4:08 PMMurmu to meet Bengal's BJP lawmakers on Saturday, seek their support for Prez polls
NDA presidential nominee Droupadi Murmu is scheduled to visit Kolkata on Saturday and meet BJP MPs and MLAs from West Bengal to seek their support for the July 18 poll to elect the first person of the country.
Murmu is visiting various states to garner support from lawmakers and is at present campaigning in her home state of Odisha.
She will arrive in Kolkata around 10 AM on Saturday, BJP sources said.
3:50 PMAnguished by former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe's demise: VP Naidu
Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday expressed anguish over the demise of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, and said he played a crucial role in strengthening India-Japan ties.
Abe, one of his nation's most powerful and influential figures, died after being shot during a campaign speech on Friday in western Japan, according to NHK public television.
3:28 PMSitharaman, Goyal among 27 newly-elected RS members to take oath
Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal were among the 27 newly-elected members of Rajya Sabha who took oath as members of the Council of States on Friday.
The members took the oath owing allegiance to the Constitution as required to commence their functioning as MPs, in the presence of Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu in the chamber of Rajya Sabha.
The 27 members are from 10 states and took oath in nine languages - 12 in Hindi, four in English, two each in Sanskrit, Kannada, Marathi and Odia and one each in Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu.
3:00 PM'Bow and arrow' poll symbol will remain with Sena, asserts Uddhav; demands mid-term polls in Maha
Amid a tussle with the rebel faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to claim the party's poll symbol, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Friday asserted that the 'bow and arrow' symbol will remain with the original party.
He also demanded mid-term elections in Maharashtra, saying that people should be allowed to take a stand on toppling of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by him.
Addressing a press conference here, Thackeray said the change of power in the state could have happened with grace and in a dignified manner in 2019 and not with "betrayal" as was done last week.
2:55 PMNetflix brings spatial audio to 221 mn users on its platform
Netflix has partnered German audio brand Sennheiser to bring spatial audio to across its catalog for its over 221 million users across the world.
Netflix said that spatial audio will help translate the cinematic experience of immersive audio to any stereo, "so the work creators do to bring you into the story happens no matter what device you use to watch Netflix".
Spatial Audio is a 3D audio technology that creates a more immersive soundscape by using dynamic head-tracking for a 'theatre-like' experience.
2:51 PMBlatter, Platini acquitted over $2.1 mn payment: Report
Ex-FIFA boss Sepp Blatter and his former heir apparent Michel Platini were acquitted of criminal charges over a 2 million-franc ($2.1 million) payment to Platini, in a case that threatened to tarnish soccer’s image in the run-up to the World Cup in Qatar.
The decision clearing them was handed down at a hearing on Friday morning at Switzerland’s top criminal court located in the city of Bellinzona, according to Agence France-Presse.
The acquittal of the pair, who once ran global football’s two governing bodies, is a vindication of sorts given Blatter had argued that the case was an administrative matter that should never have gone to criminal trial.
2:45 PMFinMin exempts excise duty on ATF purchases by Indian carriers for overseas flights
The Finance Ministry has exempted domestic airlines running international flights from 11 per cent basic excise duty on ATF or jet fuel bought from oil marketing companies.
In a notification, the ministry said that ATF supplied as fuel to domestic carriers on international routes would continue to be exempted from basic excise duty from July 1.
Confusion arose on the leviability of the excise duty on domestic airlines for their foreign flights after the government on July 1 slapped a Rs 6 per litre special additional excise duty (SAED) or duty on the export of jet fuel.
2:45 PMYellen heads to Asia to build support for price cap on Russian oil
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen heads to Asia next week to meet with officials from Japan, South Korea and other G20 economies as she seeks to build support for a price cap on Russian oil, the Treasury Department said on Friday.
The trip, Yellen's first visit to the Indo-Pacific region as treasury secretary, comes amid nagging questions about how well a price cap on Russian oil could work absent the support of India and others now buying cheap Russian oil.
Yellen will hold bilateral meetings in Tokyo on July 12-13 before gathering with Group of 20 finance officials in Bali, Indonesia, from July 15-16, followed by a day of talks in Seoul on July 19, Treasury said in a statement.
