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1.India has overtaken China to emerge as the world's biggest market for twowheelers. A total of 17.7 million two-wheelers were sold in India last year--that's over 48,000 units every day . Neighbouring China trailed with 16.8 million units sold, according to officials from industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) as well as data sourced from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Besides rising incomes and growing infrastructure in rural areas, one big reason for the spurt in sales has been women commuters who like the ease of zipping in and out of chaotic city traffic on their gearless scooters. For Honda, which leads the scooter market, the share of women is at 35%.
2. Elphinstone Road station will be renamed Prabhadevi and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) will henceforth be known as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT). The Centre has approved the state government's demand to rename the two city railway stations. After the state issues a notification, the railways can start the process of changing the names. Transport minister Diwakar Raote said that he had been pursuing the issue for the last 26 years. Lord Elphinstone, who was the governor of Bombay from 1853 to 1860, will now make way for the local deity, in tune with the BJP-Sena's outreach to the Marathi manoos.
3. The country's apex consumer fo rum, NCDRC, has ruled that trusts, unregistered consumer organisations, residents' welfare associations, cooperative societies or associations of flat or plot buyers cannot File a case for one or more consumers or on behalf of a group, reports Dipak Dash. The order passed on Friday ends ambiguity on who can approach the consumer forum under the category of “voluntary consumer association (VCA)“. Section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act mentions that besides individuals only a “recognised consumer organisation“ can file a case. It explains recognised consumer associations as those VCAs that are registered under any law.
4. Over $2.6 trillion is held as untaxed cash in offshore accounts by top US companies like Apple, Google, IBM, Pfizer, Pepsi and Coke, McDonald's etc. according to a report by the Washington-based Institute for Tax and Economic Policy (ITEP). This is the highest-ever hoard held offshore by American companies and represents a net tax loss of a staggering $767 billion for the US government. The $2.6 trillion untaxed funds are more than the combined GDP of 153 countries, four times the US defence budget, and slightly more than the total mandatory spending of $2.45 trillion on social security , food security , medicare and unemployment by the US government in 2015. The untaxed treasure hoard is more than India's GDP . According to Richard Phillips of ITEP , this information was dug out from 10-K filings, that is, annual reports filed by companies with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.Of the 500 top companies in the US, 322 were found to have large offshore holdings.
5. Acknowledging that women are a disadvantaged section despite comprising nearly half the country's population, the Centre is considering lowering income tax for single women, introducing Aadhaar-linked health cards for free basic women's health check-ups and cashless medical service for those who are pregnant. A national policy for women, framed by a group of ministers headed by external af fairs minister Sushma Swaraj, is expected to be unveiled soon.It proposes a lower rate of income tax for single women as it takes note of a growing segment of the population; there has been a 39% increase in this category between 2001and 2011.
6. Seeking to put to rest fears that use of fake IDs to obtain Aadhaar cards and leak of data pose a security threat, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey told that UID systems are secure and will deter terrorists and money launderers.
7. In an avoidable tragedy that shows up the glaring neglect of elevators in the city, a 12-year-old girl died after she pushed her head out of the broken windowpane in the lift door in an SRA building in Bandra East on Friday afternoon. Kunut Zaveri reportedly wanted to see whether the lift was on its way down, when its incoming carriage hit her head.Sources said the child's scre am was cut off abruptly.
8. It was a horrific week for In dians in the US. Four people were killed in three separate incidents. Jagjit Singh (32) was stabbed to death in Modesto, California when he was closing his store at midnight on Thursday . His family back home suspects an altercation with a customer. An Indian-origin couple was killed in an apparent revenge attack by their daughter's ex-boyfriend, who was later shot dead by police in San Jose. A 32-year-old doctor from Kerala was found dead inside his car in Detroit on Thursday night.
9. A high-level probe conducted by M G Gaikwad, a former judge of the Bombay high court, has found one-time NCP minister and now BJP legislator Vijay Kumar Gavit, a physician-turned politician, guilty of corruption and irregularities in the tribal development department led by him between 2004 and 2009. In his capacity as tribal development minister, Gavit was exofficio chairman of the tribal development corporation which has also been indicted. The findings of the Gaikwad committee, set up on the orders of the Bombay high court, come as a major political set back for Gavit as he was expecting to be inducted into the state cabinet.
10. Wipro stepped up its se curity on Saturday after receiving an email by an unidentified person who threatened to poison the company's campus using a toxic drug if not paid Rs 500 crore.The sender wanted to be paid in bitcoins, a digital currency, and claimed to be in procession of 1kg of ricin.
11. A 20-year-old SYBCom college student from Ulhasnagar allegedly stole jewellery and other valuables worth Rs 8 lakh from her own home to “help out“ her 34-year-old Pune-based boyfriend, whom she had recently befriended on Facebook. She was detained on Friday and a police team left for Pune on Saturday to bring him to the city. The girl fabricated a lie and told her father that a few days ago two burglars had broken into their home, tied her up and fled with the valuables. When her father asked why she had not mentioned the crime, the girl said she co uld not muster the courage to tell anyone about it. Her fat her, who runs a garage, immediately filed a police compla int at the local Vithalwadi po lice station. Cops doubted the girl's story due to contradictions in her statement and asked her point-blank whether she had made it all up. The girl finally admitted to the truth, saying she had stolen the valuables to help her Pune-based boyfriend in his business. Based on her statement, police booked the girl, Shanti, and her boyfriend, Vikas, under Indian Penal Code sections 406 for criminal breach of trust and 34 for common intention.
12. Around 11.35 lakh aspirants will take the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) today across the country for admissions to medical and dental colleges. This is the second year of its implementation after it was revived last year by a Supreme Court order. While last year it was conducted in two phases, this year, the test will be held on one day . The CBSE that conducts the test has seen a 40% rise in the number of aspirants this year.While some students are worried about the difficulty level of the test, most are hoping for a smooth admission process.
13. Since the All-India Pre Medical Test paper leak two years ago, the CBSE has issued stringent guidelines (see box) on what is allowed at the centre and what is not.NEET will be held at over 2,200 centres in 104 cities on Sunday .
14.Monorail services came to a standstill for close to an hour and a half due to a technical glitch in a rake that got stuck between Wadala and Bhakti Park stations on Saturday evening. Spokesperson for Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), Dilip Kawathkar, said, “The incident happened at 6.55 pm and the system and operations resumed at 8.20 pm. Stuck passengers alighted after the affected rake was brought back to Bhakti Park.“ Sources said that the incident happened because of a problem in the braking system. Another rake was sent to tow away the affected train to Bhakti Park station.
15. A civil surgeon from Thane has registered a case of cheating and fraud of Rs 5 lakhs against the head-mistress and three teachers of Captain Ravindra Madhav Oak High School, Kalyan. The accused are --the headmistress Hemlata Dada Nikam, Milind Madhav Khaladkar, Sanjay Mangesh Chavan and Manisha Moreshwar Godbole.
16.Months after the demonetisation move, racketeers appear to be still trying to make a fast buck out of defunct notes. Five persons were arrested on Friday for allegedly kidnapping and assaulting two men after they failed to get their old demonetised notes worth Rs 1.1 crore exchanged for Rs 20 lakh in new currency 17.To tide over shortage of road repair material, the civic chief on Saturday directed officials of the road department to invite a `short-term tender' to buy material and the cost could be billed to the road contractor. Commissioner Ajoy Mehta on Saturday took stock of monsoon-preparedness work. As road repair works ha ve taken a hit after the closure of stone quarries in Thane district since April 1, Mehta said that the roads department should try to call for repair material from places outside Thane. The quarries are caught in a pollution controversy. The chief engineer, roads, has been instructed to invite the tender. Senior civic officials from the storm water drains department were pulled up after they sought an extension to complete the work of the Gazdarbandh pumping station. This pumping station will flush out water from Khar, Santacruz, Vile Parle, and parts of Bandra and Andheri. This year, 313 de-watering pumps will again be placed across the city and ward officials have been told to personally verify if each works. “On May 9 and 11, each ward officer, deputy municipal officer and other seniors have been asked to go on field and inspect road works,“ said a senior official.
18. A week after chief minister Devendra Fadnavis shifted 60 bureaucrats, fresh changes are on the cards at the senior level following the empanelment of a few senior bureaucrats and retirement of a few high-ranking officials. If Fadnavis agrees, highprofile Mumbai municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta will move to New Delhi as secretary in the Union government. Along with Mehta, Ajay Bhushan Pandey , Malini Shankar, Sanjay Bhatia and Bhagwan Sahai too have been empanelled. Pandey , Malini Shankar and Bhatia are already on central deputation. Pandey heads the Unique Identification Authority of India, Malini Shankar is director general, shipping, while Bhatia is chairman of Mumbai Port Trust. Their posts may be upgraded to the rank of secretary in the Union government or they may be given new assignments.
19. A 37-year-old man was arrested on Saturday for “marrying“ a 13-year-old girl from a poor family in Mahim in March this year and forcing her into a physical relationship. The girl's mother and the priest who solemnized the marriage have also been arrested. The police said that the groom, Asif Khan, has been booked for rape and kidnap under the Indian Penal Code, besides sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and Prohibition of Child Marriage Act.
20. Residents' associations from Cumballa Hill in south Mumbai met the municipal commissioner on Saturday after they found that the draft Development Plan 2034 shows a children's park reservation in their area being changed into residential plot. They also submitted a letter, stating their concern, to the civic chief. The resident associations of Cumballa Hill, Peddar Road, Altamount Road, and Carmichael road stated that they wanted to lodge their official objection regarding the change in nomenclature. The children's park around 4,505 sq metres is located barely a few metres away from the municipal commissioners bungalow on Carmichael Road now officially called M L Dahanukar Marg.
21. The redevelopment of a building in Andheri (west), which had been held up for more than a decade, can finally proceed now with the Supreme Court dismissing a plea for intervention by four society members who refused to vacate. The members, in minority , have a deadline of May 10, to leave peacefully or be forcefully evicted. The Bombay high court had in February observed that the refusal of four flat-owners to vacate when remaining 28 occupants had vacated the premises “held up the redevelopment“ of a dilapidated building, which is over 50 years old. The Supreme Court this week upheld an April 7 order of the appeal bench of the Bombay high court which directed that if Laxmi Bahinala and three others do not hand over vacant and peaceful possession of the premises which they occupy on or before May 10, 2017, then, the court receiver will step in to take steps to have them removed. Justice Gautam Patel had in February rapped the “minority'' members, observed how their “obstruction harms their own society and hurts their fellow members and neighbours and said they “must be put to terms“.
