Happy Media

Business Line Date: Aug 03, 2020 PTI,  Residents and companies based out of Pakistan can participate in the commercial coal mining auctions only after approvals from the government. https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/centres-nod-must-for-pakistan-firms-to-participate-in-coal-auctions/article32261818.ece

FirstPost Date: Aug 03, 2020 Nayeem Ahmed Majhoor,  On 5 August, 2019, hours before the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced its decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir's special status and bifurcate it into two Union Territories, a number of the Valley's mainstream leaders were taken into preventative custody. Later, some were detained under the the Public Safety Act (PSA). But despite many mainstream politicos recently being released  (with the notable exception of Mehbooba Mufti)  and doing the media rounds, none of them has publicly called for restoring Article 370. Their silence has not gone unnoticed. "The Indian government has resumed the process of putting messages across through its followers whose ideology and conviction will never change despite humiliating them in public circles," one journalist, who did not wish to be named, stated. "India has kept its trump cards ready to quell resistance and reduce the pressure from the i

Financial Express Date: Aug 02, 2020 Sandeep Soni, Cryptocurrency bellwether Bitcoin is now worth as much as Coca Cola and Intel. The market capitalization of the world’s most traded cryptocurrency – Bitcoin crossed $200 billion earlier this week and stood at $208 billion on Friday, as per data from CoinMarketCap. The current market cap of Bitcoin is most similar to that of chipmaker Intel and beverage company Coca Cola at $203 billion and $202.92 billion respectively. The digital currency was trading at $11,759 with market cap nearing $217 billion at the time of filing this report. The revenue for Bitcoin miners in July increased 7 per cent to around $300 million from $281 million in June. This was also the first monthly jump in the revenue for miners since April that stood at over $400 million, according to Coin Metrics data cited by Coindesk. Bitcoin had last hit $203 billion in market cap in August 2019 while historically it peaked to $326 billion back on December 17,

Business Line Date: Aug 03, 2020 Rahul Wadke The corn crop in Maharashtra, after facing the Fall Armyworm attack in rabi season, is now facing renewed attacks of Northern Leaf Blight and Physoderma brown spot fungus The spread of the diseases is almost over one lakh hectares around Aurangabad, which has got the farmers worried. The onset of Northern Leaf Blight (NLB) is a bit more severe. Rising humidity accompanied by intermittent rains in the Aurangabad region is the trigger. Due to the outbreak of NLB, the leaves of the corn crop have turned largely yellow and dry, affecting their growth. Farmer Dhananjay Dhorade from Tolegaon village in Vaijapur taluka in Aurangabad district said that irregular rains is the main reason for the attack. If it rains contentiously, then the attack is very limited. However, absence of rains for a longer period would lead to a renewed attack and the standing crop will be badly affected with yield losses, he said. Dhorade, who has plante

Hindustan Times  Date: Aug 02, 2020 Zia Haq: India’s food-rationing system has been fully digitised in 24 states, allowing beneficiaries to receive subsidised food handouts in any of these states, a boost for migrant labourers, food minister Ram Vilas Paswan said on Saturday. The “One Nation One Ration Card” system, a digital platform which ensures in-kind welfare benefits move with migrants, now covers 650 million citizens in these states these states and Union Territories. It will cover rest of the states by March 2021. The nationwide portability of rations comes as a boost for migrants, potentially helping them to come back to cities from their home states, after a widespread lockdown imposed in March to contain the spread of Covid-19 forced millions to go without ration. In May, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while announcing the Modi government’s Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus plan, had said that following the coronavirus outbreak, the government would acc

Hindustan Times Date: Aug 02, 2020 Shishir Gupta India’s education ministry has decided to review in the coming week, the setting up of local chapters of the Confucius Institutes in association with seven local colleges and universities after security agencies alerted it to the growing Chinese influence in higher education in India. The ministry also plans to review 54 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) signed between prestigious educational institutions including IITs, BHU, JNU and NITs and Chinese institutions. It has already issued a notification to the Ministry of External Affairs and the University Grants Commission. The Confucius Institutes are directly funded by Ministry of Education of People’s Republic of China with the ostensible aim to promote Chinese language and Culture. But they have come in for criticism all around the world, including the US and the UK for helping spread Chinese propaganda. Most recently, according to a BBC report of September 2019, Austral

