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Gandhi remembered on his death anniversary

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[NASHEMAN NEWS] New Delhi President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday paid their tributes to Mahatma Gandhi on his death anniversary.

“On Martyrs’ Day, we gratefully remember Mahatma Gandhi and the countless freedom fighters who sacrificed their all for our Independence,” the President tweeted. 

Modi said: “We reiterate our commitment to follow the path shown by him and abide by the values he stood for. 

“We salute all the martyrs who laid down their lives for India. The country remains eternally grateful to them for their service and sacrifice.” 

Sharing a quote by the Father of the Nation, Rahul Gandhi paid tributes to the leader of the Indian independence movement, who was assassinated on this day. 

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its weak and vulnerable members are treated,” Gandhi tweeted. 

Besides, Chief Ministers of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal and West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee also paid homage to Gandhi. 

“Let us not forget the fact that it is the hatred bred by the fundamentalist ideology of Sangh that took away Bapu. Let us also not forget the fact that it is the same ideology that is staring at us with its ugliest face yet, now,” Kejriwal tweeted. 

India’s largest financial scam, Rs 1 lakh crore of public money lent to DHFL

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In what appears to be the biggest financial scam in Indian history, the primary promoters of DHFL have been found to have siphoned off more than Rs. 31,000 crore of public money. The scam has primarily been carried out through grants of loans and advances to shell companies and by using other means. Money has also been routed through these dubious companies and parked outside India, to acquire assets. Cobrapost has unearthed the scam by closely analyzing documents available with public authorities and information available in public domain.

Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan happens to be the brand ambassador of this group.

The biggest victim of this alleged scam, according to Cobrapost, are Indian banks that are already reeling under enormous stress due to scams hitting the PNB, AXIS BANK and ICICI.

As illustrated in the table, together these banks have a cumulative liability of a whopping Rs 96,880 crore. These are mostly public sector banks with the exception of Kotak, ICICI, HDFC and Axis. Loans issued by the State Bank of India amounts to Rs 11,650 crore, while Bank of Baroda and Bank India loaned more than Rs 4,000 crores each.

Today’s revelation comes just days after the federal probe agency CBI booked former CEO and MD of ICICI, Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar and Venugopal Dhoot, the promoter of Videocon along with several other big names from the banking industry in connection with a Rs 3,250 crore scam.

The anatomy of the scam, as highlighted by Cobrapost, has repercussions for the larger financial system in India. As an industry practice, loans are advanced to companies and are secured by not only the properties of the borrowers company but also by personal guaranty of the promoters of the companies.

By lending to shell companies without due diligence, the DHFL has ensured that the recovery of such dubious loans is impossible since the companies or their directors themselves do not own any assets.This way the properties/private wealth acquired by the Wadhawans and their associates by using the funds from these dubious loans are completely ring-fenced from any recovery process.

Another highlight of today’s expose by Cobrapost is the donation made by a group of companies belonging to DHFL to the ruling BJP. In total, companies owned by the DHFL have donated Rs 19.6 crore to the BJP. One of the subsidiaries, RK Developers, had hidden their donation of Rs 9.93 crore made to the BJP in their balance sheet.

The role of Prime Minister Narendra Modi had come under a huge scanner after his close friends Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi fled India by defaulting the PNB worth over Rs 5,000 crore of loans. The opposition Congress has been causing grief to the ruling BJP and PM Modi for his alleged complicity in aiding Nirav Modi and Choksi to commit the large scale scam.

With the Lok Sabha elections scheduled in less than two months time, this expose is bound to have serious ramifications on the political discourse. It remains to be seen if the government will act with a lookout notice against the Wadhawans before they also leave India just like Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi did.

Courtesy : Cobrapost Exposes

Nepal’s Chhaupadi Tradition

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The Practice Of Exiling Menstruating Women & Girls From Their Homes & 0ften To A Cow Shed

 By: Husna Rizwan 

The tragic recent deaths of a mother & her 2 sons in a Chhaupadi hut in Nepal has again brought the issue of this exclusionary practice to the forefront of international human rights & media attention. 

