CONGRESS STAVES OFF CRISIS IN HIMACHAL FOR NOW, 6 REBELS DISQUALIFIED

The crisis that gripped the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh following cross-voting by six of its MLAs in the Rajya Sabha election on Tuesday seems to have blown over for now.

All six MLAs were disqualified under the anti-defection law on Thursday for defying the party whip to remain present at the time of voting on the cut motion on the Budget.

Following the disqualifications, the effective strength of the House has reduced from 68 to 62, with the Congress count at 34. The BJP has 25 MLAs.

After a day of meetings between AICC observers and state party leaders, the Congress leadership decided to set up a six-member coordination committee, tasked with ironing out the differences within the state unit. The committee includes both Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and state party president Pratibha Singh.

The truce, however, appear tenuous, as sources in the central leadership underlined that the crisis for the government, and especially Sukhu, seems to be over “only for the time being”.

Pratibha Singh and her son Vikramaditya Singh have reluctantly agreed to the central leadership’s decision to set up the committee, but reportedly, are far from happy. AICC observer D K Shivakumar said Vikramaditya Singh, son of former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, who had resigned from the Cabinet on Wednesday, had “withdrawn his resignation”.

A large section of the high command believes that Sukhu does not inspire confidence among a large number of MLAs, which is a matter of concern. He, however, continues to enjoy the support of Rahul Gandhi. According to sources, the Himachal affair will be discussed once Rahul is back from abroad on Friday. Rahul took a break from his yatra to go Cambridge for a few days.

Shivakumar, who was present at the press conference in Shimla along with Bhupinder Singh Hooda, assured that “there will be a Congress government in the state, and Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu is our Chief Minister”. Announcing the decision to set up a six-member committee, he said Sukhu took responsibility for the defeat of the Congress’s official candidate, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, following cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha election.

“The party is saddened by this loss. In this defeat, we lost an excellent leader, Abhishek Manu Singhvi. However, we have resolved our differences within the party, and a six-member committee will be formed. CM Sukhu and state Congress president Pratibha Singh will be members of this committee,” Shivakumar said.

“I accept it could be an intelligence failure, but it is also my failure. If they (the six rebel MLAs) wish to return, the Congress is ready to welcome them back. The challenge is how to contact them, as their phones are switched off. We are in contact with the wives of two of the MLAs,” Sukhu said.

NDA JUST 3 SHORT OF MAJORITY IN RAJYA SABHA AFTER LATEST ROUND OF POLLS

The BJP-led NDA is just three short seats of majority in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of parliament. With the election to 56 Rajya Sabha seats this month, the BJP alone has inched closer to 100. Altogether, the party managed to win 30 of the 56 seats in this round of elections, taking its score in the Upper House to 97 and the NDA to 118.

Candidates on 41 of the 56 seats had got elected unopposed earlier this month. Election was held on 15 seats across three states on Tuesday. There, the party scooped up two extra seats -- one in Congress-ruled Himachal Pradesh and one in Uttar Pradesh -- thanks to cross-voting by MLAs of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party.

The majority mark in the 245-member Upper House is 123. However, currently five seats are vacant, four of them in Jammu and Kashmir, which has been under President's Rule, and one in the nominated member category. This brings down the strength of the House too 240 and the majority mark to 121.

MODI, MAURITIUS PM INAUGURATE AIRSTRIP, JETT

In a strategic project to ensure maritime security and connectivity to Mauritius’ Agalega islands, an air strip and a jetty were inaugurated jointly by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mauritius PM Pravind Jugnauth virtually on Thursday.

Calling it a “historic day”, Mauritius PM Pravind Jugnauth said that these projects will “enhance the island’s capacity and capabilities in marine surveillance and security, while also meeting development objectives”.

“The March 2015 MoU (to upgrade the airstrip and the Set James Jetty) reflected India’s commitment to continually assist Mauritius in meeting its development goals satisfying the principles of mutual benefit, strict compliance with the sacrosanct principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity….There has never been any agenda for Mauritius to relinquish its sovereignty over the Agalega islands, as some ill-minded persons in and outside Mauritius attempted to make believe…..Here, I wish to forcefully deplore, condemn India-bashing campaign, some people in Mauritius have commented,” said Jugnauth.

