The govt should restore people's faith in the banking system: Arvind Gupta

Arvind Gupta, who has a degree in economics from Banaras Hindu University, is the founder-trustee of Indian Investors Protection Council and has uncovered the connection between NuPower Renewables, of which Deepak Kochhar is the co-founder and chief executive officer, and the Videocon group. Gupta tells Pavan Lall that the government must fix the banking system quickly. Edited excerpts:
In 2016, when you learned about these connections between banks, business houses and an entrepreneur, whom did you reach out to?
I reached out to the Prime Minister’s Office, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, the Central Vigilance Commission, the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Serious Fraud Investigation Office, and the Finance Minister’s office. Absolutely no one responded. No reaction whatsoever. I don’t blame them. This has been the culture of governance for the past 30 years.
What is your motivation in highlighting what you feel is an unusual connection among NuPower Renewables, Videocon and ICICI Bank?
It is the right and responsibility of every investor and Indian in the business space to flag off these issues — unusual and out of the ordinary equations that seem too close for comfort. Probe it and you will discover something. All this information is public. The answers are all out there.
You have also been an investor in Videocon?
Yes, I have also invested in ICICI Bank and State Bank of India and dozens of others. So that’s not special in itself. I invest in many companies.
I have been fighting for economic justice. This is my passion. I feel it is my obligation to point out these issues because many others do not have the ability to do so.
You have also talked about a widespread culture of abuse within corporations….
Generally, transactions among Indian firms and overseas subsidiaries are fishy. All of those should be subjected to forensic audits. Round-tripping of funds between Indian companies and ones overseas and over-invoicing are the oldest tricks in the trade.
Has ICICI Bank reached out to you to clarify issues?
No, no one from any of the companies in question has reached out.
What do you expect the authorities concerned to do at this stage?
I would like fast-eroding faith and confidence of investors, shareholders, and debtors in the banking system to be restored by the government.
To do that, they need to conduct forensic audits and zero in on the details of transactions. Take action when problems are noticed. They need to fast-track urgent issues. The prime minister has said he has zero tolerance for corruption. I want to see that in effect.
Do you see the problem in our banking sector as one that is historical?
Substantially, so: India is the only country where we have social banking driven by political reasons. Loan “melas” and social lending are the norm. We are losing money that belongs to the common man. This is sad because the common man trusts banks and hopes that his money is safe. As I said earlier, if faith is not restored, we are heading towards a financial crisis and the banking sector might collapse.

Kerala to host Asia's largest startup conclave 'Huddle Kerala' on April 6

Asia's largest startup ecosystem congregation, Huddle Kerala, will be held at Kovalam near here on April 6 and 7.
The initiative is envisaged to provide a platform for start-ups to pitch in their products and interact with a wide array of technology and industry leaders from around the world.

Startups, investors, academicians and industry leaders will attend the event, which is expected to have the participation of 2,000 members with 40 speakers in 30 sessions.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the conclave, being organised by the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) in association with Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IAMAI Startup Foundation, a statement said here today.
The guests to the conclave include Sharjah Digital Transformation Higher Committee Chairman Sheikh Fahim Bin Sultan Al Qasimi and Prince Constantijn of Netherlands, it said.
KSUM chief executive officer (CEO) Saji Gopinath said that the first-of-its-kind global event in the state will ensure maximum connect with technology experts and leaders from countries in Asia and Europe, apart from providing opportunities for close interactive sessions between the participants.
"The conference would be to pitch in a platform for upcoming startups to showcase their product and business model in front of the entrepreneurs and industry stalwarts", he said. Huddle Kerala will primarily focus on the emerging sectors like blockchain, cryptocurrency, internet of things (IoT), gaming and e-sports, cyber security, digital entertainment, augmented reality, virtual reality, e-governance and mobile governance among other latest technologies, it said.
The philosophy behind Huddle Kerala is to help the next generation world-conquering companies move forward.
At the very core of the event is to facilitate founder and investor meetings and build up a huge start-up community.
The Huddle 100 Competition will kick off on the first day with 100 companies pitching in the first round, the statement said.
The next day 10 best companies will continue pitching and they will be mentored by the top-notch industry leaders and coaches.
Out of these, semi-finalists are chosen, further narrowing down to finalist.
Start-ups will have the opportunity to showcase their products at designated start-up Zone (demo booth) at the venue.
The KSUM is the nodal agency of the Kerala Government for entrepreneurship development and incubation activities in the State.
Worlds leading location-based marketing specialist Posterscope and mobile app builder Zoho Corporation are the sponsors of the event, the release added.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Amid pressure from investors, Snapchat parent cuts 7% of global workforce

Snap on Friday said it cut 7 per cent of its global workforce in March, as disclosed by it in a regulatory filing.
The social media company said it would incur about $10 million of cash expenditure due to severance costs to be reflected in the current quarter ending March 31.

As a result of the layoffs, mainly in its engineering and sales teams, the company said it sees savings of about $25 million in 2018. The company had said it had 3,069 employees as of December 31, 2017, according to its annual filing.
The Snapchat parent has been under pressure from investors to reduce costs after revenue fell short of analyst expectations during Snap’s first year as a publicly traded company.

Zydus faces stiff competition for blockbuster drug in US from Teva Pharma

Ahmedabad-based pharma major Cadila Healthcare's blockbuster generic drug for treating ulcerative colitis is in for stiff competition from Israeli drug major Teva Pharmaceutical Industries.
Teva launched the generic version of Irish firm Shire’s Lialda in the US earlier this week.

Analysts expect the margins of the drug to shrink as competition rises in the US market. Apart from Teva, Mylan and Amneal are the other probable filers and are expected to launch their products in 2018-19.
Deepak Malik, analyst with Edelweiss Securities, said: “Once competing products start coming into the market, the drug largely loses its attractiveness and becomes like any other generic drug in the US market.”
The drug, a generic of mesalamine, is estimated to have a market size of $1.5 billion and Cadila Healthcare (also known as Zydus Cadila) was the first to file (FTF) an abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) for a generic version of Lialda in the US.
Zydus had launched its generic version of Lialda from its Moraiya facility near Ahmedabad around mid-July last year and this drug has contributed to the company's US growth story this fiscal.
In the second quarter of the financial year, it saw its US revenues soar 66 per cent riding on the generic of Lialda, which enjoyed a 180-day exclusivity period. During the third quarter, the company's US business continued its dream run, banking on the generic and influenza drug Tamiflu, and grew 78 per cent year on year.
The generic has been the big launch for Cadila this financial year. Analysts expect around 40 per cent of the 2017-18 profits to come from the drug. However, as competition for the drug increases in the US, analysts point out that the generic is expected to contribute less than 20 per cent of the company's profits in 2018-19.
Cadila's 180-day exclusivity period ended in January. Teva's version of Lialda was expected to be launched in the same month. Its approval, however, was delayed. As a result, Zydus Cadila enjoyed a clear run for an additional 75 days after the 180-day exclusivity period.
The market is abuzz that innovator company Shire Plc too is gearing up to launch an authorised generic (AG) version of the drug in the US market soon. In 2016 this product had reported annual sales of $714 million.
Cadila's US business, however, is expected to be driven by other mesalamine drugs in 2018-19. Not many companies have a pipeline of mesalamine molecules. Zydus has Asacol HD and other niche category transdermal products, which would drive the company's US revenues in 2018-19.
A senior executive of Cadila Healthcare had told Business Standard that the price erosion of the base business in the US was bottoming out and in the third quarter of 2017-18 it was at 4 per cent.
“The fourth quarter would see 10-12 product launches in the US and this would continue for the upcoming quarters. On the whole, we expect, the share of the US to rise in our overall revenue — from roughly 50 per cent now to 55 per cent in 2018-19 and the US would contribute around 60 per cent of our revenues by 2019-20,” he said.

From IRFC to Mazagon Dock, glut of PSU public offers to continue in 2018-19

The spree of initial public offerings of equity (IPO) by state-owned firms will continue in 2018-19. First up are likely to be rail companies Rites and IRFC, which will be taken public by May, Business Standard has learnt.
Two more rail public sector undertakings (PSUs), Ircon and RVNL, are expected to follow later in the year. However, the planned IPO of IRCTC has been put in cold storage indefinitely, with neither the rail ministry nor the department of investment and public asset management in favour.

The government's combined disinvestment target for 2018-19 is Rs 800 billion. The other IPOs expected include Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders, Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers, and three general insurance PSUs, which will be merged into a single entity and then listed on the exchanges. These are National Insurance, Oriental Insurance and United India Insurance. The two shipbuilders are expected to be taken public in the first half of the coming financial year.
According to senior government sources, the listing of Rites and IRFC will happen before May-end, Rites being the first. That IPO could involve a 12 per cent stake of the Centre. In the case of IRFC, 10 per cent could be offloaded. A 25 per cent stake sale is being planned with RVNL.
Earlier, there were doubts over the IRFC listing because of a deferred tax liability issue. However, the ministry of corporate affairs has since exempted the company from an accumulated deferred tax liability of Rs 63.92 billion, which will add to the net worth.
There are various reasons why the planned IRCTC offer is now in cold storage. "When a major source of income of a company is service charge on booking of tickets and other services, and when that service charge is removed by the government, investor interest will, of course, be lukewarm," said an official when asked why.
In the aftermath of demonetisation, the Narendra Modi government took a number of steps to popularise digital transactions. One of these was to phase put the service charge levied by IRCTC.
The move had wiped out Rs 5 billion from IRCTC's annual revenue. Though the finance ministry was expected to reimburse this, only Rs 800 million was reimbursed. SBI Capital Markets, IDBI Capital Markets & Securities, Elara Securities India, and IDFC Bank are the advisors to Rites for the issue. ICICI Securities, SBI Caps, IDFC and HSBC are bid managers for IRFC.
The year 2017-18 saw a record six IPOs of PSUs, which netted but Rs 240 billion, nearly a quarter of the year's revised disinvestment estimate of Rs 1 trillion. These companies were New India Assurance, General Insurance Corp, HAL, Bharat Dynamics, Cochin Shipyard and Hudco.

