72 hours due to which mercury may fall further. It may also lead to a slight reduction in pollution.
“Not just Delhi, but neighbouring Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, and Faridabad are also facing severe cold conditions,” IMD stated.
‘Cold day’ conditions are declared when the day’s maximum temperature is below normal by more than 4.4°C.  A ‘severe cold day’ is when mercury remains more than 6.4°C below normal through the day.
Meanwhile,  the overall air quality in the national capital today remained in the “very poor” category.
According to System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR),the Air Quality Index (AQI) in the national capital stood at  327 which falls in the “very poor” category.
The worst affected areas are Dhirpur, Delhi University, Chandni Chowk, Pusa, Lodhi Road, Mathura Road, IGI Terminal 3 and the neighbouring Noida.

NHRC seeks report over Kota tragedy

New Delhi (NVI): The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has taken suo motu cognizance of media reports about the death of more than 100 children at a government-run hospital in Rajasthan and sought a report from the state government with 4 weeks.

Ten out of 100 children, who died in the hospital in Kota, passed away within 48 hours between December 23 and 24, 2019, the NHRC noted in a statement.

Reportedly, over 50 per cent of the gadgets installed in the hospital are defunct and the hospital is lacking cleanliness and basic infrastructure including oxygen supply in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

The Commission has issued a notice to the Chief Secretary, government of Rajasthan, to submit a detailed report, within four weeks in the matter including the steps being taken to address the issue and to ensure that such deaths of the children do not recur in future due to lack of infrastructure and health facilities at the hospitals.

Govt sanctions 2636 EV charging stations in 62 cities

New Delhi (NVI): In an effort to give a further push to clean mobility in road transport sector, the Department of Heavy Industries has sanctioned 2636 Electric Vehicle charging stations in 62 cities.
These charging points have been submitted by 19 public entities for 24 States and UTs under FAME India (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India) scheme phase II.
“By installing all these charging stations, it is expected that at least one charging station will be available in most of the selected cities in a grid of 4 Km X 4 km, which will boost the confidence of users of Electric Vehicles in terms of Range Anxiety and also this will encourage the OEMs to launch the new Electric vehicle Models which they were hesitant because of lack of Charging infrastructure,” Minister of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises Prakash Javadekar said.
As many as 317 EV charging stations have been allotted in Maharashtra, 266 in Andhra Pradesh, 256 in Tamil Nadu, 228 in Gujarat, 205 in Rajasthan, 207 in Uttar Pradesh, 172 in Karnataka, 159 in Madhya Pradesh, 141 in West Bengal, 138 in Telangana, 131 in Kerala, 72 in Delhi, 70 in Chandigarh, 50 in Haryana, 40 in Meghalaya, 37 in Bihar, 29 in Sikkim, 25 each in Jammu & Srinagar and Chhattisgarh, 20 in Assam, 18 in Odisha and 10 each in Uttarakhand, Puducherry and Himachal Pradesh.
The sanction letters to the selected entities will be issued in phases after ensuring the availability of land for Charging Stations, signing of necessary agreements with concerned partner organizations like city municipal corporation, Discom, Oil companies etc.
Subsequently, each selected public entities are required to initiate the procurement process in a time bound manner for deployment of sanctioned Charging Stations.
Department of Heavy Industry had invited the Expression of Interest (EoI) from million-plus cities, smart cities, State and UT capitals and cities from special category states for submission of proposal for availing incentives under FAME India Scheme Phase II for deployment of EV charging infrastructure within Cities.
In response thereof, about 106 proposals from Public and Private Entities for the deployment of about 7000 EV charging stations were received.
After evaluation of these proposals as per EoI, on the advice of Project Implementation and Sanctioning Committee (PISC) the Government sanctioned 2636 charging stations to 62 cities submitted by 19 public entities for 24 states.
Out of these 2636 charging stations, 1633 Charging Stations will be Fast Charging Stations and 1003 nos will be slow charging stations.
 With this, about 14000 no of chargers will be installed across the selected cities.

J&K will soon emerge as a model of transformation: Jitendra Singh

Jammu (NVI): Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir would soon emerge as a model of transformation for the rest of the country, Minister of State in PMO Jitendra Singh said today.

Speaking while inaugurating the first Capacity Building Programme on General Financial Rules-2017, e-Procurement and Government e-Marketplace (GeM) here, he said this was the third major conference being organized in the union territory within a span of two months.

“Since every central law is now applicable to the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, it was necessary to unlearn the things that were learnt in the past in order to adopt to the new system,” said Singh, who hails from Jammu.

The Minister reiterated that all the Central laws like the Right to Information Act, Land Registration Act, Prevention of Corruption Act and the like, had become applicable to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir right from October 31, 2019.

