National
Jyotiraditya Scindia all set to retain Cabinet berth
Bhopal, June 9 (IANS) Jyotiraditya Scindia, who was the Union Minister for Civil Aviation and Steel in the previous NDA government, is set to be retained in the Union Cabinet as the NDA council of ministers takes oath under Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday evening, sources said.
Jyotiraditya Scindia’s political journey begun after his father and senior Congress leader Madhavrao Scindia died in a plane crash in 2001. He contested the ensuing Lok Sabha bypoll on a Congress ticket from family bastion Guna and won against BJP’s Rao Deshraj Singh Yadav by a margin of over 4.5 lakh votes.
He was re-reelected in 2004 from Guna and was inducted into the Union Cabinet in 2007 as the Minister of State for Commerce and Industry in the first tenure of the UPA government led by Manmohan Singh.
A member of the erstwhile royal family of Gwalior, Scindia (53) scored a hat-trick from Guna in 2009. In 2014, he won again from Guna but the UPA lost power to the BJP-led NDA. In fact, Guna and Chhindwara were the only two seats out of the 28 in Madhya Pradesh that the Congress managed to win in 2014.
However, Scindia faced a major setback in 2019 when he lost the Lok Sabha elections against BJP’s K.P. Yadav from his family bastion by a margin of 1,25,549 votes. It was a humiliating defeat as it was the first time that any Scindia family member lost from their pocket-borough Guna.
A year earlier in 2018, the Congress led by Kamal Nath, Scindia, and Digvijaya Singh ousted the BJP from power in Madhya Pradesh.
However, the Congress government did not last long as in March 2020, Scindia along with his 22 loyalist MLAs joined the BJP, ending the tenure of the Kamal Nath-led Congress government in Madhya Pradesh, and paving the way for Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s return as the CM for a fourth term.
In 2021, the BJP made Scindia a Rajya Sabha MP and handed him the Civil Aviation and Steel portfolios in the second term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He was also rated among the top performing ministers in PM Modi’s Cabinet.
This year, Scindia fought his sixth Lok Sabha elections, but the first on a BJP ticket, and won against Congress’ Rao Yadavendra Singh Yadav by a margin of over 5 lakh votes.
Interestingly, Rao Yadavendra Singh Yadav is the son of Rao Deshraj Singh Yadav whom Scindia defeated in 2001 to launch his political career.
Like Scindia, Yadavendra also switched sides from the BJP to the Congress before the Assembly election held in November last year.
A graduate from the Harvard University, Scindia did his MBA from the Stanford University.
–IANS
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National
PM Modi congratulates Iran's new President Pezeshkian
New Delhi, July 6 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday congratulated Masoud Pezeshkian for his election as Iran’s new President.
“Looking forward to working closely with you to further strengthen our warm and long-standing bilateral relationship for the benefit of our people and the region,” PM Modi said in a post on X.
India-Iran partnership in various sectors, including connectivity, has expanded tremendously in recent times, especially during the tenure of Iran’s late President Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi who passed away in a helicopter crash in May this year.
India had also observed a day’s state mourning as a mark of respect to the late Iranian President and other eight people, including the country’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who lost their lives in the tragic accident.
It was also under India’s presidency that Iran joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
Both countries have fast-tracked infrastructure cooperation, focusing especially on the Chabahar project and the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) – the 7,200 km-long multimodal trade corridor linking Russia with India via the ports of Iran.
–IANS
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National
Another BRS MLA defects to Congress in Telangana
Hyderabad, July 6 (IANS) Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) received another jolt when its MLA joined the Congress on Saturday, just a day after six of its Members in the Legislative Council crossed over to the ruling party.
Bandla Krishna Mohan Reddy, the MLA from Gadwal constituency, joined Congress in the presence of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy.
The Chief Minister welcomed the MLA into the party.
Krishna Mohan represents the Gadwal constituency in Revanth Reddy’s home district of Mahabubnagar.
Krishna Mohan is the seventh MLA to switch to the ruling party since BRS lost power in December 2023.
BRS’ strength in the 119-member Assembly has come down to 31. It also lost the Secunderabad Cantonment Assembly by-election to Congress.
The tally of Congress party has now gone up to 72.
The main opposition party has lost several senior leaders to Congress during the last seven months.
–IANS
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National
Pune shocker: Drunk tries to set ablaze traffic cop near police station, held
Pune (Maharashtra), July 6 (IANS) In another shocking incident in Pune, a drunken man allegedly poured petrol and attempted to set ablaze a woman traffic police officer who had stopped him during a drunk-and-drive combing operation, an official said here on Saturday.
The incident happened at around 8 P.M. on Friday night when the traffic police officer, API Shailaja Jankar, along with other colleagues, was on duty at Laxmi Road in the jurisdiction of the Faraskhana Traffic Police Station.
The traffic police team stopped one person riding a motorcycle but finding his attitude suspicious, they asked him to get down and accompany them to the nearby traffic police station.
Apparently furious at being stopped, the man Sanjay F Salve, 32, fled from the spot but returned an hour later with some petrol.
Sanjay F Salve suddenly lunged at the woman officer and poured petrol on her, whipped out a lighter and tried to set her on fire, but her colleagues pinned him down.
“Fortunately, the police officer is unharmed. The other police personnel on duty rushed to her help and caught the accused, and further investigations are on,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Rohidas Pawar, told IANS.
The accused Sanjay F Salve is a resident of Pimpri-Chinchwad.
