The Supreme Court today turned down an appeal to reconsider its own earlier order that had rejected the idea of reservations for Scheduled Castes (SCs) or Scheduled Tribes (STs) in job promotions.

The court today essentially upheld its 2006 order that had said that it was not mandatory for the government to give reservations in promotions in public sector jobs.

However, the court overturned one aspect of the 2006 order that had put a condition for the government to follow in case it wished to provide reservation in jobs.

The Supreme Court today held that states need not collect quantifiable data on the backwardness of SCs and STs for giving quota in job promotions. The 2006 order had made it mandatory for states to collect this data in case they wished to give reservations in job promotions.

A plea had asked the Supreme Court to set up a bench larger than the one that delivered the 2006 verdict and to reconsider the idea of having reservations for SCs and STs in job promotions.

The unanimous judgment today was pronounced by a five-judge Constitution bench.

The bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said that the states need not collect quantifiable data on the backwardness of SCs and STs for giving quota in job promotion to SC and ST 

The Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Shri Arun Jaitley launched here today a transformative initiative in MSME credit space. The web portal www.psbloansin59minutes.com will enable in principle approval for MSME loans up to Rs. 1 crore within 59 minutes from SIDBI and 5 Public Sector Banks (PSBs). It is a strategic initiative of SIBDI led PSB consortium incubated under the aegis of Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Finance. The Portal sets a new benchmark in loan processing and reduces the turnaround time from 20-25 days to 59 minutes. Subsequent to this in principle approval, the loan will be disbursed in 7-8 working days.

A first in MSME banking credit space, www.psbloansin59minutes.com is one of its kind platform in MSME segment which integrates advanced fintech to ensure seamless loan approval and management. The loans are undertaken without human intervention till sanction and or disbursement stage. A User Friendly Platform has been built where MSME borrower is not required to submit any physical document for in-principle approval. The solution uses sophisticated algorithms to read and analyse data points from various sources such as IT returns, GST data, bank statements, MCA21 etc. in less than an hour while capturing the applicants basic details using Smart analytics from available documents. The system simplifies the decision making process for a loan officer as the final output provides a summary of credit, valuation and verification on a user-friendly dashboard in real time.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016, was constitutionally valid, but a person’s rights could not be denied on the ground of lack of the unique ID. While the apex court upheld seeding of PAN with Aadhaar, it set aside linking Aadhaar to bank accounts and mobile phone numbers.

Ruling that Aadhaar was not compulsory for school admissions, the SC said no child could be denied benefits of any schemes for not having Aadhaar number. “CBSE, NEET, UGC cannot make Aadhaar mandatory, also it is not compulsory for school admissions,” Justice AK Sikri said.

Stating that Aadhaar empowers the marginalised sections of society and gave them an identity, the SC said Aadhaar authentication data cannot be stored for more than six months. Justice A K Sikri, who is part of the five-judge bench ruling on the validity of the Aadhaar Act and who wrote the majority judgment, also struck down Section 57 of Aadhaar Act, which permits private entities to avail of Aadhaar data. Sikri said Aadhaar was different from other ID proofs as it could not be duplicated.

“Minimal demographic and biometric data of citizens are collected by the UIDAI for Aadhaar enrolment. Aadhaar number given to a person is unique and can’t go to any other person. Aadhaar identification is unparalleled,” Justice Sikri, who has authored the judgment on behalf of himself, CJI Dipak Misra and Justice AM Khanwilkar, said in opening remarks.

A five-judge bench of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan had on May 10 reserved its judgment on a string of writ petitions, pending since 2012, challenging the constitutionality of the Aadhaar Act, bringing to a conclusion which, in the words of Attorney General KK Venugopal, was the second-longest hearing in the history of the apex court. The case was heard for 38 days.

The first petition was filed by former High Court Judge Justice K S Puttaswamy in 2012. He had argued that Aadhaar violated the right to privacy and had no legislative backing.

The brainchild of the UPA government, the Aadhaar Bill was passed by the Narendra Modi government in 2016, with the mode of the passage of the Bill itself raking up controversy. The government termed the Aadhaar Act, 2016, a Money Bill and passed it in Lok Sabha. However, former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh challenged the manner used for the passage of the Aaadhar Act and the case was clubbed with the petitions.

Ten years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers triggered the global financial crisis, India’s non-banking financial companies (NBFC) sector is roiled by a series of defaults by the Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) group of companies. Fears of the contagion spreading has led to a sharp fall in the stocks of housing finance companies (HFCs) and NBFCs (which operate on borrowed funds), causing the Sensex to plunge 1,785 points in the five trading days from September 15-24. Here’s what happened — and what can happen now.

