TDP-BJP-JSP Gearing Up For First Show Of Strength In Andhra Ahead Of Polls

by Pabitra Mohan Senapaty

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Jana Sena Party (JSP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been making large-scale arrangements for the successful conduct of the March 17 public meeting at Chilakaluripet, their first after forging the alliance for upcoming Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in Andhra Pradesh.

Amaravati, Mar 13: The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Jana Sena Party (JSP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been making large-scale arrangements for the successful conduct of the March 17 public meeting at Chilakaluripet, their first after forging the alliance for upcoming Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in Andhra Pradesh.

The NDA partners plan to mobilise numerous people for the meeting, which will be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, TDP supremo N. Chandrababu Naidu, and Jana Sena leader and actor Pawan Kalyan.

This will also be the first public meeting to be addressed by the trio after a decade.

Upbeat over the tripartite alliance and the seat sharing deal taking shape, the TDP is deploying all its resources in coordination with the two allies to ensure the success of the public meeting in Guntur district.

TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh, who is supervising the arrangements for the first show of strength by the alliance, on Wednesday visited the venue along with leaders of the BJP and the Jana Sena.

The alliance leaders performed the 'Bhoomi Pooja' at Boppudi, the venue of the March 17 public meeting.

All three partners are taking the event as a prestigious one.

The leaders recalled that even in 2014, the then alliance partners launched the election campaign in Guntur district, which turned out to be a grand success.

The alliance partners are moving ahead with the same sentiment for the 2024 polls.

Pawan Kalyan had only campaigned for the TDP-BJP alliance in the 2014 polls.

The two parties had shared power till 2018 when TDP pulled out of NDA over non-fulfilment of the promise to accord special category status to Andhra Pradesh.

Pawan Kalyan had earlier distanced himself from both parties over the same issue.

After facing the drubbing in 2019 polls, which they contested separately, the three parties have once again joined hands, this time with the mission to remove the YSR Congress from power.

The leaders of the three parties said the alliance was to "realise the dreams of five crore people by ending the atrocious rule of YSR Congress".

They exuded confidence that the alliance would create a history in the state.

Since all the top leaders of the three parties are going to address the public meeting to be attended by lakhs of people from across the state, Lokesh and leaders of the other two parties discussed in detail the arrangements to be made for the programme being organised on a spacious 200 acres.

Lokesh asked the organisers to ensure that no inconvenience of any kind is caused for anyone who is attending the meeting.

Those who visited the venue included TDP state unit president, Kinjerapu Atchen Naidu, former ministers, Pattipati Pulla Rao and Kanna Laxminarayana, senior TDP leaders like Kommareddy Pattabhiram, Alapati Rajendra Prasad and Nakka Ananda Babu besides others, BJP leader Paturi Nagabhushanam, and Kalyanam Siva Srinivas from the Jana Sena.

Pattipati Pulla Rao expressed confidence that the YSR Congress will be completely rooted out of the state and the people are eagerly waiting for the March 17 meeting. The leaders will give a clear roadmap for the progress of the state.

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Paturi Nagabhushanam said that the YSR Congress was not getting even candidates to contest the upcoming polls and the alliance will work towards "sending home" Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy "who destroyed the state", and all the three parties will work like "Timurthi" for the development of the state.

Jana Sena leader Nagaraju said that Jagan Mohan Reddy demolished all sectors and the people are eagerly waiting to rebuild the state.

(IANS)

RBI tweaks rules to cut risk banks face in exposure to capital markets

by Utkalika Mohanty

Mumbai, May 3: The RBI on Friday tweaked rules to reduce the risk faced by banks in their exposure to capital market in the case of issue of Irrevocable Payment Commitments (IPCs).

The RBI issued a circular stating that “only those custodian banks will be permitted to issue IPCs, who have a clause in the agreement with clients giving the banks an inalienable right over the securities to be received as payout in any settlement.”

