Assam Assembly Elections 2016

The campaigning for the first phase of Assam Assembly Elections 2016 in Assam is underway in full-swing, with top leaders from prominent political parties addressing series of rallies to woo the voters.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing a rally in Rangapara in Sonitpur district of Assam yesterday, came down heavily on the Congress regime in the state and alleged that the ruling party had betrayed the people and their aspirations in the last 15 years.

Prime Minister Modi said that there is a strong wind of change in Assam Elections 2016 which will uproot the Congress and its 15 years of misrule.

BJP president Amit Shah is scheduled to address public rallies today. Shah will hold public meetings at Dhakuakhana, Nauboicha, Sootea and Dhekiajuli.

Adequate security arrangements have been made across the state to avoid occurrence of any untoward incident.

The Election Commission has announced two-phase polling for the 14th Assam assembly elections on April 4 and 11. The votes will be counted on May 19.

World T20: Australia did not lose to India - but to a man called Virat Kohli

Sometimes even the most sublime superlatives fail to do justice to certain sporting performances. On a balmy Chandigarh evening on Sunday, Virat Kohli played that very innings of his career; an effort that involved immense skill and endurance. So often, Kohli devours run chases for dinner, but this 51-ball 82 will go down a “giant among giants” type of knock; one that helped India storm into the semi-finals of the ICC World T20. 

There was little muscle involved, just touch and finesse. Every boundary was struck with exquisite precision; with the dexterity of a charming ballet dancer. The field was dissected the same way a surgeon would skillfully cut open his patient, and the ball often sped away like this match was being played on a snooker table. By the time this massacre reached its conclusion, Australia were left battered and bruised, and sent tumbling out. Kohli had made an absolute mockery of the 161 the Aussies had set India for victory.

Towards the end, watching Kohli was like watching a highlight reel – almost every ball was sent crashing into the fence. Just that he was doing it for real. This was wizardry of an unseen kind, the kind that will linger in the memory for years to come. This was Kohli at his imperious best – an unassisted annihilation of one of the powerhouses of world cricket.

After Sachin Tendulkar had vanquished Australia at Sharjah in 1998, Mark Taylor had famously exclaimed that his team hadn’t lost to India, but to a man called Sachin. At the presentation ceremony on Sunday night, Steven Smith’s visage wore that same forlorn expression. He managed a wry grin but even he could not deny the damning eventuality of this brutal assault. After a point, with India having wickets in hand, a Kohli special seemed imminent.

There were moments of sheer magic: the silky flick through square-leg early on in the chase, the boundary through point off an almost yorker-length Nathan Coulter-Nile delivery, the top-spin forehand off James Faulkner that went sailing over mid-off for six – shots of a man who right now can do very little wrong.

ALSO READ: ICC World T20: Sachin Tendulkar hails Kohli's innings | Who said what on Twitter

Kohli’s was a one-man operation that was planned perfectly. As India lost early wickets and Yuvraj Singh hobbled in pain, Kohli played smartly – churning the strike over and never allowing the required run-rate to get out of hand. And then, almost at the flick of a switch, he teed off, sending the ball flying to all parts of the PCA Stadium in Mohali.

But then Mahendra Singh Dhoni does not like one-man operations. In Kohli, he has a player who is carrying the team’s entire batting on his shoulders – a major reason to worry. Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan failed to get going for the fourth game running. Ditto for Suresh Raina, who once again fell to the short ball. And, Yuvraj, despite all his valiant attempts, is no longer the batsman he once was. Maybe it’s time to get Ajinkya Rahane up and running.

In major tournaments in the last few years, so often it has been the bowling that has let India down. Not this time. After Usman Khawaja and Aaron Finch gave Australia a furious start, the Indian slow bowlers – with the exception of Ravichandran Ashwin – rescued the innings brilliantly, taking pace off the ball and striking at crucial times. Ashwin, India’s main man in crunch games, just ended up bowling two overs.

A firing Kohli or not, it’s time someone else in the Indian batting steps up and takes responsibility. This over-reliability on Kohli comes with the perilous possibility of an abject batting failure against the West Indies in the semi-final. For now, Indian fans can soak themselves in the euphoria of another Kohli masterclass. Post match, Shane Warne said that Kohli’s knock reminded him of some of the great innings played by Tendulkar. In some ways, it was even better.

But Kohli’s innings was eerily similar – in fact, identical – to Tendulkar in a completely different respect. On March 27, 1994 – exactly 22 years ago – Tendulkar opened the batting in one-day international cricket for the first time, against New Zealand in Auckland. He scored a scorching 82 – the same as Kohli on Sunday evening. 

US Elections 2016: Trump, Clinton move closer to Presidential face-off

Real estate mogul Donald Trump has swept the crucial Republican presidential primary in Florida taking away with all the 99 delegates from the State which will provide major impetus to his aspiration to become the US President even as Hillary Clinton has won the North Carolina Democratic primary.

The former Secretary of State was projected to bag at least 56 delegates out of 107 at stake in North Carolina.

Clinton also won in Florida after having a massive lead over her sole rival Senator Bernie Sanders. Clinton had support of 65.6% of the votes as against 30.6% for Sanders.

Notably, Republican Senator Marco Rubio has ended his campaign after suffering a humiliating loss in his home state of Florida.

It has been a "devastating" night for Rubio in Florida where he polled just 27.8% of the votes as against Trump's impressive 45.3%.

"Word is that, despite a record amount spent on negative and phony ads, I had a massive victory in Florida," Trump said in a tweet even before major television channels projected his victory.

Being billed as Super Tuesday 2.0, primary elections were held in five States - Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Illinois and Missouri.

