CURRENT AFFAIRS FOR 11TH MAY 2017

CORPORATE AFFAIRS, TECHNOLOGY, E-COMMERCE & CARS

1. Japan's SoftBank Group -the biggest investor in troubled Indian online marketplace Snapdeal -said it has incurred a loss of over Rs 9,000 crore (160.42 billion yen or $1.41 billion) from its investments in the country's Internet commerce sector. The Masayoshi Son-led telecom and media conglomerate on Wednesday attributed a large part of the overall loss to its investments in Snapdeal, besides ride-hailing app Ola. The disclosure -a part of its full-year results -comes even as SoftBank is negotiating the sale of Snapdeal to bigger rival Flipkart and seeking separate buyers for its payments arm FreeCharge. Market share positions of both Snapdeal and FreeCharge have suffered over the past few months as the company has initiated cost cuts and layoffs.The Gurgaon-based company, valued at a high of $6.5 billion in February last year, is estimated to be seeking a sale price of about $1 billion. “(The) highly competitive ecommerce market in India has made a trend of the company's business performance lower than initially anticipated,“ SoftBank said in an official statement. The special loss of ¥114.059 billion, or about $1 billion, represented impairments on its investments in subsidiaries and associates, including Starfish I Pte Ltd, through which it owns 33% in Snapdeal, the Tokyo-headquartered group said. Starfish I, an intermediate holding company, owns preferred shares in Jasper Infotech, which owns and operates Snapdeal. Snapdeal's weaker performance had led to “a material decrease in net asset value of Starfish I Pte Ltd as of March 31, 2017, and therefore, SBG impaired the carrying amo unt of its shares in the company, to the amount equivalent to its net asset value“, the statement said. Ola suffered a drop in valuation last year from the peak of $5 billion in November 2015 to $3 billion late last year, when it raised $250 million from SoftBank. But since then the Bengaluru-based startup, which competes with Uber, has managed to raise capital from Ratan Tata's RNT Capital and New York-based hedge fund Falcon Edge at a higher valuation. SoftBank is one of the biggest investors in India's digital commerce market, having sunk in nearly $2 billion across companies such as Snapdeal -in which it has invested $900 million -as well as Ola, grocery delivery app Grofers and hotel room aggregator Oyo.
2. Alibaba Group-backed Paytm has signed a non-exclusive term sheet to acquire rival FreeCharge, the digital payments platform owned and operated by beleaguered online marketplace Snapdeal, in what is expected to be an all-cash deal in the range of $45-90 million.
3. Carlsberg said its India business dragged down volume growth in Asia. But for India, volumes would have grown 2%, the Danish brewer said. This is the first instance of a global liquor firm commenting on the impact of the highway liquor ban.
4. Hero MotoCorp posted a nearly 14% fall in fourthquarter net profit, hurt by sluggish demand for two-wheelers post demonetisation.
5. The base variant of French carmaker Renault's popular SUV Duster sold in India has failed crash test conducted by vehicle safety group Global NCAP . The crash tests conducted by UK-based Global NCAP revealed that the model recorded zero stars for adult occupant protection. The crash test showed that due to the lack of airbags the driver injuries would have been “unacceptably high“. The second set of crash test results conducted on Renault Duster SUV by Global New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) found the basic variant of the SUV (STD variant) which is sold without airbags, recording an abysmal zero stars for adult occupant protection. The crash test showed that due to the lack of airbags the driver injuries would have been unacceptably high. The same variant of the Duster scored 2 stars for rear seat child occupant rear seat child occupant protection.
6. Myntra.com said that its parent company , Flipkart, had hiked its annual budget by a quarter in a bid to bolster Myntra's position as the country's largest online fashion retailer. The hike comes amid reports earlier this year that Flipkart intends to cut its annual outlay for Myntra. “This year we got 25% extra money from the Flipkart board,“ said Ananth Narayanan, chief executive of Myntra that was acquired by Flipkart for $300 million in 2014. He declined to specify Myntra's total annual budget. Narayanan said Myntra would use the additional money to upgrade technology and to also invest in 3-4 small to medium ethnic brands to ramp up the company's ethnic offerings.
7. Automakers are expected to invest $8-10 billion Rs 51,600-64,500 crore) in India over the (` next three-four years to set up factories and expand production in a market that is set to become the third-largest for passenger vehicles by the turn of the decade. The investment will boost production of cars, utility vehicles and vans in India by 1.3-1.5 million units a year and generate employment for 20,00025,000 people, said industry insiders and experts. India market leader Maruti Suzuki and parent Suzuki, Korea-based Hyundai Motor and unit Kia Motors, Chinese manufactures SAIC, Changan and Beiqi Foton, as well as Italy's Fiat are among companies that are expected to drive the investment. These will be in addition to more than `1 lakh crore that automakers are set to spend on upgrading vehicles to meet new safety and emission standards. Annual passenger vehicle sales in India, currently the fifth-largest market, topped the three-million mark for the first time in fiscal year ended March 31, growing in the double digits. With a fast expanding economy, rising disposable income and increasing need for mobility, India is fore cast to post annual passenger vehicles sales of more than five million by the end of the decade. The passenger vehicles industry currently has a production capacity of more than 5.5 million, according to industry sources. While a few facilities are running below capacity, some companies are utilising India as a base for exporting vehicles. Japan's Suzuki Motor is particularly aggressive with its investment plans, encouraged by the solid performance of Maruti, which has single-handedly driven growth in the industry in the past five years. Suzuki is likely to infuse $780 million in a third factory in Gujarat by 2020, taking its cumulative investment in the state to more than $1.5 billion. Maruti, which accounts for almost half the Indian market, will sell the vehicles manufactured by its parent in India, as the local entity aims to double sales. “We have taken 35 years to reach annual sales mark of 1.5 million units. I do not think it will take as long to sell another 1.5 million vehicles, may be not even 10 years,“ said Maruti chairman RC Bhargava. Separately, Maruti will be investing Rs 1,900 crore for its second phase of expansion at an R&D centre in Rohtak, Haryana, which will be commissioned in early 2019. The company has a capital expenditure plan of Rs 4,500 crore for the current fiscal year. Maruti is sitting on cash reserves of Rs 23,000 crore. The company has said it will invest aggressively to procure land for doubling its sales and service network by 2020. With Suzuki investing in the Gujarat facility, Maruti is free to put its own resources in rapidly expanding the sales and service network. Kia, the Hyundai subsidiary, last month announced a $1.1billion investment to set up a factory in Andhra Pradesh. Hyundai Motor India plans to invest $2 billion on products alone and is eyeing output of one-million units out of India by 2020-2021. The company, which is operating at 95% capacity, may utilise the Kia factory to meet increased volume requirement in the near future, but people in the know said it has already given feelers to the Tamil Nadu government for the next phase of expansion. Its current facility is situated near Chennai. The automotive industry, including component manufacturing, is estimated to grow to Rs 16.16-18.18 lakh crore by 2026, according to estimates by industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers Association.
8. Walmart Stores is preparing to pay roughly $300 million to resolve a long-running US investigation into allegations of bribery by its employees, according to people familiar with the matter.
9. Air India Express is in discussions with Dubai-based flydubai for collaboration opportuni ties, including code share among their flights. The move comes at a time when AI Express, which operates a significant number of flights to Gulf nations, is working on ways to spread its wings further. Part of the Air India group, the carrier has plans to fly to new destinations. An official said the airline is discussing ways to collaborate with flydubai for possible sales and marketing beyond Dubai.Various options, including code share of flights and interline agreement, are being looked at, the official added.
10. Hotel room aggregator Oyo has plans to add 200 `townhouse hotels' across the country by December. “We have plans to add over 200 town house hotels across the country, including 60 hotels across seven cities in the South by end of 2017,“ Oyo founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal told reporters here. He also said 25 of these 60 will come up in Telangana. Oyo on Wednesday launched a townhouse hotel in upmarket Jubilee Hills area here making it the fifth hotel in the portfolio which was launched in January.
11. Zee Group's direct-to-home (DTH) service arm Dish TV has got clearance from the Competition Commission of India for its proposed merger with Videocon d2h. “The CCI has intimated the company that it in its meeting held on May 4, 2017, considered the proposed combination and has accorded its approval to the said combination,“ the company said in a statement. It has already received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India, NSE and BSE for the merger. Dish TV, as per directions of the National Company Law Tribunal, has convened shareholders' meeting on May 12 to secure their approval.
12. A new Samsung patent appears to indicate that the company is working on a Bixbyequipped smart speaker in the vein of the Amazon Echo. The filing shows a screen mounted above a slimline tripod suggesting the device will be equipped with a display much like the recently announced Amazon Echo Show and Apple's rumored Siri speaker.
13. 3 m miles Total miles logged by self-driving car firm Waymo on public roads.
14. International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private investment arm of World Bank, is making an equity investment of $10 million in Stellaris Venture Partners' maiden fund, it announced in a disclosure. This is the third funding commitment by IFC in an India-focused VC fund this year. The commitment comes a few months after Stellaris, which was started by former top executives at Helion Venture Partners, made the first close of its $100-million fund earlier this year. Stellaris raised $50 million from the likes of the Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) and Infosys among several individual investors, institutional investors and family offices. The next close is expected by June, IFC said in its disclosure. IFC had recently committed an equity investment of $3 million in pi Ventures, a fund focused on startups working on artificial intelligence and Internet of Things, through its IFC Startup Catalyst programme. In January, it had proposed a $20-million investment in IDG Ventures India's third fund, which recently made a final close of its $200-million fund. Even while VC funding in the Indian startup space slowed down last year, venture funds dedicated to India raised $2.2 billion in 2016, compared with $1.5 billion the year before, as per data from Venture Intelligence.
15. Bengaluru-based IT firm Happiest Minds Technologies announced the acquisition of Cupola Technology -a specialised IoT (internet of things) services company. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed. The company had been scouting for acquisitions in the IoT domain after it hit profitability last year.This is the company's first acquisition, while a second acquisition is close in pipeline and most likely to be announced this year.
Cupola Technology was founded in 2011 by Ajay Agrawal and Huzefa Saifee. It's 100-member team is now a part of Happiest Minds Technology. Founded by former Mindtree Chairman Ashok Soota in 2011, Happiest Minds has a revenue run rate of $75 million. Early this year, Soota had announced that the company is scouting for acquisitions that comple ment their business. He said the these will be up to $10 million in size as the company wants to utilise its own cash for acquisitions.
16. PayU, the Naspersowned global payments company, has invested $120 million in German alternative lending startup Kreditech, and the deal will see the Peter Thiel and IFC-backed startup entering India and working with PayU India on launching its credit product in the country. Kreditech gives long-duration, large-ticket loans to consumers with lower purchasing power and uses its own technology to underwrite loans. It was launched in 2012 and has so far raised funding from JC Flowers, Peter Thiel, Rakuten and the World Bank's IFC. The PayU investment is an extension of the company's Series-C round. The startup has been focused on European markets and is present in Netherlands, Poland, Spain, as well as Russia. With this investment, the company will further focus on international expansion starting with India, Alexander Graubner-Müller, CEO of Kreditech, told ET. Kreditech has earlier worked with PayU in Poland, where it developed point-of-sale products and online cardless EMI products.
17.Fintech startup EarlySalary has raised $4 million in a Series-A round from IDG Ventures India and Dewan Housing Finance (DHFL), a non-banking financial company. The Pune-based startup offers salary advance loans to young, salaried professionals.
EarlySalary CEO Akshay Meh rotra said the funds will be used to achieve 50,000 loans a month by the year-end compared to 4,000 loans processed a month at present. The firm had earlier ra ised $1.5 million in a seed round from Ashok Agarwal of Trans corp Group in 2015. This is IDG's second investment in the digital lending space after CreditMantri and its 63rd investment overall, according to Karthik Prabhakar, director and head of fundraising at IDG Ventures India.
18. ION Energy, an energy storage startup, has received an undisclosed amount of angel funding from a clutch of investors. Sushil Jiwarajka, chairman of OMC Power, Aakrit Vaish and Swapan Rajdev, cofounders of Haptik, and executives from Times Internet, Dentsu Aegis, Salesforce and Credit Suisse, among others who participated in this funding round. ION Energy specialises in creating a layer of infrastructure to enable the adoption of electric vehicles in India. It leverages proprietary enhancements to the Lithiumion tech in its energy storage systems. The funds will be used for product development and taking the product towards its formal manufacturing.
ION is looking to deliver a better price per kilometre, five-six times better acceleration, 10-12 times longer life and faster charging time, compared to existing options, according to a release from the startup.
19. Novelis, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hindalco Industries, sold a 50% stake in its Ulsan facility in South Korea to Kobe Steel for $315 million (Rs 2,033 crore), creating an equally owned joint venture with the Japanese producer of aluminium roll. The transaction is expected to close by September this year. The Ulsan plant employs around 600 people.
20. Novelis posted a net income of $47 million, compared with $29 million a year earlier, helped in part by lower interest expense brought about by long-term debt refinancing actions taken during fiscal 2017.
21. Bharti Airtel will be focused on cost controls and cornering a majority share of all 4G devices entering the Indian market to its data network and spend $2.5 billion in capex in a bid to stave off the stiff challenge posed by new entrant Reliance Jio Infocomm.
22. A war of words has broken out between handset makers and telecom players over call quality. Handset makers have rejected allegations by carriers that the poor quality of mobile phones was responsible for call drops. The Indian Cellular Association has written to telecom department to refrain from further regulating the already `over-regulated' sector, ad ding that phones sold in India followed laid down norms. “We would like to reiterate the handset industry is already over-regulated and should not be subject to any more regulations,“ ICA said, adding that inadequate infrastructure set up by carriers was causing call drops. The Cellular Operators Association of India had asked the government to chalk out a mechanism to control the quality of mobile handsets in India as it had not considered the role of devices in service quality and call drops.
23. Tata Chemicals announced on Wednesday it will acquire a facility of Unnati Inorganics for Rs 34.20 crore on a slump sale basis. The acquisition is a part Rs 295 crore investment approved by of the ` the Tata Chemicals' board earlier in February 2017, it said in a BSE filing. “Tata Chemicals has on May 9, 2017, signed a business transfer agreement with Unnati lnorganics to acquire their undertaking of precipitated silica operation, on a slump sale basis, for the consideration of Rs 34.20 crore,“ the company said.
24. Drug firm Zydus Cadila said on Wednesday it has received a favourable judgement from a US federal court in a patent infringement case paving the way for company to launch its generic product in the American market. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has affirmed judgement in favour of Zydus Pharmaceuticals (USA) Inc, holding that its proposed generic version of Lialda does not infringe a US Patent, the company said in a statement.
25. Tata Motors said ex-SBI chairman O P Bhatt has been appointed as an additional and independent director on its board. The board of directors yesterday approved the appointment of O P Bhatt as an additional and independent director with effect from May 9, 2017 for a tenure of five years, Tata Motors said in a BSE filing. Bhatt also serves as director on the boards of group firms Tata Consultancy Services and Tata Steel. Last year in November, he briefly served as Chairman of Tata Steel after Cyrus Mistry was ousted as Chairman of Tata Sons.
26. Sounding a note of caution on the MCI move asking doctors to prescribe only generic medicines, CII president Shobana Kamineni has said poor quality of drugs could be dangerous for patients.Kamineni, who is also executive vice chairperson of Apollo Hospitals Enterprises, pitched for making India a major medical tourism destination to “heal the world“. During an interaction with PTI, she also made a strong case for promoting traditional medicines like Ayurveda.
27. Bolstered by predictions of a normal monsoon by the India Meteorological Department, stocks of consumer companies like Hindustan Unilever, Emami closed between 2% and 4.6% higher on Wednesday, while the BSE FMCG index rose 1.81%. Analysts said though consumer companies with a broad rural focus will benefit from increased rural spending power given a healthy monsoon, valuations of these companies do not offer comfort. Traders, however, expect the bullishness in FMCG stocks to continue.
28. HDFC Bank, India's largest bank by market capitalisation, has raised about Rs7,500-8,000 crore by selling perpetual bonds to institutional investors through the electronic bidding process on NSE. With this bond sale, it has perhaps become the largest ever issuance of perpetual bonds, dealers said. The bank was earlier planning to raise only Rs 5,000 crore, reported a few weeks ago. The bonds have offered 8.85% interest rate with a fiveyear call option, an exit route for investors. Perpetual bonds, known as additional tier-I papers in market parlance, do not have any fixed maturity.
29. Union Bank of India (UBI) plans to raise a total of Rs 6,350 crore by selling bonds and shares in FY18 as it looks to shore up capital to be ready for an acquisition if the government decides to merge small public sector banks with itself, chairman Arun Tiwari said.
30. Natco Pharma on Wednesday said it has launched a blood cancer drug in the Indian market priced between Rs 5,000-20,000, a 98% discount compared to what it is sold at in the US. It has launched a generic version of pomalidomide 1 mg, 2 mg, and 4 mg capsules in India, it said in a filing to the BSE here. Pomalidomide is for patients with multiple myeloma . It has priced the medicine of 1 mg, 2 mg, and 4 mg apsules at Rs 5,000, Rs 10,000 Rs 20,000 respectively for a capsules at Rs 5,000, Rs 10,000 Rs 20,000 respectively for a monthly pack of 21 capsules. Natco will market generic pomalidomide capsules under its brand name Pomalid in India.
31. Indians could soon have Tata Group's ready-to-eat food on its plate as India's largest conglomerate may soon be entering the market dominated by the likes of ITC, MTR and Patanjali. Tata Industries, a holding company for new-age businesses, formed a division for the same in March.It will look at manufacturing and marketing vegetarian, non-vegetarian, non-alcoholic, carbonated and non-carbonated food products.
The company confirmed the development but said the project right now is in experimental stages, which may or may not evolve into a business in the future.
32. Policybazaar, an online and digital platform to sell insurance policies, is looking to raise around Rs 400 crore, largely from existing investors such as PremjiInvest, Tiger Global, Ribbit Capital and Temasek. The company expects to complete the process in six weeks. Policybazaar has turned profitable in the financial year ended March 31, 2017, and is expected to turn in net profit of about Rs 50 crore during the financial year ended March 31, 2018. Policybazaar was valued at over Rs 2,200 crore, according to the last ` deal, when Temasek bought a sta ke and Intel exited. In the last financial year, the company had revenues of Rs 210 crore.In 2016, Intel Capital had exited Policybazaar by selling its stake to , Tiger Global, which is the single largest investor, with more than 30% stake. Info Edge owns 18%. In April 2015, the company had raised Rs 300 crore from PremjiInvest, Steadview Capital, Ribbit Capital, and Tiger Global.Dahiya has explored listing the company in the current financial year. “We will be listing ready by October this year from the compliances point of view,“ said Dahiya.
33. India has for the first time signed a contract to import LPG from Iran as it looks at additional sources of cooking fuel to meet rising domestic demand. State-owned oil firms will import one very large gas carrier (VLGC), or 44,000 tonnes, per month for an initial sixmonth period, industry sources said. India imports almost a million tonnes of LPG every month to meet rising demand. LPG consumption in 2016-17 rose 9.8% to 21.55 million tonnes. Of this, 11million tonnes came from imports.
34. Boosted by pickup in demand, India's 12 major ports saw cargo traffic increase by 6.27% to 55.75 million tonnes (MT) in April, the first month of the current fiscal. These top ports under the Centre had handled 52.46 MT cargo in April 2016. Increased demand from sectors like iron ore, coking coal and container traffic resulted in higher movement of cargo last month to 55.75 MT, as per the Indian Ports Association. Iron ore traffic volumes were up 40% to 5.37 MT during the month as against 3.82 MT in April 2016 while coking coal volumes surged by 15% to 4.61 MT.
35. Volkswagen on Wednesday rejected investor calls for the carmaker to publish the results of a key inves-tigation into its diesel emissions cheating scandal, saying it was unable to do so for legal reasons.Investment advi-sory firm Hermes EOS said on Tuesday the findings of a company-commissioned probe by US law firm Jones Day should be disclosed, and would allow Volkswagen to move on from its biggest-ever corporate crisis. “There is no written concluding report by Jones Day and there will not be one,“ VW chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch said at the company's annual shareholder meeting. “I ask for your understanding that VW for legal reasons is prevented from publishing such a final report,“ he told the gathering of about 3,000 shareholders. VW initially pledged to inform shareholders about the findings of the Jones Day report, but has since abandoned this plan.
36. SAP said on Wednesday its executive pay system was reasonable, defending management bonuses against the criticism of some shareholders.“Our executive payment must be seen in comparison with other soft-ware companies and must be competitive,“ SAP's co-founder and supervisory board Chairman Hasso Plattner told the company's annual shareholders' meeting.“We think we have a reasonable system,“ he added. Leading shareholder advisors have called on SAP investors to oppose the supervisory board of Europe's largest technology com-pany on the issue of executive pay.
