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Beef banned in Maharashtra, receives President's assent

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The slaughter of cows was previously prohibited in the state under the Maharashtra Animal Preservation Act of 1976. Photo: IE

The slaughter of cows was previously prohibited in the state under the Maharashtra Animal Preservation Act of 1976. Photo: IE

Mumbai: The bill banning cow slaughter in Maharashtra, pending for several years, on Monday received the President’s assent, which means red meat lovers in the state will have to do without beef.

This measure has taken almost twenty years to materialize and was initiated during the previous Sena-BJP government.The bill was  first submitted to the President for approval on January 30, 1996. However, subsequent governments at the Centre, including the BJP led NDA stalled it and did not seek the President’s consent.

A delegation of seven state BJP MPs led by Kirit Somaiya, (MP from Mumbai North) had met the President in New Delhi recently and submitted a memorandum seeking assent to the bill. The memorandum said that the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Bill, 1995, passed during the previous Shiv Sena-BJP regime, was pending for approval for 19 years.

“Thanks a lot honourable President sir for the assent on Maharashtra Animal Preservation Bill. Our dream of ban on cow-slaughter becomes reality now,” chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Twitter. A delegation of seven state BJP MPs had met the President recently and submitted a memorandum.

The law will ban beef from the slaughter of bulls and bullocks, which was previously allowed based on a fit-for-slaughter certificate, according to The Indian Express. The new Act will, however, allow the slaughter of water buffaloes.

The punishment for the sale of beef or possession of it could be prison for five years with an additional fine of Rs 10,000. “Apart from rendering people jobless, the immediate effect will be the spiralling price of other meats as people will be forced to gravitate to them,” Indian Express quoted president of the Mumbai Suburban Beef Dealer Association Mohammed Qureshi as saying.

Reuters had earlier reported that Hindu nationalists in India had stepped up attacks on the country’s beef industry, seizing trucks with cattle bound for abattoirs and blockading meat processing plants in a bid to halt the trade in the world’s second-biggest exporter of beef.

An official at a beef transport group in Maharashtra state said around 10 vehicles travelling to Mumbai had been stopped in the last week of February, the animals taken forcefully and drivers beaten up by members of Hindu nationalist groups despite carrying valid documents.

However, a BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari told The Hindu that the party’s efforts to seek a ban on slaughter of calves should not be viewed with a communal lens but keeping in mind the “interests of agrarian communities.

 (With inputs from Reuters)

Yogendra, Bhushan may face action in AAP's national executive

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Yogendra-Yadav-Prashant-Bhushan

New Delhi: Peeved at its senior leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan’s criticism of AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal’s approach, the party here on Monday hinted at acting tough against the duo in the national executive meet on Wednesday.

The party’s official stand became clear a day after a joint letter by Yadav and Bhushan was leaked to the media which questioned the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) “one person-centric” approach and criticised it on various fronts.

“The attempts were being made to remove Kejriwal as the national convener of the party,” AAP leader Sanjay Singh said, obliquely referring to Yadav and Bhushan at a press conference here.

Talking about the letters being written by members to party authorities, some of whom are with the media, Singh said the party would discuss the recent turn of events, including the leakage of letters in its national executive meeting.

“The continuous leakage of letters written by party members has made the party look like a joke,” he said.

Asked whether the duo would be sacked from the Political Affairs Committee (PAC), the highest decision making body of the AAP, Singh said: “I have only announced the date for the meeting. Have I announced the decisions that will be taken there?”

AAP founding members Yadav and Bhushan, who have been raising the issue of “one man, one post” and the party becoming “person-centric”, might be asked to step down from their posts in the PAC or assume non-active roles, party sources said.

Sources said the party won’t ask them to leave but if they chose to do so, they won’t be stopped.

Party lokpal Admiral L. Ramdas, in a letter which was leaked to the media, had pointed to two camps emerging within the top leadership and had asked the AAP to reconsider the ‘one man, one post’ arrangement.

Efforts were on to contain the differences among the party members with former journalist and party member Ashutosh tweeting that the developments were just a “clash of ideas”.

