Nickel prices rose 0.35 per cent to Rs 826.30 per kg in futures trade on Wednesday as speculators widened bets, driven by pick-up in demand in the domestic spot market. Besides, a firm trend overseas supported the upside.
At the Multi Commodity Exchange, nickel for delivery in the January was trading higher by Rs 2.90, or 0.35 per cent, to Rs 826.30 per kg in business turnover of 1,285 lots.
Analysts attributed rise in nickel futures to raising of positions by traders due to pick up in demand from alloy makers in the spot market.
Serena Williams was sensationally bundled out of the Australian Open on Wednesday after an epic three-set fight with Czech seventh seed Karolina Pliskova for a semi-final spot. Pliskova won 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 to set up a final four clash with Japanese fourth seed Naomi Osaka, ending the American great’s dream of claiming a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam title at Melbourne Park this year. The 26-year-old survived four match points in a rollercoaster third set that Williams led 5-1 before collapsing to defeat in two hours 10 minutes.
My mind was in the locker room. I wasn’t playing very well in the third set but I thought let’s try, this game at 5-2. She got a little bit shaky in the end so I took my chances and I won. Williams, 37, had blazed through the early stages of the tournament, seeing off world number one Simona Halep in the fourth round. I was almost in the locker room, now I’m standing here as the winner. It’s a great feeling, an exhausted Pliskova said.
But against Pliskova she lacked the intensity she had previously displayed and was soon trailing for the first time during her campaign after a slew of uncharacteristic errors. Pliskova, who entered this year’s tournament on a high after winning the Brisbane International warm-up, came out firing and out served Williams to take the first set. Williams rebounded in the second set before imploding in the third when she had the finish line in sight.
Former world number one Pliskova has made the quarter-finals in her last two appearances at Melbourne Park and made the final at the US Open in 2016. She has been a regular in the second week of Grand Slams in recent years, reaching the quarters or better six times since late 2016, but is still searching for a breakthrough win.
The Czech said that the win over Williams was a huge confidence booster before facing US Open champion Osaka. She’s dangerous but nobody is more dangerous than Serena, she said.
On the basis of the information at its disposal, the IWF has decided that the provisional suspension of the athlete (Khumukcham Sanjita) shall be lifted as of today (22 January 2019), IWF’s legal counsel Eva Nyirfa said in an e-mail sent to the national federation and Sanjita. The IWF Hearing Panel will render its decision on the athlete’s case in due course. The International Weightlifting Federation has revoked the provisional suspension on weightlifter K Sanjita Chanu for a failed dope test, a major reprieve for the two-time Commonwealth Games gold-medallist who has claimed innocence. In a case that has dragged on for almost a year and has been marred by an “administrative” goof-up in Sanjita’s sample number, the IWF informed that a final decision on the matter is expected in the coming days.
The 25-year-old Sanjita, who had won a gold in the women’s 53kg category at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, had tested positive for anabolic steroid testosterone. Her urine sample was taken prior to the World Championships in United States in November 2017, and she was put under provisional suspension from May 15 last year. However, a final decision of the IWF panel is yet to come but Sanjita said that her assertion of innocence has been vindicated.
I have got a mail from the international federation and our national federation has also called me up this morning informing about the lifting of the (provisional) suspension. I am relieved and happy. I am innocent and I have never taken any banned substance in my career. I am vindicated now. At the same time, I experienced mental trauma during these past 8-9 months (since May 15 last year) due to the mistake of the international federation. I hope nothing like this happen to any athlete in future. An athlete’s reputation is very precious; she told media from her native place in Manipur. She further added that the Indian Weightlifting Federation had asked her to join the national camp immediately if she wants. The federation official told me today to write if I want to join national camp. I am doing that. I missed the Asian Games and World Championships in 2018. I want to compete in the World Championships this year and qualify for 2020 Olympics. For any athlete, Olympics is the ultimate.
The international body informed about her doping offence only in May last year. That meant the Manipuri weightlifter participated in the Gold Coast CWG, where she finished top of the podium. She had also won gold in the 48kg in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. However, the IWF had, in July last year, admitted to committing a mistake in giving the exact sample number of Sanjita in its report. The world body had mentioned two different urine sample numbers in its communication of her dope flunk.
In a communication to Sanjita, a rare instance while a doping procedure is ongoing, the IWF hearing panel had said that the case appears to be complicated. Sanjita’s doping issue even reached the Prime Minister’s Office which directed the Sports Ministry to look into the matter.
