Corporate Updates: GENERAL UPDATES 20.03.2019

RBI SAYS NO TO IDBI BANK NAME CHANGE PROPOSAL

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has turned down IDBI Bank's proposal to change its name following the transfer of controlling 51 per cent stake to insurance behemoth LIC from the government of India. The board of IDBI Bank had last month sought RBI's approval for change in the name of the lender to either LIC IDBI Bank or LIC Bank following the takeover by Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). "The board of directors has in its meeting held on March 19, 2019, taken note of RBI's communication conveying their inability to accede to bank's request for change of name of IDBI Bank Limited," IDBI Bank said in a regulatory filing. However, the bank did not elaborate on the reasons for denial by the regulator for changing the name.

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NIRAV MODI ARRESTED IN LONDON: REPORT

PNB scam accused, Nirav Modi reportedly has been arrested in London He will be produced in court, TV reports claimed. However, the diamantaire is likely to get a bail but like in the Vijay Mallya case, authorities in UK might put conditions on his movement. This is being seen as a big diplomatic victory for BJP and Narendra Modi who is seeking a second term in the upcoming general elections.

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ARUN JAITLEY CALLS OUT ‘FAKE CAMPAIGN’ BY 108 ECONOMISTS; SAYS, THEY ARE ‘COMPULSIVE CONTRARIANS’

Responding to the letter by 108 economists raising concerns over the validity of statistical data, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the majority of them are ‘compulsive contrarians’ I analysed the credentials of all 108 economists and found out that 70% of those are compulsive contrarians, critics of the government who have signed multiple memorandums against this government in the last five years. Most of these memorandums are on the issue of politics and not economy, he said in a video posted on his Twitter account. In their letter, while there has been no detailed proof for the allegations a reference has been made about revision in GDP series post change in the base year to 2011/12 and the non-publication of NSSO labour force survey, the accountants had said in their letter. As against this, credible international institutions like IMF and World Bank have always accepted our data. So two campaigns are on. Well the Indian economy hasn’t created jobs – a myth. Our infrastructure growth has been the fastest, Arun Jaitley also said. He further said that at a time when the incumbent government is working on a large scale on building infrastructure, such a campaign claiming there are no jobs is incorrect.

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ARUN JAITLEY FLAYS NON-BJP STATES FOR DRAGGING FEET ON PM-KISAN PAYOUTS

Arun Jaitley Tuesday regretted that non-BJP ruled states, including West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, have not certified even a single farmer for transfer of the first instalment of Rs 2,000 under the PM-KISAN scheme. Let politics not come in way of farmers’ interest. West Bengal, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh & Delhi governments have not certified a single beneficiary for the PM-KISAN payment. Karnataka has certified only 17 farmers, Jaitley said in a tweet. As per a government release, Rs 4,366.41 crore has been transferred under the scheme to about 2.18 crore farmers till March 7.

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ECI CONVENES MEETING WITH SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS

Election Commission of India had in-depth interactive session with representatives of various Social Media Platforms and Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) on the usage of Social Media ahead of the Lok Sabha Elections 2019. In his opening remarks, Chief Election Commissioner Shri Sunil Arora cited Model Code of Conduct as a unique and historic document which is followed by all political parties /entities from the date of declaration of schedule of elections till the election process is concluded. This Code is the outcome of consensus evolved amongst the different Political Parties and ECI. Infact, more often than not, this Code has obviated the need for application of more stringent provisions of law he said. Shri Arora exhorted the Social Media Organizations, who are formidable force-multipliers, to come up with a similar Code for the ongoing election process in the immediate context and a lasting document in the long run. Election Commissioner Shri Ashok Lavasa pointed out that has been a momentous meeting for evolution of ‘behaviour’ of Social Media platforms on Social Media. He said that voluntary restraint is a hallmark of civilized society and works as effectively as any regulation. He suggested that a clear clause on users' voluntarily agreeing not to misuse social media platforms for election or political purposes should be considered by the management. Election Commissioner Shri Sushil Chandra reminded the representatives that Election Commission of India is committed to ethical, free & fair elections. He reiterated that role of social media in helping spread information as well as curbing misinformation cannot be underestimated. He added that deterrents like some punitive action against users misusing the platform should be considered pro-actively. Shri Chandra said that a participative approach from the social media platforms would greatly help ECI meet its objectives. The meeting was centered on discussing issues like appointment of dedicated grievance channel for expeditious action by the organizations, pre- certification and transparency in expenditure of political advertisements. The meeting also focused on evolving a notification mechanism by social media platforms for acting upon the violations of Section 126 of R.P. Act, 1951 and preventing misuse of these platforms.

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REGULATOR BACKS TELCOS SEEKING GOVT HELP TO EASE FINANCIAL STRESS

Telecom regulator RS Sharma has backed operators seeking government support to alleviate their financial stress saying the rationalisation of levies will attract investments and push overall sector growth. The National Digital Communications Policy (NDCP), in saying that profit maximisation is not the government’s objective, had finally addressed a long-standing demand of the private telecom operators, as it acknowledged that rationalisation of taxation structure could foster growth of the sector, the chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said. The NDCP approved by the government last year aims to create 4 million jobs and draw $100 billion in investments in the telecom sector by 2022, apart from boosting the sector’s contribution to GDP to 8% from 6% currently. Sharma said the government didn’t have to get revenue from one particular aspect of business through heavy taxation. Instead, rationalising taxes would allow more funds to be ploughed back into the business and more investments would lead to more jobs and ultimately, more revenue to the government. The industry has been saying that it is highly taxed, and, we at the Trai in the past have given certain suggestions to rationalise the tax structure, but now these fundamental statements have been articulated by the policy, Sharma said. Rationalisation of the taxation structure would eventually lead to fostering innovation. He also highlighted other crucial aspects of the policy such as the establishment of a clear data protection regime and a National Fibre Authority. Mobile phone operators say over 30% of what they earn is paid to the government as levies, licence fees, spectrum usage charges and the Universal Services Obligation Fund. Sharma said regulation itself needs to evolve as various sectors expand beyond their traditional outlines. Talking about the digital revolution and its impact, Sharma said convenience, confidence and cost were the bedrocks for mass uptake of digital services. He elaborated on how payment platforms were promoting digital progress. The total number of transactions, the unified payment transactions, have gone up to 700 million per month. This is a very large number, which surpasses by a factor of two or three the total number of credit card or debit card transactions credit card and the debit card transactions have been happening for the last 40 years, Sharma said.

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RATING IDBI BANK AS PRIVATE IS AGAINST PUBLIC INTEREST: AIBEA

The All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) has demanded the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to reconsider its decision to categorise IDBI Bank as a private entity. In a letter to the RBI on Wednesday, AIBEA's General Secretary C.H. Venkatachalam conveyed the union's opposition to RBI's decision. IDBI and IDBI Bank have been created to be Banks under public sector. Due to huge bad loans to the corporates, the Bank has been facing problem of recovery and consequently its financial performance, Venkatachalam said. According to him, it is ironical that RBI instead of taking action against the private sector corporate borrowers it seeks to protect the bank from Right to Information Act (RTI), Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and others by recategorising IDBI bank. Even though Government's stake has come below 51 per cent, LIC, which is the main share-holder is also a 100 per cent Government's corporation and hence, the re-categorisation is unwarranted and motivated against public interest, the letter notes.

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BANKS GET READY TO PUT IN EXTRA MONEY IN DEBT-LADEN JET AIRWAYS

A day after Etihad walked out of the prolonged bank-led resolution plan for Jet Airways, lenders got into action to chalk out a plan B. Switching to a damage-control mode, bankers and government officials claimed that Jet Airways wouldn’t fall even if Etihad refuses to back the resolution plan and exits Instead, lenders would infuse additional funds to keep Jet flying, they said. The move comes after Etihad told SBI, which leads the consortium of lenders proposing a resolution plan for Jet, that it would like to exit the airline and sell its 24 per cent stake in Jet and 50.1 per cent in Jet Privilege to them. With no consensus yet on how the additional burden would be shared by the lenders, another round of talks has been planned with the top management of banks. It’s a wait and watch situation and the picture would become clear in two days, a source tracking the developments said.

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ECONOMISTS RAISE CONCERNS OVER ECONOMIC SLOWDOWN WITH RBI GOVERNOR

Economists raised concerns over a sharp slowdown in Indian economy and pitched for a monetary policy boost to support growth at a meeting with Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das on Tuesday. Das met more than a dozen economists to get their views on the economy ahead of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decision due on April 4. Most economists expect the six-member MPC to cut the repo rate by 25 basis points for the second time in a row next month to 6.00 percent, a level last seen in August 2017. While the economists did not specify the extent of rate cut that the RBI could consider, one of them called for a 50-basis- point reduction, one of the participants said. Most of the participants said that monetary policy needs to do the heavy lifting to boost growth as there was no space for fiscal expansion, another participant said. Slowing growth has hit the federal government's tax collections, constraining its ability to substantially boost spending ahead of elections. However, neither Das nor any RBI official from the monetary policy department gave any indication of their thoughts or views, as is typical in such big-group meetings. Economists and strategists spoke of several issues including drought, liquidity management, exchange rate, inflation, growth, bank credit growth, real interest rates and monetary policy transmission. Some economists pointed out that food inflation could begin inching up after September if monsoon rains were not sufficient, but was unlikely to push retail inflation past the RBI's 4 percent target. Overall, the view was that the downside risks to growth have increased since the last policy while inflation risks have remained muted, said a third participant. Not many of us clearly specified how much rate cut we wanted, but we presented the facts to make it clear to RBI that there was a need for a big boost to the economy.

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EXPERTS BACK MODI GOVT ON ECONOMIC DATA QUALITY; RUBBISH ECONOMISTS’ CHARGES

Days after 108 economists and scientists raised concerns on political interference influencing official data, through a letter, 131 Chartered Accountants have come forth to counter these allegations. They instead have appealed to the professionals around the world to come together to present the true image of India and counter baseless allegations based on political motivation. In another letter, the CAs have called these allegations another Award Wapsi drama, which has been done to influence the upcoming state elections. The prominent personalities who have signed the letter. In their letter, while there has been no detailed proof for the allegations a reference has been made about revision in GDP series post change in the base year to 2011/12 and the non-publication of NSSO labour force survey, the accountants said in the enter. The appeal by the economists seems irrelevant as the data published by the government agencies have been confirmed by international data and independent agencies such as World Bank, IMF etc. ,the accountants noted. The accountants have said that changing GDP growth is a regular feature which is done to ensure that data reflects the transition as well as the disruptions in an economy. The base years of the National Accounts Statistics

series have been changed in Aug 1967, Jan 1978, Feb 1988, Feb 1999 and 2006, the accountants said in the letter. However, the accountants have admitted the possibility of some errors and omissions which can happen while collecting and tabulating data in a large country like India.

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RUPEE AT 9-MONTHS HIGH TO IMPACT EXPORTS: FIEO

Turnaround in political sentiments, FPI flows coupled with the expected large inflows from rights issues and the merger and acquisition deals, reduced geo-political tensions, stabilisation in oil prices have driven the rupee appreciation to a 9-months high said Ganesh Kumar Gupta, and the rupee could stay strong, as the flows continue. The RBI's decision for a currency swap to infuse rupee liquidity is expected to bring down hedging cost, prompting inflows in the short end of the corporate debt thus augmenting the supply observed FIEO Chief. Such sharp appreciation is causing concern both amongst the exporters as well as importers as uncertainty in the exchange rate is driving volatility. Exporters who have contracted at Rs 74 to a Dollar but could not hedge it, due to non -availability of limit by the banks, tend to incur huge losses. Similarly those who imported at Rs 74 to Dollar for exports few months back, will now get Rs 68-69 upon exports resulting in setback to them said Gupta. This is a new and additional challenge faced by the exporters who are struggling with contraction in global demand, liquidity challenge at the domestic turf and fierce competition from other competing currencies, said Gupta. The informal withdrawal of MEIS to apparel and made-ups have also jolted their exports. He urged that while pegging is not possible, extreme volatilities should be managed through interventions so that the exchange rate continues to provide requisite competitiveness to Indian exports since Rupee is nowhere near its real effective exchange rate. President, FIEO said that in the given situation, Rupee is set to appreciate further giving a jolt to our export efforts and therefore, it should be ensured that Rupee remains near 70 to a dollar.

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RBI GOVERNOR SHAKTIKANTA DAS BATS FOR PERMANENT STATUS TO FINANCE COMMISSION

While it is important to adhere to fiscal deficit targets it is equally important to undertake robust expenditure planning to address the socio-economic challenges, Shaktikanta Das said. According to Das, there is now general agreement in the country about the importance of fiscal consolidation roadmap both at national and sub-national levels. Successive finance commissions have made efforts to address the emerging issues and challenges, but in a democracy like India, the debate goes on, he added. Geopolitical risks have necessitated higher expenditure on defence and internal security. Natural calamities and disasters have called for higher expenditure on relief and rehabilitation. In parallel, aspirations of people and the country as a whole have required that the government spends more on developmental programmes, said Das. According to the RBI governor, finance commissions have over the past several decades adopted different approaches with regard to principles of tax devolution, grants to be given to states and fiscal consolidation issues. While at one level, Das said, there has to be a framework for fresh and innovative thinking by every finance commission, at another, there is a need to ensure broad consistency between finance commissions so that there is some degree of certainty in the flow of funds, especially to the states. This has become even more critical in the post GST scenario. In other words, there has to be continuity and change between finance commissions. Increasingly, therefore, it is felt that there is a need to give permanent status to the finance commission, said Das. He said that a commission can function lean till the next finance commission is set up in a full-fledged manner. During the intervening period, it can also address issues arising from implementation of the recommendations of the finance commission, said Das.

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JUSTICE P.C. GHOSE APPOINTED FIRST LOKPAL

Pinaki Chandra Ghose became the first Lokpal of the country with his appointment along with other eight members on March 19. Besides Justice (retd.) Ghose, other judicial members are Justice (retd.) Dilip B. Bhosale, Justice (retd.) P.K. Mohanty, Justice (retd.) Abhilasha Kumari and Justice (retd.) A.K. Tripathi. The non-judicial members include former Sashastra Seema Bal chief Archana Ramasundaram, ex-Maharashtra Chief Secretary Dinesh Kumar Jain, Mahender Singh, and I.P. Gautam. Justice (retd.) Ghose’s appointment has come nearly five years after the Lokpal Act was notified on January 16, 2014 after it was passed in 2013 following a countrywide anti-corruption movement. The law provides for a Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in States to probe cases of corruption against top public servants including the Prime Minister and Chief Ministers. Justice (retd.) Ghose’s name was finalised and recommended by a Selection Committee led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and eminent jurist Mukul Rohatgi. The government was prompted to make the selection after the Supreme Court set a February-end deadline. Justice (retd.) Ghose is currently member of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). He retired from the Supreme Court on May 27, 2017. He assumed charge as Supreme Court judge on March 8, 2013. His was among the top 10 names short-listed by the Lokpal Search Committee.

