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07-Feb-2019 RANJI TROPHY: VIDARBHA BEAT SAURASHTRA IN FINAL, CLAIM SECOND SUCCESSIVE TITLE Read More Vidarbha lifted their second successive Ranji Trophy title with a comfortable 78-run win over Saurashtra in the final, proving that their maiden triumph last year was no “fluke”. Vidarbha needed five wickets to defend their title while Saurashtra, in a chase of 206, were left a mountain to climb after a top-order collapse on 6th Feb. They required 148 runs for their maiden title on the fifth and final day at the VCA stadium in Nagpur. “Everyone thought it was a fluke when we won last year and we were under pressure to retain the title. But our focus was process, we never bothered about reputation,” Vidarbha’s talismanic coach Chandrakant Pandit said. The fiercely fought final swung early on but Vidarbha went into the final day with a tight hold on the proceedings and bundled out the visitors for 127 with more than two sessions to spare Overnight batsmen Vishvaraj Jadeja (52) and Kamlesh Makvana (14) batted resolutely for the first hour but once the partnership was broken, the end was inevitable for Saurashtra. Man of the match left-arm spinner Aditya Sarwate claimed three of the five wickets that fell on Thursday, to end with career-best match figures of 11/57. He took six for 59 in the second innings. It was his maiden haul of 10 or more wickets in a first-class match. He had scalped five batsmen in the first innings.
06-Dec-2018 SAHITYA AKADEMI AWARDS IN 24 LANGUAGES ANNOUNCED Read More Sahitya Akademi announced on 5th Dec. its annual Awards in 24 languages. Seven books of poetry, six novels, six short stories, three of literary criticism and two of essays have won the Sahitya Akademi Awards, 2018. Those who have won the award for their collection of poetry include Sananta Tanti in Assamese, Paresh Narendra Kamat in Konkani, S Ramesan Nair in Malayalam and Dr Rama Kant Shukla in Sanskrit. Writers who won the awards for short stories include Sanjib Chattopadhyay in Bengali, Mushtaq Ahmed Mushtaq in Kashmiri and Prof Bina Thakur in Maithili. Inderjeet Kesar in Dogri, Anees Salim in English, Chitra Mudgal in Hindi are among the awardees in the novel category. The Akademi said in a press release that the awards will be presented at a roadshow function to be held on 29 January next year at New Delhi during the Festival of Letters to the organised by Sahitya Akademi. An eminent short-story writer, Mushtaq Ahmad Mushtaq, bagged the Award for his collection of short stories “AAKH’’. An Indian Information Service officer Mushtaq Ahmad is presently posted as Head of the Regional News Unit at Radio Kashmir Srinagar.
02-Dec-2018 SHIRDI TEMPLE TRUST GIVES RS 500-CRORE TO MAHARASHTRA GOVT FOR NILWANDE DAM Read More The Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust, which manages the saint’s samadhi at Shirdi in Maharashtra’s Ahmedanagar district, will provide Rs 500 crore to build a canal network for a dam. The Nilwande Dam is located on Pravara River and is expected to benefit 182 villages in Sangamner, Akole, Rahata, Rahuri and Kopargao tehsils in Ahmednagar district and Sinnar in Nashik. A senior official of the Trust said a Memorandum of Understanding had been signed with the state government’s Godawari-Marathwada Irrigation Development Corporation in this regard. “The trust will give Rs 500 crore for the project but will not charge interest on it,” he said, though he refused to divulge details of tenure of repayment etc. The official said the temple trust provides money for social work regularly but the amount it had allocated for the Nilwande Dam was “huge” and a “rare thing”. A state Water Resources department official said the Nilwande Dam had begun storing water but the right and left bank canals needed to be built for it to be used for irrigation and drinking water purposes The Nilwande Dam, this June, received Rs 2,232 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sanjivani Yojana.
27-Nov-2018 STATE GOVERNMENT TO PROVIDE RESERVATION TO MARATHA COMMUNITY: MAHARASHTRA CM Read More Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has given a statement in the Maharashtra Assembly regarding reservations to the Maratha community. He said that without changing the 52% reservation for the OBCs, the state government will provide reservations to the Maratha community. Earlier BJP govt had indicated that the government will introduce a bill on 29 Nov. to provide reservation to Marathas under the Socially and Educationally Backward Class (SEBC) category before the end of the Legislature's winter session. The state Legislature's winter session concludes on 30 Nov. A Cabinet sub-committee was formed last week to study the State Backward Class Commission's report on reservation for Marathas and take a decision on it. The commission's recommendations were approved by the Cabinet and it was decided to form a sub-committee for further process.
