July 2019 - Page 12 of 27

Political storm brewing in Bihar over police seeking info on RSS, Sangh Parivar functionaries

Source: indiatoday.in

Aletter purportedly issued by the special branch of Bihar police with directions for collecting details about functionaries of the RSS and its affiliates has raised hackles of state BJP leaders and brought to fore the uneasiness in ties with ally JD(U).

Home department officials were tight-lipped about the veracity of the purported communication dated May 28 wherein a report on name, address, telephone number and occupation of district-level office bearers of 19 Sangh Parivar outfits had been sought by the special branch.

The recipients of the letter had been asked to submit their reports within a week.

State BJP leaders expressed surprise over the police move with BJP MLC Sachchidanand Rai saying the party must be careful of the intentions of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who holds the home portfolio in the NDA government in Bihar.

BJP MLA and state vice-president Mithilesh Tiwari expressed surprise that police were involved in surveillance of activists of Sangh Parivar, “who are known to be selflessly devoted to nation building”.

Tiwari, however, asserted the development will not have any bearing on BJP-JD(U) ties.

BJP MLC and party’s media cell national co-in charge Sanjay Mayukh said it would be better if the officials responsible for issuing such a communication come clean on the matter.

“I am astonished that the government is seeking such information. The government should have had the information by now since Sangh activists are not known to be secretive. They function in a transparent manner,” he remarked sarcastically.

Rai pointed to the timing of the letter. It was around the same time when Nitish Kumar refused to join Narendra Modi government at the Centre despite contesting the Lok Sabha polls as an NDA ally.

Kumar’s JD(U) was expected to have representation in the Union Cabinet. However, the Chief Minister who also heads the party decided otherwise stating that JD(U) was being offered a symbolic representation not commensurate with its strength in Parliament.

The chief minister has also remarked wryly on a couple of occasions thereafter that the BJP is actually not in need of allies for running its government at the centre and a mere symbolic representation is of no significance.

Notably, the BJP has 303 MPs in Lok Sabha, far in excess of 272 needed for a majority. In Bihar, it contested 17 seats and won all of these while the JD(U) which fought as many bagged 16.

“If information is being gathered as part of some routine procedure then I have no problems. But if it was being done with any ulterior motive, then I have strong objections.

“I am unable to understand why the police should keep a surveillance on activists of the Sangh Parivar, who are known to be selflessly devoted to nation building,” Tiwari said.

He, however, noted that the parties have come together to develop Bihar and will continue to work in this direction.

Both parties have a mutual understanding that each would pursue its own ideology in a way that does not harm the other, he said.

Altogether 19 organisations have been named in the purported circular. These include RSS, its minorities cell Muslim Rashtriya Manch, students body Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, labour organisation Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh besides Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal, among others.

The letter also seeks information on right-wing Hindu Mahasabha though it is not an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Opposition RJD leaders latched onto the issue to take a swipe at the BJP and the JD(U).

Senior RJD leader Bhai Birendra said “this shows the imperfect alliance between NDA partners”.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar comprises JD(U), BJP and LJP.

Kumar had snapped 17-year-old ties with the BJP in 2013 but returned to the NDA in 2017 after a short-lived alliance with arch-rival Lalu Prasad’s RJD and Congress.

BPSC apologises for controversial question, state promises probe

Source: newkerala.com

Patna, July 16 : The Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) on Tuesday apologised for a controversial question in a paper of its ongoing main examination that sought to know from civil service aspirants if the state Governor was “merely a puppet”.
The second question in the first part of the General Studies Paper II, held on Sunday, asked aspirants to “critically examine the role of the Governor in state politics, particularly in the context of Bihar. Is he merely a puppet?”

In a press note issued on Tuesday, the BPSC said it had blacklisted the person who set a erroneous question about a constitutional position in the first part of the General Studies Paper II. The BPSC said it apologised for its mistake.

State Education Minister Krishnanandan Prasad Verma even promised an inquiry into the error and said appropriate action will be taken against those who are found responsible for it.

According to aspirants, the paper had many such questions, based on their opinions and perceptions.

As the question created controversy, the BPSC’s Examination Controller Amarendra Kumar contended that such questions had been asked earlier too.

