Author: Samikhsya Bureau

(UNI) There are “expectations” from India and China to lead Asia and usher in an Asian Century, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has said here.

“As our relations are deepening and our regional and international role evolving, there are expectations from our two countries to lead Asia and usher in an ‘Asian Century’,” Ms Swaraj said in her special message to the Third India-China Think-Tank Forum.

The Forum was set up following an MoU between India and China during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to that country in 2015. The idea of the forum is to explore contentious issues and new areas of cooperation between the two countries.

UNI) BJP chief Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath are set to join Hindu right wing organisations, including RSS and Dharm Acharyas, at Rajkot for brainstorming session on Ram Mandir and other socio-political issues.

“BJP chief Shah will address the Dharm Acharyas at Arsha Vidya Mandir in Rajkot,” a party source said here.

“The Dharm Acharya Sabhas are regular features. All religious and socio political issues are discussed,” RSS leader in Gujarat Vijay Thakkar said.

Mr Adityanath, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and BJP general secretary Ram Madhav are expected among others to participate at the meeting.

The two-day meet got underway on Thursday.

(UNI) US Defense Secretary James Mattis has resigned after clashing with President Donald Trump over the abrupt withdrawal of US troops from Syria, citing irreconcilable policy differences in a move that took Washington by surprise.
“Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defence, whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position,” Mattis wrote in his letter to the President.
Indeed, Mattis’ resignation letter amounts to a rebuke of several of Trump’s foreign policy views, with the outgoing defence secretary touting the importance of US alliances and of being “unambiguous” in approaching adversaries such as Russia and China. It is devoid of any praise for the President.

(UNI)Colombian midfielder James Rodriguez has refused to speculate about his future beyond this season, saying he is focused only on performing well for Bayern Munich.
Rodriguez has struggled for form and fitness since joining the German club on a two-year loan deal from Real Madrid in July 2017.
“My present is with Bayern Munich, I have a contract with them until June,” Rodriguez told reporters here on Thursday. “I’m fine there, I’m calm. In June we will see what happens but right now I am only thinking about Bayern.”
Rodriguez said he is recovering steadily from a knee ligament injury and hopes to return to full fitness early in 2019.
He denied reports of a rift between the players and coach Niko Kovac following the team’s unimpressive start to the season.
Bayern Munich are currently third in the Bundesliga standings, six points behind leaders Borussia Dortmund approaching the season’s midway point.
“Bayern has a healthy squad that is good [together], and there is no issue at all with Kovac,” the playmaker added.

Botafogo have announced the signing of former Brazil international goalkeeper Diego Cavalieri for the 2019 season.
Cavalieri joins the two-time Brazilian Serie A champions as a free agent, having been without a club since parting ways with Crystal Place in June.
“Welcome to Botafogo, Diego Cavalieri. Here we are known for having great goalkeepers,” the Rio de Janeiro side said in a social media post.
Botafogo will be the sixth club of Cavalieri’s 17-year professional career.
The 36-year-old, who has been capped three times for Brazil’s national team, has also represented Palmeiras, Liverpool, Cesena, Fluminense and Crystal Palace.
Botafogo finished the 2018 Brazilian top flight season in ninth place, 29 points behind champions Palmeiras

(UNI) An India-China Film Festival will be held here from December 22 to 24 during the first India-China High Level Mechanism on Cultural and People-to-People Exchanges .
To be organized at Siri Fort Auditorium by the Directorate of Film Festivals under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the film festival is part of efforts to strengthen people-to-people connect and deepen cultural understanding between the two countries.
A total of seven films including four Chinese and three Indian Films will be screened during the Festival, which will open with ‘CZ12’ , also known as ‘Chinese Zodiac’.
The list of Indian films to be screened includes ‘Dangal’ (Hindi), ‘Maacher Jhol’ (Bengali) and ‘Ventilator’ (Marathi).
All the films will carry English subtitles.
The entry for the Festival has been kept free of charge

(UNI) Eight-year-old Niya George from Hyderabad has been adjudged the National winner of the Global soft toy drawing competition conducted by the IKEA, the Swedish home furnishing retailer, which opened its first store in the country at Hyderabad in August this year.

The competition encouraged children (aged up to 12 years) to draw their dream toy on paper and have an once-in-a-lifetime chance for it to be turned into a real toy, IKEA said in a release here on Friday.
Out of 15 entries were selected from each country, the final 6 international winning drawings to eventually become a part of the limited edition – 2019
SAGOSKATT collection – a range of soft toys designed by kids, for the kids.
As part of IKEA’s global Let’s Play For Change campaign, it donates 100 percent of SAGOSKATT turnover to support children’s rights to play and develop.

(UNI) Wi-Fi services have been provided at 715 railway stations till date, while the services are proposed to be provided on 5,734 railway stations.

RailTel Corporation of India Limited (RCIL), a Public Sector Undertaking under Ministry of Railways has entered into an agreement with M/s. Mahataa Information India Private Limited (M/s. MIIPL), an Indian subsidiary of Google Inc. for providing free Wi-Fi at 438 A1 and A category stations, official sources said here.

(UNI) The BJP leadership has tasked Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to pursue further talks with the aggrieved LJP leaders Ram Vilas Paswan and his lawmaker son Chirag and JD(U) chief and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to end the deadlock in seat adjustment talks in NDA for 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar.

The development comes after two-hour long meeting between father-don duo and BJP chief Amit Shah on Thursday evening.

