Former Shiv Sena corporator Ashok Sawant stabbed to death in Mumbai

The incident took place when he was returning home after meeting a friend.

Shiv Sena Corporator Killed : Former Shiv Sena corporator, Ashok Sawant, has been stabbed to death outside his house in Maharashtra’s Kandivali.

Sawant (62) was accosted by two men late on Sunday night who then attacked him with sharp weapons.

The incident took place when he was returning home after meeting a friend.

He was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital where he was declared brought dead.

Sawant was a two-time corporator of Shiv Sena from Samta Nagar.

Investigation in the case is on.

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75th Golden Globe Awards: Sterling K Brown makes history with Best Actor win in Golden Globes ’18

Brown previously won an Emmy for his performance a historic win, as it made him the first black actor to win the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series since 1998.

75th Golden Globe Awards : Sterling K Brown on Monday created history by becoming the first African-American to win Golden Globe in the Best Actor in a TV Series, Drama category for his performance as Randall Pearson on NBC’s breakout hit “This Is Us”.

In his acceptance speech, Brown gave a shoutout to the creator of the series, Dan Fogelman, for writing an inclusive role.

“Dan Fogelman, throughout the majority of my career, I’ve benefited from colourblind casting, which means, hey, let’s throw a brother in there. That’s always really cool. But Dan Fogelman, you wrote a role for a black man that can only be played by a black man.

“So, what I appreciate so much about this is that I’m being seen for who I am and being appreciated for who I am, and it makes it that much more difficult to dismiss me or dismiss anybody who looks like me,” Brown said.

He also thanked his wife, children, and his castmates.

Brown beat out Jason Bateman for Netflix’s “Ozark,” Freddie Highmore for ABC’s “The Good Doctor,” Bob Odenkirk for AMC’s “Better Call Saul,” and Liev Schreiber for Showtime’s “Ray Donovan.”

Brown previously won an Emmy for his performance a historic win, as it made him the first black actor to win the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series since 1998 along with an Emmy the year before for his turn as Chris Darden in the first season of “American Crime Story”.

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Bharatmala or Sagarmala? Ministries face turf issue in Rs 7-trn initiative

Experts feel that it is ideal to merge the projects within these two sectors.

Bharatmala Scheme : The Rs 7-trillion (Rs 7-lakh crore) Bharatmala initiative, an umbrella programme of the Union government, has some projects that have been completed and others that are already under the bidding process. For the shipping ministry, which had awarded the last-mile port connectivity projects under the Bharatmala scheme, it could mean that the credit of its labour would go to the ministry of road transport and highways.

A total of 94 port-related projects were identified under Sagarmala, of which 49 projects are now under the Bharatmala scheme and, hence, would come in the ambit of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the ministry of road transport and highways.

According to an official, the two ministries might work out a solution in order to deal with the overlap of projects and administrative jurisdiction. However, experts feel that it is ideal to merge the projects within these two sectors as there is one minister and it would lead to better synergy between the two ministries.

“The operation and maintenance of projects can be done under Bharatmala by the road ministry and NHAI, which will address the issue of overlap between the two schemes,” former shipping secretary Vishwapati Trivedi said.

In October 2017, the Union Cabinet cleared the Bharatmala project to construct 20,000 km of highways connecting western and eastern parts of the country at an estimated cost of Rs 7 trillion (Rs 7 lakh crore). In the first phase to be undertaken over three-five years, the project would cost Rs 5.5 trillion (Rs 5.5 lakh crore).

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Sara Tendulkar Harrased : West Bengal man arrested for stalking Sachin Tendulkar’s daughter Sara

He called Sara several times and expressed his desire to marry her.

Sara Tendulkar Stalking : A 27-year-old man from East Midnapore district in West Bengal was on Sunday arrested for allegedly harassing cricketer Sachin Tendulkar’s daughter, Sara, over the phone, police said.

