Sensex sinks 792 points to close below 35,000-mark

Agencies
October 5, 2018

Mumbai, Oct 5: The BSE Sensex plunged 792 points on Friday to end at a near six-month low of 34,376.99 after the RBI unexpectedly maintained status quo on the policy rate but changed its stance to "calibrated tightening" amid the rupee breaching the 74-mark.

The central bank kept the interest rate unchanged at 6.5 per cent.

Sentiments were also bearish largely in tandem with a sell-off in global markets as US Treasury yields surged to multi-year highs on robust economic data and comments from the Federal Reserve, sparking fears of accelerating inflation, brokers said.

The Indian rupee Friday crashed below the 74-level against the US dollar for the first time ever after the Reserve Bank kept its key policy rate unchanged.

The domestic currency was quoting 65 paise lower at 74.23 (intra-day) against the dollar soon after the RBI announced its monetary policy.

The 30-share index remained in the negative zone through the session. Selling activity gathered momentum after the RBI kept rates unchanged but changed its stance to "calibrated tightening". The benchmark hit a low of 34,202.22, before finishing 792.17 points, or 2.25 per cent down at 34,376.99.

This is its lowest closing since April 23 when it had finished at 34,450.77 points.

The gauge had lost 1,356.98 points in the previous two sessions on rupee woes and boiling crude oil prices.

The wider National Stock Exchange index Nifty too tanked 282.80 points, or 2.67 per cent to close at 10,316.45 points. Intra-day, it hit a low of 10,261.90 soon after RBI's policy announcement.

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted 5:1 in favour of a status quo, with only Chetan Ghate voting for a 0.25 per cent hike.

The MPC, headed by RBI Governor Urjit Patel, said that the recent excise duty cut on petrol and diesel will help contain inflation.

RBI maintained growth estimate at 7.4 per cent for current fiscal and projected retail inflation to rise to 3.8-4.5 per cent in October-March.

Marketmen were expecting the six-member Monetary Policy Committee to go for at least a 0.25 per cent hike at the review.

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News Network
July 25,2020

New Delhi, Jul 25: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday accused the government of benefitting by making profits during the coronavirus-induced lockdown when people were in trouble.

He tagged a news report that claimed the Indian Railways was making profit by running 'Shramik trains' for transporting migrants during the pandemic.

"There are clouds of disease and people are in trouble, but one seeks to benefit -- this anti-people government is converting a disaster into profits and is earning," he said in a tweet in Hindi.

The news report claimed that the railways made a profit of Rs 428 crore by running Shramik special trains during the lockdown that transported migrants to their native places.

In another tweet, he lauded the efforts of the Himachal government in conducting a survey to select 'one district, one product', saying he had suggested this sometime back.

"This is a good idea. I had suggested it some time back. Its implementation will need a complete change of mindset," he said on Twitter.

He also tagged a report that stated the state Industries Department is conducting a baseline survey in all districts to select one district, one product for centrally-sponsored Micro and Small Enterprises Cluster Development Programme (MSE-CDP). 

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News Network
March 5,2020

New Delhi, Mar 5: A Delhi court Thursday issued fresh death warrants for execution of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case for March 20 at 5.30 am.

Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana fixed March 20 as the new date of execution after it was told by the Delhi government that the convicts have exhausted all their legal remedies.

The lawyer for the four death row convicts also told the court that there was no legal impediment for the court to proceed in fixing the date of execution.

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News Network
March 27,2020

New Delhi, Mar 27: The Delhi government has arranged to serve lunch and dinner to the needy in 325 schools in Delhi, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Friday amid reports of people going hungry without access to food during the ongoing nationwide lockdown.

From Saturday, arrangements will be put in place to feed about four lakh people daily at different centres across Delhi, he said addressing the media. "We have made arrangements to provide lunch and dinner in 325 schools. Around 500 people will be provided with food in all these schools. So far we were providing food to 20,000 people daily, the number will now increase to around 2,00,000 from today."

He also said that "from tomorrow, we'll be providing food to 4,00,000 people daily. We're distributing the centres across Delhi."

Stating that the total number of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases in Delhi is now 39, Kejriwal said "We are ready to face any challenge.".

"There are a total of 39 coronavirus positive cases in Delhi as of today, of which 29 cases are of those who had come from outside and were kept in quarantine and 10 of these were cases of local transmission," said Kejriwal at a press conference.

The Chief Minister said that a team of 5 doctors has been set up to look into the preparedness needed to deal with an increase in the number of positive cases for coronavirus in future.

He said, "The team of doctors under the chairmanship of Dr Shiv Kumar Sarin, the head of Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, presented a detailed report on March 26 on the preparedness needed to deal with a situation if the number of positive cases for coronavirus increases."

"The report has categorized three situations - if the number of positive cases increases to 100 per day, 500 per day and 1000 per day," he said while adding that the doctors have clearly stated what preparedness should be taken for each situation including the number of ventilators, isolation beds, doctors and nurses required.

He also cited concerns raised by chief ministers of several states including Jharkhand's Hemant Soren and West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee.

Kejriwal said "we consider all those living in Delhi as Delhiites and everyone will be taken care of."
The number of cases tested positive for coronavirus rose to 724 on Friday, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. 

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