Petrol retail rates finally breached the Rs 90 mark in Mumbai by touching Rs 90.08 per litre here on Monday, but stood much higher elsewhere in the state, industry officials said.

Federation of Maharashtra Petroleum Dealers Association (FAMPEDA) President Uday Lodh said that the new rate became effective after a hike of 11 paise effected on Monday.

Parbhani District Petrol Dealers Association (PDPDA) President Sanjay Deshmukh said the petrol rates soared to Rs 91.91 in the districts.

The highest petrol prices logged in various cities included: Nanded Rs 91.61, Amravati Rs 91.31, Ratnagiri Rs 91.14 and Jalgaon Rs 91.01, said Lodh.

Similarly, diesel prices also shot up by five paise per litre in Parbhani where it sold at Rs 79.15, said Deshmukh.

However, Aurangabad notched the highest prices when diesel crossed the Rs 80 mark and retailed on Monday at Rs 80.53 per litre, followed by Amravati at Rs 79.90 and Solapur at Rs 79.25.

An official said that there was no fall in demand with the festival season currently on, and the upward trend was likely to continue for some time.

(IANS)

Bhubaneswar Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the revival of the Talcher fertiliser plant in Odisha will create huge job opportunities while making the country self-sufficient in fertiliser production.

The Talcher plant will start production in 36 months with an investment of Rs 13,000 crore, said Modi.

Launching the revival work for the country’s first coal gasification-based fertiliser plant, Modi said: “Around 4,500 people will be employed in the region.”

It would also reduce India’s dependency on importing gas and urea, he added.

“Odisha had lost hope of the fertiliser plant but we did it despite several hurdles. We vowed that with new energy and new speed, we will take the country to a new height,” Modi said in Talcher as he addressed the public.

The plant is being developed by Talcher Fertilisers Limited (TFL), a joint venture of GAIL (India) Limited, Coal India Limited (CIL), Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Limited (RCFL) and Fertilizer Corporation of India Limited (FCIL).

The project would have an output of 1.27 Million Metric Tonnes Per Annum (MMTPA) of ‘Neem’ coated prilled urea using coal and petcoke as feedstock.

The plant, targeted to be commissioned by 2022, will ensure easy availability of urea in Odisha as currently there is no urea plant in the state.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, also present on the occasion, thanked the Prime Minister and assured him of all support from the state government.

(IANS)

Software major Adobe has struck a deal to acquire Marketo, a leading Cloud platform for business-to-business marketing engagement, for $4.75 billion.

“The acquisition of Marketo widens Adobe’s lead in customer experience across B2C (business-to-consumer) and B2B (business-to-business) and puts Adobe Experience Cloud at the heart of all marketing,” Brad Rencher, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Digital Experience, Adobe, said in a statement on Thursday.

The deal is Adobe’s largest ever and puts the company in more direct competition with Oracle and Salesforce, ZDNet reported.

Adobe said the transaction, which is expected to close during the fourth quarter of the company’s 2018 fiscal year, is subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions.

Until the transaction closes, each company will continue to operate independently, the San Jose, California-headquartered Adobe said.

Marketo is headquartered in San Mateo, California, with offices around the world, and serves as a strategic partner to enterprises across a wide variety of industries.

With nearly 5,000 customers, Marketo brings together planning, engagement and measurement capabilities into an integrated B2B marketing platform.

Adobe hopes that adding Marketo’s engagement platform to its “Experience Cloud” will enable Adobe to offer an unrivalled set of solutions for delivering transformative customer experiences across industries and companies of all sizes.

The Adobe Experience Cloud platform enables B2C companies to drive business impact by harnessing massive volumes of customer data and content in order to deliver real-time, cross-channel experiences that are personalised and consistent.

This acquisition brings together the richness of Adobe Experience Cloud analytics, content, personalisation, advertising and commerce capabilities with Marketo’s lead management and account-based marketing technology to provide B2B companies with the ability to create, manage and execute marketing engagement at scale.

“Adobe and Marketo both share an unwavering belief in the power of content and data to drive business results,” said Steve Lucas, CEO, Marketo.

“Marketo delivers the leading B2B marketing engagement platform for the modern marketer, and there is no better home for Marketo to continue to rapidly innovate than Adobe,” Lucas added.

Upon close of the transaction, the Marketo CEO will join Adobe’s senior leadership team and continue to lead the Marketo team as part of Adobe’s Digital Experience business, Adobe said.

(IANS)

The key Indian equity indices opened on a positive note on Friday tracking firm global cues, with the S&P BSE Sensex gaining around 280 points so far.

