Tag: thesamikhsya

Kolkata, Fev 02 (UNI) Starting from the next financial year, that is, 2019-20, the West Bengal Government has decided to pay the full amount of the premium to farmers for the crop insurance scheme, Bangla Fasal Bima Yojana (BFBY).
The full premium includes the Centre’s share, the State’s share and the farmers’ share.

This was announced recently by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Till now, the Bengal Government used to pay 80 per cent of the premium, that is, the State Government’s share and the farmers’ share. Now, the State Government has decided that it would no longer take the help of the Centre as, despite paying the lion’s share, the Centre used to take all the credit by making it mandatory for the prime minister’s picture to be there on all promotional and other materials for the scheme.

The State Agriculture has already completed the procedures required for the new structure of the scheme.
The State Government has also brought in certain changes to the scheme to make it more attractive for farmers so that more and more of them opt for it.

Farmers would now be able to get their crops insured against less earnings due to loss in production as a result of unfavourable weather or damages due to heavy rain, fire, lightning, storms, cyclones, typhoons, tornadoes, hailstorms, floods, droughts, and damages by insects and organisms like fungi, bacteria, viruses, etc.

In recent years, among the help provided by the State Government to farmers include paying almost 30 lakh farmers about Rs 1,200 crore for damages to their crops due to floods and droughts, waiving off of the agricultural tax and mutation fee, and the latest, introduction of the Krishak Bandhu Scheme.

Besides the recent announcements of the Krishak Bandhu Scheme and the full payment of subsidies for crop insurance by the State Government, and the earlier announcements of the waiving off duties on mutation and of agricultural tax, another announcement has been made – pension for farmers.

The pension amount would be Rs 1,000 per farmer, and the rules are as follows :
Minimum age should be 60 years, and for differently-abled farmers, 55 years, must be a resident of the state for the preceding ten years, to be a farmer, must own a maximum of one acre, and to be a bargadar, must own a maximum of two acres, or can be a landless labourer, should not have any other source of income or not have anyone to take care of and should not be drawing any emolument or pension through any other scheme of either the State or the Central Government.

Srinagar, Feb 2 (UNI) The Kashmir valley remained cut off from the rest of the country for the third consecutive day on Saturday following closure of 300-km-long Srinagar-Jammu due to landslides and shooting stones, triggered by rain and snow.

Meanwhile, the national highway, the only road linking Ladakh region with Kashmir and historic 86-km-long Mughal road remained shut since December last year due to accumulation of snow and slippery road conditions.

Traffic on the national highway, the only all weather road connecting Kashmir valley with the rest of the country, was suspended again on Thursday morning due to fresh snowfall on both sides of the Jawahar tunnel, Shaitan Nallah and Banihal and rain in Ramban area.

There were landslides and shooting stones at more than 7 places between Banihal and Ramban due to fresh snowfall and rain since Thursday, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) traffic national highway Naveen Choudhary said this morning

The situation on the highway is uncertain as nobody known when there will be landslides or shooting stone, he said adding the concerned authorities National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and Border Roads Organisation (BRO) are doing round the clock operation to put through the road.

Landslides and shooting stones were removed at least five places, he said adding work to clear the road from stones and earth was going on at Batery Cheshma and Penthal. But, Mr Choudhary said when the road is cleared suddenly more landslides occurred. We cannot take risk and allow traffic due to almost continuous shooting stones.

The SSP said we are allowing vehicles to move immediately after getting information about road clearance. However, fresh landslides and shooting stones again force us to shut the highway, he said adding nobody can help it.

However, he said, only stranded vehicles will be allowed to move towards their respective destinations before allowing fresh traffic from Jammu or Srinagar.

There is no passenger vehicle stranded on this side of the Jawahar tunnel, official sources told UNI from Qazigund.

However, they said large number of Jammu bound trucks, mostly carrying fruit, are stranded at Qazigund and other places.

The truckers alleged that they are not being allowed to move towards Jammu for the past about a week. There is no arrangement of water and food and fruit and other products loaded in the trucks are getting damaged, the drivers and conductor said.

The truckers held a demonstration on Friday against the continuous closure of the highway at Qazigund, gateway of Kashmir. However, they suspended their agitation after SP traffic highway assured them that they will be allowed to move once the landslides and shooting stones are cleared.

However, SP informed them that due to below freezing temperature, the road has become very slippery. The truckers appreciated the local residents who are arranging free langar for them (truckers).

