CORPORATE AFFAIRS, TECHNOLOGY, E-COMMERCE & CARS
1. Yoga guru Ramdev's claim that many people are praying for his `departure' left the audience at the inauguration of Patanjali Research Institute bemused. When enquired, on the sidelines of the event, if he was facing a threat from his competitors, Ramdev smilingly replied: “When you become powerful, you become a threat (to some) and you are bound to face threat (from some).“
2. A dated smartphone model, the iPhone 5s, may now be sold online at a price point that would help expand Apple's loyalty base in the country. The Cupertino, California-based company will likely price the fouryear-old iPhone 5s around `15,000 apiece as part of an online-exclusive retailing strategy, which aims to secure for the world's most valuable corporate a beachhead in India's mid-priced smartphone market that is dominated by Chinese manufacturers and Samsung. Three senior industry executives said that the company's distributors have already informed the brick-and-mortar cellphone stores that iPhone 5s supplies will be eased out, and that the model would be sold only online at an aggressive price point. The iPhone SE will become the entry handset for offline retail in India for Apple, carrying a price tag of `20,000, they said. The iPhone 5s currently sells at `18,000.
3. Oppo is looking to invest in Indian mobile internet startups to integrate third-party services with its operating plat form and app store as the Chinese handset maker looks to deepen its presence in the country with an eye on dethroning Samsung from the top spot. Oppo's moves mirror the steps taken by companies such as Micro max and Xiaomi, which have in vested in mobile internet com panies to offer services that can differentiate their pro ducts in a crowded and commoditised smartphone market. This would help Oppo offer more localised products and services in a market where it has already made a splash, rapidly climbing to the No.4 position among smartphone play ers by shipments with 10% market share at the end of January-March quarter, according to Counterpoint Research. Samsung continued to lead the market with 26% share. “We aim to achieve either no 1 or No 2 position in India. Our aim is to compete with Samsung and no other brands,“ Yang said.
4.Renault India, which has rode on to become the fifth largest player within five years of operations with a 4.5% market share in the 3-million units per annum domestic car market, will add 50 more dealers to take overall dealerships to over 320 by December.
5.Hero MotoCorp has set its sights on Brazil and Mexico, two big motorcycle markets where the Indian company's biggest rival will be its former partner, Honda Motor.
Hero is developing flexi-fuel engines for Brazil -the country uses ethanolblended petrol -with an aim to enter that market by March 2019. The launch in Mexico is likely to happen before that. Hero had previously planned to enter Brazil around 2016 Olympics, but missed that target.
6. Amazon India's effort to boost repeat transactions on its platform through its flagship membership programme Prime is paying off well in less than a year of launch. The top three categories on the Amazon India marketplace -kitchen, living room and home products; apparel; and consumables, including fast-moving consumer goods -are seeing transactions surge from Amazon Prime members. Prime members account for two out of every three daily essentials bought on Amazon Pantry , according to a statement from the company . In the fashion category , which is the second-highest selling category on the platform, one in three orders is from a Prime member. Overall, Prime members account for one-third of all the orders placed on Amazon India.
The loyalty programme will drive long-term benefits for Amazon India, said analysts, adding that it could pose a deterrent for Flipkart as the country's largest online marketplace plans an entry into the online fast-moving consumer goods and grocery segments.
7. Online marketplace Flipkart has a strong line-up of private labels it hopes to expand in time for its five-day annual sale. The private label business -initiated with Flipkart SmartBuy in December 2016 and January 2017 -currently spans across 15 categories. The marketplace will introduce new labels for heavy and bulky goods, staples and furniture, expanding to 35 categories by July-August. It considers these `high involvement' categories. “In the second growth phase for SmartBuy , we have introduced small kitchen appliances, trimmers, dryers and straighteners in the personal care category . We want SmartBuy to be an umbrella brand across all daily-use categories. The brand will be live in 20 categories for the Big 10 Sale,“ said Adarsh Menon, head of private labels at Flipkart. “We started with two sellers and have expanded our bedsheet category to manufacturers in tier-II hubs such as Ahmedabad, Surat and others,“ he said. Once a new category is launched, the marketplace reaches out to all sellers with a base line of good qu ality products to retail it under licensing agreement from Flipkart. “Sellers retailing the SmartBuy brand are starting to see additional 500 basis points in profits across categories. In terms of share across categories, SmartBuy is the largest or among the top four brands. In chargers, we have 50% share; in fans, we have 35%. In branded categories, we are at 860%,“ said Menon. The marketplace will source its furniture from Malaysia. “Some of our sourcing is from China, some from India. We will source furniture from Malaysia. We are unconcerned about the location but uncompromi sing about working with suppliers who are as serious abo ut their products as we are,“ he added. Rival marketplace Amazon India launched its private apparel label in September 2016 which now includes FMCG, kitchen appliances and products, décor and other verticals. In its north America market, Amazon.com has a strong private label play across daily-use categories.
8. Just days ahead of its annual developer conference Google IO, Google has announced the end of Android “Nougat“ Beta and that it will soon launch Android “O“ Beta. “The beta for Android Nougat has concluded, and all devices that were opted in have been updated to the current public version,“ Google said in an update to the Android beta website.
POLITICS, ECONOMY, CRIMES, SPORTS, ENTERTAINMENT & NEWS AROUND THE WORLD
1. PM Narendra Modi has directed that all proposals sent to the cabinet must state the number of jobs they can generate, in a renewed bid to push employment generation to the centre of policymaking and project conceptualisation. The government, which will soon complete three years, is going all out to ensure it delivers on the promise of creating 1crore jobs. A Crisil report said more than 1.5 million people enter the job market every month in the country and the rapid adoption of automation, which reduces the dependence on labour, is aggravating the situation. “We are the youngest country with 65% of our population below 35 years of age. We are the world's largest democracy and we have a huge domestic mar ket to feed. No country has such an oppor tunity as India to create jobs with human ca pital and abun dant natural re had said earlier. source,“ Modi had said earlier. There is a view that job creation has not been commensurate with the country's economic expansion -so-called jobless growth -prompting the government to identify it as a key priority. According to the quarterly employment survey of the labour and employment ministry, the estimated employment in eight sectors, including manufacturing, construction, trade, transport, education, health, accommodation and restaurants and IT BPO (information tech nologybusiness process outsourcing) stands at 20.52 million in the country. Of this, manufacturing is the largest employer with the highest share at 49% followed by education at 24%.Construction accounts for the least at 1.79% and transport has a 2.8% share. Between FY12 and FY16, the number of jobs created in India stood at 14.6 million or 3.65 million per year, according to the Confederation of Indian Industry. Though the total working-age population rose by 84.1 million, the actual labour force increased by only 20.1 million. About a fourth (24%) of the working-age population joined the labour force while three-fourths (76%) remained outside it. Of the 20.1 million-strong jump in the labour force, 14.6 million were part of the workforce that is employed, while 5.5 million were unemployed.
2. The Securities and Exchange Board of India is yet to approve IDFC MD Vikram Limaye's appointment as the CEO of National Stock Exchange (NSE) as it is concerned about his other role -managing the affairs of BCCI, the richest cricket body . Sebi has asked for clarifications about Limaye's role and is reviewing the application, people close to the development said. It believes he may not be able to do justice as the head of India's biggest stock exchange if he continues in his SC-appointed role as a member of the four-person panel managing the affairs of Board of Control for Cricket in India.
The exchange has told the regulator that Limaye's role at the cricket board is almost like a non-executive board position and that he won't be involved in the day-to-day functions. “Limaye has already explained his role at BCCI to the NSE board, saying that it is only about giving policy direction and supervising through the CEO,“ said another person close to the development.
3. India's print medium is growing amid a global slowdown as readers in the country continue to find it more credible and aspirational. The average number of copies circulated per day grew to 62.8 million in the 2006-2016 period from 39.1million, according to data released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC).
4. Brevity pays, especially when it comes to complex litigation involving voluminous records -all the more so if the case involves heavy guns backed by sharp legal eagles.Preparing its appeal against the special CBI court ruling which discharged Maran brothers in the Aircel-Maxis case, CBI sleuths noticed that their appeal ran into nearly 200 pages. A decision was taken to keep the appeal succinct and bring it down to 100 pages. Reason: The judgement, appealed against, itself ran into 500 pages.
5. The selection of new ICSSR chairman has sparked a small controversy in academic circles. Usually, the candidate shortlisted for the top job was nominated by ICSSR collegium, but this time around it was short of at least 12 members when it did so.The situation arose because about a dozen collegium members had passed away and no one from ICSSR or the HRD ministry took note of the vacancy which should have been filled before the selection of chairman.
6. At least nine UP cadre IAS officers, including current secretary of the IAS association, Sanjay Bhoosreddy, have been recalled by the Yogi Adityanath government. While three officers have consented to return to their parent cadre, the other six are learnt to be less enthusiastic and have indicated the same diplomatically. It is now wait-and-watch time for the UP cadre.
7. A special CBI court has taken cognisance of a chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation against Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh, accusing him of amassing assets worth `10 crore disproportionate to his known sources of income. The court has summoned Singh and his wife Pratibha Singh to appear before it on May 22 to face trial. Besides Singh and his wife, others summoned as accused are Chunni Lal Chauhan, Joginder Singh Ghalta, Prem Raj, Vakamulla Chandrasekhar, Lawan Kumar Roach and Ram Prakash Bhatia. The CBI had on March 31 filed a chargesheet against all the eight.
8. AAP EXPELS KAPIL MISHRA LG Forwards 'Proof' Against kejriwal to Anti-graft Branch Jain told me that he managed Rs 50-cr land deal for Kejriwal's brother-in-law: Kapil Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal has forwarded `evidence' submitted by former minister Kapil Mishra against chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to the anti-corruption branch of the Delhi Police for investigation, even as AAP sacked Mishra from its primary membership. Baijal on Monday summoned ACB chief Mukesh Meena and directed him to submit a report within a week. Incidentally, Kejriwal had objected to Meena's appointment, in 2015. Officials said that the LG has ordered probe in the matter related to the water tanker scam only . On his part, Mishra made fresh alle g ations a g ainst Kejriwal. He alleged that a `50 crore `deal' was `arranged' for Kejriwal's brother-in-law and a `bogus bill' of `10 crore was made to `favour' Kejriwal's brother-in-law. He also alleged during the Punjab polls there was massive corruption in ticket distribution, including supply of liquor, and AAP leader Sanjay Singh was involved in lobbying for overseas funding.He said he had sought an appointment with CBI on Tuesday to register a complaint. Mishra had met the LG on Sunday after alleging that he had seen Kejriwal receiving `2 crore from health minister Satinder Jain. He alleged Kejriwal had deliberately delayed the investiga tion into `400-crore `water tanker scam' of 2013 to `shield' former Congress chief minister Sheila Dikshit. This was despite a probe committee constituted by the AAP government in 2015 finding corruption, Mishra claimed. The issue involved procurement of GPS enabled tankers by the Dikshit government in 2010 for supply of water to unauthorised colonies that did not have proper pipelines. The probe committee formed by the AAP government later found that there were `discrepancies' in the procedures involved in awarding tenders for the tankers.
9. The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday quizzed former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in connection with alleged irregularities in the allotment of 14 industrial plots by the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA). The case pertains to alleged irregularities in the allocation of industrial plots at Panchkula in 2012 when Hooda was HUDA chairman. The Central Bureau of Investigation questioned Hooda for the first time against whom the agency had registered a case last year. Last week, the agency had also grilled Chattar Singh, Hooda's then principal secretary, in connection with the case.Singh is currently a member of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). Hooda was on Monday questioned for over six hours by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
10. The Supreme Court ordered former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad and other accused in the `900-crore fodder scam to face separate trials in different cases filed against them. The apex court also revived criminal conspiracy charges previously quashed by the Jharkhand high court against them over alleged siphoning off of funds from the state's animal husbandry department.
11. Lalu Prasad's suggestion to deploy old, non-milking cows outside the houses of BJP leaders to see if they really cared for the animal has triggered a row in Vaishali district, where a BJP leader has filed a complaint in a court. Some RJD workers tied two old cows to a pole in front of the residence of the Vaishli district VP of BJP Kisan Morcha, CK Bharti, at Bishunpur Arara village.
12. Hailing SC order that Lalu Prasad will face trial in all four fodder scam cases, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi has said the verdict means the “end of the road“ for the RJD chief in politics. “It's the end of the road in politics for Prasad as he is sure to be convicted in three other cases of fodder scam and would be debarred from electoral politics...“
13. Former Union minister PK Thungon, who was facing prosecution for 21 years in an alleged disproportionate assets case, has been acquitted by a special court which said CBI has failed to prove its case. Special CBI Judge Pitamber Dutt absolved Thungon saying the prosecution has not succeeded in proving the offence against him.
14. BJP is planning to celebrate three years of the Narendra Modi government in a grand way. Programmes will be spread over almost a fortnight, when chief ministers, Union ministers, MPs and MLAs will reach out to people to propagate how various programmes have helped the people and educate them about the government's achievements. A meeting of BJP office-bearers and party's senior-most leaders were held on Saturday to discuss details of the programmes that will be held to mark the third anniversary of Modi government, which assumed office on May 26, 2014. Programmes will be held in the national capital and across various state capitals and districts.
15. Development, zero tolerance to terrorism and effective use of technology -home minister Rajnath Singh on Monday spelt out a multi-pronged strategy to curb Maoist menace in the country's 35 districts affected by left-wing extremism. Raman Singh, the Chhattisgarh chief minister whose state faces the brunt of the problem, outlined 'Mission Sukma', where he suggested intelligent use of air power targeting the Maoist leadership and continuing development work in the area as steps to tackle the extremists. Chief ministers of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar, Maharashtra, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and And hra Pradesh attended crucial meetings called by the home ministry on Monday to take stock of anti-Maoist strategies after the Central Reserve Police Force lost 37 of its men to the radicals in March and April alone in Chhattisgarh.
16. BSF constable Tej Bahadur Yadav, who was dismissed from his services on April 19 for criticising the quality of food served at the staff canteen through a video that went viral, isn't giving up his fight yet. The dismissed constable, whose pension and other emoluments too have been stopped, told that he will launch a bigger movement at Delhi's Jantar Mantar on May 14. “There will be ex-servicemen from the Army, CRPF, ITBP, Navy and Air Force who will narrate the injustices they faced,“ said Yadav. The constable was in Mumbai to attend a Mumbai Congress programme to commemorate 25 CRPF jawans who were recently killed in Chattisgarh's Sukma district. He, however, made it clear that he has nothing to do with the Congress. “I have come here to pay my respects to the martyrs. I don't support any political party. Even if the BJP, or any other party, had called me for such a programme, I would have come,“ claimed Yadav.
17. Congress vicepresident Rahul Gandhi is said to have categorically denied the possibility of the party taking a soft Hindutva approach or any strategy that will dilute the “idealism or the core values“ the party represents, in the upcoming Gujarat elections. In a four-hour meeting where Gandhi interacted with around 40 state leaders, he is believed to have told the state unit to “understand the anger on the ground against the ruling party and consolidate it in the party's favour“. Congress has been out of power for more than two decades in Gujarat and the party has been trying to put forth a fight in the elections scheduled in December. BJP, on the other hand, is very confident after the UP victory and is looking to gain a head-start in the state with plans around a high-voltage campaign.
18. A few days before the GST bill is ratified in the Maharashtra legislative assembly , the Shiv Sena has given BJP the jitters by indicating that it has reservations about the bill. Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray had said last week that the Sena would oppose any move that was considered as some kind of an `encroachment' on the powers of the local body .Thackeray was talking about how municipal corporations like the BMC would be at the mercy of the Centre, or the state government, for funds which affect its autonomy . Since Maharashtra has called a special three-day session to ratify the GST on May 20, state finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar met Thackeray at his residence to iron out the `misunderstandings'.
19. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday issued a notice to Delhi government, the ministry of environment and forests and Delhi Pollution Control Committee over the chemical spill at Tughlaqabad container depot that led to over 450 schoolchildren being hospitalised. A bench headed by NGT chairperson Swatanter Kumar also issued a show cause to Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) on why its unit Delhi's Tughlaqabad should not be shifted. The green panel has appointed advocate Sanjay Upadhayay as amicus curiae in the matter.
20. The Maharashtra government on Monday imposed a ban on sale of `High in Fat, Salt and Sugar' food at school canteens across the state. A government resolution (GR) issued today gives a list of 12 categories of foods which cover potato chips, noodles, carbonated soft drinks, pizza, burger, cakes, biscuits, buns, pastries, etc., which can not be sold. It also gives a list of 20 items that can be sold, which include wheat roti, vegetable pulav, idli-vada, coconut water and jaljira.
21.The Centre's proposal for a unique identification number for cows has found eager acceptance with one group in West Bengal. The Gau-Bansh Vikash Prakashtha (Cow Development Cell) of the state BJP , which conducted two cow censuses last year, has come up with recommendations on what information to include in the proposed unique identification tag. According to the group, the identification tag must mention the breed of the cow, the animal's milk production capacity and quality of milk and its height, weight and age. Apart from saving cows, the cell's main concern is the preservation and protection of Indian breeds amid increasing hybridisation of cattle. West Bengal had about 1.51 crore cows, of which about 25 lakh were cross-breeds or exotic breeds, while the remainder were Indian breeds, a review conducted by the group in September showed. The cattle population in the state declined by about 54 lakh from about 2 crore in the census in July , after cows were slaughtered and smuggled during Bakr Id in mid-September.
22. India has rejected China's contention that Beijing had never acknowledged Pakistan's claims on parts of Jammu and Kashmir as final, underscoring its sustained opposition to the One Belt One Road (OBOR) project that New Delhi believes infringes sovereignty . To overcome India's resistance, China has revived its four-point proposal to overcome its differences with India and deepen relations by aligning its OBOR project with New Delhi's ` Act East Policy', and restarting negotiations on a free-trade pact. India, which is unlikely to attend the May 14-15 OBOR Summit in Beijing, has been opposed to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) the flagship project under OBOR as it passes through Pakoccupied Kashmir, infringing sovereignty .The CPEC will link Kashgar in Xinjiang in China and a deep sea port at Gwadar in Balochistan in south-western Pakistan.
23. Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Israel in July , Tel Aviv is trying to achieve a political consensus on Indo-Israeli ties by inviting Congress leader Manish Tewari for three days beginning Monday to attend conferences on security issues. The meet will also be attended by Shaurya Doval, director of India Foundation. The delegation, which also includes Jaiveer Shergill, a Congress functionary from Punjab, has been invited by the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv, National Nuclear Security Administration and Centre for Global Security Research. The members of the Indian delegation will speak on security and economic issues facing South Asia and West Asian region.
24. Star India, the format and media rights owner of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL), has locked in Chinese handset manufacturer Vivo as the title sponsor of the league ahead of its fifth season. The smartphone maker is also the title sponsor of Indian Premier League. The five-year deal, pegged at about `300 crore, makes PKL the second-largest league in India in terms of sponsorship money, after the IPL. This will be for the first time PKL will have a title sponsor. So far, Star India had not sold the title sponsorship of the property. Sanjay Gupta, managing director, Star India, told ET: “We have conducted four successful seasons of PKL... At the launch, we said kabad di is going to be the biggest game in India. We are inching closer to that.“
25.The labour ministry on Monday clarified that the employees already on maternity leave will be eligible for enhanced paid leave under the amended Maternity Benefit Act, which came into force on April 1. The amended Maternity Benefit Act was enforced on April 1, 2017.There was a confusion that whether the employees already on maternity leave would get the benefit under amended law or not.
26. Real estate sales momentum has started slowly improving across key markets after initial sharp fall witnessed post the government's demonetisation move. Both sales and launches showing healthy levels during the fourth quarter is seen as an indicator of the market steadily making effort to reach the pre-demonetisation point. Residential sales across top nine markets rose 13% for the fourth quarter of 2016-17 and the surge in the volume was primarily driven by Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru, which together accounted for 57% of total sales, said a PropTiger.com report. Total residential sales increased to 51,700 units during the quarter from 43,500 units in the previous quarter, which was marked with demonetisation. The number of launches across these cities also rose 19%, the highest in the last eight quarters. Around 51,500 units were launched in the quarter as compared to 43,250 units during the preceding quarter ended December. According to ratings agency Moody's Investors Service, sales volumes in India's real estate sector had decreased by around 40% year on year in the fourth quarter of 2016, while launches dropped by around 60% during the same period.
27. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said remonetisation, following the world's largest note ban, has been substantially completed and the move will result in expansion of the tax base in the country.“India was not a tax compliant society. A very large part of the economy was cash-centric. This problem needed to be addressed. It requires a lot of political courage to resolve the problem,“ he said at an Interactive Session on `India's Business Environment: Reforms and Opportunities' organised by CII, Indian Embassy and Japan Chamber of Commerce. The finance minister said that the move brought about a far greater movement towards digitisation. “It ended the anonymity related to cash operated in the system and hopefully, in the days to come, the taxation base of India would expand,“ he said.
28. The mutual fund industry's asset base has crossed the Rs19 lakh crore mark in April 2017.
29. The largest global banks in London plan to move about 9,000 jobs to the continent in the next two years as the exodus of finance jobs starts to take shape.Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein said that London's growth as a financial centre could “stall“ due to upheaval caused by Brexit.
30. Oil prices slipped, reversing gains made earlier in the session as evidence of rising US drilling offset news that Opec and other producers may extend their production cuts. Brent crude was down 37 cents at $48.73 a barrel at 1246 GMT, having risen to $49.92 earlier in the session.
31.Gold prices rose on bargain-hunting after falling to a seven-week low earlier when safe-haven demand ebbed away following Emmanuel Macron's victory. Spot gold rose 0.4% to $1,232.61 per ounce by 1211 GMT, after touching 1,224.86 earlier in the session.
32. Sitting on huge buffer stock of pulses, the government said cooperative firm Nafed has started disposing it and the substantial quantity would be sold to defence, para-military forces and state governments. The buffer stock is being created since last two years.
33. Promoters and directors of a listed company are required to disclose details about shares received by way of gift and through off-market transactions, according to Sebi. In case of bonus shares a separate disclosure is not required by promoters, directors, employees.
34. The government may merge Coal India's pension fund with the Employees' Provident Fund in an attempt to overcome a shortfall and ensure that payments to retired employees are not disrupted. The state-owned miner's fund currently manages about Rs 13,000 crore and provides pensions to some 3 lakh retired Coal India employees. Contributions from employees, interest income and earnings from investments haven't generated enough money to meet a pension bill that's been mounting as salaries increase. An actuarial estimate about four years ago suggested that the fund faces a gap of about Rs 26,000 crore and needs to be replenished to ensure there's enough money to pay pensions in the near future. The ministry's decision to merge it with the EPF is an effort to save the fund. The coal ministry recently formed a six-member committee headed by additional secretary Suresh Kumar to look into the possibility of merging the Coal Mines Provident Organisation (CMPFO) with the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). A copy of the notification forming the commit tee was available with ET. The other members of the committee are coal ministry joint secretaries RP Gupta and RS Puri and deputy secretary M Pratap, as well as economic advisor Animesh Bharti and CMPFO commissioner BK Panda. The committee, which has met once, has been asked to submit its report by May 20. According to the actuarial report submitted in 2013, the total accrued liability of the fund was about Rs 41,000 crore while its assets were estimated at Rs 14,800 crore, resulting in a deficit of Rs 26,200 crore. Employees will need to contribute about 19% of their salary compared with about 5% currently to make good the deficit.
35. India's power demand growth may not keep pace with the expansion in solar energy capacity, which may slow down capacity addition from the renewable source in 2018 before it recovers in the following year, consultancy Bridge to India said. In its latest handbook on solar energy, it estimates that solar capacity addition will be a record 7.7 GW (gigawatts) in 2017, but will fall to 6.5 GW the following year. It will recover to 7.5 GW in 2019 , before scaling new heights of 8 GW in 2020 and 8.3 GW in 2021. Two years ago, India set itself an ambitious target of adding 100 GW of solar capacity by 2022. So far, until endMarch 2017, 12.3 GW had been installed, including 5.5 GW in 2016-17. However, Bridge to India has forecast that even if its projected yearly targets are achieved, India will have only 44 GW of installed solar capacity by end-2021.
36. Senior bureaucrat Sushil Chandra was on Monday given one-year extension till May 2018 as chair man of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). He had taken over as chief of CBDT, the apex policy making body of the Income Tax department, on November 1 last year. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the proposal for reappointment of Chandra as CBDT chairman for a period of one year from June 1 to May 31, 2018, an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said. Chandra, an IIT graduate, is a 1980 batch officer of Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax cadre). Two other CBDT members-Nishi Singh and Gopal Mukherjee -were in contention for the post.Now the two would retire before Chandra' fresh tenure ends.
37. Some of the country's premier technology institutes are tweaking the number of students in some of their courses, and or, introducing new or interdisciplinary programmes in keeping with a government directive to plan their courses based on popularity and employability. Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in Delhi and Kanpur, for example, plan to reduce the number of seats in unpopular courses and divert them to popular ones. The latter may even stop its nuclear engineering technology programme due to lack of interest from students. “As the employment opportunities are limited under this programme, we are looking at merging this with mechanical engineering,“ said Manindra Agrawal, deputy director at IIT Kanpur. “A call would be taken soon on this,“ he said. “Another reason for merging this programme with mechanical engineering is the fact that we have not been able to get teaching faculty,“ Agrawal said. IIT Kanpur is also reducing the number of seats in metallurgical engineering, which is not seen to be so popular, and offering as many seats in more popular programmes. The ministry of human resources development (MHRD) recently told all centrally funded technical institutions, including IITs, to close centres and end courses that have seen a decline in the number of applicants in the past three years. The ministry also told them to introduce new courses and disciplines only after analysing market opportunity, employability and require ment of higher education. IIT Delhi is considering lowering the number of seats in some streams in its BTech programmes that are currently not popular. However, the total number of seats under BTech at IIT Delhi would not reduce as the institute plans to increase seats in more popular programmes. “The popularity of a programme much depends on the employment prospects,“ said V Ramgopal Rao, director at IIT Delhi. He said the institute does not plan to shut down any centre. An IIT Bombay spokesper son said the issue of revision in seats allocation or closure of any discipline does not arise because all the seats get allotted in the joint counselling process. The institute is considering new program with government directive. It introduced BSc Economics and PhD in Centre for Policy Studies from the autumn session of 2017. The proposal for new programmes is mooted by the programmes committee of a departments, which, in turn, is examined by the programmes committee of the institute for possible recommendation to the senate. Senate takes the final decision. IIT Madras, too, does not plan to reduce the number of seats in any course or stream.It also has no immediate plans to introduce new programmes, said V Jagadeesh Kumar, dean (academic courses).
38. As salary increments across industries fall to, on average, single-digit percentage figures, goods and services tax (GST) professionals are bucking the trend, taking home hefty mid-term bonuses and increments for moving within the organisation into the GST team. GST, the nation's biggest tax reform, is set for a likely July 1 rollout. This has created a big opportunity for the professional services firms to help their clients understand the changing business and tax dynamics, evaluate its impact and take necessary action. However, availability of experienced talent that can handle the new single-tax system and the uniqueness caused by duality of rights of Centre and states is not enough in the local market. This is forcing many of these consultancies to woo inhouse professionals from other departments to join the GST teams and cut the load of pending work.
39. India plans to use the land bank available with its loss-making state-run enterprises for affordable housing projects if New Delhi's efforts to auction the real estate fail to draw bidders. About 2,000 acres of land belonging to five money-losing companies would be put under the bidding hammer soon by state-run real estate firm NBCC (India) Limited. Hindustan Cables Ltd, Instrumentation Ltd, HMT Bearing Ltd, HMT Watches Ltd, and Tungabhadra Steel Products are the companies that have put their land holdings up for auction. A senior government official said that if the state governments and public sector companies did not bid for those land parcels, the government will examine the feasibility of low cost housing projects before opening the auction to private firms. “The idea is not to generate revenue from that land sale but to maximise its utilisation,“ added the government official quoted above.
