GENERAL UPDATES 25.04.2019

NEW RS 200 CURRENCY NOTES COMING SOON, SAYS RBI

The Reserve Bank of India is set to introduce new Rs 200 currency notes in the Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series soon. In a notification released on April 23, RBI said that the new notes will be similar to the Rs 200 banknotes that are already in circulation. The big difference will be that the new notes will bear the signature of RBI governor Shaktikanta Das The Reserve Bank also clarified that the notes already issued by it will remain legal tender. The design of these notes is similar in all respects to ₹ 200 banknotes in Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series. All banknotes in the denomination of ₹ 200 issued by the Reserve Bank in the past will continue to be legal tender, the RBI notification read. In another notification, it announced that new Rs 500 currency notes with Das' signature would also be issued soon.

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ONLINE SERVICE SOON TO HELP VICTIMS OF CHIT FUND SCAMS RECOVER MONEY

The government will soon launch an online facility for retail investors to claim their deposits from chitfund companies and NBFCs. The decision has been taken to help those small investors who have been duped by dubious companies who collect money from small investors but don’t pay back to them upon maturity of deposit certificates. The Investment Education and Protection Authority (IEPF) under the ministry of corporate affairs will soon commission online service for aggrieved investors The online service will directly collect the information from investors. It will collect information like when their deposits have matured and still pending with NBFCs, chitfund companies for repayment or payment of interests. This online service is important as millions of small and marginal investors have been duped by thousands of crores of rupees by dubious companies. Supreme Court and SEBI have also cracked down on companies like Sahara, Saradha and Rose Valley for not refunding the investors money. Most of the complaints against chitfund and NBFCs relate to nonpayment of funds upon maturity. This facility will only collect essential details of investors and then the IEPF will take action against these companies to ensure compliance with provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 and other legal provisions. IEPF has already recovered over Rs 1,500 crore from Peerless that will be refunded to depositors. The IEPF has also issued more than 4,000 notices to companies under section 206(4) of the companies act, asking them to provide information about the unclaimed funds pending with them for over 7 years. As per the law, NBFCs, chit fund companies and such entitites are required to transfer the unclaimed amount pending with them for seven years to the government.

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RBI MAY JOIN GLOBAL PEERS IN BUYING MORE GOLD

India’s central bank is likely to join counterparts in Russia and China scooping up gold this year, adding to its record holdings and lending support to worldwide bullion demand as top economies diversify their reserves. Reserve Bank of India’s purchases are part of a wider picture across developing economies that are looking at de-dollarizing their foreign-exchange reserves, according to Ross Strachan at Capital Economics Ltd. The RBI’s buying trend can be sustained for a number of years in relatively small quantities, as part of a long-term diversification, he said. The RBI may purchase 1.5 million ounces in 2019, or about 46.7 tons, according to Howie Lee, an economist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp., with an outlook based on extrapolating amounts bought in the first two months of this year. The RBI increased its stash by about 42 tons last year, and after adding more in January and February, the country’s gold reserves now stand at a record high of almost 609 tons, according to data. Russia bought 274 tons in 2018 and has added more this year, while China’s central bank is on a renewed buying spree that began in December. Global official sector gold purchases could reach 700 tons in 2019 led by these countries as well as Kazakhstan, Iran, and Turkey, according to Citigroup Inc. Heightened geopolitical and economic uncertainty pushed central banks to diversify their reserves and focus on investing in safe and liquid assets, with governments worldwide adding 651.5 tons of bullion last year -- the second-highest total of purchases on record, according to the World Gold Council. Further inflows -- expected to run as high as 2018 as China, Russia, and Kazakhstan buy --should also be supportive of prices, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Spot gold has lost about 5.6 percent since a peak in February as equities rallied. The trade war between the U.S. and China has disrupted supply chains, whipsawed markets and weighed on the world economy. In March, Donald Trump announced he plans to end key trade preferences for India and Turkey, and notified Congress of his intent to terminate benefits, starting a 60-day countdown before the president can take the action on his own authority. The rising U.S. deficit and the Federal Reserve signaling a pause on interest rate hikes could be factors that may potentially compel the RBI to add more to its gold holdings, according to Shekhar Bhandari, the Mumbai-based business head of global transaction banking and precious metals at Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. India’s foreign-exchange reserves are improving steadily and foreign fund inflows are strong, hence buying U.S. Treasuries and gold will help keep the rupee on the weaker side and give a boost to exports, he said. The Indian rupee, which was Asia’s worst-performing major currency in 2018, has been strengthening in recent months due to strong foreign inflows into the equity and debt markets. Investors, though, remain wary of risks in the form of an increase in oil prices, a swing in global risk appetite and federal elections in the country. There’s room for more diversification -- while India’s gold holdings are the 10th-largest by country, they account for only 6.4 percent of its reserves, compared with more than 70 percent in Germany and the U.S., WGC data show. This is an argument for further buying, said Carsten Fritsch. It is too speculative to say how much gold the RBI will buy this year. It could be more than last year, though.

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HC TO HEAR PLEA FOR REFUND, ALTERNATIVE FLIGHTS TO JET PASSENGERS NEXT WEEK

The Delhi High Court Wednesday said it will hear next week the plea seeking direction to the Civil Aviation Ministry and the DGCA to ensure refunds or provide alternative travel mode for passengers who have booked tickets with Jet Airways, which has temporarily suspended all its domestic and international flights. A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice A J Bhambhani however remarked that it (plea) is filed only for publicity, come on May 1. The bench observed that the petition was all in the media reports even before coming up for hearing in the court. The plea, filed by activist Bejon Kumar Misra, said the sudden suspension of air services of Jet Airways has resulted in a major crisis for the passengers who were not informed about it earlier. The application sought direction to the ministry and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to adopt prompt redressal mechanism for all affected passengers to access full refund of air tickets with reasonable compensation or arrange alternative mode of travel for them to reach their destination as an emergency exercise. Citing media report, it said more than Rs 360 crore of the passengers/consumers' hard earned money is under threat due to non-refund of ticket value.

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JET AIRWAYS EMPLOYEES APPROACH RAJNATH SINGH TO REVIVE AIRLINE

The employees of Jet Airways have sought Rajnath Singh's intervention for revival the temporarily grounded airline. The Lucknow-based employees of the airline wrote to Singh, who is contesting from the Lucknow constituency in the Lok Sabha elections. The letter says that it is essential to revive the airline to save 22,000 jobs apart from other associated business. Such a big airline going down will leave a huge vacuum behind, and a national brand of international repute is about to collapse. Passengers are already facing the brunt of it and are stranded all over the world, the letter read. It further said that as a result of the temporary grounding, airline ticket prices have sky-rocketed. We employees are doing our best to keep up the highest standards of safety and professionalism in these trying times. But even after all our efforts, we are not having visibility of the planned BLRP (bank-led resolution plan) and therefore it is our humble plea to take this matter under your able guidance for an immediate action for the revival of this entire system which would benefit passengers at large, especially in these times of maximum air-travel.

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CALL DROPS, SPEED HAUNT TELECOM COMPANIES AS DATA USE RISES

Consumers in India’s metro and bigger cities are facing ever slowing data speeds and frequent call drops with congestion in telecom networks running at around 85-90% of capacity and still struggling to cope with the surging consumption of data, driven by low prices. Average data consumption jumped to 9.5 GB a user from 2.5 GB while voice consumption surged to 820 minutes per user from 400 minutes last year. Voice calls are increasingly being routed as data calls. But the industry only managed to install 50,000-60,000 cell sites in 2018 compared with the need for over 100,000 cell sites to keep pace, industry experts said. Mobile phone companies and network equipment vendors admit to the mismatch -- especially in urban areas -- in demand and supply, but blame it on their inability to install telecom towers as needed. They further said that telcos are using technology to try and improve service quality. Limited by the spectrum one has, and unlimited on demand is very visible whoever may say whatever, all networks across the country are practically choked. People like to believe that they are using one eighth of capacity or 50% of the capacity -- speeds would have been way beyond if networks were relatively free, Balesh Sharma, told. Rajan Mathews, said that the principal bottleneck that the industry is facing is Right of Way (RoW) clearances for installing new cell sites. Every telco is facing this in a few spots, we are running out of capacity, he said. Doug Suttles said that 4G speeds on average across India have shown limited improvement over a year -- the average 4G LTE download speed in India across all mobile carriers was 10.58 Mbps in Q1 2019 compared with 9.84 Mbps in Q1 2018. Mathews said that the industry could see data consumption increase a further 15-20% in 2019, while voice consumption is expected to stabilize at the current levels, with another 100,000 towers needed for service quality to improve. Randeep Sekhon said that the telco is adding more spectrum for 4G in metro circles by refarming of airwaves in 2100 Mhz and 900 Mhz bands -- historically used for 2G and 3G - for 4G use. This will also decongest 2G/3G networks that carry a bulk of voice traffic and will also contribute to an increase in traffic VoLTE besides boosting indoor coverage.

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OOKLA SAYS 4G SPEEDS IMPROVED ONLY A BIT

Ookla, a US-based data-speed tester, said 4G speeds have improved in India, but only marginally and at a slower pace than expected. This small increase in data speeds isn’t enough to enhance user experience, even as service quality is also being affected due to network congestion, Doug Suttles told. In January-March 2019, the average 4G LTE download speed in India across all mobile carriers was 10.58 Mbps compared with 9.84 Mbps in the same quarter of 2018. On the coverage side, 4G was 89.8% available across India in the first quarter of 2019, as per Ookla. While average mobile speeds are not the fastest we’ve seen, it is a good sign that in most locations in the country, 4G is available to users in some capacity, Suttles said. Networks are extremely complex entities whose performance is impacted by everything from quality of physical infrastructure to the geographical regions they are placed. India in particular has unique challenges due to the country’s large geographic size and population, Suttles said.

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VRS PACKAGE MAY SAVE RS 1,080 CRORE IN ANNUAL SALARY TAB: MTNL CHIEF

The Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) being proposed by the telecom department could save Rs 1,080 crore in annual wage expenses for Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), and the telco expects about 9,500 employees to opt for the scheme as and when it comes up, according to its chairman. The Department of Telecom (DoT) has prepared a rescue plan for the distressed PSUs, MTNL and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), in form of a revival package that entails components like VRS, asset monetisation, and allocation of 4G spectrum. According to sources, the revival plan may be taken up by the cabinet soon. PK Purwar told recently that the telecom corporation expects annual salary expenses to reduce by Rs 1,080 crore, from the current about Rs 2,500 crore - bringing it to far more managable levels of 40-50 per cent of revenue. We are expecting that nearly 50 per cent of the targeted employees may (opt for it) 19,000 employees will be offered and we expect that number of people who will opt for it will be roughly 9,500. We will be saving about Rs 1,080 crore annually in salaries if VRS package is taken by 9,500 people, Purwar said. He asserted that there is no proposal for lay-offs, and opting for VRS, too, would be purely at the discretion of employees who are eligible for it. Ailing state-run telecom firms MTNL and BSNL have asked for a voluntary retirement scheme for employees on the 'Gujarat model'. Under the model, an amount equivalent to 35 days of salary for each completed year of service, and 25 days of salary for each year of service left till retirement, is offered.

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NO AIRTEL, YOU CANNOT CHARGE ME FOR PACK VALIDITY AGAINST MY WILL

Airtel is now charging its prepaid subscriber Rs 23 to automatically renew the validity for incoming and outgoing calls provided under ‘special recharge’ packs. This means that if the tariff on your Airtel prepaid mobile number has expired and you do not wish to extend it, the company will forcefully deduct Rs 23 from your account to extend the validity to 28 days, an Airtel customer care executive explained. The leading telcos in India drew heavy criticism over their desperate yet monopolistic measures to compel their subscribers to keep paying for their connection in the form of ‘special recharge’ These special recharges provide subscribers with validity, talk time, and other benefits including data and SMS. While such tariff sachets have been available for a long time, the mandatory nature of the new counterparts restricts subscribers from enjoying incoming and outgoing calls, even if there is sufficient balance in their account, when the validity expires. The subscribers are required to top their accounts up with an eligible validity pack to save their number from suspension. Airtel was one of the telcos pioneering this change in the country’s telecom subscriber realm. It ascribed the change in Terms of Service to the loss of subscribers and the dip in ARPU. Initially, it alerted the subscriber to recharge their number if the validity of outgoing and incoming calls is nearing its expiry. There were no compulsory charges incurred to your account. The charge of Rs 23 seems unreasonable, especially when it merely extends the validity sans any voice or data benefits. The usual ‘special recharge’ packs come with either benefit with a validity of at least 1 day or higher.

