Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh): With voting for the fifth phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections underway, State Election Commission on Sunday informed that 34.83 per cent voter turnout has been recorded till 1 pm on Sunday.

Of the 12 districts where polling is being held, Chitrakoot recorded the highest voting percentage of 39.08 per cent followed by Ayodhya with 38.74 per cent.

Other districts like Amethi recorded a voting percentage of 35.93, Baharaich with 37.25, Barabanki with 36.23, Gonda with 34.36, Kaushambi with 37.23, Pratapgarh with 33.59, Prayagraj with 30.30, RaeBareli with 33.64, Shrawasti with 36.50 and Sultanpur with 34.85.

Polling for the fifth phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections began in 61 constituencies at 7 am on Sunday morning and will go on till 6 pm.

A total of 61 Assembly constituencies spread across 12 districts, including Ayodhya, Sultanpur, Chitrakoot, Pratapgarh, Kaushambi, Prayagraj, Barabaki, Bahraich, Shrawasti, Gonda, Amethi, and Raebareli, are undergoing polling today.

The counting of votes will take place on March 10.

(This story has been published from a syndicated feed.)

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New Delhi: As many as 443 infrastructure projects, each entailing investment of ₹ 150 crore or more, have been hit by cost overruns totalling more than ₹ 4.45 lakh crore, according to a government report.

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation monitors infrastructure projects of ₹ 150 crore and above.

Of 1,671 such projects, 443 projects reported cost overruns and 514 projects were delayed, reported news agency PTI.

“Total original cost of implementation of the 1671 projects was ₹ 22,54,175.77 crore and their anticipated completion cost is likely to be ₹ 26,99,651.62 crore, which reflects overall cost overruns of ₹ 4,45,475.85 crore (19.76% of original cost),” the ministry’s latest report for January 2022 said, according to Press Trust of India.

According to the report, the expenditure incurred on these projects till January 2022 was ₹ 13,16,293.63 crore, or 48.76 per cent of the anticipated cost of the projects.

However, the number of delayed projects decreases to 381 if delay is calculated on the basis of the latest schedule of completion.

Further, for 881 projects neither the year of commissioning nor the tentative gestation period has been reported.

Out of the 514 delayed projects, 89 have overall delay in the range of 1-12 months, 113 have been delayed for 13-24 months, 204 projects for 25-60 months and 108 projects have delays of 61 months and above.

The average time overrun in these 514 delayed projects is 46.23 months.

Reasons for time overruns as reported by various project implementing agencies include delay in land acquisition, delay in obtaining forest and environment clearances, and lack of infrastructure support and linkages.

Delay in tie-up for project financing, delay in finalisation of detailed engineering, change in scope, delay in tendering, ordering and equipment supply, and law and order problems are among the other reasons.

The report also cited state-wise lockdowns due to COVID-19 as a reason for the delay in implementation of these projects.

It has also been observed that project agencies are not reporting revised cost estimates and commissioning schedules for many projects, which suggests that time/cost overrun figures are under-reported, it stated.
(This story has been published from a syndicated feed.)

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Guwahati: Two days before voting in Manipur, at least two people including a child were killed and five others injured in an explosion at a house in Churachandpur district on Saturday night.

The explosion in Gangpimual village appeared to have been caused by a mortar.

A district police official said that seven people including children were seriously injured in the blast and taken to the district hospital, where Mangminlal, 6 and Langinsang, 22, died of their injuries.

Senior police officials and reinforcements have rushed to the area and a search was on to catch those responsible.

Saturday night’s bomb explosion was the first major incident of violence after the Manipur assembly election dates were announced on January 8.

The elections to the 60-seat Manipur assembly will be held in two phases on Monday and Saturday. Votes will be counted on March 10.

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New Delhi: Overnight rain and hailstorm in parts of Delhi brought down the mercury on Saturday, the India Meteorological Department said.

The national capital recorded 10 mm rainfall in the 24 hours till Saturday morning along with hailstorm in several parts.

The maximum temperature was recorded at 23.8 degrees Celsius, two notches below the season’s average, the IMD said. The maximum temperature on Friday had settled at 27.9 degrees Celsius.

The minimum temperature was recorded at 13.4 degrees Celsius, one notch above the season’s average, it said.

The city experienced a windy day.

The relative humidity oscillated between 78 per cent to 57 per cent.

The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to settle around 25 and 12 degrees Celsius on Sunday, the IMD said.

The weather office predicted partly cloudy sky for Sunday.

The city’s 24-hour air quality index (AQI) at 4 pm was 102, which falls under the “moderate” category, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data showed.

