India

By Archana Sharma
Jaipur, Oct 1 (IANS) Will the desert storm wipe out the Congress in Rajasthan? Can the divided Congress infuse fresh energy in its demotivated workers? Will the party be able to beat the opposition which is already fragmented? Can it cash in on the divided opposition to change the trend persisting in the state since four decades where power gets shifted to alternate hands every five years?


These are the questions being discussed by the Congress as well as the opposition parties.

The Congress workers are already fed up with discussing rebels, political camps, infighting and finally the party's future after the last four years since the Congress has been in power in Rajasthan.

They agree that the party has failed to strengthen its presence at the booth level in these four years and the voters' trust in the Congress remains shaken, said a senior leader.

The ongoing political crisis has hit the workers hard and they have lost trust in their leaders.

However, a ray of hope emerged after former deputy CM Sachin Pilot spoke of returning the party to power in the 2023 polls after meeting Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday.

"We need to discuss strategies to bring back our government, however no one is interested in thinking about it, but all seem interested in saving their chairs," said a senior leader.

It is because of these senior and selfish leaders that chief minister Ashok Gehlot had to say sorry in front of everyone in Delhi, said another leader.

"We are glad that amid the ongoing crisis, someone used the word ‘together' in these testing times. This word is sacrosanct today as the party stands divided in three factions: there is one group loyal to the high command, another to CM Ashok Gehlot and the third to Sachin Pilot," he added.

Meanwhile, questions are being raised about the conduct of Assembly speaker CP Joshi who silently accepted the resignations of 92 Congress MLAs and is staying silent amid all this drama when the MLAs themselves are saying that they were made to resign forcefully.

The WhatsApp calls of all senior leaders are busy…discussing if a new CM will come or if Gehlot will manage to hold on to his chair.

The million dollar question is, "Will the desert storm wipe out the Congress in Rajasthan?"

This is the question being discussed because the Gehlot camp MLAs are now questioning his right hand men, UDH Minister Shanti Dhariwal, PHED minister Mahesh Joshi and RTDC chairman Dharmendra Rathore on why they called an unofficial meeting parallel to the CLP meeting last Sunday. These are the three leaders who were issued show-cause notices on Sunday.

Now all are waiting for the decision of the high command on the CM face. There will be a ray of light, says Vedprakash Solanki from the Pilot camp who termed Dharmendra Rathore a 'Dalal' when he called Pilot a traitor.

We are ready to go for mid-term elections but we want CM Gehlot to remain our leader, says minister Parsadilali Lal Meena.

We are with the high command, says Divya Maderna, granddaughter of Parasram Maderna who couldn't become CM under similar conditions as are existing today.

So with three factions in the party, all eyes are now on the high command.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Oct 1 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday experienced several 5G use cases first-hand here, along with driving a car remotely and enjoying augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) via wearable devices.

Inaugurating the four-day India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2022 at Pragati Maidan in the national capital, Modi visited several 5G pavilions and encouraged domestic startups to build 5G use cases.

At Swedish telecommunication giant Ericsson's booth, Modi drove a car in Sweden via a 5G-enabled solution.

He also visited a booth of a consortium of nearly 100 domestic startups working towards developing 5G solutions to solve India's real-time problems across health care, education, disaster management etc.

At the Jio Pavilion, Modi witnessed the true 5G devices displayed at the pavilion and experienced the use cases through Jio Glass.

The Prime Minister also spent time understanding the indigenous development of end-to-end 5G technology by a team of Jio engineers, and how 5G can help bridge the gap between urban and rural healthcare delivery.

According to Modi, the country's wait for the 5G technology is over and the benefits of 'Digital India' will reach every village soon.

After a successful 5G spectrum auction, the country is likely to witness the roll out of the much awaited high speed 5G mobile services around Diwali.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Oct 1 (IANS) In the last 24 hours, India reported 3,805 fresh Covid-19 cases ad 26 deaths, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday.

The new fatalities pushed the nationwide death toll to 5,28,655.

The active caseload stood at 38,293, accounting for 0.09 per cent of the country's total positive cases.

The recovery of 5,069 patients in the last 24 hours took the cumulative tally to 4,40,24,164. Consequently, India's recovery rate stands at 98.73 per cent.

