Bengal polls LIVE: EC imposes 24-hour campaign ban on two BJP, TMC leaders

The bar on campaigning by the leaders will be in force from 7 pm on April 18 to 7 pm on April 19. Stay tuned for all LIVE updates on latest news here.

11:10 AM

Drying FII inflows on rising Covid cases to weaken rupee

Drying FII inflows on the back of rising Covid cases is expected to weaken the Indian rupee further during the upcoming trade week. Lately, rising Covid cases have heavily dented equity indices and dampened investors' hopes of an early economic recovery. This was reflected in rupee's trajectory. The currency had made a year high of 72.25 to a greenback on March 25 and an eight month low of 75.30 on last Monday. "This was despite no big changes in global factors or domestic macros. Some of it can be attributed to liquidity enhancement measures," Sajal Gupta, Head, Forex and Rates at Edelweiss Securities told IANS. "Expect next week to be volatile amidst rising Corona cases and hopes of early vaccine delivery from Sputnik and others." Last week, the rupee closed at 74.40 to a USD.

11:00 AM

Twitter suffers partial outage, users unable to send DMs

Twitter went down in the US and the micro-blogging platform said it was working on to fix an issue with its servers. Twitter users, especially on the east coast of the US, reported problems with page loading and were unable to send tweets and direct messages (DMs). "Tweets may not be loading for some of you. We're working on fixing a problem and you'll be back on the timeline soon," the company said in a tweet late on Saturday (India time). "We know that parts of Twitter still aren't working for some of you. We're fixing an issue with our servers to get things back to normal soon. Thanks for sticking with us," it further informed. Downdetector, a website that monitors app outages, showed a massive spike in problems. Nearly 40,000 users reported issues with the platform.

10:52 AM

India's power consumption grows nearly 45 pc in first half of April

Power consumption in the country grew nearly 45 per cent in the first half of April to 60.62 billion units (BU) over the corresponding period a year ago, showing robust recovery in industrial and commercial demand of electricity, according to power ministry data. Power consumption in the first half of April last year (from April 1 to 15, 2020) was recorded at 41.91 BU. On the other hand, the peak power demand met, which is the highest supply in a day, during the first half of this month remained well above the highest record of 132.20 GW in the same period in April 2020. During the first half this month, peak power demand touched the highest level of 182.55 GW on April 8, 2021, and recorded a growth of 38 per cent over 132.20 GW recorded in the entire month of April last year.

 

10:42 AM

Minimum temperature in Delhi settles below normal

The national capital recorded a minimum temperature of 18.3 degrees Celsius, three notches below the season's average, on Sunday, the India Meteorological Department said. According to MeT officials, the maximum temperature will settle around 37 degrees Celsius. The relative humidity was recorded at 59 per cent. The weatherman predicted mainly clear sky during the day.

10:41 AM

Mcap of 7 of 10 most valued firms tumbles over Rs 1.41 trillion

Seven of the 10 most valued firms witnessed a combined erosion of Rs 1,41,628.37 crore in market valuation last week, with IT companies taking the biggest hit. The market valuation of Tata Consultancy Services tumbled Rs 47,680.78 crore to reach Rs 11,81,218.07 crore, news agency PTI reported.

 

10:09 AM

Rahul Gandhi expresses grief over loss of lives in Raipur hospital fire

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday expressed his condolences to the families of people who were killed in a fire incident in Chhattisgarh's Raipur. Taking to Twitter, the Congress leader wrote: "The news of a fire incident in the ICU of a hospital in Raipur is sad. My condolences to the families who lost their loved ones." He also made an appeal to the state government that all assistance should be given to the bereaved families during this difficult time.

9:49 AM

Pak FM embarks on UAE visit

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has embarked on a three-day official visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to the Foreign Ministryin Islamabad. Qureshi will meet his counterpart of the UAE Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan and other officials during the visit which started on Saturday, Xinhua news agency quoted the Ministry as saying. It added that he will also meet the Pakistani diaspora and interact with local and international media. Qureshi will hold consultations with the UAE's leadership on all areas of bilateral cooperation including collaboration in trade and investment, job opportunities for Pakistani workforce and the welfare of the Pakistani diaspora, according to the Ministry.

9:35 AM

Attempts to topple, kill Belarusian Prez foiled: Russia FSB

Russia's top intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said that it has detained two members of the Belarusian opposition who plotted a military coup and an assassination attack on President Alexander Lukashenko. In a statement on Saturday, the agency said: "In a special operation conducted by the FSB alongside the State Security Committee of the Republic of Belarus (KGB), the illegal activities of Yuri Leonidovich Zyankovich, a dual citizen of the US and the Belarus, and Belarusian citizen Alexander Feduta were prevented, as those had been scheming to stage a military coup in Belarus in accordance with the tried and tested 'color revolution' scenario with the involvement of local and Ukrainian nationalists, as well as the physical removal of President Alexander Lukashenko," TASS News Agency reported. "According to proactive information received from the Belarusian partners, in private chats of an internet messenger the ideologists of radical opposition Zyankovich and Feduta organised discussion of a plan of armed uprising in Belarus and decided to hold an in-person meeting in Moscow, using available measures of secrecy, with the opposition-minded generals of the Republic's Armed Forces."

