Zayn Malik and Gigi Hadid are again garnering headlines as fans have noticed their absence from each other’s social media posts which may hint at their breakup.
The singer and model did not post any photos of with Malik over the holidays as they have done in the past years. Hadid instead shared a throwback picture on Tuesday of her family with Santa, wishing her fans a Merry Christmas, while Malik did not post anything on his social media over the holidays.
Her last Instagram post with the ‘Pillow talk’ singer was on October 21. “Flyin home to my happy place,” she had captioned a shot of herself cozying up to her beau, along with a heart emoji.
Meanwhile, the 25-year-old singer does not have any photos of Hadid on his Instagram account and he is not following her though she still follows him on the photo-sharing application.
If there was even a smidgen of doubt left, Hadid may have confirmed it on December 14 when she retweeted a post from Kehlani that read, “I do not owe you myself. I do not owe you any information about me beyond what i choose for you to know. I do not owe you strength when i am weak. I do not owe you answers just because you ask.”
A few days ago, Malik released a new song titled ‘There You Are’. The song is about relying on people and fans feel that it is about his lady love and their on and off relationship.
Malik’s cousin Jawaad Saeed posted a selfie with Malik on Instagram on Thursday, with a caption that read, “Through best and worst, take a bullet for you. Keep happy my bro,” which adds more fuel to their split rumours.
The duo was first linked in the year 2015. Hadid and Malik had announced the end of their two-year relationship in March. People close to the couple said that both of them were at a much better place post the split.
Actor Dwayne Johnson is loving and cherishing hugs with his daughters Jasmine and Tiana in his latest Instagram post.
The 46-year-old actor took to his account on the photo-sharing application and revealed that he’s enjoying being able to cherish some special moments with his two youngest children.
He posted an adorable picture featuring him with his two little ones along with a caption that read, “Daddy’s arms. I ain’t gonna be able to hold ’em like this forever, so you better believe I snatch these cookies and love ’em up every moment I can. Plus, I know there’s gonna come a day where in daddy’s arms is the last place they want to be. Baby Tiana Gia is already there with the “help me” look on her face. Can’t guarantee I’ll love and protect all my daughters for the rest of their lives, but I can guarantee I will for the rest of mine. #xmas #daddysarms #helpme.”
Missing from the cute family snap was his eldest daughter Simone. Lately, Johnson has been sharing some cute father-daughter moments with his fans on his social media.
When he’s not working out in the gym or filming any new movie, the actor prefers spending quality time with his young kids, reported People.
However, Johnson isn’t the only one who loves to snuggle with the little girls!
Lauren Hashian, the mother of the two, previously raved about being in “heaven” with her “pile of munchkins.”
The 33-year-old singer, who has been dating Johnson since 2007, shared a sweet photo of herself cuddling up with their daughters.
Earlier in April, Johnson joked about hoping to raise a son someday. “I can’t make boys, but I keep trying to, that’s the fun part,” Johnson said on ‘The Graham Norton Show’.
The US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) has dubbed the new e-commerce rules as “regressive” and said that the changes would harm consumers, create unpredictability and have a negative impact on the growth of online retail in India.
The Forum asserted that “it is not the government’s business to micromanage businesses” and alleged that the amendments announced came out without any consultation and are akin to changing rules in the middle of the game.
Earlier this week, the government appeared to have yielded to demands of domestic traders and put in place new norms, which would end discounts and cashback offers that online platforms with foreign investment were offering. The new rules are set to come into effect from February 2019.
“The amendment to the FDI in e-commerce policy is regressive. It harms the consumer, who is ultimately the king in any retail environment. It is not the government’s business to micromanage businesses. This amendment bars Indian manufacturers and sellers from effectively competing in the global online marketplace,” USISPF President and Chief Executive Officer (FPO) Mukesh Aghi said in a statement.
He further stated that the amendment “highlights the lack of transparency in policy making and creates unpredictability”.
With about a month to comply, American retailer Walmart-backed Flipkart and US-based Amazon — the two largest players in the Indian e-commerce sector — would be hit the hardest.
