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33 women candidates from BJP in Rajasthan

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Most political parties talk about women empowerment, but women do not get enough representation in the parties. In the last two Assembly elections in Rajasthan, both the BJP and Congress did not even give 20 per cent of its tickets to women.

Rajasthan BJP now wants to change this and set a precedent. The BJP Mahila Morcha wants the party to give tickets to at least one female in every district.

Similarly, Congress female leaders in the state are demanding 33 per cent of the tickets.

Former chairperson of the State Women Commission and former President of BJP Mahila Morcha Suman Sharma said, “Compared to Congress, women have been given more opportunities in the BJP. Last time 26 women were given the ticket. This time we want that a woman will be given a ticket from every district. 33 women will be given tickets in all 33 districts across the state”.

Former BJP councillor Snehlata Sharma said that “BJP should give the ticket to a woman from Jaipur city. Earlier, Ujla Arora and Vaidya Pathak were given tickets from Jaipur. Now at least one woman should get a ticket from a seat in Jaipur.

The ruling BJP had given women the chance to contest elections on only 13 per cent of the assembly seats in the state in the last election. BJP had fielded women in only 26 seats out of 200 assembly seats across the state. Of these 22 women won the assembly elections. The Congress, on the other hand, had given tickets to women only in 24 seats. Only one female Congress leader Shakuntala Rawat became MLA in the 2013 Assembly elections.

In 2008 assembly elections, BJP had given more women the chance than 2013. BJP had given about 16 per cent assembly seats to women. Whereas, the Congress had given only 11 percent ticket to the women. Congress gave women opportunity in 23 seats in 2008. In the last assembly elections, the BJP and the Congress did not give tickets to women leaders on a single seat in Jaipur city.

“Congress President Rahul Gandhi has announced that priority will be given to women in assembly elections this time. I believe that women should get an opportunity on least 33 per cent seats. During the tenure of former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, for the first time, 50 per cent reservation was given to women in the urban local bodies elections in the state,” former mayor and Congress state general secretary Jyoti Khandelwal said.

Dayanand Saraswati’s work still relevant: President Kovind

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President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday said Swami Dayanand Saraswati’s work in the educational, spiritual and social arena was still relevant for the Indian society as well as the world.

During the inauguration of International Arya Mahasammelan, he said Dayanand Saraswati showed India the path of renaissance and self-pride in the 19th century when people considered India’s culture and beliefs inferior than the western culture.

“He was an intrepid warrior of social and spiritual reform. He took effective measures for educational and social reform especially for women empowerment and eradication of untouchability. His work is relevant even in the present times both for Indian society and the entire world,” Kovind said.

The President said the Arya Samaj had made effective contributions to promote modern education based on ethics and worked for the upliftment of all sections of society, especially women and the deprived.

He expressed hope that it would also work to promote the use of solar and other alternative sources of energy to contribute towards environmental protection.

The President said India would be celebrating 200th birth anniversary of Swami Dayanand Saraswati in 2024 and the 150th anniversary of the Arya Samaj in 2025.

“He had worked for eradication of discrimination in society on the basis of caste, creed and sect and motivated everyone to become Arya – that is – the best. It is our duty to take the work of Swami Dayanand Saraswati further,” he said.

IANS

India calls for UN sanctions against terrorists on sexual violence

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India has asked the Security Council to impose sanctions against terrorists involved in sexual violence in armed conflicts after Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had reported a huge increase in such brutalities.

“Sexual violence, abductions and human trafficking continue to be used as weapons of war in armed conflict by non-state actors and terrorist organisations,” Paulomi Tripathi, First Secretary in the Indian Mission told the Council on Thursday.

“The Sanctions Committees of the Security Council need to address the issue of proactively listing terrorist individuals and entities involved in sexual and gender-based violence in armed conflicts,” she said while participating in a debate on Women, Peace and Security.

“International cooperation for prosecution of criminals engaged in trans-boundary crimes are important to bring justice to the victims majority of whom are women and girls,” she added.

Earlier, Guterres told the Council: “The UN documented more than 800 cases of conflict-related sexual violence in 2017 – a 56 per cent increase since 2016.”

“Conflict continues to have a devastating effect on women and girls,” he added.

