Daily Bulletin: SC to hear matter over Karnataka rebel MLAs resignations, India-US trade talks to resume; day's top stories

Karnataka political crisis: SC to hear matter over rebel MLAs’ resignations today The political turmoil in Karnataka spilled over to another day as Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar, despite a Supreme Court order, ruled out any immediate decision on the resignation of rebel MLAs in the crisis-hit ruling JD(S)-Congress coalition, saying he cannot be expected to work at “lightning speed”. [caption id=“attachment_6977731” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Karnataka Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar. Twitter @ANI[/caption] Earlier on Thursday, the Supreme Court allowed 10 rebel MLAs to meet Kumar at 6 pm to convey to him their decision to resign and asked the Speaker to take a decision during the course of the day.  Kumar moved the top court against this order , and the matter was mentioned before a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi by senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi who said that the Speaker’s application is taken up for hearing along with the main matter on Friday. The bench told Singhvi that Kumar’s application will be heard Friday. The resignation of 16 MLAs — 13 from Congress and three from JD(S) — has pushed the coalition government in Karnataka to the brink of collapse. Two Independent MLAs have also withdrawn support to the coalition government. India-US trade talks to restart today after Donald Trump’s tariff tweets India-US trade talks are expected to restart on Friday amid uncertainty over issues ranging from data localisation and India’s retail policies to recent tariffs imposed by the South Asian nation. US president Donald Trump had earlier this week criticised India’s decision to impose higher tariffs on American goods. His trade officials in New Delhi are to meet foreign and trade ministry officials, according to Raveesh Kumar, foreign ministry spokesman. Talks had stalled earlier over tariffs and revoked trade preferences for India. The US is also challenging India’s retaliatory tariffs in a new case at the World Trade Organization. Trump had said in a tweet on Tuesday India’s import tariffs on the US were “No longer acceptable!” This was his second tweet in three weeks on India’s decision to raise tariffs. Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had agreed to restart trade negotiations after they met at the Group of 20 summit in Japan. India is expected to highlight efforts to correct the trade imbalance with the US — New Delhi’s trade surplus with Washington fell sharply to 17.12 billion dollars in the year ended 31 March from 21.26 billion dollars a year ago, according to trade ministry data. First train carrying water for parched Chennai to leave today from Vellore The first train carrying water to water-scarce Chennai is likely to leave from Jolarpet railway station on Friday. “The wagons have been filled. We are waiting for clearance to leave from Chennai Metro Water,” a senior railways officer told NDTV. The daily train was one of the short-term measures announced by the Tamil Nadu government to tackle the ongoing water crisis Bad water management and lack of rainfall mean all four reservoirs that supply Chennai have run virtually dry this summer. Other Indian cities, including New Delhi and technology hub Bengaluru, are also grappling with water shortages. Supreme Court to hear on plea challenging Bombay HC order upholding reservation to Marathas today The Supreme Court on Monday (8 July) had agreed to hear on Friday a plea challenging the Bombay High Court’s decision to uphold the law by which the Maratha community would get reservation in admissions and government jobs in Maharashtra. A bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Anriuddha Bose took note of the plea that the issue of Maratha quota needed an urgent hearing. It decided to fix the petition for deliberations on Friday. The plea was filed in the apex court by Sanjeet Shukla, a representative of an NGO, ‘Youth for Equality’. The plea said the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, which provided a 12 percent and a 13 percent quota to the Maratha community in education and jobs respectively, breached the 50 percent ceiling on reservation fixed by the apex court in its landmark judgment in the Indira Sawhney case, also known as the “Mandal verdict”. Rahul Gandhi to appear before Ahmedabad court in defamation case Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is to appear before a metropolitan magistrate’s court on Friday for the hearing of a criminal defamation suit filed against him by Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank and its chairman Ajay Patel. Gandhi would appear before the court, said Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi. “Since the summons was also issued to party’s national spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala, he is also expected to appear tomorrow,” said Doshi. The defamation suit was filed last year after Gandhi and Surjewala claimed that the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank was involved in a “scam” to swap 745.59 crore in swapped notes with valid currency within five days of demonetisation announcement on 8 November 2016. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal renew Wimbledon rivalry in semi-final clash 11 years on after playing in one of the greatest finals in history, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will renew their rivalry at Wimbledon when they face off in the semi-finals on Thursday. In the second semi-final, World No 1 Novak Djokovic takes on the unheralded Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut. Infosys to announce Q1 results today Software services firm Infosys will announce its financial results for April-June quarter today (12 July) according to a BSE filing. “A meeting of the Board of Directors of the company will be held on Thursday and Friday, July 11 and 12, 2019 to consider the audited consolidated financial results of the company and its subsidiaries as per Indian Accounting Standards (INDAS) for the quarter ending June 30, 2019…,” Infosys said in the filing. It added that the financial results will be presented to the board of directors on 12 July for their approval. Infosys is expected to report 2-3 percent sequential rise in revenue growth in constant currency (CC) terms and retain its growth guidance of 7.5-9.5 percent for the full year, according to a report in The Economic Times. Wipro is expected to announce its results for the first quarter on 17 July, as per information available on its website. Google has been eavesdropping on conversations with the Google Assistant Google has been found to be sending out audio clips from devices without the user’s knowledge and paying its contractors to transcribe them, so as to improve the company’s AI voice-recognition technology. Usually, the Google Assistant starts recording after it hears the wake word, such as “Okay Google,” but a report now finds that these devices can get activated by accident and can pass on sensitive information like name, contact numbers and addresses to Google employees.