Bihar Deputy CM Sushil Modi wants states to spend, borrow more to battle economic slowdown.

Source – theprint.in

New Delhi: States need to borrow more to step up capital expenditure to counter the economic slowdown at a time when revenues are slowing down, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi has said.

In an interview to ThePrint, Modi said, “During an economic slowdown, we require to spend more to boost consumption.”

He added, “However, states will get less money from the Centre and their own sources of revenue are also growing at a lower rate. So states will need to borrow more to ensure capital expenditure is not affected.”

The deputy CM said a relaxation in the target set in the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act as well as faster permission for borrowing from the market have been sought from the Narendra Modi government.

“A relaxation in the fiscal deficit target as set by the FRBM Act has been sought. Many states have asked the limits to be relaxed to 3.5 per cent of gross state domestic product (GSDP) from 3 per cent of GSDP,” he said.

Bihar is likely to get Rs 10,000 crore less this year as devolution from central taxes, said Sushil Modi, who also holds the finance portfolio.

The FRBM Act mandates states to keep their fiscal deficit targets under the prescribed limits. However, a slowdown in direct tax and indirect tax collections by the Centre means the amount of money states get from the pool of total central taxes as devolution is likely to come down.

In addition, the pace of growth of state GST revenues has also been lower than anticipated. This has forced states to cut down on capital expenditure at a time when the economy is expected to fall to an 11-year low of 5 per cent.

The Modi government is also expected to reset the FRBM targets as achieving a 3 per cent fiscal deficit by 2021-22 looks near impossible at a time growth is falling sharply.

In a report last month, India Ratings and Research pointed out that a decline in tax revenues, a lower nominal GDP and higher expenditure will see aggregate fiscal deficit of states touch 3 per cent of GDP in 2019-20 as against the budgeted 2.6 per cent.

Besides the lower devolution and GST revenues, the report said states will also see lower tax collections from value added tax on petroleum products.

“Growth of consumption of petroleum products at 2.2% in FY20 so far (April-November) is the lowest in the last seven years,” the report said. In 2013-14, the growth was 0.6 per cent.

‘States should be allowed to swap debt liability’

Speaking to ThePrint, Sushil Modi said there is a need to allow states to repay their high-interest older loans taken from the National Small Savings Fund (NSSF) ahead of schedule to lower the interest burden.

“The rate of interest on NSSF loans is very high and this places a heavy interest burden. States should be allowed to swap our debt liability and repay the higher interest loans.” he said.

Bihar is also demanding faster approvals from the central government to make open market borrowings.

Modi pointed out that while states get permission from the Centre to borrow up to 75 per cent of their debt limit without any issue, it has become difficult to get permission for the remaining 25 per cent.

The Bihar leader also favoured the central government transferring funds to the state consolidated fund for any centrally sponsored schemes rather than sending it directly to the implementing authorities.

“In many of the centrally sponsored schemes, the Government of India is (right) now directly sending the money to the implementing agencies rather than to the consolidated state fund,” he said.

Sharjeel Imam arrested in Bihar over ‘cut off Assam’ remark at anti-CAA protest in AMU.

Source – indiatoday.in

Former JNU student and one of the key organisers of the Shaheen Bagh protest, Sharjeel Imam, who landed in a major controversy over a controversial remark, has been arrested from Bihar’s Jehanabad.

Sedition cases were lodged against Sharjeel Imam in five states across the country. Now, Delhi Police has arrested Sharjeel Imam from Bihar after he was on the run for 4-5 days since his speech video went viral.

Sharjeel Imam was arrested from Tako area in Jehanabad after several police teams conducted raids across Jehanabad and other areas of Bihar. He will now be flown down to New Delhi for further questioning.

In the controversial remark, Sharjeel Imam had suggested Assam be cut off from mainland India.

Earlier on Tuesday, Sharjeel Imam’s brother was also picked up by the police over the anti-CAA protesters alleged inflammatory speeches at the AMU protest.

