Archives for October 2022

NEW DELHI: For the first time, the turnover of the Khadi Village Industries Commission has exceeded a turnover of over Rs 1.15 lakh crore, thanks to massive growth in sales of its products.The KVIC comes under the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.

Official sources said this is unprecedented for any fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) company in the country. “This has happened on the back of high global demand for khadi and its products,” said the KVIC department.

India has recorded more than four times growth in the sale of khadi products in the last eight years, it said. “Globally in vogue, the fabric has found much favour with local and overseas customers especially after Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the pitch for self-reliance,” it added.

The khadi fabric owes its popularity to its quality of being ‘warm in winter’ and ‘cool in summer’, besides carrying a pure patriotic fervour.“In 2021-22, the overall turnover of KVIC stood at Rs 1,15,415.22 crore as compared to Rs 95,741.74 crore in the previous year, recording a growth of 20.54 per cent,” the department said.

The record growth in sales of khadi products has happened despite a partial coronavirus-induced lockdown in the first three months of 2021.“Khadi products and clothes have gained popularity in 18 countries, including the United States, United Arab Emirates, Mauritius, Australia, Canada, Russia, Bhutan, Qatar, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Italy, New Zealand, and many other European and West Asian countries,” said a senior KVIC official.

KVIC sources said that khadi’s phenomenal growth has been possible with the constant support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who always promotes the wider use of khadi across the country. As per sources, khadi items like trousers, shirts, and jackets from India have got greater popularity in overseas markets than other KVIC products.

“Khadi industry has not only extended its markets but has also created 1.75 crore jobs in the past eight years in India. Even during the Covid-induced lockdown, khadi masks were more in demand, giving an impetus to the employment of local artisans,” said an official.

HYDERABAD: Barely a week before the Munugode byelection, Cyberabad police on Wednesday night raided a farmhouse on the outskirts of the city and reportedly detained three persons for allegedly trying to lure four TRS legislators into the BJP

The MLAs in question — Guvvala Balaraju (Atchampet – SC), B Harshavardhan Reddy (Kollapur), Rega Kantarao (Pinapaka-ST) and Pilot Rohith Reddy (Tandur) — themselves tipped off the police, Cyberabad Commissioner of Police (CP) Stephen Raveendra revealed.

The detained have been identified as Ramachandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma, a priest from Faridabad in Haryana, Simhayaji, pontiff of Srimanatha Raja Peetham in Tirupati and Nandakumar, owner of a restaurant, Deccan Pride in Hyderabad. “The trio offered Rs 100 crore each to the TRS MLAs besides contracts and positions of power.

Briefing the media after the raid, the Police Commissioner too said they had received information that the trio were trying to entice the legislators with money, and contracts among other things to switch loyalties. “The information received was that they were holding consultations…. based on which we raided the farmhouse. We will take legal action against the accused,” he said.

The trio was caught red-handed at the farmhouse in Moinabad. The farmhouse reportedly belongs to MLA Pilot Rohith Reddy. Going by the developments, it seems the TRS has outwitted the BJP. Highly-placed sources confirmed to TNIE that even the State unit of BJP was unaware of the horse trading. “Delhi BJP leaders were overseeing this operation.. it was time-bound as they wanted the legislators to join the party at BJP chief JP Nadda’s public meeting in the State on October 31,” they said, adding that there was “tonnes of evidence” to prove BJP’s culpability.

The accused, Ramachandra Bharati, is said to be close to the RSS and was seen several times with top BJP leaders and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Nandakumar, on the other hand, is said to be close to Union Minister of State for Tourism G Kishan Reddy. TRS sources also revealed that the Delhi BJP leadership was in talks with multiple MLAs.

A senior pink party leader disclosed to TNIE that the Delhi BJP had been holding consultations with the four legislators for at least three weeks. It was learnt that the BJP leadership had first approached Rohith Reddy who informed TRS supremo and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. “This is a shameless display of how the BJP has been using its ill-gotten money to destabilise an elected government. This time, they have been caught red-handed,” the senior leader said.

Rohith Reddy, Harshavardhan Reddy and Rega Kantha Rao won on Congress tickets in the 2018 Assembly elections and later joined the TRS. The Chief Minister will hold a press conference on Thursday where he is expected to present more evidence. It is learnt that some conversations are a part of the evidence in which there were references to a few top BJP leaders.

