Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated all the bright youngsters who have successfully cleared the Civil Services Examination, 2019. 
 
Extending his best wishes, Mr. Modi said, an exciting and satisfying career of public service awaits them. 
 
For those youngsters who did not get the desired result in the Civil Services Examination, Mr. Modi said, he would like to tell them that life is full of several opportunities. 
 
He said, each and everyone of them is hardworking and diligent and wished them the best for their future endeavours.

In Sri Lanka, polling is being held for general elections to elect 225 members for its 16th Parliament with strict health guidelines amidst COVID situation. The voting began at 7 AM in the morning and will continue till 5 PM. An extra hour of polling has been kept in view of COVID situation and social distancing to be kept during the voting process.

The counting of votes will be held tomorrow and results are expected by late evening. Over 7450 candidates are in fray for Parliament seats while around 1.62 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise at around 13 thousand polling booths.

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, former PM Ranil Wickremsinghe and former President Maithripala Sirisena are among the main contestants to enter the Parliament. The elections were postponed twice after the COVID outbreak as Parliament was dissolved in early March, six months before its term ended as President Gotabaya Rajapksa was seeking a clear majority in Parliament for his party. 

Extensive arrangements have been made in wake of COVID outbreak and facemask along with hand sanitization is mandatory at the polling booths. Health authorities have asked voters not to fear coming to the polling stations and said the applying of ink on the fingers would be carried out in a safe manner. Sri Lanka has only around 400 active COVID cases and they will miss the voting.

Vaishno Devi Yatra will resume on August 16 after the Jammu and Kashmir government decided to open religious places in the Union Territory. Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board announced the resumption of the pilgrimage almost four months after it was suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to open all religious places across the Union Territory from 16th of this month, a day after Independence Day celebrations.

The Shrine Board said, it will announce its own Standard Operating Procedure later.

The government had suspended the Yatra on May 18 following the outbreak of the pandemic.

Development is taking place at a rapid speed in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh since the two Union Territories were carved out. On 5th of August last year, the Government revoked the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir  by modifying Article 370 of the Constitution.

During one year period prior to August 5 2019, a total number of 172 locals joined different terrorist groups. After August 5, 2019 till date, recruitment fell by 42 percent from 172 to 100. The total number of terrorists who attempted infiltration from Pakistan occupied Kashmir also decreased by 33 percent.

AIR correspondent reports, there has been a 54 percent reduction of terrorist initiated violence in Jammu and Kashmir. As against 395 incidents prior to 5th August last year, it is 181 post that date till now. Eighty percent of the total 1391 law and order incidents in the past year were reported during the first three months of August, September and October.

The situation improved dramatically as average law and order related incidents fell from 370 per month to the current rate of 28 per month. 

The COVID-19 recovered cases are now double of active cases in the country. Currently, the recovered cases are over 12.30 lakh. 

With this, the recovery rate has gone up to an impressive 66.30 per cent. 

The fatality rate is also the lowest at 2.10 percent since the first lockdown.

Briefing media in New Delhi yesterday, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said, the fatality rate has seen a progressive decline and it is continuing. 

He said, over two crore COVID tests have been conducted so far.  In the last 24 hours, over 6.6 lakh tests have been conducted.

He added that many states have increased their testing capacity, both RT – PCR and Rapid Antigen tests and 24 States and UTs have more tests per million than the national average.

The Secretary also said around 50 per cent of deaths due to COVID-19 in India have taken place in the age group of 60 years and above. 

About 37 percent deaths have taken place in the age group of 45 to 60 years. 

Mr. Bhushan informed that about 68 per cent of COVID-19 deaths have been reported among male patients and 32 per cent among female patients in India.

The Secretary said, 28 states and UTs have a COVID-19 positivity rate of less than 10 per cent, while India’s positivity rate as on date is 8.89 per cent. 

Replying to a question, he said, the coronavirus infection has spread to new areas in the country, but 82 per cent of the total cases are still limited to ten states and Union Territories.

He added that 50 districts accounted for 66 per cent of the COVID-19 caseload in the country.

Director General, ICMR , Dr Balram Bhargava informed that the Oxford vaccine, being manufactured by Serum Institute of India, has  got approval for phase 2 and 3 clinical trials. He said, it is starting within a week at 17 sites.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will participate in the Bhumi Poojan function for the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya today. He will unveil a plaque to mark the laying of the foundation stone and also release commemorative postal stamp on Shree Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir. The Bhumi Poojan ceremony will start at 12.30 PM and culminate at 12.45 PM. 175 guests including 135 Saints belonging to 135 spiritual traditions have been invited for the ceremony.

Mr Modi will first have Darshan at Shri Hanumangarhi Mandir, after which he will perform puja of Bhagwan Shri Ramlalla at Shri Ram Janmabhoomi. It will be followed by the Bhumi Pujan.

Heavy security arrangements are in place in view of the Prime Minister’s visit.

Shri Ram Janm Bhumi Teerth Shetra Trust and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath have appealed to all Ram-Bhakts across the world to organise Bhajan, Kirtan and Prasad distribution in all villages and cities while taking all necessary precautions to prevent spread of Corona.

After the appeal of the Chief Minister and Trust, people in the state are lighting earthen lamps at their houses and a special deepotsav is being organized in Ayodhya. The Lanes of Ayodhya and Ghats of holy Saryu River are illuminated with thousands of earthen lamps. Beautiful Rangolis along with special gates and colorful streets depicting the saga of Ramayana are ready to welcome the Prime Minister. People are lighting Diyas at their houses and even the Chief Minister House in Lucknow is illuminated with Diyaas.

