Archives for July 2018

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court today said it will hear on July 16 a plea seeking removal of certain scenes from the Netflix series ‘Sacred Games’, claiming that some of its content was derogatory to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

The matter came up before a bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Chander Shekhar which said it will go through the petition and CD and listed it for Monday.

The plea, which alleged that certain scenes and dialogues in the show defamed the late Congress leader, yesterday came up before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar, which said it be listed before another bench. The acting chief justice had recused from hearing it without assigning any reason.

Petitioner advocate Nikhil Bhalla, in the petition filed through advocate Shashank Garg, contended that the show, starring Saif Ali Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, “incorrectly depicts historical events of the country like Bofors case, Shah Bano case, Babri Masjid case and communal riots”.

The plea has sought directions to Netflix Entertainment, the show’s producer — Phantom Films Production Ltd — and the Centre to ensure “in toto” removal of the allegedly offensive scenes and derogatory remarks made directly or indirectly against the former prime minister or his family.

The first season of the show, comprising eight episodes, was released on July 6 and is available in 190 countries in four languages, the petition has said.

(PTI)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday slammed the Central and Delhi governments and the capital’s civic agencies for blaming each other but doing nothing to reduce water consumption and preservation of groundwater, and sought action plan to check its depletion.

A bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta said that groundwater depletion is a serious problem here and asked the Centre for immediate, intermediate and long-term measures to check its depletion.

The bench took into note a NITI Aayog report which said that various authorities were passing the buck and shying away from their responsibility.

The report said there was over-exploitation of groundwater in several cities, especially Delhi, said the court, adding there would be no groundwater in Delhi by 2021 which means that “people cannot survive” here.

“The person who is responsible, says I am not responsible for this. Everybody has to be blamed in this country, except the person in-charge,” said the bench which was upset with authorities for passing the buck to each other and not doing anything on groundwater depletion.

It observed: “Have you seen the NITI Aayog report? It says that there will be no ground water in Delhi. There is pollution. Perhaps you will shift the capital. From where will groundwater come. Muhammad bin Tughluq was smart and 400 years ago, he had shifted the capital from Delhi.”

The bench said the suggestion given by the Ministry of Water Resources are nothing but an essay which anybody, even a schoolchild, can give.

“Anybody walking on the street can tell all this. We do not want an expert to say these things. You ask a schoolchild to write an essay on water problem in Delhi and the child will give all these suggestions. These are the kind of experts we have… that is why we are facing so many problems.”

Upset that authorities were not realising the seriousness of the situation, the bench had earlier said the critical decline in groundwater level in Delhi could lead to a “water war” for every drop.

The Central Ground Water Board had told the court that groundwater here was “over-exploited” and the level had declined to “very critical” stage.

Due to excess extraction of groundwater, almost 90 per cent of Delhi is in a “critical” situation, its report had said.

(IANS)

New Delhi: India on Wednesday refused entry to British MP Lord Carlile, a member of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s legal team, on charges of having an invalid visa.

“Lord Alexander Carlile, a British national, arrived in New Delhi on July 11, 2018 without having obtained the appropriate Indian visa,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said ina response to queries.

“His intended activity in India was incompatible with the purpose of his visit as mentioned in his visa application,” Kumar said.

“It was therefore decided to deny him entry into India upon arrival.”

Lord Carlile was scheduled to address the media in New Delhi on Thursday.

According to the Dhaka Tribune, he wanted to “explain the complexities of Khaleda Zia’s case to the international media community”.

(IANS)

New York: Indian-origin technology executives Jayshree Ullal and Neerja Sethi have made it to the Forbes’ list of America’s 60 richest self-made women, with 21-year-old reality-TV star and entrepreneur Kylie Jenner the youngest to be featured in the power list.

Ullal is ranked 18th in the list of 60 self-made women, having a net worth of 1.3 billion dollars while Sethi is ranked 21st with a net worth of a billion dollars.

“America’s top female entrepreneurs have shattered ceilings and scaled new heights, creating companies and building fortunes in everything from genetic testing to aerospace. Increasingly these self-made starters are tapping social media to cement their brands and build businesses ever more quickly. That in turn has helped the nation’s most successful women become richer than ever before,” Forbes said.

Born in London and raised in India, Ullal, 57 has been president and CEO of Arista Networks, a computer networking firm, since 2008.

The publicly-traded company recorded revenues of USD 1.6 billion in 2017. Forbes said Ullal owns about five per cent of Arista’s stock, some of which is earmarked for her two children, niece and nephew.

Sethi, 63, is the vice president of IT consulting and outsourcing company Syntel, a company she cofounded with her husband Bharat Desai in 1980 in their apartment in Troy, Michigan.

Starting out with an initial investment of just USD 2,000, they pulled in a mere USD 30,000 in first-year sales. Syntel racked up USD 924 million in 2017 revenues and has 23,000 employees, 80 per cent of whom are in India, Forbes said.

The combined net worth of the 60 women on the list is a record USD 71 billion, 15 per cent more than in 2017. The minimum net worth to make Forbes’ fourth annual ranking of these top women jumped 23 per cent to a record USD 320 million.

Twenty-four of these women are billionaires, another record, up from 18 last year. Seven newcomers joined the ranks, including four Instagram-savvy makeup moguls. The richest of these new faces is billionaire Anastasia Soare, whose cosmetics company Anastasia Beverly Hills, best known for beautifying eyebrows, now has more than 17 million followers on Instagram.

