Sibal challenges Modi to debate, BJP offers Jaitley

November 1, 2013

SibalNew Delhi, Nov 1: Accusing Narendra Modi of engaging in "politics of lies", Union Minister Kapil Sibal today challenged BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate to a debate as he stated that political discourse should move from individuals to issues affecting the country.

And, as BJP quickly responded to Sibal's challenge, saying Arun Jaitley was ready to debate him, the Union Minister said he would take on Jaitley when he also became a Prime Ministerial candidate.

He is challenging Modi to a debate as it was the Gujarat Chief Minister who was spreading lies against UPA, Sibal said.

Slamming Modi, whom he referred to as the "perennial opponent" (Nirantar Virodhi) without, however, taking his name, Sibal accused him of spreading untruths about UPA.

He sought to puncture the BJP's leader's repeated refrain that Congress had destroyed the country.

"I am sorry that the issues which should be discussed are not being discussed... They (BJP) do not have issues. Hence they only talk about individuals... One person can neither make nor is going to make the future of the country.

"The country's future is decided by policies and not allegations. Unfortunately, for some days, such an atmosphere has been made that the talk is more about individuals than about issues," Sibal said.

Releasing a bunch of papers to show that UPA had performed better than the BJP-led NDA government in terms of GDP growth, increasing per capita income, bringing FDI into the country and so on, Sibal said that if the above meant destroying India, then BJP should remain permanently in opposition so that the country may progress.

Wondering why Modi did not address press conferences, Sibal alleged the Gujarat Chief Minister wanted a controlled audience so that he can get away with his untruths.

He also ridiculed the BJP leader over his "gaffes" regarding history during his Patna rally, saying, "He does not know that Alexander never reached the Ganges, that Chandragupta Maurya did not belong to Gupta dynasty and that Taxila is in Pakistan and not in Patna. How can somebody, who does not know history, create history. Surprised which history book he read."

Sibal also attacked Modi over BJP's alliance with Shiv Sena to question his affection for people from Bihar.

"If he has so much affection for people from Bihar, he should snap ties with Shiv Sena because they do not want Biharis to live in Maharashtra," Sibal said.

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Agencies
May 30,2020

New Delhi, May 30: The Congress on Friday described the first year of the Modi government as a "year of disappointment, disastrous management and diabolical pain".

Congress leader K C Venugopal said the six years of the Modi dispensation have seen fraying of bonds of empathy, fraternity and brotherhood with increase in acts of communal and sectarian violence.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said that at the end of six years, it appears the Modi government is at war with its people and is inflicting wounds on them, instead of healing them.

"It is inflicting wounds on Mother India," he said.

"This government is trying to fill coffers of the select rich and is inflicting pain on the poor," Surjewala said.

On the BJP's charge of the Congress playing politics over the COVID-19 crisis, Venugopal said the opposition party did not indulge in any politics and gave suggestions instead.

"Being a responsible opposition, it is our duty to raise the problems faced by the common people. As opposition, we highlighted the failures of the government," he said.

Venugopal said the government "is totally insensitive" to the plight of migrant labourers and farmers.

Surjewala also demanded that a virtual session of Parliament be convened immediately to discuss pressing issues and the due process be set in motion for holding of meetings of various parliamentary committees.

Modi and his cabinet had taken oath on this day last year for a second term in office.

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Agencies
May 31,2020

New Delhi, May 31: The income tax department has notified forms for filing income tax returns for the financial year 2019-20.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has notified Sahaj (ITR-1), Form ITR-2, Form ITR-3, Form Sugam (ITR-4), Form ITR-5, Form ITR-6, Form ITR-7 and Form ITR-V for the assessment year 2020-21.

The department has revised the I-T return forms for the financial year 2019-20 to allow assessees to avail benefits of various timeline extension granted by the government following the COVID-19 outbreak.

The government has extended various timelines under the Income Tax Act, 1961, through the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation of Certain Provisions) Ordinance, 2020.

Accordingly, the time for making investment or payments for claiming deduction under Chapter-VIA-B of IT Act that include Section 80C (LIC, PPF, NSC etc.), 80D (Mediclaim) and 80G (Donations) for the financial year 2019-20 had been extended to June 30, 2020.

ClearTax founder and CEO Archit Gupta said, "The new forms require a separate table to disclose tax saving investment made in the first quarter of 2020 for availing them in FY 2019-20. Taxpayers must assess their tax liability for FY 2019-20 and make sure they are maximising their Section 80C benefits if not already done so."

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Agencies
August 3,2020

Rajouri, Aug 3: Ashfaq Mehmood Choudhary, a 17-year-old boy from Chattyear of Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, has developed a file-sharing app 'Dodo Drop' which would enable users to share audios, videos, images, and texts between two devices without Internet access.

While speaking to media persons, Ashfaq Mehmood said that the 'Dodo Drop' application is an alternative to the Chinese 'SHAREit' app. "The Indian government has banned several Chinese apps due to data breaching, and among those apps was SHAREit which was used for sharing files.

Users faced a lot of problems due to the ban, and so I decided to make this file-sharing app. With 'Dodo Drop', users can share audios, videos, images, and even texts," he said.

Ashfaq said that it took him four weeks to develop the application, and it was launched on August 1 this year. The 'Dodo Drop' application has a transfer rate of up to 480 mbps, which is faster than the SHAREit app and is "quite easy" to use.

"Users can transfer data comprising photos, videos, audios, apps, texts, etc. between two devices with no Internet access. The transfers are fully encrypted and secure," he added.

"Our Prime Minister has always asserted the need for decreasing the dependency on foreign products and apps and to focus on the development of India-based apps. I tried to be part of the initiative of 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' by developing an India-based file-sharing app. I want to develop global-standard apps for India," he added.

"We support and cooperate with him. He generates his own income by working on some projects and utilises it. We will continue to support him," said Parvez Ahmed Choudhary, Ashfaq's father.

In July, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) banned 47 apps, which were variants and cloned copies of the 59 apps banned earlier in June. These banned clones included SHAREit Lite, Tiktok Lite, Helo Lite, BIGO LIVE Lite, and VFY Lite.

The 59 apps had been banned by the Centre in June in view of the information available that they were engaged in activities which were "prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity and defence" of the country.

Almost all the apps banned had some preferential Chinese interest and the majority had parent Chinese companies.

The ban came amid border tensions with China in the Eastern Ladakh region.

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