The country's daily and weekly positivity rates were 1.29 per cent and 1.39 per cent, respectively.

Also in the same period, a total of 2,95,416 tests were conducted across the country, increasing the overall tally to over 89.53 crore.

As of Saturday morning, India's Covid-19 vaccination coverage exceeded 218.68 crore.

Over 4.10 crore adolescents have been administered with a first dose of Covid-19 jab since the beginning of vaccination drive for this age bracket.

--IANS
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Mumbai/Chennai, Sep 30 (IANS) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will come out with discussion papers on adopting expected loss-based approach for loan loss provisioning and on securitisation of stressed assets framework, Governor Shaktikanta Das said.

The discussion papers on the above two issues will be issued by the RBI, Das said on Friday while announcing the bi-monthly monetary policy.

He also said new guidelines on the regional rural banks (RRB) allowing internet banking facilities to their customers will be issued soon.

According to Das, the proposed guidelines for securitisation will be in addition to the ones that are in vogue.

In September 2021, the RBI had issued the revised framework for securitisation of standard assets.

As regards securitisation of non-performing assets, the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (SARFAESI) Act, 2002, currently provides a framework for such securitisations to be undertaken by Asset Reconstruction Companies (ARCs) licensed under the Act.

However, based on market feedback, stakeholder consultations and the recommendations of the Task Force on Development of Secondary Market for Corporate Loans, it has been decided to introduce a framework for securitisation of stressed assets in addition to the ARC route, similar to the framework for securitisation of standard assets.

Reacting to the announcements, R.K. Bansal, MD & CEO, Edelweiss ARC, said: "On the resolution of stressed assets as well, timely initiation of resolution is important, when the assets have a good chance of revival and have fair amount of realisable value. Towards this end, strengthening the existing SARFAESI along with developing an additional framework for securitisation of stressed assets is a forward looking approach to managing NPAs in the country."

This in part has been due to the preference of banks shifting to alternative avenues, with asset sales declining as a proportion to outstanding gross non-performing assets across bank groups, said Dr. Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Group Chief Economic Adviser, State Bank of India.

"This was also due to the worsening acquisition cost of ARCs as a proportion of book value of assets, reflecting higher haircuts and lower realizable values in respect of their acquired assets," Ghosh added.

The RBI is also looking at making banks to provide for loan loss based on expected loss approach from the incurred loss approach.

"While tightening of bad debt provisioning rules aimed at bolstering the nation's financial system is encouraging, large non-banking lenders have been using expected loss provisioning for some time as providing for loans once soured, is inadequate. Adopting it for banks is indeed a prudent approach," said Bansal.

According to Ghosh, the RBI's announcement addresses the drawback that rate of standard asset provisions has not been determined based on any scientific analysis or credit loss history of Indian banks. This provisioning framework inherently does not have countercyclical or cycle smoothening elements.

In order to promote the spread of digital banking, the RBI will revise its norms for RRBs allowing internet banking for its customers.

--IANS
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Jaipur, Sep 30 (IANS) Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot apparently met interim Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday along with some documents containing "serious allegations" against his former deputy Sachin Pilot.

On his way to Sonia Gandhi's residence, cameras caught Gehlot carrying a paper in his hand that had details mentioning 'hooliganism' at the Pilot camp, from colluding with the BJP to leaving the party.

Gehlot had taken a hand-written paper, which contained allegations against Pilot, along with an apology.

It was written in the paper -- 'Sachin Pilot will leave the party'. It was also written '102 Versus 18', meaning Gehlot has the support of 102 MLAs while Pilot has only 18 MLAs backing him.

It was written on the top of the paper -- "What happened is very sad, I am also very sad and hurt."

The paper contained a series of allegations against the Pilot camp.

However, only half of these points could be seen in the camera as the rest were covered by Gehlot's hand.

Gehlot had written -- "The first state president, who rebelled while in office."

"We have 102 MLAs, while Pilot has only 18. BJP offered Rs 10-50 crore to MLAs."

