Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has said bamboo plantations will be undertaken on 10,000 hectares in the state.
Reducing carbon emissions is of paramount importance in today’s era of climate change and planting bamboo is a viable option for achieving this goal, Shinde said after inaugurating the Environmental Sustainability Summit in Mumbai on Tuesday, an official release said.
Shinde said shifts in natural cycle and issues like unseasonal weather, hailstorms, and heavy rains are attributed to environmental changes.
He highlighted the government’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions through bamboo planting initiatives. Bamboo, known for its potential in maintaining environmental balance, absorbs significantly more carbon than other trees, he said.
Shinde said the government plans to establish urban forests and plant bamboo along major highways in the state. He also highlighted the significance of bamboo as a biomass source, generating ethanol and being approved for use in thermal power plants by the central government.
Encouraging farmers to embrace bamboo cultivation, Shinde said there is a subsidy of Rs 7 lakh per hectare for bamboo farming.
Researchers and bamboo experts from various countries attended the event.
Chairman of State Agricultural Value Commission Pasha Patel, Nadir Godrej of Godrej Industries Group, and Principal Secretary of Environment and Climate Change Department Praveen Darade were present at the event.
Net direct tax collection grows 19 pc so far in FY'24 to Rs 14.70 lakh cr, 81 pc of Budget target 3
The net direct tax collection so far this fiscal rose 19.41 per cent to Rs 14.70 lakh crore, reaching about 81 per cent of the full-year target, the income tax department said on Thursday.
The government has budgeted to collect Rs 18.23 lakh crore from direct taxes (personal income tax and corporate tax), 9.75 per cent higher than Rs 16.61 lakh crore mopped up last fiscal.
”Direct Tax collection, net of refunds, stands at Rs 14.70 lakh crore which is 19.41 per cent higher than the net collection for the corresponding period of last year. This collection is 80.61 per cent of the total Budget Estimates of Direct Taxes for FY 2023-24,” the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in a statement.
Refunds amounting to Rs 2.48 lakh crore have been issued during April 1, 2023 to January 10, 2024.
On a gross basis, direct tax collection up to January 10, 2024 registered steady growth.
The gross collections are at Rs 17.18 lakh crore, 16.77 per cent higher than the gross collection for the corresponding period of last year.
The growth rate in gross Corporate Income Tax (CIT) and Personal Income Tax (PIT) is 8.32 per cent and 26.11 per cent respectively.
After adjustment of refunds, the net growth in CIT collections is 12.37 per cent and that in PIT collections is 27.26 per cent.
Olympic Hockey Qualifiers: Skipper Savita Punia says team is focused and ready for the challenge 5
Gearing up for a “challenging” tournament in the absence of some experienced players, Indian women’s hockey team captain Savita Punia is banking on strong support from the hockey lovers of the city and the hard work put in by her team to sail through to the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifier starting on Saturday here and grab a ticket to Paris 2024.
Addressing a press conference two days ahead of the start of the eight-team FIH Olympic Qualifiers, Savita said the team takes heart from the support it got from the local hockey lovers during the Asian Champions Trophy here a few months back and said the team is excited about playing in Ranchi once again.
India are in Group B along with New Zealand, the United States and Italy as eight teams in the fray have been divided into two groups of four each. Pool A comprises World No.5 Germany, 2018 Asian Games gold medallist Japan, Chile and the Czech Republic. These eight teams are fighting for the three spots available at Ranchi for the Paris Olympic Games later this year.
On paper, Germany should clinch one of the three spots up for grabs in Ranchi, while India, New Zealand, USA and Japan will be fighting for the two remaining berths from this event.
“We have had a very good preparation for this event and we have done our best, both individually and as a team, to prepare for this event. The coaches have helped us work on all aspects of the game that needed attention,” said Savita.
India are going into the event without experienced players like Deep Grace Ekka, Sushila Chanu, Vandana Katariya and Gurjiot Kaur.
