Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren held an interactive session with former UNICEF child journalists and young people at his residence on the occasion of Children’s Day and Jharkhand Foundation Day. During the interaction he highlighted the government’s efforts to support education through scholarship and financial assistance schemes. He also spoke about the upgradation of 80 government schools into CM Schools of Excellence, aimed at providing high-quality education comparable to private institutions, with plans to expand the initiative to rural regions. Students from Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya and Jharkhand Balika Awasiya Vidyalaya shared how schemes such as the Savitribai Phule Kishori Samriddhi Yojana, Guruji Credit Card Scheme and CM School of Excellence have strengthened access to education and overall development. UNICEF Jharkhand chief Kaninika Mitra commended the state’s commitment to ensuring that every child moves forward, Millenniumpost reported.

The Times of India (TOI) won three of the eight honours at the Goa State Journalists Awards announced by the Department of Information and Publicity. TOI’s Rajtilak Naik bagged the Best Photograph of the Year award, Marcus Mergulhao was recognised for excellence in sports reporting and Gauree Malkarnekar received the award for reporting on art, as per TOI report Veteran cartoonist Alex Fernandes was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award. The awards were presented by Goa CM Pramod Sawant.

The Delhi Sports Journalists Association (DSJA) recently organised its annual awards ceremony at the Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA). During the programme, three senior sports journalists Pradeep Magazine, Vipin Bahuguna and K. P. Mohan were honoured for their significant contributions to sports journalism. Olympian Mirabai Chanu was awarded Sportsperson of the Year, and her coach, Vijay Sharma, was recognized as Coach of the Year. Anupam Goswami, Chairman of the Pro Kabaddi League, was named Administrator of the Year. The event was graced by Rohan Jaitley, President, DDCA, and Virendra Sachdeva, President, Delhi BJP and Secretary General, Archery Association of India, who attended as the Chief Guests. Ashok Sharma, Secretary, DDCA, was also presen, Khel Today reported.

Image source: Magic Bricks, TOI; Edited by Dinesh Raj M   In a huge relief to Union and state govts, Supreme Court on Tuesday recalled its May 16 judgment in which it had directed demolition of public projects worth Rs 20,000 crore as these were granted ex-post facto environmental clearance (EC) after payment of penalty. Hot off the Press A bench of CJI B R Gavai, and Justices K Vinod Chandran and Ujjal Bhuyan by a 2-1 majority agreed to recall the judgment. CJI Gavai, in the majority view, said if the judgment is not recalled, it will result in demolition of buildings or projects constructed with Rs 20,000 crore of public exchequer money, reported Dhananjay Mohapatra for The Times of India. AIIMS in Odisha, and a greenfield airport in Karnataka were among the projects cited by the CJI. Chief Justice of India (CJI) Bhushan R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran, writing separate but concurring opinions, allowed a batch of review petitions and declared that the May verdict, d

  News Corp may become the latest media company to become embroiled in an underpayments scandal relating to an overtime agreement. As reported by Daanyal Saeed at Crikey today, News Corp is staring down the barrel of an audit into allegedly underpaying staff dating back as far as a decade.  The union representing journalists, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), is looking into what could end in a multi-million dollar bill for News Corp if it’s found the media giant hasn’t been properly paying staff, as The Age first reported in late October. The union’s suspicion relates primarily to unpaid overtime — News’ enterprise agreement requires that staff are owed double pay for additional shifts when working more than five shifts across a seven-day week.   

Welcome to Wednesday and much of the news today remains in the political arena with the photogenic new Victorian Liberal leader in the spotlight. Jess Wilson, as Sumeyya Ilanbey points out in The Australian Financial Review, "becomes the state opposition's third leader in less than a year". Let that sink in. Yes, that's it in a nutshell - the Liberals are in turmoil in both the federal party and Victoria and NSW - the latter also looking at a potential leadership challenge to leader Mark Speakman, not least because the NSW Libs under Speakman are sticking with net zero. We shall see how that pans out, both for him and the party.  At The Australian, Anthony Galloway and Lilly McCaffrey report that Wilson has "vowed to hammer the state Labor government over record debt", and go on to also list "collapsing business confidence, housing pressures, hospital failures and the state's crime crisis", so all the main food groups then. At The Australian Financial Review ('Open ta

The Punjab and Chandigarh Journalist Union has warned of launching an agitation against the Punjab Government if its long-pending demands are not addressed without further delay. The ultimatum was issued during a symbolic protest march led by the union’s general secretary, Santokh Singh Gill. The march commenced from the ancestral home of freedom fighter Shaheed Kartar Singh Sarabha and concluded at the memorial chowk named in his honour. Journalists tied black cloths around their mouths and carried placards listing their key demands, which include: Free bus travel for journalists, similar to the scheme in Haryana Implementation of the Sarbat Bima Yojana for media professionals Pension benefits for both field reporters and desk staff Union members alleged that the Punjab Government, led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann of the Aam Aadmi Party, has consistently ignored their appeals over the past three years. The protest aimed to highlight the growing frustration w