The pathetic state of society & politics in Tamilnadu-Bribery direct Trail points to CM & 5 Ministers-Rs4,000 per voter

The pathetic state of society and politics in Tamilnadu-Direct Trail points to CM & 5 Ministers-RK Nagar by-polls could be countermanded after I-T raids. Income tax investigators found Rs 89 crore in the possession of Tamil Nadu health minister C Vijayabaskar during raids at 35 locations.

The RK Nagar by-election could be countermanded after gross violation of model code of conduct and corruption was discovered to be taking place before the April 12 by-poll. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) will be submitting its report to the Election Commission on Saturday regarding the 35 raids conducted by the Income Tax officials on state health minister C Vijayabaskar, his relatives and party officials in three Tamil Nadu districts, during which Rs 89 crore was found in his possession.

Documents seized by I-T officials from TN health minister C Vijayabaskar's premises on Friday point to not only planned distribution of close to Rs 90 crore to RK Nagar voters by the TTV Dhinakaran group, but also the involvement of chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, five of his cabinet colleagues and a Rajya Sabha member of the party.

Papers indicate that the party had identified 2.24 lakh of the 2.63 lakh voters (85% of the electorate) to be bribed at Rs4,000 per voter. They show ministers K A Sengottaiyan, Dindigul C Srinivasan, P Thangamani, S P Velumani and D Jayakumar were the key men. Rajya Sabha MP R Vaithilingam is the seventh key player on the list.

This core team was apparently assisted by a host of ministers and MLAs including transport minister M R Vijayabhaskar, co-operation minister Sellur K Raju, industries minister M C Sampath, Adi Dravidar and tribal welfare minister V M Rajalakshmi, tourism minister Velamandi N Natarajan, backward classes minister S Valarmathi, former minister and Aravakurichi MLA V Senthil Balaji and Madurai north legislator V V Rajan Chellappa.

I-T officials said, to facilitate easy monitoring of money distribution, the party had divided the constituency into 256 divisions. Close to Rs15 crore - the maximum - was allocated to Velumani to garner 37,291 votes. Going by the papers in the department's custody, Palaniswami was drafted for bribing 33,193 voters and was allocated Rs13.27 crore for the purpose. Sengottaiyan was next on the list, with a target of purchasing 32,830 votes at Rs13.13 crore. In all, Rs89,65,80,000 was distributed to the seven key election office-bearers of Dhinakaran's election campaign, going by the document.

The graphic details of the money trail were printed on a special letter pad with 'R K Nagar assembly constituency byelection 2017: Candidate T T V Dhinakaran' printed on top. In the first column on the letter pad, the key election managers' names are printed. The second column shows the number of areas the constituency has been divided into, for electioneering. The third column has the total voters in each region and the fourth one shows the targeted electorate for bribing. The amount disbursed is mentioned in the last column, but curiously enough, there is no mention that the figures refer to money. Divide the total amount by the targeted electorate, and you get the per voter amount of Rs4,000.

English to start at nursery level in UP

English to start at nursery level in UP

Great decision-This is the spirit with which Modern India should be built. Yogi Adityanath is doing a great and active job as CM.

Uttar Pradesh plans to introduce English in government schools from nursery instead of Class 6 as part of a broader overhaul of the state’s education system that will blend nationalist and modern curricula, chief minister Yogi Adityanath has said.

The 44-year-old leader said he had asked officials to prepare an education roadmap to enrol more students in schools, check cheating in examinations and introduce foreign language options from class 10.
“The traditional and the modern should blend. We should have an education system which promotes nationalism but is modern.”

No outrage in parliament & Rahul Gandhi will not even condemn it when a muslim group hacks an apostate to death.

No outrage in parliament & Rahul Gandhi will not even condemn it when a muslim group hacks an apostate to death.

While under no circumstances should the law be taken into ones own hands, our sickular politicians and media are deceptively silent or dramatically low key when it comes to crimes perpetrated by 'minorities.' After the dismal failure in the last elections, even Pappu found his voice back to condemn the unfortunate incident where as an even more horrific incident involving a muslim radical outfit is simply not worth the outrage in parliament or even a condemnation. A single human being is killed in both cases.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi attacked the Prime Minister and the RSS for the Alwar attack, saying there is no place in the country for those disagreeing with them and that tragedies of huge proportion occur when government "abdicates responsibility".Taking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the RSS, the Congress Vice President charged that the Prime Minister is propagating a vision where only one idea will prevail.

