Actor Rana Daggubati has joined the cast of Akshay Kumar-starrer “Housefull 4”.
The “Baahubali” star shared the news on Twitter and said he will be starting shoot for the project soon.
“Heading to the sets of Housefull 4. Shooting in Mumbai after a very long time!!” Daggubati wrote.
His casting comes weeks after veteran actor Nana Patekar stepped aside from the project in wake of allegations of harassment against him by actor Tanushree Dutta.
Earlier, director Sajid Khan, who had started shooting the film, quit after multiple women accused him of sexual harassment and misconduct.
Besides Akshay, “Housefull 4” cast also includes Riteish Deshmukh, Bobby Deol, Kriti Sanon, Kriti Kharbanda and Pooja Hegde.
Farhad Samji is directing the film, which is expected to hit the screens next year.
The country’s largest lender SBI will raise Rs 4,116 crore by issuing Basel III compliant bonds to add up to its tier 2 capital, the bank said on Friday.
The committee of the directors for capital raising has accorded approval to allot Basel III compliant debt instruments qualifying as tier 2 capital of the bank, SBI said in a regulatory filing.
As per the bond programme, the bank will issue 41,159 non-convertible, taxable, redeemable, subordinated, unsecured debt instruments in the nature of debentures of face value of Rs 10 lakh each, bearing coupon of 8.90 per cent per annum aggregating to Rs 4,115.90 crore, it said.
The interests are to be paid annually for a tenor of 10 years with call option after 5 years to various bond subscribers, SBI said. Stock of SBI traded 0.61 per cent down at Rs 283.95 on BSE.
The government is making efforts with an integrated approach and has initiated “multiple reforms” in order to achieve the target of doubling farmers’ income by 2022, Additional Principal Secretary to the prime minister, P K Mishra has said.
He also emphasised the need to analyse as to “why the past initiatives could not accomplish the desired results” in the agriculture sector. “The present government has for the first time ushered in a paradigm shift in the approach, from growth of production to increase in farmers’ income,” Mishra said while addressing the 78th Annual conference of the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics on Thursday.
Some of the initiatives taken to address price and yield risks in the last four years include setting up of electronic National Agriculture Market (eNAM), upgradation of rural haats, new scheme Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyan (PM-AASHA), Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. This is a major shift in the approach — a clear focus on farmer and farmer welfare rather than simply production and productivity, he said.
“For this purpose, a holistic strategy for the agriculture sector was visualised. Efforts are being made to follow this with an integrated approach by initiating multiple reforms and programmes with an overall objective of doubling farmers income,” Mishra said.
In February 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said farmers’ income would be doubled by 2022 to mark 75 years of India’s independence. He further noted that, there is a need to analyse as to why the past initiatives could not accomplish the desired results and highlighted the need for agricultural research.
“Policymakers and practitioners need to look at how one could address the farmers’ risk — that affects his income and welfare and linking activities of non-agriculture sector. This is also an area of agriculture research,” he said.
The senior PMO official said that Indian Society of Agricultural Economics (ISAE) should focus its research on topics like why does farmers distress happen in areas where there is high agricultural growth and how to modernise agriculture.
“Agricultural growth has a strong correlation with poverty reduction. In order to alleviate rural poverty, we need to focus on agricultural productivity and farmers’ income.”
The academic research should also be done on why crop yields are languishing and why there is yield gap between experimental farm and farmers’ fields as also on topics like why youth is not interested in agriculture and why new knowledge is not reaching all farmers and they continue to follow conventional methods.
These are some of the areas which may be considered for empirical research by members of ISAE in the coming months and years, he added. ISAE, was set up in 1939, anchors and channelises efforts of professionals and researches in the field of agricultural economics.
Fraud hit Punjab National Bank on Friday posted a staggering loss of Rs 4,532.35 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2018 on rising bad loans.
The state-owned bank had a net profit of Rs 561 crore in the July-September quarter of last fiscal 2016-17. Its total income during the September quarter of 2018-19 declined to Rs 14,035.88 crore as against Rs 14,205.31 crore in the year-ago period, PNB said in a BSE filing.
The bank’s gross non-performing assets (NPAs) as a proportion of gross advances rose sharply to 17.16 per cent (Rs 81,250.83 crore) at the end of September, from 13.31 per cent (Rs 57,630.11 crore) a year ago.
