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News-As-It-Happened: Vijay's Mersal controversy ends, producers ready to remove scenes

This blog will keep track of key global and local developments impacting business and markets through the day. Important local and global political developments will also find resonance here.

October 21, 2017 / 09:10 pm IST

This is a wrap for News Live today, stay with Moneycontrol for more news and happenings.

09:07 A dominant India continued their unbeaten run in the tournament and thrashed arch-rivals Pakistan 4-0 to sail into the final of the 10th men's Asia Cup hockey tournament in Dhaka on Saturday, reports PTI. The sixth ranked India, who just needed a draw to seal a place in Sunday's summit clash, produced a superlative performance after the change of ends to pump in four goals -- three field strikes and one through penalty corner.

Satbir Singh (39th minute), Harmanpreet Singh (51st), Lalit Upadhyay (52nd) and Gurjant Singh (57th) were the scorers for India. By virtue of this win, India not only topped the Super 4 stage with seven points, but also continued their domination over Pakistan. It was India's fourth win over Pakistan this year, having beaten them twice in the Hockey World League Semi-finals in London and once in the pool stages here. The defeat knocked Pakistan out of the final race and India will now play either Korea or Malaysia, who play later in the day, in the final.

20:46 US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he will allow long blocked secret files on the 1963 assassination of John F Kennedy to be opened to the public for the first time, reports AFP. The November 22, 1963 assassination -- an epochal event in modern US history -- has spawned multiple theories challenging the official version that Kennedy was killed a lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald. So the release of all the secret documents has been eagerly anticipated by historians and conspiracy theorists alike.

Trump's announcement followed reports that not all the files would be released, possibly to protect still relevant intelligence sources and methods. But Trump appears to have decided otherwise. "Subject to the receipt of further information, I will be allowing, as President, the long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened," he said in the tweet. The files are due to be opened in their entirety on Thursday nearly 54 years after Kennedy's assassination in Dallas -- unless the US president decides otherwise.

20:40 Joining the Aadhaar seeding debate, public sector banks' officer union has demanded that mandatory linking of biometric identity number should be put on hold till such time the Supreme Court comes out with a clear directive, reports PTI. Another organisation All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) has also registered their protest against instructions given by some of the banks to designate certain branches as special cells for enrolment of Aadhaar.

The government should make it clear before the common citizens of the country that the seeding of Aadhaar is purely voluntary and not mandatory, All India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC) said in a statement. "The advisory to this effect should also be passed to all the stakeholders. We also demand that the government should look for alternatives or add more workforce into banks to implement Aadhaar related works in the public sector banks," AIBOC General Secretary DT Franco said.

20:18 Barcelona will offer Lionel Messi a lifetime contract at the club, CEO Oscar Grau said on Saturday. Messi, 30, agreed a four-year deal with Barcelona in July, although has not officially signed it yet, reports Reuters. Grau, speaking at the club’s annual general meeting, said the Argentine forward would be offered a similar deal to the one Barca’s Spanish midfielder Andres Iniesta signed this month. “Messi signed a four-year deal in June, but the club will offer him a lifetime contract,” Grau told club members. “The idea is for Leo, who has been here since he was little, to stay here for life, as he is an icon. After he finishes playing we want him to remain linked to the club.”

20:14 Navratna CPSE National Aluminium Company is faced with coal shortage leading to closure of three units of the company's captive power plant and curtailment of production, reports PTI. While the aluminium major required at least 17,500 MT of coal everyday, it is getting only 13,000 MT from Bharatpur mines of Mahanadi Coalfields.

The company had to close down three units of its captive power plant, a Nalco official said adding that each of the units has a production capacity of 120 MW. "The coal crunch is affecting Nalco and its profitability," Nalco CMD Tapan Kumar Chand said on the sidelines of a function here. He said he has sought immediate solution to the coal crisis. The company is able to run its refinery by borrowing 120 MW power from GRIDCO.

19:53 ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel company, has joined the bidding race for stressed steel assets in the country by expressing interest to acquire Bhushan Steel, reports The Economic Times. The LN Mittal-led ArcelorMittal has submitted an expression of interest (EoI) for Bhushan Steel, which has been referred to National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. This provides ArcelorMittal, which failed to make much headway in setting up greenfield steel projects in India, an opening to pick up good steel assets in the country at what is widely believed to be reasonable prices, sources said.

Bhushan Steel has a significant presence in auto steel categories with a 5.6-million tonne integrated steel unit, including a cold rolled facility, in Odisha. The company owes nearly Rs 42,000 crore to lender banks and was admitted into NCLT in July 2017. It is one of the two biggest companies to have been admitted under insolvency proceedings this year along with Essar Steel.

19:30 'I am being sacked', Cyrus Mistry texts wife. new blog post by former Tata Sons executive Nirmalya Kumar traces the chain of events on the day Cyrus Mistry was sacked.

19:21 A war of words on Saturday broke out between the BJP and the Congress over Rahul Gandhi's rising popularity on Twitter after news agency ANI suggested 'bots' or web robots that can produce automated mass retweets were behind it. Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani took to the microblogging website to suggest that the retweets were from fake accounts abroad.

"Perhaps @OfficeOfRG planning to sweep polls in Russia, Indonesia & Kazakhstan ?? #RahulWaveInKazakh," she said in a tweet which tagged the media report. Questioning whether automated bots were mass retweeting Gandhi's tweets, the report said that on October 15, 'OfficeofRG' retweeted US President Donald Trump's tweet praising American-Pakistani relations with a caption 'Modi ji quick, looks like President Trump needs another hug'.

The tweet quickly reached 20,000 retweets and currently has touched 30,000, the report claimed, adding a close analysis of this tweet showed that these alleged 'bots' with a Russian, Kazakh or Indonesian characteristic were routinely retweeting the Congress vice president's tweets.

18:42 The Spanish government decided on Saturday to sack the secessionist leadership of Catalonia and force the region into a new election, saying it had to take the unprecedented step to prevent the region pushing ahead with independence, reports Reuters. The plan, which still requires the approval of the upper house Senate, seeks to resolve Spain’s worst political crisis in four decades but risks an angry reaction from independence supporters, who plan street protests later in the day. In outlining the cabinet’s decision, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said the Catalan economy, which accounts for a fifth of the national economy, was already in worrying shape as a result of the regional’s government push for independence.

17:43 Search engine giant Google on Saturday celebrated the 187th birth anniversary of intrepid Himalayan explorer Nain Singh Rawat, the first man to survey Tibet, with a special doodle, reports PTI. Born in 1830, Rawat hailed from the Johar Valley of Kumaon in present-day Uttarakhand and was one of the first Indians who explored the Himalayas for the British. He was part of a select group of indigenous surveyors in the second half of the 19th century, also known as pandits, who explored regions to the north of India.

17:34 The value of corporate deals with sovereign wealth fund (SWF) participation halved in the third quarter as oil-driven funds continued to take a back seat. Asian funds GIC of Singapore and CIC of China made all the running. According to Thomson Reuters data, SWFs participated in deals worth just $14.1 billion, down from a revised $28.3 billion April-June, even though the number of deals rose to 38 from 31 quarter-on-quarter. The second quarter’s total, however, was swollen by China Investment Corp’s (CIC) whopping $13.7 billion acquisition of warehouse firm Logicor, Europe’s biggest ever private equity real estate deal. In a continuation of the previous quarter’s trend, CIC and GIC remained the most acquisitive funds, with CIC involved in 14 deals and GIC 10.