 Despite being illegal, Chhaupadi, the practice of exiling menstruating women & girls from their home, often to a cow shed – is still practised in some areas of Western Nepal. Chhaupadi is an extreme example of the stigmas & the restrictions around menstruation that exist not only in Nepal, but also globally. 

The recent protests at the Sabarimala temple in India, in which women of menstruating age are not allowed to enter the temple, are another example of menstrual pollution beliefs. The image of menstruating women & girls being forced to leave their homes & be confined to a cow shed dominates the media coverage of the issue in Nepal.

 But this view over simplifies what is a much more complex issue. Chhaupadi is not only limited to the physical practice of sleeping in a shed, it goes beyond this to include deeply rooted cultural beliefs about impurity, which sees women & girls as inferior & often lead girls to internalise these feelings. Girls are told they are impure from a young age, which can have a damaging effect on their psyche & sense of self -worth. 

Many NGO’s & activists are destroying the sheds & the Nepalese Government has introduced new penalties & sanctions, such as removing state food support & other service. While this might seem like a welcome move, in some areas there are reports that this can make it more dangerous for women & girls as instead they sleep outside in the caves or the jungle without even a shelter or a mosquito net.

 These practices are deeply ingrained in the culture & even the society. So many women may leave their homes despite sanctions for fear of bringing harm if they don’t. 

Tham Maya Thapa, Nepal’s minister for women, children & senior citizens, believes it will take time to end the rituals of the Chhaupadi, as this is a custom that has been deeply entrenched in a Nepalese society for 100’s of years.

Nepal is an exceptionally diverse country of 125 ethnic groups. To tackle Chhaupadi, a nuanced understanding of how menstrual practices & beliefs differ amongst varied religious & ethnic backgrounds is required. Although the tradition of Chhaupadi hits the headlines, there is no one all -encompassing single narrative on menstruation in Nepal.

A research on gender education & gender – based violence in Nepal over the past 2 & a half decades has been going on & they are working on a project on the origins of menstrual beliefs & practices which explores the diverse range of the beliefs, the practices & the historical & the cultural roots which underpin menstrual health customs in all the 7 provinces of Nepal. 

They are working with the local organisations & the activists such as Radha Paudel, to challenge menstrual stigma, as a deeper understanding of the diverse menstrual practices beyond the Chhaupadi is needed to do so. Their previous research has highlighted a range of the stigmas & the restrictions, such as not being able to visit the temple & even to participate in religious ceremonies, as well as being forbidden to look in mirrors, cook, or have any contact even with the men. Because while Chhaupadi is a serious human rights issue, other issues of gender – based violence, such as thesexual violence & even the domestic abuse do not get the same widespread media coverage that it really deserves.

 A range of the academics & also the activists are challenging even the media representation with their photography, their films & also their art which empowers the so called women & even the so called girls to speak out about their experiences. These can be powerful tools, ensuring that the voices of the women & the girls are heard & highlighting that the women & the girls can be the most active agents of change, rather than simply the passive victims of oppression. 

Collaboration with local communities & partners is a key to the changing attitudes & this can be done using participatory & creative methods. For example, a team of experts from the University of Pittsburgh in partnership with the Nepal Fertility Care centre used collaborative filmmaking to include girls in the conversation around menstruation.

 The girls who made the film have gone on to be advocates for change & are challenging menstrual stigmas & taboos in their community. Bringing them to Kathmandu increased the confidence of the girls & engaged policy makers, Government ministers & NGO’s. The film received an international audience at the Kathmandu Film Fest as well as media coverage.

 Meanwhile, the  MenstruAction conference in Kathmandu in Dec, 2018 brought together local expertise working towards challenging stigmas & restrictions thereby enabling & empowering women to realise their sexual & reproductive rights & their basic right to be free from harm & discrimination. 

The Government ministries need to engage in these events & work together with grassroots activists to promote change. Complex problems require complex solutions. Menstruation is often framed as a “health & hygiene” issue, but a range of actors are needed to bring about a long – term change. The media have a role to play in raising awareness, but they must be careful not to sensationalise the issue & to also listen to & report, the voices of activists & change makers in the community.

