Nasheman

India's largest selling Urdu weekly, now also in English

You are here: Home / 2018 / Archives for August 2018

Archives for August 2018

Pakistan court moved for removal of ‘N’ from PML-N

by


A lawyer has moved the Peshawar High Court seeking removal of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s name from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) after the latter’s conviction for corruption.

Khanzada Ajmal Zeb filed the petition on Monday urging the court to ask the Election Commission to delete “N” from the party name, Dawn online reported on Tuesday.

The respondents in the petition were the Chief Election Commissioner, the poll body secretary and Nawaz Sharif, who is now in jail.

Zeb said that Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah was the head of the Muslim League who wanted the party to be a symbol of good governance, development and national interest. But the petitioner held Sharif responsible for the division of the PML.

He said Sharif hijacked the party before forming his own faction, PML-N, and registered it with the poll body.

Sharif, currently serving a 10-year jail term in a corruption case, misled the public at large by using the name of PML-N. Therefore, “N” needed to be deleted from the party name, said Zeb.

SC gets 3 new judges amidst Justice Joseph row

by


Justice Indira Banerjee, Justice Vineet Saran and Justice K.M. Joseph on Tuesday were sworn in as Supreme Court judges.

They were administered the oath of office by Chief Justice Dipak Misra.

The swearing in took place amidst a raging controversy over the government relegating Justice Joseph to the third position in the order of seniority even though he was recommended for elevation way back on January 10.

His recommendation was reiterated on July 17 after the government had returned it for reconsideration by the Supreme Court collegium.

With three new judges joining, the strength of the top court judges is now 28 as against the sanctioned strength of 31.

It is for the first time that the Supreme Court has three sitting woman judges — Justice R. Banumathi, Justice Indu Malhotra and Justice Indira Banerjee.

Justice Banerjee is the seventh woman judge of the Supreme Court, first being Justice Fatima Beevi, followed by Justice Ruma Pal, Justice Ranjana Desai, Justice Gyan Sudha Misra, Justice R. Banumathi and Justice Indu Malhotra.

Mayawati wants reservation for poor upper castes, Muslims

by


Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati on Tuesday batted for reservation in government jobs for the economically weaker upper castes and Muslims and other minorities.

She said if the Modi government brought a Bill to give 18 percent or more reservation to the poor from the upper castes, Muslims and other minority groups, her party will be the first to support it.

Welcoming the passage of The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill, 2018 in the Lok Sabha, the four-time Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister also expressed hope that the Bill will sail through the Rajya Sabha comfortably.

She, however, credited the pressure built by her party and the sacrificeS of the Dalits who participated in the April 2 ‘Bharat Bandh’ for the development.

“The voice of the Dalits and the marginalized along with the BSP cadres forced the government at the Centre to bring in this Bill,” Mayawati said.

She pointed out how an NDA Minister (Ram Vilas Paswan) was forced to announce a sit-in to compel the government to act against the dilution of the SC/ST Act by the Supreme Court.

She, however, slammed other leaders of parties in the National Democratic Alliance government for keeping mum on the issue that was close to the heart of millions of Dalits.

Amy major, 3 soldiers killed in Kashmir border fight

by


An Indian Army Major and three soldiers were killed in a gun battle that also left two militants dead on Tuesday when an incursion bid from Pakistan was foiled on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, a defence official said.

Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said a group of militants tried to infiltrate to this side of the LoC in Bandipora’s Gurez sector, some 180 km north of Srinagar.

“They were challenged when they were seen attempting to infiltrate into our side of the LoC. In the ensuing encounter, two terrorists were killed while two others are still trapped in the cordon laid around them.

“Four soldiers including a major and three other ranks were martyred in this operation,” Kalia said.

Sources said para commandos were rushed to augment the troops engaged in the gunfight on the border sector that usually remains peaceful.

The identities of the dead soldiers were being withheld till their families are informed.

The spokesman said the militants were given cover fire by the Pakistan Army by resorting to ceasefire violation to divert the attention of the troops on the LoC.