The youngest is Jenner, who turns 21 in August. Half-sister of Kim Kardashian West, who is also on the list for the first time, Jenner has leveraged her massive social media following (110 million followers on Instagram) to build a USD 900 million cosmetics fortune in less than three years.

“That makes her worth more than twice as much as her more famous sister,” Forbes said.

Taking the number one spot is Diane Hendricks, a Wisconsin billionaire who owns ABC Supply, one of the largest wholesale distributors of roofing, siding and windows in America.

The vast majority of list members hail from California – 27 altogether. Although 17 list members made their fortunes in fashion and retail, 13 including Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg built fortunes in technology, while 10 including Oprah Winfrey and Taylor Swift made it in media and entertainment, Forbes said.

The list also includes immigrants who have achieved success and created wealth not only for themselves but for their employees too.

Fourteen of the top 60 women entrepreneurs were born outside of the US, including Eren Ozmen, the majority owner of aerospace and defence business Sierra Nevada Corp who is now gambling hundreds of millions to take on Elon Musk and others in space.

Ozmen arrived from Turkey in her 20s and held down several part-time jobs while attending business school, selling homemade baklava at a bakery and even working as a night janitor at Sierra Nevada, years before she and her husband bought it.

(PTI)

Mae SAI: “Everyone is safe.” With those three words posted on Facebook the daring rescue mission to extricate 12 boys and their soccer coach from the treacherous confines of a flooded cave in Thailand was complete a grueling 18-day ordeal that claimed the life of an experienced diver and riveted people worldwide.

Thailand’s Navy SEALs, who were central to the rescue effort, celebrated the feat with a post last evening that read: “All the thirteen Wild Boars are now out of the cave,” a reference to the boys’ soccer team. “We are not sure if this is a miracle, a science, or what.”

Eight of the boys were rescued by a team of Thai and international divers on Sunday and Monday. On Tuesday, the final four boys and their coach were guided out of the cave. Their rescue was followed a few hours later by the safe return of a medic and three SEAL divers who had stayed for days with the boys in their cramped, dry refuge.

Cheers erupted from the dozens of volunteers and journalists awaiting news of whether the intricate and high-risk rescue mission had succeeded. Helicopters transporting the boys roared overhead. People on the street cheered and clapped when ambulances ferrying them on the last leg of their journey from the cave arrived at a hospital in Chiang Rai city in far northern Thailand near the Myanmar border.

Their joy and relief was echoed around the globe by the multitude of people who had followed the long ordeal. Payap Maiming, who helped provide food and necessities to rescue workers and journalists, noted that fact.

“I’m happy for Thais all over the country,” he said. “And actually just everyone in the world because every news channel has presented this story and this is what we have been waiting for.” “It’s really a miracle,” Payap said. “It’s hope and faith that has brought us this success.” Amporn Sriwichai, an aunt of rescued coach Ekkapol Chantawong, was ecstatic. “If I see him, I just want to hug him and tell him that I missed him very much,” she said.

The plight of the boys and their coach captivated much of the world from the heart-sinking news that they were missing, to the first flickering video of the huddle of anxious yet smiling boys when they were found by a pair of British divers 10 days later. The group had entered the sprawling Tham Luang cave to go exploring after soccer practice on June 23, but monsoon rains soon filled the tight passageways, blocking their escape.

Each of the boys, ages 11 to 16 and with no diving experience, was guided out by a pair of divers in the three-day high-stakes operation. The route, in some places just a crawl space, had oxygen canisters positioned at regular intervals to refresh each team’s air supply. Highlighting the dangers, a former Thai Navy SEAL died Friday while replenishing the canisters.

Cave-diving experts had warned diving the youngsters out was potentially too risky. But Thai officials, acutely aware the monsoon rains could trap the boys for months, seized a window of opportunity provided by relatively mild weather. A massive effort to pump out water made the winding passageways more navigable. And the confidence of the diving team, and expertise specific to the cave, grew after its first successful mission Sunday.

“We did something nobody thought possible,” Chiang Rai province acting Gov. Narongsak Osatanakorn, leader of the rescue effort, said at a celebratory news conference. Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, speaking today before the final rescue was completed, said the boys were given an anti-anxiety medication to help with their perilous removal from the cave.

Asked at a news conference in Bangkok if the boys had been sedated, Prayuth said: “Who would chloroform them? If they’re chloroformed, how could they come out? It’s called anxiolytic, something to make them not excited, not stressed.” Prayuth said the Tham Luang cave would be closed for some time to make it safe for visitors.

The first eight boys brought out were doing well and were in good spirits at the hospital. They received a treat on Tuesday: bread with chocolate spread that they had requested. Jedsada Chokdumrongsuk, permanent secretary at the Public Health Ministry, said the boys rescued Sunday were able to eat normal food by Tuesday, though they couldn’t yet take the spicy dishes favored by many Thais. Two of the boys possibly have a lung infection but all eight are generally “healthy and smiling,” he said.

“The kids are footballers, so they have high immune systems,” Jedsada told a news conference. “Everyone is in high spirits and is happy to get out. But we will have a psychiatrist evaluate them.” It could be at least a week before they can be released from the hospital, he said. For now the boys were in isolation to try to keep them safe from infections by outsiders. But family members have seen at least some of the boys from behind a glass barrier.

It was clear doctors were taking a cautious approach. Jedsada said they were uncertain what type of infections the boys could face “because we have never experienced this kind of issue from a deep cave.” If medical tests show no dangers after another two days, parents will be able to enter the isolation area dressed in sterilized clothing, staying 2 meters (yards) away from the boys, said another public health official, Tosthep Bunthong.

(PTI)