Ahmedabad Apr 23 PTI The government and all the stakeholders need to do more to make India a hub of international commercial arbitration and it is also essential that the arbitration law is aligned with the contemporary practice speakers at a seminar including Supreme Court judges Justice Bela Trivedi and Justice MR Shah said here on Saturday Speaking at the inaugural session of a seminar on international commercial arbitration Justice Trivedi rued that despite an effective dispute resolution process arbitration is being hampered by delays high costs frequent and sometimes unwarranted judicial interruptions at different stages Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta suggested an arbitration township with the countrys framework that need not be specific to any model but acceptable to the world community Justice Trivedi also called for the removal of shortcomings and lacuna in implementing and operating the law on arbitration at the earliest to achieve the desired result Justice MR Shah said that the international market is not yet accepting the Indian institution for commercial arbitration and underlined the need for a change in the attitude and also introspection by stakeholders as to where they are missing and failing Referring to Justice BN Srikrishna retd Committee constituted by the Union Ministry of Law and Justice to review the institutionalisation of arbitration mechanism and suggest reforms Justice Trivedi said while it made several recommendations some of the amendments have not yet come into force The committee made several important recommendations but I was just telling Tusharbhai Mehta Solicitor General of India that some of the amendments have still not come into force and the government has not notified like an arbitration commission she said Justice Trivedi said though the government is committed it needs to do more in this regard If we want to make India the hub of international commercial arbitration all stakeholders will have to put their heads together and walk an extra mile According to me any system or any mechanism to succeed needs proper statutory backing and also the commitment and accountability of the people who run the institution she said Justice Trivedi also called for the need to remove shortcomings and lacuna in implementing and operating the Arbitration and Conciliation Act effectively Sometimes I wonder whether arbitration failed in India or has India failed arbitration There are many challenges to the implementation of the Act effectively When we are here to find a way forward we must look back and find out the pitfalls and drawbacks of our system which have failed us to maintain the pace with our counterparts in the world she said Speaking on the occasion Justice Shah said that with India being a promising destination for foreign investment it is essential that its arbitration law is aligned with the contemporary practice Unfortunately the international market is not accepting Indian institutions and the system as a whole he said We have to change our attitude We have to accept we have to think where are we lacking where are we missing where are we failing so that we do not match with their standards Justice Shah said Solicitor General of India Mehta suggested an arbitration township with the countrys framework that need not be specific to any model but acceptable to the world community We can provide for a township at a place where people would like to come We can provide an arbitration model which takes the best of both or all the systems of arbitration prevailing in the world he said Gujarat High Court Chief Justice Aravind Kumar said there is a paradigm shift in India and across the globe from ad hoc to institutionalised arbitration PTI KA NSK NSK

Vadodara Mar 23 PTI A 23-year-old man brutally killed a 19-year-old collegian by stabbing her multiple times and chopping off her hand for rejecting his love in Vadodara city of Gujarat police said on Wednesday adding that the accused was arrested After attacking the victim identified as Trisha Solanki on Tuesday evening the accused Kalpesh Thakor dumped her body on the outskirts of the city police said Solankis body was found lying in an isolated area with several stab wounds and her right hand severed The accused Kalpesh Thakor was arrested on the charge of murder a police officer said Thakor had known the victim for the last four years and was harassing her repeatedly He had called her to meet him and he killed her using a sharp weapon His was one-sided love for the victim Additional Commissioner of Police Chirag Koradiya told reporters The victim was staying with her uncles family in Vadodara and preparing for a police recruitment exam After the brutal murder crime branch sleuths narrowed down on Thakor who was in the past reprimanded by the victims relatives for harassing her During the interrogation Thakor said he was angry with the victim as she was not reciprocating his love and becoming friends with someone else investigators said The accused had blackmailed Solanki to become his friend around three years ago but he was not in touch with her after she returned to Godhra police said in a release Thakor wanted to meet Solanki again after she returned from Godhra to Vadodara but she refused Enraged by the refusal he decided to kill her and forced her to meet him on Tuesday evening the release said He carried a sharp weapon and persuaded her to come to an isolated place where he hit her on her nape before stabbing her several times He then took off on her two-wheeler which he parked elsewhere before joining his friend on Tuesday night the crime branch said PTI KA NSK NSK

