Tag: thesamikhsya

Over 3000 vehicles, mostly trucks, are stranded following closure of the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway, the only all weather road connecting the Kashmir valley with the rest of the country, for the fourth day on Saturday due to landslides and shooting stone, official sources said.
A massive rescue operation was going on at Jawahar tunnel, where one policeman was still missing after a snow avalanche hit a police post on February 7. Bodies of seven persons were recovered while two were rescued alive.
The Ladakh region remained cut off from Kashmir since December last year as the Srinagar-Leh National Highway remained closed due to accumulation of snow while historic 86-km-long historic Mughal road and Anantnag-Kishtwar roads remained shut due to accumulation of several feet of snow and slippery road conditions.
Traffic on the highway remained suspended on the highway for over three weeks in 2019, leading to shortage of essentials, including vegetables, meat, chicken besides petrol and diesel in the Kashmir valley, which is totally dependent on imports from different northern states.
Sources said over 3,000 vehicles, majority of them trucks, are stranded on the highway for the past over a week. Several thousand Kashmiri passengers are also stranded in Jammu due to closure of the highway.
Traffic could not be resumed on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway due to fresh landslides and slippery road conditions, a traffic police official told UNI.
There were fresh landslides and shooting stones at Peedah and Cafeteria Mode this morning, he said, adding that frequent shooting stone and landslides has forced authorities to suspend traffic.
He appealed to people not to undertake foot journey in the avalanche prone area which could prove dangerous.
Two people were killed and three others were injured when they came under landslide at Ramban in Jammu region, after they tried to cross the danger area on foot yesterday.

He said the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and Border Roads Organisation (BRO), responsible for the maintenance of the highway, are working round the clock to make highway traffic worthy. However, he said, frequent landslides and shooting stones are occurring at several places on the highway between Ramban and Ramsu.

The National Highway, connecting Ladakh region with Kashmir, also remained closed since December last year. There was fresh snowfall on the highway, particularly between Sonamarg-Zojila pass-Zero point-Meenmarg, which was already under several feet of snow.
Fresh snowfall was also received on historic 86-km-long Shopian in south Kashmir and Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu region. The road is also closed since December last year due to accumulation of several feet snow and slippery road conditions. The Anantnag-Kishtwar road also remained closed for the past over two months.(UNI)

Russia’s first ever manned lunar mission is expected to land on the Moon in 2031, according to a document prepared by the Russian Central Research Institute of Machine Building (TsNIIMash) and obtained by Sputnik.
“The purpose of the mission is to carry the crew to the Moon,” the mission plan for 2031 says, adding that the crew members will be practicing certain operations related to “the cosmonauts’ activities on the Moon” and perform tasks set by the Russian Academy of Sciences.
According to the document, a heavy lunar rover capable of transporting cosmonauts, as well as the second manned expedition, are expected to be delivered to the Earth’s natural satellite by 2032. The second crew will be charged with testing vehicles designed to travel on the surface of the Moon.
In 2033, cosmonauts are scheduled to undertake long-distance trips on the lunar rover to conduct scientific research and test robotic systems.
The construction of the first Russian lunar base is set to begin in 2034 and continue in 2035, the document says.

India, as a strong supporter of the multilateral trading system, supports reforms of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) provided that the process is inclusive and addresses the developmental concerns of developing and least developing countries.
Official sources said the WTO and the global trading system are facing serious challenges in terms of unilateral measures and counter measures by some members, deadlock in important areas of negotiations and ongoing impasse in the appointment of members of the Appellate Body of WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism.
These challenges have necessitated a discussion among members for reforms in the WTO, with a view to plug the gaps in the WTO rules and procedures, the sources added.
There has been an impasse in the matter of selection of members of the Appellate Body Members of the WTO. The robust Dispute Settlement Mechanism of the WTO ensures that the rules of global trade agreed at the forum are not breached by members.
India has been engaging with several WTO Members on the way forward at the WTO. India has recently co-sponsored a proposal with the European Union and other members on reform of the dispute settlement mechanism addressing various challenges such as the proposal, inter alia, addresses various imperative issues of timelines, the appointment process of the Appellate Body members, their tenure and other conditions so that the Appellate Body and the Dispute Settlement Mechanism work more efficiently.

