Posts published in “International,Diplomacy,Education”

New Delhi, July 7 (IANS) Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday appointed Govind Singh Rajput as AICC Secretary.
According to a party statement, Rajput will be reporting to AICC General Secretary in-charge of Organisation and Training Ashok Gehlot.
Earlier, Gandhi had appointed J. D. Seelam and Mahendra Joshi as secretary and Shashi Kant Sharma as joint secretary to assist Gehlot.
--IANS<br>sid/vd

Chandigarh, July 7 (IANS) Embarrassed by criticism over appointment of a controversial police officer to replace the controversial district police chief of Moga, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Saturday ordered the removal of the recently-appointed SSP Kamaljit Singh Dhillon.
Dhillon's removal came "after receiving the report he (Amarinder Singh) had sought earlier this week into some pending inquiries against him", a state government spokesman said here on Saturday.
Dhillon, who was appointed as Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Moga on Monday, has been shifted as Assistant Inspector General of Police, Crime. Posted in Moga only for five days, he was appointed in place of earlier Moga SSP Raj Jit Singh who was removed after the Amarinder government came under pressure from various quarters over his links to the drugs racket and other controversies of disproportionate assets.
"The Chief Minister has taken the decision on his removal as inquiries, warranting disciplinary action against him, had been found to be pending. The Chief Minister has asked DGP Suresh Arora and the Home Department to immediately take action on the said inquiries," the spokesman said.
The Punjab government has now posted G.S. Toor as the new Moga SSP. An IPS officer of the 2004 batch, he is currently AIG Counter Intelligence, Ludhiana.
The Amarinder government is being criticized by the opposition for not fulfilling its promise to eradicate drugs from the state.
--IANS<br>js/vd

New Delhi, July 7 (IANS) A bomb threat delayed the Howrah Rajdhani for a few hours at Ghaziabad railway station on Saturday but the train continued on towards its destination after a proper security check up showed it was a hoax, an official said.
A Northern Railway spokesperson said that a phone call was received in the police control room regarding bomb threat to 12302 Howrah Rajdhani (New Delhi to Howrah). The call was relayed to RPF control at 5.21 pm.
The train had left New Delhi station at 4.55 pm and was approaching Ghaziabad station when the call was received.
He said that the train was stopped at Ghaziabad and an intensive check was done by Railway Protection Force, Government Railway Police (GRP), civil police along with bomb squad and dog squad.
The spokesperson said that nothing abnormal or suspicious was found during the check and the train departed for its onward journey at 7.05 pm after police clearance.
He said a case has been registered and police were investigating the matter.
The spokesperson said that the person from whose number the call was received has been summoned and is being interrogated by GRP New Delhi.<br> <br>"Preliminary inquiry suggests it was a hoax call," he said.
--IANS <br>aks-ps/qd/vd

Kolkata, July 7 (IANS) Union Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu on Saturday said the focus of the new industrial policy would be on modernising existing businesses and developing new industries.
He said objective of the new industrial policy would be to align with the future trends of global industry.
"We want to ensure 20 per cent of the $5 trillion GDP size (expected by 2025) to come from manufacturing. But to reach there, we are working on few strategies," he said.
"The focus would be on developing new industries and it does not mean that we will ignore old industry. We will look to modernise existing businesses," he said.
The government has appointed a parallel committee to review all regulations, he said at an event organised by Indian Chamber of Commerce.
"Idea is to review all regulatory policy; we are removing undue regulations in a big way," Prabhu said.
According to him, the focus should be on both macro and micro development in order to increase the country's GDP.
With this in mind, the government has undertaken a pilot in six districts across five states to push development.
"We want to see how we can increase the GDP of these districts by 3 percent and we have taken the state governments on board. While ease of doing business is being improved nationally unless we do it at the district level, it will not serve the purpose," he added.
--IANS<br>bdc/vd

Kolkata, July 7 (IANS) AUnion Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu on Saturday said there is misconception that India is providing subsidies to its exporters, noting what the government gives is to minimise the adversities they suffer in entering the global markets.
"This is a misconception that we subsidise our exports... actually we don't subsidise the exports. What we give to the exporters in India is not any subsidy or incentive to promote exports but in a way, (to) partially offset the inadequate infrastructure support that they have... the high interest cost in the system," he said.
"We are trying to minimise the adversities they suffer from. This is not actually exports subsidy but in a way it is actually reducing the burden which they suffer to enter the global markets," he said at SHEFEXIL (Shellac and Forest Products Export Promotion Council) Awards for Export Excellence in association with The Economic Times.
Rich countries are providing more subsidies to their farmers that India is giving, he said.
"We are actually in a way not at all violating or not even trying to infringe any of the global trading system," he said, adding that the country is "fully WTO compatible".
Prabhu also said that in a bid to promote exports and overall industries growth, the centre is preparing a logistic plan.
"We are working on the logistic plan in two phases. The first is how to optimise the present logistic infrastructure and integrate it. The second is to create logistic hubs so that products get launched globally to use these hubs."
He also pointed out the possibility of creating basis for logistics in critical areas overseas and citing an example of central American country like Panana which connects both north and south America, Prabhu said logistic base in such country can help India's exporters.
He said India is preparing a matrix of products and countries that can be exported. "We are actually identifying 12 champion sectors," he added.
--IANS<br>bdc/vd

