Shri R.K. Singh , the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power, New and Renewable Energy and Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Government of India, today said that the government is aiming to push electricity for cooking in a big way as it will provide the poor strata of the society a cheaper option for their day to day requirement, move the nation towards self-reliance and make it independent from imports.

“Electricity is the future of India and most of its infrastructure will be powered by electricity. The Government has envisaged Power Foundation to be formed at the Ministry’s level and objectives include cooking to completely run on electricity, which will allow our economy to be self-reliant and give us independence from imports. This government is for the poor and this move will help the poor strata of the society by giving them access to cheaper medium of cooking,” Shri Singh said. 

The power minister rolled out the vision for the government while inaugurating a Service Building at NPGCL, Nabinagar, a Shopping Complex developed by NTPC for the people of Barh and the Main Plant Canteen inside NTPC Barauni for convenience of NTPC employees and associates from New Delhi. The minister added that the delivery of various other pro poor measures like PM Awas Yojna and Har Ghar Bijlee, were accelerated during the lockdown by PM Shri Narendra Modi.

Shri Singh also praised the various initiatives of NTPC that show the power producer’s unflinching commitment to the nation and its economic growth.

“In the past years, work done by NTPC has been acknowledged across the country. NTPC Family is recognised for its professionalism and efficiency and have set an example for not just the state of Bihar but also for the country. Questions have always been raised on the performance of PSUs, but looking at the performance of NTPC and other Power PSUs, it is clear that they are even better than the private players and have consistently made progress and profit. I thank NTPC for being a partner in the progress for the state of Bihar as well as other states towards nation building.”

Shri R.K. Singh further said, “The expansion of NTPC will continue and it will keep setting benchmarks in professionalism, efficiency and being an ideal employer, professionalism and efficiency.”

He lauded the work done by NTPC for ensuring round the clock power supply during the lockdown. He added that fixed charges for DISCOMs were deferred and a rebate on cost was also given to states by India’s largest power producer during the lockdown period. He pointed out that that it is because of NTPC’s professional conduct and commitment to the nation that the ‘cream of the country’ from the IITs and the NITs want to work for such an ideal company.

Speaking during the inauguration function, Shri Gurdeep Singh, CMD, NTPC said, “Under the guidance of Shri R K Singh, NTPC is taking every possible step to shift towards electricity based cooking and we are confident of replicating it across the nation.” He further said, “During the lockdown phase, NTPC ensured that not just the employees, but even the contract labourers were paid on time through the professionally managed system of the company along with food, shelter and medical facilities. We also ensured that the country received uninterrupted power supply during the lockdown phase.” He also added that, “NTPC has 3800 MW of project under construction in Bihar and will keep on contributing to the progress of the state.”

The construction of new facilities and infrastructure is aimed at providing necessary services to the workers and associates of NTPC and improve the living standard for the people around plant area in the state of Bihar.

The inauguration ceremony was graced by senior officials from Ministry of Power, Bihar Administration, Directors and Officials of NTPC, Eastern Region Headquarters, Barh, Nabinagar and Barauni.

During the inauguration ceremony, films on Service Building at NPGCL Nabinagar, Shopping Complex in Barh and Main Plant Canteen at NTPC Barauni was shown to stakeholders present on the occasion.

With a total installed capacity of 62.9 GW, NTPC Group has 70 Power stations comprising of 24 Coal, 7 combined cycle Gas/Liquid Fuel, 1 Hydro, 13 Renewables along with 25 Subsidiary & JV Power Stations. The group has over 20 GW of capacity under construction, of which 5GW comprises of renewable energy.