Asked about Sharjeel Imam’s arrest from Bihar, CM Nitish Kumar said, “Nobody should do anything that is not in the interest of the nation. The accusations and the arrest, court will decide on the matter.”

Sharjeel Imam had been involved in organizing the protests at Shaheen Bagh but came into limelight after a video clip went viral wherein he could be heard making some controversial comments while addressing a gathering at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), following which he was booked under sedition charges.

Delhi Police claimed he had given an “inflammatory” speech earlier on the Jamia Milia Islamia campus and lodged an FIR against him in the national capital.

Another case was lodged under the stringent anti-terror law against him in Assam, taking cognisance of Imams remark that Assam could be “severed from India, even if for a few months” as a result of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

Police in Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh had also lodged FIRs against the JNU scholar, over his speech in which he threatened to “cut off” Assam and the northeast from the rest of the country.

His mother had appeared before the media and claimed that her son was “not a law-breaker and would surrender to the investigating agencies” and that he had been in favour of “calling off” the agitation at Shaheen Bagh, which has been in news for 24X7 protest, mostly by women.

Uber goes full throttle in Jamshedpur.

Source – telegraphindia.com

App-based taxi service Uber on Tuesday announced the launch of its operations in Jamshedpur, making it the 58th city in India where people can book rides by downloading the Uber app on their smartphones.

The steel city is the second city in Jharkhand, after Ranchi, where the American company has launched its services.

Jamshedpur reported one of the fastest adoptions of the Uber service in comparison to all new Uber city launches in 2019 since the soft launch — with very few cars — of operations here in December last year.

In Ranchi, Uber had launched its services in April last year.

For now, steel city users can only book UberGo, the lowest in the category of rides in terms of quality and size of cars that the company offers.

Ratul Ghosh, head of Uber, East India and Bangladesh, who was present at the launch function at a Bistupur-based hotel, said the company plans to soon launch UberPremier (bigger and better cars than UberGo) and UberIntercity service between Ranchi and Jamshedpur.

“We believe that the introduction of our service in this city will provide riders a reliable and economical travel solution to fully experience the city,” Ghosh said.

“Major areas in and around the city, including Jugsalai, Sonari, Golmuri, Gamharia, Chhota Govindpur to the serene Dimna Lake, are now accessible on UberGo.”

The launch, he added, “will help us in providing convenient mobility options to riders as well as create micro-entrepreneurship opportunities for those who sign up as driver-partners in the steel city”.

Uber has around 600 vehicles in Jharkhand and the intercity service between Jamshedpur and Ranchi is expected to be rolled out by April this year, he said.

Ghosh said that in the past one year, Uber has introduced various safety features such as pin verification for extra security, ride check for proactive help, call anonymity to protect the privacy of riders, background checks of drivers, reminders to check one’s ride before boarding, and 24/7 safety helpline for any urgent assistance during the trip.

Ranchi airport gets free pick-and-drop lane.

Source – dailypioneer.com

The Birsa Munda Airport in Ranchi on Tuesday opened a dedicated lane for pick-and-drop vehicles, which passengers can use free of cost and avoid additional parking charges, Airport Director Vinod Sharma said. Several passengers, including politicians, businessmen and social activists, had raised objection to the additional parking charge for private vehicles that pick and drop passengers at the airport.

The decision of including a free pick-and-drop lane for vehicles entering the airport was taken at a meeting of the Airport Advisory Committee (AAC) recently.

While airport officials had said that there would be an upper limit on the duration for which pick-and-drop vehicles can use the parking without being charged, Sharma on Tuesday said that there was no upper limit as such but the vehicles should not stay parked in the lane as it would disrupt the traffic.

“The idea behind the dedicated lane is to provide passengers the option to get out of the airport and hop in their car without having to pay extra money. Same is applicable for passengers who board their flights from Ranchi. They can get down and allow the vehicle to leave the airport premises,” Sharma said.

