Sunday, 16 December 2018
Rebuilding Kerala: State plans Rs 745-crore project with UN funding for lifting agri sector
According to Agriculture Minister VS Sunilkumar, the Agriculture Department has prepared a draft project to avail funding from the IFAD. As per the draft report, a project proposal of Rs 745 crore has been drafted with a contribution of Rs 500 crore from IFAD and the state would bear the remaining Rs 245 crore.The draft project will be submitted to a committee headed by the Chief Secretary and once they have vetted the proposal, a detailed project report will be drafted with the cooperation of technical experts from the UN body and it will be submitted to the Centre for final approval. A senior officer privy to the matter told Express, the state will also bargain with the agency before finalising the interest rate for the loan they offered.At present, they suggest an interest rate of 4 to 6 per cent which has to be cut down to 2 to 3 per cent. "No agency would help us charging zero per cent interest for the loan, but certainly it is good for the state in the long run as the project is conceived with the vision of developing the sector in five years," he said.The department is planning the development of horticulture sector along with coconut sector under the project. The project also comprises planning of integrated agriculture in homesteads, financial assistance to flood-hit farmers, projects for agriculture services, agriculture infrastructure development projects, agriculture production and warehousing models in homesteads, revival of existing markets, arranging capital investment for running the markets, empowering agriculture production meetings, human resource developments (agro-service centre and agriculture action force), sustainable agriculture development by encouraging rural innovations, and promoting crops suited for homesteads, etc.The flood damaged vegetables in around 10,859 ha in the state and the Horticulture Department and Vegetable and Fruit Promotion Council Keralam (VFPCK) have also conceived a project to extend acreage under cultivation of various crops such as hybrid vegetables, jackfruit, mango, tissue culture banana, pineapple, banana, strawberry, ginger, and turmeric. Dailyhunthttps://www.ted.com/profiles/11599537
ZAAP's Aqua Bluetooth speaker is great for your next pool party
ZAAP Aqua is compatible with iOS, Android and Windows devices. This speaker is said to offer an above average battery backup, and with one full charge this it can give up to 6 hours of play time. You can answer phone calls with its built-in microphone with up to 33 feet of remote distance, change tracks or adjust the volume. The 3W driver comes with a compact; round design which delivers a full 360-degree high definition surround sound. The 3.0 Bluetooth technology helps in connecting your smartphone, tablet, computer etc. in less than 6 seconds. It comes to an optimised version of Bluetooth that consumes less energy and delivers crystal clear sound. ZAAP's Aqua Bluetooth speaker is available at an exclusive price of Rs 1,699 from Amazon,Zaaptech.com andselected retail stores. ... Dailyhunthttp://www.feedbooks.com/user/4814166/profile
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Virat Kohli leads fightback
With the last ball before lunch, left-arm paceman Mitchell Starc found a gap between opener Murali Vijay's bat and pad to send his stumps flying for a 12-ball duck. Shortly after play resumed both openers were gone, with Josh Hazlewood getting through KL Rahul's defences to bowl him for two with India slumping to eight for two on what appeared a tricky pitch on the first day. However, Kohli looked comfortable from the moment he strode to the crease, a crisp on-drive from the second ball he faced from Hazlewood racing to the boundary. His only real moment of concern came on 22, when he left a delivery from spinner Nathan Lyon and the ball just bounced over the bails. Kohli faced 181 balls and hit nine fours, with a 25th Test century firmly in his sights on a wicket showing few of the devils of the first day. Rahane hit six fours in 103 and had the honour of hitting the first Test match six at the new venue. The stubborn Pujara offered strong support for Kohli initially, although he was fortunate to survive an early edge from the bowling of Hazlewood. Scoreboard Australia (1st innings): M. Harris c Rahane b Vihari 70, A. Finch lbw Bumrah 50, U. Khawaja c Pant b Yadav 5, S. Marsh c Rahane b Vihari 45, P. Handscomb c Kohli b Sharma 7, T. Head c Shami b Sharma 58, T. Paine lbw Bumrah 38, P. Cummins b Yadav 19, M. Starc c Pant b Sharma 6, N. Lyon (not out) 9, J. Hazlewood c Pant b Sharma 0. Extras (b4, lb7, nb1, w7) 19. Total (in 108.3 overs) 326. FoW: 1-112, 2-130, 3-134, 4-148, 5-232, 6-251, 7-310, 8-310, 9-326. Bowling: Sharma 20.3-7-41-4, Bumrah 26-8-53-2, Umesh 23-3-78-2, Shami 24-3-80-0, Vihari 14-1-53-2, Vijay 1-0-10-0. India (1st innings): K.L Rahul b Hazlewood 2, M Vijay b Starc 0. C Pujara c Paine b Starc 24, V Kohli (batting) 82, A. Rahane (batting) 51. Extras (lb6, nb2, w5) 13. Total (for three wickets in 69 overs) 172 FoW: 1-6 , 2-8, 3-82. Bowling: Starc 14-4-42-2, Hazlewood 16-7-50-1, Cummins 17-3-40-0, Lyon 22-4-34-0. ... Dailyhunthttps://www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk/user/zincovitzenz