22. The teachers at the IITs across the country have been served with notices from the income tax department asking them to pay a levy for accommodation on campus. Currently , faculty living on campus pay a licence fee to the college as per their contract. Comparing institutes to public sector undertakings, the notice from the income tax department, stated that housing was a perquisite and hence would be taxable. The 23 IITs have a faculty population of close to 7,500. Both government and non-government employees have to pay tax on perquisite value when the employer provides accommodation. For non-government employees the perquisite value is up to 15% of the salary (lower for smaller towns) minus rent, if any , paid by the employees. For government employees, the perquisite value is the licence fee determined by the government minus the rent, if any , paid by the government employees.This perquisite value is added to salary income, which in turn increases the total taxable salary and the I-T liability. The standing committee of IIT Council which met recently , discussed this “concern“ at length, and apprised HRD minister Prakash Javadekar about it. Javadekar, in turn, assured directors that he would follow up with finance minister Arun Jaitley .
23. In a significant victory for members of the `Save Rani Bagh Botanical Garden Foundation', the planning committee formed to look into suggestions and objections to the draft DP 2034, has designated the Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan and Zoo as a `botanical garden, garden and zoo'. What is pertinent to note here is that the designation of a `botanical garden' has been especially created for the purpose. It may be recollected that in the earlier draft DP released in February 2015, which had to be sent back to the drawing board, the BMC designated the Udyan only as a zoo. Popularly known as `Rani Bagh', the over 53-acre space in the heart of Mumbai was opened to the public in 1862.The botanical garden today is home to 853 plant species and more than 3,000 trees. The new classification however hasn't come easy said the trustees, who have been working for the last 10 years to preserve the character of the bota nical garden. “The designation makes a lot of difference as our aim has been to protect this invaluable green lung. From the time we started off we had put in the word `botanical' garden in the name of our foundation though it made it sound wordy ,“ said Hutokshi Rustomfram, trustee of the Save Rani Bagh Botanical Garden Foundation.
24. Even as Mumbai University claimed that assessment of TYBCom answersheets commenced in small numbers on Friday , teachers from affiliated colleges that spoke said that they have not been told about commencement of the process. Teachers said that they are still to receive any letter from the university after the training was conducted last week.While many teachers have already left for their vacation, so me from unaided colleges are awaiting the university's directives. An official said that scanning of answer sheets has begun and the university planned to start the assessment too simultaneously . Deepak Wasave, in-charge director of Board of Examinations and Evaluations, said that the scanning and assessment of TYBCom papers started on Friday . While sources confirm that the scanning process did start after initial glit ches, not many are aware of assessment. A teacher from a suburban college said they are awaiting instructions to go to their nearest CAP (centralised assessment process) centre. “Most of our teachers are available despite the vacation. But we are yet to be notified by the university,“ said a teacher. Another college teacher said that the university has not issued any communication after the training ended last week. A principal said many teachers waited for the university to pass directives, but decided to leave for their hometown due to the uncertainty .
25. The crime branch on Saturday returned 71cars valued at Rs 6.61 crore to its owners who were cheated by three accused last month in car-for-rent scam. The police said that the accused, Mumbra resident Anurag Tiwari (49), and two Diva residents Rohit Gharat (29) and Rajendra Yadav (35) had cheated 71car owners after luring them into renting out their four-wheelers to a five-star hotel in Mumbai by promising them Rs 1.5 lakh monthly rent, said Madhukar Pandey , joint commissioner of police.
26. Nearly two months after four Lankans were arrested for allegedly trying to fly off to London from Sahar airport, using fake passports, one of the two agents who allegedly tried to facilitate their passage to Europe was arrested on Friday . The accused, Rayappen Thevakumaran (52), against whom a lookout circular had been issued, was arrested when he landed at Mangaluru airport on Thursday . He was brought to Mumbai on Friday and a magistrate's court in Andherisent him to police custody till May 9. On March 10 this year, four Sri Lankans and four UK nationals were arrested for forgery and human trafficking. The four UK nationals -Bower Oliver (27), Quillian Alan (43), Fivehats Captain (56), Warner Ann (36) -had been offered a paid trip to India and, in return, they had to help the four Lankans -Arunasalam Shuthakaran (34), Kannathasan Karththeepan (26), Gajan Chandrabalan (31) and Kandasamy Kaveenthiri (26) -to the UK. An Indian, Sunil Soni (29), who was their local contact was also arrested. At the Sahar airport, the UK nationals allegedly handed over their boarding passes to the Lankans who had managed to skip immigration. The plan was to let the Lankans fly off to London on fake identities of the UK nationals their the four Brits would stay on in India on tourist visas which had been provided by Soni, said the police. “Thevakumaran was arrested after immigration officials at Mangalurualerted us about his arrival after they identified him based on the circular issued against him,“ sa id senior inspector of Sahar police station, BT Mukhedkar.“He is one of the two who introduced the four Lankans held with the four UK nationals who exchanged their boarding passes. Soni, a salesman, had helped the agents to get SIM cards for the UK nationals.“ The police said that the agents had demanded Rs 17 lakh each from the Lankans to help them reach the UK. Advocate for the Lankans, Prabhakar Tripathi, said that his clients have applied for bail at Dindoshi sessions court and the hearing is scheduled on May 11.
27. Ahmad Mecklai, a nonpractising allopathic doctor, was more than a little surprised to receive a phone call at 3am from an oral cancer patient. The patient, a Kenyan national, had arrived in India a few hours earlier and was told to pay Rs 16 lakh to a Delhi hospital by 8am for his treatment. Distraught by the short deadline and the steep medical fee, he approached his embassy officials who connected him to Dr Mecklai, who runs a medical tourism company from Chembur.
28. Demonetisation is likely to affect disbursement of loans to farmers for the upcoming kharif crop season in the state. Loan disbursement for this kharif season is likely to be affected due to lack of liquidity with district central co-operative (DCC) banks. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced discontinuation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000, within four days, DCC banks in the state had collected deposits close to Rs 8,500 crore. However, RBI barred these banks from accepting any old notes and all deposits were under scrutiny . The cash pile of Rs 8,500 croreis yet to be exchanged by RBI due to “suspicious“ deposits.Of 1.36 crore farmers in the state, 57 lakh were given loans last year. Of these, 33 lakh farmers were serviced by DCC banks. The agriculture loan outlay for 2017-18 is estimated to be Rs 58,862 crore of which Rs17,000 crore is the target set for the 31DCC banks in the state -up from last year's target of Rs 15,571 crore. Kharif season is the biggest agricultural season of the year. Besides, demonetisation, there are other fund-related issues these banks face. Of 31 DCC banks in the state, 12 are making losses. DCC banks have a network of 3,535 branches across the state and their share in the loan target is close to 35-40%.
29. After several pollution related complaints, the Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation has started cleaning of Waldhuni River in Ulhasnagar on Saturday.Activists have urged civic bodies to take action against factories that pollute the river.
30. The Anti-Narcotics Cell have arrested two Kashmir residents, Nissar Bhatt (33) and Iliyas Ismail Shaikh (38), for possessing 1.8 kgs of charas worth Rs 7.2 lakh from Nehru Nagar in Kurla (east) late on Friday.
31. A security guard of the Bandra Worli Sea Link was injured when a private car, in a bid to avoid paying toll, drove through the toll naka in high speed on Friday night.The Bandra police are scanning CCTV footage to indentify the car.
32. The boom of a 20-tonne crane train, which was being used on Harbour line extension project up to Goregaon, damaged the terrace of a dilapidated building near Jogeshwari on Saturday.
33. Food and Drug Administration officials seized over 3,100 kg ice from a factory and three shops in Bhiwandi and Kalyan. The officials said that the ice was prepared in unhygienic conditions and was unfit for human consumption.
34. In the ongoing sweltering summer conditions, five kites and two parrots were rescued by the Plant and Animals Welfare Society (PAWS-Mumbai), a non-governmental organization, from various parts of the city over the last two days. “We received rescue calls for the dehydrated and injured kites and parrots from Bhandup, Vikhroli, Andheri and Goregaon areas. Some crows were seen circling over the birds and aggressively pecking at the vulnerable creatures which were unable to fly as they had become weak due to the heat,“ said activist Sunish Subramanian of PAWSMumbai. Multi-vitamin drops were administered to the rescued birds after which they were kept under observation. “We have informed the forest department about the wildlife rescues as these are species protected under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972,“ he said. The calls were received from local residents. PAWS-Mumbai volunteers also cautioned citizens not to keep parrots as pets, as it is an illegal act, considering that parakeets are a protected species in India. Due to scarcity of clean sources of water, summer season is a very difficult time for animals, birds and reptiles.
35. The Pune rural police on Satur day formed a special investiga tion team (SIT) to conduct a probe into the murder of an engineering student and his friend on the road to Amby Valley in Lonavla last month. The SIT was formed after the local police failed to make a breakthrough in investigations even a month after the murders. Special inspector general Vishwas NangrePatil will monitor the developments in the case. Senior inspector Ram Jadhav, in charge of the local crime branch, will head the seven-member team. The police have also announced a cash reward of Rs 50,000 to any one who provides information that throws light on the murders. Earlier this week, senior police officers, including Nangre-Patil, reviewed the case, after which it was decided that an SIT would be formed to speed up the investigations. The police are yet to make an arrest in the case and the motive for the murder remains unknown. The police have questioned over 200 people known to have a criminal background but nothing of note has been found. The police also quizzed a few local youths and students but to no avail. Earlier this week, the parents of one of the victims approached the police to express concern about the investigations in the case. The pa rents threatened to stage a rasta roko in Lonavla if the police failed to make arrests soon. The two students from an engineering college in Lonavla were found murdered in the forested area near Tiger Point between INS Shivaji and the air force station on April 3.The police aid unidentified people had assaulted the youth and the girl, bludgeoned them to death and stripped them before abandoning the bodies in the forest.
36. An Alipurduar court on Saturday awarded death sentence to a man convicted of raping and murdering a class VI student four years ago. Additional chief judicial magistrate of Alipurduar A K Pal sentenced Albert Toppo to death for raping and killing the girl in 2013, according to the ACJM court. The accused had tied the victim's body to tea bushes.
37. Holding that a “socially sensitised judge“ offers a better and more effective statutory armour than penal provisions to deal with cases of crime against women, the Supreme Court has said that the corroboration of a victim's statement is not mandatory .
38. Eight men allegedly gang-raped a woman before her husband in a vehicle on Thursday night in Jalaun district. The couple was then robbed and dumped on AuraiyaJalaun highway . Police said the Jalaun based couple was travelling home from Jaipur, where they work as artisans. They reached Auraiya by train around Thursday midnight and were looking for a public transport, when the driver of a loader van offered them a lift. Shortly afterwards, the vehicle halted at a liquor shop from where some other men boarded it. It was then driven to a secluded spot, where eight men took turns to rape the woman after tying up her husband. The duo was also abused and threatened against raising an alarm, cops said.