40. The government will release on Friday the new series of Index of Industrial Production as well as Wholesale Price Index, with 2011-12 as the base year, so as to map economic activities more accurately. The monthly WPI for April under the new series will be released on May 12 instead of May 15, commerce ministry said in a statement. The change in baseline for the IIP and WPI is expected to bring in more accuracy in mapping the level of economic activity and in calculating national accounts.
41.Labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya on Monday clarified that retirement fund body EPFO will not construct houses, but become a facilitator for its over four crore members so that they can buy homes. Labour ministry intends to facilitate at least 10 lakh subscribers in the period of next two year by allowing them to use 90% of EPF accumulations to make down payments to buy houses and use their accounts for paying EMIs of home loans.“For housing, the EPFO has nothing to do with construction of houses. It is their (subscribers) responsibility,“ Dattatreya replied to a query.
42. The Central Associ ation of Private Security Industry (CAPSI) pressed forward its case for retaining FDI limit at 49% in cash and ATM management companies to ringfence the domestic industry. In a representation to finance minister Arun Jaitley, CAPSI, the body of cash management service providers, said services rendered using armoured car, cash van and guards fall under the preview of the Private Security Agencies Regulation Act 2005 and hence, raising FDI beyond 49% will be in contravention of law.
43. The Reserve Bank of India will identify cases of bad debt to be taken up for resolution under the new non-performing assets (NPA) ordinance in consultation with Indian Banks' Association (IBA), a finance ministry official said on Monday. The government has no intention to get into individual cases and it has already given authorisation to the banking sector regulator, the official said. “Those cases which have been already examined by joint lenders' forum (JLF) but not reached logical conclusion after that will be looked at,“ the person said. “Such cases would be taken up by RBI and the regulator can direct banks for resolution.“
44. Emmanuel Macron's ascent to French president caps a stunning rise for the political newcomer and his fledgling party but he now faces another battle to form a parliamentary majority, with his rivals already plotting revenge in June's general election. Macron won 66% of the vote in Sunday's presidential run-off against the far right's Marine Le Pen, the biggest win by a French president since Jacques Chirac's victory over Le Pen's father JeanMarie in 2002. But he faces a tall order to convert his victory into the majority he needs to implement his ambitious agenda of labour, welfare and education reforms. Le Pen's National Front (FN) and the other elections losers are all hell bent on bouncing back in the parliamentary vote.Traditionally, French voters have handed a parliamentary majority to the newly elected president in the general election. But for the first time in the country's post-war history, the new presi dent does not have a big party machine behind him, with the two main governing parties, the Republicans and Socialists, crashing out in the first round. Macron, 39, founded his centrist En Marche ( O n T h e M ov e ) movement of mostly political neophy tes just a year ago on a pr om i s e to i njec t new bloo d into France's discredited political class. Half of his candidates for the 577 seats up for grabs in the general election will be newcomers to poli tics, he has said. The other half will be made up of figures from the centrist Modem party with which he struck an alliance, as well as defectors from the centrist factions of the left wing Socialists and right wing Republicans. “This majority for change is what the country wants and what it deserves,“ he told thousands of flag-waving supporters at a victory party in the courtyard of the Louvre Museum on Sunday. Philippe Braud, profes sor emeritus at Sciences Po university in Paris, said Macron's decisive win on Sunday meant an outright majority -deemed highly improbable just a few weeks ago -was “not impossible“. Two polls showed that En Marche would top the first round of the June 11 18 election.
45. The head of Islamic State in Afghanistan -described as the mastermind behind high-profile attacks including an assault on a military hospital that claimed at least 50 lives -has been killed, US and Afghan officials said. Abdul Hasib, whose group is affiliated with IS in Iraq and Syria, was killed last month in a targeted raid by special forces in the eastern province of Nangarhar, the presidential palace in Kabul said in a statement. The second leader of the jihadist group to be killed by US and Afghan forces in less than nine months, his death came days after Washington dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb on IS hideouts in the same area. NATO commander in Afghanistan General John Nicholson confirmed the killing of Hasib and warned that “any ISIS member that comes to Afghanistan will meet the same fate“.
46. A gas leak in a coal mine in central China has killed 18 people, local authorities said on Monday.The leak happened on Sunday morning when miners were working in the shaft of the mine in Youxian county in Hunan province, according to a statement from the propaganda department of the Communist Party committee of Zhuzhou city, which administers the area. Rescuers managed to bring to safety 37 miners who are receiving hospital treatment, it said. The official Xinhua News Agency said that police had detained unspecified people pending an investigation. China is the world's largest producer and consumer of coal. Its mining industry has long been one of the world's deadliest, with hundreds of deaths annually, even as China has tried to improve standards by shutting older, smaller mines.
47. The hackers behind a “massive and coordinated“ attack on the campaign of French President-elect Emmanuel Macron have been linked to the same Russian-affiliated group blamed for attacking the Democratic party shortly before the US election. New York's Flashpoint Intelligence and Tokyo-based Trend Micro have shared intelligence that suggests the activities of the group, known variously as Ad riously as Advanced Persistent Threat 28, Fancy Bear and Pawn Storm, were the latest in a series of attacks aimed at influencing the outcome of elections, The Guardian reported on Monday. On May 5, Macron's campaign announced he had been the target of a “massive and coordinated“ hacking operation. Around 14.5 GB of emails, personal and business documents were posted to the text-sharing site Pastebin. The hackers had mixed fake documents with authentic ones “to create confusion and misinformation“. The group had ties with the GRU, the Russian military intelligence directorate. Vitali Kremez, director of research at Flashpoint, said his review indicated APT28 was behind the leak.
48. President Nicolas Maduro's plan for an elected assembly to d raw up a new Venezuelan constitution faced headwinds on Sunday, when opposition parties refused to join the process amid continuing violent anti-Maduro protests. Although several opposition leaders had sepa r a t e l y r e j e c t e d Maduro's plan for a “people's“ assem bly, the center-right Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) formally an nounced on Sunday that it would not participate. “We cannot take par t in a fraudulent process,“ for mer presidential candidate Henrique Capriles said, appearing at a news conference with other MUD leaders. “We have a constitution, and the government cannot repeal it by act of force.“
49. The family of White House advisor Jared Kushner apologised on Monday for mentioning his name while urging wealthy Chinese investors to sink millions into a New Jersey real es tate project. Nicole Kushner Meyer was in China at the weekend, seeking more than $150 million in investment in a luxury apa r t ment complex known as “One Journal S qu a r e,“ on wh ich ground is scheduled to break early next year. She urged wealthy Chinese to buy stakes through the EB-5 visa programme that offers US residency in exchange for at least $500,000 investment in a US business that must also create at least 10 American jobs.
50. Former US President Barack Obama warned then President-elect Donald Trump in Donald Trump in November against hiring retired Army General Michael Flynn as White House national security adviser, according to a former Obama aide. Obama delivered the warning during the first Oval Office meeting between the Democratic president and his Republican successor on November 10, the aide said on condition of anonymity. The warning, first reported by NBC News, came up during a discussion of White House personnel.
51. Agriculture minister, Radha Mohan Singh has written to chief ministers of all states and Union Territories to review their preparedness to mitigate possible drought in the event of a rain deficit in the upcoming monsoon season. In the letter, the minister advised states to carry out this exercise in advance “so that the possible adverse impact of sub-par rainfall, if at all, on the farmers can be mitigated,“ the agriculture ministry said in press statement issued on Monday . The June-September monsoon rainfall this year is expected to be 96% of the long-term average, with a 5% error margin, as per the weather office's forecast issued earlier this month. India Meteorological Department (IMD) will issue an updated forecast early next month with details of temporal and regional distribution of monsoon rainfall. Singh in his letter to chief ministers said state of preparedness in districts should be in line with the district agricultural contingency plans, such as, availability of abiotic stress resilient seeds varieties. Ministry officials had earlier said the government has prepared contingency plans for 623 districts in 28 states to help farmers deal with lower output in the event of scanty rains, or the delayed onset of the monsoons. He said the states should keep a watch on the progress in the implementation of schemes under district irrigation plans of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana and status of progress of water conservationrechargeharvesting related works under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and water-shed management. “Establishment and activation of drought management centre at the state headquarter and arrangements for the monitoring of drought, should be done,“ Singh said, adding that progress in the restoration of irrigation infrastructure such as desiltation of canals, repair of tube-wells, faulty pumps and transformerspower lines should be carried on. He pointed out that agricultural operations faced disruption in some states during 2016-17 on account of drought caused by aberrant weather conditions despite the country receiving normal rainfall, which helped farmers take production of cereals, pulses and oilseeds to new highs.
52. In Vivo IPL 2017 Sunrisers Hyderabad won against Mumbai Indians.
53. The head of the Iranian armed forces warned Islamabad on Monday that Tehran would hit terror bases inside Pakistan if the government does not confront Sunni militants, who carry out cross-border attacks. Ten Iranian border guards were killed by militants last month. Iran said Jaish al Adl, a Sunni militant group, had shot the guards with long-range guns, fired from inside Pakistan. The border area has long been plagued by unrest from both drug smuggling gangs and separatist militants.
54. In an escalation of his con frontation with the Supreme Court, Justice C S Karnan “sentenced“ seven SC judges and the Chief Justice of India to five years of imprisonment in an “order“ on Monday after he found them “guilty“ under the Scheduled Caste & Scheduled Tribes Atrocities Act. The Kolkata HC judge also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on each of them. Karnan, already facing contempt proceedings, last week refused to undergo a medical examination of his mental health ordered by the Supreme Court.
55. SBI --the country's largest lender--which offers the lowest home loan rates, has cut them further. Home loans of up to Rs 30 lakh will be cheaper by 25 basis points at 8.35% and those above Rs 30 lakh will be 10 bps cheaper at 8.50%. SBI's rivals are expected to follow suit. HDFC, the largest housing finance company , has already cut rates for new customers to 8.5% in February . Other large lenders, including ICICI Bank and Axis Bank, currently offer home loans at 8.65%.
56. The highway safety patrol (HSP) will soon install flexible height barriers in the extreme right lane of the Pune-Mumbai Expressway in the ghat section. The barriers, made of high quality rubber, will deter slow-moving heavy vehicles and buses from blocking the right lane, which is used for overtaking. Additional director general of police (HSP) R K Padmanabhan had issued directions to install these barriers and the first one was put up near Khalapur on the expressway on Monday . More than thirty barriers will soon be installed after every 300 metres or so in the ghat section. Heavy vehicles often tend to occupy all three lanes of either corridor of the expressway , holding up smaller vehicles travelling behind them. The situation is aggravated during long weekends. On Sunday , two separate accidents at Kamshet re sulted in vehicles queuing up for miles. HSP officials said traffic jams are regularly seen in the 12-km stretch between the Khalapur and Kusgaon toll posts due to heavy vehicles moving slowly in all three la nes. The chaos worsens should a heavy vehicle break down anywhere in the ghat section. Police said emergency vehicles such as ambulances could use the right lane, as they would easily pass under the barriers. However, the barriers would restrict the entry of buses.
57. About 55 countries are air-linked to India by nonstop, commercial passenger flights, and if these nations were ranked on the basis of number of passengers who fly to and fro, Pakistan would be found holding a lowly 50th rank, ahead only of countries like Kyrgyzstan, Iraq, Tajikistan, Reunion Island and Yemen. Only 28,000 passengers boarded nonstop flights between India and Pakistan last year as against, say, the 21 lakh who flew between India and Sri Lanka. With Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) suspending its Karachi operations to India, the neighbour is now set to fall to the bottom of that list this year. Currently , only PIA operates direct flights between India and Pakistan. On Monday , the last 189-seater PIA A320 aircraft took off from Mumbai airport for Karachi at 2.40pm with 120 passengers on board.Till now, PIA air-linked Mumbai with Karachi on Mondays and Thursdays. It has also suspended its Delhi-Karachi operations, leaving Lahore-Delhi as the only flight PIA will operate to India. The airline had said the decision to suspend the Karachi flights was a commercial one and wasn't a result of the recent tension between the two neighbours. A look at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation statistics on the passenger traffic between India and Pakistan only corroborates that. In 2016, a total of 28,154 pas sengers flew between India and Pakistan on PIA 's Karachi-Mumbai, Karachi-Delhi and Lahore-Delhi to and fro flights. It was a fall of 27% as compared to the 38,652 passengers who flew between India and Pakistan in 2015 (the data doesn't include passengers who fly between India and Pakistan via the Middle East or other transit stops).
58. The Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) will tie up with Airbnb, a global aggregator in the hospitality sector, to attract foreign tourists. Apart from bed & breakfast accommodations and popular resorts, 72 unique and indigenous experiences have been developed by the state which will be listed on Airbnb for showcasing on the platform. MTDC has 1,400 bed & breakfast joints, which is the highest in the country, but the 72 unique experiences, categorised under Mahabhraman will have to be marketed, and this is a great opportunity, said tourism minister Jaykumar Rawal.The memorandum of understanding will be signed this month, he added. Senior MTDC officials said since 90% of their bookings are one online so the tie-up will help boost business. Around 22 lakh foreign tourists visit Maharashtra every year. Airbnb will verify all accommodation facilities to check for sa fety and cleanliness and only then list them on their website. Under the Mahabhraman category , there are home stays and farm stays available across rural areas. For instance, one can stay at afarm cottage near Chiplun in the Konkan, which has a river nearby and one can spot many crocodiles there. Similarly , there is an experience of living in cottages, conceptualized as Maachli, which is a Malvani term for huts made on heights to protect the crop and for irrigation. Maachli is in Sindhudurg region in the Konkan and guests can live on the farm in a dense forest. Guests can also be part of the sowing and harvesting on a farm, they can participate in cooking using old methods like firewood and chullahs, children can bathe and milk cattle, and also bathe in lakes and ponds that run through some of the resorts. “The idea is to use Airbnb as a platform to showcase our best options. These are experiences that people do not know about and would love to experience them... all we need is to reach out to them,“ said Rawal. Officials said MTDC resorts are well-received and full for most of the year as they are affordable and suitable for family vacations.
59. The state government's decision to deregulate sale of fruits and vegetables and set up weekly farmer markets has paid off handsomely for growers. In a report presented to the central planning agency , NITI Aayog, the state government has revealed that the turnover of 94 farmer markets across Maharashtra has touched Rs 5 crore per week with sales in the region of 800-1,000 tonnes. Profits earned thus directly accrue to cultivators instead of getting divided among various players down the line extending from farmgate to marketyard, which includes middlemen and wholesale dealers. It was in June 2016 that the state decided to delist fruits and vegetables from the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) act, allowing growers to sell farm produce directly to consumers. Before the amendment, th ey could sell their goods only in a limited number of markets managed by boards set up under APMC law. People could not buy directly from them. Through deregulation, Maharashtra has given farmers a choice to decide where they want to sell their produce and also freed them from the iron grip of the middlemen.
60. The CBI has arrested an assistant commission er of central excise, Ashok Nayak, for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 1.25 crore from a Mumbai-based restaurant owner to settle an Enforcement Directorate case against him. The excise official had initially demanded a bribe of Rs 15 crore to settle the case.
61. Concerned over the incr easing number of corp orate houses and private institutions not paying back loans taken from various banks and public bodies, the Supreme Court said on Monday that such defaulters must be sternly death with and strict action taken against them.
62. The CBI has arrested the chairman of a promin ent Kolkata-based jewellery house, Nillesh Parekh for allegedly cheating a consortium of 25 banks led by the State Bank of India of Rs 2,223 crore. Parekh was arrested from the Mumbai airport upon his return from Dubai.
63. The CBI has nailed the role of nine shell comp anies, including several defaulters, for allegedly diverting proceeds related to the NSEL scam to other avenues.These firms were allegedly trading on the exchange platform without having actual possession of commodities, CBI sources said.
64. A day after a Pakistani national's claim that his Indian wife was being held hostage at the Indian high commission in Islamabad, the 20-year-old woman has come forward to say that she was forced to sign the `nikah nama' at gunpoint.
65. A Pune court has found three accused guilty in the kidnapping, gangrape and murder of software engineer Nayana Pujari in October 2009. The fourth accused who turned approver was let off. The sentencing will be pronounced today .
66. An Andheri businessman recently lost Rs 1.8 crore to a herbal seed fraud by Nigerians. Cyber police have registered an offence under IPC sections for cheating, forgery and breach of trust, and under the Information Technology Act against five persons, mostly Nigerians. The victim, Kaka, came in contact with Victoria Cater on Facebook in July 2006, and she claimed she was a PA to the director of a UK firm, Good Health Pharmaceutical Ltd. They chatted regularly until Cater told him that the firm buys Macadamia nut plant seeds from India but the dealer had stopped supply for some reason. Cater told him the seeds were available in India for Rs 2,750 (for 400gm) but were sold to the company for Rs 6,500. Cater suggested that if he supplied the seeds, the profit would be almost double and she should get a commission. Cater gave him a contact number of Sandeep Suvarna, claiming that he supplied the seeds.
67. India has the highest proportion of people who are worried about the safety of consumer goods, especially children's products and food items. This is because among the world's top four consumer markets, including US, China and Germany , it is in India that consumers have suffered the highest number of product safety incidents in the last five years, with allergic reactions being the top issue, followed by cuts from sharp edges and food poisoning. Against 44-65% of consumers in the other three countries who have had negative product safety experiences, the proportion in India is 84%. At the same time, safeproduct practices are low among businesses in India.Against 69% of companies in Germany and 65% in the US, only 37% of companies in India focus on safety during the design and development stage of a product. In China, this figure is 48%. Even on other safety parameters, like in-house product testing, training of staff on safety issues, and sourcing from only trusted suppliers, India scores either the lowest, or only better than China, with the US and Germany being far ahead of both.Again, in contrast with the other countries, Indian businesses consider distributors and retailers their closest allies in ensuring product safety. At 20%, India scores the lowest when it comes to putting third party inspection measures in place.
68. After getting a beating from the Supreme Court regarding application of the domicile policy in postgraduate admissions, the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) is now drafting a proposal to implement the locals-only rule for undergraduate entry . DMER will soon submit a policy to the state government to implement the domicile policy in private medical colleges. Barring the 15% allIndia quota, the rule will be applicable to all. Moreover, earlier, while admitting candidates, those who took class X and XII exams from the state were automatically considered to be Maharashtradomiciled, but now, DMER has stated that candidates will also need a certificate for admission. The change in rule, experts said, would benefit those from the open category applying to private colleges.For, the domicile rule is already in place for reserved category students.
69. Cabbies have demanded a new prepaid taxi booth outside platform number 18 at CST. They said the booth will benefit long-distance passengers and prevent porters from overcharging.
70. Cuffe Parade police have arrested the manager of a public sector bank's Nashik branch for allegedly conniving with fraudsters to siphon off Rs 10 crore from the account of state government's Tribal Development Corporation. The arrested bank official has been identified as T M Kishore. The fraudsters, who are yet to be identified, allegedly opened a bogus account in the name of the corporation with another nationalised bank's branch in south Mumbai. Kishore allegedly connived with them to transfer Rs 10 crore into the bogus account, police said. The scam came to light when the second bank's offici als got suspicious and spoke to the corporation about the huge money transfer. “The corporation informed the second bank that it had no account with them,“ an officer said.
71. Following the incident of E.coli bacteria being found in various ice samples tested by the BMC, the civic body over the last five days seized and destroyed 13,700 kg of ice from M-East ward only . The ward covers parts of Govandi, Deonar, Mankhurd, Trombay among others. In April alone, 97 cases of gastroenteritis were reported from M-East ward. A civic official said the municipal commissioner had taken strict cognizance of the rise in the number of cases and had directed the health department officials to take action against street food and beverage vendors who use contaminated ice in which E.coli bacteria is found. “Besides, around 135 litres of aerated drinks were also destroyed. Action will continue in this manner in the coming days as well,“ said the official.
72. Suburban train commute can become more comfortable as the authorities plan to introduce 75 services across Western Railway (WR) and Central Railway (CR) in the new time-table that is likely by October.
73. Days before its release, film director Ram Gopal Verma on Monday , agreed to give credit to writer Nilesh Girkar in the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Sarkar 3. Girkar took Verma to high court alleging infringement of his copyright in the film's story .Girkar, through his lawyer Rahul Ajatshatru, argued that the film's forthcoming release be stayed. Girkar's case was that in July 2012 he had submitteda his story to Verma and narrated it again in 2013 but last December Verma denied him any rights in the film. In court, Verma undertook before Justice Gautam Patel to ensure that the opening credits mention that the film is “Based on a story written by Nilesh Girkar“. And he also agreed to pay Rs 6.2 lakh in unpaid fees to Girkar. The digital prints for international theatrical release were already despatched and it will be difficult to incorporate this credit in those prints.The judge said, “In all other prints including international satellite, cable, domestic releases and other digital platforms this credit will appear.“
74. The state education board is in the final stages of approving the new Class IX maths curriculum following the scrapping of the optional general math subject. State board chairman Gangadhar Mhamane said, the new curriculum will include content from general math subject to ensure that no student is inconvenienced from the change in policy . “Very soon the curriculum will be finalized as the academic session starts from June 15,“ Mhamane told. The general math subject was introduced in 2008 as an option from Class IX, specifically for students who found algebra and geometry tough. It was a simpler version which focused mostly on arithmetic that had practical use in day-to-day life.
75. The Anti-Corruption Bureau is at it again. First, the ACB informed Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant that there was no substance in his complaint about irregularities in large-scale procurement of various items by the women and child welfare department led by BJP's Pankaja Munde.However, when Sawant recently invoked provisions of the RTI Act to know the status of his complaint, the ACB informed him that a comprehensive inquiry report into his allegations has been submitted to the state government and that the ACB would decide the future course of action following instructions from the government. Sawant had on June 24, 2015 lodged a complaint with the ACB saying there was rampant corruption in the department led by Pankaja. A similar comp laint was lodged by leader of opposition and NCP leader Dhananjay Munde. From the ACB's first reply , given in December 2016, it appeared it had given a clean chit to Pankaja Munde, while from the second reply, it could be concluded that the government is yet to take a decision on ACB's report.
76. Three years after being accused of strangling her two-week-old granddaughter, a sessions court has acquitted a 60-year-old woman. Rekha Goraswa had spent a year in jail before being granted bail in 2014. Her son and daughter-in-law, the infant's parents, on whose suspicion cops arrested her, left the house soon after and have remained untraceable. Defence advocate Prakash Wagh said the woman had been arrested on mere suspicion, with no other evidence. “We will move the Bombay high court to seek compensation,“ Wagh said.
77. Two persons including a teenager were killed when their double-decker luxury bus crashed into a stationary container on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad National Highway at Manor early Monday . Driver of the bus Shailesh Rajput (40) and apassenger from Rajkot, Danira Gotgiya (16), died on the spot.Others were injured.
78. Road repairs in the city continued to move at a snail's space even as the Thane collector told BMC officials on Monday to give a written justification on why they needed few quarries in his district to be restarted. Work in the city had taken a major hit after the closure of stone quarries in Thane district since April 1, as they do not have Maharashtra Pollution Control Board permis sion to operate. Raw material, like granular sub-base and wet mix macadam, are sourced from the quarries. The BMC chief engineer of roads met the collector and explained how road repairs had taken a major hit after the quarries were shut. A senior civic official said the collector sought a written justification.“This, however, is another day's delay for road repairs in Mumbai to gain speed,“ said the official. BMC has been rushing against time to complete repairs before the month-end. Municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta had taken stock of monsoon preparedness work across Mumbai on Saturday .Mehta said the roads department should try to call for material from places other than Thane. The department had undertaken repairs of 1,004 roads after withdrawal of the monsoon last year. Of these, 583 road works were started in the first phase and the civic authorities were hoping to complete repairs of 369 prior to the monsoon. A civic official said apart from project roads, there were road works which were also taken on priority , from where there are repeated complaints every monsoon. Earlier this year, officials of all wards were told to submit a list of roads in their wards that needed to be repaired on priority . Of these, 110 road resurfacing works have been completed, while there are 938 road resurfacing works of the priority two list, which were taken up for repairs, of which there are instructions to complete at least 50%. The deadline for road repairs was set as May 15 but it's most likely to get delayed.
79. A CRPF subinspector posted at Anantnag in J&K died following cardiac arrest in a train at Khed in Ratnagiri district on Friday evening. Abdul Azeez MK (52) was returning to his native place in Malappuram, Kerala.His body was found on the seat of Porbandar-Kochuveli Express. A co-passenger pulled the chain at Khed in a bid to help him. Though the post-mortem confirmed cardiac arrest as the reason behind his death, Khed police has kept a viscera sample for testing. His relative in Kerala, Kunhoyi M, said, “He was posted for two years in Srinagar and was recently transferred to Anantnag.“
80. Sub-inspector Dhananjay Kedar was threatened by eight to nine persons travelling in four cars, with a bouncer from an Audi showing him a `revolver' on Sunday morning. The subinspector, who was managing traffic, had gone to settle a dispute between those persons, due to which the road was blocked. When he told them to move the vehicles, they threatened him and the bouncer told him to leave, showing him the revolver. Kedar informed the local police but the accused fled before they reached. He said no one came forward to help. He noted down registration numbers of two cars, including the Audi, and police are trying to find out the vehicle owners. Kedar, attached to Shanti Nagar police station and deployed by a DCP squad in zone II of Thane police, was on his rounds near Pim palghar on the Kaly an-Bhiwandi road.
81. A special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act court on Friday granted bail to a youth who was arrested on charges of sexually assaulting his four-year-old family friend. The child's mother submitted an affidavit in court denying police allegations and said the 20-year-old had helped the child who complained of an ant bite in her private parts.
82. With over 32 lakh cases pending in courts across Maharashtra, the Bombay high court has ruled that it is the state's constitutional obligation to provide adequate number of courts, judges, infrastructure and staff to ensure speedy disposal of petitions. “Speedy disposal of cases in consonance with the mandate of the Constitution of India cannot be achieved unless adequate number of courts and tribunals are established and proper infrastructure is provided to all court premises,“ said a division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Anil Menon. “Financial constraints is no ground to deny permissions for establishing new courts and denying essential infrastructure to all the courts, whether existing or new,“ the bench said, adding that it was the state's obligation to allot land to build new courts. The HC's orders came on a bunch of petitions filed by bar associations and consumer rights organisations about the state's failure to provide infrastructure in courts and fill judicial vacancies. The court pointed out to the figures of the National Judicial Data Grid which said that there were around 32.39 lakh cases pending in the civil and criminal courts, co-operative courts, labour courts and industrial courts in the state. It underlined the importance of providing adequate number of judges, filling up vacancies and infrastructure for courts. At present, in Maharashtra, there are around 407 court complexes, including 72 that are operating out of rented properties.
83. Parents in the city are upset with the government's decision to set up two committees to amend the state's fee regulation Act and to draft a policy for minority institutions. The parents feel they aren't adequately represented and the committees could be a ploy to `buy some time'. On Saturday , the state set up an 11-member committee to suggest amendments to the Maharashtra Educational Institutions (Regulation of Fee) Act, 2011. The committee is expected to study parents' complaints and suggest changes. However, parents' groups aren't convinced. “The government is only buying time. The current provisions of the Act aren't implemented properly .An amendment or ordinance will not come easy . By the time a solution is reached, the academic year would have begun, next elections will be due and the issue will be put on the back burner,“ said Ajay Pandita, a member of Parents of Private School of Maharashtra, a parents' organisation The government also set up a 10-member committee to submit recommendations for an education policy for minorities in the state. Parents are however upset as they are not represented on the committee.“There are no parents invited to join the committee but there are almost four representatives of minority schools,“ said Anubha Sahai of India-wide Parents Association.
