Archives for 2018

Re-polling in five polling booths of Shamli and 68 booths in Saharanpur falling under the Kairana parliamentary constituency is underway amid tight security, an official said on Wednesday.

Voting began at a slow pace, with only 18.71 per cent polling in the first two hours, said the Election Commission (EC) official adding that the polling so far has been peaceful.

There was report of a snag in an Electronic Voting Machine in Bapu village, which has been rectified and the voting has restarted after a brief interruption, the official told IANS.

A polling agent was taken to task by visiting officials at Sanga Kheda after he was found in possession of a mobile phone inside the booth.

There was inconvenience caused at Sirsila village where the polling officials had by mistake announced that repeal would be done on booth number 355 instead of booth number 356.

Many people formed queues outside the wrong booth that led to confusion and anger amongst the voters.

The re-polls have been necessitated after both opposition parties and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleged snags in the VVPAT-EVMs during the May 28 bypolls.

Hitting out at Facebook once again, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel has suggested the social networking giant to not only copy itss features but also its data protection policies.

During a ReCode conference in California on Tuesday, the Snapchat chief said Facebook has failed to sufficiently overhaul its user privacy protections.

“We would really appreciate it if they copied our data protection practices also,” Spiegel was quoted as saying during the event.

“Fundamentally, I think the changes have to go beyond window dressing to real changes to the ways that these platforms work,” he added.

Reacting to Spiegel, Facebook Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos tweeted on Wednesday, “Snapchat’s implicit promise that photos really disappear combined with poor API security has lead to serious mass leaks of revenge porn. So no, I don’t think copying Snapchat would be a smart move.”

The photo-sharing platform Snapchat today has 191 million users globally, including nearly 9 million in India.

Facebook has reportedly copied several Snapchat features, including the most notable one called “Stories”.

Snapchat on April Fools’ Day had trolled Facebook by introducing a filter that makes it appear as if a Russian bot has liked your post.

The filter targeted Facebook following reports that said more than 50,000 bots on Facebook, with links to the Russian government, were used to influence the 2016 US Presidential election.

While redesigning Snapchat in 2017, Spiegel took a dig at Facebook.

“The company is redesigning its app to separate media and social communications, making it easier to use and understand,” he said.

“We think this helps to guard against fake news and mindless scrambles for friends or unworthy distractions,” Spiegel said, taking a dig at Facebook and Twitter.

The design overhaul, however, didn’t go well with the Snapchat users and the company has reinstated most of the old design features.

As the world grapples with the challenge of climate change, a top Indian scientist has called for the opening of more Indian research stations in the Arctic.

“India’s observer status in the Arctic Council is very important,” K. Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Indian government, said at a seminar on “Finland and India: Engaging the Arctic” here on Tuesday.

“I hope India will set up more research stations in the Arctic,” Raghavan said.

India’s sole Arctic station Himadri is located at the International Arctic Research Base in Ny-Alesund, Norway.

The seminar was jointly organised by the Finland Embassy here, the Carnegie India think tank and the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor to the government of India.

The Arctic Council is the leading inter-governmental forum promoting cooperation, coordination and interaction among the Arctic states, Arctic indigenous communities and other Arctic inhabitants on common Arctic issues, in particular on issues of sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic.

Its member nations include Finland, the chair from 2017 to 2019, Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the US. India has been an observer nation of the Council since 2013.

Raghavan said the discovery of the hole in the earth’s ozone layer completely changed the way people viewed the world.

“That changed our view of Polar science and other eco-systems,” he said.

Stating that the earth’s climate has changed over seven cycles in the last 650,000 years, he said 16 of the warmest years on record occurred since 2001.

“2016 is the warmest year on record,” Raghvan said, adding that human intervention is the dominant cause for climate change.

In her opening remarks, in what she called the first ever Arctic event in India, Finland Ambassador to India Nina Vaskunlahti said that “the Arctic is closer to us than you think”.

“Climate change has brought the world world together,” she said.