Meanwhile, TRS MLA Balka Suman said, “The TRS MLAs busted the conspiracy hatched by the BJP and exposed the saffron party. The entire country witnessed the conspiracy of the BJP.”He advised BJP leaders to do some good work in Telangana and win the hearts of the people, instead of resorting to horse-trading. The four MLAs, however, said they would speak to the media on Thursday only after consulting the TRS chief.

KCR to hold press conference

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will hold a press conference on Thursday where he is expected to present more evidence. It is  learnt that some conversations are a part of the evidence in which there were references to a few top BJP leaders. There was “tonnes of evidence” to prove BJP’s culpability in the matter, highly-placed sources told TNIE

Accused reportedly close to Shah, Kishan

The accused, Ramachandra Bharati, is said to be close to the RSS and was seen several times with top BJP leaders and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Nandakumar, on the other hand, is said to be close to Union Minister of State for Tourism G Kishan Reddy. TRS sources also revealed that the Delhi BJP leadership was in talks with multiple MLAs.

NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to have photos of Lord Ganesha and Goddess Lakshmi on currency notes

During a media briefing, he said the photos of Ganesha and Lakshmi could be printed on fresh currency notes.

He added that the new notes could have a picture of Mahatma Gandhi on one side and of the two deities on the other.

“Despite making efforts, sometimes our efforts do not fructify if gods and goddesses are not blessing us. I appeal to PM (Modi) to have photos of Lord Ganesha and Goddess Laxmi on our currency (notes).

“If there is a photo of Lakshmi-Ganesha on our currency (notes), our country will prosper. I will write to (the) prime minister in a day or two on this,” he said.

He cited the example of Indonesia, a Muslim nation, that has a picture of Ganesha on its currency note.

“When Indonesia can, why can’t we? The photos can be printed on fresh (currency) notes,” he said.

Lamenting the fact that the India economy was not in a good shape, he said the country was passing through a delicate situation with the rupee depreciating against the US dollar.

“We all want India to be rich and every family here to be prosperous. We have to open schools and hospitals on a large scale,” he added.

Kejriwal also said the Aam Aadmi Party was fully prepared for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi polls and stressed that the people of the national capital would reject the BJP.

He also challenged the BJP to cite one good work it had done in Gujarat, where it has run a government for the last 27 years.

“All demonic powers aligned against us,” Kejriwal said on the upcoming polls in Gujarat. The Delhi chief minister also lauded the efforts of Delhi residents for the decline in the city’s pollution levels.

“We are still not satisfied. We want to make Delhi the city with the cleanest air,” he said.

Narayana Murthi & Rishi Sunak

New Delhi :”We are proud of him and wish him success,” Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy said in his first comments on the elevation of his son-in-law Rishi Sunak as Britain’s prime minister.

 Sunak, 42, on Sunday won the race to lead the Conservative Party and is now set to become Britain’s first prime minister of Indian origin.

“Congratulations to Rishi. We are proud of him and we wish him success,” Murthy said in first first reaction emailed to “We are confident he will do his best for the people of the United Kingdom.”

The son of a pharmacist mother and doctor father, Sunak was educated at one of England’s most renowned schools, Winchester, and then Oxford. He spent three years at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and later gained an MBA from Stanford in California, where he met his wife Akshata Murthy, daughter of Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy.

He married Akshata in 2009 and the couple has two daughters, Krishna and Anoushka.

Belthangady: The apex court has upheld the Belthangady civil court judgment imposing three-month imprisonment and also a fine of Rs 4.5 lakh on Somanath Nayak, president of the Nagarika Seva Trust, Guruvayanakere, here.

Nayak is reported to have been charged with defamation of dharmadhikari of Shri Kshetra Dharmasthala D Veerendra Heggade and also disobeying an order of temporary injunction to not publish any statement that would harm the reputation of the dharmadhikari.

Justices M R Shah and M M Sundresh said in their order on October 19, “Having gone through the impugned judgment and order passed by the Karnataka High Court and the learned trial court, we see no reason to interfere with the same in exercise of powers under Article 136 of the Constitution of India.”