Several thousand Kashmir bound passengers, including women and children, are stranded at Jammu bus stand and Udhampur for the past four days.

Reacting to the interim budget for 2019-20 presented in Parliament by Finance Minister Piyush Goyal, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday termed the Union Government’s announcement to give economic support to farmers as an ‘insult’ to farmers. In a post on social media,  Gandhi said,’Dear NoMo, 5 years of your incompetence and arrogance has destroyed the lives of our farmers.

Even as the singing of Vande Mataram commenced in a novel form on Friday in the Madhya Pradesh capital, Chief Minister Kamal Nath mounted another offensive on the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party by saying that an entity – whose not even a solitary member participated in the nation’s struggle for independence – is attempting to “teach us” a lesson in patriotism.
“Nationalism is in our blood and we do not require a certificate from anybody; when we announced that a creative aspect would be lent to the rendering, the BJP started ‘tutoring’ us,” he told the press here.

Earlier, hundreds of commoners and government officials accompanied the police band from Shaurya Smarak to Mantralaya where the national anthem and the national song were sung.

“It is shameful that not a single person owing allegiance to the BJP was observed at the gathering,” Congress state media Coordinator Narendra Saluja averred in a statement.

During the predecessor BJP dispensation, Vande Mataram was performed at regular intervals in front of Mantralaya(UNI)

(UNI) The Government on Friday proposed to launch a mega pension yojana namely ‘Pradhan Mantri Shram-Yogi Maandhan’ for the unorganised sector workers with monthly income of up to Rs 15,000 in addition to the health coverage provided under ‘Ayushman Bharat’ and life and disability coverage provided under ‘Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana’ and ‘Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana’.
Presenting the Interim Budget 2019-20 in Parliament, Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said, ”Past five years have seen massive scale up of health care. Earlier, a poor man used to be in a dilemma whether to fulfil daily needs of the family or save the life of an ailing member,” he said.
Mr Goyal said, ”This situation has deeply pained our Prime Minister. We launched the world’s largest healthcare programme, Ayushman Bharat, to provide medical treatment to nearly 50 crore people. Under this scheme, till date treatment has been provided to nearly 10 lakh patients which would have cost them Rs 3,000 crore through free treatment made available under the scheme.”
Lakhs of poor and middle class people are also benefiting from reduction in the prices of essential medicines, cardiac stents and knee implants, and availability of medicines at affordable prices through Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Kendras.

Traders’ community expressed disappointment with the budget presented on Friday.

“The Union Budget though seems to be overall good has utterly neglected the trading community and it has highly disappointed seven crore traders of the country who were hoping very high from the budget,” said Confederation of All India Traders in its release.

CAIT national president BC Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said that every other section of the economy has been given relief in the budget except the trading community which is the backbone of the economy. The budget makes us to feel that trading community is like an unwanted community in the country.

After renaming DIPP as Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade and giving no extension to FDI policy in e-commerce, the traders were hopeful that they will get due attention in the Budget but with totally left out from the Budget, the traders feel aggrieved.

However, the CAIT has said that it will send a fresh memorandum to Prime Minister and Finance Minister urging them to take care of the trading community.

Dismissing the claim of the Government of having made highest ever allocation of Rs three lakh crore in the Defence sector in the Interim Budget 2019-20, senior Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Friday said that there was nothing extraordinary in the allocation.
Addressing the press conference here at Congress headquarters, Mr Chidambaram said that every year there is 10 percent increase in the Defence sector which was common practice in past too.
“It is not a big deal. It is a normal increase of 15 lakh crore to previous allocation of 2.85 lakh crore which crossed the figure of three lakh crore. Sometimes back, it crossed two lakh crore”, Mr Chidambaram said.
He said the Budget failed to include measures to boost ‘education’ and ‘jobs .
“On the 10 point vision document, nothing was said on these two issues,’’ he further said.(UNI)

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Friday slammed the union budget saying it was a bundle of lies in which there was everything except truth.

“What will you do by bringing this budget when every sector in the country has decreased,”   Yadav made these comments on his Twitter handle.

He said in this budget the government made false promises. “There is no relief for the landless farmers and labourers,” he said.

“After five years’ pain and atrocities, the farmers, traders, unemployed youths, all want to get rid of the BJP,” the SP president said.