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DII INFLOWS SLIP TO A THREE-YEAR LOW IN MARCH AMID FII PICKUP

Indian mutual funds and insurance firms, which scooped up shares while foreign institutional investors (FIIs) stayed away, turned net sellers of ₹10,247.9 crore in March, even as FIIs returned to Indian markets. The selling, the worst in 36 months, may be an attempt by domestic institutional investors (DIIs) to raise cash, expecting volatility ahead of Lok Sabha elections 2019, analysts said. The change seems to be triggered by tensions arising out of an escalation in hostilities between India and Pakistan, but the selling did not subside despite easing of geopolitical tensions, said Deepak Jasani. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) could be booking profits and reshuffling portfolio ahead of the fiscal end, he said. As volatility is expected to rise, DIIs may be slashing equity exposure wherever possible and raising some cash, Jasani added. Given the recent rise in markets, insurance companies that support the markets at the time of serious correction, are booking profits. Profit booking is just a part of routine business; one should not read too much into it, said Arun Thukral. Year to date, DIIs have sold Indian equities worth ₹8,666.92 crore. Data shows DIIs were net buyers only in January ( ₹2,146.87 crore) while they sold ₹565.89 crore in February. According to data by Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI), net flows into equitiesincluding those linked to savings scheme funds, fell to ₹5,122 crore in February after hitting a 24-month low of ₹6,158 crore in January. Meanwhile, foreign investors have returned, making analysts confident that FII-led liquidity will drive markets. FIIs have bought $2.43 billion in stocks in March so far, their biggest purchase since November 2017. FIIs turned net buyers since mid-February 2019 largely because of the change in view on global liquidity resulting from the shift in stance of US Federal Reserve on monetary policy outlook and follow-up by European Central Bank (ECB). Indian markets, which trailed global peers in the first two months of 2019, finally caught up in March, as investors bet on a stable government coming to power after the general elections. Local stocks missed the global rally in the early part of the year that followed the US central bank pausing interest rate hikes and easing trade war tensions. In local currency terms, benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty rose over 5% in this year so far. In dollar terms, both the Sensex and the Nifty have jumped over 7% each in 2019 so far while MSCI Emerging Markets index and MSCI World index are up over 8% and 11%, respectively.

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INDIA’S GROWTH IN LAST 5 YEARS HAS BEEN TRANSFORMATIONAL: SHRINGLA

The rapid economic growth and developmental strides of India in the last five years have been transformational and the country is all set to emerge as a USD 5 trillion economy in the next five years, India’s envoy to the US has said. India is one of the strongest major emerging economies, India’s Ambassador to the US Harsh Vardhan Shringla said at an event organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry with the George Washington University’s Institute for International Economic Policy here on Tuesday. In terms of fundamentals of the country’s economy, its inflation has come down from over 10 per cent five years ago to about 4.6 per cent, the fiscal deficit has come down from almost six per cent to 3 per cent which are very important indicators, he said. We have made huge strides in the last five years. I think it has been transformational the way we have grown, Shringla said. Inflation is also seen as an unpaid tax on the middle class and the poor. So bringing down inflation, bringing down fiscal deficit is good governance and good management of the economy, he said, adding that India has been successful in attracting USD 259 billion in Foreign Direct Investment, 90 per cent of which has come through the automatic route. There is a vision that in the next five years, India would become a USD 5 trillion economy, he said. We have already grown in the last five years from being the 11th largest economy in the world to the sixth. And this year we might as well become the fifth largest economy. We see ourselves growing to a USD 5 trillion economy in the next five years to 2024 and eight years after that, we see ourselves as USD 10 trillion economy, Shringla said. At the same time, the Indian envoy said that India needs a high level of growth to achieve this goal. India, Shringla said, needs inclusive and sustainable growth. And for this, the focus needs to be on physical and social infrastructure. The last five years have been transformational in the sense that a very, very large number of initiatives have been taken by the government to address and correct the imbalances in both the economic growth and development, Shringla said while participating in a fireside chat with Ajay Chhibber.

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DON'T INDULGE IN POLITICAL PROPAGANDA OVER DEFENCE ACTIONS: EC TO PARTIES

The Election Commission Tuesday asked political parties to desist during their Lok Sabha poll campaigns from indulging in any propaganda involving actions taken by defence forces The fresh advisory came days after the poll panel asked parties and their candidates against using pictures of defence force personnel in their campaign material. The commission said the new advisory is in continuation to its earlier one on use of pictures of defence personnel in campaigning. In a separate case, the commission had also issued a show-cause notice to Delhi BJP MLA Om Prakash Sharma for putting up two posters featuring him, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and IAF pilot Varthaman on Facebook.

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GOVERNMENT TO HIRE PRO TEAM TO MONITOR KISAN SCHEME

The government is planning to hire senior professionals and support staff to monitor and implement PM KISAN scheme in which BJP-ruled states have taken the lead, sending names of small and marginal farmers eligible to receive Rs 6,000 annually in three equal instalments Initially, we are going to hire six professionals, who can deal with data analytics, ground monitoring and supervision of the implementation. Since, the scheme is a continuous year-long programme, it will need trained professionals and experts to deliver the results, said a senior agriculture department official, who is dealing with PM KISAN scheme. The scheme is being monitored by a project monitoring unit (PMU) at the centre led by a joint secretary Vivek Agrawal, designated as the chief executive officer. The states and union territories may also set up a dedicated PMU for the effective implementation of this scheme. The centre can transfer 0.25% of the amount earmarked for the first instalment and 0.125% for the subsequent instalments to state governments to cover the expenditure of PMUs, if established, and for meeting other related administrative expenses including cost incurred on stationery, field verification, certifications and data uploading, the official said. The government so far has received data of 47.6 million eligible beneficiaries First level validation of 40 million beneficiaries has been completed and payment of first installment of Rs 2,000 each has been made to around 27.6 million farmers.

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JET AIRWAYS: BANKS MAY INFUSE FUNDS PROVIDED MAJOR SHAREHOLDERS PLEDGE SHARES

Banks are likely to infuse fresh funds into cash-strapped Jet Airways provided major shareholders of the airline, including Gulf carrier Etihad Airways, pledge their shares as collateral, sources said. With the airline unable to get fresh funds, the options are limited now, they added. The full service carrier is grappling with acute financial woes that has resulted in grounding of a significant number of planes, defaulting on debt repayments and delay in payment of salaries to pilots and other senior officials. The sources said that banks can provide further loans if major stakeholders --Goyal and Etihad -- agree to pledge their shares as security. A consortium of lenders, led by the State Bank of India (SBI), is working on a resolution plan for Jet Airways, which has a debt burden of more than Rs 8,200 crore.

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JET PILOTS THREATEN TO STOP FLYING FROM APRIL 1, SET MARCH 31 DEADLINE ON BAILOUT, SALARIES

The umbrella body of the domestic pilots of the nearly crippled Jet Airways on Tuesday threatened to stop flying from April 1 if the resolution plan is delayed and salary dues are not cleared by the end of this month. The decision was taken at the annual meeting of Jet Airways domestic pilots body National Aviators Guild after a meeting here lasting for over 90 minutes.

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JET AIRWAYS NOW OPERATING ONLY 41 AIRCRAFT, COULD REDUCE FURTHER: DGCA

Jet Airways is currently operating only 41 aircraft just a third of its original fleet, as the debt-laden carrier struggles to finalise a rescue deal with lenders and its major shareholder Etihad Airways. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said in a statement the situation is fluid and that Jet may reduce the number of aircraft it is flying in coming weeks. The DGCA also said that pilots, cabin crew and ground staff who have reported any kind of stress should not be put on duty, and the airline should carry out regular maintenance of its aircraft even if they are currently grounded. Saddled with debt of more than one billion dollars, Jet has delayed payments to banks, suppliers, pilots and lessors - some of whom have ended lease deals with the airline before taking the planes out of the country.

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SPICEJET BECOMES FIRST INDIAN LOW-COST AIRLINE TO JOIN IATA

SpiceJet has joined global airlines' grouping IATA as a member, becoming the first Indian low-cost carrier to get the membership The International Air Transport Association (IATA) represents more than 290 airlines, including Air India, Jet Airways and Vistara. The membership would help SpiceJet, which has ambitious expansion plans, to have codeshares and agreements with other carriers, the domestic airline said in a statement on Tuesday. We are delighted to welcome SpiceJet as part of the 290 airlines in the IATA family. SpiceJet is the first Indian low-cost carrier to be an IATA member, and our fifth member in India, IATA regional vice-president for Asia Pacific Conrad Clifford said. The membership allows the airline to explore and grow its collaborations with international member airlines of IATA through interlining and code shares, enabling SpiceJet to seamlessly expand the network options for its passengers in future, it added.

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UN PATENT DATA SHOWS ASIA INNOVATION SURGE

More than half of all international patent applications filed last year came from Asia, a further sign of innovation shifting from west to east, the United Nations said Tuesday. In the latest annual breakdown of patent filings released by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), the United States remained the leading individual country for applications in 2018. But on a regional basis, Asia’s surge continued. Asia is now the majority filer of international patent applications via WIPO, which is an important milestone for that economically dynamic region and underscores the historical geographical shift of innovative activity from west to east, the agency’s director general Francis Gurry said in a statement. WIPO’s complex system of registering international patents involves multiple categories. In the main category -- the Patent Cooperation Treaty — the US led the way with 56,142 applications, followed China (53,345) and Japan (49,702). Germany and South Korea came in a distant fourth and fifth, with fewer than 20,000 applications each. India registered the largest innovation jump of any country last year. Patent applications jumped more than 27 per cent — from 1,583 in 2017 up to 2,013. Chinese telecommunications behemoth Huawei also set new record for the number of patent applications filed a single corporation in one year with 5,405.

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CBSE TO ISSUE SINGLE DOCUMENT FOR MARKSHEET AND CERTIFICATE FOR CLASS X EXAMINEES

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will issue a single document combining the certificate and marksheet for Class X board exams from this year onwards, officials said on Tuesday. A decision in this regard was taken by the board’s examination committee and was approved by the governing body recently. The document shall be treated as a certificate and candidates shall have to fulfill requirements as notified by the board for obtaining a duplicate one, the official added. Class 12 students will, however, continue to get separate documents for marksheet and certificate of examination. If a student has appeared for an improvement examination, he or she shall not be issued a separate pass certificate for that subject but only a separate statement of marks obtained, the official said. The board has also decided that from 2020 academic session, compartment candidates will be given three chances to appear for the examination, while candidates who failed will be allowed to appear for the examination next year and practical marks will be carry forwarded. The affiliation bye-laws have been amended to incorporate the changes, the board official said.

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DBT IN FERTILISERS: AADHAAR AUTHENTICATION, TRANSACTION TIME SHOW SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT, SAYS STUDY

A new study commissioned by the NITI Aayog on direct benefit transfer (DBT) in fertilisers has found that Aadhaar authentication and transaction time have significantly improved since the roll out of the scheme but glitches remain and as many as 60 per cent of retailers reported that they face issues while serving customers during the peak season. The findings are part of the fourth round evaluation between July and September last year, conducted by MicroSave Consulting. The transaction time has improved to less than three minutes for 51 per cent of the respondents, while it is between three to five minutes for 33 per cent of the respondents. This is in contrast to a transaction time of 9 to 10 minutes during the first round of evaluation of the scheme in September 2016. However, in the peak season a single retailer has to serve 500-600 farmers everyday, noted Mitul Thapliyal. As may as 45.7 per cent of retailers sell manually and adjust immediately in peak season while 33 per cent adjust it later. While the first PoS device is free of cost, the second device can cost as much as ₹25,000. The department is now working to improve hardware and software of PoS devices and is also making changes in the POS application to generate transaction receipt in vernacular language. The evaluation, which assessed the 14 pilot districts and also did a national representative study, used the mixed method research covering 18 States and 54 districts and conducted a quantitative survey of 11,281 farmers and 1,182 retailers. The study found that retailers have to adjust lesser number of transactions now at just 13 per cent compared to 21 per cent in the third round. It also revealed an improvement in Aadhaar authentication and 80.3 per cent transactions were attempted through Aadhaar of which 99.4 per cent were successful.

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RBI'S MSME COMMITTEE CALLS FOR PUBLIC SUGGESTIONS TO IDENTIFY ISSUES

The Reserve Bank of India’s newly constituted committee for MSME development has called for public suggestions on a list of seven underlying issues faced by the sector ranging from definition of MSME to infrastructural gaps and even the credit rating mechanisms in the industry. The Committee is undertaking a comprehensive review of the sector to identify causes and propose long term solutions for its development. The Committee has, therefore, decided to invite suggestions from the public at large RBI said in a press release. The MSME development committee was constituted in January this year to understand ‘the structural bottlenecks and factors affecting the performance of the MSME sector’ and is headed by former SEBI chairman U K Sinha. Post defaults by IL&FS in September, the Small and Medium Enterprises sector has been facing troubles raising working capital after the banks credit cost to lenders operating in these areas increased. The government and regulators are trying to formalise the credit procurement infrastructure in the largely unorganised and underbanked sector. The RBI committee has asked for public comments on issues such as working efficiencies of District Industry Centres (DIC), infrastructural gaps affecting development of the industry, entrepreneurial support structure, ways to improve TReDs interface and ways to better credit rating mechanisms. People can also send other suggestions to RBI concerning specific issues in the sector by March 28, 2019, RBI said.

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MUKESH SAVES ANIL FROM JAIL, HELPS HIM CLEAR RS 453 CRORE ERICSSON DUES

Almost a decade-and-a-half after a bitter separation, Mukesh Ambani on Monday stepped in to save younger brother Anil from prison by helping him clear the Rs 453 crore Reliance Communications owed Ericsson. While the divergence in fortunes of the two brothers since the split has been evident to the world for many years now, it was underlined in the starkest possible terms yet by Anil’s statement saying, My sincere and heartfelt thanks to my respected elder brother, Mukesh, and Nita, for standing by me during these trying times, and demonstrating the importance of staying true to our strong family values by extending this timely support. I and my family are grateful we have moved beyond the past, and are deeply touched with this gesture. It also represents another significant milestone in the journey since Dhirubhai Ambani’s death in 2002 – of rancor and rift, a division in the Reliance empire, and personal estrangement, followed in the last few years by a thaw in relations and a degree of rapprochement, especially during the two recent weddings of Mukesh and Nita Ambani’s daughter Isha and son Akash. There have been reports through the years of Dhirubhai’s wife Kokilaben’s keenness that the brothers patch up and that Mukesh extend Anil a helping hand. Indeed, the December 28, 2017, deal – on Dhirubhai’s 85th birth anniversary – under which Mukesh’s Jio was to buy about Rs 23,000 crore of debt-laden RCom’s infrastructure assets (including spectrum and towers) – was widely seen as a form of bail-out. But the deal ran into a number of hurdles, including objections from the department of telecom, which RCom cited for its failure to pay Ericsson for its services. With the SC holding three group companies in contempt and threatening Anil with jail, Mukesh threw him a lifeline just two days ahead of deadline.

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NITI AAYOG SUGGESTS RAISING MONTHLY TRAINING STIPEND TO RS 5,000

NITI Aayog has suggested more than threefold increase in the cap on reimbursement of the cost of training candidates under a revamped version of the government’s National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS), a measure which will bring down the liability of companies and give a fillip to the programme which has not found many takers so far. The Aayog has proposed that the government reimburse the companies up to Rs 5,000 or 50% of the cost per candidate per month as stipend for apprenticeship training under NAPS instead of a maximum of Rs 1,500 or 25%, whichever is higher, at present, a senior government official told. The proposal is under consideration of the finance ministry and may get the green signal after the general election when Skill India Mission 2.0 gets rolled out, the official said on condition of anonymity. Officials in the skill development and entrepreneurship ministry confirmed that a proposal in this regard has been sent to the finance ministry for approval The government has to decide on its priorities and money can be found, said the senior official. Apprenticeship training is a must, but with the current rate of reimbursement not too many employers are coming forward to provide apprenticeship training as it calls for additional financial burden on them. The BJP-led NDA government had launched NAPS in 2016 to promote apprenticeship training in the country and to incentivise employers who wished to engage apprentices. The programme aims to increase the engagement of apprentices to five million by 2020 from just around 230,000 now. The government allocated Rs 10,000 crore to bear the cost of reimbursements, but in the absence of active participation from industry players, not much of the amount has been utilised. Initially, the programme was run by the director general of training under the skill development and entrepreneurship ministry. However, owing to the poor response from private players, it is now being operated partly by the National Skill Development Corporation and the Sector Skills Councils in its fold so as to increase the role of private players in imparting apprenticeship training to the youth.

