Month: April 2021

Only 25% parents willing to send kids to school in April

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

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As India experiences a fast-growing second wave of Covid-19, only 25 percent parents are willing to send their wards to school in April, as per a survey by LocalCircles. With B.1.1.7 known for high transmissibility within children, the majority of parents have expressed concerns. There are 73 percent of parents who believe that physical schools must not operate if active cases in the district are above 100.

As per feedback in the survey and given the massive surge in the Covid cases experienced in the last three weeks, the default option for the schools should be closure from April to June.

Exceptions may be taken on the basis of active case numbers in a particular district along with the variant-type reported, the daily case curve to authorize District Magistrates to permit schools to operate as long as active cases are less than 100.

As far as the scheduled Board Exams for Class 10 and 12 in the month of May is concerned, the Central and State Boards will need to make a decision based on the national situation. The feasibility of conducting the board exam both online and offline does deserve consideration.

The survey found that three data points released last week are of great concern.

First, the Chief Minister of Punjab announced that of the genome testing done by the state, 81 percent of the Covid-19 samples were found to be of B.1.1.7 i.e., the UK variant of SARS-COV2.

The next day, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that the B.1.1.7, which is fast spreading in the country, is more transmissible than the original strain and is more dangerous to children and young people, and we need to put the protection of schools more front and centre than with the original virus.

The day after she said this, the city of Bengaluru in the month of March reported approximately 500 cases of Covid in children under the age of 10.

The kind of Covid surge experienced in many parts of India that have led to 6 times growth in daily cases in the last 45 days, indicates that there is a different strain or two from the original one that is propagating in the country.

With limited genome testing (being done on less than 5 percent of the samples), only 700 or so cases of B.1.1.7 have been officially identified.

Taking cognizance of the alarming rise of Covid-19 in several states and districts across the country in the last 45 days, LocalCircles decided to conduct another survey to understand if parents are willing to send their children to school in April, and also to determine a criterion that can be used to open schools.

Given the latest rise in Covid cases, only 25 percent of parents willing to send their children to school in April.

The first question in the survey sought to understand parents’ perception to send their children or grandchildren to school in April if the Central or State Government or District administration decide that schools should remain open or re-open.

In response, only 25 percent of parents said “Yes”. The majority of 58 percent of parents said “No”. There were also 10 percent of parents who said that “schools for my children or grandchildren are shut in April for summer break”, while 7 percent couldn’t say. The poll in the survey received 9,687 responses.

The Covid-19 daily caseload in India has again crossed the 65,000-mark, more than 6 times of cases recorded in early February. Maharashtra, the top contributing state is seeing the highest-ever peaks to date with over 40,000 cases being reported in a day.

With data from many European nations demonstrating the dangerous nature of the B.1.1.7 strain of the Coronavirus, confirmation that Punjab has 81 percent of the cases of the B.1.1.7 type, and the fact that it is proven to be impacting children much more than the previous strain of 2020, it is time to be more cautious than before.

At the same time, realising that many districts in the country still have double-digit active Covid cases, board exams are around the corner for classes 10 and 12 and many schools do not have the facility to conduct online classes, LocalCircles sought the opinion of parents on what should be the criteria for re-opening physical schools.

In response, 29 percent said “in-person schools be closed whenever active cases in a district exceed 100”; 18 percent said “in-person schools be closed whenever active cases in a district exceed 200”; 7 percent said “in-person schools be closed whenever active cases in a district exceed 500”, and 5 percent said “in-person schools be closed whenever active cases in district exceed 1000”.

Breaking down the poll, 21 percent said “schools should be kept closed till there are any cases in the district”, while 6 percent couldn’t say. The findings of the poll indicated that 73 percent of parents want schools from the next session to be open as long as there are less than 100 active Covid cases in their district.

Click here: For the latest news and updates on COVID-19

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

Today’s stock tips by Sudarshan Sukhani, Yogesh Mehta

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

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The Indian market is likely to open higher on Thursday following a rally in the global market peers. Asian stocks edged higher after big tech rallied on Wall Street and as President Joe Biden announced a multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure investment plan. Meanwhile, the trend on SGX Nifty also indicates a strong start for the broader index in India. CNBC-TV18’s in-house market expert has laid down a list of stocks for the investors to buy/sell in trade today.

Here are the top buy-sell calls by the market expert for Thursday:

Sudarshan Sukhani – s2analytics.com

– Buy UPL with a stop loss of Rs 635, target at Rs 650

– Buy Vedanta with a stop loss of Rs 227, target at Rs 232

– Buy ACC with a stop loss of Rs 1,880, target at Rs 1,930

– Sell M&M with a stop loss of Rs 805, target at Rs 780

Yogesh Mehta – Yield Maximisers

– Buy SBI with a stop loss of Rs 359, target at Rs 380

– Buy Tata Consumer with a stop loss of Rs 632, targets at Rs 655

– Buy Balkrishna Ind with a stop loss of Rs 1,690, target at Rs 1,760

Catch all live market updates here

Disclaimer: CNBCTV18.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.

