Nagpur Updates

First Lunar Eclipse from 2020 to 10 January: Everything you need to know

The first occurs on January 10 of the four penumbral lunar eclipses to occur in 2020. The lunar eclipse is expected to last about 4 hours from India.

Lunar eclipse, also known as the Wolf Moon eclipse, is a celestial event that occurs when the Earth passes between the Sun and the Moon, leading to blocking of some or all of the light of the Sun going to the Moon.

The lunar eclipse is expected to occur from around 10.30 p.m. to 2.30 am Indian Standard Time (IST), according to sources. During the eclipse, the Moon would partially cover 90% of the surface of the moon, with only the outer part of the shadow visible.

The US won’t be able to observe the January 10 eclipse as it happens during its hours of daylight. It is going to be seen by countries across Asia, Europe and Africa. Australia will be a witness to it in addition to the aforementioned continents.

These divine occurrences have always caused people’s wonder or terror. Unlike the solar eclipse, a naked eye can look at the lunar eclipse. Although it’s just a heavenly event, many beliefs have been attached to it by Indians. Others think it’s good for their company, career or wellbeing, while others think it’s bad for them.

This year’s other lunar eclipse will take place on 5 June, 5 July and 30 November.

Allocation of the Maharashtra portfolio: Anil Deshmukh is the new Minister of State Home

Mumbai: On Saturday evening, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra government cleared the allocation of portfolios to its ministers. The finance ministry was assigned to Deputy CM and NCP chief Ajit Pawar. Anil Deshmukh, the NCP chief, is the new home minister of the state. Senior Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde has been given the responsibility of urban development ministry.

Balasaheb Thorat was assigned to the revenue department at the Congress, while the department of public works will be headed by former CM Ashok Chavan.

CABINET MINISTERS

Ajit Pawar: Finance and planning

Anil Deshmukh: Home

Eknath Shinde: Urban development and MSRDC

Balasaheb Thorat: Revenue

Ashok Chavan: Public works department

Subhash Desai: Industries, mining

Jayant Patil: Water resources (irrigation)

Chhagan Bhujbal: Food and civil supplies

Dilip Walse-Patil: Excise and labour

Jitendra Awhad: Housing

Dhananjay Munde: Social Justice

Nitin Raut: Energy

Rajesh Tope: Public health

Balasaheb Patil: Cooperation and agriculture marketing

Dada Bhuse: Agriculture

Vijay Wadettiwar: OBC welfare

Hasan Mushrif: Rural development

Varsha Gaikwad: School Education

Uday Samant: Higher and technical education

Amit Deshmukh: Medical education

Rajendra Shingne: Food and drugs administration

Nawab Malik: Skill development and minority affairs

Sunil Kedar: Dairy development, animal husbandry

Sanjay Rathod: Forests

Gulabrao Patil: Water supply and sanitation

Sandipan Bhumre: EGS, Horticulture

Yashomati Thakur: Women and child welfare

Anil Parab: Transport and parliamentary affairs

KC Padvi: Tribal development department

Shankarrao Gadakh: Water conservation

Aslam Shaikh: Textiles, ports, fisheries

Aaditya Thackeray: Environment, tourism, protocol

MINISTERS OF STATE

Satej Patil: Home (cities)

Shambhuraj Desai: Home (rural), finance

Abdul Sattar: Revenue

Prajakt Tanpure: Urban development

Bachchu Kadu: Water resources, school education

Vishwajit Kadam: Cooperation, agriculture

Dattatraya Bharne: GAD, forests

Aditi Tatkare: Industries, information and public relations

Sanjay Bansode: Environment, MSRDC

Rajendra Patil Yadravkar: Public health

How many illegal hoardings are there in town? The business department of NMC has no response

Nagpur: On Saturday, former mayor Pravin Datke expressed anxiety about the market department’s lack of attitude in providing information on the number of legal and illegal hoardings throughout the city. In view of its failure to curb illegal hoardings across the city, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation is already facing a contempt petition.

The municipal administration had convened a hoarding committee meeting where Datke is an invitee while the chairman is additional municipal commissioner Ram Joshi.

The market department was to provide reports of both legal and illegal hoarding throughout the region. The department was unable to bring any action against the city’s defacing illegal hoardings. Even it has failed to provide details of legal hoardings throughout the city and for one year Datke had insisted on the details. Despite warnings, there was no need for the department to provide information at the meeting.

Datke also held two other meetings— drafting a proposal to move private travel beyond the city’s borders and projects under construction running and transition or private-public partnership.

Datke also pointed out that he was approached by many private bus operators with suggestions to build their own bus stops. After more than an hour of healthy discussion, Datke led the Civic Administration to invite citizens ‘ suggestions on the subject. As of January 6, the NMC will begin the process of accepting feedback from people and travel bus operators.

