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Hardwork of our farmers pays off: India’s foodgrain output to rise to a record 277.5 million tonnes

OpIndia Staff
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Hardwork of our farmers pays off: India’s foodgrain output to rise to a record 277.5 million tonnes

In a major morale boost for the Indian farmer, as per estimates released by the Agriculture Ministry on Tuesday, India’s total foodgrain production is expected to rise to a record 277.5 million tonnes in the year 2017-18. The agricultural year is measured in a July to June cycle. The main products driving the growth are expected to be rice and pulses. Based on these figures, the agriculture output is expected to grow by 0.9% as compared to the 275.1 million tonnes clocked during 2016-17, which too was a record in itself.

This total foodgrain output comprises of commodities like rice, wheat, coarse grains and pulses. Out of these coarse grain is expected to notch the highest growth of 3.8% to increase from 43.77 million tonnes in 2016-17 to 45.42 million tonnes in 2017-18. Using the same metrics and year of reference, rice production is expected to increase by 1.2% from 109.07 to 111.01. Pulses might grow from 23.13 to 23.95, though wheat production is expected to contract by 1.4% from 98.51 to 97.11.

Non-foodgrains like cotton and sugarcane too are expected to grow in this agricultural year. Sugarcane is expected to notch a staggering 15.4% growth from 306.06 million tonnes in 2016-17 to 353.23 million tonnes in 2018-19. Cotton, on the other hand, might rise by 4.1% to 33.92 million bales in 2017-18. Oilseeds production though is expected to fall by 4.4% with its production expected to stand at 29.88 million tonnes in 2017-18.

All these figures comprise of the second agricultural estimate for 2017-18 by the agricultural ministry. This rise in output has been attributed by the agricultural ministry to a “near normal monsoon in 2017 and various policy initiatives taken by the government”. Such an agricultural estimate is carried out via feedback from the states which as per the ministry was corroborated by other sources.

In all, a total of four such advanced estimates are released by the agricultural ministry in one annual cycle, before finally releasing the actual data. The second estimate thus was released after the sowing of Rabi crops was complete.

Journalist gets called out for describing Narendra Modi’s traditional headgear as ‘outlandish’

OpIndia Staff
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Journalist gets called out for describing Narendra Modi’s traditional headgear as ‘outlandish’

A journalist named Stanley Pignal was criticised for remarks on Narendra Modi’s headgear choices. The journalist called Modi’s appetite for wearing ‘outlandish’ headgear was laudable in an apparently sarcastic tone and ended up insulting the traditional headgear that was worn by Modi at the time. Stanley Pignal is a journalist with ‘The Economist’.


Reactions to the Pignal’s remarks criticised the journalist on Twitter


In spite of the criticism against him, Stanley has refused to apologise and stood by his remarks. He described the criticism against him as a synthetic outrage.


It is quite clear that the journalist is not capable of accepting diversity or introspecting on his own loose comments.

Hindu man dies in crossfire between two groups violently fighting over a girl, Shadab arrested

OpIndia Staff
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Hindu man dies in crossfire between two groups violently fighting over a girl, Shadab arrested

Tension spread in the Patel Nagar region of Meerut after a man died in a crossfire between two groups fighting over a girl on Thursday night. As per the city’s Superintendent of police, a 25-year-old man named Ajay Kumar from the city’s TP Nagar area was passing though Patel Nagar when he got hit by a bullet fired by one of the groups. He died on the spot. The police later arrested a man named Shadab in connection with the matter.

Reports claimed that the arrested man Shadab is a son of a known criminal and carjacker Haji Galla. After Ajay was shot, both the groups fled from the spot and the deceased youth’s family launched a protest near the clock tower. This resulted in a traffic jam and the police resorted to lathi charge for dispersing the crowd.

Turns out, the two warring groups were led by Shadab and Arman respectively and the fight erupted out of a dispute over a girl. During the fight, Shadab proceeded to fire shots at Arman’s group. Unfortunately, at that time Ajay was passing through the area and got hit in the stomach. The police later sent the body for postmortem.

