ArdorComm Media Group

Saturday, January 31, 2026 9:08 AM

Author name: admin

President Murmu will confer national awards to 46 teachers on September 5 

On September 5, President Droupadi Murmu will bestow 46 chosen awardees the National Awards to Teachers 2022 in recognition of their distinctive contributions to education, according to officials. Three teachers each from Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Maharashtra, and Telangana were chosen from the list of candidates. The recipients from these four states are Yudhveer, Virender Kumar, and Amit Kumar (from Himachal Pradesh); Harpreet Singh, Arun Kumar Garg, and Vandana Shahi (from Punjab); Shashikant Sambhajirao Kulthe, Somnath Waman Walke, and Kavita Sanghvi (from Maharashtra); and Kandala Ramaiah, TN Sridhar, and Sunitha Rao (Telangana), are the awardees from these four states. Every year on September 5—Teachers Day—the Ministry of Education hosts a function at Vigyan Bhawan to bestow awards to the nation’s top teachers who have been chosen after a rigorous, transparent, and online three stage selection process. According to a senior official, “The purpose of National Awards to Teachers is to celebrate the unique contribution of teachers in the country and to honour those teachers who through their commitment and industry have not only improved the quality of school education but also enriched the lives of their students.” The selected teachers are Pradeep Negi and Kaustubh Chandra Joshi (Uttarakhand), Sunita and Durga Ram Muwal (Rajasthan), Neeraj Saxena and Om Prakash Patidar (Madhya Pradesh), Saurabh Suman and Nishi Kumari (Bihar), G Ponsankari and Umesh TP (Karnataka), Mala Jigdal Dorjee and Sidharth Yonzone (Sikkim). The other awardees include Anju Dahiya (Haryana), Rajni Sharma (Delhi), Seema Rani (Chandigarh), Maria Murena Miranda (Goa), Umesh Bharatbhai Vala (Gujarat), Mamta Ahar (Chhattisgarh), Iswar Chandra Nayak (Odhisha), Buddhadev Dutta (West Bengal), Javid Ahmed Rather (Jammu and Kashmir), Mohd Jabir (Ladkah), Khursheed Ahmad (Uttar Pradesh), Mimi Yhoshii (Nagaland), Nongmaithem Gautam Singh (Manipur), Gamchi Timre R Marak (Meghalaya), Santosh Nath (Tripura), Meenakshi Goswami (Assam), Shipra (Jharkhand), Ranjan Kumar Biswas (Andaman and Nicobar), Aravindaraja (Puducherry), Ramachandran (Tamil Nadu), Ravi Aruna (Andhra Pradesh). “Among the selected teachers one is from CISCE board, two from Kendriya Vidyalayas, one each from Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya and Eklavya Residential School, while two teachers are from CBSE board,” the official said.

President Murmu will confer national awards to 46 teachers on September 5  Read More »

Pfizer’s vaccine against a deadly respiratory virus has shown positive results

A vaccine against the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), for which there are presently no authorized shots, showed promising results in elderly patients on Thursday, according to pharmaceutical behemoth Pfizer. The virus can cause pneumonia in elderly people and causes bronchiolitis, a respiratory condition that primarily affects newborns. RSV infection causes more than 177,000 older patients to be hospitalised each year in the US, and 14,000 of them eventually die, according to US health authorities. In an ongoing clinical trial, the vaccine is being evaluated on individuals 60 years of age and older. A preliminary investigation revealed that it was roughly 85% successful in averting severe cases, or those with three or more symptoms. In the upcoming months, Pfizer said it intends to submit applications for the vaccine to the US Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory bodies. “Scientists and researchers have worked to develop RSV vaccines with little success for over half a century. These findings are an important step in our effort to help protect against RSV disease,” Pfizer’s chief scientific officer, Annaliesa Anderson, who oversees vaccine development, stated in a statement. The company reported that the vaccination was well received and that there were no safety issues. They added that they would submit the findings for publication in a scientific journal. Out of the anticipated 40,000 participants, around 37,000 have already been enrolled in the clinical trial. The vaccine, which targets two strains of the virus, is given to half of them, while the other half receives a placebo. In addition to Moderna, other companies are striving to create an RSV vaccine.

