Month: July 2022

‘Badlapur’ actor Varun Dhawan is currently riding high on the success of his latest film, ‘Jug Jugg Jeeyo’. And to add a feather to his hat, it is being speculated that the actor’s upcoming flick ‘Bawaal’ is the most expensive film so far from the production value.

As per the source close to the makers revealed, “We’ve extensively shot the film in the most expensive & interesting locations like Paris, Berlin, Poland, Amsterdam, Krakow, Warsaw along with a brief portion in India as well. It’s a very unique love story and now we are gearing up for a huge action sequence in Warsaw. We have called for action directors & stuntmen from Germany along with a talented crew of 700+ members every day, Nitesh Sir and Sajid Sir have scaled up the film to leave the audience to a visual treat.”

“An action sequence as planned required multiple things such as 45 plus hedgehogs along with innumerable number of grenades, knives, and variety of explosives for an important action sequence which will be shot from tomorrow. The costs incurred for shooting daily is about 2.5 crore and this is a 10 days schedule. This is Varun’s most expensive film so far,” the source further added.

Recently, a video of Bawaal actor Varun Dhawan went viral saying that the team is headed to Warsaw, Poland for their next schedule.

Helmed by Nitesh Tiwari, ‘Bawaal’ is produced by Sajid Nadiadwala and is a social drama. Recently both Varun and Janhvi announced that they had wrapped up their shoot for ‘Bawaal’ in Amsterdam and currently shooting in is currently being shot in Warsaw, Poland. ‘Bawaal’ marks the first collaboration of the lead cast Varun and Janhvi.

‘Bawaal’ is produced by Sajid Nadiadwala, under the banner of Nadiadwala Grandson and is co-produced by EarthSky Pictures.

The film is slated to hit the theatres on April 7, 2023.

Meanwhile, talking about the ‘Coolie No 1’ actor, Varun, will be next seen in Dinesh Vijan’s next horror-comedy film ‘Bhediya’ with Kriti Sanon, which is all geared up to hit the theatres on November 25, 2022.(ANI)

Protesters broke into the parliament building in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, as per the Shafaq news agency.

Earlier, it was reported that the protesters were able to enter the specially guarded Green Zone in the centre of Baghdad. On Wednesday, a demonstration began in the Iraqi capital against the nomination of Mohammed Al Sudani for the post of the Prime Minister of the country.

The current Prime Minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, called on the demonstrators to immediately leave the parliament building.

The Green Zone houses government offices and embassies, as well as an international airport, which is adjacent to a military airfield. (ANI/Sputnik)

Indian ace shuttler and Olympic medalist PV Sindhu expressed happiness at being selected as Team India’s torchbearer at the opening ceremony of Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham.

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on Wednesday announced shuttler PV Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medallist, as the Flagbearer of Team India at the Opening Ceremony of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
“It is a great honour to be bestowed with the responsibility to lead the contingent and hold the flag at such an august gathering. I am extremely happy and I wish all my fellow contingent all the best for the Games. I would like to thank IOA also for choosing me as the flag bearer,” said Sindhu in a statement as per Badminton Association of India (BAI) Media.

Alongside Sindhu, who medalled at the Rio 2016 Olympics and the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, two other highly deserving athletes were considered to be Team India’s Flagbearer: weightlifter Mirabai Chanu and boxer Lovlina Borgohain, who are both Olympic medallists.

A four-member committee, comprising IOA Acting President Anil Khanna, IOA Secretary General Rajeev Mehta, IOA Treasurer Anandeshwar Panday, and Team India Chef de Mission Rajesh Bhandari, shortlisted the three athletes. Eventually, Khanna and Mehta selected Sindhu as the Flagbearer for the Opening Ceremony.

Rajeev Mehta, IOA Secretary General: “We are very happy to select Sindhu as the Flagbearer for the Opening Ceremony. We extend our congratulations to her and wish her, and the other athletes of Team India, the very best for the Commonwealth Games.”

In addition, Rajesh Bhandari, Team India Chef de Mission, Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, announced that a maximum of 164 participants from the Indian contingent can take part in the Parade of Nations in the Opening Ceremony, scheduled for July 28, 2022. (ANI)

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved Rs 1.64 lakh crore revival package for Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), Union Minister of Railways, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw said.

Addressing a media briefing after the cabinet meeting, Vaishnaw said the government is confident of revival of BSNL.
Elaborating on the package, the minister said, “It is a combination of cash support and non-cash support.”

He said the package announced by the government in 2019 has helped in stabilising the financial conditions of BSNL.

“The attrition of customers has stopped. Revenue which was going down has become stable at Rs 19,000 crore,” he said.

The minister said the revival package approved by the union cabinet has three elements — to improve services, de-stress balance sheet and expansion of fibre network.

As part of the de-stressing of the balance sheet, the cabinet has approved a proposal to convert Rs 33,000 crore statutory dues into equity and a similar amount of bank loans will be repaid through the issue of low-interest bonds.

The union cabinet also approved a proposal to merge Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL) with BSNL.

