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Tag: Prakash Javadekar

  • Discussed important issues with COP26 President for negotiations in Glasgow: Javadekar

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday held a meeting with Alok Sharma, President of the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) and discussed all important issues for the negotiations to be held in Glasgow, later this year.

    “I showcased him and told about various initiatives taken by India on renewables, disaster-resilient infrastructure, adaptation, electrical buses, on metro expansion, our reduction of emission intensity and increasing tree cover. It was a very fruitful meeting,” said Javadekar.

    “Glasgow will host COP26, he (Alok Sharma) is meeting various leaders and discussing with them to arrive at landing zones. We discussed all issues, which are contemporary and important issues for negotiations in Glasgow,” the minister added.

    After meeting Javadekar, Alok Sharma tweeted: “Wonderful to meet my friend Prakash Javdekar at the hugely innovative Paryavaran Bhawan, India’s pioneering example of NetZero architecture. A great place to discuss all things COP26.”

    Later today, COP26 president also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and held discussions on India-UK cooperation on climate change agenda and COP26.

    During the meeting, Prime Minister Modi conveyed best wishes to the UK for the successful organisation of the climate summit.

    Alok Sharma landed in New Delhi on a two-day visit for climate discussions with Indian leaders on Monday.

    During his visit, Sharma met senior ministers, as well as leaders from business and civil society to discuss strengthening the UK-India climate partnership and preparing for a successful COP26 summit later this year, according to a statement from the British High Commission in New Delhi.

    This is Sharma’s first visit to Asia as COP President, where he is expected to welcome India’s significant progress on climate action and clean energy transition.

    Sharma’s visit follows those of the UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and International Trade Secretary Elizabeth Truss and paves the way for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s visit later this year, during which climate cooperation will be a focus. As host of COP26, the UK is setting a strong example on climate action, with a legally binding target to cut emissions to net-zero by 2050. 

  • Government working on regulatory mechanism for OTTs, says Union Minister Prakash Javadekar

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:   The government has received several references of objectionable content on over-the-top (OTT) platforms, said Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar on Friday. He was replying a question in the Parliament whether the government had taken note of web series/films released on platforms ‘constantly hurting the religious sentiments’.

    Javadekar said in his response that the government has also held consultations with the OTT players, including with the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), and reiterated the need for having a self-regulatory mechanism for content in OTT platforms.

    “Content over internet is governed under various provisions of Information Technology Act, 2000. The Central government amended  the Allocation of Business Rules, 1961, and the subject relating to content of news and current affairs and audio-visual content on online  platforms has been brought in the mandate of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.”

    On Thursday, the IAMAI announced the adoption of a comprehensive implementation toolkit for the universal self-regulation code for online curated content providers. Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+Hotstar, Discovery Plus are among those who have adopted the Code, said the IAMAI. 

  • Union Minister Prakash Javadekar joins indigenous Twitter replica ‘Koo’

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar on Friday began using India’s micro-blogging platform ‘Koo’, joining several ministers who already created their accounts on it.

    Making the announcement through his Twitter handle, Javadekar said, “I am now on #Koo also, the #MakeInIndia micro-blogging platform.

    Follow me @prakashjavadekar on #KooApp. The application was launched 10 months ago but in the last few weeks, it saw a massive surge in user base as Union ministers and government departments have endorsed the homegrown microblogging platform amid a spat with Twitter.

    ALSO READ | ‘Aatmanirbhar’ Koo pads up and faces Chinese funding queries, data leak worries

    Minister of Railways, Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Tuesday tweeted that he was on Koo and asked people to connect with him.

    The information technology ministry used Koo to broadcast its stand on Twitter’s non-compliance with its order to take down allegedly inflammatory content by some farmer protesters, while ministers urged people to switch platforms.

    These developments have led to a surge in the user base of the Indian rival.

    Koo, which has startling similarities with Twitter, now has over three million users, Koo co-founder Mayank Bidawataka had told PTI on Thursday.

    ALSO READ | Amid full-blown freedom-of-speech spat with Twitter, government begins Koo-ing

    Koo has a yellow bird as its logo in contrast to the blue bird of Twitter.

    “We had two million users with about 1.5 million active users. Now, we have now crossed the 3 million-mark,” Bidawataka had told PTI.