Later, BJP leaders too reached the spot to assess the situation. The police proceeded to raid Haji Galla’s home which was deserted. Then the police promptly constituted four teams to arrest the accused after filing a case at the Dehli gate police station. Finally, Shadab was made to surrender by his father who then proceeded to flee with his family. The police have filed a murder case against four people including Shadab and Armaan.

In light of the matter, some reports claimed that communal situation might be developing in the region, though this was firmly denied by the SP.

As per local reports, the dispute between Shadab and Armaan was going on for about a week. On Monday evening, Shadab’s father allegedly got involved in the matter and openly threatened Armaan. The father reportedly has more than 50 matters pending against him regarding car thefts. Even Shadab is accused of stealing and scrapping cars.

Kerala government indulges in blatant appeasement politics through a startup loan scheme

OpIndia Staff
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Kerala government indulges in blatant appeasement politics through a startup loan scheme

The Kerala Government led by Pinarayi Vijayan has blatantly indulged in appeasement politics in a startup loan scheme. An advertisement that appeared in a newspaper declared that the Hindu OBCs would get 20 lakh loan per annum whereas the Christians and Muslims could avail 30 lakh loans per annum under this scheme. It is indeed bizarre to see this sort of appeasement politics in a loan scheme for startups.


The advertisement was put up by Kerala State Backward Classes Corporation was met with criticism on social media.


Will the Kerala government correct its stance? Will the central government intervene in this matter?  We will have to wait and watch.

67 year old Madarsa teacher, Zakir Alam, arrested for sexual assault of an 8 year old child

OpIndia Staff
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67 year old Madarsa teacher, Zakir Alam, arrested for sexual assault of an 8 year old child

A 67-year-old teacher in a Madarsa in Narela area in Delhi was arrested the last night for allegedly molesting an eight-year-old girl. The madarsa teacher allegedly raped the girl in the madarsa located on the outskirts of the city.


According to reports, the 67-year-old raped the girl on Monday, the Delhi police has already arrested the accused and a case has been registered under the POCSO act 2012. The victim is currently undergoing treatment in Delhi’s BR Ambedkar Hospital in Rohini. Her condition is reportedly stable.

The accused, named Zakir Alam, allegedly raped the girl while she was attending the madarsa on February 25. He had also threatened the girl and told that she would face dire consequences if she told anyone about the incident. But the girl’s condition had deteriorated eventually and she fainted in her house the next day. Her family took her to a doctor where it was revealed that she has been sexually assaulted. The girl later narrated the incident to her mother and her parents called the police control room on Tuesday night to report the incident.

Police have informed that the accused, Alam, is a teacher of Arabic language in the JJ Nagar Madrasa in Narela area. He has been employed in the Madrasa for past several years.

This is another addition to several incidents of sexual exploitation of children in Madarsas. Madarsas are often in violation of regulations imposed by state governments for educational institutions. Recently the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has recommended bringing Madarsas and Missionary schools under RTE.

Trudeau stands by Canadian official who says ‘rogue’ agents in the India orchestrated the Atwal scandal to embarrass him

OpIndia Staff
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Trudeau stands by Canadian official who says ‘rogue’ agents in the India orchestrated the Atwal scandal to embarrass him

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has been under fire for inviting a convicted Khalistani, Jaspal Atwal, being invited by Canadian High Commission during his trip to India, has defended the Canadian government official who suggested that factions within Indian government sabotaged his trip.


The official reportedly said questions should be asked of the Indian government about how Jaspal Atwal was taken off a blacklist of people banned by India from entering the country — and then suddenly surfaced during Trudeau’s visit there this week.

Trudeau was being grilled by opposition MPs about invitation issued to Jaspal Atwal, a former member of the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), a militant group, convicted of attempting to assassinate cabinet minister of Punjab in 1986. A Canadian government official from Prime Minister’s Office had last week suggested that Atwal’s presence was arranged by factions within the Indian government who want to prevent Prime Minister Narendra Modi from getting too cosy with a foreign government they believe is not committed to a united India and is sympathetic to Sikh extremism.

When Canadian opposition leader asked whether Trudeau agrees with the allegations levelled by his official, Trudeau said, ‘”Our professional, non-partisan public service does high-quality work and when one of our top diplomats and security officials says something to Canadians, it’s because they know it to be true.’

All you need to know about the INX Media scam

Sanghamitra
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All you need to know about the INX Media scam

Karti Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram in UPA government was arrested earlier today in connections with the INX Media Scam. Karti was arrested in Chennai as soon as he landed from his British Airways flight. The CBI had filed an FIR in the INX scam case in May 2017 alleging that Karti had received a bribe of Rs 3.5 crores from the Peter and Indrani Mukherjee owned INX Media Pvt Ltd. INX Media was later named as 9X.

The INX Media Scam can be briefly explained as follows:

  1. In 2007, INX Media, which was owned by Peter and Indrani Mukherjee received a foreign investment of about Rs 300 crores. For that INX Media needed clearance from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board.
  2. CBI, in its FIR, had alleged that FIPB regulations were violated. The FIPB norms allowed INX to receive only 4.62 crores, but INX violated the conditions and raised foreign direct investments worth Rs 305 crores by issuing shares to foreign investors.

    Court order that granted detention of Bhaskararaman
  3. P Chidambaram was the Finance Minister when the FIPB proposal was cleared for INX Media and Karti allegedly used his influence in the Ministry not only in clearing the proposal but also in manipulating a tax probe against it.
  4. INX made payments to Advantage Strategic Consultancy Pvt Ltd (Advantage India) and its subsidiary Advantage Singapore.
  5. According to a series of exposes made by S Gurumuthy in the New Indian Express, Karti Chidambaram owned almost two-thirds of Advantage fro 2006 to 2011. Karti has been denying the allegations. Karti owned Advantage through Ausbridge Holdings and Investments Private Limited (Ausbridge) which Karti allegedly owned almost entirely.
  6. Karti allegedly transferred the ownership of Ausbridge to his close friend and aide Mohanan Rajesh because the Media has been probing his links to these companies and apparent conflicts of interest shown by the Finance Ministry.
  7. Out of the five lakh shares of Advantage India, three lakh shares (or 60% ownership) were held in the names of four persons – C B N Reddy, (211430 shares), Padma and Ravi Viswanathan (32600 shares) and Bhaskar Raman (17400 shares). All the four are Karti’s close associates, allegedly even called his ‘Benaamis’. According to the same reports Advantage Ltd has its presence in at least 20 countries. In fact, Bhaskararaman was considered extremely crucial to the case. The ED submitted that it was necessary to detain and question him to establish trail of proceeds of crime, and also get information from him that was in his exclusive knowledge.
  8. In August last year, Karti was confronted with the above persons including Mohanan Rajesh and they were grilled by the agency for hours. In January 2018, Karti was again questioned for several hours by ED after avoiding summons twice. Karti’s aide, and the family’s CA, S Bhaskar Raman was arrested by CBI in February 2018. Indrani Mukherjee had also reportedly admitted before ED that her company had bribed Karti. Indrani Mukherjea and Peter Mukherjea, as submitted by ED in court, syphoned off GBP 90 million which is suspected to have gone overseas through the Hawal route and later on, INX Media filed an application before FIPB for permission to receive funds from Foreign investors. 
  9. Karti’s involvement and favourable clearances by FIPB are also being probed in the Aircel- Maxis scam. Both the scams have taken place while P Chidambaram was the Finance Minister.
  10. Now that Karti Chidambaram has been arrested, speculations are rife that his father P Chidambaram might face inquiry soon too.

Karti’s arrest has opened a lot of fresh questions. How much was his father involved? Was the Finance Ministry reduced to a family money laundering business by the father-son duo during the UPA regime? Further investigations are expected to reveal answers to these.

Kamal Haasan’s key aide insults APJ Abdul Kalam, angers Tamilians

Nithesh S
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Kamal Haasan’s key aide insults APJ Abdul Kalam, angers Tamilians

Kamal Hassan visited APJ Abdul Kalam’s house before launching his party Makkal Needhi Maiam, in a bid to get the blessings of the great scientist’s family.


