15:21 TMC MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay arrested by CBI in Rose valley scam case.
15:16 Akhilesh stakes claim to SP’s bicycle: Cycle, the election symbol of Samajwadi Party, today formally came under dispute with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s camp telling the Election Commission that the party is “actually” headed by him now and not its founder Mulayam Singh.
Yesterday, Mulayam himself drove down to Nirvachan Sadan, the EC headquarters, to inform the poll watchdog that he continues to head the party and the decision to anoint his son Akhilesh as its president by the rival faction was unconstitutional as per the SP constitution.
Leaders loyal to Akhilesh — Ram Gopal Yadav, Naresh Agarwal and Kiranmoy Nanda — met the Commission this morning to stake claim over SP and its election symbol.
All three who represented Akhilesh before the poll panel stand expelled from SP by Mulayam. “The real Samajwadi Party belongs to us as 90 per cent of the people support us,” Ram Gopal, who is Mulayam’s cousin and has sided with Akhilesh in the family feud, told reporters after meeting the Commission. He was asked about what he conveyed to the Commission on the party and its symbol.
15:00 Tremors felt in Assam, Northeast as earthquake of magnitude 5.5 strikes India-Bangladesh border region, says USGS
15:00 PM Modi in Tirupati.
14:12 Dog day afternoon: CP Mumbai Police @CPMumbaiPolice Very proud to announce that Max, won a gold medal in explosive detection during the 60th All India Police Duty Meet at Mysore.
14:11 CRPF jawan shot at in Pulwama, but he is stable.
13:22 Akhilesh meets Mulayam at Lucknow home : A patch-up in the offing? Reports say Akhilesh Yadav is on his way to Mulayam Singh’s residence in Lucknow. Shivpal is also headed there. Mediator and senior SP leader Azam Khan is at the meeting.
Reports says that the SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav left New Delhi in a chartered without Shivpal and reached Lucknow this morning.
The war within the ruling Samajwadi Party of Uttar Pradesh moved from Lucknow to Delhi where Mulayam Singh approached the Election Commission to stake claim over the ‘cycle’ symbol, hours after cancelling the January 5 party convention called by him.
Mulayam’s son Akhilesh Yadav, the Chief Minister who deposed his father from the post of national party president, met the full three-member Election Commission today with the same claim.
File pic.
13:12 Society has to ponder on degrading mindset, says Rijiju on B’lore horror: A day after the Karnataka home minster’s casual comments about the incidents of sexual harassment and molestation in Bengaluru on New Year’s eve, Union minister Kiren Rijiju said such incidents should not be seen just through a law and order lens. “I condemn the shameful harassment of women. It’s not just an incident or law and order issue. Whole society has to ponder on degrading mindset,” tweeted Rijiju.
On New Year’s eve, many women were allegedly molested by mobs on MG Road and Brigade Road in the heart of Bengaluru. When asked about it, Karnataka home minister G Parameshwara responded by saying “these kinds of things do happen”. Police, too, said women are often molested during such celebrations and no case had been registered as no complainants had come forward.
During days like New Year or Christmas Day, there are women who are harassed or treated badly. We take precautionary measures. But unfortunately, on days like New Year, a large number of youngsters gather on Brigade Road, Commercial Street and MG Road. And youngsters are almost like westerners. They try to copy the west, not only in their mindset but even in their dressing. So some disturbance, some girls are harassed, these kinds of things do happen,” Parameshwara told a TV channel yesterday.
12:31 Just in: EC likely to announce poll dates for five states tomorrow. Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur will go to the polls.
12:28 Budget session likely to begin from Jan 31: After a near-washout Winter Session, the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs which met today to finalise the date for the forthcoming Budget Session of Parliament, has fixed the date for January 31, say reports. The government has yet to confirm the date. Union budget to be presented from February 1, Economic Survey on January 31.
Almost no business was conducted in either House during the Winter Session with the Opposition staging protests over demonetisation almost every day resulting in constant disruptions in Parliament.
The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill 2014, which was introduced in Rajya Sabha in 2014, was the only bill cleared by both Houses.
This year’s budget session will be the first after the merger of Railway Budget and the Union Budget. The 92-year-old practice of presenting a separate Rail Budget is going to end from the this fiscal, with the Finance Ministry accepting Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu’s proposal to merge it with the General Budget.
11:58 Delhi High Court has adjourned the matter of SP Tyagi bail cancellation hearing for next Monday.
11:48 Budget Session of Parliament likely from January 31.
11:36 Home, corporate loans to be cheaper: Housing, auto and corporate loans are all set to become cheaper as many PSUs and private banks on Tuesday steeply reduced the benchmark lending rate by up to 1.48 percent after spurt in deposits following demonetisation.
Taking a cue from the State Bank of India (SBI), other lenders including largest private sector lender ICICI Bank and state-owned Oriental Bank of Commerce and Andhra Bank announced cut in marginal cost of funds based lending rate (MCLR).
However, SBI chief Arundhati Bhattacharya has hinted that the mega merger of its five associate banks and Bharatiya Mahila Bank could be pushed to the next financial year as it is still awaiting the government’s notification.
