Month: June 2022

Congress candidate Ajay Maken lost the Rajya Sabha elections to media baron Kartikeya Sharma, the BJP-backed independent candidate, by a “narrow margin”, a huge shock for the grand old party which was confident of the winning the seat.

“By a very very, very narrow margin, Ajay Maken has lost,” Haryana Congress MLA Bharat Bhushan Batra told reporters after results of the polls held on Friday came in.

Polling was held on June 10 to elect two members to the Upper House of Parliament from Haryana. BJP’s Krishan Lal Panwar scored a comfortable victory with 31 votes, leaving the battle for the second seat between Maken and Sharma.

Amid allegations of cross-voting and rule violations, the counting of votes was delayed and there was a recounting of votes that went on past midnight.

Out of 90 MLAs in the Haryana Legislative Assembly, independent candidate Balraj Kundu abstained and a vote, apparently of Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi, was rejected leaving 88 votes valid. Sharma, who was backed by the BJP and its ally Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), got 29.6 votes while Maken received 29 votes.

Addressing a press conference after the victory at around 3.50 am, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said, “It is a matter of happiness for us. I thank all the MLAs for making Krishan Lal Panwar and Kartikeya Sharma win. It is a victory of democracy. I am hopeful that both of them will raise the matters related to Haryana’s people in the House.”

Explaining the math behind the counting, he said, “BJP had 40 MLAs, Congress 31 MLAs, 10 JJP MLAs, independents and candidates of some other parties. One candidate abstained and one Congress MLA’s vote was rejected.”

“So, there were a total of 88 votes polled. Those who got one-third votes i.e. 29.34 votes won. Both our candidates combining first preference and second preference won but the Congress candidate got only 29 votes. MLAs were trained well. Our first preference votes were 36. He (Panwar) needed only 29.34 votes and 6.66 votes were transferred to Kartikeya Sharma,” he added.

Khattar said that Congress demanded recounting of votes fearing its defeat.

“There was a recounting of votes. Our polling agent said Congress thought they had won the elections but when they got to know that they are losing they demanded recounting. Our polling agent did not have a problem with recounting,” Khattar added.

Commenting on Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi whose vote was rejected, the Chief Minister said that he voted openly after listening to his “inner conscience”.

“He (Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi) has voted openly after listening to his inner conscience. I can say that he has faith in PM Modi’s policies and ideology. He didn’t even think what Congress party is going to do with him after this,” he added.

After the Congress lost the seat, Bishnoi, MLA from Adampur, tweeted a cryptic message today.

“I have the ability to crush the fun, Do not leave the forest because of the fear of snakes. good morning,” he tweeted.

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Earlier on Saturday, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) MLA Abhay Singh Chautala said he will vote for Independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma.

Maken had earlier alleged that BJP has resorted to cheap politics “stalling counting of votes” in Haryana.

“Fearing the loss of face in Rajya Sabha election results-the BJP has resorted to cheap politics stalling counting of votes in Haryana. Please have a look at the Returning Officer’s decision rejecting the BJP’s objections Is democracy still alive in India?” he tweeted.

Before the polling day, both the BJP-JJP alliance and Congress legislators were shifted to resorts to slash possibilities of poaching. While the BJP-JJP alliance had lodged their MLAs in a resort in Chandigarh, the Congress leaders were moved to a resort in Delhi.

The polling to elect the members of the Upper House of the Parliament on 16 Rajya Sabha seats spread across four states took place on June 10 amid speculations of horse-trading and fears of cross-voting.

Last week, 41 candidates from 11 states- Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Telangana were elected unopposed

Polling for the 16 seats spread across states like Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Haryana and Karnataka was held on Friday due to the number of candidates exceeding the seats. (ANI)

The ‘Nach Punjaabban’ fever seems to have gripped the film industry! The song from the much-awaited film ‘Jug Jugg Jeeyo’ has been creating a lot of buzz on Instagram lately with many actors posting videos of them dancing to the tunes of it.

The newest to join the bandwagon is Neetu Kapoor, who grooved to the song with daughter Riddhima Kapoor Sahni, ace designer Manish Malhotra and designer Surily.

