No withdrawal of troops from Maoist-hit areas: Chhattisgarh CM

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December 23, 2018

New Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Sunday said gun was no answer to tackling the Naxal menace and favoured talks with violence affected people and other stakeholders, even as he ruled out withdrawal of security forces from the Maoist-hit areas of the state.

Baghel said his government will devise a new strategy that will involve talks with people affected by Naxal activities, including tribals, and others to resolve the three-decade-old Maoist problem that has claimed several lives.

He said the state government was committed to fulfilling all pre-poll promises made by his party, including farm loan waiver and liquor ban.

The Congress leader took charge as chief minister a week ago after his party posted a landslide victory in the just held assembly polls in the tribal dominated state.

“Naxal issue cannot be tackled with the barrel of gun. The use of guns by previous (BJP) government to solve the Naxal problem has resulted in its expansion from just three development blocks to 15 districts of the state in the last 15 years,” Baghel told PTI in an interview.

Baghel (57), however, ruled out any possibility of withdrawing paramilitary forces, deployed in large numbers, from the Naxal-hit districts till the new strategy is formulated.

Mamata pays homage to Charan Singh; says farmers’ income tripled in WB during TMC rule

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December 23, 2018

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Sunday paid homage to former prime minister Chaudhary Charan Singh on his birth anniversary and said the income of farmers in her state has tripled during the past seven years of the Trinamool Congress rule.

“Respectful homage to Chaudhary Charan Singh, former prime minister, on his birth anniversary. This day is also observed as #KisanDiwas. My best wishes to all the farmers in the country on the occasion,” she tweeted.

“In #Bangla the average annual income of farmers has tripled from Rs 91,000 (in 2010-11) to Rs 2.91 lakh (in 2017-18). We have also waived the tax and mutation fee on agricultural land. We are committed to the welfare of farmers #KisanDiwas,” she said in a second tweet.

The ‘Kisan Diwas’ or National Farmers Day is observed across the country on this day to celebrate the birthday of Chaudhary Charan Singh, the fifth Prime Minister of India.

Make false disclosure a ground for disqualification: EC to tell Law Min

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December 23, 2018

The Election Commission will make a fresh push for electoral reforms with the government, including making filing of false declaration a ground for disqualification and putting a cap on expenditure by candidates in legislative council polls, in the coming days.

According to highly-placed sources in the poll panel, the EC top brass, at the planned meeting with Legislative Secretary G Narayana Raju after the end of the winter session of Parliament, will also ask the government to make bribery during poll period a cognisable offence.

The winter session of Parliament will end on January 8.

While the Law Ministry is the administrative ministry for the EC, the Legislative Department is the nodal unit for issues related to the poll panel.

The sources said, the Commission would also ask the ministry to take a call on its demand to extend constitutional protection to the two election commissioners on the lines of the Chief Election Commissioner.

The President appoints the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners after the Law Ministry initiates the file for their appointment.

A Chief Election Commissioner can be removed from the office only through impeachment by Parliament. The President can remove the ECs based on the recommendation of the CEC.

In its report on electoral reforms submitted in March, 2015, the Law Commission had proposed extending constitutional protection to the two ECs.

The EC had been pushing to extend constitutional protection to the election commissioners.

Another proposal that the EC would press for is making electoral law gender neutral for armed forces personnel.

Conviction in an electoral offence is a ground for disqualification. “Jail term of six months does not instil fear. Disqualification would,” another official explained.

As of now, candidates contesting legislative council elections don’t have a bar on campaigning expenses, which, the EC wants to put a cap on.

The expenditure should be half of what is allowed for candidates contesting assembly polls. Every state has a different expenditure limit based on its size, number of voters and assembly seats.

Co-parenting not always easy, says Drew Barrymore

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December 23, 2018

Drew Barrymore has said that co-parenting with her former husband, art consultant Will Kopelman is not an easy task.

The actor, who separated from Kopelman in 2016 after four years of marriage, said they try to be the best parents they can from time to time.

“Once upon a time… I remember reading an article that said I had gotten my happy ending after all. Looking at this picture, it sure looks that way. And then, like many times in life for all of us, our plans change and our dreams are adjusted,” Barrymore wrote on Instagram on Saturday alongside a photo of her with Kopelman.

