Shashi Tharoor touched by Modi's Malayalam tweet

New Delhi, May 27: The government has further extended the deadline for bidding to buy its entire 52.98 per cent stake in the country's second-biggest oil refiner, Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL), by over one-and-a-half months to July 31.

This is the second extension for submission of expression of interest (EoI) for BPCL stake by interested bidders. The government had first invited bids showing interest in buying its stake, by May 2. It was then extended till June 13.

This has now been extended to 5 p.m. on July 31 in "view of further requests received from the interested bidders and the prevailing situation arising out of COVID-19", an official notice put up by disinvestment department DIPAM late on Tuesday said.

Accordingly, the last date for submission of written queries or preliminary information memorandum has been pushed back to June 23 from the earlier deadline of May 16.

The disinvestment in BPCL involves the government selling its entire 52.98 per cent stake in the company to a strategic investor with transfer of management control. The government has barred PSUs from bidding for BPCL and expects private sector Indian players and global MNCs to bid for its stake. The government's stake in BPCL is worth around Rs 50,000 crore.

Perambalur, Jan 2: Veteran Tamil writer Nellai Kannan was arrested in Perambalur for criticizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah during a protest against Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

The Tirunelveli Police had registered the FIR against the writer for the speech delivered at a meeting, which was called by the Social Democratic Party of India on December 29 last year.

The police have booked him on the basis of multiple complaints filed by BJP leaders.

Kannan has been booked under Sections 504, 505(1) and 505(2) of the Indian Penal Code.

New Delhi, Jun 5: India registered its highest spike in COVID-19 cases with 9,851 more cases and 273 deaths reported in the last 24 hours. The total number of cases in India reached 2,26,770 including 1,10,960 active cases, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The Ministry informed that 1,09,462 persons have been cured/discharged/migrated while 6,348 people have succumbed to the disease so far.

Maharashtra has so far reported 77,793 cases, more than any other state in the country, while the total number of active cases in the state stands at 41,402.

In Tamil Nadu, 27,256 cases have been detected so far while Delhi has reported 25,004 coronavirus cases.