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You have a dream, Manmohan to kids
Pak asked to set up N-data base
Cong braces itself for Oppn’s onslaught |
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Bihar minister on BPL list
Enhance tech institutes capacity, Arjun to states
CPM ponders over allying issue in UP poll
BJP wants PM to clarify on religion quota
BJP condemns envoy’s remark
Pranab defines country’s
true image
India, USA to fly together on satellite navigation
India should be
explicit on defence buying: experts
NCM member to visit Shimla
Rude Rani shocks media
Are self-help groups widening caste divide?
Rain may add to wheat bounty: Govt
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You have a dream, Manmohan to kids
New Delhi, November 14 “Interests of the children are our topmost priority. An independent status has been given to the Women and Child Development Department so that effective steps are taken to meet needs of the children,” Dr Manmohan Singh said while distributing National Child Awards for Exceptional Achievements here today. He urged people to give priority to the education of their daughters and make special arrangements for those children who were orphans or with special needs. He gave away awards to 29 children, in the age group of 4-14 years, for their exceptional achievements in the fields like academics, art, culture, music, sports, etc. Awards included a gold medal for the national-level award and 28 silver medals for the state-level awards. Besides medals, awards carry cash of Rs 20,000 to gold medal winners and Rs 10,000 to silver medal winners. For 15-year-old Niharika Saxena from Ludhaina, it was like a dream come true to receive the award from the Prime Minister. She terms the experience “an extremely joyful and humbling one”. While majority of children who received the award are girls, there are a few exceptions, including Ish Dhand from Chandigarh and Rahahil Farroq Shah from Jammu and Kashmir. In fact, this year’s Gold medal has gone to a girl from Lucknow, Benzy, who despite being mentally challenged overcame her disability to become a singer. Chandigarh-based Ish has consecutively secured certificates of merit for outstanding and excellent performance in academics in his school for many years and also achieved high distinction in “International Competition for Schools in Mathematics”, conducted by the University of New South Wales in 1998 and 2001. Srinagar-boy Raahil has earned the award for outstanding performance in studies and sports like skating and snow skiing. In fact, he has participated in various skating championships and won seven gold, one silver and two bronze medals. Haryana’s Neha Narwal won the prestigious award for primarily sports. This 15-year-old girl from Chira village in Haryana in Karnal has participated in several competitions and won 10 gold, five silver and four bronze medals at the national level and 20 gold and seven silver medals at the state level. She has won another 17 gold medals in the district-level championships. This
year's youngest winner happens to be not-yet-five-year-old Ismail Shan Mirza. Born on December 25, 2001, Ismail has been awarded for gaining computer knowledge at a very young age. However, this year’s most interesting winners happen to be the two sisters from Vizinagaram in Andhra Pradesh, J.V Sushmita and J.V. Mounica. The two young magician sisters learnt the art of magic from their father.
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Pak asked to set up N-data base
Manipal (Karnataka), November 14 Since
Pakistan has nuclear power reactors and will be acquiring six more from
China in the near future, “it is important that Pakistan takes
initiative to evolve its nuclear data to keep on a par with its
neighbour India and thus contribute it to the world body website,” Dr
Alan Nichols , Head, Nuclear Data Section, IAEA, said on the sidelines
of a two-day meeting on “Atomic and Nuclear Data for Next Generation
Medicine and Technologies” organised by the UNESCO Peace chair at the
Manipal Academy of Higher Education. The IAEA also wants Russia, China
and Europe to improve their compilation and evaluation work on nuclear
data. “China and Russia should be encouraged to do more. Although
China established its nuclear data base centre in 1975, data collection
is disappointing and now with several power reactors being built in
China, it is for their own benefit and for the future generation, the
process should be increased,” Dr Nichols said. “In fact, we are
putting pressure on China,” he said. “The amount of input from
Russia and Europe is disappointing as they do lot of measurement but not
compilation and evaluation which is very crucial for improving the
design and performance of the power reactors on a continuous basis,”
he said.
