Author: Samikhsya Bureau

Union Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj said on Thursday that while negotiations were on there will be no fallout of the Brexit process on Indians who had migrated to the United Kingdom on Portugal passport.

Giving a reply to supplementaries during the Question Hour in Rajya Sabha, the Union Minister said that the process of Brexit was not complete and talks were on between the United Kingdom and the European Union.

She said negotiations were scheduled for January 7 between the UK and EU and till there was “uncertainty’’, Indians were safe. (UNI)

(UNI) Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar on Thursday assured Rajya Sabha Members that a committee has been constituted by CBSE to go into the reasons for the spate of suicides in the Navodaya Vidyalayas.

Responding to the concerns expressed by Congress MP Viplove Thakur that 37 suicides by students had occurred in the model schools over the past decade, Mr Javadekar said counsellors would be appointed in these schools too.Answering a question of the MP, he said the school was a good model and students got admission after an examination.

‘Navodaya is a successful model and 37 suicides have occurred in 10 years, but there should not be any one,’ he admitted during Zero Hour, adding that the recommendations of the committee would be implemented.

(UNI) Television actress Dipika Kakkar Ibrahim who recently won the title of ‘Bigg Boss 12’, on Wednesday shared a heartfelt message for her co-contestant Sreesanth, whom she calls her ‘bhai’ saying she will remain his sister for life.

Sharing pictures from the finale of the ‘Bigg Boss 12′ house set, Dipika said,’The proudest moment for me!!! As the top two contestants were #sreepika !!! Thank you bhai for being with me in this difficult journey…. no matter what we both were together in every situation standing by each other and this was our biggest strength!!! Already missing the Statue… the fights and the meals we had together in the house…. I am and will be your sister for life….. @sreesanthnair36’.

(UNI) EdTech startup Fusion Klassroom Edutech Pvt Ltd, which raised 250,000 dollars in December 2017, now plans to raise a further 2 million dollars to cater to its expansion plan.
With this funding Klassroom has already expanded to a network of 120 smart coaching centers and 10 fully controlled flagship centers across Mumbai with a capacity of more than 15,000 students per year.
With over 10,000 in-center visits of parents-students in this academic year in Mumbai alone, Klassroom now has reach of more than a million students. It houses a team of 35 dynamic experts and is in the process of
quickly adding team members at multiple levels. Reaping rewards of the superlative technology setup and marketing initiatives, both online and outdoors, Klassroom has grown ten-fold YoY on multiple parameters including student capacity, number of enquiries, reach and revenue.
The company is now planning to raise further 2 million dollars and is in advance stage of discussion with VC funds and ultra HNIs. This funding will help the company grow to a network of 450+ Klassroom centers within 12 months including 325 smart centers and 130 flagship centers building up capacity of 50,000 students across 5 cities to become the largest network of branded coaching classes in India.
It is targeting 10x growth by 2020 by focusing on outreach marketing, building fully controlled flagship centers and continuous technology upgrade.
By 2022, Klassroom’s plans to have a Pan India presence, spanning across 20 cities, acquiring 150k admissions with a projected revenue of 100 million dollars and a network of 2100 Klassroom centers (1500 smart centers and 700 flagship centers) with a hybrid (online + offline) business model.
Today, the biggest network of traditional coaching classes, MT Educare’s Mahesh Tutorials (IPO launched in 2012), with network of 276 centres houses approximately 1.5 lakh students per year while Byju’s, who recently raised 400 million dollars from Nasper and others, is an online tutoring platform.

(UNI) Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday assured a delegation of transgenders that the Delhi government   shares their concerns on ‘The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill 2016’, currently pending in the Lok Sabha.
They met him to  to seek support of AAP MPs against the changes proposed by the Narendra Modi government, after a private members bill moved by DMK MP  Tiruchi Siva.

