Taking a suo-moto notice over the killing of a 32-year-old Dalit man, the Punjab State Schedule Caste Commission
has directed state police authorities to submit a report by 28 February.

The Commission has asked the director, bureau of investigation and senior superintendent of police (SSP), Tarn Taran, to file an action taken report on the incident in which Surjit Singh, belonging to a Dalit family was killed and other family members were injured in the attack by a former head of village, Palasaur, in Tarn Taran district.

In Press statement, the Commission’s chairman Rajesh Bagha said that the attack on Dalit family during the Assembly elections in the state was most unfortunate. “It has come to his notice that the FIR registered against the accused doesn't contain the sections of Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

The kind of weapons used by the accused was a matter of investigation as all the weapons were deposited as per the orders of the district administration during the conduct of assembly polls,” Bagha said.

Last week, a group of 50 Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) workers, including a former sarpanch, allegedly barged into Surjit’s house and opened fire on the family in Palasaur village, 10 kms from Tarn Taran.

The attackers reportedly held a grudge against the Dalit family, also supporters of the SAD, following an altercation during an election meeting on January 29. While Surjit was shot in the forehead and died on the spot, his other brother, Jaswant Singh, received a bullet injury in his leg.

Delhi government's budget for the year 2017-18 will be a symbol of people-centric governance, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Wednesday.

Sisodia said preparations for this year's budget had already begun and it will "carefully review" every provision.

"(I am) Really excited about Delhi Budget 2017," the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader tweeted. "Efficient utilisation of tax with honesty and transparency has always been our driving force."

Party insiders say that as in the last two years, the focus of this budget will also be primarily on education and health.

Soon after sweeping to power in February 2015, the AAP government in its first budget doubled the allocation for education and increased health allocation by half.

Delhi government's budget for the year 2017-18 will be a symbol of people-centric governance, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Wednesday.

Sisodia said preparations for this year's budget had already begun and it will "carefully review" every provision.

"(I am) Really excited about Delhi Budget 2017," the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader tweeted. "Efficient utilisation of tax with honesty and transparency has always been our driving force."

Party insiders say that as in the last two years, the focus of this budget will also be primarily on education and health.

Soon after sweeping to power in February 2015, the AAP government in its first budget doubled the allocation for education and increased health allocation by half.

Involving local communities and keeping alive their traditions can go a long way in protecting the bio-diversity at Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP) which was inscribed in UNESCO’s World Heritage site list in 2014.

Renowned environment experts and officials of GHNP and Wildlife Institute of India during a two-day seminar at Sairopa in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh unanimously called for providing better employment opportunities and involving them protecting environment.

The GNHP is situated 270 kilometres from Shimla.

Stressing on the role of local communities, Sanjeeva Pandey, Additional Principal Conservator of Forest said the role of local deities, customs and traditions would not be denied in protecting the World Heritage site and its flora and fauna.

“We need to focus more on providing more income generating opportunities who were earlier the beneficiaries of GHNP. The locals used to extract medicinal plants and use other resources of national park earlier and were heavily dependent on it for their livelihood,” Pandey said.

 He said now there should be focus on providing micro finance facilities through cooperatives so that they don’t have to face any problems to earn livelihood.

“For the purpose, the government authorities in coordination with GHNP officials should chalk out a plan for developing eco-tourism facilities and set up cooperatives for their help,” he said.

Pandey also called for preserving native vegetation in Heritage Park as it has greater capacity to provide ecosystem services under changing environmental conditions. The rare species can substitute for common species.

Dr M Kirupashankar, Divisional Forest Officer, GHNP also called for active participation of community in nature conservation and said efforts are on spreading awareness amongst them on preserving wildlife and natural vegetation. “Celebrating local customs and traditions at GHNP should also be focus of our efforts, apart from carrying out conservation programs in the park,” he added.

