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Chandigarh: Dubai-based Shiv Kapur returned five under 67 to take a one-shot advantage at 17-under 199 at the end of the penultimate round of the Rs. 1.5 crore Jeev Milkha Singh Invitational at the Chandigarh Golf Club here on Saturday.

New Delhi: Olympic gold medallist Neeraj Chopra, led the star parade as President Ram Nath Kovind conferred 12 Sportspersons with Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award and honoured 35 others with Arjuna awards in an impressive ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan here on Saturday.

So he thinks – National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. For a phase in his life, he too was ‘civil society’, which he, now, says is the "new frontier of war". Civil society, he warns, can be “suborned and manipulated” to hurt India’s interests. Of course, Doval is establishment, now at odds with civil society as civil society is at odds with the establishment.

Judging by its huge defeat in West Bengal and its 50 per cent strike rate in the recent national by-elections, the BJP’s prospects for next year’s assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur appear a little shaky. But at the BJP’s recent national executive, Prime Minister Narendra Modi exuded confidence that the party will continue to be in a commanding position. He pointed out that the BJP has an army of committed cadres, while other parties revolve around just one family. (It is another matter that today, the BJP and the government revolve entirely around Modi.) More than Modi’s speech, it was the unguarded remark of Prashant Kishor, Mamata Banerjee campaign handler, which provided the reality check to those who assume that Narendra Modi’s days are numbered because of bad governance, ugly efforts at communal polarisation, a disturbing disregard for democratic norms and blatant manipulation of constitutional bodies and investigative agencies to settle scores with opponents.

Commerce and Industry minister Piyush Goyal has said India’s services exports are set to touch $ one trillion by 2030. He had said couple of months back India’s merchandise exports that is goods exports will touch $ one trillion in next 4-5 years. Putting these two together India’s goods and services export will surge to $2 trillion in next 6-7 years. Is it in the realms of reality? Some critics do doubt if this is achievable but there are others who are positive and say this is a strong possibility. If India were to become a $5 trillion economy from the present $3trillion in the next few years, It has to adopt export-led growth to achieve at least 9-10 per cent GDP growth on a sustained basis.

After months of aimless bickering and desertions among party rank in West Bengal, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)has finally announced plans to agitate against the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) Government on the contentious fuel price rise issue. New state party president and MP Sukanta Majumdar has called upon the TMC to follow the BJP’s example and immediately announce a cut in / withdrawal of excise duty on diesel and petrol. The state BJP unit would organise rallies and demonstrations in Kolkata and the districts to press for an immediate reduction in fuel prices in Bengal, as has been done by many other state governments.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) Government finds itself in the eye of a storm over the handling of the highly sensitive Mullaperiyar issue.

The early stage of computerisation, computers were dreaded for their capacity to kill jobs. And this had shaped the approach of labour unions, social scientists and even some governments on the threat perception over computers. But as the computerisation took hold, it became apparent that computers, instead of devouring jobs, were actually facilitating the jobs. Also, it opened up a new world of employment.

Implication of 102 persons under the dreaded anti-terror law in the recent communal riots in the BJP ruled Tripura state has put spotlight on the gross abuse of the UAPA (the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967) as amended to date to suppress voices of dissent or banner of alarms against the repression of innocents. Tripura communal riots, viewed as a reprisal against anti-minority skirmishes in Bangladesh in the wake of ten-day long Durga Puja (Dussehra) triggered by Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a hardcore right wing Hindutwa organization and part of enlarged Sangh Pariwar, resulted in burning of several mosques, shops and houses of particular minority community. Of the implicated persons, 100 are Muslims and rest others. With this, the misuse of the stiffest anti-terror law in BJP ruled states has reached absurd extremes. The good news is the Supreme Court has taken cognizance of it.

Chandigarh: Dubai-based Shiv Kapur and Delhi's Rashid Khan emerged as joint leaders after the second round of the Jeev Milkha Singh Invitational being played at the Chandigarh Golf Club.