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NEW DELHI : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged people to stay hydrated in view of soaring temperatures across the country. In his monthly radio broadcast Mann Ki Baat, he said people should take extra precautions when stepping out in the sun. “With temperatures soaring across much of the country, it is important to take extra care. Stay hydrated. If you need to step out in the sun, do so cautiously and take necessary precautions,” he said. “Keep drinking water. Don’t forget the guidelines issued by various government departments in this regard either,” he said. Prime Minister Modi had on Wednesday last also urged citizens to take maximum precautions as the country is witnessing soaring temperatures, and said staying hydrated is key during such harsh weather. Modi also referred to the king of fruits, saying there is hardly a home where mangoes are not talked about in the summer season. He noted that every region has its own mango and its own aroma. “Hapus or alphonso of Maharashtra, Kesar of Gujarat – these are the lifeblood of ‘aamras’; Dussehri of Uttar Pradesh and Langra of Kashi. There are mangoes from Bihar, whose aroma can be smelt from far. Chausa, Malda – memories of people are tied to every name,” he said. The prime minister said if someone goes to South India, people will find other varieties like Banganapalli, Totapuri, Neelam, Malgova; there is Himsagar in Bengal; Suvarnarekha of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. “In other words, the place changes, and so does the mango’s form, colour, and taste…This journey of the mango is now reaching from villages to the global market,” he said. (Source: PTI)        

NEW DELHI : There is currently no proposal under the Centre’s consideration to declare the cow the national animal or impose a nationwide ban on cow slaughter, Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal has said, noting that such demands continue to be raised by various groups. Meghwal noted that laws relating to cow slaughter vary across states and decisions are often taken based on local considerations. Responding to a question on calls for granting the cow national animal status and prohibiting cow slaughter across the country, Meghwal, in an interview to PTI, said such representations are regularly made to MPs and the government. “Various organisations keep working on these issues and approach MPs as well. People submit applications and make representations saying such a measure should be taken,” he said. However, the minister said no such proposal is presently under consideration by the Union Cabinet. “As of now, there is no such matter before us that is under consideration of the Cabinet. If at any point a proposal reaches a stage where it warrants a government decision or Cabinet consideration, we will inform you,” he said. “Different states take decisions on such matters based on their own circumstances and merits,” he said, referring to the BJP-led West Bengal government’s recent move to step up enforcement of cattle slaughter regulations under the state’s 1950 law. The minister acknowledged that demands for a complete ban on cow slaughter continue to be raised and are widely discussed, including on social media. “It is an issue that people keep bringing up. Efforts are being made by those advocating it, and discussions keep happening. But at present, it is not at a stage where a decision-making process has begun at the government level,” he said. While Hindu groups have been demanding the prohibition of cow slaughter in the country, several Muslim organisations and clerics have also called for declaring the cow the national animal and imposing a nationwide ban on cow slaughter. Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind chief Maulana Arshad Madani has been among those backing the demand, arguing that such a move could help reduce tensions surrounding the issue. Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has also supported the proposal, saying that if granting the cow national animal status could help address recurring disputes linked to cow slaughter, it should be considered. Ansari had also appealed to Muslims to avoid cow sacrifice, noting that Islam does not mandate the sacrifice of any particular animal. Maulana Khalid Rashid Farangi Mahali, a senior executive member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, has also endorsed the demand, saying recognition of the cow as the national animal would reflect respect for the religious beliefs and cultural sentiments attached to it by many Hindus. Similar appeals were made by many other Muslim leaders and clerics ahead of Eid-ul-Azha, bringing the issue back into public discussion in recent weeks.      

