Junior Digest

Tokyo, Jan 11 : Japan is planning for Emperor Akihito to retire and be replaced by his eldest son on January 1, 2019, reports said today, as the country works on a legal framework for its first abdication in 200 years.

Akihito, 83, expressed a desire in August to abdicate after nearly three decades on the Chrysanthemum Throne, citing his advancing age and weakening health.

Major national newspapers — the Yomiuri, Asahi, Mainichi and Nikkei — cited unnamed sources as saying Crown Prince Naruhito, 56, would succeed his father on New Year’s Day 2019.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga declined to comment on the reports at his regular news conference today.

After Akihito’s announcement last year, the government established a panel of experts to help decide how best to proceed as the issue is fraught with historical and legal challenges.

Though abdications have occurred in Japan’s long imperial history there hasn’t been one in 200 years and under current laws there is no legal mechanism for one.

The six-member panel has discussed various legal options, with speculation rampant it will propose parliament pass a special one-time law to allow Akihito to step down.

The leading opposition Democratic Party, however, opposes a one-time change, arguing that would not ensure stable future successions. It has advocated a revision to the permanent law that governs the imperial family.

Abdication is a highly sensitive issue in light of Japan’s modern history of war waged in the name of Akihito’s father, the late emperor Hirohito who died in 1989.

Some scholars and politicians worry that the abdication issue could open a can of worms and risk Japan’s monarchs — constitutionally constrained to being the symbol of the nation — becoming subject to political manipulation.

The panel is expected to compile a summary of its views on the issue in January.

Akihito has keenly embraced the symbolic role imposed on the imperial family after Japan’s defeat in World War II.

Previous emperors including his father, Hirohito, had been treated as semi-divine.

One hundred and thirty-seven years ago, well before the Calaveras North Grove was purchased by the California State Park System and renamed the Calaveras Big Trees State Park, the land’s owners carved an enormous hole in the base of one of its sequoia trees. On Sunday, that tree fell.

This particular 150-foot-tall tree boasted a wide base — about 33 feet in diameter — that featured a large fire scar, an attribute that makes it easier to tunnel through. And that’s exactly what the owners created, a tunnel wide enough for an automobile to drive through.

The idea of passing through an enormous tree immediately proved to be a hit. Named the Pioneer’s Cabin Tree because the created chamber exposed the trunk’s hollowness, giving it a chimney-like appearance and calling to mind the image of an old log cabin, the tree quickly became one of the park’s most popular features.

Curious tourists would come from around the country to etch their names into its bark. Photos from the 1800s show visitors staring up into its great expanse, awe etched on their faces.

On Sunday at around 2pm, with names carved more than a century ago still prominent on its great trunk, the gargantuan tree fell to the ground after being pummelled by a particularly vicious winter storm.

“This iconic and still living tree — the tunnel tree — enchanted many visitors,” the Calaveras Big Tree Association wrote in a Facebook post. “The storm was just too much for it.”

Jim Allday, a park volunteer who was working at the time, told the Los Angeles Times the tree “shattered” when it hit the forest ground. Photos posted by the association appear to confirm this verb choice, showing enormous wood splinters interspersed with snow, the informational placard still on display for visitors.

According to Mr Allday, visitors had wandered through the tree earlier that very day.

It’s not entirely clear why this storm felled the great tree, though the San Francisco Chronicle opined that it “probably had to do with the giant sequoia’s shallow root system — the roots only go about two or four feet deep — and the fact that the trail around the tree was flooded due to rain”.

“When I went out there [Sunday afternoon], the trail was literally a river, the trail is washed out,” Mr Allday told the newspaper. “I could see the tree on the ground, it looked like it was laying in a pond or lake with a river running through it.”

Though the park eventually closed off the tree to cars, instead creating a 1.5-mile loop trail allowing hikers to walk through it, it remained one of the park’s most popular features, according to the Chronicle.

That was evident in the 1,500 comments on the association’s Facebook announcement of the tree’s fall, which was shared about 8,500 times as of early Monday morning. Many of the posts included vacation photos, such as the one below.

Which means it fulfilled its original purpose, which was to compete with the Wawona Tree in the nearby Yosemite National Park. The North Grove’s owners carved out the Pioneer Cabin tree in response to the 1881 carving of that tree.

