Month: July 2020

Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

“There is no failure except in no longer trying.”

We all admire a lot of people for their success. But before their success, they too experienced epic failure in their life. We celebrate their success, feel proud, but often overlook the path that got them there, a path marked with number of failures. It’s our chance to learn from them, and accept failure as a chance to learn.

Can you imagine your childhood without Disney? I don’t know about others but it seemed black and white to me. I get chills down my spineby even thinking about it. There would’ve no Disney princesses, no Micky mouse or Hannah Montana, NOTHING!Well it could easily have been if Walt had listened to his former newspaper editor. The editor told Walt that “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas”. Surprising! Isn’t it? This is the same man who filled our childhood with number of amazing and colourful stories.

As it is rightly said, “no one can stop a man who is determined to prove himself not to the world but to his own eyes”! Undeterred, old Walt went to create the cultural icon that bears his name “WALT DISNEY”, sounds like a brand to me. Despite being one of the most influential people of the 20th century, Disney endured many failures before creating “The happiest place on earth”.

And now he is known as an extraordinary successful creative whose visions as an animator, filmmaker and theme park developer changed entertainment in the 20th century and beyond.  His road to success was paved by an unhappy childhood and countless business failures or setbacks.

Yet, Disney’s take on failure was:

“I think it’s important to have a good hard failure when you are young, because it makes you kind of aware of what can happen to you. Because of it, I have never had any fear in my whole life when we’ve been near collapse and all of that. I have never been afraid”.

Extreme Space Weather : Bigger Threat than Global Warming in the Context of Earth >>>>>>>>>

Extreme space weather has a global footprint and the potential to damage critical infrastructure on the ground and in space. A new report from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) calls for bridging knowledge gaps and for better coordination at EU level to reduce the potential impact of space weather events.

The sun shapes the space environment around the Earth. This so-called space weather can affect space assets but also critical infrastructure on the ground, potentially causing service disruptions or infrastructure failures. Numerous space weather events affecting the power grid, aviation, communication, and navigation systems have already been documented.

Credit : Third Party Reference

The impact of severe space weather can cross national borders, which means that a crisis in one country can affect the infrastructure in the neighbouring countries. This raises concerns due to the increasing reliance of society on the services that these infrastructures provide.

NEW REPORT IDENTIFIES KNOWLEDGE GAPS

The JRC has investigated the impacts of space weather on critical infrastructure in the EU. A new report identifies the gaps in reducing risks linked to space weather and makes recommendations for policy, industry and science on how to close these gaps.

The report summarises the results of a summit organised in partnership with the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency and the UK Met Office, with the support of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in November 2016. Representatives from European infrastructure operators, insurance, academia, ESA, and European and US government agencies attended the event.

INTERDEPENDENCIES AND CRISIS RESPONSE

The potential failure of critical infrastructures during extreme space weather can lead to cascading effects impacting other sectors.

New methodologies and tools, as well as a multi-risk governance approach are needed to assess these interdependencies and to enable the coordination of the many different actors that often manage risks in isolation from one other.

Credit : Third Party Reference

A pan-European vulnerability assessment of the power grid should be carried out to identify critical issues and transboundary effects in case of extreme space weather. Infrastructure operators should also assess whether their systems could be indirectly vulnerable to space weather, for instance due to dependencies on timing and positioning information provided by the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS).

Better communication between science and industry is also needed to provide relevant and reliable information to operators for decision making.

SPACE WEATHER FORECASTING

Early warning and preparedness are essential for limiting the effects of space-weather impacts.

In Europe and the USA, 24/7 space-weather forecasting capabilities are available to support the early warning of government and industry. However, it is important that the consistency of forecasts from different service providers are ensured.

Credit : Third Party Reference

There is a need to enhance forecasting capabilities for regional or local forecasts on the severity and duration of extreme space weather to ensure appropriate response from local operators.

Currently, geomagnetic storm forecasting is hampered by the limited understanding of the magnetic field orientation of Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) before they hit the Earth, and there are still significant knowledge gaps in physical and impact modelling, which affect the early-warning capabilities and preparedness in industry.

