Jobless man from Kerala wins Rs 13 crore in UAE jackpot

Jul 07, 2018, 01.07 PM IST

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From zero to hero

The fortunes of a Kerala youth changed overnight when he won Rs 13 crore in a raffle in Abu Dhabi. Tojo Mathew, 30, from Kuttanad won 7 million Dirham on a ticket (number 075171) he had purchased at the Big Ticket raffle with the help of his friends.

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He was jobless

Tojo, who was working as a civil supervisor in Abu Dhabi for the past six years, had resigned from his job recently. He had bought the ticket at the Abu Dhabi airport just before he boarded a flight to India on June 24. The ticket was bought in his name and 18 of his friends pooled their money for the ticket. Big ticket Abu Dhabi announcing the winners.

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Dream come true

Tojo said his big dream was to own a house in Kerala. "That has been my long pending dream. Now it can become a reality with the raffle money," he said. Tojo's mother Kunjamma Mathew said, "I have three sons Tijo (an auto driver), Tojo and Titto (civil supervisor in Abu Dhabi). All of them are married. Tojo always wanted to construct a new home here, but he did not have money. It is god's grace and I don't have words to thank him."

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Mathew was leaving for Delhi

"I bought the ticket at the Abu Dhabi airport just before boarding the flight for India on June 24. I was leaving the UAE for good to join my wife, who got a job in New Delhi. I still cannot believe I won," Mathew was quoted as saying by the 'Khaleej Times'. Mathew won the dirham 7 million (USD 1.9 million) as he was leaving for good, the report said.

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Other winners

Mathew and his friends received the news yesterday when they checked the Big Ticket website.

Nine others won 100,000 dirhams (USD 27,000) at the draw. The winners included five Indians, one Pakistani and a Kuwaiti.

Roti Bank: Where leftover food satiates hunger of the poor

08 Jul 2018, 03:33 PM IST

What does it do?

In a country where millions of people go hungry every day, a retired IPS officer has come up with an initiative to feed the needy.The initiative, called 'Roti Bank', collects leftovers from restaurants, clubs and parties in Mumbai, stores it in vans and distributes it to the poor before the food gets stale.

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​Who launched

Launched by Maharashtra's former Director General of Police D Sivanandan in December last year in collaboration with the Mumbai's famous tiffin carriers 'Dabbawalas', the 'Roti Bank' claims to be getting a good response.A Mumbai-born and London-based business professional, Nitin Khanapurkar, had also chipped in to support the cause by launching a round-the-clock helpline number for it.

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​Food wasted

Nearly 1.8 lakh tonnes of food is wasted every day in India and around 20 crore people, of whom a big number is in Mumbai, go hungry."Since legal issues restrict eateries from distributing the leftover food to outsiders, we thought of channelising it though our NGO, and I am happy to say that our initiative of 'Roti Bank' has received an unprecedented response from various quarters," Sivanandan said. "We are a food rescue organisation. We collect the leftover food from hotels and cafeterias and distribute it to the hungry people. It is a simple concept," he said.

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​Initiative

As part of the initiative, two GPRS-equipped vans make rounds of streets near hospitals and slums to provide food to the needy people."We have reached out to nearly 75,000 needy people in the city so far. Wherever the van passes by, it brings hope among the hungry people and their feeling after getting food is undefinable," the top cop-turned-philanthropist said.The NGO mainly collects leftover food staples like rotis (chapati or wheat-made flat bread), rice, vegetables and dal to be distributed within 60 to 90 minutes.In pic: Representative Image

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​What prompted to launch

To bring about a sense of benevolence among the rich class, Sivanandan encourages children from affluent families to "come and witness the joy of sharing (food)," he said, adding that mitigating hunger of the street children would help them abstain from committing crime.Asked what prompted him to launch the initiative, Sivanandan said he got the idea from the 'No Food Waste' mission being run in Chennai to end food waste and hunger.In pic: Representative Image

