Washington, Mar 8 : Kansas Governor San Brownback has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing “profound regret” at the terrible act of violence against the Indian nationals last month and said that acts of hate and intolerance have no place in his state.
Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, was killed and Alok Madasani, another Indian of the same age, injured in a shooting by navy veteran Adam Purinton, who yelled “terrorist” and “get out of my country” before opening fire on them in Kansas last month.
The Kansas incident and the two hate crime incidents against Indians and Indian-Americans since then has sent shock waves among the large Indian community in the US.
“As Governor of the State of Kansas, I would like to express my deep sadness and profound regret at the terrible act of violence committed against Srinu Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani. The people of Kansas share in my shock and horror.
Words cannot express the sorrow that we feel for Srinu’s wife, Sunayana, and his family in Hyderabad,” Brownback wrote.
“In the time since Srinu’s death, we have reflected on his life, and the words I have heard most often to describe him are that he was courageous, and that he loved his family, and that he respected elders. We strive to live in Srinu s example of courage and love and respect,” he wrote in the letter dated March 3, a copy of which has been seen by PTI.
Brownback wrote that Kansans have been awed by Sunayana’s grace and determination.
Her indomitable spirit has moved the entire community and they pray for her comfort and peace in this time of grief.
Telling the Prime Minister that open arms of friendship are the very hallmarks of being a Kansan, the Governor said Srinu embodied the essence of what it means to be a Kansan.
“His friends describe him as charming, caring and loving.
He brought with him his immense talents and education and passion. His story is similar to the thousands of Indian diaspora who have called Kansas home over generations,” he wrote.
“They have enjoyed tremendous success through their ingenuity, hard work, and determination. Our state has thrived because of their contributions,” Brownback wrote, adding that he would like to personally welcome Indians to his state.
“Before they moved here, Sunayana said: ‘Kansas was (the) instant choice.’ We are humbled that this was the case. I would like to personally welcome Indians to Kansas, and assure them that Kansas is a welcoming, hospitable place,” he said.
Noting that Sunayana also spoke about being without her family in Kansas, Brownback wrote in the letter that it is their solemn hope that the community in Olathe and all of Kansas may nourish and love her in the difficult months ahead.
“Acts of hate and intolerance have no place in Kansas.
Since our founding, Kansas have fought against injustice and senseless hatred. We are recommitted daily to protecting our family, our neighbors, our guests. We find wisdom and peace in the Sanskrit mantra ‘Satyameva Jayate’,” Brownback said.
The Governor had met the Indian Consul General Dr Anupam Ray in Topeka and expressed his sincere condolences and reiterated his strong commitment to providing a safe and welcoming environment in Kansas.
The Centre today clarified that no one will be deprived of the benefits of subsidy schemes for the want of Aadhaar number and other identity proofs will be accepted.
The move comes after various opposition parties objected to the HRD Ministry’s announcement of making Aadhaar mandatory for receiving scholarships and benefits under the mid-day meal scheme.
“No one will be deprived of benefits for lack of Aadhaar.
Till Aadhaar number is assigned to any individual, the benefit will continue to be given based on alternate means of identification,” an official statement said.
“In case of Mid Day Meal scheme and under the Integrated Child Development Scheme, schools and anganwadis have been asked to collect Aadhaar number of the beneficiaries and in case a child does not have Aadhaar, the functionaries will be required to provide enrollment facilities and till then the benefits will continue,” it said.
The government asserted that the total savings in some schemes after plugging of leakages due to want of Aadhaar number in the last two and a half years amount to more than Rs 49,000 crore.
Aadhaar has become an important tool of transformation, good governance and empowerment of people, it said.
“Considering the usefulness of Aadhaar, the government has recently issued orders to use it in several welfare schemes. While these orders require beneficiaries to give their Aadhaar number, it has also been ensured that no one is deprived of the benefits for want of it,” the release said.
“During the last two and half years, Aadhaar has helped in direct delivery of benefits to crore of people through the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) in schemes such as LPG subsidy under Pahal, Scholarships, MNREGA, and Pensions.
“In the Public Distribution System, Aadhaar is ensuring that food grains are received only by genuine beneficiaries and are not diverted by any middle man or unscrupulous elements,” it said.