However, it has emerged that one of his key aides, Bharathi Krishnakumar who figures in the first list of his party’s office bearers, holds a low opinion of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. He had insulted Dr Kalam at a book release function in January 2017. Bharathi Krishnakumar is a left-leaning documentary filmmaker and a former CPI(M) member.


Translation of Bharathi Krishnakumar’s comments on Dr APJ Abdul Kalam is below.

Everyone says, Dr Abdul Kalam lived an austere lifestyle. If he lived so simple, then how are we living? Are we wearing a golden underwear? Not only Kalam, our entire nation is living with simplicity. So there is no point in saying Kalam lived with simplicity and he has not misused government powers.

Also, he sold his books in the post office. As a book writer, we all know it’s a crime. How come a president can sell his book on the post office and earn money from it. Did he open his mouth on 2000 Gujarat issue? Everyone naming Abdul Kalam as a scientist. But when asked about what he invented, no one answers it. The title of ‘scientist’ is given to Kalam by himself, not others.

Mr Bharathi Krishnakumar told The Hindu,  “ Mr Haasan and I have a mutual understanding,” in a report published recently on February 24th. Does Kamal Hassan share Bharathi Krishnakumar’s insulting assessment of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam? Is Kalam’s name being used by Kamal Hassan to enhance his own image in politics? Tamil Nadu and the entire country would like to hear the answer to this question.

Islamic preacher accused of communally inflammatory preaching to kids, arrested on route to Qatar

OpIndia Staff
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Islamic preacher accused of communally inflammatory preaching to kids, arrested on route to Qatar

MM Akbar a well known Islamic Preacher who was dubbed as Kerala’s Zakir Naik was arrested on Sunday, while he was on route to Qatar. He was nabbed by the immigration officials at Hyderabad’s international airport while he was in transit from Australia, waiting to board a flight to his destination. Akbar the Managing Director of Peace International School based in Kochi was wanted in connection with spreading communal enmity via the textbooks used in his schools.

About a month ago, one Peace International school was shut down by the Kerala government after coming into focus for its communal and Islamist syllabus. Turns out that the school didn’t follow the curriculum prescribed by boards like CBSE or ICSE, but instead used content provided by an “Islamic education institution based in Mumbai” named Burooj Realization.

Some of the objectionable content included a class 2 book containing sections about dealing with non-Muslim friends. The questions in the book included asking students, “why Islam always wins”  and “what would they do if one of their friends decided to become a Muslim”.

Akbar currently charged under section 153A of the IPC (Promoting enmity among groups), had a lookout notice issued by the Kerala Police. After being detained he was taken into custody by the Ernakulam (North) Police Station. Akbar was expected to be produced before a District Magistrate’s Court on Monday.

Apart from Akbar, three people associated with the book publishers have also been arrested by the police. In 2016, soon after the publishing representatives were arrested, Akbar decided to abscond and supposedly fled to Dubai. Thus the lookout notice was issued with the help of Interpol.

These inflammatory books in question were reportedly distributed to about 13 branches of the Peace International School chain, and it has been claimed that Akbar himself was in charge of the book procurement and setting of the syllabus.

Karti Chidambaram arrested by CBI in Chennai

OpIndia Staff
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Karti Chidambaram arrested by CBI in Chennai

Karti Chidambaram, son of former Union Minister P Chidambaram, has been reportedly arrested by CBI early morning today in Chennai. The scam-ridden father-son due have been under scanner for their involvement in obtaining FIPB (Foreign Investment Promotion Board) approvals for INX media after allegedly receiving bribes through Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Limited, a firm controlled by Karti Chidambaram.

CBI had earlier filed an FIR against Karti Chidambaram, Mukerjea couple, INX media, Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Limited, Chess Management services and Padma Viswanathan, a director of Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Limited. However, startling revelations have emerged from raids in Chennai properties of Karti Chidambaram.


Karti was reportedly arrested earlier today as soon as he stepped out of British Airways flight in Chennai.


Interestingly, last night, Karti unassumingly tweeted a picture of boarding a British Airways flight from Heathrow Airport.


The CBI has registered a case regarding alleged irregularities in granting the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media in 2007 when P Chidambaram was the Finance Minister. The agency has levelled the charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, taking gratification by corrupt or illegal means and criminal misconduct.

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