Deb Kumar Maiti, a resident of Debkundu village near Geonkhali under Mahisadal Police Station, had gone to Mumbai sometime back to visit his elder brother when he somehow got hold of her number, they said.

He then called Sara several times and expressed his desire to marry her, they added.

A case was filed in this regard by the Tendulkar family in Mumbai, but the entire matter was kept secret by the Cyber Cell of the Mumbai Police.

A team of the Mumbai Police early today arrested Maiti near Andulia and later produced him before a court in Haldia, which allowed them to take him to Mumbai on a three-day transit remand, a senior officer of West Bengal police said in Haldia.

The police claimed that during interrogation the man admitted to calling her and also showed them a tattoo bearing Sara’s name on his arm.

Maiti’s neighbours, however, said he was suffering from mental issues from 2007.

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Bangalore Fire : Fire at Bengaluru’s Kailash Bar & Restaurant; 5 employees charred to death

The incident occurred at 2:30 am at Kailash Bar and Restaurant when the employees were asleep.

Bangalore Fire : Five employees of a bar-cum-restaurant were charred to death when a major fire broke out at Kumbaara Sangha building in Kalasipalya in Bengaluru during Monday morning, police said.

The incident occurred at 2:30 am at Kailash Bar and Restaurant when the employees were asleep.

Police identified the victims as Swami (23), Prasad (20), Mahesh, all residents of Tumakuru, Manjunath (45) from Hassan and Keerthi (24) from Mandya.

“An incident of fire has occurred at Kailash Bar and Restaurant located in the ground floor of Kumbaara Sangha building (in the vegetable market area). Fire and smoke was noticed by some persons at around 2.30 am and fire services were pressed into action. Two fire tenders and one fire rescue vehicle attended to it and it has been doused,” a senior police officer said.

The cause of the fire was unknown and was being investigated, he said.

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Budget 2018 Updates: GST collections fall to lowest in November at Rs 80,808 cr

The collections are lower than the Rs 83,346 cr in October and way below the average target of Rs 91,000 cr a month.

Budget 2018 Updates : In continuance with the slide, the mop-up under the goods and services tax (GST) in November fell to just above Rs 80,000 crore – a decline that could be attributed to the rate reduction for more than 200 items in the same month and the use of the integrated GST (IGST) as credit for paying taxes.

This will heighten the Centre’s fiscal concerns ahead of the Union Budget, dashing hopes of any further reduction in rates in the near future.

“The collection under the GST for November has been Rs 80,808 crore till December 25, 2017,” the government said in a release on Tuesday. The collections are lower than the Rs 83,346 crore in October and way below the average target of Rs 91,000 crore a month.

Experts say the GST collections will decline also in December and stabilise from January.

The slowdown has prompted the GST Council, in its meeting on December 16, to do a nation-wide roll-out of the electronic way bill on June 1 next year to plug revenue leakages and tighten enforcement.

The roll-out for inter-state movements of goods has been advanced to February 1 from April 1 decided earlier. As many as 5.31 million assessees filed returns for November (till December 25) out of the 8.24 million registered. The number does not include those under the composition scheme. Besides, those with an annual turnover of up to Rs 1.5 crore are allowed to file quarterly returns.

Click to Read → Budget 2018-19 Updates

Budget News : Budget session of Parliament to begin from Jan 29; Union Budget on Feb 1

The first phase of the session will be from January 29 to February 9.

Budget News : The Budget session of Parliament will commence from January 29 and the Union Budget will be presented on February 1, the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs recommended on Friday.

President Ram Nath Kovind will address the joint sitting of the two Houses on January 29 and the Economic Survey will be tabled on the same day, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar told reporters here.

The first phase of the session will be from January 29 to February 9. After a recess, Parliament will meet again from March 5 to April 6, Kumar said.

The recommendation of the session dates was made by the CCPA which met here.

The winter session of Parliament ended on Friday.

