Detailed investigations underway into fire mishaps near PM's convoy, Amaravati venue
The incidents, which raised concerns due to their timing, were reported near Vijayawada International Airport (Gannavaram) in Krishna district and Venkatapalem village in the Amaravati capital region.
The first fire broke out near Buddavaram, close to the Gannavaram Airport, just as the Prime Minister's aircraft was preparing to land. Later that evening, another blaze erupted near the meeting venue in Amaravati around the time when PM's helicopter took off, triggering plumes of thick smoke in both cases.
At Gannavaram, preliminary findings suggest the fire was likely accidental. Gannavaram Circle Inspector Siva Prasad said it may have originated from dry gum arabic (Tumma) bushes covering over five acres.
'Around 100 construction workers were in the area. A discarded cigarette or matchstick could have ignited the fire,' he said, confirming that all possible causes are being examined.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
25 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Rahul Gandhi begins ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra' in Bihar: ‘SIR latest conspiracy to steal elections, will not allow this vote theft'
Flagging off his 'Voter Adhikar Yatra' in Bihar's Sasaram, Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi Sunday said that now the entire country knows that the BJP and Election Commission are stealing votes. The Congress leader also said the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll in Bihar is 'their latest conspiracy to steal elections by adding and deleting votes'. He asserted that the INDIA bloc and the people of Bihar will not allow this 'vote chori (vote theft)'. The march, modelled on Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra and Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, will travel through 23 districts and cover 50 Assembly segments across 29 Lok Sabha constituencies in various regions of Bihar. The yatra will cover a distance of over 1,300 km, with participants travelling both on foot and by vehicle. Gandhi said, 'This fight is to save the Constitution. The RSS and the BJP are trying to destroy the Constitution in the country. In every election, they win. In Maharashtra, opinion polls had indicated that the INDIA bloc would win the elections. We won in the Lok Sabha elections there, but lost the Assembly elections.' 'We did some inquiry and found that the EC magically gave birth to one crore new voters. There was a difference of one crore voters between the Lok Sabha elections and the state elections. Where voters were added, the BJP won,' he added. Gandhi said they filed a complaint with the EC and requested video recordings, but the EC refused the request. 'In Karnataka, we analysed Assembly segments and discovered that over one lakh votes were manipulated, which allowed the BJP to win. I have detailed information regarding this issue. The EC requested an affidavit from me; however, the BJP representatives made similar allegations without being asked for an affidavit,' he said. He claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the National Democratic Alliance run a government of billionaires, and the people's money is given to a few billionaires. 'I said in Parliament in front of the PM that we want a caste census and removal of the 50 per cent cap on reservation. Under pressure, they said they will do it. But they won't,' said Gandhi. Will fight for the people: Tejashwi Yadav Speaking at the rally, Bihar Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should not underestimate the people of Bihar. 'We may be poor. But we are very sharp, and we will not bow down,' said Tejashwi. 'The Constitution given to us by Dr Ambedkar gave us the right to vote irrespective of how rich or poor. But the BJP people are getting ECI to do their work. They are stealing your votes. People have been declared dead by the ECI. We sent them to the Supreme Court. This is not vote theft, but it is a robbery of votes. Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and ECI should hear this… We will not let democracy be finished in Bihar… We will fight for the people,' said Tejashwi. He said his father Lalu Prasad Yadav was at the venue against the advice of doctors treating him. 'He is here to guide us,' said Tejashwi. Tejashwi appealed to the people of Bihar to teach a lesson to the government and elect a Mahagathbandhan government in the state. Gandhi's march comes amid protests by the Opposition parties within Parliament and outside over the EC's SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar. Hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the Bihar SIR, the Supreme Court, in its interim order on August 14, directed the EC to make available online a searchable list of about 65 lakh voter names omitted from the draft electoral rolls with reasons for their deletion. Gandhi had also alleged that votes were stolen in last year's general elections. He gave the example of the Mahadevapura Assembly segment in Karnataka, where he claimed bogus votes were cast and that the EC helped the BJP win the elections through 'vote theft'.
