Nasheman

India's largest selling Urdu weekly, now also in English

You are here: Home / 2018 / Archives for November 2018

Archives for November 2018

Misty morning in Delhi, air quality ‘very poor’

by

New Delhi It was a misty morning here on Tuesday with the minimum temperature recorded at 14.2 degrees Celsius, one notch above the season’s average, the weather office said.

Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) witnessed “very poor” air quality. The MeT has predicted light rains for the day ahead.

“It will be a generally cloudy sky with light rains/thunder showers likely to occur,” an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official said.

The humidity at 8.30 a.m. was 86 per cent. The maximum temperature was likely to hover around 30 degrees Celsius.

Monday’s maximum temperature settled at 30.2 degrees Celsius, two notches above the season’s average while the minimum temperature was recorded at 13.4 degrees Celsius, at par with the season’s average.

The air-quality which was “severe” on Monday came down to “very poor”, according to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR).

(IANS)

India emerges as leading seed hub in Asia

by

Amsterdam, Nov 13 India has emerged as a major seed hub in Asia, with four Indian seed companies featuring in top 10 of the first ever “Access to Seeds Index for South and Southeast Asia”, a study said.

While the list was topped by the Thailand-based East-West Seed, the four Indian companies to lead seed industry on increasing smallholder farmer productivity were Advanta, Acsen HyVeg, Namdhari Seeds and Nuziveedu Seeds.

The other five companies in the list of top 10 were globally active seed companies from outside the region, said the “Access to Seeds Index for South and Southeast Asia” study published on Monday by the World Benchmarking Alliance, a global multi-stakeholder initiative.

“With many foreign seed companies investing in India and strong-performing companies from India itself, the country shows itself as a real powerhouse for the development and supply of quality seeds for smallholder farmers in the region,” Ido Verhagen, Executive Director of the Access to Seeds Index, said in a statement.

Nearly 21 companies sell seeds in India and 18 have invested in breeding and production activities in the country.

In comparison, only 11 companies invest in breeding activities in Thailand and eight in Indonesia, the two other major regional seed hubs, according to the ASI, said the study.

Namdhari Seeds and Nuziveedu Seeds scored high points due to breeding programmes with a strong focus on the preferences and needs of small-holder farmers.

(IANS)

3rd T20I: India edge past West Indies in last ball thriller

by

 

A brilliant batting display from Shikhar Dhawan (92) and Rishabh Pant (58) helped India edge past West Indies by six wickets in a last ball thriller in the final match of the Twenty20 International series here on Sunday.

With this win, India completed a whitewash in the three-match series.

After two quick wickets, Dhawan and Pant batted well and put India on the brink of victory but Pant’s wicket in the penultimate over changed the scenario of the match and the game went to the last over.

Needing five runs in seven balls, Dhawan and Manish Pandey scored four runs in first three balls but then a dot ball and Dhawan’s wicket made the match interesting which could have been finished much earlier.

Needing one run in one ball, Manish, who seemed out of sorts in the middle, somehow managed to steal a run to hand India a victory.

Chasing a challenging score of 182, India started on a bad note, losing opener Rohit Sharma (4) in the third over.

New batsman Lokesh Rahul (17) then came in the middle and displayed some brilliant shots but soon he was also dismissed by Oshane Thomas in the sixth over.

With the scoreboard reading 45/2, Dhawan (92) and Pant (58) took the charge and hammered the Windies’ bowlers all around the park to forge a 130-run partnership. In the process, the duo completed their respective half centuries.

But just when it seemed India will finish off the proceedings in style, Pant was dismissed in the 19th over.

New batsman Pandey then struggled at the crease but at the end, India managed to steal the game in the last ball.

Earlier, a good batting show helped West Indies post a challenging total of 181/3.

The visitors applied themselves perfectly and made sure they did not loose wickets till the end which saw middle-order batsmen Darren Bravo (43 not out) and Nicholas Pooran (53 not out) taking the charge towards the end, helping their team to post a decent score.

