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Biggest ever gain in Sensex and Nifty in a decade after Modi govt’s announcements slashing tax rates for corporates

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Biggest ever gain in Sensex and Nifty in a decade after Modi govt’s announcements slashing tax rates for corporates

Following finance minister’s major announcement slashing the income tax rates for domestic companies and new domestic manufacturing companies, the stock markets of the country-Sensex and Nifty have witnessed the highest single-day gain in the last 10 years. Sensex gained more than 1900 points while Nifty had rallied about 560 points.


The measures announced by the finance minister was instantly welcomed by the markets as bulls started dominating the bears and the markets, which were until now plummeting saw a prompt surge after the FM made the announcement. After the upswing, the Sensex is currently hovering around 37800 mark and Nifty at 11200 mark.

Earlier, while making the announcement, FM Sitharaman stated that another insertion has been inserted in the Income Tax Act with effect from 2019-20 which will allow new domestic company incorporated after 1st October 2019 to make fresh investment in manufacturing with an option to pay income tax at the rate of 15%.

She further added that domestic companies can also pay income tax at the rate of 22% if they do not avail any incentive or exemptions. The effective tax rates for these companies will be 25.17% including surcharge and cess. To those companies who continue to avail the incentives, the minimum alternate tax (MAT) has been reduced to 15% from the current 18.5%.

In a massive move for the corporate sector, the Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman announced steep cuts in corporation tax among a series of announcements. Sitharaman said that the total revenue forgone on account of today’s measures would be Rs 1.45 trillion per year.

Hampi vandalized again: Tourist booked for ‘accidentally’ damaging two pillars while taking photographs

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Hampi vandalized again: Tourist booked for ‘accidentally’ damaging two pillars while taking photographs

A 45-year-old man from Bengaluru was arrested by Hampi police on Wednesday for damaging two pillars and bringing them down. According to reports, Nagaraj, a resident of Avalahalli in Bengaluru was arrested when he allegedly brought down two pillars while taking a selfie with his friends at the site.

Nagraj was visiting the UNESCO World Heritage site in Ballari district with a group of friends on Wednesday when two pillars at the Saalu Mantapa were ‘accidentally’ brought down as he was trying to push them ‘for taking selfies’. The pillars were outside the Vijay Vittala Temple heritage site.

The ASI guards posted at the site had alerted the police. Subsequently, Nagaraj was taken into custody.

The Hampi police have booked a case under section 30 of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958, against Nagaraj. His friends were not booked as they were reportedly not involved.

CK Baba, the SP of Ballary has been quoted by The Hindu as saying, “Since there had been rain for the last few days, the ground holding the historical pillars on the protected heritage site got loose. When the accused pushed one of the pillars, it collapsed onto another pillar, which also fell to the ground. Though it was an unintentional act, we have booked a case after the ASI lodged a complaint. We have to respect heritage monuments and the law in force to protect them.”

It is notable here that the monument complex had suffered another damage when four miscreants had deliberately damaged some pillars at the Vishnu temple complex and brought them down in February this year. A court in Hospet had fined them with Rs 70,000 each and had ordered them to re-erect the pillars.

In July this year, the 16th-century Brindavana (samadhi) of Saint Vyasaraja Swamy, Rajaguru of Vijayanagara Emperor Krishnadevaraya was desecrated and vandalised in Anegundi near Hampi.

Activist Gulalai Ismail escapes to US after being hunted for exposing how Pakistan Army rapes and enforces disappearances

OpIndia Staff
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Activist Gulalai Ismail escapes to US after being hunted for exposing how Pakistan Army rapes and enforces disappearances

Human rights activist from Pakistan Gulalai Ismail, who is being hunted by the Pakistani authorities, has now escaped to the United States of America. She has now applied for political asylum in the country.

According to the reports, Gulalai Ismail escaped Pakistani authorities last month and has reached the United States, where she has applied for political asylum. Ismail was being targeted by the Pakistani authorities for highlighting the atrocities committed by the country’s military.

