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Showing posts with label Social Awareness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Social Awareness. Show all posts
The entire nation cries and mourns the death of a martyred soldier, but how many of us care about what happens when he dies? How many of us know the struggle of those who are left behind- wife, kids, parents?
Not many.
In a poignant Facebook post, wife of Nagrota martyred Major Akshay Girish Kumar writes about the struggle of living without a husband. Sangeeta Akshay Girish shares experience and tell the world about the life of a family who's lost someone to country's protection.
"I got his uniforms, clothes and all the stuff we collected over the years in a truck. I tried hard to fight back my tears. I haven't washed his regimental jacket and when I miss him a lot, I wear it. It still smells of him." she writes.
As many as five such dogs have been spotted so far.
Why are dogs near Navi Mumbai’s Taloja industrial area turning blue? Untreated industrial wastes being released into the Kasadi river may be the answer. As strays often wade into the river for food, the waste is dyeing their fur a bright shade of blue. On Wednesday, the Navi Mumbai Animal Protection Cell took pictures of a dog whose fur had been dyed blue.
The group filed a complaint with the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) on Thursday, saying animals in the area were suffering because dyes were being released directly into the river by industrial units. The area has nearly a 1,000 pharmaceutical, food and engineering factories.
“It was shocking to see how the dog’s white fur had turned completely blue,” said Arati Chauhan, resident of Navi Mumbai who runs the animal protection cell. “We have spotted almost five such dogs here and have asked the pollution control board to act against such industries,” she added.
As stays often wade into the river for food, the waste is dyeing their fur a bright shade of blue.
The polluted water is also likely to affect human health. In August 2016, fishermen were concerned that the polluted river water was affecting the stock of fish. They collected samples from the discharge of the common effluent treatment plant, which 300 industrial units use to treat their waste.
A water quality test at Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation found the waste treatment was inadequate. The levels of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) – the concentration of oxygen required to sustain aquatic life – was 80 milligram per litre (mg/L). Levels of chloride, which is toxic harms vegetation, aquatic life and wildlife, were also high. According to Central Pollution Control Board guidelines, fish die when BOD level are above 6 mg/L.
Levels above 3 mg/L make the water unfit for human consumption.HT had reported that untreated industrial waste pumped out by the plant had raised pollution levels in the Kasadi River to 13 times the safe limit.
The polluted Kasadi river.
“After numerous complaints to MPCB over the years, only the stench at Kasadi has reduced. However, the pollution levels continue to be extremely high and dissolved oxygen is negligible,” said Yogesh Pagade, member of a local fishing community who had conducted the study last year.
MPCB officials said they had taken cognisance of the complaint. “Allowing the discharge of dye into any water body is illegal. We will take action against the polluters as they are destroying the environment,” said Anil Mohekar, regional officer, MPCB, Navi Mumbai. “We have directed our sub-regional officer to investigate,” he added.
Animal rights activists have, however, asked whether the move comes too late. “We have only spotted blue dogs so far. We do not know if birds, reptiles and other creatures are affected or if they have even died owing to the dye discharged into the air,” said Chauhan.
HIGHLIGHTS - Technology would allow users to call 911 using their fingerprints - The feature would look for a sequence of fingerprints or applied pressure - Apple was granted 54 patents by the USPTO on Tuesday
In a bid to enhance security measures on iPhone, Apple has patented a technology that would allow users to secretly call 911 using their fingerprints. Separately, a report notes that Apple was granted 54 patents by the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) on Tuesday.
Starting with the 911 calling patent, the feature would allow users to call emergency services when a conventional method may not be practical, USA Today reported on Tuesday.
The feature would look for a sequence of fingerprints or applied pressure to trigger a 911 call which could be programmed to bypass the screenlock authentication and may also send user's location to the authorities.
"The user may programme the electronic device to recognise input entered with a particular sequence of fingers, such as 'pinky-ring-pinky', as a command to make an emergency call," the patent was quoted.
This will keep the potential attacker unaware of device owner's action and additionally, the feature could pull live audio or video directly from the iPhone.
The patent also includes a method that could erase or hide sensitive information of the user, the report added. The patented technology, if realised, could be very helpful in improving an individual's safety.
Now, we come to the Patently Apple report that notes Apple was granted 54 patents by the USPTO on Tuesday. Major patent applications include an iPhone Smart Dock with Siri, the ability to detect exit from a vehicle, as well as design patents for various products (earpiece, portable display with cover), VoIP and Wi-Fi patents, and more.
How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!
Never were truer words spoken and for today especially this quote
rings true. We would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our
women blog readers, social media followers, advertisers and staff alike a
very happy International Women’s Day.
If you didn’t know that today is International Women’s Day, be
assured that by the end of the day you will have been told by plenty
women in your life.
International Women’s Day (IWD), is marked on March 8
every year. The focus of the celebrations ranges from general
celebration of respect, appreciation and love towards women to a
celebration for women’s economic, political and social achievements.