“The government has tried to project good things but people of the country are fed up with this BJP Government and its fake promises. Now they will not change their minds with these sops announced in the union budget,” the SP president claimed.(UNI)

Communist Party of India (CPI) National General Secretary Suravaram Sudhakar on Friday demanded the Centre to increase cash support to small and marginal farmers from Rs 6000 to Rs 12000 per year. In a bid to provide relief to the distressed farm sector, the Centre has announced Rs 6000 per year cash support to small and marginal farmers that will cost the exchequer Rs 75,000 crore annually. It was announced by the BJP led NDA government at the Centre in its annual budget 2019-20.

Under the scheme called Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, Rs 6000 will be transferred into the bank accounts of farmers in three installments, each installment of Rs 2000 who holding below five acres of agriculture land.
At a press conference here,   Reddy welcomed the scheme for announcing it to only below five acres of land farmers.
Reddy said that there was no use with the Pradhan Mantri Kisahan Samman Nidhi scheme once after cud-down by the other subsidies like seed, fertilizers and other existing subsidies to the farmers.

“ If they have firm on farmers, the Centre should implement Swaminathan Committee recommendation. It is the only solution for the farm sector which is in distress state now”, the CPI leader said.(UNI)

Students from Lovely Professional University (LPU), a private university based out of Jalandhar, Punjab, has conceptualised and designed the ‘Flying Farmer’, a drone that would be exclusively deployed in farming and field survey.

The wireless ‘Flying Farmer’, sensor device that would be used in mapping and survey of yields and biomass, the varsity said in a statement here on Friday.

It estimates the nutrient content of the soil to aid production growth and reduce crop damage.

Each drone can fly for 25 minutes on a full charge and the entire device cost between Rs 10,000 – 15,000.

45 students and 5 faculty members from the Electronics, Mechanical, and Agricultural Engineering department have been actively involved in developing this drone technology.

The ‘Flying Farmer’ is designed to solve two major agricultural issues faced by farmers – pesticide treatment and weed detection.

With rising labor costs and a shortage of labor, this drone technology would more useful for the agriculture to replace human intervention in delivering pesticide treatment, the statement said.

Pre-programmed drones would target specific farm areas and crops to deliver pesticides, avoiding wastage and over the use of pesticides besides human weed detection is inefficient and prone to error, leading to lower produce.

Drones, programmed with computer vision algorithms and infrared sensors can detect the exact position and nature of weeds and transmit information to the farmer for timely action.
The field trials conducted at LPU led to an improvement of 15-20 per cent in produce quantity.

Chancellor of Lovely Professional University, Ashok Mittal said, Drone-powered technology is already revolutionising agriculture, bringing precision to farming and allowing farmers to constantly monitor crop conditions.
We are proud of the level of innovation and thinking that has gone into this project and will continue to empower our students to create solutions for real-life problems.

The University will not file for a patent but instead, will open source the technology so that it can be inexpensively available to any farmer, anywhere.

The University leveraged an internal research grant of Rs 1.2 crore to develop the technology.

LPU School of Agriculture which is among the top Agricultural Science colleges in the country, is the first Indian Private University to be granted ICAR accreditation by the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India.

The University’s farmland is spread over 1000 acres where students from the Department of Agriculture can put their knowledge and understanding into practice.(UNI)

(UNI) Naked protest against Citizen Amendment Bill, 2016 continued in Assam with three protestors one of them completely nude staged protest in the front of the Assam Assembly today.
The protestors, who were participating in the renewed agitation called by the 70 organisations of the state, shouted slogans against the BJP-led NDA government for trying to pass the bill in Rajya Sabha. Policeman swung into the action and wrapped the protestors with blankets and took them away.

A dangerous deep freeze which has been blasting the Northeast and Midwest of US For a couple of days, where the record-breaking cold temperature is paralysing cities and communities has so far claimed 13 lives, including three in New York, Local media on Friday reported.

The freezing weather caused by the polar vortex in US expanded to New York State with snowfalls and strong wind gusts.
Two persons were killed while clearing the snow, whereas a man in Livingston County died as his vehicle hit a snowdrift and crashed.
The polar vortex descended on the United States on Tuesday, freezing much of the Midwest and New England region and affecting over 50 million people.

New Delhi, Feb 1 (UNI) Ahead of the presentation  of the interim Budget for 2019-20, the Congress on Friday alleged that the government had ‘leaked’ its contents.In a tweet, just before the presentation of the Budget by Finance Minister Piyush Goyal in the Lok Sabha,senior Congress leader Manish Tewari  alleged that a few points relating to the Union budget were leaked to the media personnel.

