The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has congratulated cities which have secured top positions in Swachh Survekshan-2020.

The Prime Minister said, “Congratulations to all those cities who have secured top positions in Swachh Survekshan-2020. May other cities also be inspired to further ramp up their efforts towards ensuring cleanliness. Such competitive spirit strengthens the Swachh Bharat Mission and benefits millions.”

Shri Deepak Khandekar, Secretary Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Shri N.N. Sinha,Secretary,Ministry of Rural Developmentsigned a Joint Communication on 18.08.2020 for leveraging each other’s strengths to propel the rural economy and jointly promote sustainable livelihood opportunities among tribal women Self  Help Groups (SHGs) under National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM).  The occasion was graced by Shri Arjun Munda, Union Minister for Tribal Affairs (MoTA), Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister for Rural Development (MoRD), Smt. Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Union Minister for Food Processing Industries (MoFPI),  Smt. Renuka Singh Saruta, Minister of State for Tribal Affairs (MoTA), Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Minister of State for Rural Development (MoRD) and several senior officers.

The features of joint communication are as under:

The DeendayalAntyodayaYojana- National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) implemented by the Ministry of Rural Development has built an extensive network of women-led Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in India, including 8.9 lakh ST SHGs. The programme provides institutionalsupports, livelihood services, access to credit and market through its SHGs. Similarly, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs provides grants to the States based on prefixed criteria through a number of initiatives such as Special Central Assistance to Tribal Sub-Schemes (SCA to TSS), Grant-in-Aid under Proviso to Article 275 (1) of Constitution of Indiatothe States having notified STs, Development ofParticularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) to the States / UTshaving notified PVTGs etc.

Since the initiatives of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and objectives of DAY-NRLM deeply complement each other, the Ministries have decided to come together to improve the economic opportunities available to tribal women. To take this convergence initiativeforward, the series of activities will be carried out by both theMinistries to synergize the efforts to fetch tangibleresults.

Activities by Ministry of Rural Development will include: identification and mapping of tribal women SHG members and their individual livelihood assets; mapping of common tribal community assets; development of comprehensive proposal for the economic development of PVTGs through the strengthening of their traditional livelihood and  occupations; convergence of GPDPs and CCD plan of OVTG habitations; assistance of SHGs to identify tribal households for enrolment under Van Dhan Yojana; and capacity building and credit access support to tribal communities through SHGs

Activities by Ministry of Tribal Affairs will include: planning support to SRLM to finalize the State Annual Action Plan and inclusion of the plan in its Livelihood Annual Action Plan; promotion of livelihood opportunities among women identified by SRLM through avenues such as Mess Management,Outsourcing works of EMRS schools like housekeeping, cleaning and otheractivities in the EMRSs and Ashram Schools; augmenting the creation of individual as well as common livelihood assets as per beneficiaries identified by SRLM; implementing proposals for PVTG inco-ordination with the SRLM; inclusion of tribal SHGs / PG with majority of members from tribal households in Van Dhan Yojana and providing marketing support to produces fromSHGs and PGs through its marketing network.

Ministry of Tribal Affairs is the nodal Ministry for the welfare of tribals.  At the same time, there are 37 other Ministries, who have to spend assigned percentage of their budget as per mechanism designed by NITI Aayog, under Tribal sub Plan or Schedule Tribe Component (STC) for welfare of tribals. NITI Aayog and Secretary Tribal Affairs have been monitoring STC component of such Ministries regularly as per the mandate given to the MoTA in 2017. The total Central budget under STC component during FY 2020-21 is Rs. 51,000crore and MoTA is monitoring such expenditure through a dedicated web portal(stcmis.gov.in), which captures expenditure data of respective Ministries from PFMS.  The performance of such Ministries in respect of utilization of STC funds can also be seen on Performance Dashboard (http://dashboard.tribal.gov.in), developed by MoTA, which was launched jointly by Sh. Amitabh Kant, CEO NITI Aayog and Sh Ramesh Kumar, Member NITI Aayog on 10^th August 2020.   Recently under the guidance of NITI Aayog, all such schemes numbering more than 300 were examined in consultation with respective Ministries, to deliberate how MoTA and sectoral ministries can collaborate and work together for tribal welfare.  