Smaller traders have, in the past, cried foul alleging that preferential treatment was given to certain sellers that are affiliates of these larger online marketplaces. This, they said, created an unfair marketplace.
The new rules, announced on December 26, bar online platforms from selling products supplied by affiliated companies, and from offering customers special discounts. For retailers such as Walmart, the new rules may hinder selling products under their own private brands.
The new rules clamp down on exclusive deals; this could cast a cloud on partnerships seen in the past including those with electronic and smartphone brands like ASUS, OnePlus, BPL and others.
However, smaller players such as ShopClues and Snapdeal have welcomed the move, saying the development will “close the back door” that has been “blatantly exploited” by larger companies and provide a
Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu has sought Rs 179.16 crore from the finance ministry to double the incentives for onion exporters amid significant fall in prices of the vegetable.
In a communication to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Prabhu said the ministry is keen to increase export incentives under MEIS from 5 per cent to 10 per cent.
Under Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS), the government provides duty benefits depending on product and country.
The reward for exports of fresh onion under this scheme is 5 per cent till January 12 next year.
“The higher reward rates are expected to bolster the exports and would be necessary to support the domestic prices.
“In view of the urgency of the situation, the finance ministry is requested to allocate additional funds of Rs 179.16 crore, so that MEIS reward at 10 per cent can be provided for the export of fresh onion up to June 30 next year,” Prabhu said.
The Minister’s demand assumes significance as Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has stated that prices of the commodity has fallen to as much as Rs 200-350 per quintal in markets, creating tremendous discomfort among farmers.
Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre too has demanded hike in the reward rates.
India’s exports of fresh and chilled onion stood at $256 million during April-October 2018-19. It was $511.5 million in 2017-18.
Good monsoon in states like Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh has led to huge production of onion, resulting in less demand from south and north region.
Due to this, onion from Maharashtra has not been transported to other states, which caused a glut and sharp decline in prices.
Names of more than 1 lakh companies have been struck off the official records in the current fiscal for not carrying business activities for a long time, the government said on December 28.
As part of clamping down on illicit fund flows, the Corporate Affairs Ministry has been taking action against entities that are suspected to be shell companies.
Under the Companies Act, 2013, a company can be deregistered if it has not been carrying out any business for two continuous years and has also not applied for obtaining dormant status.
Minister of State for Corporate Affairs P P Chaudhary informed the Lok Sabha that 2.26 lakh companies were struck off from the Register of Companies as on December 31, 2017.
“During financial year 2018-19, a total of 2,25,910 companies have been identified for action under Section 248 of the Act and after following due process of law, names of 1,00,150 companies have been struck off from the Register of Companies. This is a continuous process,” he said in a written reply.
Section 248 pertains to removal of name of a company that has not been carrying out business activities for a long time.
In a separate written reply, the minister said that the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) does not maintain data related to non-performing assets.
“However, as per the information given by Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI), orders of resolution against 65 corporate debtors have been issued by the NCLT as on October 31, 2018 with a realisable amount of Rs 60,636 crore by the creditors,” he noted.
In a bid to address farmers’ distress ahead of 2019 general elections, the government is considering waiving interest on crop loans for farmers who pay on time, costing an additional Rs 15,000 crore to the exchequer, according to sources.
There is also a proposal to completely waive premium for taking insurance policy for food crops. The premium on horticultural crops could also be reduced, they said.
To provide immediate relief, one of the proposals being studied is to waive 4 per cent interest rate on farmers repaying farm loan promptly within the due date.
At present, farmers get for short-term farm loan of up to Rs 3 lakh at 7 percent interest rate. An additional incentive of 3 percent is being given to farmers for prompt repayment.
The government has set a target to provide Rs 11 lakh crore credit to farmers in the current fiscal. It extended Rs 11.69 lakh crore credit to farmers last fiscal, surpassing the target of Rs 10 lakh crore.
The Centre bears a cost of around Rs 15,000 crore annually for the interest subsidy of 2 per cent in normal cases and 5 per cent in case of prompt repayment of farm loans.
