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India will soon be zero petroleum import country, says Nitin Gadkari

[email protected] (Agencies)
September 7, 2016

New Delhi, Sep 7: With the Centre focusing more on developing alternative fuel economy, India will soon stop importing petroleum products, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Tuesday.

petroleum"We are going to develop this country where our import of petroleum will be zero. We are promoting alternative fuel like ethanol, methanol, bio-CNG...this will boost the rural and agriculture centre and create huge employment," Road Transport and Highways Minister said.

Despite low prices globally, India at present is incurring a massive Rs 4.5 lakh crore on crude imports which was earlier Rs 7.5 lakh crore, Gadkari said addressing a conference on methanol economy organised by Niti Aayog today.

India is one of the fastest growing economy in the world. At present, it is "golden opportunity" to cash on its agriculture, bamboo, surplus coal and power.

"The time has come to diversify agriculture," the minister asserted stating that it has the potential to change the entire rural economy at a time when more than 10,000 farmers in Vidarbha region had committed suicide.

"The socio-economic situation is not good, agriculture is facing acute problems. This alternative fuel economy is going to change socio-economic picture of agriculture and rural economy. This is time for the country to plan the way by which we can save the life of people in rural and agriculture sectors.. We can make ethanol from biomass that is cotton straw, wheat straw, rice straw and bagasse. Even from municipal waste we can make ethanol," the minister said.

Stressing on "waste to wealth", he said manufacturing ethanol and biogas from waste could result in savings to the tune of Rs 5 lakh crore annually.

The minister said ethanol is generated from biomass in Europe. One tonne of rice straw can get 400 litres of ethanol.In North East, bamboo could be used for making ethanol, he said.

He added it will eliminate pollution too as farmers in states like Haryana burnt wheat straw which caused pollution. Besides municipal waste and waste of vegetables and fruits could be used in manufacturing bio-fuel.

He stressed the need for use of science, technology, entrepreneurship and research and also said Niti Aayog is taking initiatives in this regard.

"We have finalised standard norms for bio-diesel, bio-CNG and ethanol and electricity," Gadkari said adding the bureaucracy also needed to fast track decisions.

Taking a jibe at bureaucracy, the minister said somewhere there is a need to expedite the entire decision-making process. "If there is a will, there is a way if there is no will there is no way. There will only be committees, discussions and research groups," Gadkari added.

The minister also stressed on the need to generate methane from coalblocks and said some of the companies who were alloted the blocks were not doing anything which is not fair.

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News Network
July 28,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 28: Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Monday alleged that BJP is trying to destabilise the Congress government in Rajasthan.

"It is the duty of the Governor to act according to the decision of the state cabinet. But he is acting like a central government puppet," he said at a protest organised here by Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC).

He said the Congress is protesting across the country to save democracy and save the constitution.

"We are not fighting through violence. We are protesting peacefully. The Constitution has given the right to protest in a democratic system," he said.

He accused the BJP of "being disrespectful" to the Constitution.

"Governments must walk within the framework of the Constitution. The Constitution gives everyone rights and duties. BJP destabilises elected governments and buys our legislators by horse-trading by spending crores of money. The same thing happened in Karnataka as well," he alleged.

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Agencies
June 17,2020

In a bid to help tackle rise in domestic violence during the social distancing times in India, Twitter on Wednesday launched a dedicated search prompt to serve information and updates from authoritative sources around domestic violence.

Twitter has partnered with the Ministry of Women and Child Development the National Commission for Women in India to expand its efforts towards women.

The search prompt will be available on iOS, Android and on mobile.twitter.com in India, in both English and Hindi languages, the company said in a statement.

Data shows that since the outbreak of Covid-19, violence against women and girls has intensified in India and across the globe.

"We recognise collaboration with the public, government and NGOs is key to combating the complex issue of domestic violence. Accessing reliable information through this search prompt could be a survivor's first step towards seeking help against abuse and violence," said Mahima Kaul, Director, Public Policy, India and South Asia, Twitter.

Every time someone searches for certain keywords associated with the issue of domestic violence, a prompt will direct them to the relevant information and sources of help available on Twitter.

This is an expansion of Twitter's #ThereIsHelp prompt, which was specifically put in place for the public to find clear, credible information on critical issues.

The feature will be reviewed at regular intervals by the Twitter team to ensure that all related keywords generate the proactive search prompt, said the company.

Violence against women and girls across Asia Pacific is pervasive but at the same time widely under reported.

"In fact, in many countries in our region, the number is even greater, with as many as 2 out of 3 women in some countries reporting experiences of violence," added Melissa Alvarado, UN Women Asia Pacific Regional Manager on Ending Violence against Women.

Rekha Sharma, Chairperson, the NCW, said: "With social distancing norms in place, several women are unable to contact their regular support systems. This initiative by Twitter will provide big support to the survivors, who would otherwise be easily isolated without access to relevant information and help".

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News Network
March 18,2020

San Francisco, Mar 18: Facebook said a bug in its anti-spam system temporarily blocked the publication of links to news stories about the coronavirus. Guy Rosen, Facebook's vice president of integrity, said on Twitter Tuesday that the company was working on a fix for the problem.

Users complained that links to news stories about school closings and other information related to the virus outbreak were blocked by the company's automated system.

Later on Tuesday, Rosen tweeted that Facebook had restored all the incorrectly deleted posts, which also covered topics beyond the coronavirus.

Rosen said the problems were unrelated to any changes in Facebook's content-moderator workforce. The company reportedly sent its human moderators home this week because of the coronavirus outbreak.

A representative for Facebook did not immediately respond to questions on the status of Facebook's content moderators, many of whom do not work directly for the company and are not always able to work from home.

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