Through this merger, BSNL will get an additional 5.67 lakh kilometres of optical fibre which has been laid across 1.85 lakh village panchayats in the country using the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).

Currently, BSNL has an optical fibre cable network of over 6.83 lakh kilometres. (ANI)

After much speculation about whether Kareena Kapoor Khan will be a part of ‘Koffee With Karan’, looks like the actress is indeed coming back on the show this season!

Kareena, who recently got back to Mumbai after a month-long vacation in Europe, posted a couple of pictures of herself on Instagram on Wednesday. Looking breathtakingly beautiful in an all-black ensemble, Kareena captioned the post, “I like my Koffee black”. It seems like this is what the actor is going to wear for Karan’s chat show.

Fans are making all sorts of assumptions after reading the caption. But more than anything else, they are all excited to see who Kareena will sit on the ‘Koffee couch” with!

In the last season of the show, Kareena appeared with Priyanka Chopra. Both the actors were earlier reportedly each other’s nemesis.

Meanwhile, on the work front, Kareena will next be seen in ‘Laal Singh Chadha’ opposite Aamir Khan. The film is slated to release on August 11. She also recently wrapped up shooting her OTT debut project helmed by Sujoy Ghosh. The film is based on the Japanese novel ‘The Devotion of Suspect X’, which also stars Jaideep Ahlawat and Vijay Varma in the lead roles.

Coming back to ‘Koffee With Karan’, are you excited to see Bebo reunite with Karan onscreen? (ANI)

AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday criticised Yogi Adityanath’s government saying that the BJP-led UP government showers flower petals on Kanwariyas while it bulldozes Muslim houses.

Talking to ANI, Owaisi said, “BJP-led UP government showering flower petals on Kanwariyas using public money. We want them to treat everyone equally. They don’t shower flowers on us (Muslims) instead, they bulldoze our houses.”
Earlier Monday, top Uttar Pradesh (UP) officials showered rose petals on pilgrims from helicopters during the ongoing holy month of Shrawan.

Meerut’s IG Range Praveen Kumar and DM Deepak Meena showered flower petals on Kanwariyas, through helicopter.

The move was criticized by people from different walks of life and triggered a row.

The practice of showering rose petals on Kanwariyas entered its fifth year under the rule of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

After becoming UP chief minister for the first time in 2017, Yogi Adityanath ordered officials in 2018 to sprinkle flowers on Kanwariyas from helicopters. His order was followed by top bureaucrats of UP in letter and spirit.

Earlier in April, Owaisi broke down during a public speech while mentioning the incidents of violence in MP’s Khargone and Delhi’s Jahangirpuri and alleged that “Muslims are being wiped out of the country.” While addressing the gathering on the last Friday (Alvida Jumma) at Mecca Masjid, Owaisi said that Muslims were wronged in Khargone and Jahangirpuri, their houses were demolished. He asked them not to lose hope and courage.

“Oppression of the Muslims could be seen in our country. Through oppression, they’re trying to wipe us out,” he alleged.

Meanwhile, the district administration and police demolished illegal buildings of miscreants involved in the attack on a Ram Navami procession in Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone. The authorities ran the bulldozer over about 45 houses and shops. Around 16 houses and 29 shops were demolished.

Several people, including police personnel, were injured when groups of people pelted stones at each other during a Ram Navami procession on April 10. The stone-pelting started at the beginning of the procession leaving around four people injured including a police inspector.

Violent clashes broke out in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri on April 16 between two groups during a Hanuman Jayanti procession that left nine people injured, including eight police personnel and a civilian.

The ‘Kanwar Yatra’ is an annual pilgrimage for Lord Shiva’s devotees. The Kanwariyas visit places like Haridwar, Gaumukh and Gangotri in Uttarakhand and Sultanganj in Bihar to fetch the holy water of River Ganga and then worship the God with the same water.

Considering that Kanwar Yatra did not take place for the last two years, the administration in various areas has been adopting all the necessary measures to avoid any untoward incidents during the holy pilgrimage. (ANI)

In a shocking incident, a Geneva computer security agency was hacked and nearly 65,000 confidential documents were published on the darknet on Sunday, according to a report published in The Tribune de Geneve, a Swiss-French daily.

A large number of these documents pertain to private Swiss banks and their account-holders. While the exact number or nature of these bank accounts is not known, it is believed that hackers may have asked for ransom money to keep the details under wraps.

Many Indian businessmen and rich politicians are understood to have secret accounts in private Swiss banks, which have a reputation to keep the identity of their clients secret.

It will be interesting to see whether these banks or the clients pay the ransom or will it trigger news hounds to dig information from the Darknet and expose economic offenders.

According to another Swiss daily Le Temps, the computer security company have had clients such as public institutions like the State Chancellery of Geneva, and some of the most prestigious private banks in Switzerland. Added to this are multinationals as well as law firms and trustees.

These documents would have been auctioned on the darknet, Sunday morning, by a group of hackers using the ransomware of Russian origin LockBit3.0. They were then posted online at the end of the afternoon, said the news report.

