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40 killed as bus falls into gorge in Telangana

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In a ghastly tragedy, 40 people were killed and more than 20 others injured when a state-owned bus fell into a gorge in Telangana’s Jagtial district on Tuesday, police said

The bus belonging to the Telangana State Road Transport Corp (TSRTC) fell off Kondagattu Ghat Road while returning from Anjaneya Swamy temple atop Kondagattu Hills, about 190 km from Hyderabad.

The bus, carrying more than 60 passengers, met with the accident when the driver reportedly lost control at a speed breaker.

The dead include 20 women and seven children. The toll could go up as the condition of some of the injured was stated to be critical.

Senior officials rushed to the scene and launched rescue and relief operations.

The injured were shifted to a government-run hospital in Jagtial. A few critically injured were shifted to hospitals in Karimnagar and Hyderabad.

Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao expressed shock over the accident. He announced Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia each for the families of the dead

(IANS)

Global cues, inflationary risks subdue equity indices

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Broadly negative global cues subdued the key Indian equity indices during the pre-noon trade session on Tuesday.

According to analysts, investors feared that high petrol and diesel prices and a weak rupee would pump up the retail and wholesale inflation rates, thereby mitigating chances of a rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India in the near term.

Heavy selling pressure was witnessed in the consumer durable, FMCG, telecom and capital goods stocks.

On the currency front, the rupee traded over 72.30 against the US dollar around 11.35 a.m. at the Inter-Bank Foreign Exchange Market.

At 11.35 a.m., the wider Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange, traded at 11,451.70 points, lower by 22.40 points or 0.20 per cent from its previous close.

The S&P BSE Sensex, which had opened at 38,017.49 points, traded at 37,846.75 points, lower by 75.42 points or 0.20 per cent than the previous close of 37,922.17 points.

So far, it has touched an intra-day high of 38,043.27 points and a low of 37,838.30 points.

On Monday, the Indian equity indices recorded their steepest fall in the last six months as expectations of a rise in inflationary pressure dented the risk-taking appetite of investors.

The NSE Nifty50 closed at 11,438.10 points, lower by 151 points or 1.30 per cent from its previous close of 11,589.10 points.

The S&P BSE Sensex, which had opened at 38,348.39 points, closed at 37,922.17 points, lower by 467.65 points or 1.22 per cent from the previous close of 38,389.82 points.

(IANS)

Central government transfers 30 officers

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The Union government on Monday effected a major reshuffle in the mid-level bureaucracy transferring as many as 30 officers, most of them IAS, in various ministries and departments.

The government transferred the officers among the ministries and departments of home affairs, commerce, agriculture, coal, telecommunication, environment and forest, health, food, heavy industry, road transport, Niti Aayog and rural development besides the cabinet secretariat.

(IANS)

Fifth Test: England take mammoth 404-run lead vs India

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Riding on centuries by Alastair Cook and skipper Joe Root, England took a massive 404-run lead against India in the fifth and final Test of the series at the Oval here on Monday.

After remaining wicketless in the morning session of the fourth day, the visitors finally got a bit respite as debutant Hanuma Vihari struck twice in consecutive deliveries to dismiss Cook (147) and Root (125) leaving the hosts at 321/4.

The English duo however, helped their side have a firm grip on the match before being dismissed. Cook and Root were involved in a 259-run partnership for the third wicket.

Meanwhile Cook, featuring in his last Test, smashed many records enroute to his 286-ball knock, laced with 14 boundaries.

The 33-year-old England opener on Monday became the fifth batsman in the history of the game to hit a ton both on debut and final game as Cook had also smashed a century in the second innings of his maiden Test, against India, in Nagpur in 2006.

The England opener also became the highest Test run-scorer among the left-handed batsmen as he went past Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara (12400), adding another achievement to his illustrious Test career with 12472 runs.

Resuming the post-lunch session at 243/2, Cook and Root took England past the 300-run mark before being dismissed on successive deliveries in the 95th over.