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Cong braces itself for Oppn’s onslaught New Delhi, November 14 Elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Punjab and Manipur, due sometime next February, are yet to be notified by the Election Commission but the knives are already out. The recent local bodies elections in Uttar Pradesh, for instance, has set the stage for a bitter confrontation among the key political parties. At the same time, the ongoing war between the Akali Dal and the Congress in Punjab is bound to find an echo in the coming session. On the other hand, the Samajwadi Party will intensify its campaign for the removal of the UP Governor who has sent two damaging reports about the malpractices which came to light in the recent elections. The Congress and the BJP ,however, will slug it out for the Uttaranchal elections as the two are pitted against each other. The BJP has already charged the UPA government with being soft on terrorism and appeasing the minorities as it attempts to shore up its upper caste support base. While bracing itself for the onslaught from the Opposition, the UPA is making efforts to put its own house in order. Yesterday’s Congress-Left coordination meeting was meant to sort out difference over pending legislative business.
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Bihar minister on BPL list
Patna, November 14 Incidentally, the list for Champaran district, represented by the minister, was being prepared under his supervision only. People in the BPL list are eligible for government concessions and doles. The Nitish government decided to prepare the fresh BPL list to overcome lapses in the previous list prepared during the RJD regime. The purpose of the fresh list was to delete the names of undeserving beneficiaries and add those who had been left out due to the lapses. The earlier such lapses in the previous list saw the inclusion of the names of a top police official, a fuel station owner, a retired senior post master and a rich farmer. Claiming that he was innocent, Mr Mahto today ordered a probe into the lapse by the Commissioner of Tirhut Division. According to a World Bank report on Bihar, nearly 40 per cent of its around 83 million population lives below the poverty line, the highest in India.
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Enhance tech institutes capacity, Arjun to states
New Delhi, November 14 Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh has written to the states to initiate policies and programmes so that the intake capacity in technical education institutions in relation to the state’s population comes on a par with the national average. He has asked the Chief Ministers to establish new institutions, especially in backward areas, expand intake in existing institutions, open more branches and start courses, grant incentives for establishment of bona fide non-government institutions of good quality and non-commercial nature and improvement and expansion of secondary education. A review of availability of seats in degree and diploma-level technical education courses revealed that while for the country as a whole 68 degree and 31 diploma-level seats were available in technical education institutions per one lakh population, both these figures were way below the national average in nine states. These states and the number of degree and diploma-level seats available in them per one lakh population are: Bihar (three and four), Assam (four and six), Jharkhand (15 and 10), West Bengal (24 and 11), Himachal Pradesh (26 and 13), Chhattisgarh (28 and 13), Uttar Pradesh (36 and seven), Rajasthan (38 and six), and Orissa (55 and 26). Besides, in Jammu and Kashmir and Gujarat the number of degree-level seats per lakh population is only 21 and 39, respectively, while in Madhya Pradesh it is only 19.
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CPM ponders over allying issue in UP poll
New Delhi, November 14 The leaders brainstormed on the strategy to be adopted in the coming elections, especially in Uttar Pradesh where the Left is a divided house with the CPM supporting the Samajwadi Party and the CPI joining hands with V.P. Singh's Jan Morcha. With the Samajwadi Party throwing up a dismal performance in the just-held civic elections in Uttar Pradesh, the meet discussed at length the prudence in supporting Mulayam Singh's party in the next elections, sources said. However, the CPM considers the Samajwadi Party as the biggest secular force in the state.The party had deferred its decision of alliance in UP till the state committee met and formulated its views. The sources indicated that the party’s state committee was in favour of continuing its alliance with the SP, keeping in view the long-term strategy of the party. The Politburo debated on how to minimise the split in the secular votes in UP elections.