84. The Union government has given an in-principle nod to the state government's demand to extend tur purchase till May 31. The state plans to purchase close to 1 lakh tonnes of tur by May 31. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had requested Union minister of agricultu re to allow for an additional purchase of 2 lakh tonnes of tur but the Centre has allowed only 1 lakh tonnes. “The state government has already purchase 5.5 lakh tonnes of tur. The total purchase will be around 6 lakh tonnes this year, which is a record,“ said Fadnavis.
85. You may have to shell out more to take a morning walk at Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan and zoo in Byculla.The BMC plans to increase the entry fee to the botanical gardens and the zoo for morning walkers. The monthly pass rates too may go up. The civic body has proposed that the monthly pass rate for morning walkers be increased from Rs 30 to Rs 150. The authorities claim that on an average, around 8,000 people visit the zoo for morning walks. People are allowed to go to the gardens and the zoo for a morning walk between 6am and 8am. The zoo authorities said the monthly pass rates have not been increased for over a decade now.
86.Congress has slammed the state government's decision to sign an agreement with an aviation firm to procure AugustaWestland helicopters for VVIPs. Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant slammed the government for double speak on corruption. “BJP was the first to launch an attack on the UPA government in the AugustaWestland deal and now, VVIPs of the Fadnavis government will fly in the same helicopters,“ he said. On May 4, the general administration department, which is led by Fadnavis, issued an order to provide for an agreement with two firms that will provide aircraft and helicopters for the use of VVIPs, including the governor and the CM.
87. Days after green activists complained about mangroves being destroyed at Palm Beach Road to make way for illegal farming, more mangroves have now been uprooted at Khandeshwar and work is underway to convert the patch into illegal farmland. In the past three days, a sizeable patch of mangroves, 6080 years old, were uprooted close to the railway tracks. Labourers can also be seen tilling the flattened land.
88. Chief minister Devendra Fadnvis has demanded two central armed police force battalions for the security of a mining site in the naxal-infested Gadchiroli for two years starting September 2017. Fadnavis made the demand at a meeting in New Delhi. The meeting was chaired by home minister Rajnath Singh and had chief ministers of all naxal-infested states in attendance.
89. The controversy over the portable urinal proposed to be set up on the Bandra Bandstand promenade refuses to die down. On Monday , screenwriter Salim Khan, actor Waheeda Rehman and local residents visited Vishwanath Mahadeshwar at Mayor's Bungalow at Shivaji Park. “We are not against the mobile toilet, but the place is not suitable. The location is on a stretch used by hundreds of morning walkers,“ Khan told TOI. “We had suggested a few sites to the BMC, but they were keen on this spot. We met the mayor and he gave us a patient hearing.“
90.The BEST administration, which is keen on procuring 50 AC minibuses on wet lease, plans to come up with a fresh proposal--it will pay only lease rent and there will be `zero' cost for employing staff and paying for fuel, insurance and maintenance of the buses. “If we take a bus on wet lease, we have to pay the lease rent, besides spending on fuel costs and employing a conductor,“ said a senior official. “The lease rent in this case comes to Rs 30km. But there is a fresh proposal where we will have to pay Rs 10km extra (a total Rs 40km) to the private contractor, who will also be responsible for paying for fuel.“
The proposal has been drafted and is likely to be circulated among committee members for clearance. Once cleared, the BEST can opt for the Rs 40km lease rent to hire minibuses, that can ply 200 km daily . “We are saving Rs 200 crore by scrapping the 266 AC Cerita buses. By entering into a wet lease agreement for procuring minibuses, we will save another Rs 25 crore (towards capital cost of purchasing new buses). This is apart from the zero maintenance and no costs on fuel,“ said an official.
91. Thursday will see lakhs of class XII students, including 25 transgenders, battle it out for admission to engineering and pharmacy colleges. The state's common entrance test (MHTCET) on May 11has seen registrations from 3.9 lakh candidates, of which 1.5 lakh will be taking the test for both engineering and pharmacy . The remaining 1.44 lakh students are taking the test 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.The test will be conducted at 1,110 centres located across the state. Last year, the state CET was taken by 4.1 lakh candidates, but the entrance test was held for admissions to engineering and all health sciences courses amidst confusion over its validity for there was no clarity on the NEET. Aspirants for medicine and dental education will be selected through the NEET. The DTE has informed students that they need to carry their MHT-CET admit cards, black ballpens and an original photo identity proof, including PAN card or passport or driving licence or voter card.
92. Observing that similarly placed people cannot be treated differently , Bombay high court has directed the state government to take a decision by May 9 to shift the remaining Tansa Pipeline Project affected persons to Kurla. Some 100 families living next to the pipeline in Ghatkopar had moved the HC urgently on May 5 seeking stay on the demolition of their tenements They were given 48 hours to vacate. Their petitions said that the alternative rehabilitation site is more than 20 km away in Mahul village near Chembur “which is a chemical zone and an industrial sector“. On December 25, 2016, 400 families were shifted to Premier Compound in HDIL Sankul in Kurla (W) in flats that were constructed for rehabilitation of slumdwellers around the international airport and which are lying unused. While a bench headed by Justice Abhay Oka declined to stay the demolition, it took note of a December 5 letter of the CEO of the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA). The letter stated that on a representation by the minister for housing Prakash Mehta, the CM, who is the chairman of SRA, directed the housing autho rity to hand over 400 tenements in the Kurla scheme at Kurla for the Tansa pipleline project affected persons. The letter also stated that as the question of rehabilitation of the Tansa project affected persons has become important, there is no harm in handing over 400 tenements for this purpose. The petitioners said some 5,400 tenements are still available.
93. The Mumbra police, investigating the robbery at late actor Nutan's bungalow, suspect that the youths might have also stolen antiques, along with the silverware and idols worth Rs 1lakh that have been recovered. On Saturday , six youths, including a minor, were arrested and a manhunt launched for two of their aides. The police suspect the absconding accused might have sold off the antiques. The court has extended the remand of the arrested accused by three more days.
94. Shiv Sena has demanded protection and rehabilitation of pre-2005 slums, which had came up on land reclaimed after destroying mangroves, that were razed by forest officials. Last week, the state forest department's mangrove cell had demolished 1,296 illegal structures in Ambedkar Nagar and Ganesh Murti Nagar at Cuffe Parade. Local Sena MP Arvind Sawant has written a letter to state forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar urging him to protect and rehabilitate pre-2005 slums and also consider protecting post-2005 slums on humanitarian grounds ahead of monsoon. He and local Sena vibhag pramukh Pandurang Sakpal also led a delegation of residents to meet Mungantiwar. Sawant claimed the minister promised them that the state will organize a camp at Ambedkar Nagar to verify the legality of the slum pocket, but Mungantiwar told that he has only instructed the forest department secretary to check the slums' legal status.
95. Your city's draft Development Plan (DP) 2034 will get delayed yet again. During the civic general body meeting on Monday, Shiv Sena, the ruling party in the BMC, demanded a two-month extension to approve the revised draft DP 2034, which was released last May . It was to be submitted to the state government by May 19, 2017, after an ex tension was sought in March. This is the third extension sought by the civic body after a planning committee was set up last November to hear citizens' suggestions and objections on the draft DP 2034. According to sources, the state is unlikely to give a two-month extension.
96. Aiming to increase non-tax revenue by Rs 10,000 crore, the state government is considering to hike lease rent of properties given out for 30, 60 and 90 years to private parties; charges, fees and fines for traffic violations; and entertainment fees. Minister for finance and planning Sudhir Mungantiwar met various department officials in Mantralaya and asked them to submit suggestions on how to increase fees or charges.The state government has estimated non-tax revenue of over Rs 19,000 crore for this fiscal, but may collect only up to Rs 16,600 crore owing to GST, which comes into force from July 1. “Hence, the government has decided to take steps to raise non-tax revenue by up to Rs 26,000 crore,“ said the finance minister. There over 1,700 leasehold properties in the city , mostly in south Mumbai, of which the lease on 700 properties has already expired. The state is considering increasing charges for lease extension, transfer of lease property or lease right. Mungantiwar said, “Besides lease rent, the state has 150 options to get non-tax revenue, including purchase or registration of vehicles and drink-driving fine.“
97. Four men have been arrested for allegedly posing as policemen and robbing a businessman, Sahul Hamid, of Rs 1.86 lakh. The Vinobha Bhave Nagar police have arrested Sanjay Mahatre, Rajendra Bansode, Suresh Mokashi and Santosh Jadhav. Last Wednesday, the accused barged into Hamid's flat and fled with the money.
98. A Nalasopara woman, Rabiya Nadria (37), was allegedly assaulted by her husband Ashraf on April 4 for refusing to accompany him to Girgaum Chowpatty. She has now filed a complaint against her absconding husband.
99. Eighteen-year-old Vishal Thoke, who was seriously injured last month after his friend Sachin Jadhav accidentally fired at him during a birthday party, is now stable.Thoke was critical as the bullet had damaged his lungs and liver.
100. A woman riding pillion on a bike with her husband on the Mumbai-Goa highway died due to severe head injuries as she fell off the bike after her saree got entangled in the moving bike's rear wheel's chain. The incident occurred on Saturday around 6 pm near Kharpale village. The deceased has been identified as Pragati Chogale (41), a resident of Sion. She got dragged for about 50 ft before her husband applied brakes. Head constable Vasant Mhamunkar said, “Her husband rushed her to a doctor at Ghadap and later took her to Pen hospital where the doctors did a CT scan and said that her condition was critical. They advised him to take her to a super specialty hospital in Mumbai for surgery . On her way, her condition deteriorated. So he took her back to Pen hospital where she was declared brought dead.“
101.Indian Ocean is warming faster than all other oceans and the reason could lie in the fact that it's hemmed in by the Asian landmass that prevents release of heat towards the poles, experts have said. “We are worried ... the Indian Ocean is warming much faster than other oceans. Why this is so is one of the questions we ask. We don't have an answer as of now.... the uniqueness of Indian Ocean is that it is landlocked on the northern side,“ M Ravichandran, director of National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research,
Ravichandran and his colleagues have been studying the Indian Ocean using satellite observations and a global network of floating buoys that chart temperature, salinity currents and other data. In the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, atmospheric heat captured over the equator is pushed towards the poles. But he said the heat released from the Indian Ocean is at a slower pace since 2004.
102.On Sunday , gangster Vicky Gonder, who had escaped from the Nabha high security jail in Novem ber last year, had mocked Punjab police by stating on Facebook that he would soon commit a sensational crime. Barely 24 hours later, on Monday , bouncer Amit Kumar, alias Meet, who Gonder had allegedly threatened to kill, was shot dead near a temple at Saketri, raising the suspicion that Gonder was behind the killing, and that the Facebook threat was for Meet. The 32-year-old bouncer was shot dead by unidentified assailants on Monday afternoon when he was heading towards his car, parked near the temple. His mother was with him. Police officials said two or three armed men in a car fired several shots at Meet. He died at the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in Chandigarh later in the day .
103. The probe into the car crash that killed model Sonika Singh Chauhan finally seemed to be gathering pace a week after her death, with five of her friends telling cops they saw actor Vikram Chatterjee drinking alcohol before getting behind the wheel. Police interrogated the five friends on Monday and recorded their statements. “ All of them contradicted the main thrust of Chatterjee's statement to the media, that he was not intoxicated when he was driving,“ an officer said. “The friends are common to both Chauhan and Chatterjee,“ he said, adding, “All of them have agreed to record their statements before a judicial magistrate, which is permissible to be produced in court as evidence.“
104. IPS officers nationwide on Monday came out in support of Charu Nigam, an IPS officer who was allegedly heckled by Gorakhpur BJP MLA Radha Mohan Das Agarwal during a protest on Sunday .While the IPS fraternity in UP began deliberations on its social media groups, Nigam wrote an emotional post on Facebook. On Sunday , a group of women protesting against liquor shops in Gorakhpur blocked a road. When Nigam reached there to get the blockade lifted, they began hurling stones at her.She reportedly then ordered a lathicharge. Agarwal, too, reached the spot and had a heated argument with Nigam, who was seen wiping her tears after the incident. She posted a note on Facebook a day later: “Mere ansuon ko meri kamzori na samajh lena (Don't take my tears for weakness). Not out of harshness, but the eyes welled up of tenderness (sic!).“ Thanking the media for its support, she said in another post: “Mahila adhikari hoon, tumhara gurur na dekh payega. Sachchai mein hai zor itna apna rang dikhlayega (I am a woman officer; your arrogance will not see that. The power of truth will show its colour soon).“ Nigam told reporters on Monday: “Police were doing their work. The MLA came and started yelling...“ ThaSnior IPS officers met UP chief secretary aon monday evening to demand strict action against the MLA.
105. Days before final hearings on petitions challenging the validity of `triple talaq', the Supreme Court sought on Monday the Centre's and four states' response on a PIL seeking a ban on the ritual of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the Dawoodi Bohra community . A bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul issued notice to four central ministries -law and justice; health and family welfare; social justice and empowerment; and women and child development -and the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Delhi. While entertaining a PIL filed by advocate and social activist Sunita Tiwari, the bench said, “The petition has highlighted an extremely important yet sensitive issue.“ The petitioner said the practice of `khatna' or `female circumcision' or `khafd' carried out on minor girls amounted to a “serious violation of the rights of children as even minors have a right of security of person, right to privacy , bodily integrity and the freedom from cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment“. The petition said though the Dawoodi Bohras were among the most educated in India, yet “it is the only Muslim community in India to practise FGM...The practice has nothing to do with religion and is more of a cultural practice“.
106. The CBSE managed to conduct the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2017 amid unprecedented security on Sunday . But was the question paper error-free? In an exam, where over 11lakh aspirants took the test, experts claim there are at least four questions which have problems. One question came with two correct options, while another came with all four wrong multiple choice answers. NEET 2016 too had errors in the question paper. In fact, the Joint Entrance Examination (Main) 2015 conducted by CBSE had similar errors while the JEE (Advanced) of 2016 had four errors worth 12 marks. “A nation of a billion plus people and an emergg ing knowledge super power should be able to make its entrance exam papers error free. CBSE should thoroughly check each question and answer options, as exams like NEET are taken by lakhs of students. Students are stuck up in wrong questions and waste considerable time. HRD ministry should ensure error-free questions in major exams like NEET and IIT JEE,“ said S K Singh, director, Oasis Educational Services. Despite repeated attempts to contact CBSE officials, there was no official response to the claims till filing of this report.
107. The Maharashtra Airport Development Company Limited (MADC) has drawn up plans for the second phase of the Shirdi International Airport. The plans include an additional state-of-theart terminal building, besides other facilities. Final touches are being given to the Shirdi International Airport before it becomes operational.The airport is spread over an area of 900 acre with the total cost of the project being pegged at approximately Rs 350 crore. During a tour of the airport, a senior official of the MADC said for now, the airport will be a `dawn-to-dusk' facility and night landing facility will start within five months. “The second phase of the project will be completed by the end of next year, if everything goes fine. Only some work related to electricity remains, which will be completed by this weekend. The work on creating night landing facility has been started and we plan to complete it within five months,“ the official said. Around 60,000 pilgrims visit Shirdi every day and the officials plan to tap at least 10% of them.“Airlines like SpiceJet, TruJet, Jet Airways and Air India have shown interest,“ the official said.
108. After tennis ace Leander Paes and his es tranged part ner Rhea Pillai failed to re solve their maintenance dispute amica bly through an out of court settlement, the Supreme Court decided on Monday to adjudicate the dispute through court proceedings. A bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Amitava Roy said it tried its best to persuade the couple to sort out their differences through negotiations and it was left with no option but to hear the case on merits after they failed to arrive at a compromise. “Parties are not interested to settle the dispute and we cannot force them for settlement,“ it said. The bench, however, said it would not be proper for it to decide the case on merits as it had extensively interacted with Paes and Pillai and came to know about various aspects of the case while persuading them to settle the dispute. “It is question of our propriety . Let the matter be heard by another bench,“ it said. Senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi and lawyer Gaurang Kanth, appearing for Peas, contended that it was not possible to meet the demands of Rhea to settle the case. As per the lawyers, Rhea had demanded around Rs 20 crore under various heads as onetime settlement during the mediation proceedings. Their contention was vociferously opposed by Rhea's counsel T N Govardhan and Purvish Malkan, who contended Paes was not willing to settle the dispute by paying the amount.They said Rhea needed the amount for their child as she was living with her.
109. The recent spate of bank robberies in the Valley is being attributed to local youths who have joined militancy and are short of funds and weapons. According to data accessed by TOI, there have been13 bank robberies and burglaries and 9 such attempts across the valley after the demonetisation announcement on November 8. In most cases, the target was J&K bank which has the largest network of branches across the valley. A total amount of Rs 90.87 lakh was robbed from banks such as J&K Bank, SBI, Axis Bank and Ellaqui Dehat Bank between November 21, 2016 and May 3, 2017. Of the nine attempts between December 8, 2016 and May 1, 2017, seven targeted J&K Bank branches across Budgam, Anantnag and Kulgam, while one each was reported at Ellaqui Dehat Bank in Pulwama and SBI in Shopian. Sources in the intelligence agencies said cash and weapon snatching incidents are on the rise in the Kashmir valley as there is a far larger component of local recruits among the 200odd active militants. “Pre-November 8, there were several cash hoards that militants had access to and the number of militants were smaller,“ said an officer. They said Pakistan is encouraging looting of banks to access cash as well as snatching of weapons as it helps it maintain deniability of its role as a sponsor of terrorism in J&K and project it as homegrown militancy . Also, Pakistan-inspired cyber propaganda has been spreading the word that acquiring resources through robbery is justified by religion, referring to it as `maal-e-ghanimat'. Recent estimates show that local militants comprise 80% of the total terrorists active in the valley. The role of Pakistan and tanzeems backed by it is to instigate, recruit and motivate these militants. Terror funding from across the border is in small amounts of cash and mostly in kind.Larger sums are received either through money laundering or as funding to separatists.The lion's share of terror funding from Pakistan goes into terror training, weapons and cyb er propaganda. Sources in J&K police claimed efforts to send weapons and terror funds in cash from Pakistan were being actively neutralised by the Indian security personnel, causing a cash crunch among local militants. One of the most prominent actions against terror funding was freezing of bank accounts of conduit Nasir Shafi Mir, who was an alleged go-between for raising and transferring funds to separatists and militants.
110. Despite India's pub licly articulated reservations, China has offered to mediate between India and Pakistan to resolve their differences. Chinese ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui, who made the remark, said the development of China, Pakistan and India called for stability in the region and a friendly environment.
111. With Kashmir continuing to simmer amid students' protests across the Valley, chief minister Mehbooba Mufti tried to shift the blame from lapses on the part of her government to the media, saying it was unnecessarily exaggerating the security situation in the Valley. At the reopening of the civil secretariat here after a sixmonth shift to Jammu, the winter capital of the state, the chief minister said, “Electronic media should not show debates and discussions that promote hatred against the Kashmiris. Kashmir has seen worse in the 1990s. The current situation will improve soon as every issue has a solution.“ Kashmir's security situation worsened over the past three weeks, with the onset of student protests against the use of force on agitating students. The clashes escalated after April 15, when police raided a degree college in Pulwama dis trict, in which 17 stu dents were injured. But, Mehbooba seemed to try to steer the blame away from the government to the media, asking them to refrain from portraying “all Kashmiri youth as stone-pelters“. “The youth are angry and disillusioned.Some are being provoked. We should all work together to resolve this situation,“ she said. Clashes between students and security forces were reported in two districts on Monday . In Newa area of Pulwama district, protesting students pelted stones at police, who baton-charged them in retaliation, sources said. In Langate area of Kupwara district, students of Qalamabad Higher Secondary School staged a protest march, but were later dispersed by security forces using tear gas shells.
112. It is with a certain stoicism that Bilkis Bano repeatedly stresses, “I want justice, not revenge“, days after the Bombay high court upheld the life imprisonment of 11 persons convicted of gangraping her and killing her family during the 2002 Gujarat riots. She does want more stringent punishment for the seven police officers and doctors who were found complicit in trying to cover up the case even as she described the HC verdict as a vindication. Speaking at a press conference, Bano, accompanied by her husband Yakub and twoyear-old daughter, said she has faith in the judiciary .“The Bombay high court judgment was very good and I am very happy , so is my family. I am all the more happy as the policemen and doctors involved in covering up the incident have also been convicted,“ she said. Bano and Yakub said they would take their legal fight further if convicts appealed in a higher court. “It has been harrowing (fight), I want to be able to educate my daughters.My eldest says she wants to become a lawyer,“ Yakub said, as he recounted how they had to shift houses 25 times to escape threats from convicts `frequently' on parole.
113. The Supreme Court, on Monday , summoned investigating officers of Madhya Pradesh police to explain the lapses in probing and arresting a large number of accused in a communal riot allegedly orchestrated by right-wing organisations after a cow's death four years ago in Khirkiya, Harda. Appearing for petitioner Anurag Modi, advocate Pyoli Swatija told a bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar that there were palpable lapses in the probe, as the police took an inordinately long time to arrest the main accused, did not book all those part of the violent mob and, importantly , did not analyse video-recording of the incident, which was available. The bench summoned all the officers who investigated the incident and asked them to be present on July 17 with all necessary documents to explain why they had filed the chargesheet without annexing an analysis of the videorecording of the incident.
114. A government building contractor, who was a close aide of Tamil Nadu health minister C Vijaya Baskar, was found dead under mysterious circumstances in his farmhouse near Mohanur in Namakkal district on Monday morning. Sources said K R Subramaniam (58) appeared to have committed suicide by consuming poison. “We will come to a conclusion whether he committed suicide or not only after seeing postmortem report,“ an officer said. The contractor came into the limelight after his house and office were searched by income tax sleuths on April 7. I-T officials said the search was part of the raids that were conducted on the premises of the minister and his close associates. They said Subramaniam's name figured at the top of the list of people who had purportedly received Rs 89 crore, that was given to various ministers to bribe voters for the R K Nagar by-election. After the bypoll was cancelled, Subramaniam's offices and bank accounts were sealed by I-T officials. According to K R Kaliannan, elder brother of Subramaniam, he had been looking upset since the I-T raid. “He went to his farmland at Sevitturangampatti village near Mohanur on Monday early morning,“ he said. The farm labourers found Subramaniam motionless on a cot inside house around 10.30 am. They immediately alerted his family members and rushed him to the district government headquarters hospital in Namakkal. The doctors who examined him said he was brought dead. Chief secy no longer vigilance commissioner Within days of the income tax department recommending a vigilance inquiry against sand mining baron Sekhar Reddy, the Tamil Nadu government has clipped the wings of chief secretary Girija Vaidyanathan by relieving her from post of vigilance commissioner. Home secretary Niranjan Mardi has been given additional charge of the state vigilance wing. The order, issued a week ago, is yet to be posted on the official website.
115. As `Grey Divorces' Rise, Number Of Over-50s Living In Together Up 75% In A Decade: US Study.
116. Scientists have developed a new artificial intelligence system that can predict court decisions better than legal scholars, even with less information. Researchers, including a few from the Stanford Centre for Legal Informatics, used the US Supreme Court database, which contains information on cases dating back to 1791, to build an algorithm for predicting any justice's vote at any time. The algorithm correctly predicted 70.2% of the court's 28,000 decisions and 71.9% of the justices' 2,40,000 votes, according to the study . Even knowledgeable legal experts are only about 66% ac curate at predicting cases, researchers said. The algorithm could be used by investors to bet on companies that might benefit from a ruling. Appellants could also decide whether to take a case to the Supreme Court based on their chances of winning.
117. An increasing number of Android ap plications are attempting to track us ers without their knowledge, according to a new report. Over recent years, companies have started hiding “beacons“, ultrasonic audio signals inaudible to humans, in their adverts, in order to track devices and learn more about their owners. Electronic devices equipped with microphones can register these sounds, allowing advertisers to uncover users' location and work out what kind of ads they watch on TV and which other devices they own. The technique can even be used to de-anonymise users of Tor, which enables people to use the internet anonymously. While six apps were known to be using ultrasound cross-device tracking technology in 2015, the number has now increased to 234.
118. Scientists have identified the cells responsible for hair growth as well as the mechanism that causes them to turn grey , a finding that could lead to new treatments for balding and greying hair. “Although this project was started in an effort to understand how certain kinds of tumours form, we ended up learning why hair turns grey and discovering the identity of the cell that directly gives rise to hair,“ said Lu Le, associate professor at the University of Texas Southwestern in the US. “With this knowledge, we hope, in the future, to create a topical compound or to safely deliver the necessary gene to hair follicles to correct these cosmetic problems,“ said Le. The researchers found that a protein called KROX20, more commonly associated with nerve development, is active in skin cells that become the hair shaft. These cells then produce a protein called stem cell factor (SCF) that the researchers showed is essential for hair pigmentation. Researchers will now try to find out if the KROX20 in cells and SCF stop working properly as people age, leading to, among other things, male pattern baldness, Le said.
119. An artist has designed tempo rary tattoos to help people struggling with their mental health and to stop them self-harming. Francesca Timbers, a BritishItalian psychology graduate who lives in London, first started designing and producing `Motivational Tattoos' in 2015 from her parent's living room.
120. When the Shaanti Bha van Mandir in Que ens became the first Hindu temple in the nation to publicly declare itself a sanctuary congregation, part of a network of houses of worship that will support and shelter undocumented immigrants, its leaders hoped other local temples would join, too.
121. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday congra tulated Emmanuel Macron on his election as the Pre cron on his election as the President of France and said India looked forward to further enhance bilateral engagement to take ties to a higher plane. Soon after 39-year-old Ma cron was declared the winner, Modi tweeted: “Congratulations to @EmmanuelMacron for an emphatic victory in the French Presidential election. I look forward to working closely with President-elect @EmmanuelMacron to further strengthen India-France ties.“ Modi is set to meet Macron for the first time during the G-20 summit in Hamburg in July .
122. China's worries are mounting over the resurgence of a border dispute between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the recent clashes that have left several people dead in the past three days.For, at stake is the $50 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a part of which passes close to the Afghan border.
123. Emma Watson had high praise for MTV's move to remove gender qualifiers for its Movie and TV Awards. Watson's performance in Disney's live-action remake of “Beauty and the Beast“ won her the award for the best actor in a movie, a category that featured both male and female nominees. The actor beat Hugh Jackman and James McAvoy to the award.
124. A South African attempting to climb Mount Everest alone and without a permit has been ordered off the mountain, had his passport confiscated and will be fined $22,000, an official said on Monday . Ryan Sean Davy , 43, told officials at base camp that he had climbed alone as far as camp two -6,400 metres -to acclimatise ahead of a summit push before he was caught. Foreigners have to pay the Nepal government $11,000 for permission. Davy could be banned from Nepal for five years or face a 10-year ban on climbing in the country . Davy's passport was seized and was told to return to Kathmandu to retrieve it. He will also be fined $22,000 -double the cost of the permit.
125. Former Tata Sons strategist Nirmalya Kumar joined the Singapore Management University as a marketing professor last we ek, marking his re turn to academia. From July 1, he will take up the po sition of the Lee Kong Chian Professor of Marketing at the university , a statement said. Kumar, 57, had joined Tata Sons from the London Business School in 2013. But following the removal of Cyrus Mistry from the chairmanship of Tata Sons last October, Kumar -who was a key member of Mistry's core team -was dismissed too. In his blog, he had said, “It was not as if I was fired for non-performance (my last evaluation was excellent)... I was fired for just being there at my position -working intensely and extensively with Cyrus.“
126. Czech carmaker Skoda plans to ride on parent Volkswagen's partnership with Tata Motors for a bigger play in the compact vehicles segment. It is looking to make a comeback into the high-volume small car category , while driving in a mini-SUV and an entry sedan. The vehicles may hit the roads from 2019 and would be a culmination of the joint product strategy with Tata Motors. Skoda may target the mass segment with this new range, sources told
127. The performance of a company's board cannot be viewed from the prism of gender diversity alone. Globally , several reports have shown that companies that have women representatives on their boards perform better than those which don't. However, a study of return on equity (RoE) of the top 100 BSE companies in India, done by Randstad India exclusively for TOI, shows there's no direct correlation between a company's RoE and gender diversity. Thestudy , which is based on data for three fiscal years (FY2014, FY2015 and FY2016), reveals an increase of 37% in the number of women representative on various boards -from 97 in 2014 to 133 in 2016. However, it also reveals a dilution in the average RoEs for the overall BSE 100 over the three-year period. This, experts said, has nothing to do with gender diversity or the lack of it. The results of a similar study of BSE 100 companies done by Randstad for TOI in 2014 were more in line with global studies. The 2014 study showed com panies with women board members reported improved RoEs as compared with those that had only male board members. Clearly, the variations in the two studies -based on the same parameters -underscores the fact that a board's performance goes beyond gender diversity .