GHNP Director SS Kataik said the authorities are focusing on creating awareness about the conservation of nature and wildlife among local communities as it is under constant threat because of the growing animal-human conflict due to depletion of forest area. “After the declaration of the GHNP as world heritage site, we have witnessed an increase in number of tourists, benefiting the locals’ economy and it is leading to curtailing their dependence on forests,” he said, adding the officials are hopeful of boosting eco-tourism activities in near future.

The Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP) was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site on June 23, 2014. The GHNP attracts birdwatchers from across the globe for it is home to 209 bird species including five spectacular pheasants as Western Tragopan, Monal, Koklash, White crested Kaleej and Cheer Pheasant. Out of these five species, three of them are listed as threatened species (Vulnerable 2, Critically Endangered 1) and 1 Near Threatened.

The GHNP is also home to several species of Outstanding Universal Value as Snow Leopard, Common Leopard, Musk Deer, Blue Sheep or Bharal, Himalayan Black and Brown Bear, Himalayan Tahar, Ghoral, insects, butterflies, earthworms, mollusks, amphibians, reptiles, various herbal and other plant species.

Russia does not return its territories, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said in response to the White House statement that US President Trump was expecting Moscow to return Crimea to Kiev.

"We do not return our territories. Crimea is Russian territory," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday, reaffirming Moscow's long-standing position that the issue is permanently closed.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said on Tuesday that Trump expected Russia to "return Crimea" to Ukraine.

"President Trump has made it very clear that he expects the Russian government to de-escalate violence in the Ukraine and return Crimea," Spicer said at a daily news briefing. "At the same time, he fully expects to and wants to get along with Russia."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said his country's sovereignty over the peninsula could not be discussed as "Russia does not discuss issues related to its territory with foreign partners", reported Sputnik.

According to him, the issue of Crimea had not even been raised in the phone call between Trump and President Vladimir Putin on January 28. The spokesman said Moscow expected the issue to be discussed calmly and in a constructive way once relations with Washington were more positive.

He said Putin would patiently explain to the US the so-called coup in Ukraine, which led Crimean citizens to apply for admission into Russia.

Crimea re-joined Russia after a 2014 referendum, when almost 97 per cent of the region's population voted for the reunification. The referendum was not accepted by Kiev or by the international community.

During the election campaign, according to the report, Trump claimed he would "consider" recognising Crimea as part of Russia following the referendum in the peninsula, adding that the Crimeans wanted to live in Russia.

The US President has repeatedly advocated establishing a political dialogue with Moscow, particularly in regard to the fight against terrorism, and expressed readiness to build positive relations with Russia. Moscow has long been promoting the idea of fruitful cooperation with Washington.

Tamil Nadu acting Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and the chief minister-aspirant, Public Works Minister Edapadi K. Palanisamy, are to call on Tamil Nadu Governor C Vidyasagar Rao.

According to an official in Raj Bhavan, Rao will meet Palanisamy at 7.30pm.

The governor will meet Panneerselvam at 8.30pm. 

Each can take nine other persons along with them, the official added.

Palanisamy, who was elected as AIADMK's leader of legislature party, is expected to stress upon Rao to invite him to form the government.

After China protested against the visit of a Taiwanese delegation, including parliamentarians, to India, New Delhi on Wednesday said no political meaning should be read into this.

"We understand that a group of Taiwanese academics and business persons, including a couple of legislators, is visiting India," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said. 

"Such informal groups have visited India in the past as well for business, religious and tourist purposes," he said. 

"I understand that they do so to China as well. There is nothing new or unusual about such visits and political meanings should not be read into them."

China on Wednesday lodged a protest over the visit by the Taiwanese delegation and asked India to honour its commitment to the "One China policy".

Beijing also warned New Delhi to be cautious in dealing with Taiwan.

"China has urged India to honour its commitment to the One China policy and cautiously handle issues regarding Taiwan," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shunag said. 

India has a commitment on issues regarding Taiwan, Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying. 

