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Chilli powder in private parts, beatings and rigorous chores: Girls in Delhi shelter home reveal abuse by staff

OpIndia Staff
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Chilli powder in private parts, beatings and rigorous chores: Girls in Delhi shelter home reveal abuse by staff

The Delhi Commission of Women (DCW) has stated that during an inspection of shelter homes, teenage girls at a shelter home in Dwarka alleged that they were being abused by the staff.

As per reports, the group from the DCW made a surprise inspection of the shelter home on Thursday night. They interacted with the inmate girls aged between 6 to 15 years to understand their experience in the shelter homes. During the interaction session, elder girls at a Dwarka shelter home revealed that they were being abused by the staff.

The girls reportedly alleged that the staff put chilli powder in their private parts to punish unruly behaviour. The girls were also being beaten up regularly and were being put to rigorous chores as the home lacked staff members. Any sort of insubordination used to result in severe punishment. The girls have also reportedly alleged that neither they were given proper food nor were allowed to visit their kin during vacations. The girls also alleged that force-feeding chilli powder was another mode of punishment in the shelter home.

The girls have also alleged that they were beaten with scales and were made to wash clothes, utensils and clean toilets, rooms and the premises. Even the quality of the food served was found to be substandard.

An expert committee from the DCW has been making inspections at shelter homes in Delhi. After the expert committee found complaints at the Dwarka shelter home, DCW chief Swati Maliwal was immediately informed and she reached the shelter home at 8 pm on Thursday.

As per reports, the shelter home was also found to be unhygienic. It is run by an NGO. After receiving complaints from the 22 inmates and seeing the conditions at the shelter home, the DCW informed the Delhi Police.

Dwarka DCP Anto Alphonse has reportedly stated that the police have registered an FIR from the DCW against the shelter home under POCSO Act and Juvenile Justice Act. The police have also deployed personnel to guard the shelter home.

The National Commission of Women and Children had ordered an extensive survey of all the shelter homes in the country after horrific cases of sexual abuse had emerged from a shelter home in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur. The Muzaffarpur shelter home was allegedly being run as a brothel and young girls were being subjected to unspeakable torture and exploitation.

This video clip of Rahul Gandhi ‘helping’ Manmohan Singh cut a cake reveals more than what is visible

OpIndia Staff
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This video clip of Rahul Gandhi ‘helping’ Manmohan Singh cut a cake reveals more than what is visible

Upcoming movie ‘The Accidental Prime Minister’ has reignited the debate about how former Prime Dr. Minister Manmohan Singh was used as a pawn by the Gandhi family and made a fall guy. The movie is based on a book by Sanjaya Baru, former media adviser to Dr. Singh, which in part deals with the theme of the tussle between Dr. Singh and the Gandhi family, especially Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

Congress has been up against the movie, but at the same time want to send signals that there was nothing wrong between the Gandhis and their chosen man. Of late, Congress party has propped up Manmohan Singh to issue political statements to target Narendra Modi, and it seems the party wanted the former Prime Minister to undo the latest damage too.

A short video clip shared on social media earlier today suggested how the Congress party could use Manmohan Singh and a friendly media to firefight any possible embarrassment due to the upcoming movie.

The video clip, recorded on a day Congress was celebrating its 134th foundation day, shows Rahul Gandhi and Manmohan Singh cut a cake in celebration. However, just 21 seconds of this clip was enough to make people notice many aspects.

The first aspect was that of media management in wake of the controversy surrounding ‘The Accidental Prime Minister’. A Congress leader is heard in the video saying that this clip showing Rahul Gandhi and Manmohan Singh together should be sent to media:


This set off speculations that the party is really concerned about the Anupam Kher starrer movie and is possibly planning to use media to counter the narrative shown in the movie.

Some people thought that the clip showed how Rahul Gandhi treats senior party leaders as his subordinates, and commented that this shows the arrogance of the Congress president.


The way how Dr Singh was just touching the knife and how the entire task of cutting the cake was done by Rahul Gandhi himself was not missed by people.


