Ankhi Das openly supported BJP on Facebook's internal group, says WSJ report; Congress seeks criminal probe against social media giant

Facebook's policy director for India and South and Central Asia, Ankhi Das, posted messages of her support for BJP for several years on an internal group of the company’s employees, detailing efforts to help the party win the 2014 national election, according to a report by  The Wall Street Journal.

According to the report, Das, just a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi swept the 2014 general election to victory had written: “We lit a fire to his social media campaign and the rest is of course history.”

This message, along with several others—posted between 2012 and 2014—was reported by WSJ in its report published on 30 August.

Other messages by Das showed her praising Modi as the ‘strongman’ who ended the Congress’ hold in India. Before the 2014 elections, she wrote that Facebook had been lobbying the BJP for months to include the company’s top priorities in the party’s campaign. “Now they just need to go and win the elections,” she wrote.

The posts were made in a Facebook group designed for employees in India, but it was open to a global audience, according to Hindustan Times. 

According to The Wire, Das' Facebook colleague, Katie Harbath – a Republican and Facebook’s top global elections official – had written that Das characterised Modi as “the George W Bush of India”.

Further, the Wall Street Journal report states, "When a fellow staffer noted in response to one of her internal posts that the BJP’s primary opponent, the Indian National Congress, had a larger following on Facebook than Mr. Modi’s individual page, Ms. Das responded: ‘Don’t diminish him by comparing him with INC. Ah well—let my bias not show."

Taking note of the report, Indian National Congress on Monday launched a scathing attack on Facebook for interfering with India's electoral democracy.

The party has demanded that a Joint Parliamentary Committee investigation should be launched on the matter immediately.

The Congress has also demanded a criminal investigation into the affairs of Facebook in India and the people involved.

"The article reveals how despite questions raised by other employees in Facebook India and the company’s claims of neutrality, Das and her leadership team were arrogant and blatant in their biases," the party said in a press release.

Quoting the WSJ, the Congress has said that Facebook and WhatsApp’s role in subverting India’s democracy is now "unquestionable and beyond doubt."  The companies' complicity in propagating hate speech and fake news to favour the BJP in elections is confirmed, alleged the Opposition party.

Aside from the parliamentary inquiry and criminal investigation, Congress has also demanded three additional measures that should be taken against Facebook. These are:

• All pending approvals and licenses for Facebook & WhatsApp to be put on hold until the investigations are completed.
• Suspension of Facebook India’s leadership team with immediate effect until the conclusion of the investigations.
• An inquiry by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology into the activities of all Heads of Public Policy teams of foreign technology companies operating in India and establish a code of conduct.

Earlier, party leader Shashi Tharoor had said that the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology "would certainly wish to hear" from Facebook about the report.

Das has been at the centre of a political storm after WSJ’s previous report revealed she had opposed applying hate-speech rules to some Hindu nationalist individuals and groups, as well as posts by a BJP politician.

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TNDTE Results 2020: Tamil Nadu directorate declares polytechnic diploma scores, check tndte.gov.in

TNDTE Results 2020: The Tamil Nadu Directorate of Technical Education (TNDTE) announced the results for the Tamil Nadu Polytechnic Diploma exams on Monday. Candidates can check their results by visiting the official site of the directorate at — tndte.gov.in.

Results of the first-year and second-year exams have been announced.

The polytechnic exam was conducted by the TNDTE in the state in April, reports said. While 64,128 students have cleared the second-semester tests, as many as 94,332 students qualified the fourth-semester exams.

It is important to note that the Directorate of Technical Education (DOTE) also released the results for typewriting (English and Tamil) and for Accountancy exams have been also released by the directorate.

Here is how you can view and download the Tamil Nadu Polytechnic Diploma results 2020:

Students need to first visit the official site of the TNDTE or simply click on the direct link tndte.gov.in.

Once there, select the link on the homepage that says ‘TNDTE Result for April exam 2020 link’. Candidates will be redirected to another webpage where they need to enter a few login details.

Upon successful logging in, the mark sheets for the polytechnic diploma exams will appear. Candidates can check the results and download the file for future references

According to a Times of India report, the marks for the polytechnic exams were awarded on the basis of internal assessment and marks secured in previous semesters as the final exams were cancelled due to the viral pandemic.

While internal assessment carried 70 percent of the weightage, previous semester performance had 30 percent weightage. The report also added that a total of 1.58 lakh students have cleared the April 2020 exams.

Meanwhile the third year students or the sixth semester students will have to appear for the exams.

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Adani Group to acquire 74% stake in Mumbai International Airport from GVK Group

New Delhi: Billionaire Gautam Adani''s conglomerate on Monday said it will take controlling stake in Mumbai airport through deals in which it will acquire the debt of current promoter GVK and buy out minority shareholders.