The urine sample of Sanjita was taken out-of-competition on November 17, 2017 and the laboratory results of the tests conducted in the United States was handed to the international body on December 20. The communication of her failed dope test was given to Sanjita only on May 15 last year and her ‘B’ sample returned positive on September 11. Her representatives then appeared before a IWF hearing panel on October 19 in Budapest, Hungary. She presented her submissions on October 19 itself and on November 1.
It was a cold on Wednesday morning in the national capital with rains in the past 24 hours bringing down the minimum temperature to 8 degrees Celsius, a MeT department official said.
The city received 27.8 mm rains till 8.30 AM. The minimum temperature was 12.5 degrees Celsius on Tuesday. Relative humidity was 100 percent this morning, he said.
Partly cloudy skies with possibility of very light rains and thundershowers are forecast for later part of the day. Maximum temperature is likely to be around 19 degrees Celsius. However, the maximum temperature was 19.4 degrees Celsius on Tuesday.
Twenty-one north bound trains including Mahabodhi Express, Lichchvi Express, Brahmputra Mail, Rewa Express, Shiv Ganga Express and Vikramshila Express were running late due to bad weather conditions, Northern Railways said.
India bowled with clinical precision to bundle out New Zealand for a paltry 157 in the first One-day International here on Wednesday. Wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav was the most successful bowler for India, returning figures of 4/39 in 10 overs, while seamer Mohammed Shami finished with an excellent 3/19 in six overs. There were also two wickets for leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal.
Opting to bat, the New Zealanders were off to an inauspicious start, losing both openers Martin Guptill and Colin Munro within the first five overs with just 18 runs on the board. Captain Kane Williamson top-scored for the hosts with 64 off 81 balls at the McLean Park.
Shami was the successful bowler on both the occasions as he went through Munro with an indipper from round the wicket, moments after he forced Guptill to play one, which moved in on landing, onto his stumps. By sending back Guptill in his 56th match, the 28-year-old Shami became the fastest Indian to reach 100 wickets in ODIs. Entering the series after a hugely successful 2018, Ross Taylor looked good in his 41-ball 24, but he was brilliantly caught and bowled by Chahal, who lured the batsman to dance down the pitch a tad too early with his change of pace.
Till Taylor was there alongside Williamson, things looked good for New Zealand, as the duo played a few delightful shots, especially the skipper whose trademark back foot punch through the covers stood out.
Tom Latham was dismissed in similar fashion, with leg-spinner Chahal being the bowler. Henry Nicholls and Mitchell Santner came, swung their willows for a six and a couple of boundaries, got out to Jadhav and Shami respectively as New Zealand stuttered at 133 for six in the 30th over. By that time, Williamson too have had enough, and got out while trying to hoick Yadav over long-on.
The Supreme Court has granted bail to four convicts in the Naroda Patiya massacre case in Gujarat in which 97 people were killed by a mob during the 2002 riots in the state. A bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar on Tuesday granted bail to the four convicts named Umeshbhai Surabhai Bharwad, Rajkumar, Padmendrasinh Jaswantsinh Rajput and Harshad alias Mungda Jila Govind Chhara Parmar.
The Gujarat High Court had on April 20 last year upheld the conviction of 12 out of the 29 accused who were pronounced guilty on various charges by the trial court and had acquitted 17 others, including former BJP minister Maya Kodnani.
The rioting had taken place on February 28, 2002, in the Naroda Patiaya area of Ahmedabad where a mob had killed 97 people, most of them from a minority community. The massacre had taken place a day after the torching of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra, which had triggered state-wide riots.
Ahead of the elections, there is a riff going on EVMs with all political parties playing a blame game and giving different statements every now and then. It seems that no political parties are on the same page leading to create confusion among voters. A US-based man, Syed Shuja held a press conference via video conference in London to demonstrate how Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) designed for Indian elections can be hacked. His attempt, like many others, failed as he could not prove anything. Here the doubts that are raised in the minds of many are, did BJP tamper with the EVMs to win 2014 Lok Sabha elections? How political parties and Election Commission are looking forward to bring a solution out before the 2019 elections? And most importantly, was the senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde murdered by his own men as he was aware of the EVM hacking?
In a conversation with AV, AAP National spokesperson Preeti Menon revealed about the tampering of EVMs. She said that it’s a proven worldwide fact that EVMs can be hacked. Many western countries have stopped using EVMs and are have gone back to Ballot papers or Digi-cards. Once you are aware that this equipment could be manipulated, you can’t mock our Constitution and democracy.
Menon further stated, “Our party had actually demonstrated an EVM machine in the assembly in which we fitted a manipulated chip because of which every vote was going to Lotus. It’s a threat to democracy. So our minimum demand is, along with every EVM, voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) or verifiable paper record (VPR) should be provided. As this method provides proper feedback to voters to ensure faultless mechanism.”
