Hero in Hiroshima

PM Narendra Modi arrives in Japanese city for G7 & Quad summits

Hiroshima (PTI):

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived here in this Japanese city on Friday to attend the annual summit of the G7 grouping and the third in-person Quad leaders’ meeting during which he will exchange views with world leaders on global challenges and discuss ways to collectively address them.

Modi arrived in Hiroshima on the first leg of his three-nation trip to Japan, Papua New Guinea and Australia and is expected to take part in over 40 engagements.

“Landed in Hiroshima to join the G7 Summit proceedings. Will also be having bilateral meetings with various

Crucial

New Delhi: As ultimatum for the arrest of WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan by wrestlers draws to a close on May 21, the Delhi Police has heightened security measures. P6

NIA NABS 2 WANTED AIDES OF CANADABASED TERRORIST

New Delhi: The NIA has arrested two “wanted” close associates of Canada-based “listed terrorist” Arsh Dhalla when they arrived at Indira Gandhi International Airport from Manila, Philippines, where they had been hiding, an official said on Friday.

UNION MINISTER TENI

ACQUITTED IN 23-YR-

OLD MURDER CASE

Lucknow: The Allahabad High Court on Friday upheld the acquittal of Union MoS for Home Ajay Mishra Teni in the 23-year-old Prabhat Gupta murder case. In 2004, Teni was acquitted by the trial court but govt went in appeal.

WB SCHOOL JOB SCAM: CBI SUMMONS ABHISHEK BANERJEE

Kolkata: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday issued summons to Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee in connection with a case registered by an agency in West Bengal school job scam.

Zelenskyy May

MODI, world leaders,” Modi tweeted.

New Delhi: Senior diplomats of India and Ukraine are exploring the possibility of a bilateral meeting between PM Narendra Modi and Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. If the meeting takes place, then it will be the first one between the two leaders after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February last year.

Earlier, in his departure statement, the Prime Minister said he was looking forward to

World Leaders Tighten Sanctions Against Russia Over Ukraine War

Hiroshima: Leaders of the world’s most powerful democracies vowed on Friday to tighten punishments on Russia for its 15-month invasion of Ukraine, days before Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy joins the Group of Seven summit in person on Sunday. “Our support for Ukraine will not waver,” the G7 leaders said in a statement released after closed-door meetings.

MODI’S VISIT GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO REVIEW DEEP INDIA-US TIES: US OFFICIAL

Washington: PM Narendra Modi’s first state visit to the US at the invitation of President Joe Biden offers a great opportunity for the two leaders to review growing bilateral trade, investment and defence partnership and discuss new areas of cooperation, a senior State Department official said. Modi will embark on his state visit to the US next month on an invitation by Biden and First Lady Jill Biden.

exchanging views with the G7 countries and other invited partners on challenges that the world faces and the need to collectively ad- dress them.

“My presence in this G7 summit is particularly meaningful as India holds the G20 presidency this year. I look

RBI to withdraw `2,000 notes from circulation; valid till Sep 30

Exchange facility for `2,000 notes up to ` 20K at a time would be available from May 23

Mumbai (PTI): The Reserve Bank of India on Friday announced withdrawal of Rs 2,000 currency notes from circulation, and existing notes in circulation can either be deposited in banks or exchanged by September 30.

The bank notes in Rs 2,000 denomination will continue to be a legal tender, the RBI said.

In order to ensure operational convenience, the RBI said exchange of Rs 2,000 bank notes into bank notes of other

Naresh Sharma

Jaipur: State employees belonging to various employee organizations met Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot at Chief Minister’s residence on Friday and thanked Gehlot for the old pension scheme (OPS) and other public welfare schemes. The Chief Minister said that due to the New Pension Scheme, OPS has been implemented from a human perspective for the employees who are worried about the future. Now retired state employees have also started getting ben- efits. “We cannot leave our employees in NPS at the mercy of share market. I have also demanded the Prime Minister to implement OPS in the entire country and he

“MOVE WILL HELP CURB BLACK MONEY”

Former Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor R Gandhi on Friday said withdrawal of the Rs 2,000 bank notes will help in curbing black money to a “great extent” because people are hoarding the high value currency. Gandhi was leading the currency department during the demonetisation of 2016.

denominations can be made up to a limit of Rs 20,000 at a time at any bank starting from May 23, 2023.

forward to exchanging views with the G7 countries and other invited partners on challenges that the world faces and the need to collectively address them,” he said.

The Prime Minister was received by senior Japanese and Indian officials at the airport. Modi was warmly received by the Indian community when he reached his hotel. The prime minister also interacted with children and members of the Indian community.

The G-7 bloc comprises Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada and Italy, as well as the European Union.

New Delhi (PTI): Karnataka chief minister-designate Siddaramaiah and his deputy DK Shivakumar arrived here on Friday to discuss with the party’s high command the names of ministers to be inducted into the new cabinet and the allocation of portfolios. They will also invite the party’s top brass for the swearing-in ceremony on Saturday. A meeting of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) on Thursday formally elected Siddaramaiah as its leader, following which he staked claim with the Governor, who invited him to form the government.

Karnataka Deputy CM-designate DK Shivakumar oversees preparations for the oath-taking ceremony of Karnataka CM and Deputy CM at Sree Kanteerava Stadium, in Bengaluru, on Friday.

GEHLOT REACHES BENGALURU FOR K’TAKA

GOVT’S SWEARING-IN CEREMONY TODAY

Bengaluru: Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot reached Bengaluru on Friday evening as Gehlot will attend the swearing-in ceremony of Karnataka’s new Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to be held on Saturday. Besides Ashok Gehlot, Bhupesh Baghel of Chhattisgarh, and Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu of Himachal Pradesh, have also been invited for the swearing-in ceremony of the new Karnataka government to be led by Siddaramaiah and his deputy DK Shivakumar.

WHO’S INVITED, WHO’S NOT

Chief Ministers of Congress-ruled States and Opposition leaders will attend swearing-in ceremony of Siddaramaiah as Karnataka CM today should implement it in the interests of the employees. The state government has taken important decisions for the social security of the common man. They are

Invited

The Congress’s Chief Ministers, Ashok Gehlot of Rajasthan, Bhupesh Baghel of Chhattisgarh, and Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu of Himachal Pradesh, have been invited. Among others who also have been invited are Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav, and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, D Raja and Sitaram Yechury of the Left, actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan have also been invited.

Not Invited

According to Congress sources, invitations have not been sent to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Telangana counterpart KCR while West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee will be skipping the event because of prior engagements. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) boss Mayawati are not on the guest list as well, sources said.

Supreme Court panel’s clean chit to Adani Group; says ‘Prima Facie no violation found’

New Delhi: A Supreme Court-appointed panel of experts examining India’s regulatory mechanism in an investigation linked to the Hindenburg allegations has given a clean chit to the Adani Group and has said it appears there was no regulatory failure on the part of market regulator SEBI. The committee comprising domain experts has also said there was no price manipulation on the part of the Adani Group and that the conglomerate had taken necessary steps to comfort retail investors. The mitigating measures taken by the group had helped in building confidence in the stock and the stocks are stable now, the panel said.

CONG CALLS REPORT ‘PREDICTABLE’

New Delhi: The Congress on Friday renewed its demand for a JPC probe into the Adani Group after an expert panel appointed by Supreme Court in its interim report found no signs of any regulatory failure.

BJP ATTACKS RaGa

AFTER PANEL REPORT class,” he said. being given socio-economic support through 10 schemes in inflation relief camps. Schemes have been made keeping in mind the all-round development of every

New Delhi: After a courtappointed panel said it cannot conclude any regulatory failure around Adani Group’s stock rallies, the BJP attacked Congress’ Rahul Gandhi for aggressively raising the issue to target PM Narendra Modi.

The employees said that the state employees and their families are very happy with the reimplementation of OPS for the employees appointed from January 1, 2004, reducing the qualifying service from 28 years to 25 years for full pension and RGHS. By taking this historic decision, the Chief Minister has secured their future, they said.

An unprecedented initiative has been taken in this direction from Rajasthan. Several states have already announced the implementation of OPS.

Other Court Stories

The Supreme Court on Friday deferred the “scientific survey”, including carbon dating, of a “Shivling” said to have been found at the Gyanvapi mosque complex in Varanasi. The top court on Friday directed the Bihar govt to produce complete original records with regard to the remission granted to ex-MP Anand Mohan, who was serving life term in the 1994 murder case.

Uproar as `2.31 cr, 1 kg gold found in Raj Sectt’s IT Dept

Kashiram Choudhary

Jaipur: There was an uproar in the Rajasthan Secretariat late on Friday night when files were found in a cupboard, laptop bags, suitcases in another in the basement shelves of Dept of Information Technology. A press Conference was addressed by Chief Secretary Usha Sharma, DGP Umesh Mishra, Police Commissioner Anand Srivastava, ADG Dinesh MN and officials in evening.

“Suspicious activity was found in the basement shelves of the Depart- ment. Files were found in one cupboard, laptop bag, suitcase were found in another. On further investigation, Rs 2.31 crore currency was found in the bag along with 1 kg gold biscuit. Police Commissioner Anand Srivastava said, “No owner of recovered amount came forward. Cash found in basement of UID Dept of DOIT.”