4 Jan 2019

Digest year-ender for domestic stories for month of July, 2018


Digest year-ender for domestic stories for month of July, 2018
Press Trust of India
Jul 1: New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today ruled out a single tax rate under the GST, saying Mercedes car and milk cannot be taxed at the same rate and accepting Congress party' demand for a uniform 18 per cent rate would lead to a spike in food and essential items' taxation.
Jul 2: New Delhi: Eight of the 11 members of a family found dead in their home in north Delhi's Burari locality showed no signs of struggle and died as a result of hanging, officials said today after the post-mortem of all the victims was completed.
Jul 3: New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said the proposed grand opposition alliance is merely a "grand race" by his rivals to be the prime minister and accused the Congress of working to discredit every institution due to its "culture of Emergency".
Jul 4: New Delhi: The Supreme Court today handed a major victory to Delhi's AAP government in its bitter power tussle with the Centre by ruling that the Lieutenant Governor (LG) has no independent power to take decisions and is bound by the elected government's advice.
Jul 5: New Delhi: A day after the Supreme Court clipped the powers of the Delhi L-G, the relationship between the AAP dispensation and bureaucrats further strained today with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal warning officers of "serious consequences" if they did not obey the apex court's order.
Jul 6: New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bhutanese counterpart Tshering Tobgay today resolved to enhance Indo-Bhutan ties in all areas of mutual interest and take the "exemplary" bilateral partnership to "new heights". Jul 7: New Delhi: The engineering and medical entrance exams — JEE and NEET — would now be conduced online and twice a year by the newly formed National Testing Agency (NTA), HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said today.
Jul 8: New Delhi: India has conveyed to Russia its unwillingness to go ahead with the joint development of a fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) primarily due to high cost involved in the project, official sources said.
Jul 9: Noida: South Korean consumer electronics major Samsung today inaugurated the world's largest mobile phone factory here which will double its annual handset production capacity to 120 million units by 2020.
Jul 10: New Delhi: The power tussle between the Delhi government and LG Anil Baijal refused to die down with the latter transferring three IAS officers, days after the Supreme Court clipped his powers, prompting the AAP to accuse him of "bossing around".
Jul 11: Lucknow: BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar was today charged by the CBI with raping a minor girl at his residence at Makhi village in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh on June 4 last year, officials said.
Jul 12: Thiruvananthapuram/New Delhi: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor set off a political controversy with his remarks that the BJP, if voted to power again, will rewrite the Constitution and pave the way for creation of a "Hindu Pakistan", prompting the ruling party today to demand an apology from Rahul Gandhi.
Jul 13: Indore: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today filed a charge sheet in the Vyapam scam case of Madhya Pradesh against alleged mastermind Dr Jagdish Sagar, two officials of the exam board and others under the anti-money laundering law, officials said.
Jul 14: New Delhi: Former MP Ram Shakal, RSS ideologue Rakesh Sinha, classical dancer Sonal Mansingh and stone artist Raghunath Mohapatra were today nominated to the Rajya Sabha.
Jul 15: Bengaluru/New Delhi: Indicating a strain in ties with the Congress, H D Kumaraswamy has said he was "not happy" as Karnataka chief minister and was swallowing pain like Lord Shiva who drank poison, but his party JD(S) today said all is well and the coalition government will last full term.
Jul 16: Srinagar/New Delhi: The CBI today filed a charge sheet against former J&K chief minister Farooq Abdullah and three others for allegedly misappropriating over Rs 43 crore from grants given by the BCCI to the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association for promoting cricket in the state between 2002 to 2011.
Jul 17: New Delhi:  After his emotional speech at a JDS event fuelled speculation about strain in ties with ally Congress, Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy today said he had shed tears not out of "helplessness" and asserted that he did not speak anything against the Congress.
Jul 18: Ranchi/New Delhi: A day after the mob attack on Swami Agnivesh in Jharkhand, police tonight said no arrests have been made yet even as the social activist alleged the incident was a "pre-planned conspiracy" of the BJP government in the state.
Jul 19: New Delhi: The government today said it has made no offer of talks to Pakistan and asserted that any meaningful dialogue with that country can be held only in a terror-free atmosphere.
Jul 20: New Delhi: The no confidence motion against the Narendra Modi government was tonight decisively defeated after an acrimonious debate in the Lok Sabha that witnessed political gamesmanship with Rahul Gandhi hugging the prime minister who hit back saying he was in a hurry to unseat him and grab his chair.
Jul 21: New Delhi: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu today said his party will not join the NDA even if the BJP approaches it for the 2019 general elections.
Jul 22: Jaipur: A third arrest was made today in the case of lynching of a 28-year-old man in Rajasthan's Alwar district which was handed over to an additional SP-rank officer for investigation.
Jul 23: New Delhi: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram today secured interim protection from arrest from a trial court in the Aircel-Maxis case filed by the CBI but will have to wait till tomorrow to know the fate of his anticipatory bail plea before the Delhi High Court in the ED's money-laundering case related to INX Media.
Jul 24: New Delhi: The Congress today gave notices for bringing a privilege motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha for "misleading" the House on the Rafale deal.
Jul 25: New Delhi: Parliament today passed a legislation that provides for confiscation of assets of big economic offenders who flee the country to avoid prosecution, as the government looks to deter likes of Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi from absconding.
Jul 26: New Delhi: The general elections in Pakistan were "rigged" and Islamabad is unlikely to change its policy of hostility towards India if Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan becomes Prime Minister, Union minister RK Singh said, in first official reaction on the poll outcome in the neighbouring country.
Jul 27: New Delhi: Transporters today called off their eight-day long strike after the government agreed to consider their demands, bringing relief to the industry mainly FMCG, ecommerce and auto players who were hit by the disruption in supplies.
Jul 28: New Delhi: In its first reaction on general elections in Pakistan, India today hoped the new government in Islamabad will work constructively to build a safe, stable and secure South Asia "free of terror" and "violence".
Jul 29: New Delhi: A little over 1,000 'fast track special courts' need to be set up across India as part of a new scheme to try cases related to rape of children and women, the Law Ministry has estimated.
Jul 30: New Delhi: The row over the publication of the National Register of Citizens(NRC) in Assam today echoed in Parliament where Home Minister Rajnath Singh asserted the Centre has no role in the preparation of the draft list and it was done on the directives of the Supreme Court.
Jul 31: Mumbai: Deepak Parekh was re-appointed as a Non-Executive Director on the board of the country's largest mortgage lender HDFC but nearly 23 per cent of the shareholders voted against his continuation.


