Starred
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New
report reveals 1,195 names of Swiss account holders; balance at
Rs
25,420 crore
India
> Black
money
A joint investigation
carried out by The Indian Express, Washingtonbased International
Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and the Parisbased
Le Monde newspaper, has revealed a new list of 1,195 Indian Swiss
account holders. This controversial list, retrieved from a trove of
secret documents from HSBC’s Swiss private banking arm, includes
prominent Indian names from various backgrounds. Mukesh Ambani, Anil
Ambani, Anand Chand Burman, former Maharashtra chief minister Narayan
Rane — his wife Neelam Narayan Rane and son Nilesh Rane, Bal
Thackeray’s daughterinlaw Smita Thackeray, Swraj Paul and
many others are listed as an account holder of the HSBC Swiss bank.
Their total account balance amounts upto Rs 25,420 crore for the year
200607. The new revelation— published as part of a global
agreement — is expected to significantly widen the scale and scope
of the ongoing probe by the Special Investigation Team (SIT)
appointed by the Supreme Court. British bank HSBC Holdings Plc
eventually agreed to the charges of helping wealthy customers evade
taxes and hide millions of dollars of assets. The analysis of the
list of Swiss account holders from over 200 countries has revealed
that India ranks 16th, with total funds of $4.1 billion, while
Switzerland tops the list with $ 31.2 billion.
Aam
Aadmi Party sweeps Delhi assembly elections
India
> Delhi
Elections
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)
has won the Delhi assembly elections with a clear majority by leading
in 67 of the total 70 seats, a phenomenal win considering that it was
completely able to wipe out the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) which was
riding high on PM Narendra Modi’s charisma. It was a nightmarish
result for the BJP which managed to win just three seats, the first
such instance since Prime Minister Narendra Modi became the Prime
Minister. In another shocker, the Congress party failed to win even a
single seat. AAP’s victory is biggest-Ever Victory in an Indian
State Election.
488
Swine Flu cases reported in India, Maharashtra worst affected with
100 deaths
India
> Swine
Flu
The swine toll
in Maharashtra and Rajasthan has reached 100 and
40 respectively. According to reports, six deaths have been recorded
in Mumbai due to the H1N1 virus outbreak while five more
casualties were reported in Rajasthan on Tuesday. A total of 205
swine flu cases have been recorded in Maharashtra, according to the
state authorities, while 49 fresh cases were reported in Delhi with
the total number of cases due to the disease going up to 488 this
year. Swine flu is caused by the H1N1 virus. H1N1 symptoms are
similar to those produced by other influenza viruses. Symptoms for
swine flu include high fever, headache, muscle pain, diarrhoea,
vomiting, stomach pain and internal and external bleeding. It is
transmitted to people primarily from ticks and livestock animals with
an incubation period of up to nine days. Human-to-human transmission
takes up to two weeks.
Others
UN
report says ISIS selling children as slaves with price tags, also
using children as suicide bombers
World
> ISIS
A United Nations report has
said that ISIS has stepped up the use of children in its terrorist
campaign, including putting price tags on Iraqi children and selling
them as slaves. There have been reports of children, especially
children that are mentally challenged, who have been used as suicide
bombers, most probably without them even understanding what has
happened or what they have to expect. Children as young as 8 years of
age are being trained to become fighters. Also, all Yazidi males
above 10 years of age have been dragged out of their schools and have
been shot. Reports also suggest that women, especially Yazidi women,
have been abused physically and subjected to systematic rape and sex
slavery. ISIS has in the past attempted to justify atrocities,
including the enslaving, raping and selling of captives, as being
done in God's name.
Iran
expresses willingness to sign nuclear deal
World
> Iran
nuclear deal
Iranian
foreign minister Mohammed Javad Zarif has told a gathering of the
world's top diplomats and defense officials in Munich that this is
the right opportunity, expressing a willingness on the part of Tehran
to come to an agreement regarding a nuclear deal. The United States
and its five negotiating partners, the other members of the U.N.
Security Council and Germany, hope to clinch a deal setting long-term
limits on Tehran's enrichment of uranium and other activity that
could produce material for use in nuclear weapons. Both sides are
under increasing pressure ahead of two deadlines: to agree on main
points by late March, and to reach a comprehensive deal by June 30.
The possibility of a deal raised strong objections from Israel with
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu saying that Israel would pull all stops
to prevent a bad and dangerous deal that would threaten the security
of Israel. From Tehran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who
has the final say on all major decisions, said in a statement on his
website Sunday that Iran agrees with Washington that no agreement is
better than an agreement that doesn't meet its interests. Zarif said
all sanctions against his country should be lifted, saying that if
they had been intended to stop its nuclear ambitions they had failed.