"This is a new vision for India that Narendra Modiji is propagating. It is a vision where only one idea will prevail and any other idea, anybody who does not listen to or agree with Narendra Modi or RSS has no place in India. That's the vision," Gandhi told reporters outside Parliament.

He was asked to comment on the Alwar violence where a man was killed after an attack by cow vigilantes. "That is what they are doing. This is going to have very severe consequences for the country. It is their way of thinking that anybody who does not believe in their way of thinking has no place in the country."

Tamil Nadu youth killed for being an atheist, father says he too will become one

According to police, clues from Farook’s mobile phone, which was found at the murder spot, led to the arrests.

The Indian Express | March 27, 2017 4:46 am http://indianexpress.com/article/india/tamil-nadu-youth-h-farook-killed-for-being-an-atheist-father-says-he-too-will-become-one-4586999/                  

THE FATHER of H Farook, the atheist who was murdered in Coimbatore 10 days ago, allegedly by members of a Muslim radical group, has said that if his son was killed for his views, he too would become an atheist.

Speaking to The Indian Express, 54-year-old R Hameed said, “If the police version is true, that he was murdered by a radical Muslim group, then they killed my son using wrong interpretations of the Quran. The Quran is one holy book that insists on and allows the right of dissent since the time of the Prophet. If they killed him for being an atheist, I have decided to join his organisation and do what he did.”

Fighting to hold back tears, Hameed said, “For my son, I was always his best friend. Even when he refused to attend the wedding of a close relative to avoid taking part in the religious rituals, I did not insist.”

Hameed, however, admitted that he was concerned about his son’s “assertive” atheism. “He was very assertive. He wouldn’t attend family functions as he would have had to pray there. I did not know that he was part of a movement for a long period. But my wife used to tell me to leave him alone as he never imposed his views on others, even his wife Rasheeda. He respected others.”

Farook, a member of the Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam (DVK), was Hameed’s elder son and used to run a scrap business in Ukkadam, near Coimbatore. On March 16, the 31-year-old was hacked to death, 15 days after he posted a photo of one of his children holding a placard with the handwritten slogan “Kadavul illai, Kadavul illai, Kadavul illai (No God, No God, No God)”.

“A relative called me at around 12.10 that night. As I was told of the attack, I started weeping and asking for details. But I realised that the worst had happened when I was told to perform dua (prayers),” said Hameed.

Hailing from a middle-class family in Bilal Estate at Ukkadam, a densely populated Muslim area on the outskirts of Coimbatore town, Farook was born and brought up in Chennai, where Hameed is still working as a caretaker of a private guest house.

Farook’s wife Rasheeda, meanwhile, is yet to accept her husband’s killing; on Thursday evening, their two children were playing together inside their two-storey house in a congested neighbourhood in Ukkadam, unaware of what had happened to their father.
Rasheeda’s brother Shajahan said what had devastated her was that Farook was killed by his friends.

According to Coimbatore police, six people have been arrested in the case, all daily-wage labourers, including the main accused Saddam Hussein, Abdul Munaf and Jaffer Ali, who were known to Farook. Police said all of them have confessed to their role in the murder.

“Rasheeda could not believe that Munaf and Jaffer were behind it, names that were so familiar to her. She has not been having food properly for several days,” said Shajahan, who runs a a small software business at Coimbatore.

“Having been brought up in Chennai, Farook had liberals view on religion. Many of his friends in Chennai were not Muslims and he was not following the religion strictly,” said Shajahan.

Munaf was also part of the atheist WhatsApp group ‘Allahu Murdhath’ run by Farook. Jaffer, who befriended Farook recently to start a scrap business, later left following disagreements over religion and God.

According to police, clues from Farook’s mobile phone, which was found at the murder spot, led to the arrests. Munaf called Farook out from home, at around 11.20 pm, on the night of the murder, they said. “Before the murder, there were three outgoing calls from Farook’s phone to the same number,” an officer said.

Police also found the owner of Farook’s SIM card, Sajuddin, who lives the life of a fakir, visiting shops carrying camphor lanterns. A resident of Walajapet near Vellore, about 400 km from Coimbatore, police traced Sajuddin to his native home in Vellore on the night of murder.

