Census, NPR...

While the Congress and NCP have opposed the NPR, the state government has maintained a silence on the issue. Since there is no clear directive from the ruling parties, the state administration is going ahead with the exercise as instructed by the Centre, said the official.

“The first phase is called ‘house listing and housing operation’ in which assets and amenities will be listed. The 31-column form will include details such as whether the house is a pukka or kutcha structure, whether the water supply and toilets are inside the house, income of the family, amenities such as four wheeler, and laptop, among other things. The first phase will ensure that there is no omission or duplication during the second phase, which will be for the actual headcount of the population,” said a Mantralaya official, on condition of anonymity.

The second phase, which will be conducted over 20 days between February 9 and February 28, 2021, will be enumeration of personal details. Although forms for the second phase have not been finalised, some information that could be sought is expected to be contentious. “The personal details about citizens to be sought in the second phase will soon be finalised. There is confidentiality being maintained by the government,” said another officer, on the condition of anonymity.

“In absence of clear instructions by the state government, we are going ahead with the scheduled dates. We have conducted NPR in 2010 and 2015 although the format could be different this time. The information in NPR is not protected like the one in Census and hence the NPR is opposed by a section of society. Questions of opposing NPR will arise only if its format NPR is changed during the second phase, which will begin next year,” said an official from the chief minister’s office (CMO).

While questions are being raised over the state government’s stand, Congress on Saturday accused BJP of spreading the rumours. “The meeting held last week at Sahyadri Guest House between Centre and state government was for holding Census and not NPR. The meeting was neither attended by the chief minister or the chief secretary,” said Mumbai Congress vice-president Charanjeet Singh Sapra, adding that even if NPR is implemented in Maharashtra, it won’t be with the “contentious form”.

“Census is inevitable but there is no need of NPR as the data required is already obtained under Aadhaar. NPR will be waste of money and efforts. The state government has not taken any decision about it as yet,” said Nawab Malik, state minorities affair minister and NCP’S Mumbai unit chief.

Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray had earlier said that he was not against the CAA, but will oppose the NRC. The NCP is opposed to CAA and NRC, while Congress has passed a resolution demanding withdrawal of the CAA.

“As per my information, only Census is being conducted from May. It has nothing to do with the NPR,” said Sena leader Neelam Gorhe.

Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson Madhu Chavan said, “It’s an exercise undertaken by the Central government under the Central Act. State has no right to oppose it. There is nothing objectionable in the NPR and the opposition is out of lack of knowledge.”

After the court hearing on Friday, the DOT asked all telecom companies to repay AGR dues by the end of the day in order to comply with the October verdict of the Supreme Court.

“You are hereby directed to make the payment of outstanding dues of licence fee and spectrum usage charges by 11.59pm on 14 February positively,” the DOT letter said.

In response, Bharti Airtel said it will deposit ₹10,000 crore as part payment for AGR dues to the DOT by February 20 and the balance before March 17 as it needs time to complete the exercise of calculating dues across 22 circles. dent Trump, might step in at some stage to fix it.

President Trump has indicated he would not settle for anything but the “right deal” and has seemed more excited about the rally he is scheduled to address in Ahmedabad, where he expects to see “millions” of people. Crowd size matters to him, but trade matters more, and he is willing to come back empty-handed rather than settle for a weak deal.

At the same time, US officials have warned that the failure to announce a deal during the president’s visit will reflect poorly on relations between the two countries and one of them said it will be a “big setback”, seemingly putting the onus for its failure, or its unlikely success, on India.

But people familiar with the discussions said India has tried to accommodate as many of US demands as it can. It has conceded, for instance, a key US demand for removing the cap on prices of medical devices such as stents for hearts, despite the cess announced in budget.

“We have made an offer to the US with the discussions moving far beyond the usual medical devices, dairy and agricultural products. It is now the USTR’S call to make the deal possible to make the US President’s visit very successful,” said one of the key Indian officials involved in the negotiations.

India has also agreed to US demand for importing $6.5 billion worth of US goods annually in exchange for restoring special trade benefits under the Generalized System of Preferences, which were withdrawn last summer. India had first agreed to meet that figure with energy purchases, but readjusted to accommodate a US demand to buy agricultural produce from certain states such as cherries from Utah and corn from Iowa.

India has not been without blame though — slapping a cess on medical devices in the budget, for instance, was seen as a curious move in the light of how central the pricing of medical devices was to trade talks with the United States, and then duty on shelled walnuts that are imported mostly from America.

Despite the trade hiccups, bilateral defence relations are on an upswing with Boeing now approaching the Pentagon for a licence so that it can offer the latest F-15 EX fighter plane to India. Although the Modi government is totally focused on “Make in India” in the defence sector, the F-15 Eagle has a kill ratio of 140 : 0 and carries the weight of the F-16 in armaments. Apart from this India will be looking towards the US for armed drones, multi-purpose helicopters, multi-mission P8I aircraft and an additional six Apache attack helicopters.

Trump and Modi are expected to have one-to-one discussions in Ahmedabad and in New Delhi with the focus being on the Af-pak region, China, West Asia and the Indo-pacific. With Beijing securing its flanks in both the South China Sea and in the Indian Ocean through the Hambantota

port in Sri Lanka and Gwadar in Pakistan, India needs to dominate the Indian Ocean Region first before it expands its footprint beyond Malacca, Sunda and Lombok straits.