LIVE: 8 union ministers to hold virtual rallies about farm laws in Punjab

Eight Union ministers will hold virtual rallies over eight days in Punjab from Tuesday to "address apprehensions of farmers amid widespread protests against the Centre's farm laws.

Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri; Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Shekhawat; and Minister for Textiles Smriti Irani will be among the BJP leaders holding the rallies.

Others are Minister of State for Agriculture Kailash Choudhary; Minister of state for Finance Anurag Thakur; Minister of State for Animal Husbandry Sanjeev Balyan; Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Som Parkash; and Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Monday demanded a complete rollback of the three contentious central farm laws as he attended a protest by the Punjab unit of Aam Aadmi Party at the Jantar Mantar in Delhi.

Addressing his party workers from Punjab at the protest, Kejriwal said the Aam Aadmi Party has a very clear stance on the farm laws.

"We want a complete rollback of the three laws. It is non-negotiable," he asserted.

As the GST compensation cess issue still remains unresolved with around 10 Opposition-ruled states and Union Territories not agreeing with the Centre's borrowing proposals, the GST Council, consisting of all state Finance Ministers and headed by the Union Finance Minister, will meet today to discuss and try to reach a consensus on the matter.

Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) President Nitish Kumar will hit the campaign trail from Monday, when he will address people of several Assembly segments, spread across half a dozen districts that go to the polls in the first phase of elections, according to Sanjay Kumar Jha, a key aide of the chief minister.

Stay tuned for the latest news of the day.

1:40 AM

BPCL considers raising engine oil market share to 13-14% by March

1:31 AM

Singapore Air’s A380 Restaurant Tickets Sold in 30 Minutes

Singapore Airlines Ltd. said all seats on its Airbus SE A380 jetliner pop-up restaurants were reserved within 30 minutes of bookings opening Monday.

 

With flights largely grounded by the coronavirus pandemic, Singapore Airlines is trying novel ways to raise money, including using two of the superjumbos parked at Changi Airport as temporary eateries.

 

A meal in a suite costs S$642 ($474), while seats in business class are going for S$321, dropping to S$96.30 for premium economy and S$53.50 for economy. Customers can also pay with frequent-flyer miles.

11:11 PM

Indian Navy scraps tender to procure four Landing Platform Docks at Rs 20,000 crore

10:39 PM

GST Council meet ends without reaching consensus on compensating states

The stalemate over compensating states for the shortfall in GST collections continued on Monday with a meeting of the GST Council ending without reaching any consensus.

 

The panel, which is the highest decision-making body on indirect taxes, for the second time in a week failed to reach a consensus on the Centre's proposal of states borrowing against future GST collections to make up for the shortfall.

 

This was the third meeting in a row that discussed compensation shortfall without a decision.

10:39 PM

BJP delegation thanks Hardeep Singh Puri for approving allotment of land for Ravidas temple

9:02 PM

Jio becomes first telco to cross 400 million subscribers mark: Trai

Reliance Jio has become the first mobile service provider to cross 400 million customers mark in India with net addition of over 3.5 million subscribers in July, according to data released by telecom regulator Trai on Monday.

The overall telecom subscriber base increased marginally to 116.4 crore in July from 116 crore in June.

Mobile phone connections in the country increased to 114.4 crore in July from 114 crore in June, with urban and rural connections standing at 61.9 crore and 52.1 crore respectively, according to the monthly subscribers report of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

Fixed-line connections after several years increased marginally to 1,98,20,419, with private telecom operators led by Jio taking the lead.

8:35 PM

Farm laws: Eight Union ministers to hold virtual rallies in Punjab

Eight Union ministers will hold virtual rallies over eight days in Punjab from Tuesday to "address apprehensions of farmers amid widespread protests against the Centre's farm laws.

Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri; Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Shekhawat; and Minister for Textiles Smriti Irani will be among the BJP leaders holding the rallies.

Others are Minister of State for Agriculture Kailash Choudhary; Minister of state for Finance Anurag Thakur; Minister of State for Animal Husbandry Sanjeev Balyan; Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Som Parkash; and Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh.

To address apprehensions of farmers, eight Union ministers will hold virtual rallies, said Subhash Sharma, Punjab BJP unit organising secretary in a statement.

8:17 PM

Instead of turban issue in WB, BJP should at farm law affected-Sikhs: Cong

Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Monday said when lakhs of Sikhs in Punjab are facing an uncertain future because of farm laws passed by the BJP-led central government, while the saffron party is crying foul over an alleged incident of pulling off of the turban of a Sikh by the police during a protest rally here.

Chowdhury said that the Congress has a lot of complaints against the police in West Bengal, but he does not believe that the force indulges in communalism or dividing people on the basis of caste and creed.