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Miss Digantika Bose studies in Class XII at Memari V M Institution Unit II, Burdwan. But in her tender age she is very much influenced by the principle of Thomas Alva Edison that ‘To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk’. And as the proverb goes, Necessity is the mother of invention, Digantika has felt the utter helpless- ness of common people in the wake of Covid 19 pandemic to survive and has come up with Air Providing and Virus Destroying Mask which has received the acclaim from Science and Technology Ministry, Government of India. Likewise, the IIT Kharagpur has deviced e-classroom low bandwidth software Deekshak for educational institutions, by which a teacher could concentrate on the screen with the teaching materials while being able to view queries on a live chat box where each student can send in their queries. Students also have access to a doubt box where they can click to “raise their hands” and wait for the teacher to address it, as is done in a physical classroom. Teachers can also share documents with the students through the platform and even update notes on the documents in real-time. All these were discussed today in a webinar organised jointly by the Press Information Bureau and Regional Outreach Bureau, Chuchura as a part of Prime Minister, Shri Narendra modi’s vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat. The panellists included Professor V K Tewari, Director, IIT kharagpur, Professor (Dr) Harish Hirani, Director, CSIR-CMERI, Durgapur, Shri V S Ramachandran, Director, Birla Industrial & Technological Museum, Dr Biswarup neogi, Associate Professor and Head, ECE Department, JIS College of Engineering, Kalyani and last but not the least, Miss Digantika Bose.

Professor Tewari also delineated the institution’s invention of a novel portable rapid diagnostic device to detect Covid-19 infection at an affordable cost for the marginal people of this country.

According to Professor Dr Hirani, CSIR-CMERI Durgapur has not only come up with low-cost but high efficiency three-layered facemask, but also road sanitising tractor, mechanical ventilator, soap, sanitizer and dispenser, hospital assistive robot, solar-based IntelliMAST, 360 degree car flusher and dry fogging shoe disinfector, but of late it has developed mechanised sewage cleaning system for mechanical scavenging instead of the manual one to maintain the optimum high standards as well as to help contain the contamination chain through waste water.

Shri Ramachandran presented their technological interventions and contributions relating to the online ticketing and entry system, alcohol-free and Ayurvedic entry tunnel, touchfree operation of exhibits, UV based product sanitizer, virtual tour and classes, image processing for crowd control, human motion-based sanitizer dispenser and the like.

Miss Bose, apart from face mask-cum virus destroyer, showcased her innovations like homemade transparent faceshields, distance arrester for police, ear pressure reduction tool due to the use of masks and many others.

Dr Neogi, made his presentation relating to dew of his innovations developed by his team to deal with the pandemic like Corona evading gloves capable of automatic sanitization with alcohol, currency and coin disinfector, raincoat turned PPE kit and his idea on waste to mask.

The Additional Director General (M & C), Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Miss Jane Namchu was also present in the webinar. The webinar was moderated by Smt Srijata Saha Sahoo, Media & Communication Officer, Press Information Bureau, Kolkata and Shri Sandipan Dasgupta, Field Publicity Officer, Field Outreach Bureau, Chuchura.

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Shri R. K. Singh, the Union Minister of State(I/C) for Power and New & Renewable Energy, laid foundation stone for construction of LILO of Kishenganj-Darbhanga 400kV Transmission Line at Saharsa in Bihar through a virtual event. The  execution agency for the ₹ 100 crore worth project is POWERGRID Ltd., a central PSU under Ministry of Power.

While praising the Powergrid for its efforts Shri Singh said that the Maharatna has played important role in connecting every state and region with national grid, especially in Bihar. The inter-regional transmission systems have helped Bihar in accessingpower supply from other states at cheaper rates. He further said that on completion of the Kishenganj-Darbhanga 400kV Transmission Lineproject, Power scenario of the Saharsa district including Supaul, Khagaria and Begusarai districts shall improve. Low voltage problem of North Bihar will be considerably solved and above districts shall be benefited by reliable Power.

According to the National Weather Forecasting Centre/Regional Meteorological Centre, New Delhi of the India Meteorological Department (IMD):

• A low pressure area lies over westcentral Bay of Bengal off north Andhra Pradesh coast. Likely to move west-northwestwards towards central India across Telangana during next 2-3days.
• The monsoon trough lies south of its normalposition.
• An off-shore trough lies off south Gujarat coast to north Karnatakacoast.