Gold prices tumble by Rs 650 on low demand from local jewellers

Gold prices plunged by Rs 650 to Rs 31,300 per ten grams at the bullion market on Friday on considerable fall in demand from local jewellers and retailers at prevailing higher levels.
Silver followed suit and lost Rs 600 at Rs 39,150 per kg due to reduced offtake by industrial units and coin makers.

Marketmen said gold prices sank on lacklustre demand from local jewellers and retailers at domestic spot market.
In the national capital, gold of 99.9 per cent and 99.5 per cent purity plunged by Rs 650 each to Rs 31,300 and Rs 31,150 per ten grams, respectively.
Sovereign, however, remained unaltered at Rs 24,800 per piece of eight grams.
In line with gold prices, silver ready drifted lower by Rs 600 to Rs 39,150 per kg and weekly-based delivery by Rs 660 to Rs 38,320 per kg.
Silver coins, however, remained steady at Rs 74,000 for buying and Rs 75,000 for selling of 100 pieces.

NMDC under pressure to cut iron ore prices for April

Government-owned miner NMDC might cut iron ore prices by Rs 500-700 a tonne for the month of April, to align prices of the steelmaking raw material in India and abroad.
For March, NMDC had cut these prices by a mere Rs 100 a tonne across both lumps and fines, to Rs 3,000 a tonne and Rs 2,660 a tonne, respectively. It had raised prices substantially after a Supreme Court order to shut mines in Odisha with annual capacity of 25 million tonnes. This resulted in a supply shortage.

Since then, a majority of these Odisha mines have recommenced operations, easing the supply. Private miners in Odisha that had raised prices in January have started cutting these.
“In March alone, private iron ore miners cut by Rs 800-1,000 a tonne, following increase in its supply across the country. So, NMDC might cut for April by at least Rs 500-700 a tonne,” said Vijay Jhawar, president, Chhattisgarh Sponge Iron Manufacturers Association.
According to trade sources, the difference in ore prices between private miners and NMDC is currently Rs 850 a tonne.
Prices in March also declined substantially in global markets. The benchmark 62 Fe fine (62 per cent iron content) slumped 18 per cent to $62.25 a tonne, on sudden increase in supply.
“The pricing policy of NMDC continues to be a matter of concern for Indian steel, including sponge iron manufacturers which are dependent on this government-owned company for iron ore,” said a senior industry official.
The existing ore price also faces pressure from steel pellets, traded currently at Rs 5,000 a tonne in the Durgapur and Jamshedpur area. Prices of pellets fell around Rs 1,000 a tonne in March.
“Hence, a cut in iron ore prices would help NMDC sell to steel makers. Otherwise, steel mills would intensify iron ore import,” said Jhawar.
Also, the steel ministry had asked NMDC to raise iron ore output to 67 million tonnes annually by 2021-22. According to industry sources, NMDC has started increasing its production.
“So, NMDC needs to cut iron ore prices. This will also keep pressure on steel mills to cut prices or at least hold on to price increases,” said a senior official at one of the large steel company. Steel mills had, with a rise in demand for their products, been raising their prices, citing a rise in cost of production, among other reasons.
NMDC under pressure to cut iron ore prices for April

IFCI plans to dilute stake in NSE, CCIL to raise funds for its operations

The country's oldest public sector financial institution IFCI proposes to further offload its stake in National Stock Exchange (NSE) as part of exercise to raise funds to fuel its operations, a top company official said.
Besides NSE, IFCI is also planning to dilute stakes in Clearing Corporation of India (CCIL).

"IFCI plans to reduce stake in some of the companies like NSE while plans are afoot to sell its stake in CCIL after getting regulatory approvals," IFCI MD E S Rao told PTI.
He further said IFCI plans to sell a part stake, depending on the price that investors offers.
Earlier this month, IFCI made partial disinvestment of its stake in NSE to the extent of about 0.02 per cent of the total number of equity shares of NSE, comprising of 1,00,000 number of equity shares at the rate of Rs 873.74 per equity share.
Besides, the company had sold 0.39 per cent stake in NSE in two parts -- 0.17 per cent for Rs 750 million and 0.22 per cent for Rs 939.3 million, as part of the planned stake sale in the exchange during this month itself.
The company is also trying to raise funds through divestments of its stake in CCIL where it has a 4 per cent stake.
Meanwhile, the government has pump in Rs 1 billion through preference shares into IFCI to shore up its capital and enhance operations.
Following the infusion, the government holding in the institution has increased from existing 55 per cent to about 56 per cent.

BS Awards: Rate performances with a 360-degree perspective, says Sitharaman

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday presented the Business Standard Annual Awards in the presence of top India Inc leaders and bankers at Hotel Taj Mahal in Mumbai.
"The jury has done a fantastic job as they have searched performers from various corners of this large country. Other than recognising the size and performances of companies, the jury has looked at the purpose of these companies. Are you looking at performances with a 360-degree perspective rather than market capitalisation alone? I really appreciate Business Standard for this wonderful attempt to highlight some great companies and leaders," the Defence Minister said in her speech.
This year awards were given to outstanding organisations and individuals who took their respective fields of operations to newer heights while delivering on scale, sustainability, leadership, and innovation. They were chosen by three separate juries comprising some of the most respected names in India Inc. While the corporate excellence awards were chosen by a jury led by Maruti Suzuki Chairman R C Bhargava, the ‘Banker of the Year’ was selected by a jury led by C M Vasudev. The CSR awards were chosen by a jury headed by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences Chairman S Ramadorai.
The jury chose JSW Steel Chairman and Managing Director Sajjan Jindal as CEO of the Year. The steelmaker is turning out to be a beacon of entrepreneurship for the rest of India Inc at a time when the economy is going through a slowdown. Betting on the future of India’s steel industry, JSW Steel has emerged as the number one player with a capacity of 18 million tonnes per annum, overtaking the century-old Tata Steel. "I receive this award on behalf of my 50,000 employees. Our great nation needs great infrastructure and we are committed to provide that," Sajjad Jindal said.
One of India’s biggest success stories of foreign direct investment in the country, Maruti Suzuki India, won the Company of the Year award. The automaker has changed the way Indians commute, and its hard work has been recognised by the stock market; it has become the seventh-most valuable listed company in the country. "Tomorrow is the new year, I wish there will be sound development for India and the industry," Kenichi Ayukawa, MD and CEO, Maruti Suzuki, said.
The jury discussed several outstanding individuals who have left a deep and lasting impact on India’s corporate history, but quickly decided on HDFC group Chairman Deepak Parekh as the winner of the Lifetime Achievement award. Former State Bank of India chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya got the Banker of the Year award. "I am truly honoured by this award, I'd like to acknolwedge the 270,000 SBI workers and my family. When we look at the negatives we often forget the positives. We have the best ports and roads, core industries, none of them would have been possible if bankers didn't lend them," Arundhati Bhattacharya said.
Bharat Petroleum Corporation won the Star PSU of the Year award. "We are honoured and privileged to receive this award," D Rajkumar, CMD, BPCL. 3M India bagged the Star MNC of the Year award and Sheela Foam was declared the Star SME of the Year.
"This is truly the Oscars of the business world. Thank you for recognising the impact we have made in India," said Debarati Sen, MD 3M India. "We are committed to tirelessly work towards making sure every Indian 'sleepwell'," Rahul Gautam, Chairman and Managing Director, Sheela Foam, said.
Education technology player Byju’s was chosen the Start-Up of the Year. "Exams should be more about learning, good teachers are hard to find. We have yet not even reached out to 5% of the school going population of India, there is a long way to go. 75 % of our students come from non metros, next year it will go up to 85%," Byju Raveendran said.
The Social Entrepreneur of the Year award was won by Mathew Spacie, Founder, of Magic Bus, an organisation he set up two decades ago with a small fund, largely put together with his own contribution and that of his friends. Today, Magic Bus affects 400,000 children in 69 districts across 21 states in India. "Nearly 90% of our money comes from corporate India. We see this immense turning point where India and Indians want more accountability. You cannot leave a child's hand, you need to deliver financial sustainability," Mathew Spacie said.
Mahindra & Mahindra was chosen as the Socially Aware Corporate of the Year. The company has built a strong foundation in the social sector in diverse fields such as education, road safety, farmer livelihoods, eradication of hunger, and many others. "There has been a major change in the perspective of business people globally. I am hoping the best performing businesses will be socially aware businesses," Chairman Anand Mahindra said after getting the award.
The Social Enterprise of the Year award was won by Pradan, both for its reach in terms of programmes underway and its wide and deep network of non-governmental organisations and social entrepreneurs that it has built. "I receive this award on behalf of thousands of women we work with and the volunteers of Pradan," Narendranath Damodaran of Pradan said.
List of Awards & Winners:
CEO Of The Year: Sajjan Jindal, CMD, JSW Steel
Company Of The Year: Maruti Suzuki India

Lifetime Achievement Award: Deepak Parekh, Chairman, HDFC
Banker Of the Year: Arundhati Bhattacharya
Star PSU Of The Year: Bharat Petroleum Corporation
Star MNC Of The Year: 3M India
Star SME Of The Year: Sheela Foam
Start-up Of The Year: Byju’s
Social Entrepreneur Of The year: Mathew Spacie, Founder, Magic Bus
Socially Aware Corporate Of The Year: Mahindra & Mahindra
Social Enterprise (NGO) Of The Year: Pradan

After Facebook, another data breach: MyFitnessPal app hits 150 mn accounts

The privacy of more hundreds of million people has been violated with yet another massive data breach in the world of technology.
MyFitnessPal, a popular fitness tracking app which allows users to monitor calorie intake and exercise routine, is the injured party this time.