The AAC meeting, which took the decision was presided over by Ranchi MP Sanjay Seth and attended by Rajya Sabha MP Mahesh Poddar, who has been an active member of the committee. Hatia legislator Navin Jaiswal also attended the meeting.

Besides taking the decision of relieving pick-and-drop vehicles from parking charges, the AAC also decided to use funds from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) treasury of the airport to rehabilitate the villagers who had lost land due to construction and expansion of the airport and beautify the villages surrounding the airport.

The Birsa Munda Airport is fast growing in terms of connectivity with other cities. The largest airport in Jharkhand already has 30 flights connecting Ranchi to important cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad. The airport also has an international bay, but is yet to get any international flights. The increasing passenger traffic in Ranchi demands for better facilities and the Airport Authority of India (AAI) is consistently working on finding new ways to enhance the travel experience of passengers, said airport officials.   

Meanwhile, the airport authorities here have also floated tenders for restaurants and bar in the airport premises. Besides, several shops and showrooms have come up in the airport terminals in order to provide entertainment, refreshment and quality shopping experience to passengers here.

WBPSC Civil Services admit card to be issued today at wbpsc.gov.in

Source – scroll.in

West Bengal Public Service Commission (WBPSC) will released the West Bengal Civil Service preliminary examination admit card today, January 27th, 2020. The candidates who have applied to appear for the preliminary exam can download the admit card from the official website, wbpsc.gov.in.

The Commission will conduct the preliminary examination on February 9th, 2020 from 12.00 noon to 2.30 pm at different venues in Kolkata and outlying centres.

The Commission is in the process of switching from older websites (pscwbonline.gov.in and pscwbapplication.in) to a newer website (wbpsc.gov.in). The older and newer websites are functional as of now; however, a complete switch will be made on February 1st. Candidates can download the admit card on both the websites until January 31st after which the admit card will be available only on wbpsc.gov.in.

How to download WBPSC Civil Service 2020 admit card;

1. Visit the WBPSC official website – https://wbpsc.gov.in/

2. On the right panel under ‘Candidate’s Corner’, click on the download admit card card link.

3. Once the admit card for the specific exam is released, the link for the same will get activated. Click on the link.

4. Enter the login information and submit.

5. The admit card can be accessed which needs to be downloaded and printed out.

The number of vacancies for which the selection process is being conducted will be revealed in the near future but the vacancies are for all the grades and for many state government departments. The recruitment process will involve three stages; preliminary exam, main exam, and personality/interview round. The preliminary exam scheduled to be conducted at 20 centres across the state.

UPSC CSE Personality Test 2020: Civil Services (Mains) Interview e-summon letter released at upsconline.nic.in

Source – hindustantimes.com

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has released the e-summon letters for the candidates who have qualified for Civil Services Personality Test 2019.

The call letter has been issued for the candidates who have passed the UPSC Civil Services (Main) Examination 2019. Aspirants can download the letter from the official website upsconline.nic.in.

The UPSC CSE Main Examination 2019 was conducted from September 20 to 29, 2019. Only those candidates who have qualified the UPSC Civil Services (Mains) are invited for the Personality Test. The interview carries the weightage of 275 marks with no minimum qualifying marks. The schedule for UPSC CSE Personality Test 2019 is available on the website.

It can be directly download from the link . The interviews will be conducted in several schedules between February 17 and April 3.

According to UPSC, the qualified candidates should bring original certificates of age, educational qualifications, community, economically weaker section, Person with Benchmark Disability (PwBD) and other documents such as TA Form, etc.

UPSC Civil Services (Mains) results 2019: Steps to download call letter

Step 1: Visit the official website at upsconline.nic.in.

Step 2: Click on the link ‘e-summon for various examinations of UPSC’

Step 3: Go to ‘Download’ link for Civil Services (Main) Examination 2019

Step 4: Enter the roll number, date of birth and captcha to log-in

Step 5: Your e-summon letter will appear on screen.

