Daily News (In Short)-27-August-2015

#* Gujarat violence: Death toll rises to nine

The death toll in the violence across Gujarat has risen to nine on Thursday, as the Patel community continues its agitation demanding OBC status and reservation benefits.

The violence was triggered on Tuesday night by the brief arrest of Hardik Patel, the 22-year-old leader of the agitation. Mr. Patel called for a State bandh on Tuesday, a day of violence which saw protesters torching 100 buses and vandalising property. Six persons were killed in police firing and two in the rioting. One succumbed to injuries on Thursday.

The Army, which was called in on Wednesday to control the situation, staged flag marches in Ahmedabad and Surat on Thursday. About 113 companies of paramilitary forces have also been deployed in affected areas.

Schools and colleges in the State will remain shut today too. Mobile internet services, which was on the blink yesterday, will remain suspended today.

More than 50 trains have been cancelled or diverted as mobs damaged tracks at several places.

Keywords: Patel reservation agitation, Gujarat violence, Patels OBC demand, Hardik Patel, Anandiben Patel

#* Curious case of Indrani Mukerjea: How the murder mystery of Sheena Bora unfolded

When former Star India CEO Peter Mukerjea's wife Indrani Mukerjea was arrested on Tuesday night on charges of murdering her 'sister' Sheena Bora, it looked like any other murder case involving the country's rich and the famous. However, much has happened since last night with skeletons tumbling out of the closet one after the other.
Indrani was arrested from her home in Mumbai, after her driver confessed that he had killed Sheena following his employer's orders.
Indrani Mukerjea. Image courtesy: FacebookIndrani Mukerjea. Image courtesy: Facebook
There are conflicting reports about the driver's account. One claims that during interrogation, the driver claimed that Indrani had killed Bora and that he had just helped her in disposing the body by dumping it in the forests of Raigad district. The report attributes the quote to an officer at Khar police station, who is part of the investigation team.
"The case being more than two years old, where there isn't any DNA sample of the deceased or appropriate remains of the body, police are only relying on co-accused's statement," the officer said.
Raigad police had come across an unidentified body, which they had disposed of without collecting DNA samples, he said.
Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria had interrogated Indrani at Khar police station on Tuesday. The officer said they would take the two accused to the spot where the body was dumped.
Meanwhile, Indrani was produced before Bandra Metropolitan Magistrate court, which remanded her in police custody till August 31, DCP (Detection) Dhananjay Kulkarni said today.
The police reached the doors of Peter Mukerjea too, according to CNN-IBN, for questioning on Wednesday and also arrested her first husband from Kolkata. Indrani's chauffeur, 43-year-old Shyam Rai, too has been placed under custody.
Here's what we found out about the case through the course of the day:
Sheena was Indrani's daughter, not sister:
While initial reports said that Sheena was Indrani's sister, it turns out that she was her daughter. According to Times Now, Indrani confessed to the police that Sheena was her daughter. (Read more here)
According to The Telegraph, Indrani's relatives too confirmed to the paper that Sheena was actually her daughter. The accused also has a son from a "relationship with a person who divided his time between Calcutta and Tripura". Later, Indrani was married to a man who had businesses in Kolkata and Jamshedpur.
The Telegraph reports: "Sheena and her brother, who works in an airline now, were brought up by their maternal grandparents in Guwahati. The children eventually moved to Mumbai and Sheena did her graduation from St. Xavier's College there. After Indrani married Peter, who made a name for himself at the helm of STAR India and during whose tenure the blockbuster Kaun Banega Crorepati was launched, Sheena moved in with the family. The family friend said Sheena, who was known as Indrani's sister, became close to Peter's son from an earlier marriage. It is not clear whether the alleged relationship played any role in Sheena's death."
