JAMMU, Jun 5: In a move aimed at speeding up financial decision-making, the Jammu and Kashmir Government has doubled the advance withdrawal sanction limit for Administrative Departments from Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore.
As per a notification issued by the Finance Department, Administrative Departments can now approve advance withdrawals up to Rs 2 crore with the concurrence of the Director Finance/Financial Advisor and Chief Accounts Officer, without seeking approval from the Finance Department.
However, proposals involving advance withdrawals above Rs 2 crore will continue to require the concurrence of the Finance Department.
The enhanced delegation of powers has been approved by the Lieutenant Governor under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, and is expected to facilitate quicker execution of government works and improve administrative efficiency.
NEW DELHI, June 5: IT Secretary S Krishnan on Friday dismissed concerns around artificial intelligence, urging the industry to seize the “opportunity” and deploy the technology across sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare, and education to drive economic growth and improve lives.
Alluding to concerns about AI’s disruptive impact on the IT and IT-enabled services (ITES) sector, Krishnan emphasised that there is no reason to fear and that AI is a technology that India must embrace.
“This is a technology which we need to embrace. This is a technology wave that we need to ride…as a young country, with talent, as a country with understanding…,” he said, addressing an event to mark the 35th Foundation Day of the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI).
The government is focused on providing the necessary infrastructure, including compute power, foundational models, and data to enable startups and companies to develop and deploy home-grown solutions, Krishnan said.
“…our task as government is to make sure that the infrastructure to enable companies and startups to ride out the AI wave is provided, be it compute, models, data…and that is precisely the task we are engaged in,” he said.
True unlocking of value and income will occur once AI applications are fully integrated across various sectors of the economy, he said.
“People have to benefit, applications and solutions have to be developed and deployed, and once that is done, that is where truly the revenue will be, that is where people will make the money, that is where the incomes will be earned, and value will be unlocked,” he said.
Highlighting India’s growing global stature, Krishnan noted that the country currently ranks third in the Global AI Vibrancy Index.
“India’s opportunity fundamentally lies in the fact of how AI will actually get deployed across a number of sectors in the economy, in manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare, education, how it gets deployed in governance in just about every sector and what difference it makes to the lives of people,” Krishnan said.
His remarks come at a time when rapid adoption of artificial intelligence has led to job-related anxieties and fuelled a larger debate around AI’s disruptive implications for traditional IT models. (PTI)
NEW DELHI, June 5: Gaming and sports media firm Nazara Technologies on Friday said its board has approved the allotment of over 1.82 crore warrants on a preferential basis to investors.
The warrants, convertible into equity shares, were issued at a price of Rs 260 apiece (including a premium of Rs 258), the company said in a regulatory filing.
Nazara has received 25 per cent of the warrant issue price as an upfront subscription amount, aggregating to Rs 118.50 crore.
According to the filing, Riambel Capital PCC-RCC1 was the largest allottee, receiving 94.85 lakh warrants for an upfront payment of Rs 61.65 crore.
S Gupta Family Enterprises Pvt Ltd was allotted 40 lakh warrants (Rs 26 crore), while Founders Collective Fund was allotted 9 lakh warrants (Rs 5.85 crore).
Additionally, Plutus Investments and Holding Pvt Ltd was allotted 38.46 lakh warrants for Rs 24.99 crore.
Nazara noted that Plutus will be classified as a member of the promoter group effective from the date of this allotment, as it is associated with certain existing promoters.
The warrant holders are entitled to convert the warrants into fully paid-up equity shares in one or more tranches within 18 months from the date of allotment, upon payment of the remaining 75 per cent of the issue price.
The total number of allotted warrants was slightly lower than originally proposed.
“One of the proposed allottees… intended to be allotted 10,00,000 warrants aggregating to INR 26,00,00,000 became ineligible prior to the date of allotment in terms of Chapter V of the SEBI ICDR Regulations,” the filing stated. (PTI)
NEW DELHI/LUCKNOW, Jun 5: The Jai Prakash Narayan Bird Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia district has been designated as India’s 100th Ramsar site, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Friday.
Ramsar sites are wetlands of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, an environmental treaty established in 1971.
In a post on X, Modi said, “A century as far as Ramsar sites are concerned! Glad that the Jai Prakash Narayan Bird Sanctuary (Surha Tal) in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh has been designated as India’s 100th Ramsar site. This wetland is rich in avifaunal biodiversity, attracting several migratory and resident birds.”
“Over the years, efforts to conserve and rejuvenate wetlands have been strengthened through greater community participation, science, innovation and awareness initiatives. These endeavours are helping preserve biodiversity, secure ecological balance and create a greener future for coming generations,” he said.
