Congress releases video clips on demonetisation, alleges it to be the biggest scam in the History

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April 9, 2019

In a press conference, senior Congress leader, Kapil Sibal, presented the videos during demonetisation era. On the basis of those, he targetted the Government by naming it “the biggest scam in India’s history”.

“Demonetisation is the biggest scam in the history of India. It is sad that our agencies will investigate the opposition, but not those in power,” Sibal said during a press conference in New Delhi.

According to NDTV, Sibal highlighted that the currency exchange was conducted by a team of 26 officials from various departments of the central government. The detailed logistics was allegedly “controlled by” Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah. “Under it, currency from various ministers and business houses were brought in planes to Hindon air base from where it was taken to the Reserve Bank – at a charge of 35 to 40 per cent,” the NDTV report said.

Sibal also alleged that Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and IndusInd bank were involved in the exchange of banned notes. In order to support his claims, he showed the video, which he said, was made by a journalist. He then asked Enforcement Directorate (ED) to look into the matter. He later asked ED, CBI, and the government to arrest those responsible for the malpractices. Sibal later expressed his disappointment by saying that the bodies are partial towards the ruling party’s politicians.

Although this is not the first incident when opposition has presented evidences on large scale fraudulent during demonetisation. On 26 March, opposition stalwarts, Sharad Yadav, Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, and Mallikarjun Kharge released the video of supporting their claims.

Note-ban was definitely a failure. According to RBI, more than 99% cash returned to the bank. Thus, the ‘surgical strike’ on black money didn’t eliminate anyone. But, this doesn’t mean that the Nation was that much clean. Food for thought is that why corrupt politicians and industrialists did not get caught. Thus, there was something fishy in the whole process. Let’s see if it could be revealed and proven before it get buried forever.

Vice Admiral Vimal Verma moves to Armed Forces Tribunal for denying Naval Chief Post

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Sugat Srivastava

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April 8, 2019

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Hierarchy has always been among the pillars of armed forces tradition. Sometimes, the tradition overlaps the merit. Similar is the case of Vice Admiral Vimal Verma.

Commander-in-Chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command Vice Admiral Vimal Verma has approached an armed forces tribunal seeking to know why he was overlooked as the next navy chief despite being the senior-most in the line of command.

The government has named Vice Admiral Karambir Singh as next chief of the naval staff. He will succeed Admiral Sunil Lanba who retires on May 30.

The government made the selection following a merit-based approach and did not go with the tradition of appointing the senior-most eligible officer to the post. Vice Admiral Verma is senior to Singh and was among the contenders for the top post.

Besides Verma, the other contenders for the Navy Chief post included Vice Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral G Ashok Kumar, FOC-in-C of Western Naval Command Vice Admiral Ajit Kumar and FOC-in-C of Southern Naval Command Vice Admiral Anil Kumar Chawla.

While appointing the Army Chief in 2016, the government did not follow the long-held tradition of going by the seniority.

Crowd dispersed in Yogi Adityanath’s rally due to unavailability of translator

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Sugat Srivastava

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April 8, 2019

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India is a Nation where languages and dialects change with villages and regions. A single language is not at all sufficient to communicate with people from every region in India. BJP, carelessly, did not arrange a translator for the Yogi Adityanath’s rally and thus, witnessed an embarrassing dispersion of people from the rally at Yellareddy in Kamarareddy district.

Local leaders from Zaheerabad did their best to gather crowd but forgot the translator. In the rally, Yogi Adityanath was bashing the ruling party Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) in his own way of expressing. The expression did not reach the public as it was in Hindi. The clueless and angry public stood and started leaving the rally.

Telugu speaking women said that they couldn’t understand a word. “We didn’t understand what he was saying. BJP leaders, who made us come all the way to attend the meeting, should have at least got a translator,” said a women at the public meeting.

It has been norm that the local BJP leaders translate the speech of the national leaders. However, this time the BJP candidate did not arrange a translator. Such incident could have happened with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During recent Mahbubnagar rally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had started his speech in Hindi, but as soon as he realised that people were not responding, he asked BJP state president K Laxman to translate for him in Telugu.

It’s common sense that people prefer to listen speeches in their own language. It is also a way to connect with them emotionally too. Due to this reason only regional parties and politics came into the picture. The incident was an embarrassment for BJP. Let’s hope that they learn from this mistake and won’t repeat it again.

Mamata Banerjee writes to Election Commission against the transfer of senior police officers

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Sugat Srivastava

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April 6, 2019

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Didi wrote to Election Commission against the ‘unfortunate, biased, motivated, and highly arbitrary’ decision of transferring senior police officers. These included Police Commissioners of Kolkata and Bidhannagar among the 4 four suspended IPS officers.