In the video, all four were seen doing the hook step of the hit song. Giving a dynamic performance, Neetu and Manish took the lead in front while Ridhima kept grooving to the tunes of the song from behind. Captioning the video, the ace fashion designer wrote, “Karan this one’s for You. Friday night live with Ours Punjaban… “

Karan Johar instantly dropped a comment. He wrote “Fab” accompanied by heart and clap emojis.

Meanwhile, the lead actor in the film Varun Dhawan had a career-related suggestion for Manish. Varun took to the comments section of the video and wrote, “U shd have become a hero”.

Kiara shared the video on her Instagram story and wrote, “coolesttt (heart and hug emoji)”

Produced by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions and Viacom18 studios, ‘Jug Jugg Jeeyo’ is set to hit the theatres on June 24. The film that has already created mass hysteria around it, has Varun Dhawan, Kiara Advani, Neetu Kapoor and Anil Kapoor in lead roles. Reality TV star Varun Sood will also do a cameo appearance in the film.

‘Jug Jugg Jeeyo’ is directed by Raj Mehta, who earlier backed the 2019 hit film ‘Good Newwz’ starring Kareena Kapoor Khan, Akshay Kumar, Diljeet Dosanjh and Kiara Advani. (ANI)

Although Pakistan termed the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, CPEC as a game-changer for the country’s ailing economy but the fact of the matter is that Chinese mega projects are showing an adverse impact on Gilgit-Baltistan’s environment leading to uncontrollable pollution and irreversible depletion of aquatic ecosystems.

Under the banner of CPEC, Pakistan and China are initiating work on mega-dams, oil and gas pipelines, and uranium and heavy metal extraction in Gilgit-Baltistan. Gilgit-Baltistan is also providing over half of its drinking and irrigation water to Pakistan and Chinese mega projects but these projects are showing an adverse impact on the local climate leading to uncontrollable pollution and irreversible depletion of aquatic ecosystems, Global Order reported.

Recently, Pakistan’s Hasanabad had witnessed a glacial lake burst which washed away houses and razed a major bridge on the Karakoram Highway and the biggest reason behind this is climate change.

Looking at climate change, the World Bank warned that one-third of these glaciers will disappear by the end of this century causing famine of great magnitude in Pakistan. Melting ice sheets would also release viruses locked away for thousands of years causing an unprecedented rise in occurrences of rare diseases.

Meanwhile, the United Nations claimed that climate disasters could kill over 300,000 people in Pakistan in the next three decades and the alarming numbers would reach manifolds if we include the anticipated deaths from novel pandemics.

According to the publication, deforestation is the major cause of landslides in Gilgit-Baltistan. Plantation could reverse the climatic issue and even former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said that the ten billion tree tsunami” is a good initiative but no such development took place. Even the forest land was given to Chinese hydroelectric projects in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK).

Pakistan Army instead of protecting the locals’ interests, snatched their indigenous lands and imposed Chinese interests on them.

Despite repeated warnings from locals, the military has confiscated hundreds of thousands of acres of private land in places like Diamer, Shigar, Ghizer, Gilgit and Hunza and awarded them to the Chinese companies. In one instance, the army bulldozed and flattened homes in Makpondas to grant private land to a Chinese company to build a CPEC-related economic zone, according to the publication.

Experts claim that by 2030, China will be able to produce twelve gigawatts of electricity for Pakistan from the ongoing hydro-projects in Gilgit-Baltistan. One of those projects is Diamer-Bhasha, the largest roller compact concrete dam in the world. However, the Diamer dam is being built in a geologically volatile territory where earthquakes are a daily phenomenon.

Looking at such situations, locals have raised their voices against the construction of CPEC but the government doesn’t listen to a single sound of it. The Pakistani Army is filing the case against those people who raise their voices against land theft and environmental destruction. The locals argued that the establishment is committing real treason and terrorism by sacrificing the well-being of locals for China.

Like elsewhere, the Chinese model of extraction and development is a toxic ‘friendship’ for Gilgit-Baltistan as its fragile ecology is ravaged. (ANI)

A Kashmir-based YouTuber, who posted online a digitally recreated graphic video that showed him beheading an effigy of suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma on Saturday issued a fresh video apologising for his action.

“Yesterday, I made a VFX video about Nupur Sharma which went viral all over India. And an innocent person such as me got implicated in the controversy,” You Tuber Faisal Wani said today in an apology video posted on his channel.