39. It has been more than four years since the December 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape-murder, a case that shook the nation's conscience and triggered countrywide protests over the wide prevalence of crime against women. But not much seems to have changed on the ground as crime statistics from the years since show. According to data from National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), while close to 35,000 rape cases have been reported, on average, every year since 2013, close to 1.4 lakh rape cases were on trial at the end of 2015. Since 2012 when the Nirbhaya gang rape happened, there was a marked increase in the registration of cases relating to crimes against women across the country. While 24,923 rapes were reported in 2012, the figure was 33,707 in 2013, attributed to increased awareness and prompt registration of FIRs by police on complaints of women. The number of rape cases rose to 36,735 in 2014 out of which 2346 were gang-rapes. However, the numbers came down to 34,561in 2015 including 2,113 gangrapes. The number of crimes against women continuously increased from 2011 to 2014.While 2,28,650 cases were reported in 2011, it went up to 2,44,270 cases in 2012. It went up sharply to 3,09,546 cases in 2013 and 3,37,922 in 2014. However, the number of cases declined to 3,27,394 cases in 2015. NCRB data state that of the 34,651 rape cases registered in 2015, offenders were known to the survivors in 33,098 cases (95.5 percent). The conviction rate in crimes against women remains abysmal as reflected in the data released by NCRB. According to NCRB, 10,80,144 cases of crimes against women were pending in trial courts by the end of 2015.In 2015, only 27,844 cases ended in conviction, a rate of 21.7%. In rape cases, out of 24,486 persons whose trial was completed that year, 7,185 people were convicted, 16,849 were acquitted and 452 discharged by the courts. In 2014, 26,660 cases relating to crimes against women ended in conviction -a conviction rate of 21.3%. By the end of 2014, a total of 9,82,516 cases were pending for trial in the courts. The courts convicted 6,637 persons of rape, acquitted 16,575 and discharged 487 accused in rape cases in 2014.
40.An Iranian woman who came to India from Tehran in 2009, and liked it so much she enrolled in DU and married an Indian man, says there is a serious threat to her life and has filed three police cases -two of dowry harassment and molestation against her husband and his friends, and a third of rape by a man who sexually assaulted her this April, allegedly to terrorise her into withdrawing first two cases. The troubles of 36-year-old Sheeva (name changed) began on April 15, 2015, the day she got married. The man she wed is employed with an Indian construction giant. She said her husband took away jewellery and gold coins worth about Rs 90 lakh and had relations with other women. His parents also demanded dowry of Rs 2 crore, After several attempts to contact police, Sheeva filed a complaint with Iranian embassy.'
41. Taking a serious view of increasing incidence of cases of sexual abuse of children, the Supreme Court has directed setting up of child care institutions to look after children, particularly those who are victims of sexual offences, and also those who are in conflict with law. A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta directed that all such child care institutions be registered by December 31. It also wanted governments to ensure a care plan for every child in each care institution by 2017-end. The bench also appealed to judges to play an active role in protecting the rights of children. It asked all HCs to set up a Juvenile Justice Committee to ensure effective implementation of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act. The bench also referred to a Unicef-Govt study of 2007 which said nearly 53% of children in India had been victims of sexual abuse.
42. Alarmed by poor placements at second and thirdgeneration Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), the Union ministry of human resource development (MHRD) has asked the institutes to submit details about recruitment and salaries for the 2015-2017 batches. Newer IIMs have been struggling to attract companies to recruit students even as placement season was fairly smooth in the older institutes.IIM Rohtak told TOI it has not been able to place 14 students, while IIM Sirmaur in Himachal Pradesh did not provide information. IIM Amritsar, which was established just two years ago, said all its students have got jobs. The average salary in these IIMs stands at Rs 11 lakh per annum; lower than the older IIMs where the average salary is in the range of Rs 24 lakh to Rs 50 lakh. The department of higher education (management) has sought the details of the final placements from IIMs at Sirmaur, Rohtak, Amritsar, Kashipur, Udaipur, Ranchi, Trichy, Shillong, Raipur, Bodhgaya, Nagpur, Sambalpur and Visakhapatnam. In a letter, the MHRD has di rected the institute authorities to evaluate reasons for poor placements. The letter also seeks steps being taken to ensure 100% placements. In response to the letter, officials at IIM Amritsar, established in 2015, said its first batch had 44 students, who received a total of 48 offers from the 60 companies that came to campus. “The highest salary offered was Rs 17 lakh per annum. The average salary was Rs 10 lakh pa.“ At IIM Sirmaur in Himachal, however, officials were not forthcoming about whether the 20 students, who received their diplomas on April 8, got jobs. Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT-K) became the first IIT to start an Economic Sciences department on Saturday.Institute director Indranil Manna said, “After adding Earth Sciences department in the last academic session, the administration decided to start a BSc (Economic Sciences) programme as it has gained popularity among students.“
43. At least 487 school students and teachers and residents of a colony in Tughlaqabad fell sick on Saturday after inhaling fumes emanating from a liquid (2Chloro-5-chloromethylpyridine) that leaked from a container truck at a nearby container depot. Twenty four girls from the Rani Jhansi School were admitted to hospital after they complained of breathlessness. Others people reported severe burning sensation in their eyes and skin. Personnel from the National Disaster Response Force cordoned off the area and took measures to neutralise the effect of the leak. Later, a team from NDRF's nuclear, biological and chemical disposal unit reached the scene and covered the liquid with salt to cut off the fumes. Police officers said 119 children were initially admitted to ESIC Hospital in Okhla.Apart from them, 63, including nine teachers, were taken to Batra Hospital. Of them, 43 students and teachers were discharged later. Another batch of 225 children was admitted to Majithia Hospital while the rest were taken to AIIMS Trauma Centre and Apollo Hospital. Police say the truck was bound for a factory in Sonipat and was parked at the depot for the past three days. Drums with chemicals in container had started leaking. “There were several workers at the depot who started falling ill due to which we requested our employers to ensure that formalities at the custom department were completed and the container was allowed to leave. It was done and allowed to leave on Friday night,“ said Satish Kumar, an employee of the depot. Depot officials say when the truck left the depot, the liquid had spilled out on the road. However, the fumes were not intense. Later in the morning, sunlight and strong winds led to the fumes spreading over the colony . The school which shares a common boundary wall with the depot was the worst affected. A team of multi-speciality doctors from opthamology , pulmonary medicine, toxicology and poison information centre would visit the victims to record their symptoms.
44. Days after the Char Dham yatra began in Uttarakhand, four pilgrims were killed and six injured -all hailing from Amravati in Maharashtra -after the vehicle they were travelling in from Gangotri to Kedarnath fell into a 300m-deep gorge in Ghansali tehsil of Tehri Garhwal district on Saturday afternoon. The accident took place after the driver of the tempotraveller, Shahnawaz, one of the injured, allegedly lost control. The vehicle fell into a gorge between Kemundakhal and Chamiyala, about 175 km from Dehradun, killing four on the spot.
45. Avenue Supermarts, which owns and operates D-Mart stores, reported a 47% growth in fourth quarter (Q4) net profit at Rs 97 crore, on a 41% rise in total revenues at Rs 3,120 crore. Previous year's corresponding quarter net profit was Rs 66 crore on total revenues of Rs 2,220 crore. For the year ended March 31, 2017, Avenue Supermarts, which recently got listed on the stock exchanges, reported a 52% rise in net profit to Rs 483 crore. It clocked total revenues of Rs 11,912 crore, marking an increase of 39% over the previous fiscal's Rs 8,595 crore. Foods contributed half (54%) of the total revenues, while non-food (FMCG) constituted about 20%. General merchandise and apparel was about 26% of total revenues.
46. As the debate over triple talaq rages on across the country , a 22-year-old man attempted suicide by hanging himself in a Chhattisgarh district on Friday after he was allegedly forced by his in-laws to divorce his wife by uttering the word `talaq' thrice on phone. He has been admitted to the district hospital where his condition is stable. Natives of Sultanpur district in UP , Chandan Khan and his 19-year-old wife shifted to Korba seven months ago after they got married against their parents' wishes.According to police, the girl's parents arrived in Korba on April 10 and forcibly took her away after failing to convince her to leave Chandan. According to his statement to the police, Chandan's in-laws talked to him over phone on April 14 and asked him to pronounce triple talaq on phone. When he refused, they started thrashing his wife. Chandan said, in his statement, that in a bid to save his wife, he uttered the word `talaq' thrice.
47. An IndiGo aircraft suffered damage to one of its wings when it hit an aerobridge while being marshalled to the parking spot at Sanganer airport here. Officials said no one was injured. Flight 6E-962 from Delhi with 174 passengers on board landed at the airport Saturday morning. One of the wings of the plane collided with the aerobridge when the pilot was parking it on the apron, M P Bansal, acting director of the airport said. The airline said, “The air craft came in contact with the aerobridge while being marshalled to parking spot. IndiGo has voluntarily reported the matter. It is also being investigated by our internal safety department.“
48. Chief minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal put his very vocal minister, Kapil Mishra, on the mat on Saturday by stripping him of his portfolios and post as minister. While deputy CM Manish Sisodia cited mismanagement in water supply and billing as the reason, Mishra -in a series of tweets -indicated that the real reason was his persistent demand for action in the tanker scam. Claiming that he had met the CM over the delay in the tanker scam report, he said he had “explosive details“ which he would make public on Sunday . Mishra's ouster is being seen as a fallout of the recent turmoil within the party, in the wake of its electoral losses. It came days after he had suggested that Kejriwal should focus on governance and let someone like Kumar Vishwas handle the job of the party's national convenor. He had also demanded that Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan, who had accused Vishwas of plotting against Kejriwal, should be thrown out of the party .
49. Companies like Google, Facebook and other so cial media platforms should take responsibi lity for con tent on their sites, technocrat and policymaker Sam Pitroda said here on Saturday . He and a few other individuals have come together under the aegis of Association for Accountability and Internet Democracy (AAID) in Paris to demand `protection of private integrity and societal value' on Internet.
