Emphasizes on greater coordination, Synergy between departments
Srinagar, May 01 (GNS): The Divisional Commissioner (Div Com) Kashmir, Vijay Kumar Bidhuri today emphasized on greater coordination and synergy among line departments for timely completion of developmental activities in City and enroute to different destinations.
The Div Com was chairing a high level meeting convened here to review to review G20 Summit preparations in Kashmir.
The meeting was attended by Deputy Commissioner Srinagar; Deputy Commissioner Budgam; CEO Smart City Ltd; Director Tourism Kashmir; Chief Engineers of R&B, SSCL, UEED, I&FC; RTO Kashmir; officers of various departments and representatives of Jio, BSNL besides representatives of Hotel Taj & Lalit.
Addressing the meeting, the Div Com directed for activation of the Control Room within two days to ensure all the facilities are in place in view of the G20 Summit.
He directed representatives of communication service providers to strengthen the network at the specified places by increasing the number of COW sites.
Div Com also directed Managers of Taj & Lalit hotels to renovate, colour coat interior & premises and enhance aesthetics of establishments. He also instructed them to make arrangements at the venues of SKICC and Golf Course regarding hospitality services.
While reviewing the redevelopment process of roads, Div Com directed CEs of R&B and SSCL to blacktop all the roads included in the beautification plan of the City.
Besides, he issued instructions to concerned people for grass cutting along roads, routes, footpaths, closing manholes with lids, colour iron grills, making water fountains functional, smooth operation of streets lights, removing of debris & construction material from roads, installation of hoardings and flexes.
Moreover, he directed Director Tourism for identification of well furnished and decorated Shikaras for the ride of visiting delegates during the Summit.
Similarly, RTO Kashmir was directed to identify and earmark twenty Tempo Travelers for dignitaries besides ensure that drivers wearing uniform pattern of attire.
Meanwhile, he directed strict action against Project Management of NBCC for not completing the work of reconstruction of the portion of Ali Jan road where the said agency has carried out developmental work.
Bhiduri also reprimanded concerned officers for delay in executing and finishing works undertaken for the G20 Summit.(GNS)
Hyderabad: Telangana principal chief conservator of forests and nodal officer MC Pargaien on Friday conducted review meeting of the progress of processing of various road proposals under Forest Conservation (FC) Act.
Nearly 200 road proposals of various departments were reviewed in the meeting. More than 26 road projects have been accorded stage – 1 approval and are pending for compliance of deposition of compensatory levies, details of non-forest lands and other information.
Nearly 71 proposals of roads falling in protected areas have been submitted to the Ministry of Environment and Forest, New Delhi for approval of the National Board for Wild Life (NBWL). The remaining 103 proposals are under various stages of processing.
Pargaien requested all the participants to resolve the pending issues on priority, duly keeping the recent changes in FC rules in mind, so that the project is executed as soon as possible.
Pargaien said “Telangana forest department is going to organise an interactive training and capacity building workshop on Parivesh 2.0 – Pro-active and Responsive facilitation by Interactive, Virtuous and Environmental Single-window Hub, for online submission and monitoring of the proposals. The workshop will be conducted for officers of various users departments in May 2023.
The Inspector General of Forests (Central) for Hyderabad region, Trinadh Kumar also interacted with all officers and clarified various issues relating to processing of proposal under FC Act, 1980.
Srinagar, Apr 27 (GNS): Chairperson J&K Waqf Board, Dr Darakhshan Andrabi on Thursday chaired a review meeting of District Verification Teams constituted earlier to carry out verification of all Waqf notified properties which have been left ignored over the years and have remained outside administrative control of J&K Waqf Board.
On the instructions of Waqf Board Chairperson, the District Verification Teams had been constituted vide order number 62 of 2023 in January this year & these teams were mandated to peruse all public representations/complaints of general public, wherein requests had been made to the Chairperson Waqf for take-over of all Waqf notified properties that were being managed locally with no legal accountability and there were lots of complaints of irregularities.
These committees had been directed to prepare a list of all Waqf notified properties & yet-to-be notified properties along with their assets, liabilities, staff, & income details.
Pertinently, J&K Waqf Board has also initiated the process for compilation of details of un-notified religious places & their assets, wherever representations have been made by the general public for take-over. The initiative of take-over of properties under the leadership of Dr Andrabi is being thought of as another major reform within J&K Waqf Board.
In her address Dr Darakhshan said that reforms in the Waqf Board have restored the trust in public and the Board is taking all steps to cleanse the wrongs in the management system of religious places. “We received thousands of requests from all corners of J&K about administrative take-over of notified religious sites and many others ill-managed by the local committees. We have taken over a couple of notified places after proper verification and are looking forward to taking control of many other such religious places after due checks in future”, said Andrabi. (GNS)
Discusses various aspects to meet the high electricity demand and a multi-pronged strategy to ensure adequate availability of power
Jammu, April 26 (GNS): Lieutenant Governor Shri Manoj Sinha chaired a meeting of Power Development Department to review power situation during the upcoming summer months, today at Civil Secretariat.
