New Delhi, March 21 (Nasheman News) Petrol prices declined by 7 paise across the metropolitan cities on Thursday after remaining unchanged for the last two days, data from the Indian Oil Corp’s website showed.

In the national capital, petrol was priced at Rs 72.71 per litre, down from Rs 72.78 on Wednesday. In Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai, price of the fuel was at Rs 74.79, Rs 78.33 and Rs 75.52 per litre respectively, against the previous levels of Rs 74.86, Rs 78.40 and Rs 75.59 per litre.

Although domestic fuel prices declined on Thursday, largely, the price trend has been on an upward movement during the first three months of 2019, except a few days of price drop. In Delhi, petrol prices have risen around Rs 4 per litre since January 1, 2019.

The uptrend in domestic prices is largely attributed to the recent bullish global crude oil prices. The benchmark Brent crude oil is currently trading around $68 per barrel. 

Under the dynamic pricing policy, the retail fuel prices in the country are based on the a 15-day average of global crude prices along with the rupee-US dollar exchange rate.

In tandem with petrol prices, the cost of diesel also declined on Thursday. In Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai, diesel was sold for Rs 66.72, Rs 68.51, Rs 69.89 and Rs 70.50 per litre, down from Rs 66.80, Rs 68.59, Rs 69.97 and Rs 70.59 per litre on Wednesday.

Jet Airways’ pilots body urges SBI to clear salaries, dues at earliest
Assuring its commitment towards the Jet Airways in taking the airline to the road of recovery, its pilots body National Aviators Guild on Tuesday petitioned State Bank of India chairman Rajnish Kumar to release their pending salaries at the earliest.

?It is our humble request to you to alleviate some of the hardships that we and the AMEs have been facing by ensuring that the Jet Airways management does not further delay the release of our pending salaries and clears our dues at the earliest,? body general Secretary Capt Tej Sood said in a letter to the SBI chairman.

SBI is the main lendor among 26 banks that have given loans to the saddled airline Jet Airways.

On Monday, Jet Airways founder and chairman Naresh Goyal and his wife Anita Goyal had tendered their resignations as directors from the Board. According to the new resolution plans, Rs 1500 crore would be infused in the airline to normalize its operations.

With the new loan of Rs 1500 crore, the total loan amount of the Jet Airways is more than Rs 9,700 crore. Under the resolution plan, the banks would convert the total debt into equity worth 50.1 per cent at a price of Re 1.

The pilots body also sought time to meet the SBI chairman to discuss the resolution plan.

?We would also be grateful if you could spare us some time from your busy schedule to meet our Representatives to give us an idea of the roadmap to recovery. This will help us in rebuilding confidence amongst our pilots and reassuring them that the uncertainty is behind us,? the letter said.

The NAG, however, assured the bank chairman of its continued support. It said pilots remain committed to the airline and would leave no stone unturned to ensure that the carrier returns to its former glory.

Joint initiative by BIAL and CabDost to boost tax filing and create

financial inclusion for Airport taxi drivers  

Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) in association with Cab Dost – a social enterprise that works with taxi drivers – launched the third edition of Tax-E-Mela, a financial inclusion initiative to help Airport taxi drivers file Income Tax returns . This initiative is completely free of charge for taxi drivers to ensure a secure financial future for them by providing advisory services related to tax filing. This service will be available at the P6 parking area at the BLR Airport until March 23, 2019.

Over 1,500 drivers are stationed at the BLR Airport parking at any given time. BIAL staff and Cab Dost volunteers actively encourage them to participate in the Tax filing initiative. Cab Dost has set up a help desk, which is open from 7 am to 9pm every day until March 23. Drivers need to bring their original PAN card, Aadhar card and a copy of their Bank Statement to avail this service.

Tax filing is an advantage for the taxi driver community, who have long been exploited, by money lenders charging exorbitant interest rates, owing to their lack of financial literacy. Once under the tax umbrella, a driver would be able to avail loans from banks, can use it as an income proof and apply for TDS refunds, if applicable. Cab Dost has been conducting this campaign for three years and has assisted free ITR filing for over 5,000 drivers across the Country, so far.

“This is an opportunity to create financial inclusion for cab drivers. Most taxi drivers cross the tax bracket and TDS is deducted, due to lack of financial education about ITR filing. Drivers fail to file their ITRs and build a track record of income. This initiative will not only include them in the tax base, but also validates their financial credentials,” said Yamuna Sastry, Founder, Cab Dost.

