Former President Pranab Mukherjee, social activist Nanaji Deshmukh, and musician and singer Bhupen Hazarika honoured with the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award; Prime Minister Modi expresses happiness over award winners.
As per a press communique issued by President of India’s office, Nanaji Deshmukh and Bhupen Hazarika will be awarded with the honour posthumously.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said Nanaji Deshmukh’s stellar contribution towards rural development showed the way for a new paradigm of empowering those living in the villages. In a series of tweets, Prime Minister Modi said, Nanaji Deshmukh personifies humility, compassion and service to the downtrodden and he is a Bharat Ratna in the truest sense.
The Prime Minister said the songs and music of Bhupen Hazarika are admired by people across generations and from them radiates the message of justice, harmony and brotherhood. He popularised India’s musical traditions globally.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, former President Pranab Mukherjee is an outstanding statesman of our times and he has served the nation selflessly and tirelessly for decades, leaving a strong imprint on the nation’s growth trajectory. The Prime Minister said Pranab Mukherjee’s wisdom and intellect have few parallels.
The suspensions on Indian cricketers Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul were on Thursday lifted by the Committee of Administrators (CoA), two weeks after they were sent home from the tour of Australia due to their sexist comments on a TV show.
The CoA, after consulting new amicus curiae P S Narsimha, decided to lift the suspension pending an inquiry, for which an ombudsman is to be appointed by the Supreme Court.
The apex court has listed the matter tentatively for February 5. Pandya is now expected to join the team in New Zealand while Rahul might play in either domestic circuit or show up for India A in an ongoing home series against England Lions.
The idea of letting the players get on with the game was first mooted by BCCI acting president CK Khanna, who wanted the suspensions to be lifted pending inquiry.
In Badminton, PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth and Saina Nehwal are among the five Indian shuttlers who have entered the pre-quarterfinals of the Indonesian Masters at Jakarta.
In the Women’s Singles opening round, second seed Sindhu defeated China’s Li Xuerui, while eighth-placed Saina also came back from a game behind to beat local girl Dinar Dyah Ayustine. In Men’s Singles, eighth seed Srikanth advanced to the Round-of-16 with a win over Malaysian Chong Wei Feng. The pre-quarterfinal matches will be played today.
Shikhar Dhawan scored a match-winning knock of unbeaten 75 runs as India defeated New Zealand by eight wickets in the first ODI in Napier. The win helps visitors India take a 1-0 lead in the five-match ODI series. India chased down the revised target of 156 runs with 85 balls to spare in Napier. Mohammed Shami bagged the man of the match award.
Opting to bat, the hosts had the worst possible start as Mohammed Shami struck early sending back both the openers — Martin Guptill and Colin Munro, cheaply.
Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor then tried to rescue their side from the early damage, taking New Zealand past the 50-run mark in 13.3 overs.
However, Taylor’s stay was cut short by Chahal in the 15th over with the hosts at 52/3. With the addition of just 24 runs in the Kiwi scorecard, Chahal struck again to dismiss incoming batsman Tom Latham.
Jadhav and Shami then joined the party as they sent back Henry Nicholls and Mitchell Santner, leaving the hosts reeling at 133/6. Williamson, however, continued to show resistance and kept one end safe, but lacked support from the other end.
While trying to clear the fence in the 34th over off a Kuldeep delivery, the Kiwi skipper misread the ball and offered a simple catch to Vijay Shankar at long-on.
Kuldeep then put the final nail in the coffin, picking the tailenders — Doug Bracewell, Lockie Ferguson and Trent Boult in quick succession to wrap up the host in just 38 overs. Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal’s combined figures read 26 overs 3 maidens 9 wickets for 101 runs.
India got off to a cautious start in the 158 run start.. Rohit and Shikhar stictched a 41 run stand before the right hander pocked a ball outside the off stump to be caught in the slips for 11 runs.
Captain Virat joined Shikhar and the duo kept finding holes in the kiwi field to stitch a 91 stand for the 2nd wicket.
Virat missed his half century by 5 runs to depart for 45 runs. Shikhar and Ambyati Rayadu took India home under the duckworth lewis method with 85 deiveries and 8 wickets to spare.