THE ROLE OF THE EU

In the EU, the European Programme on Critical Infrastructure Protection provides a policy background for critical infrastructure protection, while the EU disaster risk management policy covers prevention, preparedness and response for all types of disasters.

The Union Civil Protection Mechanism requires EU Member States to prepare a national risk assessment and list the priority risks they are facing. Six countries have included space weather in their risk assessment.

Credit : Third Party Reference

The participants of the summit indicated that there is a need for for improving coordination between the different space weather actors and recommended the establishment of a strategic European decision-making capability to coordinate space-weather risk mitigation and response at pan-European level.

They also advised that the roles and responsibilities of the key players in Europe should be better defined and suggested that coordinated strategic investments for improving the scientific know-how in this area could be explored.

Reference- https://divyanshspacetech.wordpress.com

Trust but verify.

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Trust is defined as having confidence, faith, or hope in someone or something. An example of trust is believing that the sun will rise within the morning. people always put trust in one another with none doubt in any quite sensation, people believe that somebody or something is reliable, good, honest, effective, etc. Trusting someone means you think that they’re reliable, you’ve got confidence in them and you are feeling safe with them physically and emotionally. Trust are some things that two people during a relationship can build together once they plan to trust one another .

why can we trust at all? Well, because it feels good. When people place their trust in a private or an establishment , their brains release oxytocin, a hormone that produces pleasurable feelings and triggers the herding instinct that leads sheep to flock together for safety and prompts humans to attach with each other . Swiss scientists have found that exposure to the present hormone puts us during a trusting mood: during a study, researchers sprayed oxytocin into the noses of half the subjects; those subjects were willing to lend significantly higher amounts of cash to strangers during a game than were their counterparts who inhaled a placebo.

Nothing would work that efficiently because it does today if we humans stop trusting one another . For our collaborative growth, we’d like to trust other fellows. Trust are some things that does not bound you by any legal law, but you’re bound by conscience to try to to the proper thing. When a toddler is shipped to high school , it is the trust that oldsters do on teacher and faculty , if they need never shown trust, they will not be ready to provide their toddler a growth which a faculty can give. Another example: an employer trusts his employee’s intentions and his capabilities, employee trust his employer that he’s bringing him the proper opportunities and exerting . Without trust, sharing responsibilities wouldn’t be possible and that we aren’t capable of handling everything on our own. We are people we’d like one another . If you retain on doubting, you will not be ready to give your one hundred pc because most of your energy will get waste in doubting. Therefore, don’t over doubt, trust people, in any case the planet isn’t that bad place.

in India, everyone features a question that, why we give the keys to our neighbors, once I was young, I don’t think we even owned a key to the front entrance of our house. Now, there are many of us in my neighborhood whom i might trust to return to my house once I wasn’t there, but, unfortunately, there i do know that there are unsavory characters out there that necessitate locking the door nowadays.

here are three good reasons for you to trust others:
1. Trusting allows you to grow: New experiences can actually cause you to a stronger person and can empower you to start out living more fully.
2. Successful relationships are built on trust: Just believe the foremost influential person in your life for a second…is not that an equivalent person you trust the most?
3. once you trust, you open yourself up to love: once you trust people you’re fixing a subconscious desire in them to measure up to your trust as well…
4. Send strong signals: Sending strong and clear signals not only attracts other tempered trusters but also deters potential predators, who are on the lookout for straightforward victims sending weak and inconsistent cues. That’s why having a reputation for toughness is critical; reputation is among the foremost powerful ways we communicate who we are and what sorts of relationships we seek.

Research has shown that the brain chemistry governing our emotions also plays a task in trust. Paul Zak, a researcher on the leading edge of the new field of neuroeconomics, has demonstrated. Other research has also shown how intimately oxytocin is connected with positive emotional states and therefore the creation of social connections. It’s well documented that animals become calmer, more sedate, and fewer anxious when injected with oxytocin.

