News Highlights| DRDO scientist arrested by ATS squad on espionage charges

IAF C17 aircraft brings back 192 passengers from Port Sudan to Ahmedabad, Gujarat today.

-- Union Home Minister Amit Shah speaks to chief ministers of neighbouring states.

-- Holds 2 video-conference meetings with CM, top state, and central officials.

Delhi records 199 fresh COVID-19 cases, 3 deaths; positivity rate stands at 7.07 percent

Two LeT terrorists, Shakir Majid Najar and Hanan Ahmad Seh, were killed in a joint operation of Army and police after they fired indiscriminately upon the joint search party while hiding in a house in Wanigam Payeen village in Kreeri area of Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir, the PRO (Defence), Srinagar, said.

- Net profit up 18.6% at Rs 126.4 cr Vs Rs 107 cr (YoY)

- Revenue up 8.1% at Rs 1,448 cr Vs Rs 1,339.8 cr (YoY)

- EBITDA up 18.5% at Rs 227 cr Vs Rs 191.5 cr (YoY)

- Margin at 15.7% Vs 14.3% (YoY)

-- A DRDO scientist, who was working in one of the facilities of DRDO in Pune, has been arrested by ATS on the charges of espionage.

-- He was found to have had contact with the operatives of Pakistan's Intelligence Agency through social media via WhatsApp messages, voice calls, video etc, the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) said.

-- “Despite holding a responsible position, the DRDO official misused his post thereby compromising sensitive government secrets, which could pose a threat to India's security if it falls into the hands of the enemy nation,” the ATS said.

-- The Enforcement Directorate has conducted searches at 6 premises in Thrissur, Kerala belonging to M/s Manappuram Finance Limited and its Managing Director VP Nandakumar under PMLA, 2002 on the allegations of money laundering from the illegal collection of deposits from the public.

-- ED has frozen the assets totalling Rs 143 crore in the form of bank balance, shares, and various incriminating documents found and seized.

-- Net loss of Rs 483.2 crore vs loss of Rs 310.4 crore (YoY)

-- Revenue up 9.4 percent at Rs 900.6 crore vs Rs 823.2 crore (YoY)

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to restore peace in Manipur. She said: “Call upon brothers and sisters of Manipur to stay calm, uphold peace.”

The Centre responded saying it is closely monitoring the situation in Manipur; paramilitary forces being mobilised from nearby states. Retired IPS officer Kuldiep Singh, a former CRPF chief, appointed security advisor by the Manipur government.

-- Mutual fund industry witnessed an influx of 84.8 lakh new millennial investors in the last five financial years (FY19- FY23), cornering 54 percent share of the new investor base, on the back of massive awareness campaigns, conducive market conditions, and digital access.

-- Apart from these factors, simplified KYC and concerted intermediation and advisory too encouraged new millennials to invest in mutual funds.

-- Overall, 1.57 crore new investors joined the industry between 2018-19 and 2022-23, as per a CAMS report.

Manipur govt orders Reliance Jio Fiber, Airtel Xtreme, BSNL, etc to bar broadband and data services. In the wake of widespread violence, the state govt yesterday issued orders pertaining to the suspension of data services in the state for 5 days.

-- MSMEs should have no interaction with government officials.

-- All processes should be digitised.

-- We need states to scrap more rules and regulations to support MSMEs.