Sources said that the interest burden could double to Rs 30,000 crore if the interest is completely waived for prompt repayment of farm loans.
According to sources, farmers are paying currently about Rs 5,000 crore as insurance premium to cover their kharif and rabi crops. The farmers’ burden will reduce if the premium is further subsidised.
Political experts said that farmers distress will be a major electoral issue in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls after a setback in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan assembly elections.
It refers to the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on December 28, 2018, whole-heartedly appreciating the supportive attitude of Union Minister for Highways and Water Resources, Nitin Gadkari, in a meeting called for cleaning the river Yamuna in Delhi. Only such a cordial relationship between Central and Delhi governments can make Delhi as one of the best country capitals in the world, with citizens of Delhi having a more comfortable life. The desired step is to make Nitin Gadkari as central minister to look into affairs relating to Delhi.
There was an era when Parliamentarians like Piloo Mody used to sprinkle the much needed humour to cool down the bitterness created between rival political parties in Parliament. The then Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri sent a set of dhoti-kurta to veteran Parliamentarian Prakashvir Shastri as a symbolic advice for sticking to the national attire while on his foreign trip abroad. Atal Bihari Vajpayee whole-heartedly complimented the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for leading the nation to the great victory in 1971 Indo-Pak war.
Once, Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the opposition leader challenged the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for an open public-debate at Ramlila Ground in New Delhi making Indira Gandhi to comment that the hindi of Vajpayee was very beautiful. But in turn, Atal Bihari Vajpayee broke the complete House in laughter by counter-commenting that Indira Gandhi herself was beautiful.
Madhu Agrawal
Unfair politics on an ultra-reformative step
Central government deserves compliments for getting the reformative bill on Triple Talaq passed by Lok Sabha on December 27, 2018, with practical amendments ruling out all possibilities of interference of non-family-members of the victim-wife when only the victim or her blood-relation could file a police-complaint. Other amendments include dropping the case in case the couple compromise and the magistrate granting bail only after hearing the victim-wife were enough to get the bill passed unanimously. It is evident that the opposition did not support a reformative move in the interest of Muslim women, that too at a time when even several Muslim countries have put a ban on Triple Talaq. If it was an interference in religious matters, then the opposition should have cried for abolition of the Dowry Act also.
Union government should now move further by banning multi-marriage by a Muslim man as a further step in welfare of Muslim women. It is noteworthy that even most Islamic countries do not allow multi-marriages by men. At least, it may be legislated that any non-Muslim adopting Islam may not be allowed to have more than one wife, because it is quite often that many non-Muslims including famous celebrities symbolically adopt Islam just for a day to have a second wife, which is a torture on his first wife.
Ideal thing to do is to implement the Uniform Civil Code. Erstwhile Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee once in Lok Sabha clarified that a Uniform Civil Code does not mean law of the majority community for all. Rather, he emphasised that good aspects from all religions like compulsory consent of girl for marriage as per Islamic Law would be considered for an ideal Uniform Civil Code.
Subhash Chandra Agrawal
Nobody would have played ‘Balasaheb’ better
Nobody expected a Muslim to play the role of Balasaheb Thackeray in a film based on his life and it truly is a shift in ideology of a party once believed to favour a particular community. Nawazuddin Siddiqui is an excellent actor and nobody could have played Balasaheb better than him. Art and cinema are mediums of entertainment as well as reviving personalities and the film ‘Thackeray’ based on the persona of one of the greatest politician our country has ever witnessed should be super hit crossing all box office records.
The film one hears is under the Censor Board scanner and hope it is passed without any cuts. The whole life of Balasaheb Thackeray was an open chapter and the film only would show everything about the personality which we all are already aware of.
