Sand labourer dies after jumping into river during police raid

Mangaluru, Jan 11: CISF officials detained a passenger at Mangaluru International Airport here and seized from him currencies of foreign countries worth about Rs five lakh here on Saturday.

Official sources said that the passenger, identified as Shahul Hameed Theruvath, was supposed to take the Spice jet flight SG 059 for Dubai.

During the X BIS screening process, CISF officials noticed some suspicious image in Shahul’s hand baggage.

The thorough check of bag revealed foreign currencies of various countries worth Rs 5.48 lakh. The seized currencies were 76 US dollars of 100 denomination, Chinese Yuan, Malaysian Ringgits and Turkish Lira of smaller denomination. The currencies that were in his possession did not have any legal permission.

The personnel handed over the foreign currency recovered and the passenger to Customs officials for further inquiry.

Bengaluru, Jan 15: The Indian startups secured 12.7 billion in funding last year -- a 15% growth compared to 2018 - and Bengaluru startup community topped the list, with securing $5.3 billion across 267 deals, a new report said on Tuesday.

In total, the Indian startups attracted 766 deals in 2019, taking total deal count between 2014-2019 to 5,011, said DataLabs by Inc42 in its annual startup funding report.

Sequoia took the top spot as the most active VC in 2019 with 53 deals, followed by Accel that participated in 38 deals. Blume Ventures, Matrix Partners and Tiger Global were in the top five VCs in 2019.

"The Indian startup economy is entering new decade with over $58 billion in fundraising and 2,984 funded startups between 2014-2019," the findings showed.

With an average of $21 million, the ticket size value of funding increased by 15% in 2019.

Ecommerce and fintech -- with $2.6 billion funding each -- took the top slot with 93 deals and 125 deals, respectively.

"Ecommerce continued to remain at the top by the end of 2019. The growing investor confidence towards sub-sectors such as vertical ecommerce, social commerce and private label businesses is one major factor for ecommerce maintaining its lead," a DataLabs spokesperson said in a statement.

According to the estimates, the funding amount and deal count in 2020 will be around $12.6 billion at a 1% decline from 2019.

"Nevertheless, the investment activity is expected to rise in 2021," said the report.

The data suggests that 2019 had lowest number of startups funded (664) in the last five years, with seed-stage funding deals dropping by 53%, compared to 2016.

With $252 million in funding, seed-stage deal value fell by 44% (compared to 2018) as only 306 seed funding deals were recorded, the report said.

The enterprise tech had a blockbuster year with total funding of $1.15 billion across 114 deals in 2019. The sector recorded a 49% surge in total funding amount, compared to 2018.

The Indian startup economy saw 275 unique VCs participating in funding in 2019, said the report.

Mangaluru, Apr 12: Dakshina Kannada district in-charge minister Kota Srinivas Poojary on Saturday, April 11, welcomed the State government’s decision to permit fishing during the lockdown that’s now extended till April 30.

“We welcome the Centre’s decision to permit fishing during the lockdown. This directive comes as a huge relief for the fishing community,” Poojary told newsmen here.

Poojary informed that 14,000 boats will be deployed for fishing. Keeping the need for social distancing in mind only five crew members will be allowed on a boat. The boats can set sail in the morning and should return by evening.