US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to tighten the rules for technology companies seeking to bring highly skilled foreign workers to the United States. The order signed by Mr Trump yesterday targets the H-1B visa programme. 
“With this action, we are sending a powerful signal to the world: We’re going to defend our workers, protect our jobs and finally put America first,” Mr Trump said.
The White House said the programme undercuts American workers by bringing in large numbers of cheaper foreign workers, which drives down US wages. The order directs US agencies to propose rules to prevent immigration fraud and abuse in the programme. 
Agencies have also been asked to suggest changes so that the H-1B visas are granted to the most-skilled or highest-paid applicants. Mr Trump said the order sends a powerful signal to the world that the United States will defend its workers, protect their jobs and put America first.

Even as the tense situation with the Africans in this country requires to be defused, the ambassadors from that continent have only hardened their stand. Their reason — Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not condemned the attack on one of their students. 

New Delhi believes this is definitely not a racial slur though African students insist they are increasingly feeling uncomfortable and scared to leave their home. It is a law and order problem and the government needs to put systems in place whereby African students are not singled out for attacks. 

External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had been double quick in intervening in the matter following the attack on a student on March 27 in Greater Noida in the National Capital Region. She urged the new Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath for prompt investigations and bringing to book the offenders.  

Subsequently, the 43 African ambassadors hardened their stand that the Modi government’s response and subsequent reaction had been found wanting. Ms Swaraj felt the 43 African Ambassadors were overreacting to the attacks on Nigerian citizens. India’s relations with Africa are age old be it in their fight against apartheid in South Africa or the movements for independence finding an echo in this country. 

Fault lines appear to be developing in Indo-African relationship at a time when New Delhi is trying to reach out to African nations for stronger political, economic and trade ties. 

China has taken a lead over India by enlarging ties in Africa with its liberal funding along with getting involved in promoting development.

The harsh statement by the African ambassadors complained that the Modi government took “no known, sufficient and visible deterrent action” against the miscreants. It categorised the attack as “xenophobic and racial in nature”. 

In the past African students have been blamed in many countries for peddling drugs and having a corrupting influence on the local youth. It is incumbent on the police to protect the students or anyone else from mob assault. The inquiry ordered must be completed speedily and action taken against the mobsters. 

Simultaneously, the African students should be made aware of the stringent laws in this country against drug related offences. At the same time the office of the Dean of the African Group Head of Missions said all diplomatic options were on the table to serve justice to the victims of the attack. 

They resorted to unprecedented action proposing giving a call for an independent investigation by the National Human Rights Commission as well other human rights bodies, and to comprehensively report the matter to the African Union Commission. 

On her part, Ms Swaraj told the Lok Sabha “What the Dean of the African diplomats has said about the silence or inaction of our political leadership is completely contrary to facts. “And every criminal act is not racist in nature,” she added. 

African diplomats are concerned about India’s reluctance to acknowledge racism as a motive behind many of the attacks. India insists that the attacks be treated as individual law and order incidents. “Such acts represent the action of an uninformed misguided few” the spokesperson of the MEA stressed. “India would continue to welcome African people including students and youth as partners,” he added. 

An African diplomat emphasised New Delhi needs to ensure that “such assaults don’t trigger an African exodus from this country”. 

It is believed that immediate proactive steps by local administrators could have nipped the evil in the bud. There have been many incidents in this country where people from the African continent have been targetted. An unambiguous message has become necessary that any discrimination against foreigners at any level will not be tolerated. 

Most importantly, this country must rectify its image that foreigners are not safe in this country. It has become imperative to remove the apprehension of Africans about their safety in this country. 

(T R Ramachandran is senior journalist and commentator. The views are personal.)

NEW DELHI: It was a unique and different Sunday for children with special abilities as they joined people from other walks of life to  “Run 4 Cause” around the well spread Nehru Park in the national Capital’s tree-lined diplomatic area of Chankyapuri. 

The run was organised by Dr. Lal Singh’s Foundation, a non-governmental organisation engaged in charitable activities like free clinics, providing hygienic canteen food daily to patients and their relatives thronging AIIMS and Safdarjang Hospitals, taking specialist doctors to Delhi’s Central Tihar jail and holding regular free medical camps. It was the third edition of the “Run 4 Cause” which witnessed participation of nearly 4000 people, including those with special needs. The entire area wore a paint of blue as all the participants were donning blue T-shirts, emblazoned with the foundation’s motto “Humanity First.” 

Dr. Sanjeev Singh Chawla, President of the foundation, said the run has become an important event in the Capital’s annual calendar and has been by and large successful in creating awareness about children with special needs and educating their parents about the ways of taking care of such children and providing them treatment. “Many organisations engaged in taking care of children with special needs partner with our foundation to participate in this annual run and all of us come together under the platform of our foundation,” he said. 

Such events also help in showcasing the talent and immense willpower of the children with special needs. “Our foundation is making efforts to remove the negativity that surrounds families of such differently-abled children who need special training, treatment and care to stabilise them and bring them into the mainstream of the society and nation,” he said. 

