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I’d choose kashmir, given any opportunity. I’ve never felt like staying away from my place.

Anika Suhail, an engineering graduate from Islamic University of Science and Technology, Awantipora, Kashmir choose to dedicate all her learnt skills as a Freelance developer with a successful results awaiting.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CFmIN7ulKTH/?igshid=u2uspbdiklpj

Speaking with Kashmir Today, Anika Suhail said, ‘I’ve always been a meritorious student and choosing science over any other subject is no surprise when you’ve grown in a family of doctors and engineers. I’ve always believed in go-with-the-flow. I take the opportunities and give my best’.

After graduating from IUST she opted for a diploma course in UX/UI and pursued it from Bangalore.

“I’d choose kashmir, given any opportunity. I have never felt like staying away from my place and pandemic added to my favours as it didn’t let me leave my place”, Anika told to Kashmir Today when enquired for not opting the opportunities outside Kashmir Valley.

I won’t call it my own venture. I’m still learning and want to explore more of this design world. My parents have been always supportive. They expect a lot from me and that’s what kept me determined, Anika added.

Srinagar: Arjun Deshpande the founder of Generic Aadhaar has thanked every individual pharmacist across the globe by giving them entrepreneurship opportunities and said his company will expand Pan India through 800 plus retail outlets by the end of this year.

In a statement to news agency Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS) the company says millions of pharmacists worldwide who have worked on frontline level for the society will definitely not celebrate any festivals due to the pandemic, but Generic Aadhaar as pharmaceutical company wants to thank each and every pharmacist and frontline workers in the world.

“The love and care they poured, through reaching the end customers in this lockdown’s since Covid-19 Spread across world has also marked their importance and has led that they are significant pillar of the society,” the statement said.

This year every day’s or festivals, will be themed as “Safety and Social Distancing” with various awareness campaigns to avoid the Spread of Virus.

“Pharmacists role in safeguarding patient safety through improving medication use and reducing medication errors is the most important part of a Pharmacist, which leads to Patient’s life safety,” the statement said.

“As Pharmacist plays very important role in the society Generic Aadhaar is giving bundle of opportunities to the pharmacist for being entrepreneurs as Generic Aadhaar is aiming to expand Pan India through 800 plus retails outlets by end of this year based on franchise model to provide Generic medicines for every India,” says Arjun Deshpande- CEO and founder of Generic Aadhaar.

In accordance with the Prime Minister’s vision, Generic Aadhaar is aggregators of pharmacy chain of medicines to support ‘Make in India & Start Up India’ drive with quality medicines at true affordable prices to every Indian quality with affordability.

Ratan Tata Invested in Arjun Deshpande’s Innovative Venture for Encouraging his Vision.
“For his Innovative Start up, even  Ratan Tata has joined hands with Arjun Deshpande in his innovative venture Generic Aadhaar. He is not only creating employments but also inspiring youth to became Entrepreneur’s from his Generic Aadhaar Franchise Outlets across India,” the statement said.

Started by a sole mission of making medicines available to every Indian, a 16-year-old set his eyes on the pharma industry. At this novel age, Arjun Deshpande, one of India’s youngest entrepreneurs founded this innovative venture, Generic Aadhaar. Generic Aadhaar is a registered trademark of Swasthya Life science Pvt Ltd.

As per statistics, about 60% of Indians cannot afford to buy their daily medicines. The reason is the high prices which are absolutely unnecessary in the Indian pharmaceutical market. About 85-90% of the medicines in the market are generic. The customer has to pay for high costs of these generics because they are marketed and branded resulting in high incurred costs of marketing and promotional activities.

“Generic Aadhaar has disrupted the conventional pharma industry and is determined to empower single store owners and pass on the benefit to the end customer. Generic Aadhaar has a B2B and B2C model.

We are appointing franchisee across India by aggregating single medical stores which are in bad shape due to heavy competition in today’s traditional pharma market. We are thus passing on the benefits to the franchise owners. www.genericaadhaar.in,” the statement added.(KINS)

Srinagar, Oct 06 (KINS): The Centre has notified two orders specifying that 11 central laws will immediately come into effect in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir while nomenclature of 10 state laws will be changed in view of the change of status of the erstwhile state.