The BJP has alleged that the police have shown disrespect to the Sikh community by allegedly pulling off the turban of Balwinder Singh, a private security officer of a party leader, while arresting him for carrying a firearm during a protest march to the state secretariat on October 8.

The state government has said that his turban came off during a scuffle with the police.

7:49 PM

Govt buys nearly 4.3 million tonne kharif paddy at MSP in last 16 days

About 4.3 million tonne of kharif paddy worth Rs 8,033 crore was purchased at the minimum support price (MSP) from 357,000 farmers in the last 16 days, the food ministry said on Monday.

Paddy procurement commenced in Punjab and Haryana from September 26 due to early arrival of the crop, while in other states it began from October 1.

More than 80 per cent of the country's paddy crop is grown in the kharif season. The government through the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state agencies undertakes procurement of paddy at MSP.

"Paddy procurement in the 2020-21 kharif marketing season is going on smoothly in the procuring states with purchase of about 42.55 lakh tonne of paddy up to October 11 from over 357,000 farmers with MSP value of Rs 8,032.62 crore," the ministry said in a statement.

7:10 PM

Industrial production contracts 8% in August; manufacturing, mining weigh

Industrial production declined by 8 per cent in August, mainly due to lower output of manufacturing, mining and power generation sectors, official data showed on Monday.

According to the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data, manufacturing sector production registered a decline of 8.6 per cent, while the output of mining and power segments fell 9.8 per cent and 1.8 per cent, respectively.

The IIP had contracted by 1.4 per cent in August 2019.

" It may not be appropriate to compare the IIP in the post pandemic months with the IIP for months preceding the COVID 19 pandemic," the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation said in a statement.

"With the gradual relaxation of restrictions, there has been a relative improvement in the economic activities by varying degrees as well as in data reporting," it added.

6:51 PM

AAI to invest Rs 650 crore to build greenfield airport in Arunachal

The state-owned Airports Authority of India (AAI) has undertaken a Rs 650 crore project to develop a greenfield airport at Hollongi, near Arunachal Pradesh's capital Itanagar, officials said on Monday.

The Hollongi airport, 15 kms from Itanagar, will be the third airport in Arunachal Pradesh and would be completed by November 2022.

The state's other two existing airports are Tezu airport in Lohit district and Pasighat airport in East Siang district.

AAI officials said that with an area of 4100 sq meters, th

6:09 PM

Retail inflation rises to 7.34% in September over higher food prices

Retail inflation rose to 7.34 per cent in September, mainly on account of higher food prices, according to government data.

The inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) stood at 6.69 per cent in August. It was 3.99 per cent in September last year.

The rate of price rise in the food basket was 10.68 per cent in September compared to 9.05 per cent in August, as per the data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Monday.

6:03 PM

Telecom ARPU poised for 'structural uptrend' via tariff hike, high data usage post Covid-19: Report

Telecom industry Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) is expected to see a 'structural uptrend' through a mix of tariff hikes, either regulator or market driven, as well as higher data usage post-Covid-19, a report said on Monday.

The note by JM Financial titled 'A tale of supremacy, defence and survival' said with consolidation of India's telecom industry largely complete, the wireless industry's revenue is expected to double to about Rs 2,60,000 crore by 2024-25 as ARPU hike looks "inevitable".

"...we expect the wireless industry's revenue to double to Rs 2,600 billion by FY25... as an ARPU hike looks inevitable given the industry's future investment needs requires an ARPU of Rs 230-250 by FY25... for a pre-tax RoCE (return on capital employed) of 12-15 per cent to justify capex; and to avoid a duopoly market VIL needs APRU of at least Rs 190-200 by FY23 to survive," said the report.

Fibre-to-the-home and enterprise connectivity businesses, which are still at a nascent stage, could emerge as the new growth engines, it added.

5:47 PM

Markets close in green for 8th day; pare early gains as FM sops fail to cheer investors

Equity benchmarks pared early gains but managed to end modestly higher on Monday after the finance minister announced fresh stimulus measures to revive festive demand and boost the economy.

After rallying nearly 400 points in the morning, the 30-share BSE Sensex buckled under selling pressure in afternoon trade, before ending 84.31 points or 0.21 per cent higher at 40,593.80.

Similarly, the NSE Nifty rose 16.75 points or 0.14 per cent to close at 11,930.95.

Both the key indices have extended their winning streak to eight sessions.

5:16 PM

No change in govt's borrowing programme for current fiscal: DEA Secy

The government on Monday said there will be no change in the borrowing programme for the current fiscal, even as it announced steps to stimulate consumer demand during the festival season.

The government in May had increased its market borrowing programme for the current financial year by more than 50 per cent to Rs 12 trillion to meet the increased spending due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

As part of its efforts to stimulate the economy, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a slew of measures to spur demand and ramp up capital expenditure.