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MADRAS HIGH COURT LIFTS BAN ON TIKTOK

In what will be seen as a massive relief for TikTok, a social media app owned by Chinese company ByteDance, the Madras High Court lifted the ban on its downloads that it had originally put in its April 3 judgement. Order comes after the Madras High Court (HC) was ordered by the Supreme Court, on 22 April, to pass an interim order on the ban of TikTok in the country. The Chinese parent company had appealed to the apex court against the high court's order. Amicus Curiae Arvind Datar, said that we cannot have a system where something which is statutorily permissible becomes judicially impermissible. Banning is not the solution Rights of legitimate users must be protected, emphasised Datar. On Monday, the Supreme Court heard the case and directed the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court to hear a plea filed by ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns and operates TikTok. As per the SC directive, if the High Court fails to hear the case, the interim ban on the app in India will then be vacated.

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TTD CASH DEPOSITS IN BANKS CROSSES RS 12,000 CR MARK

The fixed deposits put in several banks by Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), that governs the famous hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala, has crossed Rs 12,000 crore mark a temple official said. The deposits made with several nationalised and private banks by TTD has crossed the Rs 12,000 crore mark with an annual estimated interest of about Rs 845 crore, he told. The temple official said the over 2,000-year-old Lord Venkateswara temple was growing richer by the year with an annual income of about Rs 31 billion with the devotee footfall of about 25 million from all over the world. TTD has about 8.7 tonnes of pure gold, besides nearly 550 kg of gold jewellery set with stones offered by devotees in the Hundi at the hill shrine, he said. The gold jewellery would also be converted into pure gold sooner or later, the official said. Of the total 8.7 tonnes of gold, 1,938 kg is with the Indian Overseas Bank as deposits and 5,387 kg with the State Bank of India, while 1,381 kg came back to the TTD treasury recently from the Punjab National Bank after the end of the deposit period.

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FEE FOR RTI APPLICATION SHALL BE SOUGHT AS PER RTI RULES ONLY: SC

The Supreme Court has held that if a person seeks information under the provisions of the Right to Information, then payment has to be sought under the Right to Information (Regulation of Fees and Cost) Rules, 2005 only The bench comprising Justice NV Ramana and Justice S. Abdul Nazeer was considering an appeal by Institute Of Companies Secretaries Of India against Delhi High Court judgment which had quashed the Guideline framed by it prescribing fee of Rs.500 per answer sheet payable for supply of certified copy(ies) of answer book(s) and Rs.450 per answer book. The High Court had made this order in a petition filed by a candidate (Final CS Exam) (Paras Jain), who had made an application under the Right to Information Act for inspection of his answer sheets and had also sought certified copies of the same from the ICSI He was asked to pay the fee as per the guidelines. The bench noted that the guidelines, framed by its statutory council, are to govern the modalities of its day-to-day concerns and to effectuate smooth functioning of its responsibilities under the Company Secretaries Act, 1980. It said: Be that as it may, Guideline no.3 of the appellant does not take away from Rule 4 The Right to Information (Regulation of Fees and Cost) Rules, 2005 which also entitles the candidates to seek inspection and certified copies of their answer scripts. In our opinion, the existence of these two avenues is not mutually exclusive and it is up to the candidate to choose either of the routes. Thus, if a candidate seeks information under the provisions of the Right to Information, then payment has to be sought under the Rules therein, however, if the information is sought under the Guidelines of the appellant, then the appellant is at liberty to charge the candidates as per its guidelines. The bench, however, set aside the order quashing the Guideline framed by the ICSI It also gave liberty to the Institute to make a representation to the Government for enhancing the fee prescribed under the Right to Information Act.

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IEPF AUTHORITY IN A MAJOR SUCCESS RECOVERS RS 1514 CR OF DEPOSITORS’ MONEY

In a major success, the IEPF Authority has been able to enforce The Peerless General Finance and Investment Company Limited to transfer deposits worth about Rs 1514 Cr to IEPF This depositor’s money was pending with the company for the last 15 years. The matter came to the notice of the Authority recently and within a short time due to the proactive action of the Authority the said sum has now been transferred to IEPF. This amount was taken by the company by issuing about 1.49 Cr Deposit Certificates and include more than 1 Cr individual investors. The data submitted by company reveals that 50.77 percent of the total amount was taken in form of deposit certificates of value of Rs. 2000 or less. Number wise such certificates form 85.32 percent of total number of certificates issued. The majority of these investors are common citizens belonging to lower and middle income group including daily wage earners etc. Geographically, the investors involved belong to 30 states and Union territories of the Country. Majority of the investors belong to the state of West Bengal. The IEPF Authority is in the process of commissioning an online facility to collect primary information directly from retail investors about the deposits which have matured and are still pending with various entities for repayment or payment of interests. The online report will capture only essential fields with various dropdown options. The Authority may take various steps to make all such companies and other entities comply with provisions of Companies Act or other allied related legal provisions The Authority has also acted against companies that have transferred the unpaid dividend amount to IEPF but have failed to transfer shares in accordance with section 124(6) of the Act. In some other cases, the companies are showing unclaimed and unpaid amounts in their Balance Sheets but have not transferred such amounts to IEPF even after seven years. Based on above, the authority has issued more than 4000 notices to the companies under section 206(4) of the Act for calling information. It has been noticed that there are many companies including NBFC companies which have neither refunded these amounts back to their entitled investors nor have transferred such amounts to IEPF even after expiry of the period of seven years. The size of IEPF Fund has almost doubled within one year with accumulated corpus of about Rs 4138 Cr. The companies have also transferred about 65.02 Cr valuing Rs 21,232.15 Cr.

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PM KISAN: CENTRE PAYS AROUND RS 10.5 K CR TOWARDS 1ST, 2ND TRANCHE

Around 3.10 crore small farmers have so far received the first tranche of Rs 2,000 each under the PM-Kisan scheme and 2.10 crore peasants have got the second instalment as well, costing Rs 10,500 crore to the exchequer, a senior Agriculture Ministry official said Tuesday. Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Centre announced the Rs 75,000-crore Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) scheme under which Rs 6,000 per year would be paid to 12 crore farmers in three equal instalments. However, the Election Commission of India (ECI) allowed the Union Agriculture Ministry to transfer the first and second tranche of the payment to all those beneficiaries registered under the scheme before the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) that kicked in from March 10. About 4.76 crore farmers got registered under the PM-Kisan scheme before March 10. We have been able to disburse first installment to 3.10 crore farmers and the second installment to 2.10 crore farmers so far, the ministry official told. Total Rs 10,500 crore has been disbursed so far, comprising the first and second instalments, he said.

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EC TO ENSURE MAMATA BIOPIC TRAILERS REMOVED FROM WEBSITES, SOCIAL MEDIA

The Election Commission is learnt to have initiated steps to take down trailers of a biopic on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from at least three websites. After the chief electoral officer of West Bengal submitted a report on the biopic, titled 'Baghini' (tigress), the EC has initiated steps to ensure that the trailers are brought down. Though the producer has claimed that it is slated for release on May 3, an EC official said so far the Central Board for Film Certification has not issued it a certification The BJP had approached the poll panel seeking a ban on the release of the movie till the election process is over.

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EC TURNS DOWN GOVT'S JNPT LAND ALLOTMENT APPLICATION CITING MODEL CODE

The Election Commission (EC) has struck down the shipping ministry’s request to go ahead with land allotment for warehousing at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Terminal (JNPT), citing the model code of conduct. The total investment expected from the two land parcels for which the land was sought is around Rs 1,000 crore. The disapproval may lead to delay in project development by private companies. Experts feel the delay would only be for a month and would not really impact the warehousing projects planned around the port. But the process will be delayed, an official said.

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NEW CEA SUBRAMANIAN’S FIRST ECO SURVEY MAY SUGGEST BIG REGULATORY CHANGES TO SOLVE AGRARIAN DISTRESS

Away from the din of election slogans, a team of policy wonks led by newly appointed chief economic adviser (CEA) Krishnamurthy Subramanian is assiduously seeking to write a prescription for a lasting remedy on the Indian economy’s biggest chronic weakness: agrarian distress. Subramanian, who is authoring his maiden Economic Survey that the new government will table in Parliament ahead of the full budget’s presentation in July. Across different sectors, we have a fragmentation in markets. The focus now needs to be on make India an integated market For that, lots of regulatory and logistics barriers need to be removed, a senior government official told, obliquely hinting that the Survey will likely contain pointed policies to deal with infirmities in India’s farm economics. Over the last two years, farmers have been protesting in several states, demanding better prices and debt write-offs. Low retail prices may be heartening to consumers, but persistently low food prices, have meant that farmers’ income have remained flat. India’s long slowdown in food prices – disinflation in economists’ jargon – may well be symptomatic of a problem of abundance. Low growth in farmers' income has been attributed to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) loss in the latest round of Assembly elections, particularly Madhya Pradesh in December. The worrisome bit, however, is that GVA in agriculture in current prices grew 2 percent, sharply lower than the previous year’s 9.1 percent in the same quarter, and also lower than 3.4 percent in July-September 2018. It is not always that one finds nominal GVA at current prices is lower than the inflation-adjusted or real rates. The answer to this could well be hiding in the very inflation rates. The current price crash is partly due to a bumper winter-sown crop that have flooded mandis. With few buyers, the glut has forced farmers to dump products at throwaway prices to clear up a piling mount of vegetables. This is showing up in food inflation, a proxy to measure how costly or cheaper commonly consumed items have become on an annualised basis, which has moderated sharply. High inflation hurts people's buying power, while low levels can indicate poor demand and weak economic activity. Currently, it is the latter that seems to be playing out in the rural economy. This is one of the bigger ideas that the economic survey this year would concentrate on - how to use technology and reduce regulations to bring markets closer to the farmers. The aim now has to be on removing regulatory and logistics barriers The aggregation on markets happen on a big picture level. If demand is in one place in the country and supply in another, they have to be brought together, the official said. The implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) has provided a condition to implement an integrated market place. The next step towards making it a reality is to identify what makes prices of products so different at different locations. If market clearing is happening across states then the only difference in prices would be just because of the transportation costs. For example, a farmer in Delhi could potentially go and sell something in Uttarakhand, the difference in prices should only be in storage cost and transportation costs. But it's not that. So he's not able to reach the consumers in Uttarakhand. So that's something we will work on, the official said.

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FINMIN ASKS ALL DEPARTMENTS TO CONDUCT REVIEW OF GOVT GUARANTEE

The Finance Ministry has asked all departments to undertake a review of government guarantees given by respective ministries to their CPSEs or entities. The review should undertake aspects like the discharge of repayment obligations or interest obligations as per terms of the loan agreement and covenants and conditions met, the Finance Ministry said in an office memorandum. Besides, the details of CPSEs or entities due guarantee fee paid on time to the government should also be submitted. The Finance Ministry has extended date for submission of these details to April 30 from April 10. In another circular, the ministry said FRBM Rules stipulates that government cannot guarantee more than 0.5 per cent of the GDP of the respective financial year to CPSE/entities. All ministries and departments are requested that prioritised guarantee requirement for 2019-20 may be worked out to include only such proposals where the loan agreement can be signed and guarantee agreement can be executed during the year. The guarantees already approved by the Budget Division of Department of Economic Affairs, Finance Ministry but not executed till March 31, 2019, needs to be revalidated and such proposals may also be included on the total guarantee requirement of 2019-20. The information should be sent by April 30, it said.

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GOVERNMENT ADOPTS EXISTING STATE LEVEL PPP PROGRAM FOR SCREENING NCDS UNDER AYUSHMAN BHARAT

Government has adopted an existing state level disease screening program running in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode for monitoring the Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) under Ayushman Bharart-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY). Health and wellness component of Ayushman Bharat aims to address the requirements of preventive and promotive health services through Health & Wellness Centres. The government realized that the contribution of NCDs to the overall disease burden in the country has increased over the years. In the past many district hospitals in the country have focused mainly on communicable diseases and reproductive and child health. As a result of which the capacity for handling NCD cases has not been adequately developed. NITI Aayog, government’s policy think tank also recently chalked out a PPP mode plan to be adopted under AB-PMAJY. NITI Aayog held that the patients in mofussil towns and rural areas are largely underserviced. In this context, PPP for NCDs in district hospitals will play a pivotal role in ensuring the availability of the services at least at the district headquarters. The government chose to expand a program that was already running in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana under AB-PMJAY. The Government of Telangana too adopted the programme in April 2017. Under these state-specific programmes, 21 lakh individuals were screened in Andhra Pradesh, and 24.9 lakh in Telangana. While Dell has developed the Ayushman Bharat - NCD application, Tata Trusts is the implementation partner on ground, training ASHA volunteers, Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs), and Medical Officers (MO), on the software, and assisting states in the roll-out and monitoring of this programme. As a result of this MoU, the Trusts and Dell have thus far enrolled 52.19 lakh individuals out of whom 27.4 lakh have already been screened, in the past one year in about 400 districts of 19 states. At present, there are about 10,000 ANMs doing the screenings. Since 2010, government’s NCD screening programme, now aided by the Tata Trusts-Dell programme, has enrolled about 4.85 crore citizens, and screened 53 lakh citizens, said Budaraju. NCDs are exponentially increasing in the country which is also more expensive to treat as compared to communicable diseases, said Indu Bhushan.

