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Archives for December 2018

Now, Swiggy delivers non-veg on veg order in Bengaluru

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A day after the video of a Zomato delivery personnel eating from food packetsmeant to be delivered, went viral, a woman who ordered a vegetarian dish on food delivery app Swiggy was served chicken in her dish.

The order was placed from the restaurant Django Kitchen in Indiranagar by Arundhati Ramanathan, who posted a tweet regarding the incident on Tuesday. Her tweet read, “Hey @swiggy_in I ordered a mushroom stroganoff from Django Kitchen and you serve me chicken, which I unsuspectingly ate! I want a b***** refund. Can’t believe you guys can still mix up vegetarian and non vegetarian food.”V

Arundathi also posted a screenshot of the order, which was a ‘Low Keto Carb Mushroom Stroganoff,’ ordered from Django Kitchen. SwiggyCares, the official Swiggy customer support Twitter handle, apologised in reply to her tweet. When contacted, Arundathi did not wish to further comment on the incident.

A written response by Swiggy regarding the incident stated that the start-up was ‘extremely disappointed’ with the incident. The response stated that on receipt of the complaint, the team concerned had been informed to investigate it. “This might have happened either because of a mistake from the restaurant or a mistake by the delivery executive. The restaurant might have, by mistake, given out a wrong item. Or, the delivery executive could have delivered someone else’s order to this customer,” stated the response.

With regard to the specific incident, the response added that once Swiggy had the confirmation about who the guilty party is, it will take action against the party as per the company’s policies.On Monday, the video of a delivery personnel from Zomato eating from the food he was supposed to deliver, went viral, following which Zomato representatives issued an apology and sacked the person responsible. The incident was later confirmed to have occurred in Madurai.

Poll results destroyed ‘Modi magic theory’: Yashwant Sinha

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Former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha on Wednesday said the election results from three key states have destroyed the “untenable theory of the Modi magic” and hoped that the saffron party’s debacle would propel the opposition parties to bond better for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The BJP has lost three of its bastions – Madhya Pradesh Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan – to the Congress in the just-concluded assembly polls. In Mizoram and Telangana, the party won one seat each.

Sinha, who has been vocal with his criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also suggested two alternatives for defeating the BJP in the general election.

“A national-level pre-poll alliance of all opposition parties, including the Congress, should be formed to put up a one-to-one fight against the saffron party and stop division in anti-BJP votes.

“If the first option does not succeed, there should be a nationwide pre-poll alliance of regional parties with possible adjustment with the Congress, where ever that is possible,” he said.

The veteran leader, who held portfolios of finance and external affairs from 1998-2004 under Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led BJP government at the Centre. quit the party earlier this year.

He said there is no conflict of interest among the regional parties.

“The TMC (in West Bengal) won’t have any conflict with the TDP (in Andhra Pradesh) or the DMK (in Tamil Nadu). There is a bright possibility of regional parties, together, getting more seats than the BJP. The regional parties should have an adjustment with Congress. After polls, they can come together for government formation,” Sinha told media in an interview.

He exhorted the Congress to refrain from making the mistake of declaring itself as leader of the opposition alliance even though it managed to win assembly elections in three states.

The leader of the opposition alliance should be chosen only after the elections, Sinha suggested.

“The election results in five states destroyed the untenable theory of the Modi magic and will propel the opposition parties to bond better for the next Lok Sabha polls,” the former Union minister asserted.

Citing reasons behind his recommendation of pre-poll alliance, Sinha said if the saffron party emerges as the single largest party with around 150 seats, it may be called first to form the government even if the Congress and the regional outfits taken together bag more seats.

“According to the convention, which has been established in our country, the President will be well within his rights to invite the single largest party (BJP) and that will open floodgates for mischief (horse trading). But if the regional parties form a pre-poll alliance it will be treated as a single entity,” he reasoned.

His comments came in the backdrop of opposition parties such as RJD, SP, TDP vociferously seeking a grand alliance and the Congress stressing on state-specific alliances.

The veteran leader alleged that the BJP was rooting for presidential form of elections.

“Who was Narendra Modi before being elected as PM? He was a chief minister of a state. There is an array of leaders in the opposition parties who have served as CMs and former ministers. There is no dearth of leaders,” he said.

Sinha’s remarks come days after the BJP took at a dig at the anti-BJP camp, asking it to first declare a prime ministerial candidate before thinking of ousting the Narendra Modi government.