2:33 PMBJP not custodian of deities, shouldn't teach Bengalis worship of Goddess Kali: Moitra
Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, who has been facing flak from the BJP over her recent controversial comments on Goddess Kali, has asserted that the saffron party is not the custodian of Hindu deities and it shouldn't teach Bengalis how to worship the goddess.
She said the BJP can't impose its views, based on ways of worshipping deities in North India, on people of other parts of the country who have different rituals that are in vogue for the last 2,000 years.
Moitra, while speaking to a Bengali news channel on Thursday night, said she had acted as a "mature politician" by speaking on the issue as BJP's attempt to "impose its agenda of Hindutva and thrusting its monolithic views" on other ethnic groups should be resisted and addressed once and for all for the sake of the country.
2:20 PMIndiGo to start flights between newly-built Deoghar airport, Kolkata from July 12
IndiGo on Friday said it will start flights between Kolkata and Jharkhand's Deoghar from July 12.
Aviation regulator DGCA had on June 29 granted aerodrome licence to the newly-built airport in Jharkhand, allowing it to handle narrow-body aircraft such as A321 and B737.
The Kolkata-Deoghar flights will operate four times each week from July 12, the airline said in a statement.
2:04 PMArmy to hold Agniveer recruitment rally in Thane from Sep 20
Army to hold Agniveer recruitment rally in Thane from Sep 20 Thane, Jul 8 (PTI) An Army recruitment rally under the new Agnipath scheme will be held at Mumbra in Maharashtra's Thane city from September 20 to October 10 to recruit Agniveers in various categories.
The Army Recruiting Office, Mumbai will conduct this exercise at Shri Abdul Kalam Azad Sports Stadium, Kausa Valley in Mumbra, an official release said on Thursday.
"The main aim of this recruitment rally is to generate employment for the youth of Maharashtra thereby giving them an opportunity to serve the motherland as part of Indian Army and lead a dignified life," it said.
1:56 PMAnother jolt to Uddhav as 32 former Shiv Sena corporators of Navi Mumbai back Shinde
In another jolt to the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction, 32 former corporators of Shiv Sena from Navi Mumbai extended their support to Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in Thane on Thursday.
Thanking Chief Minister, Suresh Kulkarni, a former Shiv Sena Corporator of Navi Mumbai, said, "Eknath Shinde has stood by us whenever we need it and his style of working is attracting him and everyone else."
"We will be with him. He never declined anybody's phone call. Even if an ordinary party worker calls him up, he receives the call. It feels good," he said.
Last month, Eknath Shinde launched a rebellion against the party. The majority of MLAs sided with him, which led to the collapse of the MVA government led by Uddhav Thackeray.
1:48 PMGMR Airports joint venture starts operating Indonesia's Medan airport
GMR Group on Friday said its joint venture Angkasa Pura Aviasi has started operating the Kualanamu International Airport in Medan, Indonesia.
Angkasa Pura Aviasi (APA) is a joint venture between GMR Airports Ltd and Indonesia's state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II.
With the project, GMR Airports, a subsidiary of GMR Infrastructure, has entered the growing Indonesian aviation market and the project will cover a cooperation period of 25 years, according to a release.
1:48 PMSP loses leader of opposition's post in UP Vidhan Parishad
The Samajwadi Party has lost the leader of opposition's post in the Vidhan Parishad.
The UP Vidhan Parishad secretariat has derecognised Samajwadi Party's Lal Bihari Yadav as the leader of opposition in the council, as the party's strength in the council has now fallen short of ten -- the minimum for the largest opposition party to get the post.
There will be no leader of opposition in the upper house.
Ten members of the council retired on Thursday, bringing down the strength of SP.12:11 PM 7/8/2022
1:10 PMOver 1,100 hectare land acquired for logistic, transport hub near Delhi: UP minister informs Centre
As much as 1,143 hectares of land has been acquired in Noida and Greater Noida near Delhi to set up multi-modal logistic and transport hubs, Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister Nand Gopal Gupta 'Nandi' has informed a central panel on industrial corridor.
Acquisition of another 205 hectares of land in the region would be completed next month, the minister said during the first meeting of the Apex Monitoring Authority for the National Industrial Corridor Development Programme in Delhi on Thursday.
The meeting was attended by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, IT and Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Suman Bery, chief ministers of different states, including Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Karnataka, besides state industries ministers and senior officials.
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