Budget 2018-19

NCP leader Nawab Malik alleged that former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh and Mumbai Police officer Sachin Waze had planned Antilia bomb threat Maharashtra Cabinet Minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik on Tuesday alleged that former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh and Mumbai Police officer Sachin Waze had planned Antilia bomb threat and added that National Investigation Agency has recovered a passport with fake entry stamps to Pakistan from Sachin Waze’s house. “Param Bir Singh and  Sachin Waze  had planned the Antilia bomb threat. They planned a fake encounter of Mansukh Hiren and put a false passport on him with its entry and exit stamps marked from Pakistan,” said Malik while addressing the reporters. “National Investigation Agency (NIA) has recovered a passport with fake entries of Pakistan travel from Sachin Waze’s house as part of a larger plan in  Antilia Bomb scare case ,” said Malik while interacting with media in Pune. Malik further said, “A...

  While China has long supplied Pakistan’s armed forces, the relationship has deepened in recent years. As Pakistan is facing more restrictions to get weapons from the US, China has filled the vacuum by proving weapons to boost Islamabad’s conventional and nuclear arsenal. While China has long supplied Pakistan’s armed forces, the relationship has deepened in recent years, with Pakistan making major purchases of top-of-the-line Chinese export equipment, according to the National Interest. “China has sold or licensed to Pakistan the following five weapons program a)  Nuclear Weapons  Program, b) JF-17 Fighter A-100 c) Multiple Rocket Launcher, d) VT-1A and e) HQ-16,” writes Charlie Gao an analyst in the National Interest. One of the major aspects that Pakistan has focused on military acquisition from China has been on acquiring the necessary Air Defence for its Ground Forces. Pakistan military has relied primarily on its Air Force for providing the defence of its formation...

  A caste verification committee has asked NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede to appear before it on December 14, according to Bhim Army leader Ashok Kamble A caste verification committee here has asked Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) zonal director  Sameer Wankhede  to appear before it on December 14, according to Bhim Army leader Ashok Kamble, who is the complainant in the matter. Kamble had filed the complaint with the Mumbai district caste verification committee against Wankhede for allegedly forging documents and presenting himself as member of the Hindu Mahar (Scheduled Caste) community to secure the government job. We presented all the documents to the committee and asked it to take up the matter further. The committee told us that Wankhede will be asked to depose before it on December 14, Kamble said on Wednesday. Notably, Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik had also earlier alleged that Wankhede was born a Muslim, but he forged his documents to get the government j...

  Digital payments, financial services firm Paytm is expecting to increase revenue and monetisation methods on its platform in the next few quarters. Digital payments and financial services firm Paytm is expecting to increase revenue and monetisation methods on its platform in the next few quarters, according to a top company official. Paytm Chairman and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma during an earnings call with analysts in the US said the company is seeing scale in system deployment and non-UPI revenue, where merchant gives revenue charges, MDR (merchants discount rate) for payments and credit led financial service, and provides the company with the next level of monetisation. “We believe, we in the next few quarters will be able to not just expand revenue but increase more number of monetisation methods and subsequently increase contribution margins in due course. Our team, myself and everyone is super energised seeing the opportunity in front of us and we are committed to executing a...

  At least 20 people were killed and several wounded in a raid on an internally displaced persons (IDPs) site in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), UN humanitarians have said. At least 20 people were killed and several wounded in a raid on an internally displaced persons (IDPs) site in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), UN humanitarians have said. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Monday said the attack near Drodro in Djugu territory, Ituri, is the fourth raid targeting largely internally displaced people in the province since November 19, Xinhua news agency reported. The latest attack on Sunday marks a worrying trend in terms of the protection of civilians and the lack of humanitarian access, OCHA said. Tens of thousands of people cannot access humanitarian assistance due to insecurity and attacks on sites hosting the displaced. Some UN humanitarian partners suspended operations. “These attacks are violations of international hu...

  The people of Karnataka, who did not take Covid vaccine shots despite several appeals by the state government, are now thronging the vaccination centers amid fears of new Covid variant Omicron The people of Karnataka, who did not take Covid vaccine shots despite several appeals by the state government, are now thronging the vaccination centers amid fears of new Covid variant Omicron and the outbreak of a possible third wave of the pandemic. The primary health centres (PHCs) of the state, which witnessed low turnout till last week, are now recording large footfalls amid the the fear of the new Covid variant. Between November 20 and 27, as many as 27.64 lakh people have taken the vaccine shots, marking an increase in numbers when compared to the previous two weeks. About 20.90 lakh doses were administered between November 13 and 20, while 17.54 lakh persons took the shot between November 6 and 13. There has been an increase in the number of persons who took the first dose, which ro...

