11:06 Arun Jaitley travels to US for kidney ailment : Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has unexpectedly left for the US for a medical check up relating to his kidney ailment, sources said. Jaitley, who had undergone a renal transplant surgery on May 14, 2018, had not travelled abroad in last nine months. He was scheduled to attend the 10th India-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue in London in April last year, but cancelled his visit due to his kidney ailment.
Sources said, he left for the US on Sunday night for a medical check up. Jaitley is to present his sixth and the BJP-led NDA government’s last budget on February 1. Though it is supposed to be an interim Budget, it is widely expected that his speech would have been full length budget speech.
Jaitley was admitted to AIIMS last year in early April following which he underwent dialysis. He had a renal transplant surgery on May 14, 2018. In his absence, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal was given the additional charge of Finance Ministry on May 14. Jaitley, 66, who had stopped attending office at the beginning of April, and was back in North Block – the seat of Finance Ministry – on August 23. Jaitley had in September 2014, undergone a bariatric surgery to treat weight gain that he suffered because of a long-standing diabetic condition.
That surgery was first performed at Max Hospital, but Jaitley was later shifted to AIIMS because of complications. He had a heart surgery several years ago. PTI
11:02 Woman who made history by entering Sabarimala attacked by relatives : Kanaka Durga, one of two women who made history by becoming the first woman in the menstruating age, to enter the Sabarimala hill temple in Kerala, was attacked by relatives on her return home yesterday.
She has been admitted in a hospital at Perinthalmanna in Malappuram district.
Her husband had filed a missing person report and his family had disowned her following her Januray 2 entry into the hill shrine dedicated to Lord Ayyappa, considered to be a celibate deity.
Following threats by hardline groups Bindu Ammini, 40, a law lecturer at Kerala’s Kannur University and Kanaka Durga, 39, a civil servant, had gone into hiding after entering the hill shrine.
Their entry sparked widespread protests and a day-long strike in Kerala.
The women had said they were facing threats from protesters, but that they trusted the authorities to keep them safe and planned to return home soon.
Also read: How two women entered Sabarimala temple
Image: Kanaka Durga (wrapped in a white shawl) with Bindu Ammini had entered the shrine on the intervening night of January 1-2, 2019.
10:53 Dawn in Kumbh mela with a holy dip and cries of ‘Har Har Gange’ : At the break of dawn, chants of ‘Har Har Gange’ reached its crescendo as lakhs of devotees, ascetics and religious leaders of various orders congregated at the Sangam in Allahabad on Tuesday for a ritual dip, marking the beginning of the Kumbh Mela.
The confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati has called out to the religious for centuries and Makar Sankranti, which marks the beginning of the festival, is one of the sacred bathing days of the 50-day Kumbh Mela.
Devotees braved the cold weather to take a dip in the icy water as they reached the Kumbh Nagari which witnessed a huge rush of people from far-away lands as early as 4 in the morning.
Sadhus of 13 akharas (seven Shaiva, three Vaishnava, two Udasina, and one Sikh) who have traditionally participated in the Kumbh Mela, the largest congregation in the world, were the first to take the holy bath known as ‘Shahi Snan’.
They marched majestically, dancing and humming devotional songs, all the way to the confluence. “Me and my family came around 4:30 am thinking that it will be too crowded later. “Not that it is any less crowded now. Also, we didn’t want to miss the march of various akharas that will be taking part at the Shahi Snan ritual,” said 35-year-old Anshuman, who had just taken the holy dip.
Attracting eye-balls of one and all, especially the foreigners, was the march of Naga sadhus, a martial order of ascetics who move about naked with ash smeared on their whole body.
“It is surreal. I had always heard about them. In fact, one of the reasons we wanted to come to the Kumbh was to see them in real as we are told that this is the only festival in which they arrive in numbers,” said Manuel Matthaus, who had come from Germany. — PTI
10:39 Tamil community in Dharavi, Mumbai, celebrates Pongal.
10:36 Pongal being celebrated in Madurai.
10:34 Tamil Nadu feeling bullish: Tamil Nadu: Jallikattu, a traditional bull-taming event begins in Avaniapuram, Madurai, on the occasion of Pongal.
