J&K Police Constable Kidnapped, Killed by terrorists, body found in Kulgam

A Jammu & Kashmir Police Constable Ahmed Dar (personal security officer to Senior Superintendent of Police Shailendra Mishra) who was kidnapped by terrorists on July 5 in south Kashmir’s Shopian District was found dead today morning (July 6) with multiple bullet injuries.

He was kidnapped when he had gone to local medicine shop in his residential area Vehil, said the police.

Locals from Pariwan village in Kulgam found Dar’s bullet-ridden body on the early morning of July 6.

He was off duty when the terrorists came in a santro car and abducted him on gunpoint.

Following the kidnapping, a massive search operation was launched to locate the constable. 

The Jammu and Kashmir police today paid tribute to the martyred constable in a wreath-laying ceremony.

In a similar incident last month an Army soldier Aurangzeb, was also kidnapped and later killed by terrorists in Pulwama District of Jammu and Kashmir. His bullet-ridden body was found by a team of Jammu and Kashmir Police and Indian Army.

UK court issues enforcement order against Vijay Mallya

A UK High Court judge has issued an enforcement order in favour of a consortium of 13 Indian banks, seeking to recover funds owed to them by fugitive tycoon Vijay Mallya.

This order enables 13 Indian banks which include 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 to enforce the Indian judgement against Mallya’s assets in England and Wales.

The order grants permission to the UK High Court Enforcement Officer to enter Mallya’s properties in UK.

According to the order by Justice Byran, dated June 26, “The High Court Enforcement Officer, including any enforcement agents acting under his authority, may enter Ladywalk, Queen Hoo Lane, Tewin, Welwyn and Bramble Lodge, Queen Hoo Lane, Tewin, Welwyn, including all outbuildings of Ladywalk and Bramble Lodge to search for and take control of goods belonging to the First Defendant (Mallya).”

“The High Court Enforcement Officer, including any Enforcement Agent acting under his authority, may use reasonable force to enter the Property if necessary,” it states.

Mallya has made an application in the Court of Appeal seeking permission to appeal against the order, which remains pending. 

Mallya is also fighting a separate case on his extradition to India on fraud and money laundering charges worth an estimated Rs 9,000 crores, the case will come up at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London on July 31.

Rajnath Singh Reviews Situation In Jammu And Kashmir

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh during his two day visit to Jammu and Kashmir reviewed the state’s security situation on Thursday and discussed the way forward at a meeting with the Governor and state administration in Srinagar.

The Union Home Minister restated the government’s commitment to take all possible measures that would bring accountability, transparency and good governance in the system, as development and good governance had remained elusive for the common people of Jammu and Kashmir.

“With renewed focus on good governance and development the Centre is looking forward to kindle new aspirations and hopes amongst the people of the State. The solution to problems lies in empowerment of the people and strengthening the institutions of local self governance,” he said.

The home minister said, that it’s the central government’s firm resolve to bring peace, stability and prosperity through an honest, effective and efficient administration for the problems facing the state, as the dream of a developed and prosperous Jammu and Kashmir will be realised when there is peace and normalcy in the state,” he added.

Mukesh Ambani unveiled his vision about ‘Jio’ at Reliance’s 41st AGM

Addressing the 41st annual general meeting (AGM) of Reliance Industries’, its Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Mukesh Ambani on Thursday unveiled his future vision for Reliance industries and specifically for Reliance Jio.

Mr. Ambani at the AGM said, “We are determined to connect everyone and everything everywhere –always at the highest quality and the most affordable price. Our network has a wider coverage than any other network in India; we are on track towards achieving our target of 99% population coverage with 4G-LTE. This means that jio will be present in every disctrict, taluka, gram panchayat and village in India.”

Sharing some interesting facts about data usage in India, Mr. Ambani  said, “Data usage has grown from 125 crore GB per month to more than 240 crore GB per month. The amount of video consumption has grown from 165 crore hours of videos per month to more than 340 crore hours per month. Voice usage on the network has grown from 250 crore minutes per day to more than 530 crore minutes per day.”

“Even after serving all the needs of our 215+ million customers, the capacity utilization of the JIO network is less than 20%,” Ambani added.

Talking about the Reliance Jio’s growth, Mukesh Ambani said, “we have achieved this unprecedented network growth while maintaining our number one position as the fastest network in India as attested by TRAI speed test data for each and every month of the past year.”

Along with Ambani scions Isha and Akash Ambani, Shloka Mehta, the to-be daughter-in-law of Mukesh Ambani was also present at the AGM.

Karnataka govt waives Rs 34,000 cr farm loans

Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Thursday waived farm loans of Rs 34,000 crore, providing relief to the farmers of the state.

