Keeping pace with the changing times, consumers across the world have been looking to the internet for their legal needs. Four million people go online per month to get legal advice. Numerous legal web sites have cropped up recently in the western world, many of which serve as virtual match-makers between lawyers searching for clients and clients in need of help. Unlike our western counterparts, there has been no authentic legal portal for the Indian public until now.

This void gave birth to AdvocateKhoj - India's Dedicated Case Post System for Consumers (URL: http://www.advocatekhoj.com) to help people find a well-qualified lawyer for their legal issues. Consumers who are in need of legal assistance can present their case by answering some simple questions about their legal situation, "free of cost" on the AdvocateKhoj website without revealing his or her identity. Lawyers enrolled with AdvocateKhoj would review these cases and send their replies. The consumer can now view the responses from various advocates, check their background information, education and experience, and then make an informed decision on whom to engage for their case.

AdvocateKhoj uses automated online technologies that match specific needs of a consumer with a lawyer by matching geographically, and also based on a lawyer's various salient attributes and legal expertise. The matching is fully automated and is based on client-entered criteria, so there is no preferential treatment of any particular lawyer.

The result: Prior to any money changing hands, and with minimal time spent, consumers can present their cases and in-turn get in touch with lawyers of their choice! According to Anoop Vincent, co-founder, AdvocateKhoj, "It's obvious that consumers would embrace this new and unique service as all of us prefer to make empowered and informed decisions. The search for a well-qualified lawyer or a good client should be no different."

For more information visit www.advocatekhoj.com
[Submitted by advocatekhoj]

Hello All,

 

    Uttarakhand is the land of God. Thinking this all Uttarakhand people feel great & proud of. But our responsibilities are to develop it. These days IT companies are the better option for employment, the huge tax payer as well as  non-pollution industry. But I think our current government is not planning to invite the IT industries.

    We should apply the methods like Maharastra, Karnataka, Tamilnadu & Andhra Paradesh to invite IT companies. They have the need small peace of land, security, electricity & a good infrastructure & they give you a lot jobs, tax & many businesses.

 

Uttarakahnd government should wake up & look the great future with IT industries.

Regards,
K.P. Singh
[Submitted by K.P. Singh]

The Uttarakhand government is looking for agencies to develop an E-cell to monitor and evaluate health-related social sector programmes.

The agency would be required "to develop E-cell for health resource centre for monitoring and evaluation of all national programmes, including programmes under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM)", the State Health Resource Centre (SHRC) of the state said while inviting Expressions of Interest (EoIs) from interested consultants.

The consultants, the SHRC said, will also be involved in upgradation of the public health manual.

The state government has fixed January 27 as the last date for submission of EoIs by the interested parties.

After a review of the letters of interest, a shortlist would be prepared and the selected firms and consultancy agencies would be invited to submit the technical and financial proposals through a letter of invitation, which would include specific terms of reference and finer details of the project.
Source -The Hindu

CALL IT a virtual revolution. Matrimonial portals may have partially succeeded in eroding what 60 years of laws and reservations have not – caste prejudice.

A University of Chicago study has found couples getting married through matrimonial portals in India are less rigid about caste and mother tongue, as against those tying the knot through traditional channels.

The study conducted by Divya Mathur, an Indian student at the University of Chicago, as part of her PhD thesis states that less than 50 per cent of couples who find their match through a matrimonial website marry within the same caste and mother tongue. On the other hand, in 90 per cent marriages happening through regular channels like “relatives and friends”, caste and mother tongue are overriding factors.

The respondent base included about 30,000 matrimonial profiles, 3,000 people who found spouses through such websites and interviews of 6,000 people.

There were some other surprises as well. A son is much less likely to marry a “college-educated” or a working woman in cases where parents take marriage decisions. Women, on the other hand, are more likely to get married to men with similar education and careers, regardless of who did the match-making, the survey said. “Higher education” is likely to hurt a woman’s prospects in the “marriage market” as parents prefer brides who have “less bargaining power”, Mathur found.

“It started out as an interest in studying how online matchmaking affected the marriage market and, in particular, whether it changed marriage patterns i.e., who marries whom,” Mathur told the Hindustan Times. “The findings related to concerns about caste and mother tongue were striking given that matrimonial sites make it very easy to search only within a particular caste or mother tongue, and yet people appear to care less about it,” said Mathur.
Source by:Hindustan TImes

In the face of the mega 6,000 Mw Pancheshwar multi-purpose project hanging fire, the Uttarakhand government is revising its power policy focusing on mini, small, solar-based, bio-mass projects and safeguarding the interests of locals by their participation in such ventures.

The policy is likely to be released by early next year, top officials said adding its draft is in the final stages.

Chief Minister B C Khanduri, who is now advocating a separate rehabilitation policy, has already asserted that his government would only build small projects in the state.

The government is opposing big dams in the light of fresh reports that the centre spent a huge Rs 10,000 crore for building the 2,400 Mw Tehri dam, which saw the submergence of the Old Tehri town as well as nearly 125 villages in the reservoir. The lingering rehabilitation problem of Tehri dam is still continuing with the state government seeking a fresh package of Rs 250 crore.

With the Centre seeking approval from the Uttarakhand government on its move to build the Pancheshwar hydel project, thrice the size of Tehri dam, on the river Kali in Pithoragarh and Champawat districts bordering Nepal, the officials said a nod in this regard is unlikely as the new dam would create much bigger rehabilitation problem than the Tehri in the context of the new policy.

For devising the policy, the government is also seeking suggestions from experts.

The Uttarakhand Infrastructure Projects Company (UIPC) Pvt Ltd, a joint venture company of the state government and the Infrastructure Leasing and Finance Services (IL&FS), has been given the task to prepare project reports of various hydro projects in addition to those already allotted or are in the process of being allotted.

When contacted, Additional Chief Secretary Indu Kumar Pandey said: “We are now focusing on small, mini, bio-based and solar-based projects in the new policy which is now in the final stages.”

The government would try to safeguard the interest of the local people by offering them some stakes or full share in the new ventures. To start with, at least 5 per cent equity in the project is being proposed in small projects. In some ventures, the government can offer know-how to the village communities who can themselves build the dams by raising equity through loans.

As scores of industries have set up new units in the state to get tax benefits, the government would also encourage them to go for captive power generation.

In the new allotments, bidding process would be done in such a way that the government gets maximum premium.

Meanwhile, the centre has asked the government to go for coal-based energy. The state government is, however, finding it tough to venture into the coal sector since it would depend on coalfields outside the state. “Coal will not be a favourable option for our state,” an official of the Power Department said.

Currently, Uttarakhand needs 15.5 million units of power daily whereas the power production in the state stands only at 5 million units.

To meet the gap, Uttarakhand is taking 6.5 million units of power from the central pool. Besides 2 million units are being overdrawn. Apart from this, the state is also taking back one million unit which it had banked in Punjab and Haryana. But all this has left with a deficiency of 2-3 million units of power, officials said.

Uttarakhand has already identified 20,000 Mw of hydel power. Nearly 400 projects in this regard have also been proposed.

Till now, Uttarakhand is generating only 2,819 Mw of power. At present, different projects with the capacity of generating 11,480 Mw of power are at various stages of construction.
Source by Business Standard