IMD storm alert: Rain lashes Chandigarh; Haryana schools shut; 10 updates. As predicted by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), early morning rains lashed Chandigarh and adjoining areas on Monday.
The authorities in several states, especially Haryana and Punjab, are on a high alert following the storm advisory issued by IMD. Taking note of IMD's warning of thunderstorms at isolated places in the state, the Haryana government had on Sunday announced the closure of all schools on Monday and Tuesday. The Union home ministry, in a fresh advisory on Sunday, said 13 states would be affected by thunderstorms, along with squall and hail on Monday.
The fresh warning came days after thunderstorms wreaked havoc across the country, claiming at least 124 lives and injuring more than 300. According to government figures, the worst casualty was reported in Uttar Pradesh, where 73 people were killed and 91 others injured.
Technology News. TCS becomes first Indian company to cross $100 bn in market-cap. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has become the first Indian $100 billion- dollar company in terms of market capitalisation (market-cap), after the stock of the IT bellwether hit a new high on Monday.
M&M Q1 profit down 20% as car sales slowed ahead of GST. Homegrown auto major Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) today reported 19.79 per cent decline in its standalone profit after tax (PAT) to Rs 765.96 crore for the first quarter of the current financial year as sales were hit by GST transition.
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd posted an about 20 per cent fall in quarterly profit on Friday, missing estimates, as sales growth in passenger vehicles slowed ahead of the transition to a new nationwide tax. The company had posted a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 954.95 crore during April-June period of last financial year. Excluding the impact of the Goods and Services Tax that kicked in from July 1, the company earned a profit of Rs 8.60 billion. Analysts on average had expected a profit of 8.93 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data. Revenue from operations during the first quarter of 2017 -18 stood at Rs 12,335.56 crore, up 3.29 per cent from Rs 11,942.9 crore the year-ago period, M&M said in a regulatory filing. Jab Harry Met Sejal review: A big disappointment for Shah Rukh Khan fans. Film: Jab Harry Met Sejal; Director: Imtiaz Ali; Cast: Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma, Rating: **1/2 If the flop-ridden Hindi film industry had its hopes pinned on the new Shah Rukh Khan starrer for salvation, then it's time to unpin those hopes.
Imtiaz Ali's eagerly awaited "Jab Harry Met Sejal" is a lengthy, lumbering, baggy and pointless love story. More Indians paying for apps now, says Google. Indian consumers spent three times more on smartphone apps in the past year, according to Google, which sees this as an inflection point in the country’s digital ecosystem that will allow developers to finally monetise their apps.
“If there’s one thing that the Indian internet ecosystem has been challenged with, it is monetisation. But we believe that the time has come where we’re beginning to see a change in monetisation in India,” said Rajan Anandan, managing director, Google India. Alongside seeing app downloads on its Play Store exceed one billion recently, the company said it saw a 300 per cent growth in customer app spends. JioPhone effect: Idea to launch 4G-enabled feature phone at Rs 2,500. Faced with the latest challenge of ultra-cheap 4G feature phone from Reliance Jio, Idea Cellular on July 28 said it is working with handset makers to bring down the cost of handsets.
However, the Aditya Birla Group company, set to be merged with bigger rival Vodafone, made it clear that it will not subsidise handsets. "The practical solution that we are working on is to work with the handset industry and work with them to be able to bring down cost of handsets by bringing down the bill of material, so that the gap of the announced price of Jio feature phone versus a smart-phone can be brought down to reasonable levels," its Managing Director Himanshu Kapania told analysts. Kapania said the ideal price point for a handset will be Rs 2,500. Apple seeks tax breaks for suppliers to make iPhones in India. Apple Inc has asked the Indian government to extend tax breaks to its suppliers if India seeks to become a manufacturing hub for iPhones and its components.
Government officials say meeting this request would require a new policy that applies fairly to other device makers, too. The US tech giant has been in talks with Indian officials since May of last year, when CEO Tim Cook and Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to set up a production base in the country that goes beyond just assembling the devices, as happens today. The two sides have been discussing a list of "prerequisites" that Apple submitted in October, including duty exemption on raw materials for manufacturing components and capital equipment for 15 years for it to make iPhones from scratch in India. The company has told the government it would be bringing in a host of these ancillary units when it sets up operations to cater to India, one of the world's fastest growing smartphone markets, a top government official said.