1. Yoga guru Ramdev's claim that many people are praying for his `departure' left the audience at the inauguration of Patanjali Research Institute bemused. When enquired, on the sidelines of the event, if he was facing a threat from his competitors, Ramdev smilingly replied: “When you become powerful, you become a threat (to some) and you are bound to face threat (from some).“
2. A dated smartphone model, the iPhone 5s, may now be sold online at a price point that would help expand Apple's loyalty base in the country. The Cupertino, California-based company will likely price the fouryear-old iPhone 5s around `15,000 apiece as part of an online-exclusive retailing strategy, which aims to secure for the world's most valuable corporate a beachhead in India's mid-priced smartphone market that is dominated by Chinese manufacturers and Samsung. Three senior industry executives said that the company's distributors have already informed the brick-and-mortar cellphone stores that iPhone 5s supplies will be eased out, and that the model would be sold only online at an aggressive price point. The iPhone SE will become the entry handset for offline retail in India for Apple, carrying a price tag of `20,000, they said. The iPhone 5s currently sells at `18,000.
3. Oppo is looking to invest in Indian mobile internet startups to integrate third-party services with its operating plat form and app store as the Chinese handset maker looks to deepen its presence in the country with an eye on dethroning Samsung from the top spot. Oppo's moves mirror the steps taken by companies such as Micro max and Xiaomi, which have in vested in mobile internet com panies to offer services that can differentiate their pro ducts in a crowded and commoditised smartphone market. This would help Oppo offer more localised products and services in a market where it has already made a splash, rapidly climbing to the No.4 position among smartphone play ers by shipments with 10% market share at the end of January-March quarter, according to Counterpoint Research. Samsung continued to lead the market with 26% share. “We aim to achieve either no 1 or No 2 position in India. Our aim is to compete with Samsung and no other brands,“ Yang said.
4.Renault India, which has rode on to become the fifth largest player within five years of operations with a 4.5% market share in the 3-million units per annum domestic car market, will add 50 more dealers to take overall dealerships to over 320 by December.
5.Hero MotoCorp has set its sights on Brazil and Mexico, two big motorcycle markets where the Indian company's biggest rival will be its former partner, Honda Motor.
Hero is developing flexi-fuel engines for Brazil -the country uses ethanolblended petrol -with an aim to enter that market by March 2019. The launch in Mexico is likely to happen before that. Hero had previously planned to enter Brazil around 2016 Olympics, but missed that target.
6. Amazon India's effort to boost repeat transactions on its platform through its flagship membership programme Prime is paying off well in less than a year of launch. The top three categories on the Amazon India marketplace -kitchen, living room and home products; apparel; and consumables, including fast-moving consumer goods -are seeing transactions surge from Amazon Prime members. Prime members account for two out of every three daily essentials bought on Amazon Pantry , according to a statement from the company . In the fashion category , which is the second-highest selling category on the platform, one in three orders is from a Prime member. Overall, Prime members account for one-third of all the orders placed on Amazon India.
The loyalty programme will drive long-term benefits for Amazon India, said analysts, adding that it could pose a deterrent for Flipkart as the country's largest online marketplace plans an entry into the online fast-moving consumer goods and grocery segments.
7. Online marketplace Flipkart has a strong line-up of private labels it hopes to expand in time for its five-day annual sale. The private label business -initiated with Flipkart SmartBuy in December 2016 and January 2017 -currently spans across 15 categories. The marketplace will introduce new labels for heavy and bulky goods, staples and furniture, expanding to 35 categories by July-August. It considers these `high involvement' categories. “In the second growth phase for SmartBuy , we have introduced small kitchen appliances, trimmers, dryers and straighteners in the personal care category . We want SmartBuy to be an umbrella brand across all daily-use categories. The brand will be live in 20 categories for the Big 10 Sale,“ said Adarsh Menon, head of private labels at Flipkart. “We started with two sellers and have expanded our bedsheet category to manufacturers in tier-II hubs such as Ahmedabad, Surat and others,“ he said. Once a new category is launched, the marketplace reaches out to all sellers with a base line of good qu ality products to retail it under licensing agreement from Flipkart. “Sellers retailing the SmartBuy brand are starting to see additional 500 basis points in profits across categories. In terms of share across categories, SmartBuy is the largest or among the top four brands. In chargers, we have 50% share; in fans, we have 35%. In branded categories, we are at 860%,“ said Menon. The marketplace will source its furniture from Malaysia. “Some of our sourcing is from China, some from India. We will source furniture from Malaysia. We are unconcerned about the location but uncompromi sing about working with suppliers who are as serious abo ut their products as we are,“ he added. Rival marketplace Amazon India launched its private apparel label in September 2016 which now includes FMCG, kitchen appliances and products, décor and other verticals. In its north America market, Amazon.com has a strong private label play across daily-use categories.
8. Just days ahead of its annual developer conference Google IO, Google has announced the end of Android “Nougat“ Beta and that it will soon launch Android “O“ Beta. “The beta for Android Nougat has concluded, and all devices that were opted in have been updated to the current public version,“ Google said in an update to the Android beta website.
9. $299m Revenue of Fitbit in Q1 of 2017, according to the company.
10. Microsoft has teamed up with Harman Kardon and released a Cortana-powered smart speaker, the Invoke. The Invoke will be able to “play your favorite music, manage calendars and activities, set reminders, check traffic and deliver the latest news“.There will also be Skype integration, so you'll be able to use it to make voice calls to landlines and “other Skype-enabled devices“. There will be seven microphones embedded in the device.
11. Mumbai-based seed investment platform Venture Catalysts is charting a global roadmap for itself in a bid to open up global channels of money into the Indian startup ecosystem from the initial stages itself. The angel network will expand into five new countries, including Qatar, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the US by mid-2018. The platform kicked off its Qatar operations last month with the country pinned to be the hub for Venture Catalysts' operations in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries. “Around 200 investors will be joining (our platform) in Qatar and a huge network will be created there. But there will be a huge synergy between (the Indian) network and that (global) network,“ cofounder Apoorv Rangan Sharma told ET. The platform is looking to widen its investor network by 150-200 in each new country. The global networks will large ly, but not solely, look at Indian companies seeking to expand their footprint globally . “We will also invest in companies in countries beyond where we are expanding,“ said Sharma. “20% of our investments may happen (in companies) across the globe.“ The platform has aggregated a network of over 600 angels across India and typically facilitates investments in companies at the seed stage with ticket sizes spanning $0.5-1 million (. `3-6 cro re). The platform will fol low a similar model when it comes to investments through its global platforms along with local partners in various countries and remain sector-agnostic. “90% of our investments will be at the seed stage and the remaining will be for pre-series A. We will do most pre-series A rounds in syndication with our global investor partners,“ Sharma said.This expansion comes at a time when early-stage funding in the country has seen some of its sheen wear off. Venture Catalysts is targeting a 2x growth in investments as it spreads its wings across the globe.
12. Pune-based ecommerce logistics and selling platform Anchanto has raised an undisclosed amount from Singapore-headquartered omnichannel retailer Luxasia Group and its existing investor, Transcosmos Japan (TCI). Anchanto, which provides enterprise SaaS products that empowers ecom merce logistics and online selling, will use the funds to reinforce its operation in India, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines and Vietnam, where it hopes to aid traditional brick-andmortar businesses and logistic players to go online via ecommerce, said its CEO, Vaibhav Dabhade.
13. Venture capital firm GVFL and Unicorn India Ventures have invested an undisclosed amount in cybersecurity startup Sequretek, which works with large banks and financial services clients. This is the first funding announcement by Gujarat-based GVFL through its GVFL Startup Fund, the firm's eighth fund with a target corpus of `250 crore. This will also be Sequretek's first major round of funding. It had earlier raised $300,000 in 2015 from wealthy individuals, while the founders had put in `4.5 crore while launching the company in 2013. The company was founded by Anand Naik, former Saarc head for Symantec, and Pankit Desai, who was in leadership roles at companies such as NTT Data and Rolta.
The GVFL Startup Fund has so far closed `100 crore and will invest up to $1 million in each startup. Unicorn India Ventures has invested through its maiden fund of `100 crore, which Joshi said will close in a few weeks. “With the emphasis on digitisation and the push by government for digital payments, we believe there is a big scope for security solutions,“ said Anil Joshi, managing partner, Unicorn India Ventures.
14. Dell wants to publicise its investments. The firm's venture arm -which kept a low profile when it was part of EMC -is coming out of “stealth“, including disclosing portfolio companies as part of a new push to highlight young businesses. The firm is spending about $100 million annually on the funding of startups, Scott Darling, president of Dell Technologies' venture arm, said.Michael Dell is investing in new ways to bolster his company's lineup that provides gear and modern software for data centres.
15.Vodafone India has strengthened its enterprise services portfolio, offering Wi-Fi services to small, medium and large enterprises, as it targets corporates at a time its retail business is under serious competitive pressure triggered by the entry of Reliance Jio Infocomm. Called the Vodafone SuperWiFi, it will be the first time an enterprise Wi-Fi Network is being provided as a service by an Indian telecom operator, Vodafone Business Services said in a statement on Monday. Vodafone India's enterprise solution is the business that the telecom major is laying its bets on.From tying up with microfinance firms, startups and even trying to work with state governments on elections, the vertical is growing at twice the rate of the industry, the company said. Vodafone Business Services, the enterprise arm of Vodafone, provides telecommunications services across both mobility and fixed line platforms. It accounted for 16.4% of Vodafone India revenues in the second half of FY17. As of March 31, 2016, it had 7.5 million mobility corporate customers on board. SuperWi-Fi will offer unified, high-speed and wireless network access to employees, guests and customers across their sites and locations with 24x7 remote monitoring and management. It will provide secure wireless connectivity to improve user experience and ensure greater flexibility and mobility among employees and guests alike, said the company statement. This kind of service that can be deployed across offices, educational campuses, retail stores, warehouses, factories, hospitals, etc. is especially important when the industry is going through a turbulent period and operators need to counter the impact of Mukesh Ambani-owned Jio. For the second largest telecom player in India that garners 84% of their revenues from retail mobile business, the enterprise solution is tapping into newer areas like microfinance and startups. The telecom firm has been tying up with startups to offer them customised solutions for their Mobility to Internet connectivity, Internet of Thinds and cloudbased productivity.
Vodafone India is in the process of merging its operations with Idea Cellular, which will make the joint entity the largest telecom operator in the country.
16. Bharti Infratel, India's only listed telecom tower firm, posted a 17% on-year drop in net profit for the fiscal fourth quarter, to Rs 597 crore but by higher finance costs and rising expenses, primarily power and fuel. Revenue for the quarter ended March 31 rose by 11% to Rs 3,520 crore, as telcos expanded networks to cater to rising demand for data services. The company was upbeat about the long term outlook as the sector continues to witness a shift towards data amid consolidation. “Indian telecom is undergoing a tectonic shift with consolidation settling in and business model shifting from voice to data centric one,“ Akhil Gupta, chairman, Bharti Infratel Ltd. said in a statement. “We are already seeing significant network rollouts to have data coverage and it is our belief that all operators going forward will further accelerate the data network rollouts to have deep coverage to match competition,“ he added. The company's tenancy ratio has risen marginally on-year to 2.3, from 2.19, which means more number of signal emitting base stations on the same tower a year later. Revenue per tower per month went up more, to ` . 80,464 from . 76,602, in the same period.` Gupta added the company and Indus Towers, the world's largest tower company in which Infratel owns a 42% share, were well positioned to take majority share of the emerging business from building network for smart cities, part of government's Digital India programme. Bharti Infratel's stock was down 0.55% to ` . 364.10 at Monday closing on the BSE, where the national in dex was up 0.23%. The results were announced after market hours. The company, which went public in 2012, is in the business of setting up towers on which telcos mount their base stations -the electronic devices that emit signals to cellphones. Bharti Infratel ended the January-March quarter with 90,646 towers, of which 39,099 are its own. Infratel's finance cost for the quarter was ` Rs 287 crore, as against a finance gain of Rs 1,031 crore in the same quarter last fiscal. An overall increase of expenses by 13% to Rs 1,936 crore in the quarter ended March this fiscal, versus Rs 1,713 crore on-year, also dragged net profit. Of the expenses, fuel and power costs contributed the most -Rs 1,200 crore the last quarter -up 16% on year in the same period. The company's Board approved an interim dividend of 12 per equity share for the year ended March 2017 with a cash outgo of Rs 2,670 crore inclusive of tax on dividend.This is in addition to equity shares buyback for Rs 2,000 crore completed earlier during the year. Bharti Airtel sold 10.3% stake in Infratel to a consortium of funds advised by KKR and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for over . Rs 6,193.9 crore. Its holding in Infratel ` after the transaction stands at 61.7%.
17. Bharti Airtel has tied up with ride hailing service Ola to offer digital services to their respective customers, such as their wallet services. Airtel Payments Bank, a unit of Bharti Airtel, will integrate with Ola app to offer digital payments solutions to customers for their rides. Mobile wallet Ola Money , in turn, will be integrated as a digital payment solution within MyAirtel App and the Airtel website to enable recharge of Airtel prepaid mobileDTH and pay ment of Airtel mobilebroadband bills, the two companies said in a joint statement Monday . Ola will leverage Airtel's services to power its operations while Airtel will leverage the Ola's network of driver partners, the companies added. Airtel retail points will assist customers looking to book an Ola ride through kiosks, and Airtel, in turn, will be able to leverage Ola's massive base of driver partners, who will act as retail points for recharging Airtel prepaid numbers on the go.
18. India Ratings & Research (Ind-Ra) has downgraded the telecom services industry outlook to negative in FY18 on expectations that carriers will be hit harder and for longer spans by Reliance Jio Infocomm's free services.
19. Ericsson has said that it is set to further scale up consumer additions for Reliance Jio Infocomm after helping the new entrant onboard nearly a million subscribers a day as part of the telecom gear maker's largest ever operations and business support solution deployments worldwide. In 2014, the Swedish company had bagged a ` . 60 crore end-to-end Operations Support Systems (OSS) order from billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Jio. Ericsson's solution deployment included order and inventory management and activation services, through which it had helped Jio net 100 million users in a record 170 days. The OSS system acts as an interface between Jio's network and its customers and plays a critical role in enabling the telco deliver quality commitments, including enrolment of consumers, provisioning of large volumes of orders and activation of services. “Ericsson OSS solutions enables faster service, customer agility and supports operators during every phase of the customer lifecycle,“ Nelson said, adding that the suite meets the entire Plan to Build (P2B) and Order to Activation (O2A) for the operator. With Jio building a pan-India LTE only network and adding more than 100 million subscribers in a very quick time, the sheer scale and pace makes this deployment unique, according to the Swedish company executive who spearheaded this project. Mumbai-based Jio that launched commercial services on September 5 last year has been adding users at a record pace with users consuming more than 100 crore of Gigabytes (GB) of data per month. The Indian internet user is consuming a lot of data and this fast changing consumption behaviour is putting greater focus on network performance, he said, adding that for the cost of delivering a gigabyte (GB) of data, Jio has set a new, lower cost benchmark. As the subscriber consumes more data than ever before, issues of scale, quality of service (QoS) and quality of experience (QoE) are intensifying the trend toward cloud and virtualisation of telecom networks, Nelson said.
20. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has found the role of nine shell companies, including several defaulters, for allegedly diverting proceeds related to the National Spot Exchange (NSEL) scam to other avenues. The agency in its probe of bank frauds has found that NSEL run by FTIL (now known as 63 Moons) was allegedly using nine shell companies -Brinda Commodity, Tavishi Enterprises, Mohan India, PD Agro Processors, Dunar Foods, White Water Foods, ARK Imports, Vimaladevi Agrotech and Yathuri Associates. While the agency has prosecuted these companies on charges of cheating and corruption, it will also share its findings with specialised agencies like erious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), Income Tax department and Enforcement Directorate (ED), among others. These companies were allegedly trading on the exchange platform without having actual possession of commodities, CBI sources said. The agency has alleged that the nine shell companies, which were defaulters in the scam, helped in diverting Rs 342 crore of investors' money. The CBI had filed charge sheet against FTIL promoter Jignesh Shah and then CEO Anjani Sinha along with 20 other entities in the case. In its probe related to bank fraud cases in the last three years, the CBI has unearthed 339 shell companies which had diverted Rs 2,900 crore of bank loan funds, they said. The CBI sources further added that the shell companies were allegedly being used by the suspects to divert loan funds meant for specified purposes, creating fake invoices and roundtripping of funds to evade taxes and generate black money. Round-tripping is sending money to tax havens abroad in the guise of payments for fake imports through shell companies and bringing back that money, showing it as “foreign investment“. Reacting to the allegations, an NSEL spokesperson said the investigations have been carried out in this matter, the charge-sheet has been filed in the CBI court, and there was no money trail found to NSEL, FTIL and Jignesh Shah. “The full money trail has been traced to the defaulting entities. There are 17 defaulting companies and among them there are 9 companies against whom MMTC and PTC have traded,“ he said. The spokesperson claimed that not only the NSEL helped in asset tracking of these defaulting companies but also filed civil and criminal petitions against these defaulters. “The NSEL's actions have resulted in decree of over Rs 1,200 crore against ARK Imports, Yathuri Associates, Juggernaut Projects, Aastha Minment India, and Swastik Overseas Corporation,“ he said.
21. Route Mobile, a mobile technology firm with expertise in messaging and voice interface, has bought business process outsourcing company Call2Connect from Arabi Holding Group for an undisclosed amount. Route Mobile global CEO Rajdip Gupta said his company is in a position to double Call2Connect's revenue because of its existing client base. “We aim to position Call2Connect's expertise and experience with our global telco relationships,“ he said. Route Mobile provides services such as information alerts and sale and marketing messaging for the country's top banks. Acquisition of Call2Connect, Route Mobile's third takeover since June last year, adds depth to the company's existing relations with banks, officials said. Call2Connect, which employs Call2Connect, which employs 1,200 people to handle customer and internal query calls for its clients, counts Aircel, Airtel, Idea, Vodafone, Tata Teleservices, Punjab National Bank, One 97 (Paytm), Pidilite and Bihar government among its clients. Its revenue is estimated at Rs 80 crore, while operating margin is about 10%, said a person familiar with the matter. In February Route Mobile's founders had sold 10% shares in the firm to Shrem Group for $23 million. The firm, which had earlier acquired Cellent Technologies and Singapore-based Defero Mobile, reported revenues of Rs 480 crore in the year ended March. Gupta expects inorganic growth to help take the firm's annual revenue to Rs 700 crore this financial year. Route Mobile remains interested in buying a digital wallet company, he said. The company had said the business environment internationally is soft at the moment making now a good time to make acquisitions. Until last year, Gupta had planned a public listing for Route Mobile to help staff with employee stock option to exit and some cash out for founders who had bootstrapped the company.
22. Tractormaker Sonalika ITL launched world's largest integrated manufacturing facility on Monday entailing an investment of . 800 crore funded entirely through ` internal accruals and equity from Japanese partner Yanmar at Hoshiarpur in Punjab. The plant, spread over 100 acres, was inaugurated by Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh and it will enhance the manufacturing capacity to 3 lakh tractors per annum from 1lakh units currently . “The expansion of manufacturing facility is part of a strategy to become global leader in tractor manufacturing,“ Sonalika ITL executive director Raman Mittal told ET. He said that the Japanese major Yanmar had partnered with Sonalika to bring its global tractor manufacturing to the Hoshiarpur plant. The foreign partner Yanmar had made an investment of 30 %, whereas 70% is funded by Sonalika ITL in the new facility . To further its global ambitions, Sonalika is now focusing on setting up its manufacturing facility in China -the largest tractor market. Already, the company sells tractors in 80 countries including the US, Africa and China. “The China plant will be a logical step to manifest global ambitions of the company,“ Mittal said.He said that the company's growth story is backed by strong financial and steady leadership.
23. Indian flyers are in for a bonanza. After about a 15% rise in average airfares in the last couple of months, airlines are back with massive discounts for the lean travel months of June to August. Earlier in the day, IndiGo took the lead by offering fares as low as Rs 899. The fares are mostly for shorter sectors. For instance, an Agartala-Kolkata flight ticket can be bought for an all inclusive fare Rs 1,599. The ticket for an Ahmedof ` abad-Mumbai flight is available for Rs 1,299 and a Bagdogra-Guwahati flight is for Rs 899, the lowest available flash fare. Rival SpiceJet soon followed with fares such as Rs 1,189 for Delhi-Jaipur and Rs 1,642 on MumbaiAhmedabad. GoAir introduced fares such as Rs 1,699 for Ahmedabad-Pune and Rs 1,950 for Delhi-Jammu.. “The discounts have come after at least a couple of months and we have already seen an increase in our bookings,“ said Sharat Dhall, president of Yatra.com.
24. The government's massive network of Common Service Centres (CSCs), or digital kiosks, have been identified to facilitate the rollout of Goods and Services Tax (GST), especially in rural and semi-urban areas. Out of the total 2,52,000 CSCs that are operational, around 1,72,000 are in the rural areas.These centres will help merchants in filing taxes under the new regime and also provide necessary training and support services to people. The proposal is close to getting a final approval from the government. Dinesh Kumar Tyagi, CEO, CSC eGovernance Services, told that the centres are p oposed to act as a GST Suvidha Provider. They will also train and support merchants. Around 34 companies, from accounting firms such as EY and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, to software companies such as IRIS Business Services and Tally Solutions, have been appointed as GSTN Suvidha Providers (GSP), which means that they can directly connect to the application programming interface (APIs) of the GST Network. There are also several independent application developers and startups like ClearTax and Moglix as well as multinationals like Intuit vying to be application service providers (ASPs) to the GSPs.The ASP innovations can be part of the Suvidha providers' offerings when the GSPs open up their secure APIs to them.
25. Vini Cosmetics promoter Darshan Patel has said he will not sell the company until it is a Rs 1,000-crore entity, denying market ` speculations about possible sale of the Fogg deodorant maker. Vini crossed turnover of Rs 580 crore in 2016-17. Patel created Vini in 2010 post his 20-year-stint with Paras Pharmaceuticals where he was credited with creating brands like Moov, Krack that got acquired by British FMCG giant Reckitt Benckiser. Besides Fogg, its brands include Ossum, Glam Up and White Tone. Vini, which launched Fogg in 2010 riding on “no-gas“ premise, leads the deodorants market in India and commanded a retail value share of 20% in 2016, according to latest Euromonitor International report on deodorants in India. Vini has 36 variants of Fogg, which are retailed in India and over 30 international destinations. “With almost every Indian household having Fogg, I aspire to make Fogg a global brand and want to be present across 80 markets, including the US by 2019,“ Patel said. From Rs 20 crore turnover in 2010-11, Vini Cosmetics had crossed Rs 100 crore mark within three years. Now, after six years, its exports account for Rs 100 crore of turnover. Patel said he wanted to take the share of exports to Rs 300 crore by 2019 “when the total turnover would be . 1,000 crore“, primarily driven by ` Fogg brand. Vini will begin manufacturing Fogg across five countries this fiscal to attend to the export market, and strengthen its distribution team of 3,000 by adding 200 distributors.
26. Matchmaking and marriage services provider Matrimony.com, which runs BharatMatrimony.com, on Monday filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with the market regulator Sebi for its initial public offering (IPO). The offering will consist of a fresh share issue worth up to Rs 130 crore and an offer for sale of up to 37.6 lakh equity shares, with a face value of Rs 5 per share. Axis Capital and ICICI Securities are the bankers to the issue and Karvy Computershare is the registrar.
27. The automobile market rebounded strongly after a short blip seen in sales in the immediate aftermath of the demonetisation drive in November. With a congenial environment of low-interest rates, stable fuel prices and rising disposable income, passenger vehicle market including that of two wheelers are slated to set new records in FY18.
Indian passenger vehicle market crossed a critical milestone of 3 million units, growing the fastest in the past five years at 9%, even as the Indian two-wheeler mar overtook China to become the largest market for two-wheeler in the world at the end of 2016. Not to be left behind, the commercial vehicle market too inched closer to its previous peak barring a minor hiccup when BS III stock became redundant, after the court directive. The sales have been increasing calendar year. Passenger vehicle sales in March 2017 at 2.82 lakh units was better than 2.8 lakh units in October 2016. The commercial vehicles monthly sales increased from 45,000 units in November to 87,257 units in March 2017 also led by pre-buying ahead of new emission norms implementation. A spokesperson for TVS Motor Company said due to demonetisation, the company wit nessed a short-term impact on sales in Q3 and Q4. and Q4.
28. Canara Bank posted a Rs 214 crore net profit for the fourth quarter, aided by a stake sale in its home finance unit and better interest income. A year earlier, the state-run bank had reported a Rs 3,905 crore loss, after the central bank directed all lenders to make provisions on stressed accounts after an asset quality review. The bank had sold a 13.4% stake in Canfin Homes for Rs 704 crore. Its stressed loans, which is restructured loans, and gross non-performing loans fell to 12.5% against 13.4% a year earlier.
29. Union Bank of India's net profit increased 12.5% to Rs 108 crore in the fourth quarter from Rs 96 crore a year earlier, helped by a `. 418 crore tax write-back after it won an appeal in the income tax tribunal.The profit was lower than the Rs 146 crore average estimate in a Bloomberg poll of 17 analysts. Profit grew on the back of 23% growth in retail loans, even as its corporate loan book remained flat. A Rs 740-crore profit from trading also helped. Gross NPAs dropped to 11.2% of the loan book from 11.7% in the third quarter. The bank recovered Rs 1,642 crore of NPAs during the three-month period, the best ever in FY17. Chairman Arun Tewari said the pace of addition in NPAs had slowed. He expects loan recovery to improve to 20-25% this year from the Rs 3,703 crore in fiscal 2017.
30. Industry bodies have started preparing for a much anticipated meeting with defence minister Arun Jaitley and the defence secretary on Thursday where the government is expected to share details of the strategic partnerships model being evolved to rope in the private sector for big production projects.
Sources said that almost all major business houses, including Tata, Reli ance, L&T, Mahind ra and Bharat Forge will attend the meeting scheduled for Thursday. While there is no clarity yet on whether foreign vendors will be able to attend, several major international companies have requested to be included in the process as well. Major US and European players that are active in India have also made requests to industry houses for inclusion into the Thursday's consultation, with one senior executive telling ET that their presence and inputs are vital to the strategic partnerships model succeeding in India. It is still unclear whether foreign companies would be allowed to take part in the meeting.
31. Havells India has suc cessfully completed its acquisition of Lloyd Consumer Durable Busi ness Division (Lloyd Consumer) at an enterprise value of Rs 1600 crore on a debt free, cash free basis. The company has financed the transaction through internal accruals and cash balances. Havells has acquired the consumer business infrastructure, people, distribution network including the brand logo, trademark, goodwill and attendant rights.Through this acquisition, Havells marks a foray into Consumer durables industry currently estimated at $15 billion and growing in double digits with low penetration levels, increasing urbanization, aspirational and expanding middle class.
