COLOMBO: Cash-strapped Sri Lanka saw its highest inflation on record for the eighth consecutive month in May, official data showed Wednesday, as the island nation grapples with its worst-ever economic crisis. 

The Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI) rose 39.1 percent year-on-year last month, up from 29.8 percent in April, according to the statistics department. Food inflation in Colombo came in at 57.4 percent, up from 46.6 percent in April. 

The price increases in May were yet to fully capture the sharp increases in fuel, one of the many vital commodities in scarce supply across the country.

Private economists say consumer prices are rising even faster than official records show, with one John Hopkins University analyst tracking March inflation at 133 percent — more than six times the official figure.

Sri Lanka’s import-dependent economy has been hammered by a critical foreign currency shortage, leading to months of acute shortages of food, medicines and other essentials. 

Faced with a huge cash crunch, the government on Tuesday raised taxes across the board by rolling back cuts ordered by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in November 2019. Weeks of protests outside the president’s seafront office have demanded his resignation over government mismanagement of the crisis.

Sri Lanka has defaulted on its $51 billion foreign debt and is seeking international aid to revive its bankrupt economy, including from the International Monetary Fund.

The Kolkata-based Anthropological Survey of India (ANSI), which has, “of late”, expressed “disinclination” to proceed with the exercise to trace the genetic origins of early Indians because the issue is “politically loaded”, is also part of this project which was initially conceived in 2019. A budget of `10 crore has been earmarked for procuring the DNA profilers and the other related scientific gadgets, sources said. The aim, according to the ANSI, is to “develop a resource of cell lines and DNA samples that can be used to study DNA sequence polymorphism in contemporary Indian populations”.

More importantly, the ANSI seeks to “establish (the) Indian role in the dispersal of modern humans out of Africa” because “modern humans could have taken the ‘southern route of dispersal’, utilising the coastlines to travel from Africa, through Arabia, across the Indian subcontinent and then into South-East Asia and finally into Australia”. 

Secondly, the ANSI wants to understand the genetic diversity of Indian populations among various ethnic groups in different regions of India based on direct re-sequencing of haploid genomes. By its own admission, under this project, the ANSI has studied 75 communities comprising 7,807 blood samples from different parts of the country. These communities include the Jarawa, Nicobarese, Andh, Kathodi, Madia, Malpaharia, Munda, Bhoi Khasi, Nihal, Toto, Dirang Monpa, Paitei, Lepcha and a host of others

NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Wednesday said the country’s growth rate is weakening and there is no sign of the promised “recovery”.

“The NSO figures are out: the most striking graph is the quarterly growth rates in 2021-22 of 20.1, 8.4, 5.4 and 4.1 per cent.”

“That graph tells all. The growth rate is weakening with every quarter and there is no sign of the promised ‘recovery’,” Chidambaram said on Twitter.

The former finance minister said the GDP in 2021-22 is barely above the level achieved in 2019-20.

“That means that after you two years, India’s economy is at about the same level as it was on 31-3-2020,” he added.

JAIPUR: Ten of 13 independent MLAs in Rajasthan met Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Congress candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections here on Tuesday night.

State Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra and party candidates Mukul Wasnik, Pramod Tiwari and Randeep Singh Surjewal were present on the occasion.

The elections to four seats of the Rajya Sabha in Rajasthan will take place on June 10.

The Congress has fielded three candidates and the BJP one.

Backed by the BJP, media baron Subhash Chandra filed his nomination for the elections to the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, a move that could scuttle the Congress chances of winning a third seat from Rajasthan.

Essel Group chairman Chandra is currently a Rajya Sabha member from Haryana and his term is going to expire on August 1.

The filing of papers by him as an independent prompted Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to allege that the BJP wants to indulge in horse trading.

The ruling Congress in Rajasthan with its 108 MLAs in the state Assembly is set to win two of the four seats going to the elections.

After winning two seats, the Congress will have 26 surplus votes, 15 short of the required 41 to win the third seat.

