Delhi: BJP workers show black flags to Shatrughan Sinha

JP leader Shatrughan Sinha was shown black flags by party workers after an event in Shahdara on Friday where he said there was nothing wrong in calling a spade a spade and praised the AAP government over its “achievements” in health and education sectors. Sinha, who has been critical of the BJP and its leadership on a number of issues, said at the launch of a skill training programme for manual scavengers that he holds a mirror to those in power and raises issues of public interest.
He also defended Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, who has come under criticism over his recent visit to Pakistan to attend the swearing-in of Imran Khan as prime minister of that country, saying “there is nothing controversial in it”. On his criticism of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its leadership, he said, “I know what my Lakshman Rekha (limit) is. I know the difference between maryada (propriety) and Lakshman Rekha. I will be loyal to the party until I am part of it. But those who indulge in sycophancy should understand that there is nothing wrong in calling a spade a spade.”
Sinha said he knows that a party is more important than a person, and a country more important than a party. “I raise issues of public interest. I show a mirror to people. I give them feedback. I have not come here just yesterday. So whatever I say, I say for the benefit of all and the country,” he said. “Main dil ki baat karta hun kyonki mann ki baat ka patent kisi aur ke paas hai,” he said, alluding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s monthly radio programme.
Sinha praised the AAP government and Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia “for bringing about a revolution in the health and education sectors in the national capital despite some roadblocks and hiccups”. “Sisodiaji has brought about a revolution in the education sector in India. What he has achieved is commendable. He is the education minister of the country in the true sense,” the actor-turned-politician said. “The AAP government has been through tough times. There have been some problems, obstructions on their way to success, but I won’t comment on those,” he added. The Patna Sahib MP said in most of the states, the health and education systems are in dire straits. “The states should approach the AAP government and Manish Sisodia and learn from them if they want to improve the standard of education in their areas,” he said.

Duleep Trophy: Dhruv Shorey holds fort for India Blue after India Red amass 316 on Day 2

Dindigul(TN): Delhi batsman Dhruv Shorey (86 batting) held firm as India Blue struggled to 183 for 5 in reply to India Red's first innings total of 316 on day two of the Duleep Trophy match at the NPR College ground.
Shorey, who played for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL earlier this year, showed he could grind it out in the longer version too as he negotiated a hard-working India Red bowling attack to lead the Blue's fightback after the team had slipped to 18 for 3.

Representational image. Getty Images

Paceman Rajneesh Gurbani, who starred in Vidarbha's maiden Ranji Trophy triumph last season, took two of the first three wickets to fall to peg India Blue back.
He dismissed Bengal left-hander Abhishek Raman (26 balls, 2X4) in the sixth over and later sent back the talented Anmolpreet Singh (1) to leave India Blue at 18 for 3.
In between Jammu and Kashmir off-spinner Parvez Rasool castled skipper Faiz Fazal for 1.
Shorey and Andhra batsman Ricky Bhui (41, 5X4, 1X6) put on 112 runs for r the fourth wicket in an enterprising display of batting. Shorey looked particularly good in handling the likes of Gurbani and spinners Rasool and Shahbaz Nadeem with panache.
He hit eight fours and a six in his 174-ball vigil.
Earlier, when India Red resumed at 256 for 4, Siddhesh Lad, who was batting on 83, could only add five runs to his overnight score, falling to Bandaru Ayyappa.
Ashutosh Singh, who retired hurt on 34 yesterday, returned to the middle and remained not out on 41.
He added some vital runs with Abhimanyu Mithun (31, 4X4, 1X6).
Left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar and Akshay Wakhare finished with three wickets each while Ayyappa and Jaydev Unadkat had two scalps each.

Flipkart's 2GUD promises refurbished products at 'great prices'; execution key to tapping cost-conscious shoppers, say experts

What do most people do when they upgrade their phones or buy a new laptop? They sell the old via platforms for refurbished goods. The most-sold items online in the refurbished category are smartphones, laptops, headphones, watches, small appliances and Kindle e-readers, to name a few.
The refurbished goods market in India will be worth an estimated $20 billion in the next five to six years.
Smartphones, the most popular product in the refurbished category, saw volumes grow by close to 25 percent in 2017. It crossed 12 million units in India, according to Counterpoint research’s report -  Technology Market Research. The global market for refurbished smartphones grew 13 percent year-on-year in 2017, reaching close to 140 million units. By comparison, the global new smartphone market grew a scant three percent last year, thus being outpaced by refurbished ‘second-life’ smartphones, according to the latest data from Counterpoint’s Refurbished Smartphone Tracker.

Flipkart logo. Reuters

India's refurbished goods marketplace houses some established and well-known names like Shopclues, OLX, Quikr, among a host of others. Besides, with social media gaining much currency, several Facebook and WhatsApp groups too act as a channel for those interested in selling or buying refurbished goods. It is in this growing market that Flipkart has rolled out its platform for refurbished goods -- 2GUD.
“We will keep evolving and bringing newer formats, categories and features which cater to the needs of our value-conscious middle India," Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said, adding that all eBay.in sellers and customers will be migrated to the new platform.
"The new platform has a different value proposition compared to Flipkart, and will cater to a different target audience. We are committed to investing in this independent brand," he pointed out.
But will Flipkart be able to cash-in on its brand name and succeed?
There are early movers in this space. Think Quikr, OLX, GreenDust, Reboot, Togofogo, Overcart, Shopclues and Amazon.
According to a survey by Quikr, people who prefer pre-owned goods are chasing better pricing, easy availability, doorstep service and a short-term requirement. The majority of people who lean towards this segment are in the 20-29 age group and about 54 percent of those polled said they prefer refurbished goods for better pricing and easy availability of products.
Amazon promises fast shipping
Amazon which rolled out its ‘Amazon Renewed’ programme last year, has found customer demand across categories including smartphones, laptops, headphones, watches, small appliances and Kindle e-readers to name a few.
Vivek Somareddy, Director- Seller Services at Amazon told Firstpost, the refurbished goods category is growing 300 percent y-o-y with over 70 percent of all orders coming from cities like Kanchipuram, Secunderabad and Surat to name a few. This category has become a ‘go to destination’ for Indian customers who aspire to buy high quality aspirational products at more affordable prices, he said.
“Certified refurbished products are worked upon by the original manufacturers or professional refurbishers in adherence to our product quality policy. Customers purchasing products through Amazon Renewed get high quality, like-new products at a competitive price – in fact, they can save up to 50 percent while purchasing a refurbished product vs the purchase of a new product,” Somareddy added.

Amazon, however, has a strict policy. "We have a very strict policy regarding quality and under this program, only selected sellers who maintain a high quality and performance bar are allowed to offer certified refurbished products on Amazon.in.
"The refurbishment process for this category typically includes a full diagnostic test performed through industry standard applications, replacement of any defective or damaged parts, a thorough cleaning and data wiping process, and finally the repackaging in a brand-new box. The products come with a minimum of six months warranty offered by the brand or the seller of the product and are available for free and fast shipping with Amazon’s Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) shipping service."

Re-New eyes 16 million customers
ShopClues runs Re-New Gadgets for refurbished goods. Re-New clocked Rs 4.5 crore in sales from refurbished and unboxed electronic devices alone, including laptops, smartphones, and tablets, for the month of July. It is looking to double GMV growth with a 16 million customer target in 2018.
“ShopClues had long identified the massive opportunity around the refurbished category; specially the renewed smartphones segment, which according to industry estimates, is set to grow by over 27 percent in 2019. We have almost doubled our customer base from eight million to 16 million within two years and our success has given us confidence to offer more than 400 stock selling units from different brands in the smartphone category.
"Also, soon ShopClues will be launching a full assortment of laptops and TVs from HP, Dell, Apple, Asus, Lenovo, LG, Sony and Samsung for its customers,” said Radhika Aggarwal, co-founder & Chief Business Officer, ShopClues.com
There is a need for more players in the refurbished goods market in India, as there is a market for used products that can be recycled and upcycled, said Devangshu Dutta, Founder-Chief Executive, Third Eyesight.
When people move cities, countries, there are a number of products that are used for a short time and have not lived their full life-cycle, and refurbished goods players come to their aid. However, he said, it is all about peer-to-peer trust.
“If the platform stands by some kind of a guarantee, it will improve that transaction and increase the number of transactions. Else, it does not matter who is doing it. Just because Flipkart is a known name, it won’t find it easy navigating this space,” Dutta added.
The Flipkart advantage
The post-purchase warranty of three to twelve months for each product would be serviced through an extensive network of service centres across India, said Flipkart's Krishnamurthy. "Additionally, users will always be assured of convenience in payments and logistics," he added.

Flipkart’s new move toward refurbished goods is a good experiment on its part, said sector specialists. Indian consumers want to own good products but a large number of them have low purchasing power. Beyond the pre-owned two-wheeler and four-wheeler market, there aren’t many platforms which cater to this need. At best, single brand players remain an exchange platform, they said.
But the challenge for Flipkart is to ensure quality. “Customers want goods to perform and will need after-sales services, as original equipment manufacturers won't be able to provide warranties with the product out of the warranty period. And with products being refurbished, no manufacturer can provide guarantees. Flipkart has the advantage, with technology and logistics. 2GUD is a good opportunity but execution will be the key [to the platform's success],” said Arvind K Singhal, CMD, Technopak.

'Up all night': Donald Trump is unraveling after the Cohen bombshell and it's looking far too much like Nixon's final days

“Up all night!” - that’s the screaming headline across US news networks other than US president Donald Trump’s favourite Fox News channel.
“If someone were to write a book on how the end of this Presidency began, it would start with Trump tweeting, in all CAPS, at 1 am in the morning after (Michael) Cohen’s guilty plea. It’s looking more and more like the last days of Nixon, when he grew lonely and isolated and the walls closed in”, Peter Baker of the New York Times told CNN.

US president Donald Trump speaks at a Make America Great Again rally at Charleston on 22 August. Reuters

Has the Trump presidency reached the equivalent of August 1974? Or to put it in a form that's more relevant to the Trump era, would the new horrors be enough to deliver a final blow?
The endgame, if it exists, looks clearer and closer than ever after Cohen’s flip. Nixon’s defenders, just like Trump’s, used to call Watergate investigations a political “witchhunt” - an all too familiar moniker in the US today. Even two weeks before his fall from grace, most of Nixon’s party members voted against impeachment. It was only when the Democrats that year gained 49 more House seats in the midterms that Nixon’s exit was assured. The parallels are too many and they are stunning.
The legal system dumped two political hazards this week on Trump. His former 'fixer' Cohen pleaded guilty and said he and Trump arranged payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal to keep them silent about their alleged affairs with him. And Manafort, Trump's campaign chairman during a key stretch of the 2016 race, was convicted by a jury of eight counts of bank and tax fraud. The combination set up a world of uncertainty for everyone allied with the president. In addition, Daniels and McDougal who say they were Trump's onetime paramours are suing to invalidate agreements designed to silence them.

“The worst hour of his entire life”: The walls may feel like they’re closing in on Trump, writes @sbg1 https://t.co/dbROCz8Z0n

— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) August 22, 2018

That pretty much sums up the grim mood in the White House even if nobody there is admitting it.

The US President’s markedly nervous performance on a Fox and Friends interview the morning after Cohen’s bombshell speaks to the legal troubles he is up against.
For Trump, who’s been ranting about immigration and border control, it’s the insiders who are turning the knives in. Not just that, more Republicans are talking about impeachment than Democrats. But, just like many of the breathtaking Trump news cycles, we don’t know if Trump will ever face the reckoning that everyone's talking about.

Here’s how the ducks are lining up with less than 80 days to go before the midterm elections 2018.
The fixer who wants to fix Trump
Michael Cohen is sticking his hand out and asking the public for help paying for his legal defense, and one anonymous donor already has ponied up $50,000.
Through his lawyer, Donald Trump's former "fixer" says collecting contributions through a GoFundMe page set up after his guilty plea this week is the only way to ensure the truth comes out about the president. Cohen, who once said he would "take a bullet" for Trump, commented in court Tuesday that Trump had directed him to arrange payments of $130,000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels and $150,000 to former Playboy model Karen McDougal to buy their silence about alleged affairs before the election. While Trump denies the affairs, his account of his knowledge of the payments has shifted. In April, Trump denied he knew anything about the Daniels payment. He told Fox News in an interview aired Thursday that he knew about payments "later on."
Tabloid magnate kept damaging Trump stories in a safe!
The National Enquirer kept a safe containing documents about hush-money payments and damaging stories it killed as part of its cozy relationship with Donald Trump leading up to 2016 presidential election, people familiar with the arrangement told The Associated Press. The detail comes as several media outlets reported Thursday that federal prosecutors have granted immunity to National Enquirer chief David Pecker, potentially laying bare his efforts to protect his longtime friend Trump.
'Loyalty freak' Trump finds that quality is rare in Washington DC
Loyalty has long been a core value for President Donald Trump. But he's learning the hard way that in politics, it doesn't always last.
Days after Cohen, the president's former personal attorney, implicated the president in a stunning plea deal, word surfaced that David Pecker, a longtime Trump friend and media boss, also was cooperating with prosecutors. Taking the Cohen news as a personal betrayal, Trump criticized his longtime fixer for "flipping," saying on "Fox and Friends" that such double-crossers "make up things" to get reduced prison time and become "a national hero."
Attorney General Jeff Sessions pushes back at Trump
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is declaring that the Justice Department "will not be improperly influenced by political considerations" as he pushes back against President Donald Trump's latest jabs. Sessions' response came after Trump, appearing increasingly vulnerable to long-running investigations, accused the attorney general of failing to take control of his department - euphemism for allowing the Mueller probe to land on Trump's front porch.Trump's anger with Sessions boiled over in an interview with Fox News in which the president also expressed frustration with the plea agreement his onetime legal "fixer" Michael Cohen cut with prosecutors, including implicating Trump in a crime that Cohen admitted. Trump said it might be better if "flipping" — cooperating with prosecutors in exchange for more favorable treatment— were illegal because people cooperating with the government "just make up lies."
Mueller probe is closing in
Special counsel Robert Mueller's timing has hurt the White House time and again. Mueller is still investigating Russia's attempts to sway voters in the 2016 election. The probe includes the hacking of Democrats' emails, whether the Trump campaign may have cooperated with Russia and if the president obstructed justice. Key to Mueller's investigation is a 2016 meeting in Trump Tower in New York between Donald Trump Jr., Manafort, the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner and people with ties to Russia. Trump calls the probe a "witch hunt" and has not said whether he will sit for an interview with Mueller. A final report from Mueller could go to Congress — a move that would become more significant if Democrats win control in this year's elections.

Next S

North, South Korea begin second round of tearful family reunions amid efforts to shore up ties

World The Associated Press Aug 24, 2018 20:25:52 IST

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Seoul: Elderly North and South Koreans wept and embraced each other on Friday at the beginning of a second round of temporary reunions of family members separated for decades by the Korean War.
More than 300 South Koreans travelled to the North's Diamond Mountain resort for three days of meetings with their long-lost relatives. Earlier this week, about 200 other South Koreans went to the scenic resort for similar reunions.
During the meetings on Friday, Kang Jong Hwa, an 85-year-old North Korean woman wearing a traditional hanbok dress, sobbed while touching the face of her 100-year-old sister from South Korea. "I cannot believe this," Kang said.

South Korean Pi Eun-ae, 75, right, holds a hand with her North Korean sister Pi Sun Ae, 86, as photos of their family members are displayed on the table during the Separated Family Reunion Meeting. AP

Two silver-haired brothers in their 80s also wept while surrounded by other relatives, while others asked each other about their lives in a rush of emotions.
"Thank you for being alive," Wu Ki-ju, a 79-year-old South Korean woman, said after seeing her 86-year-old North Korean sister in a wheelchair.
Participants in the latest reunions are to part again on Sunday, likely for good.

The two Koreas occasionally allow elderly people to reunite with loved ones on the other side of the border, but none has been given a second chance to meet.
The previous family reunions were in 2015.

The separated families are a bitter reminder of the division of the Koreas, which were once a single country.
The Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
South Korea wants to expand the family reunions, but experts say North Korea is reluctant to do so because of worries that increasing their frequency will loosen its authoritarian control and cause it to relinquish a coveted bargaining chip in negotiations with the South.
This week's reunions were arranged as the rival Koreas take various steps aimed at improving ties amid diplomatic efforts to end the stalemate over North Korea's nuclear program.

WHO praises Bangladesh for curtailing outbreak of deadly diseases among Rohingya migrants

World Press Trust of India Aug 24, 2018 19:02:41 IST

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New Delhi: Outbreaks of deadly diseases were "prevented and rapidly curtailed" among nearly 10 lakh Rohingya refugees and thousands of lives were saved due to the efforts of the Bangladesh government, WHO and other health partners in the last one year, the global health body said on Friday.
The regional office of the World Health Organisation's (WHO) South East Asian Region said despite this, the Rohingya refugees remained vulnerable even today with their evolving health needs and a severe fund crunch, threatening the continuity of life-saving health services in their camps.

Logo of World Health Organisation. AFP

"Unprecedented efforts have been made in the last year and in the most challenging conditions. Deadly diseases such as cholera have been prevented and measles and diphtheria curtailed rapidly with quick roll-out and scale-up of health services and mass vaccination campaigns.
"It is remarkable that not only has the mortality rate among the Rohingyas remained lower than expected in an emergency of such a scale, it has also reduced significantly in the last six months," Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia, said. She lauded the Bangladesh government's work in this regard.

The arrival of nearly seven lakh Rohingyas in Cox's Bazar, beginning 25 August last year, was one of the largest ever population influxes over such a short span of time, the global health body said.
In response, WHO, with Bangladesh's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, coordinated the emergency health services provided by the nearly 107 health partners on the ground, to ensure access to essential services for the Rohingyas.

In the last year, 155 health posts have been established, each catering to around 7,700 people and in addition, 60 primary healthcare facilities covering 20,000 people each and 11 secondary-care facilities being accessed by nearly 1,15,000 people each have also been established, WHO said.
"Despite these efforts, challenges remain. Floods and landslides in the ongoing monsoon season continue to displace people and affect the functioning of the health facilities.
"The Rohingya population is reluctant to access sexual and reproductive health services and as a result, 70 per cent of births are still taking place outside of health facilities," the global health body pointed out.

Scott 'Stop the boats' Morrison: New Australian PM is known for his controversial policy on asylum-seekers

World Agence France-Presse Aug 24, 2018 16:34:17 IST

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Sydney: Evangelical Christian Scott Morrison, who emerged as prime minister after a bun fight in Australia's ruling party on Friday, is an ambitious man who has always dreamed of the top job.
Behind the scenes of a battle for the leadership of the Liberal party that erupted this week between ousted Malcolm Turnbull and right-wing former policeman Peter Dutton, Morrison was quietly canvassing support among his colleagues.

File photo of new Australian prime minister Scott Morrison. AFP

The hard-line former immigration minister, who took credit for "stop the boats" — a harsh policy to prevent asylum-seekers from entering Australia at its seaports — billed himself as a man of faith and family who could get things done.
The 50-year-old's stealth candidacy reflected aspirations he has had since he entered parliament in 2007, representing the Sydney seat of Cook which is the site of Australia's last race riots.
The son of a policeman, Morrison, known as "ScoMo", becomes Australia's seventh prime minister in 11 years, replacing a man who became the latest in a long line of leaders knifed in the back by their allies.
His supporters point to his success with the immigration portfolio from 2013-14, where he implemented the controversial "Operation Sovereign Borders" to stop asylum-seekers arriving in Australia by boat.
They were either sent back to where they had come from or transferred to remote Pacific island camps. The policy was credited with eliminating sea-borne arrivals.

But it also attracted fierce criticism, fuelled by Morrison's refusal to release details of the military operations to turn back boats, sometimes to countries with dodgy human rights records. Conditions in the camps on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea and on Nauru were slammed by rights groups, with some asylum-seekers languishing there for years.
Critics questioned how the man in charge reconciled his worn-on-the-sleeve Christian faith with his uncompromising immigration stance.

Family and faith
Born 13 May, 1968 in the beachside Sydney suburb of Bronte, Scott John Morrison was the younger of two sons, whose parents ran church youth programmes. Morrison himself was an active church member, and met his wife Jenny as a young teenager through the church. The pair married when he was 21.
It took 18 years and multiple rounds of IVF before the first of two children was born, and Morrison dedicated his maiden parliamentary speech to his daughter Abbey Rose. Morrison worked in the tourism sector at home and in New Zealand before being selected to contest the seat of Cook in 2007.
He credited his win to the "most significant influences on my life — my family and my faith". After serving as shadow immigration minister, Morrison moved straight into the government job when the Liberal party took power in 2013.
A short stint in the social services portfolio followed, before he took over the treasury when Turnbull became leader in September 2015. Morrison presided over Australia's economy as the government sought to return the budget to surplus and simultaneously cut personal income and small business taxes.
On social issues, Morrison has stood to the right of the more moderate Turnbull, and opposed the legalisation of same-sex marriage last year. But he has also tried to soften his image, appearing on a cooking-with-politicians series that airs on national broadcaster ABC.

Kerala floods: Much ado about the Rs 700 crore UAE aid that never was; petty politics belittles India’s image

It happens only in India. The entire country suffered a meltdown over Centre allegedly “blocking” UAE’s “offer” of ₹700 crore towards flood relief work in Kerala without bothering to check the veracity of the information. It now turns out that no such offer for financial aid was formally placed on the table by the UAE government. The situation, to put it mildly, is deeply embarrassing.
Before the UAE had cleared the air, though, accusations had flown faster than Scud missiles and sweeping conclusions were drawn even quicker. Why let facts come in the way of a good outrage? It also needs to be said that the appalling communication strategy of the Narendra Modi government contributed towards the needless controversy, but more on that later.
If one hoped that an apolitical issue such as relief assistance for a flood-ravaged state — battling its worst deluge in 100 years — would be kept outside the purview of partisan politics, that expectation was quickly belied.
The polarised nature of India’s polity and mainstreaming of fact-free outrage in public discourse give rise to frequent, spurious debates. Spurious as these debates are, and little that they contribute towards mitigating the crisis, these controversies can be damaging because they are aimed at hitting on the fault lines of this diverse nation. The Kerala tragedy did not take long to take political overtones. The Opposition first raised the stakes by floating a mischievous demand that the floods be declared a “national disaster”.

Dear PM,

Please declare #Kerala floods a National Disaster without any delay. The lives, livelihood and future of millions of our people is at stake.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 18, 2018

The Centre had already declared it a ‘Level 3 calamity’. The L3 classification paves the way for the Centre to extend all possible help that the state needs but the Opposition saw in it an opportunity to score some brownie points and generate a narrative that the Centre is willfully negligent about the tragedy.
As Srinivasa Prasad has written in a piece for Firstpost, “There is no law or provision in India under which a calamity anywhere in the country can be declared a ‘national disaster’. It was either out of sheer ignorance or deliberate political mischief that Kerala’s CPM-led Left Democratic Front government and other Opposition leaders, including Congress president Rahul Gandhi, demanded this label for the Kerala floods.”
From here, the debate became degenerated further. It was suggested that the BJP-ruled Centre is “discriminating against” the southern state of Kerala because it is ruled by a Left Front government. Kerala quickly became a ‘symbol’ of southern resistance against ‘oppression’ of ‘north Indian states’ that feeds off the prosperity of the ‘south’. The Modi government was painted into a parochial corner and accused of being tightfisted with funds — denying the state its right during a time of great distress.

Representational image. PTI

In an interview to The News Minute, Kerala finance minister Thomas Isaac said: “If the Centre views accepting foreign aid as an issue of dignity, let the Union government give us ₹700 crore. The Centre is neither giving us money, nor allowing anyone else to do it. What kind of attitude is this?”
In an article for The Print, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor wrote, “Given the scale of devastation in Kerala and the lean relief package announced by the Centre (which, currently at Rs 600 crore, is a fraction of what the state government had requested), it seems imperative that the Centre must be open to the idea of accepting foreign aid.”
It is a measure of the bankruptcy of public debates in India that stringent positions are taken on a fact-free environment. First off, nowhere did the Centre assert that the amount of ₹600 crore already released towards flood relief would be the final amount of disbursal. In response to Kerala’s demands of a ₹2600 crore “special package” for rebuilding the state, the Centre has clarified that its disbursal of ₹600 crore was only “an advance”.
The sum of ₹600 crore, as the Centre has clarified in a notification, was disbursed as an “advance assistance” to help the state in meeting relief and rescue expenditure. It was in addition to Rs 562.45 crore already allocated to Kerala’s State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), in which the Centre contributes 75 percent for general category states. A PIB release added that additional funds would be released from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) on assessment of the damages by IMCT and decision of the high-level committee.
The Centre has also given a detailed account of the massive rescue and relief operations that it had undertaken and provided specifics on other forms of assistance that it has pledged apart from financial support and rescue efforts. It includes emergency release of provisions and announcement of a number of measures such as ex-gratia payments from PM’s National Relief Funds; building of damaged houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana; additional 5.5 crore person days under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), etc.
The Centre, it must be stressed, isn’t doing Kerala a favour. It is merely carrying out its duty. If the Modi government had failed to meet its obligations or been lax in executing its responsibilities, a case could have been made against it. Even with the best of intentions, a government cannot take actions in contravention of procedures. There is nothing to indicate that the Modi government has been guilty of dereliction of duty. In fact, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has clarified that the Centre has not undermined the scale of tragedy.
In an interview to The Economic Times, Vijayan said, “I need to make it clear in no uncertain terms that the Government of India was forthcoming and responded positively. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Rajnath Singh visited the flood-hit areas and have been understanding the situation fully… I am happy that they announced ₹600 crore as two lots (₹100 crore after the first spell of floods and ₹500 crore now) and I am hopeful that they would assess the situation and grant more assistance in the coming days.”

The Kerala chief minister's comments put the criticisms against the Centre in perspective.

We asked Union Gov for financial support of ₹2200 Cr ; they grant us a precious ₹600 Cr . We make no request to any foreign gov but UAE gov voluntarily offer ₹700cr. No, says Union gov , it is below our dignity to accept foreign aid. This is a dog in the manger policy. — Thomas Isaac (@drthomasisaac) August 22, 2018

The allegations look even more ridiculous in light of the UAE’s recent clarification that it has not made any official announcement for financial assistance of any kind.
In an interview with The Indian Express, UAE Ambassador Ahmed Albanna said: “The assessment of relief needed for the flood and aftermath is ongoing. Announcing any specific amount as financial aid, I don’t think it is final, since it is still ongoing.” On being asked, specifically, if he meant that the UAE had not announced ₹700 crore in aid, the ambassador said: “Yes, that is correct. It is not yet final. It has not been announced.”
All that the UAE government has done is to constitute a “national emergency committee” to take decisions on sourcing out funds, aid material, medicines, etc, for people in Kerala, according to the report. The true nature of the controversy becomes clear when we look at the UAE ambassador’s subsequent statement.
Albanna told The Indian Express that “the national emergency committee is coordinating with the federal authorities, since we know and understand the financial aid rules in India.” He added that the UAE government is working with various agencies to provide humanitarian assistance. This is important. If the UAE was already aware of the Indian rules, why would the country make the mistake of “announcing” a financial aid?
The mention of the aid was first made by the Kerala chief minister’s office through a series of tweets. The ‘CMO Kerala’ handle mentioned on 21 August that the UAE will provide Kerala an “assistance of Rs 700 crore”.

CM Pinarayi Vijayan informed that the United Arab Emirates will provide Kerala an assistance of ₹700 Crore. Kerala has a special relationship with UAE, which is a home away from home for Malayalees. We express our gratitude to UAE for their support. #KeralaFloodRelief pic.twitter.com/yfwbt9iEkd

— CMO Kerala (@CMOKerala) August 21, 2018

In a subsequent tweet, the source of the news was clarified.

The assistance of UAE was first informed to Malayali businessman and philanthropist Yusuff Ali M.A. — CMO Kerala (@CMOKerala) August 21, 2018

It seems odd that the UAE government would “announce” the assistance despite knowing the rules that govern foreign financial aid to India. Incidentally, the European Union has channeled 190,000 euros to the Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS) for immediate relief assistance in compliance with Indian rules.