CABINET OKAYS RS 75K CR ROOFTOP SOLAR SCHEME FOR 1 CRORE HOUSEHOLDS

The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana, under which rooftop solar panels will be installed across one crore households with a total outlay of Rs 75,021 crore.

The beneficiaries will get free electricity up to 300 units per month, I&B Minister Anurag Thakur told mediapersons after the Cabinet meeting.

“The scheme provides central financial assistance of 60 per cent of system cost for 2kW systems and 40 per cent of additional cost for systems between 2kW to 3kW capacity. The central financial assistance will be capped at 3kW. At current benchmark prices, this will mean Rs 30,000 subsidy for 1kW system, Rs 60,000 for 2kW and Rs 78,000 for 3kW systems or higher,” official sources said.

The government said households would apply for subsidy through a national portal and would be able to select a suitable vendor for installing rooftop solar panels.

Under the scheme, a model solar village will be developed in each district of the country to act as a role model for the adoption of the scheme in rural areas.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

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SENDING NATO TROOPS TO UKRAINE RISKS GLOBAL NUCLEAR WAR: PUTIN

Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed Thursday to fulfill Moscow’s goals in Ukraine and sternly warned West against deeper involvement in the fighting, saying such a move is fraught with the risk of a global nuclear conflict. Putin’s blunt warning came in a state-of-the-nation address ahead of next month’s election he’s all but certain to win, underlining his readiness to raise the stakes in the tug-of-war with West to protect Russian gains in Ukraine.

In an apparent reference to French President Emmanuel Macron’s statement that the future deployment of Western ground troops to Ukraine should not be “ruled out”, Putin warned that it would lead to “tragic” consequences for countries who decide to do that.

Putin noted that while accusing Russia of plans to attack Nato allies in Europe, Western allies were “selecting targets for striking our territory” and “talking about the possibility of sending a Nato contingent to Ukraine.”

“We remember the fate of those who sent their troop contingents to the territory of our country,” the Russian leader said in an apparent allusion to the failed invasions by Napoleon and Hitler. “Now the consequences for the potential invaders will be far more tragic.”

PAK HOUSE TO ELECT NEW PM ON SUNDAY

Hours after the first session of Pakistan’s 16th National Assembly Thursday, a notification issued by the secretariat stated that the new parliament would elect the next prime minister Sunday. Former PM Shehbaz Sharif is PML-N and PPP’s joint candidate for the post against Imran Khan’s PTI-backed Omar Ayub.

During the inaugural session, newly elected members were sworn in amid protests by lawmakers backed by Imran’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

The session started with a ruckus as soon as the national anthem ended with PTI lawmakers surrounding the speaker’s podium shouting slogans in support of the party’s founder.

The session saw Nawaz return to Parliament after seven years. He had stepped down as PM following his disqualification by Supreme Court in the “Panama Papers” scam in 2017.

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CAA AGAIN ON HORIZON, ASSAM OPPOSITION UP IN ARMS AGAINST IT

Amid hints from the Centre that the much-delayed rules for the implementation of the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act will be notified before the Model Code of Conduct comes into force for the coming Lok Sabha elections, the battle lines are being drawn in Assam.

The state had seen some of the most heated protests against the Act in 2019-2020, and on Thursday, leaders of 16 anti-BJP parties met the Governor with a memorandum for President Droupadi Murmu urging the Centre to “desist” on implementing the CAA. They threatened a mass agitation if the Act, which is seen as contravening the provisions of the Assam Accord on the question of illegal immigrants, was brought into force.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, meanwhile, asserting that there was no relevance of any protest against CAA at this point, said all those opposed to the law may approach the Supreme Court for revoking it. Addressing a press conference, Sarma said Parliament, which had passed the law, is “not supreme” as the apex court is above it and can terminate any legislation enacted like what it did to the electoral bonds.

'NO SYMPATHY' FOR SHAJAHAN SHEIKH, SAYS CALCUTTA HC

Stating that the court has 'no sympathy' for Trinamool Congress leader Shajahan Sheikh, the Calcutta high court on Thursday asked his lawyer to appear before it on March 4 when a suo motu motion on alleged sexual atrocities and land grabbing of tribal people at Sandeshkhali will be heard.