Only when we put women & girls & their voices at the centre of research, policies & interventions, can we truly understand the nuanced nature of the deeply embedded practice of Chhaupadi.

In conclusion one would also like to point out that the similar practise of menstruation stigma between women & girls has been prevalent & eradicated in most part of Indian villages for centuries but unfortunately it has come to the light like Nepal even now it is prevalent in some parts of India & a positive steps should now be taken firmly to finally eradicate this age old practice forever no matter wherever it is still prevalent in India. This taboo should be removed as now women empowerment is gaining momentum as women & girls certainly & definitely deserve equal rights as compared to their male counterparts.      

Tennis: Prajnesh, Ankita achieve career-best rankings

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Nasheman News :Indian tennis players Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Ankita Raina on Monday achieved their career-best rankings of 102 and 168 respectively.

Prajnesh jumped seven places to be at 102 while Ankita vaulted 35 places to sit at 168.

Women’s singles player Karman Kaur Thandi dropped five places to 210.

In the ATP list, Ramkumar Ramanathan dropped two places to 133 while Saketh Myneni also dropped four places to 260.

In the doubles, veteran player Rohan Bopanna (37) and Divij Sharan (40) dropped three places, and Leander Paes dropped 19 places to be at 78.

Bengaluru, Mumbai to host TVS Ladies One Make Championship selection rounds

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Nasheman News : Two-wheeler giants TVS Racing on Monday announced that the selection rounds for the 2019 edition of TVS Ladies One Make Championship will be held in Bengaluru and Mumbai on February 9 and 23, respectively.

The selection sessions will include a full-day training school conducted by national champions of TVS Racing to ensure riders are familiarised with their race-tuned TVS Apache RTR 200 4V Race Edition 2.0.

Based on their best lap timings, physical fitness and racing abilities, the top 15 riders will be selected from each city. 

The final round of selection will take place at the Madras Motor Race Track (MMRT) in Chennai on May 4. 

The Bangalore selection round will be held at Meco Kartopia in Hennur and the Mumbai round at Island Sports Gokart Track in Wadala.

Speaking on the occasion, B Selvaraj, Team Manager, TVS Racing said: “We are the only manufacturer in India committed to women’s racing with 4 consecutive seasons of the TVS Ladies One Make Championship. We introduced this initiative to train and equip talented women riders to enter the mainstream racing arena.”

“With each passing year, I am delighted to see the increasing number of participants, which is a testimony to our effort of creating a gender-neutral space for motorsports in India. I wish all the women participants the very best and hope to see them excited about professional racing,” he added.

The team will compete in five rounds for the championship astride the race-tuned TVS Apache RTR 200 4V Race Edition 2.0. 

Post the final selection round in Chennai, the racers will undergo specific training under the aegis of the national champion riders from TVS Racing to improve physical fitness and hone their racing skills before the Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship (INRC) begins in June.

Centre gives Rs 949 cr aid to drought-hit Karnataka

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Nasheman News :  The central government has approved Rs 949.49-crore aid to drought-hit Karnataka, said Union Minister for Agriculture Radha Mohan Singh on Tuesday.

“The central government has approved Rs 949.49-crore assistance to drought-hit Karnataka for Kharif 2018-19 season,” Singh tweeted.

Karnataka in October 2018 sought drought relief aid of Rs 2,434-crore to compensate for the crop losses in drought-hit districts.

The state had pegged the losses incurred due to the drought situation in 100 sub-districts (taluks) in 24 of the state’s 30 districts at Rs 16,500-crore and asked the central government for a relief of Rs 2,434 crore.

A total of 26.18 lakh hectares of agricultural area and 1.94 lakh hectares of horticulture area have suffered more than 33 per cent crop loss, the state earlier said.

Several districts, particularly the northern and north interior regions, have been reeling under drought due to scanty rainfall.

Karnataka is estimated to have suffered Rs 20,000 crore loss due to floods and drought since last year, according to the Revenue Department.

“The prevailing condition is unprecedented as the state was affected by floods (in August 2018) and is facing acute drought conditions during kharif and rabi seasons, impacting the state’s economy,” the Revenue Department said earlier.