The Indian skipper, the main goalkeeper of the team and the most experienced member of this squad said they would try their best to qualify for the Paris Olympic Games. She said the team is focusing on their own performance and matches and not thinking too much about the opponents.
“We will try whatever is in our hands to make it to Paris and also do well in the Olympics. But before that we will have to qualify for it and that is what we are concentrating on at this moment. We are focussing on our game and we are preparing well. We have tried our utmost to prepare for this event,” she added.
The 33-year-old, who has made 266 appearances for the country so far, said they respect their opponent teams but have plans in place to tackle them. “If it is the Olympic Qualifiers, things will be tough, it will not be easy, it be a big challenge for us because all the teams that are here are quite strong. If they have reached this stage, they have to be strong and just like us, they will try their best. We will focus on our strengths and work on our weaknesses,” she said.
Asked about India’s 4-2 defeat to Germany in a pre-event practice match a couple of days back, Savita said at this moment they are only thinking about their next opponent USA and not Germany. “There is time for the match against Germany. At this moment our focus is on the USA. Practice matches are basically meant to judge where we stand and to test a few things. I am happy that the team played well against Germany for three of the four quarters of the match,” she added.
Selena Gomez set to play Linda Ronstadt in new biopic 7
Hollywood pop singer and actor Selena Gomez is all set to play Linda Ronstadt in an upcoming biopic. As per Variety, a US-based media outlet, Gomez teased the role Tuesday night by posting a picture of Ronstadt’s 2013 memoir ‘Simple Dreams’ on her Instagram story.
The music biopic is currently in pre-production, with producers including Ronstadt’s manager, John Boylan, and James Keach, who produced the 2019 documentary ‘Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice.’ The other cast of the biopic has still not been announced.
Ronstadt is a country, rock ‘n’ roll and Latin music legend, with her 1970s albums ‘Heart Like a Wheel’ and ‘Simple Dreams’ reaching critical and commercial success and showcasing her versatility across genres. Throughout her career, she has won 11 Grammys, and she was honored by both the Recording Academy and the Latin Recording Academy with Lifetime Achievement Awards, as per Variety.
Ronstadt’s 2019 documentary was directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman and chronicled the artist’s nearly five-decade career and dominance of the country-rock genre. In 2011, Ronstadt announced her retirement, later revealing she was no longer able to sing due to her progressive supranuclear palsy, which was originally mistaken for Parkinson’s, according to Variety.
Do not agree with concept of 'One Nation, One Election: Mamata Banerjee to Kovind-led panel 9
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee wrote to the high-level committee on ”One Nation, One Election” on Thursday, expressing her disagreement with the concept of simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha and assemblies and saying it would be against the basic structure of India’s constitutional arrangements.
In a letter to the panel secretary, Banerjee said that in 1952, the first general elections were simultaneously conducted at the central and state levels.
”There was such simultaneity for some years. But the coevality has since been ruptured…,” she said.
”I regret that I cannot agree with the concept of ‘One Nation, One Election’, as framed by you. We disagree with your formulation and proposal,” she wrote.
”Non-simultaneous federal and state elections are a basic feature in the Westminster system which should not be altered. To paraphrase, non-simultaneity is part of the basic structure of the Indian Constitutional arrangements,” the West Bengal chief minister said.
The high-level committee headed by former president Ram Nath Kovind had written to political parties seeking their opinion on the matter.
UN Security Council strongly condemns Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in Red Sea 11
The UN Security Council has strongly condemned attacks by Houthi militants on merchant and commercial vessels in the Red Sea since November 2023, saying these impede global commerce and undermine navigational rights.
The 15-nation Council adopted a resolution on Wednesday condemning, in the “strongest terms,” at least two dozen Houthi attacks on merchant and commercial vessels since November 19, 2023, when the Houthis attacked and seized the Galaxy Leader and its crew.
The resolution demanded that the Houthis immediately cease all such attacks, which impede global commerce and undermine navigational rights and freedoms as well as regional peace and security.
