David Crosby, the father of American folk-rock, has passed away (18th January 2023) at the age of 81. 

 

He was influential musical pioneer of the 1960s and 1970s who created a distinctly American brand of folk-rock with the Byrds and later with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

 

He was born David Van Cortlandt Crosby on August 14, 1941, in Los Angeles. His father was Oscar-winning cinematographer Floyd Crosby of “High Noon” fame. The family, including his mother, Aliph, and brother, Floyd Jr., later moved to Santa Barbara.

 

Born : 14 August 1941, Los Angeles, California, United States

 

Died : 18 January 2023

She has organized canteens for the poor and coordinated the All India Women Council’s “Vatta Banks” to assist Gujarat flood victims.

In 2022, Prabhaben Sobhagchand Shah received the Padma Shri which is India’s 4th highest civilian award for social work in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

 

Prabhaben Sobhagchand Shah was born on 20th February 1930 in Bardoli, Surat district, and settled in Daman in 1963.

She decided to be a social worker at the age of 12 and she established Gujarat medium school Bal Mandir. In 1963, she established the women’s association named Mahila Mandal and began to take part in various activities related to women and children who are deprived of education.

 

Prabhaben Sobhagchand Shah and her team of Mahila Mandal have created a credit organization to offer loans to women who wished to start a small business like papad manufacturing, tailoring, or running grocery stores. She was also elected to the defense committee in 1965 and 1971 during the Indo-China war and Bangladesh Partition.

She served on the Board of Directors of the Gujarat State Social Welfare Advisory Board in Ahmedabad from 1992 to 1994. In 1998, she served as a Dowry Prohibition officer and was later nominated to the District Legal Advisory Committee of the Daman and Diu in 2001..

Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday (19th January 2023) inaugurated and laid foundation stones of various development projects in Mumbai.

* These projects, which are worth more than Rs. 38,000 crore, belong to different sectors and aim to develop infrastructure, ease urban travel, and strengthen healthcare in the state.

 

* This was PM Modi’s first visit to Mumbai after Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde took office at June-end last year after replacing the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.

 

* At a ceremony that was held at the MMRDA ground in BKC, PM Modi inaugurated and laid the foundation stones of a string of projects worth more than Rs 38,000 crore.

 

* These projects are aimed at developing infrastructure, easing urban travel, and strengthening healthcare in Mumbai.

 

* He laid the foundation stones for seven sewage treatment plants, a road concretization project, and the redevelopment of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus.

 

* The PM inaugurated Mumbai Metro Rail Lines 2A and 7 built at a cost of around Rs 12,600 crore. They comprise a 35km-long elevated corridor stretching from Andheri to Dahisar in suburban Mumbai.

 

* PM Modi also inaugurated 20 ‘Aapla Davakhana’ (health clinics) named after Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray.

 

* In 2015, the 18.6 km-long Mumbai Metro Rail line 2A connects suburban Dahisar (East) with the 16.5 km-long DN Nagar (yellow line) while the metro line 7 joints Andheri (East) with Dahisar (East). The foundation stones of the lines were laid by PM Modi.

 

* The prime minister also launched Mumbai 1 mobile app and National Common Mobility Card (NCMC)....

Source : Outlook India

The Union government on Thursday (19th Jan 2023) cleared the appointment of Praveen Sharma, a 2005 batch officer from Indian Defence Service of Engineers (IDSE) as director, Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission. The appointment of Sharma was cleared after the ministry of defence recommended the name of Sharma for central deputation.

According to the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) notification, the Union government has cleared the appointment of Sharma under the ‘Central Staffing Scheme’ for a period of five years “from the date of taking over charge of the post or until further orders, whichever event takes place earlier,” the government order said..

Source : Economic Times

A rare orange-coloured bat, also known as ‘painted bat’ and characterised by bright orange and black wings, was on Monday (16th Jan 2023) spotted at a banana plantation in Parali Bodal village of Chhattisgarh’s "Kanger Valley National Park" in Bastar, officials said on Wednesday (18th Jan 2023).

 

The locals informed that the animal came to their farms in the morning. There were three bats and it was a very rare sight. They have clicked photos and sent them to the forest officials. 

 

* Kanger Nation Park director Dhammshil Ganvir said the locals spotted the bat species very recently.

* The scientific name of the bat is ‘Kerivoula Picta’.

 

* The orange-colored bat is generally found in Bangladesh, Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam.

* In India, the orange-colored bat was spotted in the Western Ghats, Kerala, Maharashtra, and Odisha, and now in Chhattisgarh.

* The orange-colored bat, scientifically known as ‘Kerivoula Picta’, has black wings, orange wings, and fingers.

* These are often found in unusual roosting sites such as suspended nests of weaver finches and sunbirds, banana leaves.

* These bats have been known to roost in Paris. It is an aerial hawker, catching insects and mid-flight birds.

 

What About Kanger Valley National Park : The Kanger Valley National Park is derived from the Kanger River. The Kanger Valley National Park is spread over 200 square kilometers. The park was established as a national park in 1982. Apart from flora and fauna, the National Park is home to three caves for their geological structures: Kutumbasar, Kailash, Dandak-Stellagmites, and Stalactites. The Kanger Valley National Park is also known for the presence of underground limestone caves with dripstone and floating. The Stalagmites and Stalactite formation is still increasing....

Source : Hindustan Times

Hyderabad-born Aruna Miller has scripted history by becoming the first Indian-American politician to be sworn in as the Lieutenant Governor in the state of Maryland, adjoining the US capital.

 

Aruna, 58, a former delegate to the Maryland House, made history on Wednesday (18th January 2023) when the Democrat became the 10th Lieutenant Governor of the state.