IANS

2nd Junior boxing Nationals from Wednesday

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 Over 750 boxers, including 300 in the womens section, will participate in the second BFI Junior National Championships, starting at the Chandigarh University, Mohali, from Wednesday.

The event organised by the Punjab Boxing Association gives an opportunity to the young pugilists, representing 30 states in 13 weight categories, to come up through the ranks and enter the mainstream of boxing to be able to get noticed at the international level. 

The seven-day championships are expected to be as riveting as it can get with boxers from Haryana, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, to name a few states, will vie with one another to win the team championships in both sections.

While intensity among the pugilists will be something to watch out for, Punjab boxer Khushi, a silver medallist in the 2nd Nation’s Cup at Serbia, earlier this year will be packing punches in the 70 kg class while last year’s national champion and gold medallist in Serbia, N Baby Rojisana (52Kg) from Manipur; Arundhati Choudhary and Mitika Sanjay Gunele (66kg) from Rajasthan and Maharashtra respectively during the second edition of the Junior Girl’s Nationals. 

On the other hand, the competition amongst the boys will be equally fierce. 

Vinit Kumar (75kg) medallist in Asian Junior Championship in 2017 will be representing Haryana while pugilists from other states will be up for strong challenges as SSCB boxers and gold medallists in Serbia, K Sanjit Singh (46 kg) and Biswamitra (48 kg) will aim for no less than gold at the second edition of the Junior Boy’s Nationals.

Khelo India gold medallist Ajay Kumar of Haryana will also be throwing in his punches in the 60kg category. 

The Boxing Federation of India (BFI) since its inception in mid 2016, have ensured all age group nationals are staged with able participation in all weight categories. 

The first edition of the Junior Boy’s Nationals was held in Guwahati in 2017 and the girl’s nationals were held in Rohtak, last year.

IANS

Titans will enter PKL play-offs, asserts star raider Rahul

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Image result for Titans will enter PKL play-offs, asserts star raider Rahul

  Lying at the third place in Zone B, the Telugu Titans are struggling to seal a play-off berth as the cash-rich Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) approaches its business end, but the team’s star raider Rahul Chaudhary is optimistic of his side’s advancement to the next stage.

The Titans, who are currently playing their home leg here, have fetched 45 points from 17 games with seven wins and nine losses. They have to win all their remaining five contests to march ahead in this year’s league.

Three teams each from zones A and B will qualify for the next round. The Titans are facing some tough competition from the fourth placed Bengal Warriors, who are breathing down their necks at 43 points from 15 matches. Currently placed fifth, UP Yoddha are also in with a chance, provided they win their remaining four contests.

However, Rahul, who has been a part of the Titans’ roster since the inaugural PKL, is confident that his team will surpass all the hurdles. 

Talking to IANS, Rahul, also known as “raid-machine”, spoke on his team’s chances for play-offs beside his personal journey over the years.

“All the our boys are fit and none of them are injured, which is very good from the team’s point of view. There was a bit of combination problem, we failed to make a right decision as what should we do and what we shouldn’t, which resulted in our losses in some games,” the 25-year-old said.

“We are trying to not repeat the mistakes. All our raiders are performing very well.The only problem is that at crucial moments, we fail to stop them (opponent’s raiders) from taking points. Our defence needs slight improvement and if it happens, we will certainly be victorious in all our matches,” Rahul opined.

In the history of the league, the Bijnor boy tops the points chart with a total of 845 points. He has amassed 135 points from 17 games in the ongoing sixth season but Rahul insisted that he has never played for personal records.

“I don’t aim for records .My only aim is to make the team win so that the trophy is ours at the end. Points keep on coming but the trophy doesn’t. I hope the trophy also comes to us this time,” he said.

On being asked whether his team is over-dependent on him, Rahul said: “It is not like that but yes the main raider is the lifeline of any team. Yes, I think they rely on me a bit (laughs).”

Rahul, who earlier used to play as a defender, also said that he is enjoying to be a raider now.

“I am enjoying being a raider than a defender. A defender would make a maximum of five catches in 40 minutes and that too, it can be both successful or unsuccesful. While raiding, just one single good jump or a good raid brings more applause to you,” expressed the ace raider.