  Agrawal, who was appointed Monday to succeed Twitter founder and CEO Jack Dorsey, is 37, the same age as Meta Platform Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg Twitter Inc.’s new Chief Executive Officer  Parag Agrawal  is now the youngest CEO in the S&P 500, but apparently just barely. Agrawal, who was appointed Monday to succeed Twitter founder and CEO Jack Dorsey, is 37, the same age as Meta Platform Inc. CEO  Mark Zuckerberg . Citing security concerns, Twitter wouldn’t disclose Agrawal’s date of birth, but confirmed he was born later in 1984 than Zuckerberg’s May 14 birthday. Dorsey, at 45, was already among the dozen youngest CEOs in the collection of the largest U.S. companies. “I don’t think the age thing is that big of a deal, especially for companies like this. It could be an advantage,” said David Larcker, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, who studies CEO performance. “The fact that Dorsey is stepping down from the board, so he’s not going to be...

  The Company has no outstanding loans from banks and approximately 95 per cent of its debt is in the form of debentures, it said Shares of  Reliance Capital  were locked at the 5 per cent lower circuit, at Rs 18.10 apiece, on the BSE on Tuesday after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday superseded the board of industrialist Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Capital, a non-banking financial company (NBFC), owing to defaults and governance issues. “In view of the defaults by RCL (Reliance Capital Ltd) in meeting the various payment obligations to its creditors and serious governance concerns which the board has not been able to address effectively”, the central bank superseded the board. The RBI has appointed Nageswar Rao Y, former executive director of Bank of Maharashtra, administrator of Reliance Capital. its part, the company has informed the exchanges that it will “co-operate fully” with the Administrator appointed by the RBI… Read More

  Hunting for variants requires a concerted effort. South Africa and the UK were the first big countries to implement nationwide genomic surveillance efforts for SARS-CoV-2 as early as April 2020. Since early in the COVID pandemic, the Network for Genomics Surveillance in South Africa has been monitoring changes in SARS-CoV-2. This was a valuable tool to understand better how the virus spread. In late 2020, the network detected a new virus lineage, 501Y. V2, which later became known as the beta variant. Now a new SARS-CoV-2 variant has been identified – B.1.1.529. The World Health Organisation has declared it a variant of concern, and assigned it the name  Omicron . To help us understand more, The Conversation Africa’s Ozayr Patel asked scientists to share what they know. What’s the science behind the search? Hunting for variants requires a concerted effort. South Africa and the UK were the first big countries to implement nationwide genomic surveillance efforts for  SARS...

  WHO said it is not yet clear whether the newly-detected   coronavirus variant Omicron   is more transmissible or causes more severe disease compared to other variants. The World Health Organization has said it is not yet clear whether the newly-detected coronavirus variant Omicron is more transmissible or causes more severe disease compared to other variants, including the highly-transmissible and globally prevalent Delta variant. There is currently no information to suggest that symptoms associated with  Omicron  are different from those from other variants, the WHO said, It added that initial reported infections were among university studies — younger individuals who tend to have more mild disease — but understanding the level of severity of the Omicron variant will take days to several weeks. Amid concerns over the detection and transmissibility of B.1.1.529, designated by the WHO as a variant of concern, the global health organisation said on Sunday that e...

  Cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus popped up in countries on opposite sides of the world and many governments rushed to close their borders Cases of the  omicron   variant  of the coronavirus popped up in countries on opposite sides of the world Sunday and many governments rushed to close their borders even as scientists cautioned that it’s not clear if the new variant is more alarming than other versions of the virus. The variant was identified days ago by researchers in South Africa, and much is still not known about it, including whether it is more contagious, more likely to cause serious illness or more able to evade the protection of vaccines. But many countries rushed to act, reflecting anxiety about anything that could prolong the pandemic that has killed more than 5 million people.

  Supply crunch will likely hurt production of staple crops such as wheat, rapeseed and pulses planted during the winter. Indian farmers squeezed by a massive shortage of fertilizers are turning to the  black market  and paying exorbitant prices for supplies. The shortfall has led to a thriving market where subsidized crop nutrients are sold illegally at prices much higher than levels set by the government. Shady agents have been busy fielding requests from farmers who call them in desperate need. With a key planting season underway for India’s millions households that depend on agriculture for a living, farmers say they don’t have much of a choice. We either have to cut the use of fertilizers and risk lower production, or pay sky-high prices on the black market, said Dilip Patidar, a wheat and onion grower in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Either option isn’t great. A drop in crop yields could drive food prices higher, worsening inflation in a country where 15% of the popu...