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday cleared the merger of Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank.
The Bank of Baroda would be the transferee bank while Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank would be transferor banks, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told   after the Cabinet meet.
Prasad said the merger would come into force from new financial year April 1, 2019.

Persisting with his allegations that the NDA Government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi indulged in corruption in the rafale deal, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday charged Finance Minister Arun Jaitley of lying in Parliament to defend the PM while reiterating his demand for a JPC probe into the deal.

Addressing a press conference soon after leading the Congress attack against the Government in the Lok Sabha, Mr Gandhi, referring to an audio tape played by the Congress on Wednesday morning in which Goa minister Vishwajeet Rane was seen telling a person that Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had claimed during last week’s cabinet meeting that nobody could remove him as he was in possession of files on rafale, alleged that Mr Parrikar was blackmailing the Narendra Modi government over the Rafale deal.(UNI)

(UNI) Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Rafale deal, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said the PM faces an open book exam on the deal in Parliament on Thursday.
In a series of posts on social media, Rahul posed four questions to the PM on the deal and wondered whether he would answer them during the debate in Parliament on Thursday.
In his first tweet, he said,” Tomorrow, the PM faces an Open Book #RafaleDeal Exam in Parliament.
Here are the exam questions in advance:
Q1 Why 36 aircraft, instead of the 126 the IAF needed?
Q2 Why 1,600 Cr instead of 560 Cr per aircraft.
Q4 Why AA instead of HAL?
Will he show up? Or send a proxy?”

(UNI) The United Nations gender-focused agency, UN Women, has outlined some of the most urgent issues facing women including human rights, genital mutilation and using sex as a weapon of war, a statement said.
Women and activists have been reflecting on the progress made across the world in 2018 in reducing discrimination and inequalities based on gender and what hopes they have for 2019.
One year closer to the 2030 deadline to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment – integral to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – read here about what six extraordinary women have done to bring the world a little closer to these targets.

2018 has been an eventful year with female-centric films dominating the box office.

With Deepika Padukone’s ‘Padmavaat’, Alia Bhatt’s ‘Raazi’, ‘Veere Di Wedding’ and Shraddha Kapoor’s ‘Stree’, more and more mainstream films are boasting strong female lead characters.

‘Padmaavat’ where Deepika Padukone’s eponymous character is a self-assured queen who, though famed for her beauty, commands attention to her knowledge, intellect, courage, and decisiveness.

2018’s ‘Raazi’ with Alia Bhatt in the lead is the latest film to join the ‘female-centric’ brigade.

It’s strength lies in how it replaces the decades-old ‘male hero’ with a ‘heroine’ that is equally formidable.

‘Veere Di Wedding’ also seems to be a shot in the arm for women-centric films.

Headlined by four female leads, the film is supposed to be an upbeat girl gang comedy exploring the lives of four women (Kareena Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Swara Bhaskar and Shikha Talsania) and how they deal with the trials and tribulations of modern life.

‘Stree’, the horror-comedy starring Shraddha Kapoor impressively left an understated message about respecting women, without losing out on entertainment quotient.

Striking a chord with the audience as the titular character, Shraddha Kapoor has won accolades for her unique character and apt portrayal of Stree.

Rani Mukerji’s ‘Hichki’, which hit the theatres in March, subverted the idea that female actors are not meant to do just supporting roles once they cross a certain age.

“2018 has been a great year for female actors and I feel really honoured to be a part of a film like Stree which is a great story and a unique content. As the story was narrated to me, I knew that it is a great story which has to reach our audience and that time for me the success didn’t matter. But now with the unprecedented success, the film has garnered immense positivism from the audience that is like a cherry on a cake,” Shraddha said.

“I think the content nailed the show and the way the film was presented earned appreciation in a genre like this. A good story is way to success, and I think Stree did it and its also the entire cast and crew who added their hardwork that made us reach here. I am completely overwhelmed and proud to be a part of it,” she added.

