With Srinagar’s Dal Lake struggling for survival due to its biological load from within threatening its longevity, the J&K High Court has constituted a “committee of experts” to ascertain the status of the iconic water body and to provide solutions necessary for its restoration, maintenance and preservation.  However, the committee has held four meetings since October 16 — all in the national capital — and the state exchequer, as per sources, owes the experts Rs 35 lakh so far.

The Lakes and Waterways Development Authority, the overseeing body concerning the lake, has no budgetary allocations for third party evaluations or external committees.

The High Court order, which was passed on September 18, noted that the Central government had spent close to Rs 400 crore on the lake over the past 15 years without any tangible results.

For conservation of Asiatic Lions in the state, the Gujarat government on Tuesday announced a Rs 351-crore package, including a range of new initiatives like building a state-of-the-art veterinary hospital in Sasan-Gir and forming a special cadre of 120 veterinary doctors.

The announcement comes in the wake of the death of 27 lions in and around Gir Wildlife Sanctuary during the last two months, a majority of them were infected by canine distemper virus (CDV).

The decision was taken at a meeting of State Board of Wildlife (SBWL), chaired by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Tuesday. The meeting was also attended by Chief Secretary J N Singh and top officials of Department of Forest and Environment, like Additional Chief Secretary Rajiv Kumar Gupta and Principal Chief Conservator of Forest & Head of the Forest Force G K Sinha.

“Elaborate discussion was held at the SBWL meeting on the recent deaths of lions by CDV after which an in-principle decision was taken to sanction Rs 351 crore for various lion conservation measures in the next five years,” Forest Minister Ganpat Vasava told mediapersons here after the meeting.

Ties between the US and Pakistan hit a new low after the former suspended its $1.66 billion security assistance to Pakistan on Wednesday, days after President Donald Trump accused Pakistan of not doing enough against combatting terrorism, Pentagon said.

“USD 1.66 billion of security assistance to Pakistan is suspended,” PTI quoted Col Rob Manning, spokesman of the Department of Defence, as saying.

On November 19, Trump launched a frontal attack on Pakistan for not acting against the terror pads on its soil and gave the example of 9/11 mastermind al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden who was hiding in Abbottabad, allegedly under the protection of its military. “Of course we should have captured Osama Bin Laden long before we did. I pointed him out in my book just BEFORE the attack on the World Trade Center. President Clinton famously missed his shot. We paid Pakistan Billions of Dollars & they never told us he was living there. Fools!” Trump wrote on his Twitter handle.

Alexander Zverev thrashed Novak Djokovic in straight sets in the final to win the ATP World Tour Finals title in London on Sunday.

Zverev took full advantage of an off-key Djokovic to win the contest 6-4 6-3 at the O2 arena.

Housing finance firm HDFC said Sunday it has disbursed over Rs 1,100 crore subsidy to over 51,000 customers under the government’s flagship scheme Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).

HDFC has provided loans of over Rs 9,800 crore under PMAY-Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS), to these customers belonging to EWS (Economically Weaker Section), LIG (Low Income Group) and Middle Income Group (MIG) category, the housing finance firm said in a statement.

It further said HDFC during the quarter ended September 30, 2018 approved 37 per cent of home loans in volume terms and 18 per cent in value terms to customers from the EWS and LIG segment.

The company on an average has been approving 8,300 loans on a monthly basis to the EWS and LIG segment, with monthly such average approvals at approximately Rs 1,354 crore, it said.

The average home loan to the EWS and LIG segment stood at Rs 10.1 lakh and Rs 17.6 lakh respectively, it added.

CLSS was introduced in June 2015 under PMAY for home loans to customers from the EWS, LIG and was extended to Middle Income Group (MIG) from January 2017.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured all possible help to new Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in fulfilling his government’s pledges to the people and suggested an early meeting of officials to work out the details according to the needs of the strategically vital Indian Ocean island nation.

According to a joint press statement after talks between Prime Minister Modi and President Solih here on Saturday, soon after the 54-year-old Maldivian Democratic Party leader was sworn-in as the seventh president, the two leaders expressed confidence in the “renewal” of the close bonds of cooperation and friendship between the two countries.

India-Maldives ties came under strain under former president Abdulla Yameen who was perceived to be close to China. Some of his decisions, including the restrictions on work visas for Indians and signing of a new Free Trade Agreement with Beijing also did not go down well with New Delhi.

In his inaugural address, President Solih made it clear that he will endeavour to “fortify” the existing ties the Maldives has had with India and other regional countries.

Announcing key Finance Ministry appointments about two months before the presentation of Union Budget, the government on Saturday said UIDAI CEO and GSTN Chairman ABP Pandey will be the next Revenue Secretary and Revenue Department’s Special Secretary Girish Chandra Murmu will be the next Expenditure Secretary.

Pandey, a 1984 batch Maharashtra-cadre IAS officer, will take charge as Revenue Secretary after the superannuation of current Finance and Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia on November 30. The government said he will continue to hold charge as Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) CEO and GSTN Chairman until further orders.

Murmu, a 1985-batch Gujarat cadre IAS officer, has been appointed as Officer on Special Duty in Expenditure Department of Finance Ministry and will take charge as Expenditure Secretary after the superannuation of present Expenditure Secretary Ajay Narayan Jha on January 31 next year.

Pandey, an alumnus of IIT and a doctorate from University of Minnesota Minneapolis, having worked with GSTN is being seen as the person who will bring in his technological know-how for the GST regime as both Revenue Secretary and GSTN Chairman.

China and the US crossed swords Saturday ahead of an APEC summit, duelling over protectionism, trade tariffs and "chequebook diplomacy" as they laid out sharply contrasting visions for the Pacific Rim region.

In combative back-to-back speeches at a business forum held on a hulking cruise ship moored in Port Moresby, Xi Jinping and US Vice President Mike Pence pulled few punches.

The feisty exchanges laid the ground for what could be a fiery encounter between the Chinese leader and President Donald Trump at next month's G20 in Argentina.

The government plans to divest stakes of up to $2 billion in public sector undertaking (PSU) entities such as Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and Oil India (OIL) to meet its disinvestment target for the year, according to an Economic Times report.

The companies are also expected to shell out Rs 10,000 crore by way of share buyback programs.

The proceeds of the sale along with buybacks will help achieve the Rs 80,000 crore divestment target, a fourth of which have already been achieved by the Finance Ministry. As part of the stake sale, the government will be looking to sell 5 percent of assets in ONGC, 3 percent in Indian Oil and about 10 percent in Oil India.

Once the divestment goes through, the government would earn approximately Rs 10,000 crore from ONGC (5 percent stake at Rs 156 per share), Rs 4,200 crore from IOC (3 percent stake at Rs 143.25 per share) and approximately Rs 2,300 crore from Oil India (10 percent stake at Rs 199.10). These shares would be offloaded at a 5 percent discount to the market rates.

Six months after floatel Art Deck Bar that had 15 people in it capsized off Bandra, the southern coast of Mumbai is set to get two new floating restaurants. On Saturday, the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, will inaugurate the floatels.

Queensline Sea YAH and Queensline Neverland will cruise from the Gateway of India on Monday and as safety precaution, each guest will be given a QR code to trace the location during the journey.

There will be 500 life jackets and 15 rafts on each ship and two marine staff members will be posted in the pontoon boat shuttle services that would be made available.

“We would follow a dedicated path while sailing and an automatic identification system (AIS) would continuously track the movement of our ship. Additional systems and floats would be present on the ship,” said Captain Naresh Kalra from KNK ship management company, which is handling the safety arrangements for the Queensline cruises.