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India and Japan sign MoU to enhance cooperation in ICT

By
The Commune
-

India and Japan signed MoU to enhance cooperation in the field of Information and Communications Technologies today. MoU was signed by Union Minister for Communications, Electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad and the Japanese Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications Takeda Ryota and it was exchanged through a video conference today.

Department of Telecom, Government of India and Ministry of Communications, Government of Japan will enhance mutual cooperation in the field of 5G technologies, telecom security, submarine optical fiber cable system to islands of India, spectrum management, smart cities, high altitude platform for broadband in unconnected areas, disaster management and public safety etc. It has been agreed that apart from Ministry level cooperation, Government of India organization such as C-DOT and ITI Limited along with industry partners from Japan will also part of this cooperation.

Speaking on this occasion the Union Minister for Communication, Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad highlighted the timely execution of connecting Andaman & Nicobar Islands with submarine optical fiber cable as a great example of cooperation between India and Japan. He further shared the rapid adoption of innovative digital technologies by India during COVID19 pandemic such as AarogyaSetu app, use of Aadhaar Enabled Payment System for doorstep disbursement of cash by India Post, digital hearings in Courts of India and rapid growth of digital payments. He further highlighted that during COVID19, due to attractive polices like PLI  and SPECS large amount of investments have come to India in the field of electronics manufacturing. He urged the Japanese electronics industry to invest in India and avail the benefits of the new technologies. Minister further highlighted the great potential India holds for Japanese investors in the field of 5G and 5G based services, Internet of Things, digital health technologies etc.

Japanese Minister Mr. Takeda Ryota expressed happiness on signing of MoU between India and Japan and expressed the commitment of Government of Japan towards mutual cooperation and investments in India.

(Published from PIB)

Indian Army demonstrates drone swarms during Army Day Parade

By
The Commune
- 
Feature Image Credits: PIB

The Indian Army carried out a live demonstration of Drone Swarming capability using 75 indigenously designed and developed drones which executed an array of Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled simulated offensive missions and close support tasks during the Army Day Parade held at Delhi Cantt on 15 January 2021.

This demonstration is a recognition of the Indian Army’s steady embrace of emerging and disruptive technologies to transform itself from a manpower intensive to a technology enabled force to meet future security challenges. The Indian Army is investing heavily into Artificial Intelligence (AI), Autonomous Weapon Systems, Quantum Technologies, Robotics, Cloud Computing and Algorithm Warfare in order to achieve a convergence between the Army’s warfighting philosophies and military attributes of these technologies.

The Indian Army has undertaken a wide array of technology initiatives in coordination with Dreamers, Startups, MSMEs, Private Sector, Academia,  Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs). One such project is the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Offensive Drone Operations which has been incubated with an Indian Start Up. This project symbolises the beginning of the Indian Army’s tryst with autonomy in weapon platforms and showcases the Army’s commitment towards merging the cutting edge of digital technologies with its human resource.

(Published from PIB)

Union Health Minister dispels myths surrounding COVID19 vaccines, reassures country of efficacy of indigenously manufactured vaccines

By
The Commune
- 
Image Credits: MediCircle

The Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, today reviewed preparations for the launch of the nationwide COVID19 vaccination drive scheduled to begin tomorrow. The Union Minister visited the Dedicated COVID Control Room which has been setup at the Nirman Bhawan premises of the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the 1st phase of the pan India rollout of COVID-19 vaccination drive tomorrow, 16th January, 2021 at 10:30 AM via video conferencing.  This vaccination program will cover the entire length and breadth of the country, with a total of 3006 session sites across all States and UTs which will be connected virtually throughout the exercise. Around 100 beneficiaries will be vaccinated tomorrow at each of the session sites. The vaccination drive has been planned in a phased manner, identifying priority groups. Health Care workers, both in government and private sectors including ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) workers, will receive the vaccine during this phase.

During his visit to the COVID Control Room, Dr. Harsh Vardhan minutely scrutinised each aspect of the working of CoWIN, an online digital platform developed by Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, which will be used to drive the COVID-19 vaccination programme in the country. It will facilitate real time information of vaccine stocks, storage temperature and individualized tracking of beneficiaries for COVID-19 vaccine. This digital platform will assist programme managers across National, State, and District levels while conducting vaccination sessions. It will help them track beneficiary coverage, beneficiary dropouts, sessions planned v/s sessions held and vaccine utilization

The platform enables national & state administrators to view & sort data of beneficiaries as per their gender, age & co-morbidity. They can also view the metadata of vaccinations and Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI) reported from constituent districts across States & UTs. District administrators can additionally create session sites at any location by entering the pin-code, followed by specifying the locality or villages and subsequently assigning a vaccinator. Dr. Harsh Vardhan suggested that the software modifications and lessons learnt while using the highly advanced CoWIN platform be incorporated into India’s Universal Immunization Program.