Indrani's son Mikhail speaks out:
Meanwhile news channels also spoke to Mikhail Bora, Sheena's brother who confirmed the fact that Indrani was their mother.
When asked whether Indrani and Sheena had any reason for conflict, he said,"Yes, many times." However, he refused to specify what the arguments between the two were regarding. He told CNN-IBN that he didn't believe that the murder had anything to do with property or money.
"I want her to reveal everything herself... After 31 September when I come to know that she has admitted everything. If she lies, I will give every evidence. I have all the evidence and photos. I will provide it to the media," he said.
Speaking to Times Now, Bora said that his sister had been living with him and his grandparents in Guwahati for a long time and Indrani had been living in Mumbai. He said that Sheena had gone to Mumbai to study in St Xavier's college after which she had been working in Mumbai.
"In 2012 she came here for a wedding of her friend. After that she has no contact," he said. Mikhail said that he had always asked his mother where his elder sister was but had received vague answers. "She always replied she was abroad. She said she (Sheena) had got a job there," he told the channel.
He said that he had stopped asking questions about Sheena since he was dependent on funds from Indrani to take care of his ailing grandparents and she had threatened to cut him off. (read more here)
What Indrani's husband Peter Mukerjea said:
Indrani's husband Peter has now gone on to say that he was completely unaware of the whole ordeal and was in a 'state of shock'.
Reacting to the revelations, Peter had said to CNN-IBN that he had no clue about this fact. He further said that Sheena and her son were introduced to him as Indrani as her siblings. He added that the revelations are shocking to him.
Peter claimed that Sheena had an affair with his younger son and that Indrani did not approve of their relationship. He said that he did not know about the conversations between Sheena and Indrani used to be in Assamese, and so he did not understand them.
"When she disappeared in 2012, I was told that she was studying in the US. I asked Indrani and she showed me pictures of Sheena at a Diwali function there," Mukherjea said.
Admitting that he was completely stumped by the police action of nabbing Indrani Mukherjea, he said: "I am dumbstruck by this level of criminality..."
Theories behind the murder
Tehelka suggests that it may not have been Bora getting involved with her stepson which may have enraged Indrani enough to have Sheena killed.
It may have got to do with something bigger than that - and what's bigger motive for murder than money? According toTehelka, the Mukerjeas had siphoned a lot of money from INX media, a company they later stepped down from. To avoid suspicion, a lot of this money had been transferred to their relatives' accounts. One of those accounts may have belonged to Sheena Bora, who later refused to return the money.
Tehelka reports: "Singapore based company Temasek invested in the the media company of the Mukherjea’s and after the global recession, Temasek got the media company audited. It was found out during this audit that Peter and Indrani had siphoned of huge sums of money from the company in the name of various family members, including Peter’s brother Gautam Mukherjea who brings out the magazine Planet Goa."
How Sheena went missing
Sheena studied in St Xavier's College in Mumbai, and according to her LinkedIn profile, was employed with Reliance ADAG when she disappeared in 2012. She was 24-years-old at the time.
A missing persons complaint had been filed in May 2012 at the Khar police station after Sheena, who lived in the suburb was untraceable.
According to an Indian Express report, around the same time the police had found partially burned remains of a woman's body near a farm house in Lonavala.

#* Virginia killings: Shooter Flanagan 'a human powder keg'