China considers Taiwan a breakaway province, which it has vowed to reunite some day. India is among the countries that have no diplomatic ties with the self-ruled island. 

"China has always been opposed to any official contact between Taiwan and countries having diplomatic ties with China," the spokesperson said. 

The three-day visit of the Taiwanese delegation, comprising three women parliamentarians, and members from the academic, business and computer sectors, concludes on Wednesday.

The three parliamentarians are all members of the Taiwanese parliament's Taiwan-India Friendship Association.

Four cars in AIADMK General Secretary VK Sasikala's convoy were on Wednesday damaged in vandalism near Central Jail in Bengaluru, police said.

Clashes between the AIADMK supporters and police personnel erupted when Sasikala, convicted for corruption, reached Bengaluru to surrender before a trial court.

Sasikala gave herself up at the Central Jail on the city's southern outskirts with her relatives Elavarasi and VN Sudhakaran after reaching from Chennai by road.

The surrender came a day after the Supreme Court upheld her conviction in a case of holding assets disproportionate to known sources of income.

Riding on the hard work of over 3.86 million employees and growth of five per cent over the financial year 2016, digital capabilities will drive the Indian technology industry's next phase of development, industry's representative body Nasscom said on Wednesday.

The new emerging technologies will open up multiple areas of work for the industry and will have a significant impact on existing service lines.

"The digital tsunami is reshaping our industry and the priority is to reimagine businesses and unlock new opportunities," CP Gurnani, Chairman at Nasscom, said in a statement.

"The Indian IT-BPM Sector is emerging as a digital solutions partner for global corporations and we are excited to work across stakeholders — customers, start-ups, academia and others to build this exciting future," Gurnani added.

On the industry's performance in financial year 2017, Nasscom predicted that amid continuous technology disruptions, political upheavals and slowdown in Information Technology-Business Process Management (IT-BPM) global spending, the Indian IT-BPM industry is projected to grow at a rate of 8.6 per cent (in constant currency) to reach over $155 billion in financial year 2017. 

IT-BPM exports from India are expected to reach $118 billion. India's domestic IT-BPM market is expected to grow by 12 per cent year-on-year to reach Rs 2,545 billion. 

In terms of the markets, the US and the APAC region are fastest growing at 7.8 per cent with gradual stabilisation in the growth of the European market. 

"While there are some uncertainties in the short term, the initial data from global analysts on tech spending in 2018 is promising," added R Chandrashekhar, President at NASSCOM.

"We are initiating deeper interactions with all stakeholders — global customers and industry providers — to get a more reliable and clear perspective on the projections for financial year 2018 and will give the guidance in the next quarter," Chandrashekhar added. 

The future skills work group at NASSCOM, in partnership with Boston Consulting Group (BCG), is working together with the industry on a two-pronged approach to enhance the skills ecosystem — Skills vs ‘Job-specific' curriculum and tech-enabled learning ecosystem. 

The initiative aims to skill/reskill 1.5-2 million people to be skilled over the next 4-5 years. 

Peaceful polling has been reported so far in the 11 districts of Uttar Pradesh barring a few incidents of minor clash with an average poll percentage of  65 per cent. The fate of many high profile candidates, including UP cabinet minister Azam Khan, is at stake in this second phase of polling in the state.
 
Polling in the second phase of the assembly election was held on Wednesday on 67 seats of  the 11 districts of UP which include western UP, Tarai and Ruhelkhand areas. The fate of 721 candidates, including 82 women, would be locked today in the EVMs. However, in western UP on 34 seats of Saharanpur and Moradabad divisions, 376 candidate are in the fray and a polling of an average 65 per cent was reported here.

As scheduled polling started at 7 am on Wednesday, some areas showed an encouraging response of voters while it was a slow start in some others. An average of 65 per cent votes was reported by 3 pm in the districts of Saharanpur, Sambhal, Badaun, Moradabad, Amroha, Barielly, Rampur, Shahjahanpur, Bijnor, Pillibheet and Lakheempur Khiri. In Saharanpur, 70.76 per cent, Bijnor 67.44 per cent, Amroha 70 per cent, Rampur 61 per cent, Moradabad 65 per cent and Sambhal 66 per cent polling was reported .
 