Among the documents made public would be in particular identity documents, e-mail addresses and private telephone numbers, contracts, residence permits, extracts from criminal records, certificates of prosecution, or bank details of customers.

India has raised the issue of global economic offenders and secret bank accounts at various international forums.

Incidentally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his election campaign in 2014 had promised to bring back all the black money stashed in Swiss banks and expose the offenders. However, there has been no apparent action on this front by his government after it came to power.

Services of Mumbai local train were disrupted on Wednesday morning for the second day.

The CPRO Western Railways gave a clarification and said that some people came to stop the train but they didn’t succeed but didn’t succeed. All of them have been detained.
“There is no disturbance at Borivali station as aimed by few. There was some technical issue for which the train had stopped but everything is normal now. Nothing like what is being claimed.” added CPRO Western Railway.

Meanwhile, a group of Mumbai Youth Congress workers attempted to stop a Gujarat-bound express train at the Western line’s Borivali local train station. They were protesting against the questioning of party interim president Sonia Gandhi by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the National Herald case.

“Some people came to stop the train but they didn’t succeed, they’ve been detained.” CPRO Western Railway said.

Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi earlier today appeared before the Enforcement Directorate in Delhi for the third round of questioning in connection with a money laundering case linked to the National Herald newspaper. Sonia Gandhi arrived at the ED office accompanied by her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

On Tuesday, ED questioned Sonia Gandhi for over six hours on the second day of her appearance.

Last month the ED also questioned Rahul Gandhi for five days in the National Herald case.

The case to investigate alleged financial irregularities under the PMLA was registered about nine months ago after a trial court took cognisance of an Income Tax department probe carried out on the basis of a private criminal complaint filed by former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Subramanian Swamy in 2013.

The petitioner had approached the court alleging that the assets of Associated Journals Limited (AJL), which published the National Herald newspaper, were fraudulently acquired and transferred to Young Indian Pvt Limited (YIL), in which Sonia Gandhi and her son owned 38 per cent shares each. (ANI)

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday donated 2,400 monkeypox test kits to Uganda to help with the African country’s response to the infectious disease.

WHO Representative to Uganda Yonas Tegegn Woldemariam handed over the kits to Ugandan Minister of Health Ruth Aceng, saying that the WHO is committed to providing assistance to strengthen Uganda’s testing capacity.
Aceng expressed gratitude for the donation, noting that Uganda has so far carried out 70 tests, which all turned out negative.

The WHO declared the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on July 23. (ANI/Xinhua)

Trinamool Congress (TMC) lawmakers on Wednesday staged a sit-in protest at the Gandhi statue outside Parliament on Wednesday over their suspension from Rajya Sabha.

MPs who were suspended on Tuesday over ‘unruly behaviour and disrupting proceedings’ include Sushmita Dev, Santanu Sen, Dola Sen, Mausam Noor, Shanta Chhetri, Abhi Ranjan Biswar and Mohd Nadidul Haque.
Earlier today, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Sanjay Singh was suspended from the Rajya Sabha for the remainder of this week for “throwing paper on the Chair” a day ago during proceedings of the House. Singh is the 20th MP from the Upper House who has been suspended for disrupting proceedings. This is the highest number of single-batch suspensions in the Upper House.

Meanwhile, a meeting of Opposition parties was held to discuss the issue of suspension of MPs. However, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Trinamool Congress (TMC) skipped the meeting.

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said that the Opposition will submit a request to the Speaker of Lok Sabha and Chairman of the Rajya Sabha to rescind the suspension of the members who raised their voices against the price rise.

Speaking to ANI, Kharge said, “The issues that we have been raising since the last 7 days regarding inflation and imposition of GST on essential commodities, today on the eighth day also we will raise our voice regarding the same. Common people are worried about this. We are also raising our voices continuously, but the government is not ready for discussion. I personally met the chairman and said that you allow the discussion and tell the date and time, we will be ready for discussion, but the government is not ready to accept it. We will submit a request to Speaker and the Chairman to rescind the suspension of the members who raised their voices against the price rise.”

He further said that the suspension of MPs which has been done at the behest of the government should be withdrawn with immediate effect.

“We have called a meeting of opposition parties. We will discuss amongst ourselves and appeal to the Speaker to withdraw the suspension of these 19 MPs. Those MPs who raise their voice against inflation should not suppress their voice by suspending them. This suspension, which has been done at the behest of the government, should be withdrawn with immediate effect,” he said.

On July 25, four Congress MPs including Manickam Tagore, Ramya Haridas, Jothimani and TN Prathapan were suspended from the Lok Sabha for the entire Monsoon session for their ‘unruly behaviour and disrupting proceedings.’

The MPs were suspended according to Rule 374 on ‘unruly and disrespectful behaviour towards the Chair.’

The Upper House has been facing adjournment on various issues due to the Opposition ruckus since the Parliament’s Monsoon Session started.

The Monsoon Session of Parliament commenced on July 18 and will continue till August 12. There will be 18 sittings during the Session. (ANI)