50. The Chhattisgarh government suspended assistant jail superintendent Varsha Dongre on Saturday after she failed to respond to a showcause notice. Dongre, who had uploaded a social media post about tribal girls' alleged torture by police, was facing an enquiry regarding her statement. She had also posted her reaction to the massacre of 25 CRPF personnel in Sukma district last month. In the controversial post, Dongre wrote, “Naxalism will never end because government is trying to impose capitalist system in Bastar, forcing tribals out of their native land.“ Talking to TOI, Dr K K Gupta, DIG Jail said, “Varsha Dongre was suspended for indiscipline and objectionable posts on Facebook, which is in violation of jail manual under Section 207 and code of conduct of civil services. She was found guilty during preli minary enquiry as well. Moreover, she didn't appear for any explanation.“ Gupta said Varsha remained absent from duty without intimation. “We received her leave application on email but her leave wasn't sanctioned and she was asked to be present at office.But she didn't respond,“ he said. Dongre had also posted a cartoon of chief minister Raman Singh and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on her Facebook wall that was found to be `extremely objectionable'. Earlier, she had been in news when she had filed a petition in high court, highlighting irregularities in PSC 2003 admission process. “Varsha is a white collared Maoist, who is part of urban network of Reds. Her Facebook account was also being operated by few civil rights activists, who have been under the scanner for their suspicious activities,“ a police officer said.
51.Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday said that only PM Narendra Modi can resolve the Kashmir issue and extricate Kashmiris from the ongoing crisis. The Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP-BJP coalition government has been fighting rising militancy and widespread violent protests in Kashmir since last year, following the killing of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani. Speaking at the inauguration of a flyover in Jammu, Mufti said, “I say today with authority and I know, I will be criticised for it. But if anyone can find a solution to the Jammu & Kashmir problem, it is Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He has a strong mandate; whatever decision he takes, the country will support him.“ “If anyone can pull us out of the sticky situation we are in,“ she reiterated, “it is Prime Minister Modi.“ Taking an indirect dig at former PM Manmohan Singh, she said, “Before Modi, a prime minister had also desired to go to Pakistan for over 10 years. He wanted to see his home there. He also could have tried to end the confrontation between the two countries and bring J&K out of this unfortunate situation, but he had no courage to do that.“ Mufti lauded Modi's visit to Lahore on December 25, 2015, and said it was “a sign of strength and not weakness.“ She gave credit to former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and her father, former chief minister Mufti Sayeed for initiating the dialogue for peace and reconciliation in J&K in 2002.“They tried their best to bring Kashmir out of this unfortunate situation,“ Mehbooba said, recalling that Vajpayee implemented a ceasefire along the Indo-Pak border, Advani held talks on Kashmir and the NDA government opened the roads between the two countries via LoC. She pointed out that militancy in Kashmir had declined during that period and there was peace on the border.“These were not small developments. But unfortunately , Mufti was out of the government and Vajpayeeji left, and the process came to a grinding halt,“ she said. Blaming the then-UPA government at the Centre and the state government for not carrying forward the dialogue process, she said, “There was pent-up lava and it started to come out during the street protests in 2008, 2009 and 2010. That lava has now spread in the Valley and we are facing it“.
52. A retired Pakistani soldier's son was arrested by the Army along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu & Kashmir's Rajouri district on Friday night. “A patrol of the Indian Army apprehended a 12-year-old intruder from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (POK) who had crossed over the Line of Control yesterday (Friday) late evening in Nowshera sector of Rajouri district,“ a defence spokesperson said. The boy was identified as Ashfaq Ali Chauhan, son of a retired Baluch Regiment soldier Hussain Malik, who resides in Dunger Pel village in PoK's Bhimber district. Ashfaq was found moving suspiciously near the LoC before he was apprehended. “On having been challenged by the patrol, the boy immediately surrendered,“ the spokesperson said. He added that the boy could have been sent by terrorists in connivance with the Pakistan army to identify routes for infiltration. He has been handed over to police.
53.Four people, including a cop and two civilians, were killed and at least eight others injured when terrorists attacked a police party on a busy highway in south Kashmir's Anantnag district on Saturday evening. Policemen retaliated after the strike and a terrorist was killed in the counter-attack. Witnesses said the terrorists struck at Malpora on Qazigund-Kulgam road when a police party was regulating traffic and rescuing victims after a road accident.
54. Dozens of students from the government higher secondary school in Newa area of Pulwama district had staged a protest against the alleged high-handedness of security forces, a police official said.The students pelted stones at security forces, who resorted to baton charge and tear gas shelling, the official said. Similar protests took place in Handwara town of Kupwara district where students of a government degree college clashed with security forces, the official said.
55. Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Saturday said the status of Armed Forces personnel is `higher' than that of civil services.
56. Justice Leila Seth, who died at the age of 86 on Saturday, grew up with independent India. As a jurist, a public voice and activist, a woman and mother, she embodied humane and liberal values. All her life, she argued for a better world. She did not have anything easy , as an Indian woman of her time, when the language of aspiration, feminist solidarity and glass ceilings was not available. She got married and moved to the UK with her husband, a shoe-company executive, and stumbled into the law. She topped the London Bar exam, only one of many firsts in a stellar career. As the first woman judge in the Delhi high court and first woman chief justice of a state high court (Himachal Pradesh), she blazed the way in a male-dominated field. She wore this huge achievement lightly , once describing how a group of people wandered into the high court, having seen the zoo, they wanted to see the woman judge too.
57. Sand mining baron Sekhar Reddy's diary , now in the possession of I-T officials, is likely to give sleepless nights to the Edappadi Palaniswamy government. An I-T official said the department has sent to Tamil Nadu chief secretary Girija Vaidyanathan a letter with names of ministers, MLAs and senior members of the state bureaucracy based on diary notings made by Reddy on money disbursements running into several hundreds of crores of rupees. The I-T report has sought action against ministers and officials, whose names figure in the diary . I-T sources told TOI that the diary , seized during raids on Reddy's residence last November, contained a mine of information on his “dealings“ allegedly with ministers and senior bureaucrats.
58.Commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, on Saturday , a committee set up by her ministry will take up the concerns of exporters regarding an expected increase in fund requirement under goods and services tax (GST) regime with the council headed by finance minister Arun Jaitley and comprising all states, while promising to rework the Foreign Trade Policy from July 1 to bring it in sync with the new tax regime.
59. The 94th birthday celebrations of DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi are likely to provide a platform for an opposition mobilisation, with the Dravidian party inviting Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and other senior non-BJP leaders for the June 3 event. The opposition show will come in the run-up to the presidential election in July which is expected to see a non-NDA nominee challenge the government's choice. The invitations for the event are being sent out by DMK working president and heir apparent M K Stalin and conveyed by Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi. A day after meeting Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad in Patna, Kanimozhi met Sonia on Saturday to extend the invitation to her.Both Nitish and Lalu expressed their preparedness to attend the function. Sources said Sonia or Congress vice president Rahul Gand hi will attend the event. JD(U) leader K C Tyagi, who accompani ed Kanimozhi to Patna on Friday , said the DMK patriarch's birthday celebrations would indeed be an occasion for opposition parties to come together on one platform. He said the context will also be the opposition's move to project a joint nominee for the presidential poll, and is seen as a precursor to a likely anti-BJP line-up for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
60. Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif and army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa have resolved to “amicably“ address differences over a leaked report that had angered the army , a report said on Saturday.
61.Britain and Germany were already beefing up cyber security ahead of key elections even before the hacking attack on France's Emmanuel Macron, months after Hillary Clinton was caught in the online crosshairs. Clinton recently reiterated her view that Russian hacking of her campaign's emails was partly to blame for her defeat in last year's US presidential election to Donald Trump. “If the election had been on October 27, I'd be your president,“ the defeated Democratic candidate told a charity luncheon last Tuesday . In France, going to the polls on Sunday in a presidential run-off election between Macron and far-right Marine Le Pen, hacking reared its ugly head at the 11th hour.
62. More than 50,000 security personnel will be deployed for the second and final round of the French election slated to be held on Sunday in order to ensure maximum security , the interior ministry said on Saturday , even as terror group Islamic State called for assassination of the Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron in its propaganda magazine on Saturday . The deployment, which is to include national and local police, paramilitary forces and members of the military would be similar to that during the first round of the election on April 23, during which no incidents were reported, Efe news reported. However, a terror attack carried out on April 20 on the Champs-Elysees in Paris that left one cop dead and the arrest of a man who was allegedly planning an attack against a military base in Normandy had France on high alert. In Paris, 896 polling stations are to be guarded by municipal and private security agents from 7am until 11pm, first deputy mayor of Paris Bruno Julliard told BFMTV . Some 12,000 securitymen personnel are to be deployed in Paris, 5,000 of them dedi cated to guaranteeing the safety of voters. The En Marche! (On the move!) movement of independent centrist Emmanuel Macron, the frontrunner who goes head to head with far-right candidate Marine Le Pen of the National Front, denounced that one of its offices in Lyon was attacked on Friday night by far-right extremists, who reportedly threw smoke bombs inside it.
63. Turkish Airlines on Saturday said it would offer laptops to business-class flyers after Britain and the US banned large electronic devices from the cabin of flights from certain countries. Washington has barred all electronic devices larger than a mobile phone on direct flights to the US from 10 airports in seven West Asian countries and Turkey , only allowing them to be trans ported in hold luggage. Britain followed with a similar ban from five countries in the Middle East and north Africa as well as Turkey . But Turkish Airlines said it would offer travellers a solution. “The national flag carrier has now started to offer laptops for its business class passengers on US-bound flights as from today ,“ it said in a statement released on Saturday .
64. France has banned unhe althily thin models as part of a new law targe ting “unrealistic body images“ and eating disorders. Under the new law that came into effect on Saturday , models will now be required to provide a doctor's certificate attesting to their overall health and proving their body mass index (BMI) sits within a healthy range. The measurement will be compared to the World Health Organisation's definitions of underweight to decide whether a model is certifi ed, although a minimum BMI has not been set after protests from modelling agencies. France's minister of social affairs and health, Marisol Touraine, said the documents would be valid for two years “attesting that their state of health is compatible with their work“.he law was backed by French MPs in 2015, who supported punishing employers who violate the new rules with up to six months imprisonment and a ¤75,000 fine.Models under the age of 16 will have their BMI calculated during medical check-ups, by doctors who will check nutrition and growth. The second law will require photos where a model's silhouette has been digitally alte red to be marked “photographie retouchée“ from October 1. Anorexia is believed to affect up to 40,000 people in France, 90% of whom are women.The new laws came into effect little over a month after Paris banned sexist and discriminatory adverts in an effort to stop “degrading“ representations of men and women, homophobia and racism In March, a fashion house was ordered to modify its adverts by France's advertising watchdog. Italy , Spain and Israel are other countries to frame legislation for models while there have been similar calls in the UK.
