Tina

Not just businesses, but even illegal trades are now being conducted via online platforms. State Tiger Strike Force arrested two people involved in illegal wildlife trade of Pangolin via online streaming platform YouTube in an undercover operation. The two accused were produced in front of special court in Sagar on Tuesday and then sent remand. Officials on the team shared that the duo was involved in illegal trade of wildlife and their essential parts. As per information shared by Deputy Conservator of Forests (DCF) (Wildlife), the department had received information about some individuals involved in illegal through online platform YouTube.  To investigate further, the team of Tiger Strike Force took an action on June 27. Tracing the illegal traders, the two accused were caught at Pauhari-Shivpuri Marg (Shivpuri bypass) joint action by Indian Police Service (IPS) and Tiger Strike Force, Sagar.  Further, on investigation one of the accused was found with carrying Pangolin sca...

India banned 59 apps originating from China, including very popular ones like the short video platform TikTok, UC Browser, file sharing app ShareIt, and CamScanner, which allows iOS and Android devices to be used as image and document scanners. The decision to ban these applications was appreciated and became a major point of discussion among youngsters.  With hashtags and trending stories saying bye to Chinese applications, youngsters now feel an essential need to build a better and safer version of these applications in India.  Appreciating the move while admitting the little void in their entertainment time, youngsters speak up with Free Press. “Like the entire country, even I am very happy with the ban imposed on chinese applications. By banning these applications, our local startups and apps will get a boost. Tik Tok, camscanner and UC browsers had become a part of our lives, but hopefully, we have better Indian versions of such innovations coming out soon. Banning the ap...

As Indore moves towards unlock 2.0, a positive streak of lockdown brightens the sky with rainbow of literature. Utilising the time, literary enthusiast and published authors explored newer pastures. Now that we are slowly unlocking the city, these new colours of literature are slowly entering the world of readers.  Indore’s innate talent is unlocking various stories and experiences of lockdown in form of books. Some amazing books written by Indori authors coming up soon are as follows: Lockdown: a much-needed sabbatical for love Lockdown has inspired us to explore a part of life that we have probably forgotten. All these years, we have been talking about revisiting 90s and our childhood.  During lockdown, we experienced such changes. Inspired by lockdown, 30-year-old author Arpit Vageria wrote 'The Girl Next Door', which is releasing in August.  The storyline revolves around Ishaan and Ruhi and how lockdown takes them back to love. It is as Vageria describes it ‘90's love...

As per the instructions of the School Education Department, uniform distribution under the free uniform supply scheme in the session 2020-21 will begin with the help of self-help groups.  Self-help groups operated under the Panchayat and Rural Development Department, Women and Child Development Department and Urban Development and Environment Department will be given the task of providing uniforms to students of govt schools.  For districts in which self-help groups are not capable of providing uniforms to each and every student, the amount of uniform will be provided through the account of student. Government of India has provided a grant amount of Rs 600 per child girl for providing free uniform. Uniforms can be ordered according to the capacity of the self-help group operating under the respective departments, and a standard size uniform will be provided by the group within 3 months. As per instructions, 80 percent of the uniform supply will be payable in advance and 20 per...

Joint Director Public Education revoked the recognition of 12 out 24 schools affiliated to Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) or Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education (MPBSE) in Indore district in the last 10 days. Hence, only 50 percent schools who had applied for recognition or renewal of affiliation were granted the accepted the same for academic session 2021-22.  Various reasons including hypertension lines passing through the school premises and use of same campus for college were cited in the rejection letter. Most of the schools had applied for renewal of affiliation for the academic year 2021-22.  “There were a few application for starting a new school, but they were rejected on other grounds like height of boundary wall, lease expiry or insufficiency,” Manish Verma, Joint Director of School Education Department, said.  These schools had applied for recognition for the year 2021-22 as their affiliation was expiring this academic session. Joint Direc...

Villagers are taking to forests and attempting to encroach the land in hope of high claims later in the year. About 17 such new cases of attempt to encroach have been reported in Indore division since April, i.e. beginning of lockdown.  The number of cases continue to rise with villagers complaining of lack of employment opportunities. Many such villagers are daily wagers, who have returned to their villages from urban areas in Madhya Pradesh and other states.  The task is becoming more daunting for forest officials as fearless and frustrated villagers refuse to listen to their argument and often threaten to encroach the area anyway. The latest case of group encroachment was reported in Pedmi that was resolved on Sunday.  Over 100 villagers attempted to encroach 3 hectare land in compartment route 232 of forest land in Pedmi. The large group of villagers were chopping off trees and preparing the land for farming.  A team of forest officials and border security forces...

