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Centre allows Jallikattu; celebrations erupt in TN

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Jallikattu

New Delhi: The Centre today came out with a notification allowing controversial bull taming sport Jallikattu in poll-bound Tamil Nadu following extensive demand for its restoration by political parties in the state.

The decision to allow Jallikattu and bullock cart races in other parts of the country came despite objections by animal rights groups.

Crackers were burst and sweets distributed in southern districts of Tamil Nadu to celebrate the news as the decision comes just ahead of the Pongal festival. Jallikattu also known Eruthazhuvuthal is a bull taming sport played in Tamil Nadu as a part of Pongal celebrations on Mattu Pongal day.

“…The Central Government, hereby specifies that following animals shall not be exhibited or trained as performing animal, with effect from the date of publication of this notification, namely bears, monkeys, tigers, panthers, lions and bulls.

“Provided that bulls may be continue to be exhibited or trained as a performing animal, at events such as Jallikattu in Tamil Nadu and bullock cart races in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab, Haryana, Kerala and Gujarat in the manner by customs of any community or practiced traditionally,” the notification said.

However, the Centre has also put some conditions, saying bullock cart race shall be organised on a proper track, which shall not exceed two kilometres.

In case of Jallikattu, the moment the bull leaves the enclosure, it shall be tamed within a radial distance of 15 metre and it should also be ensured that the bulls are put to proper testing by authorities of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department to ensure that they are in good physical condition to participate in the event.

Performance enhancement drugs are not to administered to the bulls.

In a tweet, Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan said, “Central government has given permission for holding Jallikattu. Union Minister @PrakashJavdekar called me now to give the good news that arrangements to conduct #Jallikattu in TN has been made.”

He also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the move.

(Agencies)

India remains global growth champ with 7.8 percent economy expansion in 2016

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United Nations: India remains the global growth champion with its economy set to increase by 7.8 percent in the new year although a World Bank report released Thursday cut it from the 7.9 projected last June.

Overall the bank’s Global Economic Prospects Report painted a gloomy global outlook cutting the global growth by almost a half percent to 2.9 percent in 2016 from the 3.3 percent forecast last June.

In the growth race among the major economies, China remains the runner-up with its economy projected to grow by 6.7 percent this year and 6.5 percent next year. The growth projections for U.S. economy are 2.7 this year, 2.4 next year and 2.2 in 2018.

It kept India’s economic growth as measured by increase in gross domestic product at 7.9 percent for 2017, “although the pace of reforms has slowed somewhat.” For 2018, it cut the projection from 8 percent made last June to 7.9 percent.

The report recognised India’s resilience saying, “Compared to most other major developing countries, India is well positioned to withstand near-term headwinds and volatility in global financial markets due to reduced external vulnerabilities, a strengthening domestic business cycle, and a supportive policy environment.”

However, it also drew attention to the dark clouds overhanging the reform process. “In India, progress in reforms is not assured as the upper house of parliament, which the ruling party does not control, has the power to block the government’s legislative agenda,” the report said. “A failure to pass the goods and services tax (GST) could hamper the government’s ability to ramp up spending on infrastructure needs and preserve the status quo of fragmented domestic markets.”

“Slow progress on land reforms could add to investment delays,” it added. “And private investment growth may be unable to build further momentum. The financing of public-private partnerships also remains a challenge.”

The report also referred to another area of concern, the slowdown in industrial production. Both the services and manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Indices (PMIs) have softened, it said. The PMI fell from 54.5 for December 2014 to 49.15 last month.

On the bright side, the report said, “The investment cycle is gradually picking up, led by a government efforts to boost investment in infrastructure, particularly roads, railways and urban infrastructure.” It added that India’s currency and stock markets weathered the volatility in the global financial markets last year. Sensex, a key Indian stock market index ended 2015 up 1.08 percent.

“Progress on infrastructure improvements and government efforts to boost investment are expected to offset the impact of any tightening of borrowing conditions resulting from tighter U.S. monetary policy,” the report said. “Such investment will also lift potential growth over the medium term. Low international energy prices and domestic energy reforms will ease energy costs for Indian firms that tend to be energy intensive.”

Other positives on India’s report card that the World Bank noted were:

* Sharp reduction in current account deficit, to about 1 percent of GDP in the second quarter of 2015 from about 5 percent in mid-2013 during the turmoil in the financial markets over U.S. Federal Reserve policy.

* The central bank rebuilding reserves while net foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows have stayed positive.

* Reduction in the central government’s fiscal deficit close to 4 percent of the GDP, down from a peak of 7.6 percent in 2009 through fiscal consolidation.

* The recently announced salary increases for public sector employees and support for urban spending from lower inflation offsetting fall in rural incomes because of two successively weak monsoons.