Various UN reports have chronicled the systematic rape, kidnapping and enslavement of of thousands women and girls by terrorist organisations like the Daesh or Islamic state in Syria, Boko Haram in Nigeria and Lord’s Resistance Army in several countries in the eastern side of Africa.

While several Security Council committees have imposed sanctions on terrorists and terror groups, none have so far meted out sanctions specifically for crimes against women and girls.

Tripathi also spoke of the general toll that instability caused by terrorism and criminal networks impose on women.

“Rapidly expanding trans-boundary criminal networks finance terror, arms supply, recruit and train of foreign fighters and destabilise whole regions which disproportionately affect women,” she said.

“Large scale movements of refugees emanating from armed conflicts increase the vulnerability of women to discrimination and exploitation.”

IANS

India’s 4Tune Factory gets UN award for women in business

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Kerala-based 4Tunes Factory has been given a special recogntion award by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) for enabling women and girls to develop skills.

Chandra Vadhana, the CEO of the company, received the “Empretec Women in Business: Special Recognition Social Award” on Thursday in Geneva at the World Investment Forum.

The award was presented by Alok Kumar, the founder of SRK Consulting Group.

According to UNCTAD, the award judges said 4Tunes Factory “worked toward activating and enabling women and girls by developing their skills”.

It said the Empretec awards are given to women-owned businesses that have benefited from the business from UNCTAD’s Empretec entrepreneurship programme.

It seeks to develop entrepreneurship and micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs) with the aim of promoting sustainable development and inclusive growth.

The 4Tunes Factory, which is based in Kakkanad, near Ernakulam, says it designs and implements “innovative concepts in the areas of human talent maximisation involving technological solutions”.

IANS

CBI row: Kejriwal welcomes SC intervention

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Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court intervention in the ongoing CBI row, saying he hoped the agency’s institutional integrity will be upheld.
“Welcome intervention by the Supreme Court in the CBI matter. In the interests of the nation, hope that institutional integrity of CBI will be upheld and powers that be will understand that their illegal acts will not go unchallenged,” Kejriwal tweeted.

Earlier, the apex court asked the Central Vigilance Commission to complete an inquiry within two weeks into the allegation against Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director Alok Verma. The inquiry will be done under the supervision of former apex court judge A.K. Patnaik.

IANS

Key equity indices open in red

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The 30-scrip S&P BSE Sensex on Friday opened in the negative territory taking cues from its Asian peers.

Heavy selling pressure was witnessed in finance, banking and metal counters.

The Sensex of the BSE opened at 33,776.80 from its previous close at 33,690.09 on Wednesday.

At 9.20 a.m., the Sensex traded at 33,553.39 down by 136.70 points or 0.41 per cent.

The Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) opened at 10,122.35 after closing at 10,124.90.

The Nifty traded at 10,072 during the morning trade session, down 52.90 points or 0.52 per cent.

Yes Bank lost over six per cent on Friday after the private lender reported a decline of 3.7 per cent in its net profit for the quarter ended September.

IANS

Trump signs new sanctions against Hezbollah

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US President Donald Trump has signed new sanctions targeting the Iranian-funded militant group and political party Hezbollah, which is considered a terrorist organisation by Washington.

“Over the past year we have levied the highest sanctions ever imposed on Hezbollah — in a single year, by far. Just a few moments ago, I signed legislation imposing even more hard-hitting sanctions on Hezbollah to further starve them of their funds. And they are starving for them,” Trump said during an event on Thursday marking the 35th anniversary of the attack on US Marine barracks in Beirut.

The legislation, known as the Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Amendments Act, was sponsored by Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, reports CNN.

The bill ramps up reporting requirements and places further financial and economic sanctions on the group.

“We will target, disrupt and dismantle their operational and financing efforts, of which they have plenty and we will never forget what they did to our Marines in Beirut,” the President added.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement that the sanctions “will further isolate Hezbollah from the international financial system and reduce its funding”.

“These sanctions will target foreign persons and government agencies that knowingly assist or support Hezbollah, and Hezbollah-affiliated networks that engage in drug trafficking or other transnational crime,” she added.

