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Army proves Mamata wrong

The Indian Army proved the Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool government wrong, in the raging controversy over its exercise in West Bengal. A letter written by the Kolkata Police proves the Army's claim that the West Bengal government had been intimated about its routine exercise in the state. These contradict Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's charge that the Army was deployed without informing the state government. The routine Army exercises in West Bengal were given a political flavour as Mamata Banerjee herself stepped in to protest at the Secretariat next to the toll plaza in Kolkata where the Army exercises were carried out. Kolkata's Additional Commissioner of Police Supratim Sarkar wrote to Colonel Surinder Mahani, Station Cell, Administrative Commandment, Head Quarters Bengal Area, Kolkata, a letter dated November 26. It acknowledged the Army's memo dated November 24 "in connection with the intimation of the Impressments Exercise for Civil Hired Transport on and from November 28 to November 30 at Vidyasagar Setu Toll Plaza".

AAP MP barred from Parliament till Dec 9

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan today gave one more week’s time to the Lok Sabha panel probing the issue of Bhagwant Mann shooting a video of The Parliament complex and asked the AAP member not to attend the House till a decision is taken in the matter. She has extended AAP MP Bhagwant Mann’s quantum of punishment till December 9. Mahajan informed the house that the nine-member committee headed by Bharatiya Janata Party MP Kirit Somaiya has sought another extension. The nine-member committee, headed by BJP MP Kirti Somaiya, had found him guilty of compromising security and termed it a ‘serious breach’ of security of the Parliament which was attacked by militants in 2001. The committee was set up on July 25, a week after Mann had put out in the social media a video of his vehicle passing security barricades and entering the Parliament complex. He had also videographed a room where Parliament questions were being sorted.

Rahul Gandhi: Modi interested in TRP politics

Claiming that Congress has never given India a prime minister who based their entire policy-making strategy on TRPs, Rahul said, “Prime Minister Modi is more interested in TRP politics. Congress has never given India a PM who was a prisoner of his or her own image. We never gave India a Prime Minister who by passed the experience of those sitting in institutions. The country has suffered tremendous damage as a result of the vanity and incompetence of our Prime Minister.” With his mother and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi unwell, a meeting of the party's parliamentarians this morning was chaired by Rahul Gandhi. “The Prime Minister often asks what the Congress did in the last 60 years. The people of India know exactly what the Congress has achieved for this country. But I would like to tell the prime minister what the Congress didn’t do in 67 years,” Rahul said. “The Congress never gave India a prime minister who was a prisoner of his own image,” he said. At the meeting, the Congress MPs chalked out strategies for the main opposition, which is going full throttle against the demonetisation policy of the Centre.

Defence Min saddened by Mamata's comments

Defence Minister Manohar Parikkar said on Friday that the army was conducting a routine exercise in West Bengal and the northeastern states and also rejected the allegations levelled by TMC that state government was not informed about it. The Trinamool Congress and other opposition parties raised the issue of the presence of Army personnel at toll plazas ‘in various parts’ of West Bengal in both Houses of Parliament on Friday. The Army however clarified and called the incident a ‘routine exercise.’ Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar also spoke on the issue in Parliament and said that Trinamool’s reaction to the incident was merely ‘political frustration.’ He said, “Its sad that a routine exercise has been made into a controversy now.” Parrikar added that the exercise was scheduled to happen on December 28, 29 and 30, but were shifted to December 1, 2 on the request of Kolkata police. He also accused the TMC leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of politicising the matter.

Inherited gold not to be taxed

The Amended I-T Act will also not apply to tax ancestral jewellery and gold, said the finance ministry. The Lok Sabha earlier this week passed the Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Bill, which proposes a steep up to 85 per cent tax and penalty on undisclosed wealth that is discovered by tax authorities during search and seizure.  The ministry said that the Amended I-T Act will not apply to tax jewellery/ goldpurchased out of disclosed income or exempted income or reasonable household savings. The Central Board of Direct Taxes said, "The jewellery/gold purchased out of disclosed income or out of exempted income like agricultural income or out of reasonable household savings or legally inherited which has been acquired out of explained sources is neither chargeable to tax under the existing provisions nor under the proposed amended provisions". Once the amendments are approved by Parliament, there would be a penalty of 30 percent of unaccounted income, if admitted and taxes are paid. This would take the total incidence of tax and penalty to 60 percent.