NIA arrests two JMB members in Burdwan blast case

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Nasheman News :  The NIA has arrested two suspected Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) members from West Bengal’s Hooghly district for their alleged involvement in the 2014 Burdwan blast case, the agency said on Tuesday.

The arrested members have been identified as Kadar Kazi alias Kadoor and Sajjad Ali.

“Both the JMB members were arrested in different operations on Monday. We arrested Kadar Kazi from Arambagh area in Hooghly district while his associate Sajjad Ali was held in a late night operation,” a National Investigation Agency official said. 

The official said that Kazi was wanted in the Burdwan blast case and was also declared a proclaimed offender while Ali was involved in the activities of the JMB, a Bangladesh-based terror group. 

Both the accused will be produced before a special NIA court in Kolkata later on Tuesday. 

A bomb had ripped through a house in Khagragarh locality of Burdwan on October 2, 2014, killing two people and exposing a web of Bangladeshis running a virtual arms-and-explosive network in West Bengal, Assam and Jharkhand. 

The NIA in March 2015 submitted a chargesheet in the case, saying terrorists were using territories in the three states to overthrow a democratic government in Bangladesh and replace it with a hardline Islamic regime.

Indian wrestling has started to do things more professionally: Vanesa

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Nasheman News : Two-time world champion Vanesa Kaladzinskaya has said that Indian wrestling has now started becoming more professional than it had been a few years ago.

The Olympian from Belarus, who is a key member of the Pro Wrestling League (PWL) side UP Dangal in Season-4, was referring to the Indian wrestling scenario from when she saw Geeta and Babita Phogat during their bronze-medal winning performance at the World Championships in Strathcona County, Canada, six years ago. Vanesa won a gold there.

“Not only those two girls — Geeta and Babita — but Indian wrestling has now started doing things more professionally and you can see more and more improvements in every department and the level has become better day by day. I have been to India last year also for the PWL and I can see a lot of promising wrestlers, both male and female in the league here. They have also started winning in big events like the world championships and the Olympics,” Vanesa told IANS in an interview.

She asserted that the PWL is a key catalyst for this change as it gives Indian wrestlers much needed exposure and has turned the sport into a lucrative career option.

“Youngsters get inspiration when they see such a big league like this from up close. They want to come out and take up wrestling which is a big boost for the sport. It is helpful for the current athletes too because more people will get to know them and they will get more support from their countrymen when they go for bigger competitions abroad,” said the 2018 European championships silver medallist.

Vanesa took a sabbatical after her World Championship gold in 2012 to raise her child and returned to win her second World Championships gold in Paris five years later. 

“I participated in the 2013 European Championships where I was placed third. After that there were some health issues for which I missed another year and started training again in 2016. The next year, I became the world champion again,” said the mother of a five-and-a-half-year-old boy who has already started taking gymnastics lessons from his grandparents who are gymnastics coaches.

“I also started with gymnastics as both my mom and dad are gymnastic coaches. My father Valery is an international coach while mom does coaching in Belarus. It was much later that I shifted to wrestling,” said Vanesa who has become a huge fan of the Indian sweet gulab jamun and doesn’t mind having some even if her diet plan doesn’t approve of it.

“Oh I love them! I have started liking a lot of things here and the sweet is one of them. I also watched a lot of Hindi movies when I was here last year but not many this time,” she added. 

Vanesa, who misses her five-year-old a lot and tries to spend as much time with him as possible when not travelling or training, said: “That is all part and parcel of an athlete’s life. I miss him a lot, but I also need to train and compete to improve. My immediate focus is the world championship and then, of course, winning a gold in the Tokyo (2020) Summer Games.” 

ICC Women’s Championship: Mandhana stars as India thrash New Zealand

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Nasheman News :  Jhulan Goswami’s 3/23 and half-centuries by Smriti Mandhana and Mithali Raj helped India thrash New Zealand by eight wickets and take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match ICC Women’s Championship one-day international series here on Tuesday.