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

London Eye: New push for political resolution of Cairn dispute

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

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British business groups are lobbying Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office to intervene over the snowballing legal dispute between the Indian government and the British oil and gas exploration and production firm Cairn Energy.

The dispute arose over a tax amendment brought in by the income tax department of the Indian government around the time of the move by Cairn Energy to sell its final stake in Cairn India Ltd in 2014. A provision for such an amendment had been made in 2012.

Invoking these provisions the income tax department applied capital gains tax over restructuring within Cairn Energy earlier in 2006. Cairn says that while selling its final stake it was restrained from selling a portion of its shareholding and that these shares were sold and encashed by the income tax department in lieu of taxes it argued it was owed.

Under the UK-India Bilateral Investment Treaty of 2015, Cairn Energy sought resolution of the dispute through arbitration before an international tribunal at The Hague in The Netherlands. On December 22 last year, the tribunal ruled unanimously in favour of Cairn. The proceedings were held under the registry of the Permanent Court of Arbitration.

The tribunal ruled that India had breached its obligations to Cairn under the UK-India Bilateral Investment Treaty. It ruled further that compensation was due to Cairn Energy. It ruled that the application of the retrospective tax amendment was “grossly unfair” and violated the “fair and equitable treatment” section of the treaty. It awarded damages to Cairn totalling 1.2 billion dollars plus another 500 million dollars in interest and costs.

The tribunal ruled: “The issue at stake is thus not a matter of domestic tax law; it is rather whether the fiscal measures taken by the State, valid or not under its own tax laws, violate international law.”

The Indian government has now appealed against that decision before the Dutch Court of Appeal.

Cairn confirmed in a statement on March 30 that it had received notice that the Indian government had petitioned the Dutch court. “Cairn has full confidence in its position,” it said. A little more ominously, it added: “As previously advised, Cairn will continue to take all steps necessary in order to protect the interests of its shareholders.”

Those steps have come to mean an exploration of legal moves in several countries to seize assets of the Indian government. The company is not going after India’s diplomatic assets, and so that has come to mean it will target the Indian government’s public sector undertakings that have assets abroad. The Indian government is certain to resist such moves both in India and in other jurisdictions.

Jurisdiction

The Indian challenge arises primarily over jurisdiction. The tribunal ruled that the dispute fell within the scope of the India-UK bilateral treaty. The Indian case is that the dispute arises over a taxation matter that is outside the purview of the bilateral treaty. The tribunal ruled that this is not primarily a tax dispute but an investment dispute because the government had violated protection that was rightfully due to an investor under the bilateral treaty.

The legal dispute may well lead to a prolonged and messy confrontation between Cairn Energy and the Indian government. Such confrontations would sit in dramatic variance with assurances and invitations by Indian ministers and officials to invite increased foreign investment.

Renewed efforts are now underway to resolve this dispute at a bilateral government level rather than through the legal path. Cairn says it “remains in ongoing dialogue with the Government of India on fulfilment of award payment and this engagement continues in parallel with pursuing options of enforcement and monetisation of the Award to safeguard shareholders’ rights.”

That dialogue is being stepped up now ahead of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s visit due at the end of April. Signing a limited trade enhancement agreement ahead of a broader trade agreement tops the agenda through the visit. The UK government is keen now to work out a special trade agreement with India post-Brexit and to put new promotion for investment in place.

The current dispute between Cairn and the Indian government could arise as an irritant if not an obstacle if the UK government picks this time to confront India over it.

—London Eye is a weekly column by CNBC-TV18’s Sanjay Suri, which gives a peek at business-as-unusual from London and around.

Read his other columns here

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

Microsoft wins $21.9 billion contract with US Army to supply augmented reality headsets

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

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Microsoft Corp on Wednesday said it has won a deal to sell the US Army augmented reality headsets based on its HoloLens product and backed by Azure cloud computing services. The contract could be worth up to USD 21.88 billion over 10 years, a Microsoft spokesman told Reuters.

Over the past two years, Microsoft has worked with the Army to on the prototyping phase of what is called the Integrated Visual Augmentation System, or IVAS. The company said Wednesday that the Army had moved into the production phase of the project.

In a blog post, Microsoft Technical Fellow Alex Kipman said the headsets are designed to deliver ”enhanced situational awareness, enabling information sharing and decision-making in a variety of scenarios.” The headsets will be manufactured in the United States, a Microsoft spokesman told Reuters.

Microsoft was also in line to win the USD 10 billion JEDI cloud computing contract with the Pentagon, but the contract remains in dispute in a lawsuit filed by Amazon.com Inc. Pentagon officials told US lawmakers in February that the Defense Department may jettison the contract if the dispute lingers in the courts.

After Microsoft announced a USD 480 million-contract in 2018 to supply prototypes to the Army, at least 94 workers petitioned the company to cancel the deal and stop developing “any and all weapons technologies,” Reuters reported at the time. A worker involved in that petition declined to comment Wednesday.

