Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], March 3 (ANI): A month ahead of the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, actor turned politician Kamal Haasan inducted former President and scientist Dr APJ Abdul Kalam’s scientific adviser V Ponraj as the Vice President of his Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) on Wednesday.
Tamil Nadu assembly elections will be held in a single phase on April 6 and the counting of votes will take place on May 2.
The term of the fifteenth legislative assembly in Tamil Nadu is ending on May 2, 2021. As many as 6,28,23,749 electors will choose candidates for the sixteenth legislative assembly in the state.
The ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) is contesting the elections in a pre-poll alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). MK Stalin’s Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has joined hands with Congress. This time actor-turned-politician Hassan’s party MNM is also in the fray.
In December 2020, Hassan inducted former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Santhosh Babu, as the General Secretary of his MNM.
Haasan had launched Makkal Needhi Maiam on February 21, 2018, in Madurai. (ANI)

By Archana Prasad
New Delhi [India], March 3 (ANI): Elderly people have queued up on Wednesday at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in the national capital to get themselves vaccinated in the second phase of India’s COVID-19 vaccination drive.
Dr. Shalini Chawala, a COVID-19 vaccination nodal officer said 200 people who are above 60 years old are coming each day to get the COVID-19 jab at Ganga Ram hospital.
She also said senior citizens are kept under observation for 30 minutes at the hospital after their vaccination.
“Fortunately no complications or any kind of problem have occurred, everything is smooth till now,” Chawal said.
She added that the hospital is availing services from nursing students at the vaccination center.
As most of the senior citizens are not tech-friendly, the students are helping them to register online for vaccination.
Rakesh Mohan Diwan a 70-year-old at the hospital said, “Prime minister Narendra Modi has given courage to the country by taking the dose. The arrangements are very good here, everything is happening very systematically”.
Preeti Jain, another 65-year-old said, “It’s not a problem for us to stand in the queue as it’s for our own benefit. If we go to see a doctor we wait for our turn, then why not here,” she said.
She also said the arrangements at the vaccination centre were good. (ANI)

New Delhi [India], March 3 (ANI): Chinese hackers have been trying hard to crack Indian cyber space. There have been more aggressive attempts of hacking by Chinese hackers since last one year.
Various government organisations like the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN) and the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) are following trends and keeping a track of attempts made by Chinese post Galwan clash.
Experts said attempts from China have increased in the last year, which further amplified after the Indian Government banned Chinese applications post the Galwan clash.
Recently a report has emerged this week claiming that two Indian companies, which are supplying COVID-19 vaccinations — Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech — are under cyber attack by a Chinese hacking group APT10, also known as Stone Panda and actively targeting one such company. Sources claimed that CERT-IN is looking into this matter.
Also, Telangana electricity department officials have also claimed that they have received alerts from CERT-IN about Chinese malware trying to enter the cyber system of the department.
Earlier on Tuesday, Union Power Minister RK Singh had said, “We should remain alert” while refuting claims that the blackout in Mumbai last year was due to a Chinese cyber-attack.
Sources in the government said that all alerts were issued regarding such attempts and concern agencies have been asked to educate organisations about such attempts and keep them updated with new threats. Chinese hackers, majorly focus on big institutions instead of Individual, sources claimed.
The NCIIPC, which comes under the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) also documented details about Chinese hackers and their modus operandi about attacks generating from China recently.
The NCIIPC is a national nodal agency for all measures to protect the nation’s critical information infrastructure. It protects and delivers advice that aims to reduce the vulnerabilities of critical information infrastructure against cyber terrorism, cyber warfare and other threats.
Sources said this organisation has compiled data of attempts of cyber attack from China in the last year, which had seen an upward trend.
While giving details about a China-based threat, NCIIPC’s Threat Assessment group said, “Emissary Panda also known as APT-27 is a China-based threat actor that involves in targeting foreign embassies to collect data related to government, defence and technology sectors. Activities of Emissary Panda have been noticed since 2010 during attack in organisations across the world including financial services firms, US defence contractors, and a national data center in Central Asia.”
The organisation dedicated more than half a dozen of pages to various China-based threats on Power, IT and government sectors in its last newsletter of 2020.
NCIIPC further warns that when malicious attackers gain access to an industrial control system, they are able to disrupt industrial control and safety processes, leading to costly outages, damaged turbines, threats to personnel safety and even environmental disasters.
The threat assessment group of NCIIPC also provided about another Chinese hacker group Elderwood and said, “Elderwood is a Chinese cyber espionage group that attacked Google in 2009 using Hydraq Trojan horse known as Operation Aurora and Google also confirmed that some of its intellectual property had been stolen. Interesting highlights of their approach include the use of the seemingly unlimited amount of zero-day exploitation, attacks on service providers working for the target organization.”
Meanwhile, experts said attempts post the Galwan clash have been increased and various government organisations are dealing with it in a coordinated manner.
Rakshit Tondon, a cyber expert who works with various state and central agencies said China has always been like that but whenever there is some direct military conflict, the attempts increase.
“There is no official confirmation that Chinese hackers have successfully hacked any system of India but there have been aggressive attempts in the last year. Whenever there is such a (military) conflict, the Chinese increase their attempts. It was further amplified after India banned Chinese applications,” he told ANI. (ANI)

Gulmarg (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], March 3 (ANI): The first Ski mountaineering event for girls was organised on Tuesday in Jammu and Kashmir’s world-famous tourist destination Gulmarg.
A dozen energetic young girls took part in ski mountaineering, an important event at the second edition of Khelo India winter games, which concluded yesterday at Gulmarg.
Apart from its mesmerizing natural beauty, Gulmarg has excellent skiing slopes that attract a large number of skiing enthusiasts every year from all across the world.

