After nod to Recycling of Ships Bill, India eyeing 60% global share: Govt. India is looking to raise its global share in ship recycling business to 60 per cent and almost double its contribution to country's GDP to about USD 2.2 billion post enactment of a law for recycling of ships, Union Minister Mansukh Lal Mandaviya said on Monday.
Shipping Minister Mandaviya also said that direct jobs from recycling sector were likely to double to about 90,000. The Parliament today gave nod to the Recycling of Ships Bill, 2019 which seeks to regulate recycling of ships in accordance with international standards. SME Tracker: Bulk-drug firms' prospects boosted by focus on niche molecules. CRISIL RESEARCH expects the prospects of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) making bulk drugs to improve in the near term, because of their sharp focus on developing niche and complex molecules.
These are difficult to manufacture but command a higher premium. Strong demand for formulations and increasing health insurance penetration would also support growth. Developments in China have been impacting bulk-drugs players in India. Recently,quality issues with Chinese active pharmaceutical ingredients in hypertension drugs had prompted a global recall. That prompted multinationals to look at alternative sources such as India. This has impacted China’s supply of bulk drugs, providing Indian players with a short-term opportunity. CGST collection missed budget estimate by 40% in April-Nov: Anurag Thakur. The Central GST collection fell short of the budged estimate by nearly 40 per cent during the April-November period of 2019-20, according to the data presented in the Parliament.
The actual CGST collection during April-November stood at Rs 3,28,365 crore while the budgeted estimate is of Rs 5,26,000 crore for these months, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur said in a written reply in Lok Sabha on Monday. At the stroke of midnight, Lok Sabha passes Citizenship Amendment Bill. The Lok Sabha on Monday passed the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) with 311 in favour and 80 against.
The Bill is likely to be taken up in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. Citizenship Bill in line with our belief in humanitarian values: PM Modi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday night expressed delight over the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha, saying the proposed law is in line with India's centuries old ethos of assimilation and belief in humanitarian values.
The Lok Sabha passed the Bill with 311 votes in favour and 80 against it a little past midnight after a debate that lasted more than seven hours. "Delighted that the Lok Sabha has passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 after a rich and extensive debate. I thank the various MPs and parties that supported the Bill. NRC will be brought in soon, don't link it with Citizenship Bill: Amit Shah. Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) will be brought in soon while also adding that it will be explained in Parliament the same way Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was.
"There is no need to connect Citizenship (Amendment) Bill with National Register of Citizens (NRC). I will explain it [NRC] the same way in the Parliament as CAB. Rest assured, NRC will be brought in soon," Shah said in the Lower House. The Lok Sabha today cleared the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019 with 311 voting in support and 80 against. The debate on the issue lasted for seven hours. Citizenship Bill: Federal US commission seeks sanctions against Amit Shah. A federal US commission on international religious freedom has said that the Citizenship Amendment Bill is a "dangerous turn in wrong direction" and sought American sanctions against Home Minister Amit Shah if the bill is passed by both houses of the Indian Parliament.
According to the proposed legislation, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities, who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, till December 31, 2014 facing religious persecution there, will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship. Shah on Monday introduced the controversial bill in Lok Sabha, where it was passed with 311 members favouring it and 80 voting against it, will now be tabled in the Rajya Sabha for its nod. Shah asserted that the bill has the endorsement of 1.3 billion Indian citizens and rejected suggestions that the measure is anti-Muslims, saying it will give rights to persecuted minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Hong Kong's biggest protest in months may be a trailer for the year 2020.
Hong Kong saw its biggest pro-democracy protest in months Sunday, signaling more unrest to come in 2020 as the movement that began in June to fight China’s increasing grip on the city shows its staying power.
Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators flooded the city’s major downtown boulevards, many waving US flags, singing “Glory to Hong Kong” and chanting “Five demands, not one less.” The march drew a cross-section of Hong Kong society -- from parents with young kids to senior citizens -- and was largely peaceful throughout the afternoon, although tensions emerged between riot police and some radical demonstrators at night. SpaceX cargo ship delivers 'mighty mice,' worms, robot to space station. A SpaceX cargo ship arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, delivering super muscular "mighty mice", worms and a smart, empathetic robot.
