1. Leopard Suspected to Have Attacked a Human Dies in Captivity
Days after it was caged for allegedly attacking human beings, a male leopard died at a facility in Sasan Tuesday, 26 November. This is the second death in a week of a carnivorous animal suspected of attacking humans.
“The animal had been rescued from Kutiya round in Visavadar range of Gir (west) on the suspicion that it had attacked a human in that area. It was kept under observation at Sasan, but it died Tuesday of old age,” Dushyant Vasavada, chief conservator of forests of Junagadh wildlife circle, told The Indian Express.
Vasavda said no evidence had been found of the animal attacking human beings in its scat analysis. “If the animal eats a human after killing him, chances are the victim’s hair is found in the carnivore’s excreta. Nothing such was found in the case of this leopard. But we were still treating it as a suspected case since it was captured from the area from where man-animal conflict was reported,” Vasavada said.
(Source: The Indian Express)
2.Govt Plans to Merge UTs Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli; Bill Introduced in LS
The government on Tuesday, 26 November introduced in the Lok Sabha a bill to merge Union Territories Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli into one.
The proposed legislation – The Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (Merger of Union Territories) Bill 2019 – was introduced in the House by Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy.
The move comes three months after Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated into the UTs of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
"In view of the policy of the government to have 'Minimum Government, Maximum Governance", considering small population and limited geographical area of both the Union Territories and to use the services of officers efficiently, it has been decided to merge the UTs of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman Diu into a single UT," Reddy said.
The merged Union Territory will be named as Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
(Source: The Economic Times)
3. Amazon Seller Penalised for Selling Shorter HDMI Cable
A seller associated with e- commerce giant Amazon was penalised by Gujarat's Controller of Legal Metrology for duping a customer who had ordered an HDMI cable from the online platform, officials said on Tuesday.
A person had recently approached the Controller of Legal Metrology alleging seller Appario Retail had sold a 19- metre HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) cable though he had placed order for a 20-metre one on Amazon, a Gujarat government release said.
Officials then made a surprise visit to Appario Retail in Bavla village near here, from where the cable was delivered to the customer. Officials opened a sealed HDMI cable packet, which claimed to be 20-metre long, but was a metre short when measured, the release added.
(Source: Business Standard)
4. Farmer Rights Activists Sow Potato Variety Registered by PepsiCo as Protest
Farmers' rights activists on Tuesday sowed FL-2027 potato seeds on a plot of farmland here to protest food and beverages major PepsiCo's reassertion of rights over the variety.
Farmers in Gujarat have been claiming that under the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights (PPVFR) Act, 2001, they can sow the seed without the company's permission.
PepsiCo registered FL-2027 variety in 2016 and introduced it in Gujarat for cultivation. The company uses it for production of wafers.
On 23 September this year, PepsiCo had asserted in a letter to Authority under the PPVFR Act that as the "holder of certificate of registration for FL-2027", it has the "rights under the Act to pursue necessary actions against individuals and companies alike who infringes its rights".
(Source: Business Standard)
5. Doles, Schemes Like MNREGA Making People Less Creative: Goel
Doles and schemes like the MNREGA have made people less creative and in turn stops their progress as they are satisfied with status quo, chairperson of National Innovation Foundation (NIF) Dr PS Goel said here on Tuesday,.
Delivering a lecture on the 98th birth anniversary of Dr Verghese Kurien, fondly remembered as "milkman of India," Goel added that those who will innovate would survive while those who don't will perish.
"What we are doing is we're providing subsidised electricity, free water and doles to our rural population. By providing these things, we are making our people less creative to innovate new things. It makes people satisfied with their status quo and stops their progress," Goel said.
(Source: Business Standard)
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