Archives for 2022

Prashanth Neel’s period action drama KGF: Chapter 2 is all the rage across the country. The sequel to the 2018 blockbuster, KGF: Chapter 1, was highly anticipated since its announcement and box-office figures confirm that the new film, the second in eight years for director Prashanth Neel and actor Yash, has exceeded all expectations.

Hombale films, the production house of KGF: Chapter 2, confirmed that a whopping Rs 134.5 crore was collected on Thursday, the opening day. The Hindi version of the film has grossed `53.95 crore, making it the highest ever first-day collection for any film in the language, ahead of War and Thugs of Hindostan. 

“The success isn’t a surprise,” said  S R Prabhu of Dream Warrior Pictures, the Tamil Nadu distributor of the film. “We foresaw it even before we bought the rights of the film and were confident that the audience would love the second part even more than the first.” He went on to share an impressive statistic: “The second part has recovered the lifetime collection of the first film in Tamil Nadu, and it has done this in just one day. I am confident that this is the same in other languages as well.” 

Manoj Desai, executive director of G7 Multiplex and Maratha Mandir Cinema in Mumbai, painted a picture of happiness. “Almost 1,000 seats, across both our screens, are already sold out for the weekend. The film has performed exceedingly well and the positive reviews have helped too.” 

A reduction in Covid cases, relaxation of mask mandates and early morning shows have all combined to result in increased footfalls. “The shows on our property began as early as 4 am and we have scheduled nine shows in all. The early shows have a higher fare because of the flexible ticket pricing option,” shared Kavitha, manager of Mukta A2 Cinemas, Bengaluru. 

KGF dethroned Mohanlal’s Odiyan in First day collection

Meanwhile, the Malayalam dubbed version of the film, distributed by actor Prithviraj Sukumaran, has reportedly dethroned Mohanlal’s Odiyan to become the highest-grossing film in the language by grossing Rs 7.2 crores on the first day.

And yet, distributor and the president of the Tamil Nadu Theatres’ Association president, Tirupur Subramaniam, stated that Vijay’s Beast continues to lead the box office race in Tamil Nadu for the moment.

“KGF 2 is undoubtedly a massive success, but it hasn’t won over Beast, simply because of the sizeable difference in the number of screens allotted. Beast got over 800 screens overall, while KGF 2 got only around 250 screens.”

KGF: Chapter-2 will face competition in the form of Bollywood releases like Shahid Kapoor’s Jersey (April 22), Tiger Shroff’s Heropanti 2 and Ajay Devgn’s Runway 34, during the coming days. However, going by the massive online pre-booking numbers and the strong word-of-mouth publicity, stakeholders are convinced that the film about ‘India’s biggest criminal’ is on track to becoming India’s biggest blockbuster.

BENGALURU: Ordering food online is going to be difficult over this weekend as food delivery partners (FDPs) have logged off in protest until Sunday against a new system of time slots introduced by the food delivery apps for them to log in. The new system threatens to affect the earnings of FDPs as it changes from peak to non-peak hours.

United Food Delivery Partners’ Union President, Vinay Sarathi told that FDPs are unhappy with the new system brought in by the companies, including Zomato, and is not acceptable.

“Unlike usual, time slots have been created for FDPs to join and operate. These slots are fixed like 7-11am, 11am-1pm and on on. Also attendance to these slots is being reserved for company’s preferred FDPs. This directly effects earnings as service charges change during peak and non-peak hours,” he said. Most FDPs are on strike protesting against the food delivery apps. Members of the Union announced a three-day strike starting from April 15.  

Impact of strike felt across B’luru

Its impact was already seen in most parts of Bengaluru on the first day where services was hit in areas like BTM Layout, HSR, RR Nagar, Katriguppe, Jalahalli and Kenergi. Members of the union are gradually extending their strike to across Karnataka. The Union has one lakh workers and most of them have shown solidarity to be a part of the strike.

Chetan a food delivery partner, who is finding it difficult to make ends meet said: “The imbroglio is prompted by the new payment system introduced around a month back. The new system called as gigs has brought down the earnings by 30 per cent and has increased the working hours. Despite repeated requests this was not addressed, so now we decided to go on a strike,” he said. Sarathi said earlier an FDP could log off when it was not a suitable time, but now after slots have been introduced, the dynamics change. 

Swiggy spokesperson said, “Although we have heard rumours of an upcoming strike, we have been assured that our partners are not going to take part and the strike is limited only to Zomato partners. We are not planning on implementing anything related to time slotting for FDPs and will not be reducing earnings of the partners.” 

A spokesperson from Zomato said revisions have been introduced and it seems to a be case of misunderstanding. The changes have been introduced to help students and those in other streams. The issues will be clarified with the FDPs, the spokesperson said.

BENGALURU:  Heavy rain near the Bengaluru airport area caused stoppage in flight operations for over an hour on Friday evening. Nine arriving flights to Bengaluru were diverted to Chennai. A total of 20 departing flights from Kempegowda International Airport suffered delays.

According to a spokesperson of airport operator, Bangalore International Airport Limited, flight operations were impacted between 6.35 pm and 7.38 pm. 

Landing of flights as well as departures  commenced normally after 7.38 pm, she said. “There was some traffic congestion in arrival flights. This got eased by 8.26 pm,” the spokesperson added

CHANDIGARH: The Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government in Punjab announced 300 units of free electricity to households from July 1.

The announcement was made in advertisements published by the state’s information and public relations department in various newspapers on Saturday.

It was related to a 30-day report card of the AAP government in Punjab.