They also said that the earlier injunction had been violated repeatedly by the petitioner, said sources. The Belthangady court had rightly judged Nayak guilty for violation of the injunction, said the apex court judges, citing the application under Order 39 Rule 2A of Civil Procedure Code. “The Special Leave Petition stands dismissed,” the bench added.

Heggade had filed an original suit before the Additional Civil Judge and JMFC, Belthangady. He had also secured a temporary injunction order in November 2013 against Nayak and five other people to hold them from making or publishing any statement that would impact the reputation of Shri Kshetra Dharmasthala and Heggade himself.

Since Nayak continued to publish statements against Heggade, the dharmadhikari is learned to have filed an interim application against Nayak for violation of the injuction. The Belthangady civil court had sentenced Nayak to three months of imprisonment along with payment of a compensation of Rs 4.5 lakh.

While Nayak appealed against the order, his application was turned down by the senior civil judge and the JMFC, Belthangady, in March 2022 and the Karnataka High Court in May 2022.

Nayak had then filed a special leave petition before the Supreme Court, which, however, has now also dismissed his petition.

Book: Philosophy for Children
Author – Sundar Sarukkai
Illustration – Priya Kuriyan
Price – ₹175 Pages – 72
Published – 2021

Do we think while seeing, reading, and writing? Are our children engaged in many given activities that they do not have the leisure to think on their own? Writing a book for children is a very difficult task for even a seasoned author. It becomes even tougher when that book is on philosophy.

Philosophy for children is a beautifully crafted small 72-page book written by Sundar Sarukkai. He is currently a Professor of Philosophy at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore. He is the founding director of the Manipal Centre for Philosophy & Humanities, at Manipal University, from 2010-2015. Additionally, Dr Sarukkai is the founder of the Barefoot Philosophers initiative (https://www.barefootphilosophers.com).

This amazing book is divided into eight chapters. Those are seeing, thinking, reading, writing, mathematics, art, being good, and learning. Each chapter is prepared with children aged around 10 in mind. For example, “The funny thing about seeing is that we can also see when our eyes are closed! Try this exercise. Close your eyes. Do you see any shades of colour? When we dream, we do see many things. We can see people, we hear them talking. But when we are dreaming our eyes are closed.”

Each chapter provides us with different perspectives on the human senses. Let me quote another example from the chapter thinking. “Ask yourself these questions: Do you think differently in your Hindi class and your English class? Is that thinking different from what you think when you are learning science and mathematics?”. In this way, Sarukkai walks us through various situations and encourages children to ask questions. It is not often that one comes across classrooms that are question-friendly. “Pindrop silence” is considered the benchmark of a good classroom.

Priya Kuriyan has done exceptional work by adding a large number of colourful illustrations all throughout this book. These pictures play a vital role in making this book extremely children friendly. Priya is an alumnus of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. She has been awarded the prestigious Big Little Book Award for her contribution to the field of children’s literature.

The valiant effort of Sarukkai and Priya would have gone in vain but for Ektara’s production. Ektara is a group working in Bhopal towards enriching the child’s world. It is virtually impossible to make this striking book available for ₹175. If you love children and who does not? You cannot think of a better gift than ‘Philosophy for Children.

Dewas (MP): Enraged over not being allowed to light a cigarette, a group of five young men stabbed a petrol pump employee to death in Madhya Pradesh’s Dewas district on Diwali night, police said.

While the accused were arrested, the administration also initiated demolition of their houses, terming them unauthorized.

The incident of stabbing took place at Suryansh Sales Petrol Pump near Jetpura on Bhopal road, said a police official on Tuesday night.

A group of five young men arrived at the petrol pump to fill up the tank of their car. When one of them lit a cigarette, an employee named Rahul Singh asked him not to do so.

It angered them and they started a quarrel, the official said. When Jojan Singh Rajput (30), another employee, intervened, they attacked him and Rahul with a knife, he added.

Rajput succumbed to his injuries at a local hospital while Rahul Singh was shifted to Indore for treatment, said Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Manjeet Singh Chawla.

The accused, identified as Samir, Faizan, Firoz, Zafar and Irshad, were arrested, Chawla said.

Angry over the incident, local villagers blocked the Bhopal Highway near Khataba demanding demolition of the accused’s houses and an eatery run by them.

Police and local administration demolished the eatery claiming that it was illegal and have also started demolishing the houses of the accused persons, the official added.