PM sits in RS even after adjournment

Prime Minister Narendra Modi remained seated in the Rajya Sabha even during an adjournment of 15 minutes as members from various political parties, including some from the Opposition, were seen going to his seat to exchange pleasantries or for a chit-chat. Actress turned politician Jaya Bachchan (SP) went to the Prime Minister and was seen exchanging pleasantries. She was followed by AIADMK members and a Left MP. Renowned boxer and member Mary Kom was also seen discussing certain things with Modi. The house was adjourned within moments, however, over the Trinamool's raucous protests over allegations that a flight with Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on board was forced to circle over the Kolkata airport while it was low on fuel. Prime Minister reached the Upper House shortly before the Question Hour at 12:00 hours. Questions relating to Prime Minister's Office were listed to be taken up on Thursday.

Reliance Jio extends free services till March'17

Reliance Jio has some great news for its customers. RIL Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh D Ambani on Thursday announced that the Reliance Jio welcome offer has now been extended till March 31, 2017. Mr Ambani said, "All existing customers who already have free service until December 31, 2016, will see this deal extended to them from January 1 to March 31, 2017, and all new customers can avail of this deal from December 4". Reliance Jio has become fastest growing technology company in the world, surpassing even Facebook. “Since its birth Jio has grown faster that Facebook, Whatsapp and Skype,” Ambani said, thanking Indians. However the Reliance Jio Happy New Year plan will come with a Fair Usage Police or FUP which will cap data for Reliance Jio customers at around 1 GB per day. Ambani said Jio has also "fine-tuned" its fair usage policy to ensure all users get fair share of network capacity. Ambani said a Jio user is using 25 times more data than the average Indian broadband users. He, however, expressed his displeasure at existing service providers not helping Jio reduce call drops.

DMK Chief Karunanidhi hospitalised

DMK president M. Karunanidhi was admitted to a private hospital in Chennai early on Thursday. The 92-year-old has been undergoing treatment for back pain at his residence in Chennai. Reports said that Karunanidhi has been admitted for ‘optimisation of nutrition and hydration’. "Doctors have admitted him for a few tests. He will be back home in a few days," a DMK source said. "Karunanidhi [has been] admitted for optimisation of nutrition and hydration. He's stable... [and is being] treated by a team of doctors.  He will be in hospital for a few days," a statement from Kauvery Hospital said. Mr Karunanidhi has not been seen in public for over a month. In October, a statement from his party said, "The DMK leader is unwell due to a drug-induced allergy. Doctors have advised him rest.  Visitors should avoid visiting him and cooperate." This news amid reports of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha recovering at the hospital from her illness where she has been admitted over a month ago.

Rahul Gandhi's twitter account hacked

The official Twitter account of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi was hacked on Wednesday evening and multiple abusive tweets were posted on it. The first six tweets were deleted shortly after being posted around 8.45pm. More offensive tweets, however, kept showing up on the Twitter account – @OfficeOfRG -- every few minutes and were being deleted immediately after being posted. The hackers have also removed Mr Gandhi's profile picture and changed the title of the account from @OfficeOfRG to an abusive one. The account has now been restored and all objectionable tweets have been removed. Confirming that Gandhi’s account was hacked, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala tweeted: “Such lowly tactics will never drown the sane voice of reason nor deter Sh. Rahul Gandhi from raising.” “Such unscrupulous, unethical and roguish conduct of venal trolls to hack Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter handle reflects disturbing insecurities of prevalent fascist culture,” he added.

Cyclone warning in Tamil Nadu

A cyclone building up in the Bay of Bengal is expected to cross the Tamil Nadu coast on Friday, December 2, the Met department has said. The low pressure system that was present in the Bay of Bengal has intensified into a cyclone named as NADA. It is currently about 770 km south east of Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, and is expected to move west and intensify.   "Squally winds speed reaching 45-55 kmph gusting to 65 kmph would commence to prevail along and off the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry coasts from December 1. Sea condition would be rough to very rough," the Met department has said.   The rainfall will intensify first in coastal districts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Later interior districts will get rain. Warnings have been given to fishermen to not enter the sea and deep sea vessels have been asked to return. However, Balachandran stated that people need not panic as the IMD is not expecting intense heavy rainfall like December 2015. 