Adani Group will acquire GVK Airport Developers Ltd's 50.50 percent stake as well as buyout 23.5 percent stake of Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA) and Bidvest Group (for which it has obtained Competition Commission of India approval), it said in a regulatory filing.

A controlling 74 percent stake in Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL), together with the six non-metro airports it bagged in a government tender, will make Adani Group the largest private operator of airports in India.

The state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI) runs most of the airports in the country.

Adani Airport Holdings will acquire the debt of GVK Airport Developers, the holding company of GVK Power and Infrastructure, the filing said.

The debt will be converted into equity at mutually-agreed terms, GVK said in a separate filing.

This conversion would lead to Adani Group getting all of 50.5 percent stake of GVK Group.

The two firms did not give details of the deal including the debt that Adani is taking over and the terms of conversion.

After seaports, Adani Group is betting big on the airport sector and has won the bids to run six AAI-built non-metro airports in Lucknow, Jaipur, Guwahati, Ahmedabad, Thiruvananthapuram, and Mangalore. It has now entered the country's second busiest airport.

The move comes at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has hit brakes on the aviation sector.

"The aviation industry has been severely impacted by COVID-19, setting it back by many years and has impacted the financials of MIAL," GVK Chairman GVK Reddy said in a statement. "It was therefore important that we bring in a financially strong investor in the shortest possible time."

GMR Infrastructure is the other big private airport operator in the country. GMR, which operates the international airport in New Delhi, is also selling a 49 percent stake in the airport business to a consortium led by Tata Group, a unit of Singapore''s sovereign wealth fund GIC and SSG Capital Management.

"Mumbai, the City of Dreams! It is a privilege to have an opportunity to serve the air travelers of one of the greatest Metropolis on our planet," Gautam Adani, 58, tweeted.

Mumbai, the City of Dreams! It is a privilege to have an opportunity to serve the air travelers of one of the greatest Metropolis on our planet. #GatewaytoGoodness - Look forward to helping transform the Indian Airport Sector!

— Gautam Adani (@gautam_adani) August 31, 2020

GVK also said it has separately terminated a Rs 7,614-crore investment agreement with Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), Canada's Public Sector Pension Investment Board, and state-owned National Investment & Infrastructure Fund (NIIF).

In October last year, debt-laden GVK Group had entered into an agreement to sell 79 percent of its stake in GVK Airport Holdings for Rs 7,614 crore to three investors to help retire debt.

"Adani Airport Holdings intends to infuse funds into MIAL to ensure it receives much-needed liquidity and also achieves financial closure of Navi Mumbai International Airport to be able to commence construction," Adani Enterprises, the promoter of Adani Airport Holdings, said.

"The GVK Group and AAHL have agreed that AAHL will offer a stand-still to GVK, in addition, to release the guarantee given by GVK Power and Infrastructure Ltd with respect to the debt acquired by it," the company said in the filing.

"Upon the acquisition of the debt of GVK Airport Developers, Adani Group will take steps to obtain necessary customary and regulatory approvals, as may be required, to acquire controlling interest in MIAL," it said.

GVK said it has "agreed to cooperate with Adani Airport Holdings Ltd (AAHL)" under which the Adani Group firm will acquire debt from various lenders including a Goldman Sachs led consortium and HDFC.

"When the transaction is consummated, which is subject to customary approvals, we would be reducing a significant portion of liabilities to our lenders, which is of utmost importance to the group," GVK Reddy said.

Adani Group had in March 2019 agreed to acquire a 13.5 percent stake of South African company, Bidvest for Rs 1,248 crore. However, GVK Group blocked the deal claiming the right of first refusal.

GVK, however, could not bring money to the table to buy Bid Services Division Mauritius'' (Bidvest) stake and the matter went to court.

With GVK Group's finances under strain, it has now come around to the idea of selling the stake to Adani Group.

ACSA owns 10 percent in MIAL and the balance 26 percent stake is held by the AAI.

GVK said has "notified ADIA, NIIF, and PSP that the transaction documents stand terminated as it is no longer effective and implementable."

"The reason for this decision was (a) the terms of the transaction envisaged in the transaction documents were not implementable and (b) the alternative proposals discussed would not provide a resolution to the lenders of ADL by the end of August, which was a requirement of our lenders," it added.

The deal comes after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) earlier this month charged the GVK Group with siphoning off funds totaling Rs 705 crore. It is charged with causing a loss of Rs 310 crore to the exchequer by entering into fake work contracts on the land given by the government to MIAL.

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India records biggest single-day COVID-19 spike ever globally; cases above 78,000 for second straight day

A day after India registered 78,761 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, the biggest single-day spike in the world since the pandemic began, India on Monday saw 78,512 new cases and 971 fatalities taking its COVID-19 tally rose to 36,21,245 and its toll to 64,469.

Monday's figure means India saw its coronavirus cases stay above the 78,000-mark for the second straight day.