37. Apple Inc became the first US company with a market value of more $800 billion as investors bet the next iPhone will spur a resurgence in sales. The stock rose 1% on Tuesday to close at $153.99 in New York, giving it a market capitalisation of about $803 billion. The shares have gained 33% since the start of the year, helped by a buyback programme that CEO Tim Cook extended to total $210 billion last week, from $175 billion last year. Apple's rise to the top of the world's largest equity market highlights the emergence of mobile technology and the relative decline of the oil industry in recent years.Exxon Mobil Corp's value peaked in the fall of 2007, when oil prices climbed toward $100 a barrel. In November of that year, PetroChina Co briefly became the first global company with a market capitalisation of more than $1 trillion.
38. Toyota on Wednesday reported its first drop in annual net profit for five years, while the Japanese car giant unexpectedly warned that the cost of customer incentives and a further pickup in the yen threatened to dig further into its bottom line. The downbeat forecast underscores how Japan's automakers, including rivals Nissan and Honda, have benefited heavily from a slump in the currency in recent years. But sharp yen gains at the start of the past fiscal year -largely driven by Brexit and tumbling world equity markets -took a bite out of Toyota's latest results. On Wednesday, the Corolla and Prius hybrid maker warned it expected more currency pain this business year, while incentives in the lucrative North American market pushed operating profit in the region down about 35%. Overall, Toyota posted a net profit of 1.83 trillion yen ($16 billion) on slightly lower revenue of 27.6 trillion yen in the recently ended year to March -more than 20% down from a record 2.31 trillion yen net profit the previous year. Toyota, which lost its crown last year to Volkswagen as the world's top-selling automaker, warned it expects a net profit of 1.5 trillion yen in the current year to March 2018 -way off market expectations of around 1.9 trillion yen. Vehicle sales in the past fiscal year ticked up to 10.25 million units from 10.09 million a year earlier.
39. Tech Mahindra is set to let go of about 1,500 employees, or close to 1.2% of its workforce, following in the footsteps of bigger rivals such as Infosys, Wipro and Cognizant, all of which are in the process of doing big layoffs as protectionist policies in the US and new technologies shake up the $150-billion Indian IT sector. Tech Mahindra, the country's fifth largest IT services provider, had 117,095 employees across 90 countries till the third quarter, which ended December 31. The company , which will announce its fourth quarter results this month, has a majority of its employees in India.
40. US apparel chain GAP will manufacture and sell locally in India to counter mounting competition from its European rivals Zara and Hennes & Mauritz (H&M).
41. Video intelligence startup Vidooly has bagged a funding of $1.4 million (Rs 8.9 crore) from GVFL and Times Internet in a series A round. Founded by Nishant Radia, Subrat Kar and Ajay Mishra, Vidooly is an online video intelligence software platform for content creators, brands, multi-channel networks, agencies & media companies. Since its inception, over 20,000 video-content creators globally have signed up on its platform. Everyday , Vidooly's big data engine analyses the engagement of over 500 million viewers and tracks 250 million videos. Some of its clients include Fine Brothers, TVF, OML, VideoGyan, GroupM, Mindshare, Thoughtful Media and WebTV Asia, among others.
42. At a time when critical financial services firms across the globe are facing cyber security threats almost on a daily basis, Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and global technology major IBM have signed a multimillion dollar agreement to boost the bourse's IT security. Under this five-year contract, IBM will use its global expertise to secure trading engine, data and hardware for all of BSE's current trading platforms like stocks, bonds, derivatives, mutual funds and also the planned ones like commodities.





POLITICS, ECONOMY, CRIMES, SPORTS, ENTERTAINMENT & NEWS AROUND THE WORLD

1. The new ordinance that empowers RBI to nudge banks to deal with stressed assets will improve transparency and provide higher assurance when dealing with bad loans, said Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairman, State Bank of India (SBI).India's largest lender had lobbied to involve government agencies in dealing with bad loans.
2. India is fast-tracking a project to connect Kashmir valley with the rest of the country by rail, which will enable trains to operate between New Delhi and Srinagar in 14 hours flat. The railway line could become functional in four years.
3. The defence ministry has finalised the road map for selection of private sector companies for mega military production orders, with an elaborate procedure spelt out in a new policy to be unveiled this week.
4. Banks can initiate loan recovery proceedings without waiting for an account to be formally classified as nonperforming, as the latest amendments to banking rules allow for faster resolution.
5. Terrorists abducted and shot dead Ummer Fayaz Parray, a 22-year-old Army lieutenant, in Shopian district of south Kashmir on Tuesday night.Parray was abducted from a family wedding.
6. In a top-level bureaucratic reshuffle, the government appointed Sanjay Mitra as defence secretary and gave IT secretary Aruna Sundararajan additional charge of the telecom department.
7. Stocks continued their record-setting pace on Wednesday with the Nifty closing above the psychologically crucial 9,400 mark after the Met department upped its forecast for a normal monsoon this year. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Tuesday that the monsoon this year could be normal and 100% of the long-period average (LPA), up from its earlier forecast of `near normal' and 96% of the LPA. The chances of the dreaded El Nino, which caused two consecutive droughts in 2014 and 2015, returning this year are not very high, IMD said. The Nifty jumped at the news, ending up 90.45 points at 9,407.30 after scaling an all-time high of 9,414.75 during the day. The Sensex gained the most since March 14, ending up 314.92 points at 30,248.17 off a fresh life high of 30,271.60 during the session.
8. India had no other legal option but to approach the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to get reprieve for Kulbhushan Jadhav as all other legal means in Pakistan to save him had dried up, said persons familiar with the case and legal processes between the two countries. Jadhav, who had been sentenced to death by a Pakistan military court for charges of spying, had been finding it difficult to get any kind of justice in Pakistan, and had not been able to find a lawyer to fight his case there. The Lahore High Court Bar Association, ostensibly under pressure from the Pakistani Army , had even threatened to cancel the membership of any lawyer who extended his services to Jadhav .
9. Vendors in Assam's Joniya constituency have found a new place to sell their vegetables in All India United Democratic Front's office. After last year's electoral drubbing, hardly any party leaders visited the office, following which vendors turned the office itself into a shop.
10. While almost every other campus in Kashmir erupted with sudden student protests in April, NIT Srinagar maintained complete calm. The institute, which ran into a student conflict and had to be shut down last year amid considerable unrest, managed to keep peace and calm and continued to hold classes.
11. Working during the summer recess of the court has made a section of lawyers unhappy. “The heat is killing this time,“ they complained. The lawyers feel SC should have taken this into account before listing important matters for hearing in the first half of the vacation beginning May 11.The court has over the years whittled down its holidays in response to public criticism. That wasn't resented, but the heat this time appeared to have made all the difference.
12. Meghalaya's arts and culture minister Ronnie Lyngdoh recently set an example on punctuality.As a chief guest of a programme -to mark the 156th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore -the minister reached U Soso Tham auditorium five minutes before schedule. But left it soon as the organisers failed to start the programme on time. Some lesson for the organisers on time management.
13. After staging a `live' demonstration in Delhi Assembly on Tuesday to show that Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) could be easily rigged, AAP has now decided to initiate a campaign seeking the use of machines equipped with voterverifiable paper audit trail or VVPAT in all future elections. Party leaders said the campaign called `Save Democracy Movement' will begin from May 11.Despite the Election Commission's assertions that its EVMs are tamperproof, the first protest will be held by AAP workers right at the the door step of the Election Commission on Thursday . AAP's newly appointed Delhi conve nor Gopal Rai added that the party would participate in the all-party meeting called by the EC on the issue on May 12 and will decide the next course of action based on its outcome.
14. A pan-India homebuyers' pressure group, `Fight for RERA', has reached out to the Maharashtra government over the issue of dilution in the state's rules under Real Estate Regulatory Act (RERA). The group has sought Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' intervention to revoke the Maharashtra Real Estate Rules and notify fresh rules similar to the ones notified on October 31, 2016, by the Ministry of HUPA for Union Territories without legislatures. The RERA rules notified for Union Territories are being viewed as undiluted version of central rules aimed at protecting homebuyers' interest as envisioned by the Act.
15. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which till recently was keen on holding mid-term polls in Maharashtra, is now having second thoughts on the issue because of altered political equations in the state, especially because of the coming closer of Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena, which might make the going a bit tough for the BJP. BJP leaders reckon that midterm polls may not be such a good idea now.
16. Dalits and Muslims in Saharanpur have traditionally voted for BSP, however, in the recently held polls BJP won 4 of the 7 seats in the district. Charge of district given to top minister SP Shahi.
17. The BSP has expelled its Muslim face Naseemuddin Siddiqui and his son from the party for carrying out “anti-party“ activities, prompting the sacked MLC to hit back at party supremo Mayawati. Hours after he and his son Afzal were shown the door, Naseemuddin said, “Whatever charges have been levelled against me, applies to her (Mayawati) and I can prove those with evidence“. BSP General Secretary and Rajya Sabha member S C Mishra said, “Naseemuddin and his son Afzal have been expelled from the party .He has a partnership in a number of slaughter houses and `benami' properties in his name. He also took money during assembly polls due to which party had to suffer defeat“. He also alleged that Naseemuddin used to “accept money“ from people in return for work and added that the “BSP will not tolerate such indiscipline“. Naseemuddin, who hails from Banda, was earlier removed as the party in-charge of UP and was ap pointed as MP unit in-charge after the assembly poll debacle.
18. Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday spoke to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and both agreed to meet in Delhi early next week, as part of Gandhi's efforts to forge a broader unity among Opposition parties against BJP and field a joint Opposition presidential candidate.
19. Chief Justice of India JS Khehar on Wednesday held out hope for a manipulation-free digital case-filing process, shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Integrated Case Management Information System (ICMIS) to help the apex court go paperless. . Though e-fling is already permitted and in use despite resistance from certain sections of lawyers, the new digital filing takes it to the next level, obviating the need to file any litigation papers except at the entry level and then back it up with additional information as the case goes forward to the appellate stages. Additionally , it will make it difficult for anyone, including court staff and lawyers to tamper with the process or manipulate filing dates. The CJI held out this promise to all, promising to this first to the high courts and later the district courts. The PM endorsed the judiciary's massive digital push to make the justice delivery mechanism more transparent, efficient and economical. The new system would now be available on the Supreme Court website.
20. Trinamoool Congress and CPM are likely to vote for a common presidential candidate of Opposition parties although they are rivals in West Bengal.Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee indicated this recently to party insiders. She reportedly told partymen that her sole intention was to thwart BJP's growth in Bengal and fight the party politically at the national level.
21. A proposal by India's food regulator to tax all packaged foods with high fat, sugar and salt content isn't going down well with companies and restaurants. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) proposed the tax on Monday . Although a rate hasn't been specified, it would bring almost all processed food items under the ambit of the proposed levy if implemented. Some companies were sceptical about the move.
22. The new fiscal year began on a sour note for bank credit growth, which slipped to 4.32%in the fortnight to April 28, much lower than the 63-year low level of 5.08% in fiscal 2017, the latest RBI data showed. In the reporting fortnight, credit grew at an anaemic 4.32% to Rs 75.45 trillion as against the Rs 72.32 trillion in the same period. For the fiscal ending March 2017, credit growth had plunged to a multi decadal low of 5.08% with an outstanding loans at Rs 78.81 trillion as against Rs 75.01 trillion on Arpil 1, 2016.
23. The National Green Tribunal has directed an inspection team headed by Central Pollution Control Board to inform it about the mechanism of e-waste collection and transport at the premises of power distribution companies here. The inspection committee has ben directed to see whether electronic waste from their premises have been removed. During the hearing, the joint committee filed the inspection report which said in most of the premises of discoms, e-waste was not found stored anywhere except the premises of Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited at Mangolpuri here.
24. President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey amid the agency's investigation of Russian interference in last year's election, saying the bureau needed new leadership to restore “public trust and confidence“. Trump's decision on Tuesday means that he will get to nominate Comey's successor while the agency is deep into the Russia inquiry, including whether any of Trump's associates colluded with the Russian government to influence the 2016 presidential election.Democrats condemned Comey's dismissal, calling it an effort to cut short the Russia probe and demanding the appointment of a special prosecutor to carry it forward.
25. At least seven civilians, including two women and three children, were killed in a roadside bomb blast in Af-ghanistan's western Herat province, police said on Wednesday. The blast occurred in Adraskan district on Tuesday when a vehicle running along a main road touched off an IED and the explosion killed all the people aboard the vehicle, provincial police spokesman Abdul Ahad Walizada said.The victims were members of the same family, Tolo News reported. Walizada blamed Taliban militants for planting the IED in the district, south of provincial capital Herat city, 640 kilometres west of the Afghan capital.However, no group has claimed responsibility for the bombing so far.
26. President Trump described an Oval Office meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as “very, very good“ on Wednesday, claiming progress on ending the conflict in Syria. “We had a very, very good meeting“ Trump said shortly after the meeting.“We're going to stop the killing and the death (in Syria).“ Lavrov on Wednesday became the most senior Russian official to meet Trump since he came to office, and the most high-profile Kremlin official to visit the White House in years. It is rare for a foreign minister -or any non-head of state representing a foreign country -to be given a meeting in the Oval Office.
27. South Korea's new president was sworn in on Wednesday, just a day after a landslide election victory, and immediately declared his willingness to visit Pyongyang amid high tensions with the nuclear-armed North. Left-leaning Moon Jae-In, a former human rights lawyer, backs engagement with North Korea in the quest for peace -in contrast to the threatening rhetoric from the Trump administration in recent weeks. “I will also go to Beijing and Tokyo and even Pyongyang in the right circumstances.“
28. Solar power tariffs in India reached another historic low of `2.62 per kwH, becoming cheaper than those at many coal-fired plants, at the latest auction at the Adani Renewable Energy Park in Rajasthan. The winners of the 250-MW projects auctioned by the Solar Energy Corp of India (SECI) was Phelan Energy Group of South Africa, which won 50 MW at `2.62 per unit, Avaada Power that won 100 MW at `2.62, and SBG Cleantech, which was awarded the remaining 100 MW at a tariff one paisa higher at `2.63 per kwH. Avaada Power was set up by Vineet Mittal, who formerly headed Welspun's renewables business before it was sold to Tata Power. SBG Cleantech is the joint venture of Japan's Softbank, Taiwan's Foxcomm, and Bharti Airtel. Formed in June 2015, SBG Cleantech is already building 350 MW in Andhra Pradesh, which it won through an NTPC conducted auction in December 2015. South African solar energy major Phelan Energy Group makes its debut in India with this project. It has commissioned a 175 MW solar project in South Africa, and through its subsidiary Solar Capital, is building numerous other plants across five continents. The winning bid was considerably below the lowest bid so far of `3.15 per kwH, at an NTPC auction of 250 MW at the Kadapa Solar Park in Andhra Pradesh on April 13 this year. Before that, the lowest achieved was `2.97 per kwH in the first year, followed by five paise tariff escalation for the next 15 years, which worked out to a mean tariff of `3.30 per kwH over 25 years.This was at a 750 MW auction at Rewa Solar Park, Madhya Pradesh, in February , conducted by the state government. There were 14 bidders in all, with bids ranging from `2.62 to `3.59 per kwH. None of the bidders sought viability gap funding (VGF), a concession the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy gives to developers of renewable energy . The Adani Renewable Energy Park is located at Bhadla, a site that enjoys the highest solar radiation in the country .The capacity utilisation factor (CUF) of solar projects located in this region is relatively high, because of which tariffs for projects here have been setting progressively lower records.
29. The uncertainty looming large over Shashank Manohar's tenure as ICC chairman ended today after the former BCCI president made it clear that he will complete his term which runs till June 2018. “The International Cricket Council (ICC) today confirmed Shashank Manohar will continue to function as the Independent Chairman of ICC until the end of his elected term which is June 2018,“ ICC stated. Last March, Manohar had decided to step down from chairman's post citing “personal reasons“ only to be persuaded by the ICC directors -both Full Members and Associates -to stay. Initially, Manohar wanted to stay only till ICC Annual Conference in June this year but very recently he has had a change of heart.
30. In Vivo IPL 2017 Delhi Daredevils Won against Gujarat Lions.
31. On the back of a normal monsoon forecast, both the Nifty and sensex rallied to new all-time highs on Wednesday . The sensex jumped 315 points, to close at 30,248, while the Nifty , too, closed higher at 9,407. The day's gains added about Rs 1.1lakh crore to investors' wealth.
32. A four-month-old baby from Kalyan born with a major heart defect is all set to go home after a two-month stay at the Parel hospital where she underwent a 12-hour surgery and survived six heart attacks. She was diagnosed with a condition called transposition of great arteries.
33. The 23-year-old son of Andhra Pradesh minister P Narayana died after his Mercedes Benz SUV rammed into a Metro pier in Hyderabad on Wednesday. Nishith was returning home with a friend when he lost control of the car.
34. The two-wheeler population in Mumbai will cross the four million mark in a few weeks having already crossed 39.2 lakh, a senior transport official has said.This comes as India taken over from China as the biggest two-wheeler market.
35. A marriage celebration in Rajasthan turned tragic late on Wednesday when a portion of a marriage hall collapsed killing at least 23 people, including four children. The toll may rise as several were still trapped when reports last came in.
36.Uttar Pradesh has seen the maximum count of candidates who have made the cut this year to take the gruelling JEE (Advanced) exams. Maharashtra has moved up one spot, from third last year to second, and Rajasthan, which was second, is now a close third. Interestingly, of the 2.2 lakh candidates who cleared the first barrier of the JEE (Main), 19% were girls, and the largest chunk hail from Maharashtra, followed by Telangana (see box). Like the past few years, what hasn't altered is the high success rate of high school graduates from the CBSE board. “Many CBSE students always managed to crack the JEE. But we see that each year, the dynamics of the other state boards change,“ said an IIT director.“Even among the top rankers, we see a kind of shift after each exam,“ he added. From among the Maharashtra students, those from Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Latur have been doing well in the overall JEE results and more have been eventually getting selected at the Indian Institutes of Technology . The integrated approach where students are trained for entrance tests in their junior colleges is showing a good success rate among our students. Several students from interior Maharashtra too migrate to the city for the two years of their preparation,” said Praveen Tyagi, chairman, Pace Junior Science Colleges. Moreover, girl enrolment for coaching in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur has risen, and most of them stay back instead of travelling to Kota or the southern states that are coaching hubs as parents prefer to have them closer home, added Tyagi. Bihar, which was at number four in 2016, has slipped two spots this time. But students from Kerala have upp ed their game—while that state did not figure in the top 15 positions last year, it is up at the ninth rank this year. Data from the IITs which conduct the JEE (Advanced) exams shows that students from the five southern states of AP, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu account for 35% share of the student pool. Telangana and AP together would have made it to pole position.
In all, of those who made the mark and registered, 1.74 lakh students will take the IIT-JEE Advanced exams on May 21. “Some may not have registered as they may have felt they are not cut out for the IITs, some may want to pursue another discipline like medicine or go abroad, and some others may want to join an engineering college in their state,” said a JEE official.
37. Even two days after the Supreme Court ordered the arrest of Calcutta high court judge Justice C S Karnan, police teams from two states (WB and TN) were unable to locate him, report A Subramani and Daniel George. There were rumours that he had left for the temple town of Kalahasthi in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, and that his mobile phone signals indicated his presence near a picnic location during the day. Karnan, who was staying at the Tamil Nadu government state house in Chennai till Tuesday afternoon, went missing after the import of the apex court ruling dawned on everyone.
38. A shipload of tramadol, a synthetic opioidlike drug used as a painkiller, sent from India to be sold to IS terrorists in Libya to give them greater resilience has been seized by the Italian police, according to media reports on Wednesday . News agency PTI, quoting a report in The Times, said 37 million tramadol pills, worth $75 million, were found packed in three containers at the port of Genoa, labelled as blankets and shampoo to be loaded on a freighter bound for Libya. The report said Italian investigators traced the shipment to an Indian pharmaceutical company that allegedly sold the pills for $250,000 to a Dubai-based importer.
39. The Armed Forces Tribunal in Mumbai has directed `notional' reinstatement of a naval commander removed from service in May 2013 for allegedly having a “philandering lifestyle“ and “breaching security“ . The government said his actions amounted to “gross misconduct“. But the tribunal held that the case against the commander, Lijo Chacko, was “grossly overstated“. The tribunal said a punishment disproportionate to the misconduct would amount to discrimination under right to equality and hence set aside his removal. The commander would have completed 20 years of pensionable service last March. The tribunal made it clear he should now get his pension as commander.
40. A unique combination of five Supreme Court judges belonging to different faiths will start hearing final arguments on the constitutional validity of the `triple talaq' mode of divorce practised by the Muslim community from Thursday , the first day of the apex court's summer vacation. For a sensitive issue like this, the lead petition is aptly titled `Quest for Equality vs Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind'. Hearing the case will be five judges from five different communities--Chief Justice of India J S Khehar (Sikh) and Justices Kurian Joseph (Christian), R F Nariman (Parsi), U U Lalit (Hindu) and Abdul Nazeer (Muslim).