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​Dabbawalas & Roti Bank

Dabbawalas say they act as a link between "food wasters and seekers"."Our city has two facets - one where food is wasted in parties, restaurants and the other, where people go to bed empty stomach. We act like a chain between them," Mumbai Dabbawala Association spokesperson said. "We collect food in vans and distribute it to nearly 300 to 400 people on weekdays and 700 to 800 people on weekends," he said.(Text: By Anand Mishra, PTI)

In pictures: The spectacular aircraft that flies like a plane and takes off like a helicopter Transcend Air Corporation, a US-based startup plans to start intercity air taxi services by 2024

Moneycontrol News@moneycontrolcom

The Transcend Air Corporation has announced the development of a six-seater VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft designed for inter-city transportation. That means it does not need runways and airports and can use helipads atop major city centres.

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By virtue of its tilt-wing design, the aircraft named Vy-400 is a capable of cruising at 650 kmph. It has two overhead rotors instead of one like in helicopters. Moreover, thanks to its lightweight, the aircraft can employ whole-aircraft parachute.

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The company promises to cover the distance between New York City and Boston in mere 36 minutes costing $283 and the flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco in under an hour which will cost $315.

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It is already working on its 15th prototype. The airline will be functional from January 2024 and fly between more than 46 city centre pairs in the US.

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However, Transcend is not the only company developing VTOL aircraft. Uber along with NASA, a Berlin-based startup Lilium which is supported by European Space Agency, Volocopter—all are developing VTOL aircraft for commercial purposes. They expect to be operation in a few years.

Indian-origin student shot dead in US IANS|Updated: Jul 08, 2018, 08.28 AM IST

A 26-year-old student from Telangana has been shot dead by an unidentified person at a restaurant in Kansas City in the US state of Missouri. 

Sharath Koppula, who was studying in University of Missouri, Kansas City, was critically injured when the man fired at him. He was rushed to a hospital, where he succumbed. 

His friends informed his family over phone on Saturday that the incident occurred on Friday evening (US time). 

The identity of the killer, motive behind the killing and other details were not known. 

Sharath hailed from Warangal town. After engineering, he was employed at a software firm in Hyderabad. He moved to the US to do MS this year. 

Sharath's father Ram Mohan, who is employed in BSNL, has appealed to Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and Telangana's NRI Minister K.T. Rama Rao to help in bringing the body home.

The incident comes a year after another Indian techie from Hyderabad, Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, was killed at a bar in Kansas City in what looks like a racially motivated hate crime. 

A US Navy veteran, Adam W. Purinton, shot Srinivas Kuchibhotla dead on February 22, 2017, after shouting "get out of my country'. In May, he was sentenced to life. 

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In broke Venezuela, a haircut costs 5 bananas and 2 eggs ET Online|Updated: Jul 06, 2018, 06.32 AM IST

Imagine living in an economy where barter is the currency and where you have to pay food items such bananas or eggs for something as small as a haircut. That's exactly what is happening in Venezuela. 

In the hyperinflationary South American country, where bank notes are as difficult to find as chronically scarce food and medicine, Venezuelans are increasingly relying on to barter for basic transactions. 

Once the richest country of Latin America, Venezuela - a country that sits on world's largest oil reserves - today stares at a bleak future. People in this oil-rich country are scrambling for money, food and basic necessities, swapping different items and even doing chores for packages of flour, rice and cooking oil. 

"There is no cash here, only barter," said Mileidy Lovera, 30, while hoping to trade a cooler of fish that her husband had caught for food to feed her four children, or medicine to treat her son's epilepsy. 

What's the problem? 

Venezuela is seeing dearth of cash. Payment for even the cheapest of goods and services would require unwieldy piles of banknotes, and there simply are not enough of those in circulation. 

While formal businesses in cities can get by on bank transfers and debit cards, such operations are largely out of the question in rural areas. 