The emotive ‘sons and daughters of the soil’ vis-a-vis threats from outsiders issue has come to the fore yet again in Mizoram as social organisations and political class have decided to intensify their opposition to the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.
“We are emotional people and also committed to the interests of the natives. Therefore, Mizoram Kohhran Hruaitute Committee (MKHC) – a common conglomeration of church bodies – would offer a mass prayer on Saturday and Sunday (Feb 10) to ensure that the Bill is defeated in the Rajya Sabha,” a senior church leader told UNI over phone.
Initially the proposal was to hold the prayer meeting on February 16 – but now the special prayer session will be held on Saturday and Sunday as the Narendra Modi government has decided to push the draft law in the Upper House of Parliament on February 12 and 13.
There has been a strong opposition in all northeastern states against the Bill, which got the nod in the Lok Sabha on January 8. The opponents to the same – especially in Assam say that if the Bill is made into a law and implemented, it will endanger the identity of indigenous people of the region.
The draft law – now pending in the Rajya Sabha – envisages granting citizenship to ‘persecuted’ non-Muslims – Hindus, Christians, Jains, Parsis and others – who have entered India till December 31, 2014 from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan after six years of continuous stay in the country.
The stakeholders including BJP legislators in states like Meghalaya and Manipur have condemned the Modi government for its alleged ‘undemocratic push’ to pass the Bill in Lok Sabha on January 8 much against the strong opposition of the whole northeast.
The Bill may be taken up in the Rajya Sabha for consideration and passing on February 12 and 13 and the BJP is reaching out to regional outfits like BSP and Samajwadi Party to enlist their support to the draft law.
The major developments on the legislative front come after Prime Minister Narendra Modi told a rally in Vijaypur in Jammu region – “There are so many children of Maa Bharti who have faced persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. We will stand with those who were part of India at one time, but got separated from us” – in reference to Partition in 1947 and their persecution in Pakistan and other neighbouring countries.
In his January 31 address to the Joint Sitting of Parliament, President Ram Nath Kovind said categorically that those people who were ‘compelled’ to seek refuge in India cannot be blamed and clubbed with infiltrators since they were victims of circumstances.
“These people cannot be blamed since they were victims of circumstances,” said the Presidential address giving a clear indication of the NDA government was not at all willing to shelve The Citizenship Amendment Bill.(UNI)

State-owned State Bank of India has just joined digital invoice discounting marketplace – Invoicemart, as a financier to help in unlocking working capital for more than 1,400 MSMEs that are a part of the platform.
MSME-driven initiatives like Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS) has enabled working capital finance to MSMEs and is expected to become a major channel of financing for the MSME segment. Currently, Invoicemart has 22 financiers on the platform, which is expected to grow to 25 by the end of February 2019.
SBI Chief General Manager (SME and Supply Chain Finance) Narayanan Sadanandan said: “Elevating the MSME segment has been a prime focus at State Bank of India, and TReDS has been substantial in helping this segment with easy financing options. We have taken several steps to ensure timely delivery of credit to MSMEs through other initiatives and this association is another step towards the process of digitisation.”
Commenting on the initiative, TReDS Ltd CEO and MD Kalyan Basu said, “We are glad that India’s largest and oldest bank – State Bank of India has come on-board the Invoicemart platform. State Bank of India has had a huge franchise in supporting MSME financial inclusion and this association will not only help with formalising and digitising the MSME lending process but will also pave a way for MSMEs to find cheap financing options in a transparent and easy manner via TReDs.”
MSMEs are the cornerstone of the Indian economy as they are pivotal in creating a large number of employment at meagre cost of capital in comparison to larger industries. With the recent announcement on 2 per cent subvention for MSMEs for loans up to Rs 1 crore in Budget 2019 along with the extension of GeM platform to support domestic services and trade, the government has tried to support this segment immensely.
A number of scheduled commercial banks and public sector banks have registered themselves on the TReDS platform since the positive push from the government in 2018. This has helped pave a way towards MSME inclusion through a transparent bidding mechanism that ensures faster financing at competitive market rates.
Invoicemart was launched in 2017 and has since crossed Rs 2,020 crore in business volumes.(UNI)

