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Modi arrives in UP, to pay homage to Sant Kabir

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived here in the Uttar Pradesh capital in a special Indian Air Force (IAF) plane on Thursday to pay his respects to 15th-century Indian mystic poet and saint Kabir Das.

Modi was received by Governor Ram Naik, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, city mayor Sanyukta Bhatia and other state cabinet ministers and bureaucrats, an official said.

After a brief stop-over the Prime Minister, along with Adityanath and state Tourism Minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi left for Maghar in Sant Kabir Nagar, the birthplace of the saint.

Modi is scheduled to lay the foundation stone of the Rs 25 crore proposed Sant Kabir Research Academy. He will also offer a ‘chadar’ at his tomb and later address a public rally.

This is the 500th year of the saint’s passing away.

Cryptojacking surge a whopping 629% in Q1 2018: McAfee

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There were on average five new threat samples every second that resulted in a massive 629 percent growth in crypto jacking and other cryptocurrency mining malware in the first quarter of 2018, a new report said on Thursday.

The coin miner malware grew a stunning 629 percent to 2.9 million in the first quarter of 2018, from around 400,000 total known samples in Q4 2017, said the report from global cybersecurity firm McAfee.

Cybercriminals extended their operations in crypto jacking and other cryptocurrency mining schemes, where perpetrators hijack victims’ browsers or infect their systems to secretly use them to mine for legitimate cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

“There were new revelations this quarter concerning complex nation-state cyber attack campaigns targeting users and enterprise systems worldwide,” said Raj Samani, Chief Scientist at McAfee.

“Bad actors demonstrated a remarkable level of technical agility and innovation in tools and tactics. Criminals continued to adopt cryptocurrency mining to easily monetize their criminal activity,” he added.

The Lazarus cybercrime group launched a highly sophisticated Bitcoin-stealing phishing campaign — HaoBao — which targeted global financial organizations and Bitcoin users.

When recipients open malicious email attachments, an implant would scan for Bitcoin activity and establishes an implant for persistent data gathering and crypto mining.

“In recent quarters, we have seen a shift to ransomware from data-theft, as ransomware is a more efficient crime. With the rise in the value of cryptocurrencies, the market forces are driving criminals to crypto-jacking and the theft of cryptocurrency,” said Steve Grobman, Chief Technology Officer at McAfee.

McAfee Labs counted 313 publicly disclosed security incidents in Q1 2018, a 41 percent increase over Q4.

“The incidents in healthcare sector rose 47 percent. Cybercriminals continued to target the sector with the ‘SAMSA’ ransomware, and there were numerous cases in which hospitals were compelled to pay the criminals,” the report revealed.

Incidents of attacks on the education sector rose 40 percent, with ransomware being a notable culprit in attacks on schools and related institutions.

Bollywood has a bit of a narrow door: Sukhmani Sadana

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Mumbai: Actress Sukhmani Sadana during the launch of web series “#Lovebytes” Season 2 in Mumbai on Oct 10, 2017.(Photo: IANS)


Actress Sukhmani Sadana, who will be seen in Netflix’s “Sacred Games” along with actors Saif Ali Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Radhika Apte, says the digital world has opened doors for those who are not getting an entry into showbiz through the “narrow door” of Bollywood.

“I have been associated with web series for a really long time. I think I am just so proud of what we are doing in the digital world in India. I am a very patriotic person and I’m proud that as a country, we are making use of the digital platform and doing really good stuff,” Sukhmani, who had earlier worked in “#LoveBytes” told IANS in a telephonic conversation.

“I really feel there is so much talent in India in terms of writers and actors… People are not getting a chance because the mainstream Bollywood films don’t give a chance to everyone and anyone. The doors are so not widely opened. It’s a bit of a narrow door. Hence, it is difficult for everyone to enter.

“On the other hand, we don’t really associate with what India is doing with the small screen and I am not trying to disapprove it in any way. Most of the current generation people (actors) don’t want to do ‘saas bahu’ shows. For those who itch to act and are looking for right platforms, web series come in the picture. It is opening doors for anyone and everyone,” she added.

In “Sacred Games”, Sukhmani is playing a character that is edgy and grey.

“I am not the normal girl in the show. I am very edgy, unpredictable, very abusive — both physically and verbally. In the show, I really don’t care about the world. This season was more about building up characters and introducing it. So, whatever work I did in the first season was very challenging and different,” she said.

