New Sri Lanka president Maithripala Sirisena renews troop deployment orders
(i) Sri Lanka's new President Maithripala Sirisena has renewed orders allowing for troops to be deployed across the island, dampening hopes Thursday of a lower-profile military presence under his rule.
(ii) Sirisena's election last month had been expected to lead to a lessening of the numbers of troops in towns and cities - particularly in former war zones - which had been a prominent feature of his hardline nationalist predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa's tenure.
(iii) During the build-up to his election victory, Sirisena promised to confine the military to their barracks and call them out only in the event of an emergency or a threat to national security.
Alibaba to invest in Paytm; enters Indian mCommerce space
(i) Alibaba will acquire 25 per cent stake in One97 Communications, the parent of mobile commerce firm Paytm, as the Chinese eCommerce giant makes its debut in the rapidly expanding mCommerce space in India.
(ii) Ant Financial Services, part of the Alibaba Group, today said in a statement it has entered in a strategic agreement to acquire "a 25 per cent stake in One97 to support the growth of mobile payment and commerce platform in India".
(iii) Alibaba is the world's biggest e-commerce firm, which raised USD 25 billion through IPO in the US last September -- the largest by any firm globally.
HDFC Bank raises close to Rs 10,000 crore in secondary market
(i) Country's largest lender by market value HDFC Bank today raised Rs 9,880 crore in the largest share sale in the secondary market by a private entity to overseas and domestic investors through a mix of qualified institutional placement and American depository shares. Merchant bankers said the issue has been successfully closed and the final pricing is expected shortly.
(ii) According to merchant bankers who include Barclays, JM Financial, Citi, JP Morgan and BofA-ML among others, said the bank opened the QIP issue first and the ADR was launched a few hours later.
N. Srinivasan wants to contest in election for the BCCI president post
(i) Former BCCI President N. Srinivasan, who is caught amidst IPL betting and spot fixing controversies, wants to return as BCCI President, according to NDTV.
(ii) Srinivasan wants to contest the BCCI elections to get his chair back. He will be holding a meeting with his loyalists on Saturday.
(iii) The former BCCI President met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday.
(iv) Jaitley made it clear to Srinivasan that he cannot go against the orders of the Supreme Court.
Taiwan plane crash: 24 victims identified
(i) Twenty-four of the 31 people killed in Wednesday’s TransAsia Airways plane crash in Taiwan have so far been identified, officials said.
(ii) Flight GE235, en route to Kinmen from Taipei with 53 passengers on board, crashed in the Keelung river on Wednesday after its wing clipped a taxi on an elevated freeway 10 minutes after takeoff, Xinhua reported.
(iii) According to official reports, 31 people have been confirmed killed, 15 injured and 12 others missing.
(iv) Besides those on the plane, a driver and a passenger in the taxi clipped by the plane before it plunged into the river were also injured.
Srinjay Bose resigns from Trinamool, Rajya Sabha
(i) Srinjay Bose, Rajya Sabha MP of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal, who was released on bail on Wednesday in the Saradha scam case, has resigned from the party.
(ii) He has also given up his Rajya Sabha seat.
(iii) In his resignation letter, Mr. Bose has admitted that politics is not his “cup of tea” and thus he has decided to resign from the primary membership of the party and his his seat in Parliament.
Kolkata Book Fair losing its charm
(i) Kolkata Book Fair is perhaps the most eagerly awaited non-religious festival that receives the highest footfall among all book fairs in Asia.
(ii) In spite of the Book Fair being the “pride of Bengal,” as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee puts it, one of Bengal's most revered poets Shankha Ghosh has decided not to visit it this year.
(iii) The Kolkata Book Fair is no longer a celebration of literature. The focus of the Fair is shifting. The space is being taken up by political parties and the State government’s prominence is increasing.
Olympic Games - New sports for Tokyo Games to be decided in 2016
(ii) In Tokyo for a review of preparations for the 2020 Games, laid out a timetable that included setting assessment criteria for proposed sports by April this year, and then go to an IOC session for determination just before the start of the Rio Olympics in August 2016.
0 comments:
Post a Comment