Tag: government

MP govt to withdraw cases against people for violating COVID-19 norms

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Madhya Pradesh government on Thursday announced to take back cases registered against persons under “normal sections” for violating COVID-19 norms during the lockdown, state home minister and government spokesman Narottam Mishra said.

During the lockdown, cases were registered against citizens for activities like not wearing a mask or gathering in public on the grounds that it could potentially spread the viral infection.

“On the directives of the chief minister, the government has decided to take back cases registered against persons under normal sections (applicable for non-serious offences) for violating COVID-19 norms during the lockdown period,” Mishra told reporters.

The exact number of cases registered for the violation of COVID-19 norms is not clear at present, an official said.

A lockdown was imposed in the state in March 2020 as part of the nationwide move and later in phases to prevent the spread of infection during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A total of 10,56,341 persons tested positive for coronavirus and 10,786 fatalities were reported due to it till June 4 in the state. The number of active cases in MP stands at five, as per a state health bulletin.

ALSO READ | Odisha train accident At least 19 Bihar passengers missing, 50 dead: Disaster Management dept

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

India plans FM radio auction, OTT platform launch, and Direct-to-Mobile TV broadcast trials to increase digital footprint

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Indian government is gearing up to increase its presence in the media industry with a fresh auction of FM radio stations, a planned OTT platform, and trials for direct-to-mobile television broadcasts this year.

Information and Broadcasting Secretary Apurva Chandra made the announcement on Thursday at the Broadcast Engineering Society Expo in New Delhi.

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Chandra stated that the government aims to take FM radio to Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, where coverage currently stands at only 60 percent of the country. The government has allocated INR 2,500 crore over a four-year period for the Broadcasting Infrastructure and Network Development (BIND) Scheme, which aims to widen the reach of Prasar Bharati, including All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan (DD), in left-wing extremism, border, and strategic areas.

To demonstrate how television signals can be directly broadcast to mobile phones, IIT-Kanpur and Sankhya Labs have installed transmitters along Kartavya Path and adjoining areas.

Chandra said that mobile phone users will have to attach a special dongle to their mobile devices to receive television signals. He added that mobile manufacturers will have to be encouraged to install a special chip in the phone devices so that television signals can be received without the dongle.

Prasar Bharati, the public broadcaster, has a lot of archival footage that it has not been able to monetise. Chandra revealed plans to launch an OTT platform for Prasar Bharati content, including fresh content such as the ‘Swaraj’ serial, which is not currently available on the internet for want of an OTT platform.

D P S Negi, Member (Finance) Prasar Bharati, said that India is expected to have one billion smartphone users by 2026. He added that the direct-to-mobile (D2M) technology allowed the broadcast of video and other multimedia content directly to mobile phones without an active internet connection. “This would be similar to how FM radio works on mobile phones. Allocation of spectrum for D2M will be a great challenge,” Negi said.

Overall, the Indian government’s plans for increasing its media industry presence is expected to create new opportunities for broadcasters and enhance the reach of Prasar Bharati content.

Also read | Reliance Jio gains 17 lakh subscribers in December 2022, shows data

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Cyber attacks targeting government sector increased by 95% in second half of 2022: Report

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The number of cyber attacks targeting the government sector increased by 95 percent in the second half of 2022 compared to the same period last year, according to a report by cyber-security firm CloudSEK.

The report also said that India, the USA, Indonesia, and China continued to be the most targeted countries in the past two years. Together these four countries accounted for about 40 percent of the total reported incidents in the government sector. 

In 2022, attacks on the Indian government intensified to the point where it became the country that was most frequently targeted in this sector. This expansion, according to CloudSEK, is the result of the hacktivist group Dragon Force Malaysia’s #OpIndia and #OpsPatuk campaigns. 

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Numerous hacktivist groups joined and supported these campaigns, which laid the path for subsequent ones. However, this increase has other causes besides the growing hacktivism. Government agencies in India have become popular targets for extensive phishing campaigns.

China was the most targeted country in 2021. The significant hike observed in the number of attacks targeting the Chinese government can be attributed to APT groups. It is speculated that conspiracy theories about China being responsible for the outbreak of COVID-19 may have contributed to the increase in attacks.

The primary motive of most of the threat actors is exfiltrating data and selling it for monetary benefits, yet it is not the only reason they target governments. This change is clearly evident from the emergence of various APT groups and hacktivist campaigns over the last decade. 

