Bangla Govt observes ‘Sanskriti Dibas’ on the occasion of Rakhi Bandhan

With the inspiration of Bangla Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the State Government is celebrating Sanskriti Dibas today, on the occasion of Rakhi Bandhan, to spread the message of communal harmony.

The State Youth Services and Sports Department is hosting the programmes.

In 1905, Rabindranath Tagore had observed Rakhi Bandhan as a mark of unity between Hindus and Muslims when the British decided to divide Bengal.

Sanskriti Dibas is being observed in 342 Blocks, 122 municipalities, six Municipal Corporations and in all the 144 wards of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, all district headquarters and GTA.

It may be mentioned here that Mamata Banerjee has time and again spread the message of unity and harmony at various public meetings. She has urged people to uphold the spirit of Bangla which stands for peace, progress and prosperity.

’Safe Drive, Save Life’ will become a global model: Mamata Banerjee at ‘Jaya Hey’ event

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today showered praises on the state police force. She said they did not get any holidays and cannot even spend time with their families during festivals because of their commitment to work. She also praised the various community development programmes started by the police.

The Chief Minister also said that ‘Safe Drive, Save Life’ will become a global model one day, and asked each and every one to spread awareness about road safety.

Highlights of the CM’s speech:

  • We started this event called ‘Jaya Hey’ in 2011. I hope this event will reach newer heights of glory in the days to come.
  • The police does not have any holidays. They do not celebrate any festival with their festivals. Their work is to serve the country 24X7 for 365 days. People are part of their larger family.
  • From Dol to Eid – during every festival we need them. From social functions to road accidents, police is required. Whenever any disaster takes place in the Hills, the police goes for rescue and relief operations. We cannot spend a second without their help.
  • The police to their work willingly and with earnestness. Their families are their pillars of support. We cannot do anything for them. So we started this function.
  • We all commit mistakes. When we work for 365 days in a years, small slip-ups are bound to happen. We must remember that. Whether it is scorching heat or raining torrentially, even when we do not want to step out, a traffic police personnel has to perform his duty. They are the guardians of the people.
  • Presence of police assures us of our safety. They have to be alert all the time. Their work is not just providing training or maintaining law and order. They also take part in community development programmes. They organise blood donation camps.
  • Like Kanyashree, Safe Drive Save Life will become a global model one day. It is being implemented in other States as well. What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow. Number of road accidents have reduced a lot ever since this project was launched.We all must raise awareness about road safety. We must all participate to save even one precious life.
  • It is the police’s job to save lives, not take them. My best wishes to all police personnel and their families on this special day. My best wishes to all those who are associated with this ‘Jaya Hey’ programme.

 

State MSME Conclave: We are going to Germany soon, says CM

While interacting with foreign delegates at the State MSME Conclave on Monday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said: “We are going to visit Germany soon.” Banerjee, who stressed upon the steps needed to ensure the global presence of the state’s MSME sector, interacted with the entrepreneurs from the districts and at the same time, also spoke to the foreign delegates present there.

Several exporters were also present at the business conclave held at Biswa Bangla Convention Centre. After listening to the suggestions of the exporters, Amit Mitra, minister of the MSME and Textiles department, summed up that there is a need to establish a proper supply chain with an assurance of timely delivery of standardised quality products.

In this connection, the Chief Minister said: “A supply chain app needs to be introduced.” She has also stressed the need for skill development programmes. There were interactions with representatives from Chile and Italy as well.

From the inaugural programme of the State MSME Conclave in which there will be five sessions on Tuesday, Banerjee launched Biswa Bangla Showroom in Hyderabad. In this connection, Mitra said a showroom will also come up in Bengaluru in the next month. A Khadi showroom has also been launched at Park Street. Banerjee also launched a Centre of Excellence of Handicrafts at Manjusha and Centre of Excellence for Apparel Sector at Paridhan Garments Park.

Safe Drive Save Life: State Govt to install reflectors on road dividers

To prevent accidents at night, as part of the pioneering Safe Drive Save Life programme, the State Government has decided to install reflectors on road dividers.

The work between Golpark and Dhakuria in Kolkata has already started. Senior police officers say, during night, particularly when it rains heavily, drivers often fail to spot the dividers and hit them. In areas where there are small road dividers, drivers mount them after failing to negotiate lanes.

The reflectors will be seen from more than 50 feet away, even during rainy nights. Hence the installation of the reflectors will be of great help to drivers.

The State Transport Department has left no stone unturned to reduce the number of road accidents and to train drivers to pick up proper driving skills.

