Professor PC Vaidya passes away - Shapur Junagadh District Gujarat

Noted mathematician and academician Professor PC Vaidya who is known as Maths magician passed away on 13th March - Friday. He was 93. He was the first PhD in mathematics from Gujarat. One of the global experts on Einstein's theory of relativity, he had delivered lectures all over the world on this subject. A powerful and thought-provoking speaker with a great sense of humor, his contribution to the world of mathematics has been immortalized as Vaidya Matrix', pioneered in 1942.

Born at Shapur Town in Junagadh District, Vaidya did his PhD in mathematics from Banaras Hindu University. The staunch Gandhian was GPSC chairman from 1971 to 1977 and UPSC chairman in 1977-78.

Between 1979 and 81 he was vice-chancellor of Gujarat University. Epitomizing the Gandhian philosophy simple living and high thinking on the day his VC's term got over he refused to use the official car, and preferred to ride his bicycle back home.

Prof Vaidya was also vice-chancellor of Gandhi Vidyapith, Vedchhi, in Surat. His autobiography book Chalk and Duster' was published in Gujarati.

Even after he retired, he returned to the university to teach mathematics to MSc students for many years. Today his legacy is global with his students making their marks in various countries. His 45-year-old Ganit' magazine, is still a hit among budding mathematicians.

He was detected with a kidney ailment in January. On Thursday, his condition deteriorated and he passed away at 5 am on Friday. He leaves behind four daughters. Three of his daughters conducted his funeral rites. The fourth daughter is abroad.

Unforgettable Journey For Asiatic Lions Junagadh District Gujarat India

In India, Cities like Rajkot, Jamnagar, Amreli, and Bhavnagar are famous for their tourist attractions. But Here I want to share about one another city from Gujarat State is Junagadh-Saurashtra.

Junagadh, one of the well-known city for its history background, lots of tourist attraction places like Girnar Mountains, Temples, Uperkot, and Sakkarbaug Zoo etc.

So if I am talk about Gir National Park which is also known as Sasan Gir locally lies in western Gujarat, established in 1965. It serves as a reserve forest for preserving the Asiatic lion. The vast terrain—forests, grasslands, rivers and swamps—supports the full Animal Planet menagerie including the antelope, leopard, deer, hyena, jackal and crocodile. The watering holes dotting the region attract myriad bird species—and these areas are jewels in Gujarat’s richly studded safari crown.

There were only a total of 15 tigers when the rehabilitation started. In 2001, the population grew to 338. In April of 2005 the numbers increased to 359. Visit national parks, especially the lions of Gir National Park to learn more about wildlife preservation. Bring along your children so that they can appreciate the beauty of nature at an early age. Teach and educate them about the importance of preserving nature.

Now if I am talk about Girnar Parvat at Junagadh City which is famous all over in Gujarat for Girnar Lili Parikrma which was lastly held at 29th October-2009 for 5 days.

The Parikrama was commence from Girnar Taleti, night halt at Jinabava Madhi, Marvella and Bordevi and return to the starting point on the fifth day.

Authorities like Junagadh Municipal Corporation, health care department, state transport, forest, water supply, police, in addition to social and religious organizations, are on the job of helping about one million pilgrims expected this year.

Mine Personal Touring experience at Junagadh City said that, “There are lots of trustable services available like “Various Nationalize Banks in different areas in city easily available. Rental Car, Bikes are also very cheap. E-commerce cousulting services, Food Zone, Restaurants with Various Menu available.””

May be after few years, with the help of Gujarat Tourism Department, sure Junagadh City can become main historical tourism hub in Gujarat.

Veraval Town Junagadh District News Saurashtra Gujarat India

Women run for girl child life, education.

Campaigning for the cause of ‘Save the Girl Child' ‘Kanya Kelavani' (girl child education) and clean city campaign, about 2,000 women from Veraval town in Junagadh district participated in a marathon meant only for women on Saturday.

The run started from Tower Chowk up to Birla temple in the Junagadh City. The participants included students, teachers and female staff from 25 schools and colleges as well as housewives.

The marathon was flagged off by deputy superintendent of police V D Gohel.

Amreli Junagadh City District News Gujarat India

Amreli farmer develops wilt resistant groundnut variety which matures early.

A bout of stem rot infestation that damaged his standing groundnut cultivation did not deter this 38-year-old farmer from Amreli City.

Progressive and innovative in his thoughts, Dhiraj Thummar used this failure to turnaround and fights back the infestations.

Thummar, thus, developed Dhiraj 101 a groundnut variety selected from the GG 20 variety which is not only resistant to wilt due to stem rot but goes a step further and matures faster.