The BPSC’s 64th Main Examination began on July 12 and will end on July 16. Three papers have been held so far and on July 16, the examination in the optional subject will be held.

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IT Minister Inaugurates Tata Consultancy Office in Patna

Source: patnadaily.com

Built at the cost of Rs. 20 crore, the center is expected to hire 400 employees working in software development and business processing side of the information and technology industry, Prasad said.

Urging private industries to invest in Bihar, the Central Information and Technology (IT) and Law Minister said that TCS was India’s largest IT company that employed over 4 lakh people worldwide. Nearly 36% of its workforce is made up of women, he said.

Prasad then went on to the obligatory praise of Narendra Modi saying because of the immense trust the people of Bihar had posed in the Prime Minister, the TCS was an early gift to the state by him.

“This is an early gift from the Prime Minister and more is yet to come. We also plan to turn 5000 villages in Bihar into ‘Digital Village’. Nationwide, more than one lakh villages are part of this ambitious plan. Patna is going to be an ‘IT Hub’ in the coming days,” Prasad said.

Prasad’s vision of Patna being the IT hub of the nation is reminiscent of similar promises made by Chief Minister who has, in his 14 years of rule in Bihar, has pledged to turn Patna, or Bihar, into a ‘Tourism hub’, an ‘IT hub’, a ‘Healthcare Destination’, an ‘Education Mecca’, and an ‘Agricultural powerhouse’, among other ‘hubs’.

Relying on the number of cell phone users in Bihar, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said that out of 130 crore people of Bihar, 123 had Adhaar card and out of 121 crore users of mobile phones, about 70 crores were the owners of smart phones.

“This all means that Bihar is ripe for a ‘digital revolution’ and e-governance. With the presence of TCS, Patna will become the IT hub of eastern India,” he said.

The event was attended by a number of BJP leaders including Sanjeev Chaurasia, Nitin Navin, and TCS Global head Milind Lakkad.

Cloudy Patna Stays Hot, Humid as Floods Ravage Bihar

Source: weather.com

Bihar is in the throes of a crisis, with massive floods killing over 30 and affecting nearly 18 lakh people across its northern region.

Over the last week, Bihar received heavy rainfall as a cyclonic circulation over north India and parts of Nepal caused atmospheric instability in the region. To its north, the Terai region of Nepal received nearly 300 mm rain, against the normal of 50 mm, over the last 3-4 days. This forced Nepal authorities to open up all the gates of the Kosi barrage.

As rivers swelled their banks, hundreds of villages across Sitamarhi, Araria, Sheohar, Muzaffarpur, East Champaran, Madhubani, Kishanganj, Supaul and Darbhanga were inundated. Road links as well as power supply have been hit in some of these places as well.

However, the capital Patna did not witness any rainfall on Sunday. Patna belongs to the south-central subdivision of Bihar and the IMD forecasts generally cloudy skies with one or two spells of rain or thundershowers in Patna for the next 48 hours.

The current forecast for the capital shows a hazy sky with humidity over 70%. The Weather Channel’s hourly data shows that Patna may receive scattered thunderstorms on Monday. These are likely to start late in the night and continue into Tuesday morning. Rainfall in Patna is expected to begin late Tuesday night and continue till the next morning.

The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to range from 28°C to 38°C in Patna. However, it may feel much hotter–around 40-43°C–due to high humidity. Gentle west-north-westerly winds are likely to criss-cross Patna through the day at speeds of 5-15 km/h.

The India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) data for seasonal rainfall shows that Bihar has received 388.9 mm rainfall up to July 14, which is in line with the long-term average for the state.

Google is using AI to monitor flood in India, pilot project Patna called a success

Source: indiatoday.in

ndia accounts for nearly 20 per cent of the flood-related fatalities in the world. Nearly 107,487 people have died due to heavy rains and floods in India over a span of 64 years between 1953 and 2017. And the floods are only getting worse year after year. Is there something that can be done? While the Indian government is working on solutions that will mitigate effect of flood, Google has deployed its artificial intelligence (AI) systems and machine learning to predict floods with better accuracy, which can give people more time to prepare for it and migrate to a safer location.

