AV 25th June 2022

FIRST & FOREMOST ASIAN WEEKLY IN EUROPE

PM Modi washes mother Heeraben’s feet on her 100th birthday; seeks blessings

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25 JUNE - 1 JULY 2022

06 Indian-origin Nairita appointed Commissioner of Historic England

Let noble thoughts come to us from every side

Report shows increasing number of Asian doctors quit NHS due to racism

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Mayor and London Assembly honour servicemen and women at Armed Forces Day ceremony

YOGA DAY: PM MODI LEADS FROM FRONT

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VOL 51 - ISSUE 8

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Kangana supports Centre’s Agnipath scheme

PM Johnson hails India-UK FTA as ‘biggest of them all’

Women in Indian sarees make history at the Royal Ascot

Racegoers wearing saree, pose at the Royal Ascot

8th International Yoga Day 2022 celebrations organised

by High Commission of India, London at Holland Park !

Prime Minister Narendra Modi performed yoga along with thousands of participants at a mass demonstration in the backdrop of the iconic Mysuru Palace on the International Yoga Day and said the physical fitness regime was forming a basis for cooperation among countries, and that it can become a problem-solver. Describing

PM Modi leading Yoga Day celebration in Mysuru

Yoga Day as a ‘global festival’, PM Modi said yogic energy is giving direction to global health. “Yogic energy, which has been nurtured for centuries by spiritual centres of India like Mysuru, is today giving direction to global health,” Modi said while addressing a gathering on the occasion of 8th International Yoga Day. Continued on page 16

Dr Dipti Jain

A thousand women made history on Thursday, by attending Ladies’ Day at the Royal Ascot in Berkshire, not far from London, draped in traditional sarees, brightening up the horse racing event on a very hot summer day. It was part of an initiative to encourage women from South Asian backgrounds to support artisan weavers who lost their incomes during the pandemic as well as raise funds to empower rural women to set up small local businesses.

Royal Ascot is Britain's most valuable race meeting, attracting many of the world's finest racehorses to compete for millions of pounds in prize money (just over £7.3million in 2019).

Continued on page 14

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AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

25 June - 1 July 2022

with Keith Vaz

PRITI RAICHURA Executive Director - Priti Raichura Events Priti is the founder of Multi-Award winning UK-based Event Management and Luxury Wedding Planning company - Priti Raichura Events. With satellite offices in London and Manchester along with plans to open up offices internationally, she prides herself on becoming the client’s number one choice. The company provides planning, design, and event management services for luxury, bespoke weddings, private parties, and corporate events.

As an award-winning businesswoman with a reputation for excellence, she regularly is a speaker at weddings conducting the role of Master of Ceremonies on request by her clients at venues and hotels across the globe, she has led on designing and organising celebrity weddings in Mumbai. Priti prides herself on being amongst a handful of companies in the UK that is able to offer Her Majesty the Queen’s palaces in London as a venue for her clients to marry or use for corporate affairs.

Priti is married to Yogesh Tailor and has two children daughter Sia and Son Kush.

1) Which place, or city or country do you most feel at home in?

Born in Leicester and have a strong emotional attachment to the city. I've spent years developing my brand and making myself identifiable wherever I travel, as well as accepting relationships from all over the world. My parents are from Uganda; therefore, I have a strong connection to the country.

2) What are your proudest achievements?

At the Ethnic Media Awards, that was hosted at the House of Lords I was privileged to receive an award for Outstanding Contribution to Media from a Member of Parliament. It was great to be recognised for my efforts in radio presenting and to receive such an award for the many years of work I have done as a radio presenter.

3) What inspires you?

I find inspiration in a variety of people and things. I would have to say that the person who has most greatly inspired me has been Dad. He always had a smile on his face no matter how hard he worked, and he loved everyone.

4) What has been biggest obstacle in your career?

One of the most difficult obstacles I encounter is having the confidence and trust to advance in my work, especially when things go my way. I keep an open mind about opening doors to success. Being a full-time mother is also challenging especially working unsociable hours.

5) Who has been the biggest influence on your career to date?

My parents have always taught me to be someone who leaves a legacy,

someone with whom I can spiritually connect, and someone that no one will ever forget. This is something I constantly keep in mind when I'm doing something whether it is work or my personal life.

6) What is the best aspect about your current role?

I adore taking care of the little things, like making sure everything on the escort card table is in order, that candles are lit, and that everyone is where they should be at any given time! I enjoy hosting guests through my added talent of being the Master of Ceremonies.

7) And the worst?

Even if you try your hardest to weed out the clients who aren't ideal, some will slip through the cracks.

Having challenging clients can be mentally draining. It's demanding work as it is, but when you have clients that add to the tension, you'll wonder why you selected this profession 8) What are your long term goals?

I want to choose which clients I deal with, such as large celebrity weddings and high-end clientele, and provide them with a comprehensive wedding planning service. I'd like to grow my team; thus, I'm looking for a fulltime employee that can collaborate with me to provide new services.

9) If you were Prime Minister, what one aspect would you change?

I would accelerate the transition to electric vehicles and make it law that after 2025, all new car models would have to be plug-in electric or fully electric. I would ensure that they could all run on biofuels and that there was a sufficient supply of biofuel to meet demand 10) If you were marooned on a desert island, which historical figure would you FINANCIAL A SERVICES like to spend your time with and why.

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Homeowners warned over strange foam people are spotting on garden plants People are reporting sightings of the weird froth on plants and are unsure of what it is. However, a warning has been issued with regards to the same saying that the froth could be linked to the spread of an invasive plant disease that can harm native species, the Examiner Live reported.

It is believed that an insect called a spittlebug produces the foamy substance known as spittle, that gets left behind on plants and in long grass. The spit-

tlebug coats itself in a ball of foam for protection as it sucks on the sap from a plant for nutrition.

These insects are usually active between May end to June end and hence justifies the sightings. Though these insects dont hurt humans nor they remove enough nutrition to harm plants, scientists are worried that a deadly plant disease known as Xyella could be spread between plants by the spittlebug, which would act as a carrier. In

the past few years in Italy, the Xyella disease has devastated olive groves and experts have called it one of the world's most dangerous pathogens.

A spokesperson for the Spittlebug survey said: "Please let us know when you see either spittle, nymphs (juveniles) or adults of the xylem-feeding insects (spittlebugs / froghoppers and some leafhoppers ) that have the potential to act as vectors of the bacteria.”

Dad left at home by ambulance crew, dies in front of kids The 51-year-old died in front of his kids when he was illtreated by the ambulance crew who instead of taking him to the ambulance told him to take anti-sickness medication, despite pleas from his wife that he was “clearly very unwell”.

His family claimed that he died in front of his kids after a "disgusting" ambulance crew "dismissed him as an alcoholic".

He was forced to wait for two hours for paramedics to arrive even when his wife called emergency services three times.

His health was deteriorating as he was finding it difficult

to breathe and his dizziness had increased.

His wife claimed the ambulance crew's attitude" completely changed" when she informed them her husband had liver sarcoidosis, caused by alcohol dependence.

“The way he was treated

by the ambulance crew that day was disgusting.

"I believe they dismissed him as an alcoholic.

They robbed him of his life, of his chance to walk his daughters down the aisle and meet his first grandchildren.”

Following the legal action led by medical negligence specialities Hudgell Solicitors, NHS Resolution - representing Yorkshire Ambulance Service admitted breach of duty of care in failing to take the man to hospital in April 2019.

Nearly 200,000 homes in England could be underwater by 2050 By 2050, nearly 200,000 homes and businesses in England are at risk of being lost to the sea, a study has warned.

It might not be possible to protect some coastal areas if sea level rises by a predicted 35cm in the next three decades, scientists believe. Some action must be taken on flooding as per the research by experts, who have found out in their research that levels will rise by almost 1mn by the end of the century.

Due to rising costs across the thousand miles of

English coast, the current policy to hold the line against wave erosion may soon become impossible or unfeasible.

This could affect around 120,000 to 160,000 properties – excluding caravans – by the 2050s, with many likely to need relocating.

Lead author Paul Sayers, an engineering consultant at the University of East Anglia, said: ‘Significant sea level rise is now inevitable.

‘For many of our larger cities at the coast protection

will continue to be provided but for some coastal communities this may not be possible.

‘We need a serious national debate about the scale of the threat to these communities and what represents a fair and sustainable response, including how to help people to relocate.’

Man who was in medically induced coma recovers during recovery drug trial John Hanna from Inverclyde who was placed in a medically induced coma after getting severely ill in 2020 survived when he became a participant of a breakthrough drug trial in treating Covid-19. He said he would not be here today if he had not been involved, as the study marks its second anniversary.

The Recovery trial for dexmethasone is believed to have saved one million lives

around the world – including 22,000 in the UK. He said: “My wife enrolled me in the Recovery trial as a last ray of hope for treatment.

“That decision changed everything. Without the doctors and research teams working around the clock to find out which treatments worked, and which didn’t, I wouldn’t be here today.”

Researchers found dexamethasone reduced deaths

by up to one third on June 16, 2020, which was a breakthrough for the study which was announced on the first day of the national UK lockdown on March 23, 2020.

The UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) primarily funded with a joint investment of £2.1 million, after a call for research proposals in early February 2020.

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25 June - 1 July 2022

Be the change you want to see We have been talking about mental health more openly since the pandemic. But while lockdown or long covid induced mental health issues have got some focus, mental health that of particularly men has been mostly underplayed. When Lady Diana died in 1997, her two children – Prince William and Harry were very young. Prince William, who turned 40 on Tuesday, as we went to print, talked about grief and their mental health conditions with the loss of a mother, besides every controversy that revolved around her death. It took them 25 years to openly talk about it, despite being leaders of the new world, paving ways for future generations. The burden on men to behave in a certain way, showing strength of a superhuman is a cliché.

Last week (13-19 June) was dedicated to men’s mental health, making them aware of problems that could develop and gain the courage to do something about it. The first step being able to admit it.

Thousands of new mental health experts will be on hand to support people in their local GP practice amid record demand for services, the head of the NHS announced last week.

Fully trained experts from local NHS trusts will offer people with severe mental health problems such as bipolar, psychosis or eating disorders, a consultation, treatment, peer support, or a referral to hospital teams without needing a GP appointment.

The new service, described by one patient as making her feel like “a different person” ensures people are offered appointments with mental experts which are up to three times longer than a standard GP appointment, meaning more time for their needs to be assessed. However, as £3mn is being invested in students’ mental health by the government, it is about time a special allocation be made for gender specific mental health support, much needed in current UK scenario.

According to the ONS, over three out of four suicides (76%) are by men and suicide is the biggest cause of death for men under 35.

12.5% of men in the UK are suffering from one of the common mental health disorders.

According to the Health and Social Care Information Centre, men are nearly three times more likely than women to become alcohol dependent (8.7% of men are alcohol dependent compared to 3.3% of women. Men are also more likely to use (and die from) illegal drugs.

Men are less likely to access psychological therapies than women and only 36% of referrals to IAPT (Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies) are reportedly men.

At the same time, the world is celebrating International

Yoga Day on 21 June and Widows’ Day on 23 June. With Covid, wars and so many other natural and man-made calamities, many widows are left on their own to survive and provide for families- some not even getting the right opportunity to move on in life despite the desperate need. Lord Raj Loomba, who was raised by a mother singlehandedly, is hosting a big event to commemorate the widows of the world.

Yoga has of course been a part of the Indian culture and well-being for centuries. It has been known to help with mental health, among many other fixes. People who have been regularly practicing Yoga can list out the benefits, though it is interesting to note how the practice only gained popularity through the West and PM Modi’s efforts after Dr H R Nagendra, the founder of Bengaluru’s S-VYASA University presented the idea to the Prime Minister. In 2014, Mr Modi had recommended it in the General Assembly, and there has been no turning back ever since.

According to the Vedas, Lord Shiva was apparently the first yogi (sage), and he enlightened his seven sages (Saptarishis) with this art of Yoga. It is also believed that Saptarishis travelled to various regions in the world to spread the wisdom of yoga.

This year’s theme is Yoga for Humanity, with widespread efforts to bring communities together to celebrate. UK’s Deputy High Commissioner Nick Low was seen practicing Yoga in Kolkata’s Eco Park in New Town. He said, “India and the United Kingdom have much in common. Our living bridge of people-to-people links. More than two centuries of shared history, strong democracies, connected cultural institutions and the English language. And each of our countries wields great soft power."

On the other hand, on Friday 17 June, the High Commission of India, anticipating a bad weather on Sunday 19 June, hosted a community yoga at Holland Park, which was attended by hundreds of people, despite the heat of 34 degrees.

On Tuesday, they also put a special event together at the BAPS Swaminarayan temple to celebrate the occasion in a formal manner.

In fact, the Indian Embassy even in Madrid celebrated Yoga Day over the weekend with a huge programme with the community.

As the world observes the International Yoga Day, one must not forget the purpose behind its 2022 theme. Humanity in today’s war torn, politically massacred world is the only tool to heal lives. While Yoga can provide with that clarity of vision, wisdom and impetus to rise to any challenge, it is in the hands of us humans, to be the change we want to see, as Mahatma Gandhi would say.

Agnipath scheme will bring radical changes The Agnipath scheme has been introduced to reduce the burgeoning pension bill of the soldiers and for better management of the defence budget and provide a youthful profile to the armed forces. It is also being seen as an employment generation scheme that clashes with the original intent. Some people have been very critical and have perceived the scheme to be impinging on the time-tested regimental system, which is the primary motivator in battle. This reform will have a cascading effect on the composition, culture and character of the armed forces. The focus now should be on its refinement for transparent, objective and non-exploitative execution. The scheme also needs to be linked to other manpower management-related reforms based on optimisation/reduction of manpower and restructuring/reorganisation. Short-term engagement for officers/soldiers is a time-tested method of managing manpower and reducing the pension budget of the armed forces and the Indian military is no stranger to it. It followed the 7-10 years active service and 8-5 years reserve service system up to 1976. It also practised as “serve-as-long-as-required” model during the Second World War. The soldiers fought and won on most fronts but went home in 1946 with a token gratuity and no pension on demobilisation. In 1947-48, 1962, and 1966 emergency/short service commission of 5 years without pension was introduced to offset a shortage of officers.

A successful short-term engagement scheme requires adherence to two fundamentals. First, it must be financially and benefit-wise attractive both in service and post-retirement.

Second, it must not appear to be exploitative in a welfare state.

With rampant unemployment and a youth bulge, there will be no dearth of volunteers for the Agnipath scheme. In fact, the armed forces could further refine the selection system to recruit the best on merit. There is a case for enhancing the minimum education qualification to 10+2. A second meritdriven selection procedure for 25 per cent of the Agniveers for permanent absorption will further improve the quality of permanent soldiers. Thus, the Agnipath scheme provides an opportunity for a quantum jump in the merit/quality of personnel below officer rank. It will also usher in a more youthful profile. Keeping the tenure as four years and denying gratuity will remain a sore point as also the denial of exservicemen status for benefits/privileges along with a health scheme. Post-retirement incentives to the Agniveers remain a grey area and the issue needs to be addressed. Compared to the terms and conditions of the Central Armed Police Forces,

where one can serve up to the age of 58, the Agnipath has turned out to be unattractive. The best talent is likely to be garnered by the million-strong CAPFs. Currently, the scheme has no provision for lateral absorption in the CAPF. However, the Home Minister was quick to announce preferred enrolment. The government and the armed forces must keep an open mind on refining the scheme to make it more attractive. The scheme could also be covered by a contributory pension scheme as an alternative or in addition to the severance package. Agniveers must be given preference for all government jobs with the protection of seniority, college/university admissions and bank loans. Pass a law for affirmative action by private employers and corporates. It seems that the Agnipath scheme in future will be the only mode of recruitment for the armed forces. Thus, in 10-15 years, the entire armed forces will consist of Agniveers. The selection process therefore must under no circumstances be diluted.

Being a radical reform, it would be prudent initially to restrict the intake to 30-50 per cent and continue with regular intake for the balance of 50-70 per cent with more stringent selection.

As the scheme matures it can be modified.

By making the Agnipath an all-India, all-class and meritdriven recruitment scheme, the Modi government and the armed forces have brought about a radical change in our approach to regimentation. The new system will continue with the regimental system, where you serve for your entire service life but it will not be driven by caste, religion or region.

Agnipath is also seen as an employment generation scheme.

This is the reason why the ‘contributory pension scheme’ option was given up. This is also the reason why a mix of regular enrolment and Agnipath has been avoided as also a voluntary extension of four to five years without a pension liability.

Giving opportunities to the youth to fulfil nationalistic aspirations by joining the armed forces for a short tenure and post-release contributing to the society with discipline and motivation, are romantic ideas divorced from the reality of human aspirations. Unemployed youth with military training spell ominous portents for the nation. The government and the armed forces must give utmost importance to the postrelease rehabilitation of the Agniveers. By all standards, the Agnipath scheme is a radical reform. In absence of a trial/experimental phase that would have ironed out most problems, it would be prudent for the Modi government and the armed forces to keep an open mind for further refinement as the scheme fructifies.

Thought for the week The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain. —Dolly Parton

Political Sketchbook Alpesh Patel

Why Is Labour Doing So Badly?

Consider this - the 2005 election gave Labour 355 MPs over Conservative’s 197 and an overall Parliamentary majority of 66. But this hides exactly the advantages in our electoral system which is locking in Labour. First, Labour’s dispersion of voters is such that they can at merely 36% of the votes still win an election – as in 2005.

36% is the winning post for Labour.

Yet in 2022 they are in opposition.

Never before in the history of British elections has a party won with such a low percentage of votes. Never in the history of British elections has a party had just enough of its voters spread efficiently so that with such a low spread of voters it can win enough seats. You would think they would be locked into power. Yet, despite such an advantage, they are in opposition.

To understand this – think of it this way; we have a system whereby if you win a seat by 10,000 votes, you win it just as much as if you won by 1 vote. Tory voters tend to give themselves thumping large majorities and so in a way to say the Conservatives have a poll lead is irrelevant because you are only counting a lot of people in constituencies you’ve already won not people in ones where you need to win from Labour. Labour tend to have lower majorities, but more of them – it’s just the way their vote is spread and so they tend to win more seats per voter.

Well, that’s how it used to be. Now the Conservatives have won in areas where Labour was expected to do so.

So pronounced was Labour’s advantage that in 2005 more people actually voted Conservative than Labour in England– but the Conservatives won 92 fewer seats than Labour within England (285 to 193). Indeed the Conservatives received 60,000 more votes than Labour in England.

Yet in 2022, Labour are in opposition.

Put another way Labour could get 55% of the seats with only 36% of the votes cast. Whereas everyone else combined with 64% of the votes can only manage 45% of the seats – because everyone else’s votes are spread so inefficiently ie they are concentrated in fewer seats.

Yet in 2022, Labour are in opposition.

To reiterate this ‘spread’ argument - the Tories with just 3% fewer votes than Labour (33% to Labour’s 36%) got only 30% of the seats against Labour’s 55% in 2005.

Still could be worse – you could be Lib Dem – with 2/3rds as many votes as Labour they only got 1/5 as many seats as Labour.

But it gets worse for democracy. There was an overall turnout of 61% in the 2005 election. But that means more people decided not to vote than voted for Labour.

Indeed Labour’s share of the total possible electorate was 22% - enough for a mandate to govern! 22%!

At least in Iran it’s 99% for the winning party.

Yet in 2022 Labour are in opposition.

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25 June - 1 July 2022

Meghan Markle reached out to Hubb Community Kitchen To mark the fifth anniversary of the tragedy, the Duchess of Sussex called the volunteers at Grenfell community kitchen.

The Hubb Community Kitchen said Meghan left a “lovely voice message” and asked “how we are, about our children and families and giving us news of hers”.

Following the devastating 2017 fire, a group of local women affected by the same

came up with the Hubb Community Kitchen who gathered to prepare fresh food for their families and neighbours in

the aftermath.

Meghan not only collaborated with volunteers by supporting the creation, but also wrote the foreword for their awardwinning charity cookbook Together: Our Community Cookbook.

The Kitchen’s post read: “I just found this picture of us all, on the day our cookbook came out. The Duchess had wrapped a

book for each one of us and wrote a lovely message to each lady on the first page.

“Always very thoughtful, today we received a lovely voice message from the Duchess, being the 5 years anniversary of the Grenfell tragedy, asking how we are, about our children and families and giving us news of hers.

“Just being her beautiful kind self.”

Doctors warn against over- Holidaymaker hit with £870 parking bill at Manchester medicalising menopause People should not see natural event such as menopause as hormone deficiency that requires treatment as it can increase women’s anxiety, say medics.

Doctors have hit back at critics saying treating menopause as a hormone deficiency could fuel negative expectations and make matters worst for women.

“Menopause is a natural event for half of humankind.

While media attention in the UK may give the impression that growing numbers of women are struggling to cope with menopausal symptoms and are seeking hormonal treatment, there is no universal experience and most women prefer not to take medication unless their symptoms are severe,” wrote Martha Hickey, a professor of

Airport car park

obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues.

“It tends to emphasise the negative aspects of menopause and, while effective treatments are important for those with troublesome symptoms, medicalisation may increase women’s anxiety and apprehension about this natural life stage.”

A recent review has found out that negative attitudes and expectations before menopause predicted the likelihood of women experiencing distressing symptoms.

NHS waiting list crisis rises The NHS crisis continues, with a set of data today showing that the extra cash invested by the Tories is not translating into progress.

The NHS crisis continues as those waiting 52 weeks for an operation climbed to 323,000, reveals data release. Though A&E activity is back to normal prepandemic volume, the figures are being described as crisis level.

The situation is as ‘challenging as any winter before the pandemic’ says Amanda Pritchard, NHS England’s chief executive.

Against the busiest May since records began, some 853,000 emergency calls were answered too.

12-hour waits are down from 24,000 (the record high) to 19,000. However, some 27 per cent of patients were not seen within the four-hour target either.

Also, ambulance waiting times have improved slightly and the mean response for a category two ‘emergency call’ fell by ten minutes to just under 40.

However, the 28-day cancer diagnosis target hasn’t been met for the thirteenth month running, as cancer diagnoses are drifting further away from target with 71 per cent of suspected patients having cancer confirmed or ruled out within four weeks the lowest level since January.

Man accused of killing denies murder and burglary The man accused of fatally stabbing Yasmin Begum,40, in Bethnal Green has pleaded not guilty to murder.

On March 24, she was found with stab injuries which proved fatal at a property in Globe Road. When she did not arrive to pick up her children from school, police officers were alerted to welfare concerns.

On March 27, Quyum Miah, 40, of High Street, Homerton, was arrested and charged with murder the following day. Along with it, he was also charged with burglary and two counts of

fraud by false representation.

Miah appeared before Barkingside Magistrates' Court on March 28, and at the Old Bailey two days later when a plea hearing was fixed for June 15.

During an appearance at Woolwich Crown Court, the defendant pleaded not guilty to both murder and burglary. He admitted the two counts of fraud by false representation.

This year on December 5 a trial date has been fixed while a pretrial review will take place on November 21.

After returning to Manchester from his two-week honeymoon in Egypt, Scott Avery was left stunned after being hit with a hefty parking bill of almost £900.

He said he booked in advance using Manchester Airport's Meet and Greet option in May. Travellers get an option to leave their cars in one of the airport's secure car parks, however, Scott and his new wife had left their vehicle in the incorrect bay.

Through the AA app he had paid £120 for the Meet and Greet option but when the couple arrived on 30 May, he says they were instead ushered to the

Terminal 2 West Car Park, where they took a token and went on holiday. And when they returned on 14 June, they used the same token to check out and their initial bill was an eyewatering £870.

Scott was lucky enough to get assistance from customer care where he explained his situation and he did not have to pay the £870 bill he was fronted with.

Stanley Johnson walks off set after Piers Morgan quizzes him about his son Boris Johnson’s father Stanley Johnson walked off set after Piers Morgan quizzed him about his son. The two were discussing the lows of Johnson’s son and his leadership and the consequences of Patygate which have so far seen him fined and almost lose a no-confidence vote.

Boris’s father defended him and Morgan bit back until Johnson had enough and left.

“It’s about having a party which breaks its own law when he was telling other people, ‘You can’t do this.’ It's doing one thing, and preaching another,” Morgan explained. “He broke his own law, Stanley.”

Johnson replied: “Come on Piers… OK. I think that it is time to move on from that.”

“You know, it was a situation where, yes, he had a drink… he had a glass in his hand and that is it. And that

was the end of it."

He continued, “As far as I’m concerned, it’s high time we moved on to things which really matter, the things he is doing now.”

After the exchange, Morgan brought the interview to a close, saying, “It is great to see you, [and] as always an effervescent presence.”

“You are a cheater, I’ve got to tell you Piers,” Johnson told the host. “You know, you lured me in here.”

in brief FOUR KILLED AFTER DRUNK DRIVER SPEEDS BMW Zahir 'Zeus' Baig and his friends were killed while they were on their way to watch the Tyson Fury World Heavyweight Championship boxing fight against Deontay Wilder on October 10 last year. A series of inquiries at Ampthill in Bedfordshire heard the group had left a nightclub and crashed at the A5 Flying Fox roundabout near Hockliffe at around 3.40am. All four men died as a result of multiple injuries and fatal burns when the car was crushed and caught fire upon landing in a nearby field. Those who died were driver Baig, 39, from Luton, and passengers Sahir Iqbal, 39, from Luton, Jason McGovern,46, from Leighton Buzzard. and Mohammed Uddin, 41, from Luton. Forensic Collision Investigator Paul Andrews told the inquest Mr Baig had a blood-reading of 96 - the limit being 80. He said the men had been asked to leave the Pink Punters night club in Fenny Stratford after Mr Baig had become involved in a confrontation.

CCTV showed the car being driven erratically as it hit a curb when completing a 3-points turn and going past a parked vehicle. It was travelling at 46mph in a 30mph zone. PC Andrews said analysis of marks on road at the roundabout on the A5 showed the BMW was speeding at between 84 and 107mph He said: 'It went airborne across the roundabout, across a hedge and landed in a field. It skidded a short distance on the roof and caught fire.'

Mr Andrews said it had been in the air for 250 feet. When the BMW landed upside down the car's roof was completely crushed on impact.

The inquest heard it was likely all the men were dead before the car caught fire because the car had been crushed. Zahir Baig's cause of death was multiple injuries and fatal burns with a second cause of excess alcohol.

AIRPORT WORKER’S PRANK WITH HIS BOSS COSTS HIM JOB Krishan Bhardwaj, a Heathrow baggage handler, and his manager James Lee were engaged in a playful working relationship which went too far, an employment tribunal heard. The pair were described as 'best friends' and 'sweethearts' by one colleague, but Mr Lee complained about his colleague's behaviour after their banter boiled over and became personal. In November 2018, for example, the panel heard Mr Lee tied Mr Bhardwaj's shoelaces together whilst he slept on his break. At the beginning of 2019 Mr Bhardwaj advised his boss about a potential health and safety risk of a flight they were working on. Mr Bhardwaj said this was a 'turning point' in their relationship as, though the issue was initially dismissed by Mr Lee, it was referred to the duty manager who was grateful for the information. Later in the year, Mr Bhardwaj told of several occasions when Mr Lee would 'bear hug' him from behind, which he found 'annoying'. In a June email to bosses Mr Lee complained of aggressive 'play fights' instigated by Mr Bhardwaj, which led to him suffering from 'bruises'. He also wrote of other colleagues regarding him as 'lazy' and being on the receiving end of 'verbal abuse' about his weight from Mr Bhardwaj. An investigation was launched into the allegations later that month. Mr Bhardwaj was interviewed regarding the complaint but insisted his conduct towards Mr Lee was merely 'banter'.

During the meeting, Mr Bhardwaj said: 'Banter is in my blood. Sometimes he calls me a 'c***'. I call him one.' At the end of July, he was dismissed for gross misconduct after Terminal Business Manager Steven Smith, who led the investigation, felt convinced after hearing the audio recording that he had exhibited 'bullying and insubordinate behaviour' towards Mr Lee. Mr Bhardwaj appealed the decision and was shocked to finally hear the audio recording at his appeal hearing. His appeal was rejected, and soon afterwards he launched tribunal claims.

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Nationwide crackdown by government on student absenteeism Education Secretary Nadim Zahawi has vowed to end the 'postcode lottery' over how local councils deal with school absences.

The education secretary will also oversee a Whitehall database with all school registers, the plans state.

Children's Commissioner Rachel de Souza has called for school attendance to rise to 100% by this autumn term. She urged schools to do 'whatever it takes' to meet that goal. Parents would face a maximum of two fines for each child per school year.

If that limit were reached, prosecution would then be considered.

The current regulations allow a pupil's name to be deleted from registers if their health makes it unlikely they can attend school. The Government said this is 'outdated given changes to provision for pupils with medical conditions to enable many of them to continue their

education in their own school'.

According to the government announcement, all parents who take their children on holiday during term-time will be handed a fixed penalty notice (FPN).

The new truancy crackdown will also see FPNs issued to parents whose children are late five times in one term, take five unauthorised absences, go on holiday during termtime, or are out in public in the five five days of an exclusion. Parents who take their children on holiday in term-time will be fined £120 Proposals also suggest online learning in the case of absences. It said that pupils with a child protection plan, education and health care plan or a child in need plan should not be deleted from school rolls without the local council's consent. They also suggest pupils younger than compulsory schooling age should still have their absence recorded.

Mayor of Harrow opens a new forest school at Avanti House Primary School Mayor of Harrow, Cllr Janet Mote officially opened a new forest school at Avanti House Primary School in Stanmore on Tuesday, 14th June 2022.

Joshi said, “The pupils are Avanti House Primary School were delighted to celebrate the opening of our new forest school area in the presence of the

L-R: : Mayor of Harrow Cllr Janet Mote, Vaisnava Das, Rajvi Patel, Sam Patel, Mrs Joshi.

Student Kian Patel, Mia Patel

The opening was also attended by a representative of Iskcon temple, Vaisnava Das. The project was sponsored by school parents Sam and Rajvi Patel to offer children the freedom to explore, play and learn in the open fresh air, which is widely recognised as having huge benefits for children’s mental health and wellbeing.

Speaking at the event, the school Principal, Mrs

Mayor of Harrow. One child in Year 3 said "I will never forget this day! The important lady (Mayor of Harrow) was with us and the forest is so magical and peaceful.”

"It was a memorable event for all of our pupils and teachers, The circle of stump seats is a perfect environment for storytelling, PSHE circle time and meditation which is an integral part of our daily life as a Hindu faith school."

she adds.

Cllr Janet Mote, the Mayor of Harrow said,"I was delighted to open the Forest School at the Avanti House School with my Mayoress, it is amazing and will help and extend the children’s learning. Having taught at the previous school on the site & St Peterborough Margaret’s, I was thrilled to

see how the Avanti School has flourished on the site with love and respect for all."

