[Nasheman news] Namchi [Sikkim] Sikkim’s five-term Chief Minister Pawan Chamling has said his state will never politicise religion, nor will it indulge in dynastic politics, in effect distancing it from both the BJP and the Congress for the upcoming assembly and parliamentary elections.

“In 25 years of SDF government, no one has died in the name of religion”, Chamling said here on the occasion of the 27th Foundation Day of the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) party on Monday. 

“We should not politicise religion, we should humanise it,” he added.

The party has not and will not engage in dynastic politics, he said, adding that no one from his family will be made an MP or an MLA as long as he remains active in politics. 

“It is not important for me to become Chief Minister again, I have already been elected five times consecutively. But this time, I am fighting elections to ensure the safety of the Sikkimese people’s future”, he said, adding that “this time, we must win not only from every constituency but from every booth.”

Around 75,000 people took part in the Foundation Day events that was celebrated in all the 31 assembly constituencies in the state.

[Nasheman news] New Delhi The website of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) went into maintenance mode after an alleged hacking attempt early on Tuesday morning.

Social media was abuzz with screenshots of a meme featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Below the meme was a music video of “Bohemian Rhapsody”.

The meme poked fun at a clip in which German Chancellor Angela Merkel walks past Modi as he extends his hand.

Later, while trying to open the website, it showed the following message: “We will be back soon! Sorry for the inconvenience but we’re performing some maintenance at the moment. We’ll be back online shortly.”

The party was yet to comment on whether it was a hacking attempt or the site was undergoing maintenance.

Earlier media reports said that nearly 70 Indian government websites were targeted by hackers.

[Nasheman news] New Delhi A Delhi court on Tuesday adjourned the recording of a statement by Dubai-based businessman Rajiv Saxena, who wants to become an approver in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal adjourned the recording till Wednesday.

Saxena has said that he would make a full disclosure of the case, if he was granted pardon.

United Arab Emirates (UAE) security agencies picked up Saxena from his Dubai residence on January 30 and extradited him to India the same night.

He was granted bail on medical grounds last week. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) did not oppose his bail application.

According to the ED, in connivance with lawyer Gautam Khaitan, Saxena provided a global corporate structure to launder money for payment to various political leaders, bureaucrats and Indian Air Force (IAF) officials to influence the contract for supplying 12 VVIP helicopters in favour of AgustaWestland.

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[Nasheman news] New York US President Donald Trump has announced that he was ending India’s $5.6 billion trade concessions under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) programme accusing New Delhi of not providing Washington “equitable and reasonable access” to its markets.

Trump, who is on a mission to expand marker access abroad and end trade deficits, made the announcement on Monday in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence in his capacity as the Senate President.

The US Trade Representative’s Office (USTR) said that the preferences will end in 60 days after the notification to Congress and the Indian government.

Meanwhile, Trump said that he will continue to monitor if India is “providing equitable and reasonable access to its markets” and meet the GSP eligibility criteria.

India had opposed proposals to end the GSP saying that it would be “discriminatory, arbitrary” and hurt the country’s development.

India is the largest beneficiary of the GSP exporting goods worth $5.6 billion to the US under the programme. Congress establishes the conditions of eligibility for GSP, which include “providing the US with equitable and reasonable market access, protecting workers’ rights and combating child labour”.

Trump wrote in his letter: “I am taking this step because, after intensive engagement between the United States and the government of India, I have determined that India has not assured the United States that it will provide equitable and reasonable access to the markets of India.”

The USTR said: “India has implemented a wide array of trade barriers that create serious negative effects on United States commerce”, but did not mention the specifics in its statement. 

“Despite intensive engagement, India has failed to take the necessary steps to meet the GSP criterion”, it added.

The total India-US trade was $126.2 billion in 2017, with a $27.3 billion deficit for the US, according to the USTR. India’s total exports were worth $76.7 billion and the end to GSP affects only a small part of it limited to $5.6 billion.

At a hearing held by the USTR last June on withdrawing India’s GSP, the minister in charge of commerce at the Indian Embassy in Washington, Puneet Roy Kundal, said that withdrawing the GSP benefits “would be discriminatory, arbitrary, and detrimental to the development, finance and trade needs of India, which is a vast and diverse developing country with unique challenges”.

The primary aim of the GSP is to help developing countries, particularly in sectors where the benefits can reach the poor.

Trump also said that he was ending the GSP for Turkey because of its economic success and rising living standards that would no longer make it eligible for the programme that is meant to help developing countries.

The President has been on a warpath against what he said were high tariffs on US imports to India. While pushing for the Reciprocal Trade Act in January, he brought up India’s duty on American whiskey, which he said was 150 per cent and on Harley Davidson motorcycles that he asserted he had gotten reduced from 100 to 50 per cent.

The decision to end the GSP may not entirely be influenced by high tariffs imposed by India on US imports. The two countries have had differences over the restrictions placed on e-commerce by Amazon and on Walmart subsidiary Flipkart and on data housing by Visa and Mastercard.

The decision comes as the US is reported to be making headway in trade negotiations with China aimed mainly at cutting American trade deficits with a deal expected soon.

Ironically, a trade group warned that taking ending GSP for India could end up helping China.

The American Apparel and Footwear Association said in a written testimony that if GSP benefits are withdrawn for India as well as Indonesia and Thailand, “companies will have no choice but to return to sourcing from China”.

It pointed out that Trump has threatened to impose 10 per cent punitive duties on US travel goods imports from China and ending the GSP for India “means that not only will sourcing return from China, but American consumers will pay far higher prices for their travel goods”.