Google has started Flood Forecasting Initiative in India, which aims to develop an ecosystem that predicts floods and informs people before such a natural calamity strikes so that loss to life and property can be reduced. The company piloted a program in Patna last year which was able to predict floods and the regions that it would be affected due to the natural disaster with an accuracy of over 90 per cent.

Achieving such a high accuracy is no ordinary feat, as it requires a combination of factors including a deep understanding of the topography, tons of historic data and real-time information that needs to be processed together to predict the region that would be affected by the floods. Google achieved this by combining the data from government agencies that provide on-ground information from measuring devices placed on the spot and thousands of images of the flood prone areas captured by various satellites orbiting the Earth.

The tech giant then ran hundreds of thousands of simulations on its machine learning models — such as the hydrologic model and the hydraulic model — to predict the flow of water in a particular region and create accurate flood forecasts, which in this case was near Patna.

Now, all this sounds quite simple. But in reality, the company faced a lot of challenges, both technological and regulatory while collecting data for its flood forecast model and broadcasting this information out to the public. While the company collaborated with governments and purchased and aggregated the distributed data to overcome some of the technological hurdles, to overcome the regulatory obstacles, the tech giant showed the governments results based on historic data and piloted in a small region to build the trust among other things.

“Part of what the biggest technological challenge here is to do something that is automated but is complex enough to work anywhere in the world… that is something that we are still working on,” Software Engineering Manager at Google, Sella Nevo told the India Today Tech. “On the regulatory partnership side, I think we are on the first steps of a long process to persuade governments to trust us with such an important and sensitive system.”

Once the company’s ML models made predictions about the floods, it collaborated with government agencies and local NGOs to impart this information to the people in the region where the company’s AI had predicted would be affected by the floods. Google has a separate interface for government agencies like the Central Water Works Commission in India, NGOs and international agencies like the UN and the Red Cross society, where it gives away more detailed information regarding its forecasts. In addition to this, Google also informed people using Google Maps, Google Search and Android alerts. However, these alerts contain simplified information that can be easily understood by the general public.

In low connectivity areas, however, Google used a combination of three methods to inform the residents about the possible disaster. First, the tech giant provided information to the government so that it can roll out information to the public. Second, it partnered with NGOs, in this case: SEEDS in Patna, that have dozens of workers on ground who can spread the word as quickly as possible. Lastly, the company made all its alerts publicly accessible.

“We make these alerts publicly available and allow even commercial entities to use it so thatwe are hoping that other organisations will help to fill whatever gaps are left after our efforts,” said Nevo.

Patna pilot was a success and now Google is planning to scale its operations and launch its flood monitoring initiative in many locations near the Ganges and Bhramaputra. “We have expanded around Patna and we now have fairly large area around Guwahati We now cover around six times the area we did last year,” Nevo said.

But India is not the end, Google aims to deploy this system globally and it is focusing on the countries in the South East Asia region, which will be picked based on the number of fatalities and people affected. “Our high priority countries include Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Those are the areas where we hope to launch in the future,” said Nevo.

Eightfold inaugurates ‘Eightfold Nalanda’ in India to accelerate global expansion

Source: crn.in

Eightfold.ai, the creator of the Talent Intelligence Platform, has announced the opening of ‘Eightfold Nalanda’, its global center of excellence, research and innovation in AI domain. Founded by Dr Ashutosh Garg and Varun Kacholia, IIT alumni and machine learning experts from Google and Facebook, Eightfold.ai has already secured more than 100 customers operating in 20 countries around the world.

With a recent Series C round of $28 million, Eightfold.ai has become one of the most well capitalised companies in Silicon Valley, and with a growing portfolio of products, and a growing global team. Eightfold.ai’s customers in India include Tata Communications and Delhivery.

“Opening Eightfold Nalanda, our center of excellence, in India is an important step in our growth. Having grown up in India, it’s important to me that we bring the benefits of our AI Platform to the workforce in India as well. The algorithms that power the Eightfold Talent Intelligence Platform are built to help everyone find the right role for them and help them realise their potential, while embracing our diversity,” said Dr Ashutosh Garg, Co-Founder and CEO of Eightfold.ai.

Co-Founders Dr Garg and Kacholia are widely hailed for their record of innovation and leadership in machine learning, holding between them 86 patents. The co-founders have filed four new patents in the last year at Eightfold.ai.