Twitter aims to limit people from sharing articles they have not read

Twitter has nowadays created the most effective impact on connecting and sharing information. Twitter search is highly efficient in searching out active trending conversations or breaking news or things related to personal interests or even the latest news in and around anywhere on the Earth. Today if counting the number of active users of Twitter, it is found to be more than five hundred million throughout the globe. This number includes youth of this generation to the previous one, and from common men to celebrities.

  • According to the survey, it has been found that Twitter faces more than five hundred million tweets by the users per day, hence making it one of the active and widely used social networking sites. Apart from the twitter search, there’s an option for twitter advanced search which is effective only for registered users. The main advantage of this feature is the users can search out specific tweets regarding specific events and can retweet or share the contents. But it has also been found that the users used to share the articles even without reading them, which is now been aiming for restrictions of doing so.

To implement this restriction, Twitter has come up with the idea of experimenting with android users. In this experiment, Twitter is hoping to make the users exchange knowledgeable discussions only, on their respective twitter accounts. Whenever any users will try to share the articles or any other informative tweets without reading them or tapping on them, a prompt will pop up on the phone screen. This prompt will ask the user whether or not they truly want to retweet a hyperlink that they have now not tapped on. This will most probably make the user realize to tap on and read the tweet completely and then decide whether to retweet that particular article or not.

Twitter also cited in a remark which states, “Sharing or exchanging a piece of writing can easily ignite conversations, so you may additionally make a priority to desire to find out about the accurate concept earlier of you tweet it.” It has also added the statement, “To cooperate in advertising knowledgeable dialogue, we are attempting our newly developed feature recommended on Android till now- even as you retweet a piece of article that you for sure haven’t opened on your twitter account, we would perchance ask in case you would love to open it first then retweet.”

Sharing the links to pieces of writing without reading them is not at all a new trouble that has been witnessed. A study made in 2016 by the laptop computer scientists of Microsoft and Columbia University located that a total of 59 percent of the hyperlinks that had already been uploaded on Twitter is by no means of functionally tapped on for reading.

Much less academically sound, on the different hand larger telling, used to be every unique article posted that very exact year having a headline- “Seventy percent of Facebook users only examine the headline of science tales earlier than commenting.”- the faux records net website online the Science Submit has carried out a massive stock of 1,27,000 for the trouble which is almost accomplished lorem ipsum stuffed with textual content.

The solution made by Twitter is simply not to make the prohibition of such retweets, however just to needle friction into the procedure to attempt to poke some account holders to rethink their moves on the social neighborhood. It is just an approach the corporate has been taking more often not so long ago, in a try to make enhanced “platform well being” except making a deal with the censorship accusations.

In May, the corporate started testing by asking the users to amend their replies at the time they had been about to deliver tweets with “offensive language” to another fellow. The agency defined, “If at all the trouble gets an ignition, you are free to state the belongings you don’t implicit.” The corporate further added, “To assist you on reconsidering your reply, we’re walking a constrained scan on iOS with a prompt that offers you the alternative to amend your reply in enhancing it’s posted if it makes use of language which can, besides, be damaging or offensive.

That switch has been proved plenty less efficient, with the Twitter netting out, choosing as a lot of hazard-free- if the conversations full of vulgarity and filthy had been shared between friends, due to the fact, it does in truth hateful speech established on others.

“We’re attempting to encourage human beings to rethink their behavior as well as accent and revise their language earlier than posting because they usually are in the warmth of the second and they can also moreover say something they regret”, Twitter’s international head of internet website online insurance plan diagram for accepting as true with and safety referred to at the time.

Twitter has made our life easy to go with the flow of trending topics. So it is necessary to follow the guidelines made by the corporation in order to tweet and retweet the content. To create a clean impact it is important to first read the content thoroughly than to share and retweet. Finding contents can be done through the Twitter search feature but to find the most appropriate content with respective range or specifications, twitter advanced search will be the best option. It is advised to be a registered user of Twitter in order to get familiar with the day to day updates in and around the nations.