On the other hand, the BJP has 71 MLAs in the state Assembly and set to win one seat, after which it will be left with 30 surplus votes.

The Congress is expecting support of independent MLAs and legislators of other parties to win the third seat.

NEW DELHI: The condition of Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, who is admitted to the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital here, is “perfectly stable”, hospital sources said on Tuesday.

He was admitted to the Medicine Department of the facility on Sunday for a routine medical check-up.

His condition is perfectly stable, hospital sources said, amid reports in a section of the media that his condition was not good.

Khan was released from the Sitapur Jail in Uttar Pradesh on May 20, a day after the Supreme Court had granted him interim bail in a cheating case.

MUMBAI:  Even as all the political parties in the state had emphasised that no local body elections should take place without reservations for the Other Backward Classes (OBC), the Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC) on Tuesday declared elections without the provision.

The SEC declared reservation of wards for women, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and the general categories. Lottery for these reservations has been issued for the upcoming polls for Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation, Vasai, Virar, Nasik, Kalyan, Dombivali, Thane, and Kolhapur, among others.

As per the lottery drawn, 118 of the total 236 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) seats will be reserved for women. Eight of these seats are reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates, one seat for Scheduled Tribe candidates and 109 for the general category.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said Maharashtra government is committed for OBC reservations in local body elections.

“The state-appointed commission has been collecting the empirical data that will be submitted in Supreme Court, like Madhya Pradesh government did. Then the Supreme Court will also ask us to implement the OBC reservations in local body elections,” he said.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar had also said recently that without the implementation of OBC reservations, no local body elections will take place in Maharashtra. 

Of the four RS seats up for grabs in Rajasthan, the Congress can comfortably win two while BJP can win one. With Chandra’s entry, a contest is likely for the fourth seat where Congress has fielded Pramod Tiwari.

With Chandra believed to have the BJP’s backing, a stung Congress reacted sharply.

“They know they cannot win but they are trying to fulfill their dreams through horse-trading.  They have planned this nomination which is against the traditions of Rajasthan,” said Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.

The Rajasthan assembly has 200 seats and a candidate needs 41 votes to win. The Congress claims it will manage 123 votes (required to win three seats) while the BJP, having 71 MLAs, can win only one. It will need 11 more votes to win a second seat and is trying to lure some Independents and disgruntled Congress MLAs to support Chandra’s candidature.

There are two MLAs from Bhartiya Tribal Party and three MLAs from Hanuman Beniwal’s Rashtriya Loktantrik Party. Both are unlikely to vote for the BJP but can support Chandra. 

In the 90-member Haryana assembly, a candidate requires 31 votes to win. While the BJP will comfortably win one seat, there is contest on the second seat.

The Congress, which has fielded Ajay Maken, has only 31 MLAs and cross-voting by even a single MLA could spell trouble for him. 

Anand Sharma denies buzz of decamping to BJP

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Anand Sharma on Tuesday denied the buzz of his joining the BJP as “political mischief” and dismissed reports of his scheduled meeting with J P Nadda.

There were reports that the Congress veteran may become the latest to switch over to the saffron camp after being snubbed by the GOP for RS nomination.

Sharma is part of the G23 that has questioned the leadership and sought organisational revamp in the party. Sharma and Ghulam Nabi Azad both failed to get tickets.

Among the retiring MPs, only Jairam Ramesh, P Chidambaram and Vivek Tankha were renominated.

BJP nominates two women in MP with eye on Gujarat 

BHOPAL: Knowing well that it’s going to sail through with consummate ease on two out of the three Rajya Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh, the BJP has attempted to strike caste and women balance on the vacant seats, with an eye on triumph in future poll battles of MP and neighbouring Gujarat.

Both the women candidates, state party general secretary Kavita Patidar and surprise choice, the three-time Jabalpur municipal councilor Sumitra Valmiki, filed their nominations for the biennial polls to the upper house of the parliament in Bhopal on Tuesday.