IANS

Hafiz Saeed’s JuD, FIF no more on banned outfits’ list

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 Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed’s Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and the Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) are no more on the list of banned outfits after the presidential ordinance that proscribed them under a UN resolution lapsed, a court here was told.

During a hearing on Thursday of a petition filed by Saeed, his counsel informed the Islamabad High Court that the presidential ordinance had lapsed and it had never been extended, Dawn news reported.

Deputy Attorney General Raja Khalid Mehmood Khan confirmed that the ordinance had lapsed.

The petitioner had challenged the ordinance under which his organisations had been banned for being on the watch list of the UN Security Council.

In February, former President Mamnoon Hussain promulgated an ordinance amending the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, with regards to proscription of terrorist individuals and organisations to include entities listed by the UN Security Council – in a move to declare JuD and FIF as proscribed groups.

Saeed contended in the petition that he established JuD in 2002 and cut off all ties with the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), but India continued to malign JuD for its past association with the terror outfit.

The petitioner said he was kept in detention in 2009 and 2017 due to India’s pressure.

He added that the UN Security Council had passed a resolution against JuD after which the government of Pakistan put it on the watch list.

The JuD chief termed it against the sovereignty of Pakistan that an ordi­na­nce was issued to ban his organisation.

According to a list updated on September 5 on the National Counter Terrorism Authority’s website, 66 organisations have been banned in the country and JuD and FIF were not among them.

However, the two Hafiz Saeed-linked organisations were “under watch by the Ministry of Interior”.

Ians

 

Being gay is God’s greatest gift to me, says Tim Cook

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Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that being gay has been God’s greatest gift to him, the media reported.

On October 30, 2014, Cook became the first CEO of a major company to come out as gay.

Although his sexual orientation had been widely rumoured beforehand, he had not confirmed it publicly.

Cook said he was happy about that distinction as well as his decision.

“I’m very proud of it,” the Apple CEO was quoted as saying to Christiane Amanpour on Wednesday in an exclusive interview for her programme on CNN International and PBS.

Being gay is “God’s greatest gift to me”, he said.

Cook said he chose to come out publicly after receiving letters from children who were “going through being bullied, being pushed out of their homes, very close to suicide”.

“My strong view is that everyone should be treated with respect… I was public because I started to receive stories from kids who read online that I was gay,” he said.

Cook said he is a private person but ultimately decided that he was being “selfish” by keeping quiet about his identity when he could help people by coming out.

“I needed to do something for them,” Cook said. He wanted to demonstrate to gay children that they “can be gay and still go on and do some big jobs in life”.

Cook said that coming out as gay has given him empathy towards those not in the majority and has also helped him as a leader, he said.

“I learned what it was like to be a minority,” Cook told CNN.

“The feeling of being in a minority gives you a level of empathy for other people who are not in the majority.”

Prejudicial comments have also given him a thick skin, Cook said.

“That turns out to be pretty beneficial from this role as well.”

In the interview, Cook also shared his thoughts on the US President Donald Trump administration’s policies on tax, trade with China and immigration.

Cook applauded Trump’s decisions on corporate tax cuts. He believes it will help “people invest more in the US”.

However, Cook disagrees with Trump’s immigration reduction policies stating “immigration adds to GDP”.

IANS

Ex-SC judge to supervise CVC probe against Alok Verma

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The Supreme Court on Friday appointed one of its former judges, Justice A.K. Patnaik, to supervise the inquiry into the allegations against CBI Director Alok Verma while giving two weeks time to the CVC to complete the probe.

Making it clear that prolonging the inquiry was not in the nation’s best interest, a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Sanjay Krishan Kaul and Justice K.M. Joseph said the inquiry would be conducted on the allegation contained in the Cabinet Secretary’s note to the CVC.

As Attorney General K.K. Venugopal told the court that the inquiry should not be on the allegation against Verma but also on the allegations raised against CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana, Chief Justice Gogoi said: “We are only concerned with Verma.”

The court also asked the officiating Director M. Nageswara Rao not to take any policy or major decision except for routine ones.

It directed all decisions taken by Rao “after taking over charge till this hour” (when the order was being dictated) to be submitted to the court in a sealed envelope by November 12.

IANS

The court said it may reverse or retain Rao’s decisions.

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