10:27 Low visibility, fog, derails train schedules to Delhi : Delhiites woke up to a cold morning with the minimum temperature settling at 7 degrees Celsius, two notches below normal. As many as 13 trains were running late due to fog, officials said. According to a meteorological department official, humidity was recorded at 92 per cent. “The maximum temperature is likely to hover around 19 degrees celsius,” the weatherman said. On Saturday, the maximum and minimum temperatures were 19.5 degrees Celsius and 8 degrees Celsius respectively. — PTI
10:14 Rupee depreciates 10 paise against USD; falls below 71 mark: The rupee depreciated by 10 paise and fell below the 71 per dollar mark in opening trade Tuesday amid strengthening greenback, sustained foreign fund outflows and surging crude oil prices.
At the Interbank Foreign Exchange, the rupee opened weak at Rs 70.79 then fell further to 71.02 against the American currency, down by 10 paise over its previous closing price.
In highly volatile trade, the local currency also touched a high of 70.75 per US dollar, showing a rise of 17 paise over its last close. The rupee Monday plunged 43 paise to close at nearly one-month low of 70.92 against the US dollar. — PTI
09:57 Sensex rallies over 300 points; Nifty reclaims 10,800 mark: The BSE benchmark Sensex Tuesday rallied over 300 points tracking positive cues from other Asian markets amid heavy buying by domestic institutional investors.
Market sentiment was also upbeat after government data revealed that retail inflation dropped to an 18-month low of 2.19 per cent in December 2018, creating headroom for the RBI to cut interest rate in its monetary policy review next month.
The 30-share index Jumped 328.44 points, or 0.92 per cent, to 36,182 in early trade. Similarly, the NSE Nifty reclaimed the 10,800 mark by rising 93.65 points, or 0.87 per cent, to 10,831.25.
On Monday, after a volatile session, the Sensex had settled 156.28 points, or 0.43 per cent, down at 35,853.56, while the Nifty fell 57.35 points, or 0.53 per cent, to finish at 10,737.60.
In morning session on Tuesday, the biggest gainers in the Sensex pack were Yes Bank, Reliance, Infosys, Bajaj Auto, Asian Paints, ONGC, Bajaj Finance, SBI and TCS, surging up to 2 per cent. While, Bharti Airtel was the only loser in the index, down 0.44 per cent.
According to analysts, quarterly numbers and management commentary from India Inc will be keenly watched by market participants, and will play a crucial role in further upside.
Besides positive cues from other Asian markets, investor mood was boosted by encouraging macroeconomic numbers released on Monday. Retail inflation declined to an 18-month low of 2.19 per cent in December 2018 mainly on account of sliding prices of fruits, vegetables and fuel.
— PTI
09:30 BJP’s Amit Shah celebrates Uttarayan by flying kites:
BJP president Amit Shah celebrated the festival of Makar Sankranti, known as Uttarayan in Gujarat by flying kites with his supporters and party members.
Shah flew kite on the terrace of a house in Vadaj area.
Shah was accompanied by Gujarat BJP president Jitu Vaghani, state youth wing president Rutvij Patel and dozens of party workers.
09:06 Ivanka Trump to help US choose candidate for World Bank:
US President Donald Trump’s daughter and advisor Ivanka will help the United States choose its candidate to lead the World Bank but she will not be the one, the White House said.
Jim Yong Kim abruptly announced last week that he would cut short his tenure as president of the Washington-based global development lender more than three years before his second term was to end.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney “have asked Ivanka Trump to help manage the US nomination process as she’s worked closely with the World Bank’s leadership for the past two years,” said Jessica Ditto, the White House Deputy Director of Communications.
However, Ditto said reports that Ivanka Trump “is under consideration are false.”
London’s The Financial Times reported on Friday that both Ivanka Trump and Washington’s former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley were among possible US candidates to replace Kim.
Through an unwritten post-war agreement with Europe, the World Bank has always been led by an American while a European has always been in charge of the IMF.
However, that is likely to face a serious challenge both because US President Trump has shown little interest in, if not antagonism to the Bank, and has upended the traditional alliances that make the agreement possible
08:33 Kumbh Mela starts with Shahi Snan in UP:
Amid tight security, the 55-day long Kumbh Mela commenced with the Shahi Snan of Akharas at Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday.