For Sukhmani, working with Saif and Nawazuddin has been great.

“Nawazuddin sir has been a delight to work with. He is so real and raw in his performances. It is just another level of acting. I feel like a complete amateur in front of him. I just can’t wait to shoot the second season of ‘Sacred Games’ and learn more from him,” she said.

Sukhmani, who is also a writer and is currently writing a web show for filmmaker Vikram Bhatt and a feature film (a biopic), says the reach of the digital world is wide.

“The target audience is progressive and creative people. It reaches to the right people,” added the multi-faceted talent, who also worked in Bollywood films like “Creature”, “Kyaa Super Kool Hain Hum” and “1920 London”.

What kind of roles does she want to be part of?

“As an actor or writer, I just wish to keep getting really great work. I always keep telling everyone that it hardly matters if you are doing small projects or big projects… You should not get out of practice,” she said.

What she likes is intelligent and creative stuff.

“Good stories matter much more than if it is glamorous.”

Three Gujarat BJP MLAs protest against government

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Three senior ruling BJP legislators from Vadodara district came out in the open late on Wednesday evening expressing their resentment against the State government and claimed more than a dozen others were with them, hours after Chief Minister Vijay Rupani flew out the country on a six-day tour.

Three legislators, Madhu Srivastava from Waghodia constituency, Yogesh Patel from Manjalpur and Ketan Inamdar from Savli, asserted that several state ministers and the bureaucracy were not listening to them and showing a callous attitude to public representatives.

Incidentally, national BJP President Amit Shah was in his home state on Wednesday but the MLAs chose to vent their grievances before the media, also claiming that many more legislators were angry with the working of the government.

Madhu Srivastava, who is a legislator for six terms, asserted that several other frustrated MLAs were with them and they would also come out in future. “Today we are three but tomorrow there may be 13 or 23. Today we three, Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh, have got together. Now let anything happen,” Srivastava said.

“Ever since the present government took charge six months ago, the bureaucrats in the state are working at their whims and fancies. And when we go to meet the ministers on the designated Tuesdays for us, we are unable to see them,” Srivastava told reporters, as Patel and Inamdar nodded in agreement.

Concurring with Srivastava, Yogesh Patel said that their only demand was that when they seek resolution to the issues of their electorate, it must be sorted out but this was not happening.

Asked if they had made a representation to the Chief Minister about this, Srivastava said, “We are not going to stand in queue (to meet him) if the officials did not allow them.”

Ketan Inamdar said their anger was not against the party or the government but with the attitude of officials. “The government which is trying to do best for the people, should sure have control over the bureaucracy but it appears the officials have got thick-skinned,” he said.

The BJP swiftly swung in to action, asking senior Cabinet minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama to intervene. “Whatever be the issue, I, Nitin bhai (Deputy Chief Minister) and Jitubhai Vaghani (state BJP President) will speak to them in person and sort out their issues,” Chudasama said.

BJP spokesperson Bharat Pandya said, “The three have been summoned by state party chief for a meeting in person. We have touched base with them and asked them to put forth their grievances on the right forum.”

Mallya denies repayment offer linked to Fugitive Ordinance

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Claiming that he had honestly tried to repay bank loans since 2016, beleaguered tycoon Vijay Mallya on Wednesday denied his offer to settle the dues was linked to the Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance.

“It is incorrect that my settlement offer before the Karnataka HC was motivated by the latest charge sheet under the media reported Fugitive Ordinance. I always had honest intentions to settle and there is ample proof,” tweeted Mallya, a day after he broke silence on defaulting bank loans.

The May 27 Ordinance gives the law enforcing agencies powers to attach and confiscate the proceeds of crime and properties of economic offenders like bank defaulters or bank fraudsters fleeing the country, and is aimed at deterring economic offenders from evading the process of law by remaining outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts, a probe agency official told IANS here.

The 62-year-old liquor baron, who fled the country on March 2, 2016, has been living in London since then despite summons from Indian courts and law enforcement agencies to appear before them for trial in various related cases.

“I am asked for comment on being labeled a fugitive economic offender. When I have placed assets on the table before the Karnataka High Court in excess of the bank claims, how can I be an economic offender? The fugitive part falls away,” said Mallya in another tweet.