16:54 RBI clarifies that linking Aadhaar to bank accounts is mandatory

Clearing the air on media reports that suggested the linking of Aadhaar to bank accounts was not mandatory, the central bank on Saturday clarified that such a linkage was mandatory under government laws. "The Reserve Bank clarifies that, in applicable cases, linkage of Aadhaar number to bank account is mandatory under the Prevention of Money-laundering (Maintenance of Records) Second Amendment Rules, 2017 published in the Official Gazette on June 1, 2017," RBI said in a statement on its website. "These rules have statutory force and, as such, banks have to implement them without awaiting further instructions," RBI added.

16:49 Nobody explained the consequences of Brexit to the British people: Macron

French President Emmanuel Macron told CNBC on Friday that the problem that UK Prime Minister Theresa May has is that nobody explained to the British people the consequences of a Brexit vote. When asked if the European Union would be able to make some verbal concessions to allow May to sell a Brexit deal at home, Macron said that there's no room for such unofficial compromises.

"There are concessions to make from both negotiating teams during phase one, but we aren't going to make concessions based on discourse," he said. "The objectives are fixed, they're conducted from the European side by Michel Barnier, and we have to respect that," Macron said, referring to the EU's approach of discussing citizens' rights, financial settlement and the Irish border, before moving on to talks on trade. "I believe the problem that Theresa May has is that those who defended Brexit have never explained to the British people what the consequences are," he stated.

16:38 The Spanish cabinet was meeting on Saturday to prepare to impose direct rule on Catalonia and thwart a drive by the autonomous region to breakaway from Spain, reports CNBC. It will be the first time in Spain's four decades of democracy that Madrid has invoked the constitutional right to take control of a region and rule it directly from Madrid. Independence supporters were due to rally in the Catalan capital Barcelona on Saturday afternoon. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy insists that Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, who heads the wealthy northeastern region's government, has broken the law several times in pushing for independence, thus justifying the imposition of central government control.

16:28 Cyclical stocks lifted European shares on Friday, recovering some losses as well-received earnings reports boosted shares in Volvo and Ericsson, though ongoing political malaise held back Spanish equities, reports Reuters. The pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.1%, rebounding from its lowest closing level so far in October. Spain's benchmark IBEX was in negative territory, however, down 0.2% ahead of a Saturday’s special cabinet meeting which could see Spain suspending Catalonia's autonomy. While the IBEX is still up around 9% so far this year, it has lagged the STOXX 600 in October, down around 1.7% since Catalonia’s independence referendum on October 1.

16:26 In the wake of rising pollution due to bursting of firecrackers, industry body Assocham on Saturday said clean environment should be a combined responsibility of the Centre, state governments, civil society and public at large, and not of the apex court alone, reports PTI. The industry body said enforcement of the Supreme court order banning sale of firecrackers should have been ensured by the Union Environment Ministry, Delhi government, the state governments of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana in the entire NCR. Air pollution in the capital soared to alarming levels on Diwali night, reaching as much as five times over the safe limit because of bursting of firecrackers despite a Supreme Court ban on their sale in the NCR.

16:12 Hoping to garner support of various communities in Gujarat polls, the state Congress on Saturday invited Patidar quota stir spearhead Hardik Patel, Thakor community leader Alpesh Thakor and dalit leader Jignesh Mevani to join hands with the party to defeat the ruling BJP, reports PTI. Apart from these leaders, the Congress also hinted at forging a pre-poll alliance with Sharad Pawar-led NCP and bringing on board Chhotu Vasava, the lone JD(U) MLA from the state.

16:05 US stocks closed higher on Friday after the Senate took a step toward achieving tax reform, reports CNBC. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 165.59 points to 23,328.63, reaching intraday and closing records. The S&P 500 also notched record highs, advancing 0.5% to close at 2,575.21 as financials led advancers by rising 1.2%. The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.4% to 6,629.05 in a record-setting session. The Dow, S&P and Nasdaq also posted weekly gains of 2%, 0.9% and 0.35%, respectively.

15:45 Pyongyang does not plan to hold any talks with Washington about its nuclear program, a senior North Korean diplomat said on Friday, declaring that possessing nuclear weapons was a matter of life and death for North Korea, the RIA news agency reported. Choe Son-hui, director-general of the North American department of North Korea’s foreign ministry, told a non-proliferation conference in Moscow Washington would “have to put up” with North Korea’s nuclear status. “This is a matter of life and death for us. The current situation deepens our understanding that we need nuclear weapons to repel a potential attack. We will respond to fire with fire.”

15:38 The US budget deficit widened to $666 billion for the fiscal year 2017 as record spending more than offset record receipts, the Treasury Department said on Friday. The 2017 deficit increased to 3.5% of gross domestic product, reports Reuters. The previous fiscal year deficit was $586 billion, with a deficit-to-GDP ratio of 3.2%.

15:36 Bitcoin surged to a record high of more than $6,000 on Friday, pushing its market capitalisation to $100 billion at one point, as investors continued to bet on an asset that has a limited supply and has paved the way for a whole slew of crypto-currencies, reports Reuters. The original virtual currency has gained over 500% this year, more than any other tradable asset class. Bitcoin though is very volatile - posting gains and losses as high as 26% and 16%, respectively, on any given day. On Friday, bitcoin hit a record peak $6,000.10 on the BitStamp platform, and was last at $5,964.24, up 4.7% on the day.

15:31 US President Donald Trump is expected to pressure China’s president when they meet next month in Beijing to do more to rein in North Korea out of a belief that Xi Jinping’s consolidation of power should give him more authority to do so, reports Reuters. Trump leaves November 3 on a trip that will take him to Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. It will be his first tour of Asia since taking power in January and one with a major priority: Preventing the standoff with North Korea from spiralling out of control.

Xi is immersed in a Communist Party Congress expected to culminate in him consolidating his control and potentially retaining power beyond 2022, when the next congress takes place. Trump believes that Xi should have even more leverage to work on the North Korea problem. “The president’s view is you have even less of an excuse now,” said one official. “He’s not going to step lightly.”

15:24 President Donald Trump is considering nominating Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell and Stanford University economist John Taylor for the central bank’s top two jobs, in an apparent bid to reassure markets and appease conservatives hungry for change, reports Reuters. Under that scenario, either Powell or Taylor would take the reins from Fed Chair Janet Yellen when her term expires in early February, and the other would fill the vice chair position left vacant when Stanley Fischer retired this month.

14:52 Don't 'demon-etise' Tamil pride, Rahul Gandhi attacks PM Modi on Mersal row

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi jumped into the Mersal controversy and asked PM Narendra Modi to not try and "demon-etise" Tamil pride.

"Mr. Modi, Cinema is a deep expression of Tamil culture and language. Don't try to demon-etise Tamil pride by interfering in Mersal (sic)," tweeted the soon-to-be party president.


Read the full story here.14:40 Aadhaar card not mandatory to get ration in Jharkhand: Minister

The Jharkhand government today said Aadhaar card was not mandatory to collect food grains from the public distribution system after a 11-year-old girl allegedly died of starvation.

Local activists had alleged that the girl died of starvation on September 28 after her family was denied ration for the want of an Aadhaar-linked ration card.

Read the full story here.


14:25 The Information & Broadcast Ministry has said that it will not interfere in the 'Mersal' controversy as the film has already been passed by the Censor Board.