A man who shot dead two journalists on live TV in the US state of Virginia apparently sent a rambling fax to ABC News describing himself as a "human powder keg" shortly after the attack.
Vester Flanagan, who had been dismissed by the same station, WDBJ7, killed himself after a police chase.
In the fax, a man said to be Flanagan describes suffering discrimination and bullying for being gay and black.
The White House said Wednesday's attack showed the need for better gun control.
The two people killed were WDBJ7 reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward. Station manager Jeff Marks said: "I cannot tell you how much they were loved."
He said Flanagan was an "unhappy man" who had to be escorted from the WDBJ7 building after being dismissed in 2013.
A man who shot dead two journalists on live TV in the US state of Virginia apparently sent a rambling fax to ABC News describing himself as a "human powder keg" shortly after the attack.
Vester Flanagan, who had been dismissed by the same station, WDBJ7, killed himself after a police chase.
In the fax, a man said to be Flanagan describes suffering discrimination and bullying for being gay and black.
The White House said Wednesday's attack showed the need for better gun control.
The two people killed were WDBJ7 reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward. Station manager Jeff Marks said: "I cannot tell you how much they were loved."
He said Flanagan was an "unhappy man" who had to be escorted from the WDBJ7 building after being dismissed in 2013.
Alison Parker and Adam Ward
Alison Parker
Aged 24, was a reporter for WDBJ7's Mornin' show
Grew up in Martinsville, Virginia and edited her university newspaper
Joined WDBJ7 after internship and said she grew up watching the station
Was dating station anchor Chris Hurst
Adam Ward
Aged 27, was a cameraman for WDBJ7
Went to school in Salem, Virginia, and graduated from Virginia Tech
Described by his employer as committed and a "fine photojournalist"
Was engaged to station producer Melissa Ott
Who were the two journalists?
Ms Parker was conducting a live interview with a guest on tourism early on Wednesday in the town of Moneta when the incident occurred.
Suddenly, shots rang out, and viewers saw the camera fall to the ground. Screams could be heard and the footage captured a brief glimpse of the gunman.
The station cut back to the studio - journalists would later have to continue broadcasting on the deaths of two of their colleagues.

#* Hindu, Muslim population growth in TN lower than national average

In signs that welfare polices in Tamil Nadu have had a positive effect, growth in two major communities was lower than the national average.

In signs that welfare polices in Tamil Nadu have had a positive effect, the religion-wise figures of Census 2011 show that decadal growth rate of population in two major communities — Hindu and Muslim — was lower than the national average.

In the case of Christians, while the growth was slightly higher than the all-India figure, their proportion in the overall State population remained more or less the same as in 2001.

Experts state that the data reiterates the understanding that development, represented by better education, health and other social welfare measures, contribute significantly more to population stability than religion.

According to the data, the Hindu population in Tamil Nadu saw an increase of 14.91 per cent between 2001 and 2011.

Christians and Muslims grew by 21.86 and 16.73 per cent respectively. In the same period, the overall population in Tamil Nadu grew by 15.60 per cent.

In the State, the growth of population among Hindus and Muslims was markedly lower than national average of 16.76 percent and 24.60 per cent.

While Christians clocked a growth rate of 16.73 per cent in Tamil Nadu, the national average was 15.52 per cent.

Significantly, unlike Hindus, there were more women than men among Christians and Muslims in 2011.

As a proportion to the overall State population, Hindus stood at 87.5, Christians at 6.12 and Muslims at 5.86 per cent. In 2001, Christians were 6.06 per cent and Muslims were 5.56 of the total population.

Welfare measures

Professor at the International Institute of Population Sciences, Dr. P. Arokiasamy, said the data was reflective of the lead the southern States have taken in terms of socio-economic parameters.

“This is not a new trend. Intensive population campaigns since the 1980s coupled with robust welfare measures have helped Kerala and Tamil Nadu stabilise their population to a great extent relatively,” he said.

Dr. Arokiasamy said the two States were among the earliest to achieve the fertility replacement rate (average number of children born per woman) of 2.1.

On connecting religious background with fertility, he said development as a whole was a larger factor. “The fertility rate of Muslim women in Tamil Nadu is lower than Hindu women in northern States like Uttar Pradesh. This tells you why social welfare measures have a larger bearing,” he pointed out.

Education factor

Economist Venkatesh Athreya said education among women and poverty alleviation are two important determinants of population growth in the long term.

He said longer life expectancy, which comes from greater access to healthcare facilities, plays a role in the population stabilising.

“The security of child survival is crucial, which is determined by better nutrition and healthcare. When we say development, we mean overall development of social-economic and human development parameters. Mere economic growth will not provide help,” he said.