65. In Vivo IPL 2017 Mumbai Indians won against Delhi Daredevils by 146 runs.
1.India has overtaken China to emerge as the world's biggest market for twowheelers. A total of 17.7 million two-wheelers were sold in India last year--that's over 48,000 units every day . Neighbouring China trailed with 16.8 million units sold, according to officials from industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) as well as data sourced from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Besides rising incomes and growing infrastructure in rural areas, one big reason for the spurt in sales has been women commuters who like the ease of zipping in and out of chaotic city traffic on their gearless scooters. For Honda, which leads the scooter market, the share of women is at 35%.
2. Elphinstone Road station will be renamed Prabhadevi and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) will henceforth be known as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT). The Centre has approved the state government's demand to rename the two city railway stations. After the state issues a notification, the railways can start the process of changing the names. Transport minister Diwakar Raote said that he had been pursuing the issue for the last 26 years. Lord Elphinstone, who was the governor of Bombay from 1853 to 1860, will now make way for the local deity, in tune with the BJP-Sena's outreach to the Marathi manoos.
3. The country's apex consumer fo rum, NCDRC, has ruled that trusts, unregistered consumer organisations, residents' welfare associations, cooperative societies or associations of flat or plot buyers cannot File a case for one or more consumers or on behalf of a group, reports Dipak Dash. The order passed on Friday ends ambiguity on who can approach the consumer forum under the category of “voluntary consumer association (VCA)“. Section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act mentions that besides individuals only a “recognised consumer organisation“ can file a case. It explains recognised consumer associations as those VCAs that are registered under any law.
4. Over $2.6 trillion is held as untaxed cash in offshore accounts by top US companies like Apple, Google, IBM, Pfizer, Pepsi and Coke, McDonald's etc. according to a report by the Washington-based Institute for Tax and Economic Policy (ITEP). This is the highest-ever hoard held offshore by American companies and represents a net tax loss of a staggering $767 billion for the US government. The $2.6 trillion untaxed funds are more than the combined GDP of 153 countries, four times the US defence budget, and slightly more than the total mandatory spending of $2.45 trillion on social security , food security , medicare and unemployment by the US government in 2015. The untaxed treasure hoard is more than India's GDP . According to Richard Phillips of ITEP , this information was dug out from 10-K filings, that is, annual reports filed by companies with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.Of the 500 top companies in the US, 322 were found to have large offshore holdings.
5. Acknowledging that women are a disadvantaged section despite comprising nearly half the country's population, the Centre is considering lowering income tax for single women, introducing Aadhaar-linked health cards for free basic women's health check-ups and cashless medical service for those who are pregnant. A national policy for women, framed by a group of ministers headed by external af fairs minister Sushma Swaraj, is expected to be unveiled soon.It proposes a lower rate of income tax for single women as it takes note of a growing segment of the population; there has been a 39% increase in this category between 2001and 2011.
6. Seeking to put to rest fears that use of fake IDs to obtain Aadhaar cards and leak of data pose a security threat, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey told that UID systems are secure and will deter terrorists and money launderers.
7. In an avoidable tragedy that shows up the glaring neglect of elevators in the city, a 12-year-old girl died after she pushed her head out of the broken windowpane in the lift door in an SRA building in Bandra East on Friday afternoon. Kunut Zaveri reportedly wanted to see whether the lift was on its way down, when its incoming carriage hit her head.Sources said the child's scre am was cut off abruptly.
8. It was a horrific week for In dians in the US. Four people were killed in three separate incidents. Jagjit Singh (32) was stabbed to death in Modesto, California when he was closing his store at midnight on Thursday . His family back home suspects an altercation with a customer. An Indian-origin couple was killed in an apparent revenge attack by their daughter's ex-boyfriend, who was later shot dead by police in San Jose. A 32-year-old doctor from Kerala was found dead inside his car in Detroit on Thursday night.
9. A high-level probe conducted by M G Gaikwad, a former judge of the Bombay high court, has found one-time NCP minister and now BJP legislator Vijay Kumar Gavit, a physician-turned politician, guilty of corruption and irregularities in the tribal development department led by him between 2004 and 2009. In his capacity as tribal development minister, Gavit was exofficio chairman of the tribal development corporation which has also been indicted. The findings of the Gaikwad committee, set up on the orders of the Bombay high court, come as a major political set back for Gavit as he was expecting to be inducted into the state cabinet.
10. Wipro stepped up its se curity on Saturday after receiving an email by an unidentified person who threatened to poison the company's campus using a toxic drug if not paid Rs 500 crore.The sender wanted to be paid in bitcoins, a digital currency, and claimed to be in procession of 1kg of ricin.
11. A 20-year-old SYBCom college student from Ulhasnagar allegedly stole jewellery and other valuables worth Rs 8 lakh from her own home to “help out“ her 34-year-old Pune-based boyfriend, whom she had recently befriended on Facebook. She was detained on Friday and a police team left for Pune on Saturday to bring him to the city. The girl fabricated a lie and told her father that a few days ago two burglars had broken into their home, tied her up and fled with the valuables. When her father asked why she had not mentioned the crime, the girl said she co uld not muster the courage to tell anyone about it. Her fat her, who runs a garage, immediately filed a police compla int at the local Vithalwadi po lice station. Cops doubted the girl's story due to contradictions in her statement and asked her point-blank whether she had made it all up. The girl finally admitted to the truth, saying she had stolen the valuables to help her Pune-based boyfriend in his business. Based on her statement, police booked the girl, Shanti, and her boyfriend, Vikas, under Indian Penal Code sections 406 for criminal breach of trust and 34 for common intention.
12. Around 11.35 lakh aspirants will take the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) today across the country for admissions to medical and dental colleges. This is the second year of its implementation after it was revived last year by a Supreme Court order. While last year it was conducted in two phases, this year, the test will be held on one day . The CBSE that conducts the test has seen a 40% rise in the number of aspirants this year.While some students are worried about the difficulty level of the test, most are hoping for a smooth admission process.
13. Since the All-India Pre Medical Test paper leak two years ago, the CBSE has issued stringent guidelines (see box) on what is allowed at the centre and what is not.NEET will be held at over 2,200 centres in 104 cities on Sunday .
14.Monorail services came to a standstill for close to an hour and a half due to a technical glitch in a rake that got stuck between Wadala and Bhakti Park stations on Saturday evening. Spokesperson for Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), Dilip Kawathkar, said, “The incident happened at 6.55 pm and the system and operations resumed at 8.20 pm. Stuck passengers alighted after the affected rake was brought back to Bhakti Park.“ Sources said that the incident happened because of a problem in the braking system. Another rake was sent to tow away the affected train to Bhakti Park station.
15. A civil surgeon from Thane has registered a case of cheating and fraud of Rs 5 lakhs against the head-mistress and three teachers of Captain Ravindra Madhav Oak High School, Kalyan. The accused are --the headmistress Hemlata Dada Nikam, Milind Madhav Khaladkar, Sanjay Mangesh Chavan and Manisha Moreshwar Godbole.
16.Months after the demonetisation move, racketeers appear to be still trying to make a fast buck out of defunct notes. Five persons were arrested on Friday for allegedly kidnapping and assaulting two men after they failed to get their old demonetised notes worth Rs 1.1 crore exchanged for Rs 20 lakh in new currency 17.To tide over shortage of road repair material, the civic chief on Saturday directed officials of the road department to invite a `short-term tender' to buy material and the cost could be billed to the road contractor. Commissioner Ajoy Mehta on Saturday took stock of monsoon-preparedness work. As road repair works ha ve taken a hit after the closure of stone quarries in Thane district since April 1, Mehta said that the roads department should try to call for repair material from places outside Thane. The quarries are caught in a pollution controversy. The chief engineer, roads, has been instructed to invite the tender. Senior civic officials from the storm water drains department were pulled up after they sought an extension to complete the work of the Gazdarbandh pumping station. This pumping station will flush out water from Khar, Santacruz, Vile Parle, and parts of Bandra and Andheri. This year, 313 de-watering pumps will again be placed across the city and ward officials have been told to personally verify if each works. “On May 9 and 11, each ward officer, deputy municipal officer and other seniors have been asked to go on field and inspect road works,“ said a senior official.
18. A week after chief minister Devendra Fadnavis shifted 60 bureaucrats, fresh changes are on the cards at the senior level following the empanelment of a few senior bureaucrats and retirement of a few high-ranking officials. If Fadnavis agrees, highprofile Mumbai municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta will move to New Delhi as secretary in the Union government. Along with Mehta, Ajay Bhushan Pandey , Malini Shankar, Sanjay Bhatia and Bhagwan Sahai too have been empanelled. Pandey , Malini Shankar and Bhatia are already on central deputation. Pandey heads the Unique Identification Authority of India, Malini Shankar is director general, shipping, while Bhatia is chairman of Mumbai Port Trust. Their posts may be upgraded to the rank of secretary in the Union government or they may be given new assignments.
19. A 37-year-old man was arrested on Saturday for “marrying“ a 13-year-old girl from a poor family in Mahim in March this year and forcing her into a physical relationship. The girl's mother and the priest who solemnized the marriage have also been arrested. The police said that the groom, Asif Khan, has been booked for rape and kidnap under the Indian Penal Code, besides sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and Prohibition of Child Marriage Act.
20. Residents' associations from Cumballa Hill in south Mumbai met the municipal commissioner on Saturday after they found that the draft Development Plan 2034 shows a children's park reservation in their area being changed into residential plot. They also submitted a letter, stating their concern, to the civic chief. The resident associations of Cumballa Hill, Peddar Road, Altamount Road, and Carmichael road stated that they wanted to lodge their official objection regarding the change in nomenclature. The children's park around 4,505 sq metres is located barely a few metres away from the municipal commissioners bungalow on Carmichael Road now officially called M L Dahanukar Marg.
21. The redevelopment of a building in Andheri (west), which had been held up for more than a decade, can finally proceed now with the Supreme Court dismissing a plea for intervention by four society members who refused to vacate. The members, in minority , have a deadline of May 10, to leave peacefully or be forcefully evicted. The Bombay high court had in February observed that the refusal of four flat-owners to vacate when remaining 28 occupants had vacated the premises “held up the redevelopment“ of a dilapidated building, which is over 50 years old. The Supreme Court this week upheld an April 7 order of the appeal bench of the Bombay high court which directed that if Laxmi Bahinala and three others do not hand over vacant and peaceful possession of the premises which they occupy on or before May 10, 2017, then, the court receiver will step in to take steps to have them removed. Justice Gautam Patel had in February rapped the “minority'' members, observed how their “obstruction harms their own society and hurts their fellow members and neighbours and said they “must be put to terms“.
