LIVE: Cabinet approves Rs 520-cr package for Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh

Supreme Court will today hear a batch of petitions that have raised issues concerning the six-month moratorium on loan payments. Stay tuned for Latest LIVE news

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved a special package of Rs 520 crore for Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh under the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said.

Addressing a press conference, Javadekar said the package will ensure sufficient funds under the mission to both the Union Territories.

The decision is in line with Centre's aim to universalise all centrally sponsored beneficiary-oriented schemes in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh in a time-bound manner, he said.

The Supreme Court has began hearings on a batch of petitions that have raised issues concerning the six-month moratorium on loan payments announced in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. The pleas on Tuesday came up for hearing before a Bench, comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan, R S Reddy and M R Shah, which said it would hear the matter on Wednesday.

Several residential areas in Hyderabad and suburbs remained inundated today as unprecedented rainfall has left at least 13 people dead. Hyderabad has been lashed by rains since Tuesday evening. The heavy rains under the impact of deep depression wrecked havoc in the Telangana capital as overflowing lakes and open nalas flooded roads and colonies. The highest rainfall in over a century paralysed the city and outskirts, plunging hundreds of colonies into darkness.

Stay tuned for the latest news of the day.

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Russian-US crew launches on fast track to the space station

A trio of space travelers has launched successfully to the International Space Station, for the first time using a fast-track maneuver to reach the orbiting outpost in just three hours.

 

NASA's Kate Rubins along with Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos lifted off as scheduled Wednesday morning from the Russia-leased Baikonur space launch facility in Kazakhstan for a six-month stint on the station.

 

For the first time, they are trying a two-orbit, three-hour approach to the orbiting space outpost. Previously it took twice as long for the crews to reach the station.

 

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Trump administration to consider adding China's Ant Group to trade blacklist: Report

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Trump's new visa rules credit negative for Indian IT industry, may impact margins by up to 5.80 per cent: Report

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US court agrees to expedite government TikTok app store ban appeal

A US appeals court on Wednesday agreed to fast-track a Justice Department appeal of a ruling blocking the government from banning new TikTok downloads from US app stores.

 

US District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington issued a preliminary injunction on Sept. 27 that barred the US Commerce Department from ordering Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google app stores to remove the Chinese-owned short video-sharing app for download by new users.

 

A US appeals court in Washington said all briefs are due by Nov. 12 with oral arguments to follow. The government's opening brief is due on Friday.

 

China's ByteDance, which owns TikTok, has been under pressure to sell the popular app. The White House contends that TikTok poses national security concerns as personal data collected on 100 million Americans who use the app could be obtained by China's government. Any deal will also still need to be reviewed by the US government's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), but people briefed on the matter do not expect any final agreement before the election.

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Maharashtra legislature issues breach of privilege notice to Arnab Goswami

The Maharashtra Legislature secretariat has issued a notice to Republic TV's Editor in Chief Arnab Goswami for breach of privilege for submitting a copy of the proceedings of the Assembly in the Supreme Court without the Speaker's permission.

 

The notice was served on October 13 and a written clarification has been sought from Goswami by October 15, the secretariat said in a statement on Wednesday.

 

The legislature secretariat had earlier sought a clarification from Goswami on September 16 over a breach of privilege motion against him during a two-day monsoon session of the state legislature.

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EU antitrust regulators may narrow Amazon investigation: Report

EU antitrust regulators may narrow the scope of their year-long investigation into Amazon to speed up the case against the US online retail giant, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

 

Splitting up the Amazon case could address complaints by rivals that antitrust enforcers take too long to address harm done to them through anti-competitive practices and that rulings fail to keep pace with evolving markets.

 

EU regulators adopted a similar tactic against Alphabet Inc's Google by first addressing complaints about its price comparison shopping service and then opening investigations into other areas of its business.

 

The European Commission started an investigation into Amazon in July 2019, focusing on whether its dual role as a marketplace for merchants and also as a competitor selling the same products might give it an unfair advantage.

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IMF's debt restructuring programme should help countries overcome fiscal stress: FM

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the International Monetary Fund's debt restructuring programme should aim at helping the countries overcome the fiscal stress caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

 

"...it would be important to take into consideration the circumstances and concerns of both creditors and debtors and that in the process of debt restructuring, care must be taken to not saddle the debtor countries with overly burdensome conditionalities," she said while addressing the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting through video conferencing.

 

One of the key outcomes of the G20 Action Plan has been the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) which provides time bound suspension of debt service payments for the low-income debtor countries that request forbearance, a finance ministry statement said.

 

The initiative came into effect in April was initially agreed till end of 2020.

 

During this meeting, in light of the continued liquidity pressures, it said the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors agreed to extend the DSSI by six months, and to examine by the time of the 2021 IMF/World Bank Group Spring Meetings if the economic and financial situation requires a further extension of the initiative.

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