Banks can't get 'blanket relief' from CBI, CVC actions, says Raghuram Rajan

Mumbai: Amid a clamour among bankers for immunity from action by agencies like CBI and CVC, Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan has disapproved of any "blanket sort of relief" but wants the decisions on loans given after appropriate due diligence to be protected.

"I think bankers have expressed some concern that they should not be held liable for actions that are taken in the full spirit of what is needed," he said.

"I think everyone has respected the need that where they take actions based on appropriate due diligence, on a proper application of mind given the situation, they should have some freedom to take actions...

"Otherwise, we will not get the kind of clean up, the kind of putting over-leveraged projects back on track that the economy needs," Rajan told a select group of journalists here.

At the recent meeting of the Bank Board Bureau (BBB), a new body constituted by the government to improve governance of PSU lenders, the state-owned banks sought immunity from "unnecessary oversight" from agencies such as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) on decisions related to loans that are taken collectively.

Asked about the demand from the bankers, Rajan said there cannot be any "blanket sort of relief, saying whatever actions you take no matter what their character, you should be absolved of any responsibility."

"I think there has to be some responsibility, but the responsibility has to be for making the appropriate due diligence of taking measured decisions.

"As long as somebody has invested the effort in taking the right decision, they shouldn't be held responsible based on which way the decision (goes)... Sometimes, you know, uncertainty creates the possibility that decision turns out wrong," Rajan said.

Best decisions taken under given circumstances should be respected, the outgoing RBI Governor added.

"To my mind, this new group that has been created to examine the process by which the decision was made, will try and give them comfort on that. Beyond that, it's not clear to me that anybody can give a blanket guarantee," he added.

Rajan stressed on a need for an appropriate balance.

"As a society we have to reach that (balance) which is that we have to respect the decision that were made so long as they were made in the right spirit, given the information that was available at that time," he said.

Where Is Free WiFi, Arvind Kejriwal Asked On 'Talk To AK'. What He Said

Arvind Kejriwal, the Chief Minister of Delhi, today told a caller at his interactive session "Talk to AK" that his promise of free WiFi in the capital has been stalled by the recent arrest of his aide Rajendra Kumar for corruption.

"Arvind sir, where is the free WiFi scheme? Why hasn't it happened till now?" music composer Vishal Dadlani asked, reading out a question posted on social media. Mr Dadlani, who moderated the two-hour session, joked that this was an answer that "trolls" would be interested in.

Mr Kejriwal replied: "Rajendraji was looking after it. I have to appoint a new officer now."
 
He also revealed that the project would take two to three years.
 
"In the meantime, we will create a network of hotspots. By December-January it will be operational in east Delhi," said Mr Kejriwal.
 
If, he quipped, "it isn't nulled-and-voided by the Lieutenant Governor."
 
Rajendra Kumar, an IAS officer who was Mr Kejriwal's Principal Secretary, was arrested earlier this month after the CBI accused him of a Rs. 50 crore scam in the purchase of computers by the government.
 
Mr Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party swept to power in Delhi last year, winning 67 of 70 seats, on the promise of cheaper power, water and a corruption-free administration. Free WiFi was one of the party's most eye-catching promises.

Gang-Rape Survivor Allegedly Raped Again By The Same Men 3 Years Lat

A 20-year-old Dalit woman was raped by five men and left to die in the bushes in Haryana's Rohtak, around 60 km from Delhi, this week.

But what is even more shocking is that the men who are accused are the According to the survivor's family, the men, who are all in their twenties and out on bail, wanted them to settle the case and were punishing the woman for pursuing it in court.
"I came out of college and there were those very five men in the car. Three were inside and two of them were outside," the woman told NDTV.
 
They took her inside the car, drugged her and then raped her while she was unconscious. They then dumped her body near the bushes, she said.
 
According to the survivor's family who moved to Rohtak after the incident three years ago, the five men, all of them from an upper caste, were threatening the family to negotiate a settlement worth Rs. 50 lakhs.
 
"We used to live in Bhiwani before. After the incident we fled to Rohtak to save ourselves from these men. I wanted to educate my children," the mother of the woman said.
 