In a major technological breakthrough, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has successfully developed a state-of-the-art Regeneration System through in-house R&D efforts, for Railways’ fleet of conventional electric locomotives.
The country’s first such regenerative 5000 HP WAG-7 Electric locomotive was flagged-off by Ghanshyam Singh, Member Traction & Ex-Officio Secretary to the Ministry of Railways, in the presence of Atul Sobti, Chairman & Managing Director, BHEL from the company’s Jhansi plant. Directors on the board of BHEL and senior officials from Indian Railways were also present on this occasion.
The idea of developing the energy efficient Regeneration System was mooted by Railways and BHEL responded to it by successfully developing the technology in-house, giving an impetus to the ‘Make in India’ initiative.
With this, a new line of business has opened for BHEL and the company has expanded its footprint in the transportation sector.
BHEL has developed a system introducing the regenerative braking concept in these locomotives, that will feed the energy back to the overhead power lines. This will result in significant saving in energy consumption for Indian Railways. The system has already been tested in a 5000 HP, WAG7 Type, electric locomotive of Indian Railways at Jhansi.(UNI)

The NDA government and the BJP on Friday slammed Congress and especially its chief Rahul Gandhi for raking up the Rafale row yet again and said the opposition party was unnecessarily giving credence to a section of media that only carried a biased report.
“We want to allege that Rahul Gandhi and Congress are working with a single point agenda to get the Rafale aircraft deal cancelled,” BJP leader and Union Prakash Javadekar told reporters here.
“They are playing into the hands of foreign power and the vested interests of the multi national companies. They are least bothered that the Indian Air Force will be weakened by their stance,” he said.
In 2011, it was the Congress-led UPA regime only that had selected and finalised the deal with Rafale but they stalled it at a later stage. “Question is why it was stopped,” he said adding perhaps they realised there will not be adequate commission in the deal.
In this context, he said Congress never entertained any defence deal without ‘commission’.
“Today also, they seemed to have grievance that there was no kickback or commission,” Mr Javadekar mocked.
The BJP leader also wanted to know that the Congress president should clarify which defence manufacturers he had met during his recent European visit.
Mr Javadekar said – “The newspaper report they are quoting has also reported only on the noting of bureaucrat…The response to it from the then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has not been reported”.
“In his response, the then Defence Minister (Parrikar) had clarified that after two nation heads meet and held Summit talks and the progress of such meetings are monitored by the PMO. Even French President’s office also monitor such parleys and it’s all correct,” he said.
Mr Javadekar charged that Mr Gandhi is not showing faith in the Supreme Court also.
“The top court has made it clear that there was no corruption in Rafale deal,” the Union Minister said.
“In the end, it will be proven that Rahul Gandhi who chants Rafale-Rafale will turn to ‘Rafale Fail’,” he said.
Responding to opposition members’ sloganeering and persistent demand for JPC in the Lok Sabha, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also said that the opposition parties were not interested in strengthening the Indian Air Force.
“They are playing into the hands of MNCs and the vested interests,” she also alleged.
Ms Sitharaman said the opposition leaders and also a section of media were only “flogging a dead horse”.
The Minister said during the debate on Rafale on January 4 during Winter Session, she had already answered to all queries and controversies on the Rafale deal with France.
Moreover, she said the media report smacks of motivation as it did not include in the report the noting from the then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar who had said categorically that there was “nothing wrong and everything was on right track”.
“The routine queries on any matter from the Prime Minister’s Office should not be taken as interference….,” she said adding if that was the case, what was Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) doing.

International consultations on the situation in Venezuela must not turn into a “dialogue on capitulation” but should be aimed at the reconciliation of opposing political forces in the country, Director of the Latin American Department at the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander Shchetinin said in an interview with Sputnik.
“What does Russia propose in the context of what is happening in Venezuela? To respect [Venezuela’s] sovereignty. To prevent a destructive, including forceful, foreign intervention. To establish a dialogue. If international assistance is needed to do this, we support it. Therefore, we welcome the initiative of Mexico, Uruguay, and the CARICOM [Caribbean Community] countries,” Shchetinin said.
“However, we believe that this cannot and must not be a ‘dialogue’ on some kind of capitulation. This should be a dialogue on reconciling [political forces in Venezuela] and overcoming the crisis,” Shchetinin the diplomat stressed.(UNI)

India and Bangladesh on Friday held the Joint Consultative Commission meeting here.
“Time-tested good neighbourly relations based on trust and mutual understanding,” tweeted MEA spokesman Raveesh Kumar.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj welcomed her Bangladeshi counterpart Dr Abdul Momen ahead of the India Bangladesh Joint Consultative Commission meet.

