A farmer with a loan of Rs 4 lakh allegedly committed suicide in Maharashtra’s Nashik district Saturday, with local officials claiming that the number of farmer suicides in the region stood at 108 for the current year.Nilesh Dharmaraj Hyalij (28) hanged himself at around 9am Saturday in Mouje-Vajirkhede village in the district’s Malegaon area, Tehsildar Jyoti Devare said. He had a pending loan of Rs 4 lakh, Devare added.Vadner-Khakurdi police registered a case in connection with the farmer’s death and were probing further to ascertain its cause.On December 12, a 40-year-old farmer, identified as Prabhakar Walmik Hagavane of Nyaydongri village in Nandgaon tehsil here, allegedly committed suicide and a note purportedly written by him mentioned that he had taken loans from a bank and credit society, police said.Sources in the Nashik collectorate said 108 farmers had committed suicide in the district in 2018, including 15 in November and nine in December.Of these, 20 cases are from Baglan, 16 from Dindori and 15 from Malegaon, these sources informed.
Officials said that inquiries with the kin of these farmers revealed that loans, lack of rainfall this monsoon and crop damage were among the reasons for the extreme step.
Thane police have connected with several colleges here for a mass awareness drive among youth on the dangers of drug addiction, a senior police official said on Sunday.
The drive began last week and officials as well as the constabulary have begun visiting colleges to speak to students there as part of the campaign, he said.
The drive, which began at Dr Bedekar College here, is expected to go on till December 19, police said.
“We are roping in 25 colleges with 7500 students for the drive. We intend to make it into a year-long mission. One constable will act as a nodal officer for each college and will meet student volunteers to get details of the drug network, addicts, points of supply etc,” Thane Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar told agencies on Sunday.
The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) court on Saturday convicted Alishan Sharma, a known face among celebrities for his gym training and nutrition tips, for allegedly dealing with Ketamine, a party drug. Two other men were also convicted along with Sharma. The court, presided over by judge S V Yarlagadda, sentenced the three to ten years of imprisonment.
According to the prosecution, in the year 2014, a parcel from a courier company in Andheri consigned to London, was intercepted by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence. Acting on a specific tip-off, when the cargo was opened, the agency found five kilogrammes of the Ketamaine drug along with food packets.
A few days after the first parcel was found, the agency again received a tip-off on a similar cargo containing 4.996 kilogrammes of Methaqualone drug, that was meant to be delivered to Sharma’s office.
Accordingly, a trap was laid by the agency and the sleuths arrested Sharma, Pravinkumar Singh and one more accused in February 2014. The NDPS court found them guilty and all were convicted.
An inter-ministerial panel set up to review e-governance services through common services centres (CSCs) is expected to submit its report in a month. The panel, chaired by Electronics and IT Secretary Ajay Prakash Sawhney, has deliberated on enabling registration for all central and state government jobs, voter registration, PAN generation, sale of e-stamps, digitisation of government records etc through CSCs that operate in rural areas.
“A meeting of the committee was held on November 30 and the road map for getting services of all government departments, both at the Centre and State level, is expected to be submitted with the Cabinet secretariat in a month,” an official source told agencies.
At present, there are over 3 lakh CSCs operating across the country and by August 2019, all gram panchayats are expected to have one unit.
The panel includes representatives from ministries of rural development, Panchayati raj, human resource development, and three state governments- Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Andhra Pradesh. CSCs are already providing services like passport application, tele-law, soil health card, railway tickets, Ayushman Bharat, FSSAI registration.
Apart from central government services, CSCs are providing e-district services of select states.
E-District services include providing certificates and licences, issuance of ration cards, disbursement of various social welfare pensions, lodging complaints, online filing of RTI, obtaining land records, payment of various government taxes, Utility Bill payment, etc.
The Hon’ble Supreme Court’s verdict about the French-made Rafale, the world’s best fighter planes, is an extremely tight slap on the unpatriotic Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s face, who is more interested always in playing dirty politics in each and every matter than the paramount national security. And now, as usual, even after the Supreme Court’s crystal clear verdict, he has continued to play further by asking for a probe by the Joint Parliamentary Committee. This so-called ‘Indian National’ Congress’s President Rahul Gandhi has substantially lost all his prestige all across the world in the past 4.5 years. ‘He’ has won three state assemblies in the latest state elections purely by fluke, but has lost Mizoram and Telangana Assemblies extremely shamefully and very badly.