Since the day the Titan’s home-leg kicked-off, Rahul and his team mates have enjoyed immense support from the locals with fans chanting the name of the star raider and every game at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium here turning out to be jam-packed.

However, Rahul feels it was something which motivates him to perform better rather than adding extra pressure.

“They (local fans) have given tremendous support to us, be it on-the-field or off-the-field. Such great support only motivates you to perform better so that we could also make them (fans) happy. But, once being on the mat, we solely focus on our game, we forget the outer hustle and bustle,” said Rahul.

Rahul, who used to be overweight during his childhood, is today considered as one of the fittest player in this sport. 

Commenting on how he keeps himself fit, Rahul explained: “It (fitness) all depends on your diet and practice. I also try to practice more and more besides keeping a proper check on my daily intake. I mostly rely on dry fruits, fruits and avoid foods containing carbohydrate.”

“Earlier, I used to be overweight during my childhood days as I ate anything, anytime and my daily routine lacked physical labour. It has now changed completely,” the raid-machine signed off.

IANS

Suspense continues over Rajasthan CM

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  Who will be Rajasthan’s new Congress Chief Minister? The question remained unanswered on Wednesday as the first round of meeting of newly elected MLAs failed to decide on a leader.

Both former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and state Congress President Sachin Pilot reached the Congress office to attend the meeting of MLAs which was to choose the leader of the Congress Legislature Party.

Both Pilot and Gehlot are leading contenders for the top post amid slogan shouting by supporters. 

Congress sources said both Gehlot and Pilot supporters were in equal numbers and hence a consensus had been built so that the Congress High Command — an euphemism for party President Rahul Gandhi — can take a call on the CM’s post.

Meanwhile, Congress observer K.C. Venugopal was taking feedback from each MLA and his report shall soon be sent to Rahul Gandhi.

Once Gandhi decides on a name, the next meeting will be called to announce the name of the Rajasthan Chief Minister, said a Congress source.

Both Gehlot and Pilot have said the Congress leadership should take the final decision.

Heavy police deployment has been made at the venue to avoid any untoward incident. 

IANS

Assam NRC claims, objections can be filed till Dec 31: SC

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Assam NRC claims, objections can be filed till Dec 31: SC

  The Supreme Court on Wednesday extended till December 31 the deadline for filing claims and objection by around 40 lakh people who were left out of Assam’s draft National Register of Citizens (NRC)

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman said that issuance of notice to those who filed claims and objections will commence on February 1, 2019, and the verification would done from February 15.

Earlier, the deadline was December 15, while issuance of notice was to start on January 15, 2019, and the verification process on February 1.

The court changed the deadline on an application by the Assam government which had sought one month extension for filing claims and objections.

IANS

Indian charged with smuggling foreign nationals into US

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 A 38-year-old Indian man has been charged with conspiring to smuggle six of his countrymen into the US on commercial airline flights, authorities said.

Bhavin Patel was arrested at the Newark Liberty International Airport last week and was charged on Monday with one count of conspiracy and six counts of smuggling foreign nationals into the US for private financial gain, the US Attorney’s Office for New Jersey said in a statement. 

The conspiracy count carries a maximum 10-year jail term while the smuggling counts each carry a five-year maximum term. Patel is due in federal court in Newark on December 18, NJ.com reported on Tuesday.

According to court papers, Patel was the ringleader of a group that smuggled at least six Indian citizens into the US by paying an unspecified undercover law enforcement agent hundreds of thousands of dollars over a two-year period beginning in 2013.

He first arranged for his clients to travel from India to Thailand, where they boarded flights bound for New Jersey, officials said. 

The six people illegally entered the US in pairs on December 13, 2013; April 10, 2014; and October 2, 2014, according to authorities.

Charging documents didn’t specify how much money Patel made from the operation.

IANS

Symantec identifies group behind cyber attacks in Pakistan, Turkey

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California-headquartered global cybersecurity company Symantec said it has identified the group behind a recent series of cyber attacks designed to gather intelligence from Pakistan, Turkey, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Jordan and some regions in Europe and North America.

The group, dubbed Seedworm or MuddyWater, is likely operating out of Middle East, and probably backed by a nation-state for targeted cyber espionage purposes, according to a Symantec investigation. 

Seedworm has been operating since at least 2017, with its most recent activity observed in December 2018, Symantec’s DeepSight Managed Adversary and Threat Intelligence (MATI) team said in a blog post on Tuesday.

