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India issues 13th Note Verbale to Pak on harassment of its HC staff
India today gave yet another Note Verbale to Pakistan through its high commission in Islamabad protesting the "intimidation and harassment" of mission officials, the 13th such diplomatic note in less than three months.
Official sources said that in the communication to the Pakistan foreign ministry, the Indian high commission specifically highlighted three cases of harassment, including one in which the second secretary at the mission was aggressively followed today by unidentified people in a car in close proximity in an intimidating manner while he was going to a restaurant.
Videos were made using a mobile phone, sources said.
Delhi-bound flight cancelled after smoke billows out of plane's engine
A New Delhi-bound Indigo plane was today grounded at the airport here after smoke billowed out from one of its engines, forcing the authorities to cancel the flight, officials said here.
An Indigo flight was about to take off when smoke started billowing out of one of its engines, officials said.
There were 150 passengers on board, they said. The flight was grounded and the passengers off-loaded, the officials said.
Ola, Uber drivers to go on indefinite strike from midnight
The transport wing of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena has called for a strike of drivers of cab aggregators Uber and Ola starting midnight.
The strike has been called by the Maharashtra Navnirman Vahtuk Sena which has claimed that several drivers are not being able to cover costs due to falling business.
"Ola and Uber had given big assurances to the drivers, but today they are unable to cover their costs. They have invested Rs 5-7 lakh and were expecting to make Rs 1.5 lakh a month. But drivers are unable to make even half of this because of the mismanagement by these companies," Sanjay Naik of Maharashtra Navnirman Vahatuk Sena told PTI.
Congress is a party that cried over the dead bodies of terrorists: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman
Congress solely responsible for the Anti-Sikh riots: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Rahul Gandhi's #CongressPlenarySession speech.
Congress will continue to do the good work, but we are also humans, we do mistakes, But PM Modi thinks that he is not a human. Modi ji thinks he is a deity of God: Rahul Gandhi at Congress Plenary Session
BJP has spread fear in the entire country: Rahul Gandhi at Congress Plenary Session
Congress will protect the freedom of press: Rahul Gandhi at Congress Plenary Session.
You can steal Rs 33,000 crore from the banks and the BJP government will protect you. Finance Minister will go silent because he and his daughter work for crony capitalists: Rahul Gandhi at Congress Plenary Session
Youth brought Modi to power but he left them behind: Rahul Gandhi
There is also a wall between the country's youth and the political system: Rahul Gandhi
Gave tickets to Congress party workers in Gujarat and you have seen the results: Rahul Gandhi
They told Gauri Lankesh and Kalburgi, question us and you will die. They tell our honest businessman to shut up and allow corrupt officers to extort their hard earned money. They tell our farmers to work for nothing: Rahul Gandhi
What does Modi actually mean? The name Modi symbolises the collusion between India's biggest crony capitalists and the prime minister of India: Rahul Gandhi
They tell Muslims of India who never went to Pakistan & supported this great nation that you don't belong here. They tell the Tamils change your beautiful language, they tell people of north-east we don't like what you eat, tell women dress properly: Rahul Gandhi
The PM diverts our attention and jumps from one event to another from Gabbar Singh tax to yoga in Parliament but never talks about the issues. But, the Congress cannot be stopped from seeking the truth and justice: Rahul Gandhi
The PM diverts our attention and jumps from one event to another from Gabbar Singh tax to yoga in Parliament but never talks about the issues. But, the Congress cannot be stopped from seeking the truth and justice: Rahul Gandhi
There is no employment, farmers are dying and PM says let’s do yoga in front of India Gate: Rahul Gandhi at Congress Plenary Session
Will India live a lie or will India have the courage to face the truth? Today the corrupt and powerful control the communication in our country: Rahul Gandhi at Congress Plenary Session
Centuries ago there was huge battle on the field of Kurukshetra. The Kauravas were powerful and arrogant. The Pandavas were humble and fought for the truth. Like the Kauravas, BJP & RSS are designed to fight for power. Like the Pandavas, Congress is designed to fight for truth: Rahul Gandhi
BJP is the voice of just an organisation, Congress is the voice of the nation: Rahul Gandhi
BJP drunk with power, says Congress President Rahul Gandhi in his addressat the Congress Plenary Session
New NPA rules: Power producers' body accuses RBI of overruling House panel
The Association of Power Producers has accused the RBI of over-ruling the Parliamentary standing panel on power and key ministries with its February
12 circular that ended all the existing loan restructuring mechanisms and voted for insolvency code to resolve stressed assets.
