Top stories on 22nd May in a capsule

Congress appoints State Chief of 8 yrs as Dy CM 

The ruling alliance of Congress-JDS of the Karnataka polls on Tuesday finally ended the suspense over the with the appointment of the Deputy Chief Minister with Congress leader G Parameshwara being chosen the appointee. Parameshwara, Dalit leader has been president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee since eight years, the longest serving Chief in history. Meanwhile, the seat sharing ratio between the two parties have been divided as 22:12 with the Congress taking the majority. Out of 34 ministries, 22 will go with Congress and 12, including CM will be with be with JD(S). Portfolio allocation to be decided after floor test (on Thursday)," Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said.

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US Prez drops hints of 'highly unlikely' summit with North Korea

The highly anticipated summit between the so called rival nations- the USA and North Korea received a setback on Tuesday when American President Donald Trump remarked that there's a "substantial" chance that his summit with the North Korean counterpart, Kim Jong Un "may not work out" for June.” Trump who made the following remarks while on a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae reasoned that though the summit might not happen on the said date of June 12 bit it might happen ‘pretty soon.’ Tensions between the two leaders and their pre-planned schedule arose when North Korea refused to give up their entire nuclear program after US-South Korea continued to have joint military exercises

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FB CEO Zuckerberg repeats the apologies in Europe parliament hearing

The European Parliament on Tuesday held a hearing over Facebook's misuse of users personal data and questioned co founder Mark Zuckerberg, in what happens to be the second major embarrassment for Zuckerberg’s company following the damaging ‘data leak.’ In the 90 minute hearing Zuckerberg was mainly pressed with questions revolving around Cambridge Analytica, EU’s new privacy laws and Facebokok market dominance over the European public. He maintained that his company did not do enough to curb ‘fake news’ adding that “We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility. That was a mistake. I am sorry.” Zuckerberg also informed the panel that the ‘personal data of up to 2.7 million Europeans must have been possessed by Cambridge Analytica.

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IOC chief call out global developments for high rates of petrol, diesel

Amidst the ever rising rates of petrol and diesel, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) chairman Sanjeev Singh on Tuesday stated that ‘the government has so far not issued any directive on holding back fuel price hikes.’ Emphasising global developments like the as a cause for the high fuel price Singh said that the ‘thaw’ in the fuel rates 19 days before the Karnataka elections was more of an experiment and not a political gimmick. “We took a call (in those 19 days)we believed that the trends that were happening were not supported by fundamentals,” Singh told news agencies in a press conference. While Singh’s words offered no solution to the increasing problem, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and BJP Chief Smit Shah assured citizens that the government is working out a plan for the same, with mentioning it will only take more 3-4 days of paying more.

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Anti- Sterlight protest in Tamil Nadu: CM calls police firing 'unavoidable'

In an unfortunate incident a 16 year old was among the 11 killed in the agitated protest of Tamil Nadu residents against the expansion of Sterlight copper plant in Tuticorin. As the police force got a free hand at open firing people, politicians called it ‘state sponsored murder.’ Announcing a compensation of Rs 10 lakh for the family of the victims, CM Paliniswami maintained the police action as right, calling it ‘unavoidable.’ Tamil Nadu DGP TK Rajendran who was asked to resign by opposition parties, also called the firing ‘last resort’. The residents had been protesting while alleging threat the factory emits pollution, both air and water borne, that gives rise to illness.

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Demand for cash rises by 7% post demonetisation, says RBI 

Illustration by Satwik Gade for Firstpost

Modi Sarkar's much-publicised demonetisation drive seems to have shown no effect on the cash demand in the country as the latest RBI figures show a 7% rise in comparison to the days prior to demonetisation. Currency with the public, or the people’s demand for cash is now at 18.25 trillion at the end of April compared to Rs 17 trillion at the beginning of November 2016, the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) data reveals further. While there was a 79% increase in account ownership since 2014, around 38% of all bank accounts were inactive over the course of last year, the survey adds. Similarly, the Jan Dhan Yojana, which was launched in 2014, has added around 310 million banking accounts with deposits totalling Rs 812 billion as of May 9. The report further adds that around 80% of Indians have bank accounts. 

