People urged to uphold peace, humanity to build a powerful Hindustan'

Bengaluru, Feb 14: After the swearing-in of ten former JDS and Congress MLAs, political boundaries seem to have become more fluid, with little clarity on who is on whose side. When Honnali BJP MLA Renukacharya visited senior Congressman DK Shivakumar at the latter’s residence, many eyebrows were raised over the reason behind the meeting. There was speculation over why Renukacharya would be meeting a man who is, in all likelihood, slated to be the next KPCC president.

Renukacharya reacted to the rumours by making the meet sound purely professional. He said, “We have a three-day Krushi Sammlan in Honnali, and I went to invite him (DKS) for it.’’   Shivakumar also remained tight-lipped over the real reason behind the meeting, and corroborated Renukacharya’s story. However, insiders claim that the two discussed other issues too. It may be recalled that Renukacharya had openly rebelled against Yediyurappa in 2009.

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.

Mysuru, Feb 26: The Pre-University Education Department was taking several measures to prevent paper leaks during the II PU examinations, scheduled to commence from March 4, a statement said on Tuesday.

Among the few measures that the board has chalked out, students would not be allowed to leave the examination hall till the last bell. In case of any emergency, the student could leave the exam hall but s/he would be required to surrender the question paper to authorities in the hall.

This is being done to ensure question papers aren’t circulated during exam hours by those who exit the hall before the last bell.