11:57 Sasikala, Jaya jostle for space in AIADMK cadre’s pockets : In a dramatic, yet expected development in the post-Jayalalithaa era of the AIADMK, most of party leaders have now begun keeping a picture of VK Sasikala, the party general secretary, along with J Jayalalitha’s photograph in their shirt pockets.
Sycophants are now embracing the new order and exhibiting their loyalty to the Sasikala-led party by keeping her photo, Jaya’s and the Governor’s picture. Conspicuous by its absence is a photograph of CM O Pannerrselvam. Many Tamil Nadu public sector undertakings have now appointed AIADMK leaders as chairpersons.
After Jayalalithaa died, the party had announced that Natarajan would replace her as the chief of her party even though she was not technically qualified. Jayalalithaa who passed away on December 5 evening after suffering cardiac arrest was the party’s general secretary from 1989 to 2016.
Image: Supporters of Sasikala wear T-shirts in her support. The text on the T-shirts loosely translate to: Even if we have to give up our lives Chinamma, we will never abandon you. This is not a dress, but our promise.
11:50 BJP MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar invests in Arnab Goswamis Republic: Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a member of the Rajya Sabha and vice-chairman of the NDA in Kerala, is one of the largest investors and a director in journalist Arnab Goswami’s upcoming media venture. The venture, named Republic, applied for uplinking and downlinking of a news channel in late November. Read more
11:30 Delhi LG Anil Baijal returns file on slashing DTC fares to government: The file on the Delhi government’s proposal to slash DTC bus fares by 75% has been returned by the new lieutenant governor, Anil Baijal.
The decision to bring down the fare to Rs 5 for non AC buses and Rs 10 for AC buses had been announced by Delhi transport minister Satyendar Jain in December and the file sent to the LG for approval earlier last week.
It was returned on Wednesday -the first major proposal of the AAP government to be sent back by Baijal -for reconsideration. He sent a note asking the government to have a second look at the proposal, reports the Times of India. Read more
11:27 CBI files final report in coal scam case against Naveen Jindal: The CBI today filed the final report in further probe directed by special court in the coal scam case against Congress leader and industrialist Naveen Jindal, ex-Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao and others. Special Judge Bharat Parashar, however, took strong objection to the IO not filing the report in a proper format and asked him to do so by January 23. The report filed before the court today contains CFSL reports, list of witnesses and their statements recorded by the CBI.
Formally, the meet was to stretch over four days, ending Friday. However, the valedictory functions were staged on Thursday itself; Friday will see only business-to-business and business-to-government meetings.
Day 3 at the ‘Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit’, saw the signing of 1,193 memorandums of understanding (MoUs), taking the total count to 25,578 of these, of which 52 were of Rs 4,000 crore or above.
Of these 52 MoUs, around 50 were signed by the second day. Which meant the state government claimed to have attracted investments of at least Rs 2 lakh crore during the eighth edition of the event (it began in 2003).
On Wednesday, it had said 133 MoUs were in the range of Rs 1,000-4,000 crore. In all, investment commitments of Rs 4-5 lakh crore could be easily accounted for. The seventh edition, under then chief minister Anandiben Patel in 2013, had seen a commitment of Rs 25 lakh crore.
Sohini Das & Vinay Umarji/Business Standard
SC to hear plea seeking postponement of Union Budget.
SC to hear plea seeking nationwide ban on ‘manja’ for flying kites.
SC to hear Common Cause’s plea seeking SIT probe into Sahara-Birla papers .
SC to hear Sonu Sardar’s appeal in Chhattisgarh murder case.
11:04 BoB declares 200 borrowers as wilful defaulters: The government-owned Bank of Baroda (BoB) has issued a list of 200 entities it has declared ‘wilful defaulters’, with dues totalling Rs 2,212 crore.
Among these are Surya Vinayak and Sai InfoSystem. This list is for the period up to September 2016. Legal action for recovery remains a priority, said executives. Punjab National Bank (PNB), also government-owned, had earlier put out its list of wilful defaulters. According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), wilful default is deemed to have occurred when a borrower has not repaid despite capacity to do so. Also, there could be an element of diversion of funds for other purposes.
PNB’s list had 934 entities, owing a combined Rs 11,000-odd crore, as of June 2016. Among these are defunct Kingfisher Airlines and its guarantors, United Breweries Holdings and United Spirits Chairman Vijay Mallya. Kingfisher owes Rs 1,500 crore to PNB.
Abhijit Lele/Business Standard
10:50 Protests against Jallikattu ban in TN: In Tamil Nadu, a day after the SC turned down a plea to allow jallikattu this weekend for Pongal, in southern districts of the state protests against the ban have intensified with agitators declaring that they are ready to defy the ban and face criminal charges. DMK’s Stalin is leading the protests in Chennai.
10:46 Smriti Irani trolls Rahul Gandhi for saying ‘PM is being ridiculed’ : Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani is at war again. A Twitter war with her bete noire Rahul Gandhi. Irani took on the Congress vice president for his January 11 speech during which he spoke at length against Prime Minister Narendra Modi criticising the demonetisation move.
Rahul said ‘acche din’ will only come after Congress comes back in power in 2019. Parts of his speech also went viral on social media in which he said that Bhartiya Janata Party did in two-and-a-half years which Congress couldn’t do in 70 years. Rahul meant that under the BJP, institutions like the Reserve Bank of India and judiciary had weakened.Irani took to Twitter and quote tweeted the leader on three of his tweets.
“Sly tweet for Shri Manmohan Singh,’ she wrote sharing his post on Modi that read, “For the first time in our history a Prime Minister of India is being ridiculed the world over’. In another tweet, Gandhi hit out at the PM saying that he the demonetisation move is an incompetent one and never before any PM has taken such a step, to which, Irani said, “2G, Coal Scam, Common Wealth Games Scam, Augusta ‘” Your definition of competence???’ Gandhi’s most talked about statement during the speech, “cche Din will come only when Congress comes to power in 2019′ was also picked up by the minister and she took a jibe at him by saying, “Is this an admission that decades of Congress rule in our country were not Acche Din???’
This is not the first time that Smriti Irani has trolled Gandhi. In May last year, she dragged Rahul into her Twitter spat. Read that here.
00:44 Graphic on Industrial Production .
00:30 Air Force chief flies solo in MiG-21: Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa on Thursday flew MiG-21 Type-96 aircraft solo, which is the oldest fighter fleet in the IAF inventory, in Barmer, Rajasthan.
The Air Chief flew the same type of aircraft during Kargil Operations and carried out many night strike missions in the mountainous terrain. He was awarded Yudh Sewa Medal for these gallant acts.
Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa is on a visit to Air Force Station, Utarlai from January 12 to 14. This is his first visit to a forward operational base as the Chief of the Air Staff.
Photograph: @PIBIndia/Twitter
Source: Rediff