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INDIA NEEDS FARM REVOLUTION TO ATTAIN 9-10% GDP GROWTH: AMITABH KANT

India cannot achieve 9-10 per cent GDP growth without revolution in the farm sector Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said Monday. He said there is a need to boost investment in the agriculture sector as well as to introduce new technology and market reforms. Kant also stressed on scrapping Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee and some old laws like Essential Commodites Act, which restrict movement of farm produces. However, he said agriculture is a state subject and the central government has limited role in it. In India 50% of our population is dependent on agriculture. If India’s GDP has to grow at 9-10% for the next 30 years, then it cannot be without bringing revolution in the agri sector, Kant said. He also emphasised on eliminating middlemen in marketing of farm produces to boost farmers’ income. Kant expressed confidence that farmer income will be doubled by 2022. He said there is a need to spread good agriculture practice and success stories of farmers across the country. The second revolution in agriculture will come from technology and marketing, Kant said.

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GOVT’S PROPOSED NEW INDUSTRIAL POLICY PUT ON THE BACK BURNER

Time has run out for the current government to announce the much-publicised new industrial policy that hoped to attract foreign investments worth $100 billion annually, create jobs and ease regulations as the Model Code of Conduct now in place makes it difficult for new measures to be implemented Officials who gave the final shape to the new industrial policy tried their best to speed up things and get the last-mile issues sorted out before the announcement of election dates, but it did not work out. It can now be hoped that the new government that comes to power after the general elections takes forward the work already done and announces the policy soon, a government official told. The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), formerly known as the DIPP, had drawn up the new industrial policy sometime last year, and had also sent it to the Union Cabinet for its approval. The proposal, which when implemented would have replaced the 27-year-old existing policy, however, led to a lot of questions from Cabinet members. The new industrial policy proposes to increase share of manufacturing in the country’s GDP to 25 per cent by 2022 from the existing 15-16 per cent. The draft policy also proposed the establishment of a body with representation from the Centre and the States to work on changes in labour laws whenever required. It suggested strengthening of municipal bodies as well.

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DOT SECRETARY URGES ON NEED FOR HOLISTIC CONVERGED REGULATION

Telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan urged on the need for a holistic converged regulation that will propel the telecom sector to keep pace with technological advancements and bring in more reforms. We have to look at merged governance . We will increasingly have to look at things holistically. Meity , principal scientific advisor and the DoT along with regulator -we are looking at a much more holistic converged regulation said Sundararajan. The secretary also stressed on the need to work with smaller players and local startups who are on the rise because of developments like 5G, IoT, augmented reality. While we have seen consolidation and exits we are also seeing, we are also seeing hyper competition amongst a small set of players. With new startups coming in , in areas around data, IoT, blockchain, these are promising developments, the secretary added. The secretary of Department of Telecommunications (DoT) chalked out the reforms that have been brought in including relief on spectrum payments, easing of double taxation amongst others .

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BHARTI INFRATEL CHAIRMAN ASKS DOT TO PENALISE TELCOS THAT FAIL ON 5G ROLLOUT OBLIGATIONS FRONT

Bharti Infratel Chairman Akhil Gupta has urged the government to ring in an affordable base price of 5G airwaves in the next sale and also made a strong case for penalising telcos failing to meet their 5G rollout obligations beyond the Tier 1 & 2 cities. Telcos failing to meet 5G rollout obligations, and only confining their coverage to Tier 1 & 2 cities with purely a profit maximisation aim, must be heavily penalised, Gupta said. Conversely, phone companies that fully meet their 5G rollout obligations outside Tier 1 & 2 cities, he said, must be incentivised by way of a complete waiver of licence fees, which can be recovered from the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) that has been accumulating over the years. Let’s invest more in networks and less in spectrum and ensure India comes well above the 50th mark in the ICT index of the International telecom Union (ITU) in the days to come, Gupta said. 5G services, he said, must not be a showcase merely of South Delhi and the Nariman Points of India; this fast wirless broadband technology needs to go deep into the country, the benefit of which must be taken by the hinterland. The Bharti Infratel chairman rued the decline in the telecom industry’s fortunes, which instead of generating millions of jobs and billions of dollars in wealth creation, was seeing massive job losses, which was unfortunate. Gupta told that India is the biggest guzzler of data, with consumption levels hitting a robust 12-13 GB per customer per month.

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FIR AGAINST UNION MINISTER JAYANT SINHA FOR VIOLATION OF MODEL CODE OF CONDUCT

An FIR was registered against Union minister Jayant Sinha for allegedly violating the model code of conduct while addressing students at the convocation ceremony of a management institute, police said Tuesday. As per the direction by the district administration, the FIR was filed against Jayant Sinha (Monday) under Section 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the IPC and under Section 123 of the People's Representation (PR) Act at the Khelgaon police station in Ranchi, a police officer said. Sinha had allegedly sought their blessings for another five years, the officer said. All police stations have been asked to monitor violations pertaining to the model code of conduct, he said.

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NOT PAID FOR 3 MNTHS; FLIGHT SAFETY AT RISK: JET AIRWAYS' ENGINEERS TO DGCA

As Jet Airways continue to ground aircraft and cancel significant number of flights, the airline's aircraft maintenance engineers' union wrote to the aviation regulator on Tuesday that three months of salary was overdue to them and flight safety is at risk. It has been arduous for us to meet our financial requirements, result of which have adversely affected the psychological condition of Aircraft Engineers at work and therefore the safety of public transport airplanes being flown by Jet Airways across India and the world is at risk, the Jet Aircraft Engineers Welfare Association (JAMEWA) said in a letter to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The letter, which has been accessed by PTI, stated: While the senior management is finding a resolution to be in business, we the Engineers who inspect, troubleshoot and certify the public transport airplanes for its airworthiness are in tremendous stress due to non-payment of salaries on time, since last 7 months. As of now, 3 month's salary is overdue to us. Cash-strapped Jet Airways had on Monday said it had grounded four more planes, taking the number of aircraft that are non-operational due to non-payment of lease rentals to 41. The JAMEWA requested the DGCA to intervene in the matter. Jet Airways' senior management had a series of meetings with us to resolve our overdue salaries and after much deliberation, finally released a payment schedule in Dec 2018 which would clear our dues in full, by the end of this financial year. However, it defaulted on it and our confidence in the company's commitments have shaken, it said. We request you to kindly intervene and direct Jet Airways to clear our outstanding dues and pay us our salaries on time in future to enable us to continue deliver safe airplanes, it added.

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JET AIRWAYS CRISIS: PRABHU ASKS AVIATION SECY TO HOLD EMERGENCY MEETING

Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu on Tuesday directed his ministry's secretary to hold an emergency meeting on the debt-ridden Jet Airways massively cancelling flights after grounding of a large part of its fleet. The minister's direction came in the wake of the airliner drastically reducing its operations due to liquidity crunch. Directed Secretary, @MOCA GOI to hold an emergency meeting on grounding of flights by Jet Airways, advance bookings, cancellations, refunds and safety issues, if any, Prabhu said in a tweet.

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FLIGHT SAFETY IS AT RISK: JET AIRWAYS' AIRCRAFT ENGINEERS UNION TO DGCA

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JET AIRWAYS CRISIS DEEPENS AS ETIHAD REFUSES TO AGREE ON CONTOURS OF DEAL

Tony Douglas, the chief executive officer of Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways, flew down to Mumbai on Monday morning for an unusual meeting with State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman Rajnish Kumar and a few other top bankers to discuss the sticky issues in the rescue plan for Jet Airways. At the end of the meeting, the crisis seemed to have deepened as Etihad, which holds 24 per cent in Jet, refused to agree on the contours of the deal According to sources aware of the development, Douglas has informed a consortium of lenders, led by SBI, that Etihad would not participate in the rights issue or infuse fresh funds under the current terms and conditions of the resolution plan. It is learnt that the lenders made it clear to Etihad that it must either endorse the bank-led resolution plan or convey to them that it’s not willing to put in more money. The bankers also told the airline that they are willing to take hard decisions, hinting that they could think of taking Jet to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) if a resolution fails. Although Jet has run out of cash completely and has grounded half its fleet, the lenders have so far resisted any move to take the airline to the NCLT. Dragging Jet Airways to the NCLT could mean a haircut of 55-60 per cent for the lenders. (The difference between the banks' outstanding loan and what they realise from the sale or liquidation under bankruptcy proceedings is referred to as a haircut.) Another reason why lenders are trying hard to save Jet from bankruptcy is that the government wouldn’t like an airline going down so close to the Lok Sabha elections.

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ETIHAD ASKS SBI TO BUY ITS 24 PER CENT STAKE IN JET AIRWAYS

In a setback to Jet Airways revival plans, Gulf airline Etihad Airways has proposed the top lender of Jet Airways, State Bank of India (SBI), to buy its 24 per cent stake in the airline. This has come when there were reports that Etihad has conveyed to SBI that it won’t make any further investment in the troubled airline. Etihad has offered its stake in Jet to SBI at Rs 150 per share or approx Rs 400 crore. This offer to SBI values Jet Airways at approx Rs 1,800 crore. The development comes days after Jet’s lenders told Etihad it could exit if didn’t agree to conditions in the resolution plan. Key among the conditions was an immediate infusion of Rs 750 crore in Jet by Etihad, which the Gulf carrier didn’t agree to. Etihad’s owners, the royal family of Abu Dhabi, have been jittery for a while about the uncertainty in talks. Losing Etihad would mean Jet would have to look for a new partner which may mean another round of talks. Meanwhile, Jet which defaulted on loans in December has 15 days before it is liable to be referred to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. To be sure, it has repaid some lenders and made its account current with them. But the airline, which has been constantly cancelling flights, will be weighed down by customer refunds.

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RBI OFFICIALS MEET BANKERS, SEEK FEEDBACK ON NEW LIQUIDITY TOOL

Senior officials from the Reserve Bank of India met about two dozen bankers on Monday for feedback on the central bank's new cash infusion tool according to two bankers who attended the meeting. While the meeting was aimed at ironing out any procedural issues for implementing the central bank's debut move, it also indicated the RBI's willingness to smoothen tight cash conditions in the banking system, the bankers said. The RBI will conduct a forward dollar/rupee buy-sell swap auction worth $5 billion on March 26, its first such move to infuse rupee liquidity into cash-strapped banks. Under this arrangement, the RBI will buy dollars from banks for three years promising a specified premium for selling back the same at maturity. The announcement has already pushed down the one-year forward premium by 30 basis points to to 3.60 percent. They wanted to understand if we had any suggestions or issues with the implementation of the auction because it is a first for them as well, said one of the bankers. They also didn't say no to suggestions of conducting such auctions going ahead as well. They said 'we will see', the banker added. The central bank officials also reiterated that the swap auction was purely to infuse liquidity and not aimed at the forex market the bankers said. There were some speculations that the RBI had timed the move to also absorb potential bunched-up forex inflows at March-end. Bankers also suggested lowering the tenure of the swap to below three years as well as reducing the minimum bid size, which is $25 million currently. They said this time they didn't have time since they had to complete this before the end of current fiscal year (March), said the second banker. They said this is an experiment, let's see how it goes.

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131 CAS REJECT ALLEGATIONS OF POLITICAL INTERFERENCE IN DATA ESTIMATION

As many as 131 chartered accountants Monday stressed that India is poised to move on a higher growth trajectory and countered the concerns expressed by some economists and social scientists that economic statistics in the country are in shambles The list of 131 CAs termed the concerns raised by the 108 economists as baseless allegations with political motivations. The chartered accountants said the allegations appear choreographed and resemble the previous Award Wapsi drama, which too was enacted just before a crucial state election. The chartered accountants also said that between 1960 to 2014, India had been left behind by all its peers from Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, Brazil, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Russia, South Africa and Sri Lanka in economic growth.

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GOVT COMMITTED TO MAINTAIN CREDIBILITY OF STATISTICAL ORGANISATIONS, SAYS SENIOR OFFICIAL

The government is committed to maintaining the credibility of statistical organisations and the NSSO employment data would be released by month-end a senior official said Monday as he dismissed concerns about alleged political interference in statistical data. The government is committed to maintaining the credibility of our statistical organisations, not only that we have worked hard to strengthen these organisations and will continue to do so, the official told. The official also said the National Sample Survey Office's (NSSO's) employment data would be released by the end of March. There has been a controversy over NSSO figures not being released after a draft report had indicated that employment generation was slow.

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EPFO PENSIONERS TO GET PENSION CALCULATION STATEMENT: MOVE AIMED AT REDUCING GRIEVANCES

EPFO pensioners should soon be able to get a clear statement of how their monthly pension is calculated along with the order sanctioning the pension. This would lead to greater transparency and enable pensioners to detect errors in calculation, if any, and get them corrected faster. Puneet Gupta, says, Employees' Pension Scheme (EPS) is a defined benefit scheme - the benefit from EPS does not match the contributions made under the scheme by the employer. From EPS, employees are eligible for monthly pension benefit as per specific calculation prescribed under the law if the period of eligible service is 10 years or more. Lump-sum withdrawal benefit is available if the period of eligible service is less than 10 years. The pension worksheet proposed to be provided by the Provident Fund office will help employees understand calculation of their monthly pension benefit. This is a welcome step as it will bring transparency and reduce employee grievances However, there is no clarity as of now whether a similar worksheet will be provided to employees if their period of eligible service is less than 10 years and they receive lump sum withdrawal benefit. Also, it is not clear whether the worksheet will be sent via email or in hard copy. Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), in a circular dated March 14, 2019 has directed its regional offices to provide the calculations on the pension sanctioned to the pensioner. The above has to be given immediate effect as per the circular.

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TRAI EXTENDS COMMENTS DEADLINE ON PORTING COSTS REVIEW PAPER

The telecoms regulator has extended the deadline for stakeholder comments and counter-comments on its discussion paper on reviewing a key porting fee and related ancillary levies for mobile number portability (MNP). The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) in a statement Monday, said it has sought comments by April 12 instead of March 15, and counter-comments by April 19 instead of March 22, following requests from stakeholders. In a discussion paper, dated February 22, Trai has sought industry views on whether the per-port transaction charge (PPTC) should be computed using the regulator’s current methodology or whether a change was needed. MNP refers to a facility that allows a subscriber to switch telecom carriers without changing the mobile number. The recipient carrier pays a fee -- called PPTC -- to the MNP service provider for processing the request.