In the meantime, Mayor Sandip Joshi formed another committee headed by Senior BJP Corporator Sanjay Bangalore to ease rents from NMC’s owned market places.

The meeting was attended by regional transport officer (Nagpur City) Dinkar Manwar, senior inspectors from the traffic police zones — Jayesh Bhandarkar, Shailesh Sankhe, among others.

It has been addressed that moving the bus stops outside the city will cause passengers inconvenience. Therefore, the NMC must ensure that private travel bus stops are located within 5 km of the city that will pass outside the city limits.

Digital India: The transaction value of UPI in December crosses Rs 2 lakh crore

Since mid-2017, the first mover in UPI payments has lost share to rival apps introduced by major internet and e-commerce companies, many of whom are multinationals.

Despite dipping slightly month-on-month in November, the number of transactions made using the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) channel reached Rs 2 lakh crore in December. In December, the UPI reported 1.3 billion Rs 2.02 lakh crore transactions, up from the previous month’s 1.22 billion Rs 1.89 lakh crore transactions.

According to data released by India’s National Payments Corporation (NPCI), its Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) application has been used to make 17.82 million Rs 6,316.37 crore transactions. In other words, the app now contributes in terms of volume a mere 1.37 % to UPI use.

Since mid-2017, the first mover in UPI payments has lost share to competing apps introduced by major internet and e-commerce companies, many of whom are multinationals.

As of January 1, retailers will no longer be required to fork out Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) fees to accept UPI payments. The government’s change is aimed at forcing smaller retailers to follow more of the payment system.

Mandar Agashe, founder and vice president of Sarvatra Technologies, said: “This would make it easy for every retailer to start accepting payments through RuPay debit card and UPI and drive digital payments at merchant outlets to a large extent.” The government’s requirement that all companies with Rs 50 crore turnover or more accept payments through RuPay debit cards and UPI QR codes would increase adoption.

At the same time, some industry watchers say the recent decision to waive charges on transactions involving National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) that eventually cannibalize UPI transactions. At least 70% of UPI volumes included peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions and the difference between UPI users and NEFT users could be significant.

In addition, on January 1, a two-year MDR subsidy offered by the government for merchant transactions up to Rs 2,000 expired. This, too, could cause some merchants to fall off the network earlier using UPI.

Nagpur Zilla Parishad polls: Nitin Gadkari says the Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP coalition is winning inappropriately

Union minister and senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari said Friday that Maharashtra’s alliance between the Shiv Sena, Congress and the NCP was just for the sake of power and cautioned the three parties that state people did not like such “unnatural alliances.” He was addressing a rally on January 7 in Nagpur for the Zilla Parishad elections.

Gadkari said the Uddhav Thackeray-led party had betrayed the Hindutva ideology, hitting out at the Sena for breaking the ten-year-old alliance with the BJP over the sharing of the chief ministerial post.

In the October polls, the BJP and Sena had come up with 161 seat joints in the 288-member assembly, but the latter moved out and formed a government with Congress and NCP ideologically opposed.

“There has never been any similarity between the Sena ideology and the Congress and NCP ideology. These parties have come together only to gain power. Parties that couldn’t stand shoulder to shoulder are now walking, “he said.

“But it is the history of Maharashtra that people here never liked such unnatural alliances. Balasaheb Thackeray spoke of Hindutva, but now the Sena is only doing it for the sake of the tag, “he added.

By handing them a crushing defeat in the ZP elections, he asked the crowd to express their discontent with the “improper coalition.”

Marathi Movie Catch Auditions – Antim Dhav in Nagpur to be held in the near future

The city of Nagpur has always provided opportunities for young talent in various fields, including films and television shows. To give young talents an opportunity to be part of a Marathi film called Antim Daav, Maharashtra, Sony Films Post Production House will soon be conducting an audition to pick talent for their film. Particularly young people of different ages have the opportunity to give auditions and bag the part that would give them the opportunity to appear on the silver screen in M Town.

It’s based on the battle of children who leave their comfort zone at home to follow their dream thing, thinking about the movie. It’s all about the experience that speaks about the student’s life the way they try to figure it out. It was a story of their study life and their interest in it. Now, thinking about the auditions, it will take place on January 7, in the Sitabuldi hall of Vidarbha Sahitya Sammelan.

The film producer Shakeel Jindran told the same in the press meeting stating that the film’s theme is focused on young students and their life stories and sharing their needs to get young talents as Antim Daav. The film is directed by Raju Pasrekar who, to name a few, is the same man who gave shows like Hum Panch and movies like Sat Na Gat and Police Line. Deep Chahande jotted down the plot while the script was done by Pappu Khanna. All of them are educated as celebrities of Bollywood.

