Kolkata rains: Heavy shower turns City of Joy roads into a canvas

(Express photo by Shashi Ghosh) Trawling the bylanes of the bustling streets in central Kolkata, our photographer tried to capture a little glimpse of everyday life reflected on the waters accumulated by the rain -- turning the road into a canvas for a painting. (Express photo by Shashi Ghosh) Kolkata Municipal Corporation and other civic bodies acted promptly to discharge the water. (Express photo by Shashi Ghosh) Due to heavy rains, the night temperatures are settling below normal.(Express photo by Shashi Ghosh) The rain will gradually shift eastwards covering Coastal Odisha and isolated places in West Bengal, officials said. (Express photo by Shashi Ghosh) 'The sky will remain cloudy, but rain intensity will go down. The weather will be better than the last three days,' said an official of the Alipore Meteorological office.(Express photo by Shashi Ghosh) Dailyhunthttp://wiznotes.com/UserProfile/tabid/84/userId/166239/Default.aspx

Kerala government writes to Air India for direct flight between Thiruvananthapuram and Japan

According to a senior bureaucrat, Nissan Motors of Japan, which has set up a digital innovation hub in Thiruvananthapuram, and global brands like Fujitsu and Hitachi are aiming to make investments in key sectors in Kerala. Hence, it is vital to ensure air connectivity between various destinations beyond the traditional routes like the Gulf, the officer said. Recently, the SilkAir airline which connects Thiruvananthapuram with Singapore had decided to transfer its route to Scoot, the low-cost arm of the Singapore Airlines Group, along with its Coimbatore and Visakhapatnam routes, a move which upset the industrialists from East Asia, especially Japan, as they want business-class connectivity to the capital city here. There is a steady flow of air pax to destinations like Thailand and Singapore from Kerala and other south Indian cities with daily flights. So, if Air India starts a flight service from Thiruvananthapuram with a stopover at either Bangkok or Singapore, it would be convenient for the business class community here as well as in Japan.Also, the airline will be able to meet its required passenger strength since there is a steady movement of holidayers from here to Thailand or passengers to Singapore, he said. According to SN Raghuchandran Nair, president, Trivandrum Chamber of Commerce, the capital city employs around 75,000 IT professionals alone in key sectors. "In the changing scenario, air connectivity to main metro cities across the country from Thiruvananthapuram in the morning and evening is very important along with Far East connectivity," he said. Companies from Japan, Korea and China will be the key players who will be making key investments in Kerala in the coming years. So, it is the responsibility of the state government to ensure business-class connectivity with these destinations by linking either Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur or Singapore, he said. Further, the KSIDC - the nodal agency for bringing investments to the state - filing a case against the private company which is set to take over the Trivandrum airport, even after the KSIDC failed to make the cut in competitive bidding for the same airport, is not a wise decision. Moreover, it would send a wrong signal about Kerala to the business community within and outside the country, he said. Hope takes flight ● Kerala writes to Air India MD requesting to start a direct flight between T'Puram and Japan connecting Bangkok or Singapore ●The request was made in the backdrop of the arrival of companies like Nissan, Fujitsu, Hitachi and Tech Mahindra, etc in the state ●The biz community requires 'business-class' connectivity, while major airlines serving the Far East routes from Kerala are budget airlines like Scoot, Malindo, Air Asia, Indigo, etc. Dailyhunthttp://www.dtt.marche.it/UserProfile/tabid/43/userId/6768454/Default.aspx

One cannot compare Dhoni and Rishabh Pant

Dhoni faces none of these problems; he is in a class of his own. He never attempts lofty shots immediately upon arriving at the crease. He always plays it cool and goes for big shots only after steadying himself with singles and doubles.The truth is that Pant, in spite of his lack of cricketing maturity, is favoured by his captain and coach. As a result of this, Dinesh Karthik, who is a much better player than Pant, has lost out.One hopes that Pant will be willing to learn and hone his wicket-keeping skills. This is the only way in which he can truly earn a spot as a permanent member of the national team.N.V. KrishnanChennaiSir - Speculations are rife that M.S. Dhoni will quit international cricket at the end of the upcoming World Cup in England. Nothing can be a greater gift or a more fitting farewell to the legendary cricketer from Jharkhand than India winning the trophy for the third time. Few public figures can claim that biopics on their lives were filmed before they retired from their fields. Dhoni is one such person. His great wicket-keeping skills, astute reading of the game from behind the stumps, calming presence and impeccable finishing skills in batting have all made him one of the greatest cricketers to have played the game. His out-of-the-box thinking has received plaudits many times. When Dhoni finally decides to hang up his boots, he will be leaving a huge impact not only on Indian cricket, but on Indian society as well, since his accomplishments go beyond the realm of the game.Ranganathan SivakumarChennaiDo the right thingSir - It was heartening to read about Dilip Poddar, the salesman at a sari showroom in Surat who discovered a bag containing Rs 10 lakh and returned it to its owner ("Salesman returns Rs 10 lakh", March 19). Poddar had chanced upon the cash-filled bag on the side of a road. He could have pilfered it if he had so wished. The fact that he did not shows that while greed might be tough to overcome for a lot of people, it is certainly not impossible.Although honest people are hard to come by these days, one can rest easy knowing that the likes of Poddar are still a part of our society.Sourish MisraCalcuttaHeavy damageSir - More than a thousand people are feared to have died in the tropical cyclone, Idai, that recently hit Mozambique. The port city of Beira has been almost fully destroyed. Four days after Idai hit, torrential rains and powerful winds, combined with flash floods, swept away roads and bridges. The cyclone also reached the neighbouring country of Zimbabwe and caused widespread damage. Both Mozambique and Zimbabwe are impoverished, much like other countries in the African continent. It is difficult for ordinary citizens to withstand the onslaught of natural calamities like cyclones. It would be safe to say that recovering from the damage caused will be far harder for these countries than it would be for coastal states in a prosperous nation like the United States of America, which have also experienced devastating cyclones. Provisions and medicines are falling short; Zimbabwe and Mozambique need international aid in a big way. One hopes that the global community will do enough to help the two countries overcome this crisis.T.K. NandananKochi Dailyhunthttp://www.authorstream.com/kivonlewisse/ ailyhunthttp://rhubarbblue.com/UserProfile/tabid/61/userId/333923/Default.aspx

Bollywood stars celebrate Holi

(Express photo: Varinder Chawla) Taimur Ali Khan played with the water gun. (Express photo: Varinder Chawla) Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar hosted a Holi party. (Express photo: Varinder Chawla) Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar posed for photographers at the Holi party. (Express photo: Varinder Chawla) Shabana Azmi in full celebration mood. (Express photo: Varinder Chawla) Tanvi Azmi attended Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar's Holi party. (Express photo: Varinder Chawla) Farhan Akhtar and rumoured girlfriend Shibani Dandekar at Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar's Holi party. (Express photo: Varinder Chawla). Farhan Akhtar and sister Zoya Akhtar were seen playing Holi. (Express photo: Varinder Chawla) Divya Dutta graced Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar's Holi party. (Express photo: Varinder Chawla) Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota actors Abhimanyu Dasani and Radhika Madan took time out to attend Zoom Holi bash. (Express photo: Varinder Chawla) Mandana Karimi, Amyra Dastur and Richa Chadha too became a part of Zoom Holi's festivities. (Express photo: Varinder Chawla) Sharad Kelkar and family joined in Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar's Holi celebration. (Express photo: Varinder Chawla) Shabana Azmi spend quality time with Farhan Akhtar and his rumoured girlfriend Shibani Dandekar at the bash. (Express photo: Varinder Chawla) Ace fashion photographer Dabboo Ratnani was also spotted at Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar's Holi bash. (Express photo: Varinder Chawla) Esha Deol celebrated Holi with her husband Bharat Takhtani and little one. (Express photo: Varinder Chawla) Katrina Kaif descended at the Zoom Holi bash. (Express photo: Varinder Chawla) Rapper Badshah arrived late for Zoom Holi bash. (Express photo: Varinder Chawla) Sunil Grover also made his appearance at Zoom Holi bash. (Express photo: Varinder Chawla) Arjun Rampal was almost unrecognisable in his colourful avatar at Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar's Holi bash. (Express photo: Varinder Chawla) Rahul Bose was also caught at the Holi bash. (Express photo: Varinder Chawla) Dailyhunthttps://www.mobypicture.com/user/seenajeeraase

A personal journey to explore the universal

ara's Witness, my first work of fiction, is the culmination of that quest. Scripted in bursts of mystical insights and inspiration following rigorous study of secular Indic literature, it narrates the story of a young girl's search for the meaning of life, figuratively, along the course of an imaginary river - from high up in the mountains to just short of where it merges with the sea before rising to the sky, first as vapour, and then, as cloud, repeating the cycle of birth and death, over and over again.For me, that journey lasted 12 years - which, quite by grand coincidence, is the complete cycle from one Kumbh Mela to another. It is also, by the ancient code of the ashramas in Indic life, the time that a student actually spends in the abode of his master before moving forward to lead the life of a householder.Through those eventful, if tiring, years, I periodically drove to Haridwar, to partake in the discourses at a satsang little known to the outside world.What I discovered there in the company of the seer and the seekers had so little to do with the search for God - of the One imagined, almighty, unknown, up there. And it had still little to do with the question if He was up there, for real.Instead, it had to do with our mundane pangs of everyday grind. What happens to my business? What happens to my wealth? What happens to my health? What happens to my spouse? What happens to my offspring? What happens if I die? In other words, it was all about career, wealth, health, sex, inheritors and death. And why all of these worries, either singly or in collective, do not perform to my command.Zara's Witness attempts to address those questions in a fairy-tale setting, by the river bank and through an enchanted forest, before culminating inside a star kitchen in a dazzling city of the bold and the beautiful. There, Zara discovers the fullness of her life's longings. And that fullness is to be found in Universal Love!The narration draws on concepts from early Indic literature to contemporary Disney classics. It also imports narrative techniques from poetry, theatre, classical music, cinema and quantum computing.The story, and the turmoil and euphoria it brings to life, is only apparent at the surface for a first-time reader. At a deeper level, there are several underlying layers that transport readers to the inner realms of their being. And in it is told the story of subversion: that there is no merit in abstinence. No virtue in denial.At another subcutaneous level, Zara's Witness is a simple musical score of computational mathematics and the measurement of time and distance. Of how one became many over a period of time. How an epoch is hidden within a moment, and how a moment is hidden within an epoch. That story is not only for a mind informed on the subtle beauty of Indic wisdom. It should also fascinate a nerd exploring the final frontiers of computing. Which is why this story is not only for those seeking spiritual liberation or for those keen on listening to the songs of their soul. It is equally relevant for the high school grad, the IIT scholar and the Silicon Valley techie, to discover the beauty of a parallel universe.A few years ago, I remember reading about Facebook's maverick founder Mark Zuckerburg wondering aloud if there could be an equation that could explain everything in this Universe. I am not a scientist nor a technologist to be able to draw up a mathematical equation to satisfy that curiosity. But Zara's Witness does attempt to draw up a linear stream of thought in a chapter at the end of the story titled "The Essence of This and That!"Above all this, Zara's inner journey seeks to invite the Gen Z to explore the hidden world of Indian classics in their unabridged form, to figure out for themselves how millennia old knowledge is shaping our understanding of the complex human mind even now. Dailyhunthttp://echometer.com/UserProfile/tabid/61/userId/503758/Default.aspx