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NARESH GOYAL WRITES TO STAFF, ASSURES OF EARLY RESOLUTION AND STABILITY

With the clouds of uncertainty darkening over the survival of his 25-year-old airline, Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal Monday sought to reassure the 16,000-strong staff of the efforts to restore the much needed stability in its operations at the earliest. Since a larger number of its over 100-fleet are grounded leading to drastically curtailed operations, the airline is struggling to prevent a nose-dive somehow. Goyal, in a communication to employees Monday evening also said talks with the airline's strategic partner Etihad Airways and SBI-led lenders are going on. The UAE carrier owns 24 percent in the airline. Once again I assure you that I am personally committed to have the resolution process completed as soon as possible and restore the much-needed stability to our operations at the earliest, Goyal said in a letter to the staff who are apprehensive of their future with the airline. I personally want you to know that the situation, though complex, has my personal non-stop attention towards an early resolution the complexity of the process though has led to some delays and will require further time to conclude, he said without offering a time-line. Goyal said as a responsible airline, Jet has consciously and proactively decided to curtail its schedule according to the number of aircraft it is currently operating. On the non-payment of salaries to pilots along with senior management and engineers, Goyal said he is fully committed to ensure that their dues are cleared on priority once all parties sign on the resolution plan

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FAME-II: GOVT SETS UP PANEL FOR MONITORING, SANCTIONING OF PROJECTS

The government has constituted an inter-ministerial panel for monitoring, sanctioning and implementation of projects under the Rs 10,000-crore FAME-II programme, aimed at incentivising clean mobility The Project Implementation and Sanctioning Committee will be chaired by the secretary in the Department of Heavy Industries and will have other members including NITI Aayog CEO, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade secretary, Department of Economic Affairs secretary and secretaries in the power and new and renewable energy ministry, among others. The Department of Heavy Industries, in an order, said the committee is constituted for the purpose of overall monitoring, sanctioning and implementation of the scheme, with immediate effect and until further orders. The panel's terms of reference includes modifying coverage parameters for various components and sub-components of the scheme, reviewing demand incentives annually or earlier based on price and technology trends, modifying limits of fund allocations among different segments and types of vehicles, reviewing the cap for maximum incentive per vehicle, and deciding other scheme parameters for its smooth roll out. The Rs 10,000-crore programme under the second phase of the FAME India scheme will be implemented over a period of three years with effect from April 1, 2019. Under phase-II of Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India (FAME-II) scheme, 10 lakh registered electric two-wheelers with a maximum ex-factory price will be eligible to avail incentive of Rs 20,000 each. It will also support 5 lakh e-rickshaws having ex-factory price of up to Rs 5 lakh with an incentive of Rs 50,000 each. FAME-II will offer an incentive of Rs 1.5 lakh each to 35,000 electric four-wheelers with an ex-factory price of up to Rs 15 lakh, and incentive of Rs 13,000 each to 20,000 strong hybrid four-wheelers with ex-factory price of up to Rs 15 lakh. It will support 7,090 e-buses with an incentive of up to Rs 50 lakh each having ex-factory price of up to Rs 2 crore. The scheme will have a Rs 1,500-crore outlay in 2019-20; Rs 5,000 crore in 2020-21 and Rs 3,500 crore in 2021-22. It will cover buses with EV technology; electric, plug-in hybrid and strong hybrid four wheelers; electric three-wheelers including e-rickshaws and electric two-wheelers.

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CENTRE EXTENDS SOFT LOAN WINDOW BY 4 WEEKS FOR BELEAGUERED SUGAR MILLS

The Union government has extended the soft loan window for beleaguered sugar sector by another four weeks. The move is likely to ease some pressure on mills baulked down by stiff and piling arrears. Under the fresh notification issued by the union department of food and public distribution, the banks could consider the soft loan application of sugar mills that would have cleared by March 26 at least 25 per cent of sugarcane payables as on February 28. Their payables would be computed on the basis of the centrally announced Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) of sugarcane, which stands at Rs 275 a quintal for the current 2018-19 crushing season and not on the State Advised Price (SAP), which is announced separately by some states, such as Uttar Pradesh to further remunerate their farmers. In the current season, the SAP of sugarcane in UP, India’s top sugar producer, for the common variety stands at Rs 315 a quintal. Meanwhile, he claimed the UP government was unwilling to provide the state guarantee to bankers for extending the central sponsored soft loans to the state private sugar mills, who are clubbed under non-performing assets (NPA) heads. Under the notification, the centre has asked the respective states to give the guarantee to the bankers with regards to the NPA account holders. However, the UP government is not ready to extend this facility, which would render the soft loan scheme unavailable to the needy and small millers, he claimed adding big sugar mills, who already enjoyed liberal cash credit limit (CCL) with their bankers would avail of the facility anyhow. Under the scheme, once the loan has been sanctioned and formalities for disbursal are completed, the bank would obtain from the respective mills, the list of farmers along with their bank account details etc and the extent of cane dues to be paid, computed on the FRP basis. Thereafter, the banks would directly remit funds allocated into the accounts of farmers on behalf of the sugar mill, while any balance would be credited to the respective mills’ account. Meanwhile, pan India in this season, a total of 527 sugar mills had produced more than 27 million tonnes (MT) March 15, while 154 mills had stopped their crushing operations. Mills in Maharashtra and Karnataka are closing fast and their crushing season is on the verge of closing. While, the mills in Maharashtra accounted for sugar output of over 10 MT, the state of UP had clocked 84 MT of the sweetener so far, followed by Karnataka mills with 42 MT.

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5-FOLD JUMP IN INCENTIVE TO CENTRAL GOVERNMENT STAFF FOR ACQUIRING HIGHER QUALIFICATIONS WHILE IN JOB

The central government has approved a five-fold increase in one-time incentive given to its employees who acquire higher degrees while serving in their departments, officials said Monday. The amount of incentive will be increased from a minimum of Rs 10,000 to a maximum of Rs 30,000 for acquiring higher qualifications like Ph.D, they said. The Personnel Ministry has amended a 20-year-old norm in this regard to increase the amount of incentives provided for the employees. The government employees acquiring fresh higher qualifications after coming into service were granted incentive in the form of one-time lump-sum amount ranging from Rs 2,000 to Rs 10,000. While Rs 10,000 will be given for acquiring degree/diploma of duration of three years or less, Rs 15,000 will be given for acquiring degree/diploma having duration of more than three years, it said. A sum of Rs 20,000 will be given for earning post graduate degree/diploma with one year or less. Such qualification having duration of more than one year will get Rs 25,000 to the employees, the new order stated. A highest incentive of Rs 30,000 will be given to those getting Ph.D or equivalent, it stated. There are around 48.41 lakh central government employees. No incentive shall be allowed for acquiring higher qualification purely on academic or literary subjects, it clarified. The acquisition of the qualification should be directly related to the functions of the post held by him/her, or to the functions to be performed in the next higher post, the ministry said. There should be direct nexus between the functions of the post and the qualification acquired and that it should contribute to the efficiency of the government servant, it said. The incentive, however, shall not be admissible where the employee is sponsored by the government or he/she avails study leave for acquiring the qualification, the order stated. Further, the incentive shall be limited to maximum two times in an employee's career, with a minimum gap of two years between successive grants, the ministry said. According to Personnel Ministry's order issued in April 1999, employees were entitled for a minimum of Rs 2,000 and maximum of Rs 10,000 for getting fresh qualifications. While Rs 2,000 was applicable incentive for passing intermediate examination, those earning post graduate degree of Ph.D were entitled for a maximum of Rs 10,000.

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MODI GOVT’S EFFORTS BEAR FRUITS; MALNUTRITION IN INDIA DOWN BY 4% IN 2 YEARS

Malnutrition in children has seen improvement in the last two fiscal years as the Modi government’s initiatives seem to have started showing results. The child malnutrition or stunting has reduced by 2 per cent per annum, a survey conducted by UNICEF and Ministry of Health showed. The rate of stunting of children in India fell from 38.4 per cent in 2015-16 to 34.7 per cent in 2017-18, news agency PTI reported. This plunge of 2 per cent each year is mainly on account of government initiatives, he said. Malnutrition is a serious concern for any country as it not only affects the individual but also the nation in various ways. India has suffered from the malnutrition problem since long and accounts for almost a third of the world’s burden for stunting, according to Global Nutrition Report 2018. Moreover, anemia in women fell from 50-60 percent in 2015-16 to 40 per cent in 2017-18, the official added. Previously, in 2015-16, stunting of children in the age group of 0-6 years had fallen to 38.4 percent from 48 percent in 2004-05 , according to the data by National Family Health Survey (NFHS)- 4 (2015-16). The government also also launched National Nutrition Mission also known as Poshan Abhiyan in 2018. The initiative aims to prevent and reduce prevalence of stunting among children from 38.4 per cent in 2015-16 to 25 per cent by 2022.

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POWER MINISTRY SEEKS ENFORCEMENT OF TARIFF RATIONALISATION FOR HYDROPOWER PROJECTS

The Ministry of Power has written to the Central and State Electricity Regulatory Commissions to enforce tariff rationalisation for hydropower projects. These measures are expected to bring down tariff for power generated from a new hydropower project, a Power Ministry notification said. Tariff rationalisation measures include providing flexibility to the developers to determine tariff by back loading of tariff after increasing project life to 40 years. Increasing the debt repayment period to 18 years and introducing escalating tariff of 2 per cent are also included in these measures, the notification said. The levelised tariff over the useful life of the project may be calculated on the basis of the norms specified in the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission regulations, the notification added. The year wise tariff, for a long term power purchase agreement for the procurement of Hydro Power has been left at the discretion of negotiations between the project developer and the power distribution company. The Power Ministry has also notified the Hydropower Purchase Obligation as a separate entity within the Non-Solar Renewable Purchase Obligation. This obligation will cover all large hydro power projects commissioned after March 8, 2019. The untied capacity (capacity without PPAs) of already commissioned projects will be able to avail this benefit. All large hydro power projects have also been declared as renewable energy sources. But new hydro power projects will not automatically be eligible for any differential treatment for statutory clearances such as Forest clearance, environmental clearance among others.

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BOEING 'FINALISING' SOFTWARE UPDATE AFTER CRASHES

Boeing has said it is finalising a software update and pilot training revision related to MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System) in 737 Max, following two deadly air crashes in less than five months. Boeing is finalising its development of a previously-announced software update and pilot training revision that will address the MCAS flight control law's behaviour in response to erroneous sensor inputs, Dennis Muilenburg, said. The MCAS is an automated safety feature on the 737 Max designed to prevent the plane from entering into a stall, or losing lift. Some pilots had complained about unintended nose-down situations while flying the Max 8 jet, according to US federal database.

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DGCA CALLS MEETING WITH AIRLINES ON TUESDAY TO DISCUSS RISING AIRFARES

Aviation watchdog DGCA has called a meeting on Tuesday noon to discuss with airlines the upward spiral in airfares as Jet Airways continue to ground its aircraft and cancel a significant number of flights a government official said. According to the official, after the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) grounded all 12 of SpiceJet's 737 Max aircraft on March 13 following the Ethiopian Airlines crash, that killed 157 people, the problem of rising airfares in Indian market has aggravated. DGCA has called a meeting at Tuesday noon to discuss the airfare rise because of significant number of cancellations done by Jet Airways in the last few weeks, the government official said. Cash-strapped Jet Airways Monday said it has grounded four more planes, taking the number of aircraft that are non-operational due to non-payment of lease rentals to 41. Etihad Airport services, in a notification to its passengers on Sunday, said, Jet Airways has cancelled all their flights from Abu Dhabi with immediate effect from March 18 due to operational reasons. According to its website, the airline has a fleet of 119 planes. In a filing to the stock exchanges on Monday, the airline said, An additional four aircraft have been grounded due to non-payment of amounts outstanding to lessors under their respective lease agreements.

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INDIGO INTRODUCES 4 NEW FLIGHTS; CONNECTS KOLHAPUR, TIRUPATI UNDER MODI’S UDAN SCHEME

Budget carrier IndiGo has added three new exclusive destinations to its network which will begin operations from 7 April 2019, the airline said. With fares starting at Rs 2,599, the site is taking the bookings now, it added. Including to and from flights from Chennai-Raipur, Hyderabad-Gorakhpur and Kolkata-Gorakhpur, all the routes will start operating by 30 April 2019, according to IndiGo’s recent tweet. These will be daily flights, once functional. The lowest price which was observed for Chennai-Raipur flight was at Rs 3,275. The Kolkata-Gorakhpur route was observed to be lowest at Rs 2,298. For Hyderabad-Gorakhpur route, the lowest fare was Rs 3,899 for a date in June 2019. A non-stop flight of 2 hours and 10 minutes will connect Hyderabad and Gorakhpur.

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INDIGO LURES JET AIRWAYS’ PILOTS WITH BETTER COMPENSATION

Several pilots made their way to a five-star hotel in Mumbai’s western suburb last Friday, where India’s biggest airline, IndiGo, held a recruitment drive for senior pilots according to two pilots who attended the event. The event also saw a large representation from cash-strapped Jet Airways (India) Ltd where senior workers are facing a prolonged delay in salaries and an uncertain future. IndiGo, one of Airbus SE’s largest customers globally, will soon start its maiden flight to Europe (Istanbul). It is also expanding fast, adding at least one aircraft per week, and is therefore in need of senior pilots. To attract talent, the Gurugram-based airline has offered compensation for overdue salaries to senior pilots, especially to those belonging to Jet Airways. The chosen candidates were given on-the-spot offers to work with India’s largest domestic airline by market share, in addition to reassurances that their salaries will be credited on time, one of the pilots cited above said. The offers made by IndiGo is quite good, and include various compensation for overdue salaries (up to two to three months of basic salary) on joining the airline, said a senior pilot, who flies Airbus planes with Jet Airways.

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SUGAR PRODUCTION UP 6% AT 27 MILLION TONNES TILL MARCH 15

Sugar mills across the country produced 273.47 lakh tonnes (LT) of sugar till March 15, nearly 6 per cent more than 258.2 LT produced during the corresponding period in the previous sugar season, said a release from the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) on Monday. While 154 mills have closed crushing operations whereas 373 are still crushing. Maharashtra has produced a little over 100 LT, which is nearly 6 LT more than 93.84 LT produced in the same period last year. Sugar mills numbering 85 have completed crushing and 110 mills are still in operation. The production of sugar in Uttar Pradesh, on the other hand, was 84.14 LT which was more or less same as that in the corresponding period in the previous season. Karnataka has recorded a near 20 per cent growth in production than the previous season so far. As against 35.10 LT produced till March 15 last year, 67 mills in the south Indian State produced 42.45 LT of sugar and 11 mills are still continuing crushing operations, the ISMA release said. In Gujarat, where 14 mills are still in operation, has so far produced 9.8 LT of sugar, nearly 9 per cent more than 9.10 LT last year. The cumulative production from 29 mills in Tamil Nadu was 5.4 LT, around 25 per cent more than that during the same period last year. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana mills produced 6.5 LT so far and majority of these 25 mills are still crushing. Other sugar producing States including Bihar, Haryana, and Punjab cumulatively contributed 24.7 LT of sugar till March 15, said the sugar industry body.

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ACID ATTACK UNCIVILISED, HEARTLESS CRIME: APEX COURT

The Supreme Court has said that acid attack is an uncivilised and heartless crime which does not deserve any clemency The apex court observed this while asking two convicts, who have already undergone five year jail for throwing acid on a 19-year-old girl in 2004, to pay ₹ 1.5 lakh each as additional compensation to the victim. The top court also asked the Himachal Pradesh government to pay compensation to acid attack survivor under the Victim Compensation Scheme. Indeed, it cannot be ruled out that in the present case the victim had suffered an uncivilised and heartless crime committed by the respondents (two convicts) and there is no room for leniency which can be conceived, a bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and Ajay Rastogi said. The bench further said, A crime of this nature does not deserve any kind of clemency. This court cannot be oblivious of the situation that the victim must have suffered an emotional distress which cannot be compensated either by sentencing the accused or by grant of any compensation. The court delivered its verdict on an appeal filed by the state challenging the March 24, 2008 judgement of the Himachal Pradesh High Court which had reduced the 10-year jail term awarded to both the men by a trial court to five years. According to the victim, she was on her way to college on July 12, 2004 when the two men came on a two-wheeler and threw acid on her and fled the spot. She had suffered 16 per cent burn injury in the incident. The police had filed charge sheet against both the accused and the trial court convicted and sentenced them to 10 years jail term along with a fine of ₹ 5,000 each. The high court reduced their sentence to five years and increased the fine to ₹ 25,000 each. The apex court, in its verdict, noted that the girl had suffered 16 per cent burn injury which was caused due to acid attack on the darkest day of her life.