The theme for this year is “Connecting Girl, Inspiring Futures”, if
every international woman’s day event held in 2012 includes girls in
some way, then thousands of minds will be inspired globally.''
International Women’s Day takes place on 8 March. It’s a global day
celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of
women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender
equality. The focus of the day is often shone on working women – women
who are employed, either part time or full time. Do you have such a
woman in your life? Understand the day and find ways to treat your
favorite working woman.
Short history
The earliest Women’s Day observance was held on February 28, 1909, in
New York. It was organized by the Socialist Party of America in
remembrance of the 1908 strike of the International Ladies’ Garment
Workers’ Union. This was a time of great expansion and turbulence in the
industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise of
radical ideologies. Women increasingly took a stand for their rights.
In 1977 the United Nations General Assembly invited member states to
proclaim March 8 as the UN Day for women’s rights and world peace. While
the UN still announces a theme every year for Women’s Day, it has
spread much wider than the organization. Today, no single government,
NGO, charity, corporation, academic institution, women’s network or
media hub is solely responsible for International Women’s Day.
Women’s Day is simply a day to celebrate, appreciate and respect
especially working women, but also every other women on the planet. It
is especially important for promoting gender equality.
Celebrations for men
If you’re a man and you want to show your appreciation and love for
the working women in your life, here are a few ways in which to do so:
At the office: If you have an office job then you’re definitely
sharing the office with women. Make an effort to show them your
appreciation at work on the day. If you’re the head of a team, see if
there’s money available for a small celebration. Buy a cake to share in
the office, or buy each woman a flower to wear on her chest on the day.
If you’re not in a position to organize events like these in the office,
suggest it to your superiors. If this is not possible, then simply be
nice to the women sharing the office with you on the day. Perhaps take a
task off her workload or buy her a coffee.
At home: Make your wife, partner, girlfriend, spouse, or sister feel
special on the day. Give her a bunch of flowers, make her breakfast or
take her out to dinner in the evening. Alternatively, make an effort to
relieve her of some of her regular responsibilities at home. If she
normally cooks dinner, takes the kids to school or takes out the trash,
do this for her to show her you appreciate her both as a woman in your
life and as a working woman.
Away from home: Send money
to your favorite working woman if she doesn’t live in the same country
as you do. Tell her to spoil herself and not to spend it on something
mundane like groceries or fuel. This way you can make her feel special
even if there are oceans or continents separating you from each other.
Celebrations for women
At the office: Being a working woman yourself, you should also make
an effort to celebrate the day, especially at the office. Get the other
women together and go out for a quick lunch. You’ll definitely have lots
of stories to share about being women in the workplace. Dress up
especially nice on the day. Make an effort with your appearance. Looking
good will also remind you of your worth as a woman in the workplace.
At home: You can’t exactly force your family to treat you at home,
but you can most definitely treat yourself. Take the night off from
strenuous activities like extra work, cooking, doing the dishes and
washing the clothes. You can have takeout for one night and the kids can
recycle a school shirt. Run yourself a bath, light some candles and
enjoy some much-needed me-time.
Awareness
International Women’s Day is also about equality. There are many
countries in the world where women still aren’t allowed to work. This
happens despite the fact that research has proven economies to be more
successful if their women also work. Many women are still oppressed in
their cultures and looked down upon by men. Make International Women’s
Day a day where you educate yourself about gender equality. You might
event feel like donating money to a women’s cause or organization
working towards global gender equality.
We won’t change! We won’t change! We will not stop until we tame the bull.
“Tamilan endru solla da, thalai nimirthu nilla da!”
Say you are a Tamilian, stand with your head held high!
At noon in Chennai, the chants of young jallikattu supporters on Marina beach were growing stronger. Thousands of people had gathered along the beach to protest against the Supreme Court’s decision last January to ban the Tamil bull-taming sport jallikattu.
The sport is traditionally practiced around the Pongal festival, which was celebrated last week.
Along a 3 km stretch of beach, college students, school students and office-goers waved placards and posters supporting the sport. The protest had gathered momentum on Tuesday evening, and many had stayed overnight on the beach, refusing to move until the ban was revoked. Even though it was more than 36 hours since the protest began, hundreds were continuing to throng at the beach.
“Only now the protest is gathering momentum,” said V Balaji, a college student.
The clamour in support of the sport has been growing louder across the state over the past month. The Supreme Court has been hearing several petitions on the sport since it was banned on 2014. After upholding the ban last January, the Supreme Court bench in November referred to jallikattu as a “gladiator-type sport” and said that it was a Constitutional obligation to show compassion to animals.
As sporadic protests erupted in parts of the Tamil Nadu, several political leaders made promises to the public that jallikattu could be conducted during Pongal 2017. Last week, Chief Minsiter O Panneerselvam wrote a letter to Modi urging the centre to quickly pass an ordinance to allow jallikattu bouts to be organised. But the Supreme Court refused to pass a judgement before Pongal.