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Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka win opening matches in Miami

I thought about taking a selfie, but you've got to stay in the moment.' Williams played poorly for a stretch and was broken three times but steadied her game in the final set to beat Rebecca Peterson 6-3, 1-6, 6-1. She avoided a repeat of last year, when she was eliminated in the first round by Naomi Osaka. That was Williams' farewell to Key Biscayne, where she won eight titles. Only Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf have won any women's tournament more times. Six-time men's champion Novak Djokovic won his opening match under the lights, beating Bernard Tomic 7-6 (2), 6-2. With the Miami Open's move to the Dolphins' stadium complex, players are adjusting to the unfamiliar setting. The No. 1-ranked Osaka beat qualifier Yanina Wickmayer 6-0, 6-7 (3), 6-1, but she and Williams both found the mix of sun and shadows in the cavernous stadium a challenge. 'It was interesting,' Williams said. 'First it was dark out there, which was really odd. The shadows were so intense it was dark, and then … there was light.' She chuckled and said, 'Whatever. I need to focus on playing better or not being in the tournament much longer.' Osaka agreed that any issues with visibility weren't worth complaining about. She hit 14 aces and overcame a ragged stretch in the second set, when she became so frustrated she threw her racket. 'I had a bit of a dip,' Osaka said. 'It was really hard for me, I think, emotionally in the second set, because I just started thinking about winning, not exactly the things I could do in order to win.' Williams' match followed a similar pattern, but she regrouped after a flurry of errors in the second set. 'I said, Serena, you can play a lot better than that,' she said. While the outer courts were crowded on a mild, cloudless afternoon, there were only a few thousand spectators for Williams' match in the 13,800-seat stadium, with temporary stands on three sides and a net replacing the 50-yard line. 'It was a different court, but it was a beautiful court,' said Williams, who happens to own a small share of the Dolphins. 'It's so different from anything I've played on in my entire career, so I was super excited.' The mood was mostly subdued, although when Williams whacked a backhand winner with a grunt that echoed in the upper deck, the fans added their own roar to hers. The match victory was the 76th for Williams in the tournament, but she hasn't won a Miami Open title since 2015. She hasn't won any tournament since the 2017 Australian Open, before she took a break of more than a year to become a mom. The match was her first since she retired at Indian Wells two weeks ago because of a viral illness. On the men's side, defending champion John Isner hit 20 aces, lost only 11 points on his serve and beat qualifier Lorenzo Sonego 7-6 (2), 7-6 (7). No. 3-seeded Dominic Thiem, coming off the biggest title of his career Sunday at Indian Wells, lost his opening match to Hubert Hurkacz 6-4, 6-4. No. 5 Kei Nishikori was upset by Dusan Lajovic 2-6, 6-2, 6-3. Lajovic improved to 3-14 against top-10 players. In other women's play, Canadian 18-year-old Bianca Andreescu, who overcame a match point to win her opening match, reached the third round by beating No. 32 Sofia Kenin 6-3, 6-3. Andreescu won her first career title last week at Indian Wells. Defending Miami Open champion Sloane Stephens beat Ons Jabeur 6-2, 6-3. Three-time champion Venus Williams overcame a wobbly start to beat No. 24 Carla Suarez Navarro 7-6 (4), 6-1. Dailyhunthttps://ask.fm/seenmeenees

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YouTube Premium, Music: What you need to know

While we are all for content creators and it being fair game for them to earn their livelihood, the fact that these ads were scattered all over the site actually put users off from enjoying an uninterrupted listening experience. To solve this problem, Google launched an ad-free version of YouTube to satisfy our craving for their massive collection of audio; and in-step YouTube Music Premium; an app which quenches our thirst for everything that's music on YouTube, be it original tracks, covers or remixes. YouTube Music Premium has got you covered. The catch: It's paid. YouTube Music: YouTube Music features all the music related content that's available on YouTube all rolled into one service that's an amalgamation of Spotify-esque music from artists as well as user-created music that's not available on any other streaming service. All the music that's here is everything that's exclusive to YouTube featuring countless audio and music videos created by artists and the user's alike. The fact that it's a fully functioning music service means that it goes head-to-head against the likes of Amazon Music, JioSaavn, Spotify, Apple Music and more. Being a part of the world's greatest search engine, we get a host of personalised recommended tracks that's not just based on what's fresh or trending but also on the activity that you're currently doing, such as commuting, working out, mood, geographic location and more. What sets YouTube Music apart from the rest is that it's backed by Google's own search engine. So, you get a host of personally recommended songs, a smart search option wherein you get results based on your keywords used such as vague lyrics, songs from TV shows, etc. By using these random keyword searches you get the most accurate search results; something that's not available on any other music streaming platform. For example, we searched 'Songs from Elementary TV show' and we get the entire playlist of all the songs that were played on the shows. With YouTube Music Premium, you also get the option to switch between an audio-only listening experience and a music video viewing experience — something that no other services currently offer. With YouTube essentially being a video streaming service first, the unpaid version of YouTube Music will only give you the option of viewing music videos without being able to listen to audio-only. Also, if you aren't a paid subscriber you won't be able to listen to music if you turn off your screen. YouTube Premium: Similar to Music, Premium is also a paid version of YouTube for videos. With YouTube basic, users can watch the plethora of content — from casual stupid videos to DIYs, Music, News, Trailers, Movies and a lot more — but with a sprinkle of ads that hinder your experience. Meaning — you may not be able to watch a full video without those pesky 10-second to 30-second adverts. These ads go towards the revenue for the service and those who create the videos and want to monetise on their work. So Google (YouTube) had started rolling ads in between videos in order to make money for both themselves and for the creators. Well — nothing is free today! So if you want to watch your favourite videos or listen to your favourite band, you need to allow those ads in between. The experience could drive you nuts, especially when you play those lengthy single-track playlists only to find out that the music pauses in between to display a product on sale. The other way out — pay to get rid of those ads. Opt for YouTube Premium or YouTube Music and go ad-free. You can also download videos and store them on your phone for later use too. You can download videos from restricted channels, which don't allow you to download for monetary reasons, and watch them multiple times, even if you don't have an active internet connection. But hold your horses — you can only download videos up to 720p resolutions, even if you are streaming at 4K via the internet. As for the Premium feature, you can now also play the audio-only from YouTube videos, even if you put your phone's screen off, which you cannot do if you are not using a paid service. So if you are listening to music, or simply need to hear out your favourite recipes and don't necessarily want to see the video (and waste precious bandwidth), go ahead with Premium and stream the audio-only from videos. YouTube Music and Premium: The price YouTube Music and YouTube Premium have just launched in India. And similar to most newly launched paid services, you get a trial period too — but on YouTube Music only, for now. The YouTube Music trial period is for three months for every user, new or old, a post which you will have to pay a monthly fee of Rs 129 per month to continue using it. If you wish to discontinue the service, then prior to the trial period expiring, you can easily go ahead and cancel the subscription and you won't get charged further. So, if you want to try YouTube Music and experience it in all its glory without the hassle of any monetary obligations, then Google allows you to experience it for 90 days, no strings attached. If you dislike ads on YouTube and want to experience it without any distractions, then you can opt to pay Rs 169 per month, which also includes a YouTube Music Premium subscription too. So, essentially, YouTube Premium costs Rs 40 over the Rs 129 you are charged for YouTube Music. Apart from this, there are family plans available too. The YouTube Music Family plan will cost you just Rs 199 per month and the YouTube Premium Family plan costs Rs 249 per month. In the Family plan, you and five other members can access all the benefits of YouTube Music and YouTube Premium, depending on the plan you avail of. The User Interface: Premium and Music Once you open YouTube Music you are greeted by a page that allows you to choose between Basic and Music Premium. This page shows you what all you can avail of and the advantages YouTube Music has over the unpaid basic version of YouTube. The similarities between YouTube Music and YouTube Music Premium include the ability to play songs without shuffling, access to official songs and albums, listen to remixes and more. In YouTube Music, you can listen to ad-free music, background playback and the ability to download music. Yes, you can download your favourite music tracks on to your phone and listen to it whenever you need, even when you are offline. The amount of music you download will depend on your smartphone's available storage space. And no, you cannot share these downloads across multiple phones or with friends — it's restricted as usual. In both, the paid and basic versions, you can select the languages of the music of your choosing. Being an Indian-centric service, we are welcomed with 11 local Indian languages that include Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi, Kannada and more. The next step is to choose your favourite artists, which will help the app in determining the best songs for you to listen to. YouTube Music is divided into three sections - Home, Hotlist and Library. In the Home page, you are greeted with different subsections that offer a side-scrolling layout. The sections include but not limited to Your Favourites, New Releases, New Videos, Playlists and more. The more you use the section, the higher the subsection will be displayed on the screen. This makes using the service highly intuitive. The next is Hotlist. In this section, there will be a host of music videos that are currently popular in your geographical region, such as Bollywood hits and more. Basically, it's all the trending music that's happening on the day. The last section is the Library and in this page, you get your most recently played music, your downloaded music, your playlists, albums, liked songs and artists you have ever followed on YouTube. Is YouTube Music for you? As mentioned earlier, YouTube Music is an insane catalogue of songs ranging from official music to covers, remixes and everything in between. It is a great attempt from Google to unify and search all your favourite music in a single place without switching apps or having to keep the screen on. The price of this service is a bit more compared to others out there such as JioSaavn and Spotify (not too much actually) but it also contains virtually millions of tracks that aren't seen on any other service. Spending Rs 129 a month may seem like a lot and it is if compared to JioSaavn which charges you Rs 99 per month where you can get essentially a listening experience that's pretty stellar. If the price is no problem and you want an ad-free music experience from a litany of artists and creators, then YouTube Music should be experienced. We would recommend opting for YouTube Premium and Music as a package since you will be able to experience the entire YouTube platforms (both music and videos) without the hindrance of those pesky adverts that ruin the moment. ... Dailyhunthttps://www.intensedebate.com/people/veenekeenes

