QBullet: Kerala Diaspora to Mobilise Funds for Floods; GDP Up 8.2%
Catch all the top headlines of the day here.
1. Kerala Set to Collect Funds Abroad
The Kerala State government is reaching out across the world in a massive resource mobilisation drive to generate funds for the post-flood relief, rehabilitation, and reconstruction programme.
Talking to reporters after a Cabinet meeting on Friday, 31 August, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the large Malayali diaspora in various countries would have a key role in funding the programme.
The Loka Kerala Sabha, a government-sponsored platform for expatriate Malayalis, would seek to mobilise the diaspora for the world-wide campaign, along with other Malayali associations.
(Source: The Hindu)
2. J&K: Militants Release Abducted Kin of Policemen
Suspected militants on Friday released four family members of policemen whom they had abducted from various places in south Kashmir, sources told The Indian Express. A total of 10 people, whose relatives were working in the Jammu and Kashmir Police, were abducted last night.
The abductions had come a day after four J&K policemen were killed by suspected militants and closely follows allegations of the Army setting militants’ houses on fire – both in Shopian. The Army has denied the allegations. On the same day, J&K Police also arrested the father of Hizbul Mujahideen’s operations chief Riyaz Naikoo.
(Source: The Indian Express)
3. Activists Wanted to Buy Grenade Launcher, Ammo: Maharashtra Police
The Maharashtra Police, criticised for the crackdown of five prominent activists, on Friday went public with documents and letters seized from their possession that the authorities claim prove that the activists were working closely with Maoists and even facilitating purchase of weapons and grenades for them.
Five activists — lawyer and trade union activist Sudha Bhardwaj, poet P Varavara Rao, activist Gautam Navlakha, and lawyers Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves — had been arrested this week. But the police have not been able to question them after the Supreme Court stopped Pune police from taking them into custody and placed them under house arrest instead.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
4. India Heads of IT Giants to Face Criminal Charges If Involved in Spreading Fake News
The India heads of global internet and social media giants should face criminal proceedings if their platforms are used to spread fake news and other ‘sinister’ campaigns that lead to lynching and riots, a top government committee is understood to have recommended.
The inter-ministerial committee, headed by home secretary Rajiv Gauba, has submitted its report to home minister Rajnath Singh, who heads a group of ministers (GoM) looking into cases of lynching across various states, and the role of fake news and internet platforms in the episodes.
(Source: The Times of India)
5. GDP Up 8.2%, Best in Over Two Years
The Indian economy expanded the fastest in nine quarters and grew 8.2 percent in the first (April-June) quarter of financial year ending March 2019, on the back of robust consumer spending and a strong growth in manufacturing and construction sectors, according to data released Friday by the Central Statistics Office.
The high growth rate is aided by a low base effect — 5.6 percent in April-June 2017.
The first quarter economic growth in India is significantly higher than 6.7 percent posted by China during the same period but then China’s economy is about four times India’s.
(Source: Indian Express)
6. Scandal at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Tribute Event in Jammu
The BJP ran into a scandal at an unlikely event when a woman confronted the Jammu and Kashmir party chief at a function to pay tribute to Atal Bihari Vajpayee and complained that a leader had advised her to grant sexual favours to VIPs if she had to rise up the organisation ladder.
Footage shows the woman, who said she had served as an executive member of the BJP's Mahila Morcha, approaching Ravinder Raina in Jammu on Thursday, 30 August.
Other senior leaders are seen pleading with her to keep calm at the event, during which Raina also spoke.
"I am tired of complaining time and again," she tells the leaders and loudly reminds Raina how he would hail her as a manifestation of "Matri Shakti" and "Jhansi ki Rani".
(Source: The Telegraph)
7. K Chandrasekhar Rao Wants Good Ties with Centre, Says Amit Shah
The BJP President Amit Shah told RSS party leaders that it was TRS Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao who was maintaining cordial relations with Centre and not the other way round.
Mr Shah clarified this to TRS BJP leaders who expressed apprehensions that the Centre appeared to have a soft corner for Mr Rao while they are fighting with the TRS in the state.
According to sources, TRS BJP leaders told Mr Shah that there were speculations that the TRS and the BJP had secret ties and the frequent meetings of Mr Rao with Prime Minister Narendra Modi were supporting these speculations.
(Source: Deccan Chronicle)
8. SAARC Meet to Allow India-Pakistan Interface
The first face-to-face engagement between the new Pakistani government and India could come later this month when External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi attend the SAARC (South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation) Council of Ministers’ meeting in New York, officials in Delhi and Islamabad confirmed.
However, they said there were no plans “so far” for a one-on-one meeting between the two Ministers on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), which begins on 25 September.
(Source: The Hindu)
9. Rahul Gandhi Air Scare: Delayed Action by Flight Crew Led to Near-Crash of Plane
Delayed action by the flight crew resulted in near crash of the chartered plane which was carrying Congress president Rahul Gandhi from Delhi to Hubli in April this year, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said on Friday, 31 August.
On 26 April, the Congress scion was scheduled to visit Hubli from New Delhi as part of the then-ongoing campaign for the Karnataka elections when his flight developed a technical snag. Alleging “intentional tampering”, the party had filed an FIR against the pilots and demanded a probe at the highest priority.
(Source: The Indian Express)
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