32. Alibaba-backed Paytm is in discussions with Insider.in to pick up stake in the Mumbaibased events platform for about Rs 193 crore. According to sources, Paytm could pump in as much as $30 million to pick up majority stake in Insider.in. They added that the deal could be announced in the next few weeks.Mails sent to Paytm and Insider.in did not elicit any response. Insider.in is a leading ticketing platform for events and properties, which includes the likes of Bacardi NH7 Weekender and TV series The Dewarists. If the deal fructifies, the digital payments and commerce platform will be able to strengthen its presence in the online ticketing business. The sources said Paytm has scaled up its operations in the movie ticketing business and now, the firm is looking at a larger share in the events business as well.
33. Murugappa Group firm EID Parry on Monday said it received appro val from US Food and Drug Admini stration (USFDA) for its facility in Tamil Nadu for organic micro-algae cultivation and processing. The micro-algae facility is part of its Parry Nutraceuticals division and is located in Oonaiyur, Pudukottai district. It is spread over 130 acres and has 600 tonne per annum capacity. In a BSE filing, the company said the organic facility has received the Establishment Inspection Report (EIR) from the USFDA following an inspection of the facility in July 2016. Parry Nutraceuticals Business Head Muthu Murugappan said, “This approval will further enhance our reputation as a leader in micro-algal technology.“
34. Drug firm Wockhardt is seeking shareholders' nod to raise up to Rs 1,000 crore via issue of securities. ` It is seeking the approval via a postal ballot for raising additional capital by way of one or more public or private offerings including through a qualified institutions placement (QIP) for an amount not exceeding Rs 1,000 crore, Wockhardt said in a regulatory filing. The shareholders can approve the resolution through evoting or physical postal ballot form, it added. The voting period for the company's shareholders begins on May 10 and ends on June 8. The Mumbai-based firm however did not state the reasons for raising the capital. Wockhardt has three research centres and 12 manufacturing plants, with businesses ranging from the making and marketing of pharmaceuticals, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and vaccines.
35. Dutch paint maker Akzo Nobel on Monday rejected a third takeover proposal from PPG Industries, leaving its larger US rival to decide whether to make a formal bid without the support of Akzo's board, or throw in the towel. PPG's third offer values Akzo at 26.3 billion ($28.8 billion) including debt but the Dutch firm, which makes Dulux paint, said it was too low, faced antitrust risks and failed to address concerns such as “cultural differences“. PPG has significant support among Akzo shareholders. But opposition from its boards, Dutch politicians and many of its Dutch staff present difficulties PPG will have to weigh before a June 1 deadline to bid or walk away for at least six months. The deal would combine the world's two biggest makers of paints and coatings and PPG reckons it can achieve savings of $750 million thanks to factors such as economies of scale on production and lowering input costs.
36. KKR & Co is in talks with Toshiba Corp about a preemptive bid for the Japanese company's memory chips business that would accelerate completion of a sale and end negotiations with other potential acquirers, according to people familiar with the matter. Toshiba is in favour of the proposal from KKR and Innovation Network Corp of Japan because it would simplify regulatory approval and speed up the delivery of muchneeded cash, said the people, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. KKR and its partners, which also include Development Bank of Japan Inc, have indicated they would pay 1.8 trillion yen ($16 billion) to 2.1 trillion yen, one of the people said. Western Digital Corp's chief executive officer plans a trip to Japan this week to discuss joining the group, another person said.
37. Coach Inc agreed to buy handbag maker Kate Spade & Co for $2.4 billion following months of talks, helping the luxury brand cope with an industry racked by deep discounting and sluggish demand.The $18.50-a-share transaction represents a premium to Kate Spade's price when deal speculation first surfaced in December, but it's well below the amount investors were betting on in more recent months.The long-anticipated deal brings a high-profile brand to Coach and may help remedy the handbag industry's broader woes. The companies have struggled to get customers to pay full price, and a reliance on the beleaguered department-store channel has hurt sales.
38. The Motilal Oswal Finan cial Services, which em ploys 3,800 people, has offered its employees, including office boys, an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP).All staffers with a year of service have been provided with the ESOPs of MOFL's group company .
39. As growth in the $150-billion IT industry slows down, large IT services firm are all in the process of laying off employees on a scale not seen since the 2008-10 downturn. Those taking the hit first are midand senior-level professionals. Lower level employees too will be hurt.
40. Czech carmaker Skoda plans to ride on parent Volkswagen's partnership with Tata Motors for a bigger play in the compact vehicles segment. It is looking to make a comeback into the high-volume small car category , while driving in a mini-SUV and an entry sedan. The vehicles may hit the roads from 2019 and would be a culmination of the joint product strategy with Tata Motors. Skoda may target the mass segment with this new range, sources told.
41. Closely-held auto and aerospace designer Tata Technologies has agreed to acquire Swedish engineering services provider Escenda to expand its offerings in Europe.The proposed buyout follows Tata Technologies' recent $26million investment in setting up a new innovation and development centre in the UK. The planned acquisition will be routed through Tata Technologies Europe and it will retain Escenda's management team and workforce, which includes over 150 engineers. Founded in 2009, the Gothenburg-based Escenda's revenues have grown 230% in the last four years, according to a statement.“The acquisition of Escenda will boost our capacity in the Nordics as well as our capabilities in the automotive sector, where we already support a range of global OEMs,“ said Nick Sale, COO of Tata Technologies Europe. Tata Technologies is 70% owned by Tata Motors with the balance held by the top management and other investors. About 40% of its revenues comes from Tata Motors.
10. Microsoft has teamed up with Harman Kardon and released a Cortana-powered smart speaker, the Invoke. The Invoke will be able to “play your favorite music, manage calendars and activities, set reminders, check traffic and deliver the latest news“.There will also be Skype integration, so you'll be able to use it to make voice calls to landlines and “other Skype-enabled devices“. There will be seven microphones embedded in the device.
11. Mumbai-based seed investment platform Venture Catalysts is charting a global roadmap for itself in a bid to open up global channels of money into the Indian startup ecosystem from the initial stages itself. The angel network will expand into five new countries, including Qatar, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the US by mid-2018. The platform kicked off its Qatar operations last month with the country pinned to be the hub for Venture Catalysts' operations in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries. “Around 200 investors will be joining (our platform) in Qatar and a huge network will be created there. But there will be a huge synergy between (the Indian) network and that (global) network,“ cofounder Apoorv Rangan Sharma told ET. The platform is looking to widen its investor network by 150-200 in each new country. The global networks will large ly, but not solely, look at Indian companies seeking to expand their footprint globally . “We will also invest in companies in countries beyond where we are expanding,“ said Sharma. “20% of our investments may happen (in companies) across the globe.“ The platform has aggregated a network of over 600 angels across India and typically facilitates investments in companies at the seed stage with ticket sizes spanning $0.5-1 million (. `3-6 cro re). The platform will fol low a similar model when it comes to investments through its global platforms along with local partners in various countries and remain sector-agnostic. “90% of our investments will be at the seed stage and the remaining will be for pre-series A. We will do most pre-series A rounds in syndication with our global investor partners,“ Sharma said.This expansion comes at a time when early-stage funding in the country has seen some of its sheen wear off. Venture Catalysts is targeting a 2x growth in investments as it spreads its wings across the globe.
12. Pune-based ecommerce logistics and selling platform Anchanto has raised an undisclosed amount from Singapore-headquartered omnichannel retailer Luxasia Group and its existing investor, Transcosmos Japan (TCI). Anchanto, which provides enterprise SaaS products that empowers ecom merce logistics and online selling, will use the funds to reinforce its operation in India, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines and Vietnam, where it hopes to aid traditional brick-andmortar businesses and logistic players to go online via ecommerce, said its CEO, Vaibhav Dabhade.
13. Venture capital firm GVFL and Unicorn India Ventures have invested an undisclosed amount in cybersecurity startup Sequretek, which works with large banks and financial services clients. This is the first funding announcement by Gujarat-based GVFL through its GVFL Startup Fund, the firm's eighth fund with a target corpus of `250 crore. This will also be Sequretek's first major round of funding. It had earlier raised $300,000 in 2015 from wealthy individuals, while the founders had put in `4.5 crore while launching the company in 2013. The company was founded by Anand Naik, former Saarc head for Symantec, and Pankit Desai, who was in leadership roles at companies such as NTT Data and Rolta.
The GVFL Startup Fund has so far closed `100 crore and will invest up to $1 million in each startup. Unicorn India Ventures has invested through its maiden fund of `100 crore, which Joshi said will close in a few weeks. “With the emphasis on digitisation and the push by government for digital payments, we believe there is a big scope for security solutions,“ said Anil Joshi, managing partner, Unicorn India Ventures.
14. Dell wants to publicise its investments. The firm's venture arm -which kept a low profile when it was part of EMC -is coming out of “stealth“, including disclosing portfolio companies as part of a new push to highlight young businesses. The firm is spending about $100 million annually on the funding of startups, Scott Darling, president of Dell Technologies' venture arm, said.Michael Dell is investing in new ways to bolster his company's lineup that provides gear and modern software for data centres.
15.Vodafone India has strengthened its enterprise services portfolio, offering Wi-Fi services to small, medium and large enterprises, as it targets corporates at a time its retail business is under serious competitive pressure triggered by the entry of Reliance Jio Infocomm. Called the Vodafone SuperWiFi, it will be the first time an enterprise Wi-Fi Network is being provided as a service by an Indian telecom operator, Vodafone Business Services said in a statement on Monday. Vodafone India's enterprise solution is the business that the telecom major is laying its bets on.From tying up with microfinance firms, startups and even trying to work with state governments on elections, the vertical is growing at twice the rate of the industry, the company said. Vodafone Business Services, the enterprise arm of Vodafone, provides telecommunications services across both mobility and fixed line platforms. It accounted for 16.4% of Vodafone India revenues in the second half of FY17. As of March 31, 2016, it had 7.5 million mobility corporate customers on board. SuperWi-Fi will offer unified, high-speed and wireless network access to employees, guests and customers across their sites and locations with 24x7 remote monitoring and management. It will provide secure wireless connectivity to improve user experience and ensure greater flexibility and mobility among employees and guests alike, said the company statement. This kind of service that can be deployed across offices, educational campuses, retail stores, warehouses, factories, hospitals, etc. is especially important when the industry is going through a turbulent period and operators need to counter the impact of Mukesh Ambani-owned Jio. For the second largest telecom player in India that garners 84% of their revenues from retail mobile business, the enterprise solution is tapping into newer areas like microfinance and startups. The telecom firm has been tying up with startups to offer them customised solutions for their Mobility to Internet connectivity, Internet of Thinds and cloudbased productivity.
Vodafone India is in the process of merging its operations with Idea Cellular, which will make the joint entity the largest telecom operator in the country.
16. Bharti Infratel, India's only listed telecom tower firm, posted a 17% on-year drop in net profit for the fiscal fourth quarter, to Rs 597 crore but by higher finance costs and rising expenses, primarily power and fuel. Revenue for the quarter ended March 31 rose by 11% to Rs 3,520 crore, as telcos expanded networks to cater to rising demand for data services. The company was upbeat about the long term outlook as the sector continues to witness a shift towards data amid consolidation. “Indian telecom is undergoing a tectonic shift with consolidation settling in and business model shifting from voice to data centric one,“ Akhil Gupta, chairman, Bharti Infratel Ltd. said in a statement. “We are already seeing significant network rollouts to have data coverage and it is our belief that all operators going forward will further accelerate the data network rollouts to have deep coverage to match competition,“ he added. The company's tenancy ratio has risen marginally on-year to 2.3, from 2.19, which means more number of signal emitting base stations on the same tower a year later. Revenue per tower per month went up more, to ` . 80,464 from . 76,602, in the same period.` Gupta added the company and Indus Towers, the world's largest tower company in which Infratel owns a 42% share, were well positioned to take majority share of the emerging business from building network for smart cities, part of government's Digital India programme. Bharti Infratel's stock was down 0.55% to ` . 364.10 at Monday closing on the BSE, where the national in dex was up 0.23%. The results were announced after market hours. The company, which went public in 2012, is in the business of setting up towers on which telcos mount their base stations -the electronic devices that emit signals to cellphones. Bharti Infratel ended the January-March quarter with 90,646 towers, of which 39,099 are its own. Infratel's finance cost for the quarter was ` Rs 287 crore, as against a finance gain of Rs 1,031 crore in the same quarter last fiscal. An overall increase of expenses by 13% to Rs 1,936 crore in the quarter ended March this fiscal, versus Rs 1,713 crore on-year, also dragged net profit. Of the expenses, fuel and power costs contributed the most -Rs 1,200 crore the last quarter -up 16% on year in the same period. The company's Board approved an interim dividend of 12 per equity share for the year ended March 2017 with a cash outgo of Rs 2,670 crore inclusive of tax on dividend.This is in addition to equity shares buyback for Rs 2,000 crore completed earlier during the year. Bharti Airtel sold 10.3% stake in Infratel to a consortium of funds advised by KKR and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for over . Rs 6,193.9 crore. Its holding in Infratel ` after the transaction stands at 61.7%.
17. Bharti Airtel has tied up with ride hailing service Ola to offer digital services to their respective customers, such as their wallet services. Airtel Payments Bank, a unit of Bharti Airtel, will integrate with Ola app to offer digital payments solutions to customers for their rides. Mobile wallet Ola Money , in turn, will be integrated as a digital payment solution within MyAirtel App and the Airtel website to enable recharge of Airtel prepaid mobileDTH and pay ment of Airtel mobilebroadband bills, the two companies said in a joint statement Monday . Ola will leverage Airtel's services to power its operations while Airtel will leverage the Ola's network of driver partners, the companies added. Airtel retail points will assist customers looking to book an Ola ride through kiosks, and Airtel, in turn, will be able to leverage Ola's massive base of driver partners, who will act as retail points for recharging Airtel prepaid numbers on the go.
18. India Ratings & Research (Ind-Ra) has downgraded the telecom services industry outlook to negative in FY18 on expectations that carriers will be hit harder and for longer spans by Reliance Jio Infocomm's free services.
19. Ericsson has said that it is set to further scale up consumer additions for Reliance Jio Infocomm after helping the new entrant onboard nearly a million subscribers a day as part of the telecom gear maker's largest ever operations and business support solution deployments worldwide. In 2014, the Swedish company had bagged a ` . 60 crore end-to-end Operations Support Systems (OSS) order from billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Jio. Ericsson's solution deployment included order and inventory management and activation services, through which it had helped Jio net 100 million users in a record 170 days. The OSS system acts as an interface between Jio's network and its customers and plays a critical role in enabling the telco deliver quality commitments, including enrolment of consumers, provisioning of large volumes of orders and activation of services. “Ericsson OSS solutions enables faster service, customer agility and supports operators during every phase of the customer lifecycle,“ Nelson said, adding that the suite meets the entire Plan to Build (P2B) and Order to Activation (O2A) for the operator. With Jio building a pan-India LTE only network and adding more than 100 million subscribers in a very quick time, the sheer scale and pace makes this deployment unique, according to the Swedish company executive who spearheaded this project. Mumbai-based Jio that launched commercial services on September 5 last year has been adding users at a record pace with users consuming more than 100 crore of Gigabytes (GB) of data per month. The Indian internet user is consuming a lot of data and this fast changing consumption behaviour is putting greater focus on network performance, he said, adding that for the cost of delivering a gigabyte (GB) of data, Jio has set a new, lower cost benchmark. As the subscriber consumes more data than ever before, issues of scale, quality of service (QoS) and quality of experience (QoE) are intensifying the trend toward cloud and virtualisation of telecom networks, Nelson said.
20. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has found the role of nine shell companies, including several defaulters, for allegedly diverting proceeds related to the National Spot Exchange (NSEL) scam to other avenues. The agency in its probe of bank frauds has found that NSEL run by FTIL (now known as 63 Moons) was allegedly using nine shell companies -Brinda Commodity, Tavishi Enterprises, Mohan India, PD Agro Processors, Dunar Foods, White Water Foods, ARK Imports, Vimaladevi Agrotech and Yathuri Associates. While the agency has prosecuted these companies on charges of cheating and corruption, it will also share its findings with specialised agencies like erious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), Income Tax department and Enforcement Directorate (ED), among others. These companies were allegedly trading on the exchange platform without having actual possession of commodities, CBI sources said. The agency has alleged that the nine shell companies, which were defaulters in the scam, helped in diverting Rs 342 crore of investors' money. The CBI had filed charge sheet against FTIL promoter Jignesh Shah and then CEO Anjani Sinha along with 20 other entities in the case. In its probe related to bank fraud cases in the last three years, the CBI has unearthed 339 shell companies which had diverted Rs 2,900 crore of bank loan funds, they said. The CBI sources further added that the shell companies were allegedly being used by the suspects to divert loan funds meant for specified purposes, creating fake invoices and roundtripping of funds to evade taxes and generate black money. Round-tripping is sending money to tax havens abroad in the guise of payments for fake imports through shell companies and bringing back that money, showing it as “foreign investment“. Reacting to the allegations, an NSEL spokesperson said the investigations have been carried out in this matter, the charge-sheet has been filed in the CBI court, and there was no money trail found to NSEL, FTIL and Jignesh Shah. “The full money trail has been traced to the defaulting entities. There are 17 defaulting companies and among them there are 9 companies against whom MMTC and PTC have traded,“ he said. The spokesperson claimed that not only the NSEL helped in asset tracking of these defaulting companies but also filed civil and criminal petitions against these defaulters. “The NSEL's actions have resulted in decree of over Rs 1,200 crore against ARK Imports, Yathuri Associates, Juggernaut Projects, Aastha Minment India, and Swastik Overseas Corporation,“ he said.
21. Route Mobile, a mobile technology firm with expertise in messaging and voice interface, has bought business process outsourcing company Call2Connect from Arabi Holding Group for an undisclosed amount. Route Mobile global CEO Rajdip Gupta said his company is in a position to double Call2Connect's revenue because of its existing client base. “We aim to position Call2Connect's expertise and experience with our global telco relationships,“ he said. Route Mobile provides services such as information alerts and sale and marketing messaging for the country's top banks. Acquisition of Call2Connect, Route Mobile's third takeover since June last year, adds depth to the company's existing relations with banks, officials said. Call2Connect, which employs Call2Connect, which employs 1,200 people to handle customer and internal query calls for its clients, counts Aircel, Airtel, Idea, Vodafone, Tata Teleservices, Punjab National Bank, One 97 (Paytm), Pidilite and Bihar government among its clients. Its revenue is estimated at Rs 80 crore, while operating margin is about 10%, said a person familiar with the matter. In February Route Mobile's founders had sold 10% shares in the firm to Shrem Group for $23 million. The firm, which had earlier acquired Cellent Technologies and Singapore-based Defero Mobile, reported revenues of Rs 480 crore in the year ended March. Gupta expects inorganic growth to help take the firm's annual revenue to Rs 700 crore this financial year. Route Mobile remains interested in buying a digital wallet company, he said. The company had said the business environment internationally is soft at the moment making now a good time to make acquisitions. Until last year, Gupta had planned a public listing for Route Mobile to help staff with employee stock option to exit and some cash out for founders who had bootstrapped the company.
22. Tractormaker Sonalika ITL launched world's largest integrated manufacturing facility on Monday entailing an investment of . 800 crore funded entirely through ` internal accruals and equity from Japanese partner Yanmar at Hoshiarpur in Punjab. The plant, spread over 100 acres, was inaugurated by Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh and it will enhance the manufacturing capacity to 3 lakh tractors per annum from 1lakh units currently . “The expansion of manufacturing facility is part of a strategy to become global leader in tractor manufacturing,“ Sonalika ITL executive director Raman Mittal told ET. He said that the Japanese major Yanmar had partnered with Sonalika to bring its global tractor manufacturing to the Hoshiarpur plant. The foreign partner Yanmar had made an investment of 30 %, whereas 70% is funded by Sonalika ITL in the new facility . To further its global ambitions, Sonalika is now focusing on setting up its manufacturing facility in China -the largest tractor market. Already, the company sells tractors in 80 countries including the US, Africa and China. “The China plant will be a logical step to manifest global ambitions of the company,“ Mittal said.He said that the company's growth story is backed by strong financial and steady leadership.
23. Indian flyers are in for a bonanza. After about a 15% rise in average airfares in the last couple of months, airlines are back with massive discounts for the lean travel months of June to August. Earlier in the day, IndiGo took the lead by offering fares as low as Rs 899. The fares are mostly for shorter sectors. For instance, an Agartala-Kolkata flight ticket can be bought for an all inclusive fare Rs 1,599. The ticket for an Ahmedof ` abad-Mumbai flight is available for Rs 1,299 and a Bagdogra-Guwahati flight is for Rs 899, the lowest available flash fare. Rival SpiceJet soon followed with fares such as Rs 1,189 for Delhi-Jaipur and Rs 1,642 on MumbaiAhmedabad. GoAir introduced fares such as Rs 1,699 for Ahmedabad-Pune and Rs 1,950 for Delhi-Jammu.. “The discounts have come after at least a couple of months and we have already seen an increase in our bookings,“ said Sharat Dhall, president of Yatra.com.
24. The government's massive network of Common Service Centres (CSCs), or digital kiosks, have been identified to facilitate the rollout of Goods and Services Tax (GST), especially in rural and semi-urban areas. Out of the total 2,52,000 CSCs that are operational, around 1,72,000 are in the rural areas.These centres will help merchants in filing taxes under the new regime and also provide necessary training and support services to people. The proposal is close to getting a final approval from the government. Dinesh Kumar Tyagi, CEO, CSC eGovernance Services, told that the centres are p oposed to act as a GST Suvidha Provider. They will also train and support merchants. Around 34 companies, from accounting firms such as EY and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, to software companies such as IRIS Business Services and Tally Solutions, have been appointed as GSTN Suvidha Providers (GSP), which means that they can directly connect to the application programming interface (APIs) of the GST Network. There are also several independent application developers and startups like ClearTax and Moglix as well as multinationals like Intuit vying to be application service providers (ASPs) to the GSPs.The ASP innovations can be part of the Suvidha providers' offerings when the GSPs open up their secure APIs to them.
25. Vini Cosmetics promoter Darshan Patel has said he will not sell the company until it is a Rs 1,000-crore entity, denying market ` speculations about possible sale of the Fogg deodorant maker. Vini crossed turnover of Rs 580 crore in 2016-17. Patel created Vini in 2010 post his 20-year-stint with Paras Pharmaceuticals where he was credited with creating brands like Moov, Krack that got acquired by British FMCG giant Reckitt Benckiser. Besides Fogg, its brands include Ossum, Glam Up and White Tone. Vini, which launched Fogg in 2010 riding on “no-gas“ premise, leads the deodorants market in India and commanded a retail value share of 20% in 2016, according to latest Euromonitor International report on deodorants in India. Vini has 36 variants of Fogg, which are retailed in India and over 30 international destinations. “With almost every Indian household having Fogg, I aspire to make Fogg a global brand and want to be present across 80 markets, including the US by 2019,“ Patel said. From Rs 20 crore turnover in 2010-11, Vini Cosmetics had crossed Rs 100 crore mark within three years. Now, after six years, its exports account for Rs 100 crore of turnover. Patel said he wanted to take the share of exports to Rs 300 crore by 2019 “when the total turnover would be . 1,000 crore“, primarily driven by ` Fogg brand. Vini will begin manufacturing Fogg across five countries this fiscal to attend to the export market, and strengthen its distribution team of 3,000 by adding 200 distributors.
26. Matchmaking and marriage services provider Matrimony.com, which runs BharatMatrimony.com, on Monday filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with the market regulator Sebi for its initial public offering (IPO). The offering will consist of a fresh share issue worth up to Rs 130 crore and an offer for sale of up to 37.6 lakh equity shares, with a face value of Rs 5 per share. Axis Capital and ICICI Securities are the bankers to the issue and Karvy Computershare is the registrar.
27. The automobile market rebounded strongly after a short blip seen in sales in the immediate aftermath of the demonetisation drive in November. With a congenial environment of low-interest rates, stable fuel prices and rising disposable income, passenger vehicle market including that of two wheelers are slated to set new records in FY18.
Indian passenger vehicle market crossed a critical milestone of 3 million units, growing the fastest in the past five years at 9%, even as the Indian two-wheeler mar overtook China to become the largest market for two-wheeler in the world at the end of 2016. Not to be left behind, the commercial vehicle market too inched closer to its previous peak barring a minor hiccup when BS III stock became redundant, after the court directive. The sales have been increasing calendar year. Passenger vehicle sales in March 2017 at 2.82 lakh units was better than 2.8 lakh units in October 2016. The commercial vehicles monthly sales increased from 45,000 units in November to 87,257 units in March 2017 also led by pre-buying ahead of new emission norms implementation. A spokesperson for TVS Motor Company said due to demonetisation, the company wit nessed a short-term impact on sales in Q3 and Q4. and Q4.
28. Canara Bank posted a Rs 214 crore net profit for the fourth quarter, aided by a stake sale in its home finance unit and better interest income. A year earlier, the state-run bank had reported a Rs 3,905 crore loss, after the central bank directed all lenders to make provisions on stressed accounts after an asset quality review. The bank had sold a 13.4% stake in Canfin Homes for Rs 704 crore. Its stressed loans, which is restructured loans, and gross non-performing loans fell to 12.5% against 13.4% a year earlier.
29. Union Bank of India's net profit increased 12.5% to Rs 108 crore in the fourth quarter from Rs 96 crore a year earlier, helped by a `. 418 crore tax write-back after it won an appeal in the income tax tribunal.The profit was lower than the Rs 146 crore average estimate in a Bloomberg poll of 17 analysts. Profit grew on the back of 23% growth in retail loans, even as its corporate loan book remained flat. A Rs 740-crore profit from trading also helped. Gross NPAs dropped to 11.2% of the loan book from 11.7% in the third quarter. The bank recovered Rs 1,642 crore of NPAs during the three-month period, the best ever in FY17. Chairman Arun Tewari said the pace of addition in NPAs had slowed. He expects loan recovery to improve to 20-25% this year from the Rs 3,703 crore in fiscal 2017.
30. Industry bodies have started preparing for a much anticipated meeting with defence minister Arun Jaitley and the defence secretary on Thursday where the government is expected to share details of the strategic partnerships model being evolved to rope in the private sector for big production projects.
Sources said that almost all major business houses, including Tata, Reli ance, L&T, Mahind ra and Bharat Forge will attend the meeting scheduled for Thursday. While there is no clarity yet on whether foreign vendors will be able to attend, several major international companies have requested to be included in the process as well. Major US and European players that are active in India have also made requests to industry houses for inclusion into the Thursday's consultation, with one senior executive telling ET that their presence and inputs are vital to the strategic partnerships model succeeding in India. It is still unclear whether foreign companies would be allowed to take part in the meeting.
31. Havells India has suc cessfully completed its acquisition of Lloyd Consumer Durable Busi ness Division (Lloyd Consumer) at an enterprise value of Rs 1600 crore on a debt free, cash free basis. The company has financed the transaction through internal accruals and cash balances. Havells has acquired the consumer business infrastructure, people, distribution network including the brand logo, trademark, goodwill and attendant rights.Through this acquisition, Havells marks a foray into Consumer durables industry currently estimated at $15 billion and growing in double digits with low penetration levels, increasing urbanization, aspirational and expanding middle class.
32. Alibaba-backed Paytm is in discussions with Insider.in to pick up stake in the Mumbaibased events platform for about Rs 193 crore. According to sources, Paytm could pump in as much as $30 million to pick up majority stake in Insider.in. They added that the deal could be announced in the next few weeks.Mails sent to Paytm and Insider.in did not elicit any response. Insider.in is a leading ticketing platform for events and properties, which includes the likes of Bacardi NH7 Weekender and TV series The Dewarists. If the deal fructifies, the digital payments and commerce platform will be able to strengthen its presence in the online ticketing business. The sources said Paytm has scaled up its operations in the movie ticketing business and now, the firm is looking at a larger share in the events business as well.