An AQI between zero and 50 is considered “good”, 51 and 100 “satisfactory”, 101 and 200 “moderate”, 201 and 300 “poor”, 301 and 400 “very poor”, and 401 and 500 “severe”.

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Air India flight from Romania, carrying 219 Indians evacuated from war-hit Ukraine, landed in Mumbai on Saturday evening. The flight from Bucharest reached the Mumbai airport at 8.01pm, according to a PTI input.

Union minister Piyush Goyal, who received them inside the flight, said, “Since the beginning of this crisis, our main objective was to bring back each and every Indian stranded in Ukraine. As many as 219 students have arrived here. This was the first batch, the second will reach Delhi soon. We’ll not stop until all of them are back home.”

Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar also went to the airport to receive the Indian citizens. “I have come to the airport as the first citizen of Mumbai. We are making all required arrangements for the citizens and students landing at Mumbai. If someone wants stay, we have made arrangements for the same, followed by Covid testing. Vaccination will also be taken care of.”

The ministry of external affairs is making an all-out effort to bring out its citizens from Ukraine where Russia has intensified its offensive leading to a closure of its airspace. The Indian government is trying to evacuate its stranded citizens, about 20,000 of them, through alternative routes.  The mission has been named Operation Ganga, as revealed by external affairs minister S Jaishankar.

Welcome back to the motherland!

Glad to see the smiles on the faces of Indians safely evacuated from Ukraine at the Mumbai airport.

Govt. led by PM @NarendraModi ji is working relentlessly to ensure safety of every Indian. pic.twitter.com/fjuzjtNl9r

— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) February 26, 2022

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Paving the way for foreign funds to participate in the much awaited initial public offer (IPO) of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), the union cabinet on Saturday okayed up to 20 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) under automatic route in the state-owned insurer.

Official sources said that the decision was taken during the cabinet meeting held earlier in the day. They added that in the FDI policy a special provision has been included to allow 20 per cent foreign investment through automatic route.

This has been done because in the present FDI policy, the foreign inflows ceiling for public sector banks is 20 per cent under government approval route, it has been decided to allow foreign investment of up to 20 per cent for LIC and such other corporate bodies.

The automatic route, sources informed, has been inserted as the government is keen to fast track fund raising process and facilitate stake sale in LIC through the IPO within this fiscal itself.

The cabinet decided to allow 20 per cent FDI through automatic route in LIC as there is no such provision in LIC Act 1956, Insurance Act 1938 and even in the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act of 1999.

Earlier, LIC on February 13 had filed draft papers with capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for the sale of 5 per cent stake by the government for an estimated ₹ 63,000 crore.

The IPO of over 31.6 crore shares or 5 per cent government stake is likely to hit markets in March. Employees and policyholders of the insurance behemoth would get a discount over the floor price.

According to the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP), LIC’s embedded value, which is a measure of the consolidated shareholders value in an insurance company, has been pegged at about ₹ 5.4 lakh crore as of September 30, 2021, by international actuarial firm Milliman Advisors.

Although the DRHP does not disclose the market valuation of LIC, as per industry standards it would be about three times the embedded value or around ₹ 16 lakh crore.

The LIC public issue would be the biggest IPO in the history of the Indian stock market. Once listed, LIC’s market valuation would be comparable to top companies like Reliance Industries Limited and Tata Consultancy Services.

So far, the amount mobilised from IPO of Paytm in 2021 was the largest ever at ₹ 18,300 crore, followed by Coal India (in 2010) at nearly ₹ 15,500 crore and Reliance Power (in 2008) at ₹ 11,700 crore.

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A young man has travelled from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and back without any money in his pocket. Muneeb Ahmad Wani, a resident of Pinjura village in Kashmir’s Shopian district, has a Bachelor’s degree and creates blog posts on various subjects.

Wani while talking to News18 Urdu called it a social experiment and said he started his journey on December 16, 2021, and returned on February 24, 2022.

He said that while people in the Valley say that Kashmiri youth are always being targeted without any reason, he went on the journey without any money to find out how a Muslim youngster will be treated outside J&K.

Wani said that on way to Kanyakumari, he was spending a few days in some places to explore famous sites there and to talk to people to observe their behaviour.

“During the journey, I found all different types of people. Everything was arranged by people for me, whether it is food, travel charges, and accommodation. I even spent a few days and nights with Hindu families,” he said.

Wani said he had pinned his bank account number and other details with his video on social media after which he received calls and some were donating money too.

“Wherever I went, I was helped by all without any discrimination. I saw brotherhood and humanity above everything,” he said. “People always help anybody here in Kashmir; they say, Kashmiriyat Zindabaad. But most of the people I met during my journey were sympathetic and kind to me, though you always find a few people with a negative mindset,” he said.