As a result, provision for bad loans nearly tripled to Rs 7,733.27 crore in the September quarter as against Rs 2,693.78 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal.
Shares of PNB were trading 1.01 per cent lower at Rs 73.50 apiece on BSE.
Actors Kate Mara and Simon Pegg are all set to treat their fans as they are in talks to star in the independent thriller ‘Inheritance’.
British director Vaughn Stein will be helming the thriller, while Richard B. Lewis is producing the film alongside David Wulf, Dan Reardon and Santosh Govindaraju. Matthew Kennedy is writing the script for the flick, reported Variety.
The film is based on what happens when the patriarch of a wealthy and influential family suddenly passes away, leaving his wife and daughter with a shocking secret inheritance that threatens to unravel and devastate their lives.
Mara’s credits include Ridley Scott’s ‘The Martian’, ‘Meagan Leavey’ and ‘Chappaquiddick’. She has earned an Emmy nomination for her work on ‘House of Cards’.
Pegg recently reprised the role of Benji Dunn, alongside Tom Cruise in the Paramount’s ‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout’, and was also seen in Steven Spielberg’s ‘Ready Player One’ earlier this year. He will next appear in the horror action comedy ‘Slaughterhouse Rulez’, which he will also executive produce alongside Nick Frost under the pair’s Stolen Picture banner.
Filmmaker Ridley Scott has started working on a new ‘Gladiator’ movie after years of discussion with Paramount Pictures.
Peter Craig of ‘The Town’ fame has been roped in to pen the script, reported Variety.
‘Gladiator’, which released in 2000, featured Russell Crowe as Maximus, a General in the Roman army, who is betrayed by the Emperor and left for dead while his family is brutally murdered. He is eventually forced to become a gladiator after being captured by slave traders, who lead him back to Rome to fight as a gladiator while plotting his revenge against Emperor that betrayed him.
The film won the Best Picture and Best Actor award at the Oscars and went on to make USD 460 million at box office worldwide.
Singer Ariana Grande called out her ex-beau Pete Davidson for using their split to garner publicity after the comedian mocked their relationship in a promo for ‘Saturday Night Live’ (SNL).
The ‘SNL’ star didn’t openly call out his former fiance in a teaser for the upcoming episode of the show, but a clear reference to his brief engagement with Grande was made when he joked about proposing a musical guest Maggie Rogers right after meeting her, reported E! Online.
“Hey Maggie, I’m Pete. You wanna get married?” said Davidson. After she declined, he responded “0 for three.”
Making fun of their relationship did not go well with ‘Yours Truly’ singer, who later took to her official Twitter handle and posted her thoughts on the clip.
“For somebody who claims to hate relevancy [you] sure love clinging to it huh,” she wrote, and added, “Thank [you], next.”
However, the ‘God is a Woman’ pop star declined calling Davidson out. She retweeted and liked one Tweet which read, “SNL is about to milk their breakup just like they did with the engagement”, as well as an edited clip of Maggie turning Pete down.
The singer, however, later deleted her tweets.
The 25-year-old singer is slowly distancing herself from Davidson after calling it quits with him in the mid of October. She also recently covered up two of the matching tattoos they both got and is now gearing up for her upcoming ‘Sweetener World Tour’ in 2019.
During the premiere of ‘SNL’ season 44, Davidson mentioned his relationship with Grande several times, including, “I got engaged and no one could believe it. I can’t believe it and I get it. She’s the No. 1 pop star in the world and I’m that guy from SNL everyone thinks is in desperate need of more blood.”
Grande and Davidson got engaged in June after just a few weeks of dating. The news of their breakup also came in less than a month after the sudden death of Grande’s ex-boyfriend Mac Miller, who passed away following an apparent drug overdose.
Congress chief Rahul Gandhi Friday alleged that Dassault Aviation paid Rs 284 crore to Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence as the “first installment of kickbacks” and claimed Prime Minster Narendra Modi was having “sleepless nights” fearing action if a probe was conducted into the Rafale deal.
He also alleged that CBI chief Alok Verma was removed as he wanted to investigate the deal.
There was no immediate reaction from the government and Ambani on the fresh charges made by Gandhi. However, they have previously rejected all allegations made over the Rafale deal. Gandhi gave no evidence or document to substantiate his allegations.
