WASHINGTON: 

The United States has eased export controls for high technology product sales to India, granting it the same access as NATO allies, Australia, Japan and South Korea, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Monday.

Ross, speaking at U.S. Chamber of Commerce event, said the move to grant Strategic Trade Authorization status STA1 to India reflects its efforts to improve its own export control regime, its adherence to multilateral export rules and its growing status as a U.S. defense partner.

Mumbai: Oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Tuesday surpassed India’s biggest software services firm Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) to become the country’s most valued firm in terms of market capitalization—a first since April. Data from the BSE showed RIL has a market cap of ₹ 7.51 trillion, after its shares rose 3.1% on the BSE to record high of ₹ 1,185.85. TCS, which closed 0.19% lower at ₹ 1,941.25 per share, was valued at ₹ 7.43 trillion.

The surge in RIL share price follows its Q1 results where its standalone net profit increased 18% to ₹ 9,459 crore. TCS, on its part, reported quarterly revenues of over $5 billion for the first time in Q1.

RIL shares have beaten the market by a wide margin in the past two months on expectations of a regulatory boost for its refining business and excitement about revenue accretion from its telecom subsidiary Reliance Jio’s non-mobile businesses.

Renu had taken over as the CEO of the Paytm Bank in May 2017 and recently resigned to take over the operations at the new initiative by Paytm which involves working with local restaurants, grocery stores and pharmacies for enabling them for local ordering and delivery.

After her step down, the position of the head of the bank lies vacant and it is the second time when the office at the newly-licensed payments bank has been vacant after its previous CEO, Shinjini Kumar left before the formal launch of Paytm Payment Bank.

Renu Satti has juggled multiple roles at Paytm, from managing human resources to building businesses ground up including marketplace, movie ticketing and most recently Paytm Payments Bank.  

Paytm also aims to build a P2P logistics with a countrywide network for intra-city deliveries. This new launch is expected to become one-thirds of Paytm's orders and GMV by 2020, says Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder of Paytm.

Rajasthan will soon have its first ‘cow sanctuary’, a shelter for 10,000 bovines spread over an area of more than 220 hectares in Bikaner district. The state government on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a private trust in this regard, during Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s visit to Bikaner. The cow sanctuary will be the latest in a string of initiatives announced by the BJP government in the state for the protection of bovines since it came to power in 2013. The state already has a ministry dedicated to the welfare of cows and last year it had announced a 10 per cent surcharge on stamp duty towards cow protection.

“This will be the first cow sanctuary in Rajasthan and will be situated in Bikaner’s Napasar. The objective is to dedicate the entire area for cows, much on the lines of a wildlife sanctuary. The signing of the MoU was done on Friday and we are looking to start the facility at the earliest,” Gopalan minister Otaram Dewasi said. He added the sanctuary will be managed by a private trust.

The weekend saw a sharp exchange of tweets between our soon-to-retire telecom regulatory chief Mr R.S. Sharma and advocates of privacy. He is an unabashed believer in the security of Aadhaar. This, for the uninitiated, is like a social security number that is now being linked to everything under the sun — bank records, financial statements, income tax returns, phone numbers and even competitive examinations.

Sharma has claimed, and he’s probably right, that no harm could come to him if his Aadhaar details were to be made public. This has been consistently echoed by UIDAI, which claims a “security perimeter” around the collected biometrics of every individual in the Indian subcontinent. As such, Aadhaar represents the most massive honeypot of sensitive biometrics ever compiled on the planet. This author takes the government’s claims on the security of the biometric database, and the claims that said database has never been breached, at face value.

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) said on Monday it had won all 125 parliamentary seats up for grabs in a general election a day earlier that critics said was neither free nor fair.

About 5.5 million Zimbabweans are expected to vote on Monday in the first election since the removal of Robert Mugabe, a watershed vote they hope will rid the country of its global pariah status and spark a recovery in its failed economy.

Dozens of people waited in line to vote outside many polling stations in Harare, the capital.

"I want to do this and get on with my business. I am not leaving anything to chance. This is my future," said Emerina Akenda, a first-time voter.

Thousands of election monitors have fanned out across the country to observe a process that the opposition says is biased against them despite electoral commission assurances that it will be credible.

India's star wrestlers Bajrang Punia and Pinki won gold medals at the Yasar Dogu International in Istanbul, Turkey on Sunday. Sandeep Tomar had to settle for a silver while it was disappointing performance from Rio Olympic bronze-medallist Sakshi Malik, who failed to reach the medal round.

Indian wrestlers bagged 10 medals with women winning seven of those.

CWG champion Bajrang, who won a gold at the Tbilisi Grand Prix in Gerogia early this month, did not have to break a sweat as his opponent in the final bount Andriy Kvyatkovskyy from Ukraine withdrew from the 70kg final due to an injury.

NAVI MUMBAI: A city college student, Prabhat Koli (19), who crossed the English Channelwhen he was 16, has become the first Asian to swim the choppy water from Jersey (an Island in the UK) to France in cold weather on Thursday.

The long-distance sea swimmer covered 25km in 6 hours and 54 MINUTES. He started off from La Coupe Point of Jersey, behind St Catherine’s backwater and touched the shore of St Germain Plage on the Normandy coast of France. 

Ace Indian shuttler Sourabh Verma today lifted the Russian Open Badminton trophy at Vladivostok. In the title clash, Sourabh came back from a game behind to beat Japan's Koki Watanabe, 18-21, 21-12, 21-17, and win his first title of the season. Sourabh had won the Chinese Taipei Masters in 2016, and finished runners-up at Bitburger Open the same year.

However, in Mixed Doubles, the pair of Rohan Kapoor and Kuhoo Garg, lost in the Final against the Russian-Korean team of Vladimir Ivanov and Min Kyung Kim 19-21 17-21 to settle for a runners-up finish.