Incoming batsmen Jonny Bairstow (18) fell cheaply as a Mohammed Shami delivery took an inside edge and went on to hit the stumps.

Bairstow was followed by Jos Buttler, who departed without contributing. While looking for some quick runs, Buttler went down the track but offered a thick edge to Shami at backward point.

Ben Stokes and Sam Curran were unbeaten on 13 and 7 runs respectively at the time of tea-break.

Brief scores: England 332 and 364/6 (Alastair Cook 147, Joe Root 125; MoHanuma Vihari 2/24) vs India 292 at Tea on Day 4

(IANS)

HC rejects Sonia, Rahul’s plea against Income Tax notice

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The Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed Congress President Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi’s plea challenging the Income Tax notice seeking tax reassessment for the financial year 2011-2012.

A bench of Justice S. Ravindra Bhat and Justice A.K. Chawla said the petitions filed by the Gandhis have “failed.”

However, the court clarified that the Gandhis could use their rights as the assessee and take up their grievance with the Income Tax authorities.

The order of a bench came while it was hearing the plea of Rahul, Sonia Gandhi and her party colleague Oscar Fernandes against teh March I-T notice seeking tax reassessment. They have allegedly not disclosed their income earned through Young Indian Pvt Ltd (YI) for the year 2011-2012.

The I-T department has told the court that they have concealed facts for evading tax.

Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi are major stakeholders in Young Indian which has acquired Associated Journals Limited (AJL). National Herald newspaper was published by AJL.

“The reference to the monetary nature of the transaction i.e. fair market value, certified by the auditor, means that the promoters and shareholders of the company visualize that the shares of YI, a not-for-profit company, can increase, depending on its activities and income derived by it,” the court said.

“This court is of opinion that the assessees’ argument about nondisclosure of their interest upon acquiring the shares is unpersuasive,” said the bench.

The court also rejected the Sonia Gandhi’s submission that Income Tax department had mala fide intention in sending the reassessment notice.

Earlier in March, Young Indian requested the court to stay the recovery of tax and interest of Rs 249.15 crore raised in pursuance to a December 27, 2017 notice issued under section 156 of the IT Act for the assessment year 2011-12.

The company has submitted that it is a charitable firm and does not have any income and that Income Tax authorities have wrongly raised a demand of Rs 249 crore for the assessment year 2011-12.

On March 19, the Delhi High Court directed Young Indian to deposit Rs 10 crore in the Rs 249.15 crore income tax proceedings against the firm.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy had filed a complaint of “cheating” in the acquisition of AJL.

Swamy had accused them of allegedly conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds by paying only Rs 50 lakh, by which Young Indian Pvt Ltd obtained the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore which AJL owed to the Congress.

The other accused in the case are Motilal Vora, Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda and Young Indian.

(IANS)

Teltumbde demands probe into Bhima Koregaon violence

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The Bhima Koregaon violence should be probed by a judicial commission and action should be taken against those responsible for it, civil rights activist Anand Teltumbde said on Monday.

Speaking at a function organised by the Dakshinayan Abhiyan on “Decimating Dissent: The Truth Behind Bhima Koregaon” in South Goa’s Margao town, Teltumbde said the Maharashtra police were targetting him for attending a conference in Paris, which they claimed was funded by Maoists.

“There should be a probe by a judicial commission into this episode and whosoever did it should be taken to task. In a democratic state, taking a posture and acting against citizens is unpardonable,” he said.

Teltumbde was one of the several Dalit thinkers whose homes were raided on August 28 by Pune police in connection with Bhima-Koregaon violence of January 1.

He said he had filed a defamation case against the Pune police.

“They raided my residence because I had attended a convention in Paris which was organised by the Department of Amercian Studies in Paris in April this year. It was not funded by Maoists nor it had any Naxal link,” he said.

“The search by the police was absolute fabrication and utterly nonsense,” he said.

Pune police raided Teltumbde’s official residence on the Goa Institute of Management campus in Sanquelim village, 30 km from Panaji.