“He revealed that he had given his photo and ID card to one of the accused Ansath, a small-time real estate agent in Podanur near Coimbatore, for a loan that he was promised by a relative. By when our team landed at Ansath’s house on the outskirts of Coimbatore city, he had gone missing. He surrendered at a local court in Coimbatore,” said the officer.

According to police, Ansath used the photo and IDs of Sajuddin to obtain a new SIM card and gave it to Saddam Hussein, another accused.

“Most of the accused returned to the murder spot after fleeing initially. Munaf and Jaffer were there and later at the hospital, too. It was Munaf who informed Farook’s friends about the murder. He was also questioned by police at the murder spot,” said a senior officer.

Police have claimed that the accused were part of a self-radicalised group and had taken a vow to eliminate those who challenge their religion and faith. But relatives and close friends of Farook claim that the accused had a criminal background and were not regular at prayers.

“I do not wish to see this as a black-and-white case. Either they acted as hired killers for some other group or were absorbed by radical Islam groups for this crime. The idea of them being radicals does not match their lifestyle. Munaf was not attending prayers at the mosque for almost three months,” said a relative of Farook, who requested anonymity.
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China supports muslim pakistan to destabilize India but does all it can to oppress and subdue their minorities.

China supports muslim pakistan to destabilize India but does all it can to oppress, subdue & crackdown on their own minorities. India should follow the exact same policy in Kashmir and first remove Article 370.

China is bans beards, veils, home schooling in Xinjiang + surrender of passports and mandatory GPS trackers in cars
Source - By Katie Hunt, Chieu Luu and Steven Jiang, CNN, Updated 0119 GMT (0919 HKT) April 1, 2017 , http://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/31/asia/china-xinjiang-new-rules/index.html


Chinese police make a show of force at a rally in Hetian, Xinjiang, on February 27.

(CNN)No long beards. No veils in public places. No home-schooling.

China is intensifying its crackdown against what it deems religious extremism in the far-west province of Xinjiang, which is home to 10 million Muslims.
The latest measures -- outlined in a sweeping new anti-extremism legislation -- take effect Saturday and come on the heels of a series of steps to increase surveillance in the region that include the surrender of passports and mandatory GPS trackers in cars.

"They're doubling down on security in Xinjiang," said James Leibold, an associate professor at Australia's Le Trobe University, whose research focuses on China's Uyghur minority.

What are the latest measures?
The new legislation, which was published on a regional news portal run by the provincial government, appears to standardize, and expand across the whole province, piecemeal rules and regulations that have been enacted in individual towns and cities.

Specifically, it prohibits:
# Advocating or propagating extremist thoughts
# Wearing or forcing others to wear full-face coverings
# Hyping up religious fanaticism through growing beards or choosing names in an abnormal way
# Not allowing children to receive state education, interfering with state education;
# Deliberately interfering or harming the implementation of family planning policies;
# Publishing, downloading or reading articles, publications and audio-video material containing extremist content;
# Rejecting or refusing state products and services that include radio and television programming.

The law didn't explain these measures in detail or define abnormal, but the English-language state-run China Daily did say that long beards would be banned "as they are deemed to promote extremism."

Chinese military police get off a plane to attend an anti-terrorist oath-taking rally in Xinjiang, on February 27.

Why is China so concerned?
Hundreds of people have been killed in Xinjiang in recent years; the government describes the perpetrators as terrorists inspired by religious extremism.

There has been a spate of high-profile attacks involving ethnic Uyghurs, a Turkic-speaking minority, outside the province.

These include a 2014 attack outside a rail station in the southwestern city of Kunming that killed 31 people, and an attack in Beijing in 2013 when a car drove into a crowd of tourists and killed five people.

A veiled Muslim Uyghur woman walks passed a statue of Mao Zedong on July 31, 2014 in Kashgar, Xinjiang.

In March, President Xi Jinping called for a "great wall of iron" to safeguard the region's stability.

Xinjiang, a resource-rich province, plays a key role in the "One Belt, One Road" initiative championed by Xi. The project aims to improve economic ties with central Asia and Xi wants no disruption to a landmark international conference he is holding on it in May.
"We'd be foolish to deny that China has a problem with terrorists," Leibold told CNN.

"But I think the Communist Party is exaggerating the threat of radical Islam and they are turning up the heat in assimilating the Uyghurs into the Chinese nation state."

An anti-terrorist oath-taking rally in Xinjiang in February.