“Our solid ties have their genesis in War of Liberation of Bangladesh,” he stated.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said India is committed to work with Bangladesh for good bilateral relations and to build on the existing momentum.
He made the remarks when the visiting Bangladesh Foreign Minister called on him here.

Momen is leading a high-level delegation for the meeting.

Department of Economics Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg on Thursday called the RBI announcement of cutting repo rate a “very balanced and pragmatic policy”, saying the Government welcomes the decision.

He said the assessment of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) for growth and inflation outlook is consistent with the Government’s assessment of inflation and growth.

“The Government welcomes the assessment of the MPC and its decision to reduce the Policy Rate and change of Monetary Policy Stance,” he said in a statement here.

Soon after the RBI cut the repo rate, Mr Garg took on the social media and tweeted, “A very balanced and pragmatic policy statement. Assessment of growth and inflation is quite realistic and underlines low inflation and high growth path for India for 2019-20. Welcome change of stance to neutral and rate cut by 25 bps. Also welcome removal of FPI restriction.”

Earlier in the day, the MPC in its sixth bi-monthly statement on the basis of its assessment of the current and evolving Macroeconomic situation, decided to reduce the Policy Repo Rate under the Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) by 25 basis points from 6.5 per cent to 6.25 per cent with immediate effect.

Consequently, the Reverse Repo Rate under the LAF stands adjusted to 6.0 per cent, and the Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) Rate and the Bank Rate to 6.5 per cent.

The MPC also decided to change the Monetary Policy Stance from Calibrated Tightening to Neutral.

As against the GDP growth projection of 7.4 per cent for 2018-19 in the fifth Bi-monthly resolution in December, 2018, the Central Statistic Office has estimated GDP growth at 7.2 per cent. However, the GDP growth for 2019-20 is projected at 7.4 per cent.

The actual Inflation outcome at 2.6 per cent in Q3: 2018-19 was marginally lower than the projection. The projections of inflation for 2018-19 and H1:2019-20 have been revised downwards from the December resolution.(UNI)

Under Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) route, the Government is aggressively collecting information about foreign assets accumulated by people in foreign countries and for this, it has signed treaties with various countries such as Hong Kong, Switzerland to plug in the loopholes, informed Sushil Chandra, Chairman, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) at an event – ‘National Conference on Recent Challenges in Taxation and the Way Forward’ organised by ASSOCHAM in New Delhi today.

Maintaining the rationale that there could not be exceptionally high tax rate, Mr Chandra said, “Last year we got 6.85 crore returns and the number of people who had filed the returns were around 5.44 crore, so if in just four years we could increase the tax return filers from 3.5 crore to 5.44 crore, it was a very big achievement of the department and right tax policy.”

He added that the direct tax to GDP ratio was 5.98 per cent last year which was highest in the whole decade.

As per the data of the Income Tax Department, in this year, about 6.31 crore returns have been filed while 95 lakhs new tax payers have been added into the tax net, out of which 33,000 new taxpayers have been added in the last 15 days. About 1.50 lakh persons filed returns with income over Rs 1 crore; as against 88,000 persons in the FY 2013-14. Talking about the efforts to encourage taxpayers disclose their foreign assets, Mr Sushil Chandra added that the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act has a triggering impact and as part of the Common Reporting System (CRS), it has helped the Income Tax Department to identify many people who have created many undisclosed foreign assets.

He appealed the taxpayers and the tax consultants to fairly disclose the foreign assets and income thereof under the assets schedule of their returns and cautioned that a failure to do so would invite prohibition under the Act. According to the Income Tax Department data, certain cases surfaced where foreign remittances of Rs 10 Lakh were made, but the taxpayers did not file the returns.

He maintained that the Government intends to bring a moderate tax regime with high level of compliances with innovative operational and policy initiatives through technology interventions, many of which have already been undertaken and implemented.

Speaking about initiatives such as limited scrutiny of the Income Tax returns where the back office will seek initial clarification on peculiar aspects they find in the returns and in case of incorrectness of the information, the same will be handed over to the concerned Income Tax Officer (ITO) for further verification, he said.

