Sharjah ruler promises to release 149 Indian prisoners

Agencies
September 27, 2017

Thiruvananthapuram, Sept 27: A total of 149 Indians serving prison terms for minor and financial offences in Sharjah will be released following the amnesty declared here by the Emirate's visiting ruler Sultan Bin Mohammed Al- Quasimi.

The announcement came in response to a request by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan seeking the release of Keralites who had completed three years of their jail term in Sharjah.

According to a joint communique issued by the Sharjah and Kerala governments, those facing punishment for minor offences and financial misappropriation would be given pardon as per the general amnesty.

Al-Quasimi was honoured with an honorary D.lit Degree from Calicut University at a function held at Raj Bhavan here. Governor Justice (retd) P Sathasivam conferred the degree.

Sharjah also agreed to open an institution of higher learning for Arabic studies and research and set up a chain of skill development centres for imparting training to those seeking jobs in the Gulf region.

"This was announced by Al-Quasimi during his one-to-one meeting with Vijayan", the communique said.

Sharjah has also accepted in-principle the state's proposal for giving international driving licence to those who seeking jobs in the Emirate, the release said.

A joint committee consisting top officials of Sharjah and Kerala would be set up to work out an action plan to implement projects agreed to by both sides.

The Kerala government also offered land for construction of a permanent building for the UAE consulate in the state capital.

The Sharjah Family City project, cultural centre and International Education Complex to be set up by Kerala in Sharjah were some of the other projects under the active consideration of the Sharjah government, the release said.

Later, giving a lecture, Al-Quasimi hailed the harmony among the people of Kerala and wanted them to preserve it.

"I saw a dance yesterday. I was very happy to see three sects of people dancing together with love. I hope that will remain always," he said.

Al-Quasimi, who reached here on September 24 on a five- day visit to the state, promised he would be back within a year to celebrate the fulfilling of promises he had made.

The ruler met the chief minister at his official residence in the morning. He also met the council of ministers yesterday and discussed various issues pertaining to Kerala and Sharjah.

Comments

Syed
 - 
Wednesday, 27 Sep 2017

Appreciated....And Ache Din for Indian Prisoners.....Thanks to PV and Sultan of Sharjah.

Danish
 - 
Wednesday, 27 Sep 2017

Both are good rulers

Ganesh
 - 
Wednesday, 27 Sep 2017

Great sultan... Real humanitarian 

Kumar
 - 
Wednesday, 27 Sep 2017

Great news... when centre failed and state won to save many lives...

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Press Release
January 8,2020

Puttur, Jan 8: NCC Officer and two NCC Cadets of St Philomena College Puttur have been selected to participate in prestigious Republic Day Parade on January 26, 2020 in New Delhi.

NCC Officer, Lt. Johnson David Sequeira, Assistant Professor of Bachelor of Social Work has been selected as Contingent Officer of Karnataka and Goa Directorate to train the cadets in New Delhi.

Senior Under Officer Chethan P of first year BCA has been selected to Flag Area and Prime Minister’s Rally.

Junior Under Officer Mahalasa Pai of first year BCom has been selected to participate in cultural event which will be presented on the occasion of VIP’s visit.

These two meritorious cadets of the NCC wing of the College underwent a four months’ rigorous training at various places of Karnataka.

The Correspondent of the College Rev. Fr Alfred J Pinto, Principal Prof. Leo Noronha and Campus Director Rev. Dr Antony Prakash Monteiro expressed their happiness and compliments for the tremendous achievement of the NCC Officer and the cadets.

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News Network
February 2,2020

Feb 2: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s second budget in seven months disappointed investors who were hoping for big-bang stimulus to revive growth in Asia’s third-largest economy.

The fiscal plan -- delivered by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday -- proposed tax cuts for individuals and wider deficit targets but failed to provide specific steps to fix a struggling financial sector, improve infrastructure and create jobs. Stocks slumped as a proposal to scrap the dividend distribution tax for companies failed to impress investors.