Opting to bat, openers Shai Hope (24) and Shimron Hetmyer (26) started the proceedings on a good note, forging a 51-run partnership in six overs.

But while trying to accelerate the score, Hope was dismissed by Yuzvendra Chahal in the seventh over. After adding 11 more runs to the total with Bravo, Hetmyer was also sent packing by Chahal.

Despite two quick wickets, Bravo kept on playing sensibly with Denesh Ramdin (15). Just when things seemed good in the middle, Ramdin played a poor shot and was clean bowled by Washington Sundar in the 13th over when the scoreboard was reading 94/3.

New batsman Pooran then joined Bravo in the middle and started punishing the bad balls. The duo forged a crucial unbeaten 87-run partnership for the fourth wicket and helped West Indies finish their innings in style.

Pooran played 25 balls and slammed four boundaries and as many sixes.

For India, Chahal took two wickets while Sundar scalped one.

Brief scores: West Indies 181/3 (Darren Bravo 43 not out, Nicholas Pooran 53 not out; Yuzvendra Chahal 2/28) against India 182/4 (Shikhar Dhawan 92, Rishabh Pant 58; Keemo Paul 2/32)

CBI War.. Director Alok Verma’s fate may be decided on Friday..SC blasts CVC for delay in report

by

The fate of CBI director Alok Verma may be decided on Friday by Supreme Court. The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) Monday filed its preliminary probe report relating to CBI Director Alok Kumar Verma in a sealed cover in the Supreme Court.A bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice S K Kaul took the report on record and fixed the matter for next hearing on November 16.

During the hearing, interim CBI Director M Nageswar Rao also filed report on decisions taken by him since October 23 to 26, when the apex court had ordered for the probe. Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CVC, told the court that former apex court judge A K Patnaik supervised the CVC inquiry which was completed on November 10.

The CJI observed that the Registry was open on Sunday also but no intimation was given to the Registrar regarding filing of the report. Later the SG tendered an apology and said though he was not explaining the circumstances there was delay on their part in submitting the report. On October 26, the top court had appointed Justice Patnaik to supervise the ongoing inquiry of CVC against Verma. The apex court had also issued notices to the Centre and the CVC seeking their replies on Verma’s petition challenging the government’s decision to divest him of his powers as CBI chief and sending him on leave. Verma’s deputy Rakesh Asthana, Special Director CBI, was also sent on leave by the Centre.

The court on October 26 had also set a deadline of two weeks for the CVC to complete the preliminary inquiry against the CBI director.It had also barred Rao, who has been given interim charge of the CBI, from taking any major decision. It had said that a list of all the decisions taken by Rao since October 23 including decisions with regard to transfer of investigations, change of investigating officer(s) etc will be furnished to the court in a sealed cover on or before November 12, 2018 whereafter orders as would be appropriate will be passed by the court.”

Mehta had said that the CVC has been conducting an inquiry into the allegations made in the August 24 note/letter of the Cabinet Secretary with regard to Verma. Besides the plea filed by Verma, the court is also seized of the PIL filed by NGO Common Cause, which has sought a probe by special investigation team against CBI officers including Asthana, and had issued notices to the Centre, CBI, CVC, Asthana, Verma and Rao asking them to respond to it by November 12.
Asthana has also moved the Supreme Court with a separate petition in the matter and has sought removal of Verma from the post of CBI Director.

Later, on November 4, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge had moved the top court contending that divesting Verma of his statutory powers and functions is “completely illegal and arbitrary”. In an interlocutory application filed in the pending petition, Kharge, who is also a member of the three-member selection committee which appoints the CBI director, said, “As a concerned stakeholder he brings to the attention of the court the brazen and illegal actions” of the political executive in interfering with the independent functioning of the CBI director.

 

PTI

Ananth Kumar helped build BJP in Karnataka (Obituary)

by

 

Array

 Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister H.N. Ananth Kumar, who died on Monday, was widely regarded as an able political organiser who helped build the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka to expand the party’s reach in the country’s south.

