Bengaluru: Leading business tycoon, Human rights activist, philanthropist and Islamic Scholar and Founder and CEO Heera Group Dr. Nowhera Shaik has launched All India Mahila Empowerment Party (MEP), a national political party which aims at empowering Indian women irrespective of caste, creed, religious tag and domicile region. The main agenda of AIMEP is to see India as a developed economy where the common man/ woman/ citizen is able to benefit by the taxes they pay to the governments and we will strive and ensure that the common man is benefited by the schemes and programs implemented by the government.

AIMEP is going to contest in the forthcoming assembly elections in Karnataka where the party has a strong base and is confident of winning seats and playing a decisive role in the formation of next government.

Speaking about the party’s entry in Karnataka, Dr. Nowehra said “Karnataka has equal gender ratio but all the major positions are held by the men here, it has never seen a women Chief Minister in their constitutional history. Women always play a major role in the socio-economic development in Karnataka either business, home, services or sports. They have an important role in each and every aspects of life so why not in the Politics?

She continued and stated that We at Mahila empowerment party believe that woman is the only gender who can manage the work-life balance better and has a better understanding about the security, safety and basic requirement of a common human being. Through our Political outfit we wish to reach woman in every corner of India. Whether the governments admit it or not there is discrimination in every part of the country. Wherever there is a problem in this regard our party strives to provide people with proper access to their rights and see to it that the schemes available for the benefit of the people are implemented in a proper way.

Dr. Nowhera Shaik with Mrs. Husna Rizwan, Managing Editor of Nasheman.

Women gender is as equal as men in this state but in Political scenario of the Karnataka, women representation is only 2% which is shameful. We want to break the myth and in our party we will give majority of tickets to the women so that they should come in the front and lead their constituency as well as the state, she also added She also cleared that This is not just a political party, it All India Mahila Empowerment Party. It is the party of every man. It is the party of every mother. It is the party of every father. It is the party of every son. It is the party of every daughter.. It is the party of every farmer, every trader, and every businessman. It is the party of every citizen of India. The primary motto of our party is to empower every woman from every corner of Karnataka and India. We have to gain the confidence of every citizen of the state that we are true to our oath and will be striving to reach our aim of empowering every woman of India irrespective of caste, creed, age or religion. Each citizen should build their trust in us that mahila empowerment party is their own party and is there for them. For that every member volunteer of the party will strive to reach out the people with our motto.

We are going to contest this upcoming assembly election very aggressively and have a ready plan to reach every house of this state. Our target is to empower every woman of the state and aware and educate them with their rights and values. We want that every woman should be powerful and be the decision maker for the betterment of Karnataka.

New Delhi: The deadline to link the Aadhaar number with bank accounts has been extended by three months till March 31, the government announced on Wednesday, as the Supreme Court is set to commence hearing from Thursday on its mandatory linking to various schemes.

The deadline was earlier December 31 for linking the 12-digit unique identification number with both Permanent Account Number (PAN) and bank accounts. However, the government extended the deadline last week for linking it with PAN till March 31.

A notification to link it with bank accounts was later issued on Tuesday by the Department of Revenue under the Finance Ministry. The notification, however, did not mention the new deadline, leaving it open-ended.

The government later issued a press release which contained the deadline of March 31.

According to the December 12 notification, the words “submit the Aadhaar number and PAN by December 31, 2017” have been substituted by “submit the Aadhaar number, PAN or Form No 60 by such date as may be notified by the Central government”.

The release said under the provisions of Prevention of Money-laundering (Maintenance of Records) Second Amendment Rules, 2017, it was provided that if a client already having a bank account or any other account-based relationship with reporting entities prior to date of this notification fails to submit the Aadhaar number and PAN by December 31, “the said account shall cease to be operational till the time the Aadhaar number and PAN is submitted by the client”.

In case of a person opening a new account, the deadline for submitting Aadhaar number and PAN was “six months from the date of the commencement of the account based relationship”.

“After considering various representations received in this regard and inputs received from banks, it has been decided to notify March 31, 2018 or six months from the date of commencement of account based relationship by the client, whichever is later, as the date of submission of the Aadhaar number, and Permanent Account Number or Form 60 by the clients to the reporting entity,” the statement said.

(IANS)

Vijay Mallya. Photo: Reuters

London: Vijay Mallya, who is undergoing an extradition trial in a UK court over Rs 9,000-crore fraud and money laundering charges, will face next year a parallel litigation brought by 13 Indian banks to freeze nearly USD 1.5 billion of his assets.

According to court documents submitted at the UK High Court, the claim brought by the Indian banks against the 61- year-old embattled liquor baron will come up for a hearing in April next year.