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Rishabh Pant will be a huge asset: Sourav Ganguly

Rishabh Pant will be a huge asset: Sourav Ganguly I saw (Rahul) Dravid play the role when I was captain. "Pant or (Ambati) Rayudu could be an option. We can give our opinion, but somewhere I feel Kohli knows who it should be," said Sourav.According to Sourav, "Anybody who wants to succeed in shorter formats of the game has to go up (the batting order). We have seen the best in the world do that. "If you send Pant at No. 4, he will score runs for you because he is so talented and he has got so much time to play."Explaining the reasons behind backing Pant, Sourav said: "In his short career he has been remarkable for India and once he starts getting opportunities consistently, he will be a top player. "Look at the way he played in the IPL last year. He got a full tournament. Fourteen games. And he was probably the second highest run-getter in the IPL last year."The problem with him in shorter formats is that he doesn't get regular cricket because you have a champion in Mahendra Singh Dhoni who actually plays most of the games (in these formats). So, Pant is coming in and going out all the time and that's never good for anybody."The reason he succeeds in Test cricket is because he plays consistently. How many Indian wicketkeeper-batsmen have got Test hundreds in England and Australia? And he scored them at ease. "It's not that he struggled. It's not that he looked out of place against fast bowling," Sourav pointed out.Sourav was convinced that the Delhi lad could be an asset for the Indian team in the near future. "For me, he is your future. For the next 10 years, you will see that boy a lot in all formats of the game and not because he plays for Delhi, he can play for anyone he wants to."Just as he's a serious talent, he is a hard worker as well. I have been watching him at nets for the last four years. He is always the first one to come out and bat for longer periods. He will be a huge asset to Indian cricket in the years to come," said Sourav.Ponting, on his part, said: "The first thing I would do is pick him (Pant) in that Indian squad for the World Cup. I would play him as a batsman and I would play him at number four. He is the sort of guy, with that kind of talent, he can win you a World Cup. He has got that X-factor."Sourav, though, did not like the idea of key players not playing too many matches before the World Cup and taking rest during the IPL season. According to him, a player should never lose an opportunity of playing since a top cricketer's career span is never too long."How many cricketers get to play 15-16 years of international cricket? I don't think anyone should worry about being fatigued, being tired. Just find a way to get fresh," he said."I have always said there is limited time to play this sport. Getting opportunities at the international level, at the IPL level, this will never come back. So, find a way to get rest, find a way to stay fresh and keep playing."Not playing is not the solution. Even our generation played a lot of cricket. Yes, IPL was not there as it came towards the end of our career, but cricket-wise, it was the same," he added.Ponting, meanwhile, is hopeful that Delhi Capitals will be able to do better on this occasion. "It is a fresh start for all of us. We have a good blend of youth and experience in the squad and if we guys work really well together, we can achieve some pretty special things this season," he said. Dailyhunt

Rupee jumps to seven-month high on sustained inflow of foreign funds

According to analysts, narrowing trade deficit, weakness in the dollar against major global currencies and the bullish stock markets aided the forex market. The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.20 per cent to 96.40. 'The rupee continued advancing for the sixth day in a row, making it the best performer among the Asian currencies in today's trade amid better than expected trade data and foreign fund flows,' said V K Sharma, head, PCG & Capital Markets Strategy, HDFC Securities. According to data released by the Commerce Ministry, the marginal 2.44 per cent rise in exports as well as lower imports of gold and petroleum products in February significantly narrowed the country's trade deficit to $ 9.6 billion. This augurs well on the external front as current account deficit (CAD) is expected to come down significantly in the ongoing quarter. The dollar suffered after soft US data increased bets the US Federal Reserve will cut rates later this year while the pound hovered near the nine-month high on hopes for a delay in Britain's exit from the European Union. Other Asian units, however, were trading mixed against the dollar. 'If the US Fed changes its policy again, the inflow will come down. It all depends on the US interest rates move,' said an analyst. Explained Strong rupee to benefit importers, mainly oil firms Huge capital inflows are pushing the rupee to new peaks against the dollar. Reports that the United States Federal Reserve will cut rates later this year are driving foreign investors to emerging markets like India. While a strong rupee will benefit importers, mainly oil companies, exporters will find their earnings depreciating. Though any increase in crude oil prices from the current levels may limit the rupee strength, analysts say it's time for the RBI to mop up dollars from the market to stem the sharp appreciation of the currency. In a bid to mop up dollars and pump in rupees, the Reserve Bank of India last week said it would conduct its first dollar/rupee buy-sell swap auction on March 26. The RBI plans to swap rupees for dollars for a total of $5 billion with domestic banks which is likely to help achieve its twin objectives of pushing interest rates down while also preventing a sharp appreciation in the rupee. The benchmark Sensex on Monday rose by 71 points to 38,095.07 amid huge FPI inflows and the strengthening of the rupee. The index had gained over 1,300 points last week as the bull rally took key indices to new peaks. Meanwhile, analysts said the appreciation of the rupee will bring down oil import bill. Imports will become generally cheaper as importers benefit from the dollar weaknesss. However, exporters, mainly software exporters, will find their earnings coming down. 'Such a sharp appreciation is causing concern among the exporters as well as importers as uncertainty in the exchange rate is driving volatility. Exporters who have contracted at 74 to a dollar but could not hedge it, due to non-availability of limit by the banks, tend to incur huge losses. Similarly, those who imported at 74 to a dollar for exports few months back, will now get 68-69 upon exports resulting in setback to them,' said Ganesh Kumar Gupta, president, Federation of Indian Export Organisations. Dailyhunt

Special plea for schools

While there are several schools for the physically challenged, kids with intellectual disability have no such cradles," he said. Chandra added that the monthly stipend for persons with disabilities (PwD) under the Swami Vivekananda Nishakt Swalamban Protsahan Yojana would be raised from Rs 600 to Rs 1,000 from April. The disability commissioner was speaking as the chief guest at the 84th regional meet of the National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities (NIEPD) under the Union ministry of social justice and empowerment in association with Parivaar - National Confederation of Parents' Organisation here on Saturday. Jamshedpur-based Parents' Association for the Mentally Handicapped (PAMHJ) is hosting the event at the DBMS College of Education in Kadma. The two-day meet is being attended by Parivaar chief Shrirang Bijur from Pune, N.C. Srinivas, a coordinator from NIEPD, Secunderabad, and Bhanumathi Neelakantan, chairperson of DBMS Group. More than 200 delegates, including social workers and parents, from Bengal, Odisha and Bihar and the home state are attending the conference. The primary theme of the event is 'Social Inclusion and Living with Dignity.' A number of other issues such as education and inclusion of persons with autism, lifelong care facilities for autistic children, care and rehabilitation, rights of persons with disability, seld advocacy, technological innovation in potential setting, early detection and provision and interve-ntion would also be discussed. "The performance by athletes at the Special Olympics International World Summer Games in Dubai is praiseworthy. We just need to motivate the special children and they will create history," said Parivaar chief Bijur.Jharkhand players - coincidentally all from Jamshedpur - bagged 10 medals at the Special Olympics. Overall, India won 368 medals including 85 golds. Of the seven special players of Jharkhand, six are from Jamshedpur, one from Ranchi. Five from the steel city won the 10 medals. Dailyhunt

Where is the Chow? Kidar hai?

nd yet there are some things I yet cannot see. I see the homes of people, homes settled under the dark night. Homes where the lights have been turned off and the doors and windows shuttered. Homes where they whose homes they are, peaceably sleep. Or so I assume. Or so is my wish and my blessing. And yet I cannot see... But of that in a bit. Of that in just a bit.I need first to convey a slice of goodness. Slices is what goodness comes in these days, ever thinning slices, thinning and thinning and thinning on and on until there will probably remain nothing to slice and no slices at any rate.But this slice has left me most relieved, and able to breathe a whit more easily than I have breathed this past half a decade. I am relieved that a certain TheChaiwala has forsaken that sacred station and left chaiwalas - chaiwalas like me and many other thousands of chaiwalas - no longer sullied of the dubious company of TheChaiwala. No relation. No synonymity. Bless the Lord; good things do indeed come to those who wait for them. And who knows, for all you who have been patiently waiting along Sooterkin, this side and that side of its slimness, for me to arrive atop my cart of tin and timber and resume by servings of tea and coffee in earthen bhaanrs, who knows, I may actually return. It's just that the right moment for it should arrive before I arrive myself, your loved chaiwala, the one and only Mahadeb. But be patient, I pray and plead, and good things should be on the way.And now to what concerns me and my all seeing ThirdEye. It cannot see, not even the ThirdEye, that man who now calls himself Chow, kidar hai? Kahan hai? Kya kar raha hai? Oye Chow, kidar hai?What is it that they often say? Iss mulk mein jis shakhs ko jo kaam saunpa gaya, uss shakhs ne uss kaam ki... well let's just say in the interest of Sunday family reading, uss shakhs ne uss kaam ki aisi ki taisi kar dee... Meaning, good, patient people, that whatever job is entrusted to a person in this beloved nation of ours (BMKJ, etcetera, etcetera) that person made a mess of the job entrusted. But whoever entrusted the job to him? Anyone? No. Was this fellow ever even a chaiwala to christen himself TheChaiwala? Don't know. And now the chaiwala monicker lies suddenly shunned and a new role arrogated to himself overnight: Hello, I am Chow. Kidar hai? Kidar hai Chow? Kahan tha? Where were you? When our banks were being looted and our hard earned millions being funnelled away? When armed intruders were violating our sacred frontiers and wreaking mayhem with our jawans? When humble cattle rearers were being lassoed by goon gangs and done to bloody death on our streets? When teenagers were being lynched for what headwear they chose to wear? When our students were being harassed and humiliated for where they belong? When our honoured judges and officers were being hounded for what values they stood for? When our scribes were being shot for writing what they thought right? When the citizenry was being robbed of rights and respect for what faith they pursued and what names they gave themselves? Where were you that you did not even bother sending out a message of mourning and solace to those among us who were unfortunately massacred recently in far lands?Just because you think they are Them? The condemnable Them? Chow? Kidar? I cannot see you manning your station, Chow. And so here is now my time to say:For the thief in watchman's clothingAll eyes out, O you people, ho!On your vigil be unstintingWhat do they say? Yes, Jaagte Raho! Dailyhunt

