Washington, Jan 5 : Senior US intelligence officials face questions at a Senate hearing that will be dominated by the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia meddled in the presidential election to help Donald Trump win.
The Armed Services Committee’s cyber threats hearing on Thursday comes a day before the president-elect is to be briefed by the CIA and FBI directors along with the director of national intelligence on the investigation into Russia’s alleged hacking efforts.
Trump has been deeply critical of their findings, even appearing to back controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s contention that Russia did not provide him with hacked Democratic emails.
The committee’s session is the first in a series aimed at investigating purported Russian cyber-attacks against US interests and developing defenses sturdy enough to blunt future intrusions.
“We will obviously be talking about the hacking, but the main thing is the whole issue of cybersecurity,” the committee’s Republican chairman, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, said ahead of the hearing. “Right now we have no policy, no strategy to counter cyberattacks.”
Slated to appear before the Armed Services Committee are James Clapper, the national intelligence director; Marcel Lettre, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence; and Michael Rogers, National Security Agency chief and the top officer at the US Cyber Command.
Accusations Russia interfered in the 2016 election by hacking Democratic email accounts have roiled Washington for weeks. President Barack Obama struck back at Moscow in late December with a sweeping set of sanctions targeting Russia’s leading spy agencies the GRU and FSB that the US said were involved. The GRU is Russia’s military intelligence agency.
The FSB is the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB.
But the sanctions against both Russian intelligence agencies could easily be rescinded by Trump, who has so far publicly refused to accept the conclusion that Russia is responsible for the attacks.
Trump earlier this week escalated his criticism of US intelligence professionals, such as Clapper by tweeting, without evidence, that an upcoming briefing on the suspected Russian hacking had been delayed until Friday, and said, “perhaps more time needed to build a case”.
Intelligence officials said there had been no delay.
Trump also suggested yesterday in a tweet that one of Russia’s primary targets, the Democratic National Committee, could be to blame for being “so careless.
Washington, Jan 4 : Creating history for a minority ethnic community that comprises just one per cent of the US population, five Indian Americans took oath as members of the Congress.
52-year-old Kamala Harris whose mother was from India and father from Jamaica of African heritage, was sworn in yesterday as the Senator from California by the outgoing US Vice President Joe Biden. She is the first Indian American to have ever served in the Senate.
She was accompanied by her husband Doug Emhoff, sister Maya Harris and other members of her immediate family members during the swearing in ceremony.
Harris, who before the swearing in held the position of California Attorney General replaced Senator Barbara Boxer, who decided against seeking re-election. She is one of the seven new Senators to have taken office in the new Congress.
“Today I was sworn-in to the US Senate. I am humbled and honoured to serve you and the people of California. Let’s get to work,” Harris said immediately thereafter.
After her elections, she has made it clear that her top priority would be to fight out the alleged divisive policies of the Republicans who are now in majority in both the House of Representative and the Senate.
A few hours later, the focus of the community shifted to the House Chambers wherein as many as four Indian Americans were sworn in as its members, including Congressman Ami Bera, who has been re-elected for the third consecutive term.
In the process he equalled the record of Dalip Singh Saundh, who exactly 60-years ago became the first Indian American to be elected as a member of the US Congress.
Joining Bera were young and dynamic Ro Khanna (40) representing the Silicon Valley. He was sworn in on a bicentennial edition of the Constitution on loan from the rare books division of the Library of Congress.
Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, 42, who won the election from Illinois took the oath on Gita. He is only the second US lawmaker after Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii to take the oath on a Gita. Gabbard, the first ever Hindu to be elected to the US Congress took the oath for third consecutive term.
In fresh roadblocks to Goods and Service Tax (GST) rollout, states on Tuesday demanded taxation rights for sales in high seas and also increasing the number of items on which cess is to be levied to compensate the states to deal with revenue loss estimated at Rs 90,000 crore post demonetization.
Initially a Rs 55,000 crore GST compensation fund was proposed to be created by levying cess on demerit or sin goods and luxury items, but post demonetization the compensation amount is expected to go up to Rs 90,000 crore as most states have seen revenue decline of up to 40%, non-BJP ruled states claimed. Also, coastal states pressed for rights to levy GST on trade of goods within 12 nautical miles offshore, holding up finalising of the draft law for levy of Integrated-GST (IGST) on inter-state trade. At the eighth meeting of the all-powerful GST Council, TMC-ruled West Bengal, CPM-led Kerala and Congress-ruled Karnataka pressed for including area up to 12 nautical miles in the definition of states within IGST law, a standoff that led to chairman and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley agreeing to seek legal opinion on its Constitutional validity.