Pfizer’s vaccine against a deadly respiratory virus has shown positive results Read More »

Flexible workplaces, work-from-home ecosystem needs of future: PM Modi

Article on HR

While underlining the significance of the labour force in India’s development on Thursday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the future would require flexible workplaces, a work-from-home ecosystem, and flexible work hours. In a video address to the National Conference of the Labour Ministers of all States and Union Territories, Prime Minister Modi stated that “India’s labour force has a huge role to play in realising India’s dreams and aspirations to build a developed nation in the Amrit Kaal.” With this kind of thinking, the nation is consistently working for millions of employees in both the organised and unorganised sectors, he continued. The Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, and Pradhan Mantri Shram-Yogi Maandhan Yojana have all offered some kind of social security protection to the workers, and the PM reaffirmed a number of government efforts. The workers now have the assurance that their labour and contribution will be valued due to these programmes. According to a study, the Emergency Credit Guarantee Scheme prevented the loss of 1.5 crore employment during the pandemic. We can see that the workers have devoted all of their effort to overcoming this epidemic, just as the country did when its citizens needed it most, he said. The prime minister stated that one of the main initiatives to include the labour force in the purview of social security is the e-Shram portal. In just one year, around 28 crore workers from 400 areas have registered on the web. The people who have benefited the most from this are domestic workers, migrant labourers, and construction workers. He requested that the state portals and the e-Shram portal be linked. He continued by saying that over the previous eight years, the government had taken steps to abolish laws from the time of slavery that still adhered to the previous way of thinking. Currently, the country is updating, simplifying, and changing such labour legislation. As a result, 29 labour laws were combined to establish four simple labour codes. Through minimum wages, job security, social security, and health security, this will ensure the empowerment of employees, he continued. Given the worldwide situation, the prime minister emphasised the need for reform. He emphasised the need for quick decisions and swift action in order to effectively capitalise on the fourth industrial revolution. In light of platform, gig, and online services, Modi emphasised the need to be conscious of how the nature of work is evolving. He asserted that “appropriate policies and initiatives in this field can help India become a worldwide leader.” Flexible work environments, a work-from-home ecosystem, and flexible hours are necessary for the future. We may use policies like flexible work arrangements as ways to encourage women to enter the workforce, he said. In his address to the nation on August 15 from the Red Fort ramparts, the Prime Minister recalled his call for the full participation of the women’s power in the nation. He claimed that by effectively utilising women’s influence, India might achieve its objectives more quickly. The need to think about how to support women in the nation’s developing sectors was another point Modi emphasised. He brought up India’s demographic dividend and said that the country’s success in the twenty-first century will depend on how well it is used. We can benefit from global opportunities by building a highly qualified workforce, he added. Modi also emphasised the fact that India and many other countries across the world are entering into cooperative agreements regarding migration and mobility, and he urged all the states in the nation to take advantage of these opportunities. We must put in more effort and impart our knowledge to one another, he said. The Prime Minister reminded everyone present that our building and construction workers are an integral part of our workforce and urged them to make the most of the “cess” that had been planned for them. “I have been informed that the states have not yet used nearly Rs 38,000 crore of this cess,” he said. He urged everyone to think about how the Ayushman Bharat programme and ESIC might benefit more and more workers. The two-day conference was organised by the Union ministry of labour and employment on August 25 and 26 in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, in the cooperative federalist spirit to talk about significant labor-related issues.

Flexible workplaces, work-from-home ecosystem needs of future: PM Modi Read More »

Government extends the Ayushman Bharat health scheme to include trans people

The Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY will now provide comprehensive healthcare services to trans individuals. Mansukh Mandaviya, the Union Minister for Health, stated on Wednesday that the action will guarantee transgender persons a “rightful and respectable” status. According to Mandaviya, an MoU that will make this possible will enable all healthcare benefits to be provided to transgender people nationwide who possess a transgender certificate from the National Portal for Transgender Persons. “We have the registry. This is to give the members of the community the respect they deserve,” he added. He added that a comprehensive package, including the existing AB PM-JAY packages as well as particular packages like Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS) and treatment for transgenders, is being prepared for the transgender category. He also added that individual members will be treated as “family” to qualify for the Rs 5 lakh cover under the scheme. The ministry has also chosen to issue unified Ayushman cards that will feature both the centre and state logos. According to the minister, this will benefit both the beneficiaries and the States. Few States, including Tamil Nadu and Telangana, have not yet endorsed this concept, according to ministry officials.

Government extends the Ayushman Bharat health scheme to include trans people Read More »

Microsoft and EnAble team up to provide PwDs employment opportunities

As part of the “Inclusion To Action” initiative, Microsoft and EnAble have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) under which they would work together to create about one lakh job opportunities for persons with disabilities (PwDs). This collaboration will assist in bringing together different stakeholders from different sectors to transform career prospects for PwDs and make this enormous untapped talent pool significantly productive. The partnership between Microsoft and EnAble India is the result of the former’s five-year global commitment to close the global gap in PwDs’ access to technology, employment, and education. EnAble India, a non-profit organisation, has been working to help PwDs become economically independent as well as to help them maintain their dignity and command respect for more than 20 years. With Microsoft joining its mission, more than 100 Indian organisations from a variety of industries, including financial services, manufacturing, retail, and technology, will now work together to provide PwDs with tech skilling, mentorship, internship, and job initiatives. PwD candidates will be able to improve their grasp of digital accessibility, which is becoming more and more crucial in the current hybrid work environment, due to the technical skilling programmes. Increased PwD representation will inevitably lead to inclusive product development, which will benefit people with disabilities who use technology. PwDs will also have access to training programmes on modern office tools, which will increase their efficiency.