Who are the Uyghurs?
The Uyghurs are largely Muslims, who are the dominant ethnic group in Xinjiang, a large autonomous region that borders Russia, Mongolia, central and south Asia.

Uyghurs regard themselves as linguistically, culturally and ethnically close to central Asia, despite a long history of Chinese rule.

Tensions have arisen between Uyghurs and the Han, the predominant ethnic group in China, who have migrated to Xinjiang in large numbers over the past 60 years.

A 2011 report by the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China said that Han workers have taken most of the new jobs and unemployment among Uyghurs is high. Activists say China has been taking measures to undermine the Uyghur language, culture and religious practices including restrictions on observing Ramadan.

In a response to a question on whether the Chinese government was seeking to repress the Muslim faith in Xinjiang, Lu Kang, China's foreign ministry spokesman said on Wednesday that "the objective fact is that the people of all ethnicities in Xinjiang, just like the people living in other regions of China, are enjoying better lives, working conditions and brighter prospect for development."

"We oppose the approach of linking terrorism with a certain ethnicity or a certain religion," he added.
Leibold said the government has been slowly increasing measures since July 2009, when some 200 people were killed in ethnic riots that were prompted by long-simmering resentment many Uyghurs have for the Han.

Chinese security forces in Xinjiang

Are there Uyghur terror groups?
Beijing has blamed the violence on Islamic militants, led by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which the US State Department listed as a terrorist organization in 2002 a year after the September 11 attacks.

But many analysts dispute its characterization as an Al Qaeda or ISIS-style group.

In February, a 28-minute video analyzed by the SITE Intelligence Group appeared to show Uyghur militants threatening to return to China to "shed blood like rivers." SITE said it was produced by ISIS.


Human rights group slams China's crackdown. When asked about the video, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said he wasn't aware of it, but said: "East Turkestan terrorist forces represented by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement pose a grave threat on security and stability of China and the region."

The China Daily, a state-run newspaper published an editorial that went further: "the video lends further credence to Beijing's claim, especially the oft-ignored assertions of links between domestic and foreign terrorist elements."

China has long asserted Uyghur fighters have joined the ranks of ISIS in Syria and Iraq. New America, a US think tank, estimates that 100 Uyghurs having gone abroad to fight for the ISIS cause, while the state-run Global Times put the figure at about 300.

How do people in Xinjiang feel about this?
The Chinese government tightly controls access to the area. Journalists are closely monitored when in the province, and sometimes are prohibited from accessing certain parts of the region all together. The same applies for non governmental organizations.

Leibold says the new security measures drive resentment underground and widens the gulf of misunderstanding and between the Chinese state and Uyghurs. "This is an example of a surveillance society that we've never seen across China," he said.

Chinese paramilitary policemen stand guard on a street in the Uyghur district of Urumqi city, Xinjiang, in July 2009.

However, not all Xinjiang residents see Beijing's security build-up as a problem.
"I don't think they're restrictions," a 30-year-old Uyghur woman in Xinjiang's Manasi County told CNN earlier this month on the condition of anonymity because she's not authorized to speak to media by her employer. "I think the government is doing its job."

She said while she's noticed a steady influx of ethnic Han Chinese move into the region over the years, but she hasn't felt discriminated -- either in the Chinese school she attended or in her job as a nurse.

She added she didn't mind attending the mandatory weekly flag raising ceremony, because it's the same thing she did in school growing up, and thinks installing GPS in vehicles and other surveillance devices is for the greater good.

Dolkun Isa, Secretary General of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC), an exile group based in Germany, said that Chinese news coverage focuses on violence perpetrated by a tiny fraction of the population and "this shapes how some view Uyghurs generally -- though clearly unfairly."

CNN's Hamdi Alkhshali in Atlanta and Nanlin Fang in Beijing contributed to this report

China orders Xinjiang residents to surrender passports to police Source-http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/24/asia/china-xinjiang-passports/index.html
Beijing (CNN) Millions of residents in China's northwestern Xinjiang region have been ordered to surrender their passports to local police, in a move rights groups say is an attack on personal freedom.

The order came from the Shihezi Public Security Bureau Immigration Office in Xinjiang on October 19, which said that passports would be held by police after an "annual check."

Residents wishing to travel abroad would have to seek permission from local authorities, the statement said. Those who refuse could be barred from leaving the country.

Xinjiang is an ethnically divided and resource rich province that is home to around 10 million predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and around eight million Han Chinese.

