Latest news with #AnanyaKumar
Time of India
10 hours ago
- General
- Time of India
No hint of Attur Kolli Haadi in sat images, studies: Forest department
Mysuru: A month after 52 Jenu Kuruba families claimed possession of forest land and constructed three sheds, asserting it is their ancestral land, the forest department denied the claim. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now They stated that there is no mention of Attur Kolli Haadi in any satellite images between 1985 and 2025. Additionally, there are no govt sketches or documents supporting the claim. Foresters clarified that this haadi has been created on records solely for the purpose of illegitimately obtaining forest rights. They stated that no Jenu Kuruba families were forcefully evicted from their haadi in the 1980s, as claimed. Assistant conservator of forest, Nagarahole wildlife sub-division, Ananya Kumar, on Saturday, informed reporters that a joint survey was conducted in the Attur Kolli forest area. This survey was conducted in the presence of surveyors and staff from the ADLR office, tribal welfare department, and forest department, with the help of satellite imagery from 1985 to 2025. It was clearly established that no human habitation or cultivation has ever taken place in the surveyed area. "The area is a natural forest," he explained. A survey sketch made by the Mysore working plan wing in 2006-07 clearly identifies and demarcates the various tribal hamlets within the jurisdiction of Nagarahole Wildlife Range but makes no mention of Attur Kolli Haadi. Additionally, the management plan of Nagarahole National Park 2000-2010 (approved by GoK in 2002), which lists 43 tribal hamlets (page 317-318) inside the core area of Nagarahole National Park, makes no mention of the so-called Attur Kolli Haadi. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now In 1999-2000, Ramanaiah, N Nagaaj, and Ashoka from the University of Mysore conducted a survey of human habitations inside Nagarahole National Park. They prepared a report named 'Inhabitants Of Rajiv Gandhi National Park, Nagarahole - Family Profile'. This report listed 1,041 tribal families and named 3,740 persons living inside Nagarahole, but has no record of Attur Kolli Haadi or any person living in the Attur Kolli forest area, he said. He also said a Sub-Divisional Level Committee (SDLC) meeting was held in Madikeri in May under the chairmanship of assistant commissioner, Madikeri. The meeting scrutinised the petition filed by RFO, Nagarahole, and examined the evidence supporting the fact that the Attur Kolli forest area is a natural forest and no historical occupation, habitation, or cultivation has ever taken place in the patch of forest claimed by the applicants. Panchayat and ITDP officials also acknowledged that there is no record of Attur Kolli Haadi. The committee also deemed that the evidence presented by the claimants is insufficient to prove historical habitation and cultivation. In view of this, the committee rejected all forest rights claims pertaining to the Attur Kolli forest area. The claimants have been given an opportunity to appeal the decision of the SDLC at the district level committee (DLC), he said. The applicants—52 Jenu Kuruba families—have 40 days to appeal against the SDLC decision at the DLC.
The Hindu
19 hours ago
- General
- The Hindu
Authorities refute tribals claim over forest land in Nagarahole Tiger Reserve
The Forest Department has refuted the claims over ancestral land by tribals from 'Attur Kolli Haadi' in Nagarahole Tiger Reserve on the grounds that no such hamlet is on official records. The issue came to the fore when about 150 tribals from nearby villages and working in local estates, asserted their rights over the land on May 5 and 6, and have refused to vacate the place pending settlement of their claims under the Forest Rights Act (FRA). Speaking to reporters, Ananya Kumar, Assistant Conservator of Forests of Nagarahole Wildlife Division, said on Saturday that around 150 tribals, including FRA applicants and other tribal leaders, 'illegally' entered the Attur Kolli forest area of Nagarahole range and constructed three sheds after clearing the vegetation. Though the Forest Department personnel tried to convince the tribals to vacate the area, they refused to do so stating that they would stay inside the forest until their forest rights are recognised. But Mr. Kumar said their claims are not supported by either historical or legal records and hence was not admissible. The Forest Department officials stated that the applications have undergone extensive scrutiny and multiple rounds of verification by the Sub-Divisional and District Level Committees (SDLC/DLC) since 2020. It has been concluded that there is no record of a tribal hamlet named 'Attur Kolli Haadi' within the Nagarahole Tiger Reserve, said Mr. Kumar. The proceedings of the subdivisional level forest rights committee meeting held on May 22, 2025, conducted by Assistant Commissioner of Madikeri, records the statements of the Forest Department that there is no record of Attur Kolli Haadi. The department provided supporting evidence that Attur Kolli forest area is a natural forest and no historical occupation, habitation, or cultivation has ever taken place in the patch of forest as claimed by applicants, Mr. Kumar said. The authorities cited the Nagarahole National Park Management Plan (2000-2010) and pointed out that it mentions the names of 43 hamlets but there was no record of the Attur Kolli Haadi. Satellite imagery from 1985 to 2025, historical management plans, and demographic surveys from the University of Mysore were also cited to claim that no habitation or cultivation has occurred in the area. Prior to that, on May 15, the SDLC meeting was held in Madikeri and officials submitted their petition with records, while the officials from the Integrated Tribal Development Project stated that there was no mention of 'Attur Kolli Haadi' in their departmental records, the authorities added. The SDLC of FRA has also deemed that the evidence presented by the claimants was insufficient to prove historical habitation and cultivation and hence has rejected the forest rights claims pertaining to Attur Kolli forest area, according to Mr. Kumar. Meanwhile, tribal leaders and NGOs supportive of the cause have sharply criticised the State's response and have accused the authorities of violating the spirit and letter of FRA. The Karnataka State Human Rights Commission, which booked a suo moto case, directed the Kodagu Deputy Commissioner to conduct an inquiry which is in process and the next hearing will be held on June 10, 2025.