Sam Patel said, "We decided to sponsor and help build this project to give young children the opportunity to have hands-on learning experiences in a natural environment surrounded by trees and open space,"

Prideview Group inaugurates their new office in style P

rideview Group with 37 years of proud track record of providing brilliant commercial property investment service, inaugurated their fifth office in Stanmore recently.

It is a state-of-the-art and purpose built office, with plenty of break out space in a convenient suburban location.

The Prideview Team (L to R) - Priyen Patel, Nilesh Patel, Raj Patel, Shailesh Patel, Jesal Patel and Vishal Patel

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Married GP sentenced for raping woman Manesh Gill, 39, met his victim after setting up an account on the dating app under the name of Mike. The married doctor met the woman at a hotel in Stirling in December 2018 and persuaded her to come to his room after telling her the public toilets were out of order.

After having a drink in his room, she lapsed in and out of consciousness – with a jury

finding Gill guilty of raping the woman while she was incapable of controlling her movements or providing consent.

Prosecutors said while the Edinburgh GP had presented himself as a “responsible medic”, the “truth was very different” and he had abused the woman’s trust in a “most heinous way”. Gill was also added to the Sex Offenders

Register and sentenced for four years.

Mr Robertson praised the woman for helping to convict Gill, saying: “The woman’s bravery in reporting this crime and assisting prosecution is commendable. Her determination and courage brought Gill to justice.

“We would urge any victim of similar offending to come forward and report it.

They can be assured that the Crown is entirely committed to the effective prosecution of such crimes.”

Speaking afterwards, Detective Inspector Forbes Wilson, of Police Scotland’s public protection unit, said :“The conviction and sentencing of Gill sends a clear message to anyone found guilty of sexual offences, you will be brought to justice.

Indian-origin Nairita appointed Commissioner of Historic England Indian-origin architect and design advocate Nairita Chakraborty has been appointed to the prestigious role of Commissioner of Historic England, the public body

projects in London include Alexandra Palace, Tottenham High Road, Holborn Town Hall as well as work on the Historic Dockyards of Middlesbrough. As a prac-

Sikh mum campaigning for justice even after 25 years of son’s death In 1997, Ricky was just 20years-old and studying Computer Science at Brunel University. One evening on October 14, Ricky and a group of friends decided to go clubbing for a friend's birthday, his mum says she was happy for him to go out as he rarely did. He had told his mum he would be home at 1am and his mum, Sukhdev says he was

alway perfect with his timing.

Ricky Reel's body was found in the River Thames after he and his three Asian friends escaped from a racist attack - Sukhdev Reel says she spent days searching for him before she was told his body was found. Following the tragic death, Sukhdev from West London, says she did not feel supported by the

police and claims she was spied on and left to piece the puzzle together herself. For the last 25 years she has been campaigning for a proper investigation into what happened to her son, which she says was not a simple accident.

A Spokesperson for the Met Police said: "The investigation into the death of Ricky

Reel in Kingston in October 1997 remains open. The Met's inquiry has been extensive since Ricky’s disappearance and the discovery of his body in the River Thames on 21 October 1997, there have been numerous investigations and reviews. Officers have taken hundreds of statements from witnesses and people with information.

Indian MP gets help from Bangladeshi couple in London India’s MP Shashi Tharoor, who often leaves netizens bamboozled with new words, found himself in a bit of a predicament in London recently.

The incident happened a few days back when Tharoor was trying to hail a cab outside the British Library for 45 minutes, but in vain.

After several cars 'whizzed' past the MP, a Bangladeshi couple stopped by and

booked an Uber for him.

Tharoor posted a photo with the couple on Twitter and thanked them for their help. The pair, identified as Irfat and Azmain, were out celebrating their first wedding anniversary when they saw the MP from India’s Congress party outside the British Library.

“Waited 45 minutes outside @britishlibrary for a cab as Saturday-night traffic

whizzed by. A helpful young Bangladeshi couple, out celebrating their first wedding anniversary, stopped by for a pic & solved my problem by summoning an @Uber.

Thanks Irfat & Azmain!" tweeted Shashi Tharoor.

Following the tweet, many users pointed out that Tharoor could have walked five minutes to St Pancras street where cabs lineup. To which the Congress leader

replied: "We did. There wasn't a single one." Another user suggested that Tharoor should've installed Uber on his phone before his London trip. "Should have gotten an uber account before heading to London.

That and some minicab numbers. Better planning next time will hopefully save time…just like a stitch in time, saves nine," the user wrote.

Universities in England An Oxford university face danger of financial student dies trying to instability take a shortcut at night The latest report, by the public accounts committee (PAC), says some universities are heavily reliant on overseas students’ fees, using that income to cross-subsidise research and other activities – leaving them “potentially exposed to significant financial risks” if international student numbers fail to keep growing.

The committee also notes that the number of universities with budget deficits has risen for four years in a row, with inflation, the freeze on domestic tuition fees, pension costs and policy changes on student loans and minimum entry requirements making it likely that students will be affected by course cuts, lower quality teaching or restricted access, or even closures of entire campuses.

According to a report by MPs that blames the government and regulators for failing to ensure students receive value for money for their time in higher education, Universities in England face danger from financial instability and falling student satisfaction.

The report concludes that the Office for Students, the higher education regulator for England, has failed to make sufficient progress “in getting a grip on the longterm systemic challenges facing the sector”.

In addition to that, two years of pandemic-related over-recruitment by selective universities has had a knock-on effect this year, with fewer students receiving offers. Larissa Kennedy, the president of the National Union of Students, said: “We’re hearing from students who are working three jobs to make ends meet, who can’t even afford to travel to their university library, and who are cutting back on cooking food due to spiralling energy costs. Our research has shown that thousands more are relying on food banks and buy now, pay later loans.”

Suhith Mahendra, 23, student of Oxford Brookes University, was said to have been on his way back from picking up food with a friend in the early hours of May 19, an inquest heard. The pair cut through an alleyway near a councilowned park before he reportedly tried to 'climb or jump' over some metal railings, in an attempt to take a shortcut at night.

Mahendra had been studying for a Masters degree in marketing at the time of his death. lived in halls off Hollow Way, Cowley.

But Oxford Brookes marketing student Sunhith impaled himself on the spikes - suffering two wounds to his abdomen, an inquest was told. Despite the efforts of his friend who carried out CPR he was pronounced dead at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

In a statement last night, a spokesman for Oxford Brookes

University said: "It is with great sadness that we can confirm that Suhith Mahendra died following an incident on Cuckoo Lane at the boundary with Clive Booth Student Village on May 19. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this very difficult time. We are supporting his family and those affected by this incident. Students are encouraged to contact the University's Wellbeing Service if they need emotional support, or they can access 24/7 support from TogetherAll."

Nairita Chakraborty

championing the country's historic environment and heritage.

Nairita Chakraborty, who grew up in Delhi and studied at the School of Planning and Architecture before moving to the UK, has over 16 years of experience in heritage, townscape and design. She is already a member of England's Historic Advisory Committee and will start her new role as Commissioner from July 1 for a term of four years until June 2026.

Some of Narita’s iconic

titioner, her focus has been on the adaptation and restoration of historic buildings, bringing them back to use within wider regeneration plans.

The design advocate has experience in ensuring sustained use of historic buildings whilst delivering large scale regeneration, housing and infrastructure projects. She has produced significant work on the adaptation and conversion of large and complex listed buildings, as well as town centre, public realm, and conservation area schemes.

Hackney ‘Ayahs’ house commemorated London’s blue plaques scheme, run by charity English Heritage, celebrates the links between notable figures of the past and the buildings in which they lived and worked. Founded in 1866, it has inspired many similar schemes in the UK

British in India and other colonies as children’s nannies, nursemaids and ladies’ maids. Sometimes required to care for babies, children and their sea-sick mothers on the long sea voyage from the colonies to England, the ayahs were generally not

and around the world.

Several buildings linked with historical figures from the Indian sub-continent have been marked with a blue plaque.

Recently, a house at 26 King Edward’s Road in Hackney which, in the early twentieth century, sheltered hundreds of stranded and sometimes abandoned South and East Asian nannies – known as ‘ayahs’ – was commemorated with a blue plaque. English Heritage said the term ‘ayah’ was applied to women who served the

expected to serve the families once they arrived.

The ‘ayahs’ were either contracted to wait until needed for the return journey – some made the journey multiple times – or arrangements were made for their passage home. Some families did not honour the promise of a return journey or ticket, or offer the means to survive in the interim, and the nurses thus abandoned were forced into common lodging houses or the workhouse, the charity added.

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Report shows increasing number of Asian doctors quit NHS due to racism Nischal Sanghavi In a shocking event, a landmark survey recently has revealed that doctors from ethnic minority backgrounds are facing racism in NHS. The British Medical Association (BMA), which is a professional association and trade union representing and negotiating on behalf of all doctors of the UK, had conducted a survey of medics.

The survey that was open to all UK doctors in medical workplaces, was participated by 2030 medics. It is important to note that 40% of 123,000 NHS doctors belong to minority backgrounds. The comprehensive survey was on the experience of racism in the medical profession and workplace.

One of the most alarming finding of the survey is that nearly one-

third doctors of those surveyed have in the past two years, either left or considered to leave NHS due to racial discrimination. This

includes 41% of Asians and ensure that he did 42% of Black doctors. become a consultant, he One response that was told us that he had to received in the survey read as work double hard than “I was called ‘headscarf his white peers to do so. b****’ by a patient. A patient Dr Buch, who refused to be seen by me as worked with NHS in my name did not sound Manchester and London British.” Another one says, also found that doctors Dr Keyur Buch “A supervisor did not wish to from ethnic minorities discuss the experience of the were targeted more durpatient not wishing to be seen by ing internal investigations. In fact, me and I was met with mostly complaints about minority doctors silence.” were more vigorously reported to the General Medical Council. High Orthopaedic Surgeon Dr Keyur levels of racism were evident durBuch returned to India after working training and salary increments. ing in NHS for years. He told us However, as Dr Buch puts it, “there how he faced institutional racism is also a silver lining in between in NHS, as his boss allegedly told these dark clouds. Many white colhim that he would never promote a leagues are really good and sup‘brown’ person like Dr Buch to portive, who help you boost morale become a consultant. Although Dr and fight discriminations.”

Buch took this as a challenge to

Sir Starmer planning a successor, if forced to quit Durham Police opened an investigation into whether the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer broke Covid regulations when he drank beer indoors with colleagues on April 30 last year.

Starmer has promised to quit his role if he is fined for breaching the rules and has since returned a questionnaire to Durham police. However, Keir is putting plans in place so that the “hard-earned gains” are not “squandered” in case he is forced to step down. Reports claim he is planning for his own succession to ensure his legacy contin-

ues if he is forced to quit.

If Starmer resigns, a contest for his replacement would automatically be triggered. Prospective candidates would need the support of at least 20 per cent of Labour MPs to make it onto the ballot.

Meanwhile, Starmer reportedly told friends: "I will not let this party become a basket case again. I will not let our hard-won gains be squandered so we will need to be ready in the unlikely event that the worst comes to the worst.”

Nandy rubbishes claims that Starmer is lining up a successor Lisa Nandy, pictured, the Shadow Levelling Up Secretary, is often touted as a future Labour leader.

Dismissing speculation that Keir Starmer is lining up a successor to lead the party if he is forced to quit as “absolute nonsense”. She has said that she had not spoken to Starmer about plans to secure a replacement if Durham Constabulary fined him for breaching Covid rules.

Although he has insisted he did not break any rules, the Labour leader has promised to step down if he is issued with a fixed penalty notice over a takeaway beer and curry he

ordered with campaigners in the city last year.

When asked “Are you a bit worried he’s been talking to Wes Streeting and not you?” Nandy had replied: “No, I’m not worried that he’s been talking to anybody about succession planning, because I know that he’s been talking to all of us about how we rid this country have a government that has held us back for the last 12 years and finally start to deliver for working people — that is the conversation that we’re having in the Labour Party at the moment.”

Attorney General slams left for being ‘ashamed of our history’ At the height of its power in 1921 the British Empire was known as the 'empire on which the sun never set' and was home to some 413 million people.

However, many people have railed against celebrating the British Empire, with a number of institutions set on decolonisation, which critics say is an attempt to censor history. Last month the University of Salford even scrapped sonnet-writing from a creative writing course in a bid to remove itself from 'white Western culture' amid its push to 'decolonise the curriculum'.

Attorney General Suella Braverman, pictured, has slammed these left-wing people for being 'ashamed' of Britain's colonial past and said she was 'proud' of the British Empire. Suella , whose parents are from Mauritius and Kenya and emigrated to the UK in the 1960s, said people should honour

'the ingenuity and the genius of the British people'.

However, Mrs Braverman said she was 'proud of the British Empire'. She said: 'I am informed by the experience of my parents.' '[They] were born under the British Empire in the 1940s, and they have nothing but good things to tell me about the mother country. It was Britain that gave them opportunity and safety when they were young adults.

'She said Mauritius's legal and educational system took inspiration from the British Empire, while in Kenya it was a 'force for good' as it put in place infrastructure and roads. She admitted 'awful things' happened in the Empire because of the culture at that time but accused the Left of being apologetic for patriotism.

Another doctor working for NHS, is facing racism but requested not to disclose his name. He said racist experiences have been affecting his career progression and increasing his stress levels. In fact, in the survey 71%, of those who had a racism experience, have admitted that they had chosen not to report the racism incident out of fear of being labelled as ‘trouble maker’ or due to lack of confidence that adequate action would be taken.

With little acknowledgement of racist incidents from the NHS and the authorities so far, it is very clear that no-action from authorities will clearly undermine the NHS’ ability to bring out the best in the workforce and subsequently a knock-on effect on patient services.

Inquiry reports 'Amnesty International' as racist Initial findings of Global HPO’s independent inquiry into Amnesty International were published in April but now the scale of the organisation’s issues with race have been laid bare in their final report.

The inquiry was commissioned by a joint group drawn from different parts of Amnesty UK, including the Section Board, Amnesty activists, the staff trade union shop, management and former staff, in October 2021.

Released to Amnesty staff members, the 106-page document explains that equality, inclusion and anti-racism are “not embedded into the DNA” of the organisation.

“White saviour”, “colonialist”, “middle class” and “privileged” were among the words most used during the testimony and focus groups to discuss Amnesty.

Recommendations for improvement include refraining from collating diversity data into one homogeneous black, Asian and minority ethnic (Bame) group and providing training to improve equality monitoring.

The inquiry ruled that particular attention should be paid to the employment and retention of black African and black Caribbean staff at AIUK , as these groups fare the worst within the charity.

A brother’s perspective: transforming lives, overcoming preejjudice ““My My yyounger ounger sister sister Kirti Kirti was was the the first firrst in fi in our ou r village village to to go go into into further further education: education: her her success success has has inspired inspired many man any other other girls girls in in the the village village to to follow follow her. her. Kirti Kirti also also inspired inspired me me to to take take ke a post-graduate post-graduate course course in in Yoga Yoga and and I now now work work in in Delhi Delhi as as an an instructor” instructor” says says Sonu Sonu Chaudhary, Chaudhary, a young young man man originally originally Khalor, ffrom rom K halor, a rremote emote rrural ural al village village in in Uttar Uttar Pradesh.

P radesh.

Sonu’s sister Kirti is a shining example of the transfo formational benefits of the first-class education provided

by Pardada Pardadi Educational Society (PPES) to young women from rural villages. fr Now a software engineer working with Cisco, Kirti has been a force fo fo for change fo for her family and fo for others from her village: younger fr sister Manchal is an interior designer, Sonia is pursuing a Masters in biotech, and Monika is on a nursingg course.

Being a catalyst fo for change hasn’t been easy: Sonu’s relatives and neighbours strongly opposed his fa family’s decision to allow Kirti to pursue higher education based on gender bias and patriarchal culture.

Sonu comments, “Gender bias was never an issue fo for my family: my grandparents treated boys and girls the same and dad fo followed in their fo footsteps.

So it was natural fo for me to support Kirti when people were against her. Kirti grabbed bb d every chance h and d local l l people l now sing a diff fferent tune.

“With no n land and only a poorly perfo forming fl flour mill, our fa family struggled.

But as a resu ult of her education, Kirti was successfu ful an nd put her hard-earned money into buildingg the new part of our house.

Now everyon ne, including local legislators and governm ment off ff icials, speaks highly of Kirti’s contriibution to inspiring others in our village.”

Less than 200 metres fr from Kirti’s family home lives Naresh Chand who runs a local store. Three of his fo four daughters went into fu further education hav aving started at PPES. PPES His second eldest, Bharti, finished her higher education and is now working with a private firm in Chennai.

Naresh Chand never finished his schooling and was discouraged by fellow villagers fr fe from sending his daughters to PPES. “I’m proud of them: theyy all speak p very good English and have succeeded in their studies.”

Former critics c of these fa families’ brave decisions to send their girls to school now praise theem for fo their amazing achievements and have fo followed their lead.

That’s real transfo formation Pardada P Pa arda rdada da Pardadi Parda Pa rdadi di Educational Educa cational a Society Soci ciety ty UK UK is a registered reg egister ered UK UK charity charity ch ty (Charity (Chari (C rity ty no.

11166879) 11 166879 79) and a d can an be contacted contacted through through th gh email at info@pardadapardadi-uk.org; e i fo@p info @parda da daparda dadi-uk.org rg; phone at 079 79 03329311; 033329311; 1; postal postal address addresss 25 Sweetcroft Sweetcr croft ft Lane, Lan ane, e, Uxbridge, Uxbri Ux ridg dge, e, UB10 UB10 9LE. UB 9LE E.

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Survey suggests NHS to drop terms like “normal” or “natural” birth A new RCM (Royal College of Midwives) study included responses from 8,000 people in the UK, including women, their partners, doctors and midwives. About 1,500 women who had given birth in the past five years gave their views.

During the study, “normal labour and birth” and “natural labour and birth” had the highest proportion of responses where people thought the terms should not be used, although some preferred the terms or did not mind them.

The study also found that people thought “the use of language in maternity care, including words that implied ‘failure’ or ‘incompetence’ or ‘lack of maternal effort’, contributed to feel-

ings of failure and even trauma around their birth experience”.

The study found some women feel judged by language that suggests their labours have failed or that somehow their birth experience has been abnormal. Instead they want descriptions that are “non-judgmental, non-hierarchical” and which are not “valueladen”, it said.

The study recommended several terms that should now be used by health professionals and researchers.

This includes “spontaneous vaginal birth” for a birth without intervention, “induced and/or augmented labour” such as when labour is induced, “birth with forceps/ventouse” and “Caesarean birth”.

Historically, the idea of a “normal birth” has been promoted in the UK, with the RCM, the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) signing a “normal birth consensus statement” in 2007. However, RCOG has recently apologised on Twitter for signing up to the “normal birth consensus statement” in 2007.

New Covid infection rate 31 per 100,000 Data for the UK Department for Health and Social Care, Public Health England and the Chief Medical Officer Directorate, shows the infection rate is 31 per 100,000.

The data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) up to June 2 indicates England and Northern Ireland are starting to see a rise in coid cases. The country could be facing a new wave of Covid infections driven by Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, with three counties in particular seeing a massive surge. Though the trends were unclear for Wales and Scotland.

Infection levels are estimated to have risen in London, north-west England and south-east England, with early signs of an increase in eastern England Rutland in the East Midlands appears to have seen the biggest recent surge. The county, which is bounded to the west and north by Leicestershire, to the northeast by Lincolnshire and the southeast by Northamptonshire, has seen a jump of 233% in cases over the last 14 days.

Other areas to see a surge include North East Lincolnshire with 132% and Middlesbrough with 179%.

Experts worry these latest mutations may have evolved to infect lung tissue, as did the earliest forms of the virus, making them more dangerous.

BA.4 and BA.5 - first detected in Africa in January and February - were designated as variants of concern in the UK on May 20. Though the bulk of infections appear to continue to be down to the dominant BA.2 variant.

Some 797,500 people in private households in England were likely to test positive for Covid-19 in the week ending June 2, the equivalent of about one in 70.

Conservative Wakefield candidate blames causes embarrassment for Johnson on Brexit Conservative candidate Cllr Nadeem Ahmed, pictured, who is fighting to cling on to the Wakefield seat for Boris Johnson, says the Brexit campaign was “built on lies” and that he regretted voting for it and also warned leaving the EU had triggered an increase in racist attacks and backed a second referendum.

Shortly after the referendum in 2016, Nadeem who was the then-leader of Wakefield Council, said, “I voted to leave and I regret the decision. All my friends who voted similarly are the same. The immigration issue has been overplayed and the most identifiable group are being targeted because we have darker skin colour. What is espe-

cially worth noting is that the majority of people being targeted, like me, were actually born in Britain. We were raised here and know no other life.”

The comments are a huge embarrassment for Mr Johnson, who led the Leave campaign based – infamously – on the false claim that leaving the EU would deliver a £350m-a-week bonus to the NHS. It was also criticised for wrongly arguing Turkey was poised to join the EU – opening the door to more immigration – and that trade deals with major economies such as the US

would be struck easily.

However, those attacks normally came from the prime minister’s political opponents, rather than from his candidate in a crucial by-election, taking place next week. But, Wakefield was a key prize as the ‘Red Wall’ crumbled at the 2019 general election, but the Tories have a majority of just 3,358 – making Labour the favourites to win back the seat.

Mr Ahmad had recently been the victim of racist abuse, having been told to “return home to Pakistan” on a visit to a local ‘drive thru’ restaurant.

Man jailed for stalking 121 women and justifying rape

Two girlfriends give evidence for 22-yearold Aqil’s murder On the morning of November 6 last year, a dog walker found the body of Mohammed Aqil Mahdi, 22, - who was better known as Aqil - in a secluded enclosure behind Springer Court, Navigation Road. Aqil from Camden had been "savagely attacked" and stabbed multiple times in his shoulder and buttocks, and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Three of his associates, Majed Ahmed, 19, of Navigation Road in Bromley-by-Bow, Muzahid Ali, 22, of Bishops Way in Cambridge Heath and Abul Kashem, 29, of Victoria Dock Road in Newham, are now on trial for his murder.

Giving evidence at the Old Bailey last week, Aqil's two girlfriends were questioned about phone calls made to each of them

by Muzahid Ali in the early hours of November 6 - the day Aqil was found dead.

The first woman to give evidence, who had been dating Aqil since June 2021, was told by Ali - in the call that lasted for a minute-and-a-half - that Aqil was still in contact with his ex-girlfriend. She said Aqil had told her that his relationship with the other woman had ended by the time they began dating. But the second woman went on to tell jurors she had been in a relationship with Aqil "on and off" for seven years since she was 14, and that she had split up with him two weeks before he was killed. They had stopped dating when Aqil met the first woman, but got back together in August 2021 when he told her they had separated. The trial continues.

Biggest rail strike in 30 years The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union over pay and job cuts led action is planned for Tuesday 21 June, Thursday 23 June and Saturday 25 June. Only about 20 percent of services across Britain will run on these days, though in Scotland, that figure is likely to be even lower, at just five per cent.

More than 40,000 members of the RMT working at Network Rail and 13 British train operating companies will walk out on Thursday and Saturday, following the first day of action on Tuesday, when these workers will be joined by about 10,000 London Underground staff.

Network Rail has called on passengers to only travel by trains on strike days if they must, but has not advised against using the railways altogether next week as the biggest rail strike in 30 years is due to shut down the nation’s railway network.

Although GTR employ-

Vishaal Vijapura, 28, January 2021 when he published a list her ‘completely took his victims’ picof women’s names from all over unconscious’. When tures from their social England, along with an essay that he was blocked on media profiles then pubtried to justify why they should be one account, he lished them with capraped. Vijapura has now been jailed would make a new tions encouraging serifor nearly three years and subject to a identity and start ous sexual violence court order for five years. However, messaging his target against them. police are now looking for any more on another. women who may have fallen victim Vishal’s behaviour Vishal’s obsession Photo courtesy: Metropolitan to his crimes. came to light in became so much that he Police/SWNS paid hundreds of pounds for online services to find their personal details, including home addresses, and added them to his posts. He even wrote one post More than a fifth of private consider and cannot unreasonwhite paper, which it describes titled ‘why rape is better than sex’. In renters who moved in 2019 and ably refuse" requests by all tenas "the biggest shake-up of the some cases, Vijapura paid for an 2020 did not end their tenancy ants to keep an animal in their private rented sector in 30 ancestry website to find out even by choice, figures suggest, home. years". Among the proposals are more detail about his victim’s backincluding 8% who were asked to The government says the a pledge to outlaw section 21 grounds and their families. leave by their landlord. These new blueprint for renters "no-fault" evictions that allow He messaged many of his victims types of eviction notices are reform will "redress the balance" landlords to terminate tenancies directly and struck up conversations contentious and the governbetween landlords and the estiwithout giving a reason.

– particularly of a sexual nature – ment promised to ban them mated 4.4 million private tenApart from this, the departmaking many of them feel uncomthree years ago. ants in England. The new deal ment has also promised to fortable. He told one victim he would will extend the decent homes change the rules to make it easiThe Department for rape her at home address and film standard to the private sector er to own a pet in rented accomLevelling Up, Housing and the assault so it would go viral. He for the first time, meaning modation, with the white paper Communities is set to publish told another woman he would leave homes must be free from serious stating that landlords "must its fairer private rented sector

ees stopped short of voting for a walkout, the operator depends on Network Rail signallers and engineers to keep its trains moving, and its services connect with many lines and stations managed by other operators whose staff are taking action, the firm said.

Transport for Wales staff, who have not been balloted, are not participating in the strike action, but the majority of rail services across the Wales and Borders network will be suspended on the strike days as much of its signalling is operated by Network Rail.

Network Rail CEO Andrew Haines said it was “not a uniform picture” across the UK and that some operators would be able to offer close-to-normal services on “shoulder” days while others would be far more limited.

Biggest shake up for private rented sector in 30 years health and safety hazards, and landlords must keep homes in a good state of repair so renters have clean, appropriate and usable facilities. The department has also promised to change the rules to make it easier to own a pet in rented accommodation, with the white paper stating that landlords "must consider and cannot unreasonably refuse" requests by all tenants to keep an animal in their home.

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Johnson’s second surprise visit to Ukraine Prime Minister Boris Johnson discreetly travelled recently in a second surprise trip to the war-torn country since Russia first launched its brutal invasion. After that, Mr Johnson confirmed the trip in a tweet picturing him meeting his his counterpart and wartime leader.

Downing Street later revealed the meeting in Kyiv was to firm up a major new training programme for Ukrainian forces. They claimed up to 10,000 brave Ukrainian soldiers would be trained every 120 days.

Mr Johnson said: "My visit today, in the depths of this war, is to send a clear and simple message to the Ukrainian people: the UK is with you, and we will be with you until you ultimately prevail. As Ukrainian soldiers fire UK missiles in defence of your nation’s sovereignty, they do so also in defence of the very freedoms we take for granted. That is

why I have offered President Zelenskyy a major new military training programme that could change the equation of this war – harnessing that most powerful of forces, the Ukrainian determination to win.

In fact, the pair have become firm friends during the conflict as Britain led the West in staring down Putin and supplying Ukraine.

President Zelenskyy even recently waded into Westminster politics to cheer that his "true ally" had not been toppled by Tory rebels.

The trip was closely guarded and Downing Street had refused to reveal the PM's whereabouts this morning. Last time the PM went to Ukraine in April he travelled only with a few members of his private office and close protection officers. No10 later confirmed the operation included trains, planes and cars.

Drunk driver kills lady while speeding

2500 London government workers to be moved to Manchester

Amaan Isa from Birmingham was speeding along Washwood Heath Road in Hodge Hill in a VW Golf on April 5 at around 4.35pm when he ploughed into 80-year-old Irshad Begum as she was crossing the road.

The 28-year-old, of Station Road, Erdington at the time of the smash, said he was not wearing his glasses. He said he did not see Mrs Begum.

He claimed he was travelling at 40mph but witnesses, including an offduty PC, believed Isa was travelling ‘well in excess of the 30mph speed limit’ on the Birmingham route. And a forensic examination of CCTV footage from the scene bore that out, calculating he was speeding at 56mph.

In fact, Isa is a banned driver who was speeding without wearing his glasses. He was jailed for six years and eight months at Birmingham Crown Court.

Johnson accused of lying Prime minister Boris Johnson made the boast, which has been accused of lying “yet again”, as he unveiled the government’s new housing policy last week.

Johnson, who was Mayor from 2008 till 2016, claimed he built more social housing in London than his predecessor Ken Livingstone and the current mayor Sadiq Khan.

A spokesperson for the mayor of London said: “The prime minister is wrong – plain and simple."

Mayor Khan also hit back, insisting his administration is building more homes than at any time “since records began”.

According to the spokesperson “The truth is Sadiq has overseen a resurgence in council homebuilding in the capital. Last year, work started on more council homes in London than in any year since 1979, and more than during the entire eight years Boris Johnson was mayor. Sadiq is ensuring the new homes more Londoners can afford are being built in every borough, and completions are now at their highest level in the last decade. This has been achieved against a backdrop of Brexit, the pandemic and the most anti-London government in history.

The mayor urges the prime minister to put aside petty point scoring and instead recognise the progress being made in London, which can be used as a template to build more of the homes this country desperately needs.”

The Government Property Agency (GPA) signed a lease agreement on Tuesday with developer Ask Real Estate and its partner, the Richardson Family, for a 12,000 square metre site on Manchester's First Street.

The 2,500 workers are set to be transferred from London to Manchester by 2025, according to the Cabinet office, with some destined for a newly acquired site in the city centre.

Other staff are also to be moved to the office from another building in Manchester – Piccadilly Gate – that is set to be razed to make way for a new HS2 station.

The Cabinet Office said the move would support the Government’s Levelling Up agenda and help boost regional growth, estimating up to £31 billion would be generated in economic benefits.

Prince Michael and Princess to announce retirement from public life Queen’s first cousin Prince Michael, pictured, turns 80 next month, and his wife, MarieChristine, 77, share two children Lord Frederick Windsor, 43, and Lady Gabriella Kingston, 41.

According to the official Royal Family website, Prince Michael is classified as a “non-working royal” and partakes in more than 200 public engagements for the not-for-profit sector, which are funded by his own household, rather than the taxpayer.

The Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, nicknamed ‘Princess Pushy’ are now stepping down from public life. Their retirement comes just months after the prince severed his ties with Russia. The retirement will mostly coincide with the prince’s birthday

on July 4.

Prince Michael, who is a fluent Russian speaker with a lineage to Tsar Nicholas II, was forced to sever his ties to Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he gave back an Order of Friendship award, one of Russia’s top honours, and his role as patron of the Russo-British Chamber of Commerce.

In 2021, Channel 4 reported that the prince was willing to use his royal status for personal profit and to provide access to President Putin’s regime. He was filmed at a meeting in which undercover reporters were told he could be hired to make representations to the Kremlin. The prince has denied the claims.