The SBI along with PNB and Union Bank of India earlier on Monday reduced the lending rate by 0.9 percent after Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his New Year eve address urged the banks to focus on the needs of poor and lower middle class and middle class.The reduction in lending rates may prompt increase in credit off take which has moderated substantially putting burden on the balance sheet of banks.
11:20 Rose Valley chit fund scam: TMC MP Tapas Pal’s daughter Sohini appears before CBI for interrogation in Bhubaneswar for the second time. TMC MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay at CBI office for questioning in connection with Rose Valley ponzi scam.
11:12 Booker prize-winning author John Berger dead at 90: John Berger, the Booker prize-winning novelist and pioneering art critic, has passed away at the age of 90. The Marxist intellectual, whose BBC series, “Ways of Seeing”, brought a political view to art criticism, died at his home in the Paris suburb of Antony on Monday. He had been ill for about a year, reported Telegraph. Berger won the Booker Prize in 1972 for his novel G, and pledged to give half the prize money to the radical African-American movement, the Black Panthers.
11:03 Mulayam leaves Delhi without informing Shivpal: SP Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav leaves for Lucknow fromk Delhi. He is accompanied by other party members and met Election Commission officials yesterday. Curiously, he left Delhi without informing his brother Shivpal Yadav who is in Delhi. Another piece of information doing the rounds is that SP senior leader Azam Khan seems to be brokering peace between Mulayam and Akhilesh Yadav. Reports say Azam Khan made the father-son speak to each other over the phone.
As the ongoing tussle in the ruling party of Uttar Pradesh is escalating, shocking details have emerged. It has now come to light that the disqualifications of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and party member Ram Gopal Yadav were never taken back on papers. Sources said, revoking the duo’s disqualification was conditional.
It was decided that both Akhilesh and Ram Gopal won’t conduct the party’s national convention. But they went ahead and hence their disqualification was not revoked.
Their case in the Election Commission is strong as only party president can call convention and not disqualified members. Ram Gopal was sacked earlier on January 1 for the third time by party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav after he declared Akhilesh as the new national president of the Samajwadi Party at a special national convention.
Mulayam termed the national convention as ‘unconstitutional’ and dismissed the proposals passed in it as ‘illegal’. A letter issued by Mulayam blamed Ram Gopal for “conspiring’ to harm the party.
On December 30, the feud-riddled Samajwadi Party hurtled towards a split after Mulayam had expelled Akhilesh and Ram Gopal from the party for six years.
The shock move came a day after Akhilesh the party patriarch’s son, came up with his own list of 235 candidates for assembly polls. As the crisis within the Samajwadi Party refuses to die down, Ram Gopal is schedule to meet with the officials of Election Commission on Tuesday to stake claim for the party symbol ‘Cycle’.
Mulayam, and senior leaders Amar Singh, Shivpal Singh Yadav and Jaya Prada met the Election Commission yesterday over the same issue. Mulayam on Monday postponed the January 5 emergency convention. No fresh date has been announced for the convention.
10:29 Anshu Jain joins Cantor Fitzgerald as president: Cantor Fitzgerald, LP (CFLP, Cantor, or the Firm) a leading financial services company, today announced that Anshu Jain has joined the Firm as President. Working with Howard W. Lutnick, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CFLP, Jain will build on Cantor Fitzgeralds strong client-focused business foundation and drive the Firms momentum as it enters the next phase of growth.
Jain is the former Co-Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Bank and has been a leader in the financial services industry for over three decades.
Also read: The story of Cantor Fitzgerald, the firm which lost the maximum employees in 9/11
10:20 Celebrating Savitribai Phule: The Google doodle today, commemorates the 186th birth anniversary of social reformer and poet Savitribai Phule. Savitribai who was married to freedom fighter, educationist and reformer Jyotirao Phule, stood up for the rights of women and fought against the injustice faced by them.
10:13 Bollywood celebs to perform at Trump’s inauguration ceremony: Republican Hindu Coalition India Ambassador and Trump supporter Manasvi Mamgai said on Monday that many Bollywood celebrities will be performing at the inauguration ceremony of Donald Trump swearing in as the 45th president of the United States on January 20.
“You will see Bollywood biggies, Bollywood entertainment and all the ‘Jhatkas’ & ‘Matkas’ at the inauguration of Donald Trump on January 20,” actress and Former Miss India, Manasvi told ANI.
She added that Trump is going to be the best USA President for India so far as he has shown vocal support.
The president-elect will officially take the oath of office at noon, January 20 at the west front terrace of the U.S. Capitol.
Trump’s inaugural committee released an initial list of groups that have accepted an invitation to take part in the inaugural parade following the swearing in.
There will be more than 8,000 participants from 40 organizations, the committee said in a statement.
The 30-share index rose 43.46 points, or 0.16 per cent, to 26,638.91, with sectoral indices consumer durables, power, metal, oil and gas, healthcare and realty advancing by up to 1.93 per cent. The gauge had lost 31.01 points in the first trading session of 2017 yesterday. The NSE Nifty also moved up by 17.20 points, or 0.21 per cent, to 8,196.70.