33. Murugappa Group firm EID Parry on Monday said it received appro val from US Food and Drug Admini stration (USFDA) for its facility in Tamil Nadu for organic micro-algae cultivation and processing. The micro-algae facility is part of its Parry Nutraceuticals division and is located in Oonaiyur, Pudukottai district. It is spread over 130 acres and has 600 tonne per annum capacity. In a BSE filing, the company said the organic facility has received the Establishment Inspection Report (EIR) from the USFDA following an inspection of the facility in July 2016. Parry Nutraceuticals Business Head Muthu Murugappan said, “This approval will further enhance our reputation as a leader in micro-algal technology.“
34. Drug firm Wockhardt is seeking shareholders' nod to raise up to Rs 1,000 crore via issue of securities. ` It is seeking the approval via a postal ballot for raising additional capital by way of one or more public or private offerings including through a qualified institutions placement (QIP) for an amount not exceeding Rs 1,000 crore, Wockhardt said in a regulatory filing. The shareholders can approve the resolution through evoting or physical postal ballot form, it added. The voting period for the company's shareholders begins on May 10 and ends on June 8. The Mumbai-based firm however did not state the reasons for raising the capital. Wockhardt has three research centres and 12 manufacturing plants, with businesses ranging from the making and marketing of pharmaceuticals, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and vaccines.
35. Dutch paint maker Akzo Nobel on Monday rejected a third takeover proposal from PPG Industries, leaving its larger US rival to decide whether to make a formal bid without the support of Akzo's board, or throw in the towel. PPG's third offer values Akzo at 26.3 billion ($28.8 billion) including debt but the Dutch firm, which makes Dulux paint, said it was too low, faced antitrust risks and failed to address concerns such as “cultural differences“. PPG has significant support among Akzo shareholders. But opposition from its boards, Dutch politicians and many of its Dutch staff present difficulties PPG will have to weigh before a June 1 deadline to bid or walk away for at least six months. The deal would combine the world's two biggest makers of paints and coatings and PPG reckons it can achieve savings of $750 million thanks to factors such as economies of scale on production and lowering input costs.
36. KKR & Co is in talks with Toshiba Corp about a preemptive bid for the Japanese company's memory chips business that would accelerate completion of a sale and end negotiations with other potential acquirers, according to people familiar with the matter. Toshiba is in favour of the proposal from KKR and Innovation Network Corp of Japan because it would simplify regulatory approval and speed up the delivery of muchneeded cash, said the people, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. KKR and its partners, which also include Development Bank of Japan Inc, have indicated they would pay 1.8 trillion yen ($16 billion) to 2.1 trillion yen, one of the people said. Western Digital Corp's chief executive officer plans a trip to Japan this week to discuss joining the group, another person said.
37. Coach Inc agreed to buy handbag maker Kate Spade & Co for $2.4 billion following months of talks, helping the luxury brand cope with an industry racked by deep discounting and sluggish demand.The $18.50-a-share transaction represents a premium to Kate Spade's price when deal speculation first surfaced in December, but it's well below the amount investors were betting on in more recent months.The long-anticipated deal brings a high-profile brand to Coach and may help remedy the handbag industry's broader woes. The companies have struggled to get customers to pay full price, and a reliance on the beleaguered department-store channel has hurt sales.
38. The Motilal Oswal Finan cial Services, which em ploys 3,800 people, has offered its employees, including office boys, an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP).All staffers with a year of service have been provided with the ESOPs of MOFL's group company .
39. As growth in the $150-billion IT industry slows down, large IT services firm are all in the process of laying off employees on a scale not seen since the 2008-10 downturn. Those taking the hit first are midand senior-level professionals. Lower level employees too will be hurt.
40. Czech carmaker Skoda plans to ride on parent Volkswagen's partnership with Tata Motors for a bigger play in the compact vehicles segment. It is looking to make a comeback into the high-volume small car category , while driving in a mini-SUV and an entry sedan. The vehicles may hit the roads from 2019 and would be a culmination of the joint product strategy with Tata Motors. Skoda may target the mass segment with this new range, sources told.
41. Closely-held auto and aerospace designer Tata Technologies has agreed to acquire Swedish engineering services provider Escenda to expand its offerings in Europe.The proposed buyout follows Tata Technologies' recent $26million investment in setting up a new innovation and development centre in the UK. The planned acquisition will be routed through Tata Technologies Europe and it will retain Escenda's management team and workforce, which includes over 150 engineers. Founded in 2009, the Gothenburg-based Escenda's revenues have grown 230% in the last four years, according to a statement.“The acquisition of Escenda will boost our capacity in the Nordics as well as our capabilities in the automotive sector, where we already support a range of global OEMs,“ said Nick Sale, COO of Tata Technologies Europe. Tata Technologies is 70% owned by Tata Motors with the balance held by the top management and other investors. About 40% of its revenues comes from Tata Motors.
1. PM Narendra Modi has directed that all proposals sent to the cabinet must state the number of jobs they can generate, in a renewed bid to push employment generation to the centre of policymaking and project conceptualisation. The government, which will soon complete three years, is going all out to ensure it delivers on the promise of creating 1crore jobs. A Crisil report said more than 1.5 million people enter the job market every month in the country and the rapid adoption of automation, which reduces the dependence on labour, is aggravating the situation. “We are the youngest country with 65% of our population below 35 years of age. We are the world's largest democracy and we have a huge domestic mar ket to feed. No country has such an oppor tunity as India to create jobs with human ca pital and abun dant natural re had said earlier. source,“ Modi had said earlier. There is a view that job creation has not been commensurate with the country's economic expansion -so-called jobless growth -prompting the government to identify it as a key priority. According to the quarterly employment survey of the labour and employment ministry, the estimated employment in eight sectors, including manufacturing, construction, trade, transport, education, health, accommodation and restaurants and IT BPO (information tech nologybusiness process outsourcing) stands at 20.52 million in the country. Of this, manufacturing is the largest employer with the highest share at 49% followed by education at 24%.Construction accounts for the least at 1.79% and transport has a 2.8% share. Between FY12 and FY16, the number of jobs created in India stood at 14.6 million or 3.65 million per year, according to the Confederation of Indian Industry. Though the total working-age population rose by 84.1 million, the actual labour force increased by only 20.1 million. About a fourth (24%) of the working-age population joined the labour force while three-fourths (76%) remained outside it. Of the 20.1 million-strong jump in the labour force, 14.6 million were part of the workforce that is employed, while 5.5 million were unemployed.
2. The Securities and Exchange Board of India is yet to approve IDFC MD Vikram Limaye's appointment as the CEO of National Stock Exchange (NSE) as it is concerned about his other role -managing the affairs of BCCI, the richest cricket body . Sebi has asked for clarifications about Limaye's role and is reviewing the application, people close to the development said. It believes he may not be able to do justice as the head of India's biggest stock exchange if he continues in his SC-appointed role as a member of the four-person panel managing the affairs of Board of Control for Cricket in India.
The exchange has told the regulator that Limaye's role at the cricket board is almost like a non-executive board position and that he won't be involved in the day-to-day functions. “Limaye has already explained his role at BCCI to the NSE board, saying that it is only about giving policy direction and supervising through the CEO,“ said another person close to the development.
3. India's print medium is growing amid a global slowdown as readers in the country continue to find it more credible and aspirational. The average number of copies circulated per day grew to 62.8 million in the 2006-2016 period from 39.1million, according to data released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC).
4. Brevity pays, especially when it comes to complex litigation involving voluminous records -all the more so if the case involves heavy guns backed by sharp legal eagles.Preparing its appeal against the special CBI court ruling which discharged Maran brothers in the Aircel-Maxis case, CBI sleuths noticed that their appeal ran into nearly 200 pages. A decision was taken to keep the appeal succinct and bring it down to 100 pages. Reason: The judgement, appealed against, itself ran into 500 pages.
5. The selection of new ICSSR chairman has sparked a small controversy in academic circles. Usually, the candidate shortlisted for the top job was nominated by ICSSR collegium, but this time around it was short of at least 12 members when it did so.The situation arose because about a dozen collegium members had passed away and no one from ICSSR or the HRD ministry took note of the vacancy which should have been filled before the selection of chairman.
6. At least nine UP cadre IAS officers, including current secretary of the IAS association, Sanjay Bhoosreddy, have been recalled by the Yogi Adityanath government. While three officers have consented to return to their parent cadre, the other six are learnt to be less enthusiastic and have indicated the same diplomatically. It is now wait-and-watch time for the UP cadre.
7. A special CBI court has taken cognisance of a chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation against Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh, accusing him of amassing assets worth `10 crore disproportionate to his known sources of income. The court has summoned Singh and his wife Pratibha Singh to appear before it on May 22 to face trial. Besides Singh and his wife, others summoned as accused are Chunni Lal Chauhan, Joginder Singh Ghalta, Prem Raj, Vakamulla Chandrasekhar, Lawan Kumar Roach and Ram Prakash Bhatia. The CBI had on March 31 filed a chargesheet against all the eight.
8. AAP EXPELS KAPIL MISHRA LG Forwards 'Proof' Against kejriwal to Anti-graft Branch Jain told me that he managed Rs 50-cr land deal for Kejriwal's brother-in-law: Kapil Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal has forwarded `evidence' submitted by former minister Kapil Mishra against chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to the anti-corruption branch of the Delhi Police for investigation, even as AAP sacked Mishra from its primary membership. Baijal on Monday summoned ACB chief Mukesh Meena and directed him to submit a report within a week. Incidentally, Kejriwal had objected to Meena's appointment, in 2015. Officials said that the LG has ordered probe in the matter related to the water tanker scam only . On his part, Mishra made fresh alle g ations a g ainst Kejriwal. He alleged that a `50 crore `deal' was `arranged' for Kejriwal's brother-in-law and a `bogus bill' of `10 crore was made to `favour' Kejriwal's brother-in-law. He also alleged during the Punjab polls there was massive corruption in ticket distribution, including supply of liquor, and AAP leader Sanjay Singh was involved in lobbying for overseas funding.He said he had sought an appointment with CBI on Tuesday to register a complaint. Mishra had met the LG on Sunday after alleging that he had seen Kejriwal receiving `2 crore from health minister Satinder Jain. He alleged Kejriwal had deliberately delayed the investiga tion into `400-crore `water tanker scam' of 2013 to `shield' former Congress chief minister Sheila Dikshit. This was despite a probe committee constituted by the AAP government in 2015 finding corruption, Mishra claimed. The issue involved procurement of GPS enabled tankers by the Dikshit government in 2010 for supply of water to unauthorised colonies that did not have proper pipelines. The probe committee formed by the AAP government later found that there were `discrepancies' in the procedures involved in awarding tenders for the tankers.
9. The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday quizzed former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in connection with alleged irregularities in the allotment of 14 industrial plots by the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA). The case pertains to alleged irregularities in the allocation of industrial plots at Panchkula in 2012 when Hooda was HUDA chairman. The Central Bureau of Investigation questioned Hooda for the first time against whom the agency had registered a case last year. Last week, the agency had also grilled Chattar Singh, Hooda's then principal secretary, in connection with the case.Singh is currently a member of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). Hooda was on Monday questioned for over six hours by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
10. The Supreme Court ordered former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad and other accused in the `900-crore fodder scam to face separate trials in different cases filed against them. The apex court also revived criminal conspiracy charges previously quashed by the Jharkhand high court against them over alleged siphoning off of funds from the state's animal husbandry department.
11. Lalu Prasad's suggestion to deploy old, non-milking cows outside the houses of BJP leaders to see if they really cared for the animal has triggered a row in Vaishali district, where a BJP leader has filed a complaint in a court. Some RJD workers tied two old cows to a pole in front of the residence of the Vaishli district VP of BJP Kisan Morcha, CK Bharti, at Bishunpur Arara village.
12. Hailing SC order that Lalu Prasad will face trial in all four fodder scam cases, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi has said the verdict means the “end of the road“ for the RJD chief in politics. “It's the end of the road in politics for Prasad as he is sure to be convicted in three other cases of fodder scam and would be debarred from electoral politics...“
13. Former Union minister PK Thungon, who was facing prosecution for 21 years in an alleged disproportionate assets case, has been acquitted by a special court which said CBI has failed to prove its case. Special CBI Judge Pitamber Dutt absolved Thungon saying the prosecution has not succeeded in proving the offence against him.
14. BJP is planning to celebrate three years of the Narendra Modi government in a grand way. Programmes will be spread over almost a fortnight, when chief ministers, Union ministers, MPs and MLAs will reach out to people to propagate how various programmes have helped the people and educate them about the government's achievements. A meeting of BJP office-bearers and party's senior-most leaders were held on Saturday to discuss details of the programmes that will be held to mark the third anniversary of Modi government, which assumed office on May 26, 2014. Programmes will be held in the national capital and across various state capitals and districts.
15. Development, zero tolerance to terrorism and effective use of technology -home minister Rajnath Singh on Monday spelt out a multi-pronged strategy to curb Maoist menace in the country's 35 districts affected by left-wing extremism. Raman Singh, the Chhattisgarh chief minister whose state faces the brunt of the problem, outlined 'Mission Sukma', where he suggested intelligent use of air power targeting the Maoist leadership and continuing development work in the area as steps to tackle the extremists. Chief ministers of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar, Maharashtra, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and And hra Pradesh attended crucial meetings called by the home ministry on Monday to take stock of anti-Maoist strategies after the Central Reserve Police Force lost 37 of its men to the radicals in March and April alone in Chhattisgarh.
16. BSF constable Tej Bahadur Yadav, who was dismissed from his services on April 19 for criticising the quality of food served at the staff canteen through a video that went viral, isn't giving up his fight yet. The dismissed constable, whose pension and other emoluments too have been stopped, told that he will launch a bigger movement at Delhi's Jantar Mantar on May 14. “There will be ex-servicemen from the Army, CRPF, ITBP, Navy and Air Force who will narrate the injustices they faced,“ said Yadav. The constable was in Mumbai to attend a Mumbai Congress programme to commemorate 25 CRPF jawans who were recently killed in Chattisgarh's Sukma district. He, however, made it clear that he has nothing to do with the Congress. “I have come here to pay my respects to the martyrs. I don't support any political party. Even if the BJP, or any other party, had called me for such a programme, I would have come,“ claimed Yadav.
17. Congress vicepresident Rahul Gandhi is said to have categorically denied the possibility of the party taking a soft Hindutva approach or any strategy that will dilute the “idealism or the core values“ the party represents, in the upcoming Gujarat elections. In a four-hour meeting where Gandhi interacted with around 40 state leaders, he is believed to have told the state unit to “understand the anger on the ground against the ruling party and consolidate it in the party's favour“. Congress has been out of power for more than two decades in Gujarat and the party has been trying to put forth a fight in the elections scheduled in December. BJP, on the other hand, is very confident after the UP victory and is looking to gain a head-start in the state with plans around a high-voltage campaign.
18. A few days before the GST bill is ratified in the Maharashtra legislative assembly , the Shiv Sena has given BJP the jitters by indicating that it has reservations about the bill. Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray had said last week that the Sena would oppose any move that was considered as some kind of an `encroachment' on the powers of the local body .Thackeray was talking about how municipal corporations like the BMC would be at the mercy of the Centre, or the state government, for funds which affect its autonomy . Since Maharashtra has called a special three-day session to ratify the GST on May 20, state finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar met Thackeray at his residence to iron out the `misunderstandings'.
19. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday issued a notice to Delhi government, the ministry of environment and forests and Delhi Pollution Control Committee over the chemical spill at Tughlaqabad container depot that led to over 450 schoolchildren being hospitalised. A bench headed by NGT chairperson Swatanter Kumar also issued a show cause to Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) on why its unit Delhi's Tughlaqabad should not be shifted. The green panel has appointed advocate Sanjay Upadhayay as amicus curiae in the matter.
20. The Maharashtra government on Monday imposed a ban on sale of `High in Fat, Salt and Sugar' food at school canteens across the state. A government resolution (GR) issued today gives a list of 12 categories of foods which cover potato chips, noodles, carbonated soft drinks, pizza, burger, cakes, biscuits, buns, pastries, etc., which can not be sold. It also gives a list of 20 items that can be sold, which include wheat roti, vegetable pulav, idli-vada, coconut water and jaljira.
21.The Centre's proposal for a unique identification number for cows has found eager acceptance with one group in West Bengal. The Gau-Bansh Vikash Prakashtha (Cow Development Cell) of the state BJP , which conducted two cow censuses last year, has come up with recommendations on what information to include in the proposed unique identification tag. According to the group, the identification tag must mention the breed of the cow, the animal's milk production capacity and quality of milk and its height, weight and age. Apart from saving cows, the cell's main concern is the preservation and protection of Indian breeds amid increasing hybridisation of cattle. West Bengal had about 1.51 crore cows, of which about 25 lakh were cross-breeds or exotic breeds, while the remainder were Indian breeds, a review conducted by the group in September showed. The cattle population in the state declined by about 54 lakh from about 2 crore in the census in July , after cows were slaughtered and smuggled during Bakr Id in mid-September.
22. India has rejected China's contention that Beijing had never acknowledged Pakistan's claims on parts of Jammu and Kashmir as final, underscoring its sustained opposition to the One Belt One Road (OBOR) project that New Delhi believes infringes sovereignty . To overcome India's resistance, China has revived its four-point proposal to overcome its differences with India and deepen relations by aligning its OBOR project with New Delhi's ` Act East Policy', and restarting negotiations on a free-trade pact. India, which is unlikely to attend the May 14-15 OBOR Summit in Beijing, has been opposed to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) the flagship project under OBOR as it passes through Pakoccupied Kashmir, infringing sovereignty .The CPEC will link Kashgar in Xinjiang in China and a deep sea port at Gwadar in Balochistan in south-western Pakistan.
23. Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Israel in July , Tel Aviv is trying to achieve a political consensus on Indo-Israeli ties by inviting Congress leader Manish Tewari for three days beginning Monday to attend conferences on security issues. The meet will also be attended by Shaurya Doval, director of India Foundation. The delegation, which also includes Jaiveer Shergill, a Congress functionary from Punjab, has been invited by the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv, National Nuclear Security Administration and Centre for Global Security Research. The members of the Indian delegation will speak on security and economic issues facing South Asia and West Asian region.
24. Star India, the format and media rights owner of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL), has locked in Chinese handset manufacturer Vivo as the title sponsor of the league ahead of its fifth season. The smartphone maker is also the title sponsor of Indian Premier League. The five-year deal, pegged at about `300 crore, makes PKL the second-largest league in India in terms of sponsorship money, after the IPL. This will be for the first time PKL will have a title sponsor. So far, Star India had not sold the title sponsorship of the property. Sanjay Gupta, managing director, Star India, told ET: “We have conducted four successful seasons of PKL... At the launch, we said kabad di is going to be the biggest game in India. We are inching closer to that.“
25.The labour ministry on Monday clarified that the employees already on maternity leave will be eligible for enhanced paid leave under the amended Maternity Benefit Act, which came into force on April 1. The amended Maternity Benefit Act was enforced on April 1, 2017.There was a confusion that whether the employees already on maternity leave would get the benefit under amended law or not.
26. Real estate sales momentum has started slowly improving across key markets after initial sharp fall witnessed post the government's demonetisation move. Both sales and launches showing healthy levels during the fourth quarter is seen as an indicator of the market steadily making effort to reach the pre-demonetisation point. Residential sales across top nine markets rose 13% for the fourth quarter of 2016-17 and the surge in the volume was primarily driven by Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru, which together accounted for 57% of total sales, said a PropTiger.com report. Total residential sales increased to 51,700 units during the quarter from 43,500 units in the previous quarter, which was marked with demonetisation. The number of launches across these cities also rose 19%, the highest in the last eight quarters. Around 51,500 units were launched in the quarter as compared to 43,250 units during the preceding quarter ended December. According to ratings agency Moody's Investors Service, sales volumes in India's real estate sector had decreased by around 40% year on year in the fourth quarter of 2016, while launches dropped by around 60% during the same period.
27. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said remonetisation, following the world's largest note ban, has been substantially completed and the move will result in expansion of the tax base in the country.“India was not a tax compliant society. A very large part of the economy was cash-centric. This problem needed to be addressed. It requires a lot of political courage to resolve the problem,“ he said at an Interactive Session on `India's Business Environment: Reforms and Opportunities' organised by CII, Indian Embassy and Japan Chamber of Commerce. The finance minister said that the move brought about a far greater movement towards digitisation. “It ended the anonymity related to cash operated in the system and hopefully, in the days to come, the taxation base of India would expand,“ he said.
28. The mutual fund industry's asset base has crossed the Rs19 lakh crore mark in April 2017.
29. The largest global banks in London plan to move about 9,000 jobs to the continent in the next two years as the exodus of finance jobs starts to take shape.Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein said that London's growth as a financial centre could “stall“ due to upheaval caused by Brexit.
30. Oil prices slipped, reversing gains made earlier in the session as evidence of rising US drilling offset news that Opec and other producers may extend their production cuts. Brent crude was down 37 cents at $48.73 a barrel at 1246 GMT, having risen to $49.92 earlier in the session.
31.Gold prices rose on bargain-hunting after falling to a seven-week low earlier when safe-haven demand ebbed away following Emmanuel Macron's victory. Spot gold rose 0.4% to $1,232.61 per ounce by 1211 GMT, after touching 1,224.86 earlier in the session.
32. Sitting on huge buffer stock of pulses, the government said cooperative firm Nafed has started disposing it and the substantial quantity would be sold to defence, para-military forces and state governments. The buffer stock is being created since last two years.
33. Promoters and directors of a listed company are required to disclose details about shares received by way of gift and through off-market transactions, according to Sebi. In case of bonus shares a separate disclosure is not required by promoters, directors, employees.
34. The government may merge Coal India's pension fund with the Employees' Provident Fund in an attempt to overcome a shortfall and ensure that payments to retired employees are not disrupted. The state-owned miner's fund currently manages about Rs 13,000 crore and provides pensions to some 3 lakh retired Coal India employees. Contributions from employees, interest income and earnings from investments haven't generated enough money to meet a pension bill that's been mounting as salaries increase. An actuarial estimate about four years ago suggested that the fund faces a gap of about Rs 26,000 crore and needs to be replenished to ensure there's enough money to pay pensions in the near future. The ministry's decision to merge it with the EPF is an effort to save the fund. The coal ministry recently formed a six-member committee headed by additional secretary Suresh Kumar to look into the possibility of merging the Coal Mines Provident Organisation (CMPFO) with the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). A copy of the notification forming the commit tee was available with ET. The other members of the committee are coal ministry joint secretaries RP Gupta and RS Puri and deputy secretary M Pratap, as well as economic advisor Animesh Bharti and CMPFO commissioner BK Panda. The committee, which has met once, has been asked to submit its report by May 20. According to the actuarial report submitted in 2013, the total accrued liability of the fund was about Rs 41,000 crore while its assets were estimated at Rs 14,800 crore, resulting in a deficit of Rs 26,200 crore. Employees will need to contribute about 19% of their salary compared with about 5% currently to make good the deficit.
35. India's power demand growth may not keep pace with the expansion in solar energy capacity, which may slow down capacity addition from the renewable source in 2018 before it recovers in the following year, consultancy Bridge to India said. In its latest handbook on solar energy, it estimates that solar capacity addition will be a record 7.7 GW (gigawatts) in 2017, but will fall to 6.5 GW the following year. It will recover to 7.5 GW in 2019 , before scaling new heights of 8 GW in 2020 and 8.3 GW in 2021. Two years ago, India set itself an ambitious target of adding 100 GW of solar capacity by 2022. So far, until endMarch 2017, 12.3 GW had been installed, including 5.5 GW in 2016-17. However, Bridge to India has forecast that even if its projected yearly targets are achieved, India will have only 44 GW of installed solar capacity by end-2021.
36. Senior bureaucrat Sushil Chandra was on Monday given one-year extension till May 2018 as chair man of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). He had taken over as chief of CBDT, the apex policy making body of the Income Tax department, on November 1 last year. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the proposal for reappointment of Chandra as CBDT chairman for a period of one year from June 1 to May 31, 2018, an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said. Chandra, an IIT graduate, is a 1980 batch officer of Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax cadre). Two other CBDT members-Nishi Singh and Gopal Mukherjee -were in contention for the post.Now the two would retire before Chandra' fresh tenure ends.
37. Some of the country's premier technology institutes are tweaking the number of students in some of their courses, and or, introducing new or interdisciplinary programmes in keeping with a government directive to plan their courses based on popularity and employability. Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in Delhi and Kanpur, for example, plan to reduce the number of seats in unpopular courses and divert them to popular ones. The latter may even stop its nuclear engineering technology programme due to lack of interest from students. “As the employment opportunities are limited under this programme, we are looking at merging this with mechanical engineering,“ said Manindra Agrawal, deputy director at IIT Kanpur. “A call would be taken soon on this,“ he said. “Another reason for merging this programme with mechanical engineering is the fact that we have not been able to get teaching faculty,“ Agrawal said. IIT Kanpur is also reducing the number of seats in metallurgical engineering, which is not seen to be so popular, and offering as many seats in more popular programmes. The ministry of human resources development (MHRD) recently told all centrally funded technical institutions, including IITs, to close centres and end courses that have seen a decline in the number of applicants in the past three years. The ministry also told them to introduce new courses and disciplines only after analysing market opportunity, employability and require ment of higher education. IIT Delhi is considering lowering the number of seats in some streams in its BTech programmes that are currently not popular. However, the total number of seats under BTech at IIT Delhi would not reduce as the institute plans to increase seats in more popular programmes. “The popularity of a programme much depends on the employment prospects,“ said V Ramgopal Rao, director at IIT Delhi. He said the institute does not plan to shut down any centre. An IIT Bombay spokesper son said the issue of revision in seats allocation or closure of any discipline does not arise because all the seats get allotted in the joint counselling process. The institute is considering new program with government directive. It introduced BSc Economics and PhD in Centre for Policy Studies from the autumn session of 2017. The proposal for new programmes is mooted by the programmes committee of a departments, which, in turn, is examined by the programmes committee of the institute for possible recommendation to the senate. Senate takes the final decision. IIT Madras, too, does not plan to reduce the number of seats in any course or stream.It also has no immediate plans to introduce new programmes, said V Jagadeesh Kumar, dean (academic courses).
38. As salary increments across industries fall to, on average, single-digit percentage figures, goods and services tax (GST) professionals are bucking the trend, taking home hefty mid-term bonuses and increments for moving within the organisation into the GST team. GST, the nation's biggest tax reform, is set for a likely July 1 rollout. This has created a big opportunity for the professional services firms to help their clients understand the changing business and tax dynamics, evaluate its impact and take necessary action. However, availability of experienced talent that can handle the new single-tax system and the uniqueness caused by duality of rights of Centre and states is not enough in the local market. This is forcing many of these consultancies to woo inhouse professionals from other departments to join the GST teams and cut the load of pending work.
39. India plans to use the land bank available with its loss-making state-run enterprises for affordable housing projects if New Delhi's efforts to auction the real estate fail to draw bidders. About 2,000 acres of land belonging to five money-losing companies would be put under the bidding hammer soon by state-run real estate firm NBCC (India) Limited. Hindustan Cables Ltd, Instrumentation Ltd, HMT Bearing Ltd, HMT Watches Ltd, and Tungabhadra Steel Products are the companies that have put their land holdings up for auction. A senior government official said that if the state governments and public sector companies did not bid for those land parcels, the government will examine the feasibility of low cost housing projects before opening the auction to private firms. “The idea is not to generate revenue from that land sale but to maximise its utilisation,“ added the government official quoted above.
40. The government will release on Friday the new series of Index of Industrial Production as well as Wholesale Price Index, with 2011-12 as the base year, so as to map economic activities more accurately. The monthly WPI for April under the new series will be released on May 12 instead of May 15, commerce ministry said in a statement. The change in baseline for the IIP and WPI is expected to bring in more accuracy in mapping the level of economic activity and in calculating national accounts.
41.Labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya on Monday clarified that retirement fund body EPFO will not construct houses, but become a facilitator for its over four crore members so that they can buy homes. Labour ministry intends to facilitate at least 10 lakh subscribers in the period of next two year by allowing them to use 90% of EPF accumulations to make down payments to buy houses and use their accounts for paying EMIs of home loans.“For housing, the EPFO has nothing to do with construction of houses. It is their (subscribers) responsibility,“ Dattatreya replied to a query.