41. In a bizarre twist to the brutal murder of interior decorator Kishor Chaudhari (37) who was pumped with 17 bullets in Thakurli on Tuesday over an alleged business rivalry, it has come to light that his elder brother, too, was killed 10 years ago when he was the same age. Mukund Chaudhari, a real estate agent, was beaten to death with an iron rod. Dinesh Patil, a rival real estate broker, was arrested in the case along with nine others; all were acquitted after witnesses turned hostile. The Dombivli-based Chaudhari family has demanded security for all the eyewitnesses in the killing of the younger son, citing how witnesses in Mukund’s murder case had turned hostile. Their mother Bebi Chaudhari said the family suspects the same broker, Patil’s hand in Kishor’s killing too. Kishor was allegedly killed by four men of the Bhoir family on Tuesday over a fight for a Rs 6.5 lakh interior decoration contract for a Thakurli flat. Crime branch officials said they are probing the family’s al legations. A police team visited Patil’s residence on Wednesday and found that he was missing and his mobile phone was switched off, said sources. Bebi Chaudhari told TOI: “The Bhoir family did not have any enmity with us. We therefore suspect Patil's involvement in the killing.“ Mukund's son Bhavesh added, “If the police had acted on my uncle's compla int filed against the threats made by the Bhoir family on Monday , this incident would never have happened.“
42.Forty hours after a four-year-old girl went missing from Aarey Colony in Goreagon (East), remains of her body were discovered on Wednesday afternoon by a police search team and locals. Cops said they suspect the girl was attacked and killed by a leopard.
43. The auction of the first of 13 attached properties belonging to the Yash Birla Group was finalised before a special court on Wednesday . The economic offences wing (EOW), probing a Rs 284-crore case of non-payment to investors had in 2014 attached the properties, collectively worth Rs 1,100 crore. The first property , a 4,000 sq m plot in Oshiwara, was put up for auction on April 28 with a base price of Rs 19 crore. A private firm, Ralco, which submitted the highest bid, Rs 20 crore, was declared the winner. But another firm, Vir Savarkar Projects, challenged the auction in court, claiming it to be illegal on the grounds that the firm had already bought the property from a Yash Birla group company in 2015 by paying Rs 1crore as token amount. The firm stated before a court under the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors Act that the deal was finalised for Rs 23 crore. It said it was ready to deposit Rs 24 crore (above the Rs 1crore token money). The court on Wednesday allowed Vir Savarkar Projects to deposit a demand draft and ordered that documentation be completed. The EOW alleged that 19,065 people lost their investments in schemes by Birla Power Solutions. The FIR said that in February 2012, the victims invested in a fixed deposit scheme in which they were promised a return of 10.75% after a year. They alleged that the promise was never kept.A chargesheet was filed against Birla and nine others in the case.The police said the competent authority handling the auction and refund to victims is an officer of deputy collector rank appointed by the state government. In December 2013, the Marine Drive police registered a case against Birla Power Solutions for allegedly not repaying a Rs 1-crore fixed deposit investment of a Worli businessman on maturity . The case was later transferred to the EOW . “The police found Rs 44 crore in bank accounts belonging to the accused.This was used to partly refund the investors,“ an officer said.
44. If the day-time heat in April this year sucked the ener gy out of you, the night temperatures for the month made matters worse. Data released by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) reveals that nights in April warmed faster than the days, making the average night-time temperature for the month the third highest in the country's history since record-keeping began in 1901. The average night temperature rose by a significant 1.02 degrees Celsius in April against a base of 22.38 degrees Celsius. In April 2010, the rise was 1.9 degrees Celsius and in April 2016,1.4 degrees Celsius. The data also revealed that the mean temperature this April rose around 1.04 degrees Celsius, making it the fourth hottest April since 1901. The hottest April ever was in 2010, followed by 2016 and 1973. This time, it is really the night temperature rise that has got scientists thinking.They said the increase in pollutants and greenhouse gases seemed to hinder the earth's outgoing long-wave radiation at night, leading to an increase in temperature. AK Srivastava, senior scientist and head of climate monitoring and analysis group at IMD, Pune, said that past data had shown that nights had been warming more rapidly than days.
45. A 24-year-old tempo driver has been arrested for allegedly assaulting an on-duty traffic policeman at Kalwa junction in Thane on Tuesday evening. According to a complaint lodged by constable Ajay Shirsat, who was manning traffic at Shivaji chowk around 6 pm, tempo driver Yogesh Shinde hit him after being told to pull over. Even after being told to stop, Shinde drove past the constable thus causing a traffic jam, stated the complaint. As Shirsat asked Shinde why he had moved on despite being told to halt, it led to a heated argument between them. A police officer said that Shirsat’s complaint says that Shinde had pushed and slapped him in public. However, a shopkeeper from the locality, who claimed to have witnessed the incident, said that the “constable had beat up the driver more than the driver having assaulted the cop”.
46. Vile Parle (east) locals were inconvenienced after power was shut around 10.30 am on Wednesday . Power had not been restored till 10.30 pm when this report was filed. A resident said they had no clue when power would be restored. “We can't contact the company helpline.“ A Reliance official said there were multiple faults... “One fault has been restored, the rest will be restored after midnight.“
47. The Nehru Nagar police arrested a 35-year-old man for sexually harassing a 17-yearold boy and demanding that he marry him.
Police arrested Shadab Dalvi for also attempting to kiss the minor and showing him porn videos on his mobile phone. The victim, a diesel mechanic diploma student at a south Mumbai college, narrated the incident to his parents, who approached police. The victim told police he met Dalvi at a gym and later they became friends. “One day , Dalvi sent me a message on my Facebook account asking if I was interested in going to an Ajmer shrine. We both went in April. On reaching there, Dalvi took me to a small lodge and booked a room. Once we entered, he tried to kiss me, he removed my trousers and showed me porn videos. I got scared and ran outside but as I did not know anyone, I returned,“ the boy told police. He told police that when they went to the market the next day , Dalvi teased him, saying he should buy and wear female clothes and he would look nice in them. Dalvi also allegedly told him that he wanted to marry him. The victim told Dalvi he had to appear for exams and they returned to Mumbai. Last week, Dalvi called him near the railway tracks and again tried to kiss him and insisted on marriage. Dalvi was held under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
48. Four-month-old Vidisha is being called a “miracle baby“ in the Parel hospital that has been her home for the last two months. She was not only born with a major heart defect that needed a 12-hour surgery , but she suffered six heart attacks thereafter. Vidisha, who was born to Kalyan residents Vishaka and Vi nod Waghmare, is likely to be discharged from B J Wadia Hospital within the next couple of days. Her parents could barely manage Rs 25,000 for the Rs 5lakh bill that was paid by various donors of the hospital.
49. The Kalyan RPF found an unclaimed box containing Rs 37 lakh cash in a three-tier air-conditioned coach of Udyan Express at Kalyan railway station on Wednesday evening. The RPF officials said that they had received information from control room about an unclaimed box in Udyan Express, (11301) which was heading to Mumbai. When the train halted at Kalyan, the RPF ran a check and opened the box and found bundles of Rs 2,000 notes and Rs 500 notes, totalling Rs 37 lakh. The officials said that passengers travelling in the B1 compartment from Bengaluru first noticed the box when the train reached Gulbarga in Karnataka. When no one claimed it till Karjat, a few passeng ers went to other coaches to ask it if belonged to anyone. However, when no one came forward, they informed the ticket checker, who, inturn, alerted informed the control room. An official said that the box has been handed over to Kalyan station manager.
50. The BMC has started a massive action against street food vendors across the city after it stumbled upon E. coli bacteria in the food and ice that it had tested recently . So far the civic body has cracked the whip on around 5,000 street food vendors across the city. Around 2,000 kgs of swe ets, 11,000 litres cold drinks and 5,000 kg of fruits and vegetables have been destroyed in this action which is still underway . Over 20,000 kg of contaminated ice was destroyed in various parts of the city by officials of the BMC and food and drug administration (FDA) over the last four days. The presence of the bacteria is known to cause serious health issues.
51. Roughly one in three flights departing from or arriving at Mumbai airport in the afternoon in April was delayed. The main runway was shut down between 9am and 5pm for three months from February 1 onwards for surface repairs.The shorter secondary runway was available for flight operations during this time, but as it isn't equipped with taxiways like the main runway , aircraft spent longer time on the runway during take-off or landing. The delays had a cascad ing effect on airline schedules, affecting afternoon and evening peak-hour flyers the most. Out of 3,683 flights operated between 3pm and 11pm in the period under consideration, a total of 1,295 departures, or 35 %, were de layed, with Jet having the highest number of delayed flights at 490. About 36% of arrival flights too were behind schedule, by 15 minutes or more. Similarly, 35% of arrivals between 11pm and 3am, mostly international, were delayed. But only 5% departures that took place during this time were behind schedule. The best time to board a flight continued to be early morning. Between 3am and 9am, only 8 % departures and 6% arrivals were delayed. Of the total 8,831 departures from Mumbai airport in April, 78% were on-time and of the 8,841 arrivals, 72% were on-time. The airline with the best on-time performance was Spice Jet, which operated a total of 691 departures, out of which 571 were on-time, giving it an OTP of 83% for departures. Close on heels was Vistara, which operated 278 departures and had an OTP of 82%. In the arrivals category, Spice Jet topped the list, with an 84% on-time rate. It was followed by IndiGo at 81%.
52. A day after Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray visited the ongoing nullah-cleaning works across Mumbai, BJP leaders and corporators were seen making the rounds of city drains. But unlike the Sena, which claimed it was satisfied with the desilting works being done, the BJP raised a stink, saying it was 100% dissatisfied and adding that despite the action taken in the desilting scam which came to light in 2015, nothing seems to have changed on the ground. The Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar, along with BJP corporators like Manoj Kotak and Makarand Narwekar, visited various drains in the western suburbs. They once again claimed to have found bogus documents submitted by contractors.
53. Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray has instructed party MLAs to prepare for mid-term polls in the state, it is learnt. In such a scenario, the party would contest the assembly election on its own strength. Given the current composition of the legislative assembly, which leaves the Shiv Sena with no other choice but to extend support to Devendra Fadnavis’s government, Thackeray has begun to veer round to the view that assembly polls would rejig the political equations in the state, said a senior party functionary on Wednesday.
54. The wife of a passport officer from Thane was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly cheating people of Rs 3.5 crore. Sunita Sharma (46) had lured her acquaintances by promising high returns on investment, said an official from the economic offences wing of the Mumbai police. A criminal offence had been lodged on January 25 this year after one of the investors, Krushi Bhutani, who lost Rs 7.5 lakh, lodged a complaint, saying that Sharma had lured him with the promise of returns ranging from 10% to 15%. The police said that Sharma worked for a company in Bandra-Kurla Complex and some of her victims were from that office. So far, 25 investors have complained against Sharma.
55. Adrenaline in teenagers can be hard to tame and Justin Bieber’s fanbase is a passionate bunch. The energy levels of 45,000 shrieking attendees at D Y Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai remained undimmed for 90odd minutes on Wednesday. For Mumbai, it was the manifestation of the hysteria that defines ‘Bieber Fever’. Uncharacteristically on time, the 23-year-old Canadian pop rage emerged from a glass cage illusion singing ‘Mark My Words’ and ‘Where Are U Now?’ with a flash of holograms, lasers, fireworks and gymnasts, making it difficult to spot where Bieber actually was at times. Bieber, on his maiden gig in India, made Mumbai the host for his Purpose Tour, which has raked in close to $200 million since its 2016 launch. The tour is to promote his fourth studio album. Beliebers had their share of glory too at the event. In a first for an Indian concert, fans were flown on choppers from Juhu. Fans pushed against the barriers or collapsing from dizzy spells had the security worried. But Bieber himself remained unflappable. Flailing his hands, he wooed the audience made up of tweens and teens, and a smattering of men and women over 45, mostly parents of the same tweens and teens.
56. Maharashtra chief secretary Sumit Mullick has called a meeting of over 10 central agencies to discuss slum rehabilition scheme for the slums on Government of India land in Mumbai and Thane. In a letter to these agencies, Mullick said the state government has undertaken to make Mumbai slum free by 2022 in line with the Centre’s Housing for All-2022. The state has proposed rehabilitation of all slum-dwellers on central government land on 400 acres of salt pan land. In 2015, the state had taken up the task of preparing a master plan but in December 2016, a Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority report established that barely 25 acres of salt pan land is developable. The letter states that the various central government agencies have neither surveyed nor framed any policy for rehabilitation of slums on their land.
57. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has readied a formal request for an Interpol red-corner notice against controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik and is likely to give it to the CBI, which is the Interpol’s office in India, on Thursday. Once an RCN is issued by the global police body, any international agency can arrest Naik wherever he is spotted and hand him over to India. Naik, who is facing probes for provocative speeches, inciting violence, spreading hatred, funding terrorists and money laundering, is said to be hiding in Saudi Arabia. Sources said he frequently travels to Malaysia and Indonesia. Sources said the RCN request against Naik was prepared with detailed evidence after procuring a non-bailable warrant against him from court and it was approved by NIA chief Sharad Kumar.
58. Bringing to book a man who suppressed his first marriage and remarried, a magistrate’s court ordered him to pay a compensation of Rs 3 lakh to the second wife for causing her mental and physical cruelty. “The respondent (husband) has suppressed his first marriage from the applicant and got married with her by taking disadvantage of the personal law, which permitted him to marry four times. This is nothing but domestic violence with applicant,” the court said. The court added that the husband was to pay the second wife a monthly maintenance of Rs 8,000 under the provisions of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, in addition to Rs 5,000 towards costs of the proceedings. The man is facing criminal proceedings under Section 498A (husband or relative of husband subjecting wife to cruelty) of the Indian Penal Code. On August 21, 2014, the woman moved the court under the Act seeking protection and relief. She said that when she got married to the man October 13, 2010, her family was told that he was a bachelor who ran a spare parts business. The woman said that within six months, he started abusing her and demanded she arrange for a separate residence for both of them. She said that her widowed mother and maternal uncle had jointly purchased a house and her husband insisted they transfer it to his name. She further alleged that even after she was allowed to reside there with her husband, he continued to assault her and taunt her about her caste. She said that he even forced her to get a share in the Rs 12 lakh insurance claim received by her family after her father’s death. Fearing for her life, the woman moved back to her mother’s house in August 2012. The woman said on one occasion, he came over when she was alone at home and insisted on physical relations. She alleged that when she refused, he poured kerosene on her and threatened to set her ablaze. The husband denied all allegations and said that the complainant was aware of his first wife and two daughters and had consented to the marriage. The man said she got upset with him as he went on a 17-day pilgrimage with his family members in 2013 and threatened to tell his first wife about their marriage. He alleged that she filed the police complaint only to seek revenge. The court pointed out that the man had stated that though his first wife had suspected that he had remarried, he had handled the situation calmly. “This evidence of respondent goes to suggest that he has suppressed his second marriage from the first wife. Thus, it seems that he has a habit to tell false to wives. Therefore, his evidence is not trustworthy, believable and acceptable,” the court said. It further held that the man had even obtained talaq from the woman without following the customs and procedure of the Muslim personal laws.
59. A 25-year-old lifeguard of the Mumbai Fire Brigade rescued three Malwani youths from drowning off Aksa beach on Wednesday morning. The three men—Altaf Mohammad Iqbal (30), Sarfaraz Rahim Sheikh (24) and Suraj Prajapati (25)—had gone for a walk on Aksa beach early in the morning and sat down to chat on the rocks, almost 200m inside the sea. The men failed to notice the rising water levels owing to high tide and started shouting for help as none of them could swim. Lifeguard Nathuram Suryavanshi, who reported for duty at 9am, noticed the three youths frantically signalling for help around 10.25am.
60. Bracing themselves for the oncoming lean season, most airlines have put out discounted domestic fares for June-September travel. The fares begin to drop from June 20 and hit extreme lows through July, August and September, except for certain days like the ones around the Independence Day weekend when they rise a bit. A Mumbai-Delhi return ticket booked this week for travel in July can be had for Rs 4,300, all-inclusive. A one-way fare on the route started at Rs 2,100 on IndiGo, taxes included. Routes on which ticket costs remain high through the year, like Mumbai-Kolkata or Mumbai-Kochi, also showed a cooling of fares. An indicator of changing booking behaviour of the Indian market was the slight increase in fares around the Independence Day weekend. August 15 falls on a Tuesday and so August 14, a Monday, is likely to see many vacant seats in offices.
61. Two minor boys from Nepal, who had gone for a swim, drowned in a pond in Ghansoli in Navi Mumbai on Tuesday evening. The boys — Hitesh Premkumar Chatri (12) and Yuvraj Dilbahadur Thapa (15) — had gone to the pond along Palm Beach Road with two other minor boys. The police said that the children were frolicking in the waters abutting mangroves during high tide when water level in the pond rose.
62 There are 39 more junior colleges in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) now. While this means an increase in seats, teachers do not feel it will help reduce the demand-supply gap as only a few institutes are popular among students. The office of the deputy director of education, Mumbai, which conducts online FYJC admissions in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) has received registrations for 778 colleges this year compared to 739 in 2016. The colleges concluded their registration process after several deadline extensions last week.

63. A 34-year-old man was arrested from Uttar Pradesh for allegedly killing his lover's husband in Vasai and dumping his body in the Tungareshwar jungle n March. Rajesh Gupta confessed to having killed Dhanshyam Singh (39) with whose wife, Babli, he had an affair. Gupta was staying as paying guest at Singh's Boidapada home since September last year.
64. A Virar man was arrested for allegedly raping, murdering and disposing of a woman's body ast month. On April 18, the Arnala police found a woman's body in a secluded spot in Y K Nagar, Virar (W). They managed to identify the body and zero in on Abdulla Shaikh, who has reportedly confessed to the crime.
65.Petrol pump owners observed `no-purchase' of fuel on Wednesday and sent an ultimatum letter to oil marketing companies to look into their demands for a hike in dealer commission. If the oil firms fail to hold a dialogue with them, pump owners have threatened a shutdown on Sunday.
66.Thursday will see lakhs of class XII graduates battle it out for admission to engineering and pharmacy colleges. The state's common entrance test (MHT-CET) has seen registrations from a total of 3.9 lakh candidates. Of these, the lion's share is of the undecided lot that will be taking the test for both engineering and pharmacy (1.5 lakh).
The rest (1.44 lakh) are sitting for physics, chemistry and math for a seat in engineering, up from last year's 1.3 lakh, and 95,545 are registered for pharmacy. This is the first year that the state has asked for details on transgender candidates in this entrance test and has received 25 registrations.
67. A routine anti-encroachment drive took an ugly turn at Naupada's Gaondevi ground on Wednesday evening when deputy municipal commissioner Sandeep Malvi was assaulted by hawkers. Naupada police are investigating the incident.
Police said Malvi, who was heading the drive near Thane station, was allegedly roped into a heated argument with the owner of Ekvira Poli Bhaji Kendra, Pravesh Deshpande, at 7.30pm, about an encroachment in front of the shop. The argument, within minutes, attracted a mob, which attacked the official.
68. A day after businessman Raj Kundra and his actor wife Shilpa Shetty got interim relief from a Thane sessions court in a cheating case, Kundra was asked to appear before Kongaon police (Bhiwandi) for inquiry on Wednesday . Kundra was quizzed by police in presence of his lawyer Aniket Nikam. Sources from Kongaon police said that he has been asked to come to the police station for questioning on Thursday and day after too. Businessman Ravi Bhalotia from Bhiwandi had filed a case against Shetty , Kundra and three others on April 27. Bhalotia had alleged that Best Deal TV Pvt Ltd (BDTV), an online shopping channel, headed by them had duped him of Rs 24 lakh. He said that he was a vendor with the channel through which he sold bedsheets and it was to collect money on his behalf, howver, he never got any money from the channel.
69. The state is pulling out all the stops for the launch of Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari's pet project in Nagpur. The country's first electric taxi service, aimed at combating pollution, is due for a May 26 inauguration to coincide with the third anniversary of the Modi government. An initiative to showcase the effort to curb vehicular emissions, the pilot project is expected to take off in Gadkari's hometown with 100 e-taxis, officials said. Based on the response, the scheme is likely to be extended to more cities. However, the launch has run into a last-minute bureaucratic hurdle due to archaic rules. Under the state's permit rules, only vehicles of more than 980cc (cubic centimetres) engine capacity can be registered for commercial operation and these have to be of at least 1,400cc for high-end services.But electric vehicles don't fall under the cc category since they have no internal combustion engines and their capacity is defined in kilowatts (kw). The norm blocking the rollout of electric taxis is an unex pected obstacle at a time when the Centre is promoting use of e-vehicles to check air pollution and reduce India's dependence on crude oil import. CC is a unit of volume; for example, 1,500cc is essentially 1.5 litres. “Each taxi shall have an engine capacity of not less than 980cc with seating capacity not exceeding seven, including driver; provided that at least 50% taxis attached to any aggregator shall have an engine capacity of 1,400cc or more,“ the state's taxi rules state. Atransport official said the department was working on the technicalities to overcome the restriction. Officials may revise motor requirements for taxis in a few days and the state transport authority is likely to take a final call. “There have been several meetings. Even Union minister Nitin Gadkari is very keen on them,“ said a state official.Transport minister Diwakar Raote told TOI, “The launch of the electric taxis has been announced by Union minister Gadkari. Nothing has reached me. So, I can't comment.“ Union transport ministry has already given the go-ahead to test these taxis and trial runs may begin soon, sources said.Another hurdle the scheme faces is availability of power and the need for a network of charging stations for the vehicles.