The station commander, Italy's Luca Parmitano, used a large robot arm to grab onto the Dragon three days after its launch from Cape Canaveral. The two spacecraft soared 260 miles (420 kilometers) above the South Pacific at the time of capture. "Whenever we welcome a new vehicle on board, we take on board also a little bit of the soul of everybody that contributed to the project, so welcome on board," Parmitano told Mission Control.
The capsule holds 3 tons (2,720 kilograms) of supplies, including 40 mice for a muscle and bone experiment. Eight of them are genetically engineered with twice the normal muscle mass and so are considered "mighty mice". Three Nobel science laureates stress urgency of addressing climate change. Three of this year's Nobel Prize laureates say addressing climate change is of great importance.
Winners of the prizes in physics, chemistry and economics made the assessment Saturday at a news conference ahead of next week's presentation of the prizes. The remarks come as a global summit on climate change takes place in Madrid. Didier Queloz, who shared the physics prize for discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a sunlike star, took issue with people who shrug off climate change on the grounds that "anyway we're going to leave the Earth at some point. " "I think this is just irresponsible because the stars are so far away I think we should not have any serious hope to escape the Earth," he said. "Also keeping in mind that we are a species that has evolved and developed for this planet.
Despite SC order, schools In 5 states asked 75% children to show Aadhaar. More than 75 per cent of school-age children in five states were required to provide their Aadhaar--a 12-digit, biometric-based, unique identity number--for school enrolment in violation of a landmark Supreme Court order, as per the State of Aadhaar Report 2019 published on November 25, 2019. Nationwide, providing Aadhaar during enrolment was mandatory for about 73 per cent of children, the report said: “Even after the 2018 Supreme Court ruling, many families still need to provide Aadhaar for children’s school enrolment.” The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which is tasked with the Aadhaar programme, had stated in December 2018 that “asking for Aadhaar cards for admissions is not as per the provisions of law” and asked schools to ensure that children are not denied admission for lack of Aadhaar. This has led to criticism, with some detractors arguing that the findings are overly complimentary for the controversial UIDAI and Aadhaar.
The research. Chhattisgarh most efficient in waste management, big states lag behind. Waste is collected on a daily basis from households in 93 per cent of the country's municipal councils under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan of which only 57 per cent is processed, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development has said. As per a report presented by the ministry recently in Parliament, Chhattisgarh has the highest success rate in waste management among states whereas big states such as Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra lag behind. According to the data presented by the ministry, waste is collected from the doorsteps of households in over 79,000 or 93 per cent of the over 84,000 municipal councils in urban areas.
The report stated that 148,000 tonnes of waste is generated in the country every day, of which 57 per cent is either recycled or processed. The remaining waste is sent to dumping grounds or landfills in the respective states, the report said. Satellites may make it tough to see stars, changing the sky as we know it. Expect the night sky to start changing fast. One day soon, the stars we can see from Earth could be outnumbered by a vast swarm of satellites. While many people today live under the murk of light pollution, we can at least still travel to a glittering night sky in the mountains, the desert, or at sea. But if communications technology follows its current trajectory, anyone who wants to escape the byproducts of human activity might have to go to the moon.
With 2081 deaths last year, India 5th most vulnerable to climate change. India is the fifth most vulnerable of 181 countries to the effects of climate change, with its poorest being the most at risk, according to a new report launched on December 4, 2019. Japan is the most vulnerable, followed by the Philippines, Germany and Madagascar. India had the most (2,081) deaths in 2018 due to extreme weather events caused by climate change--cyclones, heavy rainfall, floods and landslides--found the 15th edition of the Global Climate Risk Index 2020 prepared by Bonn-based think-tank Germanwatch. 48% Indians prefer food delivery, 34% want to dine out: Uber Eats survey.
More Indians prefer to order food from outside than dining out, according to a survey commissioned by Uber Eats. "48 per cent of Indians prefer ordering in, with convenience and breaking monotonous routines being the biggest driving factor," the 'Food Moods of India' research report said. The survey was conducted through online surveys and interviews by Ipsos on behalf of Uber Eats in 13 cities across India between September 15 - October 15, 2019 among 4,000 consumers aged 15-50 years who consume out of home food at least once a month.