Being Average

Do you, as a student, teenager, or maybe even a person, sometimes feel that you might be too average? Is there a nagging feeling in your heart that you do not have what it takes to be at the top, to accomplish something and be happy in your success? It is like you were sheltered too much since your childhood and told repeatedly what an amazing kid you were. And now, when you face the real world on your own, you realize that that is just something that all parents say to their children. Every parent considers their child to be unique and quirky. But the truth is far from that. You are not any more special than the next kid, despite what you were made to believe back then.

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This has now probably rocked your whole belief system. You just have one constant thought in your mind:  You are just too average; you are good for not much.

Well here’s a news flash for all of you thinking that: You are not the only one who feels that way. Almost every other person feels he is too average for this world.

davIt is an interesting facet of human nature that people seem to have a psychological need to come up with the sort of fictional superheroes and saviors that embody perfection, success, and everything else a person wishes to be.

Taking the example of Batman, every person has wished at some point in his life to be like Bruce Wayne – world-renowned billionaire, a tech genius, athletic, handsome with a chiseled jaw and muscles as if Zeus himself came down from Olympus and carved him, and when he is not inventing some technology to save the world, he is there helping the weak and the downtrodden.

Characters like this have been created because of people’s need to cope with their own feelings of helplessness at times. Not that you should not try your best in any given situation, but you need to learn to accept mediocrity when you end up there despite your best efforts. Now, preaching this is one thing, and actually following through with this is another. This becomes a little difficult when there are not many people arguing the merits of mediocrity, of being blasé boring and average.

avg2Every one of you has your own set of strengths and weaknesses. But the fact remains, you are average at most of the stuff you do. Maybe you are an expert in linear algebra, or even playing guitar. But the likelihood is pretty high that you are average at so many other things you do. A single person cannot be an extraordinary performer in all areas of life. And that is okay.

Why? Because mediocrity considered as a goal is not good. But mediocrity as a result, on the other hand, is acceptable. There are only a few who get this and even lesser still who accept this. Being average is not in any way a standard of failure. You should continue on with living your lives and doing boring chores, chores that you feel make you average. Maybe you are average in a field for a reason because, at the end of the day, you are what actually matters.

Image Courtesy: GOOGLE

SELECTION

Selection is the process of choosing the most suitable candidates from applicants for the various jobs and it follows the recruitment and much information has to be obtained, from the prospective candidates to facilitate the selection process and it is then analyzed and evaluated and the information relates to the qualifications, work experience, age, levels of skills and other accomplishments, family background, aptitudes and interests, physical and mental fitness and so on. The enterprise has to choose the best and the most promising persons from among the applicants and in this sense, it may be said that while recruitment is a positive function, in that it seeks to induce as many persons as possible to apply for a job in the enterprise, the selection is a negative function because it aims at eliminating or weeding out those applicants who are not found suitable in one respect or the other. Thus, the selection is the process of securing relevant information about an applicant to evaluate his qualifications, experience, and other qualities to match these with the requirements of a job, and it essentially a process of picking out the man or men best suited for the organization’s requirements. According to Dale Yoder “Selection is the process in which candidates for employment, are divided into two classes-those who are to be offered employment and those who are not”.

SIGNIFICANCE OF SELECTION

Hiring of employees is an important function of the personnel department and this function must be performed careful because errors committed at the time of selection may prove to very costly and of selection process is faulty, absenteeism will be too high and the rate of labour turnover will also be higher and whenever unsuitable candidates are hired, the efficiency of the organization will go down and such persons will shrink work and will be absent themselves from the work more often and in many cases unsuitable employees have to leave their jobs and this will lead to waste of time, energy and money in hiring such employees and the training cost incurred on them will also go waste and proper selection and placement of personnel go a long way towards building up a suitable workforce and it will keep the rates of absenteeism and labour turnover low and will increase the morale of the employees and if the employees are quite suitable according to the requirements of the jobs, they will show higher efficiency and will enable the organization to achieve its objectives effectively. Recruitment and selection are two separate functions that usually go together and recruitment aims at stimulating and attracting job applications for positions in the organization, while selection consists of choosing among the applicants, to choose those, most suited to the job requirements, keeping in view the job analysis information. Recruitment is simple and candidates are not required to cross several hurdles whereas the selection process is complex and consists of many hurdles created by the management internally and Recruitment initiates the procurement aspect of personnel management whereas the selection completes the procurement aspect of personnel management.

