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Journalism of Courage
Resuming a parliamentary tradition which was put on intermittent pause for over two decades, India is sending two ‘non-official delegations’ to the United Nations General Assembly for its 80th session this month. The practice of sending parliamentarians to the UN was suspended after 2004, with one exception in 2012 when senior BJP leader L K Advani led a delegation to New York. Now, BJP leader P P Chaudhary will lead the first of the two groups, consisting 15 MPs each, to the UNGA from October 8 to 14. The second batch, led by BJP MP D Purandeswari, will travel this month end. These visits are aimed at providing the MPs a platform to engage in UN sessions and represent the nation’s democratic ethos abroad.
Meet With PM
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is learnt to have called a meeting of all the secretaries at his residence on Monday. The meeting went on for over two and a half hours during which the officers were served tea and some Gujarati snacks, it is learnt. There was no specific agenda of the meeting; the PM is learnt to have asked the secretaries to share their views on issues they had in mind. He is also learnt to have told them that no record be made of the discussion. The PM, it is learnt, spoke about achieving the government’s goal of Viksit Bharat.
Wild Hacks
A hackathon organised by the Environment Ministry and Wildlife Institute of India, inviting solutions to human-wildlife conflict, saw a wide response. Students and researchers came up with technology and finance-driven solutions to mitigate the conflict and promote human-wildlife co-existence. The event, which culminated Monday, saw participation of over 120 teams from 75 institutions. The winning team received a cash prize and an opportunity to develop their solution for field implementation.