NEW DELHI :  The Congress on Saturday alleged an “astonishing mix of incompetence, corruption, and callousness” marked the CBSE’s planning and implementation of the Class 12 Board exams, reiterating its demand for Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation and a full CBI probe into the “emerging scandal”. Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh flagged two investigations — one by CBSE Class 12 student Sarthak Sidhant and another by a newspaper — and said they had raised fresh questions over the CBSE’s intent and preparedness in introducing the On-Screen Marking System (OSM) for the Class 12 Board exam. In a post on X, Ramesh referred to media reports and posted 10 questions, saying parents and students were seeking answers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “Who is, according to the Solicitor General, personally supervising this mess?”Jairam Ramesh Why was the CBSE so insistent on introducing OSM that it rushed the process within 74 days before the board exams, Ramesh asked. Pointing out that the CBSE had flagged at least 36 technical, operational, and evaluation-related concerns from the OSM dry run it conducted in five Delhi schools, he asked why these concerns were not acted upon before the exams. “The CBSE issued three RFPs to award the contract for the OSM system. Why was the proviso that disqualified bidders with a past record of poor performance removed in the third RFP? Was this done to favour COEMPT, which had previously been blacklisted in Telangana?” Ramesh said. Why was the proviso, which prohibited bidders who were previously blacklisted, watered down to exclude only bidders who were currently blacklisted, he further asked. “Was the minimum company turnover for the bidder specifically set at Rs 50 crore to enable COEMPT (which had a three-year average turnover of 50.86 crores) to qualify for the contract?” Ramesh said. He also questioned the dilution of the Capability Maturity Model Integration level for contractors from Level 5 to Level 3. Why was the project criteria changed to favour vendors who have smaller, fragmented university contracts over vendors having experience with large student counts, Ramesh asked. “Why were the RFP provisions changed from favouring contractors having their own data centres to those having MeitY empanelled data centres? Was this done to systematically favour COEMPT, which used AWS (MeitY empanelled) over TCS (which has its own data centers)? Why did the CBSE give up its right to blacklist the contractors in case the contractors made mistakes?” the Congress general secretary in charge of communications said. Why was the technical and operational capability of the score matrix modified to favour fragmented vendors, Ramesh asked. “It is increasingly clear that an astonishing mix of incompetence, corruption, and callousness went into the CBSE’s planning and implementation of the Grade 12 Board Exams. Mantri Pradhan must resign, and a full CBI investigation must be conducted into this emerging scandal,” Ramesh said. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had on Friday said that Prime Minister Modi’s silence on the CBSE debacle and inaction against the education minister showed he cared only about the survival of his government and not the future of lakhs of students. In a post on X, Gandhi had said he had been demanding an independent judicial probe from day one into the CBSE’s on-screen marking and the award of the contract to COEMPT, as the youth of the country deserved to know the truth. Gandhi had shared media reports and called upon people to read them carefully. “CBSE called for OSM tenders thrice. Zero bids the first time. No qualified bidder the second time. And finally, the technical bar was lowered until COEMPT could clear it. Scanning resolution cut. Robotic scanner requirement dropped. CMMI certification lowered from Level 5 to Level 3. Penalties for errors in answer sheets removed. “TCS, India’s biggest IT services company, qualified in the third round too. TCS lost. COEMPT – a company with a spectacular track record of failure – won. And what are CBSE students complaining about today? Badly scanned answer sheets. Missing pages. A broken evaluation portal,” he had said. (Source: PTI)        

NEW DELHI : The demographic changes due to illegal migration are not limited just to border areas, but their impact has extended, “affecting urban centres, industrial corridors, tribal regions, and other socially and economically sensitive areas,” said a government notification. The notification issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs on the constitution of a High-Level Committee on Demographic Changes (HLCDC) under Justice Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar, a retired Supreme Court judge, said “extensive challenges” have arisen from demographic changes due to illegal immigration. Union Home Minister Amit Shah had announced the formation of the committee to assess demographic changes across India due to “illegal immigration and other unnatural causes”. Headquartered in New Delhi, the committee will also include the Census Commissioner, along with retired IAS officer Durga Shankar Mishra, ex-IPS officer Balaji Srivastava and Dr Shamika Ravi as members and will submit its report in a year. “The joint secretary (foreigners-l), Ministry of Home Affairs, will serve as the member secretary of this committee,” Shah had said on Tuesday. The notification said demographic changes have been observed in certain regions of the country, which are “not attributable to normal fertility or mortality trends” but are instead emerging due to external abnormal factors such as “illegal immigration, irregular population mobility, and administrative laxity”. “Although these changes are most visibly concentrated in the border districts, their impact has extended beyond those areas, now affecting urban centres, industrial corridors, tribal regions, and other socially and economically sensitive areas, thereby severely impacting public service delivery, local governance, resource distribution, and social cohesion,” it said. The existing institutional framework has not been adequately equipped to undertake coordinated, evidence-based, and time-bound evaluation and response to such demographic shifts, the notification said. “…therefore, the Government of India resolves to constitute a High-Level Committee on Demographic Changes (HLCDC) under the Ministry of Home Affairs to undertake scientific study of the nature, causes and consequences of such demographic changes occurring across the country and to recommend appropriate policy, administrative and legal measures,” it said. The committee is tasked to submit its report within a year after undertaking an extensive consideration of the challenges arising from demographic changes, including illegal immigration. The panel will study the possible causes of such demographic changes, such as variations in fertility, cross-border movement (including illegal immigration), economic opportunities, and other socio-environmental factors and underlying factors behind changes, including illegal immigration, abnormal settlement patterns, and planned migration. It will analyse the structural population changes at the level of religious or social communities, especially those diverging from uniform trends and recommend a well-organised and permanent operational system for the “legal, fair and time-bound identification, detention, and deportation of illegal immigrants already residing in the country.” The panel will also recommend an institutional mechanism to strengthen border management, population stabilisation, and identification systems for sustained monitoring of such trends, besides proposing a comprehensive policy framework to enhance coordination between the Centre and state governments in such matters, it said. (Source: PTI)