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India’s Russia missile purchase, Iran won’t be focus of 2+2 meet: Pompeo

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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that India’s planned purchase of a Russian missile system or its relations with Iran will not be “the primary focus” of the “incredibly important” 2+2 Strategic Dialogue meeting he and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis will be having with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Seetharaman this week.

Calling India a “true strategic partner,” he said on Tuesday the meeting in New Delhi is “really about things that are big and strategic and will go on for 20, 40, 50 years” and “those are the kinds of topics that Secretary Mattis and I are hoping to address”.

“We have a true strategic partner who, frankly, is our only major defence partner… with whom we have a great relationship and who is very important to our success in our Indo-Pacific strategy — enormous country with incredibly opportunity and capacity for wealth creation,” he told reporters travelling with him to India according to a transcript provided by the State Department.

“We hope we can find opportunities to continue to expand the relationship not only diplomatic and military-to-military but a good set of business relationships as well,” he added.

“There’s half a dozen things on the agenda that we’re really intent on making progress on,” he said.

The 2+2 Strategic Dialogue was postponed twice at the request of the US — first in April when the leadership of the State Department was transitioning from Rex Tillerson to Pompeo.

“I regret it was my fault the second time” in July, he said. “I had to travel to Pyongyang.” Trump had suddenly set up a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump had decided on the Strategic Dialogue when they met in Washington in 2017.

Trump administration’s strategic vision embodies India and the US as “the two bookends of stability” in the Asia Pacific region — and a counterbalance to China’s rising power.

Symbolically, the US now calls the region Indo-Pacific and even renamed its Pacific military command.

At this week’s meeting, Iran and the Russian missile defence system purchase “will certainly come up, but I don’t think they will be the primary focus of what it is we are trying to accomplish here,” Pompeo said.

“Those decisions are important to the relationship for sure, but I don’t see us resolving those during this set of meetings of the Strategic Dialogue,” he added.

India is planning to buy five advanced S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems from Russia in a deal estimated to cost about Rs 40,000 crore.

India reportedly also plans to continue buying oil from Iran despite threat of sanctions by Trump, who reneged on the agreement between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany to stop Tehran’s nuclear programme.

Gutkha scam: CBI raids 40 places in TN

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The CBI on Wednesday conducted raids at 40 locations in Tamil Nadu in connection with the multi-crore gutka scam in which involvement of state Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar and Director General of Police T.K. Rajendran is suspected.

“Separate CBI teams conducted simultaneous raids at 40 locations in Tamil Nadu early in the morning in Gutkha scam. The raid is still on,” Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) spokesperson Abhishek Dayal told IANS at around 11 am.

CBI officials in Chennai said the raids were at 30 places, officials in New Delhi put the number at 40.

The raids were conducted at the godowns, offices and residences of pan masala and gutkha manufacturers in Tamil Nadu.

The CBI in May-end had registered a case in the scam against unknown officials of Central Excise, Tamil Nadu government, Food Safety Department, public servants and private persons under charges of criminal conspiracy of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act following the direction of the Madras High Court on April 26.

The agency has been investigating into all aspects of the offence of illegal manufacture, import, supply, distribution and sale of gutkha and other forms of chewable tobacco which are banned in Tamil Nadu and Union Territory of Puducherry, including detection of and action against those involved in the offence whether directly or indirectly by aiding or abetting the offence or interfering with attempts to curb the offence.

The scam came to light on July 8, 2017 after Income-Tax officers raided a pan masala and gutkha manufacturer in Tamil Nadu, who has been facing charges of evading tax to the tune of Rs 250 crore.

The manufacture, storage and sale of the chewable forms of tobacco, including gutkha and pan masala were banned by the Tamil Nadu government in 2013.

RR troopers attacked in J&K’s Pulwama

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Militants attacked a patrol party of the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Wednesday, police said.

The 55 Rashtriya Rifles’ (RR) patrol party was fired upon by the militants in Haji Darpora village.

“The fire was returned by the RR troops. There was a brief exchange of gunfire after which the area was cordoned off for searches.

A non-local labourer sustained a bullet injury in the incident. He has been sent to hospital, the police said.

