Naukariadda

Air pollution is likely to reduce the life expectancy of about 40% of Indians by more than nine years, according to a report released by a U.S. research group on Wednesday.More than 480 million people living in the vast swathes of central, eastern and northern India, including the capital, New Delhi, endure significantly high pollution levels, said the report prepared by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC)."Alarmingly, India's high levels of air pollution have expanded geographically over time," the EPIC report said.For example, air quality has significantly worsened in the western state of Maharashtra and the central state of Madhya Pradesh, it said.Lauding India's National Clean Air Program (NCAP), launched in 2019 to rein in dangerous pollution levels, the EPIC report said "achieving and sustaining" the NCAP goals would raise the country's overall life expectancy by 1.7 years and that of New Delhi 3.1 years.The NCAP aims to...

There is a growing number of companies offering gender-neutral parental leave which encourages men to share child-care duties with partners. While that’s a progressive way of ensuring an equitable balance not only within the organisation but also in personal lives of individuals and the society at large, the moot question is how many men really take such leave?While more men are coming forward to take advantage of such policies, they are still a tiny fraction of the number of men who are eligible for this leave. Most are hesitant to take the leave in one go, and this could stem from the concern that doing so could hamper their career growth.Maternity, paternity, and parental leaveThe Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act of 2017 mandates that organisations must give women 26 weeks of fully paid maternity leave. Some organisations, mostly MNCs, have also begun offering paternity leave, which can range from one week to 24 weeks. A few companies have removed the gender binaries attached to ma...

High premiums are a big reason why many people did not get a home insurance policy. Which is why in January 2021, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) issued guidelines for the issuance of a standard house insurance policy called Bharat Griha Raksha (BGR) meant to cover residential properties at affordable premiums. The insurance regulator mandated all general insurance companies to offer this standard insurance policy and as a result, most insurers have started offering this insurance cover from April 1, 2021. Here is a look at the features of the Bharat Griha Raksha insurance cover and whether you should get it. What is insured under the policy? Actual damage: According to the IRDAI guidelines, the common damages that are covered under the Bharat Griha Raksha include fire, explosion or Implosion, lightning, earthquake, volcanic eruption, or other convulsions of nature, storm, cyclone, typhoon, tempest, hurricane, tornado, tsunami, flood and Inundation, ...

Chinese pupils returned to school Wednesday with new textbooks peppered with "Xi Jinping thought", as the Communist Party aims to extend his personality cult to children as young as seven and rear a new generation of patriots.The education ministry has said it will incorporate Xi's vaguely defined political ideology into the national curriculum, from primary schools to graduate programmes, at the start of the new school year on Wednesday.Primary school teachers must "plant the seeds of loving the party, the country and socialism in young hearts", according to a government notice on the new curriculum.The new school books are decorated with the president's pithy quotes and images of his smiling face, with elementary school students served up chapters on the achievements of Chinese civilisation and the Communist Party's role in poverty alleviation and fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.Lessons are interspersed with quotes from Xi on patriotism and duty, as wel...

In the last 18-24 months, the midcaps were outperforming now. In the last one, one and a month, interest in largecaps have helped the index move past 17,000, says Siddhartha Khemka, Head of Retail Research, MOFSL. What a rally we have seen as the Nifty surged from 16,000 to 17,000. What is on your radar as we try and move to 18,000?Yes, it has been a historical day for Indian markets. Nobody would have expected Nifty to touch 17,000 so fast when we touched 16,000 sometime back. Given that we are staring at the third wave of pandemic. Developed countries including US, Europe, UK are struggling with rising Covid cases. In India also, recent numbers have been rising but yes, the overall macro numbers have been quite supportive of the recovery in the macro economic growth. That is the case with global markets as well. With the US economy being on a strong footing, the US Fed said they would be looking at a calibrated taper. That kind of calmed the global nerves and liquidity flows continue...

Banks and other financial institutions have started performing. Banks make 30% of the index and when they perform, we see this kind of euphoria, says Daljeet Singh Kohli, CIO, Stockaxis.com. What are you making of this roaring bull market? What can stall it and what is going to push it forward?There is nothing to worry about as of now. The market has been able to conquer a lot of the fears which we felt in the beginning of August. These sectors can take the market forward. a)The BFSI sector has not performed from January till July. This is probably the time for them to catch up and one of them has already done it. b)The FMCG sector has also done a very smart rebound. Banks have been the laggards, have started performing and are not waiting for Fed action to pan out and the final result of tapering. Fed chairman Powell has not yet given any specific timeline for tapering and the market has moved very fast. Banks and other financial institutions have started performing. Banks make 30% of...

Investors looking for core international equity allocation can consider the passive new fund offer (NFO) of Mirae Asset S&P 500 Top 50 ETF or its Fund of Fund (FoF). Given the sharp run-up in equities and the rich valuations, investors could stagger their investments through a systematic investment plan (SIP) over the next one year.The S&P 500 Top 50 consists of the 50 largest companies making up the S&P 500 index, giving investors exposure to bluechip companies in the US along with sectoral and currency diversification.At each annual reconstitution, the top 50 companies in the S&P 500, based on free-float market capitalisation, are selected for index inclusion. The NFO is currently open and closes on September 14 and the minimum investment size is ₹5,000. There is an exit load of 0.5% for redemptions within three months.The fund house is also launching an FoF investing in units of the ETF, which will help investors who do not wish to use the exchange route to investing...

China, which along with Russia abstained from voting on the UN Security Council Afghanistan resolution on Monday, made it clear in its explanation to the 15-member body that it had “huge doubts about the necessity and urgency of adopting this resolution and the balance of its content”.Also, China told the Council that it was necessary for the international community to “engage with the Taliban, and actively provide them with guidance”. Russia went a step further to highlight the “negative impact of evacuation of highly skilled, qualified Afghan personnel” on Afghanistan’s “socio-economic situation”.ET has learnt that China also wanted the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a radical Uighyur outfit active in Xinjiang, named in the resolution alongside the ISIL, whose affiliate has claimed responsibility for the Kabul airport attack.The US, which along with the UK and France had circulated a draft UNSC resolution seeking to hold the Taliban accountable to its commitments against ter...

The torrential rain in the parts of Maharashtra has affected the normal life of the people on Wednesday and led flood-like situation in Jalgaon district where houses and roads are submerged.The torrential rains caused extensive waterlogging in Jalgaon and houses and roads were submerged in several areas of the district. Various areas were submerged in Jalgaon, bringing the city life to a still, while several vehicles were stuck under debris flow caused by heavy rainfall.Earlier, due to the torrential rains, one person has been killed, one seriously injured and it is being estimated that about 10-15 people have been washed away in the floods that have engulfed villages in Chalisgaon, Jalgaon district on Tuesday.The administration estimates that around 700-800 animals have died due to the floods.Due to the night rain on Tuesday, Kannad, Chalisgaon district. Jalgaon Ghat has collapsed and cracks have come in many places, said Bhagwat Patil, Traffic Incharge.The India Meteorological Depart...

IDFC mutual fund earned the respect of debt investors by the way they handled the situation after the crisis in the debt market. Shivani Bazaz of ET Mutual Fund spoke to Suyash Chaudhary, head - fixed income at IDFC AMC, to find out how the fund house managed to win the trust of investors. Edited Interview.IDFC Mutual Fund gained huge respect among debt investors lately in the backdrop of the past troubles faced by the industry. What has been your experience?Our long-standing view has been that the risk profile of mass market investment products has to be consistent with the stage of evolution of the financial market ecosystem. On the one hand, this speaks to the liquidity in various classes of instruments in the secondary market. On the other, it has to do with the general level of appreciation amongst investors of various types of investment risks. Looked at this way one can argue that while the Indian ecosystem has come a long way especially over the past decade or so in terms of it...