The US dairy industry was a strong advocate of ending the GSP for India citing its difficulties in exporting to India.

Shawna Morris, Vice President of the National Milk Producers Federation and the US Dairy Export Council, at the the June USTR hearing accused India of refusing to provide them equitable and reasonable access to its markets through “unscientific sanitary and phytosanitary requirements”.

These requirements by India were that the exports should not come from cows that have been given cannibalised feed that includes offal or other meat products.

Kundal countered that it was not an issue fo of market access but of “certification given the religious, cultural and moral sensitivities” and India provide unimpeded market access to dairy products from all countries that met the criteria.

Another opposition came from the medical sector based on price controls on medical devices imposed by India. Kundal said that these were necessitated by India’s need to provide affordable health care to its citizens.

[Nasheman news] Srinagar  A protest shutdown called by traders affected normal life across the Kashmir Valley on Tuesday

The shutdown was called against the Centre’s ban on the Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir and the subsequent arrests of nearly 200 of its cadres. 

The protesting traders said the shutdown was also for the protection of Articles 35 A and 370 that give special status to the state.

The Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), a separatist conglomerate headed by Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik, has supported the shutdown call.

Shops, other businesses and public transport remained closed.

Authorities made heavy deployments of police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Srinagar’s old city areas and other law and order sensitive areas in the valley.

On February 28, the Central government banned the Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir, declaring it an “unlawful association” under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The order by the Union Home Ministry said that the organisation has “been indulging in activities which are prejudicial to internal security and public order and have the potential of disrupting the unity and integrity of the country”.

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[Nasheman news] Panaji  Botanists here have recommended reviving an ancient Indian alchemy technique by using earthworm feces for bio-mining of gold, which their research paper claims is present in the soil in the state’s mining belt.

In their research paper published in the latest issue of the International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews, botanists at Goa University, Nandakumar Kamat and Sujata Dabolkar, say that earth-feeding worms, can be tapped in an eco-friendly way for sustainable bio-mining in Goa.

“Basically just like age-old artisanal alluvial gold mining from auriferous (containing gold) river sands we see the possibility of artisanal extraction of metallic secondary gold by intelligent, systematic and ecofriendly use of vermicasts (earthworm fecal matter) by rearing local geophagous earthworms with a feedstock blend of organic matter and auriferous soil,” the research paper states.

“This is like reinventing India’s lost alchemic heritage because anyone with some patience can rear earthworms and extract small quantities of metallic gold easily,” it adds.

The report also states, that gold availability in parts per million (PPM) is higher in Goa’s now non-utilised iron and manganese mining belt, compared to other areas in the coastal state.

“It was found that vermicast samples from mining areas contained gold ranging from 0.76 to 1.77 ppm whereas in case of non-mining areas the gold value ranged from 0.66 to 1.03 ppm,” the report states, adding that Goa lies in the northwest part of the Western Dharwad Craton which is known for its rich metallic deposits.

Explaining their research, Kamat and Dabolkar say they collected vermicasts from mining and non-mining areas, which were later dried, sieved and powdered. When the dust was put through a series of laboratory tests, they detected vermiform gold.

The research paper also suggests a roadmap for eco-friendly biomining of gold using earthworms.

“The first step is establishing a facility of rearing earthworms which can feed on auriferous soils which acts as the raw material,” the paper states.

The earthworms, the botanists say, should then be added to auriferous (which has been analysed for gold) soil and material to feed earthworms, which move through the soil and build an organomineral structure (vermicasts) with specific physical, chemical and microbiological properties.

“Further the vermicasts can be treated by powdering, sieving, magnetic separation, gravity separation/flotation techniques and finally auriferous (gold) material is recovered and purified,” the report states.

[Nasheman news] Srinagar A gunfight took place on Tuesday between security forces and militants in Jammu and Kashmir’s Tral town, police said.

Upon receiving information about the militants, the security forces started a search operation in Mir Mohalla on Monday evening.

“As the operation continued on Tuesday morning, the militants fired at the security forces triggering the gunfight,” the police added

Authorities have suspended mobile Internet services in the town.

[Nasheman news] New Delhi Observing that India is facing state-sponsored terrorism, Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba on Tuesday warned about terrorists being trained to carry out attacks even via sea route.

Addressing the Indo-Pacific Regional Dialogue, Admiral Lanba without taking names hit out at Pakistan for abetting terrorists, who carried out the February 14 Pulwama attack in Jammu and Kashmir that killed 40 CRPF troopers. 

“India, however, faces a far more serious version of terrorism — state-sponsored terrorism. You have all witnessed the horrific scale of the extremist attack in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir just three weeks ago,” he said.

“This violence was perpetrated by extremists aided and abetted by a state, which seeks to destabilise India. We also have reports of terrorists being trained to carry out attacks with varying modus operandi, including through the medium of the sea,” said Lanba. 

“We have seen how quickly terrorist groups evolve across the globe and this particular ‘brand’ of terror may well become a global problem in the near future. 

“The Indian security establishment is continuously working to address this menace. It is imperative that the global community acts to contain and eliminate terrorism, in all its forms,” he added. 

[Nasheman news] Srinagar Two militants were killed on Tuesday in a gunfight with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district, police said.

Their bodies have been recovered from the Mir Mohalla area in Tral region. “We have also recovered two AK-47 rifles. A combing operation is underway,” a police officer said.

The house the militants took shelter in was completely destroyed in the gun battle that had started on Monday evening.

Mobile Internet services in the town was suspended.