– Hansraj Bhat
Coalition governments of Congress groups in three states
It refers to the extraordinary time taken by Congress high-command in selecting the three Chief Ministers for the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh where the party has won in recently held elections, with reports of Rajasthan having 15 ministers each from rival groups of Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot. Even for Chhattisgarh, media reports indicate that formula is evolved to have two different Chief Ministers for half-term each. It looks like that the Congress-won states have a sort of compromised coalition governments, rather than governments with a single-party rule.
It is significant that party leaders look at their young party President with little experience as the future Prime Minister of the nation while arguments in selecting Ashok Gehlot and Kamal Nath as Chief Ministers of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh against rivals Sachin Pilot and Jyotiraditya Scindia was that the selection was done on basis of experience. This is a contradictory theory of Congress party in selecting Prime Minister and Chief Ministers.
Congress is not the only party to face such evils of strong party-groupism. Best is to select the Chief Ministers by secret and compulsory votes of all MLAs through EVMs on nominations signed by at least 34 per cent MLAs. Members not participating in such election may lose their voting right in assembly though retaining membership. Then the largest party or alliance will be compelled to field a candidate which may have acceptance even in opposition camp. Such an elected Chief Minister may only be removed by the same process but with the compulsion to name an alternate leader in the same motion, thus ruling out every possibility of a hung assembly and unstable government.
– Madhu Agrawal
Dept of Consumer Affairs is Dept of Corrupt Affairs
My complaint dated November 1, 2018, against non-supply of desired pre-booked meal in GoAir flight-number 145 from Delhi to Ranchi with seat-number 6A and PNR-number DE164B on October 29, 2018, reached the Department of Consumer Affairs when a lady calling from telephone number 23761699 of the Department on December 12, 2018, at 10.55 am for more than 12 minutes (voice-recording is with me) strongly advocated for GoAir that the airliner did so according to rules framed by GoAir, and I must have been aware of such anti-consumer rules of GoAir before pre-booking the meal. She further asked me to approach Consumer Court in case I wished to challenge GoAir rules. If consumers are to approach Consumer Courts for such petty matters and anti-public rules, then there is absolutely no logic in wasting public money on running ‘Jago Grahak Jago Seva’ by the Department, and better is to abolish the Union Consumer Ministry itself.
High-level corruption in Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs is evident from the fact that instead of strictly banning the malpractice of levying service-charge by hotels and restaurants, it instead advises consumers to resist such anti-consumer practice while enjoying food, overlooking the fact that consumers visit restaurants for relaxation and not for fighting.
– Subhash Chandra Agrawal
The Lotus has faded
The lotus flower has faded and the hand that has rocked the cradle will soon be able to rule the nation in 2019. The BJP was over-confident of winning in the Hindi speaking belt of India. They lost because of Modi’s empty promises. This is an eye-opener for our Prime Minister. According to Modi, cows are more important than human beings who are lynched, raped and murdered every day. Modi has only two jobs — travelling abroad and criticising the Nehru-Gandhi family. He is least concerned about the people of India. His foreign tours are the most important. He is the only Indian Prime Minister to have spent crores of rupees on his foreign tours in the last four and a half years.
– Jubel D’Cruz
Too early and foolish to write PM Modi’s political obituary!
The 3-0 win for the Congress and a 0-5 drubbing for the BJP have completely overturned the political sentiments in our country before the Parliamentary elections in May. However, it is foolish to write the political obituary of PM Modi and his party as winning and losing are parts and parcels of politics as in any other sports. Winning elections means more responsibility and accountability and Congress, as well as their allies, will have to prove their credentials in the months to come. The losing side will have to work extra hard to capitalise every opportunity wherever their opponents err. It is a boon in disguise for PM Modi and the seasoned politician has it in him to overturn the current sentiment in 2019. The current results benefit the citizens as they have proved that their votes count and governments will be thrown out if they don’t work in national interest. India is the largest democracy in the world and voters have become smarter and educated to fight for their rights!