Sikh community could not offer tribute to Maharaja Ranjit Singh popularly known as Sher-e-Punjab or Lion of Punjab, like every year. His death anniversary was on Saturday. Like every year, Sikh community commemorates his contribution and gives tribute to him on the following Sunday of June 27.  Though the memorial event was organised as every year, he was remembered in prayers and special ardas was organised to express thanks to the great leader in various gurudwaras of the city.  His life story was re-told to children to teach them lessons of courage and good governance. “Every year, we offer tribute to the Maharaja with get-together, flowers wreaths and celebrations, but this year, since public gatherings were restricted, we only offered prayers in Gurudwaras,” Devendra Singh Gandhi, coordinator of Imli Sahib Gurudwara, said.  Kirtan was organised in his honour in gurudwaras. Impressed by the Maharaja’s life stories, kids were particularly inspired and wished to be as c...

As cybercrime continues to rise, we will require updated technologies like real-time simulations to protect ourselves from them in the near future. Explaining how real-time simulators can be used in in various fields such as cyber security, micro grid, power system controls, power generation, hybrid and electrical transportation etc, Bharadwaj Rangachar, field application engineer discussed the topic on the first day of three-day faculty development programme (FDP) on ‘Real Time Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) Simulation for Power Electronics & Power Systems’. The programme has been organised by Department of Electrical Engineering of Shri Govindram Seksaria Institute of Technology and Science (SGSITS). Rangachar discussed the basics of real time simulation, benefits and challenges associated with simulation. “The usefulness of real time simulators make this session more interesting and beneficial to personnel associated in diverse streams,” he said.   Rangachar familiarizes th...

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Indore has been ranked 64th in the 2020 Times Higher Education Young University Rankings.  Last year IIT Indore was 68th and it has moved 04 notches up this year. It is second amongst the Indian Universities. THE’s 2020 Young University Rankings reveal the best universities under 50 years old, assessing them across teaching, research, international outlook and their work with industry. In fact, the ranking was created using the same methodology as the THE World University Rankings, but the weightings were recalibrated to reflect the missions of younger universities.  Overall, 26 Indian universities appear in the full ranking of the 414 universities in total with only 02 Indian Institutes appear in first 100. IIT Indore has improved its score in majority of performance indicators. Prof Neelesh Kumar Jain, Director (Officiating) congratulated the IIT Indore community and urged them to work harder to improve upon the ranking next year.

Following my story on encroachment on forest land, forest ranger Mahesh Ahirwar was suspended for negligence and irresponsible behaviour. About 12 hectare area was taken over by farmers under the nose of the ranger.  The site was noticed and complaints raised by legal activist Abhijeet Pandey. A team from Bhopal had investigated the encroached spots on Mhow – Mandleshwar road after local team failed to investigate the matter. Bhopal team headed by forest ranger Sunil Saxena investigated the various spots, where encroachment was reported. The report was submitted to PCCF Rajesh Shrivastava. After which, the order for suspension was finally issued on Saturday by CK Ninima, chief conservator of forest Indore.  Sharing details about the encroachments, Pandey said, “There are 12 such marked spots of forest department, where land has already been cleared and prepared for cultivation.” The land might have even been cultivated for previous as well. “Now, the farmers are preparing the ...

Preparations for unlocking mosques in Indore is complete with installations of wash basins at social distance outside the main entrance. Bohra community has collectively prepared the mosque with requisite precautions to ensure that everyone who enters the mosque washes their hands and feet before entering.  Community spokesperson Johar Manpurwala said, “We understand and support all the necessary precautions and protocols for controlling the spread of coronavirus.” Citing that eventually, whenever mosques are unlocked, a necessary protocol would be necessary.  “Washing our hands and feet with soap is one essential step with wearing mask, so we gave just completed making the requisite preparations of the same,” Manpurwala said. Further, other arrangements would be made as per directives from district administrations. 

Parents questioned Indore collector Manish Singh’s decision of allowing schools to collect only tuition fee and expressed grief at not being a part of the decision. After the decision of Singh was announced and floated through social media channels, parents’ comments overflowed urging the district administration to lend ear to their plea as well.  Questions were raised on the decision taken by Singh after a meeting with school directors and principals.  The decision was announced on the social media page of Indore Collector with a photo of the meeting with school operators. A video of Singh went viral on social media, where he also asked the school operators to take tuition fees.  Bothered by the decision, many parents raised questions via various social media platforms.  Parents claimed that the decision taken by collector is biased and does not even consider parent’s take. They demanded to be heard and considered before allowing schools to collect tuition fee for t...

Private schools in the city are collecting feedbacks from parents and urging them to give a heads up to online classes for pre-primary and primary classes well. The feedbacks are being collected via online forms, which will be used to show positive feedback and support from parents regarding online education.  After receiving a number of complaints from parents, Madhya Pradesh school education department had ordered all schools to stop online classes for pre-primary and primary classes last week. The order issued by the commissioner, Rajya Shiksha Kendra said that decision has been taken in view of the problems being faced by students who do not have a digital device and who are facing problems in recharging data.  Further, it noted that complaints had been received that some schools were conducting very long online classes, putting students and their parents to inconvenience. Following complete ban on online classes for pre-primary and primary classes, schools are now trying ...