United States President-elect Donald Trump has taken to Twitter to promise North Korea would not develop a nuclear missile capable of reaching US territory.
His comments come a day after the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Un, appeared to try to put pressure on Trump by announcing his country is in the “final stages” of developing an intercontinental ballistic missile.
“North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the US,” Trump tweeted. “It won’t happen!”
09:27 Kareena Kapoor’s income tax account hacker arrested by Mumbai cops:
An employee of the Central paramilitary forces was arrested by the cyber police in Mumbai for accessing Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor’s Income Tax e- filing account, police said.
The accused wanted to get Kareena’s personal mobile number so he hacked her IT account, they said.
Kareena’s chartered accountant had last year approached the police with the complaint that somebody had hacked her IT e-filing account and tampered with it.
Cyber-police tracked down the culprit today.
The accused files income tax returns for people as a part-time job while working with paramilitary forces.
09:10 In the fight for cycle, Ram Gopal Yadav to approach EC today:
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will send his mentor and Rajya Sabha MP Ram Gopal Yadav to the Election Commission to stake claim over Samajwadi Party election symbol “cycle”.
SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, flanked with his brother Shivpal Yadav, Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh and actress-turned politician Jaya Prada, met Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi yesterday in the national capital to stake claim on the symbol.
“I am still the president of Samajwadi Party and the decision of the rival camp to appoint CM Akhilesh Yadav as the party chief is against party’s constitution,” Mulayam told the full Election Commission.
Claiming to have the backing of the SP Parliamentary Board, he said the party symbol ‘cycle’ belongs to him as he is the party president, sources said.
Interestingly, Mulayam was deposed from the post of party president by the group headed by his son Akhilesh Yadav.
According to constitutional experts, in all likelihood, the poll panel could freeze the party symbol and allot new symbols to both the factions to contest the assembly elections scheduled this year.
This might come as a blow to both sides as the symbol “cycle” is a well established brand.
08:53 Obama to deliver farewell address on January 10 in Chicago:
US President Barack Obama will deliver a farewell address on January 10 to reflect on his time in office and say thank you to his supporters, he said in an email statement.
Obama, noting that the first president of the United States, George Washington, had penned a farewell address in 1796, said he would deliver his speech in his hometown of Chicago.
“I’m thinking about (the remarks) as a chance to say thank you for this amazing journey, to celebrate the ways you’ve changed this country for the better these past eight years, and to offer some thoughts on where we all go from here,” he said.
Those who missed depositing scrapped notes+ with banks before December 30 are finding out that the Reserve Bank of India too has firmly shut its doors to everybody except those who were abroad from November 10 to December 30, 2016.
Several citizens who were turned away at RBI offices in different cities on Monday recalled that in his November 8 speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that there may be some who were unable to deposit their old 500 or 1,000 rupee notes by December 30, 2016. “They can go to specified offices of the Reserve Bank of India up to March 31, 2017 and deposit the notes after submitting a declaration form,” the prime minister had said on television.
However, when depositors turned up at the RBI’s offices in Kolkata, Ahmedabad and other parts of the country to exchange some notes that were left behind, they were told there was no grace period. “This policy is in the government’s ordinance and notification. The grace period is only for those who were abroad during November and December and did not have an opportunity to deposit,” said an RBI official.
07:51 Encounter breaks out in Baramullah district, 1 terrorist killed:
One terrorist was killed in an encounter between security forces and terrorists in the early hours of Tuesday in the Haritar Tarzoo area in Baramullah district in Jammu and Kashmir. According to reports from news agency ANI, two terrorists were believed to be hiding.
The operation is still underway and efforts are on to neutralise the other terrorist.
This comes less than a week after a similar encounter happened in Shahgund Hajin in Bandipora district in the state.
00:11 Pope tells bishops to have zero tolerance for sexual abuse:
Pope Francis has told bishops around the world they must adhere to a policy of zero tolerance for clergy who sexually abuse children and begged forgiveness for “a sin that shames us”.
In a letter sent on Dec. 28 but released by the Vatican only on Monday, Francis said: “I would like us to renew our complete commitment to ensuring that these atrocities will no longer take place in our midst.”
Since his election in 2013, Francis has taken some steps to root out sexual abuse in the Church and to put in place practices to protect children. But victims’ groups say he has not done enough, particularly to hold to account bishops who tolerated sexual abuse or covered it up.
00:09 Israeli police question Netanyahu over alleged gifts: Reports:
Police investigators began questioning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his official residence in Jerusalem on Monday on suspicion of receiving gifts from businessmen in breach of his role as a public servant, Israeli media said.
The move was authorised by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, who decided after a preliminary inquiry that there was enough evidence to open a criminal investigation, Haaretz newspaper reported.
Israeli media said the questioning by senior police investigators began on Monday evening, was expected last several hours and would almost certainly be followed by more interrogation.
Netanyahu told his ruling Likud faction in parliament that those hoping for his downfall would have to “wait with the celebrations, don’t rush. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it once again: there will be nothing because there is nothing.”
Source: Rediff