India
poised to grow faster than other BRICS nations for the first time in
15 years
Economy
> Growth
According
to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), India will next year grow
faster than each of its BRICS counterparts for the first time since
1999. So far this year, more than $7 billion has poured into the
country’s stocks and bonds, on top of last year’s $42 billion of
inflows. The country’s benchmark equity index reached a record at
the end of last month. Falling oil prices are helping the government
reduce its budget deficit and giving room to the central bank to
lower interest rates. Helping the country’s growth is also Prime
Minister Narendra Modi’s initiatives to cut red tape and make it
easier for foreign businesses to invest in India and RBI governor
Raghuram Rajan’s determination to keep inflation contained. The new
government has also implored manufacturers to establish factories in
India and used executive orders to pressure parliament to approve
bills that would drive investment in insurance and coal. However,
India needs to overcome major challenges in the form of power
shortages, transport bottlenecks and a dearth of skilled labor to
record an exceptional growth.
2
Indians win at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards
World
> Awards
The
Staples Centre in Los Angeles, California hosted the 57th Grammy
Awards this year on the 8th of February. A total of 83 awards were
given out during the ceremony. Among the prominent awards, the best
album award was won by Beck Hansen for his album 'Morning Phase',
best record of the year and the best song of the year awards were
clinched by Sam Smith for his album 'Stay with me'. Sam Smith also
won the award for the best new artist'. Two Indians have won the
awards this year, Neela Vaswani won the award in the best Chidren's
album category for her album 'I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up For
Education And Changed The World (Malala Yousafzai) along with Ricky
Kej who won the Best New Age Album Trophy for his album 'Winds of
Samsara'.
JD
(U) expels Bihar CM Jitan Manjhi from party; Manjhi refuses to step
down
Politics
and government > JD
(U)
The ongoing political crisis
in Bihar has deepened further after Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Manjhi
was expelled by the JD (U) from the party membership for defying the
party line. Manjhi’s predecessor and senior Janata Dal (United)
leader Nitish Kumar is attempting to return as chief minister. Mr
Manjhi, who was hand-picked by Mr Kumar as his replacement last year,
has refused to quit. Manjhi has gone further and met Prime Minister
Narendra Modi fuelling speculations that if he is forced out, he
might join the BJP. Meanwhile Mr Nitish Kumar has been recognized as
the leader of the JD(U) legislature Party by Bihar Assembly Speaker.
The JD (U) has 115 legislators in the 243-member assembly, most of
whom are reportedly with Nitish Kumar. Manjhi enjoys the support of
over a dozen JD (U) legislators. He is banking on the support of the
BJP. The BJP has 88 legislators. Manjhi said he will prove his
majority in the assembly on February 20, and step down only if he
fails. However, the JD(U) is mounting pressure on the governor to
call for a floor test immediately, saying that a later date would
give Majhi time to engage in horse-trading.
Facebook
partners with Reliance Communications to bring free internet
initiative in India
Science
and Technology > Internet
penetration
Anil Ambani-led Reliance
Communications has been roped in by Facebook Inc. to offer free
access to data and websites to customers through the social
networking site’s global digital inclusion initiative,
Internet.org. To start with these services will be available to
Reliance customers in of Mumbai, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra
Pradesh, Chennai, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The services will then be
extended to the rest of the country in a phased manner with more
services and websites. The companies declined to share who will bear
the cost of such data. The service is not restricted to any handset,
irrespective of screen size or operating platform. The idea behind
this initiative is to increase internet inclusion and encourage more
Indians to go online. This will not only increase internet
penetration in the country but also open up new socio-economic
opportunities to users in areas like education, information and
commerce.
India
likely to have second biggest start-up ecosystem after US
Economy
> Start-ups
IT-BPO industry body Nasscom
said the country saw 800 new technology start-ups setting shop so far
this fiscal and is poised to house the second biggest eco-system for
them after the US in the next two years on account of the ongoing
high growth rates. The rate at which the start-ups are growing is
much faster than Britain and Israel, which are ranked between India
and worldwide leader US at present. In 2014, the country witnessed
800 new companies starting up, taking the total number of start-ups
to 3,100. Among the areas in which the start-ups are engaged includes
wearable technologies, big data and analytics, augmented reality,
cloud computing, hardware, education, advertising and healthcare.
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