“Should there be any deterioration in the law order situation of the state, would the commission take responsibility?” said the letter which wrote to Election Commission. She also asked EC to initiate a probe as to how and under whose guidance this decision was taken.

“I strongly feel that the EC plays a neutral role to save democracy in India. But it is very unfortunate that I have to write this letter today to raise strong protest against the transfer order dated April 5, 2019, issued by the EC by way of removing four senior officers from their existing positions,” Mamata said in her letter.

“The decision of the commission is highly arbitrary, motivated, and biased. We have every reason to believe that the decision of the commission is at the behest of the ruling party at the Center, i.e., BJP,” the letter read.

Banerjee alleged that the EC transfer orders came soon after PM Modi and a BJP candidate alleged in a TV programme that the law and order situation in West Bengal is bad. Thus, she has her reason to believe that the decision taken was to appease BJP.

Anuj Sharma, Kolkata Police Commissioner, was replaced by Dr. Rajesh Kumar, Additional Director General, Pollution Control Board. He was earlier ADG CID. Anuj Sharma was earlier ADG Law & Order, West Bengal Police, when he was appointed Kolkata Police Commissioner on February 19. Natarajan Ramesh Babu, ADG and IGP, Operations, was named the Bidhannagar police commissioner.

Supreme Court warns Ranbaxy Promoters of Jail-time for not clearing dues of Japanese firm

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Sugat Srivastava

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April 5, 2019

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Ranbaxy promoters, Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh, might get jail-time. They are accused of not clearing the dues worth Rs. 4000 crores, the fine directed by Singapore Tribunal, to the Japanese firm Daiichi Sankyo.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said it will now straightaway hear the contempt petition against the Singh brothers for non-payment of the arbitral award amount to Japanese firm Daiichi Sankyo. Apex Court might send them to jail if the violation of its orders is established. The Japanese firm’s contempt plea against the Singh brothers seeks recovery of Rs 4,000 crore from them as directed by the Singapore tribunal.

The bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, has now fixed the contempt petition of the Japanese firms against the former Ranbaxy promoters for hearing on April 11.

“You may be owning half of the world but there is no concrete plan as to how the arbitral amount would be realised. You said that somebody owed you Rs 6,000 crore. But this is neither here nor there,” the bench said.

Daiichi had bought Ranbaxy in 2008. Later, it had moved the Singapore arbitration tribunal accusing that the Singh brothers had concealed information that Ranbaxy was facing a probe by the US Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Justice, while selling its shares.

Rahul Gandhi has four passports, has a chapel at home: Subramanian Swamy

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Sugat Srivastava

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April 3, 2019

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Subramanian Swamy is known for making sensational and controversial claims. Sometimes those claims are irrelevant, seems like someone is not in his senses. The similar incident occurred during the India ka DNA conclave organised by Zee News.

In the recent claims, Swamy alleged Rahul Gandhi to carry four passports and one with the name Raul Vinci. BJP MP also said that contrary to Rahul’s claims, Congress President didn’t get MPhil degree as he flunked the Economics paper.

He didn’t stop there and also questioned his religious beliefs. He said that he doesn’t know how to wear ‘Janeu’. Swamy said that Rahul often wears the janeu over his clothes, which is the wrong way to do so. Swamy also claimed that Rahul Gandhi is actually Christian. According to Subramanian Swamy, there is a chapel in Rahul Gandhi’s house, and on every Sunday a Malayali priest comes for doing prayaschit (atoning sin).

He also targeted Priyanka Gandhi. He said that Priyanka Gandhi is forced to project Hindu identity by going to temples as currently there is an environment where parties who are perceived to be ‘anti-Hindu’ will not votes. Swamy also weighed in on the corruption cases against Gandhi families and said that they are bound to go to jail eventually.

When Rahul Gandhi announced his desire to contest election from Wayanad apart from his seat Amethi, Swamy said that he is running away from Amethi. He is also afraid from losing against Smriti Irani. It seems like BJP has ordered Subramanian Swamy for splurging venom on Rahul Gandhi, whether he has a proof or not.

India’s Mission Shakti increased risk to International Space Station: NASA

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Sugat Srivastava

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April 2, 2019

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Mission Shakti was a remarkable event in Indian History. India became only the 4th nation to unlock and prove the capability of Anti-Satellite weapons. But, this event increased the vulnerability of impact to International Space Station by 44%.

Speaking at a townhall on Monday, Bridenstine, NASA administrator, in a response to a question from a colleague, said that the risk to the ISS (due to possible collision with the space debris) had gone up by 44 per cent after the Indian anti-satellite test, though he added that both the ISS and the astronauts were safe.

“Here is what we know about the most recent direct ascent anti-satellite test done by India. We know that we have identified 400 pieces of orbital debris from that one event. That is what has been identified. Now, all of it cannot be tracked. What we are tracking right now, objects big enough to track and we are talking about objects 10 cm or bigger … about 60 pieces have been tracked. They have got tracking number… Out of those 60, we know that 24 of them are going above the apogee of ISS. That is a terrible terrible thing to create an event that creates debris that goes above the apogee of ISS,” Bridenstine said.