Dassault Aviation CEO Éric Trappier has said the reason Ambani’s firm was given the offset contract and not state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was that it had land for the project, he said, alleging the land was purchased by Ambani’s company with the money that Dassault gave.
“Dassault gave Rs 284 crore to a loss-making company with a valuation of Rs 8.3 lakh. This is the first installment of kickbacks that has been given to Anil Ambani,” he said.
“Rafale is an open and shut case and there is only one man who has done corruption,” he said.
The outlawed CPI (Maoist) on Friday claimed responsibility for the October 30 attack in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district in which a Doordarshan camera-person and three policemen were killed, but said it did not intend to target the media.
In a statement, purportedly issued by the group and circulated on social media, the Maoists also asked media persons not to be escorted by police while visiting the conflict zone.
Police said that the authenticity of the statement is being verified.
“On October 30, the Doordarshan team was caught in the ambush near Nilawaya village. It is sad that camera-person Achyutanand Sahu was killed in the attack. We had no intention to target media personnel,” the CPI(Maoist) said.
The two-page statement was issued in the name of Sainath, secretary of the Darbha division committee of Maoists, which has allegedly been instrumental in executing several deadly attacks in south Bastar, including the Jhiram valley massacre in Bastar district on May 25, 2013 in which top Congress leaders were killed.
The Maoists alleged in the statement that police was forcibly carrying out road construction work between Aranpur and Burgum (Dantewada), although it was opposed by local villagers.
The ultras have also called for a boycott of the upcoming Assembly polls in Chhattisgarh.
“The authenticity of the Naxal pamphlet is being verified,” Special Director General (anti-Naxal operations) D M Awasthi said.
“If Naxals did not want to attack media persons, why did they open fire on Sahu who was holding a camera. Later, they even looted his camera. Besides, two other members of the media crew were attacked,” Awasthi said.
The policemen, he added, want development of the area and the road was being constructed for the convenience of local villagers.
On October 30, Maoists attacked a police patrolling party accompanying a three-member team of national broadcaster Doordarshan for election related coverage, near Nilawaya village under the Aranapur police station limits of Dantewada district.
Sub Inspector Rudra Pratap Singh, assistant constable Manglu and the cameraperson of Doordarshan Achyutanand Sahu were killed on the spot.
Two policemen were injured. One of them, Assistant Constable Rakesh Kaushal, died at a private hospital here on Wednesday morning.
The statement comes at a time when the attack on media persons by Naxals is being condemned across the country.
Assembly polls in Chhattisgarh will be held in two phases on November 12 and 20. Eighteen constituencies spread across eight Naxal-hit districts will go the polls in the first phase, and the remaining 72 seats in the second phase.
1) Air-travel at govt-expense should be only in economy class
A huge amount of public money wasted in allowing those in the legislature, judiciary, bureaucracy, and officers of public-sector-undertakings to travel through super-costly Business Class rather than Economy Class on domestic flights. It is significant that all those travelling at public expense, if travelling through biggest domestic airliner Indigo, have to travel in Economy Class because fortunately, Indigo does not have any Business Class. If travel can be made in Economy Class in Indigo flights, there is no reason that those travelling in Business Class of other airliners may not be able to travel in Economy Class of other airliners having separate Business Class. However, all airliners can be directed to reserve the first two rows of Economy Class for those presently entitled for travel in Business Class at public expense. Best is to altogether abolition of Business Class in aircraft used for domestic flights exclusively.
The rather same principle of allowing travel on public expense only in Economy Class should be there even for foreign travels also. However, those desiring to travel through Business Class can do so by paying the difference of fares between Business Class and Economy Class.
Frequent-Flier-Points earned on air-travel booked at public expense should be accumulated in accounts of concerned governments and public-authorities rather than being accumulated in name of individuals travelling at public expense. It will provide a hefty saving to public-exchequers rather than presently going as a sort of unfair gift to individuals for accumulating such points for free air-travels in future for a private purpose.
– Madhu Agrawal
2) Welcoming move of govt
It is a welcoming move of India to ban 827 porn websites. It is distressing that the third largest customer base of porn hub comes from India. The Indian government should take some more strong actions against child porn, rape porn, and other sexual practices. No doubt about it that porn addiction can lead the country to sexual violence against women. It is being observed across the country that women’s safety is in danger. Pornography plays a notable role to destroy our new generation and their careers
– MF Qasmi
3) Iron man Sardar Patel
Patel himself termed the entire exercise as a “bloodless revolution” when he wanted the Constituent Assembly to consider privy purse settlements for the surrender by the rulers of all their ruling powers and the dissolution of the States as separate units.
