New Delhi: India's first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen Bipin Rawat arrives to inspect the Guard of Honour at South Block, in New Delhi, Wednesday, Jan 1, 2020. (PTI Photo/Kamal KIshore) (PTI1_1_2020_000007B)
AIR DEFENCE COMMAND: The armed forces are likely to collaborate and create an ‘air defence command’ to cover all aerial operations taking place in the Indian airspace, a ‘peninsula command’ to look after all naval operations in the closer Indian Ocean region, and a ‘logistics command’, said India’s first chief of defence staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat on Tuesday.
APP: Kapil Gujjar, the 23-year-old man who fired shots in the air near the Shaheen Bagh protest site last week is a member of the Aam Aadmi Party, Delhi Police claimed on Tuesday. Rajesh Deo, a senior crime branch officer said investigators had recovered photographs from Kapil Gujjar’s phone after his arrest that placed him in the company of AAP leaders. During his interrogation, Deo told reporters, Kapil Gujjar had disclosed that he and his father Choudhary Gaje Singh had joined Arvind Kejriwal’s party a year ago.
DRIVING GROWTH: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday exhorted the industry to shun hesitation and be a partner in driving growth, saying the government has already initiated several measures and is willing to take more steps.
DIVISION OF ENTITY: The Oil Ministry has moved a cabinet note seeking approval for hiving off state-owned gas utility GAIL (India) Ltd’s pipeline business into a separate entity for a possible sale to a strategic investor at a later date, sources privy to the development said.
PAYTM: Paytm on Tuesday said it aims to add close to 10 million merchants to its platform over the next 12-18 months as it brings new features to its payments platform. The company, which has introduced a new all-in-one payment gateway and business solutions as well as an Android-based point of sale (POS) machine, currently has over 16 million merchants across unorganised and organised sectors.
NRC: The Centre has, till now, not taken any decision to “prepare” a National Register of Indian Citizens at the national level, Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday. In a written reply, Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said “Till now, the government has not taken any decision to prepare National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) at the national level.”
NO EXAM: The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday announced that there will be no public exam for students from class 5 and 8, much to the relief of students, parents and teachers. In a circular issued by School Education Minister KA Sengottaiyan, the department has said that it has withdrawn the order passed on September 13, 2019 to conduct board exams for Class 5 and 8 from this academic year.
MARKET TODAY
- SENSEX-40789.38 (917.07)
- NIFTY-11979.65 (271.75)
- GOLD (MCX 10 GM)-40112.00 (-549.00)
- SILVER (MCX 1 KG)-45550.00 (-340.00)
- USD ($) / INR(Rupees Icon)-71.50 (0.04)
STRONG MARKET: On Monday, the index had gained 136.78 points, two days after budget speech by the finance minister. Recovery in the market led to a rise in market capitalisation of the BSE-listed firms which climbed Rs 3,57,044.43 crore to Rs 1,56,61,769.40 crore since Saturday. The 30-share BSE key index had ended 987.96 points, or 2.43 per cent, lower at 39,735.53 on the Budget day.
STATE CAPITAL: The Centre on Tuesday categorically declared that it is the prerogative of a state to decide the location of its capital city, indicating that it will not interfere in the decision of the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh to shift the administrative capital of the state from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam.
GOLD IMPORT: India’s gold imports in January plunged 48% from a year earlier to their lowest level in 4 months as a rally in local prices near record highs prompted buyers to curtail purchases, a government source said on Tuesday. The world’s second-biggest buyer of gold imported 36.26 tonnes in January, compared with 69.51 tonnes a year earlier, the source said on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorised to speak to media. In value terms, January imports totalled $1.58 billion, down from last year’s $2.31 billion.
GOOGLE PHOTO: Google may have sent your private videos to strangers through Google Photos. The company on Tuesday said users who downloaded their data through the ‘Google Takeout’ service between November 21 and November 25 last year may have received private videos that weren’t theirs. Google also apologised for the inconvenience caused while blaming a “technical issue” for the gaffe.
TDS ON MUTUAL FUNDS: The tax department on Tuesday clarified that the Budget proposal of 10 per cent TDS will be applicable only on dividend payment by mutual funds and not on gain arising out of redemption of units. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had in Budget 2020-21 scrapped dividend distribution tax (DDT) paid by companies and mutual funds on dividend paid to shareholders or unitholders.
CENTRAL GRANT HALVED: The finance ministry has more than halved the post-devolution revenue deficit grant for states, recommended by the Fifteenth Finance Commission (FFC) from Rs 74,340 crore to Rs 30,000 crore for the year 2020-21. While the total revenue collected by the Centre is directly transferred to states as their share in the divisible tax pool, the Finance Commission also provides a mechanism for compensation of any loss of revenue incurred by states.