ZEALANDIA

in the pic green area is actual land and lighter area covers the new discovered continent.

Recently, GNS Science, a New Zealand research institute, has published two new maps covering Zealandia’s tectonic profile and shape.

Zealandia is an almost entirely submerged mass of continental crust located in the southern Pacific Ocean that subsided after breaking away from Gondwanaland 83–79 million years ago.

The land mass may have been completely submerged by about 23 million years ago, and most of it (93%) remains submerged beneath the Pacific Ocean.

It is also known as Tasmantis due to its proximity to Tasman sea. Te Riu-a-Māui is another name for Zealandia.

The name and concept for Zealandia was proposed by Bruce Luyendyk in 1995.

Political Divisions Under Zealandia Are:

New Zealand, New Caledonia, Norfolk island, Lord howe island group and Elizabeth and Middleton reefs.

Alternative for Chinese apps !!!

let’s talk about the alternatives to popular Chinese apps:

  1. Cam Scanner is something a lot of people use and it has had its issues in the past I mean last year Kaspersky found a Trojan module in the app and it had gone away but it came back and now it’s banned again but there are some alternatives you can use so there’s Google Drive which has a simple scan feature that not many people know about and there’s Adobe scan and Microsoft Office lens both of which are feature packed like Cam Scanner now Adobe scan is something I prefer because I like the fact that it can detect the document is scanning be the ID card or resaved or a whiteboard or your usual documents it also has different editing tools OCR support and scanned images don’t have any watermark on them.
  2. Chinese browsers the CM browser APIs browser and of course the infamous UC browser which in the past has been in the news for taking unnecessary permissions showing spammy ads so yeah you shouldn’t be using these browsers anyway but if the browser you should be using is Firefox I know there’s chrome too of the sleeve but I am recommending Firefox for its privacy focused approach first of all Firefox brings a clean and blood-free experience unlike UC browser and like I said it’s focused on privacy and security. It blocks a lot of trackers automatically so that’s great plus it has all the great features like visual tab truly secure private browsing etc so Firefox is a great alternative to basically any browser out
  3. Share it and Xender are another really popular apps on this whole band list but of late they have become kind of spammy and bot especially share it now I personally used to use Xender a lot to transfer files from a phone to PC but offline something really cool and really easy called Google files now snap drop isn’t an app it’s a web-based service. Just tap on the device and send any file.
  4. ES File Explorer is another infamous app that has had its issues in the past the app has been reported to you know share app recommendations at spyware Android devices and beat shady engendered now lot of Android skins almost all the Android skins come with the old fine manager apps but if you want a third-party fire manager app there are a lot of great options, if you want a simple free file manager this obviously files by Google and if you want to create paid option there’s solve Explorer now, FX file explorer because it’s privacy focused there are no ads it’s free version because the most handy features like multiple windows support for most archive formats.
  5. Tik-Tok has been banned and no it’s not the only video sharing platform from China that has been banned this also like and ye I’m not sure how do you pronounce it but there are some good alternatives to Tik-tok. Triller-the app and it does not take any unnecessary permissions and number of celebrities posting videos on the platform so that’s good plus it brings Tik-tok features as you can see you can create music videos and there are different tracks to choose from like Tik-tok and you also get the feature where you can collaborate with other users.
  6. Viva video is a video editing app that has gone really popular in India now this is an app that was banned back in 2017 as well for spying on Indian users. So it’s obviously kind of shady but there are some great video editing apps you can use on Android now that’s in short if you want the same port at UI or the tools similar to what you get in viva video or you can use Kine master. It is more feature like multi device timeline all the video editing tools different textiles effects transitions.
  7. Helo the social media app that got really popular India because of its original language support has been banned too and you can use share chat instead which also brings the same so share chat is an app based out of India and it offers content in 15 region languages which is great, there’s no English support and when, basically people posting memes quotes whatsapp for words and things like that.
  8. Screen recorder lab that also got pretty popular but it’s been banned now but you don’t really have to worry because there are a lot of great screen recording apps on the Play Store my recommendation is the screen recorder no ads painting simply first of all this is ad free and support different resolutions different frame rates and an Android 10 devices this for parental audio recording which is awesome. If you want to record a gaming sessions so this is a simple great alternative that just works when compared to do you recorder.
  9. Hide is a photos and videos hider app that was flagged recently for its privacy issues and now it’s been bad now there are a lot of alternatives to hide photos and videos. The alternative is keep safe, keep safe uses cipher 256 encryption which is the same protocol used in many banking apps and it’s an app that lets you protect or hide apply with documents videos and photos it also has great features like phase down auto lock encrypted, backups, trash recovery and breaking alerts. It kind of brings everything you need so, use this instead of all type well there are a lot of other apps with these privacy issues and if you want alternatives for every single one of them we have an extensive detail.

