Centre duping Karnataka? CM asks Fin Min to explain Rs 798 crore IGST deduction

Bengaluru: The Congress government in Karnataka on Wednesday defended its move to reserve jobs in private sector for Kannadigas in the state, even as industry veterans objected to the proposed quota, calling it 'fascist,' and 'short-sighted.' The government also sought to reach out to the private sector, saying their interests will be protected.

The state cabinet on Monday cleared the Karnataka State Employment of Local Candidates in the Industries, Factories and Other Establishments Bill, 2024, making it compulsory for private firms to reserve jobs for Kannadigas in their establishments. It is likely to be tabled in the Assembly on Thursday.

"Any industry, factory or other establishments shall appoint fifty percent of local candidates in management categories and seventy percent in non-management categories," the bill read.

If the candidates do not possess secondary school certificate with Kannada as a language, they should then pass a Kannada proficiency test as specified by the 'Nodal Agency', it added.

The nodal agency will have powers to call for any records, information or documents in the possession of an employer or occupier or manager of an establishment for the purpose of verifying the report.

The Government may appoint an officer not below the rank of Assistant Labour Commissioner as the authorised officer regarding compliance of the provisions of the Act.

Any Employer or Occupier or Manager of an Establishment, who contravenes the provisions of this Act should be liable for a penalty between Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000.

Hailing the bill, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said, "The Congress came to power in Karnataka to uphold the dignity of the Kannadigas--be it the issue of signboards of private establishments, the Kannada flag, Kannada language, culture, documents or specific percentage of reservation in jobs for Kannadigas."

Minister for Infrastructure Development, Medium and Heavy Industries M B Patil also backed the bill saying there is no doubt that Kannadigas should get jobs in Karnataka.

He, however, underlined that the interests of the industries will also be safeguarded.

"In private sector, certain ranks of posts will be reserved 100 percent for Kannadigas. The interests of industries will also be protected." In a statement issued by his office, the Minister was quoted as saying that he will discuss with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, IT-BT, Law and Labour Ministers in the event of any confusion in the bill.

"The government will also work on the skill development of Kannadigas. We cannot miss the bright opportunities of manufacturing sector and industrial revolution," he said.

"This bill will be discussed with all concerned. There is no need to worry in this regard," Patil said.

The move, however, has not gone down well with industry leaders.

Well-known entrepreneur and former Chief Finance Officer of Infosys, TV Mohandas Pai dubbed the bill as "fascist."

"This bill should be junked. It is discriminatory, regressive and against the constitution @Jairam_Ramesh (Congress leader) is govt to certify who we are? This is a fascist bill as in Animal Farm, unbelievable that @INCIndia can come up with a bill like this- a govt officer will sit on recruitment committees of private sector? People have to take a language test?" Pai said on 'X'.

Pharma company Biocon Managing Director Kiran Mazumdar Shaw said, "As a tech hub we need skilled talent and whilst the aim is to provide jobs for locals, we must not affect our leading position in technology by this move. There must be caveats that exempt highly skilled recruitment from this policy."

ASSOCHAM, Karnataka co-chairman R K Misra said on 'X', "Another genius move from Govt of Karnataka. Mandate LOCAL RESERVATION & APPOINT GOVT OFFICER IN EVERY COMPANY to monitor. This will scare Indian IT & GCCs. Short sighted."

Karnataka's move is similar to a bill introduced by the Haryana government, mandating 75 per cent reservation in private sector jobs to the residents of the state. It was, however, struck down the Punjab and Haryana High Court on November 17, 2023.

Bengaluru: The opposition BJP in Karnataka on Thursday (July 18) warned the Congress government in the state to be prepared for the wrath of the people if it fails to table the bill that mandates reservations for Kannadigas in the private sector in the ongoing Legislative session.

The party slammed Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for taking an U-turn on the Karnataka State Employment of Local Candidates in the Industries, Factories and Other Establishments Bill, 2024, which was cleared in the Cabinet meeting on Monday and put on hold late Wednesday night after uproar by the industry.

Clarifying on the decision to hold back the bill, Siddaramaiah said on Wednesday that the draft bill intended to provide reservations for Kannadigas in private sector companies, industries, and enterprises is still in the preparation stage.

A comprehensive discussion will be held in the next Cabinet meeting to make a final decision, he said.

BJP state president B Y Vijayendra in a post on 'X' asked, "Why did you bring the bill to give employment to the kannadigas? Why did you hold it back? Why mess with the lives of Kannadigas? Do you need Kannadigas to insult?" "Let the government present the job reservation bill for Kannadigas, which has given hope to lakhs of unemployed people in rural areas who were deprived of job opportunities despite their qualifications, in the current session, or else be ready to face the anger of Kannadigas," the Shikaripura MLA said.