“The First Respondent’s (Mallya) application to set aside the Freezing Injunction is to be set down for hearing on the first available date after 11 April 2018 with a time estimate of 2 days,” states the court document.

The litigation in the Queen’s Bench Division of the commercial court in England’s High Court of Justice lists the State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Corporation Bank, Federal Bank Ltd, IDBI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Jammu & Kashmir Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of Mysore, UCO Bank, United Bank of India and JM Financial Asset Reconstruction Co. Pvt Ltd as the applicants.

Mallya and related concerns Ladywalk LLP, Rose Capital Ventures Ltd and Orange India Holdings are listed as respondents.

The claim, dated November 23, relates to a judgment of the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) in Karnataka dated January 19 this year, which concluded that Mallya was “liable” to the banks in the sum of INR 62,033,503,879.42 plus interest and as at November 22, that judgment sum is “still unsatisfied as to INR 98,530,512,249.42”.

The “freezing order” involves Mallya and related concerns being “restrained until further order, from removing from the jurisdiction any of their assets in the jurisdiction up to a limit of 1,145,000,000 pounds and in any way disposing of, dealing with or diminishing the value of any of their assets whether they are inside or outside the jurisdiction up to the same value”.

The UK court had upheld the Indian courts injunction last week and given Mallya’s lawyers more time to respond due to the ongoing extradition trial at Westminster Magistrates Court, which is now expected to conclude on December 20.

A ruling in the extradition case is expected a few weeks later, by mid-January.

Meanwhile, Mallya remains on a 650,000-pound bail bond since his arrest on an extradition warrant by Scotland Yard in April this year.

Since December 4, he has been in court over five days of hearings to establish if he can be forced to return to India to face charges of fraud and money laundering involving his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines default of bank loans worth nearly Rs 9,000-crore.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), representing the Indian government, has claimed that the evidence they have presented confirms “dishonesty” on the part of the businessman, who acquired the loans through misrepresentation and had no intentions of repaying them.

Mallya’s defence team has been deposing a series of expert witnesses to try and establish that the default by Kingfisher Airlines was the result of business failure within a wider context of a global financial crisis and that its owner had no “fraudulent” intentions.

The extradition case returns for one of its final hearings today, when Judge Emma Arbuthnot is set to hear the testimony of prisons expert Dr Alan Mitchell, who is expected to critique Indian jail conditions as a potential “bar to extradition”.

The CPS will need to demonstrate a prima facie case to show that the criminal charges against Mallya, for which his extradition is sought, are justified.

The defence, on the other hand, will try and prove that the businessman will not get a fair trial in India because the case against him is “politically motivated”.

(PTI)

New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday accused the Election Commission of becoming a “captive puppet” in the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who it said was brazenly breaking rules in a final bid to save the BJP’s “sinking ship” in Gujarat.

Charging the poll panel with not acting on Congress complaints against the BJP and Modi, the party said the poll panel was turning a blind eye to democratic and constitutional norms being violated by the ruling party openly.

The Congress denounced Modi’s “roadshow” after he voted in Ahmedabad on Thursday. This, it said, was a flagrant violation of the model code of conduct.

“It was an election campaign. Modi’s roadshow after casting vote is a clear case of violation of the model code of conduct. The Election Commission, it seems, is working under pressure from the Prime Minister and PMO,” Congress leader Ashok Gehlot said.

“If any shame is left in the Election Commission, it should act on the Congress complaints,” party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told reporters here.

“It seems the Election Commission is blind. They cannot see Modi openly and brazenly violating the model code of conduct.

“This shows how unfortunately the Election Commission has become a captive puppet of the BJP,” Surjewala said.

“The Election Commission has different standards for the BJP and the Congress. What is the reason for the Election Commission to behave like a front organisation of the BJP?”

“When Rahul Gandhi gave interview to news channels, a notice was sent to him. But when Arun Jaitely released BJP’s manifesto on December 8, it was not a violation. When Modi appealed to people on December 9 to vote… it was not a violation. No notices were sent to them. The Election Commission remained silent then,” he said.

“Amit Shah using the Ahmedabad Airport to hold a press conference was not a violation? Arun Jaitley holding a press conference in Ahmedabad and one union minister (Piyush Goyal) holding a press conference in Delhi twice was not a violation?”

He alleged that Amit Shah was aware a case was being filed by the poll panel against the news channels for airing Gandhi’s interview much before it was announced.

“The EC was receiving orders from the PMO. Several ministers were calling the journalists and threatening them.”

