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Mumbai, Feb 5 (IANS) Actor Shekhar Suman, who will be seen on 'Bigg Boss 16' for 'Weekend ka Vaar', turned into a rapper. A new promo of the upcoming episode, shared by ColorsTV features him, showing his rapping skills for contestants -- Priyanka Choudhary and M.C. Stan. He created a rap on the two which was well-appreciated by the housemates on the show.

The channel wrote in the caption, "Hoga finale week ka aagaaz (A beginning to the finale week)."

The promo starts off with a voiceover in the background, "Hoga finale week ka aagaaz (A start to the finale week)."

Shekhar can be seen donning an all-black look and with a suit and pants.

Making a stylish entry on the red carpet, he can be seen giving flying kisses and waving to what appeared to be the sounds of his fans as the photographers clicked him.

A voice can be heard saying, "Sir sir.." to which Shekhar replied by saying, "One at a time, one at a time."

The housemates laughed and cheered for Shekhar.

The voiceover of a reporter asks him in the promo, "MC aur Priyanka bahar ek music video mai dekhenge (We will be able to see MC Stan and Priyanka in a music video)?"

The actor said, "Rap kuch aise shuru hoga: bejaan sa launda mai, ladki tu chaalak lomdi, party karne ka mood ho toh please call me not, chal hatt shemdi. (I am an innocent guy, you are a clever girl, if you feel like partying don't call me, you mannerless girl)."

After hearing his rap, Stan and Priyanka laughed.

--IANS
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By Ajay Kumar
Patna, Feb 5 (IANS) Despite the success of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, the opposition leaders in Bihar are not revealing their cards to either go with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi or the possible third front which Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekher Rao is trying to form for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.


Bihar has a coalition government of seven parties headed by chief minister Nitish Kumar including deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD and supported by the Congress, the Left and Hindustani Awam Morcha.

Nitish Kumar admits that challenging the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2024 would not be possible without the Congress. Still, he is not completely sure about the leadership qualities of Rahul Gandhi despite the good response to the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

He has also decided to send senior leader Lalan Singh to Telangana for the opening of the new Secretariat building and is trying to keep both the options open. Nitish Kumar earlier advocated an all parties meeting to prepare a common plan to challenge the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

At present, KCR is giving an impression of a non-BJP, non-Congress regional parties alliance to strengthen their position in their states. The idea is to make their bargaining position stronger with the Congress party post the Lok Sabha polls in 2024. Nitish Kumar probably does not agree with this formula as the chances of a division of votes are strong and the BJP will take advantage of it. Hence, Kumar is taking a balanced approach at present.

He is sending Lalan Singh as his representative to Hyderabad to keep the option open for a third front and is also waiting for the response of the Congress after the Bharat Jodo Yatra. The Telangana chief minister's office has also confirmed that Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav is also coming to Hyderabad on February 17 for the inauguration of the new Secretariat building.

After the formation of the Mahagathbandhan government in Bihar, Nitish Kumar had taken the initiative to unite the opposition parties. He visited Delhi and met leaders of the opposition parties including Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. At that time, these two leaders had not given a robust response to Nitish Kumar. Even the photographs of Sonia Gandhi with Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav were not put in the public domain.

This could be the reason why Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav were invited by the Congress party to participate in the flag hoisting ceremony at Lal Chowk in Srinagar after the conclusion of the Bharat Jodo Yatra but these two leaders neither went there nor sent their representatives.

For the RJD, as it is part of the seven parties alliance, the political interests of Tejashwi Yadav are intertwined with Nitish Kumar. The RJD is considered very close to the Congress party and Sonia Gandhi and it will be interesting to see the developments when Lalu Prasad returns to Patna.

RJD national vice-president Shivanand Tiwari said: "There is no doubt that the Bharat Jodo Yatra is a big success for Rahul Gandhi as well as the Congress party. They are now thinking that the Congress would become a serious option against the BJP. Rahul Gandhi, through Bharat Jodo Yatra, managed to shed his "Pappu image" foisted by the BJP."