Source: Millennium Post

Rare pengba fish given new lease of life by Bangla Govt

Through an initiative of the State Fisheries Department, fish farmers in Haldia have started cultivating the fish, pengba. According to experts, this fish of the carp family (to which rohu, catla, silver carp, etc. belong) is very tasty and hence has a high potential.

Pengba is the State fish of Manipur. However it has become rare there for various reasons. For this reason too this is a commendable effort by the Bangla Government.

Though native to colder climates, experts have found the fish to be readily adaptable to warmer waters too, thus making it a good choice for Haldia.

Also, being part of the carp family, pengba can be cultivated in mixed-carp cultivation farms, where rohu, common carp, catla, silver carp, mrigal, etc. are cultivated, thus making it easier to rear the fish.

Source: Aajkaal

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Message of communal harmony at I-Day celebrations at Red Road

Bangla Government celebrated Independence Day with full honours today. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee hoisted the National Flag at Red Road. Parades and cultural functions were held at the venue. The CM was given Guard of Honour.

Bangla Government conveyed the message of communal harmony at this year’s Independence Day parade on Red Road. A tableau based on the theme of ‘Oikotan’ (Harmony) was a part of the parade. Bauls and folk artistes participated in these tableaux which projected the ‘unity in diversity’ in Bangla.

Besides the tableau based on ‘Oikotan’, there were tableauxs on the popular schemes and projects of the State Government, like Kanyashree, Sabuj Sathi, Ruposhree, Sabuj Shree, Khadya Sathi and Safe Drive Save Life.

Mamata Banerjee slams the BJP on NRC issue

Bangla Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee launched a scathing attack against BJP president Amit Shah on the NRC issue on Tuesday.

Speaking at Nabanna, the state secretariat, she questioned the BJP chief and asked whether his parents had birth certificates.

The brutal attack came after Mamata Banerjee met a delegation from United Bengali Forum who had come from Assam to highlight their plight over the NRC issue.

“I want to ask Amit Shah, does his mother and father have birth certificates? If you ask me, I do not have my parent’s birth certificates. Would Swami Vivekananda have the certificates? Atal ji is ill now, so I cannot ask him, but I wish I could ask him whether he has all the certificates? One family can keep the record, not all. I belonged to a backward family, certificates were not maintained,” Mamata Banerjee said. She also said, “Would Gandhiji’s family have certificates?”

She went on to call the entire NRC exercise as politically motivated. “This is a political move ahead of the elections. Sometimes they (the Centre) will play India-Pakistan, sometimes they will play India-China. I am also hearing that they are getting the currency notes printed outside the country,” the CM alleged.

She alleged that Bengali-speaking population was being targeted. She claimed a majority of the 40 lakh who did not make it to the Assam draft list were a Bengali-speaking people.

“Of the total 40 lakh, 25 lakhs are Bengali Hindus, 13 lakhs Bengali Muslims and 2 lakh Nepalis, Biharis and others. I have shown you so many documents. People in Punjab and Pakistan speak the same language. People in Bengal and Bangladesh speak the same language. Isn’t Hindi and Urdu widely spoken in the country? If you do not like a particular community, you cannot spread hatred like this. Hasina ji (Bangla PM) is welcome, others not? Didn’t Bengal participate in the freedom struggle? What’s wrong in speaking the Bangla language?” she said.

She further said that even cows should now be given certificates to identify whether a cow is a refugee or an infiltrator. “My question is to all the Gau-rakshaks, is cow a refugee or an infiltrators. Make certificates for cows so that we know whether they are refugees or infiltrators. Amit Shah may not eat Hilsa fish. But people in Bangladesh, Bengal, UP and Bihar eat Hilsa fish. Is Hilsa a refugee or an infiltrator? This is super-emergency,” she claimed.

‘Are Hilsa, Jamdani also infiltrators?’ – Mamata Banerjee targets BJP Over Assam NRC

Attacking the BJP-led central government over exclusion of 40 lakh people in the final draft of Assam-NRC, Bangla Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday accused the saffron party of being “anti-Bengali”.

Taking a swipe at the BJP, the Trinamool Congress chief asked if hilsa fish, Jamdani saree, sandesh and mishti doi, which are originally from East Bengal ( in undivided India), would also be branded as “infiltrators or refugees”.

Asserting that these 40 lakh people are “very much Indians”, she questioned the criteria on which they have been excluded.

The CM has been attacking the BJP government at the Centre over National Register for Citizens (NRC) which has excluded names of over 40 lakh citizens in the final draft for want of necessary documents in Assam.