While referring to a series of workshops and conferences being organised in J&K and cities other than Delhi, Singh said a bamboo workshop-cum-exhibition and a pension adalat would also be organised within this month.

Speaking on the sidelines of the launch of Monitoring Dashboard of Grievance Portal of Government of Jammu and Kashmir, Singh said the increase in the number of complaints was not a negative development but instead showed an increase in people’s faith on the administration and implied improvement in the response and redressal mechanism of the government.

He also mentioned that a central administrative tribunal bench would be established in J&K apart from a law university and a state-of-the-art
sports stadium that were under consideration at various levels.

DARPG Additional Secretary
V. Srinivas said the department had been engaging extensively with the government of Jammu and Kashmir for organising the conference which was the third major conference of its kind in a span of two months in J&K.

He said the conference sought to take forward the commitment to apply all the central laws to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir through proper training and capacity building.

The conference witnessed huge participation of officials from various departments of UT of J&K.

Earlier during the conference, a five-year vision document of Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances was released besides launching a monitoring dashboard of the grievance portal of government of Jammu and Kashmir.

A Memorandum of Understanding and exchange of documents was also done between DARPG, NCGG and IMPARD for the capacity building of 1000 officials of the government of Jammu and Kashmir.

The capacity building program is being conducted by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, government in collaboration with government of Jammu & Kashmir, National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG), National Institute of Financial Management (NIFM) and Institute of Management, Public Administration and Rural Development (IMPARD) for 385 officials of the government of Jammu and Kashmir.

India advocates restraint after US killed Iranian General

New Delhi (NVI): India today cautioned against escalation of tensions after the US air strike killed a top Iranian General, saying peace, stability and security in the West Asian region is of utmost importance.

“We have noted that a senior Iranian leader has been killed by the US. The increase in tension has alarmed the world,” External Affairs Ministry  said in a statement here.

“Peace, stability and security in this region is of utmost importance to India. It is vital that the situation does not escalate further. India has consistently advocated restraint and continues to do so,” it added.

Tensions are high in West Asia after Qassem Soleimani, a top military commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, was killed in Baghdad in a US air strike last night authorised by President Donald Trump.

The US said he was involved in activities that endangered the lives of American forces in Iraq.

India’s growth depends on achievements in S&T: PM

Bengaluru (NVI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi today pitched for revolutionising the landscape of Indian science technology and innovation, saying the growth story of India depends on its achievements in this sector.

He emphasized that science and technology has a major role in contributing towards making India a $5 trillion economy.

Inaugurating the 107th Indian Science Congress (ISC) here, he said the motto of ‘Innovate, Patent, Produce and Prosper’ for the young scientists will lead India towards a faster development.

“Innovation for the people and by the people is the direction of our ‘New India’.. ‘New India’ needs technology and also a logical temperament, so that we can give a new direction to our social and economic sectors,” the Prime Minister said.

 

“Science and technology provides a level playing field in making opportunities accessible to all and that it also plays a unifying role in the society,” he added.

 

“Now the developments in information and communication technology are able to provide cheaper smart phones & cheaper data and that has made it accessible to everyone in the country, where it was seen as a privilege of the few earlier,” he said.

“This made the common man now believe that he is not distantly separated from the government. Now he can directly connect with the government and make his voice heard,” he added.

 

Prime Minister exhorted the young scientists to work in the field of rural development where there are several opportunities for cheaper and better innovations.

 

Referring to the theme of 107th ISC – “Science and Technology: Rural Development”, the Prime Minister said that it is only due to Science & Technology, that Government Programmes have reached the needy.

 

He highlighted that India now stands at 3rd position globally, in the number of Peer-reviewed Science and Engineering Publications.

 

“I have been told that India has climbed to third position globally in the number of peer reviewed science and engineering publications. It is also growing at a rate of about 10% as compared to global average of 4%,” the Prime Minister said.

 

He also mentioned about Improvement in India’s ranking at Innovation Index to 52. He highlighted that Government programmes have created more incubators in the last 5 years than in previous 50 years.

 

“Technology is being harnessed at a large scale to achieve the objective of Good Governance,” he said.

 

He also added that owing to the technology of Geo Tagging and Data Science, many of the projects in rural and urban areas could be completed in a timely manner.

 

“We are continuing our efforts to ensure the ‘Ease of doing Science’ and effectively using information technology to reduce red tape,” he said.

 

He emphasized that Digitalisation, E Commerce, Internet Banking and Mobile Banking services are assisting rural population significantly.

 

“Technology can be harnessed for several rural development initiatives, particularly in the area of cost effective Agriculture and Farm to Consumer supply chain network,” he said.

 

He also urged everyone to find technological solutions for – stalk burning, maintenance of Ground water tables, prevention of communicable diseases, environment friendly transportation etc.

1...1,3741,3751,376...1,495Page 1,375 of 1,495

MUST READ