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TRAI TO FINALISE VIEWS ON OTT BY MAY-END; STUDYING GLOBAL BEST PRACTICES: RS SHARMA

Telecom regulator Trai hopes to finalise, by May-end its views on whether Over-The-Top (OTT) services like Whatsapp and Skype should be brought under the regulatory regime an issue on which it has kept an open mind and studied global best practices and European model, a top official said. R S Sharma told PTI that the regulator has also studied the European Electronic Communications Code (European Union is amending the common rules regulating the telecom industry) and will keep global best practices in mind while formulating its opinion. We have studied the European Union's model they have come up with Electronic Communications Code. We have also studied global best practices and we will keep those in mind, Sharma said. Trai is holding an open house discussion on OTT issues in Bengaluru on Wednesday and plans to have a similar one in Delhi soon.

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TRAI RELEASES DRAFT REGULATION ON REGISTER OF INTERCONNECTION AGREEMENTS

After the implementation of the new regulations for tariff order for the broadcast industry, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has started the consultation process on regulations that will focus on norms for submitting information to the regulator on interconnection agreements by broadcasters, MSOs and DTH companies. These are technical and commercial agreements, signed between broadcasters and service providers to provide broadcasting services to subscribers. The telecom and broadcast regulator released the draft Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services Register of Interconnection Agreements Regulations, 2019 on Monday. The objective of this draft regulation is to ensure that all the interconnection agreements are filed by every broadcaster, and the distributor of television channels (with average active subscriber base of its entire distribution network equal to or more than two lakh), said in a statement. The interconnection regulations will set the framework and procedures of a reporting system, so that service providers can report information regarding their interconnection agreements to TRAI. It would enable the Authority to maintain register of interconnect as per provisions of TRAI Act. The existing regulation mandates broadcasters of pay TV channels, DTH operators, HITS operators and IPTV operators to annually report to the Authority information relating to the interconnection agreements, the statement added. The consultation process has been kick-started to simplify the process of reporting, avoid duplication of reports ,and formulate views on accessibility of register’s information, it added.

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TRAI PULLS UP BHARTI TELEMEDIA FOR NON-COMPLIANCE WITH NEW TARIFF ORDER

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has pulled up Bharti Airtel’s direct-to-home business vertical Bharti Telemedia for failing to comply with the rules of the new tariff order that came into effect at the start of this calendar year. The company operates the DTH brand Airtel DTH. In a direction notice dated April 23, the regulatory body directed the DTH provider to comply by the rules of the new tariff order. Trai explained in the notification that it had received numerous complaints from consumers about Airtel DTH’s failure to abide by the rules laid out in the new tariff order. Most of the times, the consumers are not able to contact the toll-free number of M/s Bharti Telemedia Ltd to express their grievance, the regulator said, while listing the complaints against Airtel DTH.

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JET AIRWAYS WILL DO EVERYTHING TO REVIVE AIRLINE, SAYS CEO

Jet Airways is constantly engaging with the government and lenders for a resolution of the current debt crisis and will not leave any stone unturned to revive the airline its chief executive officer Vinay Dube told. We are in constant touch with the lenders on how to get it (debt resolution) done in a manner that makes sense for them and makes sense for us, Dube told. But I would like to think that a flying Jet Airways makes definite sense for them (banks) because it preserves their value as well. So we are not talking about anything that does not make good economic sense for the lenders, this is not charity for the sake of it. The company has requested banks for Rs 1,000 crore ($143.29 million), Dube said. Dube, however, said he was hopeful of finding a keen, healthy investor who can inject the requisite amount of equity into the company. While we have a combination of aircraft that are being deregistered or early termniated, the majority of them have not left the premise, Dube said referring to the aircraft and said they will be available to the airline when it starts flying again. We understand the banks' position. This is a financial proposition for them as well and we are in constant touch with them and we will be. For us there is no stone that we will leave unturned. We believe in Jet Airways, we will do whatever we can to make other people also believe in us.

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MINISTRY SAYS JET'S SLOT ALLOCATION TO OTHERS ONLY TEMPORARY

Allaying apprehensions of the grounded carrier Jet Airways on its vacant slots, the aviation ministry Tuesday said they are being allocated to other airlines purely on temporary basis and once the airline resumes operations, these slots will be returned. The ministry also assured Jet of protecting its historic slots as per the applicable norms and regulations. The SBI-led consortium of lenders and Jet Airways employees unions had Monday urged the government to secure its international landing slots to protect its valuation. To reduce inconvenience of passengers and facilitate induction of additional capacity, it has been decided to allot some of the slots vacated by Jet to other airlines purely on a temporary basis, for a period of three months, the ministry said in a statement Tuesday. The abrupt temporary closure of Jet due to cash crunch last Wednesday left thousands of passengers in the lurch, forcing the ministry to allot some of the slots across domestic and international airports to other local carriers in a bid to help mitigate inconvenience. The historic rights of Jet Airways, as per extent ministry guidelines for slot allocation will be protected. These slots will be made available to Jet as and when they revive their operations, the ministry said.

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INDIA RANKS 80 IN GLOBAL TALENT COMPETITIVENESS INDEX 2019

India remains the laggard in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) region and was ranked 80 even as Singapore retained its leading position in the Asia-Pacific region for the sixth consecutive year in the Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI) 2019, announced on Tuesday in Singapore. India scores well on growing talent, which is the only pillar where the country is positioned above the median. It performs better than its lower-income peers when it comes to growing talent, primarily by virtue of the possibilities for Lifelong Learning and Access to Growth Opportunities. An above-average Business and Labour Landscape and Employability raise the scores of the pillars related to Enable and Vocational and Technical Skills that are otherwise hampered by the remaining sub-pillars, the report said. Notwithstanding the scope for improvement across the board, India’s biggest challenge is to improve its ability to Attract and Retain talent Above all, there is a need to address its poor level of Internal Openness —in particular with respect to weak gender equality and low tolerances towards minorities and immigrants—and its disappointing showing in Lifestyle indicators. In the 2019 GTCI, six Asia-Pacific countries rank in the top 30: Singapore takes the lead in the region (2nd globally), followed by New Zealand (11th), Australia (12th), Japan (22nd), Malaysia (27th) and South Korea (30th). Top-ranking countries share several characteristics, including having talent growth and management as a central priority, openness to entrepreneurial talent, open socio-economic policies as well as strong and vibrant ecosystems around innovation. Singapore continues to occupy the top spot in Asia Pacific. It is the highest-ranked country in three of the six pillars – Enable, Attract, and Global Knowledge Skills. It is also one of the strongest performers with respect to the pillar on Vocational and Technical Skills. However, it ranks low in Retain, signifying its relative weakness in retaining talent.

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JCCI SEEKS GOVERNOR’S INVOLVEMENT IN RELEASING PENDING PAYMENT OF MSME UNITS IN STATE

The Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) has sought intervention of J governor Satya Pal Malik in releasing the pending payment of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) units. Rakesh Gupta apprised him about the plight of MSME units in Jammu & Kasmir (J&K), highlighting how the corrupt babus were resorting to unabated corruption and working against MSMEs who are already facing lot of problems in survival in the state. He claimed that Power Development Department (PDD) has not dispersed the payment to MSME units against the supply of various item like, Steel Tubular Poles, Power Transformer, Power cables & Power Transmission Conductors under the Central Sponsored Saubhagya Scheme in J&K since September 2018.

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AIRTEL SENDS LIMITED DETAILS TO TRAI ON SEGMENTED OFFERS

Bharti Airtel has submitted details of its segmented offers, or those given to specific individuals, to the sector regulator but stayed away from offering specific details sought by the sectoral watchdog, a move that could spark another confrontation between the two sides. India’s largest telco Vodafone Idea, on its part, sought a 15-day extension from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to submit details – which is likely to be accepted - while Reliance Jio is expected to submit its data on Wednesday. Person familiar with the matter said Airtel has not shared all the specific details including customer names and addresses that Trai had sought, but only shared price points and the number of users. Any more specific details would have compromised on Airtel’s competitiveness in the market, the person added. In the first week of April, Trai asked telcos to submit their tariff plans as well as segmented offers being provided to subscribers, in 15 days or by April 25. It had asked the operators to share details such as terms and conditions, validity period and benefits of segmented offers and report the number of customers availing those offers and also declare whether subscribers have availed benefits under the tariff regime, adhering to non-discriminatory pricing rules. Airtel has gone with what Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) had ordered, the person said. In the notice sent to private telcos in the first week of April, Trai justified its latest demand saying it is within its rights to to call for details of any segmented offer on which it may have received complaints or to assess whether such offers are truly non-discriminatory. But Airtel’s withhold full details as sought by Trai may start another tussle in a sector which has seen a slew of legal battles between Trai and the older players over several issues, including predatory pricing and interconnect usage charges, among others. Vodafone Idea is also expected to follow Airtel’s example.

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SC SUMMONS CBI DIRECTOR, DCP AND IB CHIEF TO LOOK AT EVIDENCE OF LARGER CONSPIRACY BEHIND CHARGES AGAINST CJI

The Supreme Court on Wednesday summoned the CBI Chief, the IB chief and the Delhi Commissioner of police to look at evidence produced by a Punjab based lawyer who claimed the recent sexual harassment charges levelled against CJI Ranjan Gogoi was a larger conspiracy by vested interests. A bench led by Justice Arun Misra in this context referred to a recent attempt by a corporate house to change an order against it. The court will again assemble at three to further deal with the case. The court order came after lawyer Utsav Bains handed over some CCTV footage in a sealed cover as evidence of the larger conspiracy. The top court has already ordered an in house enquiry into the woman's charges against the CJI. The probe panel includes Justice S.A. Bobde, next in line to be CJI when CJI Gogoi demits office later this year and Justices N.V. Ramana and Indira Bannerjee. The bench comprising Justices Mishra, R F Nariman and Deepak Gupta is looking at allegations of bench fixing and bribery to get judgements parallelly on the judicial side.

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IN A FIRST, 3-JUDGE COMMITTEE TO PROBE PLAINT AGAINST CJI

In a precedent-setting decision, a panel of three Supreme Court judges headed by Justice SA Bobde will inquire into a dismissed junior court assistant's allegation of sexual harassment against CJI Ranjan Gogoi, who has refuted them strongly and suggested that a bigger force was behind the charges. Appointment of the inquiry panel also comprising Justices NV Ramana and Indira Banerjee was ratified by the full court meeting - a deliberation of all SC judges. The Justice Bobde-led panel on Tuesday issued notices to the complainant and SC secretary general Sanjeev Kalgaonkar and asked them to be present before it on Friday, the first hearing on the complaint. The panel has asked Kalgaonkar to come with all records relating to the dismissed woman employee and her places of posting during her four-year employment in the apex court. The full court meeting unanimously agreed that it was necessary to set up an inquiry panel of three judges to clear the air after the controversy over the sexual harassment complaint. This will be the first time in the 69-year-old history of the SC that a sexual harassment complaint against the head of the judiciary would be inquired into by a panel of three SC judges. Justice Bobde is next in seniority to the CJI and will succeed him on November 18. Justice Ramana will become CJI on April 24, 2021, on Justice Bobde's retirement. Justice Banerjee was appointed as an SC judge on August 7 last year. With the first hearing of the panel scheduled for Friday, it is likely that the inquiry committee could complete its task before the court closes for summer vacations on May 10.

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LAWYER SUBMITS REPORT IN SC ON HIS CLAIMS ABOUT CONSPIRACY TO FRAME CJI

Lawyer Utsav Bains on Wednesday submitted report in the Supreme Court regarding his claims that there was a conspiracy to frame Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi in sexual harassment case. Bains submitted documentary evidence to the court in a sealed cover, claiming the the CCTV footage will reveal many things. The apex court sought presence of a senior officer from CBI, Commissioner of Delhi Police and IB Director in Chambers by 12.30 PM.