Step 6: Download the letter and print a hard copy for future reference.

BPSC Assistant Mains Exam 2020 Admit Card Released Today on bpsc.bih.nic.in; Exam on 1st Feb.

Source – pagalguy.com

The BPSC Assistant Mains Re-Exam Admit Card 2020 has been released by the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC).

The exam dates have also been released on the official website of BPSC. Candidates applied for this BPSC exam can download their admit card from the official website.

The BPSC Assistant Mains Exam is scheduled to be on 01 February 2020 in two sittings. Exam will be held for two papers including General Hindi and General Knowledge.

Exam for General Hindi will be held from 10.30 a.m. to 12.45 p.m., whereas General Knowledge exam will be held in the second sittings from 2.00 p.m. to 4.15 p.m.

Candidates qualifying in the prelim’s examination would be able to appear for the BPSC Assistant Mains Exam 2020. One must follow the below mentioned instructions in order to download the admit card for BPSC Assistant Mains Exam.

The site to get more details on the BPSC Assistant Mains Exam and to download the admit card to appear for the exam is www.bpsc.bih.nic.in .

Steps to download BPSC Assistant Mains Exam Admit Card 2020:

  • Visit the official website of BPSC as mentioned above.
  • Click on the “BPSC Assistant Mains Exam Admit Card 2020” link on the home page.
  • Enter the individual credentials required to download the admit card.
  • Check and download the BPSC Assistant Mains Exam Admit Card 2020.
  • Take a print of the BPSC Assistant Mains Exam Admit Card 2020 for future reference.

The direct web-link to download the 2020 admit card is here, Direct Link for BPSC Assistant Mains Exam Admit Card 2020 .

 This recruitment notification has been released by the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) for recruitment of Assistant posts against advertisement no-Advt. No. 08/2018.

Keep checking the official website of Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) for latest updates regarding the Assistant Recruitment Process and exam.

Rabri Devi meets Lalu Prasad at Ranchi hospital, their first meeting in 2 years.

Source – hindustantimes.com

Former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi met her husband Lalu Prasad at Rajendra Institute of Medical Science (RIMS) on Monday, her first meeting with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief in Ranchi since December 2017 when he was awarded the jail sentence.

The former CM, who was accompanied by her elder daughter Misa Bharti, also paid a courtesy visit to Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren at the state secretariat before leaving for Patna.

Rabri landed at Birsa Munda Airport here around 10.30 am straight from New Delhi where she recently underwent cataract surgery. She came to RIMS around 12.25 pm to see her ailing husband and spent more than two hours at the hospital.

Rabri and Lalu were seen talking at the corridor on the hospital’s first floor. She left for Jharkhand secretariat around 2.45 pm.

Associate professor, RIMS, DK Jha, who is treating Prasad, said that Rabri Devi enquired from him about the health of her husband, apart from his usual activities. Sources in the RIMS said Prasad demonstrated unusual agility in receiving his wife, who he was meeting after 621 days. Both of them had met last in May 2018 during the marriage of Tej Pratap in Patna.

“Contrary to his late routine, Prasad got up quite early, had bath and breakfast before she landed in Ranchi. Both of them looked quite happy with smile on their faces till the moment of Rabri’s departure,” said a constable guarding the cottage, adding that Rabri Devi inspected the premises where Prasad lived and the kitchen were Prasad’s food is cooked.

“His condition is stable now. His problem is chronic, not critical,” Dr Jha said on Lalu Prasad’s health.

At the state secretariat, Rabri Devi told media, “I met Lalu ji at the hospital. He is fine health-wise.” On meeting Soren, she said it was just a courtesy visit and she wanted to congratulate him on becoming the chief minister. “I gave him blessings to run the government successfully.”

Abhay Singh, state RJD chief who accompanied the former chief minister, said, “There was merely a discussion about Lalu ji’s health. No other discussion was held.”

