by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Buzz, Entrepreneurship, Markets, News, Startup Basics, Technology
New Delhi : Three IT majors – Microsoft, Tech Avant-Garde and Efee Online – have come together to help Kashmiri students to make up for their academic losses due to frequent shutdowns and curfews in the insurgency-ravaged state.
The three firms have partnered with the Private Schools Association of Kashmir (PSAK) in starting an online education system in Jammu and Kashmir.
“PSAK is partnering with ‘Tech Avant-Garde, Microsoft and Efee online companies to bring Information Technology (IT) which is going to permit solutions to the education system especially during the frequent closure of education institutes of Kashmir,” PSAK head G.N. Var said in a statement.
Microsoft’s Aspire School Program Suite (MASP Pro) will be used to equip schools with innovative learning solutions and technology. This programme combines the benefits of Microsoft’s technology and e-payment solutions from Efee Online to empower teachers and students to be future-ready.
“This is an integrated learning online system in which a student will be given a software, ‘Lycee’ worth Rs 25,000 free with MASP Pro,” said Ali Sait, CEO, Tech Avant-Garde.
“The teachers will be given a device by which they will remain connected with the students especially during the closure of internet and education institutes.”
He said the service was started in the Kashmir Valley first because “we want Kashmir to become a headquarters of the system” that will transform the education in India.
The PSAK has urged the government not to snap the internet services and appealed for special internet service for the education system.
Var said restrictions, curfews, violent situations had become part of day to day life in the valley.
“We are unable to provide quality education to students as our schools get shut even at a small pretext. At times, we cannot even operate buses due to fear of violence. We are living in a conflict zone that we cannot help. But what we are trying to do is to isolate the education sector in a way that it remains largely unaffected.”
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
Srinagar : A blanket ban was announced on Thursday on the use of smartphones by police guards during duty hours in Jammu and Kashmir following a rising number of incidents of weapon snatching by militants.
In a detailed order, A.K. Choudhary, the Additional Director General of Armed Police, said: “It has been observed that recent weapon snatching incidents have occurred (as) sentries on duty remain engaged with their smartphones for most of the time, thereby compromising with their legitimate duty.
“This tendency has considerably increased and resulted in weapon snatching/killing of policemen in the state, particularly in the Valley.
“All guard personnel shall ensure compliance of the standing drill in letter and spirit.”
Besides imposing the ban on use of smartphones, the order also said that the weapon must be chained to the guard’s body as per the standard instructions contained in the drill for such duties.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
Srinagar : The District Magistrate of Srinagar on Wednesday issued an order to ban begging around religious and other public places in Jammu and Kashmir’s summer capital.
District Magistrate Syed Abid Rashid issued a magisterial order directing all concerned not to allow begging around religious and public places here.
In the order, issued under the Jammu and Kashmir Prevention of Beggary Act 1960, Rashid said t begging being is an offence under that Act, it is imperative that strict necessary action under law be initiated against the offenders.
The order also said being the capital city of the state with a vast population, it is contingent upon the administration to take all measures necessary to make the district more citizen friendly and to prevent public nuisance at all costs.
“Further being a prime tourist destination, it is home to tourists both domestic and foreign,” the order said.
The order observed that of late there was a proliferation of beggars on the streets of Srinagar which creates massive nuisance for the general public.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Saeed Naqvi,
I have never seen the electronic media so totally defiant of the BJP government. Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s avowed intention to calm Kashmir by announcing a Ramadan ceasefire appears to have been dismissed as “appeasement of Pakistan and terrorists”.
A guest peering out of one of the six windows on the TV screen was frothing in the mouth. “Murderers of our brave jawans are being shamelessly appeased.” The other went one better: “A brave nation does what the Sri Lankan army did to the LTTE – just finished them off.” The anchor on this Aaj Tak show Thursday evening looked angrier than both. This apparently is common fare.
The Communist Party of India is receiving signals from its Kashmir unit that it may have to rename itself. The ‘I’ in the CPI has been hurting the state unit for quite some time. But after the recent surge in shootings, stone pelting, “encounters”, sustained images of wailing women, trailing the spate of funerals, and relentless media jingoism, the “I” now invites physical danger. True, a defunct party by any name will remain defunct, but even so, Communist Party of Kashmir (CPK) will at least not incur the wrath of the street.
The relative Ramadan peace is a good occasion to take stock. Even in days of drift in Kashmir during the time of P.V. Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh, there was a semblance of political control by the National Conference and the PDP. Elements of the Hurriyat had fingers on the street pulse. The scene recently has been anarchic: there was no control.
Recent increase in violence was described by reliable sources as “indigenous” which is not what officials say. A narrative which discounts outside “meddling” is not honeyed music to the establishment. Nor to that shrill panel – on Aaj Tak. Ironical, isn’t it, that the absence of outside support to the insurgency disturbs us?
Just when Kashmir was at fever pitch, the mayhem in Aligarh Muslim University erupted around the photograph of Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
Friends are in error if they consider the undiluted hooliganism on view in Aligarh an occasion to engage in a serious debate on Jinnah’s culpability in partitioning the country. The hoodlums of Aligarh were not busting their guts to have Jinnah’s portrait removed from the AMU union office. Quite the contrary. Hindu Yuva Vahini would love to provoke Aligarh hotheads to dig their heels in to preserve Jinnah in the university precincts. This will be the ammunition which can come in handy at all times. The campus will be the ordnance depot for frequent explosions in the service of the projected Hindu Rashtra.