(Source PTI)

Digest year-ender for domestic stories for month of August, 2018


Digest year-ender for domestic stories for month of August, 2018
Press Trust of India
Aug 1: New Delhi: With 40 lakh people failing to get their names on the draft National Register for Citizens (NRC) in Assam, the poll panel today said an exclusion from this list would not automatically result in their removal from the electoral rolls as registration of voters is decided by the election laws.
Aug 2: New Delhi: Antiguan authorities have confirmed that Mehul Choksi, the alleged mastermind of the USD 2 billion scam and uncle of Nirav Modi, is in their country, officials here said today, adding that a move to extradite him will be initiated soon.
Aug 3: Jaipur: Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje is set to begin tomorrow a 58-day, 6,000-km`yatra' that will roll through 165 assembly constituencies of the state which goes to the polls later this year.
Aug 4: New Delhi: In a show of solidarity, leaders of a number of opposition parties including Congress chief Rahul Gandhi joined the RJD at a protest at Jantar Mantar here over the alleged rape of young girls at a shelter-home in Bihar's Muzaffarpur and demanded that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar take immediate action against the accused.
Aug 5: New Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind has given assent to a law that will deter fugitive economic offenders to evade legal process in India and flee the country.
Aug 6: New Delhi: Justice K M Joseph, the Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand High Court, will take oath as a judge of the Supreme Court as scheduled tomorrow amid a row with the Centre over his seniority being lowered on his elevation.
Aug 7: Chandigarh: AAP dissidents in Punjab today announced their own ad hoc political affairs committee (PAC), saying the panel will restructure the party's organisation and choose a new president for the state unit.
Aug 8: New Delhi: The Competition Commission today said it has cleared US retail giant Walmart's proposed acquisition of Flipkart, a deal estimated to be worth USD 16 billion.
Aug 9: New Delhi: The ruling NDA today comfortably bagged the post of deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha with journalist-turned politician Harivansh of the JD(U) beating Congress' B K Hariprasad in an election that was seen as a test for the opposition unity ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Aug 10: New Delhi: As many as 20 bills were passed by both Houses in the Monsoon Session of Parliament which concluded today and the productivity of Lok Sabha was 118 per cent, while that of Rajya Sabha 74 per cent.
Aug 11: New Delhi: A special Fugitive Economic Offenders Act court in Mumbai today issued public summons to the sister and brother of absconding diamantaire Nirav Modi, the main accused in the USD 2 billion bank fraud case, asking them to appear before it on September 25.
Aug 12: New Delhi: As many as 774 people have died in incidents related to floods and rains in seven states during the monsoon season so far, the Home Ministry said today.
Aug 13: Kolkata/New Delhi: Communist veteran and former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee passed away at a private hospital here this morning following multiple organ failure. He was 89.
Aug 14: Thiruvananthapuram: Torrential rains, overflowing rivers and a series of landslides ravaged Kerala, where 40 lives have been lost so far.
Aug 15: Mumbai: Former India cricket captain Ajit Wadekar, who led the team to path-breaking Test wins in England and the West Indies, passed away today after prolonged illness.
Aug 16: New Delhi: Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, one of India's most charismatic leaders who led the nation through several crises while holding together a tenuous coalition with his inclusive politics and superlative oratory, died here today. He was 93.
Aug 17: Thiruvananthapuram: As a murderous monsoon savaged Kerala claiming 106 lives on a single day yesterday, the state plunged deeper into misery today with hospitals facing shortage of oxygen and fuel stations running dry, officials said.
Aug 18: New Delhi/Mumbai: The CBI today arrested the alleged main shooter in the anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar murder case in Maharashtra, officials said.
Aug 19: Chandigarh/Attari: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today ticked off Cabinet colleague Navjot Singh Sidhu for hugging Pakistan army chief, who, he said, was responsible for the killings of Indian soldiers on the border, even as the cricketer-turned-politician defended his action.
Aug 20: New Delhi: The massive floods in Kerala have been declared a calamity of severe nature, the Home Ministry said today.
Aug 21: New Delhi: Bihar Governor Satya Pal Malik was today shifted to militancy-hit Jammu and Kashmir in a gubernatorial reshuffle that marked the end of over a 10-year tenure of N N Vohra and also the appointment of a politician to the crucial post in more than five decades.
Aug 22: New Delhi: Congress veteran Gurudas Kamat, a Nehru-Gandhi family loyalist who was known for his forthrightness throughout his career spanning over four decades, died here today after suffering a heart attack, family sources said.
Aug 23: New Delhi: In the wake of Kerala floods, a disaster management sub-committee to monitor the water level of Mullaperiyar Dam today asked Tamil Nadu to keep water limit of the reservoir 2-3 feet below the 142-feet FRL mark till August 31, a senior official in the Water Resources Ministry said.
Aug 24: Thiruvananthapuram/New Delhi: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan today claimed there was no lack of clarity on UAE aid for the flood-ravaged state and expressed hope the Centre would accept the "offer" of Rs 700 crore.
Aug 25: New Delhi: Gearing up for the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the Congress today formed three crucial committees to look after coordination, manifesto and publicity in the polls, with the old guard maintaining its position in the core set up under party president Rahul Gandhi.
Aug 26: New Delhi: Describing the debate on holding Lok Sabha and assembly polls together a healthy sign for democracy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said it was an appropriate tribute to former premier Atal Bihari Vajpayee who changed the country's political culture.
Aug 27: New Delhi: A number of opposition parties today demanded reverting to the old system of paper ballot as they questioned the reliability of EVMs, following which the Election Commission said it would provide "satisfactory solution" to their concerns.
Aug 28: Pune (Maha): Maharashtra police today raided the homes of prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested at least five of them for suspected Maoist links, sparking a chorus of outraged protests from human rights defenders.
Aug 29: New Delhi/Pune: The Pune police's bid for immediate custody of the five noted rights activists arrested yesterday for suspected Maoist links was today halted by the Supreme Court which ordered they be kept under house arrest till September 6.
Aug 30: New Delhi: Author Arundhati Roy and Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani along with several other civil society members today demanded action against the Maharashtra Police for launching a "vicious and malafide attack" against human rights activists across the country and called for an immediate end to "such political acts of vendetta".
Aug 31: Srinagar: Hizbul Mujahideen commander Riyaz Naikoo today claimed responsibility for the abduction of Kashmiri policemen's relatives and set a three-day deadline for the release of all relatives of terrorists who are in police custody, according to an audio clip circulating on social media.


