water management system gets award at climate … times of india, ahmedabad 4 times city tuesday,...
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THE TIMES OF INDIA, AHMEDABADTUESDAY, JANUARY 6, 20154 TIMES CITY
Ahmedabad: ‘Bhungroo’, awater management technologydeveloped by a Gujarat-basedorganization, has got global rec-ognition at the recently held UNClimate Change Conference(UNCCC) in Lima. It was givenMomentum for Change Awardin Women for Result categoryfor keeping women farmers atthe centre of the innovation.
Momentum for Change isan initiative by the UN ClimateChange secretariat to identifyactivities across the globe thatpromotes low-carbon futurethrough innovative solutionsand address both climate
change and wider economic, so-cial and environmental chal-lenges.
The technology developedby Ahmedabad-based Naireeta
Services was selected after scru-tiny by 25-member internation-al advisory panel.
‘Bhungroo’ is a water man-agement system that injectsand stores excess rainfall waterunderground. This water couldbe used for irrigation duringsummers. Director of NaireetaServices, Biplab K Paul saidthat adopting this technology,which is in use since 2007, hastransformed the lives of farm-ers, especially women farmerswho own small portions of land.“Farmers in Gujarat face a typi-cal situation. On the one handtheir fields are waterlogged dueto heavy rainfall during mon-soon and on the other, there is
dearth of water for irrigation insummers,” Paul explained.
“The ‘Bhungroo’ technolo-gy filters, injects and stores ex-cess rain water in subsoil stratain form of water lenses. Andduring summers, water can beextracted using a normal motor.Adoption of this technologyhas decreased salinity and in-creased fresh water supply forirrigation,” he added.
The cost of installing onesuch ‘Bhungroo’ ranges be-tween Rs 4-9 lakh, and lasts upto20-25 years with little mainte-nance. Currently, nearly 19,000farmers are using this technolo-gy in over five states and threecountries of Africa and Asia.
Water Management System Gets Award At Climate Change Conference
‘Bhungroo’ is a traditional underground water system
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Gujarat’s ‘Bhungroo’ getsglobal recognition from UN
Gujarat high court (HC) onMonday turned down a PILseeking directions to SEBIto do away with the prac-tice of accepting recom-mendations for a new com-pany by those, whosestakes are involved in float-ing of the new company.The PIL also sought HC in-tervention to curb mal-practice in intra-day trad-ing.
Free bicycle ride in IIT-Gn: IIT-Gandhinagar hasstarted ride a bike initia-tive. Users will also be al-lowed to take the bicyclesoutside the campus. In theinitial phase, these bicycleswill be used by the staffand later will be opened toentre IIT-Gn community.
CITY DIGEST
High courtturns down PIL
Ahmedabad: A cyber thief whohad siphoned off crores frombank accounts of Gujarati busi-nessmen was apprehended fromLucknow by city crime branchsleuths. The mastermind is be-ing brought to the city. His two ac-complices were later held fromKanpur.
Crime branch sources saidthat with help from local con-tacts, the gang targeted business-men not only in Gujarat but alsoin other states of the country.
“We successfully executedthe operation with the help of Ut-tar Pradesh and Bihar police. Wewill gather more informationabout the gang members after in-terrogating the kingpin, Raju,”said a source from the crimebranch.
In the recent past, crores ofrupees were siphoned off from
bank accounts of businessmenusing the one-time password gen-eration system.
Police suspect that the ganggot tip-offs about the cellphonenumbers of businessmen regis-tered for netbanking.
“The cyber thieves used tocall the victims posing as execu-tives from the mobile phone ser-vice provider companies and askfor identity proofs to update theKYC. Then, by using the identityproof, the cyber thieves used toapproach the service providersand request them to block the
previous sim card, saying thatthe cellphone has been lost,” saidacrime branch official.
The gang then used to get an-other sim card issued with thesame number and use it to gener-ate one-time netbanking pass-word. “This provided them ac-cess to the victim’s bankaccount,” he said.