09-Nov-2018 TIGRESS AVNI KILLING: NATIONAL TIGER CONSERVATION AUTHORITY FORMS NEW PROBE TEAM Read More The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has constituted a three-member team of independent wildlife experts to probe how the man-eating tiger Avni (T1) was killed. After animal activist and Union Minister Maneka Gandhi criticised the killing of Avni (which was legally sanctioned by Maharashtra’s wildlife authorities) last Sunday, the NTCA said it had asked the State’s Wildlife Department to explain the circumstances of the death. Specifically, it wanted to know who actually shot the tiger and whether there was an attempt to tranquilise it. On 8th Nov, Mr. Nayak told The Hindu that the NCTA had now constituted a team to investigate the killing of Avni, after visiting Yavatmal, where the tiger was shot on November 2. Experienced team - “The three-member team will have experienced wildlife experts from the Wildlife Trust of India, a retired Forest officer from Kerala and NTCA’s own officer from its Nagpur division,” Mr. Nayak said. The tigress which is said to have killed 13 people, was shot dead by civilian hunter Asgar Ali, who was with a team of Maharashtra Forest Department officials. According to Maharashtra Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, an official allegedly attempted and failed to fire a tranquiliser dart at the tigress following which she charged at the team. Mr Ali then fired in self-defence.
22-Oct-2018 COASTAL AREAS OF AP, MAHARASHTRA, ODISHA TO GET $ 43 MILLION TO BOOST CLIMATE RESILIENCE Read More A UN-backed fund has approved $ 43.4 million for enhancing climate resilience for millions of people living in India’s coastal communities in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Odisha as part of its efforts to combat extreme impacts of climate change. The grant is a part of more than $ 1 billion approved by the Green Climate Fund for 19 new projects to help developing countries tackle climate change. The new project will be supported through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and is an essential step for India in reaching its goals outlined in the Paris Agreement and 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The 21st meeting of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) Board ended 21 Oct. in Bahrain’s capital Manama, approving over one billion dollars of new projects and programmes to support climate action in developing countries, and formally launching its first replenishment, a statement from the fund said. “India’s coastal areas are quite vulnerable to climate change and this project focuses on selected vulnerable areas of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Odisha states,” said Ravi S Prasad, Joint Secretary, Climate Change, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, said. The new project, with the GCF assistance, will not only help enhance resilience and adaptability, but also lead to emissions reduction while providing support to local communities for their livelihoods,” Prasad said. The 19 new projects amount to a total investment from GCF of $ 1,038 million, and including co-financing the projects will channel over $ 4,244 million of climate finance for low-emission, climate-resilient development.
19-Oct-2018 PM HANDS OVER KEYS TO PMAY BENEFICIARIES IN MAHARASHTRA Read More Prime Minister Narendra Modi handed over keys to Grameen beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana at Shirdi in Maharashtra on 18 oct. He interacted with beneficiaries of the scheme across Maharashtra through video conferencing. Under the scheme, nearly 2.5 lakh houses have been built in the state. Prime Minister arrived in Shirdi this morning. He performed a pooja at Saibaba Mandir and released a silver coin to commemorate the Centenary year of Shri Saibaba Samadhi. The Prime Minister also unveiled the plaque to mark the laying of foundation stone of various development works of Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust. Prime Minister also launched a ten-megawatt solar project, Darshan Queue Complex, Sri Sai Baba Knowledge Campus and Sai Shrishti, where all significant works of Sai would be digitally available for tourists.
