Category: India

Jallikattu contempt plea over SC judge

New Feb. 4: The Supreme Court has decided to consider a plea for contempt proceedings against some pro-jallikattu activists for spreading insinuations against one of its own sitting judges in the row over the bull-taming sport. The plea was filed by an NGO, Compassion Unlimited Plus, yesterday.

Trump sanctions against Iran spook India

New Delhi, Feb. 4: US President Donald Trump’s fresh sanctions against Tehran have spooked India into reviewing its marquee connectivity project in Central Asia, the Chabahar port in Iran, imperilling a prime ministerial promise and a key route to Afghanistan bypassing Pakistan. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised the “early implementation” of a commitment India made to Iran during his visit to Tehran last May on developing two terminals and five berths at the strategically located port on the Gulf of Oman, within 18 months.

Shah picks on ‘princes’ in UP

Lucknow, Feb. 4: BJP president Amit Shah, zeroing in on ” do shahzaade “, said today in Mathura that while the mother of one of them was anxious for her son, the father of the other was also worried about his son. ” Agar Uttar Pradesh ka parivartan karna hai to ye do shahzaade jo nikle hain na… do shahzaade jante ho na kaun hain ye … wo nahin kar paenge, unke to parivaar me hi problem hai, ek se maa pareshaan hai , doosre se baap pareshaan hai ,” Shah said at an election rally held at Mahavidya Ram Lila Ground in the temple town, 385km west of Lucknow.

BJP lines up freebies for hill state

Lucknow, Feb. 4: Freebies dominated the vision document unveiled by the BJP in Dehradun today for the February 15 Assembly polls. It promised free laptops and smartphones to meritorious students, free Wi-fi in all state universities and free education up to post-graduation for all poor students.

Modi ‘SCAM’ swipe at rivals

Lucknow, Feb. 4: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today coined an acronym as he sought to seize the moral high ground in Uttar Pradesh, saying voters in the state must choose between “SCAM” and development. The west Uttar Pradesh district votes on February 11 in the first leg of the seven-phase elections in the heartland.

Slip in voter turnout in Punjab

Chandigarh, Feb. 4: A Congress supporter in Tarn Taran’s Lalu Ghuman village was hit in the leg by a bullet allegedly fired by an Akali Dal sarpanch on polling day in Punjab where voter turnout slipped, in contrast with Goa where it touched a new high. “Stray incidents of violence were reported from some parts.

Lens on money bill route for party funding

New Delhi, Feb. 4: The Narendra Modi government appears to have again opted for the money bill route, this time to implement new provisions on political parties’ funding, by “sidestepping” the Rajya Sabha where the ruling NDA is in a minority. The Representation of the People Act, Income-Tax Act and the Reserve Bank of India Act – the three laws – “technically do not fall under the Constitution’s Article 110”, which defines a money bill and its scope, several leaders and activists have said.

Days after crackdown, Hafiz Saeed’s JuD is back, under a new name

Jamaat-ud-Dawa has rebranded under the new name of ‘Tehreek Azadi Jammu and Kashmir’, just days after its chief Hafiz Saeed was put under house arrest and a crackdown launched on the organisation’s activities. The Mumbai attack mastermind had indicated about a week before his arrest that he might launch TAJK to “expedite the freedom of Kashmir”.

Chennai oil spill clean-up ops: How it happened

A massive clean-up operation was launched in Tiruvallur, Chennai and Kancheepuram districts after two shipping vessels had collided outside the Kamarajar Port at Tamil Nadu, resulting in rupture in one of them which led to an oil spill. Here’s a timeline of how the mishap and the resulting clean-up operations unfolded.

Punjab Polls: Voting begins across 22, 615 polling stations for 117 constituencies5 min ago

Patiala [India], Feb. 4 : Polling began in Punjab amid heavy security on Saturday morning, with 1,145 candidates contesting across 117 seats, and will conclude at 5 p.m. Key contests today feature a direct fight between chief ministerial aspirants Parkash Singh Badal, 89, and Captain Amarinder Singh, 75, of the Congress in Lambi and a mega battle in Jalalabad between Sukhbir Badal and Bhagwant Singh Mann, seen as AAP’s leading contender for chief minister if the party wins. It will be a three-cornered contest this time around.

Polling in Goa begins; Parrikar among early voters1 hour ago

Panaji, Feb 4 Polling for all 40 constituencies of the Goa Legislative Assembly that will decide the fate of 250 candidates began at 7 AM today with sparse queues outside booths. More than eleven lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the election being held across 1,642 polling booths in the state with para-military forces and state police guarding the venues.