The resolution was adopted with 11 votes in favour, none against, and 4 abstentions – Algeria, China, Mozambique, and Russia. It urged caution and restraint to avoid further escalation of the situation in the Red Sea and the broader region and encourages enhanced diplomatic efforts by all parties to that end, including continued support for dialogue and Yemen’s peace process under the UN auspices.
India had last week said that it is closely watching the unfolding situation in the Red Sea, amid growing global concerns over Houthi militants stepping up attacks on several commercial ships in the region. The comments by External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal came a day after the Indian Navy said its ships and aircraft remain “mission deployed” to maintain surveillance and undertake maritime security operations in the North and Central Arabian Sea. “We attach very high importance to freedom of navigation, free movement of commercial shipping. It is an evolving situation and we are looking at all aspects of it,” Jaiswal had said at a media briefing in Delhi last week. “As you know, we have Indian Navy ships patrolling the area. They are also keeping a watch on Indian ships there. So far, we are not part of any multilateral initiative in the area. We are looking at the unfolding situation very closely,” he had said.
There have been concerns over Iran-backed Houthi militants launching strikes on several commercial ships in the Red Sea in the last couple of weeks amid the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Liberian-flagged vessel MV Chem Pluto, with 21 Indian crew members, was the target of a drone attack off India’s west coast on December 23 that triggered security concerns in New Delhi. Besides MV Chem Pluto, another commercial oil tanker that was on the way to India came under a suspected drone strike in the Southern Red Sea on the same day. The vessel had a team of 25 Indian crew.
US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in the Council that there have been dozens of attacks since November on shipping in the Red Sea, which have affected more than 40 different countries. The Houthis have also taken more than 25 hostages from ships they’ve seized in the last few months.
“And so, it is clear: the Council must speak now with a unified voice and adopt this resolution. Repeated Houthi attacks on international shipping are a security threat. They are an economic threat, increasing the prices people pay for food, medicine, and energy. And as the resolution before us emphasizes, they are a humanitarian threat, undermining the ability of the international community to deliver assistance to more than 21 million Yemeni people in need,” she said.
She added that the threat to navigational rights and freedoms in the Red Sea is a global challenge that necessitates a global response. “The basic principle of freedom of navigation is at stake. And the Houthis, and anyone who enables them, need to hear a clear message from this Council: these attacks must stop.”
National Investigation Agency raids 32 places in Delhi, Haryana, and Punjab in terror-gangster case 13
In another major step towards demolishing the terrorist-gangster-drug smuggler nexus in the country, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted searches at 32 locations in Delhi, Haryana, and Punjab on Thursday, officials said. The raids began early this morning and multiple teams of the anti-terror agency conducted searches in close coordination with state police forces.
Jhajjar and Sonipat in Haryana are among the other places being searched by the agency. Agency sleuths searched the premises of members linked to dreaded gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s organised terror-crime syndicate. The raids were conducted days after the NIA on January 6 attached four properties owned by Lawrence Bishnoi. Of these properties, three were immovable, and one was movable. The properties were attached in a coordinated swoop by the NIA teams in Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of 1967.
The NIA has said it found all these properties to be ‘proceeds of terrorism’, used for hatching terror conspiracies and executing serious crimes. The properties attached include Flat-77/4, Ashrey-1, Sulabh Awas Yojana, Sector-1, Gomti Nagar Extension, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, belonging to Vikas Singh, a harborer of the terror gang in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Two other properties attached were located in village Bhishanpura, Fazilka, Punjab, and were owned by accused Dalip Kumar, alias Bhola, alias Dalip Bishnoi. The two properties are Khewat No. 284, Ragba Tedadi (Pluralistic) 59-15 in 187/2390, Hissa (share) Baqadar, and Khewat No. 296, Ragba Tedadi (Pluralistic) 225-12 in 127/752, Hissa (share) Baqadar.
