Top stories on November 7 in a capsule
INDIA
Manmohan Singh slams DeMo, GST and bullet train
In the battle for the poll bound state of Gujarat, the Congress played its card by sending former PM Dr Manmohan Singh to address the state on Tuesday. Addressing a group of traders and businessmen, ahead of demonetization’s anniversary, Singh called it out, along with GST a ‘legalised blunder.’ “A well designed GST would have been revolutionary. But the loopholes and an ill designed GST have caused hardships,” he said. He also took a dig at the PM’s pet project bullet train terming it an exercise in vanity. The former PM’s visit is in line with the ‘Black day’ which the opposition party are observing tomorrow.
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‘Health emergency’ declared in Delhi, city comes to a standstill
The national capital, woke up to a “gas chamber’ like condition on Tuesday morning as air pollution levels became severe. A blanket of smog was prominent in the areas of Anand Vihar, Lodhi road and Punjabi the caBagh in the morning hours, with visibility being zero. The Indian Medical Association declared ‘health emergency’ in Delhi, as the pollution level meters soared to a 703PM, against the 300PM that is termed ‘hazardous’ safety. Taking to Twitter, CM Arvind Kejriwal said “Delhi has become a gas chamber”, adding mentioning the cause of stubble farming in the states of Punjab, Haryana being the reason.
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Kamal Hassan launches mobile app- ‘Maiyam Whistle’
The soon to turn politician, actor Kamal Haasan announced the launch of his mobile application “Maiyam Whistle’ on Tuesday. Launching the app on the eve of his 63rd birthday, the southern superstar said the app will be connect him with his fans and will be a platform for whistleblowers to expose corruption. “You can blow the whistle against me too in the future, if I make a mistake," he said. The app is now in the testing phase will start operating from January 2018. The actor further added that he is in no hurry to announce the name of his party and will first focus on the welfare of the state.
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JeM acknowledges death of chief’s nephew in Pulwama encounter
The Indian army on Tuesday successfully eliminated three militants, including the nephew of JeM chief Mashood Azhar in an encounter in J&K’s Pulwama. Talla Rashid, who was the nephew of Azhar was acknowledged by the JeM, along with the other two through their spokesperson, for the first time ever. Army Chief Bipin Rawat said the acknowledgement is a sign that the terrorists are getting support from Pakistan. The Kashmir police added that JeM will be collecting the bodies of the slain terrorists as it is that first time they have owned their members. A soldier was martyred and a civilian was injured in the operation.
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WORLD
2 killed in Kabul TV station attack
Two people were killed as gunmen stormed into a private television station in Kabul on Tuesday. The IS claimed responsibility for the attack that was operated by terrorists who has disguised as policemen, before entering Shamshad TV office by detonating a bomb and firing at the first victim, the watchman. News director of Shamshad, Abed Ehsas said"People dressed in police clothes came in and initially threw hand grenades, which killed one of our guards and wounded another." As of now, ISIS in its mouthpiece, Amaq said they have killed 20 people till now but did not provide any concrete evidence.
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Leaked documents reveal Lewis Hamilton avoided taxes on jet
F1 racer Lewis Hamilton has fallen prey to the ‘Paradise Papers’ after his name appeared in the list which revealed secrets of the world's elite hidden wealth. It was found that Hamilton avoided millions in taxes in the European Union for his private jet. It is believed that Hamilton used offshore entities in the form of shell companies in the Isle of Man to shelter himself from the payment of a hefty value added tax bill estimated at £3.27 million. Hamilton's lawyers say a tax barrister review found the structure was lawful.
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BUSINESS
Note ban will be viewed with Pride by the next generation: Jaitley
Referring to demonitisation in a conference on Tuesday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that ‘the next generation will view post November 2016 economic development with great pride as it has provided them a fair and honest system to live in. He said that the benefits may not be visible to some people, though it would be apparent to the next generation. He clarified that the move’s objective was to make the country a less cash economy and reduce the flow of Black money.
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Rupee falls 14 paise against the dollar at 65.03
The Indian rupee fell as much as 35 paise on Tuesday, making the rupee at 65.03 rupees a dollar. A fall in the domestic stock market as well as fresh dollar demand hurt the rupee, media reports said. Globally, crude oil prices have also hit a 2-year high amid political disturbance in the top crude oil exporter country Saudi Arabia. Higher global crude oil prices could also lead to prices of crude derivatives moving up impacting the raw material costs of companies across the sectors and leading to pressure. Despite today's weakness in the rupee, the Indian currency has rallied around 5 per cent against the US dollar so far this year.