But he also said that the threat from the Indian test was much smaller compared to that created by a similar test by China in 2007, and that no harm was likely to be done to the ISS or the astronauts.

“The good thing is that it is low enough and over time this will all dissipate. You go back in time, 2007, (the) direct ascent anti-satellite test by the Chinese, a lot of the debris is still in the orbit,” he said.

The International Space Station, or ISS, is the world’s only permanent facility in space, and is always manned by one or more astronauts. The ISS serves as a platform to carry out a variety of experiments in space, especially those that require zero gravity, and also for testing new space systems and technologies.

ISRO launches EMISAT to provide intelligence to Armed Forces

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Sugat Srivastava

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April 1, 2019

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Just after 6 days of the launch of ASAT by DRDO, ISRO launches EMISAT that would locate enemy radar sites. It would certainly enhance India’s military capabilities. This was PSLV’s 47th flight. ISRO also launched 28 other nano satellites as well.

”Today, PSLV-C45 successfully injected EMISAT in a 748-km orbit and 28 other satellites in a 504-km orbit as sought by the customers,” ISRO Chairman K. Sivan said.

The four-stage PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) was launched at 9.27 a.m. from the second launch pad. EMISAT, with its core payload or brain coming from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), was released first into its planned slot from the fourth stage or PS4, 17 minutes into the launch.

EMISAT detects electronic signals on ground, especially hidden enemy radars. This capacity will help India in surgical warfare which is supposed to have become a permanent option for India to check Pakistan-sponsored terrorism after Balakot surgical strike. This low-Earth orbit satellite that weighs 436 kg, sources say, will monitor and give locations for enemy radar sites deep in their territory. Till now, India was using airplanes as early warning platforms, but this satellite will give a space-based platform to sniff out enemy radars.

According to the Hindu, ISRO has started reusing PS4 as an innovated, low-cost, space-friendly test bed for its own microgravity experiments and those of others. It has been gradually putting additional support systems also on every new PS4; the power generating solar panels are new this time. This is the third such mission.

The PS4-fourth stage hosts three payloads in this mission. It carries an ISRO test of Automatic Identification System (AIS) related to tracking ships on the sea.

AMSAT, or the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, India, has sent a payload called the Automatic Packet Repeating System. This is expected to help amateur radio operators to get improved locational accuracy in their tracking and monitoring activity.

The third one, the Advanced Retarding Potential Analyser for Ionospheric Studies, has been sent up by ISRO’s university, the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology.

The other 28 international satellites are 25 3U type, two 6U type and one 2U type nano -satellites. They are from Lithuania (two), Spain (1), Switzerland (1) and the United States (24). All these satellites are being launched under commercial arrangements, ISRO said.

Perception is The Key To Photography

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Sugat Srivastava

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March 29, 2019

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By: Anik Dutta

‘The activity or job of taking photographs or filming’, this is the definition you get when you google “what is photography?” seems very simple, eh! Well, it isn’t. Photography isn’t just pointed your camera at some object and just press the shutter button, that is how anybody can take a picture, whereas a photographer sees a picture before it’s taken. The best photography equipment according to me is our eyes, as the line goes “the question is not what you look at, but what you see.” – Henry Thoreau.

You don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you’ve seen, the books you’ve read, the music you’ve heard, The people you have loved. It all boils down to that simple word which everyone has heard of in their life, ‘perception’. It is not what the object in front of the camera is that matters! All that counts in for is how you interpret the ordinary object using your creativity and perception of life. That perception is what turns a photograph into a beautiful experience.

As they say “perception is reality” well, it is not true! As each and every individual has a unique perception of seeing things, the way we see the world doesn’t change the reality But, it surely changes the experience we get from that particular situation.

ONE.

What one might see a decorating piece of element resting peacefully on a shelf,

A photographer is looking at a result of hours of hard work, dedication, commitment all molded by the creativity and imagination of the sculptor into a beautiful piece of art. What was a useless ugly stone to the world, became an enigmatic sculpture from the perspective of the sculpture!

It is a macro shot taken in indoor (artificial) lighting conditions with a Zeiss lens on a Nokia 6.1 smartphone in semi-manual mode.

Before taking a photograph it was just another artifact, eating dust along with that vase in the background. But, now it is an experience to have. Now the world can feel more connected to the sculptor, people can also have a taste of that uniqueness now which the photographer had in his mind before looking at it through the camera lens.

All the details on which the sculptor had probably spend days can now be seen and cherished by the world, even when the sculpture and its maker is no more!