RBI launches inflation expectations survey; to gather responses over telephone amid pandemic

The Reserve Bank of India has launched the inflation expectations survey of households and responses of the participants will be gathered over telephone in view of the coronavirus pandemic. The RBI has been regularly conducting the survey to elicit subjective views of the households on price movement across various cities of the country. The results of the survey are used as inputs for monetary policy.
 
The July 2020 round of the Inflation Expectations Survey of Households has been launched. As per RBI release, Hansa Research Group, Mumbai has been engaged to conduct the survey of this round on behalf of the RBI over telephone instead of the regular personal interview mode in view of the pandemic. The survey aims at capturing subjective assessments on price movements and inflation, of approximately 6,000 households, based on their individual consumption baskets, across 18 cities.
 
The cities that would be covered are Mumbai, Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Patna, Raipur, Ranchi and Thiruvananthapuram. The survey would seek qualitative as well as quantitative responses from households on price changes, general prices as well as prices of specific product groups, for the three months ahead as well as in the one year ahead period.

INS Jalashwa brings back 687 stranded Indians from Iran today

The Indian Naval vessel INS Jalashwa brought home 687 stranded Indians from Iran this morning. The amphibious naval ship docked at the VOC Port in Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu. The ship has undertaken the humanitarian mission under the Operation Samudra Setu.
 
AIR correspondent reports that INS Jalashwa embarked from the Bandar Abbas Port in Iran in the evening last Thursday with the evacuees. They were all the Indian fishermen who were stranded due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
 
The humanitarian mission using the ship has been facilitated by the Indian mission and the administration in Iran. For the VOC Port in Thoothukudi, this is the fourth time a rescue ship drops its anchor with the evacuees under the Operation Samudra Setu.
 
The operation testifies to the varied role being played by the Defence-e Force ranging from protecting Indian maritime interests to humanitarian assistance.

National Doctor’s Day being celebrated today with the theme “Lessen the Mortality of COVID-19

National Doctor’s Day is being celebrated today. The day is celebrated on July 1 every year to thank the doctors and physicians for their relentless service to the humanity. The theme of this year’s Doctors Day is ‘Lessen the mortality of COVID 19’.
 
AIR correspondent reports that today when the world is fighting coronavirus pandemic, it has realized the importance of doctors more than ever. The day is to thank the medical professionals who treat the health of the patients above theirs and offer round the clock services.
 
The first National Doctor’s day was celebrated in July 1991. In India, this day marks the birth as well as the death anniversary of Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy. He was one of the most renowned physicians in India and former Chief Minister of West Bengal. This year, West Bengal Government has declared a State holiday on the occasion today.
 
Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu today paid tributes to legendary physician and former Chief Minister of West Bengal Dr. B.C. Roy on Doctor’s Day. In a tweet, Mr Naidu said, Dr B C Roy made invaluable contribution to the development of medical field in India.
 