They suggested that it is symbolic of how everything is controlled by the Gandhi family in the Congress party, and others are there just for a show. Interestingly, the trailer of the movie on Dr Singh also creates the same impression.

Reacting to the video, BJP MLA from Gujarat Harsh Sanghavi said that it shows how former PM Manmohan Singh is not even free to cut his own cake.


Few attentive people also noted that first Rahul Gandhi wanted to put the piece of cake on a ceramic plate, but then he changes his mind and places it on a disposable Polystyrene (thermocol) plate, which he offers to Dr Singh.


The disposable plate represents the status of Manmohan Singh in the party, people have commented.

Just like the movie, the short clip also generated lots of reactions on social media. Most people took it as an example of how Rahul Gandhi controls everything in the party, and leaders like Manmohan Singh have no authority. People commented on the body language of both the leaders, including the use of left hand by Rahul Gandhi to serve the plate of cake to Dr Singh. The Congress party may have released the video as a PR exercise, but the audio and visuals of the clip have the potential to backfire, going by the reactions.

More than 1 lakh companies removed from the Registrar of Companies for not doing any business for two years

OpIndia Staff
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More than 1 lakh companies removed from the Registrar of Companies for not doing any business for two years

Over 1 lakh companies have been deregistered by the government of India for not carrying on any business activity for a long time, the central government informed on Friday. During the Question Hour in Lok Sabha, a question was asked whether a large number of shell companies and entities being used as channels for black money and hawala transactions has come to the notice of the government.

Replying to the question, the Minister of State for Corporate Affairs P P Chaudhary informed the house that the term ‘shell company’ is not defined in the Companies Act, 2013. In a written reply submitted to the house, he said that if any company do that carry any business in the preceding two years, and do not submit an application to keep the registration of the company in dormant status, the names of such companies are deleted from the registrar of companies.

As on 31 December 2017, 2.26 lakh companies were removed from the Register of Companies, the house was informed by the Minister. “During the financial year 2018-19, a total of 2,25,910 companies have been identified for action under Section 248 of the Act and after following due process of law, names of 1,00,150 companies have been struck off from the Register of Companies.” he said. Section 248 of the Companies Act, 2013 provides for the deregistration of a company if the company has not been carrying out any business for two immediately preceding financial years.

He informed that it is a continuous process undertaken by the ministry of corporate affairs. During the financial year 2017-18, the Central Government has ordered investigations into the true ownership of 68 number of companies under Section 216 read with Section 210(1) (c) of the Act, the reply stated.

Answering another question on data about NPA recovered from cases disposed of in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), the Minister said that no data related to NPA is maintained in NCLT. But he added that “as per the information given by Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI), orders of resolution against 65 corporate debtors have been issued by NCLT as on 31.10.2018 with a realisable amount of Rs. 60,636 crores by the creditors.

Out of a total of 40,712 cases registered with the NCLT, 26,290 have been disposed of by the Tribunal till Nov 30, 2018, the minister informed.

Facebook employee leaks 1400 page rulebook for content management, exposes faultlines

OpIndia Staff
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Facebook employee leaks 1400 page rulebook for content management, exposes faultlines

With 2018 being proved not such a pleasant year for Facebook, recently, 1400 pages of leaked Facebook rulebook generally used by its moderators to monitor reported content on Facebook revealed several loopholes in its content management. It revealed that there are serious problems with not just the guidelines, but also how the actual moderation is done.

The unnamed Facebook employee, who leaked these documents, reportedly feared that the social network was making too many mistakes. He claimed that Facebook’s team of over 7500 moderators do not check the posts vigilantly and have little understanding of nuances behind languages.

A report by NYT claims that though the moderation guidelines are mainly set by Facebooks employees who are mostly engineers and lawyers, they have little knowledge about the regions they are setting guidelines for. For example, these engineers and lawyers will obviously have practically zero knowledge of political matters in India or Myanmar or Pakistan for that matter.

These rules are then sent across to third-party companies which hire moderators. Most of the moderators are hired from call centres or other low paying grades, who have a poor understanding of the rules.