Good Photography is when people look at the pictures and feel the way they do when they want to read a line of a poem twice! A good photograph should give people experiences which they never would have experienced otherwise.

Humans can only perceive certain wavelengths of colors and light, ultraviolet rays still exist in the world… “just because we cannot perceive something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist” and it is the purpose of the photographer to present before people ‘beauties’ which they cannot perceive.

TWO.

Here is another good example of ‘using a camera to capture and record a photograph’ while using imagination and perception to paint a picture using that photo.

A simple photograph of the sky, clouds, and some birds, when viewed as a picture, can literally take an instant out of time. And leave the viewer awestruck.

When you see this photograph, you see nothing more than those birds flying in the sky with some clouds scattered all across but, when you look at this enigmatic picture, you can see what it is like to ‘don’t follow the crowd and walk your own path!’

Well, let me explain how! At the top right corner, you can see two birds flying away from the flock, flying at their own will make their own path… flying towards the ray of light.

This picture tells another story to me, consider those two birds as two lovers who got tired of all the surroundings, who just wants to get out of there, enjoy their freedom and live a happy life away from the stereotypic society!

As they say, every picture says a thousand words, all it takes is a unique perception to understand those words.

Well, another thing about photography is anyone can just point and click a photo out of any given situation. However, a perspective photographer can make compelling pictures out of uninteresting moments. People forget the dates, years or even names but what they do not forget are the moments. Therefore, a photograph is the pause button of life. Every moment becomes special when it turns into a memory. And capturing the moments so that when we memorize those moments, we have something to look at and cherish is what photography is!

THREE.

Here is a captured moment from a bike ride which I went on a few weeks ago. Just a random photograph turned into a nostalgic memory! The best thing about this picture is it will never change even when the people in it will, it’ll always be a return ticket to that moment otherwise gone and as they say, life is a collection of moments.

The subject in this picture is the rider, his helmet, and the pose.. ahh well, it’s not really a pose it just shows how much the rider is enjoying his ride! Little did he know that he was being captured in a moment which he’s going to remember every time he thinks of that ride.

What is just a photo of a helmet, bike and probably a rock symbol for most of the people, Can be a moment to hold on for the photographer.

If you’re a photographer you, you just see more stuff, and see more of the real world! A simple landscape for most of the people can be some experience to capture or what seems to be a lifeless object can tell a lot about its creator or an uninteresting moment can become so much more compelling from the perspective of a photographer.

A photographer sees what others only catch a glimpse of. And as the quote goes by-

“A great camera didn’t make a great picture any more than a typewriter wrote a great novel”

-Peter Adams

Surgical Strikes on land, air, and space and stay away from SaRaB, PM Modi in Meerut Rally

By

Sugat Srivastava

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March 28, 2019

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Prime Minister Modi was in full form in the Meerut rally. He related the increased security of the nation with surgical strikes and the recently conducted anti-satellite weapon test. He also took a jibe on the alliance of regional UP parties – SP, RLD, and BSP and made the word SaRaB from the initials of their names.

Modi kick-started his campaign by referring the surgical strikes. “Zameen ho, aasmaan ho ya phir antariskh, surgical strike ka saahas aapke is chowkidar ne dikhaya hai (This chowkidar has shown the courage to carry out surgical strike, be it on land, in the sky or space),” said PM Modi. He later targeted previous regimes at the Centre. He said that the governments in the past believed in slogans instead of “taking right decisions” to ensure safety and security of the nation. “Nation has seen many governments that gave slogans but it has for the first time seen a government that takes prompt decisions,” he said.

On Opposition’s demand for evidence of Air-Strike, he turned to the public for their opinion. “Do we need sapoot (obedient son) or saboot (evidence),” said PM Modi responding to the Opposition.

On the report card of the government, he assured the public that he would present his government’s report card in the coming days while fixing accountability of the rival parties. He said, “I will give an account of my work but at the same time seek an account from my opponents. Sabka hisab hoga, baari baari se hoga, tabhi to hisab barabar hoga (Everyone will be accounted for, one by one, only then justice will be served).”

On Grand Alliance of the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Lok Dal and the Bahujan Samaj Party, PM formulated an acronym “SaRaB” (picking the initial letters of the three parties) and translating it as liquor. Modi said, “Stay away from ‘SaRaB’ in the election for the good health of Uttar Pradesh.”

The rally was aimed at galvanizing the BJP’s support base in the entire western Uttar Pradesh. As usual, he took all the credit of the hard work done by the armed forces and DRDO. The Western UP will vote in the first phase of the Lok Sabha Polls. The constituencies of Meerut, Baghpat, Muzaffarnagar and Bijnor will vote in the first phase of Lok Sabha elections on April 11. Uttar Pradesh will vote in all seven phases of the national election that ends on May 19. Counting of votes will take place on May 23.

Tag: maverickworks

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