Nancy Reagan, the helpmate, backstage adviser and fierce protector of Ronald Reagan in his journey from actor to president – and finally during his 10-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease – has died. She was 94.
The former first lady died Sunday at her home in the Bel-Air section of Los Angeles of congestive heart failure, assistant Allison Borio told The Associated Press.
Her best-known project as first lady was the “Just Say No” campaign to help kids and teens stay off drugs.
When she swept into the White House in 1981, the former Hollywood actress partial to designer gowns and pricey china was widely dismissed as a pre-feminist throwback, concerned only with fashion, decorating and entertaining. By the time she moved out eight years later, Mrs. Reagan was fending off accusations that she was a behind-the-scenes “dragon lady” wielding unchecked power over the Reagan administration – and doing it based on astrology to boot.
All along she maintained that her only mission was to back her “Ronnie” and strengthen his presidency.
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With public sector banks under pressure to tackle their dismal bad loan scenario, consolidation is the way forward, and this could bring down the number of lenders to about six from the present 27, participants in the recently-held Gyan Sangam, a retreat for chiefs of public sector banks and financial institutions, told HT.
The time frame for the mergers will ensure there are no disruptions, the sources said. As banks are short-staffed, a downsizing would not be required, they said.
An expert committee, which will be soon set up to look into the issue, will closely work with the Banks Board Bureau (BBB) to identify the right matches for consolidation. The BBB, which will independently oversee consolidation and chalk out business plans for public sector banks, is set to be put in place by April 1, 2016.
Since it is not feasible to bring down the government’s share in state-owned banks below 51%, consolidation to create strong banks is the only survival option, the sources said. Issues such as technology, asset base, regional strength and cultural match would be critical in chalking out strategies and identifying banks.
“At present, public sector banks are fighting with each other for market share, but with so many payments and small finance banks coming in, the need is to consolidate and focus on strengthening the balance sheets to create big banks,” said a senior government official who did not wish to be identified.
The finance ministry is already looking to merge the newly-launched Bharatiya Mahila Bank.
Until now, the government has maintained that it would not have any role to play in the merger exercise of public sector banks. The official said that in case certain banks show unwillingness, despite plans being chalked out by the BBB and the expert committee, then the government would intervene.
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New Delhi : The Delhi government has asked all private schools in the national capital to ensure their students do not bunk classes and is also contemplating action against teachers whose pupils are found playing truant.
From increasing the height of boundary walls and installing CCTV cameras to taking attendance of the students at least twice a day, the government has come up with a list of 14 suggestions to check bunking.
“Of late, it has been observed that some students try to bunk classes simply to enjoy roaming in public places, parks, roads, etc. Innocent students do not realise that by bunking classes, they are not only causing loss to their studies but also endangering their own lives,” the Directorate of Education (DoE) said in a letter to school principals.
“It is all the more important for teachers and heads to ensure that no student leaves the premises before the school is closed. Once a student has come to school, the class teacher, subject teachers, the PET and the head of the school must ensure he/she does not leave the premises till the last period is over,” it added.
Directing principals and vice-principals to make frequent rounds of classrooms and school premises, DoE said, “The department is contemplating strict action against those teachers and heads of schools whose students are found roaming out of school after having got their attendance marked.
“The heads must ensure that all teachers reach classes within two-three minutes of the ringing of bells. No leniency in this regard can be justified. If a student is found absent from the class (after having been present in the assembly), his/her parents must be called to school promptly through written notice or phone calls.”
The parents should be advised to ensure that their wards remain in the school throughout the day and not bunk classes, the circular added.
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Many children aged below 18 and in ‘conflict with law’ have faced abject poverty, easy availability of firearms, abusive parents, family or state-sponsored violence. They are mostly school dropouts from single-parent or nuclear families, victims of drug abuse, anti-social peer groups, sexual abuse and lack safe and nurturing environments.
