Youth shot dead in Ganjam

BRAHMAPUR: A betel shop owner at Humma railway station under Rambha police station in Ganjam district, 37 km away from here, was shot dead by two unidentified bike-borne miscreants on Monday.

The deceased was identified as Prasad Kumar Behera (28) of Khajuriapalli village under Rambha police station limit in the district. On Monday morning, the two miscreants came to Behera’s betel shop and asked two cigarettes. While handing over the cigarettes, the miscreants started firing at him. When Behera lost consciousness and fell down from the shop, the miscreants fled from the spot.

Behera was rushed to the Chatrapur sub-divisional hospital, but on the way he died. The police sent the body for post mortem.

According to the police, the firing incident occurred due to previous enmity. The police found a khoka from the spot and investigating into the matter. “We will arrest the culprits very soon,” said Rambha police station IIC Rashmi Ranjan Pradhan.

NCW chief to inaugurate ‘Nirbhaya Samaroh’ at Puri on July 9

BHUBANESWAR: National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson Mamta Sharma, who is visiting the State for two days, would inaugurate the Puri edition of ‘Nirbhaya Samaroh’ at the Odisha Sangeeta Parishad ground in Puri on Tuesday evening.

Nirbhaya Samaroh is being held by the ‘Honour for Women National Campaign’ at different parts of the country to mobilise people for its nationwide movement to end violence against women through musical and dance performances.

The NCW Chief would felicitate noted Odia film actress Aparajita Mohanty with the Odisha Women Leadership Award for the year 2012 and would also honour eminent organisations like Sister’s Adorers and BSHS, the Odisha Sangeeta Parishad and Prajapita Brahmakumaris of Puri centre for their immense contribution in spreading education among girl students.

On July 10 evening, the Sharma would inaugurate the ‘Women’s Rights Stall’ being hosted by the NCW, Delhi, in association with leading women organisation ‘OYSS Women’ for the famous Rath Yatra at Puri. It is for the first time that such a stall is being hosted by the NCW for the Rath Yatra.

The stall housed on Saradhabali near Gundicha temple would have different programmes to raise awareness on women’s rights for the entire 10-day festival period from July 10 to July 18 and would also serve as a public point for receiving all women related complaints.

On July 11 morning, Sharma accompanied by NCW member Manasi Pradhan would visit the women wards in Puri District Hospital and would also review the arrangements for women devotees in Puri Railway Station and other places for the ensuing Rath yatra.

Google Business Group Bhubaneswar launched

BHUBANESWAR: Google Business Group (GBG) Bhubaneswar, a community of business professionals sharing knowledge about Google web technologies for business success, was launched in the city by country head of Google outreach programmes Sunil Rao.

Addressing audience on the occasion, Rao said the group is run by business professionals passionate about bringing the benefits of the web to their local business communities. “We are here to create a Start-Up ecosystem and evangelise the entrepreneurship culture in Odisha,” he asserted.

Information Technology department secretary Madhusudan Padhi attending as chief guest of the occasion said the State Government has taken many initiative to promote the web technology.

Among others, MD and CEO of Milk Mantra Srikumar Mishra and Corporate Gurukul founder Rajesh Panda graced the occasion.

GBG Bhubaneswar chapter manager Ananda Mishra said that the group would organise social gatherings, workshops, online hangouts, larger events and other activities where like-minded business professionals can connect, learn and get inspired.

US-India announces Obama-Singh awards connecting Universities to solve global challenges

The United States and India Announce Obama-Singh Awards

            Connecting Universities to Solve Global Challenges

In a continuation of the educational partnership between India and the United States, the State Department is pleased to announce the eight institutional partnership projects below for the second round of Obama-Singh 21^st Century Knowledge Initiative awards.  This initiative strengthens collaboration and builds partnerships between American and Indian institutions of higher education in priority fields.  Each project will receive an award of approximately $250,000 that can be utilized over a three year period, with the objectives of cultivating educational reform, fostering economic growth, generating shared knowledge to address global challenges, and developing junior faculty at Indian and American institutions of higher learning.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Barack Obama announced the Obama-Singh Initiative in November 2009 as an affirmation of their commitment to building an enhanced India-U.S. partnership in education.  Each government pledged $5 million for this endeavor, for a total of $10 million.

U.S.-led Partnerships:

Harvard School of Public Health

Project Title:  Harvard-India Nutrition Initiative

Partner Institution: St. Johns Research Institute, Bangalore

Ohio State University

Project Title: The STEM Faculty Project: Training the Next Generation of STEM Faculty at Higher Education Institutions in India

Partner Institution: Aligarh Muslim University

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Project Title: Inclusive Universities: Linking Diversity, Equity and Excellence for the 21^st Century

Partner Institution: University of Pune

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Project Title:  Partnering for Success: Advancing Sustainability Research and Education in India

Partner Institution: Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore

Indian-led Partnerships:

Annamalai University

Project Title: Tamil Nadu Energy Futures:  Mapping Uncertainties and Risks

Partner Institutions: Tennessee Technological University

Assam Agricultural University

Project Title: Engineering ADP – Glucose Pyrophosphorylase (AGPase) enzymes for heat tolerance in rice

Partner Institution: Washington State University

Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women

Project Title: A Sustainable ‘Response to Intervention’ model for successful inclusion of children with disabilities –A India-US Partnership

Partner Institution: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

National Institute of Technology – Trichy

Project Title: Cognitive based Curriculum Development Tool for emerging areas of Computer Engineering and Management Studies for improving Teaching-Learning Process

Partner Institution: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

The next request for proposals for the Obama-Singh Initiative grants will be announced in July 2013.  Details will be available at www.usief.org.in/OSI and http://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/5520971_9807232_ProposalUSIndiaIC.pdf

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HC directs PIO to supply information to BPL applicant free of cost

BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha High Court has directed the Public Information Officer (PIO), Office of Assistant Engineer National High-way Sub-division in Nayagarh district, to provide information to the BPL RTI applicant free of cost as per section 7 (5) of the Right to Information Act, 2005.

  

Kunja Bihari Patra, a BPL-RTI applicant, had submitted an RTI application on March 8, 2010 and April 27, 2010 to the PIO, office of Assistant Engineer of NH sub-division in Nayagarh seeking some information about construction of NH-224 by the National Highway Authorities of India (NHAI).

When Patra didn’t get information from the PIO, he approached the State Information Commission (SIC) by lodging a complaint petition on July 20, 2011 under section 18 of the RTI Act. He had mentioned in the petition that he was a BPL fellow and he was entitled to get information free of cost.

State Chief Information Commissioner Tarun Kanti Mishra heard the case and directed the Executive Engineer of the National Highways Division in Bhubaneswar to conduct an enquiry and to submit a report as to whether the applications of the petitions were received by the PIO and timely action was taken thereon. The inquiring officer reported that both the applications as claimed by the petitioner were not received by the office of the PIO. Subsequently, on December 18 last year, the Commission directed the PIO to intimate the complainant within fifteen days about the cost of information and supply the information to the complainant within seven days of the cost of the deposit of the information.

Being aggrieved, Patra challenged the decision of the Commission in the High Court. Hearing the case and quoting the provision of section 7(5) of the RTI Act which says RTI applicants coming under BPL category   are entitled to get the information freely, the High Court directed the concerned PIO to provide the information free of cost.

“It is very unfortunate that the SIC has gone to the extent of directing   the PIO to collect the fees from the BPL people,” said RTI activist Pradip Pradhan.