Chennai: Chief Minister and DMK president M K Stalin, who is trying to bring opposition leaders on one platform to take on the ruling BJP, has invited Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi for the release of the first part of his autobiography, Ungalil Oruvan. He had already invited Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. DMK MP T R Baalu called on Sonia at her residence in New Delhi and handed over the invite. Interestingly, the function will be held in Chennai on 28 Februay in the presence of Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, former Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah, and Bihar Leader of…
Author: Karthikeyan Halan
Chennai: The Tamilnadu Medical Council has suspended the licence of two doctors –an Assistant Professor in a government medical college hospital and a private practitioner – for issuing identity certificate for deceased persons. The Council has placed Assistant Professor of Government Vellore College and Hospital Dr Shanthini under suspension for two years for falsely issuing a life certificate to a deceased man and helping her family members grab his property. She has been asked to surrender her certificates and barred from practising medicine for two years. Dr Badri Prasad, the private practitioner, had allegedly issued certificates in Hosur for two…
New Delhi: The Supreme Court agreed to hear on Friday instead of Wednesday a batch of pleas, which alleged use of Israeli spyware for surveillance of certain people in India, after taking note of the submissions of the solicitor general for the Centre that he would be busy arguing a money laundering case in another court. A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana was scheduled to hear the pleas on the Pegasus issue on Wednesday for the first time after 27 October last year when it had ordered the setting up of a three-member panel of cyber experts…
London: After the shame of Prince Andrew’s U.S. sex abuse lawsuit and Prince Charles embroilment in a cash for honours scandal, Queen Elizabeth catching Covid has rounded off a week of terrible news for the British royals. Buckingham Palace said on Sunday the monarch, who turns 96 in two months, was suffering mild symptoms after testing positive for the virus. But growing health fears and scandals involving the family are threatening to overshadow national celebrations to mark her 70th anniversary on the throne. I suspect this is not a week on which any member of the royal family will look…
Kabul: The Afghan health ministry on Monday launched a campaign to innoculate millions of children in Afghanistan against polio. This is the second general polio vaccination campaign in 2022 aimed at vaccinating 9.1 million children under the age of five, Xinhua quoted the ministry statement. Provinces including Bamyan, Daykundi, and Ghor as well as some districts of Ghazni and Badakhshan provinces are not included in the ongoing campaign due to cold weather, the ministry statement said. The three-day campaign was launched in collaboration with the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO), the ministry…
Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a decree recognizing the independence of breakaway regions Donetsk and Luhansk. Putin made this announcement during a televised address to Russians on Monday. Earlier in the day, Putin held a phone call with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Olaf Scholz and stated that he will be signing a decree recognizing the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk. According to the statement released by Kremlin, both the Western leaders voiced their dissatisfaction on hearing Putin’s decision. Russian President Vladimir Putin had phone conversations with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor…
Mumbai: Amazon’s rivalry in India with oil-to-retail conglomerate Reliance Industries looks set to head to the cricket field, where they will likely battle media heavyweights for telecast rights to India’s premier cricket league with its hundreds of millions of viewers. Amazon.com Inc and Reliance Industries Ltd are expected to take on India units of Sony Group Corp and Walt Disney Co for exclusive five-year TV and digital broadcast rights to the two-month series of matches, at a cost that could run to a record Rs 500 billion ($6.7 billion), sources said. Disney-owned Star India, which is one of the top…
Mumbai: Online travel marketplace Wego on Monday said it is acquiring Cleartrip’s Middle East business from Flipkart Group for an undisclosed sum. The transaction also includes the sale of Flyin.com and a technology co-operation agreement between Wego and Flipkart. Cleartrip expanded into the Middle East region in 2010 and acquired Riyadh based Flyin.com in 2018, which played a similar role in kick-starting online travel in Saudi Arabia. Wego and Cleartrip both have their regional headquarters located in Dubai. This acquisition will significantly increase our scale and capabilities and will strengthen our ability to partner and collaborate across our region, said…
New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said banks need to focus more on being customer-friendly so that the process of availing credit becomes more hassle-free for borrowers. However, the minister made it clear that banks do not have to be lenient on credit underwriting standards by taking any adverse risks on a proposal. At a meeting between industry representatives and the finance minister, a startup founder in the baking business suggested for credit to be available hassle-free, to which largest lender SBI’s Chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara said a startup’s worries are more on the equity side and…