Initial reports suggested that Hillary Clinton and Trump had leads in North Carolina where 72 delegates are at stake for the GOP. Texas Senator Ted Cruz was closely following Trump.

However, in Ohio where 66 delegates are at stake, State Governor John Kasich was leading against Trump. Clinton was leading in Ohio.

The primary US Elections held in five states yesterday is part of the process of both the Republican and Democratic parties to nominate their presidential candidates for the November 8 elections, which would elect the next occupant of the White House.

It all started with the Iowa caucus on February 1, with 17 Republican candidates and three Democratic candidates in the race. A month and half later, during which primaries and caucuses have been completed in nearly three dozen States and territories, the race to the White House has shrunk to four candidates on the Republican side and two on the Democratic side.

It would all culminate in the once-in-four-year conventions of both the parties in July wherein their respective delegates from all 50 States and territories would democratically elect and nominate their presidential nominations.

The Democratic convention would be held in Philadelphia where the party's 4763 delegates would nominate their presidential candidate. The nominee needs to have the support of majority of the 4763 delegates, which comprises of the elected delegates through the primary and caucuses and super delegates, who are party leaders and other elected officials.

Cleveland in Ohio will host the Republican convention wherein the nominee needs to have the support of at least half of the 2572 delegates.

If none of the candidates in the race are unable to have half of the delegates in their kitty before the Cleveland convention in July, the delegates would then vote for their favourite nominee, which might witness a rare horse trading in the American political system. However, the top leadership of the Republican party believe that this would be settled much before that and they would be able to avoid a contested convention.

Before yesterday's primaries, Trump was leading among the Republican candidates with wins in 15 States and 469 delegates to his kitty. He was followed by Senator Ted Cruz with 370 delegates and wins in seven States. Senator Marco Rubio was a distant third with three wins and 163 delegates. The Ohio Governor had 63 delegates without winning a State.

On the other hand, in the Democratic front, Hillary Clinton had 1235 delegates as against 580 of the Senator Bernie Sanders. But the margin was much narrow when it came to elected delegates: Clinton (748) and Sanders (542).

Flipkart denies report of sale talks with Amazon

Flipkart, India’s largest online marketplace, has strongly denied a newspaper report that said they had exploratory talks with Amazon in the last quarter of 2015 for possible sale.

Taking to Twitter, Sachin Bansal, Executive Chairman of Flipkart put out this cryptic tweet.

Citing several sources in the investment community, The Economic Times reported on Wednesday that Amazon had made a preliminary offer of up to $8 billion to acquire Flipkart, almost half of its previous valuation of $15.2 billion. The newspaper said they have spoken to three sources who were top executives in venture capital and private equity firms. 

Meanwhile, another source informed that Amazon had offered a little over $5 billion for Flipkart’s commerce business and $3 billion was pegged for the company’s logistics business.

The talks between both the companies, reportedly held in the last quarter of 2015, went cold after the offer was perceived to be too low. The sources also told the newspaper that there was no reason to believe that a deal will be struck or that the talks were still ongoing between them.

Valuation woes

The development comes at a time when Morgan Stanley had marked down its investment value in the online marketplace by $4 billion to $11 billion.

Meanwhile, Flipkart is also currently in talks with Alibaba to raise $1 billion, but the Chinese e-commerce player was said to be investing at a lower valuation than $15 billion. Read More

ICC World T20: In-form India maybe surprised by dangerous New Zealand

In most parts of the world, New Zealand is an affable team that enraptures crowds with an intrepid, sometimes fitful brand of cricket. The Kiwis are usually every cricket fan’s delight, but not tonight.

For the thousands that line up outside the VCA Stadium to watch them take onIndia in the opener of the 

mybs.in

ICC World T20 proper in Nagpur, only an Indian win will do. For all the amiability we feel toward the Kiwis, a New Zealand win would be cataclysmic.

Little respite seen from honour killings in Tamil Nadu, govt in denial

Reports of the latest incident of honour killing in Tamil Nadu have quickly triggered more serious media coverage and debate than perhaps the devastating floods that claimed hundreds of lives in December.

The number of such killings is growing despite the two major Dravidian parties, which have ruled the state alternately for more than five decades since 1967, promising to curb crimes, especially against women and minorities, especiallyDalit Murder, who form a major vote bank. Read More

Are we moving to a cashless society?

Many consumers in metros have seen their cash transactions go down significantly because of growing e-commerce, expansion of mobile wallets and online banking.

This is only the start of a march towards becoming a cashless society. Things are expected to change dramatically in a few years for urban consumers. Many entities are working on different electronic payment mechanisms that can usher in a digital payment revolution.

Wallet companies are aggressively tying up with retailers to let customers use mobile payments. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), a company promoted by banks, is working on a mechanism that will allow consumers to transfer money and make payments almost as easily as they send a text message.Read More

World T20: Confident India commence title bid with New Zealand game

The superb build-up run has made India the clear favourites for an unprecedented second World Twenty20 title but the in-form hosts will have to guard against complacency when they take on a spirited New Zealand in their campaign opener here tomorrow. Click Here

**Samsung kicks off price war in premium phone segment**

Consumers looking to buy premium smartphones - priced at Rs 30,000 or more - are in for good times, as a price war seems to have erupted in the segment.

Last week, the largest smartphone maker in the world, Samsung, launched its flagship Galaxy S7 and S7 edge for Rs 48,900 and Rs 56,900, respectively. Read More

SC dismisses PILs by Ranbaxy whistleblower Dinesh Thakur

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the public interest litigations (PILs) filed by former Ranbaxy executive Dinesh Thakur challenging certain rules under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and seeking “the creation of a framework for the recall of drugs and a commission to examine faulty drug approvals.” Click Here