Today's Hot Stories - April 05, 2014 - PT education

Today's Hot Stories - April 05, 2014

10 Headlines for Today

(1) Vote for BJP if you want revenge: Modi aide Amit Shah
(2) Live webcasting at 40 UP polling stations
(3) Japan orders military to strike any new North Korea missile launches
(4) Now, access your SBI account via Twitter
(5) Foreign workers come under EPFO radar
(6) US jobs market shakes off winter blues
(7) Dhoni wins Asian award for sports in UK
(8) India win doubles match, take 2-1 lead
(9) Golf: Masters wide-open, says Rory McIlroy
(10) Now, buy LPG cylinder from kirana stores, super marts

5 Stories for Today

(1) Clerics criticize Imam Bukhari's support to Congress
(2) Afghans vote in historic elections amid reports of sporadic violence
(3) Govt rejects demand for PF on perks
(4) GMR-Megawide group wins $389 million Philippine airport project
(5) Post-election showdown looms for RBI chief Raghuram Rajan

(1) Clerics criticize Imam Bukhari's support to Congress


Shahi Imam Ahmed Bukhari's open support to the Congress for the Lok Sabha election has drawn sharp criticism from the political parties and Muslim groups in Uttar Pradesh.

While Shia cleric Kalbe Jawwad on Saturday asserted that the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) slug fest has irked the minorities, National Ulema Council president Maulana Aamir Rashdi slammed the Jama Masjid imam for "the haazri (attendance) in Sonia Gandhi's durbaar".

Bukhari should come and clear what "deal" he has struck with the Congress, Rashdi said adding the Congress is a party, which has "always ditched the Muslims".

The Muslims in the country, were not a property of Bukhari, Rashdi said urging minorities to vote as per their choice of secular candidates.

Maulana Khalid Rashid Farangimahali, a prominent Muslim voice in the state, also came down heavily on Bukhari for his appeal to the Muslims, to vote for the Congress.

"Such calls to vote on religious lines hurt the democracy" Farangimahali told IANS adding in any case, the Muslims were not obliged to follow the political diktats of Bukhari.

"In the past, the Imam has sided with the BJP and the SP, I am sure the Muslims know what are the problems dear to them and would vote accordingly," he said.

Political parties including the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party (SP) have also decried Bukhari for announcing his support on Friday to the Congress.

Uttar Pradesh urban development and minority affairs minister Azam Khan urged Bukhari to rethink on his decision.

Bukhari has extended his support to the SP in the 2012 state assembly election and appealed to the Muslims to vote for Mulayam Singh Yadav's party.

Source: The Times of India

(2) Afghans vote in historic elections amid reports of sporadic violence


Thousands of Afghans lined up outside polling centres across the country on Saturday to cast their ballots in a historic Presidential elections, as reports trickled in of sporadic violence.

The outgoing President, Hamid Karzai, who is barred by the Constitution from seeking a third term, voted at Amani High School.

“I have cast my vote. I feel happy and proud as a citizen of Afghanistan,” he told reporters after voting.

“I ask the nation of Afghanistan to get out of their houses and go to vote despite the rainfall, cold weather and the threat of the enemies,” he said. “I ask them to make their country successful.” The election commission chief, Yousuf Nooristani, described it as “a very good day for Afghans.” “We hope that this is going to be the best elections in Afghanistan.

At the very least, it is going to be much better than the elections held before,” he told dpa.

Insecurity, violence and fraud were the top concerns on election day.

Abdul Hadi Ghazniwal, 38, who was standing in a long queue at a polling booth in Kabul, said he was voting for change.

Jamshid Khan, 24, another resident in the capital, said he was somewhat afraid of Taliban threats to disrupt the election, but added that “they can’t stop us, because we have to come here and give a vote.” Election official Haseena Sherzad said she voted “hoping that this vote will bring peace, unity, and happiness to my country.” Kabul city was in a security lockdown, and thousands of security troops were deployed across the capital and at voting centers.

Men and women braved the rain to stand in line, some of them for up to two hours.

Analysts described the turnout as “energetic.” There were some reports of violence from other parts of the country, particularly in the eastern regions, according to authorities.

Insurgent attacks

“Dozens of insurgents were killed by Afghan security forces across the country,” Deputy Interior Minister General Ayoub Salangi said.

He said some of the polling centers were closed because of insurgent attacks.

The Interior Ministry said one policeman and one intelligence officer were arrested for stuffing five boxes with ballots in Sayedabad district, in the province of Wardak.

Sattar Saadat, the head of the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC), said they had received news of some violations. “But we hope it would not be big enough to violate the legitimacy of the election process.” He said they were investigating the reports.

Ashraf Ghani, one of the front runners, said that Afghans had sent “a clear message to the enemies of Afghanistan by participating in the election.” “No danger, no threat will hinder our will,” he said, after casting his ballot, along with his two deputies.

Texting banned

Meanwhile, the Telecommunications Ministry has banned texting during the polls.

“The SMS service has been banned at the request of Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) from early morning to 4 pm,” Sherbaz Wakil, the head of the Afghanistan Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, told dpa.

But ECC chief Sadaat refuted Wakil’s comment, saying “such actions could prevent a transparent election process and monitoring process.” He said they had only asked for details after one of the campaigns started sending mass SMS, calling for votes for their candidate.

Sadaat told dpa: “If they hear me, they should soon [activate] this service. We never had such a request.” About 12 million voters are eligible to cast ballots at some 6,400 polling centers across the country. About 400,000 security forces have been deployed.

There are eight presidential candidates, including opposition leader Abdullah Abdullah, former World Bank technocrat Ashraf Ghani and former Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul.

EU Foreign Ministers expressed hope that Afghans will go to the polls despite a spike in violence.