No reason was given for the policy, however the World Uyghur Congress, a Germany-based rights group, said it was deliberate move to restrict the movements of the Uyghur population.

"Although the regulations ostensibly target all residents, Chinese authorities in the past have taken clear steps to limit mobility rights for the Uyghur community in particular," the Congress said in a statement.

Rs 7,000 a month for throwing stones and Molotovs at Indian forces at Kashmir

'This is our bread and butter': Undercover reporters film Kashmiri 'stone-pelters' admit to being paid Rs 7,000 a month for throwing stones and Molotovs at Indian forces

India Today TV's undercover reporters have revealed the grim reality of stone pelting in Kashmir
A number of the stone throwers have admitted to being on the payroll of unknown 'underground masters' in order to attack security forces
The men are alleged to be paid 'Rs 5,000-Rs 7,000 a month'

Source-http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-4362020/Kashmiri-stone-pelters-admit-paid-film.html Published: 23:26 BST, 29 March 2017 | Updated: 01:03 BST, 30 March 2017http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/jammu-and-kashmir-stone-pelters-hizbul-mujahideen-burhan-wani/1/915751.html
At an unknown address in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district, fugitive stone-pelters dropped their face masks for a conversation with India Today TV's undercover reporters.

With that, they also revealed disturbing truths behind the unrest in the Valley that followed Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani's killing last year.

Zakir Ahmad Bhat, Farooq Ahmad Lone, Wasim Ahmed Khan, Mushtaq Veeri and Ibrahim Khan made startling confessions: from being on the payroll of their underground masters to carrying out deadly attacks on security forces, public servants and property in the troubled region.



A Kashmiri protester throw stones and pieces of bricks towards Indian policemen: The men are alleged to be paid 'Rs 5,000-Rs 7,000.

'It's Rs 5,000-Rs 7,000 a month and clothes. Sometimes shoes as well,' said Bhat when asked whether he was paid to charge at security forces with stones.

Young boys took to throwing stones in mass demonstrations that rocked Kashmir Valley in 2008 and 2010.

Since then, it has become a popular way for youths to express their anger against the government, and authorities have been constantly looking to stamp out a repeat in the escalations of violence.


Bhat is also a specialist in Molotov cocktails or petrol bombs. He is wanted for arson attacks during last year's stone-pelting protests that erupted after the death of Wani, who had a large social media following and was credited with reviving militancy in Kashmir.

By his own admission, Bhat sounded unapologetic about forging contracts with obscure enemies to strike at troops in the Valley.

'We pelt security forces with stones – J&K police personnel, Army jawans, MLAs and government vehicles.' But this hired extremist refused to disclose the identity of his financiers.


'We will die but won't reveal their names. It's the question of our bread and butter.'

He admitted to hurling stones in Baramulla, Sopore and Pattan. 'Now, we go to the downtown (in Baramulla), where we protest on Fridays.'

He would also supply and use petrol bombs. 'We get separate funds for making petrol bombs,' Bhat said.

He charges up to Rs 700 for making one Molotov cocktail.

'I must have made 50-60 bombs. We throw them on vehicles and whosoever comes in between,' he said.

From July to October last year, as many as 19,000 people were injured and 92 killed in a series of clashes between rock-throwing protesters and security forces in Kashmir, news reports suggest.

Around 4,000 security personnel were among the wounded. Two jawans were reportedly among the dead. But for stone-pelters such as Farooq Ahmad Lone, violent agitations are their livelihood.

'It could be Rs 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 or even Rs 5,000,' said Lone, quoting his daily income from organising shutdowns and stone-throwing demonstrations.

'We have been pelting stones since 2008.' Wasim Ahmed Khan put his monthly stipend from rock-hurling protests at Rs 5,000-Rs 6,000.

For accomplice Veeri, it's Rs 700 a day on weekdays and up to Rs 1,000 on holy Fridays.


Kashmiri Muslims throw stones towards Indian police during a protest in Srinagar

'So, the man who pays you belongs to your village?' asked India Today TV's investigative reporter.

'He just arrives. He's known to one of my friends,' replied Veeri, refusing to name his paymaster.

But pelters did disclose how they were assigned their job well in advance.

The hidden masterminds would use the Internet to organise stone-pelting across various locations in Jammu and Kashmir, revealed Ibrahim Khan.