Accused of treason, Gulalai Ismail is being hunted down by Pakistani security services in every corner of the country, raiding her friends’ houses and closing in on her family. But somehow Gulalai Ismail, the 32-year-old Pakistani women’s rights activist has managed to escape from Pakistan to reach America.

The New York Times report states that Gulalai Ismail is currently staying with her sister in Brooklyn. While she did not reveal how she managed to escape the Pakistani authorities, Gulalai Ismail did say that she did not fly out of any airport.

“I can’t tell you any more. My exit story will put many lives at risk,” the NYT quoted her as saying.

Ismail has campaigned aggressively for women’s rights, bringing attention to rapes, disappearances and other abuses committed by Pakistan’s security forces against their own people.

While in New York, Gulalai Ismail has started meeting some of the prominent human rights defenders and the staffs of congressional leaders.

Senator Charles Schumer, a member of the Democrat Party in New York has stood in support of Ismail. “I will do everything I can to support Gulalai’s asylum request. It is clear that her life would be in danger if she were to return to Pakistan”, he said.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani security officials have said that they have suspected that Gulalai Ismail had left the country. They also said that the security officials are after her “but she is not traceable”.

“Our guys have been after her, by all means, but she is not traceable,” said a Pakistani intelligence agent to NYT citing intelligence protocols. “She has gone to a place beyond our reach,” NYT quoted him of saying.

Gulalai Ismail, since she was 16, has been speaking out about human rights abuses, focusing on the condition of Pakistani women and girls who suffer worst forms of violence in the country. The report added that Ismail is still worried about her parents in Islamabad “who face charges of financing terrorism and remain under heavy surveillance”.

In January, she had accused Pakistan Army of raping and sexually abusing many Pakistani women. She has also joined protests led by an ethnic Pashtun movement which Pakistan military had tried to crush. Pakistani officials have accused Ismail of sedition, inciting treason and defaming state institutions.

According to a report in Dawn, in November last year, the Islamabad High Court was informed that Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had recommended putting Ismail’s name on the Exit Control List (ECL) for her alleged anti-state activities abroad.

Ismail had challenged the government’s decision to put her name on the ECL. The Islamabad High Court had later ordered the removal of her name from the list. However, the court had allowed the interior ministry to take appropriate action, including confiscation of her passport, in the light of recommendations made by ISI.

Ismail has launched a research and advocacy group called Voices for Peace and Democracy aimed at protecting women in the conflict-hit zones of the world. “She is also thinking of law school,” reported NYT.

Odisha: POCSO court awards death penalty to Mohammad Mustaq, who had raped and brutally killed a 6-year-old girl last year

OpIndia Staff
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Odisha: POCSO court awards death penalty to Mohammad Mustaq, who had raped and brutally killed a 6-year-old girl last year

A special POCSO court in Cuttack, Odisha has awarded the death penalty to 26-year-old Mohammad Mustaq yesterday. Mustaq had brutally raped and killed a 6-year-old girl in Salepur’s Jagannathpur village last year.

Additional District and special POCSO court judge Vandana Kar convicted Mustaq under sections 302(murder), 363, 376 a-b of the IPC and section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. As per the provisions in the strict POCSO amendments last year, Mustaq was awarded the death penalty yesterday.

As per reports, this is the fourth death penalty awarded in Odisha after the central government amended the POCSO Act to include the death penalty for rapists of children under 12 years.

On the evening of 21 April 2018, the 6-year-old victim was found abandoned in an extremely critical condition in the premises of a school in Salepur’s Jagannathpur village. She was found unconscious and bleeding profusely from her head, neck, chest, and private parts.