(IANS)

Rupee slips to a new low; touches 71.75/$

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The Indian rupee plunged to a fresh record low of 71.75 to a dollar during the morning trade session on Wednesday.

Around 10.40 a.m. the Indian rupee traded at 71.75 to a dollar — the lowest ever mark — it has touched against the greenback.

It opened the day’s trade at the Inter-Bank Foreign Exchange Market at 71.44 to a dollar from its previous close of 71.58 to a greenback.

Bus fares expected to rise shortly

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Commuters all over the state, who have been already burdened by the increasing prices of diesel and petrol, will have to brace up to meet an increase in bus fare. It is learnt that state transport corporations run by the government have been suffering an average loss of Rs 186 crore per month as diesel price has gone up steeply during the last three months. As this loss is expected to go up further, Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation has submitted a proposal to the government, seeking permission to hike bus fares by 18 percent.

The government is examining this proposal. Sources said that instead of 18 percent, the government might permit a lower rate of hike in fare. Transport minister, D C Thammanna, briefing about the financial condition of the transport corporations, revealed that the corporations had approached the government with a request for fare hike about two and half months back. He said that the proposal would be discussed with the chief minister and a final decision would be taken within a week. He added that when taking a decision on increasing the bus fare, it will be ensured that the passengers are not unduly burdened, and the transport corporations too do not face heavy losses. He said that on account of diesel price hike, the transport corporations are facing financial stress and to meet this situation, they are left with no other option other than increasing bus fare.

Thammanna stated that 40 new buses will be acquired by the transport corporations as there is good demand for sleeper coaches on long distance routes. “We propose to run additional buses to far away destinations during the holiday season. In phases, the menace of private buses will be reined in. The confusion on free passes to students will be addressed within a week,” he assured.

Happy Teacher’s Day

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Teaching is the proffession that teaches all the other proffessions.

T alented person

E xplaining so patiently

A bility to make the class an ocean of knowledge

C orrecting the pupils when they are wrong

H elping them in every way

E ncouraging them to give the best

R are, there is none like you!

Happy Teachers’ Day

 

Literature Round Up

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Literature Fest To Be Held In London

Lit O Fest’ Mumbai, India’s premiere festival of Literature, Art & Culture is all set to spread its creative wings by taking the fest international. The 5th edition of the fest will be in London on 6th Sept, 2018.

“We are excited to be a part of this wonderful cultural initiative by Smita Parikh & Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC). It is doing whatever it can to support the event, said Anup Jalota who would be present during the London Chapter of Lit O Fest in Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan London & House of Lords, British Parliament, London on 6th & 7th of Sept, 2018.

“We are happy to be a part of this Lit O Fest & we will showcase Maharashtra culture & tradition averred Vijay Kumar Gautam, Principal Secretary Tourism.

Tourism Minister, Maharshtra Jaykumar Rawal wished all the best to Lit O Fest.

“We are also felicitating some dignitaries from the field of Art, Culture, music & literature in the House of Lords, British Parliament on 7th Sept, with the “Innoventure Awards” for their contribution in their respective fields during the fest. Mumbai is possibly the 1st ever such fest in india to adopt a village named Dahigaon and is taking care of the education, hygiene & skill development of the rural girls,” stated Smita Parikh, the founding Director.

Other dignitaries along with Amrita Fadnavis, Smita Parikh & Pankaj Dubey to attend the fest are tourism minister of Maharashtra Jaykumar Rawal, Lord Daljit Rana, Mahendra Singh Jadeja, Anup Jalota & Bond Girl from Hollywood Zara Adams, Parikshit Thorat, Dr Radha Krishnan Pillai & many more.