(Source PTI)

Digest year-ender for domestic stories for month of September, 2018


Digest year-ender for domestic stories for month of September, 2018
Press Trust of India
Sept 1: New Delhi: Jain monk Tarun Maharaj died in the early hours Saturday at east Delhi's Radhapuri Jain Temple. He was 51.
Sept 2: Srinagar: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Sunday reviewed the security situation in Kashmir during a visit to the valley, and army officials briefed her on the operational preparedness and counter-infiltration grid.
Sept 3: New Delhi: Over 1,400 people, including 488 in Kerala, have lost their lives due to rains, floods and landslides in 10 states so far in the monsoon season, the Home Ministry said Monday.
Sept 4: New Delhi: Putting to rest all speculation, Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra Tuesday recommended to the Centre that Justice Ranjan Gogoi be his successor, eight months after he was part of a revolt against the country's top judge.
Sept 5: New Delhi: Thousands of farmers and labourers from across the country held a massive protest in the national capital on Wednesday against what they called "anti-people" policies of the Modi government, and demanded higher prices for farm produce, waiver of loans and better wages.
Sept 6: New Delhi: Consensual gay sex is not a crime, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday, striking down a British era law that it said violates the right to equality and triggering celebrations among LGBTQ activists who welcomed it as a harbinger of a more inclusive India.
Sept 7: New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday pitched for investments in manufacturing of electric vehicles and smart charging facilities as he emphasised that better mobility can boost growth.
Sept 8: Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government has constituted a high-level committee to probe into irregularities in the recruitment examination held for 68,500 assistant teachers and suspended a top official of exam regulatory authority, officials said Saturday.
Sept 9: New Delhi: Setting the tone for the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Sunday he sees "no challenge" to the BJP and described unity efforts among opposition parties "unable to stand each other" as a proof of his government's popularity and his party's big success.
Sept 10: New Delhi: Sporadic incidents of violence were reported Monday during a Congress-led opposition sponsored 'Bharat Bandh' against spiralling fuel prices that disrupted normal life mainly in Bihar, Kerala, Karnataka, Assam and Odisha.
Sept 11: New Delhi: An ED investigation has found that absconding jeweller Mehul Choksi diverted over Rs 3,250 crore funds, allegedly defrauded from a PNB branch in Mumbai, to foreign shores and he was in business of "highly inflating" prices of precious metals sold from his outlets.
Sept 12: New Delhi: Notwithstanding the boycott announced by the National Conference (NC) and the PDP, the Centre is likely to go ahead with the panchayat and urban local bodies elections in Jammu and Kashmir as it feels that grassroots democracy must get precedence over any other consideration, officials said Wednesday.
Sept 13: New Delhi: The negotiations for procurement of 126 Rafale jets under the UPA government fell through as state-run HAL did not have the required capability to produce the jets in India in collaboration with French company Dassault Aviation, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Thursday.
Sept 14: Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh government has closed the investigation into a disproportionate assets complaint filed against BJP leader and former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal in 2015, on the recommendation of the state vigilance and anti-corruption bureau, officials said. Sept 15: Srinagar: Urban local bodies elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be conducted in four phases starting October 8, state election commission has said.
Sept 16: Sriharikota (AP): The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) today launched the NovaSAR and S1-4 earth observation satellites of U.K from the spaceport here and placed them in the designated orbit.
Sept 17: Mumbai: Petrol price continued its upward spiral in the megapolis--where the fuel is the costliest among the major metros--with Monday's retail price pegged at Rs 89.44 a liter, up from 89.29 Sunday, and diesel selling at Rs 78.33, up 17 paise.
Sept 18: Jaipur: In a first, polling in all 200 constituencies in the upcoming Rajasthan assembly elections would be conducted through Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) and EVM M-3 machines, Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat said Tuesday.
Sept 19: Gandhinagar: The Gujarat Assembly passed seven bills on the second and concluding day of the monsoon session Wednesday, including a bill raising salaries of the lawmakers.
Sept 20: Balasore (Odisha): India successfully test-fired its indigenously developed surface-to-surface short-range tactical ballistic missile 'Prahaar' from the Odisha coast Thursday amid heavy rains.
Sept 21: New Delhi: Barely 24 hours after agreeing to the engagement, the government Friday called off a meeting between the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan in New York, citing the brutal killings of three policemen in Jammu and Kashmir and Islamabad releasing postage stamps "glorifying" Kashmiri militant Burhan Wani.
Sept 22: New Delhi: As former French president Francois Hollande's claim on the Rafale deal fuelled a massive political row, the government Saturday asserted it did not have any role in the selection of Reliance Defence as a partner for Dassault while France said it was in "no manner" involved in the choice of any Indian industrial associate for the contract.
Sept 23: Ranchi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi rolled out the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY)-Ayushman Bharat from here Sunday, and termed it a "game-changer initiative to serve the poor".
Sept 24: Pakyong (Sikkim): Dedicating Sikkim's first airport at Pakyong to the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Monday his government is committed to make the Northeast an "engine of India's growth story" and lamented the "slow pace" of development work in the region under the previous governments.
Sept 25: New Delhi: Observing criminalisation of politics is a bitter manifest truth and a "termite" to the citadel of democracy, the Supreme Court Tuesday left it to Parliament to bar those facing trial for heinous and grievous offences from contesting elections by enacting a "strong law".
Sept 26: New Delhi: Observing that 'Aadhaar' neither tends to create a "surveillance state" nor it infringed the Right to Privacy, the Supreme Court Wednesday declared that the Centre's biometric identity project was constitutionally valid but limited the scope, ruling it is not mandatory for bank accounts, mobile connections or school admissions.
Sept 27: New Delhi: Adultery is no longer a crime in India, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday as it struck down the colonial-era law, dubbing it "archaic" and "unconstitutional" and saying it treated women as a "chattel" and denuded them of their "sexual autonomy".
Sept 28: Jodhpur: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday inaugurated “Parakram Parv” exhibition at the military station here to mark the second anniversary of the surgical strikes carried out by the Indian Army across the LoC.
Sept 29: Chandigarh: Senior SAD leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa Saturday resigned as the party's secretary general and from its core committee, citing health reasons.
Sept 30: New Delhi: Subsidised cooking gas (LPG) price Sunday hiked by Rs 2.89 per cylinder to Rs 502.4 per cylinder.


