The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday attached nearly Rs 80 crore funds of satellite services' provider Devas Multimedia Ltd under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for its alleged illegal deal with the Indian space agency's commercial arm Antrix Corporation Ltd.

"We have attached an amount of Rs 79,76,00,041 under the PMLA in the case of Devas Multimedia Ltd," said the economic intelligence agency of the Union Finance Ministry in a statement here.

The attached amount is the company's reservation fee with the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and its mutual fund deposits and bank deposits.

The attachment came over a month after the ED officials searched Devas office here on January 23 and recorded statements of its Director (Finance) Ranganathan Mohan, Founder Director Desaraju Venugopal and ex-Director D. Nataraj in which they agreed to have committed the crime.

"Two other Directors who are the brains behind the crime — Ramachandran Viswanathan and M. Chandrasekhar are in the US at present," said the statement.

As per the agreement between Devas and Antrix on January 28, 2005, ISRO was to make, build, launch and operate two S-band satellites (GSAT-6 and GSAT-6A) and lease the additional spectrum from its transponders to the former for beaming multimedia services to its customers in the sub-continent.

The UPA government, however, terminated the $300-million 12-year deal in February 2011 on the recommendation of the Space Commission for the nation's strategic needs, including societal.

The city-based company's two Directors and one former Director were named in the charge-sheet the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed on August 11, 2016 in New Delhi, along with former ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair and its three senior officials.

Accusing Devas of illegally entering into an agreement with Antrix by fraudulently representing certain facts and collecting investments from abroad through criminal conspiracy, the statement said the ED had probed the case on the basis of the FIR the CBI registered and its chargesheet under the provisions of the PMLA.

Signing the agreement with Antrix in 2005, Devas falsely claimed that it had ownership and Intellectual Property rights to use the technology for delivering multimedia services in India, it said.

"On the strength of the agreement, Devas raised foreign investment of around Rs 579.07 crore and transferred Rs 76.19 crore to its US subsidiary. It also transferred Rs 180.78 crore to the subsidiary under the guise/pretext of providing business support services and spent Rs 230.11 crore as legal fee," said the statement.

Terming the deal with Antrix illegal as Devas did not have technology or ownership of IP rights to deliver multimedia services, the ED said its main purpose was to raise foreign investments on the strength and siphon off 85 per cent of these in these guises.

"The company never did any major business in India other than providing internet services to about 20-25 customers in Bengaluru. Its staff strength in India and the US was only three each," added the statement.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday attached nearly Rs 80 crore funds of satellite services' provider Devas Multimedia Ltd under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for its alleged illegal deal with the Indian space agency's commercial arm Antrix Corporation Ltd.

"We have attached an amount of Rs 79,76,00,041 under the PMLA in the case of Devas Multimedia Ltd," said the economic intelligence agency of the Union Finance Ministry in a statement here.

The attached amount is the company's reservation fee with the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and its mutual fund deposits and bank deposits.

The attachment came over a month after the ED officials searched Devas office here on January 23 and recorded statements of its Director (Finance) Ranganathan Mohan, Founder Director Desaraju Venugopal and ex-Director D. Nataraj in which they agreed to have committed the crime.

"Two other Directors who are the brains behind the crime — Ramachandran Viswanathan and M. Chandrasekhar are in the US at present," said the statement.

As per the agreement between Devas and Antrix on January 28, 2005, ISRO was to make, build, launch and operate two S-band satellites (GSAT-6 and GSAT-6A) and lease the additional spectrum from its transponders to the former for beaming multimedia services to its customers in the sub-continent.

The UPA government, however, terminated the $300-million 12-year deal in February 2011 on the recommendation of the Space Commission for the nation's strategic needs, including societal.

The city-based company's two Directors and one former Director were named in the charge-sheet the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed on August 11, 2016 in New Delhi, along with former ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair and its three senior officials.

Accusing Devas of illegally entering into an agreement with Antrix by fraudulently representing certain facts and collecting investments from abroad through criminal conspiracy, the statement said the ED had probed the case on the basis of the FIR the CBI registered and its chargesheet under the provisions of the PMLA.