The Income Tax Department, as Mr Chandra said, is facing the challenge of widening and deepening the tax base, but expected that this initiative will ease the return verification processes, as it is recognising the needs of the taxpayers, social needs and
ease-of-doing-businesses.

Mr Rahul Garg, Chairman, National Council on Direct Taxes, ASSOCHAM said that there has to be convergence between the tax payers and the Income Tax Department with moderate tax regime with the use of technology.

Also present on the occasion were – Binod Kumar, Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (International Tax & Transfer Pricing), S. P. Singh, Co-Chairman, National Council on Direct Taxes, ASSOCHAM and Rakesh Nangia, Co-Chairman, National Council on International Taxes, ASSOCHAM.

The Conference also discussed the scenario of ‘Changing Landscape of Indian and International Tax Systems’. (UNI)

In the first day of Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS), Mamata Banerjee left the Biswa Bangla Convention Centre with a smiling face as ‘Bengal’ receives above 50000 crores of investment proposals from the kingpins of trade circuit. As a sum up BGBS 2019 started with a high note. Mukesh Ambani solely announced of investing Rs 10000 crore in the recent future. Ambani’s Reliance already have invested over Rs 30000 crores in Bengal earlier.

Mr Ambani, showed his eagerness of launching a new commerce platform that will empower three crore small shopkeepers. Reliance made its one tenth of the total investment by the company so far. Sajjan Jindal of JSW has announced a steel plant with a whopping Rs 50000 crores. ITC is eyeing an investment of Rs 4000 crores in agriculture and service industry including food processing facilities at Uluberia and Panchla, said managing director Sanjiv Puri.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos accused the National Enquirer’s owner of trying to blackmail him over publishing indecent pictures unless he stopped investigating how other private photos and messages were obtained by the tabloid.
Mr Bezos said the magazine’s parent company American Media Inc (AMI) wanted him to drop an investigation into how it obtained his private messages.
Mr Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie, said last month they were getting divorced and their announcement came just before the National Enquirer carried reports about the tech titan’s extramarital affair.
In a stunning blog post on Thursday, Mr Bezos posted an email he said had been sent to his intermediaries by AMI’s representatives threatening to publish “intimate photos” of Mr Bezos and his lover.
The billionaire, who also owns the Washington Post, said AMI had wanted him to make a “false public statement” that the National Enquirer’s coverage of him and his mistress was not politically motivated.
According to emails included by Mr Bezos in his blog, an AMI lawyer proposed on Wednesday that the photos would not be published in return for a public statement “affirming that Bezos and his team have no knowledge or basis” to suspect such a motive.
“Rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail,” wrote Mr Bezos, “I’ve decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten.”(UNI)

Three major suspects were arrested late Thursday, less than 48 hours after the murder of two local Afghan reporters, Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs confirmed on Friday.

“Afghan National Police personnel arrested three suspects in northeastern Takhar province in charges of murdering of two journalists of a local radio in Takhar,” the ministry said in a statement.

On Tuesday night, two staff of Radio Hamsada based in northeastern Takhar province were shot dead inside their office by unidentified gunmen.

The trios were handed over to related government departments and a judicial investigation will be opened soon, the statement read.

At least 15 journalists and media workers had been killed in separate incidents across Afghanistan in 2018.

Coming down heavily on the Prime minister Narendra Modi’s earlier remark on the Karnataka Government’s loan waiver scheme, Chief minister H D Kumaraswamy said   Modi was grossly misleading the country and the Parliament.
Addressing a hurriedly called press conference the chief minister strongly countered the Prime Minister’s speech in Parliament in which he said that only about 5000 farmers loan had been waived so far as against 44 lakh farmers, is a gross untruth and misleading the country.
Informing that more than 4 lakh farmer’s farm had been waived so far and another 2000 crore had been released in the last two days, Kumaraswamy appealed the Opposition members in the parliament to raise the issue and unfold the real picture and ‘ill intentions’ of the Prime Minister.
Accusing that Prime minister not committed to his own claim to fight against corruption, the Chief Minister charged that “Operation Lotus unleashed in Karnataka by the BJP leaders is being done on the directions of the Prime minister”.(UNI)

Government has implemented 360 degree multimedia campaigns along with mass media to create awareness on HIV/AIDS and promoting services, facilities across the country.

