Kasargod: CPI (M) leader caught robbing NRI's house!

Bengaluru, May 13: Former chief minister and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Wednesday called the measures announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as 'disastrous' and said it is 'non-existent' in terms of benefits to poor migrants, labourers, contract employees and farmers.

"The first set of measures announced by @FinMinIndia @nsitharaman, after 8 PM speech by @narendramodi, is disastrous & non-existent in terms of benefits to poor migrants, labourers, contract employees, farmers, etc," Siddaramaiah said in a tweet.

The Congress leader said most of the intended benefits may not reach the end recipient.

This comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a Rs 20 lakh crore special economic package to revive the COVID-19 hit economy.

"The contribution by the government for the schemes announced are mostly notional and less of actuals and the devil lies in the detail," the Congress leader said in another tweet.

After Sitharaman announced support measures for MSMEs, Siddaramaiah said, "The credit infusion to MSMEs may help them clear dues to vendors but it is doubtful if they shall utilise the credit available to pay their labourers & to prevent job cuts. @FinMinIndia should have taken measures to pay part of the salaries to the employees in MSMEs."

Further questioning the Centre on 'ignoring the spending for boosting consumption', Siddaramaiah said, "The government is interested in capital infusion in the form of credits but totally ignorant of the actual spending that needs to be done to boost consumption. How can credit be considered as government spending?"

Siddaramaiah said the next set of measures should benefit the marginalised sections.

"Will be looking forward to next set of measures & I hope it will be something to benefit the marginalised sections. Direct benefits to the poorest sections will help them survive this pandemic. COVID-19 fight should not be another perception battle but a real one," he added in another tweet.

Sitharaman earlier announced Rs 3 lakh crore collateral-free automatic loans for businesses, including MSMEs.

Besides this, she also stated that to provide stressed MSMEs with equity support, the government will facilitate the provision of Rs 20,000 crore as subordinate debt.

Abu Dhabi: Yogish Prabhu K is the newly elected president of Abu Dhabi’s prestigious India Social & Cultural Centre (ISC) and he will serve for the period 2020-2021. ISC’s annual general body meeting and Election for 2020 were held on Thursday, February 27 and the election results of the election were announced during the early hours of Friday, February 28th morning.

In the keenly contested election, Yogish Prabhu emerged victorious. Humble origin and hailing from a small town of Karkala from Udupi district of Karnataka state has never deterred him from setting challenging goals. He belongs to a well-known Gouda Saraswat Brahmin family of K.V.Prabhu Coconut oil mill in Karkala. He is the eldest son of Late Rtn. Krishna Prabhu and Rtn. Bharati Prabhu.  His father and grandfather were freedom fighters who left a profound impression on him and their ideology “serving people is like worshiping God” (Jana seveye Janardhana seve) inspired and guided his life ever since. Prabhu has been a privilege member of ISC since 2003 and has been actively involved in ISC activities throughout. His relationship with ISC spans over 2 decades during which he has immensely contributed in many ways to ISC and the Indian community at large. A banker by profession, Yogish Prabhu is currently working as Vice President, Group Finance & Treasury, First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB).

With some new initiatives in his mind, Prabhu wants to creatively improve the quality of ISC’s services, its humanitarian impact as well as the diversity of its membership. His intentions are always to help everyone irrespective of caste, creed, religion, language or status. As a new elected President of ISC, Prabhu’s main objective is to strategically plan and implement his vision through his ABC 5 Year Plan i.e.,

A-    Accountability & Transparency,

B-    Build a Sound Financial Plan and

C-    Compassion & Affection for the needy

so that ISC is recognized not just in UAE, but worldwide as a mascot of the great Indian community.

Prabhu thinks “as individuals, we can do only so much but with the support of Elected ISC Committee members and all the ISC members together, there is no limit to what we can achieve, and in the process, we can truly transform the ISC”. He proudly says, “I have a strong treasury management experience in ISC as well as in the bank which we need now more than ever”.

With his dynamic leadership, sheer dedication and ambition, ISC will definitely be scaling new heights of glory and prestige in Abu Dhabi and beyond. His humble nature, leadership qualities coupled with his rich administrative experience will surely help boost ISC’s popularity and meet its challenging goals and can serve people in a better way and contribute to the Indian community at large.

Yogish Prabhu has been married for 28years. His wife Chethana Prabhu Kasaragod too has been equally active in ISC and continuously supporting and participating in various sports, entertainment and literary committees throughout these years. She became ISC Women’s Forum Convener in 2016-2017. Their daughter, Aarti Prabhu is an IT Engineer from NITK Suratkal, working in Bangalore. Son, Ajith Prabhu finished his Masters in Mechanical Engineering and Management in Industrial Design in Queens University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK and at present doing his internship there. Both Aarti and Ajith are alumni of Abu Dhabi Indian School and both have represented National level CBSE Badminton meet. Also, Aarti was a Gold medalist in the school for scoring 100 in Mathematics in SSLC.

Following are few of his contributions and achievements:

•          Hon. Asst. Treasurer of ISC for consecutive years from 2005 till 2007

•          Hon. Treasurer of ISC in 2011.

•          Member of Finance Committee of ISC new infrastructure and premises from approval till completion.

•          In 2016, initiated the participation of ISC members as officials for International Yoga Day organized by Indian Embassy

•          In 2017, initiated the participation of children as officials to help the organizers so that children could learn their social responsibility and become good citizens.

•          In 2012, initiated ladies throw ball tournament in ISC and now it is extended to men too.

•          Member of IPEF since its inception in 2014. Also served as its Governing board member in the same year.

•          Founder member of ‘UAE GSB group’ since its formation in 2004

•          Committee member of ‘Gandhi Sahitya Vedi’ Abu Dhabi

•                    Treasurer of Abu Dhabi Karnataka Sangha

•          Head of Finance and member of other committees of ‘World Tulu Convention’ held in Dubai - 2018

Election was held for other Posts too. The other office bearers elected to the present committee are:

Vice-President: George Varghese.

General Secretary: Jojo J Ambooken

Asst.Gen.Secretary: C. George Varghese

Treasurer: Shijil Kumar N K

Entertainment Secretary: Jayapradeep K P

Literary Secretary: Elias Padavetty

Sports Secretary: Freddi J. Fernandes

Secretary Southern Region: Raja Srinivasa Rao Aita

Auditor: G.N.Sasikumar

Bengaluru, Apr 18: With 12 fresh cases of the COVID-19 infection, including one woman, the total number of novel coronavirus cases in Karnataka surged to 371 on Saturday.

The sources said that as many as three new positive cases were reported from Mysuru district, followed by two each from Kalaburagi, Bhagalkote, one each case from Vijayapura, Belagavi, Dharwad, Gadag and Mandya, districts on Saturday.