The budget proposed to waive farm loans totalling Rs 34,000 crore, with Rs 2 lakh per farmer family.

According to the budget for fiscal year 2018-19, “Waiver of all defaulted crop loans of the farmers made upto 31-12-2017 in the first stage. Apart from this, to help the farmers who repaid the loan within time, as an encouragement to the non-defaulting farmers, it is decided to credit the repaid loan amount or Rs.25,000 whichever is less to each of the farmer’s account.”

“To limit the loan waiver amount to Rs. 2 lakh per family. Due to this crop loan waiver scheme, farmers will get the benefit of Rs.34,000 crore. The families of Government officials and officials of the co-operative sector, farmers who have paid income tax for the past 3 years and other ineligible farm loan recipients will be outside the purview of this loan waiver scheme.”

“To facilitate the farmers to avail new loans, action will be taken by the Government to issue clearance certificate by waiving the arrears from the defaulting account. For this purpose, Rs.6500 crore is earmarked in 2018-19 budget. Apart from this, the previous Government has waived loan of Rs.8,165 crore made by farmers in co-operative banks and out of this, Rs.4,165 crore had been released during the previous year. Allocation has also been given to pay the remaining Rs.4,000 crore in this budget.”

The budget, however, proposes to tax people by:

  • Increasing petrol price by Rs 1.14 per litre and diesel Rs 1.12 per litre.
  • increase in excise duty on Indian made foreign liquor by 4 per cent
  • Power tariff will also be increased by 20 paise per unit.

Kumaraswamy, who holds the finance portfolio of the state told the legislators that the overall size of the state budget would be Rs 2,13,734 crore.

Budget allocation for other important sectors are:

  • Education- Rs 26,581 crore
  • Water resources- Rs 18,142 crore
  • Urban development- Rs 17,727 crore
  • Energy- Rs 14,499 crore
  • Social welfare- Rs 14,123 crore
  • Public Works Department (PWD)- 10,200 crore

WhatsApp offers $50,000 for help curb spread of fake news

In wake of government’s recent move asking WhatsApp to take immediate steps to stop spreading of fake news that led to incidents of lynching in more than five states in last six weeks, WhatsApp in its response is taking initiatives and one such initiative is offering grants to social scientists to help it curb the spread of “irresponsible” messages through its platform.

WhatsApp is offering up to $50,000 for proposals that “foster insights into the impact of technology on contemporary society in this problem space,” including election-related content, digital literacy and “detection of problematic behavior within encrypted systems.”

Nikhil Pahwa, a technology expert warned in a blog post on his site, MediaNama, that India’s “massive” fake news problem is “going to get worse.”

“Like the Government of India, we’re horrified by these terrible acts of violence and wanted to respond quickly to the very important issues you have raised. We believe this is a challenge that requires government, civil society and technology companies to work together,” the WhatsApp said in its response to Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

WhatsApp’s response to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in a letter:

Taking steps to “prevent spam, which includes some of the misinformation that can create mistrust and potentially violence,” noted in letter.

“Over 25 per cent of its user base in India is not part of Groups – this also means a third of WhatsApp users here are exposed to groups in some way.”

 “The way people use the app is by nature still very private.”

Nine out ten messages are still sent from just one person to another, which means that nearly 90 per cent of messages shared on the platform are not on groups. These figures are shared for global usage not specifically to India.

Announced changes that will mark all forwarded messages as ‘Forwarded’ and give Group admins the option to limit the ability to send messages to just other admins, rather than all participants.

More messages are sent on a one-on-one basis, rather than everything being shared to groups, WhatsApp letter revealed.

“We use machine learning to identify accounts sending a high volume of messages (faster than any human could) and we are constantly working to improve our ability to stop unwanted automated messages.”

Shashi Tharoor gets anticipatory bail in Sunanda Pushkar death case

A Delhi court on Thursday granted anticipatory bail to Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on a personal bond of ₹1 lakh with one surety in the Sunanda Pushkar death case.

Special Judge Arvind Kumar granted bail to Shashi Tharoor and has asked him not to leave the country without its permission.

Shashi Tharoor had moved the court on July 3 seeking anticipatory bail after he was named as an accused in the case and summoned by the police on July 7.

On July 4, the Judge reserved the order after hearing arguments by both sides.

Sunanda Pushkar, 51, was found dead at a five-star hotel in Delhi on January 17, 2014, after she accused her husband on social media of having an affair with a Pakistani journalist.