#* Indian construction slowdown hits Modi's jobs promise

After a decade labouring on building sites around New Delhi Akhilesh Kumar lost his scaffolding job last month when his employer halted work on an array of 30 residential towers. He joins more than half a million workers let go from sites around India's capital in the last 18 months, in a stark sign that the ground reality in Asia's third-largest economy is far from as rosy as official data suggests. The deepening downturn in India's crucial building sector makes it easily understandable why Prime Minister Narendra Modi's image as the country's economic saviour has lost its lustre just over a year after his resounding election victory. "If I don't get another job, I have no other choice but to go back to my village and work as a farm labourer," said Kumar, who is in his twenties. The decade-long construction boom in burgeoning cities like Noida, where Kumar earned USD 165 a month, lured millions of labourers from India's rural hinterlands in search of a better life, creating one in every three new jobs. That process is now going into reverse, undermining Modi's promise to create more employment for the one million Indians who join the workforce every month. Indebted developers are cutting staff as they slow work on existing projects and postpone new buildings until they clear a backlog of 700,000 unsold homes. A law to clamp down on "black money" flows that fund as much as a third of real estate deals is further squeezing demand. Across India, housing starts fell 40 percent in the first half of the year, consultancy Knight Frank said. Cement output grew 0.9 percent between April and June, down from 9.6 percent a year earlier when Modi took office, government data show. "The slowdown in the construction sector is very, very depressing which will have a negative impact on the overall GDP growth numbers in the first quarter of the current fiscal year," said Samantak Das, chief economist at Knight Frank India. Rating agency Moody's last week cut India's growth forecast to 7 percent for this fiscal year, against the government's target of 8 to 8.5 percent. India releases its GDP figures for the April-June quarter on Monday. HEADING HOME The lack of jobs is already being felt in the poor northern state of Bihar, source of many of the labourers toiling near Delhi. In Patna, the state capital, eight out of 20 labourers contacted by Reuters had this year made the 1,000 kilometre (600 mile) trip back from Delhi because they could not find work - pressuring salaries in a region where wages are already low. According to brokerage Ambit Capital, rural wages may now be falling after growing 4 percent in the year to March - a far cry from the double-digit annual rises between 2010 and 2014. "Labourers are starving and are ready to work even at lower wages as there are fewer or just no jobs in the construction markets," said Navendu Kumar Thakur, Patna chairman of the Builders Association of India. The squeeze comes at a bad time for Modi. Bihar heads to the polls this year, in an election his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) must win to gain seats in the upper house of parliament where he lacks a majority to pass economic reforms. HALF-BUILT Economists say that lower interest rates and a government splurge on infrastructure should eventually help revive construction, which contributes a tenth of Indian GDP. Modi's party also wants to regulate property markets and tie investor money to specific projects to stop developers diverting cash elsewhere. The slowdown around Delhi, where unsold inventory is highest, shows no sign of abating, however. Noida, a city of 640,000, has grown rapidly in the last decade, expanding to a point where its middle-class housing complexes now meld into Delhi's urban sprawl on one side and rustic villages on the other. Around the site where Kumar worked, half-built high-rises now dot the skyline. Cranes and diggers stand idle. His former employer, The 3C Company, has cut staff on the 3,000-unit "Lotus Boulevard" by more than half, employing some elsewhere. Sales staff at two nearby sites reported a 30 to 50 percent decline in bookings in the last year. Real estate association CREDAI's Rohit Raj Modi estimates construction in Noida employed more than a million labourers at its peak in 2013, at least double today's number. Even when the market recovers, a shift to mechanisation on larger sites would limit demand for new workers. "From a labour point of view, the peak is over," he said.

#* China Arrests 12 for Tianjin Explosions

China has formally detained a dozen people over huge explosions in the city of Tianjin this month that killed at least 139 people, and has accused 11 officials and port executives of suspected dereliction of duty or abuse of power.

Anger over safety standards is growing in China, after three decades of swift economic growth marred by incidents from mining disasters to factory fires, and President Xi Jinping has vowed that authorities will learn the lessons paid for with blood.

News of the detentions comes a day after the ruling Communist Party sacked the head of China's work safety regulator, a former vice mayor of Tianjin, for suspected corruption, but without making an explicit link to the deadly chemical blasts.

