Junior Digest

New Delhi : A PIL seeking rehabilitation of children indulging in begging, rag-picking and other activity on the city roads today led the Delhi High Court to seek responses from the Centre, Delhi government and others.

A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath also issued notice 0n Wednesday to other concerned authorities asking them to file affidavit on the issues raised in PIL which also seeks that the children be provided with “education and basic amenities” of life in order to “make them good citizens”.

The court has also issued notice to the Delhi Commission for Child Rights which was made a respondent in petition, listed for hearing on April 4.

Notices were also issued to Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board, Municipal Corporations of Delhi and Delhi Development Authority (DDA) on the PIL which also sought “appropriate measures to prevent children of tender age from performing somersault/gymnastic manoeuvres at traffic signals/ intersections”.

The petitioner, advocate Sajan K Singh, has sought direction to the Centre and Delhi government, to take “appropriate measure to give permanent shelter to destitute women and provide them the opportunity for dignified living”

He submitted in the court that the authorities concerned should count the homeless population of Delhi and provide them permanent shelter and basic identification card or Aadhar card to help them obtain benefits of government’s welfare schemes.

The petitioner has attached a documentary on the plight of street children, destitute women and homeless, of which the court took note and agreed to consider it.

Photographs to substantiate the fact about the miserable life of street children, destitute women and homeless were also submitted before the court.

The petitioner has contended in his plea that under the Constitution, all of them are “entitled to lead dignified life and the state is under the obligation to provide the same to every citizen of this country”.

@Agency report.

MUMBAI: The Manipuri documentary film Phum Shang has won the Golden Conch Award for the Best Documentary Film (upto 60 minutes) at the 14th Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Animation and Short Films, which concluded on February 3, in Mumbai.

The Swiss film My Name is Salt and Indian entry Placebo shared the Gold Conch award for the Best Feature length Documentary Film.

Debanjan Nandy’s animation film Chhaya bagged the first prize in the Animation Category of International Competition. Mumbai filmmaker Devashish Makhija’s Agli Baar  shared the Best Short Fiction Film honours with the UK entry Solo Finale by Ingo Putze.

The Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the Best Debut Film of a Director went to Far From Home by Copenhagen, Denmark based film maker Nitesh Anjan.

The Festival organised by the Films Division every second year in collaboration with the Government of Maharashtra and the Indian Documentary Producers Association had commenced on 28 January.

The main awards were given away by Maharashtra Governor Vidyasagar Rao in the presence of Maharashtra Culture Minister Vinod Shreedhar Tawde, filmmaker Ramesh Sippy, brand ambassador Jackie Shroff and Festival director Mukesh Sharma.

Speaking on the occasion, Rao said that he would like documentaries to transform themselves from those for a young India since the average age of the Indian today was 29, which was far below that of the United States or China.

He also wanted the Films Division to explore new talent from remote parts of the country and even economically weaker sections. Rao urged the Division to work with universities and schools in the state to ensure that films are made by students and also shown there.

“The documentary format is important as these films help to understand the complexities of the situation in all parts of the world,” he said.

He wanted Doordarshan to reserve a one-hour slot every week for documentary, short and animation films.

Rao also rooted for more women filmmakers to emerge and said MIFF should encourage innovation and new ideas.

Tawde said that documentaries provoked governments to action when they exposed ills in society and thereby played an important role. “MIFF should be held every year, and the state government can host it in the intervening year in case the Information and Broadcasting Ministry at the centre is not inclined to do so,” he added.

Sippy said that commercial cinema was glamorous but the real challenge lay in making documentary or short films. “This should be encouraged,” he said.

Shroff said he had come into the Festival as the brand ambassador but was leaving as a student who had learnt so much about documentaries and shorts. He also wanted the Festival to be made an annual affair. Answering a question by presenter Sameera Gujjar, he said that commercial films were dreams whereas the documentary were facts. Asked about national and international cinema, he said feelings were the same everywhere.

Biju Dhanapalan who had been a member of the national jury said that special awards should be instituted for investigative documentaries, and those which have archival value, apart from making a strong appeal for restoring the Silver Conch award for the second best film. He also wanted the event to made into an annual feature. He said the national jury saw 27 films.

Ashish Kulkarni, who headed the Animation and New Media Jury, said that films by professionals and students could not be clubbed together and there had to be separate awards for these. He also wanted more awards for new media category. He said that the jury saw 21 animation and 32 new media films and was impressed with the way the filmmakers combined various mediums.

A total of 385 documentaries, shorts and animation films were shown at the Festival from around 20 countries out of the 850 received.

