Junior Digest

Mumbai: Anurag Thakur was today unanimously elected as the second youngest BCCI President, while Ajay Shirke was chosen as Secretary in a smooth transition of power at a time when the world’s richest Cricket Board is sailing through choppy waters.

The 41-year-old Thakur replaced Shashank Manohar who quit the position to take up the ICC chairman’s job. The Maharashtra Cricket Association chief and business magnate Shirke expectedly filled in the Secretary’s post which was left vacant by Thakur’s resignation yesterday.

Senior BCCI vice-president C K Khanna chaired the Special General Meeting (SGM) and announced Thakur’s name for the top job.

“I feel humbled and honoured to be sitting here, it’s a journey which started 16 years ago,” Thakur said after taking over.

Manohar’s exit from the top post barely seven months into his tenure had necessitated the election of the new chief of the world’s richest and most powerful cricket body.

Soon after his resignation, Thakur got the signatures of all six east zone units in his BCCI presidential nomination from yesterday, paving the way for his unanimous choice as the 34th President of the world’s most influential cricket body.

In a show of solidarity yesterday, all the six east units – Cricket Association of Bengal, Assam CA, Tripura CA, NCC and Jharkhand SCA – had signed his nomination papers even though the rules required only one unit to nominate the name of the presidential candidate. It was the East zone’s turn this time.

The BJP MP from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh will be taking over the reins of the embattled Board in rather tough times as the BCCI is facing heat from the Supreme Court to implement the Justice R M Lodha Committee’s recommendations for sweeping reforms.

Thakur, incidentally, will go into the books as the first first-class cricketer to turn BCCI president after Raj Singh Dungarpur ended his tenure in 1998-99.

Although cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar had held the post jointly with another Test cricketer Shivlal Yadav briefly, specifically in charge of IPL affairs, that had been done at the direction of the Supreme Court which ordered then President N Srinivasan to step aside in the wake of the 2013 IPL betting and spot-fixing scandal.

While Dungarpur had played 86 first-class matches for Rajasthan and the then Madhya Bharat as a medium pacer and also claimed 206 wickets, Thakur has represented HP in a lone Ranji Trophy game as a right-hand batsman and off break bowler in 2000-01 season.

Thakur is also the third person backed by East Zone to be elected to the top post during the 2014-2017 period.

Jagmohan Dalmiya, who was the consensus candidate after Srinivasan’s exit, died in office last year and Manohar took over in October, 2015.

@ Agency report.

Bhubaneswar:  Pitching for better business environment for startups, Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan today said India has done away with the licence raj, but ‘inspector raj’ continues to some extent.

He also said that regulations should be for betterment of the industry and not to discourage entrepreneurs and suggested a system of self-certification for the industries with some checks on the part of the authorities to prevent any misuse.

Advocating an easier set of regulations for small and medium enterprises in India, Rajan gave examples of the UK and Italy saying, “We have seen that while regulations are liberal in United Kingdom, it is very heavy in Italy. It is seen that the start ups in the UK grow faster than their Italian counterparts.”

Addressing ministers, bankers, bureaucrats and other stakeholders at the 4th Odisha Knowledge Hub here, the RBI chief also said Indian economy is in the midst of recovery but some areas are still under stress.

Calling for a need to focus on the development of small and medium enterprises that require ‘hand-holding’ by the state governments and other agencies, Rajan said, “Indian economy is in the midst of recovery. However, some areas are still under stress and need to be focused in order to get them better.”

A good monsoon will be helpful for the growth of the economy, he added.

Small and medium enterprise require focused attention, the governor said and mooted setting up new institutions to finance SMEs to ensure easy access to funds.

Rajan said public sector banks have increased their credit to small and medium enterprises after RBI identified medium enterprises as priority sector and that he was optimistic about growth of start ups if provided required facilities to grow.

“Provision of easy entry and easy exit, smooth availability of finance, access to input and output market, protection from creditable taxes and healthy competition in the sector are the areas need to be focused by the planners and the governments,” Rajan said and called upon entrepreneurs to take risk under safety net.

