The Asian Star February 4 2023

Adani Group loses $107 billion after a week of stock carnage

The Adani Group faced another disastrous day on the market as the shares of its listed companies continued their downward spiral for the sixth consecutive session following the conglomerate’s decision to call off its fully subscribed Rs 20,000 crore followon-public offer (FPO) late on Wednesday.

In past six trading days, the total market

A California radiologist’s wife allegedly told paramedics that her husband intentionally drove their Tesla over an infamous California cliff with his family inside intending to kill them.

capitalisation (m-cap) of nine Adani group companies has been eroded by $ 107 billion (Rs 8.65 lakh crore) or 45 per cent.

The market cap of nine Adani stocks has reduced from Rs 19.2 lakh crore before the short-seller’s attack, to

Rs 10.5 lakh crore at the end of the trading session on February 2, 2023.

Adani Total Gas, the top loser among the pack, saw Rs 2.39 lakh crore of market cap erosion during the period, while Adani Enterprises (Rs 1.86 lakh crore), Adani Green Energy (Rs 1.39 lakh crore) and Adani Transmission’s (Rs 1.33 lakh

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South Asian wife whose husband drove Tesla off the cliff told paramedics, ‘He intentionally tried to kill us’ with three counts of attempted murder in connection with the Jan. 2 crash that injured his 41-year-old wife Neha Patel and their children, a 7-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy.

Dharmesh Patel, 42, was charged Monday

Neha Patel allegedly told paramedics after they

US, India partnership targets arms and AI to compete with China

The White House is launching a partnership with India on Tuesday that President Joe Biden hopes will help the countries compete against China on military equipment, semiconductors and artificial intelligence.

Washington wants to deploy more Western mobile phone networks in the subcontinent to counter China’s Huawei Technologies, to welcome more Indian computer chip specialists to the United States and to encourage companies from both countries to collaborate on military equipment such as artillery systems. The White House faces an uphill battle on each front, including U.S. restrictions on military technology transfer and visas for immigrant workers, along with India’s longstanding dependence on Moscow for military hardware.

Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and his Indian

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had plunged down the 250-foot cliff that “he intentionally tried to kill us,” San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe tells PEOPLE.

“She made that statement when asked, ‘What happened? What happened?’” Wagstaffe

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IMF projects India’s growth at 6.1% in 2023; global inflation to fall in 2023, 2024

Global growth is projected to fall from an estimated 3.4 percent in 2022 to 2.9 percent in 2023, then rise to 3.1 percent in 2024. The forecast for 2023 is 0.2 percentage point higher than predicted in the October 2022 World Economic Outlook (WEO) but below the historical (2000–19) average of 3.8 percent. The rise in central bank rates to fight inflation and Russia’s war in Ukraine continue to weigh on economic activity. The rapid spread of COVID-19 in China dampened growth in 2022, but the recent reopening has paved the way for a faster-thanexpected recovery. Global inflation is expected to fall from 8.8 percent in 2022 to 6.6 percent in 2023 and 4.3 percent in 2024, still above pre-pandemic (2017–19) levels of about 3.5 percent.

Racim alleged at local soccer match

There’s a growing call to address racism in sports after a team of 15 and 16-year-old soccer players from Surrey left a game in tears.

The club’s president, coach, and parents tell Daily Hive it was because the opposing team made racist comments toward some of the players, and those comments came from players and adults on the sidelines.

The game was being played between the Greater Vancouver United Sports Club (GVUSC), based in Surrey, and the Coquitlam Metro-Ford Soccer Club (CMFSC) on October 18, 2022.

GVUSC President Nischal Ram was there that day and says offensive language was used on the field against his players, and that some of the teens had been called the N-word and terrorists. Ram alleges the players were also threatened and told to “go back to Surrey” during the game. He says the players who were targeted are predominantly South Asian and include three Muslim boys.

Ram added this is not the first time the team has faced discrimination

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Seeds

The

Federal Conservative leader critical about drug crisis in BC

Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre did not mince his words Wednesday when asked about the ongoing drug crisis in B.C. and how the federal and provincial governments are handling the issue.

“The results are in. The debate is over,” Poilievre said.

“It has been a disaster. An absolute abject failure.

“You need to not only take a walk down the streets of East Vancouver where addicts lay face-first on the pavement, where people are living permanently in tents and encampments but you just need to look at the data.”

He said there has been a 300 per cent increase in drug overdose deaths in the province since Justin Trudeau was elected prime minister in 2015.

According to the B.C. Coroners Service, there were 529 deaths from illicit drugs in

2015. That number rose to 2,272 in 2022.

“The Trudeau-NDP approach is on open display in Vancouver. It is a complete disaster — it is hell on earth,” Poilievre said.

British Columbia’s pilot project to decriminalize possession of small quantities of some drugs started on a three-year experiment Tuesday, built on a three-year federal exemption from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

That exemption will allow drug users to carry up to 2.5 grams of opioids like heroin or fentanyl, crack and powdered cocaine, or methamphetamines and MDMA. Under the program, police will not confiscate small quantities of drugs from people, and will instead hand out information on recovery options.

Poilievre said if elected, his government would reverse the decriminalization policy and replace it with recovery and treatment.

APPLIANCES REPAIR

Sikh separatist movement finds way to Australia, Canada; Hindu temples vandalized

Multiple Hindu temples have been vandalized in Australia and Canada, actions that have been attributed to members of the pro-Khalistan movement.

In the span of two weeks, three Hindu temples were vandalized in Australia – on January 12 at the Swaminarayan temple in Melbourne, January 16 at the historic Shri Shiva Vishnu Temple in Victoria, and on January 23 at the ISKCON Temple in Melbourne.

The latest defacement saw slogans on the walls including “Khalistan Zindabad” (a rally call in support of Khalistan) and “Hindustan Murdabad,” (death to India).

The Khalistan movement is part of a separatist agenda to create an independent homeland for Sikhs by establishing a sovereign state. Various independent referendums to secede Punjab from India have been held, one in London in 2021, and another in Canada in 2022 – all of which bore non-binding results.

On January 26, the High Commission of India released a strongly-worded statement to address the vandalism:

“The High Commission of India strongly condemns the deeply disturbing incidents of vandalization, including of three Hindu temples in Melbourne in recent weeks. The frequency and impunity with which the

vandals appear to be operating are alarming, as are the graffiti which include glorification of anti-Indian terrorists. These incidents are clear attempts to sow hatred and division among the peaceful multi-faith and multicultural Indian-Australian community.”

The statement continued, “Signals that pro-Khalistan elements are stepping up their activities in Australia, actively aided and abetted by members of proscribed terrorist organizations such as the Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) and other inimical agencies from outside Australia, have been evident for some time.”

“Our concerns have repeatedly been shared with the Australian Government, both by the High Commission and our Consulates in Australia, and by our Government with the Australian High Commission in Delhi. It is hoped that not only will the perpetrators be brought to justice, but suitable action will also be taken to prevent further attempts.”

Following the vandalism in Australia, the Gauri Shankar Mandir was vandalized with “anti-India graffiti” in Canada’s Brampton province, Indian media reported on Tuesday. Times Now reported that the SFJ and other pro-Khalistan groups could be responsible for the attack.

Police are asking the public to help return a 74-year-old Rosedale man back into medical care after a Form 21 Director’s Warrant was issued by a doctor on Jan. 20, 2023.

The Form 21 Director’s Warrant under the Mental Health Act for Wilfred James Kilgren was issued after he failed to return to the Chilliwack General Hospital.

The purpose of this type of warrant is to allow police to legally arrest an individual who has been involuntarily admitted to hospital to get them back into medical care. RCMP said Kilgren apparently had a desire to travel to Saskatchewan and may be attempting to make his way there. He may be in a grey 2001 Toyota RAV4, B.C. licence plate SW807B.

RCMP looking for mental health patient missing from Chilliwack General Hospital

OPINION

Khanduri

Manish

Giant blisters and leg fractures. Inside a marathon march to ‘remake India’

By the time he had walked 400 kilometers in the wet and humid Indian monsoon season, the soles of Vaibhav Walia’s feet were covered in giant blisters. His colleague, Lhingkim Haokip, had been diagnosed with a minor fracture in her leg. Walking alongside them, I experienced something I’d

never previously heard of — blisters developing inside my blisters. Every step was beyond agony.

All of us kept walking. We had a long way to go. Walia, 36, Haokip, 48 and I are members of India’s oldest political party, the Indian National Congress. Along with tens of thousands of party cadre, we were part of the Bharat Jodo

Yatra (Unite India March), a marathon trek on foot across the length of India, with a route totaling over 4,000 kilometers. Party member Rahul Gandhi, a fellow walker, has emerged as the face of the yatra, attracting intense interest and much media coverage.

Gandhi, 52, a Congressman and former party leader, is the great-grandson of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, grandson of the nation’s first female Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and son of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and former Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi. (As an aside, I note that a common complaint among yatris has been that the man walks too fast, making life tough for everyone around him who’d prefer a more reasonable pace.) he journey began on September 7, 2022, in the southernmost part of the country, Trivandrum — “where the three oceans meet.”

Over 136 days, yatris traversed 12 states and 2 union territories, following scenic routes along the Arabian Sea and through the fabled Western Ghat mountain ranges. We walked through desolate countryside and congested cities; on national highways and village mud tracks; in 35 degree Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) temperatures and the freezing cold of the Himalayas.

In the Indian tradition, the word ‘Yatra’ is closely associated with religious and political tradition — in Hindu culture, ‘tirtha yatra’ is a journey to a sacred place, with the physical suffering endured along the way seen as an affirmation of devotion.

The 8th century Indian sage, Vedic scholar and teacher Adi Shankaracharya walked across India to establish multiple religious centers.

In 1930, Mahatma Gandhi led the iconic Salt march, a walk of 385 kilometers, to trigger the hugely popular civil disobedience movement.

Our Bharat Jodo Yatra is an ambitious attempt to follow in the footsteps of these illustrious peers — and, like them, help remake India.

The Yatra is the centerpiece of a multi-pronged strategy the Indian National Congress is deploying to revitalize its base and attract new voters. Every day we covered 20-30 kilometers. While a core group of around 250 people walked the entire route, on any given day, there were between a few thousand to a hundred thousand joining us. (I myself walked roughly three-quarters of the route.)

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BC’s 3-year experiment with drug decriminalization started from Tuesday

The B.C. government outlined details around the three-year trial for drug decriminalization on Monday.

Starting Tuesday, adults with up to twoand-a-half grams of drugs for personal use, including opioids, cocaine and MDMA, will not be arrested or charged.

The goal is to reduce the shame and stigma surrounding drug use, which the province says keeps people from accessing life-saving services.

Since 2016, toxic drugs have killed almost 11,000 people in B.C. The B.C. government said this does not mean drugs are legalized. “The drugs covered under this exemption remain illegal,” the province said in a release. “The selling (or trafficking) of controlled substances remains illegal under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, regardless of the amount.”

Possession of illegal substances will remain illegal on K-to-12 school premises, at licensed child-care facilities, in certified airports, on Canadian Coast Guard vessels

and helicopters, for Canadian Forces members subject to the Code of Service Discipline, in a motor vehicle or watercraft operated by a minor, when the illegal substances are readily accessible to the operator of a motor vehicle or watercraft and for anyone under the age of 18.