An American giant in sportswear manufacturing, Under Armour, revealed that on March 25, it discovered unauthorised access that exposed or compromised 150 million MyFitnessPal accounts, according to the Forbes.
The company released a statement notifying about the issue of breach of privacy. The statement confirmed the breach and data theft associated with MyFitnessPal user accounts. However, the statement did not confirm the number of accounts compromised.
Talking more about the matter, it clarified, "The affected information included usernames, email addresses, and hashed passwords - the majority with the hashing function called bcrypt used to secure passwords".
On taking further action, the statement pointed out that the necessary steps have been taken to determine the nature and scope of the issue. It insisted that the organisation is working with leading data security firms to assist in the investigation.
The statement further informed about the steps the organisation is taking to protect MyFitnessPal community - notifying users to provide information on how they can protect their data, requiring users to change their passwords immediately, monitoring and notifying for suspicious activity continuously,
MyFitnessPal urged its users to take the personal data theft very seriously and to stay alert. It further suggested, "Change your password for any other account on which you used the same or similar information used for your MyFitnessPal account".
"Review your accounts for suspicious activity and be cautious of any unsolicited communications that ask for your personal data or refer you to a web page asking for personal data", the statement further read.
It also suggested avoiding clicking on links or downloading attachments from suspicious emails.

Delhi to get ultra-clean Euro-VI grade petrol, diesel from Sunday

Ultra-clean Euro-VI grade petrol and diesel, at no additional price, will be supplied in the national capital from Sunday in a bid to combat alarming levels of air pollution.
Delhi will be the first city in the country to leapfrog from Euro-IV grade petrol and diesel to Euro-VI. Cities in the national capital region like Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram and Faridabad as well as 13 major cities including Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune will switch over to cleaner Euro-VI grade fuel from January 1 next year. Rest of the country will follow suit from April 2020.

State-owned oil firms will begin supplying the BS-VI petrol and diesel (equivalent to fuel meeting Euro-VI emission norm) at all their 391 petrol pumps in the national capital territory (NCT) from tomorrow, said Indian Oil Corp (IOC) Director (Refineries) B V Rama Gopal.
While the oil companies have invested heavily to produce cleaner fuel, the consumers are not being passed on any of the cost for the time being, he said.
"Rest assured we don't have plans of passing on the cost to consumers. There are no plans to recover (the cost) from customers immediately," he told reporters here.
Costing wise, the cleaner fuel should cost around 50 paisa a litre more.
He said a mechanism of recovering the cost when the whole country shifts to Euro-VI grade fuel would be worked out.
To meet Delhi's annual consumption of 9,60,000 tonnes of petrol and 1.26 million tonnes of diesel, Mathura refinery in Uttar Pradesh, Panipat refinery in Haryana, Bina in Madhya Pradesh and Bhatinda in Punjab have started producing Euro-VI grade fuel. About Rs 1.83 billion has been spent on Panipat refinery alone for producing cleaner fuel.
Other refineries are in the process of being upgraded, he said.
India had in 2015 decided to leapfrog to Euro-VI emission norm compliant petrol and diesel from April 2020, from the Euro-IV grade at present.
While the deadline for the rest of the country stands, the same for Delhi, which is choking on thick toxic smog, was brought forward. Euro-VI grade fuel contains 10 parts per million (ppm) of sulphur as against 50 ppm in Euro-IV fuels.
Gopal said the cleaner Euro-VI fuel and lesser grade cars and two-wheelers, which are presently available in the country, would result in 10-20 per cent reduction in particulate emission but for full benefits, the vehicles too need to have Euro-VI engines.
"BS-VI petrol and diesel supplies from tomorrow give comfort to automobiles manufacturers that supplies of cleaner fuel would not be a problem," the official said.
IOC, the nation's biggest oil firm controlling roughly half of retail fuel market, will source the BS-VI fuel to meet Delhi's requirement from its Mathura and Panipat refineries, while Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) will do so from its joint venture refinery at Bhatinda. Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) will supply the fuel from its Bina refinery.
According to IOC, for petrol engines, one of the most critical specifications is Research Octane No. (RON), which has improved from 88 in BS-II to 91. It is at par with regular 91 octane gasoline (petrol) required for Euro VI emission norms.
Sulphur specification for petrol and diesel will be reduced 50 times from a level of 500 ppm for BS-II fuel to 10 ppm in BS-VI.
Previously, the fuels meeting Euro-IV or Bharat Stage (BS)-IV specifications were to be supplied throughout the country by April 2017 and BS-V or Euro-V grade fuel by April 1, 2020. But now the government plans to switch over directly from BS-IV to BS-VI auto fuels.
Oil refineries had previously upgraded technology and invested over Rs 550 billion for production and supply of BS-III/IV fuels. Oil refineries will need to invest Rs 280 billion in upgrading petrol and diesel quality to meet cleaner fuel specifications by 2020.

Videocon-ICICI loan case: CBI questions bank officials

The CBI has questioned few ICICI bank officials as part of a preliminary enquiry to find if any quid pro quo was involved in the bank issuing a Rs 32.5 billion loan to the Videocon Group in 2012.
Agency officials said they are also studying relevant documents of the transaction and if they come across any evidence that indicates wrongdoing, ICICI bank MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar along with others could be summoned for detailed questioning.

They said the statements of nodal officers of the ICICI, who were part of processing the loan of about Rs 32.5 billion, have been recorded as part of the PE registered six weeks back.
The PE has named Videocon group promoter Venugopal Dhoot, Deepak Kochhar and unknown others, they said.
A PE is a precursor before the agency lodges an FIR to probe criminal charges on the basis of evidence collected during the former exercise.
The deal recently made news after reports questioned the loan and linked it to a possible quid pro quo that Dhoot allegedly had with NuPower Renewables, a company founded by Deepak Kochchar.
Earlier this week, the ICICI Bank board came out in support of Chanda Kochhar, saying it has full faith and confidence in her and described certain reports against her regarding credit disbursement to Videocon group as "malicious and unfounded rumours".
The board had also reviewed the banks internal processes for credit approval and found them robust, the private sector lender had said in a statement.
With regard to loans to the Videocon group, it said the banks current exposure is part of a syndicated consortium arrangement.
"ICICI Bank was not the lead bank for this consortium and the bank only sanctioned its share of facilities aggregating approximately Rs 32.5 billion which was less than 10 per cent of the total consortium facility in April 2012," it added.
The bank had clarified that none of the investors of NuPower Renewables are borrowers of ICICI Bank.

Cauvery dispute: Centre needs more time to set up board, petitions SC

The Central Government has filed a clarification petition before the Supreme Court and pleaded to clarify that whether it can modify the composition of Cauvery Management Board (CMB)
The Centre has also sought more time to form the CMB.

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, representing the Centre made the submission before apex court while mentioning the Centre's application for modification of the apex court's order that directed the constitution of the CMB.
Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu Government filed a contempt petition against the Centre after it failed to constitute the CMB within the top court's six-week deadline that ended on March 29.
"Tamil Nadu government had filed a contempt petition against the Centre in Cauvery water issue, lawyer, connected to the case," advocate for Tamil Nadu Government, Uma Pati told ANI.
The state government said that it is going to mention the matter before the apex court on Monday.
On 16 February, the apex court asked the Centre to form the CMB to implement a formula for sharing of water between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
In the ruling, the top court reduced Tamil Nadu's share in the Cauvery water to 177.25 thousand million cubic feet.

Spotlight back on boxers as effort is being made to revive boxing in India

It’s hard to miss the excitement in 17-year-old Jyoti Gulia’s voice. The young boxer from Haryana’s Rohtak district has just won a series of medals for the country in her weight category. Gulia has been competing for the past five years but just the last one year, she says, has seen dramatic changes.
She trained for two weeks in Kazakhstan prior to a tournament in Serbia, where she won a gold medal. After that she went to Istanbul for a competition, where she won a bronze medal. Later in the year, she participated in the World Youth Championship at Guwahati and won a ...

INX Media case: Peter Mukerjea's judicial custody extended till April 13

Former media baron Peter Mukerjea has been sent to judicial custody by a Delhi court till April 13 in connection with the INX Media case.
Earlier this week, the court sent Peter to CBI custody till March 31.

INX Media Ltd, which was owned by Mukerjea, had allegedly paid bribes to get a Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval which was facilitated by former finance minister P Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram.
However, on March 23, the Delhi High Court granted bail to Karti in connection with the case, on a surety of Rs 10 million.

Facebook boss pushed for growth even if it caused deaths from terror attack

Facebook employees were in an uproar on Friday over a leaked 2016 memo from a top executive defending the social network’s growth at any cost — even if it caused deaths from a terrorist attack that was organized on the platform.
In the memo, Andrew Bosworth, a Facebook vice president, wrote, “Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools. And still we connect people. The ugly truth is that we believe in connecting people so deeply that anything that allows us to connect more people more often is *de facto* good.”

Mr. Bosworth and Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, have since disavowed the memo, which was published on Thursday by BuzzFeed News.
But the fallout at the Silicon Valley company has been wide. According to two Facebook employees, workers have been calling on internal message boards for a hunt to find those who leak to the media. Some have questioned whether Facebook has been transparent enough with its users and with journalists, said the employees, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation. Many are also concerned over what might leak next and are deleting old comments or messages that might come across as controversial or newsworthy, they said.
The brouhaha follows a period of intense scrutiny for Facebook and questions over what its responsibilities are to its more than 2.2 billion users. The company has been grappling this month with revelations that a British political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, improperly harvested data from 50 million of the social network’s users. Mr. Zuckerberg has since been on an apology tour over data privacy and is expected to testify before lawmakers in Washington.
Facebook did not respond to a request for comment over employees’ reaction to the leaked memo.
In the aftermath, some Facebook executives have taken to Twitter for a public charm offensive, sending pithy phrases and emoticons to reporters who cover the company. Adam Mosseri, Facebook’s head of news, in recent days wrote unprompted to a BuzzFeed editor and to its chief executive reminiscing and telling a story about his mother. He also wrote to a reporter from the Verge tech site about the songs played at his wedding reception.
In some of his tweets, Mr. Mosseri also defended Facebook. When writers from Vox and BuzzFeed tweeted that they noticed that stories critical of Facebook were receiving surprisingly low levels of traffic on Facebook, Mr. Mosseri jumped in.
“We 100% do not take any action on stories for being critical of us,” he tweeted.
Mr. Bosworth, the author of the 2016 memo, also took to Twitter. Late Thursday, he said he did not agree with what he wrote in the memo “and I didn’t agree with it even when I wrote it.” He added that “the purpose of this post, like many others I have written internally, was to bring to the surface issues I felt deserved more discussion with the broader company.”
After BuzzFeed published the memo, Bosworth deleted it from an internal message board where it had originally been posted. In a statement to BuzzFeed, Zuckerberg praised Bosworth as “a talented leader who says many provocative things” and said that he and most people at Facebook did not agree with the memo and that the company had realized that it could not just be about connecting people.
Facebook employees said on Friday that discussions were raging across the company regarding the merits of the post. Some called for executives to aggressively pursue action against those leaking to the media, said two Facebook employees, as well as for the company to do more to screen for potential whistle-blowers during the hiring process.
At least one former Facebook employee, Alec Muffett, wrote on Twitter that Mr. Bosworth’s memo was responsible for his decision to leave the company.
“Between overwork and leadership direction evidenced thusly, I could never stay,” wrote Mr. Muffett, who formerly worked as a Facebook engineer.
“There are some amazing engineers working at Facebook, folks who care deeply about user privacy, security, and how people will use the code that they write,” Mr. Muffett said later in a message. “Alas this episode may not help” to achieve more transparent internal product discussion, he said.