The rise of barter exchange, amid hyperinflation and a severe cash crunch, is a reflection of how the once-prosperous country is reverting to the most rudimentary of mechanisms of commercial exchange. 

How did it all began?

The economic crisis in Venezuela has spiked in past few months. 

The economic collapse, which began under President Nicolas Maduro's government, has driven nearly one million people - 3 percent of the population - to emigrate between 2015 and 2017. 

Maduro, re-elected to a fresh six-year term in May in elections condemned by the United States, blames spiraling consumer prices and constant shortages of food and medicine on an "economic war" led by the opposition and Washington. 

What experts say 

Economists say the central bank has not printed bills fast enough to keep up with inflation, which according to the opposition-run congress, reached an annual rate of almost 25,000 percent in May. 

It's a very primitive payment system but it's also very primitive for a country not to have enough cash available," said Luis Vicente Leon, an economist. 

(With inputs from Reuters) 

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Mission impossible? Incredible rescue effort to save kids from Thai cave

July 06, 2018 08:36 IST

In northern Thailand, hundreds of international rescue workers have been spending their last waking hours for the past 11 days trying to get a group of 12 boys, ages 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old soccer coach out who have been trapped in a cave after flooding caused by relentless monsoon rains.

On July 2, rescue teams discovered all of the boys and their coach alive and in relatively good health, sheltering deep inside the cave complex. Outside, family and friends, who had gathered, welcomed the news.

While the boys have been found, extracting them from the cave still remains a difficult task -- much of the return trip is underwater and even though pumps are lowering the water level, the rainfall is not letting up.

Here’s what’s happening and what officials are planning to get them out.

A Buddha statue is seen in front of the cave near Tham Luang cave complex, as an ongoing search for members of an under-16 soccer team and their coach continues, in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand. The whole drama began on June 23 when the boys and the coach got trapped in the cave. They are believed to have entered the cave when it was dry, before sudden heavy rains blocked the exit. 

Soldiers and rescue workers carry aid supplies to the Tham Luang cave complex. After being found trapped in the cave, authorities have been doing all they can to ensure that they are safe and are now racing against time to get them out. Supplies including food and water for at least two weeks along with aluminium blankets are being sent down inside the cave by Thai Navy and other divers. Photograph: Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters

Workers prepare to deliver small diving masks inside the Tham Luang Nang Non cave. As part of their rescue efforts, the divers are giving the boys and the coach rudimentary diving lessons. Authorities say diving through the murky water is currently the only way in and out. A fibre-optic cable was being laid inside the cave and would reach the boys soon, he added, so the children would be able to speak to and possibly see their parents on video. Photograph: Linh Pham/Getty Images

Soldiers and rescue workers carry a person role-playing as a victim on a stretcher during a drill, near the Tham Luang cave complex. Officials have been scouring the jungle above the complex to find new openings that could be drilled to extract the boys more easily. Photograph: Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters

Police stand guard near the Tham Luang cave complex as water gets pumped out from the cave. Huge volumes of water are being pumped out of the cave complex each day. Poonsak Woongsatngiem, a rescue official with Thailand’s interior ministry, was quoted as telling The Guardian that the water had been reduced by 40 per cent in the past days. However, more rainfall is putting pressure on rescuers to formulate a plan to remove the boys before flood waters rise any higher. Photograph: Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters

A helicopter transports heavy machinery that will be used to make a new entrance at the top of the cave. Hundreds of rescuers and equipment is being sent inside Tham Luang Nang Non cave to continue the rescue operation. Photograph: Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters

Divers working to free the 12 boys and their coach who are trapped in the cave must navigate dark, flooded tunnels for six hours to reach them. It takes another five hours to return. With wet weather looming, authorities are also calculating how long they are willing to allow rescuers to remain in the cave before they order an evacuation – one that could cut the boys off for up to four months. Photograph: Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters

Soldiers read a map in the Tham Luang caves. Rescue teams are working in extremely difficult conditions. The heat has been sweltering and unrelenting, at over 30C, while much of the site is submerged in squelchy mud that is several inches thick in places and extremely slippery. Photograph: Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters

As per the rescue plan, the boys would be dressed in wetsuits, boots and helmets, and divers would use an 8mm static rope to guide them out. They are likely to be provided with oxygen from a navy diver’s supply. A number of “stage tanks” have been put 25 to 50 metres along the cave system, so the boys can get to oxygen if needed. Divers working on the rescue have warned of the boys through the dark and dangerous waters still in the cave, especially since they are untrained. Photograph: Stringer/Reuters

New video released by the Thai Navy SEALs on Wednesday showed the boys wrapped in foil blankets for warmth, as they speak up one by one, introducing themselves and saying “I am healthy.” One said “thank you” to everyone who is waiting for their rescue. Photograph: Thai Navy Seal/Reuters

While the boys are for the most part physically healthy, experts say the ordeal has likely taken a mental toll that could worsen the longer the situation lasts. “It’s very likely that while the boys were in the cave but not yet discovered by rescuers that they experienced various degrees of anxiety, fear, confusion, vulnerability and dependency, and perhaps hopelessness,” said Paul Auerbach, of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Stanford University’s medical school. Photograph: Thai Navy Seal/Reuters

And while the boys wait, there is hope as one of the Chilean miners who was trapped underground for 69 days in 2010 is raising funds to travel to Thailand and help the rescue effort. Mario Sepulveda, was quoted by the AFP as saying, “Hang in there." Photograph: Thai Navy Seal/Reuters

London court orders seizure of Vijay Mallya’s UK assets PTI|Updated: Jul 05, 2018, 06.11 PM IST

LONDON: A UK High Court judge has issued an enforcement order in favour of a consortium of 13 Indian banks, seeking to recover funds owed to them by beleaguered liquor baron Vijay Mallya who is fighting extradition to India on fraud and money laundering charges worth nearly Rs 9,000 crore. 

The order grants permission to the UK High Court Enforcement Officer to enter the 62-year-old tycoon's properties in Hertfordshire, near London. 

It permits the officer and his agents entry to Ladywalk and Bramble Lodge in Tewin, Welwyn, where Mallya is currently based. However, it is not an instruction to enter, which means the banks have the option to use the order as one of the means to recover estimated funds of around 1.145 billion pounds. 

The High Court Enforcement Officer, including any enforcement agents acting under his authority, may enter Ladywalk, Queen Hoo Lane, Tewin, Welwyn... and Bramble Lodge, Queen Hoo Lane, Tewin, Welwyn, including all outbuildings of Ladywalk and Bramble Lodge to search for and take control of goods belonging to the First Defendant (Mallya)," notes the order by Justice Byran, dated June 26. 

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JUST FOR LAUGH ==BUT NOT ALONE

A Student who got 0% Marks, was surprised because his all answers were seemingly correct !

Read his answers and have a blast.

Q.1 - In which battle did Tipu Sultan Die ?..

Ans. - In his Last Battle..

Q.2 - Where was the Declaration of Independence Signed?

Ans. - At the Bottom of the Page..

Q.3 - What is the Main Reason for Divorce ?..

Ans. - Marriage..

Q.4 - Ganga Flows in which State ?..

Ans. - Liquid State..

Q.5 - When was Mahatma Gandhi Born ?..

Ans.- On His Birthday..

Q.6 - How will you Distribute 8 Mangoes among 6 People ?..

Ans - By Preparing Mango Shake..!!

Q.7 - India Me saal bhar Sabse Zyada Baraf Kaha Girti Hai...???

Awesome Reply By Student :- "Daaru K Glass Me..."

Q. 8 - Why Hindu Law does not permit Second Marriage...???

Answer :

Indian Constitution - Article 20(2)-says, "No man can be punished twice for same offence" 

Laugh..but loudly..and not alone..never.

