Budget 2018-19

  Better.com CEO Vishal Garg fired 900 people last week via a Zoom call The chief executive of Better.com apologized for his manner of handling layoffs at the mortgage company after a video of him firing 900 people last week via a Zoom call went viral on social media. Vishal Garg, who has come under intense criticism after the SoftBank-backed company laid off about 9% of its workforce through the video call, said he had “blundered the execution” of communicating the layoffs. “I realize that the way I communicated this news made a difficult situation worse,” Garg said in a letter  https://bit.ly/31DnBAt  dated Tuesday. The CEO had cited the market, performance and productivity as reasons behind the decision to lay off employees in the United States and India. Better.com said in May it would go public through a merger with blank-check firm Aurora Acquisition Corp, in a deal that valued it at $7.7 billion. Earlier this month, the terms were amended to provide Better.com with...

  Australia has joined the US in announcing a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics over concerns about human rights abuses in China. Australia has joined the US in announcing a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics over concerns about human rights abuses in China. This comes a few days after the Biden administration announced the decision not to send an official US delegation to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Australian Prime Minister  Scott Morrison  said that this decision should come as “no surprise” that their diplomats and politicians would boycott the event, citing the breakdown in the ties with China, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported. “I’m doing it because it’s in Australia’s national interest,” he said. “It’s the right thing to do.” Morrison said Beijing’s own diplomatic freeze on Australia had also fed into the decision for officials to boycott the Games because Australia had been unable to raise its concerns about...

  PM Modi was addressing a public meeting after inaugurating the Rs 8,600-crore Gorakhpur fertiliser factory Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday reached out to farmers, claiming the Centre had insulated them from the sudden spurt in international fertiliser and urea prices by providing subsidies worth Rs 76,000 crore. Addressing a public meeting after inaugurating the Rs 8,600-crore  Gorakhpur fertiliser factory , Modi said soil nutrients NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium) and urea accounted for central subsidies worth Rs 43,000 crore and Rs 33,000 crore, respectively this year. “Since our government is pro-farmer, we decided not to pass on the impact of higher prices of fertilisers to farmers. While the global prices are ruling at Rs 60-65 per kg, the prices for our farmers are 10-12 times cheaper,” he said. Sharpening his attack on the Opposition, he equated the red caps worn by  Samajwadi Party  workers with laal batti (red beacons) that suggest a hunger f...

  TS Tirumurti, Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations, said when West Pakistan unleashed genocide on East Pakistan, India hosted millions of refugees and saved them from the massacre. Underlining India’s commitment to the humanitarian protection of refugees, TS Tirumurti, Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations, on Tuesday said when West  Pakistan  unleashed genocide on East Pakistan, India hosted millions of refugees and saved them from the massacre. Speaking at the UNSC briefing by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Tirumurti said, “In contemporary history, India’s hospitality, and assistance for refugee communities from the neighbouring countries is well recorded and appreciated. Be it the Tibetans or our brothers and sisters from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka,  Afghanistan  and Myanmar, India has always responded with compassion and understanding. When West Pakistan unleashed genocide on East Pakistan, India hosted milli...

  IPS officer Chhaya Sharma, who led the investigation in the brutal 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape case, has been appointed as the joint commissioner (Economic Offences Wing) in the Delhi Police IPS officer Chhaya Sharma, who led the investigation in the brutal 2012  Nirbhaya gangrape case  and was serving as the director in the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), has been appointed as the joint commissioner (Economic Offences Wing) in the Delhi Police, according to an official order issued on Tuesday. The order issued by Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal said seven Indian Police Service (IPS) officers are being transferred with “immediate effect”. Sharma was appointed as the director in the CVC on July 27, 2020. The Centre last month approved Sharma’s premature repatriation “to her parent cadre to avail the benefit of promotion”. Sharma was the Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) in Delhi in 2012 when she handled the investigation in the brutal Nirbhaya gangrape case. She, alon...

  Modi and Putin emphasised the central role of the UN in Afghanistan India and Russia on Monday underlined that the Afghan soil should not be used for sheltering, training, planning or financing any terrorist groups including the ISIS, the Al-Qaeda and the  Lashkar-e-Taiba  (LeT), and decided to provide immediate humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people. In their summit talks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin also pitched for the formation of a truly inclusive government in Kabul and reiterated their strong support for a peaceful, secure and stable Afghanistan, according to a joint statement. The mentioning of LeT in the statement assumes significance as it reflects Russia’s understanding of India’s concerns over the possible risk that the Pakistan-based terror groups pose after the Taliban’s capture of power in Kabul. The statement said the leaders welcomed the close coordination between India and Russia on Afghanistan, including thr...

  The well-marked low-pressure area, remnant of cyclonic storm ‘Jawad’, has weakened into a low-pressure system over northwest Bay of Bengal and adjoining West Bengal-Bangladesh coasts The well-marked low-pressure area, remnant of  cyclon ‘Jawad ‘, has weakened into a low-pressure system over northwest Bay of Bengal and adjoining West Bengal-Bangladesh coasts, the Met department said on Monday. It is likely to weaken further and move towards Bangladesh, it said. The metropolis experienced heavy rain owing to the weather system with office-goers and others facing a tough time reaching their destinations as several thoroughfares and low-lying localities lay inundated. Fewer buses plied the roads during the day and traffic came to a halt at many places amid attempts by civic bodies to pump out water from the flooded areas, officials said. Many schools in the city and suburbs declared a ‘holiday’ on Monday as light drizzle continued all throughout the day. Several rivers, includin...