    Twitter has 17.5 million users and is ardently used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Cabinet ministers to communicate with the public.

  • World Sustainable Summit: India implementing its climate pledges well before time, says Prakash Javadekar

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday said India is leading from the front and implementing all its climate pledges well before time.

    Speaking at the inaugural session of the World Sustainable Summit, held virtually and inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Javadekar said India has reduced emission intensity and increased forest cover under the leadership of its prime minister.

    “Four international reports say that India, under Modi, is leading from the front and implementing all its pledges well before time. We have reduced emission intensity, increased forest cover and given a new target for restoration of degraded land and 450-gigawatt target of renewable energy will be achieved. This is our country’s ethos,” he said.

    He said Modi brought on the international table for the first time the issues of lifestyle and climate justice.

    “I presented his wonderful book titled ‘Convenient Action’. World is talking about inconvenient truth, but the answer is convenient action. I gifted this book to all dignitaries in Paris,” Javadekar said.

    “In the same conference, PM launched international solar alliance, coalition of disaster resilient infrastructure and mission innovation. These three initiatives were also picked up very well through out the world. India is implementing its pledges,” he said.

    The three-day Summit convened on the theme ‘Redefining Our Common Future: A Safe and Secure Environment for All’.

    The annual meeting will engage with top world leaders on shaping the energy and climate agenda ahead of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties in Glasgow, UK.

    The virtual inaugural session was attended by Mohamed Irfaan Ali, President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, James Marape, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Mohamed Nasheed, Speaker of the People’s Majlis, Republic of Maldives and Amina J Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations.

  • Government to issue OTT guidelines soon: I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The government will soon issue guidelines for regulation of OTT (over the top) platforms that will address issues such as sensitive content, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Tuesday.

    Replying to a Zero Hour mention, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said a lot of suggestions and complaints on the regulation of OTTs have been received.

    “Guidelines and direction are almost ready.It will be soon implemented,” he said in his brief submission.

    Earlier, raising the issue through a Zero Hour mention, Mahesh Poddar of the BJP said the content and language on OTT platforms was discriminatory and offensive.

    Objectional content on OTT platforms includes sexual discrimination and abusive language, he said adding that the government should, without delay, implement the Internet regulations.

    There are at least 40 OTT platforms, including global ones such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and HotStar (Disney Plus),and hundreds of news content websites.

    “It is an important issue. We get a lot of suggestions and complaints. Guidelines and directions are almost ready. It will be soon implemented,” Javadekar said.

    Ram Gopal Yadav of the SP opposed direct recruitment for the post of joint secretary in Government of India, saying the IAS and IRS fraternity was unhappy with these lateral entries.

    Besides, there is no reservation for SC, ST and OBC in these appointments, he said, demanding that the Department of Personnel and Training be told to stop such recruitments.

    Neeraj Dangi of the Congress demanded raising of monthly pension to pensioners covered under the EPF-95 scheme to Rs 9,000 from the current Rs 300 to Rs 3,000 a month.

    N Gokulakrishnan of the AIAMDK alleged that “step-motherly treatment” being meted out to Puducherry in partly increase of Rs 26 crore in the annual fund allocation for the Union Territory.

    Seeking at least a 10 per cent annual increase in fund allocation, he said the demand for a special package, writing off of legacy loans and reimbursement of pay commission arrears have been pending with the central government.

    Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar of the TDP sought reconsideration of the government decision to privatise Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) which has a steel plant in Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

    The steel plant, he said, was built after 22,000 acres of land was sacrificed by the people of the state.

    About 16,000 people were displaced due to the plant.

    The plant is incurring losses as it does not have a captive iron ore mine and is burdened by huge debt servicing liability, he said, adding the entire steel industry was facing high iron ore and freight cost, pushing them into losses.

    He called for reconsideration of the disinvestment plans of RINL Visakhapatnam.

    Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi raised the issue of Indians stuck on a ship in the China Sea since last year and asked the government to bring them back on priority.

    Shipping Minister Mansukh L Mandaviya said the issue will be resolved in a short time and the crew will return home.

    He said 23 sailors on one ship — MV Jag Anand — have returned home and the Indian government is in touch with the Chinese authorities for the return of 16 Indian crew on another vessel, MV Anastasia.