By Faizan Rizwan

Skullcandy Launches Wireless Earbud

Skullcandy, Inc., the original lifestyle audio brand, announced the company’s 1^st ever truly wireless earbud named Push™, an untethered audio experience for those that seek to push boundaries both culturally & aesthetically. Push offers listeners a bold design, sleek fit & music you can feel, so you can live your life without limitations. 

The small but mighty buds feature a unique design that not only eliminates signal loss but also features a simple user interface offering a full suite of media control options including call, track & volume control & even lets you activate your phone’s native assistant with just the push of a button. 

Push is specifically designed to offer a worry-free listening experience for every consumer. These earbuds offer a full day’s worth of battery life of upto 12 hours, 6 hours within the earbud & 6 hours through the intelligent charging case. Additionally, Skullcandy’s FitFin™ Ear Gels offer a secure & comfortable fit that ensures your earbuds stay put in the ear throughout the day. 

Introduced at Rs.9999/- Push is available on Skullcandy.in & retailers across the country starting 12^th Mar, 2019.

Nasheman News : India’s annual rate of inflation based on wholesale prices rose to 2.93 per cent in February from 2.74 per cent reported for the corresponding month of 2018, official data showed on Thursday.

Even on a sequential basis, the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) data for February, furnished by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, showed that wholesale prices rose on a faster rate than the rise of 2.76 per cent reported for January 2019.

“The annual rate of inflation, based on monthly WPI, stood at 2.93 per cent (provisional) for the month of February, 2019 (over February, 2018) as compared to 2.76 per cent (provisional) for the previous month and 2.74 per cent during the corresponding month of the previous year,” the Ministry said in its review of “Index Numbers of Wholesale Price in India” for February.

“Build up inflation rate in the financial year so far was 2.75 per cent compared to a build up rate of 2.56 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year.”

Nasheman News :The Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, journalist-turned politician Arun Shourie and activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan are guilty of leakage of sensitive information having a bearing on national security and combat capacity of Rafale fighter jets.

Citing “secrecy” in the matter, the Centre contended that the three petitioners – Sinha, Shourie and Bhushan – are “guilty of leakage of sensitive information, which offends the terms of the agreements” on the fighter jet.

In an affidavit, the government said the leaked information was now available to the “enemy/our adversaries”, adding those who have conspired in this leakage were guilty of penal offences punishable under Indian Penal Code.

The offences include theft by unauthorized photocopying and leakage of sensitive official documents affecting national security, which relate to war capacity of combat aircraft, said the affidavit filed by the Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra.

The Centre’s affidavit comes on the eve of a hearing on the plea for the review of the apex court’s December 14 judgement giving a clean chit to the Centre by holding that the decision-making process on the Rafale jets was not in doubt.

The matter is listed for hearing on March 14.

An internal inquiry, started on February 28, is aimed at finding out where the leakage took place. “… It is of utmost concern so that in future the sanctity of decision-making process in governance is maintained”, says the affidavit filed by the Defence Secretary.

The Centre has contended that the four-page note annexed with the petition seeking a review of the December 14 judgement is a “secret” document.

Similarly in the miscellaneous application by Sinha and others seeking perjury action against the officers allegedly for misleading the court consists of two notes of two pages and 8 pages which too are privileged.

All the three documents – one annexed with the review petition and two with the miscellaneous applications — have been authenticated by Bhushan.

Contending that the documents attached to the review petition and miscellaneous application were “sensitive to national security which relates to the capacity of combat aircraft”, the Centre asserted that this has put “the national security in jeopardy.”

Those who have “conspired in making the photocopies of these sensitive documents” without the “consent, permission or acquiescence of the Central government” have committed theft by unauthorised photocopying of such documents, says the affidavit.

The Centre further said that “secrecy was envisaged in the various agreements that the Central government had entered into with the foreign government and others on matters of national security.”

The leakage of documents to relating Rafale has “adversely affected the sovereignty, security and friendly relations with foreign countries.”

The petitioners “unauthorisedly accessed the documents with the intention to present a “selective and incomplete picture of internal secret deliberations.”

“The documents presented by the petitioners fail to bring out how the issues were addressed and resolved and if necessary approval of competent authorities was taken”, says the affidavit.

The selective and incomplete presentation of facts and records by the petitioners, the Centre has contended, is “intended to mislead the court into driving wrong conclusions, which are very damaging to the national security and public interest.”

The government cited recent CAG report to back its contention.

The Centre has contended that the documents which were unauthorisedly photocopied belonged to a class for which it was “entitled to claim privilege under Section 123 and 124 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.”