Signing the agreement with Antrix in 2005, Devas falsely claimed that it had ownership and Intellectual Property rights to use the technology for delivering multimedia services in India, it said.

"On the strength of the agreement, Devas raised foreign investment of around Rs 579.07 crore and transferred Rs 76.19 crore to its US subsidiary. It also transferred Rs 180.78 crore to the subsidiary under the guise/pretext of providing business support services and spent Rs 230.11 crore as legal fee," said the statement.

Terming the deal with Antrix illegal as Devas did not have technology or ownership of IP rights to deliver multimedia services, the ED said its main purpose was to raise foreign investments on the strength and siphon off 85 per cent of these in these guises.

"The company never did any major business in India other than providing internet services to about 20-25 customers in Bengaluru. Its staff strength in India and the US was only three each," added the statement.

Seventeen people were rescued after an old residential building in South Kolkata partially collapsed on Tuesday afternoon, fire officials said.

"All the 17 people trapped in the partially collapsed Calcutta Improvement Trust (CIT) residential building were rescued. No injuries were reported from the incident," a fire official confirmed.

A part of the building's third floor suddenly collapsed at around 4 p.m on Tuesday afternoon while repair work was going on, the residents said.

"A portion of the roof of the building's third floor fell off during the repair work today. The second floor also partially collapsed under the impact. Thank God, no one was outside when it happened, else a major accident would have happened," a resident, visibly panicked after the incident, said.

According to the residents, the building was in a vulnerable state as there was no maintenance for nearly 50 years.

Fire Department officials and disaster management team rushed to the spot after the incident. City Mayor Sovan Chatterjee also visited the site to supervise the rescue operation.

"The building collapsed during the repair work. The rescue operation has been conducted successfully," Chatterjee said.

Minister of Development of North East Region (DoNER) Jitendra Singh on Tuesday said that the government will start a Centre for Brahmaputra studies at Gauhati University as part of its initiatives to catalyse the contribution of the Northeast towards the country's development.

In October last year, the government had set up A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Centre for Policy Research and Analysis at the Rajiv Gandhi Indian Institute of Management (RGIIM), Shillong, which will provide strategic policy support on livelihood, Act East Policy, Biodiversity, Organic Food Basket, Bamboo Mission and Horticulture.

"North Eastern Region is on a high priority for the Central government. It is evident from the fact that three months after taking over as the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi announced the setting up of a Sports University in Manipur," the minister said.

He added that the Central Government is making all efforts to materialise this project and is pursuing it with the Manipur government.

He, along with Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju, attended the felicitation ceremony of the sportspersons from the north-east who participated in the 2016 Rio Olympics.

The sportspersons who were felicitated included Dipa Karmakar (Gymnastics), P. Sushila Chanu (Hockey, Women), H. Lal Ruatfeli (Hockey- Women), L. Bombayla Devi (Archery), K. Chinglensan Singh (Hockey, Men) and K. Kothajit Singh (Hockey, Men) among others.

Each sportsperson was presented with a cash award of Rs 2 lakh and a memento.

Even 24 hours after it was first noticed, fire still raged on in some pockets of a century-old building in city's commercial hub Burrabazar area on Tuesday night, fire officials said.

"The fire is still on in some pockets of the building. 11 fire tenders are still working to put out the blaze. The fire tenders would be kept at the spot overnight to bring the situation completely under control," a fire official said.

The officials said the building at A3, Amaratala Lane has been completely gutted.

"It was a huge fire. The building has been massively impacted by it as a result. But we can't say if it would collapse," the official said.

Three firefighters were injured while combating the blaze on Monday night. There are no reports of further injuries since then," he added.

State Fire Services Minister and City Mayor Sovan Chatterjee, who was present at the spot on Monday night, earlier said the administration would hold discussions with all stakeholders so that such situations could be averted in future.

"The lanes near the building were very narrow. So the fire fighters faced a lot of difficulty in reaching the spot. The administration would sit with the Municipal Corporation, Fire Department and the city police and discuss in detail so that we can prevent similar incidents," Chatterjee said.

He also lauded the fire fighters for doing a "remarkable job" in handling the situation.