Priti Patel criticises cancellation of Rwanda flight of migrants English judges in the Court of Appeal have ruled that the flight could go ahead after a legal challenge by campaigners, who say the government's plan to send some migrants to the east African country is inhumane.

The plane was waiting on a Ministry of Defence runway, when the European Court of Human Rights issued last-minute injunctions to stop the deportation of the migrants onboard.

Home secretary, Priti Patel has criticised the European Court of Human Rights saying "It is very surprising that the European Court of Human Rights has intervened despite repeated earlier success in our domestic courts." Ministers have

defended the policy, saying it is needed to stop illegal people smuggling in small boats across the Channel.

Ms Patel warned that "many of those removed from the flight will be placed on the next", adding she was "disappointed" that the legal challenge meant it could not depart. These repeated legal barriers are similar to those we experience with other removals flights and many of those removed from this flight will be placed on the next. We will not be deterred from doing the right thing and delivering our plans to control our nation's borders.

Our legal team is reviewing every decision made on this flight and preparation for the next flight begins now.”

WEST TL LO ONDON B U S I N E S S PA R K LONG DRIVE, GREENFORD, UB6 8UH

Starmer under probe over earnings and gifts The Labour leader Keir Starmer is being probed by Kathryn Stone over whether he broke two sections of the MPs’ code of conduct on registering interests on employment and earnings.

10 NEW BUILD INDUSTRIAL L/W WAREHOUSE AREHOUSE UNITS

The investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards over potential breaches of rules on earnings and gifts. Stone is also looking at whether Starmer potentially breached rules in the section regarding gifts, benefits and hospitality from UK sources.

Meanwhile, Starmer says that “My office is dealing with it and will be replying in due course". Also, when asked if he was sure he had done nothing wrong, he said: “Absolutely confident, there’s no problem here.”

TO LET: 5,400 - 60,000 SQ FT

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War of the words Since the Invasion of Ukraine by President Putin’s Russia, our PM Boris Johnson, Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary Ms Elizabeth Truss and few more Conservative grandees have shifted their attention from home front to Ukraine, as they have failed badly to tackle numerous problems the long suffering British public have endured and that include hyperinflation, starvation; as many parents live on a single meal a day so that they can feed their children, have to choose between heating and eating. How can this happen in the sixth largest economy in the world where poor are getting poorer and rich richer who live in isolation in their “Ivory Tower” with the bridge raised.

No wonder there is widespread gloom and doom among ordinary people when we are celebrating Her Majesty’s long reign of seventy years. It is difficult to be positive with empty stomach and cupboards bare of everyday necessities. Yet we spend billions in Foreign Aid and defence, more than super rich Germany! We are the least priority for the government, having in power for a decade.

But surely their days are numbered unless and until we get a new PM and concentrate solely on home front.

For our PM, visiting Ukraine and having his photo taken with the brave but struggling President Volodymy Zelensky of Ukraine is a perfect opportunity to draw our attention away from home front and give them a breathing space. But they cannot run-away or ignore home-front for ever.

Recently in a speech by our Foreign Secretary Ms Truss who mentioned of throwing out every Russian from Ukraine soil met with sarcastic remarks from the long standing, 72 years Old Russian Foreign Minister Sergi Lavron, a close friend of Russian President Putin; challenging us why don’t we try and see what happens! Indeed reason to pause and think hard!

The country is going through trouble time. No one will be surprised if seventies type of strikes and unrest reemerge making the economic situation even worse. British people are optimistic, let’s hope we are on the road to recovery!

Bhupendra M. Gandhi

Practice yoga for a healthy, happy and fulfilling life Yoga is the best medicine any doctor can ever prescribe a person. It plays an important role in our lives, and it keeps us fit and healthy. It is an invaluable gift of ancient Indian tradition. It embodies unity of mind and body; thought and action; restraint and fulfilment; harmony between man and nature and a holistic approach to health and well-being. Through yoga, you can explore profoundly the very mechanics of life. It is a Hindu spiritual and ascetic discipline. It is beneficial if it is practiced daily in the mornings.

Yoga has been shown to offer both physical and mental benefits to the body and mind.

The physical benefits of yoga are- it improves flexibility and muscle joint mobility; strengthens, tones, and builds muscle; corrects posture; increases stamina; improves digestion; increases circulation; improves breathing and creates balance.

The mental benefits of yoga are- it increases body awareness; relieves chronic stress patterns in the body; refreshes the body by relieving muscle strain; relaxes the mind and body; centers attention; sharpens concentration; and frees the spirit.

We must practice yoga for a healthy, happy and fulfilling life. It is a wonderful alternative healing therapy for any disease.

The idea of an International Day of Yoga was first proposed by the current Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on September 27, 2014.

The first International Day of Yoga was observed around the world on June 21, 2015.

Jubel D'Cruz, Mumbai, India

White marker pens?

Asian entrepreneurs looking for new business opportunities should consider manufacturing white marker pens for people to put their names on dark clothing. I have never seen white marker pens on sale, have you? All that seems available are black marker pens which is so frustrating., Here is a gap in the market waiting to be exploited. Go for it and watch white marker pens fly off the shelves.

Rudy Otter

The review into historic child sexual exploitation in Oldham published The independent assurance review into historic child sexual exploitation (CSE) in Oldham, published on Mon 20 June 2022, has found there were serious failings in the handling of some cases, particularly of the victim, ‘Sophie’. The review team found that some children had been failed by the agencies that were meant to protect them because child protection procedures had not been properly followed.

Evidence of poor practice was attributed to a structural flaw the review team found in the multi-agency system that was set up to tackle to CSE leading to some children not being protected and perpetrators not being apprehended earlier.

However, the review team found no evidence either through interviews or documentary review to suggest senior managers or councillors sought to cover-up the existence of CSE or the complexity involved in tackling perpetrators and nor was there widespread CSE in residential settings, in shisha bars or in the local taxi trade.

The review was commissioned in November 2019 by Oldham Council who requested that the Mayor of Greater Manchester and the Greater Manchester Safeguarding Standards Board’s independent chair conduct a review into safeguarding practices in Oldham.

The independent review was undertaken by child protection specialist Malcolm Newsam CBE and former senior police officer Gary Ridgway, who both worked on the assurance review of Operation Augusta, published in 2020.

Responding to the review, Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, pictured said: “Following the airing of the BBC documentary, The Betrayed Girls in 2017, about sexual exploitation in Greater Manchester, I announced shortly after that I wanted assurance to be provided to the public of Greater Manchester that everything possible has been done to protect children, prosecute offenders and prevent it from happening again. “The independent review team of Malcolm Newsam and Gary Ridgway produced a thorough review into child sexual exploitation in Manchester and have done so again in Oldham. I give them my profound thanks for the painstaking way in which they have pursued this inquiry and for the quality of their report. “As Mayor, I have made it crystal clear to all public bodies in Greater Manchester that protecting our children will always be our highest priority and that institutional or political concerns will never deflect us from that. It is never too late to face up to past failings nor to say sorry to those who were let down.

“This report continues the process of shining a spotlight on past failures in Greater Manchester. Whilst difficult to read, it has identified a number of wrongs that need to be put right. There were serious failings and victims were let down, particularly Sophie. Whilst there was no evidence of a coverup, we must not flinch from acknowledging shortcomings. I ask all public servants in Greater Manchester to read this report and its findings and consider what more we must do to strengthen our approach to child sexual exploitation. I will also fully support any actions to prosecute those responsible for these abhorrent crimes and hold to account those whose behaviour fell short of what we require.”

Support and advice for children and young people, parents and carers, and professionals about all aspects of child sexual exploitation is available from itsnotokay.co.uk, as well as information about how to report it.

Hate crime victim given tribute Makram Ali, 51, died when Darren Osborne drove a hired van into worshippers outside the Muslim Welfare House shortly after evening Ramadan prayers on June 19 2017.

Ali’s daughter Ruzina Akhtar gave a moving tribute to her father,Mr Ali, at Finsbury Park Mosque, and afterwards told the PA news agency about the last time she saw him and the impact his death has had on their large family. The 30-year-old mother-of-two was joined by council and police officials at the service and at a wreath-laying beside Mr Ali’s name plaque on a lawn near their family home. Ms Akhtar said that “as a Muslim woman” she wanted everyone “to voice any Islamophobic behaviour as it still exists so it is tackled right away”.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: “On the fifth anniversary of the awful Finsbury Park terror attack, we remember Makram Ali, who tragically lost his life, and all the innocent Londoners who were injured after being deliberately targeted while leaving their mosque following Ramadan prayers. Our thoughts are with Makram’s family and everyone who was impacted by this dreadful attack.”

Matt Jukes, assistant commissioner for specialist operations in the Metropolitan Police, told PA the force is “determined today to tackle hate crime” both “on the streets and online”. Mr Jukes, who paid tribute to Mr Ali at the service, said his colleagues from “under-represented backgrounds” experience hate crimes every day.

•

Kapil Dudakia

KAPIL’S

KHICHADI

French Far Right is on the March On Sunday 19th June, news was breaking that President Emmanuel Macron was about to lose his majority in the French National Assembly. Readers may well be aware that during the Presidential elections, Marine Le Pen and her far-right National Rally party secured a huge vote from the electorate. The writing has been on the wall in France for more than a decade, that the grassroots are now fed up with the appeasement politics that has been the cornerstone of so many recent French governments.

Therefore, it was of no surprise to me that on Sunday the far-right parties (known as the National Rally Party) turned their 8 seats into 89 seats. Yes, you read that correctly. The far right in France managed to secure 89 seats by popular vote from the public. When we say the farright, we are talking about a party that is the equivalent of our British National Party (BNP). In the UK we destroyed that type of far-right madness decades ago and today they barely secure even 0.1% of the British vote.

In February of this year, I wrote a piece titled, ‘The Far Right and Europe’. If you have not read that yet, I suggest you do so to understand that France is not the only European nation where we see the uprising of the farright.By my analysis, there are some 10 European nations that have a serious problem with their far-right, thankfully the UK is not one of them. So next time someone undermines the UK, you tell them to move to Europe if they find this nation uncomfortable. It won’t take them long to appreciate what they have here once they experience the overt racism that is rampant in Europe.

France today is in a predicament. Macron has lost his majority and in order to govern, he either has to bow to the left or to the right. His history is that of playing politics with both sides, but that was of course from a position of strength. The game has changed, now the boot is on the other foot. If he panders to the left, then there is a danger that the French public will move even further to the right and straight into the hands of Le Pen. If he panders to the right,then he will have to bring in some very draconian laws to curb the influx and influence of Muslims and Islam. It is now very possible that he may well end up creating a climate of discord at the grassroots resulting in riots on the streets of every major French town and city.

There is no doubt in my mind that the far-right in France (and other EU nations) have a serious problem with Islamists. The open-door policies of France and Germany, often forcing nations like Greece and Italy to tow the line, have opened huge chasm within the very fabric of their societies.

With events in Ukraine now out of control, and the failure of sanctions and the ever-deepeningfood and energy crisis, it will take very little to light this touch paper.Europe has normalised the far-right, the last time they did that, the world suffered.

It is therefore important for the UK to ditch the farleft project called the EHRC. We are more than capable of writing our own Bill of Rights that will always put Britain first. It’s time to support Priti Patel to put in place the necessary legislation. The nation will thank her one day for having the spine to stand up to bullies from the left, the PC brigade, the fake BLM enterprise, the ER hooligans and all the others who love to jump on any bandwagon of convenience to undermine the nation with their anarchy.

Panel discussion to mark the 50th anniversary of The Brahma Kumaris in the UK A series of hybrid online and in-person events are planned to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Indian Independence and the 50th anniversary of The Brahma Kumaris in the UK. The first of a series of three conversations will be held at The Nehru Centre on 24 June 2022 Friday, 6:30-8:00 pm hosted by broadcast journalist Philippa Blackham. The discussion will be between Sister Jayanti, Additional Administrative Head of The Brahma Kumaris and Mr. Amish Tripathi, Director of The Nehru Centre on the theme of Ancient Wisdom-Modern Solutions.

We are grateful to all letter writers for more and more versatile letters well within word limit. Please keep contributing as always. If you are new, then write to Shefali at shefali.saxena@abplgroup.com

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Overseas care workers pay illegal fees A network of agencies supplying workers to care homes and homecare agencies are charging recruitment fees to candidates.

The care workers recruited from overseas to look after elderly and disabled people in Britain are being charged thousands of pounds in illegal fees and forced to work in exploitative conditions to pay off their debts.

Workers from India, the Philippines, Ghana and Zimbabwe are among those charged for their recruitment, with fees ranging from £3,000 to £18,000.

By law, agents cannot charge a fee for finding or trying to find a candidate's work. The practice of charging recruitment fees, previously exposed in the UAE and Qatar, is considered a human rights abuse that leaves workers vulnerable to

exploitation.

But the fees are often disguised as a “processing”, “service” or “admin” charge, with many workers unaware they are illegal.

Often, the breakdown of fees or full amount is not fully disclosed until the worker has reached the UK, by which time they have already paid for flights and relocation.

Others claim to have been subject to abuse and threats or paid less than the minimum wage. They cannot speak up because the sponsorship system for care workers means their visa is tied to their employer.

The findings come as Britain battles a worsening social care staffing crisis, with an estimated 105,000 vacancies nationally and thousands of patients facing long delays for care.

Unrest feared as after railways, strike

by NHS and teachers may follow While rail strikes will see half the network shut down, the biggest teaching union, the National Education Union (NEU), has stated that unless it receives a pay offer much closer to inflation, it will be informing education secretary Nadhim Zahawi, pictured, of its plan to ballot its 450,000 members. The move could lead to strikes in schools in England in the autumn, the union said.

It looks like a wave of 1970s-style economic unrest is threatening to spread from the railways across the public services, as unions representing teachers and NHS workers warn of potential industrial action over pay.

Another flashpoint could come this week when millions of NHS workers up to senior nurse level receive their annual pay offer, which is expected to fall substantially short of inflation, cur-

rently running at 9.2%. The country’s biggest union, Unison, representing NHS staff, said the government now faced a choice between offering a deal close to inflation or triggering a mass exodus of staff coupled with possible industrial action in hospitals, at a time when they are already hugely overburdened.

The prospect of strikes across the public services has grown as inflation climbs towards double figures but the Treasury is desperate to keep public spending, and the public sector pay bill, in check.

Transport secretary Grant Shapps said that workers were carrying out an “act of self-harm” by walking out, that union bosses were driving them to do so “under false pretences”, and that the strikes were ‘the last thing’ they should do.

Worrying findings indicate partial behavior towards black, Asian, LGBTQ+, disabled The “worrying” findings, from a study by the Chartered Management Institute, suggest UK employers may be paying lip service to public promises to promote equality and diversity, rendering workplace inclusivity an “illusion” two years after the Black Lives Matter protests. Workers who identify as LGBTQ+ also experienced greater harassment and bullying.

71% of employees from a black background reported feeling overlooked for opportunities owing to their identity; 66% from Asian backgrounds and 65% of those who identified as LGBTQ+ also had the same experience.

A third of employees polled – equivalent to 6.9 million people – said they

had been treated less favourably, received hostile, derogatory or negative attitudes and comments, or had been harassed or bullied owing to their identity.

The CMI study of more than 2,000 workers showed that 23% of typical UK employees said they had experienced hostile, derogatory or negative attitudes at work, but this rose to 29% for people from Asian backgrounds, 34% for people from black backgrounds and 36% among those identifying as LGBTQ+. Disabled people were also more likely to experience such attitudes (34%) and a third said they had experienced harassment and bullying compared with 22% for typical UK employees.

Mayor and London Assembly honour servicemen and women at Armed Forces Day ceremony The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, pictured, on Monday joined together with members of the Armed Forces, the London Assembly and the City Hall branch of the British Legion to honour, celebrate and pay tribute to the UK’s servicemen and women ahead of Saturday’s National Armed Forces Day. The 14th annual flag raising ceremony took place outside City Hall on Monday morning with music performed by Her Majesty’s Royal Marines CTCRM. This was the first Armed Forces Day ceremony to take place at City Hall’s new location at the Royal Docks.

The Mayor was joined by representatives from across the Armed Forces: Rear Admiral Donald Doull CBE; Brigadier Andrew Wright MBE; Air Commodore Ian Tolfts OBE; Commander Andrew

Swain MBE RN, Chief of Staff; and Petty Officer Cadet Sahoo from Croydon Sea Cadet Unit.

There were also attendees from London University Royal Navy unit, HMS President, Royal Navy HQ London and East England, and the Royal Marines Band Service.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “Armed Forces Day provides an important opportunity for us to show our support for the men and women who make up the Armed Forces community - from currently serving troops to Service

families, veterans and cadets. We owe a great deal of gratitude to these brave women and men who have dedicated their lives to defending our interests around the world, promoting peace, delivering aid, tackling drug smugglers, providing security and fighting terrorism. It is an honour to join together to pay tribute to their service and bravery.”

Chair of the London Assembly, Dr Onkar Sahota AM said: “For the 14th year, we raise the flag at City Hall today to demonstrate support for our Armed Forces and respect for all who serve, ahead of Armed Forces Day. We have long appreciated the contribution of serving personnel,

veterans and military families to our city and our communities.

“In the past few months, we have sadly been reminded of the global importance of our Armed Forces, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They are a vital force in the global fight for

peace and security, and to this end they play an important role in fighting terrorism and delivering aid.

“We will celebrate with them on Saturday and will always be grateful for their work and dedication to keeping us and others safe.”

Labour MP demands removal of person selected for inquiry on Mayor Labour MP Bell RibeiroAddy has written to Priti Patel to demand the removal of the person she selected to lead an inquiry into London mayor Sadiq Khan’s handling of the resignation of Metropolitan Police commissioner Cressida Dick.

The Streatham MP claimed that Sir Thomas Winsor was not a fit person

to run the inquiry because he had “a history of taking positions which are politically in favour of the government”.

She pointed to Sir Thomas’s 2012 review of police officer and staff pay, which she said was “widely criticised as a vehicle to pursue the then home secretary’s controversial policing

agenda rather than a genuinely independent review”.

After the review, Sir Thomas was made chief inspector of constabulary, a post he still holds.

Dame Cressida was forced out as head of London’s police service in February after Mr Khan made it clear she no longer enjoyed his confidence in

the wake of a number of scandals.

The home secretary will choose Dame Cressida’s successor and is legally required to take Khan’s opinion into account, but reports suggest she has asked Winsor to consider whether the mayor’s role should be scaled back to reduce political influence on England’s top policing role.

Ministry of Justice stops court support service for those who cannot afford a lawyer Formerly known as the Personal Support Unit, it has offices in 20 civil and family courts across England and Wales, using volunteers to give practical and emotional help to those navigating the justice system alone.

The charity Support Through Court has been core-funded by the Ministry of Justice for the last eight years But the court support

service that helps thousands of people who cannot afford a lawyer is under threat after having its government funding pulled. It comes as the number of people struggling to get justice without a lawyer has soared following swinging cuts to legal aid in 2013.

Left with a £400,000 shortfall in its budget, Support Through Court is about to launch an urgent

appeal for funds, without which it faces the prospect of redundancies and the closure of some of its offices.

Legal aid was taken away in most civil cases and almost all private family law in 2013. Since then, the proportion of private family law hearings where both parties have a lawyer has almost halved to one in five.

The most common scenario in private family hear-

ings is that just one party has a lawyer, accounting for 42% of all cases last year.

Legal experts say this creates an uneven playing field in disputes over issues such as access to children and the separating of finances.

While 81% of all those bringing civil claims – such as companies chasing debts – have lawyers, only 44% of those defending them are represented.

Asylum seekers blamed for problems in NHS, schools, housing Conservative MP from Ipswich, Tom Hunt, pictured has reportedly blamed asylum seekers for severe problems in the NHS, schools and social housing – 12 years after his party came to power.

Hunt claimed “uncontrolled illegal immigration” lay behind shortages of GPs, schools places and low-cost homes, as he defended the policy of deporting refugees to Rwanda."

He also argued “elite

society” was leading the opposition to the Rwanda plan – despite having attended a £35,000-a-year private school and Oxford University.

When asked if he believed the vast cost of the deportations – kept secret

by Priti Patel – was “good value for money”, leaving aside the morality of the scheme, he replied: “What’s the financial cost of having a never-ending situation where we have tens of thou-

sands of people potentially ending up here illegally

every year and the pressure that puts on our public services?"

Health secretary Sajid Javid had admitted last year that the government is likely to break its manifesto promise to increase the number of GPs in England by 6,000. Notably, per-pupil school spending in England fell by 9 per cent over the decade to 2020 – and would have been £16bn higher without that austerity, according to expert opinion.

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25 June - 1 July 2022

SCRUTATOR’S Geographical Indication sought for Gaumukh Gangajal A Pune-based organisation, Great Mission Group Society, has filed for a Geographical Indication for Gaumukh Gangajal, citing its unique characteristics.Geographical Indications are used to identify products based on their place or origin which gives it unique characteristics and quality and help its use in trademarks or copyrights, unless the product has become generic. The protection is available to it globally under the WTO agreement on TRIPS. If the proposal filed with the GI Registry in India goes through, Gangajal will only be among a few natural products in India to enjoy the protection. Great Mission Group Society’s Ganesh Hingmire said the applicants have chosen to seek GI for Gaumukh Gangajal as the water is not contaminated at the source. “The uniqueness will be known to the world, and will be recognised for its properties,” Hingmire said. The application cites various studies to argue that at the source, the water, which has Ph value of 7. 18, and is higher than rivers like Indus and Jhelum, has anti-bacterial and selfcleansing properties.(Agency) Traffic cop sweeps road to help commuters

A traffic policeman has a tough job at hand, to stand on road the entire day and control the vehicular movement efficiently. But there are a few cops who go beyond the regular work and contribute towards humanity. A video is winning hearts on the internet where a traffic police is seen sweeping the road to remove small pebbles and rocks while the traffic signal is red. These unwanted particles could lead to tyre punctures. In the video, a man in a pink shirt can also be seen behind the cop directing motorists to drive a little slower when the red light turns green, as well as showing them the way and allowing the officer to remove all the stones away. People have thanked the policeman for taking such a step for the safety of commuters. "Humanity is more than a duty, again proved," a user wrote.

While another said, "My salute and respect." (Agency) Cat congratulated by US university

Francesca Bourdier recently graduated from the University of Texas at Austin.

However, she wasn't alone in achieving the milestone, as her adorable pet cat, named Suki, also joined the fresh graduates after attending online classes with her owner.

Taking to social media, Bourdier shared heart-melting pictures of her and her fourlegged partner dressed up for the graduation ceremony. In the caption, she wrote, “My cat attended every zoom lecture I had so we will both be graduating from the University of Texas at Austin together.” Several internet users rallied behind Suki's recent achievement and adorable graduation attire. The university too responded to her post saying, “Congratulation to you both.” Bourdier disclosed that due to the pandemic, she was forced to spend the majority of her college experience at home. "I was pretty much at my apartment for most of the time and I had my cat next to me.

Whenever I would have my Zoom lecture on, it's like she almost wanted to listen in on it, and she would always just sit by my

laptop," she said. Bourdier added that when graduation day arrived, she acknowledged Suki's dedication and thought of including her in the ceremony.

(Agency) All-steel slag road opened in Hazira Union steel minister Ram Chandra Prasad Singh inaugurated India's first road constructed entirely from a specially designed steel slag in Hazira. Slag is a by-product of steel which is being produced by ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India, a joint venture between ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel.

The one-km six-lane road was constructed using around 100,000 tonnes of processed steel slag from the steel plant and developed in collaboration with the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), a laboratory of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). “The project came to fruition from India’s commitment to recycle and reuse by-products from its steel making operations, which is commendable. As India’s steel industry grows, so too must industrial innovation that ensures sustainable, circular manufacturing growth,” the minister said.

Dilip Oommen, CEO of the steel plant said the road is developed as an alternative to natural aggregates, which is of international quality standards. (The Times of India) SC allows candidate to join civil services after 8 years In a unique case, the Supreme Court has allowed a man, who succeeded in civil services examination 2014 but was found unfit because of a high body mass index (BMI), to become an IAS officer after eight years. K Rajashekhar Reddy had succeeded in CSE-2014 in his fifth and last attempt. His medical examination revealed a BMI of 32 as against the mandatory requirement of BMI of 30 or less for a candidate to join civil services.

He was put under the 'temporarily unfit' category. On July 4, 2015, the final CSE2014 list recommended 1,236 candidates in the order of their merit for appointment to various services of Group ‘A’ and Group ‘B’ but Reddy's name was not included. But, it figured in the reserve list published on January 19, 2016. As per the CSE rules, a candidate placed in such a category should provide a medical fitness certificate within six months.

Reddy made a representation on March 9, 2016 for re-medical examination, which was rejected as it was beyond the stipulated six month deadline.

Considering that it was the fifth and last attempt of Reddy, the SC had on April 6 last year asked the authorities to reexamine him medically. On reexamination, Reddy was found medically fit, albeit after six years. (Agency)

Insurance cover for Char Dham pilgrims

The Badri-Kedar Temple Committee (BKTC) announced a Rs 100,000 insurance cover for pilgrims of the Char Dham yatra. The amount will be given to the next of kin of the pilgrims if they die on the premises of any of the shrines.

BKTC chairman Ajendra Ajay said this year the premium has been given by Manav Uthan Seva Samiti - a welfare trust run by state tourism minister Satpal Maharaj. He has been instrumental in launching this scheme. From next year, we’ll try to arrange the premium from the BKTC committee or the state government. When asked about the scheme, Maharaj said, “I have started this project in the memory of my parents. We have been making sincere efforts to improve facilities at the Char Dham shrines. The shrines are recording a massive pilgrim footfall this year. More than 21,00,000 devotees have already undertaken the yatra.” (Agency) Lake in Suigam turns bright pink

A lake in Suigam taluka of Banaskantha district turned pink around a week ago. Pictures and videos of the village lake which looked bright pink have gone viral on the social media. Some people called it a miracle, but the villagers say this is because of salt in the water. Scientists of the Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI) said the phenomenon is likely an algal bloom or the presence of haloarchaea microbes in the salty water. One farmer from the village said there is nothing like a divine intervention or supernatural thing behind the incident. “Some people claim that as there is a temple of Lord Shiva near the pond, the god did some miracle due to which the water has turned pink. This cannot be the case. The water is saline. If it had been a miracle, the water should have turned drinkable,” said the farmer.

Another villager said the lake was earlier linked to a drainage line which was blocked around 15 days ago. “After the flow of the drain was stopped, the water gradually turned pink,” he claimed. A source in CSMCRI said this is most

probably due to an algal bloom. (The Times of India) Marathi may be declared classical language Marathi may be conferred the status of a classical language. In the Western Zonal Council (WZC) meeting, it was recommended to the Government of India to declare Marathi as a classical language.

If that happens, Marathi will be the seventh Indian language to be conferred the classical language status. The six languages which currently have the status are Tamil, Sanskrit, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu and Odia. The Maharashtra government has been pursuing the proposal for the past decade and it once again made a forceful representation in the WZC meeting. The WZC, chaired by Union home minister Amit Shah, in turn, has reportedly recommended to the Government of India that Marathi be accorded the classical language status. The Government of India has laid down criteria for a language to be accorded the classical status. An expert committee was formed in 2012 under the chairmanship of Rangnath Pathare. The committee examined ancient documents and books, copper plates, and references from stone inscriptions to verify whether Marathi fulfils the classical language criteria. The committee submitted its report in 2013 stating that Marathi fulfils all conditions. (Agency) Library receives book after 51 years with 'sorry it's a bit late' note

Everybody who has issued a book from any library is quite familiar with the pressure of returning it with in the due date to avoid levy of extra charges. But there is someone who returned a book to the library after decades. Surprised?

Something like this happened in Vancouver. The public library there shared an image on its Instagram account, saying that a book was recently returned after 51 years in exact same condition with a heartwarming note inside. "From your library, very sorry it's a bit late. '51 Years' but in very nice condition. Thank you," the note said. The book titled 'The Telescope' has been written by Harry Edward Neil, according to the image shared by Vancouver Public Library of South Hill.

The last due date stamped on a card inside the book is April 20, 1971. The photo of the book was shared by the library on June 7 with the caption: "Such a sweet note in this book returned to our South Hill Branch *slightly* overdue (51 years!)." It further said that no late fees will be charged. (Agency)

AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

13

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25 June - 1 July 2022

in brief TOURISTS DUMP CARS ON STREETS TO AVOID AIRPORT PARKING COSTS

People in Bristol are frustrated to see cars left in their streets, as summer is approaching. In order to avoid airport parking charges, holidaymakers are parking their cars on streets. The south of the city has allegedly been turned into a ‘giant unregulated car park’. Thrifty travellers are targeting Kings Head Lane, Marguerite Road and Poplar Road to park their cars. Mike Willcox, who lives on Kings Head Lane, said: ’Last week, practically every car parked at the top of Kings Head Lane was for the airport with hardly any room for residents to park. ‘We get cars coming and going in the middle of the night, banging their car doors and boots, keeping people awake.’ Conservative councillor Richard Eddy said: ‘The number of airport passengers parking free of charge in residential streets has soared. ‘Householders have to endure motorists parked 24/7 outside their homes for a week or a fortnight. ‘Last weekend a resident of Kings Walk told me they had one car parked there for eight weeks.’ Meanwhile, a Bristol Airport spokesperson said that they will be happy to work with Cllr Eddy to get this issue with car parking resolved but any new parking restrictions would be down to the local authority.

SMALL HEATH COUNCILLOR APOLOGISES FOR OLD FACEBOOK MESSAGES The newly-elected Small Heath councillor Shabina Bano's Facebook account wished that a court defendant - a child cancer survivor - had died. The Birmingham Labour councillor has reportedly apologised after posting historic 'anti-Jewish' messages Cllr Bano had accused council waste contractor Veolia of being a 'zionist supporter' in one post. The historical posts came to light as she faces a separate Labour party probe over controversial Covid comments.

The messages were posted to friends from Ms Bano's previous Facebook account as far back as 2014. In one, the account replies to someone asking for views on not paying the TV licence fee and seemingly criticises Veolia, the city council-appointed waste collectors.

At that time the council contractor had come under fire publicly over its waste management work in Israeli settlements in Palestine. Shabina has now publicly apologised and said she would be undergoing 'awareness training'. A statement, issued on her new Facebook account, said: "In recent days historic social media posts of mine have come to light. I take full responsibility for them, I recognise that they are utterly unacceptable and I apologise unreservedly for them. I am also sorry for the harm they have caused, especially to the Jewish community. Since joining the Labour Party, my opinion on many issues have changed and these historic posts reflect ignorant views that I no longer hold." She added: "I will be undertaking further awareness training and I look forward to meeting with the Jewish communities of Birmingham to discuss what more we can do to stamp out anti-semitism in our city.” A Labour Party spokesman said: "The Labour Party takes all complaints seriously. They are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures, and any appropriate action is taken.”