Al-Monitor  Date: July 30, 2020 Amberin Zaman,  The Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of Northeast Syria has signed an agreement with an American oil company, well-placed sources with close knowledge of the deal told Al-Monitor. One of the sources said the agreement to market oil in territory controlled by the US-backed entity and to develop and modernize existing fields was inked last week “with the knowledge and encouragement of the White House.” The sources named the company as Delta Crescent Energy LLC, a corporation organized under the laws of the state of Delaware. The sources gave no further details about the company but would only say they had been in talks for “a long time” and that it had received an OFAC license to operate in Syria. Sinam Mohamad, the Syrian Democratic Council representative to the United States, confirmed via Whatsapp that Delta Crescent had signed an agreement with the autonomous administration but said she had no further details. Oil is

The Indian Express  Date: Aug 01, 2020 Education desk Indian Express,  Of an estimated 15 lakh engineers graduate in India every year, of which only 2.5 lakh students land relevant jobs in technical domains, claims the latest survey by Scaler – an edtech startup. In opposition to the perception, most of the engineers in India rather end up getting paid less than Rs 8 lakh. As per the survey, out of those roughly 2.2 lakh openings are in software, within which a vast majority (1.8 lakh jobs) are in IT services garnering around only Rs 3-5 lakh per annum in remuneration. Report further suggest that of the available engineering jobs, only 40,000 jobs — for around 3 per cent of 15 lakh engineers get a mix of autonomy with packages upwards of Rs 8-10 lakh per annum for freshers. Additionally, of the 3 per cent of graduates who land coveted high-paying and quality jobs, the majority come from Tier 1 colleges — implying the lack of good quality opportunities for students from Tier

The Indian Express Date: Aug 01, 2020 AP, Should former Vice President Joe Biden win the White House in November, America will likely be in for a foreign policy about-face as Biden reverses, dismantles or severely curtails many of President Donald Trump’s most significant and boldest actions. From the Middle East to Asia, Latin America to Africa and, particularly, Europe, and on issues including trade, terrorism, arms control and immigration, the presumptive Democratic nominee and his advisers have vowed to unleash a tsunami of change in how the US handles itself in the international arena. With few exceptions, Americans could expect Biden to re-engage with traditional allies. Where the iconoclastic Trump has used blunt threats and insults to press his case, Biden, a former senator, would be more inclined to seek common ground. Historically, US foreign policy hasn’t changed drastically as the presidency shifted between Democratic and Republican administrations. Allies a

The Indian Express Date: Aug 02, 2020 PTI,  THE NEW National Education Policy (NEP) is an exercise in reforming the country’s mindset and approach, and focuses on job creators instead of job seekers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Saturday. “This policy wants to create an independent youth who can decide whether he wants to either do a job or service or become an entrepreneur,” he said while addressing the finale of the Smart India Hackathon. The Hackathon, which is in its fourth year, is an event for students across the country to try and solve some of the pressing problems that people face in their daily lives. Speaking to the participants, Modi said he wants youngsters to learn, question and solve. “When you question, you get out-of-the-box methods to solve problems. When you do that, you grow. Due to your efforts, our nation grows. Our planet prospers,” he said, adding that the NEP reflects this spirit. The new NEP is only the third in India’s indepen

The Indian Express  Dated: Aug 02, 2020 Esha Roy,  THE FIRST report in India on the genome of SARS-CoV-2 has found that a particular variant of the virus brought in mainly by travellers from Europe has become the most prominent across the country, giving rise to the hope that it may be easier to deal with a more “homogenous’’ entity than those with different lineages. According to scientists involved in the study, the finding also suggests that the stringent nationwide lockdown that was in place between March and May “has actually worked’’ since the ban on international and inter-state travel “prevented the entry of new lineages of the virus”. The report, which was tabled before Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan by the Department of Biotechnology Saturday, states that the A2a haplotype has rooted out any other haplotypes that existed before. A haplotype is a group of genes, which is inherited together by an organism from a single parent. “Initial results indicate t

The Wire  Date: July 28, 2020 Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta: New Delhi: Multiple issues centred around the transparency of the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund) have been raised since its inception. Adversaries of the Bharatiya Janata Party have repeatedly questioned the necessity of such a fund, especially when a separate corpus for disaster relief by the name of Prime Minister National Relief Fund (PMNRF) already existed. By rejecting multiple Right to Information (RTI) inquiries on the fund’s accounting and auditing procedures, and its spending, the Prime Minister’s Office only added to the cloud of confusion prevailing around PM CARES.  Now, as the Bihar assembly polls nears, speculation about the possibility of misuse of the fund during the election campaign have been rife in the political corridors of New Delhi. In informal discussions, opposition leaders predict that the ruling BJP may tactically increase PM