Baripada: The state government has approved the establishment of five new speciality departments at Pandit Raghunath Murmu (PRM) Medical College and Hospital in Baripada, along with the creation of 20 faculty and senior resident posts to strengthen specialised healthcare services in northern Odisha. The approval is part of a broader initiative by the state Health and Family...

Boinda: A person was seriously injured after being attacked by a bear in a forested area of Anugola district Sunday. The victim was identified as Dushmanta Behera, a resident of Padmapur village under the Bamur forest range in Kishorenagar block. According to local sources, Behera had gone to a nearby forest early in the morning to collect...

Bhubaneswar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday praised Bhubaneswar’s efforts in water conservation during the 136th episode of his monthly radio programme ‘Mann Ki Baat’, highlighting the Odisha capital as one of the cities delivering encouraging results under the nationwide ‘Catch the Rain’ campaign. Reiterating the importance of water conservation, PM said the campaign carries a simple yet...

Bhubaneswar/Anandapur: In a bid to restore the natural habitat of elephants and other wild animals, a large-scale bamboo seed ball plantation drive was carried out in the Atei Reserve Forest near Arjunbania village under Kolimati Gram Panchayat in Anandapur Sunday. Led by environmentalist Trilochan Sahoo, the initiative saw the dispersal of 3,500 seed balls across the reserve...

The World Bank classifies India as a lower-middle-income (LMI) economy rather than a ‘weak country,’ a status it has maintained since 2009. In other words, the WB has not revised India’s actual socio-economic status for the last 17 years. This has caused a dichotomy. In the perception of the WB, the LMI classification is based on India's...

Rayagada: A small tribal village in Rayagada district has transformed its degraded forests into a thriving ecosystem, restoring water sources, improving livelihoods and strengthening community resilience through sustainable forest management. Laktiguda village, home to 38 Scheduled Tribe families, is surrounded by 567 acres of Community Forest Resource (CFR) land. For generations, the forest has served as the...

Bhubaneswar: Former IAS officer Upendra Nath Behera failed to appear before Capital Police Sunday for questioning in connection with the alleged disappearance of key files from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), police officials said. Behera is the third former senior bureaucrat to skip a police summons in the case. Former Chief Secretary Rajesh Verma did not appear...

Bhubaneswar: A vehicle hit a fish trader, knocking him unconscious, before a four-wheeler dragged him for three kilometres on NH 16, killing him on the spot Sunday, police said. Another fish trader was also injured after being hit by the first vehicle, a senior officer said. “A vehicle struck the two fish traders on the National Highway...

Just as French aristocrats under the ancienrégime could hardly imagine the abolition of their noble titles, most of today's university leaders cannot conceive of a world in which the degrees they confer become worthless pieces of paper. The former were in for a rude awakening in 1790; the latter are barreling toward a similar shock. No longer...

Bhubaneswar: The All India Congress Committee (AICC) has appointed Bibhuti Bhusan Mahapatra as the new state president of National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), the student wing of the Congress in Odisha. Mahapatra, who began his student political journey at the Bhubanananda Odisha School of Engineering (BOSE), Cuttack, has been actively involved in raising issues related to...