Breaking News December 9 | Highlights

Car market leader Maruti Suzuki India on Wednesday said it will increase prices of its vehicles from January to offset the adverse impact of rising input costs.

With a view to ensure financial discipline and transparency, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday proposed guidelines for non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) for declaring dividends.

Under the proposed norms, only those NBFCs that meet the prescribed prudential requirements would be allowed to declare and distribute dividends.

One of the norms prescribed by the RBI is that the net non-performing asset (NPA) ratio of NBFCs should be less than 6 per cent in each of the last three years, including the accounting year for which it proposes to declare dividend.

"In order to infuse greater transparency and uniformity in practice, it has been decided to prescribe guidelines on distribution of dividend by NBFCs," said the draft circular on which the RBI has invited comments from the stakeholders by December 24.

Authorities in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh issued avalanche warning on Wednesday for 11 districts, cautioning people to remain alert. The Disaster Management Authority issued a high danger avalanche warning for higher reaches of J&K's Bandipora district.

"High danger avalanche warning has been issued for higher reaches of Bandipora district, particularly Gurez tehsil.

"Medium danger avalanche warning has been issued for higher reaches of Poonch, Kishtwar, Ganderbal, Kupwara and Kargil district.

"Low level avalanche warning has been issued for upper reaches of Ramban, Anantnag, Kulgam, Baramulla and Leh district," it said in a statement.

People living in these areas have been cautioned not to venture out in avalanche prone areas during the next 24 hours, it added.

The 26th edition of CBSE Annual Sahodaya Conference will be held online on December 11-12 on the theme of 'building competencies in challenging times', according to officials.

CBSE Sahodaya School Complexes are a cluster of affiliated neighbourhood schools which voluntarily come together to share best practices and innovative strategies for school education and collaborate for curriculum design, evaluation, pedagogy and regular capacity building of teachers.

At present, there are more than 200 active CBSE Sahodaya School Clusters across the country.

Around 2.6 lakh government employees in the healthcare sector including doctors and nurses will get the coronavirus vaccine in the first round of
inoculation in Maharashtra, an official said on Wednesday.

The state government on Wednesday held its first review meeting on the preparation for vaccination, where facilities of storage and transportation, finalization of lists of beneficiaries and setting up of vaccination booths were discussed, he said.

American Airlines is about to start offering at-home Covid-19 tests to domestic fliers in order to help them meet various state travel restriction requirements, the company said.

U.K. regulators said Wednesday that people who have a “significant history” of allergic reactions shouldn’t receive the new Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine while they investigate two adverse reactions that occurred on the first day of the country’s mass vaccination program.

Equity benchmark Sensex soared 495 points to cross the 46,000-level for the first time on Wednesday amid persistent foreign fund inflows and positive cues from global markets. After touching a record intra-day high of 46,164.10, the 30-share BSE index ended 494.99 points or 1.09 per cent higher at 46,103.50 .

Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty rallied 136.15 points or 1.02 per cent to its new record high of 13,529.10. It touched its lifetime peak of 13,548.90 during the day.

The time-table of the tri-weekly train between Mangaluru central and Bengaluru via Mysuru has been revised. The train would start from Bengaluru on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays at 8.30 PM. It would reach Mangaluru Central station at 8.35 AM, a press release from South Western Railway said in Mangaluru.

The train that leaves Mangaluru on Thursdays, Saturdays and Mondays at 8.10 PM would reach Bengaluru at 8.40 AM, the release said.

This timing would be in force from December 9 to December 18, it said.

RBL Bank and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance have joined hands under a bancassurance partnership to sell insurance policies to the bank's customers. As many as 398 RBL Bank branches across 28 states will distribute ICICI Prudential Life's protection and savings products, according to a joint press release issued on Wednesday.

The alliance will enable over 8.7 million customers of RBL Bank to access and seamlessly purchase customer-centric protection and long-term savings products of the insurance company, it added.

Bharatiya Janata Party has won in 1,990 Panchayat Samitis,14 Zila Parishads and 93 Block Panchayats in Rajasthan, says BJP leader and Union Minister Prakash Javadekar

Delhi HC seeks Centre's stand on PIL for regulation of techfin companies like Amazon and Google

 Telangana's Covid-19 tally crossed 2.75 lakh mark on Wednesday with the state adding 753 new cases during the last 24 hours.

Greater Hyderabad reported 123 new cases. Medchal Malkajgiri district saw the second highest number of new cases at 58 followed by Rangareddy (51), Warangal Urban (47), Karimnagar (37), Khammam (32) and Nalgonda (31).

Three more persons succumbed to the virus, taking the death toll to 1,480.

The fatality rate stands at 0.53 per cent against the national average of 1.5 per cent.

The body of a 25-year-old man was found hanging from a tree in a village here, police said on Wednesday. The deceased was identified as Palturam Maurya, they said.

Local residents noticed the body hanging from the tree in Kutta village on Tuesday evening and informed the police, the police said. The body was sent for a post-mortem. A probe is underway to ascertain whether it was a suicide or a murder, they said.

The 64 foreign envoys arrive at Bharat Biotech in Hyderabad, in continuation of the briefing by Ministry of External Affairs (MEA)

A 34-year-old man has died of electrocution while taking a bath at a handpump in a village in Banda district of Uttar Pradesh, police said on Wednesday.
The incident took place in Tindwari area of Semri village on Tuesday, SHO Zakir Hussain said.

The victim, Mithailal, was electrocuted when he touched the handpump, he said, adding villagers rushed him to a hospital, where he was declared brought dead.

Police are probing the matter and have lodged an FIR, the SHO said, adding that someone from the village had installed a pump with the handpump which may have led to the incident.

It was a hazy Wednesday morning in the national capital with the air quality recorded in the "very poor" category. The minimum temperature settled at 9.1 degrees Celsius and the relative humidity was 97 percent at 8.30 AM, a MET official said.

The maximum temperature of the day is expected to be around 27 degrees Celsius, the official said.

The air quality index (AQI) of Delhi at 10 AM was 362 lying in "very poor" category, showed the Central Pollution Control Board(CPCB) realtime data.

All three local terrorists of Al-Badre outfit killed in Tiken, Pulwama encounter: Vijay Kumar, IGP Kashmir

TV actress VJ Chitra found dead at a hotel in the outskirts of Chennai on Wednesday morning. Police is ascertaining the cause of death. Her body recovered and sent for autopsy. Investigation underway.

Encounter underway at Tiken area of Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir. Police and security forces are carrying out the operation.

Fire breaks out at a chemical factory in Vatva area of Ahmedabad, Gujarat. More than 20 fire tenders are at the spot.

"Fire broke out at around 1 am and it has been brought under control. No casualties reported so far," Rajesh Bhatt, Chief Fire Officer, Ahmedabad