India to hold maritime dialogue with China, Russia on Indo-Pacific policy 

In a significant move, India will hold a maritime dialogue with China and Russia soon to explain its new Indo-Pacific policy. “We will have maritime dialogues with China and Russia in the coming months. Our effort is to work out in some more detail and to see how we can get coherence in the Indo-Pacific community about the Indo-Pacific as a concept”, said sources.

According to reports, the maritime dialogue is being initiated as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for a broader vision for the Indo-Pacific at the Shangri La dialogue in Singapore last month.

“India does not see the Indo-Pacific region as a strategy or as a club of limited members. Nor as a grouping that seeks to dominate. And by no means do we consider it as directed against any country,” Prime Minister Modi said.

“It is normal to have partnerships on the basis of shared values and interests. India, too, has many in the region and beyond. We will work with them, individually or in formats of three or more, for a stable and peaceful region. But our friendships are not alliances of containment,” Modi added.

The move is significant as India is part of the powerful “Quadrilateral” (India, Australia, Japan and US) coalition which was given shape in November 2017 in order to free the critical sea routes in the Indo-Pacific from Chinese influence.

Delhi CM Kejriwal hits out at PM Modi government post SC verdict

After the announcement of the verdict by the Supreme Court on July 4, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi government and said, “If Modi govt. had not withdrawn the powers of elected govt. through illegal orders, precious three years would have been saved.”

The Supreme Court verdict has ended the tussle between the Lieutenant Governor (LG) Anil Baijal and the Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government.

“People of Delhi are grateful to judiciary. Today’s order reinforces people’s faith in judiciary,” Kejriwal added.

“Cabinet meeting held. Directed all functionaries of Delhi government to function according to the order of Hon’ble Supreme Court. Also directed to expedite proposals of doorstep delivery of rations and CCTV now,” Kejriwal tweeted.

While this was so, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said, “The verdict had “decided” that Delhi is a Union Territory and the AAP should stop raising their “political demand” for full statehood to the city.”

Updates:

·         SC in the verdict demarcates the powers and responsibility of both the LG and an elected government in Delhi. “Real power must lie with the elected government in a democracy. The state should enjoy freedom, unsolicited interference,” said Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.

·         Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia held a press conference post verdict, and he declared that transfer of bureaucrats will now happen with the Chief Minister’s approval. Transfers and appointments of officials was one of the first points of tussle between AAP and the LG.

·         “IAS officers required the Lieutenant Governor’s permission for posting. I have ordered that this will change. IAS officers, central services transfers will all happen based on Chief Minister’s approval,” deputy CM added after pronouncement of verdict.

·         “The chief minister will meet P. Chidambaram in the evening to thank him. He was one of the lawyers who represented Delhi government in the Supreme Court,” an official said.

·         While hailing the SC judgment Puducherry Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy said, “I welcome the verdict, and it is totally applicable to the government of Puducherry, which is also a Union Territory. Whoever functions contrary to the judgment now delivered by the apex court would face serious action. I myself would file contempt petition against those failing to act in consonance with the Supreme Court verdict.”

·         Sisodia added that service matters are now with the Delhi government. From now onwards there is also no need to send files to the LG, which led to an interference or delay before.

Government announces major relief for farmers as Cabinet approves increase in MSP for Major Crops

Giving a major boost to the income of farmers, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday approved the increase in the Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) for all kharif crops for 2018-19 Season. 

Minimum support price is a form of market intervention by the government to insure farmers against any sudden fall in agricultural produce prices. The MSP is a guaranteed price for their produce from the State.

The Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) for all kharif crops of 2018-19 season have been increased as follows:

Commodity

 

Variety

 

MSP for 2017-18 Season

 

MSP approved for 2018-19 Season

 

Paddy

 

Common

 

1550

 

1750

 

 
Grade A

Grade A

 

1590

 

1770

 

 
Jowar

 

Hybrid

 

1700

 

2430

 

 
Maldandi

Maldandi

 

1725

 

2450

 

 
Bajra

 

 

1425

 

1950

 

 
Ragi

 

 

1900

 

2897

 

 
Maize

 

 

1425

 

1700

 

 
Arhar(Tur)

 

 

5450

 

5675

 

 
Moong

 

 

5575

 

6975

 

 
Urad

 

 

5400

 

5600

 

 
Groundnut

 

 

4450

 

4890

 

 
Sunflower Seed

 

 

4100

 

5388

 

 
Soyabean

 

 

3050

 

3399

 

 
Sesamum

 

 

5300

 

6249

 

 
Nigerseed

 

 

4050

 

5877

 

 
Cotton

 

Medium Staple

 

4020

 

5150

 

 
Long Staple

 

4320

 

5450

 

 

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