Archives for January 2019

Nasheman News : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday told overseas Indians that his government is making efforts to ease the processes concerning their social security, passport, visa and PIO and OCI cards and that work is on to issue chip-based e-passports.

Inaugurating this year’s Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD), the Indian diaspora conclave, he said that the government’s endeavour was that overseas Indians should stay “happy and safe wherever they are”.

“The government is trying to ease the entire processes concerning your social security, passport, visa, Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) and Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) Cards. We have taken a new step a few months back concerning overseas Indians. Our embassies and consulates are being connected to the Passport Seva Project worldwide,” he said.

This, he said, will prepare a centralized system connected to the passport service for all of them. “Going one step ahead, work is on for issuing of the chip-based e-passport.”

The Prime Minister said that along with passport, the rules related to visa were being simplified. 

“With the convenience of e-visa, you are also saving time and problems are also getting reduced. 

“Many of you will also be familiar with the fact that our government has made the process of converting PIO (Person of Indian Origin) cards into OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) cards.”

Modi also urged Indians or people of Indian living abroad to contribute to the building of a new India and said that the changes that were coming in India were becoming new opportunities. 

“In this changing India, you can play a big role in research and development and innovation. 

“The government is also trying to bring Indian start-ups and NRI mentors together on one platform. Defence manufacturing can also be an important sector for you.”

Modi urged Indians living abroad to motivate at least five families around them to come to India. “Your efforts will play an important role in enhancing tourism in the country.”

He said that in the last four years, India had taken a major step towards achieving its natural position in the world. 

“People used to say that India cannot change,” he said. “We have changed this thinking. We have made changes.”

Stating that today India led the world in many fields, he said the International Solar Alliance was one such example. 

“It is also part of our goal of preparing solutions to India’s problems, that can also solve the problems of other countries. We are working with the application of local solution, global application.”

Modi added: “In the last four-and-a-half years, more than two lakh Indians stranded in crisis situations abroad have been helped by the government and its efforts.” 

Ahead of this year’s general elections, Modi also launched an attack on the Congress over the issue of corruption citing a quote by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

“He said that only 15 percent of the money that the central government sends from Delhi reach the people.”

Modi said no attempt was made by the Congress to stop this loot. “The country’s middle class continued to pay taxes honestly, and 85 per cent of this loot continued.”

But his government was using technology to eliminate this loot. 

Modi’s Mauritius counterpart Pravind Jugnauth, the chief guest at the event, commended India’s efforts in reaching out to the diaspora.

Earlier, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj welcomed the gathering.

Organised by the External Affairs Ministry and the Uttar Pradesh government, the Indian diaspora conclave this year has over 5,000 delegates registered.

This year’s theme of the convention is “Role of Indian diaspora in building a new India”.

Modi called this year’s PBD the “most successful” event saying the people of Varanasi, his Lok Sabha constituency, have taken ownership of the three-day jamboree. 

Nasheman News : Farm loan waivers and other schemes declared by states will raise their aggregate fiscal deficit next year but will not pose a major risk to their total debt burden, India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) said in a report.

“The agency expects the aggregate fiscal deficit of states to come in higher at 3.2 per cent in FY20 than the agency’s forecast of 2.8 per cent in the FY19 mid-year outlook.

“Although this is higher than the fiscally prudent level of 3 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), Ind-Ra believes this will not pose a significant upside risk to states’ aggregate debt burden in FY20,” the report said.

Further, Ind-Ra has maintained a stable outlook on the finances of the states for 2019-20.

States’ revenue account on aggregate is likely to clock a deficit of 0.5 per cent of GDP in 2019-20 due to a higher growth in revenue expenditures than revenue receipts, it said. 

“The competitive populism, in the nature of farm loan waivers and other financial support schemes, would take centre stage in the run-up to next general elections in May 2019. 

“A larger impact is expected on fiscal and revenue deficit to gross state domestic product ratios for Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Rajasthan, among non-special category states, in FY20,” it added.