"The fire fighters and the disaster management team did a remarkable job in controlling the situation," he added.

The major fire broke out at a multi-storied building at Kolkata's Burrabazar around 9.35 p.m. on Monday. The blaze reportedly intensified as a lot of inflammable material were kept in the building. 35 fire tenders had to be pressed into service initially to control the blaze.

Fifty-three drug peddlers have been arrested in the Kashmir valley by the police in the past two months. Among these drug peddlers, 10 have been arrested in Budgam, three in Awantipora, 10 in Kupwara, eight in Kulgam, six each in Anantnag and Pulwama, five in Srinagar, four in Baramulla and one in Bandipora, a police official said.

One kilogram of heroine, 1.5 kilogram of brown sugar, 7925 bottle of codeine phosphate, 131237 tablets of prescription drugs, 10.02 kilograms of Charas and 40.3 kilograms of poppy straw were recovered from possession of these drug peddlers, the official said.

Menace of drug abuse, particularly among the youth in Kashmir, has increased over the passage of time. Drug de-addiction centres have been opened at several places and according to official figures nearly 4,000 patients were last year provided treatment and counselling. Of these, 1,805 patients received treatment in the police control room, Kashmir and 1,469 in Jammu.

The J&K police under its Civic Action Programme has established drug de-addiction centres at Srinagar, Anantnag, Baramulla, Jammu and Kathua.
The department of psychiatry in the Srinagar medical college treats 80 to 90 per cent drug addicts as outdoor patients, while others with medical and psychiatric co-morbity are given in-patient care.  A 30-bedded drug de-addiction centre has been established in the medical college.

Registration of pilgrims for Shri Amarnath Yatra-2017  begins on Wednesday. This year the Yatra will run from 29 June to 7 August. The Amarnath Shrine Board chaired by the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir has issued instructions for the registration of the pilgrims through banks.

The registration and issue of Yatra Permits (YPs) will be done on first-come-first-serve basis. All bank branches will do the registration from 1 March. One Yatra permit shall be valid for registering only one Yatri. Each registration branch has been allotted a fixed “per day/per route” quota for registering the Yatris.

The registration bank branch shall ensure that the number of Yatris registered does not exceed the allotted per day/per route quota. No one below the age of 13 years or above the age of 75 years, and no woman more than six weeks pregnant shall be registered for the Yatra.

Every Yatri will have to submit application form and compulsory health certificate (CHC) to obtain Yatra permit. Formats of the application form and CHC, and the list of doctors/medical institutions authorised to issue the CHC are available at the Shrine Board’s website — www.shriamarnathjishrine.com. The application form and CHC shall be made available free to the applicant-Yatris by the registration branches.

Timely action of the authorities helped in preventing as many as 531 child marriages were prevented in Haryana.

The state women and child development minister, Kavita Jain, said that 923 complaints of child marriage have so far been received since 2014 and 531 child marriages were prevented through counselling.

She said that 123 child marriages were prevented with injunction orders, 74 complaints were referred to Police for necessary action and application was filed in Court for nullity in 25 cases under Section 3 of Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006. The girl or boy was found to be a major after enquiry or complaint was found to be false after enquiry in 188 cases.

The minister said that in 2014-15, as many as 246 complaints were reported, and child marriage was prevented through counselling in 119 cases and with injunction orders in 48 cases.

In 2015-16, as many as 315 complaints were reported, and child marriage was prevented through counselling in 182 cases and with
injunction orders in 37 cases. Jain said that in 2016-17,as many as 362 complaints were reported, and child marriage was prevented through counselling in 230 cases.

Quite often, students from Himachal Pradesh opt for coaching institutes outside the state as there are very few institutes that provide professional courses to crack competitive examinations.

Most of the students choose Delhi or Chandigarh as their preferred destination for getting coaching for competitive examinations as Civil Services, Banking and other examinations related to central and state government jobs.

The students have to pay higher fees for training and in addition, they have to spend extra money for boarding and lodging facilities in these places.

But not all can afford this. Keeping in mind the un-affordability and the difficulties faced by students, the Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) here is preparing new courses to ready students for competitive examinations.