Instructions regarding potential targets, he explained, were circulated on group-messaging services beforehand.

'Instructions are issued on WhatsApp groups,' Khan said. 'Who are you asked to pelt stones at?' asked the reporter.

'A policemen, Army personnel, whoever comes forward. There are clear directives,' Khan, who makes up to Rs 20,000 a month from the protests, answered.

Young children, he claimed, were also recruited as pelters. 'How much are children paid?' probed the undercover journalist.

'It depends upon who the boy is. If he has a good physique, he will be paid around Rs 7,000 - Rs 7,500,' Khan said.

But if the child recruit is weak, he would get around Rs 5,500 to Rs 6,000, he added.


India Today TV's undercover reporters have revealed the grim reality of stone pelting in Kashmir

For children up to 12 years, the minimum payment for stone-pelting is fixed at Rs 4,000, said Khan. Bhat, Veeri and Wasim Ahmad Khan then shared their track-record in executing attacks on security personnel and government property.

'We hurled petrol bombs at a vehicle parked on a bridge. Two people were charred,' said Bhat, referring to a 2014 assault on a pair of policemen. Veeri said he had injured at least 30 to 35 people from various security agencies till now.

PM Modi To Address 10,000 Programmers Today-Smart India Hackathon 2017

Can you imagine an other Prime Minister in the world participating in an event like this?

PM Modi To Address 10,000 Programmers Today-The PM is expected to address the students through videoconference at 10 pm on Saturday. The PM will take time out from his rigorous fasting and hectic schedule to address some of India's sharpest young tech brains and speak on a range of issues from diplomacy to infrastructure to technology and spirituality, officials said.  Online training has been given to the participating students by nearly 2,100 mentors appointed to guide the students.

Smart India Hackathon is the Digital India, Start-up India and Make in India campaigns, which need a large skilled and innovative workforce, the official said. 

Smart India Hackathon 2017-The 36-hour event finale will be held at 26 locations in the country. The program focuses on solving problems of social importance. Groups will sit locked in to find digital solutions for problems.

Giving another push to his Digital India initiative, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to address what is being dubbed as the world's largest hackathon today via video conferencing.

10,000 programmers will compete in the 36-hour event finale which is being held at 26 locations in the country. The program focuses on solving problems of social importance. 29 ministries and government departments have identified 598 problems, the initial response for which came from over 7,500 teams of approximately 42,000 students.

The Grand Finale of Smart India Hackathon will start at 8 am today and will go in till 8 pm on April 2. 1,266 teams of 10,000 participants from 28 states have been shortlisted for the finale. For 36 hours, the selected groups will sit locked in and find digital solutions for the problem statements by creating software or mobile apps.

The end products will then be evaluated by judges from the respective ministry and industry experts, and the top three teams with the best solutions will be awarded Rs. 1 lakh, Rs 75,000 and Rs 50,000. The winners will also form the Community of Innovative Minds.

The awarded software will then be used by the relevant ministry or department to improve their governance systems, with suitable upgrades if necessary.

In the run up to the finale, online training was given to students by over 2,000 mentors.

"Digital India, Start-up India and Make in India campaigns which need skilled and innovative workforce are the starting point of the Smart India Hackathon," a senior official of the IT Ministry said.

The IT industry especially M/S i4C, Persistent Systems along with NASSCOM have led the effort.

As per statistics of World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), India registers 40 patents per million population. This indicates that a lot more can be done in the field of innovation.

Government sources say Smart India Hackathon is an effort to improve innovation by encouraging students to apply knowledge to real-life situations and find innovative solutions

PM Modi to dedicate India’s longest road tunnel on April 2

PM Modi to dedicate India’s longest road tunnel on April 2
India's longest highway tunnel at Chenani-Nashri, between Udhampur and Ramban in Jammu and Kashmir is all set to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 2.

The tunnel on NH-44 which connects Jammu with Srinagar, will reduce travel time between the two cities by upto two hours. It achieves a distance-reduction of 31 kilometres, bypassing snow-bound upper reaches. The estimated daily fuel savings are to the tune of Rs. 27 lakhs.

Besides avoiding large scale deforestation and tree-cutting, the tunnel will provide a safe, all-weather route to commuters travelling from Jammu and Udhampur, to Ramban, Banihal and Srinagar.