Further, Asian stocks rose after markets in the US hit record highs on Thursday.

At 9.30 a.m., the wider Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange traded at 11,319.70 points, higher by 85.35 points or A0.76 per cent from its previous close.

The BSE Sensex which had opened at 37,278.89 points, traded at 37,403.57 points, higher by 282.35 points per 0.76 per cent from its previous close 37,121.22 points.

So far, it has an intra-day high of 37,427.10 points and a low 37,202.94 points.

On Thursday, stock exchanges were shut on account of Muharram.

(IANS)

After facing a backlash over reports in July that third-party app developers can read your Gmail, Google has once again defended its policy to allow third-party apps to access and share data from Gmail accounts.

According to a CNNMoney report on Thursday, Gmail lets third-party developers integrate services into its email platform.

“Developers may share data with third parties so long as they are transparent with the users about how they are using the data,” said the report, quoting from a Google letter sent to the US Senators.

Google also makes “the privacy policy easily accessible to users to review before deciding whether to grant access”, said Susan Molinari, Vice President of Public Policy and Government Affairs for the Americas at Google, in the letter.

The Wall Street Journal reported in July that despite assuring users to “remain confident that Google will keep privacy and security paramount”, the search giant is still allowing third-party app developers scan through Gmail accounts.

Gmail has nearly 1.4 billion users globally — more users than the next 25 largest email providers combined.

Later, Google said in a blog post that the company is continuously vetting developers and their apps that integrate with Gmail before it opens them for general access.

According to Google, it gives both enterprise admins and individual consumers transparency and control over how their data is used.

“We make it possible for applications from other developers to integrate with Gmail — like email clients, trip planners and customer relationship management (CRM) systems — so that you have options around how you access and use your email,” said Suzanne Frey, Director, Security, Trust and Privacy, Google Cloud.

Before a published, non-Google app can access your Gmail messages, it goes through a multi-step review process at the company, it said.

“It includes automated and manual review of the developer, assessment of the app’s privacy policy and homepage to ensure it is a legitimate app, and in-app testing to ensure the app works as it says it does,” Frey noted.

In 2017, Google had said its computers will soon stop reading the emails of its Gmail users to personalise their ads.

(IANS)

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for intensifying the war on illegal financial transfers, money laundering and tax evasion as one of the ways to ensure countries had adequate funds for development.

The world needs “a surge in investment” in the Sustainable Development Goals, Guterres said on Thursday unveiling his plans for the launch during the high-level meeting of the General Assembly next week of a strategy to mobilise financing for development.

“Simultaneously, I appeal to the international community to take much more effective steps to fight illicit flows of capital, money laundering and tax evasion, which continue to siphon away much-needed funds for development from the developing world,” he said at a news conference.

“The UN, for its part, will continue to support developing countries in creating conditions for mobilizing domestic resources, including through tax reform and other good governance measures,” he added.

Surveying the global scene, Guterres said: “Multilateralism is under attack from many different directions precisely when we need it most.

“I will use my meetings and other opportunities next week to press for renewed commitment to a rules-based global order and to the UN.”

When asked if he thought US President Donald Trump was a threat to multilateralism, Guterres said: “I don’t like to personalise things.”

He said there was a general erosion of trust — in political institutions, international organisations and among nations — for different reasons and “multilateralism has been in the fire”.

Of his three initiatives at the high-level session, another is the “Action for Peacekeeping”.

“Our aim is to build on the peacekeeping successes of the past and to help our missions succeed in today’s protracted and volatile contexts,” he said.

Ahead of the meeting, he created a Declaration of Shared Commitment, which “represents a clear and urgent agenda for peacekeeping, and all stakeholders have made very specific commitments”.

It has been signed by 128 countries, including India.

Outlining the dire problems in peacekeeping, Guterres said: “Peacekeepers are facing increasing threats while seeking to implement frequently large and complex mandates. Peacekeeping fatalities are at the highest level in a generation. Equipment is often inadequate, and political processes remain fragile or absent in several of the situations.”

He is also launching a new strategy called “Youth2030” as well as a “Generation Unlimited” initiative.

These aim at “first, doing more to respond to the aspirations of young people, in particular quality education and decent jobs, and and second, giving them a voice in decision-making at all levels”, he said.

(IANS)

The BJP-Congress spat over bad loans of banks continued on Friday with former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram blaming the government’s “heavy-handed” approach to the NPA problem for the sharp decline in export credit.

He said despite government’s claims of taking steps to boost exports, the export credit had declined sharply to Rs 22,300 crore in June from Rs 39,000 crore in the same month in 2017.