Yogendra Yadav has slammed reports about the crisis in the party.

“Voters in Delhi have given us a huge mandate and this is the time to work more with a large heart,” Yadav tweeted.

“The country has placed a lot of hope with us. And I can only appeal that we should not lower that expectation with our petty issues. I pray that better sense prevails on us,” the tweet added.

(IANS)

Young Sikh boy racially abused in US, video goes viral

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sikh-boy-racial-abuse

New York: In a shocking case of racism, a young Sikh boy in the US state of Georgia has been called a “terrorist” by a group of school children, with the video of the abuse now going viral on the internet.

In the video posted on Inquisitr, the bespectacled Sikh boy is seen sitting in what appears to be a school bus and is surrounded by students.

He whispers to the camera: “The kids are being racist to me.”

A young girl sitting behind him then shouts “terrorist! terrorist!” and points her finger at the boy, who remains calm and even shouts “who cares” when the kids hurl abuses at him.

Inquisitr reported that the video was uploaded by a user named ‘Nagra Nagra’ and identified the Sikh boy as Harsukh Singh.

Singh apparently uploaded the video initially which has so far got 130,000 views, with the description,”Kids being racist to me and calling me an Afghan terrorist. Please don’t act like this towards people like me. If you don’t know, I’m not Muslim I’m Sikh.”

An online user described the video “disgusting” in which the young Sikh boy is “being bullied with racist chants on a school bus. “The Sikh bravely states that he doesn’t care what they think of him.”

The Inquisitr reported that Singh is a student at the Chattahoochee Elementary School in Duluth, Georgia.

The incident comes weeks after a Hindu temple was vandalized in Seattle. A Nazi swastika and the phrase “get out” was found spray-painted in red on the exterior of the temple and cultural centre in Washington state in February.

According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, FBI hatecrimes statistics shows that anti-Muslim hatecrimes are still at about five times more common than they were before the 9/11 attacks.

Last year, 29-year-old Sikh man Sandeep Singh was brutally injured after a Long Island man slammed his pick-up truck into him after calling him ‘Osama’ and that he should “go back to your country.”

Joseph Caleca was indicted by a grand jury on a nine-count indictment charging him with attempted murder as a hate crime, assault, criminal possession of a weapon and leaving the scene without reporting after hitting Singh.

(PTI)

PDP demands return of Afzal Guru's mortal remains

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Mufti Mohammad Sayeed

Srinagar: Ruling PDP in Jammu and Kashmir today demanded from the NDA government the return of the mortal remains of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, a day after assuming power in alliance with BJP.

Eight PDP MLAs issued a statement in this regard saying the party “promises to follow vigorously” for the return of the mortal remains.

Guru was hanged on February 9, 2013 inside Tihar Jail.

“PDP stands by the demand for return of his (Guru’s) mortal remains, and the party promises to follow vigorously for the return of the mortal remains,” the PDP statement said.

The legislators who signed the statement are Mohammad Khalil Bandh, Zahoor Ahmed Mir, Raja Manzoor Ahmad, Mohd Abas Wani, Yawar Dilawar Mir, Advocate Mohd Yosuf, Aijaz Ahmad Mir and Noor Mohd Sheikh.

“PDP has always maintained that late Afzal Guru’s hanging was travesty of justice and constitutional requirements and process was not followed in hanging him out of turn,” the statement said.

“The way he was picked up from serial no.28 and singled out has been condemned by PDP and it stands by the demand for return of his mortal remains…,” it said.

“We believe that the resolution brought by Independent MLA Rashid Ahmed to seek clemency for late Afzal Guru was justified and should have been adopted by the House at that time,” he said.

In 2011, the resolution seeking clemency for Guru could not be taken up in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly due to pandemonium in the House.

The resulotion became void as according to rules, any listed business that does not come up for discussion would lapse.

(PTI)

BJP's Sadhvi Prachi calls for boycott of Khan triumvirate, slams Mother Theresa

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sadhvi_prachi

Dehradun: Suggesting that films starring Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Salman Khan are spreading a ‘culture of violence’, BJP MP Sadhvi Prachi advised youngsters not to idolise the triumvirate.