“But that doesn’t mean that every second wasn’t worth it. And if that DeLorean time machine pulled up every day, I would do it all over again. After all, I did get my dream. Two healthy girls. Will and I continue to marvel at what we made and try to be the best co-parents we can be. It’s not always easy and the point is… Nothing in life is. But it doesn’t mean that any bitter outweighs the sweet!” she added.

The former couple have two daughters – Olive (six) and Frankie (four).

Barrymore was earlier married to bar owner Jeremy Thomas and comic Tom Green.

Natalie Portman clueless about her return to ‘Star Wars’ franchise

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December 23, 2018

Natalie Portman has weighed in on her returning to the galaxy far, far away with “Star Wars: Episode IX”, saying she is yet to get the news if her character Padme Amidala will be back for the upcoming installment.

Fans of the cult sci-fi franchise are speculating that Portman’s prequel character, which appeared in “Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace” and “Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith”, could feature in the new film.

“Oh really? I don’t know anything about that. I’m guessing that’s not true because I don’t know about it yet,” Portman told a leading portal.

“Episode IX” will be released in cinemas on December 20, 2019.

Carly Pearce and Michael Ray get engaged

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December 23, 2018

Country singer Carly Pearce and Michael Ray are engaged.

The couple shared the pictures of the proposal on their respective social media accounts.

They travelled to Tulum, Mexico for a little romantic getaway that turned into an engagement.

“Earlier this week, the man of my dreams got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife. All in one simple ‘yes’, I said ‘yes’ to love, ‘yes’ to peace, ‘yes’ to faithfulness, ‘yes’ to respect, ‘yes’ to kindness, ‘yes’ to trust, ‘yes’ to patience and ‘yes’ to never settling,” Pearce, 28, wrote on Instagram.

“Michael, I would’ve married you the first night we hung out because I knew then you were the one. You will always be my most precious example of God’s timing and His love for me,” sher added.

The couple made their relationship public in July.

‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ reboot confirmed, sans Johnny Depp

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December 23, 2018

It’s confirmed! Johnny Depp has been officially dropped from the reboot of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’.

Depp, who has played the role of Captain Jack Sparrow in five films across 14 years, would not be a part of the upcoming project – set to be written by Deadpool’s Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese.

The development was confirmed by Disney’s film chief Sean Bailey. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Bailey said, “We want to bring in a new energy and vitality. I love the [Pirates] movies, but part of the reason Paul and Rhett are so interesting is that we want to give it a kick in the pants. And that’s what I’ve tasked them with.”

The first ‘Pirates’ film, ‘The Curse of the Black Pearl’, hit the big screens in 2003, the most recent movie in the franchise, ‘Dead Men Tell No Tales’, was released in 2015.

High bandwidth charges a spoiler for in-flight mobile services: Hughes India

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December 23, 2018

High satellite bandwidth charges are likely to play a spoiler in the uptake of in-flight mobile services in India as these would make the facility costlier by 30-50 times at Rs 700-1,000 for a two-hour journey, said an industry official.

The chief technology officer of broadband technology firm Hughes India, K Krishna, told agencies that satellite bandwidth charges in India are 7-8 times higher compared to other parts of the world due to the condition that bandwidth can be procured from Indian Space Research Organisation only.

“Passengers are not going to pay 50 times higher price for Internet on a two-hour flight. It has to be extremely affordable and for that to happen open sky mechanism is very much required. You can’t be restrictive that only Indian satellite need to provide capacity. Monopolistic policy won’t work. The policy will become a duck if these issues are not addressed,” Krishna said.

Hughes has applied for a licence for in-flight and maritime connectivity that will allow access to mobile services during air travel and ship voyage within Indian air space and territorial waters.

He said that there is adequate satellite capacity available at very affordable cost for in-flight and maritime mobile services to work.

“The bandwidth will make 70-80 per cent cost of service. At present rates, current tariff will be in the range of Rs 700-1,000 which lot of people are not going to afford if they compare it with routine mobile plans,” Krishna said.