(IANS)

Labourers’ death: Delhi government orders compensation, probe

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The Delhi government on Monday announced Rs 10 lakh each for the five labourers who died following inhalation of toxic gas while cleaning a sewer tank in the national capital and has ordered a probe seeking a report in three days.

A statement from Delhi’s Labour Ministry said: “The Labour Minister wants a fact-finding inquiry conducted so as to decide the further course of action against the defaulting agencies/ firms.”

Labour Minister Gopal Rai in a tweet announced the compensation.

“The Arvind Kejriwal government will provide Rs 10 lakh each to the families of labourers who passed away in the incident,” Rai said.

Around 3 p.m on Sunday, the staff of DLF Green Apartments in west Delhi’s Moti Nagar informed the police that five labourers were trapped in a sewerage, Deputy Commissioner of Police Monika Bhardwaj said.

They were pulled out and taken to the hospital where Sarfaraz, Pankaj, Raja and Umesh were declared dead. Vishal, who was admitted to the RML Hospital in a critical condition, died during treatment, the officer said.

Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader Ram Vilas Paswan has called the incident “shameful and inhuman”.

“The LJP has been demanding for years an immediate ban on manual cleaning of sewer drains. For this, a law should be made immediately to provide for strict action and the guilty should be punished with imprisonment of at least 10 years,” he said in a statement.

(IANS)

Karnataka seeks Rs 2,000 cr, two central teams to assess damage

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Two central teams will visit Karnataka soon to assess the damage caused by rains and floods in seven of its districts in August, even as the state sought immediate release of Rs 2,000 crore for relief work.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday assured a Karnataka delegation led by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy that the two teams of officers will visit Kodagu, Malnad and Dakshina Kannada districts to assess the damage,” a statement from the Chief Minister’s Office said in Bengaluru.

The assurance came after Kumaraswamy sought the immediate release of Rs 2,000 crore central package for rehabilitation of affected persons and rebuilding of infrastructure in the affected areas.

The Chief Minister had appraised Modi of the situation in the southwest districts due to floods as well as drought situation in the interior and northern districts of the state.

“The state has pegged the loss at Rs 3,706 crore, as the rainfall in August’s second week was the highest in the last 118 years, which caused floods and landslides and led to losses of agricultural and horticultural crops and plantation, as well as damage to houses and infrastructure in the affected districts,” the Chief Minister told Modi.

The Chief Minister told Modi that drought situation prevailed in 17 interior and northern districts due to deficit rains in the monsoon season.

“A Cabinet sub-committee is assessing the losses due to drought and a report will be sent to the central government for relief,” said the statement.

Former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, Deputy Chief Minister G. Parameshwara, Revenue Minister R.V. Deshpande, PWD Minister H.D. Revanna, Water Resources Minister D.K. Shivakumar and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Byre Gowda were part of the delegation.

“The state has been facing drought conditions in the last 13 years. As per preliminary estimates, agricultural and horticultural crops over 15 lakh hectares have been affected, with an estimated loss of Rs 8,000 crore,” Kumaraswamy told reporters after the meeting in New Delhi.

Deshpande said crops on 23,123 hectares was affected due to floods, resulting in Rs 1,242-crore losses to farmers.

“There has been a dry spell till date and if it continues, about 50 per cent crop will be lost,” Deshpande said, adding that Modi had promised immediate financial assistance.

According to the state government’s assessment, the damage to infrastructure due to floods was about Rs 1,789 crore.

Last month, Kumaraswamy met Home Minister Rajnath Singh and sought special central package of Rs 2,000 crore.

(IANS)

US wants India-Pakistan talks in conducive atmosphere

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 The United States wants India and Pakistan to engage in dialogue but feels a conducive atmosphere needs to be created first, a senior State Department official said on Monday.

“We have frequent conversations with our Indian partners on (Pakistan) bringing down cross-border terrorism,” said Alice Wells, the US Principal Deputy Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Affairs, while briefing the Indian media over telephone from the US on the the first-ever India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue held here on September 6.