Security measures have been heightened in Prayagraj and surrounding areas for the auspicious occasion.
Besides saints and seers, foreign tourists have also started coming to attend the event.
The Kumbh Mela is the largest human congregation in the world, with over 130 million pilgrims expected to participate in the festival with the belief that taking a dip in the holy water of Ganges River will pave the way for their salvation and would rid them of their sins.
The Kumbh Mela will end on March 4.
— ANI
07:55 Justice Sikri told PM, Kharge he didn’t want to be in panel: Sources:
After a political controversy that drove Justice AK Sikri to turn down a post-retirement job offer, NDTV citing sources said that the Supreme Court judge did not want to be part of the three-member selection committee that decided to remove Alok Verma as CBI chief.
Justice Sikri, sources say, had conveyed his reluctance to the two other members of the high-powered panel, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, the opposition’s representative.
He reportedly told them it was a “pure executive function”. Opposition leaders have questioned why he agreed to be on the panel despite the possibility of conflict of interest.
“In future, no judge would like to be part of this process of appointment. All judges will recuse themselves from this process,” said sources close to Justice Sikri, whose vote was the decider in the sacking of Alok Verma from the CBI just two days after he was partially reinstated by the Supreme Court.
“See, I don’t want the controversy to be dragged. I want it to die,” Justice Sikri told news agency PTI.
Justice Sikri, 65, has now turned down the post of president/member of the London-based Commonwealth Secretariat Arbitral Tribunal, the arbiter of disputes among 53 countries in the Commonwealth. He was to take up the job after his retirement on March 6. Sources say Justice Sikri told the centre he had decided to withdraw his candidature to the London job as “he was pained”. He had already made it clear, say the sources, that this was not a post with remuneration.
00:10 China has ‘underground wall’ to protect nuclear weapons from potential attacks:
China has built an “Underground Steel Great Wall” below the mountains to hide its nuclear weapons from the potential attacks, said a top Chinese defence scientist who recently received the country’s highest defence award from President Xi Jinping.
Qian Qihu, 82, said China’s “underground steel Great Wall” could “guarantee the security of the country’s strategic arsenal” against potential attacks, including those from future hypersonic weapons, state-run Global Times reported on Sunday.
Qian, an academician of both the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, told the daily that the “Underground Steel Great Wall” is a series of defence facilities located deep under mountains.
While the mountain rock is thick enough to resist enemy attacks, entrances and exits of these facilities are often vulnerable and Qian’s work was to provide extra protection for these parts, the daily said.
China’s nuclear strategy follows the principle of “no first use” and requires the country to have the capability of withstanding a nuclear attack before it responds with its strategic weapons, the daily said.
Qian, who received the 2018 State Preeminent Science and Technology Award during a conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday, said the “Underground Steel Great Wall,” is the “country’s last national defence line.”
If other lines of defence including the strategic missile interception system, anti-missile system and air defence system fail to function against hypersonic missiles and recently developed bunker-busters, his work can still thwart such attacks, he said.
“The development of the shield must closely follow the development of spears. Our defence engineering has evolved in a timely manner as attack weapons pose new challenges,” Qian said.
He said the hypersonic weapons that move 10 times as fast as the speed of sound are capable of changing trajectory mid-flight and penetrate any anti-missile installations.
“National defence challenges do not only emerge from the development of advanced attack weapons but are also a result of an unpredictable international environment,” Qian said.
He cited the recent US stance whereby the Donald Trump administration is mulling lowering the threshold for nuclear weapons deployment.
Asked how he would spend the eight-million-yuan cash award, Qian said that part would go to research on national defence, and the rest used for social welfare projects such as fighting poverty and supporting poor students.
“I have never had a thought of earning any prize money for my research, nor would I think it came too late. I am only grateful that national recognition offers a great opportunity to raise the public’s national defence awareness, ” he said.
Qian’s work guaranteed the safety of the country’s strategic weapons, launch and storage facilities as well as commanders’ safety during extreme times, Song Zhongping, a military expert and TV commentator told the daily. — PTI
Source: Rediff