Speaking at a programme of Vishwa Hindu Parishad here yesterday, the Sadhvi, known for stoking controversies by her statements, said once she had been to a programme in Meerut where she asked a young boy what he wanted to become in life.

“He said he wanted to become like Hritik Roshan, Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan. When I asked why, his mother told me because they are good at doing stunts,” she said.

Calling for a boycott of the Khan triumvirate’s films by the right wing Hindu outfits, she said, “I, for one, would ask the Bajrangis to make a bonfire of the posters of films of Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan.”

Sadhvi Prachi also accused Mother Teresa of proselytising in the name of service like all missionaries do.

“Mother Teresa indulged in conversion by luring people over to Christianity under the pretext of service,” she said.

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had also made similar remarks saying that Christianity was the main objective behind Mother Teresa’s service to the poor.

“Mother Teresa’s service would have been good. But it used to have one objective, to convert the person, who was being served, into a Christian,” he had said while speaking at a function organised by NGO Apna Ghar.

(Agencies)

Delhi bus rapist: Women should allow men to rape them if they want to live

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Raise your voice.(Reuters/Ahmad Masood)

Raise your voice. (Reuters/Ahmad Masood)

by Shelly Walia, Quartz

One of the men who brutally assaulted and raped a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in New Delhi on Dec. 16, 2012 blames the victim for the savagery that he—and five other men—inflicted on her.

Had she simply been “silent” and allowed the rape, “then they would have dropped her off after doing her,” Mukesh Singh, one of the convicted in the horrific case, said in an interview from Delhi’s Tihar Jail.

It’s been more than two years since a physiotherapy student, Jyoti Singh, was raped by six men. Later, she was left to die on the city’s streets, as her male companion, who was also severely beaten up, sought help from passersby.

The incident triggered nationwide protests and a demand for a lasting, sweeping change in rape laws. The judge who handled the case said that the rape had “shocked the collective conscience” of India. The assailants are now facing death penalty—but one of them, at least, feels absolutely no remorse.

In an interview for a documentary called India’s Daughter, Mukesh— who was also the driver of the bus in which the incident occurred—said that girls are to be blamed for most of the rapes that occur in India.

“You can’t clap with one hand – it takes two hands. A decent girl won’t roam around at 9 o’clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy. Boy and girl are not equal. Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes. About 20 per cent of girls are good.”

He went on to blame Jyoti for resisting rape.

“She should just be silent and allow the rape. Then they would have dropped her off after ‘doing her’ and only hit the boy. The 15 or 20 minutes of the incident, I was driving the bus. The girl was screaming, ‘Help me, help me.’ The juvenile put his hand in her and pulled out something. It was her intestines …We dragged her to the front of the bus and threw her out.”

Death penalty, in his opinion, will only make matters worse for future rape victims.

“The death penalty will make things even more dangerous for girls.”

“Before, they would rape and say, ‘Leave her, she won’t tell anyone.’ Now when they rape, especially the criminal types, they will just kill the girl. Death.”

The juvenile who Mukesh mentioned in his interview was six months shy of 18 at the time of the rape, and was tried separately from the other five men in a juvenile justice court. In August 2013, he was sent to a correctional facility for a maximum term of three years. At the reform home in Sept. 2014, he was found to be cooking, sewing, painting, playing volleyball, watching television or pigeons.

Mukesh, who was 26 at the time of the incident, and four other adult perpetrators were given the death penalty by a fast-track court. Though the Delhi high court upheld the penalty in Mar. 2014, the perpetrators are waiting for  Supreme Court’s hearing on their appeal.

The documentary will be broadcast in India and seven other countries on BBC4 on March 08, International Women’s Day.

Here’s the trailer.