The accused Mohammad Mustak, who was from the same village, had lured the girl with the promise of giving chocolates and had raped her brutally. in an attempt to kill her after the act, he had allegedly smashed her head multiple times and strangulated her. The girl was comatose and on a ventilator for 8 days where all attempts to revive her had failed. After suffering a massive cardiac arrest, the little victim had succumbed to her injuries on April 29th at the SCB medical college last year.

The criminal was reportedly known to the girl’s family. In an attempt to hide his crime, he had also joined the search for the girl when her family informed the villagers that she had not returned home after going to buy biscuits from a nearby shop. The police had filed a charge sheet in the case in a record 19-days.

Tax rates slashed for corporates, Sensex soars by 1300 points after big announcements by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

OpIndia Staff
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Tax rates slashed for corporates, Sensex soars by 1300 points after big announcements by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

In a boost to revive the economy, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today proposed to slash the income tax rates for domestic companies and new domestic manufacturing companies. FM Sitharaman made these announcements while addressing the media ahead of GST council meet in Goa.


In a bid to give an impetus to the ‘Make in India’ campaign, FM Sitharaman said that another insertion has been inserted in the Income Tax Act with effect from 2019-20 which will allow new domestic company incorporated after 1st October 2019 to make fresh investment in manufacturing with an option to pay income tax at the rate of 15%.

She further added that domestic companies can also pay income tax at the rate of 22% if they do not avail any incentive or exemptions. The effective tax rates for these companies will be 25.17% including surcharge and cess. To those companies who continue to avail the incentives, the minimum alternate tax (MAT) has been reduced to 15% from the current 18.5%.

Sitharaman also added that to stabilise the flow of funds in the capital market, the enhanced surcharge that was provided in the July 2019 budget presented after the new government was formed, will not be applicable on capital gains arising on sale of equity share in a company or a unit of a equity oriented fund. The enhanced surcharge shall not apply on capital gains arising on sale of any security including derivatives in the hands of foreign portfolio investors, she added.

Union Minister also announced relief to listed companies. Those companies which had made announcements of buyback prior to 5th July 2019 will not have to pay tax on such buyback of shares.

Following the announcements, the Sensex was up by over 1300 points and Nifty hit 11,000 points following the announcements.

Findings at Keeladi site trace back to 6th century BCE, graffiti symbols found bear resemblance to Indus Valley Civilisation

OpIndia Staff
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Findings at Keeladi site trace back to 6th century BCE, graffiti symbols found bear resemblance to Indus Valley Civilisation

The Tamil Nadu Archeology Department (TNAD) has stated that the ‘cultural deposits’ unearthed at the Keeladi excavation site at the banks of Vaigai in the Sivaganga district can be dated back to 6th century BCE, at least 3 century earlier than previously thought.

As per reports, this is the first time the TNAD has officially announced the date. K Pandiarajan, the minister for Tamil culture and archaeology released an official report on Thursday which stated that the Keeladi Vaigai artefacts can be dated to as far back as 6th century BCE.

Commissioner of Archaeology T. Udayachandran stated that one of the 6 samples collected at the depth of 353 cm which was sent to the US at the Beta Analytic Lab, Miami, Florida for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry dating, has been dated at 580 BC. The report was titled, ‘Keeladi-An Urban Settlement of Sangam Age on the Banks of River Vaigai’. It has been published by the TNAD.

The six samples are dated between 6th century BCE and 1st century BCE. The 61-page report also claimed that the Tamil-Brahmi script is considerably older and the findings at the Keeladi site prove that the second urbanisation of the Vaigai plains happened around the 6th century BCE. The report also states that the people inhabiting these sites had attained literacy and had started writing at around the 6th century BCE.

The skeletal fragments collected at the site were sent to Pune’s Deccan College Post Graduate Research Institute and they have been found to belong to domestic animals like cow, buffalo, sheep, goat etc. Some fragments of Neelgai, wild boar and peacock have also been found.

Sharp bone tools, pottery, terracotta vessels, hanging stones for yarn, copper needles and other tools found also suggest the society used to spin threads and weave clothes. Cooking vessels and water containers were made out of locally available raw material, said the report.

