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Archives for August 2018

India shortlisted among 5 countries for Uber flying cabs

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Tokyo Fasten your seatbelt to board a flying cab soon as Uber on Thursday selected India as one of the first five shortlisted finalist countries that could be home to the first international Uber Air City within the next five years.

After evaluating countries across the globe, Uber Elevate — the ride-hailing platform’s aerial taxi arm — announced Japan, India, Australia, Brazil and France as shortlisted countries at the first “Uber Elevate Asia Pacific Expo” in Tokyo here.

Uber will choose one of the cities from these 5 shortlisted countries as its third launch city for flying taxis — after Dallas and Los Angeles in the US.

“Mumbai, Delhi, and Bengaluru are some of the most congested cities in the world, where travelling even a few kilometers can take over an hour. Uber Air offers tremendous potential to help create a transportation option that goes over congestion, instead of adding to it,” the company said in a statement.

Uber Elevate also announced plans to experiment with drone delivery for Uber Eats, and demonstrated how potential Uber Air routes in Asia Pacific cities could benefit local transportation systems.

“We are proud to host the first ever Uber Elevate Asia Pacific Expo. We are announcing a shortlist of five countries where Uber Air can immediately transform transportation and take our technology to new heights,” said Eric Allison, Head of Uber Aviation Programmes.

In the next five years, Uber customers in launch cities will be able to push a button and get a flight on demand.

To enable this, Uber has assembled a network of partners that includes vehicle manufacturers, real estate developers, technology developers and more.

Dallas and Los Angeles were previously announced as the first two US launch cities and at the second annual Uber Elevate Summit in May, Uber announced it was seeking an international city as a third partner.

“We see much potential in flying cars, and we anticipate that flying cars can be used not only to help solve traffic congestion in urban areas, but it will also help with increase mobility between city centres and remote islands and mountainous areas, promote tourism in Japan as well as enhance disaster relief operations,” said Daisaku Hiraki, Parliamentary Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan.

“The Uber Elevate team is now inviting conversations with stakeholders across major cities in these countries, and will announce the chosen Uber Air international city within the next six months,” said the company.

Uber Elevate has established a criteria framework to select the third city, anchored around three priority principles: sizable market, local commitment and enabling conditions.

Facebook’s Head of News Products joins The Atlantic

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San Francisco Alex Hardiman, Head of News Products at Facebook, is joining US-based magazine and multi-platform publisher The Atlantic as its Chief Business and Product Officer.

“At The Atlantic, she will lead the product, engineering, data and growth teams and shape The Atlantic’s ongoing initiatives on digital consumer revenue,” the Adweek reported on Wednesday.

The Atlantic reportedly said it was expanding its ranks by 100 and that the teams that would report to Hardiman have doubled in size over the past one year.

“Hardiman is taking over many of the duties previously led by Kim Lau, who was promoted earlier this summer from senior vice president of digital to executive vice president of strategy and operations,” the report added.

She joined Facebook in 2016 when criticism against the social networking giant for its role in spreading “fake news” was fast spreading.

“Alex is a true leader who built a fantastic team,” a representative from Facebook was quoted as saying by TechCrunch.

She was elevated to lead Facebook’s news efforts on the product side in May 2017.

Prior to that, Hardiman has spent more than a decade at The New York Times, completing her tenure as vice president of news products.

[IANS]

Modi in Kathmandu, will meet BIMSTEC leaders

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Kathmandu Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who arrived here in Nepal on Thursday to participate in Fourth Bimstec Summit will be meeting heads of state from the member nations.

Modi was received by Nepal’s Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ishwor Pokhrel at the Kathmandu airport. All domestic and international flights were suspended for two hours ahead of his arrival.

Before participating in Bimstec inaugural session, Modi and other heads of state will jointly call on the President Bidhya Devi Bhandari followed by a luncheon meeting.

Modi will later meet Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena.

He will attend the Bimstec inagural session and deliver a speech. After the inaugural session, Modi will hold bilateral talks with his Nepalese and Bangladeshi counterparts K.P. Oli and Sheikh Hasina.

[IANS]

VP, politicians, celebrities pay last respects to Harikrishna

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Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu, top politicians of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and Telugu film personalities on Thursday paid their last respects to TDP founder NTR’s son Nandamuri Harikrishna, who died in a road accident.

Venkaiah Naidu placed a wreath on the body of Harikrishna, at his residence in Mehdipatnam area here. He consoled the family members including his actor sons Junior NTR and Kalyan Ram.

Later talking to reporters, he recalled the services of the actor-politician in films and politics. Naidu described Harikrishna as an obedient son who gave strength to his father N. T. Rama Rao.