Ignoring the ban, jallikattu bouts were reportedly organised in several villages near Madurai and Sivaganga towns in Tamil Nadu. In Alanganallur near Madurai, more than 500 supporters were detained by the police.
On Wednesday, supporters at Marina beach were calling out to political leaders demanding that their promises be fulfilled. They shouted slogans naming chief minister Panneerselvam and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief N Sasikala, who is also known as Chinamma or Little Mother.
“Ringa ringa roses, enga ponaan OPS?”
Where did O Paneerselvam go?
“Chinamma Chinamma, OPS enga ma?”
Chinamma, where is OPS
“Vyavasayi kana la kaneer, enga ponaan Panneer?”
Farmers have tears in their eyes, where did Paneerselvam go?
College students gathered at the protest.
Social media mobilisation
Around midday, busloads of students were constantly pouring into Kamarajar Salai, the road along Marina Beach, joining the chorus of slogans supporting jallikattu.
“We got messages from different groups on WhatsApp and Facebook,” said L Shruthi, a student of Ambedkar Law College. “We were told that if all college students bunk class and gather here, the national media will come.”
M Manimaran, a third-year law student, had been at the Marina beach since Tuesday morning, tossing bottles of water and food packets to all those gathered. A first-generation high-school graduate, Manimaran’s family was dependent on agriculture until his father moved to the city when Manimaran was a child. But he often visited his grandparents’ home in their native village of Ramanathapuram in Sivaganga district, where jallikattu was practiced until three years ago. “My father and grandfather have all played jallikattu in their youth. We want to preserve that tradition,” he said.
Manimaran had been at the beach since Tuesday morning. “My father too encouraged me to come here and protest,” he said.
A few hundred people had been protesting on the beach since Sunday, after jallikattu supporters in Madurai district had been detained by the police, said Manimaran. As word about the demonstrations spread on social media, thousands more joined in.
On Tuesday, the street lights along an entire section of the footpath where the protestors stood were switched off. “The police used that tactic hoping that we would all clear off,” said Manimaran. “But instead it triggered off a lot more anger. People started waving their phone torches in protest.”
Credit: Marina Beach/Facebook
‘Ban PETA’
Along with the slogans protesting against the jallikattu ban were calls to ban the NGO People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, the animal welfare organisation that had expressed its support for the court-imposed restriction on the sport.
According to V Balaji, a student of Alpha Arts and Science College, the organisation did not understand the nuances of the sport. “Farmers spend so much of their money to rear their cattle,” he said. “Why would they want to hurt them?”
Balaji said that jallikattu itself had many rules that prevented the animals from suffering harm. He said that a participant in the sport could be disqualified if more than one person caught the neck of the bull or the hump.
“Everybody here knows that big multinational dairy companies are backing PETA,” said V Balaji. “They want to destroy our native breed of cattle and bring in jersey cows.”
The view that western corporations were behind the ban was shared by several other at the rally.
“If we don’t conduct jallikattu, the purpose of breeding bulls will be lost,” said R Palani, an IT employee. “Foreign MNCs want us to consume the milk provided by foreign varieties of cattle. This kind of milk can gave us diabetes and even cancer. Then they want to sell us their medicine for cure. That is the truth.”
Thousands have been protesting at the Marina Beach in Chennai from Tuesday onward against a court ban on Jallikattu, the controversial bull-taming sport played during the Pongal festival. The repeated neglect of Tamil identity is the rallying point for Jallikkattu protests.
Since the issue has snowballed into a controversy, prominent National figures from the state have come out open in support for the sport.
Oscar winning musician AR Rahman is the latest one to join the debate. He said that he will go on fast on Friday to support the spirit of Tamil Nadu. He said this in a tweet.
Chess champion Viswanathan Anand has also come with the support for the protest. He said "My state rises again in unison, in peace. Proud to be a #tamizhanda. Genext here are modern yet culturally rooted"
Many Tamil superstars including Rajnikanth, Kamal Hassan, Dhanush, Surya, Vishal, Sivakarthikeyan, Cricket Ravichandran Ashwin and scores others have lending their support for the Jallikkattu.
Hours after the Supreme Court rejected a plea inviting its interference to allow Jallikattu during this Pongal, protests erupted across Tamil Nadu. The police had to resort to lathicharge to control the situation at several places. More than two dozen people were arrested for illegally holding Jallikattu in Cuddalore town.
The
chorus in support of the sport grew with more sections of people,
including students, joining protests in different parts of the state,
including in places where it is not so popular.
Students of
state-run Anna University and Dr Ambedkar Law University took to the
streets in support for Jallikattu. While Anna varsity students staged a
sit-in protest, law students took out a rally here. Similar
demonstrations were held by students in various places, including
Vellore, Pudukottai and Tirupur.
A students’ protest in Madurai
turned violent when police resorted to a lathicharge to disperse them.
The agitators said it was a peaceful protest and they were on their way
to the collector's office to submit a letter in support of the
Jallikattu when police stopped them.