Budget for the rich to get richer and throw crumbs to the poor – Statement by NTUI

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Union Budget 2015 2016

by Gautam Mody, NTUI

New Delhi: The Union Budget of 2015-16, the BJP government’s first full budget, has a sense of triumphalism that it ‘can fly’ because it believes that , the ‘opportunity for this exist because we (the BJP government) have created it’ over the last nine-and-a-half months. This government is taking credit for conditions and circumstances that it has nothing to do with or did not, in the remotest way, have the ability or opportunity to contribute to. The BJP government rewards itself with the entire credit for the deceleration of the rate of inflation. It does not anywhere take note of the fact that inflationary pressure and therefore the country’s current account balance, has anything to do with the fact that international oil prices are at their lowest level in 5 years and at, in fact, half of what they were in May 2014. The BJP government would be wise to note that almost identical circumstances marked the euphoria at the start of the second UPA government. Furthermore, although inflation indices may show a decline, the measure of food price inflation is yet to show any significant decline.

The second reason that appears to tell the BJP government that its’ time to ‘fly’ has come is that, based on revised government statistics, it has given itself the title of the ‘fastest growing largest economy’ in the world. The government’s Economic Survey 2014-15 (ES), released on 27 February 2015, indicated that the economy will grow in 2015-16 by anywhere between 8.1 to 8.5 percent from a growth of 5.9 percent in the current year (2014-15).

A substantial part of the Budget Statement is interspersed with the promise that ‘every rupee of public expenditure…will contribute to the betterment of people’s lives through job creation, poverty elimination and economic growth’. Hence the test we must apply to this budget is whether the growth inspired by this budget will indeed contribute to job creation and poverty elimination. Equally, we are concerned about whether this rate of growth will introduce stability in the economy and what its distributional consequences will be for the working class.

Reducing Poverty by Reducing Budgetary Provision on Social Protection

The government’s promise of ‘poverty elimination’ comes with an across-the-board reduction in government expenditure on social protection and social security. The funds allocated for the MGNREGA are frozen at Rs. 34,000 crores and have for the first time come to below 2 percent of government expenditure. Expenditure on health, education, women and child development, both rural and urban housing, drinking water and sanitation, and welfare of SCs, STs and minorities all taken together have faced cuts amounting to 1 percent of the total budgeted expenditure or nearly Rs. 10,000 crores. If we break these down and adjust for the increases in the Prime Ministers pet projects ‘Swachh Bharat’ and urban housing through public private partnerships (PPP), then the reductions in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the Mid-day Meal Scheme, the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), the National Rural Health Mission and the Indira Aawas Yojana are not insignificant. Apart from not allowing for the scaling up of these critical programmes, the reduced budgetary support implies that the roughly 1 crore ‘honorarium’ workers employed by these programmes will not see an increase in their meagre wages and will continue to remain close to the poverty line.

Not to be seen as wanting in generosity, the Budget Statement increases the provision for food subsidy by a ‘generous’ sum of Rs. 2,000 crores to Rs. 124,000 crores. The full implementation of the National Food Security Act would require significantly more budgetary support than this which implies, despite the expressed promise of transparency, that the BJP government has decided to accept the Shanta Kumar Committee recommendation of restructuring the Food Corporation of India and curtailing the reach of the NFSA.

Universal Social Security defined by ability to pay

Additionally, the BJP government commits itself to creating a ‘universal social security system’ for which government is willing to commit Rs. 1200 crores. This will support contributory pension, accident and life insurance schemes which the government will support for a maximum of five years. Even through the most generous computation, these schemes can reach 1.2 crore people or about 2.5% of the working population.

Towards furthering a ‘universal social security system’, government commits itself to providing workers a choice between health care benefits under Employee State Insurance and contributory health insurance and between Employees’ Provident Fund and the New Pension Scheme. In ‘choosing’ between health care and retiral benefits that are guaranteed and protected under law, the government is playing on the monetary hardship of workers ‘below a certain threshold of monthly income’ in pushing them to low contribution options in the private sector. The BJP government’s objective is not to create a system of universal social security but to universalise, in every sphere of economic life, the principle of capacity to pay and ability to pay.