Even if they are in the care or control of justice systems, the picture that emerges is extremely disturbing. These children are subjected to horrific violence from staff and officials responsible for their wellbeing including torture, beatings, isolation, rape and humiliation. The institutions are isolated from community and closed to public scrutiny. Numerous studies have consistently established the negative impact of institutionalisation.
The aftermath of the release of the Nirbhaya rape convict is a pointer to the fact that the state, family, community, society and media were ‘not satisfied’. The public perception was that offenders are getting off easy or even being rewarded by the system for their crime (for example, by referring them to recreational programs and giving low priority to victim and community restoration).
Such a response by the family, community, media and the public to the presence of juvenile sex offenders in the community may also impede offender rehabilitation. If the offender between 14 and 16 years of age is charged under the POCSO Act and dealt with under the new JJ Act 2015, he is severely punished for committing ‘heinous offences’ in the adult justice system. We are again leaving out the victim and the community and those responsible for the child turning into one in conflict with law. The use of punishment alone via current formal criminal justice is, therefore, an inadequate response to sexual crimes by juveniles.
The preventive measure of mandatory reporting in POCSO Act, 2012 has not acted as a deterrent. The two major objectives of mandatory reporting in section 21 of the POCSO Act are to identify child victims of sexual abuse and to prevent them from coming to further harm, and the perpetrator is booked and prevented from harming other children.
For mandatory reporting to be successful, there must be adequate resources and training available to the reporting department, i.e. the police and the child welfare committees, and it is important that mandated reporters receive training and the public be made aware of the appropriate extent of their responsibility
The very fact that juvenile courts, Juvenile Justice Boards and children’s courts were brought into existence in almost all criminal justice systems throughout the world was to prevent children from being treated as criminals. Undoubtedly, children should be treated differently from adults because of their greater physical and psychological vulnerability. This is non-negotiable.
Ideally, protective services staff must identify the factors that contributed to the maltreatment and determine what services would address the most critical treatment needs, but this is not done in practice. There is neither the willingness nor the resources to prepare individual care plans. Subjecting them to the adult criminal justice system is, therefore, not the solution. Juveniles who have served their sentences have often recommitted crimes, and the system has neither contributed to prevention nor reintegration. It is increasingly apparent that current after-care system has just not taken off and remains on paper
Crime by juveniles represents a failure of responsibility by duty bearers. The sources of the problem of delinquency — community, schools, family, institutions, juvenile justice system and the state — have failed in prevention, rehabilitation and reintegration.
The current juvenile justice system faces a crisis of confidence. There is a need for preventive programmes in communities, schools and families. We need strategies that target only individual offenders for change but involve all these in their prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and reintegration.
In many countries the restorative model — a balanced approach mission — is currently emerging as an influence on lawmakers. This model encourages offenders to accept responsibility for their criminal behaviour and its consequences to others. One of the key features of the model is the involvement of victims in dealing with the offence. It does not overlook rehabilitation and punishment but places them in the context of individuals taking responsibility for their actions.
The balanced approach mission addresses the public need for sanctioning based on accountability measures which attempt to restore victims and clearly denounce and provide meaningful consequences for offensive behaviour including offender rehabilitation and reintegration, and enhanced community safety and security. These system goals, which also govern the response to each offense, are accountability, competency development and community protection.
A balanced and restorative justice model provides a framework for systemic reform and offers hope for preserving and revitalising the juvenile justice system.
It will develop new roles for victims, citizens and offenders in the justice process. Implementation must begin with consensus-building among key stakeholders and testing with small pilot projects to develop the model.
The programmes hold promise for achieving several goals, including increased community and victim involvement, greater satisfaction with the case outcomes, improved offender compliance, increased perceptions of fairness, and even recidivism reduction. Maybe this could be started as small pilot projects along with training and capacity building of the staff, community and families with adequate resources and with state support and involvement.
Dr Bajpai is Founder Dean, School of Law, Rights and Constitutional Governance, Tata Institute of Social Sciences
The balanced approach mission addresses the public need for sanctioning based on accountability measures
@The Hindu 6 March 2016
Chennai:The Madras High Court has made it clear that the national anthem should be sung in all private schools in Tamil Nadu during the morning assembly.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M M Sundresh gave the direction on a petition seeking that singing of national anthem be made mandatory in schools.