All India Radio will broadcast the Bhumi Pujan function live from Ayodhya from 11:40 this morning. It can be heard on AIR FM Gold and additional frequencies.

Doordarshan will also broadcast the function live. 

The road to this bhoomi poojan ceremony witnessed a medley of historical, cultural, religious and political events. On 9th November last year, the apex court in its judgement of one of the longest drawn land-title dispute in the history allowed construction of Ram Mandir at the Ram Janmabhoomi sthan in Ayodhya. The judgement came exactly after three decades of Vishva Hindu Parishad laying down the first brick marking the ‘shilanyas’ at the site on 9th November 1989. 

The Union cabinet earlier this year in the month of February approved setting up of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra trust. The trust was empowered to take decisions independently on the construction of the Ram Mandir and other related issues. It was also thereafter handed over the 67.7 acres of land at the temple site keeping in mind the needs of crores of devotees. 

Brand awareness being the most unnoticed aspect of today’s society and its exuberance of purchasing goods that are pretentious to the human eye which indeed are not brand conscious. The precise measurement of the brand awareness is the underrated part of today’s branding and its features. Frankly, measurement can get you your next budget, your next promotion. And it’s amazing how many marketers think of, yeah, that’s the stuff I do at the end. Well, if you do it correctly, it can actually shape your strategy. The influential and money oriented tactics of marketing and measurement strategies are not going to cover a number of different things you should be measuring or you could be measuring, and you’re going to need to differentiate what you measure when. It’s the society who needs to be symmetrical and resolute about the extracted data. People who are oblivion of the terms and subjects relating to gross profit must be new to the advertising industry and they might be stumbled over the ideologies. The better or polished term to be in brief for brand awareness is brand lifting or brand uplifting which is the most important element in the bribed world that we are in today. In the past times people were not obsessing over brands , they were following the needs and necessities , if that’s what you’re using to justify all the effort that you’re going to put in here, what was your brand awareness before you started? Before we all started to have our brains preached about the brand awareness we were the people who were naive about all the complex terms were going through in the now world. So people’s brand awareness is key takeaway. If brand awareness is your goal, then measure it. It doesn’t mean estimate it. This is not how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. This is not like an unlikely scenario of boatloads of impressions, and that must have improved brand awareness. All the impressions doesn’t influence our marketing course but it’s the best data that we have that’s sort of analogous. As we call it , “third time’s the charm” the phrase doesn’t work in this scenario , because there’s a lot of bluffing in the brand awareness programs , three times more marketers are bluffing. They’re faking it. They are assuming that their brand awareness went up, bogus.

Introduction:

Reward is the benefits that arise from performing a task, rendering a service or discharging a responsibility. It is a system used by companies employees who achieve particular results are paid more or get more advantage. Every company has some forms of reward system, whether it is outspoken or not, it exists. If the organisation reward a certain kind of employee behaviour, good or bad, that is what company will get more of. Reward systems help in increasing performance and creating happier employees. The greatest management principal is that the things that get rewarded get done. All reward systems are based on the assumptions of attracting, retaining and motivating employees. Higher rewards will give higher satisfaction. This will lead to lower turnover and more job applicants. It is difficult to retain best performers in the organisation. Financial rewards is an important component of reward system, but there are other factors that motivate employees and influence the level of performance. So, higher rewards will motivate skilled employees to perform better.

Purpose:

A reward system puts together employees’ natural self- interests with organisation’s objectives and provides three types of management control benefits, informational, motivational and personnel related. First, reward should catch the employee’s attention and at the same time it works as a reminder for the person in charge of what results should be completed in different working areas. This is a good way to emphasize and convince the employees of which performance areas that are important and create goal congruence within the organisation and singals how the employees should direct their efforts . To motivate is the second control benefit. People sometimes need an incentive to perform task well and work hard. Last but not least we have personnel control benefit. Organisation give rewards for many different reasons . Ex: to improve recruitment and retention of offering a compensation package that is competitive on the market.

Current trends of reward system in India

The current trend is one of integrated reward approach. Reward system usually means the financial reward on organisation gives its employees in return for their labour. While the term reward system not only includes material rewards but also non- material rewards. The components of a reward system consist of financial rewards (basic and performance pay) and employee benefits, which together comprise total remuneration. They also includes non financial rewards (recognition , promotion, achievement responsibility and personal growth) and in many case a system of performance management. Pay arrangements are central to the cultural initiative as they are the most tangible expression of the working relationship between employer and employee.

Statement of the problem:

• Performance standards are too high or unattainable
• Ineffective implementation of the reward system
• Reward may not motivate every employee
• Change in objectives makes the reward system difficult
• Employee may not appropriate non- monetary rewards
• Reward system may not be cost-effective
• Expectancy level of the of an employee may increase with time

Review: Reward that an individual receives are very much a part of his/her motivation organisational desired performance can be achieved only from high- performing employees. High-performing employees can make other resources perform highly. Reward is a proven and established means of stimulating employees to perform exceedingly well. Study of all genres highlight that a poorly designed and implemented reward system can cause loss of morale among employee and this eventually can lead to organisational ineffectiveness. No organisation can really aim to be effective unless its reward system is effective.

Objective: The reward system is based on different aspects of an organisation. This may be of organisation, number of employees, designation of employees, etc.

Finding: Rewards provide information to the employees about their effectiveness in various situation.

Employee motivation is affected as better performance if likely to fetch higher reward.

Suggestion:

# Cultural influence must be considered towards the reward system.

# Reward system is subjected to consideration of many internal and external factors. Internal factors typically concern the organisation’s ability to pay and reward employees. External factors include demand and supply forces, inflation and customers. Such factors must be carefully analyzed for the effective results of a reward system.