The HPU has constituted a seven member committee to prepare job oriented courses for sectors as banking, media, social work, research, politics, industry, corporate world and other competitive examinations.

The high level committee would look into various aspects of courses for such examinations and it would incorporate suggestions and interests of the students.

For preparing the list of courses that would launch by the varsity, the students of first and third semester of the university would be provided with questionnaire to list their preferences. The students would also be asked to list their interest of sectors where they would like to apply for jobs.

“Based on the findings of this survey, the seven member committee with the help of experienced teachers would design new courses,” HPU official said, adding the new courses would be easy to comprehend in order to help the students in getting jobs in desired fields.

HPU Vice Chancellor A D N Bajpai said that the students and their parents have to bear economic stress as the students have to migrate to other states for better coaching for competitive examinations. “We want to facilitate them in getting  coaching at their doorstep,” he said.

With India having only 8% of the production capacity for cattle feed for breedable animals, there is an urgent need to ensure good quality cattle feed and mineral mixture to improve per animal productivity and meet international standards, said the Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Parshottam Rupala.

Though India is the largest milk producer in the world, there is still ample scope to improve per animal productivity, the Minister said. He said concerted efforts should be put up in promoting different variants of compound cattle feed for different categories of animals.

Rupala asked National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) to take steps to have more qualified trained manpower, efficient plants and machinery and technical expertise in cattle industry to produce right type of feeds.

The Minister launched an NDDB Cattle Feed Knowledge Portal, an interactive knowledge platform on various aspects of compound cattle feed production. The portal would also have information on least cost formula for feeds, suppliers of feed ingredients, raw material specifications as well as a discussion forum to share information.

According to NDDB, the organised sector could only produce 5% of the cattle feed for breedable animals. While the dairy cooperative network produces about 3.6 million tonnes cattle feed per annum with an installed capacity of about 5 million tonnes in 70 cattle feed plants, the private sector has the capacity to produce an additional 4.5 million tonnes. The production of around of 8 million tonnes per annum is sufficient for only about 8 million of the more than 100 million breedable animals, the NDDB stated.

Two Delhi University law students on Tuesday moved the Delhi High Court to seek directions for setting up an independent committee to probe the alleged misbehaviour and beating of women students by the police during Ramjas college violence last week.

Final-year law students Tarun Narang and Deepak Joshi also urged the court to issue guidelines to law enforcement agencies while dealing with students and media on university campuses.

"Police officials caught (hold of) female students in a very objectionable manner… touching their private parts," the petitioners said, adding that "Delhi Police was not able to handle and calm down the situation, which became worse when one group wanted to lead a protest march on the campus but some students interrupted it".

The plea said the tension between the opposing groups of students increased despite police presence, after which the situation turned violent. 

The petitioners claimed the police used excessive force and lathicharged the students to bring the situation under control.

"It is unfortunate that female students were manhandled by Delhi Police, who used excessive force on them, punched them, slapped them and thus outraged their modesty," their plea said.

The two petitioners accused the police of stopping, threatening and manhandling reporters covering the protest march, and added that the police also broke the cameras and other equipment of the media persons.

On February 21, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarathi Parishad activists allegedly forced the Ramjas College to cancel a seminar in which Jawaharlal Nehru University student Umar Khalid, charged with sedition last year, was scheduled to participate.

The next day, ABVP activists were accused of attacking students, teachers and journalists during a protest march outside the Ramjas College.

Maintaining pressure on Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on the issue of checking corruption in government offices, Governor NN Vohra on Tuesday directed her to take time-bound action on the recommendations of the State Vigilance Commission (SVC).

Vohra, while reviewing functioning of the SVC, urged the chief minister to direct time-bound action by all concerned administrative Secretaries on the SVC’s recommendations for promoting transparency and accountability in the functioning of the entire governmental machinery.

The governor had recently advised that the SVC should regularly monitor all-pending enquiry and prosecution cases, take required steps to enhance awareness among the people and encourage them to report every case of dishonest functioning by a public servant and provide quarterly progress reports to the Governor’s secretariat.

