Home / July 04- July 10, 2026 / WEEKEND UPDATES / WEEKEND UPDATES
WEEKEND UPDATES
No Comments on WEEKEND UPDATES

WEEKEND UPDATES

July 04- July 10, 2026, WEEKEND UPDATES July 3, 2026 , by

CONGRESS SPLITS

THE Congress party in Goa appears to have split with a break-away group led by Amit Patkar, the former president of the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee registering a new party called the Goa Congress Party. It may be recalled that the Indian National Congress led by the Nehru Gandhi family recently appointed Girish Chodankar to be head of the Goa unit. It is widely believed that the split is being funded by Amit Shah to undermine the Catholic minority vote in south Goa which has traditionally gone to the Congress. Girish Chodankar has alleged that the BJP has budgeted Rs100 crore for the “tod, mod operation lotus in Goa.” This follows the splitting of the Trinamol congress in West Bengal and the Udav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.

MANHOLE CASUALTY IN MUMBAI

A PEDESTRIAN Aslan Shaikh fell into an open manhole at the busy Andheri junction in Bombay and lost his life. Ironically, the BJP mayor of Mumbai saw at first hand what open manholes can do when she was inspecting monsoon preparedness a month ago. In her presence an employee of the Mumbai municipality fell into an open manhole. Similarly, such disasters are waiting to happen in Goa with the flooding of badly maintained streets.

SMART CITY ON TREE JIHAD

TREE lovers in Panjim are agitated over plans to bring down 150 plus old venerable trees along the Dayanand Bandodkar Marg. Some of these trees on this main thoroughfare of Panjim and 18 June Road are reportedly 200 years old plus. Panjim citizens like Prajal Shakardande and Patricia Pinto held a night vigil on 18 June road. Apparently, over 150 trees have been marked for pruning or cutting by the Smart City Project gang. Panjim  residents had a meeting with CCP mayor, Rohit Monserrate. Goa needs a Chipko movement to save the trees a la the late Sundarlal Bahuguna. Or at least an Alexis cartoonist who hugged the tree at Campal a decade ago. Where’s Alexis?

50% WEIGHTAGE FOR BOARD EXAMS

IN the proposed reform of the medical entrance test NEET and the IIT entrance test it is being suggested that there should be weightage to the result of the 12th standard higher secondary board exam. At present no weightage is given to the higher secondary results. So much so students who study very hard to the point of exhaustion for NEET and IIT joint entrance exam have to again stress themselves out as well as pay huge fees to coaching classes to prepare for the medical entrance NEET. To add insult to injury the exam papers keep leaking.

`MAJHA FLAT’ SCHEME

CHIEF MINISTER Pramod Sawant has rolled out the Mhaja Flat scheme in the wake of the Mhaja Ghor scheme. The ownership and title of many flats in Goa are disputed due to failure by the builder to transfer the flats and the land on which it is built to the co-operative society. This process is called conveyance. Many flat owners themselves are guilty as they purchase flats on the basis of agreement of sale. This is because if they enter into a sale deed they will have to pay hefty registration fees to the government. The burden has gone up in the Taleigao area after the government increased the registration fee which can be up to 5% of the market value of the flat. This has pushed up property prices in Taleigao. The government has decided to bypass the builder and the co-operative societies to confer deemed conveyance. This will only encourage flat owners to sell their flats which cannot be run without proper conveyance.

WHAT’SAPP USER NAME

THERE is a big resistance from the government to the What’sApp proposal to introduce user names. This will enable What’sApp users to hide their mobile numbers and use the messaging service on anonymous user name as in the case of Facebook and other digital platforms. But unlike Facebook and Instagram the What’sApp number is linked to banks and financial institutions. In fact, the What’sApp mobile number has now emerged as the most widely accepted proof of the identity of the individual. May be the Modi government which has rejected the passport and Aadhar card as prove of Indian citizenship will accept the mobile number as proof of identity and Indian citizenship. Though What’sApp is actually a Meta entity and in fact What’sApp users could seek US citizenship for the US-based app.

GCCI’S 118th AGM

THE Goa Chamber of Commerce & Industry (GCCI)held the general session of its 118th Annual General Meeting on Saturday, June 27, 2026 at the Taj Cidade de Goa Heritage. The keynote speaker was Sriram Natarajan, (executive director and CEO of Molbio Diagnostics Ltd) and present as chief guest was Minister for Industries, Transport & Panchayat Mauvin Godinho, along with Sadanand Shet Tanavade (Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha) as guest of honour.

GCCI President Pratima Dhond welcomed everyone, in her talk reaffirming the Chamber’s 118-year commitment to serving as the collective voice of Goa’s business community and promoting economic growth through close collaboration between government and industry. She reflected about her tenure as GCCI’s first woman president and highlighted key initiatives undertaken during the year, including the launch of the MSME AADHAR STAMBH Facilitation Cell, promotion of skill development, participation in the World Bank’s Business Ready initiative, and advocacy on important policy issues. She urged the government to provide a transition period and stakeholder consultations before implementing the new Labour Code Rules.

Immediate Past President Shrinivas V Dempo described Pratima Dhond’s presidency as reflection of women-led development. He said Goa’s strong IT infrastructure and growing start-up ecosystem offered immense opportunities and urged GCCI to strengthen its efforts in connecting entrepreneurs and promoting exports. Referring to the present global uncertainties, he appreciated the support extended by Industries Minister Mauvin Godinho to Goa’s industry. Others who spoke included GCCI Vice-President Yatin Kakodkar who introduced keynote speaker Sriram Natarajan and his company Molbio Diagnostics’  achievements as India’s only med-tech unicorn.

Mr Natarajan in his address said that “innovation” is his favourite word and that is foundation of India’s economic growth. He stressed that innovation must be driven by indigenous solutions addressing India’s unique challenges rather than replicating imported products. About Molbio’s success, he said differentiation and identifying unmet needs were essential for sustainable growth. He also highlighted the urgent need for technology-led solutions in areas such as water management.

Referring to Goa’s start-up ecosystem Mr Natarajan noted that Goa has about 650 registered start-ups, but  only those solving genuine problems with scalable solutions would succeed. Innovation should be measured by impact rather than price and Atmanirbhar Bharat should be driven by indigenous technology.

Mr Mauvin Godinho expressed his confidence that hard work, innovation and confidence would make Indian industry the best in the world.  Describing MSMEs as the backbone of the economy, he urged industry to embrace innovation and out-of-the-box thinking, with all this India would soon become the world’s third-largest economy. GCCI Director & Editor of the GCCI Bulletin Pallavi H Arondekar presented the latest edition of the GCCI Bulletin to Mr Godinho for its formal release and those felicitated included Uma Reddy (president, Federation of Karnataka Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

GCCI Secretary Rohan Bhandare gave the vote of thanks while observing that it was fitting for the GCCI’s 118th AGM to be held on World MSME Day. The program compered by GCCI director Sanjay Amonkar concluded with  cocktails and dinner.

No related posts.

Search

Back to Top