Time of India
25 minutes ago
- Time of India
Uncertainty Over Trade Deal With US, Malnutrition In Gaza & More
GST Revolution Ahead: Experts Decode PM Modi's Plan To Simplify India's Tax Structure Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Independence Day promise of next-generation GST reforms has triggered strong expert responses. Economist Ved Jain highlights that after eight years, India is ready to move from multiple slabs to a simpler two or three-rate system. Former CBEC Chairman Najib Shah says merging current slabs could free up consumer spending and fuel demand. Pankaj Mohindroo of ICEA believes GST rationalisation is essential for 'Viksit Bharat @ 2047' and will help both industry and consumers. Experts agree the shift is not just about tax, but about a structural reform that could shape India's economic future. 12.1K views | 1 day ago
Indian Express
25 minutes ago
- Indian Express
S&P rating upgrade: how India earned it and what lies ahead
Last week was turning out to be a great one for the Indian economy even before Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a raft of reforms in his Independence Day speech. A day earlier, S&P Global Ratings had upgraded its rating on India to BBB from BBB-. The sovereign rating upgrade by S&P is significant for two key reasons. One, it came after a gap of nearly two decades; and two, it has meaningful implications for the Indian economy. India's upgrade pursuit The Indian government has over the last several years aggressively pursued the three global agencies — S&P, Moody's, and Fitch Ratings — for higher ratings that, in its opinion, better reflect the economy's fundamentals. In fact, New Delhi has repeatedly expressed its displeasure over the agencies' methodologies, saying they were biased against emerging economies. The Economic Survey for 2020-21 even had a chapter titled 'Does India's Sovereign Credit Rating reflect its fundamentals No!'. 'The rating of India did not capture India's fundamentals for almost a decade,' Soumya Kanti Ghosh, State Bank of India's Group Chief Economic Adviser, said in a note on August 14. So, what has convinced S&P that now is a good time for India to be given an upgrade? Steady economic improvement The primary reason is clarity on the government's finances. While the Centre has had a law called the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act since 2003 — it demands reducing the annual fiscal deficit to 3 per cent of GDP — it has rarely been met. In fact, only once since the Act's enactment has the Centre's fiscal deficit fallen below 3 per cent, in 2007-08, and that was primarily due to some financial jugglery. It was in January 2007 that S&P had last upgraded its rating on India. However, post the coronavirus pandemic, the fiscal deficit has been reduced aggressively from 9.2 per cent in 2020-21 to a targeted 4.4 per cent in 2025-26. Going forward, the Centre will start targeting a reduction in its debt-to-GDP from 57.1 per cent in 2024-25 to 49-51 per cent by 2030-31. Then there is growth. Despite GDP growth falling to a four-year low of 6.5 per cent in 2024-25, India remains one of the fastest growing large economies in the world — or in S&P's words, 'among the best performing economies in the world'. And this is real, or inflation-adjusted, growth; nominal growth — which is the actual increase in the GDP in today's prices — is even higher. When it comes to calculating the debt-to-GDP ratio, it is the nominal GDP that matters. As such, as long as nominal GDP growth is higher than the pace with which the debt is increasing, the debt-to-GDP ratio will keep falling. Another key factor has been the fairly low and stable domestic inflation, with S&P praising the Reserve Bank of India's inflation management record. As per latest data, India's headline inflation rate had fallen to 1.55 per cent in July — the lowest since mid-2017. Low and stable inflation is crucial to foreign investors as sharp increases in prices can erode their investments, weaken growth and the domestic currency, and create social unrest — all factors that can lead to a rating downgrade. A credit rating is nothing more than a measure of an entity's creditworthiness, or how likely it is that they may pay back borrowed money. If you pay back your loans and credit card bills on time and in full, your credit score improves. It is the same for countries. Most countries need to borrow money every year to fund some of their expenditures. The difference between the total income and the expenditure for a year is the fiscal deficit; the Indian government's is Rs 15.69 lakh crore for 2025-26. This has to be met by borrowing money from the markets, with the government paying interest on it. Now, if the government is seen as being more likely to repay the loan — which is what a higher credit rating indicates — then the rate of interest is lower. According to Madhavi Arora, Chief Economist at Emkay Global Financial Services, the rating upgrade 'can open the door for new pools of global funds' capital', resulting in 'lower cost of funding across macro agents' curves, including corporates — especially those borrowing abroad'. The rating scale To be sure, India's rating level with S&P has itself not changed — the country remains in the BBB category. It's just that it has gone from the lowest edge of it, or BBB-, to a more secure position. The next step would be BBB+. So where does the move to BBB put India on the rating scale? Ratings are divided into two rough classes: investment and speculative grades. Entities, including countries, in the former class are worth investing in, while repayment of loans taken by those in the latter is difficult to predict. But even within the investment grade, there are steps, and BBB is the lowest. According to S&P, a BBB rating indicates 'adequate capacity to meet financial commitments, but more subject to adverse economic conditions'. The next step is A, then AA, and finally, AAA, which signifies 'extremely strong capacity to meet financial commitments'. Who stands where Alongside India, S&P has the likes of Greece, Mexico, and Indonesia at BBB. Just above it, at BBB+, are Botswana (negative outlook), Bulgaria, Italy, Thailand, Uruguay (all stable outlook), and Philippines (positive outlook) A positive outlook puts a rating closer to an upgrade, while a negative outlook makes a downgrade more likely. Above this, with an A- rating, are countries such as Cyprus, Poland, and Malaysia. And right at the top of the tree, with AAA rating, are the richest countries in the world — Australia, Canada, Denmark, and Germany, among others. The richest countries are not guaranteed the best rating. Take the US, for instance, which was downgraded to AA+ by S&P in August 2011 — the first time the world's largest economy had ever been assigned any rating lower than AAA — days after the US Congress raised the country's debt ceiling. More recently, Moody's Ratings in mid-May 2025 lowered its rating on the US to Aa1 from Aaa reflecting 'the increase over more than a decade in government debt and interest payment ratios to levels that are significantly higher than similarly rated sovereigns'. What's next? The implications of a better credit rating are clear — the Indian government should be able to borrow at a lower rate of interest. This has already occurred, with government bond yields in the secondary market on August 14 falling as much as 10 basis points, with the rupee's exchange rate also getting a boost. What about the next upgrade? Helpfully, S&P said on August 14 that it may further raise India's rating if the fiscal deficit of the Centre and states falls below 6 per cent of GDP on a structural basis. This, however, is a 'tough ask', according to Arora of Emkay Global. S&P itself expects the combined fiscal deficit to decline only to 6.6 per cent in 2028-29 from 7.8 per cent in 2024-25.
