Thiruvananthapuram, Jul 4: All 46 Indian nurses abducted from Tikrit in strife-torn Iraq were released by ISIS militants on Friday. The development came as a rare piece of positive news amid a bloody war raged by the Sunni insurgents.
The nurses will fly back to Kerala on Saturday morning, IANS quoted chief minister Oommen Chandy as saying.
Chandy told the news agency over telephone from New Delhi that an Air India flight will depart from the Indian capital on Friday evening to Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan region, to evacuate the nurses.
"There will be one official each from the Kerala and central governments on the plane. The nurses will board the flight at Erbil and the plane will reach Kochi at 7am tomorrow (Saturday)."
The nurses, all from Kerala, were on Thursday taken from Tikrit to Mosul by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) militants. They reached Mosul unharmed on Thursday night, their relatives said. The nurses worked at a hospital in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown.
A glimmer of hope appeared for their relatives on Friday morning after one of the nurses sent a text message to her family members in Kerala.
"We got an SMS saying they (the nurses) are on their way to Erbil airport, which is 70kms away from Mosul. If everything goes well, they will be back in the country late tonight," a relative told HT. However, Chandy later said the anxious family members will have to wait a bit more.
AFP quoted Tincy Thomas, an abducted nurse, as saying, "Some here ... they are saying ... we will go to Erbil."
An Indian diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the news agency that the group was expected to reach Erbil, which is a short drive from Mosul but has been insulated from the unrest.
According to the relatives, militants did not misbehave with the hostages, whose ordeal began on June 11.
Early on Friday, Shobha Sasikumar, mother of abducted nurse Shruti, said, "My daughter called me last night saying they reached Mosul around 11pm (Indian time). They are in an old building that is without electricity. So far, the abductors were friendly towards them."
The abduction of the nurses, all of them women and from Kerala, had spelt a fresh trouble for India. A month ago, ISIS militants, who now control northern and western Iraq, snatched 40 Indian construction workers from Mosul. All but one of them are still in captivity. The Centre had said on Thursday that it was trying its best to combat the crisis.
The government sought the help of some prominent Indians settled in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. Some reports also said external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj called up politicians in Gulf countries and sought their help in view of the crisis in Iraq.
The release of the Indian nurses will be a big boost to the Centre's diplomatic efforts. According to sources in the government, the "decision" to make the nurses obey ISIS order to move to Mosul came after Swaraj and Chandy held talks twice on Thursday when nurses were also spoken to.
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46 Indian nurses freed, will return from Iraq tomorrow morning: Reports
July 4, 2014
Jeff Bezos's India visit marked by probe and protests
News Network
January 15,2020
Jan 15: Amazon.com Inc Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos is facing a bitter welcome during his India visit this week as the country’s antitrust regulator initiated a formal investigation just hours before his arrival and trader bodies comprising millions of infuriated small store owners announced demonstrations.
Bezos is in New Delhi for the Smbhav summit, an Amazon India event for small and medium businesses. The billionaire is scheduled to conduct a fireside chat with Amazon India chief Amit Agarwal, anchoring an event that also features Infosys Ltd. co-founder Narayana Murthy and retail billionaire Kishore Biyani, who recently sold a stake in his retail group to Amazon. Ahead of the event, Bezos paid his respects at Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial, wearing a white tunic and a rust-colored Indian vest.
The small businesses that Amazon’s CEO is hoping to endear himself to, however, are organizing in opposition. The Confederation of All India Traders announced that members of its affiliate bodies across the country would stage sit-ins and public rallies in 300 cities to raise a war cry against the world’s largest online retailer. In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week, the confederation’s Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal alleged that Amazon, much like Walmart Inc.-owned Flipkart, was an “economic terrorist” who engaged in predatory pricing that deprived the government of tax revenue and “compelled the closure of thousands of small traders.”
India’s e-commerce market is projected to grow to $150 billion by 2022, according to a 2018 report by software industry group Nasscom and consulting firm PwC India. Competition for this rapidly expanding sector is intensifying as Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, prepares to go live with JioMart, an online shopping platform challenging Amazon and Walmart directly. The latter’s Flipkart Online Services Pvt is also delving deeper into the countryside in its pursuit for more customers. Amazon, for its part, opened a huge office complex in the southern city of Hyderabad in September, underscoring its commitment to the country.
The Competition Commission of India said it would probe the deep discounts, preferential listings and exclusionary tactics that Amazon and Flipkart are alleged to have used as anti-competitive levers. India’s trade bodies have long argued that both retail giants were flouting rules by promoting sales and discounts through their favoured sellers, many of whom they have preexisting commercial arrangements. The regulator has ordered for the investigation to be completed within two months.
Bezos last visited India in 2014 under starkly different circumstances. During that trip, the Amazon founder wore local festive garb, rode atop a festooned truck for a photo opp and presented Amazon’s Indian unit with a giant check for $2 billion. Since then, Amazon has pledged a further $3.5 billion to expand in the country.
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India's first underwater metro nears completion after costs double
News Network
January 28,2020
New Delhi, Jan 28: Kolkata Metro Rail Corp expects to complete its East-West project, which runs partly under the city’s iconic Hooghly river, by March 2022 after a delay of several years doubled costs.
The authority is awaiting a final installment of Rs 20 crore ($2.8 million) over the next two years from the Indian Railway Board, said Manas Sarkar, managing director at KMRC. A soft loan of Rs 4,160 crore from Japan International Cooperation Agency helps fund 48.5% of the project.
India’s oldest metro, which started in 1984 with a North-South service, was due to expand by 2014 but faced problems including squatters on the planned route. These issues have contributed to the total project cost rising to about Rs 8,600 crore for some 17 kilometers from Rs 4,900 crore for 14 km.
“About 40% of total transport demand will be tackled by these two metro services,” Sarkar said in an interview at his office in Kolkata. “It will be a relief for environmental pollution and the city should be much more decongested.”
The new line is expected to carry about 900,000 people daily, -- roughly 20% of the city’s population -- and will take less than a minute to cross a 520-meter underwater tunnel. Depending on the time of day, it takes some 20 minutes to use the ferry and anywhere upward of an hour to cross the Howrah bridge.
KMRC will repay the JICA loan over 30 years after an initial six-year moratorium. The interest rate is between 1.2% to 1.6%. The East-West metro project is 74% owned by the railway ministry and 26% by the ministry of housing and urban affairs.
“We don’t anticipate any further cost escalation now,” Sarkar said.
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Rajnath Singh leaves for Russia, to discuss defence and strategic partnership
News Network
June 22,2020
New Delhi, Jun 22: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday left for a three-day visit to Russia. Singh is likely to discuss the India-Russia defence and strategic partnership during the visit and also attend a military parade in Moscow to mark the 75th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War.
The visit comes days after the violent face-off with China in which 20 Indian Armymen were killed in Galwan valley in Ladakh.
"Leaving for Moscow on a three day visit. The visit to Russia will give me an opportunity to hold talks on ways to further deepen the India-Russia defence and strategic partnership. I shall also be attending the 75th Victory Day Parade in Moscow," the Defence Minister tweeted.
Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar is also accompanying the minister.
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