Cricketer Suresh Raina was made the brand ambassador of the Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation (GMC) at a programme here on Sunday.
“It is a matter of pride for Ghaziabad that Suresh Raina, an international star, is the brand ambassador of GMC and also the brand ambassador of Swachh Bharat Mission,” said V.K. Jindal, Joint Secretary and Director of Swachh Bharat Mission.
Ghaziabad Municipal Commissioner C.P. Singh added: “I am grateful to Raina for accepting my proposal to be the brand ambassador of our Municipal Corporation.”
Raina is a resident of Ghaziabad. It is the only city among 16 municipal corporations in Uttar Pradesh which has been declared open defecation free.
Raina said: “I will offer my best services to the municipal body. I have been emotionally attached to this city. This city gave me strength so that we could win the World Cup.”
source: http://www.cricket.yahoo.com / Yahoo Cricket / Home / by Sahir Usman / October 29th, 2017
After a gap of three years, Lucknow University has introduced two medals this year. They will be awarded during its convocation on December 9. LU has received Rs 5 lakh each for the new medals which will be conferred to the high scorers in law faculty .
“The medals will be constituted in the name of former legislator late DP Bora and Justice (retired) BK Dhawan. The amount of Rs 5 lakh for each set by the university has been given by MLA Neeraj Bora and Daya Dhawan respectively,” said LU VC SP Singh.
He added that Neeraj Bora had given Rs 11 lakh to LU for the constitution of a medal in the name of his father DP Bora. While Rs 5 lakh was for the medal, the remaining amount will be used for development work at the university.
The medal in the name of Justice Dhawan will be awarded to the high scorer of LLB (three years).
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City News> Lucknow News> Schools & Colleges / TNN / November 02nd, 2017
Raid alert: As MD of Kanpur Electric Supply Company Limited, Ritu Maheshwari conducted raids on a regular basis to curb power theft / courtesy: Uma Maheshwari
The new collector of Ghaziabad comes with the distinction of having revived a debt-ridden electric utility.
The new district magistrate of Ghaziabad — among the slew of transfers in the Uttar Pradesh government last month — is difficult to track down. The little breathing space Ritu Maheshwari gets between meetings and team briefings is devoted to her son’s preparations for school exams. That this officer’s days are long and busy is nothing new, given that in her previous stint she was feted for successfully ushering in power distribution reforms in a country weighed down by an average annual loss of $16.2 billion due to power theft.
Maheshwari joined the civil services in 2003 after completing a degree in electrical engineering at Punjab Engineering College. She had her first major breakthrough in 2011, when she was posted as the managing director of Kanpur Electric Supply Company Limited (KESCO). The debt-ridden utility had run up losses of nearly 30 per cent, brought about by distribution losses, thefts, and tampering of meters. All that was about to change soon.
“I had just returned from maternity leave and had expected an easier posting, but when I got this (KESCO) instead, many of my peers advised me against taking it up. But I decided to go ahead. After I joined, I was told the company would soon be disinvested and I needn’t take on too much pressure. But I decided that it was still possible to turn this company around, and I worked on it. I wouldn’t say it was a complete makeover, but we made some headway,” Maheshwari says during a telephonic interview.
By the time she left KESCO, the losses had almost halved. During her 11-month stewardship, she replaced nearly one-third, or 1.6 lakh, of the mechanical meters with smart ones. She credits the turnover not to any big moves, but rather small actions instead. “We went on regular raids. The office staff was made to understand that it wasn’t okay to sit idle and turn a blind eye to instances of power theft.”
Nearly 8.4 million of UP’s 29 million households have non-metered power supply, while another 11.2 million have no electricity, according to a Bloomberg report. Distribution companies do not want to upgrade grids without recovering current losses. Recently, a tender was floated for the purchase of five million smart meters for UP and Haryana. The public-sector Energy Efficiency Services Ltd, which aims to halve distribution losses to 15 per cent across India by 2019, was in charge of the international bidding process. Maheshwari was heading this project until July 2017.
She believes that technology is the best defence against power theft — if the systems are seamless, and the processes automated, accountability will increase and it will become that much harder to steal. “I feel that while there were checks against power theft earlier too, the automatic meters made a world of difference by bringing in transparency,” she says.
A reduction of even one per cent in distribution loss translates into a profit of $10 billion for the company, so a difference of 15 per cent was nothing short of extraordinary. Maheshwari was also involved in the development of Urja Mitra, an app that gives real-time information on power supply across the country. After a successful trial run in Kanpur, it was rolled out countrywide in April 2017.
“After I got involved, many power companies are putting up their audited sheets on a three-month basis, where the public can find out how much power has been consumed, and the losses incurred by the companies,” she says. As the distribution losses fell, the company was able to improve supply too.