Vohra reviewed SVC’s work done during the period July 1 to December 31, 2016 in regard to disposal of complaints by the SVC, disposal of verifications and preliminary enquiries, joint surprise checks, FIRs by the State Vigilance Organization (SVO); and cases pending trial before Special Courts.

During the past six month, the SVC received 343 complaints. The total number of complaints disposed from its inception till December last is 3,974 and the total pendency was 368. As many as 497 cases are pending trial in special courts.

The spokesperson of the Raj Bhavan said that the governor expressed concern about the pendency of any matter in the SVC and inaction on the part of the state government with regard to any report or recommendation made by SVC from time to time.

YSR Congress Party president and Leader of Opposition in Andhra Pradesh Y S Jaganmohan Reddy on Tuesday threatened to send Krishna District Collector to jail.

Jagan entered into an argument with Collector Ahmed Babu, accused him of corruption and threatened to send him to jail.

The incident occurred after the Collector raised an objection to Jagan snatching the autopsy report from a doctor at government-run hospital at Nandigama near here.

The young leader alleged that a fictitious report was prepared without conducting autopsy on the body of the driver of the bus which fell off the bridge into a canal near Mulapadu, killing 11 people and injuring over 30.

Tempers ran high as the Leader of Opposition snatched papers from the doctor and Collector A. Babu who had reached there took objection to this.

Jagan then pulled up the Collector and remarked that from police to Collector everybody was involved in corruption. He even threatened to send him to jail after a thorough probe into the accident.

The YSRCP chief said no autopsy was conducted on the body of Adinarayan Reddy, who was driving the bus when it fell into the canal Tuesday morning.

He claimed that this was done to save Diwakar Travels owned by TDP MP J.C. Diwakar Reddy.

Jagan said there were allegations that the driver was under influence of alcohol and when he wanted to know this the doctors had no answer.

He also questioned the disappearance of the second driver from the hospital.

Jagan said Diwakar Travels and Kesineni Travels are owned by TDP MPs and were being run violating all rules.

The bus which plunged into a canal on Tuesday morning was heading to Hyderabad from Bhubaneswar. It hit the bridge divider and plunged through the gap between the two lanes into the canal.

JNU student Kanhaiya Kumar, out on bail in a sedition case, on Tuesday joined the anti-ABVP march at the Delhi University demanding "non-violence" on campuses even as ABVP members raised "go back Kanhaiya" slogans.

The protest march by students and teachers of various universities here came after widespread violence between ABVP and AISA members on February 22 at the DU's Ramjas College.

The clashes took place over cancellation of an invite to JNU students Umar Khalid and Shehla Rashid for addressing a seminar at the College.

Kanhaiya, who led the protesters in shouting his traditional "azaadi" slogans, clarified at the march that he wasn't participating in the protest as a "JNU student or Leftist" but as a student like others who are demanding "non-violence on university campuses".

"You (ABVP) can't enforce one particular ideology on anyone and there should be room for discussion. You differ with our idea of patriotism, nationalism, free speech or anything under the sun. Come have a discussion with us but kindly don't indulge in any violence," he said while addressing the protesters.

ABVP supporters, objected to his visit on the DU campus and shouted slogans of "go back Kanhaiya" and tried to disrupt his speech.

Police, however, thwarted the attempt by ABVP supporters and did not let them come near the actual site of the march.

Kanhaiya has been at the centre of controversy since last February when he was arrested in a sedition case over an event on JNU campus where anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.

Khalid and another student, Anirban Bhattacharya, were also arrested in the same case.

The Congress government in Himachal Pradesh is in a fix over the poll promise of monthly ‘unemployment allowance’ to the unemployed youths that the party made during the 2012 Assembly elections.

Even as the opposition BJP is all set to take up the issue in the budget session of the state Assembly beginning March 1 here, rejecting the state government’s effort to skirt the issue by granting the ‘skill development allowance’ instead. 

What has actually heated up political environs in an election year in HP at the moment is the forceful demand by the ruling Congress party, asking its own government to implement the Congress manifesto.

Led by Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) president, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, a party delegation on Wednesday met the Chief Minister, Virbhadra Singh and urged him to honour the poll promise on unemployment.