The allegations also mention the Pushkar incident. In Pushkar, shoes were hurled on state minister Ashok Chandna while slogans were raised in favour of Pilot.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 30 (IANS) The attrition rate in the IT-BPM sector in India is reaching gigantic proportions and up to 22 lakh IT professionals are likely to quit their jobs by 2025, a report has said.

The findings showed that 57 per cent of IT professionals would not consider returning to the IT services sector in the future.

The 'Talent Exodus Report' report by TeamLease Digital predicts up to 55 per cent growth in contract staffing attrition for FY 2023 as compared to 49 per cent in FY 2022

The report said there is a huge misconception with the sentiment in the candidate market, that a salary increase would improve performance and boost job satisfaction, and 20 lakh-22 lakh employees are expected to leave their jobs by 2025.

"The Indian IT sector has witnessed tremendous growth in the last decade. It has recorded 15.5 per cent growth, which is the fastest in more than a decade and touched $227 billion, creating additional 5.5 lakh jobs in FY22 alone," said Sunil Chemmankotil, Chief Executive Officer, TeamLease Digital.

However, with the global pandemic disrupting the IT hiring chain, "there is evidence of a reverse trend which indicates that retaining a business-critical talent has undergone a great change in the last two years", he added.

With the usual demand for salary hikes and other benefits, the main attraction for employees in their new jobs is 'Great Reflection' on the internal policies and external factors that "should be relooked at by employers as we are viewing great changes in the employees' feelings about work and life", Chemmankotil added.

While employees' needs and priorities have changed, such as the desire for flexibility, career growth, and employee value proposition, they are re-evaluating their careers based on these aspects and quitting their well-cushioned jobs in the mid-way.

The alarming figures reveal that the flexible structure has heightened the choice.

"Organisations' strategic hiring plans must contain goals towards their employees and their betterment. This ultimately translates into soul searching over whether an employee feels valued in his/her work or merely creates outcomes and value to benefit others," said the report.

New age firms ramping up their workforce was the chief cause of attrition in the IT services sector in 2021.

Nearly 50 per cent of respondents believe that 'lack of better compensation and benefits' is the greatest reason for talent exodus, whereas 25 per cent believe lack of career growth to be the reason

"IT companies are experiencing dysfunctional turnover where the best employees of companies are voluntarily leaving at higher rates," the report mentioned.

--IANS
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Kolkata, Sep 30 (IANS) The West Bengal government received yet another jolt on Friday as a division bench of the Calcutta High Court decided to uphold an earlier order by a single-judge bench of the same court on the CBI probe in the murder of Tapan Dutta, the Trinamool Congress leader from Howrah district.

Tapan Dutta, was killed near his residence on May 6, 2011 just days after the Trinamool Congress came to power in West Bengal ousting the 34-year-long Left Front rule. It was alleged that Dutta was murdered for voicing protest against the illegal filling up of water bodies near his residence at Bally in Howrah district.

Initially, the local police began probing the matter and later, the investigation was handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the West Bengal Police. However, Tapan Dutta's wife, Pratima Dutta and his daughter, Puja Dutta approached the Calcutta High Court demanding a CBI enquiry and alleged that the Trinamool Congress leader was killed by his own party men.

On June 9 this year, Calcutta High Court's single-judge bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha ordered a CBI probe in the case. However, the West Bengal government challenged that single-judge bench order at the division bench of Calcutta High Court's Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj.

The counsel for the state government argued that the single-judge bench passed the order in a haste, since only in rare cases re-investigations are ordered and that too after submission of two separate charge sheets.

However, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, the counsel for Pratima Dutta, argued that in the second charge sheet the names of certain Trinamool Congress leaders, who were named in the first charge sheet, were dropped. He also argued that evidence was tampered with to shield the genuine culprits in the case and, hence, a probe by a central agency was necessary.

Finally on Friday, after hearing both the parties, the division bench upheld the earlier order by the single-judge bench for a CBI enquiry in the case.

--IANS
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By Sanu K. George
Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 30 (IANS) Will Thiruvananthapuram Congress Lok Sabha member Shashi Tharoor, known for his proficiency in English language, emerge as a "dark horse" or seen as a "black sheep" after the dust on the Congress presidential polls settles.



Preliminary indications are that he has already sprang a huge surprise with 15 top Congress supporting his candidature to the top party post.