“In many cases, illegal drug use continues to be prohibited on private property, including places like shopping malls, bars and cafes,” the province said. “Police retain legal authority to remove people from these premises under the authority of the Trespass Act if open drug use is occurring against the wishes of the owner.” The provincial government said it has hired health authority-specific positions to bridge the gaps between those using illicit drugs and organizations working in the community to help them. It has also worked with BC RCMP and municipal police departments to train officers and provide guidance about decimalization and has invested in more treatment and recovery centres and resources.

Five things to know about BC’s decriminalization model

British Columbia is introducing a policy of decriminalization on Tuesday as part of what it says is an overall plan to prevent overdose deaths from illicit drugs.

The pilot project will continue until Jan. 31, 2026, after a federal exemption from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

Here are five things to know about decriminalization. Which drugs will people be permitted to possess, and how much?

Drug users will be allowed to carry up to a total of 2.5 grams of opioids such as heroin and fentanyl, as well as crack and powder cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA, also known as ecstasy. B.C.’s application to the federal government called for 4.5 grams, but police requested one gram before a decision by Ottawa to allow a cumulative 2.5 grams. Why is B.C. decriminalizing people who possess illegal drugs?

The province says it aims to reduce stigma around drug use, so people reach out for help to get services like counselling and treatment in the midst of the crisis that has claimed over 11,000 lives since a public health emergency was declared in April 2016. The B.C. government says decriminalization is one tool to deal with the toxic drug supply.

However, drug users and advocates are concerned that services will not be

available when people are ready to use them, especially in rural and remote communities. How will the justice system adapt to decriminalization?

Substance users who carry up to the maximum threshold will no longer be arrested or charged, and police will not seize their drugs.

Instead, police will be handing out so-called resource cards with information on where people can access services in their community.

The province says it has hired staff in each health authority to liaise with people who have been referred by police. How will decriminalization be monitored and evaluated?

The federal and provincial governments say they will work together to monitor indicators related to health and criminal justice, for example.

Trends in substance use, interactions with police and public perceptions of people who use drugs are expected to be included in the data, as well as input from drug users.

The evaluation will be done by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

What are some exceptions to possession of illegal substances?

Illegal drugs will still be prohibited for youth under 18, on school grounds, at licensed child-care facilities and at airports.

Sexual assault charges against three former University of British Columbia football players have been stayed, according to the BC Prosecution Service (BCPS).

The three were accused of sexually assaulting a woman near the school’s campus in November of 2021.

“The BCPS can confirm that the charges against the three accused were stayed on Jan. 25, 2023,” said Dan McLaughlin, a BC Prosecution official.

“The charges were stayed when the Crown Counsel with conduct of the file concluded the charges no longer met the charge assessment standard.”

The BCPS applies a two-part test to

Sexual assault charges stayed for three former UBC football players determine whether criminal charges will be approved and prosecution to be initiated. “Crown Counsel must independently, objectively, and fairly measure all available evidence against a two-part test,” McLaughlin said. The two-part test is: Whether there is a substantial likelihood of conviction; and, if so, Whether the public interest requires a prosecution. “This test applies at all stages of the prosecution. If, at any point, the prosecutor concludes that this test is no longer met, a stay of proceedings is the appropriate course of action. That is what occurred here,” McLaughlin said in an email.

TransLink to expand electric bus fleet

Battery-electric buses are the future for TransLink’s bus fleet, and the longstanding practice of acquiring new diesel-powered buses is now a thing of the past.

TransLink’s new Climate Action Plan (CAP) released today provides a blueprint for how Metro Vancouver’s public transit system will incrementally reduce its emissions over the coming decade toward achieving the overarching goal of reaching net zero by 2050.

It reaffirms and overlaps with the public transit authority’s Climate Action Strategy approved by the Mayors’ Council in early 2022 and the Low Carbon Fleet Strategy created in early 2020, which will be replaced by a new Zero-Emissions Fleet

Transition Plan in 2023 and supplemented by a future Net Zero Facilities Strategy.

“While only one per cent of greenhouse gas emissions comes from public transit, we know it’s important to do our part to combat climate change,” said TransLink CEO Kevin Quinn. in a statement. “Our aim is to reduce our emissions to zero, while also reducing the number of cars on the road.”

By 2030, under the new CAP, 34% of the existing diesel bus fleet will be replaced with 462 batteryelectric buses, including 15 additional buses to fully electrify Route 100 by 2024, adding to the existing four buses. The first of this order of 15 new buses arrived in Metro Vancouver in November 2022.

Kelowna woman’s murder trial delayed until spring

The trial for a Kelowna woman accused of killing her partner in 2021 has been set back several months as the court works to accommodate pre-trial applications, the BC Prosecution Service said Wednesday.

Billie Jo Bennett was scheduled to face a judge and jury on the charge of second-degree murder Jan. 9, but the trial is now tentatively scheduled to get underway in the spring.

“It is currently set for May 29 but may start sooner if pre-trial matters are concluded,” Dan McLaughlin, with the BC Prosecution Service, said. Bennett, 54, is accused of the seconddegree murder of James Wesley Bennett.

Bennett was charged in early December 2021, though she was first arrested in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 18, 2021, homicide in the 600 block of Bechard Road. She was released the next day when the BC Prosecution Service didn’t apply charges and Supt. Kara Triance, Kelowna’s top cop, called a press conference on Oct. 22, 2021, to address questions raised in the wake of the investigation, which had seemingly hit an impasse.

The woman was apprehended under the Mental Health Act shortly after, but at that point, RCMP officers were cut out of the loop, Triance said at the time.

Mother of a bullying & assault victim speaks out after sentencings

The mother of a Surrey assault and bullying victim speaking out after two of the suspects involved in the incident have been sentenced.

“It was extremely emotional. I was very frustrated,” the mother said, after hearing the sentencing results.

“I understand that lawyers have to do their part to defend their clients but things that were said (in court) were very upsetting.”

The suspects have been released under conditions. Both the mother’s, daughter’s and suspects’ identities are protected by the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

The mother thinks the punishments given do not reflect the crimes perpetrated

against her then-15-year-old daughter.

“I feel like has been more about the accused than the victim,” she told Global News.

“My daughter has been handed a life sentence. She’s not going to graduate like other kids, and she won’t be able to live a life like a normal kid.

“There have to be consequences for actions.” Back in May 2022, Surrey RCMP investigated a brutal assault and bullying incident in Surrey, which took place near Hillcrest Elementary School.

The mother said her daughter was lured to the area under the pretext of meeting friends for a birthday cake.

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Racim alleged at local soccer match

that, with the harsh treatment players experienced at the October game, coaches could not “let it go.”

“We had to step up and stand up for our team and the boys and the parents,” he said.

Sadiq Abubakar, the team’s coach, says by bringing the incident forward he wants not only an apology for his players but an education for the opposing club — as well as all soccer clubs in Metro Vancouver.

“Whatever happened has happened already. We can’t change it,” Abubakar said. CMFSC provided a response to Daily Hive, which was also posted to its website, saying the club does not stand for racism or abuse.

It added this value has been reiterated to players, parents, and team officials.

In regards to the game, CMFSC said it took action as soon as it learned of the claims, which was a day after.

CMFSC added that GVUSC did not identify players, team officials, or spectators in its allegations.

“We met with CMFSC team officials and players, match officials, spectators, and parents, explaining the gravity of the accusations, collecting statements and reviewing game video/audio,” the club statement reads. “The video (with audio),

From page 1

filmed in the stands, does not support the claims of spectator misconduct. The referee and assistant referees reports and interviews provided no independent validation of player misconduct.”

Ram forwarded a video he said was used to review the game to Daily Hive. In the hour-and-a-half-long video, audio only captured spectators’ voices and alleged comments were not audible.

Especially with serious allegations, CMFSC said it would need proof “given our understanding of due process.”

CMFSC told GVUSC on October 21 that it did not find sufficient evidence to back the claims made.

However, the group added it “suggested the independent services of Communities Embracing Restorative Action (CERA) to support both parties work through the situation.”

“ITP Sport, on behalf of BC Soccer’s independent judicial body, communicated on Nov 16th that CMFSC’s internal review was extensive, taken seriously and offered a mediated solution through CERA,” CMFSC added.

Ram said he reported the incident to BC Soccer in hopes the organization might respond but was told nothing could be done.

US, India partnership targets arms and AI to compete with China

counterpart, Ajit Doval, are meeting with senior officials from both countries at the White House on Tuesday to launch the U.S.-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies.

“The larger challenge posed by China - its economic practices, its aggressive military moves, its efforts to dominate the industries of the future and to control the supply chains of the future - have had a profound impact on the thinking in Delhi,” Sullivan said. Doval will also meet Secretary of State Anthony Blinken during his three-day visit to Washington D.C., which ends Wednesday.

New Delhi has frustrated Washington by participating in military exercises with Russia and increasing purchases of the country’s crude oil, a key source of funding for Russia’s war in Ukraine. But Washington has held its tongue, nudging the country on Russia while condoning India’s more hawkish stance on China. On Monday, Sullivan and Doval participated in a Chamber of Commerce event with corporate leaders from Lockheed Martin Corp, (LMT.N) Adani Enterprises (ADEL. NS) and Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT.O)

Although India is part of the Biden administration’s signature Asian engagement project, the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), it has opted against joining the IPEF trade pillar negotiations.

The initiative also includes a joint effort on space and highperformance quantum computing.

General Electric Co, (GE.N) meanwhile, is asking the U.S. government for permission to produce jet engines with India that would power aircraft operated and produced by India, according to the White House, which says a review is underway.

New Delhi said that the U.S. government would review General Electric’s application expeditiously and that the two countries would focus on joint production of “key items of mutual interest” in defense.

The two countries also established a quantum technology coordination mechanism and agreed to set up a task force with India’s Semiconductor Mission, the India Electronics Semiconductor Association (IESA) and the U.S. Semiconductor Industry Association

South Asian wife whose husband drove Tesla off the cliff told paramedics, ‘He intentionally tried to kill us’

From page 1

“’He intentionally tried to kill us.’ … We have multiple people who heard her say that.”

Neha, who is still hospitalized, “didn’t get into detail. She was then quickly rendered medical aid and that was the statements from her,” he says.

Wagstaffe says Neha hasn’t been interviewed since then. “She has an attorney and we’re being advised that, through the attorney, that at this point while she’s hospitalized, she does not seek to submit to an interview.”

Wagstaffe says one of the couple’s children was hospitalized with injuries after the crash. The other childsustained“bumpsandbruises,butnoinjuries.”

The crash occurred on a notorious stretch of highway known as the Devil’s Slide in San Mateo County, near Pacifica, along the famous Highway 1, which runs the length of California’s coastline. The Devil’s Slide has been the site of a number of fatalities over the past five decades.

Patel, a radiologist from Pasadena, was arrested after the crash at Stanford Hospital, per an arrest report by the California Highway Patrol that was shared with PEOPLE.