Referring to some people asking him why he chose to make a statement at this time, he said he did so because he and his United Breweries Holding Ltd (UBHL) have filed an application before the high court on June 22, setting out assets worth Rs 13,900 crore.

“I made my media statement concurrent with my settlement offer now and was unable to make such an offer before due to various circumstantial changes about the value of my assets available,” he tweeted.

He stressed the chargesheets of the Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate allege criminality with no intention to repay banks although he had been making efforts to settle since 2016.

“As I have placed everything before the high court, where is the malafide? Are banks interested in repayment?” he asked.

Admitting that the government, courts and banks were rightfully concerned about public money loaned to his now defunct Kingfisher Airline by the state-run banks, Mallya said he showed to the high court having assets in excess of the banks’ claims and requested their sale under its supervision.

“The government wants to recover money loaned by the state-run banks. It used CBI and ED to attach and recover. I have placed all assets before the high court and submitted for sale. Banks should be very happy. But if the same CBI and ED object, what do I do?” he asked.

Regretting that the official narrative seemed to question his intentions, Mallya also denied delaying tactics or any agenda to score brownie points.

“What needs to be appreciated is a bona fide offer and commitment placed before the high court. Let Justice play its part,” he pointed out.

Responding to the comment of Minister of State for External Affairs M. J. Akbar that he had years to repay the loans, Mallya said his settlement initiatives date back to 2016

Man held for assaulting Canadian woman

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A man was arrested for allegedly assaulting a Canadian woman here, police said on Wednesday.

The incident was reported from south Delhi where the woman had gone to a pub in Hauz Khas village on Tuesday evening.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, South, Romil Baaniya said that the accused identified as Abhishek befriended the victim there, and after spending some time, invited her to his place where he assaulted her.

The woman, however, managed to escape and reached the AIIMS Trauma Centre, where she borrowed a phone from a passer-by and informed the police about the incident.

“The victim has given a written complaint. We have booked Abhishek under relevant IPC sections and arrested him. He was produced before a magistrate,” Baaniya said, adding that the Canadian High Commission here was informed of the incident.

Police officials said that Abhishek had taken the Canadian woman to a guest house and tried to rape her.

“Prima facie, the woman was molested by the accused in a bid to rape her and as he failed in his attempt, he beat her,” the official said.

“We have conducted medical examination of the victim and are waiting for the medical report. Relevant IPC sections will be added accordingly,” he added.

Congress lists multiple surgical strikes, slams Centre for politicising 2016 action

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The Congress on Thursday accused the Modi government of leveraging the 2016 surgical strikes across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir as “political fodder” to garner votes and listed similar multiple strikes carried out over last two decades to assert that such action was not the first of its kind though they were not “politicised” earlier.

Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala’s comments came a day after the footage of Indian Army’s surgical strikes in September 2016 was released.

Talking to reporters here, Surjewala said BJP President Amit Shah had “dishonored” the 70-year-long history of bravery and sacrifice of the armed forces by making a “disgraceful statement” on October 7, 2016 that “Indian Army had crossed the LoC for the first time in 68 years”.

Surjewala said that conducting strategic surgical strikes “with utmost precision and effective penetration” at different times in last two decades has been characteristic of the grit and determination of the Indian Armed Forces.

He listed multiple “surgical strikes” prior to those conducted in September 2016 after the Narendra Modi government assumed office.

“We are proud that our forces have successfully conducted multiple surgical strikes over last two decades, particularly post the year 2000 — January 21, 2000 (Nadala Enclave, across the Neelam River); September 18, 2003 (Baroh Sector, Poonch); June 19, 2008 (Bhattal Sector, Poonch); August 30 to September 1, 2011 (Sharda Sector, across Neelam River Valley in Kel); January 6, 2013 (Sawan Patra checkpost); July 27 to 28, 2013 ( Nazapir Sector); August 6, 2013 (Neelam Valley); January 14, 2014; September 28 to 29, 2016.”

New Google Calandar features to improve your work schedule

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New features on Google Calendar like “out of office” and customizable “working hours” would let users indicate their work-time availability to others and improve digital presence, the company said on Thursday.

Google Calendar will now be able to automatically decline meetings that would occur during “out of office” period. Users will also have the choice to customize the “decline message.”