The Vice President extended greetings and good wishes to doctors across the nation for their selfless service to humanity. He said, in times of grave health emergencies like the current COVID pandemic, the doctors of the country have always bravely donned the mantle of being the frontline warriors. He called upon the countrymen to pledge the unconditional support to the dedicated members of the medical fraternity and express the deepest gratitude and respect to them.
 
The Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said that the decision has been taken as a mark of respect for the Medical professionals and other frontline workers who are putting their lives at stake for fighting against Corona. She also urged the Centre and other States to declare holiday on this day each year to offer tribute to their sacrifices.

Railways to increase local train services from 200 to 350 in Mumbai from today

Railways has decided to expand to 350 local train services in Mumbai from today. At present, a total of 200 services are being run, out of which 130 services are running between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and Kasara/Karjat/Kalyan/Dombivali/Thane on main line and 70 services are running between CSMT and Panvel on harbour line.
 
150 more services will be added to the existing services making the total to 350 services. The number of services may be modified as per the requirement to ensure social distancing norms. AIR correspondent reports that considering the State Government’s request to allow some more employees in essential services to travel by suburban local trains, railways have decided to add 150 more services from today.
 
These trains will halt at major stations only and will cater to the essential staff permitted to travel by select suburban services. The categories instructed by the Ministry of Home Affairs include defence personnel and employees of Central Government, Income Tax, GST and Customs and Department of Posts, along with employees of Nationalised Banks, Mumbai Port Trust, Judiciary and Raj Bhavan.
 
Only these employees are permitted to travel in these select suburban services. To ensure social distancing in the coaches, unlike its seating capacity to accommodate about 1,200 persons, only about 700 are to be allowed per train.

Complete lockdown in 10 districts of Odisha on weekends; Schools, educational institutions to remain closed till August 31

Odisha government has announced complete lockdown in ten districts on weekends in view of the rising COVID-19 cases in the state. These districts are Ganjam, Gajapati, Khurda, Cuttack, Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur, Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar and Jharsuguda. Night curfew will continue to remain in force, between 9 pm and 5 am, except for essential activities.
 
Schools, colleges, and other educational institutions will remain closed for teaching purposes till August 31. State Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy said cinema halls, theatres, gyms, swimming pools, entertainment parks, bars, auditoriums, assembly halls and other similar places will remain shut till the end of this month.
 
Similarly, Social, political, sports, entertainment, academic, cultural, religious functions and other large congregations will also be prohibited.
 
Hotels and restaurants are allowed to operate as per SOPs issued by Union Health Ministry. Dhabas along National and State Highways and Major roads will also be opened but for takeaway only.

New guidelines for Unlock-2 to open up more activities in areas outside Containment Zones comes into effect today

New guidelines for Unlock-2 to open up more activities in areas outside the Containment Zones will come into effect today. The process of phased re-opening of activities has been extended further. It said, the lockdown will continue to be implemented strictly in the Containment Zones till 31st of July this year. Home Ministry has said that the new guidelines are based on feedback received from States and UTs, and extensive consultations held with related Central Ministries and Departments.
 
Under the new guidelines of Unlock -2, Metro Rail service, operation of Cinema halls, gymnasiums, swimming pools, entertainment parks, theatres, bars, auditoriums, assembly halls and similar places will not be allowed. Similarly, social, political, sports, entertainment, academic, cultural and religious functions and other large congregations will not be permitted.
 
The Ministry said, dates for opening of these will be decided separately, based on the assessment of the situation. It said, all activities, except these will be permitted outside containment zones. The Ministry said, after extensive consultations with States and Union Territories, it has been decided that schools, colleges and coaching institutions will remain closed till 31st of July.
 