22. The teachers at the IITs across the country have been served with notices from the income tax department asking them to pay a levy for accommodation on campus. Currently , faculty living on campus pay a licence fee to the college as per their contract. Comparing institutes to public sector undertakings, the notice from the income tax department, stated that housing was a perquisite and hence would be taxable. The 23 IITs have a faculty population of close to 7,500. Both government and non-government employees have to pay tax on perquisite value when the employer provides accommodation. For non-government employees the perquisite value is up to 15% of the salary (lower for smaller towns) minus rent, if any , paid by the employees. For government employees, the perquisite value is the licence fee determined by the government minus the rent, if any , paid by the government employees.This perquisite value is added to salary income, which in turn increases the total taxable salary and the I-T liability. The standing committee of IIT Council which met recently , discussed this “concern“ at length, and apprised HRD minister Prakash Javadekar about it. Javadekar, in turn, assured directors that he would follow up with finance minister Arun Jaitley .
23. In a significant victory for members of the `Save Rani Bagh Botanical Garden Foundation', the planning committee formed to look into suggestions and objections to the draft DP 2034, has designated the Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan and Zoo as a `botanical garden, garden and zoo'. What is pertinent to note here is that the designation of a `botanical garden' has been especially created for the purpose. It may be recollected that in the earlier draft DP released in February 2015, which had to be sent back to the drawing board, the BMC designated the Udyan only as a zoo. Popularly known as `Rani Bagh', the over 53-acre space in the heart of Mumbai was opened to the public in 1862.The botanical garden today is home to 853 plant species and more than 3,000 trees. The new classification however hasn't come easy said the trustees, who have been working for the last 10 years to preserve the character of the bota nical garden. “The designation makes a lot of difference as our aim has been to protect this invaluable green lung. From the time we started off we had put in the word `botanical' garden in the name of our foundation though it made it sound wordy ,“ said Hutokshi Rustomfram, trustee of the Save Rani Bagh Botanical Garden Foundation.
24. Even as Mumbai University claimed that assessment of TYBCom answersheets commenced in small numbers on Friday , teachers from affiliated colleges that spoke said that they have not been told about commencement of the process. Teachers said that they are still to receive any letter from the university after the training was conducted last week.While many teachers have already left for their vacation, so me from unaided colleges are awaiting the university's directives. An official said that scanning of answer sheets has begun and the university planned to start the assessment too simultaneously . Deepak Wasave, in-charge director of Board of Examinations and Evaluations, said that the scanning and assessment of TYBCom papers started on Friday . While sources confirm that the scanning process did start after initial glit ches, not many are aware of assessment. A teacher from a suburban college said they are awaiting instructions to go to their nearest CAP (centralised assessment process) centre. “Most of our teachers are available despite the vacation. But we are yet to be notified by the university,“ said a teacher. Another college teacher said that the university has not issued any communication after the training ended last week. A principal said many teachers waited for the university to pass directives, but decided to leave for their hometown due to the uncertainty .
25. The crime branch on Saturday returned 71cars valued at Rs 6.61 crore to its owners who were cheated by three accused last month in car-for-rent scam. The police said that the accused, Mumbra resident Anurag Tiwari (49), and two Diva residents Rohit Gharat (29) and Rajendra Yadav (35) had cheated 71car owners after luring them into renting out their four-wheelers to a five-star hotel in Mumbai by promising them Rs 1.5 lakh monthly rent, said Madhukar Pandey , joint commissioner of police.
26. Nearly two months after four Lankans were arrested for allegedly trying to fly off to London from Sahar airport, using fake passports, one of the two agents who allegedly tried to facilitate their passage to Europe was arrested on Friday . The accused, Rayappen Thevakumaran (52), against whom a lookout circular had been issued, was arrested when he landed at Mangaluru airport on Thursday . He was brought to Mumbai on Friday and a magistrate's court in Andherisent him to police custody till May 9. On March 10 this year, four Sri Lankans and four UK nationals were arrested for forgery and human trafficking. The four UK nationals -Bower Oliver (27), Quillian Alan (43), Fivehats Captain (56), Warner Ann (36) -had been offered a paid trip to India and, in return, they had to help the four Lankans -Arunasalam Shuthakaran (34), Kannathasan Karththeepan (26), Gajan Chandrabalan (31) and Kandasamy Kaveenthiri (26) -to the UK. An Indian, Sunil Soni (29), who was their local contact was also arrested. At the Sahar airport, the UK nationals allegedly handed over their boarding passes to the Lankans who had managed to skip immigration. The plan was to let the Lankans fly off to London on fake identities of the UK nationals their the four Brits would stay on in India on tourist visas which had been provided by Soni, said the police. “Thevakumaran was arrested after immigration officials at Mangalurualerted us about his arrival after they identified him based on the circular issued against him,“ sa id senior inspector of Sahar police station, BT Mukhedkar.“He is one of the two who introduced the four Lankans held with the four UK nationals who exchanged their boarding passes. Soni, a salesman, had helped the agents to get SIM cards for the UK nationals.“ The police said that the agents had demanded Rs 17 lakh each from the Lankans to help them reach the UK. Advocate for the Lankans, Prabhakar Tripathi, said that his clients have applied for bail at Dindoshi sessions court and the hearing is scheduled on May 11.
27. Ahmad Mecklai, a nonpractising allopathic doctor, was more than a little surprised to receive a phone call at 3am from an oral cancer patient. The patient, a Kenyan national, had arrived in India a few hours earlier and was told to pay Rs 16 lakh to a Delhi hospital by 8am for his treatment. Distraught by the short deadline and the steep medical fee, he approached his embassy officials who connected him to Dr Mecklai, who runs a medical tourism company from Chembur.
28. Demonetisation is likely to affect disbursement of loans to farmers for the upcoming kharif crop season in the state. Loan disbursement for this kharif season is likely to be affected due to lack of liquidity with district central co-operative (DCC) banks. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced discontinuation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000, within four days, DCC banks in the state had collected deposits close to Rs 8,500 crore. However, RBI barred these banks from accepting any old notes and all deposits were under scrutiny . The cash pile of Rs 8,500 croreis yet to be exchanged by RBI due to “suspicious“ deposits.Of 1.36 crore farmers in the state, 57 lakh were given loans last year. Of these, 33 lakh farmers were serviced by DCC banks. The agriculture loan outlay for 2017-18 is estimated to be Rs 58,862 crore of which Rs17,000 crore is the target set for the 31DCC banks in the state -up from last year's target of Rs 15,571 crore. Kharif season is the biggest agricultural season of the year. Besides, demonetisation, there are other fund-related issues these banks face. Of 31 DCC banks in the state, 12 are making losses. DCC banks have a network of 3,535 branches across the state and their share in the loan target is close to 35-40%.
29. After several pollution related complaints, the Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation has started cleaning of Waldhuni River in Ulhasnagar on Saturday.Activists have urged civic bodies to take action against factories that pollute the river.
30. The Anti-Narcotics Cell have arrested two Kashmir residents, Nissar Bhatt (33) and Iliyas Ismail Shaikh (38), for possessing 1.8 kgs of charas worth Rs 7.2 lakh from Nehru Nagar in Kurla (east) late on Friday.
31. A security guard of the Bandra Worli Sea Link was injured when a private car, in a bid to avoid paying toll, drove through the toll naka in high speed on Friday night.The Bandra police are scanning CCTV footage to indentify the car.
32. The boom of a 20-tonne crane train, which was being used on Harbour line extension project up to Goregaon, damaged the terrace of a dilapidated building near Jogeshwari on Saturday.
33. Food and Drug Administration officials seized over 3,100 kg ice from a factory and three shops in Bhiwandi and Kalyan. The officials said that the ice was prepared in unhygienic conditions and was unfit for human consumption.
34. In the ongoing sweltering summer conditions, five kites and two parrots were rescued by the Plant and Animals Welfare Society (PAWS-Mumbai), a non-governmental organization, from various parts of the city over the last two days. “We received rescue calls for the dehydrated and injured kites and parrots from Bhandup, Vikhroli, Andheri and Goregaon areas. Some crows were seen circling over the birds and aggressively pecking at the vulnerable creatures which were unable to fly as they had become weak due to the heat,“ said activist Sunish Subramanian of PAWSMumbai. Multi-vitamin drops were administered to the rescued birds after which they were kept under observation. “We have informed the forest department about the wildlife rescues as these are species protected under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972,“ he said. The calls were received from local residents. PAWS-Mumbai volunteers also cautioned citizens not to keep parrots as pets, as it is an illegal act, considering that parakeets are a protected species in India. Due to scarcity of clean sources of water, summer season is a very difficult time for animals, birds and reptiles.
35. The Pune rural police on Satur day formed a special investiga tion team (SIT) to conduct a probe into the murder of an engineering student and his friend on the road to Amby Valley in Lonavla last month. The SIT was formed after the local police failed to make a breakthrough in investigations even a month after the murders. Special inspector general Vishwas NangrePatil will monitor the developments in the case. Senior inspector Ram Jadhav, in charge of the local crime branch, will head the seven-member team. The police have also announced a cash reward of Rs 50,000 to any one who provides information that throws light on the murders. Earlier this week, senior police officers, including Nangre-Patil, reviewed the case, after which it was decided that an SIT would be formed to speed up the investigations. The police are yet to make an arrest in the case and the motive for the murder remains unknown. The police have questioned over 200 people known to have a criminal background but nothing of note has been found. The police also quizzed a few local youths and students but to no avail. Earlier this week, the parents of one of the victims approached the police to express concern about the investigations in the case. The pa rents threatened to stage a rasta roko in Lonavla if the police failed to make arrests soon. The two students from an engineering college in Lonavla were found murdered in the forested area near Tiger Point between INS Shivaji and the air force station on April 3.The police aid unidentified people had assaulted the youth and the girl, bludgeoned them to death and stripped them before abandoning the bodies in the forest.
36. An Alipurduar court on Saturday awarded death sentence to a man convicted of raping and murdering a class VI student four years ago. Additional chief judicial magistrate of Alipurduar A K Pal sentenced Albert Toppo to death for raping and killing the girl in 2013, according to the ACJM court. The accused had tied the victim's body to tea bushes.
37. Holding that a “socially sensitised judge“ offers a better and more effective statutory armour than penal provisions to deal with cases of crime against women, the Supreme Court has said that the corroboration of a victim's statement is not mandatory .
38. Eight men allegedly gang-raped a woman before her husband in a vehicle on Thursday night in Jalaun district. The couple was then robbed and dumped on AuraiyaJalaun highway . Police said the Jalaun based couple was travelling home from Jaipur, where they work as artisans. They reached Auraiya by train around Thursday midnight and were looking for a public transport, when the driver of a loader van offered them a lift. Shortly afterwards, the vehicle halted at a liquor shop from where some other men boarded it. It was then driven to a secluded spot, where eight men took turns to rape the woman after tying up her husband. The duo was also abused and threatened against raising an alarm, cops said.
