LIVE: Students want NEET, JEE exams to be held, says Education Minister

'We have received mails from students and parents who are in favour of holding exams', said the minister. Stay tuned news LIVE updates

Over 1.7 million candidates have downloaded their admit cards for JEE and NEET, and this shows that the students want the exams to be conducted at any cost, Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' said on Thursday. The minister's comments come against the backdrop of a growing chorus for postponement of the medical and engineering entrance exams in view of spike in Covid-19 cases.

In another major development, the Centre today placed before the GST Council two options for borrowing by states to meet the shortfall in GST revenues, pegged at Rs 2.35 trillion in the current financial year. Briefing reporters after the 41st meeting of the GST Council, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the economy is facing an extraordinary 'Act of God' situation, which may result in economic contraction.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman addressed the press conference on 41st Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meeting which was held today via video conferencing in New Delhi.
 

Stay tuned for the latest news of the day

3:03 AM

GST Council meet: States accuse Centre of 'arm-twisting' them to borrow

Following a five-hour-long GST Council meeting on Thursday, states accused the Centre of ‘arm-twisting’ them to borrow, terming it a ‘betrayal of federalism’.

 

Despite being given seven days to examine the two options offered by the Centre, they turned those down minutes after the meeting concluded. Most states pressed for borrowing by the Centre to compensate them for the shortfall in collections. Read more

3:01 AM

PM Narendra Modi urges industry to play a larger role in defence

In an unscheduled appearance at a Ministry of Defence (MoD) webinar that even caught Defence Minister Rajnath Singh by surprise, Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered an 18-minute speech on Thursday, talking up the government’s “self reliant India” policy in defence and urging private industry to play a larger role.

 

“For many years, India has been the world’s biggest importer of defence equipment,” said Modi, blaming it on the failure of earlier governments. This, he said, was changing, repeatedly invoking the confidence of a “New India”. Read more

12:57 AM

Tata Sons makes provision of Rs 16,439 cr for telecom biz: Annual report

Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata group, has made provisions of Rs 16,439 crore for its now closed telecom business, according to the annual report of the company for the fiscal ending March 2020. Read more

12:56 AM

Govt's portal with data on land banks launched, but experts wary

The Union government’s land portal for attracting investors comes at a time when states have adopted land pooling, readjustment and myriad compensation models to acquire the increasingly scarce resource. The latest exercise by the Delhi government, which wants e-commerce, retailers and smaller manufacturing units to invest in the city, is one such example. Read more

12:53 AM

Walmart may join Microsoft in bid for video app TikTok

Walmart said Thursday it may join Microsoft to buy the US business of TikTok, the popular Chinese-owned video app that has come under fire from the Trump administration.
 

Microsoft and TikTok declined to comment.
 

TikTok, through its fun, goofy videos, has gained hundreds of millions of users globally. But the White House is pushing TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance to sell its US business if it wants to keep operating in the country, citing security risks.
 

Walmart said in a statement that a deal with Microsoft and TikTok could help it expand its advertising business and reach more shoppers.
 

The Trump administration is forcing a sale of TikTok's US operations because of its Chinese ownership and has threatened to ban the app, which TikTok says has 100 million US users.

11:23 PM

Cong appoints Gaurav Gogoi as deputy leader, Ravneet Bittu as whip in Lok Sabha

Congress president Sonia Gandhi appointed Gaurav Gogoi as the party's deputy leader in the Lok Sabha and Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu as its whip in the Lower House of Parliament on Thursday.
 

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the leader of the opposition party in the Lok Sabha, and K Suresh, its chief whip in the Lower House, confirmed the development.
 

The appointments came ahead of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, which is likely to commence from September 14. It is seen as a move by the Congress to strengthen its team of floor leaders in the Lower House, party leaders said.
 

The opposition party did not have a deputy leader in the Lok Sabha till now.
 

11:22 PM

Mumbai: QR code reader installed at CSMT local terminus, 14 stations

The Central Railway (CR) on Thursday introduced a QR code reader at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and 14 suburban railway stations here.

It also increased two suburban services on its Harbour line which connects the city with Navi Mumbai.
 

Shalabh Goel, divisional railway manager of CR's Mumbai division, said scanners have been installed at CSMT and other stations to check QR code based e-passes issued to essential and emergency services staff, who are allowed to travel by train during lockdown.
 

So far 180,000 out of 340,000 essential and emergency services staff have been issued QR code-based cards and the remaining staff will be issued the cards soon, he said.
 

The CR has planned to install QR code based automatic gates at CSMT's long distance terminus within 2-3 months, on "pilot basis", he said.
 

"By scanning the QR code printed on tickets or code received on mobiles, the passengers can enter through the flap gates at the station," he said.
 

