Isolate the forces of violence; end political killings: Vice President

Agencies
February 17, 2018

Kozhikode, Feb 17: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu today condemned political killings and asked people to isolate the forces of violence.

"Progress will not be possible without peace. I appeal to the people of Kerala to isolate the forces of violence," he said, speaking at the release of the 100th book of senior BJP leader in Kerala, P S Sreedharan Pillai. 

The Vice-President's statement assumes significance in the backdrop of killing of a Youth Congress leader Shuhaib, allegedly by ruling CPI(M) workers, at the politically sensitive Kannur district on February 13. 

Coming down heavily on political clashes, Naidu said such attacks were not good. "Murder and violence affect the social fabric. They will divert attention. I request the Kerala state to isolate violence," he said. 

"If there is tension, there cannot be attention towards development", Naidu said and exhorted the people to use the power of the ballot and not that of the bullet. "Everything should be decided by the ballot because the ballot is stronger than the bullet", he said. 

Urging for a "full stop" to the violence, Naidu said people should strengthen the democratic process in the country. "We have a long illustrious heritage spanning more than a million years. We as a nation are very young, but as a civilisation, we are very old." 

Indians believed in "Vasudeva Kutumbakam" (the world is one family, the Vice President said. Naidu said the essence of Indianness has been defined by noted American writer and philosopher Will Durant, who said "India will teach us the tolerance and gentleness of mature mind, understanding spirit and a unifying, pacifying love for all human being". 

"We may differ in language, religion, region and in worshipping Gods and Goddesses. But India is one and we are proud to be Indians", Naidu said. He said secularism in India was safe not because of the politicians, but because it is bred in the minds of the people. "It is in the DNA of the Indians who have concern for all others", he said. 

"People in Kozhikode are concerned about the people in Jammu and Kashmir and people in Kashmir are concerned about their brethren in Kanyakumari", Naidu said. 

On the economic front, Naidu said that in seven years, the economy would be the third largest in the world." To achieve this, everyone should make their contribution, he said. 
Quoting Mahatma Gandhi Naidu said "cleanliness is much more important than political freedom. Mana, Gana and Dhana should be clean". "If money is clean there will be no tension.

If the money earned is not clean then there will always be tension", Naidu said. India continued to make progress in various fields, he said, adding the country also has challenges in some sectors, including in public health care and education.

Comments

A Kannadiga
 - 
Sunday, 18 Feb 2018

Mr. Naidu, you should have changed your tune before becoming Vice President of India.

Bhageertha Bhaira
 - 
Saturday, 17 Feb 2018

Mr vice president, you should be well aware that forces of Gujarat genocide are ruling the country and you also came from same back ground.

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Agencies
March 1,2020

Washington, Mar 1: Beginning April 1, Indians wishing to immigrate to America will now have to pay an additional $50,000 for the EB-5 or the US investor visa, a media report said.

Although, this additional tax would impact all visa categories, it will predominantly create a barrier for people investing in the EB-5 visa programme, the American Bazaar daily said in the report on Friday.

In 2019, the EB-5 investor visa programme, for the first time since the 1990's, increased the minimum investment amount to $900,000.

With this increase in minimum investment, the new 5 per cent additional tax would mean that applicants would have to pay the extra $50,000, when they move money to an escrow account in the US to fulfil their application criterion.

"The changes to the tax on remittances is a reminder to Indians to carefully plan their tax position before making the move to the US," the American Bazaar quoted Mark Davies, Global Chairman, Davies & Associates LLC, as saying.

"People seeking to emigrate who do not wish to pay this tax at source and rather account for it later may wish to move their money ahead of the new rules coming into effect.

"It is possible to pre-emptively move money into an escrow account in the US until such a time as they are ready to proceed with emigration process," he added.

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News Network
February 19,2020

New Delhi, Feb 19: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday, their first meeting after the assembly polls in the national capital.

The meeting went on for over 20 minutes at Shah's residence. The meeting was earlier scheduled at the Home Ministry.