The 52 minute documentary Phum Shang directed by Hao Bam Pabankumar who is an alumnus of the Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute, Kolkata, critically examines the serious environmental problems faced at the Loktak lake. The largest fresh water lake in North East India characterised by its unique floating biomass, known as ‘Phumdi,’ is today considered a dying lake due to unchecked human activity. Pabankumar won the Golden Conch Award and a cash prize of Rs 3 lakhs.

My Name is Salt directed by Mumbai born and Zurich based Farida Pacha is a film about the journey of thousands of families to the Rann of Kutch to extract whitest salt in the world. Chandigarh based film maker Abhay Kumar’s 96 minutes film Placebo explores the stress and pressure faced by medical students.

My Name Is Salt also won the Best Cinematographer award for Lutz Konermann, while Placebo, which won the Award for Best Editor, was also declared the Most Innovative Film in the competition section.

@Agency news.

New Delhi : Hyundai Motor India on Thursday unveiled its vision for the future of urban mobility with the global showcase of the HND-14,’Carlino’, a concept sub-4 meter utility vehicle.

The compact utility vehicle concept presents a multi-functional solution for the next generation of car buyers, Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) said in a statement here. “The HND-14, ‘Carlino’ is the latest in a succession of concepts from the Hyundai Design Centre in Namyang, South Korea, illustrating the company s future design direction, ” it added.

Since the Hyundai Carlino compact SUV shares its platform with the i20, this might feature the same set of engines – 1.2-litre Kappa2 petrol and 1.4-litre CRDi U2 diesel – that do duty on the hatchback. While the 1.2-litre petrol engine is good for 82bhp & 115Nm, the diesel unit produces 89bhp and 220Nm. Transmission options on offer could be a 5-speed manual and a 4-speed automatic upon launch.

The product is meant for the Indian market but could also be exported just like the Creta. With HND-14, Hyundai’s family of SUVs will have five products, including Santa Fe, Tucson, Creta, and Active i20.

@Agency report.

Washington : US President Barack Obama has proposed a USD 10-a-barrel tax on crude oil to fund a new green transportation system.
The White House said Obama’s budget to be sent to the Congress next week will lay out a bold new plan for building a 21st Century Clean Transportation System funded by a new fee paid by oil companies.

The President’s plan would increase American investments in clean transportation infrastructure by roughly 50 percent . This plan will help to reduce carbon pollution, cut oil consumption, and create new jobs.

The new fee on oil will also encourage American innovation and leadership in clean technologies .
@Agency news.

“If the Pay Commission recommendations are accepted and implemented without any dilution or staggering, the consequences are going to be disastrous for the economy, coming from deteriorating quality of expenditure both at the state and central level. Let us hope, we do not remain in the fire-fighting mode even when there are immediate concerns on growth revival” said President ASSOCHAM, Sunil Kanoria.

“The tepid sale of the automobile firms in January is a clear pointer of slackening consumer demand amidst continuation of high interest rates. The picture is further marred by the level of stressed assets in the economy,” added Kanoria.

“The ball is certainly now in the court of the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who must ensure that his Budget is innovative in creating a trigger impact on investment in the key infrastructure while there should be a well-coordinated inter-ministerial approach to clear the stalled projects. With so much pressure on the fiscal, the Finance Minister may have to depend on some off-Budget tools to boost investment”, said Kanoria.

With the rural economy in distress due to failure of monsoon for two successive years, the macro picture could become more challenging. To that extent, the RBI Governor is justified in waiting for clarity before he outlines his priorities for the next financial year.

He would like to wait for the effects of likely events including the Budget announcement and the Monsoon, What the US Fed is going to do in March, and the effect of turmoil in global economic environment also remain areas of concern.

As the financial industry is facing liquidity crunch, ASSOCHAM expects RBI to keep a watch on the unfolding situation and ensure that enough cash is available in the system to help growth, said its Chief.

@Agency news.

CHANDIGARH : The Punjab government has decided to reserve 35 per cent of government jobs for women. A practical shape to this decision will be given when the government starts filling 1.14 lakh vacant posts in 41 departments. In November, the government had announced to start the process to fill the vacant posts, mostly in the school education, water supply and sanitation and agriculture departments. The decision to reserve 35 per cent jobs for women will translate into 40,000 of the 1.14 lakh jobs. An announcement is likely by the last week of February. A senior functionary of the government revealed that the decision is being taken on the recommendation of the Punjab Governance Reforms Commission for women empowerment. It recently made a presentation before the Deputy Chief Minister, who agreed to the proposal. According to Gender Statistics in Punjab, a government report, women account for one-fourth of the staff. At employment exchanges, the percentage of women job-seekers is 30.3 per cent. The government already provides 50 per cent reservation to women in government teachers’ cadre.

@Agency report.