The Jai Prakash Narayan Bird Sanctuary, which is also known as Surha Tal, is the 13th Ramsar Site of Uttar Pradesh, according to an official statement issued in Lucknow.
UP Forest Minister Arun Kumar Saxena presented the certificate related to it to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on the stage during an environment day program, the statement said.
India is one of the Contracting Parties to the ‘Convention on Wetlands’, known as the Ramsar Convention, signed in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971. India became a signatory to the convention on February 1, 1982.
Ramsar sites are significant as they can serve as model examples of the nation’s commitment to conservation and management under internationally accepted frameworks.
In designating a wetland as a Ramsar site, countries agree to establish and oversee a management framework aimed at conserving the wetland. (AGENCIES)
NEW DELHI, June 5: Myntra hit a record high in weekly active users in the week beginning May 25, as India’s consumer internet sector showed diverging trends with strong gains in e-commerce, according to a report by brokerage CLSA.
Myntra added 8.4 million weekly active users (WAU) week-on-week, taking its total to around 60 million – its highest ever level in a week – marking the standout performance in a largely mixed week for digital platforms.
“Within beauty retail, Nykaa reported a second consecutive weekly decline in users, while Purplle and Tira Beauty remained broadly stable. Nykaa continues to lag peers on a quarter-to-date basis. Myntra is at an all-time high WAU while Nykaa sees week-on-week (WoW) WAU decline,” the CLSA report said.
Nykaa was down 0.9 million week-on-week, while Tira and Purplle were flat. Quarter-to-date, Meesho has the highest downloads within e-commerce, yet Flipkart’s rise in WAU was higher. “WoW, Flipkart and Amazon saw a gain of +4.3/+2.6 million users while Meesho was flat. Myntra stood out, adding 8.4 million users WoW on a base of 51.5 million users.” This reflects steady engagement across large marketplaces.
In contrast, Blinkit saw weekly active users fall by 2.6 million to about 52 million after a recent surge linked to a viral marketing campaign, while broader quick-commerce engagement remained largely stable across peers, CLSA said in a June 4 report.
Food delivery platforms saw a recovery, with Domino’s Pizza adding 1.7 million users week-on-week. Zomato gained 1.2 million users, while Swiggy Instamart was broadly flat.
Analysts said weekly active user trends indicated a rotation in engagement back toward e-commerce platforms after a period of strong quick-commerce growth, though noted that such metrics do not necessarily translate directly into order volumes or revenue.
Last month, ICICI Securities tagged Flipkart as India’s e-commerce market leader by gross merchandise value (GMV) with an estimated 50-60 per cent market share.
The platform further strengthened its position by adding 8.5 million WAUs week-on-week. This recent surge brought Flipkart’s year-to-date gain to 26.8 million users, representing the strongest growth among all major e-commerce platforms. The sustained growth reflects continued traction across high-engagement categories and rising repeat usage.
The homegrown e-commerce major, now majority owned by Walmart, has an estimated 220-240 million monthly active users, compared with roughly 850 million internet users in India, and is increasingly focused on cross-categorisation and upselling within its existing user base rather than heavy new-user acquisition, ICICI Securities had said in a report. (PTI)
MUMBAI, June 5: The rupee appreciated 81 paise to close at 94.93 (provisional) against the US dollar on Friday after the Reserve Bank announced measures to support foreign capital inflows and strengthen forex liquidity.
Forex traders said the announcements in the RBI policy boosted investor sentiments after the apex bank asserted that the country’s forex reserves provide a sufficient buffer against external shocks.
The Reserve Bank on Friday expectedly kept interest rates unchanged for the second time in a row as it weighed the impact of rising energy prices and supply disruptions caused by the West Asia crisis.
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 95.72, then touched an intraday high of 94.89 and finally ended the session at 94.93 (provisional), registering a rise of 81 paise from its previous close.
On Thursday, the rupee rose 2 paise to settle at 95.74 against the US dollar.
Announcing the second bi-monthly monetary policy for the current fiscal, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has unanimously decided to retain the short-term lending rate or repo rate at 5.25 per cent with a neutral stance.
“By holding the repo rate at 5.25 per cent with a neutral stance even while raising the FY27 inflation forecast by 50 basis points to 5.1 per cent, the RBI has drawn a clean line: the rate instrument is reserved for inflation, and the rupee will be defended through the capital account,” said Anindya Banerjee, Head of Commodity and Currency Research, Kotak Securities.
The expansion of the Fully Accessible Route to all new 15-, 30- and 40-year G-Sec issuances, the removal of FPI concentration limits, the extension of FCNR(B) hedging support, the PSU ECB swap window, and the restoration of the export realisation period to nine months together amount to the most comprehensive dollar-mobilisation effort since 2013, Banerjee added.
