In a surprise move, senior Congress leader and AICC General Secretary Gurudas Kamat has quit all posts in the party, according to a statement here on Wednesday.

"I had met Congress Vice president Rahul Gandhi last week on Wednesday and discussed to be relieved from all responsibilities," he said in a terse statement, hinting at retirement from active politics.

Kamat said he had requested Gandhi to relieve him from all responsibilities on February 3, the day Congress candidates were announced for the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation elections, and repeated his plea on February 21, the day of BMC polling.

"I thank Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi for the opportunity given to me to serve the party," he said without elaborating on the reasons for his decision.

Ten Maoist guerrillas, including three of their commanders and three women, surrendered before the police in Jharkhand's Lohardaga district on Wednesday.

According to the police, the Maoists surrendered before Ranchi range Deputy Inspector General of Police A.B. Homkar. 

Of the ten Maoists, one is a sub-zonal commander and two are area commanders.

Two of the Maoists — Ramdhin Kherwar and Kaleshwar Kherwar — were carrying rewards of Rs two lakh each.

The other Maoists who surrendered were identified as Harendra Oraon, Chandreshwar Oraon, Jitendra Ganjhu, Suhram Kherwar, Sushanti Oraon, Seema Oraon, Meena Oraon and Sukhlal Nagesia.

The Maoist guerrillas have surrendered under the Surrender and Rehabilitation Policy of the state government. They would be rehabilitated as per the guidelines of the policy.

In all, 22 of the 24 districts in Jharkhand have been declared Maoist- affected. Lohardaga is among those affected.

India and Sri Lanka Wednesday signed an MoU for cooperation in economic projects as Prime Minister Narendra Modi affirmed his government’s continued support to the government in the island nation in realising its vision for a stable, peaceful and prosperous Lanka.

 Mr Modi, who is scheduled to visit Lanka in the second week of May to inaugurate the UN ‘Vesak Day’ (Buddha Day), Wednesday held wide-ranging talks with visiting Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on bilateral issues and matters of mutual interest. Mr Wickremesinghe, who is on a five-day working visit, also held talks with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and other Indian leaders.  

 An official statement said the discussions between the two sides provided them an opportunity to review the progress in implementation of the decisions taken during various high level exchanges in the past two years or so, including the visit of Mr Modi to Colombo in March 2015 and the visits of the President and the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka to India since February 2015.

 The two sides expressed their satisfaction at the progress in implementation of the outcomes of these exchanges, which further strengthened the historically close and friendly relations between the two countries. The Indian side reiterated India’s commitment to promoting prosperity in the neighbourhood.

 The MoU for cooperation in economic projects signed today outlines the agenda for bilateral economic cooperation in the foreseeable future. Both sides expressed their commitment to ensuring that this mutually beneficial agenda was expeditiously implemented. They also expressed the hope for early conclusion of the ongoing negotiations on the Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement.

 Pointing out that India had welcomed Lanka co-sponsoring the Resolution "Promoting Reconciliation, Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka” at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) last month, the Indian leadership expressed the earnest hope that recommendations on the reconciliation would be completed within the stipulated timeframe of two years.

 The Indian interlocutors requested continued cooperation of the Lankan authorities for humanitarian treatment of Indian fishermen, without resorting to force under any circumstances. Both sides welcomed the meeting of the Joint Working Group on Fisheries held in Colombo earlier this month. The Indian side also informed the Lankan side of the measures taken by India to encourage the Indian fishermen concerned for adopting deep sea fishing.

Encouraged by the response from over 2,000 schools for books published by NCERT, the HRD ministry is planning to conduct a review of the council's capacity before considering making its books compulsory.

Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar had recently advised the schools to stick to books published by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) rather than those of private publishers, however, the same have not been made compulsory yet as shortage of books was reported by schools and parents.

In February, CBSE had created a link on its official website for raising online indent for NCERT textbooks.