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

MarketBuzz Podcast With Sonia Shenoy: Sensex, Nifty likely to open higher; Auto stocks, Axis Bank in focus

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

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The Indian market is likely to open higher on Thursday following a rally in the global peers as Asian stocks edged higher after big tech rallied on Wall Street after President Joe Biden announced a multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure investment plan. Meanwhile, the trend on SGX Nifty also indicates a strong start for the broader index in India. The Nifty futures were trading 93.00 points or 0.63 percent higher at the 14,839.00 level on the Singaporean Exchange.

About MarketBuzz

The CNBCTV18.com podcast on the big themes, vital news and key events that you should know before the opening bell, powered by CNBC-TV18 anchors. MarketBuzz is your daily morning briefing by CNBC-TV18 research analysts and anchors Sonia Shenoy, Ekta Batra, Anisha Jain, Nigel D’Souza and Mangalam Maloo to jumpstart your stock market investing. Subscribe to our free podcasts on Audioboom or listen on the featured podcast page on CNBCTV18.com.

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

COVID-19 news highlights: Maharashtra reports 43,183 new cases, 249 deaths today

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

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COVID-19 news highlights: The third phase of the COVID-19 vaccination drive for 65 lakh people aged above 45 will begin on Thursday. In the first phase, starting January 16, over 3.6 lakh beneficiaries comprising healthcare workers and frontline workers, were vaccinated. In the second phase, shots were given to people aged 60 and above, and those in 45-59 age bracket with comorbidities.

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

West Bengal Assembly Elections 2021: Polling begins for 30 seats in second phase

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

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Polling began at 7 am on Thursday for 30 constituencies, including the high-profile Nandigram seat, in the second phase of the West Bengal assembly elections amid tight security, officials said. Voting is underway with strict adherence to COVID-19 protocols in nine seats each in Purba and Paschim Medinipur districts, eight in Bankura and four in South 24 Parganas.

Long queues were seen outside polling stations, where voting will continue till 6.30 pm. More than 75 lakh voters will decide the fate of 191 candidates in 30 constituencies, as eyes are set on Nandigram where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is contesting against her former lieutenant and BJP candidate Suvendu Adhikari.

The Election Commission has declared all the 10,620 polling booths as sensitive and deployed around 651 companies of central forces, apart from the state police, to provide security. A total of 210 companies of central armed police forces have been deployed in Paschim Medinipur, 199 in Purba Medinipur, 170 in South 24 Parganas and 72 in Bankura, the officials said.

Also Read: Assam Assembly Elections 2021: Polling begins for 39 seats in second phase

TMC and BJP are contesting all 30 seats, while the CPI(M) is in the fray in 15 constituencies and its alliance partners Congress and ISF are fighting in 13 and two seats, respectively, they said. The elections for the 294 assembly seats in West Bengal are being held in eight phases. The votes will be counted on May 2.

Click here: For the latest news and updates on Assembly Elections 2021

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

Assam Assembly Elections 2021: Polling begins for 39 seats in second phase

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

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Polling began at 7 am on Thursday for 39 seats in the second phase of assembly elections in Assam amid tight security, officials said. The fate of 345 candidates, including 26 women, is being decided by over 73.44 lakh voters in this phase.

Among those contesting the elections in this phase are five ministers and the deputy speaker of the outgoing House. The polling will continue till 6 pm as the duration has been extended by an hour to ensure strict adherence to COVID-19 protocols.

Voters were seen wearing masks and maintaining social distance in the queues. Over 73.44 lakh voters will exercise their franchise in 10,592 polling stations spread over 13 districts in the Barak Valley, the hill regions and parts of central and lower Assam.

A total of 310 companies of security forces have been deployed to carry out strict vigil and prevent any untoward incident. Around 42,368 polling personnel have been deployed, of whom 1,516 were dispatched two days in advance to far-flung areas, particularly in Dima Hasao and East and West Karbi Anglong district, the officials said.

The ruling BJP is contesting 34 seats, while its allies Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) is fighting in six constituencies and the United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) in three. The BJP is engaged in friendly fights with the AGP in Patharkandi and Algapur and the UPPL in Majbat and Kalaigaon.

In the ’Mahajot’ (Grand Alliance), the Congress is contesting in 28, the AIUDF in seven and the Bodoland Peoples’ Front (BPF) in four. The newly-floated Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) is contesting in 19 seats.

Also Read: West Bengal Assembly Elections 2021: Polling begins for 30 seats in second phase

There is a direct contest between the NDA and the Grand Alliance in 25 seats, while the rest of the constituencies are witnessing a triangular fight. The three-phase elections to the 126-member assembly began on March 27 for 47 constituencies, registering a voter turnout of 79.97 percent.

The third and final phase of the elections to the 40 seats will be held on April 6. The votes will be counted on May 2.

Click here: For the latest news and updates on Assembly Elections 2021

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