India vs Australia 1st ODI: MS Dhoni, Kedar Jadhav and bowlers star in India's 6-wicket win

Jadhav turned up with the bat this time and together with MS Dhoni, ensured India lose no more wickets and won the match. (PTI Photo) Australia captain Aaron Finch continued his rut with a duck early on. (PTI Photo) Usman Khawaja and Marcus Stoinis then put up an 87-run stand but the pari were dismissed within moments of each other. Glenn Maxwell came in at no.5 and had 36-run partnerships with Peter Handscomb and Ashton Turner. Maxwell was dismissed on 40 and Alex Carey anchored the tail. (PTI Photo) India lost opener Shikhar Dhawan for a golden duck in the second over of their innings, but Kohli and Rohit Sharma played with characteristic ease before Australia prized out three wickets to roar back into the match. Kohli, who added 76 runs with Rohit, raced to a run-a-ball 44 before being foxed by an Adam Zampa delivery that beat his bat and rapped him on the pad. (PTI Photo) Rohit's departure for 37 compounded India's problems but Dhoni and Jadhav batted sensibly and did not panic even when the asking run rate climbed above six an over. (PTI Photo) Jadhav made 81 not out, his fifth ODI fifty, off 87 balls. (AP Photo) Dhoni was unbeaten on 59 and sealed the victory with his sixth boundary off Stoinis. (PTI Photo) Dailyhunthttp://www.dtt.marche.it/UserProfile/tabid/43/userId/6691198/Default.aspx

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ISL 2018-19: FC Goa's road to the final

The colour is our team attitude and the team spirit,' Kohli said in the video. Why Orange? @imVkohli tells you. #NowWeRise #ForcaGoa pic.twitter.com/U9uRSbaSkY — FC Goa (@FCGoaOfficial) 25 September 2018 After missing on the title back in 2015, FC Goa will look to make the most out of this opportunity as they finally have everything in place. They progressed to the final after earning an emphatic 5-1 win over Mumbai City FC in the first leg, which made the second leg a mere formality. Here is FC Goa's road to the ISL 2018-19 final: NorthEast United vs FC Goa (2-2 draw) NorthEast United denied FC Goa from getting off to a winning start as they were held to a 2-2 draw in their opening fixture. The Highlanders opened the scoring but Ferran Corominas scored twice to hand Goa one-goal advantage. However, Nigerian professional footballer Bartholomew Ogbeche found the back of the net in the opening ten minutes of the second half to spoil the party for the Gaurs. Chennaiyin vs FC Goa (3-1 win) FC Goa earned their first win of the season in their second fixture against Chennaiyin FC at the Marina Arena in Chennai. The lethal Goa attack that comprises Edu Bedia, Ferran Corominas and Mourtada Fall found their names on the scoresheet as they guided Gaurs to a comfortable 3-1 win at the end. Eli Sabia scored a consolation goal for the hosts right at the dying moments of the game. FC Goa vs Mumbai City (5-0 win) In their third fixture, the Gaurs mauled Mumbai City to earn their biggest win of the season. Corominas opened the scoring for the hosts as he successfully converted a spot-kick in the 7th minute. The home supporters got to witness one goal in the opening 45 minutes but Goa changed the composure of the game in the second half as they went on to score four goals. Jackichand Singh doubled the advantage for the hosts in the opening ten minutes of the second half and Edu Bedia soon netted the third at the hour mark. Substitute Miguel Fernandez then scored twice in the final ten minutes helping his team to sail through a comfortable win. Jamshedpur vs FC Goa (4-1 defeat) After thrashing Mumbai 5-0 and then FC Pune City 4-2 in the same week, Goa tasted their first defeat of the season against Jamshedpur FC. Michael Soosairaj's brace and goals from Memo and Sumeet Passi helped Jamshedpur secure a comprehensive 4-1 win against Gaurs. FC Goa vs NorthEast United (5-1 win) After enduring their heaviest defeat of the season, Goa tried to bounce back and went on to secure two consecutive wins against Delhi Dynamos FC and Kerala Blasters. But they could not maintain their winning streak as they went down 2-1 against Bengaluru FC. They were then held by ATK for a goalless draw and then went down 2-0 again but this FC Pune City took away all the three points. However, Goa finally found their rhythm back when they locked horns against NorthEast United at home. Corominas struck twice and goals from Edu Bedia, Hugo Boumous, and Miguel Palanca helped Goa claim an easy 5-1 win over the Highlanders. FC Goa vs Chennaiyin (1-0 win) It was like a walk in the park for FC Goa in their final league match as Corominas scored the solitary goal in the 26th minute to guide his team to a 1-0 victory. Despite ending with equal points, FC Goa had to be content with the second position as Bengaluru had a better head-to-head record. Playoffs A total of seven goals were scored in both the legs of the semifinal match between Goa and Mumbai City and the Gaurs eventually marched off to the finals with a 5-2 aggregate scoreline. The first leg was played at the Mumbai International Arena and Goa silenced the home supporters by mauling the hosts after netting five away goals against them. The second leg was quiet as compared to the first and Goa ended up on the losing side. Despite securing a 1-0 victory, Mumbai failed to make it to the finals of the tournament. function catchException() {try{ twitterJSDidLoad(); }catch(e){}} function getAndroidVersion(ua) {ua = (ua || navigator.userAgent).toLowerCase(); var match = ua.match(/android\\s([0-9\\.]*)/);return match ? match[1] : false;}; var versions='4.2.2'; var versionArray=versions.split(',');var currentAndroidVersion=getAndroidVersion();if(versionArray.indexOf(currentAndroidVersion)!=-1){var blocks = document.getElementsByTagName('blockquote'); for(var i = 0; i < blocks.length; i++){blocks[i].innerHTML = '';}}Dailyhunthttp://realstate.0and1.com/UserProfile/tabid/42/userId/70886/Default.aspx

Alleged middleman Rajiv Saxena turns approver in AgustaWestland case

The ED did not oppose his bail application. According to the ED, Saxena, in connivance with lawyer Gautam Khaitan, provided the global corporate structure that laundered money for payment to various political leaders, bureaucrats and Indian Air Force (IAF) officials in order to influence the contract for supplying 12 VVIP choppers in favour of AgustaWestland, the Rome headquartered helicopter design and manufacturing company. Dailyhunthttp://echometer.com/UserProfile/tabid/61/userId/461341/Default.aspx

Sun Bears seem to communicate via face time

But nobody had thought to look at creatures like sun bears, who live mostly solitary lives. Marina Davila-Ross, a primatologist at the University of Portsmouth in England, and her colleagues learned that a handful of the Southeast Asian bears, which primarily live alone in the wild, were in a rehabilitation centre near the orangutan centre in Malaysia where Davila-Ross was doing research. Curious about whether facial communication was more common in the animal kingdom that people thought, they deployed cameras to capture hours of footage of the bears interacting with each other. In a study published Thursday in Scientific Reports, they say that sun bears do use facial expressions to communicate, suggesting that the capacity to do so may be widespread and that social creatures do not have a monopoly on expressing themselves this way. Sun bears are exceedingly solitary. A female's one or two cubs will live with her for about two years, and then set off for lives on their own. Adults seem to rarely meet, except for mating. At the centre, bears that cannot be released back into the wild live in enclosures in groups of five or six. For the bears, it was an unnatural setup — but it was perfect for the scientists. In their footage of 22 bears going about their daily lives, the scientists zeroed in on moments when the animals were playing, batting at each other and grappling good-humoredly. They watched for moments where the playing bears were looking into each other's faces, and then they looked for certain facial expressions, like opening one's mouth wide and showing teeth. They found that very often when one bear made such an expression, the other bear would make it a second later. This happened frequently, and so precisely — they were making not just any expression, but very much the one on their playmate's face — that the scientists believe they were mimicking each other. 'It's not just an emotional outburst,' said Davila-Ross, meaning that the bears were not just showing pleasure generally. They appear to be looking to communicate with each other. What are the sun bears saying to each other? 'This is not all that clear yet, but there are some indications that it may help coordinate social play behaviours and be linked to longer play bouts,' Davila-Ross said. 'As such, it may help to strengthen social bonds between the interacting individuals.' The researchers hope that the study of other solitary mammals, like leopards, living together in zoos and rehabilitation centres will reveal the true breadth of this kind of behaviour. Davila-Ross and her colleagues are now using their video footage to learn about the bears as individuals and to what extent they each have their own way of behaving. Understanding how sun bears behave may help determine which are good candidates to be returned to the wild, she said. Outside the walls of the centre, sun bears' numbers are dwindling. Their home forests are being destroyed by human encroachment, and they are exploited for traditional Chinese medicine. They are listed as 'vulnerable,' even as scientists work to learn more about the bears' inner lives. Dailyhunthttps://www.avitop.com/cs/members/juckzingchuk.aspx

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Fire mishap averted at power plant

The monkey was killed in the incident," a resident said. The security staff immediately turned off the power supply switch at the plant, leading to the blackout. The flames were brought under control within half an hour with the help of fire hydrants. "We saw thick cloud of smoke and flames and thought the factory had caught fire. We were scared that the fire may spread to the adjoining areas, putting our lives at risk, " a resident of Siyaljori said. Senior general manager (administration) of Electrosteel Steel, C.P. Pandey, said there was no loss of life or injury as the incident took place outside the power plant complex. "We made the entire plant operational again within four hours," Pandey added.He said the plant was adequately equipped to handle such emergencies and the fire was doused with the help of only two hydrants.On whether the workers were evacuated from the factory during the incident, Pandey said, "It was not needed. The transformer was situated at a distance from the power plant. There was no threat to the lives of the employees."Officer in-charge of Siyaljori police station Punam Toppo, who had rushed to the site, said she was informed about a major fire in the factory, but when she reached the spot she found the transformer had caught fire, which was contained within half an hour."There are too many monkeys in the area. Sunday's incident was caused by a short circuit after a simian jumped onto the transformer," Toppo said while ruling out any sabotage angle.Notably, a contract labourer Kartik Chandra Mahto was killed while his colleagues Upendra Mahto and Prasad Mahto fell ill following a gas leak at the sinter plant of Vedanta-owned Electrosteel Steels on December 2 last year. The factory management had to pay a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the family members of the deceased. Dailyhunthttp://www.jthink.net/jaikozforum/user/profile/97633.page

Marvel fans believe Star Lord had a cameo in Captain Marvel. Were you able to spot him?