Officials Say It’s an ‘Absolute Miracle’ All 4 People Survived Tesla’s Plunge Over Calif. Cliff

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Sgt Brian Moore/ AP/Shutterstock (13744707a) In this photo provided by the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office, emergency personnel respond to a vehicle over the side of Highway 1 on Jan. 1, 2023, in San Mateo County, Calif. The driver of the car that plunged 250 feet off a cliff in Northern California, injuring his two young children and his wife, has been released from the hospital and jailed on suspicion of attempted murder and child abuse. The San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office announced, that Dharmesh Patel is being held without bail California Car Falls Off Cliff, San Mateo County, United States - 04 Jan 2023

The CHP said in a news release that it was alerted of “a vehicle over the side of the cliff on SR-1” around 10:50 a.m. local time on Jan 2.

Wagstaffe says that after the crash, authorities spoke to “two separate drivers behind him who watched what occurred and were able to provide information about lack of brake lights,” he says.

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Authorities also found video from the nearby Tom Lantos tunnels that “clearly shows his car coming out of the tunnel, going up the hill, making a right turn off the road into a dirt area at the top,” he says. “And then a sharp right turn down and over the edge and down the cliff.”

Wagstaffe says investigators are still trying to determine a possible motive.

“There were three people that we believe he was trying to kill,” he says. “He also wanted to kill himself, obviously. And so, that was an effort to be a murder-suicide.”

“Why would he do this? I’m now convinced that this was an intentional act by him,” he says. “But then, why did he do this? Why did he want to kill the three people he, one would assume, loved the most in human life?”

The Tesla is currently being examined by the California Highway Patrol’s Major Accident Investigation Team [MAIT]. “They’re doing the full examination of it

to see, ‘Did the brakes go out? Do we have flat tires? Whatever they could determine from the vehicle… But there was nothing immediately that would indicate any type of vehicle disability or problem.”

“I am convinced that, on the evidence we have at this point, that it was an intentional act,” he says. “Now, again, multiple things could occur, and this happens in criminal cases where the family comes forward and they give us a description of some things that put a different light on it. Or the wife comes forward and says, ‘Let me tell you what occurred and to explain it.’”

Adds Wagstaffe, “Or the CHP MAIT team comes back and says, ‘Look it, there was a mechanical difficulty with the vehicle.’ So the facts, the whole story, is not out yet. It’s just the story we have right now, it certainly appears this was an intentional act to us and that’s why we filed the charges. But we’ll learn, we’ll find out hopefully more as time goes on.”

Emergency SOS via satellite on an iPhone 14 has replaced ‘search’ from ‘search and rescue’ for two happy Canadian women. They got stuck in snow on a logging road in BC.

Rescuers said they thought it was BC’s first use of the feature. And the way the women’s location was pinpointed could have potentially saved the women’s lives without the need for a time-consuming search.

Emergency SOS leads rescuers directly to two women stranded in the Canadian wilderness

With no cell service or WiFi available, one woman activating Emergency SOS via satellite on her iPhone 14 allowed emergency services to pinpoint a location rather than conduct an expensive and timeconsuming search. The service will be expanded to more countries after its launch.

It all began when the two women, on their way back to Alberta, encountered a road closed due to an accident outside of the town of McBride, according to a report in the times colonist. The incident occurred on December 23, 2022.

The women looked for an alternative route on Google Maps, which took them onto a forest road. Little did they know it was only partially plowed. And just over 12 miles later, they got stuck in a “wall of snow.”

“Then it was basically a wall of snow, and when they tried to get through, they got stuck,” explained Dwight Yochim, senior manager at BC Search and Rescue. “There is no cellular service there but one of them happened to have the new Apple phone which includes the SOS and has the SOS activated and to my knowledge this is the first use of the SOS in British Columbia.”

When a user activates Emergency SOS, it notifies an Apple call center, which relays information to regional emergency services. The information includes a GPS location.

Prince George Mounties charged in 2017 death of Indigenous man

4 of the 5 officers remain on active duty, according to RCMP.

Two RCMP officers in Prince George, B.C., have been charged with manslaughter in connection with the 2017 death of an Indigenous man, Crown prosecutors announced Wednesday.

Another three have been charged with attempting to obstruct justice related to the events immediately after Dale Culver’s death in police custody on July 18, 2017, according to a news release from the B.C. Prosecution Service.

Manslaughter charges have been sworn against Const. Paul Ste-Marie and Const. Jean Francois Monette, while Const. Arthur Dalman, Const. Clarence (Alex) Alexander MacDonald and Sgt. Bayani (Jon) Eusebio Cruz face attempted obstruction charges.

According to B.C. RCMP spokesperson Dawn Roberts, Ste-Marie, Monette, Dalman and Cruz remain on active duty, subject to ongoing assessment, while Macdonald is on administrative leave for reasons unrelated to Culver’s death.

Thousands of ‘potentially fatal doses’ of fentanyl seized from Surrey business: RCMP

A search warrant executed at a Surrey business allegedly being used as “a front for drug trafficking” led to the seizure of thousands of potentially fatal doses of illicit drugs, according to Mounties.

In a news release Thursday, Surrey RCMP said four people were arrested in connection to a drug trafficking network being operated at a business in the 5800 block of 176 Street.

Mounties said the investigation began in late 2022 and officers were able

to obtain a search warrant on Jan. 26.

“This drug seizure is significant as not only has it disrupted a drug trafficking network, there are now over 73,000 potentially fatal doses of fentanyl, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine off our streets,” Sgt. Jag Saran said in the release. “We will continue to work alongside the property management company and City of Surrey bylaws to address the issues pertaining to the business.”

Plan to target catalytic converter theft in play, Surrey mayor says

Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke says there’s a plan in the works to curtail catalytic converter theft in Surrey, which is “significantly” on the rise and makes up almost 45 per cent of thefts from autos in this city.

“It’s not only a very costly challenge for members of the public it is a tremendous inconvenience and it can be dangerous,” Locke noted. She said she’s spoken with Assistant Commissioner Brian Edwards about the problem and the Surrey RCMP is working on a strategy to be

implemented by the end of February.

“So it is my ask that Surrey, the city, work closely with the RCMP to create the stringent bylaws we need to curtail this criminal activity in our city,” Locke said at Monday’s council meeting, during her mayoral proclamations. Meantime, Surrey RCMP’s most recent crime stats to date indicate there was a nine per cent drop in violent crime in the city in 2022 compared to 2021, down to 6,621 recorded offences from 7,310.

BC announces funding program to support more accessible taxis

Community members around B.C. who use wheelchairs or have other accessibility needs will soon have better access to taxis.

The B.C. government has announced that additional funding has been allocated to launch its Passenger Transportation Accessibility Program.“ The program will help offset the extra costs that taxi owner-operators face in providing wheelchair-accessible vehicles, which will help to increase the number of accessible taxis available,” Ministry of Transportation staff said in a release.

The minister of transportation, Rob Fleming, said the new program will help

facilitate a stronger transportation system that will make it easier for those living with accessibility issues to get around their communities. “Promoting equity in passenger transportation is an important way that we’re working to build a better, stronger future for all British Columbians,” he said.

“By investing in a more inclusive transportation network we are helping people participate more fully in their communities by connecting with friends, attending appointments and getting to work.” Around $3 million of funding is available for the implementation of the program, according to the province.

Inquest into VPD officer’s suicide makes 12 recommendations aimed at police, Vancouver hospital

An inquest into the suicide of a Vancouver police constable four years ago has returned 12 recommendations aimed at better hospital communication on mental health files as well as improved police training and psychological assessment. The recommendations include mandatory annual psychological check-ins for officers and explicit action to curb rumours within the Vancouver Police Department.

Const. Nicole Chan took her own life on Jan. 27, 2019, amid an investigation into complaints she had made about inappropriate relationships with two senior officers.suicide

Over the seven-day inquest, jurors heard from 30 witnesses and lawyers who raised questions about Vancouver Police Department

and Vancouver General Hospital policies.

The inquest heard that Chan was found hanged from her bedroom door the day after she had been taken to hospital – but was not admitted – amid a mental health crisis.

The night before her death she had been frantic about the investigation into her complaints, had threatened to take her own life, and had fabricated a noose from a dog leash and hidden knives inside her home, the inquest heard.

Several witnesses testified that she had felt blackmailed into sex by Sgt. Dave Van Patten, a human resources officer and her superior, and was upset that she had been placed on stress leave and felt ostracized in the department while he was allowed to keep his job.

Federal departments failed to spend $38-billion on promised programs, services last year

The federal government failed to spend tens of billions of dollars in the last fiscal year on promised programs and services, including new military equipment, affordable housing and support for veterans.

Federal departments are blaming a variety of factors for letting a record total of $38 billion in funding lapse in 2021-22, including delays and disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. They also say much of the money remains available for future years.

The unspent funds also played a big part in the Liberal government posting a smaller-than-expected deficit in the year ending March 31, 2022.

Canada rang up a $90.2 billion deficit -- $23.6 billion less than had been projected in the budget.

The unprecedented amount of lapsed funding, much of which has been returned to the federal treasury, has one observer suggesting it is a sign of long-standing challenges delivering on big federal projects for the country.

The amount of lapsed funds across government is spelled out in the most recent iteration of the public accounts, a report on federal revenues and spending by every department and agency tabled in the House of Commons every year.

The $38.2 billion that was reported as lapsed in the last fiscal year marks a new record over the previous year, which was $32.2 billion. That was a dramatic increase over the previous record of $14 billion in 2019-20.

5 of 16 appointments to Surrey’s Select Committees of Council go to Mayor Locke’s team

Fifteen of 16 appointments to Surrey’s Select Committees of Council have been assigned to Mayor Brenda Locke’s Surrey Connect slate.

Locke revealed the appointments at Monday’s council meeting.

On Monday, Surrey Connect Coun. Rob Stutt was appointed chairman of the Public Safety Committee and Surrey Connect Coun. Pardeep Kooner its vice-chairwoman.

Surrey First Coun. Mike Bose was appointed chairman of the Agricultural and Food Policy Committee and Surrey Connect Coun. Harry

Bains was appointed its vice-chairman. Kooner is chairwoman and Stutt vice-chairman of the Arts and Culture Advisory Committee.

Locke is chairwoman of the Environment and Climate Change Committee and Surrey Connect Coun. Gordon Hepner is its vice-chairman.Kooner is chairwoman of the Livability and Social Equity Committee and Stutt is its vice-chairman Hepner is chairman of the Parks, Recreation and Tourism Advisory Committee, and Kooner is the vice-chairwoman.

Bains is the chairman of Surrey’s Investment, Innovation and Business Committee, and Locke is its vice-chairwoman.

Trudeau government spent $6.8 million on Calgary COVID hotel for just 10 people

Between April 1 and Oct. 30, 2022, the Trudeau government spent $6.8 million booking a single Calgary hotel to accommodate just 10 people for COVID quarantine. It’s a shocking waste of taxpayer money that should leave everyone asking how many more hotels saw similar cases of egregious waste. Paying $6.8 million for just 10 people from April to October, an average of $680,000 per person, is indefensible and makes Justin Trudeau’s $6,000 per night London hotel rooms look like a bargain.

Any time the Trudeau government has been asked to explain outrageous COVID spending, they have deflected by saying they had Canadians backs during the pandemic. This isn’t having anyone’s back; this is picking our pockets for wasteful spending.

