London, Jan 19 : British MPs today held a debate on Kashmir in the UK Parliament, warning against “escalation” of violence in the region.
The motion before the House of Commons urges the UK government to encourage India and Pakistan to commence peace negotiations to establish a long-term solution to the dispute.
“It is not Britain’s role to intervene in the internal politics of any sovereign nation. But we stand ready to help facilitate and alleviate the suffering of the innocent people of Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir,” said Conservative party MP Bob Blackman, who has long campaigned for the rights of Kashmiri Pandits forced to flee the region.
“Today marks the terrible day back in 1990 when Kashmiri Hindus were forced from their homes. I have been speaking on this issue for 27 years. The whole of Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and both India and Pakistan must abide by the UN resolution,” said Blackman, who was among the MPs speaking in the debate.
The debate has been organised by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Kashmir and is being conducted by the Commons’ Backbench Business Committee following an application from Conservative Party MP David Nuttall.
It was led by Nuttall along with MPs Nusrat Ghani, Robert Flello and Fiona Mactaggart.
The Backbench Committee meets weekly on Tuesdays to consider requests for debates from any backbench MP on any subject.
The motion for today’s debate reads, “This House notes the escalation in violence and breaches of international human rights on the Indian side of the Line of Control in Kashmir; calls on the Government to raise the matter at the United Nations.”
“And further calls on the Government to encourage Pakistan and India to commence peace negotiations to establish a long-term solution on the future governance of Kashmir based on the right of the Kashmiri people to determine their own future in accordance with the provisions of UN Security Council resolutions,” it says.
The debate comes a day after a day of mourning was observed by the Kashmiri Pandits Cultural Society UK in a committee room of the House of Commons.
The group called for “justice” for the nearly 700,000 Kashmiri Pandits forced to flee their homes in the Kashmir Valley 1989 and 1990.
Mumbai : Rapidly becoming an influential market for mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in Asia-pacific region, India hit a record level in this space with 388 deals worth USD 64.5 billion during 2016, said a report.
Deal value surged 90.5 per cent, while deal count fell slightly to 388 from 421, during the last year compared to 2015, according to global deal tracking firm Mergermarket.
Significantly, the country’s market share in total M&A deals in Asia-Pacific stood at 8.8 per cent last year — the highest since 2007 (9.4%) and significantly more than the 3.6 per cent logged in 2015.
“India’s M&A activity in 2016 reached the highest annual value on Mergermarket record (since 2001) with 388 deals worth USD 64.5 billion,” the firm said in the report.
“The top three deals targeting India in 2016 amounted to USD 20.6 billion, accounting for 32 per cent of the total value of M&A in India,” the report said.
Sectoral analysis by Mergermarket for 2016 showed that energy, mining and utilities replaced financial services as the most active sector with deals totalling USD 17.1 billion – almost three times more compared to 2015.
The energy, mining and utilities sector account for 26.5 per cent share in total M&A deals which was largely fuelled by Essar Group selling a combined 98 per cent stake in Essar Oil to both Rosneft and Trafigura for a combined value of USD 12.7 billion.
Telecommunication deal value rose nearly 5 times to reach USD 13.6 billion from USD 2.5 billion in 2015.
Mergermarket noted that the upcoming spectrum auctions in telecom are expected to increase competition that could subsequently spark a pricing war involving new entrant, Reliance Jio, and could further fuel growth in the sector.
“Large industry players will need to prepare for the auction by selling non-core assets and deleveraging their balance sheets,” the report added.
Going forward, businesses related to cement, steel, power and toll roads are likely to contribute further in M&A space in 2017, depending on the upcoming Union Budget.
Technology accounted for just 56 deals, down from 89 in 2015 — the largest drop in deal count across all sectors.
However, the report said technology has the potential to improve in 2017 but is unlikely to reach the heights seen in 2015 when the sector was ranked the busiest sector by deal count and second most active by value (89 deals, USD 5.4 billion) as investors wait for a further easing towards more realistic multiples and valuations.
Total inbound activity in India’s M&A in 2016 reached record high with 176 deals amounting to USD 30.8 billion — 62.3 per cent jump over USD 19 billion in 2015.