About 10,000 people converged at a ground in Coimbatore in
support of Jallikattu, while protests were staged in Sivaganga,
Dindigul, Pudukottai and Salem districts.
Both the ruling AIADMK
and Opposition DMK came out with statements portraying the importance of
Jallikattu to Tamil culture, and vowed to push the Centre in this
regard.
The bull taming sport Jallikattu, organised to celebrate
Pongal festival, has not been held in Tamil Nadu for the last two years.
It was first banned in May 2014 by the apex court. In 2016 though the
Centre permitted the event, the court stepped in and stayed it. Animal
rights groups oppose the sport on the grounds of cruelty to animals.
DMK
working president, MK Stalin, announced on Thursday that his party
would hold protests in every district of the state on Friday to “force
the Centre to allow the sport”. AIADMK spokesperson C Saraswati dubbed
the apex court decision as “unfortunate,” and said the state government
would do everything in its power to ensure that the event is held.
Stalin
also participated in a demonstration held by college students here
seeking permission for jallikattu. “I extended support for the agitation
by participating in their protest. It is welcome that students are
holding protests for Jallikattu,” he said.
He said only such
solidarity and participation by students “guarded our mother tongue”, in
an apparent reference to the large scale anti-Hindi protests by
students in 1960’s. “Similarly, I believe that students’ agitations will
protect jallikattu, the cultural symbol of the Tamil people,” Stalin
said.
Functionaries of Naam Tamizhar Katchi conducted Jallikattu in
Cuddalore near the Thiruvanthipuram Devanatha Swamy Temple premises and
police arrested 28 people for violating the ban.
Film
personalities including actor Sathyaraj, filmmaker Karu Pazhaniappan
participated in a stir here pledging support for Jallikattu. Actor Simbu
held a silent protest.
In Coimbatore, people from different
spheres of life, cutting across caste, linguistic and political
barriers, took part in the protest at the sprawling CODISSIA grounds
under the banner of “Voice for Jallikattu”.
The protests over
Jallikattu in Tamil Nadu had its echo in the neighbouring union
territory of Puducherry where volunteers of various youth outfits staged
a human chain agitation supporting the bull taming sport on the ground
that it was part of the time-honoured tradition of the Tamils.
The
Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a plea seeking its intervention to
lift the ban on Jallikattu before Saturday saying it is “unfair to ask
bench to pass an order” while the draft of the judgment has been
prepared.
Draw funny and honest comics about the differences between men and women. And yes, we’ve got our peculiarities, but remember, the main thing is that even though we’re different, we just can’t live without one another.
A chemical plant in India is the first in the world to run a new system for capturing carbon emissions and converting them into baking soda.
The Tuticorin Alkali Chemicals plant, in the industrial port city of Tuticorin, is expecting to convert some 60,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually into baking soda and other chemicals – and the scientists behind the process say the technique could be used to ultimately capture and transform up to 10 percent of global emissions from coal.
While carbon capture technology is not a new thing, what's remarkable about the Tuticorin installation is that it's running without subsidies from the government – suggesting the researchers have developed a profitable, practical system that could have the commercial potential to expand to other plants and industries.
"I am a businessman. I never thought about saving the planet," the managing director of the plant, Ramachadran Gopalan, told the BBC.
"I needed a reliable stream of CO2, and this was the best way of getting it."
The inventors of the new technique, London-based Carbon Clean Solutions, developed the system in the UK after receiving finance from a British entrepreneur support scheme. Their process uses a patented chemical to filter out CO2 molecules.
In the Tuticorin setup, the plant runs a coal-fired burner to make steam that powers its various chemical-manufacturing processes. A mist containing Carbon Clean's chemical separates the CO2 emissions in the burner's chimney, which are then fed into a mixing chamber with salt and ammonia.
The end product can then be used to produce baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) or a range of other compounds, for use in things such as glass manufacture, detergents, disinfectants, and sweeteners.
The overall idea of separating CO2 molecules from flue gas may not be new, but the team behind the system say that their filtering chemical is more efficient than the amine compounds that scientists have previously used, and requires less energy to run.
According to CEO Aniruddha Sharma, the company's approach is to think realistically, partnering with modest, low-risk enterprises as it builds itself up – and he says the same strategy should be implemented by the carbon capture industry as a whole.
"So far the ideas for carbon capture have mostly looked at big projects, and the risk is so high they are very expensive to finance," Sharma told Roger Harrabin at The Guardian.
"We want to set up small-scale plants that de-risk the technology by making it a completely normal commercial option."
The other compelling aspect of the system is that it actually does something positive with the carbon – making new chemicals and products – rather than simply storing it somewhere in a useless, dormant state (such as burying it underground).
And given the expense involved with building carbon capture systems, the ability to on-sell a byproduct could be incredibly important in making this technology financially viable in the bigger picture.
