Government forms panel to look at selling of OIL, ONGC fields to private companies
NEW DELHI: The government of India has constituted a six-member committee to look at selling as many as 149 small and marginal oil and gas fields of state-owned ONGC and OIL to private and foreign companies to boost domestic output, sources said. The panel is headed by NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar and includes […]
India’s poor on the frontlines of polarizing pollution war
NEW DELHI: Air purifiers for the affluent, masks for the not so rich and inhaling polluted air all day — without literally a breather — for those who can’t afford a roof over their heads. It’s maximum exposure for millions of people who are bearing the brunt of hazardous air quality, say experts. As the […]
Black money: Switzerland to share details of 2 Indian firms, 3 individual accounts
NEW DELHI/ BERNE: As Switzerland continues to shed its image as a safe haven for alleged black money, the Alpine nation has agreed to share with Indian authorities the details about two companies and three individuals who are facing multiple probes back in India. One of the two Indian companies used to be a publicly-listed […]
Bangladeshi ex-PM’s nomination papers cancelled
DHAKA: Bangladeshi ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s nomination papers for contesting in the general elections slated for December 30 were cancelled on Sunday. The Election Commission appointed Returning officers (ROs) cancelled her nomination papers for contesting in three constituencies on the ground of her conviction in two corruption cases, Xinhua news agency reported. Apart from Khaleda […]
Israeli Police recommend indictment of PM Benjamin Netanyahu for corruption
JERUSALEM: Israeli Police on Sunday recommended that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be indicted on charges of corruption in one of three investigations against him. The telecom corruption investigation, dubbed Case 4,000, is centred around alleged regulations worth hundreds of millions of dollars provided to the Bezeq telecom company in exchange for positive news coverage of […]
WhatsApp seeks RBI nod to expand payment services to all users
NEW DELHI: WhatsApp Chief has written to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), seeking a formal nod to expand payments services to all its 200 million users in India. The messaging app, which has drawn fire from the government over spread of fake messages on its platform, continues to wait for a regulatory clearance to […]
Bank of Maharashtra appoints A S Rajeev as MD, CEO
NEW DELHI: State-owned Bank of Maharashtra on Sunday announced that A S Rajeev has joined the lender as its Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer. “A S Rajeev has joined Bank of Maharashtra as Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer on 2nd December 2018. Prior to this, he was Executive Director of Indian Bank from […]
SBI to sell 3 bad loan accounts to recover Rs 2,111 crore dues
NEW DELHI: India’s largest lender State Bank Of India (SBI) has put up for sale three of its non-performing loan accounts to recover dues of Rs 2,110.71 crore. An e-auction will take place on December 13 for the sale of these three accounts — Sona Alloys Pvt Ltd, MCL Global Steel Pvt Ltd and Jayaswal […]
Nirav Modi cannot return to India
NEW DELHI: Fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, a key accused in the USD 2 billion PNB fraud case, cannot return to India as he is afraid of “getting lynched” and is being compared to demon ‘Ravan’ , his lawyer told a special court Saturday, but the ED dismissed the claim saying if he felt there were […]
National Housing Bank provides $463 million subsidy to low income home buyers
BY: Chris Thomas BENGALURU: The National Housing Bank (NHB) said that it had provided an interest subsidy of 32.70 billion rupees ($463.3 million) to more than 143,000 households up to November 28 this year. The subsidy, which was given for the first five months of 2018-2019 financial year, is part of a government initiative aimed […]
Google gets $1 billion large office park in Mountain View, California
SAN FRANCISCO: Google has invested $1 billion on a large office park near its headquarters in Mountain View, California, the media reported. A Google representative confirmed the $1 billion purchase price for the office park but did not comment beyond that, the Mercury News reported on Monday. The newly acquired site is larger than the […]
G-20 summit: Narendra Modi interacts with Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Theresa May
BUENOS AIRES: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday interacted with US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin and British Prime Minister Theresa May ahead of the G-20 summit here. The brief exchange of views came ahead of the first trilateral meeting between Modi, Trump and the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe later Friday. […]
Need to work to strengthen UN counter terrorism framework: Narendra Modi
BUENOS AIRES:Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said terrorism and radicalisation was the biggest challenges the world was facing and underlined the need for the BRICS and G-20 countries to work together to strengthen the UN counter terrorism framework to stop terrorist networks, their financing and movement. Addressing an informal meeting of the leaders of […]
UIDAI asks banks not to discontinue Aadhaar payment system
NEW DELHI: The UIDAI on Friday asked banks not to discontinue the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) as it may create obstruction in the delivery of welfare benefits. The clarification came after the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) took note of a letter from the State Bank of India (SBI) to the National Payments […]
H-1B visas only for the most skilled, highest paid foreign workers
By Lalit K Jha The Trump Administration on Friday proposed major changes to the H-1B application process, including a new rule requiring companies to electronically register their petitions in advance, aimed at awarding the American work visa to the most skilled and highest paid foreign workers. The H-1B visa, popular among Indian IT companies and […]
G20 summit: India, Russia, China hold trilateral after 12 years
BUENOS AIRES: Leaders of India, China and Russia called for reforming multilateral institutions, including the United Nations (UN) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), as they underscored the benefits of a multilateral trading system and an open world economy for global growth and prosperity during a trilateral meeting held after a gap of 12 years. […]