Along with the party’s state unit president B.S. Yeddyurappa, Union Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda and others, Kumar built the BJP across the southern state into a formidable alternative to the Congress and the Janata Dal.

Kumar’s organizational skills and proficiency in Kannada, Hindi, Marathi and English caught the attention of the party’s top leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani, who made him a BJP national General Secretary at a young age.

“Kumar rose from the ranks to the national level in the BJP and the government, first as a student leader and later as an able party organiser,” BJP Karnataka spokesman S. Shantaram told IANS.

He had another ability — winning friends across the political class.

An urban face of the BJP, the 59-year-old Kumar was a six-time parliamentarian from the high-profile Bengaluru South Lok Sabha constituency since 1996.

He became a Union Minister at a young age (37) in the Vajpayee’s governments of 1998-99 and 1999-2004.

Kumar again became a Union Minister in May 2014 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave him the Chemicals and Fertilisers portfolio and, later, the Parliamentary Affairs portfolio.

In 2014, he defeated Congress star candidate and Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, who entered the political arena after resigning as Chairman of the state-run Unique Identification Authority of India (UIADA).

Kumar’s tryst with politics began in college days during the 1980s when he was elected as the state and national secretary of the Akhila Bharatiya Vidhya Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Sangh Parivar.

He was associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as an organiser at Hubli-Dharwad in the state’s northwest region before joining the BJP in 1988.

Kumar was among those who helped the BJP to take power in Karnataka on its own in 2008.

Born into a middle class Brahmin family in Bengaluru on July 22, 1959, Kumar went to school in the city and joined college at Hubli when his father H.N. Narayan Shastry, a railway employee, was transferred to the northwest town about 400 km from here. His mother Girja, was a home maker.

Kumar graduated in Arts from K.S. Arts College and in Law from J.S.S. Law College at Hubli with B.A. and LL.B degrees from Karnataka University in Dharwad.

Kumar’s siblings are younger brother Nand Kumar and younger sister Suhasini.

Kumar was the state president of the Bharatiya Janata Youva Morcha and became its national secretary before the 1996 Lok Sabha elections.

He was also the party’s state unit president in 2003 and contributed to making the BJP a powerful opposition after the 2004 elections.

IANS

Congress’ politics begins and ends with one family: Modi

by

 Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday attacked the Congress, targeting its president Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia, saying the party’s “politics begins and ends with one family”.

Addressing a poll rally here ahead of the second phase polling in the state on November 20, Modi also made a strong pitch for development, saying the pace of development under the Congress regime in the state was “far slow” than the one under the BJP-led government.

Singling out the Gandhis, Modi said the “mother-son duo” were out on bail and hit out at them for questioning the government’s demonetisation move. “They forget it was due to demonetisation that they had to seek bail,” Modi said, adding “those seeking bail are giving a certificate to Modi”.

Modi asserted the BJP was for development and that it was due to this commitment that the opposition was unable to understand how to compete with the ruling party in elections.

He also targeted the Congress president, saying when Congress released its 36-point manifesto for Chhattisgarh polls, ‘Naamdaar’ (Rahul Gandhi) was referred to as ‘Sir’ 150 times which shows he is more important for them (Congress) than Chhattisgarh.

PTI

Sanjay Khan has ‘extraordinary stories’ for TV

by

 

Veteran actor-filmmaker Sanjay Khan, popular for acting in and producing the television series “The Sword of Tipu Sultan”, says he is planning to make movies, but he also has some extraordinary stories that can be told on the small screen.

It was back in 1989 that a major fire accident took place on the set of “The Sword of Tipu Sultan”, based on the 18th century Mysore ruler.

After surviving near fatal burns, years later Sanjay produced shows like “The Great Maratha” and “Jai Hanuman”.

“The last time I faced the camera was for ‘…Tipu Sultan’. I have been busy doing other things like building a five-star hotel in Bengaluru. We are planning several motion pictures now. Three or four pictures in the coming months,” Sanjay told IANS in a telephonic interview.