The nation being one of the largest democracy, it is believed by the AAP leader Menon that this issue is very important for the voters because the right to vote is the basic right in a democracy. Every citizen can’t approach the Supreme Court or Parliament or assembly to make laws and to ensure their future. The electoral process helps him to reach his voice. So every citizen should open his or her eyes and should demand for an EVM tally.
NCP IT Cell National President Bindu Bhosle expressed, “Many foreign countries have banned EVMs. It’s proven that these machines can be tampered. The EVM tampering issue will definitely affect the voting percentage. Presently, hardly 50 per cent voters go out for voting .This negative publicity about EVM will hamper their trust in the electoral process. However, the mystery about Gopinath Munde’s death should be probed definitely, if it has broken the Constitutional frame.”
All the political parties ahead of the 209 Lok Sabha elections are being involved in the blame game. While on one hand, the BJP on Monday rubbished EVM tampering claims made in London as ‘garbage’, and termed it Congress’ ‘next big lie’ after Rafale. It said that Congress is making hacking a ‘horror show’ of their ‘defeat in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley taking to Twitter, said that ‘insanity’ in the Congress party is becoming ‘contagious’ and called the allegations of EVM tampering ‘garbage’. On the other hand, amid EVM hacking row, Mayawati Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Tuesday reiterated her demand that the ballot should be used in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Samajwadi Party MP Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel commented, “All political parties are blaming each other for tampering of EVMs and I believe that there cannot be a fair vote count through EVM. So, me and the party both are totally against the voting carried through EVM as I feel that it is not an appropriate way. Hence, we are always in favour of holding elections through ballot rather than EVMs.”
While BJP MLA Parag Alavani said, “Opposition has no more issues left to criticise our good governance. It’s a big blunder to question the democratic process of our nation on foreign land. Opposite parties are trying to take political advantage of Munde’s death. They are trying to hide their failure by digging such issues. Congress is trying to spread a delusion among the people that we have no mandate .It’s pathetic that the opposition is trying to mislead people on EVM issue and also on Munde’s death.”
The hacker who goes by the name Syed Shuja claimed that he was involved in designing the EVMs for India. He also tried to connect it with slain journalist Gauri Lankesh saying that she was killed because she also found out about the BJP’s master plan of EVM tampering and was thus killed. Was BJP leader Gopinath Munde killed by his own party or was it actually an accident?
CPI(M) MP Badaruddoza Khan asserted, “If Gopinath Munde’s death is linked to EVM then it is a big threat to our democracy and nation. Majority of the population believes that voting should be conducted through ballot papers as it is a trusted source for a long time. AAP had challenged Election Commission on the hacking of EVMs but when EC had accepted the challenge to show them, they backed out. Although, it has not been proved yet whether EVMs could be hacked or not, if the truth is not brought out it will create an impact on the voters’ count leading people into a perplexed situation regarding EVM. Hence, there should be a strict investigation behind Munde’s death and hacking of EVMs.”
When Gopinath Munde went first time to Delhi after winning Lok Sabha elections in 2014, he was given a union cabinet ministership. All of a sudden on June 3, 2014, while he was going to the airport, news hit that a Tata Indica hit his Maruti SX4 and caused his accidental death. As a cabinet minister, he should have more staff except for driver Virendra Kumar and secretary Surendra Nair. Why no security guard was accompanying him? Why his PSO wasn’t accompanying him?
According to the protocol, why there was no pilot car along with his vehicle? While he was died in this mishap, why the other persons accompanying him were not even slightly injured? The case was decided to transfer to CBI but his driver and secretary were not involved in the inquiry.
Under what circumstances daughter Pankaja Munde deleted her post on social media suspecting a foul play about her father’s death? What action was taken against the security personnel who were supposed to accompany him?
The minimum damage to the accidental vehicle, certainly raises suspicion that one victim on back seat leads to dead whereas other two escaped injuries so much so that they took him to the hospital and gave statements. If an all-party committee would probe this matter, shocking facts can be revealed.
In a recent update on January 22, nephew of late BJP leader Gopinath Munde has sought a probe by either the Supreme Court or the Research and Analysis Wing into his death in a road accident in 2014.