SN Kabra
Sena sulking under pressure
The long binding relationship between Sena and the BJP is touching a stage of optimum use during the 2019 election. Both the parties depend on each other and there is no such difference between the two parties in principles. They attack each other for others to feel the difference. At this juncture, Sena eyes a hard bargain as the talk about sharing of seats between two parties is on. Sena is sulking under pressure as they cannot overcome the challenge of BJP in the state. Moreover, CM Fadnavis has a cordial relationship with Sena leaders and there is no breakdown as such. Under these circumstances, the relationship will go smoothly despite few hiccups in the beginning. After all, the alliance is going to continue and that is good for the state of Maharashtra with a stable government.
Saishree Subramaniam
Country scared of ‘Vardiwala Goondas’
The police in India are the most corrupt people, where they beat you up and arrest you under false charges. Some corrupt cops say that they are paid less so they have to accept bribes. Who is forcing these rascals to join the police force? Why can’t they work in offices where they can get a decent salary to support their families? We normal citizens of the country are scared of these ‘vardi wala goondas’ because they behave like thugs and even rape women inside police stations. The sad thing is that they are not arrested after committing these crimes.
Jubel D’Cruz
Melbourne musings
Melbourne test is being an intriguing one for both the Australian and Indian side. India fielded a new opener Mayank Agarwal. His punishing innings gave the side a headway start. Chateshwar Pujara played a perfect matching role after early loss of a wicket. The chips were down when Pujara came like a colossal figure for the dying spirits of Indian team on the opening day with an elegant stand of 83 for the second wicket settling the scores and gave Virat Kohli time to plan things batting first. Mayank was in his elements and Pujara was confidence personified and stood like an oasis on the desert and made his bat do the talking. His county experience came handy to build a moderate score for India after winning the toss and electing to bat first. Indian batting was in a revival mood after Adelaide abjectly surrendered thanks to Chateshwar Pujara’s key role in building up stands on the first day.
Loan waiving is a retrograde step in the development of the entire agricultural sector. Farmers are virtually on their death bed, so some booster dose will be helpful, but for how long will the farmers be kept alive? In India, where annual agriculture waste is about Rs 96,000 crore, farm loan waiver is just a poll sop. Loan waiver is a populist scheme which rather dents the public Exchequer. The real crisis for Indian farmer is that he or she is not in control of the produce, unlike other businesses, and is dependent on the cartel of traders to fetch a decent price. Indian agriculture needs to be diversified and alternative sources of income generation like animal husbandry, horticulture; floriculture etc. should also be made a part of the agricultural milieu. The loan amount is so humongous that it will drive away a huge share from the government’s budget. The government will either have to cut expenditure on other projects or will have to go for a huge fiscal deficit. The effect of increased public debt will play out over the long run, the increased interest burden due to higher debt will hit state finances immediately.
Here the point is not that the government should not help distressed farmers. Some recent government initiatives such as developing an open market for agricultural produce, increasing coverage of crop insurance, building rural roads, among others are likely to be useful to the farming community. We should encourage farmers in allied activities like fisheries, animal -rearing, sericulture, horticulture, harvesting cash crops, promoting mixed farming etc. We should promote contract and community farming and should ease its provisions of paperwork problems.
The farm loan waiver is one of India’s most popular, often-used political tools. In 2009, it helped to return to power Manmohan Singh’s Congress-led government, which offered borrowers a bailout program in which 37 million farmers benefited from waivers of Rs 52,200 crore. In 1990, the government under Prime Minister VP Singh also offered an agricultural debt relief program of up to Rs 10,000 for each borrower. In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, two separate regional parties came to power in 2014 on the promise of a loan waiver. The waiver should, therefore, consider the agro-climatic factors and the farmers’ distress level. Crop losses caused by poor storage facilities, transport and assured market were among the reasons that drove farmers to borrow. Instead of waivers alone, it is important to provide overall relief to the most-affected farmers in distress in a targeted manner and pointed to the failure of past farm loan waivers in ameliorating farm distress. Farm waivers increase the budget deficits of federal and state governments and escalate inflation. Farmer’s distress will hurt farm economy till sops such as farm loan waiver is given and farmers are not empowered to make their produce remunerative. For that to happen, the government needs to be ‘technology enabler’ instead of waiving loans. Our farmers need to be counselled for cost reduction. Drip irrigation or micro-irrigation techniques are eco-friendly and also economical where they can save water and electricity both.