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IIM-A HIKES PGP COURSE FEES TO RS 23 LAKH

The Indian Institute of Management - Ahmedabad (IIM-A) board of governors on Saturday approved a revised fees for the flagship 2-year Post Graduate Programme (PGP) in Management from Rs 22 lakh to Rs 23 lakh, a hike of about 4.5 per cent. The revised fees will be made applicable for batch 2019-21 of the PGP, said Errol D'Souza. As per the newly formulated IIM Act, the B-school granted masters degree in business administration (MBA) to its students. In a first, students of all the three programmes including the PGP, two-year post graduate programme in food and agribusiness management (PGP-FABM) and PGP-executive (PGPX), were given the degrees. Total 593 students were given degrees at the convocation held at the Louis Kahn Plaza in the IIM-A campus here. Of them, 398 students from PGP batch 2017-19 were awarded degrees, followed by 45 from PGP-FABM, and 137 of one-year PGPX. Kumar Mangalam Birla asked students, we all fail. We all make mistakes. The key is to not be oblivious to the mistake. When you make a mistake you have three choices: You can be in denial, you can let it cripple you or you can acknowledge the error, take swift corrective action and learn from the mistake. The choice is yours.

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IF VOTED TO POWER, RAHUL ASSURES DIRECT TRANSFER OF MINIMUM WAGES

Rahul Gandhi announced on Monday that if voted to power his party will deposit money directly into the bank accounts of poor. Chowidar waived loans of Rs 3,50,000 lakh crore but he did not waive farmers' loans. We have taken a decision that after elections, Congress party is ready to give money directly to bank accounts of the poor. A minimum income limit will be fixed. Those who will be under the minimum income limit, money will be given to bring them on that limit, he said addressing a public rally in Kalaburagi. He further hit out at Prime Minister saying, the latter wants to end the ideals of the constitution in the same way he ended Rs 500 and Rs 1000 denominations. Wherever Mr Modi goes, he spreads hatred and communal disharmony. Dalits are beaten and exploited. His main goal is to end the ideals of the constitution. We will never let him do that, Rahul alleged emphasizing that Congress will not let anyone to that. Modi wants to end the ideals of the constitution in the same way he ended Rs 500 and Rs 1000 denominations, he said. Rahul also cornered the BJP government over GST implementation and said, If we come to power, five taxes will not be there. There will be only one tax. The system will be ordinary. We will change GST and will not let small shopkeepers and small businesses suffer any loss in the future. Taking a jibe at PM Modi and BJP leaders for using 'Chowkidar' as prefix in their names, Rahul said, Chowkidar was caught red-handed As soon as he was caught, chowkidar says whole country is chowkidar. Before he was caught, the whole country was not chowkidar but only Narendra Modi.

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HUNDREDS OF INDIAN LAND LAWS CAUSE CONFUSION, CONFLICT, SAY RESEARCHERS

The sheer number and complexity of India’s land laws make them inaccessible to most people, researchers warned on Monday, with many sparking the types of conflicts that they are supposed to help resolve. A study of just eight of India’s 29 states published by the New Delhi-based think tank the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), showed that there are more than 1,200 laws related to land, alongside about 150 federal laws The laws largely deal with reform, acquisition, taxation, land use and records, said Namita Wahi, head of the Land Rights Initiative at the CPR, adding that some dated back to the colonial era, and many contradict each other. We have so many laws but there is no publicly available database where someone can easily access them, she told. With so many laws, and with the added complication of the colonial legacy and post-colonial structure, there are invariably disputes and conflicts, said Wahi, who is now analysing the land laws of the remaining 21 Indian states. More than 22 million cases are pending in India’s district courts, according to federal government data. Of these, 7.5 million are civil cases, and more than 6 million have dragged on for more than five years. Many of the cases are related to inheritance, as states have differing laws, with matters also decided by religion and custom, said Shipra Deo. While a 2005 federal law gave Hindu women across India equal inheritance rights, several states had since amended the law to discriminate against them, she said. Few women made claims, because they were unaware of the law, or were forced to give up their claims to male relatives, said Deo, who recently researched inheritance laws in Indian states. In nearly a third of the states – mostly in the north – the inheritance provision for women was not equal, she told. In several states, the law does not necessarily follow the spirit of the 2005 law, she said. Only 13 percent of farmland is owned by women in India, according to 2011 census data. There is no official data on inheritance claims made by women. In some parts of the country, rising property prices have resulted in more women claiming their inheritance in recent years, another researcher said.

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ADVISORY TO GENERAL PUBLIC : FRAUDULENT WEBSITES FOR REGISTRATION

The Government of India has recently approved scheme for farmers for installation of solar pumps and grid connected solar power plants. Administrative Approval for the scheme has been issued by the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) on 08.03.2019. DISCOMs and State Nodal agencies shall be implementing this scheme for which the detailed guidelines will be issued shortly. It has been noticed that few websites have cropped up claiming to be registration portal for KUSUM Scheme. Such websites are potentially duping general public and misusing data captured through fake registration portal. In this regard, MNRE hereby advises all potential beneficiaries and general public to avoid depositing any registration fee or share their data on such websites. They may contact their DISCOMs / State Renewable Energy Nodal Agencies for any information in this regard. Any suspected fraudulent website if noticed by anyone may be reported to MNRE. For Guidelines and scheme implementation procedure, official portal of the Ministry: www.mnre.gov.in may be visited.

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UP TO ONE-THIRD OF EXISTING JOBS WILL BE AUTOMATED IN NEXT THREE YEARS: SURVEY

On the advent of artificial technology and rapid adoption of technology in the country, human resource professionals believe that one-third of existing job roles in various industries will get automated in the next three years according to a survey. One-third of existing job roles in various industries will get automated in the next 3 years changing the Indian jobs landscape. The survey was done by job portal has conducted a survey in metro cities among HR professionals in sectors including IT, education and training, banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), manufacturing, retail, auto among others. Further, about 45.5 percent of the HR professionals said they plan to adopt technology-driven tools such as AI tools, virtual reality and hiring tools within their organisations in the coming 12 months, it said. Additionally, 36.75 percent respondent surveyed expect some kind of disruption in their industry in the next 2-3 years. With a host of innovations and technological changes coming up and with cutting-edge technologies like AI and machine learning becoming more and more integral to business operations across sectors, the demand for professionals with evolved, tech-led skill-sets will only increase further in 2019, Zairus Master said. The technological convergence is also expected to transform existing job profiles and responsibilities and give rise to new job roles, the survey said.

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BMC'S DEPUTY LAW OFFICIALS FINED RS 10,000 FOR NOT SHARING INFORMATION WITH APPLICANT

The state information commission (SIC), in two separate orders, has fined a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) deputy law officer of Rs 10,000. Besides this, the commission has also sought disciplinary action against the officer and another public information officer (PIO), who failed to provide information even after an order from the SIC. The order was passed after a complaint was filed by one RTI applicant, Kamlakar Shenoy. The order was passed on March 1 with state chief information commissioner, Sumit Mullick, stating that another hearing will be held on April 26, wherein PIO will have to attend and provide information to the applicant. The PIO had not attended the hearing. Shenoy had sought details of the records relied upon for turning down a legal opinion that was being sought from the urban development department. I had sought details of the records relied upon when the senior officers had turned down request of a legal opinion to be sought. The legal opinion was to be sought for increase in FSI, which was turned down by building department, said Shenoy. Shenoy said he did not get information to both his applications even when the first appellate authority had ruled in his favour. During the second appeal hearing, the SIC said it was unfortunate that during the hearings, a deputy law officer was being represented by a senior counsel. The SIC order stated: It is unfortunate that BMC legal department appoints counsel in RTI appeal to represent another senior advocate who has given opinion on behalf of BMC on several occasions regarding property matters worth more than Rs 1,000 crores. The commission should have ideally slapped a fine of Rs 25,000 because they were not adhering to first appellate and to information commission's order, said Shenoy. The commission marked the order to first appellate authority and municipal commissioner for implementation.

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OPPN HAS NO KNOWLEDGE OF INDIAN TRADITIONS:YOGI ON CRITICISM OVER RENAMING ARDH KUMBH

Yogi Adityanath has attacked his rivals for criticising the government for renaming this year's Ardh Kumbh as Kumbh, saying the opposition does not have an iota of knowledge about Indian traditions. The state government had renamed the Ardh Kumbh as Kumbh and the Kumbh as Maha Kumbh in 2017. The Kumbh was held in Allahabad from January 15 to March 4 at the Sangam -- the confluence of the Yamuna, Ganga and the mythical Saraswati rivers -- and as per government data, it was attended by over 24 crore people. When the entire country feels proud about the valour and heroic deeds of the armed forces, they (opposition) seeks evidence of surgical strikes and air strikes. When the entire world praises the divya (divine) and bhavya (grand) Kumbh, then they do not feel proud and express sadness as to why Ardh Kumbh was made Kumbh, Adityanath told. The chief minister attributed the success of the recently culminated Kumbh to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying it was a swachh (clean) and surakshit (safe) Kumbh. There was a saatvik taakat (pious force) that wanted faith and trust to prevail come what may in the Kumbh, Adityanath said. But, there was also a big section, that was spreading disinformation about India, Indianess and the Sanatan Dharma. Disregarding all of them, we moved ahead and achieved our mission, he said. Prime Minister Modi was a source of inspiration and he guided us from the beginning, and he has said a safe and clean Kumbh had been organised, Adityanath said. When the entire world is facing the menace of terrorism and living in an atmosphere of fear, we were able to successfully organise a surakshit Kumbh in which more than 24 crore devotees came, the chief minister said. He said with the prime minister's efforts and motivation, India's biggest spiritual and cultural gathering was recognised by the UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity. On the issue of stray cattle in the state, the chief minister said it is an manmade problem (kritrim aapdaa). This problem is not caused by nature, but by the society, and the society should come forward to redress the problem. In some of the districts, members of the society have come forward and contributed, he said.

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GIRLS HAVE SAME FREEDOM AS BOYS: KERALA HIGH COURT QUASHES SEXIST COLLEGE HOSTEL RULES

The Kerala High Court has quashed the restrictions imposed on girls placed by a Thrissur college, observing that girls have the same freedom as enjoyed by boys and held that any restrictions in this regard are a violation of fundamental rights. Justice A Muhamed Mustaque, while striking down rules of the girls’ hostel of Sree Kerala Varma College, noted that there is no such restriction in the boys’ hostel and such differential treatment cannot be justified, even if they were signed off by the parents of the students. The Court, partly allowing the petition filed by Anjitha K Jose observed that the management attempted to impose its moral choice upon the boarders. The moral paternalism is something to be frowned upon. A girl is having equal freedom similar to a boy There are no similar restrictions in the boy’s hostel. It is for the students whether they should go for first or second show movies or not. This is an activity outside the hostel activity.

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LOKPAL: MYTH TO CONCEPTION TO BIRTH TO OPERATIONAL REALITY

After all the din and hullabaloo, we finally have the beginnings of an operational Lokpal Since institutional memory in India is short, it is important to remind ourselves that those who piggybacked the Lokpal bandwagon did not allow the operational reality — neither of a Lokpal during 58 months of their central government tenure nor the appointment of a Lokayukta during the stint of Narendra Modi as the CM of Gujarat. For them, the Lokpal was a political stick to beat the Congress with and never an instrument of accountability. For them, it was a crude and crass enterprise to hijack the Anna Hazare movement for purely short-term political gains. For them, it was a means to somehow dislodge an incumbent government, while consciously avoiding the remotest possibility of being made to answer by a Lokpal during their entire incumbency. That is why Sushma Swaraj spoke eloquently in pre-2014 about an old man who keeps fasting to fight against corruption, and appeal to our collective conscience but was struck by amnesia for the last five years. That is why current finance minister Arun Jaitley said we are ready to pass it (Lokpal bill) without a debate, but never once made a whisper on the subject after May 2014. Consistency remained only PM Modi’s virtue. He had resolutely and obstinately blocked a Lokayukta during his entire 2003-13 chief ministership. When Justice Soni demitted office in 2003, no one was appointed. In 2006, Justice KR Vyas was proposed and then delayed, deserted and denied. In 2010, the state government finally proposed Justice JR Vora, a person whom it had earlier opposed, though the Gujarat Act specifies a selection process with no ostensible role for the state and the CM. The Supreme Court in 2013 accepted that the primacy of the collegium is assigned to the chief justice and hence, when the collegium in 2011 appointed Justice RA Mehta, the state government’s opposition to him was without legal basis. Unprecedentedly, the state government filed a writ in the high court challenging Justice Mehta’s appointment. After losing, it persisted and carried an appeal to the Supreme Court. The apex court dismissed the appeal on January 2, 2013, upholding Justice Mehta’s appointment. In concluding para 74, the Supreme Court said The facts of the case revealed a very sorry state of affairs, revealing that in the State of Gujarat, the post of Lokayukta has been lying vacant for a period of more than 9 years only a few half-hearted attempts were made to fill up the post. When Mehta resigned in August 2013 writing that the appointment has lost all grace and dignity, PM Modi had achieved his decadal vacancy and shifted to Delhi. He has successfully replicated the Gujarat model in Delhi over the last five years. Indeed, what Prime Minister Modi achieved when he shifted to Delhi was even more incredible. The 2014 Modi wave had the unexpected result that no single party fulfilled the technical requirement of having 10% of Lok Sabha seats to qualify as an official opposition and consequently no party could claim the post of leader of the opposition. Since most legislative enactments had not foreseen this possibility, the pre-existing phrase Leader of the Opposition (also found in the Lokpal Act) required a commonsensical one-line amendment to enable the leader of the single largest party in the Lok Sabha to participate in the deliberations for Lokpal selection. This was something so puny, trivial and routine that any form of bona fide governance would have yielded this amendment within 30 seconds. A perfect and identical model/precedent existed qua the CBI Act, where the identical problem was obviated by referring to the leader of the single largest party instead of the technical term of leader of the opposition. Let us hope that the Lokpal at least partially achieves the potential of its creators. In my opinion, it would depend entirely on the personality, evolution, conduct and leadership of its founder chairman. Justice Ghose has had a non-controversial tenure in the judiciary and is blessed with both talent and temperament. I am sure he realises that the post of Lokpal chair is much more than the judicial roles he has satisfactorily fulfilled thus far.

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JEE ADVANCED 2019 EXAM DATE SHIFTED TO MAY 27 DUE TO CLASH WITH ELECTIONS

JEE Advanced 2019 exam date has been shifted to May 27, 2019 from the earlier announced May 19, due to clash in dates of JEE Advanced exam and the last phase of General Elections 2019. In view of the clash in the dates of JEE (Advanced) 2019 and the last phase of General Elections 2019, the examination date of JEE (Advanced) 2019 has been shifted to May 27, 2019 which is a Monday, ML Sharma, organizing chairman, JEE Advanced 2019 told. We made this change as there was a clash of dates in 18 cities in 7 states, said Sharma.