Who can get Instant e-PAN and how? No physical PAN card will be issued in case you have an e-PAN; you can download e-PAN from the income tax department’s website once it’s allotted Last Published: Wed, Jul 04 2018. 11 46 AM IST

To apply for e-PAN, one needs to have an Aadhaar with an updated mobile number. Photo: iStock

If you don’t have a Permanent Account Number (PAN), you can now get Instant e-PAN from the income tax department. e-PAN is a digitally signed PAN card issued in electronic format by the I-T department. The service, which started on 29 June, is available only for a limited period on a first-come-first-serve basis. It’s free of cost. The applicant needs to have a valid Aadhaar number.

“The benefit for the taxpayer is they get PAN immediately and free of cost,” said Kuldip Kumar, partner and leader, personal tax, PwC India. Normally, “it takes 10 to 15 days to get a PAN and that too by filling the requisite form and payment of fees of ₹110. The taxpayer also needs to submit supporting documents of identity and address proof to the NSDL head office located in Pune, if they don’t opt for digital signature verification,” added Kumar.

Who can get e-PAN?

An applicant can apply for e-PAN through incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in. As of now, the facility is available only for individuals. Minors, Hindu Undivided Family (HUF), firms, trusts and companies can’t apply.

It is also not available to those covered under Section 160 of the Income Tax Act; for instance, non-resident Indians.

How to apply?

To apply for e-PAN, one needs to have an Aadhaar with an updated mobile number. An OTP is sent to the mobile number registered with Aadhaar, to conduct the e-KYC.

Applicants do not need to provide any supporting documents such as date of birth and address proofs. e-Pan is generated using the details of information available in the Aadhaar database.

However, one has to upload an image of one’s signature and a recent photograph in the prescribed format.

Before applying for e-PAN, check your Aadhaar details and update them, if required, as the application can get rejected in case of any data mismatch.

No physical PAN card will be issued in case you have an e-PAN; once it’s allotted, you can download e-PAN from the I-T department website.

Why you need PAN?

A PAN card enables the I-T department to identify all the transactions of a tax assessee, such as tax payment, returns and specified transactions where PAN has to be quoted.

“There are several financial transactions where it is mandatory under the Indian Tax Laws (Rule 114B) to quote PAN,” said Kumar. This includes any sale or purchase of immovable property exceeding ₹10 lakh, securities exceeding ₹1 lakh, sale or purchase of a motor vehicle or open a bank or demat account or a credit card, to buy mutual funds or debentures, bonds, RBI bonds above ₹50,000, etc.

Individuals need to have a PAN to file their tax returns if their income earned during a year is taxable.

First Published: Wed, Jul 04 2018. 10 02 AM IST livemint used here for Educational Purposes only

Top Chinese executive dies after falling from wall in France by Jethro Mullen @CNNMoney

HNA Group Chairman Wang Jian.

Wang, 57, suffered serious injuries after falling Tuesday while on a business trip in Provence, France, HNA said.

HNA Group extends deepest condolences to Mr. Wang's family and many friends. Together, we mourn the loss of an exceptionally gifted leader and role model," the company said in a statement.

Wang was one of the founders of HNA, which started out as a regional airline more than 20 years ago and grew into a Fortune 500 company.Police in the Vaucluse area of Provence told CNN that Wang fell 10 to 15 meters (33 to 49 feet) after climbing on a wall for a photo.Wang was visiting a church in the village of Bonnieux with colleagues and friends, police said. They added that their investigation so far suggested his death was an accident.

Aviation background

Wang, a former CEO of HNA, built his career in the aviation industry, according to his official biography. He started out in civil aviation planning in 1983.

HNA grew out of regional carrier Hainan Airlines, which began operations in 1993. The conglomerate now has more than 10 airlines among its affiliated companies. It also has finance, logistics and technology businesses.

THAI SOCCER TEAM FOUND IN CAVE