"We have to do everything we can to reduce the harmful effects of burning fossil fuels," Lord Ronald Oxburgh, the head of the UK government's carbon capture advisory group, told the BBC, "and it is great news that more ways are being found of turning at least some of the CO2 into useful products."
Police on Monday detained half a dozen people for interrogation in
connection with murder of a youth, who was shot dead at an isolated
place in Naya Raipur a day ago. The youth was shot at from behind whe he was sitting at a field near Chrikheri around 8 o' clock on Sunday evening.
He died on the spot. Thereafter, the accused, who is yet to be identified, raped the minor girl who was with the deceased.
While police claim to be interrogating the detained persons and
investigating the matter by retrieving call details of the youth and
minor girl, internal sources hinted that the accused has been identified
and would be arrested soon.
Police said that the statement of girl was being recorded and her family had no clue about the girl going to Naya Raipur with the youth.
The deceased Yuvraj Chauhan
had taken the girl to an isolated place on his bike where they had been
before multiple times, police said adding that the place was frequently
visited by couples and anti-social elements as well.
Police have recovered bottles of liquor and contraceptives from the spot.
Physicist Stephen Hawking has warned humanity that we probably only have about 1,000 years left on Earth, and the only thing that could save us from certain extinction is setting up colonies elsewhere in the Solar System.
"We must ... continue to go into space for the future of humanity," Hawking said in a lecture at the University of Cambridge this week. "I don’t think we will survive another 1,000 years without escaping beyond our fragile planet."
The fate of humanity appears to have been weighing heavily on Hawking of late - he’s also recently cautioned that artificial intelligence (AI) will be "either the best, or the worst, thing ever to happen to humanity".
Given that humans are prone to making the same mistakes over and over again - even though we’re obsessed with our own history and should know better - Hawking suspects that "powerful autonomous weapons” could have serious consequences for humanity.
As Heather Saul from The Independent reports, Hawking has estimated that self-sustaining human colonies on Mars are not going to be a viable option for another 100 years or so, which means we need to be "very careful" in the coming decades.
Without even taking into account the potentially devastating effects of climate change, global pandemics brought on by antibiotic resistance, and nuclear capabilities of warring nations, we could soon be sparring with the kinds of enemies we’re not even close to knowing how to deal with.
Late last year, Hawking added his name to a coalition of more than 20,000 researchers and experts, including Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, and Noam Chomsky, calling for a ban on anyone developing autonomous weapons that can fire on targets without human intervention.
As the founders of OpenAI, Musk’s new research initiative dedicated to the ethics of artificial intelligence, said last year, our robots are perfectly submissive now, but what happens when we remove one too many restrictions?
What happens when you make them so perfect, they’re just like humans, but better, just like we've always wanted?
"AI systems today have impressive but narrow capabilities," the founders said.
"It seems that we'll keep whittling away at their constraints, and in the extreme case they will reach human performance on virtually every intellectual task. It's hard to fathom how much human-level AI could benefit society, and it's equally hard to imagine how much it could damage society if built or used incorrectly."
And that’s not even the half of it.
Imagine we’re dealing with unruly robots that are so much smarter and so much stronger than us, and suddenly, we get the announcement - aliens have picked up on the signals we’ve been blasting out into the Universe and made contract.
Great news, right? Well, think about it for a minute. In the coming decades, Earth and humanity isn’t going to look so crash-hot.
We’ll be struggling to mitigate the effects of climate change, which means we'll be running out of land to grow crops, our coasts will be disappearing, and anything edible in the sea is probably being cooked by the rapidly rising temperatures.
If the aliens are aggressive, they’ll see a weakened enemy with a habitable planet that’s ripe for the taking. And even if they’re non-aggressive, we humans certainly are, so we’ll probably try to get a share of what they’ve got, and oops: alien wars.
As Hawking says in his new online film, Stephen Hawking’s Favourite Places, "I am more convinced than ever that we are not alone," but if the aliens are finding us, "they will be vastly more powerful and may not see us as any more valuable than we see bacteria".
Clearly, we need a back-up plan, which is why Hawking's 1,000-year deadline to destruction comes with a caveat - we might be able to survive our mistakes if we have somewhere else in the Solar System to jettison ourselves to.
That all might sound pretty dire, but Hawking says we still have a whole lot to feel optimistic about, describing 2016 as a "glorious time to be alive and doing research into theoretical physics".
While John Oliver might disagree that there's anything good about 2016 at all, Hawking says we need to "Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet."
"Try to make sense of what you see, wonder about what makes the Universe exist. Be curious," he told students at the Cambridge lecture. "However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give up."
Hundreds of photos and videos of naked women used as collateral for
loans on a Chinese online lending service have leaked onto the web,
highlighting regulatory problems in the fast-growing peer-to-peer
marketplace.
A 10-gigabyte file posted on the internet exposed the
personal details of more than 160 young women who were asked to provide
the explicit material to secure money through online lending platform
Jiedaibao.