The Centre’s simultaneous removal of taxes on foreign investment in G-Secs is the force multiplier, as it addresses the single biggest friction flagged by global bond funds and index providers.
“We see this as constructive for the long end of the G-Sec curve. On the currency, these measures can aid the rupee’s appreciation over the near term, provided oil prices stay below USD 100 a barrel.
“We see scope for the rupee to appreciate towards 94 to 94.5 on spot over the near term, with the upside in USD-INR now capped around the 96 mark. Any appreciation beyond 94 would depend on the actual quantum of dollar mobilisation through these newly announced routes and the trajectory of oil prices,” Banerjee said.
Reserve Bank governor said the forex reserve stood at a healthy USD 682.3 billion, adequate to provide import cover for about 11 months.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading at 99.22, lower by 0.19 per cent.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading down 0.29 per cent at USD 94.75 per barrel in futures trade.
On the domestic equity market front, Sensex declined 116.67 points to settle at 74,243.34, while the Nifty fell 49.85 points to 23,366.70.
Foreign institutional investors offloaded equities worth Rs 4,447.06 crore on a net basis on Thursday, according to exchange data.
Meanwhile, RBI has lowered GDP growth projection to 6.6 per cent from 6.9 per cent earlier for the current fiscal and raised CPI inflation projection to 5.1 per cent for FY27, higher from the earlier estimate of 4.6 per cent. (PTI)
VISAKHAPATNAM, (Andhra Pradesh), June 5: Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said the country should target marine product exports worth USD 30 billion over the next five years, up from the current USD 8 billion.
Addressing the National Workshop on Seafood Exports here, Commerce and Industry Minister said that in 2013-14, India exported marine products worth about USD 5 billion.
“Hon’ble Minister Rajiv Ranjan (Lalan) Singh and I discussed this only a week ago when we conceptualised this programme under his leadership. We felt that this sector should set a target of no less than USD 30 billion over the next five years,” Goyal said.
He added that the target could be achieved through higher production and greater attention to quality.
Goyal said India had achieved 70 per cent growth in marine product exports since 2013-14, while the global marine products market grew by 10 per cent in 2024 to reach USD 160 billion.
With India’s top 10 markets accounting for nearly 80 per cent of marine product exports, the union minister said there was a need to reassess the country’s achievements and explore new opportunities.
He expressed hope that the PM Matsya Sampada Yojana, under which the central government has committed Rs 21,000 crore, would provide unprecedented support to promote the fisheries sector and trade.
Goyal said that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, India had concluded nine free trade agreements over the last three to three-and-a-half years.
These nine pacts cover 38 countries, all of which are developed, high-income nations. (PTI)
WELLINGTON, June 5: More than 100,000 live cockroaches illegal to keep in Australia were confiscated from a single breeder in the country’s largest-ever seizure of exotic invertebrates, officials said Friday.
The haul of Madagascar hissing cockroaches and dubia cockroaches, worth 200,000 Australian dollars (USD 142,000), was seized in May from a commercial breeder in the city of Bathurst in New South Wales state, according to Australia’s Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water.
The Madagascar hissing species is one of the world’s biggest cockroaches, measuring 2 to 3 inches (5 to 8 centimeters) in length. Photos released by the department showed a shiny, brown invertebrate larger than a person’s finger.
It’s much bigger than the country’s common Australian cockroach, which measures between 0.9 and 1.4 inches (2.3 and 3.6 cm) long. Cockroaches flourish in Australia due to its sub-tropical climates and the country is home to hundreds of species.
Bathurst snake catcher Stefanie Lesser told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that the larger exotic species were likely being sold as as a cost-effective reptile food because their large size meant fewer insects were needed. Officials urged pet owners to seek out crickets or wood roaches to feed their lizards instead.
Both Madagascar hissing and dubia cockroaches are illegal to import into Australia. They can’t be legally kept, bred or sold no matter how they were obtained, the department said in a statement.
Australia has strict biosecurity controls at its borders to protect its agriculture and horticulture sectors and native wildlife from pest infestations. Those smuggling in undeclared or illegal animal, insect or plant material can be fined thousands of dollars.
Exotic cockroaches “have not been subject to an environmental risk assessment” and they could spread disease or harm native wildlife, the statement said. Officials warned of prosecutions against those caught with the invertebrates.
A spokesperson said charges weren’t laid against the Bathurst breeder. The cockroaches seized would be euthanised, the department said. (AP)
BUNIA (Congo), June 5: The rare Bundibugyo type of Ebola that Congo is battling took locals by surprise after weeks of spreading unnoticed. Hundreds of cases were suspected when the outbreak was declared in May, but many dismissed the news as a “Western conspiracy.”