The Calgary Airport Westin was named a Designated Quarantine Facility under the Quarantine Act on June 22, 2020. Between that date and when the contract expired last October, the federal government paid the hotel $26.8

Economy grew by 0.1% in November, Statscan says

Canadian economy loses steam, expected to slow further amid high interest rates

Housing market gaining steam in the GTA

A new report from Re-Max finds that despite rising interest rates, the average homeowner in many major markets is saddled with less debt.

The Canadian economy lost steam as 2022 drew a close, setting the stage for a continued slowdown this year as high interest rates weigh on spending.

Statistics Canada’s preliminary estimate for real GDP in December indicates the economy neither grew nor contracted, suggesting the economy grew at an annualized rate of 1.6 per

cent in the fourth quarter of last year.

In comparison, the economy grew at an annualized rate of 2.9 per cent in the third quarter of 2022.

RBC assistant chief economist Nathan Janzen said the latest GDP report adds more evidence that the economy is indeed losing momentum. And that trend is expected to continue, he said. “The key when you look forward is really that a lot of the impact of interest rate increases from the Bank of Canada to date, haven’t yet flowed through fully to household purchasing power.”

Side deals on health funding may be reached alongside national agreement: Premier Eby

Premiers have expressed optimism about striking an improved national health funding deal with the federal government, ahead of next week’s meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

British Columbia Premier David Eby said in Ottawa Wednesday that he believed the federal government would present the provinces and territories with details of a health transfer agreement that could lead to a national deal, but he was open to side talks specific to B.C. These could include discussions about mental health and addictions treatment programs, increasing the numbers of family doctors and expanding home care.

“We’ll be talking about core funding for the provinces, but with the ability for provinces to have discussions with

the federal government about key areas of provincial priority,” he said at a news conference in the capital.

“I am convinced that B.C.’s priorities are not necessarily the same as Quebec’s or Nova Scotia’s or Newfoundland’s.”

Ontario Premier Doug Ford also said Wednesday he was hopeful the provinces could reach a health-care deal with the federal government after next Tuesday’s meeting with the prime minister.

Last month, Ford said the provinces wouldn’t be signing individual deals with the federal government.

Premiers and health ministers across the country have called on Ottawa to increase its share of health-care costs to 35 per cent, up from the current 22 per cent.

BC govt’s new doctor payment model comes into effect

A new family physician payment model has come into effect to help more family physicians start or continue their practice and ensure people throughout the province have access to primary care.

Patients will benefit from family physicians having greater flexibility in their practices, both in-person and virtually, compared to the previous payment model. Patients will also have the option of discussing multiple issues with their physicians, who will now have more time for patient care as administrative pressures are relieved by the new model.

Referred to as the longitudinal family physician (LFP) payment model, this new approach came into effect on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023, through close collaboration between the Ministry of Health, Doctors of BC and

BC Family Doctors. The payment model incorporates feedback from family physicians, supports the Province’s primary care strategy, meets the needs of physicians and ensures patients have access to the care they need.

The new payment model includes three elements: in a day;

physician’s patient panel; and direct clinical care, indirect clinical care (such as reviewing lab results or coordinating specialist referrals); and on clinical administrative tasks (such as maintaining an accurate and up-to-date list of patients on an electronic medical record).

House of Commons returns with focus on economy, health care and the number eight

Although Trudeau and Poilievre do not agree on much, each cited affordability as a top concern, heeding economists’ warnings that Canada could be headed toward a recession at a time when prices on goods like groceries are already high.

Such was the backdrop for Monday’s question period, which Poilievre led by pressing Trudeau on his spending decisions — particularly the amount his government has paid in contracts awarded to consulting firm McKinsey and Company, which is under scrutiny at a parliamentary committee.

Trudeau defended his government’s record on social programs such as national daycare and said all MPs “know well that Canadians are facing tough times.”

Instead of offering “real solutions,” the prime minister charged, Poilievre “stands up, crosses his arms, throws up his hands and says, ‘everything is broken.’”

Trudeau also faced questions Monday from the New Democrats on his commitment to publicly-funded health care, after he touted Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s plan to allow more publicly-funded surgeries in private clinics as an innovative solution.

Saying that this meant Trudeau was flip-flopping on a position he took during the 2021 federal election campaign, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh called on the House of Commons to have an emergency care. The Speaker denied that request.

Singh told reporters that he was set to discuss the issue of private health care with Trudeau on Monday afternoon, as the prime minister prepares to host premiers for negotiations on federal health transfers.

Singh and Trudeau are meant to meet regularly under the supply-andconfidence agreement signed last March, a deal in which the NDP agreed to support the governing Liberals on key votes in exchange for movement on priorities such as federal dental care.

A new health-care funding deal is a big-ticket item for the governing Liberals in the weeks ahead, as is their proposed legislation on banning handguns and models of what are defined as “assault-style” weapons.

Thelegislationhasbeenmetwithbacklash from the Opposition Conservatives, as well as many firearms owners and First Nations hunters who say the bill would ban commonly used hunting rifles.

Conservatives say the Liberal government’s approach to gun violence and crime overall is failing.

On Monday, Melissa Lantsman, one of the party’s two deputy leaders, called on the House to hold an emergency debate on the recent violence seen on board Toronto’s subway system. The Speaker also denied that request.

To kick off its 2023 legislative agenda, the government began the sitting with a debate on Bill C-35, which was tabled last December.

Energy raises expected cost of Coastal GasLink project to $14.5 billion

North American pipeline operator TC Energy Corp on Wednesday raised its cost estimate more than expected for completing its troubled Coastal GasLink project, sending share prices sharply lower.

First announced in 2018, the 670km pipeline will transport natural gas from northeastern British Columbia’s Peace River region to the Shell PLC-led LNG Canada facility on the northwest coast of B.C., which is Canada’s first liquified natural gas export terminal.

The long-delayed pipeline, owned by private equity firm KKR & Co Inc, Alberta Investment Management Corp and TC, has been dogged by problems including protests over environmental concerns, inflation and mountainous terrain that has forced TC to move pipe with ski lifts.

The company attributed the cost increase to a labour shortage, poor work

by contractors and adverse weather. Costs could continue to rise: Analysts

Coastal’s costs are now up 30 per cent to to C$14.5 billion, from the project’s previous estimate of C$11.2 billion, which was already raised by 70 per cent in July from the initial budget. Analysts at BMO, Scotiabank and RBC said the latest increase was slightly higher than expected.

Costs could increase by another C$1.2 billion if construction extends well into 2024, TC added.

“Given the history of cost overruns ... we believe that the cost and timing of the project will be an overhang for the stock,” said RBC analyst Robert Kwan, in a note.

The LNG Canada plant will receive natural gas from near Dawson Creek, B.C., via the 670-kilometre Coastal GasLink pipeline. In Kitimat, the LNG Canada plant will liquefy and export the gas overseas. (CBC News)

Declaration

I, Darshan Singh Sohi born on June 01,1968 presently reside at 9232-126 A Street Surrey British Columbia V3V 5G2 Canada Do Solemnly Declare that:

Earlier I got divorced from Gurmeet Kaur on April 13, 2012. One daughter Jarpreet Kaur born November 09,1999. But since 2014 June/July Gurmeet Kaur and Jaspreet Kaur did not disclose their whereabouts and I am not aware about any whereabouts of Gurmeet Kaur and Jaspreet Kaur. We have no relation with each other. We have not spoken with each other since June 2014. I have no control over Jaspreet Kaur and Gurmeet Kaur. Jaspreet Kaur is not entitled to anything from my assets. I have disinherited Jaspreet from my all movable and immoveable assets all over the world. Both Jaspreet Kaur and Gurmeet Kaur have not any right to claim anything upon all my assets all over the world.

And I make this solemn declaration, conscientiously believing it to be true and knowing that it is of the same force and effect as if made under oath.

Kareena Kapoor organised a birthday bash for her friend Amrita Arora at her home in Mumbai.

Kareena Kapoor proved she is a great best friend to have as she threw a cosy birthday bash for Amrita

Kareena’s

bash for her

buddy’s

birthday Arora at her own home. Kareena decked up her new Mumbai home in balloons and flowers and threw a party. In attendance were all these best friends and even singer-rapper AP

Kartik Aaryan & Kriti Sanon to give the best contestant

‘Shehzada Crown’ honour in Indian Idol

Kriti Sanon told ‘Indian Idol 13’ contestant Sonakshi Kar that her voice resembles with late legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar’s when she sings.

The Saturday episode of the singing reality show will be welcoming the cast

Sanon for the ‘Girls vs Boys’ special episode. While Kartik Aaryan will support the ‘Boys’ team, Kriti will root for the ‘Girls’ team.

Rakhi Sawant Exposes Husband Adil Khan Durrani Of An Extra-Marital Affair, Warns The Other ‘Ladki’ Involved In Their Marriage: “Jo Biwi Ka Nahi Loyal, Wo Kisi Ka Nahi”

The Kapil Sharma Show: After Bharti Singh & Krushna Abhishek, Sidharth Sagar Quits The Comedy Show Due To Monetary Issues, Says “Kuch Nahi Bol Sakta” [Reports]

To make the competition even more playful and interesting, the contestant who gives their best performance will be given

One of the forerunners in the bid to win this crown was contestant Sonakshi Kar from Kolkata who will be paired with ‘Wadali ki Shaan,’ Navdeep Wadali from Amritsar.

Community news

Ladder Toss Balls ( Bolas) Game, New Game at Shanti Niketan on February 5th 2023 (Sunday) from 2,00 pm to 3.30 pm.

In Person Yoga Classes will continue for members only at Shanti Niketan hall every Monday and every Thursday by expert Yoga Instructor Mr. Ashwani Bansal from 10.00 am to 11.15 am both

the days. Mr. Mahender Kumar Juneja a Yoga Expert will also be there to help & advice corrections to make sure all seniors are doing correct Yoga.

For more info call: 604 - 507 - 9945 for registration or further details.

Dhillon. Kareena wore a black tank top for the occasion with a large cross around her neck. Amrita also wore a black outfit. Her big sister Malaika Arora was seen in a black top with sheer details and a pair of beige pants. She was joined by her boyfriend Arjun Kapoor, who arrived in casual clothes. Also spotted

outside Kareena’s home was her big sister Karisma Kapoor in a red printed dress. AP Dhillon was seen in a white silk shirt. Also present for the party were Farhan Akhtar and Shibani Dandekar; and Ritesh Sidhwani with his wife Dolly Sidhwani. Kareena Kapoor with Amrita Arora.

‘Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani’

Not in April, mark your dates in July! Filmmaker Karan Johar’s much-anticipated love story Rocky Aur Rani ki Prem Kahani will now hit the theatres on July 28. Taking to Instagram on Thursday, Karan Johar dropped the new release date of the movie with a sweet message. He wrote, “They say ‘sabr ka phal meetha hota hai’, so to increase the mithaas of this incredibly special story - we’re coming with a whole lot of love! Rocky aur Rani ke parivaar ho rahe hai taiyyaar, aur ab dekhiye yeh anokhi kahani of pyaar! Following Karan’s post, the lead pair of the movie has also shared the release dates on their social media handles. Taking a cue from KJO’s Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham tagline, Ranveer Singh captioned his post, “Kyunki it’s all about loving your family!”

