New Delhi, Jul 22 (PTI) Government has decided to update the National Population Register (NPR) and seed the Aadhaar number in the NPR database.

Minister of State for Home Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary told Rajya Sabha that the initiative would cost Rs 951.35 crore and the field work would be completed by March 2016.

“This updated NPR database along with Aadhaar number would become the mother database and can be used by various government departments for selection of beneficiaries under their respective schemes,” he said in reply to a written question.

There is no duplication of efforts as all the agencies namely Registrar General of Citizen Registration India, Ministry of Home Affairs, Unique Identification Authority of India, NITI Aayog, Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Mission, Ministry of Finance and State/Union Territories Governments are working in close coordination for completion of the above exercise.

The National Population Register is a Register of usual residents of the country. The project is being implemented by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India.

The Unique Identification Authority of India is responsible for collecting the biometric and demographic data of residents, store them in a centralised database, and issue a 12-digit unique identify number called Aadhaar to each resident. It is considered the world’s largest national identification number project.

MUMBAI: Heavy rain which lashed several parts of Mumbai city and suburbs since Tuesday morning came to a halt by early evening. The rainfall recorded between 8am to 2pm in Mumbai city area was 32.78mm, eastern Suburbs 62.61mm and western suburbs 65.39mm.

The rain led to waterlogging in several areas. Local train services and flights were also hit.

Siliguri, July 20: A Siliguri-based tea auction company today launched a catalogue with details of brew that would go under the hammer at the Siliguri Tea Auction Centre scheduled for July 22.

“This is the first time that we have come up with a printed catalogue containing details of tea that would be auctioned off by us. At the sale scheduled for July 22, we will auction off 1.71 lakh kg of tea from 64 gardens of the region (north Bengal). Details would be sent by each garden,” Rajiv Jain, a representative of Good Point Tea Private Limited, said. “Now, buyers will get catalogues before every auction.”

He said: “Most of the hard copies would be distributed among buyers. We will also put up the catalogue on our website. Prospective buyers can see tasting reports along with photographs of tea. We are putting scores on the basis of quality of dry leaf sample.”

Representatives of the auction company said tea brokers used to distribute samples and other details earlier.

The catalogue, which would be published every week, would have details like name of the gardens, total number of tea packages and type of brew from each estate. “We also have a feedback form at the end of the catalogue and we would urge buyers to share their opinion with us about the catalogue,” an official said.

P.O. Desai, chairman and managing director of Gujarat-based Wagh Bakri Group, a tea blending and packaging firm, said: “We appreciate the manner in which the company has planned to come out with a catalogue. It is good for buyers to have a clear idea of the quality of the tea.

ndslides prepared by the district administration, which had pegged the losses at Rs 27 crore. This, however, did not include the damage caused to infrastructure like roads and bridges.

“I held a meeting with BDOs (block development officers) and others and requested them to visit the areas where they had not gone and carry out a fresh survey and prepare an accurate report. It will be better if we (GTA and district administration) can co-ordinate…I will request them (the district administration) to prepare the report in co-operation with us,” he told journalists here.

In the July 1 landslides and rain, 33 people had died across the Darjeeling hills.