As per the guidelines, night curfew timings are being further relaxed and curfew shall be in force from 10 PM to 5 AM. Further, relaxations in night curfew have been given for seamless operation of industrial units in multiple shifts, movement of persons and goods on National and State Highways, loading and unloading of cargo and movement of persons to their destinations after disembarking from buses, trains and airplanes. It said, domestic flights and passenger trains have already been allowed in a limited manner and their operations will be further expanded in a calibrated manner. It said, shops depending upon their area, can have more than 5 persons at a time. However, they have to maintain adequate physical distance.
 
Training institutions of the Central and State Governments will be allowed to function with effect from 15th of July. SOP in this regard will be issued by the Department of Personnel and Training.
 
International air travel of passengers has been permitted in a limited manner under the Vande Bharat mission. Further opening up will take place in a calibrated manner. The guidelines said, containment Zones are required to be carefully demarcated by the State Governments with a view to contain the spread of COVID-19, after taking into consideration the guidelines issued by the Health Ministry. Within the containment zones, strict perimeter control shall be maintained and only essential activities allowed.
 
These Containment Zones will be notified on the websites of the concerned District Collectors and by the States and information will also be shared with Union Health Ministry. It said, activities in the Containment Zones will be monitored strictly by the State authorities, and the guidelines relating to containment measure in these zones will be strictly implemented.
 
The Union Health Ministry will monitor the proper delineation of Containment Zones and implementation of the containment measures. AIR correspondent reports that the new guidelines said that States and UTs, based on their assessment of the situation, may prohibit certain activities outside the Containment zones, or impose such restrictions as deemed necessary.
 
However, there shall be no restriction on inter-State and intra-State movement of persons and goods. No separate permission, approval and e-permit will be required for such movements. National Directives for COVID-19 management shall continue to be followed throughout the country, with a view to ensure social distancing.
 
Shops will need to maintain adequate physical distancing among customers.
 
Home Ministry will monitor the effective implementation of National Directives. Vulnerable persons, persons above 65 years of age, persons with co-morbidities, pregnant women, and children below the age of 10 years, are advised to stay at home, except for meeting essential requirements and for health purposes. The use of Aarogya Setu mobile application will continue to be encouraged.

PM announces extension of Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Anna Yojana till November to provide free food grains to poor

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced free food grains to 80 crore people across the country for five more months. The Prime Minister Gareeb Kalyan Anna Yojana has been extended till the end of November this year. Under the scheme announced in the wake of COVID- 19 pandemic, 5 kg free wheat or rice along with 1 kg whole chana will be provided to each member of a family per month. Its extension will cost over 90 thousand crore rupees.
 
Addressing the nation last evening, Mr. Modi noted that in the last three months, 31 thousand  crore rupees have been transferred to the Jan Dhan accounts of almost 20 crore poor families,18 thousand crore rupees have been transferred to the bank accounts of more than 9 crore farmers and 50 thousand crore rupees are being spent on PM Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan, which has been started to provide employment opportunities. He stressed that the country is moving towards the institution of ‘one nation, one ration card’, which will be of immense benefit to the poor who travel to other states in search of work.
 
 
Mr. Modi said, if one looks at the death rate due to corona, India is still in a very stable situation as compared to other countries. The Prime Minister added that timely measures like lockdown have saved many lives. Mr. Modi, however, said ever since unlock one started, people have shown negligence. He urged them to take all necessary precautions for fighting the novel Coronavirus. He also said, regulations need to be followed with the same seriousness as during Lockdown, especially in the Containment Zones. The Prime Minister added that people must maintain discipline and those not following the rules, need to be stopped and made aware. He warned that nobody is above the rule.
 
Mr. Modi also hailed farmers and honest tax payers for their contribution in making the welfare scheme successful. The Prime Minister said that in the coming times, the government will continue to take further steps to empower the poor and the needy. Economic activities will also be enhanced, with due precautions in place. He reiterated the pledge to work towards Atma nirbhar Bharat and to be vocal for local, while also asking people to be careful, use mask and face cover and continue following the mantra of maintaining do gaz doori. Mr. Modi said, the country is entering in Unlock 2 and the season of cough, fever and cold is also about to start and in such a situation the countrymen should take care of themselves.