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Atmanirbhar: PM Modi’s call for India’s self-reliance makes netizens unleash their creativity

OpIndia Staff
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Atmanirbhar: PM Modi’s call for India’s self-reliance makes netizens unleash their creativity

Last evening PM Modi addressed to the nation. Since his 8 pm addresses have a history of shock elements, the nation was glued to their TVs listening in abject anticipation.

The PM announced a massive economic package of Rs 20 lakh crores, approximately 10% of India’s GDP. However, throughout his speech he emphasised on one word, ‘Aatmanirbhar’. India has to become Aatmanirbhar (self-reliant in Hindi), the PM said. While a considerable number of millennials gawked and googled to find its meaning, it was explained nevertheless. And mainly because the PM’s speech lacked meme material otherwise, the social media lapped up what was available. And Bingo! We have a flood of ‘Aatmanirbhar’ memes and jokes.

As a lot of Indians did some Aatma-chintan over how to become Aatma-nirbhar, the dependency on machines and robots struck us first. Sadly, machines learn faster.

Premier League India picked up the word for spreading some positivity and Aatma-motivational thoughts on social media.

Actually meme-verse is so ‘Nirbhar’ on the Marvel Cinematic Universe that no meme fest can go without some Avengers memes. And when it comes to Avengers, no one is as Aatmanirbhar as Iron Man. That is one thing. Another thing is that Captain America, who remains frozen for decades when stuck in the Arctic and ‘Nirbhars’ on a lab-made serum to become what he is, is the last person to lecture Iron Man about anything. Iron Man has been Aatmanirbhar long before Modiji made Aatmanirbhar all cool and hip.

A parody account gave a glimpse of Bollywood’s rush to become Atmanirbhar.

Nobody understands Aatmanirbharta better than single persons. Twitter users captured the pain and emotions perfectly.

The memes and jokes are flooding. Some meme maker has rightly captured the state of internet after PM Modi said ‘Aatmanirbhar’.

Jokes apart, ‘Aatmanirbhar’ is giving some hilarious breathing space before the Finance Minister’s announcement of the details of the economic package, scheduled for later today, again floods the social media with analyses, criticism and political cat-fights.

Trading platform Zerodha crashes as stock market gains in early trade after PM Modi’s Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus package announcement

OpIndia Staff
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Trading platform Zerodha crashes as stock market gains in early trade after PM Modi’s Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus package announcement

Stock markets opened on a high a day after Prime Minister Modi announced Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus package to give a boost to the economy as the country opens up after coronavirus lockdown. At 10:15 AM, the Sensex was up by 697 points while nifty was up by 196 points. Except for pharma, all sectoral indices in nifty were in the green. In Individual stocks, ICICI Bank was up by 5.53% at Rs 338.95/share and HDFC Bank was up by 4.1%.

However, customers trading on digital trading platform Zerodha were left agitated after they could not carry out trade on the stock market on Wednesday morning.

Zerodha Kite platform’s server crashed yet another time on Wednesday due to some technical glitch and stock traders could not able to access the platform. Several users took to social media to outrage against repeated issues with trading platform Zerodha after a similar technical slowed down their trading on Wednesday.

Zerodha is the largest brokerage in India with over 20 lakh clients and over 15 per cent of all retail order volumes in India daily, according to its website. Zerodha started in 2010 and quickly gained traction due to its low costs.

Another social media user said that he had already predicted that Zerodha servers would crash on Wednesday following high action in the stock market after PM Modi made an announcement to infuse capital into the market through special economic package.

A stock trader complained about the repeated instances of Zerodha servers failing during market hours and demanded SEBI to conduct an enquiry against Zerodha.

Zerodha has faced issues on several occasions in the past. However, the Bengaluru-based company claims that it is strengthening its systems. In 2019, a similar outrage had happened after several futures and options traders using Zerodha platform were unable to execute trades due to technical issues.

Zerodha says ‘We were not down’

Trading platform Zerodha later today released a statement that their system was not down today.

Zerodha stated that while some customers faced some technical glitch for some time early in the day today, it was one of their best performing day in terms of order execution speed.

Note: The article has been updated with Zerodha’s statement.