Kejriwal 'Factually Incorrect': Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday hit out at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for making "factually incorrect" statements on the proposed changes in the Income Tax Law. Responding to Kejriwal's charge that the Modi government had slashed penalty on black money from 200 per cent to 10 per cent, Jaitley took to the twitter to explain the features of the amendments passed by the Lok Sabha yesterday.   He asserted that there will still be a penalty of 200% for misreporting income under Section 270A of the Income Tax Act. "Why should a former IRS officer, @ArvindKejriwal factually misrepresent changes in the Taxation Law?" he tweeted. In the newly introduced Pradhan Mantri GKY, apart from 50 per cent of income being taken as tax, penalty and surcharge, 25 per cent of disclosed income has to be kept as interest free deposit for four years, he said.   Jaitley also said that a total of 77% tax will be imposed on cash if an individual shows it in the return, but can explain it. Otherwise, tax on 'unexplained' cash shown on a return has been increased to 60% tax + 25% surcharge tax + 3% cess tax, from the earlier 30% .

Indian cricket team attend Yuvraj's sangeet

Post their stunning win in the Mohali test, the Indian cricket team had one more reason to celebrate. And it was cricketer Yuvraj Singh's wedding festivities. The entire team including the support staff was in full attendance for the World Cup winning team member's special day. Yuvraj Singh and actress Hazel Keech will be getting married on Wednesday, 30 November 2016, in a gurudwara ceremony.  The couple celebrated their cocktail celebrations in Chandigarh at a hotel on Tuesday.  Virat Kohli, Murali Vijay, Parthiv Patel, Ishant Sharma were the first ones to arrive and seemed relaxed after a satisfying result on the ground. Also in attendance, but not in the picture, were cricketers Ashish Nehra, Mohammad Kaif, former India captain Kapil Dev, PCA officials, commentator Gautam Bhimani, and others. Kumble extended his wishes to Yuvraj in his typical graceful manner by posting a picture with Kaif. Writing in that tweet, ‘Jumbo’ said, “It was nice to catch up with @MohammadKaif at @YUVSTRONG12 wedding. Congratulations Yuvi!Wishing u happiness! ”

This is what RBI will do with old notes

Now that the exchange of money at the bank has ended the big question that arises is what happens to the old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes which were banned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this month to combat corruption and black money. The demonetisation exercise brought 18 billion 500 and 1,000 rupee notes valued at Rs. 14 lakh crore out of circulation. According to government sources the demonetised notes will be sent to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) so that it can be shred and pulped for recycling. The stack of paper that will sent to RBI will be then turned in to short strips and  after recycling it will be created into compressed blocks will be used to make office stationary. This method which is being used is completely a new method, earlier till 2001 old and discarded notes were destroyed by burning them. According to reports, the Reserve Bank of India will take over a year to destroy the recently demonetised notes. The sorting, verification and shredding of the notes is already underway at three centres in the state - Fort, in Mumbai,Belapur and Nagpur.

SC: Play National anthem in all cinemas

The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered all cinema halls across the country to play the national anthem before the screening of films. "People now-a-days don't know how to sing national anthem and people must be taught. We must respect national anthem," the top court said. It also said that all present must "stand up in respect" till the anthem ended. It said the practice would "instill a feeling within one a sense of committed patriotism and nationalism". "People must feel this is my country. This is my motherland... Arrey, who are you? You are an Indian first. In other countries, you respect their restrictions. In India, you do not want any restrictions?" Justice Misra remarked. The Centre and states have been given 10 days to implement the court's order. The Centre said it will circulate the order to all states' chief secretaries and will also publish it in the electronic and print media. Acting on a petition on the alleged misuse of the anthem in TV shows or movies, the court also ruled that it should not be commercially exploited or dramatized or printed on objectionable material.