14:15 PM Modi is with us, nobody can shake AIADMK: Tamil Nadu Minister

Tamil Nadu Minister KT Rajendra Balaji has said "nobody can shake" the AIADMK as long as Prime Minister Narendra Modi "supports the party".

Expressing confidence that Chief Minister K Palaniswami's camp would get the 'two leaves' symbol, the State Dairy Minister said, "The symbol will come to EPS camp... there is no doubt about it."

Addressing a party meeting here late last night, he said as along as "Prime Minister Narendra Modi is with us, nobody can shake our party... nobody can destroy AIADMK...."

Read the full story here.

13:55 China economy on track to hit 2017 growth target: State planner

China's economy is on track to meet the official growth target for 2017, the head of the state planning agency said today, according to Reuters.

"We expect to achieve the full-year growth target of about 6.5 percent," He Lifeng, chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), told a briefing on the sidelines of China's Communist Party Congress.

Most economists believe actual growth should easily beat the target. The economy grew 6.8 percent in the third quarter of the year, and 6.9 percent in the first half.

13:33 Nearly 37 lakh GST returns for September have been filed till 19:00 hours and 75,000 sales data is being uploaded on the GSTN portal on hourly basis, its Chairman Ajay Bhushan Pandey said.

The deadline for filing the initial returns in GSTR- 3B for September under the Goods and Services Tax regime ends midnight yesterday.

Read the full story here.

13:08 Overall earnings season will also be closely watched due to the impact of GST that has been implemented with effect from July 1. The full impact of new tax system will be reflected in Q2 earnings.

Here's the Market Week Ahead: Q2 earnings of Infosys & top banks among 10 things to keep investors busy.

12:55 Typhoon could hamper tomorrow's snap election

Heavy rain and powerful winds are expected to lash large areas of Japan tomorrow as a strong typhoon sweeps ashore, possibly hindering voter turnout in a national election.

Typhoon Lan was classified as an intense Category 4 storm on Saturday, with winds of up to 250 km/h (156 mph), according to the Tropical Storm Risk web site.

12:23 Foreign leaders can't think they can get away with meeting exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama just because they are doing it in a personal capacity, as they still represent their government, a senior Chinese official said on Saturday.

China considers the Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, to be a dangerous separatist. The Nobel Peace Prize winning monk says he simply seeks genuine autonomy for his Himalayan homeland.

Read the full story here.

12:03 Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit poll-bound Gujarat tomorrow for the third time this month, where he will inaugurate and lay foundation stones for a number of projects in Bhavnagar and Vadodara districts.

Modi will inaugurate the first phase of the Rs 615-crore 'roll-on, roll-off (ro-ro)' ferry service between Ghogha in Bhavnagar district and Dahej in Bharuch in the Gulf of Cambay.

11:43 Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has said greater co-operation between India and the US would help boost agricultural production and yield promising results for both countries.

The US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) in collaboration with the Iowa State University organised a special session on agriculture as part of the World Food Prize meetings this week. Naidu was visiting the US to attend the meeting.

Read the full story here.

11:25 China's ruling Communist Party continues to hold talks and maintain contacts with its North Korean counterpart, a senior official said on Saturday, describing the two countries friendship as important for regional stability, according to Reuters.

While the United States and its allies, and many people in China, believe Beijing should do more to rein in Pyongyang, the acceleration of North Korea's nuclear and missile capabilities has coincided with a near-total breakdown of high-level diplomacy between the two.

Read the full story here.


11:16

10:58 Delhi Metro's Blue Line services were disrupted due to a technical snag

Delhi Metro’s Blue Line services were disrupted today morning during the rush hours due to a technical problem, media reports have claimed.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has however not released an official statement revealing the exact reason behind the problem so far.

10:41 Malaysia Airlines picks new CEO

Malaysia Airlines named veteran senior executive Izham Ismail as its new CEO after his predecessor's shock departure dealt a fresh blow to the struggling carrier.

Izham, currently Malaysia Airlines chief operating officer, will be the carrier's fourth chief executive since 2014 when the company was plunged into crisis by the disappearance of flight MH370 and the downing of MH17.

The last CEO, Peter Bellew, abruptly resigned this week after just over a year in the job to rejoin Ryanair, which has recently been hit by a crisis that led to the cancellation of thousands of flights.

Read more here.

10:23 Global study says 25 lakh died in India due to pollution in 2015

Of the 90 lakh people who died due to pollution-related diseases in 2015, 25 lakh deaths were recorded in India, the highest in any country.

According to an international study published in The Lancet, pollution caused three times more deaths than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis put together in 2015. India not only recorded the maximum deaths in the year, but also the most due to air pollution: 18 lakh. Another 6.4 lakh died due to water pollution in India the same year.

Read the full story here.

10:11 PM Modi wants peace with Pakistan but not at security cost: US official

Prime Minister Narendra Modi cannot "pursue peace" with Pakistan in a way that "cuts his own security", a top Trump administration official has said, asserting that it is in the interest of Islamabad to build confidence with New Delhi to restart commercial ties.

Ahead of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's maiden visit to India and Pakistan next week, the official, with an insight into the administration's policy over South Asia, was responding to questions on what India could do to bring peace and stability in the region, in particular with Pakistan.

Read the full story here.

10:01 Consumer Reports says Tesla misunderstands 'positive' Model 3 rating

Consumer Reports said that Tesla Inc had apparently misunderstood the "average" reliability rating the magazine assigned to the electric carmaker's Model 3 sedan this week, calling it generally "positive" for an all-new vehicle, Reuters has reported.

Tesla criticised the rating on Thursday, saying "it's important to note that Consumer Reports has not yet driven a Model 3, let alone do they know anything substantial about how the Model 3 was designed and engineered."

Read the full story here.

09:46 US President Donald Trump pledges biggest tax cuts ever as Senate paves way

President Donald Trump promised tax cuts today "which will be the biggest in the history of our country!" following Senate passage of USD 4 trillion budget that lays the groundwork for Republicans' promised tax legislation.

Republicans hope to push the first tax overhaul in three decades through Congress by year's end, an ambitious goal that would fulfill multiple campaign promises but could run aground over any number of disputes. Failure could cost the GOP dearly in next year's midterm elections.

Read the full story here.

09:35 MSRTC calls off strike, resume services

The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) has called off its five-day strike today after a late-night meeting of its core committee and resumed services.

MSRTC's employees had gone on an indefinite strike at midnight of October 16 demanding implementation of the 7th pay commission. On Friday, the Bombay High Court had called the strike "illegal" and had ordered MSRTC employees to return to work.

09:30 New Rajasthan ordinance seeks to protect judges, babus from probe

The Vasundhara Raje government has passed an ordinance which seeks to protect both serving and former judges, magistrates and public servants in Rajasthan from being investigated for on-duty action without its prior sanction.

The Criminal Laws (Rajasthan Amendment) Ordinance, 2017, promulgated on September 7, also seeks to bar the media from reporting on accusations till the sanction to proceed with the probe is obtained.

Read the full story here.

09:22 The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has said that banned cricketer S Sreesanth is not allowed to play for any other country.

The statement comes after the Kerala-pacer hinted at playing for another country, if not allowed to play for India.


 

09:18 Good morning! Catch the latest news updates here. 

This blog will keep track of key global and local developments impacting business and markets through the day. Important local and global political developments will also find resonance here.

22:41 India's fuel demand surged 9.9 percent in September, the biggest expansion in more than one year, after petrol and diesel consumption soared.