“Arctic Council countries and India face the common challenge of black carbon emission.”

Rene Soderman, Senior Arctic Official for Finland, said that the Arctic region is not an isolated and will turn into an important hub in the 21st century with migration happening.

“Four million people live in the Arctic and 10 per cent of them are indigenous people,” Soderman said.

“Global warming is changing the lifestyle of the people in the Arctic.”

Stating that climate change is happening more rapidly in the Arctic than anywhere else, he said that this can be mitigated only through the full implementation of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.

“Finland wants to expand multilateral cooperation on the Arctic,” Soderman said.

“Arctic cooperation will continue despite international tensions.”

Stuti Banerjee, Research Fellow at the Indian Council of World Affairs think tank, said climate change in the Arctic will affect the Indian coastline.

“As the sea level rises, around 55 million people in India will be affected in terms of relocation of homes,” Banerjee said, adding that New Delhi is still at a nascent stage of formulating an Arctic policy.

Giving a geopolitical aspect of the issue, Shekhar Sinha, former Flag Officer Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Navy’s Western Naval Command, said that China has linked the Arctic to its own prosperity.

“Chinese President Xi Jinping has said that he wants China to be a Polar power,” Sinha said.

Stating that climate change in the Arctic can affect regional systems like the Indian monsoon, M. Rajeevan, Secretary in the Ministry of Earth Sciences, said that India is in talks with Canada for opening another Arctic research station.

“We would also like to collaborate with Finland in this regard,” he said.

Starting his official engagements in Indonesia on Wednesday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid a wreath at the Kalibata Heroes’ Cemetery here.

“Lest we forget…Paying homage to martyrs of Indonesian independence struggle! PM @narendramodi laying wreath at the Kalibata National Heroes’ Cemetery and signing the Visitor’s Book,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted along with pictures.

Over 7,000 people, who are military casualties and veterans from the Indonesian war of independence are buried at the cemetery.

These include many Japanese veterans of the Imperial Japanese Army who stayed in the then Dutch colony after the World War II of their own will and fought for Indonesia’s independence.

Modi arrived here on Tuesday on the first leg of his five-day three-nation tour of southeast Asia that will also see him visiting Malaysia and Singapore.

Later in the day, Modi and Indonesian President Joko Widodo will hold a bilateral summit following which a number of agreements, including in the areas of defence and trade, are expected to be signed.

The two leaders will then jointly inaugurate a kite festival being organised by Museum Layang-Layang of Jakarta and Kite Museum of Ahmedabad that will be depicting the common themes of the Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, which are strong cultural and civilizational links that India share with Indonesia.

Modi will also attend an Indian community event at the Jakarta Convention Centre here and take part in an India-Indonesia CEOs Forum.

Indonesia is home to around 100,000 people of Indian origin and 7,000 Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) working as professionals across different sectors.

There are signs of tension between the Indian Consulate General in Toronto and the regional police over a hotline set up by the diplomatic mission after the explosion at a restaurant in this heavily Southasian city, according to The Toronto Star.

“As the investigation continued, Peel police issued a rebuke on Sunday, reminding anyone with information about Thursday’s bomb attack on the Bombay Bhel restaurant in the Toronto suburb here, that the police — and not the Indian Consulate of Toronto — are the ones to call,” the newspaper said.

Peel is the region covering Mississauga and other municipalities in the Greater Toronto Area.

The newspaper reported that police said in a written statement sent to it: “Although we appreciate the assistance of any outside agencies and community partners, we would prefer than any information in relation to this incident be provided directly to investigators through a dedicated tip line at 1-800-966-0616.”

India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj announced on Twitter the setting up of the “emergency number” 1-647-668-4108 by the consulate, saying: “Our missions will work round the clock.”

“The first action was to open a helpline for Indian citizens and also the Indian-Canadian community, because it’s a vast Indo-Canadian community in Toronto,” India’s Consul General Dinesh Bhatia was quoted as saying by the Global News.