Surjewala said when the Congress asked the poll panel about its complaints, it was told they would be looked into after 5 p.m. — when the second and final phase of Gujarat election would end.

“The Chief Election Commissioner (A.K. Joti), who was Chief Secretary to Modi (when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat), is still acting as the Chief Secretary to Modiji. This is shameful for the Election Commission.”

The Congress said the way the BJP was behaving showed Modi had conceded defeat in Gujarat.

Replying to questions, Surjewala said either the Commission was blindfolded or sleeping.

He said on Wednesday, the Congress sought an appointment with the Election Commission around 4.30 p.m. and was told the meeting would take place on Thursday morning.

“It was only after we threatened to stage a ‘dharna’ we were given an appointment at 10.15 at night,” he said.

“We are trying to wake up the Election Commission. We appeal to the Election Commission not to turn blind and deaf.”

(IANS)

Islamabad: Pakistan on Monday said India’s politicians should not drag the country into its domestic politics during campaigning for the Gujarat assembly polls.

“India should stop dragging Pakistan into its electoral debate and win victories on own strength rather than fabricated conspiracies, which are utterly baseless and irresponsible,” Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said on Twitter.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday claimed at an election rally that there was an attempt by Pakistan to interfere in the Gujarat polls. Modi also raised questions about the alleged appeal by former director general (DG) of the Pakistan Army Sardar Arshad Rafiq for making senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel chief minister of Gujarat.

Modi alleged that Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar had held a meeting at his house which was attended by former prime minister Manmohan Singh, a former Indian vice president, Pakistan’s high commissioner in India, and a former Pakistani foreign minister.

“On one hand, Pakistan Army’s former DG is interfering in Gujarat’s election, and on the other, Pakistani people are holding a meeting at Mani Shankar Aiyar’s house. After that meeting, people of Gujarat, backward communities, poor people and Modi were insulted.

Don’t you think such events raise doubts?” the prime minister had said while addressing a poll rally in Gujarat.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: India is ranked 109th in the mobile internet speed and 76th for fixed broadband speed globally, which is a 15 per cent increase, according to data from Ooklas November Speedtest Global Index.

“At the start of 2017, the average mobile download speed in India was 7.65 Mbps. Heading into the end of the year, average mobile download speed is 8.80 Mbps as of November. That’s a 15 per cent increase,” a statement said here on Monday.

“While mobile speeds increased modestly, fixed broadband speeds increased dramatically. Average fixed broadband download speed in January was 12.12 Mbps. As of November, it’s at 18.82 Mbps, a close to 50 per cent jump,” it added.

As of November, Norway ranks first in the world for mobile internet with an average download speed of 62.66 Mbps. Singapore takes the top spot for fixed broadband with a 153.85 Mbps average download.

“Both mobile and fixed broadband internet in India are getting faster, that’s good news for all Indian consumers no matter which operator or plan they use to access the internet. India still has a long way to go to catch up with countries that have top speeds around the world, however, we at Ookla are highly optimistic about the capacity for growth that is available in the Indian market and look forward to watching how the market grows in this coming new year,” said Doug Suttles, Co-Founder and General Manager at Ookla.

Ookla analyses the performance of the internet in every country based on consumer-initiated tests taken by real people using Speedtest.

“Over 17 billion tests have been taken with Speedtest to date. From our observations in these markets, there are a handful of factors that consistently tend to drive advances in internet speeds and performance. These factors also apply to growth in India,” the statement said.

It said the first and foremost factor is sufficient infrastructure. The strength and quality of networks is the baseline foundation required for faster speeds. Another key element in growth is competition. When operators compete to provide the fastest speeds and the best plans for consumers, they incentivise each other to offer progressively better options.

And a third factor in improving speeds is the consideration of new technologies that may boost network performance.

(IANS)

New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi has been elected unopposed as Congress president, party’s central election authority head Mullappally Ramachandran announced on Monday.

Rahul Gandhi will collect the certificate formally declaring his ascension to the post on December 16, he told reporters here. The 47-year-old scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family was the lone candidate in the fray. He is the sixth member of the Nehru-Gandhi family to take over the top post

Rahul Gandhi succeeds his mother Sonia Gandhi, who remained in the post for 19 years. The CEA received a total of 89 nomination papers proposing Rahul Gandhi’s name for the top post.

All the nomination papers were found to be valid, Ramachandran said.

“Since the withdrawal of date/time is over and as there is only one candidate (Rahul), as per Article XVII (d) of the Constitution of Indian National Congress, I hereby declare Shri Rahul Gandhi elected as president of the Indian National Congress,” Ramachandran said.

Rahul Gandhi became the vice-president of the party in January 2013.

(PTI)