Sheikh's lawyer appeared before the court and sought to make an urgent submission with regard to his client.

The court said that if Sheikh had given vakalatnama to the lawyer, then his whereabouts were known.

Sheikh, accused of sexual atrocities and land grab was arrested by the state police on Thursday morning.

When Sheikh's lawyer stated that an anticipatory bail prayer made by him was rejected two days ago and four other applications made by him were still pending before the courts, the CJ said that 42 cases were pending against the TMC leader. "For the next ten years, you will not have the time to handle any other brief," the CJ said. He said that the lawyer will need to have a big legal team to handle cases relating to Sheikh.

"SMALL MISTAKE": TAMIL NADU MINISTER ON 'CHINA FLAG ON INDIAN ROCKET' AD

A day after his advertisement related to ISRO's new launch complex in Tamil Nadu caused a row for featuring a 'Chinese flag', DMK leader and Fisheries Minister Anitha R Radhakrishnan on Thursday said it was a gaffe by the designer.

The minister stressed that it was only a mistake and they (DMK) had no other intentions.

BJP leader and Union Minister L Murugan, however, demanded that the DMK apologise to the people for publishing that advertisement.

NO PAROLE TO DERA CHIEF WITHOUT OUR PERMISSION, HC TELLS HARYANA GOVT

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday asked the Haryana government not to grant further parole to Dera Sacha Sauda chief and rape convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh without its permission.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice GS Sandhawalia and Justice Lapita Banerji was hearing a petition of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee which had challenged the grant of temporary release to the Dera Sacha Sauda chief.

Gurmeet Singh was granted a 50-day parole on January 19.

The parole came two months after the Sirsa-headquartered sect chief walked out of the Sunaria jail in Haryana's Rohtak district on November 21 last year after he was granted a 21-day furlough which was his third temporary release from jail in 2023.

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The court fixed March 11 as the next date of hearing in the matter.

GDP GROWTH SURGES TO 8.4% IN Q3, SURPASSES ESTIMATES

India’s GDP (gross domestic product) grew at 8.4 per cent in the October-December quarter, stunning economists and the market which had forecast a much lower growth rate. This is the highest growth in the last seven quarters.

The government also revised upwards the estimated growth in real GDP during 2023-24 to 7.6 per cent as against the earlier estimate of 7 per cent in 2022-23.

The GDP growth in the third quarter was much higher than the 7.6 per cent recorded in the second quarter. Last year, the GDP growth in the third quarter was 4.3 per cent, according to official data released on Thursday.

A BIG LEAP FOR INDIA’S SEMICONDUCTOR AMBITIONS

In a bid to boost semiconductor production facilities, the Union Cabinet yesterday okayed three proposals of private investment worth Rs 1,26,000 crore in the sector.

The real breakthrough was the Tata Group’s semiconductor fabrication plant in partnership with Taiwan’s PSMC due to its strategic importance.

This plant is proposed to be developed as a pure-play foundry that rolls out semiconductor wafers for a number of industries, including high-performance computing, display drivers and microcontrollers (MCU). The land has already been identified and construction is set to begin in about three months.

While still a blueprint, this marks a big leap for India’s semiconductor ambitions — an area where successive governments have tried, and failed, to get global companies to set up shop in the country. This could also be significant given that about 70% of the current global manufacturing capacity is confined to South Korea, Taiwan and China, with the US and Japan making up for much of the rest, according to data from California-based semiconductor lobby organisation SEMI.

NETFLIX GETS COURT NOD TO AIR INDRANI MUKERJEA DOCU SERIES

The Bombay high court on Thursday said it has not found anything against the prosecution or the trial in the Netflix docu-series on Indrani Mukerjea, accused of killing her daughter Sheena Bora.

A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Manjusha Deshpande dismissed the petition filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), seeking a stay on the release of the movie till the trial in the case is complete. This paves the way for the release of the series on OTT platform Netflix.

The bench said it had viewed the series and found nothing in it that would prejudice the trial or the prosecution.