Four years back, when I received the news of Gopinath Munde’s death, I was really not sure about the reasons given for his death. I saw his car, which was barely dented. Meanwhile, BJP Minister Harsh Vardhan gave a statement stating that Munde died due to cervical fractures as he lost 1-2 litres of blood. But there were no bloodstains or any such indications around him. There was no major external injury. He met with a road accident in the early morning of June 3, 2014, while on his way to Delhi Airport. He was going for his first official meeting after taking the post. The accident took place between Safdarjung Road and Prithviraj Road in New Delhi, where his car was hit by an overspeeding cab. He was immediately rushed to AIIMS hospital but later went into cardiac arrest. He was administered CPR but could not be resuscitated and was declared dead at 7.20 am, this is how the entire saga goes.
Later on, the Central Bureau of India took over the case and filed a charge sheet against the driver. The driver was granted bail initially, but later, a city court decided to not discharge the driver and held that there was “prima facie” evidence to try him for the offences, including rash driving and culpable homicide not amounting to murder. With time, the entire incidence went into cold storage, but Indian politics is cruel and here everything is possible. After four years of the death, now when one United States-based “cyber expert at a press conference in London made a sensational claim that Munde was murdered. The “cyber expert”, Syed Shuja alleged that the 2014 General Elections had been rigged. He had also asserted that Gopinath Munde was murdered because he knew about the tampering of the Electronic Voting Machines. According to him, Munde was eliminated to maintain this secret.
In 2014 elections, BJP got a huge mandate, people of Maharashtra were speculating that Munde would be the CM but Munde and Gadkari were given central cabinet ministry. Eknathrao Khadse, a senior leader of BJP, who had been in the BJP since the foundation of the party, then called the Janta Party, and has won six consecutive elections, representing the Muktainagar constituency of Jalgaon district until June 2016. He and Devendra Fadanvis were CM contenders. CM Devendra Fadnavis came into the limelight with the so-called expose of irrigation scam against NCP leaders. AAP leader Anjali Damania exposed the same scam. In a way Damania, the friend of Fadnavis helped him to earn some chances to be the CM contender. But when Fadanvis realised, Khadse was in consideration for the Maharashtra chief minister’s post, he and his friend Anjali Damania planned a strategy against Khadse till he resigns from BJP on the allegations of impropriety in a land deal of Pune. On the other hand, Shah and Modi had Fadnavis as their second choice. Gopinath Munde and Gadkari were two prominent leaders in BJP from Maharashtra after the death of Pramod Mahajan. Both Gadkari and Munde were given berths in the Union Ministry.
In Maharashtra BJP there were two camps – the Munde Camp and the other Gadkari Camp. Modi and Amit Shah had decided about Fadnavis being the CM after the Lok Sabha elections. Fadnavis has a clean image, it was decided way back that Devendra Fadnavis was going to be the Chief Minister. Munde was the biggest hurdle in the long-term strategies of Modi-Shah of controlling Maharashtra politics. Modi and Shah knew that in Lok Sabha they don’t need Munde. Look at the irony; the most important person who could have cried foul about Munde’s unnatural death would be Pankaja Munde, his eldest daughter. But she would have got nothing by doing so. Hence, she kept quiet by grabbing cabinet ministry and later was kept under control by using chikki scam. If you look at the Maharashtra politics and the opinion of local people about the political parties, they believe that parties do deal with each other and irrespective of whatever they may claim, they are all in it together when it comes to making money at public expense. Munde to that extent showed BJP in a different light since, he had friendly relations with people, he was not seen as someone colluding with opposition leaders and making money at public expense. This, when combined with his image of a mass leader who gives respect to his constituents and workers.
Munde was an architect of the social engineering formula by cobbling up the opposition ‘Mahayuti’ alliance that got 42 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. He was the only person who could stop Sharad Pawar from conquering Maharashtra and also control Shah-Modi politics. His timely depart was a blessing in disguise for BJP and its CM candidates.
On the other hand, after Eknath Khadse’s resignation the assumed expose by Anjali Damania went in cold storage. Now there is no noise about it. For several months, Damania had been making allegations against Khadse; to which Khadse served defamation notice and also initiated criminal proceedings against her. Damania, an RTI activist and former AAP leader, but most of the time the attacks she chooses to favour Devendra Fadnavis. Some even allege that Fadnavis, Damania and Kejriwal have a bond and they strategically help each other for their personal gains.
Well! Let it be an accidence, attack or accusations, BJP’s senior and sensible leaders were thrown out of the league, the new age politicians can not guarantee any future to the party in the state of Maharashtra. In such a scenario, many interrogations remain silent. We don’t know who killed Munde, we don’t know why the expose saga stopped after the resignation of Khadse, we don’t know why Damania calls for selective attacks that go in favour of CM Fadanvis, we don’t know what is in the fate of BJP in Maharashtra in coming time!