“We couldn’t reach a consensus on a very important issue that relates to defining of a state. This is 12 nautical miles from the state. Can states charge GST from them or not? Right now states like Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Odisha are charging VAT or sales tax within 12 nautical miles. For eg when a ship is loaded with oil or products, the tax on that is charged by the states. “All the coastal states, irrespective of parties, combined in saying that we must have 12 nautical miles within the state jurisdiction. Whereas the draft IGST law was looking at having taxation rights with the Centre,” West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra told reporters.
The Day 1 of the panel meeting did not take up the contentious issue of control of assesses which had been till now holding up roll out of Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. The issue would be discussed on Wednesday. While representatives of opposition-ruled states were unanimous in saying April 1 target date for rollout of the new regime is not possible, even BJP-ruled Gujarat said GST could become a reality from September. The Council, headed by Jaitley and comprising state representatives, agreed on most of the clauses of the draft IGST law, which along with Central-GST (CGST) and State-GST (SGST) have to be passed by Parliament and state legislatives respectively before the new tax regime can be rolled out. Mitra said some states earn as much as Rs 600 crore and Gujarat gets Rs 1,200 crore revenue from taxing sales in high seas.
Asked about rollout of GST from April, he said Tuesday’s meeting did not even “touch” on the issue of dual control, which was fundamental to the GST rollout. Also tax slabs on 1,500 items have remained to be decided. “We cannot have a GST that is non-sustainable, flawed and states will not give up their rights along with the Centre to bring it into effect,” Mitra said, adding West Bengal was committed to GST implementation but the “demonetization tsunami” derailed it. He said tax revenue grew 11% in November 2015, but in November 2016, the month of demonetization, it contracted (-) 2%. “Every state said their taxes have fallen by 30-40%. (Post demonetization) every states compensation would go up. We had initially estimated that at most five states would need compensation, because 14% rate of growth others would achieve. “Today many states would need compensation. If you need Rs 80,000-90,000 crore, instead of Rs 55,000 crore, where will it come from? That’s a double whammy. States are interested that Centre should stick to its constitutional commitment,” Mitra said. Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said to get a reform like GST through, the Centre has to think in moderate terms. “I don’t think GST can happen in April, there may be one or two months delay”.
Haryana Finance Minister Abhimanyu Singh Sindhu said the draft of model IGST was “more-or-less finalised” on Tuesday. “I am optimistic that dual control will be resolved tomorrow,” he said. On the rollout schedule, he said, “Realistically speaking it is difficult deadline (April 1). But I would still not say it is absolutely unlikely. I still see it as a possibility.” The GST Council will again consider the draft compensation law if the quantum of compensation goes up to Rs 90,000 crore from the current estimates of Rs 55,000 crore, Mitra said. “If you assume 30% decline in tax collection, instead of five states demanding compensation, 10-12 states will need compensation. And therefore the amount of compensation required where will it come from?” he said. Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac too said the revenue loss is going to be much higher than Rs 55,000 crore.
“Earlier the Council had decided on four commodities for levying cess. Now it has been decided that it would be as notified by Council and at the end of year five it would be merged with the GST rate or divided between Centre and states as the Council decides,” Isaac said. He further said that Kerala continue to demand that dealer and service providers with turnover below Rs 1.5 crore should be taxed only by the states. The state also demanded that IGST collections should be shared between Centre and states. As many as six sectors, including banking and insurance, IT and telecom, and civil aviation, today made presentations before the GST Council and pressed for single registration either with Centre or states under the GST regime. Sisodia said that while central government PSUs, infrastructure and service departments wanted centralised registration, state government PSUs and Public Works Department wanted that control remain with states. Rajasthan Industries Minister Rajpal Singh Shekhawat said he was hopeful that discussion on IGST law would complete tomorrow.
London, Jan 3 : Booker prize-winning English novelist and pioneering art critic John Berger, has passed away at the age of 90.
A lifelong Marxist intellectual, Berger died at his home in the Paris suburb of Antony on Monday.
The writer, who won the Booker Prize in 1972 for his novel “G”, famously gave away half the prize money to the radical African-American movement, the Black Panthers.
He is equally famous for his BBC series “Ways of Seeing” that brought a new political perspective to art criticism.
“My father #JohnBerger died today. Neither scared nor reckless, but focused, curious & eager to find out the rest of the story. A true writer,” his filmmaker son Jacob wrote on Twitter.
Berger’s director friend Simon McBurne also paid tribute to the author calling him his “guide, philosopher and friend”.
