UP has highest number of child labour cases…

June 12 as the 'International day against child labour', leading child rights NGO CRY (Child Rights and You), pointed out that the persistence of child labour in the country is mainly due to lack of political will to actually see to the complete ban of child labour.

According to the NSS - National Sample Survey, 66th round (2009-10), there are 49.84 lakh child labourers across the country, and 23.3 per cent of 15 to 18-year-olds are engaged in some income-earning activity.

Unfortunately, Uttar Pradesh tops the list as the state with highest number of child labour cases in the age group of 10-14 years and third in terms of worst record between 10-18 years.

Arunachal wants separate time zone to improve efficiency, work hours…

The demand for a separate time zone for the northeastern states has a new champion in Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu.

Khandu told the Hindustan Times that a separate time zone was needed to improve work efficiency and save electricity in the region.

“We get up as early as 4am,” said the 37-year-old former Congressman who crossed over to the BJP in July last year and become the country’s youngest chief minister.

“Several daylight hours are wasted as government offices open only at 10am and closes at 4pm.”

 ‘Jal Sanchay’ project of Bihar Chosen for National Award…

‘Jal Sanchay’ Project, a water conservation model is successfully adopted in Nalanda district of south-central Bihar. It’s chosen for the national award for excellence in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGP) by the Ministry of Rural Development.

Nalanda being an agriculture-oriented district remained affected by drought-like conditions that hampered the farming activities in the district. Though the district receives flash floods during the monsoon, the water runoff in the district was very high so much so that the entire water got washed away in a span of 15 days. Due to these circumstances, ‘project jal sanchay’ was launched under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGP) to recover from the water crisis in the district.

Under the project, check dams and traditional Aahar-Pyne irrigation systems were created. In addition, traditional water bodies were desilted and renovated. Campaigns about the usefulness of rainwater harvesting were also carried out. The project was a mix of modern day techniques and technologies with traditional knowledge and got evolved into a holistic program to conserve water. As a result of the implementation of the project, availability of water got improved drastically which positively impacted the farm production in the district.

પ્રીતિ પટેલ થેરેસા મેની સરકારમાં ઇન્ટરનેશનલ ડેવલપમેન્ટ ખાતું સંભાળશે...

બ્રિટિશ વડાપ્રધાન થેરેસા મેએ કેબિનેટ મંત્રાલયની જાહેરાત કરી છે. જેમાં ભારતીય મૂળનાં પ્રીતિ પટેલને બ્રિટિશ સરકારનું ખૂબ મહત્ત્વપૂર્ણ ઈન્ટરનેશનલ ડેવલપમેન્ટ મંત્રાલય સોંપાયું છે. થેરેસા મેના ખૂબ જ વિશ્વાસપાત્ર ડેમિયન ગ્રીનને નાયબ વડાપ્રધાન બનાવાયા છે.

વીજળીના અચાનક વધારાથી ઈલેક્ટ્રિક સાધનોને નુકસાન થાય તો વીજકંપની જવાબદાર…

વીજળીના અચાનક વધારાથી ઘરના ઈલેક્ટ્રિક સાધનોને નુકસાન થાય તો આ માટે પાવર કંપની આવા નુકસાન માટે જવાબદાર ઠરે છે. ગ્રાહક સુરક્ષા કોર્ટે વીજ કંપનીના કારણે ગ્રાહકના વીજળીના સાધનોને નુકસાન થાય તો તેના માટે કંપનીએ ખર્ચ ચૂકવવો પડે અને આ માટે વીજકંપની જવાબદાર હોવાનો ચુકાદો આપ્યો છે.

Government has launched the ‘Tele-Law’ initiative…

The government on Sunday has launched the ‘Tele-Law’ initiative of the Ministry of Law and Justice partnered with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology that anchors the Digital India programme, to provide legal aid services through its Common Service Centres (CSC) at the panchayat level, spread across the country.

According to the Law Ministry, in the first phase, the ‘Tele-Law’ scheme will be tested as a pilot across 500 such CSCs in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to understand the challenges and make necessary corrections to the scheme before it is scaled up and rolled out across the country in a phased manner.

Under the scheme, a portal called ‘Tele-Law’ will be launched, which will be available across the CSC network. This will connect the citizens to legal service providers with the help of technology-enabled platforms.

 ‘Tele-Law’ will enable people to seek legal advice from lawyers through video conferencing available at the CSC. Additionally, law school clinics, District Legal Service Authorities, voluntary service providers and Non-Government Organisations working on legal aid and empowerment can also be connected through the CSCs anywhere and anytime, in order to strengthen access to justice for the marginalized communities. A robust monitoring and evaluation system is also being designed which will help in assessing the quality of legal advice provided and the ensuing benefit to those accessing it.

Jnanpith awardee C Narayana Reddy passes away…

Dr C Narayana Reddy, the 85-year-old poet-author-writer-lyricist, died due to health complications.

He was also a former Rajya Sabha MP and vice-chancellor of Telugu University

The Telugu film industry has condoled his death.

In 1992, Reddy was awarded the country’s third-highest civilian honour, Padma Bhushan.

In 1977, he was awarded the Padma Shri and he was nominated to the Upper House of Parliament too.

In 1998, he received the prestigious Jnanpith award for his poetic work Visvambara which got translated into three other languages.

Reddy has also written several songs for Telugu movies.

 Narayana Reddy was born in Karimnagar district of Andhra Pradesh on July 29, 1931.

 He had obtained his MA and PhD in Telugu literature from Osmania University. 

Previously, he had also worked as a professor of the University.

Now, build a toilet in 4 hours with city lab’s tech…

The panels can be made in a matter of 30 minutes while a structure like a toilet unit can be assembled with these panels in less than four hours with just two workers. It does not require any special equipment such as cranes. "Any unskilled worker can construct the structures but it requires proper supervision," Senior scientist Gopinath said.

With the help of a new cost-effective technology developed by a CSIR laboratory, a structure like a toilet can be built within a few hours. The city-based CSIR-Structural Engineering Research Centre has developed textile reinforced concrete panels for the construction of affordable, lightweight, non-corrosive and durable structures. On Saturday, the national research laboratory signed an MoU with Smart Built Prefab Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad, to transfer the technology during the celebration of its 53rd Foundation Day.

Smitha Gopinath said the lab has developed panels using textile reinforced concrete prototyping technology (TRCPT) that does not require moulds during casting. SERC had filed for a patent for TRCPT technology in 2014.

Materials like glass, carbon, aramid, polypropylene (plastic), jute and coir can be used as a textile mesh for reinforcement replacing conventional iron and steel rods. "Usage of textile mesh as a construction material is relatively new though it is widely used in other countries. A glass textile mesh, in particular, is alkali resistant, so it won't corrode," she said.

Heena Sidhu, Jitu Rai win ISSF World Cup mixed team 10m gold in Gabala…

Ace shooters Jitu Rai and Heena Sidhu delivered India its first medal at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Rifle/Pistol series being held in Gabala, Azerbaijan by combining superbly to claim gold in the mixed team 10m air pistol event.

However, Jitu Rai and Heena Sidhu narrowly missed out making to the finals of the individual men’s and women’s 10m air pistol event. Jitu Rai finished 12th, Heena Sidhu finished 9th in their respective qualification rounds. Only top 8 are eligible to compete in the finals. Significantly, mixed team events have been approved as medal events for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. This win is the Indian pair’s second World Cup gold together.