70. Overgrown bushes have been trimmed and walls whitewashed at kabrastans ahead of Thursday's festival of Shab-e-Baraat. Through the night till the wee hours of Friday , throngs of men and boys will arrive at graveyards to pray for their departed relatives. Shab-e-Baraat occurs 15 days before the advent of Ramzan, which falls on May 28 this year. “This occasion is doubly significant. Allah showers reward and blessings on those who offer Esaal E' Sawaab (gifts of prayer or charity) for the deceased,“ says Maulana Sajid Shaikh of Nagpada. “ Also, on this day Allah opens the annual book of deeds for each Muslim and determines his income as well as key life events like marriage, birth and death during the course of the year. What better way to spend this night than in remembrance of Allah and his Prophet.“ Andheri Muslim Kabrastan Masjid at Four Bungalows has whitewashed its walls and strung fairy lights and overhanging drapes to welcome around 5,000 worshippers. “Shab-eBaraat is also a night for the living to seek pardon for their sins. Allah descends to the lowest heaven and calls out to ask if there is anyone who seeks blessings, health, livelihood or prosperity , and rewards those who ask. However, a few Muslims, including those who associate partners with Allah, disobey their parents and drink alcohol, are not forgiven,“ said Maulana Mohammed Shahid Nadwi of the Andheri masjid. Bada Kabrastan at Marine Lines will receive over 10,000 people at the 4,000 graves located in its 4-acre precinct, said chairman Nazir Tungekar. “We have a heavy police presence as well as CCTV cameras and barricades to manage the crowd,“ Tungekar said. The Baqar trust of Bandra (E) kabrastan, which has 800 graves, will also come alive with prayer and speeches, said spokesperson Afzal Fakih.Special prayers are held all night and families distribute food, especially halwa, as charity .Several people observe roza (fast) on one or both days.
71. Smart city Tel Aviv has joined hands with Thane to replicate the civic transformation it underwent, using digital technologies, in Thane . Israel Ambassador Daniel Carmon said this after inaugurating his country's pavilion at the third Smart Cities India-2017 Expo at the Pragati Maidan in Delhi. “ A few days ago, Tel Aviv municipality and Thane municipal corporation joined hands as part of India's `Smart City' initiative,“ said Carmon. As part of the cooperation, the two civic bodies, alongside an private technology major from Israel with an Indian partner, will work on replicating the `DigiTel Aviv' project, as `DigiThane', said a senior official of the Tel Aviv Municipality . The ambassador said that the smart city cooperation is the result of visit of a delegation led by the Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis in 2015. Carmon said, “A meeting of all stakeholders from both the countries was held to discuss challenges and solutions related to water, from recycling to desalination and more.“
72. Officers of Enforcement Directorate's (ED) subzonal office in Surat raided premises of liquor smuggler Ramesh Patel alias Michael in Daman and seized more than 1.91 lakh liquor bottles worth Rs2.54 crore on Wednesday .They also seized three luxury cars, Land Rover Evoque and two Audis worth Rs2 crore and Rs9 lakh cash. The ED officials also discovered details of bank deposits to the tune of Rs223.47 crore during the raid.Patel is wanted in more than 30 cases in Gujarat under Gujarat Prohibition Act, 1949. The searches were launched against Ramesh Patel alias Michael, his wife Bhanu Patel and others for allegedly smuggling liquor from Da man to Gujarat, where liquor consumption is prohibited under law, sources said. Patel was not at his residence during the searches. Investigations were initiated based on the case filed by Surat police against after seizure of 21,750 bottles of IMFL and beer valued at Rs22.98 lakh near Olpaadrecently . ED officials found a shortage of 38,000 cases amounting to Rs7.10 crore, which they suspect has been diverted illegally to Gujarat. Investigation revealed Patel and his wife are main suppliers of IMFL through local bootleggers. Patel had a 3,000 sq ft illegal warehouse for his liquor business. He used to forge invoices of genuine manufacturing entries to camouflage illicit IMFL's passage through Daman check-post. Bootleggers would place orders through WhatsApp. It was revealed that Patel's wine shops had not been maintaining any sales records and the restaurant and other business premises were used for paper transactions only .
73. The condition of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who is under treatment at Sir Ganga Ram hospital for food poisoning, is stable. On Wednesday, sources said, her son Rahul Gandhi and daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra visited the hospital. “The patient is stable.She is likely to be discharged soon,“ a doctor said.
74. Congress has asked the Modi government if it had thought through its decision to approach the ICJ about the Kulbhushan Jadhav case and was not falling in the Pakistani trap to internationalise bilateral issues, including J&K. The opposition party also lashed out at the Centre for the deteriorating situation in J&K in the wake of the killing of a young Kashmiri Army officer by terrorists.
75. India on Wednesday strongly justified its decision to move the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the case of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav, sentenced to death in Pakistan for alleged spying, saying he had been subjected to a sham trial and that his life was in danger. India took the step 46 years after it had last approached the ICJ to resolve a dispute with Pakistan. Foreign ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said the decision was well considered and meant to ensure justice as Pakistan had not responded to India's 16 requests for access to Jadhav . The ICJ, which had stayed the hanging, is to hear the case on Monday and could issue an interim order. India argued that continuo us denial of consular access was a violation of Jadhav's rights under the Vienna Protocol and Baglay said the applica tion of his parents, who wanted to visit Pakistan, had gone unanswered. He said foreign minister Sushma Swaraj had written to Pakistan's Sartaj Aziz on April 27, asking him to facilitate visas for Jadhav's parents.
76. The government, on Wednesday , announced that Sanjay Mitra, a 1982 batch West Bengal cadre IAS officer posted as secretary of the road transport and highways ministry, will be the next defence secretary for a fixed two-year tenure after G Mohan Kumar retires on May 24. Mitra, who served a sevenyear stint in the Manmohan Singh PMO, will take over at a time when the defence ministry is trying to embark on farreaching reforms to boost the country's defence industrial base, while also dwelling upon the crucial post of a chief of the defence staff in the shortterm as well as integrated theatre commands in the long term.
77. A day after Dalit protesters went on a violent spree in Saharanpur, 12 FIRs have been filed while 24 persons have been taken into police custody . The state government also transferred two additional superintendents of police, who have been attached to Lucknow headquarters. Congress Rajya Sabha member PL Punia, who is former chairman of National Commission of Scheduled Castes, was reportedly denied permission to visit the violence-hit areas owing to `sensitive environment'. However, he eventually visited the city and interacted with the SSP and DM to take stock of the situation.
78. Senior SP leader and UP legislative council chairman Ramesh Yadav's nephew was, on Wednesday , arrested for attempt to murder, robbery and other grievous offences in Etah. Police said Mohit Yadav , who was armed with a country-made pistol and was accompanied by his aides, stormed into the district hospital and assaulted two lab technicians after an argument. The highhanded youth, believed to be in his late twenties, did not even spare cops and manhandled the station in-charge and a constable on being taken to the police station. SP's Etah district president Ashraf Hussain admitted the accused is senior leader Ramesh Yadav's nephew, but claimed the youth was not associated with the party.
79. Further tightening the rules for NGOs, the home ministry has asked 5,845 organisations to open their accounts in banks having core banking facilities and furnish details for real time access to security agencies in case of any discrepancy. The move comes after the government found that many NGOs had accounts in cooperative banks. The government has asked NGOs to have accounts in proper banks as part of steps taken by the NDA government aimed at checking “errant“ NGOs, especially those receiving foreign funding. In the last three years, the government has cancelled registration of more than 10,000 NGOs, while over 1,300 have been denied renewal of licence. In a communication, 3,768 NGOs were told that their bank accounts were not available as per core banking formatl, while 2,077 NGOs were asked to furnish bank accounts details as no such data was available with the home ministry . The move came after it was de tected that many NGOs had bank accounts in cooperative banks or state government-owned apex banks, or banks which did not have core banking facilities, official sources said. The home ministry wants all NGOs registered under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act to mandatorily have their accounts in either nationalised banks or in a few private banks which have core banking facilities. Under core banking system, all the branches of the networked banks are interconnected. This would allow the security agencies to access the accounts of the NGOs on real time basis, the sources said.
80. Jamiat Ulama-IHind president Maulana Syed Arshad Madani has urged the BJP led NDA gov ernment to consider de claring cow as the `national animal', as he expressed concern over the `atmosphere of fear' in the wake of attacks by vigilante groups.Madani also reminded PM Narendra Modi about his assurance to take action against criminals who acted in the garb of `gau raksha'. Madani, as the head of the influential minority organization that represents a large number of Islamic scholars, demanded that the Centre explore making a common law on cow protection to end the ambiguity and prevent attacks on innocent people from minority community . “The government should give national animal status to the cow and we will support it,“ Madani told a press conference.
80. The body of a 27-year-old software engineer, an IIT-Powai alumnus who worked with e-commerce company Myntra in Bengaluru, was found near the railway tracks in Greater Noida's Chhapraula village, around 6km from his home in Bisrakh, on Monday . A boarding pass stub and printout of a flight ticket found on him suggest Rajeev Kumar Verma had flown into Delhi from Bengaluru on Sunday evening (they showed his flight departed the IT city at 3.10pm, May 7). Verma's family, however, claimed they had spoken to him on Sunday evening and were unaware of his plan of travelling home.
81. A top Jet Airways pilot allegedly did not report a heavy landing made by a wide body aircraft due to which the plane was not subjected to mandatory structural safety checks and kept flying without the same. The alleged non-reporting happened on April 28, 2017, while operating a flight on a Boeing 777 (VT-JEQ) from Delhi to Hong Kong. The commander was also acting as the designated examiner, doing the tenth and final route check of a co-pilot who would have been promoted to the rank of captain, had he operated this flight perfectly. However, due to some reportedly incorrect procedures like “inadequate flare“ the aircraft touched down before the touch down point and made a heavy landing -in technical terms it made a 3.2 G landing while according to Boeing, the B-777 should not have over 2G landing. Since such heavy landings can damage aircraft structure, it is mandatory to get the plane checked to ensure it is not stressed or damaged before being released for flights again. But in this ca se, the crew did not report the heavy landing due to which the aircraft has been flying unchecked.
82. At its 84th national convention in Bareilly where participants from 22 states were present, leaders of All India Jamiatul Quresh said gau rakshaks were liars and that cows die as there is no one to take care of them. In order to solve this problem, the organisation has decided to open `gau niketans' (cow shelter homes) across the state where abandoned cows will be taken care of. The association claims to represents 50 million Qureshi Muslims, who have traditionally been engaged in the meat trade.
83. At HotBlack Coffee, a cafe in Toronto, Canada you can get walnut but ter squares, lemon poppy seed muffins, biscotti and, o course, coffee. But one thing you can't: Wi-Fi. Jimson Bienenstock, the president of HotBlack, said the shop opened last year without Wi-Fi with the ex press intent of getting cus tomers to -gasp! -talk to one another instead of bury ing their faces in laptops. “It's about creating a socia vibe,“ he said. “We're a vehicle for human interaction, other wise it's just a commodity .“ At many coffee outlets, workers set up makeshift offices and rely on the stores' Wi-Fi, which has come to be considered a given -if not a right. While HotBlack is not the first cafe to withhold WiFi, industry experts said such shops are in the minority and risk alienating customers. Bienenstock said he did not see his approach as revolutionary but as a response to society's deep immersion into all things digital that leads people to seldom communicate face to face. Customers initially were aghast at the decision, but Bienenstock said the camps are divided between those who love it and those who loathe it.(Only four of 28 reviews on Yelp noted the shop's lack of Wi-Fi.) To promote conviviality , other shops have adopted a noWi-Fi policy and gone a step further: doing away with some comfy furniture and narrowing counters to make them less accommodating for laptops. Caroline Bell of Café Grumpy said it offers Wi-Fi only at one location in NYC, and not at the seven others. Alex M Susskind, an asso ciate professor of food and beverage management at the School of Hotel Administration, Cornell University , said he saw the lack of Wi-Fi as a detriment. “That kind of bucks the trend of what most people go to coffeehouses for,“ he said. A 2015 thesis by Rose K Pozos about the “urban sociability“ of coffee shops posited that sitting alone with a laptop in a cafe was not necessarily antisocial. “People still chose to go there instead of being alone at home or work,“ wrote Pozos, who was a student at the time.In an email, she added that other businesses, such as the Blue Bottle Coffee, are known for lacking Wi-Fi, but that does not stop people from coming with laptops. To really get people to stop, some coffee shops enforce laptop-free zones, she wrote. Jordan Michelman, a founder of Sprudge Media Network, which writes about coffee news and culture, said that while Wi-Fi was not an essential amenity for coffee shops, “it's nice... and makes customers happy“.
83. Norway plans to launch the first autonomous and fully electric cargo ship next year that the project's backers said on Wednesday will save 40,000 truck journeys per year. Fertiliser company Yara International has teamed up with industrial group Kongsberg to build the Yara Birkeland, which will haul fertilisers between three ports in southern Norway . With a range of more than 65 nautical miles, the ship will be able to haul roughly 100 containers at a speed of 12 to 15 knots, according to the project's director, Bjorn Tore Orvik. Initially the ship will be manned, but remote operation is expected to begin in 2019 and fully autonomous operation in 2020, the companies said. The switch is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by 678 tonnes per year, according to Yara, with the electricity used to charge the ship's batteries coming almost exclusively from hydro plants.
84. China has lodged a protest with the US against the recent meeting of members of the US congress with the Dalai Lama at Dharamshala in India. The bipartisan delegation led by Democratic congresswoman Nancy Pelosi raised the issue of human rights violations in Tibet. Chinese foreign ministry objected to the meeting on Wednesday saying that it amounted to giving political support to the Tibetan leader, whom Beijing regards as a dangerous separatist.
85. A top Democratic senator on Wednesday recommended US President Donald Trump that IndianAmerican Rohit Chopra be selected to serve as a commissioner in the Federal Trade Commission.
86. Pakistan said on Wednesday that a joint border commission has been set up with Iran to address bilateral issues, a day after it summoned the Iranian envoy to express concern over Iran's assertion that it will hit terror “safe havens“ in its neighbouring country . Pakistan PM's adviser on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz said that both countries set up a commission to ensure better border management. Relations between the neighbours have been tense due to the killing of Iranian border guards in a clash with militants. Pakistan on Tuesday summoned the Iranian ambassador to express its concern over Iran army chief 's remarks that Tehran will hit “safe havens“ of terrorists in Pakistan until Islamabad takes steps to stop militants from carrying out cross-border attacks. Aziz, while giving details of the joint border commission to the media, said, “Four members from each side will be its members and it will be soon functional.“ He said apart from militants, smugglers and other elements were also present along the Pak-Iran border.
87. A woman in Pakistan's Punjab province has chopped off a 13-year-old boy's right hand with a fodder cutting machine for allegedly demanding salary . Irfan was employed at Shafqat Bibi's house in Safdarabad at a salary of Rs 3,000, his mother Jannat Bibi told the police. “Last week Shafqat Bibi got furious with Irfan when he demanded salary . She cut his right hand with a fodder cutting machine to teach him a lesson that he demands salary but doesn't complete his job of feeding the cattle,“ she said. The incident took place in Sheikhupura village, 50km from Lahore. He was shifted to a hospital where his condition is said to be critical.
88. UK Prime Minister Theresa May faced flak on Wednesday for making what has been labelled as a “sexist“ remark by social media users during a television interview in which she said her husband handled “traditional boy jobs“ at home. In her first TV interview alongside husband Philip May on Tuesday , 60-yearold May light-heartedly told the BBC that “there's boy jobs and girls jobs.“ But many TV viewers took to social media soon after to express outrage. Asked by the host if his wife was a tough negotiator, Philip, 59, said, “Well, there's give and take in every marriage. I get to decide when I take the bins out. Not if I take them out.“ Theresa jumped in and said, “There's boy jobs and girls jobs, you see.“
89. Everyone saw the hackers coming. The National Security Agency in Washington picked up the signs.So did Emmanuel Macron's bare-bones technology team.And mindful of what happened in the American presidential campaign, the team created dozens of false email accounts, complete with phony documents, to confuse the attackers.
90. Times Centre for Learning (TCLL), and XLRIXavier School of Management, Jamshedpur have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate for promoting quality executive education in India. Working professionals looking to upgrade their skillset and move up the corporate ladder can choose from the newly launched and upcoming programmes to be delivered in different modes. The Executive Certificate Programme on Building Leadership Competencies focuses on creating space for learning around essential competencies and values for leaders to be successful.

CURRENT AFFAIRS FOR 10TH MAY 2017

CORPORATE AFFAIRS, E-COMMERCE, TECHNOLOGY AND CARS

1. The Supreme Court on Tuesday held Vijay Mallya, promoter of the defunct Kingfisher Airlines, guilty of contempt and directed him to appear before it on July 10. Mallya has previously expressed his reluctance to come to India for fear of being made an example of over corporate defaults even though others owe banks more than he does. Mallya was held in contempt by a two-judge bench comprising justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and UU Lalit. He had failed to make a true and faithful disclosure of all his assets as directed by the top court earlier besides having transferred a $40-million Diageo payout on the eve of the order.
2. Dena Bank has become the first lender to classify its Videocon Industries debt as a bad loan, potentially opening a can of worms for the bank ing sector that is burdened with stressed assets. Some estimates put the total banking sector exposure to Videocon at Rs 40,000 crore.
3. UDAN, or Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik, scheme got a major boost on Tuesday when IndiGo announced plans to induct 50 small aircraft for regional routes. The announcement, along with TruJet's decision to add routes and the overwhelming response to Alliance Air's Delhi-Shimla flight, indicate the scheme's popularity.
4. SAIF Partners, an early investor in mobile payments and digital wallet player Paytm, has begun raising its third Indiadedicated fund of about $350-400 million, according to two people aware of the move. These plans come a little over two years after it closed a previous fund and will take its assets under management to over $1 billion.
5. India's passenger vehicle sales in April grew 14.68% from a year ago, boosted by launch of new models and a strong showing by carmaker Maruti Suzuki India.,Automakers sold 2,77,602 units in the month compared with 2,42,060 in April 2016, as per data released by industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) on Tuesday. Car sales grew at their fastest clip in 18 months to 1,90,788 units, up 17.36% from April 2016. The previous high was 21.8% in October 2015.Maruti Suzuki is set to receive 1,50,000 units from Suzuki's Gujarat plant this financial year, which will help it close the pending orders and attain double-digit growth cal 2018. numbers in fiscal 2018. Sales of commercial vehicles, however, continued to be under pressure and declined by 22.9% to 41,490 units in the period under review. Sales of commercial vehicles had taken a dent in the aftermath of the government's demonetisation exercise and because of the ban on BS III-compliant vehicles from April 1. The two-wheeler segment saw sales increasing by 7.34% from a year ago to 16,74,796 units, driven by demand for scooters. While sales of scooters increased by 25.3% to 5,86,886 units last month that of motorcycles remained flat at 10,29,972.Sen said, “In the two-wheeler segment, scooters are doing well.Even in rural areas, consumers have started going for scooters.“ Overall sales of vehicles across categories went up by 6.8% to 20,30,476 units.
6. Believe it or not, there's a waiting period for air-conditioners and refrigerators this summer. Retailers are facing a supply problem for the first time on the back of unanticipated demand, with delays running into two to four days or even more. March and April reported record sales of the two appliances -an over 25% growth year-on-year. In fact, the two months' sales equal almost one-third the total sales made in calendar year 2016, driven by demand from the north, west and south. Last year, air-conditioners and refrigerators grew by 15% and 10%, respectively. LG Electronics air-conditioner sales grew 45% in March-April, while refrigerator sales went up by 20%, including a 40% hike for premium variants of 300 litres and above.Samsung also saw more than 20% growth in these two categories. Voltas grew by 30% and is confident about overtaking the previous fiscal's performance with 25% growth. Voltas president Pradeep Bakshi said almost 65% of air-conditioner buyers are first-time users, reflecting a buoyancy in the economy coupled with brisk rural demand.
7. First came Android.Then came Chrome OS.And now Google is fine tuning its third operating system Fuschia OS. Spotted in August last year, Google's secret OS was still in command line. But Google has made quite a few additions to the user interface which now features a card-based design. The OS, unlike Android and ChromeOS, is not based on a Linux kernel.