Shoppers urged not to use Sea of luggage piles up at trolleys in supermarkets Heathrow's Terminal 2 Shoppers have been urged not to use trolleys at supermarkets like Aldi, Tesco, ASDA, Lidl, M&S, Sainsbury's and Morrisons as the outcome of doing so will save £100s every year, say experts.

If people use baskets instead of trolleys, they cannot carry much and likewise, save money and spend less. Also, as brackets have less room to carry more items, people become conscious about their buying.

Let us take a look at a list of few changes one can make to slash their yearly supermarket bill by £1000s if you want to.

1. Swap expensive goods with cheaper goods Try ditching expensive branded goods for cheaper supermarket-own labels - also known as the “downshift” challenge. It is estimated that one

can save around 30 per cent.

2. Carry your loyalty card Each time one shops at big supermarkets, there are loyalty schemes, which are free to sign up to. They give money back, normally in the form of points, each time one shops.

3. Buy at big shops Apparently, shopping at your local convenience store is more expensive than going to a big shop as shopping in smaller shops can cost an extra £300 each year.

Mistakes in papers caused ‘pupil distress’, Ofqual says A watchdog Ofqual has criticised exam boards for oversights on GCSE and A-level papers where pupils were tested on topics they were told would not come up or sat papers with mistakes.

In England, because of the pandemic, students were given extra detail, but an AQA A-level law and GCSE physics paper included topics not listed in "advance information".

Watchdog Ofqual said such mistakes caused "distress" for pupils.

Another exam board, Edexcel, apologised for labelling Gabon as the Democratic Republic of Congo on a map of Africa, in its GCSE geography paper, and Wales' main exam board, WJEC, said sorry for

excerpts from three Shakespeare plays being either partly or fully missing from their English language and literature paper.

"The fairest way to address this is for us to look at how students performed on this paper after we've marked it, and we'll take any action necessary to protect them," a spokesperson for AQA said.

Coralie Foster, from Bolton, said her daughter was "more angry than upset".

She added: "Nowadays these university offers are so high - so the pressure on these kids to get the top grades is immense.

"Advance information was meant to help focus that work, but it's all been completely undermined."

Rail strikes to cause ‘massive’ £540 million hit to hospitality sector Industry chiefs have warned that upcoming rail strikes that are scheduled this week, can cause a £540 million loss to the hospitality sector.

More than 40,000 rail workers will walk out, crippling Britain’s transport network and threatening GCSE and A-level exams as well as hospital appointments, from Tuesday.

Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), has said that he will continue his support until workers are given a pay rise large enough to match price rises.

Hospitality chiefs fear that due to the strikes, spending will plummet by 20 per cent in towns and city centres.

Tony Sophoclides, strategic affairs director of trade body UK Hospitality,said: “Our most acute concerns are in the city centres.

“Working from home is already affecting the recovery

and making it more of an uphill battle. Rail strikes will have a massive impact.”

“Getting people physically into our venues is incredibly important to drive the recovery.

“In turn the recovery is important to the nation because we know that we can create jobs, in the same way that we did coming out of the financial crisis in 2008.”

The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) said it was demanding a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies, no unagreed changes to terms and conditions and a pay rise reflecting the cost of living.

After a technical malfunction, Heathrow Terminal 2 witnessed a sea of luggage, due to which, many passengers had to fly without their bags while others faced check-in, the airport said.

Travellers expressed their displeasure on social media as how they had to wait for two hours to claim their baggage.

Later, the airport confirmed the malfunction had been fixed and airport staff were working to reunite passengers with their belongings if they had to fly without them.

One of the traveller Stuart Dempster tried to spot his own bags among the hundreds of suitcases packed into the hall, tweeted, "Two-hour delays for Heathrow Airport T2 baggage reclaim tonight apparently," "Welcome back to Britain!"

Meanwhile, a Heathrow spokeswoman apologised for the

disruption.

"Earlier today there was a technical issue with the Terminal 2 baggage system which has now been resolved," she said.

"Passengers are now able to check-in as normal, but a number of passengers who departed from Terminal 2 earlier today may have travelled without their luggage.

"We are working closely with airlines to reunite passengers with their luggage as soon as possible. We're sorry there's been disruption to passenger journeys."

Spain and Portugal holidays likely to get hit by Gatwick flight cap To meet the airport’s selfimposed reduction as it addresses staff shortages, flights to popular destinations such as Spain and Portugal are likely to get hit by the Gatwick flight cap, experts fear. This includes axing a high volume of planned flights

to the Costa del Sol, Costa Blanca and the Algarve, putting the get-away plans of thousands of families in jeopardy.

As Gatwick tries to reduce chaos at its busiest times of day, breakfast-time flights and those on changeover days are also at highest risk of being cancelled.

On Thursday, the airport announced that it would limit daily flights to 825 in July and

850 in August while it tried to address workforce shortages. It means up to 4,000 flights will be cancelled.

Paul Charles, chief executive of the travel consultancy PC Agency, said: “It’s inevitable flights to Spain will be the worst hit.

“It’s very frustrating for consumers. The pressure is now on Gatwick and the airlines to cancel these flights urgently because airlines will be wanting to reduce the compensation.

“If they give over two weeks’ notice they don’t have to pay compensation.”

A No 10 spokesman reportedly said: “We want everybody to be able to travel freely and easily, which is why we continue to encourage industry to step up their recruitment so they can put enough flights for families who are looking forward to welldeserved holidays after the pandemic.”

Cigarette shop owner jailed for counterfeit sales Despite several warnings and multiple raids between October 2019 and March 2021, Aziz Abdullah's Doskey Food Store, on Paley Road, Bradford, continued delivering counterfeit cigarettes. The 51-year-old ignored several warnings before officers seized 27,000 cigarettes and was jailed for six months at Bradford Crown Court.

The defendant had been warned he faced prosecution after an initial raid in October 2019, prosecutor Angus McDonald told the court.

However, he would "go on to ignore" the warning, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

A month after the test purchase, in December 2020, police returned and found a hidden chute linking the

counter to the flat above. The officers then found illegal tobacco products stashed in compartments throughout the property, with the opening used to transfer them to the shop. After a further test purchase by undercover officers in March 2021, Abdullah was arrested.

While delivering the sentence, Judge Andrew Hatton said Abdullah had "deliberately" disregarded regulations which existed to protect public health.

"You did so despite warnings by the authorities, and I reject the idea that it was a misunderstanding," he said.

"Due to the nature of this offending, the appropriate punishment can only be achieved by immediate custody."

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AsianVoiceNewsweekly

25 June - 1 July 2022

Women in Indian sarees make history at the Royal Ascot Continued from page 14 Approximately 500 horses raced across the five days. Hundreds of race goers put on their finest clothes to attend, which attracted some 270,000 people overall.

A brainchild of Dr Dipti Jain and her team, women showcased beautiful Kantha stitch, Benarasi, Baluchari, Madhubani sarees, among other handlooms, dazzling the crowd. Dipti, who has connections with Kolkata, wore a gorgeous bluish-purple sari

SWATI NATEKAR'S CONCERT FEATURED FUSION OF SONGS

Women in saree outside the Royal Ascot entrance

excited to do this, and it was my first time at the Royal Ascot. We ladies travelled from various parts of the UK, some even rented coaches. From Birmingham 20-25 women travelled to Berkshire, starting as early as 8am. From Leicester there were 50 women.

Many people travelled from North of England too, though most women came from London. We sat at the picnic area with drinks and Indian food such as samosa, vegetable chop, egg chop, fish fry Dr Jain in Rupa Khatun’s weaves with other ladies

with Union Jack became a huge attraction with people. The sari was hand-embroidered with London and Kolkata skylines, the Queen’s face, Big Ben, a red phone box and the Tower of London by an artisan named Rupa Khatun back in India at Nanoor, West Bengal. Authorities at Ascot whole-heartedly welcomed the initiative.

Mamta Parekh who has been practicing law as a Solicitor and Tribunal Judge for over twenty years, also helped organise the event. She told Asian Voice, “Women turned up in numbers and even performed dances in between races. The sarees on display caught the eye while also providing a strong Asian representation at what is typically an English event and helped draw attention to the plight of people who helped make such vibrant sarees. While most of the Asians in attendance were England residents who came in coaches from London, Leicester, Birmingham there were several women who flew in from India, especially for the day.”

Non-Asian women attending the event were also hugely impressed by the saree effort and stopped by to chit chat.

Mohua Banerjee Ganguly from Birmingham travelled in a coach along with other ladies to the Royal Ascot. Speaking to Asian Voice, Mohua, whose family lives in Barrackpore, West Bengal explained how the preparation went. She said, “I was so

in brief

Mohua Banerjee Ganguly from Birmingham

and Moglai paratha prepared by City of Joy – a Bengali caterer in Birmingham, run by Abhijit and Mandi Mandal. Women also packed picnic baskets from home containing other home-made food.

“The theme colour of Royal Ascot was blue and yellow this year. We had divided the saree groups into shades of those colours, and I was coordinating the group wearing sarees from shade of light blue and prop of sunglasses. Most of us wore fascinators to go with the Royal Ascot tradition, but some had put flowers in their hair too, showcasing diversity of the Indian culture.

“I wore a georgette Benarasi saree in light blue, with Swarovski crystal and a fascinator on my head. I personally designed my blouse with crystals. We also had chosen theme songs for respective groups, mostly from Bollywood popular numbers.

It was a very well organised event, and from security to food stalls- everything was per-

fect. It was a massive gathering but such a beautiful experience.”

Meena Jasani told the newsweekly, “I chose a unique Tussar silk hand painted saree with kalamkari design, on the ‘pallu’ had Lord Rama and Sita with a matching fascinator. The coach ride was full of laughter and the upbeat mood with music chatter and laughter. Thanks to Dr Dipti Jain for putting the chain together. It was challenging task for her and the team. They had put in lot of time and effort to organise. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

“The vibrant colours and the twist of east meets west with the varying headgear made us the center of attraction at the

District Judge Mamta Parekh (in hat) with Her Honour District Judge Kaler

Windsor enclosure and all Royal Ascot. It was an interesting day with so many designs to look at and an exceptional moment for all us ladies who attended. I sincerely hope and pray that the platform we were on will inspire the next generation to be proud and integrated Indians who take the baton of our heritage to the next plain.”

Celebrating India's 75th year of Independence and the Queen's platinum jubilee - The Akshaya Patra Foundation UK organised Swati Natekar's Live in concert: Nazarana- an offering. The concert featured a fusion of songs from the genres: Bhajan, Bollywood and Ghazals. Swati was accompanied by Sunil Jadhav on Keyboard, Kamalbir Singh on Violin, Siddharth Singh on Guitar, Amar Sarl on Tabla and Robin Christian on Flute.

BARNARDO’S NAMED AS THE CHARITY BENEFICIARY FOR BESTWAY CHARITY RACE DAY

Bestway Wholesale hosted its annual charity race day at The Royal Ascot on 17 June. Sir Anwar Pervez OBE H Pk, Chairman of Bestway Group and Lord Zameer Choudrey Zameer CBE SI Pk, Group Chief Executive greeted the guests. Dawood Pervez, managing director of Bestway Wholesale, said: “Charity is at the core of what we do at Bestway Wholesale and our Charity Race Day cements the ongoing work to such charities as Barnardo’s by our family.” Barnardo’s has been chosen as the beneficiary of this year’s Bestway Charity Race Day.

Charity Go Dharmic strengthens communities across country With the looming UK cost of living crisis, it has been predicted that the UK economy will come to a grinding halt and then shrink, according to the BCC forecasts. Rising petrol of £1.80/litre, consumer confidence at an all-time low, and unprecedented ‘cost of a living squeeze’ raises the alarm, as despite a £15bn further welfare cheques had been announced by Rishi Sunak last month.

UK Charity, Go Dharmic, recognises the disparity of logic between the increasing rate of food poverty and the rising rate of food waste. Our most extensive and evergreen campaign is Feed Everyone. Under this campaign, Go Dharmic has distributed over 10 million+ meals globally to date.

It also distributes groceries, food packs, and easy-to-cook recipe cards, which help disadvantaged families feed their children. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Feed Everyone campaign provided a vital lifeline to vulnerable people, the elderly, and the homeless. As the cost-of-living crisis worsens,

Go Dharmic’s work is proving more necessary than ever.

The charity expands the Feed Everyone campaign by launching and growing more food distributions in the UK and strengthening communities and families during this current living crisis. Within the Feed everyone Campaign, there have been a dozen ongoing food distributions from Central London (Trafalgar Square) to Luton and Glasgow. In recent weeks, new distributions include Watford, Kilburn and Harrow, and Edinburgh.

Having seen Go Dharmic’s work on social media, Shivani Patel volunteered during the pandemic and now heads the Queensbury food distribution in London.

“A group of us from the youth at our local temple (SKSS Temple Kenton) wanted to start up food distribution to serve those in our local area who may need some assistance with food. To this end, we approached & collaborated with Go Dharmic. We have now been running our distribution every Sunday in Queensbury for the last year and have had the same beneficiaries returning every week to collect food items from alleviating any pressure they may be under especially given the rising cost of living.

“Our beneficiaries range from young families, individuals who have come to work in the UK from abroad, and elders in the community living on their own. For example, our Sunday food distribution often involves volunteers bringing their young children along to teach them the life lesson of serving others. These young children come back regularly with their parents to help us serve our local community.

“Through our distributions, we have met people from all walks of life, and it has been highly hum-

bling knowing that we have made a difference in people's lives as they come out week on week to collect some food items which are assisting them with their household finances. The food we provide assists them in having to make the difficult decision of whether they

sacrifice a few meals to pay for their heating bills.

Go Dharmic is seeking additional volunteers and any communities to come forward who feel their areas are in need of food distributions to support and eradicate hunger in the UK.

Farewell dinner for Indian High Commissioner The Indian Journalists’ Association hosted a farewell dinner for HE Gaitri Issar Kumar, the High Commissioner of India to the UK on Friday 17 June at The Lalit London.

The dinner was attended by Lord Karan Bilimoria and HE Saida Muna Tasneem, the High Commissioner of Bangladesh to the UK. Sujit Ghosh, the Deputy High

Commissioner of India to the UK, also joined the event.

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AsianVoiceNewsweekly

25 June - 1 July 2022

Importance of punctuality Rohit Vadhwana Dependance on non-punctual people can actually ruin your reputation in a big way.

Many times, either in social or in professional circumstances, we are depending on people who is arranging some programme or meetings for us. And if that person is not prompt and quick in communication, the final blow of bad prestige comes to you. Imagine you are going to have a meeting with a senior person, which is arranged by a person who turns up late and has remained non-communicative either with you or with the senior person, or with both. Resultantly, you happen to be late in the first meeting itself, without any of your faults. In such condition, the first impression of yours in the mind of that senior person will certainly not be positive. And it is purely because of the middle man who is not respectful of time. S/he has not much to lose but for you to undo this damage might take ages.

It's difficult to change the circumstance when you have no other course but to rely on the middle man. It happens that such people are also not very genuine in sharing information. They might belong to the class of people who say 'reaching in five minutes' but turns up after half an hour. And especially in the time when you have no com-

munication with the other party and also no means to reach out directly to the meeting, you are only at the mercy of the person.

It is not easy to comprehend how to deal with such phase because the problem lies in habit and attitude. If the individual does not realise that what s/he is doing can damage your respectability, how would s/he improve? It is very normal for them to turn up late, and not feel bad about it. They also consider giving misinformation about timing is a favour to you, lest you might get blood pressure! So in their mind, they are doing right thing. They also consider a few minutes here and there very much acceptable. Not giving a call when required is not a big deal for them.

So no problem exists in their mind at all, it is unilateral issue that belongs to you, and you have to resolve it yourself.

Well, everyone have their own ways to deal with such an incident, but perhaps one solution might be to ask the person to come early, in the pretext of some other work.

Thus combining two works where the first one is a shield to bring her/him on time is a good way of getting hold of that person.

Another option is that you can reach earlier to her/his place, before time and take the person in your car before time and engage her/him to ensure that you reach to desired place puctually.

(Expressed opinions are personal)

Chhello Show

Little English

www.londonindianfilmffestival.c o.uk

23rd June - 3rd d July

Doctor faces tribunal for alleged 'sexually motivated' examination of patient A Leicester doctor is facing a tribunal over an allegedly unnecessary examination of a patient's vagina. It is claimed the incident happened on June 20, 2019, while Dr Bhavin Doshi, a doctor working in Leicester, was carrying out an out-pf-hours consultation.

The consultation with the woman, named only as Patient A, was not related to the woman's fertility. But, with her consent, he carried out a vaginal examination and then afterwards told her he could not see that there were any problems with her ability to have children. The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) has stated that the examination would have not been enough to find out whether or not the woman had any fertility problems, and that in any case the woman's fertility was "beyond the scope" of the consultation. It is alleged the examination was sexually motivated.

Ahead of the hearing, the MPTS stated: "The Tribunal will inquire into an allegation that, on 20 June 2019, Dr Doshi consulted with Patient A and explored the issue relating to Patient A’s fertility when it was beyond the scope of an out of hours consultation and unrelated to Patient A’s presenting complaint. It is alleged that Dr Doshi failed to refer Patient A back to her own GP for further management of her fertility.

"It is also alleged that Dr Doshi obtained consent for, and carried out, a vaginal examination when it was not clinically indicated for Patient A’s presenting complaint, on the pretext that the examination would determine whether Patient A’s fallopian tubes were open or closed.

It is alleged that after carrying out the examination, Dr Doshi reassured Patient A that there was no cause for concern, despite knowing that a vaginal examination alone could not determine any potential fertility problems.

Konkona Sen Sharma

Mississippi Masala

www.birm minghamindianfilmfestival.cc o.uk

2 24th June - 5th July

Firefighters tackle blaze near Grenfell in Shepherd’s Bush Sixty firefighters were called in to tackle to a fire in Shepherd’s Bush, west London, less than a mile from Grenfell Tower.

Photographs showed smoke billowing out of a window on the 12th floor but the fire was later said to have been put out.

There were no reports of casualties.

Paramedics said two patients were assessed at the scene and another was treated and taken to hospital. Three people who were in the flat that caught alight left before the first fire engine arrived as other neighbours were evacuated, London Fire Brigade said.

The brigade said the blaze was brought under control about 90 minutes after the first call. Resident Kia Zeka said that newly installed sprinklers in the building had failed to turn on. She said: “I live on the seventh floor - I saw the fire brigade behind the building from the window and I just ran out.

“No one came to the door, no one told us what as going on...when I came out there were people outside, police and they have

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stopped now the fire but we can’t go back inside the building yet.”

“It’s quite scary. We have Grenfell just in front of us and it feels like we’re going through the same thing,” she added. Locals reported feeling sick at seeing the proximity of the blaze to Grenfell Tower where 72 people lost their lives in 2017.

Station Commander David Bracewell, who is at the scene, said: “Three people from the affected flat left before the Brigade arrived. A number of other residents evacuated the building.

“We’ve also used a 32m turntable ladder to put water on the outside of the building.” The building is less than a mile away from Grenfell Tower, where 72 people died in a fire in 2017.

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INTERNATIONAL YOGA DAY

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YOGA DAY: PM MODI LEADS FROM FRONT Protocol approved by the Ministry of Ayush was organised at the Embassy. Nearly six Thousands participate across world hundred Yoga enthusiasts attended the sesThousands of yoga enthusiasts from sion. The event was broadcast live on across the world took part in mass yoga sesDoordarshan as part of the ‘Guardian Ring – sions to mark the Yoga Day. The event was One Sun, One Earth’ initiative of the marked this year under the theme “Yoga for Government of India.

Humanity”. A series of outdoor yoga events On the eve of Yoga Day, the Embassy have been organised across the UK to mark also organised a special yoga session in assothe day. The Indian High Commission in ciation with the School of Medicine, London led the celebrations with communiKathmandu University. In China, the Indian ty events kicking off since last week, culmiEmbassy in Beijing organised a yoga session. nating at the BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir, It also announced the winners of a photo known as Neasden Temple, in London. competition on how yoga attains its ethere“Yoga is not just about exercise, it’s a al beauty through the relationship it estabway to discover the sense of oneness with lishes with nature. In Colombo, Sri Lankan yourself, with the world and with nature,” Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Indian High Commissioner to the UK Gaitri several parliamentarians participated in the Issar Kumar said quoting PM Modi. The yoga day celebrations.

Indian High in Commission PM Modi leading Yoga Day celebration in Mysuru Canberra celebrated the day at the iconic locaIn Jammu, Northern Army Commander said the citizens of a country need to be tion of ‘the Gabba’, the Lt. General Upendra Dwivedi led over healthy for it to become a developed nation, Brisbane Cricket 175,000 troops and 75,000 families of the according to a health ministry statement.

Ground. Deputy Prime Northern Command to perform yoga and Mandaviya said yoga embodies unity of Minister and the complimented the soldiers for incorporatmind and body, and thought and action. It is Defence Minister of ing yoga asanas into their daily routine in a holistic approach that is invaluable to Australia Richard Marles extreme high altitude areas. Arunachal health and well-being. who is visiting India No barrier on age, caste Pradesh joined the rest of the world in celeposted a pic on Twitter brating the International Day of Yoga in 45 Yoga has no barrier of age, caste, geogradifferent locations of the State. Union Law phy or religion and everyone should make The High Commission of India organised a Yoga session for the students of while doing Yoga.

John Lyon School to celebrate the International Day of Yoga.

“An early morning Minister Kiren Rijiju led the event at Dong the ancient physical fitness regime a part of start with some yoga, in Anjaw district, bordering China.

It is the their daily routine to reap its rich benefits, Nehru Centre in London, the cultural wing ahead of a busy couple of Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu said on of the High Commission, has organised days here in India. Looking June 21. Addressing the Yoga Day celebra“Yoga Session and Guided Meditation” with forward to a packed couple tions organised by the Ministries of Culture SRMD Yoga centre in the UK, with a series of days, meeting my counand Ayush, he said, “Yoga is time-tested. of yoga demonstrations being recorded at terparts and seeing firstYoga has no barrier, no age, no caste, no iconic London monuments such as hand our close partnership,” region, no religion. That’s why it is univerTrafalgar Square, London Eye, Houses of he tweeted. sal.” He complimented Prime Minister Parliament, Big Ben and the Tower of The Indian High Narendra Modi for taking Yoga to the London.

Commission in Islamabad United Nations and popularising it across It culminated in a special “Yoga In celebrated the day on the globe.

London” video, depicting yoga sessions at Sunday.

“Underscoring ITBP officials celebrated Yoga Day in the various monuments beginning with a message of yoga for humanLadakh.

Rajasthan Governor Kalraj Mishra gathering of hundreds at Holland Park in ity, High Commission of performed yoga asanas with officers and central London on Friday. Indian consulates India @IndiainPakistan celemployees of the Raj Bhavan and said the The International Yoga Day celebration by Indian Embassy held on across different parts of the UK similarly Sunday at Plaza de Oriente in Madrid ebrated International Day ancient practice is integral to holistic wellorganised open air yoga sessions, after being of Yoga #IDY2022 today being.

He said that yoga not only keeps the forced into virtual mode due to the panwith enthusiasts from diplomatic corps and eastern-most village in India, near the point body healthy but also keeps the mind posidemic over the last few years. other eminent personalities,” it tweeted. where borders of India, China and tive.

Across Europe, the Embassy of India in Meanwhile, President of the 76th Myanmar meet. Dong receives The Hague, Netherlands, celebrated the Session of the UN General Assembly the first sunrise in India, thus event at Atrium City Hall on Friday. The Abdulla Shahid said that the celebration of earning it the nickname event saw the participation of more than 8th International Yoga Day under the ‘India’s Land of the Rising Sun’.

500 yoga enthusiasts and practitioners from theme ‘Yoga for Humanity’ could not have World benefiting from yoga: across the Netherlands. come at a more opportune time as the BJP chief The Ambassador of India to the Covid-19 pandemic has upended lives and BJP president Jagat Prakash Kingdom of Netherlands, Reenat Sandhu, livelihoods, triggering a deluge of anxiety Nadda said the whole world is opened the celebrations with the lighting of and depression. now benefiting from yoga due the lamp along with senior officials of the Mob storms yoga day event in Maldives to the initiative taken by Prime government of the Netherlands, who also An angry mob stormed the Maldives Minister Narendra Modi. Yoga participated in the yoga session. In her national football stadium and attacked parnot only makes one physically address, Sandhu highlighted strong but also provides menthe health and spiritual benetal strength, said Nadda, who fits of yoga, especially during participated in a programme in the pandemic.

Noida, adjoining Delhi, in She conveyed the mesGautam Buddh Nagar district sage of Prime Minister of western Uttar Pradesh to Narendra Modi to adopt mark the eighth International yoga as an “integral part of Day of Yoga. “Yoga is a symbol our daily lives” and underof healthy body, through yoga International Day of Yoga celebrations organised by HCI, London at scored the important role of we can make our body healthy the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, London - Neasden Temple yoga in bringing people and beautiful.

Yoga not only together through compas- Deputy High Commissioner of India to the UK, Mr Sujit Ghosh attended makes us physically but mentally strong.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi sion and kindness and foster- the first ever yoga day joint celebration by High Commission of India, Today the whole world is benefiting from Adityanath and others performed yoga during a sense of unity, because London and British Army (London) hosted at the Wellington Barracks on yoga due to the initiative taken by Prime ing Yoga Day celebration at Raj Bhawan, in of which the theme of this 16 June. British Army personnel enthusiastically participated in Yoga Minister Narendra Modi ji,” the BJP chief Lucknow.

Gujarat Chief Minister session followed by discussion on holistic & healthy lifestyle. year has been chosen as Yoga tweeted in Hindi.

Bhupendra Patel and Union Minister of for Humanity. ticipants at the ‘Yoga Day’ event organised Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya State for Finance Bhagwat Karad led a The day was celebrated by the Indian by the Indian High Commission and the joined the celebrations at the Statue of crowd of nearly 7,500 people in performing Embassy in Kathmandu in the presence of Maldivian government. The country’s police Unity in Gujarat’s Kevadia and called on cityoga at the Sabarmati Riverfront in Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. Deuba force soon arrived and tackled the mob, izens to take a pledge to be healthy to conAhmedabad. “More and more people have said that practising Yoga gives positive enerallowing the event to resume, Male-based tribute to the country’s development. understood the importance of a healthy gy to the body and mind and that it should officials said. Maldivian President Ibrahim Underlining the benefits of the ancient lifestyle based on yoga and ‘pranayam’ after be made a part of one’s daily life. A lectureMohamed Solih termed it a matter of “seripractice, Mandaviya, who performed yoga the coronavirus outbreak,” Patel said cum-demonstration of the Common Yoga ous concern”. asanas along with hundreds of participants, addressing the participants.

Continued from page 1

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12 poses of Surya Namaskar and its health benefits We often get so busy in our lives that we barely have the time to exercise or meditate.

While our lifestyles require physical strength, it is also now more important than ever to take care of our mental health and spend some time in a day to focus on calming our minds.

Surya Namaskar asanas help in balancing the three important segments of our body: Kapha, Pitta, and Vata. To enable our bodies to function in proper harmony, it is important to have the correct balance of these elements.

Origin of Surya Namaskar The ancient Rishis of India believed the many different parts of our body are controlled by different devas or the divine impulses. The solar plexus which is located behind the navel is the central point of our body. Solar plexus is also known as the second brain of the body which is connected to the sun. According to the Rishis, practicing Surya Namaskar regularly can enhance these solar plexuses and thereby increases a person’s creative power and intuitive abilities.

Benefits of Surya Namaskar Surya Namaskar yoga is believed to activate each and every part of the body which means that this powerful yoga pose has a great impact on the heart, intestine, stomach, liver, throat, chest, legs, and the muscles of our body.

Surya Namaskar for Weight Loss According to research, Surya Namaskar is an excellent exercise for weight management. For both men and women, Surya Namaskar is efficient in improving muscle strength, toning the lower body, and enhancing strength, especially in the abdominal region and back muscles. Using medicines, following strict diets, lifting weights in the gym can cause a lot of damage to the body. Therefore, several yoga asanas are specially prepared to target the muscles in our body and attain an appropriate Body Mass Index (BMI) naturally. Performing

around 12 rounds of Surya Namaskar can burn approximately 156 calories.

Surya Namaskar for the Mind: Practicing Surya Namaskar asana has shown to have a positive impact on enhancing the cognitive functions of the brain while also relaxing the mind. Sun Salutation when coupled with chants in every pose, can help provide the proper balance between body, breath, and mind. Chanting mantras while performing the asanas can increase spirituality and establish a deep sense of gratitude towards life.

Surya Namaskar and Steps to Perform Them: To notice the benefits of Surya Namaskar, it is important to perform the Suryanamskar steps systematically and with a clear mind and focus.

Pranamasana or the Prayer Pose: The first pose of Surya Namaskar can be accomplished by standing in an upright position on your yoga mat and placing your feet close to each other. Take a deep breath and notice your chest expand, relax your shoulders. While inhaling, take a deep breath, raise your arms from the sides, and as you exhale join your palms together in front of your chest in a Namaste. This is the prayer position.

Hasta Uttanasana or the Raised Arms Pose : Join your palms together and take a deep breath. Lift your arms up while slightly bending backward, you can push the pelvis forward a little, stretch back and lengthen the spine. Keep the biceps close to your ears while simultaneously stretching the whole body up from the heels. Raised-arms-pose.

Hasta Padasana or the Standing Forward Bend Pose: Exhale and bend forward to touch your toes with your fingers. You can bend your knees initially if necessary. Do not bend your

PM Modi recalls the essence of Yoga Ahead of the International Yoga Day celebrations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday (June 14), said that Yoga is a perfect blend of gyaan (knowledge), karm (action) and bhakti (devotion). He also said that in a fast-paced world, Yoga offers a much-needed calm. In his tweet PM Modi stated, “Yoga is a perfect blend of Gyaan, Karm and Bhakti. In a fastpaced world, it offers much-needed calm.”

The 8th edition of International Day of Yoga (IDY) will be celebrated with the theme “Yoga for Humanity”. Ministry of AYUSH has chosen this theme for the 8th International Day of Yoga 2022 to be organised in India and across the globe on June 21, 2022. The main event of the IDY 2022 demonstration will be held at Mysuru, Karnataka.

The theme of last year’s International Day of Yoga (IDY) organised during the Covid -19 pandemic was “Yoga for wellness”.

Prime Minister Modi announced the theme in his recent ‘Maan Ki Baat’ address.

The theme for this year’s International Day of Yoga (IDY) has been selected after much deliberation/consultation and it appropriately portrays, how during the peak of the Covid -19 pandemic, yoga served the humanity in alleviating the suffering and in the emerging post-Covid geo-political scenario too, it will bring people together through compassion, kindness, foster a sense of unity and build resilience among people world over.