‘Ease of Business’ means the exchequer will guarantee the profits

Having turned over the task of social security to private insurance and pension companies, the BJP government recognises that the private sector is in trouble and cannot really drive growth and lacks the capacity to invest in the economy to drive growth and create jobs, as its Economic Survey admitted: ‘The situation of Indian public-sector banks and corporate balance sheets suggests that the expectation that the private sector will drive investment needs to be moderated’. And even though it explicitly acknowledges in both its 2014-15 and 2015-16 budgets that the PPP model does not work, the BJP government committed itself to the PPP model (3PIndia) as the institutionalised sponsorship of the private sector by government in its 2014 Budget, and now, it goes one step further in cementing this sponsorship by confirming that the ‘sovereign will have to bear a major part of the risk’ for capital investment. These ‘sovereign’ or government guaranteed loans will come from tax free bonds.

The commitment of the BJP government to subsidise the private sector cannot be in doubt. The job will not be completed merely by guaranteeing loans for private investment. For a start, it will hand over five ultra mega power projects to the private sector after putting in place ‘all clearances’ in the ‘plug-and-play mode’. Besides these five power projects, government will consider other infrastructure projects, too, including railways, ports, highways and airports. The package of the BJP government’s policy issued through the present and the previous BSs along with the Land Acquisition and Coal Ordinances represent that for ‘ease of business’ to succeed, ‘eminent domain’ must be in place. ‘Eminent domain’ must exist for the private sector so that ease of profit allows Prime Minster Narendra Modi’s ‘ease of business’ model to work.

In the knowledge that ease of profits for infrastructure will not be sufficient to pull in enough investable resources to drive 8+ percent growth, the BJP government must necessarily turn its attention to foreign investment. Various tax concessions have been extended to foreign portfolio investors, including those who do not wish to register themselves in the country. Special provisions are also to be put in place under the BS to ease the functioning of private equity and hedge funds that are in polite company called Alternative Investment Funds. Most of all, the distinction between foreign portfolio investment (that is speculative and moves from one country to another and one company to another) and foreign direct investment (that is stable in a single company) has been effectively extinguished. This will serve to tilt the balance towards more short-termism, more speculation and even less towards long-term investment in technology, innovation and skills than is currently the case with multinational companies.

In addition to the foregoing, the BJP government promises to lower corporate tax – the tax on companies – from the present 30 percent to 25 percent over the length of this government. The budget abolishes wealth tax and replaces it with a 2 percent cess on those with incomes of Rs. 1 crore or more. This will brings in Rs. 9,000 crores a year or about 0.50 percent of the total budgeted government expenditure for 2015-16. Conversely, service tax will rise from 12.36 percent to 14 percent. While on the one hand, the BJP government has made clear that it will continue to provide tax breaks on corporate and personal income taxes by raising service tax and confirming the introduction of the Goods and Service Tax by April 2016, the BJP government will extend the reliance on indirect taxes. Although the BS does announce a new legislation for hunting down black money abroad, its scrapping of the proposal for the Direct Tax Code to plug loopholes in taxes and putting the General Anti-Avoidance Rules on the back burner is an indication of how serious the BJP government is about plugging loopholes at home.

The BJP government’s tax proposals will potentially ‘forego’ about Rs. 600,000 crores. Of this, some 10% or Rs. 60,000 crores will be the direct benefit to private companies. While the BJP government expects the economy to grow at 8+ percent a year, the BS only estimates an increase in tax revenues of 1.35% as compared to the previous year. The Tax-to-GDP ratio is expected to dip to less than 10 percent over the next year. This would mean taking the country back to the same state as at the time of the last BJP government.

Who will pay for government expenditure?

The questions remains: where is the money to meet government expenditure going to come from, in the absence of increased tax revenue, and where will the money for capital investment come from, to create the jobs that will ‘make in India’? Monies to meet government’s expenditure will come from two sources – first, nearly 10 percent of government expenditure will be met through interest and dividend payments to government by public sector undertakings and the sale of shares (disinvestment) in public sector undertakings. The most important source of government funds will come through borrowings.

As for job creation, from its own side, the BJP government plans to invest a sum total of Rs. 70,000 crores in capital investment. The BS does not tell us where it will go. No one knows at this point how much of it will go to shoring up PPPs. At any rate, the amounts on offer are in fact less than 0.50 percent of GDP. This is going to be far from sufficient to drive 8 percent growth or take it to the ‘double-digits’, as the BS promises for the years ahead. The BJP government is relying on an additional Rs. 320,000 crores to be invested by public sector corporations. Hence ‘make in India’, too, will be for the private sector with the resources of the public sector.