Launched by JD Capital in 2015, Jiedaibao allows
lenders to operate anonymously but requires borrowers to reveal their
real names when making transactions.
Loan amounts and interest
rates can be customised to meet the needs of users--often people who
have a hard time accessing loans through more traditional financial
institutions, like banks.
Interest on the “nude loans” reached an astonishing 30% a week, according to the Global Times newspaper.
Lenders
told female borrowers that if they failed to repay the loans, their
nude photos would be sent to their families and friends, whose
information was also required for some transactions, the article said.
Material in the file put on the web last Wednesday showed some
borrowers also promised to repay loans with sexual favours, according to
screen captures posted on social media websites.
In a statement
on its official Twitter-like Weibo account, Jiedaibao said it had
tracked down the accounts of several borrowers through photos and ID
information circulated online and had frozen the suspected lenders’
accounts.
“The ‘nude loans’ deals were mainly initiated and
completed offline, and Jiedaibao only played the role of a money
transfer platform in the deals,” the statement said.
The case is not the first time online P2P (peer-to-peer) businesses have been connected to potentially embarrassing photos.
In
November, Alipay, the payment platform of Chinese e-commerce giant
Alibaba, was criticised after a set of photos showing female users in
seductive poses was leaked on social media.
The photos were
originally posted in Alipay’s newly launched social media feature called
Circles, which allows only women to post photos, and had obscene
comments from male users.
China has nearly 2,600 platforms
described as P2P businesses, according to one industry estimate, with
transactions valued at around $150 billion last year.
Beijing has
been particularly worried about P2P lending and in August it tightened
regulations by setting a borrowing limit of one million yuan for
individuals.
It also required platforms to supply and verify the
information of both borrowers and lenders, and provide credit
assessment, financial consulting and conflict resolution services.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa was shifted
back to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Apollo Hospitals in Chennai
after she suffered a cardiac arrest on Sunday evening. She is on
extracorporeal membrane heart assist device and is being treated by a
team of expert doctors and critical care specialists, said Apollo
Hospitals in a tweet late on Sunday night. The hospital also said that
Dr. Richard Beale, was consulted again and he concurred with the line of
treatment.
Initial reports suggested that the Chief Minister was put on life
support system though hospital sources maintained that her condition was
“stable”. A late evening press released issued by Apollo Hospitals COO
Subbiah Viswanathan said, the Chief Minister “suffered a cardiac arrest
this evening. She is being treated and monitored by a team of experts
including cardiologists, pulmonologist and the critical care
specialists.”
Maharashtra Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao, who is holding additional charge of Tamil Nadu, arrived at the hospital.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to Tamil Nadu Governor Ch. Vidyasagar
Rao on Sunday evening and enquired about health of Ms. Jayalalithaa. As
of 11 pm, no request by Tamil Nadu to send Central forces, said a senior
MHA official to The Hindu. Director General of CRPF K.Durga Prasad said
that he has not received any instructions yet from the Home Ministry to
rush to Chennai.
Following news of the Chief Minister's ill health, violence broke out at
the hospital entrance on Sunday night. Housing Minister Udumalai
Radhakrishnan, PWD Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, Electricity
Minister P. Thangamani, Transport Minister M.R. Vijaya Baskar were among
those present at the hospital.
Ms Jayalalithaa, who was admitted to the Apollo Hospitals on the night
of September 22, with “low grade fever and dehydration”, was
subsequently under intensive treatment from specialists and moved to a
private ward only on November 19.
Several State Ministers, the Chief Secretary and top bureaucrats rushed
to the hospital while Tamil Nadu Director-General of Police T.K.
Rajendran who was in Madurai for a review meeting air-dashed to Chennai,
advancing his scheduled trip. An emergency meeting was called at the
police headquarters late on Sunday.
Police officers mobilised
The entire police strength, including companies of the Armed Reserve and
Tamil Nadu Special Police, was being mobilised as a precautionary
measure.
The Director General of Police has ordered the mobilisation of all
officers in the rank of Superintendent of Police as well as police
personnel of other ranks (Enforcement, CB CID, Economic Offences Wing,
Crime Wing). They have been asked to report to their respective District
SPs/ Commissioner of Police at 7 am on Monday. They have been ordered
to report in full uniform with their vehicles for law and order
bandobast duty until further orders.
Though no formal request was made yet, companies of the Central Reserve
Police Force in Tamil Nadu and neighbouring States were put on alert,
the sources said.
London doctor consulted
Earlier following her hospitalisation, besides doctors at the Apollo
Hospital, Dr Richard John Beale, expert in lung injuries and intensive
care management, United Kingdom and specialists from the All India
Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, were part of the
treatment protocol.
Earlier this evening an AIIMS expert team had confirmed that the Chief
Minister had recovered after over two months of hospitalisation, AIADMK
said.
What is ECMO?