    Indian bulk cargo vessel MV Jag Anand had been on anchorage near Jingtang port in Hebei province of China since June 13.

    Another vessel, MV Anastasia, is on anchorage near Caofeidian port in China since September 20.

    DMK’s Tiruchi Siva raised the issue of 49 Kendriya Vidyalaya schools in Tamil Nadu not having a single teacher to teach Tamil as a third language.

    Sanskrit and Hindi have been made compulsory languages but not Tamil.

    This, he said, was an injustice to the local language.

    KVs are preferred for their good education and very low fee and not teaching Tamil would be an injustice to poor students, he said.

    “Tamil should be the compulsory language for teaching in KV schools.”

    Sasmit Patra of the BJD raised the issue of a long-pending demand for the building of a new international airport at Puri in Odisha.

    Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri responded saying the request for the new international airport at Puri came from the state government “only a few days ago” and to say it has been long pending will be incorrect.

  • Prakash Javadekar launches awareness campaign on COVID-19 vaccination, Aatmanirbhar Bharat

    By ANI
    PUNE: Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar flagged off a mobile exhibition to spread awareness about COVID-19 vaccination and Aatmanirbhar Bharat in Pune on Sunday.

    “Under this campaign, 16 specially fabricated vans will travel across 36 districts of Maharashtra to spread awareness among people,” a press release by the ministry stated.

    The campaign has been designed and implemented by the regional outreach bureau, Pune of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and the Information, Education and Communication (IEC) Division of the Maharashtra Health Department. The vans will also display messages through LED screens and these vans will be live tracked through GPS.

    Speaking on the occasion, Javadekar said “The whole world is fighting COVID-19. However, even with a population of 130 crores, India has managed to keep its losses lesser than Latin America, Europe, or America.”

    The Minister said that with COVID vaccination having begun, we have entered the new phase of communication.

    “India’s vaccine roll out has begun. Ever since the launch of COVID vaccination programme, more than 50 lakh health and frontline workers have been vaccinated in the country. After frontline health workers, people who are over 50 years of age will be vaccinated and thereafter the whole population will be vaccinated,” Javadekar said.

    Minister further said that the mobile exhibition vans will travel 80-100 kilometres every day to create awareness about the vaccination program. The campaign intends to take the message of the vaccination plan and COVID-appropriate behaviour to the last mile in Maharashtra.

    The cultural artists of the Song and Drama Division (SDD) will convey messages through folk performances popular in respective regions of Maharashtra.

    “Curbing misinformation and rumours surrounding vaccines and spreading awareness about government’s efforts towards Aatmanirbhar Bharat will be other objectives of this campaign,” said the Minister

    Communication has played a big role in containing the COVID-19 pandemic. In this initiative, the campaign aims to take the Government’s communication to people’s doorsteps.

  • We will soon issue guidelines for OTT platforms, says Javadekar amid rows over ‘Tandav’, ‘Mirzapur’

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: The Ministry will soon release guidelines on Over the Top (OTT) platforms as it is receiving a lot of complaints against some serials available here, said Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar on Sunday.

    “We have received a lot of complaints against some serials available on OTT platforms. Films and serials released on OTT platforms and digital newspapers do not come under the purview of the Press Council Act, Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act or Censor Board. We will come up with some guidelines on it soon,” he said while addressing media.

    The Minister also announced that full occupancy will be allowed in cinema halls from February 1 while following all COVID-related protocols.

    Content on OTT platforms has recently fuelled controversy, leading to public outcry and booking of makers of these programmes.

    Three FIRs were registered in Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow, Greater Noida and Shahjahanpur. Two FIRs were lodged in Madhya Pradesh while one FIR each was lodged in Karnataka and Bihar. Apart from the FIRs, at least three other criminal complaints are pending in Maharashtra, Delhi and Chandigarh respectively regarding content aired on OTT.

    FIRs were registered for the alleged inappropriate depiction of Uttar Pradesh Police personnel, deities and adverse portrayal of a character playing the role of prime minister in the show.

    Earlier, the Bombay High Court had granted a transit pre-arrest bail to director Ali Abbas Zafar, producer Himanshu Mehra, writer Gaurav Solanki, and Purohit against whom a case was registered in Lucknow.