Bombay HC rejects Abu Salem’s plea for parole to marry

by


The Bombay High Court on Tuesday rejected jailed gangster Abu Salem’s plea for a 45-day parole to get married to his Thane-based girlfriend.

A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice V.K. Tahilramani and Justice M.S. Sonak declined the request on the ground that under the prison rules, those convicted under terror charges were not eligible either for furlough or parole.

Currently lodged in the Taloja Jail, Raigad, Salem moved the High Court after his earlier application for parole was rejected by the Konkan Divisional Commissioner (KDC) – the competent authority in such cases – in March on security grounds.

Through his lawyer Farhana Shah, he informed the High Court on Tuesday that the KDC had refused his application “without proper application of the mind” for his previously planned marriage on May 5.

Convicted for his role in the March 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, Salem had reportedly married’ his girlfriend, Heena alias Kausar Bahar, a resident of Mumbra town in Thane district.

Extradited from Portugal in November 2005, he claimed to have married Heena in 2014 over the phone while en route to Lucknow for a court case though she had made certain conflicting statements later.

He contended that he wanted to properly formalize his marriage with Heena by going to the registrar’s office and needed parole for this.

Originally hailing from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, Salem was convicted and sentence to life imprisonment for his role in the Mumbai serial blasts and other cases, besides being an accused in several other major cases, under trial in different parts of India.

In December 2014, he had complained to the Portugal authorities seeking cancellation of his deportation to India claiming that the extradition terms and conditions were allegedly violated.

Karunanidhi’s condition declines, next 24 hours crucial

by


The condition of ailing DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi has “declined” and keeping his vital organs functioning remains a “challenge”, Kauvery Hospital said today, indicating the next 24 hours could be crucial.

The 94-year-old five-time Tamil Nadu chief minister was being continuously monitored and treated with active medical support, a press release issued by the hospital said. “There has been a decline in the medical condition of DMK president and former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi.

Maintaining his vital organ functions continues to remain a challenge considering his age-related ailments,” it said. “His response to the medical interventions over the next 24 hours will determine the prognosis,” Executive Director of the Hospital Dr Aravindan Selvaraj said in the terse two-paragraph release.

Soon after the news of a decline in Karunanidhi’s condition spread, hundreds of his supporters gathered outside the hospital, including a large number of women, some failing to control their tears, others waving at the TV cameras, preparing for an overnight vigil at the facility in downtown Alwarpet.

Karunanidhi was admitted to the intensive care unit of the hospital on July 28 following a dip in blood pressure, which stabilized following medical intervention. The hospital had, however, said on July 31 that an extended stay could be necessary due to age-related overall decline in his general health, altered liver function, and hematological parameters.

A host of dignitaries and political leaders, including President Ram Nath Kovind Vice President Venkaiah Naidu and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi have visited the hospital over the last few days to inquire about the condition of the DMK veteran.

Andhra medico who accused professors of sexual harassment commits suicide

by


A PG medical student of SV Medical College in Tirupati, who had accused three professors of sexual harassment, has committed suicide in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district.

The 30-year-old victim was found hanging at her flat in Pileru town on Tuesday.

In April, she had complained to Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan in writing that she was being sexually harassed by three professors from the Paediatric Department.

Following which the college management formed a committee in May to conduct an inquiry.

The student, meanwhile, was upset after she failed in the post-graduate exams. She had told her friends that she was deliberately failed as she had complained to the professors.

The suicide triggered protests by students at the SV College where a sit-in was staged demanding action against the professors.

The victim’s relatives alleged that the inquiry committee had not submitted its report and the three professors had gone to the media describing her as mentally unsound.

They said the attitude of the professors had caused her mental agony.

Uttarakhand readying adventure sports policy

by


The Uttarakhand government is preparing a draft policy for promoting adventure sports in the state, an official said on Tuesday.

The policy will lay out guidelines for conducting adventure sports, quality standards for equipment. It would be presented before the state Cabinet for its ratification at the earliest.

There is already a policy for river rafting, and now the government is preparing a policy for trekking, aero-sports and other adventure sports “so as to harness the vast possibilities the hill state has to offer while also ensuring safety and security of the adventure sports enthusiasts”, the official told IANS.