It’s not entirely clear why this storm felled the great tree, though the San Francisco Chronicle opined that it “probably had to do with the giant sequoia’s shallow root system — the roots only go about two or four feet deep — and the fact that the trail around the tree was flooded due to rain”.

“When I went out there [Sunday afternoon], the trail was literally a river, the trail is washed out,” Mr Allday told the newspaper. “I could see the tree on the ground, it looked like it was laying in a pond or lake with a river running through it.”

Though the park eventually closed off the tree to cars, instead creating a 1.5-mile loop trail allowing hikers to walk through it, it remained one of the park’s most popular features, according to the Chronicle.

That was evident in the 1,500 comments on the association’s Facebook announcement of the tree’s fall, which was shared about 8,500 times as of early Monday morning. Many of the posts included vacation photos, such as the one below.

Which means it fulfilled its original purpose, which was to compete with the Wawona Tree in the nearby Yosemite National Park. The North Grove’s owners carved out the Pioneer Cabin tree in response to the 1881 carving of that tree.

Colombo : Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena today overturned a 26-year-old decree that required top bureaucrats to wear a suit and tie, saying they could now opt for “more comfortable” clothing instead.

“We must adopt clothing that suits our weather and climate,” Sirisena said. “That is why I say that officials no longer need to wear suits. From now on, it is not a mandatory requirement.”

He made the announcement while speaking at a conference in Colombo and said that the 1991 decree had forced officials in the tropical country to suffer in uncomfortable clothing.

Sri Lanka’s civil service is largely based on traditions inherited from the country’s former British colonial rulers who governed the island nation from 1815 until 1948.

Unlike bureaucrats, male Sri Lankan politicians have traditionally opted to wear the national dress — a long-sleeved cotton tunic and sarong — instead of Western clothing while in public in an effort to burnish their nationalistic credentials.

Gandhinagar, Jan 11 : Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today reiterated that the Centre is still aiming to roll out the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime from April 1 if all pending issues are sorted out.

GST, which is to subsume most of central and state taxes like excise, service tax and VAT, needs to roll out by latest September 16, 2017, he said.

This because, under the Constitutional Amendment passed by Parliament for the GST implementation, some of the existing levies would expire after September 16.

Jaitley said the government was aiming to implement the new sales tax from April this year. “We would want it to be implemented from April if all issues are resolved.”

“There is a provision for GST implementation because constitutional amendment has been passed. So it’s Constitutional necessity that before September 16 it should be rolled out,” he said on the sidelines of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit here.

GST, or a national sales tax, will replace a jumble of levies to create one of the world’s biggest single market. A single tax will make it easier to do business in the world’s seventh-largest economy as also help combat evasion, boost revenue for the government.

But the rollout is struck because of differences between the Centre and states over control and administration of the tax as also on how the states that face revenue shortfall because of the GST rollout would need to be compensated.

Jaitley is hoping to resolve the issue of dual control of tax payers at the next meeting of the GST Council on January 16.

“We would want it to be implemented from April if all issues are resolved. But implementing before September 16 is a necessity,” he said.

The Finance Minister said the digitisation that got a leg up post demonetisation of old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes, together with GST will lead to expansion of formal economy and boost growth.

“The two steps together will lead to a larger economy and a cleaner GDP. I am hopeful that we will see the two this year,” he said.

Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a pugnacious political survivor despite his support for moderates, died on Sunday after suffering a heart attack, news agencies reported.

Mr. Rafsanjani, who was 82, was a pivotal figure in the foundation of the Islamic Republic in 1979, and served as President from 1989 to 1997.

He had been admitted to the Shohadaa Hospital in northern Tehran, one of his relatives, Hossein Marashi, was quoted as saying by the agencies.

“Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was transferred to hospital after a heart attack,” Reza Soleimani, a speaker of the Expediency Council, Iran’s main political arbitration body which Mr. Rafsanjani chaired.

Mr. Rafsanjani’s death is a huge loss for both reformists and moderates, as he stood as a pillar for the two camps.

Mr. Rafsanjani was born on August 25, 1934, in the village of Nough in southern Iran into a wealthy family.

