Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections: Meet another ‘Raja Bhaiya’, a four-time MP known for humility

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Meet another Raja Bhaiya, who is the fourth term MP from Gonda and a descendant of the erstwhile royal family of Mankapur, is revered for his simplicity and sobriety.

This Raja Bhaiya’s real name is Kirtivardhan Singh. He was elected for the first time in 1998 as an MP at a very young age and has won a total of four elections to the Lok Sabha so far.

Singh is an MSc in Geology and he went to the US for higher studies. He took the baton of politics from his father Anand Singh, who was lastly elected to the Lok Sabha in 1989 and was a powerful politician at that time. Anand Singh was Agriculture Minister in the state from 2012 to 2014.

Talking to IANS, Singh said that he came into politics for the betterment of the area and to inspire youth into constructive work as he doesn’t believe in politics of violence and corruption.” I was elected for the first time in 1998 and the youth were instrumental for my win at that time.”

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Sitting in his sprawling Mahal, which is called ‘Kot’, he listens to the grievances of the people. “The people who mostly come here do so for justice or some work. They are very poor or those who have been exploited by the rich. I am always there to help them and nobody can complain that me or my family have done any injustice to anybody.”

While asserting that the perception of the politician has gone down due to criminals and corrupt infiltrating the system, he advocates that clean people should come into politics. An ardent fan of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he says he is the man who has given direction to the country when corrupt people were ruling the nation.

A climate crusader himself, he fought against the illegal sand mining syndicate in the NGT and the top green tribunal fined the sand mafias around Rs 100 crore. He claimed that he is working for the development of the constituency apart from laying roads, there are three railway overbridges under construction and three substations have been set up.

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While he was earlier with the Samajwadi Party, he switched to the BJP in 2014 and since then has been elected twice. Earlier, he was elected twice as an MP from the Samajwadi Party.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh during his public meeting on Saturday said, “Your MP Raja Bhaiya is simple sober (Shareef) as and when he says anything to any minister no one refuses him because of his simplicity.”

For all the latest updates on Assembly Elections 2022, follow our LIVE blog here

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7th Pay Commission: Central govt employees may get DA hike in March

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Central government employees are likely to receive an increment in Dearness Allowance (DA) before Holi. The government will reportedly increase the DA by 3 percent and which will be effective from January 1, 2022. According to a Moneycontrol.com (Hindi) report, the increased salary, along with arrears for January and February, will be paid to the employees in March.

Currently, these employees are getting DA at 31 percent, if it is increased by 3 percent then the allowance will stand at 34 percent. If the government announces a Dearness Allowance hike then the employees will get the allowance, along with arrears, for January, February and March.

Dearness Allowance constitutes a substantial part of salary and pension. This allowance is given to the central government employees to offset the inflationary impact on their salary. Under 7th Pay Commission (7th CPC), the government provides increment in DA twice a year – in January and July. DA also varies based on government employees’ locations- depending upon whether they are located in urban, semi-urban or the rural sector.

If the government announces increment, it will benefit nearly 48 lakh central government employees and 65 lakh pensioners across India.

Last year, the government increased the Dearness Allowance of the central government employees from 28 percent to 31 percent. Despite COVID-19 pandemic, these employees were given DA increment.  However, there is no official announcement from the government in this regard.

Under 7th Pay Commission, DA for the central government employees is calculated as:

Dearness Allowance percentage = ((Average of AICPI (Base Year 2001=100) for the past 12 months -115.76)/115.76) x 100. Here, AICPI stands for All-India Consumer Price Index.

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Dr Reddy’s gains on back of Duvvada facility getting EIR from US FDA

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The US FDA has issued an establishment inspection report (EIR) for Dr Reddy’s Laboratories’  Duvvada plant at Visakhapatnam. This is after the US drug regulator had issued 8 observations to the plant.

An EIR signifies that there is a closure of the observations which were issued to the facility when it was inspected.