The Vice-President said Harikrishna was an affable person and used to speak in a free and frank manner. He recalled that in the Rajya Sabha he insisted that he should be allowed to speak in Telugu and when the then deputy chairman said the rules don’t permit it, Harikrishna intervened by offering to translate the speech in English.

Harikrishna (61) died on Wednesday when the SUV, which he was driving, overturned while negotiating a turn in Telangana’s Nalgonda district.

A former Member of Parliament, former Andhra Pradesh minister and politburo member of TDP, Harikrishna was son-in-law of TDP president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.

Chandrababu Naidu, his son and cabinet minister Nara Lokesh, Harikrishna’s brother actor Balakrishna, several other ministers and TDP leaders from the neighbouring state are camping here since Wednesday.

Governor of both Telugu states E. S. L. Narasimhan and Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had paid their last respects on Wednesday. Ministers, MPs, leaders of various political parties and film personalities and Harikrishna’s fans made a beeline at his residence to pay homage.

Actors Nagarjuna, Arjun, Jagapati Babu and director Raghvendra Rao were among the film personalities who paid their last respects.

The last rites of Harikrishna will be performed later in the day in Hyderabad with state honours. Police have made elaborate arrangements for the funeral procession from his residence to Mahaprasthanam in Jubliee Hills.

(IANS)

Lalu surrenders in Ranchi CBI court

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Former Bihar Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad on Thursday surrendered before a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court here to serve his sentence in a fooder scam case.

Lalu Prasad surrendered before Justice S.S. Prasad, who ordered he be sent to the Birsa Munda Central Jail.

From jail he could later be shifted to the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) for treatment, the judge said.

The Jharkhand High Court on September 24 had directed him to surrender by August 30. He was out on provisional bail since May 11.

[IANS]

India’s Supreme Court criticises police for arresting activists

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Activists’ arrest over alleged caste incitement also draws condemnation from rights groups and opposition parties.

India’s Supreme Court has asked the Indian government to explain the arrests of five prominent activists in connection with caste violence that took place earlier this year.

The high-profile arrests triggered outrage and protests across India on Wednesday.

“Dissent is the safety valve of democracy. If you don’t allow the safety valve, the pressure cooker will burst,” Justice Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud, who is among the three judges hearing the case at the Supreme Court, observed.

The arrested human rights activists received a reprieve from the top court, which directed that they be held under house arrest instead of police custody.

On Tuesday, searches were carried out at the homes of poet Varavara Rao in the southern city of Hyderabad; activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Maharashtra, trade union campaigner and law professor Sudha Bhardwaj in Faridabad; and civil liberties activist Gautam Navalakha in New Delhi. Subsequently these five were arrested.

Police said the activists had spurred Dalits in the face of a pride event at Bhima Koregaon in January that spilled over into weeks of violence and protests across Maharashtra state.

Dalits, at the lowest rung of the Hindu caste system, have suffered thousands of years of exclusion and extreme poverty.

On Wednesday, protests were held across India by 37 civil rights groups and enraged Indians protested on social media even as activists warned of a further crackdown on those defending human rights in the country.

The police are also probing the alleged connection of those arrested to Maoist rebels who have been involved in an armed struggle for decades against Indian security forces.

Maoist rebels, also known as Naxals, claim to fight across states in central and eastern India, for the rights of tribals, poor farmers and landless labourers.

On Twitter, Indians shared their outrage and trended #MeTooUrbanNaxal.

The police had also arrested five Dalit activists in June this year in connection with the same case.

The government has been trying to silence those who are defending the defenceless, said Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who challenged the arrests at the top court on Wednesday.

“This is an outright attempt to intimidate human rights activists, dissenters and silence those who are opposed to the fascist policies of this government,” Bhushan told Al Jazeera.

“What those arrested have in common, they are our finest rights activists speaking out against the government. They are standing up for the rights of the poor and the marginalised in this country,” he added.

The Supreme Court will resume hearing the case on September 6.

Joint Commissioner of Pune Police Shivaji Bodkhe confirmed the arrests but refused to answer questions from report.

India’s National Human Rights Commission has sent a notice to the government of Maharashtra asking them to explain the arrests while Amnesty International has called it a “crackdown on human rights activists”.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata party has defended the crackdown.

“Those arrested are violent people who are conspiring against Indian society. Maoism is a banned ideology, so what do you expect?” BJP leader and Member of Parliament says Rakesh Sinha

“India is neither Saudi Arabia nor China. The doors of the judiciary are open to them if they think they are innocent. Let there be a free and fair trial,” he added.

But the arrests have brought back into the spotlight the debate about what some called the shrinking space for dissent in India under the government of Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi.

