Thursday, December 13, 2012

“मुम्बई-औरंगाबाद-शिरडी”

महाराष्ट्र में सूफी सर्किट के विकास हेतु रूपरेखा 
                                                                                                    Courtesy Photo
पर्यटन राज्यमंत्री (स्‍वतंत्र प्रभार) श्री डॉ.के.चिरंजीवि ने आज राज्य सभा में पूछे गए एक प्रश्न के लिखित उत्तर में बताया कि 12वीं पंचवर्षीय योजना अवधि में राज्यों/संघ राज्य क्षेत्रों के सहयोग से एकीकृत विकास के लिए सूफी परिपथ सहित आध्यात्मिक पर्यटन परिपथों की पहचान के लिए एक नेशनल लेवल कंसलटैंट (एन.एल.सी,) की नियुक्ति की है। एन.एल.सी. द्वारा पहचान किया गया सूफी परिपथ “मुम्बई-औरंगाबाद-शिरडी” है। 

पर्यटन मंत्रालय ने महाराष्ट्र में एन.एल.सी द्वारा पहचान किए गए परिपथों की विस्तृत परियोजना रिपोर्ट तैयार करने के लिए “स्टेट लेवल प्रोजेक्ट मैनेजमेंट एजेंसी” (एस.एल.पी.एम.ए.) की नियुक्ति की है। प्रत्येक परिपंथ के लिए निधियों की आवश्यकता का निर्णय डी.पी.आर. को अंतिम रूप देने के बाद लिया जाएगा और निधियां पर्यटन मंत्रालय की प्लान स्कीमों के तहत राज्य सरकारों से प्राप्त प्रस्तावों के आधार पर, पारस्परिक प्राथमिकता की शर्त पर प्रदान की जाएगी। 


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वि.कासोटिया/संजीव/मीना - 6050

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Convocation of IIT Bombay

PM addressed the Golden Jubilee Convocation 
Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh addressed the Golden Jubilee Convocation of IIT Bombay in Mumbai today. Following is the text of Prime Minister’s Speech: 
The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh addressing at the Golden Jubilee Convocation of IIT Bombay, in Mumbai on August 18, 2012. The Governor of Maharashtra, Shri K. Sankaranarayanan and the Union Minister for Human Resource Development and Communications and Information Technology, Shri Kapil Sibal are also seen.
18-August-2012
“I am delighted to be here at your prestigious institution on this auspicious day. I wish each one you a life of purposive action and professional fulfillment. Standing here this afternoon, my thoughts go back to those early days after Independence when our national leaders built great institutions of learning to help lay the foundations of a new India. The Indian Institutes of Technology were part of this great nation building effort. I salute the memory of all those who dedicated their lives to building this and other such great institutions of academic excellence.

The IITs have become an integral constituent of what is known as ‘Brand India’, like our nuclear science institutions, that Dr Kakodkar has dedicated his life to, like Mr Premji’s Wipro and Mr. Narayanamurthy's Infosys and like so many other centres of research and teaching that have given several generations of young Indians new opportunities that my own generation could only dream of.

Today, as we celebrate the Golden Jubilee of IIT Bombay, we feel a sense of pride. But that pride must be tempered by the concern that we still do not have the required number of such institutions to offer adequate developmental opportunities to all our bright young women and men.

Every year when I see how many hundreds of thousands of students apply for admission to these institutions, and when I see how high have become the minimum cut-off marks for admission, my heart is pained by the limits we are placing on the opportunities available to our youth.

That is precisely why our government took the initiative to expand the opportunities for higher and technical education in India. During the last eight years Indian higher education, as well as secondary and technical education, have experienced a quantum jump in terms of the investment being made and the number of seats being created for students. I compliment my colleague Shri Kapil Sibal for leading this effort.

Our government has opened new IITs, new IIMs and new institutions for teaching and research in the sciences. We have increased investment in school education. We have increased scholarships for the disadvantaged sections of our society.

I am happy that IIT Bombay has made research a priority. I am told that a number of centres in the institute are engaged in research on several important areas. These include the National Centre for Photovoltaic Research and Education, the 1 Megawatt National Solar Thermal Test Facility and the Indo-US Clean Energy Centre for Photovoltaics. I am sure these efforts will result in very useful outcomes.

As India’s economy becomes bigger and more developed, so too must our knowledge base. A developing country like ours has to catch up with other more developed nations and this ‘catch-up’ process depends vitally on our ability to harness human resources for development.