Ahmedabad Mar 20 PTI Gujarat on Sunday reported 22 fresh COVID-19 cases taking the tally to 1223767 while the death toll remained unchanged at 10939 as no fresh fatality was reported the state health department said With 29 patients discharged during the day the number of recoveries in Gujarat rose to 1212477 leaving the state with 351 active cases the department said in a release The recovery rate in Gujarat now stands at 9904 per cent A total of 22547 people were vaccinated against COVID-19 on Sunday in Gujarat increasing the total number of the doses administered so far to 1047 crore Ahmedabad city reported eight cases and Rajkot five infections among others The Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli Daman and Diu has zero active case The UT had reported 11410 cases out of which 11406 patients recovered while four had died due to COVID-19 officials said Gujarats COVID-19 figures are as follows Positive cases 1223767 new cases 22 death toll 10939 discharged 1212477 active cases 351 people tested so far - figures not released PTI KA NSK NSK

Ahmedabad Feb 28 PTI Amul brand of fresh milk will become costlier by Rs 2 per litre across the country from March 1 the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation GCMMF said on Monday The increase of Rs 2 per litre translates into a 4 per cent rise in MRPs which is much lower than the average food inflation the GCMMF said In the Ahmedabad and Saurashtra markets of Gujarat the price of Amul Gold milk will be Rs 30 per 500 ml Amul Taaza will be Rs 24 per 500 ml and Amul Shakti will be at Rs 27 per 500 ml the GCMMF which markets the Amul brand of milk and dairy products said in a statement In the last two years Amul hiked prices of fresh milk category by only 4 per cent increase per annum it said With the Rs 2 hike full cream milk in Ahmedabad Delhi NCR Kolkata and Mumbai metro markets will be Rs 60 per litre while toned milk will be Rs 48 per litre in Ahmedabad and Rs 50 per litre in Delhi NCR Mumbai and Kolkata This price hike is being done due to rise in costs of energy packaging logistics cattle feeding cost- thus the overall cost of operation and production of milk has increased the statement said Considering the rise in the input costs our member unions have also increased farmers price in the range of Rs 35 to Rs 40 per kg fat which is more than 5 per cent over the previous year it said Amul passes on almost 80 paise of every rupee paid by consumers for milk and milk products to the milk producers it said The price revision shall help in sustaining remunerative milk prices to our milk producers and to encourage them for higher milk production the GCMMF added PTI KA NSK NSK

Ahmedabad Jan 18 PTI The Gujarat government approved a project worth Rs 4369 crore for the use of additional one million acre feet of the Narmada river water for the border district of Kutch it was informed on Tuesday The administrative approval to carry out works worth Rs 4369 crore has been sanctioned keeping in view the present operation of the Kutch branch canal-- which is a part of the Narmada main canal the Chief Ministers Office CMO said in a release Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel has sanctioned projects worth Rs 4369 crore for phase-I works for the use of additional one million acre feet of Narmada water for the border district of Kutch in the state it said The river water will be diverted to 38 small and medium irrigation schemes through a proposed 33798-km pipeline to irrigate around 281 lakh acres of land covering 77 villages in six talukas of the Kutch district as per the release PTI KA NSK NSK

Vadodara Dec 20 PTI A man was arrested from Vadodara in Gujarat in connection with an online child pornography case based on a cyber tipline shared by a US-based organisation police said on Monday Based on the information provided by the US-based National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children NCMEC the Vadodara cyber crime police arrested one Saddam Sheikh for allegedly exchanging online content related to child pornography Sheikh was tracked down using human intelligence and technical sources He initially denied his involvement in any such exchange of child pornographic materials police said When the deleted materials on his seized mobile phone were retrieved using cyber forensic tools several videos related to child pornography were recovered a Vadodara cybercrime police official said An FIR was registered against Sheikh under section 67 B of the Information and Technology Amendment Act 2000 related to publishing or transmitting of material depicting children in sexually explicit acts etc Further investigation is underway the official said The NCMEC a US-based private non-profit organisation acts as a resource centre that provides technical details regarding online child pornography and sexual exploitation to the National Crime Records Bureau NCRB in India which then passes on the details to the respective cyber crime police for action PTI KA NSK NSK

Ahmedabad Nov 24 PTI Residents of a slum settlement here in Gujarat staged a protest demanding rehabilitation after their dwellings were marked for demolition by authorities to free the land for the upcoming Gandhi Ashram redevelopment project The Gandhi Ashram Basti a settlement of around 55 families of labourers was ordered to be demolished by the district authorities officials said on Wednesday Following the protest held by the residents on Tuesday the demolition drive was stayed for seven days to explore joint alternatives for rehabilitating these slum-dwellers they said Authorities have agreed to meet the representatives of residents in the coming days They are feeling relieved said an official of Majoor Adhikar Manch He claimed that authorities had come with a full demolition squad and police to raze the 55 hutments without giving them a written notice Most of the residents are nomadic and denotified tribal communities who have lived here for over three decades and a majority of the dwellers are eligible for rehabilitation under the Regulation for the Rehabilitation and Redevelopment of Slums 2010 the Manch claimed However district officials said the slum-dwellers are not residents of the Gandhi Ashram and therefore are not eligible for the governments resettlement scheme They have encroached on the government land officials said PTI KA NSK NSK