Multinational companies as well as Indian firms across sectors, including retail, manufacturing, insurance and healthcare, will collaborate with rivals by 2025, a study by the TCS Thought Leadership Institute showed.The institute conducted a survey of 1,200 CEOs and senior executives across North America, UK, Europe, APAC and Latin America.Out of the surveyed firms, the study identified some as ‘Leaders,’ or firms that reported higher-than-average gains in revenue (over 65%) and net profit (over 73%) in their industries between 2015 and 2019.These companies constituted up to 29% of the survey.The study also identified firms that are ‘Followers’ which had higher-than-average decreases in revenue (-15%) and net profit (-36%) in their industry between 2015 and 2019.‘Leaders’ are more willing to collaborate with competitors, according to the ‘Where, How and What Leaders Will Compete with in the New Decade: Findings from the TCS 2021 Global Leadership Study.’“Clearly, most “Leaders” realize...

Chief economic advisor KV Subramanian has said the country’s macroeconomic fundamentals are strong and the tapering of monetary stimulus by the US Federal Reserve should not be a concern.“When macro fundamentals of a country are not very inspiring, that’s when the impact (of tapering) is felt much more. Fact that economic fundamentals – current account deficit, inflation, forex reserves and all other metrics – are very strong and I absolutely do not see it as that much of a concern,” Subramanian told media persons on Tuesday. He said fundamentals were strong because of the several reform measures undertaken by the government. “We have to understand that international investors look at macroeconomic fundamentals. Data in terms of macroeconomic fundamentals now vis-à-vis at the time of global financial crisis are strong,” Subramanian said, adding that the country is all set for robust growth on the back of structural reforms, government’s capex push and rapid vaccination. US Federal Rese...

The government has extended Vedanta's contract for the prolific Rajasthan oilfield by a further three months, and not by 10 years that the company has been seeking, pending settlement of a dispute over $520 million cost recovery. The original 25-year production sharing contract for the Barmer block in Rajasthan ended in May last year and the government has since extended the contract several times by a few months. The latest extension would last until November, according to people familiar with the matter. The block, which started producing in 2009 and contributes about a fifth of the country’s total oil output, is controlled by mining magnate Anil Agarwal. A key hurdle for a regular 10-year extension has been Cairn’s refusal to pay up $520 million in additional profit petroleum to the government. Cairn has to clear all dues before the government agrees to a regular extension. Cairn launched an arbitration proceeding last year to challenge the government demand for additional profi...

The UK has said that it is "ready" to launch strikes at the ISIS-K terror network in Afghanistan after the Pentagon revealed that there are at least 2,000 fighters of the outfit in the war-torn country.The Islamic State's Afghanistan affiliate, dubbed Islamic State Khorasan or ISIS-K, had claimed responsibility for the deadly twin blasts at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul in which 169 Afghans and 13 American soldiers were killed on Thursday.Britain's Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston, told The Daily Telegraph newspaper on Monday that the UK could be involved in strikes against ISIS-K.He was speaking after the UK and the US troops completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover.“The UK stands united with our coalition partners in mourning those killed by Daesh's (ISIS) horrific attack at Kabul airport and in our unwavering collective resolve to combat Daesh networks by all means available, wherever the...

India’s top two telcos Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have unleashed smart marketing moves to grab higher paying mobile broadband users from struggling Vodafone Idea (Vi) even as the latter continues to cede market share to its stronger rivals.Airtel is relaunching an earlier co-branding pact with PepsiCo India, under which prepaid users will get up to 2GB of complimentary 4G data on purchase of Lay’s, Kurkure, UncleChipps and Doritos snack packs. The Airtel-PepsiCo gameplan is to leverage the sharp surge in mobile broadband consumption and snacking volumes to boost revenues.Reliance Jio, in turn, launched a clutch of prepaid plans— starting at Rs 499— that offer complimentary subscription to entire Disney+ Hotstar content library. Besides a year’s subscription to Disney+ Hotstar, Jio’s new plans come bundled with unlimited voice, data, SMS, Jio Apps and other benefits. Jio’s offers come on the back of Disney+ Hotstar recently revising India offerings. from Economic Times https://ift...