CBI preliminary enquiry against Deepak Kochhar, Videocon's Dhoot: Reports

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a preliminary enquiry (PE) against ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar's husband Deepak Kochhar in connection with Videocon loan row, sources said on Saturday.
Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar, and Venugopal Dhoot, the promoter of Videocon Group are caught up in a controversy over ICICI allegedly granting loan worth Rs 32.50 billion to Videocon, of which the unpaid Rs 28.10 billion were declared NPA in 2017.

The role of Deepak Kochhar in the case dates back to December 2008, when he set up a joint venture with Dhoot, NuPower Renewables Pvt Ltd (NRPL) with 50-50 shares owned by both and their associates.
In 2009, Dhoot resigned as NRPL director and transferred around 25,000 shares of his to Deepak Kochhar, and a year later his company Supreme Energy Private Limited allegedly gave loan of Rs 640 mllion to Deepak Kochhar's NRPL.
In what followed a timeline of share transfer between the two, Dhoot's Supreme Energy took over majority of the shares of NRPL which he transferred to his associate Mahesh Chandra Punglia.
Punglia in turn transferred his entire stake in Supreme Energy to Deepak Kochhar's Pinnacle Energy for only Rs 900,000, just six months after the Videocon Group got a loan of Rs 32.50 billion from ICICI Bank.
This has raised a question of conflict of interest, on part of Chanda Kochhar.
Soon after the reports came, the RBI imposed monetary penalty worth Rs 589 billion on ICICI, for failing to abide by rules on the sale of bonds in the held-to-maturity (HTM) category.

Govt disposes of around 700,000 tonnes of pulses so far from a buffer stock

The Centre has disposed of around 7 lakh tonne of pulses so far from a buffer stock of 20.50 lakh tonne, according to a senior food ministry official.
The government, for the first time, in October 2015 decided to create a buffer stock of pulses through imports and later by domestic procurement to ensure better prices to farmers and to use the stock to augment local supply in times of price rise.

"Around 7 lakh tonne of pulses including tur has been sold so far. The efforts are made in order to clear the old stock and create space for new crop," the official told PTI.
The government is disposing of stocks through e-auction to private traders, army and paramilitary forces as well as states besides for central welfare schemes like mid-day meal.
While the rate at which pulses were procured initially was high, the prices are subdued now in view of a bumper crop. Therefore, the government is disposing of a major chunk of pulses below the market price, sources said.
Pulses such as tur, urad, moong, masur and chana were mostly procured over last one year by three agencies cooperative Nafed, state-run Food Corporation of India and Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC).
The country is expected to produce a record 23.95 million tonne in the current 2017-18 crop year (July-June), as against 23.13 million tonne last year mainly because of good rains and higher support prices.

Saffron production to fall 68% to 9.12 tonne due to J&K dry spell

Saffron production in the country is estimated to decline 68.15 per cent to 9.12 tonne in the current crop year because of a dry spell in the top growing state of Jammu and Kashmir, according to a government data.
Saffron is also cultivated in Himachal Pradesh. Much of the produce is exported.

As per the agriculture ministry data, saffron output is pegged at 9.12 tonne in 2017-18 crop year (July-June) as against 28.64 tonne in the last year.
The output is expected to go down due to dry spell in critical stage of crop's growth, it said.
The production was hit badly in 2014-15 crop year to 8.51 tonne because of floods.
According to the ministry, the demand for Indian saffron has increased in the global market due to presence of high quality active components like Crocine, Picrocrocine and Safranal.
Saffron cultivation and export is being promoted under the National Saffron Mission.
A Saffron Park at Dusoo in Pulwana district, Jammu and Kashmir has been sanctioned for providing improved facilities of grading, packaging, e-auctioning and certification that would boost export of the spice.
Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Jammu and ICAR-Central Institute of Temperate Horticulture are implementing innovative practices to boost saffron production and productivity.

Bitcoin now below $7,000: Crypto has seen 50% value erosion in 2018 alone

Bitcoin’s miserable quarter isn’t over yet.
The world’s biggest cryptocurrency by market value dropped below the $7,000 mark Friday morning in Asia, the first time it’s breached that level since early February, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It fell as low as $6,912 before rebounding, trading at $7,094 as of 7:50 am in Hong Kong. The moves took the token’s losses in 2018 to a whopping 50 per cent, and other digital assets, including rivals Ripple and Litecoin, slumped more.
In addition, regulatory pressure is mounting in the cryptocurrency space, while major social media platforms are distancing themselves from the industry. Reddit Inc., a community hub popular in the crypto community, no longer accepts payments made in Bitcoin, while Twitter Inc. confirmed Monday that it’s banning advertisements for initial coin offerings, joining Facebook and Google.
Looming over the market are sales of Bitcoin held by the trustee of Mt Gox, the now-defunct Japanese exchange. The trustee sold about $400 million in Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash in the last few months to reimburse the exchange’s creditors, according to his recent report. The trustee had said that he will sell more of the cryptocurrency he holds. As of early March, he was sitting on more than $1 billion.
“Bitcoin is under selling pressure again and chances of its recovery are looking slim,” Naeem Aslam, the chief market analyst at TF Global Markets, said in a note. It has “slid significantly, since the tech giants’ ban on ICOs,” he noted.
The slump this year is its biggest quarterly decline since 2011. Keep in mind that Bitcoin rallied 1,400 per cent last year.

Spy row: Russia expels diplomats from 23 countries in tit-for-tat measure

Russia expelled diplomats from 23 countries on Friday in retaliation against the West in a spy row, in the biggest wave of tit-for-tat expulsions in recent memory.
The Russian foreign ministry said it had summoned the heads of missions from 23 countries -- almost all of them European Union member states -- to tell them that some of their diplomats had to leave.

The diplomats from France, Canada, Germany, Australia and other countries were earlier seen arriving at the Russian foreign ministry in flagged official cars.
France, Germany and Poland each said that Russia was expelling four of their diplomats. Among the other countries that had similarly been told to pull their envoys were the Netherlands, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Finland, Lithuania and Norway.
Thirteen Ukrainian diplomats should also leave Russia.
The moves came in retaliation for the coordinated expulsion of Russian diplomats by Britain and its allies over a nerve agent attack against former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury on March 4.
"This is certainly not a surprise," Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok said through a spokeswoman, referring to Moscow's expulsion of two of the country's diplomats.
Blok called upon Russia to cooperate with the ongoing investigation into the attack by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
The Russian foreign ministry also gave Britain a month to cut the number of diplomatic staff in Russia to the same number Russia has in Britain.
In Britain, the government called the latest developments "regrettable" but remained adamant that Russia was in the wrong.
"This doesn't change the facts of the matter: the attempted assassination of two people on British soil, for which there is no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian State was culpable," a spokeswoman for Britain's Foreign Office said.
Russia also said it reserved the right to respond to the recent expulsion of Russian diplomats by Belgium, Hungary, Georgia and Montenegro.
In the Kremlin, President Vladimir Putin presided over a meeting of the country's Security Council which discussed the most recent retaliatory steps against Britain and its allies.
The Kremlin insisted it was not Russia that had started the diplomatic war with the West.
"Russia did not unleash any diplomatic war," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. "Russia never initiated any exchange of sanctions."
Yesterday, Moscow had announced that it would expel 60 US diplomats and close the US consulate in Saint Petersburg after the expulsion of its own diplomats and the closure of one of its US consulates.
In all, more than 150 Russian diplomats have been ordered out of the US, EU members, NATO countries and other nations which are accusing Russia of being involved in the Skripal poisoning.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said Moscow would respond with "tit-for-tat" measures, but they might "not only" be symmetrical.
On the streets in Saint Petersburg, passersby said they welcomed the decision to shut down the US consulate general in the city.
"This is great news," said Viktor Glushko, 60.
"It is about time. Relations will not get worse because they were never good and we will get by without them." Another man shouted: "Get out of here!" as he passed by the US consulate where staff were seen loading plastic sacks into vehicles today.
In Washington, the State Department said yesterday there was no justification for the Russian move and that the United States "reserves the right to respond".
"It's clear from the list provided to us that the Russian Federation is not interested in a dialogue on issues that matter to our two countries," spokeswoman Heather Nauert said of the expelled diplomats.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Russia's expulsion of US diplomats marked a "further deterioration" in relations.
The hospital where Skripal and his daughter are being treated said yesterday that Yulia, 33, was "improving rapidly and is no longer in a critical condition", while 66-year-old Sergei remained in a critical but stable condition.
Britain has said it is "highly likely" that Russia was responsible for the attack using the Novichok nerve agent developed in the Soviet Union, but Russia has angrily denied any involvement.
Russia said 58 diplomats from the US embassy in Moscow and two from the consulate in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg have to leave Russia by next Thursday.
The US consulate general in Saint Petersburg will have to be vacated by Saturday.
Moscow warned that it could take further measures in response if Washington "continued hostile actions" against the Russian embassy and consulates.
After the poisoning, Britain reacted by announcing it would expel 23 Russian diplomats, suspend high-level diplomatic contact with Moscow and not send any members of the royal family to the 2018 football World Cup hosted by Russia.
Russia then responded by closing a British consulate in Saint Petersburg and the British Council educational and cultural organisation.