India, with 1.4 billion people, now has the fastest-growing daily coronavirus caseload of any country in the world, reporting more than 75,000 new cases for four straight days.

Sunday's figures saw India, just as the government begins easing restrictions to resuscitate the economy, eclipse the United States for the unenviable record of highest-single day rise in cases.

The US set the previous record on 17 July with 77,638 daily infections, according to an AFP tally.

The tw0-day surge came as the government announced the reopening of the subway in New Delhi. It also will move ahead with limited sports and religious events next month.

One of the reasons is testing: India now conducts nearly 1 million tests every day, compared with just 200,000 two months ago.

A significant feature of the country's COVID-19 management, however, is the growing rate of recovered patients.

The recovery rate reached nearly 76.5 percent and rose to 76.62 percent on Monday.

The health ministry credited its strategic policy of “testing aggressively, tracking comprehensively and treating efficiently” in supervised home isolation and hospitals.

But COVID-19 fatalities continue to mount and soon India will likely have the third-largest toll, after the United States and Brazil, even though it has had far fewer deaths than those two countries.

India is now reporting around 1,000 COVID-19 deaths every day.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, a total of 4,23,07,914 samples have been tested so far with 8,46,278 samples being tested on Sunday.

Of the 971 fresh deaths reported, 296 are from Maharashtra, 106 from Karnataka, 94 from Tamil Nadu, 88 from Andhra Pradesh, 67 from Uttar Pradesh, 56 from Punjab, 50 from West Bengal,  29 from Madhya Pradesh, 22 in Delhi,  17 each from Gujarat and Bihar, 13 each in Jharkhand and Rajasthan, 12 each in Haryana and Odisha.

Ten fatalities have been reported from Puducherry, nine each from Jammu and Kashmir and Telangana, seven each from Assam, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Kerala, five each from Goa and Tripura, two each from Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh, one each from Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Himachal Pradesh.

Of the total 64,469 deaths, Maharashtra has reported the maximum at 24,399 followed by 7,231 in Tamil Nadu, 5,589 in Karnataka, 4,426 in Delhi, 3,884 in Andhra Pradesh, 3,423 in Uttar Pradesh, 3,176 in West Bengal, 3,006 in Gujarat and 1404 people have died in Punjab.

So far, 1,374 have died in Madhya Pradesh, 1043 in Rajasthan, 827 in Telangana, 694 in Jammu and Kashmir, 682 in Haryana, 578 in Bihar, 482 in Odisha, 410 in Jharkhand, 296 in Assam, 287 in Kerala, 269 in Chhattisgarh, 257 in Uttarakhand, 221 in Puducherry, 183 in Goa, 103 in Tripura, 52 in Chandigarh, 45 in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 35 in Himachal Pradesh.

Ladakh registered 34 cases, Manipur 28,  Meghalaya 10, Nagaland 9, Arunachal Pradesh 7, Sikkim 3 and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu two.

The health ministry stressed that more than 70 percent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

"Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research," the ministry said, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.

Treat doctors who died on COVID-19 at par with martyrs: IMA

Meanwhile, the Indian Medical Association has written to the prime minister asking that all doctors who have died of COVID-19 be treated at par with martyrs of the armed forces, and their dependents be provided government jobs in accordance with their qualifications.

In a letter to the prime minister, the country''s largest body of doctors said only an "inclusive national solatium" for all doctors who have lost their lives fighting the pandemic would render justice to the sacrifice of their families.

The IMA cited government data and said 87,000 healthcare workers had been infected and 573 of them had lost their lives due to COVID-19. However, the Centre has not officially released these figures.

Noting that the data has raised concerns all across the country, the IMA said its data for doctors alone has registered 307 deaths and a total 2,006 infected. It said 188 of those died are general practitioners who are the first point of contact for people.

'September could be most challenging month'

Even as eight states remain among the worst-hit regions and contribute nearly 73 percent of the total infections, the virus is now spreading fast in the vast hinterlands, with health experts warning that September could be the most challenging month yet.

Early last week, members of a small secluded tribe in the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands tested positive for the coronavirus.

So far, the biggest contributor to the new surge has been Maharashtra. It alone has accounted for more than 24,000 deaths and nearly 21 percent of all cases.

India’s economy — the fifth largest in the world — has been severely hit by the pandemic. Millions have lost their jobs since the start of the lockdown, with the poor particularly hard hit.

But despite the surging cases, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his team have been pushing for a return to normalcy to ease the pain.

The Centre on Saturday said the crowded subway, a lifeline for millions of people in New Delhi, will reopen gradually starting 7 September. Schools, colleges and movie theaters will remain closed until the end of September.

Metro train services would also resume "in a graded manner" in major cities.

The home affairs ministry said gatherings of up to 100 people would be allowed with face masks and social distancing at cultural, entertainment, sports and political events from next month.