“Listener, grinder of lenses, poet, painter, seer. My Guide. Philosopher. Friend. John Berger left us this morning.
Now you are everywhere,” McBurne tweeted.
Born in Hackney, North London, Berger began his career as a painter. He eventually turned to writing and penned everything from poetry to screenplays, writings on photography, besides exploring issues like exploitation of migrant workers and the Palestinian struggle for statehood.
Artist David Shrigley called Berger “the best ever writer on art”, and author Jeanette Winterson praised him as “an energy source in a depleted world.”
“Goodbye John Berger. You will be greatly missed. The ever best writer on art,” Shrigley tweeted.
“John Berger gone. That is hard. He was an energy source in a depleted world,” Winterson wrote.
Tom Overton, who is writing Berger’s biography, said the writer “let us know that art would enrich our lives”.
Berger’s death was also mourned by actress Sarah Silverman.
“Oh wow RIP John Berger. Ways Of Seeing altered my perspective and gave me confidence in said perspective. It changed everything,” Silverman tweeted.
Writer Dawn Foster wrote, “Reminder that when John Berger won the 1972 Booker prize, he gave half the prize money to the Black Panthers.”
British poet Anthony Anaxagorou tweeted, “A poem I wrote featured in The Long White Thread of Words to celebrate John Berger’s 90th birthday.
New Delhi/Lucknow : The faction war in the ruling Samajwadi Party of Uttar Pradesh today reached the Election Commission with Mulayam Singh Yadav staking claim over the ‘cycle’ symbol, a day after he was deposed from the post of president by the group headed by his son Akhilesh Yadav.
At the same time, Mulayam cancelled the January 5 party convention called by him, apparently on fears that there could be a low turnout compared to the convention held by his son in Lucknow yesterday.
The faction headed by Akhilesh, the Chief Minister, will also approach the EC tomorrow to assert their right over the symbol, which is crucial for the upcoming Assembly elections.
Ram Gopal Yadav is likely to represent the faction.
Election Commission sources said it is unlikely to intervene till it hears both the sides.
Mulayam reached Nirvachan Sadan here this evening along with his brother Shivpal Singh, his close confidante Amar Singh and former MP Jaya Prada to put forth his stand on the feud which has virtually split the party he had founded 25 years ago.
“I am still the president of Samajwadi Party and the decision of the rival camp to appoint Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav as the party chief is against party’s constitution,” Mulayam told the full Election Commission.
Claiming to have the backing of the SP Parliamentary Baord, he said the party symbol ‘cycle’ belongs to him as he is the party president, sources said.
Mulayam told the Commission that Ram Gopal Yadav, who had moved a resolution at emergency convention of SP in Lucknow on Friday last anointing Akhilesh as party president, had been expelled from the party and was not authorised to take any decision regarding SP, the sources said.
Mulayam said the convention of the rival camp, which passed a resolution to anoint Akhilesh as the new party chief, passed no resolution removing him (Mulayam) from the post.
He said as per the SP’s constitution, such a decision needs the backing of the Parliamentary Board, which was absent.
Sources in the Commission said it will follow Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968 to proceed on the dispute. It gives power to the Commission “in relation to splinter groups or rival sections of a recognised political party”.
“Both the sides will have to stake claim over the symbol otherwise how would EC know that there is a dispute…we don’t go by media reports,” said an EC official.
The Commission could ask both sides to pick a new party name and symbol in the interim if the existing symbol ‘cycle’ is frozen.
New Delhi : No form of government is perfect but these imperfections cannot be remedied by “judicial redrafting” of a legislative provision, the Supreme Court, in its minority verdict, today said while holding that the term “his religion” meant the faith of candidates only in the election law.
The seven-judge bench, in a majority 4:3 verdict, took a view that term included candidates, appealing for votes on the basis of religion, caste and other issues from politics and their agents and voters as well.
“No form of government is perfect. The actual unfolding of democracy and the working of a democratic constitution may suffer from imperfections. But these imperfections cannot be attended to by an exercise of judicial redrafting of a legislative provision. Hence, we hold that there is no necessity for this court to take a view at variance with what has been laid down,” Justice D Y Chandrachud, who wrote the minority verdict, said.
Justice Chandrachud, writing for himself, Justices A K Goel and U U Lalit, said that Parliament has been cognisant of the provisions in question and the court should not resort to judicial redrafting of a statutory provision as no form of governance is perfect.
“Despite this, the provision has remained untouched though several others have undergone a change. In the meantime, elections have been held successfully, governments have changed and majorities have been altered in the house of Indian democracy.