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BJP wants PM to clarify on religion quota
New Delhi, November 14 Briefing newspersons, BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said the scheme of the Constitution on this issue was clear as “under Article 341 the President can specify the caste or part thereof, which shall be a Scheduled Caste for the purposes of this Constitution”. Pointing out to the unconstitutionality of the religion-based reservation, Mr Prasad quoted paragraph three of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 which stated that, "No person who professes a religion different from the Hindu (the Sikh or the Buddhist) shall be deemed to be a member of a Scheduled Caste". Moreover, the Supreme Court, in the well-known case of Soosai Vs Union of India (AIR 1986 Supreme Court 733), has also clearly stated that a Scheduled Caste on conversion to Christianity is not entitled to welfare assistance available under the Constitution order of 1950, the spokesman stressed. Stating that the BJP stood for economic, social and educational development of the minorities, Mr Prasad said the present chorus of demand for the religion-based reservation was again a dangerous and unconstitutional demand which had a long-term implication for the integrity of the country.
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BJP condemns envoy’s remark
New Delhi, November 14 “I’m surprised over the silence maintained by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Left parties. Why are they not condemning this irresponsible statement made just ahead of the Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit?” BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said here today. Mr Prasad said: “Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India. We condemn this peculiar, deplorable and irresponsible statement made by the Chinese envoy in the strongest possible words.”
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Pranab defines country’s
true image
New Delhi, November 14 Mr Mukherjee was addressing officials of Ministry of External Affairs here at the ground-breaking ceremony for Videsh Bhavan, the new building of the MEA. The minister asked diplomats to play an increasingly active role to build and nurture external linkages to sustain the rapid growth of the country’s economy besides harnessing the “limitless potential” of large communities of Indians and persons of Indian origin (PIOs) around the globe. He noted that India was assuming a new leadership role on the world stage and “these are times of new opportunities as well as new challenges for our diplomacy”. |
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India, USA to fly together on satellite navigation
New Delhi, November 14 US Federal Aviation Administration chief Marion C.
Blakey, who yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with the Civil Aviation Ministry, while addressing a meeting of the Indo-American Chambers of Commerce said here today that the “real issue was that we are not waiting to do something. We are preparing now” to evolve the next generation air-transportation system. The navigation system being developed is a package comprising comprehensive plans for air traffic management, airports, aircraft, security and advanced flight systems. At the heart of this system is satellite-based navigation or wide area augmentation system
(WAAS), which is similar to India's GAGAN (GPS and Geo Augmentation Navigation System). When GAGAN and WAAS start working in sync, “we could literally have a safe, seamless system (of air travel) all the way from the Indian Ocean through the Pacific and to the Atlantic,” Ms Blakey said. She said the US aviation industry had developed the automatic dependent surveillance broadcast (ADS-B), which would put the pilot and the air traffic controller on the same page at the same time. This would reduce air accidents when the pilot while flying watches the air traffic situation, she added.
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India should be
explicit on defence buying: experts
New Delhi, November 14 They suggested that India had to frame policies to benefit from spin-offs. These would come in the form of frontline technology transfers, a better maintenance system in the form of life-cycle support system of armament platforms and flow of offsets to the country's still fledgling defence industry and social sector. Throwing
open the three-day seminar, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee
said the deliberations would trigger “globalisation of strategic
thinking”. He was also of the view that the peace dividend of the
post-Cold War era had not impacted the social sector spending and that
this had posed fresh challenges to the country’s planners, who should
strike a balance with military expenditure. “Affordability is a moot
issue. There has, therefore, to be a fine blend of economic sense and
military sensibilities,” he said. Finance Minister P.
Chidambaram, in his special address, visualised a greater role for the private sector in defence production and made it clear that loss-making defence public sector undertakings could not keep on depending on government bailout. He also called for enforcing the cash management system already prevalent in civil ministries in the defence sector, too, as it would lead to reduction of bunching of expenditure towards the end of the financial year and eliminate wastage and
inefficency. Nearly 500 delegates from across the country and abroad are participating in the seminar. There are about 80 foreign delegates from 28 countries who are also taking part.