India crossed the line and the action now shifts to the 2nd ODI on Saturday. Mohammed Shami bagged the man of the match award.
Pune based IT Company Destek Infosolutions Pvt Ltd has raised an amount of $2 Million in seed funding round for one of its platforms, LegalNextt – An Extensive Communication, Collaboration and Practice Management platform for lawyers and law firms. The round was led by Mr. Gurmeet Singh, Mr. Kapil Jhaveri and Mr. Chandrakant Bhojepatil – Angel investors from Mumbai.
The raised funds would be used in product development, strengthening the team, marketing and collaborations and conducting events and conferences across India.
Destek Infosolutions Pvt Ltd is founded by Mandar Lande (Graduate (BE Computers) from MIT College Pune in 2007 and Post Graduate (EPGBM) from IIM Calcutta in 2012) and Anirudha Kotgire (Graduate (BE Computers) from MIT College Pune in 2007 and Post Graduate (MBA) from IMT Nagpur in 2011). Initially started as a Digital Transformation Agency, Destek now has over 100+ clients across India.
The Destek founding team came up with an innovative innovative idea of LegalNextt, one of its kind platform, which will transform the legal domain and drive the lawyers and law firms to communicate and collaborate over a single platform. The platform will comprise of city wise and state wise forums of lawyers and law firms across the country enabling the entire law community to come forth and collaborate on their ideas, problems, opportunities, legal expertise, global know-how, etc. The platform also offers a tech platform for lawyers and law firms to help them digitize their current office work and ensure smooth running of their daily chores. “LegalNextt platform will create an immense value for the estimated
25 lakh lawyers in India and with 3.73 lakh lawyers adding to the count every year. We do not have a direct competition as such as this is a white space with the offerings that we are planning with LegalNextt. We have planned to capture 10% of the market share which is 250,000 lawyers at the end of 1st year.” says Destek Co-Founder, CEO Mandar Lande.
From Left to Right: Mandar Lande (CEO – Destek), Anirudha Kotgire (MD – Destek), Chandrakant Bhojepatil (Angel Investor), Gurmeet Singh (Angel Investor) and Kapil Jhaveri(Angel Investor)
On the seed investment, Mandar Lande further added “To have received the backing of these notable investors is a real validation of LegalNextt platform and the service that we plan to offer to our customers, as well as the huge market opportunity we see. We feel privileged to have their support and expertise as we expand our team, service and customer base, and feel confident that we are well positioned to meet our goals over the coming 18 months.”
Destek Co-Founder and MD Anirudha Kotgire commented “We have done extensive research in the legal domain before we started with the mission of LegalNextt. We have interviewed more than 100 lawyers and pitched our idea and got an overwhelming response from each one of them. That gave us the confidence of pitching the idea with the angel investors and VC’s. Finally, we tasted success in our second pitch to the investors. We are really happy and excited to be associated with our Angel Investors who have shown immense faith in the concept of LegalNextt and us as the founding team.”
Mr. Gurmeet Singh, an Angel Investor from Mumbai said, “We have been really impressed with the Destek Team for their innovative idea of LegalNextt as the platform for lawyers and law firms and are delighted to announce Seed Investment in Destek. We see a real demand in the market for their platform and product as evidenced by their thorough research to date across a number of Lawyers and law firms. We are excited to see the team take the business forward and are confident in their ability to execute on their vision.”
Mr. Kapil Jhaveri, another notable Angel Investor from Mumbai commented, “We are delighted to be supporting Destek Team as they move forward into the next phase of their growth. We believe in the team’s strong strategic vision and are excited for the opportunities ahead. As our first major investment, Destek Team’s LegalNextt platform is a key moment in our journey. They are a standout example for us, as we look to invest into the most promising start-ups driving game changing ideas, identifying and fostering new digital business models with the potential to revolutionize traditional professions and industries.”
Mr. Chandrakant Bhojepatil also said “We are glad to backup Destek Team for the revolutionary platform LegalNextt which will be the next big thing in the legal space. We believe in the founding team, Mandar and Anirudha for their vision and strategy to make LegalNextt successful in terms of value for the legal fraternity.”