But what if it wasn't a shooting star at all but a particular little boy getting whisked away into space?A Redditor has suggested that the shooting star and the timelines of Peter Quill getting beamed into the sky by Yondu and his men in the beginning of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 1 match perfectly. Check out his theory: I know this will probably get buried but I'm yet to see anyone bring up the shooting star that Carol and Monica watched! Quill was picked up in 1988. Stan the Man was auditioning for Mallrats, released in 1995. Carol missing for 6 years. Maths checks out, Carol and Monica could've actually been watching the first trip to space for our little Star Prince! Peter Quill getting kidnapped in Guardians of the Galazxy Vol 3. Jennifer Lawrence, Adele hit a gay bar in New York, dance with drag queens and pass out drunk. hilarious videos When asked about how close the fans came to spotting the Easter egg, Captain Marvel visual effects supervisor Chris Townsend didn't drop an hints. Talking to Huffington Post, he said, 'I've never heard that about Peter Quill, but I love it,' he said. 'I love the fan side of what we do. I love the reactions. I love how much thought [goes into everything]. Obviously, there's a huge amount of thought that goes into it from everyone on our end making the films, but there's an amazing sort of reading into things, like the shooting star.' 'To be honest, this is my fifth Marvel movie,' he added. 'When I went to see Infinity War, there were so many things in there, little pieces were tied up, which I thought were amazing in ways I've never perceived.' We will see Captain Marvel again on April 26 when Avengers: Endgame finally releases. As for Peter Quill, while there is no confirmation if he will appear in Endgame, he will most definitely be seen in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3. Follow @htshowbiz for more Dailyhunthttps://issuu.com/kivonlewisse

ISL 2019: Rahul Bheke's extra time header wins Bengaluru FC maiden title

He rose, worked his neck muscles to the limit and directed the ball to the right of Naveen Kumar. He had stood like a rock for his team throughout the game but so well directed was that header from Bheke, that even a full stretch dive could only let Naveen get his fingertips to the ball. It bounced off the inside of the bar and, cruelly for FC Goa who had dominated large parts of the second half of the match, went into goal. The two teams were locked 0-0 after 90 minutes. Even the first extra time saw no goals but Bengaluru got better of a 10-men Goan team 1-0, four minutes from the end of the second extra half. Goa's mid-fielder Ahmed Jahouh was shown a second yellow card and he had to walk out as the side was reduced to 10 men. It looked Goa defenders would take the game into the penalties but Bheke looped a header on a corner kick from Dimas Delgado and it went past custodian Naveen Kumar, triggering celebrations in the Bengaluru camp. Earlier, both the teams began with caution. Goa earned a corner early in the game but Edu Bedia'e header went wide at a nearly packed Mumbai Football Arena. Bengaluru had a chance when mid-fielder Nishu Kumar sent Sunil Chhetri through with a lobbed pass. The skipper passed it to Miku, who cut past three players and shot, but Goa custodian Naveen collected it safely. In the 24th minute, Bengaluru had another chance. Xisco played Chhetri down the flank and the captain sent a cross in the box to Miku but his header sailed above the bar. Two minutes later, Miku had another close chance, but Goa's defence did well to clear it. Bengaluru strikers kept Goa's defence and Naveen Kumar on their toes, but still both the sides were searching for their first goal after 35 minutes. Goa received a setback when their skipper and mid-fielder Mandar Rao Dessai had to be stretchered out as he pulled his hamstring just before the conclusion of the first half. Goa did have a few chances in the first half, but they failed to convert any. After the change of ends, Goa upped the ante and their best chance came in the 58th minute when Brandon Fernandes swung a cross for Bedia, but the Spanish mid-fielder couldn't get a touch on to it. In the 67th minute, aggressive mid-fielder Jackichand Singh played the ball to Ahmed Jahouh outside the box, and the Moroccon tried to slot one in the top corner but ended up side footing to the keeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu. In the additional time of the second half, Bengaluru had another close chance. Nishu Kumar crossed the ball into the box and Miku zoomed past the defenders. He took a touch and shot but Mourtada Fall got into the way as Bengaluru earned a corner. After 90 minutes, the two sides were still locked 0-0. In the first 'extra' time, Bengaluru survived a near scare when Luisma headed the ball back to Gurpreet but the experienced keeper collected safely. Dailyhunthttp://www.subzerotyler.com/UserProfile/tabid/61/userId/79057/Default.aspx

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Cleared of Russia collusion, Donald Trump remains in the dock for obstructing justice

'While this report does not conclude not the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him,' Mueller's reports said, according to a four-page summary attorney general William Barr sent to the Congress and released publically. But the president and his supporters took the report as a 'complete' exoneration. 'It was complete and total exoneration… This was an illegal takedown that failed,' Trump told reporters before leaving Florida, where he was for the weekend, for Washington DC. There was a sense of relief and vindication in the Trump camp at the outcome of an investigation that had hung over the administration for almost two years, casting doubts on its legitimacy. There was rarely a day when the president did not rail against it, calling it a 'witch-hunt', a 'deep-probe'. 'He's just very happy with how it all turned out,' a White House spokesperson told reporters on the flight to DC, bringing back the president and his team home after a remarkable weekend that included an announcement that Syria has been rid of the territorial Islamic State caliphate, '100%'. But their claim of 'total exoneration' was not supported by Mueller's report. It drew instead from a four-page summary of the Mueller report by attorney general Barr sent to the US Congress Sunday, 48 hours after the special counsel turned in his finding to the justice department. The attorney general said that it was his conclusion, in consultation with others, that evidence developed by the Mueller investigation was not sufficient enough to 'establish that the president committed an obstruction-of-justice offense'. Democrats and critics were not buying into the report. 'The fact that Special Counsel Mueller's report does not exonerate the president on a charge as serious as obstruction of justice demonstrates how urgent it is that the full report and underlying documentation be made public without any further delay,' Congressional Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement. Questioned were also raised why Mueller, a well-regarded former FBI director, never interviewed the president, which, according to legal experts, could have been crucial to establishing obstruction allegations, and which Trump's lawyers had dreaded fearing he would perjure himself, given his propensity for falsehood. And, others asked, why did the special counsel leave open the question on obstruction of justice, given the many publicly recorded instances of it — dismissing FBI director James Comey after asking him to stop investigating his then national security adviser Michael Flynn for lying about his contacts with Russians. Then the spin Trump tried to put on a Tump Tower meeting his son, Donald Trump Jr, had taken with a Russian lawyer who had promised political dirt on Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee. Though it wasn't immediately clear if Democrats would summon Mueller to testify before the Congress to answer those questions, they would be calling attorney general Barr for sure. 'We will be calling Attorney General Barr in to testify before @HouseJudiciary in the near future,' Jerry Nadler, chairperson of the Democrat-led House judiciary committee, tweeted. As this political battle shifts now to the Congress to be waged alongside or as a part of other congressional hearings and investigations, Trump's legal troubles will continue. The US attorney for the Southern District of New York, for instance, has an open investigation into campaign funding violation in the payment of hush-money to women who claimed to have had affairs with the president in which Trump was implicated by his former personal attorney and fixer Michael Cohen. Mueller began his probe in May 2017, just a few months after Trump took office, to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 elections, which American intelligence had concluded was intended to help Trump; if there was collusion from the Trump campaign; and anything else that came up. In the 22 months since, the special counsel's office brought more than 100 charges against 34 people and three companies. Some of them pleaded guilty including the president's first national security adviser Michael Flynn and campaign executive Rick Gates, and one, campaign chai Paul Manafort was convicted. There are 25 Russian individuals and three Russian entities among those indicted who are unlikely to ever make themselves available for trial in the US. Dailyhunthttp://www.itsarab.org/UserProfile/tabid/61/userId/42050/Default.aspx