Stating that the government needed to create a proper environment for the start ups, he said “though India has done away with the licence raj, inspector raj continues to some extent”.

Factory and boiler inspectors and other field level regulators should have adequate knowledge on the initiatives being taken by the government and RBI for the betterment of small and medium enterprises, he said.

Light regulation, he said, is very important in small and medium enterprise sector and a heavy regulation many times do not give easy entry and easy exit which is why people keep away from it.

Field level regulators must have information regarding the initiatives, he added.

@Agency report.

Astana (Kazakhstan): Five-time world champion M C Mary Kom and Asian Games bronze-medallist L Sarita Devi failed to qualify for the Olympics after they went down in their respective second round bouts of the AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships here today.

Mary Kom (51kg), who was a bronze-medallist at the 2012 London Olympics, lost 0-2 to Germany’s Azize Nimani, while Sarita (60kg) was beaten 0-3 by Victoria Torres in the second round of an event from where only the semifinalists in the three Olympic categories would make the cut for the upcoming Rio Games.

The only Olympic hope left for India in the event is Pooja Rani (75kg), who is in the prequarterfinals after winning her opening bout yesterday.

“I gave my best effort after a lot of sacrifices. Winning and losing is a part of game. The decision hurts me but it is not in my hand. I just have to respect the judges decision with true sportsmanship,” Mary Kom told PTI.

“I believe God has a different plan for me. I want to thank all my fans and my support team for not letting me down in this crucial moment. I wish our remaining Indian boxers all the best and I hope they make our country proud,” she added.

Mary Kom has a hypothetical chance of making it to Rio depending on the medallists in her category but that possibility is way too far-fetched and complex at this point.

Nimani will next be up against top seed Davide Marzia of Italy who got the better of Hungary’s Katalin Ancsin.

In an exciting contest, Mary Kom took off aggressively but Nimani managed to keep her at bay by fighting from a distance.

In fact, Nimani hardly attempted any attack on the Indian in the opening two minutes but managed to connect a few counter-jabs to take the initial edge.

Mary Kom continued to be aggressive in the second round as well, connected much better but failed to get the judges’ nod, who again ruled in favour of Nimani on a split decision.

Gaining in confidence, Nimani stuck to her gameplan and forced Mary Kom to let her guard down.

The diminutive Manipuri threw herself aggressively at the German, whose punching was far from clean. Nimani’s defensive tactics frustrated Mary Kom, who tried hard to engage the back-paddling German.

However, the determined attack failed to yield the desired results for Mary Kom as Nimani was declared winner on a split vote.

@Agency report.

New Delhi, May 22 : Assam’s Chief Minister designate Sarbananda Sonowal today resigned from the Union Council of Ministers.

The resignation letter of 53-year-old Sonowal was forwarded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the President, who accepted it.

“The President, as advised by the Prime Minister, has accepted the resignation of Sarbananda Sonowal, Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, from the Council of Ministers, with immediate effect.

“Further, as advised by the Prime Minister, the President has directed that Jitendra Singh, Minister of State, shall be assigned the Independent charge of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, in addition to his existing portfolios,” a Rashtrapati Bhawan communique said.

Sonowal was elected BJP legislature party leader at a meeting of the newly-elected MLAs in Guwahati this afternoon and has been invited by Governor P B Acharya to form the government.

In today’s ‘Mann ki baat’ radio programme, the Prime Minister praised Sonowal for taking time out to visit NIS Patiala to check on the sportspersons’ training for the Rio Olympics despite elections in Assam.

“There were polls, he was a CM candidate but performed his duty as a sports minister. This is a big thing,” the Prime Minister said.

Sonowal began his political career with the All Assam Students Union before moving to AGP and later to BJP in 2011.

He was made president of the Assam unit of the BJP in 2012.

He was declared BJP’s chief ministerial candidate in January 2016.

@Agency report.