“People are calling to find out if their relatives are involved because in the middle of the night they couldn’t reach any of the numbers,” he told the national multi-media website.

There was no indication from Swaraj or Bhatia that they were conducting a parallel investigation or soliciting information of an investigative nature but that they were only helping people with information about family and relatives.

Canadian officials have not released the names of the three people who were seriously injured in the blast.

The police reaction may have been sparked by an Ontario Gurudwara Committee statement criticising the consulate.

The Star said the Committee accused “the Indian Consulate of Toronto for overstepping its diplomatic reach by establishing a hotline to gather information on the bombing”.

When told about the Committee’s warning about the hotline, “a Peel police source, speaking on background, reacted sharply,” the Star said.

It reported that the source said, “Anyone contacting the Consulate with information, we would expect to hear about that immediately. We are handling this. Period.”

Later, the police sent the note to the newspaper.

The Committee also condemned what it said was “misinformation” spread by the Indian media.
(10:34)
Mississauga (Canada), May 30 (IANS) There are signs of tension between the Indian Consulate General in Toronto and the regional police over a hotline set up by the diplomatic mission after the explosion at a restaurant in this heavily Southasian city, according to The Toronto Star.

“As the investigation continued, Peel police issued a rebuke on Sunday, reminding anyone with information about Thursday’s bomb attack on the Bombay Bhel restaurant in the Toronto suburb here, that the police — and not the Indian Consulate of Toronto — are the ones to call,” the newspaper said.

Peel is the region covering Mississauga and other municipalities in the Greater Toronto Area.

The newspaper reported that police said in a written statement sent to it: “Although we appreciate the assistance of any outside agencies and community partners, we would prefer than any information in relation to this incident be provided directly to investigators through a dedicated tip line at 1-800-966-0616.”

India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj announced on Twitter the setting up of the “emergency number” 1-647-668-4108 by the consulate, saying: “Our missions will work round the clock.”

“The first action was to open a helpline for Indian citizens and also the Indian-Canadian community, because it’s a vast Indo-Canadian community in Toronto,” India’s Consul General Dinesh Bhatia was quoted as saying by the Global News.

“People are calling to find out if their relatives are involved because in the middle of the night they couldn’t reach any of the numbers,” he told the national multi-media website.

There was no indication from Swaraj or Bhatia that they were conducting a parallel investigation or soliciting information of an investigative nature but that they were only helping people with information about family and relatives.

Canadian officials have not released the names of the three people who were seriously injured in the blast.

The police reaction may have been sparked by an Ontario Gurudwara Committee statement criticising the consulate.

The Star said the Committee accused “the Indian Consulate of Toronto for overstepping its diplomatic reach by establishing a hotline to gather information on the bombing”.

When told about the Committee’s warning about the hotline, “a Peel police source, speaking on background, reacted sharply,” the Star said.

It reported that the source said, “Anyone contacting the Consulate with information, we would expect to hear about that immediately. We are handling this. Period.”

Later, the police sent the note to the newspaper.

The Committee also condemned what it said was “misinformation” spread by the Indian media.

The CBI on Wednesday raided the residence of Delhi Health and Power Minister Satyendra Jain over alleged violation of norms in hiring of a creative team in the Public Works Department (PWD) and registered a case.

The case has been registered against Jain, S.K. Srivastava, the then Engineer-in-Chief in PWD and others, a CBI official told IANS.

Searches are underway at four-to-five locations in Delhi, including residences of PWD officials and others.

In 2017, the Central Bureau of Investigation had initiated a preliminary probe related to the hiring of 24 architects in the PWD’s creative team for various projects, including Mohalla clinics.

“CBI raids my house for hiring creative team by PWD. Professionals were hired for different projects. All were forced to leave by the CBI,” Jain said in a tweet.

Reacting to the raids on Jain’s house, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted: “What does Prime Minister Narendra Modi want?” His deputy Manish Sisodia quoted a report that said the NITI Aayog had favoured the creative team.