(IANS)

Inquiry into DDCA affairs illegal: Centre

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arun jaitley

New Delhi: Triggering another row, the Centre has declared as “unconstitutional and illegal” the constitution of Commission of Inquiry into the DDCA affairs by the AAP dispensation in Delhi in the continuing battle between the two governments.

“Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, has accordingly held that the notification…..issued by the Directorate of Vigilance, Government of NCT of Delhi, is unconstitutional, illegal and therefore has no legal effect,” said a letter issued by Delhi LG’s office yesterday.

The rejection of the Delhi government’s decision to probe the affairs of Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) comes on top of a bitter fight between the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government and the Centre after the raid on the Delhi Secretariat a month ago.

The raid had stoked a clash between the two with Kejriwal alleging that it was meant to seize some files purportedly containing details of alleged corruption in DDCA when Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was its president between 1999 and 2013.

Kejriwal followed up his charge by his government decision to constitute a probe under the Commission of Inquiry Act headed by former Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium, who has contended that Delhi government has the authority to constitute such a probe which he would go ahead with.

As the fight continued, the Central government on Wednesday sent a communication that “the elected Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi is neither the Central Government nor the State Government within the meaning of Section 2 and 3 of the Commission of Inquiry Act, 1952. Therefore, it has no jurisdiction or power to set up a Commission of Inquiry under the said Act.”

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs came to the conclusion after considering the provisions in Art 239 and 239 AA and read with provisions of General Clauses Act including the Government of India notification of August 1966.

The communication, which was sent to LG, said, “The council of Ministers (Delhi Government) may please be apprised accordingly, and all concerned be advised to act in conformity with the above decision of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.”

The AAP government had on December 22 issued a notification to set up a Commission of Inquiry to probe alleged financial irregularities in the DDCA.

(Agencies)

Non-bailable warrant issued against Dhoni

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dhoni

New Delhi: A local court in Andhra Pradesh’s district of Anantapur has issued a non-bailable warrant against India’s limited-overs captain MS Dhoni. The case relates to a morphed picture of Dhoni that appeared on the cover of a magazine in April 2013, which depicted him as a Hindu deity endorsing a lot of products, including a shoe. The headline said, “God of big deals.”

The court has now asked Dhoni to appear before it before February 25. Dhoni will be in Australia until January 31 for an ODI and T20I series, after which India are scheduled to host Sri Lanka for three T20s and also travel to Bangladesh for Asia Cup T20. In March, India will play the World T20.

The summons is a result of the petition filed by a local Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Shyam Sunder, who saw the portrayal of Dhoni as the deity as hurtful to Hindu sentiments. “I had gone to court as the picture hurt Hindu sentiments,” Sunder told TV channels in Anantapur.

Dhoni’s management, though, said that Dhoni had nothing to do with the picture. “Neither did he pose for the picture, nor were we aware of such a picture being published,” Rhiti Sports’ Arun Pandey told ESPNcricinfo.

(Agencies)

Amitabh Bachchan first choice to replace Aamir for ‘Incredible India’

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Aamir Khan Amitabh Bachchan

New Delhi: Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, brand ambassador of Gujarat tourism, is the Modi government’s first choice as the new face of its ‘Incredible India’ campaign after actor Aamir Khan ceased to be its mascot.

“Amitabh Bachchan will be the first choice of the ministry for the job,” a Tourism Ministry source said, adding actors Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra are among those under consideration.

He described the veteran actor as a “non-controversial” figure and noted that Bachchan was the key face for promotion of tourism in Gujarat which has seen an “upsurge” after he was hired by the state.

Khan, whose comments on perceived intolerance in the country had invited flak from BJP, ceased to be the mascot for the campaign as the contract for it expired.

“It was the (private) agency which has hired him. Since the contract with the agency is no more, automatically the arrangement with the actor no longer exists,” Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma had said yesterday.

Khan today said he respected the government’s decision to “discontinue” with his services while making it clear that he never charged anything for the ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ campaign.

“It is the prerogative of the government to decide whether they need a brand ambassador for any campaign, and if so, who that ambassador should be,” he said in a statement.

(PTI)

Gajendra Chauhan takes charge as FTII chairman; 40 protesters held

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FTII

Pune: Amid dramatic scenes and vociferous demonstrations by the FTII students, TV actor and BJP member Gajendra Chauhan today took charge as Chairman of the premiere institute here, even as police detained nearly 40 protesters who were calling him a “political appointee”.

The FTII administration said Chauhan had officially taken over as chairman of the institute.

Earlier, police rounded up about 40 student protesters using force as they staged a demonstration, beating drums and displaying placards with slogans of “Gajendra Chauhan go back”. The controversial appointee at that point was confined to his hotel room in the vicinity of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII).

When asked about the continuing students’ protest to his appointment, Chauhan, before reaching the campus, said, “We have come to do a job. We have an agenda and we will do our job.”