Gauri Lankesh, journalist and a strident critic of the current ruling party and its ideology, was killed last year, while a left-wing student leader Umar Khalid survived an assassination attempt this month.

Critics also pointed to the several arrests of Dalit activists including leaders like Chandrashekhar Azad who has been imprisoned under India’s draconian National Security Act since last year as examples of the right-wing government’s clampdown on tolerance and freedom of expression.

(Aljazeera)

Kerala Assembly to discuss floods

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The Kerala Assembly will meet on Thursday for a day to discuss the worst floods in a century to hit the state killing hundreds, displacing thousands and causing widespread destruction.

The session will start at 9 a.m and will close at noon but given the gravity of the situation the time schedule may be extended.

The Congress-led opposition has urged Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan to see that the treasury and opposition benches be given 150 minutes and all the legislators representing the affected places should be given an hour to speak.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will place before the house a resolution of the government.

In the 140-member Assembly, it will be left to the lone BJP legislator O. Rajagopal to defend the Modi government, which has been accused by the Left and the Congress of giving Kerala a raw deal after the disaster.

The opposition blames faulty dam water management for the unprecedented floods.

They have demanded that a separate account be opened to receive the contributions for rebuilding Kerala. But Vijayan has shot down the idea.

Ever since monsoon rains began lashing Kerala on May 29, a total of 417 people have died. At one point, more than one million people took shelter in relief camps.

(IANS)

Fake Rs 50, Rs 100 notes’ detection record high in 2017-18: RBI

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The detection of counterfeit notes in the Rs 50 and Rs 100 denomination witnessed a record high in 2017-18 compared with two preceding fiscals, the RBI announced on Wednesday.

According to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) annual report for 2017-18, the number of fake Rs 50 notes detected shot up 154.3 per cent to 23,447 pieces, as against 9,222 notes detected in 2016-17 and 6,453 in 2015-16.

The RBI said that the detection of counterfeit Rs 100 notes increased 35 per cent to 239,182 pieces during the said period, compared with 177,195 notes in 2016-17 and 221,447 in 2015-16.

However, the detection of counterfeit notes was 31.4 per cent lower in 2017-18 compared with the previous year.

“Counterfeit notes in denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 detected in SBNs (specified banknotes) decreased by 59.7 and 59.6 per cent respectively, as the same comprised only the residual part of SBN deposits processed during 2017-18,” the report said.

This “residual” currency refers to the high-value notes scrapped by demonetisation in November 2016.

“During 2017-18, as many as 522,783 pieces of counterfeit notes were detected in the banking system, of which 63.9 per cent were detected by banks other than the Reserve Bank,” the RBI said.

Moreover, out of the total fake notes detected at the RBI, their share during 2017-18 was higher at 36.1 per cent, compared with 4.3 per cent during the previous year.

This was because of processing of a large volume of SBNs withdrawn from circulation by demonetisation, the report said.

Speaking of the Indian economy, the annual report said that there are upside risks to inflation which requires vigilance.

Pointing out that while headline inflation is likely to face upside risks over the remaining period of the current fiscal, the RBI projected the country’s real Gross Domestic Product for the same period to grow to 7.4 per cent from 6.7 per cent in the previous year.

India’s central bank also said that credit growth is likely to be supported by the progress in resolving the most pressing problem of non-performing assets, or bad loans, under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.

(IANS)

Dutee wins silver in 200m race

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India’s Dutee Chand grabbed the silver medal in the women’s 200 metres race at the 18th Asian Games here on Wednesday.

Dutee clocked 23.20 seconds to finish behind Bahrain’s Edidiong Odiong, who claimed the gold medal in 22.96 seconds.

Wei Yongli won the bronze medal with a timing of 23.27 seconds.

SC order puts activists in house arrest till Sep 6

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Describing dissent as a safety valve, the Supreme Court on Wednesday directed that the five human rights activists arrested by Maharashtra Police should be kept under house arrest until the next date of hearing on September 6.

In a huge relief to the activists, an apex court bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra ordered house arrest on a petition filed by eminent historian Romila Thapar and four others challenging the Tuesday arrests.

Taking a dim view of the crackdown, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said: “Dissent is a safety valve of democracy. If it is not allowed, the pressure cooker will burst.”

He noted that the arrests had taken place nine months after the activists were linked to the violence at Bhima-Koregaon in Maharashtra.

Talking to reporters later, lawyer Prashant Bhushan said the Supreme Court had issued notices to the central and Maharashtra governments.

Those arrested on Tuesday included Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, Gautam Navlakha in Delhi, Sudha Bharadwaj in Haryana and Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonzalves in Maharashtra.

They were to have been taken to Pune but would now be sent home and put under house arrest.

(IANS)

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