– that”s all you need to know
News India Times
May 1, 2015
20
India
ByMeenakshi Sharma
– MUMBAI
attling a beef ban that
has threatened their
livelihoods, Muslim
traders in India are
seeking permission to
slaughter foreign-origin Jersey
cows they think will not be as
sacred to the country’s majority
Hindus as locally bred cattle.
Several states led by the
Hindu nationalist Bharatiya
Janata Party of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi have either
brought new laws to ban beef or
tightened curbs on killing cattle.
India is the world’s largest
beef exporter and fifth biggest
consumer, with the trade domi-
nated by the minority Muslim
community which has protested
the latest restrictions with little
success.
The All India Milli Council, a
platform for Muslims in the
country, now says it supports the
beef ban but would like the gov-
ernment to find them alterna-
tives. They hope Jerseys, a dairy
cow originally bred in the
Channel Island of Jersey, could
be an option.
“We demand the government
to allow us kill Jersey cows,
which are of foreign origin and
religious sentiments are not
attached to them,” said M.A.
Khalid, general secretary of the
council’s unit in Maharashtra.
Maharashtra is home to
India’s largest abattoir, Deonar,
and the state in February extend-
ed a ban on killing of cows to
bulls and bullocks. On April 24,
Chief Minister Devendra
Fadnavis shot down the idea of
allowing the killing of Jersey
cows. “There are no exceptions,”
he told Reuters.
Since the ban in Maharashtra,
slaughtering of big cattle in
Deonar has nearly halved to 200-
250 animals, mostly buffalo.
Several workers have been left
jobless and Fadnavis said his
government was considering a
rehabilitation plan for the worst
affected Qureshi community. He
gave no details.
Hindu groups, meanwhile, are
working on the wellbeing of cat-
tle that are likely to be stranded
due to the beef ban.
Vyankatesh Abdeo, All India
Secretary of the Vishwa Hindu
Parishad, or theWorld Hindu
Council, said they would protect
any breed of cow and increase
the number of cow shelters in
the state by eight times to 5,000
this year.
“Every cow is sacred to us
regardless of it’s breed,” Abdeo
said.
– Reuters
Hit byBeef Ban, IndianButchers Eye JerseyCows
IndianFamilyGoesMissing inPakistan
Workers walk through
a shed past empty
meat hooks during a
strike against a ban on
the slaughter of bulls
and bullocks at an
abattoir in Mumbai
March 23.
Reuters
Singapore SovereignFund, Norwest Venture Partners Invest $ 28million in Sulekha.com
By a StaffWriter
G
IC, the sovereign wealth
fund of Singapore, and
Norwest Venture Partners,
a global investment firm, have
invested $28 million in
Sulekha.com, India’s leading dig-
ital platform for local services.
Sulekha will use the capital to
further expand its platform that
connects one of the largest bases
of users and local service
providers, and invest in technol-
ogy and branding.
“Sulekha was founded in
Austin as a tiny website serving
Indians in the U.S., and this
investment by GIC and Norwest
is a powerful endorsement of the
vast potential of the local servic-
es opportunity and Sulekha’s
ability to prosecute it both within
and outside of India,” Satya
Prabhakar, founder and CEO of
Sulekha.com, said in a press
release.
The company has built a
sophisticated platform in more
than 800 local service categories
including home and office serv-
ices, coaching and training,
health and lifestyle and property
and rentals, he said. “Sulekha’s
large base of user and business-
es, unique IP, vast operational
footprint, as well as rapid migra-
tion to mobile, are transforming
the local services market,” he
added.
According to Param
Parameswaran, chairman of
Sulekha.com, the company has
architected a remarkably lucra-
tive business model because of
the immediacy, specificity and
location-oriented nature of the
user local service needs.
“The company has been
enjoying significant organic
growth while being quite capital
efficient, making it one of only a
few digital companies in India
that have been profitable,” he
said.
Local businesses spend an
estimated $2.5 billion in adver-
tising across various media to
capture $200 billion worth of
local services bought in diverse
categories such as computer
training, serviced apartments,
party catering, babysitting, elder
care, yoga lessons, kitchen reno-
vation, and wedding photogra-
phy.
Sulekha sends over 16 million
user needs a year to over more
than two million active business-
es on its platform.
“Sulekha’s innovative digital
platform allows users to fulfil
their needs while providing a
highly targeted and affordable
avenue for small businesses to
secure customers,” Promod
Haque, senior managing partner
of Norwest Venture Partners,
said.
Mistui & Co. (Tokyo), a Global
Fortune 200 company, and
Indigo Monsoon Group are also
investors in Sulekha.
B
– ISLAMABAD
P
akistani authorities are
trying to trace an Indian
family, including two
minor children, which went
missing in Pakistan earlier this
month. The government of
India has taken up the matter
with Pakistan, Punjab Police
sources said April 24.
The family, which hailed
from Sandhawala village in
Faridkot district, 161 miles
from Chandigarh, had gone to
Pakistani with a ‘jatha’ (group)
of Sikh pilgrims for Baisakhi
celebrations.
While the rest of the 1,718
pilgrims returned, the Sikh
family comprising Sunil Singh,
38, his wife Sunita, 27, and
children Umer Singh, 10 and
daughter Huma Kaur, 9, did
not return. Members of the
‘jatha’ told police that the fam-
ily was last seen at the Panja
Sahib shrine near Rawalpindi
on April 12.
The jatha of pilgrims had
left for Pakistan by train on
April 11 and returned after a
10-day trip.
It is the first incident of its
kind in Pakistan, The Express
Tribune newspaper of
Pakistan reported.
The Evacuee Trust Property
Board in Pakistan – a govern-
ment body responsible for
arranging accommodation
and security for Sikh pilgrims,
confirmed that the family of
four was missing, the newspa-
per said.
The missing family, coming
from a poor rural background,
had gone as part of a group of
384 pilgrims who were taken
to Pakistan by the Bhai
Mardana Yaadgar Kirtan
Darbar Society of Ferozepur.
Society president Harpal
Singh Bhullar said the pass-
ports, other documents and
some belongings of the family
were found in a room in
Gurdwara Dehra Sahib in
Pakistan.
Punjab Police, which sent
its teams to Sadhanwala vil-
lage near Ferozepur and to
Rajasthan (fromwhere Sunil
Singh and his family had come
eight years ago), said that the
entire matter was being inves-
tigated.
“Our teams are probing the
matter,” Ferozepur Deputy
Inspector General A.S. Chahal
said.
Sunil used to work as a
laborer with farmers in
Sadhanwala village. His wife
also did labor work while their
children studied in a govern-
ment school. The family lived
in a two-room dharamsala
given to them by the village
panchayat.
Police investigation reveal
that Sunil arrived in the village
around eight years back claim-
ing he was the son of one Gian
Singh who had eloped with a
girl from the village over four
decades back. Sunil expressed
his wish to settle down in the
village after coming from
Rajasthan, village headman
Harjit Singh said.
Sadhanwala village is locat-
ed close to army areas, close to
the India-Pakistan interna-
tional border, and intelligence
agencies and police are taking
the matter quite seriously.
“The issue has been
brought to the notice of the
ministry of home affairs,”
Amritsar-rural police chief
Jasdeep Singh said.
– IANS
Rajendra Pachauri Denied
Permission toAttendWater Summit
After Harassment Complaint
– NEWDELHI
T
he Delhi High Court on
April 23 refused Rajendra
Pachauri permission to
attend an international water con-
ference after the lead-
ing global voice on cli-
mate change was
accused of sexual
harassment by a
female colleague.
Pachauri, 74, quit as
chair of the United
Nations panel of cli-
mate scientists in
February after a 29-
year-old researcher at
his Delhi-based think-
tank made the accusation against
him. Pachauri has denied the alle-
gation.
The scientist, who has been
granted protection from arrest,
had asked the Delhi High Court
for permission to travel to Greece
to attend the GlobalWater
Summit on April 27-28.
The summit’s website had list-
ed Pachauri as the keynote speak-
er at the opening of the confer-
ence.
“You (Pachauri) should have
approached well within the time,
as you have (had)
information of the
event since June
2014,” said Justice S.
P. Garg, dismissing
Pachauri’s request.
Indian police are
investigating the
complaint by the
researcher at The
Energy and
Resources Institute
(TERI), who said
Pachauri harassed her since 2013
by email,Whatsapp and text mes-
saging, despite her requests that
he stop. Pachauri’s lawyers had
previously said his computer and
mobile phone were hacked and
that vested interests were malign-
ing him because of his stance on
global warming.
– Reuters
