Zuckerberg leaves a Mark on this Alwar village
Children of a Rajasthan village regret that they couldn’t meet Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg when he recently had a townhall session at IIT Delhi. Mark had visited their village Chandoli in Alwar in October 2014 and held with them a 45-minute lively interaction on how internet can help their village evolve as a real “cyber gaon”.
The ministry of minority affairs during the UPA government had declared Chandoli as India’s first cyber village.
But, what the children regret now most is that they didn’t ask for Mark’s email ID then to carry on the interaction with him and ask him to pay another visit to their village and see the difference himself.
It is not that the children didn’t try to go to Delhi and meet Mark. They tried out pooling money. “But, we couldn’t collect enough to travel to Delhi,” said Hajrat Safwan, a student of Class 10.
Safwan remembered Mark telling him that many people like him were CEOs in the Silicon Valley. “You can also make a company and make a big name for yourself,” he had advised him then. Safwan said the Facebook founder asked him if he knew who founded Facebook and he pointed towards him and said he was sitting next to him. “I felt very lucky to have met him, but feel sad we couldn’t meet him again. I wish I had taken his email ID.”
Vishal, another student of his class, while reminiscing the Facebook founder’s 2014 visit, remembered telling him that he loved making friends and chatting with them on Facebook. “We thought if we had taken his email ID, we would have written to him to come here once more to see how the children in the village had taken to computer learning,” he said.
Chandoli, 20 km from Alwar, is dominated by the Meo community who are mostly illiterate. The government opened a free computer training centre here to impart basic computer training to the village children.
School principal Krishna Kumar Dhavaria said, “It was a historical moment for the school.” He said the computer training had become a sort of “problem for us” of late as the students now demand internet connection in the school computer lab.

Rajasthan woman alleges police inaction in daughter’s abduction, dies by suicide
- Protestors are staging a dharna with the woman’s body outside the sub divisional officer’s office in Bhinmal. They said they would not accept her body till the minor girl was rescued.

Rajasthan: About 2.5 lakh youth availed unemployment allowance since 2019

Rajasthan: Nadda asks BJP officials to strengthen cadre, do self-analysis

Rajasthan Assembly passes Appropriation Bill

Rajasthan begins second phase of Covid-19 vaccination
- Health secretary Siddharth Majahan said, “The vaccination is going on smoothly across the state. People are enthusiastic".

Rajasthan to begin phase 2 of Covid-19 vaccination on Monday
- Private hospitals can charge up to ₹250 for a dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.

‘My father, grandmother want to sell me off’: Rajasthan girl tells police
- The girl said she was currently staying at her maternal house of her own sweet will but her family had lodged a false case of kidnapping against them

Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot share stage, take on Centre over farm laws

Gehlot, Pilot hit out at farm laws ahead of Rajasthan bypolls
- Both leaders shared a helicopter for the first time after more than a year.

Rajasthan makes RT-PCR tests mandatory for arrivals from Maharashtra, Kerala
- The decision was taken in a review meeting chaired by chief minister Ashok Gehlot at his residence.

BJP deems Rajasthan budget disappointing, Cong says its presented a holistic one

Rajasthan: Judge recuses himself in Robert Vadra case

Rajasthan to have own law to upgrade prisons, impart skills to inmates
- The state has prepared a new bill, the Rajasthan Prisons Bill, 2021, taking inspiration from the model jail manual.

Rajasthan to present first paperless budget tomorrow

Prohibitory orders imposed in Jodhpur city to contain coronavirus cases
- Several states including Maharashtra, Kerala, MP and Punjab continue to record high number of Covid cases.