Stating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already talked with his new Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan, Wells said: “We need conditions to be created for a constructive dialogue.”

The US statement reflects New Delhi’s position that talks and terror cannot go together.

Wells said that the US would like to work with Pakistan to establish stability and political settlement in Afghanistan.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had also expressed similar view when he stopped over in Islamabad on September 5, ahead of the first-ever India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue held in New Delhi the next day.

“Secretary Pompeo’s trip to Pakistan was another opportunity for the Secretary to meet the new civilian leadership there and describe the aspirations we have for the (US-Pakistan) bilateral relationship,” Wells said.

“We would like to be able to work with Pakistan to establish stability and a political settlement in Afghanistan.”

Wells said the US-Pakistan relationship will be about whether Washington can stop Islamabad from supporting terrorists using its soil.

“There has been a very consistent message during Secretary Pompeo’s visit about our desire to work with Pakistan productively, constructively and the kind of concerns we have,” she said.

She also referred to US President Donald Trump’s new South Asia Strategy, describing it as a decisive step that states what the US believes needs to be done to bring stability in the region.

(IANS)

As proud Indians, we want to bring the best to India: Consulting perfumer Abdulla Ajmal

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Dubai-based Indian perfumer Abdulla Ajmal, who is the consulting perfumer to Ajmal India, says the label is ready for its “ghar wapsi” to offer the best in the country.

Ajmal Perfumes, a homegrown brand in India, was founded by Abdulla’s grandfather Haji Ajmal Ali in 1951. The brand serves over three hundred beautiful smells, with the most precious being the “Oudh”, which Abdulla describes as “liquid gold”.

In a tete-a-tete with IANS here, Abdulla, who is the first of the third generation in the family business, said: “We are focusing on India. Being proud Indians, we want to bring the best to our own country… It (the perfume) has always been a part of Indian culture, otherwise Kannauj (a decades-old perfume manufacturing industry) couldn’t have happened… People wouldn’t have indulged.”

Abdulla said fragrance has always been integral to Indians.

“In the southern part, Indian women wear “gajras”. It is not only because of the beauty, it’s also for the smell… People offer flowers to idols because it’s a sign of purity… That is there in the largest religion in India.

“It has been a part of our culture… It just got lost for a while, but it’s coming back and I’ve termed it ‘ghar wapsi’,” he added.

Born in Mumbai, Abdulla moved with his family to the UAE in 1988. He later travelled to the UK where he completed his Bachelors in Marketing and subsequently an MBA with specialisation in International Relations from Huron University.

Abdulla finds “great potential” in the India market, which is currently their biggest target audience.

“But like any brand, we need to start and as we are growing, the culture has to come into play over a period of time. The first name (that comes to people’s mind) when they think of fragrances should be Ajmal… That’s the whole idea,” he said.

Often, people only think of “attars” — fragrance oils — when talking about fragrances from the Middle-East. Abdulla dismissed it as a “mental block”.

“People have not been involved in this category, so everything they think is the most basic. (It is also) because they never took interest in knowing what all are there in fragrances.”

He is adamant about breaking that perception with Ajmal Perfumes. With the best of international labels cementing their space in India, how does Ajmal Perfumes plan to compete?

Abdulla said: “We are available in many areas where we compete with them directly, like the duty frees, modern trade, multi-branded outlets… What is special about Ajmal Perfumes is that we are creating for the market, and those guys, because of their size, don’t have the ability to target certain regions.”

His brand targets even regions by their taste. “The first thing is that the product is created bearing in mind the Indian palette…. Ours is more segmented and targeted. We are very clear that our brand is not just targeted at the wealthy 10 per cent.

“It has been created for the middle and upper middle class who can afford to buy perfumes frequently and re-purchase without it really hitting the pocket.”

While Abdulla knows the journey won’t be easy, he says “we will try to achieve that by getting closer to the customer”.

(IANS)

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