For his innovation, Thummar also bagged a National Award by National Innovation Foundation (NIF) at 5th national biennial grassroots technological innovation and traditional knowledge awards 2009 at Delhi.

Dhiraj 101', once sown, flowers in 28 to 30 days and matures within 95-105 days. A 30-45 cm high and semi-spreading type of crop, it bears 35-40 pods per plant with a seed rate of 90-100 kg per hectare. "If sown at rate of 3,200-3,500 kg per hectare, the yield is higher than the locally cultivated varieties and so is the oil content once milled. It also performs well in an average monsoon and less irrigation conditions," says Thummar, a resident of Pipalag village in Amreli district, proudly.

Farmers of the region are known to have switched over from groundnut to BT cotton due to the decreasing yield in groundnut. Another major cause of switch is the disease of wilt, locally known as Sukado' which reduces yield substantially.

"In 2004, I had sown GG-20 groundnut variety. The whole crop got infested with stem rot disease resulting in wilting and almost complete crop failure. However, I identified a few plants that were not affected and realized that these may have some inherent property that makes them stem rot resistant, I harvested and kept the seeds of these plants separately and sew them in the following season. I continued this research by continuous screening for three consecutive years and finally got a produce which was stem rot and wilt resistant," explains Thummar.

NIF facilitated field trial of Dhiraj101' at the Oil Seed Research Station in Junagadh. The report from there confirms Thummar's claims.

"Soil conservation and crops that requires less irrigation is an urgent need for farmers to keep agriculture sustainable in changing climate condition,'' says Thummar. "The innovation is an important aspect for sustainable agriculture. Groundnut sowing also helps for better soil conservation. It is also considered good for animals."

Professor at Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad) and executive vice-chairperson of NIF Anil Gupta says, "Many technical innovations have been centered on groundnut crop in Saurashtra region. It's an urgent need to invent and popularize the crop varieties, which requires less water and more productivity in present perspective.''

Thummar has also distributed seeds to some farmers in Amreli District, Rajkot District and Bhavnagar districts and received positive feedback.

Junagadh City News - Barclays Bank

Barclays Bank PLC today inaugurated its first branch in Ahmednagar in Maharashtra.

The lender is the first multinational bank to open its doors and offer customers a complete range of products and services in Ahmednagar. Ahmednagar's large industrial belt encompasses companies that are leaders in pharmaceuticals, sugar and milk factories, as well as manufacturers of various engineering goods. With this launch, Barclays Bank PLC now has six branches across the country (Mumbai, New Delhi, Junagadh near Rajkot, Kanchipuram near Chennai and Nelamangala near Begaluru) and 13 ATMs (including Ahmednagar). Barclays Plc also launched Barclays Finance, a non banking finance company in March 2008, to bolster its footprint in the country by offering a host of products and services. Barclays Finance currently has over 110 distribution points through its network of branches across the country.

Barclays GRCB business has built a strong franchise in India over the past two and a half years with over 900,000 clients and customers. Recently, Barclays Bank Plc has started mobile banking facility to its credit card customers who can now access their accounts through SMS. This facility will be offered free of cost by Barclays Bank to both existing and new credit card customers.

Junagadh (Saurastra) District Gujarat India- Groundnut News

NCDEX unveils new deal for groundnut.

National Commodities & Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX), one of the leading commodity exchanges in the country, has launched on its Futures trading platform a new contract for groundnut (in shell) on Friday.

The new contract will be offered for groundnut originating from Bikaner in Rajasthan.

The new contract is scheduled to run along with the old futures contract for groundnut (in shell), based on delivery from Junagadh Gujarat.

Introduction of one more futures contract for groundnut in shell (ex-Bikaner) will help commodity traders to hedge their risk in an efficient way and also lead to a better price discovery in the physical market, said NCDEX in a press statement.

Initially, the contract expiring in the months of August 2009, November 2009 and December 2009, will be available for trading on July 10, 2009.

Currently, it offers futures trading in 57 commodities in agriculture, energy, metals, plastics and carbon credits.

Junagadh News- Girnar Mountain Parvat Ropeway Project

Girnar Mountain(Temples) Ropeway gets clearance from Gujarat Govt.

Gujarat government has given final nod for setting up a ropeway parallel to the staircase on Girnar Parvat.

Chief minister Narendra Modi, in a meeting with the state wildlife board, had approved the project which was originally mooted in 1989.

"The state wildlife board and CM have approved the project and now we will recommend it for final clearance from the Central Board of Wildlife (CBW)," principal secretary environment and forest S K Nanda said.