He studied theology in the holy city of Qom before entering politics in 1963 after Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s police arrested the founder of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

A confidant of Khomeini, Mr. Rafsanjani was the Speaker of Parliament for two consecutive terms until Khomeini’s death in 1989.

Mr. Rafsanjani’s presidency, a breathing space after the end of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War, was marked by reconstruction, cautious reform and repairs to Iran’s relations with its Arab neighbours.

But it was also marred by human rights violations, rampant inflation and difficult relations with Europe, not least with Britain after the “death sentence”, or fatwa, handed down to writer Salman Rushdie by Khomeini.

After serving a maximum two consecutive terms, Mr. Rafsanjani played an important role in the election of the reformist Mohammad Khatami, who succeeded him as President from 1997 to 2005.

Mr. Rafsanjani was always a member of Iran’s top clerical body, the Assembly of Experts, charged with appointing — and if required dismissing — the country’s supreme leader.

Gandhinagar, Jan 10 :  With the government taking steps to improve business climate, total FDI inflows in the last two-and-a-half years have touched USD 130 billion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said today.

Modi, while addressing investors at the Vibrant Gujarat summit here, also said that ‘Make in India’ initiative has become the “biggest brand” that the country has ever had.

“The total FDI in the last two-and-a-half years have touched USD 130 billion.

“The FDI equity inflow in the last two financial years was 66 per cent higher as compared to previous two financial years. In fact, the total FDI inflows received during the last year have been the highest ever,” he said.

He said the number of countries from where FDI is coming in, and the sectors in which they are being routed have also diversified in the last two years.

“India is now the leading recipient of capital investment in the Asia-Pacific. It also continues to be among the top ten countries globally in terms of FDI inflows,” he added.

He also said that “the story does not end here as India has left every other country behind in terms of providing return on investment”.

The government has liberalised FDI regime in many sectors and in various ways and India is today among the most open economies, Modi said.

“Creating an enabling environment for business, and attracting investments, is my top priority. We have to do this in order to create opportunities for our youth,” he said.

Further the Prime Minister said India has placed the highest emphasis on ease of doing business.

“We have taken decisive steps to ease licensing processes, and rationalise provisions and procedures relating to clearances, returns, and inspections. We are monitoring implementation of hundreds of action points across various sectors, aimed at improving the regulatory framework. This is part of our promise of Good Governance,” he added.

He said that India is moving closer to global best practices and day by day it is getting more and more integrated with the world.

“Our confidence has been boosted by the positive impact of our policies and practices. This also gives us the motivation to further simplify our processes to become the easiest place to do business,” he said adding “every day, we are further rationalising our policies and procedures, to make it simple for businesses to establish and grow”.

Amid the big push being given to digital transactions post-demonetization, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on Saturday said cards, ATMs and POS machines would become redundant in the country by 2020. “….India is in the midst of huge huge disruption in the world of both financial technology and in terms of social innovation (there is) huge huge innovation and this disruption will enable India to leapfrog…,” he said.

“…and by 2020 my view is that in the next two-and-a-half years, India will make all its debit cards, credit cards, all ATM machines all POS machines totally irrelevant,” Kant told a session at Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2017, a three-day mega event of Indian diaspora. He said, “They will all become redundant in India, and India will make this jump because every Indian will be doing his transaction just by using his thumb in thirty seconds….” Speaking at a session on ‘Startups and innovations which have social impact in India’ at the Youth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Bengaluru, he said, “What we are pushing now is digital payment in a very big way and it is a huge disruption with several innovative methods.

“India has created a back end in terms of biometric which will enable India…,” he said, highlighting recently launched BHIM app and Aadhar enabled payment system initiatives. Pointing out that India is the only country with a billion mobile and billion biometric, Kant also noted that India is largely a cash driven economy. He said whatever the biggest attempts of demonetization and push for digital payment, only 2 to 2.5% of Indians pay taxes, so India needs to move from a non-formal to a formal economy.

