Hyderabad: To revive the engineering course in mining technology, Osmania University’s College of Engineering has received sponsorship for two of its professor chairs from Coal India Ltd and Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL).
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The varsity’s alumni association president D Vijay Kumar, while speaking at the global alumni meet of its engineering college on Sunday, said that SCCL has also funded the construction of the classroom complex for the Department of Electronics and Communication.
The event saw the participation of around 500 alumni and students.
Highlighting the formation of the Osmania Foundation as an umbrella organization for all alumni associations of colleges under OU, Kumar said, “The alumni association along with the mining engineers’ fraternity managed to get two professor chairs.”
Northern Power Distribution Company Limited (NPDCL), Warangal, chairman and managing director (CMD) A Gopal Rao, who was also present at the event, appreciated the efforts of the alumni in giving back to their alma mater and recalled incidents during his college days at OU.
OU vice-chancellor D Ravinder, meanwhile, has appealed to the alumni to also share their intellectual knowledge and mentor the university to make it compete globally.
The current Senate Democratic discord is especially acute because the caucus had the numbers to block the 2018 effort — but under heavy pressure to cut a deal to help community banks in an election year, 17 of them supported it. The collapse of two banks with roughly $300 billion in total assets over the past week has animated those internal divisions among Democratic senators, who usually pride themselves on policy unity. And it starkly contrasts with Senate Republicans, who uniformly supported the last big banking bill.
Asked whether he regretted his vote, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) told reporters: “No. I voted for a bill that was a bipartisan compromise.”
“Sometimes members choose policy positions and wait to see if history serves them,” said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who opposed the legislation. “Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t.”
In case it was unclear, he added: “I was on the right side of it.”
Republicans instantly ruled out passing new bank regulations on Tuesday, arguing federal regulators are already empowered to increase scrutiny of those banks. So Democrats will have to decide whether it’s worth taking their internal fight to the Senate floor again.
Several Democrats said they want to see either repeal of the 2018 legislation or other tougher laws. But at the moment there is no apparent solution that would get 51 Democratic votes, much less the 60 senators needed to vault a filibuster.
“We’re going to try,” Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) told reporters. But he added that “I don’t know how we do a legislative fix.”
Exacerbating the internal fight: Democrats don’t agree whether the rollback was actually to blame for the present bank failures. Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who cut that 2018 deal with Republican Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho.), said in an interview Tuesday that he stands by his vote and disagrees with those blaming his legislation: “I don’t see it the same way. If you read the bill, you’ll know that it doesn’t let them off.”
“Would I vote the same way [today]? Yes,” said Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who caucuses with Democrats and voted in favor of the 2018 legislation. “Because of the important help to smaller banks and community banks; that was my mission.”
The 2018 law peeled back parts of Dodd-Frank to exempt smaller banks from federally administered “stress tests” that weighed their ability to weather economic downturns. Its enactment meant Dodd-Frank’s stricter federal oversights only applied to a handful of bigger banks.
And the issue is already becoming a cudgel in Senate races. Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who is running for the Arizona Senate seat, went after Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) for her vote in support of the 2018 law, calling the votes the “most salient example of how we’re different.” Of the most vulnerable Democratic senators up for reelection next fall, Brown, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania opposed the 2018 law, while Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Tester and Sinema supported it.
“It was obviously a mistake,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), another incumbent senator, who missed the 2018 vote but criticized the bill then. “It was ill-advised, these are big banks … and they need to have some backstops.”
Asked whether he sensed a divide among Senate Democrats, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) replied: “That question answers itself. Because there were some in 2018 who thought it was a good idea … and I put myself in that category; I was listening to my community banks.”
Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, both of which qualified for the 2018 exemption, had lobbied hard for the measure by assuring lawmakers they were not big enough to pose systemic risk. Yet federal authorities cited that exact problem on Sunday when they announced they would backstop all of Silicon Valley Bank’s deposits after it collapsed thanks to a large-scale run.
“Working together, a good job — a miraculous job — has been done to stem the possibility of systemic risk,” Rep. Maxine Waters said in an interview. The Californian is the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee and opposed the 2018 law.
She also warned against jumping to conclusions on whether congressional action had prompted the bank failures: “I don’t know what could be said about what has happened here with this; the collapse of Silicon Valley as it relates to Dodd-Frank.”