In October, the US FDA had issued 8 observations to the company’s formulation plant. This was for two of the company’s facilities- FTO 7 and FTO 9. FTO 7 has had its fair share of trysts with the US FDA. The facility, which is a sterile manufacturing plant, had been issued with a warning letter back in 2015, following which it was re-inspected in October 2018 by the US FDA, which again resulted in the plant receiving a couple of observations. Eventually, the facility received an EIR in February 2019.

This is the second time that an EIR has been issued to the company. However, this was probably expected because the company in its Q3 conference call had indicated that they were extremely confident in terms of getting an EIR for the facility and that it was critical for the company’s near to medium-term US growth. So this is definitely a positive development for Dr. Reddy’s.

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories share price rose over 2 percent in early trade on Monday, on the back of this news and also of Binnopharm Group acquiring two of its anti-bacterial brands in Russia and CIS region. In the morning session, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories was trading at Rs 4,370.45, up Rs 49.45, or 1.14 percent on the BSE. The stock is currently trading at Rs 4,325.15 on the BSE, up 0.096 percent in the last one day alone. The stock has risen  2.70 percent in the past 5 days.

Watch the accompanying video of CNBC-TV18’s Ekta Batra for more details.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Battle for Uttar Pradesh: In Ayodhya, a clash of ‘titans’ from underworld

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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For parties that vow not to field and support criminals, the Gosainganj Assembly seat in Ayodhya stares out in the face.

The Samajwadi Party (SP) has fielded Abhay Singh, who has an impressive criminal background since his university days, while the BJP has fielded Aarti Tiwari, wife of another criminal MLA Khabbo Tiwari a.k.a Inder Pratap Tiwari, who is in jail.

The two clashed when their convoys crossed each other’s path last week and Abhay Singh and his men, along with supporters of Tiwari, were arrested and then released on bail.

Abhay Singh, 47, is a native of Ayodhya’s Maharajganj area. He began his career with student politics while he was in Lucknow University. Though he never contested any union elections, he managed to run up a list of 35 criminal cases on the campus.

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He contested his first election on a BSP ticket from Ayodhya in 2002 and lost. In 2012, while in jail on an attempt to murder charge, he won on an SP ticket from Gosainganj. He again contested on an SP ticket from the seat in 2017 but lost to Khabbo Tiwari.

Khabbo Tiwari, 52, is a resident of Ayodhya and took a similar route to politics. He won a student union election in Saket Degree college in Ayodhya and then got elected twice as zila panchayat chairman.

In between, he was booked in criminal cases, including attempt to murder and rioting.

This is his fourth Assembly election – this time by proxy.

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In 2007, he contested from Ayodhya on an SP ticket and lost to the BJP’s Lallu Singh. Then he switched over to the BSP and contested in 2012 against Abhay Singh, who was by then in the SP. In 2017, Tiwari had moved to the BJP and this time, he defeated Abhay Singh.

In 2021, Tiwari was sentenced to five years imprisonment in a 1992 forgery case by a local court and has been in jail ever since.

Ayodhya goes to the polls on March 3.

For all the latest updates on Assembly Elections 2022, follow our LIVE blog here

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Jio’s new IAX undersea cable system to connect Maldives to India, Singapore

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. (Jio) will land the next generation multi-terabit India-Asia-Xpress (IAX) undersea cable system in Hulhumale, Maldives. The high capacity and high-speed IAX system will connect  Hulhumale’ directly with the world’s major internet hubs in India and Singapore.

Uz Fayyaz Ismail, Minister of Economic Development, Maldives said, “This is the first stride towards enhancing our connectivity infrastructure and opening vast opportunities for our people through providing secure, affordable and high-quality services. We also aim to diversify our economy and establish ourselves as a key communications hub in South Asia.”

“Aside from economic development, this will accelerate social development through high-speed internet access throughout the Maldives allowing us to attain the equitable development we seek,” Ismail added.