“When creating an event on the web, simply select the ‘out of office’ entry type. The ‘out of office’ object will have a different look on the Calendar grid, signaling to others that you’re unavailable,” the G suite team wrote in a blog post late on Wednesday.

Additionally, with “working hours”, users would be able to “protect their personal time from their work time”.

Users could set their working hours to one interval for all weekdays, or for each day, separately.

The new features will be available to users of all G suite editions within two weeks.

“Based on your timezone and past scheduling patterns, Google Calendar can now infer your working hours. You may see a prompt asking you to set them, and you can further customize them as needed,” the post added.

Burglars abort misson after CCTV camera

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A three-member gang of burglars, among them a woman, tried to break into a house in Jayanagar last Friday but aborted the mission after spotting the  CCTV cameras.

The miscreants were caught in action on CCTV cameras.  In a complaint to the Jayanagar police, Muralikrishna, who owns a silk textile store, said the well-dressed gang members tried to smash the door lock and break into his house in Jayanagar 5th Block on June 22 when he was out of town.

The CCTV footage shows the woman arriving in a high-end car, wearing sunglasses and her head covered with a scarf. She walks into the compound, presses the calling bell and peeps through the windows to confirm there is no one in the house. She later sits on a bench talking on the phone while her accomplices wearing caps and hand gloves enter the compound and try to break open the door.
But the trio fleed on seeing the cameras. A case has been registered and the cops are on the lookout to nab the accused.

 

Deve Gowda rejects Siddaramaiah’s suggestion to present supplementary budget

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JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda today rejected former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah’s suggestion that the new state government should present a supplementary budget, instead of a fresh budget, by citing a parliamentary precedence involving him as the prime minister.

“I do not want to criticise Siddaramaiah’s suggestion. He has presented several budgets before, but the Chief Minister (H D Kumaraswamy) is not doing anything new. There is a parliamentary precedence. It is appropriate for a new government to present a budget than a supplementary,” he told PTI in an interview here.

Deve Gowda said the then Union finance minister P Chidambaram had presented the budget on July 22, 1996, when he was the prime minister during the United Front rule.

“I was heading the United Front government as prime minister and Chidambaram was the finance minister as the Congress had given outside support. The then coalition government had presented a full-fledged budget and it was called a ‘dream budget’. Did the Congress’s shine vanish by presenting a new budget?” he asked.

Moreover, the United Front government had not discontinued any of the schemes launched by the Congress because of compulsions of a coalition government, Deve Gowda said.

“Since the Congress had given outside support to my government, I had to accommodate their schemes in the budget. I did it due to coalition compulsions,” he said.

Even Kumaraswamy had been assuring that he would not discontinue any of the schemes and programmes of the previous Congress government in the state as he did not want any trouble in the functioning of the coalition government, Deve Gowda said.

Siddaramaiah, in stark contrast, had been pitching for a supplementary budget, instead of a new budget, as suggested by Kumaraswamy, he added.

Disagreeing with Siddaramaiah, Deve Gowda further said a fresh budget was needed for the new government to send a new message to the people of the state. He added that both the Congress and the JD(S) had, before the state Assembly polls, promised several new schemes and hence, a supplementary budget would not be able to incorporate them all.

Deve Gowda, however, pinned hopes on the Congress high-command and the party’s central leadership, including Karnataka affairs in-charge K C Venugopal, for resolving issues cropping up in a coalition set-up.

The budget session of the state Assembly is scheduled to commence on July 5.

On B S Yeddyurappa’s secret meeting with BJP president Amit Shah in Ahmedabad, the former prime minister said he did not want to assume what transpired between the two, but added that as per reports, they were not in a mood to destabilise the JD(S)-Congress government in Karnataka.

Asked if he was satisfied with the coalition government, Deve Gowda said, “All these difficulties crop up in the initial stages and later subside. In the present circumstances, both the parties must realise that to run a smooth government, communal forces would have to be kept at bay.”

Asked about giving a cabinet berth to a Muslim legislator, the JD(S) supremo said it was the prerogative of the chief minister, who would have to look at giving representation to those communities that had been “unfortunate”.

However, there were coalition compulsions the chief minister had to fight with, he said, adding, “Let us wait and watch what does the chief minister do.”

 

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