#NewsofUse - Madhya Pradesh Press Prints Defective Rs 500 And Rs 1000 Banknotes

Two senior officials posted at Security Paper Mill (SPM) in Hoshangabad district of Madhya Pradesh were suspended on Friday over production of millions of defective Rs 500 and Rs 1000 banknotes.

Around 80,000 defective Rs 500 notes and 10,000 defective Rs 1,000 notes produced by the mill have already hit the market, triggering panic among citizens. Security threads are missing in these notes, said an official at Hoshangabad mill. The magnetic security thread with inscriptions 'Bharat' and 'RBI' is the most distinguishing feature in an Indian currency note and prevents counterfeiting.

A shocked RBI asked banks to replace such notes when customers approach them. The notes are genuine, but defective. A five-member team has been constituted by Union finance ministry to launch a high-level inquiry into the matter. The team reached SPM on Friday morning.

NBNPL, also known as PM5, was recently inaugurated by finance minister Arun Jaitley. It has a capacity to produce 6000 MT paper for printing currency notes of Rs 10, Rs 20, Rs 50, Rs 100, Rs 500 and Rs 1000 denominations.

Establishment of NBNPL was considered a major step in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make In India' Initiative as it had capacity of producing currency note paper indigenously.

Introduced in year 2000, the 1000-rupee notes contain a readable, security thread alternately visible in front with inscriptions 'Bharat' (in Hindi), '1000' and 'RBI'. This thread was missing in those notes.

Class VII student comes up with a solution that can be practically applied in our cities to solve garbage issues.

Aditya Ravindra Potdar, aged 12, from HG Shroff High School & Junior College in Nadurbar, Maharashtra, under his project 'Science for cleanliness' has developed an underground garbage system - which is actually an underground conveyor belt carrying garbage - right in front of a row of residential houses/apartment blocks.

All that the households have to do is to discard the garbage in the openings by the roadside. The garbage falls on the conveyor belt which carries the garbage to the common composting unit located at the end of the road or at a convenient point.

Just before reaching the composting unit, a blower blows the dry waste into another opening, so that only the wet waste enters the composting unit.

The dry waste is separately accumulated, while the wet waste is processed in the composting unit, which is the one that can generate employment - preferably the displaced pourkarmikas themselves can be trained to operate the composting units to run small businesses to generate wealth from waste by selling composted residues as fertilizers or supply it to biogas plants.

A supplementary plan could also involve a biogas plant next to the composting unit to generate electricity to power the conveyor belt. Alternatively, waste water from bathrooms and kitchens can be boiled by burning the dry waste. The resulting steam can generate electricity locally by using turbines.

Having an underground garbage disposal system also ensures that no road or footpath space is encroached upon.

Aditya and his guide teacher Nitin Deore explained that in addition to the underground garbage system, the innovative plan also involves road-cleaning vehicles which arrive to push possible waste on the roads/footpaths into the roadside openings, so the conveyor belt carries the waste to their logical ends after segregating it.

The plan also involves bins by the roadside with blades that loosen the waste dropped into them and can be simply overturned into the roadside opening on to the underground conveyor belt.

Not only can this innovative method of constantly clearing garbage ensure that streets as well as homes are garbage-free, it also ensures that garbage is segregated on-the-go and round-the-clock without corporation staff getting involved in the process.

Nor do households need to segregate garbage in separate bins - a huge problem for the civic authorities to ensure that they do. And here's the bonus: it can also generate employment.

India Will Have 1 Crore Pending Court Cases By December 2016

Due to the scrapping of National Judicial Appointments Commission, India's delay in appointing judges has dealt a devastating blow to justice.

The SC has 60,000 cases pending, while India's High Courts have 45 lakh cases and trial courts around 2.75 crore cases making it a total of around 3.25 crore cases.  Judges fear that it might touch 4 crore cases by the end of this year because of large number of vacancies. The SC too has five vacancies and last one to be appointed was Justice Amitava Thakur on February 27 last year, and there's a 40% vacancy for High Court judges across India.

Pending High Court cases may touch 1 crore by 2016-end - there's currently 45 lakh cases pending in the first week of January. India is supposed to appoint 1044 high court judges, and is operating with only 599 functioning. 

Source- TOI / IndiaTimes

67 year old woman is running barefoot to raise funds for her family

A resident of Baramati, the 67-year-old participated in the Sharad Marathon for the third successive year on Sunday. Like the previous two occasions, she won the first prize of Rs 5,000, in the senior citizen category, this time as well.

This was the second time she was running to raise funds to build a home. "Last time too, I tried but we could not raise much," said Kare, whose first marathon was to raise money to cure her husband's ailment.

"That time, his head used to spin and he used to have heart pain. That is now under control but he still requires medicines," said Kare.

This time, she hopes to have better luck as more people know why she is running. She needs Rs 2 lakh to build a home and she hopes help will be more generous this time.

Kare lives with her husband, son, daughter-in-law and grandchild. "This time, we are hopeful," said Kare, who ran the 2.5 km barefoot.

Barefoot running is her idea of putting behind the fear of tripping. "I remove chappals and run," said Kare, who runs without any practice.

Working in a farm, the family lives in a rented place. Her husband who works as a security guard does his bit and so does her son, who does odd jobs. Her daughter-in-law is a homemaker.

The family, originally from Buldhana district, shifted to Baramati as they did not get any below-poverty-line benefits. Moving to another district has also proved to be a stumbling block in getting any benefit.

"My wife won laurels for winning the race barefoot. She is now tired and we have asked the organisers for help," said Bhagwan Kare, her husband.

"She had met Ajit Pawar and Supriya Sule. Since the family is not from Baramati, they can't avail any benefit from government schemes like Indira Awas Yojana. Rules don't respect them as beneficiaries. Hence, we are now trying to to help them socially," said Sachin Satav, organiser of Sharad Marathon in Baramati.