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NCM member to visit Shimla
New Delhi, November 14 Mr Josh will be accompanied by Lama Chosphel Zotpa during the three-day visit, beginning tomorrow. Members of the commission will also discuss the introduction of Bhoti language in the state where a sizable number of Buddhists live. On the agenda of the meeting with the state government is the harassment and threats to the lives of leaders belonging to the Christian community in Shimla, allotment of land to the historic Gurdwara Singh Sabha, Nahan, issue of domicile certificate to the people of minority communities and the formation of a state minorities commission. |
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Rude Rani shocks media
Varanasi, November 14 Queried about the off-screen vibes between Shaad Ali’s Bunty and Bubbly, Rani became enraged. “Bunty-Bubbly is confined to the screen — beyond it everything is a media creation,’’ she said. Instead of ducking pointed queries in the most diplomatic manner, Rani said ‘’next next’’ to questions she did not prefer answering. She, however, was all praise for Varanasi, saying that the holy city had boundless film potential, especially its “ghats and galis”.
— UNI
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Are self-help groups widening caste divide?
New Delhi, November 14 The cumulative number of SHGs provided with bank loans in India is 1,618,476 as per a document compiled by a group of NGOs, “ SHGs, Empowerment and Poverty Alleviation”. It also says that about 16 million poor households have gained access to the formal banking system through the SHG Bank Linkage Programme. Therefore, a large number of people, largely women, are involved in the micro-credit programme. However, the document, based on surveys conducted on 2007 SHGs, appears to suggest that not only are the SHGs caste-driven, they also seem to be doing little for women’s empowerment, especially the poor. The report, complied by NGOs Anandi, Nirantar and Yugantar, and also submitted to the Planning Commission, clearly says that micro-financing is not the solution to tackling poverty or for empowerment of women. At best it is one element in the larger framework of development needs. The quantitative survey of 2700 SHGs in 16 states in India, including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Gujarat and Rajasthan, clearly says that rather than helping in women’s uplift, the availability of micro-credit has given rise to several negative implications for women engaged with SHGs. One, the women have no control over the money. Two, the burden and responsibility of the repayment of the borrowed money remains on them. However, even more disturbing is the data that shows that 80 per cent of SHGs are single caste and 20 per cent of the groups do not cross caste hierarchies. ST/SC/ minorities account for 7 per cent of these and BCs and OCs another 7 per cent and SCs while women-headed poor households are largely ignored.
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Rain may add to wheat bounty: Govt
New Delhi, November 14 “At the outset, we have began well in the new rabi season with the recent short spell of rain serving as a icing on the cake for wheat fields,” Food Secretary T. Nanda Kumar said. The ministry’s optimism is contrary to the projects made by the United States Department of Agriculture, which claimed that India would have to import wheat again this year for the procurement level would remain the same as the last year. The country had imported 5.5 million tonne of wheat in the current fiscal. “If procurement were to reach only this year’s level of 9.2 million tonne, imports of 3-4 million tonne of wheat would become necessary in 2007-08,” the US department report said. The Secretary said even a 40 lakh tonne increase in procurement from this year’s low level of 92 lakh tonne would place the country in a comfortable position. The high acreage of wheat sowing and government’s alertness in procuring as expeditiously as possible should see through a comfortable procurement for 2006-07, he added. The ministry said wheat acreage registered a 69 per cent rise to 26.27 lakh hectares till November 10, 2006, from 15.56 lakh hectares in the corresponding period last year. The acreage of the foodgrain had shown a rising trend in every state where the sowing was in progress. Wheat sowing is gathering momentum in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh.
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'Chacha Nehru' remembered SC hearing on sealing today Man ‘hangs’ self to set record Bar on arresting Bharati Yadav Drug supplier to actors held 
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