(Source PTI)

Digest year-ender for domestic stories for month of October, 2018


Digest year-ender for domestic stories for month of
October, 2018

Press Trust of India
Oct 1: New Delhi: Activist Gautam Navlakha, freed from house arrest by the Delhi High Court on Monday after he was held in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence, said he does not hold any grudge for the confinement at his home.
Oct 2: New Delhi: Stressing that India would generate 40 per cent of power from non-fossil fuels by 2030, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday called for connecting solar energy supply across borders giving the mantra of 'One World One Sun One Grid'.
Oct 3: New Delhi: Justice Ranjan Gogoi was sworn in as the 46th chief justice of India on Wednesday after which he did some plain-speaking, saying unless someone is set to be "hanged or evicted" mentioning of cases in the Supreme Court for urgent hearing will not be entertained till certain parameters are fixed.
Oct 4: New Delhi: India on Thursday deported seven Rohingya men to neighbouring Myanmar over six years after they entered the country illegally and jailed, shortly after the Supreme Court paved the way for the first such action against the community.
Oct 5: Chennai: In an apparent attempt to drive a wedge between AIADMK leaders K Palaniswami and O Paneerselvam, ousted party leader T T V Dhinakaran Friday claimed that the Deputy Chief Minister approached him for a rapprochement. Oct 6: New Delhi: Assembly polls in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Telangana will be held between November 12 and December 7 in what may be a virtual semi-final to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Oct 7: Dehradun: Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Uttarakhand's first investors summit Sunday, saying India is the ideal investment destination in the world today with major social and economic changes sweeping the country.
Oct 8: Ahmedabad: Assuring security to the migrants, the Gujarat government said 431 people were arrested and 56 FIRs registered in connection with the attacks, as Chief Minister Vijay Rupani appealed to people not to engage in violence.
Oct 9: Mumbai/New Delhi: The #MeToo fire raged on Tuesday, charring carefully built up reputations as more women narrated their experiences in the wide spectrum of sexual misconduct with Union minister M J Akbar and character actor Alok Nath amongst those named for their alleged actions.
Oct 10: Srinagar: A total of 78.6 per cent of over 1.28 lakh voters exercised their franchise in Jammu while there was a low voter turnout yet again in Kashmir with 3.4 per cent of 2.20 lakh electorate casting their votes Wednesday in the second phase of municipal polls in the state, according to poll officials.
Oct 11: Rishikesh/New Delhi: Veteran Environmental activist G D Agarwal died at a Rishikesh hospital on Thursday, 111 days after he began a fast for a pollution-free Ganga. He was 86.
Oct 12: Jaipur/New Delhi: Eighteen more people in Rajasthan's Jaipur district have tested positive for Zika virus, taking the total number of such cases to 50, a Union Health Ministry official said Friday.
Oct 13: New Delhi: Fresh mosquito samples have been collected from various parts of Jaipur by a team from the National Institute of Malaria Research (NIMR) as the number of Zika patients in the Rajasthan capital rose to 51.
Oct 14: New Delhi: Union minister M J Akbar Sunday termed allegations of sexual harassment levelled against him by several women as "false, fabricated and deeply distressing" and said he was taking appropriate legal action against them.
Oct 15: New Delhi/Mumbai: The pushback against the #MeToo wave that has swept through the ranks of the powerful with scores of women narrating their alleged experiences of sexual harassment began Monday with Union minister M J Akbar filing a criminal defamation suit against journalist Priya Ramani.
Oct 16: Thiruvananthapuram: Hundreds of women devotees of Lord Ayyappa on Tuesday checked vehicles for girls and women of menstrual age at Nilackal, the main gateway to Sabarimala in Kerala, and stopped them from proceeding to the hill shrine, as tension mounted in the area ahead of the opening of the temple gates tomorrow.