Ahmedabad Nov 21 PTI With a steady drop in COVID-19 cases in Gujarat the state government has allowed the resumption of physical classes for students of 1 to 5 who can attend schools from November 22 state education minister Jitu Vaghani said on Sunday This will be for the first time that students from classes 1 to 5 will be attending schools in person since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent imposition of restrictions Addressing reporters here Vaghani said the offline teaching for classes 1 to 5 will resume when Diwali vacation ends on November 22 Permission of parents is required for sending their wards to schools The SOP Standard Operating Procedure remains the same as applied for other classes where offline education is resumed he said The state education department will make necessary arrangements to ensure that classes resume without much hassle and the SOP is strictly adhered to he said Schools will make arrangements for the resumption of offline classes for students of 1 to 5 from tomorrow in consultation with the state government he said Offline classes for classes 6 to 8 had resumed in Gujarat on September 2 with a 50 per cent capacity The government had also allowed online classes to continue along with offline classes and kept the attendance of students optional At the beginning of July the state government had allowed the reopening of schools for class 12 colleges and technical institutions in view of a significant drop in new coronavirus cases Gujarat had reported 36 coronavirus positive cases in the last 24 hours preceding Saturday taking the total number of infections in the state to 827184 the state health department had said Gujarat was left with 323 active cases as of Saturday PTI KA NSK NSK

Ahmedabad Nov 21 PTI The Gujarat government has decided to provide financial assistance of up to Rs 1500 to farmers in the state for purchasing a smartphone as per a notification issued by the state agriculture department The scheme is meant to encourage the farmers to buy smartphones which could be used for various purposes towards increasing their farm income at a time when the prevalence of digital services in the field of agriculture is growing every day it said Any landholding farmer in Gujarat can apply for the assistance of 10 per cent of the total cost of a smartphone not exceeding Rs 1500 on i-khedut portal to avail of the benefit of this scheme said the Government Resolution GR issued by the states Agriculture Farmers Welfare and Cooperation department on Saturday The assistance is valid only for the cost of the smartphone and not for any other accessories such as power backup device earphones charger etc it said All landholding farmers are eligible for this scheme but only one beneficiary in a joint holding farm will be eligible The smartphone will make it easy for a farmer to access information regarding weather forecast possible pest infestation various schemes of the agriculture department modern farm techniques and expert opinion etc it said The smartphone can also be utilised by farmers to apply online for various schemes of the state government meant for them by using smartphone facilities such as camera emails texts and multimedia services GPS web browser internet connectivity among others the GR said Once the application is approved the beneficiary farmers will have to provide a copy of the purchase bill of the smartphone mobile IMEI number a cancelled cheque etc PTI KA NSK NSK

Ahmedabad Oct 31 PTI An FIR was registered against 13 people in connection with the alleged theft of valuables including diamond and jewellery worth Rs 45 crore from a safe vault at the trust-run Lilavati hospital in Palanpur city in Banaskantha district of Gujarat officials said on Sunday The stolen valuables belonged to the Lilavati Kirtilal Mehta Medical Trust that manages the Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai As per complainant Prashant Mehta the accused persons including his uncles conspired with each other to carry out the theft of valuables kept in the safe vault in the building housing the hospital in Palanpur city on January 31 2019 The complainant is the son of Kishor Mehta a permanent trustee and the grandson of Kirtilal Mehta who founded the trust Prashant Mehta who claims to be a de facto trustee had moved court after the police initially refused to lodge an FIR The FIR was finally registered on Saturday afternoon on the directions of the court in Palanpur The FIR was registered at the Palanpur East police station under sections 380 theft in dwelling house 406 Punishment for criminal breach of trust and 120 B criminal conspiracy of the Indian Penal Code IPC a police official said The complainant stated the key to the vault kept inside the Mani Bhavan building that houses the Lilavati Kirtilal Mehta Charitable Hospital in Palanpur was in the possession of his father Kishor Mehta He alleged that some of his relatives broke the locker of the safe vault to take away the valuables the official said quoting the FIR He said the accused persons who are no longer trustees conspired with each other to renovate the building and break the safety vault and decamped with valuables The stolen valuables include 35 kg gold jewellery 85 carat diamond of Maharaja of Baroda valuables including gold and silver jewellery including silver plates a throne a ring etc which are worth around Rs 40-45 crore as per the FIR the official said PTI KA NSK NSK