LJP chief and Union Food Minister Mr Paswan is known as ‘bellwether’ in coalition politics and has operated smartly to ensure cabinet berth for himself under all Prime Ministers since 1996.

(UNI) In an era where advancements around technology have leapfrogged exponentially, the year ahead will see the Indian IT industry charter new frontiers, driven by innovation, speed and accuracy.
According to Managing Director & Global CEO, 3i Infotech Padmanabhan Iyer, the IT industry would see enterprises move towards Industry 4.0, the convergence of Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing among others will enable them to be future-ready.
Driven by technological advancements and data security at the core, we foresee all sectors in the Indian industry in for exciting times and the Banking, Financial Services, Insurance (BFSI) and Healthcare segments will be no exception. Complexity brews herein, fuelled by regulatory challenges, uncertain economic cycles, risks, partnerships and alliances, talent management and above all ever-increasing customer expectations.
With this backdrop, the top technology trends to watch out in 2019 would be –

(UNI) The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed the plea of former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar who was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in1984 anti-Sikh riots case on December 17, day after he had moved an application before the Court and sought 30 days’ time to surrender.

The Court had asked him to surrender by December 31 but he had on Thursday moved it seeking time till the end of January.

Kumar’s lawyer had said they need some more time to file an appeal before the Supreme Court challenging the high court’s verdict in which he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

(UNI) Reacting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that the Government is contemplating to bring 99 per cent of goods at or under the 18 per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST) slab, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said “the Congress has jolted the PM from his deep slumber on the GST’.

‘’The Congress Party has finally jolted Narendra Modi Ji from his deep slumber on Gabbar Singh Tax. 

Though still drowsy, he now wants to implement what he had earlier called the Congress Party’s, “Grand Stupid Thought”. 

Better late then never Narendra Ji!,’’Rahul said in a tweet.

( UNI) Calcutta High Court today gave green signal to BJP to hold the rath yatra named “Save Democracy”, a major win for the state saffron party which fought out a legal battle for over a week to take out the rallies in several districts of West Bengal.
Laying down a set of conditions for the rallies, the single-bench judge Tapabrata Ckakraborty observed that the rallies must not cause any convenience to the public and must be peaceful in nature.
The bench also asked the police to be on alert to ensure safety when the rallies would be taken out and directed the saffron party to maintain peace during the yatra.
The BJP had filed an appeal before the court on Monday after the ruling Trinamool Congress denied it permission for the second time.

(UNI) Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will be arriving India on a four-day visit on Friday, according to official sources here.
The dignitary will call on the President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhawan and later participate in the first meeting of the High Level Mechanism on People-to-People Exchanges.
There are possibilities of Signing of MOUs as well.
The meeting will be co-chaired by the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Chinese counterpart.
The decision to establish the India-China High Level Mechanism on Cultural and People-to-People Exchanges was taken during the maiden Informal Summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping in Wuhan in April 2018.
“The High Level Mechanism reflects the desire on both sides to build greater synergies in the people-to-people ties between the two countries through enhanced exchanges in areas such as tourism, art, films, media, culture, sports and academic and youth exchanges,” a MEA source has said.

(UNI) Former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar who was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in1984 anti-Sikh riots case on December 17, moved an application before the Delhi High Court on Thursday and sought 30 days’ time to surrender.

The court is likely to hear the matter on Friday. Senior advocate HS Phoolka, who has been fighting the case for the victims of the 1984 riots, said that they will oppose Sajjan Kumar’s application.

(UNI) Union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Thursday expressed the confidence that in coming years India will take the lead and become a torch-bearer in terms of providing technology and know how in food processing sector so that no Indian goes to bed without food.
“We have the potential to become the food factory of the world,” she said.

Speaking at the Platinum Jubilee Conference of the All-India Food Processors Association here which was inaugurated by President Ram Nath Kovind, Ms Badal said that in coming years India, China and Malaysia will hold the key to not only producing the maximum amount of food but also maximum mouths to feed in these countries.

(UNI) The Government introduced the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2018 which seeks to amend the Companies Act, 2013, in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley introduced the Bill that seeks to replace the Companies (Amendment) Ordinance, 2018 which was promulgated by President Ram Nath Kovind on November 2.

The Bill provides to amend clause (41) of section 2 of the Companies Act, 2013 so as to empower the Central Government to allow certain companies to have a different financial year instead of as determined by the Tribunal.

(UNI) Alleging that vested interests, including some occupying positions of authority in J&K, are trying to engineer a delay in Assembly elections, National Conference (NC) vice-president Omar Abdullah urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to commit his government to holding polls in the state.

‘Your government’s handling of J&K will be judged by whether Assembly elections are on time or not sir,’ Mr Abdullah, who is the former chief minister of the state, said.

New Delhi, Dec 20 (UNI) Taking a dim view of food wastage in a country like India “with undeniable inequalities in income and consumption’’, President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday said that it does not just pose economic questions but moral as well. Addressing the Platinum Jubilee Conference of All-India Food Processors Association here, he said while food wastage can easily be prevented by better and more rational food distribution, the issue of post-harvest wastage was still more pressing.

` A few years ago, a report by the Central Institute of Post-Harvest Engineering and Technology had estimated the value of such waste at almost Rs 100,000 crore. This is a tragedy,’’ he said.<br>“A majority of our agriculturalists are engaged in subsistence farming. Their produce is a source of sustenance for them. If it is damaged or destroyed because of inadequate storage or logistics, the livelihood of innocent families is hurt,’’ he pointed out.