8. Smart machines and robots may replace highly-trained professionals in medicine, law and IT sectors by 2022, market research firm Gartner as warned. CIOs have a major role to play in preparing businesses for the impact that artificial intelligence (AI) will have on business strategy and human employment, it added. “The economics of AI and machine learning will lead to many tasks becoming low-cost utilities,“ said Stephen Prentice, VP & Gartner Fellow.
9. Gurugram-based micro-lending platform Aye Finance, that delivers business funding to Indian micro and small enterprises, has raised `20 crore in debt funding from the State Bank of India. Spread across 33 branches in the country as a non-banking financial company, Aye Finance provides mortgage, hypothecation and term-loan services accessible to India's thriving and under-served MSME sector.
10. Chymera VR, a monetisation and advertising platform for virtual reality, has secured undisclosed funding from a clutch of angels, including People Group CEO Anupam Mittal, former head of operations at Airbnb Varsha Rao, former Google executive Surojit Chatterjee and chairman of HHC Holdings Ni rav Choksi. San Franciscoand Bengaluru-based Chymera will use these funds to ramp up product develop ment in Bengaluru and expand publisrtiser-base primarily herand advertiser-base primarily in the US. The company provides technology solutions to advertisers who are keen to leverage VR as a storytelling and brand-building platform. VR developers integrate Chymera ads with their content to earn revenue for each ad served. The startup claims to have generated 60% higher click-through rates (CTR) through VR-based ads as com pared to 2D mobile ads.
11. Health and wellness company GOQii said it has raised Rs 4.7 crore through its karma pro` gramme that encourages users of the company's fitness wearable devices to earn points, which they can convert into money and donate for a charitable cause. For instance, GOQii `players' earn one karma point for every 390 steps taken. A total of 19,497,588 karma points were converted into Rs 4.7 crore towards supporting 25 causes, including Oxfam India, Greensole and Ratna Nidhi Charitable Trust. The company said Benga luru, Chennai and Pune emerged as the most generous cities.
12. Japan's SoftBank is believed to have moved a step closer to securing the consent of co-investor Nexus Venture Partners (NVP) for selling Snapdeal to India's largest ecommerce firm Flipkart. A meeting was held on Tuesday and the impasse over the sale could end soon, people familiar with the matter said. SoftBank -the largest shareholder in Snapdeal -has been making all efforts to get NVP on board for the sale of Snapdeal, and a breakthrough could come as early as this week. They added that while attempts have been going on for the past few weeks, NVP finally seems to be warming up to the idea. A board meeting is expected to take place on Wednesday to deliberate on the issue. Emails sent to Snapdeal, SoftBank and NVP did not elicit any response. A `yes' from NVP is crucial for the deal to go through. The seven-member board of Jas per Infotech (which operates Snapdeal) includes representation from investors SoftBank, Kalaari Capital and NVP, as well as cofounders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal.NVP and Kalaari were early stage investors in Snapdeal.
13. Amazon unveiled the Echo Show on Tuesday, a $229 smart speaker powered by the Alexa virtual assistant with a 7-inch touchscreen, making it the first Amazon Echo of its kind. Like the original-model, the Echo Show is primarily controlled by voice. Its killer feature is voice and video chatting, though that feature will be limited to calling other Alexa devices at launch.
14.Boston Scientific stands to lose millions of dollars on its high-end heart stent in India after a government panel rejected its request to increase a cap on the price that it can charge for the device. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in February slashed prices of drug-releasing stents, small mesh devices used to pop open blocked arteries, by as much as 75%, setting a price cap of . 29,600. The move was part of an aggressi` ve push by the government to make life-saving drugs and devices more affordable. The panel's rejection comes amid a growing tussle between medical device makers and the Indian government. Indust kers and the India ry is worried that price ceilings could be introdu ced on other medical devices as well, eating into their future profits and growth. In letters sent to government agencies in March and April, Boston Scientific argued that the cap was much lower than what it cost the company to import the device, called Synergy, and would lead to losses of at least $7 million this year.
15. Bharti Airtel blamed “predatory pricing“ by new entrant -Reliance Jio Infocomm -for the nearly 72% year-on-year slump in its fiscal fourthquarter net profit, with both its voice and data suffering from the price war triggered by the Mukesh Ambani-owned telco's free services. India's No. 1 telco's net profit of Rs 373 crore for the three months ended March was sharply lower than the average estimate of about Rs 478 crore. Net profit in the October-December quarter was nearly Rs 504 crore. Revenue fell over 12% to Rs 21,935 crore from a year earlier as data and voice rates fell. The fall in rates, however, arrested the churn of subscribers out of the operator. The telco ended the quarter with almost 356 million customers across India, South Asia and 15 countries in Africa, Bharti Airtel said in a statement Tuesday. In India, which makes up nearly 78% of overall revenue, the company had nearly 274 million mobile subscribers, up 2.9% sequentially. The telco turned profitable in Africa for the first time ever, reporting a net income of $6 million compared with a net loss of $57 million, helped by growth in the data customer base and consumption, with revenue growing 2.6% amid stable currencies in most markets. Airtel's 3% year-on-year revenue fall in the October-December quarter was its first since its initial public offer. “The deteriorating health of the industry was compounded by the tsunami of incoming voice traffic from the new operator as a result of which significant investments had to be made just to carry the incoming traffic on our network. The net result of this was a revenue decline of 7.1% (in India) in Q4 even as EBITDA margins eroded by 2.9%,“ he added. He noted that Airtel's FY16-17 India revenue growth of 3.6% to Rs 73,422 crore was “muted“ compared with the double-digit growth seen in preceding years. Airtel's consolidated net profit for the full fiscal fell 37% year-on-year to nearly Rs 3,800 crore, on revenue of Rs 95,468 crore, down 1%.
16. Karnataka will, in about a month's time, notify the new fare regulations for taxi operators in Bengaluru, including app-based ride-hailing services Uber and Ola. The government will also notify a different fare structure --lower than the one in Bengaluru -for other cities where ride-hailing services are available. Transport minister Ramalinga Reddy told that a three-member committee headed by the additional transport commissioner is in the process of finalising the fare structure.The committee has consulted vehicle dealers, managements of Uber and Ola, and drivers' unions as part of its exercise to work out a fare structure. The last revision happened in 2013, and the government too finds demands for a fare revision valid as all types of luxury vehicles have entered the taxi segment since the last revision, including BMW and Mercedes Benz. The taxi operators have been unhappy that the government's fare regulations caps fares chargeable Rs 19.50 per km for AC vehicles and at Rs 14.50 per km for non-AC vehicles. The new fare structure, according to the transport minister, will have two new features. The operators will be able to apply differential fares according to the type of the vehicle used. The fare chart being evolved, according to Reddy, will have three slabs -one for micro mini cabs (such as Indica), second for premium cabs (includes Innova), and the third one for luxury cabs (those priced ` . 35 lakh plus). The committee is taking into account factors such as price of the vehicle, debt serving, insurance costs, cost of operation etc, for different class of vehicles to arrive at the final fare figures. The government will straightaway notify the final fare chart, and not a draft one as the committee has consulted all stakeholders. The second key feature of the forthcoming fare revision is that it will have a fare band for different class of vehicles. In other words, the fare structure will also include a minimum or floor rate below which a cab cannot charge. “This is aimed at protecting the cab drivers from being forced to collect very low fares,“ the minister said. Uber and Ola, according to the department sources, favoured a marked-based pricing mechanism based on demand and supply for cab services, instead of working within the walls of a fare structure. The government hopes that the new fare regulations will give app-based cab operators enough leeway to rejig fares within the fare-band according to the market demand at the time of a customer hailing a cab. A division bench of the Karnataka High Court, in a recent order, has disallowed surgepricing or dynamic-pricing by app-based hailing services.
17. Karnataka has decided to allow carpool services in Bengaluru and other cities till a clarity emerges on the issue.
18. The Godrej Group, the 120-year-old diversified conglomerate, has elevated Nisaba Godrej, daughter of chairman Adi Godrej, as the executive chairman of the flagship company Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL) sketching out the succession plan for the company. The 75-year-old patriarch Adi Godrej will now be chairman emeritus in group firms and mentor his children and other senior talent while his two daughters and his son will take care of the day-today operations. In February , Godrej's son Pirojsha, who was the managing director of Godrej Properties, was appointed executive chairman. Nisaba, the second of three children, joined GCPL a decade ago when she initiated and led “Project Leapfrog“ to accelerate growth in India through innovation and consolidation. After a string of acquisitions, it expanded to UK, Indonesia, Latin America and Africa and its international business accounts Rs 9,500 crore for nearly half of its revenue.
19. In a bid to curb child pornography on the Internet, the government has asked all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to prevent the distribution and transmission of such content in India by adopting and implementing Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) Resources on or before July 31, 2017. In a statement, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said that containing the spread of online Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) is an important public policy goal for In dia, and the govern ment is taking immediate steps to control this menace. “The publication or transmission of material depicting children in sexually explicit act or conduct in electronic form is a heinous crime, specifically prohibited by Section 67B of the Information Technology Act, 2000.“ The IWF maintains such a list of dynamically updated websitesURLs containing online CSAM. IWF has been adopted by many countries and is already being implemented by leading online service providers in other jurisdictions. IWF resources are available to ISPs on a subscription basis, either individually or collectively.
20. Piramal Enterprises is planning to raise up to Rs 4,000 crore by selling shares to institutional investors as the diversified company looks to fuel growth in its financial services business, according to two people familiar with the matter. Piramal Enterprises, owned by billionaire Ajay Piramal, which has interests in healthcare, financial services and information management businesses, has seen its market value more than double to Rs 42,970.80 crore in the past year.
21. British lender Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) on Tuesday said it was planning to cut over 300 jobs and move a number of others to India as part of its efforts to become a “simpler, smaller UK-focused bank“. RBS informed staff that it would be letting go of 154 contractors by year-end, while 180 permanent roles have been put at risk -with a total of 92 staff positions set to be axed. The cuts are expected to affect tech staff across a number of the bank's departments including risk solutions, digital engineering services, finance solutions, core and payments, and NatWest markets technology. Reacting to the announcement, workers' union Unite called on the state-funded bank to impose a moratorium on the “unjustified“ moving of jobs to India.
22. Agrochemical company PI Industries and global chemicals firm BASF on Tuesday entered into a strategic partnership to offer a broader portfolio of crop protection solutions to farmers. PI Industries will market BASF's fungicide solutions for rice, maize, fruits and vegetables as well as a new herbicide for maize. Following this partnership, both the companies aim to enhance their market partic pation in these crops segments, a joint statement issued here said. PI Industries has built eading brands over the last 60 years with multi-locational manufacturing facilities, ncluding Jambusar SEZ in Gujarat.
23. Tyre maker Ceat on Tuesday reported a 32.5% dip in consolidated net profit at Rs 66.33 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2017 hurt by continued impact of demonetisation and spike in raw material prices. Total income from operations during the quarter under review stood at Rs 1,641.29 crore as compared to Rs 1,563.21 crore in the year-ago period, up 4.99%. For the fiscal ended March 31, 2017, the company's consolidated net profit declined by 17.45% to Rs 361.15 crore from Rs 437.54 crore in the previous year.
24. InterGlobe Aviation, which runs India's biggest airline IndiGo, Tuesday posted a 25% decline in net profit on soaring fuel costs and lower yields. The airline also announced a surprise order for 50 ATR turboprop planes, signalling a likely entry into the civil aviation ministry's regional connectivity scheme UDAN. The company posted a net profit of Rs 440 crore in the January-March quarter, down from `584 crore in the same quarter last year. Total revenue rose 20% to Rs 5,142 crore. But fuel costs, the biggest expense chunk, rose 71% to Rs 1,750 crore. IndiGo's operating performance continued to be weak with revenue per average seat kilometre declining 3.3% compared to last year. For the full year FY17, its net profit dropped 17% to Rs 1,659 crore. In the March quarter, crude oil traded in the range of $55-$56 per barrel as against an average of $35.2 in the corresponding quarter last year. This to a large extent increased the fuel expenses, thus lowering EBIDTAR (earnings before interest, depreciation and rentals) and net profit. Currently , crude is trading at $49.The Indian rupee which has appreciated sharply against the dollar should lower the fuel cost. InterGlobe Aviation's stock has relatively underperformed its peers -SpiceJet and Jet Airways over the past three months given its high valuations.This trend may continue in the short to medium term as the valuation gap still remains high. On Tuesday's closing, InterGlobe Aviation shares traded at 16 times expected FY18 EVEBIDTA while Jet and SpiceJet traded at 11.2 and 10, respectively. IndiGo has a current fleet of 131 Airbus A320 planes which include 19 Neos. The airline's fleet by the end of the ongoing financial year will be 170 planes. The number of Neos would increase to 28.
25. Relaxation of regulatory norms with regard to contribution to the Settlement Guarantee Fund (SGF) by stock exchanges has buoyed the National Stock Exchange (NSE), India's largest market platform as well as the Bombay Stock Exchange. The National Stock Exchange, which is going to launch its initial public offer (IPO), saw net profit jump a whopping 137% for 2016-17 from Rs 436 crore a year ago. NSE's earnings per share (on face value of `1) rose to Rs 20.87 for FY 16-17 to from Rs 8.80 for FY 15-16. For the past few years, capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had asked exchanges to contribute 25% of their net profit towards the SGF,a norm relaxed in 2016.
26. S Chand and Company made a tepid debut on the bourses on Tuesday, with the stock trimming gains made during the session to close 0.9% higher at Rs 675.85.Earlier in the day, the stock had debuted at Rs 707, a 5.5% premium to its issue price of Rs 670. The stock had even slipped to a discount to the issue price during the trading session. The tepid listing was in contrast with the strong demand seen during the initial public offering (IPO). The Rs 728.5-crore IPO of S Chand, priced at Rs 660-670 had got subscribed 59.3 times. The portion reserved for qualified institutional buyers and high net worth individuals had got subscribed 44.3 times and 204.6 times, respectively. The retail investor portion was subscribed close to six times. Market sentiment has tapered down after indices hit record high, which may have affected the listing prospects, analysts said. The issue comprised fresh issue of shares up to Rs 325 crore and offer for sale of 60.23 lakh shares by existing shareholders, including Everstone Capital. The company plans to utilise the proceeds from the IPO to repay loans availed by it and some of its subsidiaries and for general corporate purposes. Credit Suisse Securities (India), JM Financial and Axis Capital were the merchant bankers to the offer.
27. The Reserve Bank of India has initiated regulatory action on the struggling IDBI Bank, including freezing of hiring, lending out bigticket loans and opening of branches to prevent it from sliding further. The so called Prompt Corrective Action is aimed at reducing future losses, raise recovery of loans to improve the bank's capital position. The bank had suffered historic loss of Rs 2,255 crore in the December quarter as it had to make huge provisions for bad loans. Within weeks of it reporting huge losses, the government had directed the bank to freeze big-ticket lending and curb expanses. The prompt corrective action is triggered when a bank's bad loan is above 6%, it reports losses for two consecutive years and it falls short of minimum capital prescribed by the regulator.Depending on the severity , RBI prescribes corrective action that banks should take to improve its financial position. IDBI Bank's gross NPA had crossed 15% in quarter ending December 2016 and, according to a report by rating company Icra, its capital adequacy ratio is expected to fall short of the minimum tier1 capital requirements which is stipulated at 6.75% at March 2017. The bank reported a loss of Rs 3,665 crore in March 2016 and is expected to report loss in fiscal year 2016-17 as well. IDBI Bank has been facing challenges in recovering loans given to infrastructure -a sector in which the bank has largest exposure since historically it was in the business of giving loans to this sector. In an attempt to revive the health, the government has recently swapped the CEOs of Indian Bank and IDBI Bank.
28. Bajaj Finance, India's leading consumer and enterprise financing company , is looking to raise $150 million (approximately Rs 1,000 crore) from International Finance Corporation. The non-banking finance company will issue non-convertible debentures which would be subscribed by IFC, the World Bank's financing arm. In a disclosure, IFC said that the fund would be used for on-lending to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME). Bajaj Finance had last month raised another Rs 545 crore in NCDs as it looks to grow its business. The company did not respond to ET's queries on fund raising, saying that it is in a silent period before finalising financial accounts on May 17. IFC's investment would help the company to tap offshore capital and diversify funding sources. The investment proposal is part of IFC's strategic target to finance 10 million MSMEs during FY17-21.
Bajaj Finance has total assets under management of over Rs 57,000 crore at December-end with 43% of its assets being under consumer financing and 42% under SME financing. Commercial business accounts for 12% of loans, and balance 3% comes from rural sector.Its share prices closed 1.8% higher on Tuesday at Rs 1,295.30. Bajaj Finserv, the holding company for the financial services businesses of the Bajaj Group, owns 57.3% in Bajaj Finance, which reported 36% rise in net profit.
29. Banks may have been selling various banking products from treasury , retail or offering special corporate deals on pricing, but the latest universal bank IDFC Bank is selling technology to draw in new customers. It's selling a software -the “Business eXperience Platform“ (BXP) -to rope in clients that combines all corporate banking solutions on one platform which would help companies cut costs and improve efficiency . The bank has already conducted transactions worth `18,000 crore with 40% of its corporate clients already using this platform. Out of the 400 corporates who are currently enrolled on this platform, the bank has posted a 100% growth in payments made through BXP . The private lender has already managed to rope in clients such as Mahindra & Mahindra, Airtel, Indraprastha Gas, NCML among the 400 corporates who have been using this platform.
30. The first sign of government getting a foot into the narrative of large layoffs in the IT sector emerged on Tuesday with the Telangana government calling for a meeting with Cognizant over the terminations.
31. Dell Technologies, the world's largest privately-held tech company, unveiled a slew of product announcements, and pulled its venture practice out of the `stealth' mode. Dell Technologies is the result of the $67-billion merger between Dell and EMC in 2015. Its new venture arm, Dell Technologies Capital, has combined the venture capital operations of both the entities and plans to invest about $100 million a year in startups globally. The company revealed a portfolio of 70 existing and previous investments made by both operations, some of which had not been disclosed earlier. “We've been investing in startups through EMC and Dell ventures. What we are now announcing is the next iteration of the programme,“ Dell Technologies CFO Tom Sweet told.
32. State-owned Power Grid Corporation has been granted unified licence with national long distance and Internet service provider authorisation to provide telecom services. The power transmission utility provides its telecom towers and optical fibre cable infrastructure (for Internet services) to service providers and other firms for commercial use. This is a separate segment of revenue for the company.
33. Toshiba Corp has told Western Digital Corp not to interfere in the sale of its prized chip unit, rejecting claims it has breached a joint venture contract and threatening legal action. The clash between Toshiba and Western Digital -both its business partner and one of the bidders for the chip unit -risks delaying or even quashing an auction that the Japanese conglomerate is depending on to plug a $9-billion hole in its accounts. Although the two companies jointly operate Toshiba's main semiconductor plant, Western Digital is not seen as a favoured bidder for the world's second biggest NAND chip producer, having put in a much lower offer than other suitors, sources with knowledge of the matter, have said. The US firm has argued the Japanese company is violating their contract by transferring their joint venture's rights to the newly formed unit and has asked for exclusive negotiating rights. But in a May 3 letter sent by Toshiba's lawyers, the TVs-tonuclear conglomerate disputed Western Digital's argument and said it would pursue all available remedies if it saw continued interference in the sale process.
34. Bombardier Inc's biggest outside shareholder and a second major investor withdrew support for chairman Pierre Beaudoin, the last executive link to the planemaker's founding family, after he backed a compensation plan that sparked a public furor. The manufacturer's board should be led “by a fully independent director“, Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec said in a letter to Bombardier on Monday. Solidarity Fund QFL, which is backed by a labour union, also declined to back Beaudoin, a member of the family that controls Bombardier. Both shareholders said they voted against the compensation plan -a proposal that fuelled outrage after Bombardier increased executive pay almost 50% despite receiving taxpayer aid and announcing plans to cut more than 14,000 jobs. The Montreal-based company later reduced Beaudoin's pay and delayed some remuneration for leaders including CEO Alain Bellemare. “The board's recent decisions regarding executive compensation fall short of the necessary standard of stewardship,“ Caisse Executive Vice President Kim Thomassin said in the letter.
35. Japan's SoftBank is believed to have moved a step closer to securing the consent of co-investor Nexus Venture Partners (NVP) for selling Snapdeal to India's largest e-commerce firm Flipkart. A meeting was held on Tuesday and the impasse over the sale could end soon, people familiar with the matter said. SoftBank, the largest shareholder in Snapdeal, has been making all efforts to get NVP on board for the sale of Snapdeal, and a breakthrough could come as early as this week.They added that while attempts have been going on for the past few weeks, NVP finally seems to be warming up to the idea. A board meeting is expected to take place on Wednesday to deliberate upon the issue. E-mails sent to Snapdeal, SoftBank and NVP did not elicit any response. A `yes' from NVP is crucial for the deal to go through.
36. Shares of Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL) on Tuesday surged almost 10% after the company reported an over three-fold jump in consolidated net profit for the quarter ended March 31. The stock zoomed 9.7% to settle at Rs 1,929 on BSE.