“The only job left with the CBI, Delhi Police, Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax department is to stop the works done by the AAP in Delhi.”

“Our crime is that we are working to make the national capital a better place and improve the health and education here. All this is done to harass us,” he added.

“The Aam Aadmi Party is not going to stop with these practice,” he said.

The two day bank strike by over 10 lakh bankers demanding early wage settlement starting Wednesday has evoked good response nationwide, said a top leader of the All India Bank Employees’ Association.

“Around 85,000 bank branches spread across the country, including that of State Bank of India and some private banks will remain closed for two days. The response to the strike is good,” C.H. Venkatachalam, General Secretary, AIBEA told IANS.

Queried about the value and volume of money instruments that would not be cleared by the bank’s clearing houses Venkatachalam said: “On all India basis clearance of 39 lakh instruments with a value of Rs 21,700 crore per day would be impacted.

“The above value and volume were the averages of last 15 days clearance of instruments.”

The May 30-31 strike is spearheaded by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine unions.

The bankers are striking work demanding early revision of the wages. The wage revision has been due since November 1, 2017.

Venkatachalam said the unions had requested the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) to come up with better offer than the mere two per cent hike offer made earlier so that the strike could be averted.

He said the IBA was also asked not to delink the wage negotiations for bank officers in the Scales 4-7. The IBA did not do anything.

He said at the conciliation meeting held on Monday, the Chief Labour Commissioner (CLC) had asked the IBA not to raise new controversies like delinking the wage talks for officers in the 4-7 scale.

“Though the CLC tried its best to sort out the strike issues, there is no positive developments. Hence strike on May 30 and 31 (Wednesday and Thursday) stands,” All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC) General Secretary D.T. Franco had said earlier.

According to Venkatachalam, with regard to the coverage of officers from Scale 4-7, the IBA said it did not get the mandate from six banks as they opted to cover officers up to Scale 3 level.

However, 14 banks have given the mandate for covering the officers up to Scale 7 in wage negotiations as was done in the previous wage settlement negotiations, he said.

With bank branches closed for two days, the ATM machines are being loaded with additional cash to meet any contingency.

“The private banks (like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank) are working and there is no problem there. In the case of public sector banks the strike call was known well ahead. So, we have collected cash in advance from the banks for loading in the ATMs,” V. Balasubramanian, President, Financial Software and Systems (FSS), told IANS.

The city based FSS manages ATMs for several banks in the country.

“Generally we know the cash dispensation per day per ATM. We load the machines with cash for two days transaction value which is at an average is around Rs 6 lakh. This time we have loaded ATMs with cash of around Rs 15 lakh which would take care of the average cash dispensation for four days,” Balasubramanian said.

According to him, the ATMs are loaded more with Rs 500 notes.

The Bank of Maharashtra MD and CEO Ravindra P Marathe has urged his customers to make the maximum use of digital banking services for their transcations as the strike might disrupt normal banking services at the branches.

An Additional Superintendent of Uttar Pradesh Police’s Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) shot and killed himself inside his office on Tuesday afternoon, police said.

Rajesh Sahini of the Provincial Police Service (PPS) posted at the ATS Headquarters in the posh Gomtinagar area here, shot himself in the head, said an officer.

Additional Director General of Police (ADG) Law and Order, Anand Kumar confirmed the incident to IANS and said the entire department was shocked by his action. “He was one of our finest…its a great loss.”

Kumar, however, said the department was still not sure what exactly triggered such an extreme step. No suicide note has been recovered so far.

Sahini was instrumental in the arrest of a suspected Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) operative of Pakistan’s intelligence agency from Uttarakhand only last week.

He asked his driver to bring his service revolver. Minutes later he shot himself, an officer at the Headquarters said.

The police has seized the revolver used in the suicide and launched a probe.

Sahini was a 1992 batch PPS officer and had been behind many successful operations of the state police.

Born in 1969 in Patna, Sahini had “zero error monitoring and professionalism”, a senior officer said.