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J&K: Three militants killed in Udhampur encounter

Representative image

Jammu (NVI) : Three militants have been killed in an ongoing encounter with security forces and militants in the dense woods of Nagrota along Srinagar-Jammu highway today.

The gunfight raged after a group of militants travelling in a truck were intercepted at a toll plaza along highway in Jammu region’s Udhampur district.

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Jammu, Mukesh Singh has said that three militants have been killed in the ongoing gunbattle.

Director General of Police (DGP), Dilbagh Singh has reportedly said that these militants were a newly infiltrated group and were on their way to Srinagar.

He has also said that it is suspected that they have infiltrated from Kathua, Hiranagar border.

Singh added that investigation into the matter has been started.

Indian-origin Arvind Krishna named as IBM CEO

arvind krishna
Arvind Krishna has been named as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of International Business Machines (IBM)

New Delhi (NVI): Indian-origin technology executive Arvind Krishna has been named as the chief executive officer (CEO) of American IT giant International Business Machines (IBM), replacing longtime CEO Virginia Rometty.

The IBM Board of Directors elected Krishna as company CEO and member of the Board of Directors effective April 6.

57 year-old Arvind Krishna is currently senior vice president for IBM’s cloud and cognitive software unit and was a principal architect of the company’s purchase of Red Hat.

He joined IBM in 1990 and has an undergraduate degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Arvind Krishna’s appointment as head of the global IT giant adds to the growing list of Indian-origin executives at the helm of some of the biggest multinational companies.

Mr Krishna joins the club that includes Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga, PepsiCo’s former CEO Indra Nooyi and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen.

Railways to tag coaches, wagons for better management

New Delhi (NVI): Indian Railways is implementing radio-frequency tags (RFID) for tracking wagons, coaches and locomotives to improve service levels and operating efficiency.

The RFID project has been taken up with an aims to automatically and accurately track and trace rolling stock as they move across the country with a special focus on improving their safety and reliability.

The Indian Railways has decided to fit all rolling stock; roughly 3,50,000 vehicles are expected to be tagged by 2021.

Till now, approximately 22,000 wagons and 1200 coaches have been fitted with RFID tags.

Additionally, roughly 3,500 fixed RFID readers are expected to come up which shall communicate to a central control center using GS1’s LLRP (low level reader protocol) standard.

For implementing this project over Indian Railways Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS, the IT arm of the Indian Railways), GS1 India and the Indian Industry have come together.

To implement this project two works for RFID project have been sanctioned by Railway Board for a total of Rs 112.96 crore.

This project is being spearheaded by the Rolling Stock Department of the Indian Railways.

GS1 India is also deeply involved in ensuring the quality of the work and proper adoption of international standards.

CRIS has been utilising the considerable expertise of GS1 in developing and validating solutions, based on GS1 Standards, for the Indian Railways.

This will create a new segment in the AIDC (Automatic Identification and Data Collection) industry in India uniquely suited for the Indian Railways requirements.

In order that RFID tags can be used in all locations in the country including those with poor connectivity, Indian Railways opted to use the GIAI-202 standard.

Indian Railways has successfully field tested these CRIS designed GIAI202 encoded tags at a speed of 182.7 kmph. This feat puts the Indian Railways in the league of leaders with respect to AIDC technology in the railways sector.

Delhi temperature drops further

New Delhi (NVI): Delhi witnessed further chill in weather today as the minimum temperature dropped to 7.1 degree celsius from 8.0 degree celsius recorded yesterday.

The maximum temperature today is expected to be around 21.0 degrees celsius, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

The weatherman stated that the temperature is expected to dip further over the next few days.

Meanwhile, the overall air quality in the national capital today remained in the “moderate” category.

According to System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR),the Air Quality Index (AQI) in the national capital stood at  139 which falls in the  “moderate” category.

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.

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