According to the survey, 34 per cent Indians want to dine out while 18 per cent prefer take-away. India's software market grew at 12.4% in January-June 2019: IDC report. The Indian software market grew 12.4 per cent year-on-year in January-June of 2019, according to an International Data Corporation (IDC) report on Thursday. India's overall software market was estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.1 per cent between 2018 and 2023, said the Worldwide Semi-annual Software Tracker report. India accounted for 12.4 per cent share of the Asia Pacific, excluding Japanese region, software market. Gujarat police to seek Interpol Blue Corner notice against Nithyananda. The Gujarat police is going to approach Interpol seeking a 'Blue Corner notice' to locate controversial godman Nithyananda, an official said here. Ahmedabad Rural Police sent a letter to the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Thursday in this regard, a senior official who is probing the allegations of abduction and illegal confinement against Nithyananda said.
"CID is the nodal agency for getting Interpol to issue Blue Corner notice. We have sent a letter to the CID for the issuance of notice to locate Nithyananda who is still untraceable," said the official. Four accused in rape-murder of Telangana vet shot dead by police. Four men accused of raping and murdering a veterinarian outside Hyderabad last month were shot dead when they tried to escape Friday morning, said a senior police officer. The four men were being taken to the crime scene for investigation when they tried to break free at around 3.30 a.m. "The four accused were killed in an encounter with police," V C Sajjanar, Cyberabad Police Commissioner was quoted by news agency PTI as saying. Govt okays Bill proposing Rs 15-cr fine for data misuse, easy storage rules. The government is learnt to have relaxed the mandatory storage and processing requirement for all kinds of personal data and made a case for the collection of anonymised data from companies for planning government schemes in its long-awaited draft data protection Bill, which was approved by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday.
Cabinet gives approval to Bharat Bond ETF, launch in early January. The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the launch of India’s first bond exchange-traded fund (ETF) which can be bought and sold like any listed security on the bourses. The ETF — Bharat Bond ETF — will be made of AAA-rated papers issued by government-linked companies to start with, and will come in two maturities — three and 10 years.
Sources say it could be launched in the first week of January. Edelweiss Asset Management will launch the first tranche, but there will be other tranches for which other asset managers may be appointed. Realty sector slowdown: Rise and fall of Ashok Piramal's Peninsula Land. Peninsula Land, promoted by Ashok Piramal Group, had many firsts to its credit. Coca-Cola moves out of bottling ops in North India, to divest three plants. As Sundar Pichai becomes Alphabet chief, founders get $2-bn retirement gift.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin just got a $2.3 billion retirement gift from investors. E-commerce, tech firms call for clarity on Personal Data Protection Bill. Uncertain about their future and the ramifications for their businesses, the country’s e-commerce and technology industries want the Personal Data Protection Bill to take into account their fears and business models. According to several industry insiders, there exists several ambiguities in the current draft of the Bill. White-collar crime: Losses from frauds rise 80% from last year, says survey. India has asked countries to act against 'Kashmir cells' set up by Pak. India has asked countries to take action against "Kashmir cells" or "Kashmir desks" set up by Pakistan at its missions abroad, asserting that they openly incite violence, the government informed the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
In a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said the Pakistan foreign minister announced a decision to establish "Kashmir cell/desks" in Pakistan's Foreign Office and Missions abroad. Data Protection Bill gets cabinet nod; to be tabled in Parliament next. Services sector activity grows on strong demand in Nov, PMI rises to 52.7. Odisha to again call for auction of 20 mine blocks after tweaking norms. Union cabinet clears Citizenship Bill, may table in Parliament in 2 days. Cabinet approves SC, ST reservation in LS, assemblies for another 10 years.
Inadequate budget for judiciary crippling reforms, hurting growth: Report. Service sector returns to growth on strong demand; PMI at 52.7 in November. Why isn't manufacturing coming to India? Deficient reforms, says World Bank. Thackeray wants world-class, multilevel aquarium in Mumbai. Tesla CEO Musk faces defamation case for calling Thai cave diver 'pedo guy' India asks citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Haiti, issues advisory. Meet Shanmuga Subramanian: The Chennai techie who helped find Vikram debris. Congress demands answers from PM Modi over Hegde's Rs 40,000 cr remark. Indian-origin worker at US pharmacy convicted for illegally selling opioid. Indian-origin worker at US pharmacy convicted for illegally selling opioid. 2.62 lakh forest fires recorded from 2016-18, says Ministry of Environment.