The general condition of the economy is poor and the ‘roadmap for the future’, as put forward by the BS, provides little hope for working people. For one, the entire fiscal framework – of taxation and spending – of the BJP government will contribute further to inequalities. Second, the increased ‘sovereign’ borrowings to finance investment will be further tax-free transfers to the rich. And third, the dependence on foreign investment flows pushes up the value of the rupee which makes our exports more expensive abroad and makes it difficult to export our goods abroad. This bodes poorly for sustained and stable levels of economic growth and therefore for job creation and wages with growing inequalities.

And yet, perhaps, there is still a chance for achhe din! The BS promises that if the rich pay taxes beyond expectation (the level of which remains unstated), the BJP government will throw in an additional Rs. 10,000 crores (or a total of 0.50 percent of budgeted expenditure) to fund the MGNREGA, Integrated ICDS, Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) and the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana. Working people must live in the hope that the rich get richer – for it is then that the BJP government will throw crumbs at them.

Gautam Mody is the General Secretary of New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI).

An interactive session with Christopher Harrison of Biorhythm

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Christopher Harrison

Christopher Harrison is the founder of AntiGravity Inc & artistic director of AntiGravity Entertainment. He is also the inventor of the “Harrison Academy” Hammock, author of 7 fitness techniques, Aerial Om Master & the father of Aerial Yoga. At a function held recently in the Jubilee Room of Hotel Sun-N-Sand Christopher Harrion announced, “Biorhythm India has entered into a Joint Venture with AntiGravity® Fitness USA to bring aerial fitness program to India to bring the only aerial fitness program that is certified by the Governing bodies of America & Europe to India.” The Fitness industry pie in India is expected to touch the 50,000 crore mark by 2030. Giving him a boost on the dias were Ms. Nital Raval, Proprietor, Biorhythm India, Bollywood Choreogrpher Longinus Fernandes of “Jai Ho” fame & Jignesh Raval, Business Leader & Partner, Biorhythms India. This highly interesting & interactive press conference was moderated by Viveck Shettyy, the All India Head of Media Cell of Consumer Guidance Society of India (CGSI), who kept the audience in great humour with his sharp & witty observations. Present herewith is the 1st person account of Christopher Harrison.

“When you open up space in your body, you open up space in your mind. AntiGravity techniques help people to open up and be free. You are only as young as your spine is flexible and your mind is open. AntiGravity techniques are like guzzling from the fountain of youth. I learned yoga in India in the 1990’s and it changed my entire perspective on life and my ‘art of movement’. Now, I get to bring back my own version of mind & body connection that I call AntiGravity. I hope to honor the greats before me and the beautiful legacy of yoga in doing so.”

“AntiGravity is the perfect integration of body & mind through 7 special techniques. AntiGravity® Yoga is purely a Western phenomenon that borrows from the East to bring about the union of body & mind. AntiGravity techniques allow for Zero-Compression Inversions, which decompress the spine & the mind, bringing about greater health & less pain. It is about defying the laws of physics and about staying light-hearted. Take a class and experience the ananda – joy. The AntiGravity phenomenon has finally arrived in India. See why all the Hollywood celebrities are practicing it and discover for yourself,  the fountain of youth. We handle the biological cycle of our body in a very logical way. It makes people fitter, taller & better. In fact my real life story is an inspiration and my  journey from illness to cutting edge fitness was indeed remarkable.”

“Your body is the only place that you have to live. So you better take very good care of it. Discover the fun quotient in exercising. if you can smile while you exercise, then that is indeed a great form exercise. Growth is never merely by share of chances, its force of working together. AntiGravity techniques create a community of individuals that come together to establish greater health – which is our true wealth. Biorhythms are different hereditary cycles regulating memory, ambition, co-ordination, endurance, temperament & emotions in human body. Each has specific function and its life cycle. These cycles begin at birth and oscillate in a steady wave pattern throughout our lives. At Biorhythm India, we synchronise your mind & body through the state-of-the-art techniques for an enriched modus Vivendi.”