For example, in the Indian context, one Facebook slide tells moderators that any post degrading an entire religion violates Indian law and should be flagged to be removed. The reality though is different. Indian law prohibits blasphemy in certain conditions, such as when the speaker intends to incite violence.

Another problem is that the Facebook rules seem to be written for English-speaking moderators. There is clearly a dearth of local moderators in the firm, who will have a better understanding of local context and language. The English speaking moderators generally use google translate to understand the non-English content.

Machine translated content can often strip out context and nuances, distorting the meaning of the content. This is how the moderators generally go wrong understanding the content which goes on the Facebook site.

According to the moderators, the entire exercise is frustrating as firstly they have to memorise all the rules that could violate Facebook’s community standards — rules which keep changing or getting updated regularly. Then these moderators have around 8-10 seconds per post to recall those rules and take action on a piece of content, considering Facebook has a whopping 2 bn plus user base.

Recently Facebook had hit another row when a bug exposed non-shared photos of users to third-party apps for a period of two weeks.

In fact, since the beginning of this year, the social media giant has been falling prey to several controversies one after the other.

In April this year, Facebook had stated that the personal data of nearly 87 million users may have been ‘improperly shared’ with political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had accepted the blame for the data breach.

Failing to protect user data, Facebook had severely faced criticism worldwide. The Government of India has also sent a notice to Facebook to provide details on the data of Indian users leaked to CA.

Recently, the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) had imposed a penalty of 10 million euros($11.4 million) on Facebook, for illegally harvesting the data of its users for commercial purposes. The Authority had also asked Facebook to run an apology on its website and app.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announces Rs 4,500 crore assistance to Bhutan

OpIndia Staff
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi announces Rs 4,500 crore assistance to Bhutan

After holding talks on a wide range of topics with Bhutanese Prime Minister Lotay Tshering, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today announced an assistance of Rs 4,500 crore to Bhutan for its 12th five-year plan. PM Modi has assured PM Tshering that India will continue to play an important role in Bhutan’s development like a trusted friend.


Modi in his media statement said that hydropower cooperation with Bhutan is a key aspect of bilateral ties between the two countries and that the work on the Mangdechhu project will soon be completed. Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering while thanking India for its continuous support to Bhutan’s developmental needs, noted that PM Modi was the first head of State to congratulate him on his electoral victory. Tshering took charge as the Prime Minister of Bhutan last month after his party won the general elections. This is Tshering’s first visit to India after being appointed as the Prime Minister of Bhutan.

Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj also congratulated Tshering on his assumption of the office of Prime Minister of Bhutan.


Tshering also visited Rajghat to offer his tribute to Mahatma Gandhi.

Uttar Pradesh: Maulvi instigated them to rape girls, arrested juveniles tell police

OpIndia Staff
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Uttar Pradesh: Maulvi instigated them to rape girls, arrested juveniles tell police

In a shocking incident, three juveniles from the Muslim community made an attempt to rape a 5-year-old girl at Bisawar, Uttar Pradesh. Even more shockingly, the accused juveniles have claimed that they were instigated to commit such a crime by a Maulvi.

The accused had manipulated the victim into accompanying them to a secluded area when she returning from tuition. The victim’s two-year-old brother and four-year-old cousin were also abducted. When relatives realized that the children were missing, they went out in search of them. The little girl was found naked in a field near to a school. The other children were also found. The crowd managed to get hold of one juvenile while two others managed to flee. As per reports, they have been arrested since then.

People have been protesting for the arrest of the Maulvi. The incident has affected them deeply. Businessmen refused to open the market on Wednesday until the Maulvi was arrested. However, after reassurances from the police that the Maulvi will soon be arrested, people in the area consented to open the market on Thursday. However, the situation remained tense.

The police are maintaining a heavy presence in the area. A police team is actively trying to trace the Maulvi’s location. The police are patrolling the area as well.

Government approves Rs 10,000 crore for India’s first ever manned space mission, Gaganyaan, in 2022

OpIndia Staff
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Government approves Rs 10,000 crore for India’s first ever manned space mission, Gaganyaan, in 2022

The Union Cabinet on Friday gave a nod, sanctioning a budget of Rs 10,000 crore for India’s first manned spaceflight program called the Gaganyaan.