After Zoya Akhtar’s Gully Boy, this movie marks the second collaboration between

Bachchan will be seen in pivotal roles in this movie. It also marks the return of Karan as a director after ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ (2016). Initially, the movie was supposed to release on the eve of Valentine’s day this year. But later the makers pushed the date to April. Karan posted a long caption back then, “After 7 years, it’s time for me to return to my first home - the cinemas.

Bigg Boss16: Drama, emotions & entertainment?

Finale: February 12, 2023

Bigg Boss 16 offers drama, emotions and a whole lot of entertainment every day. In the latest episode of the reality TV show, Archana Gautam made Nimrit Kaur Ahluwalia cry by throwing chilli powder at her. It all happened during the torture task. Archana Gautam, Priyanka Chahar Choudhary and Shalin Bhanot were given a task where they had to torture members of the other group – Shiv Thakare, MC Stan and Nimrit – to secure their positions in the finale. Sumbul Touqeer Khan was not involved in the task. In a video uploaded by a fan on Twitter, one can see Archana Gautam taking an extreme route and throwing chilli, as well as haldi powder on Nimrit’s face. This leaves Nimrit Kaur furious and she shouts back at Archana Gautam, asking her to

not cross her limits. However, it does not stop Archana Gautam. She justifies her actions by saying that it is all a part of the task. Soon, Nimrit breaks down into tears. She then accuses Archana of hurting her. In the video, which has grabbed the attention of all Bigg Boss fans, Priyanka Chahar Choudhary and Shalin Bhanot are also seen pouring buckets of water on contestants. In the last episode, Shiv Thakare and Nimrit Kaur targeted Priyanka Choudhary, Archana Gautam and Shalin Bhanot and poured soapy water and ice packs on them as a part of the torture task. When Shalin Bhanot noticed Shiv Thakare getting personal with opponents, he slammed him, “Shiv, personal ho raha hai tu (Shiv you’re getting personal).”

Ranveer and Alia. Shabana

Shailendra, the great lyricist

August 30, 1923 – December 14 ,1966

One of the best lyricist of Indian cimema

Shailendra was born as Shankardas Kesari-lal on August 30th, 1923 in Rawalpindi (Pakistan). His ancestors were basically from Arrah, a district in Bihar.

He lost his mother and sister at a very young age. His village in bihar mostly comprised agricultural laborers then Shailendra’s father decided to shift to Rawalpindi and find work at a military hospital.

Shailendra came in contact with Indra Bahadur Khare at the Kishori Raman Vidyalay in Mathura. Both started composing poems, sitting on the rock at the bank of a pond near railway lines. Afterwards Shailendra moved to Bombay for films and Indra Bahadur Khare got his fame in Raashtreey Kavita. Shailendra started his career as an apprentice with Indian Railways in Matunga workshop, Bombay in 1947. He started writing poetry during these days.

The filmmaker Raj Kapoor noticed Shailendra, when the latter was reading out his poem Jalta hai Punjab at a mushaira (poetic symposium).

Kapoor offered to buy the poem Jalta Hai Punjab written by Shailendra and for his movie Aag (1948). Shailendra, a member of the left wing Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA), was wary of mainstream Indian cinema and refused. However, after his wife became pregnant, Shailendra himself approached Raj Kapoor in need of money. At this time, Raj Kapoor was filming Barsaat (1949), and two of the film songs had not yet been written. For ₹ 500, Shailendra wrote these two songs: Patli kamar hai and Barsaat mein. The music for Barsaat was composed by Shankar–Jaikishan.

The team of Shailendra, Shankar–Jaikishan & Raj Kapoor, went on to produce many hit songs.

The song “Awara Hoon” from the 1951 film Awaara, written by Shailendra, became the most appreciated song outside India at the time.

Kiara Advani & Sidharth Malhotra’s wedding dates and venue revealed

Cute couple Kiara Advani & Sidharth Malhotra will tie the knot this weekend at Jaisalmer, sources have confirmed to indianexpress.com. Kiara and Sidharth have been rumoured to be dating for several years, but neither has overtly confirmed this.

In fact, they continued to avoid answering questions about the wedding even as recently as last month, when they appeared before the media prior to the release of Sidharth’s latest film, Mission Majnu. Earlier this week, Kiara was spotted at designer Manish

Malhotra’s house, for what was rumoured to be a last-minute fitting. Sidharth, on the other hand, landed in Delhi. Also read |Amid Sidharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani’s wedding rumours, a look at their relationship timeline The wedding will take place on February 4 and 5, at the Suryagarh hotel. The property is described as ‘the gateway to the Thar Desert’ on the official website, and offers 83 rooms, two gardens and courtyards, and air connectivity to Jaisalmer for weddings.

Shailendra had penned down plenty of Urdu songs for Raj Kapoor’s films.

Film Shree 420 released in 1955 is one of them.

All songs of the film were super hit and popular till date in all walks of life. One can easily understand the power and magic of Shailendra’s lyrics from the song “Pyaar hua iqaraar hua hai”, is evergreen golden classic song till date.

In 1961 Shailendra invested heavily in the production of ‘Teesri Kasam’ (1966), directed by Basu Bhattacharya and starring Raj Kapoor and Waheeda Rehman.

The film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film.

However, the film was a commercially flop.

It paved the way to Shailendra’s falling health resulting from tensions associated with the film production and anxiety due to financial loss, coupled with alcoholism, ultimately led to his early death.

Suhaana & Disha in a dazzling Dubai party

We chanced upon a picture-perfect click of Suhana Khan and Disha Patani and it has been trending quite a bit. The aforementioned picture, curated by multiple fan pages, happens to be from Dubai. Disha Patani and Suhana Khan were in Dubai for the grand launch of the luxury hotel Atlantis

The Royal in Palm Jumeirah last month. In the picture, Disha Patani looks stunning as ever in a Yousef Al Jasmi outfit with a dash of bling. Suhana Khan looked gorgeous in a

A few weeks go, Suhana Khan shared a couple of pictures from the Dubai event. The album also features her mom Gauri Khan and friend BFF Shanaya Kapoor. She captioned the post: “Thank you Atlantis The Royal.” During her time in Dubai, Suhana Khan also attended Kendall Jenner’s tequila brand launch, where she was accompanied by Shanaya Kapoor. The picture was shared by a couple of

Bollywood fan pages.

Disha too shared back-to-back posts of her OOTD at the grand Dubai party. Take a look at some of the posts here: In terms of work, Disha Patani was last seen in the thriller Ek Villain 2, alongside Arjun Kapoor, John Abraham and Tara Sutaria. Disha Patani, who began her career as a model, is best-known for starring in films such as Baaghi 2, co-starring Tiger Shroff, and Kung Fu Yoga, among others.

Disha Patani made her big Bollywood debut with the 2015 sports biopic MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, co-starring late actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

Suhana Khan, daughter of superstar Shah Rukh Khan and film producer Gauri Khan, completed her higher studies from New York. She will make her Bollywood debut with Zoya Akhtar’s adaptation of The Archies. The film will also star late actor Sridevi and film producer Boney Kapoor’s daughter Khushi Kapoor, and Amitabh Bachchan’s grandson Agastya Nanda. The film is slated to release on Netflix this year.

Singer Muhammad Rafi with Shailendra, Asha Bhosle, Raj Kapoor and Shankar–Jaikishan

Ottawa’s ambitious target to substantially lift the number of new immigrants has raised concerns about whether Canada has enough housing to accommodate them.

The housing shortage in this country is well known and governments on all levels have released plans to bolster the supply.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation estimated in June that an additional 3.5 million housing units needed to be built by 2030 to achieve affordable housing for everyone living in Canada. That’s on top of the 2.3 million units it expected to be built by that time at current rates of construction.

“Canada’s approach to housing supply needs to be rethought and done differently,” CMHC deputy chief economist Aled ab Iorwerth said in the report. “There must be a drastic

transformation of the housing sector, including government policies and processes, and an ‘allhands-on-deck’ approach to increasing the supply of housing to meet demand.”

But what is that demand?

CIBC deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal suggests in a recent report that Canada’s actual increase in housing demand is far higher than official estimates.

Ottawa is aiming to increase the number of new immigrants by 75 per cent over pre-

pandemic levels by 2025. But saying 465,000 new immigrants in 2023 does not mean net population growth due to immigration and thus demand for housing will rise by 465,000, he said.

Tal argues that it’s not the number of new immigrants that should be used to calculate housing demand, but the number of new people coming into the country from abroad. And these numbers, he says, have been vastly underestimated.

Amid the pandemic in 2021, about 70 per cent of new permanent residents were already living in Canada, and didn’t need housing.

In 2022 that share plunged to 42 per cent. Tal said officially the net increase in new immigrants in 2022 compared to the year before was 31,000 or 7.6 per cent. But because more of the immigrants came from outside of Canada the actual net growth in housing demand was 131,700 or 108 per cent.

“Statistics Canada’s population forecast has underestimated NPRs over many years and by no less than 100,000 in 2022,” he said.

The number of non-permanent residents coming into the country has swelled after COVID travel restrictions were lifted due to student visas, work permits and the Canada-

Vancouver home sales to flatten while prices inch up, forecast says

Home sales in Greater Vancouver are predicted to stay in line with last year’s slower pace, while prices inch up slightly.

The forecasts are contained in the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver’s outlook for 2023 released Tuesday.

Historically, the report says rapidly

escalating mortgage rates haven’t had as big a negative affect on prices as they have had on sales in Metro Vancouver.

It predicts 28,500 home sales in 2023, a 2.6 per cent decrease from last year. While the current downturn has resulted in a price decline of about 10 per cent, the

forecast says steady population growth in Metro Vancouver will underpin prices and maintain or even increase values.

It says the average home price this year for apartments, attached and detached homes is expected to climb slightly to $1.2 million, a 1.4 per cent increase.

However, the report says the risks to its predictions are an economic recession and even higher mortgage rates.

“The precise impact of a recession on the Metro Vancouver real estate market is difficult to predict since it largely hinges on the severity of the recession and the Bank of Canada’s policy response,” the report says.

Toronto, Vancouver homeowners have best loan-to-value ratios: Re/Max

Ottawa’s ambitious target to substantially lift the number of new immigrants has raised concerns about whether Canada has enough housing to accommodate them.

The housing shortage in this country is well known and governments on all levels have released plans to bolster the supply.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation estimated in June that an additional 3.5 million housing units needed to be built by 2030 to achieve affordable housing for everyone living in Canada. That’s on top of the 2.3 million units it expected to be built by that time at current rates of construction.

“Canada’s approach to housing supply needs to be rethought and done differently,” CMHC deputy chief economist Aled ab Iorwerth said in the report.

“There must be a drastic transformation of the housing sector, including government policies and processes, and an ‘all-hands-on-deck’ approach to increasing the supply of housing to meet demand.”

CIBC deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal suggests in a recent report that Canada’s actual increase in housing demand is far higher than official estimates.

Ottawa is aiming to increase the number of new immigrants by 75 per cent over prepandemic levels by 2025. But saying 465,000 new immigrants in 2023 does not mean net population growth due to immigration and thus

demand for housing will rise by 465,000, he said. Tal argues that it’s not the number of new immigrants that should be used to calculate housing demand, but the number of new people coming into the country from abroad. And these numbers, he says, have been vastly underestimated. Amid the pandemic in 2021, about 70 per cent of new permanent residents were already living in Canada, and didn’t need housing.