“There is merit in ensuring a continuity of judicial precedent. The interpretation which has earlier been placed on Section 123(3) is correct and certainly does not suffer from manifest error,” he said.
Dealing further, the minority verdict said that no form of government is perfect and the actual unfolding of democracy and the working of a democratic constitution may suffer from imperfections.
“But these imperfections cannot be attended to by an exercise of judicial redrafting of a legislative provision.
Hence, we hold that there is no necessity for this court to take a view at variance with what has been laid down,” he said in his 55-page dissenting judgement.
The minority verdict held that the earlier view that his religion meant the religion of candidates only did not suffer from any “manifest error”.
New Delhi, Jan 1 : In a bid to strengthen capital base of public sector banks (PSBs), the government has allowed 12 lenders to raise nearly Rs 3,000 crore via preferential shares over and above the Rs 22,915 crore capital support committed to them in July last year.
The Finance Ministry granted approval to 12 proposals of PSBs to raise a sum of Rs 2,914.038 crore through preferential allotment and permission given to raise Rs 200 crore by United Bank of India through QIP mode.
The government had already infused a sum of Rs 25,000 crore in 19 PSBs during FY 2015-16.
“A budgetary provision of Rs 25,000 crore has been made for 2016-17 and the government has already allocated Rs 22,915 crore to 13 PSBs on July 19, 2016 of which 75 per cent has been allocated in first tranche while remaining amount will be released on assessment of performance of PSBs, the Department of Finance in its year-end review for 2016 said on Sunday.
As regards consolidation in the banking space, it said, the Union Cabinet in June 2016 had approved the proposal of acquisition of assets and liabilities of subsidiary banks i.e.
State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Travancore and Bhartiya Mahila Bank (BMB).
With regard to financial inclusion, as many as 26.03 crore accounts have been opened under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), out of which 15.86 crore accounts are in rural areas and 10.17 crore in urban areas.
Deposits of Rs 71,557.90 crore have been mobilised and 19.93 crore RuPay Debit cards have been issued under PMJDY.
Zero balance accounts has been reduced to 23.86 per cent.
Aadhaar seeding has been done in 14.43 crore account under PMJDY, while 99.9 per cent households out of the 21.22 crore households surveyed have been covered under PMJDY.
As on December 23, 2016, out of total requirement of 1,27,198 fixed location ‘bank mitras’ in sub service areas (SSAs), 1,26,985 ‘bank mitras’ have been deployed by banks.
Out of 1,712 claims lodged, 1,626 claims have been disposed of under accidental insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh under RuPay debit card.
Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) cumulative Gross enrolment reported by banks, subject to verification of eligibility, etc. is over 3.08 crore, while Rs 9.88 crore under Pradhan Mantri Suraksha BimaYojana (PMSBY) as of December 28.
A total of 38.23 lakh subscribers have been enrolled under the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) with a total pension wealth of Rs 1,344.70 crore. Out of the total subscribers, 19.74 lakh subscribers have been enrolled during 2016 (up to December 15, 2016). .
New Delhi, Jan 1 : Mahanagar Gas Limited today launched CNG-fueled two-wheeler, whose cost of running comes to 60 paise a kilometre and will also help in cutting emission level.
The vehicle was launched by Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in Mumbai, and the function was presided over by Vinod Tawde, Minister for Education, Youth, Sports & Cultural Affairs and Guardian Minister of Mumbai Suburban, said a Mahanagar Gas statement.
Pradhan also launched e-wallet payments which can be used at the time of filling CNG, thus supporting and working towards the objective of making India a cashless economy.
Speaking on the occasion, Pradhan said the launch of CNG fueled two-wheelers will give an opportunity to more than 36 lakhs two wheelers running in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) to opt for this eco-friendly fuel.
In the last few years, CNG-powered vehicles have grown in Mumbai Metropolitan Region at a CAGR of over 70 per cent given the fuel economics and eco-friendly nature of CNG.
The CNG kit for two wheelers comprises of two CNG cylinders of 1.2 kg each, which can run up to 120 to 130 km per kg at an approximate cost of Rs 0.60 per km per single fill.
In the initial phase, the scooters shall be retrofitted with a CNG kit manufactured by Lovato.
Presently, two kit manufacturers namely ITUK & Lovato have got two-wheeler CNG kits approved by ARAI, Pune and ICAT Gurgaon, respectively.
Lovato has got approval for 18 scooter models of various OEMs present in the market. Considering the huge potential of this segment other kit manufacturers are also planning to launch their two-wheeler kits.