39. It has been more than four years since the December 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape-murder, a case that shook the nation's conscience and triggered countrywide protests over the wide prevalence of crime against women. But not much seems to have changed on the ground as crime statistics from the years since show. According to data from National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), while close to 35,000 rape cases have been reported, on average, every year since 2013, close to 1.4 lakh rape cases were on trial at the end of 2015. Since 2012 when the Nirbhaya gang rape happened, there was a marked increase in the registration of cases relating to crimes against women across the country. While 24,923 rapes were reported in 2012, the figure was 33,707 in 2013, attributed to increased awareness and prompt registration of FIRs by police on complaints of women. The number of rape cases rose to 36,735 in 2014 out of which 2346 were gang-rapes. However, the numbers came down to 34,561in 2015 including 2,113 gangrapes. The number of crimes against women continuously increased from 2011 to 2014.While 2,28,650 cases were reported in 2011, it went up to 2,44,270 cases in 2012. It went up sharply to 3,09,546 cases in 2013 and 3,37,922 in 2014. However, the number of cases declined to 3,27,394 cases in 2015. NCRB data state that of the 34,651 rape cases registered in 2015, offenders were known to the survivors in 33,098 cases (95.5 percent). The conviction rate in crimes against women remains abysmal as reflected in the data released by NCRB. According to NCRB, 10,80,144 cases of crimes against women were pending in trial courts by the end of 2015.In 2015, only 27,844 cases ended in conviction, a rate of 21.7%. In rape cases, out of 24,486 persons whose trial was completed that year, 7,185 people were convicted, 16,849 were acquitted and 452 discharged by the courts. In 2014, 26,660 cases relating to crimes against women ended in conviction -a conviction rate of 21.3%. By the end of 2014, a total of 9,82,516 cases were pending for trial in the courts. The courts convicted 6,637 persons of rape, acquitted 16,575 and discharged 487 accused in rape cases in 2014.
40.An Iranian woman who came to India from Tehran in 2009, and liked it so much she enrolled in DU and married an Indian man, says there is a serious threat to her life and has filed three police cases -two of dowry harassment and molestation against her husband and his friends, and a third of rape by a man who sexually assaulted her this April, allegedly to terrorise her into withdrawing first two cases. The troubles of 36-year-old Sheeva (name changed) began on April 15, 2015, the day she got married. The man she wed is employed with an Indian construction giant. She said her husband took away jewellery and gold coins worth about Rs 90 lakh and had relations with other women. His parents also demanded dowry of Rs 2 crore, After several attempts to contact police, Sheeva filed a complaint with Iranian embassy.'
41. Taking a serious view of increasing incidence of cases of sexual abuse of children, the Supreme Court has directed setting up of child care institutions to look after children, particularly those who are victims of sexual offences, and also those who are in conflict with law. A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta directed that all such child care institutions be registered by December 31. It also wanted governments to ensure a care plan for every child in each care institution by 2017-end. The bench also appealed to judges to play an active role in protecting the rights of children. It asked all HCs to set up a Juvenile Justice Committee to ensure effective implementation of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act. The bench also referred to a Unicef-Govt study of 2007 which said nearly 53% of children in India had been victims of sexual abuse.
42. Alarmed by poor placements at second and thirdgeneration Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), the Union ministry of human resource development (MHRD) has asked the institutes to submit details about recruitment and salaries for the 2015-2017 batches. Newer IIMs have been struggling to attract companies to recruit students even as placement season was fairly smooth in the older institutes.IIM Rohtak told TOI it has not been able to place 14 students, while IIM Sirmaur in Himachal Pradesh did not provide information. IIM Amritsar, which was established just two years ago, said all its students have got jobs. The average salary in these IIMs stands at Rs 11 lakh per annum; lower than the older IIMs where the average salary is in the range of Rs 24 lakh to Rs 50 lakh. The department of higher education (management) has sought the details of the final placements from IIMs at Sirmaur, Rohtak, Amritsar, Kashipur, Udaipur, Ranchi, Trichy, Shillong, Raipur, Bodhgaya, Nagpur, Sambalpur and Visakhapatnam. In a letter, the MHRD has di rected the institute authorities to evaluate reasons for poor placements. The letter also seeks steps being taken to ensure 100% placements. In response to the letter, officials at IIM Amritsar, established in 2015, said its first batch had 44 students, who received a total of 48 offers from the 60 companies that came to campus. “The highest salary offered was Rs 17 lakh per annum. The average salary was Rs 10 lakh pa.“ At IIM Sirmaur in Himachal, however, officials were not forthcoming about whether the 20 students, who received their diplomas on April 8, got jobs. Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT-K) became the first IIT to start an Economic Sciences department on Saturday.Institute director Indranil Manna said, “After adding Earth Sciences department in the last academic session, the administration decided to start a BSc (Economic Sciences) programme as it has gained popularity among students.“
43. At least 487 school students and teachers and residents of a colony in Tughlaqabad fell sick on Saturday after inhaling fumes emanating from a liquid (2Chloro-5-chloromethylpyridine) that leaked from a container truck at a nearby container depot. Twenty four girls from the Rani Jhansi School were admitted to hospital after they complained of breathlessness. Others people reported severe burning sensation in their eyes and skin. Personnel from the National Disaster Response Force cordoned off the area and took measures to neutralise the effect of the leak. Later, a team from NDRF's nuclear, biological and chemical disposal unit reached the scene and covered the liquid with salt to cut off the fumes. Police officers said 119 children were initially admitted to ESIC Hospital in Okhla.Apart from them, 63, including nine teachers, were taken to Batra Hospital. Of them, 43 students and teachers were discharged later. Another batch of 225 children was admitted to Majithia Hospital while the rest were taken to AIIMS Trauma Centre and Apollo Hospital. Police say the truck was bound for a factory in Sonipat and was parked at the depot for the past three days. Drums with chemicals in container had started leaking. “There were several workers at the depot who started falling ill due to which we requested our employers to ensure that formalities at the custom department were completed and the container was allowed to leave. It was done and allowed to leave on Friday night,“ said Satish Kumar, an employee of the depot. Depot officials say when the truck left the depot, the liquid had spilled out on the road. However, the fumes were not intense. Later in the morning, sunlight and strong winds led to the fumes spreading over the colony . The school which shares a common boundary wall with the depot was the worst affected. A team of multi-speciality doctors from opthamology , pulmonary medicine, toxicology and poison information centre would visit the victims to record their symptoms.
44. Days after the Char Dham yatra began in Uttarakhand, four pilgrims were killed and six injured -all hailing from Amravati in Maharashtra -after the vehicle they were travelling in from Gangotri to Kedarnath fell into a 300m-deep gorge in Ghansali tehsil of Tehri Garhwal district on Saturday afternoon. The accident took place after the driver of the tempotraveller, Shahnawaz, one of the injured, allegedly lost control. The vehicle fell into a gorge between Kemundakhal and Chamiyala, about 175 km from Dehradun, killing four on the spot.
45. Avenue Supermarts, which owns and operates D-Mart stores, reported a 47% growth in fourth quarter (Q4) net profit at Rs 97 crore, on a 41% rise in total revenues at Rs 3,120 crore. Previous year's corresponding quarter net profit was Rs 66 crore on total revenues of Rs 2,220 crore. For the year ended March 31, 2017, Avenue Supermarts, which recently got listed on the stock exchanges, reported a 52% rise in net profit to Rs 483 crore. It clocked total revenues of Rs 11,912 crore, marking an increase of 39% over the previous fiscal's Rs 8,595 crore. Foods contributed half (54%) of the total revenues, while non-food (FMCG) constituted about 20%. General merchandise and apparel was about 26% of total revenues.
46. As the debate over triple talaq rages on across the country , a 22-year-old man attempted suicide by hanging himself in a Chhattisgarh district on Friday after he was allegedly forced by his in-laws to divorce his wife by uttering the word `talaq' thrice on phone. He has been admitted to the district hospital where his condition is stable. Natives of Sultanpur district in UP , Chandan Khan and his 19-year-old wife shifted to Korba seven months ago after they got married against their parents' wishes.According to police, the girl's parents arrived in Korba on April 10 and forcibly took her away after failing to convince her to leave Chandan. According to his statement to the police, Chandan's in-laws talked to him over phone on April 14 and asked him to pronounce triple talaq on phone. When he refused, they started thrashing his wife. Chandan said, in his statement, that in a bid to save his wife, he uttered the word `talaq' thrice.
47. An IndiGo aircraft suffered damage to one of its wings when it hit an aerobridge while being marshalled to the parking spot at Sanganer airport here. Officials said no one was injured. Flight 6E-962 from Delhi with 174 passengers on board landed at the airport Saturday morning. One of the wings of the plane collided with the aerobridge when the pilot was parking it on the apron, M P Bansal, acting director of the airport said. The airline said, “The air craft came in contact with the aerobridge while being marshalled to parking spot. IndiGo has voluntarily reported the matter. It is also being investigated by our internal safety department.“
48. Chief minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal put his very vocal minister, Kapil Mishra, on the mat on Saturday by stripping him of his portfolios and post as minister. While deputy CM Manish Sisodia cited mismanagement in water supply and billing as the reason, Mishra -in a series of tweets -indicated that the real reason was his persistent demand for action in the tanker scam. Claiming that he had met the CM over the delay in the tanker scam report, he said he had “explosive details“ which he would make public on Sunday . Mishra's ouster is being seen as a fallout of the recent turmoil within the party, in the wake of its electoral losses. It came days after he had suggested that Kejriwal should focus on governance and let someone like Kumar Vishwas handle the job of the party's national convenor. He had also demanded that Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan, who had accused Vishwas of plotting against Kejriwal, should be thrown out of the party .
49. Companies like Google, Facebook and other so cial media platforms should take responsibi lity for con tent on their sites, technocrat and policymaker Sam Pitroda said here on Saturday . He and a few other individuals have come together under the aegis of Association for Accountability and Internet Democracy (AAID) in Paris to demand `protection of private integrity and societal value' on Internet.