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SC ASKS LAWYER FOR PRESENT PROOF HE WAS ASKED TO FRAME CJI RANJAN GOGOI

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a notice to Advocate Utsav Singh Bains to appear on Wednesday with material supporting his stand that he had been approached by people to fix the Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi in connection with the sexual harassment allegations against him. A three-judge bench of Justices Arun Mishra, Rohinton Nariman and Deepak Gupta also asked the Delhi Police to provide adequate police protection to Bains as he had claimed there was a threat to his life. Bains had filed an affidavit claiming that he had been approached by certain people to frame CJI Gogoi in an alleged sexual harassment case. The advocate had also claimed that he was offered Rs 1.5 crore by a person named Ajay to represent the top court’s former woman employee who has accused CJI of harassing her. In her letter, the junior court assistant, who was employed with the Supreme Court from May 1, 2014, to December 21, 2018, alleged that she was harassed at the CJI's home, and that she was removed from her job without giving any reason.

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TIKTOK BAN IN INDIA CAUSING MAKERS $500,000 LOSS DAILY; PUTS 250 JOBS AT RISK

India’s ban on popular Chinese video app TikTok is resulting in financial losses of up to $500,000 a day for its developer, Beijing Bytedance Technology Co, and has put more than 250 jobs at risk the company said. The developments have dealt a blow to the India growth plans of Bytedance, which is backed by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp and by private equity. Bytedance, one of the world’s most valuable startups potentially worth around $75 billion, was considering a public listing in Hong Kong this year, sources told Reuters in August. The ban has also worried the social media industry in India as it sees legal worries mounting if courts increasingly regulate content on their platforms. In the filing made to India’s Supreme Court on Saturday, Bytedance urged the court to quash the ban and direct the federal IT ministry to tell companies such as Google and Apple to make the app available again on their platforms. Banning has had adverse impact on the user base of this app, losing close to 1 million new users per day It is estimated that approximately six million requests for downloads could not be effected since the ban came into effect, the company said in the filing.

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SECI DEFERS BIDS SUBMISSION FOR 1,200 MW WIND-SOLAR HYBRID CAPACITIES TILL MAY 7

State-owned SECI on Tuesday extended deadline for submitting bids to set up 1,200 megawatt (MW) solar-wind hybrid power projects till May 7, as some of the queries of bidders have not been addressed yet. The last date for submission of the bids was April 23, 2019. But, bidders did not come forth to submit their bids as certain queries from their side remained unanswered. Thus, Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has chosen to extend the bid submission deadline, an industry source said. In a notice on its web portal, SECI stated, The last date of bid submission both online and offline is hereby extended till May 7, 2019, 1100 hours. The techno-commercial bid opening shall be carried out from 1400 hours on May 7, 2019.

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ICRA PROJECTS 7-7.5 GW SOLAR POWER CAPACITY ADDITION IN 2019-20

Rating agency ICRA said Tuesday that it has estimated 7-7.5 GW solar power capacity addition during the current financial year, which includes 1 GW of rooftop solar. The domestic solar power capacity addition is expected at around 7 GW to 7.5 GW (including around 1 GW of rooftop solar capacity) in FY 2020 as per an ICRA note, based on tendering and awards of projects in the last 12-15 months, the rating agency said in a statement. By contrast, solar capacity addition is estimated to have remained subdued at around 6 GW to 6.5 GW in the financial year 2018-19 due to weak trend in award of solar projects in the calender year (CY) 2017, according to the statement. Girishkumar Kadam, said in the statement, Tendered project awards for solar PV (photovoltaic) projects during CY 2018 stood at about 11 GW against 4.5 GW in CY 2017, providing a healthy pipeline for capacity addition over the next 2-year period. He also said nearly 56 per cent of the capacity auctioned in 2018 has been accounted for by central agencies, such as Solar Energy Corporation of India and NTPC Ltd, with the balance by state nodal entities and discoms under various state-level programmes. Apart from the projects awarded through the bid route, ICRA expects about 1 GW to be added through open access or group captive route and grid-connected rooftop, with these additions being facilitated by favourable solar policies for open access route in a few states. As for tariff, with a decline in PV module price level during 2018 and aggressive bidding by independent power producers (IPPs), the weighted average solar bid tariff during 2018 remained at Rs 2.73 a unit as against Rs 3.01 a unit in 2017 and Rs 5.01 a unit in 2016. In this context, the viability of such tariffs critically hinges on timely execution of the project as per the PPA timelines, availability of debt with longer tenures at competitive funding cost and the ability of the project developers to keep the cost of modules within the budgeted levels, it added. Based on the performance analysis of ICRA-rated solar portfolio, almost 60 per cent of the rated capacity has shown the average plant load factor (PLF), or capacity utilisation, in the range of 19 to 21 per cent and 14 per cent of the rated capacity witnessed PLF levels of more than 23 per cent.

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INDIA'S COAL IMPORT RISES 9% TO 234 MT IN FY19

India's coal import increased by 8.8 per cent to 233.56 million tonnes in 2018-19, according to a report. India's coal and coke imports during 2018-19 through 31 major and non-major ports are estimated to have increased by 8.83 per cent to 233.56 million tonnes (MT) (provisional) as compared to 214.61 MT (revised) imported in 2017-18, it said. Non-coking coal imports were at 164.21 MT in FY2018-19, about 13.25 per cent increase over 144.99 MT recorded in FY2017-18. Coking coal import was almost flat at 47.73 MT compared to 47.22 MT in 2017-18. Coal imports during March 2019 were at 19.93 MT (provisional), against 18.02 MT in the corresponding month of 2017-18.

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BAN ON IMPORT OF MILK & MILK PRODUCTS FROM CHINA MAY BE EXTENDED

The ban on import of milk and milk products from China may be extended until the capacity of all laboratories at ports of entry have been suitably upgraded for testing melamine, said Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI). The issue was reviewed in a meeting held in FSSAI with the concerned Departments/Ministries of the Government of India, wherein it was recommended Ban on import of milk and milk products, including chocolates and chocolate products and candies/ confectionary /food preparations with milk and milk solids as ingredients from China may be extended until the capacity of all laboratories at ports of entry have been suitably upgraded for testing melamine. With regard to the ban on import of milk and milk products from China, the letter was issued by FSSAI. The ban was first imposed by Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) in September 2008 and later extended from time to time. The last notification came in December which extended the ban up to April 23, 2019. The import of chocolates and chocolate products and candies/ confectionary/food preparations with milk and milk solids as an ingredient were also included in the ban.

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WEDDING CARDS IN BUNDI TO CARRY AGE PROOF OF GROOM, BRIDE TO CHECK CHILD MARRIAGES

Wedding cards in Bundi will carry the date of birth of groom and bride and a statutory warning that child marriage is punishable ahead of the Akshaya Tritiya festival that sees many children being married off every year in Rajasthan. The festival falls on May 7 this year and many children are secretly married off on this day in Rajasthan. The district administration has constituted teams of school principals, land record inspectors, gram sevak, anganwadi workers and ‘satheen’ to keep an eye over such marriages and take prompt legal action against those involved in solemnisation of child marriages, officials said. Bundi District Collector Rukmani Riyar has asked the district officials to keep a constant watch over their respective areas. Teams should keep a watch over various activities in their area like whitewashing in homes, henna on children’s palm, absence of children from school, playing of band, booking of priests and vehicles. If any child marriage is taking place, the team needs to immediately inform Tehsildar and police station and immediate steps should to be taken to restrict parents and family members involved in such marriages, officials have been told. The district collector has directed sub divisional magistrate [SDM] and Tehsildar to set up a 24-hour control room at their respective offices 15 days prior to Akshaya Tritiya on May 7 and to maintain a register to record child marriage. Deputy director, ICDS would be the nodal officer for prevention of child marriages in the district, the collector directed. Sub-divisional magistrate and deputy district magistrate will check child marriages. These officials would be responsible for any child marriage in their respective areas and if any such marriage takes place, action, as per rule, would be initiated against them, she said. The Bundi district administration has also set up a control room at district collector office that would be functional from April 22 to May 25.

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FALLING BIRTH RATE BIGGER WORRY THAN OVERPOPULATION, SAYS STUDY

The world around has been of the view of keeping the population under control to prevent resource crunch. This has led to many countries such as China to opt for policies such as One- Child policy and others to impose tax penalties for having too many children. However, the consequent falling birth rates around the world may not be something to cheer for, says a report. According to recently published Simon Abundance Index, for each 1 percet increase in population the average time price (time taken by a typical worker to earn enough money to buy commodities) the cost of commodities has fallen by almost 1 percent HumanProgress said in a recent report. Each child born today eventually grows up to make resources less scarce, on average, by contributing to innovation and the global economy. Instead, the report noted that the falling fertility rates could have far-reaching negative economic consequences as economies face aging and the working population shrinks. Pointing out that the economic growth may slow down with fewer people to innovate, the authors of Simon Index — economist Julian Simon and biologist Paul Erhlich said, In addition to more labor, a growing population produces more ideas. More ideas lead to more innovations, and more innovations improve productivity. Finally, higher productivity translates to better standards of living. With fertility rates already falling, there is no need to worry about overpopulation said HumanProgress in a report. While in developing economies, reduction in birth rates are on the back of low infant and childhood mortality, and more women in education and the workforce. On the other hand, in the developed economies unrealistic social and cultural parenting expectations have made childbearing more burdensome than was the case for previous generations. In developing countries, falling fertility rates are driven by fewer infant and childhood deaths, allowing for smaller family sizes. More women in education and the workforce also result in lower birth rates. In developed countries, unrealistic social and cultural parenting expectations are making childbearing more burdensome than was the case for previous generations. Moreover, the government over regulation has distorted the education, childcare and healthcare, making child-rearing more expensive. Therefore, overpopulation should not be a point of concern as the more new people in the world engaging in cooperative exchange and putting their minds toward solving problems — including environmental problems — the better off we will all be, said the report.

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NITI AAYOG SEEKS MINISTRY HELP FOR EV CHARGING INFRA AT FUEL PUMPS

Government think tank Niti Aayog has asked the oil ministry to help set up electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure at 1,000 fuel stations across the country, but industry executives said any such move will require redesigning of stations and a viable business model. Easy access to charging facility is key to making EVs popular in India where cities are choking with vehicle emissions, prompting the government to think of new ways to create an ecosystem favourable to green vehicles. Since the talk of EVs got louder globally a few years ago, Indian oil marketing companies have been exploring possibilities of being relevant in a future probably dominated by EVs. Now the government order can accelerate their transition. For EV charging to take off at traditional pumps, companies will need to come up with a viable business model as well a design tweak of filling stations, company executives and petrol pump dealers said. Current design allows vehicles to enter from one end of the pump, receive fuel from dispensers and exit within minutes from the other end. Replacing one dispenser or a set of dispensers with electric chargers would stop the free flow of traffic at pumps since charging takes much longer than filling liquid fuel, said Nitin Goyal, treasurer at All India Petroleum Dealers Association. This would inconvenience customers and slow down business. The turnaround time for a petrol or diesel car refuelling is 2-5 minutes, but for electric cars even fast charging would require at least 20 minutes. Slow charging could take much longer. This means fewer customers could be serviced in a day. Today we don’t know the kind of margin EV charging can offer. But before setting up a charging point, a dealer will evaluate if the business is as profitable as the liquid fuel business, Goyal said. Setting up charging stations at fuel pumps could be effective preliminary steps toward popularising EVs, though after a while charging points will proliferate to almost all places that can park a car or bike, Balwinder Singh Canth, a former marketing chief at IndianOil, said.

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DELHI COURT STAYS NBWS AGAINST ARVIND KEJRIWAL, OTHERS IN DEFAMATION COMPLAINT

A Delhi court on Wednesday stayed the non-bailable warrants which were issued against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia and Swaraj India president Yogendra Yadav after they had failed to appear before it in a criminal defamation complaint filed in 2013. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal passed the order after lawyers for the three leaders sought cancellation of the NBWs. The court said it will take up the main matter on April 29.