• Under the influence of the above low pressure area, widespread rainfall with isolated heavy to very heavy falls occurred over Coastal Andhra Pradesh during past 24 hours. Chief amount of rainfall (in cm, 10cm and above) recorded at 0830 hrs of today; Tanuku-18; Tiruvuru-16; Amalapuram-14;Chintalapudi-10

              Due to above favourable meteorologicalconditions:

Fairly widespread to widespread rainfall with Isolated heavy to very heavy falls are very likely over Coastal Andhra Pradesh &Yanam and Telangana on 13 & 14 September; over Rayalaseema on 13 September, over Vidarbha on 15 September and over Marathwada on 16 September.

Isolated extremely heavy falls is also very likely over Coastal Andhra Pradesh on 13 September and over Telanganaon 14 September, 2020 (Detail Color code based Warning and likely impact are given in pages 2- 4)

“Necessity is the mother of invention”. This proverb is quite common and used by almost all of us. But today, when the whole world is facing the situation of Covid-19 pandemic, we are actually experiencing it. How drastically things have changed from being normal to abnormal and then finally quoted as the “New normal”. The effects of this pandemic on almost each and every sector of the economy has been drastic and Education sector has been the part of the same. Schools, colleges, coaching classes, home tutions everything came to a halt. Both the teachers and the students could not go to school because of which the studies were getting affected. With everything getting digital, education also found it’s way. The blackboard was now not something on the walls of the classroom but turned into screen sharing on your mobile phones. The bench you shared with your friend soon turned into your bed with no friend around. The questions and answers and the debates held in the classroom turned into a chaos because everybody unmuted themselves, and oh! Nothing was audible. The teachers who were too confident about their subjects had to work under a lot of pressure because their kids were no longer the faces they could see in the classrooms, they had turned into icons on their mobile screens with videos off .

Online Education has brought a 360 degree turn in the whole system of education. Online education was indeed the need of the hour. Failing which, students could lose a whole year and things would be more difficult then. As the topic suggests, Online education actually has three aspects : The good ,the bad and the ugly.

Good things first. Online Education has its own advantages.

Flexibility- Online education can be done anywhere and anytime.The hours have become flexible and even the place doesen’t matter. You can be sitting in your balcony having fresh air with earphones plugged in,listening to the lecture.

Safety- In the covid times, this is the best way to protect students, teachers  and their families.

Cost effective- Online education has saved monthly transportation costs of the students. Also, with the help of the availaibility of E-books, the cost for buying books have also reduced.

Access to Expertise- An online college education might give students access to specialized degree courses that may not be available in an easily accessible or local institution of learning. It has gained acceptance over time and is proving to be really beneficial for students.

One can learn whatever they want- With so many courses online,you can learn anything from anywhere. I can sit in Delhi and learn from University of Virgina through various online platforms.

A self paced learning – When we choose an online course we can do it by according to our choices. If I feel it is too much for the day I can simply close it and do it the next day.

Provides weightage to Resumes/CVs- The online courses and degree hold a good position and is effective if the certifications are attached to your Cvs.

BUT, “ALL  THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD” . Just like there are two sides to each coin. Online education comes with it’s set of disadvantages. Few of them are :

Not enough interaction- When a student is in a class with 40 or 50 other students,he gets to interact, to keep his point to talk more. In online education this can not happen to that extent. It starts a chaos altogether.

The atmosphere- A traditional classroom has no comparison with a digital one. Atmosphere plays a vital role in one’s life. It helps you concentrate on your work.

Distractions- The online education comes with a lot of distractions .You are listening to a lecture but chatting on your whatsapp or facebook and nobody knows about it. Thus,leading to a reduced concentration level.

The side effects on the eyes and ears – Because of continuously looking at their mobile or laptop screens the cases of students facing eyesight problems has increased rapidly. Similarily with continuous plugged in earphones the ears are getting affected.

Not all teachers are tech savvy- The online education has created a lot of problems for teachers who are not techagile. They lose their confidence and get conscious.