The Indian Space research organisation (ISRO) has been working steadfast, with an aim to send three Indians to space by 2022 as announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Independence Day speech.

“When India celebrates the 75th year of Independence in 2022, and if possible even before, an Indian son or daughter will undertake a manned space mission on board ‘Gaganyaan’, carrying the National Flag,” the PM had announced from the ramparts of the red fort on the occasion of Independence Day.

The ISRO Chairman Dr K Sivan had claimed that “This is most ambitious space programme taken up by ISRO till date and essential as it will give a big boost to the Science and Technology development within the country,” further stating, “The ISRO is committed to honouring the wish of PM. This has also been the dream of thousands of scientists and citizens of the country,” Sivan reiterated.

He had recently claimed that ISRO would try to make Gaganyaan ‘more and more’ indigenous by utilising the facilities available in the country.

Gaganyaan, India’s first manned space flight is expected to send three persons into space for seven days and the spacecraft will be placed in a low earth orbit of 300-400 km. GSLV Mk III, the three-stage heavy-lift launch vehicle, will be used to launch Gaganyaan as it has the necessary payload capability. Two unmanned Gaganyaan missions would be undertaken prior to sending humans into space.

In September ISRO had unveiled an orange prototype space suit along with the crew model capsule in which all the three astronauts will travel during the mission.

In July this year, ISRO had demonstrated the pad abort test (PAT), or the crew module ejecting from the rocket in case of a failure.

Though being an extremely complex program, if this mission, which was also the dream project of former Prime Minister, Late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, materialises, India will proudly be the fourth nation to send a human being into space, after United States, Russia, and China.

Along with working on this complex mission, ISRO has planned to launch 50 satellites in the next three years. The space agency would launch 22 satellites in 2019, the maximum in any year in the history of ISRO.

Chandrayaan-2, India’s second moon mission, will also be launched in the January-March window in 2019, instead of this year, as earlier targetted, as the design was changed to enable it to land on the lunar surface. ISRO has tentatively fixed 3rd January 2019 as the launch date for Chandrayaan-2.

AgustaWestland scam: Investigators hunt for the ‘dog’ who has been fed a ‘bone’ as per Michel’s notes

OpIndia Staff
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AgustaWestland scam: Investigators hunt for the ‘dog’ who has been fed a ‘bone’ as per Michel’s notes

The officials of the CBI and ED investigating the AgustaWestland bribery case are looking for the ‘dog’ who has been provided with a ‘bone’ as mentioned in a note suspected to have been written by Christian Michel. As per a report in the Times of India, Christian Michel allegedly wrote a thanking note to his partner GH (Guido Haschke) for the lunch with the message “hope the dog likes the bone” on February 8, 2008. The note has come under the lens of the investigating authorities probing the case.

The investigation agencies are now decoding the conversation between AgustaWestland’s senior officers Leonardo, Michel, Haschke and Carlo Gerosa, on 8 February 2008. The officials have in their possession notes and documents in which all the AgustaWestland functionaries are talking about bringing the Flight Assessment team for the VVIP helicopters, including the CVC, Defense Secretary, Joint Secretary (Air), Air Force Maintenance Command, on board.

The note which is allegedly been written by Michel begins with the organisation of a lunch party to finalize the VVIP chopper deal. In this note, Mitchell allegedly expresses his gratitude to GH Guido Haschke for the lunch on the previous day, with a hope that the ‘dog would have liked the bone’. The CBI and ED officials suspect that the dog mentioned in the note alludes to an Indian decision-maker involved in this contract.

As reported by the TOI, there is a charge against Haschke that he lobbied for Augusta Westland through Tyagi brothers (brothers of former Air Force Chief SP Tyagi). On the other hand, Michel is accused of lobbying 25 times. According to the agencies, Michel was in direct contact with politicians, officers and defence personnel.

The note also reveals that Michel was aware of a team being sent to evaluate America’s Sikorsky S-92 and AW-101and its due return to Delhi on February 14. Michel has also mentioned in the note that the next two months are going to be very difficult and that this is the last chance for them to nail the contract.