In 2022 that share plunged to 42 per cent. Tal said officially the net increase in new immigrants in 2022 compared to the year before was 31,000 or 7.6 per cent. But because more of the immigrants came from outside of Canada the actual net growth in housing demand was 131,700 or 108 per cent.

Alsowhilethefocushasbeenonnewimmigrants, non-permanent residents (NPRs) represent a larger share of new arrivals, said the economist.

“Statistics Canada’s population forecast has underestimated NPRs over many years and by no less than 100,000 in 2022,” he said.

Thenumberofnon-permanentresidentscoming into the country has swelled after COVID travel restrictions were lifted due to student visas, work for Emergency Travel program. The CUAET provides eligible Ukrainians with temporary residency and an open work visa for three years.

Why Canada’s housing squeeze could be worse than we thought

Home owners with variable rate mortgages have been taking a hit over the past year with the Bank of Canada increasing its key overnight lending rate eight straight times.

Last week the Bank of Canada increased its rate 25 basis points to 4.5 per cent, with the major banks following suit.

“Not too long ago we were talking about how many people were only $200 away from a serious financial hit in their family and with interest rates rising the way they have, we’ve seen people’s payments jump by $200 or $300 a month in some cases,” said Aaron

Variable rate mortgage holders feeling the pinch

Ruston with Purposed Financial. “I always tell people, some of the best investments you can make is often to pay down your debt because it can catch up on you very, very quickly.”

Ruston believes the days of rock bottom interest rates has come to an end.

“The issue that we run into is the fact that we’ve got a generation

that’s grown up in a very low interest rate environment. They don’t know what it’s like to have the interest rates we’re experiencing now overall. So it kind of comes as a shock and often what is happening is people have been spending against lines of credit, or using their credit cards, because interest rates were fairly low,

but now is where the hit will be seen.”

He notes relief could be on the way as inflation starts to slow down.

“There has been anticipated for a while now, that in the second or maybe even the third quarter of 2023, we might even see some contraction or pulling back of interest rates overall, which would be a wonderful thing. But right now, we’re just hoping that we won’t see more increases.”

Ruston says there hasn’t been much movement on long-term mortgage rates, while GIC rates have increased slightly.

More tall towers being proposed, approved and completed in Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey and Coquitlam

More tall towers being proposed, approved and completed in Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey and Coquitlam

There are 20 development projects with towers over 45 storeys that are selling condo units, under construction or near completion. Read on.

video has failed to load.Is there a young tenor, baritone or bass in your house looking for an outlet for choral singing?

Young singers interested in being part of a male-voice choir are invited to take part in Chor Leoni’s MYVoice program, a free, 10-week choral experience for singers aged 12 and up.Editor: I just read the article about the lack of space available for students in the Brentwood area.At 8:02 a.

Try refreshing your browser, or.Play Video And there are several proposals for more tall towers like this in Surrey that haven’t been made public yet.Along the way, the young singers will have a chance to work with some of Vancouver’s top

choral instructors, take part in workshops with Chor Leoni artistic director Erick Lichte and participate in Vancouver’s major male choral festival, the VanMan Summit, on May 13.Sunrise presented by Vancouver Sun Start your day with a roundup of B.C.C.m.focused news and opinion delivered straight to your inbox at 7 a.to rescue someone stuck in an elevator.

m.You can find information, including a detailed schedule, and registration at the Chor Leoni website.C., Monday to Friday.Email Address There was an error, please provide a valid email address.24.Sign Up By clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter

from Postmedia Network Inc.Janet Reid. You may unsubscribe any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails or any newsletter.Rehearsals take place at Burnaby Central Secondary.“This is an important step in our work to greatly enhance our response capability in the event of an emergency in the Burnaby Mountain area,” Mayor Mike Hurley said in a news release.

Postmedia Network Inc.| 365 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3L4 | 416-383-2300 Thanks for signing up! A welcome email is on its way.Follow Julie MacLellan on Twitter @juliemaclellan.

If you don’t see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of Sunrise presented by Vancouver Sun will soon be in your inbox.ca.We encountered an issue signing you up.” Approximately 2,000 students currently live in residence and housing at SFU and more than 6,000 people live in the UniverCity development, but the city has long known about the need for Burnaby Mountain to have its own fire station. Please try again Article content “There are ones of similar heights that are moving forward,” said Chris Dikeakos of Vancouver-based Chris Dikeakos Architects Inc.“A nd it’s not just in Surrey.Burnaby is another municipality. Coquitlam is starting to get applications for some much taller towers.” He added that with increased land and construction costs, developers are motivated to use all the density they can get and build taller towers.Fire Station 8 is one of two new fire halls the city is building in the Burnaby Mountain area over the next year.

#106 - 7565 132 St. Surrey, BC 604.572.3005

India & USA keen to conclude $3 billion MQ-9B predator drone deal

India and the United States are keen for an early conclusion of the 30 MQ9B predator armed drones deal at a cost of over $3 billion, which will help New Delhi strengthen its overall surveillance apparatus along the Line of Actual Control and the Indian Ocean. n the works for more than five years, the “ball is now in India’s court”, officials familiar with the development said Wednesday, without explaining further.

The MQ-9B predator armed drones -- 10 each for three services -- is seen to be a key part of India’s national security and defense needs.

The officials did not elaborate further but ruled out that there was any bureaucratic hurdle or regulatory issues involved.

“I have to take that back and check on that,” Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs Jessica Lewis told reporters here when asked for the delay in the deal, which was announced in the summer of 2017. It has been pending for quite some time

now, for reasons not known in the public. However, the issues are believed to have been discussed during the meetings that the visiting National Security Advisor Ajit K Doval has had with top American leadership, including his counterpart Jake Sullivan.

During the meetings,

it is believed that both sides expressed their eagerness to see that the drone deal is fast tracked. India is eager that an early decision would help it get an early delivery of MQ-98 predator armed drones that would strengthen its national security and surveillance not only in the Indian Ocean, but also along the LAC.

The Biden administration is keen on inking this deal as soon as possible, which will create jobs and would be politically beneficial ahead of the next year’s presidential elections, according to people familiar with the development.

“MQ-9B would enable its Indian

military users to fly farther than anything else in this category, spend more time in the air and handle a greater diversity of missions than any other similar aircraft.

The SkyGuardian and SeaGuardian can

deliver full-motion video in virtually any conditions, day or night, as well as other kinds of detailed sensing with their onboard systems,” Vivek Lall, chief executive, General Atomics Global Corporation, said.

Giant blisters and leg fractures. Inside a marathon march to ‘remake India’

“I’m often asked by people, ‘Why are you walking?’” one yatri told me, recounts Manish Khanduri. “My response is, ‘Given the state of affairs in this country, why are you not walking?’” (Pictured above: Crowds gathered for Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on the Yatra’s

“I’m often asked by people, ‘Why are you walking?’” one yatri told me, recounts Manish Khanduri. “My response is, ‘Given the state of affairs in this country, why are you not walking?’” (Pictured above: Crowds gathered for Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on the Yatra’s

Along the way, we worked to engage with locals in multiple ways — holding hundreds of corner meetings, press conferences and rallies, distributing pamphlets with political messaging and staging dance performances and music shows.

At one level, the march is a high-stakes battle for relevance.

After independence in 1947, the Congress party’s ideology was broadly defined by secular, left-of-center policies that acknowledged India’s complex religious, cultural, linguistic and geographic diversity. It governed India for more than five decades. Since 2014, however, the political landscape has been transformed — and the party’s fortunes have declined — with the rise to power of the right-of-center Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), under the leadership of strongman Prime Minister Narendra Modi..

In 2014 and 2019 the Congress lost two national elections in a row. Its share of members in the Indian house of elected representatives, the Lok Sabha, is among the lowest in its history. Three years later, in 2022, the party contested elections in 7 Indian states and failed to form a government in 6.

After these losses, Congress party leaders held a three-day-long ‘soul searching’ session aiming to identify strategies to bounce back. “Hotly debated topics,” Indian news site The Wire reported, included “the party’s ideological stance and the need to build political alliances with smaller parties.”

Major recommendations that emerged included new elections for the party’s President as well as affording greater representation to younger generations — and the implementation of our yatra.

(The yatra has attracted criticism from the BJP, with a party spokesperson describing it as a “parivaar bachao andolan” (“Save the family movement”) in reference to the Gandhi family’s political fortunes. The BJP has further questioned the need for the yatra, and alleged the project is dividing the nation.)

Under Modi, the BJP’s electoral successes have been built on a platform of militant Hindu nationalism, or Hinduvta. A key component of minority, a group that forms around 15% of the country’s 1.4 billion people — though a BJP spokesperson said earlier this month the party, and should be treated as such… With that, PM Modi has stated that no one, including Muslims, should be left out.” This state-driven ‘othering’ of the Muslim minority has translated to finds itself under increased pressure to follow right-wing narratives. In 2022, the television news channel NDTV, long critical of the BJP government, was bought in a hostile takeover by billionaire Gautam Adani, a key business acolyte of Modi. (In a recent regulatory filing, its new owners said NDTV will be implementing “a fresh strategic direction” moving forward.)

Can Sri Lanka trade its way back to prosperity?

Sri Lanka is, in the words of its own president, “bankrupt”.

The Indian Ocean nation defaulted on its sovereign debt in May 2022, plunging the country into economic and political chaos.

TheColombogovernmentsecureda$2.9bn (£2.4bn) International Monetary Fund bailout in principle the following September.

But the cash will not be released to Sri Lanka until its sovereign creditors in China and India first agree to a restructuring of the billions of dollars of bilateral debt they are owed. Despite optimism over the past month that such an agreement was imminent, a deal has still not materialised - and Sri Lanka’s economic agony, and the suffering of its population, continues.

Yet, even if the bailout cash does start to flow in the coming weeks or months, that will not mark the end of Sri Lanka’s economic rebuilding programme, but merely the beginning.

For it’s widely accepted that Sri Lanka’s economic model needs a fundamental overhaul.

In the years following the savage end of the government’s 25-year war against the separatist Tamil Tigers in 2009, Sri Lanka benefited from something of a financial “peace dividend”.

The government at the time successfully attracted large flows of foreign investment, not only from foreign governments like China, but also private international bondholders.

These financial flows pumped up domestic economic growth, but at the cost of ballooning imbalances.

The domestic economy grew steadily less internationally competitive in these years. And while exports continued to rise from 2000 to 2018, from $6.5bn to $19.4bn, over the same time period they slumped as a share of the economy, from 39% to 23%.

Even before the pandemic hit in 2020, tearing the heart out of the island’s lucrative tourism industry, the Sri Lankan trade deficit - the gap between its imports and exports - was already running at more than 6% of GDP.

That imbalance is one of the reasons the default hit Sri Lanka so hard - it suddenly found itself without the means to generate the foreign currency needed to import vital supplies of food and fuel.

Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took over the presidency after the discredited and reviled Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country in July 2022, has been clear that Sri Lanka’s road to recovery will have to involve addressing the imbalance at source, and, in particular, driving up exports.

“We have to transform into a highly competitive export-oriented economy,” he told local business leaders last year.

“There is no other way out. We are a country with 22 million people. We have to find markets outside.”