Click to Read → Budget 2018 News

Budget 2018-19 : PM Modi likely to meet economists on Jan 10

Union Budget 2018-19, which will be the final budget for PM Modi-led NDA regime before the 2019 general elections, will be presented on Feb 1.

Budget 2018-19 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to hold a meeting with top economists of the country on January 10.

This meeting is a usual practice before budget, and was conducted in 2017 as well.

Modi had also called for a similar meeting in December 2017, where the impact of demonetisation was discussed.

Union Budget 2018-19, which will be the final budget for Prime Minister Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime before the 2019 general elections, will be presented on February 1.

Prime Minister Modi will chair the meetup of over 30 eminent economists.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley; CEO, NITI Aayog, Amitabh Kant; Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog, Rajiv Kumar; chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, Bibek Debroy, and other members of the Economic Advisory Council will also be present.

Amitabh Kant and Rajiv Kumar are also expected to give a detailed presentation to the Prime Minister about the work done by the NITI Aayog.

The Prime Minister is also expected to take stock of the economy.

Click to Know → Union Budget 2018-19

Union Budget 2018: What it is and why it is so important

Business Standard explains the importance of Union Budget of India and the whole process of its making and passing in Parliament

 

Budget 2018 : In a federal country like ours, the constitution of India demarcates the governance structure through a three-tier system – the Union government, state governments, and local governments. In the scheme of distribution of power among them, the central or Union government enjoys the highest position.

Budget 2018 Under Article 112 of the Constitution of India, the central government is constitutionally bound to lay down the ‘annual financial report’ of the country. This report is commonly known as the Union Budget of India.

The Union Budget holds the same character as the budgets of other levels of government, except in the source of revenue and expenditure.

The Union Budget comprises the most extensive account of the Indian government, and it can be considered the statement of the government’s income and expenditure. Presented in Parliament every year, the Budget document details how much money the Union government expects to raise in the coming financial year, and how and where it intends to spend that money.

The Union budget gives the statement of receipts and expenditure of three consecutive years:
1) Actuals for the preceding year
2) Estimates for the present year
3) Estimates for the coming year

The Union Budget also includes the Finance Bill and Appropriation Bill, both of which are to be passed by both Houses of Parliament before implementation on April 1 of the new financial year.

Click to Read More → Union Budget 2018

In pics: Florida sees first snowfall in 29 years as bitter cold grips US

Tallahassee, Florida’s capital in the far north of the “Sunshine State,” awoke Wednesday to a dusting of 0.1 inches of snow, the first significant measurement since 1989.

Florida Snowfall : It’s called snow, something residents of North Florida hadn’t seen in almost three decades until wednesday, and it is part of a deep-freeze striking the entire US East Coast.

The US National Weather Service warned that a major winter storm would bring heavy snow and ice, from Florida in the southeast up to New England and the Northeast on Wednesday and Thursday.

New York City was under a winter storm watch, with between three and six inches (8-15 centimeters) of snow expected from Wednesday night through Thursday.

Tallahassee, Florida’s capital in the far north of the “Sunshine State,” awoke Wednesday to a dusting of 0.1 inches of snow, the first significant measurement since 1989, according to the Weather Channel.

Floridians, more accustomed to hurricanes than this odd white substance, rushed to publish on social media their photos of snow covering their warm-weather flip-flop footwear and outdoor swimming pools.

#snowmageddon, they called it on Twitter.

The storm has already led to the closure of roads in northern Florida and southeastern Georgia, where governor Nathan Deal declared a state of emergency in the coastal area.

Florida’s governor Rick Scott urged people in the northern part of his state “to prepare for extreme cold weather conditions, including potential snow, sleet or ice accumulations.”

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Samsung to refresh popular A series in India, new GalaxyA launch on Jan 10

The device will come with “Infinity Display” which was exclusive to the company’s flagship smartphones

 

Samsung A Series :South Korean tech giant Samsung is set to refresh its popular “A” series in India with the launch of 2018 edition device in the second week of January.