(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)
People harbour many misconceptions about Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray, senior party leader Sanjay Raut, who has penned the biopic “Thackeray”, said on Tuesday.
The divide between Maharashtra locals and people from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar is a matter of perceived “misinformation”, he said.
“People are misinformed about Balasaheb’s life and Shiv Sena’s journey. The issue on people from Bihar and UP was neither raised nor did it come up.
“You ask all these questions here, but in reality in all his 50 years of politics people from Bihar and UP were the ones who were most emotionally attached to him,” the “Thackeray” writer-producer told reporters at a press conference ahead of the release of the film this week.
Known for his provocative statements, Thackeray targeted south Indians, accusing them of snatching jobs from local Marathi youths, in the late 1960s. He also dominated the headlines for his anti-Muslim comments.
In an apparent reference to various state governments encouraging recruitment of local people, Raut said the bone of contention then and now is jobs.
“In 1969, a movement did start for the ‘bhoomiputras’ (sons of the soil) there (in Maharashtra) and that is something which is gathering pace in every other state today…,” he said citing Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal as examples.
“Unemployment was an issue then and a law that the locals should have the right to employment first was passed. It was limited to this.”
Asked if the Nawazuddin Siddiqui-fronted film will change Thackeray and the party’s image with north Indians, Raut reiterated that people have limited knowledge.
The Maharashtra cabinet on Tuesday approved the implementation of the Centre’s Nirbhaya scheme, which seeks to curb crimes against women, for Mumbai.
The Nirbhaya Fund was started in 2013 by the Congress led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to implement initiatives aimed at enhancing safety and security of women across India.
It is a non-lapsable fund and the corpus stands at Rs 3,600 crore up to 2018-19.
As per the scheme approved by the state cabinet Tuesday, the Centre will provide Rs 152.20 crore and the Maharashtra government will chip in with Rs 100.80 crore for the scheme, Amitabh Gupta, Principal Secretary, state Home department told agencies.
Gupta said the department would implement the scheme in this financial year itself since funds had been approved on Tuesday.
“The Centre will provide financial help for the first three years and later all mechanisms like installation of CCTVs at 500 public places will be maintained by the state,” he said.
“We will come up with a panic button in a mobile-based application that can be downloaded by women for security,” he said, adding that “track me” solution applications would also be developed.
Gupta further said 70 per cent funds would be spent on technology, while the remaining would be for creating awareness.
According to the state cabinet decision, CCTV cameras would be placed at more than 500 public places.
Tracking of abusers on social media, creation of mobile data terminals, enhancing skills of officials by providing training etc would be done through the scheme.
On the basis of the information at its disposal, the IWF has decided that the provisional suspension of the athlete (Khumukcham Sanjita) shall be lifted as of today (22 January 2019), IWF’s legal counsel Eva Nyirfa said in an e-mail sent to the national federation and Sanjita. The IWF Hearing Panel will render its decision on the athlete’s case in due course. The International Weightlifting Federation has revoked the provisional suspension on weightlifter K Sanjita Chanu for a failed dope test, a major reprieve for the two-time Commonwealth Games gold-medallist who has claimed innocence. In a case that has dragged on for almost a year and has been marred by an “administrative” goof-up in Sanjita’s sample number, the IWF informed that a final decision on the matter is expected in the coming days.
The Supreme Court has granted bail to four convicts in the Naroda Patiya massacre case in Gujarat in which 97 people were killed by a mob during the 2002 riots in the state. A bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar on Tuesday granted bail to the four convicts named Umeshbhai Surabhai Bharwad, Rajkumar, Padmendrasinh Jaswantsinh Rajput and Harshad alias Mungda Jila Govind Chhara Parmar.
Ahead of the elections, there is a riff going on EVMs with all political parties playing a blame game and giving different statements every now and then. It seems that no political parties are on the same page leading to create confusion among voters. A US-based man, Syed Shuja held a press conference via video conference in London to demonstrate how Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) designed for Indian elections can be hacked. His attempt, like many others, failed as he could not prove anything. Here the doubts that are raised in the minds of many are, did BJP tamper with the EVMs to win 2014 Lok Sabha elections? How political parties and Election Commission are looking forward to bring a solution out before the 2019 elections? And most importantly, was the senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde murdered by his own men as he was aware of the EVM hacking?
People harbour many misconceptions about Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray, senior party leader Sanjay Raut, who has penned the biopic “Thackeray”, said on Tuesday.
The Maharashtra cabinet on Tuesday approved the implementation of the Centre’s Nirbhaya scheme, which seeks to curb crimes against women, for Mumbai.