Also Read: Indian Railways data breach: IRCTC servers not targeted, says corporation

India’s premier healthcare institute AIIMS suffered a massive ransomware attack which crippled its network for several days.

Also, data of around 30 million travellers registered with the Indian Railways has been hacked and reportedly put on sale on the Dark Web, as per reports.

The Twitter handle of the Ministry of Jal Shakti (Water Resources) was also hacked twice in December, promoting a fake cryptocurrency giveaway scam.

The year 2022 saw a significant increase in hacktivist activity accounting for about nine percent of the recorded incidents reported in the government sector. Ransomware groups were also very active in this industry accounting for six percent of the total incidents reported, with LockBIT as the most prominent ransomware operator.

Also Read: India may allow Chinese JVs to bring iPad production to country

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Government to rationalise expenditure to maintain 6.4% fiscal deficit target

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Indian government is walking a tight fiscal rope as buoyant tax receipts may not be enough to cover the additional expenditure and the non-tax revenue gap in the ongoing fiscal.

At the moment, the finance ministry holding the budgetary exercise meeting for the 2023-24 fiscal, and there are demands coming in the revised estimates (RE) —some have been less than the first half of the current fiscal — stack up to around Rs 3 lakh crore-odd.

Plus there could be a bit of on the non-tax revenue side, as there are currently no clear estimates of what the RBI dividend could look like, and there is going to be a gap on the disinvestment side as well. So, that coupled with the additional expenditure, is something that the government is grappling with.

Tax revenues have been more than buoyant, both direct and indirect. Direct taxes may actually grow by around 30 percent odd in the ongoing fiscal. But the current sentiment within the government is that this may not be sufficient to maintain the fiscal deficit at 6.4 percent, and so, some kind of ‘rationalisation’ in expenditure is very likely.

They will not touch the big expenditure ticket items like MNREGA, food subsisdies, fertilisers as all of those are strict commitments. But there could be some revisions in the smaller schemes and smaller demands from smaller ministries and departments. We will only know for sure as those numbers will be out in next year’s Union Budget. But all of this is part of the ongoing budgetary exercise.

From next year onwards, up to the 2025-26 financial year, the government has to reduce the fiscal deficit to below 4.5 percent, which is going to be a challenge because then the reduction will have to be more than 50 basis points every year, which means maintaining it at 6.4 percent this year becomes very important.

Also Read: Revenue dept raises red flags about tax evasion by offshore online betting platforms

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Finance Ministry defends India’s first quarter growth even as brokerages downgrade annual GDP forecast

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The government has come out in strong defence of the quarter one gross domestic product (GDP) reading of 13.5 percent versus the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) estimate of 16.2 percent. The reading is down from the 20.1 percent recorded in the corresponding quarter last year, data showed.

Also Read: India’s GDP grew 13.5% in June quarter of FY23 — details here

Brokerages like Moody’s, Citi and Kotak have cut India’s annual growth expectations at the back of this reading and lowered their forecast to 6.7 to 6.8 percent. However, the government believes that the first quarter reading is consistent with the overall growth estimation of around 7-7.4 percent for the current financial year.

The reasons that the government has mentioned is that in the remaining two quarters, India will have to grow just at around 5 percent to achieve the fiscal growth target.

Another factor pointed out is that the government’s capex between April and July is 62 percent higher year on year (YoY) and this is a major chunk of the overall 7 lakh crore number that has been set out for this year. As per the government data, the high-frequency indicator is showing a big uptick.

Last, the government is not expecting any major change in the borrowing target and is pretty confident about achieving the fiscal deficit aim in the current financial year.

Also Read | Keki Mistry expresses confidence in the Indian economy despite subpar Q1 GDP

Suresh Tantia, the Senior Investment Strategist at Credit Suisse, backed the India growth story expectation.

“Right now the issue is that the global growth is slowing down. When the global economy is struggling to grow even by 1-2 percent, the Indian economy last quarter grew by 13 percent plus and this financial year it is expected to grow by 7 percent. So everybody is looking for growth and India is one place which is offering growth right now,” he said.