“It is impossible for India to become a 10 trillion economy like this….two trillion dollar is a formal economy and another one trillion dollar is an informal black economy. It is not possible for India to grow. So you need convert the non-formal economy to a formal economy, thats what the effort is,” he added. Noting that ability of people living in rural areas to utilise technology to leapfrog is much quicker and faster than literate people living in urban areas, Kant said in social innovation and financial technology it was the young Indians who were disrupting the world. He said they will enable India’s leapfrog and take it to a 10 trillion dollar economy.

“…so the young people of India must have the hunger, ambition and passion to drive India to innovation, to startups and disrupt India in a manner that it has never seen before,” he added. Noting that India is growing at about 7.6% per annum, Kant said it is an oasis of growth in the midst of a “very very barren economic landscape” across the world and the challenge for the country was to grow at even higher rates of 9 or 10% for a period of three decades or more. Speaking about India’s largest young population, he said it was a huge opportunity for the country.

“This is the biggest social and economic phenomenon that is taking place across the world, as the population across Europe and America is getting older, the population in India is getting younger…” he added. Listing out various reforms agenda and ease of doing business initiatives taken up by the government and country’s FDI growth, Kant stressed on the huge emphasis for the startup movement which helps in job creation and addresses challenges faced by country by finding solutions.

  Kathmandu: Nepal’s Opposition leader and former prime minister KP Sharma Oli today refused to let the the Constitution amendment bill, aimed at addressing the demands of agitating Madhesi parties, pass in the Parliament.

Talking to journalists at Biratnagar Airport in eastern Nepal, CPN-UML Chairman Oli accused the government that by tabling the Constitution amendment bill in Parliament it had ignored the Supreme Court order which had noted that state boundaries cannot be reviewed without an approval from the Provincial Assemblies.

Oli said that the incumbent government was acting as if it did not understand court language.

He accused the Madhesi party leaders of speaking illegal and unconstitutional words and criticised them for making statements like they would not participate in the elections if the Constitution amendment bill is not passed.

Oli exuded confidence that the country would find a solution to the problem in coming few days in line with the parliamentary procedures.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” has claimed that the Constitution amendment bill was tabled in the Parliament with the consent of the main opposition CPN (UML).

The bill, which aims to accommodate the demands of the agitating Madhesi and ethnic groups that include citizenship and boundary demarcation issues among others, was tabled in the Parliament yesterday.

Talking to reporters in central Nepal’s Chitawan district, Prachanda said that the bill was forwarded after forging a consensus with UML chairman Oli.

He claimed that the Opposition was ready to forward the bill in an ‘agree to disagree’ modality, adding that it was an internationally practised modality and dismissed the notion that the bill was tabled forcibly.

The Prime Minister stressed on consensus among the political parties and said that serious discussions were held with Oli regarding this.

Re-demarcation of the provincial boundary and citizenship issue are the two major demands put forth by the Madhesis.

Madhesis, mostly of Indian-origin, launched a six-month- long agitation during Oli’s premiership, from September 2015 to February last year, in which more than 50 people were killed.

The agitation had also crippled the landlocked country’s economy as supplies from India were blocked.

It was a random conversation with family members after her SSC exams that led to the birth of this visually impaired doctor, probably the country’s first.

From performing anatomy practicals in an open courtroom to dictating her answers in the exams, the 24-year-old Nallasopara girl has come a long way to make her dream come true.

Dr Kritica Purohit, who lives at Lotus Apartments in Nallasopara West, was in class three when optical nerve damage caused her to lose vision. However, after completing SSC through National Association For Blind, Purohit didn’t have to think twice before opting for Science stream.

Her first hurdle came in the form of Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) in 2010 when she had to appear for Common Entrance Test (CET). She approached the Bombay High Court and the court order came in her favour.

Her second hurdle was getting a seat in a government college. The rules stipulated that none can be exempted from practical exams and since a visually challenged cannot perform the practicals, she was denied the seat.

“I again moved court, and on court orders performed anatomy in the courtroom on a specimen which was brought from London specially for the case. I had to perform a practical session to prove that I too can become a qualified doctor,” said Purohit.

“After securing admission, I worked hard and scored maximum marks in anatomy practicals, and brain was the most difficult part in it. But I was taught in such a manner that I could decipher it rightly,” said Purohit.

With the Maharashtra State Council for Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy, Mumbai issuing her the certificate on her clearing the exams, she has become the first government-certified visually challenged doctor in the country.