On Friday, two foreign journalists working for The Associated Press were shot, one of whom died, in eastern Afghanistan.

Source: The Hindu

(3) Govt rejects demand for PF on perks


In a setback to over five crore provident fund subscribers, the labour ministry has turned down a proposal to deduct 12% contribution on the basic salary as well as allowances even as it holds back several notifications.

Sources familiar with the development told TOI that the ministry went by the law ministry's opinion that the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) could not ask for deduction on the salaries and allowances under the existing legal framework. Most companies have been computing provident fund contribution (12% each by employees and employers) on the basic salary and the dearness allowance but a November 2012 circular had sought to change it as employees were seen to be losing out on statutory savings.

A volley of protests by the employers, however, prompted the government to seek a review of the circular, who suggested that employees would lose out on take home salary even as they would have had to shell out more to meet the new obligation.

An internal committee set up by the labour ministry had backed the circular as it was widely seen as an employee-friendly gesture. But industry chambers such as CII and Ficci lobbied hard against the implementation of the circular.

While labour ministry's stance will defer immediate implementation of the circular, the EPFO can make a fresh pitch citing court rulings, said sources. For India Inc, the bad news is that the circular had contained a provision that would have stopped PF authorities from seeking information without any time limit. The labour ministry is learnt to have asked the EPFO to put that proposal on hold as well.

But the ministry's unusual haste in pushing through the decision on the contentious circular has come as a surprise given that it is sitting on several proposals which had been cleared by the Union cabinet as well. For instance, the move to increase the cut-off limit for PF from Rs.6,500 a year to Rs.15,000 is yet to be notified. Similarly, there has been little progress on fixing a minimum pension of Rs 1,000 a month, although the cabinet had cleared the proposal.

There are at least three other decisions, which would have helped employees but have not been implemented. The list includes a cut in administrative charges as well as providing additional benefit to Employees Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme until an actuarial valuation has been done. These decisions had been ratified by the EPFO's Central Board of Trustees.

Source: Hindustan Times

(4) GMR-Megawide group wins $389 million Philippine airport project


A consortium that includes India's GMR Group has won a 17.52-billion-peso ($389.33-million) contract to upgrade the passenger terminal of the Philippines' second airport, the Filipino government said on Saturday.

The GMR-Megawide consortium has been awarded a 25-year concession to the Mactan airport that serves the central city of Cebu, the country's second-largest metropolis after Manila, the transportation and communication department said.

"This project should have been done at least a decade ago, so there is no more time to waste," the department's spokesman Michael Arthur Sagcal said in a statement.

Over the next three to four years, GMR and its local partner will renovate Mactan's passenger terminal, build a separate one for international flights, and then operate the improved facility with an expected annual turnover of eight million passengers.

The existing terminal was built to handle 4.5 million passengers a year, but annual traffic topped six million in 2011, well past its capacity, the department said. Cebu is the country's main tourism hub.

Under the contract terms, the new facility reverts to government ownership and control after 25 years.

GMR Group, an infrastructure company based in Bangalore, has interests in airports, energy and highways.

The tender was held last year but the contract award was delayed as the government said it was investigating allegations by one of the six other bidders over GMR-Megawide's financial capability.

Source: The Economic Times

(5) Post-election showdown looms for RBI chief Raghuram Rajan


Rajan has raised the repo policy rate three times by a total of 75 basis points to 8 percent. Express Rajan has raised the repo policy rate three times by a total of 75 basis points to 8 percent. Express

India’s high-profile central bank governor is likely to come under political pressure to retreat from his hawkish stance on inflation if opposition leader Narendra Modi wins power in the country’s general election.

Strategists in Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), confident that his jobs-first policy pitch will secure a strong voter mandate, suggest that they would prefer to have one of their own at the helm of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

That sets the stage for a confrontation with RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, who since being appointed last September has enjoyed an unusually smooth ride in a country where governments often treat the RBI as a punchbag for their own policy failings.

The former International Monetary Fund chief economist is widely viewed as India’s most capable technocrat, winning the respect of investors for his handling of a currency crisis that hit Asia’s third-largest economy last year.

“It will be a big loss of face for the country and would create a negative perception among foreign investors if the BJP removes the governor immediately after forming the government,” said A. Prasanna, an economist at ICICI Securities Primary Dealership Ltd in Mumbai.

Before moving to the RBI, Rajan, 51, served as chief economic adviser to the finance ministry under the Congress party-led government, which opinion polls say faces defeat in the five-week national election starting on Monday.

BJP treasurer Piyush Goyal has attacked Rajan over a series of interest rate hikes intended to curb inflation, now running at double the RBI’s longer-term 4 percent target, at a time when economic growth has fallen to its slowest in a decade.

Rajan has raised the repo policy rate three times by a total of 75 basis points to 8 percent.

“Governor Rajan is only aggravating the problems and making them worse by increasing interest rates,” Goyal, a leading strategist and fundraiser for the nationalist opposition party, told the Economic Times.

Subramanian Swami, a BJP ideologue and former cabinet minister with close ties to a Hindu grassroots movement that has shaped Modi’s thinking, puts it more bluntly: “We can make it worthwhile for him to leave,” Swami told Reuters.

“I would not be surprised if a government led by Narendra Modi removes the governor,” said Satish Misra, an analyst at the Observer Research Foundation, a Delhi-based think-tank. “Modi does not brook any opposition.”

GOOD COP, BAD COP

Rajan’s policy and academic credentials – he was a professor at Chicago’s Booth School of Business – qualify him as a card-carrying member of the policy jetset that gathers twice a year at the IMF’s Washington headquarters or at Group of 20 meetings.

Source: The Indian Express

Disclaimer: All news stories and content sourced from freely available material on the internet. All sources are acknowledged.