The world's fastest growing oil consumer used 16.25 million tonnes of petroleum products in September as compared to 14.78 MT in the same period a year ago, according to data released by the oil ministry.

21:59 Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders said on Friday he believed Bombardier Inc's CSeries planes would capture half the market for smaller single-aisle aircraft with the sale of "thousands" of the 110-to-130 seat jets, according to Reuters.

21:38 Venezuela's state-run petroleum firm PDVSA has been barred from using a NuStar Energy oil storage terminal in the Caribbean over USD 26 million in unpaid bills, according to documents reviewed by Reuters, halting delivery of a cargo to an oil trader, according to Reuters.

21:24 The Enforcement Directorate has issued fresh summons to former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi and her son Tejashwi Yadav in connection with its money laundering probe into the railway hotels allotment case dating back to the UPA-I rule, official sources told PTI.

They said while Tejashwi has been summoned on October 24, Rabri has been called on October 27 for questioning in the case.

21:08 Although the Maharashtra government had announced Rs 34,022 crore farm loan waiver scheme in June this year, the debt write-off is unlikely to cost over Rs 25,000 crore owing to several "filters" applied for the selection of beneficiaries, an official said on Friday.

Talking to PTI, a senior official from the state cooperation department said that the criteria set for the selection have brought down the number of beneficiaries.

20:50 Raqqa will be part of a decentralised federal Syria now the city has been freed from Islamic State, the U.S.-backed militias that captured it said on Friday, tying its political future to Kurdish-led autonomy plans for northern Syria, according to Reuters.

The Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said the people of the majority Arab city and surrounding province would decide their own future "within the framework of a decentralised, federal, democratic Syria".

20:38 India has put in place a stricter regime for trade with North Korea in line with the restrictions imposed by the United Nations.

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has come out with a notification to widen the prohibition on direct or indirect import and export from/to North Korea.

"The direct or on direct or indirect supply, sale, transfer or export of specified items to North Korea is prohibited," it said.

20:15 Developing story: A suicide bomber killed at least 30 people inside a Shi'ite mosque in the Afghan capital Kabul on Friday night, a security official said, the latest in a string of violent attacks on the country's Shi'ite minority, according to Reuters.

The attack occurred at Imam Zaman mosque in the western Dasht-e-Barchi part of Kabul, as Shi'ite worshippers gathered for prayers.

20:05 Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit poll-bound Gujarat on October 22 for the third time this month, where he will inaugurate and lay foundation stones for a number of projects in Bhavnagar and Vadodara districts.

19:37 Ksenia Sobchak wears many hats. She is a socialite, an Instagram star with 5.2 million followers, a journalist, reality television presenter, cover girl on Glamour Russia, editor-in-chief of L'Officiel Russia. However, her announcement as a candidate for the president of Russia has raised many eyebrows.

She announced her decision in an open letter published in the Russian news portal Vedomosti. “For several months now, I've been thinking about it. And not because that's how women are - everyone tries on themselves, but because I'm so arranged - I perceive all opportunities as a challenge,” she wrote.

Read the full story here.

19:23 Apparently targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi today fired a fresh salvo at them over the controversy surrounding Amit Shah's son's company.

"Mitron (friends), will not speak about 'Shah-zada', nor will let anyone speak," he tweeted in Hindi, referring to an interim injunction granted by an Ahmedabad court on a criminal defamation plea filed against news portal 'The Wire' by Jay Shah, the son of BJP president Amit Shah.

Gandhi also tagged a news report entitled, "Ahmedabad Court injunction: 'The Wire' barred from writing on Jay Shah". Jay Shah had recently filed a criminal defamation case against The Wire after it published an article claiming the turnover of a company run by him saw a huge rise after the BJP came to power at the Centre in 2014.

19:03 GST Network has launched an excel-based offline tool for businesses to file initial GSTR-3B returns.

Taxpayers can download the offline utility from the GSTN portal under the download section and after fill in the data. Following this, the file can be uploaded on GST portal. After uploading of the return to the GST Portal, the taxpayer has to preview the form, complete formalities like submit, offset the liability and file their GSTR-3B Return using digital signature or electronic verification code, GSTN said in a statement.


18:55

18:50 Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stones of five reconstruction projects in Uttarakhand and hit out at the Congress, saying he was not allowed to carry out redevelopment work after the 2013 deluge when he was the chief minister of Gujarat.

Offering prayers at the Kedarnath shrine, a day before it closes for the winters, he said his visit to the Himalayan temple had strengthened his resolve to serve the nation.

18:40 Russia remains a greater threat to US security than North Korea or the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) because President Vladimir Putin still views the world in “Cold War terms,” according to ex-NATO commander Wesley Clark, who is also a retired 4-star US military general.

Clark told Newsweek that President Donald Trump’s flip-flopping on whether the United States will uphold NATO’s key self-defense principle and his affability towards Putin is “very confusing to the American public.”

16:56 When a company like Apple - which launched Apple Pay globally back in 2014 - decides to now make an entry into India's digital payments space one understands how big the stakes are.

This was made more apparent when Google launched its UPI-based payments app Tez made for India.

But now, Google, Amazon, Alibaba and others are in a battle to win India’s billion-dollar fin-tech battle.

Read more here.

15:57 George W Bush issued a sharp denunciation of bigotry, white supremacy and falsehoods, in what was seen as a clear rebuke of politics in the age of President Donald Trump, reports AFP. The two-term former president warned that the coarsening of the national tone and divisive themes are threats to American democracy. "Bigotry seems emboldened. Our politics seems more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and outright fabrication," Bush said.

Though he did not mention Trump by name, Bush offered an implicit rebuke of the current administration and the controversial politics that emboldened millions of voters who swept Trump to victory last November. "Bigotry or white supremacy in any form is blasphemy against the American creed," Bush stated, two months after Trump said "both sides" were to blame when a neo-Nazi rally in Virginia turned violent.

15:29 The Spanish government has secured opposition support to dissolve Catalonia’s parliament and hold new elections there in January in an effort to defuse the regional government’s push for independence, reports Reuters. The main opposition Socialists said on Friday they would back a package of extraordinary measures to impose central rule on the region, whose threat to break away has unsettled the euro and hurt confidence in the euro zone’s fourth-largest economy.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who wanted the Socialists’ support in order to present a united political front against the secessionist Catalan government, will hold a special cabinet meeting on Saturday to start to process of imposing direct rule. It would be the first time in Spain’s four decades of democracy that Madrid will have invoked the constitution to effectively sack a regional government and call new elections.

15:17 The Centre has granted green clearance for a greenfield airport project at Hirasar, about 28 km from Rajkot in Gujarat, at a cost of over Rs 1,400 crore, reports PTI. The state government has proposed a new airport in Rajkot district as the existing one is small and the earlier plan to extend the current runway could not materialise because of high land cost.

"The Environment Ministry has given the environment clearance to the Gujarat State Aviation Infrastructure Company (GSAICL) for development of a greenfield airport at Rajkot," a senior government official said. The green clearance given to the project, after taking into account the ministry's expert panel, is subject to certain riders, the official said. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 1,405 crore. It would be a single runway airport for operating 'C' category aircraft. The proposed project will be build in an area of 1,025.54 hectare, of which 96.48% is government land.