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Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Government receives RBI nod on structuring IDBI stake sale

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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[wealthdesk shortname=”IDBI Bank” isinid=”INE008A01015″ bseid=”500116″ nseid=”IDBI” sector=”” exchange=”nse”]

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has given its nod to the government on structuring the IDBI stake sale. All the issues relating to the structuring of the deal have been suitably resolved with the Reserve Bank of India.

There were talks around the promoter roadmap — RBI has a 15-year timeline in mind as per sources, reducing the stake to a certain level, the merger option, and membership of the bidder consortia. There were also some requests about allowing private equity funds to pick up a stake in the bank.

The government had been in consultation with the RBI on these long-standing issues.

Sources say the expression of interest is expected sometime by September.

The sources also told CNBC-TV18 that officials are hoping that if a transaction cannot be completed in the current financial year — although formally, March is still the timeline — maybe at least the financial bids can be opened in the current financial year.

Even this, they said, would be a huge plus as far as the government’s strategic stake sale is concerned, because this will be the first bank on the block.

The sources said consultations with RBI would continue because the government and the central bank would have to continuously work out the EoI and financial bid stages.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Supreme Court seeks response from Centre, ONGC on Vedanta’s appeal relating to Barmer oil field

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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On Friday, the Supreme Court sought the Centre’s response to Vedanta Ltd’s appeal against a Delhi High Court verdict relating to Vedanta and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s (ONGC) production sharing contract (PSC) for the Barmer field in Rajasthan.

A bench comprising of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justice Krishna Murari issued the notice on Friday after hearing brief submissions from senior advocate Harish Salve. ONGC and the Centre’s solicitor general, Tushar Mehta requested four weeks’ time for responses.

Vedanta had filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, on March 26, against an order by a division bench of the Delhi High Court extending the PSC between Vedanta and ONGC to 2030.

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Earlier, a single judge bench had directed the Centre to extend its PSC with Vedanta Ltd and ONGC to produce oil from the Barmer oil field until 2030. The Centre had appealed the judgement before a division bench of the high court. The Centre’s appeal was allowed by the division bench of the high court.

In response, Vedanta filed a petition with the Supreme Court. Vedanta’s contract, due to expire in 2020, had been extended for another ten years by a single judge. These terms and agreements were the same as when the first agreement was signed in 1995.

Vedanta had requested the extension of the PSC from the government in 2009, but received no response. The company claimed the delay in a government decision prevented it from investing more than Rs 30,000 crore in the project.

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According to Vedanta’s claim before a single judge, 1.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent are estimated to be recoverable from the block. A total of 466 million barrels are expected to be recovered beyond the current PSC period until 2030.The company also claimed to produce natural gas from the block and supply it to government companies.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

From SSC to banking, here is a list of government and competitive exams in August

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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People from across fhe country every year try to secure themselves a job in various departments of the Indian government through various competitive exams.

Here is the list of competitive and government exams that are expected to be conducted in August.

Union Public Service Commission

UPSC | Central Armed Police Forces (ACs) Exam | August 7, 2022

UPSSC

Combined Technical Services Competitive Exam 2016 | August 7, 2022

Forest Guard and Wildlife Guard Competitive Examination | August 21, 2022

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Institute of Banking Personnel Selection

IBPS RRB Assistant | August 7, 13 and 14, 2022

IBPS RRB Officer | August 20 and 21, 2022

IBPS Clerk | August 28, 2022, September 3 and 4, 2022

RRB XI | August 2022

Staff Selection Commission

SSC Selection Post Examination Phase-X (Tier I CBE Exam) | August 2022

Banks

SBI Clerk 2022 | August 2022 (expected)

GIC Assistant Manager | August 2022

IDBI Bank Assistant Manager Recruitment | August 2022

MBA

MAH CET | August 2022

State wise government exams

Group C Services Main Exam 2021 Combined Paper I | August 6, 2022 | Maharashtra

Group C Services Main Exam 2021 Clerk-Typist Paper II | August 13, 2022 | Maharashtra

Group C Services Main Exam 2021 Excise Sub Inspector Paper II | August 20, 2022 | Maharashtra

Group C Services Main Exam 2021 Tax Assistant Paper II | August 27, 2022 | Maharashtra

Combined State (Civil) Lower Subordinate Service 2021 Mains Exam | August 28, 2022 | Uttarakhand

Also read: Final-year students from China, Ukraine eligible for Foreign Medical Graduate exam

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow