Kashi Vishwanath Dham Sets New Record With 6 Lakh Devotees In A Day

by Pabitra Mohan Senapaty

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

More than six lakh devotees visited the Kashi Vishwanath Dham on Sunday, setting a new record of the highest ever footfall at the shrine on a non-festive day.

Varanasi, April 2: More than six lakh devotees visited the Kashi Vishwanath Dham on Sunday, setting a new record of the highest ever footfall at the shrine on a non-festive day.

Besides, the month of March also recorded the highest number of devotees at the temple -- at 95 lakh -- in a non-festive month.

Kashi Vishwanath Dham chief executive officer (CEO), Vidya Bhushan Mishra, said, "A total of 6,36,975 devotees visited the Kashi Vishwanath Dham on March 31. This is the highest ever footfall at the temple on a non-festive day."

According to him, compared to March 2024, around 37,11,060 devotees visited the Kashi Vishwanath Dham last year during March.

"If we look at the numbers of the festival month, then the all-time maximum number of devotees visiting Kashi Vishwanath Dham in the month of 'Shravan' (August 2023) was 95,62,206. In March 2024, the temple saw 95,63,432 devotees," the CEO added.

"Earlier, we saw the arrival of 5,03,024 devotees in 24 hours on March 18. It was a non-festival day. The average footfall during usual days has gone above 1.5 lakh per day after January 31," he said.

According to the temple authorities, before the opening of a revamped Kashi Vishwanath Dham, the average footfall per day at the temple ranged around 20,000, and on special occasions like Maha Shivaratri, it used to witness more than 2.5 lakh devotees.

(IANS)

IDBI Bank Registers 44 Per Cent Jump In Net Profit For Jan-March Quarter

by Hemanta Pande

Mumbai, May 4: The IDBI Bank on Saturday reported a 44 per cent jump in standalone net profit to Rs 1,628.5 crore for the January-March quarter of 2023-24 compared to the corresponding figure of Rs 1,133 crore for the same period of the previous financial year.

The bank's net interest income (NII) rose 12 per cent to Rs 3,688 crore from Rs 3,280 crore while return on assets (RoA) improved by 39 bps to 1.82 per cent for Q4 as compared to 1.43 per cent in the same quarter of the previous year.

IDBI Bank's Board of Directors have recommended a dividend of Rs 1.50 per equity share for the financial year ended March 31, 2024.

The bank's net interest margin (NIM) declined to 4.91 per cent from 5.01 per cent in the year-ago quarter.

Provisions (other than tax) and contingencies were down 88 per cent at Rs 114 crore from Rs 984 crore last year.

IDBI Bank's provisions on bad debts written off came down sharply to Rs 1,049 crore from Rs 3,587 crore in the same quarter of the previous year.

The asset quality of the bank improved during the quarter with gross NPA falling to 4.53 per cent of total loans as of March-end 2024, against 4.69 per cent as of December-end 2023.

The net NPA to net advances position was unchanged at 0.34 per cent.

Gross advances of the bank rose by 14.44 per cent year-on-year to Rs 1,96,894 crore.(IANS)

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IPL 2024: RCB Win Toss, Elect To Bowl First Against Gujarat Titans

by Hemanta Pande

Bengaluru, May 4: An unchanged Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) won the toss and elected to bowl first against Gujarat Titans (GT) in Match 52 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday evening.

RCB are at the bottom of the points table with six points from 10 games. On the other hand, GT are in eighth place with eight points from 10 matches. The last time these two teams met in IPL 2024, a whirlwind century from Will Jacks and fifty from Virat Kohli helped RCB beat GT by nine wickets at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

After winning the toss, RCB captain Faf du Plessis said his playing eleven is unchanged.

“We are going to chase. The conversation has been good. To make that shift from the beginning, that's pleasing. From a batting perspective, we have found our mojo. The guys can come in and bat freely,” he said.

GT skipper Shubman Gill said left-arm fast-bowler Joshua Little and left-arm spinner Manav Suthar, who is making his IPL debut, have come into the playing XI. Suthar, hailing from Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan, picked 10 wickets in five games for India ‘A’ in the Emerging Men’s Asia Cup held in Sri Lanka last year.

He also played two games for India ‘A’ in this year’s four-day matches against England Lions in Ahmedabad. Little and Suthar come into the GT playing eleven in place of seam-bowling all-rounder Azmatullah Omarzai and left-arm spinner R. Sai Kishore, who is nursing a niggle.

“The talk is to win four in four (remaining games). It's important to turn up and deliver our best. I feel our fielding has let us down. We have had a chat about it. We need to be a better team as a fielding unit, we have had a chat. IPL is such a long tournament. It's important to turn up on the day,” he said.

Playing XIs:

Gujarat Titans: Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Shubman Gill (c), B. Sai Sudharsan, David Miller, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Manav Suthar, Noor Ahmad, Mohit Sharma and Joshua Little

Substitutes: Sandeep Warrier, Vijay Shankar, Jayant Yadav, Darshan Nalkande, B.R. Sharath

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Faf du Plessis (c), Virat Kohli, Will Jacks, Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Karn Sharma, Mohammed Siraj, Yash Dayal, Vyshak Vijaykumar and Swapnil Singh

Substitutes: Mahipal Lomror, Anuj Rawat, Suyash Prabhudessai, Akash Deep, Rajat Patidar (IANS)

Kashi Vishwanath Dham Sets New Record With 6 Lakh Devotees In A Day

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