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OPTIMISM ABOUT JOBS RISES AMONG INDIA'S YOUTH: YOUGOV-MINT SURVEY

With general elections in India just around the corner, the debate on employment growth is reaching fever pitch In the absence of regular and credible employment statistics, perceptions about job creation will be critical for the election outcome. Among the urban youth at least, these perceptions may be changing but the majority remain concerned about jobs. More urban youth believe it is easier to find a job now compared to six months ago. About 43% of the Gen-Z (19- to 22-year-olds) and 45% of younger millennials (23- to 29-year-olds) think it is somewhat to extremely easy to find a job nowadays. This is a marked improvement from six months ago when the percentage of respondents saying it is easy to find a job was just 21% among the Gen-Z and 27% among younger millennials. The outlook among the older millennials (30- to 38-year-olds) and Gen-X cohort (39- to 54-year-olds) also shows a similar improvement over the same period. The apparent improvement in job prospects is also corroborated by the consumer confidence surveys conducted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). In the December quarter, RBI data shows a marginal improvement in the urban population expectation and perceptions on employment. There was an increase in the number of respondents who said employment prospects improved compared with those who said employment prospects worsened. However, despite these improvements, urban youth who say it is currently difficult to find a job remain the majority. The pessimism is also prevalent across industries. The survey shows that, barring financial services and information technology industries, a majority of employees across sectors, including business services and manufacturing, believe it is difficult to find fresh jobs. The survey showed that 16% of Gen-Zers and 12% of younger millennials, compared to 8% of older millennials (30- to 38-year-olds) and Gen-Xers (39- to 54-year-olds), said they weren't satisfied with their jobs and would move as soon as they got a better offer. Even among those who said they were satisfied in their current job, an overwhelming majority of younger millennials said they would move for better roles or better pay.

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RONNIE SCREWVALA APPROACHES FAIR TRADE REGULATOR AGAINST MULTIPLEXES

Serial entrepreneur, filmmaker and former head of UTV Ronnie Screwvala has approached the Competition Commission of India (CCI) against four largest multiplex chains - PVR, Inox Leisure, Cinepolis India and Carnival Cinemas- for alleged collusion and for charging Indian movie makers discriminatory virtual print fee (VPF). Screwvala has proposed to be the principal witness in the investigation. Screwvala’s Mumbai-based movie production company RSVP, a part of Unilazer Ventures, has also included Multiplex Association of India (MAI) as one of the respondents in its complain. Screwvala alleged that these exhibitors continue their illegal and malafide act of imposing VPF, using a standard non-negotiable revenue model and holding back advance payments that they get from online portals for movies. VPF was first introduced to help make multiplexes DCI compliant, a technology that helps to reduce cost, curbs piracy and enhances the movie viewing experience. Since the technology was costly, it was agreed that multiplex chains will charge Rs 20,000 per screen for each movie for five years to recover that cost, beginning from 2010. VPF was to be charged only for a period of five years, by when the multiplexes were to amortise the cost incurred by them in adopting the technology for digitisation of the theatres. Three years have passed since the completion of this original sunset period of five years, but multiplexes have continued to impose VPF, without any regard for such sunset provision, said the complaint. It also alleged that multiplex owners are in unilateral control of the showcasing of the movies. The OP (opposite parties) alone determine how many shows a film gets and they reduce the show at their discretion without any regard to the producer or the film. RSVP, which made movies including ‘Uri: The Surgical Strike’ and ‘Sonchiraiya,’ has also alleged that multiplex companies along with their association are in the violation of Section 3 (1) of Competition Act that prohibits any form of cartelisation that impacts adversely on competition or fair market within India. As per the Competition Act, the maximum penalty for cartelisation is three times a company’s profit or 10% of its turnover, whichever is higher. The Screwvala-owned company is seeking the regulator’s intervention to restrain multiplex owners from imposing any further fees including VPF. It is also seeking investigation in forceful standard and non-negotiable revenue sharing agreements and unfair holding up of advance payments among other things.

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MAYAWATI WON'T CONTEST 2019 LOK SABHA POLLS

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati will not contest the 2019 Lok Sabha polls Our coaliation is doing good. I can vacate a seat and contest for the Lok Sabha later if I want, Mayawati announced in a press conference. But for the good of the country and the people, I don't want to contest the polls right now, she added. BSP has joined hands with arch rival Samajwadi Party to jointly contest the polls in Uttar Pradesh.

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NO '220 CLUB' IN BJP HOPING TO REPLACE PM NARENDRA MODI: NITIN GADKARI

There is no 220 club in BJP which hopes a reduced tally for the party in the Lok Sabha elections could see the emergence of an alternative to PM Narendra Modi and this was mere speculation in media circles, minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari said. The minister, whose name has often been subject of speculation as an acceptable face in BJP in the event the party falls short, ruled out any such discussion, asserting that the party would return to office with a full majority on the basis of Modi’s leadership. There is no such thing. Those who want to write will write, Gadkari said responding to a question that he was often mentioned as a leader who could work with allies and was also close to the RSS. I don’t do such calculations or have any such expectations. I am a worker of the party. I am sure that the work done under PM Narendra Modi will result in a full majority. So no such situation is going to happen, he said. Gadkari said it was unfortunate that the air strikes and Ram mandir were being politicised, saying demands for proof of the attack on terror camps in Pakistan were uncalled for. People are laughing at them (opposition). Do you seek proof of what our forces have done and their intentions? he asked. He said the language used by Congress chief Rahul Gandhi in attacking Modi was deplorable and indicated a new low for politics. People should respect the PM’s post. Using derogatory remarks is very bad. It’s unfortunate to see what Congress is doing, he added. Gadkari said the options before the government as regards the Ram temple in Ayodhya were limited. It was either negotiations, a court verdict or legislation. As things stood, a court-mandated process of negotiations was under way and it was hoped that Muslims would agree to a resolution, he said. A mosque could be built outside the Panchkosi Parikrama, he added.

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PM SHOULD STOP THINKING PEOPLE ARE FOOLS, THEY SEE THROUGH EVERYTHING, SAYS PRIYANKA GANDHI VADRA

Prime Minister Narendra Modi should stop thinking people are fools and understand that they see through everything Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said on Wednesday. The Congress leader, who is in charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh, is on a three-day boat journey down the Ganga, meeting people living on the banks of the river as part of her outreach ahead of the elections beginning next month. The Prime Minister has attacked every institution in this country for the last five years, including the institution of which all of you are a part, Ms. Priyanka Gandhi told. So I think the PM should stop thinking that people are fools and understand that they see through all this, she added. The Congress general secretary went on to say she is not afraid. Even if anything is done, and we are harassed, we will not feel afraid. We will continue our fight against them. The more we are harassed, the stronger will be our fight, she said.

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PMO IS NOW ‘PUBLICITY MINISTER’S OFFICE’: RAHUL GANDHI

Rahul Gandhi said on Wednesday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has relegated the PMO to a Publicity Minister’s Office by indulging in mediocrity in a highly sophisticated country. He said the Congress doesn’t believe in cultural imperialism and it is of the view that one part of the country should not rule other parts as each state has its own voice which should be respected. However, this was not the case with the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre. Every part of the country should be allowed to express itself. The BJP-RSS combination wants to impose one idea and crush other ideas. Their heavy-handedness is seen whenever there are protests, he said. On the Northeast, Gandhi said tackling job crisis and increasing connectivity in the region is is his party’s priority. In our view, the region is a potential manufacturing hub. In the agri sector, food and vegetables are being wasted here due to shortage of storage space. Food processing industries can be set up in Manipur, he said.

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SIMPLER GST, NO CITIZENSHIP BILL IF CONG VOTED TO POWER: RAHUL GANDHI

Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said his party would introduce a simpler tax regime and scrap the contention Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 if voted to power He also came down heavily on the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government for creating a situation of fear and distrust making people kill their own. Mr. Gandhi accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of making false promises such as providing jobs to two crore youth and for snatching away the special status of the north-eastern states as well as the North East Industrial Policy. We will give the region the status it deserves, he said. Referring to the death of three protestors in police firing in Itanagar last month, the Congress president said it was an example of how an atmosphere of fear and distrust under the BJP rule has made people kill their own in Arunachal Pradesh and elsewhere in the country.

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OVER 400 POLL NORMS VIOLATIONS REPORTED BY CITIZENS THROUGH CVIGIL APP IN MAHARASHTRA

The Maharashtra chief electoral office has received as many as 400 complaints of violation of the model code of conduct through its app cVIGIL, an official said on Wednesday. The application called ‘cVIGIL’, which stands for citizens’ vigil, is available on Google Play Store. The model code of conduct for next month’s Lok Sabha polls came into effect on March 10 and most of the complaints were received by the state election office after that, the official said. The local team gets an alert once the complaint is lodged and our people reach the spot and verify the details. If the complaint is valid, we record the details and initiate an enquiry, he said. He said the maximum number of 85 complaints were received from Pune, followed by Thane-61, Solapur-44, Mumbai suburban-40, Mumbai city-39 and Nagpur-26.

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MAHARASHTRA STEPS UP SECURITY AHEAD OF LOK SABHA POLLS, BORDERS WITH OTHER STATES TO BE SEALED

Maharashtra Police have geared up to strengthen security by sealing its borders with other states in view of the next month’s Lok Sabha polls, a senior police official said. During the election time, some syndicates indulge in illegal transportation of liquor and cash to lure voters. Sometimes weapons may also be transported by anti-social elements to create nuisance, he said. To prevent such activities, the police are taking all precautionary measures, including sealing of borders with other states wherein intense checking of private and public vehicles would be conducted, the official said on Tuesday. Maharashtra shares border with Telangana, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Goa and Gujarat, as well as the Union Territories of Daman, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The state police organised a meeting earlier this month to gear up for ensuring proper security arrangements, the official said. Authorities in all these other states have also been holding meetings to step up security measures, he said.

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OVER 64,000 VOTERS ADDED IN CITY AS NOMINATION PROCESS STARTS IN VID

After stopping voters’ registration from Friday, the district administration has released a fresh list which shows a jump of over 64,000 voters from Nagpur constituency. It included 40,531 from the six assembly constituencies in the city and 24,324 from other six in the rural areas. From Monday, even the nomination process has commenced for all ten constituencies in Vidarbha. Though many applications forms were distributed from all centres, only one nomination was filed in Nagpur and two in Yavatmal on the first day. The collectors at most of the district places in Vidarbha interacted with the media on Monday for providing latest information and updates regarding the upcoming polls.

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DEMONETISATION WAS SELF-GOAL BY MODI GOVT: BOOK

Demonetisation was a terrible idea and the government's own economic surveys have indicated that this move contributed to a slowdown in the economy claims a new book. Salman Anees Soz, the book is also a critical assessment of five years of the brand of economics Modi has championed, often referred to as 'Modinomics'. According to Soz, demonetisation was a self-goal by the Modi government. From ordinary people to experts, demonetisation has come in for withering criticism. I believe that if PM Modi's electoral prospects are at all threatened in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, demonetisation's lasting impact will be partly responsible, he claims. He argues for most economists and development experts, demonetisation did not achieve its initial objectives as a weapon against corruption, black money, terrorism or counterfeit money. It also did not make a significant advance in making India less cash dependent, he says. There is no concrete evidence to indicate that demonetisation led to a significant decline in terrorism He says the Modi government added a few additional objectives to demonetisation's initial ones. The finance minister made the case that there would be greater formalisation of the economy, more people would become part of the tax system and that India would become a ‘less cash' society. Of course, it is one thing to argue that demonetisation largely failed to achieve its objectives and quite another to make the case that it had an adverse impact on the economy. However, even on this front, the evidence suggests that demonetisation was a terrible idea, the book says. In addition to the more than a hundred people who reportedly died as a result of demonetisation, millions lost their jobs according to a Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) analysis, and millions dropped out of the labour force, it says. He also talks about GST in the book. In March 2017, 11 years after P Chidambaram first proposed it, the Modi government steered the GST through Parliament, he says. The delay in implementing the GST was due to a lack of consensus between political parties and the state governments they controlled. One of the biggest opponents of the GST was PM Modi himself when he was chief minister of Gujarat. In his view, and he was not alone, producing states such as Gujarat and Tamil Nadu could lose revenues since taxes would now be based on consumption. With Modi and the BJP in power, it was easier to achieve consensus on implementing the GST. The Congress and other opposition parties were already in favour of it. Many experts predicted that economic growth could go up by as much as 1.5 percentage points in the event that the GST became law, the author writes. Despite positive sentiments about the GST, a thorough debate ensued, he says. The Congress party complained that the proposed GST was too complex given that it would have multiple tax rates and a guaranteed cap on tax rates set at 18 per cent. However, the government pushed ahead with its proposal and Parliament passed the constitutional amendment and sent it to the states for ratification, he writes.

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ALL PLANES, CHOPPERS BOOKED FOR POLL CAMPAIGN

With canvassing for the 2019 general elections in full swing, it's a houseful notice outside most companies hiring out small fixed wing aircraft and helicopters for campaign purposes, aviation industry players said. Top politicians of various parties covet choppers as they afford ease of mobility and access to the country's remotest corners, and small planes which can land on short airstrips. Flying at average 100-140 nautical miles per hour at a height of between 2,000-3,000 feet, helicopters are the favourite as they help politicians reach out to the maximum constituents during the campaign. Unlike many developed countries, there are not many choppers or small planes available for hire during poll season and the charter companies go in for the pre-election 'kill'. According to the Western Chapter of Rotary Wing Society of India (RWSI) President Captain Uday Gelli, there are around 275 registered civilian helicopters in the country.

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GOOGLE PAY LOOKS TO GAIN MARKET SHARE THROUGH KIRANA STORES

After peer-to-peer (P2P) and bill payments, Google Pay is looking to win over customers of smaller offline retailers or kirana stores While Google had announced plans to partner with point-of-sale providers to onboard retail merchants, it is now piloting transactions based on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to be made by consumers while making offline purchases, according to two people aware of the matter. It will bring the convenience of card payments onto the smart phone--the only thing required here will be, instead of the card swipe, customers will have to share the mobile number at the billing counter, said a top payment executive aware of the matter. Consumers will get a ‘collect’ request on their Google Pay application and make the payment by inserting the UPI PIN. Having emerged as one of the top three payment applications on UPI thanks to P2P and bill payments, Google’s offline strategy is designed to create an ecosystem of payment solutions for Indian consumers. For the technology giant, which is aiming to connect the Next Billion Users to the internet, India is a key market. By leveraging payments, the company is targeting a big chunk of the consumer-retail interface. There are small-scale pilots that are being run across retail stores in the country. As of now there are no banner advertisements that are being done, only early adopters can test the product, said one of the persons cited above. The rollout will happen over the next few months. Google has much of the backend in place for such an exercise.

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MODI GOVT CONSISTENTLY INTRODUCED SECOND GENERATION REFORMS: ARUN JAITLEY

The Narendra Modi government systematically and consistently introduced the much needed second-generation reforms said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Monday as he highlighted several game-changing decisions taken over the last five years. The senior BJP leader highlighted taxation reforms, measures to curb black money, enactment of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, demonetisation, steps to check inflation, promoting cooperative federalism, roll out of Ayushman Bharat scheme, social sector investment and infrastructure development as the government's game-changing decisions. Five years is not a long period in the life of a nation. It can, however, be a turning point in its direction for progress, he said and added the year 1991 was an important watershed in Indian history. Jaitley said the then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao was confronted with an economic crisis. The economic situation compelled reforms. Many in the Congress party lacked the conviction to support reforms. After the initial two years from 1991-1993, the Congress party became apologetic about the reforms. That is probably the reason why the efforts to erase the memory of Shri P V Narasimha Rao from Congress Party's contemporary history is still work in progress, he said. Jaitley said Prime Minister Modi's government was elected when India was already a part of the 'Fragile Five' and the world was predicting that India's 'I' will be knocked off from the 'BRICS'. The government had no options and it was committed to reforms. 'Reform or Perish' that was the challenge before the Indian economy. Therefore, the government systematically and consistently introduced several reforms spread over a five year period which will go down in India's economic history as the 'Second Generation' of reforms that were much needed, Jaitley said.