As it stands, the toughest regulations apply only to banks with more than $250 billion in assets. Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank held around $209 billion and $110 billion, respectively, when regulators took over. Summing up the back and forth, Warren said midsize banks were acting like “little community banks, and should be only lightly regulated. That was laughable on its face.”
It’s made a painful issue for Democrats for years now, ever since a group of party centrists went around Brown, then the top Democrat on the Banking Committee, to cut a deal with Republicans. Brown said on Bloomberg Radio on Tuesday that some Democrats “don’t fight hard enough,” but then he went into peacemaking mode.
“I think that it’s been illuminating to a lot of people,” Brown told reporters later. “I think all the Democrats [now] realize we need stronger rules.”
Even with their entrenched positions, Democratic senators are trying to avoid a replay of the backbiting five years ago when Warren called out her colleagues that supported deregulation in a fundraising email. That move prompted a contentious meeting among Democratic chiefs of staff in which Dan Geldon, then Warren’s top aide, cited nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office warnings that more bank failures could result from rolling back Dodd-Frank, according to three people familiar with the meeting.
Geldon argued at the time that Warren was fighting on principle and not just to target other senators, while aides to senators that supported the bank bill blanched at her tactics and said they were merely reacting to banks back in their states, according to those three people.
Now Democrats can at least face that dispute from the majority, when they’re able to choose what comes to the floor. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has been careful about how he characterizes a potential congressional response, saying Capitol Hill will “look closely” at next steps. He opposed the bank bill five years ago.
New Hampshire Democratic Sens. Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen both said they’d be willing to reexamine the 2018 law, which both supported, if investigations find that was the cause of the failures. But they evinced no regrets about their position.
“The reality is, it was very bad management at SVB. And you can’t fix that with any regulation,” Shaheen said.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
SRINAGAR: It was the return of the last two centuries on stage when a group of artists staged Chakdar Pather in Tagore Hall. Pather is basically a fold theatre that usually as satire and comedy as part of the process.
The play opened with a band of four people welcoming the guests to Shehnai, Surnayi, Nagar, and Dhol beats. The music was energetic to light up the stage. A group of dancers join in and entertain the audience more through the funny movements than the ‘dance’ itself.
In the next scene, two men Boud Maskhar (senior joker) and Loukut Maskhar (junior joker) started attacking technology, the digital world, and the zee generation. They hint at doing the play Chakdar Pather, which starts in the next scene.
The play was based in Kashmir’s nineteenth and twentieth centuries when most of the land was the ruler’s property and distributed to his family, friends and the bourgeoisie.
The stage was set up in a paddy field with the peasants working. The hard work of peasants was beautifully expressed in a song sung live by Sajad Maqbool Mir. The play exhibited the struggle of peasants to cultivate crops and the meagre income it generated for them.
Kashmiri artists staged a Chakdar Pather, a theatre play based on Kashmir’s feudal days, at Tagore Hall on March 4, 2023. KL Image: Bilal Bahadur
It showed how some peasants were on the verge of suicide because of paying taxes to Chakdars (land contractors). They had to toil throughout the season, but it did not generate enough money to run a family. Their families would often sleep without meals and some of them lost their lives to hunger.
The play shows a Kardar – Ram Chandar and his accountant – Somnath calculating the land given to Kaashtkars and the taxes they paid in the past year. If someone did not pay, they would take back the land and give it to someone else who would pay better. They would visit the village once in a while to check on the peasants and collect taxes. They were shown beating those who failed to pay the whole amount and praising those who paid them. Kardar was so affectionate towards Chakdari that he considered it over God and his own life.
Then, Kardar’s used to be the bridge between the peasants and the land contractors appointed by the despotic rulers.
The whole play presented a serious issue with a tinge of comedy through dialogues and actions, which kept the audience hooked. There was not any gap left to feel the other way about it. Sajad Maqbool Mir played the rabab in the background, which also helped the audience to stay hooked to the stage.
As the peasants suffer, the play goes on to show, they plan to complain to their leader about it and they do so. The leader gives them all the support needed and encourages them to speak against it. They plan a strike. Soon, all of them visit the Kardar. The leader demands a one-fourth share of the income generated through the crops as the peasants work hard. Kardar, who seems to be afraid of the leader, agrees to their demand.