The directives will allow direct entry of fully vaccinated expatriates without the need to spend 14 days in transit outside their countries before entering the Kingdom Saudi Arabia has announced that it will lift a travel ban on expats from six countries including India and Pakistan that was introduced to contain the spread of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. The directives will allow direct entry of fully vaccinated expatriates without the need to spend 14 days in transit outside their countries before entering the Kingdom, Arab News reported.  Saudi Arabia ‘s Ministry of Interior issued the directive saying that changes will commence at 1 am on December 1. The English-language newspaper said that expats arriving from these countries must spend five days in quarantine regardless of their Coronavirus vaccination status outside the Kingdom. Earlier in February, the direct entry ban was imposed due to a global spike in Covid-19 caThe ban covered Lebanon, UAE, Egypt, Turkey, the U...

  The data showed the highest number of rape victims were in the age group of 12 to 18 years Despite a dip in crimes against children, the trial of 99 per cent of cases under the POCSO Act were still pending by December 2020, a Praja Foundation report said on Thursday. According to the foundation data, in 94 per cent of the total 1,197 cases under the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences lodged in 2020, the victims were girls with the highest number of 721 rape cases and 376 sexual assault cases. The report pointed out that while  POCSO Act  was enacted with the sole purpose of providing speedy justice to minors, the trial of 99 per cent of cases of crimes against children was pending as of December 2020. According to the data, 42 per cent of the total rape cases were committed against children below 18 years in 2020, compared to 47 per cent in 2018 and 45 per cent in 2019. The data showed the highest number of rape victims were in the age group of 12 to 18 year...

  Thirteen years have passed but the dreadful incident of the   26/11 Mumbai attack   has left a scar in the minds and hearts of survivors and their families. Thirteen years have passed but the dreadful incident of the 26/11 Mumbai attack has left a scar in the minds and hearts of survivors and their families. The ghastly attacks, which began on November 26, 2008, lasted for four days, leading to the death of 166 people and injuring over 300. Shyam Sundar Chaudhary, who live in slums in Mumbai’s Vile Parle, was driving his taxi as any other day. He and his family’s life turned after a bullet fired by terrorists hit him on that fateful day. He survived but only to get paralysed and bedridden. Speaking to ANI, Shyam Sundar Chaudhary’s wife Bebi Choudhary said, “Thirteen years have been passed. My husband was going for duty. Just he crossed the highway, a car rushed breaking the signal. They fired at my husband. the bullets hit his head and shoulder. Following the incident, ...

  Here are the key reasons why the markets traded weak on Friday. It was truly a ‘Black Friday’ for the Indian markets that saw an across-the-board sell-off. The  S&P BSE  Sensex shaved-off over 1,400 points in intra-day deals. Its counterpart on the National Stock Exchange, the Nifty50 index, lost over 400 points. So, what’s spooking the markets today? For one, the negative sentiment on Friday in the Indian markets was on account of weak global cues. Most Asian  markets  were a sea of red with Japan’s Nikkei down 2 per cent and Straits Times slipping nearly one per cent. Shanghai Composite, Kospi and Taiwan were down 0.2-0.4 per cent, each. The US markets, however, were shut on account of Thanksgiving holiday. This weak sentiment across Asian markets was triggered by fears of a sooner-than-expected rate hike by the US Federal Reserve (US Fed). Investors and traders, according to analysts, now expect the US central bank to raise rates faster on the back of t...

  In March 2104, the trial court had convicted four persons for gangraping a 22-year-old photo-journalist inside the abandoned  Shakti Mills compound   in central Mumbai on August 22, 2013. The Bombay High Court on Thursday commuted to life imprisonment the death penalty awarded to three convicts in the  2013 gangrape case  of a 22-year-old photojournalist inside the defunct Shakti Mills compound in central Mumbai, saying that they “deserve imprisonment for life to repent the offence committed by them”. A division bench of Justices Sadhana Jadhav and Prithviraj Chavan refused to confirm the death penalty awarded to Vijay Jadhav, Mohammad Qasim Shaikh and Mohammad Ansari, and commuted their sentence to life imprisonment for the remainder of their lives. The bench, while pronouncing its order said that it cannot ignore the fact that the offence has shocked the collective conscience of the society and rape is a violation of human rights, but the sentence of death i...

  Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will propose to exempt Euroclear settlements from tax, says report. India plans some tax exemptions in its budget due February, possibly the final step for the nation’s sovereign bonds to be included in global indexes, according to people familiar with the matter. Finance Minister  Nirmala Sitharaman  will propose to exempt Euroclear settlements from tax, the people said, asking not to be identified as the plans are private. If lawmakers approve the budget on schedule, Indian debt could be eligible for index inclusion by the end of March, they added. A finance ministry spokesman wasn’t immediately available for comment. The tweak is crucial for inclusion of Indian bonds as Euroclear doesn’t charge capital gains tax on debt transactions. Settlement of Indian bonds on Euroclear, an international securities platform, has been a key demand from index providers such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPMorgan last month said India’s inclusion in ...

  Experts say more real-world studies are required now Bharat Biotech has updated the efficacy of Covaxin to 65.2% against the  De lta variant  in – Effectiveness Study on Delta Variant – Lancet Infectious Diseases, published on Nov 23 2021. “Bharat Biotech commends the investigators from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on the BBV152 study published in Lancet Infectious Diseases. These results provide evidence for effectiveness for Covaxin in real life settings,” Bharat Biotech said. It added that an effectiveness result of 50% achieved during the peak Covid-19 Delta variant wave in India, in a high risk study population of physicians and health care workers, in a hospital environment, and who are challenged repeatedly with high viral loads, provides insights into the efficacy and effectiveness of Covaxin.. “These results compare well with the 65.2% efficacy against the delta variant obtained during the controlled phase III clinical trials of  Cov...

  BlackRock Inc. and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board were among so-called anchor investors in the IPO that bought more Paytm shares on Tuesday and Wednesday Several of the biggest investors in  Paytm’s  record-breaking initial public offering added to their stakes in the Indian fintech giant after shares plunged by as much as 41%, according to people familiar with the matter. BlackRock Inc. and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board were among so-called anchor investors in the IPO that bought more Paytm shares on Tuesday and Wednesday, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information. The stock climbed for a third day on Thursday, rallying as much as 7% to 1,875 rupees in early Mumbai trading. That’s still a fair distance away from its issue price of 2,150 rupees. The size of this week’s purchases by anchor investors couldn’t immediately be learned. Representatives for  BlackRock  and CPPIB declined to comment….

  He said that due to lack of resources the government had little to spend on the welfare of the masses Pakistan Prime Minister  Imran Khan  said on Tuesday that the rising foreign debts coupled with low tax recovery had become a “national security” issue because government did not have enough resources to spend on people’s welfare. Our biggest problem is that we don’t have enough money to run our country due to which we have to borrow loans, Khan said while addressing the inaugural ceremony of the Track and Trace System (TTS) of the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) for the sugar industry in Islamabad. He said that due to lack of resources the government had little to spend on the welfare of the masses. Khan said that the rising foreign debts and low tax revenue had become an issue of “national security”. He lamented that the prevailing culture of not paying taxes was a legacy of the colonial period when people disliked to pay taxes as their money was not spent on them… Re...

  The   iPhone   maker said it is also seeking to ban NSO Group from using any Apple software, services or devices to prevent further abuse. Apple Inc said on Tuesday it has filed a lawsuit against Israeli cyber firm NSO Group and its parent company OSY Technologies for alleged surveillance and targeting of U.S. Apple users with its Pegasus spyware. The iPhone maker said it is also seeking to ban NSO Group from using any Apple software, services or devices to prevent further abuse. Apple  is the latest in a string of companies and governments to come after NSO, the maker of the Pegasus hacking tool that watchdog groups say targeted human rights workers and journalists. Earlier this month, U.S. officials placed the company on a trade blacklist. NSO has also faced either legal action or criticism from Microsoft Corp, Meta Platforms Inc, Alphabet Inc and Cisco Systems Inc. NSO is allegedly involved in circumventing security for products made by these companies and selli...

  Research does not estimate vaccine effectiveness against hospitalisation, severe disease, and death. Two doses of Covaxin, the India-made vaccine, are 50 per cent effective against symptomatic Covid-19, said an independent study by researchers based on real-world assessment . Results of the interim study, which was published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases Journal, showed that two doses of the vaccine manufactured by  Bharat Biotech Covaxin , also known as BBV152, had 77.8 per cent efficacy against symptomatic disease and present no serious safety concerns.. The study titled ‘Effectiveness of an inactivated virus-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, BBV152, in India: a test-negative, case-control study’ assessed 2714 hospital workers at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi, from April 15–May 15, who were symptomatic and underwent RT-PCR test for  Covid-19  detection. The researchers, including doctors Manish Soneja, Adil Rashid Khan, Devashish Desai,...