Industry sources told IANS that the new device will be unveiled on January 10 and will be the first in the “A” series to be available only on an online platform.

“Galaxy A8” (2018) and “Galaxy A8+” (2018) with flagship-like features made a global debut last month. However, only one variant will be introduced in India on Amazon.in, the sources added.

The device will come with “Infinity Display” which was exclusive to the company’s flagship smartphones including Galaxy S8, S8+ and Note 8.

“With the release of the Galaxy A8(2018) and A8+(2018), we’re bringing features from our flagship smartphones, such as the ‘Infinity Display’ and our first dual front camera with ‘Live Focus’,” Junho Park, Vice President of Global Product Planning, Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics, said in a statement.

Other features will include support for “Samsung Pay” — a mobile payment and digital wallet service (with MST), IP68 water-proofing, dust resistance and fast-charging with USB Type-C.

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Tharoor-Swaraj's war of words in LS over making Hindi official UN language

Tharoor questioned the need to push it while the Minister called his remark “ignorant”.

 

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor traded barbs in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday over making Hindi an official language at the United Nations.

Tharoor questioned the need to push it while the Minister called his remark “ignorant”.

Sushma Swaraj, in her reply to a question, said: “It is often asked why Hindi is not an official language in the UN. Today, I will want to tell the House, the biggest problem is the procedure.”

The Minister explained that as per the procedure, two-thirds of the 193 members of the organisation — which comes to 129 — will have to vote in favour of making Hindi an official language and also share the financial expenditure that would be incurred in the process.

“The problem comes when apart from voting, the burden of the amount also falls on them. Economically weaker countries that support us shy away from this. We are working on it, we are making attempts to get support of countries like Fiji, Mauritius, Surinam… where people of Indian origin are there.

“When we get that kind of support and they are also ready to bear the financial burden, it will become an official language,” she said.

When a member pointed out that making Hindi an official language will require an expenditure of Rs 40 crore every year, Sushma Swaraj said: “Not just Rs 40 crore, the government is ready to spend Rs 400 crore on it.”

She, however, added that spending money would not serve the purpose.

Sushma Swaraj also highlighted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and she had spoken at the UN in Hindi.

“Even when we have (foreign) guests, if they speak in English, we speak in English. If they speak in their own language, we speak in Hindi. As far as glory of the language is concerned, the External Affairs Ministry never had so much work done in Hindi as now,” she said.

Tharoor, who worked in the UN and announced his retirement after finishing second in the 2006 election for UN Secretary-General, questioned the need to push for Hindi, which he pointed out was not even the national language of India.

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Donald Trump wanted to be the most famous man in the world, not US President

The book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” written by Michael Wolff, claims that the ultimate goal of Trump was never to win

 

Donald Trump did not want to be the president of the US and the First Lady Melania was in tears not of joy on knowing about the surprising electoral victory last year, according to a new book by an American journalist.

The book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” written by Michael Wolff, claims that the ultimate goal of Trump was never to win.

“His ultimate goal, after all, had never been to win. I can be the most famous man in the world,” he had told his aide Sam Nunberg at the outset of the race.

“His longtime friend Roger Ailes, the former head of Fox News, liked to say that if you want a career in television, first run for president,” according to the excerpts of the book.

“Shortly after Trump’s inauguration, Wolff said, he was able to take up “something like a semi-permanent seat on a couch in the West Wing” an idea encouraged by the president himself. Because no one was in a position to either officially approve or formally deny such access, Wolff became “more a constant interloper than an invited guest.”

“There were no ground rules placed on his access, and he was required to make no promises about how he would report on what he witnessed,” the book said.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders has however denied this after excerpts from the book were published by New York Magazine with the title “Donald Trump Did Not Want to be President.”

“There was one brief conversation that had nothing to do, originally, with the book.It was, I think, around five to seven minutes in total since the President has taken office. And that’s the only interaction that he’s had,” she said.