Another challenge is to ensure that the investment we make in higher education in fact contributes more directly to nation building. Here the IITs face an immediate challenge of making their curriculum more relevant to our needs. I am aware that this is a subject of much lively discussion among your faculty and alumnus. How do we incentivize our engineering graduates to bring their professional knowledge to bear more directly on our development processes? This would be in keeping with the vision for IITs that Pandit Nehru articulated when he laid the foundation stone of IIT Bombay. He said, that the role of the IITs would be, and I quote, “to provide scientists and technologists of the highest caliber who would engage in research, design and development to help building the nation toward self reliance in her technological needs”.

Many of our best IIT students have, over the years, migrated abroad in search of better opportunities. I do not grudge that. Some of them have returned home to serve our Motherland. Some do so from where they are, in some of the best institutions of the world. A large number of our IIT graduates move away from their core disciplines into management, finance, marketing and even the civil services. Without doubt, they have much to contribute in their new fields of work.

The students graduating today have a long list of IIT Bombay alumni to inspire them. Each of the preceding 49 Convocations of this great institution has seen the graduation of a very talented group of young men and women. They have made important contributions in a wide range of disciplines and have added lustre to the global image of India. Several of them have risen to top positions internationally including Arun Netravali, former head of Bell Laboratories, and Nitin Nohria, the current Dean of Harvard Business School. One of our brightest Cabinet Ministers, Shri Jairam Ramesh is an alumnus of IIT Bombay, as is Shri Nandan Nilekani who carries the enormous responsibility of implementing India’s ambitious programme for providing all its citizens with a Unique Identification number.

India needs millions of engineers and millions more of technically qualified workers and skilled professionals. There was a time when engineers like M. Vishwesharayya and K. L. Rao provided leadership to our power projects and irrigation projects and were regarded as national leaders. Today India needs national leaders from the fields of engineering and science. Not just politics, sport and cinema!

Friends, India is on the move. And so, you enter a world of opportunities. How you make use of these opportunities, how you shape them, how you create new opportunities for newer generations of our youth will shape the future of this ancient land.

I know that in the recent past we have lived through a period of excessive pessimism and negativism. Some of this is natural. Our society has been experiencing a ‘revolution of rising expectations’. Hopes are high, but are often not realized. This breeds cynicism. The challenge before you is to retain your sense of hope and optimism even as you surmount the hurdles you face and overcome the challenges that are posed.

When I look back at my own life I am humbled and gratified by the distance my generation has travelled. I studied in the light of a kerosene lamp in a dusty village that had no power, no school or college. I had to walk miles to school. In all these matters, there has been an enormous improvement in the 65 years of independent India. Even then, the progress that has been registered has often fallen short of the expectations of our people, particularly the youth. In some ways, the enormity of the task ahead of us as a nation is daunting, but our achievements so far give us confidence and hope.

India’s journey, as indeed IIT Bombay’s journey, these past 65 years, is a matter of great pride. After half a century of zero rate of economic growth, from 1900 to 1950, we managed to register 3.5 per cent growth for three decades after Independence, from 1950 to 1980. But from 1980 to now, over the subsequent three decades, we have nearly doubled that rate of growth. In 2003-08 we showed that we can march forward at an even higher rate of growth of 9.0 per cent.

These are not just numbers. They translate into employment opportunities for newer generations. They create new incomes and new possibilities. They help increase the government’s revenues so that we can invest more in education, in health care, in eradicating poverty, hunger, disease and illiteracy.

I know that in the past year India's economy has slowed down. But this is not an inevitable or irreversible outcome. The fundamentals of our economy are sound and with greater effort being made to mobilize all the latent physical and human resources, we can go back to the growth rate of 8 to 9 percent per annum achieved from 2003 to 2008. The large investments in the development of human resources that we have made in the last 8 years would facilitate that outcome.

Science and technology have to play a major role in the transformation of our economy. The educated youth of our country have to lead the process of social and economic change. I am confident that young people like you will take the flag from our hands and march forward. I am confident that your generation will make us proud. I am confident about the future of India, because YOU are that future.

As you enter a new phase of your life never forget those who have made it possible for you to be here today. Your parents, your family and friends, your teachers and the society around you that has enabled you to receive good quality education and build the foundation of your professional life.

May your path be blessed. Jai Hind!”   (PIB)

18-August-2012 17:39 IST
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Friday, August 17, 2012

