Daily Bulletin: Postpaid mobile services in J&K to resume from 12 pm today; Nirmala Sitharaman to meet CEOs of public sector banks today; day's top stories

Postpaid mobile services in Jammu and Kashmir to resume from today, internet at tourist spots only

Postpaid mobile phone connections in Jammu and Kashmir will be restored from noon, 12 pm on Monday after 69 days of communication blackout since the Centre revoked Article 370 which accorded special status to the state.

The announcement was made by state Principal Secretary Rohit Kansal at a press conference on Saturday.

Kansal also said that all restrictions on movement have been completely removed and that, for now, internet services will be opened only at tourist spots.

Asserting that the government will continue to move on the path of greater relaxation, Kansal said all schools in Jammu and Kashmir will resume.

The administration has been examining various options with regard to suspension of mobile phone services which have come in for severe criticism for causing hardships to about 7 million residents of the Valley.

At one point, it was planned to open only BSNL services followed by allowing activating only incoming calls run by private telecom operators. However, it has now been decided to allow operationalisation of all postpaid phones run by all operators, which accounts for around 40 lakh subscribers. This will leave out around 26 lakh prepaid mobile subscribers.

The services were set to be resumed Saturday, but a last-minute technical hitch led to it being postponed. The move comes just days after the Centre issued an advisory opening the Valley for tourists. Travel association bodies had approached the administration, saying that no tourist would like to come to the Valley where no mobile phones were working.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to meet CEOs of public sector banks today

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will hold a review meeting with CEOs of public sector banks (PSBs)  on 14 October to discuss various issues, including progress on credit offtake. The meeting is expected to review fund flow to stressed NBFC and MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) sectors, sources said.

File image of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. PTI

Banks are expected to present a report card on partial credit guarantee scheme and fundraising from the market to enhance their capital base.

The Centre in August issued guidelines on operationalising Rs one lakh crore partial guarantee scheme under which PSBs can purchase high-rated pooled assets of financially sound non-banking finance companies (NBFCs).

NBFCs, including housing finance companies (HFCs), came under stress following a series of defaults by the group companies of IL&FS in September last year.

Besides, the meeting will also assess the progress of the first phase of the outreach programme held across 250 districts across the country. This will be the second meeting of Sitharaman with CEOs of PSU banks in less than a month.

Haryana Assembly elections 2019: Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi to campaign for upcoming polls

With only two weeks to go for the Haryana Assembly polls, a galaxy of top BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will be campaigning in the state over the next few days.

Modi, who is the star campaigner of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will be addressing four rallies across Haryana over two days. He will address the first rally in Ballabhgarh in Faridabad district on 14 October, the BJP said in a statement.

On 15 October, he will address three more rallies in Dadri, Thanesar and Hisar, the statement said. The BJP has fielded Commonwealth Games medallist Babita Phogat from Dadri.

Union Home Minister and BJP president Amit Shah, party's working president JP Nadda and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath will also address election meetings in the run-up to the polls. Haryana will go to polls on 21 October. Counting of votes will be held on 24 October.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will also be campaigning on Monday for the party in Haryana and will address a public meeting in Nuh, sources said. Gandhi will address the meeting in the afternoon and will reach Nuh in southern Haryana by road from Delhi, they said.

The meeting was finalised after consultations with party leaders of the state. Nuh is the district headquarters in the Mewat area and falls under the Gurgaon parliamentary constituency.

INX Media Case: Delhi court issues production warrant against P Chidambaram for 14 October

A Delhi court Friday issued production warrant against former finance minister P Chidambaram for 14 October in the INX Media money laundering case filed by the Enforcement Directorate.

Special judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar issued the warrant for after the ED moved the court in the case and directed that Chidambaram be produced before it at 3 pm on 14 October.

The ED said in its plea that it needs to interrogate him in custody. The Enforcement Directorate earlier on Friday moved before a Delhi court seeking production warrant of former finance minister P Chidambaram in the INX Media case. The agency has said in its plea that it requires custodial interrogation of Chidambaram in the case.

Chidambaram is currently in Tihar jail in connection with the INX Media case lodged by the CBI. The court had earlier dismissed Chidambaram's plea seeking to surrender in the ED case.

Former captain Sourav Ganguly likely to be new BCCI president

In a dramatic turn of events, former captain Sourav Ganguly emerged as the consensus candidate to be BCCI's new President after Brijesh Patel appeared to have grabbed the coveted post. Union Home Minister Amit Shah's son Jay Shah will be the new secretary while Arun Dhumal will be the new treasurer. Dhumal is the younger brother of MoS Finance and former BCCI president Anurag Thakur.

Monday is the last day to file nomination but no election will be held since all candidates have emerged unopposed after weeks of lobbying and hectic parleys.

The 47-year-old Ganguly, who is currently the president of Cricket Association of Bengal, (CAB) will have to demit his post in September 2020 as he will go into the compulsory cooling-off period.

Brijesh, backed by Tamil Nadu strongman N Srinivasan, emerged Presidential candidate when Ganguly remained non-committal on campaigning for the BJP in the 2021 state assembly elections.

IRCTC to make stock market debut today after raising Rs 645 cr

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), which recently concluded its Rs 645-crore initial public offering, will make its stock market debut today (14 October).
The shares will be listed on the BSE and the National Stock Exchange (NSE). "Effective from Monday, 14 October 2019, the equity shares of IRCTC Ltd shall be listed and admitted to dealings on the exchange in the list of 'B ' Group of Securities," BSE said in a circular.
The IPO, which was open for subscription between 30 September and 4 October, was subscribed 112 times at a price band of Rs 315-320 per share.

US Senator Elizabeth Warren targets Facebook's ad policy with a lie

Senator Elizabeth Warren who is a presidential candidate released a fresh series of Facebook ads seeking to target the social media platform's ad policy, by telling a lie. The ad starts with saying that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has endorsed US President Donald Trump's re-election. "You're probably shocked," reads the ad, "And you might be thinking, 'how could this possibly be true?' Well, it's not."
The ad's own acknowledgement of the lie is aimed to draw attention to Facebook's controversial ad policy that Warren has been criticising for days.

With inputs from agencies