Oct 17: New Delhi, Oct 17 (PTI) Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar stepped down Wednesday in the face of mounting pressure following a spate of allegations of sexual harassment against him by several women journalists, who welcomed his resignation as a "vindication".
Oct 18: New Delhi: A Delhi court Thursday agreed to hear the criminal defamation case filed by M J Akbar against journalist Priya Ramani, who has accused him of sexual harassment around 20 years ago, and will record the statement of the former union minister on October 31.
Oct 19: Amritsar, Oct 19 (PTI) At least 61 people were killed and 72 injured Friday evening after a crowd of Dussehra revellers that had spilled onto railway tracks while watching burning of Ravana effigy was run over by a train near here, officials said.
Oct 20: Amritsar: The police gave a ‘no objection certificate' for the Dussehra event here but the organisers held it without seeking the required permission from municipal authorities, officials said Saturday, a day after a train mowed down at least 59 revellers.
Oct 21: New Delhi: In an unprecedented move, the CBI has booked its Special Director Rakesh Asthana for allegedly receiving bribes from middlemen to give relief to a businessman being probed by him in a case involving meat exporter Moin Qureshi, officials said Sunday.
Oct 22: Hoshiarpur/Kottayam: Father Kuriakose Kattuthara, a key witness in the Kerala nun rape case who testified against accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal, was on Monday found dead under mysterious circumstances in Punjab's Hoshiarpur district, police said.
Oct 23: New Delhi: Pushing for a "green" Diwali across the country, the Supreme Court on Tuesday imposed major controls on firecrackers, including an 8 pm to 10 pm window for bursting them and limiting the manufacture and sale of fireworks to only those that conform to permissible smoke and noise levels.
Oct 24: New Delhi: In an unprecedented shake-up in the CBI's 55-year-history, both its Director Alok Verma and Special Director Rakesh Asthana were stripped of their powers and sent on leave in a dramatic overnight action by the government after their worsening feud sparked a serious crisis in the country's premier probe agency.
Oct 25: New Delhi: In a relief to Aam Admi Party (AAP), President Ram Nath Kovind has rejected a petition to disqualify 27 of its Delhi MLAs for allegedly holding office of profit by being appointed as chairpersons of Rogi Kalyan Samitis attached to various city government hospitals.
Oct 26: New Delhi: The Congress on Friday took out nationwide protest marches to CBI offices accusing the government of trying to 'cage the CBI', as the party president Rahul Gandhi, along with several others, courted arrest and alleged "every institution was being ruined" in the country.
Oct 27: New Delhi: Tariq Anwar, who resigned from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) last month, returned to the Congress fold on Saturday, 19 years after he had quit the party along with Sharad Pawar and the late P A Sangma over the issue of foreign origin of Sonia Gandhi.
Oct 28: New Delhi: Former Delhi chief minister Madan Lal Khurana passed away here Saturday after a prolonged illness, his family said.
Oct 29: New Delhi: Declining an urgent hearing of the Ayodhya land dispute case, the Supreme Court Monday fixed the politically sensitive issue for first week of January before an "appropriate bench" and left a decision on the timeline to it, sparking demands for an ordinance for construction of a Ram temple at the disputed site.
Oct 30: New Delhi: In his strongest criticism of RBI yet, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Tuesday hit out at the central bank for failing to check indiscriminate lending during 2008 and 2014 that has led to the present bad loan or NPA crisis in the banking industry.
Oct 31: New Delhi: Enthused by 23 notches jump in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley exuded confidence that India can now hope to achieve the target of breaking into top 50 rank in the coming years.


(Source PTI)

