Congress spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala on Friday sought the Centre’s attention towards the menace of fake news circulating on social media that maligns the image of reputed persons.

“Modi Govt needs to crackdown on this ‘Fake News Factory’ that is unleashed on SM (social media) by BJP supporters. Lies and photoshop driven fakery are being spread that violate 153 A, 295 A, 500 and 505(2) of the IPC (Indian Penal Code),” Surjewala tweeted.

Through his tweet, the leader also urged Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to curb the peril.

“Hope @HMOIndia and @DelhiPolice under Rajnath Singh ji will act against culprits.”

Surjewala’s remarks come after Indiaflare.com published a manufactured quote attributing to the Congress leader.

It said: “Mohammed Irfan (Mandsaur rapist) cannot be considered a rapist because Islam permits the rape of women from other religion. He should be released.”

This was the same narrative pushed by the fake news website in its article on ‘Muslims demanding the release of Mandsaur rapist’, Surjewala said.

He said the fake quote was shared on “Join and Support PM Modi 2019” by one Anurag Tiwari, whose account seems fake as there is no activity on the profile.

It has more than 500 shares, added Surjewala.

Earlier, another Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi was misquoted in a fake news circulated on social networking sites and then threatened along with her 10-year-old daughter through a vicious message posted by a person, now in police custody, on his Twitter handle.

The annual Amarnath Yatra resumed on Friday from the Pahalgam route in the Kashmir Valley while it continued to remain suspended for the third day from the Baltal route.

“After improvement in weather, the yatris were allowed to move towards the cave shrine from the Pahalgam base camp. However, no one was allowed to proceed from Baltal,” officials said

Landslide clearance operation is ongoing on the Baltal trek route which was hit by a landslide on Tuesday killing four pilgrims and a local. Ten others were also injured in this accident after which the Yatra was suspended.

Governor N.N. Vohra, who is also the Chairman of Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB), visited the Baltal base camp to take stock of the situation.

So far, 68,000 pilgrims have performed this year’s pilgrimage which started on June 28.

Stellan Skarsgard doesn’t want to enter the political world thanks to US President Donald Trump. The Swedish actor, who has been part of films like “Good Will Hunting”, “Thor”, “Avengers” and “Mamma Mia!”, says politicians unite people for all the wrong reasons.

He feels there is a wave of religious nationalism around the world, and that it will lead to more bloodshed.

Skarsgard has always been vocal about everything, including politics. He has said on several occasions that his perspective about the world changed after reading the Bible and the Quran after the 9/11 tragedy.

“For decades since the Second World War, the West had become a developed democracy… developed an idea that everybody is equal, values of humanism and tolerance. Now, in the last 10 years, there has been a backlash… And there is religious nationalism all over the world,” Skarsgard told IANS over the phone from Scotland.

“I believe everybody should have the right to have their own religion. But that doesn’t mean that they should forget everybody else’s right to have their own religion… The idea of nationalism is excluding, not including.”

Skarsgard pointed out that “nationalism and religion are always used by strong politicians to unite people for the wrong reasons”.

Skarsgard looked back at the time when work brought him to India, and he saw a world embracing diversity in its true sense.

“When I was working in Mumbai, it was in the 1980s… What I loved about the city and India was that it was not very violent. You could walk in the middle of the night and didn’t have to fear of getting attacked or robbed or anything.

“There were a multitude of different approaches of religion and approaches of life and they were all tolerated. And I must say that the current religious nationalism is encouraging the opposite. They are encouraging fight and there has been a lot of bloodshed and more will come.”

As a child, Skarsgard wanted to become a diplomat and travel the world with the message of harmony and peace. But instead found his way into showbiz and went on to do iconic roles like Jan Nyman in “Breaking the Waves”, Professor Gerald Lambeau in “Good Will Hunting”, Bootstrap Bill Turner in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, Bill Anderson in “Mamma Mia!”, Dr. Erik Selvig in the “Thor” and “The Avengers” franchise.

The actor turned 67 last month. Indian channel Sony Pix had a special screening session and aired some of his iconic films as part of the birthday celebrations.

Does he think he is spreading the message of peace as an actor?

“No, I don’t… I wanted to become a diplomat as a child and I thought it would be a great idea… I don’t believe actors have the power to change reality.”

For a lot of fans, Skarsgard, who has dabbled in all the mediums — be it films or small screen or theatre — will be an inspiring politician. But he wants to stay away from politics.

“No, because in this, if I know more about the world than Trump, then I don’t know enough.”

His opinions have created trouble for him in the past, but that doesn’t deter him from calling a spade a spade.

Recalling an incident, he said: “I always say what I have on my mind. And it is not always appreciated. I did an American horror film and on the premiere at the red carpet somebody asked me ‘What scares you?’, and it was at the time of George W. Bush. I said the reign of this country scares me and that had repercussions… But you still have to express (yourself).”