"Met Hon'ble Home Minister Sh Amit Shah ji. Had a very good and fruitful meeting. Discussed several issues related to Delhi. Both of us agreed that we will work together for development of Delhi," Kejriwal tweeted.

Shah had led the BJP offensive against Kejriwal in the Delhi Assembly polls in which AAP trounced the saffron party, bagging 62 of the 70 seats.

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Agencies
July 3,2020

The dollar's dominance will slowly melt away over the coming year on weakening global demand and a sombre U.S. economic outlook, according to a Reuters poll of currency forecasters whose views depend on there being no second coronavirus shock.

Despite fears a surge in new Covid-19 cases would delay economies reopening and stymie a tentative recovery, world stocks have rallied - with the S&P 500 finishing higher in June, marking its biggest quarterly percentage gain since the height of the technology boom in 1998.

Caught between bets in favour of riskier investments, weak U.S. economic prospects as well as an easing in the thirst for dollars after the Federal Reserve flooded markets with liquidity, the greenback fell nearly 1.0 per cent last month. It was its worst monthly performance since December.

While there was a dire prognosis from the top U.S. medical expert on the coronavirus' spread, the June 25-July 1 poll of over 70 analysts showed weak dollar projections as Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Monday reiterated the economic outlook for the world's largest economy was uncertain.

"The dollar rises in two instances: when you see risk off or when there is a situation where the U.S. is leading the global recovery, and we don't think that's going to be the case anytime soon," said Gavin Friend, senior FX strategist at NAB Group in London.

"The U.S. is playing fast and loose with the virus, and chronologically they're behind the rest of the world."

Currency speculators, who had built up trades against the dollar to the highest in two years during May, increased their out-of-favour dollar bets further last week, the latest positioning data showed.

About 80 per cent of analysts, 53 of 66, said the likely path for the dollar over the next six months was to trade around current levels, alternating between slight gains and losses in a range. That suggests the greenback may be at a crucial crossroad as more currency strategists have turned bearish.

But more than 90 per cent, or 63 of 68, said a second shock from the pandemic would push the dollar higher. Five said it would push the U.S. currency lower.

Much will also depend on debt servicing and repayments by Asian, European and other international borrowers in U.S. dollars.

While an early shortage of dollars in March from the pandemic's first shock pushed the Fed to open currency swap lines with major central banks, international funding strains have eased significantly since. In recent weeks, usage of the facility has reduced dramatically.

That trend is expected to continue over the next six months with major central banks' usage of swap lines to "stay around current levels", according to 32 of 46 analysts. While 13 predicted a sharp drop, only one respondent said use of them would "rise sharply".

The dollar index, which measures the greenback's strength against six other major currencies, has slipped over 5 per cent since touching a more than three-year high in March.

When asked which currencies would perform better against the dollar by end-December, a touch over half of 49 respondents said major developed market ones, with the remaining almost split between commodity-linked and emerging market currencies.

"The dollar is so overvalued, and has been overvalued for a long time, it's time now for it to come back down again, as we head towards the (U.S.) election," added NAB's Friend.

Over the last quarter, the euro has staged a 1.8 per cent comeback after falling by a similar margin during the first three months of the year. For the month of June, the euro was up 1.2 per cent against the dollar.

The single currency was now expected to gain about 2.5 per cent to trade at $1.15 in a year from around $1.12 on Wednesday, slightly stronger than $1.14 predicted last month. While those findings are similar to what analysts have been predicting for nearly two years, there was a clear shift in their outlook for the euro, with the range of forecasts showing higher highs and higher lows from last month.

"In comparison to even a month or two ago, the outlook in Europe has improved significantly," said Lee Hardman, currency strategist at MUFG.

"I think that makes the euro look relatively more attractive and cheap against the likes of the dollar. We're not arguing strongly for the euro to surge higher, we're just saying, after the weakness we have seen in recent years, there is the potential for that weakness to start to reverse."

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