BREAKING NEWS I MARCH 21 I HIGHLIGHTS

Unlike the global economy which is risk of recession, India would not slow down and maintain the pace of expansion achieved in 2022-23, said the RBI bulletin on Tuesday.

Even as global growth is set to slow down or even enter a recession in 2023 as global financial markets wager, India has emerged from the pandemic years stronger than initially thought, with a steady gathering of momentum since the second quarter of the current financial year, said an article in the March bulletin of the Reserve Bank.

 Two men were arrested for allegedly duping around 300 people by providing fake visas, police said on Tuesday.  The accused have been identified as Gograj alias Rizwan (31), a resident of Rajasthan, and Sushil alias Ankit (23), from Haryana, they said. The duo targeted people who were looking for jobs in the Middle East.
Around 300 people were cheated by them over the last four months, police said.

A young man who recently married a woman allegedly against the wishes of her family was hacked to death by three men on a highway here on Tuesday, police said.

The victim of a suspected 'honour' killing was later identified as Jagan (28).
He was waylaid by the assailants and assaulted using sharp weapons like a machete, they said.

The Delhi BJP slammed Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday, accusing him of creating a row over the city government's budget for "cheap publicity" and to hide his own mistakes.

Addressing a press conference here, Delhi BJP working president Virendra Sachdeva said Kejriwal was levelling allegations at the Centre and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to divert attention from the corruption charges faced by the city government.

China on Tuesday hit out at Japan after its Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made a surprise visit to Ukraine and overshadowed Chinese President Xi Jinping’s meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow, saying Tokyo should do more to de-escalate the situation rather than aggravating it.

Beijing was caught by surprise as Kishida, who was on an official visit to New Delhi from March 19-21, entered Poland from India using a secretly chartered plane instead of the standard government aircraft, Japanese TV channel NHK reported.

The chartered plane left Tokyo’s Haneda Airport at around 8 pm on Sunday, about three hours before a government plane carrying Kishida departed for India.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping have begun their talks in the Kremlin.

A court in Gujarat’s Kheda district on Tuesday awarded the death sentence to a 28-year-old man for repeatedly raping his stepdaughter and impregnating her. Special POCSO judge PP Purohit at Nadiad city also ordered the man to pay Rs 2 lakh to the survivor as compensation.

The Brezza car, in which Amritpal Singh fled, has been recovered by the Police. He was helped by four people, said Punjab IGP Sukhchain Singh Gill.

 Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrived in Kyiv for a surprise visit shortly after noon Tuesday.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrived in Kyiv for a surprise visit shortly after noon Tuesday, hours after Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in neighbouring Russia for a three-day trip.
Moscow's invasion will be in the spotlight at both meetings.

Footage shown on Japanese national broadcaster NHK showed Kishida walking on the platform of a train station, escorted by a few people who appeared to be Ukrainian officials.

It was uncertain whether either meeting would change the course of the almost 13-month war in Ukraine, but the talks about 800 kilometers (500 miles) apart highlighted the war's repercussions for international diplomacy as countries line up behind rival parties.

 The Delhi government's Budget was approved by the Ministry of Home Affairs and it has been conveyed to the AAP dispensation, sources in the lieutenant governor's office said on Tuesday, amid a row over the issue between the Centre and the city government.

They also accused Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his ministers and the Aam Admi Party of "deliberately making false statements with the sole purpose of misleading the people of Delhi and the media and distracting them from the failures of the AAP government".

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday dismissed Congress' poll 'guarantees' as "bogus announcements", and said their leader Rahul Gandhi's visit to the poll-bound state will not have any impact. He said, the people of Karnataka will not give any value to the former AICC President's words, after his recent controversial statements in London, regarding the state of democracy in the country.
 

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has asserted that he has the right to respond in Parliament to the "totally baseless" and "unfair charges" hurled at him by senior ministers in the Lok Sabha over his democracy remarks.

In a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Gandhi invoked Rule 357 which allows for "personal explanations" and also cited the example of BJP MP and then minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who invoked the Rule to give an explanation regarding comments made by Jyotiraditya Scindia in relation to him in Parliament

"I am making such a request again. I am seeking this permission under the conventions of Parliamentary practice, the constitutionally embedded rules of natural justice and Rule 357 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha," he said in his letter to the Speaker.

Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha adjourned for the day amid ruckus. 

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AAP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said the Punjab government was not afraid of taking stringent measures to curb criminal activities in the state. His comments came after Punjab Police launched a major crackdown against radical preacher Amritpal Singh and members of his outfit ‘Waris Punjab De’. “When we came to power in Punjab, people said they (AAP) can work in the fields of education, health and power, but handling law and order situation will be tough. The system we inherited from previous governments showed that criminals and gangsters were provided political protection. But our government is an honest one. We are taking strict action against such elements," Kejriwal said.

Turkish Airlines is looking for cooperation with Air India as the carrier looks to expand in the Indian market, a top executive said on Tuesday. At present, Turkish Airlines is closely cooperating with IndiGo, including a codeshare partnership.
Turkish Airlines CEO & Board Member Bilal Eksi pitched for more cooperation with Indian carriers and said that it can cooperate with Air India as that will also support both counties as well as tourism. "We are not getting enough (of Indian market)... we are trying to expand. This is the time for Turkish Airlines to expand operations in India," he said. He noted that there was not enough capacity between India and Turkiye, which is also a wedding destination for many Indians.
"We can work together with Air India... can earn together and support both countries," he said.

An all-party meeting called by Speaker Om Birla on Tuesday to break the logjam in Parliament remained inconclusive, with the ruling BJP and the Opposition failing to arrive at a consensus. Sources said some opposition members, including from the Congress, raised the Adani issue and stuck to their guns, a stand opposed by the government. Most opposition parties have been demanding a JPC probe into the matter. Some opposition members, including Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, of the Congress said Rahul Gandhi should be allowed to speak in Parliament. The BJP has demanded in Parliament that Gandhi should apologise for "insulting" India by his democracy remarks in Britain.

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought the city government's stand on a plea seeking the release of ex gratia compensation of Rs 1 crore to families of police personnel who died while performing their duty during the COVID-19 pandemic. A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad asked the Delhi government to file a status report in response to the public interest litigation by five people, including two lawyers and a law student.
Delhi government counsel advocate Santosh Kumar Tripathi said individual petitions have already been filed on the issue and 75 per cent of applications have been decided and disposed of by the authority concerned.

A fire broke out at a godown in north Delhi's Wazirabad area on Tuesday morning, Delhi Fire Services officials said.
So far no injuries or casualty has been reported, they said. A call about a fire was received at 10:45 am and nine fire tenders were rushed to the site, said Atul Garg, Director of Delhi Fire Services. He said fire-fighting operations are underway and the cause of the fire is being ascertained.

Northern Army Commander Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi on Tuesday said status quo is maintained with China on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh and talks are going on at different levels, while the situation is under control in Jammu and Kashmir where efforts are on to stop terror incidents completely. The General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GoC) of Udhampur-based Northern Command was addressing a mega 'Veterans Sampark' rally which was attended by over 800 veterans and ‘veer naris’ at a unit of Jammu and Kashmir Rifles at Digiana here. “The status quo is maintained with China on LAC. Talks are going on at different levels and all our formations are at a high level of operation preparedness,” Lt Gen Dwivedi, who took over the charge of the Army commander of the Northern Command and the Colonel of the Regiment of Jammu and Kashmir Rifles and Ladakh Scouts on February 1 last year, said.
 

BRS leader K Kavitha Tuesday said she has submitted the phones used by her so far to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) as she appeared for questioning before the agency in the Delhi excise policy linked money laundering case. In a letter to the ED, the 44-year-old MLC daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, said "These phones are submitted without prejudice to my right and contentions and larger contentions whether a woman's phone can be intruded, in the teeth of her right to privacy".

A police constable was feted by the Andhra Pradesh government for gallantly rescuing a woman who jumped into the Godavari river to commit suicide recently. Andhra Pradesh director general of police (DGP) K. V. Rajendranath Reddy felicitated constable Angani Veerababu from Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Konaseema district on Monday for this act with a cash award as well.

Several opposition party leaders on Tuesday held a protest in the corridors of Parliament House and raised slogans demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Adani issue.  They also hung a banner that read "We want JPC" from the first floor of Parliament building. TMC MPs held a separate protest in Parliament complex and demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi break his silence on the Adani issue. Accusing the government of helping businessman Gautam Adani by not ordering a probe into allegations of fraud levelled against his group, the party demanded that Adani be arrested. Leaders of opposition parties had earlier met in Parliament complex and decided to press for a JPC probe into the Adani issue.

A 30-year-old cooling tower of a power station in Gujarat's Surat city was demolished on Tuesday through a controlled explosion. The 85-metre tall RCC tower with an around 72-metre diameter of the gas-based Utran Power Station was brought down at around 11:10 am. Officials said 220 kg of commercial explosives were used for demolition. The tower came down within seven seconds with a loud noise, sending up a huge layer of dust.

BRS leader K Kavitha appears before ED for third round of questioning in Delhi excise policy linked money laundering case.

Rajya Sabha proceedings adjourned till 2 pm as ruling party members create uproar over Rahul Gandhi's democracy remarks.

The BJP in Delhi slammed Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday, accusing him of creating a row over the city government's budget for "cheap publicity" and to hide his own mistakes. Addressing a press conference here, working president of the Delhi BJP Virendra Sachdeva said Kejriwal was levelling allegations on the Centre and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to divert attention from the corruption charges faced by the city government. "The Kejriwal government sat on the clarifications sought by the Ministry of Home Affairs for three days and then blamed the Centre for stopping the budget," Sachdeva said.

Lok Sabha proceedings adjourned till 2 pm amid ruckus over opposition demand for JPC probe into Adani issue.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday attacked the government for diamantaire Mehul Choksi's removal from the Interpol database of Red Notices, saying fugitives are getting respite while the ED-CBI pursue opposition leaders.
He also alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's slogan of "Na khane doonga" has become another "jumla" (rhetoric).
The attack came after the name of Choksi, wanted in a Rs 13,000-crore scam in the Punjab National Bank, is understood to have been removed from the Interpol database of Red Notices on the basis of his plea to the Lyon-headquartered agency, people in the know of the development had said.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said Tuesday his government will move to restore Japan's preferential trade status as he pushes to resolve history and trade disputes with Japan despite domestic opposition. In lengthy, televised comments during a Cabinet Council meeting, Yoon defended his moves, saying that leaving ties with Japan as fraught as they are would be neglecting his duty because greater bilateral cooperation is vital to resolve diverse challenges facing Seoul.
“I thought it would be like neglecting my duty as president if I had also incited hostile nationalism and anti-Japan sentiments to use them for domestic politics while leaving behind the current, grave international political situation,” Yoon said.

Two people were killed in elephant attacks in West Bengal's Jhargram district, police said on Tuesday. The deceased were identified as Sujit Mahato and Namita Mahato, they said. Sujit, a resident of Indkhara village, was returning home on his bicycle through a forest road after work around 8 pm when he was attacked by an elephant that strayed away from its herd.
The elephant picked up Sujit with its trunk, and banged him on the road from a height, killing him on the spot, officials said.

Heavy unseasonal rains lashed Mumbai and satellite cities on Tuesday morning, bringing down the temperature.
Officials said transport services like local trains and buses have remained unaffected.  Satellite cities like Thane, Mira-Bhayander, and Vasai-Virar too received a spell of heavy showers in the morning.  The India Meteorological Department attributed the westerly wind and moisture incursion from the Arabian Sea as the reason behind the spell. It is unusual for Mumbai to witness rains in March. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said that some parts of Mumbai city and suburbs have recorded up to 20-25 mm of rain between 7 am and 8 am.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao would soon visit the districts where various standing crops suffered damage due to unseasonal rains and hailstorms in the last few days. Rao directed ministers, Chief Secretary and officials of agriculture department to furnish details on the crop damage, an official release said late on Monday night. Rao would examine the reports on Tuesday and take a decision on undertaking a tour of the affected districts, it said.

A physics graduate, an insurance agent-cum-law student and finally a full fledged lawyer, this is the journey of Kerala's first transgender advocate who now aims to use her legal acumen to ensure justice for the poor and marginalised. The journey was not easy and there were obstacles, but her positive attitude and disregard for negativity propelled her forward to achieve the goal of becoming a lawyer -- a noble profession according to Padma Lakshmi, Kerala's first transgender advocate.
 

Ukraine's military intelligence agency reported what appeared to be a brazen attack late Monday on Russian cruise missiles being transported by train in the occupied and illegally annexed Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula. The region's Russian-appointed governor reported an incident in the area of the same Crimean town, Dzhankoi in the northern part of the peninsula, though he did not mention cruise missiles as an attack target. None of the reports could be independently verified. A vague statement by the Ukrainian military agency, posted on its website, said multiple Kalibr cruise missiles were destroyed by an explosion, without explicitly saying Ukraine was responsible or what weapon had been used. It said the missiles were being carried by rail and were destined for submarine launch.

The Allahabad High Court has suspended the one-year sentence awarded to Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister Nand Gopal Gupta 'Nandi' in a case related to an alleged attack on the members of Scheduled Caste community. The court also directed that Nandi be released on bail in this case. On January 25 this year, an MP/MLA court here had awarded Nandi one-year imprisonment and Rs 10,000 fine in the case. However, while awarding the sentence, the MP/MLA court had acquitted him from the charges of allegedly committing atrocities on the members of Scheduled Caste community.

A truck driver died when the vehicle crashed into a roadside house after colliding with a dumper on a national highway here, police said on Tuesday. The accident took place in Imamganj under the Sandipan Ghat police station area on Monday, police station in-charge Rakesh Rai said. The truck was heavily damaged and its driver Ramesh Kumar (40) got trapped in the cabin of the vehicle, Rai said. He was somehow pulled out and sent to the district hospital for treatment where he succumbed to injuries, the police officer added.