The Adventure Tour Operators Association of Kashmir (ATOK) in collaboration with the Jammu and Kashmir sports council organised the event to promote adventure sports and adventure tourism, as well as to provide a platform for gilrs in adventure sports.

“This is one of the important events of Khelo India and we are trying our best to boost adventure sports among the girls. I hope in the future more girls will participate in the event,” said Rouf Tramboo an adventure Sports expert and co-organiser of the event.
“This is the first time in Gulmarg such an event is happening. We say women are not lesser than men, then we have to prove it in every field, in every extreme sport. Ski mountaineering is one such extreme sport,” he added.
Iqra Jan a skier from Kashmir said, “I am very excited because I want to be the first medalist. “
Anisa Chouhan a skier from Dehradun said, “This is the first such an event is happening. I am very happy. I am a mountaineer and an alpine skier. I thank the organisers for conducting this event.”
Ishani Singh another skier from Delhi said, ” I came into this field in 2010. The sport was male-dominated with minimal competition from girls”. (ANI)
“Now participants are coming from Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and many other states,” she added.
Ramitiya a skier from Orissa said, “If more such events are conducted girls will come into this sport”. (ANI)

New Delhi [India], March 3 (ANI): The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought a response from the Delhi government in connection with a petition filed by the family of a land owner willing to transfer ownership of land to the Delhi government to build a government school on the said land.
A bench of Justice Prathiba M Singh issued notice to the Arvind Kejriwal-led government on a plea moved by the two sons and a daughter of Mansa Ram willing to transfer ownership of land measuring 5,000 square yards situated in Karawal Nagar area to the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCT) to build a government school.
The court, while slating the matter for April 30, also directed the Delhi government to consider the matter expeditiously.
The petitioner family submitted that the land originally belonged to Mansa Ram who died on September 21, 2009, leaving behind the petitioners as his legal heirs. It is submitted that the petitioners are the joint owners of land and are legally entitled to transfer ownership rights of the same to the respondent government.
The plea claims that the petitioner had sent a request letter in 2019 to the Delhi government, thereby requesting them to transfer ownership of the said land from the petitioners to themselves but unfortunately the ruling dispensation in the national capital hasn’t decided till date.
Advocate Ashok Aggarwal, counsel for the petitioner, submitted that such inactions are bad in law as much as the same is violative of right to education of thousands of students of Karawal Nagar wishing to get admitted in government school as guaranteed under Article 21 of Constitution of India. The petition also states that the respondent government ought to have accepted the offer having been given by the petitioner in the public interest as the Delhi government needs a lot of land to build government schools.
In the petition, it has been submitted that there is an urgent need for a government school in the Karawal Nagar area as it is densely populated. A large number of students want to shift from private schools to government schools as the parents, particularly during a pandemic, are unable to pay children’s school fees.
“It is unfortunate that the respondent government is totally irresponsive to the call of petitioners for transferring ownership of land from petitioners to the respondent government and to build a comprehensive Senior Secondary School,” stated the petition. (ANI)

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], March 3 (ANI): Referring to the murder case of Hathras, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday questioned the association between Samajwadi Party (SP) and criminals in the state.
“Yesterday’s unfortunate incident in Hathras has brought the Samajwadi Party to light again. Doesn’t SP have an association with the accused? Why is there an association between SP and every criminal? There is SP rally in Hathras today and posters for rally put by the accused,” Adityanath said in the Assembly during the debate on the state budget for 2021-22.
Amrish Sharma, a resident of Hathras was shot dead by the main accused, Gaurav Sharma and his friends. The deceased had filed a case against Gaurav Sharma in July 2018 for allegedly molesting his daughter at a village in the Sasni police station area, Uttar Pradesh police said.
UP Police has announced a cash reward for information on the accused in Hathras murder case.
“Out of four accused one (Lalit) has been arrested and we have announced award money over the remaining accused (Rohtas, Nikhil and Gaurav) for their arrest,” Superintendent of Police (SP) Hathras, Vineet Jaiswal told media on Wednesday.
A cash reward of one lakh rupees has been announced to nab the main accused Gaurav and Rs 25,000 each has been announced for information that could lead to the arrest of Rohtas and Nikhil.
Terming the previous state budgets presented by Samajwadi Party (SP) as “directionless”, Adityanath said, “The Samajwadi Party’s budgets were never welfare-oriented. The party had no agenda for development and no far-sighted vision.”
“From 1947 to 2017, less than 2 per cent of the people in rural areas of the state were linked to household tap scheme. We have got it up to 10 per cent. In the next 9 months, we are coming up with an action plan for 30 thousand villages in Bundelkhand and Vindhya region and implementing the plan for drinking water through the pipeline,” he said.
He also said the provisions for farmers, youngsters and women in the budget document were lauded by various chambers of commerce like the CII, the FICCI, the ASSOCHAM and the PHDCCI.
The Uttar Pradesh government presented the last budget of its current tenure last week with an outlay of Rs 5,50,270.78 crore. It is the largest budget so far in the history of the state. (ANI)