This Sunday Chairman of the All India Anti-terrorist Front M S Bitta and Kathak guru Pulkit Misra turned up as special guests to flag off the run and the brand ambassador was 1992 Asian marathon champion Sunita Godara. 

“Our foundation is spreading the message that differently-abled children are courageous and have a very warm heart. Their mind needs to be soothed and trained to become more stable,” Dr. Chawla said. As a leading Homeopath, he says that there are remedies which can calm the nerves and minds of such children. He should know that as his family can boast of the three generations of well qualified and experienced practicing Homeopaths. 

His octogenerian father Dr. Lal Singh, a former head of Biochemistry department of AIIMS, who took to Homeopathy later, his elder brother Dr. Amarjit Singh who has been practicing for the last three decades, his nephew Dr. Gurshabad Singh who is shaping up well to carry forward the family tradition. Apart from charitable clinics, all of them put together attend to nearly two thousand patients in three clinics in South and West Delhi everyday. 

New Delhi:-The Bengaluru based think-tank, Public Affairs Centre, has developed a mobile application for the effective waste collection and management. PAC Waste Tracker mobile app targets to monitor the primary waste collection process through citizen participation in Bengaluru. Currently, it is being piloted in the four wards of the city.

The data is dependent on local neighbourhood citizens to answer an online questionnaire designed by PAC, which is available on the Mobile Application “PAC Waste Tracker”. The representatives are trained to understand the workings of a mobile application and answer the questionnaire in the given specific format. These answers are sent to a common platform which is monitored in real time and data on specific issues plaguing the collections points can be generated as required. A summary of the answers sent is shown to the representatives before they submit the answers for a final verification. The whole process is monitored online using the PAC Waste Tracker website, where the number of questionnaires answered and the number of representatives answering the same can be viewed. The application is also developed in the local language to make it more users friendly.

While Ms. Bhargavi Nagendra, Program Officer – PAC, talking to Gaurav Raj, said, “Keeping in mind the importance of effective waste collection, the PAC Waste Tracker app throws light on the actual status quo as far as waste collection is concerned. Our data showed us that there are many challenges including lack of segregation of waste at source, public littering, and lack of equipment for the garbage collector and traffic congestion during the waste collection process which needs to be addressed.

The mobile application is not open to public now. First, it will be launched in those wards which are chosen for the pilot mode. PAC plans to launch the Waste Tracker App in Bangaluru soon and aims to take the app to other cities in India as well.  

This e-waste management system can uplift the execution of PM Modi’s flagship project, ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan’.

The Supreme Court today asked Bombay High Court’s official liquidator to sell the 34,000 crore rupees worth of properties of the Aamby Valley owned by the Sahara Group and directed its chief Subrata Roy to personally appear before it on April 28. 

Taking strong note of non- submission of over 5,000 crore rupees by the Sahara group, a bench, comprising Justices Dipak Misra, Ranjan Gogoi and A K Sikri also cautioned Roy from playing with the court’s order. It said, non-compliance of its order will invite the wrath of the law and ultimately Roy will be at his own peril.

The bench asked the official liquidator, attached with the Bombay High Court, to auction the Aamby Valley properties and directly report to it. The bench also directed Roy and his group as well as the market regulator SEBI to provide all necessary details relating to the properties to the official liquidator within 48 hours.

Meanwhile, the top court restrained Prakash Swamy, who has filed an affidavit with regard to the sale of Sahara hotels in the USA, from leaving India and asked him to deposit 10 crore rupees as fine with SEBI. Swamy will also have to appear in person in the apex court on April 28.

The top court had earlier directed attachment of Sahara Group’s prime property for realisation of money to be paid to its investors.

NEW DELHI: Indian Railways will soon have new Vistadome coaches on tracks. The new coaches will have features like glass roof, LED lights, rotatable seats, GPS based information system, luring tourists to undertake train journeys while enjoying scenic beauty. 

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu on Sunday laid the foundation stone and dedicated various Railway Initiatives to the nation at Rail Sadan, Bhubaneswar through video conferencing. He dedicated Visatadome coach and laid foundation stone for Mechanized Laundry under BOOT Model at Visakhapatnam.  

While flagging off the train with new Vistadome coach between Visakhaptnam and Araku, Mr. Prabhu said that the Vistadome coach with new features will lend a unique experience of train journey to tourists. 