New Delhi, July 7 (IANS) Hitting out at the BJP and the Modi government, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said their politics of "hatred and communal polarisation" as seen in brutal lynchings across the country have "sickened our nation.
"The politics of hatred and communal polarisation is irreparably damaging our social fabric," said Gandhi on Twitter.
"The brutal lynchings across India that have sickened our nation, are the direct consequence of that kind of politics," he added.
--IANS<br>sid/vd

London, July 7 (IANS) India's Divij Sharan and his New Zealand partner Artem Sitak survived a tough five-set battle to enter the third round of the men's doubles category at the Wimbledon tennis tournament here on Saturday.
The unseeded Indo-Kiwi combination had started poorly as they lost the first couple of sets to Julio Peralta of Chile and Argentina's Horacio Zeballos.
But Sharan and Sitak made a superb comeback, winning the next three sets to carve out a 6-7, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6, 6-4 victory in a gruelling contest which lasted for three hours and 22 minutes.
They will face Jonathan Erlich of Israel and Marcin Matkowski of Poland in the next round.
--IANS<br>ajb/vd

Mumbai, July 7 (IANS) Fortis Healthcare Ltd (FHL) on Saturday reported no change in the audited financial statements from the unaudited one and said that it is currently in the process of evaluating the bids for investment into the company.
The company on Saturday released its consolidated audited financial results for the quarter and year ended March 31, 2018.
According to FHL, "there has been no change in the figures reported in the audited financial statements compared to the unaudited results announced on June 27, 2018".
"With the release of the audited financial statements, we have addressed an important objective that we had set for ourselves, as a reconstituted board comprising of independent directors, in the backdrop of recent developments," Ravi Rajagopal, Chairman, Board of Directors, Fortis Healthcare said in a statement.
"Our focus in the future will be in strengthening governance and transparency and restoring the health of the business. We are also currently in the process of evaluating the bids received on July 3, 2018 and will present our recommendation to the shareholders in the coming days."
--IANS<br>rv/vd

Samara (Russia), July 7 (IANS) England broke a 28-year-old jinx as they entered the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup, defeating Sweden 2-0 in a quarter-final match at the Samara Arena here on Saturday.
Harry Maguire (30th minute) drew first blood and Delle Alli (58th) extended the lead for England, who have now reached the last four stage only for the third time in their FIFA World Cup history -- the last time in 1990 when they lost to eventual champions West Germany and in 1966 when they won the title at home.
Bidding to win their only second title, England came to Russia with probably the least expectations since the 1966 edition. The Gareth Southgate-coached side has played fearless football, riding on their strengths on set-pieces and aerial movements.
On the day, England's latest victim, Sweden had a rather lacklustre outing. They were probably overwhelmed by the occasion as they were making their first appearance in the quarter-finals since 1994.
Fielding an unchanged starting line-up, England started well, dominating ball possession, and created more scoring chances. Sweden made two changes, bringing in defender Emil Krafth and Sebastian Larsson in midfield for Mikael Lustig and Gustav Svensson.
They had a more sedate start, but their highly rated defence and midfield were not at their usual high level. <br> <br>The first half chance came in the 12th minute for Sweden when Viktor Claesson smashed the ball from distance, but it went over the bar. England also got a chance in the 19th minute, but Harry Kane slammed the ball wide.
England gradually started to find their groove and played an attacking game with Raheem Sterling's pace repeatedly putting the Swedish defenders in trouble. But Sweden's defence was well organised and denied several efforts by the English.
All the corners in the first half went England's way, the first of which gave England the lead.
Ashley Young took the corner and Maguire exploited some sloppy marking to rise above the defence and registered his first international goal with a fine header.
Soon after the goal, Sweden, who were little defensive regrouped and changed their strategy. The Swedish players started putting pressure on England's defence but they were hampered by poor finishing.
On the other hand, England, who got several chances to double their lead in the final few minutes of the first half especially in the 43rd minute and 45th, played the rest of the half defending their ciatdel.
Sweden were a bit better in the second half and created some brilliant attacking moves. But although they managed several shots on target, England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford kept them at bay with some brilliant saves.
A couple of minutes after the restart, striker Marcus Berg rose above Young to unleash a fantastic headed at the goalpost but Pickford dived towards his left to deny the effort.
The continous attacking from Sweden allowed space to the England strikers which allowed them to created chances. In the 54th minute, England got a corner but Maguire's header failed to found the back of the net.
England drew better results a few minutes later when Lingard's cross towards the far post saw Delle Alli punish sloppy man marking by the Sweden defence with a free header into the back of the net.
With this goal, Alli became the second youngest English player to score at the World Cup. The 22-year-old is only behind Michael Owen, who was just 18 when he scored in a second round match against Argentina at the 1998 World Cup in France.
Sweden got a golden chance in the 62nd minute when Claesson's shot was denied by the England's custodian and then Henderson made a good block to cancel the rebound.
Veteran Sweden forward Berg got another chance, but was unable to beat the impressive Pickford.
With England leading 2-0, Sweden desperately searched for the chances to claw their way back into the match, they failed hugely as England defenders stood like a wall and thus wrapped up the issue without conceding the goal.
--IANS<br>gau/ajb/vd