  Tesla shares have rebounded 9.4% after initially slumping following Musk’s Twitter poll. After a few days’ break,  Elon Musk  resumed selling shares in Tesla Inc., now coming more than halfway to making good on his promise to offload 10% of his stake in the electric-car maker. The billionaire sold an additional 934,091 shares for $1.05 billion, according to regulatory filings late on Tuesday U.S. time. He also exercised 2.15 million stock options, and the sales were made to cover the taxes related to that transaction, the documents showed. With the most recent disposals, Musk now has offloaded 9.2 million shares and collected about $9.9 billion of proceeds since he conducted a Twitter poll asking whether he should sell 10% of his  Tesla  stake. A chunk of that money will go to taxes. To reach the 10% threshold, Musk would need to sell some 17 million shares, or about 1.7% of the company’s outstanding stock. If his exercisable options are factored into his over...

  Air pollution is estimated to cost the global economy upwards of $2.9 trillion per year due to fossil fuel emissions alone Air pollution continues to present one of the world’s biggest health hazards to people everywhere, contri­buting to about 7 million premature deaths annually. 600,000 of these deaths are children. Compounding this staggering health crisis, air pollution is estimated to cost the global economy upwards of $2.9 trillion per year due to fossil fuel emissions alone, while also contrib­uting to a range of severe environmental probl­ems. Air quality is determined by the levels of air pollut­ants PM2.5, PM10, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and carbon monoxide. In 2020, India had 46 of the world’s 100 most polluted cities, followed by China (42), Pakistan (6), Bangladesh (4), Indonesia (1), and Thailand (1), according to air quality tracker IQAir. All these cities had a PM2.5 air-quality rating of over 50. Nine out of the top 10 most polluted cities are in I...

  Qureshi said Pakistan was pursuing imperatives of geo-economics and was determined to make the country a hub of trade, investment, and finance Pakistan’s Foreign Minister  Shah Mahmood Qureshi  said on Monday that his country wanted to deepen its longstanding ties with the United States. Qureshi made the remarks during his meeting with Congressman Gregory Meeks, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representative (HFAC), and Congressman Ami Bera, Chairman of the Asia Subcommittee of the HFAC, who called on him. Welcoming the Congressmen to Pakistan, Qureshi said that  Pakistan  valued its longstanding relationship with the US and wanted to further deepen and widen this relationship, according to a statement issued by Foreign Office. He emphasised that Pakistan was pursuing imperatives of geo-economics and was determined to make the country a hub of trade, investment, and finance. He invited US companies to invest in Pakistan’s IT and Healt...

  Chun had multiple myeloma, a blood cancer which was in remission, and his health had deteriorated recently, his former press secretary Min Chung-ki told reporters Former South Korean President  Chun Doo-hwan , whose iron-fisted rule of the country following a 1979 military coup sparked massive democracy protests, died on Tuesday at the age of 90, his former press aide said. Chun had multiple myeloma, a blood cancer which was in remission, and his health had deteriorated recently, his former press secretary Min Chung-ki told reporters. He passed away at his Seoul home early in the morning and his body will be moved to a hospital for a funeral later in the day. A former military commander, Chun presided over the 1980 Gwangju army massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators, a crime for which he was later convicted and received a commuted death sentence. His death came about a month after another former president and his coup comrade Roh Tae-woo, who played a crucial but controvers...

  The state, at present, has eight operational airports Uttar Pradesh is set to get the highest number of international airports in the country, the state government said on Monday, ahead of the foundation laying ceremony of the  Noida International Airport  at Jewar by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 25. The state, at present, has eight operational airports, while 13 airports and seven airstrips are being developed. “With the ground breaking and foundation laying ceremony of the Noida International Airport scheduled on November 25, the state is now on its way to have five international airports – the highest for any state in India, the BJP-led state government said in a statement. Uttar Pradesh had only two international airports – Lucknow and Varanasi – till 2012. The third international airport at Kushinagar became operational after it was inaugurated by Modi on October 20, while work on the airport in  Ayodhya  is on in full swing and air services a...

  Repeal of farm laws a setback or a step in the right direction? Why’s the cable TV industry stagnated? Will the market cheer withdrawal of farm laws? What are cloud kitchens? Let’s find the answers Prime Minister  Narendra Modi  announced the scrapping of the controversial farm laws after persistent protests. Modi had hailed the laws as a watershed moment when they were passed last year, with the government arguing that they would bring private investments and FDI into the farm sector. However, the government was unable to onboard a section of farmers and caved into the political pressure arising from their protest. Now, what comes next? The lesson from this episode should be clear: No matter how strong the government might appear, major reforms cannot be pushed through without taking all stakeholders on board. Coming back to your living room, you could be one of the many who switched to DTH from cable. The lure of better picture and sound quality made people choose the...