Digest year-ender for domestic stories for month of November, 2018


Digest year-ender for domestic stories for month of November, 2018

Press Trust of India
Nov 1: New Delhi: Aiming to forge an anti-BJP front ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu Thursday met heads of several opposition parties, including Rahul Gandhi, and termed his party's alliance with the Congress a "democratic compulsion" to protect the country.
Nov 2: New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday announced sanction of loans of up to Rs 1 crore in 59 minutes, relaxation in labour laws, easier compliance with environmental rules and changes in company laws for small and medium enterprises as a 'Diwali gift' to give a boost to the sector, the country's second-biggest employer.
Nov 3: New Delhi: The Congress Saturday released its first list of candidates, 155 in total, for the Madhya Pradesh assembly polls, and the nominees included Ajay Singh, the leader of opposition in the state, and former Union minister Suresh Pachouri.
Nov 4: New Delhi: The Central Information Commission (CIC) has issued a show-cause notice to RBI Governor Urjit Patel for "dishonouring" a Supreme Court judgment on disclosure of the wilful defaulters' list.
Nov 5: New Delhi: Marking the country's nuclear triad, Indian nuclear submarine INS Arihant, or the "destroyer of enemies" has successfully completed its first deterrence patrol, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Monday and described it as a fitting response to those who indulge in "nuclear blackmail".
Nov 6: Ayodhya (UP): Close on the heels of renaming Allahabad as Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Tuesday announced that Faizabad district would henceforth be known as Ayodhya.
Nov 7: New Delhi: A thick haze engulfed the national capital Wednesday night with the air quality deteriorating to the "very poor" category as Delhiites continued to burst firecrackers long after the deadline set by the Supreme Court, the authorities said.
Nov 8: New Delhi: Delhi's pollution level post-Diwali nearly doubled in comparison to last year as people burst firecrackers before and after the Supreme Court stipulated time frame of 8 pm to 10 pm.
Nov 9: Chandigarh: The rift in the INLD widened further Friday as its president Om Prakash Chautala's son Ajay Singh Chautala kept away from a meeting called by his younger brother Abhay Singh Chautala, summoning instead one of his own on November 17.
Nov 10: New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi Saturday took a dig at the Narendra Modi dispensation, saying many people knew the cost of the Rafale fighter aircraft deal but the government considered it a "national secret" that could not be revealed to the Supreme Court.
Nov 11: New Delhi: Slapped with a show-cause notice to its Governor Urijit Patel from the CIC, the Reserve Bank of India has sought time till November 26 from the commission, highest adjudicating body in RTI matters, for furnishing its response.
Nov 12: Bengaluru: Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar died at a private hospital here in the early hours of Monday after battling lung cancer for several months, hospital authorities said.
Nov 13: New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram: Four days ahead of the start of the peak pilgrimage season in Sabarimala, the Supreme Court Tuesday agreed to review its verdict that allowed entry of women of all age groups to the hilltop temple in Kerala which had sparked violent protests but refused to grant a stay.
Nov 14: Sriharikota (AP): India Wednesday successfully put into orbit its latest communication satellite with its heaviest rocket and the new space mission is expected to serve the communication needs of people in the remote areas of the country.
Nov 15: Thiruvananthapuram: An all-party meeting Thursday failed to end the deadlock over the Supreme Court verdict that lifted the ban on entry for women of menstrual age to Sabarimala temple which was wrapped in an unprecedented security blanket on the eve of its opening for the two-month long annual pilgrim season.
Nov 16: New Delhi: At least 13 people have lost their lives and over 81,000 others were affected after Cyclone 'Gaja' hit the Tamil Nadu coast early Friday, the National Emergency Response Centre (NERC) said.
Nov 17: New Delhi: IRS officer Sanjay Kumar Mishra was appointed as the full-time chief of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) late Saturday, a government order said.
Nov 18: Amritsar: Three people and over 20 injured when two motorcycle-borne men threw grenade on a religious congregation on city outskirts here on Sunday, an incident which the police are treating as a "terrorist act".
Nov 19: New Delhi: The internecine feud in the CBI turned murkier Monday with a senior officer M K Sinha dragging the names of NSA Ajit Doval, Union minister Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary and CVC K V Chowdhury over alleged attempts to interfere in the probe against CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana, who has been divested of his duties and sent on leave along with his boss.
Nov 20: New Delhi:A total of 74.17 per cent of the over 1.85 crore electors cast their votes in the Chhattisgarh assembly polls, which is less by nearly three per cent as compared to the last elections, the Election Commission said Tuesday.
Nov 21: Port Blair/New Delhi:An American national was killed by members of a protected and reclusive tribe in the Andamans, possibly with arrows, when he tried to enter the North Sentinel Island, police said Wednesday.
Nov 22: New Delhi: The AAP government on Thursday decided to convene a one-day special session of Delhi Assembly on Monday to discuss the recent attack on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other issues.
Nov 23: New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday hoped the Kartarpur corridor would act as a bridge between the peoples of India and Pakistan that might lead to a better future as he referred to the fall of the Berlin Wall to underline the importance of people-to-people contact.
Nov 24: Jammu: Kashmir recorded 55.70 per cent voting while Jammu region witnessed an impressive turnout of 83 per cent on Saturday in the third phase of the panchayat elections in the state where a retired Army captain was killed in a clash between rival groups at a polling station.
Nov 25: Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh Sunday declined Pakistan's invite to attend the ground-breaking ceremony for the Kartarpur Corridor on the other side of the border, even as his cabinet colleague Navjot Singh Sidhu accepted the request "with unalloyed joy".
Nov 26: Dera Baba Nanak (Gurdaspur): Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday used the foundation stone-laying event for Kartarpur Sahib corridor across Indo-Pak border for Sikh pilgirms to warn Pakistan to stop terror activities against India and said "we have a large army and we are prepared".
Nov 27: New Delhi: The Centre formally announced the appointment of seniormost election commissioner Sunil Arora as the Chief Election Commissioner Tuesday.
Nov 28: Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday registered a record 75 per cent voter turnout for the state Assembly polls that was marred by complaints of faulty EVMs with the BJP looking for a fourth straight term in a tough battle with a resurgent Congress which is eyeing a comeback after 15 years.
Nov 29: Aizawl: The voting percentage in the election to the 40-member Mizoram state legislative assembly held on Wednesday rose to 80.15 per cent on Thursday after late arrival of voters turnout information from many places, chief electoral officer (CEO) Ashish Kundra said.
Nov 30: New Delhi: Leaders of about a dozen non-BJP parties closed ranks on Friday at a mega rally here by protesting farmers in a show of unity, as thousands of farmers marched through the streets chanting slogans to press for their demands like debt relief and remunerative prices for their produce.