Microsoft and EnAble team up to provide PwDs employment opportunities Read More »

Adani set to acquire majority stake in NDTV news channel

The most prominent bet by billionaire Gautam Adani in the thriving media industry was announced on Tuesday by India’s Adani Group: its media unit will purchase a majority stake in NDTV. In addition to making an open offer for a further 26% stake, Adani’s unit will indirectly acquire a 29.18% stake in New Delhi Television (NDTV). According to the statement, the open offer would be for 294 Indian rupees ($3.68) per NDTV share, valued 4.93 billion Indian rupees ($61.73 million). Adani had previously disclosed on Tuesday that it has paid 1.14 billion rupees to acquire Vishvapradhan Commercial Pvt Ltd (VCPL). VCPL owns warrants of NDTV shareholder RRPR, and on Tuesday it exercised its right to convert those warrants into shares equal to 99.5% of RRPR. Leading media company NDTV runs three national news channels: NDTV India, NDTV Profit, and NDTV 24×7. In NDTV, RRPR owns a 29.18% stake. In March of this year, Adani Group acquired a minority stake in Quintillion, a local digital business news site. According to a statement from Sanjay Pugalia, CEO of AMG Media Networks Limited, the NDTV acquisition will open the door for new age media on all platforms. Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of the oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries who also has a stake in India’s thriving media sector and controls Network18, is a rival of Gautam Adani. Adani Group has seven publicly traded firms that operate industries like running ports and airports, generating and transmitting electricity, and trading coal and gas.

Adani set to acquire majority stake in NDTV news channel Read More »

Why Indian e-commerce companies are rushing to hire delivery personnel

E-commerce companies in India are rapidly increasing their delivery staff numbers out of concern that they may suffer during one of the busiest shopping seasons of the year, which starts in earnest next month. The decisions were made as the job market became tighter – India’s unemployment rate fell below 7% in July for the first time since January – and inflation remained high, which complicated the outlook for the sector, which has long struggled with chronically high employee turnover. TK Balakumar, chief operating officer at online grocery seller BigBasket, told Reuters, “Overall demand for the gig workforce has seen a sharp increase and that is not completely supported by the increase in pool size of delivery people… It is not a free flowing pool.” The company, sponsored by the Tata group conglomerate, increased the number of delivery partners in its instant delivery section BB Now from 500 in the March quarter to 2,200 in the quarter that ended in June. By March 2023, it hopes to increase that number even more, to roughly 6,000. BigBasket and other e-commerce companies, like Dunzo, employ their own delivery staff, but others, like cosmetics-to-fashion retailer Nykaa, rely on outside vendors. According to a report released in June by think tank NITI Aayog, the number of people employed in gig work—of which delivery workers and salesmen make up a sizable portion—is predicted to increase to 9.9 million in India in 2022–23, an increase of roughly 45% from 2019–20. Sekhar Garisa, strategy chief at business services provider Quess Corp., stated that “People… look at a delivery job as a job in transit, they move off to something else, you’ll always have shortages and then in cases where there is a specific event or festival, there’s definitely a challenge that the delivery requirement goes up.” Companies like Quess and TeamLease function as middlemen between e-commerce businesses and job seekers in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities across the nation. Some companies were hopeful that the labour shortage scenario would improve. “There’s a constant churn and movement that has existed for 4-5 years. It can cause a temporary crunch but we don’t think it is a long term thing because supply and demand will match,” Reuters was told by Kabeer Biswas, the CEO of Dunzo. Dunzo presently has 75,000 delivery partners and is supported by Reliance, a company owned by Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani.