● ECMO stands for Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation
● ECMO is used as a life support system in some patients who suffer a
cardiac arrest — it is used as a rescue therapy when the patient is
found to be unresponsive to conventional CPR measures
● An ECMO machine works by draining the blood from a vein, adding oxygen
and removing the carbon dioxide. It also warms the blood and then
returns it to the artery and in some cases pumps the blood through the
body. This allows the blood to bypass the heart and lungs.
● Specifically, ECMO is resorted to in situations where it can be
rapidly implemented and where the attending medical personnel believe
that the suspected cause of the cardiac arrest is potentially reversible
Iskra Lawrence isn’t sample size, but the size-10 model isn’t shy about showing off her body. A billboard of her in a skimpy monokini for the lingerie brand Aerie is currently on display in Times Square. Last week, she hopped on a southbound A train, stripped down to her underwear and gave commuters an impromptu lecture about body diversity.
“I am passionate about body image, and it’s important to show I am confident about my body,” Lawrence told the Post of her subway exposure, which she did for the feminist Internet video series #Unmuted.
The 26-year-old blond bombshell wasn’t always so happy with her looks.
“If you’re put in a room and everyone around you is a size 0, you want to look like them,” she said.
‘I’m showing that it doesn’t matter what other people think.’
A native of Worcestershire, England, she started modeling at age 13 when she won a magazine competition with photos her mother took of her in her bedroom. “It was so funny and awkward,” she said.
But when she hit 15, she grew hips and started having trouble booking gigs. She turned to drastic measures to lose weight.
“I tried the maple syrup diet; I tried only eating proteins,” Lawrence said. She exercised so much that she temporarily lost her vision from the lack of fuel in her body.
But none of it worked, and she kept seeing her peers with thigh gaps and 24-inch waists pass her by in the fashion world.
Then, when she was 18, a model friend told her about plus-size modeling, and though Lawrence wasn’t quite “big enough” she begged a London agency to take her on. Soon, she was booking lingerie campaign after lingerie campaign.
In 2013, she signed with JAG Models, and, for the past three years, she’s been living in New York City. The Midtown resident loves exploring the city’s culinary offerings with her soccer-player boyfriend, whom she declines to name.
“There are so many good restaurants here,” said Lawrence, who loves the s’mores pizza at Meatpacking District spot Catch, the ice cream rolls at Chinatown’s 10Below and the soup dumplings at Joe’s Shanghai.
When she’s not modeling for lingerie and swimwear companies, she boldly shows off her curves to her 2.8 million followers on Instagram and serves as an ambassador for the National Eating Disorders Association.
“I’m showing that it doesn’t matter what other people think,” Lawrence said. “I’m trying to impart that to as many young people as I can, because I know what it’s like to look at a picture of someone I admired and then trying to [look like her] and failing.”
And she’s not afraid to stand up to body shamers. When an Instagram user called her a “fat cow” on social media in April, Lawrence responded by posting a photo of herself in nothing but a bra and panties, lying on a bed of potato chips.
“If you’re online and putting yourself out there, you’re going to get mean comments,” she said. “But for every one nasty comment, there are a hundred amazing positive lovely ones, mostly from young girls who write things like ‘You make me feel like I can be OK with my body.’
Just two weeks into circulation, there are already different variants of the new Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Rs 500 notes+ , which experts fear could not only create confusion in the minds of the citizens but also aid counterfeiting — countering which was one of the top objectives of Centre's demonetization move and introduction of new notes.
TOI found at least three case studies where the new notes have been found to vary from one another. In case of one note Abshar (he goes by one name), a resident of Delhi, says: "There is a more than visible shadow of Gandhi's face, besides alignment issues with the national emblem on the note and even serial numbers."
Rehan Shah, a resident of Gurugram pointed out that the size of the borders of the notes were different. In case of two notes a Mumbai resident got when he made change for Rs 2,000 the notes were of different colours, with one being of a lighter shade. While he shared the picture with TOI, he refused to go on record.
RBI spokesperson Alpana Killawala, said: "It is likely that notes with printing defect has got released due to the current rush. However, people can freely accept such a note in transaction or return it to RBI."
Former Home Secretary GK Pillai told TOI: "Prevention of counterfeiting is almost impossible, with official mechanisms in Pakistan printing notes with access to as much sophistication as we do. So, it is only a matter of delay and temporary suspension of such notes in the country that one could have hoped for. I cannot yet comment on the Rs 500 notes as I am yet to see them, the Rs 2,000 notes are of good sophistication. That said, if the RBI says there is only one new 500-note it is printing, there should exist only one."
Experts pointed out that multiple variants of the official notes will aid people attempting to infuse fake notes. "As it is people find it difficult to understand all features of an official note and fail to check for everything before they accept one. Now, if there are too many versions of the official note, slipping in another would be easier than otherwise," a service IPS officer who has dealt with crime for many years said.
Between January 2013 to September 2016, India has seized Rs 155.11 crore worth of counterfeit currency notes, Rs 27.79 crore of which was seized in the first nine months of this year. While the value of the seizures is hundreds of crores, the number of notes seized are only 31 lakh, indicating that majority of them were high denomination notes. Also, the seizures as security agencies point out time-and-again, are only a tip of the iceberg.
