India win world school debating championships for first time, Tejas Subramaniam declared ‘Best speaker in the world’

CHENNAI: These self-professed nerds would take up topics of international relations and economics over sports and pop culture any day. Nevertheless, no topic or team could come in the way of their thunderous win - India’s first at the World Schools Debating Championships(WSDC) 2019 in Bangkok.

Tejas Subramaniam, Bhavya Shah, Manya Gupta, Saranya Ravindran and Prithvi Arun have bagged the championship that is usually dominated by native English-speaking countries like Australia, which has won the championship the most times, followed by England.

What compulsion behind changing currency notes, Bombay High Court asks RBI

THE BOMBAY High Court on Thursday directed the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to file an affidavit stating reasons behind changing the features and size of currency notes from time to time.

A bench of Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice N M Jamdar was hearing a petition filed by the National Association of the Blind (NAB), seeking directions to include distinctive features in new coins and notes for easier identification by the visually impaired.

Handicapped? No, it’s ‘differently-abled’

CHENNAI: While India has always faced flak for being insensitive to the plight of the disabled, a recent allegation by a Chennai student has brought to fore the government's callous attitude towards the community.

Score Foundation is giving hope to the blind to lead a normal life and see success

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), it is estimated that approximately 1.3 billion people in the world live with some form of vision impairment. The leading cause of this is mainly refractive errors and cataracts.

Maratha quota: SC agrees to urgent hearing of petitions

The Supreme Court (SC) agreed on Monday to consider giving an urgent hearing to petitions challenging the constitutional validity of a Maharashtra law that granted reservation to the Maratha community in education and jobs.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi took note of the submissions of a lawyer that the petitions were not getting listed for hearing.

“You give the memo. We will look into it,” said the bench.

THE FEAR OF MISSING OUT AS A BLIND PERSON IN A VISUAL WORLD

The fear of missing out or FOMO if we want to be modern, have you experienced it? I bet we all have at one point or another, whether it’s worrying about missing out on time with friends, on opportunities or simply the worry that someone is living a more interesting life than you, we’ve all been there, flailing around worrying that we’ve taken the wrong path, everyone we know are getting jobs, degrees, boyfriends and girlfriends and amazing opportunities – sound familiar?

TorchIt: A Journey Of Empowering The Visually Impaired

Imagine that you are surrounded by a thick fog. You cannot see anything, in any direction, not even your hand right in front of you. Now imagine that you need to navigate your way through this fog with nothing but the sense of touch to guide you. You’ve no idea what kind of obstacles you might face, what lies ahead of you. Imagine living like this, in a world of virtual darkness, every single day!

Rs 260.62 crore national disability fund lying unused, reveals RTI

The RTI reply from the Ministry also stated that the certified reports of the erstwhile fund and the old fund were available but cannot be released as they are voluminous and that they can be seen in the office.