15:15 Dr Reddy's Laboratories has initiated voluntarily recall of over half a million Famotidine tablets bottles from the US market as the drug failed impurities or degradation specifications, reports PTI. According to a notification put up by the US Food & Drug Administration, the recall is being made under 'Class-III' classification, which is described as 'a situation in which use of or exposure to a violative product is not likely to cause adverse health consequences'.

"Failed impurities/degradation specifications: Famotodine has an out of specification result for an individual related substance observed during routine stability testing of a batch for related substances -impurity 8 at 24 month stability interval," the notification said on the reasons for recall. As many as 5,69,376 bottles of Famotidine tablets, 10 mg belonging to multiple lots packaged in 30-count, are being recalled nationwide. The  drug is an over-the-counter (OTC) product used to treat and prevent ulcers in stomach and intestines.

14:56 Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy said he has access to documents that suggest the property where Taj Mahal was built was stolen by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan from kings of Jaipur, reports The Times of India. "There is evidence on record that Shah Jahan forced the Raja-Maharajas of Jaipur to sell the land on which Taj Mahal is standing, and he gave them a compensation of forty villages, which is nothing compared to the property's value," Swamy said. He added he will release the copies of the evidence to the media soon.

"The documents also suggest that there was a temple on the property. But it is still not clear whether Taj Mahal was built after the demolition of a temple," asserted Swamy. He further said that the BJP has no intention of demolishing Taj Mahal, but only want three temples out of thousands demolished under the Muslim rule. "We want only three, which are Ayodhya's Ram, Krishna's Mathura and Kashi Vishwanath in Varanasi. These three, once they are restored, we won't be concerned about the remaining forty thousand," said Swamy. (Picture courtesy: CNN-News18)

14:41 Even as banks are on an overdrive to push customers to link their Aadhaar numbers to bank accounts on the threat of suspending accounts, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has told us that it has never issued any such directions. This was in response to a Right to Information (RTI) Act application filed by MoneyLife. The RBI’s emphatic RTI response makes it clear that the decision is entirely that of the central government.

Responding to a specific query on providing copy of the file along with file notings regarding mandatory linking of Aadhaar number with bank accounts, the Reserve Bank stated it "has not issued any instruction so far regarding mandatory liking of Aadhaar number with bank accounts." When explicitly asked if RBI had taken permission from the Supreme Court for mandatory linking of bank accounts with Aadhaar number, especially when the apex court had restricted its usage for six schemes, the Reserve Bank stated that is has not filed any petition before the SC.

Also read: Four deadlines for Aadhaar linking that you must not miss

14:34 Regulator Sebi has banned Grass Root Finance & Investment Company (India) and 13 others from the capital markets for raising funds without complying with the public issue norms, reports PTI. A probe by Sebi found that the company had issued equity shares to 9,321 people between 1995-96 and 2006-07 and raised Rs 6.80 crore through such issuance.

Since these shares were issued to more than 50 investors by the company, it qualified as a public issue under the norms, which required compulsory listing on recognised stock exchanges. Among others, the firm was also required to file a prospectus, which it failed to do. In an interim order passed on October 18, Sebi said that Grass Root is prima facie in breach of the provisions of the Companies Act in connection with the allotment of shares.

14:30 The Kerala High Court on Thursday held that all inter-religious weddings cannot be viewed as 'love jihad' as it upheld a marriage between a Hindu woman and a Muslim man, reports CNN-News18. A division bench comprising justices V Chitambaresh and Sathish Ninan made the observations in its judgment on a habeas corpus petition. A habeas corpus plea is filed to ensure a person under arrest is brought before a court which will determine whether the detention is legal.

"We are appalled to notice the recent trend in this state to sensationalise every case of inter-religious marriage as either 'love jihad' or 'ghar wapsi' even if there was platonic love between the spouses before," the court said. The bench also cited the Supreme Court order in the Lata Singh vs State of Uttar Pradesh case of 2004 to emphasise the need for encouraging inter-caste and inter-religious marriages.

14:02 The country's largest two wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp said it has sold a record over 3 lakh units in a single day on Dhanteras -- October 17, reports PTI. The company claimed it is the first entity to have achieved such a sales milestone globally. "This festive season has been a blockbuster for Hero MotoCorp. The highest-ever single day retail sales of well over three lakh units on Dhanteras comes on the back of what has been a season of new global records for Hero," a senior company official said.

The company sold a record 7-lakh units in September, the highest ever in monthly sales by any company and also sold over two million units in the second quarter, the official added. It has recently surpassed 75 million units of two-wheelers in cumulative sales since its inception. Hero MotoCorp sold 20,22,805 units of two-wheelers in the second quarter, a growth of 11 per cent, over the same period of previous fiscal.

13:58 Disinvestment-bound Air India has sought proposals for short term loans worth Rs 1,500 crore to meet "urgent" working capital needs, reports PTI. This is the second time in little over a month that the flagship carrier has floated tenders for short tenure loans even as the government is working on the modalities for the stake sale. The debt-laden carrier, which is surviving on taxpayers' money, is battling multiple headwinds, including financial woes and stiff competition.

In a document issued on October 18, Air India said it is looking for "government guarantee backed Indian Rupee short term loans totalling up to Rs 1,500 crore to meet its urgent working capital requirements". The loan would have a tenure up to June 27, 2018 from the date of being availed and the deadline could be extended. "The amount of Rs 1,500 crore will be drawn in one –three tranches... The Government of India guarantee, is valid up to June 27, 2018 or till the date of disinvestment," the document said.

13:54 Pakistan's ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif was indicted by an anti-graft court in a third corruption case related to Flagship Investments and other offshore companies, reports PTI. The Accountability Court here charged Sharif in absentia for holding assets beyond his known sources of income, and read out a charge sheet to his pleader Zafir Khan. It was one of the three cases of corruption and money laundering registered by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against 67-year-old Sharif on September 8. The cases were registered after the Supreme Court disqualified Sharif as prime minister on July 28 in the Panama Papers scandal.

13:52 Hafiz Saeed's house arrest has been extended for another 30 days by a Judicial Review Board of Pakistan's Punjab province after it reviewed the detention of the Mumbai attack mastermind and banned Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief, reports PTI. However, the board rejected the government's plea for the detention of his four aides. The 30-day detention will be applicable from October 24.

13:49 European shares rose in early deals on Friday, recovering some losses as well-received earnings reports boosted shares in Volvo and Ericsson, though political malaise held back Spanish stocks. The pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.2%, rebounding from its lowest closing level so far in October, while euro zone blue chips .STOXX50E gained 0.3%. Spain's benchmark IBEX was in negative territory, however, down 0.1% ahead of a special cabinet meeting on Saturday which could see Spain suspending Catalonia's autonomy.

13:35 Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, one of the country's top law officers, has resigned from the post citing personal reasons. Kumar said he wanted to spend more time with his family.

Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta is considered to be the frontrunner to replace him, according to CNN-News18.

Earlier this year, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi had resigned on similar grounds.

12:54 The festive days in the run-up to Diwali gave motorcycle-specialist Bajaj Auto a 25% bump-up in retail volumes. A chunk of it came from low-end, budget bikes like CT100 and Platina. But for Bajaj Auto, which prides itself on the 20% EBITDA margin every quarter, both the bikes generate single-digit margin. In fact, the CT100 is EBITDA negative, according to the company’s chief financial officer. So why does this Pune-based, India’s fourth largest two-wheeler maker, continue to produce a loss-making product? Read here to find out

12:51 Capital markets regulator Sebi has imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on Vijay Anant Dhongde for trading in the shares Mahindra & Mahindra as a designated employee during the restricted periods, reports PTI. It could not immediately be ascertained however whether Dhongde is still an employee at Mahindra & Mahindra (MML) as there is no specific mention about his current status in the Sebi order.