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Sensex, Nifty close 1% lower, oil hits 2 year high
Benchmark Indices Sensex and Nifty steeped lower in Tuesday’s trade as market sentiment was hurt due to rising crude oil prices. BSE Sensex lost 1.07% to close at 33,370, while the Nifty 50 ended 1.01%, lower at 10,350. In the morning trade, the Sensex surged over 130 points to hit an all-time high of 33,865. Except IT stocks, which rose over 2%, all other indices ended lower with PSU Bank and Nifty Pharma falling 3.92% and 4.29%. Crude oil prices hit a 2- year high on Tuesday, which may impact fiscal deficit and raw material cost of companies which are dependent upon oil.
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Every second stock Rakesh Jhunjhunwala has invested in beats Sensex
Every second stock where India’s ‘big bull’ Rakesh Jhunjhunwala holds more than 1% equity has gained more than Sensex’s 29% gain this year. The ‘Pied Piper of Indian bourses’ recently earned a profit of 875 crores only from Titan’s stock market gain on Monday. He makes investments through his wife Rekha’s name and with the company he co-founded, called RARE enterprises. His combined holdings in 33 stocks amounts to 13,000 crores, i.e. $2.4 billion. He could be holding shares in other companies as well but data on them is difficult to come by as Jhunjhunwala holds less than 1% equity as a public shareholder in them.
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India will contribute 100 million to UN partnership fund
In a bid to contribute towards the sustainable development projects across the world, India has declared to contribute $100 million dollars to the United Nations partnership fund. The fund was set up o 8th June 2017 as a partnership between India and United Nation’s office for South-South co-operation. This contribution is in addition to the $10 million India is already contributing towards various development programs. A total of $398 million was contributed by 20 countries during yesterday’s conference session.
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Paytm integrates BHIM in its app
Digital payments platform Paytm has integrated Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM), the government’s mobile payment interface in order to double its user base in the next two years. Paytm, which is owned by one97 communications ltd, has an average monthly user base of 100 million users on its platform. Through BHIM’s integration, the app aims to broaden its user base to 200 million in the next 2 years. Users can use the BHIM app within the Paytm app. he users will be able to create their own Paytm BHIM UPI ID on the app, which will be issued by Paytm Payments Bank.
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TECH
Google Assistant can now ID a song for you
Google Assistant has enabled a new feature which will help in identifying any song playing in background. Google on Tuesday launched the feature in a new update which is compatible with all phones that support Google Assistant. After summoning Google Assistant, you can ask ‘what song is this?’ or ‘what song is playing?’ and the Assistant will pull up a card for you with the name of the song, the artist, lyrics, and streaming links like YouTube, Google Play Music and Spotify. With the Pixel phones setting the bar high with its music identifying capabilities, it seems Google isn’t leaving its other devices behind.
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Official: One Plus 5T to launch on 16th of November
One Plus is set to launch its latest flagship ‘One Plus 5T’ on 16th November. The device will go on sale on the 21st of November. This is the Chinese company’s 2nd high profile release this year after the One Plus 5. The device is expected to come with an all new bezel-less design and is slated to sport better camera lenses. The One Plus 5T will be exclusive to Amazon in India.
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Apple wins $120m patent lawsuit against Samsung
Apple and Samsung’s long standing patent lawsuit has finally come to an end with Apple pocketing $150m. Samsung was accused of copying the iconic ‘slide to unlock’ feature, autocorrect and quick links. The United States Supreme Court on Monday said it will not hear Samsung’s appeal against a lower court ruling that has asked it to pay rival Apple.
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Snapchat Suffers Outage for at Least 4 Hours
Snapchat suffered a worldwide outage for nearly four hours on Tuesday. Users were unable to login into the app after they had signed out. Snapchat soon responded on Twitter saying that it was aware of the issue and was fixing the problem. Rumors of Snapchat shutting down were doing the rounds lately and this outage added more fuel to the fire but authorities addressed these stories as ‘silly’.
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SPORTS
Mary Kom Storms into Asian Boxing Championships Final
Mary Kom defeated Japan’s Tsubasa Komura to reach the finals of the Asian Championships. The five-time World Champion triumphed in a unanimous 5-0 verdict. The Indian boxer will be gunning for her fifth gold medal and standing in her way is another Indian Sonia Lather. Sonia Lather became the second Indian to move to the final after registering a win via unanimous decision against Uzbekistan’s Yodgoroy Mirzaeva in the 57 kg category semi-final.
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Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif to perform in ISL opening ceremony
The fourth season of the Indian Super League is all set to kick-off with a bang after Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif were roped in to perform at the opening ceremony. The football tournament will be held in Kochi where Atletico Kolkata will take on the Kochi Tuskers. ISL opening ceremonies have often attracted eyeballs and has featured many celebrities in the past three seasons. Altogether, 95 matches will be played this season and 10 teams will be in action, with the addition of Bengaluru FC and Jamshedpur FC.