The FTII Students Association (FSA) members, who had earlier called-off their 139-day strike last year opposing Chauhan’s appointment alleging that he lacked stature to head the institute, gathered early in the morning at the main gate of the FTII, ignoring a warning issued yesterday by police to maintain peace at the time of Chauhan’s entry on the campus.

A scuffle ensued between police and the protesters as police used force to put them in vans and detain them to clear the gate before Chauhan left for FTII to take charge.

A woman student of the FTII, Shimi told PTI, “We were protesting peacefully to register our dissent because political appointees are taking charge as members of the FTII Society. We got beaten up without provocation and taken to police station. Our protest and resistance will continue.”

However, Pune’s Deputy Commissioner of Police Tushar Joshi, who was on the spot, said, “We had asked the students to demonstrate peacefully, but we had to use force because they wanted to block the way to the institute and therefore we had to detain them. We used minimum force.”

The students continued to raise anti-Chauhan slogans even as his car entered the FTII premises.

Other controversial members of the FTII society with alleged BJP affiliation — Rahul Solapurkar, Angha Ghaisas, Shailesh Gupta and Narendra Pathak — also attended the first meeting convened by Chauhan as the chairman.

Meanwhile, the FSA said that though they had withdrawn their prolonged strike on October 28 despite lack of response from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to their demand for removal of Chauhan, the students were determined to carry on their resistance to his political appointment in a peaceful manner.

(PTI)

After Delhi, Maha govt may adopt odd-even car plan

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delhi-traffic-pollution-cars

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government is examining the odd-even car plan presently underway in Delhi and may emulate the formula in Mumbai if it proves to be a success.

Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar was responding to NCP’s demand for a similar formula in Mumbai.

“We need to implement the even-odd car number formula on roads of Mumbai as is being done in Delhi to make Mumbai pollution free. If this plan is successfully implemented, plying of as many as 50 per cent vehicles per day on the roads will be reduced.

This will also help in reducing the city’s carbon footprint as 26 per cent of green house gas emissions are caused by using petroleum products. In addition to that the city is also seeing an increase in number of tankers, trucks, buses each day,” NCP Mumbai Unit President Sachin Ahir said.

In response, Mungantiwar said the results of Delhi’s experiment will take time to show and if successful, the state government will consider implementing it in Mumbai as well.

“We will do whatever it can and take in all ideas to reduce traffic and pollution levels in Mumbai. Delhi has started with this experiment. The results will take time to show. It has just been 4 days now and we can’t judge the effects in four days.

We will later know how beneficial the scheme was for Delhi,” Mungantiwar said.
“If we feel the experiment is successful, it can be applied anywhere in the country.

Accepting good things is the specialty of 21st century. We should be open to new ideas while remembering that we do not get overboard before knowing the results of new ideas,” he added.

He further said that the government is open to accepting new ideas from other state governments if it can prove beneficial for Maharashtra.

“We are examining the scheme, if it is successful, it can be applied to Mumbai as well so that traffic congestion and pollution reduces in the city. We will accept all that is necessary. We do not have to pay a royalty to Delhi government if we borrow their scheme. We can apply it whenever we want to,” Mungantiwar said.

(PTI)

‘Make in India’ happening in Karnataka, says Siddaramaiah

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siddaramaiah

Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said that Make in India is happening in Karnataka, citing the investments the state has attracted.

Speaking at an event here, the chief minister said: “During the last two years, we have approved more than 450 projects bringing in investments of around Rs.1.21 lakh crore and generating 2.44 lakh employment opportunities, but much more needs to be done.”

“Shell, Tata Power SED, Bosch, Scania many others have made investments and capacity expansions. All of them will Make in Karnataka – for India and the world,” he said.

Other investments cited by the chief minister include Honda’ two wheeler manufacturing plant in Narasapura, Asian Paints paint manufacturing plant in Mysuru, GlaxoSmithKline manufacturing unit, HAL copter unit in Tumkur and Toyota’s expanding operations in Hassan.

He said 90 percent of the $500 million worth of components sourced by Air Bus for its aircraft A 330, A 350 and A 380 are supplied by Karnataka based companies.

Siddaramaiah said he entrusted Industries Minister R.V. Deshpande to personally look into the ‘ease of doing business’ initiative.

“Our focus at all times is to ensure economic growth so as to improve the lives of each and every person in the State. Through Invest Karnataka-2016, we want to convey and reiterate the same message,” he added.

(Agencies)

J&K Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed dies aged 79

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mufti-sayeed1

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, a crafty politician who took on the powerful Abdullah family and rose to become the country’s first Muslim Home Minister, died today at AIIMS here after his platelets dropped dangerously.

Sayeed, 79, who took charge of the state on March 1 last year heading a PDP-BJP alliance, breathed his last this morning after remaining on ventilator for the past few days.