The police say the woman was found in the bushes in Rohtak's Sukhpura Chowk area on Wednesday, after which she registered a complaint and is now in a government hospital.

"We will file an FIR (First Information Report). A team has been sent to Bhiwani to look for the accused," Garima, a police officer, said.

The shrinking of Smriti Irani

In the two years of this government’s reign, no minister has made as much news as her. Ultimately, that may have proved Smriti Irani’s undoing.

So it was that five months after the greenhorn minister stunned the Opposition and, admittedly, even her own party by putting up a spirited defence on the floor of Parliament in the wake of the Rohith Vemula episode, it was time for Irani to be stunned.

And yet, party sources say, there had been signals.

Sources close to her told The Sunday Express that during her last two weeks at the HRD Ministry, Irani was aware her future there was uncertain. “She made casual remarks about not knowing if she would be around for long. When party colleagues and RSS workers called seeking small favours, she told them to wait till the first week of July,” says a source.

Irani also announced several new initiatives over the last two months which officials claim, in hindsight, also reflected her jitteriness about retaining the HRD portfolio.

Almost all are agreed though that the realisation may have come too late, with the 40-year-old minister, the youngest in the Narendra Modi Cabinet, stepping on just too many toes in her brisk climb to the top.

Still, the memory of Irani’s February 24 Parliament appearance is still fresh for anyone who saw it. In a masterful mix of English and Hindi, she named names, wagged her finger, waved documents, thumped her chest, banged her desk, brushed away tears, and didn’t spare anyone — from Congress leaders to BSP chief Mayawati, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao to Pappu Yadav, a Kashmiri student who had approached her for help to AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi — as she launched a verbal assault against those “who lay siege upon my integrity” and seek to “hang me”.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had lost no time tweeting the link to Irani’s speech, adding ‘Satyamev Jayate’. BJP president Amit Shah, known to have had his disagreements with her even then, had acknowledged to friends, “Faido thayo (it has helped).”

Irani had by that time left campuses from JNU in Delhi to Hyderabad Central University in ferment, but her handling of the controversies had appeared then to have the full endorsement of the treasury benches.

However, say party sources, unease brew, particularly at how Irani had played loose and fast with some facts and at how she had treated Mayawati, many years her senior. Not exactly known for her restraint, the BSP chief had emerged from that episode with honour.

A Dalit MP told The Sunday Express Irani had made things “worse” for the BJP in UP, with the BSP’s district units circulating the video of Irani challenging Mayawati. “She has no idea what damage it can create for us in the state,” he said. But the BJP did.

As the dust settled over the Vemula and Kanhaiya Kumar episodes, there was also rethink in the BJP over Irani’s treatment of the two incidents.

“She singlehandedly brought back the Dalit student issue which the party had managed to put behind it, by focusing on nationalism,” a BJP MP told The Sunday Express at the time.

Added another, “The party wanted it to be a nationalist vs anti-nationalist debate. Her reference to Rohith and Mahishasur united the Opposition in both the Houses.”

The fact that she became the face of the government for the angry students showed that much of their ire was directed at her.

Around the time of the Parliament speech, news reports regarding a meeting Irani had had with Central university heads in Surajkund, Haryana, also emerged, talking about how she had scolded and played headmistress to senior academics.

“She admonished us like school-going children and told us we should do our jobs well or we could be fired. At one point, she got pretty annoyed when she noticed a few people nodding off during a session. She even ordered one university official to leave the meeting because he tried to take a picture on his phone,” a vice-chancellor recounts.

AMU V-C Lt Gen (retd) Zameer Uddin Shah told The Indian Express of similar discourtesy, including Irani denying him an appointment for almost an year, till the PM intervened.

Irani’s behaviour was blamed for the resignation of Professor R K Shevgaonkar as IIT Delhi director, and scientist Anil Kakodkar as chairman of IIT Bombay, while she became the first education minister under whom two Central university vice-chancellors were sacked for irregularities.

While the protests of a few student leaders could be dismissed as Opposition politics, the BJP realised it couldn’t afford to be seen as antagonising academics across the board.

The decision to install the Tricolour at all government-funded universities “prominently and proudly” arose from that same V-C meet. It was later extended to Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas, but if Irani thought the Sangh would be pleased, it didn’t prove enough.