“Private schools must follow such singing of national anthem as part of their curriculum,” the bench said disposing a PIL by N Selvathirumal, an ex-service man, seeking a direction to authorities to make it mandatory for all private schools in the state to sing the national anthem during the assembly.
The bench while recording the stand of the authorities including Union of India that national anthem ought to be sung, in its order directed Central and State Departments of Secondary Education and the Union Human Resources Department to make endeavours to verify weather national anthem was sung in all private schools in the state.
Selvathiurumal submitted that national anthem was not sung in various private schools in Tamil Nadu while it was sung in central Government Schools such as Kendriya Vidyalaya and all the state government schools daily during the morning assembly.
A citizen should have adequate knowledge of the national anthem and the national flag, the petitioner submitted.
“In pursuance to a RTI reply, I was informed that the Government of India has released an advisory for all the schools that the day’s work may start with with community singing of the national anthem and adequate provisions should be made in the programmes for popularising the singing of the anthem and promoting respect for the national flag,” he said.
The CBSE submitted that “a circular was issued to schools on November 10, 2015, stating that the second descriptor out of the 10 principles entails singing of national anthem with decorum, where as the first one is to abide by constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the National Flag and National Anthem in compliance of the direction given by the Hon’ble High Court of Calcutta on 22.09.2014. It is notified that the schools must strictly comply the orders”, it said.
“We would expect that keeping in mind the mandate of the Constitution of India, the respect for the National Anthem and the National Flag, the circular issued by the CBSE and other authorities, singing of the national anthem would be taking place in various institutions”, the bench said.
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New Delhi : The government will digitally connect all rural post offices by March 2017, Parliament was informed today.
“Government is digitally connecting all 1,29,323 gramin dak sewak post offices in rural areas across the country by March 2017,” Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.
The government has approved the Department of Posts’ IT Modernisation Project with a total outlay of Rs 4,909 crore aiming modernisation, digitisation and networking of around 1,55,000 post offices.
The Minister said the Rural Information and Communication Technology (RICT) project is in its implementation phase and goal of this project is to digitise all the 1,29,323 rural post offices through a handheld computing device, connecting them with the help of SIM card based network and ensuring proper power supply backup with the help of solar energy.
Prasad said the core banking service (CBS) is being implemented in all 25,297 departmental post offices of the country.
“Once RICT is deployed in gramin dak sewak post offices in rural areas, they will be connected to CBS also. Hence, all the post offices in the country will work on common core banking platform,” Prasad added.
The Minister further said Department of Posts is also setting up ATMs with the CBS for the convenience of post office customers and by March 2016, 1,000 ATMs are planned to be installed.
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NEW DELHI: World’s largest e-retailer Amazon is India’s most trusted online shopping brand followed by homegrown Snapdeal and Flipkart, a survey said.
Other firms to figure in the top 10 trusted online shopping brands are Ebay, Myntra, Yepme, Jabong, Naaptol, Shopclues and Askmebazaar.
The survey was conducted among 2,500 respondents, aged 21-50, across 16 cities and its findings have been compiled in The Brand Trust Report, India Study 2016.
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Legendary actor Manoj Kumar will be bestowed with the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award this year. The Bollywood veteran has a legacy of iconic films like Woh Kaun Thi, Hariyali Aur Raasta, Patthar Ke Sanam, Purab Aur Paschim, Kranti andRoti Kapda Aur Makaan. The Dadasaheb Phalke is India’s highest recognition in cinema and consists of a golden lotus, a cash prize of Rs 10 lakhs and a shawl. The 78-year-old actor will become the 47th recipient of the great award, and will be honoured for his outstanding contribution to Indian cinema. He had already received the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 1992.