15-Oct-2018 KHAYYAM NAMED FOR HRIDAYNATH AWARD Read More National awardee, music director Mohammed Zahur Khayyam Hashmi, famous as 'Khayyam' has been named for this year's Hridaynath Award for Lifetime Achievement. Instituted by the Hridayesh Arts, the award carries a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh, a memento and shawl be conferred by Chief Ministe Devendra Fadnavis at a function here on Friday (October 26). Avinash Prabhavalkar, official of Hridayesh Arts said that "the award ceremony coincides with the 81st birthday of Hridaynath Mangeshkar". The veteran composer, lyricist and writer, Padma Bhushan Khayyam (91), started his music career in Ludhiana in 1943 at the age of 17 and later teamed up as Sharma of the music-director duo'Sharmaji-Varmaji' to compose music for films like 'Heer Ranjha' (released 1948). In 1981, he composed music for the sensitive blockbuster film 'Umrao Jaan'. He bagged the National Award, and also a Filmfare Award.
03-Oct-2018 BANK OF MAHARASHTRA TO SHUT 51 BRANCHES AS PART OF COST-CUTTING MEASURES Read More Public sector bank Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) has announced the closure of 51 branches across the country as part of cost-cutting measures being implemented in the banking industry, an official said on 3 october All the branches were in urban centres and have been identified for the action as they were declared non-viable and were incurring huge losses, said the official of the Pune-headquartered bank. Declining to be identified, the senior bank official said that these 51 units have been closed down and merged with neighbouring branches. This is the first such measure initiated by any PSB in Maharashtra. The BoM has around 1,900 branches all over India. In a terse announcement on 1 oct., the BoM said that it has closed down and merged these 51 branches for public convenience. The IFSC Code and MICR codes of these branches have also been cancelled and all the savings, current and other bank accounts have been transferred to the branches with which they have been merged. All customers have been directed to deposit their cheque-books issued from the closed branches with the old IFSC/MICR Codes by November 30, and collect their payment instruments bearing the new branch’s IFCS/MICR codes.
02-Oct-2018 CONTAMINATED POLIO VACCINE GIVEN TO CHILDREN IN MAHARASHTRA, TELENGANA, UP Read More Some vials of the oral polio vaccines contaminated with the type-2 polio virus were administered to children in Maharashtra and Telengana, besides Uttar Pradesh, health ministry officials confirmed. The vials were manufactured by a Ghaziabad-based pharmaceutical company. The ministry has issued advisories to the three states to ensure that polio surveillance teams trace the children who have been given the contaminated vaccines. The surveillance teams have also been asked to step up the monitoring of the children and keep a close watch for any symptoms. It needs to be seen how the virus behaves, a health ministry official said. The government had set up a committee to probe the contamination of some batches of the vaccine. The health ministry, under its national immunisation programme, will also ensure that inactivated polio virus (IPV) injections are administered to all children in the places concerned of the three states so that no child is missed, the official said.
26-Sep-2018 FOR FIRST RECIPIENT OF AADHAAR NUMBER, AN LPG CONNECTION 7 YEARS LATER Read More Ranjana Sonawane hit the headlines eight years ago when she became the first person to get an Aadhaar number. A resident of Tembhali village in north Maharashtra’s Nandurbar district, the 48-year-old mother of three now says the 12-digit unique identity managed to get her one important thing: an LPG cylinder connection. The household began to use an LPG cylinder for cooking meals only five months ago. Sonawane appears unaware of her distinction. Her husband and three children were also issued their Aadhaar numbers within a fortnight of her receiving it in 2010. Ranjana and her husband Sadashiv are farm labourers and their house doesn’t have an attached toilet. All 1,505 residents of the village, about 400 km from Mumbai, now have Aadhaar numbers. On 24 sep, the gram panchayat organised the latest round of an exercise to fit households with electric meters.
22-Aug-2018 ACTOR RAVEENA TANDON BECOMES BRAND AMBASSADOR OF SGN Read More The Maharashtra government has appointed Bollywood actor Raveena Tandon as the brand ambassador of the city-based Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP). Maharashtra Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar made the announcement on 22 August."I would like to welcome Raveena ji as the brand ambassador of SGNP. She is an environmentally-conscious citizen and a respected member of the community. She can help spread awareness among citizens," Mungantiwar said in a statement issued here. He said SGNP is a vast treasure of flora and fauna in Mumbai city and it also provides water to a major part of the city. The actor met Mungantiwar at his residence to discuss the 13 crore tree-plantation drive and her contribution to help achieve a greener Maharashtra, the statement said. As the brand ambassador, Tandon will help the state forest department to create awareness about its various initiatives, like the 50 crore tree plantation drive, eco-tourism in SGNP, conservation of leopards in SGNP, among others. Tandon described it as an honour to serve as the brand ambassador of SGNP."I used to visit Sanjay Gandhi National Park as a kid and now to be chosen as its brand ambassador is a great honour," she said. "Spreading awareness is very important in conservation of the environment and I am pleased to collaborate with Sudhir Mungantiwar ji and the Maharashtra Forest Department in all their initiatives for a greener Mumbai," Tandon added. A programme to welcome Tandon as the brand ambassador will be held in the first week of September when the new website of SGNP and a Jan Dhan-Van Dhan shop will also be inaugurated.