One Fortuner car registered in the name of Joginder Singh, resident of Yamunanagar in Haryana, was also seized. As per NIA investigations, Vikas Singh is an associate of Lawrence Bishnoi, who has harboured terrorists, including accused persons involved in a Rocket-Propelled Grenade (RPG) attack on Punjab Police Headquarters.
Joginder Singh is the father of gangster Kala Rana, a close associate of Lawrence Bishnoi. Joginder Singh was facilitating gang members by allowing them to use his Fortuner car for the purpose of transporting arms and ammunition for promoting terrorist acts. The property belonging to accused Dalip Kumar was being used as a shelter and warehouse for storage and concealment of weapons, as well as for harbouring terrorist gang members. The NIA had registered a case against the organised crime syndicate of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and his associates under UA(P)A in August 2022.
The agency’s investigations showed that the gang had spread its mafia-style criminal networks in several states of the country. These networks were involved in many sensational crimes, such as the murders of popular Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala as well as religious and social leaders like Pardeep Kumar, besides large-scale extortions from businessmen and professionals. NIA investigations have further revealed that many of these terror conspiracies were masterminded from abroad, including Pakistan and Canada, or by leaders of organised terror syndicates operating from prisons across India. As part of its efforts to disrupt and dismantle such terror and mafia networks and their support infrastructure, the NIA has adopted several targeted strategies in recent months, including attachment and seizure of their properties derived from ‘proceeds of terrorism’.
Tragedy of this 'mother of democracy': Kapil Sibal on Shiv Sena split verdict 15
A day after Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led faction was declared the ”real” Shiv Sena, Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal said on Thursday that the ”play was scripted long ago” and what was watched was the ”farce” being played out with no recourse.
In a big political win for Shinde, Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar held on Wednesday that the Shiv Sena faction led by him was the ”real political party” when rival groups emerged in June 2022 and did not disqualify any MLA from the two camps.
The ruling cemented Shinde’s place in the top job, 18 months after his rebellion, and added to his political heft in the ruling coalition, which also consists of the BJP and the NCP (Ajit Pawar group), ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
In a post on X, Sibal said, ”Speaker (as Tribunal): The Shindes faction is the real Sena. The play was scripted long ago. We watch the farce being played out with no recourse.” ”That is the tragedy of this ‘mother of democracy’,” the former Union minister said.
In his 105-minute-long reading of the key points of the much-awaited ruling on the cross-petitions by Shiv Sena factions seeking disqualification of each other’s MLAs following a split in the party in 2022, Narwekar also rejected the Uddhav Thackeray faction’s petition to disqualify 16 MLAs of the ruling group, including Shinde.
Murder Most Foul: Chinmay was killed by his mother, Suchana Seth, over a custody dispute 17
Suchana Seth, a most educated modern woman who worked as the chief executive officer (CEO) of an artificial intelligence start-up company ‘The Mindful AI Lab’. in Bengaluru, landed up killing her own son due to the growing pressure of allowing her son to meet her estranged husband. Her LinkedIn profile claims Suchana Seth is an AI ethics expert and data scientist with over 12 years of experience mentoring data science teams and scaling machine learning solutions at startups and industry research labs.
She is on the list of the 100 Most Brilliant Women in AI Ethics. She has been a Mozilla Fellow at Data & Society, a Fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Centre, and a research fellow at the Raman Research Institute. She also has natural language processing patents. A postgraduate from the University of Calcutta and a Raman Research Institute (RRI) research fellow, he spent two years at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Centre for Internet and Society.
Seth is from West Bengal and has been living in Bengaluru for a while. She married a South Indian. Seth’s husband, Venkat Raman, is from Kerala. It was a happy marriage, and the couple married in 2010, and their son was born in 2019. They had frequent fights but decided to split up in 2010.
She reached Goa with her 4-year-old to prevent her estranged husband from meeting him, as part of her court-ordered visitation rights. The couple is currently in the process of getting a divorce. Suchana was unhappy with the court order that permitted her estranged husband to see their son every Sunday. Her husband was out of the country at the time of the crime. He is currently in Jakarta and has been informed about the incident.