  • Amit Shah Hails Union Cabinet’s ‘landmark Decision’ To Export Akash Missile System

     Amit Shah on Wednesday hailed the Union Cabinet’s decision to approve the export of indigenously-developed Akash missile system and said this will further propel India’s effort to achieve the target of $5 billion of defence export.

    In a series of tweets, Shah also congratulated the Prime Minister for approving the proposals for industrial corridors worth ₹ 7,725 crores that will generate over 2.8 lakh jobs.

    In a major move to boost domestic defence manufacturing, the Union Cabinet approved the export of surface-to-air Akash missile system and set up a panel to ensure faster approvals for acquisition proposals by various countries. The Akash missile systems have over 96% indigenous components and the weapon can hit targets at a range of 25 km.

    The cabinet also approved a proposal to set up industrial corridor nodes at Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Tumakuru in Karnataka under the Chennai Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (CBIC). The proposals have a total estimated cost of ₹ 7,725 crores and an estimated employment generation of more than 2.8 lakh people, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar had said.

    The cabinet also approved a scheme to provide bank loans at lower rates to distilleries producing ethanol for doping in petrol, with a view to raising India’s ethanol production capacity to suck out surplus sugar as well as cut oil imports.

    In a related development, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) identified 108 military systems and subsystems like navigation radars, tank transporters and missile canisters for the domestic industry to design, develop and manufacture.

  • Bonus gift to 31 lakh central employees on Vijayadashami

    The government is constantly trying to accelerate demand. In this connection, on Wednesday, 21 October, the Cabinet has announced the Productivity and Non-Productivity Linked Bonus for the financial year 2019-20. This announcement of the government will benefit 30 lakh 67 thousand non-gazetted government officials and employees.

    After this announcement, the burden of 3737 crores will increase on the government exchequer. Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said that the bonus will be released in single installment. This amount will be released to all employees and officers before Vijayadashami through direct benefit transfer.

    Earlier, the government had brought LTC Cash Voucher Scheme. As we know, the benefit of live travel compensation is available in the block of 4 years. That block is ending in this year i.e. 2020. People are not getting out of the house due to corona. In such a situation, the government had announced that it can be exploited by spending three times the LTC. Apart from this, festival advance of 10 thousand rupees was also announced, which can be raised by government employees.

  • Shri Prakash Javadekar urges District Education Officers of Aspirational Districts to play a key role in transforming them into developed districts

    Union Human Resource Minister, Shri Prakash Javadekar has urged the  District Education Officers to play a key role in transforming Aspirational districts in to developed districts. He was addressing the workshop with District Education Officers, DIETs, SCERTs, State Nodal Officers and Central Ministries on Transformation of Aspirational districts in New Delhi today. He said that unless we develop education properly, districts will not develop. No nation will develop without education; similarly no district will develop without education, Shri Javadekar added. He said to District Education Officers that the real challenge is to make government schools better. He further said that under the Samagra Siksha funds will not be a problem for the development of education in the inspirational districts.

    HRD Minister said that Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has launched the “Transformation of Aspirational Districts- programme in January 2018 to transform over 100 districts in 28 States. These districts have been ranked on 49 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) across five sectors by NEETI Aayog. Education is one of the sectors with 30% weight attached.

    Shri Javadekar said that key performance indicators in education sectors are transition from Primary to Upper Primary and Upper Primary to Secondary. This include Schools with Functional Girls’ Toilets, availability of Functional Drinking Water Facility in the schools, availability of Textbooks within 1 month of the Academic Session, availability of Functional Electricity Facility at Secondary School Level, Elementary Schools Complying with RTE specified Pupil Teacher Ratio, Learning Outcomes of Classes 3, 5 and 8 in Language, Mathematics and Female Literacy.

    He said that Gram Swaraj Abhiyan was initiated to attain saturation coverage of 7 flagship programmes. It is now extended to include all the five sectors under the Transformation of Aspirational Districts Programme and coverage has also been extended to all the Aspirational Districts. District Education Officers need to upload data on all the Key performance Indicators at village level except the KPI on Transition which will be at district level in the portal being developed by the Ministry of Rural Development.