Congolese authorities announced the new Ebola outbreak on May 15. As of Wednesday, at least 62 people had died from 363 confirmed cases. Yet the outbreak has been challenged by skepticism, attacks on health workers and misinformation.
Verite Johnson, a journalist and editorial secretary at the Radio Television Mont Bleu station in Bunia, the eastern Ituri province capital where the outbreak is concentrated, decided to produce a new programme to combat rumours.
The radio show has emerged as a vital tool to win over some residents who have been unaware or skeptical about the facts of Bundibugyo.
The 45-minute programme runs daily at 10 am, reminding people of the dangers and regularly featuring health specialists providing updates and answering questions. The show’s jingles about the virus also play intermittently throughout the day and residents are able to call in with questions.
“So far, there’s still a layer of resistance within the population, and that’s where the media plays an important role,” Johnson said.
Resistance to protocols during public health emergencies is common in Congo, which is battling its 17th Ebola outbreak since the virus was first identified there in 1976. There currently is no approved vaccine or treatment for the Bundibugyo type of Ebola, which has added another layer of fear.
Widespread rumours, often arising from fear and misinformation, discourage residents from adhering to health warnings or seeking medical help during an outbreak, health officials say.
People often hear about a disease through the media as authorities and international partners scramble to contain the outbreak.
Unfounded rumours link Ebola to money
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Some residents allege illnesses like Ebola are elevated by opportunists trying to profit.
“They don’t separate people who have Ebola from those who have the flu at the hospital. Given the manner in which people are treated, we deduce it is about money,” said Samson Gerson, 52-year-old Bunia resident and father of seven children. “I can never take the vaccine, I prefer to die because if the vaccine arrives, it can scare us even more.”
Analysts say some people in Congo have been receptive to disinformation due to mistrust of the healthcare system and because some local officials have not become actively involved in containing the disease.
“What is key is to involve the local actors at all levels. If we try to impose what we think is right to the community, we are running towards failure,” said Basile Rambaud, emergency programmes director for Mercy Corps in Congo. “If people do not trust the response, they end up delaying to seek care, rejecting protective measures, or avoiding working with health teams, giving the virus more time to spread.”
Ituri province residents have launched at least three attacks against health centres, demanding the bodies of deceased patients. Some people who are believed to have Ebola left the centres during the attacks and health workers could not account for their whereabouts.
“We don’t even know what the body of a person who died of Ebola looks like, but we just see images and montages on our phone,” said Bunia resident Chantal Francine, who expressed doubts over the reported deaths.
Full scale of the outbreak is unknown
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The virus has rapidly spread from an initial three health zones to 24, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who said Wednesday that the virus “had a big start.”
Experts and WHO officials have warned the numbers might not reflect the true scale of the epidemic as weeks of testing for the wrong type caused a delay in containing the virus.
The outbreak has been worsened by an ongoing armed conflict between Congo’s government and the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group, as well as attacks by the Islamic State-affiliated group the Allied Democratic Force, which killed 16 people in Beni territory in North Kivu on Tuesday.
The attacks by both groups have caused massive displacement of people living in the conflict areas, officials said.
Despite the growing Bundibugyo outbreak and the conditions that are enabling the disease to spread, Johnson said Radio Television Mont Bleu continues providing residents with vital facts.
“Everyone is free to think what they want, but the information remains the same. The epidemic is here,” Johnson said. (AP)
COLOMBO, June 5: A 24-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly promoting the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Sri Lankan police said on Friday.
The man, from Udayanagar in Kilinochchi whose name wasn’t disclosed by police, was arrested four days ago for allegedly performing LTTE promotional songs during a concert held in Jaffna district’s Navatkuli area on May 31.
The suspect was produced before the Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday under Section 3(G) of the Prevention of Terrorism Act No. 48 of 1979 and remanded for two weeks.
Investigations by the Jaffna Divisional Criminal Investigation Bureau revealed that the suspect had edited two songs from the event and uploaded them to his social media account in a manner glorifying the LTTE, police said in a statement.
The recordings were deliberately modified to include content supportive of the banned group, facilitating broader reach online, the statement added.
The LTTE remains a prohibited organisation in Sri Lanka, in addition to its international ban imposed by most countries, including India.
Sri Lanka first banned the LTTE in 1998, which was later lifted in early 2002 to facilitate the Norwegian peace initiative.
In 2009, Sri Lanka reimposed the ban on the organisation.
In May 2009, the Sri Lankan Army declared victory over the LTTE, which for three decades had run a parallel administration in the northern and eastern parts of the country in their quest to set up a separate Tamil homeland. (PTI)