It is true that many people erroneously believe that Islam came to India in the middle of the fifteenth century A.D. with the invasion of the Babur, who was a descendent of the Mongol leader Timur Lung (Tamerlame). But the truth is totally otherwise. As a matter of fact, Islam which, as a religion, originated in Arabia in the 7th century, first arrived in India not from the north but from the south and that since the early years of the Islamic (Hejira) era, which began in 622 A.D. Islam in India, thus predates the Mughal conquest by several centuries.
It is a known fact that, since way back in history, the Arabs were active as mariners and traders in the Indian Ocean and, as such, had close commercial ties with the rulers of the port cities located along the Malabar Coast in southern India and also with several South Asian states. Those ties, established before the advent of Islam, flourished even more after the coming of the faith.
The Arab merchants and mariners, who were well viewed in the regions, directed their interest, after the coming of Islam, to not just trade and commerce but also to sharing the message of their new religion — Islam — with the people they traded with. And they succeeded beautifully in their da’awa (proselytizing) work, as history testifies. In fact, Islam slowly continued to make converts among the people of the coastal regions of southern India and also in the countries of the Far East and South Asia.
It is a fact that the South Asian country of Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world. And it is also a known fact that no Muslims ever led military campaigns in these regions in the name of religion. Islam arrived in Southeast Asia with the Arab traders, who were as eager to share their new faith with the people of the region as they were in the trade of spices and other commodities.
their cities and granted them all kinds of trading facilities and privileges. So it came to pass that the Arabs merchants often ended up setting up trade-depots and even establishing small settlements that have left their mark on the social and cultural fabric of the regions. The Indian Ocean was unknown to the Europeans at the time. It was the Arabs, who supplied Europe with such prized commodities like spices, silk, gold, silver and iron from the East. The Arab merchants would bring those goods by sea from South East Asia to the coastal cities and ports like Muscat in the Persian Gulf and from there carry them by land on caravans down the famous Silk Road to sell them in Venice, Florence and other trading centres in Europe.
The Arabs, while being skilled merchants and navigators, were also, it appears, equally zealous proselytisers, imbued as they were in their new faith — Islam — which, they were more than eager to impart to the people they traded with. That was how, initially, Islam entered India, South East Asia and Eastern China. And that centuries before India fell to Muslim warlords from the north. The first Muslim house of prayer — Cheramun Jami Masjid, the first Muslim house of prayer (masjid) in Kodungallur, in Kerala, South India, that dates as far back as 628 A.D., is a tangible proof.
The land on which the Cheramun Jami Masjid stands, was donated to the Muslims by King Cheramun Perumal of Kerala. Tradition has it that King Cheraman Perumal was the first Indian to convert to Islam and the story behind his conversion, as it is told in south Indian folklore, is a touching tale of faith and devotion to the God.
King Cheramun Perumal, it is told, had a dream in which he saw “the new moon split into two at the horizon”. He became intrigued by the dream which preyed on his mind for days. His court astrologers could not provide him with a satisfactory explanation. However, sometime later, King Cheraman met some Arab merchants, who were on their way to Ceylon (to-day Shri Lanka). These Arabs Muslims were brought to the king’s court and told about the king’s dream. They listened and then told the king of their Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him — pbuh) in Arabia, who had, indeed, performed such a miracle: splitting the moon into two, as is vouched in Chapter 54 of the Holy Qur’an, which says: “The Hour was nigh and the moon was cleft asunder.”
Cheramun Juma Masjid as it looks to-day. There was not much change in its basic appearance and style after the latest renovation done in 1974 except perhaps for the addition of the dome and the minarets. However, the inside decor of the masjid has basically remained unchanged as is its location in Kodungallur, Kerala.
King Cheramun was very much taken up by what he was told by the Arabs merchants, and it was not long before he decided to relinquish his throne and divide his kingdom among his chieftains and secretly leave for Mecca with the Arab merchants. In Mecca, King Cheramun met Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) and converted to Islam and took the name of Taj-Ud-Din. He was thus, we are told according to the legend, the first Indian to accept Islam. He stayed in Mecca for some time and then, after performing the Hajj (pilgrimage), he decided to return home. However, on the way home to the Malabar coast, he fell ill and, sensing his end near, wrote letters to his chieftains, which he remitted to his friends among whom was Malik Bin Dinaar, who was a sahaba (companion) of Prophet Muhammed (pbuh), to be delivered to his chieftains in Kerala.
In his letters, King Cheramun enjoined his chieftains “to receive the bearers of the letter and to treat them well,” and to be good and kind to them. The king died soon after at Dhufar, in Oman. Later, when Malik Bin Dinar arrived in Kodungallur, Kerala, with the king’s letters, the ruling chieftains, received him and his companions with courtesy as enjoined by their late king. Malik bin Dinaar and his followers were given facilities to practise their faith freely in the state and also permission to build a mosque in Kerala. The first masjid (mosque) was built in Kodungallur on a plot of land gifted to the first Muslims of India at the behest of King Cheramun. It was the first mosque ever built on Indian soil and it dates back to 628 A.D. (7 A.H. of the Islamic calendar). It is named Cheramun Juma Masjid after its benefactor, King Cheramun Perumal.
The historic mosque still stands on the spot it was built more than thirteen centuries ago and is, doubtless, one of the high points of Kerala. While the outside and the front of the mosque as well as the space area have undergone changes over the years to meet the demands of an ever-growing Islamic community, the shape and form of the original mosque have been preserved.. Malik bin Dinar was the first Ghazi (Imam) of the masjid and, at his death, he was interred in the compounds of the mosque.
The Cheramun Juma Masjid is a tangible testimony of Islam’s arrival in India long before the Mughal. Islam entered India peacefully with the Arab Muslim mariners and traders. India, which was always known for its secularism and tolerance, showed the same friendly and welcoming attitude towards Islam as it had shown towards the other faiths. As a matter of fact, India welcomed Islam just like it had welcomed the Jews and Christians centuries earlier. It is no wonder then that the first Jewish synagogue in India as well as the first Christian Church are both also located in Kondungallur, Kerala, in the south of India.
To the Malayalis – as the people of Kerala are often referred to – it is a matter of great pride that their society has always been reckoned for its peace, tolerance and harmonious living among people of diverse faiths. Indeed, it is a fact that south India has been generally free of communal disturbances often instigated by narrow-minded extremists and radicals — the kind that we hear to occur, now and then, in northern and central parts of the sub-continent. The Malayalis, who are invariably Hindus, Christians or Muslims, therefore, justly aver with legitimate pride that their part of India is a shining haven of secularism — a true haven of the cultural and religious diversity that India has always been reputed for. Sure, no one would begrudge them that pride!

