India's largest selling Urdu weekly, now also in English
NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned till noon on Friday amid protest by Opposition members over Pegasus and other issues.
However, the members resorted to sloganeering over Pegasus snooping controversy and farm laws.
As the protests continued, the Speaker urged the agitating members to go back to their seats.
The proceedings lasted for around 15 minutes after which Birla adjourned the House till noon.
NEW DELHI: Several opposition party leaders will on Friday go to Jantar Mantar here to express solidarity with farmers protesting against the contentious farm laws and participate in the ‘Kisan Sansad’.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and several other leaders of Opposition parties were present in the meeting held in the chamber of Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge.
Opposition leaders including Gandhi will participate in the Kisan Sansad at Jantar Mantar and support the farmers in their demand for repeal of farm laws, Kharge told reporters after the meeting.
“The Opposition leaders’ meeting decided to hold their protest in Jantar Mantar at 1 PM and sit with the protesting farmers,” a senior leader told PTI.
The leaders would travel from Parliament at 12.
30 PM in a bus and would participate in the Kisan Sansad at Jantar Mantar.
Leaders of several parties including the Congress, DMK, TMC, NCP, Shiv Sena, RJD, SP, CPIM, AAP, CPI, IUML, RSP, NC and LJD attended the opposition meeting.
The opposition leaders also discussed their floor strategy in both houses of Parliament during the meeting.
LUCKNOW: BSP chief Mayawati on Friday said it will support the central government in parliament and outside if it takes constructive steps for conducting census of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
Her remarks come close on the heels of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday seeking an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the tricky issue of caste-based census which the Centre has proposed to hold only for SCs and STs.
“BSP has been demanding census of OBCs in the country. If the central government takes any positive step in this direction, BSP will definitely support it both inside and outside the parliament,” Mayawati said in a tweet in Hindi.
NEW DELHI: Hailing the Indian women’s hockey team’s performance at the Olympics, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said it narrowly missed a medal but it reflects the spirit of new India, “where we give our best and scale new frontiers”.
“We narrowly missed a medal in Women’s Hockey but this team reflects the spirit of New India — where we give our best and scale new frontiers,” Modi tweeted after the match.
“More importantly, their success at #Tokyo2020 will motivate young daughters of India to take up Hockey and excel in it. Proud of this team,” he said.
Modi said people will always remember the great performance of our women’s hockey team at the Tokyo Olympics.
“They gave their best throughout.
Each and every member of the team is blessed with remarkable courage, skill and resilience.
India is proud of this outstanding team,” the prime minister said.
The team had already created history and surpassed all expectations by entering the semifinals of the Games for the first time.
But the maiden Olympic medal remained out of bounds as world no. 4 Great Britain, who were gold-winners in the 2016 Rio Games, came out on top in the pulsating encounter.
The heartbreak came a day after the Indian men’s team ended a 41-year-old medal drought by clinching a bronze with a 5-4 win over Germany.
NEW DELHI: India added 42,982 new coronavirus infections in a single day taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,18,12,114, while the active cases increased to 4,11,076, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday.
The active cases comprise 1.29 per cent of the total infections and the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.37 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed.
An increase of 723 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16
It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.
India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23.
As many as 16,64,030 tests were conducted on Wednesday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 47,48,93,363.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.58 per cent and the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 2.37 per cent, according to the ministry.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,09,74,748, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.34 per cent, the data stated.
Cumulative vaccine doses administered so far has reached 48.93 crore under the nationwide vaccination drive.
The 533 new fatalities include 195 from Maharashtra and 108 from Kerala.
A total of 4,26,290 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,33,410 from Maharashtra, 36,680 from Karnataka, 34,197 from Tamil Nadu, 25,058 from Delhi, 22,767 from Uttar Pradesh, 18,180 from West Bengal and 17,211 from Kerala.
NEW DELHI: The “stupendous” performance of India’s hockey teams is one of the things people will remember the Tokyo Olympics for, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday soon after the women’s team went down fighting against Argentina in the semifinal.
Both the men’s as well as the women’s teams remain in contention for the bronze medal.
The men’s team had also lost in the semifinals to Belgium.
After the match, Modi spoke to women’s hockey team captain Rani Rampal and coach Sjoerd Marijne, and expressed pride at their performance.
“He told them that the women’s team is a skilled group of athletes who have worked very hard and that they must look ahead. He also said that wins and losses are a part of life and that they must not be disheartened,” official sources said.
In a tweet, Modi said: “One of the things we will remember Tokyo 2020 for is the stupendous performance by our hockey teams. Today and through the Games, our women’s hockey team played with grit and showcased great skill. Proud of the team. Best of luck for the game ahead and for future endeavours.”
A brave Indian women’s hockey team put up a gritty performance, but it was not enough to secure a maiden Olympic final berth as it lost 1-2 to world number two Argentina in a hard-fought semifinal in the Tokyo Olympics.
TOKYO: A demoralising semifinal defeat behind it, the Indian men’s hockey team would need an error-free performance from its defence to secure an Olympic medal after 41 years when it takes on Rio Games bronze-winner Germany in the third-fourth place play-off match here on Thursday.
The Belgians played to their strengths as their focus was merely on earning penalty corners, especially with the likes of tournament’s highest goal-scorer Alexander Hendrickx, who scored a hat-trick, and Loick Lupaert in their ranks.
Their ploy worked to perfection as put under pressure, the Indians lost their defensive shape and conceded as many as 14 penalty corners in the match, eight in the final quarter, to lose a bright chance to secure an Olympic medal after 41 years.
India’s last of the eight Olympic golds came way back in 1980 Moscow Games.