Tharoor, who completed a hat trick of wins from the prestigious Lok Sabha seat here has never been the darling of the Congress leaders ever, especially in the state capital, as his impressive track record, outside of the political arena, has unnevered several, say critics.

Hence, his decision of contesting for the party president's post was greeted with scorn by many Congress leaders here. The normally silent veteran 81-year-old former Defence Minister A.K.Antony said Tharoor never said anything to him about his candidature.

Contrary to the general perception that he will find it hard to get anyone to sign his nomination papers, he found supporters in 15 of his leaders.

Tharoor sprang a huge surprise and reportedly his supporters are from all sections of the faction-ridden party in Kerala, including seasoned veterans and Youth Congress leaders.

On Monday, Tharoor made an emergency visit to Palakkad and briefly met Rahul Gandhi, who is leading the Bharat Jodo yatra. It was during his visit he managed to swell his support base.

Incidentally, from Kerala 328 Congress leaders are in the list of voters.

With Antony expressing his displeasure and AICC general secretary (Organisation) K.C.Venugopal also not having any regards for Tharoor, the general impression was he will bite the dust and end up in an embarrassing position, but with 15 frontline leaders signing, things appear to have turned in his favour.

A media critic on condition of anonymity said this is perhaps the first time in several years there has been a challenge to the diktats of the Gandhi family.

"None should forget it was none other than Antony who led a faction out from the Congress party after differences of opinion surfaced with Indira Gandhi in the late seventies and joined hands with the CPI-M here. Now the same Antony is opposing someone who showed the guts to announce his candidature and this is politics," said the critic.

Friday is the last day for filing of nominations and all eyes are on Tharoor, who has managed to cross a major hurdle, much against the wishes of Antony and Venugopal.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 30 (IANS) In a fourth straight hike, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday hiked repo rate by 50 basis points to 5.90 per cent with immediate effect.

The measure, aimed at curbing retail inflation, was announced by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das after the monetary policy committee's (MPC) meeting.

It, however, kept the inflation forecast unchanged and maintained retail inflation forecast for the current fiscal at 6.7 per cent.

RBI has been hiking repo rates since May 4 this year.

RBI had cut repo rate in March, 2020 to reduce the impact of coronavirus pandemic and resultant nationwide lockdown. Since then it had maintained status quo till May 4 this year.

Commenting on the global economic scenario, Das in his virtual customary address said, "We are faced with another storm of aggressive monetary tightening globally. The global economy is in the eye of a new storm."

He added that the step is causing volatility and risk aversion in the financial markets.

The rate hike has also been necessitated due to the rising food prices, which have been spiralling owing to the supply disruptions due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

Also the fast depreciating rupee too has led to the RBI's decision.

On inflation, the RBI Governor said that it would remain high.

"The recent correction in global commodity prices, if sustained, may ease cost pressures in coming months. Today inflation is hovering around 7 per cent and we expect it to remain elevated at 6 per cent in the second half of the year," he said.

--IANS
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Chamarajanagar (Karnataka), Sep 30 (IANS) Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi entered Karnataka on Friday amid a warm welcome by Siddaramaiah and his supporters, who in the process violated forest rules.

Siddaramaiah and his supporters had gathered in the Tiger Reserve Forest near Kekkanahalli at the Karnataka border. The forest department had denied permission for the padayatra in the reserve forest and had given permission to travel by car only.

But Siddaramaiah stopped his vehicle and welcomed Rahul Gandhi in the Tiger Reserve Forest along with former ministers and senior Congress leaders Mahadevappa, K.J. George and others.

Rahul Gandhi will participate in a convention organised at Gundlupet town before the launch of the 21-day Bharat Jodo Yatra through Karnataka. The party has arranged lunch for 30,000 party workers in the Veeranapura village.

Rahul Gandhi will walk for four kilometers after the convention on the National Highway before halting for lunch. He will interact with Adivasis and families of victims who died due to lack of oxygen in Chamarajanagar district hospital during Covid-19 pandemic.

The padayatra will resume at 4 p.m. near Bendakalli Gate, and at 7 p.m. the first day's yatra will end at Begur village.

--IANS
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