New Delhi : The BJP today said performance of the party-led NDA government at the Centre will be an issue in the 2019 general elections, asserting that it will not deviate from the development plank in the future.
The BJP had presented a “positive” subject (development) before the people in 2014 elections which they accepted and voted for the party, BJP national general secretary Murli Dhar Rao said at an event organised by PHD Chamber here.
The mandate enjoyed by the present government on the basis of development will be compared in the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.
“BJP cannot escape (development) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also not go away from that. I believe performance (of the government) is going to next issue in 2019 (elections),” he said.
Speaking on the topic ‘achieving industrial goals through integral humanism’ Rao said, the “drive” created by industry cannot be “reversed” by any government or leader.
“It is impossible for any government or leader to look back because the kind of drive created by you (industry) is not going to allow any party or leader to stop it,” he said.
Elaborating the concept of ‘integral humanism’ pioneered in the country by party ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyay, Rao said that the Indian society believed in the concept which was reflected in social, political and cultural spheres of life.
Jammu, Jan 18 : As many as 185 illegal constructions were detected in highly eco-sensitive and barred areas of three world famous tourist resorts of Kashmir Valley during the last three years, the state government said today.
During last three years, 185 illegal constructions were detected in highly eco-sensitive and barred areas of tourist resorts of Pahalgam, Sonamarg and Gulmarg in the Valley, MoS for Tourism Priya Sethi said in a written reply to the question of NC MLA Bashir Ahmed Veeri in state Legislative Council here.
Out of which, 179 illegal structures have been demolished and six such structures have been sealed, the minister said.
Besides, 18 number of illegal constructed shops and two houses were also detected and demolished during 2014-15 within jurisdiction of Sonamarg Development Authority, the minister said.
Replying to another question regarding permissions granted to new constructions, he said no new permission for construction of hotels, lodges, structures or buildings in highly eco sensitive and barred areas of Pahalgam, Gulmarg and Sonamarg have been granted in the last three years.
The High Court has completely banned any sort of construction within the jurisdiction of Pahalgam and Gulmarg Development Authorities, the minister said.
However, nine permissions were granted during 2014-15 in designated areas of the approved master plan of Sonamarg Development Authority.
Hyderabad, Jan 18 : The Telangana government would bring a bill for providing 12 per cent reservation to backward sections among Muslims in the Budget session of Legislative Assembly, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said today.
“We will put up the Muslim Reservation Bill in the coming Budget session itself,” he said in the Assembly during a debate on welfare of minorities.
The budget session is expected to begin next month.
The 12 per cent reservation to Muslims was a key election promise of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).
The state government had appointed a Commission for conducting a study of social and economic status of Muslims and the panel has submitted its report, Rao said in a statement on the issue.
The state government has forwarded the report to the Backward Classes Commission for its opinion.
The BC Commission is gathering views of different groups in the matter for expressing its opinion, Rao said.
“In order to provide 12 per cent reservation to Muslims, a relaxation should be given to the stipulation that the reservations should not exceed 50 per cent.
“The Government of Tamil Nadu introduced Act 45/94 and with the consent of Indian Parliament got incorporated the issue of enhancement of reservation in the 9th Schedule of the Indian Constitution. We will follow the same policy in our state also,” Rao said in his statement.
Expressing confidence that the Centre would act favourably on the state’s move to provide 12 per cent quota, he, however, said the state government would also take a legal recourse on the issue if the Centre does not respond positively.
BJP floor leader G Kishan Reddy said the high court had already held that reservations on the basis of religion is against the Constitution.
The issue is also sub-judice as the matter of four per cent quota (being given to backward sections among Muslims that began in undivided AP) is in the Supreme Court, he said.
Rao, however, clarified that the proposed quota is not for Muslim religion.
“I did not say reservation is for Muslim religion. I said clearly in my clarification. We said we will work for the welfare of poor in the group by that name and bring reservation.
“You (Kishan Reddy) said it is sub-judice. There is nothing that Legislative Assemby cannot discuss and pass a bill just because it is sub-judice. We are free to discuss,” he said.