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Aadhaar Breach: Rs 500 is all it takes to get details of a billion Indians

A report claims to have bought access to a cheap software, which can be used to print the Aadhaar card of any individual

 

Aadhaar Breach : Anonymous sellers on Whatsapp are said to be providing ‘unrestricted’ access to the Aadhaar details of more than a billion Indians for just Rs 500, according to an investigation by The Tribune on Wednesday. The paper also claims to have bought access to a software for Rs 300, which can be used to print the Aadhaar card of any individual by entering their Aadhaar number.

Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique identification number that is issued by the UIDAI( Unique Identity Development Authority of India) to every resident Indian citizen, after recording biometric and demographic information about an individual.

The report says that the racket may have started when over 300,000 Village Level Operators(VLEs), earlier mandated to make Aadhaar cards across India were rendered jobless when post offices and banks were given the job instead, in November 2017. Over 100,000 VLEs, sensing an opportunity to make easy money, might have gained illegal access to UIDAI data and provided “Aadhaar services” to common people for a charge, including the printing of Aadhaar cards.

If true, this would spell a serious breach of national security as the UIDAI has linked Aadhaar to individuals’ fingerprints and iris scans. The government’s unfettered access to citizens biometric details has already been in the centre of much debate in the civil society.

Earlier, in August, a Supreme Court judgement had deemed ‘privacy’ as a fundamental right, while dealing with a batch of petitions that claimed the illegality of Aadhaar based on the fundamental right to life and liberty. Most importantly, the government’s argument that Aadhaar will be a useful instrument to aid national security be questioned. Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, in his judgement on the case, had noted that that big data-fuelled “profiling can also be used to further the public interest and for the benefit of national security”.

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Stone pelting, traffic blocked: Dalit protesters bring Mumbai to a halt

Striking Indian low-caste workers bring chaos to Mumbai.

Many businesses in the Indian financial hub of Mumbai closed on Wednesday as protesters from a low-caste community blocked traffic and shopping malls and staged sit-ins on railway lines after clashes with right-wing Hindus.

The call for a general strike across the western state of Maharashtra led to largely peaceful protests, but life in many parts of Mumbai was disrupted with Dalits pelting buses with stones and deflating tyres in some areas. Railway lines and some major roads leading into the city were blocked.

The Dalits, who rank at the bottom in India’s ancient caste hierarchy, called the strike in protest against attacks from right-wing groups in the city of Pune on Monday. The strike shut businesses and schools in Mumbai and other cities across the state.
“The government didn’t arrest the perpetrators of violence in Pune. Hindu group members were beating Dalits and the police were just watching from afar,” said protester Sandeep Kamble.

“We are demanding the arrest of the culprits.” The protest came a day after thousands of Dalits hurled stones and caused traffic disruption across Mumbai. Dalits have been ostracized by upper-caste Hindus for centuries for jobs they deemed as impure, such as garbage pickers and tannery workers.

Those protests followed celebrations by Dalits in Pune, 150 km (95 miles) from Mumbai, on the 200th anniversary of a battle they won, fighting alongside British colonial forces, against an upper-caste ruler. Those celebrations were disrupted by right-wing Hindu groups and a 28-year-old man was killed in the clashes, according to the state government.

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Modi, Tendulkar most popular parliamentarians on Facebook in 2017

Among political parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the most popular. The Indian National Congress came third as the Aam Aadmi Party took the second spot in terms.

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the most talked about Lok Sabha member and Sachin Tendulkar was the most popular Rajya Sabha member on Facebook in 2017.

The results appeared on Wednesday when Facebook released information on its top-ranked pages of government bodies, ministries and political parties in India for the January 1 to December 31, 2017 period.

Facebook categorised the information on its its top-ranked pages of government bodies under Parliament of India, Union Government, State Governments and Union Territories, and political parties.