“This year there was a problem because parents were complaining about prices of books being highly priced. We appealed to all schools to register and give their intent. Over 2,000 schools have registered and we have supplied NCERT books in those 2,000 private schools,” Javadekar told reporters on the sidelines of an event.

“However, it can't be made compulsory at present. We will review the NCERT capacity and the improvement in its books and a decision in this regard will be taken within next two months,” he added.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday appointed party leader Ashok Gehlot as in-charge of Gujarat, where assembly elections are due later this year.

Gehlot, a former Chief Minister of Rajasthan, replaces Gurudas Kamat as in-charge of the state. 

A party release said that Gehlot as general secretary will be assisted by four secretaries – Rajeev Satav, Harshvardhan Sapkal, Varsha Gaikwad and Jeetu Patwari. 

"Congress president Sonia Gandhi has assigned the task of looking after Gujarat affairs to a new AICC team," the release said. 

Gujarat is the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah. 

The Congress is hoping to improve its prospects in Gujarat in the assembly polls. The party has lost successive assembly polls in the state. 

Kamat has resigned all party posts, according to a statement.

Atletico Madrid will be without the services of Belgian international winger Yannick Carrasco for at least the first leg of their Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid after it was confirmed he has suffered a twisted shoulder.

Carrasco suffered the injury on Tuesday night's 1-0 home defeat against Villarreal as a second half substitute, reports Xinhua news agency.

He had been on the pitch less than 15 minutes when he was body-checked by Villarreal defender Rukavina and, although he attempted to continue, he had to leave the pitch.

At first it was thought he could have suffered a fractured collar bone, but after being taken for tests, the club confirmed he had suffered "a first degree twist" between the shoulder and collar bone.

The injury means he will miss this weekend's Liga Santander games against Las Palmas and Eibar and the first leg of the Champions League semi-final, which is played in Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu Stadium on May 2. The Belgian is also a doubt for the return leg to be played in front of Atletico's fans on May 11.

Carrasco has been vital for Atletico Madrid this season with 10 goals in the Liga Santander and two in the Champions League. 

Anees Bazmee's Mubarakan has an interesting ensemble cast and is all set to witness a number of firsts. For the first time ever, the 'Chacha-Bhatija' jodi, Anil Kapoor and nephew Arjun Kapoor have come together for a film, which has built excitement among the fans.

Arjun, who will play the role of a Sikh for the first time, has put in immense hard work to get into the skin of the character. The actor will be seen opposite Ileana D'Cruz and Athiya Shetty for the first time. The movie is expected to be an entertaining ride, as Arjun will be seen in the double role of Karanveer Singh and Charanveer Singh.

Although Bollywood friendships are rare and short-lived, they always become talk of the town. During the shoot of Mubarakan, Ileana and Athiya became besties.

“The whole unit of Mubarakan was like one big happy family shooting in England but the strongest bond of all seems to be between Ileana and Athiya,” sources said.

“They hit it off when they shot together in Mumbai for Mubarakan. In London, they are inseparable” the sources added.

The two girls were seen spending a lot of time together on their off days while exploring London to the core.

Mubarakan is slated to have its worldwide release on 28 July 2017.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday exempted actor Akshay Kumar from personal appearance before a trial court here in a defamation case filed against the team of Hindi movie Jolly LLB 2.

Justice Mukta Gupta granting exemption to Akshay from personal appearance said that the actor can be represented through his advocate before the court. 

The trial court on February 8 had issued summons to Jolly LLB 2 producer Fox Star Studios India Private Limited, executive producer Naren Kumar, director Subhash Kapoor, Annu Kapoor along with Akshay and others asking them to appear in court in a defamation case filed by Bata shoe company. 

Akshay challenged the summing order in the High Court. 

The Bata Limited footwear company had filed a criminal defamation case against the team of "Jolly LLB 2" for using derogatory remarks and defamatory reference to Bata as a brand in the first official trailer of the movie. 