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CONSUMER TRUST HIGHEST IN INDIA DESPITE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF E-FRAUDS: REPORT

Indians place the highest trust in their financial institutions despite facing the maximum number of frauds in the Asia-Pacific region, according to a 2019 report by Experian India. Sixty five per cent of Indian businesses have experienced an increase in online fraud-related losses over the past 12 months. This was against 50 per cent of businesses surveyed in the Asia-Pacific region that have seen an increase in fraud-related losses over the past 12 months from account originations and account takeovers — both potentially damaging brand reputation. The global average is 55 per cent with the US having the highest incidence at 80 per cent. Sixty per cent of consumers in the Asia -Pacific region place a high level of trust in banks and insurance companies in handling their personal data, followed by government agencies at 57 per cent and payment service providers at 56 per cent. Consumers in 5 out of 11 countries trust banks and insurance providers more than any other industry, with government agencies and payment service providers following, the report said. 71 per cent say security is their number one priority during their online experience, followed by convenience and personalisation at 20 per cent and 9 per cent, respectively. However, most businesses tend to focus on offering a convenient experience first. However, this suggests a mismatch between what is important to a customer in their online experience, thereby illustrating the tension between security and convenience, according to the report. While companies continue to innovate on new solutions that enhance the customer experience, there needs to be a focus on reducing the customer’s risk exposure by securing the data and information they currently access, said Sathya Kalyanasundaram. Despite the high levels of fraud, India placed the highest trust in banks and insurance companies, among other Asian Pacific countries. Sixty eight per cent of Indian consumers also place high trust in payment system providers. The high trust levels, however, do not overcome the hesitance to share data with financial providers. Fifty seven percent of customers express concern, while only 12 per cent are willing to share their data. Majority of the respondents in India feel they are sacrificing privacy for convenience in today’s unpredictable threat landscape, said the report.

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IPL 2019 'BUZZIEST' ON SOCIAL MEDIA; TV VIEWERSHIP PAST 345 MN IN 14 DAYS

Social media chatter around the latest version of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has been the loudest in comparison to all its previous editions In two weeks, about 345 million people watched the matches on television, while the viewership on digital platforms was at 267 million in three weeks, making this season of the IPL the most-watched. According to the data shared by media agency Wavemaker, the IPL has been trending high on social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.

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JAYALALITHAA’S MEMORIAL AT MARINA BEACH: SC REJECTS PLEA AGAINST CONSTRUCTION

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea challenging the construction of a memorial of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa at Marina beach in Chennai. A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna said that it is not inclined to interfere with the Madras high court order of January 23. Having heard the petitioner-in-person and upon perusing the relevant material, we are not inclined to interfere. The special leave petition is accordingly dismissed. Pending interlocutory applications, if any, shall stand disposed of, the bench said. The bench dismissed the petition filed by M L Ravi, president of Desiya Makkal Sakthi Katchi, challenging the Madras High Court order and seeking a direction to restrain the Tamil Nadu government from spending money from the public exchequer for construction of the memorial. The high court had observed that before the orders could be passed by the Supreme Court in the disproportionate assets case on the appeals filed against the Karnataka High Court order in 2017, Jayalalithaa had passed away and, therefore, the appeal against her acquittal came to be dismissed as abated. It had declined to accept the main contention of the petitioner that the order of acquittal passed by the Karnataka High Court had been reversed by the Supreme Court in criminal appeals, and Jayalalithaa, who was the first respondent in the said appeals, became a convict and as such a memorial in honour of a convicted person cannot be built.

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TATA POWER TO FOCUS ON CLEAN ENERGY, WON’T BUILD NEW COAL-FIRED PLANTS: REPORT

Private power producer Tata Power will lead the nation’s renewable energy transition with gradual withdrawal from building new coal fired power plants, a report said. The country’s largest private integrated power company has recently made it clear that it will cease to build new coal-fired power capacity, according to ‘Tata Power: Renewables to Power Growth’ report released by Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) Tuesday. The report highlights the company’s long-term strategy that will see renewable energy dominate its power capacity build-out going forward. Tata Power’s focus on renewables makes sense given the major energy transformation now occurring, report author Simon Nicholas, Energy Finance Analyst at IEEFA, said in a statement. The company’s ‘Strategic Intent 2025′ plan calls for up to 70 per cent of new capacity additions to come from solar, wind and hydro through to 2025, said Nicholas. This represents a significant departure from the accepted wisdom of just a few years ago that a major expansion of coal-fired power would be required to serve India’s growing electricity demand, Nicholas. According to the report, the majority of Tata Power’s thermal capacity is now centred on its Mundra coal-fired power plant – one of the biggest power plants in India – which experienced losses reaching USD 191 million for the first three-quarters of FY2018-19. Tim Buckley, noted that Tata Power’s shift mirrors the transition underway within the Indian power sector as a whole, driven by least cost renewable energy. The shift away from new coal-fired power is moving faster than anyone had predicted, said Buckley. With more than 40 gigawatts of existing coal-fired power plants under financial stress in India, Tata Power is seeking to only add new coal-fired power capacity via fire-sale acquisition, at 30 to 40 per cent of historical investment. It no longer plans to build new coal-fired power plants, the report said. Tata Power’s renewables operations are profitable, recording earnings before interest, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of USD 249 million in FY2017-18, and an EBITDA margin of 89 per cent. The company is also leading India in rooftop solar, electric vehicle charging via its recent installation of India’s first grid-scale battery storage system alongside Mitsubishi Corporation and AES India. However, Tata Power will need to increase its renewables installation rate significantly if it is to meet its Strategic Intent target of reaching up to 11.3 GW of non-fossil fuel power capacity by 2025, the report said.

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EC ISSUES NOTIFICATION FOR THE SEVENTH AND FINAL PHASE OF LS POLLS

The Election Commission issued the notification for the seventh and the last phase of polling to the Lok Sabha on Monday. The 59 Parliamentary constituencies which will vote in this phase include the Varanasi — where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a re-election to the Lok Sabha, and Patna Sahib —where former BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha is now contesting on a Congress ticket. The 59 Parliamentary constituencies in eight States and Union territories will go to the polls on 19 May.

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JEM ‘THREATENS’ TO BLOW UP RAILWAY STATIONS IN WESTERN UP

Security has been tightened at railway stations in western Uttar Pradesh after a letter, purportedly by terror organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), threatening to blow up the structures was received PTI reported on Tuesday. According to Deputy Superintendent of Police (GRP) Ramesh Tripathi, security has been tightened and frisking of passengers increased at Shamli railway station.

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SPECIAL COURT FOR MPS TO HEAR ON APR 26 COMPLAINT AGAINST RAHUL GANDHI FOR REMARKS AGAINST PM MODI

A Delhi court Tuesday transferred a complaint filed against Rahul Gandhi for allegedly seditious remarks he made in 2016 against Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a special court designated to try lawmakers. District Judge Poonam A Bamba transferred the case to Addititional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal who will take up the matter on April 26. The complaint has sought direction to the police to register an FIR against Gandhi for making allegedly seditious remarks in 2016 against PM Modi, accusing him of hiding behind the blood of soldiers and cashing in on their sacrifice.

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HARSH VARDHAN'S ASSETS INCREASE BY OVER RS 1.94 CR, MANOJ TIWARI'S BY RS 4 CR SINCE 2014

Harsh Vardhan's assets have increased by over 1.94 crore while those of city BJP chief Manoj Tiwari has seen a rise of over Rs 4 crore in the last five years, according to his affidavit. Harsh Vardhan has declared an income of over Rs 7.76 lakh while his wife Nutan Goel has shown an income of Rs 3.06 lakh in the income tax return of 2017-18. He and his wife have shown movable assets worth over Rs 38.50 lakh and over Rs 20.73 lakh respectively. Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma (41) has declared a total of immovable and movable assets worth over Rs 15.51 crore, showing an increase of over Rs 4.79 crore over the last five years. He has shown an income of over Rs 17 lakh in his income tax returns filed for 2017-18 while his wife's income during the same period is over Rs 5.95 lakh. In the affidavit filed for 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he had shown an income of over Rs 11.19 lakh in the income tax returns filed for 2012-13 while his wife's income was shown to be over Rs 3.64 lakh during the same period. Verma has shown liabilities of over Rs 1.35 crore while his wife has liabilities of over Rs 2.5 crore. Liabilities of his three dependents are worth Rs 7.75 lakh, Rs 3 lakh and Rs 3.48 lakh respectively. He has shown movable assets, including cash and jewellery worth over Rs 1.9 crore and his wife's as over Rs 59 lakh. Manoj Tiwari has declared a total of movable and immovable assets worth over Rs 24 crore, an increase of over Rs 4.33 crore from 2014. He has shown an income of Rs 48.03 lakh in the income tax return for 2017-18 while in the affidavit filed in 2014, he had shown an income of over Rs 85 lakh. He has three criminal cases against him. He has shown a liability of over Rs 1.36 crore and has two government accommodations in North Avenue and Willingdon respectively.

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GEHLOT HITS BACK AFTER MODI ATTACKS HIM FOR CAMPAIGNING TO 'SAVE HIS SON'

Ashok Gehlot Monday hit back at Narendra Modi over his remarks that the Congress leader was campaigning to save his son not his party, and said the prime minister was not doing issue-based politics. The Congress has fielded Gehlot's son Vaibhav from the Jodhpur Lok Sabha seat. Modi has held four public meetings in Rajasthan in the last two days in which he had said nothing but lies, Gehlot told. Modiji is not doing issue-based politics but is raising nationalism and national security while trying to befool the people of the country, he said.

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PM NARENDRA MODI SAYS PREVIOUS GOVERNMENTS FAILED TO DEMONSTRATE INDIA’S DEFENCE CAPABILITY IN SPACE

Narendra Modi Tuesday slammed the Congress for failing to demonstrate India’s defence capability in space, claiming that the previous governments were only concerned about the interest of a ‘namdar’ family, not the country’s security. Modi said history was created in Balasore when Mission Shakti (anti-satellite missile test) was launched. Balasore’s name has been recorded in history, the anti-satellite missile was launched from this place. The previous governments had shied away from demonstrating the country’s defence capability as they were busy serving the interests of a ‘namdar’ family, the prime minister said. Asserting that India is the fourth country in the world to have carried out the anti-satellite missile test, Modi said, We have emerged as a super power after having achieved supremacy in land, water and air. Hitting out at the opposition parties, he said, While the whole country is rejoicing the success of the Mission Shakti, the mahamilawatis are unhappy. From mobile to missile, everything is now controlled from the space. Therefore, space security is essential, a fact that was ignored by previous governments, he stated.

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MAMATA DREAMING OF BECOMING PM, WOULD HAVE BOUGHT THE POST IF IT WAS UP FOR AUCTION : PM MODI

Narendra Modi Tuesday mocked Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee for dreaming of becoming the PM and said she would have bought the post with the money looted from chit fund scams had it been up for auction. The country needs a government with vision and not division, Modi said It was with the power of your vote that the army could conduct surgical strikes. The prime minister, said She (Banerjee) is dreaming of becoming prime minister and had this position been up for auction both she and the Congress would have bought it with the money looted by them. Modi said that people will suffer when the chief minister of their state is seen hobnobbing and standing in favour of those who are involved in scams. Corruption and crime are two non stop things in Bengal in the TMC regime, he said. Continuing his attack against Banerjee, the prime minister said Mamata didi had earlier turned the infiltrators into her cadres and now she is brought in foreigners to campaign for her party. Mamatadi should be ashamed, he said. Modi said Mamata didi wants to implement her tolabaji tax model of development across the country. But we will never allow that to happen. Banerjee abusing him and getting angry with the Election Commission is a reflection of her frustration in the face of imminent defeat in the Lok Sabha polls, he added.

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PUNJAB’S MINING POLICY UPHELD BUT HC QUASHES E-AUCTION NOTICE

The Punjab and Haryana High Court Tuesday upheld Punjab government’s 2018 mining policy but with a condition that the state would first identify the mining areas before going for the auction. While quashing the e-auction notice issued by the state in August 2018, the court directed that a fresh auction notice after defining the mining areas be issued within a period of three months and the auction process be taken forward. There had been a stay on the auction of sand mines in the state since December 2018 due to the pendency of the case filed by some contractors against both the policy and the auction notice issued under it. The Court on Tuesday also said till the time the new auction notice is issued, the contractors who had mining contracts earlier be permitted as per the terms of the old policy so as not to stall the infrastructural projects and the people at large are not inconvenienced. The division bench of Justices Mahesh Grover and Lalit Batra in the verdict said, we uphold the policy of the State in creating blocks and going for open auction through progressive bidding but would observe, only after identifying the mining area and precisely, for this reason, we quash the e-auction notice as being totally vague and in contravention with the law laid down by various courts besides being violative of the guidelines of the MoEF. Stating that the e-auction notice only reveals that blocks for mining have been created but there is no specified area of mining, the Court added, Such a vague description of the mining area is an invitation to ravage. It is difficult to comprehend how a mining contractor would make a bid in an open auction for mines that have not been identified or described by any revenue record or other means. The initial onus of offering an area for mining and its identification rests with the State and it is thereafter the responsibility of the contractor begins to submit a mining plan for obtaining environmental clearances etc, the court added in the order. The main ground of challenge against the auction was that there is no identification of the mining sites, due to which it would be difficult to assess the mineral wealth and also no impact assessment study has been carried out to understand the impact with regard to the environment. The State had argued that it within the policy that the mining operations begin only when the contractor has identified mines in the blocks allotted to him, obtained the consent of the landowner, arranged for all infrastructural requirements like a right of way etc. and obtained all clearances.