Last three auspicious days before November end to invest, move and marry without facing excessively delays and objections, as per Hindu calendar. Marking important and auspicious days is a part of many cultures and traditions, and often followed by most communities in India.  For those who wish to make long-term investments and changes, the three upcoming dates suggested by experts are June 27, 29 and 30. While it is possible to take on new ventures later, success will be dim till November 25.  The twin year 2020 has 6 eclipses out of which we have witnessed 3 already. “Eclipses is a time of change and volatility, which affects our life in many ways, so we have customs to keep calm and engage in good deeds,” researcher Dr Ajit Upadhyaya said.  He explained that the following 4 months starting July are known as the time of study and meditativeness. “This is not the best time to start a new venture, invest in anything for long-term, move into a new house or get married,” Up...

Online education has more cons than pros claim parents, as a female student of Vedansh International School received obscene messages while attending online classes on zoom. Following the message, parents who were already objecting to online classes staged a protest outside the school and submitted a complaint.  Parents reached the school and raised the issue of cyber safety and the possible harm to their children’s privacy and security due to use of online classes. “We have been objecting to online classes from day 1, but school did not hear our plea and now our fears are becoming reality as a little girl of high school received obscene messages on zoom app yesterday,” parent representative said. He urged the school to shutdown online classes and take possible action on the student who sent the message. “The student who sent the obscene message is not in the same class, but is a student of the same school,” the representative said.  Parents raised their plea quoting how this ...

Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has postponed the Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) July exam. Over 30 lakh candidates were to appear for the teacher eligibility exam that was scheduled to be held on July 5.  CTET exam is conducted in two parts — part I and part II. Part I for those from classes 1 to 5 and part II for classes 6 to 8. The exam contains 150 questions to be solved in two-and-a-half hours. Each question will be for one mark and there will be no negative marking. For both the papers, child development and pedagogy, language I and II will be must with 30 marks each. In the paper I, the remaining parts will be mathematics and environmental science and for paper II the 60 marks will be for subject-specific paper. To clear the exam, the candidates need to secure 60 per cent marks out of 150 marks. For reserved category candidates, the cut-off is 55 per cent which comes to around 82 marks out of 150. Meanwhile, in the official notification released by CBSE ...

As Indore slowly unlocks and learns to live life fighting the spread of covid-19, temples, mosque, gurudwara and church are working developing new systems to ensure safety of devotees in communal prayers.  The new way of life after lockdown and continuous efforts to ensure safety from covid-19 is a much more disciplined and planned way of life. Discipline and pre-planning to meet with the lord will be an essential part of our lives starting this new phase of life.  Coordinators and representatives of different communities shared how the new systems are being defined and will be in process, as Indore gears up to unlock temples, mosques, gurudwaras and churches. Do not touch, book, pray & meditate: Unlock Temples From the ancient temple of Khajrana which is an essential part of Indore’s identity to the little temple in your colony, every temple needs to ensure social distancing and necessary precautions for prevention of covid-19.  An essential part of the basic plan is...

The power to decide whether they want to attempt Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) class XII board examination or not, now rests with students as the board allows them to appear or opt out. This was announced by the board following its statement given to the Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday.  Further, CBSE cancelled pending class X examinations, which were scheduled in July. In response to the top court’s question on whether it will allow class XII students to appear for the exam or opt out, the board said that class XII students will be given a choice to opt out of the exam.  As per the announcement, those students who choose not to appear for remaining papers will be assessed on the basis of the last 3 exams. SC has asked the Board to release the notification indicating the scheme for internal assessment. The Board has said that it will notify the same tomorrow. “Exams for Class 10 stands cancelled. They don’t have to give any exam,” CBSE said. For those students who...

 The three most awaited and celebrated Rath Yatras in the country include Jagannath Puri (Orissa), Ahmedabad (Gujarat) and the third Venkatesh Temple in Chhatribagh, Indore. If today were a normal day in Indore, then there would be a grand celebration and festivity in the air as the majestic Rath Yatra would proceed on its way to bless the city. While it was expected that the Rath Yatra would remain confined to temple premises, with permission from district administration, ‘Rath Yatra’ was taken out from Venkatesh Temple, Chattribagh, Indore on Tuesday. Temple committee coordinator Nitin Tapadia said, “We received permission from the administration in morning and accordingly, the Rath Yatra was taken out in evening with 20 participants including priests and committee members.” Temple committee had already sent out a message to the devotees urging them not to visit the temple premises or crowd on the way. The yatra was taken out from front gate to back gate of the temple. ...

  Upcoming Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) class XII board pending examinations have become a cause of anxiety, worry and frustration for students as well as their parents. Most students are hoping to get promoted without having to attempt the examination now. Students of Commerce and Humanities stream are more frustrated than ever, with looming discussions on cancellation of examinations being postponed every day. Commerce and Humanities students would have spent this time preparing Common Proficiency Test (CPT), National Institute of Design Entrance Exam (NID), and other entrance examinations. However, with their board examinations being postponed from March to July, their academic year has already stretched. To further increase their anxiety, CBSE and the Centre on Tuesday told Supreme Court that the discussion on postponing or cancelling the pending board examination has already reached an advanced stage. Further, the decision on postpone or cancellation...