A Nigerian Air Force fighter jet on a mission against Boko Haram extremists mistakenly bombed a refugee camp today, killing more than 100 refugees and wounding aid workers, a Borno state official said. The state government official was helping to coordinate the evacuation of wounded. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. Military commander Maj Gen Lucky Irabor confirmed the accidental bombardment in northeast Rann, near the border with Cameroon. Among the wounded were two soldiers and Nigerians working for Doctors Without Borders and the International Committee of the Red Cross, he said.
This is believed to be the first time Nigeria’s military has admitted to making such a mistake. Villagers in the past have reported some civilian casualties in near-daily bombardments in northeastern Nigeria. Irabor said he ordered the mission based on information that Boko Haram insurgents were gathering, along with geographic coordinates. It was too early to say if a tactical error was made, he said. The general, who is the theater commander for counterinsurgency operations in northeast Nigeria, said the Air Force would not deliberately target civilians but there will be an investigation. Some of the nearly 300 Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014 and freed last year have said three of their classmates were killed by Air Force bombardments, according to the freed girls’ parents.
Rome, Jan 17 : Four people died and nearly 180 are missing, presumed dead, after Saturday’s migrant ship capsize in the Mediterranean, officials said today after interviewing a handful of survivors.
Humanitarian workers from International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), recounted harrowing details of the latest major tragedy in waters off Libya after talking to four rescued passengers, two Eritreans and two Ethiopians, who arrived last evening in the Sicilian port of Trapani.
The survivors, three men and one woman, were described as “traumatised and exhausted”. They said their two-tier, wooden boat had left Libya on Friday with more 180 people packed on board, all of them originally from East Africa.
After five hours at sea, the engine cut out and the boat started to take on water. As it slowly sank, more and more of the people on board were submerged under water.
One of the survivors described his desperate effort to find his wife, who had taken a spot in the centre of the ship.
After hours in the water, the survivors were rescued on Saturday 30 nautical miles from the Libyan coast by a French boat operating as part of the European borders agency Frontex’s Operation Triton before being transferred to another Frontex ship, the Siem Pilot.
Siem Pilot, provided by the Norwegian coastguard, arrived in Trapani last evening with the four survivors, four recovered corpses and 34 people rescued from another stricken migrant boat.
The latest deaths and rescues follow a record year for the number of migrants trying to reach Europe on the western Mediterranean route from north Africa to Italy.
Some 181,000 people were registered at Italian ports in 2016 while the UNHCR recorded more than 5,000 deaths and presumed deaths on all migrant routes across the Mediterranean.
Despite the mid-winter weather making crossings particularly perilous, the start of 2017 has brought no sign of departures slowing with some 2,300 migrants already registered in Italy since January 1.
The union environment ministry notified the Supreme Court approved ‘Graded Response Action Plan’ on its website early Monday morning. The plan features emergency measures like odd-even scheme and halting construction activities to improve Delhi-National Capital Region’s (NCR) poor air quality. This is the first time that a graded plan to improve air quality will be enforced in India.
As per the plan, a set of fixed measures kick in when pollution reaches specific levels categorised as emergency, severe, very poor and moderate. The notification entrusts the SC-appointed Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) to implement the graded action plan.
A task force, comprising of members from CPCB, environment ministry, Delhi Pollution Control Committee, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana pollution boards, India Meteorological Department (IMD), health experts and other stakeholders, will facilitate implementation of the plan. Based on the forecast for critical pollution days, the measures will have to be rolled out at least two weeks in advance.
EPCA and other authorities have the power to pull up polluters and legally enforce the plan when air-quality in Delhi-NCR plunges, said senior officials from the ministry.
“Our first aim is to prevent pollution levels from crossing emergency levels where public health is threatened. Hence, graded action marked for ‘poor’ category of air-quality has to be enforced through the year,” said Sunita Narain, EPCA member and director-general, Centre for Science and Environment.
Narain added, “We need to be well prepared, since measures such as closing down construction sites will lead to labour distress. But these measures are necessary, even Beijing and Paris enforce these emergency actions.”
The graded response action plan framework relies on IIT-Kanpur’s study that analysed air-quality of Delhi-NCR over an year and the major sources of pollution. Analysis of the past air quality trend shows that severe and very Poor air quality is anticipated throughout the winter months of November to February and largely poor category during the summer months of March to May. Road dust, biomass burning, construction, power plants and industries contribute to pollution in Delhi round the year. During winter biomass burning, solid waste burning, firecrackers, stubble burning and secondary particles contribute greater to pollution while fly ash, vehicles and biomass burning are the big pollutants in summertime.