Literature Round Up

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Chetan Bhagat Reveals The Cover Of His Upcoming Novella

Best-selling author Chetan Bhagat has revealed the cover and a “movie-style promo” of his new book “The Girl In Room 105”, “a funny kind of thriller” about a Kashmiri Muslim girl & a Hindu boy, in a Facebook live on his fanpage on recently.
The book, published by Westland, will be released in Oct, 2016. Terming the book as “not a Chetan Bhagat love story”, the author pointed to its “an unlove story” tagline.
What’s interesting is that Chetan Bhagat also released a “movie-style promo” for it, reasoning that youngsters love videos, but the idea is “to bring them back to books”.
The story is about “a boy who is trying to unlove his ex-girlfriend and gets involved in something bigger”, said the “2 States” & “One Indian Girl” author.
He went on to say it is about a boy, Keshav Rajpurohit, who is from an IIT and teaches in a coaching centre, and is trying to “unlove his ex-girlfriend” Zara, a Kashmiri Muslim.
The dramatized promo has the lead, Keshav Rajpurohit, asking his audience: “Have I told you my dad is a senior member of the RSS?”
The 2 minute long promo shows him drinking one night as he receives a message from Zara and goes to meet her upon her asking.
However, in the confusion about whether Zara sent those messages, the promo ends, leaving “an element of surprise” for the audiences, as Chetan Bhagat put it in the 25 minute Facebook live.
He said people will love the suspense & humor in the book, because it is “a funny kind of thriller”, “a mystery but a funny mystery”. The book cover reveal comes after Bhagat invited his fans to #GuessTheTitle during social media contests.
Answering questions from viewers, Bhagat said the “unloving part” of the story comes from him.
“I find it very difficult to get over people. I just can’t move on. How can you move on when your heart is attached to someone,” he said.
“How can you unlove? It’s not like unplug.”

Asked about why he changed his genre, Bhagat responded that one cannot keep repeating the same formula just because “one thing is a hit”.

Bhagat also answered a question about the protagonist’s name, Keshav Rajpurohit, which is in line with his practice of naming his lead characters after Krishna.
“Krishna’s name is taken billions of times when you make that small change in a name,” he said, adding it is a not a coincidence that his heroes’ names have been based on Krishna since the last 8 times.
A viewer asked Bhagat if a movie can be expected, as his books have continuously been cinematically adapted.

The movie will come later and my readers are more important, Chetan Bhagat said, adding that he likes to keep books exciting.
He said “The Girl In Room 105” can be pre-ordered online on Amazon. The book will hit the stands in Oct, 2018.

Woman youth leader alleges sexual abuse by CPI-M MLA

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A CPI-M woman youth leader has accused a party MLA in Kerala of sexual abuse. The Communist Party of India-Marxist said it is looking into the allegation.

The woman complained to the party’s Central Committee against Shornur legislator P.K. Sasi, after her complaint to the state leadership was not taken up with seriousness.

Party General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Tuesday directed the state unit to look into the matter.

Yechury told the media in New Delhi that he got the complaint on Monday and it has been forwarded to the state unit. “The state unit will look into it,” said Yechury.

The youth leader from Palghat had brought the instance of Sasi’s behaviour to the notice of the state leadership besides politburo member Brinda Karat.

However, no action was taken. So, on Monday she sent an email to Yechury.

She has attached audio clips in her complaint that she had given to the leaders.

Sasi told the media in Palghat on Tuesday he was not aware of anything and only after this news surfaced in the media he came to know about it.

“This is nothing but a political conspiracy hatched against me. I am in public life for so long and all those who know me, know me well. These are gossips. Well planned out move to tarnish me. I have nothing to be worried about,” said Sasi.

Party Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said the media reports were “baseless”.

“Who said we have not done anything? We are looking into the issue and what we do in the committee is not discussed outside. We have not swept anything under the carpet,” said Balakrishnan.

He said since it was not a complaint to be given to the police, it was given to the party.

(IANS)

Bridge collapses in south kolkata

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A bridge has collapsed in West Bengal capital Kolkata. Many are feared to have been trapped. A large crowd has gathered at the spot near to where the bridge collapsed. Commuters travelling on cars and bikes have been feared to be trapped. Rescue operations are said to be underway. A segment of the bridge suddenly collapsed, according to early reports. Reports also say around six are said to have been injured.

A bridge collapsed in Majerhat in south Kolkata and a large section of it crashed, leaving many cars trapped. The flyover collapsed in the middle, according to witnesses.
Six people are believed to be injured and many are feared trapped.

The bridge, which is among the busiest in the city, collapsed over rail tracks in the Alipore area. Rescue operations are on.

The area is surrounded by half-constructed buildings, scaffolding and pillars.

(PTI)

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