Tiwari continued: "The people of the country are considering Rahul Gandhi as a serious leader but he himself and the Congress party are showing arrogance as well. Rahul Gandhi has said the thinking of regional parties would not become national. He has also taken the name of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. Congress senior leader Jairam Ramesh said that the fulcrum of the opposition parties will be Congress in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. These statements have sent out the wrong signals to the regional parties."

The RJD leader noted that the "Congress is a national party in the country but it has to give respect to regional parties as well. If you comment like this, why would regional parties go to Srinagar? You have to respect the regional parties as well and bring them on one platform. The Congress has to understand why regional parties emerged in the states."

"There was a provision of reservation for OBCs in the Kelkar committee report in 1953 but the Congress party has not implemented it. Even in 1989, former PM Rajiv Gandhi spoke against the Mandal commission and then Vishwanath Pratap Singh had promised the Mandal commission implementation if he became the PM of the country. Then regional parties emerged in the country."

He concluded by saying: "The regional parties are demanding respect in their own state where they are in a strong position. They do not want seats in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and other states. In the last 2020 assembly election in Bihar, the Congress had contested on 70 seats and won only 19. PM Narendra Modi was doing three rallies in a day and Rahul Gandhi did only two. This was an indication of how serious you were."

Ajit Sharma, Congress CLP leader in the Bihar Vidhan Sabha, told IANS: "The Congress party has only one motive and that is to unite the opposition parties in the country. Rahul Gandhi has got success through the Bharat Jodo Yatra. The Congress had invited leaders of the opposition parties to Srinagar but who came and who did not is a different thing. The regional parties may have their own political compulsions and hence they stayed away from it."

Sharma added: "The core issue in the country is price rise, unemployment, farmers issues which need to be addressed. The BJP is failing on these. PM Narendra Modi had promised two crore jobs every year and Rs 15 lakh cash in the bank account of every individual, where are those promises. Compare the current inflation with the UPA government. The Congress party believes in people centric policies."

Madan Mohan Jha, MLC and former state president of the Congress told IANS: "The party always thinks about uniting the opposition parties and it is doing it. As far as the Bharat Jodo Yatra is concerned, it was not a political Yatra of the Congress party."

"The BJP has created differences in the society and the Yatra was to unite the people of the country. So, those who are having an anti-BJP ideology, will come together in the future. The Congress party will also take the initiative as well."

Commenting on the matter, RJD national spokesperson Mritunjay Tiwari said: "Nitish Kumar is currently busy in the Samadhan Yatra and he has a pre-scheduled programme. Tejashwi Yadav has loads of work in Bihar. Hence, they did not go to Lal Chowk in Srinagar."

"The idea is to unite all opposition parties against the BJP. KCR is making efforts and so is Rahul Gandhi. The actual aim is to stop the BJP from coming back to power in 2024."

Nikhil Anand, national general secretary of the BJP's OBC wing and one of the party's national spokespersons, said: "Rahul Gandhi has completed his 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' which is basically a 'Congress Jodo Yatra', through which he wants to have larger acceptance among his partymen. The key opposition leaders have avoided joining his Yatra because they all know that if he had enough leadership talent and quality, why did he run away from accepting the Congress president's post?"

Continuing with his criticism, Anand added: "The other reason is that every opposition leader wants the other to come under their umbrella but no one is ready to follow suit and stand behind the other. The opposition leaders are now like many fused bulbs, who can't match the magical light of PM Modi even if they are collected together. There is no match to the charismatic leadership of Narendra Modi in India."

--IANS
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Kolkata, Feb 4 (IANS) Bengaluru FC will have an opportunity to move back into the playoff spots as they go toe-to-toe with ATK Mohun Bagan in the Indian Super League (ISL) 2022-23 at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati, here on Sunday.

The Mariners can move up into third place if they can keep their unbeaten record intact against the Blues.

In their final five league games, ATK Mohun Bagan will be hoping for positive results to help them gain the momentum they need for the playoffs in March. In the last six ISL games, the Mariners have won two, drawn two and lost two. Last week, they ended their two-game goal drought after securing a 2-0 win over Odisha FC.

Dimitri Petratos scored both goals and extended his season's goal tally to seven. The Australian striker also has six assists to his name. Petratos has already scored against Bengaluru FC earlier this season in the reverse fixture that ended 1-0 in favour of ATK Mohun Bagan.