BREAKING: Arvind Panagariya resigns as vice-chairman of NITI Aayog. Arvind Panagariya on Tuesday resigned as the Vice-Chairman of the NITI Aayog. From September, he will return as a faculty to Columbia University, where he had earlier been a professor of Indian Political Economy. Panagariya had joined NITI Aayog in early 2015, months after the Modi government came to power in 2014. He is also a former chief economist of the Asian Development Bank and professor of economics at the University of Maryland at College Park.
He has also worked with the World Bank, IMF and UNCTAD in various capacities. Swachh Bharat survey 2018: Negative marks for false claims under new rules. A revised methodology, including a penalty clause for false claims, will be used to rank the 4,041 cities and towns in the country under the Modi government's third cleanliness survey — 'Swachh Survekshan-2018'.
The government on Monday revised the methodology for the survey, which will be held in February 2018, according to agency reports. The cities will be ranked based on 71 sanitation-related parameters, which have been assigned different weightages, according to reports. The cumulative marks will be 4,000, while the 2017 survey awarded scores out of a total of 2,000 marks.
Negative marking introduced According to the Hindustan Times, the previous method suffered from an over-reliance on self-declaration by municipalities. Flipkart-eBay India merger done; sellers can now take products global. Flipkart, India's largest e-commerce marketplace said it will begin offering the global inventory of eBay to Indian consumers while taking the products of thousands of sellers in the country to eBay's customers globally.
This comes after Flipkart completed the takeover of the India operations of eBay. In a deal announced in April, Flipkart raised $1.4 billion from global technology majors eBay, Tencent and Microsoft. June core sector growth falls to 0.4% from 4.1% in May. Core sector output rose a paltry 0.4% in June, as compared to the 4.1% rise in May.
There was contraction or marginal growth in six of the eight segments, with only growth in natural gas and steel pulling up the index. Data issued by the commerce and industry ministry on Monday showed the eight core segments - coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertiliser, steel, cement and electricity - cumulatively grew 2.4% in the first three months (April-June) of this financial year.
This was less than half the 6.9% growth in the corresponding period of 2016-17. You have a few more days to file I-T returns; deadline extended to Aug 5. The Income-tax department on Monday extended the deadline for filing of I-T returns for the assessment year 2016-17 to August 5. The earlier deadline of July 31 was ending today. The reason for this extension in deadline is understood to be technical snag developed by the online tax-filing platform, incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in, due to the last-minute rush by tax filers.
The government portal had been facing glitches for the past three days, even as the introduction of GST since July 1 kept chartered accountants busy, further aggravating the problems faced by tax filers. Valuation to too many demands: Why Snapdeal-Flipkart merger is dragging. In the universe of Snapdeal and Flipkart everyone is hopeful, but of different things. Japanese telecom giant SoftBank and US hedge fund major Tiger Global are hopeful of merging the two e-commerce players. Snapdeal’s board members, such as Nexus Venture Capital, and smaller shareholders are hopeful of a better-valued exit, and the co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal are hopeful of holding on to their company.
Got an I-T notice on cash deposits? Don't panic and follow this guide. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in tandem with public sector and commercial banks, has undertaken data mining on a massive scale to identify how funds have been moved in the country after November 8. The government has come down hard on individuals and businesses operating doctored accounts, having deregistered and shut more than 100,000 companies and penalised more than 300,000 others. The I-T department has also identified over 37,000 shell or paper companies channelling black money through methods such as hawala. As a part of its Operation Clean Money, the I-T department identifies individuals whose income tax return filings are inconsistent with the amount of cash deposits made in their bank accounts during the demonetisation drive.