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WOMEN ACCOUNT FOR 10% OF PHASE-4 CANDIDATES, HIGHEST PROPORTION SO FAR

Women accounted for a tenth of the candidates fielded for the fourth phase of elections. Earlier phases had seen women candidates accounting for between 7-9 per cent of the total candidates in the fray. The data is based on a report by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) National Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms released on Wednesday. Candidates with criminal cases also saw their numbers rise. They account for 23 per cent of the total candidates. This is higher than the 21 per cent seen in the previous phase. There are a total of 210 candidates with criminal cases in the fourth phase. The total number of women candidates is 96. This is based on 928 out of 943 candidates whose affidavits the report analysed. Five candidates have murder cases against them. A total of 24 have declared cases related to attempt to murder. There are also candidates who have declared that they don’t have a single rupee to their name. These zero asset candidates include Priyanka Ramrao Shirole and Vitthal Natha Chavan from Nashik and Thane respectively in Maharashtra. Prem Lata Banshiwal of Rajasthan’s Tonk Sawai Madhopur constituency has also declared zero assets.

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COPPER EXPORTS CRASH 70% ON STERLITE PLANT SHUTDOWN

India’s copper exports fell nearly 70% to $1.1 billion in 2018-19 as a government order, following protest by locals, forced Sterlite to shut down its smelter in Tuticorin. The Tuticorin smelter, with an annual production capacity of 4 lakh tonnes, accounted for 40% of the country’s copper smelting capacity. The domestic copper demand was estimated to touch 4.8-5 lakh tonnes by the end of FY19. As reported on Monday, silver jewellery exports plummeted 75% in FY19 as Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi fled the country. In case of copper, a fall in exports is not the only concern. The closure has resulted into an increase in shipments of the key metal into the country, with commerce ministry data showing that imports during the first 10 months of the last financial year were almost equal the value of consignments that came into India during the full 2017-18 financial year. The industry body is lobbying for a cut in import duty from 2.5% to zero, arguing that the levy creates an inverted duty structure, with the finished products having higher taxes than inputs and raw materials.

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CHEATING CASE: COURT TO HEAR PLEA TO CANCEL EX-SC STAFFER'S BAIL ON MAY 23

A Delhi court Wednesday said it would hear on May 23 the police plea to cancel the bail of a former Supreme Court employee, who has accused Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment, in a cheating and criminal intimidation case. Manish Khurana adjourned the matter after noting that the complainant in the case has not been served a copy of the police plea. The police sought cancellation of the bail granted to the woman on March 12, after the complainant claimed that he was being threatened by the woman and her associates.

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GOAIR TO EXPAND NETWORK WITH 28 NEW FLIGHTS FROM APRIL 26

Budget carrier GoAir Wednesday said it will launch 28 additional flights in its network, including eight services from its hub in Mumbai and another seven from New Delhi, starting April 26. Its bigger rivals, IndiGo and SpiceJet, have already announced the roll out of additional flights from the city following the temporary grounding of Jet Airways and subsequently steep reduction in capacity mainly in the domestic market amid peak demand season. GoAir announced 28 flight options this summer in addition to our existing flights. There are two sectors that GoAir is launching for the first time, namely, Delhi-Nagpur-Delhi and Delhi-Kochi-Delhi, GoAir managing director Jeh Wadia said in a release. The airline also announced fare as low as Rs 1,368 on select routes, he added.

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SC TO PRONOUNCE ORDERS TODAY TO PROBE LARGER CONSPIRACY AGAINST CJI

The Supreme Court will pronounce orders later on Thursday for an independent probe into the allegations of bench hunting and verdict fixing in the court, allegations that are part of the larger conspiracy to frame the CJI. We want to send a message to the rich and the powerful than they cannot run the supreme court, a bench led by justice Arun mishra said. We have come to that stage of blackmail where everytime an important case comes people start writing letters against us. We have been systematically attacked in the last 3 to 4 years, he said. The probe most probably will be into whether sacked former employees ganged up to frame the CJI. It will be independent of the probe into the veracity of sexual harassment allegations levelled by a sacked lady employee against the CJI Ranjan Gogoi.

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JIO OVERTAKES AIRTEL TO BECOME INDIA'S NO.2 TELECOM COMPANY

Nearly two-and-a-half years after launching mobile phone services Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio has overtaken Bharti Airtel's subscriber base to emerge as the second-largest telecom company in the country. Jio, which has a customer base of 30.6 crore, now trails only Vodafone-Idea. Airtel has 28.4 crore subscribers while Vodafone-Idea had announced that it had 38.7 crore subscribers in December 2018. Airtel's numbers were confirmed by a company spokesperson after TOI sent a query on Tuesday evening. A telecom industry analyst said that the pace of growth of Jio’s subscriber additions may see the company overtake Vodafone-Idea in the coming quarters. Vodafone-Idea is the most vulnerable of the three private players in the market, and it may just be a matter of few more quarters, may be three-four, before it is overtaken by Jio, the analyst said, requesting anonymity as he advises many telecom companies. For Sunil Mittal’s Airtel, which dominated the Indian telecom space for almost two decades, the fall has been dramatic – it used to be the market leader till the middle of last year before being edged out by the new entity that formed after the merger of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular. The meteoric growth in Jio’s business since it launched services in September 2016 has been fuelled by aggressive and dirt-cheap consumer tariff plans with the company launching operations with free voice call facility. The remarkable growth of Jio has been unprecedented and the company is expected to dominate the customer acquisition space through aggressive and innovative tariff plans, including bundling of content packages, said Mohan Shukla. Jio has been adding subscribers at breakneck speed at a time when Airtel and Vodafone-Idea have been weeding out low-paying users. According to a report by JP Morgan, Jio added 2.7 crore new customers between January and March 2019, after logging in 12 crore new members through 2018. Importantly, the company continues to lead the data space through its 4G-only business, and is actively scouting for more customers with cut-throat tariffs. We see no prospects of a tariff hike in FY2019-20, unless Jio’s net-additions (of subscribers) come down, JM Financial said in a just-released report. Jio’s aggressive entry into the telecom business – in Mukesh Ambani’s second avatar in the mobile space – had unshackled the financials of the industry completely. Airtel, which had initially accused Jio of engaging in predatory pricing to gain market share, has seen its domestic operations slip into losses, while Vodafone India and Idea were forced to strike synergies and lower operating costs. Jio, however, continues to be profitable in its operations and also had the highest adjusted gross revenue (AGR) in access services amongst all the telecom companies in the December quarter. While Jio’s AGR was Rs 9,482 crore, Vodafone-Idea was at Rs 7,224 crore and Airtel at Rs 6,440 crore, according to a report released by telecom regulator Trai.

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LAWYER GIVES 'PROOF' ON 'FIXERS' IN SEALED ENVELOPE TO JUDGES

Seeking the assistance of top investigating and intelligence agencies to probe a set of fixers in the judiciary the Supreme Court said on Wednesday: We and this system will not survive if the allegations are true. We have to find out the truth at all levels. Can we keep our eyes shut? The entire country will lose faith in the system. The top officers of the CBI, the IB and Delhi Police who met the judges were asked to seize the relevant material in order to support the contents of the affidavit furnished by lawyer Utsav Bains. Considering the seriousness of the allegations as the system has absolutely no place for such fixers, we cannot leave the matter at that. It becomes our responsibility to keep this institution clean as well as to ensure that the image of this institution is not tarnished by such allegations to undertake the probe in the matter, the court said in its order. In the course of proceedings, senior advocate Indira Jaising contended that any probe into roles of fixers and a larger conspiracy should not hamper the in-house probe against the CJI on the sexual harassment complaint. The bench made it clear that in-house proceedings will go on but a separate investigation was needed on the larger conspiracy and role of fixers. The lawyer contended that an attempt was made by a corporate figure to influence an SC judge to deliver a favourable order, failing which he sought to get the case moved to another court. Both attempts failed, Bains said, quoting what he said was information from a reliable source. The attempt to dislodge the CJI followed this incident, he claimed. After their meeting with the officers of agencies they had called, the bench assembled again to hear submissions on an affidavit filed by Bains who alleged that the sexual harassment charge against the CJI by a dismissed court staffer was part of a conspiracy involving a corporate figure who, along with members of a fixers club, has tried to frame the CJI to pressure him to resign. He placed materials and evidence in a sealed envelope before the bench to substantiate his allegations. The lawyer said he had some additional information and evidence but expressed reluctance to place some of the privileged communication before the bench. The bench, however, said it is of the prima facie opinion that the lawyer could not claim privilege in the present case involving conspiracy of a serious nature. The court asked AG K K Venugopal to assist the court on the issue. Venugopal submitted that the lawyer cannot claim privilege and said a person making such serious allegations cannot place half the evidence as all the information has to be furnished to the court. In an affidavit, Bains alleged that the CJI was being targeted because he took decisive steps to insulate the judiciary from fixers. The deponent is privy to certain events involving the said corporate figure and will submit... the events and list of the involved persons to this court, he said.

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POWER COS COMPLAIN ABOUT INCREASE IN RESERVE PRICES FOR SPOT COAL BY CIL

Privately-owned thermal power units have complained about coal price increase in the spot forward e-auction (SFeA) by state-owned Coal India and its subsidiary companies. The thermal companies have alleged that coal firms have increased reserve price in the range of 10-32 per cent. In 2016, SFeA was introduced for those power units that do not have a long-term fuel supply agreement with Coal India. Coal India declares reserve price for every round of monthly auction, which is 10 per cent above the notified price of coal in India. Power units participate in a competitive auction process and offer premium of 30-40 per cent over the notified prices to bag the coal supply. In a letter written to the Ministry of Coal, Association of Power Producers (APP) said various Coal India subsidiaries have now suddenly and unilaterally increased the reserve prices for SFeA for power. It said this would eventually lead to increase in power rates from these units. With this increase in reserve prices for the upcoming SFeAs, the final premium to be paid for successful bidders in these auctions would be well over 50 per cent of the notified prices. This increase would directly reflect in the cost of power produced and would be disastrous for the power projects considering the current stress scenario being faced, the letter read. During April 2018-March 2019 period, 27.14 million tonne of coal was offered under SFeA. This is half the amount offered during the same period last fiscal at 47.07 million tonne. In March 2019, 1.12 million tonne coal was offered, which witnessed a 20 per cent increase over the notified price. During the April’18-March’19 period, there was a 74 per cent increase over notified price, according to the monthly status report on the website of coal ministry. Coal-based power plants are already struggling with low operating levels. The projects which are dependent upon the SFeA for their coal needs would get pushed down the merit-order dispatch, thereby reducing their chances of getting scheduled for generation. They will lose out to the power plants which get coal at much cheaper notified prices, stated the letter.

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SHIPPING FIRMS SEEK PM’S HELP TO STAY AFLOAT

Over two dozen Indian shipping companies have submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking his immediate intervention to scrap a recent notification and a circular which, according to them, would force them to shut down, resulting in heavy job losses. They said the Indian flag shipping industry was heading for a crisis arising out of Notification No. 2 of ‘Make in India’ dated February 13, 2019, issued by the Ministry of Shipping, and Circular No. 2 of 2019 issued by the Director General of Shipping, Mumbai. These changes would take away business from the Indian shipping companies, they said. The circular equates a foreign ship taken on hire, with a ship actually owned under the Indian flag by an Indian company. Besides it gives priority in government contracts to those ships, just because they were once built in India. Indian flag vessels have been enjoying the Right of First Refusal (ROF) which enables them to match the lowest rates quoted by a foreign vessel and take that business. This has aided growth of the Indian fleet since it helps to ensure that no Indian asset remains idle. Indian ship owners said this right has been taken away by the government and given to foreign shipping companies. While we applaud the intent of the notification in respect of incentivising ship building in India, we are concerned that the notification and the circular issued by the government are detrimental to the survival of the Indian shipping industry, the memorandum said. It removes the Right of First Refusal (ROFR) available to the Indian flag vessels which enables an Indian flag vessel to match the lower rates given by a foreign flag vessel so that the Indian business is available to Indian flag vessels, it added. Indian ship owners said the notification and circular indicate that the Ministry and the DG Shipping favour those who temporarily hire foreign flag assets and remit money out of India, rather than those investing in the Indian economy with a $15- 50 million asset. The government gives preference to foreign flag vessels built in Indian yardsbut not owned by Indian companies, over [those under] Indian flag, said Sachin. K. Kshirsagar. The Indian ships provide employment to about 25,000 Indian seafarers, who now face the risk of losing their jobs, in addition to many people employed in offices and ports. What would be graver is the fact that Indian shipping companies will become financially weaker and will impact the Indian economy and lenders. This action has the ability to create potential NPAs for Indian banks, Mr. Kshirsagar added. The memorandum pointed out that the notification would not serve the purpose of ‘Make in India’ as ships already ‘made’ in India have been given preference.