The docu-series, titled The Indrani Mukerjea Story: The Buried Truth, delves into the disappearance of 25-year-old Bora and was scheduled to premiere on streaming platform Netflix on February 23.

AT IIT DELHI, BILL GATES SHARES OPTIMISM ABOUT FUTURE

Evolution of Artificial Intelligence in the next decade and its impact on society, technological advancements to improve health sector in rural areas, and a quirky rapid fire round: these were some of the questions students of IIT Delhi, asked Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates during his interaction with them at the institute Thursday.

During his keynote address on “Innovation for Public Good”, Gates said, “I am looking at India in a far broader way. I’m lucky enough, through the work of the foundation, to look at innovators who can help with all kinds of problems — starting with health, but also agriculture, gender and climate. We need fantastic Indian innovation.”

Gates Foundation India Thursday wrote on X, “@BillGates shares his optimism about the future at @iitdelhi- “I’ll bet when I come back here, say it’s 5 years from now, some of you will be able to tell me about new technologies you have created- to inspire students, to help farmers, to solve healthcare problems, and to help us with climate”.

Gates asserted that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the most transformative technology he has seen and shared with the students, “Another place that India leads, but there’s a lot more that all of you can be involved in driving forward, is this Digital Public Infrastructure. No country is more able to take government benefits and get them out efficiently and effectively to their citizens than India.”

GLOBAL CELEBRITIES HEAD TO JAMNAGAR

All flights are leading to the coastal city of Jamnagar, as global CEOs, heads of states, Bollywood and sports stars, singers, pop artists as well as industry leaders began arriving to be part of the three-day pre-wedding festivities of Anant Ambani, younger son of Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, and fiancee Radhika Merchant, the daughter of Encore Healthcare CEO Viren Merchant, beginning today.

The guest list of around 2,000 includes King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk and wife Jetsun Pema of Bhutan who arrived on Thursday, besides popstar Rihanna who landed in an Airbus, and is expected to perform at the event.

Till March 6, the Jamnagar airport has turned into an “international terminal” to handle around 150 unscheduled flights that include Airbuses and Boeings, as the closest international airport is Ahmedabad, which is nearly 300 km away.

The other guests include Qatar Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd, former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt, former US president Donald Trump’s daughter and advisor Ivanka Trump, Hilton and Hyland Chairman Richard Hilton and former Bolivia president George Quirogaare.

The global CEOs include Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Saudi Aramco chairperson Yasir Al Rumayyan, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company CEO and MD Sultan Al Jaber, Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger, BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink, American scientist Dr Richard Klausner, besides cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar, who is expected with his family.

Mukesh Ambani and his wife Nita Ambani have organised a series of events as pre-wedding celebrations at RIL township in Moti Khavdi village in Jamnagar between March 1 and 3. The wedding is likely to be organised in June-July.

INDICATORS

Sensex 72,500 (+195), Nifty 21,983 (+32)

Nasdaq 16,092 (+144) Dow 38,996 (+47), S&P 5,096 (+27)

US$-Rs. 82.90, GBP-Rs. 104.85, Euro-Rs. 89.75, UAE Dhm-Rs. 22.56, Can$-Rs. 61.06, Aus$- Rs. 53.92

GBP 0.79 /US$, Euro 0.92 /US$, Jap.Yen 149.91 /US$, Aus$ 1.53 /US$, Sing 1.34 /US$, Bang Taka 108.50 /US$, Can$ 1.35 /US$, Mal Ring 4.74 /US$, Pak Re 277.52 /US$, Phil Peso 56.14 /US$, Russian Rouble 91.33 /US$, NZ$ 1.64 /US$, Thai Baht 35.88 /US$, Ukraine Hryvnia 37.85 /US$

Bitcoin - USD 61,271, Dollar Index 104.03, Brent Crude 83.62, BDI 2,041

Gold world Spot Price USD/aoz 2044 India (Rs. per gm 24k/22k) 6,282 / 5,758, Silver (Rs. Per KG) 75,700

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Love doesn't make the world go around. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile. - Franklin P. Jones

OFF TRACK

A guy claimed he quit his job because of ‘illness and fatigue’. His wife enunciated the point better when she said that his boss had got ‘sick and tired’ of him.