China on Tuesday signalled its expectation that the newly elected government in the Maldives will continue to back the Beijing-led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as well as the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) reached with the outgoing administration of Abdulla Yameen. “China and the Maldives enjoy traditional friendship and in …
Read More »Daily Archives: September 26, 2018
Not ruling out a second referendum, says Labour
The Brexit spokesman of Britain’s main Opposition Labour Party on Tuesday raised the possibility of staying in the European Union (EU), more than two years after Britons voted to leave. Keir Starmer told the conference that another vote on Britain’s relationship with the EU should still be an option, in …
Read More »Hopes rise in India for an end to Maldives visa row
The new government in the Maldives will make resolving all recent issues with India a priority, and the problems of Indian job-holders awaiting work-visas will be a “key issue”, says a senior leader of the Maldivian Democratic Party and member of former President Mohammad Nasheed’s cabinet. While a decision is …
Read More »Swedish Parliament ousts Prime Minister in vote of no-confidence
Sweden’s centre-right Opposition and the far right ousted Prime Minister Stefan Löfven in a vote of no-confidence on Tuesday, as the left and right blocs wrangle over who can form a new government after neither won a majority in September 9 elections. Mr. Löfven’s departure was widely anticipated. The head …
Read More »Colombo warms up to Male, ready to welcome Yameen
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe spoke to outgoing Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen and said he was always welcome in Colombo, official sources said on Tuesday. Mr. Wickremesinghe also met former President Mohamed Nasheed for lunch on Monday — after Ibrahim Mohamed Solih dislodged Mr. Yameen in the election — …
Read More »France offers Rafale’s naval version
Even as controversy rages in India over the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets for the Air Force through an inter-governmental agreement, a French Admiral has made a pitch for the naval variant of the fighter to the Indian Navy. The Indian Navy is on the look out for 57 …
Read More »‘Parakram Parv’ to be celebrated
The Indian Armed Forces will observe ‘Parakram Parv’ from September 28 – 30 to mark the second anniversary of the surgical strikes against terror camps across the Line of Control (LoC) and to “showcase the courage, valour and sacrifice of Armed Forces”. “The Indian Army conducted surgical strikes in 2016 …
Read More »‘PSU banks expecting credit uptick’
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said public sector banks were expecting stronger credit growth this financial year on the back of stronger growth in the economy. “We are passing through a phase of good growth in the economy,” the Minister said at a press briefing following the annual …
Read More »SC verdict in Aadhaar case today
The five-judge Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, and Justices A.K. Sikri, A.M. Khanwilkar, D.Y. Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan had reserved its judgment in May, a culmination of over seven years of various challenges against Aadhaar. It will give three opinions by Justices Sikri, Chandrachud and Bhushan. In fact, the …
Read More »Legislators can practise law, says SC
The Supreme Court on Tuesday held that there was no bar on legislators doubling up as lawyers. The judgment by a Bench of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud comes as a great relief to many sitting MPs of both the BJP and …
Read More »SC to deliver verdict on quota in promotion
A Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra will on Wednesday pronounce its verdict on the government push to provide “accelerated promotion with consequential seniority” for Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribe members in public employment. Courtesy a 2006 M. Nagaraj judgement of the Supreme Court, the government cannot …
Read More »‘Moral advice’ for Mizoram poll
The Mizoram Presbyterian Church, the largest Christian denomination in the State, has issued “moral guidelines” for political parties and candidates ahead of the election to the 40-member Assembly this year-end. More than 87% of the 1.12 million people in the State are Christians, mostly associated with churches of 14 denominations. …
Read More »SC forms prison reforms panel
The Supreme Court on Tuesday formed a Committee on Prison Reforms chaired by former apex court judge, Justice Amitava Roy, to examine the various problems plaguing prisons in the country, from overcrowding to lack of legal advice to convicts to issues of remission and parole. A Bench of Justices Madan …
Read More »Fauzia seeks damages for ‘illegal custody’ in spy case
Fauzia Hassan, the Maldivian national who was imprisoned in Kerala for over three years in the fake ISRO espionage case, has demanded that India compensate her, without waiting for her to apply. In a conversation with The Hindu from the Maldives, Ms. Hassan said she was living in penury and …
Read More »Peppered with wise words
On the rapid rise of criminalisation in politics, the Supreme Court on Tuesday reproduced the words of the freedom fighter and last Governor-General of India, C. Rajagopalachari, to show how Independent India’s founding fathers apprehended the slow slide of honesty and integrity in politics. Heading the five-judge Constitution Bench, CJI …
Read More »‘Cleansing must begin with parties’
Cleansing politics from criminal elements begins with purifying political parties itself, as they are the central institution of India’s democracy, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court observed on Tuesday. The verdict by the five-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India referred to the Law Commission reports which pointed …
Read More »Centre mulls allowing Naga leader’s return
The Centre has held meetings to discuss if Khango Konyak, former chairman of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang), who was impeached and expelled by the Myanmar-based outfit could be allowed to enter India. In 2015, the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had approved banning the …
Read More »Shortage of forms upsets NRC applicants
Many of the nearly 2,500 centres for updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) were short of forms on Tuesday, the first day of the claims, objections and corrections round of the exercise. This phase provides a 60-day window of hope for 40,07,707 of the 32.9 million applicants who were …
Read More »Unemployment among educated youth at 16%: study
With higher growth rates not having translated into more jobs and increases in productivity failing to spur a commensurate rise in wages, the government ought to formulate a National Employment Policy that takes these trends into account, the State of Working India 2018, a new study released by Azim Premji …
Read More »SC harks back to Mumbai blasts to cite criminalisation
Says political patrons had a nexus with criminal gangs, police, customs officials The presence of criminalisation of politics was felt in its strongest form during the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, said in a 100-page judgment …
Read More »