It then sends a notification through SMS or e-mail, and the individual must provide a response on the department’s website for the same. If you receive such a notice, do not panic or ignore it. Back as CM in 15 hrs: Nitish takes oath as CM, Sushil Modi as Deputy CM. 10:40 AM Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said that his party and the Opposition had been aware of Nitish Kumar's "plan" to tie up with the BJP for three-four months, reported ANI. Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Thursday dubbed the Janata Dal (United) [JD(U)] bid to form government with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as shameful, reported ANI. The veteran Congress leader also asserted that Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) being the single largest party in Bihar should have been invited to form the government in Bihar. Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday fired a sardonic salvo on Bihar's political upheaval, reported ANI.
Yadav mocked Nitish Kumar and said that the latter could not resist getting back with his former ally. Jio effect: Vodafone offers 70GB 4G data, unlimited on-net calls for Rs 244. Xiaomi Mi Max 2 Review: Great battery life, multimedia features justify price tag. Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi recently launched the Mi Max 2, the second iteration of its Mi Max, in India at Rs 16,999. A large-screen device with a focus on multimedia capabilities, this smartphone has updated specifications, features and design which make the Mi Max 2 a solid performer in its segment. Nifty touches 10,000: Where should you invest now? Air India privatisation: PE funds KKR, Warburg Pincus want a bite too.
After Tata Group and IndiGo, Air India’s privatisation bid has received yet another boost as private equity players KKR and Co and Warbug Pincus have expressed interest in acquiring the national carrier’s businesses, reported Live Mint. Analysis: Mukesh Ambani is dialling new Bharat with Reliance JioPhone. It is a well-accepted fact that everything Reliance Industries (RIL) does has ‘scale’, but what the recently conducted annual general meeting (AGM) of the company did, has established it as a corporate giant with ‘style’ along with substance. Will Jio's 4G feature phone be as disruptive as its pricing strategy? As Reliance Jio sets the next stage of a market share war in telecom with plans to launch a 4G feature phone, all eyes are set on what Mukesh Ambani will unravel at the group’s annual general meeting in Mumbai on Friday.
Jio disruption: Feature phone to cost Rs 0 with Rs 1,500 refundable deposit. Presidential election 2017 India: Kovind or Meira Kumar, who will be the next Rashtrapati? On July 17, of the total 4,880 valid voters — 4,109 members of legislative Assemblies (MLAs) and 771 elected members of Parliament (MPs) — 99.49 per cent cast their vote to elect the next President of India. In the fray were the National Democratic Alliance's (NDA's) candidate Ram Nath Kovind, and the Opposition candidate Meira Kumar.
IUC report: Reliance Jio alleges Rs 100,000 cr bonanza to incumbents. In a strong attack on incumbent operators, Reliance Jio has alleged that non-implementation of the interconnect user charges (IUC) report of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in 2011 has given a huge benefit of over Rs 100,000 crore to the three major operators in the last five years. Move over motorcycles, scooters are way more in demand these days. Think about the slowest growing segment of Indian automobile industry. It is not the three-wheelers or the commercial vehicles.
UDAN scheme: TruJet to add 10 destinations with 7 aircraft. Snapdeal sale still a few weeks away, board in discussion with others. Presidential elections 2017: NDA to pick its VP candidate today. Time not ripe for Prez poll but will support Opposition's Meira Kumar: AAP. Paytm buys majority stake in ticketing platform Insider.in. Presidential election was never contested on ideology before: Meira Kumar.
Reliance Jio's new plans with reduced validity to help Bharti, Idea. Reliance Jio's new plans with reduced validity to help Bharti, Idea. Presidential Election 2017: National ideologies in danger, says Meira Kumar. In a blow to tech Industry, Trump shelves start-up immigrant rule. Meira Kumar visits Srinagar, urges conscience vote in Presidential poll. Kovind meets BJP MPs, MLAs in Chhattisgarh for support in Presidential poll. Presidential polls: PM Modi likely to address NDA MPs; Kovind may attend.
Presidential poll: EC says parties directing how to vote will face action. Meira Kumar to campaign in Bihar. Office of President should be above party politics, says Ram Nath Kovind. Ram Nath Kovind promises to keep office of President above party politics. Xiaomi Redmi 4 on sale from noon today: Phone's a steal at Rs 6,999. From missiles to tomatoes: Israel's importance for India and Modi explained. Business class traveller? Submit your company's GST Identification Number. OnePlus 5 is 'old wine in a new bottle' but its camera, battery are the real winners. Ransomware attacks leave customers powerless, companies ignore cyber threat. PM Modi wins Jeff Bezos' assurance: Amazon will keep investing in India.