The meeting discussed the various aspects to meet the high electricity demand and a multi-pronged strategy to ensure adequate availability of power.
The Lt Governor directed the officers to strictly implement the decisions taken in the earlier meetings to meet any peak demand and proactive actions for robust power distribution & transmission system.
The Lt Governor also directed to launch a campaign against theft of electricity. He said cases of theft should be tackled on priority since it is an important aspect to ensure energy security to all.
The Lt Governor sought a detailed report on the ongoing power sector projects and schemes such as installation of pre-paid meters. He directed the officers to analyse all the issues such as manpower augmentation & rationalisation to provide better power services to the people of J&K.
He further instructed to complete the augmentation and upgradation work of Grid stations on a war footing.
A PowerPoint presentation was given by Sh. H. Rajesh Prasad, Principal Secretary, Power Development Department on actions taken on the directions during the previous review meeting.
The Lt Governor also launched Real-Time Data acquisition system (RT-DAS). The system would provide real-time access to performance parameters pertaining to different feeders besides other benefits.
Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary; Sh. H. Rajesh Prasad, Principal Secretary, Power Development Department along with other senior officials attended the meeting.
Directs for speedy, target-based execution of Works Plan at all major Shrines and sub-units
Srinagar, Apr 25 (GNS): In an effort to make the best use of upcoming working season and to gear up Engineering Wing for execution of a large number of major and minor works across the Shrines and Sub Units of J&K UT, Chairperson J&K Waqf Board, Dr Darakhshan Andrabi, Tuesday chaired a review meeting of Engineering Wing of the Waqf Board.
Dr. Andrabi on the occasion issued strict instructions regarding expeditious and time bound execution of all major and minor civil works.
Chairperson Waqf expressed strong disappointment over neglect of all major shrines over the years by erstwhile Waqf authorities and issued directions for immediate course correction and speedy execution of works to improve facilities for devotees at all Shrines.
Dr. Andrabi also reviewed the progress achieved so far & was apprised by the Engineering Wing about limitations in achieving targets because of the winter season & high altitude location of some major shrines.
Major focus of discussion remained the execution of works at shrines with large footfall of devotees, like, Aasar-e-Shareef Hazratbal Srinagar, Makhdoom Sahib (R.A) Shrine, Dastageer Sahib (R.A) Khanyar, Ziyarat Baba Reshi (R.A), Aishmuqam Shrine, Charar-i-Sharif Shrine and several other shrines where people offer significant donations for execution of works & improvement of facilities.
Pertinently, Waqf, under the leadership of Dr Andrabi has adopted the policy of making expenditures at shrines strictly as per income of the shrines and has stopped the practice of diverting donations from one shrine to another. The meeting was attended by Tehsildar and Executive Engineer Waqf Board, all Junior Engineers and Supervisors of Waqf.(GNS)
San Francisco: Snapchat’s AI chatbot — ‘My AI’, which is powered by OpenAI’s GPT technology, has received negative user reviews since its global launch last week.
Initially available only to subscribers, the AI chatbot is now prominently placed at the top of the app’s Chat tab, allowing users to ask it questions and receive immediate responses. However, the feature’s performance has failed to impress users worldwide, as evidenced by their critical feedback, reports TechCrunch.
According to data from app intelligence firm Sensor Tower, the average App Store review in the US was 1.67, with 75 per cent of reviews being one-star.
In comparison, the average US App Store review for Snapchat in Q1 2023 was 3.05, with only 35 per cent of reviews being one star.
Moreover, the report said that the number of daily reviews has also increased by five times over the last week.
Apptopia, another app data provider, reports a similar trend.
Its findings revealed that ‘AI’ was the top keyword in Snapchat’s App Store reviews over the previous seven days, with 2,973 mentions.
The firm has assigned the term an ‘Impact Score’ of -9.2. This Impact Score is a weighted index that ranges from -10 to +10 and measures the impact of a term on sentiment, the report mentioned.
According to Apptopia, Snapchat received approximately three times the number of one-star ratings than its usual amount on April 20, 2023, the day after the global release of My AI was announced.
SRINAGAR, APRIL 25: Principal Secretary, Skill Development Department (SDD), Dr Asgar Hassan Samoon, held a meeting today to discuss and review formulation of CAPEX Budget 2023-24 here at Civil Secretariat.
He also reviewed progress on ongoing projects under the CAPEX Budget and CSS 2022-23
The meeting was attended by Director SDD, Chief Engineers of R&B Kashmir/Jammu, Joint Directors of DSD Jammu/Srinagar, as well as the concerned Principals and Superintendents of Government Polytechnics and ITIs Jammu/Kashmir, both in person and through virtual mode.
