Thanks President!

One has to thank the US President Donald Trump as he announced that he was open to citizenship for 'Dreamers' in 10-12 years. This is for the first time that President Trump has indicated that he was open to a path to citizenship for America's so-called "Dreamers" in 10 to 12 years.

The move will certainly welcomed by millions of people all over the world especially in India as it may also benefit thousands of Indian-origin undocumented immigrants.

Some 6,90,000 undocumented immigrants, who were illegally brought to the US as children, are likely to get benefited. Among them include several thousand people of Indian descent.

The term "Dreamers", which is used for the undocumented immigrants living in the US illegally, came from the DREAM Act, a bipartisan legislation that was first proposed in 2001 to provide citizenship to them under certain conditions. The bill was never passed.

Trump told reporters during an impromptu news conference at the White House before he left for Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos.

Trump called this as an "incentive" for the immigrants for the hard work. However, a senior administration official later said no final decision has been taken yet over the issue.

Read More

Shiv Sena Is a Tiger Turned Tortoise - Ajit Pawar

With his days in opposition, Nationalist Congress Party leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar is making most of this opportunity. Speaking in Jalana in Marathwada region, he took potshots on Shiv Sena, a party that is sharing power with Bharatiya Janata Party with an extreme awkwardness. Putting his finger at Shiv Sena where it hurts most, Pawar said that Shiv Sena was a tiger during Balasaheb Thackeray’s days but has been since been reduced to be a tortise.

Shiv Sena has not become even a sheep or a hare, but tortoise that thrusts its neck and doing nothing, the leader said. A march was organized at Jafarabad in Jalana district as part of NCP’s campaign Halla Bol, that seeks to attack the ruling BJP for its alleged failures on all fronts, under the leadership of Pawar Jr. The statement came during the meeting after the march.
Targetting Shiv Sena for its precarious situation, Ajit Pawar said that the party threatened a hundred times during three years to leave the ruling alliance, but it couldn't resist the lure of power that has come to its way after full 15 years!

Read More

Total Eclipse of Moon to take place on January 31

   A total eclipse of the moon will occur on January 31, 2018.  This is the first eclipse of the year, with a rare coincidence of a blue moon and a super full moon. The full moon on that day happens to be the second full moon of the calendar month of January, termed as a blue moon.  Further, the moon will be at perigee on January 30, as such the full moon will occur when the moon is near the closest to earth in its orbit. Hence, this full moon will be a little bigger and brighter than the regular full moon, popularly referred to as a super moon.

    During totality, the moon will completely enter the earth’s umbral shadow and may look reddish. The sunlight, comprising of seven colours, fall on the earth’s atmosphere. The blue, violet and green portion of it are scattered most and are filtered out, the red and orange portion of it are scattered less, get bent by refraction in the earth’s atmosphere, fall on the moon’s surface during totality making it reddish in colour to look from the earth.

    The eclipse will begin as a partial eclipse from h. 17-18 IST and will continue up to h. 20-42 IST. The total eclipse will start from h. 18-21 IST and will end at h. 19-38 IST. The duration of the eclipse will be 3 h 24 mts and the duration of totality will be 1 hr 17 mts.  The ending of the total and partial phases of the eclipse will be visible from all places of India. However the entire eclipse, from beginning to end of the partial and total phases, will be visible only from north eastern part of the country including Kolkata. The beginning of the partial phase will not be visible from the rest part of the country, as the partial eclipse will start before the moonrise timings of the most of the places of India. Similarly, the beginning of the totality phases of the eclipse will not be visible from the places along the extreme western coast of the country including Mumbai.

   The eclipse will be visible in the region covering North America except the eastern part, western South America, Asia including India, Australia, the Middle East, northern Scandinavia, eastern Europe and eastern Africa.

   The next eclipse of the Moon will occur on July 27-28, 2018, which will be a total lunar eclipse and will be visible in India.

Read More

Second National Teachers Congress to be held in Pune

After attaining stupendous success in its first National Teacher’s Congress (NTC) in 2016, the MIT School of Government is all bolstered to launch its second edition to be held between January 10 to 12, 2018 at the Prof Dr Vishwanath Karad MIT WPU Campus at Kothrud in Pune.

The 2nd NTC is organized under the aegis of Dr Vishwanath Karad MIT WPU and MIT School Of Government, Pune with the active support of the Government of Maharashtra. Several institutions of importance like the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), Association of Indian Universities (AIU) and UNESCO Chair for Democracy, Peace, Human rights and Tolerance, Pune have also rendered their support and association in this thoughtful mission.

Speaking about the second edition of the NTC, Shri Rahul Karad, Founder and Convenor, said, “We at MIT WPU are elated to announce the 2^nd edition of National Teachers Congress to be held at our MIT WPU campus tomorrow. It is a matter of pride for me to say that the teaching community in our country has found the NTC to be a ‘must attend’ event and have been looking forward to it. Over 8000 higher education teachers from across the country including 500 from abroad have confirmed their participation.”

Shri Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra would be the Chief Guest even as H H Dalai Lama, Nobel Peace Laurete & Leader of Tibetan Buddhism and Shri Vinod Tawde, Minister of Higher & Technical Education, Govt of Maharashtra would be inaugurating the 2^nd National Teachers Congress on January 10, 2018 at 10 am.