Patel was an ardent follower of Mahatma Gandhi and never swerved in his loyalty to his mentor, although there were occasions when he different with him. Similarly, he did not see eye-to-eye with Jawaharlal Nehru on certain issues, including the handling of Jammu and Kashmir. But he did not allow these differences or personal ego to come in the way of protecting the larger interests of the country which were at the core of his heart. He worked shoulder-to-shoulder with Nehru in building a modern India. Patel was a multifaceted personality. He was a dynamic political leader, an organiser par excellence, a competent administrator and a skillful negotiator.
After coming under the influence of Mahatma Gandhi, he became his loyal follower and successfully organised peasants against the imposition of taxes by the British at Kheda and Bardoli, Gujarat, and in the process, he earned the title of ‘Sardar ‘ for his leadership qualities. The manner in which he marshalled the peasants and the unflinching stand taken by him eventually forced the authorities to roll back the taxes.
– Divyesh Chovatiya
4) Spending on status is not wastage of money
It is so shocking that just after the inauguration of the 182-metre statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, a flood of critics arose from all over the country. Some political leaders are criticising Modi’s wonderful move of building the tallest statue of the world saying that the spending almost 3,000 crore just to build a statue is the wastage of money. I want to say to them that remembrance of our great forefathers who made countless sacrifices for the sake of country’s improvement is not a crime. Every nation and every country gives immense respect to their ancestors. I extend my gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to give the country such title of the tallest statue of the world. It will tuner a historical move and will attract people from the entire world.
– Mohd Rahmani
5) Sharing, Caring, Blessings is what Diwali is all about!
Majority of the population has welcomed the SC decision on the restrictions on firecrackers as citizens have become aware and educated on the harm it causes to health and the environment. Diwali is a festival of lights and happiness and it is about sweets and blessings for the loved ones. It is about gifts and blessings by sharing as well as caring. Of late, the festival was being commercialised and the latest restrictions by the SC is a reminder to the people that it is not the noise, fire, and smoke that glitters Diwali but the warmth inside us that sparkles the festivities.
Money saved on firecrackers should be used to buy clothing, sweets, and gifts for the have-nots. Money goes in smoke by bursting crackers but the poor will remember your favours for a lifetime. Caring for the sick who otherwise would have been inconvenienced by smoke is the joy of festivities and the same holds good for animals. Happiness cannot be measured by the power of money and wishing good for others in terms of health, happiness, and blessings is what Diwali cheer is all about. Wishing fellow readers a Very Happy and Prosperous Diwali and New Year!
– S.N.Kabra
6) High jump of India
It is much pleasing for every Indian citizen that India jumped 23 ranks in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index 2018 to 77 while it ranked 100 in 2017 report. Really, India made an outstanding improvement in moving from 100 to 77 which is a great success of the present government. It seems that India’s strong reform agenda to improve the business climate for small and medium enterprises is bringing fruitful results to the country.
It is also a reflection of the government’s strong commitment to spreading this agenda at the state and now even at the district level. I believe that the government’s tireless efforts towards business improvement will lead the country to the peak of success.
– M.F.U.Tandvi
7) Stop visitation
We live in India, wherein the representatives are elected by the people and they have to right to choose their representatives whoever they want. People elect them so that they will be provided with the essential needs of their lives, not to visit other countries. I absolutely know that the PM can’t be irresponsible that he spends a lot of money visiting the countries. He visits the countries because of important issues and discussion.
Recently the dignified PM has gone to Japan. Modi arrived in Japan on Saturday evening to attend the 13th India-Japan annual summit. When Japan has promised to give $35 billion to India through public and private funding over the next five years for developmental projects, including the building of smart cities and cleanup of river Ganges, at the same time India has decided to set up a Special Management Team directly under the PMO to facilitate proposals from Japan.
I would like to say that PM Modi should, at first think about the problems whatever is happening nowadays in India. Everyone is facing difficulties because of increasing the price of things from which human beings life influence especially poor’s life. It is expected from PM Modi that he at first will pay attention about increasing the rate rather than anything. The price of things should be less so that everyone can feel easy to buy anything.
– Aamir Siwan
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
