LIVE update: After Azad, senior leader RS Chib quits Congress party

Live news updates: Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday resigned from all party positions, including its primary membership, delivering another blow to the embattled party

Live news updates: India logged 10,256 new coroanvirus infections taking the total tally of cases to 44,389,176, while the active cases declined to 90,707, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday. The death toll climbed to 527,556 with 68 fatalities which includes 29 deaths reconciled by Kerala, the data updated at 8 am stated.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology chaired by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has summoned Twitter and IRCTC over the data privacy on Friday. According to the Lok Sabha, the panel will hear the views of the representatives of Twitter India and IRCTC on citizens' data security and privacy on Friday. 

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) on Thursday asserted that Hemant Soren will remain the chief minister for full term till 2024, and demanded legal action against BJP leaders for disclosing a reported official decision despite no confirmation from either ECI or Raj Bhavan. The Election Commission of India (ECI) is believed to have told Jharkhand Governor Ramesh Bais that Soren should be disqualified as an MLA for violating electoral norms by extending a mining lease to himself, Raj Bhavan sources said.

The election of Congress president that was to end by September 20 is likely to be delayed by a few weeks with the party focused on the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' and some state units not completing formalities, sources said Thursday. The Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party's highest decision-making body, will hold a virtual meeting on Sunday to approve the exact schedule for the election. 

10:50 PM

AIFF suspension lifted with immediate effect: Fifa

Bureau of the Council decided on 25 August to lift the suspension of the AIFF with immediate effect, said Fifa. As a consequence, the Fifa U-17 Women’s World Cup 2022 scheduled to take place on October 11-30, 2022 can be held in India as planned.

10:44 PM

BJP chief J P Nadda to address public meeting in Telangana's Warangal tomorrow

BJP president J P Nadda will address a public meeting at Warangal in Telangana on Saturday to mark the conclusion of the ongoing third phase of 'padayatra' of state BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar.

The meeting assumes significance as top BJP leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had addressed a public meeting in Telangana less than a week ago in connection with the Munugode assembly bypoll which would be held soon.

10:15 PM

Allegations in Azad's letter far from truth: Sachin Pilot

Rajasthan's former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot Friday said senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad resigned from the Congress when there was a need for the country and the party to stand against the BJP rule.

Azad Friday ended his decades-long association with the Congress, and blasted the party in an explosive resignation letter to its president Sonia Gandhi.

9:36 PM

All our assets lawfully acquired: Gurugram company raided by CBI in land-for-jobs scam case

Gurugram-based Whiteland Corporation, whose premises were raided by the CBI in connection with its land-for-jobs scam probe, Friday said all assets of the company have been lawfully acquired with only legitimate sources and these are regularly audited according to protocol.

"As a law-abiding company, we not only have full faith in the judiciary but also we would request the authorities to unearth the matter in complete detail. We are fully co-operating with investigative authorities in every manner and are available for any kind of investigation at any time. All relevant details of the company have been provided without any delay from our side," the company said in a statement.

9:08 PM

Over 5,100 trees to be felled in Delhi for Delhi-Saharanpur highway construction

More than 5,100 trees will be felled in Delhi for the construction of the six-lane Delhi-Saharanpur highway by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), according to official documents.

A total of 9.58 hectares of deemed forest land in Delhi having 5,104 trees has been diverted for the construction of the 14.75-kilometre stretch of the highway.

9:06 PM

CJI Ramana hails media for cooperative in disseminating information about judiciary

Chief Justice of India (CJI) N V Ramana Friday hailed the media for disseminating information about the judiciary and termed it as an active partner in the collaborative project of strengthening the judicial system.

Justice Ramana, who succeeded S A Bobde on April 24, 2021 as the CJI, was delivering his address at a function organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) in the apex court's auditorium to bid him adieu on completion of his over 16-month-long tenure as head of the judiciary.

