10:43 Alok Verma reaches CBI headquarters to resume charge:
JUST IN: Central Bureau of Investigation Chief Alok Verma arrived at agency headquarters on Wednesday to resume charge.
Verma was reinstated by the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
More details awaited. — ANI
10:34 Social media aiding terror, need to be curbed: Gen Rawat:
Army chief General Bipin Rawat says that ‘terrorism is here to stay as long as there are nations that continue to sponsor it as state policy’.
At the Raisina Dialouge 2019, Gen Rawat said, “Terrorism now spreading its head like a multi-headed monster. Terrorism becoming a new form of warfare.
On Afghan peace process, Gen Rawat said that there should be negotiations with Taliban, but without conditions.
“Pakistan always kept Taliban in its backyard. Pakistan should be concerned about it,’ he said.
The Army chief said that ‘radicalisation has taken a different form in our country.
“In J&K, youth is getting radicalised due to misinformation and falsehood about religion being fed to them. This is becoming a form of warfare,’ he said. “The biggest issue is that social media need to ensure that radicalisation does not happen through false information & misinformation.
Radicalisation through social media is becoming one of the reasons for raising funds for terrorist organisations. We need to control social media,’ he said. — ANI
09:52 Navy’s ROV maps rat hole access at Meghalaya mine site:
As part of the ongoing efforts to rescue the trapped miners from a flooded coal mine in Ksan near Lytein River in East Jaintia Hills, Indian Navy’s Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) probes, up to a distance of 100 feet, have been successfully undertaken inside the two identified rat holes which run horizontal to the vertical shaft, informed Eastern Naval Command on Tuesday.
The ROV operations are aimed at identifying and entering the rat holes in the incident shaft while simultaneously sanitising the adjacent shafts.
“Since diving was not feasible, simultaneous ROV operations were undertaken in the adjacent shafts which are likely to be linked to the incident shaft through a network of rat holes.
“Two shafts have been sanitized thus far without any trace of miners. The probes by ROV in the incident shaft have been undertaken at night on several occasions and two rat holes out of a probable four have been identified,” read a press release shared by Eastern Naval Command.
It further added that considering the limited dimension of the incident shaft at the bottom and dewatering being a greater priority, ROV operations in the incident shaft have been curtailed and would commence when permitted by imperatives of dewatering.
ROV ops in adjacent shafts would continue in the meanwhile.
A total of five naval ROVs have been augmented on site and simultaneous probes are being undertaken to maximise coverage.
The Indian Naval diving team from Visakhapatnam has been a part of the Meghalaya mines rescue operations since Dec 28.
The team’s initial contribution involved depth measurement, marking of the shaft at various levels and UWROV (Under Water Remotely Operated Vehicle) probes for obstructions/ entanglements below the waterline.
The local authorities and National Disaster Response Force have also been involved in the rescue effort.
15 miners have been trapped in a 370-feet deep illegal mine in Lumthari village since December 13 last year, when the water from the nearby Lytein River flooded the mine.
Since then, rescuers are struggling hard to pump out water from the inundated mine.
So far, attempts by rescuers to reach them have yielded no result. — ANI
08:54 In TV address, Trump pushes for wall to end ‘border crisis’:
United States President Donald Trump made a plea for border wall funding on Tuesday night in a televised address, declaring that there is ‘a humanitarian crisis, a crisis of the heart and a crisis of the soul’.
Addressing the nation from the Oval Office for the first time, Trump argued for funding on security and humanitarian grounds as he sought to put pressure on newly empowered Democrats amid an extended partial government shutdown.
The US president called on Democrats to return to the White House to meet with him, saying it was ‘immoral’ for ‘politicians to do nothing’.
Trump, who has long railed against illegal immigration at the border, has recently seized on humanitarian concerns to argue there is a broader crisis that can only be solved with a wall along the US-Mexico border.
But critics say the security risks are overblown and his administration is at least partly to blame for the humanitarian situation.
Democrats have vowed to block funding for a wall, which they say would be immoral and ineffective, and have called on Trump to reopen shuttered portions of the government while border negotiations continue. — Agencies
08:35 India expected to grow at 7.3% in 2018-19: World Bank:
India’s gross domestic product is expected to grow at 7.3 per cent in the fiscal year 2018-19, and 7.5 per cent in the following two years, the World Bank has forecast, attributing it to an upswing in consumption and investment.