The brand Bata has been deliberately shown in an extremely bad taste and the dialogue was intended to convey that Bata footwear is worn only by the lower strata of society and one should feel humiliated if one wears Bata footwear, the company had said in its plea. 

The trial court had found prima facie offence under sections 500 (defamation) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code, which are made out against the accused and said there were sufficient grounds to proceed against them. 

Government agency CAPART has recommended registration of 159 FIRs against various NGOs for alleged misappropriation or misuse of funds disbursed to them, it told the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

The Council for Advancement of People's Action and Rural Technology (CAPART), which works under the Ministry of Rural Development and disburses funds to voluntary organisations working in rural areas, said initially it had blacklisted 718 NGOs for not following the due process and not submitting their accounting details.

Subsequently it had removed 15 NGOs from the black-list after they complied with the accounting norms, it told a bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar.

The Supreme Court had on January 10 said public money cannot go unaccounted for and those misappropriating must be prosecuted.

Taking umbrage to the fact that no steps have been taken to evolve a regulatory mechanism even after the lapse of six years since a PIL was filed, the apex court had said the Centre and its departments were doling out crores of rupees to lakhs of NGOs, societies and voluntary organisations but were not aware of the repercussion of non-auditing.

The bench had also warned that "mere blacklisting" of these organisations would not suffice and civil and criminal action should be initiated by CAPART/other government departments for misappropriating public money received by them from various government departments.

CBI had in September 2015 informed the apex court that less than ten per cent of over 30 lakh NGOs functioning across the country had submitted their returns or balance sheets and other financial details to the authorities.

The apex court had expanded the scope of the PIL, filed in 2011 against Hind Swaraj Trust, run by anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare. The PIL had sought a probe into alleged embezzlement of funds.
 

Shocked by the defeat in Delhi civic polls, top brass of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) gathered at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's house on Wednesday, while the party office wore a desserted look.

Senior leaders including Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Dileep Pandey and Gopal Rai met Kejriwal to discuss the loss.

As poll results showed the AAP coming a distant second in the polls, Rai emerged from the house to tell the media that the BJP win was "due to EVM tampering". 

The party office at Rouse Avenue had few people.

Barring national spokesperson Ashutosh, the party office saw no other AAP leader in the morning. There were no signs of preparations for any celebrations either. 

(With inputs from agencies)
 

Week-long incessant pre-monsoon rains, thunderstorm and heavy lightning disrupted life in northeastern states while road connectivity remained cut-off in Mizoram due to landslides, officials said on Wednesday.

"Cyclonic circulation persisting over East Bangladesh and adjoining Tripura, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland caused light to heavy rains since April 20 affecting normal life in the region," Meteorological Department Director Dilip Saha told IANS in Agartala.

Saha said: "The situation is likely to improve from Wednesday. The quantum of pre-monsoon rain this year is higher than last year in the four northeastern states."

Though the four-month-long (June-September) Southwest monsoon was likely to hit the Northeastern region in June, seasonal Nor'wester (cyclonic rainstorm) spells have occurred intermittently since March in most parts of the region's eight states.

The Met officials said that the Nor'westers would continue till the onset of monsoon in June and be more active in the coming weeks in entire eastern and northeast India and few other places.

"The NH-54 remained blocked since Monday due to the landslide caused by non-stop rainfall since last week," Mizoram Disaster Management and Rehabilitation Director C. Lalpeksanga said in Aizawl.

The NH-54 is the lifeline of the mountainous state.

Lalpeksanga said heavy landslides took place at several places in the southern part of Mizoram adjoining Assam.

As many as 50 families have been evacuated from different places of the affected areas.

The rains damaged the power supply system, uprooted many electric poles and big trees, besides damaging many homes, crops and various properties in different parts of the four northeastern states – Mizoram, Tripura, Manipur and Nagaland, the officials said.