At the inter-personal level, training and sensitization programmes for Self-Help Groups, Anganwadi workers, ASHA, members of Panchayati Raj Institutions and other key stakeholders are also being organised to spread awareness about treatment and other facilities, official sources here said.

In addition, awareness activities are conducted amongst High Risk Groups including female sex workers, men having sex with Men, injecting drug users, transgenders and bridge population like truck drivers, migrants as part of targeted intervention projects.

The Centre has enacted the HIV & AIDS (Prevention and Control) Act, 2017. The Act addresses discrimination against People Living with HIV at workplace, education setting, health setting and public places, they added.

The Act also provides a robust grievance redressal mechanism where compliant against discrimination would be disposed by Ombudsman at the state level.

The steps taken by government to track the patients through HIV diagnosis to care and treatment include adoption of Test and Treat policy under which all patients diagnosed with HIV are put on Anti Retro Viral Treatment irrespective of their CD4 Count; Launch of Mission Sampark to reach out to all the lost to follow patients living with HIV and linking them back as much as possible to Anti Retro Viral Treatment.

In addition, there is software to maintain the details of the patients to enable them on regular treatment. Also, counsellors ensure tracking of HIV positive patients through telephone and home visits in the case of those who drop out between diagnosis and treatment to maintain their adherence to treatment, the sources said.(UNI)

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath ordered the officials, here on Friday, to probe into spurious liquor.

He took a serious note on the death of over 9 people after consuming spurious liquor in Kushinagar and Saharanpur districts during the past couple of days and directed that proper medical care be ensured in the affected persons.
He directed the Principal Secretary Excise to take departmental action both District Excise Officers and directed a 15-day joint operation of Excise and Police to take action against spurious liquor operatives.
A report from Kushinagar said that seven people have died after consuming spurious liquor in the past 48 hours.
Besides in Saharanpur, two people have died after consuming hooch on Thursday.

Auckland, Feb 8 (UNI) New Zealand defeated India in a nail-biting encounter by four wickets in the second T20I of the three-match series to get an unassailable lead of 2-0 here at Eden Park, on Friday.
The hosts managed to reach the target off the last ball of the game. The final match of the series is to be played on Sunday in Hamilton.
Chasing a small target of 136 runs, the hosts got off to a good start as the opening pair of Sophie Devine and Suzie Bates put on 33 runs in 4.4 overs.
Devine was the first batswoman to go for 19 runs off 16 balls. Radha Yadav gave India its first breakthrough.
Soon, right-arm off break bowler Deepti Sharma dismissed Caitlin Gurrey for four runs, reducing the White Ferns to 40/2 in 6.5 overs.
Then, the home side captain Amy Satterthwaite and Bates stitched together a partnership of 61 runs for the third wicket, helping the hosts to get past 100 runs mark.
Poonam Yadav dismissed Satterthwaite in the 15th over for 23 runs off 20 balls. Indian bowlers were quick to pick up three wickets, keeping the spectators on the edge of their seats.
Mansi Joshi and Deepti Sharma kept the things tight for the hosts till the very end. However, the Kiwis kept the score board ticking and achieved the target on the last ball, taking a 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
Bates was the highest run-scorer from the hosts with 62 runs knock, while Satterthwaite scored 23 runs.

New Delhi, Feb 8 (UNI) Renewing his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the light of fresh revelations that the Defence Ministry objected to parallel negotiations by the Prime Minister office in the Rafale deal, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that it was now clear that the PM stole money from the country and from the Indian Air force and was guilty in the scam.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr Gandhi, referring to a report published in a National daily that the Ministry of Defence objected to parallel negotiations being carried out with French authorities in the Rafale deal, said, ‘we have been saying that the PM is directly involved in the Rafale scam. After the latest revelations, which say that officials in the Defence Ministry raised objections to the parallel negotiations being carried out by the PMO with French authorities in the Rafale deal, it is clear that the PM stole Rs 30,000 cr from the Indian Air force and gave it to Anil Ambani.

“The revelations show that the Ministry of Defence felt that parallel negotiations by the PMO were weakening India’s position. It is crystal clear that the PM is guilty. It is proved now that the chowkidar is chor,” said the Congress president.

Envisaging the significance of the farming sector Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday projected it as heart of the issue making a grand provision of Rs.19.577 cr in the interim budget.