Schools remain closed but students can meet teachers on a voluntary basis on school premises if needed, according to the new guidelines.

With inputs from agencies

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Bank holidays in September 2020: All banks in Kerala, Bengal, Karnataka to remain shut on 2, 17 and 21 September

Banks in the country will be operational on most days in the month of September since there are no major public holidays. The financial institutions are guided by the national and state holidays in which they are situated. Except the second and fourth Saturdays and all Sundays, banks will be functioning almost on all the days.

As per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), there are three holidays in the month of September during which banks in some states will be closed.

On 2 September, banks in Gangtok, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram will be closed for Pang-Lhabsol and Sree Narayan Guru Jayanthi.

On 17 September, banks in Agartala, Bengaluru, Kolkata will not be operating due to Mahalaya Amavasya.

On 21 September, banks in Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram will remain closed for Sree Narayana Guru Samadhi Day.

All the banks will be closed on Sundays which will fall on 6, 13, 20, and 27 September. Also, on the second and the fourth Saturdays in the month - 12 and 26 September - banks will be closed across India.

Banks in Kerala and Sikkim will remain closed on 1 September for Third Onam Indra Jatra.

On 16 September, for the occasion of Viswakarma puja, banks in Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab will remain closed.

On 23 September banks in Haryana will not be operating as the state will be observing Haryana Heroes' Martyrdom Day, while in Punjab banks will be closed on 28 September due to Bhagat Singh Jayanti.

On holidays, all regular operations will remain closed. However, mobile and internet banking facilities will be functional.

All other banks in the rest of the country will be operational during the region-specific holidays.

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JEE Advanced AAT 2020: Exams on 8 October, registrations to begin from 5 October at jeeadv.ac.in

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi has announced the exam date for JEE Advanced Architecture Aptitude Test (AAT) 2020 on its website jeeadv.ac.in.

As per the schedule the examination will be conducted on 8 October.

The registration for JEE Advanced AAT 2020 will begin from 5 October.

Candidates can enroll themselves for the exam by 6 October till 5 pm.

The result will be declared on 11 October.

Click here for details on JEE Advanced AAT 2020.

According to a report in Careers 360, the examination will be conducted in all 23 IITs. The total duration of the test is three hours and will be held from 9 am to 12 noon.

Candidates appearing for the test will have to report at the venue by 8:30 am.

Those who want to register for the exam will have to submit details including JEE Advanced 2020 registration number, date of birth, mobile number and email address.

Applicants will have to choose their preferred exam centre.

As per a report in Indian Express, the exam conducted for admission to architecture courses in IITs will have questions in English language.

Only those who clear JEE Advanced are eligible to apply for AAT. Admission to the B.Arch courses offered by IIT-BHU (Varanasi), IIT-Roorkee and IIT-Kharagpur will be done on the basis of marks secured by candidates in AAT.

The Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) Advanced 2020, the test for admission to IITs, will be held on 27 September. It will be conducted by IIT Delhi.

The top 2-2.5 lakh rank holders in India in the JEE Main examination are eligible to take the JEE Advanced.

The exam is conducted in the May or June, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic it has been deferred this year.

The eligibility criteria for the exam has been relaxed this year.

Earlier, the candidates have to secure either minimum score of 75 percent marks in Class 12 board exams or rank among the top 20 percentile in their qualifying examinations.

Now, those who have cleared the Class 12 exams will be eligible for admissions to the IITs irrespective of the score that they have obtained.

 

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NIA arrests Mundra dockyard supervisor accused of working as ISI agent in Gujarat

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested a supervisor at Mundra dockyard in Gujarat, who allegedly worked as an agent of Pakistani spy agency – Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) an official said.

Rajakbhai Kumbhar, a resident of West Kutch in Gujarat, arrested on Sunday in connection with the investigation of 'Defence/ISI case' of Uttar Pradesh, the NIA official said.

The case pertains to an FIR registered on 19 January at Lucknow's Gomti Nagar police station on the arrest of Mohammad Rashid from Mughalsarai in Chandoli district, he said.

The NIA re-registered the case on 6 April under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), the official said.

During the investigation, it was revealed that Rashid was in contact with defence or ISI handlers in Pakistan and visited the neighbouring country twice, the official said.

He had transmitted photographs of sensitive and strategically important installations in India and also shared information about the movement of the armed forces with his IS handlers in Pakistan, an NIA spokesperson said.

Investigation revealed that Kumbhar worked as an ISI agent and transferred Rs 5,000 through Paytm in the account of one Rizwan which was further handed over to the main accused Rashid, the spokesperson said.

This amount was remitted to Rashid by Kumbhar on the directions of ISI handlers for the information supplied, he said.

A search was conducted at the house of Kumbhar on Thursday and several incriminating documents were seized.

Further investigation in the case was underway.

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