 “It is a question of credibility of the manifesto. The Congress government has already fulfilled more than 80 per cent poll promises made in the run up to 2012 Assembly polls. We have urged the government to fulfil the promise of unemployment allowance also,” Sukhu told The Statesman.

He said the issue had been discussed in the party threadbare and the government should calculate the liability of unemployment allowance.

The BJP, on the other hand, has termed the Congress party’s action as high drama. “The Congress party has woken up in the fifth year. They are befooling the people. In fact, the Congress party and the government are working in connivance. If in the poll year, the Congress government announces the unemployment allowance, it would again be cheating with unemployed youths,” said Rajeev Bindal, Chief spokesperson of state BJP.

As per Congress manifesto for HP Assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh in 2012, the Congress party had promised to give Rs.1,000 per month to 10+2 and graduate unemployed youths of the state, whose total family income is up to Rs.2,00,000 per annum. The party promised that the handicapped graduate unemployed youths will be given an unemployment allowance of Rs.1,500 per month.

However, when the issue of unemployment allowance was raked up by a Congress minister, GS Bali and then joined by BJP, Chief Minister, Virbhadra Singh had  explained that the government had gone in for a better option of ‘skill development allowance’, wherein the unemployed youth were being given vocational training for employment.

Singh said that 1.52 lakh unemployed youths have so far been benefitted under the scheme, with government earmarking a budget of Rs.100 Crore every year.

The BJP has already dismissed it.“The Congress manifesto talked to unemployment allowance, not a skill development allowance. Even otherwise, the skill development is a centrally funded scheme,” said Rajeev Bindal.

China is planning to build its first underwater observation platform in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, which are claimed by several of its neighbouring countries, EFE reported.

The Institute of Acoustics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Shanghai's Tongji University will be in charge of constructing the facility, whose exact location has not been revealed, according to CCTV News. 

The underwater platform will be the first of an observation network the two institutions are aiming to create in the South and East China Seas.

The observation point will be used to monitor undersea physical, chemical, and geological dynamics although it could also be used for other purposes, according to the virtual community and science blog ScienceNet.

China's territorial claims over almost all of the South China Sea, an area rich in natural resources and crucial for navigation routes, have led to disputes with the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia. 

In a major setback to the protesting IAS officers in Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday summarily rejected their demand for CBI probe into the state Staff Selection Commission test paper leak scandal, saying the CBI sleuths are no better than state cops. The chief minister cited the status of some cases handed over to the CBI to prove his point.

“We recently handed over the three cases to the CBI—the case relating to the killing of self-styled Ranvir Sena chief, mysterious disappearance of a Bengali girl from Muzaffarpur and murder of a journalist Rajdeo Ranjan. What has happened to the cases?” asked chief minister, speaking in the Bihar assembly amid boycott by the opposition. According to him, the CBI probe has reached only there where the Bihar police had left the investigation.

He said the Bihar police are “efficient enough” to probe any case saying the state government had never been interfering into their functioning. Questioning the demand for a CBI probe, the CM said the CBI too takes the help of the police to investigate the case. He said more than becoming a fashion, the CBI demand is a tool to cover up the whole investigation.

Indicating he just can’t be cowed down, the chief minister said it was the duty of the officials to perform. “Those showing gross negligence towards duty will be punished,” he warned. He denied getting the memorandum from the IAS Officers Association for a CBI probe declaring he “would do something which will prove to be milestone in governance. Let the memorandum come to me”.

The IAS officers have been on the warpath in Bihar right since one of their senior colleagues Sudhir Kumar was arrested in the test paper leak scandal last week and have announced not to take verbal orders from any politicians including chief minister unless given in writing. The protesting IAS officers have so far met the chief minister, governor and the Speaker of the Bihar assembly seeking for a CBI probe into the scandal and immediate release of the arrested officer but to no avail.

Right now the matter is being investigated by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Bihar police on the instruction of the state government and the chief minister has announced to bring the case to a logical conclusion. The SIT headed by Patna’s senior superintendent of police Manu Maharaj has arrested 34 persons so far and the case is about to be cracked.