The Union Minister also reviewed the Beneficiary Registration Page for all non-prioritized groups on CoWIN. He suggested pre-populating the software with beneficiaries by seeding it with electoral database, in addition to other documents that are authorized for registration.

The dedicated COVID Control Room has been involved in the massive exercise of monitoring district wise COVID19 data from across the country as well as in depth analysis of the data to interpret & evaluate the status of the pandemic. For the last several months, through this dedicated control room, the government has been closely monitoring parameters such as case fatality rates, infection rates, death rates & other parameters based on which containment strategies have been continuously evolved. The Control Room has also been helping to track & record best strategies being adopted by different countries as a part of their response system and translating them into key learnings for India.

The Union Minister also reviewed the working of the ‘Communications Control Room’ which has been closely monitoring the disinformation campaigns and rumour mongering in relation to administering of COVID19 vaccines. He advised the administrative machinery to go all out to counter the misinformation campaign being spread by vested interests.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan said India’s exercise to vaccinate its population against COVID19 shall be the largest immunization drive of the world. The Union Minister reiterated that both the indigenously manufactured vaccines, COVISHIELD & COVAXIN, have proven safety and immunogenicity records and are the most important tools to contain the pandemic.

(Published from PIB)

Train connecting Chennai with Statue of Unity to be flagged off by PM

By
The Commune
- 
Image Credits: Saur Energy, Twitter

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off eight trains connecting different regions of the country to Kevadiya on 17th January, 2021 at 11 AM via video conferencing. These trains will facilitate seamless connectivity to the Statue of Unity.

Train number 09119/20, the Chennai-Kevadiya Express will be making a weekly trip between Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M. G. Ramachandran Chennai Central Railway Station and Kevadia in Gujarat.

Prime Minister will also inaugurate several other projects related to the Railways sector in Gujarat during the event. Chief Minister of Gujarat and Union Railways Minister will be present on the occasion.

Prime Minister will inaugurate the Dabhoi – Chandod Gauge converted Broad Gauge railway line, Chandod – Kevadiya new Broad Gauge railway line, newly electrified Pratapnagar – Kevadiya section and the new station buildings of Dabhoi, Chandod and Kevadiya. These buildings have been designed aesthetically incorporating local features and modern passenger amenities. Kevadiya station is India’s first railway station with a Green Building Certification. The projects will add fillip to the development activities in the nearby tribal regions, boost connectivity to important religious and ancient pilgrim places nestled on the banks of River Narmada, increase both domestic and international tourism, act as a catalyst for overall socio-economic development of the region while also helping generate new employment and business opportunities.

Sr.

Num

 Train

Num

 From To Train Name &  frequency
1 09103/04 Kevadiya Varanasi Mahamana Express (Weekly)
2 02927/28 Dadar Kevadiya Dadar-Kevadia Express (Daily)
3 09247/48 Ahmedabad Kevadiya Janshatabdi Express (Daily)
4 09145/46 Kevadiya H. Nizamuddin Nizamuddin – KevadiaSamparkKranti Express (Bi-Weekly).
5 09105/06 Kevadiya Rewa Kevadia – Rewa Express (Weekly)
6 09119/20 Chennai Kevadiya Chennai – Kevadia Express (Weekly)
7 09107/08 Pratapnagar Kevadiya MEMU train (Daily)
8 09109/10 Kevadiya Pratapnagar MEMU train (Daily)

(Published from PIB)

Journo Nidhi Razdan claims she was scammed, Harvard never sent her a job offer

By
The Commune
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Nidhi Razdan, formerly a journalist with NDTV, has revealed in a statement on Twitter that she has been the victim of a “sophisticated and coordinated phishing attack”.

In June 2020, she had said on Twitter that she was quitting her job at NDTV to teach journalism at the reputed Harvard University. “Later this year, I start as an Associate Professor teaching journalism as part of Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences”, she had tweeted.

However, in her recent tweet she has declared that the job offer from Harvard was a hoax. “I have been the victim of a very serious phishing attack. I’m putting this statement out to set the record straight about what I’ve been through. I will not be addressing this issue any further on social media”, she said in a tweet.

In her statement, Nidhi Razdan said, “I had been given to believe that I would be joining the University in September 2020. While I was making preparations to take up my new assignment, I was later told that due to the ongoing pandemic, my classes would commence in January 2021. Along with these delays, I began noticing a number of administrative anomalies in the process being described to me.”