“I feel content that I have achieved what I aimed for. Now I will have to pass on this content feeling to those approaching me for treatment,” said Purohit.

DNA report.

Hyderabad, Jan 11 : The second international kite festival coinciding with the ‘Makar Sankranti’ fest would be held for six days from January 12 in Hyderabad and two other districts in Telangana.

Telangana Toursim, which is organising the International Kite Festival-2017, today said the event is committed to a social cause of raising awareness about the importance of education and empowerment of girl children and expects a footfall of around 50,000 visitors.

“The festival will have participation from 17 countries with 70 international and 40 national kite flyers, and a special night-flying event is scheduled on January 12 as a pre-festival event at People’s Plaza here,” a release from Telangana Tourism said.

The main kite flying will take place on January 13, 14 and 15 at the Aga Khan Academy here and the festival’s aim is to “fly a kite for a girl child and colour the sky for a cause” this Sankranti, it said.

The festival will also be celebrated in Yadadri district (Yadagirigutta) on January 16 and in Warangal on January 17.

The tourism department proposes to celebrate the kite festival in the entire state within a period of five years, the release added.

New Delhi : With doubts being raised about demonetisation eliminating black money, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said colour of funds has not changed by merely depositing them in banks as the money has now lost its ‘anonymity’ and can be identified with the owner.

In a Facebook post titled ‘Demonetisation — A look back at the last two months’, he also said the period of pain and inconveniences is getting over and the economic activity is being restored.

Large amount of cash with banks will lead to lower interest rates, he further said.

“When 86 per cent of a country’s currency, constituting 12.2 per cent of its GDP, is squeezed out of the market and sought to be replaced by a new currency, there would obviously be significant consequences of that decision,” he said, adding that the queues outside the banks have disappeared and remonetisation has moved ahead.

“The period of pain and inconveniences is getting over.

Economic activity is being restored,” he said.

Jaitley said demonetisation required both courage and stamina. “The implementation of the decision carried pain. It can lead to short-term criticism and inconveniences. Drop in economic activity on account of the currency squeeze during the remonetisation period would have a transient impact on the economy.”

“The fact that large quantum of high denominational currency has been deposited with the banks does not render this money to be legitimate cash. Black money does not change its colour merely because it is deposited in bank. On the contrary, it loses its anonymity and can now be identified with its owner,” he said.

The comments follow reports about an estimated 97 per cent of junked notes getting deposited in bank accounts, thus casting doubts on the effectiveness of demonetisation move in checking the black money menace.

The Revenue Department, he said, would be entitled to tax this money. “In any case, the amendment to the Income Tax Act itself provides that the said money, if voluntarily declared or if involuntarily detected, would be liable for differential and high rates of taxation and penalty,” he said. .

New Delhi : The Budget session of Parliament was today convened to start from January 31, a day before the Union Budget is likely to be presented.

President Pranab Mukherjee has summoned the Rajya Sabha to meet on January 31, an official notification said.

A similar notification is also expected from the Lok Sabha secretariat.

While the session will begin with the President’s address to the joint sitting of the two Houses, the same day the pre- budget economic survey will be tabled.

The practice of separate railway budget presentation is being scrapped from this year. The railway estimates will be part of the Union budget.

The announcement comes even as opposition parties have raised objections to the presentation of the budget on February 1 before Assembly polls in five states on the ground that it will tilt the balance in government’s favour because it can woo voters with sops.

They have petitioned the Election Commission, which has asked the Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha to give the government’s response.

The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs had recently recommended that the Budget session will commence on January 31 and the Union Budget will be presented the next day so that the new financial provisions come into force from April 1, the beginning of the new fiscal.

London, Jan 11 :  Action star Sylvester Stallone, best known for his portrayal of boxer Rocky Balboa in the ‘Rocky’ franchise, has invested in a new boxing studio named Rumble.

The 70-year-old actor is expected to make an appearance at the launch of the studio, reported Femalefirst.

Rumble, which is reported to be the “most anticipated group-fitness concept, will open its first studio in New York City.

It has already planned two more studio openings in New York City this year, with expansion on the West Coast of America already underway.