Debris from China’s Long March 5B rocket fall on West Africa, minutes after soaring over New York City: Reports

OpIndia Staff
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Debris from China’s Long March 5B rocket fall on West Africa, minutes after soaring over New York City: Reports

A major disaster has been averted after a Chinese rocket narrowly missed dropping down on New York City before burning up in the atmosphere. The debris of the Chinese spacecraft finally ended up in parts of West Africa, reports Fox News.

On Monday a Chinese rocket – Long March 5B, after propelling its cargo into the orbit, fell back into Earth’s atmosphere, narrowly missing the city of New York. The Chinese rocket, which fell into the atmosphere over the Atlantic Ocean, was almost over 20 tons.

The Long March 5B rocket’s core stage re-entered the atmosphere at 8.33 am PDT (Pacific Daylight Time) or 1533 GMT, on Monday, according to the US Space Force’s 18th Space Control Squadron. At that time, the rocket was flying over the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Africa.

Reportedly, the Long March 5B rocket was launched on May 5 from the Wenchang launch centre on Hainan Island in southern China. The rocket had carried a prototype of China’s next-generation crew capsule into orbit on an unpiloted test flight. The launch was carried out to test the capabilities to eventually launch astronauts into space in 2022.

Debris of the Chinese rocket found in Cote d’Ivoire

Jonathan McDowell, a Harvard astrophysicist and orbital object tracker, said that the Chinese rocket was the most massive object to make an uncontrolled reentry since the 39-tonne Salyut-7 in 1991.

However, astronomer Jonathan McDowell said that it was unlikely that such large of an object would return to Earth but fragments weighing up to several hundred pounds could have survived re-entering the atmosphere. McDowell said he could “conclude” that the objects that fell on Cote d’Ivoire “are very likely parts of the Chinese rocket stage”.

Core of the rocket passed directly over New York

According to Spaceflight, the re-entry occurred less than 15 minutes after the rocket body soared almost directly over New York City. The rocket’s core stage measured around 100 feet (30 meters) long and 16 feet (5 meters) wide, with a mass of approximately 20 metric tons.

The dead satellites and old rocket stages regularly re-enter the atmosphere, but re-entering objects with masses of more than a few tons are rare. Normally, such uncontrolled re-entries are difficult to predict and forecasts will be issued by the US military narrowing the window for the rocket’s re-entry to the Earth.  

Reportedly, the ground-based radars of the US military were tracking the Long March 5B rocket body in space, which allowed them to monitor to regularly measure the core stage’s decaying orbit.

China has planned to launch at least three more Long March 5B rockets in 2021 and 2022 with modules for the country’s planned space station.

One-time emergency measures for Atmanirbhar Bharat to make India a self-reliant global superpower

Santanu Chakraborty
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One-time emergency measures for Atmanirbhar Bharat to make India a self-reliant global superpower

India should take some one-time extraordinary measures to boost the country’s economy and to realize the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make India self-reliant and a global superpower.

We need to provide jobs to poor people and provide credit to farmers and small businesses without straining our internal resources too much. We don’t need to overburden our future generations with huge local debt when there is already a flood of global debt liquidity currently.

We are in the cusp of a new world order. Instead of defending an old order that is collapsing, we should focus on making the new world order just. We should reclaim our rightful place in the new world as an engine of future global growth, manufacturing and technological innovation.

We must use this once in a lifetime opportunity of excessive global liquidity sparked by a deluge in dollar supply amid excessive money printing by the US Fed and other central banks. We can take the following short term, one-time emergency measures to increase money supply in the domestic economy:

1) We have vast dollar reserves and we need to use it now more than ever. The price of crude oil has fallen 70% and WTI crude is unlikely to sustain above $30 for long. The best time to use our dollar reserves is now and we should pump the money into the local economy. 

2) The Reserve Bank of India can stop buying dollars. The RBI does not need to defend the INR/USD exchange rate anymore in these extraordinary times. The US Fed’s pledge to provide unlimited stimulus will lead to humongous oversupply of dollar bonds and lack of appetite from big borrowers like China, Middle East and Asia will lead to a surge in US treasury yields and consequent weakening of the dollar over the next two years. 

3) India should ease restrictions on external commercial borrowings (ECB) allowing all companies to freely borrow from the international markets if they can get it. At least RBI should relax ECB norms regarding end use, maximum pricing, tenor, etc. for loan and bond issuances. Anyways due diligence and risk management is the job of the international lender, not RBIs.

4) India can do a sovereign dollar bond issue to fund domestic infrastructure building. This can boost economy, create jobs and produce a virtuous consumption cycle.