Image

Pictured: Part 1 of Nidhi Razdan's statement

“At first, I had dismissed these anomalies as being reflective of the new normal being dictated by the pandemic, but recently the representations being made to me were of an even more disquieting nature. As a result, I reached out to senior authorities at Harvard University for clarity. Upon their request, I shared some of the correspondence that I believed I had received from the University,” her statement continued.

After further communications with Harvard University, she soon realized that there was, in reality, no job offer from Harvard. What had transpired was an elaborate con. Nidhi Razdan said, “I did not, in fact, receive an offer by Harvard University to join their faculty as an Associate Professor of Journalism. The perpetrators of this attack used clever forgeries and misrepresentations to obtain access to my personal data and communications and may have also gained access to my devices and my email/social media accounts.”

Image

Pictured: Part 2 of the statement

Nidhi Razdan said that the police and the authorities at Harvard University have been informed of the incident. A police complaint has been filed, although it is unclear whether the former journalist has suffered any financial losses due to this scam. “I hope that the police are able to get to the bottom of this attack on me at the earliest and help me bring this unsavoury incident to a swift end”, she said.

Centre allows postal department exam to be written in Tamil

By
The Commune
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The Central Government has said that the exam for PO and Railway Mail Service (RMS) accountants in the Department of Posts will also be held in Tamil.

The exams for the post of Accountant in the Postal Service are scheduled to be held on February 14. The official announcement only featured English and Hindi and Tamil was not included. 

The two political parties in Tamil Nadu had raised the issue with the Centre.  It was informed that action should be taken to write the examination in Tamil. Now, the Centre has allowed for the exam to be held in Tamil as well along with English and Hindi.

The PO and RMS accountant exams are conducted for postal assistants (PA) and sorting assistants (SA) who are already working in the department. It is neither a direct recruitment nor a promotion examination. According to V Santhanaraman, Director of Postal Services, the exam which primarily tests the accountancy skills of clerks is for persons who are willing to change their roles from the existing ones. The exam is also an open-book test where questions are based on the posts and telegram (P & T) manuals and financial manuals. It is expected that not more than 200 people would be attempting it across the country.

The exam has been conducted in English and Hindi only for many years as all the manuals are only in those languages. Mr. Santhanam was also quoted saying in a report that the claim of postal department exams being conducted in regional languages in the past was wrong. Exams for lower grade posts like postmen are conducted in regional languages as they have a connection directly with the consumers.

 

 

Security forces unearth Pakistan’s 150 m long secret secret tunnel in J&K

By
The Commune
-

Indian security forces have once again unearthed a 150-meter long cross border tunnel near the India-Pakistan border in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district, thwarting Pakistan’s vile attempt to surreptitiously infiltrate into Indian territory.

During an operation on the morning of January 13, the BSF team detected the tunnel following inputs about the possibility of tunnels running underground along the border in Samba and Kathua districts. The tunnel had a n opening that was 3 feet in diameter and depth of 25 to 30 feet.

BSF Inspector-General (Jammu Frontiers) N S Jamwal said that the tunnel originates in Pakistan and opens nearly 20 to 30 meters inside the barbed wire fence on the Indian side. “It shows Pakistan’s hand in the tunnel which has started from Shakargarh in Pakistan. This district is notorious for such kinds of activities especially for launching militants across the border”, he added.

The tunnel’s opening was covered with wild bushes and thick outgrowth. Karachi-made sandbags were also recovered from the tunnel.

This is not the first time that secret tunnels used by infiltrators from Pakistan have been found.

A tunnel was also discovered in November 2020 near the India-Pakistan border in Samba district, Jammu and Kashmir. The tunnel was roughly 150 meters long and was reportedly used by the terrorists neutralised in the Nagrota encounter. Indian security forces had also ventured into the tunnel on December 1, 2020, going as far as 200 meters inside Pakistani territory to find where the tunnel began.

Pastor who boasted of kicking idols of Hindu Gods is HDFC Bank’s ‘Neighbourhood Hero’

By
The Commune
-

In a shocking revelation, Praveen Chakravarthy, the notorious Christian pastor who had boasted of kicking and defacing idols of Hindu Gods and creating ‘Christ Villages’ was declared as one of the ‘Neighbourhood Heroes’ by HDFC Bank.

Pastor Praveen Chakravarthy was arrested by the Andhra Pradesh Crime Investigation Department (CID) on Wednesday (13th January, 2021) for promoting enmity between different religious groups and committing offence in places of worship. He has been charged under various 153 A, 153 B (1) (c), 505 (2), 295 A, 124 A and 115 of the Indian Penal Code and has multiple FIRs registered against him.