As per STC mechanism, MoRD isspending about Rs.  20000 cr on tribal welfare in 3 main schemes namely Pradhan Mantri AwasYojna (PMAY) which has STC component of Rs 4700 Cr , National Rural Livelihood Mission- Program, STC Component of 1284 cr and rest of expenditure is under MNREGA, which is a demand based scheme. Both MoTA and RD have developed robust IT system and has developed mechanism to share data amongst themselves.  On the basis of data of Anatodya Mission provided by RD, MoTA has done Infrastructural gap analysis of 1170000 villages (available on tritribal.gov.in) with population more than 50% and States have been asked to use this data for making plans in SCA to TSS and 275(1) schemes.   The present collaboration between RD and MoTA is part of such collaborative mechanism, which will go a long way in socio-economic development of STs across the country and strengthen STC mechanism. There is vast scope of expanding such mechanism with other Ministries like Agriculture, Health, Education, MSME and Food Processing to achieve real objective of STC mechanism. 

The environment ministry of Germany affirmed that it would have been impossible to meet the climate goal of 2020 if the corona virus pandemic had not entered the scene, because of its arrival the country was able to see a huge drop in greenhouse gas emissions.

They were hoping to cut emissions down to 40% to achieve below 1990 levels according to the newly implemented policy of 2019 as it is Europe’s largest greenhouse gas emitting country. But it was able to cut only 37.5% of the emissions till the arrival of pandemic. The ministry officials are not clear about the complete impact of pandemic on emissions but it is a calculated possibility that it might have lowered significantly.

COVID lock down rendered polluting industries shut down, the usage of energy and transportation saw a new low so it is expected that emissions level would definitely plunge. The next climate target by European Union is going to be set next month to lower the emission by cutting down to 50% or 55% against 1990 levels. Though some of its countries are against the idea in the view of economic cost. As in order to achieve such goals, many companies with high emission will have to stop functioning or decrease their emission rates which will highly affect their economic growth.

Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri announced Swachh Survekshan awards 2020 in a ceremony on Wednesday and Indore had shone again by bagging the cleanest city award for the fourth year consecutively. The second place was grabbed by Surat and Navi Mumbai of Maharashtra came in third place.

Sanitation workers (Safai Mitra) were brimming with pride when they were honored. In a cleanliness campaign, Indore Municipal Corporations officials, MPs, MLAs and local residents took part with a vim and vigor and their collective participation paid off. The municipal workers kept working despite many areas being sealed due to corona virus and carried on their services to homes which had COVID positive cases as well without a complaint by providing constant supplies of vegetables and grocery and keeping the city clean as well.

The other initiatives which the city undertook were complete ban of single use plastic and implanted ‘Bartan (Utensils)’ bank in order to stop people from using disposable and getting habitual of older habits of using utensils in functions and gatherings. The other endeavor which they pulled off was to treat 15 lakh tonnes of rotting waste and turn Devguradia based trenching ground into forest city inhabited with 60,000 trees.

The Indore Municipal Corporation was able to turn 10 residential colonies into waste free zones and turned home garbage into fertilizer and was able to generate Rs. 40 crore revenue through their waste management techniques. 

The Virgin and child with Saint John and Angels reminds first that art is made by people. We don’t know why this was left unfinished. It may have been at a patron flaked or that a more interesting opportunity arose. Artists are not like Geniuses who are fundamentally different from us, but human beings who live in time and space like any of us. Great artists are both making history and being subjected to it. Like us. They fail to finish things because they get bored or because they discover a problem they can’t figure a way around, or because they received word that a loved one is sick and they must abandon work to care for them. Still, there can be so much wonder and beauty to unfinished art. The figures to our left are just coming into being almost sculptural. In their outline in the center of the picture, Mary is trying to hold a book away from the baby Jesus, which 16th century dealers would have known to be part of the book of Isaiah that foretells of a Messiah pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. Even when your kid is the son of God, I guess he still want to protect him from suffering other times. The historical significance of an artwork is not so much the work itself as its context. Like in the United States, we have a tradition of the official presidential portrait and with the major exception of candy, wiley’s portrait of President Obama, most of these portraits are. I’ll put this charitably. Competent but uninteresting. It’s like I’m touching papers. I’m also touching papers. I prefer holding my paper, as Do I. I’m touching papers, ball, holding my place in a book, and so on. Anyway, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s official presidential portrait is exactly as you’d expect. It’s you know, competent, but by far my favorite painting of FDR. The unfinished watercolor painted by the Russian American artist Elizabeth Shoumatoff in April of 1945, FDR was seated at a card table and Shoumatoff had only been painting for a little while. When the president said. I have a terrific pain in my head and collapsed. He died later that afternoon. She would have never completed the painting, but she did later make a finished portrait based from memory and in that finished portrait. Of course the president is holding paper. Both portraits romanticize a frail old man. I mean, the day before Roosevelt looked like in a photograph, but anyway, shoumatoff’s unfinished portrait is more arresting and powerful than her completed one. It’s a fierce and riveting reminder that to quote the last words of another US President, We are all going. The unfinished painting power is partly in its historical context. Of course. I mean, if the artist had because she had a hand cramp, the picture wouldn’t mean as much. But then all art is context dependent. Really, all everything is context dependent. In a similar vein, I love Benjamin West’s unfinished painting Treaty of Paris, which was supposed to commemorate the treaty ending the US Revolutionary War leaders of the American independence movement, including Benjamin Franklin are depicted here, but the British delegation refused to pose for a picture commemorating their defeat. Other times work goes unfinished because the artist dies. Such was the case with horror nights. Unfinished portrait of Vijayalakshmi Pandit, former president of the UN General Assembly, or the Gustav Klimt’s painting called the bride, which was left incomplete when Clint died in 1918. As a result of a global flu pandemic and then there is the gut wrenching story behind Ford Maddox Brown’s painting. Take your son, Sir, which showed his wife Emma holding their newborn son, Arthur Brown, abandoned the painting in 1857 when Arthur died at just ten months old. In this way an unfinished painting can be a kind of memorial to an unfinished life.