Delhi University professor GN Saibaba and five others were, on Tuesday, convicted by Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli court under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in a case of having Maoist links. While Saibaba and four others were given a life sentence, one Vijay Tirke, was given a ten year sentence.
Judge SS Shinde convicted Saibaba under sections 13, 18, 20, 38 and 39 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act which deals with conspiracy, being a member of a terrorist gang or organisation, and offences relating to support given to a terrorist organisation. Saibaba is currently out on bail.
“Court has said these six people are guilty of ‘continuos offense’ and not a single event and because of them, the district is facing Naxal violence for years,” Abhinav Deshmukh, SP, Gadchiroli said.
London, Mar 7 : The British government is facing more opposition to its plans for leaving the European Union from Parliament’s unelected House of Lords.
The Lords are likely today to pass an amendment to the government’s Brexit bill requiring Parliament not just the government to approve Britain’s exit deal with the EU. The chamber has already voted to promise EU citizens living in Britain that they can stay after the UK leaves the bloc.
But the changes may be temporary. Once the bill is passed by the Lords it will go back to the elected House of Commons, where lawmakers may overturn the amendments next week.
Prime Minister Theresa May wants to invoke Article 50 of the EU’s key treaty, triggering exit negotiations, by March 31. She can’t do that until Parliament passes legislation sanctioning the move.
Providing a respite for cancer patients, the drug pricing regulator National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has cut prices of some cancer drugs by up to a whopping 86%, reported Mumbai Mirror.
A senior doctor from Tata Memorial Hospital said, “It is a big relief for cancer patients. Patients admitted in Tata get medicines for free or at a discounted rate, as we buy branded medicines in bulk at a 50 to 80% discount, but for private patients it is always an expensive affair. There are several drugs, especially to treat leukemia, which the patient has to take for years. As they are often very expensive, patients often leave the treatment midway.”
Various cancer-related drugs have seen a major price cut. The price for a lung cancer drug called Iressa, manufactured by Astrazeneca Pharma India Limited has been slashed from Rs 29,259 to Rs 3,977. The price of a drug for cancer therapy–Biceltis, manufactured by Emcure Pharmaceutical, has been cut by over Rs 10,000. Price of chemotherapy drugs like Doceaqualip has been reduced from Rs 16,890 to Rs 10,560. Price of Dr Reddy’s tablet Levin used to treat blood cancer has been slashed by 25% too.
Leaving space for more good news, Bhupendra Singha, chairman of NPPA stated that more cancer drugs will come out soon.
He added, “Apart from cancer, important medicines used in the treatment of diabetes, bacterial infections and blood pressure have been capped by the government, thereby reducing the cost by an average of around 25 to 50%.” Since March 2016, prices of around 800 drugs have been slashed by the government.
Jerusalem : Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said today that the United States has warned that annexing the West Bank would lead to an “immediate crisis” with President Donald Trump’s administration.
Lieberman, speaking before his first trip to Washington since Trump took office, sought to push back against those in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition calling for a declaration of Israeli sovereignty over all or part of the occupied territory.
He said annexation would provoke a crisis with Washington and result in steep costs for the Israeli government since it would be required to provide services to Palestinians in the West Bank.
“We have received a very clear, direct message from the United States stating that the application of Israeli law in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) would provoke an immediate crisis with the new administration,” Lieberman said before a parliamentary committee.
His office said he would leave Israel tonight for Washington, where he would meet Vice President Mike Pence, Defence Secretary Jim Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson “and hold other meetings.”
Some 2.6 million Palestinians live in the West Bank, which Israel occupied in 1967.
The latest call for annexation came yesterday, when lawmaker Miki Zohar from Netanyahu’s Likud party said in a television interview that “the two-state solution is dead”.
Zohar advocated a single state, but said that Palestinians in the West Bank should not be allowed to vote in Israeli parliamentary elections.
Others have made similar calls, including Education Minister Naftali Bennett who heads the religious nationalist Jewish Home party.
Bennett advocates annexing most of the West Bank, and has said he hopes support from Trump’s presidency will spell the end of the idea of a Palestinian state.