Asserting that the petitioners had “no authority whatsoever to produce the same before the court without explicit permission” of the government, the government affidavit says that these documents are exempt from disclosure under Section 8(1)(a) of the Right to Information Act.

[Nasheman news] San Francisco After pausing investments in its “Allo” mobile messaging app, Google has finally bid goodbye to the platform that was launched with much fanfare in 2016.

A banner across the official Allo website confirmed that March 12 was its last day in operation, The Verge reported on Monday.

“During our time together, we brought you a smarter way to chat, with features like the Google Assistant, ‘Allo’ for web and selfie stickers but now the app is signing off,” the banner on Allo’s page read. 

Last year in April, Anil Sabharwal, the head of the communications group at Google told the media that “Allo” as a product did not achieve the level of traction the company had hoped for. 

Even though the app’s successor is not quite ready yet, Google has incorporated some of Allo’s features like smart replies and desktop support into the Android Messaging app. 

“We’re working to bring your favorite features to the Messages app so you can have richer conversations with all your friends. If you have an Android phone, we hope you’ll try Messages!” the banner said. 

“Allo” was launched as an instant messaging mobile app for the Android and iOS mobile Operating Systems (OS), with a web client available on Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Opera browsers. 

After Allo’s exit, Google is going all in on Rich Communication Services (RCS) — the successor to SMS that’s been a long time coming — to give Android a successful messaging app. 

“It’s far from universal, but now that Google is focused on just a single messaging app, it has a better chance of gaining some momentum,” The Verge said. 

Nasheman News : An Indian-origin man here has lost six of his family members in the Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed all 157 people on board.

The victims were identified as Pannagesh Vaidya, 73; his wife Hansini Vaidya, 67; their daughter Kosha Vaidya, 37; her husband Prerit Dixit, 45; and their two children – Anushka and Ashka, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown was quoted as saying by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

The family, all living in Canada, was headed for a “fun trip” to Kenya. Pannagesh Vaidya and Hansini Vaidya were Indian nationals.

Manant Vaidya, the brother of Kosha Vaidya, said he dropped off the family at Pearson International Airport on Saturday morning – what would be the second-last day of their lives.

“It’s a huge tragedy. I lost my parents, I lost my sister. I don’t have anyone else now,” he said.

The Boeing 737 Max 8 — flight ET 302 — en route from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to the Kenyan capital Nairobi crashed six minutes after take off on Sunday. It ploughed into a field near Tulu Fara village outside the town of Bishoftu, some 60 km southeast of Addis Ababa. 

“This is an unbelievably tragic situation for this family,” Brown said in a statement.

“As more details become known, I will provide a further update on how Brampton residents can assist this family. Our thoughts and prayers are with them during this time of sorrow and reflection.”

Manant Vaidya said that his sister Kosha, who became a Canadian permanent resident in 2003, wanted to take her children to Nairobi to show them her birthplace.

“They thought March break was the perfect time for them to go over there, have fun. It was going to be a really great trip for everybody.”

Manant Vaidya said his parents insisted that they also wanted to go on the trip. “I asked my dad why he wanted to go and he told me that in his life he wants to go one more time.”

He said his brother-in-law was working seven days a week in order to pay for the trip.

The Indian Embassy in Ethiopia on Sunday said that four Indian nationals were killed and they were identified as Pannagesh Vaidya, Hansini Vaidya, Nukavarapu Manisha, a doctor based in the US, and Shikha Garg, the United Nations Development Programme consultant attached with the Environment Ministry. 

Ethiopian Airlines said Kenya had the largest number of casualties with 32, followed by 18 Canadians, 9 Ethiopians, 9 Britons, then Italy, China, and the US with eight each. 

There were seven French citizens, six Egyptians, five Germans, and four people from Slovakia on board.

Nasheman News : The Lucknow and New Delhi residences of retired IAS officer Net Ram, a close aide of former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, were raided by the Income Tax department on Tuesday, officials said.

IT officials said the raids were unleashed for suspected tax evasion running into several crores of rupees. More than a dozen locations were searched in all.

Considered close to the Bahujan Samaj Party chief, the 1979-batch IAS officer was part of a group of powerful bureaucrats who ran the show when Mayawati was the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister. 

He was Principal Secretary (Home) in 2007-12 and later rose to became Mayawati’s Principal Secretary. Post retirement, he advised Mayawati and was reportedly contemplating the Lok Sabha polls on BSP ticket.