13-Jul-2018 BOMBAY HC DECLINES TO RELAX BAN ON THERMOCOL FOR GANESH FESTIVAL Read More The Bombay High Court today declined to relax the ban on sale of decoration items made of thermocol for use in the forthcoming Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Maharashtra. The Court dismissed a petition filed by the Thermocol Fabricator and Decoration Association, seeking relaxation of the ban only for this year's Ganesh festival to be celebrated in September. Manufacture and use of a large number of plastic and thermocol items have been banned in Maharashtra. The petition claimed the association's members would suffer huge financial losses if decoration material made of thermocol is not permitted to be sold in the market. The association also submitted an undertaking stating they will themselves dispose of the material. The court refused to accept the association's undertaking that it would take back the sold thermocol material and dispose them of after the festival.
01-Jul-2018 MAHARASHTRA GOVT NOT TO EXPORT ANIMALS FOR KILLING IN GULF Read More After aggressive representations from Jain religious and social organizations and other Jiv Daya Premi (animal welfare) NGOs to state BJP president Jitu Vaghani, the Maharashtra government has cancelled the mega project of exporting the animals to be used for slaughtering in the middle East countries. State BJP spokesperson Bharat Pandya said: “Soon after the representations from the Jain and Jiv Daya Premi groups, state BJP president Jitu Vaghani spoke to National BJP president Amit Shah and Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and requested them to take action to stop the export of animals. The Maharashtra CM immediately took action in this regard. All the Jain groups and Jiv Daya Premi groups have appreciated it.” “Congress, whose members participated in a beef party in Kerala and which did not take any action against them, has no right to speak on cow protection and animal welfare,” Pandya added. To this, Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said, “The BJP’s double face has been exposed. Those who were talking about stopping the pink revolution are now exporting animals. The BJP is falsely trying to take credit, as had it not been for the Jain religious, social groups and other NGOs, the BJP government would not have stopped the export of animals. In Gujarat, BJP has failed to protect cows.”
17-Jun-2018 PLASTIC USE FROM JUNE 23 WILL ATTRACT FINE OF RS 5,000 Read More People, including retailers, will be penalized for carrying banned plastic material from June 23 Rs 5,000 on the first occasion and Rs 10,000 the second time. Third-time offenders will be prosecuted. Suresh Jagtap, head of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC)’s solid waste management department, told TOI, “Citizens got an exemption of three months from the ban from the high court. From June 23, the ban will be implemented if the court order on June 22 does not bring in any changes. Besides imposing penalty on people possessing the banned items, we will undertake search operations to check from where the plastic is coming into the garbage bins.” The civic body will deploy a team of 120 inspectors in all its wards to check the use of plastic from June 23. Officials stated that citizens or NGOs could inform PMC about the use of plastic in their areas, after which it would send inspectors to the spot to fine the defaulters. Jagtap said though PMC was not authorized to conduct searches in houses of citizens, their inspectors would conduct raids in the city’s markets to seal banned plastic items. The defaulters would be penalized subsequently, and a challan would be issued. “Establishments like retail shops, clubs, cinemas, theatres, marriage halls, restaurants and malls among others would be under the scanner. Though the retailers and other people were expected to hand over the banned plastic items to the civic body for scientific disposal or recycling. But we have received just around six tonnes of the banned products so far. The rest are expected to be sealed during inspections,” he said. He said NGOs, environment groups, mohalla committees and citizens in favour of the ban were roped in to help the civic body in the implementation of the ban.