Indian banks are again allowing purchase of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies through their channels, easing curbs that they had imposed on such services.The change in stance happened after the Reserve Bank of India told banks that they no longer can use the regulator’s 2018 circular prohibiting dealings in virtual currencies, as the direction has been struck down by the Supreme Court, said people in the know.Banks have also reopened accounts with crypto exchanges after conducting due-diligence, in absence of any specific regulation. This comes at a time when Indians are flocking back to cryptocurrencies.A quick check of a few cryptocurrency platforms shows that lenders such as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank are allowing transactions in these virtual currencies through the UPI platform. These banks didn’t respond till press time Tuesday to emails seeking comment.Widely used crypto exchange WazirX has listed the net banking facilities of Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India, ...

Everybody's going carbon neutral these days, from the big boys - Amazon, Microsoft, Unilever, Starbucks, JetBlue - to your favorite outdoor brand, even ski resorts. Probably your neighborhood coffee roaster, too.What's not to like? Becoming carbon neutral means cutting greenhouse gas emissions as much as you can, then offsetting what you can't avoid with measures like tree planting. Seems admirable.Well, not exactly. Carbon neutrality doesn't achieve any sort of systemic change. A coal-powered business could be entirely carbon neutral as long as it stops some landfill gas in Malaysia from entering the atmosphere equal to the emissions it's still releasing. American fossil fuel dependence would remain intact, and planet-warming emissions would continue to rise. The only way to fix that is through politics, policymakers and legislation. But distressingly, most businesses don't want to play in that arena.Instead, they're doing exactly what the fossil fuel indus...

The Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), an Enforcement Directorate document which is widely seen as similar to the police first information report, is “just a name” given to an internal document only “for the purpose of identification” of a case, the federal agency has told the Delhi High Court.The ED that probes money-laundering cases said “nothing emanates from an ECIR” and that it was “not a prerequisite” for starting investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.The agency said this in a recent response to a petition filed by Avantha group promoter Gautam Thapar, challenging his arrest by the agency in a money laundering case on August 3. Thapar has sought a copy of the ECIR lodged against him.The ECIR need not be shared with any accused, the ED argued, while saying also that it was “not a complaint” but just “a number given to an internal document” for identification.The ECIR is a document meant for “identification of a particular case and for departmental con...

The Taliban revelled in their victory after the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, reiterating their pledge Tuesday to bring peace and security to the country after decades of war. Their anxious citizens, meanwhile, are waiting to see what the new order looks like. Having humbled the world's most powerful military, the Taliban now face the challenge of governing a nation of 38 million people that relies heavily on international aid, and imposing some form of Islamic rule on a population that is far more educated and cosmopolitan than it was when the group last governed Afghanistan in the late 1990s. Thousands who had worked with the US and its allies, as well as up to 200 Americans, remained in the country after the massive airlift ended with the last US soldiers flying out of Kabul international airport just before midnight Monday. Hours later, turbaned Taliban leaders flanked by fighters from the group's elite Badri unit toured the abandoned airport and posed for photos. ...

The sun had just begun to rise over the Hindu Kush Mountains when the Taliban disappeared from Kabul, the battered capital of Afghanistan. The bodies of foreign Arabs who had stayed behind were mutilated and bloodied. They had been found and killed by advancing Afghans of another faction who were brought to the city by a blistering U.S.-led campaign that drove the Taliban from power. America was still reeling from the horrific terrorist attacks of two months earlier, when planes flown by al-Qaida terrorists crashed into three iconic buildings and a Pennsylvania field, killing nearly 3,000 people. The perpetrators and their leader, Osama bin Laden, were somewhere in Afghanistan, sheltered by the Taliban. The mission: Find him. Bring him to justice. Right then, Afghanistan - two decades of disorder behind it, two decades more just ahead - was suspended in an in-between moment. Nothing was certain, but much seemed possible. Against that backdrop, Afghans understood the mission against bin...

Talent management company Rhiti Sports and decentralised NFT exchange platform GuardianLink.io have jointly launched a first-of-its-kind NFT platform in India - BeyondLife.club - which will list celebrities, athletes and brands from across Southeast Asia.NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, transform digital artworks into unique verifiable digital assets that are tradable on the blockchain. Global sales of NFT have shot up to $2.5 billion in the first half of this year, from a negligible amount in 2020.Actor Amitabh Bachchan will be the first Indian celebrity to roll out his NFT collection through BeyondLife.club, Rhiti Group chairman Arun Pandey told ET.The collectibles will represent Bachchan’s work and will mark the opening of the exchange.“I have joined Rhiti Entertainment, Singapore and will be launching NFTs soon on the platform,” the Bollywood superstar said, commenting on the partnership.The financial details of the collaboration were not disclosed.“The platform, enabled by GuardianLi...