The regulator had conducted a probe into the alleged irregularity in trading in MML shares during November-December 31, 2013 for possible violations of the Sebi's norms after the auto maker itself informed to the markets watchdog about the violations by its employee. The probe found that Dhongde had traded in the shares of MML when the trading window was closed for declaration of unaudited financial results of the company for the quarter ended on December 31, 2013. He had traded in the scrip for over Rs 9 lakh and entered into opposite transaction within six months following the prior transaction.

12:50 Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has urged the Centre to exempt handmade products from the ambit of the Goods & Services Tax, reports PTI. In a letter to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday, Siddaramaiah said: "I am writing to raise a very critical issue that the GST council should take note of and decide on a priority basis."

He said he has received representation from a committee constituted by Gram Seva Sangh, consisting of noted activists including Prof Ashis Nandy, Uzramma and Shyam Benegal, seeking exemption from GST for various handmade items produced and marketed by producer cooperative societies and their federations. The chief minister said imposition of GST on such products has had an adverse impact on the livelihood of artisans engaged in producing such products.

12:41 CIA director Mike Pompeo has warned that North Korea is on the cusp of being able to hit the US with a nuclear missile, reports BBC. He stressed Washington still preferred diplomacy and sanctions but said military force remained an option. North Korea claims it already has the capability to strike the US.

North Korea is "close enough now in their capabilities that from a US policy perspective we ought to behave as if we are on the cusp of them achieving that objective," Pompeo said at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, a conservative Washington think tank. "They are so far along in that, it's now a matter of thinking about how do you stop the final step."

He warned Pyongyang's missile expertise was now advancing so quickly that it was hard for US intelligence to be sure when it would succeed. "When you're now talking about months our capacity to understand that at a detailed level is in some sense irrelevant," he said.

12:36 Australia’s Prime Minister has dismissed an extraordinary letter from North Korea to the Australian Parliament and other countries as a “rant” against President Donald Trump and a sign that Pyongyang is “starting to feel the squeeze” of escalated sanctions, reports AP. The letter from the North Korean Foreign Affairs Committee attacks Trump over his speech to the United Nations General Assembly last month in which the president threatened to “totally destroy North Korea” if provoked.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told Melbourne Radio 3AW on Friday the letter was sent to “a lot of other countries” as well as Australia. The letter says that if Trump thinks that he will bring North Korea “to its knees through nuclear war threat, it will be a big miscalculation and an expression of ignorance.”

12:34 Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Friday households were becoming more accepting of price hikes, voicing confidence that inflation would accelerate toward his 2% target without additional monetary stimulus, reports Reuters. But he warned that regional Japanese financial institutions’ profitability was declining as a trend due to narrowing margins and a shrinking population.

12:27 Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairman Sushil Chandra has asked field officials to scrutinise entities and companies that have reported more than a 10% fall in tax deducted at source (TDS) in the first half of the current fiscal year, reports Business Standard.

12:25 Realty firm Unitech plans to sell six land parcels to tide over its payment crisis, reports Mint. In its latest annual report, the company said it has earmarked “six unencumbered land parcels to be sold and the entire sale proceeds thereof shall be utilised for repayment of the said deposits”.

12:05 Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address promises a lot of development for the state of Uttarakhand and the Himalayan region. Here are some of the takeaways —

Tourism pitch: The PM suggested that the Himalayan region be utilised to its fullest potential by developing infrastructure to boost tourism.

Eco-friendliness: Modi asked Uttarakhand’s citizens to abandon use of chemicals and artificial elements. He urged the hill state to adopt green ways in its pursuit of development. “I want Uttarakhand to be the best tourist destination,” Modi said.

Infra development: The PM promised to work on the development of Mandakini Ghats; better and wider roads in Uttarakhand. He also promised sufficient funds for reconstruction of Kedarpuri.

11:51 Returning to his favourite pet project, Swachh Bharat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country will develop when it has enough toilets for all its people. "A dirty environment will hamper the country's growth.” He pledged for a cleaner and greener India, with more toilets for the poor and the women who are forced to defecate in the open.

11:48 Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised better and broader roads for Uttarakhand. He is confident that next year10 lakhs people will visit Kedarnath. “I want Uttarakhand to be the best tourist destination,” Modi stated.

11:41 Lashing out at the Congress Party, Modi said that when floods occurred in 2013, he was not the Prime Minister, but was Gujarat’s Chief Minister and that when he offered to help in rebuilding the area, which was damaged in the 2013 glacier lake breach above Kedarnath, the Centre became nervous.

11:39 Addressing mediapersons in Kedarnath, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said while building modern infrastructure at the Himalayan shrine, its traditional soul will be preserved. He promised to ensure that no environment laws are flouted. On reconstruction of Kedarpuri, Modi said though improved facilities for devotees will be expensive, there will be no dearth of funds from the Centre.

11:30 China posted relatively solid economic growth in the third quarter, driven by a stronger services industry, though there were signs of weakness in real estate and construction as property cooling measures start to bite, reports Reuters. China’s property sector grew 3.9% in the quarter from a year earlier, decelerating from 6.2% in the second quarter and the slowest pace in nearly two years, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a more detailed breakdown of third-quarter GDP data issued on Thursday.

Growth in construction activity slowed from 5.4% in the second quarter to 4%, the weakest expansion since the fourth quarter of 2000, NBS data showed. Property and construction together account for 13.3% of the economy, with property alone directly impacting 40 other industries. Softening in those sectors appeared to be the main drag on otherwise fairly resilient China data on Thursday. Third-quarter growth eased only slightly to 6.8% from 6.9% in the previous quarter, as had been widely expected.

11:16 Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is visiting the Kedarnath Temple today, will lay the foundation stone for five projects around rebuilding of the Kedarnath township — Kedarpuri — which was devastated in the 2013 glacier lake breach above Kedarnath.

11:11 Promoters of companies that went public in the last two years (2015 and 2016) need to shed stakes worth close to Rs9,928 crore over the next 12-24 months to comply with Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) norms on minimum public shareholding in listed companies, a Mint analysis shows. According to Sebi norms, listed companies have to ensure a minimum of 25% public shareholding in three years from the time of listing. Companies that need to shed the largest quantum of stakes include ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co and two L&T group companies—L&T Infotech and L&T Technology Services—all of which went public in 2016.

11:08 Why are telecom stocks suddenly the rage? Mint reports that investors are salivating at the thought of an oligopolistic market structure, where Airtel, the Idea-Vodafone combine and Jio will each have a 30%-plus market share, with considerable pricing power. But this optimism is reflected the most in the shares of Reliance Industries, Jio’s parent company. The catch, of course, is how the aspect of demand elasticity plays out. Jio has been able to grow its user base of over 130 million by offering free and then deeply discounted offers.

Higher tariffs may impact its customer addition to some extent, and the company can be expected to calibrate its tariff increases. Besides, if its discounts disappear soon, that will take the pressure off incumbents. Perhaps, for this reason, Jio has offered customers cashback vouchers this month, which can be used to get discounts in the future. For those who have the vouchers, a tariff increase of, say, Rs50 would effectively mean their outgo will remain the same for some time to come. As such, it remains to be seen how soon investors’ hopes of optimal pricing are realised.