Pakistan’s Army General, Qamar Javed Bajwa, has confirmed the death sentence awarded to alleged Indian ‘spy’, Kulbhushan Jadhav. This speedy decision was officially declared via a press statement by the Inter Services Public Relation (ISPR), which is the publicity wing of Pakistan’s military force.
Kulbhushan Jadhav, the former Indian Navy officer, was arrested in the restive province of Balochistan on March 3, 2016. He was accused of being involved with the Balochistan separatists (and their activities) as an agent of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). He was later detained in Pakistan under charges of ‘espionage and sabotage’, which proved to be the prelude to his death sentence.
 In 2016, the Pakistani army had released a ‘video confession’ of Kulbhushan Jadhav. In the video, Jadhav allegedly said that he arrived in Iran in 2003 and had started a small business in Chahbahar. However, India questioned the authenticity of the video and rejected it.India Calls It ‘Premeditated Murder’
The Indian government has repeatedly rejected the charges on Jadhav and has also questioned his arrest. In the wake of this death sentence, India summoned the Pakistani High Commissioner in New Delhi, Abdul Basit, and issued a demarche, condemning the act as ‘farcical’. The demarche also stated: “If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder.”
India has always maintained that Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran and had no link with Balochistan separatists (which Pakistan accused Jadhav of). Islamabad also repeatedly rejected India’s request to have access to Jadhav, who had allegedly possessed an Iranian residency permit and a passport in the name of Hussain Mubarak Patel. Apparently, the address given in the passport was that of Sangli, Maharashtra.
Some senior Pakistani journalists and leaders have also come to know that the Indian national was allegedly framed by the Pakistani army. They are also of the opinion that he hasn’t been given sufficient chances to defend himself.
The human rights watchdog Amnesty International has also condemned the death sentence given to Jadhav. It has stated: “Under Pakistan’s military courts, no information about the charges or evidence against suspects is made public.”
On the other hand, Pakistan’s defence minister, Khawaja Asif, has said that the death sentence should serve as a ‘warning’ to those ‘plotting against‘ Pakistan.
Pakistan’s Hurry Is Suspicious
In 2013, Indian national Sarabjit Singh, who was also sentenced to death for similar charges, was killed inside Lahore’s Lakhpat Jail in a cold-blooded attack by jail inmates.
Six months after India’s ‘surgical strike’, Pakistan again proved that no number of diplomatic talks can release the tension between the two countries. In the current scenario, bilateral talks between India and Pakistan seem to be a dream rather than a reality.
Pakistan has been continuously accusing India for fuelling violence in Balochistan without evidence. Moreover, despite the fact that India had submitted dossiers on the Pathankot and Uri attacks, which apparently contained sufficient evidence of Pakistani involvement in the attacks, Pakistan was unmoved and remained inactive for months.
Now this impulsive action by Pakistan’s army court may well worsen the diplomatic relations between the two nations.
Options before Kulbhushan Jadhav
According to the existing laws in Pakistan, the military court convicts are not eligible to appeal in the civilian court. But there are two options available to Jadhav. (Source- Indiatoday.in)
– Pakistan Army Act 1952 gives right to a convict to appeal in the Military Appellate Tribunal. – The second option is to appeal for a ‘review’ in the FGCM court. 

The Supreme Court collegium has recommended 51 names for appointment as judges in 10 high courts in the country. The collegium headed by Chief Justice of India J S Khehar cleared the names after finalising the memorandum of procedure, MoP, for the appointment of judges.

The 51 names were cleared by the collegium by trimming a list of 90 names received from the various high court collegiums.

Of the 51, twenty are judicial officers and 31 are advocates. The collegium has recommended the names for the high courts of Bombay, Punjab and Haryana, Patna, Hyderabad (for the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh), Delhi and Chhattisgarh.

The high courts of Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Gauhati and Sikkim are also expected to get judges if the Centre agrees with the apex court collegium’s recommendations.

New Delhi: The price of Petrol was hiked by Rs 1.39 per litre and diesel by Rs 1.04 a litre excluding state levies with effect from Sunday. 

Actual increase in price will be more after taking into account local VAT. Petrol in Delhi currently costs Rs 66.29 a litre while a litre of diesel is priced at Rs 55.61. 

The hike came on back of a Rs 4.85 per litre reduction in rates of petrol and Rs 3.41 a litre in diesel effected from April 1. 

Indian Oil Corporation said in a statement that the current level of international fuel product prices and INR-USD exchange rate warrant increase in selling price of petrol and diesel, the impact of which is being passed on to the consumers with this price revision.

IOC added that it intends to start a pilot project in select cities daily for daily revision of petrol and diesel prices.

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has said that Muslims have the constitutional right to follow their personal law. Briefing media after a two-day meeting of the board executive in Lucknow, AIMPLB General Secretary Maulana Wali Rehmani said that the board has decided to issue a code of conduct and those who give “talaq” (divorce) without ‘Sharia’ (Islamic law) reasons will face social boycott.

He informed that the board will issue appeals to maulanas and imams of mosques to read out the code of conduct during Friday ‘namaz’ and emphasise on its implementation. The board, which deals with the Muslim personal laws in India, also issued an eight-point code of conduct to prevent misuse of the practice and other Islamic laws. 

While claiming that a majority of the Muslims in the country do not want any change in their personal law, Rehmani said, the board has made it clear that it will not tolerate any outside interference in matters of Muslim personal laws. He urged that no roadblocks should be put in the implementation of the muslim personal laws.

The Union government had on October 7 last year opposed in the Supreme Court the triple talaq mode of divorce, ‘nikah halala’ and the practice of polygamy among Muslims and favoured a relook on grounds like gender equality and secularism.