Lack of accreditation & quality assurance in online education- If online education is to be considered as effective and authentic as traditional learning, it must be ensured that all online schools are qualified and accredited. Unfortunately, at the current point in time, there are still a vast number of online learning platforms which are unaccredited and where all the materials are quality checked by no one besides the instructors themselves.

Losing on network- The aspirants of MBA are losing their contact with seniors and allunus that is really important due to lack of human interaction.

Practical learning is getting affected- Although one is getting oppurtunities of learning in the online platform still the practical learning is far from reachable.

“ THE UGLY” – UGLY comes  in the picture when there are things that are pathetic and out of tolerance or control.

The major drawback is the Cyber crimes and the leak out of certain important documents .The privacy gets affected.

Then there are also times when the students behave in a manner that is just not acceptable .The links get shared and somebody enters the room and does pathetic things like abusing or talking nonsense.

The online education has also caused a lot to the vulnerable groups of the society. The poor people who can not afford to buy a smartphone for their kids to attend the online classes. Their kids have been denied to online learning and they can do nothing about it.

Finally, everything has it’s advantages and disadvantages. Nobody and nothing is perfect. With everything changing ,everybody needs to change, to adopt and adapt in the environment. We need to find solutions rather than crying about the problem, and maybe,Online Education is the solution for the times ahead or the times now.

On the 13th April 1919, Acting Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer ordered troops from the British Indian Army to aim their weapons at the croweds of unwieldy Indian civilians at Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, Punjab and kill 379 individuals and harm more than 1,200 others, the Jallianwala massacre was also known as the Amritsar massacre.

Dyer, who was encouraged to have a major revolt, banned all meetings on Sunday 13 April 1919. The notice wasn’t widely disseminated and many villagers in Satyapal and Saifuddin Kitchlew gathered in Bagh to hold the important Indian Baisakhi Festival and to protest peacefully the arrest and deportation of two national leaders. Dyer and his soldiers entered the garden and locked their main entry, stood on a raised bank and fired at the crowd for about ten minutes without notice, aiming their bullets mostly to the few open doors, through which people tried to escape until the supply of ammunition was nearly depleted. On the next day Dyer proclaimed in a paper “I heard about the killing of between 200 and 300 people”.

In the following year the government of India released the Hunter Committee report condemning both Dyer and the Punjab administration for not having collected an accurate count of casualties and quoted 379 dead and approximately 1,200 wounded, including 192 serious wounded, provided by Sewa Samati. The statistics were reported by the Commission. More than 1,500 casualties, nearly 1,000 of them dead, were estimated by the Indian National Congress.

He was commended by some in Britain for his exploits and became a hero of many people, including Members of the House of Lords, who directly benefited from the British Raj. However, in the House of Commons, which was censured by its investigating committee in July 1920 he was strongly condemned and attacked. He couldn’t be charged for killing because he was a soldier working on orders. The military agreed not to send him to court, and his only penalty was to be suspended from his current appointment, refused the promotion of him, and forbidden further jobs in India. Dyer then withdrew from the army and moved back to England, where he died.

Both British and Indian populations were divided by responses. Rudyard Kipling, the eminent author of the novel, proclaimed that Dyer “went as far as he saw it.” This shocked him so much that he surrendered his knighthood and proclaimed “these mass-murderers do not deserve any title.” This was the first Indian and Asian Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.

Although British intervention in the Mau Mau rebels in Kenya later led historian Huw Bennett to note that the new strategy has not always been carried out, this massacre has resulted in reassessment of its military position against civilians to a minimum. The army was retrained and less aggressive crowd control tactics developed.

The degree of casual violence and lack of responsibility shocked the whole country, causing the general Indian people’s loss of confidence in UK intentions. This unsuccessful investigation, together with Dyer ‘s initial recognition, fostered widespread outrage among the Indian population towards the British, leading to the 1920–22 Non-cooperation Movement. Some historians regard the episode as an significant step towards the end of British Indian rule.

The UK never officially apologised but expressed “regrets” in 2019 for the shooting.