(FE) The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has hit the brakes on its decision to raise the toll tax across India, starting April 1, following the instructions from the Election Commission of India (ECI), The Indian Express reported. The revision in the decision came a day after it was announced that the user fee rates at NH Fee Plazas will increase from April 1. The NHAI has gone back on the decision until the end of Lok Sabha polls. An NHAI official said that due to the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) which has been enforced during the General Election the ECI instructed…
Author: Aruna Sharma
(HT) Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief JP Nadda, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, defence minister Rajnath Singh and Union home minister Amit Shah have been named on the list of 40 star campaigners for the party in 2024 Lok Sabha polls for UP. As per the Election Commission’s model code, a recognised party can have a maximum of 40 star campaigners. The list of star campaigners also includes Rajasthan chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma, Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami, Madhya Pradesh CM Mohan Yadav, BJP’s national vice-president and UP’s election in-charge Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda, UP BJP chief Bhupendra Chaudhary,…
(FE) India’s crude oil imports rose to 5.2 million barrels per day in March, the highest level since early 2020 amid increased refinery runs by the Indian refiners, an analysis of the data provided by intelligence firm Kpler showed. Imports were 11% higher than February volumes and up 4.5% from 4.9 million barrels a day in March 2023. Additionally, the country’s crude oil imports from Russia rose to 1.8 million barrels per day in March, highest after the July of last year primarily on the back of higher discharge of Urals, according to the data. Imports were, however, slightly down from 1.87 million barrels…
(BS) Tata Passenger Electric Mobility on Wednesday said it has tied up with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd to set up 5,000 public charging stations across the country by the end of the year. The collaboration will leverage Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL’s) fuel station network and company’s insights from over 1.2 lakh Tata EVs on Indian roads, to set up chargers at locations frequently visited by Tata EV owners, Tata Passenger Electric Mobility (TPEM), a unit of Tata Motors, said in a statement. The companies are also exploring the introduction of a convenient payment system through a co-branded RFID card,…
(PTI) State-owned engineering firm Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) has received an order worth Rs 4,000 crore from Adani Power Limited for setting up the 1,600 MW Raigarh Phase-II Thermal Power Plant at Raigarh, Chhattisgarh. BHEL in a filing said that it received a Letter of Award on March 27, 2024, for the supply of equipment and supervision of erection & commissioning for 2×800 MW power project based on supercritical technology at Raigarh Phase II, Chhattisgarh. The boiler and Turbine Generator are to be manufactured at BHEL’s Trichy and Haridwar plants respectively.
(PTI) Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said that all major political parties have encashed electoral bonds and nobody has a moral authority to say anything as it was legal and according to law. She also said that in view of the Supreme Court’s judgement against electoral bonds, more debate is needed to come out with a better system for electoral funding. Replying to a question at Times Now Summit here, the minister said the law, which has now been quashed by the apex court, was passed by Parliament and the bonds were purchased as per the prevailing law at…
(IE) India’s mineral production from mining and quarrying grew 5.9% year-on-year, a Press Information Bureau (PIB) report said on Wednesday. The country produced over 99.8 million tonnes of coal in the period on the back of rising power demand. India, the world’s second-largest coal user, generated record-high coal-fired electricity in January as rising demand for air conditioning meant that power generation firms did not make big cuts to the use of coal and other fossil fuels. Other minerals such as iron ore, a key raw material for steel, reported a nearly 41% year-on-year growth in sales value amid growing steel…
(TH) A day ahead of his planned departure, Prime Minister Narendra Modi put off his visit to Bhutan due to “inclement weather”, an announcement made simultaneously by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Bhutanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday evening. The visit is being rescheduled, although no dates were given. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was due to land in Paro, Bhutan’s only international airport at present, and travel to the capital Thimphu on Thursday morning, and return by the same route on Friday morning. However, with heavy rain and possible snowfall in Paro predicted to continue on Thursday,…
(NDTV) Taking a strong step to ensure compliance with the model code of conduct, the Election Commission has directed the Union government to “immediately halt” Viksit Bharat messages being sent over WhatsApp. The poll panel has also instructed the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to immediately submit a compliance report. Thursday’s action by the Election Commission comes after it received several complaints about the model code being violated by MeitY sending the messages. In response, the ministry had informed the panel that the messages, which contain a letter from the Prime Minister, were sent out on March 15 – before…
(MC) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on March 19 said it has imposed monetary penalty on DCB Bank and Tamilnad Mercantile Bank for rule violations. The central bank imposed Rs 63.60 lakh penalty on DCB Bank and Rs 1.32 crore on Tamilnad Mercantile Bank, said a release from the central bank. Tamilnad Mercantile Bank was penalised as it failed to benchmark the interest rate on certain floating rate loans to MSMEs to an external benchmark lending rate and adopted multiple benchmarks within the same loan category, the RBI said. Further, the bank also failed to price certain floating rate loans with reference to…