Battle for Goa: Parrikar casts his vote, says BJP will win with two-third majority18 min ago

Panaji [India], Feb. 4 : With the Assembly Election polling for 40 seats underway in Goa, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar cast his vote early on Saturday morning here and expressed his confidence that the Bharatiya Janata Party will sweep the polls with two-third majority. Speaking to the media here after casting his vote, Parrikar said that initial reports indicate a very good turnout by the electorate.

Ex-Army chief first to cast vote in Patiala

Chandigarh, Feb 4 – Former Army Chief and ex-governor, General J.J. Singh, was among the first to cast his vote on Saturday morning at a polling station in Patiala city in Punjab, 60 km from here. Accompanied by his wife, Gen Singh, who is a candidate of the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal, said that he was confident of victory from the Patiala-urban assembly where he is challenging Punjab Congress President and former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh.

Apple to start assembling iPhones in Bangalore by April

Apple plans to start assembling the iPhone in Bangalore by end April under a contract manufacturing arrangement with Taiwan’s Wistron. The move by the company comes even as it awaits approval from the federal government for some of its proposals for lowering the import duties on components and for creating an ecosystem of local manufacturers who can supply components for the smartphones, according to sources close to the situation.

Akhilesh Yadav, Rahul Gandhi to hold joint road show in Agra23 min ago

Agra [India], Feb. 3: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will address a joint public meeting on Friday in Agra days after the duo addressed their first joint press conference and held a road show in Lucknow walking shoulder to shoulder. The two leaders are expected to send out a strong message to party cadres, urging them to work together to ensure the defeat of Bharatiya Janata Party and Bahujan Samaj Party in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.

Gartner Says Public Cloud Services in India Forecast to Reach $1.8 Billion in 2017

The public cloud services market in India is projected to grow 38 percent in 2017 to total $1.81 billion, according to Gartner, Inc. The highest growth will continue to be driven by infrastructure as a service which is projected to grow at 49.2 percent in 2017, followed by 33 percent in software as a service and 32.1 percent in platform as a service . The increase of SaaS and PaaS are indicators that the migration of application and workloads from on premises data centers to the cloud, as well as the development of cloud ready and cloud native applications, are fueling the growth in the cloud space.

Correction: India-US-Tech Visas story

In a story Jan. 31 about H-1B visas, The Associated Press reported erroneously that proposed legislation could require more companies to prove that they have tried to hire U.S. workers before hiring foreign workers on H-1B visas. The change would actually force more companies to make a good faith effort to hire U.S. workers before considering foreign workers.

BRIEF-Lonza Group raises 865 mln Sfr from bookbuilding, shares placed 173 Sfr per share

Addressing parliament, Jaitley called his fourth budget one for the poor. Yet, while vowing prudent fiscal management, he also raised his 2017/18 federal deficit target to 3.2 percent of gross domestic product to cov TOKYO, Feb 1 Japan’s top government spokesman said on Wednesday there is no change to the government’s stance that it will take steps on foreign exchange when it deems it necessary.

Today in History Wednesday, Feb. 01, 2017

On Jan. 30, 1948, Indian political and spiritual leader Mohandas K. Gandhi, 78, was shot and killed in New Delhi by Nathuram Godse , a Hindu extremist. In 1815, the U.S. House of Representatives joined the Senate in agreeing to purchase the personal book collection of former President Thomas Jefferson to replace volumes lost when the British burned the U.S. Capitol and its congressional library during the War of 1812.

BJP calls for expunging Mehbooba Mufti’s speech

Rajeev Jasrotia drew his attention to the statement made by Mehbooba in the House on Monday demanding that her remarks on article 370 stating that every political party has its own ideology which cannot be dubbed anti-national should be expunged Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti suffered a major embarrassment on Tuesday when her ally BJP sought to expunge her speech in the Legislative Assembly after she dubbed those demanding abrogation of article 370 as “anti-nationals.” The Speaker expunged the remarks but retracted it after a ruckus broke out in the House.

Supreme Court declines to stay Jallikattu Act, slams TN over protests

The special bench had in December 2016, reserved its order on an issue that challenged a January 2016 notification issued by the Centre allowing Jallikattu – a bull taming sport played during the festival of Pongal. Though the Supreme Court declined to stay the operation of the new Tamil Nadu Jallikattu Act, it sharply censured the southern state for its failure to curb the recent massive protests earlier this month.

