Oil, gas and metals conglomerate Vedanta Limited, along with its joint-venture partner Foxconn, a Taiwanbased multinational contract electronics manufacturer, will jointly invest $20 billion (approximately Rs 1.5 lakh crore) in Gujarat.
The JV’s decision to choose Gujarat for the project comprising a semiconductor fabrication unit, a display fabrication unit, and a semiconductor assembling and testing unit instead of Maharashtra triggered a political blame game in the state, with the opposition targeting the Eknath ShindeDevendra Fadnavis government for losing out on a mega opportunity and deputy CM Fadnavis blaming the erstwhile MVA government for not inviting Foxconn for two years when they were working on the deal with Gujarat.
While Shiv Sena’s Aaditya Thackeray said he was shocked to see that a project “almost finalized” had been lost, Fadnavis told TOI, “If at all a blame game is to start, it’s the earlier government that is to be blamed. Our government came just a few days back. ”
The executing authority for the underground Metro 3 corridor (Colaba-Bandra-Seepz) has targeted bringing all nine rakes required to commence Phase I services (Aarey-BKC) by June 2023.
The first rake arrived for trials in Mumbai from Sri City, Andhra Pradesh, this July.
Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL) is currently conducting the “initial design-proving” trial run of the first prototype train. MMRCL’s managing director Ashwini Bhide said, “A second rake will arrive by the end of November.
Nine trains required for the commissioning of Phase I would be made available by June 23 and the remaining will arrive by May 2024. ”
Two 19-year-old women, both childhood friends and living in the same building in Pune, allegedly committed suicide within a span of an hour, police said on Wednesday.
The incidents took place on Tuesday evening in Shewalwadi area of Hadapsar town here in Maharashtra, they said.
One of the women allegedly hanged herself in the bedroom of her residence at around 6.30 pm, police inspector Arvind Gokule said.
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Wednesday wondered whether Eknath Shinde was made the chief minister of Maharashtra at the cost of losing the mega Vedanta-Foxconn semiconductor project to Gujarat.
NCP chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase asked if Shinde, a Shivsainik, was serving the interest of Maharashtra or Gujarat.The plant was earlier supposed to be set up in Maharashtra and the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government had held several rounds of discussions with Foxconn.
The ED seized 91.5 kg gold and 340 kg silver during the last week search at the premises of bullion traders in a money laundering case investigating against Parekh Aluminex Ltd company.
Parekh Aluminex took around Rs 2,297 crore as loan from banks. The company had allegedly siphoned off the money through various companies and defaulted the bank payment.
Legendary jazz musician Ramsey Lewis, known for hits such as ‘The In Crowd’ and ‘Wade in the Water,’ passed away at the age of 87 at his home in Chicago.
According to Fox News, Jazz fans hold Lewis in high regard for songs from the 1960s like ‘The ‘In’ Crowd,’ ‘Hang on Sloopy,’ and ‘Wade in the Water.’
Three Grammys and seven gold records were earned by him. The group’s debut album, ‘Ramsey Lewis and the Gentlemen of Swing,’ was released in 1956.
Lewis died Monday in his sleep at his Chicago home, according to his son, Bobby Lewis. Lewis began learning the piano at the age of 4. His early years were spent in Chicago, where he used his background in gospel and classical music to forge his own jazz style in the countless local clubs that employed burgeoning jazz musicians.
“It gave us a lot of opportunity to try our ideas and learn what it means to perform in front of an audience,” Lewis said as he was named National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in 2007.
He went on a globe tour and gave a performance at the state dinner for President Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil that was hosted by then-President Bill Clinton in 1995.
“I believe that my father — his love for the piano and his passion for the piano and how he coveted this love and how he protected it — that gave him longevity,” Bobby Lewis said.
Lewis spent the final year of his life working on his memoirs, which are finished and slated to be released next year, according to Brett Steele, whose Tampa, Florida-based Steele Management has represented Lewis since 2011.
In addition to his wife and son, Lewis is also survived by his daughters Denise Jeffries and Dawn Allain, his other sons Kendall Kelly Lewis and Frayne Lewis, as well as a large number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
The public ballot for next year’s London Marathon will have a non-binary gender option for the first time, organisers confirmed on Wednesday.