So the big economic question looming over Sri Lanka is: can this be done? Can the country trade its way back to prosperity?

Traditionally, Sri Lanka’s big exports have been agricultural, starting with cinnamon, which attracted European colonisers in the 16th Century. Today tea is still the biggest export commodity.

Court orders Triveni Interchem director to Pay Rs 20 Million to Pfizer or go to jail

Delhi High Court recently asked a private company to pay Rs 2 crore in damages to pharmaceutical company Pfizer for patent infringement.

Pfizer Inc. and its group companies had filed a suit in the court against Triveni Interchem Private Limited & others accusing the latter for infringing their patent(IN 218291) for the compound Palbociclib.

The private entities(Triveni entities) were found to advertise and offer for sale generic Palbociclib in API form on their own websites and on IndiaMART (e-commerce platform), without any permission or authorisation from Pfizer, Advocates Pravin Anand along with Tusha Malhotra and Richa Bhargava, who

were representing Pfizer told the court.

The High Court had on October 21, 2021 granted an injunction in favour of Pfizer but the pharma company said they had found that the private entities had not stopped the sale of the compound Palbociclib.

It claimed it had found that the entities were selling the same compound in a new packaging and through another channel.

fizer filed a contempt application against the activities of the Triveni entities and the High Court on July 7, 2022 observed that Triveni entities were in contempt of the injunction order.

Even after this, the infringing products were still found to be available on Connect2India

RBI asks banks for details of exposure to Adani Group

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has stepped in to take stock of commercial banks’ exposure to the Adani group after the shares of the firms in the conglomerate fell sharply following US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research’s report accusing it of stock manipulation and accounting fraud.

According to bankers, on Wednesday the regulator asked lenders to furnish the details of the loans sanctioned and those outstanding to the Adani group as on January 31.

“We submitted the details on Wednesday itself,” said an official of a large bank.

Last week, rating agencies sought similar details from commercial banks.

The exposure of State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender, to the group is $2.6 billion, or Rs 21,000 crore, including $200 million from its overseas branches, a Bloomberg report said, quoting unnamed sources. SBI had earlier said its exposure was much below the Large Exposure Framework limit of the RBI. Punjab National Bank, another large state-owned lender, has an exposure of Rs 7,000 crore.

Late Wednesday evening, the group cancelled its follow-on public offer even though the share sale to raise Rs 20,000 crore was fully subscribed.

Despite that, the rout in shares continued unabated, resulting in the loss in market capitalisation exceeding $100 billion on Thursday.

From page 1

Adani Group loses $107 billion after a week of stock carnage

crore) market-cap have all slipped by over Rs 1 lakh crore in the past six trading days.

Did India’s top billionaires rescue Adani Enterprises FPO? Here’s what we know so far

Did India’s top billionaires rescue Adani Enterprises FPO? Here’s what we know so far

AdaniGreenEnergysharesfall10%asCredit

Suisse assigns zero lending value to bonds

Adani Green Energy shares fall 10% as Credit Suisse assigns zero lending value to bonds

‘Old tax regime to fade’: Section 80C and tax-saving investments will soon be a thing of the past, say netizens

‘Old tax regime to fade’: Section 80C and tax-saving investments will soon be a thing of the past, say netizens

Apart from this, state insurer Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and State Bank of India (SBI), which have liberal investments in the group, have seen substantial market cap erosion of over Rs 1.2 lakh crore or $ 15 billion.

The withdrawal of the FPO has further raised concerns on how the Adani group will now look to service the over Rs 2.2 lakh crore debt on its books. Of which Adani Green Energy has the maximum amount of debt crossing Rs 52,000 crores followed by Adani Ports and Adani Power which have over 45,000 crores of debt.

The market cap of nine Adani stocks has reduced from Rs 19.2 lakh crore before the short-seller’s attack, to Rs 10.5 lakh crore at the end of the trading session on February 2, 2023

Group chairman Gautam Adani said the rationale behind withdrawing Adani Enterprises FPO was to insulate investors from potential losses.

“After a fully subscribed FPO, the decision of its withdrawal would have surprised many. But considering the volatility of the market seen yesterday, the board strongly felt that it would not be morally correct to proceed with the FPO,” said Adani.

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Dubai ruler renames Al Minhad area as Hind City

Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum recently issued orders to rename a district in Dubai city. The ruler, who is also the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, renamed Al Minhad district and surrounding areas as ‘Hind City’. The area also includes housing key roadways like Emirates Road, DubaiAl Ain Road, and Jebel Ali-Lehbab Road.

On Twitter, several people were claiming that the area has been renamed to honour the contribution of Indian Hindus. However, there is no mention of why the area was

renamed and if “Hind” relates to India or Hindus. Hind” is also a word in Arabic which means “100 camels”. It is said to be a common and ancient name for girls in the Arab region. In fact, Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s senior wife’s name has Hind in it - Sheikha Hind bint Maktoum bin Juma Al Maktoum.

This won’t be the first time either that a region in Dubai has been renamed. One of the most notable name changes was that of the world’s tallest building Burj Khalifa, which was earlier known as Burj Dubai.

Shah Rukh Khan not a Muslim, go to his home and kill him

As protests intensify across India over the Shah Rukh Khan starrer Pathaan, a Muslim cleric from Mumbai has told right-wing elements to go to Bollywood megastar’s home and shoot him dead if they are really want to protest against his movie.

The cleric Khalil-Ur-Rehman from nothing to do with Muslims and neither Bollywood is a Muslim. The cleric’s outbursts came following Bajrang Dal members raising objectionable slogans against Prophet Muhammad during protests against Pathaan in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore on Wednesday.

Rehman said that if Bajrang Dal and Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) men are really serious about their protest, then they should go and kill Shah Rukh Khan at his home. He told Times Now, “You do whatever you want to do with Shah Rukh Khan, but if you utter objectionable words against our Prophet Muhammad,

then we will not tolerate it.” “Former BJP leader Nupur Sharma was responsible for all of this and had she was arrested, there should not have been such an environment of tension,” Rehman claimed after reports of ‘Sar Tan Se Juda’ slogans in Indore after derogatory words against Islamic Prophet.

The cleric demanded that all those who utter objectionable words against prophet should be booked under MCOCA Act.

Slogans against Prophet Muhammad in Indore over Pathaan protests

The video of the Bajrang Dal members allegedly raising slogans against Prophet Muhammad went viral on social media on Wednesdau.

After the Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan and his film ‘Pathaan’ are facing backlash for showing Deepika Padukone in a saffron bikini in the song ‘Besharam Rang’. Many leaders, including from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad have demanded a ban on the film.

Made-in-India GE jet engines sought in closer US security ties

India and US are all set to advance their defence cooperation. In collaboration with the Defense Research and Development private manufacturer of defence equipment, the Joe Biden administration has already given the green light for General Electric (GE), a world leader in military jet engines, to produce 98 kilo-newton thrust GEF414 engines in India. Both the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft, which is now under construction and will have twin engines, and the LCA (Light Combat Aircraft) Mark II will be powered by the India-specific GE-414 INS6 engine, which will be introduced by Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) early next

year and enter service by the end of 2024. According to a Hindustan times (HT) report, the GE-414 engine will be produced under conditions that involve a complete transfer of technology (ToT). A high-level team of the Indian govt, which is now in the US under the leadership of NSA (National Security Advisor) Ajit Doval, is anticipated

DRDO director Samir V Kamat, principal scientific adviser Ajay Sood, secretary (telecom) K Rajaram, and scientific adviser to Raksha Mantri Satheesh Reddy have also joined Doval in the bilateral discussion on “Critical and Emerging Technologies” with US NSA Jake Sullivan.

India stands with Adani amid billionaire’s Hindenburg battle

“IndiaStandsWithAdani” was among the top trending hashtags on Twitter in response to losses totalling $65 billion for Adani group stocks since last week’s Hindenburg Research report, which flagged concerns over its debt levels and use of tax havens.

Many Indians voiced their support for Gautam Adani on Tuesday as the school dropoutturned-billionaire sealed a $2.5 billion share sale in the face of criticism from a U.S. short-seller. “IndiaStandsWithAdani” was among the top trending hashtags on Twitter in response to losses totalling $65 billion for Adani group stocks

since last week’s Hindenburg Research report, which flagged concerns over its debt levels and use of tax havens.

“I am proud of my country’s billionaire. Indians will not get fooled ... India will not bend in front of any foreign power,” tweeted Mukund Jethava, a member of the IT unit of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat state.

Support online mirrored financial backing for Adani Enterprises, which despite having 30% anchor bids for its share sale last week had only amassed 3% subscriptions by Monday in the public offering, amid concerns it could fail.

India has become our largest site outside US, says Boeing India President Salil Gupte

India has become the largest site for Boeing outside the US in terms of manufacturing and workforce, its India President Salil Gupte said, underscoring the region’s importance for the aircraft major.

“India is leading the way. It is not just building something that is already built somewhere. India is leading in innovation at Boeing…To me, that’s an example of what India can make and accomplish and we are excited about this market,” he said.

Gupte’s words come at a time when there are talks about Air India

securing around 190 Boeing 737 MAX narrow-body planes along with 20 Boeing 787s and 10 Boeing 777X.

“Today the demand for aircraft has jumped high. There is no surprise that Air India is looking for more aircraft. They are going to talk to Boeing, Air Bus, and everyone to match that demand,” Gupte said adding that the times are very exciting for the aviation industry. Boeing has around 300 suppliers in India and 70 are MSMEs, Gupte said.

Tory peer accused of ‘racially charged’ attack

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, still licking his wounds from the Nadhim Zahawi affair, is being drawn into a fresh crisis following inflammatory and apparently racist remarks made by senior Tory peer Rami Ranger about British Pakistanis.

Lord Ranger, who has given more than £1m to the Conservatives, is patron of the Conservative Friends of India group. Fellow patrons include former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, former Prime Minister Theresa May - and

Sunak. Significantly, Security Minister Tom Tugendhat is another patron.

Lord Ranger’s remarks came in the wake of this month’s BBC documentary series on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s relationship with India’s Muslims. After the first episode, which featured a UK government report that criticised Modi’s conduct during the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat, the Indian government invoked emergency laws to ban the documentary.

India’s regulator discussed Adani firms with ratings agencies

India’s market regulator met with ratings agencies to discuss Adani Group companies, according to people familiar with the matter, after a short-seller’s scathing report eroded more than $69 billion of the conglomerate’s stock market value. Assessors including Crisil Ltd., the local arm of S&P Global Ratings, made a presentation to the Securities and Exchange Board of India

in recent days, said the people, who declined to be identified as the discussions were private.

The finances of companies backed by Gautam Adani, Asia’s richest man, have come into focus after short seller Hindenburg Research accused the group of corporate malpractice. But there has been no suggestion it would struggle to make debt payments or that the meeting with ratings agencies is more than routine dialog.

Punjab given a raw deal in budget: CM Mann

The Centre has sought a revenge from the Punjabis for the farm agitation by ignoring the minimum support price (MSP) of crops in the Union Budget, said Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. He slammed the Central Government for presenting an anti-Punjab, anti-people, anti-farmers and a directionless Union

Budget. “The government has not even made a mention of the issue and farmers once again have been left to fend for themselves,” CM Mann said.