UP Elections 2017: Parties not so generous in giving tickets to women

BJP candidate from Sarojini Nagar seat Swati Singh with her husband Dayashankar Singh on her way to file nomination papers for the 2017 UP elections, on Tuesday in Lucknow The Bahujan Samaj Party is dependent almost entirely on Mayawati to campaign for its candidates for the Assembly polls here. The Samajwadi Party and Congress are keen on using Dimple Yadav and Priyanka Gandhi as their star campaigners.

Fluor’s 2016 Global Community Project Fund Honors Clean Water Kiosk…

Fluor Corporation has selected “Building a Clean Water Kiosk for Safe Drinking Water in India,” benefiting Uthaan in Gurgaon, India, as its 2016 Best-in-Class community improvement project. The project was chosen from among 10 employee-led community improvement projects that received funding from Fluor’s $100,000 Global Community Project Fund earlier in 2016.

Stress causing lung cancer in Mumbai women, 4 facts you should know

Recorded cases jump from 5% to 6.3% in 2010-14; experts blame attempt to juggle work and personal life sending women to draw quick puffs as stressbuster The stress of having it all is killing Mumbai’s women. Since 2010, lung cancer cases among city women have shot up rapidly – from less than 5% to 6.3% – to become one of the top five cancers affecting them.

Case against ‘judge’ mother, ‘lawyer beti’ for cheating in Pune

Pune: At a District and Session Court near Shivajinagar area in Pune, lawyers have ganged up against a mother-daughter duo for allegedly misleading clients of other lawyers. Around 100 lawyers under the Pune Bar Assocation have moved the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa against the duo, who they alleged also malign their reputations and threaten lawyers of “severe consequences” if their crimes are reported.

‘I’ve had some of the best conversations in India’

In the last few months, life has changed dramatically for American author Paul Beatty. From being turned down nearly 18 times by publishers for a book that he was confident would ‘challenge’ existing ideas and notions about race, to winning the Man Booker for the very same that the world will now remember as ‘The Sellout’, Beatty seems to have had the last laugh.

Attempts being made to turn Western UP into Kashmir: Yogi Adityanath

Hapur , Jan 30 – Raking up the issue of exodus of Hindus from western Uttar Pradesh, BJP leader Yogi Adityanath said on Monday that if such a situation persisted, the region would soon become another Kashmir. Addressing an election rally at Dhaulana in Hapur district, the Gorakhpur MP alleged that Hindus were being terrorized in western Uttar Pradesh like Kashmiri Pandits were terrorized and forced to flee the Kashmir Valley.

NSUI screens documentary, blames Centre for increasing ‘fascism’

New Delhi, Jan 30 – Observing the 69th death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the National Students Union of India on Monday screened a documentary based on the viewpoints of students on the issue of academic freedom versus fascist diktats across universities. The documentary — University Uprising — was shown in universities in 22 states across the country.

Breaking down Marcus Stoinis’ fantastic feat

Marcus Stoinis almost orchestrated one of the greatest comebacks in cricket history in Australia’s series opener against New Zealand and it is worth hailing a mighty individual feat, even if it came in a loss. It is not even remotely his fault that the rest of his team was asleep at the wheel, so let’s look at five reasons Stoinis is still a stunner.

Brilliant Bumrah secures India’s thrilling win against England in T20

NAGPUR, India: Jasprit Bumrah kept his nerve to send down a brilliant final over and secure India’s series-levelling five-run victory against England in the second Twenty20 international on Sunday. Chasing 145 to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series, England needed eight runs from the last over but the 23-year-old Bumrah bowled with ice in his veins, conceding only two runs while claiming two wickets.

The Kapil Sharma Show: International star Jackie Chan graces Kapil’s show with Sonu Sood!1 hour ago

The 29 January episode of The Kapil Sharma Show started on a very unusual note with some kickass karate steps by kids followed by a dance where Nani joined the kids. Once the kids left the stage, Nani talked about her expedition to China from where she said she has brought Jackie Chan! Nani then called Sonu Sood and two wax statues ofJackie Chan and Sonu Sood appeared on stage.

West Bengal: TMC leader arrested for vandalizing police station in Burdwan

Kolkata/Burdwan, Jan 29 : Hours after a police station was ransacked by angry mob over a local issue in West Bengal’s Burdwan district, police on Saturday night arrested at least eleven persons, including a local leader of ruling Trinamool Congress , in connection with the case, reports said. Earlier in the afternoon, alleging that police were helping in an illegal and unauthorized construction in a local school compound and demanding the removal of local police stations Inspector-in-Charge , a large number of local villagers attacked Ausgram Police Station.