Union Minister for AYUSH, Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal in May said that our Prime Minister has suitably announced this year’s

International Day of Yoga (IDY) theme as “Yoga for Humanity”.

As we are aware Yoga is a practice that brings joy, health, and peace from within, and it deepens a sense of continuous connection between an individual’s inner consciousness and the external world. IDY 2022 will be successful in propagating this theme appropriately.

Focusing on Yoga for Humanity, special programmes have been designed this year for specially-abled people, transgenderpopulation, women and children. Human values that are an integral part of Yoga education in schools are also in focus.

This year our villages/Gram Panchayats will also see huge participation as the Common Service Centres (CSCs) are promoting the practice and training of Common Yoga Protocol (CYP) and it is expected millions of villagers will participate in the IDY 2022.

The 8th edition of International Day of Yoga will see many firsts, one of them is an innovative programme named “Guardian Ring”, which will showcase the movement of the sun, participation of people performing Yoga will take place along with the movement of the sun from different countries, beginning from the east and marching towards west. It will be a wonderful Relay Yoga Streaming programme telecasted live on DD channels.

As India is also celebrating “Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav”, 75 national-level iconic sites will also be showcasing the mass CYP demonstration on June 21st while respective states will also organise similar programmes at 75 important locations as per their selection.

spine and keep your neck and shoulders relaxed. Try to touch the floor with your fingers, pressing into your heels softly.

Inhale while coming back up, standingforward-bend.

Ashwa Sanchalanasana or the Lunge Pose: After coming back from Hasta Padasana, bend your knees slightly and rest your palms on the floor in line with your feet. Inhale and bring your right knee towards the right side of your chest while stretching the left leg backward. Balance your body and raise your head facing forward.

Chaturanga Dandasana or the Plank Pose: From the Ashwa Sanchalanasana, inhale and bring your right leg back, next to the left leg. Keep your hands under your shoulders, keeping your body parallel to the ground.

Your entire body should be in one straight line. Breathe and balance.

Ashtanga Namaskar or the Eight Limbed Pose: Also known as salutations using eight points or parts. To perform this pose, exhale and bring your knees down to the floor. Rest your chin on the floor and raise your hips slightly from the ground. Both your hands, knees, chin and the chest should touch the floor while your posterior should be suspended in the air. Breathe and hold the position for as long as comfortable.

Bhujangasana or the Cobra Pose: Gently slide forward and rest your legs and abdomen flat on the ground. Place your palms close to your chest and while inhaling apply the pressure on the hand and slowly raise the upper body, your pelvic region touching the ground. Keep your shoulders

away from your ears, feet tucked in, and look forward.

Your head and torso should resemble a cobra with a raised hood.

Adho Mukha Svanasana or the Downward Facing Dog: Lie down, releasing your chest from the Bhujangasana, your back facing the ceiling.

Exhale and lift your hips gently to form an inverted ‘V’.

Straighten your elbows and knees while trying to keep your heels on the ground.

With every exhale and inhale, go deeper into the stretch. Look towards your navel.

Ashwa Sanchalanasana or the High Lunge Pose: Coming back from the Adho Mukha Svanasana, bring your right foot forward.

Keep your left leg stretched behind placing your feet on the mat and now slowly look forward. Gently push the hips towards the floor to deepen the stretch. Get a better stretch this time since you have performed this step before.

Hasta Padasana the Standing Forward Bend: Inhale and bring your left foot forward, next to your right foot. Bend your torso while keeping the position of your hands intact, slowly exhale and touch the ground with your fingers.

Hasta Uttanasana or the Raised Arms Pose: Inhale while lifting your upper body, join the palms and raise your hands upwards.

Bend backward and stretch your spine. raised-arms-pose Yes, you have done this before.

Pranamasana or the Prayer Pose: Coming back to where we had started, notice that we made a circle of these 12 poses. As mentioned in the first step, exhale and stand straight, relaxing your body.

Lower the arms in front of your chest in a Namaste.

These Suryanamaskar steps will surely help you achieve your long-term health goals. To achieve the maximum advantages of Surya Namaskar follow these 12 steps for 12 cycles, if it is too much in the beginning, start with smaller cycles.

Yoga for Health and Wellness One who is stable and established in the self is healthy. That is to say that identifying a healthy person doesn’t only entail physical fitness, but what’s even more crucial is ones mental fitness.

Causes of sickness or ill health are generally noted as impurities on the level of mind, body and speech. Your own speech can create distress in you as well as other people around you. Even distress or discomfort should be treated as an illness.

Body, mind and spirit are like a tripod – even if one aspect isn’t functioning properly, our life will not be balanced and that will lead to ill health. Yoga is that link which creates a harmony by aligning all the three components (body, mind and spirit) into one.

Yoga is an integral part of our lifestyle. It removes the impurities from the level of mind and unites everything with the spirit.

For instance, insomnia could be connected to stress, anxiety or depression. This way, you have a wider perception of your own mind, body, thoughts and emotions and there’s more clarity and you are able to guide your prana (life force) in a positive way to progress in life.

One can start practicing Yoga at any given moment of time and you may start with meditation or directly with pranayama without even doing the asanas (postures).

Make sure that when you practice yoga

asanas, you don’t just stretch the body because the mind has to be with the body.

You can’t be watching television or reading the newspaper because if your awareness isn’t there, the asanas won’t have much effect on you.

Role of Food In Keeping One Healthy What you eat, what time you eat and how much you eat affects your sleep, the morning and your entire day.

Imbalance of vata, pitta and kapha (three prime energies in the body) lead to most health-related issues. For instance, if someone’s pitta (fire element) is high, certain foods can aggravate the pitta and cause restlessness, lack of sleep and anxiety, which makes it a necessity to know what foods are suitable for the body and mind by consulting an ayurvedic doctor.

Second Most Important Aspect of Health Vihaar (Daily Routine) plays a tremendous role in measuring how healthy an individual is. A sadhak should know what is suitable for his/ her living.

There is a tendency in our body towards health. At one level, our body intelligence signals that what we are doing is not all right, but we all have our excuses because we are following our mind and emotion. That intelligence fails when you become a slave to your mind and creates problems on a physical level. And soon, it becomes a pattern.

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Dear Financial Voice Reader,

Alpesh Patel OBE

Pssst….shhh….I have a secret formula I use for picking stocks. It’s used by Goldman Sachs Wealth Management to pick stocks for their rich clients. Come join me in Spain in my Summer School and I will tell you more – www.alpeshpatel.com/spain - but here is a taster.

The reason I love it is that if stocks are in the top 25% of all companies according to this formula then they generally generate over 30% returns annually. Not each of the guaranteed like a bank account, but as a basket, over the long term as an average.

Wow. 30%! What is the formula – well it centres around cash flow. It’s actually called cash return on capital invested.

Dividend Growth Strategy In 2006, then industry veteran Richard Dahlberg shared his technique for stock picking. Dahlberg stated that companies who regularly increased dividends tended to use capital more responsibly. He liked to use cash flow yields to screen stocks.

Free cash flow can be calculated by taking a (businesses earning + depreciation & other cash charges) minus capital expenses.

To get a free cash flow yield, you simply take a company's free cash flow per share and divide this by its stock price. Companies that generate good free cash flows can often increase dividends.

Low price to cash flow ratios is a proven metric. In a 1991 paper in the Journal of Portfolio Management titled "Further Evidence on the Predictability of International Equity Returns," between 1970 and 1990, stocks in a Morgan Stanley index with a low price to cash flow ratio produced a market-beating 20% compound annual return.

Part of why cash flow makes such a good metric can be found in how the business invests profits. In an interview with Epoch Partners, the two CIOs suggest that earnings growth and dividends drive shareholder returns. Both come from the same source: cash flow.

Indeed, "disciplined and efficient use of free cash flow" is also cited by Morgan Stanley as a great way to identify "compounders," i.e., resilient, durable stocks that return wealth over the long term. In a similar study, Aberdeen Investment Group, also suggests free cash flow is a qualityvalue metric that is tied to premium, long-term returns.

Finally, Schroders has pointed to cash flow as one of the characteristics for evaluating "quality stocks." They suggest that because high-quality businesses tend to be "more cash generative," they can also sustain higher dividend growth and more efficient services debts. These qualities, Schroders goes on to suggest, persist over the long term, allowing these businesses to grow sustainably.

Cash Flow vs. P/E Price to earnings (P/E) tends to grab a lot of the investment headlines. However, this metric doesn't always give a concrete picture of a company's ability to generate cash.

Cash flows help investors understand how much cash a business can generate.

What Investors Should Pay Attention to Cash Flows?

Free cash flow is an essential metric for dividend investors and total returns investors.

For dividend investors, it's more important than earnings because accrual-based accounting can give an inaccurate representation of a company's ability to pay dividends.

For total returns investors, cash flow is a great predictor of stock returns.

How To Action This Information?

The pandemic has pulled into focus the difference between profits and cash flow. Understanding what cash flow is and how to use it to pick stocks is an important tool for evaluating a company's financial health. The bigger picture is crucial, but a cash flow ratio can give you an excellent insight into a business's sustainability and future dividends.

PM Johnson hails India-UK FTA as ‘biggest of them all’ British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reiterated the Diwali timeline for a draft India-United Kingdom free trade agreement (FTA), declaring that the proposed trade deal with New Delhi would be the biggest yet in the postBrexit context.

In a statement to mark the start of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in the Rwandan capital of Kigali on Monday, Johnson plugged for the “Commonwealth advantage” which added immense value to all 54-member countries of the organisation.

He pointed out how India, as the largest member of the grouping, will be at the same table as the smallest for CHOGM, indicating the diverse strengths of the Commonwealth.

“All of this creates a unique opportunity for Britain whereby the Commonwealth – and only the Commonwealth – combines vast and rapidly growing markets with a real and quantified trading advantage.

That is why we are mobilising the UK’s regained sovereignty to sign free trade or economic partnership agreements with as many Commonwealth countries as possible. So far we’ve done 33, including Australia and New

Boris Johnson

But the way things are progressing, we’ll actually land up doing a full FTA with the UK by Diwali,” he said at the time.

The focus of the FTA negotiations is on reducing the barriers to trade, cutting tariffs, and supporting companies to export. According to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), an FTA with India is expected to nearly double UK exports to India.

A trade deal is also expected to boost Britain’s total trade by as much as £28 billion a year by 2035 and increase wages across the UK regions by £3 billion, according to industry estimates.

“A free trade agreement with the world’s fastest growing economy is now within touching distance, and to clinch that deal a focus on lowering barriers to trade is now essential,” said CBI President Lord Karan Bilimoria.

According to the UK’s Department for International Trade (DIT), IndiaUK bilateral trade currently stands at around £24 billion a year.

Bank of England hikes interest rate to 13-year high Like many central banks around the world, the Bank of England is grappling with a surge in inflation triggered by the stimulus-aided rebound from the coronavirus pandemic, supplychain disruptions, and soaring energy prices.

Inflation in the UK is set to hit 11% later in 2022 as the recent surge in energy prices, driven by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, triggers a sharp rise

in the country's energy price cap, the BoE said. CPI inflation stood at 9% in April, a 40-year high.

BoE has now raised interest rates by 25 basis points or 0.25 percentage points, the latest step in its ongoing effort to tame UK inflation, which it said would hit 11% later this year. The move took the BoE's main interest rate to a 13-year high of 1.25%, from 1% previously.

Rates stood at just 0.1% as recently as December. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 75 basis points for the biggest increase since 1994, less than a week after data showed US inflation surged to a 41-year high in May. The pound fell against the dollar after the BoE's decision, and was last down 0.89% to $1.206, from around $1.215 prior to the announcement. London's FTSE 100

AIP takes control of Gupta’s aluminium mill Gupta’s metals group GFG Alliance, which is the subject of criminal investigations into alleged fraud and money laundering in the UK and France, has been battling to refinance more than $5billion of debt after the collapse of its main lender Greensill Capital last year. GFG has denied wrongdoing.

AIP, a US buyout firm that specialises in taking over industrial businesses, announced that it had taken control of an aluminium rolling mill in Duffel, Belgium, from Gupta. The metals facility is the second that the US group has seized

BNP Paribas interested in buying ABN Amro BNP Paribas officials told the Dutch government that they are interested in buying stateowned lender ABN Amro. The first major cross-border deal with the combination of France’s biggest bank by market capitalisation and the third-largest bank of Netherland will be the long-anticipated consolidation drive across Europe’s banking sector.

People with the knowledge of the talk says, a meeting with them took place in recent months where French bank in beginning were pitching its service as a advisor on stakes of state assets, but during the meeting, the BNP officials suggested they would be interested in buying ABN themselves. Sigird Kaag, Dutch finance minster says “The government has said from the outset we are willing to consider a sale. But given the stock

Zealand, and we’re aiming for India, the biggest of them all, by Diwali in October,” he said.

It was during his visit to India in April that Johnson and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that the negotiating teams on both sides must work towards a Diwali timeline for the completion of a draft free trade agreement.

The teams are now in the midst of the fourth round of FTA talks, with the Commerce Secretary flying in from India for the ongoing negotiations in the UK. “Things are going so well, we are completing chapters so rapidly and making progress on the other chapters yet to be completed,” Indian High Commissioner to the UK Gaitri Issar Kumar told reporters at a farewell event organised for the outgoing envoy by the Indian Journalists’ Association (IJA) in London.

During a visit to the UK last month, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal had also indicated good progress towards the Diwali deadline. “With the UK, we had agreed to do an early harvest agreement – basically, to grab the lowhanging fruits and leave the more difficult elements for the next stage…

market-sensitive information and the privacy and confidentiality of the information that is associated with such a sale we will never comment.

BNP agreed last year to sell its San Francisco-based Bank of the West retail banking unit for $16.3bn, raising expectations that it would use the funds as a war chest and jump on opportunities for acquisitions in Europe.

The Paris-based lender has expanded through purchases in the past, including a €9bn swoop on Italy’s BNL in 2006, and a €14.5bn deal for Fortis’s businesses in Belgium and Luxembourg in 2009. It has sought to grow organically as a pan-European group too, beefing up in corporate and consumer lending and investment banking.

Sanjeev Gupta

from GFG in the past year, after it successfully took over Europe’s largest aluminium smelter in Dunkirk, France in October.

In both instances, AIP bought up debt from the original lenders then called a default. In the case of Duffel, the US buyout group acquired a €96mn loan from Asian investment firm Tor Investment, which sat at a UK holding company that owned the aluminium mill.

The loss of the Belgian mill is a blow to Gupta, whose Alvance aluminium business has now lost control of all of its operations in continental Europe, leaving it with just one smelter in the Scottish Highlands. It comes days after Gupta failed to have a legal attempt to wind up three of his UK steel businesses thrown out on the grounds that their problems were caused by the pandemic. The judge in that case also noted that the metals magnate’s efforts to raise fresh financing had foundered.

stock index trimmed some losses, and was last down 2.38%.

On top of rampant inflation, the BoE is dealing with an economy that is slowing sharply as rising prices and tax increases drag on growth.

Gross domestic product unexpectedly shrank in both April and March, prompting many economists to say the UK is effectively already in a recession.

Starling Bank acquires mortgage book worth £500 mn Starling Bank, a start-up, founded by Anne Boden in 2014, has agreed to acquire a mortgage book worth about £500mn as the digital challenger attempts to broaden its assets beyond Covid-19 loans. It is buying the loan portfolio from specialist lender Masthaven, according to people familiar with the matter.

The acquisition will help Starling, which counts Jupiter Asset Management and Goldman Sachs among its investors, diversify lending away from the government-backed Covid-19 loans that constitute most of its assets. The bank’s last accounts show it has lent a total £2.3bn, of which £2.2bn is bounce back loans and the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme.

However, concern has been mounting over the extent of potential fraud in relation to bounce back loans and how much exposure banks have to bad debt. In an attempt to diversify, Starling has been bidding for other loan books. It acquired Fleet Mortgages in July last year for £50mn in cash and shares. It emerged this year that Starling was also vying for a £1bn mortgage book being sold by specialist lender Kensington, pitting the challenger against Barclays. Starling has come under the spotlight in recent weeks after Lord Theodore Agnew claimed it was one of the worst banks for preventing fraud in the state’s emergency loans schemes. Certain banks offered bounce back loans of up to £50,000 during the pandemic to struggling small businesses and the Treasury pledged to cover losses if borrowers failed to repay. The National Audit Office has estimated about £5bn of £47bn lent through the scheme could be fraudulent, although it warned this forecast was uncertain.

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India's 5G spectrum auction to begin on July 26 India's 5G spectrum auction is all set to start with the government putting up 72,000 MHz of mobile airwaves on sale - the largest such quantity being sold at one go - adding new frequencies and bands in line with international trends.

The government hopes that the auctions, which will begin on July 26 and have a value of around £43 billion just at the reserve price, will prepare India for the next generation of mobile

telephony as the world transitions to the era of machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, smart factories, remote surgeries, autonomous driving, immersive experiences, intelligent agriculture and education, as well as internet-of-things (IoT).

As India eyes transition to high-speed 5G telephony, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has time and again stressed on the need for ushering in 5G for an enhanced digital

governance, and this has seen the government roll out a liberal bailout package for the beleaguered telecom industry in September last year. The government hopes that Indian telecom companies such as Airtel, Reliance Jio, and Vodafone Idea will take a lead in making the transition to 5G telephony, which is likely to have a stronger case in the enterprise segment initially than in the consumer space.

Telecom minister Ashwini

LastMinute.com Suresh Vagjiani, Sow & Reap Properties Ltd

Vaishnaw has said that the 5G auctions will be the “beginning of a new era for Indian telecom”. the Interestingly, government has also paved the way for getting Big Tech companies such as Google, TCS, Cisco and Ericsson into the 5G business, but being confined to captive networks for businesses with no interface into the consumer space.

Competition Commission French firm acquires okays Tata's acquisition 25% stake in Adani's new of AirAsia energy venture

Paving the way for consolidation among the four Tata Group airlines, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved acquisition of the entire shareholding in AirAsia India (AAIPL) by Air India. The group's flagship carrier will be AI, which it took over this January.

Vistara, Tata’s JV with Singapore Airlines (SIA), will continue as a separate full-service carrier for now along with AI. So, the number of airlines will soon

drop from the current four to three (AI, AI Express and Vistara) and then two as AI Express, fully owned by Tatas, may also be merged soon with AI. Once Tata-SIA decides to merge Vistara with AI, there may be one mega Airline.

While IndiGo remains the current domestic market leader with a share of almost 54%, AI-AAIPL combine will become the second-largest individual airline with a domestic share of almost 16%. Along with Vistara (where 49% stakeholder Singapore Airlines is yet to agree to a merger with AI), Tata airlines’ combined domestic share will rise to almost 25%.

IPOs of Gujarat based companies outperform others This has been the time when Indian equity indices have seen sharp corrections and greater volatility. However, Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) of Gujarat-based companies outperformed key stocks in 2021 in posting robust growth. Vadodarabased Tatva Chintan Pharma’s stock delivered 103% returns against its issue price, whereas Adani Wilmar Limited reported 170% growth. Similarly, Rolex Rings grew by 62% and Ami Organics by 43%, among others. Interestingly, Gujarat companies’ stocks also outperformed India’s most sought-after IPO of the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).

Analysts believe that most of the IPOs that came after Covid have strong financials and good prospects. Ravi Diyora, research head of a stock broking firm, said, “Most of the Gujarat-based companies which got listed in the last year and a half have performed better than high profile company IPOs from other parts of India.

The majority of these companies are specialty

chemicals manufacturers, as the sector has seen momentum in recent times.

Despite the market correction, though most Gujarat-based new listed companies have also fallen from their peaks, their returns remain positive. ” The Indian stock market has been under selling pressure since October 2021, with high inflation and hiked interest rates along with the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war.

However, sectors such as energy, oil and gas have seen momentum because of higher prices.

Gunjan Choksi, director of an Ahmedabad-based stock broking firm, said, “After Covid, MNCs reduced their dependence on China and Indian companies focused on increasing exports.

Most players reported better numbers for this financial year and anticipated strong domestic demand and export support.

Specialty chemical companies outperformed the market and created an alpha portfolio. Even if valuation concerns remain, the sector looks promising. ”

Adani New Industries (ANIL), the new energy venture of the Adani group, aims to “valorise India’s abundant low-cost renewable power potential by investing $50 billion over 10 years to create the world’s largest green hydrogen ecosystem.

French energy major TotalEnergies will now acquire a 25% stake in ANIL according to a joint statement by the companies. In the initial phase, ANIL will develop green hydrogen production capacity of 1 million tonne per annum before 2030.

ANIL aims to be the largest fully integrated green hydrogen player in the world, with presence across the entire value chain - from manufacturing solar panels, wind turbines and electrolysers to renewable power generation, green hydrogen production and creating downstream facilities for green hydrogen derivatives. “The strategic value of the AdaniTotalEnergies relationship is immense at both the

business level and the ambition level,” according to Gautam Adani.

Total and Adani began their tango in 2018 when the French major acquired stakes in Adani Gas, city gas associated distribution, LNG terminal, and gas marketing businesses. Total has 37. 4% in Adani Gas and 50% in the Dhamra LNG project. Total also has a 20% stake in Adani Green Energy, the group’s renewable energy arm.

According to Total CEO Patrick, “The new partnership, centred on green hydrogen, is expected to transform the energy landscape both in India and globally.

TotalEnergies’ entry into ANIL is a major milestone in implementing our renewable and lowcarbon hydrogen strategy, where we want to not only decarbonise the hydrogen used in our European refineries by 2030, but also pioneer the mass production of green hydrogen to meet demand, as the market will take off by the end of this decade".

We are on the edge of completing a commercial refinance deal for a client. The property is worth about £4M; it was a complex valuation, and the valuer needed to be guided very carefully in the matter.

Valuating a building is not as easy as it sounds. This commercial lump comprises of a range of properties ranging from a large night club to a nail salon, and in between a slot machine unit.

The whole complex is rented to an individual who then sublets all the individual premises out and pays our client a fixed rental. Any voids or profits are his responsibility. He knows the patch and has been in the locality for many decades; therefore, he has his finger on the pulse of the local commercial market.

We have had single properties, freehold, where they have been completely misvalued. For example, one where we purchased the property for £5.2M, and a top firm appointed by the lender valued it at £3.2M, yet we sold the property on for £5.8M. So, what was the point of the valuation? And we paid handsomely for the privilege.

You have RICS surveyors, who are looking at the transactions academically, and simultaneously they want to protect themselves from being sued on one side; and on the other you have the commercial reality. The two at times do not meet. Any opposition to the valuation then triggers the ego of the valuer and they are likely to dig their heels in even further in regards to the valuation.

Therefore, when you have a potentially sticky valuation, it is better to come armed and guide the valuer gently. Human nature generally means if one can get away with it, do the minimal work in order to meet your target. Therefore, if you have the necessary information to hand, it will likely be used willingly.

The valuation was done some time ago and we are now looking to raise about £2M on the properties.

We could not risk another valuation being done; and if it was necessary then it would have had to be not only with the same firm but also with the same valuer.

The commercial lender we have sourced for this deal is aggressive by nature. We have direct access to the owner of the firm, luckily he is commercially minded, and therefore took the decision no valuation was required. Therefore, technically an outdated valuation was used for this finance offer.

In addition to this we also managed to secure an extremely competitive rate of 4.99% on this deal, which is very rare for a transaction such as this.

All the paperwork and queries have been addressed and just as we were waiting for a drawdown of the funds, something else came out of the woodwork. The lender has last minute arranged for a senior member of the firm to visit the site, this was decided only on Friday, instead of the anticipated drawdown. The visit took place Monday morning.

Hopefully, he was satisfied. Although it seemed this way they often keep their cards close to their chest.

We are hoping for drawdown imminently.

India's net foreign fund outflow highest ever No let up in India's double Net foreign fund outflow from India in 2022 has crossed the £20 billion, the biggest annual figure ever and more than double the previous high of £8.09 billion recorded in 2018.

Of the total, over 90% which comes to £19 billion, was because of selling by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) in the stock market, data from CDSL showed. Galloping inflation, rising current account deficit, a weakening currency and the decision by the US Fed to raise rates in the world’s largest economy at a very fast clip have compelled foreign fund managers to take money off risky emerging market assets including from India, analysts and brokers said.

June is the ninth consecutive month that FPIs have been net sellers in India, taking the total to nearly £25 billion during this period. So far this month, in just 15 days, FPIs have net sold stocks worth nearly £2.5 billion, official data showed.

According to a leading debt fund manager, the FPI outflow could continue for a few more months, at least till the time there is clarity about how far the US Fed will move to tighten liquidity in the US. To tame inflation, US Fed chairman Jerome Powell has indicated to raise rates very quickly and aggressively. The Fed has also said that it would reduce its balance sheet size at the rate of $95 billion per month. Since the Covid pandemic started in early 2020, the US central bank had been buying bonds from the market and in turn infusing funds into the system.

digits wholesale inflation

Globally, inflation has emerged as a major risk after the war in Ukraine and the breakdown in supply chains due to the geopolitical conflict and the strict lockdown in China. Central banks across the world have raised interest rates to stamp out price pressures.

The Reserve Bank of India has raised rates by 90 basis points in two tranches and more hikes are in the offing. India’s Wholesale Price Index has been in double digits for 14 consecutive months, highlighting the entrenched price pressures. The high rate of inflation in May 2022 is primarily due to rise in prices of mineral oils, crude petroleum and natural gas, food articles, basic metals, nonfood articles, chemicals and chemical products and food products as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year, according to an official statement. The recent data, released by the department for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT), showed food inflation at 10.9% was the highest since the 11. 2% recorded in December 2019. There was a sharp rise in inflation of vegetables (56. 4%), potatoes (24. 8%), fuel and power (40. 6%), and manufactured products (10. 1%). The WPI data comes close on the heels of the retail inflation number for May, which displayed some easing from a near eight-year high of 7. 8% in April to 7% in May. Economists said the WPI inflation came in at 15. 9% in May despite a high base, unlike the CPI number which was lower due to base effect.

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India gives e-visas to Sikhs, Hindus after Kabul gurudwara attack NEW DELHI: India has given evisas to over 100 Sikhs and Hindus living in Afghanistan following a deadly terror attack on a gurudwara in Kabul, government sources said. The electronic visas have been given “on priority” to these people by the ministry of home affairs, they said.

The attack on the gurdwara in Afghanistan’s capital killed three people, including one Sikh man. Several blasts tore through Gurdwara Karte Parwan in Kabul’s Bagh-e Bala neighbourhood on Saturday while Afghan security personnel thwarted a bigger tragedy by stopping an explosive-laden vehicle from reaching the place of worship of the minority community.

It was the latest targeted assault on a place of worship of the Sikh community in Afghanistan. The three attackers were killed by the Taliban forces. Since the Taliban took

power in August last year, Afghanistan has seen continuing attacks by the Islamic State terror group.

IS claims responsibility The Islamic State terror

group claimed responsibility for the attack. IS made the claim in a statement posted on its Amaq website. It said the assault on “the Sikh and Hindu temple” was in response to alleged insults made against Prophet Muhammad by an Indian government official. It did not name the official.The IS said Abu Mohammed al-Tajiki, a member of the group, stormed the temple after killing the guard and then targeted the people inside with machine-gun fire and hand grenades. IS fighters outside the temple detonated four explosive devices and a car bomb targeting patrols of Taliban militia who tried to protect the temple. The battle ended after three hours, the Amaq report said.

Troops open fire in Lanka to contain unrest over fuel shortages COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s military opened fire to contain rioting at a fuel station, officials said as unprecedented queues for petrol and diesel were seen across the bankrupt country.

Troops fired in Visuvamadu, 365 km north of Colombo, as their guard point was pelted with stones, army spokesman Nilantha Premaratne said. “A group of 20 to 30 people pelted stones and damaged an army truck,” he said.

Police said four civilians and three soldiers were wounded when the army opened fire for the first time to quell unrest. As the pump ran out of petrol,

motorists began to protest and the situation escalated into a clash with troops, police said.

Sri Lanka is suffering its worst economic crisis since independence, with the country unable to find dollars to import essentials, including food, fuel and medicines.

The nation’s 22 million

Lightning, storms claim 25 lives in Bangladesh

SYLHET (BANGLADESH): Lightning and storm in Bangladesh have killed at least 25 people and unleashed devastating floods that left more than four million others stranded, officials said.

Floods are a regular menace to millions of people in lowlying Bangladesh, but experts say climate change is increasing their frequency, ferocity and

unpredictability.

Relentless downpours over the last week have inundated vast stretches of the country’s northeast, with troops deployed to evacuate households cut off from their neighburing communities. Schools have been turned into relief shelters.

Lightning strikes triggered by the storms have killed at least 21 people. Another four people were killed when landslides hit their hillside homes in the port city of Chittagong, police said.

Forecasters said floods were set to worsen over the next few days in Bangladesh and upstream in India’s northeast.

population has been enduring acute shortages and long queues for scarce supplies while President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has for months resisted calls to step down over mismanagement.

Sri Lanka has deployed armed police and troops to guard fuel stations. The government declared a two-week shutdown of state institutions and schools in a bid to reduce commuting and conserve depleting fuel stocks in the impoverished nation.

The country is also facing record high inflation and lengthy power blackouts, all of which have contributed to months of

protests.

Four out of five people in Sri Lanka have started skipping meals as they cannot afford to eat, the UN has said, warning of a looming “dire humanitarian crisis” with millions in need of aid.

The World Food Programme (WFP) began distributing food vouchers to about 2,000 pregnant women in Colombo’s “underserved” areas. The WFP is trying to raise $60 million for a food relief effort between June and December. Sri Lanka defaulted on its $51 billion foreign debt in April, and is in talks with the IMF for a bailout.

Pakistanis urged to reduce tea consumption ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is going through a financial crisis. Its foreign currency is depleting fast and one way to save precious foreign currency is to reduce the huge import bill. Ahsan Iqbal, a senior Pakistani minister, has urged the people to drink fewer cups of tea so that they can save forex reserves by reducing the import bills of tea.

These satirical comments went viral on social media and reflected the challenges faced by the country and its leadership.

These statements throw the lights on the Pakistan forex reserves.

The country's foreign exchange reserve decreased rapidly from around $16 billion in February to less than $10 billion in the first week of June and which is hardly enough to cover the cost of two months of all its imports. Buying more than $ 600 million worth of

tea, Pakistan becomes one of the largest importers of tea in the world.

Iqbal says. “I appeal to the nation to cut down the consumption of tea by one to two cups because we import tea on loan.

Moreover, there are several measures taken by the government to cut down the high import bills and save precious foreign currency. Businessmen were asked to shut down their shops by 8.30 pm to save power. The Sharif government has accused the Imran Khan government of mismanaging the economy. Country reveals that they are trying to convince the International Monetary Fund [IMF] to restart the $6 billion bailout program. This bailout program was paused in 2019 to ease the economic crisis of the nation

Pakistan stays on FATF 'Grey List' ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will continue to be on the "Grey List" of countries under increased monitoring of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a statement from the global money-laundering and terror-financing watchdog said.