What about TV shows?

“TV is making much more money than films these days. TV has a greater reach. I have some extraordinary stories for that. There is one on the British Raj. It’s called the ‘Beginning of an Empire’.

“I would like to make it as a long series of three or four seasons capturing the long duration of the British Raj in India,” said the “Haqeeqat” actor.

He has historical stories on mind for the big screen as well.

“There is one on a Brigadier, who died fighting for his country and I have another one on the 1965 war. I have always made stories that have a national appeal and are meaningful,” said the “Chandi Sona” actress.

Sharing an example, he said: “When I made ‘Jai Hanuman’, I got great satisfaction. Hindu ladies said ‘We are grateful to you Sir for showing us the childhood of Hanuman’. Even Muslim people loved it. I felt great that I had communicated something.”

But what about going beyond mythology and historical genres?

“In the larger packaging of my work, there would be stories of romance, etc.,” he said.

He doesn’t want to focus just on a love story.

“The value of love between a man and a woman is eroding. All kinds of things are happenning. The mood of the world is different so, the best bet is catching historical and social-economic problems, which are perennial. Those are the problems that we can address,” said Sanjay.

Talking about the content of films made by young Indian filmmakers, he shared: “I like some of them. Indian cinema is coming-of-age though the music is suffering. The lustre of music is gone.

“The technical quality has come up. Some very good films like ‘Dangal’ have come out.”

He is also interested in the digital medium.

“If there is an offer, subject or big companies come to me then I can talk to them,” he said.

At the moment, he is focussing on promoting his new autobiography, “The Best Mistakes of My Life”, which takes the readers to his world of films, family, his near-death accident and more.

“I am happy that it has come out the way it has. I worked really hard on it. I had gone into my past and relived all those glorious times,” said the actor in his 70s.

 

IANS

Tata Group’s total investment in Odisha to cross Rs 1 lakh cr soon

by

 Tata Group’s total investment in Odisha will soon cross Rs one lakh crore, said its Chairman N. Chandrasekaran here on Monday.

For the Tata Group, the association with Odisha is “very long, more than 100 years old”, he said.

Chandrasekaran also said Tata Steel was given its first iron ore lease by the Maharaja of Mayurbhanj in the early part of 20th century. Since then, the group has significantly expanded in the state.

“Already, we have made investments worth Rs 75,000 crore and with the announcement of expansion of (Tata Steel’s) Kalinganagar plant, another Rs 25,000 crore would be invested. Total investments will soon cross Rs 100,000 crore in the state,” he said at the Make in Odisha Conclave here.

Not only Tata Steel has a large capacity, Tata Motors has a significant presence with its 30 service stations and dealers network and Tata Power has four generation units here, he said, adding that the TCS is the largest IT company in the state with about 5,000 professionals and the second phase would take it to a total of 12,000 professionals.

The group’s companies in retail and services sectors have engagements in the state, Chandrasekaran said.

He said the group’s experience in the state has been extremely “satisfying”.

The state is blessed with a lot of resources with stable government, proactive bureaucracy, ready infrastructure, strong mineral reserve, large pool of skilled manpower and secured social environment, he said.

The state produces 1.8 lakh technical graduates from over 950 institutions, who are excellent resources for development of any part of the country.

IANS

Taking ‘multi-variable’ steps to curb fake news before 2019 India polls: Twitter CEO

by

 

Twitter is taking “multi-variable” steps, including the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, to curb the spread of misleading information on its platform ahead of 2019 general election in India, Co-Founder and CEO Jack Dorsey said here on Monday.

Addressing a Town Hall-style meeting at the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi (IIT-D), Dorsey said fake news is a way too big category.

“The real problem is not misinformation per se as jokes can also be categorised as misinfomation. But misinformation that is spread with the intent to mislead people is a real problem,” stressed the Twitter CEO who is in India on a week-long maiden visit.