Like the first match, New Zealand struggled against India’s bowlers. Apart from Amy Satterthwaite, who scored a gritty 71 runs, no other batswomen contributed handsomely as Goswami led the charge and restricted the hosts to a modest 161 at the Bay Oval here, according to an ICC release.

Coming in to bat, India’s Mandhana (90 not out) dominated the proceedings, forging an impressive 151-run partnership with Mithali Raj (63 not out off 111) for the third wicket. 

But the victory was set up by the bowlers. Goswami’s opening over accounted for Suzie Bates for a duck, and that was a big blow for New Zealand. Then, Shikha Pandey trapped Sophie Devine in front for seven.

When Ekta Bisht removed Lauren Down and Amelia Kerr for 15 and 1 respectively, the hosts were left tottering at 38/4. Maddy Green looked to knuckle down with her captain, but fell to Poonam Yadav after a 28-ball 9.

Satterthwaite took the lead and stitched together a relatively brisk 58-run stand with Leigh Kasperek before finally being dismissed by Yadav. There were some handy contributions from the lower order, but Goswami helped end the resistance, dismissing Kasperek and Lea Tahuhu for 21 and 12 respectively.

Goswami finished with 3/23, while Bisht, Deepti Sharma and Yadav chipped in with two wickets each.

India’s chase had a rather wobbly start, though, with Anna Peterson and Tahuhu accounting for Jemimah Rodrigues and Deepti Sharma early. Unfortunately for the hosts, that was all the success they were allowed.

Mandhana just picked up from where she had left off in the first ODI, when she had scored her fourth century in the format. Once again, she scored freely and found a solid partner in captain Raj at the other end.

Raj scored relatively slowly, but hit a couple of sixes off Kasperek, and as the target came in sight she too scored boundaries more regularly. 

Mandhana remained unbeaten and her knock featured 13 fours and a six. Raj scored 63 from 111 deliveries, including two sixes and four fours. Her second six brought the winning runs for India.

With the win, India have moved to No.2 on the Championship table, on 12 points after 11 games, ahead of New Zealand on net run-rate.

UP to build world’s longest Expressway: Adityanath

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Nasheman News : The Uttar Pradesh cabinet met at Prayagraj, the venue of the Kumbh, on Tuesday and cleared the decks to construct what is being touted as the world’s longest highway — the Ganga Expressway between Meerut and Prayagraj.

At the meeting, held outside the state capital for only the second time in history, and chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, it was decided that the 600-km Expressway will be built at a cost of Rs 36,000 crore on a stretch of 6,556 hectares of land. 

The proposed Ganga Expressway will weave through Meerut-Amroha-Bulandshahr-Budaun-Shahjahanpur-Kannauj-Unnao-Rae Bareli-Pratapgarh and end at Prayagraj, earlier known as Allahabad. 

The cabinet also decided to make tax free the Bollywood film “Uri”, based on the Indian Army’s surgical strike on terror bases in Pakistan. 

Talking to reporters, the Chief Minister welcomed the move by the union government to move the Supreme Court seeking permission for revoking the status quo stay on the excess vacant land acquired around Ayodhya’s disputed site, accompanied by a request to the court that this land be handed over to the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas. 

“We welcome this move by the Centre. We have all along been saying that we should get permission to use the undisputed land,” the saffron-robed Chief Minister said. 

Before the cabinet meeting held at the sprawling tented complex on the banks of the holy trinity of Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers, Adityanath prayed at an iconic temple of Lord Hanuman where he was greeted by Narendra Giri, the priest. 

He took part in an ‘aarti’ and performed rituals. He and his Ministers then went to the Aksyavat tree and ‘Saraswati Koop’ inside the fort here. 

The first meeting of the Uttar Pradesh cabinet away from Lucknow was held in 1962 in Nainital when Govind Vallabh Pant was the Chief Minister. 

Heavy security was enforced at the Kumbh for the high-profile visit and a vast area near the Sangam was declared out of bounds for pilgrims. 

A total of 28 Ministers took part in the cabinet meeting at the Integrated Control and Common Centre (ICCC), an official said. 

All of them are later set to take a holy dip in the Sangam as part of Kumbh festivities. 

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