Oz book in Uttarakhand to inspire women
The Australian High Commissioner, Barry O’Farrell, was recently in Dehradun to interact with a group of 11 elected women municipal councillors. Noted Dehradun-based NGO, Panchayati Rule and Gender Awareness Training Institute (PRAGATI), organised this meeting in relation to a capacity building programme for over 650 women. The project was supported by the Australian High Commission. It was implemented by PRAGATI during Dehradun’s 2018-19 Municipal Corporation elections. PRAGATI’s Vice-Chairperson, Josphin Singh, said that since everything had been digitalised, there was a need for these women to know how to access various government portals to learn about various schemes and announcements. Singh said that a computer literacy programme was a must to make the elected women more professional. The Australian High Commissioner presented a book Clearing Boundaries as a token of appreciation to PRAGATI team led by Josphin Singh and its secretary Rekha Pundir. Clearing Boundaries is about the rise of Australian women’s cricket. Authored by Fiona Bollen and Matt Bonser, Clearing Boundaries is the first ever coffee-table style book dedicated to women’s cricket, and the first literary update on the history of the women’s game in Australia for nearly 30 years. “This book will surely inspire the PRAGATI team and elected women leaders,” hoped Barry O’Farrell.
‘Modi Govt Knows No Jet Lag’
Many ministers and BJP leaders make it a point to show that they are “workaholics” like Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Coming straight from America after attending the Global Energy Action Forum-2022, Dr Jitendra Singh, Science and Technology Minister, some days ago presided over the first-ever CSIR leadership meet. “One Week, One Lab” campaign, Singh declared. He said that the aim should be to showcase technological innovations and breakthroughs in each of the CSIR labs, such as heli-borne technology, drones, state-of-the-art sewage cleaning machines, etc. When the CSIR’s DG, Dr N. Kalaiselvi, thanked the minister for making the effort in attending the meet since he must have had jet lag at the time, Singh said, “The Modi government knows no jet lag.”
Go For Millets To Be Healthy
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets. Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar is going gaga over millets. Whenever Tomar gets a chance, he talks about its healthy properties. Millets are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grain for fodder and human food. Tomar on Tuesday was in Bali, Indonesia, to attend the G-20 agriculture ministers’ meeting. There he met his Canadian counterpart Marie-Claude Bibeau and Australia’s Assistant Minister for Trade and Manufacturing Tim Ayres. Tomar sought their support in celebrating 2023 as the International Year of Millets and also invited them to attend the G-20 Agri Summit in India next year.
National Photo Award Winners Waiting To Be Honoured
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has earned the distinction of completing projects well in time, if not before the deadline. But some in the government’s bureaucratic system follow just the opposite. The Information and Broadcasting Ministry, it seems, has “forgotten” that the ceremony of the National Photo Awards, sponsored by the Photo Division, is running late by over two years. The 8th National Photo Awards competition, which is considered to be the most prestigious competition of Indian photography, was organized in late 2019. The jury completed its work by February 2020 and the winners were immediately informed. But it looks like that the enthusiasm of the ministry officials ended with this communication. As the bad luck would have it, Shipra Das, an outstanding photo-journalist, who was selected for the “Life Time Achievement Award” met with bad luck since she received the communication from the Photo Division. First, she suffered a nearly fatal attack of Covid-19. Soon after that, her entire camera equipment was stolen from a shared e-rickshaw in which she was traveling in East Delhi. Despite the fact that the ministry officials were aware of Das’ difficult economic situation, no one has time to organize the public award ceremony and distribute the awards and award money to the winners. The jury was headed by Vijay Kranti, noted journalist photographer, known for his legendary photography on Tibet and Dalai Lama. “God knows whether these awards would be given or not,” a veteran print media photographer wondered.
Judges All The Way To The Top
There are many families which keep on producing judges for higher judiciary. Most of them are generally from southern states and West Bengal. The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended the name of the Bombay High Court Chief Justice Dipankar Dutta for appointment as a judge of the apex court. Justice Dutta’s father, Salil Kumar Dutta, was a judge of the Calcutta HC. Justice Amitava Roy, former judge of the SC, who retired in 2018, is the brother-in-law of Justice Dutta.