Eightfold.ai has named its India headquarters and CoE as Eightfold Nalanda. The CoE in India will be under the leadership of Sandesh Goel, who will be General Manager for India.

“Today we have customers in 20 countries across four continents and they are driving the innovation on our Talent Intelligence Platform across talent acquisition, career planning, skills development, and employee and candidate experience. India, in itself, is now one of the largest and fastest growing economies in the world and it was time to bring many strategic functions of the company to serve this geography at scale. I am excited to welcome Sandesh Goel to our team and have him build an excellent team in India,” said Dr Garg.

“Opening the Eightfold Nalanda global center of excellence in India is an exciting moment for all of us. Re-skilling is emerging as a key imperative for employers all over the world, nowhere more so than here in India. Half of the world’s Millennial population is in India, and these young workers face job displacement requiring them to learn new skills quickly. The employers of India must adapt in order to attract and retain their talent as well. These are the challenges we are now addressing at scale with our Talent Intelligence Platform,” said Sandesh Goel, General Manager – India, Eightfold.ai.

Jharkhand to build shelter home for adult orphans

Source: telegraphindia.com

Jharkhand will be building a shelter home for orphans above 18 years to fulfil a provision in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act- 2015.

Named Place of Stay, the shelter will be meant for orphans who can no longer be accommodated in regular government shelters where children below 18 are accommodated and also for those who facing cases in a court of law.

“In Jharkhand, there are around 72 shelter homes for children, including 10 for children in conflict with the law where children up to 18 years stay. These shelter homes are run by the government as well as authorised NGOs. Currently, 3,223 children are living there. Now, we have planned to build a shelter home for persons above 18 years,” minister of women, child development and social security Louise Marandi told the media on Monday at Suchana Bhavan where she also highlighted the achievements and priorities of her department.

Special secretary D.K. Saxena, who was also present at the media interaction, explained that shelter homes were meant for children who were either orphaned or separated from their parents and family due to legal complications or circumstances beyond their control.

Shelter homes, he added, were also meant for children who had committed a crime.

“These are children who are in conflict with law. Such children, till they are 18, are kept at shelter homes. But technically once they attain adulthood they can’t be accommodated at shelter homes. Yet, we cannot leave such children unattended till their cases are disposed of,” he said, adding that Place of Safety was an institutional mechanism within the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act-2015.

“There is a provision in the act to set up a proper shelter home for adolescents. A proposal has been finalised and we are looking for a suitable location to construct a building,” Saxena said. Teenagers above 18, he added, would be accommodated at the Place of Stay till they are 21.

The women and child department suffered a crisis of credibility in July last year when a Ranchi shelter, Nirmal Hriday, managed by the Missionaries of Charity, was embroiled in a baby sale racket that had apparently been going on for long.

The racket, busted after a childless couple who paid for a baby, was later asked to return the child. The incident revealed that the department did not have any mechanism of monitoring the activities of the shelters.

Marandi said her department subsequently cancelled registration of 14 NGOs after finding out that they were running shelters without proper facilities in violation of rules.

“Besides rescue and rehabilitation of minors subjected to child labour and trafficking, we have set up integrated rehabilitation and resource centres in Delhi and in Ranchi. To provide temporary shelter to rescued girls and women we have also set up one-stop centres in every district. Earlier, we had one-stop centres in Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Dhanbad,” she said.

The minister said that for empowerment of girls, aged between 14 and 24, the state government had launched a Rs 540 crore scheme called Tejashwini Yojana. The World Bank would provide 70 per cent of the funds. The remaining would be mobilised by the women and child department.

“We launched this programme in Dumka and Ramgarh district. It will be extended to other districts. As many as 50,000 girls have been chosen and we will ensure they are get education till class 10. They will also be given training so that they are employable,” the minister said.

The department, she added, planned to target seven lakh girls. “We have formed Tejashwini clubs where girls and women are taught about their rights and duties, besides creating awareness about education,” she said.

Digital dispensaries treating patients in Jharkhand’s ‘doctor-less’ villages

Source: hindustantimes.com

Digital dispensaries (telemedicine centres) where doctors diagnose and treat diseases through video-conferencing are turning out to be a boon for people living in remote villages of Jharkhand.