New Delhi : In a significant breakthrough in implementation of India’s biggest tax reform, the deadlock over administration of GST ended on Monday after the Centre agreed to allow states control over most of small taxpayers, but the rollout date was pushed back by 3 months to July 1.
The split of GST taxpayers between the two will be done horizontally with states getting to administer and control 90 per cent of the asseesses below INR 1.5 crore annual turnover, and the remaining 10 per cent coming under the Centre.
The Centre and states will share control of assessees with annual turnover of over INR 1.5 crore in 50:50 ratio even as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley insisted that each tax payer will be assessed only once and by only one authority.
Besides ceding control, the Centre also agreed to the demand of coastal states, allowing them to tax economic activity in 12 nautical miles even though constitutionally the Centre has jurisdiction over territorial waters.
“This is a significant headway,” Jaitley said after the meeting.
While a four-rate tax slab of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent had already been reached, a consensus on the administration of the Goods and Services Tax – which will subsume central and state levies like excise duty, service tax and VAT – paved the way for finalisation of the draft supporting laws.
Jaitley said the draft of Integrated GST or IGST, the tax which will be levied by the Centre on inter-state movement of goods and services, as well as SGST and CGST will be finalised in the next meeting of the GST Council on February 18.
Once approved, the Council will then decide on taxing various goods and services in different tax slabs, he said.
The stalemate over administration of GST had been holding up consensus in the GST Council since early November with four successive meetings failing to break the deadlock as the Centre was not in favour of a horizontal split. It said states did not have the expertise to administer levies like service tax.
The Centre also did not favour dual agencies auditing and scrutinising each taxpayer as multiple authorities could end up acting at cross-purposes.
With the legislative calendar drawn up, Jaitley said “realistic” date for implementation of GST will be July 1 instead of previously planned April 1.
Since GST is a transactional tax, which is to be levied when a sale takes place, it does not necessarily have to be implemented from the beginning of the fiscal, he said.
New Delhi : A youth’s plea against an institute for allegedly not providing him with an internship or job as promised at the time of admission, has been rejected by a consumer forum here which observed that “education is not a commodity”.
A Delhi District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum (West) rejected the plea of the youth who sought refund of the Rs 3.52 lakh fee paid by him to pursue PG Diploma in Event Management and Public Relations at a private institute here.
The complainant, a Noida resident, had also sought compensation of Rs 40,000 on account of mental pain and agony and deficiency in service from the institute and its Executive Director.
“The complainant took admission with the opposite party, an education institution for pursuing PG Diploma in event management and Public Relations on payment of requisite fee.
“The opposite parties (institute and Executive Director) are imparting education. Therefore as held by Supreme Court, National Commission and State Commission of Chandigarh consistently, education is not a commodity and they are not service providers and the complainant is not a consumer under the Consumer Protection Act,” a forum bench headed by Presiding Officer R S Bagri said.
The forum accepted the assertion of the institute and its executive director that the complaint was not maintainable as the complainant “does not fall within the definition of consumer as provided under the Consumer Protection Act.”
It observed that “education is not a commodity”.
The bench, while deciding the matter, considered various verdicts of the Supreme Court, National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission and a state commission, all of which had held that students are not consumers.
The youth had approached the consumer forum after he was refused a refund from the institute, which denied the allegations of any unfair trade practice.
New Delhi : A panel has recommended reservation for girl students in IITs to address the issue of slump in the number of female students entering the prestigious institutes.
The committee is learnt to have suggested creating up to 20 per cent supernumerary seats for girls out of the total number of seats.
The recommendation of the committee will be taken up in the meeting of the joint admission board (JAB) for a final decision, which will decide whether the reservation will come in effect from this year or from 2018.
Concerned by the slump in number of girl students entering IITs, the JAB has set up a sub-committee under the chairmanship of professor Timothy Gonsalves to find ways to rectify the situation in the institutes.
The number of seats for male candidates will not be affected and this will help IITs achieve the 1 lakh target by 2020. Also, only candidates who have already qualified in JEE-Advanced will be considered.