LIVE: Target of blending 20% ethanol in petrol advanced to 2025, says PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday interacted with India Inc for information sharing and brainstorming on Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes. Stay tuned for Latest LIVE news

Latest live news updates: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday interacted with India Inc for information sharing and brainstorming on Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes. He said that the government wants to reduce the compliance burden.

"Self-regulation and self-certification is the way ahead," he added. He further said that he expects a doubling of the workforce in PLI sectors in the next 5 years.

The Supreme Court has granted interim protection for Amazon Prime Video's India head Aparna Purohit in Tandav row. Meanwhile, the AIADMK has released first list of candidates for Tamil Nadu elections and the TMC put out candidates list for West Bengal polls. CM Mamata Banerjee to contest from Nandigram.

Stay tuned for the latest news of the day.

8:47 PM

Farmers' protest: Rahul Gandhi says farm laws have to be repealed

As the farmers' protest entered its hundredth day, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Friday the three agri laws have to be repealed by the government.

 

Gandhi said that farmers, who wait patiently for the harvest after sowing seeds, are not afraid of months-long wait or bad weather.

 

The Congress leader has been supporting the farmers' protest against the three central farm laws, and has attacked the government over the legislations on several occasions.

8:45 PM

IIM-Udaipur placements: 322 students get offer from over 100 companies

Over a hundred companies have given placement offers to 322 students of the 2020-22 batch of the Indian Institute of Management-Udaipur.

 

"The Institute's 10th batch has received offers from more than a hundred firms, with 60 recruiters partnering with the Institute for the first time," IIM-Udaipur Director Janat Shah said.

 

Of the total strength of 325 students of the 2020-22 batch, three opted out and 322 sought the placement.

 

Profiles offered to the students spanned across the domains of analytics, finance, human resource, operations, and sales and marketing, with the highest number of offers made in sales and marketing, he said.

8:11 PM

Gender inequality has cost world $70 trillion since 1990: Report

With many reports confirming women and other socially-disadvantaged sections have suffered the most during the pandemic, economists at BofA Securities have tabulated the cost of lack of gender diversity and inclusion, saying it will take 257 years to close the gap at the current rate, and not doing this has cost the world a whopping $70 trillion since 1990.

 

The report also notes that full gender equality globally can increase the world GDP by up to $28 trillion by 2025 and the loss of human capital wealth due to gender inequality alone is estimated at $160.2 trillion.

 

Not closing the gender inequality gap and a lack of diversity and inclusion has an economic price tag. Not doing the right thing on this count has cost us $70 trillion since 1990It will take us 257 years to close the gender economic gap at today's rate, says the report, adding the pandemic alone, when women suffered the most, has cost women $1 trillion in income.

7:58 PM

US trade deficit rises 1.9 per cent in January

The US trade deficit rose 1.9 per cent in January as the coronavirus pandemic continued to disrupt global commerce.

 

The gap between the goods and services the United States sold and what it bought abroad rose to $68.2 billion from $67 billion in December, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Exports rose 1 per cent to $191.9 billion, while imports increased 1.2 per cent to $260.2 billion.

 

The politically sensitive trade gap with China fell 3.2 per cent to $27.2 billion. The trade deficit with Mexico rose $1.6 billion to $11.9 billion in January.

7:51 PM

Nepal government, Maoist rebels formally sign peace agreement

Nepal's radical Maoist group leader Netra Bikram Chand, who made his first public appearance in two years, on Friday said that he was committed to the peace agreement reached between his banned outfit and the government aimed at ending violent attacks, extortion and bombings by the rebels.

 

Rebel leader Chand, known by his guerrilla name Biplav, emerged out of hiding after the government lifted a ban on his Nepal Communist Party group, CPN-Biplav, so it could take part in the public signing of the peace agreement.

 

I would like to assure everyone that we will abide by the agreement signed with the government, said Chand, while addressing the agreement signing ceremony here, which was attended by Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli and Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, who led the talks team from the government side.

7:43 PM

India on track to achieving climate goals: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the country is on track to achieving its climate goals before the target date as it switches over to energy-efficient mediums and uses waste to generate energy.

 

Speaking after accepting the 2021 CERAWeek Global Energy & Environment Leadership Award for his commitment to energy sustainability and the environment, Modi said climate change and calamity are major challenges facing the world.

 

Both are interlinked, and one way to fight them is through policies, laws, rules and orders, and the other is bringing behavioural change, he said, listing measures taken by his government for sustainable energy usage.