Launched by the Jharkhand government on February 20 this year, the digital dispensaries have provided medical services to around 79,000 rural people in 100 centres set up so far, officials at state unit of national rural health mission (NRHM) said.

Jharkhand has tied up with the Apollo Hospitals Enterprises Ltd for the telemedicine services. A panel of 30 doctors and specialists related to gynaecology, paediatrics, general medicine and dermatology, has been providing medical services from 10 am to 4 pm daily, excluding Sundays and national holidays, sitting in Hyderabad or Chennai.

The state government has converted 100 primary health centres, where doctors’ availability is negligible, into digital dispensaries.

Interestingly, rural women have shown more interest to the services. According to the dashboard of telemedicine centre, 78,550 patients have visited the digital dispensaries till 12.30 pm on Monday since February 20, of which 48,793 were females, while number of male patients was 29,735 in the state. The officials engaged in monitoring the patients footfalls at the centre said a total of 879 patients visited digital dispensaries till 4pm on Monday.

The NRHM’s IT (information technology) Cell head, Abanindra Kumar, said: “We had set target to treat at least 10 patient at each centre and 1000 across 100 centres daily, which was almost achieved. Now, we are targeting to raise the number patients to 20 at each centre daily and 2,000 across the centres in state.”

He, however, said there was lack of awareness about such facilities in some of the centres. “We are working to make it popular in such areas so that maximum people could get affordable and standard health facilities,” he said.

Dumka has the highest 11 such centres where more than 8922 patients have visited so far, while East Singhbhum, which has nine centres, has witnessed second highest 8762 patients till 12.30pm on Monday since February 20. Over 7241 patients have availed the facility from six centres in Ranchi district.

Maya Devi, 35, an anaemia patient from East Singhbhum district, said she visited telemedicine centre and found it very easy. “My disease was diagnosed by a doctor through video-conferencing and he advised me for haemoglobin test. Getting treatment in telemedicine centre is very easy as well as beneficial,” she said.

An auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM) and a lab technician are deputed in each digital dispensary. After registration of the patient, the ANM and lab technician would conduct vital tests for height, weight, blood pressure, sugar level, body temperature of the patient.

Patients can also avail medicines from the digital dispensaries, where 60 types of common generic medicines are stored. Besides, patients can also get to avail tests for malaria, typhoid, dengue, haemoglobin, urine analysis and pregnancy in the telemedicine centres.

NHRC issues notice to Bihar Police over JD(U) leader’s death; family claims Ganesh Ravidas was tortured in custody

Source: firstpost.com

New Delhi: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Monday sent a notice to the Bihar police chief over the death of a JD(U) leader in police custody, hours after he was picked up for interrogation in a kidnapping case. The family of the leader, identified as Ganesh Ravidas, alleged that he was tortured in police custody.

Ravidas was found hanging from the ceiling of a toilet at the Nagarnausa police station in Nalanda on Thursday night, sources earlier said. Three policemen have been arrested in connection with the case.

Ravidas, who was the block president of the party’s Mahadalit cell, was picked up for interrogation in connection with the kidnapping of a girl, wherein he was not named as an accused, the sources had said.

“The National Human Rights Commission has taken suo motu cognisance of media reports that a local leader of the ruling JD(U) in Bihar, who was detained by the Nalanda police in connection with a kidnapping case, allegedly hanged himself inside the police station late on Thursday night,” the NHRC said in a statement.

The commission observed that the content of the news report, if true, amounted to a gross violation of the right to life. “Accordingly, the commission has issued a notice to the Director General of Police (DGP), Bihar, calling for a detailed report in the matter within six weeks,” the NHRC stated.

The police authorities had also been told to explain as to why intimation in this regard was not given to the commission within 24 hours of the occurrence of the incident, the rights panel said. Ravidas was detained by police on 11 July night in connection with an alleged kidnapping of a girl residing in his village.

He was suspected to have helped the girl elope, the NHRC said, quoting media reports. When police interrogation was on, he went to use a washroom, which was outside the lock-up, where he reportedly hanged himself, it said.

“The news report further reveals that the victim was killed by the police station in-charge and chowkidar. It is also stated that there were cut marks on the body of the deceased, suggesting it to be a case of torture in police custody,” the statement read.