This is not the first time in recent decades that AMU has been exploited for saffron politics. Ever since Prime Minister V.P. Singh aggravated identity politics by implementing the Mandal Committee report providing reservation in government jobs to lower castes, the BJP has rushed to prevent the caste structure from crumbling. Hindu consolidation, by building up the Muslim ogre, has been the obvious strategy.
Aligarh was frequently the target as part of this strategy. There was no Arnab Goswami in the 90s but Hindi newspapers played a lead role in widening the Hindu-Muslim divide.
A story appears in newspapers that, after horrendous riots in Aligarh city, some of the injured Hindus being taken to the University Medical College for treatment are being killed by Muslim doctors and interns. Even though the university is only three hours drive from New Delhi, newspapers choose to rely on unverified agency copy which, in turn, quotes upper caste Hindi newspapers.
An incredible scene is being enacted on the outskirts of the university. Local scribes seated on chairs arranged in a circle under a mango tree, sip tea even as one Krishna Kumar Navman, BJP MLA from Aligarh, holds them in his thrall with graphic accounts of murders in the hospital.
“Has anyone visited the Medical College?” I ask. They had not, they say, because it is “risky”.
At the medical college the picture is surreal: petrified doctors encircle me. “No one has come to us for clarification,” they complain.
Why have they not reached out to the journalists with their story? After a long, pregnant silence, they speak up. They thought it would be dangerous stepping out of the campus “in the midst of communal violence”. This is what I call uninstitutionalized apartheid.
That was 30 years ago when there were no TV channels to inculcate saffron nationalism on the scale I saw the other day and which I have mentioned above.
Folks overtly agitated or elated at the turn of events in Aligarh may find it sobering that Pakistan’s Jinnah is not the only leader around whom communal polarization can be contrived. Ram Navami processionists in Kankinara, 24 Parganas in West Bengal, were so overpowered by the spirit of Rama that they pulled down the statue of Congress President and India’s first Education Minister, Maulana Azad – a person, who in his outlook was exactly the opposite of Jinnah. This was in preparation for the Panchayat elections currently in the news.
Protection to anti-namaz lumpens in Gurugram, or those who pasted a Maharana Pratap Road placard on Akbar Road (the placard was removed the next morning), Modi clenching his fist at Tipu Sultan during the recent campaign, are minor episodes in an epic of hatred being manufactured for 2019 of course, and beyond if need be. In this gameplan there is no real, long-term respite for Kashmiris, Muslims or Indo-Pakistan peaceniks. Alongside, the rage of the Dalits and tribals is spiraling out of control. There is an element of simulation in anti-Muslimism for political reasons but the retribution faced by Dalits and tribals in the countryside is visceral.
(A senior commentator on political and diplomatic affairs, Saeed Naqvi can be reached on saeednaqvi@hotmail.com)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Srinagar : Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Leh town of the Ladakh region on Saturday beginning his day-long visit to Jammu and Kashmir amid hightended security as authorities suspended internet services and shut down schools and colleges for the day.
Modi was received at the Leh Airport by Governor N.N. Vohra and Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.
As separatists called for protest march to Srinagar’s city centre Lal Chowk against Modi’s visit, the authorities suspended mobile internet services across the Kashmir Valley as a precautionary measure, police said.
Restrictions were also imposed in several areas in Srinagar. All schools and colleges were shut for the day.
Separatists leaders, including Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq have been placed under house arrest while Yasin Malik has been taken into preventive custody.
The Prime Minister has a hectic schedule that includes the unveiling of a plaque to mark the commencement of work on the Zojila Tunnel, India’s longest road tunnel and Asia’s longest bi-directional tunnel.
The state-of-the-art Zojila Tunnel would provide all weather connectivity between the Ladakh region, that remains cut off from the rest of the country during the winter months.
It will cut down the time taken to cross the Zojila pass from three-and-a-half hours to just 15 minutes, besides providing all-round economic and socio-cultural integration of the region. It also has immense strategic importance, an announcement said.
Modi would also attend the closing ceremony of the birth centenary celebration of Buddhist spiritual leader Kushok Bakula Rinpoche in Leh.
He will also dedicate the 330 MW Kishanganga hydropower project to the nation, at the Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC) in Srinagar during the day. Besides, laying the foundation stone of the four lane 41.2-km long Srinagar Ring Road.
In Jammu city, Modi will lay the foundation stone of the Pakul Dul Power Project and the four lane 58.2-kilometre-long Jammu Ring Road.
Ring Roads in Srinagar and Jammu are aimed at reducing traffic congestion and making road travel safer, faster, more convenient and more environment friendly.
Modi will also inaugurate the Tarakote Marg and Material Ropeway of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board that will facilitate pilgrims visiting the shrine.
The Prime Minister will also attend the Convocation of the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology in Jammu.
After a busy day, Modi will fly back to New Delhi in the evening.
—IANS