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22 STATES COVERED, PM NARENDRA MODI TO HIT POLL TRAIL FROM MARCH 28

After covering 22 states touching over 100 Lok Sabha constituencies in two months, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to formally hit the campaign trail on March 28 for the electoral battle that gets under way with the first phase of polling on April 11. Senior party leaders, including home minister Rajnath Singh, finance minnister Arun Jaitley and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, who head different poll-related teams, have been holding regular meetings with party leaders and state unit representatives to chalk out the campaign strategy. After his initial string of rallies, Modi had taken a break to focus on poll preparations, including selection of candidates and seat-sharing arrangements with allies. BJP chief Amit Shah addressed 45 rallies covering 130 LS seats till March 7, starting with his first address in Tripura on January 5.

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NCAER, NIPFP, BROOKINGS GET RS 16-CRORE GRANT FROM OMIDYAR NETWORK FOR RESEARCH ON PROPERTY RIGHTS

Omidyar Network India Tuesday said it will provide Rs 16 crore (USD 2.3 million) grant to Brookings India, NCAER and NIPFP to conduct research on issues related to property rights in the country. The grant would be utilised to create a multi-organisation research consortium that will focus on issues linked to secure rights to assets, Omidyar Network said in a statement. The Rs 16-crore fund includes an innovation fund of Rs 3.5 crore (USD 500,000) to back proposals from across the country. I expect that the work we do as a whole will add up to more than the sum of the parts. And as the consortium grows, we will be growing India's research capacity to deal with challenging land issues. Our own NCAER Land Policy Initiative will break new ground on gauging how the Indian states are doing on modernising their land records. said Shekhar Shah. Shamika Ravi, Director (Research) at Brookings India said well-defined and secure property rights are fundamental to the economic progress of a society.

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SUPREME COURT AGREES TO HEAR DEADLY DC SNIPER SHOOTINGS CASE

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider Virginia's plea to reinstate the life-without-parole sentence of a man who as a teenager participated in sniper shootings that terrorized the Washington, D.C., region in 2002. The justices said they will take up the state's appeal in the case of Lee Boyd Malvo, who was 17 when he and John Allen Muhammad fatally shot 10 people in Maryland, Virginia and Washington. Malvo was sentenced to life-without-parole terms in Virginia and in Maryland, and Muhammad was sentenced to death and was executed in 2009. Malvo was sentenced to four life terms for crimes he committed in Virginia. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled last year that while Malvo's life-without-parole sentences were legal when they were imposed, Supreme Court decisions that followed altered sentencing requirements for juvenile offenders. The appeals court judges said a resentencing would determine whether Malvo qualifies as one of the rare juvenile offenders who can be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole because his crimes reflect permanent incorrigibility. They said if his crimes instead reflect the transient immaturity of youth he's entitled to a sentence short of life without parole. The Supreme Court will review that decision. As is typical, the justices did not make any comment in agreeing to hear the case, which likely will be heard in the fall. Regardless of what the Supreme Court decides, Malvo isn't getting out of prison anytime soon. He isn't currently getting a new sentencing hearing in Maryland, where he struck a plea deal and was sentenced to six life-without-parole prison terms for shootings that took place in that state. A judge previously ruled that Malvo would not get new sentencing hearings in Maryland. Malvo has appealed. Malvo has been serving his sentences at Red Onion State Prison in Pound, Virginia.

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SARDAR VALLABHBHAI PATEL INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT BAGS THREE AWARDS FOR WORLD-CLASS SERVICES

The Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International (SPVI) Airport in Ahmedabad, Gujarat which is also known as Ahmedabad Airport has been awarded for its international-level services Recently, the airport has bagged a total of three international Airport Service Quality (ASQ) awards. All the three international awards have been awarded by the Airport Council International (ACI) for the year 2018. The categories for which the airport has been acknowledged include best environment and ambiance, best customer services, and best infrastructure and facilitation. The ASQ programme is the leading airport passenger service as well as benchmarking programme of the world. Recently, another incredible feat was achieved by another Indian airport- Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (KIAB). The Bengaluru Airport become the world’s first airport to clinch the ACI’s ASQ awards for both arrivals as well as departures. Interestingly, it is for the first time that the airport has won an ASQ award for arrivals, a category open to all airports across the world, that was introduced in the year 2018. The airport has also been recognized as the best Airport by size/ region in the 25-40 MPPA (million passengers per annum) category in the Asia-Pacific zone, according to a PTI report. According to the report, three quarters of the 100 busiest airports of the world are part of the ASQ programme, which means that over half of the world’s 8.3 billion travellers passed through an ASQ airport in the year 2018. Interestingly, a range of new award categories, recognizing excellence in segments of the customer experience was announced earlier this year. The categories have produced a diverse group of winners, illustrating the commitment to the customer experience of airports around the world, the report said.

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BENGALURU, CHENNAI, DELHI AMONG WORLD'S CHEAPEST CITIES TO LIVE IN: REPORT

Move over Singapore — the world's most expensive city has two new rivals. After topping the Economist Intelligence Unit's Worldwide Cost of Living Survey for five years, Asia's Lion City has been joined by Paris and Hong Kong in a tie at the top of the table. Zurich and Geneva rounded out the top five, while New York and Los Angeles reclaimed spots in the top 10 — ranking in seventh and 10th respectively — after slipping to 13th and 14th last year thanks to a weakening dollar. The trio of cities sharing the top spot are 7 per cent more expensive to live in than New York, according to the EIU, which compiles its list from a survey of 160 products and services across 93 countries. The Japanese port city of Osaka was another re-entry, moving up six spots to number five. Seoul (joint seventh place), Copenhagen (also seventh) and Tel Aviv (10th) round out the top 10 — which actually consists of 11 cities thanks to tied places. Weaker local currencies have pushed all five Australian and two New Zealand cities surveyed down in the ranking, the EIU said, accounting for Sydney's absence after it scraped into 10th position in last year's report. Outside the top 10, the EIU said the cost of living in Chinese cities remains relatively stable, while Southeast Asian destinations were moving up the ranks. One of the factors behind Asia's strong showing at the top of the table is that some Asian cities are among the world's priciest locations for general grocery shopping, according to the EIU. But while parts of Asia remain the most expensive places on Earth, the continent also makes several appearances at the bottom of the list. Within Asia, the best value for money has traditionally been offered by South Asian cities, particularly those in India and Pakistan, the EIU said. To an extent this remains true, and Bengaluru, Chennai, New Delhi and Karachi feature among the 10 cheapest locations surveyed.

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NEW ENGAGEMENT PLATFORM: NAMO APP A BIG CAMPAIGN AND FEEDBACK TOOL

The NaMo mobile application is proving to be a major campaign tool for the BJP in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls. The party has used it for conducting a large-scale survey to assess the popularity of its sitting MPs, distributing tickets, allocating tasks to its members online instead of sending physical letters and circulars, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s direct communication with members and even accepting donations online from as little as little as Rs 5 and selling Modi-branded merchandise worth crores. With more than 10 million downloads since its launch less than four years ago, the PM’s official mobile app has turned into an open platform aimed at ensuring large-scale citizen engagement, first-hand feedback and a workflow system for party workers. Responses from about 650,000 people across 502 constituencies, with the highest representation of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, to the ‘People’s Pulse’ survey run on the app have provided a key input to the BJP in finalising its candidates for the polls. The survey results indicate the MPs’ performance on matrices such as honesty, integrity, approachability, humility and popularity among youth and masses, said a BJP leader, who did not wish to be identified. From September 2018, the party started selling Modi-branded merchandise through the app and sales worth 5.2 crore were achieved within the first three months.

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CONGRESS APP GIVES 'SHAKTI' TO PARTY WORKERS

Who should be the chief minister of Rajasthan? Is Rafale a potent political issue? Should Congress align with AAP? These might sound like highly political questions but over the months Congress has posed these to its grassroot workers in remote villages through an e-platform coordinated from a medium-sized porta cabin in AICC headquarters at 24 Akbar Road in the capital. Aptly named Shakti or power, the platform has brought the corridors of power closer to the Congress workers This is Congress’ internal app of sorts which has connected 65 lakh workers and counting. The idea for an e-platform to connect with the workers came around the time when Rahul Gandhi took over the reins of the party. Praveen Chakravarty, says, Rahul ji gave a big hit at the plenary session in March 2018. He said that he wanted to break the walls between leaders and workers. He even used the word ‘Shakti’ a number of times then. He had already thought of this exercise and we were working on it. The workers were asked to register through SMS and their voter card and booth numbers. After they registered, they became registered Shakti members and the Congress had their unique data in its system. Shakti has been used for connecting with workers. Chakravarty says, Shakti is not an app. It is a platform. It is a closed platform meant only to connect with Congress workers and we know everything about the people who join it. We don’t want to sell any merchandise on it.

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UNAVAILABILITY OF CHEAP NATURAL GAS MAY PINCH DISTRIBUTORS: REGULATORY BOARD CHIEF

A squeeze in supply of cheap local natural gas in the future can erode the margins of city gas distributors but the business would remain viable due to the present price advantage gas has over petrol and diesel at present, state’s support for the cleaner fossil fuel and creation of an efficient gas ecosystem over time in the country, said the chief of downstream regulator. The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB), the downstream regulator, has worked overtime in a year to give away city gas distribution licences for 136 geographical areas, aimed at raising piped gas coverage to 70% of the country’s population from 20% now. Distributors face the risk of inadequate supply of cheap local gas — its production has stagnated for years and has claimants from several sectors. A tweak in domestic pricing formula or tax structure can make gas expensive. If cheap gas is not available, it will hurt implementation of projects. That goes without saying. But what are the chances of this fear fructifying? PNGRB chairman DK Sarraf told. Irrespective of the political party in power, the state support for the environment-friendly natural gas is unlikely to waver, Sarraf said. Natural gas is still a holy cow, he said, adding that natural gas would always have an advantage over petrol and diesel even after they are brought under the goods and services tax (GST). For a driver, compressed natural gas (CNG) turns out to be about 60% cheaper than petrol, and 40% cheaper than diesel, giving city gas distributors ample scope to accommodate future increases in natural gas price and yet stay profitable, Sarraf said. With services planned for so many licences areas, an efficient city gas ecosystem would evolve across the country and drive costs down for players, he said. Distributors’ demand for cheap local gas will rise roughly eightfold to about 95 million metric standard cubic meters a day (mmscmd) in about eight years, Sarraf said. This is a ballpark calculation factoring in the work programme committed by new licensees as well as the expected expansion by already operating players. India currently produces about 90 mmscmd of natural gas, of which only about 70 mmscmd is available for sale after flaring, loss and internal use by producers. Much of the incremental gas expected to be produced in the coming years will be outside of the government-set price formula, which keeps prices low. Local gas offered at market rates is likely to be priced closer to import rates, which is currently about double that of formula price.

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US SET TO BECOME THE WORLD'S BIGGEST OIL EXPORTER

The US shale revolution has made it to one of the world's largest energy producers and potentially the largest oil exporter globally within five years. A five-year outlook from the International Energy Agency (IEA) sees the US potentially overtaking energy giants such as Russia and even Saudi Arabia, the current largest exporter, by 2024. The US has emerged as a major energy exporting country and as such, will be very influential in terms of the flows of trade of energy in the next years to come with several implications for the geopolitics of energy, said Fatih Birol, the IEA's executive director. OPEC-led output cuts have stabilized the energy markets since a drop in prices in October 2018, but markets have remained under pressure from a glut in US supply. For context, until last year, the US was a net importer of energy products. The United States will lead oil-supply growth over the next six years, thanks to the incredible strength of its shale industry, triggering a rapid transformation of global oil markets, said the IEA. The US is set to become a net energy exporter by 2021, with its shale production rising by a record 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2018. It comes at a time where shale and liquefied natural gas is increasingly in demand with Asian countries, particularly China.

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PRIYANKA CHOPRA IN US MOST POWERFUL WOMEN LIST; JOINS OPRAH, MERYL STREEP

Global icon Priyanka Chopra Jonas has joined international celebrities including Oprah Winfrey and Meryl Streep in USA Today's list of 50 most powerful women in entertainment Honoured on getting featured in the list, Priyanka said in a statement: I feel privileged to share this platform with these amazing women who have each pushed through their own challenges and created their own realities and today stand shoulders above everyone in their chosen careers. It does give one a feeling of achievement. The list also included the names of singer Beyonce, television star Ellen Degeneres, Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence and international pop icon Jennifer Lopez among many others.

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PUBG MOBILE BAN: MAKERS SURPRISED, SAY TRYING TO UNDERSTAND LEGAL BASIS OF ARRESTS

After 10 people were arrested in Rajkot for playing the multiplayer battle royale game PUBG, the makers expressed surprise at the move by local authorities in Gujarat. PUBG Mobile reassures its players that they are on their side and are trying to understand the legal basis of the ban to find a reasonable solution. According to a report, the company has stated that the game is meant for entertainment purpose only and should be enjoyed in a healthy and responsible manner. The company in a statement said that it is surprised that the local authorities have banned people from playing the game. It added that the company is trying to understand the legal basis of such bans, adding that hopefully a constructive dialogue with relevant authorities to explain the objectives and urge them to withdraw the prohibition Moreover, the company added that it is working on the introduction of a healthy gameplay system in India to promote balanced as well as responsible gaming, including limiting play time for under-age players. Meanwhile, the Rajkot city police, between March 12 and 13, had arrested 10 persons, including six college students, for playing the game.

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‘DELETE FACEBOOK’ BROUGHT BACK BY WHATSAPP CO-FOUNDER, ADDS TO WORST TIMES FOR MARK ZUCKERBERG

Facebook saw what can be possibly termed as tumultuous times last week. It started with the proposal put across by Elizabeth Warren to break up tech companies, such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook. While Facebook was yet to comment on this foresight, it went down for billions of users worldwide, leading to a massive outrage on Twitter that consequently reignited the ‘Delete Facebook’ campaign This mishap was immediately followed by the unfortunate terror attack on New Zealand mosque, the course for which was live-streamed by the shooter. The company reeled against the backlash but one significant voice rose amid this chaos. Brian Acton, the co-founder of WhatsApp, who left Facebook in 2017 due to misaligned viewpoints over encryption and monetisation of the chat app, sounded off the ‘Delete Facebook’ campaign this time in his speech at Stanford University. Acton asked the students to get rid of Facebook, which currently owns WhatsApp. While this is not the first time Acton enthusiastically echoed a sentiment many others believe could be a beginning of the downfall of Facebook, he emphasised over how tech companies are failing to deliver when it comes to data privacy, social responsibility, and ethics. At Stanford University, Acton not only told students to get rid of Facebook, but he also shared that he does not regret selling WhatsApp to Facebook, even though he was initially reluctant. You go back to this Silicon Valley culture and people say, ‘Well, could you have not sold?’ and the answer is no, Acton was quoted as saying in a report by BuzzFeed. He said he was thoughtful of the 50 employees back then, as well as the investors and his minority stake that would not have made any difference to the decision. But his decision to sell the privacy of his app’s (WhatsApp) users for profit is something he says he lives with every day. His concern is essentially about the impending merger of three Facebook platforms – WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook – which CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed earlier this year in a blog post. End-to-end encryption stands on the principle of the inability of any third party or even the owner to intercept the contents being shared on the messaging service Integrating the apps will be done so with the help of a method that Facebook says will increase encryption on all three of them. Moreover, the plan to merge the three services comes close on the heels of Facebook’s other plan – monetising WhatsApp. It has been confirmed by no less than four-five company officials that WhatsApp will eventually serve advertisements to its users. Facebook will tweak the WhatsApp Status feature to do so, however, the complete blueprint is unavailable as of now. Instagram and the marquee Facebook app already bear advertisements that users cannot opt out of.

