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5:20 PM

Nabard to disburse Rs 1.20 trillion crop loan this fiscal

In a bid to support agri sector amid Covid-19 crisis, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development on Thursday said it aims to disburse Rs 1.20 lakh crore crop loan to farmers for meeting production expenses this fiscal.

 

Apex agriculture financial institution Nabard annually disbursed Rs 90,000 crore crop loan at a concessional rate.

 

"It has been enhanced to Rs 1.20 trillion this fiscal. Of this, Rs 40,000 crore has already been disbursed," National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) Chairman G R Chintala said.

5:11 PM

Coal India plans to restore production from discontinued mines, identifies 12 blocks

State-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL) on Thursday said it plans to restore production from its discontinued underground mines and has identified 12 such blocks with provisional mineable reserves of around 1,060 million tonnes.

 

The move is seen as part of efforts by the PSU coal major to meet its overall production target of one billion tonnes in the next four years.

 

"Plans are on the anvil by Coal India to retrieve production from its discontinued underground mines. The company has so far identified 12 such mines," the PSU said in a statement.

 

5:02 PM

NSA Ajit Doval, French Defence Minister Florence Parly meet at Hyderabad House

4:47 PM

Huge fire breaks out at Beirut port a month after explosion

A huge fire broke out Thursday at the Port of Beirut, triggering panic among residents a month after the massive explosion.

 

It was not immediately clear what caused the fire at the facility, which was decimated by the August 4 explosion when nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrates detonated.

 

A column of black smoke billowed from the port with orange flames leaping from the ground.

4:43 PM

Crisil projects 9% GDP contraction in FY21; says govt not providing adequate direct fiscal support

The Indian economy will contract by 9 per cent in 2020-21 as the coronavirus infections are yet to peak and the government is not providing adequate direct fiscal support, ratings agency Crisil said on Thursday.

In May, Crisil had estimated the economy to contract by 5 per cent. The latest projection comes days after official data for the June quarter showed a contraction of 23.9 per cent in the economy.

Crisil said the 9 per cent contraction will be the highest since the 1950s.

4:32 PM

Lok Sabha will go 100% digital eventually, attendance to be recorded via mobile app: Om Birla

4:20 PM

Gold rises by Rs 287 to Rs 52,391, silver jumps Rs 875

Gold prices rose by Rs 287 to Rs 52,391 per 10 gram in the national capital on Thursday, according to HDFC Securities. In the previous trade, the precious metal had closed at Rs 52,104 per 10 gram.

 

Silver prices also gained Rs 875 to Rs 69,950 per kilogram from its previous close of Rs 69,075 per kilogram.

4:14 PM

Govt approves Rs 971-cr Munger-Bhagalpur NH project in Bihar

The government on Thursday said it has approved a Rs 971 crore highway project in Bihar. "The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has approved a proposal to construct 120 km Munger-Bhagalpur-Tirpety-Kahalgaon concrete road on national highway 80 in Bihar," MoRTH said in a statement.

 

Munger-Bhagalpur highway project will be a 2-lane road, which will also be 4-lane wide at certain stretches, MoRTH added.

4:07 PM

Saregama inks music licensing deal with ShareChat, Moj

Music label Saregama on Thursday said it has signed a global licensing deal with homegrown social media platform ShareChat to license its music catalogue.

 

As part of the deal, Saregama will license its catalogue to ShareChat and Moj, allowing over 180 million active users of the two platforms to create their own short video content using the Saregama library, a statement said.

 

The robust music library offers thousands of songs in diverse Indian languages like Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Marathi, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Punjabi, Gujarati, and Bhojpuri among others, it added.

3:57 PM

Pakistan Army shells forward areas in J&K's Poonch

The Pakistan Army opened fire and shelled forward areas along the LoC in three sectors of Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district on Thursday, officials said. The Indian Army retaliated befittingly, a defence spokesman said.

 

"At about 0530, 1145 and 1215 hours today, Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked ceasefire violation by firing with small arms and intense shelling with mortars along LoC in Mankote, Degwar and Mendhar sectors", the spokesman said.

3:48 PM

Rupee settles 9 paise higher at 73.46 against US dollar

The rupee strengthened by 9 paise and settled at 73.46 (provisional) against the US dollar on Thursday supported by weak American currency and positive domestic equities.

 

At the interbank forex market, the domestic unit opened at 73.42 against the US dollar, and finally closed at 73.46 against the American currency, registering a rise of 9 paise over its previous close.

 

During the session, the domestic unit witnessed an intra-day high of 73.16 and a low of 73.50 against the greenback. esday, the rupee had settled at 73.55 against the US dollar.

3:39 PM

Insurance industry seeks central repository for data sharing

The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted sharing of data in the insurance ecosystem and there is a need to have a central repository, say industry players. One of the important fallouts of the pandemic is the ability to share the data. If you have to say one thing that we definitely need is a centralised repository. We need a lot more data sharing, IndiaFirst Life Insurance managing director and CEO R M Vishakha said during a virtual panel discussion organised by ETBFSI.com.

 

At present, there is no centralised know your customer (KYC) system in the country; and between insurance companies if somebody wants to take a second policy, a fresh KYC has to be done, she said.

3:30 PM

Jaishankar meets Uzbek, Kazakh counterparts; agrees to coordinate closely on regional concerns

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday held separate meetings with his Uzbek and Kazakh counterparts and agreed to cooperate with the key Central Asian countries on regional concerns and security.

 

Jaishankar is here on a four-day visit to Russia to attend a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). He held a cordial meeting with his Uzbek counterpart Abdulaziz Kamilov in the morning.

 

"Began the day with a cordial meeting with Uzbek FM @a_h_kamilov," Jaishankar tweeted.

3:20 PM

e-Gopala app will free farmers from middlemen: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, at the launch of the e-Gopala app for livestock owners in Bihar, said that the app will give farmers the freedom from middlemen and provide all information related to productivity, health and diet for the cattle.

 

"Along with the good breed of animals, the correct scientific information about their care is equally important. For this, technology has been continuously used for the past years. In this direction, the 'e-Gopala' app has been started today," he said.

 

"The e-Gopala app will be a digital medium that helps livestock owners. It will be easy to choose advanced livestock. They will get freedom from middlemen. This app will give all information related to productivity, health and diet for the cattle," he added.

 

3:11 PM

RJD VP, ex-Union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh quits party

In a setback to Bihar's main opposition RJD ahead of the state assembly polls, its national vice president and former Union Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh resigned from the party on Thursday, sources close to him said.

 

In a letter to jailed RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, the veteran leader wrote he was quitting the party.

 

"Since the death of Jannayak Karpoori Thakur, I stood behind you for 32 years, but not now," he wrote in his brief one-line resignation letter to Prasad, who is serving sentences in four fodder scam cases in Ranchi. In the footnote, he added," I got the affection of party leaders and workers, besides common people. Please forgive me."