Such drastic reforms, unsurprisingly, were met with opposition initially. Consumers in Kanpur protested when forced to take up legitimate connections and fall under the revenue net. The powers-that-be weren’t pleased either. “I did face resistance from the political milieu, and had to pull up employees who had become corrupt. Some took money to tip off violators ahead of raids against power theft… they would remove the illegal power hooks before the team arrived. We countered this with surprise raids.”
In 2014, Maheshwari’s work inspired filmmakers Deepti Kakkar and Fahad Mustafa to produce a documentary titled Katiabaaz (Powerless), focusing on the power situation in Kanpur, a seat for leather industries, which require heavy-duty electricity.
After Kanpur, and stints as the district magistrate of JP Nagar, Ghazipur, Pilibhit and Shahjahanpur, Maheshwari wants to focus on fighting pollution control in her current posting at Ghaziabad.
So, how did she tackle the bullies and naysayers at work?
“My degree has stood me well all this time. There have been times where I’ve had to tackle patriarchal attitudes at work, but people realise that I have good knowledge of this [power] sector, and it isn’t easy to hoodwink me. I think, eventually, anyone trying to do some good work is given the space to do so.”
source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / BLINK / Home> Cover> BLINK / by Payel Majumdar Upreti / October 06th, 2017
Ginger Hotels, the dominant budget hotel chain from the Taj Group, has opened a property in Lucknow.
“Ginger Hotel Lucknow is a 72-key property located within a short drive from the airport and railway station.
Ginger is the pioneer and the largest chain of branded budget hotels in the country,” Ginger Hotels managing director and CEO Rahul Pandit said in a statement.
source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Home> Companies / PTI / Mumbai – October 03rd, 2017
“Lucknow produces some of the finest talent,” said Anubhav Sinha Rishi Kapoor photographed in Mumbai.
Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha has cast 12 actors from Lucknow in his upcoming movie Mulk. Actors Ashok Lal, Ekram Khan, Jitendra Awasthi, Mahendra, Narendra Panjwani, Padam Kirti, Prafulla Pandey, Naval Shukla, Raju Pandey, Rubal Jain, Dayveer Singh Yadav and Vinay Ghoshal will be joining the existing cast and crew of the film. “I was always inclined towards giving back to the place that I call home. I understand the road blocks one faces when you are trying to break through into the metros when you hail from a smaller city,” Anubhav Sinha, who is from Uttar Pradesh, said in a statement.
“I faced a lot of struggle when I was new to Mumbai and wanted to make a foray into the entertainment industry. Bharat Jha, the casting director of Mulk, showed me some screen tests and I was blown by what I saw. Lucknow has an effervescent theatre industry and produces some of the finest talent, and it’s only fair to give everyone a chance,” he added.
He will commence shooting on October 12, which also happens to be the 16th birthday of his son Shlok.
“The day Shlok came into my life I bagged Dus and that film was a game changer for me. Just like Mulk, it was a multi-starrer. My son will always be my lucky mascot and Mulk is a project that is very close to my heart so, everything is done keeping in mind auspicious aspects. Since I belong to a small town, this film’s content is relatable to my childhood days of growing up in Benaras,” said Anubhav Sinha.
The film, a social thriller, is based on true life events.
Mulk also features Rishi Kapoor, Taapsee Pannu, Prateik Babbar, Ashutosh Rana and Neena Gupta.
The film will be shot in Varanasi and Lucknow and is scheduled to release early next year.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
source: http://www.ndtv.com / NDTV / Home> Entertainment / Indo-Asian News Service / October 04th, 2017
Kushal Tandon posed for us with his pet dog outside his home on Ashok Marg, Lucknow (BCCL/ Aditya Yadav)
Like every year, actor Kushal Tandon took a day off from his shooting schedule to be with his family in Lucknow on Diwali. Kushal, whose show ‘Beyhadh’ went off air recently, celebrated Diwali with his parents and sisters. “I am in Lucknow on every Diwali and Bhaiya Dooj. So this year was no exception. While I don’t like bursting crackers, I had to do it since I had my nephews over at home who are really fond of bursting crackers,” said Kushal.
Quite happy with the appreciation that he received for his show ‘Beyhadh’, Kushal says, “We were never after TRPs; our show was meant for the urban class. Thankfully it did get good TRPs and will always be remembered as a cult show. It had been a beautiful journey for all the team members. Before ‘Beyhadh’ happened, I had just done one fiction show, which was ‘Ek Hazaaron Mein Meri Behna Hai’. This show showed my real acting talent. My work was really appreciated and I got calls from a lot of people in the industry for my acting. So it really felt nice. It was really hectic too as ever since the show went on air, we had been shooting continuously and we didn’t have a bank of episodes. In that sense, it was a roller coaster ride.”