The fate of many star candidates would be at stake in this second phase of election in UP.  From Rampur, SP`s stalwart Azam Khan and his son Abdullah Azam is making a political debut from neighbouring Suar constituency. On Shahjahanpur`s Tilhar constituency, Jatin Prasad of the Congress and former SP ministers Anees Ahmed Khan from Beesalpur , Kamal Akhta from Hasanpur seat of Amroha are trying their fate . From Nakur the fate of Imran Masood  of the Congress, who is the son of Rashid Masood is at stake from Nakur constituency. MP Sarvesh Kumar`s son Sushant is also contesting from Barhapur constituency of Bijnor. He is an alumni of St Stephen`s College of Delhi.
 
In western UP, besides some minor incidents of clashes between the supporters of rival parties polling concluded peacefully. Supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party had a clash with each other in village Faridpur of Gunnaur constituency in Sambhal district  in which a BJP supporter reportedly sustained injury in firing though DM Sambhal  Bhupendra S Chaudhary denied it .
 
In Rampur, where cabinet minister Azam Khan has been contesting election, supporters of BSP candidate Tanveer Ahmad had an altercation with Khan's supporter. The situation could be controlled with the intervention of police.

In Moradabad district, the malfunctioning of EVMs in all six constituencies was reported which affected he polling but the machines were replaced within one hour. No such complaint was, ,however obtained in rest of the areas.

Besides other prominent persons in the west who casted their vote today, cricketer Mohammad Shami also came out to vote along with his father Tauseef Ahmad and other family members in Amroha district. The cricketer had come in the limelight for reasons other than cricket after he had posted a photo along with his wife in which she was seen wearing a gown. This has invited sharp reaction from a section on the social media to which the cricketer had strongly objected.

With the state reeling under the impact of an economic blockade since last November and petrol selling at Rs.200-250 per litre, the candidates of different political parties were forced to go on a door-to-door campaign on foot.

The state is under an indefinite economic blockade launched by the United Naga Council (UNC) since November 1, last year in protest against the creation of seven new districts bifurcating the existing ones.

The supply of essential commodities, including fuel, to Manipur was severely hit due to the blockade on NH2 (via Dimapur) and NH 37 (via Jiribam) — the two lifelines of the state.

As most of the petrol pumps were facing severe shortage of fuels, they were being sold in the black market at an exorbitant price of Rs 200-250 per litre.

Political parties were compelled to use minimum number of vehicles for the purpose of campaigning.

"Our candidates in most of the places were campaigning on foot. Earlier, we used to do it on cars or open jeeps. But this time there is a huge scarcity of petrol/diesel, and the prices are exorbitant," a state BJP leader said.

This was echoed by both ruling Congress and other opposition parties like the People's Resurgence and Justice Alliance (PRJA) party of rights activist Irom Sharmila and Trinamool Congress.

The Congress, however, said that the economic blockade was the a result of a covert pact between the BJP and the UNC.

"There is a fuel shortage, but the BJP being in power at the Centre can't shake off its responsibility. They are trying to reap dividends out of this blockade," a Congress leader said.

India's exports rose 4.32 per cent in January to USD 22.11 billion mainly due to increase in shipments of petroleum products, engineering goods and iron ore even as trade deficit widened to $9.84 billion.

Gold imports slipped by 29.94 per cent to $2.04 billion in January from $2.91 billion in the same month last year as demand declined following cash crunch post demonetisation.

As per the data released by the Commerce Ministry, growth in exports last month was lower than 5.72 per cent recorded in December.

Exports totalled $220.92 billion for the April-January period of the current fiscal, up about 1 per cent over the year-ago shipments.

The data revealed that imports widened to USD 31.95 billion in January, up 10.7 per cent from the same month last fiscal.