8:28 PM

Wilful defaulters decreased 56% in last 8 years: BJP

Hitting out at former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday said that wilful defaulters in the country have decreased by 56 per cent in the last eight years, and the banks have recovered over Rs 1,86,000 lakh crore from written-off loan accounts of wilful defaulters from 2014 to 2021.

In a series of tweets, former finance minister Chidambaram had said: "Earlier, banks would write off corporate loans with trepidation because they would be asked questions by RBI and MoF. Now, they do it with impunity through the IBC process. Banks get together in a Committee of Creditors & approve a Resolution Plan demanding a huge write-off."

7:52 PM

ICC Media Rights: No second round, winner's identity to be revealed tomorrow

The official identity of the winning broadcaster as well as the bid amount will likely be communicated on Saturday, Cricbuzz report said.

 

What can, however, be revealed is that the expected second round (e-auction) of bidding will not happen, effectively meaning that the ICC has found a winner in the first round itself. It was a closed round where sealed envelopes of financial bids had to be submitted. It was conducted on Friday evening.

7:50 PM

Sebi passes confirmatory order against former TV anchor Pradeep Pandya, others

Markets regulator Sebi on Friday passed a confirmatory order against former TV anchor Pradeep Pandya and other entities in a case relating to fraudulent trading based on stock recommendations.

In addition, Sebi allowed Pandya to liquidate his mutual fund holdings up to Rs 1 lakh per month to meet his day-to-day expenses.

6:59 PM

ICC media rights auction: Disney Star, Sony, Viacom18 officials submit financial bids in Dubai

Disney Star, Sony, and Viacom18 officials on Friday have submitted financial bids for ICC media rights in Dubai.

6:28 PM

OTT platforms may upend multiplexes' run soon, set to be a Rs 12,000-cr industry by 2023

The OTT market is set to do an encore of what multiplexes did to the VCR/VCP/VCD segment in the early 2000s and is set to become a Rs 12,000-crore industry by 2023, up from Rs 2,590 crore in 2018, says a report.

According to SBI Research, the over-the-top or OTT market is expected to reach Rs 11,944 crore by 2023, up from Rs 2,590 crore in 2018, logging in a compound annual growth of 36 per cent.

6:23 PM

Foreign exchange reserves decline to $564 billion

The country's foreign exchange reserves fell USD 6.687 billion to USD 564.053 billion in the week ended August 19, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data.

In the previous week ended August 12, the reserves declined USD 2.238 billion to USD 570.74 billion.

The drop in the reserves during the week ended August 19 was due to a fall in the Foreign Currency Assets (FCA) and the gold reserves, as per the Weekly Statistical Supplement released by RBI on Friday.

6:06 PM

CJI-designate Lalit lists three areas to work during his tenure

U U Lalit, Chief Justice of India-designate, on Friday listed three areas to work during his next innings of 74 days, ANI reported.

 

These three areas are: 

 

1) Strive hard to make listing as simple, clear and transparent as possible.

 

2) Having a clear-cut regime where any urgent matters can freely be mentioned before respective courts.

 

3) Listing of matters before the Constitution Benches and matters which are specially referred to Benches of three judges...will strive hard to say that yes we will always have at least one Constitution Bench functioning all throughout the year.

5:47 PM

Karnataka mining: SC raises ceiling limit of iron ore mining for three districts

The Supreme Court on Friday raised the ceiling limit of iron ore mining for Ballari, Chitradurga, and Tumakuru districts in Karnataka, saying conservation of the ecology and environment must go hand in hand with the spirit of economic development.

The apex court raised the ceiling limit of iron ore mining from 28 MMT to 35 MMT for Ballari district, and from 7 MMT to 15 MMT for Chitradurga and Tumkur districts.

 

5:35 PM

DGCA suspends license of helicopter pilot for six months

DGCA on Friday has suspended the license of a helicopter pilot for a period of six months, the ANI reported.

 

The pilot was involved in an incident while landing on an offshore platform, the regulator said.