The policy being prepared by the Tourism Department is in its final stage and Tourism Secretary Dilip Jawalkar says it would ensure big-ticket promotion of adventure sports on one hand while also ensuring that security standards are maintained.

The policy would only include non-motor sports as the sports involving motor machines have to take permission from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

Dell EMC builds infra for citizen services in ‘Digital India’

by


Riding on the fourth industrial revolution with disruptive technologies, global computer data storage major Dell EMC is building IT infrastructure for citizen services like Aadhaar in “Digital India”.

“As a leading hardware vendor, we build IT infrastructure also for the government to provide citizen services like Aadhaar, passports, invoices of customs and GST settlements,” Dell EMC India Managing Director Rajesh Janey told IANS here.

Though US-based Dell Technologies has been hard-selling its computers, laptops, tablets, and servers in India over the years, it began providing data storage, hybrid Cloud and data protection solutions to enterprises and state-run organizations following its acquisition of EMC in 2016 for a whopping $67-billion (Rs 4.61 lakh crore).

In September 2016, Dell Technologies acquired Massachusetts-based data-storage systems major EMC Corp, founded in 1979 and named after its founders Richard Egan, Roger Marino and John Curly, in one of the largest deals in the technology sector, worldwide.

“Data on the unique identification card (Aadhaar) issued to citizens is run and stored on our server racks managed by third-party vendors,” Janey said in an exclusive interview.

Similarly, passports are archived on the company’s storage while Customs and Excise departments use Dell IT infrastructure to raise invoices for businesses.

The company sells IT infrastructure products and services, including flash-based storage, data protection, security, hyper-converged infrastructure, backup solutions for small and medium businesses.

“The central and state governments also use our digital platforms for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) settlements by traders on the GST Network across the country, Janey asserted.

In the enterprise segment, leading banks and telecos use Dell EMC’s hardware for computing, storage and data security.

“Our products and solutions enable enterprises to undergo digital transformation as part of the fourth industrial revolution, leaving behind legacies such as mainframes, client servers and networked work stations,” Janey said.

The first industrial revolution occurred in the 18th century when agrarian practices and rural life under went industrial change with the roll out of the steam engine; the second from 1870 to 1914 marked mass production in industries and the third, from the 1980s, and subseqeuntly witnessed the emergence of personal computers and internet.

In the fourth revolution, disruptive technologies have been replacing the conventional platforms with artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT), Cloud, robotics and automation.

Hinting that new technologies would disrupt the functioning of many businesses, Janey said the increasing use of AI would make humans digital conductors, telling machines what they have to do.

“More mundane and routine tasks will get offloaded to machines,” he noted.

According to industry estimates, the number of IoT devices — devices, home appliances and vehicles connected through the internet — will explode to 200 billion over the next decade from 20 billion in 2020.

“Dropping cost of networking is fuelling the growth of IoT devices. At the same time, when we have so many devices with data, we need AI to analyse and convert it into actionable intelligence, thereby removing the routine tasks,” the top executive noted.

The evolution of sectors will happen as these technologies are being introduced into them, said Janey, who was earlier EMC’s President for India and the South Asia region.

“The future requires rethinking of what an intelligent human being can do. Our belief is the skilling of workforce will change. People will move away from mundane tasks to higher level skills. Secretarial work will be passe,” he pointed out.

With around 1.3 billion people and growing, India is a huge market for any industry, Janey admitted.

“Skilling our people through initiatives like the government’s Skill India and courses by educational institutions on Big Data are key, as sectors are undergoing digital transformation,” he added.

With India among the top five markets in the world for Dell EMC’s services, after America, China, Europe and Britain, the company is planning to hire more techies in India, Janey said, but did not specify the present workforce present and how many are being hired in the subcontinent.

Dell EMC claims to be the leader in India’s storage market with 43 per cent share by revenue and second-largest in server market with 26 per cent share by revenue.

The company is also said to have leadership in flash-storage and hyper-converged infrastructure segments.