In his comments today, Lieberman also laid out an economic argument against annexation, saying Israel immediately “will be required to spend 20 billion shekels (USD 5.4 billion)” on various social services.
The defence minister, who heads the rightwing Yisrael Beitenu party, advocates a two-state solution based on territorial and population exchanges.
Netanyahu says he still supports a two-state solution, though he has also pushed for settlement expansion in the West Bank.
He has found himself seeking to hold together his governing coalition — seen as the most rightwing in Israeli history — while managing international relations, including with the United States.
The US is Israel’s most important ally, providing it with more than USD 3 billion in defence aid annually.
Some Israeli politicians have pushed for the immediate annexation of Maale Adumim, an Israeli settlement of some 37,000 people in a strategic location east of Jerusalem.
However, a bill to annex the settlement has been postponed by the cabinet to an unclear date.
While the confusion with Trump’s clear-cut stand on H1-B visa still looms, the administration has announced a hostile move that will hit businesses all across, especially the Indians who receive approximately 70% of the non-immigrant visas.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on Friday announced that it will temporarily suspend its premium processing for all H1-B petitions starting April 3. The date till when the process is suspended has still not been announced, though USCIS has stated that it may last up to six months.
While the process is suspended, petitioners will not be able to file Form I-907 to request for Premium Processing Service and for Form I-129 which files a petition for a nonimmigrant worker which requests the H-1B nonimmigrant classification.
In a press release posted on Friday, USCIS stated that the temporary suspension will help the administration “reduce overall H1-B processing times.” It reasoned out the move by stated that USCIS will be able to process long-pending petitions which it has been unable to process due to large number of incoming petitions. It also said it will now, “Prioritize adjudication of H-1B extension of status cases that are nearing the 240 day mark.”
H1-B is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Technology companies, including those from India, depend on it for hiring tens of thousands of employees each year.
Under the current system, a company who is sponsoring a potential employee or current employee’s H-1B petition may fill out a form to expedite the processing of that petition. After paying an additional $1,225 fee for this service, USCIS responds typically in 15 days, whereas standard H-1B petitions may take anywhere between three to six months to receive a judgement.
The GST Council has proposed to raise the peak tax rate to 20%, from the current 14%, in the model goods and services tax Bill to preclude the requirement of approaching Parliament for any change in rates in future.
The change in the peak rate will not alter the 4-slab rate structure of 5, 12, 18 and 28% agreed upon last year, but is only a provision being built into the model law to take care of contingencies in future, two officials in the know told PTI.
The revised draft of model GST law, which was made public in November 2016, provides for a maximum rate of tax under the new regime at 14% (14% central GST and an equal state GST, taking the total to 28%). “There shall be levied a tax called the central/state goods and services tax (CGST/SGST) on all intra-state supplies of goods and/or services… At such rates as may be notified by the central/state government… But not exceeding 14% on the recommendation of the Council and collected in such manner as may be prescribed,” the draft law states.
Officials said this “14%” will now be changed to say the rate will not exceed “20%”. The GST Council, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and comprising representatives of all states, has agreed to keep the upper band of the rate in the law at 20%. “For the moment, we will not tinker with the rate structure of 5, 12, 18 and 28%. The GST Council has decided to keep the upper cap higher at 20% so that in future in case of need to hike tax rate, there is no need to approach Parliament for a nod and the GST Council can raise it,” the officials said.
This means the central GST and state GST can be up to 20% each, leaving the scope for a maximum levy at 40%. “The 4-tier rate structure that has been decided will hold for now. By keeping the upper cap at 20%, we are just keeping an enabling provision which the Council can exercise at a later date after deliberation,” the official added. Mirroring the model GST law, the CGST, SGST and UTGST law will be firmed up by the Centre, states and Union Territories, respectively. The Centre plans to introduce in Parliament the Central GST (CGST) Bill in the forthcoming session beginning March 9. After it is ratified, the states will introduce the State GST (SGST) Bill in their respective legislative Assemblies.
The central and state officials will soon start the exercise to determine which goods and services should fall in which tax bracket and the same will be taken to the Council for approval soon. Together with this, they will also decide the goods and services that would attract a cess on top of the peak rate to create a corpus that can be used for compensating states for any loss of revenue from implementation of GST in the first five years. The government is looking at GST rollout from July 1.
