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Indian PM receives 'UNEP Champions of Earth' award

Agencies
October 3, 2018

New Delhi, Oct 3: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday received the 'UNEP Champions of the Earth for 2018' award, United Nations' highest environmental honour, from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres here.

The PM, who received the award from Mr Guterres and head of the UN Environment programme Erik Solheim during a special ceremony at the Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra here, called it an award for commitment of 125 crore people of the country for environmental protection.

'This is an award for the commitment of 125 crore people of the country for the cause of environmental protection. Champions of the Earth award is an honour for the tradition of India, which looks at nature as a form of God,' the PM said. 

Dedicating the award to the common people of India, Mr Modi said, 'This is an honour for the tribals living in jungles, who value the jungles more than their lives. This is an honour for the great women, for whom reuse and recycle has been part of daily life.'

Describing the climate and calamity as being directly related to culture, the Prime Minister, speaking at the event, where External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Environment Minister Harshvardhan and Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma were present, said 'If climate is not the focus of culture, calamity cannot be prevented. When I say 'Sabka Saath,' I also include nature in it.'

Speaking on the occasion, the UN Secretary-General said, 'We are recognising a statesman, who embodies true leadership. In Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we have a leader, who realises the issue of climate change and understands the benefits of climate action. He knows the problems and also works to solve them.'

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Solheim said, 'the most important raw materiel is not gold, oil, energy or any mineral. The missing raw materiel is political leadership and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is providing it to India and the world.

Earlier, addressing the gathering, Ms Swaraj said, 'Champions of the Earth Award is a fitting recognition of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership towards making our world a cleaner place. He was firm that the agreement in Paris has to stay and the world must come together.

'As Prime Minister, Mr Modi has taken numerous steps for the protection of the environment,' she added.

The Prime Minister has been selected in the leadership category for his pioneering work in championing the International Solar Alliance and for his unprecedented pledge to eliminate all single-use plastic in India by 2022.

Mr Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron were jointly awarded the honour for their pioneering work in championing the International Solar Alliance and promoting new areas of cooperation on environmental action.

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News Network
January 6,2020

Dehradun, Jan 6: Universities are centres of learning and will not be allowed to become "addas" of politics, HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' has said.

The minister was replying to questions from reporters in Haldwani on Sunday about protests against the amended Citizenship Act across university campuses.

"Universities are centres of learning where the country's future is in the making. We cannot let them become addas of politics," Nishank said.

He accused the opposition parties of trying to turn the universities into hotbeds of politics.

The new legislation passed by Parliament aims to grant citizenship to persecuted religious minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who had taken refuge in India and there is nothing wrong in it, the Union Minister said

"When Pakistan was created, the population of religious minorities there stood at 22 per cent. Today it is a minuscule 3.7 per cent. Persecuted on the basis of their religion, they sought sanctuary in India. The CAA is meant only to grant them citizenship," he said.

Terming the law humanitarian, the minister said it was going to make no difference to the status of Muslims in India and wondered why the Congress was making such a hue and cry about it.

Nishank's press conference in Haldwani was part of the BJP's campaign to create awareness in favour of the amended Citizenship Act.

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News Network
January 27,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 27: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to arrange for airlifting the Indians stranded in Wuhan province of China, the epicentre of coronavirus, saying the ground situation there has further worsened.

In a letter to Mr. Modi, he said since the situation in Wuhan was grave, it would be appropriate to operate a special flight to Wuhan or a nearby functional airport and airlift Indian nationals stranded there.

Mr. Vijayan also wanted the Prime Minister to give necessary instructions to the Indian Embassy in China to act pro-actively and provide necessary assistance and reassurance to Indians, including Keralites, stranded in Wuhan and Yichang.

The Chief Minister offered assistance of medical professionals from the State in case of evacuation of the Indians from Wuhan.

Chinese health authorities have announced the death toll due to coronavirus has sharply increased to 80 with 2,744 confirmed cases.

The confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus officially described as 2019-nCoV included 461 patients who are in critical condition.

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Agencies
August 3,2020

Rajouri, Aug 3: Ashfaq Mehmood Choudhary, a 17-year-old boy from Chattyear of Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, has developed a file-sharing app 'Dodo Drop' which would enable users to share audios, videos, images, and texts between two devices without Internet access.

While speaking to media persons, Ashfaq Mehmood said that the 'Dodo Drop' application is an alternative to the Chinese 'SHAREit' app. "The Indian government has banned several Chinese apps due to data breaching, and among those apps was SHAREit which was used for sharing files.

Users faced a lot of problems due to the ban, and so I decided to make this file-sharing app. With 'Dodo Drop', users can share audios, videos, images, and even texts," he said.

Ashfaq said that it took him four weeks to develop the application, and it was launched on August 1 this year. The 'Dodo Drop' application has a transfer rate of up to 480 mbps, which is faster than the SHAREit app and is "quite easy" to use.

"Users can transfer data comprising photos, videos, audios, apps, texts, etc. between two devices with no Internet access. The transfers are fully encrypted and secure," he added.

"Our Prime Minister has always asserted the need for decreasing the dependency on foreign products and apps and to focus on the development of India-based apps. I tried to be part of the initiative of 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' by developing an India-based file-sharing app. I want to develop global-standard apps for India," he added.

"We support and cooperate with him. He generates his own income by working on some projects and utilises it. We will continue to support him," said Parvez Ahmed Choudhary, Ashfaq's father.

In July, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) banned 47 apps, which were variants and cloned copies of the 59 apps banned earlier in June. These banned clones included SHAREit Lite, Tiktok Lite, Helo Lite, BIGO LIVE Lite, and VFY Lite.

The 59 apps had been banned by the Centre in June in view of the information available that they were engaged in activities which were "prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity and defence" of the country.

Almost all the apps banned had some preferential Chinese interest and the majority had parent Chinese companies.

The ban came amid border tensions with China in the Eastern Ladakh region.

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