A formal announcement is expected to be made later on Saturday.

Giving 300 units of free electricity was one of the major poll promises of the Aam Aadmi Party in the Punjab assembly election.

Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had on Thursday said in Jalandhar that “good news” would be announced on April 16.

Punjab was already providing free electricity to the farming sector.

It also provides 200 units of free power to all Scheduled Castes, backward castes and the below poverty line households.

According to former AIIMS- Bhopal director Dr Sarman Singh, who served from June 4, 2018 to November 8,  2021, and also had the additional charge of Bibinagar (Telangana) AIIMS, presiding over two institutes is a challenging task which hampers policy decisions and other governing issues of the institute. 

Dr S Ramji, executive director of AIIMS-Kalyani (West Bengal) was entrusted with the additional charge of AIIMS-Guwahati as director in February this year. 

This newspaper contacted officials in Union health ministry, but there were no comments despite repeated attempts. 

A parliamentary committee panel had also expressed concern over shortage of staff at six AIIMS — Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur, Patna, Raipur and Rishikesh.

Dr Saurabh Varshney, Executive Director of AIIMS-Deoghar, is holding additional charge of Patna-AIIMS. 

Mukesh Tripathi, Director of Mangalagiri (Andhra Pradesh) AIIMS, has additional charge of AIIMS- Bhubaneswar

Executive director of AIIMS-Rae Bareli, Dr Arvind Rajwanshi, has addl charge of AIIMS-Rish

MUMBAI: The Narcotics Control Bureau has suspended two of its officials, who were part of a probe into the cruise drugs case, after a departmental inquiry against them in another case, an NCB official said on Thursday.

Two duo – superintendent Vishwa Vijay Singh and intelligence officer Ashish Ranjan Prasad – had allegedly helped an accused in another drugs case secure bail, he said.

An internal inquiry was conducted against the two officials and after the completion of the probe, they were placed under suspension, the official said.

The action has got nothing to do with the cruise drugs case, he said.

In October last year, a team of the NCB’s Mumbai zone had raided a Goa-bound cruise ship and claimed to have seized drugs onboard.

Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan and some others are accused in that case.

UNITED NATIONS:  Russia’s war on Ukraine threatens to devastate the economies of many developing countries that are now facing even higher food and energy costs and increasingly difficult financial conditions, a UN task force warned Wednesday.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres released the report saying that the war is “supercharging” a crisis in food, energy and finance in poorer countries that were already struggling to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and a lack of access to adequate funding for economic recovery.

“We are now facing a perfect storm that threatens to devastate the economies of many developing countries,” Guterres said at a news conference. “As many as 1.7 billion people — one-third of whom are already living in poverty — are now highly exposed to disruptions in food, energy and finance systems that are triggering increases in poverty and hunger.”

Rebeca Grynspan, secretary-general of the U.N. agency promoting trade and development who coordinated the task force, said those people live in 107 countries that have “severe exposure” to at least one dimension of the crisis — rising food prices, increasing energy prices and tightening financial conditions.

In these countries, the report says, people struggle to afford healthy diets, imports are essential to meet food and energy needs, and “debt burdens and tightening resources limit government’s ability to cope with the vagaries of global financial conditions.”

The report says 69 of the countries, with a population of 1.2 billion people, face a “perfect storm” and are severely or significantly exposed to all three crises. They include 25 countries in Africa, 25 in Asia and the Pacific, and 19 in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, prices were already on the rise, “but the war has made a bad situation worse,” Guterres said.

Thirty-six countries rely on Russia and Ukraine for more than half their wheat imports, including some of the world’s poorest countries, he said, and wheat and corn prices have risen 30% just since the start of the year.

Russia is also the world’s top natural gas exporter and second-largest oil exporter, and Russia and neighboring Belarus export about 20% of the world’s fertilizers. Guterres said oil prices have increased more than 60% over the past year, natural gas prices have jumped 50% in recent months, and fertilizer prices have doubled.

The task force said the world is “on the brink of a global debt crisis.” Grynspan, who heads the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development, pointed to Sri Lanka’s default on a debt payment Tuesday and said other countries are asking for help.

Guterres said the world can act to tackle the “three-dimensional crisis” and “cushion the blow.”

The task force calls on countries to ensure a steady flow of food and fertilizer through open markets, lift export restrictions, and direct surpluses and reserves to those in need. Guterres said this would help keep a lid on food prices and calm volatility in food markets.

On energy, the task force urges governments to refrain from hoarding, immediately release strategic petroleum stockpiles and additional reserves, and reduce the use of wheat for biofuels. Guterres urged countries to use the crisis as an opportunity to accelerate the transition to renewable energy.

On finance, the task force issued “an urgent call for prompt and swift action from the international community” to help developing countries avoid another decade of lost economic development, “a generalized debt crisis, and social and political instability.”

The task force says international financial institutions should provide emergency concessional financing to countries experiencing social and economic distress.

It calls on the International Monetary Fund to increase limits for rapid financial assistance, suspend interest rate surcharges for two years, and explore the possibility of providing more liquidity “through special drawing rights or special measures targeted at the vulnerable and most affected countries.”

Guterres said the upcoming spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank on April 18-24 are “a crucial moment” for decisions on many of these issues. He said it is crucial that their members understand the need to use money that is available to alleviate the suffering of people around the world.

The UN chief said political will is key, and announced that he has asked six leaders — the presidents of Senegal and Indonesia and the prime ministers of Germany, Barbados, Denmark and Bangladesh — to mobilize political leaders to ensure that developing countries in crisis get the help they need.