n an Open Government Initiative SSN proposes Department of Commerce to assume joint responsibility as the gatekeeper for new bidding fee auction industry.

How likely is it that the Department Of Commerce will ever set up of becoming the penny auction industry gatekeeper? Better odds of winning the lottery.— PennyAuctionWatch.comMIAMI, FL, UNITED STATES, July 14, 2015 /EINPresswire.com/ — Social Shopping Network ® announced today that it has assumed the responsibility as the gatekeeper for the new online socially transparent bidding fee auction industry. In an open idea blog submission, SSN has suggested to Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to assume joint responsibility on acting as the gatekeeper for the new transparent bidding fee auction industry. SSN is asking for readers to leave comments and suggestions on the Open Government Initiative’s website.

Social Shopping Network ® is the intellectual asset management company for the disruptive prefunded bidding fee auction patent. SSN’s Exhibia auction app revolutionizes the online auction industry by accepting bids from only Facebook or Google verified bidders. With the help of social login technology Exhibia customers can be sure they are always bidding against other real people and never against shills or bots.

An anonymous guest post published by Amanda Lee, May 30, 2015, PennyAuctionWatch.com: “The Industry Needs a Gate Keeper”. The post keeps going further: “The question is, who should be the gatekeeper? Obviously, it can’t be anyone who is bidder. In almost all cases I believe the best type of government is the government that governs lease. In this case, I believe it makes sense for the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to set up a gatekeeper where all penny auctions would legally be required to grant the DCCA access to the sites data where they can personally check all transactions and information on bidders.
How likely is it that the DCCA will ever set up such a gatekeeper? Better odds of winning the lottery.”

Regardless of the doubtful comments made by the blogger on the odds of DCCA assuming responsibility as the bidding fee auction watchdog. Social Shopping Network has went ahead and suggested the idea to Department of Commerce via the Open Government Initiative website. SSN is asking for readers to leave their comments and suggestions.

So what is wrong with the status quo? “Bots” or “Shills” which are the scourge of the online 1-click auction industry are a type of “fake bidder” created by an auction house to ensure that enough customer paid bids are used before the
items are won and the bidding session is closed. Exhibia eliminates the need for these nasty digital impostors by utilizing a patented “pre-funding step” which is the same as buying bid packages towards an item of interest. Once the
pre-funding threshold is reached for that item, the bidding commences with live bidders. In addition to prefunding, Exhibia.com utilizes a 3rd party verification for every guest who must be either Facebook or Google authenticated to verify that there is no “robot” bidders. Exhibia is the world’s first and only pre-funded pay to bid online bidding service.

In his comment on the post, the PHOSITA (person having ordinary skill in the art) opposition leader Bobby James writes: “In respect to the author’s statement, “In the history of penny auctions never once has any site owner said, “My site runs shills and bots.”” That is an inaccurate statement. Miko Lasso admitted it when he ran Bidstick and he continues to admit it and cite it as one of the reasons for his ridiculous prefunded auction model.”

Yes this is true, Social Shopping Network’s founder Miko Lasso is the first penny auction executive to come clean on bots and shills. “I came clean to my customers in an open chat already in 2009, that the only way for us to fight “collusion” was by utilizing bots.” Miko Lasso continues: “If I had a time machine and I could go back to 2009 and tell myself that the solution for solving collusion issues is with prefunding. I would if I could, but the reality is that I don’t have a time machine.”
Miko Lasso