Top Stories on 23 March in a capsule
Trump orders ban on most 'transgender troops' from serving in the military
US President Donald Trump released an order on Friday night banning most transgender troops from serving in the military except under 'limited circumstances'. The White House said retaining troops with a history or diagnosis of 'gender dysphoria' - those who might require substantial medical treatment - 'presents a considerable risk to military effectiveness and lethality'. Trump surprised the Pentagon's leadership in a 2017 tweet when he declared he would reverse an Obama-era plan to allow transgender individuals to serve openly.
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Elon Musk delete FB pages of his companies
CEO of American aerospace company SpaceX and carmaker company Tesla, Elon Musk in Friday deleted the Facebook pages of his companies over a Twitter challenge. The entire issue started with Musk reacting to a tweet about electronic company Sonos pulling its ads off Facebook for a week. A series of tweets led to Brian Acton, co-founder of Facebook owned messaging service WhatsApp daring Musk to delete facebook, after which Musk deleted the official pages that had over 2 million likes. The move comes amidst the controversy of Cambridge Analytics firm that is accused of stealing Facebook data of over 50 million users to influence elections of several countries.
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Rajya Sabha elections: BJP emerges as the largest party
The Rajya Sabha elections held on Friday witnessed the BJP emerging as the largest party in the polls that featured 25 seats of 6 states. In Uttar Pradesh, which had the largest number of 10 seats, the BJP won 9 while Samajawadi Party managed only one. The Congress won 3 seats in Karnataka out of 4, with one going to BJP’s. Apart from the two national parties, the TMC in West Bengal won 4 out of 5 seats, Telangana Rashtra Samita won all the 3 seats of its state, while the JD(U) backed by Left Democratic Front in Kerala took away the single seat.
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France supermarket attack: ISIS gunman shot dead after killing 3
Gunman belonging to Islamist terror group, ISIS was shot dead by French security forces on Friday, after a four hour showdown that killed 3 civilians and wounded 5. The gunman attacked the deceased, holding more than 8 people as captive in the market and one policeman was injured. The accused has been identified as Redouane Ladkim, a local offender wanted for minor crimes including drug offences. Reacting to the incident, President Emmanuel Macron expressed his ‘determination to fight terror forces. "I want to state my absolute determination to the nation to lead this fight,” Macron told media outlets.
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CBI arrests directors of Hyderabad firm accused of fraud
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday arrested director of a Hyderabad based construction company for cheating 8 banks off Rs 1,394 croes. The CBI registered a case against directors of a construction company Totem Infrastructure Limited, Tottempudi Salalith on Friday. A lookout notice was issued against the directors who were on the run after the Union Bank of India accused them of fraud. According to a news agency, the company had also featured in Income Tax’s list of biggest loan defaulters in 2015 with an outstanding tax of Rs 400 crores.
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12 states do not have a corruption checking body, SC asks why
The Supreme Court on Thursday pulled up the Chief Secretaries of 12 states on why they haven’t appointed a Lokayukta. A Lokayukta is a commission body appointed by the government to check on corruption. According to the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act of 2013, every state is supposed to establish a Lokayukta commission. The 12 states that have been listed are Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi and West Bengal. The court made the observation while hearing a PIL by Delhi lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhya, who mentioned that state governments are ‘weakening’ the Lokayukta by not providing sufficient budget, specific infrastructure, and workforce for it. The bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi and R Banumathi directed the states to tell the specific dates of when they will be appointing a Lokayukta.
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Nifty below 10,000 points 1st time after Oct 2017
Indian indices closed on a five-month low on Friday as trade war fears between US and China disturbed market sentiment. The Sensex tanked 409 points to close at 32,596 while the Nifty declined 116 points to close at 9,998 points. US President Donald Trump introduced $50 billion in tariffs on Chinese imports. Also, the new fraud cases involving Union Bank of India and SBI added to the decline. Both the indices lost 1% today. The Sensex has fallen 10% from their record highs since January. The day’s losses of the investors were over 1.57 lakh crore rupees. While Infosys, Coal India, and Mahindra & Mahindra were the top gainers, Yes Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI and Axis Bank lost the most.
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Tamil Nadu farmers get Rs 5 as compensation
Few farmers of Tamil Nadu, on Friday, in a shocking incident, have received cheques of Rs 7, Rs 10 and even as low as Rs 5, as compensation for crop loss from the state government. The cheques were given to the farmers from Dindigul Central Cooperative Bank to help cope with agricultural distress. The Tamil Nadu government has admitted to the mistake, citing wrong distribution of cheques in the village. As per the crop insurance policy, farmers can receive up to Rs 26,000 per acre for paddy yield loss, Rs 12,000 for pulses, and Rs 20,000 for millets.
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