In his apology video, Wani states that he did not have any intention of hurting the sentiments the other religions.

The Youtuber further clarified that he had deleted his original disturbing video, also posted on his channel and had gone viral.

In his apology, Wani said, “I hope you will make this video viral too like my other video. This is how everyone will know that I am apologetic about my actions.”

Earlier this month, BJP suspended Nupur Sharma and expelled Delhi BJP media unit Naveen Jindal over their controversial remarks on Prophet Mohammad.

Protests had erupted in several parts of the country against the comments with protests in several cities in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Jharkhand’s Ranchi and West Bengal’s Howrah and Kolkata among others.

Following the comments made by Sharma and Jindal, several Gulf countries demanded a public apology and saw calls for a boycott of products made in India.

Several FIRs have been filed against Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal in various states (ANI)

At a time when an American military officer termed the Chinese military infrastructure development along the border with India as alarming, it is emerging that the Chinese Air Force is continuously maintaining the deployment of over two dozen frontline aircraft at its Hotan air base near Eastern Ladakh sector.

According to government sources, the Chinese Air Force has now maintained the presence of their 25 frontline fighters at the Hotan air base which include their J-11, and J-20 fighters.

“The Chinese earlier used to maintain detachments of MiG-21 class fighters there but they have now been replaced with more capable and sophisticated aircraft and in larger numbers,” they said.

The Chinese Air Force is also building up new airfields close to the Indian territory which can allow them to carry out missions from lower altitudes.

American Pacific Army’s General Charles A Flynn had recently said that the Chinese activity level was eye-opening. “I think some of the infrastructures that are being created in the Western Theatre Command are alarming,” he said.

Indian agencies are keeping a close eye on the activities of the People’s Liberation Army’s Air Force (PLAAF) that has spread all along the Line of Actual Control with India opposite to Ladakh in the north to Arunachal Pradesh in the Northeast.

Along with Hotan, the agencies are also keeping a close eye on Gar Gunsa, Kashghar, Hopping, Dkonka Dzong, Linzhi and Pangat airbases of the PLAAF in the Xinjiang and Tibet region.

The Chinese PLAAF has been upgrading these bases in recent times with the construction of hardened shelters, the extension of runway lengths and the deployment of additional manpower to carry out more operations.

The Indian side has also ramped up its preparedness in the view of the heightened activity by the Chinese forces on their side of the LAC and has deployed its fleet of Sukhoi-30MKIs, MiG-29s and Mirage-2000s at the forward air bases to tackle any misadventure. (ANI)

Congress won all three Rajya Sabha seats it contested in party-ruled Rajasthan with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also winning a seat in the state.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot congratulated party leaders Randeep Singh Surjewala, Pramod Tiwari and Mukul Wasnik for their victory in the biennial polls to the upper house of parliament and said BJP had tried to indulge in “horse-trading by fielding an independent candidate”.

BJP candidate Ghanshyam Tiwari won but party-backed independent candidate Subhash Chandra lost the polls.

Gehlot said that party MLAs and its allies have shown unity and given a befitting reply to BJP. He said that the BJP will face a similar defeat in the assembly polls next year.

He expressed confidence that the newly-elected party MPs will firmly raise the issues of state.

“Congress’ victory in three Rajya Sabha seats in Rajasthan is a victory for democracy. I congratulate all three newly-elected MPs – Pramod Tiwari, Mukul Wasnik and Randeep Surjewala. I am sure that all the three MPs will be able to firmly champion the rights of Rajasthan in Delhi,” Gehlot said in a tweet.

“It was clear from the beginning that the Congress had the required majority for all three seats. But BJP tried to indulge in horse-trading by fielding an independent. The solidarity of our MLAs has given a befitting reply. The BJP will face a similar defeat in the 2023 assembly elections as well,” he added.

Congress leader Sachin Pilot also congratulated the newly-elected MPs from the state.

“I extend my heartiest congratulations and best wishes to all the three candidates of the Congress party – Mukul Wasnik, Randeep Surjewala, and Pramod Tiwari – for winning the Rajya Sabha elections from the state,” he said.