New Delhi, May 21 : Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was today remembered on his 25th death anniversary, with several leaders paying homage at his memorial here.

President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari, the late leader’s wife and Congress President Sonia Gandhi accompanied by son and party Vice President Rahul Gandhi, daughter Priyanka Gandhi and son-in-law Robert Vadra paid tributes to the late leader at his memorial, Veer Bhumi.

Senior party leaders including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel, Sushil Kumar Shinde, PC Chacko, Sheila Dikshit and DPCC President Ajay Maken, among others, also paid tributes to the former PM.

Rajiv Gandhi, who was the sixth Prime Minister of India, was assassinated on May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu during a poll campaign.

@Agency report.

New Delhi, May 22 :  BJP leader and former IPS officer Kiran Bedi was today appointed as Lt Governor of Puducherry, a post which was under the additional charge of Lt Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Island for nearly two years.

A Rashtrapati Bhawan communique said “the President has been pleased to appoint Ms Kiran Bedi, to be the Lt. Governor of Puducherry with effect from the date she assumes charges of her office.”

“I look forward to giving every bit of myself to the responsibility. I am there for the benefit of the country. I am here to give my best every day, each day. I am grateful for the government’s decision. They trusted me,” said 66-year-old Bedi, who is the country’s first woman IPS officer and who had led the BJP campaign for the 2015 Delhi Assembly polls without any success,

The appointment came three days after the Congress-DMK alliance won 17 seats in the 30-member state Assembly. AIADMK, which contested the elections on its own, won four seats while BJP could not get even a single seat.

The LG post in the Union territory had been lying vacant after the Narendra Modi Government had sacked UPA nominee Virendra Kataria on July 12 barely a year after he had been appointed. Lt Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Island Lt Gen Ajay Singh had been given additional charge of Puducherry.

Born on June 9, 1949, Bedi had led the BJP campaign in the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections but had to face the worst defeat in her maiden political innings with Arvind Kejriwal- led AAP winning 67 of the 70 seats.

An IPS officer of 1972 batch, Bedi had sought voluntary retirement from the service in 2007. She was then posted as Director General, Bureau of Police Research and Development.

A sports lover and an author, Bedi is a recipient of Ramon Magsaysay Award as well as UN Medal for outstanding service. She was one of the pioneers of anti-corruption crusade in 2011 along with Anna Hazare and Kejriwal against the then UPA government.

She also earned a law degree at Delhi University in 1988 and a PhD from IIT Delhi’s Department of Social Sciences in 1993.

@Agency report.

New Delhi, May 20 : In a first, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has decided to involve young people as interns to help it in policy formulation by supplementing the analytical process and collating information.

The young talents will be exposed to various vigilance-related work being done by the Commission “for mutual benefit”.

The anti-graft watchdog has started “The CVC Internship Scheme, 2016” to engage youngsters who would be expected to supplement the process of analysis within CVC through desirable empirical collection and collation of in-house and other information.

“The interns may benefit by getting an exposure to the Commission’s functioning and the vigilance issues involved and contribute to the policy formulation of the Commission by generating policy inputs such as empirical analysis, briefing reports, policy papers,” according to the scheme.

“The Commission may benefit from the additional resources in the form of young talent and their output which will add to its policy formulation base,” the scheme document said.

Those who are graduates (or awaiting final year results), post graduate or research students enrolled in reputed universities or institutions within India or abroad and preferably studying law, information technology, business management, social sciences and associated subjects are eligible to apply for the scheme.

The period of internship shall be for a minimum of one month extendable to two months. A maximum of three interns will be hired by the Commission during 2016-17. Those selected will also get a remuneration of Rs 10,000 to meet expenses on conveyance and their other daily needs.

“It is neither a job nor a promise for job in the future,” CVC said, adding that the interns will be required to furnish a “Declaration of Secrecy” prior to the commencement of the internship.

The interns shall be attached to branch heads who shall ensure timely initiation of the work plan and final submission of the project report to Secretary CVC at the end of the internship period.

@Agency report.