"Nayi Soch Nayi Kahani": Minister Smriti Irani Turns Radio Jockey

Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani has taken up a unique initiative - a weekly radio show to tell stories. Ms Irani, who has been part of media and entertainment industry, told NDTV that "Mann Ki Baat", PM Modi's show, has set standards.

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Multiple Victims In US Hospital Shooting, Suspect Dead: Police

Multiple people were shot Friday at a hospital in Concord, New Hampshire, US authorities said, adding the suspect had been killed.

"Troopers are currently investigating a shooting at New Hampshire State Hospital in Concord. There are multiple victims," the northeastern US state's police force said on X, formerly Twitter.

The exact number of victims and their conditions were not immediately known.

The state's emergency management department said that "the situation at New Hampshire Hospital has been contained. The scene remains active. The suspect is deceased."

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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Congress Vows 75% Quota In Telangana Private Jobs, Court Junks Haryana Act

In its manifesto for the Telangana assembly polls released on Friday, the Congress has promised 75% reservation for residents of the state in private-sector jobs. Hours later, however, the Punjab and Haryana High Court struck down a Haryana law implementing the same promise.

Reservation based on domicile in private-sector jobs has always been a sticky subject and several industry associations have spoken against it in the past, arguing that it is against the principles of justice and equality guaranteed by the Constitution. They have insisted that eligibility for such jobs should be based on merit and not where the person resides. 

When NDTV raised these issues with two Congress leaders in Telangana, they said the idea is feasible and will be implemented after holding discussions with stakeholders. They emphasised that Telangana has a wealth of human capital and companies will not be deterred by the plan as long as they get skilled workers. 

Congress leader and head of the party's manifesto committee D Sridhar Babu said, "It is definitely feasible. We will put it into action after we sit across and try to talk to various stakeholders who contribute to our economy. We will convince them and then implement our manifesto promise. Any industry requires a skilled force and that is what our youth in Telangana are. Industry will welcome them," he said.

Echoing Mr Babu's comments, Congress leader and former Lok Sabha MP Ajoy Kumar said it is important for local residents to get jobs. 

"There are lots of competent people in Telangana, let's first identify them. Our view is simple, entry-level jobs, engineers, Java programmers, anything else, why isn't it local? There are so many engineering colleges, so many talented people. If you do a quick dipstick in Tamil Nadu... they employ local people and it's one of the manufacturing hubs of this country. So, all this is a myth. No capital gets scared, industries go where they can make money," Mr Kumar asserted.

Polling for Telangana's 119 Assembly seats will be held in a single phase on November 30 and the counting of votes will take place on December 3. 

Striking down the Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act, the Punjab and Haryana High Court termed it unconstitutional. The Act, which underwent several changes after it was passed in 2020, provided for 75% of private-sector jobs with a monthly salary or wages of less than Rs 30,000 being reserved for people with a resident or domicile certificate. The domicile requirement had also been brought down from 15 years to five. 

The petitioners had argued that the sons-of-the-soil concept behind the law was an infringement of the constitutional rights of employers. They had also said that the Act was against the principles of justice, equality, liberty and fraternity enshrined in the Constitution. 

Another concern was the impact the Act would have on the development of industry in Gurugram, which is one of the biggest Information Technology hubs in India. 

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"Will Go To Supreme Court": Haryana Deputy Chief Minister On Quota Order

Hours after the Haryana law mandating 75 per cent reservation for residents of the state in private-sector jobs was struck down by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala told NDTV that the government will approach the Supreme Court.

"We are waiting for the order to be put online. We will take the legal remedy and move to Supreme Court to put a stay on this order," Mr Chautala, whose JJP (Jannayak Janta Party) is a junior partner in the BJP-led alliance, told NDTV in a telephonic interview.

The Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act, which was passed by the Haryana Assembly in November 2020 and had received the governor's assent in March 2021, was seen as the brainchild of the Jannayak Janata Party.

Providing 75 per cent reservation in private sector jobs for state domiciled candidate was a key poll promise of the Jannayak Janta Party at the time of 2019 assembly polls.

The Deputy Chief Minister drew attention to the fact that the Punjab and Haryana High Court had stayed the Act in February 2022 but the order had been set aside by the Supreme Court days later following an appeal by the state government.

"We wanted to generate employment at the local level. It would have benefited the industry on two levels. First, they would not have had to pay transportation and accommodation cost, and second, local skilled labor would have been available. We have seen how industries are ruined when skilled workers go back to their cities," said Mr Chautala, underscoring the need for such a law.

Mr Chautala added that the industry was consulted, and their views were incorporated.

"Technical jobs were dropped. The Act was for non-technical jobs," he said adding workers were to be paid a monthly salary or wages of less than Rs 30,000.

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At Event Honouring Them, Tribals Sit On Floor, Officials Occupy Chairs

An event where the guests of honour were sitting on the floor while the officials honouring them were occupying most of the chairs has sparked a controversy in Puducherry.

The Tribal Day Function organised by the Puducherry government on the occasion of tribal icon Birsa Munda's birth anniversary on Wednesday was attended by the Union Territory's Lieutenant Governor, Tamilisai Soundararajan, Chief Minister N Rangasamy, Speaker Embalam R Selvam and several senior officials.

Videos showed a section of tribal men and women sitting on the floor along the aisle. Some people were also seen walking out in protest. One man was heard saying, "They spent Rs 3 lakh on this function. They could have built three houses for tribal families instead."