Although it is not known what exactly transpired in their meeting, as they spent most of the time alone, it is believed Rabri Devi must have talked about the crisis the family is facing due to break-up of their son Tej Pratap’s marriage with Aishwaraya.Tej Pratap’s in-laws had also filed dowry and domestic violence cases against Rabri Devi and others.

Political observer L K Kundan, who teaches political science at Ranchi University, said, “It was not a normal visit. Lalu’s sons and daughters have been meeting him on regular basis. But she came for the first time. I believe family dispute and Bihar politics must have been discussed between them. Besides, she also met Hemant Soren, which, I think, was an attempt to explore JMM’s contribution to Bihar politics.”

Prasad has been serving jail term since December 23, 2017, after his conviction in three separate fodder scam cases one after another. Two months after his sentencing, he developed health complications. Prasad was first shifted to RIMS and then to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. He was sent back to RIMS after AIIMS declared him fit in May 2018.

Soon, Prasad got parole to attend his elder son’s wedding. He was then released on provisional bail granted by the high court for advance treatment at a Mumbai hospital.

He returned to RIMS in the end of August 2018. Since then, he is under treatment at RIMS where he is admitted to the paying ward which is equipped with air conditioner and other facilities.

Though Prasad has been suffering from many diseases, the primary concern is his ‘type 2’ diabetes and hypertension.

Researchers Mistaken For Citizens’ List Surveyors Held Hostage In Bihar.

Source – ndtv.com

Darbhanga, Bihar: A team of researchers from Lucknow, mistaken to be surveyors for NRC, was caught by residents of a village in Bihar’s Darbhanga and handed them over to the police, a senior official said on Sunday.

Superintendent of Police (SP), Darbhanga, Babu Ram said the incident took place on Friday when the team, comprising 12 people, including four women, visited a village under Jamalpur police station area.

The team was from a Lucknow-based research organization, which was engaged by a US-based PhD scholar.

However, as they began visiting households and collecting information, word spread that “NRC surveyors” had arrived following which villagers grew furious and held them hostage for some time before dragging them to the police station.

The situation was defused at the police station where officials verified the identities of the researchers and explained the fact to the villagers, who then went back satisfied, the SP said.

He, however, added that similar incidents have taken place in the district recently and an awareness campaign has been launched as part of which residents are being told to “inform the police or local administrative officials” if any surveyors in their area aroused suspicion “instead of illegally detaining them”.

With the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR) spreading in different parts of Bihar, people engaged in conducting surveys for private research and marketing companies are being mistakenly targeted.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, whose JD(U) is an ally of the BJP, have been at pains to explain that the CAA would expedite grant of citizenship to refugees from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, having fled religious persecution in their countries, without affecting Indians and that there was no move so far to bring in the nationwide NRC.

Opposition parties have, however, accused the NDA of misleading the people on the issue and pointed out that a country-wide NRC was mentioned in the BJP manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The NRC had also found mention in President Ram Nath Kovind’s address to a joint session of Parliament last year besides in Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s speech when the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was being debated in the Lok Sabha, the opposition parties said.

Jharkhand to become first state in India to have four sub-capitals.

Source – newindianexpress.com

NEW DELHI: In a first, Jharkhand will soon become the only state in the country to have four sub-capitals along with the state capital Ranchi.

Besides Dumka, which has already been declared as the sub-capital during the regime of Chief Minister Babulal Marandi, Jharkhand will have three new sub-capitals – Medininagar, Chaibasa and Giridih.   

Sources in government claimed that the process for same has already been started and a proposal for making Medininagar, Chaibasa and Giridih as sub-capitals of state has been prepared.   

“The proposal has already been prepared which is waiting for CM’s endorsement following which, it will be sent for the cabinet approval,” said a senior officer.

The objective behind the proposal is to enable uniform development in all divisions of the state which so far, have been lagging behind due to various constraints, he added.   

The official added that creation of sub-capital would bring employment opportunities for the people in the three divisions of Palamu, Kolhan and North Choanagpur.