Commonwealth Games 2018 Opening Ceremony: India's march at Gold Coast
A heavy downpour lashed the 35,000 crowd at Carrara Stadium as the ceremony began, ensuring a wet start to the proceedings for many in the half-covered arena. Aboriginal dancers also performed during the opening ceremony for the 2018 Commonwealth Games at Carrara Stadium on the Gold Coast, Australia, The opening ceremony featured celebrations of the laid-back beach lifestyle synonymous with the Gold Coast, and Australian indigenous culture. Britain's Prince Charles and wife Camilla were among the guests and the heir to the throne was due to officially open the Games later in the painstakingly planned gala. PV Sindhu, ace shuttler and Rio Olympic silver-medallist, was the country's flag-bearer as the 227-athlete Indian contingent made a solid entry at the 2018 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony. Dailyhunthttps://itsmyurls.com/zikkergikkers
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Cong slams BJP over poll 'fraud' in Assam
"There were instances of votes being recounted thrice to declare the BJP candidates as winners through fraudulent means," he said."One of our party workers, Bapukan Ali, was arrested by the police at Jalukbari by framing false cases against him," he alleged.Assam PCC general secretary Dulu Ahmed said even after declaring Congress zilla parishad candidate of Hajo, Ajit Thakuria, winner at 11pm on December 13, the next day, BJP candidate Bipul Das was declared winner after recounting of votes, which was a total "farce"."When the recounting of votes was going on, our counting agents were assaulted and chased away from the counting hall by the BJP and RSS supporters though it is mandatory that no votes can be counted unless the counting agents of all the candidates are present at the counting hall. Our repeated complaints to Kamrup deputy commissioner Kamal Baishya fell on deaf ears," he said."They illegally declared the BJP candidate (Bipul Das) elected because he is the brother of influential RSS leader Shankar Das," Ahmed alleged.He said they have filed a petition in Gauhati High Court, challenging the recounting of votes that were earlier declared invalid to secure Das's victory through fraud."The case will come up for hearing on Monday," he said.The Congress workers led by Ahmed also staged protests in front of the revenue circle office at Hajo on Sunday against alleged fraud committed by the BJP during counting of votes.A Congress delegation led by general secretary Durga Das Boro met the Kamrup deputy commissioner and lodged a complaint.Reacting to allegations levelled by the Congress, state BJP spokesperson Rupam Goswami said the Congress might have committed frauds during the elections held while they were in power and that is why they were sniffing foul play in this election."As the state election commission is autonomous and neutral, nobody can influence the polls. Instead of making baseless allegations, the Congress is free to approach the court for redressal of their grievances," Goswami said. Dailyhunthttps://www.viki.com/users/je_ffbeccossam_azon_510/about
RBI board meeting underway to discuss new economic capital framework
Of the 21 state-owned banks, 11 are under the PCA framework, which imposes lending and other restrictions on weak lenders. These are Allahabad Bank, United Bank of India, Corporation Bank, IDBI Bank, UCO Bank, Bank of India, Central Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Dena Bank and Bank of Maharashtra. On Thursday, Das met the chiefs of a few state-run banks to discuss their concerns. Lenders requested the governor to ease the PCA norms and also sought relaxation in the one-day default norm announced in the February 12 RBI circular on reclassification of NPAs. At the November 19 meeting, the RBI board had also decided to refer the issue of relaxing PCA framework to the Board of Financial Supervision (BFS) of the central bank. Unlike the last meet, which lasted for 10 hours, Fridays meeting is likely to get over by afternoon. ... Dailyhunthttps://foretagslanns.blogspot.com/2018/11/what-natural-health-products-should-be.html
What do recent reverses tell us about Narendra Modi's political health?