“We are investing $4.5 billion on research and development in fiscal 2018-19. India contributes significantly to the research, particularly in servers,” Janey stated.

“India is ahead of other developing nations in the use of digital infrastructure,” he disclosed.
The country is also at par with the developed nations in innovation as advancements in e-commerce industry like cash-on-delivery and video subscriptions allowing download options by streaming sites are Indian innovations for the world, driven by consumer needs, the official said.

With its diverse offerings through hardware, software and data storage areas, the company is upbeat about its market share increasing in India as businesses head for disruption.

A movement to make India eat safer, healthier food

by


India bears a terrible burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), with the lack of proper diet and safe food a major contributing factor. The country has seen an increase in the NCDs burden from 30 percent in 1990 to 55 percent in 2016.

The World Cancer Research Fund contends that 27 to 39 percent of the main cancers can be prevented by improving diet, physical activity and body composition. The Global Status Report on NCDs-2010 has stated that salt consumption has direct implications for high blood pressure as well cardiovascular issues — and that saturated and trans-fat consumption increases the risk of diabetes as well as coronary heart disease.

What one eats, and how one eats, is definitely a significant reason why NCDs have become one of the major issues in India, as well as across the globe. The way we eat cannot be directly regulated, but there are three major factors that can be controlled: What we eat, what we know about what we eat and awareness about what we should eat (quantity/choice).

The first aspect comes from the standardization of food, the idea of the safety of the food that is available for human consumption. In this context, The Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 has enabled amalgamation of all the laws and regulations and has further led to the creation of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

The second task comes from the aspect of sharing the information about what we eat. How do I know what I am eating is right? For this, FSSAI has enabled labeling, especially the content and nutritional information.

The third and final task is the mammoth one of telling citizens what they should eat, the choice of food or its quantum. For this, a phenomenal wave of change has just taken flight — the “Eat Right Movement” — the main focus of which is to guide citizens across the nation. The movement is built on two broad pillars of “Eat Healthy” and “Eat Safe”, which is engaging citizens to improve their health and well-being. It started off recently with the goal to reduce the consumption of high-fat sugar and salt (HFSS) foods, and to eat safe and nutritious food.

Any technique adopted to alter the way citizens think, behave and function in society has a long gestation period before a positive outcome can be expected. It should be understood that the premise for adopting a technique for social and behavioural change comes from the fact that it cannot be a discontinuous function, it cannot be a jump from A to B; instead, it has to be a transition with constant nudging.

The reason why the “Eat Right Movement” could be a huge success is that it taps that narrow space of potential between what consumers will ignore because it is unattainable, and what they won’t consider important to begin with. Had the movement supported a dramatic reduction in HFSS foods, most consumers would not pay heed to it; but if the movement had just been a simplistic awareness programme, consumers would not consider it important enough to participate in the process. The “Eat Right Movement” not only nudges consumers to take the right step, but also involves them in the process of building a healthier India.

The second important aspect of the movement is that it involves collaboration, as well as voluntarily commitment from the major Food Business Operators, (FBOs) wherein it is not only the final consumer who is part of the movement, but the stakeholders such as FBOs who have the capacity to influence the way food is produced and made available to the people. The movement seeks improved behaviour in terms of food choices from the supply side as well as the demand side, thereby setting an example can be replicated for other issues within India, and by other nations as well.

The movement incorporates an “Eat Right Toolkit” which is a supportive engagement to be streamlined into the national nutrition and public health programmes. It also encompasses the Safe and Nutritious food (SNF) Initiative, which thrives on the philosophy of creating IEC (Information Education Communication) Material, to spread awareness and to be mindful of the concept of “safe and nutritious food”.

Clearly, there are quite effective methods in place to alter the way India eats; however, there is a need to throw caution to the wind. The issue is the inability to quantify the changes in habits of citizens in a short span. Therefore, a deflection from strategy should not be based on short-term outcomes. Instead, FSSAI needs to go all guns ablaze in these social and behavioural changes that they have given life to. Because health and competitiveness will follow if India begins to “Eat Right”!

KNOW US

GET INVOLVED

PROMOTE

Archives