Chess player wins Eklabya Puraskar

International Chess player Debasis Das won of the prestigious 'Ekalabya Puraskar' for 2012 in recognition of his outstanding performance in sports.

HC asks govt to make laws to protect water bodies

The Orissa High court today asked the Odisha government to make laws within two years to ensure that the water bodies in the state were protected and preserved properly.Water bodies inside the cities have great use not only to keep the environment cool but they act as water absorbers to keep the city free from water logging, the HC observed while disposing of a PIL filed by advocate Pravat Ranjan Dash.

Migratory birds begin arriving in Chilika

News is out that migratory birds have begun arriving at Chilika lake. "We have spotted birds of different species in the sanctuary," DFO(wildlife) B P Acharya said.

Computer learning gets compulsory in Plus II

The state government has decided to introduce basic computer education ( BSE) course as a compulsory subject in Plus II first year in all the three streams of arts, science and commerce from the current academic session.
The government has decided to impart both theory and practical knowledge in the first year itself contrary to its earlier decision that theory of the course will be taught in first year and practical in second year, Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) chairman Nihar Ranjan Pattnaik  told TOI.
"If the students study theory in first year, by the time they would do practical they would have forgotten it. That is why the government decided to conduct both theory and practical in first year itself," he said.
Patnaik said students who are already in second year now will also study the subject this year as there was no such course when they were in the first year. From next academic session, the course will be offered to first year students only, he said.

The theory course will be taught in 30 hours and practical classes in 10 hours. The respective colleges will conduct examination of 100 marks at their level and award A, B, C or D grade to the students. The government would engage guest faculties or outsource it. A guest faculty would get consolidated remuneration of Rs 5,200 a month. As per the government decision, conveyed to higher education  department and Council of Higher Secondary Education on Friday, the colleges will provide at the rate of one computer for a group of 32 students and create other necessary infrastructure on their own.

Kids rally in Bhubaneswar

The city on Saturday witnessed a unique rally in which children dressed as wild animals spread the message of protection of animals. It was organized by students of DAV Public School on the occasion of Wildlife Week . Starting from the school, the students moved around the city and staged plays at Damana Square, Nalco Square, Sainik School Square, Acharya Vihar Square, Regional College Square, Rupali Square, Ram Mandir, Master Canteen, Raj Mahal, Capital Hospital, Gopabandhu Chhak and Jayadev Vihar squares . Seventy students took part in the rally.

State increases plan outlay

The Odisha government has proposed to raise its plan outlay for the 12th five year plan (2012-17) from Rs one lakh crore to Rs 1,24,373 crore.The move to increase the outlay followed the recommendation made to this effect by a working group on state's finances, official sources said on Sunday.

Prithvi-II ballistic missile test fired

Today, India test-fired its nuclear-capable Prithvi-II ballistic missile with a strike range of 350 km from a test range near Balasore as part of a user trial by the army. "The flight test of the surface-to-surface missile was conducted at around 0907 hrs from a mobile launcher from Integrated Test Range's launch complex-III at Chandipur," defence sources said.