7:30 PM

India's forest cover has grown significantly in past 7 years: Modi

It would make you all happy that over the last seven years, India's forest cover has grown significantly. The population of lions, tigers, leopards and water fowls has grown. These are great indicators of positive behavioural changes: PM Prime Minister Modi at the CERAWeek 2021.

7:23 PM

Target of blending 20 per cent ethanol in petrol advanced to 2025 from 2030 earlier: Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been conferred with CERAWeek Global Energy and Environment Leadership Award for commitment to energy sustainability, environment. 

 

Share of non-fossil sources of energy have grown by 38 pc, says Prime Minister Modi at CERAWeek. The message is clear, let us fix ourselves and world will be a better place, Modi said on climate change challenge. 

 

Over 38 million tonnes of carbon dioxide reduced with switch over to LED bulbs, he said

 

5,000 compressed bio-gas plants to be set up by 2024 to convert waste to wealth, Modi said. T

 

Target of blending 20 per cent ethanol in petrol advanced to 2025 from 2030 earlier, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

7:15 PM

We expect China to work towards disengagement in remaining areas: India on Ladakh standoff

India on Friday said it expects China to work with it through existing bilateral consultation mechanisms between their diplomats and military commanders to ensure early completion of the disengagement process in the remaining areas in eastern Ladakh to allow both sides to consider de-escalation of forces.

 

The statement comes days after the armies of the two countries concluded withdrawal of troops and weapons from the north and south banks of the Pangong lake.

 

At a weekly media briefing here, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had a detailed discussion with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi last week and agreed to set up a hotline, details of which would be worked out through diplomatic channels.

 

7:11 PM

IT sector sales up 5.2 pc in Q3: RBI data

Information technology (IT) sector remained in the positive terrain throughout the Covid-19 pandemic period and its sales increased by 5.2 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2020-21, according to the RBI data on performance of private sector corporate released on Friday.

 

The data is drawn from abridged quarterly financial results of 2,692 listed non-government non-financial (NGNF) companies.

 

With gradual easing of restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic and rebound in demand conditions, sales of 1,685 manufacturing companies expanded by 7.4 per cent (Y-o-Y) in October-December quarter of 2020-21 after recording contraction during the preceding six quarters.

7:08 PM

I dedicate this award to people of India: PM Modi on receiving environment leadership award

7:02 PM

LIVE: Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal, minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in first list of BJP candidates for polls

Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal, minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in first list of BJP candidates for state assembly polls. BJP will fight Assam polls in alliance with Asom Gana Parishad and United People's Party Liberal, says BJP general secretary Arun Singh.

6:56 PM

Government treating farmers as enemies: Akhilesh Yadav

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Friday said the arrogance of power has made the government sitting in New Delhi "blind and deaf" to the suffering of millions of farmers in the country and it is treating them as "enemies".

 

The government doesn't realise that these humble farmers also have the power to oust arrogant rulers, he said.

 

Yadav was addressing a 'Kisan Mahapanchayat' organised by his party at Tappal here in support of the ongoing farmers' agitation against the Centre's three new agricultural laws.

 

The arrogance of power has made the government sitting in New Delhi "blind and deaf" to the suffering of millions of farmers in the country, the SP leader told the gathering.

6:55 PM

NHAI introduces AI-based face recognition system for attendance monitoring

In line with its commitment to adopt technology to enhance transparency and accountability, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has deployed artificial intelligence (AI)-based face recognition system for attendance monitoring of the field staff.

 

The technology also comes with real time location capturing feature to track the presence of the personnel at the project site, NHAI said in a statement.

 

Applicable to all key personnel/engineers deployed by authority engineers/independent engineers and consultants, the technology will assist NHAI officers to easily view the presence of the staff at the project site along with their attendance.

6:48 PM

LIVE: We are going strong, say Farmer leaders as protest enters 100th day

As the farmer agitation against the Centre's three farm laws enters its hundredth day on Saturday, union leaders have asserted that their movement is far from over and they are "going strong".

 

The marathon movement has sent out a message of unity, made "farmers visible once again" and brought them back on the political landscape of the country, they said on Friday.

 

For over three months, the three Delhi border points at Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur have transformed into townships occupied by thousands of farmers from different parts of the country, mainly Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.

 

Rakesh Tikait of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) said they are prepared to continue the protest as long as it is required.