Now that the show has gone off air, Kushal is working on a web series. “Ever since it was announced that ‘Beyhadh’ is going off air, I have been getting a lot of offers for everything — movies, serials and web series. All I want to do is the best. So finally, I have said yes to a 20-episode web series produced by Ekta Kapoor. I can’t discuss the concept as of now, but just like my previous two shows, this too will be different,” he said.
Web series is the future for entertainment feels Kushal. “Gone are the days when actors used to be a part of web series just for creative satisfaction and not money. I am getting paid double the amount of what I was being paid for TV. So of course there is money involved too,” said he, adding, “And as far as watching paid content on the internet is concerned, people are paying and watching good content — whether it is Hindi or English shows. In times to come, television will be dead. Everything is now on the internet. People are always on the internet. A single episode of Beyhadh used to have million views in just one night on the internet. That’s crazy! The younger generation doesn’t have time to sit at home in front of the TV and watch shows. They prefer watching it on their mobiles now.”
Enjoying the high in his professional life, Kushal says he is in no mood to make his personal life happening by getting committed. “I am happily single now and everybody is my friend now. It’s been three years that I have been single and I am enjoying my life a lot now. Love is definitely beautiful but life besides love is also very beautiful. Right now I am working on myself and I don’t have time to fall in love,” he says.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Lucknow News / by Akash Wadhwa / TNN / October 28th, 2017
About five years back, environment crusader Ajay Krantikari has launched ‘cycling campaign’ in a small village of Patti block of Pratapgarh district to spread message that cycling keeps one healthy and fit and also protects environment. Now, more than 10,000 people, particularly students, have joined his cycle campaign club in Patti, Mandhata, Belha, Shivgarh, Sadar, Laxmanpur and Gaura blocks of the district.
As on daily routine, Krantikari visits government offices, commercial establishments, educational institutes and other public places, urging people to be a part of cycle campaign to protect the environment from vehicular pollution. He interacts with people and apprise them about the benefits of cycling.
Krantikari said, “In 2012, I and some students had started cycling campaign at Ram Raj Inter College in Patti. Within a short span of time, hundreds of youngsters joined my club named it Green Transporting Club (GTC).”
In next two years, around 3,000 people, mainly students became the members of the club. They encourage their friends, relatives and neighbours for cycling at least once a week.
On every Sunday, young members of the club go out for cycling mission in villages and mohallahs, appealing people to adopt cycling at least one day in a week. They said that it it would help in saving petrol and diesel and also protect environment from vehicular pollution.
The campaign got a boost when the authorities of nagar palika, Behla decided to turn the nagar palika area into green zone and encouraged its employees to come on bicycles.
Executive officer, Behla nagar palika, Awadesh Kumar said, “I have urged the employees to spread the message of environment protection and come to office on bicycles. Many employees have started to come on bicycles.
Krantikari said that the rising number of vehicles are increasing air pollution even in small towns. He claimed that people from neighbouring districts like Allahabad, Jaunpur Kaushambi and Sultanpur have joined the club in order to protect environment.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Allahabad News / by Kapil Dixit / October 29th, 2017
Varanasi akhara breaks its 450-yr tradition, lets girls in | Varanasi News – Times of India
Highlights
Tulsidas akhara will now hold fights featuring women from Diwali.
The mahant of Sankant Mochan, Vishwambar Nath Mishra, too, believes the decision will go long way to empower women here.
___________________________________________________________
Varanasi :
Clad in body-hugging lowers and sporty tees, Nandini Sarkar and Aastha Verma collect a fistful of mud at the Tulsidas akhara on the Ganga banks here, rub it on their foreheads and let out a fullthroated cry of “Jai Shri Ram”.That chant has just shattered a 450-year-old glass ceiling at this medieval wrestling ring.
In a major break from tradition, the akhara that’s managed by the Sankat Mochan temple trust has permitted girls to practise and wrestle at its hallowed mud pit, dedicated to the bachelor god, Hanuman.
It took the two feisty 20-yearold girls, who are still pursuing their bachelor courses, almost a decade to convince the trust’s mahant to be allowed to practice and spar at the akhara. Aptly, their freedom to enter the mud pit came on August 15 this year, which coincided with the Nagpanchami festival.
The akhara will now hold fights featuring women from Diwali. “The training of tradi tional wrestlers remains incomplete till they touch the mud of an akhara. We have finally achieved that dream,” says Nandini. “Our coaches, Surendra Yadav and Gorakhnath Yadav, approached the mahant this year and convinced him that if the country can have a Prime Minister representing Varanasi for the first time, why can’t women achieve a first of their own?” she said.
Of course, getting the permission was far from easy. “We were shown texts on Hanuman’s vow of bachelorhood and told that girls are impure and their presence is a sin for the god. But it’s the same god who gave us the strength to fight,” Nandini reasoned.