Jio extends Prime offer for existing users for 12 months at no extra cost

Ending the uncertainty over Prime membership, Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio) announced on Friday that it is going to continue its Prime membership to existing prime members at no extra cost. For new Jio users, the Jio Prime Membership will continue to be available at an annual membership fees of Rs 99.
"All Jio PRIME members who have subscribed to the exclusive membership benefits until 31st March 2018 will get another year of complimentary PRIME benefits at NO additional fee," Jio said in a statement.

To avail the benefit the existing subscribers need to express interest to get complimentary membership for the next 12 months through MyJio app.
At present, there are over 175 million Jio Prime members.
"Jio deeply values its loyal PRIME members and will continue to deliver additional benefits and superior value to these founding members," the company said.
Jio had started the loyalty program last April and its time line was to expire on March 31.
The customers who subscribe to the plan received subsidised and additional benefits. Apart from the call and data benefits, users also receive access to all the Jio apps and content.
The extension of Prime membership comes days after Jio announced a new Rs 2,200 instant cashback for its prime members who would purchase Nokia 1 smartphone. Apart from the cashback, the company also offered additional 60GB 4G data to the users.
According to the terms of the Nokia 1 offer, users need to recharge their Jio number with Rs 198 or Rs 299 to get the 2,200 cashback into their MyJio account in the form of 44 vouchers, worth Rs 50.
The offer ends on March 31, 2019.

Slow take-off for GST e-way bill likely as traders stock up early

It could take at least a fortnight for the e-way bill generation to take off, though it would be introduced at midnight of March 31 for inter-state movement of goods worth over Rs 50,000.
Not many e-way bills might be generated in April since businesses had stocked up in advance to lengthen the time required to shift to the new system, experts said.

However, the authorities seem to be prepared this time after the collapse of the portal in the first phase of the roll out. For the past several weeks, awareness campaigns have been carried out across the country to educate people about the new system. The e-way bill portal collapsed on the very first day of its introduction on February 1, when only 480,000 bills were generated. To avoid a repeat, the load has been increased to 7.5 million this time. The system has gone through three rounds of testing for its load-bearing capacity, officials said.
However, according to experts, the real test would come once the bill is rolled out. “The proof of the pudding is in the eating,” one of them said.
Cargo shipments are likely to go up five to six times of their capacity on Friday and Saturday.
“One reason for the high volume is the annual closing of books. Also, people want to avoid the e-way bill till the midnight of March 31. They want to create an inventory for the next four to six weeks. For example, the assignment from Delhi to Chennai will take five to six days, so those consignments, if they leave by March 31, need not be compliant of the e-way bill system,” said SP Singh, senior fellow and coordinator, Indian Foundation of Transport Research and Training.
This was being done to evade taxes, he added. “In the next fortnight, volumes might dip to 50 per cent as demand would be low and people would take time to adjust to the new system,” he said.
Also, charges for ferrying cargo had also gone up and businesses were trying to beat the e-way bill introduction clause, transporters said. “Transporters are charging three times the truck rentals since they are ferrying untaxed cargo. No vehicles would be stopped, border check posts have been abolished in most states, the value and volume of goods being transported has increased,” said a transporter who has over 1,000 trucks ferrying cargo all over the country.
However, companies involved in backend preparations for a smooth roll-out said they were ready though ground-level implementation would be key. “We have prepared a system, which will get integrated with transporters’ system to generate an e-way bill and load with minimum intervention. The success of the e-way bill system depends on correct implementation at the ground level,” said Praveen Dhabahi, chief operating officer, Payworld.
Others questioned the very relevance of the e-way bill under the goods and services tax (GST) system. An effective invoice- matching system, aided by technology, could actually create an environment, where one would not need an e-way bill to monitor movement of goods, either within or outside the state, they added.
“If today the GST Council introduced invoice matching, there would be tighter reconciliation between sales and purchase data of buyers and suppliers. The same data could be made available to transporters and tax officials guarding state boundaries, which would help them keep a tab on the inter-state movement of goods,” said Tejas Goenka, executive director, Tally Solutions.
While authorities and large businesses are well prepared for the e-way bill, some small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are not sure about its processes and various other aspects, added ClearTax Chief Executive Officer Archis Gupta.
Between 2.6 million and 5 million bills were expected to be generated per day once it started, said Sudhir Singh, managing director, MargERP. “We expect a smooth roll-out,” he added.
Karnataka has notified simultaneous roll out of the bill for intra-state movement of goods too. However, Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) officials said the system would generate bills only for inter-state movement.
“It would be good to have an unequivocal clarification stating that intra-state transactions were not contemplated now for any state,” said M S Mani, partner of Deloitte India. It was necessary for a new concept like the e-way bill to stabilise before it was extended to cover movements of goods within a state, he added.
Bills for intra-state movements of goods were originally scheduled to be introduced in a phased manner later in April.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to present BS Awards on Saturday

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Business Standard Annual Awards in the presence of top India Inc leaders and bankers at Hotel Taj Mahal in Mumbai on Saturday to celebrate the success of some of their peers who have achieved corporate excellence.
This year’s awards will be given to outstanding organisations and individuals who took their respective fields of operations to newer heights while delivering on scale, sustainability, leadership, and innovation. They were chosen by three separate juries comprising some of the most respected names in India Inc. While the corporate excellence awards were chosen by a jury led by Maruti Suzuki Chairman R C Bhargava, the ‘Banker of the Year’ was selected by a jury led by C M Vasudev. The CSR awards were chosen by a jury headed by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences Chairman S Ramadorai.

The jury chose JSW Steel Chairman and Managing Director Sajjan Jindal as CEO of the Year. The steelmaker is turning out to be a beacon of entrepreneurship for the rest of India Inc at a time when the economy is going through a slowdown. Betting on the future of India’s steel industry, JSW Steel has emerged as the number one player with a capacity of 18 million tonnes per annum, overtaking the century-old Tata Steel.
One of India’s biggest success stories of foreign direct investment in the country, Maruti Suzuki India, won the Company of the Year award. The automaker has changed the way Indians commute, and its hard work has been recognised by the stock market; it has become the seventh-most valuable listed company in the country.
The jury discussed several outstanding individuals who have left a deep and lasting impact on India’s corporate history, but quickly decided on HDFC group Chairman Deepak Parekh as the winner of the Lifetime Achievement award. The Banker of the Year award would be presented to former State Bank of India chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya.
Bharat Petroleum Corporation won the Star PSU of the Year award. 3M India bagged the Star MNC of the Year award and Sheela Foam was declared the Star SME of the Year. Education technology player Byju’s was chosen the Start-Up of the Year.
The Social Entrepreneur of the Year award was won by Mathew Spacie, Founder, of Magic Bus, an organisation he set up two decades ago with a small fund, largely put together with his own contribution and that of his friends. Today, Magic Bus affects 400,000 children in 69 districts across 21 states in India.
Mahindra & Mahindra was chosen as the Socially Aware Corporate of the Year. The company has built a strong foundation in the social sector in diverse fields such as education, road safety, farmer livelihoods, eradication of hunger, and many others. The Social Enterprise of the Year award was won by Pradan, both for its reach in terms of programmes underway and its wide and deep network of non-governmental organisations and social entrepreneurs that it has built.

UIDAI restores Airtel's authorisation for Aadhaar-based eKYC, with riders

The UIDAI has restored telecom operator Bharti Airtel's authorisation to conduct Aadhaar-based verification of its mobile subscribers subject to specific conditions, sources said.
The company will have to submit quarterly reports on compliance with Aadhaar Act and adhere to directions issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) from time to time.
Sources privy to the decision told PTI that the suspension on Airtel Payments Bank's eKYC licence has not been lifted.
The telecom service provider Airtel - whose eKYC licence has been conditionally restored - will be required to submit quarterly compliance reports "till further orders" and the UIDAI "reserves its rights to verify such reports on its own or through an auditor appointed by the authority", one of the person familiar with the development said.
Airtel did not offer any immediate comments on the issue.
Both Airtel and Airtel Payments bank came under fire late last year after the Sunil Mittal-led firm allegedly opened payments bank accounts of its mobile subscribers without seeking their "informed consent", and LPG subsidy worth crores was deposited into these accounts.
In a strong action in December, the government and the UIDAI temporarily barred the company from conducting Aadhaar-based SIM verification of mobile customers and e-KYC of payments bank clients.
It later allowed Bharti Airtel to use Aadhaar for re-verification of its mobile customers for a fixed duration, with stiff riders attached. However, with the latest move, the UIDAI has now conditionally restored the eKYC licence key of Bharti Airtel.
Sources said the UIDAI wanted to ensure that Airtel customers do not face any inconvenience. Additionally, the Aadhaar-issuing body has taken note of regular compliance updates provided by Airtel and Airtel Payments Bank. UIDAI observed that Airtel complied with "critical issues", the source said.
The order has also takes note of audit report of Department of Telecommunications (DoT) that was received by UIDAI on March 7.
"This report has been duly examined by the UIDAI. As per the DoT audit report, it was noted that, at present, the processes and applications used for mobile customer's re-verification and new acquisition are in compliance to DoT's instructions," the source pointed out.
The development comes at a time when the deadline for linking bank accounts and mobile numbers with Aadhaar has already been extended indefinitely, till the five-judge constitution bench delivers its judgement on a bunch of petitions challenging the validity of the biometric scheme and its enabling law.

Over 50 injured in clashes as thousands of Gazans march near Israel border

Thousands of Palestinians marched near the Gaza-Israel border on Friday in a major protest leading to clashes with Israeli forces, in which more than 50 Gazans were wounded.
At least 10,000 Gazans gathered in different spots along the border, AFP journalists said, with smaller numbers entering within a few hundreds metres of the heavily fortified fence.
Israeli tanks and snipers were positioned on the other side of the border, using tear gas and live fire to force back the protesters.
More than 50 people were wounded by live fire, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
Israel's military said in a statement that "thousands of Palestinians are rioting in six locations throughout the Gaza Strip, rolling burning tyres and hurling stones at the security fence and at (Israeli) troops, who are responding with riot dispersal means and firing towards main instigators."
Earlier on Friday, before the main protests began, a Palestinian farmer was killed by Israeli tank fire near the border.
The Israeli military said the tank fire came after "two suspects approached the security fence ... and began operating suspiciously."