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Out of Rs 500 crore allocated to Ministry of Youth Affairs, Rs 120 crore have been earmarked for the National Service Scheme (NSS), which is aimed at developing student’s personality through community service.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitely had allocated a total of Rs 1400 crore as plan outlay, while Rs 192 crore was set aside for non-plan for a total figure of Rs 1592 crore for Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. Last year the total allocation was Rs 1541.13 crore.
The plan outlay has been increased to approximately Rs 10.82 crore as compared to the previous year, while the Non- Plan outlay has been hiked by Rs 40.15 crore.
The allocation for the scheme for the Benefit of North Eastern Area, has been revised to Rs 144.98 crore this year as compared to Rs 150.23 crore last year.
The Sports Authority, entrusted with the task of organising national camps, has been granted a total of Rs 381.30 crore this year, which is a hike of Rs 11.91 crore.
However, assistance to sports institutions has been kept at Rs 545.90 crore. Under youth affairs, the National Service Scheme has been allocated Rs 215.70 crore.
Rs 12 crore has been allocated for anti-doping activities, which is the same as last year.
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Noted water conservationist Rajendra Singh, also known as ‘Waterman of India’, today announced his maiden intervention to rejuvenate polluted rivers in the urban areas of the country.
Singh will launch the campaign from the Dahisar river in northwest Mumbai with a 5 km ‘river march’ on Sunday. He said more such marches have been planned in other cities in India.
The 14-km long Dahisar river, which passes through densely-populated pockets of Borivali and Dahisar in northwestern suburbs, has been badly impacted over the years due to different kinds of pollution.
Some of the biggest pollutants of the river are the untreated discharge from an illegal ‘dhobi ghat’, many cowsheds, a crematorium and unplanned slum areas through which the river passes, experts say.
Singh, who is credited with reviving rivers in his home state of Rajasthan and was conferred the Stockholm Water Prize for his work in 2015, said the aim of this campaign is to rejuvenate urban rivers by taking appropriate actions.
“It’s important that all living beings should lead a stress-free life and have access to clean water in its natural form. River rejuvenation work is, therefore, the biggest challenge before all of us and specially for urban citizens,” Singh told PTI here today.
The winner of 2001 Ramon Magsaysay Award for community leadership rued that almost all the rivers in the country are “biologically dead” because of the activities which happen in their catchment areas and that they are now affecting all living beings, mostly the people living near it.
This two-year campaign is aimed at restoring the river to what it should be through this campaign, he said.
Deputy Director of the Maharashtra Nature Park Society, Avinash Kubal, explains that as the Dahisar river exits the protected area of Sanjay Gandhi National Park, it faces the wrath of the washers, who discharge detergents and other chemicals into the river.
Not just that, close to two dozen cowsheds, home to over 2,000 livestock, release dung and other waste into the river and then it passes through the area, where sanitation and waste water disposal systems are not working effectively, further compounding the problem.
The situation is very grave and posing health hazards for
the people living nearby, Kubal said.
“Generally, even the river, which gets polluted, will get purified naturally by the impact and actions of elements like biota in the riverbed. But in case of almost all the rivers in our cities this is not happening and as a result the river once polluted always remains polluted,” he said.
Volunteers have worked for over last two years, collecting data on what ails the river system and have found that there is unbearable stench in many quarters because of the lethal gases getting released from the polluted waters.
Also, majority of the stretches of the Dahisar river are a breeding ground of mosquitoes, resulting in health-related worries.
There are as many as 19 educational institutions in the vicinity of the river and students suffer the bad stench when they are at their classes, Kubal said.
A meeting of 18 different stakeholder groups was held here under the chairmanship of Singh on January 29 to discuss the way ahead. Solutions like setting up an affluent treatment plant for the dhobi ghat area, biogas plants near cowsheds and correcting the sewage systems for shanties were also decided. All these can be done at a very minimal cost.
Students from over 10 different colleges, including Somaiya College, MD College, have come together and are working for different aspects of sustainable river rejuvenation for Dahisar river, Kubal said.
He said the government and the people are working together on the project and help will also be taken from corporates, which have evinced interest in supporting the scheme under their CSR initiatives.
@Agency report.