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NEW COORDINATED EFFORT FOR MALARIA RESEARCH UNVEILED

The fight against malaria got a shot in the arm with a range of research organisations coming together on a common platform with an aim to eliminate the disease from the country by 2030 through shared research agenda and resources. Over the past two decades, India has made good progress in malaria control. The disease burden has declined by 59 per cent (2.03 million cases in 2000 to 0.84 million in 2017) and deaths due to the disease by 89 per cent (932 in 2000 to 103 in 2017). The success has led to the government to make a commitment to eliminate malaria by 2030. However, several challenges remain. There are critical operational gaps in service access particularly for vulnerable populations in high transmission areas as well as in the services provided by private sector. There is also a need to improve quality and effectiveness of vector and environmental control measures. In addition, the emergence and spread of drug and insecticide resistance is undermining the efficacy of existing tools. There is a need for new improved tools and approaches for disease surveillance, diagnosis, treatment and vector control. There are several research organisations and groups in the country that focus on malaria research but there is little communication and harmonization in the scientific community, resulting in duplication of efforts. In this context, the Indian Council of Medical Research has put together a programme to bring the various stakeholders on a single platform to identify and prioritise research work needed to meet the target to eliminate the disease by 2030. Called Malaria Elimination Research Alliance India (MERA India), the programme took off recently with the first meeting of the stakeholders. Neena Valecha, said the regional office would provide all assistance to ensure regional cooperation for the programme considering that diseases know no national boundaries and it was essential that all the countries in the region worked in unison.

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PM NARENDRA MODI GETS NEW EPITHET 'PRACHAR MANTRI'

The opposition Wednesday gave Prime Minister Narendra Modi a new epithet 'Prachar Mantri' Akhilesh Yadav attacked the prime minister, saying, The nation needs a 'pradhan mantri' (prime minister) and not a 'prachar mantri' (publicity minister). Priyanka Gandhi Vadra called the prime minister 'pradhan prachar mantri' (chief publicity minister). Water from tankers were being used to clean roads to welcome our 'pradhan prachar mantri' (chief publicity minister), she claimed, accusing the BJP of wasting drinking water to clean roads in Banda, an arid town in Uttar Pradesh's Bundelkhand region, ahead of Modi's visit tomorrow to address an election meeting. This is happening at a time when the entire Bundelkhand, the men and women living there, school going children, crops, birds and animals are facing the spectre of drought, she said. In a tweet, Priyanka Gandhi said, Is he a 'chowkidar' (watchman) or a 'shahenshah' (emperor) coming from Delhi.

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NARENDRA MODI CALLS MAMATA BANERJEE STICKER DIDI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday took a jibe at Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee calling her 'sticker didi' who labels central welfare schemes as those run by her government. The reason why the electorate had voted the Left out of power in West Bengal and had supported her party has not been fulfilled by her, he said. TMC, he claimed, has brought more miseries to the people of the state through goondaism, syndicates and extortion. Speedbreaker didi is also sticker didi. She just puts a sticker on central schemes like free electricity or ration for the people to claim that these benefits are being given the state government, he said.

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CONGRESS ON WAY TO FORM UPA-3, POLL RESULT SURPRISES IN STORE FOR UP: SALMAN KHURSHID

The Congress is on way to forming UPA-3 and its electoral performance will be much beyond the expectations of many people, says senior party leader Salman Khurshid, asserting that surprises are in store as far as Uttar Pradesh poll results are concerned. Khurshid, said he would not be surprised if the party matches or betters its 2009 performance in the state when it won 21 seats. 2009 performance (in UP) was a very good performance in terms of circumstances that existed. Therefore, the 2009 performance is a high benchmark, but I would not be surprised at all if we touch that bench mark and even exceed it. There are all kinds of surprises in store as far as UP (poll result) is concerned, he said. Asked if the Congress nationally also could match its 2009 performance when it won 205 seats, Khurshid said he has no doubt that the Congress could do so. The former Union minister said he sees a similar feeling on the ground. However, he also acknowledged that many challenges such as the mean attitudes and mechanisms being unleashed against the Congress exist. But, I am quite sure that given the mix of circumstances and the enthusiasm which our workers, excited by the new leadership, have shown, we will do much beyond the expectations of many people and certainly we would be way ahead of all the other parties and indeed, we will be in a position to form the government, he asserted. Khurshid said he is hopeful that there will be a UPA-3.

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BJP WILL WIN ELECTIONS AS NATIONALISM HAS TAKEN OVER CASTEISM: AMAR SINGH

The BJP will form the next government with majority as nationalism has taken over casteism in this Lok Sabha election, Amar Singh said Wednesday. Singh also attacked the SP leadership, accusing party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav of doublespeak and ditching him. The BJP will be able to form majority government at the Centre as this time nationalism has taken over casteism and the scenario has changed in favour of Narendra Modi, he said. Singh told that there was a 'NaMo' wave in 2014, but this time people will vote for him for the tremendous work he has done in the last five years. From medical treatment to LPG cylinders, electricity, housing and electricity, the BJP government has worked in all areas and touched the common man's life, said Singh, who due to illness is not actively campaigning.

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HOPE PM SPEAKS ON HATE SPEECH, DEMO AND MESSED UP GST BEFORE CAMPAIGNING ENDS: CHIDAMBARAM

P Chidambaram on Wednesday said he was tired of listening to Prime Minister Narendra Modi beat his own trumpet on what he did to Pakistan and asserted that people also want to hear him speak about issues such as demonetisation and hate speeches. He also wondered whether the prime minister will speak on top issues concerning the people before campaign ends. Tired of listening to the PM beat his own trumpet on what he did to Pakistan. Before the campaign ends, will the PM speak on the top issues concerning the people? Chidambaram asked. People also want to hear the Prime Minister speak on hate speeches, especially by leaders of his own party, he said. People want to hear the Prime Minister speak on demonetisation, messed up GST and plight of MSMEs, the former finance minister said. In another tweet, he also hailed actor Shahrukh Khan for saying being diverse is a good thing, being divisive is not. I hope PM will say ‘Fantastic effort, @iamsrk ‘, Chidambaram tweeted.

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BJP USING DIVIDE AND RULE POLICY OF BRITISH TO GRAB POWER, SAYS SP CHIEF AKHILESH YADAV

Accusing the BJP of using the divide and rule policy of the British for grabbing power, Akhilesh Yadav Wednesday said the SP-BSP alliance will not let the saffron party succeed in its designs. Minister said people voted for ‘chaiwala’ and tasted tea. As you know the taste of tea now, will you vote for him again? he asked the gathering at an election meeting in Hardoi. The BJP is playing divide and rule game of Britishers. They are creating division (in society) on the basis of caste and religion with the sole purpose of grabbing power. But, the SP-BSP alliance will not let the BJP succeed in its designs, he said. Unitedly we will fight and also win against these forces, he said. Akhilesh asked if the alliance of three parties (SP-BSP-RLD) is ‘maha-milawat’ (as described by Prime Minister Modi), then what will you call alliance of 38 parties. Attacking the prime minister, he said, The nation needs a Pradhan Mantri (prime minister) and not a Prachar Mantri (publicity minister). Akhilesh, however, said he would not coin any nomenclature for the NDA as people will themselves understand. Attacking Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, he said, Baba (CM) says that had there been no Constitution, I would have been grazing buffalo. What would he (CM) be doing, if there was no Constitution? I will not say as you all know. Alleging that the BJP was misusing the Army for political gains, Akhilesh said, They (BJP) say borders are safe due to a strong prime minister. No. Borders are safe due to Army men, who are laying down their lives for the country. Army is being used for political purpose. The BJP can go to any extent to grab power, he said, adding the alliance will not allow this to happen. He also highlighted the works done in the state during his tenure as UP chief minister.

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‘MODI HAS TIME FOR ACTORS, BUT NOT COMMON PEOPLE’: PRIYANKA GANDHI AFTER PM’S INTERVIEW WITH AKSHAY KUMAR

Priyanka Gandhi on Wednesday took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi after his interview with Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar at the prime minister’s official residence on April 23, 2019. Gandhi said that one can watch PM Modi having an interview with actors but not with the common people The Congress leader further added that Modi, who represents the Varanasi parliamentary constituency, has not gone to a single village in the last five years. Priyanka Gandhi has been holding a number of road shows and rallies across the country for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. The party called PM Modi a failed politician who is likely to be rejected by the people on May 23, 2019. The party also said that PM Modi is looking for an alternative employment opportunity in Bollywood.

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INDIA'S MIGHT ACKNOWLEGED GLOBALLY BECAUSE OF MY FOREIGN TRIPS, SAYS MODI

Often in the line of opposition fire over his foreign trips, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday said India's might was being acknowledged globally because of his numerous visits abroad. Taking on the opposition for the criticism that he was seen more abroad than in the country during his tenure as the prime minister, Modi said, hardly five years back India found it difficult to get its voice heard, but now the world stands with it I read somewhere that Didi (Mamata banerjee) has said this chaiwala was busy making foreign trips all these five years, but today India's might is being acknowledged everywhere because of these visits, he said while addressing an election rally here in Birbhum district. Taking a dig at the opposition, he said, anybody whose party is contesting even 20-25 seats, wants to become the prime minister. Sab ghungroo bandhke taiyar ho gaye (everybody is decked up to take the hot seat), he said, mocking them.

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EC ORDERS RE-ELECTION AT POLLING STATION IN WEST BENGAL’S COOCH BEHAR

The Election Commission of India has announced the repolling to polling station 181 in West Bengal’s Cooch Behar on April 29, 2019 (Monday). The move comes following allegations that voters were stopped from casting vote in their respective booths. The voting for Cooch Behar and Alipurduar parliamentary constituency took place on April 11 in the first phase. Out of 2,010 polling booths under Cooch Behar Lok Sabha seat, around 700 regarded as sensitive were guarded by Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), while remaining 1,310 polling booths were guarded by state police forces. Incidents of violence during polls is not new to West Bengal. Special observer Ajay Nayak recently issued a statement saying the present condition of West Bengal is similar to the condition of Bihar 10 to 15 years ago. The remark drew criticism from the ruling Trinamool Congress with party supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Minister Mamata Banerjee said that poll observers appointed on the EC’s directions are abusing and insulting the people of the state. Banerjee also alleged that the poll body has sent the retired officers to run a parallel government in the state.

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PRIYANKA GANDHI VADRA ASKS VOTERS TO REMOVE POLITICS OF DIVISIVENESS, NEGATIVITY

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Wednesday asked voters to help remove politics of divisiveness and negativity and think of future generations and save the country. Change politics, not only of your area or for your needs, but for your future generations and to save the country, as the country is in danger, she said. Remove the politics of divisiveness and negativity, and usher in a politics, which speaks about you, your grievances and makes efforts to redress them, she said. In democracy, there is nothing bigger than the power of the people. Hence, all of you get the right to vote, and it is your biggest strength as well. The vote is your right as well as a weapon.

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PM MODI SAYS INDIA’S MIGHT ACKNOWLEDGED GLOBALLY BECAUSE OF MY FOREIGN TRIPS

Narendra Modi Wednesday said India’s might was being acknowledged globally because of his numerous visits abroad. He was seen more abroad than in the country during his tenure as the prime minister, Modi said, hardly five years back India found it difficult to get its voice heard, but now the world stands with it. I read somewhere that Didi (Mamata banerjee) has said this chaiwala was busy making foreign trips all these five years, but today India’s might is being acknowledged everywhere because of these visits, he said. He said, anybody whose party is contesting even 20-25 seats, wants to become the prime minister. Sab ghungroo bandhke taiyar ho gaye (everybody is decked up to take the hot seat), he said, mocking them. Thanking the Election Commission for its efforts to hold free and fair elections, the prime minister said, Didi, however, is angry with the poll panel because of this very reason. He also claimed that after the three phases of polling it has become clear from news reports that the Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee’s sun is about to set in West Bengal. If Didi has the power of goondas, we have the strength of democracy, he added.