The march kicks off up to six weeks of protests dubbed "The Great March of Return," in the runup to the inauguration of the new US embassy in Jerusalem around May 14.
Among those taking part today was Ismail Haniya, the leader of the Islamist movement Hamas that controls Gaza.
"There is no alternative to Palestine and no solution except to return," he said in a statement, referring to Palestinian refugees seeking to go back to land they fled or were expelled from in 1948 that is now inside Israel.
Israel has accused Hamas of seeking to stir up protests to encourage violence.

Now you can easily change your number on WhatsApp and notify contacts too

WhatsApp on Friday rolled out a new feature in a Beta update that will soon enable iOS, Android and Windows Phone users migrate their data to a new number without much hassle.
The new "Change Number" feature update is currently available in the 2.18.97 Android beta update on Google Play Store. It will come in iOS and Windows devices later.

"It adds many improvements to the old change number feature. You will be able to choose specific contacts to notify, and the chat history will be moved in the new chat on the recipients' phone. This deletes the problem of duplicated chats," tweeted WABetaInfo, a fan website that tracks upcoming WhatsApp features.
The user can now choose if he wants to also notify some or all contacts. "You can also choose to notify contacts who you have a chat with," the report said.
The user will have to select the "Change Number" option in WhatsApp Settings and then Account.
After inserting the required old and new phone numbers, WhatsApp will ask which contacts have to be notified about your new number.
After the migration, in the recipient's phone, all shared messages in the old chat will be transferred in the new one and in the chat will appear a new bubble, indicating that the user has a new number, WABetaInfo said.
WhatsApp now has 1.5 billion monthly active users (MAUs) who are exchanging nearly 60 billion messages on a single day. It has over 200 million users in India.

RBI may hold rates for now but likely to cut rates in future: BS Poll

There is a clear consensus that the six-member monetary policy committee of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would keep the repo rate unchanged at 6 per cent next week.
But surprisingly, there is a narrow chance that the central bank may cut rates in the future, according to a Business Standard poll of 15 economists and treasurers.

This is an emergent view, which was missing in previous polls undertaken by the newspaper. Surely, any change in rates or stance is not expected in the first bi-monthly monetary policy review for 2018-19 on April 4-5. But the inflation trajectory has surprised many and stagnant growth could compel the RBI to go for a rate cut, according to some economists.
The consumer price index (CPI)-based inflation in February came at 4.4 per cent, below the RBI’s March projection of 5.1 per cent. The inflation rate is likely to fall further in March. The sharper-than-anticipated fall in prices opens up the space for the central bank to cut rates, especially at a time when growth is not expected to pick up sharply.
“The recent inflation print (numbers) has been a positive surprise, so the MPC will be in wait-and-watch mode. They might revise their march inflation estimates,” said Abheek Barua, chief economist of HDFC Bank. Barua expects a "contractional stance from a neutral stance" and a hike in the later part of the next financial year.
Soumya Kanti Ghosh, group chief economist of SBI Group, expects the inflation rate to fall to 3.5 per cent. This gives the central bank the chance to be more accommodative and offer a 25 basis point rate cut this calendar year, he added.
But only two of the 15 people polled mentioned about a rate cut. Among those who offered a clear view, six expect at least a 25 basis point hike in the coming months, and four said there would be a prolonged pause.
“We are in for a pause for the next six months and beyond that depending on data on food prices, inflation and global crude oil prices. There are a lot of moving parts and expect only one rate hike for the full year,” said D K Joshi, chief economist of Crisil.
In the absence of a policy rate action, the importance shifts to what the policy statement offers.
“We will be mainly looking at inflationary forecasts, given the concerns raised in the last meeting. We expect a hike of 50 basis points in the RBI's policy rate throughout this year,” said A Prasanna, chief economist of ICICI Securities Primary Dealership.
In is February policy, the central bank revised its inflation outlook upward at 5.1 per cent for the March quarter, higher than its earlier forecast of 4.3-4.7 per cent in the second half of 2017-18. In the first half of 2018-19, retail inflation would be in the range of 5.1-5.6 per cent, but may cool down to 4.5-4.6 per cent in the second half, according to the earlier projection.
The inflation outlook was clouded by several uncertainties on the upside, including a staggered rise of house rent allowance by state governments, rising crude oil prices, and increase in prices of crops due to the hike in minimum support prices. Increase in the customs duty and the government’s fiscal slippage were other risks, the RBI had said.
Upasna Bharadwaj, senior economist at Kotak Mahindra Bank, said she would look for an indication of increase in the investment limit of foreign portfolio investors (FPI) in debt. FPIs are allowed to invest up to 5 per cent in government debt, but that limit is expected to be increased in the coming months.
“More than the monetary policy, the minutes would be interesting. We would want to see what RBI Executive Director Michael Patra would say on inflation. We expect him to vote for a sharp hike,” said a senior economist polled.
The policy would also be keenly watched for its clarification on the bond market and liquidity. The deficit in system liquidity is close to around Rs 700 billion now.
“It is a trilemma for the RBI to manage liquidity, creating adequate demand for government bonds and adopting an appropriate interest rate stance,” SBI’s Ghosh said.
“The central bank needs to support demand for bonds by appropriate and symmetrical liquidity management policies. With the current policy of permanent liquidity withdrawal, but only temporary liquidity injection, the bond market would be characterised by typical and undesirable idiosyncrasies, and that could damage the market,” he added.
In principle, even as the statutory liquidity ratio (SLR), currently at 19.5 per cent, has been sought to be reduced, a 7 per cent liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) requirement with a 2 per cent margin forces banks to hold at least 28.5 per cent SLR now. This in turn has created a fundamental demand supply imbalance of bonds and until and unless the RBI acknowledges this problem, the recent decline in yield could still be premature, bond dealers said.

Tesla's finances so dire it might run out of money by end of 2018: Analysts

Just a year ago, Tesla looked like a rising force destined to revolutionize the auto industry.
Its battery-powered Model S sedan was the rage among luxury-car buyers. Its Autopilot system seemed far ahead of its competitors in self-driving technology. Its chief executive, Elon Musk, was promising that the more affordable Model 3 would soon roll off its assembly line and bring emission-free driving to the masses.

Wall Street was enraptured. Tesla’s market value rose to surpass that of either General Motors or Ford, car companies with a century of experience.
What a rough ride it’s been since then.
Not only has the Model 3’s introduction been mired in glitches and delays — “manufacturing hell,” as Mr Musk put it — but Tesla’s driverless efforts have been overshadowed, and the company has continued to lose money quarter after quarter.
In just the past week, Tesla’s troubles have intensified. Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the company’s credit rating, concerned that it was burning through cash. Those worries have grown so dire that some analysts are asking whether the company could run out of money by the end of the year.
“I’ve said for some time that Tesla is far from a sure bet, or a stable company for that matter,” said Clement Thibault, a senior analyst at Investing.com. “Tesla has been living on borrowed time and money for quite some time.”
Tesla shares dropped 8 percent on Tuesday and another 8 percent Wednesday, and though they regained ground Thursday, they have lost almost a quarter of their value in less than three weeks.
Reflecting questions about Tesla’s ability to pay off its debt, its bonds have slumped as well. Those that will mature in 2025 traded at about 88 cents on the dollar on Thursday.
A Tesla representative declined to comment on the company’s finances.
But the company’s recent troubles extend beyond its balance sheet. Federal investigators are looking into a fiery crash that killed a Tesla driver last week in California, including the possibility that Autopilot was in use. (Autopilot was in use during a 2016 crash in Florida that killed a Tesla driver, but safety officials concluded that the crash did not result from a flaw in the system but found it lacked safeguards to prevent its misuse.)
And on Thursday, Tesla said it was recalling 123,000 Model S cars made before April 2016 to replace bolts that hold a power-steering motor in place. The bolts can become corroded and break, leaving drivers with only manual steering. The company said no crashes or injuries related to the issue had been reported.
Tesla’s reversal of fortune is a jolt for both the company and its chief executive, who had built a reputation not only as a visionary but also as an achiever, masterminding an automotive brand, breaking ground on a battery plant that would be the world’s biggest building, and launching rockets through his SpaceX venture.
For years, Tesla has ridden a wave of enthusiastic support from its customers and a certain set of investors, even though it generated barely any profit in the 15 years since its founding. Company events to present new models tend to have the feel of a religious revival, with hundreds or thousands of owners cheering wildly at each new pronouncement from Mr. Musk. Anticipation for the Model 3 prompted nearly 400,000 prospective customers to put down deposits of $1,000 each.
In November, before a screaming audience of several hundred guests, Mr. Musk unveiled a battery-powered semi truck and a two-seat roadster. He vowed to begin producing the truck by the end of 2019, even though the company does not have a factory to build it, and is still trying to work the kinks out of the Model 3 assembly process at its manufacturing plant in Fremont, Calif.
“There is a huge part of Tesla that is simply presentation and not substance, and Elon is a master at messaging,” said Karl Brauer, a senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book. “The problem is the reality is starting to stack up, and that’s a reality of accidents the cars have had, quality issues, and massive misses on Model 3 production numbers. You add all that up and there’s a real question about whether this company can deliver what it promises.”
There’s no doubt Tesla has achieved some breakthroughs that have left the established automakers scrambling to catch up. It has proved that there is a viable market for electric cars, and that they can command premium prices. It has pioneered methods of upgrading cars through software updates beamed over the air, the way iPhones can download new operating systems.
And it was Autopilot that set off a race to develop advanced driver-assistance systems that can guide cars under certain circumstances and actively prevent collisions — though Tesla’s technology appears to have been surpassed by the self-driving systems from other companies, including G.M. and the Google spinoff Waymo.
Along the way, Mr. Musk has also courted controversy, including his move in 2016 for Tesla to take over SolarCity, a maker of home solar panels run by his cousin. A group of investors has filed a lawsuit contending that Mr. Musk had a conflict of interest because he was SolarCity’s chairman, and this week a judge cleared the way for the case to go forward.
In January, Tesla gave Mr. Musk a new compensation plan tied entirely to the company’s market value and other performance goals. If he hits all of the goals, he could be rewarded with stock worth more than $50 billion.
But the company has repeatedly failed to meet its own targets and deadlines, especially with the Model 3. Mr. Musk originally predicted that the Model 3 would arrive in 2017 and that the car would push the company’s sales to 500,000 cars a year by 2018. He later lowered his prediction to 100,000 Model 3s in 2017. Backtracking again, he said last August that the company hoped to make 20,000 a month by December, and added that “people should have zero concerns” about Tesla’s ability to increase its output of the Model 3.
But in the fourth quarter of last year, Tesla made only 2,425 Model 3s. In its most recent plan, it hopes to lift production to 2,500 Model 3s a week. The company is expected to release first-quarter production totals in early April.
The Model 3 is crucial. The company needs to ramp up its Model 3 business to generate revenue so that it can pay back investors and fund development of future vehicles including its electric truck.
Moody’s concluded that Tesla probably needed to raise more than $2 billion from investors to be able to finance its operations, continue capital investment and pay debts and other financial obligations that will come due soon. According to Moody’s, Tesla has $200 million in convertible bonds due later this year, and $900 million due in early 2019.
“Liquidity is going to be very tight by the end of the year,” Bruce Clark, a senior vice president at Moody’s, said in an interview. “They need to re-establish credibility with the capital markets.”