On the work front, he will soon be seen in “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again”, “Music, War and Love”, “Out Stealing Horses”, “Chernobyl” and “The Painted Bird”.

Reliance Jio has doubled its subscriber base to 215 million in 22 months, Reliance Industries (RIL) Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh D. Ambani said here on Thurday.

“We have more than 25 million JioPhone users in India,” Ambani told shareholders at the 41st Annual General Meeting of RIL.
He announced that the company was launching JioGigaFiber, Jio’s fixed-line broadband.

“We will now extend fiber connectivity to homes, merchants, small and medium enterprises and large enterprises simultaneously across 1,100 cities to offer the most advanced fiber-based broadband connectivity solutions,” Ambani told shareholders.

He said for homes this means ultra high-definition entertainment on large screen TVs, multi-party video conferencing from living room, voice-activated virtual assistants, virtual reality gaming, digital shopping and immersive experiences.

“For merchants and small businesses, fixed-line broadband means… When you combine fixed-line connectivity with the agility and customer obsession of a small owner-driven business, you empower them to compete on level terms with larger businesses.

“For large enterprises, fixed-line broadband will mean… Having the ability to compete in the global marketplace, using digital tools and techniques that are powering the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” he added.

The company also said it would launch JioPhone2 on August 15. It will have added features like WhatsApp, YouTube and Facebook. It would have a horizontal screen.

“Today, we are launching a brand new JioPhone scheme, JioPhone ‘Monsoon Hungama’. Under this offer, by exchanging your old feature phone, you can get a brand new JioPhone for an effective entry price of just Rs 501,” Ambani said.

Starting on August 15, we have another exciting offer for common Indians. “They can purchase our Jiophone2 at an introductory price of only Rs 2,999.

“With the added functionalities and strong retail presence across India, the goal that I have now set for our Jio team is to enable 100 million users on this JioPhone platform in the shortest possible time and create another world record,” he added.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday requested Delhi’s Lt Governor and Centre to comply with the apex court ruling and work in cooperation with the Delhi government to avoid any obstruction to work.

“It is our request to the Lt Governor and Centre to cooperate and work according to the (court) order. Because of a technical formality, work should not be hindered,” Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said.

After the Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday in favour of the Delhi government, the ruling AAP had quickly taken action to restore the powers of transfer of officers in Delhi.

However, when it sent a file to the Secretary (Services), the Deputy Chief Minister was told about the inability to carry out the orders.

“Chief Secretary (Services) sent us a written document expressing why the Services department would not be able to carry out the orders. We are consulting our lawyers regarding the issue,” Sisodia told reporters here.

Sisodia said the apex court had clearly stated that the Lt Governor, appointed by the Centre, was bound by the aid and advice of the Ministers of the city government in all areas except land, police and public order.

“It is clear that the Centre does not have any role now after the apex court order. The Services department is not under the Centre. But if they refuse to cooperate, then how will the country’s system work, how will the city function?” he said.

Reliance Industries’ (RIL) Chairman & Managing Director Mukesh D. Ambani on Thursday said the company saw its biggest growth opportunity “in creating a hybrid, online-to-offline new commerce platform”.

According to Ambani, who was addressing the shareholders at the company’s 41st Annual General Meeting (AGM) here, the new commerce platform will be created through the integration of its offline retail arm and online technology platform.

He further said Reliance Retail’s revenue grew by 100 percent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis Rs 69,000 crore last year.

 Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh could not visit the Amarnath Cave Shrine due to inclement weather on Thursday.

The Home Minister will take a review of various developmental projects, security and law and order in Jammu and Kashmir before concluding his two-day visit, official sources said.

He had met Governor N.N. Vohra on Wednesday at the Raj Bhawan after arriving here along with Ajit Doval, national security advisor and Rajiv Gauba, union home secretary.

This is Singh’s first visit to the state after Governor’s rule was imposed here on June 20.

Singh will return to New Delhi on Thursday later.

 The Karnataka government on Thursday waived farm loans up to Rs 34,000 crore, giving relief to lakhs of farmers across the state.

“I propose to waive farm loans up to Rs 34,000 crore, with Rs 2 lakh per farmer family,” Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy said in the Assembly while presenting his maiden state budget for fiscal 2018-19.

The budget proposes to tax the people heavily by increasing the petrol fare by Rs 1.14 per liter and diesel by Rs 1.12 per liter.

“I also propose to increase excise duty on Indian made foreign liquor by 4 percent to raise additional revenue for meeting the budget expenditure,” said Kumaraswamy, who heads a coalition government of his Janata Dal-Secular and the Congress.

The Chief Minister has also proposed to increase power tariff by 20 paise per unit.

Promising to continue the flagship programmes of the previous Congress government, Kumaraswamy told the legislators that the overall size of the budget would be Rs 2,13,734 crore.

“I propose to allocate Rs 150 crore for agriculture development based on the Israeli model. We will focus on agriculture as well as the services sector,” he said.