It said the country may be removed from the list after an on-site visit to verify the implementation of its reforms on countering terror-financing mechanisms.

"Pakistan is not being

removed from the Grey List. It will be removed if the on-site visit finds that its actions are sustainable," outgoing FATF president Marcus Pleyer said.

He said a formal announce-

ment on Pakistan's removal would follow an on-site inspection, which would be conducted before October. "At its June 2022 plenary, the FATF made the initial determination that Pakistan has substantially completed its two action plans, covering 34 items, and warrants an on-site visit to verify that the implementation of Pakistan's AML (anti-money laundering) and CFT (combating

the financing of terrorism) reforms has begun and is being sustained and that the necessary political commitment remains in place to sustain implementation and improvement in the future," the statement said.

The June 2022 plenary session of the FATF was held in Germany's Berlin. The statement said since 2018, Pakistan's continued political commitment to combating both terror financing and money laundering has led to "significant progress".

in brief RESTAURANT UNDER FIRE FOR USING ‘GANGUBAI’ SCENE A popular restaurant in Karachi has come under fire after it used a scene from the Alia Bhatt-starrer “Gangubai Kathiawadi” to promote a men’s day at the eatery. The restaurant, Swings, used the scene where the actress, who is forced into prostitution, tries to attract her first customer with the lines “Aja na Raja - what are you waiting for?”, to promote a men’s day event. The restaurant’s post read: “Swings is calling out all the Raja’s out there.

Ajao and avail a 25% discount on men’s Monday at Swings!” The ad faced criticism on social media. A user said in a Facebook post: “What is this? It’s promoting sexual abuse of women.”

ISLAMABAD TO LIMIT BIZ HOURS AMID POWER CRISIS After Sindh and Punjab provinces, capital Islamabad has also decided to limit the working hours of markets, shopping malls, wedding halls and restaurants amid the energy crisis in the country. Islamabad deputy commissioner Irfan Nawaz Memon shared the notification on Twitter. The order stated that all shops, malls and offices will close at 9 pm.

However, it gave exemption to hospitals and laboratories, clinics, pharmacies, petrol pumps, milk shops, and other essential businesses.

TV ANCHOR FORCED TO SELL FOOD ON STREET Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, the country has experienced economic and political turbulence. A recent Twitter post by Kabir Haqmal, who previously worked for the Hamid Karzai government, highlights how many talented Afghan professionals have been forced into poverty. In recent months, Taliban militants have threatened media outlets, with a number of journalists losing their jobs. Haqmal recently posted a photo of Musa Mohammadi who for years worked as an anchor and reporter in TV channels and now sells food to make ends meet. The photo went viral. It even caught the attention of National Radio and Television director-general Ahmadullah Wasiq who said he would offer Mohammadi a job in his department.

MILITANTS TARGET LABOUR CAMP, KILL 3 Militants attacked a road construction labor camp in southwestern Balochistan province and killed three workers and wounded five others. The assailants opened fire on the camp, burned vehicles and destroyed machinery in a mountainous part of the district of Harnai, said a spokesperson for the Balochistan provincial government. She said the camp was part of a local company working on a road construction project. Five workers were missing from the camp after the attack.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but separatist groups involved in a low-level insurgency have staged similar attacks targeting non-local workers.

NEPAL CANCELS 2-DAY WEEKLY HOLIDAY TRIAL Nepal will resume a one-day weekly holiday after experimenting with Saturday-Sunday holidays for a month, an official has said. “Twoday public holidays in a week appeared to be impractical in case of Nepal,” Fanindra Mani Pokharel, spokesman for the Ministry of Home Affairs, said. “So the decision was rolled back after experimenting with it for a month.” He said the government has to return to a singleday public holiday because two-day holidays had affected its service delivery to the people.

Many government and private offices had defied the government’s rule on two-day holidays. “Now a one-day public holiday in a week will be observed,” said Pokharel.

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in brief 4 PER CENT RISE IN GLOBAL COVID DEATHS The World Health Organization says that after the five weeks of decline, coronavirus deaths have increased globally by 4% last week. UN health agency in its weekly epidemiological report, says over 8,700 fatalities has been recorded worldwide, with 21% jump in America and 17% increase in the Western Pacific. About 3.2 million new cases have been reported last week. There are significant rise in infection in some regions of West Asia (58%) and Southeast Asia (33%). “Because many countries have reduced surveillance and testing, we know this number is under-reported,” WHO DirectorGeneral Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. He said there was “no acceptable level of deaths from Covid-19,” given that the global community now has the vaccines, medicines and diagnostics to stop the virus.

ONE KILLED IN SHANGHAI PETROCHEMICAL PLANT FIRE A fire killed one person at a Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical plant in Shanghai, an accident that will not significantly affect the market, the company said. Roaring fire was seen engulfing part of a sprawling factory, emitting columns of thick black smoke. The fire at one of China’s biggest refining and petrochemicals plants had been brought under control but “was difficult to handle”, state media Xinhua reported.

JAPAN, OZ TO EXPAND DEFENCE TIES Japan and Australia’s defence ministers vowed to step up their ties to support democratic values in the Indo-Pacific region and agreed to work more closely with Southeast Asia and the Pacific island nations where China is seeking to expand its influence. Australian defense minister Richard Marles and his Japanese counterpart Nobuo Kishi said region wide cooperation is necessary to strengthen the rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific, where there is growing fear that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may embolden China to increase its assertiveness.

TEEN GETS CALLS FROM ALL IVY LEAGUE SCHOOLS For any student getting admitted to an Ivy League university is a dream. But imagine getting accepted into all eight prestigious schools. It might seem unthinkable, but that’s a reality for Ashley Adirika. Adirika, 17, from Florida, US, was spoilt for choice after making the cut in all Ivy League schools - Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton and Yale - but has decided to call Harvard University her home for next four years.

“The tears just started to come out,” she told ABC News. “My siblings and I were really excited, screaming, jumping around.” In addition to all Ivy League schools, Adirika was also accepted into Stanford, Vanderbilt, and Emory. Adirika ended up choosing Harvard, which only accepted 3.19% of applications for the class of 2026.

WOMAN FINDS OVER 10 HIDDEN CAMERAS IN US AIRBNB A woman from the United States recently shared her “scary” experience of finding what she claims were more than 10 hidden cameras in an Airbnb rental property. Taking to Twitter, the woman posted images of the “hidden cameras all over the house”. She said that travellers should be cautious when booking accommodations, and alleged that she and a friend found 10 cameras hidden all over the house after booking to stay in Philadelphia. In a series of tweets, the woman claimed to have found cameras in the showers and bedrooms.

She said that the cameras were disguised as sprinkler systems. “The Airbnb was listed under a business name and we never met the owner.

Every time we tried calling them, even at our arrival they’ll never answer the phone” she said.

Biden names Indian American to key post at Pentagon WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden has nominated security expert Radha Iyengar Plumb to the post of deputy under-secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment. The nomination brings Radha Iyengar Plumb's name as the latest addition to the list of IndianAmericans to be named for key positions.

In a virtual conversation over a year ago Biden had stated that he had nominated 55 IndianAmericans to the significant top positions in his government in less than 50 days. "Americans of Indian ancestry are taking over the country. Swati Mohan, my Vice President (Kamala Harris),

and Vinay Reddy, my speechwriter," he had reportedly said, adding that the IndianAmericans were taking over the country.

Radha is currently serving as the Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary of Defense and before this, she was the Director of Research and Insights for Trust and Safety at Google, leading their cross-functional teams on business analytics, data science and technical research.

A skilled policy researcher with an extensive experience in trust and safety matters, Radha started working as the Chief Of Staff to the Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen H Hicks in

US plans 'West Asia Quad' with India, Israel and UAE WASHINGTON: The United States says that it will launch a new four nation dialogue with India, Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) during President Joe Biden's visit to the region next month.

The dialogue will be called as I2U2; I stand for India and Israel as they have initial letter I and U stands for US and UAE as they have the initial letter U. It will commence during the maiden trip of Joe Biden to West Asia from July 13 to16. He will also be visiting West Bank, home to the Palestinian authority and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where he will meet many religious leaders.

A senior White House official told reporters that this new initiative will be launched after virtual calls by Biden with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Israeli Prime minister Naftali Bennet and UAE President Mohammed bin Zayad Al Nahyan. They will discuss about expanding economic and political cooperation in the Middle East and Asia, including through trade, combating climate change, energy cooperation and coordination on other vital shared interests” The spokesperson added that “I2U2 was inaugurated by Secretary of State Antony Blinken in October 2021 and the virtual summit is follow up of the “Initial touch point”. Biden will wrap up his West Asia tour in Jeddah, where he is also expected to attend the summit of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council plus Egypt, Iraq and Jordan (known as the GCC+3). He is expected to hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts.

Biden's meeting with the Saudi king Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud will be the most closely watched of all his bilateral interactions in Jeddah. He is expected to meet Mohammad bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince who is accused by the US of ordering the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist.

February 2021 after working at Google for a year. It was during this period of her government service that she Joe Biden and Radha Iyengar played a significant role Assistance Team for the in minimizing sexual assaults, Commander, ISAF. Radha comsuicide prevention, developing pleted her Bachelor of Science budgets and policies related to Programme in Economics from nuclear and energy infrastructure the Massachusetts Institute of security and resilience, and reguTechnology in 2002 and got her lating counter-terrorism efforts MS and subsequently a PhD in in the Middle East and North Economics from Princeton Africa. She was also instrumental University in 2006. She did her in evaluating stabilization operapostdoctoral work at Harvard tions in Afghanistan where she and joined as an Assistant worked in the capacity of a civilProfessor (Lecturer) at the ian conducting measurement and London School of Economics, assessment work to support the where she worked till 2011.

Counterinsurgency Advisory and

Nepal army denies signing military pact with US KATHMANDU: The Nepal Army has refuted reports that it has signed any agreement or understanding regarding State Partnership Programme (SPP) with the US Army or the government, asserting that it would not enter into any agreement that might jeopardise the specific geo-political situation of Nepal and it defence sensitivity.

“The Nepal Army is always clear with the fact that Nepal cannot enter into any type of military partnership in future keeping in mind the Nonaligned Foreign Policy pursued by Nepal and would not enter into any such agreement that might jeopardize the specific geo-political situation of Nepal and its defence sensitivity,” the army said in a statement.

The US embassy in Kathmandu in a statement also clarified that it has not signed the SPP deal with Nepal. “The document published by some

online media, claiming to be a military deal between the United States and Nepal is fake,” said the US embassy during a press briefing. “SPP is not and has not ever been a security or military alliance,” it said.

According to the US embassy, Nepal had applied for SPP twice, in 2015 and again in 2017. The “US accepted Nepal’s application in 2019. Independent of SPP, the US bilateral relationship that has focused on peopleto-people connections, including student and professional exchanges, diplomatic engagement, military partnership, trade, and common values remains strong,” it said.

China blocks India-US bid to list Pak-based LeT militant NEW DELHI: India slammed China for double standards on the fight against terrorism after the latter blocked a joint IndiaUS proposal to list Pakistanbased top LeT militant Abdul Rehman Makki as a ‘global terrorist’ under a UNSC sanctions committee. Makki is the brother-in-law of UN-proscribed Lashkar-e-Taiba chief and 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed.

India and the US have already listed Makki, deputy chief of LeT, as a terrorist under their domestic laws. The two countries had jointly proposed on June 1 to list him

Abdul Rehman Makki

under the UNSC Al-Qaeda and ISIL Sanctions Committee, also known as the UNSC 1267 Committee.

China placed a“technical

hold” on the proposal to list Makki, official sources said, adding that this measure (which can last for up to six months at a time) blocks the adoption of the listing proposal till the hold is withdrawn.

China justified its hold saying its actions at the UNSC committee are always consistent with relevant rules and procedures.

This isn’t the first time that China has used its veto to put on “technical hold” the proposed listing of a wellknown terrorist. In the past, it had repeatedly blocked proposals to

designate Maulana Masood Azhar, chief of Pakistan-based and UN-proscribed terrorist entity Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), as a ‘global terrorist’.

Government sources described the decision by China as “extremely unfortunate”.

“China should reflect on its response that signals double standards on combating terrorism. Protecting wellknown terrorists from sanctioning in this manner will only undermine its credibility and risk exposing even itself more to the growing threat of terrorism,” said a source.

US state department to start Gandhi-King exchange programme WASHINGTON: The United States' Department of State has launched the Gandhi-King Scholarly Exchange Initiative to bring 20 talented and hardworking young civic leaders from India and the US to explore the legacies of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr Martin Luther King Jr., according to a US State Department press release.

The exchange which was championed by the late civil rights leader, Honourable John Lewis who passed away in July

2020, officially began on Wednesday, 15 June.

This bill was co-sponsored by Indian-American Congressman Ami Bera and signed into law by Former US President Donald Trump in September 2020.

With a one-week virtual program orientation, the young civic leaders will be immersed in a two-week academic residency at Alabama A&M University, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU), and the University of

Alabama.

These 20 leaders from both India and the US will explore ways to advance civil rights, social justice, diversity, and inclusion on local, national, and global levels by taking inspiration from the two pioneers of peace, Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Apart from classroombased learnings and discussions, participants will embark upon field trips to instrumental

civil rights historical sites in Montgomery, Sema, and Birmingham, Alabama; Memphis, Tennessee; and Atlanta, Georgia.

In January 2023, the participants will travel to India and explore the historical sites, communities and organizations that enable them to understand the cicivi rights movement in India. Themes of peace, nonviolence, and tenets of conflict resolution are all a part of their This academic curriculum.

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PM Modi washes mother Heeraben’s feet ‘Dhwaja’ unfurled at Pavagadh temple on her 100th birthday; seeks blessings Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his mother Heeraben Modi in Gandhinagar on Saturday as she celebrated her 100th birthday. PM Modi arrived at his mother's residence early in the morning and sought her blessings.

In the photos shared on Twitter, PM Modi was seen sitting on the floor next to his mother and performing pooja with her.

PM Modi adorned Hiraba with a garland of roses and a shawl. He then washed his mother's feet, performed aarti, and gave her prasad.

PM Modi had a chat with his mother before leaving the residence for other engagements. The meeting lasted for less than half an hour.

Born on June 18, 1923,

Hiraba entered the 100th year of her life on Saturday last.

She lives in Gandhinagar with her younger son Pankaj Modi.

On the occasion of her 100th birthday, the Modi family has organized a 'bhandaro' (community meal) at the Jagannath temple in Ahmedabad.

In Vadnagar, which is

the hometown of Hiraba, the Hatkeshwar Mahadev Temple has organized religious various programmes for the long life and health of the prime minister's mother.

The programmes include a Bhajan Sandhya, Shiv Aradhna and Sundarkand Path.

Recently, Gandhinagar

Mayor Hitesh Makwana had announced that a road is being named after the Prime Minister's mother in the city. An 80-meter long road from Raysan petrol pump will be named 'Pujya Hiraba Marg' to keep Hiraba's name alive forever and for future generations to learn the lessons of service, he said.

of Gujarat is also set to receive its own long pending permanent campus with Modi laying the foundation stone for the same in Kundhela village near Vadodara.

Women empowerment Stressing that empowerment of women is necessary for speedy development of 21st century India, PM Modi said that making lives of women easier and providing them growth opportunities are among the top priorities of his government.

The PM, who was in Vadodara for the ‘Gujarat Gaurav Abhiyan’ programme

organized at the Leprosy ground on Ajwa Road, said that Saturday was a day of ‘Matru Vandana’ for him.

“Today morning, I took the blessings of ‘janmdatri’ (referring to her mother Heeraba who entered 100th year of her life). Later, I got the blessings of Jagat Janani Maa Kaali (referring to Goddess Maa Kali at Pavagadh). And now, I have got opportunity to take blessings of this massive ‘Matru Shakti’,” said PM, after launching Mukhya Mantri Matrushakti Yojana and Poshan Sudha Yojana – targeted towards nutritional needs of pregnant women.

PM Modi launches schemes worth £2.1 bn in Gujarat Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched schemes worth £2.1 billion in Gujarat, hardly six months away from assembly elections in his home state in December.

He laid the foundation stone for Railway projects worth more than £1.6 billion - works that include a new 357-km long PalanpurMadar section of a dedicated freight corridor (DFC). He laid foundation stones for the redevelopment of Surat, Udhna, Somnath and Sabarmati railway stations.

Modi dedicated 138,000 houses worth £180 million in urban areas and £153 million in rural areas: they were constructed as part of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) scheme.

He inaugurated schemes

across verticals at a public meeting called 'Gujarat Gaurav Abhiyan' in Vadodara. The meeting also saw the launch of projects in railways, housing and education in central Gujarat.

Urban poor families got 750,000 houses and 450,000 middle class families got help in constructing homes from the central government, Modi told the meeting. He launched the ‘Mukhyamantri Matrushakti Yojana’ nutrition scheme for pregnant and lactating mothers. With an outlay of £80 million, the scheme will see monthly supply of 2 kg of chickpeas, 1 kg of yellow split pigeon peas (toor dal) and 1 kg of edible oil free of cost from Anganwadi Centres for three years.

The Central University

Assembly polls likely in J&K by 'year-end': Rajnath India's defence minister Rajnath Singh said that there is a possibility of holding assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir “by this year-end”. Addressing a function in Jammu to celebrate the 200th year of the coronation of Maharaja Gulab Singh, the defence minister said the delimitation exercise has been completed following which the number of seats has gone up to 90 with Kashmir having 47 seats and Jammu 43.

Rajnath Singh, who is on a two-day visit to the Union Territory, said, “By this year-end, there is a possibility of holding assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.” The indication of a timeline comes two days after the Election Commission initiated the revision of electoral rolls in the Union Territory and prepare the draft rolls by August 31.

According to the officials, chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar and election commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey carried out a review

Rajnath Singh

and directed the Jammu and Kashmir chief electoral officer to map the redrawn assembly constituencies.

During the revision exercise, citizens would be given opportunities to enrol, delete and change their particulars in the electoral rolls.

Last month, the Central government issued a notification saying the orders of the Delimitation Commission which redrew electoral constituencies and provided six additional assembly seats to the

Jammu division and one to Kashmir would come into effect from May 20.

According to the orders of the Delimitation Commission the Union Territory will have 90 assembly constituencies - 43 in the Jammu division and 47 in Kashmir - with nine of them being reserved for the Scheduled Tribes.

The erstwhile state had 87 seats - 46 in Kashmir, 37 in Jammu and four in Ladakh. During its reorganisation, Ladakh was declared a separate Union Territory without a legislature.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during a meeting with Jammu and Kashmir leaders on June 24 last year, had said the ongoing delimitation exercise has to happen quickly so that polls can be held to install an elected government that gives strength to its development trajectory.

The endless wait for five centuries for a flag to flutter high atop its shrine finally ended for the Mahakali temple on Pavagadh hill in Panchmahal district on Saturday morning when Prime minister Narendra Modi raised the ‘dhwaja’.

The temple is listed among India’s ‘shaktipiths’ dedicated to the goddess.

Modi reached Pavagadh on Saturday morning and offered prayers at the temple and also performed puja of the ‘dhwaja’ before unfurling it. He said that the moment filled his heart with joy.

Speaking on the occasion, Modi said that even after 75 years of independence, the temple did not have its ‘dhwaja’ that has been missing for five centuries now. “Today it is there. After centuries, this Mahakali temple is in its full glory before us and makes our heads rise with pride,” the PM Modi said.

Mentioning the developments in Ayodhya, Kashi and Kedarnath, Modi said that spiritual and cultural

glory is being restored across the country. He said that the new India is keeping its ancient heritage and identity alive along with its modern aspirations.

He further said that Gujarat had contributed to both the struggle for independence as well for country’s development. He added that the state had led in the business front while it preserved spirituality.

“After independence, we also had the challenge of establishing our identity. The cultural independence of the country also began in Gujarat under the leadership of Sardar Patel. The Somnath temple reconstruction came as commitment for national reconstruction and P avagadhis carrying it forward,” Modi said.

Giving details of the various developments planned at Pavagadh, Modi recalled how stampedes had taken place earlier, but assured that these will be avoided now with the new stairs and the new pathway.

Ahmedabad to get another airport at Dholera by 2024 The PM Modi headed cabinet committee on economic affairs approved the proposal to develop phase-1 of Greenfield airport at Dholera, 80 km from Ahmedabad at an estimated cost of £130.5 million by June 2024.

Under the PM Gati Shakti programme, the airport will get multi modal connectivity through a six-lane expressway, rapid transport system, broad gauge railway line and a dedicated freight corridor.

Union I&B minister Anurag Singh Thakur said the project has got environmental and security clearance. The defence and home ministries have also given their nod to the airport that will come up in 1,501 hectares. In the first phase that will be ready in 48 months, the airport will handle 300,000 passengers and 20,000 tonnes cargo annually. There is adequate land for expansion under second and third phases as

well as increasing runway length.

Forty per cent of phase one cost will be met via equity and balance through debt. This project will be executed by Dholera International Airport Company Ltd, a JV of Airports Authority of India that will have stake of 51% in it and the government of Gujarat will have 33% stake and National Industrial Corridor Development and Implementation Trust will have remaining stake of 16%.

Dholera Airport is to get passenger and cargo traffic from Dholera Special Investment Region and is expected to become a major cargo hub to serve this industrial belt.

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Govt to hire 10,00,000 by the end Maharashtra govt on brink of of 2023 in big employment push collapse after revolt by minister In a mega employment push, the government has decided to recruit 10,00,000 people in different central government departments and ministries by December 2023.

After the announcement, PMO tweeted, “PM Narendra Modi reviewed the status of human resources in all departments and ministries and instructed that recruitment of 10,00,000 people be done in a mission mode in the next 1.5 years”.

Officials say this is one of the biggest recruitment drives that has been undertaken by the central government in recent decades.

The recruitment drive will be on full mode till the run-up to the polls.

Individual ministries and departments will come up with number of vacancies to be filled. On April 2, PM Modi had a meeting with secretaries of central ministers where he has mooted the idea to give maximum

eral into a stick to beat the government with and was seen by political circles as a move to repair a vulnerability.

Sources said the home and railway ministries can quickly start the recruitment. The railway ministry has started the process to recruit 148,000 permaNarendra Modi nent employees in the employment in public and next one year and there are private sectors. nearly 298,000 vacancies Nearly 70% of such across the railway zones. recruitments will be done by “Even achieving the next one the home ministry for filling year’s target means nearly vacancies in paramilitary three-and-half times more and police forces; railway recruitment of what we do ministry for technical and annually on average. In the nontechnical staff; educapast eight years, there has tion and health ministries been an annual average of for faculty and non-faculty 43,600 recruitments,” said a staff; postal department; and source. However, it was the the defence ministry. The education ministry which move gains importance in was first off the block, with the light of the opposition Education Minister trying to turn “vacancies” in Dharmendra Pradhan losing government departments no time in announcing a and unemployment in genplan.

A day after the revolt led by Shiv Sena minister Eknath Shinde pushed the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra to the brink of collapse, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday claimed that it had the support of 134 MLAs. Shinde, along with 21 legislators, went incommunicado on Monday night soon after the results of Maharashtra Legislative Council polls were announced.

"In the MLC elections on Monday, the BJP managed to secure 134 votes, which technically means we are short of 11 votes to stake claim to form government. But it is easier to say it than actually make it happen," BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar was quoted as saying. The total strength of Maharashtra Assembly is 288 and after the death of one legislator the number came down to 287. In the event of a trust vote, the majority mark will be 144.

Shiv Sena has 55 MLAS, NCP (53), Congress (44), Bahujan Vikas Agahdi (three), Samajwadi Party, AIMIM and Prahar Janshakti Party two each. MNS, CPI-M, PWP, Swabhimani Paksha, Rashtriya Samaj Party, Jansurajya Shakti Party and Krantikari Shetkari Paksha have one MLA each. There are 13 independent MLAs. The MVA alliance has 152 MLAs at present, but if the ministers and MLAs who went missing resign, the ruling coalition's strength will come down to 130. The opposi-

tion BJP has 106 MLAs. Leaders of NCP and Congress, the other constituents of the MVA, however, asserted that there is no threat to the stability of the state government. As Sena struggled to quell the unrest, party MP Sanjay Raut claimed that contact has been established with Shinde, who he described as a loyal Shiv Sainik of Balasaheb Thackeray.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray met several Maharashtra leaders in back-to-back meetings. He is likely to meet with Sharad Pawar soon. In the meeting with Shiv Sena leaders, he said he was confident that rebel minister Shinde will return to the party soon.

Meanwhile, Sena MLAs being shifted to a hotel in Mumbai from the Chief Minister's house even as Shinde decamped on Monday night for Surat, along with at least 21 other MLAs. Uddhav's aides met with Shinde. During the meeting that lasted for nearly two hours, Shinde spoke to Thackeray over the phone, as per sources. The senior leader demanded a-Shiv Sena alliance government in the state during the ten-minute phone call, they said.

Shinde plunged the ruling alliance in the state into a political crisis as he rebelled against his party and landed in a Surat hotel in Gujarat putting a huge question mark on the stability of the two-and-a-half-years old MVA dispensation.

SC tells asks UP to follow process of law Droupadi Murmu is NDA's presidential nominee before demolishing illegal buildings Supreme Court has asked the UP government to follow the process of law before demolishing illegal structures after JamiatUlama-Hind complains that the chief minister has backed the policy to illegally retaliate with bulldozes on properties of minority community members booked in case of rioting, stone pelting and goondaism.

The vacation bench of AS Bopanna and Vikram Nath told the Yogi Adiyanath government that no (future) demolition will take place without following the process of law. The court must come to the res-

cue of citizens as ultimately the rule of law must prevail, the bench said. The drive against illegal structures and encroachments must not appear as targeting one community, the bench said.

63 killed in Assam floods Assam reeled under devastating floods caused by incessant rain affecting nearly 31,00,000 people in 32 districts, while eight more people lost their lives taking the toll to 63, officials said. A total of 18,94,000 people were affected in 28 districts of the State on June 17. The toll in the current second wave of floods and landslides in the state has increased to 63 as two deaths each were reported from Barpeta and Karimganj while one each died in Darrang, Hailakandi, Nalbari and Sonitpur districts.

Eight people, including three children, were reported missing after a boat capsize in Hojai district on June 17. They are from the districts of Hojai, Bajali, West Karbi Anglong, Kokrajhar and Tamulpur. Altogether 21 people were rescued there.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi rang up the

chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to enquire about the current flood situation in the state and assured him of all help from the Centre. Sarma visited the inundated Rangia town in Kamrup district, with state BJP president and local MLA Bhabesh Kalita. He also visited relief camps at Fatima Convent School and Kolajal where affected people have taken shelter.

Speaking to media persons, Sarma said that the district administration is ready to face any exigency and to help the flood-affected people. ''The administration has been directed to ensure relief supplies and evacuate people from vulnerable areas to relief camps. The Army is ready to provide assistance and the deputy commissioners have been asked to take their help when required. NDRF and SDRF personnel are evacuating affected people to safer places,'' he said.

CU Singh, senior advocate for petitioners, said that many of these buildings demolished were the homes of family members whose names appear in the FIR. He also submitted that

“retaliatory statements were made by high-functionaries of the state government against stone pelters and rioters.”

Solicitor general Tushar Mehta asked how Jamiat would know the legal status of the constructions. “Only an affected party can tell the court whether construction of his house was legal, whether it was demolished without following due process of law, whether he was involved in stone-pelting, rioting or goondaism, and whether the government targeted him just because he belonged to a particular community.”

AI fined for not compensating flyers who are denied boarding The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) asked Air India to pay a fine of Rs 10,00,000 after finding that the airline has is not following the rules for denying boarding to the passengers who were holding confirmed tickets and who were reported on time at the airport.

Arun Kumar, DGCA head, says, “Recently they have warned airlines against not following regulations in this regard and ordered surprise checks across the airport in last few week”. Also they have warned AI to start following the rules or else strict action against them would be initiated.

DGCA in a statement said, “During our surveillance at Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Delhi, specific instances were detected were airline was not following the regulation. A show-cause notice was issued to AI and a personal hearing given. It appears the airline does not have policy in this regard and is not paying any compensation to hapless passengers, whose numbers can be anybody’s guess”.

The regulator had in 2010 put in place penalties that airlines are required to pay passengers in cases of wrong denial of boarding, sudden flight cancellation and long delays. In case of overbooking, airlines are first supposed to seek volunteers who may be okay with going on subsequent flights.

No compensation needs to be paid if an alternative flight is arranged within an hour of the originally booked one, says the civil aviation requirement (CAR). But if that is not the case, airlines are required to compensate passengers by paying “200% of booked one-way basic fare plus airline fuel charge, subject to maximum of Rs 10,000, in case airline arranges alternative flight that is scheduled to depart within 24 hours of the booked scheduled departure”.

Droupadi Murmu

Yashwant Sinha

Droupadi Murmu (64), a tribal leader and former Jharkhand Governor, has been named as BJP-led NDA's choice for the next President of India.

"Droupadi has devoted her life to serving society and empowering the poor, downtrodden as well as the marginalised. She has rich administrative experience and had an outstanding gubernatorial tenure. I am confident she will be a great President of our nation," tweeted PM Modi after NDA announced its candidate.

The announcement was made by BJP chief JP Nadda after the party's parliamentary meeting attended by PM Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah among other leaders in Delhi.

Oppn names Yashwant Sinha Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha will be the consensus presidential candidate of several opposition parties, including the Congress, the TMC and the Samajwadi Party, the parties said in a joint statement.

Opposition leaders, who gathered at the Parliament annexe for the meeting convened by NCP chief Sharad Pawar to decide on a consensus candidate for the presidential election, unanimously agreed on Sinha’s name.

June 29 is the last date for filing nomination for the Presidential poll, while voting will take place on July 18. The counting of votes will take place on July 21.

Name Change I RICHA PANDA RESIDENT OF UNITED KINGDOM DECLARE THAT I HAVE CHANGED MY NAME FROM RICHA PANDA TO RICHA CHAUHAN.

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in brief

SOUTH INDIA

Power struggle rocks AIADMK CHENNAI: The impasse in AIADMK, the main opposition party in Tamil Nadu, is continuing ahead of the party general O Panneerselvam and K Palaniswami council meeting scheduled for June 23. O Panneerselvam and K Palaniswami factions are keen that their leader emerge as the single leader of the party.

While the post of opposition leader was granted to K Palaniswami, the party chief coordinator post was given to O Panneerselvam. However, the party has been under a dual leadership and several leaders have criticized this arrangement stating that AIADMK has lost its fighting spirit due to this.

Following widespread criticism at all party forums it was decided to call council meeting of the party on June 23 and to take a decision on the same. There are reports that a majority of party functionaries are supporting the candidature of Palaniswami as the single leader of the party and that under him, the party would function unitedly.