Graffiti symbols comparison, image courtesy: The News Minute

The graffiti symbols found at the site reportedly bear similarity to the symbols from Indus Valley civilisation. As many as 1000 graffiti marks were reportedly found.

The excavation site is located at around 12 km from Madurai, in the banks of the Vaigai river. While the first three phases of excavation were carried out under the Archeological Survey of India, the fourth phase was done under TNAD. The current report is based on the fourth phase excavation that was done from 2017 to 2018 and had brought out 5820 artefacts. The TNAD is currently carrying out the 5th phase of excavation that had started from June 2019.

Rape accused BJP leader Chinmayanand arrested by SIT, taken for medical examination

OpIndia Staff
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Rape accused BJP leader Chinmayanand arrested by SIT, taken for medical examination

Rape accused BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand has been arrested by SIT (Special Investigation Team) and taken for medical examination. Chinmayanand was accused of rape by a law student in Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur. She had accused him of raping her and “physically exploitation” stated that the former MP recorded videos of her while she was in the bath and used them to blackmail and rape her.

He was arrested by the SIT in Shahjahanpur. Following the directions of the Supreme Court, the case is being investigated by the SIT set up by Uttar Pradesh Police.

Last week he was grilled by the SIT for more than 7 hours in Shahjanapur. The SIT members and a forensic team also spent six hours at his Divya Dham Ashram, where his bedroom was later sealed.

The rape victim’s father told reporters that Chinmayanand had raped his daughter after blackmailing her with the recorded videos. His daughter then decided to record all his acts using a hidden camera. As per reports, he has handed over 43 video clips to the SIT probing the case. He has also demanded that Section 376, along with the provisions for destroying evidence, be evoked against the former MP as some of the evidence has been removed from the hostel room of his daughter at the BJP leader’s behest.

A friend of the law student had also spoken out in her support, confirming the charges pressed against the former MP. “She studied with me in the same college and had told me about the problems she was facing. She told me she was first given free food and other privileges in the hostel but was unaware of what was in store for her. Later, she told me that when she went for a bath, her video was recorded, which was later used to blackmail her,” the friend recalled.

The LLM student from the Swami Shukdevanand Law College (SS Law College) in Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh had alleged that Swami Chinmayanand had raped her and physically assaulted her for over a year. She had released a video on social media on August 23, levelling allegations of sexual harassment against Chinmayanand.

Madhya Pradesh: High profile honey-trapping network busted, Congress IT cell state coordinator involved

OpIndia Staff
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Madhya Pradesh: High profile honey-trapping network busted, Congress IT cell state coordinator involved

A high-profile honey-trapping racket that blackmailed and exhorted top politicians and government officials with videos was busted by Madhya Pradesh police officials in Bhopal on Wednesday night. Five women, including the wife of a former Congress IT cell vice-president, have been arrested in connection with the case, reports Times of India.

According to the reports, the Madhya Pradesh Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) and the Bhopal Police in a joint operation nabbed the honey-trapping extortion network in Bhopal on Wednesday for allegedly blackmailing politicians and high ranking government officials after discreetly recording their private videos, in which, the wife of a former Congress IT cell vice-president was also involved.

The arrested women in the honey-trapping racket are identified as 39-year-old Shweta Vijay Jain, 48-year-old Shweta Swapnil Jain, 35-year-old Barkha Soni (wife of former Congress IT cell vice-president), 34-year-old Aarti Dayal and an 18-year-old college student. Omprakash Kori, 34, who drives Aarti Dayal’s car was also arrested.

Reportedly, the honey trapping racket targeted only wealthy individuals and focused on politicians and bureaucrats. The racket was allegedly operated by Shweta Jain, who runs a local NGO and lives in the house of BJP MLA Brijendra Pratap Singh on rent.