Why Indian e-commerce companies are rushing to hire delivery personnel Read More »

UGC approves proposal for hiring industry experts as professors of practice

Article on Edu

According to draft regulations issued by the higher education regulator, universities and colleges may soon be able to employ industry specialists in addition to the sanctioned posts of regular faculty under a new category of faculty positions called professors of practice. The University Grants Commission stated that the professors of practise will be employed for a fixed tenure of no longer than four years, and their strength at any given time cannot exceed 10% of the sanctioned faculty posts. The regulatory body announced in March that it was thinking about introducing such a clause, and on August 18 during its 560th meeting, the commission approved the draft guidelines. These will now be made available for public feedback. According to the draft guidelines, the purpose of establishing this new faculty category is to attract eminent experts from a variety of fields into academia, including engineering, science, technology, entrepreneurship, commerce, social sciences, media, literature, fine arts, civil services, the armed forces, legal profession, and public administration. According to UGC Chairperson M. Jagadesh Kumar, the provision is a part of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 implementation, which focuses on skill-based education to fulfil industry and economic needs. “This will help to take real-world practises and experiences into classrooms and augment faculty resources in higher education institutions,” according to Kumar. “It will enable higher education institutions to formally associate with persons of eminence and encourage them to participate in experiential learning, research, training, skilling, entrepreneurship and extension and to play a mentoring role.” The positions are only open to experts with a minimum of 15 years of experience. The guidelines suggest that if a candidate has “exemplary” professional experience, no formal academic qualification would be taken into account. The draft guidelines stated, “These experts will also be exempted from the requirement of publications and other eligibility criteria stipulated for the recruitment of faculty members at the professor level. However, they should possess the skills to carry out the duties and responsibilities specified in the following section.” The positions won’t be available to those who are currently employed as teachers. The professors of practice will engage in one of three categories: industry-funded, institution-funded, or honorary. The institutions may collaborate with industry to support the roles in the first category. Under the second category, they will be required to pay the professors out of their own resources. The third category allows the institutions to choose the honorarium amount using their own funds. The guidelines elaborate on the selection process for professors of practice, stating that the head of the institution will invite nominations from distinguished experts. The recommendations will be taken into consideration by a selection committee made up of two senior professors and one esteemed external member. The instructions said that the statutory bodies of the institutes will make a decision based on its recommendations. The initial term of the engagement may be up to one year, with subsequent extensions possible. The guidelines stated that “The maximum duration of service of Professor of Practice at a given institution should not exceed three years and is extendable by one year in exceptional cases and the total service should not exceed four years under any circumstance.”

UGC approves proposal for hiring industry experts as professors of practice Read More »

Tarun Bajaj gets an additional charge as MCA secretary

Tarun Bajaj, a 1988 batch IAS officer from the Haryana cadre who currently serves as the revenue secretary, was assigned the additional charge of secretary in the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA). According to the ministry of personnel, public grievances, and pensions, he will succeed Rajesh Verma, who was appointed secretary to President Droupadi Murmu on August 18. According to official records, Bajaj, who has been the revenue secretary since April 6, 2021, also served as the secretary of economic affairs from April 30, 2020, to April 5, 2021. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, or ACC, approved assigning Shri Tarun Bajaj, lAS (1988 batch, Haryana cadre), Secretary, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, with additional charge of the post of Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, with immediate effect and until the appointment of a regular incumbent or until further orders, whichever is earlier, the ACC secretariat said in a statement on Monday. The ACC is comprised of the home minister Amit Shah and the prime minister Narendra Modi. Unless he receives an extension before the Union Budget 2023–24, Bajaj is anticipated to retire on November 30.

Tarun Bajaj gets an additional charge as MCA secretary Read More »

Dolo 650 maker claims that less than Rs 10 crore was spent on promotions

The maker of the Dolo 650, Micro Labs, claims that it spent a pittance on the brand’s marketing and promotion, spending less than Rs 10 crore annually. Micro Labs is the subject of a controversy over allegations of unethical business practises. The Bangalore-based company was under scrutiny last week during a hearing in another case brought by the Federation of Medical and Sales Representatives Association before the Supreme Court. The corporation is accused of giving doctors freebies worth over Rs 1,000 crore. During the pandemic, the Rs 2 pill became well-known for providing pain and fever relief. Its sales for the fiscal year that ended in March this year totalled Rs 362 crore, an increase of over 30%. “Dolo 650 is a mega brand due to first-mover advantage, its quality, availability and reach across the country. It is a mass brand and an established market leader with 50% share, even before Covid,” said Dilip Surana, the CMD of Micro Labs. The offices of the Rs 4,500 crore Micro Labs were raided and the premises searched by the tax department last month on suspicion of tax evasion. In total, the company has spent Rs 1000 crore on marketing for all of its products, not just Dolo 650. “On the pain relief pill alone, the marketing expenditure has typically been 4-5% of its annual turnover of Rs 200-250 crore,” said Executive VP (Marketing) Jayaraj Govindaraju. He said that the basic promotions (to doctors) during Covid were of low value and comprised handing out free (Dolo) samples, brand reminders, masks & sanitizers, and scientific dissemination through conferences on fever.

Dolo 650 maker claims that less than Rs 10 crore was spent on promotions Read More »