“What is going on in the country is injustice. The BJP with their extremist ideology is trying to create division among the people. I think they are playing the politics of revenge among the countrymen. We are not for this kind of politics,” she said.

She accused the BJP of being “anti-Bengalis” and “anti-Bangla”.

They (the BJP) must not forget that speaking Bengali is not a crime. It is the fifth most spoken language in the world. What is BJP’s problem with Bangla? Are they scared of the intellect of the Bengalis, their culture. They must not forget that Bangla is the cultural mecca of the country,” she said.

Bangla Govt embracing infotech: E-governance, fintech, AI, student competitions, cyber security

Under the initiative of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the State Government has embraced the use of information technology wholeheartedly. Every Bangla Government office, be they in Kolkata or the districts, is either wholly computerised or in the process of being so. The Government is also encouraging students to work on software technologies to create apps and other useful technologies.

E-governance has been made the norm. As a result, work has become faster – both for the Government offices as well as for the public being served.

All information technology-based aspects of the State Government are handled by the Information Technology & Electronics Department. Thus the department is playing a leading role in the digitisation of governance.

A report published by the McKinsey Global Institute last January had stated that Kolkata is poised to emerge as one of the top Indian cities and one of the epicentres of global financial activities by 2030. According to the report, by virtue of its relative proximity to Singapore and Hong Kong, Kolkata stands a bright chance of becoming a big IT hub.

The department is investing in the latest aspects of information technology. It has formed a core group which will interact with various stakeholders and prepare a repository of case studies of projects involving artificial intelligence (AI). Such cases will be taken up which can be adapted by various departments of the State Government.

The IT&E Department is coming up with is a Centre of Innovation. In an effort to give fresh graduates rent-free space for churning out ideas and designing innovative models, the department is setting up a Centre of Innovation at the IT park being built in Bantala, Kolkata. The blueprint for the centre has already been prepared. It will be functional from this financial year, and will have top academicians, scientists and industry members as its mentors.

The department is also encouraging software-based solutions from students, technical professionals and common citizens, particularly for the day-to-day problems of common people. For the last two years (2017 and 2018), the department has been organising Bengalathon, a competition for the development of apps for day-to-day needs.

Another sector the IT&E Department is actively promoting is fintech (short for ’financial technology’). Fintech is an emerging industry that comprises companies which use digital technology to provide financial services. These companies are involved in digital payment, automatic digital banking, share market analytics, insurance predictions and asset management.

The State Government has taken a leading role in developing fintech. A fintech hub is coming up in New Town, with plug-and-play infrastructure. Several companies have already rented space. The department came up with a stellar show at the Singapore FinTech Festival, held last November.

The department has already started working on emerging technologies like cyber security, blockchain, artificial intelligence, machine learning, animation, IoT (internet of things), Industry 4.0 (a standard), analytics, animation and e-sports. Summits are being held every month on different emerging technologies.

An important avenue of growth and safety that the State Government has identified is cyber security. It has set up a Cyber Security Centre of Excellence in order to successfully confront cyber crimes.

The cyber security centre collects, analyses and disseminates information on cyber security incidents, executes emergency measures, coordinates response, and issues guidelines, advisories and vulnerability notes. It also acts as a monitoring authority for the State, which looks at every single incident and incorporates the information for research and development.

Harnessing technology in the best possible way tops the Bangla Government’s priorities, and the above measures provide ample proof of that.

IT sector growing rapidly in Bangla

The information technology (IT) sector in Bangla is growing at a fast pace. Under the leadership of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, there has been a lot of growth in the sector, and the Information Technology & Electronics Department is the department driving this growth.

Almost 80% overall growth in IT business: The State now has a presence of about 894 IT companies, up from nearly 500 in 2010-11, showing a rise of almost 80 per cent in the IT business.

Many of the leading IT software companies are operating and expanding their facilities in the State at the moment.

The vision: The vision of the State Government, as described in its ICT Policy 2012, is to become one of the leading States in India in the IT and ITeS, and ESDM sectors and to enable Bangla to transform into a knowledge-driven welfare society.

67 per cent growth in employment: From the financial year (FY) 2010-11 figure of 90,000, the IT sector today employs more than 1,50,000 IT professionals – a growth of about 67 per cent. The projected figure for employment for FY 2018-19 is at least 1.8 lakh, of which almost 50,000 will be covered through the IT parks developed by the State Government.

Almost 150 per cent growth in export: The total export by the IT industry of the State was Rs 21,000 crore during FY 2017-18, compared to Rs 8,500 crore during 2010-11, showing a growth of about 150 per cent in seven years.