(UNI) The opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh have slammed the Yogi Adityanath government’s proposal to levy a 2 per cent ‘cow welfare cess’.
The opposition alleged that the BJP government is indulging in “extortion” and imposing additional burden on the common people.
As per the proposal endorsed by the state cabinet on Tuesday, the funds generated by the cess will be used for the construction of cow shelters in all districts at village panchayats, municipalities, municipal corporations and other local bodies. A budget of Rs 100 crore has been sanctioned to the local bodies to construct the shelters under MNREGA.
Under the proposed policy, in every district, both urban and rural areas, a cowshed of minimum 1,000 cattle’s will be built and for this the excise department will levy a cess of 2%. This will be called ‘cow welfare cess’.

(UNI) The AAP Government has given its approval for modernisation of seven of
the busiest bus terminals in Delhi to ensure a world class transit experience to bus commuters.
The Transport Department has already floated tender for modernization of Nehru Place Bus Terminal, and tender for another two bus terminals (Najafgarh, Azadpur) are expected to be floated within a week.

Bengaluru, Jan 2 (UNI) IT major Infosys Limited will announce its Q3 results on January 11. While the results will be made at 4.15 pm. Indian Standard Time (IST) , it will be available at 5:45 a.m. US ET; 2:45 a.m. PST; 10:45 a.m.London time; 6:45 p.m.Singapore/Hong Kong time.
Press conference will be held at 4.45 pm on January 11.
Executives will address questions from the media and it will be streamed live on the Investor Relations section of Infosys website, following which it will be archived at . The archive will be available after 7:00 p.m. IST on January 11, 2019 (after 8:30 a.m. US ET on January 11, 2019). In addition, a transcript of the conference will be available at, according to a release here on Wednesday.

Two wheeler Major, Hero MotoCorp,capped-off the Calendar Year (CY) 2018 with yet another significant benchmark, by selling a record 8,039,472 units of motorcycles and scooters in the January-December period.In December 2018, Hero MotoCorp sold 453,985 units, compared to 472,731 units in the corresponding month last year (December 2017).

(UNI) Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu handed over the latest LPG connection under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) here on Wednesday.
Mr Naidu, hailing PMUY initiative of Petroleum Ministry, presented the latest, sixty millionth, connection to Jasmina Khatoon from Shivpark, Khanpur, Delhi.

(UNI) The Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to hear a petition tomorrow seeking direction to the Centre and state government for requisite facilities and equipment for rescuing the 15 miners trapped in a flooded illegal mine in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia hills.
‘We will hear it on Thursday.’ the bench said.

(UNI) Asserting that the footprints of global terror outfit ISIS were not large in Kashmir valley, Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbagh Singh, however, said that the fact that a section of the youth were being radicalized on those lines can’t be denied.
The DGP said an illusion is being created by some elements that ISIS has a very large presence in the valley by waving their flags publically, but that is not true.
“But the fact that people are being radicalized on those lines can’t be denied,” he warned.
“Very serious activities on the part of anti-national elements to radicalize a sector of youth are going on. Kashmir civil society has been a very open society with a very secular culture, where people extend respect to places of worship,” the DGP told reporters during a press conference.
He said Kashmir civil society has been a very open society with a very secular culture, where people extend respect to each other’s worship places.

The makers of Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt starrer ‘Gully Boy’, shared first look posters from the movie on Wednesday.  Zoya Akhtar’s upcoming musical drama ‘Gully Boy’ will see Ranveer and Alia sharing the screen space for the first time.Filmmaker Zoya Akhtar, Alia and Ranveer took to their social media accounts to share the posters, which reveals the looks of the actors.

Notwithstanding statement from Prime Minister Narendra Modi that his government will discharge its ‘responsibility’ once Supreme Court decision on Ram temple comes,  the VHP continued to mount its pressure on Wednesday saying Ordinance route is a must as Hindus will not wait for eternity.
“We cannot wait for an eternity,” said VHP leader Alok Verma