15-Jun-2018 MAHARASHTRA MODEL: VILLAGE THAT PLANTS TREES TO MARK BIRTHS AND DEATHS Read More A small village near Pune has become the torchbearer of the state government's massive tree plantation drive-this year, between July 1 and 31, 13 crore saplings will be planted across Maharashtra. Ranmala, a village in Khed taluka, was drought prone. On 15 june, Ranmala is water sufficient and it owes its transformation to retired school teacher P T Shinde who embarked on the project in 2003. Shinde's model was an inclusive one. He roped in other villagers and families were given a sapling to mark celebrations such as birth, or marriage and even on occasions such as death. Establishing this unique connection ensured that the family nurtured the sapling like its own, making the survival rate very high. Shinde's model has now found favour with the state government which has asked all gram punchayats and municipal councils to adopt it. "We visited the village and found this idea was working very well. If there was a birth in anyone's house, they would be gifted a sapling- 'Janm Vruksha' (birth tree) and the family was expected to take care of the sapling as they would the baby. Similarly, for a death in a family, a 'Smruti Vruksha' (tree of remembrance), 'Maherichi Zhadi' or 'Shubh Mangal Vruksha' (auspicious tree) for weddings and 'Anand Vruksha' for special occasions would be given," said principal secretary of the forest department, Vikas Kharge. The USP of the model is the emotional bond that it developed between the villagers and the trees they planted.
04-Jun-2018 IN A FIRST FOR VIDARBHA, BELLIED EAGLE OWL SPOTTED IN SALEGHAT Read More After the news about black panther in Tadoba, Vidarbha region has recorded first-ever spot bellied eagle owl. The pair of birds was sighted in Saleghat range of Mansinghdeo Wildlife Sanctuary under Pench Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra. Well-known bird expert Raju Kasambe from Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) confirmed there is no earlier record of the bird from Vidarbha. “It has been earlier recorded in Pench (MP), Kanha, Balaghat, Koyna and Bhimashankar sanctuaries in Western Maharashtra and Chorle Ghat (Maharashtra-Goa border),” said Kasambe. Kapish S Rai, city birder and wildlife photographer, sighted the bird pair on May 20, around 6pm during an evening safari at Saleghat. “I spent last 12 days to get confirmation from bird experts and watchers,” he told TOI. Veteran bird expert Gopal Thosar said, “I don’t recall of having record of this bird species here. Saleghat has beautiful ravines and much of the area is still unexplored. It is good indication and a formal study needs to be undertaken on bird species in the area.” Another bird expert Nitin Marathe said he has never heard about the spot bellied eagle owl sighting, though 15 days ago he sighted an Egyptian vulture in Saleghat. “It is a rare sighting as the owl species is mostly found in the south and parts of Northern India. The bird sighted is a juvenile, which indicates breeding of the species here,” says avid bird watcher Pushkar Kulkarni.
03-Jun-2018 MUMBAIKARS WORK LONGEST HOURS IN THE WORLD Read More Mumbaikars are the hardest working and put in the longest hours among 77 major cities of the world, according to a report by Swiss Bank UBS. The average Mumbaikar works 3,314.7 hours a year as against an average of 1,987 hours and more than twice as much as major European cities like Rome (1,581 hours) or Paris (1,662 hours). However, Mumbaikars are not able to afford the must-haves for millennials across the world. For instance, a New Yorker can afford an iPhone X with 54 hours of work, whereas for a Mumbaikar, the cost of this iPhone is equivalent to 917 hours wages. Also, if rental expense is factored in, cost of living in Mumbai is 46% that of New York. Mumbai is more affordable in services such as haircut for a male, which is around 228 minutes of wages as against 128 minutes for New York. In terms of hourly earnings, Geneva, Zurich and Luxemborg top the list with Mumbai coming in second last at number 76, only ahead of Cairo. Even African cities like Nairobi and Laos rank higher than Mumbai on the average earnings table. For the study, UBS has looked at 15 professions that replicate the natural workforce composition of a European country. Zurich is still the most expensive in the report’s ranking (including and excluding rent both), and Luxembourg tops for purchasing power (gross hourly pay). Interestingly one of the world's most expensive cities, Hong Kong, is at the bottom when it comes to cost of goods that millennials aspire for.