Polling was necessitated as there were five candidates for four seats in the state in the biennial polls. (ANI)

The total allocations for federal and provincial Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) in Pakistan’s budget 2022-2023, which was presented in the National Assembly on Friday, have gone down significantly from last year’s budget.

Notably, Pakistan’s Finance Minister Miftah Ismail presented the budget for the fiscal year 2022-23 (FY23) in the National Assembly on Friday.

Under this budget, federal PSDP makes up Rs 727 billion, which has gone down 19.2 per cent from last year’s budgeted amount of Rs 900 billion. Moreover, the Provincial PSDP for FY23 has been allocated at Rs 1,432 billion, a decrease of 16 per cent from last year’s budget of Rs 1,235 bn, reported Dawn.

The passing of the budget this time in NA was less controversial as there was no opposition present in the House since former Prime Minister Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) members had tendered their resignations.

While giving his speech in the NA, Ismail lashed out at Imran Khan’s former government blaming it for the debilitating state of the country’s economy.

“An inexperienced team brought the country to the brink. Different people presented the budget every year presenting different policies which hurt investor sentiment,” the finance minister said.

Moreover, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif while taking to Twitter wrote, “These are difficult times brought upon us by recent years of economic mismanagement. Through this budget, my government will steer our way out of these challenges by taking tough decisions while minimising [the] impact on vulnerable segments of [the] population,” he added.

The key budgetary proposals were — Minimum tax bracket for small business persons to be raised from Rs 0.4 million to Rs 0.6 million, Minimal taxable income limit will be raised from Rs 0.6m to Rs 1.2 m per year on salaried class, 15 pc increase in salaries of government employees and Sales tax exemption on import of solar panels and distribution, as per the media portal.

The budget outlay this year is Rs 9,502 billion, almost a trillion rupees higher than last year’s outlay.

The government has budgeted the total current expenditure at Rs 8,694 bn for FY23, which is 15.5 pc higher than last year’s budgeted figure.

Defence expenditure is budgeted at Rs 1,523 bn, which makes up 17.5 pc of total current expenditure and is 11.16 per cent higher than last year.

Interest payments, or debt servicing, budgeted for FY23 have risen a whopping 29.1 pc from last year to Rs 3,950 bn — making up the single largest expenditure of the government, which accounts for 45.4 pc of total current expenditure. (ANI)

After strict COVID lockdowns in China that led to months of supply chain disruptions, Apple is now moving some iPad production out of China and shifting it to Vietnam.

To guard itself against future shortages and supply snags, Apple has also asked multiple component suppliers to build up their inventories, as per the sources cited by Asia Nikkei.

Plans of exiting China and moving its business into Vietnam were under consideration earlier as well, however, due to the sudden surge in COVID-19 cases in Vietnam a few months later, Apple delayed its plans.

This decision by Apple to move away from China reflects the company’s continuous efforts to diversify its supply chain. It also highlights the growing importance of Vietnam to the company.

In particular, Apple is asking suppliers outside the lockdown-affected areas to help build up a couple of months’ worth of component supplies to ensure supply continuity over the next few months. The requests apply to all of Apple’s product lines — iPhones, iPads, AirPods and MacBooks — sources said.

Ideally, the company hopes these suppliers can prepare enough additional components to fully offset the amount made by those in Shanghai and nearby provinces such as Jiangsu, where the risk of supply chain disruption is higher.

“For example, component supplier X has a 40 per cent share of Apple’s business in Jiangsu Province, which is a risky region of supply chain disruption, and supplier Y in another city accounts for the remaining 60 per cent share,” one of the people with direct knowledge of the matter said adding, “Apple would want supplier Y to build enough additional components to match supplier X’s 40 per cent share in the coming months in case production in Jiangsu is shut down again.”

Ivan Lam, an analyst with Counterpoint said, he expects it will still take until the second half of June for life to return to normal as the government avoids rushing things in its attempt to get life and work routines back on track, reported Asia Nikkei.

India and Vietnam, which are already sites of Apple production, are among the countries being seen as an alternative option to China, a report added.

This move by Apple, being the largest US company by market capitalization, will influence the thinking of other Western companies which have been considering reducing their dependency on China for manufacturing or key materials in the wake of Beijing’s indirect support to Russia for its invasion in Ukraine and lockdowns in some cities to fight COVID-19.