37. Strong retail interest helped the Rs 1,200-crore IPO for Housing and Urban Development (HUDCO) get oversubscribed more than three times on day 2 of the offer. The IPO, through which the government is divesting 10.2% in HUDCO, will close on May 11. The shares are being offered at a price band of Rs 56-60 per share. Retail investors and employees are eligible for a discount of Rs 2 per share on the final price, a release from the company said.
38. SilverNeedle Hospitality (SNH), a part of Infosys co-founder N S Raghavan's $1-billion Nadathur's Holdings, has bought new media marketing agency Brand Karma for an undisclosed amount.
Brand Karma builds brands through social media, creative storytelling, digital marketing and virtual reality and counts Shangri-La Hotels and Marriott among its clients. The acquisition will help SNH, through its in-house architecture and design agency Virsa, to maximise returns on its real estate assets.SNH also said it its hotel management division would be renamed Next Hotels.





POLITICS, ECONOMY, CRIMES, SPORTS, ENTERTAINMENT & NEWS AROUND THE WORLD

1. Finance and defence minister Arun Jaitley said foreign companies need to be incentivised to set up defence manufacturing bases in India, adding that policies have to be in sync with reality. Companies, he added, will establish manufacturing units only if there is a likelihood that they will get business.
2. India's power sector will slam the door on foreign firms from countries that do not allow Indian companies to invest and make money in their markets, introducing a strong element of reciprocity , power, coal, renewable energy and mines minister Piyush Goyal said. Goyal also said renewable power was central to India's long-term energy security at a low cost and rubbished claims that electricity generated from wind, sun or water was harming the grid or con ventional power. He was also optimistic about the future of electric cars and the country's power situation, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, where the new chief minister was sharply focused on reforming the sector.
3. Sri Lanka has started removing wasp nests in the central hill area of Dickoya ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit later this week to avoid any possible “attack“ by the insects. The security units assigned with the provision of security to Prime Minister Modi is coordinating with the Hatton Superintendents of Police office and have obtained the assistance of the organisation for the protection of such insects. The nests are being currently removed by the Hatton Police Director's Office.
4. UP BJP will hold door-to-door mass contact programme throughout the state for 15 days, starting from Wednesday, during which new members will be enrolled. According to UP BJP general secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak, the party wants to make `Ekaatma Maanavaad' (Integral Humanism), a political philosophy conceived by Jan Sangh stalwart Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay, a household name. “Each BJP worker has been given a target of getting 750 persons enrolled as primary members of party within these 15 days.“
5. Ruling BJP legislators complained to the Assam assembly speaker that ministers never reply to their letters on concerns raised by people. The legislators also sought a mechanism by which ministers would be bound to reply to their letters in a fixed timeframe. Speaker Hitendra Nath Goswami said CM Sarbananda Sonowal should look into the matter. The issue was brought to the notice of the Speaker by BJP MLA Pranab Kalita as a Point of Order.
6. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation from Guwahati on May 26, when the NDA government completes three years in office and its state government in Assam completes a year. For the first anniversary of his gov ernment, Modi had visited Nagla Chandrabhan village in Mathura, the birth place of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya.For the second anniversary , Modi addressed a mammoth rally in Saharanpur . This will be the third time the prime minister will attend a programme outside the national capital on his government's anniversary .
Chief minister Sonowal had recently met the prime minister and invited him to attend the inauguration of theDhola-Sadiya Bridge and Global Investors' Summit in November. The 9.15 km Dhola SadiyaBridge over Brahmaputra will be the longest bridge in the country and is expected to improve the connectivity of the region. After Modi confirmed his participation for the first anniversary of the BJP government in Assam, an elated Sonowal said that it indicated the importance the NDA government and the PM gave for the northeast.
7. Akshay Kumar was in the Capital and the actor took the opportunity to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The 49-year-old actor took to Twitter to share a picture with the PM and said they discussed his film `Toilet: Ek Prem Katha'. “Met PM @narendramodi and got the opportunity to tell him about my upcoming `Toilet-Ek Prem Katha',“ wrote Akshay. The National Award-winning actor said he was overjoyed when the title of the film brought a smile on PM Modi's face. “His smile at just the title made my day!“ he continued.
8. Bihar BJP leader Sushil Modi has urged the SC Collegium to take cognisance of the apex court's “strong observations“ against Jharkhand HC judge Rakesh Ranjan Prasad when considering him for elevation. SC had on Monday made “strong observations“ against the judge, who had dropped the conspiracy angle in the fodder scam case against RJD chief Lalu Prasad, while setting aside his 2014 order. Justice Prasad was appointed a judge of Manipur HC in February 2016 and was made its chief justice in September the same year. If he fails to get elevated to SC he will retire on June 30 next, Modi told
9. Twenty-five Muslim leaders, under the umbrella of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, met PM Modi on Tuesday and appreciated the stand taken by him on the issue of triple talaq, as per a statement issued by the PMO.
10. Outreach to the youth ill be the most important part of JP's campaign as Gujarat gets eady for elections due later this year. The Vijay Rupani-led BJP government is planning to distribute subsidised tablets to 3.75 lakh class XII ass-outs in an attempt to reassure he youth about its performance.CM Rupani would also hold interactive sessions with the youth as part of is Jan Sampark programme and tell hem that Gujarat was the number one state in implementing all the chemes of the Modi government, state government officials said.The Gujarat government, even beore demonetisation, opened maxi um bank accounts under Jan Dhan ojna. We are looking at appealing to he youth to support a government hat delivers,“ an official said. Officials claimed, as promised, the state government had provided 67,000 government jobs across various departments this year. “Also, `50 crore has been allocated for start all the schemes of the Modi government, top officials of the government said. “The youth is most interested in delivery . The Gujarat government, even before demonetization, had maximum bank accounts under Jan dhan yojna which reduced the difficulties that people had to face in the initial days. We are looking at a call to youth to support a government that delivers,“ an official said.
11. Next time you visit the restroom in a mall or a commercial complex and find it unclean, you may be able to lodge a complaint then and there through a government-fitted feedback device inside the toilet. The urban development ministry has written to mission directors of Swachh Bharat in 12 states, including Delhi, Karnataka and Maharashtra, to procure such devices from a government company to be installed in toilets of private establishments such as malls, multiplexes, petrol pumps and district centres, to continuously monitor cleanliness of toilets, as per the community guidelines. The device will have three buttons coloured green, yellow and red with matching emoticons -for example, a smiley on green button and a frown ing face on red. Users can choose the button that best represents their experience, and the feedback goes to the urban local body. In case of continuous negative feedback, the government would send an SMS to the establishment for corrective action. The ministry has also called for installing these devices toilets built by states. The ministry has asked all urban local bodies to enter into a three-year contracts with ITI Ltd, a government of India undertaking, which will provide feedback devices for Rs 945 per month per device. Local bodies can utilise `capacity building fund' allocated under the Swachh Mission to procure and maintain these devices. The toilet monitoring solution is being rolled out in 11 states -Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Andhra, Haryana, Kerala, Odisha, Puducherry, Rajasthan, TN and Telangana -and Puducherry. Each feedback device is fitted with GPRS modem and a data SIM for back-end connectivity to the server. The performance index will be measured on an online dashboard and the urban local body will send an SMS to the caretaker for corrective action if the feedback is bad. An escalation SMS to higher management levels will be sent if feedback does not improve.
12. UP has decided to make six districts, including Noida, Ghaziabad and Meerut, open defecation free (ODF) by the end of July after the state was embarrassed by a recent Swachta survey. The survey listed 52 UP cities among the dirtiest cities in the country, prompting CM Adityanath to announce that Swachh Bharat will be among the “top priority programmes“. “Work has been initiated on a war footing,“ a senior UP official said.
13. The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered Calcutta HC judge CS Karnan to be imprisoned for six months for contempt of court, in an event without parallels in the history of the Indian judiciary .
14. It seems that Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Sabir Ali have buried their differences and closed ranks after PM Modi's appeal. Ali had invited Naqvi as chief guest for Tuesday's indoor rally of backward class Muslims in the national capital. Reason: Modi had asked party workers to reach out to backward Muslims as well after his government decided to grant constitutional status to NCBC. It may be recalled that in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Naqvi had scuttled Ali's induction into the party. Ali is now a BJP member.
15. Ministers like being invited to inauguration programmes. But, recently, a Maharashtra minister was miffed when no other politicians or officials invited for the event turned up. Basically, there wasn't much `crowd' at the function, leading to it being dubbed as a non-event. The miffed minister said henceforth invites for such events should be sent only to those who had confirmed their participation.
16. The culture ministry has decided to tighten screws on the Lalit Kala Akademi. The ministry has now, through an official communication, directed Akademi administrator Krishna Setty to set aside all “irregular and illegal“ decisions taken by Akademi secretary Sudhakar Sharma since Setty's appointment. It is believed that in many such decisions Setty's concurrence was also taken.
17. While HRD grapples with setting UGC right, considerable unrest is brewing at UGC's inter-university centre, the Consortium for Educational Communication (CEC). A number of complaints have been sent by CEC employees to UGC, HRD ministry, PMO and CVC against its director and the matter is set to go to court.
18. An MLA of the Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday hacked a prototype of the electronic voting machine during a special session of the Delhi assembly, making a case for having voter verifiable paper audit trail in future. However, the Election Commission slammed the AAP demonstration saying it was possible for anyone to make any electronic gadget that looks-like its EVMs to demonstrate `tampering' but that will not influence the intelligent electorate or vilify EVMs the EC uses. The AAP demonstration was given by MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj who said that he had worked as a computer engineer for nine years before joining the party. Bhardwaj rigged a mock poll on a machine similar to an EVM machine and claimed EVMs can be manipulated on the day of polling through use of secret digital codes that can be fed into EVMs by anyone while voting. AAP said the de monstration was to prove EVMs were not tamper proof and can be hacked. “EC had challenged us to rig its voting machines and we have accepted the challenge today,“ said deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia.
19. The rift within AAP widened further on Tuesday with former cabinet minister Kapil Mishra submitting three sets of complaints with Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against party chief Arvind Kejriwal and other leaders. “The first is in connection with a`. 50-crore land deal of Arvind Kejriwal'' relative,“ Mishra said after filing the report. “The second is against the cash exchange of ` . 2 crore between Kejriwal and Satyendra Jain and the third against five AAP leaders, who misused funds for foreign trips,“ he said after meeting CBI officials on Tuesday morning. AAP leaders in connection with foreign trips include Sanjay Singh, Durgesh Pathak, Satyendra Jain, Ashish Khaitan and Raghav Chaddha. The CBI, which is already investigating AAP in seven different cases, said it will examine the complaints lodged by Mishra. “The complaints will be ex amined and verified,“ CBI spokesperson RK Gaur said.
20.A fast track court on Tuesday pronounced the death sentence for three prime accused in the sensational October 2009 gan grape and murder of a 28-year-old software engineer Nayana Phatak Pujari. Special Judge LL Yenkar, who on Monday convicted Yogesh Ashok Raut, Mahesh Balasaheb Thakur and VH Kadam for kidnap ping robbing, gangraping and then killing the victim, sentenced them to death after a hectic day full of argu ments between the prosecution and defence lawyers.
21. With the Punjab government launching a drive against the drug men ace, the UK today offered technical assistance to the state in the enforcement of drug control measures. Britain also evinced keen interest to scale up business engagement with the state. The issues came up for discussion at a meeting here between Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and British deputy HC Andrew Ayre who invited the CM to visit the UK to meet industrialists.
22. In what could be a shot in arm for India ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Sri Lanka later this week, Colombo has said that it will lease out oil tanks to India under the proposed deal to jointly operate a strategic oil facility in the country's eastern port of Trincomalee. Addressing a gathering in the central town of Welimada over the weekend, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe said the joint working group of the two countries will formulate investment plans for the integrated development of Trincomalee. At least 73 of the 99 storage tanks in Trincomalee are to be managed under a new equity arrangement be For mer President Mahinda Rajapaksa had opposed the oil-related deal, and has now accused the Lankan government of selling state assets. Modi is scheduled to visit Sri Lanka on May 11-12 to take part in the UN `Vesak Day' which commemorates the birth, enlightenment, and death of Buddha. He will also tarvel to Kandy to open a hospital and address plantation Tamils there.
23. Two days after he was sworn-in, UP CM Yogi Adityanath had announced `1 lakh support, the highest by any state, to every pilgrim of Kailash Mansarovar Yatra (KMY). It turns out that his call was heard, as for the first time, the number of registered pilgrims for the yatra has doubled with UP having the maximum number of pilgrims. The yatra is set to begin on June 8. The number of registered yatris this year has reached 4,442, the highest ever, with UP topping the first time with 800 yatris, sources in the government told ET. Last year, 950 of the registered 2,604 persons were able to undertake the pilgrimage. The increase in the number of pilgrims was because of a collective effort various states and the efforts of the ministry of external affairs over the last one year, said BJP leader and former Rajya Sabha member Tarun Vijay who is also the President of Kailash Mansarovar Yatri Sangh, who had started a campaign a year ago for the same purpose. Haryana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu too have announced special kits and grants for the yatra.
24. The government must formulate a policy that will allow pilgrims to visit Kailash Mansarover without endangering the area. Located in the fragile Himalayan eco-system, climate change has altered the landscape, posing a threat to its continued existence, besides many species of fauna and flora, and the region's diverse agro-biodiversity. The government in consultation with experts must devise a science and evidence-based plan that will set a limit on the number of pilgrims in the region at any given time in a manner that their needs and safety are met while ensuring the ecological integrity of the Kailash-Mansarover landscape.
25. Largely unnoticed months after its soft launch, the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry's online course portal `Swayam', is set to get a legup from India's chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian. He will conduct a 40-hour course on economy , focussing on major economic trends, possibly even the demonetisation issue, which will subsequently be hosted online on Swayam.
26. The jury headed by the vice-president for bestowing the Dr Ambedkar National Award for Social Understanding and Upliftment of Weaker Sections has been unable to find a deserving candidate for 2013. Instituted in 1992 as part of Babasaheb's birth centenary celebrations, the award was to be conferred on a person or organisation working for socio-economic and educational upliftment of weaker sections but was last given in 1998. Wrapping up Dr Ambedkar's 125thbirth anniversary celebrations, the Centre decided to revive the award. The seven-member jury , however, had difficulty finding deserving candidates from the panel of names put forward by the scrutiny and grading committee (SGC) of the social justice and empowerment ministry . While the jury decided to confer the award for 2011 to economist SK Thorat, it could not find a deserving candidate for 2012 or 2013.
27. Freshly elected to the Lok Sabha from Srinagar, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah crisscrossed the government-opposition divide in Delhi on Tuesday by pitching for a `political solution' to the simmering Jammu and Kashmir problem. He reminded Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Opposition that the autonomy resolution adopted by the J&K legislative assembly was pending, with no follow up action by the Centre since 2000. During his meeting, Abdullah is learnt to have briefed the PM on the seriousness of the situation in the Valley , how it has affected all sections of society and economy including tourism and underlined the need to `politically address' the situation by initiating dialogue with all stakeholders including youth. Abdullah later met CPM leader Sitaram Yechury and extended support to Opposition's efforts to project an `alternative approach' in defusing the simmering tension in J&K.
28. Karnataka is dealing cautiously with a communication with from the union water resources ministry that has suggested the setting up of a Group of Experts to deal with the interstate water dispute on Cauvery that would suggest, among others, a way for equitable distribution in a distress year. Karnataka representatives admit that with severe drought ravaging both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, the Centre has tried to be proactive through this move and prevent a rerun of the slugfest between the two states through the Supreme Court for water that characterised 2016. “We also don't want that to happen, but we are not sure that this Group of Experts is the right solution for it,“ Karnataka's water resources minister M B Patil told.
29. The Reserve Bank of India's US dollar purchases in the forward market hit a threeyear high in March as the central bank added to forex reserves to arrest the rupee's sharp rise. Nevertheless, the domestic currency rose to multi-month highs. The RBI bought $8 billion in the forward market in March as its outstanding net forward purchases rose to $10.8 billion from $2.8 billion in February, according to data published in the central bank's monthly bulletin released on Tuesday .This is the highest forward purchase by the central bank since June 2014. In addition, the central bank bought a net of $3.5 billion from the spot dollar market as gross purchases were $5 billion and gross sales were $1.5 billion.
30. Indonesia has the largest economy in Southeast Asia, but you can't tell from its financial markets, a fraction the size of its neighbours. The nation's regulators have tried to change that. The rupiah's daily trading volume has climbed more than 40% in four years. There's also greater activity in hedging and the central bank has allowed a wider scope of derivatives.The central bank's goal is to grow Indonesia's foreign-exchange market to the equivalent of about 3% of the value of the country's trade by 2020. Indonesia's current ratio is 1.8%. Priorities now include tightening rules on trader conduct, rolling out more complex instruments, and setting up a clearinghouse and electronic trading platform for currency and money market transactions.
31. Currency markets swung back to trading on the diverging outlooks for growth and tighter monetary policy on Tuesday, lifting the dollar and euro against the yen.The dollar and the euro gained around a third of a percent to 113.67 yen and 124.125 yen respectively.
32. The government's ordinance on bad loans is credit posi tive, but does not address the structural issues in the banking sector, Moody's said. Last week, the government through an ordinance provided the RBI with greater powers to intervene in the resolution of NPLs.
33. Benchmark TOCOM rubber futures hit their weakest in nearly three weeks on Tuesday, under pressure from concerns about a global supply glut. The Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for October delivery had risen 0.2 yen to 206.8 yen per kg by 0025 GMT.
34. Oil prices rose on Tuesday, but faced headwinds from concern over the rise in US crude output that has shaken investors' faith in the ability of Opec to rebalance the market. Brent crude futures were up 20 cents at $49.54 per barrel at 0852 GMT, above a session low of $49.18.
35. Gold prices inched up, but remained near seven-week lows hit in the previous session as safe-haven demand ebbed in the wake of France's election. Spot gold was up 0.2% at $1,228.20 per ounce at 0320 GMT, after touching a seven-week low of $1,224.86 the day before.
36. A slump in prices of crucial food items over the past month has provided some relief to households even as food price inflation in the CPI basket has declined steadily over the year through March. Traders and economists reckon that prices are likely to moderate further. While tomato prices have plunged by 31% at the retail level over the past month, those of spices at the wholesale level have slumped 6-27% between April and now.
37. The government has set up a high-level task force to compute timely data on employment situation in the country, a move that will help it frame policies and take steps to create jobs.
38. The Supreme Court said on Tuesday it is likely to announce a modification order in the second week of July on the plea by hotels and clubs seeking changes in its order banning sale of liquor within 500 meters of national and state highways. Hoteliers and club owners had filed review petitions in the top court seeking modifications and exemption to the March 31 order, which has forced several establishments across the country to stop serving alcohol to guests. The ban was aimed at preventing road accidents due to drunken driving. The court heard the review peti tions from Chennai-based hotels and club associations. States like Arunachal Pradesh had also petitioned the apex court seeking exemptions. It had exempted Sikkim and Meghalaya from the ban in view of their topography and terrain.
39. The process to enroll taxpayers on the Goods and Ser vices Tax Network (GSTN) portal, which was suspended on April 30, will start again in a few weeks, the revenue department said on Tuesday. More than 60 lakh taxpayers enrolled on the GST portal between November 8, 2016 and April 30, 2017.The enrolment process closed with effect from May 1and the data of all those signed the enrolment form would be migrated to the new system. The portal said enrollment window will reopen at a later date for taxpayers who could not enrol themselves as well as for those who enrolled but did not sign the enrolment form.
40. The Netherlands could serve as an “excellent gateway“ to the European market for Indian businesses and the two nations have lots to offer each other, Dutch foreign minister Bert Koenders said at an event here on Tuesday. Observing that the Netherlands does not want protectionism in the world, Koenders pointed out that 80% of India-European Union trade is with countries on the European mainland.
41. State-run insurers need not pare their investments in diversified tobacco companies like ITC, officials have said, arguing that their primary aim is to maximise returns on policyholders' money. Last month, seven persons including two members of the Tata Trusts, had filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Bombay High Court against the government, insurance sector regulator IRDAI, and five state-run insurance companies for investing in tobacco companies, including ITC and VST Industries. The petition said state-run insurers should be directed to divest their shareholding in tobacco companies as staying invested in them thwarts the government's effort to discourage use of tobacco. State-run Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), the country's largest institutional investor, holds 16.29% stake in ITC. The government, through special undertaking of Unit Trust of India (SUUTI), holds 9.10% stake in the firm. State-run general insurers together hold about 5% stake in the company.
42.The Gujarat government has written to the Centre saying the state faces an electricity crisis as Adani Power has told the state that running its imported coal-based power project at Mundra is increasingly becoming unviable. Last month, Supreme Court denied compensation to Adani Power's Mundra power plant for the rise in the price of coal that it imported from Indonesia. Two officials, including one from the finance ministry, confirmed that Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani has written a letter saying that if the issue is not resolved at the earliest, it may lead to an electricity crisis in the state.