In a 136-page notification, the home ministry said the two orders will be called as the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Adaptation of Central Laws) Second and Third Order, 2020.

The erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated into two union territories – Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh – on August 5, 2019 through the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.

Article 370, which gave special status to the erstwhile state, was also abrogated on that day.
Till then, the central laws were not implemented in Jammu and Kashmir unless they were ratified by the state assembly. Besides, there were many state laws which were exclusively applicable only in Jammu and Kashmir.

“In exercise of the powers conferred by section 96 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 (34 of 2019), and of all other powers enabling it in that behalf, the Central Government hereby makes the following Order in respect of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir,” the notification, signed by Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, said as per news agency Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS).

Among the central laws which will now come into effect in Jammu and Kashmir are: The Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act, 2019, The Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996, The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970, The Factories Act, 1948, The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 and The Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 194.

Other central laws which will also be applicable in the union territory are: The Motor Transport Workers Act, 1961, The Pharmacy Act, 1948, The Sales Promotion Employees Act, 1976, The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 and The Trade Unions Act, 1926.

The notification said an order has been issued for the change of names and certain words in some of the state laws enacted by the assembly of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

“With immediate effect, the acts mentioned in the schedule to this order shall, until repealed or amended by a competent legislature or other competent authority, have effect, subject to the adaptations and modifications directed by the said schedule, or if it is so directed, shall stand repealed.

“Where this order requires that in any specified section or other portion of an Act, certain words shall be substituted for certain other words, or the certain words shall be omitted, such substitution or omission, as the case may be, shall, except where it is otherwise expressly provided, be made wherever the words referred to occur in that section or portion,” the notification said.

The changes in the state laws were made in the form of – “State” and “Government” substituting respectively “Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir” and “Government of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir” and for “whole of the State of Jammu and Kashmir” substituting “whole of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir” and a few others issues.

The state laws where the changes were made include: The Jammu and Kashmir Municipal Act, 2000, The Jammu and Kashmir Municipal Corporation Act, 2000, The Jammu and Kashmir School Education Act, 2002, The Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education Act, 1975, The Jammu and Kashmir Cooperative Societies Act, 1989, The Jammu and Kashmir Self-Reliant Cooperatives Act, 1999 and The Salaries and Allowances of Members of Jammu and Kashmir State Legislature Act, 1960.

Other state laws where the changes were made are: The Salary and Allowances of Leaders of Opposition in the State Legislature Act, 1985, The Jammu and Kashmir Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and The Jammu and Kashmir Metropolitan Region Development Authorities Act, 2018.

One similar notification was issued by the central government with respect for UT of Jammu and Kashmir a few months ago. (PTI)

Srinagar:  Senior journalist and executive editor of Kashmir Times, Anuradha Bhasin has alleged that her government-allotted flat in Jammu was ransacked by few “goons” at around 3 pm on October 4.

The alleged intruders were identified by Bhasin as Imran Ganai, brother of former Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) Shehnaz Ganai, along with some Personal Security Officers (PSO) in civil dress, who had barged into her house without giving any explanation.

Recalling the incident, Bhasin said that following her daily routine, she visited the flat and found that the lock was broken. Perplexed, she called few of her colleagues who helped her get inside the house.

“I kept asking them questions and they ignored me as if I don’t exist. While they were dumping my belongings into one room, breakable items were thrown around. We were being shoved, pushed and had to fight back in self-defence while one of them sprawled on my bed,” Bhasin told NewsClick.

The journalist said that she called the police regarding the incident but they were reluctant to lodge a complaint.

According to Bhasin, she has been an authorised occupant of the government flat since 1999-2000. “Before me, the flat was allotted to my father in 1969. Both the allotments were done under the journalist category. I have not been served any show-cause notice or allotment cancellation notice till date.”

The senior journalist said that she had heard rumours from Estates Department insiders that the allotment of the government flat has been cancelled but no eviction notice or official order was sent to her. “I sent a legal notice to know about the status of the allotment and seek the grounds on which the allotment was being cancelled through speed-post. There has been no response till date,” said Bhasin.

Bhasin said that she had heard similar rumours from the inside sources regarding the government accommodation in which the Kashmir Times office is located in Srinagar’s Press Enclave. “I have not received any cancellation notice or any sort of notice yet. I have, again, sent a legal notice, but there has been no response. They refuse to serve us official orders but are sending in goons,” she said.