Dorsey, who got a rousing reception at IIT-D with the students wildly cheering the young entrepreneur, likened solving the problem of misleading information to that of addressing a security issue, or building a lock.

“No one can build a perfect lock, but we need to stay ahead of our attackers. AI could probably help,” Dorsey told the audience.

Earlier in the day, the Twitter CEO met Congress President Rahul Gandhi and discussed various steps the social network was taking to curb the spread of fake news and boost healthy conversation on its platform.

Dorsey also met Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama over the weekend. He was also expected to meet Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in the wake of the growing criticism over Twitter’s role in the spread of misinformation and fake news as India faces Assembly polls in five states in November-December ahead of next year’s general elections.

Twitter, along with other social media platforms, including Facebook, came under intense scrutiny of policymakers in the US for their failure to stop the spread of misinformation by Russia-linked accounts on their platforms during the 2016 Presidential election.

The micro-blogging site since then has stepped up its efforts to curb the spread of divisive messages and fake news on its platform.

To further protect the integrity of elections, Twitter recently announced that it would now delete fake accounts engaged in a variety of emergent, malicious behaviour.

As part of the new rules, accounts that deliberately mimic or are intended to replace accounts that were previously suspended for violating rules may be identified as fake accounts, Twitter said recently.

However, according to a Knight Foundation study released in October, more than 80 per cent of the Twitter accounts linked to spread of disinformation during the 2016 US election are still active.

 

IANS

Growing nationalism behind spread of fake news in India: BBC research

by

 A BBC research has revealed that fake news is fast spreading in India owing to a “rising tide of nationalism” where right-wing networks are much more organised than on the left, pushing “nationalistic fake stories” further.

The research found that in India, “facts were less important to some than the emotional desire to bolster national identity”.

“There was also an overlap of fake news sources on Twitter and support networks of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” the findings showed.

The research, commissioned by the BBC World Service, was part of “Beyond Fake News” — a series across TV, radio and digital where users gave the BBC unprecedented access to their encrypted messaging apps in India, Kenya and Nigeria.

In its bid to fight the menace of fake news, the BBC last week said it would launch on November 12 a project with a major focus on global media literacy, panel debates in India and Kenya, hackathons exploring tech solutions and a special season of programming.

“In all three countries, distrust of mainstream news outlets pushed people to spread information from alternative sources, without attempting to verify it, in the belief that they were helping to spread the real story. People were also overly confident in their ability to spot fake news,” the researchers noted.

The worrisome part is that participants in the research made little attempt to query the original source of fake news messages, looking instead to alternative signs that the information was reliable.

“Widespread sharing of false rumours on WhatsApp has led to a wave of violence in India, with people forwarding on fake messages about child abductors to friends and family out of a sense of duty to protect loved ones and communities,” said the report.

More than 30 people have been killed so far in incidents involving lynching rumours on various social media platforms.

“We examined one case in detail – the deaths of Nilotpal and Abhishek in Assam – while another reporter travelled to Mexico to see how WhatsApp rumours fuelled similar deadly violence there,” said the BBC report.

To reach the conclusion, the researchers spent hundreds of hours with 80 participants across the three countries. Nearly 16,000 Twitter accounts and 3,000 Facebook pages were analysed.

The “Beyond Fake News” season will include “Fake Me”, a documentary revealing how far young people will go in pursuit of social media perfection, as well as the in-depth story of what happened when WhatsApp turned one Indian village into a lynch mob.

“Poor standards of global media literacy, and the ease with which malicious content can spread unchecked on digital platforms mean there’s never been a greater need for trustworthy news providers to take proactive steps,” Jamie Angus, Director of the BBC World Service Group, said in a statement.

“We have put our money where our mouth is and invested in real action on the ground in India and in Africa,” Angus added.

There will also be reports on Russia’s disinformation campaign, how Facebook is being exploited in the Philippines to spread false information, and a debate with the world’s big four tech firms on what role they play in stemming the spread of fake news, the BBC said last week.

 

IANS

KNOW US

GET INVOLVED

PROMOTE

Archives