43. India's foodgrain production is forecast to hit a record in the crop year ending June 2017, with good monsoon rains last year boosting the estimated output of wheat, rice, coarse cereals, and pulses. The agriculture ministry's third advance estimates of major crops pegged the production at 273.38 million tonnes (MT), 0.51% higher than the second advance estimate.This year's output betters the re cord production of 2013-14 by 3.15%. The first advance estimate was issued in September 2016, followed by the second in February.The final assessment is released in August. As per the second advance estimate for 2016-17, total foodgrain production was pegged at 271.98 MT.
44. A strong earthquake hit southern Japan on Tuesday, though there was no tsunami warning nor immediate reports of damage or injuries. The magnitude 6.0 quake hit at a depth of 10 kilometres in waters off the island of Miyako in the southern Okinawan chain, according to the US Geological Survey. Japan's Meteorological Agency warned of small changes in sea levels but no tsunami. Miyako, with a population of about 55,000, sits some 1,840 km southwest of Tokyo and about 380 km east of Taipei.Japan sits at the junction of four tectonic plates and experiences a number of relatively violent quakes every year, though damage is often slight thanks to rigorous building codes and broad earthquake awareness.But a massive undersea quake on March 11, 2011 sent a tsunami barrelling into Japan's northeast coast.
45. Jakarta's Christian governor was jailed for two years on Tuesday after being found guilty of blasphemy, in a shock decision that has stoked concerns over rising religious intolerance in the world's most populous Muslimmajority nation. Islamic hardliners outside the Jakarta court cheered and shouted “God is greatest!“ as news came through that Basuki Tjahaja Purnama was to be sent to prison, a surprisingly harsh punishment after prosecutors recommended only probation. Purnama, Jakarta's first non-Muslim governor for half a century, looked calm when the verdict was announced and said he would appeal, as some of his supporters in court burst into tears. The governor was taken to a Jakarta prison after the verdict but it was unclear whether he would remain in jail or be released later to allow him to file his appeal.
46. An explosion at a fireworks warehouse in Mexico has killed at least 14 people and wounded 22, an official said on Tuesday. The blast occurred Monday night in a rural area of central Puebla state, Diodoro Carrasco, a senior official in the state government, told radio station Cinco Radio. News reports said 11 of the fatalities were minors but the government did not immediately confirm this. The explosion came during preparations for a religious festival on May 15, the Puebla state government said.
47. Former US attorney general Sally Yates had alerted White House that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn could be `essentially blackmailed by the Russians' Less than a week into the Trump administration, Sally Q Yates, the acting attorney general, hurried to the White House with an urgent concern. The president's national security adviser, she said, had lied to the vice-president about his Russian contacts and was vulnerable to blackmail by Moscow.
48. US President Donald Trump on Tuesday nominated Indian-American Neil Chatterjee to a key administration position in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, an agency charged with overseeing America's power grid and de ciding on multibillion-dollar energy projects. The While House said Trump intends to nominate Neil Chatterjee, 40, of Kentucky as a Member of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for the term expiring June 30, 2021.
49. The White House has post poned a Tuesday meeting to discuss whether the United States should with draw from the landmark international cli mate deal struck in Paris under the Obama administration. The White House said late Monday that the meeting would be rescheduled. This is the second time a meeting of top aides on the issue has been delayed. Donald Trump pledged during the presidential campaign to renegotiate the accord, but he has wavered on the issue since winning the presidency.
50. US President Donald Trump insisted there is no evidence he colluded with Russia after a Senate hearing that highlighted warnings that his former national security advisor was vulnerable to Russian blackmail.
51. An American hedge fund manager launched legal action against Akzo Nobel on Tuesday to try and oust its head after the world's top paintmaker repeatedly rejected a takeover bid by US rival PPG. Amsterdam-based Akzo Nobel on Monday snubbed a third offer from PPG, saying it “undervalues“ the company.But according to shareholder Elliott Advisors, rejecting the offer -which would have valued the company at $27 billion -was “a flagrant breach“ of Akzo Nobel's duties and “an arrogant dismissal of recognised principles of proper corporate governance“. In a statement, the New York headquartered fund manager said it had filed a petition with the Dutch Enterprise Chamber, asking for an extraordinary meeting to be held where shareholders could vote on whether to dismiss board chairman, Antony Burgmans.
52. Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday ruled out any participation on German soil in a potential Turkish referendum on bringing back the death penalty. Immediately after winning a close vote last month that boosted his powers, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan mooted a second referendum on reinstating capital pu nishment, which wou ld mean an end to t he c ou nt r y 's EU membership prospects. Merkel said Berlin would not make it possible for the 1.4 million Turkish voters living in Germany to participate if the referendum were to be held. “We will not give permission for something we are not obligated to do, and whose content we absolutely reject, for example, the death penalty,“ Merkel said.
53. F rench presidentelect Emmanuel Macron won an offer of support from Socialist expri me mi nister Manuel Va l ls on Tuesday as he and his aides worke d on st r ateg y a he ad of pa rlia ment a r y elections t hat will be crucial to his ambitious reform plans. The 39-year-old centrist's emphatic election victory over the anti-European Union Marine Le Pen of the National Front on Sunday brought relief to France's EU allies and financial markets.
54. In Vivo IPL 2017 Kings XI Punjab won against Kolkata Knight Riders.
55. Eugenie Bouchard pulled off her first win over Maria Sharapova with a 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 triumph in the Madrid Open on Monday in a thrilling contest full of tension after the Canadian had called the Russian a cheater following her doping ban.
56. As outrage grew over a student in Kerala being asked to remove her bra at an NEET test centre, the CBSE on Tuesday suspended four teachers for the “overzealous act“ and also ordered the principal to apologise to the student.
57. Air India is planning a tri weekly non-stop flight from Delhi to Los Angeles from September following the success of its San Francisco non-stop service. The airline will also start flights to Washington, Dallas, Stockholm and Tel Aviv.
58. Concerned over rising vacancies in the judiciary the Supreme Court has in , principle decided to introduce a common test for selection of judges and sought suggestions from states and Union Territories on mode of implementing it.
59. A two-judge Supreme Co urt bench has dismissed a 2013 special leave petition against an HC order in an encroachment case in Belapur filed by former NCP minister Ganesh Naik's nephew Santosh Tandel.
60. Saharanpur in UP witnes sed large-scale violence on Tuesday , the third time in 20 days, when Dalit protesters went on the rampage and attacked police after they tried to disperse a crowd from a city park.
61. Referring to the practice of triple talaq, the Allahabad high court has observed that under the Muslim personal law, marriage is a contract which cannot be rescinded unilaterally . The HC made this observation recently while dismissing a petition by Aaqil Jamil, whose wife had filed a criminal complaint against him alleging that he had tortured her for dowry and when his demands were not met, he gave her triple talaq. The order was uploaded on the HC's website on Tuesday, two days before the Supreme Court begins hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the validity of triple talaq.
62. It is that time of the year when parents are reminded about the cost of a career, and they don't mind spending any amount for their children's future. But this year, medical college admissions, often termed recession-resistant, are a different story . Some institutes are finding it difficult to fill certain categories of post-graduate seats. The most extreme example is of Kashibai Navale Medical College, Pune. Thanks to an astronomical annual fee of Rs 96.6 lakh, all to be paid by cheque, the college has received just 10 students for its 31 management quota seats--a first for the institute, which usually sees a flood of candidates every year. Medical education experts say this is among the highest tuition fees across the country and perhaps the world. With the state's 50% quota undercutting their economics, medical colleges have been forced to hike fees for their management quota seats.Kashibai Navale Medical College, Pune is charging a staggering annual fee of Rs 96.6 lakh for its post-graduate seats. Last year, the college charged Rs 7.9 lakh uniformly for all seats, including for the NRI quota. This year, it has asked the Fee Regulation Authority to allow it to charge Rs 15 lakh under the merit, or state, quota. A decision is yet to be taken. The massive hike in tuition fee for the management (35%) and NRI (15%) quotas in private and deemed universities is because the introduction of the state quota has resulted in the subsidizing of medical education for these merit-based students. So, the fee hike is a cross-subsidy .
63. Administrative wrangling, official apathy, an absent customs commissioner and general ignorance about shooting led to over 15 international Indian shooters being held up for almost 13 hours at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport on Tuesday . Olympic shooters Gurpreet Singh and Kynan Chenai, along with some 15 other colleagues, landed in the capital early in the morning after participating in the Plzen Shooting Grand Prix (in Czech Republic) and shotgun World Cup in Cyprus respectively . They found themselves in a fix as the customs department did not clear their guns till 4.50pm.
64. Business rivalry led to an interior decorator being killed in Thakurli on Tuesday , reports Pradeep Gupta. Kishor Chaudhari was shot 17 times and his business partner grievously wounded in the firing over a Rs 6.5 lakh contract. Police sources said the main accused is Dilip Bhoir, who claimed to have a monopoly in interior decoration and maintenance work in the Balaji Nagar locality.
65. Two Jogeshwari youths drowned in a river in Ratnagiri while they were out swimming during a break from their wedding photography assignment. The deceased were identified as Bantu Zala (19) and Mukesh Makwana (21). Two other youths with them were rescued. “Three of them went deep into the river,“ a police officer said. “An auto driver and another youth rushed to help, but two died.“
66. In a huge relief for India, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has stayed the death sentence awarded to Kulbhushan Jadhav by a Pakistan military court. This was after India instituted proceedings against Pakistan at the court accusing Islamabad of “egregious violations of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations“ in the detention and trial of Jadhav.
67. The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down the petition of a 35-year-old destitute HIV positive woman, facing complications in her 26-week pregnancy arising from a sexual assault, to abort as a medical report prepared by AIIMS doctors said her life might be in danger if medical termination of the fetus was done at such an advance stage. A bench of Justices Dipak Misra, A M Khanwilkar and M M Shantanagoudar, however, directed Bihar government to provide all medical facilities to the survivor at Patna and also ordered the state to grant compensation of Rs three lakh to her under its scheme for rape survivors. It asked the Centre to make all arrangements to shift the woman to Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Science at Patna where she would be treated.
68. About 1.5km of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) will be deforested to widen the Dahisar-Surat section of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad National Highway 8. Incidentally , this section was also part of the eco-sensitive zone around SGNP that was recently notified by the Union forests ministry . The highway project is am ong several road and railway infrastructure projects that have been proposed through the world's most unique urban forest. The others include the Mumbai-Delhi freight corridor, an elevated road connecting Mumbai and Thane, an underground tunnel also linking Mumbai to Thane and a ropeway . The proposal was sent to the National Wildlife Board directly by the state government.The board has now directed the government to route it through the state wildlife board. The chief minister is the head of the board. Forest officials said it is only a matter of procedure and the deforestation of the 1.5km stretch will be approved.
69. Customs officials at the city airport nabbed a group of 21 people, including a woman, who arrived on a flight from Saudi Arabia on Monday , for smuggling 112 pieces of gold weighing 5.7kg and worth Rs 1.7 crore. The officials intercepted the group and found gold concealed in water bottles, with the yellow metal either stuck to the inside of the caps or to the bottom of the bottles.
70. A sessions court on Tuesday convicted a 44-year-old man for the double murder of his wife and a colleague who attempted to save her, when he attacked her at their home over suspicions that she was having an affair with another of his co-workers in 2013. The wife, Seema Inchal's (30) suspected paramour Mitesh Ghonge (30), who was also present on the scene, survived with injuries and was the key witness in the trial against accused Shyam Inchal. The court will decide the quantum of sentence on Thursday . Inchal was found guilty of murder and voluntarily cau sing hurt. While the maximum sentence is death, the minimum is life imprisonment. Inchal, the murder victim Rajendra Rane (40) and eyewitness Ghonge were working in the marketing department of a Wadala-based club. The incident took place on January 7, 2013.
71. The Maharashtra Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has filed 34 cases against unlicensed manufacturers and suppliers of orthopedic implants in seven cities. “We raided 39 firms since February and found that 34 didn't have a licence to manufacture these implants. Moreover, they claimed they didn't know they had to get a licence to manufacture medical implants,“ said FDA commissioner Dr Harshdeep Kamble. The FDA raids have resulted in unlicensed implants worth Rs 7 crore being seized in this period, added Dr Kamble. Five firms in Mumbai alone had prohibited stocks worth Rs 48 lakh. A press release sent by the FDA showed that the maximum number of firms -nine -were busted in Pune, and implants worth over Rs 1 crore were seized.The highest value was seized from six firms in Konkan at Rs 2.6 crore. Raids were also carried out in Aurangabad (seven firms and Rs 1.89 crore of implants seized), Nashik (six firms and Rs 18 lakh of implants seized), Amravati (three firms and Rs 9 lakh of implants seized) and Nagpur (three firms and Rs 12 lakh of implants seized), said FDA officials. “These raids will continue, but now we have begun the legal action against some of the suppliers and manufacturers,“ said a senior FDA official.
72. The stalemate between the state government and the nine private medical colleges ended on Tuesday with the institutes yielding to the state's diktat. In line with that, the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) has decided not to hold the second round of post-graduate admissions and instead opt for a personalised counselling round in Mumbai. Students from across the state, in batches of 200, as per rank, would be asked to travel to the city. The DMER will present a list of seats on the screen and students can select, submit documents and pay fees right there, said DMER head Dr Pravin Shingare. “We will complete admissions to all quotas--me rit list, institution seats and NRI quota--here and complete the admission process.“ Students who completed their admission in the first round, which ended on Tuesday , and do not want an upgrade, could inform the DMER that they did not want to participate in the admission process further. Moreover, seats under the physically challenged quota that have not been taken up yet would also be a part of the personalized counselling round. The nine colleges, which have 225 seats, will also be a part of the personal counselling round, thus taking the total pool of seats up to 2,800 for 6,500 aspirants.
73. Civic health officials have called a meeting to brief private doctors about H1N1 infection even as the city reported five more cases in the last 10 days. Three cases have been reported in the last two days reported in the last two days alone. While two members of a family have been admitted in a south Mumbai hospital, another patient is in a private hospital. “These are random cases and shouldn't be a cause for panic in the city,“ said BMC executive health officer Dr Padmaja Keskar. The rest of Maharashtra, meanwhile, seems to be reeling under an H1N1 epidemic with 900 cases and 178 deaths since January . An 18-month-old child was the city's first H1N1 casualty this year, with 21 cases reported until April end. “Following this death, the health minister wanted BMC to call private doctors for a briefing on preparations to be taken for H1N1 as well as other monsoon ailments,“ said a civic official.
74. A controversy broke out over a circular issued to civic hospital doctors about providing “priority“ treatment to corporators and patients recommended by them. The circular, signed by KEM Hospital dean Dr Avinash Supe, who is also head of medical education in BMC's hospitals, was addressed to doctors, nurses, paramedical and administrative staff and workers in the BMC healthcare pyramid. It exhorts the staff to speak “decently“ to all public representatives, including MPs, MLAs and corporators. More importantly , it also asks them to treat the representatives as well as their patients on a priority basis. It is dated April 29.
75.his is the question the state finance and planning department is considering before approving an accident insurance scheme that promises treatment of up to Rs 30,000 for three days' hospital stay.
The fact that Maharashtra has among the highest number of road accidents in the country has prompted the government to draw up the scheme.The objective is to cover any road accident victim--whether they are from the state or visitors from other states or even countries. Atotal of 1.9 lakh road accidents took place in Maharash tra over the past three years, killing 38,209 people and injuring 1.2 lakh. Called `Balasaheb Thackeray Accident Insurance Scheme', it was mooted by health minister Dr Deepak Sawant last year but failed to get cabinet nod as it was stuck in the finance and planning department headed by BJP minister Sudhir Mungantiwar.
76. A 20-year-old Mumbra woman was arrested for allegedly strangling her husband Mehndi Sayyed (26). The accused, Zahra, a housewife, has been granted police custody till May 15. Sayyed was found dead at his Kausa house on Monday .
77. Early on Monday morning, a team of customs officials at the CSIA airport were waiting anxiously for the flight from Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) to land. If all went well, they were primed for one of their best operations to unearth a gold smuggling racket. Around 8am, when passengers began walking towards the arrival hall, the officials were still unsure what to expect. But when they noticed 20 male passengers, all dressed in white kurtas, pyjamas and skull caps, accompanied by a woman in a black burqa, they heaved a sigh of relief. Their `information' was spot on. The events that followed culminated in the seizure of 112 pieces of gold weighing 5.7kg and worth Rs 1.7 crore.The 21 flyers had concealed gold in water bottles, with the yellow metal either stuck to the inside of the caps or to the bottom of the bottles.
78. Monsoon will be no different this year. With work on around 1,000 roads dragging at snail's pace, Mumbai seems all set for another round of harrowing monsoon travel. The works include repairs, resurfacing, milling and carpentry . Citizens are complaining about several roads having been dug up and at most places, they claim, work is moving very slowly . This year, the BMC has taken up two kinds of repairs: The usual `project works' --roads are fixed from base layer--and resurfacing--only top layer is scrapped and relaid. Resurfacing work is being carried out on roads that report repeated pothole complaints. After the rains retreated in October 2016, the BMC took up 1,004 roads for repairs. Out of these, the BMC again took up 558 under the project works category and has completed repairs on 114, said civic officials.The BMC aims to fix 369 roads under this category , but the task seems uphill as there is a shortage of raw materials. Western suburbs, at 277, has the most number of roads under repairs. Bandra corporator Asif Zakaria said he has got complaints about contractors delaying work.
79. Last Friday at 10.30 am, the city police control room was informed by a caller that an emotionally distraught woman had climbed to the 18th floor of an under-construction building and was threatening to jump. A team reached the spot in minutes, but the task of talking the woman out of it still remained unattended for a few hours. Finally, inspector Shalini Sharma who specialises in Hostage Negotiation and Crisis Management (HNCM) got there at 12.30 pm and spent the next two hours counselling the victim before she agreed to retrace her steps. It was a successful mission, but the response time ­ two hours ­ exposed concerns. Numbers are clearly running low in the HNCM team. And given the prevalence of hostage crises suicide attempts, police is in dire need of reinforcements.
80. Two Mumbai youths drowned in a river in Ratnagiri while bathing in it earlier this week during a break from their wedding photography assignment. The deceased were identified as Bantu Zala (19) and Mukesh Makwana (21) from Janata Colony in Jogeswari (E). Two other youths with them were rescued from the river, Muchkundi, in Kurle village of Lanja taluka. The survivors were Randhir Ray (19), also from Jogeshwari, and Alpesh Parmar (21) from Bhayandar. They said none of them could swim. Havaldar S S Talekar said the four youths arrived on Sunday . “Three of them went deep into the river. An auto driver and a youth rushed to help, but two died,“ he said.
81. The Supreme Court on Tu esday complimented the Haji Ali Dargah trust for removing a major portion of encroachments and asked the BMC to finalise a beautification plan for the shrin
82. The private luxury bus involved in Sunday's accident on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway that left five persons dead was illegally parked in the fast lane, said the Highway Safety Patrol officials.
The vehicle should have been plying on the left lane and stopped only on the road shoulder. The extreme right lane is meant for small vehicles only .e by June 30.
83. All slum redevelopment projects must register with the Real Estate Regulatory Authority by July 31. In a letter to the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), interim chairman Gautam Chatterjee on Monday said it is mandatory for all slum projects to be registered with RERA. To promote slum redevelopment and to pay for the cost of free housing for slum dwellers, the government offers the land on which a slum is settled for only 25% of the ready reckoner rate as premium. It also offers incentive FSI to the developer who can then build the sale component and make a profit. Slum redevelopment projects in Mumbai are highly lucrative with profit margins varying from 40% to over 100%. Under the RERA Act, a developer cannot sell flats in a project unless it is registered with the authority within three months of the Act coming into force. The RERA Act was implemented from May 1. There are 1,200 SRA projects in the pipeline.
84. Central Railway (CR) will soon make four stations cashless-compliant to popularise digital transactions among passengers. Four stations have been shortlisted: CST, Dadar, Thane and Kalyan. The deadline for the project to be completed is June-end.
85. The police probing a Rs 10-crore cheating case allegedly involving a bank manager, said they were scanning all documents that were used to create an account in a private sector bank at Cuffe Parade. “We have arrested of T M Kishore, manager of a public sector bank's Nashik branch, for connivance, but it is still not clear who opened the account in Mumbai using forged documents,“ said a police officer. The Tribal Development Corporation has an account with a Rs 10-crore fixed deposit in a Nashik bank, but unidentified fraudsters created an account with the nationalised bank's branch at Cuffe Parade bank with same name.Kishore allegedly connived with them to transfer Rs 10crore into the bogus account after the FD matured, the police said.
86. The municipal corporation's plan for a pedestrian pathway from Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) subway to MG Road junction on Hazarimal Somani Marg is in limbo owing to unavailability of land. As a result, the civic body might have to foreclose the road widening work because the period of contract for it ends on May 31. The chief engineer (roads) has written to the local ward office that improving widening of the road cannot be undertaken as the setback portion of the stretch has not been handed over yet.