Unfinished paintings can also be important to curators and conservators trying to understand our history, like take, for example, Perino Del vaga’s painting of the Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist. You can see the map the artist laid out, known as underdrawing, and in doing so, clips some of the techniques used to construct perspective and facial features. As met curator Kelly bomb. Put it. An unfinished painting is almost like an X Ray, which allows you to see beyond the surface of the painting. To what lies behind earlier versions preparatory sketches, all the underlying architecture, which is normally disguised and suppressed in that sense, unfinished paintings can become a kind of archaeology like almost 2000 years ago, plenty the elder wrote in his Natural History. The last works of artists and their unfinished pictures are more admired than those which they finished because in them are seen. The preliminary drawings left visible and the artists actual thoughts and then of course, unfinished. Ness can also be an artistic choice as it is in the portrait by Kerry James Marshall, where there is no black in the artist’s palette. And the paint by numbers work in the background remains unfinished. The tradition of intentionally not finishing something, sometimes known in art history circles as the non finito is widespread in art history. The art historian Carmen Baumbach has argued, for instance, that the astonishing portrait was considered complete if unfinished, by Leonardo Davinci, and this gets at a complex question in art and in life. Does something have to look finished to be complete?

The Union Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided that a single exam will be conducted to fill vacancies for all Central Government jobs. This exam will be called Common Eligibility Test (CET) and will be conducted by National Recruitment Agency.

According to secretary of Department of Personnel and Training, C. Chandramouli there are around 1.25 lakh vacancies in Central government jobs for which almost 3 crore aspirants sit every year. For now CET will be conducted for group B and C non technical jobs. Till now the central government jobs were conducted by Staff Selection Commission, Railway Recruitment Board and Institute of Banking Personnel Selection. The national recruitment agency will have representatives from all three agencies mentioned. The CET exam will be conducted once a year for three different levels which are for 10th pass, 12th pass and graduates. The CET will be just preliminary examination and if the agency wants they can conduct the specialised tier examinations.

CET will be conducted online. It has been planned that every district will have an examination centre for this and special focus will be given 117 aspirational selected districts. It will be conducted in 12 different languages so that more and more candidates can apply. the marks obtained in the seat will be valid for a period of three years.

Democracy is a government meant for the people, as it is by the people, and of the people. The news that us currently making rounds in the country is mostly about corruption, black money, Swiss bank accounts and what not. In this era, everyone wants to earn money without hard work.

The politicians of this country crave for money today. All they do in their long tenures is hog money illegally. Today many of these politicians are preying on the nation itself, which is very disgusting and immensely horrible to describe. We even talk a lot about unification or unity in diversity. Where did this unity disappear during the “Godhra incident”? India did lack the day so called brotherly feeling during the 92-93 Mumbai blasts as well as the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. When the media thinks of setting down and decides to focus on some other interesting topics, we say everything is fine, but what about the lives lost, the wives widowed and children orphaned?