HDFC Bank in August 2020 had posted a video in its YouTube channel in which it hailed Pastor Praveen as a ‘Neighbourhood Hero’.

According to HDFC Bank, ‘Our Neighbourhood Heroes’ is an ‘initiative that thanks and celebrates heroes from across the country, who’ve gone above and beyond to help those in need during these difficult times’.

“A moment of courage is all it takes, to make the normal, heroic and that is exactly what you’ve done!”, the video put out by HDFC Bank says introducing Pastor Praveen.

The video also says that when underprivileged residents were struggling with ‘Volunteering Service & Time’ and needed help, Pastor Praveen stepped up.

“By providing Volunteering Services & Time to around more than 500 Underprivileged Residents you have truly helped and made a difference”, the video says and goes on to declare that the bank prides itself in calling Pastor Praveen as the Neighbourhood Hero of Kakinada.

This video was published in YouTube on August 28, 2020.

Pastor Praveen Chakravarthy is the President of ‘Sylom Blind Centre’. His activities were brought to light in 2019 by Legal Rights Protection Forum (LRPF), a legal activism collective. LRPF had lodged a complaint with the Union Home Ministry in December 2019 against ‘Sylom Blind Center’and its President Praveen Chakravarthy for indulging in rampant rabid proselytization.

In a video tweeted by LRPF Pastor Praveen Chakravarthy can be heard saying with impunity in Telugu that he hit the ‘stone God’ and trees [sacred trees like Neem, Peepal, etc that are venerated by village people] with his leg. The video was first made available in a YouTube channel called ‘Bangalore go-sipps’. This video was published on December 11, 2019.

Chakravarty in the video can be seen describing how he converts a village to Christianity. He says that first a pastor would come and stay in the village to teach the Bible. He says that the village becomes a “Christ village” after everyone has accepted Christ as their saviour and adds that ‘stone gods’ and ‘trees’ are kicked as a finality.

“So there are many cases which (sic) I have kicked the God’s heads and I was so happy”, he says in that video.

In another expose, the LRPF released video of Pastor Praveen’s online discussion with his US donor in which he claims “We’ve 3642 Pastors in our association & have made 699 Christ Villages so far. Will make it 700 in a month.”

LRPF has now questioned HDFC Bank if the bank takes pride in calling such a person as a ‘Neighbourhood Hero’ who has multiple FIRs registered against him.

‘Samathuva Pongal’ scenes: DMK chief Stalin cooks Pongal without fire and with shoes on

By
The Commune
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DMK President M.K. Stalin celebrated ‘Samathuva Pongal’ with his party cadres and farmers at Natham panchayat in Tiruvallur district yesterday (January 14) on the occasion of Pongal.

The party had shared photos of the event in which the DMK chief and his wife, Durga Stalin, can be seen posing as if they were cooking Pongal in an earthern pot.

However, netizens were quick enough to point out that there was no fire lit to the Pongal pot. The DMK chief was wearing his shoes while ‘cooking’ the Pongal. They also took a jibe that the pot in fact might not have anything in it and that it was just a photo-op for DMK chief and his wife.

https://twitter.com/sujeeth81461044/status/1349378318840123392

 

 

Amidst de-escalation of standoff, Pangong Tso valley opens for tourists

By
The Commune
- 
Image Credits: Swan Tours

With de-escalation talks going on between India and China over the Galway valley, Ladakh authorities have now opened the Pangong lake for tourists. The lake was thrown open to the public from the 10th of January. Tourists intending to visit Pangong Lake should apply for Inner Line Permit (ILP) at DC office Leh near polo-ground.

“The tourists with Covid-19 negative test report, which is not earlier than 72 hours, can visit all public places and destinations across Ladakh without any restrictions. Tourists interested in visiting the lake, upon reaching the airport, will undergo a rapid antigen test following which they need to acclimatise to the weather conditions for no less than 24 hours,” said a senior official while issuing the guidelines regarding the same.

Pangong Lake derives its name from the Tibetan word, “Pangong Tso”, which means “high grassland lake”. Pangong Lake is also known to change colours, appearing blue, green, and red at different times. It is one of the highest altitude lakes in the world that is filled with saline water. The saline water lake freezes completely during winters and also known to change colours at different times.

The Ministry of External Affairs announced on Friday that both countries have maintained communication to avoid any “misunderstandings and misjudgements” and achieve complete disengagement at all friction areas along the LAC. Meanwhile, the Union Territory of Ladakh has a total Covid caseload of about 9,600 with 127 deaths.

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