Posting a number of screenshots , Mr Tewari suggested that should the pointers mentioned in the images were to be part of the Budget, it can then be amounted to a ‘budget leak’.”These pointers are being Circulated to Media people by Govt Sources . If all this or substantive amount of these proposals find reflection in the budget would it not tantamount to a BUDGET LEAK ,” he tweeted.

The Opposition parties including the Congress had claimed that the government was trying to present a full fledged Budget instead of an interim budget, which is the usual case in the election year.

New Delhi, Feb 1 (UNI) In a clear move to woo the middle class voters in the run up to the general elections, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday enhanced the limit of individual income tax from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh per annum.

Unveiling the Interim Budget for 2019-20, Finance Minister said the move will benefit three crore people from the middle class. After the new measure, those having an income of Rs 6.5 lakh annually will not have to pay any income tax provided they make investments.BJP wasted no time in welcoming the announcement.

“Major budget relief to middle class: Moderate taxation – High Compliance regime: Reducing tax burden on ordinary citizens – Tax exemption slab rises to up to 5 Lakh annual income,” BJP general secretary Ram Madhav tweeted.He also said that Budget announcement makes it clear that the Modi government has taken as “Big step” to arrest corruption in direct taxes establishment.He pointed out that the “Computerize system to be in place in next two years eliminating direct interference of officers and clients”.

(UNI) The “upsurge” in patent applications for devices and machines powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the last five years, suggests that it could soon revolutionise all areas of daily life far beyond the tech world, a UN report stated.

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Technology Trends report, 50 per cent of all patents for AI – the replication of human intelligence by machines for use in industries such as transport and healthcare, for instance – have been published since 2013, adding up to more than 170,000 different patented ideas.

This followed on from an initial boom in AI scientific publications, which began in 2001.

WIPO Director General Francis Gurry told journalists in Geneva the surge in patenting was “striking”, noting that AI research began in the 1950s. “But there has been a quantum leap since about 2013, so we’re dealing with what is happening right now in a very fast-moving field,” he insisted.

By number, patent applications for machine learning, indicate that this is currently the dominant application of AI; think of apps that include ride-sharing services to minimise detours.

The fastest-growing AI area is “deep learning”, however, which is used in speech recognition.

This saw a 175-per cent annual increase in patent applications from 2013 to 2016, far in excess of the 33 per cent average for all patents in the same period.(UNI)

Star Indian boxer M C Mary Kom on Thursday criticised some coaches for dragging the athletes in doping menace and advocated bringing coaches into the ambit of anti-doping awareness training imparted by National Anti Doping Agency.

The six-time world champion while speaking at at the closing ceremony of the National Conference on Anti-Doping here said, the coaches also need training and awareness about the prohibited substance, sports minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore was also present on the ocassion.

“I am proud that I am a clean athlete throughout my career. This is because NADA people are after me all the time,” she said.

The Manipur boxer mother of three-children however, said that she remains alert all the time and takes even routine medicines after consultation with her doctor. The National Anti-Doping Agency should conduct surprise raids at the national camps frequently to clamp down on doping said the boxer.

“There are a lot of supplements and injections these days. I think surprise raids and checks at national camps and to the rooms of the athletes can catch these dopers.

“When some Indian athletes are caught for doping in international events, it affects every athlete of the country. The whole country is embarrassed.” (UNI)

Indian women’s ODI team skipper Mithali Raj on Friday became the first female cricketer to feature in 200 ODIs as she led her team out against New Zealand in the third and final match here.

So far, India have played a total of 263 ODIs and Mithali has featured in 200 of them.

Raj made her ODI debut on June 25, 1999. Of the 213 matches played by the team in the format, she has been a part of all but 13 of them.

Her international career has lasted 19 years and 219 days – and counting! That is the highest among all female players, and fourth-highest if the male cricketers are included. The three male players are– Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya and Javed Miandad.

This long career has brought her 6,613 runs, which include seven 100s and an incredible 52 fifties, the most recent of which she scored in the second ODI against New Zealand. Many of the Raj’s best knocks came at a time when the women’s game hadn’t reached the levels of professionalism that it now has, and before many of the games were on television – but as the sport has grown, so has her own game.

Mithali’s participation in her 200th ODI came a day after Rohit Sharma became the 14th Indian male cricketer to play 200 one-day internationals when he walked out to toss with New Zealand captain Kane Williamson at the same venue on Thursday.

