Odisha

Tata Steel Mining Ltd on Tuesday said it has decided to conduct water audits at five of its operational facilities in Odisha to ensure more efficient use of the resource and its conservation. The company has partnered with New Delhi-based The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) for the proposed exercise. The initiative focuses on comprehensive water audits involving the use and balance of the resource, quality profiling, identification of water losses and leakages, the company said in a statement. It also said this will enable TSML to develop an integrated industrial water management strategy that optimises efficient use of water and improves productivity of the resource at its units. TSML has also tied up with FluxGen Engineering Technologies, a Karnataka-based company working on water solutions, to install AquaGen mechanism to reduce consumption of the resource, the statement said. Close AuqaGen is a SaaS (software as a service) platform that will give a … [Read more...] about Tata Steel Mining to conduct water audits at its five facilities in Odisha

Representative image. A directive by the Centre earlier this year to split the budget for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) for payment of wages on caste lines has led to community-based tensions among rural Indians who find work manual work under the programme. Moneycontrol explains the government's new caste-based disbursal of wages and the system followed earlier, and why the new payment system is being scrapped. How does the caste-based wage payment system work? The government on March 2 this year issued a circular directing the state governments to create three separate Fund Transfer Orders (FTOs) for receiving central funds to disburse MGNREGS workers' wages. One each is meant for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) and the third for the "Other" Category. So instead of the earlier system wherein a single FTO stating how many people had worked under MGNREGS and the wages they should be paid, the government has … [Read more...] about Explained: What is the caste based payment system in MGNREGA, why is the government junking it?

Droupadi Murmu (Image: Twitter @ANI) NDA presidential nominee Droupadi Murmu is likely to begin campaigning from July 1 from a state with a sizeable tribal population, sources said on Sunday. They said discussions are being held to finalise the state from where she will launch her campaign for the July 18 presidential election. In the meantime, Murmu is reaching out to leaders of various parties over phone to seek their support. She is likely to call up the leaders of opposition parties such as the DMK which is in power in Tamil Nadu and Telangana's ruling TRS in the coming days, the sources said. Murmu had called up JMM supremo and Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Saturday seeking his party's support for her candidature. Before filing her nomination papers on June 24, Murmu had dialled Congress president Sonia Gandhi, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and sought their support. Murmu, a tribal leader from Odisha and former … [Read more...] about Droupadi Murmu likely to begin campaign from July 1 from a state with sizeable tribal population: Sources

Representative Image Regions in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, parts of Haryana, sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, interior Tamil Nadu, South India Karnataka and North interior Karnataka witnessed light to moderate rain with few heavy spells in the past 24 hours, private weather forecasting agency Skymet said on July 27. The rest of Northeast India, parts of Bihar, Gangetic West Bengal Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, East Madhya Pradesh, parts of Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Delhi witnessed scattered light to moderate rain, the report said. South Rajasthan, Gujarat, West Madhya Pradesh, Konkan and Goa, parts of Madhya Maharashtra, Kerala, coastal Andhra Pradesh and at one or two places over Vidarbha and Marathwada also witnessed light rain, Skymet reported. Skymet predicts that parts of Western India such as Northeast Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, parts of sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, … [Read more...] about Monsoon Update on August 1: Delhi to witness light rain

Representative Image (Image: ANI video grab) The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted widespread rainfall with isolated heavy falls and thunderstorms and lightning over southern India, including parts of Telangana, Lakshadweep, Goa, south coastal Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, and Kerala during August 2-5. The state weather forecaster also said a high chance of widespread rainfall with isolated heavy falls and thunderstorms and lightning over Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Meghalaya and other parts of the Northeast. According to private forecaster Skymet, light to moderate rain with few heavy to very heavy spells are possible over south Kerala over the next 24 hours. Data for north India shows scattered light to moderate rain over Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi. Similar weather has been predicted for east Rajasthan, parts of Madhya … [Read more...] about Monsoon update on August 2: A few heavy spells of rain possible in south Kerala; light showers in Gujarat, Maharashtra

Representative image Regions coastal Karnataka, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, parts of Konkan and Goa, Marathwada, south Gujarat, parts of south Madhya Pradesh, sub–Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim and Assam witnessed light to moderate rain with few heavy spells in the last twenty four hours, according to Skymet's report.. Regions Northeast India, Kerala, Lakshadweep, parts of Rayalaseema, Telangana, Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh, remaining parts of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana and Northwest Uttar Pradesh also witnessed scattered light to moderate rainfall, in the last twenty four hours, the weather forecasting agency reported. Tamil Nadu, interior Karnataka, coastal Odisha and at one or two places over Bihar, Jharkhand and Gangetic West Bengal. also witnessed light rain. Skymet predicts regions in coastal Karnataka, Vidarbha, Marathwada, parts of Konkan and Goa, south Rajasthan, parts of Madhya Pradesh and east Gujarat are likely to witness  scattered light to moderate … [Read more...] about Monsoon Update on August 7: Western India likely to witness moderate rainfall

Representative Image (PTI) There is a good reason why the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in power in 18 states out of 28, and has more than 400 members in  Parliament, and 1,300 legislators in state assemblies. Driving the party is a ‘here and now' approach. There is no room for political complacency – with an energetic prime minister who communicates with the people directly, there is simply no other option for the karyakartas (workers). From the easy-paced, laid-back Westminster style of governance that dominated India’s centrist politics for a better part of the last seven decades, it is a dynamic right-wing push that is dictating the frenetic pace of statecraft now. Badri Narayan, social historian, columnist, and professor at G.B. Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad, offers an interesting insight. “I have studied political parties around the world. There is no political party like the BJP anywhere, which is working for elections two years in advance as well … [Read more...] about Bharatiya Janata Party: The world’s biggest electoral machine