The mahant of Sankant Mochan, Vishwambar Nath Mishra, too, believes the decision will go long way to empower women here. “People are surprised when they learn that I am a professor at IIT as well as the mahant of this temple. I believe I can contribute to society in both ways. So why not take a decision that’s in keeping with gender equality and restores the faith of people in the divine?” said mahant Mishra, who teaches electronics at IIT BHU.
Both girls have represented UP in wrestling. Even as they try out traditional practice equipment at the akhara, such as bhala and gadha, for the first time, the girls have already mastered their favourite manoeuvres by watching the men here for the past 10 years. For Nandini, its dhobi paat (shoulder throw) while Aastha swears by kalajang (squat punch).
The girls come from humble backgrounds. Nandini’s father sells sweets to pilgrims at Assi Ghat, earning around Rs 7,000 a month. Aastha’s father is no more. Her mother Madhu Verma sells flowers on the stairs of Kedar Ghat to support her daughter’s wrestling dreams.
“We derive our strength and determination from our parents who keep the faith of devotees alive by providing them accessories to complete their pooja. That’s why God was kind to us,” says Aastha.
However, the girls’ struggles are far from over. With their modest means, it’s getting increasingly difficult for to afford a protein rich diet and top-notch training to progress in the sport. To support their needs, the girls frequently travel as far as Patna, Madehpura and Begusarai in Bihar for dangal contests.Each match earns them Rs 2,500.
“Ghee, milk, almonds, protein and personal gym costs us Rs 15,000 a month. Sometimes we can afford it. When we can’t, we just hop on to a night train and reach Bihar. It takes one day to reach the venue, two days to play and another day to return to Varanasi,” says Aastha. Being women wrestlers in a patriarchal society is tough. The girls have many horror stories on their wrestling visits to Bihar. “There are times when men would try to pat us just to feel us. We usually answer such touches with a punch and tackle,” said Nandini, laughing.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Varanasi News / by Rohan Dua / TNN / October 08th, 2017
The declaration was made at the eleventh hour as the State Election Commission announced civic polls in three phases from November 22.
Mathura-Vrindavan Nagar Nigam was constituted recently along with Ayodhya Nagar Nigam.
___________________________________________________________________
Lucknow :
The Uttar Pradesh government today declared Vrindavan Nagar Palika Parishad and Barsana Nagar Panchayat in Mathura district as “pavitra tirth sthal” (holy pilgrim place).
The declaration was made at the eleventh hour as the State Election Commission announced civic polls in three phases from November 22.
“Vrindavan area in Mathura is the birth place of Lord Krishna and his elder brother Balram, and is world famous. Barsana is Radha’s birthplace. Lakhs of tourists visit these places to pay obeisance. Keeping in mind their importance and in view of tourism, these are declared as holy pilgrimage places,” an official release issued here said.
Special attention will be paid to these areas for development of facilities for locals and tourists, it said.
Mathura-Vrindavan Nagar Nigam was constituted recently along with Ayodhya Nagar Nigam.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Lucknow News> Civic Issue / PTI / October 27th, 2017
SIDBI’s chairman and managing director Mohammad Mustafa (in blue) and IIML director Ajit Prasad (in black) at the launch of SIDBI Centre for Innovation in Financial Inclusion
Lucknow :
The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) on Friday launched a technology business incubator at the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow for nurturing high impact technologies for achieving, expanding and furthering the financial inclusion. Named as SIDBI Centre for Innovations in Financial Inclusion (Sci-Fi), the centre aims at fostering innovation, research and entrepreneurial activities in financial technology (FinTech).
The Sci-Fi seeks to explore and understand FinTech and financial inclusion by turning ideas into reality through the incubation process. IIML will provide required managerial and technological resources and support to make the incubation process successful. The center will develop research artifacts, promote research collaboration, and serve as a resource center to unlock entrepreneurial potential, and will follow three objectives — capacity building to and spearheading research on FinTech and financial inclusion, promoting discussion on Fintech and financial inclusions among stakeholders, and mentoring FinTech start-ups that will create products and services for financial inclusion.
The incubator at IIML, said SIDBI chairman and managing director Mohammad Mustafa has endeavored to bring together three great national development missions of Start Up India, Universal Financial Inclusion and Digital India under one roof. The centre, fully funded by SIDBI, will be guided by a governing board consisting of eminent representatives from financial inclusion, FinTech and venture capital domains, and headed by IIML director Ajit Prasad.
Prasad during his address recounted how the UP chief minister lauded IIML as a jewel in the crown of UP but at the same time also sought IIML’s contributions to the state of UP. “I was short of words then. I am glad now that SIDBI Centre will generate hundreds of jobs,” Prasad told the audience.
t
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Lucknow News / Isha Jain / TNN / October 27th, 2017