The researchers found a GitHub repository used by the group to store their scripts, as well as several post-compromise tools the group uses to exploit victims once they have established a foothold in their network.

“In September 2018, we found evidence of Seedworm and the espionage group APT28 (aka Swallowtail, Fancy Bear), on a computer within the Brazil-based embassy of an oil-producing nation,” said the Symantec researchers. 

Access to the victim’s email, social media, and chat accounts is one of the group’s likely goals, according to the researchers. 

“Since its existence first came to light, we’ve seen Seedworm modify the way it operates. Since early 2017, they have continually updated their Powermud backdoor and other tools to avoid detection and to thwart security researchers analysing the tools,” the blog post said. 

“They’ve also used GitHub to store malware and a handful of publicly available tools, which they then customise to carry out their work,” it added. 

The researchers analysed data on 131 victims that were compromised by Seedworm’s Powermud backdoor from late September to mid-November 2018.

The telecommunications and IT services sectors were their main targets, the next most common group of victims was in the oil and gas sector, followed by universities and embassies, the findings showed.

Election losses in Hindi heartland worry BJP in UP

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 With three major states in the Hindi heartland slipping out of its hands, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is worried in Uttar Pradesh where even party insiders complain about poor governance and growing lawlessness.

“What if this repeats here too?” is a question that is haunting many in the BJP. For a party that stormed to power after 16 years of political exile, the stunning 2017 Assembly victory is beginning to look like history.

Barely a year-and-a-half later, the popularity ratings of the state government, specially Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, are worryingly down. 

Many of his decisions, like renaming Faizabad to Ayodhya and Allahabad to Prayagraj and his use of acidic language, have soured his appeal, even among BJP supporters. BJP’s allies too are openly speaking against the way the state is run.

“There is a lot of corruption all round. Officials are not even listening to the Chief Minister’s directives,” said Om Prakash Rajbhar, who heads BJP ally Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) and is a cabinet Minister. 

A perpetual rebel who has often broken ranks with the ruling party, Rajbhar’s disillusionment, unlike that of others, is out in the open.

There are, however, many senior Ministers in the ruling party who complain in private over what they feel is the poor and lacklustre performance of the BJP government. 

“The government is directionless and has failed to inspire confidence,” says a party veteran who taunts the party leadership for not meeting the people’s aspirations.

“We are bogged down by a haughty bureaucracy which refuses to fall in line. As a result, our party workers and supporters are disgruntled,” he added. 

A BJP General Secretary is accused by a Minister of trying to corner major tenders in irrigation and PWD departments. The Minister moaned that party leaders failed to understand the public mood.

Samajwadi Party spokesperson Abdul Hafiz Gandhi for once agrees with the BJP leaders’ assessment and points out that except for “hatred and rumour mongering”, the BJP government has failed to achieve anything in one-and-a-half years. 

Lawlessness, he adds, continues in the state. And despite lofty claims and reckless police “encounters”, in which critics say many innocents have died, criminals continue to have a free run. 

An Apple executive was shot dead by a policeman in cold blood. And now a police officer too was shot dead during mob violence in Bulandshahr. Many children have died in poorly-managed state-run hospitals.

“So what has changed?” asks a senior BJP leader, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Former Minister and Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (PSP) President Shivpal Yadav says the government was not only anti-farmer but was also fanning communal passions which he says was not in the interest of the state. 

The BJP’s defeats in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh show that the time for the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “fast running out”, he added. 

Another Minister, also not wishing to be named, told IANS that after initial bravado Adityanath had failed to control the bureaucracy and was dependent on a small coterie of officers. 

He pointed out how while the previous Samajwadi Party regime made giant strides in infrastructure, the present one had not been able to deliver results.

“The 308-km Agra-Lucknow Expressway was built from scratch in 18 months flat. We have not been able to even start the Poorvanchal Expressway,” he rued.

The coming together of bitter rivals Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls is also sending the saffron camp into jitters. 

IANS

Former Ford executives convicted in torture case in Argentina

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A court has found the two former executives involved in the torture of workers during the dictatorship in the 1970s.

A court in Argentina has sentenced two former executives of Ford Motor company for colluding with the country’s military dictatorship in the 1970s and early 80s.

They were found guilty of helping the regime detain union members, who were then tortured in detention centres.

Aljazeera

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