For more information on LegalNextt go to: www.legalnextt.com Press Contact:
Mandar Lande, CEO @ Destek, Spokesperson for LegalNextt.
+91-9028611660 mandar@desteksolutions.com
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) and other agencies of the Ministry of Earth Sciences are working to create models to forecast occurrence of thunderstorms six to 12 hours in advance.
IMD Additional Director General Mritunjay Mohapatra said, a team of scientists of the deparment, the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology and the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting are working on models that could forecast probability of thunderstorms well in advance.
Mohapatra also said, the IMD is contemplating sending s on thunderstorms through Twitter.
Last year in May, over 200 people died in thunderstorm incidents.
In Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh alone, violent winds had killed nearly 180 people last year.
The South Korean government ban on the use of disposable plastic bags at big supermarkets came into effect on January 1 in a bid to protect the environment and encourage recycling.
The revised law affects about 2,000 supermarkets over 165 square metres in size, all of which used to provide disposable plastic bags for free, South Korea’s Environment Ministry said.
Ahead of the ban on Monday (December 31), shoppers in Seoul thought the move was the “right way to go” but an inconvenience that will take time to get used to.
One shopper felt it might be better to find ways to reuse plastic bags, rather than ban them altogether.
More than 60 countries now have bans or taxes on single-use plastics, according to the United Nations, which has called for such measures to stem the tide of pollution.
Of the 9 billion tonnes of plastic the world has produced, only 9 percent has been recycled, the United Nations added.
India and Sri Lanka today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to provide modern infrastructural facilities to Swami Vipulananda Institute of Aesthetic Studies of Eastern University in Batticaloa district of Sri Lanka.
The project involves refurbishment of the auditorium and construction of a modern building complex with recording cum editing facilities and supply vehicles to the institute through a grant of over 27 crore Sri Lankan rupees from the Government of India. The MoU was signed by High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka Taranjit Singh Sandhu, and M.M.P.K. Mayadunne, Secretary, Minister of City Planning, Water Supply and Higher Education. Minister of City Planning, Water Supply and Higher Education Abdul Rauff Hakeem and senior officials were present on the occasion.
This project is part of Government of India’s continued efforts to assist and cooperate with Government of Sri Lanka in people-oriented development projects. India’s overall commitment of development assistance to Sri Lanka stands at a total of around 3 billion US dollars, out of which 560 million is pure grant assistance.
The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind will confer the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar 2019 at Rashtrapati Bhawan. The awards will be given to 26 shortlisted awardees including one joint award for National Child Award (now renamed as Bal Shakti Puraskar) under the category of innovation, scholastic, sports, arts & culture, social service and bravery.
A total of 783 applications were received for the Baal Shakti Puruskar this year. 2 individuals and 3 institutions will also be awarded under National Child Welfare Awards category (now renamed as BalKalyanPuraskar). The names of awardess were finalized by the National Selection Committee under the Chairpersonship of WCD Minister, Maneka Sanjay Gandhi. The Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India has introduced a revamped award scheme under the name of “Pradhan Mantri National Children Awards”.
These awards will be given in two main categories. Bravery Awards have also been added to these awards now. The categories are as follows:
1) Bal Shakti Puraskar (erstwhile known as National Child Award)
2) Bal Kalyan Puraskar(erstwhile known as National Child Welfare Award).
A Child who is an Indian Citizen and residing in India can apply for National Child Award by registering on the web portal, filling the requisite information and attaching the relevant documents. In order to draw wide response from public, any citizen of India can nominate any child who has achieved excellence in any of the field. Individuals who are citizen of India and have made an outstanding contribution for the cause of children in the field of Child Development, Child Protection and Child Welfare for not less than 7 years and have a positive impact on the lives of children and Institutions who have done exceptional work for the cause of children in any field of Child Welfare for 10 years can apply for the National Child Welfare Award.
The logo for the award has been crowdsourced through a social media based competition. The awards are being hosted prior to 26th January so as to ensure that children get to participate in the Republic Day Parade.