Irani’s tendency to not mince words and say things to people’s face had already ensured that she had few supporters in the government. Many in the party call her “Amethiwali Rani”, for her “imperious” ways.

Questions had been raised about the April 4, 2015, Fab India incident in Goa, where she said she had discovered a CCTV camera looking into a women’s changing room. Many felt she had blown the issue out of proportion at a time when the party’s National Executive meeting was on in Bangalore, taking media attention away from it. Just a month earlier, Shah had dropped Irani from the revamped National Executive.

In the run-up to her transfer to the Textiles Ministry, there was talk of her entering into scraps with several senior ministers.

Exclusive: Bangladesh releases images of 10 suspected terrorists, alerts India

The Bangladesh government has sent a list of ten possible terror suspects to the government of India.

It is believed that the suspects might have sneaked into the Indian territory.

The entire Indian border is being alerted with the photographs and other details of the suspects.

These suspects may also have involvement in the July 1 terror attack in Dhaka in which as many as 20 persons were killed after armed assailant opened fire at an upscale cafe in Gulshan neighbourhood of the Bangladeshi capital.

The possibility of them carrying out further attacks is also not being ruled out.

On July 7, militants attacked Bangladeshi police guarding the country's biggest festival marking the end of Ramzan, killing three people and wounding 14, days after Islamic State claimed the attack on Holey Artisan Bakery in the capital and warned of more violence.

Death toll rises to 16 as violence hits Kashmir after Hizbul chief Burhan Wani's death

Srinagar: The death toll in violence in Kashmir Valley rose to 16 after a youth was killed and four other persons succumbed to the injuries they sustained in Saturday's clashes with security forces.

Irfan Ahmad Malik, 17, was killed in fresh firing in Pulwama district where a curfew-defying mob attacked the security forces, a senior police official said.

Four other persons, identified as Imtiyaz Ahmad Mandoo, Mashooq Ahmad and Safeer Ahmad, all from Anantnag district, and Mohammmad Altaf Rather from Pulwama district died at a hospital on Sunday.

Kashmir was on Saturday rattled by widespread mob violence and clashes which left 11 people dead and 126, including 96 security forces personnel, injured even as curfew was clamped across the Valley and mobile internet services suspended to contain the fallout of gunning down of militant commander Burhan Wani.

A top official said curfew has been imposed across the Valley and restrictions put in place to avert fresh trouble.

Three policemen were also missing after a large mob attacked a police station, set it ablaze and used its weaponary to shoot and injure three cops, police said.

The eight protesters killed on Saturday were identified as Aijaz Ahmed Thokru, a resident of Siligam in Anantnag, Yawar Manzoor Kondru of Anantnag, Khursheed Ahmed of Kulgam and Zubair Ahmed also of Kulgam, who was injured on Friday but succumbed to his injuries on Saturday, Adil Bashir of Dooru, Anantnag, Abdul Hamid Mochi of Arwami village in Anantnag, Shaukat Ahmed of Bijbehara andMohammad Asif of Kukurnag.

All except Kondru who drowned in the Jhelum as security forces sought to disperse a violent mob were killed when security forces retaliated to attacks by violent mobs on police stations, mobile posts, security force pickets, police patrols and security force vehicles, the officials said.

Two more injured succumbed to injuries in hospital but were yet to be identified.

Defying prohibitory orders, a surging crowd of over 20,000 people on Saturday attended the burial of Wani in Tral town in Pulwama.

Shouting pro-Islam and pro-Azadi slogans, mourners appeared surcharged and youths raised slogans vowing to follow Wani's path.

Amid the protests, militants attacked a police station in Pulwama as well as a tehsildar's office in Tral and attacked private and public vehicles on the highway, which was thwarted by the security forces .

In view of the volatile situation, Amarnath Yatra was also suspended, with police saying it will be resumed "as soon as it is possible to ensure security of yatris".

The administration also announced that all exams from school to university level had been postponed as well as the National Eligibility Test and interviews of the State Public Commission.

Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti appealed for calm while expressing "profound" grief and agony over the deaths during the protests and asked security forces to avoid use of disproportionate force for crowd control. "Violence only brings miseries to the people and tragedies for the victim families," she said and appealed people, especially the youth not to fall prey to the machinations of the vested interests, who play politics over the dead bodies of Kashmiris.

Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah voiced apprehension of a likely spurt in militancy in the Valley in the wake of Wani's killing.

"Mark my words - Burhan's ability to recruit in to militancy from the grave will far outstrip anything he could have done on social media," the National Conference leader said in a series of tweets.

He also asserted that Wani had become the new 'icon' for the disaffected community in the valley.

"After many years I hear slogans for "Azadi" resonate from the mosque in my uptown Srinagar locality. Kashmir's disaffected got a new icon yesterday," he said in another tweet.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said Centre is working with the state government to bring normalcy in the Valley. He also expressed "deep anguish" over the "loss of precious lives in the incidents of violence" in Kashmir and appealed for calm. He held a meeting in Delhi on Sunday to review the law and order situation in the Valley.

10-year-old Hyderabad girl who was allegedly hit by drunk driver dies

A 10-year-old girl, who was battling for life since the past week after sustaining critical injuries when her car was hit by another vehicle driven allegedly by a drunk person near Punjagutta in Hyderabad, has died, police said on Sunday.

P Ramya, a class IV student who met with the accident while she was returning from school on the first day of new academic year on July 1, had slipped into coma. She succumbed to her injuries at a private hospital on Saturday night, they said.

Though doctors had declared her brain dead after she was admitted to the hospital, the girl was on ventilator support and succumbed to her injuries last night, Banjara Hills Police Station Sub-Inspector G Vinod Kumar said.

Rajesh, brother of Ramya’s father, had died on the spot on July 1 when an oncoming car hit a road divider and flung into air before falling on his four-wheeler, police earlier said.

Though Ramya was on the rear seat, she suffered multiple wounds in the accident.

Accused Shraveel, who was reportedly inebriated while driving the car that hit the vehicle in which Ramya was travelling, was arrested after the mishap and booked under IPC section 304 (II) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder). The accused is currently in judicial custody.

Rafale deal: France offers to help revive Kaveri engine for Tejas

New Delhi: France has offered to help India revive the unsuccessful Kaveri engine project for indigenous Tejas aircraft and a host of other high-end collaboration as part of the offsets in the multi-billion Euro Rafale fighter plane deal which is now in the final stages.

Defence sources said the file on the purchase of the 36 Rafale aircraft in a fly-away condition from France has been finalised and is likely to be put up before Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon.

The estimated cost of the deal is about 7.89 billion Euros and entails a 50 per cent offset clause.

Under the offset agreement, which was discussed last year, the French side has made a 30 per cent offset commitment for military aerospace research and development programmes and the rest 20 per cent for making components of Rafales here.

The offsets will be carried out by French companies Safran, Thales, MBDA and Dassault, all part of the Rafale project.

As per the initial agreed points, the French have offered to provide stealth, radar and thrust vectoring for missiles technologies besides others to DRDO and domestic defence firms.

"The French government has in principle agreed on these points under the offset commitments. Once a final contract for 36 Rafale aircraft is signed, the French government will give subject wise clearance and concrete talks will start," a defence source said.

The French have also agreed in principle to collaborate on the Kaveri engine which lacks the real power thrust needed to fly the Tejas.

An upgraded Kaveri engine with 90 kN thrust compared to the existing 72 kN can be developed with French cooperation which can eventually be used for Tejas which currently uses an American engine.

"The negotiations on offsets were carried out last year with DRDO and some other agencies. Once the contract for the Rafales is signed, there will be a six months window to finalise the offset," a source said.

The French are hoping that they will have a bigger share in the Indian defence market and see the Rafale contract as a great breakthrough. They are also hoping that India will eventually go in for more Rafale aircraft, possibly under the 'Make in India' route.

MP says let Gujarat lions live with our ‘Bagh Dev’ for natural man-animal bonds

The Madhya Pradesh government has sought “immediate” transfer of Asiatic lions from Gujarat to one of its sanctuaries, saying people of the state treat tigers as “deity” and can soon develop cultural bondings with lions too.

The translocation of lions from Gujarat’s Gir to MP’s Palpur Kuno Sanctuary has been delayed by over three years despite a Supreme Court order.

