Year: 2020

Air Chief Marshal R K S Bhadauria on Monday said The Indian Air Force is planning to acquire 450 fighter aircraft for deployment on the northern and western frontiers of the country, in future.   The list of aircraft planned to be inducted by the Air Force include 36 Rafales, 114 Multirole Fighter Aircraft, 100 Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) and over 200 variants of the Light Combat Aircraft.   “In the next 15 years, 83 LCAs are our primary focus, after that LCA Mark 2 will come in we are looking at close to 100 of…

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday took oath as a Member of the State Legislative Council at a function held here at the assembly building. Thackeray was chosen as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra in November but he was not a member of either Houses in the state legislature.   Uddhav Thackeray took the oath of office along with eight other candidates belonging to the ruling and opposition parties who were all elected unopposed to the state Legislative Council on Thursday.   Uddhav Thackeray’s unopposed election to the legislature…

US President Donald Trump says he consulted with White House doctor on taking the anti-malarial drug Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) that he has called a possible defense against coronavirus.    “I happen to be taking it, Hydroxychloroquine,” he told reporters on Monday. He said he had consulted with the White House doctor and suggested he is taking the drug as a preventive measure. Trump said he has been checked regularly for Covid-19, has tested negative and has no symptoms. He said he has been taking Hydroxychloroquine for about a week and a…

Chinese President Xi Jinping said he supports calls for an investigation into the handling of the coronavirus pandemic at a key summit, but insisted that any inquiry should wait until the virus is contained.  Xi spoke at the World Health Assembly after more than 100 countries backed a resolution calling for an independent inquiry into the pandemic, which has so far claimed more than 300,000 lives globally. The President defended his country at the annual meeting of the World Health Organization (WHO), saying Beijing had acted transparently about the origins…

Lockdown has now entered its 4th stage, and a few changes are made as per the zone each city or state has entered. Four Zones are made: Green, Orange Red, and Contaminated. This extended 4.0 stage of lockdown is said to continue till May 31. The first day is May 18. The pandemic has affected over 90, 000 people in India till date and the fear of rising high is still not gone. Hence the Union ministry has come up with a chart to clear which states and cities will…

On Saturday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman addressed the media in the fourth phase of announcement on government’s Rs 20 lakh crore economic stimulus packages.   Sitharaman said that the fourth day of the announcements on the stimulus package will focus primarily on “structural reforms”.   “The direct benefit transfer (DBT) has become very useful for us to be able to directly give money in the hands of people. GST, which was pending for a very long time. All states were taken on-board. GST brought in ‘one nation-one market,” Sitharaman noted.…

Reliance Industries Limited (“Reliance Industries”) and Jio Platforms Limited (“Jio Platforms”), India’s leading digital services platform, today announced an investment of ₹ 6,598.38 crore by General Atlantic, a leading global growth equity firm. This investment values Jio Platforms at an equity value of ₹ 4.91 lakh crore and an enterprise value of ₹ 5.16 lakh crore. General Atlantic’s investment will translate into a 1.34% equity stake in Jio Platforms on a fully diluted basis. With this investment, Jio Platforms has raised ₹ 67,194.75 crore from leading technology investors including Facebook,…