“Today’s global economy is driven by low-latency broadband, connecting people, businesses, content, and services. IAX will not only connect the Maldives to the world’s content hubs, but it will also support the explosive growth in data demand expected from the new initiatives being launched by the government of Maldives,” said Mathew Oommen, President, Reliance  Jio.

The IAX system originates in Mumbai in the west and connects directly to Singapore, with branches including additional landings in India, Malaysia, and Thailand. The India-Europe-Xpress (IEX) system connects Mumbai to Milan, landing in Savona, Italy, and includes additional landings in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Mediterranean. IAX is expected to be ready for service end-2023, while IEX will be ready for service in mid-2024.

IEX Explained

These high-capacity and high-speed systems will provide more than  200Tb/s  of capacity at speeds of  100Gb/s,  over  16,000  kilometers.  Employing open system technology and the latest wavelength switched RoADM/branching units ensures rapid upgrade deployment and the ultimate flexibility to add/drop waves across multiple locations.

IEX and IAX together will be one of the most important developments in telecommunications infrastructure in this decade,  linking India, Europe to Southeast Asia, and now the Maldives.

Disclaimer: Network18, the parent company of CNBCTV18.com, is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

NSE IPO likely to be delayed by a year amid investigations: Report

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The initial public offering (IPO) of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) may be delayed by up to a year due to the investigation into the irregularities committed during the tenure of its former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Chitra Ramkrishna, reported The Economic Times.

The investigation into NSE’s former officials’ alleged violation of several securities rules by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Income Tax Department will delay the IPO, said the ET report, citing bankers.

“SEBI is unlikely to give its nod to NSE to go public at the current situation and it may take another year or so to clean up the entire system. More action on all those involved in the co-location scam and violation of securities contract rules is likely in the coming months from various agencies. Until then, the regulator may not consider NSE’s request to go public,” a top official at an investment bank was quoted as saying in the report.

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The NSE had filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) over half a decade ago on December 28, 2016. The bourse had been planning to list shares with an offer for sale of 111.4 million shares by existing investors of the bourse.

But the SEBI had asked the exchange to withdraw its DRHP due to the investigations into the co-location scam which had come to light after a whistleblower sent a letter exposing the issue to the market regulator.

SEBI had issued show-cause notices to fourteen high-ranking current and former executives at the exchange in 2017, including Chitra Ramkrishna and Ravi Narain, former MD and CEO.

The NSE is the largest bourse in India with a total market capitalisation of more than $3.4 trillion. The shares of the NSE have increased by fourfold over the past two years on the back of strong profits. The stock exchange reported a 56 percent YoY jump in net profit for the financial year ending December 2021.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Union Budget will be of great help in implementing National Education Policy: PM Modi

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said the Union Budget for 2022-23 will be of great help in implementing the National Education Policy on the ground and asserted that the decision to set up a National Digital University can solve the problem of shortage of seats in educational institutions in the country.

Addressing a webinar on the positive impact of the Union Budget 2022-23, Modi said the budget focuses on five aspects related to the education sector — universalisation of quality education, skill development, urban planning and design, internationalisation and AVGC (Animation Visual Effects Gaming Comic).

Prime Minister Modi asserted that digital connectivity is what kept the education system running in this time of global pandemic.

“We are seeing how the digital divide is rapidly shrinking in India. Innovation is ensuring inclusion for us,” he said.

Educational infrastructure such as e-Vidya, One Class One Channel, Digital Labs and Digital University are going to help the youths a lot, he said.
Modi asserted that the Budget for 2022-23 will be of great help in implementing the National Education Policy on the ground.

Asserting that education in mother tongue is related to children’s mental development, Modi highlighted that medical and technical education has started in many states in local languages.

Talking about the government’s announcement in the budget that a digital university will be established to provide access to students across the country, Modi said the National Digital University is a unique and unprecedented step.
“I am seeing that power in the digital university which can completely eliminate the problem of shortage of seats that we experience in our country,” Modi said.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow