Mysuru, Mar 2: Vidwan T P Vaidyanathan, renowned vocalist and a front-line artiste in the musical lineage of Mysore Vasudevacharya, died here in a private hospital following age related illness.
He was 85.
Born in 1934, Vaidyanathan was attracted to music at a very early age and his musical talents were nurtured by Vidwan B K Padmanabha Rao, a direct disciple of Vasudevacharya.
Feb 13: Two Indian crew on board a cruise ship off the Japanese coast have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the Indian Embassy in Japan said on Wednesday as authorities confirmed that 174 people have been infected with the deadly disease.
The cruise ship Diamond Princess with 3,711 people on board arrived at the Japanese coast early last week and was quarantined after a passenger who de-boarded last month in Hong Kong was found to be the carrier of the novel virus on the ship.
A total of 138 Indians, including passengers and crew, were on board the ship.
“Due to the suspicion of novel coronavirus (nCoV) infection, the ship has been quarantined by the Japanese authorities till February 19, 2020,” the embassy said in a statement.
“Altogether 174 people have been tested positive for nCoV, including two Indian crew members,” it said.
All the infected people have been taken to hospitals for adequate treatment, including further quarantine, in accordance with the Japanese health protocol, it said.
Mumbai, Jun 9: Actor Sonu Sood, who has been arranging transport for migrant workers stranded in Mumbai and has faced criticism from the Shiv Sena for "enacting a political script written by BJP", was stopped outside the Bandra Terminus in Mumbai by police from meeting labourers.
A Mumbai Police official said the actor was stopped by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) when he reached the station on Monday night to meet some labourers, and added that they have not received any complaint so far in this connection.
The migrant labourers were supposed to take the Shramik Special train from Bandra Terminus to Uttar Pradesh.
Mumbai's Nirmal Nagar police station's senior inspector Shashikant Bhandare told news agency PTI that "The actor was stopped by the RPF, not by us. He wanted to meet labourers who were going to their native place. We have not received any complaint regarding this till now."
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Sunday wondered whether the BJP propped up Sonu Sood to "offer help" to migrant workers from north India stranded in Maharashtra amidst the lockdown, with the political motive to show the Uddhav Thackeray government in poor light.
In his weekly column 'Rokhthok' in Shiv Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana', Sanjay Raut questioned the sudden rise of "Mahatma" Sood on the social scene of Maharashtra during the lockdown.
Mr Raut also referred to an alleged "sting operation" against Sonu Sood ahead of the 2019 general elections, saying he had agreed to promote the BJP-led government at various platforms through his official social media accounts.
However, later that day Chief Minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray lauded Sonu Sood's initiative to arrange buses for stranded migrant workers.
The actor met Uddhav Thackeray at the latter's residence 'Matoshree' in suburban Bandra on Sunday night.
On Monday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh backed Sonu Sood for his work for stranded migrant workers, and questioned the Maharashtra government's criticism of the actor.
New Delhi, Jan 13: Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, has fired around 50 of its India executives as part of its restructuring in the country, three sources with direct knowledge said.
The move underscores the struggles Walmart has faced in expanding its wholesale business in India. The Bentonville, Arkansas based company currently operates 28 wholesale stores where it sells goods to small shopkeepers, and not to retail consumers.
The firings mostly affected executives in the company’s real estate division because the growth in the wholesale model has not been that robust, two of the sources said.
“It’s happening because focus is shifting to e-commerce rather than physical (stores),” said one source, who declined to be identified as the decision is not public.
Walmart did not respond to a request for comment.
Walmart has placed bold bets on India’s e-commerce sector. In 2018, it paid $16 billion to acquire a majority stake in India’s online marketplace Flipkart, in its biggest global acquisition.
The second source added that while Walmart could slow down the pace of opening new wholesale stores, the focus will increasingly be on boosting sales through business-to-business and retail e-commerce.
Some of the executives were sacked last week and more could be let go on Monday, two sources said.
In a statement to India’s Economic Times newspaper, which first reported the news, Walmart said it was always looking for ways to operate more effectively and that “this requires us to review our corporate structure to ensure that we are organized in the right way to best meet the needs of our members.”
Walmart has around 600 staff in its India head office out of a total of around 5,300 nationally, one of the sources said.
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