According to analysts, over 90 per cent of Apple products including iPhones, iPads and MacBook laptops are manufactured in China by outside contractors.

Responding to Apple’s supply chain challenges in April, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said, “Our supply chain is truly global, and so the products are made everywhere. We continue to look at optimizing.”

The lockdowns imposed in Shanghai and other cities as part of China’s anti-Covid policy have disrupted the supply chain for many Western companies.

In April, Apple warned that the resurgence of COVID-19 will hinder sales by as much as USD 8 billion in the current quarter. China’s strict anti-Covid rules have stopped Apple from sending its executives and engineers into the country over the past two years, which means that it becomes hard for them to check the production sites in person. The power outages last year also dented China’s reputation for reliability. (ANI)

Singer-actor Shehnaaz Gill dropped a set of glimpses from her latest photo shoot in a stunning beige corset pantsuit.

The Bigg Boss 13 fame took to her Instagram handle and dropped some jaw-dropping glimpses in a beige-hued corset jumpsuit, flaunting her fashionable side. “I’m right here” she captioned the post.

Dressed in a beige jumpsuit, the singer-actor looked stunning as her nude makeup, bold-kohled eyes and rustic bold jewellery complimented the entire look.

Shehnaaz’s fans were quite quick to react to the post and showered love in the comment section. A fan commented,” Our upcoming Bollywood Queen”, and another fan wrote, “You look amazing, want to see you on the big screen”.

She has returned to her social media A-game, and netizens are really appreciating her posts.

Shehnaaz’s innocence had always appealed to Salman during her ‘Bigg Boss’ days, and the way she dealt with her boyfriend Sidharth Shukla’s death had really touched everyone’s heart.

Shehnaaz is supposed to be paired opposite Aayush Sharma in the Salman Khan-led movie, where she portrays the role of an innocent and vulnerable girl-next-door.

‘Kabhi Eid Kabhi Diwali’ will have Pooja Hegde as the female lead, alongside Aayush Sharma and Zaheer Iqbal, who allegedly play Salman Khan’s brothers. It is also speculated that Raghav Juyal had joined the cast of the movie.

The actor recently started shooting for the film in Mumbai. A source close to the production house shared in a statement, “Shehnaaz Gill has started shooting for Salman Khan’s much talked about film. The first schedule of the movie will start in Mumbai, then in Hyderabad, followed by northern cities of India.”

Shehnaaz having recently appeared in the Punjabi film, ‘Honsla Rakh’ opposite Diljit Dosanjh, is set to make her Bollywood debut with ‘Kabhi Eid Kabhi Diwali,’ releasing on December 30, 2022. (ANI)

Former Pakistan president General Pervez Musharraf has been hospitalized for the last three weeks due to a complication of his ailment and is going through a difficult stage where recovery is not possible and organs are malfunctioning, his family said on Friday.

In a message posted on Musharraf’s Twitter handle, his family said that he is dealing with Amyloidosis and prayed for ease in his daily living. The family said he is not on a ventilator.

“He is not on the ventilator. Has been hospitalized for the last 3 weeks due to a complication of his ailment (Amyloidosis). Going through a difficult stage where recovery is not possible and organs are malfunctioning. Pray for ease in his daily living,” the message said.

This Twitter handle is run by General Musharraf”s office.

Pak news portal The Namal had earlier reported that Musharraf had been put on a ventilator as his health had deteriorated. There were also reports in a section of media that Musharraf had passed away but these were subsequently denied.

Amyloidosis is the name for a group of rare, serious conditions caused by a build-up of an abnormal protein called amyloid in organs and tissues throughout the body.

The build-up of amyloid proteins (deposits) can make it difficult for the organs and tissues to work properly. Without treatment, this can lead to organ failure, according to National Health Service, UK.

Musharraf, who was born in New Delhi, took power in a coup in 1999. He served as president of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008.

The former dictator had launched the Kargil operation without the civilian government’s approval. Aides of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif have said that Musharraf had also sought to derail talks with India through Kargil Operation.

After the Partition, Musharraf’s family settled in Karachi where he attended Saint Patrick’s School.

He joined the Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul and graduated from the institution in 1964. He was subsequently commissioned in the Pakistan Army. (ANI)