He was flown from Srinagar in a special plane on December 24 and admitted to the AIIMS where he was diagnosed with sepsis (life threatening complication of an infection) and pneumonia. During hospitalisation his platelets had dropped dangerously, doctors said.

He is the second J and K Chief Minister to die in office, the first one being Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah who died on September 8, 1982.

Sayeed’s daughter 56-year-old Mehbooba is expected to take over as the first woman Chief Minister of the state with PDP leaders throwing their weight behind her. But this will require the approval of BJP.

Sayeed is survived by his wife, three daughters and a son.

Jammu and Kashmir government has declared a seven-day mourning and holiday today. Flags will be flown at half mast.

The mortal remains of the Chief Minister would be flown to Srinagar where the body will be kept for people to pay homage. He is likely be buried in his ancestral village Bijbehera in South Kashmir, about 48 kms from Srinagar.

Sayeed took over as chief minister of PDP-BJP coalition on March 1 last year. In the 87-member J and K Assembly PDP won 28 seats and BJP 25 while opposition National Conference got 15 and Congress 12.

Condoling the death of Sayeed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it left a huge void in the nation and that the leader who provided a healing touch would be missed.

“What stood out about Mufti Sahab was his statesmanship. In his long political journey he won many admirers across the political spectrum,” Modi said.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh will be flying to Srinagar to attend Sayeed’s funeral.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi also expressed grief over the demise of Mufti as she communicated her condolences to his wife and Mehbooba.

“In his death, the state of Jammu and Kashmir as indeed the entire nation has lost a great leader,” she said.

Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who expressed his condolences to Sayeed’s family at AIIMS, tweeted, “Just heard the terrible news of Mufti Sahib’s passing away. I’m shocked and deeply saddened. May he rest in peace”.

Former Union Minister Farooq Abdullah also condoled the death of Sayeed.

In a political career spanning nearly six decades, Sayeed carved a niche for himself in national and Jammu and Kashmir politics with the craftiness and unwavering focus of an avid bridge player he was.

He emerged as a rival power centre to the mighty Abdullahs, always playing his cards close to the chest, while making friends with parties following conflicting ideologies to suit his political agenda.

The high-points in the political journey of Sayeed, who would have turned 80 on January 12, was his being catapulted to the chair of free India’s first Muslim Home Minister in 1989 in the V P Singh government and, years later, becoming the Chief Minister of the restive state for a second time in 2015, heading a coalition with BJP, which had its first brush with power in the only Muslim-majority state.

Sayeed’s stint in the Home Ministry, at a time when militancy had begun to rear its ugly head in his home state, would, however, be most remembered for the kidnapping of his third daughter Rubaiya by JKLF. The militants demanded freeing five of their comrades in exchange for Rubaiya’s freedom and let her off only after their demand had been met.

The kidnapping and subsequent release of the militants, according to Sayeed’s rivals, projected India as a “soft state” for the first time.

Born in Baba Mohalla of Bijbehara in Anantnag district on January 12, 1936, Sayeed had his early education at a local school and graduated from S P College, Srinagar. He went on to obtain a law degree and Master’s degree in Arab History from Aligarh Muslim University.

(Agencies)

Consider limiting odd-even formula for a week: HC tells Delhi government

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New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the Aam Aadmi Party government whether it can limit the restriction on the plying of even- and odd-numbered vehicles in the national capital on alternate days to “a week” instead of the planned 15 days.

A division bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath asked the government to submit the data on air pollution it has collected in a week during implementation of the odd-even scheme in the national capital.

“Is it really necessary to have it for two weeks (15 days)? Can’t it be confined to eight days? Can you end it on Friday? People are facing inconvenience. Take instructions,” the bench asked the government posting the matter for Friday.

“It was a pilot project. You must have data (air pollution) with you now. Show us how much the pollution has reduced. The people of Delhi supported you despite inconvenience. There is no adequate public transport,” the bench said.

The court also asked why diesel cabs were still plying on roads despite a ban.

The court was hearing 12 PILs challenging the Delhi government’s decision to only allow even- and odd-numbered vehicles to ply in Delhi on alternate dates from January 1 to 15.

Advocate Rahul Mehra, appearing for Delhi government, defended the decision of continuing the odd-even scheme for 15 days and said the data collected till now shows decrease in the level of air pollution.

In a status report submitted to the court, the AAP government defended its decision to exempt two-wheelers from the scheme. “In case of two-wheelers, pooling would have been a limited option and it was expected that around 60-70 percent of population would have to resort to public transport. The present available public transport infrastructure is not sufficient to cater to such a huge demand,” the report said.

The status report said the reduction in number of four-wheelers helps decrease the congestion on roads “which has a positive effect on vehicular pollution control”.

(IANS)

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