26-May-2018 FERGUSSON IS NOW A UNIVERSITY, XAVIER’S & MITHIBAI ON WAIT LIST Read More Fergusson University is how one of Maharashtra’s oldest and most iconic educational institutions will now be known. The Deccan Education Society’s Fergusson College, set up in Pune in 1885 by stalwarts such as Lokmanya Tilak and Gopal Ganesh Agarkar, will be converted into a state university. The Government Science College and St Joseph’s College, both autonomous institutes from Bengaluru, will also be upgraded as universities. Each institute will receive a grant of Rs 55 crore under the Centre’s Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyaan (RUSA), it was announced on 25May. Two colleges from Mumbai, St Xavier’s and Mithibai, which had also applied for the university tag, have been kept in waiting. “Each of these institutions will receive Rs 55 crore subject to their states enacting a State Public University Act in three months and submitting an action plan for the institutions. If the same is not executed, institutes on the waiting list will be considered,” said B Venkatesh Kumar, national co-ordinator of RUSA, which is implemented by the HRD ministry. These will be unitary universities, which will not have any colleges affiliated to them. Fergusson’s principal Ravindra Singh Pardeshi said, “We want to upgrade our departments to schools, make our research stronger and build better labs.” Interestingly, Fergusson, when founded, was affiliated to the erstwhile University of Bombay. It started arts classes and later offered the science stream. The college held these classes, for almost ten years, in the old Gadre Wada and other locations in Pune. Founders Vishnushastri Chiplunkar, Tilak, Agarkar, Mahadev Ballal Namjoshi and Vaman Shivram Apte taught in these classrooms.
20-May-2018 MUMBAI MAN BECOMES FIRST TO BE PUT ON NO-FLY LIST Read More Eight months after India enforced a no-fly list (NFL) for disruptive passengers, Birju Kishore Salla the Mumbai jeweller who created a hijack scare on a Jet Airways' flight last year has become the first person to be put on the same. Salla's act of leaving a hijack message in the business class lavatory of a Mumbai-Delhi flight on October 30, 2017, which had forced the plane to divert to Ahmedabad, has led Jet to ban him from flying its planes for five years. "This is the first case of an Indian carrier putting someone on the NFL. Jet Airways has informed us that after following due procedure, they have banned him (Salla) for five years with effect from November 2017 for breach of security. It is the airline's responsibility to inform other carriers and then it is up to them whether they also put the person on their NFLs. We will continue to maintain a database for such passengers," said a senior official of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).Despite repeated attempts, Jet did not comment on this issue Salla has been banned from flying under the highest level (three) of on-board unruly behaviour that entails grounding from two years to a lifetime. This level covers life-threatening behaviour like damage to aircraft operating systems, serious physical violence and attempted or actual breach of cockpit. Level one covers unruly behaviour like physical gestures. Punishment under this level can be grounding of up to three months. The second level is for physically abusive behaviour like pushing and sexual harassment, where grounding is up to six months. Under each level, grounding time is doubled for subsequent offences
07-May-2018 INDIANS PREFER TO ADOPT GIRLS; MAHARASHTRA AT FOREFRONT Read More Nearly 60% of children adopted in the last six years were girls across states in India, led by Maharashtra which also recorded the highest number of adoptions in recent years, government data showed. Of the 3,276 children adopted in the country in 2017-18, a total of 1,858 were girls, the data showed. In reply to an RTI filed on the number of adoptions in every state since 2012, Child Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) said Maharashtra was at the forefront in adopting girls. The number of girls adopted in 2017 was 353 out of a total of 642 adoptions in the state. Karnataka followed with 286 adoptions, 167 of them girls, CARA, the apex body for adoption in the country, said. Maharashtra's high score was not just because of the size of the state, but because of the large number of adoption agencies there, said CARA CEO Lieutenant Colonel Deepak Kumar. "Maharashtra has the highest number of adoption agencies in the country at 60 while other states that are bigger have on an average 20 adoption agencies," he said. In 2017-18, there was an increase in the number of in-country adoptions. Of the 3,276 children adopted within India, 1,858 were girls and 1,418 boys, according to the data given in response to the RTI query. The inter-country adoption also saw an increase, with the number rising from 578 in 2016-17 to 651 in 2017-18.in 2016-2017, out of the 3,210 children adopted within India, 1,915 or almost 60% were girls. Maharashtra (711) and Karnataka (252) again recorded the highest numbers, followed by West Bengal (203).