Time of India
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
All students of St Xavier's Bokaro clear Class 10
Bokaro: St Xavier's School has once again proven its academic excellence with a 100% pass rate in the ICSE Class X Board Examinations for the year 2025. All 188 students who appeared for the examination successfully cleared it. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now A detailed analysis of the results shows that 39 students secured between 90% and 100%, while 64 scored between 80% and 89%. Another 50 students achieved marks in the 70%–79% range, followed by 33 in the 60%–69% bracket. Two students scored between 50% and 59%. Principal of St Xaviers Father Minj, "Ananya Kumar emerged as the school topper with an outstanding score of 98.8%, followed closely by Anindya Sen with 97.4% and Raunak Kumar Thakur with 97%. The top 10 performers also include Vedant Agarwal (96.8%), Sanal Kumar (96.4%), Ayushman Modak (95.8%), Shaiklain Iqbal (95.6%), Palak Choudhary (95.2%), Sambhav Kumar Agarwal (95%), and Adarsh Dutta (94.8%)."
Axios
29-04-2025
- Business
- Axios
Stablecoins' trillion-dollar "Game of Thrones" is afoot
You might not even realize it, but before long you're going to be using stablecoins — because the old global payment systems will soon evolve, perhaps even being replaced, driven by stablecoins. Why it matters: More and more industries, from traditional finance to fintechs, are betting that crypto pegged to real-world money will be a trillion-dollar market soon — the only question is how many trillions and how fast it gets there. The big picture: Global payments have been built on the slow and creaky system of correspondent banking that dates back a couple hundred years, but until stablecoins came along there hasn't been sufficient impetus to truly update it. Stablecoins put competitive pressure on legacy payments, with settlements in minutes, not days, 24/7 operation and often negligible fees, because the only "middleman" is the underlying blockchain. Zoom in: Circle, the issuer of the second-largest stablecoin out there, USDC, announced the Circle Payments Network last week. It looks like the most straightforward bid to sit at the center of trillions of dollars in money sloshing all over the world. The network is a crypto-ready bid to create an alternative to SWIFT, the bank-to-bank messaging system at the heart of today's global payments, an electronic layer that enables correspondent banking in the information age. Circle's essentially proposing a compliance edge around stablecoin networks so that traditional institutions can send stablecoins or regular old money and move it faster, cheaper and with better features. Payments giant Stripe made a similar move when it acquired Bridge, making one of the crypto industry's biggest acquisitions. Between the lines: Circle's new network comes amidst the initial public offering it filed for on April 1, in which it is seeking a $4 or $5 billion valuation, a steep multiple on its current profits. But Ananya Kumar, of the Atlantic Council, reads Circle's goals modestly. "A goal here is to create interoperability and reduce frictions," she said. She doesn't see an immanent threat to SWIFT. Reality check:"There's something like $1.8 quadrillion in value when it comes to global payments," Kumar says. "The volumes are far from this transplanting of SWIFT happening." New laws, big banks Collectively, stablecoins are already a rival for Visa, a private network that connects banks, merchants, consumers and businesses around payments. ING Direct and other banks in Europe reportedly want to create a stablecoin. And VISA, which started as a cooperative effort between banks — referred to as "coopetition" — is the likely playbook these banks are following. Bank of America is the one that got VISA going starting back in 1958, so its announcement this year that it will be ready to go when stablecoins get the all clear could be telling. So far, the main big bank we have heard from is BNY, which came to the U.S. House Financial Services committee to advocate for permitting banks to issue them. Big banks have clearly been eyeing stablecoin technology for years, but until recently had avoided the inevitable headaches from regulators. But the regulatory landscape has changed, and traditional finance firms are making moves. Europe has basically already written clear rules for stablecoins with its MiCA framework. A new law in the U.S. appears to be months, not years, away. King of the realm Many players aren't planning to be part of a collective, however. Each one wants to be the next Visa, that is, to rule this new category. Tether is king of stablecoins, for now. The company behind by far the most used stablecoin, USDT, claims it's already expanded usage well beyond crypto trading, and it's popular in the developing world. Meanwhile, the company is talking about bringing the fight for stablecoin dominance to the U.S., possibly attempting to disrupt Block, Inc.'s Square payments system, making a new point-of-sale system with perks for customers that use a new, designed-for-U.S. compliance stablecoin. Paypal has bet on increasing the utility of its stablecoin, PYUSD, because it believes the instruments open up a universe of new kinds of business, starting at the enterprise level and in cross-border transfers. It just announced a 3.7% return on its stablecoin when held within its app, which would be most of the yield the issuer is earning off the stablecoin's underlying Treasuries. The theory here is that sharing yield with users will make it more likely that they keep that money in the digital wallet, making it more likely that they spend them with a merchant. Paypal however, the first mainstream fintech to issue a stablecoin, is passing on a big disruption in the payments system. "We think new payment rails will exist with old payment rails," Jose Fernandez da Ponte, the company's lead on digital assets, tells Axios. Between the lines: Whether stablecoins disrupt the current payments system, or simply become integrated into its backbone infrastructure, it appears inevitable that they will soon play a significant role. 💭 Our thought bubble In 2005 you could buy a t-shirt that said "I don't want to read your blog." But by the end of that decade, almost everything that anyone read on the internet was published using what was, ultimately, blogging software (including this website). The bottom line: Like the term "blogging," we'll probably shed the word stablecoin eventually.