42. The Central Associ ation of Private Security Industry (CAPSI) pressed forward its case for retaining FDI limit at 49% in cash and ATM management companies to ringfence the domestic industry. In a representation to finance minister Arun Jaitley, CAPSI, the body of cash management service providers, said services rendered using armoured car, cash van and guards fall under the preview of the Private Security Agencies Regulation Act 2005 and hence, raising FDI beyond 49% will be in contravention of law.
43. The Reserve Bank of India will identify cases of bad debt to be taken up for resolution under the new non-performing assets (NPA) ordinance in consultation with Indian Banks' Association (IBA), a finance ministry official said on Monday. The government has no intention to get into individual cases and it has already given authorisation to the banking sector regulator, the official said. “Those cases which have been already examined by joint lenders' forum (JLF) but not reached logical conclusion after that will be looked at,“ the person said. “Such cases would be taken up by RBI and the regulator can direct banks for resolution.“
44. Emmanuel Macron's ascent to French president caps a stunning rise for the political newcomer and his fledgling party but he now faces another battle to form a parliamentary majority, with his rivals already plotting revenge in June's general election. Macron won 66% of the vote in Sunday's presidential run-off against the far right's Marine Le Pen, the biggest win by a French president since Jacques Chirac's victory over Le Pen's father JeanMarie in 2002. But he faces a tall order to convert his victory into the majority he needs to implement his ambitious agenda of labour, welfare and education reforms. Le Pen's National Front (FN) and the other elections losers are all hell bent on bouncing back in the parliamentary vote.Traditionally, French voters have handed a parliamentary majority to the newly elected president in the general election. But for the first time in the country's post-war history, the new presi dent does not have a big party machine behind him, with the two main governing parties, the Republicans and Socialists, crashing out in the first round. Macron, 39, founded his centrist En Marche ( O n T h e M ov e ) movement of mostly political neophy tes just a year ago on a pr om i s e to i njec t new bloo d into France's discredited political class. Half of his candidates for the 577 seats up for grabs in the general election will be newcomers to poli tics, he has said. The other half will be made up of figures from the centrist Modem party with which he struck an alliance, as well as defectors from the centrist factions of the left wing Socialists and right wing Republicans. “This majority for change is what the country wants and what it deserves,“ he told thousands of flag-waving supporters at a victory party in the courtyard of the Louvre Museum on Sunday. Philippe Braud, profes sor emeritus at Sciences Po university in Paris, said Macron's decisive win on Sunday meant an outright majority -deemed highly improbable just a few weeks ago -was “not impossible“. Two polls showed that En Marche would top the first round of the June 11 18 election.
45. The head of Islamic State in Afghanistan -described as the mastermind behind high-profile attacks including an assault on a military hospital that claimed at least 50 lives -has been killed, US and Afghan officials said. Abdul Hasib, whose group is affiliated with IS in Iraq and Syria, was killed last month in a targeted raid by special forces in the eastern province of Nangarhar, the presidential palace in Kabul said in a statement. The second leader of the jihadist group to be killed by US and Afghan forces in less than nine months, his death came days after Washington dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb on IS hideouts in the same area. NATO commander in Afghanistan General John Nicholson confirmed the killing of Hasib and warned that “any ISIS member that comes to Afghanistan will meet the same fate“.
46. A gas leak in a coal mine in central China has killed 18 people, local authorities said on Monday.The leak happened on Sunday morning when miners were working in the shaft of the mine in Youxian county in Hunan province, according to a statement from the propaganda department of the Communist Party committee of Zhuzhou city, which administers the area. Rescuers managed to bring to safety 37 miners who are receiving hospital treatment, it said. The official Xinhua News Agency said that police had detained unspecified people pending an investigation. China is the world's largest producer and consumer of coal. Its mining industry has long been one of the world's deadliest, with hundreds of deaths annually, even as China has tried to improve standards by shutting older, smaller mines.
47. The hackers behind a “massive and coordinated“ attack on the campaign of French President-elect Emmanuel Macron have been linked to the same Russian-affiliated group blamed for attacking the Democratic party shortly before the US election. New York's Flashpoint Intelligence and Tokyo-based Trend Micro have shared intelligence that suggests the activities of the group, known variously as Ad riously as Advanced Persistent Threat 28, Fancy Bear and Pawn Storm, were the latest in a series of attacks aimed at influencing the outcome of elections, The Guardian reported on Monday. On May 5, Macron's campaign announced he had been the target of a “massive and coordinated“ hacking operation. Around 14.5 GB of emails, personal and business documents were posted to the text-sharing site Pastebin. The hackers had mixed fake documents with authentic ones “to create confusion and misinformation“. The group had ties with the GRU, the Russian military intelligence directorate. Vitali Kremez, director of research at Flashpoint, said his review indicated APT28 was behind the leak.
48. President Nicolas Maduro's plan for an elected assembly to d raw up a new Venezuelan constitution faced headwinds on Sunday, when opposition parties refused to join the process amid continuing violent anti-Maduro protests. Although several opposition leaders had sepa r a t e l y r e j e c t e d Maduro's plan for a “people's“ assem bly, the center-right Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) formally an nounced on Sunday that it would not participate. “We cannot take par t in a fraudulent process,“ for mer presidential candidate Henrique Capriles said, appearing at a news conference with other MUD leaders. “We have a constitution, and the government cannot repeal it by act of force.“
49. The family of White House advisor Jared Kushner apologised on Monday for mentioning his name while urging wealthy Chinese investors to sink millions into a New Jersey real es tate project. Nicole Kushner Meyer was in China at the weekend, seeking more than $150 million in investment in a luxury apa r t ment complex known as “One Journal S qu a r e,“ on wh ich ground is scheduled to break early next year. She urged wealthy Chinese to buy stakes through the EB-5 visa programme that offers US residency in exchange for at least $500,000 investment in a US business that must also create at least 10 American jobs.
50. Former US President Barack Obama warned then President-elect Donald Trump in Donald Trump in November against hiring retired Army General Michael Flynn as White House national security adviser, according to a former Obama aide. Obama delivered the warning during the first Oval Office meeting between the Democratic president and his Republican successor on November 10, the aide said on condition of anonymity. The warning, first reported by NBC News, came up during a discussion of White House personnel.
51. Agriculture minister, Radha Mohan Singh has written to chief ministers of all states and Union Territories to review their preparedness to mitigate possible drought in the event of a rain deficit in the upcoming monsoon season. In the letter, the minister advised states to carry out this exercise in advance “so that the possible adverse impact of sub-par rainfall, if at all, on the farmers can be mitigated,“ the agriculture ministry said in press statement issued on Monday . The June-September monsoon rainfall this year is expected to be 96% of the long-term average, with a 5% error margin, as per the weather office's forecast issued earlier this month. India Meteorological Department (IMD) will issue an updated forecast early next month with details of temporal and regional distribution of monsoon rainfall. Singh in his letter to chief ministers said state of preparedness in districts should be in line with the district agricultural contingency plans, such as, availability of abiotic stress resilient seeds varieties. Ministry officials had earlier said the government has prepared contingency plans for 623 districts in 28 states to help farmers deal with lower output in the event of scanty rains, or the delayed onset of the monsoons. He said the states should keep a watch on the progress in the implementation of schemes under district irrigation plans of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana and status of progress of water conservationrechargeharvesting related works under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and water-shed management. “Establishment and activation of drought management centre at the state headquarter and arrangements for the monitoring of drought, should be done,“ Singh said, adding that progress in the restoration of irrigation infrastructure such as desiltation of canals, repair of tube-wells, faulty pumps and transformerspower lines should be carried on. He pointed out that agricultural operations faced disruption in some states during 2016-17 on account of drought caused by aberrant weather conditions despite the country receiving normal rainfall, which helped farmers take production of cereals, pulses and oilseeds to new highs.
52. In Vivo IPL 2017 Sunrisers Hyderabad won against Mumbai Indians.
53. The head of the Iranian armed forces warned Islamabad on Monday that Tehran would hit terror bases inside Pakistan if the government does not confront Sunni militants, who carry out cross-border attacks. Ten Iranian border guards were killed by militants last month. Iran said Jaish al Adl, a Sunni militant group, had shot the guards with long-range guns, fired from inside Pakistan. The border area has long been plagued by unrest from both drug smuggling gangs and separatist militants.
54. In an escalation of his con frontation with the Supreme Court, Justice C S Karnan “sentenced“ seven SC judges and the Chief Justice of India to five years of imprisonment in an “order“ on Monday after he found them “guilty“ under the Scheduled Caste & Scheduled Tribes Atrocities Act. The Kolkata HC judge also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on each of them. Karnan, already facing contempt proceedings, last week refused to undergo a medical examination of his mental health ordered by the Supreme Court.
55. SBI --the country's largest lender--which offers the lowest home loan rates, has cut them further. Home loans of up to Rs 30 lakh will be cheaper by 25 basis points at 8.35% and those above Rs 30 lakh will be 10 bps cheaper at 8.50%. SBI's rivals are expected to follow suit. HDFC, the largest housing finance company , has already cut rates for new customers to 8.5% in February . Other large lenders, including ICICI Bank and Axis Bank, currently offer home loans at 8.65%.
56. The highway safety patrol (HSP) will soon install flexible height barriers in the extreme right lane of the Pune-Mumbai Expressway in the ghat section. The barriers, made of high quality rubber, will deter slow-moving heavy vehicles and buses from blocking the right lane, which is used for overtaking. Additional director general of police (HSP) R K Padmanabhan had issued directions to install these barriers and the first one was put up near Khalapur on the expressway on Monday . More than thirty barriers will soon be installed after every 300 metres or so in the ghat section. Heavy vehicles often tend to occupy all three lanes of either corridor of the expressway , holding up smaller vehicles travelling behind them. The situation is aggravated during long weekends. On Sunday , two separate accidents at Kamshet re sulted in vehicles queuing up for miles. HSP officials said traffic jams are regularly seen in the 12-km stretch between the Khalapur and Kusgaon toll posts due to heavy vehicles moving slowly in all three la nes. The chaos worsens should a heavy vehicle break down anywhere in the ghat section. Police said emergency vehicles such as ambulances could use the right lane, as they would easily pass under the barriers. However, the barriers would restrict the entry of buses.
57. About 55 countries are air-linked to India by nonstop, commercial passenger flights, and if these nations were ranked on the basis of number of passengers who fly to and fro, Pakistan would be found holding a lowly 50th rank, ahead only of countries like Kyrgyzstan, Iraq, Tajikistan, Reunion Island and Yemen. Only 28,000 passengers boarded nonstop flights between India and Pakistan last year as against, say, the 21 lakh who flew between India and Sri Lanka. With Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) suspending its Karachi operations to India, the neighbour is now set to fall to the bottom of that list this year. Currently , only PIA operates direct flights between India and Pakistan. On Monday , the last 189-seater PIA A320 aircraft took off from Mumbai airport for Karachi at 2.40pm with 120 passengers on board.Till now, PIA air-linked Mumbai with Karachi on Mondays and Thursdays. It has also suspended its Delhi-Karachi operations, leaving Lahore-Delhi as the only flight PIA will operate to India. The airline had said the decision to suspend the Karachi flights was a commercial one and wasn't a result of the recent tension between the two neighbours. A look at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation statistics on the passenger traffic between India and Pakistan only corroborates that. In 2016, a total of 28,154 pas sengers flew between India and Pakistan on PIA 's Karachi-Mumbai, Karachi-Delhi and Lahore-Delhi to and fro flights. It was a fall of 27% as compared to the 38,652 passengers who flew between India and Pakistan in 2015 (the data doesn't include passengers who fly between India and Pakistan via the Middle East or other transit stops).
58. The Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) will tie up with Airbnb, a global aggregator in the hospitality sector, to attract foreign tourists. Apart from bed & breakfast accommodations and popular resorts, 72 unique and indigenous experiences have been developed by the state which will be listed on Airbnb for showcasing on the platform. MTDC has 1,400 bed & breakfast joints, which is the highest in the country, but the 72 unique experiences, categorised under Mahabhraman will have to be marketed, and this is a great opportunity, said tourism minister Jaykumar Rawal.The memorandum of understanding will be signed this month, he added. Senior MTDC officials said since 90% of their bookings are one online so the tie-up will help boost business. Around 22 lakh foreign tourists visit Maharashtra every year. Airbnb will verify all accommodation facilities to check for sa fety and cleanliness and only then list them on their website. Under the Mahabhraman category , there are home stays and farm stays available across rural areas. For instance, one can stay at afarm cottage near Chiplun in the Konkan, which has a river nearby and one can spot many crocodiles there. Similarly , there is an experience of living in cottages, conceptualized as Maachli, which is a Malvani term for huts made on heights to protect the crop and for irrigation. Maachli is in Sindhudurg region in the Konkan and guests can live on the farm in a dense forest. Guests can also be part of the sowing and harvesting on a farm, they can participate in cooking using old methods like firewood and chullahs, children can bathe and milk cattle, and also bathe in lakes and ponds that run through some of the resorts. “The idea is to use Airbnb as a platform to showcase our best options. These are experiences that people do not know about and would love to experience them... all we need is to reach out to them,“ said Rawal. Officials said MTDC resorts are well-received and full for most of the year as they are affordable and suitable for family vacations.
59. The state government's decision to deregulate sale of fruits and vegetables and set up weekly farmer markets has paid off handsomely for growers. In a report presented to the central planning agency , NITI Aayog, the state government has revealed that the turnover of 94 farmer markets across Maharashtra has touched Rs 5 crore per week with sales in the region of 800-1,000 tonnes. Profits earned thus directly accrue to cultivators instead of getting divided among various players down the line extending from farmgate to marketyard, which includes middlemen and wholesale dealers. It was in June 2016 that the state decided to delist fruits and vegetables from the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) act, allowing growers to sell farm produce directly to consumers. Before the amendment, th ey could sell their goods only in a limited number of markets managed by boards set up under APMC law. People could not buy directly from them. Through deregulation, Maharashtra has given farmers a choice to decide where they want to sell their produce and also freed them from the iron grip of the middlemen.
60. The CBI has arrested an assistant commission er of central excise, Ashok Nayak, for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 1.25 crore from a Mumbai-based restaurant owner to settle an Enforcement Directorate case against him. The excise official had initially demanded a bribe of Rs 15 crore to settle the case.
61. Concerned over the incr easing number of corp orate houses and private institutions not paying back loans taken from various banks and public bodies, the Supreme Court said on Monday that such defaulters must be sternly death with and strict action taken against them.
62. The CBI has arrested the chairman of a promin ent Kolkata-based jewellery house, Nillesh Parekh for allegedly cheating a consortium of 25 banks led by the State Bank of India of Rs 2,223 crore. Parekh was arrested from the Mumbai airport upon his return from Dubai.
63. The CBI has nailed the role of nine shell comp anies, including several defaulters, for allegedly diverting proceeds related to the NSEL scam to other avenues.These firms were allegedly trading on the exchange platform without having actual possession of commodities, CBI sources said.
64. A day after a Pakistani national's claim that his Indian wife was being held hostage at the Indian high commission in Islamabad, the 20-year-old woman has come forward to say that she was forced to sign the `nikah nama' at gunpoint.
65. A Pune court has found three accused guilty in the kidnapping, gangrape and murder of software engineer Nayana Pujari in October 2009. The fourth accused who turned approver was let off. The sentencing will be pronounced today .
66. An Andheri businessman recently lost Rs 1.8 crore to a herbal seed fraud by Nigerians. Cyber police have registered an offence under IPC sections for cheating, forgery and breach of trust, and under the Information Technology Act against five persons, mostly Nigerians. The victim, Kaka, came in contact with Victoria Cater on Facebook in July 2006, and she claimed she was a PA to the director of a UK firm, Good Health Pharmaceutical Ltd. They chatted regularly until Cater told him that the firm buys Macadamia nut plant seeds from India but the dealer had stopped supply for some reason. Cater told him the seeds were available in India for Rs 2,750 (for 400gm) but were sold to the company for Rs 6,500. Cater suggested that if he supplied the seeds, the profit would be almost double and she should get a commission. Cater gave him a contact number of Sandeep Suvarna, claiming that he supplied the seeds.
67. India has the highest proportion of people who are worried about the safety of consumer goods, especially children's products and food items. This is because among the world's top four consumer markets, including US, China and Germany , it is in India that consumers have suffered the highest number of product safety incidents in the last five years, with allergic reactions being the top issue, followed by cuts from sharp edges and food poisoning. Against 44-65% of consumers in the other three countries who have had negative product safety experiences, the proportion in India is 84%. At the same time, safeproduct practices are low among businesses in India.Against 69% of companies in Germany and 65% in the US, only 37% of companies in India focus on safety during the design and development stage of a product. In China, this figure is 48%. Even on other safety parameters, like in-house product testing, training of staff on safety issues, and sourcing from only trusted suppliers, India scores either the lowest, or only better than China, with the US and Germany being far ahead of both.Again, in contrast with the other countries, Indian businesses consider distributors and retailers their closest allies in ensuring product safety. At 20%, India scores the lowest when it comes to putting third party inspection measures in place.
68. After getting a beating from the Supreme Court regarding application of the domicile policy in postgraduate admissions, the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) is now drafting a proposal to implement the locals-only rule for undergraduate entry . DMER will soon submit a policy to the state government to implement the domicile policy in private medical colleges. Barring the 15% allIndia quota, the rule will be applicable to all. Moreover, earlier, while admitting candidates, those who took class X and XII exams from the state were automatically considered to be Maharashtradomiciled, but now, DMER has stated that candidates will also need a certificate for admission. The change in rule, experts said, would benefit those from the open category applying to private colleges.For, the domicile rule is already in place for reserved category students.
69. Cabbies have demanded a new prepaid taxi booth outside platform number 18 at CST. They said the booth will benefit long-distance passengers and prevent porters from overcharging.
70. Cuffe Parade police have arrested the manager of a public sector bank's Nashik branch for allegedly conniving with fraudsters to siphon off Rs 10 crore from the account of state government's Tribal Development Corporation. The arrested bank official has been identified as T M Kishore. The fraudsters, who are yet to be identified, allegedly opened a bogus account in the name of the corporation with another nationalised bank's branch in south Mumbai. Kishore allegedly connived with them to transfer Rs 10 crore into the bogus account, police said. The scam came to light when the second bank's offici als got suspicious and spoke to the corporation about the huge money transfer. “The corporation informed the second bank that it had no account with them,“ an officer said.
71. Following the incident of E.coli bacteria being found in various ice samples tested by the BMC, the civic body over the last five days seized and destroyed 13,700 kg of ice from M-East ward only . The ward covers parts of Govandi, Deonar, Mankhurd, Trombay among others. In April alone, 97 cases of gastroenteritis were reported from M-East ward. A civic official said the municipal commissioner had taken strict cognizance of the rise in the number of cases and had directed the health department officials to take action against street food and beverage vendors who use contaminated ice in which E.coli bacteria is found. “Besides, around 135 litres of aerated drinks were also destroyed. Action will continue in this manner in the coming days as well,“ said the official.
72. Suburban train commute can become more comfortable as the authorities plan to introduce 75 services across Western Railway (WR) and Central Railway (CR) in the new time-table that is likely by October.
73. Days before its release, film director Ram Gopal Verma on Monday , agreed to give credit to writer Nilesh Girkar in the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Sarkar 3. Girkar took Verma to high court alleging infringement of his copyright in the film's story .Girkar, through his lawyer Rahul Ajatshatru, argued that the film's forthcoming release be stayed. Girkar's case was that in July 2012 he had submitteda his story to Verma and narrated it again in 2013 but last December Verma denied him any rights in the film. In court, Verma undertook before Justice Gautam Patel to ensure that the opening credits mention that the film is “Based on a story written by Nilesh Girkar“. And he also agreed to pay Rs 6.2 lakh in unpaid fees to Girkar. The digital prints for international theatrical release were already despatched and it will be difficult to incorporate this credit in those prints.The judge said, “In all other prints including international satellite, cable, domestic releases and other digital platforms this credit will appear.“
74. The state education board is in the final stages of approving the new Class IX maths curriculum following the scrapping of the optional general math subject. State board chairman Gangadhar Mhamane said, the new curriculum will include content from general math subject to ensure that no student is inconvenienced from the change in policy . “Very soon the curriculum will be finalized as the academic session starts from June 15,“ Mhamane told. The general math subject was introduced in 2008 as an option from Class IX, specifically for students who found algebra and geometry tough. It was a simpler version which focused mostly on arithmetic that had practical use in day-to-day life.
75. The Anti-Corruption Bureau is at it again. First, the ACB informed Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant that there was no substance in his complaint about irregularities in large-scale procurement of various items by the women and child welfare department led by BJP's Pankaja Munde.However, when Sawant recently invoked provisions of the RTI Act to know the status of his complaint, the ACB informed him that a comprehensive inquiry report into his allegations has been submitted to the state government and that the ACB would decide the future course of action following instructions from the government. Sawant had on June 24, 2015 lodged a complaint with the ACB saying there was rampant corruption in the department led by Pankaja. A similar comp laint was lodged by leader of opposition and NCP leader Dhananjay Munde. From the ACB's first reply , given in December 2016, it appeared it had given a clean chit to Pankaja Munde, while from the second reply, it could be concluded that the government is yet to take a decision on ACB's report.
76. Three years after being accused of strangling her two-week-old granddaughter, a sessions court has acquitted a 60-year-old woman. Rekha Goraswa had spent a year in jail before being granted bail in 2014. Her son and daughter-in-law, the infant's parents, on whose suspicion cops arrested her, left the house soon after and have remained untraceable. Defence advocate Prakash Wagh said the woman had been arrested on mere suspicion, with no other evidence. “We will move the Bombay high court to seek compensation,“ Wagh said.
77. Two persons including a teenager were killed when their double-decker luxury bus crashed into a stationary container on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad National Highway at Manor early Monday . Driver of the bus Shailesh Rajput (40) and apassenger from Rajkot, Danira Gotgiya (16), died on the spot.Others were injured.
78. Road repairs in the city continued to move at a snail's space even as the Thane collector told BMC officials on Monday to give a written justification on why they needed few quarries in his district to be restarted. Work in the city had taken a major hit after the closure of stone quarries in Thane district since April 1, as they do not have Maharashtra Pollution Control Board permis sion to operate. Raw material, like granular sub-base and wet mix macadam, are sourced from the quarries. The BMC chief engineer of roads met the collector and explained how road repairs had taken a major hit after the quarries were shut. A senior civic official said the collector sought a written justification.“This, however, is another day's delay for road repairs in Mumbai to gain speed,“ said the official. BMC has been rushing against time to complete repairs before the month-end. Municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta had taken stock of monsoon preparedness work across Mumbai on Saturday .Mehta said the roads department should try to call for material from places other than Thane. The department had undertaken repairs of 1,004 roads after withdrawal of the monsoon last year. Of these, 583 road works were started in the first phase and the civic authorities were hoping to complete repairs of 369 prior to the monsoon. A civic official said apart from project roads, there were road works which were also taken on priority , from where there are repeated complaints every monsoon. Earlier this year, officials of all wards were told to submit a list of roads in their wards that needed to be repaired on priority . Of these, 110 road resurfacing works have been completed, while there are 938 road resurfacing works of the priority two list, which were taken up for repairs, of which there are instructions to complete at least 50%. The deadline for road repairs was set as May 15 but it's most likely to get delayed.
79. A CRPF subinspector posted at Anantnag in J&K died following cardiac arrest in a train at Khed in Ratnagiri district on Friday evening. Abdul Azeez MK (52) was returning to his native place in Malappuram, Kerala.His body was found on the seat of Porbandar-Kochuveli Express. A co-passenger pulled the chain at Khed in a bid to help him. Though the post-mortem confirmed cardiac arrest as the reason behind his death, Khed police has kept a viscera sample for testing. His relative in Kerala, Kunhoyi M, said, “He was posted for two years in Srinagar and was recently transferred to Anantnag.“
80. Sub-inspector Dhananjay Kedar was threatened by eight to nine persons travelling in four cars, with a bouncer from an Audi showing him a `revolver' on Sunday morning. The subinspector, who was managing traffic, had gone to settle a dispute between those persons, due to which the road was blocked. When he told them to move the vehicles, they threatened him and the bouncer told him to leave, showing him the revolver. Kedar informed the local police but the accused fled before they reached. He said no one came forward to help. He noted down registration numbers of two cars, including the Audi, and police are trying to find out the vehicle owners. Kedar, attached to Shanti Nagar police station and deployed by a DCP squad in zone II of Thane police, was on his rounds near Pim palghar on the Kaly an-Bhiwandi road.
81. A special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act court on Friday granted bail to a youth who was arrested on charges of sexually assaulting his four-year-old family friend. The child's mother submitted an affidavit in court denying police allegations and said the 20-year-old had helped the child who complained of an ant bite in her private parts.
82. With over 32 lakh cases pending in courts across Maharashtra, the Bombay high court has ruled that it is the state's constitutional obligation to provide adequate number of courts, judges, infrastructure and staff to ensure speedy disposal of petitions. “Speedy disposal of cases in consonance with the mandate of the Constitution of India cannot be achieved unless adequate number of courts and tribunals are established and proper infrastructure is provided to all court premises,“ said a division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Anil Menon. “Financial constraints is no ground to deny permissions for establishing new courts and denying essential infrastructure to all the courts, whether existing or new,“ the bench said, adding that it was the state's obligation to allot land to build new courts. The HC's orders came on a bunch of petitions filed by bar associations and consumer rights organisations about the state's failure to provide infrastructure in courts and fill judicial vacancies. The court pointed out to the figures of the National Judicial Data Grid which said that there were around 32.39 lakh cases pending in the civil and criminal courts, co-operative courts, labour courts and industrial courts in the state. It underlined the importance of providing adequate number of judges, filling up vacancies and infrastructure for courts. At present, in Maharashtra, there are around 407 court complexes, including 72 that are operating out of rented properties.
83. Parents in the city are upset with the government's decision to set up two committees to amend the state's fee regulation Act and to draft a policy for minority institutions. The parents feel they aren't adequately represented and the committees could be a ploy to `buy some time'. On Saturday , the state set up an 11-member committee to suggest amendments to the Maharashtra Educational Institutions (Regulation of Fee) Act, 2011. The committee is expected to study parents' complaints and suggest changes. However, parents' groups aren't convinced. “The government is only buying time. The current provisions of the Act aren't implemented properly .An amendment or ordinance will not come easy . By the time a solution is reached, the academic year would have begun, next elections will be due and the issue will be put on the back burner,“ said Ajay Pandita, a member of Parents of Private School of Maharashtra, a parents' organisation The government also set up a 10-member committee to submit recommendations for an education policy for minorities in the state. Parents are however upset as they are not represented on the committee.“There are no parents invited to join the committee but there are almost four representatives of minority schools,“ said Anubha Sahai of India-wide Parents Association.
84. The Union government has given an in-principle nod to the state government's demand to extend tur purchase till May 31. The state plans to purchase close to 1 lakh tonnes of tur by May 31. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had requested Union minister of agricultu re to allow for an additional purchase of 2 lakh tonnes of tur but the Centre has allowed only 1 lakh tonnes. “The state government has already purchase 5.5 lakh tonnes of tur. The total purchase will be around 6 lakh tonnes this year, which is a record,“ said Fadnavis.
85. You may have to shell out more to take a morning walk at Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan and zoo in Byculla.The BMC plans to increase the entry fee to the botanical gardens and the zoo for morning walkers. The monthly pass rates too may go up. The civic body has proposed that the monthly pass rate for morning walkers be increased from Rs 30 to Rs 150. The authorities claim that on an average, around 8,000 people visit the zoo for morning walks. People are allowed to go to the gardens and the zoo for a morning walk between 6am and 8am. The zoo authorities said the monthly pass rates have not been increased for over a decade now.
