Eminent Hadith scholar Abdusslam Sullami passes away 

Ahmedabad, Feb 24: US President Donald Trump arrived in Ahmedabad on Monday for the first leg of his India trip.

The Air Force One plane carrying Trump and his wife Melania landed at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel international airport here at 11.37 am, officials said.

It was scheduled to land at 11.40 am.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who reached Ahmedabad over an hour before Trump did, was present at the airport to welcome the US president at the airport.

In Ahmedabad, Trump will visit Mahatma Gandhi's Sabarmati Ashram, take part in a roadshow with Modi and jointly address over one lakh people at a cricket stadium, before heading for Agra to see the iconic Taj Mahal with Melania.

Trump, who is also accompanied by daughter Ivanka, son-in-law Jared Kushner and top brass of his administration, will get a taste of India's cultural melange during his high- optics Gujarat itinerary, after the bonhomie between the two leaders at the 'Howdy, Modi!' event in Houston last year.

The US president and Modi will participate in a roadshow from the airport to Sabarmti Ashram and from there to the newly-built Motera cricket stadium, where over a lakh people are expected to be present for the 'Namaste Trump' event.

Dance groups and singers from different parts of the country will be performing on stages that are dotting the 22- km route of the 'India roadshow' in the city.

Huge billboards of the two leaders and replicas of historic places in Gujarat have also been placed along the roads where people will greet the two leaders.

Over 10,000 police personnel, besides officials of the United States Secret Service, and personnel of the National Security Guards (NSG) and the Special Protection Group (SPG) have been deployed for the high profile visit.

The seventh US president to visit India, Trump on Sunday retweeted a video in which his face was superimposed on the hit Indian movie-character Bahubali, showing him as a great saviour.

Modi will accompany Trump to the Sabarmati Ashram, which was home to Mahatma Gandhi from 1917-1930 during India's freedom struggle.

Several world leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have visited Sabarmati Ashram in recent years.

Ashram secretary Amrut Modi said Trump will spend 15 minutes at the place.

"Trump will visit the 'Hriday Kunj'. If he wishes, he will spin a charkha (spinning wheel). We will also gift him a coffee-table book, and a book containing 150 quotations of Gandhi," the Ashram official said.

Hriday Kunj is a room on the Ashram premises where Mahatma Gandhi and his wife Kasturba Gandhi had lived for 12 years between 1918 and 1930.

The official said the US President would be briefed about Gandhiji and the importance of charkha as a symbol of self-reliance.

There will be a cultural extravaganza at the Motera stadium during the 'Namaste Trump' event, where Trump and Modi will address the gathering.

Bollywood singer Kailash Kher and some Gujarati folk singers will perform at the stadium, officials of the Gujarat Cricket Association said.

Students of various government and private schools have also been roped in to perform at cultural events and they have been practicing for days, an official said.

Billboards with slogans hailing Indo-US relations and having pictures of Trump and Modi walking together, shaking hands, and waving at the crowd during the 'Howdy Modi' event are dotting the city.

Mangaluru, June 22: A chartered flight from Dammam with more than 170 stranded Saudi Kannadiga passengers landed at Mangaluru International Airport at 8.53 pm. 

The flight was chartered by Saudi Kannadigas Humanity Forum (SKHF), an unregistered NGO, which was formed recently to help the Kannadigas stranded in Saudi Arabia due to covid-19 lockdown under the leadership of Zakariya Jokatte, president of Jubail unit of Bearys Chamber of Commerce and Industry and KS Sheikh Karnire, Director of Expertise Contracting Co. Ltd, Saudi Arabia.

There were 165 adults and 8 infants on board the IndiGo flight. All the passengers were screened at the airport. They will be dispatched to quarantine centres after completing formalities. 

SKHF had launched an online portal to assist those who were in need of emergency repatriation such as elderly people, those who lost their jobs, pregnant women and those who are in need of emergency medical treatment back home in India. 

SKHF coordinated with the authorities concerned to carry out all the formalities and legal procedures in Saudi Arabia. SKHF members were present at the Dammam Airport to help the passengers during the departure. 

Mr Jokatte and Mr Sheikh have thanked U T Khader, Mangaluru MLA and Dr Arathi Krishna, former deputy chairperson of NRI forum of government of Karnataka, for their help in chartering the flight.

Bengaluru, Jun 20: Amid calls for boycott of Chinese products in the backdrop of Indo-China border face-off, former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy sought to know from the BJP government in Karnataka the status of the "Compete with China" policy brought during the previous JDS-Congress rule.

Boycotting Chinese products was not easy like sloganeering but required a creative policy and the coalition government's initiative was a model for it, he said in a series of tweets.

"After the border skirmish, some people got the realisation to boycott the Chinese products but during my tenure (as chief minister) a serious thought was given to it," the JDS leader said.

He was apparently referring to growing clamour for boycott of China-made products after a violent clash between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh left 20 Indian Army personnel dead early this week.

Mr Kumaraswamy said he had brought the Compete With China policy to effectively deal with the neighbouring country.

"My government's objective was to offer jobs to the local residents, snatch away market opportunities for China and discard the Chinese products."

"However, what has the present government done to our scheme? It is not known whether it is still continuing or not," Mr Kumaraswamy said.

The Kumarswamy government had identified clusters and earmarked Rs 2,000 crore for their development.