The BJP MLA has issued a clarification. “I used to live there with my family till last month but we moved out and hired a broker to look for some tenants. My broker introduced the Jain family to me, who had been living in Riviera for a long time. They moved into my house on September 1”, he said.

One of the women is identified as Barkha Soni, is the wife of former Congress IT cell vice-president Amit Soni. Under the garb of running an NGO, the women made friends with influential people, who they later honey trapped and then blackmailed for cash and favours. Interestingly, only after the honey-trapping story broke yesterday, Congress released a letter dated June 15th that said that Amit Soni had been suspended for ‘anti-party activities’.

Interestingly, Barkha Soni, apart from being the wife of Amit Soni who was the Congress IT cell vice-president was involved with Mahila Congress and was the state coordinator of Congress IT cell in Madhya Pradesh herself.

Appointment of Barkha Bhatnagar Soni

Barkha’s Facebook profile also mentions that she works with Mahila Congress and she has pictures with several Congress leaders.


The accused Shweta even tried to get an election ticket from Sagar but failed after her MMS went viral on the internet. One of the gang’s recent victims was a top IAS official from whom she was allegedly trying to extort Rs. 3 crore.

The racket was busted after an Indore Municipal Corporation officer – Harbhajan Singh filed a complaint against Aarti Dayal. They were allegedly making extortion demand of Rs.3 crore from him. When Dayal along with another woman, came to Indore to allegedly receive Rs. 50 lakh as the first instalment of the extortion sum, she was arrested, the police said. Others were arrested following their interrogation.

The Police have seized laptops, mobile phones, documents and video evidence from the house of the gang leader. “All the accused were produced before a court in Indore on Thursday and are now in police custody,” a top police official said.

During the interrogation, the women revealed how they targeted high-profile individuals across the state. “They revealed information about three other women operating from Bhopal, following which help from the anti-terrorism squad (ATS) was sought,” said SSP Bhopal.

A report in Dainik Bhaskar stated that the women were used to a very expensive lifestyle. Most of the accused have luxury cars and they live in posh housing societies. The police have also recovered cash worth 14 lakhs from the house of one of the accused. The video clips and 8 political leaders and at least 5 high profile government officials have reportedly been recovered from the accused.

Recently, the Bengaluru police had arrested two people, including a TV journalist, for kidnapping and robbing a 68-year-old man from Hubbali. The prime accused, Ranjitha, a TV anchor had got in touch with the victim through social media. She and her associates then planned to honey-trap him and extort money, said police.

A senior police officer said that TV Anchor Ranjitha befriended the victim and invited him for a two-day trip to Bengaluru. On August 25, he came to Bengaluru to meet her and the duo booked a cab to a resort on Kanakapura Road.

Note: This article has been updated with relevant information

Fashion designer Agnimitra Paul who was accompanying Babul Supriyo heckled too, saree torn by pro-Naxal supporters in JU

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Fashion designer Agnimitra Paul who was accompanying Babul Supriyo heckled too, saree torn by pro-Naxal supporters in JU

Fashion designer Agnimitra Paul, who was accompanying Union Minister Babul Supriyo at Jadavpur University yesterday, was also on the receiving end of hooliganism by pro-Naxal activists. In a Facebook post, Paul, who has recently joined the BJP said that her saree was torn and she was abused and manhandled by the ‘activists’.

Paul shared a video on Facebook which clearly shows how she was assaulted by a heckling crowd.

Addressing the message to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, she said, “What excuses you would put forward when a lady is being publicly manhandled, molested or abused by students inside a premium university campus just because she committed the fault of attending a fresher’s welcome program organized by ABVP.” She added that such a behaviour is a matter of shame for the entire system. She said that Mamata and her rule is a ‘curse’ to this constitution and she must resign. Paul even condemned the role of Jadavpur University’s Vice Chancellor and the local police for the way the incident was handled.