However, this clause will not be insisted upon if the transactions are pre-funded i.e., either clear INR funds are available in the customer's account or, in the case of FX deals, the bank’s nostro account has been credited before the issuance of the IPC.

The maximum intraday risk to the custodian banks issuing IPCs would be reckoned as Capital Market Exposure (CME) at 30 per cent of the settlement amount.

This is based on the assumption of 20 per cent downward price movement of the equities on T+1, with an additional margin of 10 per cent for further downward movement of price, the RBI said.

In case the margin is paid in cash, the exposure will stand reduced by the amount of margin paid. In case the margin is paid by way of permitted securities to Mutual Funds / Foreign Portfolio Investors, the exposure will stand reduced by the amount of margin after adjusting for a 'haircut' as prescribed by the Exchange on the permitted securities accepted as margin, the RBI added.

Under T+1 settlement cycle, the exposure shall normally be only for intraday. However, in case any exposure remains outstanding at the end of T+1 Indian Standard Time, capital will have to be maintained on the outstanding capital market exposure in terms of the Master Circular – Basel III Capital Regulations dated April 1, 2024, as amended from time to time.

The underlying exposures of banks to their counterparties, emanating from the intraday CME, will be subject to limits prescribed under Large Exposure Framework dated June 3, 2019, as amended from time to time.

The RBI said that these instructions shall come into force with immediate effect.

The RBI also explained that the risk mitigation measures prescribed in its earlier circular were based on T+2 rolling settlement for equities (T being the Trade day). The Stock Exchanges have since introduced T+1 rolling settlement, and accordingly, the extant guidelines on issuance of IPCs by banks have been reviewed.

Henceforth, all IPCs issued by custodian banks under the T+1 settlement cycle will comply with the new instructions.

(IANS)

WhatsApp banned record over 79 lakh accounts in India in March

by Utkalika Mohanty

New Delhi, May 3: Meta-owned WhatsApp has said it banned more than 79 lakh accounts in India in the month of March, in compliance with the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

Between the March 1-31 period, 7,954,000 WhatsApp accounts were banned and 1,430,000 of these accounts were proactively banned, before any reports from users, the company said in its monthly compliance report.

The messaging platform, which has more than 500 million users in India, received a record 12,782 complaint reports in March in the country, and the records “actioned” were 11.

“Accounts Actioned” means reports where WhatsApp took remedial action based on the plaint and taking action denotes either banning an account or a previously banned account being restored as a result.

“We respond to all grievances received except in cases where a grievance is deemed to be a duplicate of a previous ticket. An account is ‘actioned’ when an account is banned or a previously banned account is restored, as a result of a complaint,” the company said.

Between February 1-29, the company had banned “7,628,000 accounts”.

About 1,424,000 of these accounts were proactively banned, before any reports from users.

According to the company, in addition to safety features and controls, “We employ a team of engineers, data scientists, analysts, researchers, and experts in law enforcement, online safety, and technology developments to oversee these efforts.”

(IANS)

Virat Kohli holds Anushka Sharma close in birthday pics

by Utkalika Mohanty

Bengaluru, May 3: Actor Anushka Sharma had a fun birthday celebration with her husband Virat Kohli and some of his close friends from the 'RCB' squad in Bengaluru.

RCB skipper Faf du Plessis took to Instagram Story and shared a picture from Anushka's intimate 36th birthday celebration.

The picture shows Virat holding Anushka close as they bonded together over dinner with Faf du Plessis, Glen Maxwell and his wife Vini Raman.

"Great night spent with good people," Faf captioned the image.

There's also another image from Anushka's birthday which has been doing the rounds on the internet.

Shared by renowned chef Manu Chandra, the picture shows Anushka and Virat sharing smiles as they pose with the group.

"Shiny happy people + good food = joy. Such a lovely evening this was, made better for this lots absolute love for the pursuit of great nosh. Happy happy birthday @anushkasharma," Chef Manu Chandra wrote in the caption.