Among State Governments and Union Territories, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was the most popular followed by his Rajasthan counterpart, Vasundhara Raje.

Among political parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the most popular. But surprisingly, the Indian National Congress came third as the Aam Aadmi Party took the second spot in terms of Facebook popularity.

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Maharashtra caste clashes: Mumbai school buses to stay off roads today

The state government has said schools will remain open today.

School buses will stay off roads in Mumbai tomorrow in view of a Maharashtra bandh called by Dalit outfits to protest the violent clashes in Pune yesterday.

The School Bus Owners’ Association (SBOA) on Tuesday said it would not operate its fleet of 40,000 buses on Wednesday

Anil Garg, president of SBOA, told PTI, “For security reasons, we have decided not to ply our buses in the first shift today. If the situation remains peaceful, we will run the buses in the second shift.”

However, if a particular bus owner wanted to operate his services tomorrow, it would be his call, he added.

“Law-and-order is beyond our control. Therefore, we cannot take the risk,” Garg said.

The state government has said schools will remain open today.

Dalit organisations have called a Maharashtra bandh tomorrow to protest against the BJP-led state government’s “failure” to stop the violence in Pune.

Clashes between Dalit groups and supporters of right-wing Hindu organisations during the 200th anniversary celebrations of the Bhima-Koregaon battle in Pune district had left a man dead on Monday.

The clashes broke out at Bhima-Koregaon when people were headed towards the war memorial in the village, about 30 km from Pune city, the police had said.

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Union Budget of India: What it is and why it is so important

Business Standard explains the importance of Union Budget of India and the whole process of its making and passing in Parliament

 

In a federal country like ours, the constitution of India demarcates the governance structure through a three-tier system – the Union government, state governments, and local governments. In the scheme of distribution of power among them, the central or Union government enjoys the highest position.

Budget 2018 Under Article 112 of the Constitution of India, the central government is constitutionally bound to lay down the ‘annual financial report’ of the country. This report is commonly known as the Union Budget of India.

The Union Budget holds the same character as the budgets of other levels of government, except in the source of revenue and expenditure.

The Union Budget comprises the most extensive account of the Indian government, and it can be considered the statement of the government’s income and expenditure. Presented in Parliament every year, the Budget document details how much money the Union government expects to raise in the coming financial year, and how and where it intends to spend that money.

The Union budget gives the statement of receipts and expenditure of three consecutive years:

1. Actuals for the preceding year
2. Estimates for the present year
3. Estimates for the coming year

The Union Budget also includes the Finance Bill and Appropriation Bill, both of which are to be passed by both Houses of Parliament before implementation on April 1 of the new financial year.

Union Budget is usually presented in Parliament on the last working day of February by the Finance Minister of India and it comes into effect a little more than a month later from April 1.

However, for the first time, the Union Budget for the 2017-18 financial year was presented on the first working day of February by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

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No charges on debit card transactions up to Rs 2,000

MDR would be borne by govt for two years with effect from January 1, 2018 by reimbursing the same to banks

 

Customers will not have to pay any transaction charges for payments through debit card, BHIM app and other payment made for up to Rs 2,000 from today onwards.

Last month, Union Cabinet approved a proposal that government will bear the merchant discount rate (MDR) charges on transactions up to Rs 2,000 made through debit cards, BHIM UPI or Aadhaar-enabled payment systems to promote digital transactions.

“Happy Digital 2018. December Quarter BHIM transaction rises 86 per cent to 145.6 million with value of Rs 13,174 crore,” Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar said in a tweet.

“Further impetus to digital payments, government to reimburse charges for transaction up to Rs 2,000 on debit cards/BHIM. Zero charges on merchants. Go Digital, embrace transparency,” he said.

The merchant discount rate (MDR) will be borne by the government for two years with effect from January 1, 2018 by reimbursing the same to banks.

The move will have an impact of Rs 2,512 crore on the exchequer.

The decision was taken at the Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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