The play was written by Reshi Rasheed, and its design and direction were done by Ramzan. The character of Boud Maskhar is played by Mehraj ud Din Bhat, Loukut Maskhar by Aashiq Hussain Sheikh, Jamal by Mushtaq Ahmad Dar, Ramzan by Nisar Ahmad Bhat, Rajab Ganaie by Javed Ahmad Shah, Leader by Ishfaq Ahmad Bhat, Ram Chandar by Ghulam Rasool Lone (Founding Member of the theatre group), Somnath by Master Abdul Samad Mir and other Actors (peasants) by Mohammad Maqbool Bhat, Mohammad Ramzan Lone, Abdul Majeed Dar. The singer in the play is Sajad Maqbool Mir.
Dhol is played by Ghulam Mohammad Bhat, Shehnai was played by Ghulam Mohammad Bhat, Surnayi is played by Abdul Khaliq Bhat, and Nagaar was played by Ghulam Mohammad Bhat. The dancer is Bilal Ahmad Bhat. Costumes were provided by Abdul Samad Mir, Light Direction by Aashiq Hussain Najar, Lights Operations by Tariq Ahmad Hajini, and Sound by Aijaz Ahmad. The stage was set up by Trilok Singh Bali, Mohammad Amin, and Suhail.
Srinagar, Mar 05: Jammu and Kashmir’s Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbagh Singh Friday said that weapons and narcotics are being air-dropped through drones in border villages of Jammu to revive and fuel militancy in the UT where “a peaceful atmosphere is prevailing at present.”
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a Jammu Marathon organized by the police, DGP Singh, as per news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) said that at present peace is prevailing in J&K and militancy is at its lowest ebb. “Weapons fitted with drones along with huge consignments of narcotics are being air-dropped in border villages of Jammu. We have foiled many such bids and seized huge consignments of narcotics. Recently narcotics worth Rs 2 crore were seized,” the DGP said, adding that weapons are meant to be handed over to militants while narcotics is sold and money earned is being distributed among militants. “Some part of the amount is sent back to the mentors sitting across who give the same to militants infiltrating into this side to carry out IED and other attacks. The links of narco-terror have been found to Punjab,” the DGP said.
To a query about the G-20 summit, the J&K police chief said that some events of the G-20- summit will be held in J&K which is a proud moment. “All security arrangements will be taken to ensure peaceful G-20 events in the UT,” he said—(KNO)
SRINAGAR: Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is also the chairperson of the Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP), has announced that if his party wins the upcoming assembly elections, he will bring back the Roshni Act in the Union Territory. The Act, which provides ownership rights to occupants, was initially passed in 2001 by the National Conference government but was repealed in 2018 by the then-governor Satya Pal Malik.
Addressing a rally at Larnoo Kokernag, Azad expressed his concern over the economic crises in Jammu and Kashmir and said that his aim is to build the region as a welfare state, where the economy grows to the extent that people are willing to pay taxes themselves. He emphasized that the poor are being crushed with rising electricity bills, water charges, and property taxes.
The Roshni Act, officially known as the Jammu and Kashmir State Land (Vesting of Ownership to Occupants) Act, 2001, was modified during Azad’s tenure from 2005 to 2008. However, in 2014, the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report revealed that many political persons from different parties had benefited from the Act. Consequently, in November 2018, the Act was repealed by the then-governor.
Despite the Act being declared illegal, unconstitutional, and unsustainable by the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh on October 9, 2020, Azad has reiterated his commitment to bring back the Roshni Act. He believes that this law will help build a better future for the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
SRINAGAR: Former minister Harsh Dev Singh on Thursday announced his decision to quit the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to revive the Panthers Party.
Quoting a video statement news agency KNO reported that Harsh Dev announced his decision revive Panthers Party which was formed by Prof. Bhim Singh in 1982.
“We have held consultations and arrived at a decision to revive the Panthers Party. Our ancestors have given sacrifices for the party,” he said.
Singh, who was chairman of AAP’s state coordination committee, said revival of the Panthers Party would be in interest of the people.