 

The Lieutenant Governor is the state’s highest official following the Governor and assumes the role when the Governor is out of state or incapacitated.

 

Moore became Maryland’s 63rd governor, the state’s first and the country’s only current Black chief executive. The newly sworn-in Lt Governor took her oath on the Bhagwat Gita.

 

Miller’s swearing-in will break a barrier that no other immigrant or woman of colour has breached before her. She was part of a historic Democratic ticket that sailed to victory in November and also gives Maryland its first Black governor, its first Black attorney general and its first female comptroller.

 

Aruna’s Family : Aruna’s father, who migrated after the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 removed racial and national-origin quotas to allow a new generation of immigrants to enter the United States. She graduated from the Missouri University of Science and Technology with a degree in civil engineering in 1989, and worked for 25 years at the local Department of Transportation in Montgomery County. Miller has served two terms in the Maryland House of Delegates from 2010 to 2018...

Source : Hindustan Times

Telecom giant Bharti Airtel Group in association with the government of Telangana Wednesday (18th January 2023) announced an investment to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore to set up a large hyperscale data center in Hyderabad, IT and Industries minister KT Rama Rao said.

 

Through its Data Center arm — Nxtra Data Centers — the group will invest an amount of Rs 2000 crore as capital investment for the infrastructure which will further attract investments from their customers.

The facility will be a hyperscale data center with a capacity of 60 megawatts (MW) of IT load for the first phase. It will incorporate the latest technologies in cooling and security. The project is estimated to be established in the next 5-7 years..

Source : Indian Express

Himachal Pradesh became the fourth state to revert to the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) for state government employees. Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Punjab, too, have rolled out OPS.

 

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has advised states against the old pension system (OPS). In its latest report on state finances, the central bank said that the major risk looming large on the subnational fiscal horizon is the likely reversion to the OPS by some states.

This statement from RBI comes at a time when some state government are restoring to the old pension scheme.

 

About old pension scheme : In the old pension regime, pension was 50 percent of the last drawn salary of the employee and the entire amount was paid by the government...

Source : CNBC

 

The 3rd meeting of Steering Committee of Ken-Betwa Link Project was held in New Delhi on Wednesday (18th Jan 2023).

Speaking on the occasion, Secretary, Department of Water Resources Pankaj Kumar stressed that Ken-Betwa link project is critical for the water security and socio-economic development of Bundelkhand region.

He said, it is a flagship project of the Centre and State and both have the responsibility of implementing this project in a time-bound manner.

 

During the meeting, two wildlife sanctuaries namely Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary and Rani Durgawati Wildlife Sanctuary of Madhya Pradesh and Ranipur Wildlife Sanctuary of Uttar Pradesh have been approved by state government for bringing them under project Tiger..

Source : AIR

The Indian Army under the aegis of HQ Army Training Command (ARTRAC) organised the second edition of Hackathon aptly named “SAINYA RANAKSHETRAM 2.0” from October 2022 to January 2023 with an aim to seek solutions to operational cyber challenges and to jump start and telescope the development time for innovative solutions in the field of Cyber Security. 

 

The prize winners of the event were felicitated by Gen Manoj Pande, Chief of the Army Staff during a virtual function on 17 January 2023.

 

The event was aimed at providing a platform to identify indigenous talent in niche domains and enhance the standard of training in domains of Cyber Deterrence, Security Software Coding, Electro Magnetic Spectrum Operations (EMSO) and Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning (AI/ ML). The participation was open to all Indian citizens and participation permitted in an individual / team manner. Thus to meet this end state, the Cyber Threat Seminar cum Workshop was held under four sub-events which included following activities :-

 

Secure Software Coding - Its aim was to engage with academia in the field of securing software programs and identifying talent capable of undertaking cyber security requirements in software code. Mr Aravindha Hariharan M from Coimbatore, a Cyber Security enthusiast holding a number of certifications has won the prize in this category.

 

ESMO: Customised Indian Army Specific Stack for Wi-Fi 6 - The aim of conducting this sub event was to seek a solution to implement an Indian Army specific version of Secure Wi-Fi stack for increasing the levels of security. Colonel Nishant Rathee, Commandant, Army HQ Computer Centre is the winner in this category. Mr Suryasaradhi Balarkan currently working with L&T is the runners up and Ms Tanisha Joshi, who is currently pursuing a Ph D in Dark Energy has secured the 3rd prize.

 

Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning : NLP Processing and Decoding of Radio Intercepts. This sub-event helped create an Al stack for addressing translation and decryption of multi lingual radio transmissions. Master Mithil Salunkhe, a 15 year old class 10 student at Gyan Mata Vidya Vihar, Nanded, Maharashtra has come first this category. Mr Prashant Kumar Singh, who holds a B Tech (CS) from Punjab Technical University and presently pursuing B Sc (Data Science) from IIT Madras has come second while Cdr Sushant Sarswat, a Naval Officer presently posted in HQ Eastern Naval Command has secured the third position.

 

Cyber Deterrence : Capture the Flag (CTF). This was a seven stage cyber security exploitation challenge meant for identification of talent for enhancing existing Cyber Security setup. The winner of this challenge was Mr Shaksham Jaiswal, BE (CS) from MVSR Engineering College in Hyderabad. He is now working as a freelancer, and has more than 15 core qualifications in the field. The 2nd prize winner is Mr Prince Kumar Patel presently doing BE (IT) at Army Institute of Technology (AIT), Pune and Mr Hardeep Singh, a BCA from Maharaja Ganga Singh University in Bikaner has won the 3rd prize...

Source : PIB