Another tribal man said, "You brought us here saying we will be given awards and this is how you treat us? This is humiliating."

After videos of people sitting on the floor went viral, the Tribal Welfare Department, which organised the event, was slammed for insulting tribals. Several people on social media criticised what they called a "lack of social justice".

Ms Soundararajan said she had asked for chairs to be arranged as soon she found out. She has also issued a notice to the concerned officials.

"Soon after I learnt about it, I asked officials to arrange chairs for the people sitting on the floor. Officials say they had made proper arrangements. I believe it is not right even if one person was disrespected. I regret this. How can this happen in my administration when I had arranged chairs even for children at earlier events? This shouldn't have happened," the lieutenant governor said.

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How Dog Stolen From Upscale Delhi Locality Was Reunited With Owners

In an upscale locality of Delhi, a dog was stolen from a house last month. The undeterred pet owner even announced a reward of Rs 1,00,000 to anyone who would provide any clue related to the dog's whereabouts.

The search for the beagle named Roxy was stolen outside a house in E block of Greater Kailash - 1 in Delhi around 6 am on October 25. The owners registered a police complaint and search began to find the pet. 

Posters describing the dog were circulated and a reward of Rs 1,00,000 was set to help find Roxy. The female dog with a small patch on her leg and pink harness was found almost after a month several kilometers away in Haryana's Faridabad. 

Surveillance footage helped the police track down the accused, Himanshu, who had stolen the dog from the house last month.

Himanshu, dealing with the death of his brother, reportedly felt a sense of loneliness and took a liking to the dog when he first saw her. 

The accused has been arrested and the beagle was returned to the relieved owners. 
 

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Narayana Murthy Says This Is How Much India Should Spend To Train Teachers

Software icon N R Narayana Murthy on Wednesday called for spending USD one billion a year to train school teachers by 10,000 retired highly accomplished teachers from the developed world and from India in STEM areas (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). This course alone is not sufficient, Narayana Murthy said.

"We must show much respect and pay better salaries to our teachers and researchers. We must also provide better facilities to our researchers. We must honour them. They are role models for our youngsters. That is why we instituted the Infosys Prize in 2009. It is our small contribution to further the cause of research in India". he added.

One possible way of accelerating NEP's (National Education Policy) outcome is to invite 10,000 retired highly accomplished teachers from the developed world and from India in STEM areas to create 2,500 "Train the Teacher" colleges in the country's 28 states and eight union territories, Mr Murthy said.

This training programme should be year-long, he said in his remarks at a press conference, where the Infosys Science Foundation announced the Infosys Prize 2023 in six categories.

"Experts tell me that each set of four trainers can train 100 primary school teachers and 100 secondary school teachers a year. We will be able to train 250,000 primary school teachers and 250,000 secondary school teachers every year by this method," the founder of Infosys said. These trained Indian teachers can themselves become trainers over a period of five years.

"We should pay about USD 100,000 a year for each of these retired teachers. This twenty-year programme will cost us USD one billion a year and USD 20 billion for twenty years. Our nation, targeting a GDP of USD five trillion soon, will not find it a big financial burden," Mr Murthy, who is the trustee of Infosys Science Foundation said.

If you think this is expensive, you may recall the words of Derek Bok, a former President of Harvard University, who said, "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance," he noted.

On whether the Infosys Science Foundation will be making a strong recommendation on teachers' training and spending towards it, amid increased allocations on freebies by some governments and cut in budget on science and R&D, Murthy said, he has made the suggestion with the spirit of betterment of the country, and there are experts who will evaluate it and decide.

"In an environment like India's there are always suggestions by various people, and I'm sure we have a set of experts who will evaluate those suggestions. And if it is found to be worthwhile, they may take it forward. Otherwise, it won't, that's natural. And therefore, I think all these suggestions should be welcomed, as long as it is given with the spirit of betterment of the country," he said.

Another Infosys co-founder and President, Board of Trustees of the foundation S Gopalakrishnan said, "as our GDP grows, we need to do something different and we can't continue the same way that we are progressing." Pointing at the National Education Policy 2020, he said, "we would like to see faster implementation of that policy. It is not enough that we make a recommendation, its implementation is equally important. And it is in that spirit that Mr. Murthy, I believe, has made this recommendation." Narayana Murthy, in his remarks highlighted that there are four stages in the invention and innovation lifecycle of a nation and said countries progress from stage one to stage four using education and research.

India's success in atomic energy, space exploration, vaccine production and distribution, green revolution, electric cars, and generic medicines puts us in stage two in most areas and in stage three in a few areas, he said. "We are still in stage one in some important areas like design of livable cities, pollution management, traffic management, and providing clean and safe water." India must aspire to move to stage four in every area that affects the lives of our poorest citizens in the remotest part of the country, Mr Murthy said, adding, improving the quality of research and education in our institutions of higher learning to generate good ideas and focusing on quick and high-quality implementation of those ideas form the solution to this aspiration.

Excellence in speed in idea generation and in execution of those ideas comes from a culture of high aspiration, curious and inquiring minds, a desire to achieve the best global standard of work productivity, the most stringent discipline and hard work, and the mindset of a nation that respects better-performing cultures and is ready to learn from them, he said.

Pitching for improving the quality of our primary, secondary, and higher educational institutions to embrace independent, critical, and analytical thinking; "Socratic questioning"; and focusing on relating theory to understand the real world around us; to solve the mysteries of nature; and to solve our real-world problems, Mr Murthy said, "I am glad NEP has started this journey."

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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