ICC Champions Trophy: 5 reasons why India lost to Pakistan in the final tie. Planning to buy a car? Get up to Rs 90,000 in discounts before GST rollout. Paytm GST clearance sale offers discount up to 80%, here are the best deals. Nokia 3, Nokia 5, Nokia 6 launched in India; know the price and specs here. French open 2017: Rafael Nadal outclasses Wawrinka to win 'La Decima' Toshiba aims to name buyer of $18 bn semiconductor chips biz on June 15. Apple helped UK investigate terrorist attacks, says Tim Cook. ICC Champions Trophy 2017: India thrash Pakistan by 124 runs. Nissan launches updated version of Micra at Rs 5.99 lakh. Sony Xperia XZ Premium with 4K screen launched in India at Rs 59,990. CBSE Class 10 board exam results likely tomorrow: How to check it on Bing. CBSE Class 10 board exam results likely tomorrow: How to check it on Bing. Samsung Galaxy S8+ with 6GB RAM launched in India; priced at Rs 74,990. AB de Villiers No 1 batsman in ICC ODI list, Kohli only Indian in top 10.
UPSC result 2016 topper Nandini to opt for IAS, wants to work in India. Why it is best to pay up in case of ransomware attacks like WannaCry. Movie review: Wonder Woman reinvigorates tired superhero conventions. Xiaomi Redmi 4 goes on sale at 12 on Amazon: Here's all you need to know. Singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya back on Twitter with new account. PM Narendra Modi begins 4-nation tour of Germany, Spain, Russia and France.
Smartron srt.phone: A fine deal if you are a die-hard Sachin Tendulkar fan. Sachin: A Billion Dreams: A glorified account of an over-glorified celeb. Salman Khan not worried about Baahubali 2 box office record. BCCI is following due process, says Virat Kohli on Kumble's contract. Bollywood Interesting Articles: 'Sachin: A Billion Dreams': Informative, inspirational (IANS Review, Rating: ***) CEO poll: India Inc votes for three years of Modi govt. 'Pakistan is a well of death', says Uzma Ahmed after returning to India. Brad Pitt in Mumbai to attend War Machine screening, meets Shah Rukh Khan. Three years of Modi govt: Possibility of 2nd innings looms large.
BJP plans to extol PM as 'innovator' to mark three years of Modi govt. Dangal set to beat Baahubali-2, grosses over Rs 1,500 crore worldwide. Manchester attack: 22 dead; kids missing from concert, here is what we know. Deepika Padukone makes Cannes red carpet debut. SBI PO preliminary exam results out. From Amitabh to Aamir, Bollywood mourns Reema Lagoo's sudden demise. Bollywood's smiling mom Reema Lagoo passes away in Mumbai. Cannes gets an added dose of drama as Netflix makes its festival debut. IPL 10 eliminator: KKR beats Hyderabad by 7 wickets, will face MI next. Paytm to launch payments bank on May 23, transfer wallet biz to new company.
IBM says sacking report factually incorrect, govt too allays layoff fears. Upcoming bank and government exams in 2017. OnePlus 5 launch soon: Device to have flagship features for half the price. Rajinikanth in politics? Subramanian Swamy scoffs at idea, calls it a joke. Hillary Clinton launches new political action group to fight Trump. Billing for 800,000 affected as ransomware hits power company in Bengal. WannaCry 'ransomware' virus, a vulnerability stolen from the NSA: Microsoft.
Rajamouli reveals Prabhas refused Rs 18 cr worth endorsements for Baahubali. In 2 weeks, Hindi version of Baahubali 2 beats lifetime earnings of Dangal. Rs 20 cr in ticket sales for Justin Bieber: Price no barrier for Indians? 56,000 IT jobs in danger? Infosys, TCS say they're not responsible for mess.