The crime branch sleuths be-gan probe by following the mon-ey trail. A crime branch officialsaid, “We first got details of thebank account numbers to whichthe stolen amount of a business-man was deposited. Then, welaunched a hunt for those ac-count holders. We came to knowthat the kingpin, whom we knowas Raju, hails from Bihar. Hiscellphone location was constant-ly hovering around Lucknow. Ateam of our police officers collab-orated with their counterparts inLucknow and apprehended themastermind.”
Cyber crook behind theft ofcrores nabbed from Lucknow His Accomplices Were Later Arrested From Kanpur
Ahmedabad: Two city-based youths have de-veloped a one-of-its-kind free e-commerceplatform for small and medium enterprises(SMEs).
Called tradohub.com, it is an integratedsupplier of food and agriculture, chemicals,pharma, polymers, additives and other indus-trial raw materials. There are 48 millionSMEs employing 81 million people in thecountry. Around 4 lakh SMEs are in Gujaratalone. But at present, all B2B e-commerce con-nect buyers and suppliers. Buyer himself hasto identify the genuineness of the supplier.
There are higher chances of buyer gettingcheated. However, tradohub.com offers anend-to-end solution — from selecting the sup-plier and placing order to receiving paymentand making delivery.
Tradohub.com chairperson Akash Doma-diya said: “Most times, product specificationand quality are not what is specified. Buyer ischarged for getting more access to verifiedsuppliers. In import transactions, buyer hasto buy only cost insurance and freight (CIF)and free on board (FOB) terms. Most suppliersand buyers are traders and not manufactur-ers. So far, there was no end-to-end online plat-form which dealt in industrial materials.”
Free e-commerce platform for SMEs
Ahmedabad: A century ago,Russian polymath NicholasRoerich was pained by thewidespread destruction ofancient Russian cities. TheWorld War I showed what thehumans could do to the ene-mies’ cultural properties.This gave birth to the newthought that cultural proper-ties should be preserved irre-spective of the nationalityand the Roerich Pact wassigned 80 years ago in theUSA. India was a signatory.
The International Centerof the Roerichs, Moscow, andGujarat National Law Uni-versity (GNLU) have orga-nized an exhibition on theRoerich Pact and reproduc-tions of the paintings andportraits by Roerich and hisson Svetoslav to mark the an-niversary. The exhibitionwould be inaugurated by gov-ernor O P Kohli on Tuesday.
Indubala Nahakpam, cu-rator of the Indian Legal His-
tory Museum, said that thesymbol of the treaty — threecircles in a round — is an an-cient one found across theglobe signifying the past, thepresent and the future. “Wehave seen what has happenedto the artifacts during the re-cent wars. The pact is rele-vant today more than ever,”she said.
Larisa V Surgina, curatorat the International Memo-
rial Roerich Trust at Kullu,said that this exhibition hasbeen held earlier at Paris,Berlin, Hague and the UNheadquarters. “In India, ithas been held at Kullu, Delhi,Chandigarh and Bangalore.Roerich, deeply influenced byIndia, always said that Russiaand India together would beable to bring the change andlead mankind to develop-ment,” she said.
Exhibition On Pact Mooted By Russian To Save Heritage Opens Today
Larisa V Surgina (L) with Indubala Nahakpam
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The Red Cross of Culture
Ahmedabad: Social activist Teesta Setalwad’s husband Javed Anand was
quizzed by the city crimebranch for the second time onMonday. Crime branch sourc-es said that they have calledSetalwad for second round ofquestioning on Tuesday.
According to the sources,an FIR was lodged against Setalwad and otheraccused after allegations of misappropri-ation of funds collected in the names of vic-tims of 2002 riots. “We had questioned bothJaved Anand and Teesta Setalwad earlierwith regard to the allegations. We needed toclarify a few things and hence questionedAnand and called Setalwad for questioningon Tuesday,” added a crime branch official.
Teesta’s husbandquestioned again
Rly station escalator to beclosed: The escalator locatedon platform number one atAhmedabad railway station willremain closed for commutersdue to maintenance and repairworks till Wednesday. Thecommuters can use the over bridges. TNN
SAND AND SAILTOI
A land yachting expedition was flagged off in Rann of Kutch, on the occasion of the 22nd Corps Day of Army organized by the ‘first in battle’ brigade of the southern command, on Monday
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