Mumbai’s Favorite Agent Jack Bar opened in Nagpur | Nagpur Update

Now, Agent Jack is in our beautiful city !!!

Latest Opening in Nagpur is Mumbai’s Famous Bar Chain Agent Jack’s Bar on the date of 27 Dec 2019. It is more appropriate for families to come and indulge in lip-smacking food, providing a Restaurant cum bar atmosphere.

“Agent Jack’s bar is the first theme bar in India where customers can negotiate their own drink prices with a virtual bartender known as Agent Jack”.

Some of the specialty of the bar is Customers use an app to bargain with Agent Jack, the virtual bartender, for their drinks at their own price preference. Jack may agree with the customers or disagree with them, and each offer that Agent Jack rejects is followed by a witty yet humorous response that challenges customers to try again. The conversation between Jack and the customer is shown publicly on a large screen of the projector.

One of the best places to enjoy with family & friends and food is also one of the main USP of Agent Jack. The location is also well designed by Agent Jack.

If you’ve decided to explore a new spot in Nagpur. You can visit Agent Jack’s Bar located on the 3rd Floor, Trillium Mall Nagpur. It’s a very famous restaurant & bar chain, and its specialty is American and Mexican delicacy. If you’re very techno-friendly you’ll have a great experience here as they take orders via the app. It will be a different experience for the Nagpur crowd to visit there.

Thunderous rain numbs Nagpur, kills crops in many areas of Vidarbha.

Heavy rain and thunderous lightning bolts woke up in Nagpur on Thursday morning. The showers left the citizens shaking during the winter as the temperatures dropped considerably. Since the last 4-5 days, unseasonal rains have not only ruined New Year’s Eve, but have also destroyed crops on a massive scale. The woes of the farmers seem endless. Following heavy rainfall in the monsoon, rainfall caused severe damage to crops in the Nagpur and Vidarbha districts.The last day of the year 2019 saw no sign of the Sun God as the day remained shrouded in a cloud blanket. Chilly winds dominated the day as people dared out on the streets wearing woolen clothes and shielding themselves from rain. Nagpur, Amravati, Washim, Wardha, Pusad, Bhandara, Yavatmal and other parts of Vidarbha were hit by heavy rainfall. Rabi farmers crops have been destroyed in various locations in the area. The weatherman warned about the rainy end of the year. Rains began early in the morning and continued at regular intervals until late in the evening. The Nagpur Regional Meteorological Center also issued a rain forecast in Vidarbha for the coming days. Blitz thunderstorm is forecast in most parts of the region.

Amit Shah praises PM Modi to make Nagpur’s National Disaster Response Force the best organization in the country.

Home Minister of India Amit Shah inaugurated the new campus of the National Fire Service College in Nagpur today in the presence of Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister Nityanand Rai and former Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis. Shah also laid the foundation stone for the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Academy in the city and awarded’ Fire Service Gallery Medals Investiture.’ Shah credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making NDRF the best disaster management organization in the world. He said, “In 2016, PM Modi set the pace for NDRF. Within four years, it became the world’s leading disaster management organization. The work to provide NDRF services to the district and lower levels has now been completed.

66-year-old nature lover to cycle 800km to attend meet

Nagpur: Kishor Wankhade, 66, and his three young nature friends from Wardha will travel more than 800 km to attend the 33rd’ pakshimitra sammelan’ (birders ‘ meeting) at Revdanda in Alibagh district.

Wankhade and his likes might have preferred a vehicle to take part in the two-day state-level meeting starting on January 11, but the bird watchers have a message to save birding interest climate.

Well-known bird expert and author Raju Kasambe will open the sammelan. Many experts, bird lovers and country amateur bird watchers will participate.

“I didn’t even leave the ground at the age of 66. I’m still cycling, playing sports, running, walking and all kinds of physical activities that keep me fit, “says Wankhade, who is also chairman of the Bahar Nature Foundation (BNF), Wardha.

Wankhade will be joined by three other Bahar leaders — Dilip Virkhade, Deepak Gudhekar and Darshan Dudhane. On January 4, the party will leave Wardha and enter Alibagh on January 10 in 7 days, meaning that they will cover a distance of more than 100 km each day.

Wankhade said, “I have traveled 850 km last year to attend a similar birders ‘ meeting at the state level in Karad. Three years ago, I started attending these cycle meetings, effectively sending a message that cycle was the most environmentally friendly mode of transport and a safe replacement for fossil fuels. “Wankhade had previously attended similar cycle meetings in Vidarbha. The group will also meet with forest ministers in Mumbai and call for the declaration of 5-12 November as’ Pakshi Saptah ‘ (bird week) to commemorate the birthdays of two renowned Indian ornithologists— Dr Salim Ali (November 12) and Maruti Chitampalli (November 5).