It has also been referred in the note that the Central Vigilance Commission Chief was willing to favour AgustaWestland. The Italian Court has mentioned in their verdict many people including CVC in a bribery case to the tune of 8.4 million euros.

“If we present a strong case and the government is involved, then the CVC, which constitutes the policies of most contracts, will accept us,” the note states.

Michelle further writes in this note that the Maintenance Command of the Air Force is ready to deliberate with us on the technical and maintenance issues, while the Defense Secretary and the Joint Secretary will be brought on board later.

Gujarat: 200 tribal families who had converted to Christianity return to Hinduism

OpIndia Staff
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Gujarat: 200 tribal families who had converted to Christianity return to Hinduism

On Wednesday, nearly 200 tribal Christian families that had earlier converted to Christianity have returned to Hinduism in a Hindu Dharma Jagran Sammelan organised at the Biliya-Aslona village of Valsad district, Gujarat, reported Times of India.

Kapil Swami, the organiser of the Hindu Dharma Jagran Sammelan, said that he and his supporters were protecting Hinduism in Adivasi areas of Kaprada. In this sammelan, nearly 700 members belonging to 200 families were made to wear ‘kanthi mala’ around their neck after puja was held.

The event was sponsored by Swaminarayan Gyanpith, a USA-based community, to which the sarpanches of nearly 50 villages around Kaprada and other important people were invited. The Swaminarayan sect provides education and caters to the daily needs of the local people.

“We gave idols of Lord Hanuman to our brothers and sisters so that they can install them in their houses and also build a temple in their village. Around 40,000 Adivasis have become Christians in this area in the last two decades. We work to bring them back to our fold. We get support from some non-resident Indians based in the United States of America for our religious activities,” said Kapil Swami.

Amit Patel, a resident of the US said his community will support this activity and said this initiative to bring back adivasis to Hinduism is a good initiative for the Adivasi community.

The sarpanch of Aslona village, Suresh Kamli, said that of the 6,000-odd population of his village, 100 families are Christians who constructed no less than three churches. “They believe they would not fall ill and be saved from evil spirits if they follow Christianity,” he says.

Nirlap Swami, an ascetic belonging to Swaminarayan sect said that religious conversions are a major problem in Adivasi areas. He further added that they have built Hanuman temples to instil faith among Adivasi community. Swami also said that they are trying to provide them with basic education and also fulfil the needs of adivasis.

However, CR Kharsan, Valsad district collector stated that he was not aware of any such function and that only if someone complains can his office take action.

Tripura: BJP secures a clean sweep in municipal council by-polls, CPM, Congress lose deposits

OpIndia Staff
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Tripura: BJP secures a clean sweep in municipal council by-polls, CPM, Congress lose deposits

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has extended its winning run in the state of Tripura after it secured victory in 11 out of the 11 municipal councils and four out of four seats in Agartala Municipal corporation. After its victory, the BJP will now control 14 out of 20 municipal bodies in the state.

The by-elections for the 14 municipal bodies of Tripura was held on Thursday amidst the call of re-elections by the Congress and CPI-M over the alleged violence against their candidates. The BJP had already secured 91 seats as opposition parties did not field any candidates in those seats and the elections took place to the remaining 67 seats.

The BJP has secured a clean sweep by winning all the eleven municipal bodies that went to polls including the four wards of the Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC). The CPI-M had withdrawn its candidates in 35 seats after it had alleged that BJP workers did not allow people to cast their votes.

Expressing happiness over the clean sweep in the by-polls, BJP national secretary and Tripura in charge Sunil Deodhar congratulated Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Deb and party workers for the astonishing victory.


The BJP, which came to power after its extraordinary victory against the CPM in the state elections held this year. The BJP had won 36 seats in the 60-member strong Assembly and ended the 20-year old Manik Sarkar government. The humiliating defeat of CPM in the elections had pulled them down to just 16 seats. Recently, BJP also won 96 per cent of the Gram Panchayat and Panchayat Samiti seats and all the 18 Zila Parishad seats in the state.

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