He discussed all the relevant issues and enquired about the requirements from the concerned regarding formulation of CAPEX Budget 2023-24.
Dr Samoon asked the Director SDD to incorporate the requirements with respect to civil works and other works so that a comprehensive CAPEX Budget is formulated.
He also reviewed the physical and financial progress on the projects besides assessing the maintenance and repairs in both the regular and ITI sectors.
During the meeting, Dr Samoon expressed satisfaction over the progress made, so far. He emphasized the need to finish the projects within the stipulated time frame.
Principal Secretary exhorted upon the officers to identify skill gaps and develop required skills in coordination with concerned departments.
Dr Samoon directed the officers to ensure that all the ongoing and new projects are completed successfully and within the time frame. He stressed that timely completion of the projects is of utmost importance to achieve the objective of the department.
Principal Secretary also instructed the officers to take strict measures to maintain quality control and ensure that the projects are executed as per the specified standards. He emphasized the importance of transparency in execution of projects and directed the officers to maintain accurate records of the progress made.
The British government hasn’t yet succeeded in passing its flagship piece of internet regulation, but it’s about to introduce a second. Hot on the heels of the online safety bill comes the digital markets, competition and consumer bill, introduced today “to crack down on rip-offs, protect consumer cash online and boost competition in digital markets”.
From our story:
Major tech firms face the threat of multibillion-pound fines for breaching consumer protection rules under new legislation that will tackle issues including fake online reviews and subscriptions that are difficult to cancel.
The digital markets, competition and consumers bill will empower the UK’s competition watchdog to tackle the “excessive dominance” that a small number of tech firms hold over consumers and businesses.
Firms that are deemed to have “strategic market status” – such as tech firms Google and Apple, and online retailer Amazon – will be given strict rules on how to operate under the bill and face a fine representing up to 10% of global turnover if they breach the new regime.
Just like the online safety bill, this is multiple pieces of regulation squashed together in a somewhat ungainly fashion.
One – undoubtedly the most important – part of the bill is aimed at beefing up the Competition and Markets Authority, the UK’s competition regulator. It finally gives statutory powers to the “digital markets unit” (DMU), a subgroup of the CMA formed to monitor and regulate, well, digital markets – specifically, the largely American mega-platforms whose scale and heft defines the contours of the internet and, increasingly, society in general.
The DMU was first announced almost two and a half years ago, after the government revealed plans to empower the unit to write and enforce a new code of practice for technology companies. And it’s been reannounced every year since then: in 2021, the CMA announced it would set up the unit “later this year”, which it duly did. But the unit wasn’t given any actual power, so in May 2022 the government announced that ministers would introduce legislation to bestow it the ability to actually issue fines and create rules.
That legislation has finally been introduced. The government simply needs to pass it, a task that should be trivial for a party with a parliamentary majority of 67 but is frequently beyond the ken of this one (as anyone who has followed the online safety bill through its half-decade history will be all too aware).
Once (if?) it passes, the DMU will be empowered to regulate a tiny number of enormous companies – an FT report (£) on a leaked draft of the bill suggests that the threshold for coverage will be £1bn of UK revenue, or £25bn of global revenue. That would include giants like Apple, Meta and Microsoft, but exclude still very large companies like Spotify, Epic Games (of Fortnite fame) and TikTok.
Those tech titans will be deemed to have “strategic market status”, opening themselves up to handcrafted rules designed “to provide more choice and transparency to their customers”. It’s too soon to know what those rules might be, but expect this to be the mechanism by which the UK state begins putting pressure on companies over their app stores, marketplaces and advertising offerings: all the parts of a massive platform that don’t easily fall under traditional competition policy but do, at the scale of these businesses, have a substantial economic impact.
The DMU will have teeth, theoretically: breaches of its rules can come with a fine of up to 10% of global turnover. It will also be able to “carry out targeted interventions”, the government says, “opening up new paths for start-ups or smaller firms that have previously struggled to grow and compete in these markets”. Think, for instance, requiring a market leader to reduce barriers to building services on top of its platform.
The second part of the bill is distinct but overlapping, giving the CMA itself more powers to directly enforce consumer law. At the moment, an awful lot of its functions require a lengthy court process, and the government wants to give it the ability to directly impose penalties for breaching consumer law, again with a fine of up to 10% of a company’s global turnover.
And then, awkwardly tied to the CMA part of the bill, is the rest of it. This is the stuff that has made the headlines in the consumer press: a ban on fake reviews, a policy to end “subscription traps”, and a new requirement to advise customers when a free trial or introductory offer is coming to an end.