“Indian vessels going outside Indian border should also be provided service by an Indian service provider. Otherwise we are letting service providers from other countries exploit it. None of other country surrounding India has restriction of 12 nautical miles like we have,” Krishna said.

The company expects to get a licence for the service early next month and has started discussion to start service in some of the aircraft, he said.

Scheme of amalgamation for merger of BoB, Dena and Vijaya Bank likely by month-end

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December 23, 2018

The scheme of amalgamation spelling out the contours of the merger of Bank of Baroda (BoB), Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank is expected to be finalised by the end of this month, sources said.

As per the requirement, the scheme of amalgamation will be placed before Parliament, which is in session till January 8.

The scheme is being worked out and will subsequently get vetted by respective boards of the three banks. It will have details of share swap ratio and requirement of capital from the promoter, sources said.

The government has already committed funds for facilitating the first three-way merger in the public sector banking space.

The government expects that the new entity will be operational from the beginning of the next financial year, the sources added.

The move follows top lender State Bank of India last year merging five of its subsidiary banks with itself and taking over Bharatiya Mahila Bank, catapulting it to among the top 50 global lenders.

The Finance Minister assured capital support to the merged entity. Other members of the AM included Railways Minister Piyush Goyal and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

The merged entity will have a combined business of Rs 14.82 lakh crore, making it the third largest bank after SBI and ICICI Bank.

It will have better financial strength. The net NPA ratio will be at 5.71 per cent, significantly better than the public sector bank (PSB) average of 12.13 per cent.

Besides, Provision Coverage Ratio (PCR) would be better at 67.5 per cent against the average of 63.7 per cent and cost to income ratio would come down to 48.94 per cent as compared to average 53.92 per cent.

Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) at 12.25 per cent will be significantly above the regulatory norm of 10.87 per cent, and the stronger amalgamated bank will be better positioned to tap the capital markets.

BJP to contest 17 seats for LS elections; six for LJP

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December 23, 2018

Sealing the seat-sharing arrangement for the Lok Sabha elections with Bihar allies, BJP president Amit Shah on Sunday announced that his party and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) will contest 17 seats each, while Ram Vilas Paswan-led LJP will fight on the remaining six.

Paswan will be sent to the Rajya Sabha at the earliest opportunity, he told reporters here, following a brief meeting with Kumar and the Lok Janshakti Party chief, who is also a Cabinet minister in the Modi government.

Shah asserted that the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will win more than 31 seats it had in 2014 and expressed confidence that it will come back to power in 2019. The state has 40 Lok Sabha seats.

The deal suggests a victory of sorts for the LJP, which had adopted an aggressive stand seeking a better bargain from the BJP after the exit of Upendra Kushwaha-led RLSP from the ruling alliance.

Kumar too has managed to underline his importance for the saffron party, which will now contest on fewer number of seats than it had contested in 2014 and won 22 of them. The BJP will now have to let go of at least five of its winning seats.

The JD(U), which had fought the 2014 polls independently, and the LJP, which was a BJP ally, had won two and six seats respectively.

Shah said all allies will soon decide on distribution of Lok Sabha constituencies among them for fielding their candidates in 2019.

Paswan, whose son Chirag had created a flutter with his comments seen as critical of the BJP and the central government, claimed Sunday there was never a problem in the alliance as he has nurtures the “NDA tree” for five years under Modi’s leadership.

A government under Modi will be formed again, he said.

The Dalit leader also thanked Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who played a role in brokering peace between his party and the BJP.

In his comments, the Bihar chief minister, who enjoys good equations with Paswan, noted that the NDA had won 32 of the 40 seats in Bihar in 2009 even though results across the country had gone against it.

“This time we will do better than that,” he said.

He was a BJP ally in 2009 before parting ways with it in 2013. He joined the NDA again in 2017.

Commenting on the decision to send Paswan, presently a Lok Sabha member from Hajipur in Bihar, to Rajya Sabha, Kumar said it is a recognition to his long service to the country and also thanked the BJP for the decision.

Paswan is a nine-term member of the Lok Sabha and the decision means that the 72-year-old leader is unlikely to contest any more popular election and will be handing over the reins of the party to his son, who was also present during the announcement, in the near future.