Wani said that in the southern states, people gave him a lot of respect once they saw his tag, which read, “Yatra from Kashmir to Kanyakumari without money.”

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New Delhi: The mysterious “Himalayan yogi” who allegedly influenced the decisions of former National Stock Exchange (NSE) chief Chitra Ramkrishna has been outed as Anand Subramanian, the former officer arrested in a stock market manipulation case.

Anand Subramanian, the former Chief Operating Officer of the NSE, was the “yogi” who communicated with Chitra Ramkrishna through email, CBI sources said today.

His controversial appointment was one of the decisions that Chitra Ramkrishna took under the so-called yogi’s influence, market regulator SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) had said in a report.

Anand Subramanian was revealed to be the yogi through an email id, the CBI says. The agency said it had evidence that Subramanian created the mail id rigyajursama@outlook.com.

Chitra Ramakrishna shared confidential information related to the NSE from her mail id rchitra@icloud.com to rigyajursama@outlook.com between 2013 and 2016, said the CBI sources.

Some of these mails were reportedly also marked to another mail id of Anand Subramanian. Screenshots of these mails have been recovered from the mail ids of Subramanian, the sources said.

Subramanian was questioned by the CBI for four days last week. He was arrested last night around 11 PM in Chennai.

“Subramanian didn’t cooperate with the questioning; he gave evasive answers,” said the CBI sources.

Subramanian was first appointed as Chief Strategic Adviser in the NSE in 2013 and then promoted as Group Operating Officer in 2015 by Chitra Ramkrishna. In 2016, he left NSE over allegations of irregularities.

Chitra Ramkrishna is under investigation for allegedly sharing confidential information with the “yogi”, who now turns out to be her aide.

Subramanian’s appointment and the “frequent, arbitrary and disproportionate” hikes in his salary without any evidence of a performance evaluation was part of a damning SEBI report on the market manipulation case.

SEBI has charged Chitra Ramkrishna and others with alleged governance lapses in the appointment of Subramanian and his outsized promotion.

Ms Ramkrishna’s response to SEBI on her bizarre dependence on the faceless yogi was part of the regulator’s report.

SEBI noted, based on the emails, that Ms Ramkrishna met this person “several times in 2015”. She headed the stock exchange from 2013 to 2016.

Ms Ramkrishna also told SEBI that the email she corresponded with was operated by a “Sidhha Purusha/yogi who maybe largely dwelling in the Himalayan ranges”.

“I have met him on occasions in holy places. No locational co-ordinates are given,” she told the regulator.

When she was asked how, living in the Himalayas, the yogi could have accessed emails and corresponded regularly. “To the best of my knowledge, their spiritual powers do not require them to have any such physical co-ordinates,” she replied.

Calling him a “spiritual force”, she told SEBI: “I met Him for the first time on the banks of the Ganges nearly 20 years ago directly. Subsequently, over the years I have taken his guidance on many personal and professional matters. Along the way, since He would manifest at will and I did not have any locational co-ordinates I requested Him for a way in which I could seek His guidance whenever I felt the need. Accordingly, He gave me an id on which I could send my requests.”

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Thiruvananthapuram: A 34-year-old receptionist from Tamil Nadu was hacked to death on Friday at a hotel in the heart of Thiruvananthapuram by an unidentified person, the police have said, in an incident caught on chilling security camera video.

Neelan also known as Ayyappan, who was sitting at the reception of a hotel in the Thampanoor area, was murdered by a person who came on a motorbike.

“The CCTV visuals show a man carrying a machete walking into the hotel reception and hacking him to death. He escaped after the murder. The search is on,” the police said.

The police are yet to discover the motive behind the murder.

A hotel employee, who was the only other person present at the lodge, saw the body and called the police.

(With inputs from PTI)

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New Delhi: India on Thursday assured its citizens stranded in Ukraine that it will take all possible steps to bring them back safe and sound.

Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said at a media briefing that the Indian embassy in Ukraine is extending all possible assistance to the Indians notwithstanding the complicated situation.

He said a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), chaired by PM Narendra Modi, was underway on the Ukraine crisis.

Mr Shringla said PM Modi conveyed at the CCS meeting that the topmost priority of the government is the safety and security of Indians and their evacuation from Ukraine.

The foreign secretary said around 4,000 Indian nationals out of 20,000 have already left Ukraine in the past few days.

“The situation on the ground is difficult and rapidly evolving,” he said.

“I want to assure all Indian citizens including students in Ukraine that we will take all possible steps to bring you back safe and sound,” he said.

Mr Shringla said External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will speak to foreign ministers of Romania, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary on the Ukraine crisis.

(This story has been published from a syndicated feed.)

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