The bank said India will continue to be the fastest growing major economy in the world.
China’s economic growth is projected to slow down to 6.2 each in 2019 and 2020 and 6 per cent in 2021, according to the January 2019 Global Economic Prospects report released by the World Bank on Tuesday.
In 2018, the Chinese economy is estimated to have grown by 6.5 per cent as against India’s 7.3 per cent.
In 2017, China with 6.9 per cent growth was marginally ahead of India’s 6.7 per cent, mainly because the slowdown in the Indian economy due to demonetisation and implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the report said.
“India’s growth outlook is still robust. India is still the fastest growing major economy,” World Bank Prospects Group Director Ayhan Kose told PTI in an interview.
“With investment picking up and consumption remaining strong, we expect India to grow 7.3 per cent in the fiscal year 2018-2019, and average 7.5 per cent in 2019 and 2020. India registered quite a bit of pick up in doing business ranking. The growth momentum is there (in India),” Kose told PTI.
In India, the growth has accelerated, driven by an upswing in consumption, and investment growth has firmed as the effects of temporary factors wane, the World Bank said in its latest report.
Domestic demand has strengthened as the benefits of structural reforms such as the Goods and Services Tax (GST) harmonisation and bank recapitalisation take effect.
“India’s growth accelerated to an estimated 7.3 per cent in FY2018/19 (April to March) as economic activity continued to recover with strong domestic demand. While investment continued to strengthen amid the GST harmonisation and a rebound of credit growth, consumption remained the major contributor to growth,” the World Bank said.
According to the report, India’s GDP is forecast to grow by 7.3 per cent in FY2018/19 and 7.5 per cent thereafter, in line with June forecasts.
Private consumption is projected to remain robust and investment growth is expected to continue as the benefits of recent policy reforms begin to materialise and credit rebounds.
Strong domestic demand is envisioned to widen the current account deficit to 2.6 per cent of GDP next year. Inflation is projected to rise somewhat above the midpoint of the Reserve Bank of India’s target range of 2 to 6 per cent, mainly owing to energy and food prices, the bank said.
It said in India the recent introduction of the GST and steps toward demonetisation are expected to encourage a shift from the informal to the formal sector.
“India’s recent growth numbers suggest that the economy remains robust despite temporary setbacks (due top demonetisation and GST),” Kose said.
The World Bank’s estimate suggest that India’s potential growth rate is around seven per cent, and is expected to remain around seven per cent, he said in response to a question.
“The fact is that Indian economy is being able to deliver growth slightly above its potential is a very good sign,” he added.
Refraining from commenting on the economic performance of the Modi Government that too in an election year, the World Bank official said growth performance of India as compared to other emerging markets has been quite impressive.
“India’s growth performance has been quite impressive. Year after year it has delivered strong numbers around its potential growth,” he said. — PTI
00:22 Amazon emerges as most valuable US firm amid market turmoil:
Amazon has eclipsed Microsoft as the most valuable publicly traded company in the US as a see-sawing stock market continues to reshuffle corporate America’s pecking order.
It marks the first time Amazon has held the top spot and ends Microsoft’s brief return to the pinnacle after it surpassed Apple in late November.
The repositioning has been triggered by mounting concerns that the Trump administration’s trade war with China and rising interest rates will bog down the worldwide economy.
00:12 UK’s Heathrow airport departures suspended after drone sighting:
All flights out of the UKs busiest airport, Londons Heathrow, have been suspended after a drone sighting, just weeks after a similar report at Gatwick grounded about 1,000 flights.
A spokesperson for Heathrow said: We are currently responding to a drone sighting at Heathrow and are working closely with the Met police to prevent any threat to operational safety.
As a precautionary measure, we have stopped departures while we investigate. We apologise to passengers for any inconvenience this may cause.
The Metropolitan police said: At approximately 5.05pm today, 8 January, we received reports of a sighting of a drone in the vicinity of Heathrow airport. As a precautionary measure, Heathrow airport has stopped departures, and officers based at Heathrow are currently investigating the reports with colleagues [there].
About 1,40,000 people were affected by the disruption at Gatwick, which occurred over a three-day period in the run-up to Christmas. The latest incident comes only days after it was announced that both airports had invested significant sums of money in military-grade anti-drone technology.
Source: Rediff