Kashmir Times had last year filed a petition in the Supreme Court through executive editor Anuradha Bhasin against the media blockade and internet shutdown in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation Article 370. In the petition, Kashmir Times had asked the SC to direct the central government to relax the restrictions in order to ensure freedom of movement of journalists and media personnel in Kashmir and some districts of Jammu.

Bhasin said she saw the break-in incident as an attempt to silence her as she has been critical of the Centre and the policies of the state administration. “There is clearly a pattern. This is an open harassment but I want to say one thing – I am too strong to be cowed down,” she said. (News Click)

Srinagar: Several officials had gathered at the farewell of former Managing Director of Jammu and Kashmir Handloom Development Corporation Rakesh Sharma in a clear violation of social distancing norms.

Rakesh Sharma, former Managing Director Jammu and Kashmir Handloom Development Corporation has been transferred to another department.

On Monday, many officials had gathered at his office without following social distancing norms.

As per the pictures accessed by news agency Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS), many employees presented gifts to the former Managing Director.

These pictures show that Sharma and others are standing close to each other throwing caution to the wind.

The pictures show that Sharma and many other officials were not wearing masks or practicing social distancing.

The KINS when contacted Rekesh Sharma, he said, “Some officials accompanied me outside the office to see off. There was no violation of social distancing norms.”(KINS)

Srinagar: The Legal Metrology Department Kashmir Tuesday said that it conducted 3027 market inspections during the month of September and booked 211 erring traders for violation of Legal Metrology Laws.

In a statement issued to news agency KINS, the department said that the nature offences detected were short-weighment/short-delivery/overcharging on MRP on packed products/inadequate labeling norms/use of non-standard weight or measure etc.

“A penal sum of Rs. 6.27 lacs was recovered from the erring traders. The trade wise break-up of challans is: “Bakery dealer = 21, Brick Kilns  = 10, Drugs/Surgical Devices = 08, Kiryana Sellers = 24, Petrol Pumps = 08, Package seller = 21, Mutton/poultry = 18, Miscellaneous = 103” the statement reads.

It also said that the department also standardized 9565 weights and measures in the laboratories of the department for which a stamping fees of Rs. 5.47 lacs has been realized.(KINS)

Srinagar: Special Director General of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Zulfikar Hassan Tuesday said that appropriate measures are being taken to prevent attacks on CRPF on highways.

“CRPF being the primary force responsible for highway security are being targeted. Appropriate measures are being taken to prevent attacks on highways,” Zulfikar told news agency KINS.

Meanwhile, concerned over the growing attacks on security forces on the Kashmir highways, top security officials  said that new Standard Operating Procedure (SoPs) are being framed to prevent highway attacks and it won’t be feasible to share what measures are in the pipeline given the security issues.

The officials while speaking to the Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS), said that a security review meeting was on cards soon to discuss highway attacks and to frame a SoP to prevent loss of security personnel.

“New SoPs are being framed and it won’t be feasible to divulge them at this juncture due to security reasons,” IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar told KINS. He, however, said the situation was well under control and there was no need to worry.

IG CRPF for operations, Deepak Rattan said that focus of the SoPs will ensure militants don’t succeed in killing CRPF men deployed on highways as part of the Road Opening Parties (ROPs). “CRPF is primarily responsible for the RoPs and clearance of highways in Kashmir.

So there will be a level of extra alertness to foil militants’ designs on highways,” he said, adding that “any retaliation by forces on highways can lead to civilian casualties, which our men are avoiding.”

Sources in the security grid said that in the next two days, a high level security review will take place in Srinagar to discuss threadbare the attacks by militants on highways and other busy areas of the region while strategy will be devised to prevent killing of security forces’ personnel if militants try to target forces.

Pertinently, yesterday, two CRPF men were killed and three others sustained bullet injuries when two-bike borne militants fired at them at Kandizaal area of Pampore in Srinagar outskirts. Before that, militants had attacked a police party on August 14 at Nowgam byepass in Srinagar killing two policemen while their rifles were also snatched. In the Pampore attack, IG CRPF said no weapon was snatched and only two “CRPF men were killed.”

According to IGP Kashmir, any retaliation to militant attacks on highways, will invite trouble for the civilians. “We don’t retaliate to militant attacks on highways as that would lead to civilian casualties.