The tunnel is equipped with world-class security systems, and is expected to boost tourism and economic activities in the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

Key Features of the tunnel

• It is a single-tube bi-directional tunnel, with a 9.35 metre carriageway, and a vertical clearance of 5 metres.

• There is also a parallel escape tunnel, with “Cross Passages” connecting to the main tunnel at intervals of 300 metres.

• It also has smart features such as an Integrated Traffic Control System; Surveillance, Ventilation and Broadcast Systems; Fire Fighting System; and SOS call-boxes at every 150 metres.

• The project has been completed at a cost of over Rs. 2500 crore. (ANI)

How India's Longest Road Tunnel Saw the Light of DaySource http://www.news18.com/news/india/how-indias-longest-road-tunnel-saw-the-light-of-day-1366385.html
Srinagar: India's longest and most modern road tunnel, to be unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, could not have seen the light of day had not a young dreamy-eyed local builder chipped in.

Imran Beigh, a 36-year-old Jammu-based budding infrastructure businessman, and his team built half of the 9.2-km Nashri tunnel on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway in a short span of two years.

While services of 20 other construction companies were utilised to make the other half, Beigh could do the remaining in lesser time.

His company set off on the tough mission hours after he got a go-ahead from the contract assigning company, named ITNS - Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) Ltd.

The ITNS had to part ways with Lighton Contractors — an Australian company which originally got the contract to construct the tunnel — over some issues.

Beigh, who heads the Beigh Construction Company (BCC), took over from Lighton at the start of 2015 and never looked back.


An eye on the stiff timeline, he set off to finish the job in a short time.

“I was delighted. A super opportunity had come knocking my door. I had little experience then, had done a small portion of Banihal railway tunnel and here I was looking at a god sent opportunity,” he said.

He started with a single boring machine and a few dozen construction workers that included a small team of engineers.

Over a period of two years, he ended up recruiting 1,300 people, 95 percent of them locals, and expanding the fleet of small and big machines to 150.

“I got a huge fleet of machines now. A boring machine called boomer costs more than Rs 4 crore and we have five at present besides the pavers, high pressure concrete sprays. We also boast of engineers who have world-class expertise,” he said.


Beigh's men were initially tasked with working on 4.5-km tunnel and then the lining works —packing, fixing and bolstering the tunnel arch with iron grille, steel and cement.

“We took the first blast at North portal on January 7, 2015 and two weeks later from the South portal. Seeing the excavation work, we were subsequently allotted the contract for the lining works,” says Shifak Syed, business developer for BCC.

“For that, we joined hands with a Turkish company. The purpose was to give best exposure to put workforce especially the engineers and technical crew,” adds Beigh.

Beigh ran a hospitality business in Australia after completing his higher studies. Sensing there was potential in infrastructure building in Jammu and Kashmir, he shifted to Jammu and set up the construction company. Success followed.

From an asset base of a crore to a turnover of Rs 230 crore in the last three years, the company has gone from strength to strength.

“We are the only company in the state to dig tunnels and we are growing. We have bagged a contract for doing a 44-km stretch highway in Maharashtra. It is called Amravati-Chickli project,” Beigh told CNN-News18.

The 13-metre wide tunnel will cut the distance of strategic Srinagar-Jammu National Highway by 30 km. It will bypass the snow-laden Patnitop pass and the mudslide prone stretch near Nashri and save the commuters from the pain of going through a two-hour tiring, risky and circuitous drive.


Built at a cost of Rs 3,720 crore, the tunnel will mark the country's debut in adopting the integrated tunnel control system (ITCS).

The ITCS, enjoyed by a few western counties, will ensure automatic control of tunnel lighting, ventilation, communication, fire control and vehicle monitoring.

Parallel to the main one, a smaller diameter escape tunnel for the evacuation of commuters has been built for the safety of passengers.

The two tubes of the tunnel are internally connected through 29 cross-passages (each after a gap of 300 meters) and the escape tunnel will be used exclusively by pedestrians.

There are two ducts in the tunnel — one for fresh air and another for letting out the polluted air. There are CCTVs, fire-fighting equipment and communication systems installed along the route.

A control room will monitor the movement of the vehicles and come to immediate rescue in case of emergency.

There is a proposal to construct more tunnels on the highway to make the route dependable especially during the winters and rainy season when the highway breaks often.

If given a chance, Beigh says the highway can get shorter, reliable and open in sun, rain and snow.

“No dream is too big,” he says, invoking the late APJ Abdul Kalam.