The theme for the inaugural session is “Higher Education of India, Prospects & Retrospects.” The Day 1 will also see special felicitations in which noted educationists would be conferred the Jeevan Gaurav Puraskar for facilitating the creation of generations of enlightened and knowledge driven students and the beneficiaries are

1.      Padma Shri Prof Kasturi Lal Gupta, Founder Coordinator & Advisor Thin Film Laboratory, Indian Institute of Technology.

2.      Dr Arun Nigavekar, Senior Advisor, Trustee, Science & Technology Park, University of Pune & Ex Chairman of UGC.

3.      Prof S C Sahasrabuddhe, Former Deputy Director, IIT Bombay and Former Director, Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Communication Technology, Gujarat.

4.      Padma Shri Dr Sanjay G. Dhande, Eminent Educationist & Former Director, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur.

Eminent speakers at the function include Prof Dr Vishwanath D. Karad, Founder President, MIT World Peace University and Founder Executive President, MAEER’s MIT Group of Institutions, Smt Mukta Tilak, Mayor of Pune city, Dr Anil D. Sahasrabuddhe, Chairman, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), Dr Anil Kakodkar, Padma Vibhushan & Eminent Scientist (Atomic Energy) and Dr Lobsang Sangay, President, Central Tibetan Administration, Tibet.

Read More

Aadhaar Data Breach: Much Ado About Nothing

Yet another news turned out to be false. The Unique Identification Authority of India has denied the media reports that said that for 500 rupees one could have access to billion Aadhaar details. UIDAI has called it a case of misreporting and assured that there has not been any data breach.

The explanation may help put to rest the fears among people and nay-sayers on Aadhaar. There were reports of Aadhaar details being made available on payment of as low as Rs. 500. Some anonymous sellers were offering unrestricted access to Aadhaar details for 500 rupees over WhatsApp, the report said.

The UIDAI has said that the reported case appears to be instance of misuse of the grievance redressal search facility and assured that it maintains complete log and traceability of the facility and any misuse can be traced and appropriate action taken.

The grievance redressal search facility gives only limited access to name and other details and has no access to biometric details, it insists. According to UIDAI, the Aadhaar data including biometric information is fully safe and secure. 

Read More

In Every Bandh, Public Property Bears Brunt

As the day comes to en end, a shut-down across Maharashtra called by Dalit leaders to protest the violence during the bicentennial celebration of the Bhima-Koregaon battle, the public property became main target of the miscreants. City and outstatation buses were again damaged in Mumbai and Pune.

In Mumbai, 47 buses of the civic transport service 'BEST' were damaged by protesters in Kalanagar area (Bandra), Dharavi, Kamraj Nagar, Santosh Nagar, Dindoshi and Hanuman Nagar, an official from the Disaster Management Unit of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) told. In Pune, the number was as high as 55 where Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) buses were damaged, informed PMPML chief Tukaram Munde.
Both the cities witnessed a major disruption of road traffic owing to protests. Offices too witnessed low attendance, as employees stayed away from work fearing violence.
Though the state government did not declare a school holiday, many parents chose not to send children to school. District Collectors at many places declared holiday in their jurisdiction.

Read More

Second edition of National Teachers Congress to be held in Pune from Jan 10 to 12, 2018

After attaining stupendous success in its first National Teacher’s Congress (NTC) in 2016, the MIT School of Government is all bolstered to launch its second edition to be held between January 10 to 12, 2018 at the Prof Dr Vishwanath Karad MIT World Peace University (MIT WPU) campus, Kothrud, Pune. The congress would be inaugurated by the auspicious hands of His Holiness Dalai Lama.
As per information given by  Prof.Dr. Vishwanath D. Karad, Founder President, MIT World Peace University, Pune and Prof. Rahul V. Karad, Chief Convener, National Teachers’ Congress & Exevutive President, MIT World Peace University, the 2nd NTC will be organized under the aegis of Dr Vishwanath Karad MIT WPU and MIT School Of Government, with the active support of the Government of Maharashtra. Several institutions of importance like the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), Association of Indian Universities (AIU), Maharashtra State Principal's Federation, Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad (BCS) Foundation and UNESCO Chair for Democracy, Peace, Human rights and Tolerance, Pune have also rendered their support and association in this thoughtful mission.

There would be six different sessions held in the congress on the topics of Globalization of Indian Higher Education – Drawing the Roadmap, Value - Based Universal Education : Foundation for World Peace, Quality in Higher Education : Truth and Reconciliation, Use of Technology in Education : Impact Vs Impediment, Educating the Educators and Economics of Education.

Speaking about the second edition of the NTC, Mr. Rahul Karad, Founder and Convener, said, “We at MIT WPU are elated to announce the 2^nd edition of National Teachers Congress to be held at our MIT WPU campus in Pune in the month of January 2018. It is a matter of pride for me to say that the teaching community in our country has found the NTC to be a ‘must attend’ event and have been looking forward to it. Over 5000 higher education teachers from across the country have confirmed their participation.”

He added, “We are expecting participation of about 1000 University teachers of Indian origin living outside India.  A number of thought leaders, policy makers, academic leaders, business leaders and spiritual leaders will interact with the teachers over a period of three days. The inauguration will be done by “His Holiness Dalai Lama”.

The 1st NTC was a large gathering of 3 days having all-round and Spirited Teaching fraternity of India, congregated Teachers of Higher education from all states of India at a single venue to discuss, deliberate and find solutions on issues of education and allied sectors.

Around 5000 spirited, socially sensitive and active College Teachers participated at the program to understand various national issues, the challenges faced and solutions to those challenges in order to imbibe various inputs among students and educate the society to create a knowledge driven holistic nation.

Read More