Every day, thousands of vehicles ply on highways and any retaliation from outside will lead to chaos and trouble for civilians, which we avoid. But yes, we will ensure there is no loss of security forces personnel if militants target them on highways,” the IGP said.(KINS)

Srinagar: The Education Ministry has issued the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for reopening of schools in the country.

According to news agency Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS) the Guidelines for gradual opening of schools after 15th of October are broadly divided into two parts which include health and safety aspects in accordance with Health Ministry guidelines to follow all necessary safety precautions of ensuring physical distancing and wearing masks.

“The second part of the guideline deals with Academic aspects and on methods of delivery of education amidst the pandemic. The guidelines emphasise on the smooth transition of students from home-based schooling during lockdown to formal schooling by the school authorities,” the guidelines said.

It calls for making a Comprehensive Alternative Calendar of Activities for the Whole Year with focus on learning outcomes.

The teachers have been asked to polish their skills for integration of IT technology for its proper usage in the class modules.

“Use of divergent teaching resources including peer-teaching and learning, use of workbooks and worksheets and use of technology-based resources in class has been advocated in order to ensure compliance with physical distancing and other safety norms”.

Schools have also been encouraged to make their own SOPs based on the guidelines issued by states and UTs, keeping in view the safety and physical or social distancing norms.(KINS)

Srinagar: An unidentified militant was killed and a PSO of a BJP worker was injured at Nunar Ganderbal in central Kashmir on Monday evening.

“The (militant) fired upon one BJP worker at Nunar Ganderbal. He is safe,” police said in a tweet, “However his one PSO was injured in this incident. One unidentified militant got killed in PSOs retaliation,” police said in a tweet.

Sources told GNS that the PSO identified as constable Altaf Hussain has been shifted in “critical” condition to SKIMS Soura. (GNS)

Can’t retaliate indiscriminately as highway witnesses huge rush of civilian vehicles: IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar

Srinagar: Special Director General of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Zulfikar Hassan Tuesday said that appropriate measures are being taken to prevent attacks on CRPF on highways.

“CRPF being the primary force responsible for highway security are being targeted. Appropriate measures are being taken to prevent attacks on highways,” Zulfikar told news agency KINS.

Meanwhile, concerned over the growing attacks on security forces on the Kashmir highways, top security officials  said that new Standard Operating Procedure (SoPs) are being framed to prevent highway attacks and it won’t be feasible to share what measures are in the pipeline given the security issues.

The officials while speaking to the Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS), said that a security review meeting was on cards soon to discuss highway attacks and to frame a SoP to prevent loss of security personnel.

“New SoPs are being framed and it won’t be feasible to divulge them at this juncture due to security reasons,” IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar told KINS. He, however, said the situation was well under control and there was no need to worry.

IG CRPF for operations, Deepak Rattan said that focus of the SoPs will ensure militants don’t succeed in killing CRPF men deployed on highways as part of the Road Opening Parties (ROPs). “CRPF is primarily responsible for the RoPs and clearance of highways in Kashmir. So there will be a level of extra alertness to foil militants’ designs on highways,” he said, adding that “any retaliation by forces on highways can lead to civilian casualties, which our men are avoiding.”

Sources in the security grid said that in the next two days, a high level security review will take place in Srinagar to discuss threadbare the attacks by militants on highways and other busy areas of the region while strategy will be devised to prevent killing of security forces’ personnel if militants try to target forces.

Pertinently, yesterday, two CRPF men were killed and three others sustained bullet injuries when two-bike borne militants fired at them at Kandizaal area of Pampore in Srinagar outskirts. Before that, militants had attacked a police party on August 14 at Nowgam byepass in Srinagar killing two policemen while their rifles were also snatched. In the Pampore attack, IG CRPF said no weapon was snatched and only two “CRPF men were killed.”

According to IGP Kashmir, any retaliation to militant attacks on highways, will invite trouble for the civilians. “We don’t retaliate to militant attacks on highways as that would lead to civilian casualties. Every day, thousands of vehicles ply on highways and any retaliation from outside will lead to chaos and trouble for civilians, which we avoid. But yes, we will ensure there is no loss of security forces personnel if militants target them on highways,” the IGP said.(KINS)