The association has also sought a special dispensation from the Reserve Bank saying their defaults are caused mostly by non-payment/delayed payments by state discoms and regulatory delays coupled with poor coal supplies by Coal India.
IOC, BPCL may buy 26% stake each in GAIL
State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) may buy 26 per cent stake each in gas utility GAIL India Ltd, paying the government over Rs 20,000 crore each to become integrated energy firms.
Following Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's February 2017 Budget announcement of creating integrated oil majors, IOC and BPCL had submitted separate proposals to buy the government's 54.89 per cent stake in India's biggest gas marketing and transportation firm, GAIL.
A top source said since the government is not looking at actual merger of oil companies but only transfer of its ownership to a cash rich PSU, the best option would be to split the 54.89 per cent holding in GAIL equally between IOC and BPCL.
At Friday's closing price of Rs 440.85 a share for GAIL on BSE, the stake is worth close to Rs 41,000 crore. - PTI
Only 16% of initial GST returns filed for July-Dec matched with final returns
With only 16 per cent of the summary sales returns under GST matching with the final returns, the revenue department has started to analyse major gaps with a view to check any possible tax evasion.
According to the GST returns data, 34 per cent of businesses paid Rs 34,400 crore less tax between July-December while filing initial summary return (GSTR-3B).
These 34 per cent of the businesses have paid Rs 8.16 lakh crore to the exchequer by filing GSTR-3B, whereas analysis of their GSTR-1 data show that their tax liability should have been Rs 8.50 lakh crore.
As per the analysis by the revenue department, initial returns filed and taxes paid by 16.36 per cent of the businesses have matched with their final returns and tax liability. They paid a total tax of Rs 22,014 crore.
However, the data also showed that there was excess tax payment of Rs 91,072 crore by 49.36 per cent of businesses registered under GST between July-December. While they have paid Rs 6.50 lakh crore as GST, the GSTR-1 filed by them shows that their liability should have been Rs 5.59 lakh crore.
BJP slams Sonia, Rahul speeches at Cong plenary as 'stale rhetoric'
The BJP slammed the speeches of Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his predecessor Sonia Gandhi at the party's plenary session as "stale rhetoric" which has been "rejected repeatedly" by the people.
BJP spokesperson G V L Narasimha Rao said the Congress is incapable of mounting a political challenge against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He said Modi has helped BJP expand its reach with "his positive, people centric transformational politics".
"What Congress leaders like Rahul and Sonia spoke at the plenary today is the same old stale rhetoric which people of the country have rejected repeatedly," he said in a statement.
Facebook suspends Trump campaign data firm Cambridge Analytica
Facebook says it has suspended the account of Cambridge Analytica, the data analysis firm hired by Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, after reports it harvested the profile information of millions of US voters without their permission.
According to the New York Times and Britain's Observer, the company stole information from 50 million Facebook users' profiles in the tech giant's biggest-ever data breach, to help them design software to predict and influence voters' choices at the ballot box.
Also suspended were the accounts of its parent organization, Strategic Communication Laboratories, as well as those of University of Cambridge psychologist Aleksandr Kogan and Christopher Wylie, who runs a firm called Eunoia Technologies.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang endorsed for five-year term
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang was today endorsed for a second five-year term by the country's rubber-stamp parliament after he was nominated by President Xi Jinping.
Li, 63, a second ranking leader in the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), has completed the first five-year tenure along with Xi who is now regarded as the "core" leader of the party placed along with party founder Mao Zedong.
Xi, 64, was yesterday re-elected unanimously by 2970 deputies of the National People's Congress (NPC), days after it ratified constitutional amendment to remove the decades old two-term limit for the president and vice president posts.
Xi was also re-elected as the Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) which is the overall high command of the two million strong Chinese military. He heads all powerful organs of power the CPC, the military and the Presidency.
Read the full report here.