Those numbers turn darker when set in a Venn diagram to depict the overlap with the desertion of SC/ST votes. The BJP lost more than 61 lakh votes in just those three states; the Congress gained close to a crore and a quarter. A projection - purely mathematical as opposed to political, it must be emphasised - suggests the BJP stands to lose as many as 44 Lok Sabha seats across this geography.The ground was adverse, angry. Which brings us to another, and probably critical, issue not many can argue with: Modi's inability to turn things around this time. It's what the BJP has come to invest great faith in - the knack Modi has of landing in the midst of a tough battle and extracting victory from the jaws of defeat, of turning things around single-handed, of turning the public mood with his oratory, of unleashing a surge of energy nobody else can. The Prime Minister barn-stormed the battlegrounds aggressively and provocatively, but he could not swing it. Whether the razor verdicts of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan were achieved because Modi was able to push and spur with his rallies or whether it was down to how popular local leaders like Shivraj Chouhan remained is a matter the BJP will best grapple with internally, but on the outside the patent truth is Modi could not make a significant difference.What can he do to intervene more decisively in the coming months, as he has often done in the past? Does he have a record to boast of, feathers to pin into his flamboyant pugrees? On the evidence of the campaign he just finished, there exists a poverty of positive talking points in his quiver. In the absence of credible claims he could make, he chose to rely on blame, on attacking the Nehru-Gandhis in particular. He often sounded surreal, as if they were still in saddle and he were launching into battle against the Nehru-Gandhi establishment. He no longer brags about demonetisation or GST, aware that the widespread verdict on both is palpably negative. The hope he generated in 2013-14 has turned to heated hype paid for mostly by the public exchequer. His fancy flagship initiatives have barely gone beyond claims and sloganeering. Unemployment is soaring, purses across the nation are pinching. (Or, it could be argued that farmers don't carry purses.) Key institutions he has turned to a shambles over the course of his reign - Supreme Court judges found themselves compelled to call an unprecedented press meet and raise alarm over executive interference, the Reserve Bank lies wracked, the CBI is controversially riven and headless, the Central Information Commission has complained of manipulation, the armed forces, well they have never ever before been encouraged into overt ultra-nationalist political discourse as today.Modi did play hard at his default mode on the side - Hindu Hriday Samrat. He commandeered the VHP-Bajrang Dal and UP chief minister "Yogi" Ajay Singh Bisht "Adityanath" to wage battle for him. The VHP-Bajrangis renewed their oaths to a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, and were volubly endorsed by Shah and Ram Madhav. Bisht himself choppered about the campaign, addressing 74 rallies at reliable count. He had come from lavish Dussehra celebrations and the renaming of Faizabad as Ayodhya. He had come from rococo declarations of erecting a lofty Ram statue. He spouted such gems as calling Hanuman a Dalit; we know the Dalits were hurt, we haven't heard what Hanuman thought of it. He forsook Ali for Bajrangbali. He wanted Hyderabad changed to something that few Hyderabadis had ever heard of. The BJP lost wherever he went.When the public mood turns averse, not even God can help, much less the fabled poll mechanics and machineries Shah has put in place. Democracies live by another god, goes by the name of Voter.PS: If it at all is an aid to perspective, India's first cow welfare minister, Otaram Devasi, lost to an independent Congress rebel from Sirohi district in Rajasthan. Someday very soon someone will commission a poll on who will be India's preferred pick for prime minister in 2019, and the answer won't be worth either the wait or the bet. It will be the same man who has consistently led such polls since 2013 or thereabouts: Narendra