(Source PTI)

Digest year-ender for domestic stories for month of December, 2018


Digest year-ender for domestic stories for month of December, 2018


Press Trust of India
Dec 1: Kohima: Nagaland Saturday became the first state in the Northeast and second in the country after Himachal Pradesh to launch a pan-India single-number emergency mobile application which will have a special women safety feature for immediate assistance from police and volunteers.
Dec 2: Bhubaneswar: The Odisha police has sounded a high alert and stepped up combing operations in the naxal-hit areas of the state as the Maoists started observing People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) Week from Sunday, a police official said.
Dec 3: New Delhi: The Indian Navy is looking at inducting 56 warships and submarines and the process for bringing in a third aircraft carrier has been moved, Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba said Monday, vowing to enhance the force's maritime capability.
Dec 4: New Delhi: Christian Michel James, the alleged middleman in politically-sensitive Rs 3,600-crore Agusta Westland chopper deal, was brought to India late Tuesday night following his extradition by the UAE, the CBI said.
Dec 5: Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Wednesday expectedly kept interest rates unchanged but held out a promise to cut them if the upside risks to the inflation do not materialise.
Dec 6: New Delhi: Observing that the "essence" of every government action must be in the interest of the institution, the Supreme Court Thursday asked the Centre and the CVC what was the "grave exigency" that prompted the "overnight" decision to divest Alok Verma of his powers as CBI Director over his bitter feud with Special Director Rakesh Asthana.
Dec 7: New Delhi: A voter turnout of 72.62 per cent was recorded in the assembly elections in Rajasthan on Friday while in Telangana, the figure was 67 per cent, the Election Commission said.
Dec 8: Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government has transferred Bulandshahr SSP Krishna Bahadur Singh to the DGP office here, five days after two people, including an inspector, were killed in violence following an alleged cow slaughter incident.
Dec 9: New Delhi: Stepping up pressure on the government to enact a legislation for the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, the VHP on Monday put on a massive show of strength in the capital where RSS leader Suresh 'Bhaiyyaji' Joshi made a veiled attack at the BJP for not fulfilling its poll promise on the temple issue.
Dec 10: New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday told an all-party meet that the government was ready to discuss all issues of national importance in the Winter session of Parliament as the Congress asserted that the opposition will press for a JPC probe into the Rafale jet deal.
Dec 11: New Delhi: Former bureaucrat Shaktikanta Das was Tuesday named the new governor of the Reserve Bank of India after Urjit Patel abruptly resigned amid a face-off with the government over issues related to governance and autonomy of the central bank.
Dec 12: New Delhi: The BJP may have lost three key states to Congress, but its vote share has not shifted entirely to the grand old party as some other players have reaped the gains.
Dec 13: Bhopal/New Delhi: Congress on Thursday night named veteran leader Kamal Nath as Madhya Pradesh's next Chief Minister after marathon consultations by the party chief Rahul Gandhi with senior leaders including Sonia Gandhi, even as hectic parleys continued for the other two newly-won states Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
Dec 14: New Delhi/Jaipur: The Congress on Friday named Ashok Gehlot Rajasthan's next chief minister and Sachin Pilot his deputy after party president Rahul Gandhi brokered peace between the veteran leader and his younger colleague over several rounds of discussions lasting more than two days. Dec 15: Srinagar: Seven civilians died Saturday when security forces opened fire at an unruly mob that thronged the site of an encounter in south Kashmir's Pulwama district in which three terrorists and an army man were killed, police said.
Dec 16: Rae Bareli, Allahabad (UP): In his first public outburst against the Congress after the Rafale deal verdict, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday alleged the party was trying to project Supreme Court as a "liar" and was letting down the defence forces.
Dec 17: Jaipur/Bhopal/Raipur: Three Congress chief ministers on Monday took oath of office in three previously BJP-ruled Hindi heartland states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh with most of the opposition leaders present in the swearing-in ceremonies that also turned into a show of unity against the saffron party.
Dec 18: Attari (Amritsar): A software engineer from Mumbai, who had spent around six years in a Pakistan jail, was reunited with his family after he returned to India through the Attari-Wagah border on Tuesday evening.
Dec 19: New Delhi: Demanding resignation of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, 83 former civil servants -- including ex-foreign secretaries Shyam Saran and Shivsankar Menon -- have written an open letter criticising the central and the state governments for their alleged failure in acting against the killers of a police officer in Bulandshahr.
Dec 20: New Delhi: Seasoned diplomat Harsh Vardhan Shringla was Thursday appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the US, considered a high-profile posting where he will face the task of engaging with the Trump administration on a number of key issues including the H1B visa.
Dec 21: New Delhi: Members of the Lok Sabha's Rules Committee on Friday deliberated on "automatic suspension" of MPs who enter the well of the house or willfully obstruct its business by shouting slogans despite being repeatedly warned by the Chair.
Dec 22: New Delhi: Former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar moved the Supreme Court challenging the life imprisonment awarded to him by the Delhi High Court in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.
Dec 23: New Delhi: Amid reports that the SP and the BSP might leave the Congress out from an alliance in Uttar Pradesh, senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid said Sunday if his party is excluded from the coalition in the state, any nationwide anti-BJP front will be "weakened" and it may lead to a "stillborn situation". Dec 24: Jaipur: Seeking to balance caste and regional factors, the Rajasthan cabinet was Monday expanded with as many as 23 ministers - 13 cabinet and 10 ministers of state - being sworn in, a week after chief minister Ashok Gehlot and deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot took oath. Dec 25: New Delhi: Flight operations were partially suspended at the Delhi airport on Tuesday due to low visibility conditions as departures were put on hold and more than 80 flights were delayed, an official said.
Dec 26: New Delhi: Putting in place his team for steering the BJP's campaign in the Lok Sabha polls, party president Amit Shah Wednesday appointed in-charges for 17 states, drafting in Union minister Prakash Javadekar for Rajasthan and Thawarchand Gehlot, another minister, for Uttarakhand. Dec 27: New Delhi: Second time in less than one year, the contentious triple talaq bill criminalising instant divorce by Muslim men was passed by Lok Sabha after a heated debate on Thursday, with the government projecting it as a matter of "Insaaniyat aur insaaf" for Muslim women, and rejecting the contention that it was aimed at targeting a particular community.
Dec 28: New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday announced a Rs 4,500-crore financial assistance to Bhutan to help the country implement its 12th five-year plan, after he held wide-ranging talks with his Bhutanese counterpart Lotay Tshering.
Dec 29: New Delhi: A Delhi court hearing the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper case on Saturday imposed restrictions on alleged middleman Christian Michel meeting his lawyers in ED custody after the agency said that he was misusing legal access by passing chits to the advocates asking them how to tackle questions on "Mrs Gandhi".
Dec 30: Kolkata: Dadasaheb Phalke award-winning film director Mrinal Sen, the last of the triumvirate of directing icons, including Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak, passed away on Sunday. He was 95.
(Source PTI)

