Muslims in Mangaluru, Udupi, Kerala to observe Eid-ul-Adha on Sept 12

Mangaluru, Jul 19: Two flights with 346 stranded Kannadigas from Sharjah and Dammam landed at Mangalore International Airport (MIA) on Saturday night.

MIA officials said on Sunday that the chartered flight from Dammam landed with 178 stranded people, while an Air India flight from Sharjah landed with 168 stranded passengers under the 'Vande Bharat Mission'.

All the passengers on their arrival underwent health checkup and were sent for seven days institutional quarantine. They will undergo swab tests during the quarantine period, health officials said.

Bengaluru, Mar 6: The Karnataka Congress on Thursday termed the budget for fiscal 2020-21 presented by the B.S. Yediyurappa government as the "weakest ever state budget".

"This is the weakest budget ever that our state has had. There is no clear cut provision in the budget for industrial growth or to generate jobs. No clarity on department wise allocation," tweeted Congress.

Congress leader Dinesh Gundu Rao said he did not expect such a bad budget which has discriminated on agriculture and education sectors.

"The state budget does not mention major irrigation projects like Kaveri valley and Krishna. No farmers loan waiver," noted Rao.

The opposition party has criticised the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that the potential of Karnataka was not realized to generate revenue through this budget.

Assailing the additional tax on petrol and diesel, Congress said the development will lead to price rise and is a huge disappointment.

"People are reeling under high inflation and reduction in income. BJP has rubbed salt into injury by further increasing prices and providing no relief to common man," said the party.

Bhalki MLA and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee working president Eshwar Bhimanna Khandre pointed out that the Centre gave the state only Rs 1,869 crore, despite a loss of Rs 35,160 crore in 2019.

Calling stamp duty reduction for housing within Rs 20 lakhs as an insult to people, Congress questioned the Chief Minister and BJP to first show where in Bengaluru does one get housing within Rs 20 lakh.

"This is mockery of people. No mention or allotment to universal housing programme that Congress government had delivered," claimed Congress.

Focusing on Karnataka capital Bengaluru, Congress slammed the BJP saying no proper revenue policy has been mooted.

"Last mile connectivity issue not addressed. Drinking water issue is not mentioned. No mention of peripheral ring road. No mention of Akrama-Sakrama and no thought process has gone in while planning Bengaluru," tweeted the party.

The party said Yediyurappa has admitted that there is a financial crisis in his budget speech.

"He admits Rs 8,883 crore aid has been cut, around Rs 11,000 crore state share from Centre has been cut. No additional allocation for flood relief. What is stopping him and 25 members of Parliament to question the centre," observed Congress.

Former chief minister Siddaramaiah mocked Yediyurappa that though he calls himself a farmer''s son, he delivered an anti-farmer budget.

"No one will benefit from this budget. A complete failure to boost the economy, to realize inclusive development and to improve standard of living," he tweeted.

New Delhi, June 27: The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led union government of India is not ready to stop all imports from aggressive China in spite of mount calls to boycott Chinese products in India.

The Centre is reportedly considering to stop only non-essential imports from the neighbouring country.

However, the Inward shipment in sectors such as automobiles, pharmaceuticals, certain electronics and others will continue until a domestic alternative is found.

“India will gradually move towards import substitution. It will not happen overnight. In the meantime, attention has to be paid on production and job creation. We cannot throttle our industry. There are certain absolutely essential imports. Needless to say, those will keep going,” official sources said.

Sources said that both the government and the industry are in the process of identifying products that can be domestically manufactured in the medium term. There are certain chemicals, automotive components, handicrafts, cosmetics, agriculture items and certain consumer electronics, which can be manufactured domestically in the short to medium term. The government is doing all it can to raise the capacity of domestic industries.

However, there are certain other imports in the automobile and the pharmaceutical sectors which cannot be done away within the short to medium term. Their domestic production at the moment may not be that cost-effective.

The six-crore strong traders’ body CAIT has been at the forefront of such a demand and has launched a campaign to celebrate Indian Diwali this year with a total absence of Chinese goods.

“Ease of doing business, capital availability at lower rates and globally competitive logistics and energy costs are some of the prerequisites that the government should look into to ensure the growth of the domestic auto component industry,” according to Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA) Director General Vinnie Mehta.

Maruti Suzuki Chairman R C Bhargava said, “People who are boycotting Chinese goods have to remember that in some cases it may lead to their being asked to pay more for the same product."

Meanwhile, domestic rating agency Acuite Ratings & Research has analysed the current import portfolio from China and found 40 sub-sectors have the potential to lower their import dependency on China. These sectors contribute to $33.6 billion worth of imports from China and about 25% of these imports can be substituted by local manufacturing without any significant additional investments.