In a recent communication to the Centre, the MP government has rejected all concerns raised by the Gujarat administration for not giving lions to it.

Madhya Pradesh is a very nature-friendly state where man and animal share the same space in and around the protected areas, it said. In many of the landscapes where there is no forest, black bucks stay in the agricultural fields.

Even then, human settlements around it really did not show much of the antagonism towards them, it said.

“It is a very common sight to see ‘Bagh Dev’ in many of human settlements in and around tiger reserves of Madhya Pradesh wherein people give a deity space to the tigers around and adore them.

“Therefore, once the lions are reintroduced at Kuno, the cultural bondings between the lion and human beings will get established in a natural way,” the MP government said, in its reply to the issues raised by Gujarat.

In the letter to the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change, the MP government also cited the 2015 floods in parts of Amreli Bhav Nagar area of the state which “resulted in washing out of more than 1,600 blue bulls, 90 spotted dears and 10 Asiatic lions.

“Hence, I request you to immediately kick-start the execution of Supreme Court’s order dated April 15, 2013 without any further delay,” it said.

The copy of the communication and other details were received in response to an RTI query filed by wildlife activist Ajay Dubey, who is at the forefront of the campaign to move lions to Madhya Pradesh.

The reintroduction plan of lions in Madhya Pradesh had faced stiff opposition from Gujarat.

In April 2013, the Supreme Court had ordered shifting of some of lions to Kuno. The apex court had directed the Environment Ministry to shift them by October, 2013. However, not a single lion has been shifted so far.

Palpur Kuno Sanctuary, under Sheopur district of Gwalior division, has been chosen as the second home for over 500 Asiatic lions in Gir.

Modi moved Smriti Irani to appease JNU crowd? Kanhaiya's theory is laughable

The only saving grace in the unmitigated arrogance of the largely forgotten Kanhaiya Kumar, advising and warning Prakash Javadekar about how to do his job as the new HRD Minister, is that India, per se, does not care that much anymore about his pronouncements.

Unlike Round One, when this not-so-young-student (he still is one, isn't he?) was anointed as the freshly minted saviour. Nearly every one of his utterances received thousands of responses. He actually had a glee club. He was lionised and placed delicately on a pedestal. Now, these reactions have dwindled down to tens and twenties. Talk about the quintessential example of diminishing returns and the plummet in credibility and hope that perhaps here was a youthful messiah on a mission.

Now there is a blur. Is he a student leader or a politician in the making?

But even though the flagpole is slippery, the visibly slithering student leader is still trying to cling to some sort of tattered and faded glory.

It is tough to quantify what he has achieved in the interim besides a few imaginably fiery speeches at various campuses and a Three Stooges type ‘assassination’ attempt aboard a local flight but stabbing Smriti Irani and crowing about her being moved to another ministry is hardly mature and edifying.

Why is it such a matter of excitement in some quarters thatIrani has been moved to a Rs 6,000-crore textile industry. She is not out by a long shot. There seems to be some nexus being created in the shift indicating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was compelled to move her because of pressure from students, what with the Uttar Pradesh elections skulking around the corner.

Ergo, he had to appease them.

Kanhaiya Kumar’s self deception knows no bounds and whether you are pro-Modi or not it is difficult to visualise him sitting with his colleagues, sweating bricks and saying we have to appease Kanhaiya and his cohorts, let's give them Smriti to satisfy their bloodlust. Get over it, please, it just does not happen this way and it is laughable that the JNU student president should slurp at that straw of self-delusion.

The volley fired across Javadekar’s bows by Kanhaiya that he better not follow in Smriti’s footsteps, a reaction to the newcomer saying the policies would continue is another example of personal PR, a sad attempt to propel oneself through what he sees as the misfortunes of others.

It is almost as if Javadekar is being advised to check up with the student leader before he makes any decision. To his credit. he has not gone for the baited hook and is saying nothing. Good, that's the right way to go.

Perhaps it is time to let the good people of Africa (?) take sustenance by defrosting the KK thesis and advise him to let us make up our own minds on how Prakash Javadekar will function and not be so crass in indirectly taking credit for Smriti’s departure.

Neither premises have wings.