10:50 A portion of an over six-decade-old building of the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation's Porayar branch in the district collapsed on Friday morning killing eight crew members, reports PTI. Three others sustained injuries, police added. The crew members of the TNSTC were sleeping in the building, constructed in 1952, when the collapse happened around 3.30 am, killing them on the spot, they said. The three others who sustained injuries were rushed to Karaikal General Hospital.

10:46 A year after BP received an in-principle approval to launch its fuel retail business in India, the oil firm is working along with partner Reliance Industries (RIL) to begin operations in a few months, reports Mint. BP is RIL’s partner in its exploration and production, and gas-sourcing businesses. BP had received approval and licence to set up 3,500 fuel retail outlets in October last year. “Discussions are on between RIL and BP. BP has a long-term view on India. In fact, BP with its own fuel retail licence can venture into the segment on its own. However, sourcing of fuel is an area that BP has to look into and thus may be seeking a co-branding with RIL,” said a consultant with an advisory firm.

10:27 Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached Uttarakhand’s Kedarnath Temple at around 10 am this morning, reports CNN-News18. The Himalayan shrine, dedicated to Shiva, will be closed beginning Saturday for six months owing to winter. Modi had visited the temple on May 3 this year when the doors of the shrine were opened to devotees.

Modi is also scheduled to lay the foundation stone for projects ‘worth hundreds of crores of rupees’, considering the incomplete flood protection works and reconstruction of Kedarpuri that needs to be done, state BJP president Ajay Bhatt told The Indian Express. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, state ministers and BJP workers are among the 4,000 people expected to be present at the temple premises.

10:14 Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he doubted that a possible US preventative strike on North Korea would destroy all of Pyongyang’s weapons, reports Reuters.

10:12 Alert: All wholesale commodity markets, including bullion, are closed today on account of 'Vishwakarma Puja'.

10:11 Ambit Capital expects Budget 2018 to be pro-poor, anti-elite

Saurabh Mukherjea, CEO of Ambit Capital, expects Budget 2018 to be pro-poor and anti-elite. “I expect the 2018 budget to be pro-poor (a step up in subsidies which haven’t grown at all under this NDA regime) and anti-rich (new taxes on the rich).” He sees the Bankruptcy Code, the Benami Transactions Act and a broader crackdown on black money used to parade wealthy tax evaders in front of the media.

In the run to general elections, he feels that any measure that positions the government as being aligned with the interests of the business class will be shot down. “This is the reason why we still don’t have a recapitalisation of public sector banks in spite of the obvious need for it.”

09:59 Delhi and the National Capital Region woke up to a blanket of smog on Friday, after a quiet and promising Diwali evening gave way to noisy and relentless bursting of firecrackers till late night on Thursday, despite a Supreme Court ban on their sale in the NCR, reports PTI. The online indicators of the pollution monitoring stations in the city glowed red, indicating a 'very poor' air quality as the volume of ultra-fine particulates PM2.5 and PM10, which enter the respiratory system and manage to reach the bloodstream, sharply rose from around 7 pm on Thursday. Real time pollution data appeared alarming. The Delhi Pollution Control Committee's (DPCC) RK Puram monitoring station recorded PM2.5 and PM10 at 878 and 1,179 micrograms per cubic metre at around 11 pm. The pollutants had violated the corresponding 24-hour safe limits of 60 and 100, respectively, by up to 10 times.

While it is difficult to quantify the immediate effect of the ban on firecrackers, residents across the national capital felt the beginning was promising with neighbourhoods reporting much lesser noise and smoke till about 6 pm, compared to the previous years. But as the festivities picked up, the faint echos of crackers started growing louder. According to the SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research), the 24-hour rolling average of PM2.5 and PM10 were 154 and 256 micrograms per cubic metre, respectively, at around 11 pm on Thursday.

09:39 The US Department of Commerce said on Thursday it had begun an investigation into whether imports of Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) resin from India and China were being dumped on the US market, reports Reuters. The department said it was also initiating a countervailing duty (CVD) investigation to determine whether producers of PTFE resin in India are receiving unfair subsidies.

09:38 Samvat 2074 started off to a muted start with the market ending lower on Thursday in a brief session of special “muhurat” trading for the festival of Diwali. Banking stocks such as ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank declined the most. The trading session, which lasted for about an hour, saw the Sensex close down 0.6% at 32,389.96, while the Nifty ended 0.63% lower at 10,146.55. ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank fell 2.1% and 1.3%, respectively. “Muhurat” means auspicious in Hindi, and many traders believe gains made during this session bring prosperity and wealth in the year ahead. Regular market trading will resume on Monday.

Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular gained over 3% each after Reliance Industries’ telecoms arm Jio revised tariff offers ahead of the festival season. Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) share price was locked at the 5% upper circuit for the sixth consecutive session on Thursday. The stock rallied 5% to close at Rs 6.17 on the BSE on Thursday. It surged 53.5% in six straight sessions, especially after its deal with Bharti Airtel for sale of consumer telecom business.

09:08 Bitcoin is not the new gold: Goldman Sachs

Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are not the "new gold," Goldman Sachs said, advising investors that precious metals "remain a relevant asset class" in portfolios. In a note to clients earlier this week, Goldman detailed the benefits of holding gold in a portfolio, reports CNBC. "The use of precious metals is not a historical accident – they are still the best long-term store of value out of the known elements," the investment bank said.

But it also addressed the rise of cryptocurrencies. Many commentators have dubbed bitcoin "digital gold" because of the fact it has a finite supply and has at times seen price rises due to geopolitical tensions. Goldman concluded that bitcoin is not a good store of value versus gold. "Gold wins out over cryptocurrencies in a majority of the key characteristics of money," Goldman said.

It said that digital wallets, where people can store cryptocurrencies, are vulnerable to hacking, and virtual currencies also have "significant regulatory risks." Goldman also said that cryptocurrencies are subject to network or infrastructure risk during a crisis.

09:00 ECB says bitcoin isn't 'mature' enough to regulate

Cryptocurrencies are not "mature" enough to be considered by the European Central Bank (ECB) for regulation, Mario Draghi said. "With anything that's new, people have great expectations and also great uncertainty. Right now we think that especially as far as bitcoins and cryptocurrencies are concerned, we don't think the technology is mature for our consideration," Draghi told CNBC.

He expressed caution and said that while innovation should be "cherished for its potential benefits," it should also be "critically assessed" for risks. "One of the lessons of the great financial crisis is that financial innovation, in this case it's financial and technology innovation... should be embraced with lots of attention to its potential risks," Draghi stated.

08:53 Finance Minister Taro Aso on Friday criticised Japanese companies for sitting on too much cash, and said the government needed to take steps to encourage them to increase spending on wages and business investment, reports Reuters. Internal reserves, or retained earnings including cash, at Japanese firms have increased by 101 trillion yen over the past four years to some 400 trillion yen, while many firms are wary of boosting business expenditures, Aso said. “The situation went much too far, we must think of ways for that money to be spent on capital spending and wages,” he added. However, Aso said it would be difficult to tax internal reserves, which has been proposed by Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike’s new Party of Hope, as that causes “double taxation” on companies that pay the corporate tax.

08:41 As the Chinese government works toward controlling the country's capital outflows, it could be US stocks that suffer as a result, reports CNBC. Specifically, real estate-related investments in the US could be hurt most, according to Larry McDonald of the Bear Traps Report. "The government's effort to simultaneously clamp down on capital outflows and property speculation could see new inflows in the Chinese stock market in search of a domestic investment alternative," McDonald said.