86.Congress has slammed the state government's decision to sign an agreement with an aviation firm to procure AugustaWestland helicopters for VVIPs. Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant slammed the government for double speak on corruption. “BJP was the first to launch an attack on the UPA government in the AugustaWestland deal and now, VVIPs of the Fadnavis government will fly in the same helicopters,“ he said. On May 4, the general administration department, which is led by Fadnavis, issued an order to provide for an agreement with two firms that will provide aircraft and helicopters for the use of VVIPs, including the governor and the CM.
87. Days after green activists complained about mangroves being destroyed at Palm Beach Road to make way for illegal farming, more mangroves have now been uprooted at Khandeshwar and work is underway to convert the patch into illegal farmland. In the past three days, a sizeable patch of mangroves, 6080 years old, were uprooted close to the railway tracks. Labourers can also be seen tilling the flattened land.
88. Chief minister Devendra Fadnvis has demanded two central armed police force battalions for the security of a mining site in the naxal-infested Gadchiroli for two years starting September 2017. Fadnavis made the demand at a meeting in New Delhi. The meeting was chaired by home minister Rajnath Singh and had chief ministers of all naxal-infested states in attendance.
89. The controversy over the portable urinal proposed to be set up on the Bandra Bandstand promenade refuses to die down. On Monday , screenwriter Salim Khan, actor Waheeda Rehman and local residents visited Vishwanath Mahadeshwar at Mayor's Bungalow at Shivaji Park. “We are not against the mobile toilet, but the place is not suitable. The location is on a stretch used by hundreds of morning walkers,“ Khan told TOI. “We had suggested a few sites to the BMC, but they were keen on this spot. We met the mayor and he gave us a patient hearing.“
90.The BEST administration, which is keen on procuring 50 AC minibuses on wet lease, plans to come up with a fresh proposal--it will pay only lease rent and there will be `zero' cost for employing staff and paying for fuel, insurance and maintenance of the buses. “If we take a bus on wet lease, we have to pay the lease rent, besides spending on fuel costs and employing a conductor,“ said a senior official. “The lease rent in this case comes to Rs 30km. But there is a fresh proposal where we will have to pay Rs 10km extra (a total Rs 40km) to the private contractor, who will also be responsible for paying for fuel.“
The proposal has been drafted and is likely to be circulated among committee members for clearance. Once cleared, the BEST can opt for the Rs 40km lease rent to hire minibuses, that can ply 200 km daily . “We are saving Rs 200 crore by scrapping the 266 AC Cerita buses. By entering into a wet lease agreement for procuring minibuses, we will save another Rs 25 crore (towards capital cost of purchasing new buses). This is apart from the zero maintenance and no costs on fuel,“ said an official.
91. Thursday will see lakhs of class XII students, including 25 transgenders, battle it out for admission to engineering and pharmacy colleges. The state's common entrance test (MHTCET) on May 11has seen registrations from 3.9 lakh candidates, of which 1.5 lakh will be taking the test for both engineering and pharmacy . The remaining 1.44 lakh students are taking the test 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.The test will be conducted at 1,110 centres located across the state. Last year, the state CET was taken by 4.1 lakh candidates, but the entrance test was held for admissions to engineering and all health sciences courses amidst confusion over its validity for there was no clarity on the NEET. Aspirants for medicine and dental education will be selected through the NEET. The DTE has informed students that they need to carry their MHT-CET admit cards, black ballpens and an original photo identity proof, including PAN card or passport or driving licence or voter card.
92. Observing that similarly placed people cannot be treated differently , Bombay high court has directed the state government to take a decision by May 9 to shift the remaining Tansa Pipeline Project affected persons to Kurla. Some 100 families living next to the pipeline in Ghatkopar had moved the HC urgently on May 5 seeking stay on the demolition of their tenements They were given 48 hours to vacate. Their petitions said that the alternative rehabilitation site is more than 20 km away in Mahul village near Chembur “which is a chemical zone and an industrial sector“. On December 25, 2016, 400 families were shifted to Premier Compound in HDIL Sankul in Kurla (W) in flats that were constructed for rehabilitation of slumdwellers around the international airport and which are lying unused. While a bench headed by Justice Abhay Oka declined to stay the demolition, it took note of a December 5 letter of the CEO of the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA). The letter stated that on a representation by the minister for housing Prakash Mehta, the CM, who is the chairman of SRA, directed the housing autho rity to hand over 400 tenements in the Kurla scheme at Kurla for the Tansa pipleline project affected persons. The letter also stated that as the question of rehabilitation of the Tansa project affected persons has become important, there is no harm in handing over 400 tenements for this purpose. The petitioners said some 5,400 tenements are still available.
93. The Mumbra police, investigating the robbery at late actor Nutan's bungalow, suspect that the youths might have also stolen antiques, along with the silverware and idols worth Rs 1lakh that have been recovered. On Saturday , six youths, including a minor, were arrested and a manhunt launched for two of their aides. The police suspect the absconding accused might have sold off the antiques. The court has extended the remand of the arrested accused by three more days.
94. Shiv Sena has demanded protection and rehabilitation of pre-2005 slums, which had came up on land reclaimed after destroying mangroves, that were razed by forest officials. Last week, the state forest department's mangrove cell had demolished 1,296 illegal structures in Ambedkar Nagar and Ganesh Murti Nagar at Cuffe Parade. Local Sena MP Arvind Sawant has written a letter to state forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar urging him to protect and rehabilitate pre-2005 slums and also consider protecting post-2005 slums on humanitarian grounds ahead of monsoon. He and local Sena vibhag pramukh Pandurang Sakpal also led a delegation of residents to meet Mungantiwar. Sawant claimed the minister promised them that the state will organize a camp at Ambedkar Nagar to verify the legality of the slum pocket, but Mungantiwar told that he has only instructed the forest department secretary to check the slums' legal status.
95. Your city's draft Development Plan (DP) 2034 will get delayed yet again. During the civic general body meeting on Monday, Shiv Sena, the ruling party in the BMC, demanded a two-month extension to approve the revised draft DP 2034, which was released last May . It was to be submitted to the state government by May 19, 2017, after an ex tension was sought in March. This is the third extension sought by the civic body after a planning committee was set up last November to hear citizens' suggestions and objections on the draft DP 2034. According to sources, the state is unlikely to give a two-month extension.
96. Aiming to increase non-tax revenue by Rs 10,000 crore, the state government is considering to hike lease rent of properties given out for 30, 60 and 90 years to private parties; charges, fees and fines for traffic violations; and entertainment fees. Minister for finance and planning Sudhir Mungantiwar met various department officials in Mantralaya and asked them to submit suggestions on how to increase fees or charges.The state government has estimated non-tax revenue of over Rs 19,000 crore for this fiscal, but may collect only up to Rs 16,600 crore owing to GST, which comes into force from July 1. “Hence, the government has decided to take steps to raise non-tax revenue by up to Rs 26,000 crore,“ said the finance minister. There over 1,700 leasehold properties in the city , mostly in south Mumbai, of which the lease on 700 properties has already expired. The state is considering increasing charges for lease extension, transfer of lease property or lease right. Mungantiwar said, “Besides lease rent, the state has 150 options to get non-tax revenue, including purchase or registration of vehicles and drink-driving fine.“
97. Four men have been arrested for allegedly posing as policemen and robbing a businessman, Sahul Hamid, of Rs 1.86 lakh. The Vinobha Bhave Nagar police have arrested Sanjay Mahatre, Rajendra Bansode, Suresh Mokashi and Santosh Jadhav. Last Wednesday, the accused barged into Hamid's flat and fled with the money.
98. A Nalasopara woman, Rabiya Nadria (37), was allegedly assaulted by her husband Ashraf on April 4 for refusing to accompany him to Girgaum Chowpatty. She has now filed a complaint against her absconding husband.
99. Eighteen-year-old Vishal Thoke, who was seriously injured last month after his friend Sachin Jadhav accidentally fired at him during a birthday party, is now stable.Thoke was critical as the bullet had damaged his lungs and liver.
100. A woman riding pillion on a bike with her husband on the Mumbai-Goa highway died due to severe head injuries as she fell off the bike after her saree got entangled in the moving bike's rear wheel's chain. The incident occurred on Saturday around 6 pm near Kharpale village. The deceased has been identified as Pragati Chogale (41), a resident of Sion. She got dragged for about 50 ft before her husband applied brakes. Head constable Vasant Mhamunkar said, “Her husband rushed her to a doctor at Ghadap and later took her to Pen hospital where the doctors did a CT scan and said that her condition was critical. They advised him to take her to a super specialty hospital in Mumbai for surgery . On her way, her condition deteriorated. So he took her back to Pen hospital where she was declared brought dead.“
101.Indian Ocean is warming faster than all other oceans and the reason could lie in the fact that it's hemmed in by the Asian landmass that prevents release of heat towards the poles, experts have said. “We are worried ... the Indian Ocean is warming much faster than other oceans. Why this is so is one of the questions we ask. We don't have an answer as of now.... the uniqueness of Indian Ocean is that it is landlocked on the northern side,“ M Ravichandran, director of National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research,
Ravichandran and his colleagues have been studying the Indian Ocean using satellite observations and a global network of floating buoys that chart temperature, salinity currents and other data. In the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, atmospheric heat captured over the equator is pushed towards the poles. But he said the heat released from the Indian Ocean is at a slower pace since 2004.
102.On Sunday , gangster Vicky Gonder, who had escaped from the Nabha high security jail in Novem ber last year, had mocked Punjab police by stating on Facebook that he would soon commit a sensational crime. Barely 24 hours later, on Monday , bouncer Amit Kumar, alias Meet, who Gonder had allegedly threatened to kill, was shot dead near a temple at Saketri, raising the suspicion that Gonder was behind the killing, and that the Facebook threat was for Meet. The 32-year-old bouncer was shot dead by unidentified assailants on Monday afternoon when he was heading towards his car, parked near the temple. His mother was with him. Police officials said two or three armed men in a car fired several shots at Meet. He died at the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in Chandigarh later in the day .
103. The probe into the car crash that killed model Sonika Singh Chauhan finally seemed to be gathering pace a week after her death, with five of her friends telling cops they saw actor Vikram Chatterjee drinking alcohol before getting behind the wheel. Police interrogated the five friends on Monday and recorded their statements. “ All of them contradicted the main thrust of Chatterjee's statement to the media, that he was not intoxicated when he was driving,“ an officer said. “The friends are common to both Chauhan and Chatterjee,“ he said, adding, “All of them have agreed to record their statements before a judicial magistrate, which is permissible to be produced in court as evidence.“
104. IPS officers nationwide on Monday came out in support of Charu Nigam, an IPS officer who was allegedly heckled by Gorakhpur BJP MLA Radha Mohan Das Agarwal during a protest on Sunday .While the IPS fraternity in UP began deliberations on its social media groups, Nigam wrote an emotional post on Facebook. On Sunday , a group of women protesting against liquor shops in Gorakhpur blocked a road. When Nigam reached there to get the blockade lifted, they began hurling stones at her.She reportedly then ordered a lathicharge. Agarwal, too, reached the spot and had a heated argument with Nigam, who was seen wiping her tears after the incident. She posted a note on Facebook a day later: “Mere ansuon ko meri kamzori na samajh lena (Don't take my tears for weakness). Not out of harshness, but the eyes welled up of tenderness (sic!).“ Thanking the media for its support, she said in another post: “Mahila adhikari hoon, tumhara gurur na dekh payega. Sachchai mein hai zor itna apna rang dikhlayega (I am a woman officer; your arrogance will not see that. The power of truth will show its colour soon).“ Nigam told reporters on Monday: “Police were doing their work. The MLA came and started yelling...“ ThaSnior IPS officers met UP chief secretary aon monday evening to demand strict action against the MLA.
105. Days before final hearings on petitions challenging the validity of `triple talaq', the Supreme Court sought on Monday the Centre's and four states' response on a PIL seeking a ban on the ritual of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the Dawoodi Bohra community . A bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul issued notice to four central ministries -law and justice; health and family welfare; social justice and empowerment; and women and child development -and the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Delhi. While entertaining a PIL filed by advocate and social activist Sunita Tiwari, the bench said, “The petition has highlighted an extremely important yet sensitive issue.“ The petitioner said the practice of `khatna' or `female circumcision' or `khafd' carried out on minor girls amounted to a “serious violation of the rights of children as even minors have a right of security of person, right to privacy , bodily integrity and the freedom from cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment“. The petition said though the Dawoodi Bohras were among the most educated in India, yet “it is the only Muslim community in India to practise FGM...The practice has nothing to do with religion and is more of a cultural practice“.
106. The CBSE managed to conduct the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2017 amid unprecedented security on Sunday . But was the question paper error-free? In an exam, where over 11lakh aspirants took the test, experts claim there are at least four questions which have problems. One question came with two correct options, while another came with all four wrong multiple choice answers. NEET 2016 too had errors in the question paper. In fact, the Joint Entrance Examination (Main) 2015 conducted by CBSE had similar errors while the JEE (Advanced) of 2016 had four errors worth 12 marks. “A nation of a billion plus people and an emergg ing knowledge super power should be able to make its entrance exam papers error free. CBSE should thoroughly check each question and answer options, as exams like NEET are taken by lakhs of students. Students are stuck up in wrong questions and waste considerable time. HRD ministry should ensure error-free questions in major exams like NEET and IIT JEE,“ said S K Singh, director, Oasis Educational Services. Despite repeated attempts to contact CBSE officials, there was no official response to the claims till filing of this report.
107. The Maharashtra Airport Development Company Limited (MADC) has drawn up plans for the second phase of the Shirdi International Airport. The plans include an additional state-of-theart terminal building, besides other facilities. Final touches are being given to the Shirdi International Airport before it becomes operational.The airport is spread over an area of 900 acre with the total cost of the project being pegged at approximately Rs 350 crore. During a tour of the airport, a senior official of the MADC said for now, the airport will be a `dawn-to-dusk' facility and night landing facility will start within five months. “The second phase of the project will be completed by the end of next year, if everything goes fine. Only some work related to electricity remains, which will be completed by this weekend. The work on creating night landing facility has been started and we plan to complete it within five months,“ the official said. Around 60,000 pilgrims visit Shirdi every day and the officials plan to tap at least 10% of them.“Airlines like SpiceJet, TruJet, Jet Airways and Air India have shown interest,“ the official said.
108. After tennis ace Leander Paes and his es tranged part ner Rhea Pillai failed to re solve their maintenance dispute amica bly through an out of court settlement, the Supreme Court decided on Monday to adjudicate the dispute through court proceedings. A bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Amitava Roy said it tried its best to persuade the couple to sort out their differences through negotiations and it was left with no option but to hear the case on merits after they failed to arrive at a compromise. “Parties are not interested to settle the dispute and we cannot force them for settlement,“ it said. The bench, however, said it would not be proper for it to decide the case on merits as it had extensively interacted with Paes and Pillai and came to know about various aspects of the case while persuading them to settle the dispute. “It is question of our propriety . Let the matter be heard by another bench,“ it said. Senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi and lawyer Gaurang Kanth, appearing for Peas, contended that it was not possible to meet the demands of Rhea to settle the case. As per the lawyers, Rhea had demanded around Rs 20 crore under various heads as onetime settlement during the mediation proceedings. Their contention was vociferously opposed by Rhea's counsel T N Govardhan and Purvish Malkan, who contended Paes was not willing to settle the dispute by paying the amount.They said Rhea needed the amount for their child as she was living with her.
109. The recent spate of bank robberies in the Valley is being attributed to local youths who have joined militancy and are short of funds and weapons. According to data accessed by TOI, there have been13 bank robberies and burglaries and 9 such attempts across the valley after the demonetisation announcement on November 8. In most cases, the target was J&K bank which has the largest network of branches across the valley. A total amount of Rs 90.87 lakh was robbed from banks such as J&K Bank, SBI, Axis Bank and Ellaqui Dehat Bank between November 21, 2016 and May 3, 2017. Of the nine attempts between December 8, 2016 and May 1, 2017, seven targeted J&K Bank branches across Budgam, Anantnag and Kulgam, while one each was reported at Ellaqui Dehat Bank in Pulwama and SBI in Shopian. Sources in the intelligence agencies said cash and weapon snatching incidents are on the rise in the Kashmir valley as there is a far larger component of local recruits among the 200odd active militants. “Pre-November 8, there were several cash hoards that militants had access to and the number of militants were smaller,“ said an officer. They said Pakistan is encouraging looting of banks to access cash as well as snatching of weapons as it helps it maintain deniability of its role as a sponsor of terrorism in J&K and project it as homegrown militancy . Also, Pakistan-inspired cyber propaganda has been spreading the word that acquiring resources through robbery is justified by religion, referring to it as `maal-e-ghanimat'. Recent estimates show that local militants comprise 80% of the total terrorists active in the valley. The role of Pakistan and tanzeems backed by it is to instigate, recruit and motivate these militants. Terror funding from across the border is in small amounts of cash and mostly in kind.Larger sums are received either through money laundering or as funding to separatists.The lion's share of terror funding from Pakistan goes into terror training, weapons and cyb er propaganda. Sources in J&K police claimed efforts to send weapons and terror funds in cash from Pakistan were being actively neutralised by the Indian security personnel, causing a cash crunch among local militants. One of the most prominent actions against terror funding was freezing of bank accounts of conduit Nasir Shafi Mir, who was an alleged go-between for raising and transferring funds to separatists and militants.
110. Despite India's pub licly articulated reservations, China has offered to mediate between India and Pakistan to resolve their differences. Chinese ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui, who made the remark, said the development of China, Pakistan and India called for stability in the region and a friendly environment.
111. With Kashmir continuing to simmer amid students' protests across the Valley, chief minister Mehbooba Mufti tried to shift the blame from lapses on the part of her government to the media, saying it was unnecessarily exaggerating the security situation in the Valley. At the reopening of the civil secretariat here after a sixmonth shift to Jammu, the winter capital of the state, the chief minister said, “Electronic media should not show debates and discussions that promote hatred against the Kashmiris. Kashmir has seen worse in the 1990s. The current situation will improve soon as every issue has a solution.“ Kashmir's security situation worsened over the past three weeks, with the onset of student protests against the use of force on agitating students. The clashes escalated after April 15, when police raided a degree college in Pulwama dis trict, in which 17 stu dents were injured. But, Mehbooba seemed to try to steer the blame away from the government to the media, asking them to refrain from portraying “all Kashmiri youth as stone-pelters“. “The youth are angry and disillusioned.Some are being provoked. We should all work together to resolve this situation,“ she said. Clashes between students and security forces were reported in two districts on Monday . In Newa area of Pulwama district, protesting students pelted stones at police, who baton-charged them in retaliation, sources said. In Langate area of Kupwara district, students of Qalamabad Higher Secondary School staged a protest march, but were later dispersed by security forces using tear gas shells.
112. It is with a certain stoicism that Bilkis Bano repeatedly stresses, “I want justice, not revenge“, days after the Bombay high court upheld the life imprisonment of 11 persons convicted of gangraping her and killing her family during the 2002 Gujarat riots. She does want more stringent punishment for the seven police officers and doctors who were found complicit in trying to cover up the case even as she described the HC verdict as a vindication. Speaking at a press conference, Bano, accompanied by her husband Yakub and twoyear-old daughter, said she has faith in the judiciary .“The Bombay high court judgment was very good and I am very happy , so is my family. I am all the more happy as the policemen and doctors involved in covering up the incident have also been convicted,“ she said. Bano and Yakub said they would take their legal fight further if convicts appealed in a higher court. “It has been harrowing (fight), I want to be able to educate my daughters.My eldest says she wants to become a lawyer,“ Yakub said, as he recounted how they had to shift houses 25 times to escape threats from convicts `frequently' on parole.
113. The Supreme Court, on Monday , summoned investigating officers of Madhya Pradesh police to explain the lapses in probing and arresting a large number of accused in a communal riot allegedly orchestrated by right-wing organisations after a cow's death four years ago in Khirkiya, Harda. Appearing for petitioner Anurag Modi, advocate Pyoli Swatija told a bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar that there were palpable lapses in the probe, as the police took an inordinately long time to arrest the main accused, did not book all those part of the violent mob and, importantly , did not analyse video-recording of the incident, which was available. The bench summoned all the officers who investigated the incident and asked them to be present on July 17 with all necessary documents to explain why they had filed the chargesheet without annexing an analysis of the videorecording of the incident.
114. A government building contractor, who was a close aide of Tamil Nadu health minister C Vijaya Baskar, was found dead under mysterious circumstances in his farmhouse near Mohanur in Namakkal district on Monday morning. Sources said K R Subramaniam (58) appeared to have committed suicide by consuming poison. “We will come to a conclusion whether he committed suicide or not only after seeing postmortem report,“ an officer said. The contractor came into the limelight after his house and office were searched by income tax sleuths on April 7. I-T officials said the search was part of the raids that were conducted on the premises of the minister and his close associates. They said Subramaniam's name figured at the top of the list of people who had purportedly received Rs 89 crore, that was given to various ministers to bribe voters for the R K Nagar by-election. After the bypoll was cancelled, Subramaniam's offices and bank accounts were sealed by I-T officials. According to K R Kaliannan, elder brother of Subramaniam, he had been looking upset since the I-T raid. “He went to his farmland at Sevitturangampatti village near Mohanur on Monday early morning,“ he said. The farm labourers found Subramaniam motionless on a cot inside house around 10.30 am. They immediately alerted his family members and rushed him to the district government headquarters hospital in Namakkal. The doctors who examined him said he was brought dead. Chief secy no longer vigilance commissioner Within days of the income tax department recommending a vigilance inquiry against sand mining baron Sekhar Reddy, the Tamil Nadu government has clipped the wings of chief secretary Girija Vaidyanathan by relieving her from post of vigilance commissioner. Home secretary Niranjan Mardi has been given additional charge of the state vigilance wing. The order, issued a week ago, is yet to be posted on the official website.
115. As `Grey Divorces' Rise, Number Of Over-50s Living In Together Up 75% In A Decade: US Study.
116. Scientists have developed a new artificial intelligence system that can predict court decisions better than legal scholars, even with less information. Researchers, including a few from the Stanford Centre for Legal Informatics, used the US Supreme Court database, which contains information on cases dating back to 1791, to build an algorithm for predicting any justice's vote at any time. The algorithm correctly predicted 70.2% of the court's 28,000 decisions and 71.9% of the justices' 2,40,000 votes, according to the study . Even knowledgeable legal experts are only about 66% ac curate at predicting cases, researchers said. The algorithm could be used by investors to bet on companies that might benefit from a ruling. Appellants could also decide whether to take a case to the Supreme Court based on their chances of winning.
117. An increasing number of Android ap plications are attempting to track us ers without their knowledge, according to a new report. Over recent years, companies have started hiding “beacons“, ultrasonic audio signals inaudible to humans, in their adverts, in order to track devices and learn more about their owners. Electronic devices equipped with microphones can register these sounds, allowing advertisers to uncover users' location and work out what kind of ads they watch on TV and which other devices they own. The technique can even be used to de-anonymise users of Tor, which enables people to use the internet anonymously. While six apps were known to be using ultrasound cross-device tracking technology in 2015, the number has now increased to 234.
118. Scientists have identified the cells responsible for hair growth as well as the mechanism that causes them to turn grey , a finding that could lead to new treatments for balding and greying hair. “Although this project was started in an effort to understand how certain kinds of tumours form, we ended up learning why hair turns grey and discovering the identity of the cell that directly gives rise to hair,“ said Lu Le, associate professor at the University of Texas Southwestern in the US. “With this knowledge, we hope, in the future, to create a topical compound or to safely deliver the necessary gene to hair follicles to correct these cosmetic problems,“ said Le. The researchers found that a protein called KROX20, more commonly associated with nerve development, is active in skin cells that become the hair shaft. These cells then produce a protein called stem cell factor (SCF) that the researchers showed is essential for hair pigmentation. Researchers will now try to find out if the KROX20 in cells and SCF stop working properly as people age, leading to, among other things, male pattern baldness, Le said.
119. An artist has designed tempo rary tattoos to help people struggling with their mental health and to stop them self-harming. Francesca Timbers, a BritishItalian psychology graduate who lives in London, first started designing and producing `Motivational Tattoos' in 2015 from her parent's living room.
120. When the Shaanti Bha van Mandir in Que ens became the first Hindu temple in the nation to publicly declare itself a sanctuary congregation, part of a network of houses of worship that will support and shelter undocumented immigrants, its leaders hoped other local temples would join, too.
121. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday congra tulated Emmanuel Macron on his election as the Pre cron on his election as the President of France and said India looked forward to further enhance bilateral engagement to take ties to a higher plane. Soon after 39-year-old Ma cron was declared the winner, Modi tweeted: “Congratulations to @EmmanuelMacron for an emphatic victory in the French Presidential election. I look forward to working closely with President-elect @EmmanuelMacron to further strengthen India-France ties.“ Modi is set to meet Macron for the first time during the G-20 summit in Hamburg in July .
122. China's worries are mounting over the resurgence of a border dispute between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the recent clashes that have left several people dead in the past three days.For, at stake is the $50 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a part of which passes close to the Afghan border.
123. Emma Watson had high praise for MTV's move to remove gender qualifiers for its Movie and TV Awards. Watson's performance in Disney's live-action remake of “Beauty and the Beast“ won her the award for the best actor in a movie, a category that featured both male and female nominees. The actor beat Hugh Jackman and James McAvoy to the award.
124. A South African attempting to climb Mount Everest alone and without a permit has been ordered off the mountain, had his passport confiscated and will be fined $22,000, an official said on Monday . Ryan Sean Davy , 43, told officials at base camp that he had climbed alone as far as camp two -6,400 metres -to acclimatise ahead of a summit push before he was caught. Foreigners have to pay the Nepal government $11,000 for permission. Davy could be banned from Nepal for five years or face a 10-year ban on climbing in the country . Davy's passport was seized and was told to return to Kathmandu to retrieve it. He will also be fined $22,000 -double the cost of the permit.
125. Former Tata Sons strategist Nirmalya Kumar joined the Singapore Management University as a marketing professor last we ek, marking his re turn to academia. From July 1, he will take up the po sition of the Lee Kong Chian Professor of Marketing at the university , a statement said. Kumar, 57, had joined Tata Sons from the London Business School in 2013. But following the removal of Cyrus Mistry from the chairmanship of Tata Sons last October, Kumar -who was a key member of Mistry's core team -was dismissed too. In his blog, he had said, “It was not as if I was fired for non-performance (my last evaluation was excellent)... I was fired for just being there at my position -working intensely and extensively with Cyrus.“
126. Czech carmaker Skoda plans to ride on parent Volkswagen's partnership with Tata Motors for a bigger play in the compact vehicles segment. It is looking to make a comeback into the high-volume small car category , while driving in a mini-SUV and an entry sedan. The vehicles may hit the roads from 2019 and would be a culmination of the joint product strategy with Tata Motors. Skoda may target the mass segment with this new range, sources told
127. The performance of a company's board cannot be viewed from the prism of gender diversity alone. Globally , several reports have shown that companies that have women representatives on their boards perform better than those which don't. However, a study of return on equity (RoE) of the top 100 BSE companies in India, done by Randstad India exclusively for TOI, shows there's no direct correlation between a company's RoE and gender diversity. Thestudy , which is based on data for three fiscal years (FY2014, FY2015 and FY2016), reveals an increase of 37% in the number of women representative on various boards -from 97 in 2014 to 133 in 2016. However, it also reveals a dilution in the average RoEs for the overall BSE 100 over the three-year period. This, experts said, has nothing to do with gender diversity or the lack of it. The results of a similar study of BSE 100 companies done by Randstad for TOI in 2014 were more in line with global studies. The 2014 study showed com panies with women board members reported improved RoEs as compared with those that had only male board members. Clearly, the variations in the two studies -based on the same parameters -underscores the fact that a board's performance goes beyond gender diversity .
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