Business
Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp partly reconnecting after outage
Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp at least partially reconnected to the global internet on Monday afternoon, nearly six hours into an outage that paralyzed the social media platform. Facebook and its WhatsApp and Instagram apps went dark at around noon Eastern time (1600 GMT), in what website monitoring group Downdetector...
Leaked records open a Pandora box
Hundreds of world leaders, powerful politicians, billionaires, celebrities, religious leaders and drug dealers have been hiding their investments in mansions, exclusive beachfront property, yachts and other assets for the past quarter-century, according to a review of nearly 12 million files obtained from 14 different firms located around the world....
Tata wins Air India bid
Tata Sons has finally won the bid for the national air carrier, Air India, according to a Bloomberg report. With this, the privatisation is finally going through and the wait is over. This comes on the back of a panel of ministers accepting the conglomerate’s proposal to take over the airlines,...
Work from home coming to an end
The Covid-19 cases in India plummeting, pace of vaccination picking up, collectively managed to drive up the positive sentiment in the market and in the corporate world too. With cases diving, the corporate world is gearing up with full force to call employees back to the office; that means...
RSS mouthpiece calls for regulation of cryptocurrency
The Organiser, a journal affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) has called for cryptocurrency regulations in the country as the digital currency sees phenomenal growth across the world. A recent opinion piece in the journal said that while the basic purpose of currency was to facilitate transactions, cryptocurrencies...
CCI implicates Google India for restrictive practices
The Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) investigative arm has implicated Google in anti-competitive and restrictive trading in the smartphone operating system and associated sectors. According to The Times of India, the CCI panel found Google India responsible for impeding innovation and competition in order to preserve its market dominance....
Rs 30,600cr govt guarantee for ‘bad bank’ NARCL
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while addressing a press conference on Thursday announced that the Union Cabinet has approved the government’s guarantee for the National Asset Reconstruction Company. The idea of having a bad bank was first mooted by Nirmala Sitharaman in the Budget of 2020-2021. A ‘bad bank’ is...
US, UK, Australia launch Indo-Pacific Alliance to counter China
The US, UK and Australia have announced a new trilateral security alliance for the Indo-Pacific to take on the threats of the 21st century and allow for greater sharing of defence capabilities, including help Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines, in an effort to counter China’s growing power and military presence...
8 out of 10 Indians want petrol and diesel under GST
Ahead of the GST Council meeting in Lucknow on Friday, a survey has found that 77% citizens want the government to bring petrol and diesel under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) amidst the spiraling prices. According to reports, the GST Council might on Friday may consider taxing petrol,...
Modi to attend Biden’s Quad Summit
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be part of the first-ever in-person Quad summit hosted by US President Joe Biden on September 24. Other invitees include Modi’s Australian counterpart Scott Morrison and Japanese premier Yoshihide Suga. The White House said that the four leaders would discuss deepening their ties and...
Bommai demands extension of GST compensation
New Delhi: Amid fall in state revenue and GST collection in view of COVID-19 crisis, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj S Bommai on Thursday demanded the Centre to extend the GST compensation period to states beyond 2022, for three more years. After a meeting with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman,...
Official Taliban websites go offline
Taliban websites that delivered the victorious insurgents official messages to Afghans and the world at large in five languages went offline abruptly Friday, indicating an effort to try to squelch them. It is not immediately clear, though, why the sites in the Pashto, Urdu, Arabic, English and Dari languages...
Johnson & Johnson seeks approval of its single-dose Covid vaccine
Global healthcare major Johnson & Johnson on Friday said it has applied for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of its single-dose COVID-19 vaccine in India. Earlier on Monday, the company had said that it remained committed to bringing its single-dose COVID-19 vaccine to India and looks forward to ongoing discussions...
IT Act amended to end retrospective tax demand
: The Union government on Thursday amended the Income Tax Act to end controversial retrospective tax demand. The move came after back-to-back setbacks in Cairn energy and Vodafone Group tax dispute cases. An Ordinance was introduced in Lok Sabha to scrap the dreaded retrospective changes made in Finance Act,...
Microsoft in talks to buy stake in OYO
New Delhi, Jul 30: Microsoft is in advanced stages of discussions to pick up a stake in OYO that would value the hospitality firm at about USD 9 billion (around Rs 67,000 crore), according to sources. While the deal size is not known, sources close to the development said...
Depositors to get money in 90 days if bank under moratorium
To provide relief to depositors in stressed banks, Union Cabinet on Wednesday cleared the amendments in Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation Act, 1961, (DICGC Act). The aim is to minimise the hurdles faced by depositors of banks like the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank, Yes Bank and...
FM says no plan to print currency to tide over Covid crisis
The impact of the second wave of Covid on the economy is expected to be muted given the localised containment measures and rapid upscaling of the vaccination drive, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has told Parliament. She has denied any plan to print currency to tide over the Covid crisis,...
RBI says near-term economic prospects bright
A gradual decline in India’s second wave of COVID-19 infections and an aggressive vaccination push have brightened the near-term prospects for the economy, the Reserve Bank of India said in its July bulletin, released on Thursday. The RBI said there had been a rise in mobility indicators and attendance...