08:31 China's central bank just warned of a sudden collapse in asset prices

China will fend off risks from excessive optimism that could lead to a "Minsky Moment", central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said, adding that corporate debt levels are relatively high and household debt is rising too quickly, reports CNBC. A Minsky Moment is a sudden collapse of asset prices after a long period of growth, sparked by debt or currency pressures. The theory is named after economist Hyman Minsky.

"If there are too many pro-cyclical factors in the economy, cyclical fluctuations are magnified and there is excessive optimism during the period, accumulating contradictions that could lead to the so-called Minsky Moment," Zhou said, adding: "We should focus on preventing a dramatic adjustment."

China will control risks from sudden adjustments to asset bubbles and will seriously deal with disguised debt of local government financing vehicles, Zhou said. Still, China's overall debt levels could decline as long as authorities keep a tight control on credit, he stated.

08:26 Spain’s central government said it would suspend Catalonia’s autonomy and impose direct rule after the region’s leader threatened to go ahead with a formal declaration of independence if Madrid refused to hold talks, reports Reuters. In an act unprecedented since Spain returned to democracy in the late 1970s, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said he would hold a special cabinet meeting on Saturday that could trigger the move. The Socialist opposition said it backed the government but suggested the measures should be limited in scope and time. Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, ignoring a 10 am deadline to drop his secession campaign, wrote a letter to Rajoy threatening a formal declaration of independence.

08:20 German Chancellor Angela Merkel offered one of her most positive assessments of Brexit talks in months on Thursday, saying she believed negotiations between the EU and Britain were moving forward and dismissing the prospect of a breakdown, reports Reuters. Merkel made her comments after the first day of a European Union summit at which British Prime Minister Theresa May appealed to her fellow leaders to help her silence critics at home and break a deadlock in the talks.

08:16 European markets on Thursday finished lower with shares in Germany leading the region. The DAX is down 0.41% while France's CAC 40 is off 0.29% and London's FTSE 100 is lower by 0.26%.

08:12 Pyongyang's ongoing nuclear aggression may potentially result in South Korea and Japan hosting nuclear weapons on their own turf, a scenario that would have wide-ranging negative consequences, Singapore's leader has warned. "What's different this time is that North Korea has more nuclear weapons ... so the risks are higher," Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in an interview with CNBC. The current North Korea tensions carry long-term consequences for the region, he warned, adding that if South Korea and Japan acquire nuclear weapons as protection against a potential attack, Asia's security balance will change.

07:59 Gold prices on Friday held onto most of their gains from the previous session as the dollar sagged after a report that US President Donald Trump was leaning toward a less hawkish candidate as the next chair of the Federal Reserve. Demand for gold jumped in India this week on account of Dhanteras and Diwali, but high prices took some sheen off the yellow metal’s lure during the key festival period this year.

07:57 Oil markets edged up on Friday, recovering some of the previous day’s losses, as analysts pointed to signs of a tightening market.

07:54 The US Senate voted on Thursday to approve a budget blueprint for the 2018 fiscal year that will pave the way for Republicans to pursue a tax-cut package without Democratic support. By a 51-to-49 vote, the Republican-controlled Senate approved the budget measure, which would add up to $1.5 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade in order to pay for proposed tax cuts.

07:53 The Trump administration is considering tightening the vetting process for women and children seeking to enter the United States as refugees, a proposal that if adopted would bring security checks closer to those for adult men, reports Reuters. The plan could slow down refugee admissions even after the end of a 120-day ban on most refugees instituted by the Trump administration while it reviews vetting procedures. The vetting review is set to end on October 24.

07:47 US President Donald Trump risks driving Iran towards nuclear proliferation and worsening a standoff with North Korea if Washington ends a nuclear deal with Iran, former Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday. Kerry, who negotiated the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, was speaking a week after Trump refused to certify that Tehran was in compliance, amid growing tensions with Pyongyang over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, reports Reuters. “If you want to negotiate with (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un, and your goal is to avoid war and try to be able to have a diplomatic resolution, the worst thing you can do is first threaten to destroy his country in the United Nations,” Kerry said.

07:45 A senior White House aide said on Thursday that US President Donald Trump would demand steps toward repealing Obamacare in any healthcare legislation, comments that cast doubt on the prospects for a short-term bill to shore up insurance markets. Marc Short, the White House’s top liaison to Congress, told CNN that Obamacare’s mandates and taxes would have to be rolled back and consumers be allowed to more heavily invest in health-savings accounts for Trump to sign off on any congressional deal. “We’re willing to work on this but we need to make sure that we’re getting something that will actually reduce healthcare costs,” Short said.

07:43 President Donald Trump’s drive to overhaul the US tax code headed for a pivotal moment on Thursday, with Senate Republicans poised to approve a budget measure that would help them pass tax legislation without Democratic support, reports Reuters. The Senate and the House of Representatives must agree on a fiscal year 2018 budget resolution for Republicans to meet their goal of enacting a tax bill and sending it to Trump for his signature by the end of this year.

07:41 The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits dropped to its lowest level in more than 44-1/2 years last week, pointing to a rebound in job growth after a hurricane-related decline in employment in September. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 22,000 to a seasonally adjusted 222,000 for the week ended October 14, the lowest level since March 1973, the Labour Department said. But the decrease in claims, which was the largest since April, was probably exaggerated by the Columbus Day holiday on Monday. Claims are declining as the impact of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma washes out of the data.

07:39 US President Donald Trump has concluded interviews with the five candidates he is considering to chair the Federal Reserve and could announce a decision as early as next week, reports Reuters. Trump met with current Fed chair Janet Yellen on Thursday. That meeting “went well,” a source said, adding that Trump had not made up his mind one way or the other about his list. Other contenders to lead the US central bank are top Trump economic adviser Gary Cohn, Fed Board Governor Jerome Powell, former Fed governor Kevin Warsh and Stanford University economics professor John Taylor. (Also see: Short profiles of the candidates)

07:34 The Dow and S&P 500 eked out record closing highs on Thursday, turning higher at the last minute after a Politico report that Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell is the leading candidate for the nominee for Fed chair. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 5.44 points, or 0.02%, to end at 23,163.04, the S&P 500 gained 0.84 point, or 0.03%, to 2,562.1 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 19.15 points, or 0.29%, to 6,605.07.

07:31 Asian shares inched slightly higher on Friday, but grappled for firmer leads as speculation about who the next US central bank chief will be kept global investors wary. Japan's Nikkei slipped 0.3%, still on track for a robust weekly gain of 1.1%. The Nikkei logged its 13th winning session on Thursday, its longest such streak since 1988.

07:23 North Korea has sent a letter to Australia’s parliament, warning it is a nuclear power and will not be cowed by US President Donald Trump’s threats to destroy it, according to a copy of the letter published in an Australian newspaper on Friday. “If Trump thinks that he would bring the DPRK, a nuclear power, to its knees through nuclear war threat, it will be a big miscalculation and an expression of ignorance,” said a facsimile of the letter, published by the Sydney Morning Herald and verified by Australia’s foreign ministry. “Trump threatened to totally destroy the DPRK ... it is an extreme act of threatening to totally destroy the whole world.” A spokeswoman for Australia’s Foreign Minister told Reuters the Herald report was accurate and the paper’s copy of the letter, dated September 28, was genuine.

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