– SN Kabra
Unacceptable appointment of Shaktikanta Das
The economic system in India is facing great and irreparable challenges and many ultra-absurd and illogical decisions are being taken about RBI by the government in less than no time which are unacceptable and unreasonable in the viewpoint of big dignitaries and clear-sighted economists. One of them is the appointment of Shaktikanta Das, the former Economic Affairs Secretary as the Governor of RBI who is not an expert in economics even who has no PhD degree. It is a visible blot-day in the history of the economic system in India, because the RBI governor should be such a person who has a trustworthy economic stature and image upon which markets can depend and as far as the newly elected RBI governor is concerned, he is listless in economy.
That is why the BJP leader Mr. Swaminarayan Swamiji also does not agree in this matter as he rejected him by saying that “He is a corrupt person and it was quite possible for the government to request Urjit Patel to bother one month more. I don’t know why the government is in too much hurry to find an alternative of ex-Governor.”
So, the government should take this issue seriously because it is not just a national matter, rather, it relates to the globe, otherwise, India will lose its economic trust and confidence across the globe.
– A Zafar
(The views expressed by the authors in the article are his/her own.)
The Delhi High Court has dismissed telecom major Vodafone’s plea seeking directions to the Income Tax Department to expeditiously process its claim for refund of over Rs 4,759 crore in respect of returns filed for the assessment years (AYs) 2014-15 to 2017-18.
A bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Prateek Jalan declined to grant any relief to the company, saying there was merit in the tax department’s argument that substantial outstanding demand was pending against the company and there was likelihood of more demands being made after the assessment for the AYs in question were scrutinised.
The court said the department should have the right to adjust the demands against the refunds that may arise but have not yet been determined due to the ongoing scrutiny proceedings.
“There is some merit in the revenue’s (tax department) argument that substantial outstanding demand are pending against the petitioner. Further, the likelihood of substantial demands upon the assessee after the scrutiny for the AYs is completed cannot be ruled out.
“The Revenue should have the right to adjust the demands against the refunds that may arise but have not yet been determined due to ongoing scrutiny proceedings,” it said in the judgement rejecting Vodafone’s plea.
The court noted that assessments for the years in question were either facing special audit or pending before the Assessment Officer (AO) for scrutiny and since scrutiny assessment of earlier years had led to raising of substantial demand, the tax department had decided not to process the company’s returns.
The company had claimed that it had received an acknowledgement after it had filed a return and therefore, within a year of the same, the refund ought to have been processed and failing which, interest would be applicable.
Rejecting the contention, the court said, “Intimation or acknowledgement cannot confer any greater right than for the assessee to ask the AO to process the refund and make over the money.”
Industry body NASSCOM has collaborated with the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras for its FutureSkills Platform that is targeted at re-skilling/upskilling four million people on digital skills.
Under its FutureSkills Platform, NASSCOM aims to re-skill/upskill four million people from the IT-ITeS industry, students entering the workforce and employees of other industries/government on digital skills.
“The partnership (with IIT-Madras) will facilitate the building of an able workforce to support the industry and other stakeholders. This will ensure that there is plenty of trained manpower for the jobs being created in the evolving ecosystem,” NASSCOM said in a statement.
The partnership will be directly with the Sector Skills Council (SSC) which is the education and skill development initiative of NASSCOM.
The SSC and IIT Madras will work towards building a skills academy and establish a program with extensive courses and training programmes to facilitate skill building in the institution, the statement said.
“…(this initiative) will be a significant catalyst for the IT-ITS industry’s FutureSkills initiative, which aims to get India accelerated on the path to becoming the global hub for talent for the new emerging technologies like AI, IOT, CyberSecurity, Big Data, Cloud and BlockChain,” NASSCOM CEO (IT-ITES Sector Skills Council) Amit Aggarwal said.
The hospitality industry is expected to grow annually by 9-10 per cent over the next four years, mainly due to robust domestic demand and a muted supply pipeline, says a report.
Going forward, rating agency ICRA expects revenue improvement and margin expansion for the hotel industry and growth is expected to be 9-10 per cent over the next four years, with a strong 10-12 per cent during 2018-19.
The domestic demand in FY19 will continue to be driven by increased air connectivity, and higher appetite for domestic leisure travel, the report adds.