EC must encourage people to contest polls

This was in the late 1980s, and I think elections have become a lot smoother now. Let's look at the process of nominations. Candidates must be over 25 years of age and from India, and they must submit to the Election Commission Form 2A. This is the nomination paper to the Lok Sabha (State Assembly election forms are 2B). The form is filled out by a voter who knows the candidate and proposes him or her. They must also swear allegiance to the Constitution of India and its sovereignty and integrity in an oath before the returning officer. Candidates standing from more than one constituency, like Prime Minister Narendra Modi did in 2014, from Varanasi and Vadodara, can take the oath only once (however, the security deposit for the second seat is not returned for such candidates). Candidates filing from jail can take the oath before the prison superintendent. You can swear either in the name of god, or just say that you 'solemnly affirm', if you are not a believer. Then candidates must submit in full the record and details of any criminal charges against them. Candidates for seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes (there are 84 in all) must be on the list of Scheduled Castes anywhere in India. Candidates on seats reserved for the Scheduled Tribes in Assam and Lakshadweep must be from those states' particular tribes. Candidates will be disqualified if they are: found to be insane by a court or if they are insolvent (bankrupt). I cannot think of any instances in our history where a disqualification under these two grounds has happened. Perhaps now, with the bankruptcy law, this might change. Candidates are also disqualified if they have been convicted for some specific offences that are listed. These include promoting hatred between groups, bribery, rape, caste discrimination, smuggling, terrorism, drugs, insulting the flag and promoting sati. The disqualification is for six years from the date of the conviction. The Election Commission itself recommends that candidates fight for their nomination. The handbook it issues says: 'In one word, when any objection is raised against your nomination paper you should try to impress upon the returning officer that he should not reject the nomination paper on any flimsy or technical ground. If he is satisfied as to the identity of the candidate and of the proposer then he should not reject the nomination paper only on ground of any technical defect or inaccurate description in the name of candidate or the proposer or the inaccurate description of any place.' And: 'Tell the Returning Officer that if he rejects any nomination paper on any such technical unsubstantial or flimsy ground then that may be regarded as an improper rejection of a nomination paper which may have the effect of voiding the entire election thus involving a huge waste of public money, public time and public energy.' I think the process is fine except for the security deposit and its forfeiture. Candidates who do not get more than 16.6 per cent of the total votes polled lose their deposit. This is often reported in the media, and the opponents laugh about it. More than 75 per cent of all candidates, meaning over 64,000 people, have lost their deposits since our first election. My Election Commission handbook says the deposit is `10,000 and for SC/ST candidates it is `5,000. This is not much money. It's too small an amount to deter those who want to maliciously crowd a ballot paper and make it very long. On the other hand, it does not prevent those who are contesting with ulterior motives (for example, with the intention of withdrawing later after collecting bribes from other candidates). The law on forfeiting deposits exists in all or most Commonwealth nations and comes to us as a gift from England. There is no reason for us to continue with this tradition. Forfeiture of deposit discourages people from contesting, especially those who are not from the major political parties. The very idea of forfeiture seems to suggest some sort of failure on the part of those who do not get more than 16 per cent of the vote, which is harsh, particularly in a large nation like India. It also punishes small groups and small interests and small coalitions. We would do well to encourage all Indians to participate in democracy by contesting and laws that prevent or deter individuals and parties should be relooked at. ... Dailyhunthttps://www.intensedebate.com/people/juckzingchuk

Salman Khan at Aashritha's wedding!

Sources tell us Venkatesh and Salman are good friends they share a close bond though the former doesn't brag about it. So Salman's presence was no surprise. Though guests present at the wedding ceremony were requested not to click pictures of the festivities and upload it on social media, pictures of Salman Khan at the function have gone viral. Naga Chaitanya and his wife, Samantha, also attended the wedding, as one may infer from the picture that they have posted on Instagram. Likewise, it is heard that a few other actors from the Tollywood industry, who are very close to actor Venkatesh, were also present at the event in Jaipur. ... Dailyhunthttps://www.theverge.com/users/michealrate

Jet Airways shares zoom 15.5 per cent as Naresh Goyal steps down

The decision was taken at the airline's board meeting held in Mumbai Monday. While the airline made an official announcement about the board's decisions after the markets closed, reports have been doing the rounds since morning that Goyal would be stepping down from the board. In the filing to the stock exchanges, Jet Airways said Naresh Goyal, Anita Goyal and one nominee of Etihad Airways PJSC would step down from the board. Abu Dhabi-based Etihad is a strategic partner with 24 per cent stake in Jet Airways. Naresh Goyal would also cease to be the chairman, the filing said. Jet Airways, which has been operating for more than 25 years, is grappling with financial crunch and is also looking to raise fresh funds. The airline has suspended operations on at least 14 international routes till the end of April and over 80 planes are on the ground. As many as 54 aircraft have been grounded due to non-payment of lease rentals. Dailyhunthttp://www.gdempsey.com/UserProfile/tabid/57/userId/113110/Default.aspx

Shocked to get Congress ticket for Davangere: Shamanur Shivashankarappa.

Indirectly attacking the state Congress unit, Mr Shamanur said he was unceremoniously dropped from the ministry by the previous government headed by Chief Mnister Siddaramaiah on the grounds of 'old age' and 'non-performance'. But, these two aspects didn't come for consideration while allotting the ticket to contest for the Lok Sabha. Already, he has been Lok Sabha member once and won the Assembly seats for five consecutive times. "I will be meeting state Congress leaders in Bengaluru to discuss about it. However, I will contest if the party high command wants me to". He ruled out recommending his son and former minister, Mr S.S. Mallikarjun for the Davangere seat and said children would not listen to what they say. The high command was free to give the ticket any candidate of their choice and he would never interfere in it. He would work for the victory of the candidate named by party bosses, he added. It may be mentioned here that there had been infighting among candidates in some parliamentary constituencies to secure the ticket for the LS polls. But, it is a different story as far as Davangere LS constituency where a veteran Congressman is getting the ticket without filing an application. ... Dailyhunthttps://able2know.org/user/koramenschep/

https://justpaste.it/3rpze

Race that set Boeing on crash course

Instead, it decided to update its workhorse 737, promising the plane would be done in six years.The 737 Max was born roughly three months later.The competitive pressure to build the jet - which permeated the entire design and development - now threatens the reputation and profits of Boeing, after two deadly crashes of the 737 Max in less than five months. Prosecutors and regulators are investigating whether the effort to design, produce and certify the Max was rushed, leading Boeing to miss crucial safety risks and to underplay the need for pilot training.While investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the crash in Ethiopia this month and one in Indonesia in October, they are focused on a newly installed piece of software designed to avoid stalls. The software was meant to compensate for bigger, more fuel-efficient engines and ensure the plane flew the same way as an earlier version.Months behind Airbus, Boeing had to play catch-up. The pace of the work on the 737 Max was frenetic, according to current and former employees who spoke with The New York Times. Some spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.Engineers were pushed to submit technical drawings and designs at roughly double the normal pace, former employees said. Facing tight deadlines and strict budgets, managers quickly pulled workers from other departments when someone left the Max project. Although the project had been hectic, current and former employees said they had finished it feeling confident in the safety of the plane.The spectre of Boeing's chief rival was constant. Airbus had been delivering more jets than Boeing for several years. And losing the American account would have been gutting, costing the manufacturer billions in lost sales and potentially thousands of jobs."They weren't going to stand by and let Airbus steal market share," said Mike Renzelmann, an engineer who retired in 2016 from Boeing's flight control team on the 737 Max.Airbus? Not a threatBoeing didn't seem bothered at first by the A320neo, the fuel-efficient plane that Airbus announced in 2010.At a meeting in January of the next year, James F. Albaugh, the chief executive of Boeing's commercial airplanes division, told employees that Airbus would probably go over budget creating a plane that carriers didn't really want, according to a recording of the meeting reviewed by The Times.Albaugh boasted that carriers were already paying more for Boeing's single-aisle jet than the Airbus version. He didn't see the need to strike now - Boeing could wait until the end of the decade to produce a new plane from scratch, the executive said."I don't think we need to get too spun up over the fact that they're making some sales," he said.For decades, Airbus was barely on Boeing's radar. A consortium started in 1970 by several European countries, it was slow to compete globally. Boeing, founded in 1916, dominated the passenger-jet market with its 737 midsize jet and the 747 jumbo jet.Then came John Leahy, an American who rose through the ranks to become the chief Airbus salesman in 1994. Leahy was relentless. Once, the chief executive of an airline got sick just as a deal was about to close. Leahy travelled to the man's house, and the executive signed the papers while wearing his bathrobe."Boeing thought we were a flash in the pan," Leahy said in an interview. "But I thought there was no reason we couldn't have 50 per cent of the market."Leahy scored a major coup in 1999 when JetBlue decided to launch with a fleet composed entirely of Airbus A320s. In the years that followed, more low-cost carriers around the world, like easyJet, placed big orders, too.Airbus had pulled ahead of Boeing by 2005. "Boeing has struggled with the development work needed to take the company into the 21st century," Tim Clark, president of Emirates, the Dubai airline, said that year. Airbus, he said, "has been braver, more brazen".In 2008, Airbus delivered 483 airplanes, while Boeing delivered just 375. Three years later at the Paris Air Show, Airbus took orders for 730 aircraft, worth some $72.2 billion, with its new fuel-efficient version dominating."Boeing was just completely arrogant in dismissing the viability of the A320," said Scott Hamilton, managing director of the Leeham Company, an aviation consulting firm.American challengeAs American considered placing its largest-ever aircraft order exclusively with Airbus in the spring of 2011, executives at the carrier initially didn't believe Boeing thought that the threat was real, according to a person involved with the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.Airbus had a team camped out in a suite at the Ritz-Carlton in Dallas, near American's headquarters. Leahy travelled to Dallas and dined with the American chief, Arpey, at the Mansion on Turtle Creek, a five-star hotel. Boeing visited less frequently, according to several people involved in the sales process.With American pondering which planes to buy, Boeing made a business decision. A former senior Boeing official said the company opted to build the Max because it would be far quicker, easier and cheaper than starting from scratch, and would provide almost as much fuel savings for airlines.Eventually, American decided to makes deals with both Boeing and Airbus, buying hundreds of jets from each. Arpey called McNerney again, this time reading from a script to carefully calibrate his words. First, he congratulated the Boeing chief on the deal, according to the person with knowledge of the discussions. Then he broke the news that American would also place an order with Airbus.Race is onInside Boeing, the race was on. Roughly six months after the project's launch, engineers were already documenting the differences between the Max and its predecessor, meaning they already had preliminary designs for the Max - a fast turnaround, according to an engineer who worked on the project."The timeline was extremely compressed," the engineer said. "It was go, go, go."One former designer on the team working on flight controls for the Max said the group had at times produced 16 technical drawings a week, double the normal rate. A technician who assembles wiring on the Max said that in the first months of development, rushed designers were delivering sloppy blueprints to him. He was told that the instructions for the wiring would be cleaned up later in the process, he said.His internal assembly designs for the Max, he said, still include omissions today, like not specifying which tools to use to install a certain wire, a situation that could lead to a faulty connection. Normally such blueprints include intricate instructions.Despite the intense atmosphere, current and former employees said, they felt during the project that Boeing's internal quality checks ensured the aircraft was safe.In a statement, Boeing said: "The Max programme launched in 2011. It was offered to customers in September 2012. Firm configuration of the airplane was achieved in July 2013. The first completed 737 Max 8 rolled out of the Renton factory in November 2015."The company added: "A multiyear process could hardly be considered rushed."Avoid pilot training At the heart of Boeing's push was a focus on creating a plane that was essentially the same as earlier 737 models, important for getting the jet certified quickly. It would also help limit the training that pilots would need, cutting down costs for airlines.Rick Ludtke, an engineer who helped design the 737 Max cockpit and spent 19 years at Boeing, said the company had set a ground rule for engineers: Limit changes to hopefully avert a requirement that pilots spend time training in a flight simulator before flying the Max. When upgrading the cockpit with a digital display, he said, his team wanted to redesign the layout of information to give pilots more data that were easier to read. But that might have required new pilot training. So instead, they simply recreated the decades-old gauges on the screen. "This programme was a much more intense pressure cooker than I've ever been in," he added. Boeing said in a statement that the 2011 decision to build the Max had beaten out other options, including developing a new airplane."The decision had to offer the best value to customers, including operating economics as well as timing, which was clearly a strong factor," the company said. "Safety is our highest priority as we design, build and support our airplanes."Months before Boeing's announcement of the Max, the commercial airplanes executive, Albaugh, critiqued the decision by Airbus to refit the A320 with bigger engines, which could alter the aerodynamics and require big changes to the plane."It's going to be a design change that will ripple through the airplane," Albaugh said in the meeting with employees."I think they'll find it more challenging than they think it will be," he told them. "When they get done, they'll have an airplane that might be as good as the Next Generation 737," a plane that Boeing had launched in 1997.But a main selling point of the new A320 was its fuel-efficient engines. To match Airbus, Boeing needed to mount the Max with its own larger and powerful new engines.Just as Albaugh had predicted for Airbus, the decision created a cascade of changes. The bigger engines altered the aerodynamics of the plane, making it more likely to pitch up in some circumstances.Software for safetyTo offset that possibility, Boeing added the new software in the Max, known as MCAS, which would automatically push the nose down if it sensed the plane pointing up at a dangerous angle. The goal was to avoid a stall. Because the system was supposed to work in the background, Boeing believed it didn't need to brief pilots on it, and regulators agreed. Pilots weren't required to train in simulators.The push for automation was a philosophical shift for Boeing, which for decades wanted to keep pilots in control of the planes as much as possible. Airbus, by comparison, tended to embrace technology, putting computers in control. Pilots who preferred the American manufacturer even had a saying: "If it's not Boeing, I'm not going."The new software system is now a focus of investigators who are trying to determine what went wrong in the Ethiopian Airlines crash and the Lion Air tragedy in Indonesia. A leading theory in the Lion Air crash is that the system was receiving bad data from a faulty sensor, triggering an unrecoverable nosedive. All 737 Max jets around the world are grounded.In Renton, Washington, where the 737 Max is produced in a 1.1-million-square-foot plant, the mere possibility that Boeing engineering contributed to the crashes has cast a pall over the factory. After the Lion Air crash, Boeing offered trauma counselling to engineers who had worked on the plane."People in my group are devastated by this," said Renzelmann, the former Boeing technical engineer. "It's a heavy burden."In a statement, Boeing's chief executive, Dennis A. Muilenburg, said he had spent time in Renton recently and "saw firsthand the pride our people feel in their work and the pain we're all experiencing in light of these tragedies".Boeing is working on an MCAS update that is expected to roll out by April. The company also intends to make a previously optional safety indicator in its cockpit standard in new Max jets. The business is increasingly under pressure, as airlines reconsider their orders and ask for compensation.But work in Renton is continuing apace. Boeing now makes a record 52 Maxes a month, and aims to reach 57 by April. As fuselages and plane skeletons continued to chug into the factory by train this past week, crews worked around the clock to make thousands more. Dailyhunthttps://ask.fm/kivonlewisse