All potential runners in the mass participation event will have three gender options when the ballot opens on Oct. 1 — male, female and non-binary.
The elite races, which all operate under World Athletics rules, will not offer a non-binary gender option.
“This is a significant step forward for the TCS London Marathon as we continue our journey to make our event truly inclusive,” Event Director Hugh Brasher said.
“We know there is still much more to be done, but changes such as this demonstrate our commitment to making the TCS London Marathon an event that is for everyone.”
The change has been implemented following an extensive review and consultation period by London Marathon Events (LME) aimed at making the event the most “diverse, equitable and inclusive” marathon in the world, the statement added.
The London Marathon’s announcement comes the day after the Boston Marathon also said it would have a non-binary option for those signing up for next year’s race.
Next year’s London Marathon takes place on April 23.
The three gender options (male, female and non-binary) will be offered to all participants registering for the mass participation element of the London Marathon via other entry routes, including charity entries.
Smruti Shekhar Panchal, a resident of Bhayanderpada, Thane, reportedly having hundreds of fake facebook accounts and several Gmail accounts got arrested by Cyber police for not only trolling Amruta Fadnavis but by using a fake account she posted abusive messages in response to a post by Amruta Fadnavis, a complaint filed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) youth wing functionary Pallavi Sapre. According to the complaint, Sapre came across a post by Amruta Fadnavis on September 7, which pertained to a function and included some photographs.
A Facebook user named Ganesh Kapoor made three objectionable comments as responses to that post. The comments were “highly abusive, vulgar and derogatory in nature,” a cyber-police officer said. Following Sapre’s complaint, the Mumbai cyber police sought details of the account holder and the IP address of the electronic device from which the comments were posted.
This led them to Panchal, in whose name the device was listed. She was arrested from her residence on Monday evening. Panchal has been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act, 2000, and both her mobile handsets have been seized by the police for the investigation. Police interrogation revealed that Panchal had created a fake account on the social media platform and abused Fadnavis. They also found that this was not the first time she had done so.
Yashasvi Yadav, special inspector general of police, state cyber police said “Panchal is a serial offender and she had similarly abused people using her original Facebook account, following which in November 2021 the authorities wrote to Facebook to “take down” her account as it was abusive. The account was taken down by Facebook. She then created another Facebook account in the name of Ganesh Kapoor. For this she has also created a similar sounding fake email account,” the official quoted above said. “We have found 53 fake social media accounts and 16 fake email accounts from her mobile phones. She has been harassing Amruta Fadnavis for the last two years. After we managed to take down her account last year she created this fake account in the name of Ganesh Kapoor,”
Amruta Fadnavis always maintained dignified calm on social media trolls and she gave several statements to the media stating that she ignores the trolls. “It’s natural to get trolled on social media “I post on social media and then forget. I don’t look back to keep tabs on trolls, but focus on giving positive criticism when needed. It’s about endurance. You have to change your mind-set about trolls so they don’t attack you.”
Amid tough global market conditions, tech giant HCL Technologies has reportedly laid off 350 employees globally, including in India, Guatemala, and the Philippines, who were working on a Microsoft news project, media reports said.
According to reports, the workers, who were employed by HCL’s client Microsoft’s news outlet MSN, reportedly learned that they had been let go at a town hall meeting last week.
The last day of employment is reportedly September 30 for the laid-off employees, who will receive severance compensation.
Last month, a report said that at least half of the companies worldwide are planning to lay off people, with most reducing bonuses and rescinding job offers amid the economic downturn.
As per the latest PwC ‘Pulse: Managing business risks in 2022’ survey released last month, 50% of respondents are reducing their overall headcount, even as business leaders remain concerned about hiring and retaining talent.
More than 32,000 tech workers have been laid off in the US since July, including at Big Tech companies like Microsoft and Meta (formerly Facebook), and the worst has not been over yet for the tech sector that has seen a massive stock sell-off.
In India, more than 25,000 startup workers have lost their jobs since the pandemic began — and more than 12,000 have been fired this year.