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BROTHER OF BEZOS' LOVER SOLD BILLIONAIRE'S TEXTS TO US MEDIA FOR $200,000

Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos and his allies have publicly speculated about how the National Enquirer acquired racy texts he sent to his girlfriend, including at one point hinting Saudi Arabia or the White House may have been involved. The reality is simpler: Michael Sanchez, the brother of Mr. Bezos’ lover, sold the billionaire’s secrets for $200,000 to the Enquirer’s publisher, said people familiar with the matter. The inside story of the deal between American Media LLC and Mr. Sanchez, brother of Lauren Sanchez, answers many of the central questions in a high-profile fight between the nation’s best-known tabloid and the world’s richest man, including how the Enquirer obtained Bezos texts and photos, for how much and why the spat became so bitter and public. Mr. Sanchez said he didn’t want to dignify the Journal’s reporting on the contract he struck. He described the reporting on the contract as old rumors from anonymous sources. Mr. Sanchez denied sending the many penis selfies but declined to comment on whether he provided photos of Mr. Bezos to the Enquirer. The deal caused arguments at American Media before the Enquirer published its January story about the affair, these people said. A blowup in a restaurant between American Media Chief Executive David Pecker and his general counsel for media led the lawyer to leave the publisher immediately. The Enquirer approached the Amazon chief for comment on Jan. 7, according to people familiar with the matter. Two days later, Mr. Bezos tweeted that he and his wife MacKenzie were splitting up after 25 years. The Enquirer’s next print edition wasn’t scheduled for publication for several days, and its editors rushed the Bezos story online that night and into print with a headline: BEZOS’ DIVORCE! THE CHEATING PHOTOS THAT ENDED HIS MARRIAGE. Despite his qualms, Mr. Pecker approved the $200,000 deal with Mr. Sanchez that had been negotiated by American Media’s chief content officer, Mr. Howard; its general counsel for media, Cameron Stracher; and others, said people familiar with contract. The amount—higher than the company typically pays sources—reflected the significance American Media placed on Mr. Sanchez’s information.

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‘NOT TOO LATE TO GET ‘REAL CHANGE’ TO BREXIT DEAL,’ SAYS FORMER BRITISH MINISTER BORIS JOHNSON

Former British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday it was not too late for the government to get real change to Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal and cautioned against holding another parliamentary vote on the agreement this week. Johnson, who was a figurehead of a campaign for Britain to leave the European Union in a 2016 referendum and might influence other lawmakers on which way to vote over May’s deal, asked in his column in the Telegraph newspaper whether there was a way forward to break the impasse of Brexit in parliament. Perhaps, he answered. There is an EU summit this week. It is not too late to get real change to the backstop. It would be absurd to hold the vote before that has even been attempted. He also said May should outline her strategy for talks on the future relationship with the EU to reassure understandably doubtful MPs (members of parliament) by answering some basic questions. May is expected to hold the third vote on her Brexit deal this week after suffering heavy defeats, and she is hoping to win over lawmakers, many of whom like Johnson fear the so-called Northern Irish backstop could trap Britain in the EU’s sphere. The backstop is an insurance policy to stop any return of border controls between the British province of Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland if a future trading deal fails to remove the need for them.

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CHOWKIDAR EFFECT: BJP MOPS UP BULK OF PRIVATE SECURITY DONATIONS

With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) mobilising itself on social media and on the ground by invoking the chowkidar (watchman) tag, the move has both political and business underpinnings. For one, private security companies -– a booming sector in India -- have donated varying amounts of money to the BJP. A look at the contribution reports of political parties shows that while real estate companies donated both to BJP and Congress, private security sector donations were unique to the BJP. In 2017-18 at least seven private security companies donated to a sum of almost Rs 61 lakh to the party. The biggest donor among these was Security & Intelligence Service (SIS) – one India’s biggest private security companies. It donated Rs 50 lakh to BJP in 2017-18. There were other small security companies which donated as little as Rs 21,000 to the saffron party. Although donations by private security companies are unique to BJP, they are a drop in the ocean of Rs 438 crore donations received by the party in 2017-18. High-profile BJP supporters like Baba Ramdev have also taken to the private security business. A November 2017 Ficci report estimated that India’s Rs 57,000 crore private security market could touch Rs 99,000 crore by 2020. The private security industry in India employs 8.5 million people. In January 2017, the Modi government also recategorised private security workers as skilled under the Minimum Wages Act. Earlier they were classified as semi-skilled workers. With this, the minimum wages of private security guards (or the watch and ward sector) has shot up to Rs 667 a day from Rs 247 a day, which has made the industry attractive to youth especially from India’s rural areas. The report states that the private security industry in the country will generate around three million additional jobs by 2020.

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2.98 LAKH VOTERS' NAMES IN GUJARAT TO BE DELETED FROM ROLL

The election commission has started deleting names of 2.98 lakh voters from the final roll. The block-level officers have sent the list of voters who died or migrated from their address registered with it. The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) in Gujarat Dr S Murali Krishna said, There are 2.98 lakh names in state which have either died or have migrated. The names have not been deleted yet, but the process will start soon. We have not been doing this suo motu, but the block level officers have followed prescribed procedure before recommending the names to be deleted. The officers have put the notice on the residential address of the voters, in case they have migrated permanently or not found at the registered address. These also include the applications been filed under rules of election commission for deletion of the names. The applications were received during the period of October 15, 2018 to March 10 of this year, the CEO added. The controversy was created in the elections of local government authorities that were held in December 2015. Names of voters were deleted from the list at many places, including Ahmedabad city and the huge ruckus was created. The election commission, however, will accept the applications for the addition of names in the voters' list and the procedure will go on till March 24 that is ten days before the notification issued for polls in Gujarat. The notification will be issued on April 4 for the Lok Sabha polls in Gujarat that are to be held on April 23.

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AT LEAST 700 MN INDIANS WILL GET INTO CITIES BY 2050, NEED TO REDUCE WASTE NOW: NITI AAYOG CEO

Municipal authorities are failing at their basic jobs which is managing waste, said Amitabh Kant. Kant criticised the municipal authorities for the dismal situation of waste management in India. Municipalities are not doing their jobs, and if they fail at doing their basic job of managing waste, they need to be voted out. Without mincing his words, the planning body chief said their primary job is to keep the areas under their jurisdiction clean but instead they are getting into the business of construction. Their one point plan has to be waste. But they are getting into building constructions and mayors have allowed them to go haywire. He suggested that the best officers of states need to be posted as municipal commissioners and they should be given tenure to perform. Making a larger point about the future of waste management in the country vis-a-vis rapid urbanisation, Kant emphasised that as of now India generates at least 71 million tonnes of waste every day and by 2050, nearly 700 million people will be getting into the process of urbanisation. The urbanisation process has ended in Europe, US and China. In India, it has just begun. If we are generating 71 million tonnes of waste every day, it will only increase unless we reduce waste and ensure segregation at source at household-level. Municipal authorities need to be held accountable, he said. This is where the need for a circular economy comes into the equation. Founder of Chintan Bharati Chaturvedi said that people don’t yet understand what a circular economy means. ‘Oh yeah I recycle’, people say when they are asked. But that’s not the point of a circular economy, she iterated. You just have to reduce waste first. And to implement a circular economy, you don’t have to disrupt your lives completely, she added. Manbir Sodhi, who was one of the experts at the conference, asked, Can’t we continue to not close the loop? And how do we do it in a way that doesn’t have negative effects? He said the traditional circular economy concept of ‘take, make and break’ prevalent for the last 150 years is old now. Because in a circular economy, you look at repairing materials, you look at serviceability, then take the materials used, break them down, and reuse them again, and lastly recover materials from the forward stream and use the materials in the reverse loop to attain similar levels of efficiency, said Sodhi. There is no reason why the ‘repair economy’ can’t be stronger. One of the hurdles towards achieving a circular economy and attain waste reduction is a lack of policy implementation. And Malati Gadgil, former CEO, SWaCH, Pune, believes that while policy changes need to happen, their implementation and monitoring is important. Policy changes also need to be incremental and we need to adopt a systems approach and ditch the silo approach to waste management, she said. Amitabh Kant warns that unless we reduce our waste, we might be in much bigger trouble than right now. This is not just about waste, said Kant. It’s about the survival of our race. If we keep creating waste what will happen when another 700 million Indians will get into cities by 2050?

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BS-VI CARS TO BE COSTLIER BY 3-7 %, TWO-WHEELERS BY 10-15%

Under the new emission standard regime of BS VI, prices of passenger vehicles (PVs) are expected to increase by 3-7 per cent trucks by 10 -12 per cent and two-wheelers by 10-15 per cent from April 2020. While the discounting scheme by dealers during the pre-buying period is expected to be higher, manufacturers believe that unlike in BS IV implementation, the transition to the new regime would be smoother considering that it is well anticipated and they have time to manage the manufacturing and inventory. Anuj Sethi, said the price increase will be higher for diesel cars This will increase the attractiveness of petrol variants, he added. The share of diesel variants is about 23% of overall PV sales for FY18 (as compared to 47% in FY13). Crisil projects two-wheeler prices to increase by about Rs 5,000-Rs 10,000 per vehicle (10-15%). As far as CV is concerned, discounts for BS-IV vehicles will be higher closer to March 2020 as OEMs will look to clear off BS IV inventory (similar to what happened during BS III to BS IV transition). Crisil expects growth to slow down in FY21. Commercial vehicle demand in FY20 will depend on growth in end-use sectors like construction, mining, e-Commerce, agriculture, manufacturing and the supply situation, which got a boost from the Increased Axle load regulation. The industry has already seen the impact of increased axle load regulation in H2 of FY19, as it led to increased supply for a given demand, thereby affecting the volume of new commercial vehicles. Actual commercial vehicle volume in FY20 will be a function of this supply-demand balance. The industry expects single-digit growth in commercial vehicle volumes in FY21.

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SUGAR PRODUCTION UP 6% AT 27 MILLION TONNES TILL MARCH 15

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YOGI CLAIMS 1.7 MN NEW JOBS, RS 5 TRN INVESTMENT PROPOSALS UNDER HIS RULE

Amid the opposition’s oft-repeated rant about alleged jobless growth under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath claimed more than 1.7 million new jobs were created in the state over the last two years. Adityanath, who completed two years in office, claimed 1.5 million fresh employment opportunities were created in the private and public sector, while about 2,25,000 new jobs were generated in the various state government departments, including police. CM claimed after coming to power, his government had garnered investment proposals totalling Rs 5 trillion, of which Rs 1.5 trillion worth of investment had already been flowed over the last two years. He claimed under the previous BSP (2007-12) and SP (2012-17) regimes, investments worth nearly Rs 55,000 crore each were received, thus totalling Rs 1.10 trillion during 10 years, which his dispensation had overachieved by 150% in 2 years. He said the state’s revenues from Goods and Services Tax (GST), excise and other heads had also posted healthy growth, while the fiscal deficit was also under the mandated 3% of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP). The CM informed about 73 hardened criminals were killed in armed encounters with police, while about 6 cops were laid down their lives in the line of duty since 2017. Adityanath further referred to the flagship crop loan waiver scheme of Rs 36,000 crore and sugarcane payments totalling more than Rs 57,000 crore over the last two years, to drive home the point of his pro-farmer agenda especially ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha polls starting next month. The previous SP government could not ensure sugarcane payments of Rs 55,000 crore during its full 5 years, which we surpassed in just 2 years.

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NO RIOTS IN U.P. SINCE BJP CAME TO POWER: CM ADITYANATH

Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday said the State had not seen a single riot after the BJP came to power and his two-year government had shown zero tolerance towards crime and criminals. Presenting a report card of his government, which completes two years in office, he said the BJP-led State government had been able to change the perception about the State. According to the Chief Minister, the secure atmosphere in the country had become an example for the rest of the country.

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HEALTH MINISTRY REVIEWS THE PREPAREDNESS ON WEST NILE FEVER

The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare with the officials from National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) reviewed the current situation, state preparedness and action taken to deal with West Nile Fever (WNF) in Mallapuram district, Kerala. MOHFW deputed a multi-disciplinary public health team to Mallapuram District to investigate various epidemiological aspects of West Nile Virus in the district and State. The State has been advised to follow the National Vector Borne Disease Control Program (NVBDCP) guidelines of personal protective measures to prevent mosquito bites This guideline is available at NVBDCP website (nvbdcp.gov.in or nvbdcp.gov.in/WriteReadData/l892s/JE-AES-Prevention-Control(NPPCJA).pdf). The Ministry has also recommended vector surveillance and control to be carried out in coordination with NVBDCP. All cases of JE/AES are to be investigated as per guidelines of JE/ AES and also tested for West Nile Virus. Further, the community is to be sensitized through IEC campaigns on use of personal protective measures to prevent mosquito bites as per NVBDCP Guidelines. West Nile Fever is a mosquito borne zoonotic disease caused by a flavivirus -West Nile Virus (WNV). This virus is related to viruses that cause Japanese Encephalitis, yellow fever and St. Louis encephalitis. Human infection is most often due to bites from infected mosquitoes. To date, no human-to-human transmission of WNV through casual contact has been documented. Infection with WNV is either asymptomatic (no symptoms) in around 80% of infected people, or can lead to West Nile fever or severe West Nile disease. Testing for West Nile Virus is available at the National Institute of Virology, Pune and National Institute of Virology, Allapuzha. Facility for xeno-diagnosis with respect to infection among vectors is available at VCRC, Kottayam. NCDC branch in Kozhikode, in coordination with VCRC, Kottayam, will provide assistance for vector surveillance and xeno-diagnosis in the vector as well as prepare and disseminate a standardised hospital management protocol of AES case management to be followed by all hospitals catering to cases of AES.

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MODI TO INTERACT WITH PEOPLE ON MARCH 31 OVER HIS 'MAIN BHI CHOWKIDAR' CAMPAIGN

Intensifying his 'Main Bhi Chowkidar' (I too am watchman) campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 31 will interact with people who have pledged their support to the campaign, from 500 places across the country. Ravi Shankar Prasad said the campaign has become a people's movement as the 'Main Bhi Chowkidar' hashtag has been tweeted 20 lakh times and had 1680 crore impressions. Replying to a question if the campaign was a counter to Congress chief Rahul Gandhi's 'chowkidar chor hai' (watchman is the thief) barb, he rejected the suggestion and asserted that Modi in his campaign for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls had projected himself as the first servant and 'chowkidaar' of the country.

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HARDIK PATEL STARTS #BEROJGAR CAMPAIGN TO COUNTER #CHOWKIDAR

As the election campaign between the BJP and the Congress is heating up on the ground, it is equally gaining the momentum on the social media. Following the #Chowkidar trend by BJP, Hardik Patel – who recently joined Congress – started #Berojgar trend changing his twitter handle to Berojgar Hardik Patel, highlighting lack of jobs among the youth in the country. Soon, his supporters also started putting 'Berojgar' in their Twitter handles. One of his supporter Aryan Parmar twitted that the country is facing the worst joblessness in the past 45 years. 22-year old Aryan said that he has completed his Bachelors in Computer Application (BCA) but is unable to find a job. Patel's supporters also advocated that others should also do the same. However, soon BJP supporters started the counter-attack. One Tapan Thakkar said that how can Hardik claim to be jobless if he is travelling in a Toyota Fortuner.

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Thanks & Regards,
CS Meetesh Shiroya

Corporate Updates

Wednesday 20 March 2019

GENERAL UPDATES 20.03.2019

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