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The chairman, vice-chairman and three deputy general managers of Tianjin Ruihai International Logistics Co Ltd, owner of the warehouse that blew up, were among those who were "criminally detained", the state-run Xinhua news agency said on Thursday.

In an English-language report, the agency said they had been arrested. In China, criminal detention precedes arrest, which happens only once police level formal charges.

Separately, the state prosecutor said on its website a probe into the incident had found officials from a range of agencies to have been irresponsible, negligent and lax in the supervision of Tianjin Ruihai.

Among these agencies were Tianjin's transport, land resources, work safety and customs offices, besides state-owned port companies.

It named 10 officials suspected of dereliction of duty and one suspected of abuse of power.

There were 139 people confirmed dead in the blasts that flattened part of the port, while 34 remain missing.

#* Google: Goldman Ups to Buy as ‘Transparency,’ Margin Improvements Emerge

Shares of Google (GOOGL) are up $26.62, or 4.4%, at $639.09 after Goldman Sachs’s Heather Bellini raised her rating on the shares to Buy from Neutral, and raised her price target to $800 from $660, writing that the company is “implementing greater transparency” in the holding company structure it announced two weeks ago, and her talks with marketing execs suggests there’s more potential for both mobile search and for Google’s YouTube video property, “emerging growth areas where we previously held a more cautious stance.”

For one thing, Google has been lately reversing a steady decline in operating margin that happened from 2011 through 2014, and Bellini lists some metrics that show the turn:

1H15 headcount adds down 25% yoy
2 consecutive quarters of opex growth below headcount growth, first time since 2Q09
1H15 operating margins expand by 100bps, the first increase since CY09
1H15 opex/head declines by 4%, the first decrease since CY12
Incremental operating margins surpass total operating margins, first time since CY08
Bellini writes of her conversations with marketing types, such as the chief marketing officer role, that they hold Google Search on mobile devices, and YouTube, in high regard for their efficacy:

We have had concerns on the ROI of mobile search but the CMOs highlighted Google Search as having the highest ROI on mobile, followed by Facebook and YouTube. Finally, we asked these respondents to rank order the video advertising platforms (YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter) they saw being the best substitutes for TV (1 = top substitute). Aggregating the votes from our respondents, YouTube ended up having the highest ranking.

Update: Bellini was on CNBC a short while ago discussing the report with hosts Carl Quintanilla and Kayle Tausche. Bellini’s over-arching comment was that “there are a lot of reasons to think that things are going very well at Google.”

Regarding the investments in “moon shot” projects, which Taushe referred to as the “black box,” Bellini replied that such efforts should be valued as a kind of biotech portfolio.

Regarding the health in mobile advertising, Bellini called attention to the fact that “the divergence between desktop and mobile CPCs [cost per click] is closing at an accelerating rate,” although she predicted it will still take “many years” for the gap to close entirely.

#* I could see her bones: Slash victim's boss

A maid was slashed on Sunday by a man, who is alleged to be her former boyfriend, in what is believed to be a crime of passion.
Allen Remedios, 38, was returning to her employer's home at Block 311, Tampines Street 33, in the evening when she was attacked on the first storey.

The man stopped her, took out a paper cutter and slashed her throat, wrist and palm.

After he fled, she stumbled up the stairs to the second-storey flat, leaving a trail of blood.

Another maid working for the same employer said she heard the door bell ring at about 6.30pm and was horrified to see Ms Remedios drenched in blood when she opened the door.

"She was standing there with blood all over her.

"The cut on her left hand was very deep, and blood was gushing out of her throat," the maid, who wanted to be known only as Ms Rose, 25, told The New Paper on Monday.

"She said, 'Sister, call boss', and I shouted for our employer, who came running out."

By the time their employer, Jose Mari Camacho, 40, rushed out of a room, Ms Remedios had slumped onto the floor.

The planning manager said: "I was shocked. I immediately grabbed a towel and told Rose to apply pressure on the wounds and called the police.

"I then ran out of the flat to find out who had done this to her."

When he could not find the attacker, he went back to attend to Ms Remedios.

