Three important news stories from dailies

Ahmedabad, 17 November 2014

Economic Times reports: A committee appointed by the Supreme Court, headed by retired top court judge HS Bedi, has not found evidence of the state government’s involvement in any of the 22 cases of encounter deaths in Gujarat. And there is no pattern that people from the minority community
were targeted as terrorists, as there are cases of deaths of Hindus and Sikhs also, the panel is likely to conclude. In almost all the cases, the individuals killed had criminal records. However there is evidence of wrong-doing by police officers in at least three encounter cases.The Supreme Court in 2012 had appointed retired Supreme Court Judge Justice HS Bedi as Chairman of a Monitoring Authority tasked with probing all deaths resulting from encounters in Gujarat from 2002 to 2006. Activists allege that these encounters were fake. The direction, from a bench comprising Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Desai, came in response to two PILs filed by veteran journalist B G Verghese and poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar, who requested a probe by an independent agency or the CBI.

The Times of India reports: The United Nations (UN)’s secretary general Ban Ki-moon has reportedly accepted the Gujarat government’s invitation to participate in the 7th Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit (VGGIS) in January 2015, and address the Global CEOs conference during the summit after considering Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s request.Gujarat Government invited chairpersons, presidents and CEOs of Fortune 500 companies for the first ‘Global CEO Conclave’. Union finance minister Arun Jaitely has confirmed his participation to chair the conclave. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already approved his participation.A few of the top invites for the Global CEO Conclave are World Bank group president Jim Yong Kim, Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman, World Economic Forum, Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft, Larry Page, CEO, Google, Beth Comstock, CMO, GE, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook, Stephen G Butler, Ford Motors, Marry Barra, CEO, General Motors, Osamu Suzuki, chairman and CEO, Suzuki Motor Corporation, Indra Nooyi, chairman and chief executive officer, PepsiCo etc.Key leaders from the world’s most powerful economic institutions like World Bank, Nobel laureate economists, top academicians and think tank members have also been invited. Prime ministers and presidents of all eight partner countries have also been invited and at least two or three are expected to participate.

Gujarat daily Akila reports: Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel will expand her cabinet at 12.39 pm on Wednesday, 19 November in a function at Gandhinagar and induct 3-4 ministers.Vijay Rupani’s name has been finalized. Deputy Speaker Mangubhai Patel is likely to made Cabinet Minister as he belongs to tribal community. Ganpat Vasava, a minister representing tribal community in cabinet has been made Speaker, and he has to be replaced with someone from tribal community. Two-three ministers of state(MoS) are likely to be inducted. Parshottam Solanki or his brother Hirabhai Solanki, former Congress man who left Congress and joined BJP with re-election Jashabhai Barad and Bhavnagar MLA Vibhavariben Dave are likely to be inducted to Anandiben Cabinet. The present cabinet has 20 members strength and there’s space to add 7 more ministers.