The politicians even try to divide people on the basis of religion. Just take the example of Ram Mandir v/s Babri Masjid issue. These politicians present themselves in frontnif people for votes at the time of elections, saying that they will promise to build a respective religious place of worship. They just bribe the people for votes. After they win the elections, they simply abscond. They loot the money of the people and fool them. In this way, they try to segregate the people and create communal violence across the country, thereby breaking the unity and integrity of the nation.

I don’t think there is any state in India which can claim to have stable government. We at times forget that the land of the country’s territory belongs to the nation first and then to the states. We have even heard of tonnes if food grains rotting. Each grain is a token of happiness and satisfaction to the hungry stomachs of the poor, yet the Government has the audacity to let it rot without distributing the food grains amongst the needy.

I feel, currently in India only rich become richer and the poor beg for a living, and hence we love in an era of ignorance. We see the temples plundered, mosques demolished and the churches ransacked. So where is the so called brotherly love here!?

Japan got it’s freedom in 1945. It came out superbly from the shock of atomic attacks. India got freedom two years later still it is no match to the Japanese technology and competence. Instead, we rely on them for the construction of railways and roadways.

In India there have been some changes and development in the past few years, but they are not considerable in number. There are many changes and developments yet to to be done. We can see a lot of evil, dirty practices and policies going on in India that are huge in number even after Independence.

But do we do anything to stop all these? We think that someone, somewhere will take the initiative in order to control the situation to buy we don’t actually figure the fact that in one way or the other everyone thinks the same. Everyone has the same mentality. They think that why should I care about all these things when there are many others to think about it.

But we are wrong. If everyone thinks like this, do you think India can call itself a developed nation or a super power within 20-30 years? Do you think India will achieve this rank? Our country needs us, and by doing something for the country we can make a big difference. We say that India is a country of the youth, but what is the use finally the youths of this country sit quitely and watch all these atrocities and injustice? So, it is up to us, how seriously we take these issues and however solve them. Being the future citizens of India, it is our duty to lead our country to a better future.

On 15th August, evey year we celebrate Independence Day, but I feel, sadly, India is not truly free even after getting it’s independence.

We all are very nicely aware of this term and still many of us take this in a not so serious way. But this problem has a major impact on today’s generation. Now, what exactly is cyberbullying? It is any sort of humiliation that can be done to any individual by using digital devices or any digital platform. Cyberbullying can take place through SMS, Email, and Applications, or online via social networking, blogs, or gaming where people can access, engage in, or exchange information. Cyberbullying means mailing, publishing, or exchanging derogatory, damaging, misleading, or mean information regarding someone else. Which may involve revealing sensitive or private knowledge about someone else causing shame or humiliation. Some cyberbullying crosses the line of illegal or criminal behavior.

Given the proliferation of social networking and public platforms, tweets, videos, updates, and information posted by individuals may also be accessed by both outsiders and associates. Content and human web communication – including their personal information and any derogatory, rude, or malicious material – provides a kind of permanent public archive of their opinions, behaviors, and behavior. This public record may be used as an electronic profile that can be made available to teachers, jobs, universities, organizations, and anyone that might be investigating a person now or in the future.

When you find early indicators that a child may be engaged in cyberbullying, take action to examine the child’s digital behavior. Cyberbullying is a type of abuse, so parents will adopt the same path to handling it: help the person being harassed, fix the offensive actions of the offender, so reassure children that cyberbullying is being taken seriously. Since cyberbullying occurs online, reacting to it involves a range of strategies.

Many states have regulations allowing schools to respond to abuse. As cyberbullying has become more common through the usage of technology, multiple jurisdictions now have cyberbullying or cyber-bullying offenses in these statutes. Schools can take action, either as necessary by statute or through local or school policies that encourage them to discipline themselves or to take other action. Few States do include laws to tackle discrimination in situations where it impacts school results. You will read about the laws and regulations of will jurisdiction, including how they include cyberbullying.

And guys please don’t overlook this, as this is a really serious problem , particularly for adolescents, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen to the elders. Consider that personally and address issues with your parents and others that are near. Bear in mind, and remain healthy.

HEAD ON (2004)

Head On is about two Turkish immigrants living in Hamburg. Sibel wants to get married because she wants freedom so she doesn’t want to live with her family. Cahiit is a guy in his 40s who’s addicted to booze and drugs. Sibel meets him at a mental institution and asks him if he would marry her. They would just be labelled as married but ehy would not be actually behave like a married couple.They will just have to live together, but they could see other people. But soon they develop feelings for each other, and things don’t go right.