India have already won the series by taking an unassailable 2-0 lead. The Kiwi skipper Amy Satterthwaite elected to field after winning the toss. Raj scored 9 in 28 balls as India got off to a poor start and went 6 wickets down for 120 in the 35th over.(UNI)

The government on Friday announced an income support bonanza for farmers–Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi–under which Rs 6000 per hectare in a year will be deposited directly in the bank accounts of about 12 crore farmers in the country.

It also announced creation of a separate Department of Fisheries, taking it away from the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.

The Centre will bear the cost of the entire scheme PM Kisan Samman Nidhi.

Announcing this in the Lok Sabha while presenting the Budget for 2019-20, Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said he was providing Rs 75,000 crore for the income support scheme and another Rs 20,000 crore in the Revised Estimate for the current year (2018-19) itself.

“This will pave the way for farmers to earn and live a life of respect and is towards out goal of doubling farmers’ income by 2022,’ the Minister said amidst loud cheering from treasury benches.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also seen thumping his desk with a smile.

Mr Goyal said that the amount will be deposited in farmers’ accounts in three instalments in a year, of which Rs 2000 per hectare will be deposited right away. “This will help farmers with acquiring farm inputs such as quality seeds, irrigation, neem-coated urea and credit.’

The Minister also announced a raise in interest subvention of timely repayment of farm credit.

“Farm credit is Rs 11.68 lakh crore,’ he said recognising the good work done by farmers.

In keeping with the policy of the government, the Minister announced the formation of a Rashtriya Kamdhenu Ayog to upscale the production and productivity of cows.

An additional Rs 750 crore has been allocated for the National Gokul Mission.

Mr Goyal also announced “sustained and focused’ attention to the fisheries and animal husbandry sector that have grown.

Significantly, he announced an additional 3 per cent income sub-vention for farmers involved in fisheries taking the entire interest sub-vention upto 5 per cent, at par with crop loan discounts.

To make all farmers come under the Kisan Credit Card scheme, the government has simplified the forms, (UNI)

New Delhi, Feb 1 (UNI) Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday displayed his humility and faith in the age old Indian tradition when he touched the feet of senior lawmakers Nitin Gadkari, Shanta Kumar and Uma Bharati before presenting the Interim Budget.

Before the House proceedings began, as Mr Goyal walked in carrying the conventional brownish briefcase, he immediately touched Mr Gadkari’s feet as he took the seat next to Union Minister for Surface Transport.

Mr Goyal also went back for a while and bowed down before senior MPs Shanta Kumar and Uma Bharati.

Among the ruling bench, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Home Minister Rajnath Singh were first to come and take their seat.

Interestingly, ‘former Trinamool MP’ Saumitra Khan, who last month joined BJP, was, however seated among the last rows behind Trinamool Congress lawmakers.

At times, he too was spotted thumping desks and joining the BJP members.

Before the proceedings began, BJP leader Kalraj Mishra was seen crossing over near the opposition benches and extendING greetings to former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Piyush Goyal as an interim Finance Minister in view of illness of Arun Jaitley on Friday created a record for himself by presenting the interim Budget.

Mr Goyal’s tenure as Power Minister between 2014 and 2017 saw major transformation in country’s power sector including the fast-tracking of electrification of the nearly 18,000 unelectrified villages.

Earlier, beginning his speech, said he is “deeply conscious” of Arun Jaitley’s absence in the House and said he was sure all members would join him in extending speedy recovery to Mr Jaitley.

New Delhi, Feb 1 (UNI) Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday presented the Budget for fiscal 2019-20 and highlighted various achievements and welfare measures undertaken by the Modi government during last four-and-half years and said “India is solidly back on track”.

Presenting his maiden and Modi government’s sixth Budget speech in the august Lower House of Parliament, Mr Goyal said the country will embark on a route to New India by the year 2022 when India completes 75 years of Independence.

Amid frequent thumping of desks including by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP patriarch L K Advani and Union Ministers among others but repeatedly yelling by Opposition members, Mr Goyal said the fiscal deficit has been brought down to 3.4 per cent in the revised estimate of 2018-19.

He said the government has also brought down inflation of essential commodities. “Hamari sarkar ney, kamar tod mehangai ki Kamar hi tod di (We have broken the very spinal cord of the inflation)”, the Finance Minister said adding in December 2018 – thanks to efforts made by the government the inflation rate was brought down to 2.19 per cent.