Source- DNA

13-year-old, who saved his mother, selected for National Bravery Award

On Tuesday, Dishant was selected for the National Bravery Award-2015 by the Indian Council for Child Welfare. The 13-year-old Panchkula boy said he was elated and overwhelmed by the award.

“I feel encouraged with the appreciation I have received from the local administration,” said the teenager, a Class 8 student of Saupins School, Sector 9.

Dishant will receive a medal, certificate and cash prize by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the occasion of Republic Day function on January 26 in New Delhi. His name was recommended by the District Child Welfare Council for the award.

The incident happened on April 4, when Dishant was at his home in Sector 20 with his mother, Archana , 42, who works with Life Insurance Corporation and younger brother Ryaan, 8. His father, Ravinder, a chartered accountant, had just left for his office at Baddi, when an unidentified man visited the house around 2 pm. He wanted to see Ravinder.

He was invited in, and as Dishant began talking to him, Archana went inside and telephoned her husband. Ravinder spoke to the man on the phone, but did not know who he was and told him to come some other day. The man then asked to use the bathroom. When Archana was showing him the way to it, he took out a knife and put it on Archana’s neck.

“He threatened my children, and asked them to get all cash, valuables in the house, or else he would kill me. Dishant then fell down at his feet and began to plead with him for my safety. On the spur of the moment, Dishant stood up, and grabbed the knife from the accused and threw it away. Both of us suffered minor injuries, but we were able to raise the alarm, and get him arrested,” said Archana, recalling the incident.

While it has been over nine months since the incident occurred, Archana says that she is still surprised how a young child could manage to muster up the courage to fight the miscreant. “I tell him that I owe my life to him. But he says that it was God who gave him strength. The incident has made him confident and extremely cautious too,” said Archana.

Dishant said, “I would ask all the children to be brave, and not get bogged down by fear. Be brave, and God will help.”

Source- The Indian Express

Indian Sweet Shop In Andhra Pradesh Is A 5-Time Guiness Record Winner For Making World's Biggest Laddu

A 8,000 + kg 'laddu' prepared by an Andhra Pradesh shop, during the 2015 Ganesh festival has set a Guinness Record as the largest sweetmeat of its kind for the fifth consecutive year, the makers said today.

"We received the Guinness World Records certificate last evening for the fifth consecutive year. With the cooperation of our staff, people and Lord Ganesh's blessing, we bagged the award this year also," Tapeswaram's Sri Bhakta Anjaneya Sweets owner Saladi Venkateswara Rao said

The Guinness World Records Certificate says, "The largest individual 'laddu' weighs 8,369 kg (18,450 lb 7.78 oz) and was made by Sri Bhakta Anjaneya Sweets (India) owned by S Venkateswara Rao (India) in Tapeswaram, Andhra Pradesh, India, on 15th September 2015."

Rao's team had prepared the 'laddu' for the idol of Lord Ganesh installed at Visakhapatnam in the state during the Ganpati festival in September.

Here’s the recipe for what the Guinness team called a "dentist’s nightmare":

2,300 kg (5,700 lb 10 oz) gram flour2700 kg (5,792 lb 7 oz) sugar
2000 kg (4409 lb 3 oz) ghee700 kg (1,543 lb 3 oz) candy rock chips800 kg (1,763 lb 11 oz) mixed nuts
70 kg (154 lb 5 oz) cardamom

"This year we made two 'maha laddus' of 8,000 kg and 6,000 kg for Ganesh idols installed at Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada respectively," the shop owner said.

They claim to have bagged the Guinness Record for a 5,570 kg laddu in 2011, 6,599 kg in 2012, 7,132 kg in 2013 and 7,858 kg in 2014.

"Our next target is to prepare a 500 kg kova (milk, sweet recipe) for Saibaba at Shirdi in Maharashtra," Rao added..

Sachin Tendulkar Donates Rs 50 Lakhs To A School For Deaf And Dumb!

According to recent findings, Sachin has been recognized as one of the top performers when it comes to allocating funds under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS).

In an act of supreme generosity, Sachin Tendulkar proves why he is a God even outside the field. He may have been criticized for his 'inactive' involvement in the Parliament as a member of the Rajya Sabha, but his recent gesture has turned the tables on the politicians of our country.

A special needs school in Ahmednagar’s Sangamner taluka (Maharashtra) received the best New Year gift they could have asked for. In dire need of funds to construct new buildings and start student scholarships for its deaf and mute pupils, the school nearly lost hope when no response came from the country's representatives.

When Sachin met with Devendra Vohra, a doctor who hails from the same village where the school operates, he simply couldn't ignore the plight of the school, a predicament that had plagued the institution for 30 years.

So when the school found Rs 50 lakh in its treasure trove on the morning of 2016, they were beyond surprised. Initially, they didn't know who their benefactor was but soon they realized that it was none other than the Master Blaster. The funds were sent to the school via Sachin's aides, and even though the school couldn't manage to meet the man himself, they expressed their gratitude to him and showed a new-found respect for him as a patron of the needy.

The 'God of Cricket' has succeeded in allocating as much as 98% of his MPLADS funds, wherein he judiciously assigned cash for flood relief in Tamil Nadu and Jammu and Kashmir, and the rehabilitation of a bridge and school in Uttarakhand.

His swift acts of kindness don't end here. Sachin is also known to have invested heavily in the building of public toilets in Goregaon (Mumbai), and schools in remote villages of Maharashtra and West Bengal. 

His biggest contribution has been to Puttamraju Kandriga (Andhra Pradesh), the village that he adopted and gifted the presents of water, electricity, roads and sanitation. 

News Source -IndiaTimes