Former DG&IG of Karnataka ST Ramesh, while echoing the views of the experts of different variants of notes aiding fake currency rackets, said: "Local printing of such notes has almost stopped. The notorious gangs from Coimbatore are more or less dead and all notes come in from outside through Nepal, Bangladesh and other countries. Different variants of official currency will certainly aid counterfeiting and it must be curbed immediately, unless of course, the RBI has strategically released this."
Come November 11, ATMs in the country will also dispense banknotes of Rs. 50 denomination. Currently, the lowest denomination note a customer can get at an ATM is Rs. 100.
The Reserve Bank of India said all ATMs and cash dispensing machines will have to be re-configured to disburse bank notes of Rs. 100 and Rs. 50 denominations prior to reactivation of the machines on 11th November, 2016.
This move is likely to resolve the perennial problem -- not getting lower denomination notes -- that customers faced so far at ATMs. Usually, ATMs dispense only higher denomination notes – Rs. 500 and Rs.1,000.
The RBI said banks, however, should await separate instructions from Reserve Bank of India on issuing Mahatma Gandhi (New) series Notes through ATMs and cash dispensing machines though they can be issued over the counters from November 9, 2016.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a bid to clamp down on black money and fake currency notes, announced on Tuesday that Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 banknotes will no longer be legal tender with effect from today.
All ATMs, according to RBI, have been closed for operations so that they do not dispense the withdrawn old higher denomination banknotes (OHD). The ATMs may resume functioning from November 11, 2016 upon their recalibration to dispense bank notes of only Rs. 50 and Rs. 100 denominations.
Further, to ensure customer convenience, the RBI has advised banks to provide all cash withdrawal transactions at their ATMs free of cost to their customers till December 30, 2016. It has also been decided that banks may fix a limit of Rs. 2,000 per day per card withdrawal limit at ATMs, for all their customers, till November 18, 2016.
16-year-old girl, who was brought here from West Bengal on the pretext of a job, has allegedly been tortured and forced into prostitution for the last two years.
The minor victim has alleged that she was raped by over 100 persons, including cops.The girl escaped to Delhi last month and lodged a complaint there. On Saturday, the case was transferred to Pune police and accordingly, an FIR has been registered against 113 persons.
Vimantal police station arrested a 26-year-old woman in this regard on Sunday.
Incidentally, this case is connected to the recent revelation of the attempt to rape and torture a model from Delhi, who had escaped with the minor girl to the capital last month. In this case, four more accused have already been nabbed by officials of Chandan Nagar police station.
The arrested accused has been identified as Swikriti Kharel (26), a native of Nepal, who lives in Viman Nagar. Those arrested by Chandan Nagar cops are Rohit Bhandari (35), Harish Shaha (25), Tapendra Sahi (23), and Ramesh Thakula (25), all Nepal natives, who live in Kalyani Nagar.
The other accused named in the complaint include Shakti, Anna, Bharat, and others, all part of the sex racket in the city. Cops said the minor girl hails from the Nepal-India border region in Siliguri. Her father had left her mother, who later became mentally unstable. Her grandmother ran a tea stall, where Bhandari used to come to buy cigarettes and saw the victim. He promised to get her a job at a beauty parlour in Pune and brought her here in January 2014. The first few days went smoothly, but later, she was forced into prostitution. The accused raped her, also drugging her and making her engage in sex with multiple persons.She was kept at locations like Sanjay Park, Viman Nagar, Kharadi, etc. As per the survivor's complaint, Swikriti took her to Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Bhopal for this racket, too.
Later, the girl was brought to Pune again and kept in a flat at Nyati Empire society in Kharadi, where she was forced to have sex with more `customers'. She was also beaten and forced to undergo an abortion when she became pregnant. It was from this flat that she fled to Delhi last month, along with another 24-year-old model, who was allegedly given cigarette burns after she refused to perform sexual favours in exchange of helping her become an actress. They came out of the flat on the pretext of going to a beauty parlour and fled the city.
The incident had come to light in March when the 24-year-old was admitted in a Delhi hospital for burns treatment and hospital authorities informed cops. Delhi police registered a zero FIR and sent the case to Pune, where it was taken up by the Chandan Nagar police.
Senior police inspector in-charge of Vimantal police station, Sanjay Kurundkar, said, "The minor girl's medical test was conducted in Delhi. She has also given a statement before a metropolitan magistrate. We have arrested one accused, who has been remanded in police custody till April 22. We will move an application for custody of the four accused earlier arrested by Chandan Nagar police."
Assistant police inspector P B Kolte from Viman Nagar police chowky is investigating the case.
Hundreds of photos and videos of naked women used as collateral for
loans on a Chinese online lending service have leaked onto the web,
highlighting regulatory problems in the fast-growing peer-to-peer
marketplace.