As the 2019 Lok Sabha elections are approaching, the attacks on the Prime Minister have gone aggressive on social media with humiliating trends such as #जुमलों_की_बारात (rally of fake promises), #JumlaMan, #FekuModi, #ModiInsultsIndia, #ChowkidarHiChorHai etc.
When AV asked BJP IT Cell member Suresh Nakhua about these trending hashtags on social media he expressed, “Congress has been name-calling the Prime Minister since the time he became Gujarat CM. He has been abused by senior-most Congress leaders in the past and is being abused even today. What is being done by oppositions and its supporters on Social Media is nothing but an extension of their “Abuse Modi” policy. This name-calling is not going to affect the morales of BJP and its karyakartas who are committed to return in 2019 with a bigger majority.”
It appears that even the oppositions have braced up themselves on the social media with the nearing of upcoming elections and playing smart with their political game. The Congress’s victory in the Assembly elections has been credited largely to the Congress president, who it appears, is not shying away from being snappy and cheeky on Twitter.
Congress MLC Bhai Jagtap called the social media trends as the raising concerns over Modi’s unfulfilled promises. He said, “Whatever he promised in the past, right from the day he took charge as the Prime Minister of this country, he has not fulfilled any of it and for the last four and a half years, he is just working in favour of a few industrialists. The farmer’s problems were totally ignored, the employment issues are still pending, so, the social media is not attacking, on the contrary, it’s asking where have his promises gone? The BJP and the Prime Minister should come out with the reality.”
Earlier, Modi in one of his speeches had commented that people used to lament about what sin they had committed in their previous births that they were born in India and that there used to be a point in time when people used to regret being born in India and businessmen wanted to leave the country for better opportunities abroad. But now, those people are saying they are ready to come back even if their incomes are lower than that in other places. “The mood has changed,” he added, going on to assert that his government had changed sentiments within one year of assuming office. That didn’t go well with opposition party which was voted out in 2014 due to corruption. More disgrace followed on Twitter, with a lot of back and forth between the so-called “adarsh liberals” and the right-wing proponents and humour was only a by-product waiting to be unleashed. Within a few hours of the speech the hashtags #JumlaMan #ModiInsultsIndia and #जुमलों_की_बारात was trending, while #WahModijiWah started trending on Twitter from June this year, after reports on the increasing Indian money in Swiss banks surfaced.
BJP cadre from Latur, Ramling Shere told this newspaper, “These trends are out of frustration, opposition knows it well that they cannot defeat BJP and Modi by any means. They are already humiliated by people in 2014 and thereafter, such trends won’t make sense and we the BJP supporters don’t pay much attention to these practices, we trust in people’s mandate.”
Meanwhile, the Congress did not leave stones unturned to attack the BJP with a series of pictures and a spoof news video, calling the promises made by the party in power as “Jumlas” and PM Modi is “Jumla Man”. Congress and other opposition IT cells on social media are hell-bent on ridiculing PM on each occasion.
BJP MP Sunil Kumar Gaikwad stated, “This is how Congress Party is empowering the youth on social media. They are given paid tasks to attack BJP and the Prime Minister in every possible way. I strongly condemn such humiliating trends but I am sure people will talk for PM when time comes.”
However, the gap between the followers of PM Modi and Rahul is still very high with the Prime Minister commanding a strong following of 44.9 million yet showing his popularity among the netizens for his witty tweets, prompt response to the grievances from across the globe keep his account buzzing, while Rahul Gandhi is slowly climbing up the ladder with the current 8.15 million followers and activities on Twitter have soared exponentially.