Afghan National Army officers trained in India told Times of India that they face grave risks from Taliban due to the distrust of Army perssonels and their association with India. “When the Taliban attacked, they had our (army’s) biometric pads. They were forcing people to put their fingers on the pad and all information would come up instantly. It was scary,” the Times of India report quoted Lieutenant Amir (name changed), 26, who graduated from the Indian Military Academy (IMA) in Dehradun in 2018, as saying.Another Afghan Army Officer who spoke to Times of India said,"When the Taliban entered Kabul, we got orders that no one should fight them… The Taliban searched military officers’ houses and seized their weapons and vehicles. They killed randomly. I tried to get to the airport one day but they beat me up and kicked me, along with others. I went back to hiding at home."An officer whose wife worked with Indian embassy sought help from the Indian government. “We haven’t got...

India’s antitrust regulator has reached out to independent sellers as part of its probe against ecommerce firms Amazon India and Flipkart, sources aware of the matter said.This is part of the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) ongoing investigation against the e-tailers over issues like deep discounting and preferential treatment of select sellers. In its conversation with some merchants last week, CCI sought details of how certain sellers were allegedly given preferential treatment, as mentioned in the original complaints by trade bodies such as Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) and the Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh (DVM).The move follows a Supreme Court order that cleared the way for CCI to restart its probe against the e-tailers, which had tried to stall the probe in Karnataka High Court (HC) as well as the apex court by challenging the HC order.According to sources aware of the matter, some of the sellers told CCI that launches of certain smartphones were not accessible by in...

It is a good time to take away some profit from the small and midcaps and focus on the largecaps and largish midcaps, says Nischal Maheshwari, CEO, Centrum -Institutional Equities. This is not going to be a market where one can simply bet on the index. It is going to be about finding individual stocks that have the potential of moving. It is going to be a market which will be very narrow and limited to those few stocks. Do you think that is going to be the case? What will the market look out for when picking those individual stocks?Basically, it is a relief rally. The market was holding on to what is going to happen at Jackson Hole and after that when the Fed Chairman Powell said that they are not looking at tapering immediately and did not even set up a date for that, the market was relieved and we once again saw the risk on the table My view is that there are definitely dark clouds on the horizon and one of them is basically that growth is something which people have to look out for ...

China has used big data to trace and control the outbreak of COVID-19. This has involved a significant endeavour to build new technologies and expand its already extensive surveillance infrastructure across the country. In our recent study, we show how the State Council, the highest administrative government unit in China, plans to retain some of those new capabilities and incorporate them into the broader scheme of mass surveillance at a national level. This is likely to lead to tighter citizen monitoring in the long term. This phenomenon of adopting a system of surveillance for one purpose and using it past the originally intended aims is known as "function creep". In China, this involves the use of big data initially collected to monitor people's COVID status and movements around the country to keep the pandemic under control. The Chinese government has been quite successful at this, despite recent spikes in infections in eastern China. But this big data exercise has a...

Dr SK Ghosh, Group Chief Economic Advisor, SBI in conversation with Tamanna Inamdar of ET NOW on what to expect from GDP numbers . What are you looking for from GDP numbers?We are looking for three clear things. The first thing we are looking for is the total amount of loss in the first quarter. Last year, the total loss was estimated at Rs 11 lakh crore and subsequently as the economy turned the corner, the losses went down significantly. So the first thing we would like to see is what is the loss in Q1 of this year compared to the first quarter of last year. Consensus estimates show that the second wave impact has been much more muted than the first wave. The second important thing that will make the difference, is the gap between the GDP and the GVA estimates. One could see a significant divergence between the GVA and GDP estimates because of the indirect tax collections in the first quarter of the current fiscal. Indirect tax collection is one of the highest in the last several dec...