Unprecedented moisture in the soil and abnormal humidity in the air due to long period of rain also created dampness in the floors and walls of most houses in the region.

Top-performing organisations in the private and public sectors globally are, on average, spending a greater proportion (33 per cent) of their IT budgets on digital initiatives than government CIOs, who are only spending 21 per cent, market research firm Gartner said on Wednesday.

According to the survey, looking forward to 2018, top organisations anticipate spending 43 per cent of their IT budgets on digitalisation, compared with 28 per cent for government CIOs.

"Government CIOs in 2017 have an urgent obligation to look beyond their own organisations and benchmark themselves against top-performing peers within the public sector and from other service industries," said Rick Howard, Research Vice President at Gartner.

The survey included the views of 2,598 CIOs from 93 countries, representing $9.4 trillion in revenue or public sector budgets and $292 billion in IT spending, including 377 government CIOs in 38 countries.

Government CIOs as a group anticipate a 1.4 per cent average increase in their IT budgets, compared with an average 2.2 per cent increase across all industries. 

Local government CIOs fare better, averaging 3.5 per cent growth, which is still more than one per cent less on average than IT budget growth among top-performing organisations overall (4.6 per cent), the findings showed.

The top three barriers that government CIOs report they must overcome to achieve their objectives are skills or resources (26 per cent), funding or budgets (19 per cent), and culture or structure of the organisation (12 per cent).

"Compared with CIOs in other industries, government CIOs tend not to partner with startups and midsize companies, missing out on new ideas, skills and technologies," Howard stressed.

The government sector is vulnerable in the domain of data analytics (30 per cent), which includes information, analytics, data science and business intelligence. Security and risk is ranked second for government overall (23 per cent).

Overall, 58 per cent of government CIOs report that they participate in digital ecosystems, compared with 49 per cent across all industries.

Advanced analytics takes the top spot across all levels of government (79 per cent). Digital security remains a critical investment for all levels of government (57 per cent), particularly in defense and intelligence (74 per cent).

Spanish tennis player David Ferrer failed to qualify for the third round of the Barcelona Open after suffering a defeat against South Africa's Kevin Anderson.

Ferrer, Barcelona Open four-time finalist and the current World No.32, played for only one hour and six minutes on Tuesday before World No.66 Anderson upset him with a 6-3, 6-4 win, reports Efe.

This latest defeat means the 35-year-old veteran has lost another match in a disappointing season in which he has won a total of three matches, and failed to win debut matches in seven different tournaments.

Anderson could meet World No.5 Spaniard Rafael Nadal in the third round, if the latter beats Brazilian Rogério Dutra Silva.

Actor Shahid Kapoor has shared an adorable photograph of himself along with his daughter Misha enjoying some time in the pool.

Tagging it as his "best times", Shahid Wednesday took to Instagram to share a photograph of himself in a baby-pool with Misha. 

"Pool time with missy. Best times," Shahid captioned the image. 

Shahid, who is married to Delhi-based Mira Rajput, welcomed Misha on August 26 last year.

The 36-year-old actor earlier shared a photograph with his younger brother Ishaan Khattar, who will be seen in Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi's "Beyond The Clouds".

"Drive time with little brother. Ishaan Khattar…little no more," he captioned.

On the film front, Shahid is currently shooting for filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Padmavati" alongside Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh. He was last seen in "Rangoon", which has been directed by Vishal Bhardwaj.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his visiting Sri Lankan counterpart Ranil Wickremesinghen met here on Wednesday to discuss bilateral issues and strengthen ties between the two neighbours..

"Held comprehensive talks with PM Ranil Wickremesinghe on ways to strengthen India-Sri Lanka ties for the benefit of our citizens," Modi tweeted after the meeting held at Hyderabad House.

Earlier in the day, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj too met the visiting dignitary.

Wickremesinghe arrived here on Tuesday on a five-day visit to India.

(With inputs from agencies)