NDA's Harivansh defeats Cong’s Hariprasad to become Rajya Sabha deputy chairman

Agencies
August 9, 2018

New Delhi, Aug 9: The NDA candidate Harivansh Narayan Singh on Thursday trounced joint Opposition candidate B K Hariprasad of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman elections.

While the JD(U)'s Harivansh got 125 votes, Hariprasad got 105. Two YSR Congress MPs, who had said on Wednesday that they will vote for Hariprasad, abstained while three AAP MPs did not come for voting in protest against Congress president Rahul Gandhi who did not call their leader Arvind Kejriwal as demanded by them.

The NDA, which had the support of 109 MPs, got the support of six TRS, nine BJD and one INLD MP. Union minister Arun Jaitley, who is recuperating from a kidney replacement surgery, came to Parliament for the first time to vote in the election.

The Opposition plans to upset the NDA went for a toss on Wednesday night after the BJD announced its support to Harivansh. The BJP's decision to field the JD(U) leader gave Patnaik room for pledging support of his nine MPs, nullifying the Congress' plea to abstain from voting.

If it was a BJP candidate, it would have been difficult for Patnaik to offer support and the saffron party quickly tweaked its strategy to field the JD(U) leader by bypassing claims of a long-standing ally Akali Dal, which was upset over the decision. However, the Akali Dal did not up the ante and voted for Harivansh.

Socialist history helps

Harivansh's socialist history also helped the BJP to garner support from the INLD and the BJD, which are at loggerheads with the saffron party in Haryana and Odisha. The TRS, which initially showed an inclination for a Federal Front mooted by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, also quickly joined the ruling side.

For the NDA and the BJP, the results and the BJD's support gave an opportunity to display its political manoeuvring capabilities ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and sowing seeds of doubt in the minds of smaller parties who could join the Opposition bandwagon.

However, the Opposition said the results were expected after the BJD's decision and claimed it exposed Patnaik more than their vulnerabilities. "We know there are CBI, ED and other agencies. We know it has been misused. So people will support," a senior Opposition leader said.

The NDA sources said the top BJP leadership did the spadework much before the election schedule was announced on Monday. An Opposition leader claimed the opponent ensured numbers and only then it came up with the date.

The Opposition also got a jolt when the AAP played the hardball saying they will vote for Hariprasad only if Rahul calls Kejriwal. The AAP did not come for voting. The YSR Congress, which said it will vote for Hariprasad, also made a U-turn on Thursday morning by abstaining.

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News Network
January 30,2020

Mumbai, Jan 30: The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) has arrested Dr Kafeel Khan from Mumbai airport for allegedly making inflammatory statements at AMU during protests against the Citizenship Amendments Act (CAA) last month, officials said.

Khan was arrested on Wednesday night with assistance from Mumbai Police at the airport when he arrived in the city to attend anti-CAA protests, an official said.

"Officials of the UP STF arrested Dr Kafeel Khan in a case which was registered at Civil Lines Police Station under section 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups) of IPC. Our police team helped our UP counterparts on their request," said an official from Mumbai Police.

He claimed that Khan had made inflammatory statements on December 12 last year during the protest near Bab e Syed Gate outside the Aligarh Muslim University in front of more than 600 students.

The official also alleged that the Gorakhpur doctor had made objectionable comments against Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

The FIR against Khan mentions that Swaraj India's president Yogendra Yadav was also present during the speech at AMU.

Following the arrest in the case, Khan was taken to the Sahar Police Station and after completing formalities he will be taken to UP on transit remand, the official said.

Khan, a paediatrician, had come to the limelight in 2017 when a controversy broke out after the death of over 60 children in less than a week at the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur, UP.

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News Network
January 31,2020

New Delhi, Jan 31: Chief Economic Adviser K V Subramanian on Friday said India's GDP is expected to grow at 6-6.5 per cent next fiscal as the economic slowdown has bottomed out.

As per the first advance estimates released by the National Statistical Organisation (NSO), the country's economic growth is likely to hit an 11-year low of 5 per cent in the current fiscal ending March 2020.

The Economic Survey 2019-20, prepared by a team lead by Subramanian, has projected the GDP to expand in the range of 6-6.5 per cent during 2020-21.

The Indian economy has hit the bottom and it will see an uptick from here, he said in a media briefing post the Economic Survey.

Amidst a weak environment for global manufacturing, trade and demand, the Indian economy slowed down with GDP growth moderating to 4.8 per cent in the first half of 2019-20, lower than 6.2 per cent in H2 of 2018-19.

Based on NSO's first advance estimates of GDP growth for 2019-20 at 5 per cent, an uptick in GDP growth is expected in the second half of the fiscal, it said.

According to it, the uptick in second half of 2019-20 would be mainly due to ten positive factors like picking up of Nifty India Consumption Index for the first time this year, an upbeat secondary market, higher FDI flows, build-up of demand pressure, positive outlook for rural consumption, rebound of industrial activity, steady improvement in manufacturing, growth in merchandise exports, higher build-up of foreign exchange reserves and positive growth rate of GST revenue collection.

The survey also emphasised that merger of public sector banks may increase the financial strength of the merged entities, lower the risk aversion and result in lowering of lending rates.

Further, as the implementation of GST further settles down, the increased unification of the domestic market may reduce business costs and facilitate fresh investment.

Reforms in land and labour market may further reduce business costs, said the survey, presented a day before Sitharaman's Union Budget 2020-21.

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Agencies
July 30,2020

New Delhi, Jul 30: India witnessed a single-day spike of 52,123 COVID-19 cases as the total cases in the country reached 15,83,792, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Thursday.

The total cases include 5,28,242 active cases and 10,20,582 cured/discharged cases, the Health Ministry added.

A total of 775 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours taking the death toll to 34,968.

Maharashtra continues to be the worst-affected state as it reported 9,211 new COVID-19 cases 298 deaths on Wednesday. The total number of cases is now at 4,00,651 including 2,39,755 recovered cases, 1,46,129 active cases and 14,463 deaths.

The total number of cases in Tamil Nadu reached 2,34,114.

Delhi reported 1,035 COVID-19 cases yesterday, taking the total number of cases in the national capital to 1,32,275.

The total number of COVID-19 samples tested up to July 29 is 1,81,90,382 including 4,46,642 samples tested yesterday, said the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

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