New Delhi, Mar 2 : The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) today told the Delhi High Court that the UGC notification setting a limit of eight students per professor for M.Phil and PhD courses, was binding on all varsities in the country.
“The said notification is binding and is mandatory in nature and is to be followed by all the Universities (Central, State and Deemed Universities) including JNU,” Justice V Rao was informed.
The court was also told that it was obligatory for JNU to apply the notification.
“It is not the discretion of any university to apply or reject the notification,” Centre’s standing counsel Monika Arora, appearing for JNU, said.
She further said there were over 40 universities and all of them have adopted it.
JNU students have been protesting the UGC notification since February 9 and allegedly blockading the administrative block of the varsity.
Senior advocate Arvind Nigam, appearing for the students, said he did not doubt the validity of the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) notification and was only challenging the procedure of JNU in adopting it.
Taking note of this, the judge said it means the students are not challenging the May 5, 2016 notification of UGC, which allegedly “threatens to put their future in jeopardy as they would not be able to find a supervisor”.
Nigam agreed and said, “I am only questioning procedure of adoption by JNU.”
However, the counsel for UGC raised objection over the maintainability of the petitions.
The petitioners have contended that the notification not only affected the existing students, but would also result in fewer admissions in the current academic session, “thereby violating constitutionally mandated reservation norms”.
JNU, in its affidavit, has stated that the adoption of the notification was in “accordance with the provisions of the JNU Act, Statutes and Policies”.
“Due process has been followed in adoption of the Regulation through its statutory bodies. It is reiterated that New Admission Policy 2016 is in accordance with the reservation policy of the Government of India and therefore any apprehension in this regard are misplaced. Existing JNU students will not be affected by the New Admission policy,” the affidavit stated.
The court fixed the matter for further hearing on March 7.
New Delhi, Mar 2 : The government must declare all computer systems as protected or at least bring them under the purview of ‘protected system’ so as to ensure stringent punishment to hackers, advocate and cyber law expert Pavan Duggal said today.
“On a normal day in India, more than 10,000 cyber attacks take place and most of them go unreported. The protected systems have the immunity of the law that if they are hacked, the punishment is ten-year jail term.
“All the systems must be declared protected,” Duggal said at a seminar on Cyberlaw and Cyber security challenges for companies in the post-demonetisation era.
Protected systems are mentioned in section 70 of the Information Technology Act 2000 under which the government can declare any computer resource which directly or indirectly affects the facility of Critical Information Structure, to be a protected system.
Duggal warned the stakeholders and corporates to be more careful in the post-demonetisation era as India was moving towards a cashless economy.
“After demonetisation, the volume of online transactions has gone up. Companies must comply with Indian legislation, i.e. the IT Act or else they will face trouble,” he added.
“Non-compliance with norms exposes companies to legal issues, both civil and criminal. These unpleasant consequences could be avoided by ensuring compliances with these evolving norms,” Duggal said.
The conference ended with recommendations, including that while cyberlaw as a discipline was integral to today’s corporate operations, stakeholders need to understand the nuances of cyber legal frameworks, the knowledge of which is currently very limited.
New Delhi, Feb 28 : India’s per capita net national income is expected to rise 10.2 per cent to Rs 103,818 in the current fiscal, government data showed today.
The per capita national income during 2015-16 stood at Rs 94,178, an increase of 8.9 per cent from the previous fiscal.
“The per capita net national income during 2016-17 is estimated to be Rs 103,818 showing a rise of 10.2 per cent as compared to Rs 94,178 during 2015-16 with the growth rate of 8.9 per cent,” as per data on Second Advance Estimates of National Income, 2016-17.
The data was released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
In real terms, the per capita income (at 2011-12 prices) during the current fiscal is likely to attain a level of Rs 82,112, compared with Rs 77,524 for 2015-16.
“The growth rate in per capita income is estimated at 5.9 per cent during 2016-17, as against 6.6 per cent in the previous year,” the ministry said.
The Gross National Income (GNI) at 2011-12 prices is estimated at Rs 120.28 trillion for 2016-17, up 7.2 per cent from Rs 112.22 trillion estimated for 2015-16.