Nasa satellite finds debris of Chandrayaan-2 lander Vikram, releases pics. Indian economy crying for reforms. Will Modi reinvent himself and deliver? People in China to undergo face scans if they want a new mobile number. Govt working on satellite mechanism to monitor forestation, says Javadekar. No distance education allowed in hotel management, real estate: UGC. A new 'LA' registration tag to be assigned for vehicles in Ladakh.
UP govt moots 'cow safaris' to make stray cow shelters economically viable. New govt to ensure 80% jobs for locals: Maharashtra Governor B S Koshyari. Amazon must check for trade mark violations, says EU court advisor. Amit Shah: The architect of India's rightward turn may succeed Modi one day. Govt may set up new rocket launch pad near Kulasekarapattinam in Tamil Nadu. Britain govt hails as 'remarkable' a 63% hike in Indian student visas. Uddhav takes oath, becomes first Thackeray to be Maharashtra Chief Minister. MoD approves procurement of military platforms worth Rs 22,800 crore. India slams Pakistan at UNGA for 'malicious propaganda' on Ayodhya verdict. BJP drops Pragya Thakur from defence panel after row over Godse remark.
NSO providing primary data 'free of cost', says Ministry of Statistics. New Gujarat anti-terror law to come into force from Dec 1 after Prez nod. Indian varsities drop in QS World University Asia rankings; none in top 30. Rise of Asia will shift balance of global economic power by 2050: Nayyar. US arrests 90 students, mostly from India, enrolled in fake university. More than 227,000 Indians waiting for family-sponsored Green Card: Report. Privacy risk: Report says India among 75 nations with AI surveillance tools. Isro PSLV-C47 launched: All you need to know about Cartosat-3 and its uses.
Only 61% households used LPG for cooking as of Dec 2018, shows NSO data. Govt may amend IBC, go for buyer protection and stricter homebuyers' norms. SC mulls smog towers, anti-smog gun to fight air pollution in Delhi. Explained: Why everyone is angry at Facebook over its political ads policy. Doctors fear Assange 'could die' in UK prison, say he needs hospital care. Hong Kong set to dash Lam's hopes with democracy camp poised for victory. Stuck in ice, dodging polar bears, all for science. India, China spar over legacy of traditional medicinal system 'Sowa-Rigpa' Delhi's Khan Market world's 20th most expensive retail location: Report.
Invest in research at universities: PM Narendra Modi to governors. Google's micro-targeting ban a moral panic, won't improve political ads. Every second smartphone in India is sold through online platforms: Report. UN, international bodies should take up the Dalai Lama succession issue: US. Bangalore ranks 83 in global prosperity index, Delhi, Mumbai make the cut. Kerala govt bans manufacturing, sale of single-use plastic from January 1. Facebook, Instagram on Google Play Store still vulnerable: Check Point. No life lost, no bullet fired after Article 370 move, govt tells SC.
Will revive BSNL, make it profitable: Telecom Minister Prasad in Lok Sabha. In Odisha's residential schools for tribal girls, education comes at a cost. Not planning 'one nation, one language', all equally important: Govt. Pegasus snooping row: WhatsApp expresses regret, to ensure tight security. Amid disagreements, standing committee debates data privacy for hours. What are the factors that decide women's progress at workplaces in India? Consumption on streaming apps rises 140% in 2019; YouTube leads, Prime 2nd.
Disney streaming platform grapples with password leaks, despite success. Hindalco, Jute Corporation jointly launch reusable bags for Tirupati Temple. These tribals were displaced from C'garh. Can they get land rights in AP? Flipkart invests Rs 30 crore in customer engagement firm EasyRewardz. Pegasus snooping row: Could have done more with govt, says WhatsApp. Surrogacy law: RS members want close-relative, 5-year marriage norms eased. Goa govt files review petition in SC against mining ban near coastal areas. Making a billion go online: FICCI calls for language friendly internet. Samsung Galaxy S11 may feature 108MP camera for 8K video recording. YouTube unveils prepaid plans for Premium, Music Premium versions in India.