5) India is going to be a superpower in the new emerging world order. India must negotiate a new, just Bretton Woods deal to reset all reserve and non-reserve currencies according to a nation’s size, demographics and future potential. The revaluation of currencies can be market driven and in proportion to the interest rate spread of the respective currencies.

6) India needs to stop worrying about ratings downgrades. If ratings agencies unfairly penalize India for the COVID lockdown to the exclusion of other developed nations, we should refuse to play ball. Ratings agencies must acknowledge that India’s fiscal position is better than some of the developed nations and it also has great potential to be world’s growth engine. 

7) If the Indian economy gets into severe strain due to the lockdown, India can demand recasting and restructuring of some of its dollar debt obligations. Under the leadership of Prime minister Modi India today has greater diplomatic leverage with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. As a precedent, Argentina has done this before and it is an accepted tool in international negotiations.

33 years after killing his mother, Delhi man kills own son over the same issue

OpIndia Staff
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33 years after killing his mother, Delhi man kills own son over the same issue

In a shocking incident, a 60-year-old man in Delhi’s Rohini’s area has been arrested for killing his own son. As per reports, the man named Ompal has shot his son dead after a fight in their home.

As per a report in Live Hindustan, the accused man is a property dealer by profession. He lives in Delhi’s Rithala’s area with his wife and five sons. He has given several portions of his house for rent. One of the sons is an insurance agent.

On Monday night, while the family was sitting together, Ompal was allegedly drinking alcohol. His wife Pavitra Devi had objected to his excessive drinking and had asked him to go inside. Angered over being stopped from drinking, Ompal allegedly started shouting at his wife in abusive language.

The second son Balbir had reportedly confronted his father and stopped him from abusing his mother. After this, Ompal had fought with Balbir and had started hitting him.

After a physical confrontation, Ompal had allegedly barged inside the house, came out with a gun and shot Balbir dead.

It is notable here that 33 years earlier, Ompal had reportedly killed his own mother Maya Devi over a similar dispute when she had stopped him from drinking. He had shot her dead. Ompal has served a jail sentence for the murder.

The man is reportedly a known alcoholic and neighbours keep their distance from him due to his behaviour. Whenever anyone objects, he gets angry and abusive. The police have arrested Ompal and also confiscated his gun.

West Bengal: Horrifying visuals of Hooghly up in flames emerge after communal clashes rock Telinipara, section 144 imposed

OpIndia Staff
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West Bengal: Horrifying visuals of Hooghly up in flames emerge after communal clashes rock Telinipara, section 144 imposed

Shocking visuals of Telinipara have gone viral on social media where houses, allegedly belonging to the Hindu community, were set on fire after communal clashes took place in the region falling in West Bengal’s Hooghly district.

In the above video shared by MP Swapan Dasgupta one can see smoke billowing from houses that were set on fire by a mob.

Locket Chatterjee, BJP MP from Hooghly took to Twitter to inform that while she tried to call the CP of Chandannagar Police, Dr Humayun Kabir, he did not take her calls. She alleged that the West Bengal state administration has been a mute spectator as Telinipara burned.

She further stated that she was prevented from going to Telinipara amid allegations of widespread communal violence and looting where in police also facilitated perpetrators.

Communal clashes in Telinipara

Clashes erupted in Telinipara in Hooghly district of West Bengal after Muslims in the locality allegedly refused to follow lockdown orders. As reported by Swarajya, a number of Muslims who had returned from Ajmer had tested positive for coronavirus. However, they were not following the lockdown orders. The Hindus of the area got alarmed by this and put up barricades to stop outsiders from entering the area. However, as reported by Swarajya, BJP MP Locket Chatterjee said that the Muslims broke the barricades and insisted on entering the Hindu-majority area. After Hindus objected, the Muslims attacked the Hindus, Chatterjee reportedly said.

Chandannagar Police Commissioner Humayun Kabir, however, has claimed that the communal clashes were triggered after Muslims were allegedly taunted by ‘corona’ jibes. He claimed that following the verbal spat, the Hindus barricaded the public toilets used by the Muslims which led to violence.

On Tuesday, there were fresh cases of violence, the videos of which have now gone viral on social media. It is alleged that the Hindu homes were set on fire and bombs were hurled by Muslim mob. Hooghly MP Locket Chatterjee has alleged that the attacks were preplanned and the police stood as mute spectator. Chatterjee further alleged that lethal weapons were transported in ambulances and women and children were also attacked.