“Export credit declined from Rs 39,000 crore in June 2017 to Rs 22,300 crore in June 2018. Yet government claims that it is taking steps to boost exports,” Chidambaram tweeted.

“Thanks to the NDA government’s heavy-handed approach to the NPA problem, banks have no money to lend and bankers have no mind to lend,” he added.

“In a climate of suspicion and vendetta, the only thing a banker looks forward to is the date of retirement.”

A day after Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley blamed the UPA government in his blog for the non-performing assets (NPA) crisis, Chidambaram said for the Bharatiya Janata Party government, every problem was due to the Congress “legacy”.

“For the BJP government, its bloggers and bhakths, every problem is a ‘legacy’ issue. Wish to remind them that lifting 27.1 crore people out of poverty is also a ‘legacy’ issue,” the Congress leader said.

Referring to a report released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), he said that 27.1 crore people in India were lifted out of poverty in the 10 years between 2005-06 and 2015-16.

“Of those 10 years, the UPA was in the government for eight years.”

Chidambaram’s remarks came a day after Jaitley said all bad loans were given prior to 2014 when the United Progressive Alliance government was in power and that it took no effective steps to recover or reduce the NPAs.

(IANS)

Breaking the ice in ties, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will meet her Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) session that begins later this month — the first such high-level interaction between the neighbours after three years.

“I can confirm that on the request from the Pakistani side a meeting between the two foreign ministers will take place on the sidelines of the UNGA at a mutually convenient date and time.

“We have just agreed to the meeting. The Permanent Missions of both India and Pakistan will together work out the details. Till then, what will be discussed in the meeting, we will have to wait till the meeting takes place,” External Affairs Ministry (MEA) spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told the weekly media briefing here.

Replying to questions, Kumar suggested that the coming meeting was not resumption of the dialogue process.

This follows a letter written by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking resumption of dialogue and suggesting a meeting between the two foreign ministers on the sidelines of the UNGA, and a letter written by Qureshi to Sushma Swaraj.

When pressed further, Kumar said this is just a meeting and there is nothing much to be read into this at this stage.

Kumar also revealed that India has confirmed that it would attend a meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) foreign ministers.

“The existing policy on the Saarc process will continue. I don’t think there is any change in it,” said the MEA spokesperson.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had met the then Pakistan’s Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz in Islamabad in 2015 and two decided to resume the comprehensive dialogue process.

This was followed by an unscheduled visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Lahore on the Christmas Day. But the bilateral ties took a severe beating after the terror attack on the Pathankot airbase on January 2, 2016.

Asked whether the foreign ministers meeting in New York is the beginning of a dialogue process, he merely repeated that they requested for a meeting and we have not discussed details.

On reports of brutality on a Border Security Force (BSF) jawan who was killed in firing from the Pakistani side, he said it was a barbaric incident and the BSF has written a strong communication to its counterparts in Pakistan.

“It is a serious issue and we will take it up Pakistan.”

(IANS)

India successfully test fired the surface-to-surface short-range tactical ballistic missile Prahaar from the Odisha coast amid a heavy downpour on Thursday.

The missile developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) was test fired from launching complex-III of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Balasore at about 1.35 p.m.

The missile was launched from a road-mobile launcher, defence sources said.

The Prahaar missile has a strike range of 150 km. Fuelled by solid propellant, it is about 7.32 meters long and its diameter is 420 mm. Its launch weight is about 1.28 tonne and it can carry a payload of 200 kg.

Prior to the launch of the missile, people from hamlets in close proximity of ITR were shifted to temporary shelters.

(IANS)

San Francisco, (IANS) Google is expanding its advanced location tracking feature for Android called “Emergency Location Service (ELS)” to the US.

Launched in 2016 and is currently available in 14 countries (excluding India), ELS provides accurate locations both indoors and outdoors by using a combination of GPS, Wi-Fi, mobile networks and sensors.

“Google is deploying ELS in the US, including the Virgin Islands, in partnership with emergency technology company RapidSOS and wireless service providers T-Mobile and West,” Jen Chai, Product Manager, Android, Google wrote in a blog-post late on Wednesday.

“Wireless providers like T-Mobile have existing ways to share emergency locations with emergency centers, but this integration with ELS will help deliver higher accuracy locations faster than before,” Chai wrote.

Since the launch of ELS around the world, the most observed impact of the feature has been in critical, emergency situations by shortening emergency response times.

“You don’t need to install a separate app, update your OS, or have special hardware to benefit from more accurate location. The location is computed on the device and delivered directly to emergency providers only when you explicitly call an emergency number,” Chai added.

The location tracking service is compatible with Android version 4.0 and above.

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