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Amit Shah, the strategy maker and the president of BJP did a lot of good for the party and Prime Minister, but he also got a brand new tag #JumlaMan for Narendra Modi. #Jumla word got viral when Amit Shah used it in an interview. The entire media industry as well as the ever eager Indian Twitterati jumped in and came with its own definition of Jumla – ‘False Promise’. Now going back to what Modi had said: “There is so much black money abroad that if it is brought back, every Indian will get Rs 15 lakhs”. So what a rational person infers from this: Black money of India = Rs 15 lakh x 125 crores = $28.8 trillion. Media concluded translating it as, If Modi becomes PM, and he will gift us all Rs 15 lakhs so we should stop working hard now. If Modi doesn’t do this, we will abuse him over social media calling him #Feku and #JumlaMan. Meanwhile opposition got strength from such war of words and they continued ridiculing PM on social media.
The word ‘Modi’, no doubt, is a synonym for ‘Jumla’. He came to power claiming that he is the son of a Chaiwala and therefore, the messiah of the masses. But after coming to power he dedicated his tenure serving his tycoon cronies. He is being hailed as the new Reagan of India. He started implementing the Modinomics, which is akin to Reaganomics. Ever since he came to power opposition is alleging him of manipulating the cognitive map of the people and creating a delusion that he is striving hard for the ordinary people. The fact remains that he is working hard to benefit his plutocrat cronies, who have liberally been providing him with campaign funds. It is neither a jumla nor a realistic goal.
I am not an avid supporter of Modi (or any political party or leader for that matter) but I respect and support my current Government and my current Prime Minister, because he is trying to bring a difference. He is a good planner, an enthusiastic manager and a better administer. He knows that to achieve an obvious goal, he has to set a much higher goal. He knows about the lacunae of our system, unmotivated and lazy personnel’s in the government. He also knows about the sky-high aspirations of India’s young population and unreasonable and unrealistic hopes of the voting class. So he makes enormous promises and also keeps the deadlines spanning his second term securing his political lifespan.
We Indians want to live in dreamy future without contributing to the growth of our country and this society. I accept that he might not have delivered all his promises but one cannot ignore the fact that he has many ambitious targets of giving a home to every Indian by 2022, but it is good that Modi has a vision. Even if 60–70 per cent of homeless would get homes, then it would be a big accomplishment for the Government. We should be happy that he has a dream of a better India. Someone is thinking and talking about the homeless, doubling farmer income, giving gas connection to every household etc. we should be happy that millions of women are being given LPG connection. Similarly, we can’t understand the situation of a homeless. We have Indira Awas Yojana running for decades but still crores of Indians lack basic house. I am not blaming her, but the growing population has growing concerns and one government can’t do enough in a limited time. One begins another has to complete it, after all this is our country and we the people need to have patience. Falling prey to false politics is not the way to decide good or bad. One needs to have the maturity to understand the time span that is required to complete the promises given to millions of people, at least something has begun and well begun is half done. Modi’s promise may be a jumla but at least we should give Modi credit of this dream. With all due respect to PM and the people of India, I want to say do not be biased or judgmental. I agree, during the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Modi’s promises made Indians dream. Dream about better future, dream about corruption-free India, dream about safety for women in India, dream about 2 crore jobs per year, dream about removing Article 370 from Kashmir, dream about sending illegal Bangladeshi migrants to Bangladesh, dream about bringing back Dawood Ibrahim, dream about 15 lakhs in our account, dream about better infrastructure and dream about all that is possible. We thought he has answers to all our problems, though he has answers to every problem troubling our beloved country. Some promises are delivered, some are yet to be but one cannot say he has not done anything. Still let us be hopeful and let’s have our fingers crossed for the next few years of his tenure. He has been trying his level best to transform the Indian democracy as a “Government of the People”. Every political and leader has opposition too, conflicting is their survival. But we the voters need to have a head on our shoulders, we the people should be smart enough by not getting carried away. Some may hate Modi and his government, but looking at the larger picture, this government is still liked by many because surveys show the same.
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As the 2019 Lok Sabha elections are approaching, the attacks on the Prime Minister have gone aggressive on social media with humiliating trends such as #जुमलों_की_बारात (rally of fake promises), #JumlaMan, #FekuModi, #ModiInsultsIndia, #ChowkidarHiChorHai etc.