06-May-2018 BOMBAY HC JUDGE TOOK UP CASES TILL 3.30AM Read More After sitting till midnight recently to hear matters, Justice Shahrukh Kathawalla of the Bombay high court topped his own record on the HC’s last working day before summer vacation by rising only at 3.30am. The rush of matters for interim relief is usually high before the break, and his board had 134. He capped it at 122 for the day and didn’t rise till he had heard them all. When Justice Kathawalla finally called it a day, it was the wee hours, when the only other place buzzing with similar energy in Mumbai is T2 of the international airport. He sat for over 10 hours beyond the regular court closing time of 5pm, making it three court days in one to prevent a backlog pile-up. The judicial hours in HC are from 11am to 5pm, with a one-hour lunch break at 2pm. TOI had on April 27 reported how he had been sitting till midnight for some days to clear backlog. At 6pm on Friday, Kathawalla’s courtroom at one end on the first floor was teeming with litigants and lawyers as usual. The scene was the same at midnight too. The judge hadn't taken a dinner break. After the post-midnight record, on Saturday, the judge was back in court at 10am, all set to hear 14 matters listed on board. By 11pm, other facilities in the HC had shut, even the library on the second floor and the Bombay Bar Association on the third. A lady lawyer complained about toilets being shut. The judge summoned the court keeper, and, rapping him, asked him to open the washrooms.
02-May-2018 TWO MAHARASHTRA STATIONS BAG TOP HONOURS IN BEAUTIFICATION CONTEST Read More The Ballarshah and Chandrapur railway stations in Maharashtra have been adjudged winners of the national transporter's in-house station beautification contest, a statement from the ministry said on 2May. The Nagpur Division of Central Railway has beautified the two stations with paintings, sculptures and murals based on wildlife at the Tadoda National Park and local tribal art. The number two slot has gone to Bihar's Madhubani station, which features stunning artwork by local artists, and Tamil Nadu's Madurai station, which also depicts popular scenes from local culture on its walls, the statement said. The third prize has gone jointly to three stations - Gandhidham in Gujarat, Kota in Rajasthan and Secunderabad in Telengana. The first prize winners will get Rs 10 lakh, second prize winners Rs 5 lakh and the third prize winners Rs 3 lakh.
02-May-2018 MAHARASHTRA FIRST TO ISSUE LAND DOCUMENT ONLINE Read More Maharashtra has become the first state to issue a crucial land ownership document online and accept a digital signature on it as valid. The state government's plan of digitizing the 7/12 extract is thus complete. On 1 may, it went a step ahead and generated eight lakh documents with space for digital signatures. The facility was inaugurated by the chief minister. The 7/12 receipt is extensively used by farmers for loan agreements, crop survey and for availing of government facilities. Till a few years ago, hand-written 7/12 receipts were prepared by talathis, who solely had the power to make changes in the documents. This resulted in several instances of misuse of authority. While talathis, who are local level revenue staff, would be supposed to issue the document as a matter of assistance, in reality many of them would demand bribes. In all, there are 2.46 crore 7/12 extracts across the state's 43,000 villages. All have been digitized. "So far, eight lakh documents have been generated using digital signatures. The remaining will be completed by August," said revenue minister Chandrakant Patil.
30-Apr-2018 MAHARASHTRA TO FORM INTERNATIONAL BOARD FOR NON-ENGLISH SCHOOLS TO COMPETE WITH CBSE, ICSE Read More The Maharashtra government will set up an education board for the non-English medium schools in the state, Education Minister Vinod Tawde said 30April. "The government has decided to form the Maharashtra International Education Board (MIEB) to prepare the syllabus for the non-English medium schools. It will compete with the existing boards such as CBSE and ICSE," Tawde told reporters here. In the first phase, 13 selected Marathi schools will function according to the new syllabus of international standard, he said, adding that every district would soon have least one school affiliated to the international board. The MIEB will be an autonomous body which will decide the curriculum for its schools and conduct examinations, Tawde said. The MIEB will be the second board in the state after the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education.