Bharat Jodo Yatra: good attempt but going to be less fruitful 12
Congress party is in its revival mode but BJP has successfully hijacked media and social media by negative narrative. In such a scenario it is difficult to say how much Rahul Gandhi will fetch it for the ailing party. Congress actually cleaned the carpet by removing Gandhi family members as party president. The allegation of nepotism and family control will take a back seat. Bharat Jodo Yatra, was kicked off by Rahul Gandhi from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu on September 7, may be the last resort for the party’s revival ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election, but for the rival BJP it is a topic to mock the principal opposition party.
The Congress has put its heart, mind and soul in the 3,570-km Kanyakumari to Kashmir padyatra which comes about a month ahead of the crucial election for the post of party president on October 17. These two are the most significant events in the Congress calendar ahead of the next parliamentary election. While Yatra looks to be super successful as hundreds of people are joining the march with Rahul Gandhi. You can see a mesmerising female fan following Rahul during this yatra.
However, the BJP has sought to downplay the yatra which the Congress leaders claim is not political. Bharat Jodo Yatra was conceived by Sonia Gandhi at the party’s ‘Chintan Shivir’ held at Udaipur in Rajasthan in May. Congress organised this padyatra as one of the measures to revitalize the party. The Congress’s stocks have been falling in the last eight years. It has lost two Lok Sabha and majority of the assembly elections during this period proving that its mass support has radically gnarled. Besides, several of its leaders have quit the party, dealing a major blow to the strength and image of the party.
After continued defeat Congress leaders got demoralised. The yatra, therefore, may be the last ditch effort by the Congress to win back the support of the masses and galvanise the party workers by instilling a sense of hope and confidence. Padyatras have a significance of their own and this is transformational politics. This is what politics is about, not of abuse, vendetta and vilification.The Congress seems to be convinced that yatras do help political parties, be it by Mahatma Gandhi’s Dandi March, former prime minister Chandra Shekhar’s Kanyakumari to Rajghat padyatra, former PM Rajiv Gandhi’s Bharat Yatra in 1990, BJP veteran leader LK Advani’s rath yatra over Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya or, more recently, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy’s padyatra in 2017. Though the South to North main Bharat Jodo Yatra will pass through 12 states and two Union territories before culminating in
BJP’s opinion about Bharat Jodo Yatra may be a desperate effort for the Congress; it is a topic of ridicule for the BJP. The Congress states that the Bharat Jodo Yatra was not only aimed against the alleged divisive politics of the BJP, but to revive the entire party organisation from the block to the state-level in the country. AICC General Secretary in-charge of Communications Jairam Ramesh said the yatra is a “listening yatra” where concerns of the people from all walks of life would be heard by Congress leader and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi as he walks 3,570 km from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu to Jammu and Kashmir.
Rahul Gandhi interacts with common people, living in vans, having food at party workers office and leading a very normal life during yatra. He is hell bent on giving people a sense of belonging. Gandhi would be interacting with the fishermen who are protesting against the Vizhinjam port project as well as leaders of the anti-K-Rail movement and other such agitations in the state.
Meanwhile, BJP is engaging in divisive politics and spreading fear and anger in the country. ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ led by party leader Rahul had unsettled the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which had resorted to unnecessary diversionary tactics. The padayatra has evidently worried the BJP and has prompted them to target T-shirts, containers, socks, shoes and hairstyles. Let them raise whatever question they want and play whatever mischief on the social media. Their only objective is to derail Congress. Congress is not in a mood to get bullied and diverted. While the `Bharat Jodo Yatras’ will pass through 12 States over 148 days, smaller rallies will be organised in the other ‘non-yatra’ States including Assam, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand.
Congress is one of the world’s largest and oldest political parties of its kind; the Indian National Congress was formed on December 28, 1885, by British civil servant Allan Octavian Hume. In its initial days, the party was not formed to demand independence from British rule. It was rather set up to bring together a group of educated individuals on a common platform to influence policy making. Even after Independence, the Congress party has ruled over Indian politics. In the 15 general elections since independence, the Congress has won on six occasions and has led the ruling coalition another four times.
Seven Indian Prime Ministers have been elected from the party and six others had been former members. Jawaharlal Nehru, Gulzarilal Nanda, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, P V Narsimha Rao and Manmohan Singh were active members of the party during their prime ministerial tenure. On the other hand, Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, V P Singh, Chandra Sekhar, H D Deve Gowda, I K Gujral had been members of the Congress before their appointment.