Last night she had narrated the ordeal on how the Jadavpur University chancellor allegedly remained a mute spectator.

She said that she had requested the Vice Chancellar Suranjan Das to call the police to escort them as thousands of students ‘wanted to assault’ them again while they were on their way out but instead of calling the cops, he remained a mute spectator. Paul said that the vice chancellor said he needed ‘permission’ to call the police.

The Vice Chancellor, then fell ill during all the heckling and was admitted to a hospital.

Paul was accompanying Union Minister Babul Supriyo, who were invited to attend an event organised by the ABVP, students wing of the RSS. The minister who is also an accomplished singer, was invited to perform at the event.

Ahead of his visit, activists of Students Federation of India and Trinamool Chhatra Parishad, the student wings of CPI and TMC, had prepared to stop the union minister from entering the university. When Babul Supriyo arrived at the university, the activists gathered at the gate blocking it and presented him from entering the campus at the gate.

Amide the slogans of “Babul Supriyo go back”, the minister was shoved and pushed back by the activists holding red flags. The minister was also manhandled by several people. Some pulled his shirt, while one student was pulling his hair. In the pushing and pulling, Babul Supriyo fell on the ground, and the collar of his shirt was torn.

Pakistan: Police arrests two classmates in connection with the mysterious death of Hindu student Namrita Chandani

OpIndia Staff
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Pakistan: Police arrests two classmates in connection with the mysterious death of Hindu student Namrita Chandani

On Thursday, the Sindh Police finally arrested two students in connection with the murder of Namrita Chandani, a Hindu girl who was found murdered at her university hostel under mysterious circumstances a few days ago in Larkana, Pakistan.

According to the reports, two classmates of Namrita Chandani, the girl whose dead body was found mysteriously in the hostel room, have been detained by the police in Pakistan’s Sindh province.

The two suspects have been taken into the custody by the police after they traced the call data from Namrita’s cell phone. Namrita’s room was locked from inside. However, the police have not yet ascertained whether she committed suicide or was murdered.

Masood Bangash, SSP of Larkana stated that both suspects were Namrita’s fellow classmates and were taken into custody after tracing the call details from the deceased’s cell phone. According to police, picture evidence and other materials including exam passes were found from Namrita’s hostel room. The laptop of the deceased is also being inspected for possible clues by investigators.

Reportedly, the police officer said that some of the text messages have been removed from Namrita’s cell phone and added that her mobile phone had been sent for forensic examination to FIA head office in Islamabad.

The mysterious murder of Namrita has raised suspicions whether they were attempts to forceful conversions, which has become rampant in Pakistan especially in Sindh.

Namrita Chandni, a final-year student of Bibi Asifa Dental College in Larkana district, was found dead lying on a cot with a rope tied to her neck on Monday. Chandani, who belonged to Ghotki town, was found lying on a charpoy earlier this week with a piece of cloth tied to her neck while her room was locked from inside.

The police and other authorities have tried to downplay the incident by saying that she committed suicide. However, her family has asserted that she was murdered. Her brother, Vishal who is a medical consultant, said that the preliminary checkup showed that she was murdered.

In his statement to the media, Vishaal had also said that the family had sought permission from the local administration for conducting a post-mortem of his sister from a private hospital and bearing all of the expenses.

The mysterious death of Hindu student Namrita comes just a day after violence against minority Hindus was unleashed by Muslims from Ghotki, Pakistan, the region where the deceased hailed from. Ghotki, a city in Pakistan’s Sindh province has been known for the persecution of Hindus, who are in minority in Pakistan.

On Sunday, following an allegation of blasphemy against a Hindu school principal, Hindu temples, shops and homes of minority Hindus were ransacked by Muslim rioters. However, later it was revealed that the attack on Hindus was a pre-planned event to cover-up a child abduction incident. The school principal had thwarted efforts by giving refuge to one of the Hindu girls, who was abducted by associates of child kidnapper Mian Mitho.

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