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๐๐ฆ@Evening: Assam Took Rhino Poaching Down To Numero Zero In 2022
Four days after launch, the Howrah-New Jalpaiguri Vande Bharat Express was pelted with stones by miscreants in Bengal.
No additional restrictions on free speech for MPs and MLAs, rules SC.
India's apex court is set to launch the electronic Supreme Court Reports project to advance digitisation of the Indian Judiciary.
New government initiative, called the 'SMART' programme, will promote scientific research in Ayurveda.
Assam nailed rhino conservation efforts in 2022.
A proud chief minister took to Twitter to share the great news: "Not a single rhino poached in 2022..."
Only two rhinos were poached in 2021.
Himanta Biswa Sarma gave kudos to the Assam Forest Department and Assam Police "for their since efforts to protect the iconic animal."
The Prime Minister gave a shout-out on Twitter in response.
Only in 1972 and 1977 had Assam recorded zero rhino poaching previously.
Rhino poaching in Kaziranga is the lowest it's been in a couple of decades.
This is a happy fall from a figure of 37 back in 2013.
The population of rhinos at the Kaziranga National Park jumped by 200, taking the total to 2,613, as per the 2022 census.
The poaching of rhinos in Assam had become a hot-button election issue in 2016, with the BJP promising to crack down on poachers.
The fall in rhino casualty over the years is interpreted as an indication of good governance and improvement in the law-and-order situation.
Jaideep Mazumdar wrote about it in detail in this article (January 2022).
Book alert, folks.
Braving A Viral Storm: India's Covid-19 Vaccine Story, written by Aashish Chandorkar and Suraj Sudhir, will be out in stores in the coming days. (Roughly between 5 and 10 January; preorders available)
The book is about India's successful efforts to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, including the development and distribution of vaccines.
Chandorkar is a counsellor at India's Permanent Mission to the WTO in Geneva. Sudhir works in the field of computer systems and machine learning in the San Francisco Bay Area in California.
On this day in 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first block of the bitcoin blockchain, dubbed the "Genesis Block."
Satoshi left a message in the code of this block: ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ข๐ฆ๐๐ฌ ๐๐/๐๐๐ง/๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ก๐๐ง๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐จ๐ซ ๐จ๐ง ๐๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐ค ๐จ๐ ๐ฌ๐๐๐จ๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ข๐ฅ๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐๐๐ง๐ค๐ฌ
Satoshi Nakamoto is recognised as the pseudonym of the person or group of persons who created Bitcoin.
Cryptocurrencies are byproducts of blockchain technology.
One was a queen for her pioneering work on education, especially for girls and for ostracised sections of society, and the other... well, a literal queen.
Savitribai Phule (1831-1897): A social reformer in the nineteenth century, she is considered the first feminist of India.
Savitribai Phule was born on 3 January 1831 in a rich and influential farming family in Maharashtra's Naigaon.
She was married off at the age of nine to 13-year-old Jyotirao Phule, from whom she learnt to read and write.
When she turned 17, the couple founded India's first school for girls and women in Bhidewada, Pune.
It started with just nine girls from different castes enrolled as students, but it was a historic step given that female education was considered taboo in the orthodox Indian society prevalent then.
The Phule couple launched a crusade against social discrimination based on caste and gender, and sparked the flame for equal rights for women in British-ruled India.
Savitribai's campaign covered child marriage, child widows, pregnancy of rape victims, the practice of 'Sati', education of women, and striving for equal rights for all women.
The Maharashtra government renamed Pune University as 'Savitribai Phule University' as a tribute to the women's icon in August 2014.
"She personifies the indomitable spirit of our Nari Shakti": PM Narendra Modi said in a tweet today.
Rani Velu Nachiyar was the princess of Ramanathapuram.
She was trained in weapons use, martial arts, horse riding, and archery.
She was a scholar, proficient in languages like French, English, and Urdu.
She married the king of Sivagangai, with whom she had a daughter.
When her husband was killed by British soldiers and the son of the Nawab of Arcot, she was drawn into battle.
She escaped with her daughter and lived under the protection of Palayakaarar Kopaala Naayakkar at Virupachi near Dindigul for eight years.
She then set out to avenge her belovedโs death and take back control of her kingdom.
Velu not only fought the British but also the Nawab of Arcot, ably supported by her military commander, Kuyuili.
"Her bravery will keep motivating generations to come": PM Narendra Modi said in a tweet today.