Crop-guzzling insect threatens to cost farmers from India to Thai billions of dollars: UN warns

"We are here today 'together' because we share a growing sense of alarm, but also to learn from each other, particularly from those countries who've already been responding to their own infestations," said Kundhavi Kadiresan, Assistant Director-General and FAO Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific. Kadiresan said nations need to work together because this is a "pest that has no respect for international boundaries, threatens our food security, our economies, domestic and international trade, and of course the smallholder farmer who wakes up one morning to a cash crop under attack". Fall armyworm have been moving steadily east since 2016 and caused up to USD 3 billion-worth of damage to crops across Africa, a UN news release said. The insect lays eggs which develop fast into grubs, which can devastate crops such as maize, rice and sugarcane, overnight. India began to suffer the effects of the flying invaders in July, and the insects have now reached Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand and China's Yunnan province, FAO said. In the case of Sri Lanka, there were reports that up to 40,000 hectares had been infested, damaging some 20 per cent of its crops. China is the biggest maize producer in Asia, and second largest producer globally. "When Fall Armyworm made landfall in India, its arrival did not come as a complete surprise, we were not caught unaware. And that's a good start, indeed it was a good head start," Kadiresan said. The Plant Protection Commission for Asia and the Pacific began raising awareness about the threat early last year, sharing key information on the pest, its spread towards Asia, and how to manage it sustainably in case of infestation. Once an infestation is confirmed, governments are initiating efforts to continue to raise awareness and monitor the presence and spread of FAW on maize and other crops. The FAO has been working with the relevant authorities to initiate awareness programmes that inform and train farmers on integrated pest management techniques. These include identifying natural enemies of the Fall Armyworm, enhancing natural biological controls and mechanical controls, such as crushing egg masses and employing the use of biopesticides. The use of chemical pesticides needs to be very carefully considered, given that FAW larvae hide largely in the ring of leaves (whorl), and that chemical pesticides can have negative effects on environment and public health. This is taken into consideration at policy and field level. With these measures put in place, the negative effects of infestations can be sustainably managed and can help to maintain populations low enough to limit economic and livelihood damage, the FAO said in a statement. Dailyhunthttps://www.vayable.com/users/351300

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Lok Sabha polls 2019: Votes to test the credibility of anti-terror operations

Inappropriately, they did so after the surgical strike in September 2016 and set a terrible precedent. No mature nation ever gives proof of its military and intelligence operations. Instead, it uses the data, mined from such missions, to carry out its future offensives more effectively. With parliamentary elections barely weeks away, Balakot strike was bound to be politicised. NDA has been counting casualty figures of terrorists to project it as a government that makes no compromises on national security. Pushed on the defensive, opposition leaders are foolishly playing into their hands by trashing the aerial strike as an ill-advised, failed mission. There are numerous other ways in which they could punch holes in NDA's credibility but by discrediting India's anti-terror efforts, they sound irresponsible and Pak-friendly. Before it is too late, they need to rewrite the script after weighing the electoral cost which they may have to pay for belittling the aerial strike. The funniest reaction was reserved for professional commentators. Their worry was that triumphalism, war hysteria and outright suspension of all bilateral ties would inevitably lead India to war against Pakistan. They are certainly not in tune with reality. Wars are not fought by jingoism and no leader risks his power to serve frenzied voices. Modi being a quintessential Gujarati will surely never go for it without evaluating its cost and benefits. Actually, such bouts of war hysteria are necessary for India which abounds with cynics, losers, dynasts and opportunists, whose survival depends on perpetuating corruption, economic inequality and regional, caste and religious animosity. Let sabre-rattling be a new normal to glue us as Indians, albeit temporarily. For leaders like Mamata Banerjee and security experts, Pulwama happened because intelligence agencies failed again to provide timely intelligence. They must understand that no agency in the world can always pre-empt such attacks. If that were the case, no terror attacks would ever take place anywhere in the world. In fact, our agencies deserve enormous credit for not allowing terrorists to have a free run in the country. Yet others fume that if R&W had run covert operations relentlessly and kept Pakistan dismembering by inciting and arming Baluchs and Sindhis, Kashmir would have been a terror-free state. For R&W, this option is an easy pick. But the question is how will India be then different from Pakistan and whether we are ready to surrender our moral authority as one of the world's leading crusader against international terrorism. The writer can be contacted at amarbhushan@hotmail.com. Amar Bhushan is a former Special Secretary of Research & Analysis Wing. Dailyhunthttps://logopond.com/theaws/profile/329015/?filter=&page=

Carrie Underwood is back and how!

'I can't lift as much weight or do as many reps as I could a year ago. I just want to feel like myself again...for my body to feel the way that I know it can. As I was working out today, I realized that for the past 11(ish) months, my body has not belonged to me. It was a perfect home for Jacob. And even now it belongs to him every time he drinks his milk. I promise to stop analyzing every angle and every curve and every pound and every meal. I'm going to keep staying the path because it is a journey and as long as I'm always working towards my goals, one day I'll reach them (sic).' The candid post immediately got a positive reaction from the netizens. ... Dailyhunthttps://dzone.com/users/3607644/theaws.html

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Congress to contest all 42 seats in West Bengal after talks with Left fail, says state party chief Somen Mitra

A Congress leader, who did not wish to be named, said as a national party, they cannot succumb to unilateral decisions. 'Initially, we wanted to contest from Raigunj and Murshidabad. But we did not stick to our demand, following Rahul Gandhi and Sitaram Yechury's intervention,'' he said. 'But Left Front has fielded candidates from Basirhat and Purulia as well although we said that we would like to field our nominees. This is unacceptable.' CPI (M)'s Rabin Deb, who was involved in the seat-sharing talks, did not reply to messages. Dailyhunthttps://staffmeup.com/profile/theaws

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State chief, Bharati on BJP list for Bengal

The six will contest from Malda North, Ghatal, Barrackpore, Jadavpur, Bishnupur and Cooch Behar seats, respectively.Nominees from the RSS stable - at least four of them - was the other talking point. "The candidates in Jalpaiguri (Jayanta Ray), Balurghat (Sukanta Majumdar), Burdwan East (Paresh Chandra Das) and Jhargram (Kunar Hembram) are from the RSS," said a source. BJP state president Dilip Ghosh, the nominee from Midnapore, was an RSS pracharak before being inducted into the party. The announcement of the list came as a relief for party leaders in Alipurduar and Cooch Behar as Monday is the last day to file nominations for the two seats where polls scheduled on April 11. As the list did not include the name of the nominee for the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat - where the polls are due on April 18 - it was seen as an indication that central leaders were struggling to zero in on a candidate. The Darjeeling seat has been represented by the BJP in the last two terms. Dailyhunthttp://piqs.de/user/theaws/