Liston Colaco and Manvir Singh are expected to start down the flanks as Ashique Kuruniyan will miss the match against his former club as he serves a suspension for the red card he picked up in second-half stoppage time last week against Odisha FC.

"This match is very important because we are playing at home. Bengaluru FC's performance has improved over the last few matches. I know it is important for them to get into the playoffs but we are confident and our target is to get three points," said head coach Juan Ferrando.

"After the match against Odisha FC, we knew we would be without two players for the next game and in the last four days, we planned accordingly," he added.

Bengaluru FC have finally gained the momentum they were looking for all season. The Blues have won their last four Hero ISL games and will be keen to take advantage of Odisha FC and Chennaiyin FC cancelling each other out earlier this week. They now have the chance to go two points clear of Odisha FC and out of reach of Chennaiyin FC.

Siva Narayanan has cemented his starting XI spot with some excellent performances over the last few weeks. The 21-year-old has scored four and registered one assist in the four games so far and looks menacing alongside Roy Krishna. Krishna himself has scored two goals and assisted one in the last three games.

"We are coming into this game with confidence after winning the last four games. I believe that records are there to be broken, so why not get our first win in Kolkata? We are very respectful of the opposition and they are in a good position in the league," said head coach Simon Grayson.

"I'm sure Juan and his team will be well aware of how well we can play and the threats we pose. It will be two good teams going head-to-head at the business end of the season," he added.

The two sides have met five times in the ISL. The Mariners have won on four occasions and one game has ended in a draw. The Blues have never beaten ATK Mohun Bagan. In the last two matches, they have failed to score against the Mariners.

--IANS

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Modasa, Jan 19 (IANS) Seventeen families of the barber community in Gujarat's Bhutavad village have been facing social boycott after a youth from the community married an upper caste woman.

One of the affected, Prabhudas told media persons, "A youth from our community has married a woman from Chaudhary family (Patel), even we are against this love marriage, yet, upper caste members are socially boycotting Nai families living in the Bhutavad village since the last one week. They have stopped selling milk and other groceries to Nai families, children are not allowed to attend school, and a pregnant woman is treated badly."

Women and children are worst affected, complained Manjulaben. "Though males tried to talk to upper caste males, they are adamant and are not allowing us to live in the village," she alleged and demanded that the district administration should immediately intervene.

Prabhudas said, "We have submitted a memorandum to the Collector office and pleaded to rehabilitate the village."

District Collector Narendra Meena said: "On Wednesday evening, the issue was brought to my knowledge. I have instructed the Sub Divisional Magistrate and local officers to visit the village and address the issue within 24 hours."

--IANS
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New Delhi, 19 Jan (IANS) Schools and higher education institutions across the country will organise special programmes on G20 themes under the ambit of India's Presidency starting from this month until September, according to the UGC.

All the events should be amplified through local and social media platforms of the institutions. Reports with photographs and videos may be uploaded on the UGC portal.

With the expectation that India's G20 Presidency should touch every student across the country, an innovative outreach programme, 'University Connect' has also been proposed in which the institutions can involve their students in a range of events on G20 themes spread across the year.

UGC chairman professor M. Jagadesh Kumar said that the programme aims to project the youth as cultural ambassadors who can build long-lasting relationships with the G20 fraternity.

This will be an opportunity to young Indians in bringing new ideas and perspectives to G20-related topics, he said.

The UGC in a letter also requested the universities to initiate an action plan and undertake suitable activities and ensure dissemination of the issues under the ambit of India's G20 Presidency across different locales, Kumar added.

According to the UGC, pre-scheduled events of institutions like convocation, annual days, sporting events, should be branded as G20 events.

Logos, posters, standees of G20 should be displayed on the campus and all events of the institution.

The open file for the design is being shared.

Special events including seminars, quiz, painting, crossword, declamation, marathon, cycling marathon, Insta-Reel and other competitions, can also be organised on G20-related themes at the institution and state levels with a grand finale in September at the national level.

RIS (Resource & information Centre for Developing Countries) is organising seminars at 75 universities.