50. The Chhattisgarh government suspended assistant jail superintendent Varsha Dongre on Saturday after she failed to respond to a showcause notice. Dongre, who had uploaded a social media post about tribal girls' alleged torture by police, was facing an enquiry regarding her statement. She had also posted her reaction to the massacre of 25 CRPF personnel in Sukma district last month. In the controversial post, Dongre wrote, “Naxalism will never end because government is trying to impose capitalist system in Bastar, forcing tribals out of their native land.“ Talking to TOI, Dr K K Gupta, DIG Jail said, “Varsha Dongre was suspended for indiscipline and objectionable posts on Facebook, which is in violation of jail manual under Section 207 and code of conduct of civil services. She was found guilty during preli minary enquiry as well. Moreover, she didn't appear for any explanation.“ Gupta said Varsha remained absent from duty without intimation. “We received her leave application on email but her leave wasn't sanctioned and she was asked to be present at office.But she didn't respond,“ he said. Dongre had also posted a cartoon of chief minister Raman Singh and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on her Facebook wall that was found to be `extremely objectionable'. Earlier, she had been in news when she had filed a petition in high court, highlighting irregularities in PSC 2003 admission process. “Varsha is a white collared Maoist, who is part of urban network of Reds. Her Facebook account was also being operated by few civil rights activists, who have been under the scanner for their suspicious activities,“ a police officer said.
51.Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday said that only PM Narendra Modi can resolve the Kashmir issue and extricate Kashmiris from the ongoing crisis. The Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP-BJP coalition government has been fighting rising militancy and widespread violent protests in Kashmir since last year, following the killing of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani. Speaking at the inauguration of a flyover in Jammu, Mufti said, “I say today with authority and I know, I will be criticised for it. But if anyone can find a solution to the Jammu & Kashmir problem, it is Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He has a strong mandate; whatever decision he takes, the country will support him.“ “If anyone can pull us out of the sticky situation we are in,“ she reiterated, “it is Prime Minister Modi.“ Taking an indirect dig at former PM Manmohan Singh, she said, “Before Modi, a prime minister had also desired to go to Pakistan for over 10 years. He wanted to see his home there. He also could have tried to end the confrontation between the two countries and bring J&K out of this unfortunate situation, but he had no courage to do that.“ Mufti lauded Modi's visit to Lahore on December 25, 2015, and said it was “a sign of strength and not weakness.“ She gave credit to former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and her father, former chief minister Mufti Sayeed for initiating the dialogue for peace and reconciliation in J&K in 2002.“They tried their best to bring Kashmir out of this unfortunate situation,“ Mehbooba said, recalling that Vajpayee implemented a ceasefire along the Indo-Pak border, Advani held talks on Kashmir and the NDA government opened the roads between the two countries via LoC. She pointed out that militancy in Kashmir had declined during that period and there was peace on the border.“These were not small developments. But unfortunately , Mufti was out of the government and Vajpayeeji left, and the process came to a grinding halt,“ she said. Blaming the then-UPA government at the Centre and the state government for not carrying forward the dialogue process, she said, “There was pent-up lava and it started to come out during the street protests in 2008, 2009 and 2010. That lava has now spread in the Valley and we are facing it“.
52. A retired Pakistani soldier's son was arrested by the Army along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu & Kashmir's Rajouri district on Friday night. “A patrol of the Indian Army apprehended a 12-year-old intruder from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (POK) who had crossed over the Line of Control yesterday (Friday) late evening in Nowshera sector of Rajouri district,“ a defence spokesperson said. The boy was identified as Ashfaq Ali Chauhan, son of a retired Baluch Regiment soldier Hussain Malik, who resides in Dunger Pel village in PoK's Bhimber district. Ashfaq was found moving suspiciously near the LoC before he was apprehended. “On having been challenged by the patrol, the boy immediately surrendered,“ the spokesperson said. He added that the boy could have been sent by terrorists in connivance with the Pakistan army to identify routes for infiltration. He has been handed over to police.
53.Four people, including a cop and two civilians, were killed and at least eight others injured when terrorists attacked a police party on a busy highway in south Kashmir's Anantnag district on Saturday evening. Policemen retaliated after the strike and a terrorist was killed in the counter-attack. Witnesses said the terrorists struck at Malpora on Qazigund-Kulgam road when a police party was regulating traffic and rescuing victims after a road accident.
54. Dozens of students from the government higher secondary school in Newa area of Pulwama district had staged a protest against the alleged high-handedness of security forces, a police official said.The students pelted stones at security forces, who resorted to baton charge and tear gas shelling, the official said. Similar protests took place in Handwara town of Kupwara district where students of a government degree college clashed with security forces, the official said.
55. Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Saturday said the status of Armed Forces personnel is `higher' than that of civil services.
56. Justice Leila Seth, who died at the age of 86 on Saturday, grew up with independent India. As a jurist, a public voice and activist, a woman and mother, she embodied humane and liberal values. All her life, she argued for a better world. She did not have anything easy , as an Indian woman of her time, when the language of aspiration, feminist solidarity and glass ceilings was not available. She got married and moved to the UK with her husband, a shoe-company executive, and stumbled into the law. She topped the London Bar exam, only one of many firsts in a stellar career. As the first woman judge in the Delhi high court and first woman chief justice of a state high court (Himachal Pradesh), she blazed the way in a male-dominated field. She wore this huge achievement lightly , once describing how a group of people wandered into the high court, having seen the zoo, they wanted to see the woman judge too.
57. Sand mining baron Sekhar Reddy's diary , now in the possession of I-T officials, is likely to give sleepless nights to the Edappadi Palaniswamy government. An I-T official said the department has sent to Tamil Nadu chief secretary Girija Vaidyanathan a letter with names of ministers, MLAs and senior members of the state bureaucracy based on diary notings made by Reddy on money disbursements running into several hundreds of crores of rupees. The I-T report has sought action against ministers and officials, whose names figure in the diary . I-T sources told TOI that the diary , seized during raids on Reddy's residence last November, contained a mine of information on his “dealings“ allegedly with ministers and senior bureaucrats.
58.Commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, on Saturday , a committee set up by her ministry will take up the concerns of exporters regarding an expected increase in fund requirement under goods and services tax (GST) regime with the council headed by finance minister Arun Jaitley and comprising all states, while promising to rework the Foreign Trade Policy from July 1 to bring it in sync with the new tax regime.
59. The 94th birthday celebrations of DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi are likely to provide a platform for an opposition mobilisation, with the Dravidian party inviting Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and other senior non-BJP leaders for the June 3 event. The opposition show will come in the run-up to the presidential election in July which is expected to see a non-NDA nominee challenge the government's choice. The invitations for the event are being sent out by DMK working president and heir apparent M K Stalin and conveyed by Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi. A day after meeting Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad in Patna, Kanimozhi met Sonia on Saturday to extend the invitation to her.Both Nitish and Lalu expressed their preparedness to attend the function. Sources said Sonia or Congress vice president Rahul Gand hi will attend the event. JD(U) leader K C Tyagi, who accompani ed Kanimozhi to Patna on Friday , said the DMK patriarch's birthday celebrations would indeed be an occasion for opposition parties to come together on one platform. He said the context will also be the opposition's move to project a joint nominee for the presidential poll, and is seen as a precursor to a likely anti-BJP line-up for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
60. Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif and army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa have resolved to “amicably“ address differences over a leaked report that had angered the army , a report said on Saturday.
61.Britain and Germany were already beefing up cyber security ahead of key elections even before the hacking attack on France's Emmanuel Macron, months after Hillary Clinton was caught in the online crosshairs. Clinton recently reiterated her view that Russian hacking of her campaign's emails was partly to blame for her defeat in last year's US presidential election to Donald Trump. “If the election had been on October 27, I'd be your president,“ the defeated Democratic candidate told a charity luncheon last Tuesday . In France, going to the polls on Sunday in a presidential run-off election between Macron and far-right Marine Le Pen, hacking reared its ugly head at the 11th hour.
62. More than 50,000 security personnel will be deployed for the second and final round of the French election slated to be held on Sunday in order to ensure maximum security , the interior ministry said on Saturday , even as terror group Islamic State called for assassination of the Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron in its propaganda magazine on Saturday . The deployment, which is to include national and local police, paramilitary forces and members of the military would be similar to that during the first round of the election on April 23, during which no incidents were reported, Efe news reported. However, a terror attack carried out on April 20 on the Champs-Elysees in Paris that left one cop dead and the arrest of a man who was allegedly planning an attack against a military base in Normandy had France on high alert. In Paris, 896 polling stations are to be guarded by municipal and private security agents from 7am until 11pm, first deputy mayor of Paris Bruno Julliard told BFMTV . Some 12,000 securitymen personnel are to be deployed in Paris, 5,000 of them dedi cated to guaranteeing the safety of voters. The En Marche! (On the move!) movement of independent centrist Emmanuel Macron, the frontrunner who goes head to head with far-right candidate Marine Le Pen of the National Front, denounced that one of its offices in Lyon was attacked on Friday night by far-right extremists, who reportedly threw smoke bombs inside it.
63. Turkish Airlines on Saturday said it would offer laptops to business-class flyers after Britain and the US banned large electronic devices from the cabin of flights from certain countries. Washington has barred all electronic devices larger than a mobile phone on direct flights to the US from 10 airports in seven West Asian countries and Turkey , only allowing them to be trans ported in hold luggage. Britain followed with a similar ban from five countries in the Middle East and north Africa as well as Turkey . But Turkish Airlines said it would offer travellers a solution. “The national flag carrier has now started to offer laptops for its business class passengers on US-bound flights as from today ,“ it said in a statement released on Saturday .
64. France has banned unhe althily thin models as part of a new law targe ting “unrealistic body images“ and eating disorders. Under the new law that came into effect on Saturday , models will now be required to provide a doctor's certificate attesting to their overall health and proving their body mass index (BMI) sits within a healthy range. The measurement will be compared to the World Health Organisation's definitions of underweight to decide whether a model is certifi ed, although a minimum BMI has not been set after protests from modelling agencies. France's minister of social affairs and health, Marisol Touraine, said the documents would be valid for two years “attesting that their state of health is compatible with their work“.he law was backed by French MPs in 2015, who supported punishing employers who violate the new rules with up to six months imprisonment and a ¤75,000 fine.Models under the age of 16 will have their BMI calculated during medical check-ups, by doctors who will check nutrition and growth. The second law will require photos where a model's silhouette has been digitally alte red to be marked “photographie retouchée“ from October 1. Anorexia is believed to affect up to 40,000 people in France, 90% of whom are women.The new laws came into effect little over a month after Paris banned sexist and discriminatory adverts in an effort to stop “degrading“ representations of men and women, homophobia and racism In March, a fashion house was ordered to modify its adverts by France's advertising watchdog. Italy , Spain and Israel are other countries to frame legislation for models while there have been similar calls in the UK.
65. In Vivo IPL 2017 Mumbai Indians won against Delhi Daredevils by 146 runs.
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