As per the report, states’ total revenue expenditure is likely to grow 18.9 per cent year-on-year (yoy) to Rs 33,280.90 in FY20 from 11.2 per cent in current fiscal. 

Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Assam and Rajasthan have announced farm loan wavers in December 2018 to address farmers’ distress. Odisha and Jharkhand too have announced schemes similar to Rythu Bandhu scheme in Telangana for small and marginal farmers.

The casualty of farm loan waivers would be the capital expenditure as capex is a soft target for deficit control during periods of fiscal adjustment, the rating agency said.

“Ind-Ra expects states’ aggregate capex/GDP to come in marginally lower at 3 per cent in FY20 from the budget estimate of 3.07 per cent for FY19,” it said.

The agency believes capex to GDP ratio could come in below 3 per cent for Tamil Nadu, Haryana, West Bengal and Kerala in 2019-20.

Ind-Ra expects the aggregate debt/GDP to rise to 25.1 per cent in FY20 from the budgeted 24.3 per cent for FY19. 

“The agency does not view the increase to be detrimental to states’ debt sustainability position, although states would channelise some part of borrowings towards meeting revenue expenditure,” the report observed. 

In Ind-Ra’s opinion, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala are most susceptible to clock an increase in the debt burden in FY20.

Ind-Ra estimates the gross market borrowings of states to be Rs 5.7 trillion in FY20 and in the range of Rs 5.01 trillion-5.13 trillion in FY19, which is higher than the states’ budgeted gross market borrowings of Rs 4.4 trillion for FY19.

Nasheman News :  Uttar Pradesh’s Shia Central Waqf Board chairman Wasim Rizvi on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to shut down all primary madrasas across the country to save a majority of the Muslim population from getting affiliated to the Islamic State (IS) terror outfit.

In his letter on January 21, he said if the madrasas were not closed, then in the next 15 years more than half of the Muslim population in India would be influenced by the IS ideology. 

Rizvi said it has been witnessed globally that to promote any mission, children are the softest targets. 

“IS is a dangerous terrorist group which is spreading rapidly its wing in the Muslim dominated areas,” he added. 

He alleged that in the name of spreading Islamic ideology, the children are infused with extremist beliefs and thoughts. 

In June 2018, Rizvi had said that every secular Muslim wanted the Ayodhya dispute should end and a grand Ram temple could be constructed at the disputed site.

Nasheman News : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said work is on to issue chip-based e-passports to Indian citizens under a centralized passport system.

“Our embassies and consulates are being connected to the Passport Seva Project worldwide,” he said addressing the inaugural ceremony of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) 2019 here.

“This will prepare a centralized system connected to the passport service for all of you,” he added. “Going one step ahead, work is on for issuing of the chip-based e-passport.”

He also said that work was on to simplify the process of issuing visas to PIO (Person of Indian Origin) and OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) cards.

The government’s endeavour was to see to it that Indians were happy and safe wherever they live abroad, he said. 

“In the last four-and-a-half years, more than two lakh Indians stranded in crisis situations abroad have been helped by the government and its efforts,” he said.

Modi’s Mauritius counterpart Pravind Jugnauth, the chief guest at the event, commended India’s efforts in reaching out to the diaspora.

Earlier, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj welcomed the gathering.

Organised by the External Affairs Ministry and the Uttar Pradesh government, the Indian diaspora conclave this year has over 5,000 delegates registered.

Nasheman News : At least eight persons were killed and several others injured when a mini truck in which they were travelling plunged into a gorge in Odisha’s Kandhamal district on Tuesday, police said.

The incident occurred when the truck was on the way to Brahmanigaon from Gadapur. The injured have been shifted to the MKCG Medical College and Hospital in Berhampur, said the police.

Around 40 persons were travelling in the truck.

The driver of the vehicle lost control over the wheels and the truck fell off the Poiguda ghat.

Expressing grief, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh to the next of kin of those killed and free treatment for those injured.