But come Thursday, the Indian defence will have to pull up its socks and avoid repeating the same mistakes which it made against Belgium if they desire to stand on the podium here.
Despite having four world-class drag-flickers in its armoury in Rupinder Pal Sngh, vice captain Harmanpreet Singh, Varun Kumar and Amit Rohidas, the Indians have a poor penalty corner conversion record, utilising just one out of the five they secured against world no.1 Belgium on Tuesday.
The onus now is on the Indian defence and the likes of Harmanpreet, Rupinder, Surender Kumar, Amit Rohidas and star goalkeeper PR Sreejesh will have to be on their toes to come out triumphant against the might of Germans.
The Indians also need to avoid unnecessary tackles in front of their circle with skipper Manpreet Singh being guilty of getting a card at the start of the fourth quarter, which resulted in three back-to-back penalty corners for Belgium, the last of which was converted by Hendrickx to shift the momentum of the match in their favour.
Going by rankings, there is hardly anything to differentiate between the two sides as India are currently on third place and Germany on fourth.
But Germany would be a tough nut to crack for the Indians.
Having lost 1-3 against Australia in the semifinals here, the Germans would be determined to prove a point.
The clash between India and Germany would be a repeat of the bronze medal clash of the 2017 Hockey World League Finals.
Back then, the Indians triumphed 2-1 against a vastly depleted German team.
Having failed to secure the gold medal here after two successive yellow metals in 2008 and 2012 Games, the Germans had to settle for a bronze in Rio 2016 and they would be determined to at least return with a podium finish from here.
Germany are the most successful hockey nation in the Olympics after India with four gold medals.
Striker Lukas Wendfeder is in great form, having scored scored six goals in the tournament so far.
The Indian defence is expected to have a busy outing on Thursday with the likes of Wendfeder, Florian Fuchs and Christopher Ruhr in the German side.
In the Olympics, both the sides have faced each other 11 times recording four wins each and three matches ending in draws.
Recently, India toured Germany in March this year during which they defeated the hosts 6-1 and drew a match 1-1.
India captain Manpreet Singh has already said that he is in no mood to dwell on the semifinal result.
“Now we need to focus on our next bronze-medal match and we need to work and we need to get the medal,” Manpreet had said after the semifinal loss.
“At least we should win a bronze medal for the nation,” he added.
In the men’s hockey final, Australia will face Belgium later on Thursday.
BENGALURU: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) Delhi on Thursday morning conducted raids at the premises of former Congress ministers Roshan Baig and BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan in the I Monetary Advisory (IMA) multi crore Ponzi scheme.
According to informed sources, the raids are being conducted at 15 locations of the two politicians in the city.
In July, the State government had provisionally attached the immovable and movable properties of the former Congress MLA and Minister R Roshan Baig under the Karnataka Protection of interest of Depositors in Financial Establishment Act, 2004 in the IMA scam.
The properties were attached by the Competent Authority in the IMA case, including the six immovable properties mentioned in the affidavit that Baig had submitted before the Election Commission in
2018 along with nomination papers for the Assembly elections.
In July, 2019, the ED had summoned Khan who was then Food and Civil Supplies and Minority Welfare Minister, for questioning in connection with selling his property at Richmond Town to IMA owner Mohammed Mansoor Khan. ED had registered the Prevention of Money Laundering Act
BENGALURU: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday, August 5, 2021, conducted searches at the residence of former Karnataka minister and Congress leader Roshan Baig in connection with the I-Monetary Advisory (IMA) investment scam unearthed in 2019.
A separate ED team also conducted raids at the residence of Chickpet MLA BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan’s residence in connection with the case.
Over half a dozen ED officers have been searching Baig’s premises in Coles Park in Pulikeshinagar since morning. The seven-time Congress MLA from Shivaji Nagar constituency in the heart of Bengaluru, Baig was arrested on November 22 last year by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after being quizzed for nearly 10 hours.
The CBI also raided Baig’s Bengaluru residence a day after his arrest.
The Enforcement Directorate filed a money laundering case against the IMA group of companies and prime accused in the case, Mohammed Mansoor Khan after reports emerged that he has gone underground fearing investments worth crores of about 50,000 investors in the ponzi scam.
The ED began a money-laundering probe based on First Information Report (FIR) registered by the CBI.
Karnataka-based I-Monetary Advisors (IMA), an investment firm purportedly run in compliance with Islamic banking rules, collapsed in May 2019 after it could not repay either the deposits or dividends on the deposits it had illegally accepted.
The prime accused Mohammed Mansoor Khan, managing director and chief executive officer of the IMA Group of companies, at the time of his arrest, had alleged that Baig had cheated him of Rs 400 crore and forced him to gift expensive cars and jewellery. He had also named some other government officers.
The former minister had then rejected the charge and claimed that except for some donations to Haj facilitation centres, he had not accepted any money.
Both Baig and Khan are out on bail, while investigators are trying to recover money lost by the depositors.
The then coalition government of Congress and JD(S) had formed a special investigation team to probe the matter in September 2019. However, the BJP government which came to power later handed over the case to the CBI. The CBI has arraigned an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, two Indian Police Service (IPS) officers, a Karnataka Administrative Service (KAS) officer and a corporator as accused among others in the case after the state government gave permission for prosecuting them.
Baig was suspended from the Congress party in June 2019 after he criticized the leader of opposition Siddaramaiah as well as then KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao. Baig had also attempted to join the BJP. He, however, was not inducted into BS Yediyurappa’s party, unlike 16 other disqualified legislators of Congress and JDS, whose revolt led to the collapse of the HD Kumarasamy led coalition government in 2019.
Karnataka High Court recently ordered the seizure of Baig’s immovable assets.
Karnataka government informed the High court last month that it has attached properties belonging to Baig.