All institutions will also undertake regular Swachchta Campaigns in and around their respective campuses as part of the G20 event.

G20 branded t-shirts, caps, wrist bands, badges can be distributed to participating students and to NSS, NYKS volunteers

The celebrations will culminate in a grand event in September.

Institutions may ensure maximum community participation in these events.

--IANS
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Los Angeles, Jan 19 (IANS) Reality TV star Kim Kardashian has bought a necklace once owned by Princess Diana for almost $200,000.

The 42-year-old reality superstar has reportedly purchased the diamond-encrusted amethyst Attallah cross pendant once worn by the late royal, who died in a car crash in 1997 at the age of 36, for $197,453 (160,000) at Sotheby's annual Royal and Noble auction, 'People' has confirmed.

In a statement, Sotheby London's Head of Jewellery, Kristian Spofforth, said: "This is a bold piece of jewellery by its size, colour, and style which cannot fail to make a vibrant statement, whether it be of faith or fashion -- or indeed both. We are delighted that this piece has found a new lease of life within the hands of another globally famous name."

The outlet went on to allege that 'The Kardashians' star is "honoured to own a fine piece of jewellery owned by the late princess", who wore the necklace to a 1987 charity gala in London and matched it with a purple Victorian velvet gown which was designed by Catherine Walker.

A press release describing the pendant, which has not been seen in public since before Diana's death, read: "The cross-shaped pendant, thought to be a one-off private commission by Garrard for one of their regular clients, is a bold and colourful piece set with square-cut amethysts and accented by circular-cut diamonds."

"The cross has a total diamond weight of approximately 5.25 carats and measures approximately 136 x 95mm. It is understood that the cross was only ever worn by the princess, and following her death, it was never seen in public again until now."

--IANS
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Dehradun, Jan 19 (IANS) Profiles of water samples from Uttarakhand's Joshimath, which is facing a major challenge due land subsidence, and the NTPC project site are not the same, as per the National Institute of Hydrology (NIH), Roorkee.

Also, with many houses in the town developing huge cracks, the velocity of the water source that has been flowing from under the houses is now continuously receding.

According to Uttarakhand Disaster Management Secretary Ranjit Sinha, in the town located in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, the discharge of water has reduced to 100 litres per minute (lt/min). In view of it, the directors and scientists of technical institutions posted in the city have been asked to share the study report at the earliest for further action.

On January 6, the water leakage was 540 lt/min which has currently reduced to 100 lt/min, he added.

The Disaster Management Secretary said that Chief Secretary S.S. Sandhu has asked the directors and scientists of various technical institutions working in the town to immediately study the affected area and provide the report at the earliest.

It has also been said that the study of cracks and land subsidence in Joshimath should be done in a time-bound manner, he added.

Various technical institutions must also share their study reports with each other as well as with clarity of the study report, the solution must also be discussed, he added.

Sinha said that there are 615 rooms in the temporarily identified relief camps in Joshimath which can accommodate 2,190 people. Pipalkoti has 491 rooms with a capacity of 2,205 people. As many as 849 buildings have developed cracks so far.

Currently, the survey work is underway.

One ward has been declared unsafe in Gandhinagar, two in Singh Dhar, 5 in Manohar Bagh, 7 in Sunil.

While 181 buildings are present in the unsafe zone and 258 families have been temporarily displaced in view of security.

At present, the number of displaced family members is 865.

--IANS
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Chennai, Jan 16 (IANS) Hiring by Indian start-ups declined by 44 per cent during the last quarter of 2022 as compared to the first quarter that year, said human resources consultancy company CIEL HR Services.

According to a study by the company, hirings among Indian start-ups had been on a steady decline.

"The hiring experienced a 44 per cent decline in hiring in Q4 compared to Q1 of 2022," the company said.

With the start-up sector witnessing turbulent times, attrition continued to be a major roadblock for the players.

Despite high attrition rates, the average median tenure increased to 1.9 years in start-ups vis-a-vis 1.7 years 6 months back. However, it is still not on par with other sectors like ITES (5.8 years), FMCG (4.1 years) and MSME Manufacturing (3.6 years), the study notes.