Those policies are good popular reforms, but are unlikely to have anywhere near the impact of the meatier regulatory side of the bill. The consumer rights group Which? supports them, at least:
Whether it’s fake reviews by dishonest businesses or people getting trapped in unwanted and costly subscriptions, our consumer protections are overdue an upgrade. Which? has long campaigned for stronger powers for the Competition and Markets Authority, including tough enforcement and the ability to fine firms that break the law directly.
In the meantime, the online safety bill trundles ever onwards. Last week it was reintroduced to the House of Lords, where it is winding through committee stage. WhatsApp and Signal have united and implied they may withdraw from the country entirely if it passes unchanged. The government doesn’t appear to care. Politics!
Once, there was no verification on Twitter. All accounts were as one.
Then people began impersonating celebrities, and the threat of lawsuits prompted the introduction of a verification programme, placing a checkmark beside the name of users who had proved their identity.
The programme grew to encompass a broad swathe of notable users, including many journalists, in part because it was effectively administered by businesses who would work to verify their staff.
A “blue tick” became a desirable mark of status – or a divisive sign of elitism.
Elon Musk buys Twitter, and begins selling the ability to “verify” your account to end the “lords and peasants” system. No verification occurs, but accounts with a phone number attached are eligible for a checkmark. A few hundred thousand sign up.
Some of the newly verified users express annoyance at the older, “legacy” verified users receiving the same status for free. Musk announces that they will have that status stripped from them on 20 April, a date known for its significance in weed culture.
The legacy checkmarks are removed. Only people who pay are marked out. This immediately becomes a source of embarrassment. A grassroots campaign begins to block anyone with a paid-for mark.
Celebrities with more than one million followers wake up to find they have had the mark forced on them – with a public explanation claiming they paid for it, even though they did not. Some discover they can’t remove it even if they try.
Elon Musk takes a break from blowing up rockets to tweet a laughing-face emoji and the words “A troll, me??”
It’s like selling Nobel prizes to raise revenue, then taking all the Nobel prizes you had previously awarded back and wondering why a Nobel prize isn’t impressive any more. Truly genius stuff.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Advisor Bhatnagar reviews performance, functioning of SIDCO, SICOP
JAMMU, APRIL 24: Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, today chaired a meeting to review performance and functioning of SIDCO and SICOP at Civil Secretariat here.
The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce department, Prashant Goel, Managing Director, SIDCO/SICOP, senior officers of both the Corporations and other concerned officers both in person and through video conferencing.
Addressing the officers during the meeting, Advisor Bhatnagar emphasized upon the management of both the Corporations to focus on creating a well established ecosystem for accelerated development of industrial sector across Jammu and Kashmir. This will generate employment avenues for the youth here, he added.
Advisor further asked the management of both the Corporations to intensify their efforts for revival of non-functional Industrial Estates and draft a suitable plan for the same. He remarked that revival of these units will generate employment opportunities for large number of youth in the region.
While reviewing conditions and facilities of existing industrial estates, Advisor Bhatnagar delved upon the officers that the roads leading to these industrial estates should be upgraded besides other utilities on modern lines should be put in place. He also directed the officers to develop roads and other facilities in the newly designated industrial estates on priority so that new allotments to industrial unit holders are operationalized early.
Regarding establishment of Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETP’s) in industrial estates, the Advisor directed the officers to ensure that the CETPs are made essential by the industrial units besides making all completed CETPs operational at the earliest.
Advisor Bhatnagar, during the meeting, also highlighted the need for continuous improvement and innovation in functioning of the industrial estates across Jammu and Kashmir. He urged upon both the Corporations to focus on creating an enabling environment for SMEs to thrive and grow by providing them with timely and effective support in areas such as finance, marketing, and technology.
While reviewing the performance of SICOP, the Advisor directed the management of the Corporation for timely completion of all the projects. He further impressed upon them to recover the outstanding amount pending with different departments of J&K and effective utilization of same for betterment of corporation.
Reviewing ongoing process of amalgamation of SIDCO and SICOP into JKIDC, the Advisor emphasized upon the Corporations to explore progressive IDC’s across the country and incorporate some feasible ideas of these into JKIDC. He also asked them to study recruitment rules of these IDC’s and accordingly draft same for JKIDC on timely basis.
During the meeting, a detailed presentation was displayed by both the Corporations on performance and financial progress achieved.
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SRINAGAR: On Saturday, Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi, the Northern Army Commander, visited the site of the militant attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district, where five Indian soldiers were killed.
He reviewed the security in the border area and the ongoing combing operation to track down the militants who ambushed the Army truck on Thursday.
Top security officials, including BSF Director General S L Thaosen and ADGP Mukesh Singh, also visited the spot. The soldiers were from a Rashtriya Rifles unit deployed for counter-terror operations. Security forces have launched a manhunt in the dense forest area of Bhata Dhurian to nab the militants.
A high alert has been sounded in the twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch. Fourteen people were detained for questioning, but some have been released.