Indian Americans on Monday expressed outrage at the incidents of vandalism and defacing of the Indian Consulate in San Francisco and urged the city police and law-enforcement officials to take immediate and necessary actions against those responsible. "We call on the San Francisco Police Department to take immediate action against those responsible for the recent vandalism at the consulate and provide safety and security to all working there and visiting the embassy for their needs," community leader Ajay Jain Bhutoria said a day after the Sikh separatists vandalised the Indian consulate in San Francisco. One of the consulate employees sustained minor injuries.

The International Monetary Fund said Monday that its executive board has approved a nearly $3 billion bailout program for Sri Lanka over four years to help salvage the country's bankrupt economy. About $333 million will be disbursed immediately and the approval will also open up financial support from other institutions, the IMF said. “Sri Lanka has been facing tremendous economic and social challenges with a severe recession amid high inflation, depleted reserves, an unsustainable public debt, and heightened financial sector vulnerabilities," its statement quoted IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva as saying.

Pakistan's ousted prime minister Imran Khan has requested the country's chief justice to allow him to join court proceedings through a video link in cases lodged against him, claiming he could be killed if he deposes physically. In a letter to Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Atta Bandial on Monday, the embattled PTI chief also urged him to club the cases registered against him. "A death trap was laid out at the Federal Judicial Complex, Islamabad on Saturday last where I had to attend a hearing in the Toshakhana gifts case. Some 20 namaloom afraad (unknown people) -- a reference to intelligence agencies men -- were present in the complex to kill me," Khan said during an address to the nation on Monday.

United States will send Ukraine $350 million in weapons and equipment, as fierce battles with Russian forces continue for control of the city of Bakhmut, and troops prepare for an expected spring offensive, reports AP citing US State Department.

Russia plans to hold an informal meeting of the U.N. Security Council in early April on what it said is “the real situation” of Ukrainian children taken to Russia, an issue that has gained the spotlight following the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes related to their abduction. Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told a news conference Monday that Russia planned the council meeting long before Friday's announcement by the ICC. Russia holds the rotating presidency of the council in April. The court said it was seeking Putin's arrest because he “is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of (children) and that of unlawful transfer of (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”

Former President Donald Trump's effort to keep key evidence out of his civil rape trial next month was rejected by a federal judge Monday. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in Manhattan ruled that key witnesses will be allowed to testify and misogynistic remarks Trump made about women in 2005 when he apparently didn't realize he was being recorded can be played for a jury that will hear quarter-century-old rape allegations made by a former magazine columnist. A trial in the case filed by E. Jean Carroll is scheduled to start April 25. Carroll and Trump are expected to testify.

The name of fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi wanted in a Rs 13,000-crore scam in the Punjab National Bank is understood to have been removed from the Interpol database of Red Notices on the basis of his plea to the Lyon-headquartered agency, people in the know of the development said. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) remained tight-lipped on the development. A spokesperson for the diamantaire said the decision of Interpol to delete the Red Notice strengthens the claims of Choksi about his alleged kidnapping during his stay in Antigua. The absconding diamond merchant had claimed that he was abducted by Indian agencies, a charge denied by the government.

The State Department announced on Monday that the US will send Ukraine USD 350 million in weapons and equipment, as fierce battles with Russian forces continue for control of the city of Bakhmut, and troops prepare for an expected spring offensive. The latest package of aid includes a large amount of various types of ammunition, such as rockets for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, and an undisclosed number of fuel tanker trucks and riverine boats. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a statement, said the package also provides more ammunition for howitzers, Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles, high-speed anti-radiation (HARM) missiles and anti-tank weapons.

Two people were injured in an explosion due to technical fault in a machine during a programme here on Monday, officials said. Minister of State for Forests (Independent Charge) Arun Kumar, Commissioner Soumya Agarwal, Municipal Commissioner Nidhi Gupta and District Magistrate Shivakant Dwivedi and other senior officials of the Electricity Department who were attending the programme escaped narrowly, the officials said. The joint programme of the electricity department and the Smart City project was organised on the power sub-station premises in Rampur Gadren area on Monday when the explosion took place during the demonstration of the machine meant for finding underground power cable faults, a senior official said.

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann Monday ordered the initiation of disciplinary proceedings against former DGP S Chattopadhyaya and two other police officers over the security breach during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the state in January last year. Apart from Chattopadhyaya who has since retired, the disciplinary proceedings will be initiated against Inderbir Singh, the then deputy inspector general (DIG) of police of Ferozepur range, and Harmandeep Singh Hans, the then senior superintendent of police (SSP) of Ferozepur.