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Congress fields Ajay Rai against Narendra Modi in Varanasi

April 8, 2014

New Delhi, Apr 8: The Congress will field local man Ajai Rai against the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in Varanasi in what is already the most watched contest in these general elections.

Ajay_Modi_contestMr Rai, a legislator in the Uttar Pradesh assembly, will take on not only Mr Modi, but also but also Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal.

Announcing Mr Rai's candidacy on Tuesday evening, the Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said, "Ajay Rai is connected with grassroots, has fought a number of elections successfully, is currently a sitting Congress MLA and is, in the party's opinion, the best candidate in Varanasi."

There had been much speculation on who the Congress would pick to contest against Mr Modi; the name of general secretary Digvijaya Singh did the rounds and Commerce Minister Anand Sharma had said he would happily contest against Mr Modi.

The party was also assessing all along whether to field a strong local candidate who can actually garner support and make it a tough fight, and Mr Rai was seen as the forerunner.

"The party has taken a comprehensive view and chosen a grassroots leader," Mr Surjewala said today.

Mr Rai is a former BJP man, who had contested the Lok Sabha election in 2009 as a Samajwadi Party candidate against the BJP's Murli Manohar Joshi, who won. Mr Rai had come in third behind the BSP's Mukhtar Ansari.

He later contested the UP elections as a Congressman and is the sitting MLA from the Pindra seat in Varanasi.

The Congress has fielded Madhusudan Mistry, a senior party leader seen as close to Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, against Mr Modi in the second seat he is contesting - Vadodara in Gujarat.

But it is the Varanasi contest that is grabbing most attention, not least because of Mr Kejriwal's dramatic declaration that he will fight to defeat Mr Modi there.

Varanasi votes on May 12, the last of nine phases of polling in these general elections. The first phase was held yesterday.

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News Network
May 14,2020

London, May 14: Vijay Mallya on Thursday lost his application seeking leave to appeal in the UK Supreme Court, in a setback for the embattled liquor tycoon who last month lost his High Court appeal against an extradition order to India on charges of fraud and money laundering related to unrecovered loans to his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

The 64-year-old businessman had 14 days to file this application to seek permission to move the higher court on the High Court judgment from April 20, which dismissed his appeal against a Westminster Magistrates' Court's extradition order certified by the UK Home Secretary.

The latest ruling will now go back for re-certification and the process of extradition should be triggered within 28 days.

The UK Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Mallya's appeal to certify a point of law was rejected on all three counts, of hearing oral submissions, grant a certificate on the questions as drafted, and grant permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The Indian government's response to the appeal application had been submitted earlier this week.

The leave to appeal to the Supreme Court is on a point of law of general public importance, which according to experts is a very high threshold that is not often met.

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News Network
January 15,2020

Mumbai, Jan 15: A relative of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray was killed and three others injured when their car met with an accident on Mumbai-Nashik highway, police said on Wednesday.

The mishap took place at Sinnar in Nashik on Tuesday night when the CM's sister-in-law Vina Karande and six other relatives were returning from Shirdi in a sports utility vehicle (SUV), Nashik (Rural) Superintendent of Police Aarti Singh said.

The car driver apparently lost control over the wheels, following which the vehicle overturned on a roadside while passing through a narrow bridge, located around 190 km from here, the official said.

They were rushed to a hospital in Nashik where Ajay Karande, husband of Vina Karande, died during treatment, the official said.

The three others were undergoing treatment at the hospital, the police said, adding that their condition was reported to be out of danger.

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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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