25 Sept 2017

Why do you fast in Navratri and do the opposite on Dashmi or day after


By Yogi Ashwini
Navratras come twice a year and mark transition in seasons, winter-summer and summer-winter. According to ayurveda, during this time, one should consume nourishing foods and in minimal quantities to rid the body of the toxins collected during the rains. The nine nights and ten days of navratras hold within them the energy of ten forms of shakti– shailaputri, brahmcharini, chandrakanta, kushmanda, skandmata, katyayani, kaalratri, mahagauri, siddhidatri and aparajitha thus each navratra has a specific purpose. In the navratras weather changes, ie, various energies of this creation move from imbalance towards a new normalcy, including our body. In these nine days the prana shakti inside our body undergoes a process of re-alignment, ie from imbalance to new balance for new season.
For this re- aligning the body has to be kept light. Therefore our ancients prescribed fasting or upvaas in these nine days.Upavaas has a much greater connotation than what it is generally misunderstood as - mere holding back from eating certain foods. At Dhyan Ashram, sadhaks observe Upavaas in its aunthentic sense, that is, giving up pleasure to observe austerities during sadhna. This is done by celibating, eating food for energy, not sensual pleasure, following a niyam of the sadhna your Guru has given you - a mantra, dhyan or a tantric practice where senses are kept under strict control and the focus is your ishta deva and all your thoughts and actions during those days are devoted to the ishta-deva. Charity and service are an intrinsic part of such sadhnas. During navratras these fasts are observed for purification as well, both etheric as well as physical.
Apart from fasting, there are certain mantras also which are chanted on these days for a complete body detox. For the beginner, these nine days may be divided into 3 parts of 3 days each for the three parts of body-  the region below the navel, between navel and shoulders and the upper head region, corresponding to the energies of goddess sarawati, goddess lakshmi and goddess durga respectively. The 9 devis originate from these 3 devis which in turn have their origin in Adi shakti. These 3 parts are further divided into 3 parts each, thus the body is divided into 9 parts in all.
In the first 3 days the sadhak stops having spicy food and performs a havan at the morning and evening sandhya with the chants invoking ma durga. Offering of kala til along with ghrit is made and desi cows upla and palash samedha is used. In the next three days, sadhak stops intake of anna and only light foods are ingested in order to keep the body light. Havan for Ma Lakshmi is done at the two sandhyas by making offering of a sweet along with ghrit . In the last three days, the sadhak only consumes water and juice (not even milk as it is considered an animal product) and havan for Ma Saraswati is performed at the two sandhyas by making offerings of ghrit and guggal. On the 10th day, complete fast is kept and once more Ma Durga or Ma Kali is invoked as on this day Ravan had invoked Ma Kali and Ram had invoked Ma Durga. This process brings about the required re-alignment. After this, the sadhak performs his sadhna and chants specific mantra as prescribed by his/her Guru. With yog sadhna, all the energies that are invoked come to the sadhak. Navratras are days to prepare your body in order to accept the new energies of the coming season. For 9 days you re-align you body and after that on the 10th day accept new energies
Most people lighten their bodies by fasting for 9 days, only to make it heavy on the 10th day by crowding to restaurants and liquor shops. It is something like you clean your room and after that you bring all the garbage back to the room.  Fasting or any such technique will bear fruits only if carried out with a sense of detachment, for the purpose of evolution. The Guru knows the capacity of a shishya and prescribes a fast depending upon his/her requirements. Therefore it is of utmost importance to observe fasts in tandem with yogic practices such as the Sanatan Kriya under the sanidhya of a Guru to reap maximum benefits.
Yogi Ashwini is the Guiding Light of Dhyan Foundation and an authority on the Vedic Sciences. His book, 'Sanatan Kriya, The Ageless Dimension' is an acclaimed thesis on anti-ageing. Log onto to www.dhyanfoundation.com for more

(http://www.andamanchronicle.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12000:yogi-ashwini-200917&catid=19&Itemid=147)

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