Daily News - 20 Feb, 2020
04:51 Share

While rejecting a woman’s plea against a tribunal that placed her under the “foreigner” category, Gauhati High Court has said that documents like bank statements and Permanent Account Number (PAN) cards, land revenue receipts, cannot be used to show proof of citizenship.  In the latest order, Justices Manojit Bhuyan and Parthivjyoti Saikia of the Gauhati High Court dismissed Jabeda Begum’s plea as the documents submitted by her could not certify her linkage to her projected father or brother. Jabeda Begum known as Jabeda Khatun had filed a petition in the Gauhati High Court challenging the order of the foreigners’ tribunal that had declared her a foreigner.

Residents and locals of a village in Tinsukia district have expressed their immense love for singer Zubeen Garg by constructing a bridge made with bamboos and also naming it after him. According to reports, the “Zubeen Garg bridge” will connect Thepabari with Tengapani and several other villages to mark the way. Zubeen wrote a message on his official Facebook account where he thanked the people for this gesture. Zubeen will be inaugurating the bridge on February 29.

China is unhappy with Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh. Shah is attending the 34th Statehood Day Function of Arunachal Pradesh in Itanagar. Calling this visit a violation of “territorial sovereignty and sabotaged political mutual trust,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said, “China’s position on the eastern sector of the China-India boundary, or the southern part of China’s Tibet region, is consistent and clear.” “The Chinese government has never recognised the so-called ‘Arunachal Pradesh’ and is firmly opposed to the Indian politician’s visit to the southern part of China’s Tibet region as it violated China’s territorial sovereignty, undermined stability of the border area, sabotaged political mutual trust, and violated relevant bilateral agreement,” he added. He urged the Indian side to stop complicating this issue further. China which considers Arunachal Pradesh as part of south Tibet has been involved in a longstanding territorial dispute with India over Arunachal Pradesh.

Zee5, the top domestic streaming platform will fight off competition from of international giants Netflix, Disney by focusing on local contents. The domestic company will also improve on its market share by giving lower price options. “International OTTs have neither legacy nor library with depth,” Chief Executive Officer Tarun Katial told media during an interview. “We can win this content battle,” he added while highlighting that Zee5 has produced more than 100 original shows in several local languages, which is at least 10 times more than any of its rivals. International giants from abroad have been competing with each other to capture India’s growing market.

Former PM Manmohan Singh shared his perspective on the current state of Indian economy during  the launch of “Backstage”—a book authored by former planning commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. “Today we have a government which does not acknowledge that there is a word as slowdown. And I feel this is not good for our economy. If you do not recognise the problems that you face, you are not likely to find credible answers to take corrective actions measures and that is the real danger,” he said during the event. The former PM also called for expenditure that could boost infrastructure, health, education, defence sectors in the country. He also said that a $5 trillion economy was wishful thinking, and asked the government to rethink fiscal policy along with carrying out bold tax to achieve an annual gross domestic product growth of 8 per cent.