9:18 AM

UK, EU condemn sentencing of Jimmy Lai, other Hong Kong pro-democracy activists

The United Kingdom and the European Union condemned the decision to sentence publishing tycoon Jimmy Lai and multiple pro-democracy figures to prison for their roles in the 2019 mass protests that rocked the city for a year. As many as 10 prominent pro-democracy figures were sentenced on Friday in Hong Kong in two separate cases for their peaceful involvement in protests. Those sentenced are Martin Lee, Albert Ho, Jimmy Lai, Margaret Ng, Cyd Ho, Lee Cheuk-yan, Leung Kwok-hung, Au Nok-hin, Leung Yiu-chung, and Yeung Sum. Their sentences range from terms of imprisonment between 8 and 18 months, and suspended prison sentences from 8 to 12 months in five of the cases. These latest decisions follow the sentencing of Joshua Wong and Sze-yiu Koo on 13 April.

9:10 AM

Open book exams for UG and PG students: MP Higher Education Minister

Amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, Madhya Pradesh Higher Education Minister Mohan Yadav on Saturday informed that open-book exams will be held for final year students of Under Graduate and Post Graduate programs. "Amid increasing COVID cases, there will be open-book exams for final year students of Under Graduate and Post Graduate programs, just like it was during first and second-year exams," said Yadav. "We expect to continue with the normal routine in July, but till then there will not be any exam in college" he added.

8:51 AM

Alexei Navalny's doctor says Putin critic ''could die at any moment''

A doctor for imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is in the third week of a hunger strike, says his health is deteriorating rapidly and the 44-year-old Kremlin critic could be on the verge of death. Physician Yaroslav Ashikhmin said Saturday that test results he received from Navalny's family show him with sharply elevated levels of potassium, which can bring on cardiac arrest, and heightened creatinine levels that indicate impaired kidneys. Our patient could die at any moment, he said in a Facebook post. Anastasia Vasilyeva, head of the Navalny-backed Alliance of Doctors union, said on Twitter that action must be taken immediately.

8:27 AM

Myanmar's military leader willing to join ASEAN summit: Thai Foreign Min

Thailand's foreign ministry on Saturday revealed that Myanmar's military leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, is reportedly expressing his intention to attend a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). ASEAN members are arranging to hold its summit in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, next Saturday to discuss their responses to the situation in Myanmar, reported NHK World. Following the revelation that the military leader is willing to join the ASEAN summit, Myanmar people protesting the coup took to social media to express their opposition. Some said that the senior general is not a national representative, while others question whether ASEAN would approve of military rule, reported NHK World.

8:22 AM

US, China agree to work together to tackle climate crisis, says John Kerry

China and the United States have agreed to cooperate on the issue of climate change, US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and China Special Envoy for Climate Change Xie Zhenhua said in a joint statement. "The United States and China are committed to cooperating with each other and with other countries to tackle the climate crisis, which must be addressed with the seriousness and urgency that it demands. This includes both enhancing their respective actions and cooperating in multilateral processes, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement," the US State Department said in a statement following the talks between the two countries in Shanghai.

 

8:05 AM

Covid-19 will leave deep scars in world economy even after recovery

Just as some patients recovering from Covid-19 suffer long-lasting symptoms, it’s becoming clear that the same will be true for the global economy once this year’s V-shaped rebound fades. While $26 trillion worth of crisis support and the arrival of vaccines have fueled a faster recovery than many anticipated, the legacies of stunted education, the destruction of jobs, war-era levels of debt and widening inequalities between races, genders, generations and geographies will leave lasting scars, most of them in the poorest nations. “It’s very easy after a gruelling year or more to feel really relieved that things are back on track,” said Vellore Arthi of the University of California, Irvine, who has examined the long-term health and economic hit from past crises. “But a lot of the effects that we see historically are often for decades and are not easily addressed.”

7:46 AM

Founder of Adobe and developer of PDFs Charles Chuck Geschke dies at age 81

Charles Chuck Geschke the co-founder of the major software company Adobe Inc. who helped develop Portable Document Format technology, or PDFs died at age 81. Geschke, who lived in the San Francisco Bay Area suburb of Los Altos, died Friday, the company said. This is a huge loss for the entire Adobe community and the technology industry, for whom he has been a guide and hero for decades, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen wrote in an email to the company's employees. As co-founders of Adobe, Chuck and John Warnock developed groundbreaking software that has revolutionised how people create and communicate," Narayen said.

Dr. Charles M. Geschke, president, co-chairman and co-founder of Adobe Systems Inc., delivers his keynote address about the future of workplace information on the final day of PC Expo at New York. AP