Private power companies object to NTPC's sale of power in Bangladesh

Private power generating companies have objected to the sale of power by NTPC to neighbouring Bangladesh. The companies have argued that domestic coal supply via long-term agreement cannot be used to supply power to other countries.
In a letter to the secretary, Ministry of Power, the representative body of private power companies, Association of Power Producers (APP), has said that the bid called by Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) has specifically asked if the power supplied from India has the government's consent to use domestic coal.

“The access to Linkage Coal (at the notified price), supplied under FSAs/Coal supply agreements, and from captive coal mines, can only be utilised for Long Term/ Medium Term PPAs with discoms. This means that any bidder securing BPDB bid based on Domestic Linkage Coal/captive coal would lock in part of Domestic Coal resources for external consumption for 13 years, thereby hampering domestic consumer interests, and would be violative of the extant policy framework,” said the letter.
BPDB called bids for supplying 300 MW power from India. NTPC, the largest thermal power producer, won the bid beating three players namely Adani Power, Semcorp and PTC. NTPC would supply power through its power trading arm NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN).
The letter has urged the power ministry to clarify that the coal supplied under domestic linkage or coal from captive mines given to the power sector cannot be utilised for BPDB long-term tender.
“Cross-Border supply of power should be from e-auction/ imported coal only. An undertaking from bidders may be made part of the bid, saying that they will not use domestic linkage/ captive coal for such cross-border supply of power,” said the letter.
This comes at a time when the private players have complained that coal supply to them is significantly lower than what goes to NTPC. Also, they have reported slow coal supply under the new scheme SHAKTI which aims at a new methodology for supplying coal at optimal cost.

RBI to take hawkish stance by end-2018, hike rates early next year: Poll

The Reserve Bank of India will keep monetary policy steady at its April meeting but shift to a hawkish stance by the end of this year and raise interest rates early in 2019 as inflation pressures build, according to a Reuters poll of economists.
All 61 economists polled between March 23-28 expected the RBI to hold the repo rate at 6.00 percent and the reverse repo rate at 5.75 percent at its April 4-5 policy meeting.

The RBI is expected to keep rates steady for the rest of this year
After a slowdown in growth through much of last year, India is on an upswing and reclaimed top spot as the fastest growing major economy in the final quarter of 2017, outpacing China.
Inflation on the other hand has eased slightly, but still projected by the central bank to remain above its 4 percent medium-term target in 2018.
"The recent strength of the economy has belatedly shifted discussion from whether the RBI might cut policy rates again to whether it should hike," noted Shilan Shah, senior India economist at Capital Economics.
The RBI is expected to change its stance toward policy tightening by year-end, according to 60 percent of 33 economists, including four respondents who thought the shift would come as early as its June meeting.
"With growth-inflation data likely to be higher after April, we believe there is a risk of more hawkish rhetoric at meetings in June and beyond, including a change in policy stance," wrote Sonal Varma, chief India economist at Nomura.
The latest consensus is for the RBI to hike the repo rate and the reverse repo rate by 25 basis points in the first three months of 2019 and follow it up with another one in the quarter through to end-December.
Just last month, the consensus was for the central bank to hold fire until at least the second half of 2019.
"The forecast for inflation suggests that after a temporary decline, which we have already seen, inflation will move slightly higher and this will force a hike," said Dariusz Kowalczyk, senior economist for ex-Japan Asia at Credit Agricole CIB.
After hitting a low of 1.46 percent in June 2017, consumer price inflation steadily rose to a 17-month high in December. However, February's inflation print showed inflation at 4.4 percent, giving the RBI a breather.
According to the central bank's own projections, inflation is likely to average 5.1-5.6 percent for the first half of the 2018-19 fiscal year, before hovering around 4.5 percent for the remainder of the year.
While the median consensus of economists predicts a rate hike early next year, almost a third of respondents forecast the RBI will lift rates by the end of September.
Several of them also expect another rate hike before end-2018.
Against a backdrop of government fiscal slippage, the RBI would focus on "price stability", higher bond yields and sticky inflation near the upper band of its target, according to Vishnu Varathan, head of economics and strategy at Mizuho Bank.
"The fact that evidence of underlying inflation is picking up...should tilt them towards one rate hike to calibrate policy," Mizuho's Varathan said.
"The growth story is also going to align nicely with the RBI's position because we are coming off a soft base after the demonetization and GST impact ... the policy decision becomes less of a dilemma and the clarity with which they need to act solidifies in the second half of this year."
If the RBI does raise rates when expected, it would follow other major central banks which are already tightening policy.
The US Federal Reserve raised rates in March and is expected to follow it up with three more hikes this year, according to a separate Reuters poll.

Bihar clashes: Mohan Bhagwat gave training to incite riots, claims Tejashwi

Normalcy was restored in Bihar on Friday after communal clashes erupted in the state on Thursday night between two religious communities over the vandalism of a Hanuman idol in Nawada. Heavy security has been deployed in the state after the police fired ten rounds of bullets in the air.
“It was a matter of an idol being vandalised by some miscreants, which led to the communities coming face-to-face; situation is now under control,” said the Nawada District Magistrate Kaushal Kumar.
The Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT) commandos of Bihar Police also conducted a flag march today in Nawada to restore normalcy, according to media reports.
Some youths targeted the media, by damaging cameras and microphones of some media persons.
The Nawada parliamentary constituency is represented by Union Minister Giriraj Singh, who is known to be a vocal champion of Hindutva politics.
Communal tension had also erupted in Nawada last year and in 2013. In the past week, communal tension that first started in Aurangabad district during Ram Navami processions, spread to Samastipur, Munger, Nalanda, Sheikhpura and Gaya districts.
The opposition parties have slammed Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for what they called his "failure to handle the situation".
Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Yadav on Friday blamed RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for the communal tension, saying he planned the trouble during his recent 14-day visit to the state.
In a related development on Friday, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker Anil Singh, who was arrested in connection with the recent communal clashes in Aurangabad town, managed to escape from police custody.
Nearly 50 people, including two local BJP workers, were on Thursday held in Samastipur and Nalanda districts of Bihar in connection with communal clashes that erupted in the last couple of days across several areas, including Bhagalpur and Aurangabad.
Here are the top 10 developments of the communal clashes in Bihar:

1. Tejashwi accuses RSS of inciting riots in Bihar: Tejashwi, a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and also former Deputy Chief Minister, alleged that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) cadres were given training for violence during Bhagwat's visit.
"Mohan Bhagwat recently came to Bihar for 14 days. In these 14 days, he gave training on how to incite riots during Ram Navami. Now, people are getting to know about the agenda of his Bihar visit," Yadav said
However, Union Minister Ram Kirpal Yadav refuted Tejashwi terming his allegations baseless.
2. Situation under control: Normalcy was restored in Bihar after heavy deployment of police and active involvement of senior officials including the zonal Inspector General of Police, the DIG and the Divisional Commissioner concerned, though prohibitory orders under Section 144 were also clamped on Rosera which remain in force, according to Superintendent of Police Sudhir Kumar Porika.
ALSO: Communal tension grips another Bihar town
The clashes, which erupted in Bhagalpur on March 17, had reportedly spread to seven more districts in the state.
ALSO READ: Curfew imposed over riots in Aurangabad during Ram Navami: Top developments
3. BJP officials held: Those involved in the clashes are being identified with the help of CCTV footage and so far 11 persons have been taken into custody in Samastipur district where trouble had erupted on Tuesday when some miscreants hurled footwear at a procession carrying the idol of Goddess Durga for immersion upon the conclusion of Chaiti Navaratra festivities in Rohtas town, Superintendent of Police Deepak Ranjan said.
Two local BJP leaders were also among those detained for interrogation, the SP said while declining to divulge their names.
4. Nitish is finished, says Lalu: BJP has fostered violence in Bihar, jailed Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad claimed on Thursday, and indicated that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's position was also ruined in effect.
"There are riots and incidents of violence all over Bihar. After locking me up, BJP has set the whole state ablaze. Nitish Kumar is finished now," Prasad had said.
ALSO READ: Communal tension grips Bihar town
5. ‘Willing to pay price’: After facing criticism of inaction, JD (U) general secretary Shyam Rajak has said that Nitish Kumar never compromises on the law and order from and that they are “willing to pay any price” to restore order in the state, said the JD (U) general secretary Shyam Rajak, reported NDTV.
On March 27, howver, Nitish Kumar rose to intervene in the Bihar Assembly and said the floor of the House must not be used to give publicity to rumours which could aggravate communal tensions. He was targeting Tejashwi, who had lashed out at the government for the clashes.
Kumar said Ram Navami had passed off peacefully in Bihar "with a few exceptions" and asserted that there was no report of curfew or police firing in Aurangabad.
6. BJP member arrested, escapes: BJP worker Anil Singh, who was arrested in connection with the recent communal clash in Bihar's Aurangabad, has escaped from the police custody.
Singh, who was one of the central figures among the 148 persons booked in the matter fled away on Thursday.
BJP leaders Dinesh Jha and Mohan Patwa were arrested on the basis of a video footage of the incident in Rosera town of Samastipur.
Samastipur Superintendent of Police Dipak Ranjan said the two were arrested along with 10 others. He said they were questioned on the clashes.
ALSO: Congress behind communal unrest in Bihar, Bengal: Giriraj Singh
After the arrests, workers and supporters of BJP and JD(U) held a protest against the police action on Thursday and termed the action "one-sided".
BJP's Samastipur district President Ramsumran Singh had demanded the release of the two leaders without delay.
Communal tension again gripped Rosera town in Samastipur three days after communal clashes on Monday night. More than 60 persons, including policemen, were injured and dozens of shops and vehicles were torched in Rosera during the clashes.
Hundreds of additional security, including two battalions of the Rapid Action Force, have been deployed in sensitive areas in Rosera, with senior police officials keeping an eye on the situation.
7. Shops set on fire: The situation had gotten tensed on Thursday evening when rioters set ablaze more than 20 shops and pelted stones at those participating in the Rama Navami procession through Nawadih Colony.
As per reports, nearly 50 shops were torched by rioters, while nearly 60 persons, including 20 policemen were injured due to stone pelting by miscreants.
The situation further intensified on Monday, which thereby led to a curfew being imposed in the vicinity.
Heavy stone pelting: During the violence, heavy stone-pelting was witnessed from two sides close to a mosque and three motorcycles were also set afire.
Additional Superintendent of Police, Dalsinghsarai, Santosh Kumar, and Inspector-in-charge of Samastipur town Chaturvedi Sudhir Kumar sustained injuries while trying to disperse the rioters, Ranjan said.
8. Several others arrested: 36 people, including two women, have been arrested in Nalanda district where members of two communities had clashed yesterday while a Ram Navami procession was being taken out in Silao block.
According to Superintendent of Police Sudhir Kumar Porika, the arrested persons were among 74 people named in an FIR lodged at Silao police station.
Commercial establishments remained closed in Silao as businessmen feared a fresh flare-up, though the situation has so far remained under control.
9. FIR against union minister’s son: Union Minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey's son Arijit Shashwat on Thursday moved the Patna High Court, seeking quashing of the FIR filed against him in connection with communal clashes in Bihar's Bhagalpur district.
A case against Shashwat was registered on March 19. He filed an anticipatory bail petition two days after a Bhagalpur court issued a warrant of arrest against him in connection with the communal clashes in Nathnagar on March 17. http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ani/bhagalpur-clash-union-minister-s-son-seeks-quashing-of-fir-118032901024_1.html?1522397624
Choubey and other local BJP leaders later claimed that the district administration had allowed the rally and had also denied that provocative slogans were shouted.
Choubey was elected from the Buxar Lok Sabha seat in 2014. His son Shashwat had contested the 2015 Bihar Assembly elections from Bhagalpur.
10. Heated exchange in Bihar Assembly: The issue had led to a heated exchange in the Bihar Assembly where the Leader of Opposition, Tejashwi Yadav, alleged that for the past several hours, riots had been taking place at Aurangabad and shops belonging to a community were being set afire and curfew had to be imposed.
Yadav made the allegations while state minister Vijender Yadav was reading out the government's reply to the debate on the budgetary allocation for the home department.

Son of an Imam killed in Asansol riots: BJP hits out at Mamata;10 updates

Prohibitory orders remained in force and Internet services suspended in West Bengal’s Asansol even as life was limping back to normal in the southern parts of the town, official sources said. Shops and markets opened and vehicles started plying in the southern parts of Asansol, Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) P Roychowdhury said, adding that tension still prevailed in the northern parts of the town.
Internet services would remain suspended till April 4, the SDO added. The police staged a route march in the town to instill a sense of security among the people, he said.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had held a high-level meeting at the secretariat in Kolkata on Thursday, after returning from New Delhi, to review the situation in the Asansol-Raniganj area. The chief secretary, the home secretary, the director general of police (DGP) and the ADGP (law and order) were present at the meeting.
One person was killed and two police officers were injured in the violence that had erupted in the area on Sunday and Monday.
Political blame-game over communal violence in West Bengal intensified on Thursday with Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Babul Supriyo accusing the police and district administration of acting like Trinamool Congress (TMC) cadres and coming into action only after the miscreants involved in the violence reached their hiding places. The leader was later booked by the West Bengal police for allegedly violating Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and assaulting an IPS officer after he was prevented from visiting the violence-hit areas in Asansol.
A clash broke out between two groups centering a Ram Navami procession in Raniganj on Monday. A person was allegedly hacked to death while the Deputy Commissioner of Police lost a hand after getting hit by a bomb.
Tension soared high as several shops and houses were vandalised and set ablaze. Police have arrested 19 people so far for fomenting trouble.
Heavy police force has been deployed and police pickets put up in the area since Monday evening to prevent any more untoward incidents. Police claimed the situation was under control.
Earlier, the BJP had hit out at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the incidents of violence in the state and accused the TMC supremo of doing politics while the state was burning.
Here are the top 10 developments in the West Bengal riots:
1. One killed in Asansol riots: The Imam (head of a mosque) of Noorani Masjid, Imdatullah Rashidi, had said on Thursday that his younger son Sibtulla Rashidi was killed in the violence and that his body was found on Wednesday night.
Rashid has said that he would leave the mosque and town if anyone retaliates against his son’s death, according to The Indian Express.
It is suspected that his 16-year-old, who was appearing for Class 10 examinations was beaten to death, added the report.
Two police officials suffered injuries during the violence with one deputy commissioner of police losing a hand after being hit by a bomb.
ALSO READ: Post-Ram Navami violence, police gear up for Hanuman Jayanti
2. Amit Shah constitutes committee: In the wake of violence over Ram Navami processions in West Bengal, BJP chief Amit Shah on Friday constituted a four-member committee comprising senior party leaders, who would visit the state and submit a report to him in this regard.
Shah condemned the violence in Asansol in West Bengal and said "such incidents are unfortunate and painful", the saffron party said in a statement.
The four-member committee the BJP chief formed comprises the party's national vice-president Om Mathur, spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain and two MPs -- Roopa Ganguly and B D Ram.
The committee members will visit the state and submit a report to Shah, the statement said.
3. Ram Navami celebrations turn sour: The Ram Navami celebrations on March 25 had turned sour after clashes erupted in various parts of Bengal leaving three dead and several injured.
On March 28, the Centre sought a report from the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government on incidents of arson and violence.
In addition, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had asserted that such behaviour was unacceptable in her state and that her government would strongly deal with each miscreant.
Following the continued violence, Section 144 was imposed in Asansol, on March 28.
4. Babul Supriyo files counter-FIR: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Babul Supriyo has filed a counter-FIR in response to the one lodged against him for assaulting a police officer.
"Had registered an FIR against the police officer who assaulted me," said the BJP leader after he was booked for assaulting an officer and violating Sec 144 in Asansol, where the situation continued to remain tense over a Ram Navami procession.
The leader accused the officer of assaulting him while being barred entry into the violence-hit areas.
5. Babul Supriyo not allowed to enter tense area: Union Minister and BJP leader Babul Supriyo on Thursday was not allowed to enter the Railpar area in the Paschim Burdwan district of West Bengal. Police cited security reasons for preventing Supriyo from entering the violence-hit area.
6.. Babul Supriyo booked for assaulting officer: An FIR was filed against Supriyo for allegedly violating Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and assaulting an IPS officer after he was prevented from visiting the violence-hit areas in Asansol.
The minister, who was booked in North Asansol police station, was heading to the city to take stock of the situation when he was barred from entering the area by the security forces.
7. 'Police, administration acting like TMC cadres': Supriyo, who was in the violence-torn Asansol to take stock of the situation, said on Thursday that the state administration including the police and the district magistrate are acting like TMC cadres.
"Whether it's the police, the District Magistrate or the administration, they are all acting like TMC cadres. It's no coincidence that Babul Supriyo enters Asansol after 24 hours and the internet services are shut down, because they know I'm going to give media reports from the ground and talk about the failure of the administration," Supriyo told ANI.
Supriyo alleged that the Centre made several attempts to convince the state to allow paramilitary force in Asansol but failed.

ALSO READ: Sec 144 imposed in West Bengal's Asansol after Ram Navami clashes
8. Supriyo alleges no police officer accompanied him to the unrest-hit areas: "Police were completely inactive. There was no response from the top level officials even after I made several phone calls to them. Such inactivity by the administration is allowing the anti-socials to resort to violence. Had I reached the spot before the clashes took place, then the entire responsibility would have been put on me and the BJP," Supriyo alleged.
9. Governor advised not to visit Durgapur: Governor K N Tripathi has also been advised not to visit Durgapur to see a police officer injured in the violence in Raniganj in view of deployment of police in the area, an official release said on Wednesday.
10. Political blame-game continues: Supriyo and state BJP Mahila Morcha president Locket Chatterjee were stopped by the police from entering the Asansol-Raniganj area.
A scuffle had ensued between BJP supporters and the police when the Union minister tried to enter Asansol, his Lok Sabha constituency.
State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee had accused the BJP of trying to destroy the peace and communal harmony in the state.
"When police is patrolling the area, why do they want to visit Raniganj? Are they not satisfied after unleashing violence for the last two days," he had said.
ALSO READ: Asansol Ram Navami violence: FIR against BJP's Babul Supriyo; top updates
"It has been the modus operandi that the police do not act in the first hour and a half," he remarked.
"Whether it's the police, the District Magistrate or the administration, they are all acting like TMC cadres. It's no coincidence that Babul Supriyo enters Asansol after 24 hours and the internet services are shut down, because they know I'm going to give media reports from the ground and talk about the failure of the administration," Supriyo told mediapersons.
"As a public representative, I have every right to visit my constituency, especially when people are in trouble. It is my duty. But the police is saying I won't be allowed to go as Section 144 is imposed in the area. Being a minister, I cannot violate rules," Supriyo said.
West Bengal Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee has blamed the BJP of trying to destroy the communal peace and harmony in the state.