“Biorhythm India offers customised program for different age groups, personalised training, yoga for kids, corporate yoga, group yoga, yoga for adults, chair yoga etc. AntiGravity fitness has a reciprocal relationship to yoga. Its moves are derived from Pilates, dance & calisthenics in addition to yoga. Key to Anti Gravity fitness is the hammock, a swath of silky fabric which is hang suspended in the air that acts as your support system.”

“Biorhythm India are an AntiGravity® Fitness certified Yoga Studio situated in Pune. AntiGravity® Fitness is the creative company responsible for bringing Suspension Training to the fitness sector. They are the originators of the first Aerial Yoga, Aerial Pilates & Aerial Barre techniques. AntiGravity®, the premier brand for Aerial Fitness world-wide owns 7 copyrighted techniques and a training academy with close to 2000 instructors. It is also an international licensing & franchising company operating in over 50 countries whose star-studded clients include: Richard Branson, Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow, Mariah Carey, Katie Couric, Crunch Fitness, Four Seasons Resorts, Holmes Place, Virgin Active and many more.”

“AntiGravity techniques are artistic & refined like Ballet or Acrobatics. They are comprehensive & intelligent like Pilates, Philosophical & Physical like Aikido, Challenging & Structured like Gymnastics, High-Minded & Healing like Yoga, Playful & Accessible like Dance, Empowering like the Aerial Arts, Relief-giving & rejuvenating like a Massage.”

“Today, AntiGravity® Yoga is reaching such diverse communities. It is currently in 40 countries around the world and fully growing. The growth of AntiGravity® in Asia is stupendous. AntiGravity® Fitness techniques & philosophy are a perfect marriage with the culture of Asia. Asian people do tend to integrate health & wellness in their lives and are also very open-minded when it comes to the healing arts. AntiGravity techniques embrace the Asian philosophy of true health being a process of connecting body/mind/spirit.”

Uproar over Mufti's remark in Parliament; Opposition walks out of lower house

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets Mufti Mohammad Sayeed after his swearing in as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday. ANI Photo

Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets Mufti Mohammad Sayeed after his swearing in as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday. ANI Photo

New Delhi: The members of the opposition in the lower house of the Indian Parliament Monday staged a walk out from following uproar over Kashmir chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s remark of crediting Pakistan and Hurriyat for peaceful elections in the region.

The opposition walk out took place minutes after federal home minister Rajnath Singh put forward the government’s views in this regard.

“I have already had discussion with the prime minister. I am making statement after his approval. The credit for conducive environment during polls in Jammu and Kashmir goes to the Election Commission, our armed forces and people of J-K,” said Singh in Lok Sabha.

The members of the opposition instead demanded a statement from prime minister Narendra Modi on the issue.

“We want the prime minister to speak on this matter in the house and condemn statement given by Jammu and Kashmir chief minister so that a clear message can be given,” said Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge.

(ANI)

Feel sad over false reports: Yogendra Yadav

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yogendra yadav

New Delhi: AAP leader Yogendra Yadav on Monday said that he felt sad over false reports about him and Prashant Bhushan being unhappy with the happenings in the party, added this was a time to work with a large heart following their big win in Delhi.

“I feel sad and at the same time (feel like) laughing too after reading whatever is being said in the media about me and Prashant ji for the last two days… Delhi has given such huge mandate to AAP. I would appeal that we should not let the faith of people dwindle in the AAP,” Yadav said in a tweet Monday morning.

“Today it is the time to work for the country. The country has great expectation from us (AAP),” Yadav added.

Reflecting his discontent about the functioning of the Aam Aadmi Party, senior leader Prashant Bhushan has written a letter raising questions about some decisions of party convenor Arvind Kejriwal who is now chief minister of Delhi.

In the letter, apparently written to members of party’s national executive, Bhushan has raised questions about the party running a “person-centric” campaign in Delhi polls and not following some of its professed principles.

(IANS)

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