“Punjab, in fact, was missing from the country’s Budget and we know this is being done intentionally,” he said. Punjab Govt, in its pre-Budget

Govt to provide job to former hockey player currently working as (‘Palledar’) loader

During his interaction, the chief minister said that Paramjeet will be recruited as a hockey coach in the sports department and soon formalities in this regard will be completed.

On being asked whether the earlier

government took note of his plight, the ex-hockey player replied, “No, did not get any response”. Mann said that it is our duty to respect the players.

Paramjeet also told Mann that he wants to make his son a hockey player but it seems

CBI registers preliminary enquiry against Police Commissioner

The CBI has registered a preliminary enquiry against Jalandhar Police Commissioner Kuldeep Singh Chahal for alleged corruption and misconduct during his tenure as the SSP, Chandigarh, officials said on Thursday.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)

has launched the enquiry on a reference from Punjab Governor and Chandigarh Administrator Banwarilal Purohit, they added. The 2009-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, who was on deputation in Chandigarh, was sent back to his parent cadre,

Punjab govt to send 36 school principals to Singapre for training

Head teachers from 36 Punjab govt schools will leave for Singapore to attend training programme, CM Mann said.

The AAP had given a “guarantee” to transform the state’s education system in the run-up to last year’s assembly elections, he said. Since teachers are nation builders who can lift the level of education, it was guaranteed that their

teaching skills would be upgraded by ensuring quality training, Mann added.

Mann said the 36 principals would travel for the training programme as part of this guarantee. They will take part in a professional teachers’ training seminar in Singapore from February 6-10, the chief minister said according to an official statement.

Pakistan

Govt can’t afford to spend Rs14bn on Imran Khan’s contest by-election stand from 33 constituencies

Former Prime Minister Imran Khan opts for solo run on 33 National Assembly seats in by-elections. It’s people’s democratic right to select their political representatives through free and fair elections. Unfortunately, Former Prime Minister, Imran Khan & Chairperson Tehreek-e-Insaaf party, has turned this right into a political joke.

Khan has decided to contest by-elections on 33 National Assembly seats to be held on March 16. The seats vacated after PTI parliamentarians resignations. The election act and rules do not put a bar on any candidate to context more than one constituency on national and /or provincial level.

Peshawar mosque bombing attack kills 100

Peshawar mosque bombing has underscored a resurgence in militant attacks in recent months in Pakistan. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, in which more than 100 people were killed, but officials believe it was launched by Islamist militants. The powerful blast blew away the wall of the prayer hall and an inner roof.

The outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack. It later distanced itself from it but sources earlier

indicated that it might have been the handiwork of some local faction of the outlawed group. that the rescue and search operation at the blast site has been completed, after almost 24 hours. In a media briefing at the Police Lines on Tuesday Jah Ansari said that the most pertinent question at the moment was how a “suicide bomber” was able to enter Police Lines and go to the mosque.

Govt braces for fuel shortages amid liquidity crisis

Pakistan could face a crunch in fuel supplies in February as banks have stopped financing and facilitating payments for imports due to depleting foreign exchange reserves, traders and industry sources said.

The South Asian nation is facing a balance of payments crisis and the plummeting value of the Pakistani rupee is pushing up the

price of imported goods. Energy comprises a large chunk of Pakistan’s import bill.

Pakistan typically meets more than a third of its annual power demand using imported natural gas, prices for which shot up following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “There is no shortage this fortnight.

Gilgit-Baltistan, Kashmir short on food, fuel & finance

In a contrast that may seem cruel, Pakistans snow-bound north is feeling the heat of shortages of food, fuel and finance — and frustration among the people of the tourist paradise is causing angry protests.

Long years of neglect are showing. Angry demonstrations have dotted

Pakistan-governed Kashmir and the remote Gilgit-Baltistan provinces where people find even wheat flour, a basic daily necessity, getting out of their reach. The provincial administrations are running short of funds allotted for wheat purchases.

National Federation Party claims Bainimarama lied in Parliament

The National Federation Party has called on the former Prime Minister and Minister for Sugar to inform Fijians, particularly cane growers, how the Fiji Sugar Corporation executives were receiving half a million dollars annually.

General Secretary Seini Nabou claims

that Bainimarama lied to Parliament on February 14, 2019, when he stated that an investigation had commenced and was ongoing regarding alleged financial abuse and mismanagement by the former CEO of FSC. Nabou states that revelations about the salaries of FSC executive management,

Khaiyum terminated by Fijian Broadcasting Corporation Board

The Fijian Broadcasting Corporation Board terminated the contract of FBC

In a statement, Board Chair Ajay Amrit says they have no confidence in the ability of the current CEO.

Amrit says Chief Finance Officer Vimlesh Sagar will act in this position until such time as the Board can confidently appoint a person with the appropriate commercial competency

and attributes needed to lead the company. He says the board has also been made aware that the CEO of FBC earns considerably more than government ministers and even the Prime Minister, which was a shock to the board, adding that it would be a shock

He further stated that accountability and transparency have been brought up in Parliament many times over the past few years,

Minister of Home Affairs visits Commander Military Forces

The Minister of Home Affairs and Immigration Honorable (Hon) Pio Tikoduadua visited the Commander Republic of Fiji Military Forces (CRFMF), Major-General Ro Jone

Kalouniwai at the Strategic Headquarters (SHQ) in Berkeley Crescent in Suva. Tikoduadua’s visit to the RFMF SHQ is the first after he took office as the Minister of Home Affairs and Immigration late last year.

Fiji Labour Party Leader Mahendra Chaudhry says former Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem should not be allowed to get away by simply resigning. In a statement, Chaudhry says the resignation raises a lot of questions. The former Prime Minister says Saneem’s

Saneem’s resignation should not be accepted until all allegations against him are cleared resignation should not be accepted until all allegations against him are cleared, adding Saneem should be put through the due process of the law and held answerable to all allegations made against him. ChaudhryhasalsoquestionedifSaneem’s resignation is an admission of guilt.

Republic Day of India celebrations

INDIA

More undocumented Indians attempt to enter the United States

During a speech in January, Georgia Congressman Rich McCormick said that Indian Americans are “some of the best a “streamlined” immigration process for those who have come to the United States to “obey the law, pay their taxes and be the most creative and productive in society.”

Although Americans of Indian origin are often presented in this manner as “model” migrants, an increased entry to the US in 2022, according to US Customs and Border Patrol data. In 2022, 63,927 undocumented Indians reached the US borders and sought asylum, which is more than double the previous year’s figure. The US southern border with Mexico is a common arrival point.

From October 2021 to September 2022, US border authorities stopped Indian migrants “18,300 times” at the US southern border, according to the Migration Policy Institute’s (MPI) 2022 report on Indian immigration to the US. This is a spike from 2,600 encounters recorded the previous year.

Lopita Nath, professor of history and Asian Studies at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas, Indian arrivals could serve to tarnish the positive image of Indian immigration.

“If the numbers grow as exponentially as they are now, the Indian diaspora will not be very happy about it, because it gives a bad name to the legal migrants,” she said.

Canada, Australia must check extremist activities, says MEA

India has asked both Canada and Australia to ensure that their territories are not used for activities that threaten the safety of Indians as well as the security and national interest of the country. Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Thursday India condemned the recent incidents of vandalisation in Australia and had asked the Australian authorities to ensure that the Australian territory was not used for activities detrimental to Indian security, integrity and national interest. We have been repeatedly taking up with the Australian authorities our concerns about actions by extremist elements, including those that are proscribed terrorist organisations. —Arindam Bagchi, MEA spokesperson Assurance about the safety and well-being of Indian nationals in Canada also came from Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday in response to a question

on instances of increasing hate crime and sectarian violence against Indians in Canada. The minister said India regularly took up with Canada untoward incidents affecting the Indian community and requested it to bring the perpetrators to justice after carrying out a proper investigation. The MEA as well as the Indian mission and consulates in Canada had issued regular advisories asking Indian nationals residing there to exercise due caution and remain vigilant, he said.

The Indian mission in Australia has gone on record to state that “signals that extremist elements are stepping up their activities in Australia, actively aided and abetted by members of proscribed terrorist organisations such as the Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) and other inimical agencies from outside Australia, have been evident for some time. The tensions in Australia have been exacerbated by a tilt in reporting by an online portal set by Australians who had earlier held Indian nationality.

AAP used kickbacks to fight Goa poll: ED

The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which has filed a supplementary chargesheet in the Delhi excise policy scam case in a special court here, alleged the investigation done so far revealed that the policy was created by top AAP leaders to continuously generate and channel illegal funds. The investigation of the trail of kickbacks in the case revealed that part of these funds was used in the AAP’s election campaign for the Goa Assembly elections in 2022. Cash payments to the tune of Rs 70 lakh were made to volunteers who were part of the survey teams, the agency alleged. The ED claimed AAP communications in-charge Vijay Nair,

an accused in the case, had “arranged a FaceTime call from his phone between IndoSpirit owner Sameer Mahandru, also an accused, and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, during which the latter told Sameer that Vijay was his boy and that Sameer should trust him and carry on with him”. It said on the behalf of AAP leaders, Nair received Rs 100 crore from “South Group” as advance for liquor licences. The agency maintained Nair, who orchestrated the entire scam, was not an ordinary AAP worker, but a close aide of Kejriwal and was closely working with Deputy CM Manish Sisodia for matters related to the excise policy.

NDP unprepared to support illicit drugs decriminalization policy – With just a day remaining until the of illicit drugs goes into effect in British Columbia, the NDP government remains unprepared to support the implementation of the experimental policy, which is the first of its kind in Canada.

Press release

support B.C.’s exemption, including: treatment;

“The agreement to move forward the possession of small amounts of opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine, and MDMA for personal use, came with several conditions from the Federal government that the BC NDP have yet to meet,” said MLA Elenore Sturko, Shadow Minister for Mental Health, Addictions, and Recovery. “As the clock ticks down, there has been a conspicuous lack of clarity from David Eby’s NDP government about how B.C. will meet its obligations to roll out the policy, and what steps it’s taking to increase supports for those suffering from addiction.”

With less than 24 hours until the policy is set to take effect, B.C. has fallen short of meeting the very specific actions and commitments outlined in the Government of Canada’s Letter of Requirements to

stakeholders and indigenous partners; communications; of the health and social systems; law enforcement; and applied research and evaluation models to measure the success of the program.

“Harm reduction efforts like comprehensive approach that’s needed to help put an end to this crisis that continues to claim six lives a day,” added Sturko. “Not only is the NDP unprepared to roll out this untried policy, but for the last five years, it’s also failed to place any emphasis on the implementation and funding of prevention, recovery, and treatment programs. People suffering from addiction must be able to immediately access the services they need when they need them, and that isn’t happening under the leadership of David Eby’s NDP.”

Bharatnatyam dancers Malavika Santosh and Kiruthika

Kamal Sharma and Tony Singh of Fruiticana (second from right) with RCMP officers

Kamal Sharma with Attorney General of British Columbia, Nikki Sharma

74th Republic Day of India celebrations organized by Kamal Sharma at Empire Banquet Hall in Surrey on January 29. It was a night celebrating the spirit of patriotism. Many prominent personalities from the community were present at the occasion.

Photo courtesy:

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