Damodardas Modi. His most credible emerging challenger, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, will probably have added a few percentage points to his lapel but the overwhelming odds still are Modi will re-emerge frontrunner by a fair distance.There doesn't exist in the field yet a politician that can match Modi on vital counts - reach, resources, energy, focus, impact; the ability to intervene and disrupt and, very often, cynically and dangerously distort for political purchase; a flair for communicating to his constituency with things said and left unsaid; a whetted, and occasionally diabolical, determination to retain grip on his reign. Modi is a consummate and unsentimental power creature like no other about. He hasn't come under the lee of last week's reverses suffered by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he continues to loom over them, still quite a raved, even ravished, reputation.But here's the thing about reputations and public ravishment with them: they tend to quickly unravel, and sometimes they unravel without revealing upon the victim the approaching fall of fates. As happened to Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2004, arguably the Leviathan of that time but one who had begun to gloat on the notion that he had conjured a Shining India. Or as happened to the Janata Party, so euphorically elected in 1977 as rap and replacement to Indira Gandhi and her excessive Emergency; the Janata jubilation soured so quickly and wholly, the widely despised and dethroned Indira Gandhi was brought back to power in 1980. Or even as happened to her son and successor, Rajiv Gandhi, who still holds the record for acquiring the largest-ever Lok Sabha kitty in 1984. It all got frittered in the space of less than a term; by 1989 India's first pin-up prime minister had come unstuck. When the ground beneath shifts, the first it fells are those that stand tallest on it.There will, justifiably, be arguments over whether or not the ouster of BJP governments in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh reflect on Modi, and if they do, to what degree. Modi, after all, was not a contender anywhere. Several reports off the field suggested that despite the adverse turn of public mood towards incumbents in the states, Modi himself appeared unaffected, that this was a local vote driven by local factors; the 2019 vote, with Modi at its centre, will be quite another in nature. Presidential, if one word can sum it up; if not Modi, WHO?What there can be little argument about are a few other things that might also come to bear on the outcome of 2019. The first among them is this: a large chunk of the Indian heartland has now slipped under Congress rule and all of its governments will be freshly incumbent by the time Lok Sabha elections are held; power lends you key levers and in the three states the BJP just lost, those levers are with the Congress. For a party like the Congress, whose rank and file had turned infamously demotivated since 2014, three chunky handles on power will also likely mean an injection of energy and self-belief at the organisational level. At the leadership level, Pappu has already begun to fluster the authors of that moniker. And Pidi is no longer yelping or barking; Pidi just bit, not once but thrice. Rahul Gandhi is beginning to deliver what few reckoned he ever was capable of delivering: electoral victories and the shoots of a sense that Indian politics isn't the unipolar deal that Modi's raucous cries of "Congress-mukt Bharat" and BJP president Amit Shah's claims of "ruling another fifty years" had begun to suggest to some. That question has been resoundingly asked as counter-echo to There Is No Alternative (TINA): Is There No Alternative (ITNA) ?The Modi-Shah duo has suffered reverses earlier, in Delhi, in Bihar, in Punjab, in Karnataka. But this may be different. This is about a piece of real estate the BJP believed to have exclusive rights over, its core ground, the Hindi-speaking, overwhelmingly Hindu cow-belt. And the loss of it has arrived far too close to the 2019 contest. Dailyhunthttp://knowledge.thinkingstorm.com/UserProfile/tabid/57/userId/251129/Default.aspx
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