Daily Bulletin: Govt invites BIMSTEC leaders for Narendra Modi swearing-in ceremony; MLAs who won bypolls in Goa, TN to be sworn in today; day's top stories

BIMSTEC leaders invited for Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony Like SAARC leaders last time, heads of government from neighbouring BIMSTEC countries are likely to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his second term on 30 May. As of now, there is no indication of Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan being invited. Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said that the government has also invited  Kyrgyzstan president Sooronbay Jeenbekov and Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Jugnauth to the ceremony. Reportedly, in addition to Sri Lanka president Maithripala Sirisena, Nepal prime minister KP Sharma Oli has also indicated that he will be attending the ceremony. Bangladesh president Abdul Hamid is likely to attend instead of the recently re-elected prime minister Sheikh Hasina. Reports also said that a decision is yet to be made on Myanmar state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi. [caption id=“attachment_6485871” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Reuters[/caption] The invitees have been selected to keep in line with the government’s focus on the ’neighbourhood first’ policy, Kumar said. Newly elected MLAs in Goa, Tamil Nadu bypolls to be sworn in today The four newly-elected BJP and Congress MLAs in Goa, and 13 DMK MLAs in Tamil Nadu will be sworn as legislators on Tuesday. In the recent bypolls held in four seats in Goa, BJP’s Subhash Shirodkar, Dayanand Sopte and Joshua D’Souza won from Shiroda, Mandrem and Mapusa, respectively, while Congress nominee Atanasio Monserrate emerged victorious in Panaji. All of them will be administered the oath of office in the Assembly complex at 11 am on Tuesday, Lobo said. The Panaji Assembly bypoll was necessitated due to the death of sitting BJP MLA and former chief minister Manohar Parrikar in March, while the death of sitting BJP MLA Francis D’Souza necessitated the bypoll in Mapusa. The bypolls in Shiroda and Mandrem became necessary following the resignation of their sitting Congress MLAs. Following the declaration of the bypoll results last week, the BJP is now the single largest party with 17 MLAs in the 40-member Assembly, followed by the Congress which has 15 legislators. Karnataka Cabinet likely to undergo reshuffle soon Trouble is brewing for the Congress-JD(S) coalition government in Karnataka, with speculation that MLAs are likely to defect to the BJP after being offered ministerial berths. Reports said that the coalition partners are considering a cabinet reshuffle to placate the unhappy MLAs. On Monday, former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah asserted that the JD(S)-Congress government was a ‘strong’ one and ridiculed state BJP president BS Yeddyurappa for repeatedly claiming that the coalition will collapse. In a series of tweets, he also said the people’s mandate was for continuation of the BJP-led government at the Centre and not for ’toppling’ the state government. “Yeddyurappa has been saying for the past one year the government will fall. He will continue to say the same for the next four years. I am confident the government is strong,” Siddaramaiah said. Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi bowing to the Constitution after being elected leader of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance on Saturday, he sought to know which article in the Constitution gave the BJP the right to topple a state government. GDP growth in Q4 likely to moderate to 6.1-5.9%, may lead RBI to cut rates, says SBI report India’s economic growth in the fourth quarter ended March 2019 is expected to moderate to 6.1-5.9 percent, which could pull down growth rate for the entire fiscal 2018-19 to below 7 percent, according to a report by SBI. The slip in GDP growth may force the Reserve Bank of India to move with a deeper 0.50 percent cut in rates at its next review to propel the sluggish economy, the SBI Ecowrap report said 27 May. The growth could come at 6.1-5.9 percent for the January-March period, getting the full-year growth to 6.9 percent, an estimate by the economic researchers at the country’s largest lender SBI ahead of the announcement of official data on 30 May, said. India take on Bangladesh, Kiwis face Windies on last day of Cricket World Cup warm-ups After being drubbed by New Zealand in the first warm-up clash, Virat Kohli and Co face Bangladesh in their last warm-up match in the first of the two matches scheduled on Tuesday. India’s primary objective today will be to fix their middle-order problems. In the second match, The Black Caps will be aiming to maintain their consistency when they take on West Indies in their final warm-up game. The 2015 World Cup runners-up would be keen to test their batting unit. Shankar Ehsaan Loy opt out of Prabhas film Saaho On Monday, composers Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy announced that they had opted out of Prabhas-starrer Saaho and said they were uncomfortable with the idea of having more composers working on the same film. A tweet posted by their official handle read: “We wish to inform all our fans that Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy have opted out of composing the music for ‘Saaho’. Here’s wishing Prabhas, Sujeetsign, Vamsi, Pramod, Shyam all the luck for the film.” Shankar Mahadevan clarified to IANS, “The music company wanted to add a few songs from external composers. We are not very comfortable with that. Normally, we prefer to remain the sole composers of the film. That’s why we decided to opt out.”