To reduce overcrowding on suburban locals during peak hours, the CR has introduced two suburban services -- one each in up and down directions -- on harbour line from Thursday, he said.
 

11:12 PM

Entire basket of fruits can't be given to mighty in guise of forming homogeneous class: SC

“The entire basket of fruits cannot be given to mighty at the cost of others under the guise of forming a homogeneous class,” the Supreme Court on Thursday observed while favouring re-look of its 2004 verdict that had held that states do not have power to further classify Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to grant quota in jobs and admissions.
 

“In case benefit which is meant for the emancipation of all the castes, included in the list of Scheduled Castes, is permitted to be usurped by few castes those who are adequately represented, have advanced and belonged to the creamy layer, then it would tantamount to creating inequality whereas in case of hunger every person is required to be fed and provided bread.  "The entire basket of fruits cannot be given to mighty at the cost of others under the guise of forming a homogeneous class,” a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra said.
 

It said that right to quality under the constitution would be defeated if the persons, who have come up among SCs and STs after enjoying the fruits of the quota, are not excluded and the poorest among them are not promoted.
 

11:11 PM

Messi's departure jeopardizes Barcelona's restructuring plan

Lionel Messi's surprise decision to leave Barcelona has dealt a blow to the club's restructuring project even before it began.
 

Shortly after the humiliating 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League, Barcelona said it wanted to make “profound changes to the first team.” Barcelona was basing its revamp on Messi, hoping he would help the team rebuild with new players and a new coach. But the type of changes the team began implementing may have actually turned him away.
 

Messi hasn't been happy with club directors all season, and he apparently also didn't like when incoming coach Ronald Koeman began telling some key players they were not in his plans.
 

What might have upset him the most was the decision to get rid of Luis Suárez, Messi's longtime teammate and friend. Messi's and Suárez's families are close and often spend vacation time together. This year, they were seen on a boat off the coast of Ibiza enjoying the Balearic Islands.
 

Other players reportedly not wanted by Koeman include Arturo Vidal, Ivan Rakitic and Samuel Umtiti. Spanish media said the coach intended to keep Gerard Piqué and Sergio Busquets, but there were still doubts about the future of other players who had been with Messi for a long time.

Lionel Messi. Photo: Barcelona twitter handle

11:09 PM

Ghulam Nabi Azad on what Congress should have done in the past, what they should do now

11:08 PM

Earthquake measuring 3.4 strikes Tezpur, Assam

11:06 PM

Police records statement of woman who accused Uttarakhand BJP MLA of sexual harassment

11:04 PM

Congress forms a group of 10 MPs in Parliament

10:57 PM

Farmer outfit stages protest over milk procurement prices

A farmer organisation led by former Lok Sabha MP Raju Shetti staged a protest near here on Thursday in support of its various demands, including a hike in milk procurement prices.
 

Members of the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghtana staged the protest in Baramati, the home turf of NCP chief Sharad Pawar.
 

Shetti said his organisation has, among other things, has demanded that the Maharashtra government withdraw its decision to purchase 10 lakh litres of milk every day from dairy farmers.
 

"We are of the opinion that there is no use the state procuring 1 million litres of milk everyday. Instead, the government can use the same money to credit Rs 5 per litre into the bank accounts of milk producers," he said.
 

He said to protest against the government's decision, Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghtana members will pour milk on ministers.
 

Alleging government funds are not reaching real milk producers, Shetti appealed to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to "come out of his bungalow" and see the situation for himself.
 

9:53 PM

SBI chief hopes for lesser number of debt recast requests from corporates

State Bank of India Chairman Rajnish Kumar on Thursday said he hopes for lessser number of requests for one-time restructuring of loans from corporates.
 

Earlier this month, RBI allowed one-time restructuring of both corporate and retail loans that are being affected by the Covid-19 related stress.
 

"Currently, for corporates, I can say that because of a lot of deleveraging and resolution, clean up has already happened and a lot of accounts got dealt with under the existing June 7 framework of RBI. As of now, there are not many requests (restructuring) and I hope that there are not many requests coming forward," Kumar said.
 

Speaking at the 'Unlock BFSI 2.0' event organised by Business Standard newspaper, he said there will be some requests for restructuring from the personal loan segment and "we are readying ourselves for dealing with the volumes as far as the P-segment (personal loan segment) is concerned".
 

Restructuring benefit can be availed by those whose account was standard on March 1 and defaults should not be over 30 days.
 

A committee headed by K V Kamath has been set up to give recommendations on various parameters to be factored into each resolution plan for corporate loans. The five-member panel's recommendations will be out by September 6.

Read more stories from the 'Unlock BFSI 2.0' here

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