"She was still conscious and bleeding heavily. It was a very deep cut and I could see her trachea (windpipe) coming out from her throat, where blood was spurting out," Mr Camacho said.

"There were also deep cuts on her wrist and palm. I could see her bones and ligaments. Her thumb and finger were hanging just by the skin."

An ambulance and the police arrived within minutes and Ms Remedios was taken to Changi General Hospital.

A police spokesman said yesterday they received a call at about 6.30pm. Investigations are continuing.

TNP understands that a bloodied paper cutter about 15cm long was found in the vicinity of the block and the alleged attacker is still at large.

On Monday evening, the police said they were looking for a man to assist with investigations into the case.

The picture of the man provided by the police is a cropped version of a man pictured with Ms Remedios.

Yesterday, police said the man had been arrested.

Ms Rose said Ms Remedios broke up with her boyfriend, a construction worker, about three months ago and he had been seen loitering at the block for about an hour every Sunday since then.

"She no longer kept in contact with him after they broke up but he was always hanging around the block on Sundays," she said.

Mr Camacho said Ms Remedios is a good employee and he did not expect something like this to happen.

He accompanied her in the ambulance to the hospital and said that she lost so much blood that the doctors had to do a transfusion.

"She also underwent an operation and is now in stable condition. She still can't talk so I'm not sure what the whole story is."

He said that he took emergency leave on Monday as he was worried for the safety of his family and employees.

#* How Hardik Patel got offended when asked about Arvind Kejriwal

New Delhi: Hardik Patel, who is spearheading a massive movement in Gujarat demanding the reservation for Patel community, became uncomfortable when asked about his association with Aam Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal.
 How justified is the violence in Gujarat over quota row?-Part 2 Related Video
How justified is the violence in Gujarat over quota row?-Part 2
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In an exclusive interview to Zee Media, Hardik Patel defended his stand, questioning why does a youth of this nation need permission to hold an agitation.

“When a terrorist enters into Indian territory does he take permission? The government, indeed, takes good care of him by serving him biryani and showing movies in jail. However, a youth of this nation is asked for permission to carry out a non-violent protest. We are not naxals or spreading naxalism. We followed path of non-violence, but police started beating us,” said Hardik.

On being asked if he knows Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, he said, “I don't know much about Arvind Kejriwal. I have only heard about him and know that he is currently the chief minister of Delhi.”

When asked about the pictures on social media showing him sitting next to Arvind Kejriwal, he dodged the question and got offended.

#* Google to Mentor Shortlisted Teams Competing to Build MyGov's PMO App

Government citizen-centric web platform MyGov and Google India on Wednesday announced the final shortlisted top five teams from Delhi, Chennai and Pune to build the official mobile app for the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

This contest, initiated by MyGov and Google in March, is a crowdsourcing effort to build a mobile app for a public office. One app out of the five will be chosen as the official app of the PMO, Google India said.

MyGov CEO Gaurav Dwivedi said: "With the short listing of the finalists, the contest has now entered its last phase of actual app development. The role of Google's team in mentoring will be critical at this stage and we are working closely to unveil of the official mobile app for the Prime Minister's Office."

In the first phase of the contest, MyGov had invited ideas for the mobile app. Based on over 50,000 ideas received, it prepared an app blueprint for developers, who could register as teams to build and submit mockups.In the second phase, more than 110 mockups were received, and 10 were shortlisted. A jury of eminent professionals and government representatives chose five teams to build the app on the basis of detailed presentations.

The shortlisted teamd come from across the country - two from Chennai, two from NCR, and one from Pune, the statement said.

The shortlisted teams will now be mentored for the next six weeks by Google engineers, who will help them develop a world class app based on the latest design and Android technologies, it added.

"As increasing number of Indians get online with their smartphones, we're delighted to be working with MyGov in an effort to build a world class mobile app for the citizens to connect with the Prime Minister's Office," said Google India's country head public policy Chetan Krishnaswamy.

"Easy access to information and empowering citizens with the benefits of Internet are a big part of Prime Minister Modi's "Digital India" initiative, and this app is one step in that direction," he added.

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