Higher imports took the trade deficit to USD 9.84 billion as against USD 7.66 billion in January 2016.

The trade deficit or difference between imports and exports for April-January months is, however improved to USD 86.38 billion in comparison to USD 107.74 billion recorded in the similar period last fiscal.

The data revealed that iron ore exports jumped over 10 times to USD 184.43 million in January year-on-year.

Export of petroleum products increased from USD 2.08 billion to USD 2.69 billion, a rise of 28.96 per cent.

Shipments of engineering goods from India in January rose to USD 5.45 billion, up 11.89 per cent.

Non-petroleum exports in January were valued at USD 19.42 billion against USD 19.11 billion year-on-year, an increase of 1.6 per cent.

Non-oil imports during January were estimated at USD 23.81 billion.

The Ministry, quoting latest WTO statistics said the growth in exports is positive for USA (2.63 per cent), EU (5.47 per cent) and Japan (13.43 per cent) but China has exhibited negative growth of (-1.51 per cent) for November 2016.

Meanwhile, services exports during December 2016 were valued at USD 13.8 billion registering a positive growth of 3.49 per cent as compared to growth of 1.72 per cent during November 2016.

Imports during December 2016 were valued at USD 8.29 billion registering a negative growth of 0.35 per cent in as compared to positive growth of 8.37 per cent during November.

In view of the various power projects being developed in Nepal, India and the Himalayan nation have agreed to lay down new cross-border transmission lines.

In this regard, laying of new Butwal (Nepal)-Gorakhpur (India) and Lumki (Nepal)-Bareilly (India) transmission lines and setting up of new 400kV sub-stations at Dhalkebar, Butwal and Hetauda — all in Nepal — were discussed during the fourth meeting of the Indo-Nepal Joint Working Group and Joint India-Nepal Steering Committee (JSC) on Power Cooperation that concluded here on Tuesday.

"While the modality of construction and funding would be deliberated in the Joint Technical Team, the Indian side expressed its readiness to consider new LOCs for construction of infrastructure on the Nepali side," an Indian embassy statement in Kathmandu read.

Among other decisions made at the bilateral meeting was India's readiness to impart training for Nepali engineers in operational and commercial issues. The Power Grid Corporation of India expressed readiness to design special training courses to meet the requirements of the Nepali side.

Discussing the progress of various India-funded hydropower projects in Nepal, concern was expressed regarding delays in acquisition of forest land for Arun-III (900MW) and Upper Karnali (900MW) projects, which have led to delays in works and economic viability of the projects.

Nepal conveyed that these issues would be resolved within two months.

Nepal also expressed interest in acquisition of LED bulbs, for which the concerned Indian agency would provide required information. It was mentioned that so far India has installed more than 210 million LED bulbs, which have significantly enhanced power efficiency and reduced cost.

India plans to install 770 million LED bulbs in a few years, and the Indian agency has gained considerable experience in this area.

During the meeting, the Indian side conveyed that the new guidelines issued by India on cross-border trade of electricity is fair and liberal and covers all elements of Power Trade Agreement.

"The guidelines provides a lot of comfort and certainty to power developers interested in exporting electricity to India. The Nepali side appreciated the issuance of the guidelines," said the statement.

In the meeting, Nepal side conveyed its deep appreciation for the efforts by India to supply enhanced quantities of electricity to Nepal that made several parts of the country, including Kathmandu, free of load-shedding this winter.

The current import of 380MW of power from India has been possible on account of the installation of additional transformer at Muzaffarpur by the Indian side, as also by technical improvements at Tanakpur at Nepal's request.

With the commissioning of two new lines — Raxaul-Parwanipur and Kataiya-Kusaha, the installed capacity for export of power to Nepal will increase by another 100MW to 120MW by the end of February 2017. Further, with the completion of 220kV substation at Dhalkebar, the installed capacity will increase to almost 700MW by the middle of 2017.