This is a great meditation on two characters, and nicely shows how these two different people find themselves in the midst of their so called marriage. They face many emotional ups and downs, and its all portrayed in a very poignant way. I also liked the style that Fateh Akin has adopted, the first half is more of a not so intense drama filled with music. The music often playing an instrumental role in taking the story further. The second half is way more intense, with characters facing consequences for their actions and coming to understand themselves better.

The performances are excellent, I felt like I was myself experiencing the despair that they went through. The characters are so well fleshed out that you actually relate with them. Birol Unel is great as this alcoholic, he’s kind of this rough nihilistic guy in his 40s. Sibel Kekilli is as good, her arc is way more tragic.

I was really impressed by the bleak and unsettling story, it affected me deeply. It’s bitter to watch but everything is shown really beautifully. It’s also very human and realistic, and very different from most mainstream love stories. In the end, Head On is a great piece of filmmaking. It’s poignant, moving, unsettling and one of the best tragedies I’ve ever seen.

THE ROARING TWENTIES (1939)

The Roaring Twenties (1939) is about Eddie Bartlett (James Cagney) who returns to America after fighting in the first world war. America is under the prohibition law which bans manufacture and sale of alcohol. Eddie gets into the bootlegging business and his business flourishes. The film is basically about his rise and fall, shown in the span of twenty years.

The Roaring Twenties has inspired most gangster films that you see today.The layered screenplay with cracking dialogues and one liners make this a massively entertaining film. James Cagney as Eddie carries the film with such ease. He’s so charismatic as this character, it was amazing seeing him. This film is one of Bogart’s earliest roles and he kills it as this short tempered and sadistic world war vet. I loved the way they’ve shown characters turning against each other and all the mindless gun slinging. Even the love triangle in this movie was really well done, and unique for that time period.

The film immaculately portrays the roaring twenties, a time when the U.S. prospered a lot, also a time when there was the prohibition law. It was a time of modernisation and I just loved how the film captures it in the background. I also really liked the music along with the jazzy score, adding to the glamour of that time period. Raoul Walsh has directed this epic time period very gracefully.

All in all, The Roaring Twenties is a slick gangster flick, with great writing and one of the best performances ever given by James Cagney.

1. O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU (2000)

O Brother, Where Art Thou is set in 1937 Mississipi, and it’s about Ulysses Everett who escapes from prison with his two companions Pete and Delmar. Their goal is to now find the treasure that Ulysses had buried, without getting caught by the authorities. And we are shown all the problems and chaos that they encounter on the way. It’s based on the greek poem Odyssey by Homer.

I like what Coen brothers have done with this movie, they have nicely captured the depression era. There’s a lot of attention to detail to create a sense of that time period. The extensive use of the sepia tint adds to it. The characters are all whacky and nicely done. Our leads George Clooney, John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson are excellent as these convicts. Even the minor characters made me laugh as they are all eccentric, like the scene with Coen’s long time collaborator, John Goodman was the most memorable because of how surreal and funny it was.

As always, the writing is really fine. Coen Brothers know how to create a clever southern crime comedy. It’s really funny and entertaining. And it’s all very unique! I’ve never seen anything like this.

I really liked how they’ve used folk and country music. The music is important to the film as it precedes the story. The film would not have been the same without the music.

All in all, O Brother, Where Art Thou is one of the many perfect films made by the Coen Brothers. It’s odd, unpredictable, hilarious, and original.

2. RUN LOLA RUN (1998)

In Run Lola Run, Lola needs to bring 100 grand marks under 20 minutes or her boyfriend would have to face some consequences from his employer. We are shown three different scenarios, on how Lola secures the money.

This is no brain entertainment at it’s best. The film is thrilling and fast paced. It does a great job at creating tension. The fast editing is really cool and I even liked the use of animation. The high beat techno music elevates the tension. The film just begins without introducing the main characters, indicating that we have no time to breathe. I’d like to praise the director for how innovatively he has used fast takes, quick cuts, slow motion and panning to create this adrenaline filled experience. I also liked how well put together all the little elements of the plot were. All three scenarios tie together perfectly.

The film is basically about how every small decision we take affects our life. The movie shows this in three different scenarios. A lot of details are used to show how if one little thing had not happened to a particular character, his/her life would have been different. It also portrays the importance of time. For an entertaining thriller, it portrays all this quite effectively.

I’d highly recommend this movie, it’s a well made film that is easy to watch. It’s a fun fast paced thriller.