The Vishrambaugh Police Station, Senior Police Inspector Deepali Bhujbal told mediapersons on Saturday that they registered a case against Sanjay F Salve on various charges, including attempt to murder, drinking-and-driving, obstructing a public servant, etc. and arrested him. A further probe in underway.
Following a series of driving-related offences, starting with the Porsche drunken driving and hit-and-run case of May 19, the Pune Traffic Police stepped up vigil on roads against such offenders, and a check post was organised at Laxmi Road from 5.-8 P.M. on Friday.
–IANS
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National
K'taka MUDA land scam: 'If there is no connection, why transfer DC?', Pralhad Joshi to CM Siddaramaiah
Hubballi (Karnataka), July 6 (IANS) Reacting over the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) land scam allegedly involving Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Union Minister for Consumer Affairs Pralhad Joshi asked the Congress-led state government that if no corruption took place within the government body then why was the Mysuru District Commissioner transferred.
Speaking to the media in Hubballi, Union Minister Joshi said: “The MUDA scam involves massive corruption and it is evident at the outset. In 2017, the decision was taken and the MUDA land scam took place with the full knowledge of CM Siddaramaiah.”
He added that Rs 4,000 crore corruption took place involving MUDA land which the Congress government claims was awarded during the previous BJP government.
However, the transactions happened between 2013 and 2018 during the first term of Siddaramaiah as Chief Minister, the Minister said.
“This is a major scam committed for self-gains. The investigation has to be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). If CM Siddaramaiah claims that he has done nothing, then the scam must be handed over to the CBI,” Union Minister Joshi added.
“The Congress dubbed the BJP government as a 40 per cent government without any basis. The defamation suit was filed in the court. Now, there is the role of CM Siddaramaiah in two scandals — the MUDA scam and tribal welfare board scam,” he alleged.
“On the one hand, there is the Valmiki tribal welfare board’s scam, on the other hand, the MUDA scam has come to light. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) had arrested a few persons to hide the case. Former Minister B. Nagendra is served notice only on Friday. There is a conspiracy to hush up everything. CM Siddaramaiah’s government is mired in corruption,” Joshi said.
“There is no development work under CM Siddaramaiah-led government. No development works are taken up in the name of bogus guarantee schemes. The funds reserved for Dalits are being used for guarantees,” the Minister claimed.
–IANS
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National
Govt tells auto firms to liberalise repair services for consumers’ benefit
New Delhi, July 7 (IANS) The Centre’s Department of Consumer Affairs has asked automobile manufacturers to enhance efforts towards democratisation of repair manuals and videos accessible to all, fostering a robust ecosystem for third-party repair services and upholding consumer rights.
The issue was taken up by Secretary, Department Consumer Affairs, Nidhi Khare at a meeting with Automobile Associations and their partner companies in the Automobile Sector with the objective of onboarding auto companies onto the Right to Repair Portal India, according to an official statement issued on Saturday.
The meeting was attended by various representatives of Automobile Associations like ACMA, SIAM, ATMA, EPIC Foundation and companies including Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, TVS, Royal Enfield, Renault and Bosch, Yamaha Motors India, Honda Car India were also present.
The Government has launched the Right to Repair Portal India (https://righttorepairindia.gov.in/) to provide consumers with easy access to information for repairing their products and enabling them to reuse it, thereby contributing to the circular economy as well as reduction of e-waste in a hassle-free manner.
In the meeting, it was emphasised that products that cannot be repaired or are subject to planned obsolescence—designed with an artificially limited lifespan—contribute to e-waste and compel consumers to purchase new products due to lack of repair options or extremely expensive repair options for reuse. Therefore, the goal is to eliminate obstacles such as restricted access to tools or repair information, ensuring that consumers have complete ownership of the products they purchase.
“Over time, it has been noted that repair services are increasingly constrained due to significant delays in service and absence of repair documentation for vehicles. Additionally, products are sometimes repaired at excessively high costs, leaving consumers dissatisfied with repair services which often delays repairs, even if necessary, due to limited repair options,” it was pointed out at the meeting.
A major constraint is also the availability of genuine spare parts at affordable prices. Often their unavailability at affordable prices forces consumers towards purchasing counterfeit spare parts from the grey markets. Further, lack of accessible information for minor repairs or do it yourself guides, exacerbates consumer distress, adding to their financial burden and overall dissatisfaction.
Stress was also laid on offering roadside assistance to consumers, especially on highways and introducing a repairability index of the vehicle that provides information on the life of the product, easy repair ecosystem, availability of spare parts, detailed manual on self-repair, warranty on different parts.
These measures aim to empower consumers with informed choices regarding the post-sales service of their products, besides ease in enjoying their products fully. The meeting concluded with the consensus to onboard the Right to Repair Portal and adopt a greater collaborative approach in providing a vibrant post-sale services to the consumers.
The discussions also covered topics such as aligning standardisation of parts along with standardisation of skilled workmanship, companies developing catalogues that should benefit consumers for post-purchase service and longevity of product life, and measures for addressing deceptive practices in repair workshops in the name of motor insurance that contribute to unnecessary generation of plastic waste.
It was stressed that details of Companies Service Centre across India and Recognition third-parties repairers, if any, by the companies and Information on country of origin to be explicitly mentioned.
Some companies like TVS have shared their post-onboarding experiences on the portal. Companies including Tata Motors and TVS discussed how, based on complaints received from the National Consumer Helpline, they identified key repair issues and subsequently created repair videos accessible to consumers via their official YouTube channels.
–IANS
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