87. Former encounter specialist and accused in the 2003 Sayyed Khwaja Yunus custodial death case Sachin Vaze was on Monday granted anticipatory bail in an alleged extortion case involving a Vasai doctor. The Palghar crime branch had moved a remand application before the Vasai sessions court naming Vaze as a wanted accused.
88.Delayed hearings by the Maharashtra State Commisison for Protection of Child Rights have upset parents who have filed complaints against schools over issues of fee hikes, corporal punishment etc. The commission last heard cases on January 20.
89. Two days before the Supreme Court begins hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the validity of triple talaq, halala marriages and polygamy , senior cleric Maulana Syed Shahabuddin Salafi Firdausi has denounced triple talaq and halala, calling them un-Islamic and instruments to oppress women. At a press conference on Tuesday activists of Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy (IMSD) hailed Maulana Firdausi's statements as a support to the petitioners who are asking for scrapping of talaq and halala. IMSD's convenor Javed Anand read out Maulana Firdausi's statement: “Instant divorce by uttering talaq thrice is amockery of Islam and an act of cruelty against the daughters of Islam. Halala is like dacoity on the dignity of Muslim women and an assault on their honour and self-esteem.“ Triple talaq is instant divorce while halala is a process where a divorced woman has to marry another man and consum mate the marriage if she wants to remarry her first husband.“This is nothing but prostitution in the name of Islam,“ protested Anand.
90. Two months after a 34-year-old man was arrested for allegedly raping his two stepdaughters, police are awaiting DNA reports from the forensic science lab. The two girls--aged 15 and 17--were pregnant and had to undergo abortions. The case came to light in March when the mother, along with the daughters, planned a outing. “The accused insisted that she leave behind one daughter. When the mother refused, he slit his wrist. He was rushed to hospital and given first aid,“ said Dilip Ugale, senior inspector at Kalachowkie police station.
When the police was called, the mother gave her statement, but the cops found the two girls were scared.“We spoke to them and the girl revealed that they were being raped by their stepfather. Their mother would go for work early in the morning and return by evening.The accused would rape the younger daughter in the morning and the older one in the afternoon. Both were pregnant,“ said the officer.
91. Mumbai is known to get waterlogged every time there is a heavy downpour in the monsoon, and the Shiv Sena-ruled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has faced a lot of flak earlier for this. On Tuesday , Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray claimed that there will not be any waterlogging in the city during this year's monsoon. Thackeray , along with his son Aaditya and senior civic officials, including civic commissioner Ajoy Mehta, reviewed the desilting works at Mithi river, Vakola river, Irla nullah and Walbhat river in the city on Tuesday .
92. Candidates who took the Sunday's entrance exam have found that the Marathi version of the NEET (National eligibility cum entrance test) was different from the English one. Parents said they want a reexam as the question papers were markedly different. Parents said they were of the opinion that the exam question papers ought to be a translated version of the English paper, but 85% of the questions in the Marathi version were different. The NEET was conducted in 10 languages.
Over 11 lakh MBBS and BDS aspirants on Sunday appeared for the NEET at over 1,900 centres across 103 cities.
93. A day after the BMC's civic markets and garden committee passed the proposal to increase the entry fee to Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan and Zoo in Byculla, BJP has raised objections.The proposal will now be tabled before the standing committee for approval. On Tuesday , city BJP president Ashish Shelar took to Twitter and wrote to the municipal commissioner opposing the plan.
94. Acting on a complaint from an NGO, Hirali Foundation, the Shivaji Nagar police have filed a case against Shiv Sena leader Sahebrao Ahire for violating sound pollution norms during Shiv Mandir Art Festival recently held in Ambernath. While the three-day festival was organised by Shiv Sena MP Shreekant Shinde and all banners and invitations cards had his name, the case was registered against Ahire, who is the party's ward president and had taken police permission on his name. Sarita Khatchandani of Hirali Foundation said, “The event violated decimal limits of sound pollution and on May 5. The music went on till 10.30pm violating the court norms of 10 pm timing.“
95. The Central Railway (CR) has filed a case with the cyber crime cell about a fake post that went viral on social media with its claim of a derailment near Nagothane. CR divisional railway manager Ravinder Goyal said the post falsely claimed to show pictures of the Diva-Sawantwadi Express derailed in a tunnel near Nagothane. The post claimed that four coaches and the engine were derailed but no help was extended to the passengers.
96. Two peddlers, Jayesh Shah (30) and Deepak Gupta (35), were arrested from Kandivli when they were allegedly trying to sell drugs near Damu Nagar on Monday . Drugs including ketamine, ephedrine, methamphetamine and bromozyme, worth Rs 54 lakh were recovered from them. Shah and Gupta, both residents of Samata Nagar, have been booked under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and produced before a court. They have been sent to police custody till May 12. The drugs will be sent to the forensic science laboratory for chemical analysis.
97. A 30-year-old man, Nilesh Patel, died after five men beat him up and then one of them ran an ambulance over him. The five men have been arrested on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The ambulance belongs to the prime accused, Sachin Modik (23).
98. A gang of thieves broke into a mobile phone store along PanvelMatheran Road on Saturday and fled with cellphones worth Rs 1.15 lakh. The theft came to light on Sunday morning when the store owner found the shutter's central lock broken. Police said they have seen the CCTV footage, but the images were not clear.
99. A nil Kumar Gupta has taken charge as Western Railway's general manager.Prior to this new assignment, Gupta was serving as additional general manager, South Central Railway. Gupta belongs to the 1980 batch of Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers.
100. Amid reports that Congress politician Narayan Rane might join the BJP along with his MLA son Neetesh, leader of the Opposition in the assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil on Tuesday asked him to reconsider his decision and lead the Sangharsha Yatra launched by their party for waiver of farmers' loans.
101.The Maharashtra Uni versity of Health Sci ences (MUHS) on Tu esday decided to form a committee to review some references about gender and caste system in the ancient ayurveda reference books.The academic council will decide on the members and the timeframe of the committee later.
This decision came after some activists raised objections over the contents of a textbook of MUHS's Bachelor of Ayurveda, Medicine and Surgery , referring to some techniques to conceive a male child.
102. As Dadar resident Goodicia Vaidya walked into the local municipal office with a cane basket that had a crow's nest, most employees stared in wonder. The nest was dropped on a pavement at Dadar TT circle by workers trimming trees.
103. A Thane sessions court on Tuesday granted interim anticipatory bail of Rs 50,000 each to actress Shilpa Shetty , her husband Raj Kundra and three others in a case of alleged cheating and breach of trust. Ravi Bhalotia, who is a vendor with Best Deal TV (BDTV), an online shopping platform, had alleged in an FIR (filed on April 26) before Kongaon police station in Bhiwandi that BDTV , has duped him of Rs 24 lakh. He alleged that though he had delivered the products (bedsheets), he was yet to receive payment.
104. There will be an elephant in the room when `Gajab Kahani' is staged at G5A Foundation from next week. `Gajab Kahani' is the second of the seven plays being staged at this season's Aadyam, Aditya Birla Group's theatre initiative in association with The Times of India. Set in 1551, `Gajab Kahani' is based on the novel `The Elephant Journey' by Portuguese Nobel laureate late José de Sousa Saramago. It trails the journey of an elephant and his mahout from India to Europe.
105. Frowning on the BMC for changing the reservation of a plot meant for a court building at Kannamwar Nagar in Vikhroli, to a multipurpose community centre, the Bombay HC directed the state to resolve the issue within a month. If the government is unable to do so, it will have to provide an alternative plot of the same size as the one in Vikhroli, the court said. The direction came on a PIL by Shivshankar Joshi on the dilapidated condition of the Vikhroli magistrate court. His petition said the building is unfit to house courts as it is a commercial complex with several shops, including flour mills.
106. Senior clerics and community leaders have appealed for a quiet, peaceful Shab-e-Baraat or Night of Salvation on May 11. Shab-e-Baraat, a fortnight ahead of Ramzan, is believed to be a blessed night that should be spent in prayers. Unfortunately , many youths turn it into a night of revelry and nuisance.
107. Gujarat deputy chief minister Nitin Patel denied on Tuesday reports that his son Jaimin Patel was stop ped from board ing a Qatar Air ways flight to Greece at Sar dar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport on Monday because he was “highly inebriated“. The reports have triggered a political row as Gujarat is a dry state where liquor consumption is a punishable offence unless you have a licensed permit, issued subject to certain conditions.
108. In the wake of restrictions on some US-based voluntary organisations for violation of rules, the US has suggested that India should ensure “consistent and transparent“ application of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act as part of its recommendations at the review of India's rights record. India received 250 recommendations from different countries after the universal period review of India's human rights record during the May 4 meeting in Geneva at the UN Human Rights Council.
109.Concerned at the growing unrest in the Kashmir valley , National Conference leader and for mer Jammu and Kashmir CM Farooq Abdullah met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday to apprise him of the ground situation and urged him to promptly address the issue with a political approach.
“Kashmiris are not Pakistanis... Kashmiris have their own issues that need to addressed by the Centre and they do not want to go with Pakistan,“ Abdullah is learnt to have told the PM during the meeting that lasted about 45 minutes. The former Union minister said it couldn't be seen merely as a law and order issue.
110. Congress president Sonia Gandhi was admitted to Sir Ganga Ram hospital on Sun day following a bout of food poi soning, Dr D S Rana, chair man, board of management of the hospital, said in a statement on Tuesday night.
“She is well now and will be discharged soon,“ Rana said.Gandhi underwent surgery at the same hospital last year after she dislocated a shoulder during a Varanasi rally.
111. Two love-struck youths, whose girlfriends married elsewhere on the same day , hanged themselves from a single rope in Baloda Bazaar on Monday evening.
According to police, 18year-old Ajay Kanwar and 19year-old Murid Sahu of Kasdol region were found hanging from a mango tree, with nooses tied from the same rope. They were best friends and were shattered by what they saw as betrayal by their girlfriends. The girls they loved got married on Sunday. Ajay and Murid were last seen at another wedding on Monday evening. They left together but did not reach home. The next morning, villagers found their bodies hanging. Although no suicide note was recovered, the duo's friends told police that they were depressed because of their girlfriends' wedding.The bodies were later sent for an autopsy.
112. As foreign minister Sushma Swaraj held talks with her Dutch counterpart Bert Koenders on Tuesday , the Netherlands came out in support of India's bid for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council. Talking to journalists, Koenders said India would be a “prime candidate“ for permanent membership if the UNSC were to be expanded.Swaraj also thanked Koenders for his country's support to India's Nuclear Suppliers Group membership bid.
113. More than 100 turtles of an endangered species were found dead in a pond at Chaddamipur village, nearly 80 km from Agra city . The turtles,identified as Indian flapshells,are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 (Schedule II). Forest rangers and a team of district forest officers rushed to the spot to pull out the dead turtles from the pond. According to the officials, the turtles died due to continuous dumping of garbage in the pond. The Indian flapshell is a relatively small softshell reptile with a carapace length of up to 350 mm. These turtles prefer to live in shallow waters rather than rivers. They can adapt to a variety of aquatic habitats like marshes, ponds, lakes, rice fields, gutters, and even canals in metropolitan areas.
114.From a humble Dalit advocate, doubling up as a political party's booth agent in Tamil Nadu in 2002, to being among a chosen few appointed to a high constitutional post in 2009 and then pushing the self-destruct button to end up in jail in 2017. This is Justice Chinnaswamy Swaminathan Karnan's unenviable roller-coaster 15-year journey and could be the script for a Bollywood film. Described by his ex-colleagues in Madras HC as a loner who gave vent to his persecution mentality , Justice Karnan resorted to wild allegations against judges and successive chief justices of Madras HC almost immediately after he took oath as a judge in March 2009.
He wrote regularly to the President, CJI and the chairperson of SC Commission, accusing other judges of discriminatory behaviour. Nearly two years ago, he threatened contempt proceedings against then Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, forcing Madras HC to rush to the SC for remedy .
115. The National Socialist Council of Nagaland, Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM), after 37 years of armed struggle and 20 years of negotiations, has finally settled for `co-existing together with shared sovereignty' -a new experiment that a federal India with strong unitary features will embark on with the signing of a peace agreement soon.
116. Nagaland chief minister and Naga People's Front (NPF) supremo Shurhozelie Liezietsu paid a courtesy call to his Manipuri counterpart Nongthombam Biren Singh on Tuesday , and called for peaceful co-existence, putting behind the protracted strained relations between the two neighbouring states. This is the first time that a Nagaland chief minister has come to Imphal to discuss bilateral issues. Shurhozelie's NPF is a coalition partner in the Biren Singh-led government in Manipur. Stating that peaceful coexistence among different ethnic groups would bring about development in the region, Liezietsu underscored the need to live together as good neighbours, according to tradition that has existed since time immemorial. He also said that the Meiteis should play a leading role in fostering peace and friendship among different ethnic communities in the region.
117. The income tax department has issued a show cause notice to AAP and its chief Arvind Kejriwal for alleged falsification of account books and “wilful attempt“ to evade tax on donations received by the party . The I-T department has sought the party's reply for not filing a “true and correct“ contribution report for donations received for 2014-15. An I-T investigation found that the party did not disclose facts related to donations of over Rs 30 crore. The show cause notice asked why prosecution should not be initiated against the party for falsification of records. It sought the party's reply by the first half of this month.The notice, while acknowledging that AAP had accepted that there were “certain errors“ in its first report filed in this regard, added that this admission by the party was itself an evidence that its audit report was fabricated initially but was corrected after the tax department began investigations.
118. Following protests from Pakistan, the Chinese embassy in New Delhi edited out a portion of a recent speech delivered by Chinese ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui about renaming the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to accommodate Indian concerns. The changes were made in the transcript of the speech posted on the Chinese embassy website.
119. India has again emerged as one of the top ODA (official development assistance) donors to Nepal, clawing its way back to the list of top 5 bilateral development partners of the country .India displaced China which was ranked fourth last year as a development partner in terms of ODA disbursement to Nepal. Nepal finance ministry's latest Development Cooperation Report on FY 2015-16 put India at the fifth position behind the US, the UK, Japan and Switzerland in the list of top ODA disbursers. In FY 2014-15, for the first time in five years, India's name had gone missing from the list of top five development partners of Nepal as its ODA disbursement had plummeted by over 50% that year. According to the latest report, India disbursed $35.76 million from July 16, 2015 to July 15, 2016 to claim its place among the top five bilateral development partners of Nepal. This is 3.33% of total ODA received by Nepal in the year. China in the same period accounted for 3.29% of the overall ODA to Nepal. In FY 2014-15, India had disbursed a little over $22 million. China that year disbursed $37.95 million to knock India out of the list of Nepal's top five development partners. China's ascendancy in the list last year, which came at the expense of India, caused a mini controversy here with MEA going all out to prove that the figure of $22 million (India's aid disbursement in FY 2014-15) was misleading.
120. At a time when it is using its consistent opposition to triple talaq to woo Muslim women, BJP has reached out to OBCs in the minority com munity saying the Modi government's `propoor' policies will help them and cautioning them against parties who treat them as mere “vote banks“. Building upon PM Modi's pitch to “ Pasmanda“ or the socially backward among Muslims, the party on Tuesday held a convention of OBC Muslims to claim that the government's policies have been inclusive and beneficial for all communities. “The poor Muslims have been unable to take advantage of the welfare schemes for minorities but Prime Minister Modi's `pro-poor' policies will uplift them,“ minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told a rally attended mostly by backward Muslims from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Delhi.
121. Following complaints against quality of books published by CBSE as well as non-availability, the HRD ministry is likely to ask the Board to stop printing textbooks after holding a review meeting, sources said. A senior HRD ministry official said complaints had been received at the centralised public grievance redress and monitoring system regarding books by CBSE. “Organisations need to work as per mandate and a review is under way over publication of books by CBSE,“ said the official.
122. Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) said on Tuesday that it would sue Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the Supreme Court for receiving funds from alQaida chief Osama bin Laden in the 1980s to promote jihad in Kashmir and Afghanistan.
123. A shocked Pakistan on Tuesday summoned Iranian ambassador to its foreign office to record a formal protest over the statement by the Iranian army chief threatening to hit terrorist safe havens inside Pakistan if Islamabad failed to stop militants from carrying out cross-border attacks. Relations between Islamabad and Tehran have been complex and full of mistrust since long. The two countries, however, had avoided aggressive posturing through public statements in the past. Hence, Pakistani officials were deeply shocked and disturbed, sources said, over the statement by Iranian military chief, Maj Gen Mohammad Baqeri, vowing his country would hit hi deouts of terrorists in Pakistan if the government does not confront militants who carry out crossborder attacks.
124. A Sikh man, who had sought asylum in the US citing religious persecution in India nearly two decades ago, has been detained by immigration authorities in California after losing his latest appeal over a deportation order. Gurmukh Singh, a 46-year-old taxi driver from Punjab who sneaked into the US without a visa through the border with Mexico in 1998, was taken into custody on Monday after failing to get a stay in his deportation case, amid a clampdown by the Trump administration against undocumented immigrants. A father of two who is married to a US citizen, Singh had applied for asylum in the US in 1999, citing religious persecution.
125. Left-leaning former human rights lawyer Moon Jae-in won South Korea's presidential election by a landslide on Tuesday , according to an exit poll, sweeping to power on a yearning for change after a tumultuous scandal. The ballot was called to choose a new president after Park Geun-hye was ousted and indicted for corruption. Voters were galvanised by anger over the bribery and abuse-of-power controversy that brought down Park, which ca talysed frustrations over jobs and slowing growth. They gave Moon, of the Democratic Party , who backs engagement with the North, 41.4% support, according to the joint survey by three TV stations. Conservative Hong Joonpyo -who dubs Moon a “proPyongyang leftist“ was far behind on 23.3%, with centrist Ahn Cheol-soo third on 21.8%.
126. Pakistan will send back an Indian woman, who said she was sexually abused after her forced marriage with a Pakistani citizen at gunpoint, once all legal requirements in the case are completed, a media report said on Tuesday . Citing sources, Geo TV reported that the Indian high commission has sent a copy of the woman's statement made before the magistrate and other relevant documents to the Pakistani foreign ministry .
127. Father Tom Uzhunnalil, an Indian Catholic priest, abducted by terrorists in strife-torn Yemen, has made a fresh video appeal for urgent help after getting a “poor response“ from authorities, say ing his health was deteriorating quickly and required hospitalisation. Father Tom, 58, who hails from Kerala, was abducted in March last year by a terror group. He had gone missing in Yemen after the Islamic State militant group attacked a care home run by Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity . Gunmen had stormed the refuge for the elderly in April last year. In the video carried by Aden Time news website, a fraillooking priest said, “I am Father Tom Uzhunnalil. My date of birth is August 18, 1958. I received the message of con cern that you sent me my dear family people. I am thankful to you. Thank you very much“. “They (abductors) are tre ating me well to the extent that they are able. My health con dition is deteriorating quick ly and I require hospitalisa tion as early as possible.
128. A grieving husband in the UK has revealed how he slept in the same room as his wife's body for six days after her death to challenge the people's attitudes towards dying. Wendy Davison, 50, died at home in Derby last month on April 21 after a 10-year battle with cervical cancer. Russell Davison, who has been left “heartbroken“, said he did not want her body to go to a mortuary and that he wanted to challenge attitudes towards dying. It is legal to keep a body at home and Derbyshire coroner's court confirmed that Wendy's doctor had reported her death, the BBC reported. Russell said, “I wanted us to take care of her ourselves at our family home.
129. Qantas Airways Ltd chief executive Alan Joyce proved he was no cream puff on Tuesday , keeping his cool after a man smeared a cream pie in his face during a business breakfast in Australia's west. Joyce, the head of Australia's flag carrier, was speaking at the event in Perth, when a man in a business suit walked onto the stage, reached around to rub the pie in his face, and calmly walked away , 7 News television showed. The unidentified man's motive was unclear but he was soon apprehended by security guards.
130. A Swiss court has upheld a 12-month suspended sentence for a man convicted of deliberately removing his condom during sex with an unconsenting partner, a practice known as “stealthing“ that is testing how legal systems can handle such cases. Swiss broadcaster SRF said the couple had met via dating platform Tinder and agreed to have sex at the woman's home. During intercourse the woman refused the man's request to change to unprotected sex, only to discover later he had in fact removed his condom. The appeals court ruled that the sentence was appropriate while changing the crime involved to defilement from rape, as a lower court had found.
131. Bill Clinton might have ho ped to spend this year back in the White House as America's “first gentleman,“ should his wife Hillary have won the 2016 election. Instead, the two-term Democratic president is moving into fiction, writing his first thriller about drama behind the scenes in the White House, his publishers said on Monday . Clinton is collaborating with bestselling US author James Patterson on `The President is Missing' which is to be published in June 2018 by Al fred A Knopf and Little, Brown and Company .