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Three fake campaigns of 'compulsive contrarians' busted in a single day: Jaitley

To each fake campaign of the 'compulsive contrarians' over a period of time, ultimately the truth has prevailed. Either it is the electoral mandate or the judicial process which gives the final verdict,' Jaitley said in his blog titled 'Three Fake Campaigns Busted in a Single Day.' Jaitley said Nirav Modi started cheating the public sector banks in 2011. Modi's crime was detected in 2018 by the banks and investigating agencies under the present government, Jaitley said, adding that Modi's assets have been frozen, are being auctioned, criminal prosecution against him has been filed, recovery action for the dues owed to the banks and creditors are being pursued. 'On our request, he has now been arrested and denied bail. There is a strong unanswerable case against him and hopefully India will get him back. Whoever cheats India and its institutions cannot get away. He will be found out. This also busts the fake campaign that the present government had anything to do with him,' Jaitley said. The minister said there is an inherent danger in relying only on fake issues. 'I hope the manufacturers of fake campaign learn some lesson. They don't seem to be considering their brazen attitude,' he added. (This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.) Dailyhunthttps://musescore.com/theaws

Student alleges rape in Kerala CPM office

An FIR is yet to be lodged against the accused, whose identity the police have not revealed, as the probe is on. Faced with protests from the Opposition, the ruling CPM claimed that the accused had nothing to do with the party and appeared to question the woman's allegations. "It's difficult to believe that such an incident happened in our. office where a large number of party workers are present from early morning to at least 11pm," CPM area secretary K.B. Subhash told reporters on Thursday. He, however, said the woman and her family were CPM supporters. "Her family members are CPM loyalists. We demand that the police conduct an honest and scientific investigation," Subhash said.Asked if the party smelt a conspiracy, he said it was too early to say. "At the moment we have no evidence to indicate a conspiracy. So we are not making such an allegation now," Subhash said.The Opposition grabbed the opportunity to paint the CPM and its government anti-women. Youth wings of the Congress, BJP and the Indian Union Muslim League on Thursday separately protested in front of the party office where the rape allegedly took place."CPM offices are becoming centres of rape. We can only feel pity about this situation," said the leader of the Opposition, Ramesh Chennithala of the Congress.Speaking to reporters in Kasaragod district, Chennithala said there was no security for women under the Left Democratic Front government.Congress legislator V.T. Balram demanded an investigation unhindered by political pressure."The most important thing is that the police should take cognisance and investigate the matter. But in the past we have seen how the police have found it difficult to take up a case because of political pressure," he told a Malayalam channel, alluding to a recent case involving a CPM legislator.The CPM had refused to forward a DYFI leader's complaint of sexual harassment against P.K. Sasi, the MLA from Shoranur in Palakkad, last November.This had triggered massive protests as the CPM had apparently tried to protect him by referring the woman's complaint to an internal committee headed by two ministers.Kerala CPM leaders had refused to act upon multiple written complaints from the woman, who then had to write to CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury seeking action against Sasi. The accused was suspended from the party for six months.Earlier in 2011, the CPM had to expel a former district secretary of the powerful Kannur unit, P. Sasi, in the aftermath of a rape case.A court in Kasaragod, however, exonerated P. Sasi as it found the police charges "baseless".P. Sasi, who had worked as the political secretary of then chief minister E.K. Nayanar, was on March 11 this year reinstated in the Kannur district committee. Dailyhunthttps://www.mobafire.com/profile/theaws-865795

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70th Republic Day 2019: India displays diveristy at Rajpath in New Delhi

(Photo: AP) A women's contingent of the paramilitary Assam Rifles participate for the first time at the Republic Day parade in New Delhi, India, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2019. (Photo: AP) Lieutenant Bhavana Kasturi leads the Army Service Corps (ASC) contingent during the 70th Republic Day Parade at Rajpath in New Delhi. (Photo: PTI) Camel mounted Indian Border Security Force soldiers march past Rajpath, the ceremonial boulevard, during Republic Day parade in New Delhi. (Photo: AP) President Ram Nath Kovind, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with his wife Tshepo Motsepe, First Lady Savita Kovind, Vice President M.Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other dignitaries wave at the crowd as they leave after attending the 70th Republic Day celebrations at Rajpath. (Photo: PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves at the crowd after attending the 70th Republic Day celebrations at Rajpath, in New Delhi. (Photo: PTI)Dailyhunthttps://slides.com/theaws

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High-spirited carnival

The trend this year is to play safe. Our festivals are not just mere celebrations. They are a fusion of rich heritage, tradition, culture and some fun-filled moments that leave memories for a lifetime. Colours can treat each one very differently. With the growing trend of celebrating every festival with a natural touch, herbal colours are definitely in. Urvashi Vats, expert at Momspresso expresses, 'Distribution of happiness and sweetness in relations through putting colour on each other is the sole purpose of celebrating Holi, but colours available often have chemicals, which are very harmful to the skin. Why not use natural colours to play Holi? So that this festival of colours should really become a festival of happiness.' Mahesh Babu, actor It's all about family Holi isn't that big a festival here in Hyderabad, but the kids have a holiday, so it's usually quality time spent at home with the family. Hope everyone has a fun-filled and safe Holi...we normally just have a small get-together with the kids' friends at home. Home-made recipes Green: With mehendi mix cornflour and you can make a dry green colour. Always remember that gooseberry should not be mixed with mehendi. If you want to make it dark then mix water in it. Yellow: Turmeric and gram flour can be mixed to prepare yellow. The proportion in of gram flour and turmeric should be 1:2. It can be usually used as a facepack too and makes the skin glow. Instead of gram flour, you can also use talcum powder. Red: Red sandalwood powder if mixed with dry hibiscus flower makes a beautiful and fragrant colour. For wet red colour boil two spoons of red sandalwood powder in one litre of water. Pink: Take a beetroot, cut it into slices and grind it and soak it in one litre of water for a night. In the morning boil this water and make it thick. For Ayurveda expert Dr Partap Chauhan, no country in the world celebrates spring as extravagantly as India does. From Holi to Vasant Utsav to Bihu, the entire nation celebrates spring with great pomp and joy. While you enjoy the festival of colours, make sure that your skin remains protected. Here are some simple tips. A day before Holi, apply mustard oil all over the body. Apply generously on face, hands and legs as these are exposed areas to colour. This will not only keep your skin protected, it will also allow you to remove the colours with ease. On your hair apply plenty of coconut oil. This acts as a protecting agent and prevents colours from penetrating deep into the roots. Alternatively you can also use a lotion. If dry colour gets into your eyes quickly rinse it with water. On the day of Holi keep washing your eyes regularly with water. Apply some rose water in your eyes. This will relax the eyes. Use organic colours and in case you observe rashes on your skin, follow these simple tips: a) If the colour has been applied by rubbing it in, it is best to use face wash instead of soap to remove it. Be gentle while washing as this process can harm your skin. b) Before going out to play, soak some multani mitti for about an hour. Once you are done, apply the multani mitti on affected areas. This will prevent future rashes too. c) One good home remedy is to mix gram flour, sweet oil and milk cream in rose water and use the paste on your body. d) Some colours are prepared from harmful substances like acids, glass and strong chemicals which are hard to remove. e) A few home remedies will help removing these strong chemicals. f) Take half a bowl of curd in two spoons of lime juice. Apply it on the areas having colour and take a bath with lukewarm water. Home-made pack is another handy remedy. g) Avoid scrubbing your skin too hard. The skin gets affected with synthetic colour. Also, avoid going out in the sun after all festivities. Let's go organic Many are divided on whether they want to celebrate the festival or not while some are put off by the quality of the colours. Easy availability of quality or organic colours may help bring back its popularity. Also, social media may be useful to spread the essence of the festival. - Saina Nehwal ... Dailyhunthttps://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/users/theaws/

Post-Balakot Strategy Carries Modi-Doval Fingerprint

Morarji refused to bomb Kahuta, where Zia was making N-bombs. Morarji asked RAW for proof. At great risk to his life, an Indian operative got a job in a salon in Kahuta where engineers came for haircuts. He was able to get some hairs, which were sent to Delhi for testing. They proved to be radioactive. The dictator lied to Morarji that they were nuclear plants for civilian purposes. Today, the world's greatest fear is of Zia's bombs falling into jihadi hands. Morarji also halted all RAW ops in Pakistan. Gujral delivered the coup de grâce decades after by turning over our assets in Pakistan. But no lessons were learned. Years later, human intelligence in Kashmir would become a casualty of the War of the Generals Deepak Kapoor and VK Singh, benefitting Pakistan and jihadis. Narendra Modi is not just patriotic, he is jingoism positive. He is also politically incorrect and insensitive to debilitating ailments like dyslexia; no joking matter. He is also not above using military successes electorally, like he did with the 2016 surgical strikes for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. Balakot air strikes are his new ammunition. The Opposition is doing itself no favours by questioning the government, alleging the strikes never happened. As proof starts to trickle in, it is obvious that an admirable political strategy has been devised; no more of releasing info first and defending it subsequently. Modi's tactic is to provoke the wrong questions which are then answered with credible proof in a calibrated manner to last the desirable length of time. Former superspy and now NSA Ajit Doval is Modi's trusted lieutenant who has a say in all policy matters, if sources are to be taken seriously. The air strikes could not have occurred without accurate intelligence in a jihad-contaminated location-a high-risk play for an informer though Doval was running point. Previous prime ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh had access to info proving Pak's hand in major terror attacks. Unlike Morarji, they believed their agencies but stayed morally lofty. The Modi-Doval doctrine is to strike back mercilessly. In the process, the Congress, which seemed to be gaining ground in opinion polls, has been bombed. It will find it difficult to crawl out of the craters in May. Dailyhunthttps://hubpages.com/@theaws

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