Hunger strike on Independence day

150 political prisoners went on hunger strike  
Mumbai-based activist Arun Ferreira kept a prison diary during his incarceration in Nagpur Central Jail.  Above cartoon is from the diary. 
Aug 16, 2012 -Mumbai: The government of Maharashtra has recently imposed a fascist, anti-strike law covering public, semi-government and private sectors with a motive to gag workers and employees fighting for their own rights. To protest and urge the government to quash this high-handed, fascist law,  more than 150 the political prisoners in various Maharashtra  Jails  observed a one day hunger strike , according to Adv Surendra Gadling, who has been fighting for various political priosners in the state including Arun Ferriera.
The power echelons of the state seem to be striking contradictory notes while hailing stalwarts of social equality- Mahatma Phule, Shahu Maharaj and Dr. Ambedkar on one hand and openly guarding capitalist and foreign interests on the other by forcing anti-strike laws like the ESMA to render strikes and public protests futile. The audacity of power and selfish motives have clearly made them forget that Dr. Ambedkar himself had pitched a fight against the anti-strike laws imposed by the British raj.
The financial policies of the government have only resulted in social disparity, exploitation and injustice, pushing the majority of our population below the poverty line, while a handful of billionaires are only getting richer. Privatisation of government ventures and services has paved way for the contract culture, only to compound the workers' helplessness by such tyrannical laws, a recent and a blazing example is the gagging of workers' unrest in Maruti's Manesar plant.
The brown sahibs are repackaging the archaic anti-labour laws in a new avatar and forcing the workers into slavery.  The political prisoners urge everyone to rise for our own liberties and interests against these middlemen of the western, capitalist MNCs and laws tailor-made to fit their interests.
Related articles. (Courtesy:Kracktivist)

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Thursday, August 16, 2012

Bio-Diversity of Western Ghats

Global importance for the conservation of biological diversity
                                  Courtesy photo
The Western Ghats are internationally recognized as a region of immense global importance for the conservation of biological diversity, besides having areas of high geological, cultural and aesthetic values. The ecosystems of the Western Ghats include the tropical wet evergreen forests, the montane evergreen forests, moist deciduous forests, etc. There are over 4,000 species of angiosperms (1500 endemic), 332 species of butterflies (37 endemic), 288 species of fishes (116 endemic), 156 species of amphibians (94 endemic), 225 species of Reptiles (97 endemic), 508 species of birds (19 endemic) and 137 species of mammals (14 endemic) reported from Western Ghats.

The Government of India has taken several steps to conserve the rich biodiversity of the Western Ghats. A large number of protected areas comprising national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, tiger reserves and elephant reserves have been established to provide stringent protection to both flora and fauna. Nearly 10% of the total area of Western Ghats is currently covered under the Protected Area category. The largest Protected Area in Western Ghats is the Bandipur National Park in Karnataka. The Silent Valley National Park in Kerala and the Kudremukh National Park in Karnataka are among the important tracts of virgin tropical evergreen forests in India, serving as the home to a healthy population of the globally threatened fauna.

The Western Ghats are important from the standpoint of biodiversity conservation. For the purpose of ensuring protection of biodiversity of Western Ghats, there are some restrictions for setting up of industries in certain ecologically significant areas of Western Ghats, for example, there is a moratorium upto 31st December 2012 for consideration of projects from Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri areas of Maharashtra, and for consideration of mining projects in Goa. There is also a ban on consideration of mining projects in some districts of Karnataka in compliance of Supreme Court Orders dated 29 July, 2011 and 26 August, 2011.

The above information was laid in the Parliament by Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment and Forests Shrimati Jayanthi Natarajan.  (PIB photo) 16-August-2012 16:14 IST

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Fire of Assam violence

2 killed in Mumbai protest against Assam riots
Mumbai, Aug 11,2012: According to various TV channels reports atleast wo persons were killed and at least 10 injured when several vehicles were set ablaze after a protest rally against the recent violence in Assam turned violent here today. The injured are undergoing treatment at St George, GT and JJ Hospitals. Streets and BAzaars of Mumbai were telling the stories of riots.
A report said,"in the afternoon, as many as 10 BEST buses were damaged by the unruly protesters who also vented their ire on a few shops in the subway leading to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. The OB vans of three television channels were attacked and the cameras of some reporters destroyed.
With the mob going on a rampage, police resorted to lathicharge and fired into the air. All roads leading to Azad Maidan, the venue of the protest, and CST were blocked as a precautionary measure.
Not only the movement of traffic, suburban train services were also affected by the violent protest.
Thousands attended the rally but the authorities did not anticipate that the large gathering would create trouble. When a section of the protesters started pelting stones at buses and setting vehicles on fire, the police were caught unawares and struggled to restore calm after an hour or so of mayhem.
In the evening, Rapid Action Force personnel were deployed in the area. They brought the situation under control.
The rally was organised by the Raza Academy. Members of the Sunni Jamaitul Ulma and Jamate Raza-e-Mustafa joined the rally. They urged the Centre and the Assam government to take steps to protect the minority community.
Incidentally, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has appealed for peace. He promised to talk to his Maharashtra counterpart Prithviraj Chavan.
Mumbai Crime Branch is expected to investigate the protest and the sudden unrest that it led to. Let us prey and work to restore peace and harmony.