Rs.10,000 Withdrawal Limit On Jan Dhan A/cs

In a notification issued on Tuesday, the Reserve Bank of India,  said Jan Dhan account holders can withdraw only up to Rs. 10,000 a month. This is in a bid to protect farmers and rural Jan Dhan account holders+from money launderers. Banks can allow withdrawals beyond Rs. 10,000 only after establishing the genuineness of cases and documenting them in records. It said, “Limited or Non KYC compliant account holders may be allowed to withdraw Rs. 5,000 per month from the amount deposited through SBNs after November 09, 2016 within the overall ceiling of Rs. 10,000.” "With a view to protect the innocent farmers and rural account holders of PMJDY from activities of money launders+ and legal consequences under the Benami Property Transaction & Money Laundering laws, it has been decided to place certain limits, as a matter of precaution, on the operations in the PMJDY accounts funded through deposits of Specified Bank Notes after November 09, 2016,"the RBI said in its notification.

Lok Sabha passes Income tax bill

The Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed by a voice vote a bill to amend the income tax laws to facilitate levy of 60 per cent tax on undisclosed income or investment or cash credit deposited in banks after the November 8 demonetisation. The bill, moved by Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, was passed by voice vote amid a ruckus created by the opposition parties over the demonetisation. Jaitley said, "PM Modi made a huge announcement on November 8 to fight the menace of black money and corruption in the country." The bill was introduced nearly three weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi banned high denomination currency notes, also provides for immunity from being questioned on the source of funds. Trinamool Congress member Sudip Bandyopadhyay suggested that the debate and the bill can be clubbed, which Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said was not possible. Both Houses of Parliament have been adjourned till 11 am tomorrow. On the tenth day of the Winter session of Parliament today, multiple disruptions uproar over the government's demonetisation decision is likely to continue with the Opposition sticking to its stand that the PM apologise for his black money jibe.

Ind beat Eng; Lead test series 2-0

India achieved a comprehensive 8-wicket win over England at Mohali to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the five-match series. This after England were bowled out for 238 in their second innings. This victory stretches India's unbeaten streak in Tests to 17 at home - their second-highest. Only two sides in Test history - Australia v England in Aug 1882 & West Indies v Zimbabwe in March 2000 - had successfully defended a target less than 103 runs. The foundation for the victory was set up after the Indian bowlers managed to skittle England for a below par 283 runs in the first innings, with pacers Mohammad Shami and Umesh Yadav sharing 5 wickets among themselves. Playing his first Test in eight years, Parthiv Patel smashed an unbeaten 67 off 54 balls and the hosts chased down their 103-run victory target for the loss of Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara. Ravindra Jadeja was adjudged the 'Man of the Match' for his valiant 90 in the first innings. He also picked up 4 wickets in the match. The fourth Test match starts in Mumbai from December 8.

PM asks BJP lawmakers to submit bank details

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked BJP MPs and MLAs to submit details of their bank account transactions between November 8 and December 31, this come amid allegations that many were aware about notes ban before the official announcement. The government has flatly denied those accusations, but the opposition points to a land-buying spree undertaken by the BJP in Bihar before demonetization was ordered. The bank account details will have to be submitted to party president Amit Shah, Prime Minister Modi said at the parliamentary party meet today. He also said that the purpose of the recently introduced IT Amendment Bill is to use the money recovered for the welfare of the poor, and not for turning black money into white. Reacting to this, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took to Twitter and said details of transactions made before six months of the announcement should also be revealed. The move is an effort to blunt opposition criticism.

Plane with football players crashes in Columbia

A charter plane carrying 81 people, including 22 players from the Brazilian football club Chapecoense, crashed in Cerro Gordo, Colombia. The team was due to play in the final of the Copa Sudamericana, against Medellin team Atletico Nacional. The first leg of the final of the cup, South America's second most important club competition, was scheduled for Wednesday, but has now been suspended. Police say 76 people were killed, and five survived. One of the dead, survived the crash, but died in hospital. Bad weather is hampering rescue efforts, but an estimated 90 emergency services workers are now at the crash site. The plane was given priority to land but didn’t make the airport, according to Alfredo Bocanegra, the head of Colombia’s civil aviation authority. It lost contact with ground controllers around midnight. Colombian news reports said at least one of the survivors was from the soccer team and had been taken to a hospital, where he was conscious and able to speak.