When her husband went out of India, she booked tickets for Goa. Checked into a service apartment with big suitcases. She spent quality time with her son. One day, she put him to sleep, and with a pillow, she choked his nose. The child died in deep sleep. After killing her son, she slit her wrist but could not succeed in committing suicide. The murder took place in a service apartment in Candolim, North Goa, between January 6 and 8.
She insisted hotel staff arrange a cab to travel to Bengaluru. However, the police discovered that the address provided by Suchana Seth was a forgery. When she checked out, the hotel staff noticed her missing son, who accompanied her at the time of check-in. Moreover, there were blood stains in the room. Hotel staff informed cops about the entire episode. The police contacted Suchana Seth through the cab driver and asked him to divert the cab to the nearest police station, where she was arrested.
The cops asked her about the boy. Suchana Seth told the police that he was staying at a friend’s place. Then the police opened her suitcases and found her son’s dead body. The absence of rigour mortis suggests that the child died over 36 hours ago, a longer period than typically observed in India. Dr. Naik also noted that there were no signs of blood loss or struggle marks on the child’s body. No one knows the exact time of death, but the guess is that the murder happened at night.
It doesn’t look like the child was strangulated using his hands. It looks like a pillow or some other material was used. Usually in India, rigour mortis resolves after 36 hours but in this child’s case, there was no rigour mortis. Rigour mortis is a postmortem change resulting in the stiffening of the body muscles due to chemical changes in their myofibrils. So, it has been more than 36 hours since his death. There was no blood loss or struggle marks on the body of the boy.
Venkat Raman arrived in Chitradurga, Karnataka, and gave the local authorities permission to conduct a post-mortem on his son’s body. She was clearly upset, and she barely spoke to cops or resisted arrest. She remained silent and did not respond to any of their questions.
What makes the crime even more frightening is the fact that Suchana Seth’s last post on Instagram was about her son, with the hashtag #whatwillhappen. She posted a picture of her son on October 12, 2023, showing him playing near an aquarium. The post received likes and comments from her friends and followers, who praised her son’s cuteness and curiosity. None of them could have imagined that the innocent boy would meet a tragic and brutal end at the hands of his own mother, just three months later. The investigations have shown that the deceased boy had spoken to his father over a video call on Sunday. Looking at the mortal remains of his son Chinmay lying on the autopsy table, Venkat Raman was inconsolable
Venkat Raman is also a tech entrepreneur based in Jakarta. The couple had separated a few years ago and were fighting for custody of their son. Suchana Seth had interim custody of her son and she did not want her husband to see him, even when she was mandated by the court to allow her ex-spouse to visit their child on Sundays. Venkaratarama and his family have not given any statements and have requested from the media that they talk about it later.
Ahead of the crucial decision on the cross-petitions by Shiv Sena factions seeking disqualification of each other’s MLAs. The Shinde group has 67 per cent of the Shiv Sena lawmakers in the assembly and 75 per cent in the Lok Sabha.
Ahead of the MLA disqualification verdict, Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde said, “I will give an official statement after 4 pm. I just want to say that we have a majority. 67% in Vidhan Sabha and 75% in Lok Sabha. We have 13 MPS and 50 MLAs. Based on this majority, the Election Commission has recognised us as the original Shiv Sena and allotted the bow-arrow symbol. We hope that the speaker will pass us on merit…”
Shiv Sena (UBC) leader Sanjay Raut on Wednesday questioned the timing of PM Modi’s visit to Maharashtra on January 12 and said he was well aware of the verdict in advance. “That is why he is so confident that the government is going to stay. The PM (Modi) knows the verdict. Match-fixing will take place at 4 p.m. today,” Raut alleged.
In response, CM Eknath Shinde said, “The opposition (Sena UBT) can see their defeat and hence they are levelling such allegations. Today also, our whip applies to them (the Sena UBT MLAs).”