West Bengal govt focuses on ‘fake news’

As Bengal burned, the Home Department of the West Bengal government claimed that Telinipara is peaceful and warned of ‘strict action’ against those who were trying to ‘disturb peace’. As per reports, 56 persons have been arrested and police raids are on to nab the culprits. Section 144 of the CrPC has been imposed to maintain law and order and mobile internet services are suspended.

After demanding 5-6% of GDP as economic package, Congress claims 10% of GDP announced by PM is not enough, says package should be 50% of GDP

OpIndia Staff
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After demanding 5-6% of GDP as economic package, Congress claims 10% of GDP announced by PM is not enough, says package should be 50% of GDP

To revive the economy shattered by the Coronavirus, and also to make the country self-reliant, prime minister Narendra Modi today announced that his govt is bringing an economic revival package. The total amount of money that the govt plans to pump into the economy, including the measures already announced by the Reserve Bank of India and the Finance Minister, is around 20 lakh crore, which will be around 10% of the total GDP of the country, the PM informed.

But the Congress party, which thinks that being an opposition party means it has to oppose every decision taken by the Modi govt, declared that it is not enough. The Madhya Pradesh Congress posted a tweet after the announcement by the PM saying that ‘only’ Rs 20 lakh is not enough.

They claimed that the Coronavirus pandemic has devoured everything, hence, not 10% of the GDP, but the PM should give away at least 50% of the GDP.

While the Madhya Pradesh Congress thinks that 10% of the GDP is not enough to revive the economy, the same party was actually demanding half the amount for the purpose just a month ago. In the second week of April, the Congress party had said that the govt should announce an economic package which should be worth at least 5-6% of the GDP.

Addressing a press conference via video, party spokesperson Anand Sharma had said, “These are extraordinary times and it required extra-ordinary actions. That is why the prime minister should be bold and declare an economic package to help revive various sectors of the economy post lockdown”. After that, he had added, “We expect that the economic package should be at least five-six per cent of India’s GDP”.

The package today announce by Modi is also much more than what former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan had was would be enough to help the poor to come out of the crisis caused by the lockdown. He had said that Rs 65000 crore is required to help the poor. In an interaction with former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, when Gandhi had asked how much money is needed to help the poor, Rajan had answered, “Approximately 65,000 crores. Our GDP is 200 lakh crores, and out of that 65,000 crore is not a huge amount. So, we can do it”. Later on, Rahul Gandhi had repeated the same amount in his messages.

Therefore, what the PM Modi today announced is actually the twice the amount that the Congress party had thought that would be enough to restart the economy, and much more than what Raghuram Rajan had said will be needed to help the poor. But when PM Narendra Modi announced a package worth more than what Congress had demanded, they say it is not enough and now make a new demand that the package should be 50% of the GDP.

2 Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists who killed CRPF jawans in Handwara encounter identified, one is a Pakistani national

OpIndia Staff
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2 Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists who killed CRPF jawans in Handwara encounter identified, one is a Pakistani national

A senior official of CRPF has revealed that two terrorists who killed three CRPF jawans last week at a security checkpoint in Handwara who were linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba. The officer stated that one of them was a Pakistani national and the other was Kashmiri.

As per reports, the two-shot dead three CRPF jawans. They were on duty at security checkpoints were reportedly distracted by a movement at the orchard along the road at Handwara’s Wangam. They took away the rifles of the soldiers after cutting the sling before escaping the spot. A 14-year-old kid was also killed in the crossfire.

Five personnel including Colonel Ashutosh Sharma and Major Anuj Sood were martyred in an encounter near Handwara’s Rajbhar forest in an overnight gunbattle. The Ambush in Kupwara district had taken place following the gunbattle. Two Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists were killed including one Pakistani national named Haider.

A senior police officer said, “We are looking at the possibility that the two terrorists who killed the CRPF jawans may have had a role to play in the gunbattle that cost the security forces five lives.”

He further added, “It is not certain what kind of a role these two terrorists may have played. Whether they were in the house when the security forces mounted the operation to secure the family being held hostage or had left by then.”

A top senior official told Hindustan Times, “after 13-hour Handwara gunbattle that the agencies would keep an open mind on the number of terrorists involved in the encounter. We will be led by the incidence that we find.”

Gujarat High Court declares BJP leader and Gujarat minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasma’s 2017 assembly election win as void

OpIndia Staff
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Gujarat High Court declares BJP leader and Gujarat minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasma’s 2017 assembly election win as void

In a massive setback to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat, the Gujarat High Court has invalidated the win of minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasma from the Dholka Constituency in 2017 assembly elections.

Bhupendrasinh Chudasma is handling Minister of Education, Law and Justice portfolio of Vijayrupani led Gujarat government. He won the Dholka assembly constituency with a thin margin of 327 that was challenged by his rival Congress candidate Ashwin Rathod.

Ashwin Rathod alleged that the returning officer and the Deputy Collector of Dholka have indulged in manipulation during the counting process and had cancelled 429 postal ballots. Justice Paresh Upadhyay declared Chudasama’s election as void on grounds of malpractice and manipulation.

Deputy CM says, party stand by Chudasma

Deputy Chief Minister of Gujarat Nitin Patel said that the party stands by Chudasma as he has been an active member of the political party since the days of Jan Sangh. The Gujarat high court order will be challenged in Supreme court. He also alleged that the legal experts indulged in a conspiracy to cancel Chudasma’s membership to the assembly and thereby ministry stands cancelled by this order.

Patel said that further decision will be taken by the government after consulting the party high-command.

Gujarat Elections 2017

The 14th Gujarat Assembly election was held on 9 December 2017 and 14 december 2017 on 182 legislative assemblies in Gujarat. The election was won decisively by incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party and Vijay Rupani was made the Chief Minister of Gujarat.

However, there was a decrease in the number of seats BJP got in comparison to 2012, the political party again managed to retain thier absolute majority in the house.

Coronavirus fallout: Maharashtra to grant temporary parole to 17,000 prisoners as COVID-19 spreads in jails

OpIndia Staff
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Coronavirus fallout: Maharashtra to grant temporary parole to 17,000 prisoners as COVID-19 spreads in jails

A high-powered committee appointed for emergency release or bail of prison inmates has decided to grant temporary parole to 17,000 prisoners from jails across Maharashtra as the Maharashtra government struggles to rein in the rampaging run of the coronavirus outbreak in the state. The number is reported to be nearly half of the state prison population. The decision to release the prisoners comes in the wake of reports of an increasing number of transmission of infection among jail inmates in Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail. As of today, 185 people, including 26 jail staff, have been tested positive for the novel coronavirus at the Arthur Road jail.

The committee, however, rejected the proposal made by lawyer SB Talekar to alter the category of the inmates benefitting from the decision. Talekar contended that the reprieve be extended to even offenders and convicts under special laws such as MPID, UAPA, MMCOCA, PMLA etc. on the emergency grounds during the COVID-19 pandemic. But the High Court rejected the argument saying, “In any event, the prisoner charged/convicted under Special Acts, including MPID, cannot claim to be released from the reason,” adding that the objective was to release some prisoners, not all of them.

Maharashtra Home Minister announces the decision on social media

The committee was presided over by high court Justice Amjad Sayed and included Sanjay Chahande, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) and SN Pandey, Director General, Prisons in Maharashtra. State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh took to Twitter to announce the decision taken by the Maharashtra government to grant temporary parole to 17,000 of the state’s 35,000 prisoners lodged at different jails across Maharashtra. He added that out of the 17,000 prisoners, 5,000 are under-trials, 3,000 of them serving up to 7 years of prison following conviction, and the remaining 9,000 are facing jail time for more than 7 years.

“Temporary parole will be granted to 17,000 prisoners across the state so that social distancing norms can be better followed and prisons around the state do not emerge as coronavirus hotspots,” Deshmukh said while defending government’s decision.

It is also notable to mention that most jails in the state, including the Arthur Road jail, are facing the issue of overcrowding, which dramatically increases the chances of the spread of the coronavirus. It is also worth noting that Maharashtra is in the midst of an acute coronavirus crisis as the number of COVID-19 caseloads in the state is surging at an alarming rate. Maharashtra currently tops the list of states with the maximum number of coronavirus cases in India. It has so far reported 23,400 cases and a staggering 868 fatalities. A big chunk of the state’s COVID-19 cases are reported from the capital city Mumbai.

 

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