Besides this, the expects domestic demand to get a boost from the robust corporate performance which has witnessed the strongest top line growth in the last 10 quarters in the September quarter of the current fiscal year.
The supply side, however, is likely to lag demand over the medium term and grow at a subdued 3.6 per cent over the next five years, warns the report.
But the situation is set to improve given the inventory and the number of premium rooms across 12 key cities is likely to go up from 82,800 in FY18 to 98,900 by FY23.
“This low supply growth is expected to be the backbone for the current up-cycle, as demand is expected to grow at a much faster rate. The demand-supply gap is expected to go up from around 1 per cent in FY18 to 5 per cent in FY2023,” the report notes.
Margins are likely to expand due to operating leverage, with return of stronger revenue growth, it adds.
Interest and debt cover are likely to improve gradually over the medium term but the return on capital employed is expected to remain at sub-cost of capital at least till FY20, notes the report.
The debt reduction measures undertaken by some large industry participants have resulted in sizable reduction in leverage levels as of March 2018 as a result return on capital employed is expected to improve upwards of 15 per cent in FY23 from 6.3 per cent in FY2018, it adds.
Rahul Gandhi on Sunday completed his first year as the Congress president which was capped by the party’s victory, by edging out rival BJP, in three states Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh.
The first anniversary of Gandhi scion as party chief comes at a time when three of his party leaders are to be sworn-in as chief ministers.
In a time when the political discourse is being dominated by the slogans of ‘Congress Mukt Bharat’, Gandhi’s first-year story at the helm of party affairs was not only of survival but also of the revival of the party.
It was last year on this day that he was elected unopposed as the party’s president, succeeding his mother and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
The 48-year-old is the fifth person from the Gandhi-Nehru family to head the Grand Old Party.
Under his leadership, the Congress registered the first victory in January 2018, when the party won the bye-elections for Alwar and Ajmer Lok Sabha constituency, both of which were previously held by BJP.
He, however, couldn’t save the party from facing defeat in Meghalaya state assembly elections, where the alliance government of Congress and United Democratic Party was uprooted to pave way for National People’s Party-led government.
Defeated but not demoralised, Congress marched ahead and registered its first major victory in May under his leadership by winning the popular vote, leaving no elbow space for the BJP, and stitched up an alliance with JD-S to form the government.
Gandhi not only worked on political turnarounds but also worked hard towards changing his as well as his party’s image.
He strived hard to shed the minority-favouring image of the party by moving from one temple to another, presenting himself as an ardent follower of Lord Shiva and also embarking on a Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.
The Congress under Gandhi’s leadership also became more social media savvy. The Twitter and Facebook space which were primarily dominated by BJP witnessed a fierce competition from the Congress as part of the refreshed strategy.
In coming times, his political understanding will be on test based on his ability to forge a grand-alliance of non-BJP forces.
As of now, after the electoral win in the three key states, the Gandhi scion is sounding more confident than ever, looks fiercer to take-on his opposition yet the real test of his leadership would be the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
The Delhi High Court is likely to pronounce on Monday its verdict on the appeals challenging a trial court’s judgement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case in which Congress leader Sajjan Kumar was acquitted.
A bench of Justices S Muralidhar and Vinod Goel had on October 29 concluded hearing arguments on the appeals filed by the CBI, riots victims and the convicts, and reserved the judgement.
Former Congress councillor Balwan Khokhar, retired naval officer Captain Bhagmal, Girdhari Lal and two others were held guilty in the case relating to the murder of five members of a family in Raj Nagar area of Delhi Cantonment on November 1, 1984 after the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi.
The trial court had acquitted Sajjan Kumar in the case, but awarded life term to Khokhar, Bhagmal and Lal, and a three-year jail term to two others – former MLA Mahender Yadav and Kishan Khokhar.
The convicts had challenged their conviction and sentencing by the trial court in May 2013. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had also filed an appeal, alleging they were engaged in “a planned communal riot” and “religious cleansing”. The agency and the victims have also appealed against the acquittal of Kumar.
The high court had on March 29 last year issued show cause notices to 11 accused, including Khokhar and Yadav, in five 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases which were earlier closed. The matter is being heard by another division bench.