BJP, Cong win 2 seats each in Karnataka Upper House polls

BENGALURU: The ruling BJP continues to have a majority in the Karnataka Legislative Council, as the party managed to win one teachers' and graduates' constituency each in the recently held biennial elections, while the Congress too managed to win one each.

The results are seen as a setback for the JDS as the party lost both the seats it represented last time and did

not win any fresh seat; while for Congress it is a two seats gain, as none of the four seats that went to polls were held by the party before going for polls.

Though the ruling BJP has managed to win two of the four seats that went for poll and maintain its majority in the upper house, the party faced a setback with the defeat of its MLC Arun Shahapur, who was seeking reelection from one of the teachers' constituencies.

With the outcome of poll results, the 75-member Legislative Council will have 39 BJP members, 27 Congress and eight JDS, and one independent member.

PUNJAB

Moosewala killing: Delhi police arrest two main shooters

Dhaliwal said.

Officials said that Fauji is the head of the module, who led the team of shooters and was in direct touch with Goldy Brar at the time of incident. He is the main shooter and executioner of the murder.

The officials said Fauji was previously involved in two murder cases and was arrested in 2015 in one of the murder cases in Sonipat and wanted in another murder case of Sonipat in 2021.

The Special Cell also arrested a third person named 29-year-old Keshav Kumar, a resident of Awa Basti, Bhatinda, Punjab, who facilitated the main shooters in the case, as he received them just after the shootout in an Alto car.

CHANDIGARH: Jailed Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh walked out of Sunaria jail in Haryana's Rohtak on month-long parole. Haryana's Jails Minister Ranjit Chautala said the 30-day parole was granted by the Rohtak Divisional Commissioner on the recommendation of officials concerned.

According to the minister, Singh had said in his plea that he wanted to go to the Dera Sacha Sauda Ashram, Barnawa, in Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat.

Meanwhile, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee president Harjinder Singh Dhami objected to the parole of the Dera chief and said this decision shows the double standards of the government. Dhami said, "On one hand, the governments are not bringing the 'Bandi Singhs' (Sikh prisoners) out of the jails despite they having completed their sentences, on the other the Dera head, who is a convict in heinous crimes, is being brought out from the jail time and again. "

WEST BENGAL

Speaker revokes suspension of Bengal BJP MLAs KOLKATA: West Bengal Legislative Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee revoked the suspension of 7 Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) MLAs, including that of Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari. The MLAs were suspended in two separate incidents in March.

Two BJP MLAs Agnimitra Paul and Sikha Chatterjee moved separate motions for the withdrawal of suspension against the seven MLAs. Agnimitra moved a motion for withdrawal of the suspension against Adhikari and four other MLAs - Manoj Tigga, Narhari Mahato, Mihir Goswami and Shankar Ghosh, who were suspended on March 28, when

the Opposition legislators and Treasury benches came to blows. Sikha, meanwhile, moved another motion for

S Yediyurappa

Former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa sought bail in the land denotification case. Following his application, sessions judge B Jayantha Kumar sought the response of complainant's advocate. The complainant's advocate said that a response would be filed after going through the bail plea. The special court had summoned the 79-year-old leader in a private complaint filed by one Vasudeva Reddy in 2013. The Lokayaukta police had filed a B Report in the case citing lack of evidence, however, the special court had rejected the report.

SGPC objects granting TN COUPLE KILLED OVER INTER-CASTE of parole to Dera chief WEDDING

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh

NEW DELHI: The Delhi police special cell arrested three persons, including two shooters, in connection with the killing of popular Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala, officials said.

The accused have been identified as Priyavrat alias Fauji (26), a resident of Sonepat in Haryana, Kashish (24), from Jhajjar district in Haryana, and Keshav Kumar (29), a resident of Bhatinda in Punjab. The trio were arrested on June 19 from Kutch in Gujarat, police said.

HGS Dhaliwal, special CP, Delhi police, said that the accused had conducted multiple recces before executing the murder. Eight grenades, nine electric detonators, three pistols and one assault rifle have been recovered from arrested accused,

BSY SEEKS BAIL IN LAND DENOTIFICATION CASE

withdrawal of suspension against MLAs Mihir Goswami and Sudip Mukhopadhyay, who were suspended on March 7

during Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar’s address to the House.

The Speaker decided to withdraw the suspensions after consultation with the State’s Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee. BJP MLAs had earlier this week moved a motion for withdrawal of the suspensions and had also approached Calcutta High Court. The Court had suggested that the matter should be resolved within the Assembly.

Over the past few days since the start of Assembly Session, BJP MLAs have been protesting in the premises of the House demanding withdrawal of the suspensions.

In another case of honour killing in Tamil Nadu, a person hacked to death his sister and her husband. The dastardly act took place at Kumbakonam in Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu. The deceased have been identified as Saranya (24) and her husband Mohan (31). Saranya, who hails from a dalit family, married Mohan, who belonged to Naicker caste after a love affair of five months. Saryanya’s brother Sakthivel (31) wanted her to be married off to his friend, Ranjith (28) of Devanagiri. However, Saranya insisted on marrying Mohan which infuriated her brother. Police said that Shakthivel invited them for dinner at the residence and after the feast hacked both of them to death.

JAILED CONG LEADER SIDHU ADMITTED TO HOSPITAL Jailed Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu, who was admitted to Chandigarh's PGIMER due to liver-related problems, is in a stable condition, the medical facility said. He underwent a medical examination at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research's hepatology department on Monday morning. In the afternoon, Sidhu was admitted to the PGIMER, where he had been brought under heavy security from the Patiala prison. In the evening, PGIMER issued a statement, saying Sidhu has been kept under observation and is stable. "He has been kept under observation and is stable now," the statement said, quoting Professor Virender Singh, head of the hepatology department at the hospital.

CBI QUESTIONS TMC MP'S WIFE Rujira Banerjee, wife of Abhishek Banerjee, was questioned by the CBI in connection with a coal smuggling case. According to sources, the central intelligence has received some new information in the coal smuggling case. The CBI has reportedly also claimed that the evidence they have is inconsistent with the statement given by Abhishek's wife in the coal case earlier.

This is the reason why Rujira was questioned, mainly in connection with the accounts in a foreign bank, CBI sources said. According to sources, a notice was issued to Rujira last week.

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Amid massive protest, govt offers quota for ‘agniveers’ Even as the massive backlash over the Centre’s new military recruitment scheme called Agnipath continued, the Modi government tried to control the outrage by offering 10 per cent quota for ‘agniveers’ in defence ministry jobs as well as in Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and Assam Rifles.

Faced with massive protest, the Centre has taken a step back and announced changes in the policy in order to pacify agitators. In a social media post, the ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) announced a 10 per cent reservation for ‘agniveers’ in CAPFs and Assam Rifles. “Further, for the first batch of Agniveer, the age relaxation will be for 5 years beyond the prescribed upper age

limit,” it said.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh announced that the government will reserve 10 per cent jobs in the defence ministry for ‘agniveers’. The 10 per cent reservation will be implemented in the Indian Coast Guard and defence civilian posts, and all the 16 Defence public sector undertakings. Singh also chaired a top-level meeting with service chiefs in

Delhi.

Army aspirants continued to take to streets in several parts of India demanding a rollback. In Bihar, which has been the epicentre of protests, violence continued across several districts with a mob setting four vehicles on fire in Jahanabad. Angry students pelted stones at police teams in Masaurhi and Jamui. Over one thousand

ED questions Rahul Gandhi in National Herald case Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate for the fourth day of questioning in the National Herald money laundering case.

A huge contingent of police and paramilitary personnel was deployed around the federal agency's office even as Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) has been imposed in the area like last week. The Congress MP has spent a total of about 30 hours at the ED office over three days last week, where he was questioned over multiple sessions and his statement recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The fourth day of questioning was deferred from June 17 to this day after Gandhi requested the agency for postponing the session as he wanted to be with his mother and Congress president Sonia Gandhi in hospital, where she is admitted for postCovid issues.

Financial irregularities The probe pertains to alleged financial irregularities in the Congress-promoted Young Indian Private Limited, which owns the National Herald newspaper. The ED is understood to be asking Rahul Gandhi about the incorporation of the Young Indian Private Limited, operations of the National Herald, the loan given by the party to the newspaper's publisher Associated Journals Limited (AJL), and the transfer of funds within the news media establishment.

Sonia Gandhi has also been summoned by the

agency for questioning in the case on June 23. The Congress has accused the Centre of targeting opposition leaders by misusing investigative agencies and has termed the entire action a political vendetta.

Rahul blames late Motilal Vora Rahul told ED that former Congress treasurer Motilal Vora was responsible for all the transactions pertaining to the Young Indian's acquisition of Associated Journals Ltd's (AJL) assets worth hundreds of crores from Congress.

Rahul disclaimed personal knowledge of transactions being investigated for alleged money laundering in the light of a report of the income tax department.

“He has denied having any knowledge of the loans or accommodation entry taken by the Young Indian, blaming everything on Vora, who is no more,” ED sources said.

When approached for a response, Congress secretary Pranav Jha said: "proceedings of the ED are of judicial nature and leaking them is a criminal offense.

Therefore, we will not comment on it. " Cong workers organise massive protests A day after the Congress alleged that Delhi Police officials forced their way into the AICC headquarters and lathi-charged leaders who were protesting the questioning of Rahul

by the Gandhi Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an alleged money laundering case, the party intensified its protests across different states in the country.

Congress workers held protests in Delhi, Bengaluru, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jammu and Chandigarh. The protesters turned violent at some places and jostled with police personnel deployed to maintain law and order.

In Delhi, a delegation of top Congress leaders was escorted by the Delhi Police to meet the Lieutenant Governor after the party launched a protest outside the LG’s residence. The party was demanding action against “police highhandedness” displayed at its headquartersy. Mayhem broke out on Thursday afternoon, with Congress leaders climbing over barricades and police deploying water cannons to disperse the protestors.

In Karnataka, Congress workers held a protest in Bengaluru, disrupting the traffic in the city. The party office has organised a march to Raj Bhavan to give a memorandum and complaint letter against BJP. The Bengaluru East DCP warned of preventive custody if the Congress workers proceeded with the march. He said the Karnataka High Court had earlier ordered that protests won’t be held anywhere except the Freedom Park.

Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar said, “It (protest) is our right, we will fight for justice. They (ED) are not taking cases of any BJP leaders, they are harassing only Congress people.”

protesters with sticks in hand and chanting Jai Shri Ram in Katihar, marched on the streets.

Eighty-six people were arrested for their alleged involvement in arson at Danapur railway station near Patna in which a train was set ablaze. A car was also set afire near a fuel station. Several trains were held up outside Barrackpore station in North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal as a group of agitators resorted to a unique way of protest by doing push-ups on railway tracks. There was an altercation between the daily railway commuters and the agitators. Some of the commuters also blamed a section of the media for unnecessarily highlighting the protests which encourage the agitators.

Hundreds of aspirants reached the Kerala capital information following circulated on social media and tried to march towards the Raj Bhavan from Thiruvananthapuram central railway station even as police tried to dissuade them. The youths later did pushups on the roadside near Raj Bhavan. The march culminated near the Raj Bhavan where police had set up barricades.

Delhi police have arrested one person and detained 18 others while they were staging protests.

“Surender Sharma alias Fauji started instigating a group of 50-60 protesters by inflammatory speech and later got into a scuffle with police,” the deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka) M Harsh Wardhan said. Sharma was arrested while 18 protesters were detained. Other protesters were immediately dispersed.

Meanwhile, the funeral procession of the youth killed police firing at Secunderabad railway station was taken out in Warangal Telangana’s district amid shutdown and protest. Hundreds of people were participating in the procession.

The violent protests have been reported from parts of UP, Rajasthan, Haryana, Himachal Bengal and Pradesh, Jharkhand. Anti-Agnipath protest at Secunderabad railway station and fears of similar protest at major railway stations in Andhra Pradesh led to cancellation of several trains.

No rollback: Military No youngster taking part in the ongoing violent protests will be inducted into the armed forces, the

military establishment warned on Sunday, stressing there will be no rollback of the new recruitment process that will kick off next week with the training of Agniveers to begin in NovemberDecember.

Additional secretary in the defence ministry’s department of military affairs Lt General Anil Puri blamed “inimical elements and coaching centres” preparing youth for military recruitment for inciting protests against the scheme.

He maintained the various concessions being announced now for the 75% of Agniveers to be demobilised from each batch after four-year tenures, including 10% reservation in the central armed police forces (CAPFs), Assam Rifles, Coast Guard and 16 defence PSUs, were not under duress.

“They (the concessions) were planned in advance,” he said. “The Indian Army’s foundation lies in discipline. There’s no space for arson or vandalism. Every individual will have to give a written pledge or undertaking they were not part of the protests or vandalism.

There is no place for indiscipline in the armed forces,” Lt-Gen Puri said.

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Vaseem Khan’s novel shortlisted first time for Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2022

The Gifted Statesman Sir Atul C. Chatterjee

T

he shortlist for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2022, presented by Harrogate International Festivals, has been announced recently, with six bestselling authors competing to win the UK’s most prestigious crime writing prize. It features, Midnight at Malabar House by Vaseem Khan, the first in a new series chronicling the investigations of India’s first female police detective. It marks Khan’s first time reaching the shortlist. The novel introduces readers to Inspector Persis Wadia as she is plucked from obscurity in a basement office and tasked with solving the murder of an English diplomat as the country prepares to become the world’s biggest republic.

The coveted award, now in its eighteenth year, celebrates crime fiction at its very best, with this year’s shortlist taking readers from newly independent India to the tension of a remote Fenlands cottage, from a nail-biting missing persons investigation in Manchester to the wilds of North Norfolk, and from the hedonism of Georgian London to the murky world of international espionage.

Selected by the public from a longlist of eighteen novels, with a record number of votes being placed this year, the list of six novels features newcomers to the shortlist, two New Blood panellists, a previous Festival Programming Chair, and a five-time shortlistee.

None of this year’s shortlistees have ever taken home the prize before, making the competition even more tense.

It also features The Night Hawks, the thirteenth instalment in Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths, who was the Theakston Old

Abhiroop Sengupta

Peculier Crime Writing Festival Programming Chair in 2017. She is shortlisted for the fifth time.

Sunday Times bestseller True Crime Story, the first standalone novel from Joseph Knox, blends fact and fiction to tell the gripping story of a 19-year-old university student who leaves a party in her student halls and is never seen again, is featured too.

Historical crime writer Laura Shepherd Robinson continues her incredible streak as her second novel Daughters of Night is shortlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, two years after her debut Blood & Sugar was longlisted for the award in 2020.

Bestselling author Mick Herron is longlisted for Slough House, the tenth instalment in his series of the same name, which was recently adapted by Apple TV as spy drama Slow Horses, starring Gary Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas.

Finally, The Last Thing to Burn sees bestselling author and New Blood 2018 panellist Will Dean move away from the Nordic setting of his acclaimed Tuva Moodyson series in favour of a claustrophobic thriller set on the British fenlands.

JLF London at the British Library 2022 concludes its 9th edition with an excellent lineup of speakers, writers and authors Teamwork Arts, producer of the iconic Jaipur Literature Festival and the international extensions of JLF held its ninth edition of JLF London at the British Library, from 10th -12th June, 2022, to celebrate books, creativity, dialogue, diversity and varied intellectual discourse.

Shashi Tharoor

yourself in a place where the story reaches you”.

At another session, while talking about Pride Prejudice & Punditry, bestselling writer and politician Dr. Shashi Tharoor said, “For me pride

The festival showcased some of the world's most eminent politicians, writers and authors namely bestselling writer and politician, Dr. Shashi Tharoor; politician and member of the parliament, Mahua Moitra; first indian winner of International booker prize Geetanjali Shree; renowned television presenter Anita Rani and many more to engage on some of the most pressing issues of today that include – India at 75; the Urgency of Borrowed Time (Climate Change); the 50th Anniversary of the 1971 War; Translation; Poetry; Art and Music; Business; History and many more.

At its ninth edition, JLF London witnessed a vast range of sessions highlighting topics of the contemporary world. At a Durbar Theatre session, A Tale Tells Itself: Tomb of Sand- Ret Samadhi Hindi writer Geetanjali Shree remembered A K Ramanujan and noted “It's not easy for me to talk about my work, as I don’t follow a very clear cut theme…I work in quite another way…Don't chase stories, but put

is all about India… I’ve taken all the pride in the country being developed, pulling people out of poverty, technological directions to the next century, international cooperations. Prejudice is overclear on my sleeve, as I don't like being prejudiced . . . My punditry has often been so anchored to the present and the broader trends throughout the present.”

Talking about her love for writing and the process she cultivated during lockdown, Anita Rani said, “I loved having another world to step into and I loved being able to be creative and have a creative outlet… this was all me, and being able to tell my story, an authentic story, a story that I want to tell!”

Abhiroop Sengupta is a Kolkata based entrepreneur, fencer, amateur historian and writer. Also a devoted Freemason and Rotarian, he spends most of his free time researching about varied subjects, especially those which he feels did not get their deserved due in the course of history.

this time he was a driving force behind the construction of the India House in London which was inaugurated in 1930 by George V himself. Sir Atul served as the President of the International Labour Conference in 1927 and over the years also held very senior positions within the International Labour Organisation. He served as a member of it's governing body between 1926-1931 and also served as it's Vice President in 1932 and President in 1933 respectively. He was also a senior delegate to the London Naval Treaty in 1930 and served as the leader of the Indian delegation in the British Empire Economic Conference in Ottawa in

I

ndian Civil Service, since its establishment always had a very important role to play in the British Empire. Since the joining of Satyendra Nath Tagore, many Indians who qualified for the ICS left an everlasting impact on the history of both the nations. One such ICS officer played a very important role at the global stage and could be considered one of the earliest internationally renowned and respected diplomats and statesmen of Indian origin. His name was Sir Atul Chandra Chatterjee GCIE KCSI. Early Life and Education Atul Chandra Chatterjee was born in Calcutta on the 24th of November in 1874 to Hem Chandra Chatterjee and Nistarini Devi. His family resided at the Shyampukur area of North Calcutta and his initial student days were spent in the Hare School and Presidency College of Bengal. A bright student and a government scholar he proceeded to King's College in London where he was admitted on the 7th of October 1893. Graduating in History in England he finally joined the Indian Civil Service, sometime around 1896 and returned to India in 1897.

Career Between 1897 and 1905 he served in the various regions of the United Provinces, initially joining as an Assistant Magistrate and rising to the position of a District Collector.

Between 1912 and 1916 he was the Registrar of the Co-Operative Societies and eventually he reached the prestigious position of Chief Secretary of the United Provinces.

After serving as Industries Secretary to the Government of India in 1921 and post serving as a member of the Viceroy's Executive Council, he made his transition to a diplomatic career as he became the second Indian to be appointed as the High Commissioner of India to UK in 1925. In this position he succeeded Sir Dadiba Merwanji Dalal CIE who in turn had succeeded Sir William Stevenson Meyer, the inaugural holder of the position.

While Sir Atul was made a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire in 1919, he was finally made a Knight Commander of the same order in 1925. He served as a High Commissioner till 1931. During

Photograph Courtesy - Bassano Ltd (National Portrait Gallery)

1932. He later served in the Council of India till 1936 and from 1938 to 1946 he served as Chairman of the Permanent Central Opium Board of the League of Nations. One of the last major position he held was that of being an advisor to the Secretary of State for India from 1942 to 1947.

Sir Atul was appointed as a Knight Grand Commander of the order of the Indian Empire in 1933. The GCIE being one of the highest honours ever bestowed on an Indian Civil Servant in British India. He additionally also received the Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India in 1930.

Other Interests He was also a connoisseur of arts and was associated with council of the Royal Academy of Arts for many years and served as its Chairman between 1939 and 1940. He had also served as the Vice-Chairman of the East India Association and was also associated with the Royal Asiatic Society. A gifted writer, he authored or co-authored quite a few works which included 'A Short History of India.'

Personal Life He initially married Vina Mookerjee, a marriage which produced two daughters. After the demise of his first wife he married Gladys Mary Broughton OBE, a barrister. He remained in England after the Indian independence and resided in Grosvenor Gardens in London and Weybridge, Surrey.

After a long and fruitful life, Sir Atul passed away on the 8th of September, 1855 in Surrey England at the ripe old age of eighty and thus ended the life of a gifted individual whom the Montreal Gazette in their issue dated 11th of July, 1932 had referred to him as "Ranking among the ablest Statesmen of Hindu Blood."

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Seeking professional help in Yoga is a cost-effective way to treat diabetes patients mental health issues Mental health issues have found a lot of attention lately. However, seeking professional help for managing these issues continues to be unfamiliar territory for most. Also, people tend to brush aside these issues, wondering why make a big fuss about a minor issue, or brushing it all off as being something in their head.

Like most health issues, understanding psychological issues is not that easy and the symptoms are not always obvious.

Psychologist & Clinical Director of Manah Wellness, Debasmita Sinha talks about some common signs that one may need a mental health professional.

The psychologist was quoted in the article as saying, “Prolonged emotional health issues (usually lasting two weeks or more) typically should be discussed with a mental health professional.

These issues include low mood or sadness; being anxious/unable to relax; brain fog or focus issues; unexplained fatigue/diffi-

culty in starting or getting through the day; feeling disinterested suddenly in things that were previously enjoyable; having thoughts of self-harm or ending life; or any unexplained shift in appetite and/or sleep.”

One of the signs you need to see a mental health professional is that you are unable to cope with a difficult life event on your own.

Even the unhealthiest individuals may struggle with stressful events or periods of transition in their lives.

Sinha said, “If you lost a loved one, going through divorce or breakup, a stressful relocation or a new project, undergoing physical or mental assault, you may need help.”

It is important to consult a professional to address these issues. But before you do, you should figure out who would best suit your needs. There are different kinds of mental health professionals. These include counselling or clinical psychologists, guidance counsellors, mental health social workers, psychiatrists, and psychotherapists.

These professionals do not work in isolation. As most patients may need a combination of medication, counselling, or therapy, it’s quite common for psychiatrists, psychologists and psychotherapists to work in close coordination.

Diabetes is one of the most common diseases and a growing challenge worldwide given that according to the International Diabetes Federation, there are around 537 million people living with diabetes today - a number that is expected to grow to 700 million by 2045.

Several pieces of research have shown that Yoga is a cost-effective and a promising option in the treatment and prevention of diabetes as it helps in reducing the stress levels that result in a positive effect on blood glucose control.

High sugar levels increase your chances of serious health complications such as heart disease, which is why they should be avoided. Health experts insist that regular practice of Yoga can be beneficial in reversing the effects of diabetes. With the increasing benefits of the practice, there has been an everincreasing majority of people following this practice as it can help you improve your balance, flexibility and strength.

Experts believe yoga is suitable for all ages, espe-

cially important for people having diabetes. It is effective in reversing diabetes and also prevents the disease from aggravating. On International Day of Yoga 2022, we discuss asanas and pranayama which have been especially discovered to be beneficial for people having diabetes.

Yoga helps in increasing the glucose uptake by muscular cells which results in complete exercising of the muscles. This results in low blood sugar levels and improved blood circulation resulting in a reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases.

Yoga can help you manage your weight. With obesity accounting for one of the major reasons for developing Type 2 Diabetes, weight

management is crucial to protect yourself against type 2 diabetes, cancer, and heart disease.

Practising yoga on an everyday basis can increase your concentration, help you focus, and provide you with the right mental approach to deal with diabetes.

Practising pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Surya Namaskar improves medication adherence and leads to self-awareness, reflection, and an optimistic attitude towards change. Research suggests cleansing practices under Yoga such as Kapalbhati, Agnisar Kriya, Vaman Dhauti, and full Shankhaprakshalana, are effective in the management of diabetes.

Tips to protect your eyes from the sun this summer With the summer sun shining high upon us, the majority of us know how it can affect and harm our skin.

However, many of summer revellers are unaware of the effect the sun can have on our eyes. For the unaware, UVA and UVB rays are the two types of rays from which you must protect yourself and health experts point out that the UVA rays are more pervasive and penetrate deeper than UVB rays.

These rays have an effect on your central vision and can cause damage to the macula, which is a part of your retina in the back of

your eye. UVB rays are best known for their role in sunburn and skin reddening but they can also harm your eyes and have been shown to cause more vision damage than UVA rays. Hence, to avoid corneal damage, it is critical to protect your eyes from UVB rays as exposure

to harmful radiation can cause a variety of eye problems like m a c u l a r degeneration, cataracts, Pterygium, cancer of the eyelids or corneal sunburn, depending on the frequency and intensity of your exposure, as well as the methods you use to protect your eyes.

Experts suggest adhering to the same eye care guidelines, such as washing your hands before handling contact lenses and wearing the appropriate eyewear when participating in certain

sports and activities. Even when it’s cloudy outside, wearing sunglasses with UVA and UVB protection is essential.

Even if wearing contact lenses, have UV protection built-in. Sunglasses are still recommended because they protect the surrounding eye area and act as a barrier between your eyes and the summer heat, preventing dry eye.

Dehydration is more likely to occur during the summer months, affecting your body’s ability to produce tears. This can cause dry eyes, so it’s critical to stay

Study says brain can control symptoms of sickness According to a study by Harvard University, a small population of neutrons near the base of the brain can induce symptoms of sickness, including fever, appetite loss, and warmseeking behaviour. When people get an infection, most people think it’s the immune system kicking into gear when they feel some of the body’s natural defences like fever, chills, or fatigue. However, what most people don’t know is that it’s actually the brain behind all of this.

The study states that the nervous system talks to the immune system to figure out that the body has an infection and then orchestrates a series of behavioural and physiological alterations that manifest as the unpleasant symptoms of sickness. For neuroscientists, long-standing questions have been: How and where does this happen in the brain? Harvard researchers

from the labs of Catherine Dulac and Xiaowei Zhuang sought the answer in the brains of mice.

In a new study published in Nature, the researchers and their collaborators describe finding a small population of neurons near the base of the brain that can induce symptoms of sickness, including fever, appetite loss, and warm-seeking behaviour.

The neurons, which have not been previously described, are found in an area of the hypothalamus, a part of the brain known for controlling key homeostatic functions that keep the body in a balanced, healthy state. The researchers found these neurons have receptors that are capable of directly detecting molecular signals coming from the immune system, an ability most neurons don't have.

"It was important for us to estab-

lish this general principle that the brain can even sense these immune states," said Jessica Osterhout, a postdoctoral researcher in the Dulac Lab and the study's lead author. "This was poorly understood before.”

The researchers found that the key area of the hypothalamus is located right next to a permeable section of the brain called the blood-brain barrier, which helps circulates blood to the brain. "What's happening is that the cells of the blood-brain barrier that are in contact with the blood and with the peripheral immune system get activated and these non-neuronal cells secrete cytokines and chemokines that, in turn, activate the population of neurons that we found," said Dulac, Lee and Ezpeleta Professor of Arts and Sciences and Higgins Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology.

hydrated by drinking plenty of water. Avoid sun exposure between 10 AM and 4 PM to protect your eyes from the most aggressive UVB radiation. Wearing a widebrimmed hat provides additional protection from

the sun. It is helpful if you will be spending time outside where shade is not available.

Looking directly at the sun, even with protective eyewear, can cause significant damage to your eyesight.

Nordic walking improves functional capacity in heart disease patients According to a new study, Nordic walking boosts functional capacity, or the ability to do everyday tasks, in individuals with coronary heart disease more than normal high-intensity interval training and moderate-to-vigorous intensity continuous training. The findings of the research were published in the journal ‘Canadian Journal of Cardiology’.

"Patients with coronary artery disease frequently demonstrate diminished functional capacity, low quality of life and increased the risk of subsequent cardiovascular events and mortality," explained lead investigator Jennifer L. Reed of University of Ottawa Heart Institute.

Growing evidence suggests that non-conventional exercise interventions, such as high-intensity interval training and Nordic walking are more effective than traditional exercise approaches in improving functional capacity measured by a six-minute walk test - an important predictor of cardiovascular events in patients with coronary artery disease. Nordic walking is an enhanced form of walking exercise that uses specifically designed poles to further engage both the upper and lower body muscles.

While all exercise programs improved depression symptoms and quality of life, the improvement in functional capacity was greatest after Nordic walking ( 19 per cent) when compared to high-intensity interval training ( 13 per cent) and moderate-to-vigorous intensity continuous training ( 12 per cent).

"This study is novel in that it simultaneously compared the sustained effects (i.e., 14 weeks after the completion of cardiovascular rehabilitation) of different exercise programs that can readily be incorporated into daily exercise. When prescribing exercise for patients with coronary artery disease, patient's preferences should be considered. Our findings can impact patient care by providing alternative exercise options based on their interests and needs," he concluded.

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Roy Kapur Anushka begins filming Aditya calls process of 'Chakda Xpress' maintaining fitness 'quite sad' A I ctor Anushka Sharma started filming her upcoming project 'Chakda ‘Xpress,' after months of cricket training. This will be her first movie, since the 2018 film 'Zero', which also starred Shah Rukh Khan and Katrina Kaif.

Anushka took to Instagram, and shared glimpses from the set. 'Chakda ‘Xpress' is inspired by the life of former Indian cricket captain Jhulan Goswami, and will stream on Netflix.

Anushka shared a video of her vanity van with a picture of the film written on the door.

She added a sneak peek of cricket balls which appeared to be taken from the film's set.

She wrote in the caption, “Back to where I belong.”

The actor also received a welcome note with goodies from her brother Karnesh Ssharma who is backing the film under the banner of his production house, Clean Slate Filmz.

Responding to the gesture, she added to

him, “Thanks for the ‘must haves’ for this new journey!

Most thoughtful crew.”

Fans gave their best wishes to Anushka in the comments section of her post. Her husband, cricketer Virat Kohli, dropped a series of heart emojis. Actor Ranveer Singh and cricketer Jhulan Goswami also reacted to the post with several emojis.

Directed by Prosit Roy, the film is based on the life of Jhulan, who became the second Indian woman cricketer to receive the Padma Shri in 2012. It marks Anushka’s comeback to acting after she took a break.

Anushka and Virat's daughter Vamika was born in 2021.

In an interview, when asked about the secret behind his fitness, he called the process “quite sad”. He said, “It’s just having no life. Not being able to eat and drink what you like. It’s all quite sad. I don’t think it’s worth it. Early in my career, I used to start fit, and during the course of the film, I would just keep following because I would eat the set food all of that. I used to do yo-yo. I was 102 kilo, went to shape for ‘Fitoor’, then again I went up, again I went down.”

Aditya made his Bollywood debut with 2009 film ‘London Dreams’ but rose to fame with his 2013 film ‘Aashiqui 2’, which also starred actor Shraddha Kapoor. He later starred in films such as ‘Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani’, ‘Malang’ and ‘Ludo’. He has also appeared in films like ‘Kalank’, ‘Daawat-eIshq’, ‘Fitoor’, ‘Sadak 2’, ‘Welcome To New York’, and ‘OK Jaanu’.