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MAMATA BANERJEE ACCUSES PM MODI OF BUYING VOTES WITH BLACK MONEY CONVERTED TO WHITE THROUGH DEMONETISATION

Mamata Banerjee Wednesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of converting huge black money into white through demonitisation and spending it to purchase votes. She alleged that the saffron party is importing guns and goons to ensure votes in its favour and said that such a situation will not be allowed to develop in Bengal. Modi Babu you may forcibly impose notebandi (demonetisation) on people to convert black money into white and spend them during elections to purchase votes, but you can never purchase voters in Bengal, Banerjee said at a public meeting at Serampore in Hooghly district in support of Trinamool Congress candidates. You (Modi) are destined to be dethroned after the elections. Our government will prove what a big scam demonetisation was, the TMC supremo said. Continuing her attack, Banerjee, who is among the severest critics of the saffron party, said that BJP goons are even organising processions with arms and sharp-edged weapons to vitiate the environment and unleash terror. We must foil such bids to maintain peace and harmony in the state, she said. Banerjee alleged that Modi hd distributed liquor licenses to some handpicked people just ahead of the polls and said that the TMC government will unearth the scam and expose his real face to the people. Banerjee reiterated that she will not allow in Bengal and not a single people will be asked to leave the state.

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COURT SAYS IT HAS NO POWER TO BAR PRAGYA SINGH THAKUR FROM CONTESTING POLLS

In a relief for Malegaon blast accused and BJP Lok Sabha candidate Pragya Singh Thakur, an NIA court Wednesday rejected a plea to prohibit her from contesting elections saying it has no power to do so. Special judge for National Investigation Agency (NIA) cases V S Padalkar rejected the application filed by Nisar Sayyad, whose son was among those killed in the 2008 Malegaon blast. Sayyad had demanded that Thakur, accused of orchestrating the blast, be prohibited from contesting the Lok Sabha election. He had also urged the court to cancel her bail. This court does not have any legal powers to prohibit anyone from contesting the polls. It is the job of electoral officers to decide. This court cannot stop the accused from contesting the polls, Judge Padalkar said. Sayyad, in his application, pointed out that Thakur had got bail from the high court on health grounds. If she was healthy enough to fight elections in the crippling summers heat, then she had misled the court, he claimed. Responding to it, Mishra said, Thakur has not misled the court. After the court's order (on bail), she underwent an operation and was unable to walk in 2016. Her condition has improved now, but she has not fully recovered.

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BULLET TRAIN: BIDS INVITED FOR INDIA’S FIRST UNDERSEA TUNNEL

The National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) has issued tender for India’s first undersea tunnel, which is part of the ambitious Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train corridor. The bullet train which will cover a distance of 508 km between Mumbai and Ahmedabad has a 21 km underground corridor from BKC to Kalyan Shilphata in Maharashtra. Of this, 7km is under the Thane creek, with 1.8 km of it to be built under the sea bed and the remaining under the mangroves marshland on either side of the creek. The tender which was released on Tuesday is for construction of tunnelling works including testing and commissioning for double line high speed railway using tunnel boring machine (TBM) and new Austrian tunnelling method (NATM) for the project. Going by the tender, the work has to be completed within 1,280 days or 3.5 years. A team of engineers from NHSRCL, RITES Ltd and Japan’s Kawasaki Geological Engineering had carried out a geo-technical investigation of the undersea tunnel area last year. The team had carried out a static refraction technique (SRT) survey to study the seabed structure. It involved firing a high-energy sound wave towards the seabed from below the surface of the water and mapping the refracted sound wave to determine the density of the rock under the sea bed. The final report was submitted last year. Clearing air over the environmental clearances required for the project, NHSRCL officials said that India’s apex institutes including the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), the Mangroves Survey of India (MSI) and the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) have studied environmental impact of the project in the said area. ZSI in its report had stated that there is minimal disturbance to the wildlife in this region. There will be no mangroves being cut in this area as it will be an undersea (underground) tunnel 20 to 40 metres below the ground (sea level), said a NHSRCL official.

All environment related clearances from the respective authorities including the Coastal Regulation Management Authority, the National Board of Wildlife and the forest department are either received or authorities have principally agreed for the approval, the official said. Last month, NHSRCL had invited bids for 237km out of 50-km-long project – which was the biggest ever contract for civil construction in the country.

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ARMY STARTS PROCESS TO INDUCT WOMEN AS JAWANS IN MILITARY POLICE

Opening up a new avenue for females, the Indian Army on Thursday kicked off the process of inducting women as jawans by starting their online registration for recruitment in the corps of military police. This is being seen as a major breakthrough for women in armed forces as so far, they were being inducted only as officers and this is the first time they would be taken in as soldiers. Online registration will start today for the recruitment of women as jawans and the last date for it is June 8. The project was first mooted by Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat soon after he took charge of the force, Army officials said. The decks for the induction were cleared in January this year after Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the government has taken a historic decision to induct women in the military police with an aim to enhance their representation in the three services. Women will be inducted in a graded manner to eventually comprise 20 per cent of total Corps of Military Police and their role would range from probing crime cases to assisting the Army in field operations wherever required. As per government data, the Army has 3.80 per cent of its workforce as women, the Air Force has 13.09 per cent and the Navy six per cent.

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‘ERROR’ IN INTERMEDIATE RESULTS GIVES TELANGANA EXAM FEVER

The future of about three lakh students in Telangana, who have ‘failed’ in the intermediate examinations conducted in March, remains uncertain even as 18 of them have committed suicide so far. Large-scale discrepancies in the results announced on April 18 by the Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) triggered a furore in the State. Hundreds of students, who failed to get pass marks in some subjects and their parents took to the streets, resulting in detention of several agitators. Caught off guard, the State Education Ministry, the Board and the government mounted a poor defence. Initially, it tried to dismiss the allegations but had to give in in the face of growing protests, a case in High Court and complaints to the Human Rights Commissions, among other factors. Admitting to ‘errors’ in evaluation, compilation of the marksheets and entry of data, the Ministry appointed a three-member panel with experts drawn from the IIT, Hyderabad and BITS, Hyderabad campus, to look into the matter. Opposition parties too exerted pressure. In the meantime, instances of errors mounted: while some got their result as failed even though they had scored higher marks than required, others were declared passed even though they had failed. The escalated agitations and street protests across the State reached the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s office. Responding to a public interest litigation filed on the fiasco, the High Court asked the State government to let it know how many days it would require to re-evaluate the answer sheets in question. According to official data, the total number of students who appeared for the exams was 7.90 lakh. The Chief Minister, who broke his silence on the sixth day, held a review meeting and directed the officials to offer re-verification of scripts and recounting free of cost to the failed students. He also urged students to show patience and not to resort to extreme steps. In the raging issue, the role of a private company too came to the fore. The contract for processing the results, which was being done earlier by the Centre for Good Governance, a government agency, was handed over to a Hyderabad-based private firm, Globarena Technologies, recently. Political parties have flayed the government for awarding the job to a private firm that was not competent enough to take up the job. They also alleged that the firm had links with the top leadership of the Telangana Rastra Samithi. Globalarena, however, contended that it was capable of handling the task and asserted that it had executed the contract systematically. Our job is to handle the process for three years before handing it over to the BIE, VSN Raju, CEO of Globalarena, said.

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IPL BUZZ PULLING FEMALE VIEWERS AWAY FROM TV SERIALS

With more and more matches of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) ending in nail-biting finishes, the excitement, hype and the adrenalin rush, along with the fact that India continuous to be a single TV household, is making female audiences to let go of their favourite daily soaps on general entertainment channels (GECs), and switch to IPL. As per BARC viewership data sourced from a subscriber, during the first three weeks of the IPL, Hindi GECs – Star Plus, Colors, Sony Entertainment Television, Zee TV, &TV, Star Bharat and Sony Sab – collectively lost almost 10% female (15+ years) viewership in the Hindi speaking markets (HSM) during primetime hours of 7 pm – midnight. In terms of average impressions in the three weeks (March 23- April 12) Colors and &TV lost maximum — 22% and 15% — of their female audience, respectively, while Zee TV and Sony Entertainment registered a drop of around 8% each. It is important to note that GECs attract mass audiences and command over Rs 11,000-13,000 crore in advertising dollars, which is almost 35% of the overall advertising spend on television. During IPL historically we have seen viewership of other genres go down. GECs are more skewed towards female audiences; it is not unusual to see a drop in female viewership considering that India is still a single TV household, said Navin Khemkha. Khemkha added that the performance of IPL is also a big factor. Given that this time more teams are performing better and the matches are more competitive, the interest in the tournament is also more than previous year. Overall timespent per (female) viewer also dropped to 264 minutes, from an average of 289 minutes, registering a 8.8% drop, while overall market share of the seven channels in the HSM, saw a 9.6% drop – from 29.8% to 26.9%. However, the data also suggests that a major chunk of this female audience came back to catch up on daily soaps during the repeat telecast, which resulted in almost zero impact on the overall weekly reach of the channels. A senior executive of a GEC said that IPL is a 50-day phenomenon, but daily soaps are a habit. With more than 90% of the Indian TV households having only one TV, it is quite possible for the women to cede control of the remote in the primetime, but they won’t let go of their shows. They come back to watch either on TV while repeat telecast, or on the OTT players, he summed up.

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USFDA ISSUES FORM 483 TO SUN PHARMA'S DADRA PLANT OVER QUALITY ISSUES

Raising concerns over data collection and quality control unit, the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has reportedly issued a Form 483 to Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd for its Dadra plant. As per media reports, the regulator is learnt to have found deficiencies relating to medicine quality, data collection, maintenance as well as quality control unit. After an inspection of Sun Pharma's Dadra plant in March this year, USFDA has reportedly issued 11 observations on the site. The observations include lack of written procedures for production and process controls designed to assure that drug products have identity, strength, quality, and purity they are represented to possess, said media reports. The 10-page Form 483 to Sun Pharma, which is issued to companies as an observation by investigators over deemed violation of US drug regulations upon completion of an inspection, also observed that the latter's Dadra plant's quality control unit lacked authority to fully investigate errors that have occurred. In other words, the quality control unit at the Dadra facility did not always ensure complete investigation of errors that may have occurred at the plant. USFDA's 483 to Sun Pharma reportedly also includes observation regarding its laboratory records which do not include complete data derived from all tests and examinations. The regulator's observed that these data were imperative to assure compliance with established specifications and standards. Further, the regulator also did not find the Dadra facility's electronic records meeting requirements that would ensure trustworthiness and reliability.

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ETIHAD BECOMES 1ST MAJOR AIRLINE TO OPERATE PLASTIC-FREE FLIGHT

The UAE's flag carrier Etihad Airways has become the first airline in the Gulf region to operate a flight without any single-use plastics on board, in a bid to raise awareness about pollution on Earth Day. The milestone flight is part of Etihad's pledge to reduce single-use plastic usage by 80 per cent not just in-flight, but across the entire organisation by the end of 2022, the airline said in a statement. Etihad identified that over 95 single-use plastic products are used across its aircraft cabins. Once removed from the Earth Day flight, Etihad prevented over 50 kilograms of plastics from being landfilled. Guests on board enjoyed replacement products including sustainable amenity kits, award-winning eco-thread blankets made out of recycled plastic bottles, tablet toothpaste and edible coffee cups while children were treated to eco-plush toys.

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BOEING DROPS 2019 OUTLOOK AFTER 737 MAX CRISIS, SEES $1 BN IN EXTRA COSTS

Boeing Co on Wednesday abandoned its 2019 financial outlook, said it halted share buybacks in mid-March, and announced $1 billion in increased costs due to the grounding of its 737 MAX jets. The world's largest planemaker reported first-quarter revenue and cash flow below sharply lowered Wall Street estimates, largely due to stopping deliveries of the 737 MAX jets, which were grounded in March after the two crashes. The company said it would be issuing a new forecast in the future when it has more clarity around the issues surrounding the 737 MAX. Revenue fell 2 percent to $22.92 billion, below analysts' average estimate of $22.98 billion.

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CS Meetesh Shiroya