The study further stated that 64 per cent of the respondents (start-up employees) are willing to move to a "stable job". Amongst these respondents, 47 per cent have stated job security as a concern to move to another job, followed by reasons like no work-life balance (27 per cent) and Better Pay in established firms (26 per cent).

Commenting on this, Aditya Narayan Mishra, Managing Director & CEO of CIEL HR Services, said, "India continues to be the front-runner of the Startup ecosystem despite the current threatening economic uncertainties. This downfall is only for a transient period, it will push the start-ups to be more serious in their overall operations and set new thresholds."

"In this context, we see startups preferring onsite work, with 94 per cent of job openings looking for awork from office'. Startups are on the lookout for highly productive and skilled talent that can adapt quickly to the changes and stay ahead of the curve," Mishra said.

As to the gender diversity in the start-up sector, the study notes that the women representation is at 24 per cent amongst start-ups with a negligible 11 per cent representation in leadership positions.

"Lack of flexibility, shift-away from remote working culture and inadequate support for childcare and eldercare needs continue to be hindrances for women to sustain and progress in the start-up ecosystem," the report notes.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Jan 16 (IANS) Talismanic India batter Virat Kohli credited throwdown specialists Dayanand Garani, Nuwan Seneviratne and D Raghvendra for making the batters look better with world-class practice through relentless deliveries.

"In my honest opinion, all three of them have given us world-class practice every time we play. They challenge us in the nets like anyone 145 or 150 kmph pace bowlers would do in the game. They always try to get us out and make sure that they test us regularly."

"At times, it feels very intense. For me that has been the difference in my career to be very honest. From where I was as a cricketer before I started getting this kind of practice to where I am today."

"A lot of credit has go to these guys, who have given us practice regularly and I am sure Shubman will also feel the same. Their contribution has been unbelievable. You guys should remember their names and faces because, behind our success, a lot of effort has been put in by these guys. Thank you to all for your very, very honest efforts which have helped us," said Kohli in a video posted on bcci.tv.

Raghavendra, referred to as Raghu in the Indian cricket circles, has been associated with the team for a long time as a throwdown specialist. Garani started as a throwdown specialist with Indian team after working with Punjab Kings while Seneviratne was roped in as a throwdown specialist in 2018 to help Indian batsmen counter left-arm fast-bowling.

Right-handed opener Shubman Gill was also in praise of the throwdown specialists of the Indian team. "These three guys combined would have had 1200 to 1500 wickets very easily. They put in a lot of hard work and prepare us for all kinds of conditions we need to practice in heading into the match. These are the people who give us the confidence that we can perform at this level."

The next assignment for India in their home season is three ODIs against New Zealand, starting from Wednesday in Hyderabad.

--IANS
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San Francisco, Jan 16 (IANS) Cyber-security services provider Norton LifeLock has been hit by a data breach where more than 6,000 of its customers had their accounts compromised.

The data breach may have allowed hackers to access their password managers, reports TechCrunch.

In a notice to customers, Gen Digital which is the parent company of Norton LifeLock, said the data breach happened likely due to a credential stuffing attack.

Credential stuffing is a cyberattack method in which attackers use lists of compromised user credentials to breach into a system.

Hackers compromised accounts as far back as December 1, according to the company.

"In accessing your account with your username and password, the unauthorised third party may have viewed your first name, last name, phone number, and mailing address," read the data breach notice.

Gen Digital sent data breach notices to nearly 6,450 customers whose accounts were compromised.

It's one of the latest incidents of hacking attempt on customer passwords.

Encrypted password manager LastPass last month admitted that hackers were able to "copy a backup of customer vault data", in a recent data breach.

LastPass is a freemium password manager that stores encrypted passwords online.

In a statement, the company said that the threat actor "was also able to copy a backup of customer vault data from the encrypted storage container which is stored in a proprietary binary format that contains both unencrypted data, such as website URLs, as well as fully-encrypted sensitive fields such as website usernames and passwords, secure notes, and form-filled data".

It means that the threat actor may attempt to use brute force to "guess your master password and decrypt the copies of vault data they took".

Karim Toubba, the CEO of LastPass, had admitted that the company's systems were compromised two times in 2022.

--IANS
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