On the work front, Aditya is currently shooting for the Hindi remake of the Tamil film ‘Thadam’, which also stars Mrunal Thakur and Vedika Pinto.

AAMIR HOSTS ‘LAGAAN’ REUNION as film completes 21 years A

amir Khan and the team of his 2001 film ‘Lagaan’ celebrated 21 years of the film by having a get-together at the actor’s Mumbai residence last week. The actor’s production house shared a video to share a glimpse of how they spent the day together at his house, eating, chatting, playing, and simply having fun. It captioned the video, “#21YearsOfLagaan”.

marked their presence at the gathering.

Irfan Pathan commented on the video, “What a lovely evening.” A fan wrote, “so adorable”. While another wrote, “What a wonderful idea to meet after years, what fun it has been..love from turkey.

‘Lagaan’ featured Gracy Singh opposite Aamir, as well as British actor Paul Blackthorne. The film was nominated in the Best Foreign Language category at the 74th

Karan Johar is reportedly on Bishnoi gang’s target list

I

The movie was directed

by Ashutosh Gowariker and released on June 15, 2001. In the clip, Aamir, Ashutosh, actors Yashpal Sharma, Akhilenda Mishra, Rajendranath Zutshi and others are seen interacting with each other. Former Indian cricketers Irfan Pathan and Aakash Chopra were also a part of the celebrations.

Shankar Pandey, Raja Awasthi, Suhasini Mulay, Pradeep Ram Singh Rawat, and Amin Gazi also

Academy Awards and received widespread critical and commercial acclaim. It was the third film from the country to be nominated in the category after ‘Mother India’ (1957) and ‘Salaam Bombay!’ (1988).

On the work front, Aamir will now be seen in ‘Laal Singh Chaddha', which also stars Kareena Kapoor and Mona Singh. The film is due to release in theatres on August 11. It is a Hindi remake of Tom Hanks-starrer ‘Forrest Gump’.

n a recent interview, actor Aditya Roy Kapur talked about his fitness, stating that maintaining it is “quite sad”. Aditya, is currently awaiting the release of his upcoming film ‘OM: The Battle Within’. He was last seen in Anurag Basu’s 2020 film ‘Ludo’.

f media reports are to be believed, filmmaker Karan Johar was on the list of people Lawrence Bishnoi's gang planned to target for extortion. Media reports reveal an alleged member of the group, Siddhesh Kamble alias Mahakal, disclosed this to investigators. According reports, a senior official also said that these claims have not yet been verified and there was a possibility that there was an element of bragging in Siddhesh’s statement.

According to the report, Siddhesh shared information about the Sidhu Moosewala conspiracy and named Santosh and one Nagnath Suryavanshi as having involvement in the killing. The gang had allegedly planned to extort £500,000 from Karan Johar by threatening him, according to Siddhesh’s statement.

He reportedly revealed that Vikram Brar, brother of Canada-based gangster Goldie Baar, had discussed these plans with him on Instagram and Signal apps.

Earlier in June, actor Salman Khan and his father Salim Khan reportedly received a death threat. Their security team found the letter outside their Mumbai home, near the Bandra Bandstand promenade, where Salim goes for his routine morning jog.

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Kiara Advani confesses she tried to steal Kartik Aaryan's fans K iara Advani and Kartik Aaryan are riding high on the success of their film, 'Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2.' The two promoted the film across the country during which Kiara said she made efforts to ‘steal’ Kartik's fans with her sweet gestures. The actor made the confession during an interview with Netflix, and Kartik confirmed she was telling the truth.

Netflix shared a video clip from the interview on Instagram. It shows Kiara opening up about how she tried to convert Kartik's fans into hers. She said, "I am converting his fans.

The other day I tried converting one of Kartik's fans to my fans. He has these girl fans who

Kangana supports Centre’s Agnipath scheme

Anil Kapoor open to working in West if the idea excites him

A

ctor Kangana Ranaut has come out in support of the Centre’s Agnipath scheme, for the recruitment of soldiers in the armed forces. Drawing comparison to students attending Gurukul in the olden days, she said that the government scheme is “almost like that” but they are getting paid. Ranaut added that as a “shocking percentage” of youth are “getting destroyed in drugs and PUBG” they need these reforms.

Taking to her Instagram Stories, Kangana wrote, “Many nations like Israel have made army training compulsory for all their youth, few years every one gives to the army to learn life values like discipline, nationalism and what it means to guard your country’s borders.”

The Narendra Modi-led government’s Agnipath scheme proposes to recruit soldiers for four years and retire 75 per cent of them without pension and other social security benefits after the end of their term. Under the scheme, youngsters between 17.5 and 23 years of age will be recruited for the said period.

While 75 per cent of them will have to take compulsory retirement, the remainder will continue serving. The announcement was met with violent protests in various parts of the country.

On the work front, Kangana will be next seen in ‘Tejas’, where she portrays the role of an Indian Air Force officer. The movie is scheduled to release later this year. She is also set to feature in ‘Emergency’, which is based on the life of later prime minister Indira Gandhi.

Apart from it, Kangana is also coming up with ‘Tiku Weds Sheru’, which stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Avneet Kaur in the lead roles.

V

eteran actor Anil Kapoor is currently busy promoting his upcoming movie ‘JugJugg Jeeyo’, and has a long line of projects in the pipeline. However, when asked, Anil says that he has no immediate plans of return to Hollywood.

Speaking in an interview, Anil said, “There are shows, films, which are pitched to me. Sometimes things don’t work out, because of various reasons. It might be the role. It might be the script, it might be the timing when they approached me. And sometimes it might be situations where I feel as if it is not worth my time to go there for this kind of film, or this kind of role.”

Anil is, however, open to working in the West if the idea excites him. He said, “But I’m always open to jobs which challenge me, which will help me grow my craft as an actor. And I would love to work with filmmakers who can challenge me and can make me a better actor in the West. I’m looking forward to that.”

On the work front, Anil will be seen in Ranbir Kapoor-starrer 'Animal’ and Hrithik Roshan and Deepika Padukone-starrer ‘Fighter’. He has Olympic gold medal winner shooter Abhinav Bindra’s biopic alongside his son Harsh Varrdhan in the lead. Anil will also be seen in the Indian adaptation of the successful BBC series ‘The Night Manager.’

come crying… Kartik, Kartik, I am so upset with you and all… So sometimes, he may not notice who is crying and all, but I notice. So I take advantage of the situation. I will come and say ‘beta’ come. I tell Kartik give her a hug. She's been waiting for you."

She added, "And he doesn't even know. In my head, I am like, ‘they will open my fanpage tomorrow’." Kartik also confirmed that Kiara was actually trying to steal his fans. He said, “She does that a lot. Every time I try to save them from her. She purposely does that in front of them so that they hear and think she is extra sweet. She's making them her fans.”

Pregnant Sonam relaxes on a couch in hubby’s 'no filter' pics

A

ctress Sonam Kapoor and her husband Anand Ahuja are all set to welcome a new member into their family. The couple is based in London and often posts mushy pictures of each other on social media. Anand recently took to his Instagram handle to treat his digital family with “no-filter” pictures of his wife. In the pictures, Sonam can be seen relaxing on a couch. She is dressed in an oversized white shirt that the actress wore over a black tee and pair of pants. The pretty actress wore big hoops earrings and a layered neckpiece.

Sharing the photos, Anand captioned them, “Love every moment #nofilter #portraitmode”. Sonam commented, “I’m a ”. Meanwhile, Sonam shared pictures from her baby shower that took place in London with her friends and family present. Leo Kalyan, who performed at the shower, also shared pictures and videos on Instagram and captioned the post, “A spice girl in Bollywood. I just performed at Sonam Kapoor’s baby shower. What is life?”

Sonam and Anand announced their pregnancy in March this year. The couple got married in May 2018 in Mumbai.

Nushrratt Bharuccha reveals about getting 'filthy' messages

A

ctor Nushrratt Bharuccha, who currently features in the recently-released ‘Janhit Mein Jaari’, saw a barrage of hateful and filthy comments directed towards her after the first teaser of the movie was released last month.

The actress plays the role of a condom seller in the film. In a recent interview, Nushrratt opened up about how the vile comments affected her.

‘Janhit Mein Jaari’ is about a young girl in a small town in Madhya Pradesh, who takes up the challenging task of selling condoms in her hometown. The teaser for the film was released in May and soon after, Nushrratt says she saw filthy messages on social media.

She later uploaded a video on Instagram responding to the trolls.

In the interview, she says the trolling affected her whole family. “The messages were so filthy that these reactions not only affected me but my entire family and friends.

I couldn’t sleep for two nights thinking about their messages.”

The actor said she initially thought of forgetting it and moving on but later decided to give it back to the trolls.

She recounted, “The next day I thought should I just ignore and move one? I thought I just can be thick-skinned and forget about it. Then I thought… I live in a democratic country, I too enjoy the freedom of speech then why should I not share my piece of mind?”

‘Janhit Mein Jaari’ was released on June 10 and only earned Rs 42,00,000 on day one. The film also stars Pavail Gulati, Annu Kapoor, Anud Dhaka and Paritosh Tripathi.

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Sadhguru clears Samantha's doubts A

ctor Samantha Ruth Prabhu posed a series of questions to spiritual guru Sadhguru in her interaction with him in Hyderabad. Her questions covered topics such as the quest for spirituality being exclusive to the privileged class, to the idea of individuality. However, she was most interested in knowing Sadhguru’s opinion on a question that had been on her mind lately.

She asked, “Another question that has been on my mind lately is how much of one’s life is a result of their past karma? Are the injustices and unfairness that one faces in one’s life a result of their past karma, and if so, do you accept these injustices and find solace in the fact that the karma is being cleared, even though it might seem detrimental to our lives in so many ways…?”

Sadhguru replied, “Do you still expect the world to be fair to you?” Samantha said with a laugh, “That’s why I’m asking this question! Can I blame it on my past karma is what I’m asking.” Sadhguru responded, “I want the world to be fair to me is a schoolgirl question,” before offering an explanation about how life is inherently unfair. “By now, you should know the world is not fair. It will not be fair,” he said.

Samantha had a tumultuous 2021, after splitting from her husband Naga Chaitanya. On the work front, Samantha received some of

the best reviews of her career with a supporting appearance in the second season of Amazon Prime Video’s ‘The Family Man’. She was last seen in ‘Kathy Vaakula Rendu Kaadhal’, and before that in a special dance number for ‘Pushpa: The Rise’.

Chiranjeevi praises

Rajinikanth’s next titled

ADIVI SESH’S ‘MAJOR’

‘JAILER’, FIRST POSTER SHARED

A

ctor Chiranjeevi recently took to Twitter to praise Adivi Sesh’s ‘Major’. Describing it as an “emotion”, he spent time with the film’s cast and the team behind it and hosted them for lunch. Overwhelmed by Chiranjeevi’s gesture, Adivi called it an honour to be recognised by a star of his stature. Chiranjeevi lauded actor Mahesh Babu, who co-produced the movie, for backing such a purposeful film.

He tweeted, “#Major is not a film. It’s truly an Emotion.

Story of a great Hero & Martyr #MajorSandeepUnnikrishnan told in the most poignant way. A must-watch.

Proud of @urstrulyMahesh for backing such a purposeful film. Hearty Congrats to @AdiviSesh @saieemmanjrekar #Sobhita @SashiTikka & Team (sic).”

Replying to Chiranjeevi, Sesh wrote, “Today feels like my highest honour Sir! @KChiruTweets You spoke to us for hours.

Fed us an amazing lunch. And explained what you loved about the film. Such atten-

A

ctor Rajinikanth’s upcoming Tamil film, which marks his maiden collaboration with director Nelson Dilip Kumar, has been titled ‘Jailer’. Makers of the movie made the announcement over the weekend by unveiling the first poster, which features a blood-

stained sickle. The project, which will also star Kannada actor Shivrajkumar in a pivotal role, will go on the floors soon.

Sun Pictures shared the title with the first poster, inviting a tsunami of comments asking if the movie will be a single-location

tion to detail, such insightful questions. I always loved #Megastar the hero. Today, I witnessed your heart of gold (sic).”

‘Major’ follows the story of the late Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, who died fighting terrorists in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. Besides playing the lead role, Adivi also has written the film and called it his pet project. Filmed simultaneously in Telugu and Hindi languages, has reportedly grossed over £4.25 million in cinemas worldwide. The film also stars Sobhita Dhulipala, Saiee Manjrekar and Murali Sharma.

Not ready for marriage yet: Sai Pallavi A

ctor Sai Pallavi, who is busy promoting her forthcoming Telugu film ‘Virata Parvam’, recently spoke about her marriage plans in an interview.

Without revealing when she will marry, Sai said she had no such plans, as of now. She also added that she was happy being alone for the time being, and was on a journey of self-exploration.

She said, “I’ve got so used to speaking Telugu at home that my father jokes about me eventually marrying a Telugu guy. At home, we speak Badaga, but I end up using Telugu often.” When she was asked if marriage is on the cards anytime soon, she said, “I don’t think it’ll happen anytime soon. Right now, I’m happy being alone and I’m trying to know about myself more. I’m on that journey.”

In ‘Virata Parvam’, Sai will be playing a role inspired by real-life singer-activist Belli Lalitha, who falls in love with Rana Daggubati’s character. Belli Lalitha was a popular folk-singer-turned-activist; she played a crucial role in the fight for the statehood of Telangana in the early 1990s. She was kidnapped and killed in 1999. The film sheds light on the Naxal movement.

film like Nelson’s last outing ‘Beast’. Fans wondered if 'Jailer' would be ‘filmed completely inside a prison’. One Twitter user wrote, “Nelson is taking up another biggest task of handling a star in a single location/major portions to be shot in single location… Let #Jailer have a strong villain to fight.”

On the work front, Rajinikanth was last seen in the Tamil film ‘Annaatthe’. The movie, which was also produced by Sun Pictures, featured actors Keerthy Suresh, Nayanthara, Khushbhu Sundar, Meena and Jagapathi Babu.

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25 June - 1 July 2022

Priyanka has been a 'rock' in new parenthood: Nick C

elebrity couple Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra celebrated the birth of their first child earlier this year, and are now finding their path as new parents. In an interview with People, Jonas said they’ve been feeling “gratitude” for having their baby girl, Malti Marie Chopra Jonas, home with them following her 100plus days in the neonatal intensive care unit. Nick said the experience of having her stay in the hospital after she was born via surrogate was “eye-opening in a lot of ways.”

Nick said he and Priyanka decided to share their story on social media to help other parents going through similar difficult situations. He said, “It was really important that people know that whatever their journey is

'Scam 2003’ is a fresh start: Hansal Mehta

Interview with Pan Nalin, Director of the film ‘Chhello Show’

I

n 'Chhello Show' (Last Film Show) you reconnect to your Gujarati roots – how was that and does the film have some autobiographical elements?

“I grew up in the countryside in Kathiawar in Saurashtra, Gujarat.There are storytellers who used to come to our village as there was no cinema – you’d need to take a one-hour train ride to watch a movie - but these storytellers were very popular. They would come with a harmonium in the evening, sit and talk, tell stories and there was always some kind of a hidden spiritual message. So it always impressed me that one guy with just a harmonium can have 500 villagers listening to him till midnight, and this tradition continues even today.

“I never thought I'd ever make an autobiographical film because I never thought there was anything exciting to say about my childhood. I'm not a fan of such stories because it happens to millions of kids across the word. In 2010 I visited one of my friends who was almost like a teacher to me; he was a film projector operator with whom I used to share my lunch as a kid – I’d give him my school lunch and he used to let me watch films for free from the projection booth. I went to meet him, and he was living in poverty. He told me stories about how he and his friends had their single screen cinemas shut down because digital multiplexes have taken over.

“He doesn't know how to read and so he can't operate the digital projector which is a whole

or whatever challenges might come up, you’re not alone.

The power of social media is that it connects us all and makes this very big world a little bit smaller.” Praising the ‘Citadel’ actress, he said she was “a rock the whole time and continues to be.” Nick added, “I’m grateful to have a teammate in Pri.” Meanwhile, Priyanka also feels the same about her husband of four years. She said she has watched him “create music, write scripts, launch businesses, among many other things, all while being so present.” She added, “He’s an incredible son, brother, husband, friend and father. I don’t know how I got so lucky.”

Both Priyanka and Nick married in December 2018, just seven months after they began dating.

F different process. He didn’t know what else to do and had friends in a similar position. We started talking about cinema and what happened to those projectors and film reels, how they were destroyed and how many screens are shutting across the world, and it really hit me – it crushed me to the core - because that was my entire childhood.

“So that’s how 'Last Film Show' started. I realised that it will be one decade since the disappearance of celluloid, so I thought it was a good time to make a film about it because these were the teachers who taught me, gave meaning to my life as a filmmaker and I’ve learned so much from many filmmakers. I wanted to go back to my roots and find a way of telling my story but at the same time, talk about cinema as a love letter. So that’s how Chhello Show was born, and I ended up shooting in all the places I grew up.”

LONDON: BFI, 3.00pm, Sun 26 June & Ciné Lumière, 6.00pm, Tue 28 June BIRMINGHAM: MAC Birmingham, 7.30pm, Sat 25 June (For more details please see advertisement on page 15)

ilmmaker Hansal Mehta said the second season of his hit series ‘Scam’ will be as “authentic and entertaining” as the original, but with a completely new take on its storytelling. A follow-up of the critically-acclaimed first part ‘Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story’, the new season will tackle the 2003 Stamp Paper fraud involving Abdul Karim Telgi.

The new instalment will feature theatre actor Gagan Dev Riar. He will serve as the show runner and direct alongside filmmaker Tushar Hiranandani of ‘Saand Ki Aankh’ fame.

Speaking in a panel discussion to celebrate two years of streaming platform SonyLIV, Mehta said the team has treated the new season as a “fresh start”. He said, “It’ll be entertaining, authentic and all the things that season one was and much more. You’re delving into a life, a new character. We will try to incorporate learnings from season one.”

“But we have treated season two as a fresh start. We cannot be bogged down by season one, it was a huge success so we have to repeat

US writers celebrate SS Rajamouli’s ‘RRR’

T

here is no doubt that SS Rajamouli’s ‘RRR’ has become a global hit. With each passing day, the magnum opus has garnered increasing viewership, especially in the US. The latest one to join the movie’s fandom is Hollywood writer Jackson Lanzing.

A New York Times Bestselling writer, and creative director, he has written DC’s ‘Batman Beyond’, Marvel Comics’ ‘Captain America’, ‘Kang’, and more. Jackson took to his Twitter handle recently and wrote, “Hey

‘Ms Marvel’ discusses love for Shah Rukh, his films

B

ollywood ‘Badshah’ Shah Rukh Khan has a massive international fan following, even in the Marvel universe.

Many of us are enjoying the new Disney Plus series ‘Ms Marvel’, which, much to our delight, is peppered with desi references.

In the second episode of the series, ‘Ms Marvel’ aka Kamala Khan is seen sitting in a car with a group of her friends. She asks her high school crush Kamran if he, like her, is into Bollywood movies. The boy responds in the affirmative and says he does watch Bollywood movies but only those starring the greats of Hindi cinema, like Shah Rukh Khan.

it. The moment you get into that trap, you’ll end up disappointing yourself,” the filmmaker said. “It’s a completely fresh take with a new director, who is executing it with his own vision, ability and we have a new actor, who’s another sensational find. So there are a lot of new things to look forward to. It has a new story, part of this amazing franchise,” he added.

Mehta said the team is mounting season two with the same conviction as they did during their first outing. “One of the learnings from the show was that we took risks. And ‘risk hai toh ishq hai’. So we won’t stop taking those risks and do it with conviction,” he said.

The new season will follow the life of Telgi, a fruit-seller born in Khanapur in Karnataka and his journey to becoming the mastermind behind one of the most ingenious scams in India. ‘Scam: 2003’ is adapted from the Hindi book Reporter ki Diary authored by journalist and news reporter Sanjay Singh, who is credited with breaking the story of the scam back in the time. The series is produced by Applause Entertainment in association with StudioNEXT. Applause Entertainment CEO Sameer Nair said the “Scam” franchise may include “crossovers” in the future as the team gets more ambitious.

‘Ms Marvel’ creators had earlier expressed their desire to work with SRK. Writer Sana Amanat had said, “If Shah Rukh Khan wants to be in this show, we will go film again!” It is obvious that the actor’s charms have crossed the seven

seas. SRK is yet to comment on all the compliments he’s been getting from the show team.

Starring Iman Vellani in the lead role, ‘Ms Marvel’ is currently streaming on Disney Plus Hotstar.

Jackson, was RRR the best time you’ve had at the movies?” He also inserted a gif featuring Ram Charan’s character Raju in the Telugu blockbuster giving a thumbs-up, to share his reaction after watching the film.

This isn’t the first time the movie has received a positive review from Hollywood stalwarts. Recently, ‘Doctor Strange’ screenwriter C Robert Cargill took to the micro-blogging website to applaud the movie. Over a tweet, he shared how his friends pestered him to watch it. His tweet read, “Friends came over last night to initiate me into the cult of RRR (RISE ROAR REVOLT) and I’m here to report I am now fully, truly, deeply a member. This is the craziest, most sincere, weirdest blockbuster I’ve ever seen. I’m pretty sure Jess and I are watching it again this week.”

Also, American screenwriter Larry Karaszewski, of ‘American Crime Story’ fame, had tweeted a clip from ‘RRR’ song ‘Natu Natu’. He wrote, “Those who say cinema is dead aren’t looking in the right places. #RRR.” After opening to packed theatres in March in India across dubbed languages, ‘RRR’ went on to cross Rs 1200 Crore at the global box office. After becoming one of the highest-grossing blockbusters of the year, it is now finding immense success in the US too.

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India-South Africa T20 series ends 2-2 Hardik Pandya to The fifth and deciding Twenty20 international between India and South Africa was abandoned due to rain in Bangalore on Sunday with the series ending level at 2-2.

Indian skipper Rishabh Pant on Sunday said India's different approach to win matches has paid off after their Twenty20 international series against South Africa ended 2-2 with the final game being washed out.

The hosts bounced back from 2-0 down to level the series with convincing victories in the absence of top stars including regular captain Rohit Sharma and batting stalwart Virat Kohli.

Rain played spoilsport in the series decider in Bangalore when persistent showers forced umpires to call off the match with just

3.3 overs bowled and India on 28-3 after being put into bat first.

"It might get a little bit frustrating (with the no result), but there are a lot of positives, especially the way the whole team showed character after the series was 2-0 (in favour of South Africa)," said Pant.

"We are just finding different ways to win the matches, we are trying to play different kind of

cricket which we never used to play. There will be mistakes but as along we learn from our mistakes and keep improving it will be fine."

India won the third match by 48 runs and then hammered the hosts by 82 runs for their second successive win on Friday.

Pace bowler Bhuvenshwar Kumar was named player of the series for his six wickets. Indian

opener Ishan Kishan topped the batting chart with 206 runs.

Pant, who was made national captain for the first time ahead of the series when KL Rahul pulled out injured, had an ordinary outing with scores of 29, 5, 6 and 17.

"It is for you guys to decide on how I am doing as a player and captain," the wicketkeeper-batsman said on his first series as Indian leader. "I can only focus on giving my 100 per cent every time I go on the field and keep improving."

India now head to Ireland for two T20 international matches while a few players including Pant head straight to England for a rescheduled fifth Test starting on July 1in Birmingham.

Neeraj to lead 37-member CWG athletics team The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) named a 37member Indian athletics team, to be led by Olympic gold medal winning javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, for the Commonwealth Games, with the selection committee picking the athletes on expected lines.

THE TEAM: Men: Avinash Sable (3000m Steeplechase); Nitender Rawat (Marathon); M Sreeshankar and Muhammed Anees Yahiya (Long Jump); Abdulla Aboobacker, Praveen Chithravel and Eldhose Paul (Triple Jump); Tajinderpal Singh Toor (Shot Put); Neeraj Chopra, DP Manu and Rohit Yadav (Javelin Throw); Sandeep Kumar and Amit Khatri (Race

and Shilpa Rani (Javelin Throw); Bala Manju Singh and Sarita Romit Singh ( H a m m e r Throw); Bhawna Jat and Priyanka Neeraj Chopra Goswami (Race Walking); Hima Walking); Amoj Jacob, Noah Das, Dutee Chand, Srabani Nirmal Tom, Arokia Rajiv, Nanda, MV Jilna and NS Muhammed Ajmal, Simi (4x100m relay).

Naganathan Pandi and Wins Kuortane Games Rajesh Ramesh (4x400m Neeraj, meanwhile, Relay).

Women: S clinched his first top Dhanalakshmi (100m and podium finish of the season 4x100m relay); Jyothi Yarraji by winning the javelin throw (100m Hurdles); Aishwarya event at the Kuortane B (Long Jump and Triple Games in Finland, beating Jump) and Ancy Sojan (Long reigning world champion Jump); Manpreet Kaur (Shot Anderson Peters of Grenada Put); Navjeet Kaur Dhilllon for the second time in four and Seema Antil Punia days. The 24-year-old (Discus Throw); Annu Rani Neeraj’s opening throw of

AAD supports calls to rename Bob Lord stand Jonathan Metliss, chairman of Action Against Discrimination (AAD), said it supported calls for Burnley Football Club to rename its Bob Lord Stand, in the light of anti-semitic comments that he made in the 1970’s at a Variety Club dinner.

Those remarks caused anger at the time and many guests walked out of the event in protest. Letters of complaint were sent to Sir Andrew Stephen, Chairman of the football association, and Len Shipman, president of the Football League.

Coincidentally, this comes after Burnley supporters made Nazi salutes at the Tottenham Hotspur v Burnley game on 15 May. They are now subject to punitive action. Although Lord apologised for his comments at the time, the Club have now launched a probe into the matter.

In the circumstances, AAD calls on Burnley Football Club to rename the Bob Lord Stand in the best interests of football and honorable behaviour. Anti-semitic behaviour in any form is simply not acceptable , nor must it be tolerated or condoned.

86.69m turned out to be the winning distance. Trinidad and Tobago’s 2012 Olympics champion Keshorn Walcott was second with a first round throw of 86.64m.

Peters was third with a best throw of 84.75m, which also came in the opening round.

Neeraj’s second and third attempts were fouls and he did only three throws. That meant Neeraj had single legal throw and he won the competition with it. His throw was not as big as the 89.30m effort while finishing second in the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku, Finland, in a starstudded field but the win will surely boost his confidence ahead of the Stockholm Diamond League on June 30.

lead India against Ireland in T20

IPL winning captain Hardik Pandya was named skipper of the Indian team for the two-match T20 series against Ireland in Dublin on June 26 and 28.

The only new face in the side is Maharashtra righthand batter Rahul Tripathi, who was rewarded for his Hardik Pandya stellar batting during this edition of IPL where he scored more than 400 runs for Sunrisers Hyderabad.

“I am very happy that the selectors and everybody believed in me and whatever hard work I have put in, I have got the rewards. And hopefully, if I get an opportunity to play, I will try and give my best,” Tripathi said.

Pandya, who is Rishabh Pant’s deputy in the current T20I series against South Africa, was elevated to the leadership role and will join the Test squad in England after the completion of the home series.

Sanju Samson, whose profligacy has been well documented over the years, gets another shot at redemption, as he made a comeback for the series, having guided Rajasthan Royals to the IPL final. Also back in the squad is Suryakumar Yadav, who had sustained a wrist fracture.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been named vice-captain for the series.

The designated wicket keeper will be 36-year-old Dinesh Karthik if one goes by the squad list, while both Ishan Kishan and Samson can keep wickets if need be. Samson’s keeping isn’t considered up to the mark, so he could well be the third keeper in the mix.

Batting legend and current National Cricket Academy chairman VVS Laxman will be the head coach of the side during the two-match tour. NCA coaches Sitanshu Kotak, Sairaj Bahutule and Munish Bali will also accompany Laxman.

Rohit, Kohli and rest fly for England Meanwhile, all-format skipper Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and pacer Jasprit Burmah boarded the flight for London, for the tour of England. Among other Indian players who were on that plane to London were off-spinner R Ashwin, allrounder Ravindra Jadeja, pacers Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur and Prasidh Krishna, batsmen Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari and wicketkeeper KS Bharat.

India head coach Rahul Dravid will join the Indian team in England after the conclusion of the T20 series against South Africa on Sunday. India will play England in one Test (the fifth Test of a series carried over from last year) from July 1-5 at Edgbaston, and then three ODIs and as many T20Is.

Bairstow powers England to test, series win Jonny Bairstow blasted England to a five-wicket win over New Zealand on the final day of the second Test at Trent Bridge last week as the home side won a series for the first time since January 2021.

England chased down 299 thanks to an alltime great display of raw power from Bairstow, who took just 77 balls to reach the ninth Test century of his career.

Bairstow narrowly missed hitting England’s fastest Test hundred, taking one more delivery than Gilbert Jessop, who scored a 76-ball ton against Australia in 1902.

While Bairstow could not earn a place in the history books, that will be a footnote for the

32-year-old, whose display will be remembered forever by all those who witnessed it.

A capacity crowd at Jonny Bairstow Trent Bridge was treated to a remarkable array of brutal boundaries from Bairstow, who hit 14 fours and seven sixes to leave New Zealand bewildered in his 92-ball masterclass.

After chasing down 277 to win the first Test at Lord’s by five wickets thanks to Joe Root’s 115 not out, Bairstow ensured England enjoyed another successful final-day chase.

At tea, all four results were possible, with England needing another 160 runs with six wickets left.

Racism charge against Vaughan, several others

At the IIW All Ladies Cricket Championship 2022, Blue Skywalkers won the final match against Orpington Ocelots. The winning sixer was hit by Kartika from Blue Skywalkers. Captain Kiran Tankella was ecstatic as this was the first time most in the team had played cricket. Trustees of Indian Gymkhana Club Sutantar Soni and Raj Bancil were present at the venue. Guests of Honour were former MP Mary Macleod, Khushbu Jain ( lawyer Supreme Court of India ) and Former PC Purnima Rawal and respected Ravi Sharma who kept the crowd engaged and entertained with remarkable ease.

Former England captain Michael Vaughan is among several high-profile people charged by the ECB after the governing body’s investigation into alleged racism at Yorkshire.

Although they are not criminal charges, a group including Matthew Hoggard, Tim Bresnan, Gary Ballance and former head coach Andrew Gale, plus the club itself, will be subject to disciplinary hearings this autumn.

That will ensure Yorkshire’s racism saga, brought to light by former player Azeem Rafiq’s whistleblowing in August 2020, will extend beyond two years.

The latest twist comes seven months after Rafiq’s testimony at a parliamentary select committee as it was finally confirmed - after the ECB’s own probe into racism and other allegations of misconduct at Headingley - that a Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC) panel will conduct a hearing in September or October.