Vijayendra condemned the 'cowardly decision' of putting the bill on hold which 'insulted Kannada-Kannadiga-Karnataka'. The bill aims to provide employment to Kannadigas.

The BJP leader sought to know why the government, which had moved forward to address the demand of the pro-Kannada fighters, after many years of struggle to protect the employment rights of the children of this land, gave up within a day.

It seems that the lobby of the anti-Karnataka forces, which suppress the self-respect of the country, the self-esteem of the Kannadigas, has prevailed over the chief minister, forcing him to take a 'U-turn' three times within a day, Vijayendra alleged.

"Fearing the split in the INDI Alliance, Delhi's big 'hand' must have tied the hands of the chief minister, otherwise how can he take an escapist decision to sideline the bill that will improve the lives of Kannadigas?" the BJP state president said.

The people of the state will never forgive the Congress leaders if the Congress government and the chief minister held back the 'pro-Kannada bill' in an attempt to divert public attention and also mislead the investigation into the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation (KMVSTDC) and Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) scams that have rocked the state, he said.

Microsoft has announced an investigation into the Azure cloud server outage in the US and other parts of the world.

The outage caused temporary grounding of flights of low-cost carrier Frontier Airlines in the US.

"Our systems are currently impacted by a Microsoft outage, which is also affecting other companies. During this time booking, check-in, access to your boarding pass, and some flights may be impacted. We appreciate your patience," the company said on X.

Now, the ground stop has been lifted, and the company is in the process of resuming flight operations.

In India, SpiceJet, IndiGo, Air India Express and Akasa Airlines also faced difficulties. Most of the passengers were unable to do their web checkin online.

"Due to infrastructure issues with our service provider, some of our online services, including booking, check-in and manage booking services will be temporarily unavailable," Akasa Airlines said in a statement.

"Our systems are currently impacted by a Microsoft outage, which is also affecting other companies. During this time, booking, check-in, access to your boarding pass, and some flights may be impacted. We appreciate your patience," said IndiGo on X.

"As our systems are impacted by an ongoing issue with Microsoft Azure, we are experiencing high volumes at contact centre. Please contact us only if your travel is within 24 hrs," added IndiGo.

"Global digital infrastructure issues with cloud services are temporarily impacting operations across multiple airlines, airports and other businesses globally. As a result, our website, reservation and airport check-in systems are also impacted. Please plan your travel and keep sufficient time in hand for airport procedures. We regret the inconvenience and appreciate your patience and understanding during this time," said Air India Express on X

Currently, the affected airlines are doing manual check-ins and boarding processes at the airports.

Down under, Sydney Airport in Australia is facing service outage. It has requested the passenger to leave home early to avoid delays.

"A global technical outage has impacted some airline operations and terminal services. Flights are currently arriving and departing however there may be some delays throughout the evening.   We have activated our contingency plans and deployed additional staff to our terminals.   If you're travelling today make sure you leave plenty of time to come to the airport and check with your airline regarding the status of your flight," Syndney Airport posted the message on X.

"CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm that services numerous industries, was down across parts of the world Friday morning, halting news broadcasts and grounding flights," reported reported.

"I am aware of a large-scale technical outage affecting a number of companies and services across Australia this afternoon. Our current information is this outage relates to a technical issue with a third-party software platform employed by affected companies," said the office of Australia's National Cyber Security Coordinator Michelle McGuinness on X. 

Hong Kond Airport is facing IT service outage and has now switched to manual check-in and boarding processes.

Air France and Paris airports are also facing similar issues, reported Reuters. Add to that, Paris Olympic committee said that its IT operations have been impacted by a global cyber outage.

"We have activated contingency plans in order to continue operations," the organising committee said in a statement.

Taiwan's two major airlines, China Airlines and Eva Air, have been spared are unaffected.

Even Microsoft 365, which offers access to Word, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, Teams, Intune, PowerBI, Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft Defender, Viva Engage and other productivity tools has become inaccessible to clients around the world, including major cities across India.

The Microsoft 365 service health status reads-- "Users may be unable to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services".

Indian Government's statement 

“MEITY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) is in touch with Microsoft and its associates regarding the global outage. The reason for this outage has been identified and updates have been released to resolve the issue. CERT is issuing a technical advisory. NIC network is not affected,” said Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister for Railways, Information & Broadcasting, Electronics & Information Technology, Government of Bharat. 

Computers with CrowdStrike cybersecurity applications are struck with Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) issue.

Indian Computer Emergency Response Team has recommended user to follow the process shared by CrowdStrike on Reddit below:

Step 1: Boot Windows into Safe Mode or the Windows Recovery Environment.

Step 2: Navigate to the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike directory

Step 3: Locate the file matching “C-00000291*.sys” and delete it.

Step 4: Boot the host device normally. This should fix the BSoD problem.