National News
Passport Seva Portal To Be Shut From Today: Technical Maintenance Work From August 29-September 2, All Appointments Rescheduled
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Individuals gearing up to travel and perhaps even relocate will have to wait for some days, as the Passport Seva Portal, India’s official website processing passport-related exercises, will be down from August 29 to September 2.
According to the website, the portal, “Passport Seva portal will be down for technical maintenance from 29th August 2024, Thursday 20:00 hrs IST to 2nd September, Monday 06:00 hrs IST.”
The pop notification on the government website said, “System will not be available during this period for citizens and for all MEA/RPO/BOI/ISP/DoP/Police Authorities. The already booked appointments for 30th August 2024 will be suitably rescheduled and informed to applicants.”
This therefore would mean that all the existing appointments will in all probability be rescheduled.
The Passport Seva Portal X account posted the notifications on August 25. It also reposted posts from Regional Passport Offices.
According to the External Affairs Ministry, “The External Affairs Ministry said this is a routine procedure. “For rescheduling of appointments, we always have contingency plans. The maintenance activity for a public centric service (like Passport Seva Kendras) is always planned in advance so that no inconvenience is meted out to public. So rescheduling an appointment will not be a challenge,” a source from the ministry has said.”
Education
20-Year-Old Indian Student Wins Global Memory Championship 2025, Recalls 80 Numbers In 13.5 Seconds
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New York: Vishvaa Rajakumar, a 20-year-old Indian student, has won the Memory League World Championship 2025 by memorising the order of 80 random numbers in 13.50 seconds and 30 images in 8.40 seconds.
Memory League World Championship is an intense online competition.
According to the Memory League website, Rajakumar is ranked No 1 with a score of 5,000.
Rajakumar memorised 80 numbers in 13.50 seconds and 30 images in 8.40 seconds during the championship held recently.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Rajakumar is a student of Puducherry-based ManakulaVinayagar Institute of Technology.
Speaking to The New York Times on his technique and strategies of memorisation, Rajakumar said,”Hydration is very important because it helps your brain. When you memorise things, you usually subvocalise, and it helps to have a clear throat.”
“Let’s say you’re reading a book. You’re not reading it out loud, but you are vocalising within yourself. If you don’t drink a lot of water, your speed will be a bit low. If you drink a lot of water, it will be more and more clear and you can read it faster,” he said.
Rajakumar said he was crying when he achieved the feat.
“They give you 80 random numbers that they display on a screen. You have to memorize all of those numbers as fast as possible, then click a button and a recall sheet appears. I wrote down all of the 80 digits — and I got them all right. My fastest time to memorize 80 random digits in this World Championship was 13.5 seconds, so almost six digits per second,” he to the newspaper.
He said after the completion of college, he would try to be a memory trainer and create a memory institution in India to teach other people these techniques.
“My goal is to make it big,” he said.
National News
SC Collegium recommends appointment of permanent judges in Bombay, Madras HCs
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New Delhi, Feb 21: The Supreme Court Collegium, headed by CJI Sanjiv Khanna, has recommended the appointment of 3 permanent judges in the Bombay High Court and 4 permanent judges in the Madras High Court.
“The Supreme Court Collegium in its meeting held on 20th February, 2025 has approved the proposal for appointment of the following Additional Judges as Permanent Judges in the High Court of Bombay: (i) Shri Justice Shailesh Pramod Brahme, (ii) Shri Justice Firdosh Phiroze Pooniwalla, and (iii) Shri Justice Jitendra Shantilal Jain,” said a statement uploaded on the official website of the apex court.
The statement added that the term of Justice Manjusha Ajay Deshpande, an Additional Judge, be extended for a year.
In a separate statement, the SC Collegium said that it has approved the proposal for the appointment of Justices Ramasamy Sakthivel, P. Dhanabal, Chinnasamy Kumarappan, and Kandasamy Rajasekar, as permanent Judges in the Madras High Court.
The Chief Justice and Judges of the High Courts are to be appointed by the President under clause (1) of Article 217 of the Constitution.
The Chief Justice, while sending his recommendation for appointing an additional Judge as a permanent Judge, must, along with his recommendation, furnish statistics of month-wise disposal of cases and judgments rendered by the judge concerned as well as the number of cases reported in the Law Journal duly certified by them.
The information would also be furnished regarding the total number of working days, the number of days they actually attended the court and the days of their absence during the period for which the disposal statistics are sent.
Additional Judges can be appointed by the President under clause (1) of Article 224 of the Constitution.
As per the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) regulating the appointment of HC judges, the Chief Justice of the High Court should not make a recommendation for the appointment of an additional Judge when a vacancy for a permanent Judge is available.
National News
Rekha Gupta govt terminates AAP volunteers, other staff posted by Kejriwal, Atishi offices
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New Delhi, Feb 21: The BJP’s new government in Delhi led by Rekha Gupta has relieved from duties all officials or employees who were deployed by the previous AAP government in diverted capacity in the offices of Chief Minister and Ministers and sent them back to their respective departments, said an official on Friday.
A note prepared by Deputy Secretary (Services) Bhairab Dutt on “Termination of co-terminus appointments in the offices of Chief Minister or Ministers” was circulated among all departments on Thursday, reminding them about the impending fresh appointments.
The government order said that the formation of a newly-elected government warrants fresh appointment of staff of all categories as appointments automatically get terminated on the resignation of the then Chief Minister and Ministers.
Accordingly, the deployment and appointment of officers has to take place afresh after taking of oath and assumption of office by the new Chief Minister and Cabinet Ministers, it said.
While terminating the services of the AAP government’s appointees – mostly consultants, advisers or officers on special duties — Deputy Secretary Dutt cited the Central government’s instructions for the appointment of co-terminus staff.
“Whenever new Ministers are appointed, Ministries/Departments of Government of India have been authorised to create, on their personal staff, posts of various grades. Such posts are to be continued by the Ministries/Departments as long as the Ministers concerned hold office and are to be treated as automatically abolished on their demitting office,” it said.
In other words, the posts created on the personal staff of the Ministers are co-terminus with the tenure of the Ministers.
Accordingly, all co-terminus appointments made earlier in the office(s) of former Chief Minster/Cabinet Ministers stand terminated. The offices of the Chief Minister and Ministers will submit fresh proposals to the General Administration Department (GAD) for co-terminus appointments, according to the government order.
To avoid confusion, regular staff of DANICS/DSS/Steno cadre will continue to work in their respective offices under the newly sworn-in Chief Minister/Minsters till further orders, it said.
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