India conveyed its willingness to supply additional electricity to Nepal, the embassy said. On the existing and new transmission lines, the quantity and price of these supplies will be decided by the agencies concerned on the two sides.

The Indian side also agreed to extend technical assistance for improvement of existing infrastructure, so that the era of load-shedding can end in Nepal for good.

The Chandigarh Rose festival is all set to rock the city beautiful. Everything is in place and in accordance with the Punjabi grandiose. The addition this year is the helicopter ride of seven minutes and a competition for the newlyweds who will fly to Dubai on the winner’s ticket. The Municipal Corporation (MC) of Chandigarh is trying its best to push the festival to the international level.

To increase the standard and appeal of the festival they have gone high-tech. It has been launched with a mobile application 'Rose festival application' which will provide the information about the event, its timing, date and the location. Adding the presence of roses to the festival this application will also have every information about the roses and their variety in the garden.

The helicopter ride has received the warm response from the people. The flight will be under the direct control of the Chandigarh Air Traffic Controller and will be operated by trained air force pilots who are well trained and have 500 flying hours. A back up helicopter, fire tender and an ambulance will stand ready to attend in case of any emergency. Taking care of the safety arrangements in every flight will have an air engineer and every seat will be insured which will be included in the ticket.

The festival will have a variety of activities to keep every age group involved. Kite flying and painting competition for the elders is expecting a good response.

The MC is trying to add a hot air balloon as well. The activities will be divided between two venues which will be the rose garden and the leisure valley, it will host the musical nights. This time the visitors will not only enjoy the activities and food, but will also be able to shop as the MC will add the craft shops as well.

Sajid Nadiadwala, who is gearing up for the release of his home production Rangoon has an uncanny connection with the number 18.

Coincidentally, Sajid was born on February 18 and got married on November 18.  

According to sources, most of his movies release or commence shoot on the 18th.His directorial debut kickstarted shoots on the November 18 and his recent production Rangoon also commenced shoot on the same date.

Like Shah Rukh Khan fancies the number 555, Sajid takes the numerology game seriously too.

Nadiadwala Grandsons entertainment is going great guns with Rangoon releasing next week. Judwaa 2 has commenced its shoot and Baaghi 2 will go on floors soon.

People will soon be able to pay taxes and track their returns through a smartphone app and get a new PAN within minutes using Aadhaar verification.

The Income Tax department is developing an app that will also allow assessees to apply for Permanent Account Number (PAN) using smartphones.

"The app concept is at a preliminary stage.

The app will enable assessees to pay taxes online, apply for PAN or track tax returns.

Pilot project will be undertaken after getting approval from the Finance Ministry," an official said.

The department is also working on a project to issue PAN to assessees within minutes by way of e-KYC authentication using Aadhaar, a move that will help bring more people under the tax net by making it easier for people to get Permanent Account Numbers.

Aadhaar-based e-KYC facility would allow individuals or entities wanting to apply for PAN to verify details such as date of birth or address by way of biometric identification using thumb impressions.

So far, more than 111 crore Aadhar numbers have been issued.

The unique identification number is being used for getting a new SIM card, for opening bank accounts, transfer of subsidies and also for biometric based digital payments under Aadhaar Enabled Payment System.

As per the government estimate, every year 2.5 crore people across the country apply for PAN cards.

There are currently more than 25 crore PAN cardholders in the country.

Government has made PAN quoting mandatory for cash withdrawals of Rs 50,000 and cash purchase of above Rs 2 lakh.

Beginning January 1, the tax department has started issuing newly designed PAN cards that have added security features to make them tamper-proof and with content on it in both Hindi and English.

Voting in Uttarakhand’s 69 constituencies across 13 districts ended on Wednesday evening at 5 pm.

According to the state election officials, Haridwar recorded the highest polling percentage of 62, followed by Uttarkashi and Udhamsingh Nagar districts which recorded a 60-per cent voters turnout each at 3 pm.