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Pregnant Delhi University student barred from taking exams, moves court

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday stayed an order against the Delhi University (DU) for debarring a student from giving her exams as she had low attendance owing to her pregnancy. The complainant, Ankita Meena a second-year law student had moved a Division bench against the order of a Single judge in Delhi High Court that denied Meena ‘the right to give her exams solely as a result of her pregnant status,’ as per the court order. Appearing for Meena her counsel urged a rule under the Delhi University Act that says attendance will not be counted in case of a married woman student who is granted maternity leave. The division bench of Justice S Ravindra Bhat and Justice AK Chawla put the case on hold saying they needed to go through the details of the case first.
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12 Maharashtra villages to boycott Loksabha bypolls over water problems

Picture Courtesy: Firstpost

At least 12 villages of Maharashtra have declared that they would not be exercising their mandate to vote in the upcoming Lok Sabha by-polls in the Bhandara-Gondia constituency on May 28 over water scarcity problems in the area. The ‘Bawanthadi Prakalp Sangharsh Samiti’, a local organization who is spearheading the movement alleged that their President Balkrishna Gadhve, earlier in the year had asked the district collector to provide water to the villages under the ‘Bawanthadi irrigation project’. The organisation said that no attention was paid to the following after which the Samiti decided to boycott every election in their area starting with the by-polls at the end of this month. The Bhandara-Gondia seat was vacant after BJP MP Nana Patole left the seat to rejoin the former party, Congress.

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Whatever the church head said is right: West Bengal CM on Delhi church controversy

Picture Courtesy: Firstpost

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday extended her support to Delhi Archbishop who in a letter to all churches had asked them to hold a ‘prayer for a secular government.’ “We respect all communities, castes and Archbishops across the country, including that of Kolkata. I think whatever they said, it’s a fact,” the TMC leader was quoted saying by news reports. The chief head of Delhi churches, Anil Couto sparked controversy on Tuesday after he released a letter, appealing to all Christians to ‘offer prayers and observe fast every Friday for a secular nation ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.’ Meanwhile, reacting to the controversy Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that everyone including the minorities are safe in this country.

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You need to fix Election Commission’s image: Ex CECs

Former Chief Election commissioners (CEC) on Tuesday reportedly urged the nation’s apex poll panel to work towards improving its image after a series of controversies raised questions about its credibility. A meeting held by former Chief Election Commissioners (CECs) and current commissioners OP Rawat, Sunil Arora and Ashok Lavasa held that “the Commission should come down hard on politicians indulging in hate speech and violations of the Model Code of Conduct,” former CEC SY Quraishi told news agencies. News reports also said that the veterans stressed for more polling stations where the numbers in the EVMs can be matched with the paper slips provided through the VVPATs.

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300 sellers become millionaires after Flipkart's 4-day sale 

In the recently concluded four-day ‘Big Shopping Days sale’ on Flipkart from May 13-16, over 300 sellers became millionaires from the proceeds of the sales. The top-selling categories during this sale were Mobiles, TVs, ACs, Laptops, Clothing and Footwear. In the mobile category, Flipkart made 1.5X of sales that the entire country does across offline and online in the first 24 hours of the sale.  Also, Flipkart became the largest destination for watches in India by volume and value led the category surging by over 7X during the sale. Offering a first of its kind payment option to its customers, transactions using EMI on Debit Card spiked to 15 times the transactions on a non-sale day. 

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SBI reports loss of 7,700 crores but shares rise 5% 

The State Bank of India on Tuesday posted a quarterly net loss of 7,700 crores majorly due to Non-performing assets. Total income during the January-March quarter was up at Rs 68,436 crore, from Rs 57,720 crore in the same period a year earlier, the bank said in a regulatory filing. The lender’s bad loan provisions doubled to Rs 22,000 crores from 11,740 crores in the same quarter last year. Still, the stock of SBI was trading 5.2% up at Rs 257.85 on BSE in afternoon trade. 

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