New Delhi: India on Monday congratulated Opposition candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on his victory in the presidential polls in the Maldives and said the election reflected the country's commitment to the values of democracy and the rule of law.

India also hoped that the Maldivian Election Commission will officially confirm the result at the earliest.

"We welcome the successful completion of the third presidential election process in the Maldives which, according to preliminary information, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has won," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.

President Ram Nath Kovind conferred National Sports Awards for 2018 at a function in Rashtrapati Bhawan this evening.

Captain of Indian cricket team Virat Kohli and world champion weightlifter Saikhom Mirabai Chanu received the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, the highest sporting award of the country. Apart from a medal and a citation, both the awardees received a cash prize of 7.5 lakh rupees.

Star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, athlete Hima Das, Jinson Jhonson, Shuttler Nelakurthi Sikki Reddy, Boxer Satish Kumar, Golfer Subhankar Sharma, Shooters Rahi Sarnobat, Ankur Mittal, Shreyasi Singh, Table Tennis Players Manika Batra, G Sathiyan, Wrestler Sumit, Wushu player Pooja Kadian, Para Athlete Ankur Dhama, Para-Badminton player Manoj Sarkar and Hockey players Manpreet Singh, Savita and Polo player Col. Ravi Rathore got the Arjuna Awards.

The President also presented the Dronacharya awards to eight coaches. They are Subedar Chenanda Achaiah Kuttappa for Boxing, Vijay Sharma for Weightlifting, A. Srinivasa Rao for Table Tennis, Sukhdev Singh Pannu for Athletics, Clarence Lobo for Hockey, Tarak Sinha for Cricket, Jiwan Kumar Sharma for Judo and V.R. Beedu for Athletics.

Dhyan Chand Award was given to four persons. They are Satyadev Prasad for Archery, Bharat Kumar Chetri for Hockey, Ms. Bobby Aloysius for Athletics and Chougale Dadu Dattatray for Wrestling.

Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh were awarded the best performing states in terms of "Ease of Living Index" under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) at the National Dissemination Workshop on Ease of Living Index, 2018, here, the Union Housing and Urban Affairs ministry said on Monday.

Kakinada, Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, and Vijayawada cities of Andhra Pradesh; Indore, Bhopal, Ujjain, Satna, Sagar, Jabalpur and Gwalior of Madhya Pradesh and Bhubaneswar and Rourkela from Odisha were covered under the Ease of Living Index.

"The Ease of Living Index is a transformative initiative of the Ministry to help the cities assess their liveability vis-a-vis national and global benchmarks," stated Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs,

Government says, Foreign Direct Investment in telecom sector has jumped five times in last three years from 1.3 billion US dollars to 6.2 billion US dollars.

Communications minister Manoj Sinha said that through New Digital Communication Policy (NDCP), telecom ministry is targetting FDI of 100 billion US dollar.

Speaking at a seminar in New Delhi, the minister said government is aiming to commercially introduce 5G services in the country by the end of 2020.

He said, the next generation of mobile Internet connectivity, 5G would offer much faster and more reliable networks, which would form the backbone for the emerging era of Internet of Things.

Telecom secretary Mrs Aruna Sundararajan said Indian telecom sector, which is second largest in the world, will work towards growth-oriented investment perspective.

Environment Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday inaugurated air pollution control device Wind Augmentation Purifying Unit, WAYU, at ITO in New Delhi. 

The device WAYU is developed by Council of Science and Industrial Research to mitigate air pollution at traffic junctions.

Along with particulate matter, the device will remove poisonous gases such as volatile organic compounds and carbon monoxide. 

This device works on two principles mainly wind generation for dilution of air pollutants and active pollutants removal. 

The Supreme Court today said that the legislators could not be banned from practising as lawyers in courts. A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court dismissed a petition seeking ban on the legal practice of MPs, MLAs and MLCs who are legal professionals.

The Supreme Court said that no law debars the MPs, MLAs and MLCs from practising in court. The petition had been filed by BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay. He contended that allowing MPs, MLAs and MLCs to practise in a court of law amounts to violation of the fundamental right to equality before law as enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution.

Though the number of lawyers being elected to the Lok Sabha has reduced since 1952 when the first Lok Sabha was elected. Back then, 36 per cent of the Lok Sabha MPs were lawyers. In the current 16th Lok Sabha, only 7 per cent members are lawyers. But they continue to dominate government and proceedings of Parliament.