"Far from being a game changer, the budget provides little in terms of short-term growth stimulus,” said Priyanka Kishore, head of India and South East Asia economics at Oxford Economics Ltd. in Singapore. “While income tax cuts will provide some relief on the consumption front, the multiplier effect is low and the overall stance of the budget is not expansionary."

India has gone from being the world’s fastest-growing major economy three years ago, expanding at 8%, to posting its weakest performance in more than a decade this fiscal year, estimated at 5%.

While the government has taken a number of steps in recent months to spur growth, they’ve fallen short of spurring demand in the consumption-driven economy. Saturday’s budget just added to the glum sentiment.

Okay Budget

“It’s an okay budget but not firing on all cylinders that the market was hoping for,” said Andrew Holland, chief executive officer at Avendus Capital Alternate Strategies in Mumbai.

The government had limited scope for a large stimulus given a huge shortfall in revenues in the current year. The slippage induced Sitharaman to invoke a never-used provision in fiscal laws, allowing the government to exceed the budget gap by 0.5 percentage points. The result: the deficit for the year ending March was widened to 3.8% of gross domestic product from a planned 3.3%.

On Friday, India’s chief economic adviser Krishnamurthy Subramanian said reviving economic growth was an “urgent priority” and deficit goals could be relaxed to achieve that. The adviser’s Economic Survey estimated growth will rebound to 6%-6.5% in the year starting April.

The fiscal gap will narrow to 3.5% next year, as the government budgeted for gross market borrowing to rise marginally to 7.8 trillion rupees from 7.1 trillion rupees in the current year. A plan to earn 2.1 trillion rupees by selling state-owned assets in the year starting April will also help plug the deficit.

Total spending in the coming fiscal year will increase to 30.4 trillion rupees, representing a 13% increase from the current year’s budget, according to latest data.

Key highlights from the budget:

* Tax on annual income up to 1.25 million rupees pared, with riders

* Dividend distribution tax to be levied on investors, instead of companies

* Farm sector budget raised 28%, transport infrastructure gets 7% more

* Spending on education raised 5%

* Fertilizer subsidy cut 10%

Analysts said the muted spending plan to keep the deficit in check will lead to more downside risks to growth in the coming months.

“It is very doubtful that the increase in expenditure will push demand much,” Chakravarthy Rangarajan, former governor at the Reserve Bank of India told BloombergQuint, adding that achieving next year’s budget deficit goal of 3.5% of GDP was doubtful.

With the government sticking to a conservative fiscal path, the focus will now turn to central bank, which is set to review monetary policy on Feb. 6. Given inflation has surged to a five-year high of 7.35%, the RBI is unlikely to lower interest rates.

What Bloomberg’s Economists Say:

The burden of recovery now falls solely on the Reserve Bank of India. With inflation breaching RBI’s target at present, any rate cuts by the central bank are likely to be delayed and contingent upon inflation falling below the upper end of its 2%-6% target range.

-- Abhishek Gupta, India economist

Governor Shaktikanta Das may instead focus on unconventional policy tools such as the Federal Reserve-style Operation Twist -- buying long-end debt while selling short-tenor bonds -- to keep borrowing costs down.

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News Network
June 24,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 24: Three weeks after the BMTC resumed running air-conditioned buses in the state capital, the state-owned Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has announced plying AC buses to eight cities to begin with, including to Mangaluru and Mysuru, from Thursday.

From tomorrow travellers can travel to Mysuru, Mangaluru, Kundapura, Madikeri, Chikkamagaluru, Davanagere, Shivamogga and Virajpet in AC buses, KSRTC said in a statement released here.

Listing out the measures taken to check the spread of Covid-19, the Corporation said that the temperature inside the buses will be maintained at 24 to 25 degrees Celsius and no blankets will be provided in the night service buses.

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