He said that work for the proposed rope way will begin once the CBW gives its clearance as the forest department of the Central government had already cleared the proposal around 8-9 years back.

He added that Usha Braco has been given the contract to build and operate Ropeway to be built parallel to the staircase.

According to Nanda, the company will be required to make investment of around Rs 90-crore for setting up around 1.5 km ropeway line on the mountain.

The state government sources said that ropeway will boost tourism sector in Junagadh, as Girnar is the highest mountain in the state and the city is a hub of tourism activities.

Junagadh Talukas - Evenagar Padariya Plaswa Vijapur

New admission drive fails to gain momentum in village school.

The three-day new admission drive has been initiated in the aided primary schools in villages across Gujarat to improve literacy rate in general and female literacy ratio in particular.

But despite all support from the government machinery, the move, which began on Thursday, has received lukewarm response in many villages in the district.

V D Varu, the deputy primary education officer and in-charge deputy collector (Mid-day meal scheme), said: “On first Day, I visited five villages namely Evenagar, Padariya, Plaswa, Vijapur and Sodwadar of Junagadh taluka. In Evenagar, 73 new admissions were registered in Class I. However, the response was below expectations. Surprisingly, not a single male guardian turned up. Eight female guardians came for the admission of their wards.”

According to Varu, the situation was not different in the other four villages he visited.

Following this, he has instructed school authorities to hold teachers-parents meeting at least once a month and that too during evenings to ensure better attendance by laborer parents.

“The state government provides free education, uniforms, text books, school bags and mid-day meals. Now it is the people’s responsibility to extend support to this drive and help create education awareness in the society,” said Varu.

According to official data, 16,309 girls and 18,051 boys have taken admission in aided primary schools in the district during the three-day drive.

Senior government officials have been deployed to spread education awareness in villages across the state.

Junagadh District Saurastra Monsoon News - Junagadh Agriculture University JAU

Delayed monsoon spells trouble for cotton, groundnut farmers.

Farmers who have sown cotton and groundnut may suffer heavy losses if it does not rain in the next 10 days.

Farmers in the state fear a major damage to their crops if it does not rain in the next 10 days. Majority of the farmers feel that over 30 per cent yields of groundnut and cotton will be destroyed in the absence of timely rain.

Praful Senjalia, Bharatiya Kishan Sangh president, said, “If there is no rain in the next 10 days, I will suffer a heavy loss. I will not only lose what I have spent on sowing, but the entire season will be delayed.”

Gujarat has a total cultivation area of nearly 60 lakh hectors each for cotton and groundnut farming.

According to Agriculture Department reports, sowing, mostly for cotton, in around 30 per cent area has already been done.

This process of sowing cotton before rains is called koru (dry). It is usually done some 10 days before the expected arrival of monsoon.

The late monsoon is not only likely to damage the sown cotton crops, but also delay the cultivation cycle of groundnut.

“Monsoon should have arrived by now. But still we can wait for 10 more days,” said N C Patel, Vice-Chancellor, Junagadh Agriculture University. He is of the view that if there is no rain by June 25, the farmers would need a contingency plan, like change in the crop pattern.

Agriculture scientist with the university, K L Dobaria, endorsed Patel’s view, saying, “If it does not rain in the coming days, the farmers will have to cultivate bunch groundnut instead of the running type.

The running crop needs good irrigation.”

The fact that little underground water is available and most of the reservoirs have hit rock bottom has worsened the situation. “There is hardly any water left in wells, and there has been no supply of irrigation water,” said Harshad Patel, a farmer from Ghanteshwar, a village on the outskirts of Rajkot city.

Junagadh Saurastra City News - Junagadh Municipal Corporation

Civic body identifies 30 old buildings as ‘dangerous’.

The Junagadh Municipal Corporation (JMC) has started taking action after conducting a drive to identify old structures that pose a threat to life.

Several notices have now been sent to the owners of these old structures in the old city areas.

In June 5, the decades old Liberty Talkies building had collapsed, killing two passers-by. Following this, a survey to identify old structures was conducted in 17 wards. Nearly 30 buildings have now been identified as ‘likely to prove dangerous’.

Municipal Commissioner R M Sharma said: “Around 30 notices have been served to the concerned persons, asking them to either repair the old buildings or face action. They have been given 10 days time, failing which appropriate action will be initiated.

According to Sharma, the notices have been served under Section 264 of the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporation (BPMC) Act.

Apart from JMC officials, councilors of the ruling BJP and the Opposition Congress have demanded immediate action.