The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Wednesday reserved its order on a petition by Reliance Communications seeking the release of income-tax refunds to clear dues of Ericsson India. Lenders of Reliance Communications have opposed the plea.

After hearing both the sides, the NCLAT bench headed by chairperson SJ Mukhopadhyay reserved the order in the case.

Senior lawyer Neeraj Kishan Kaul, appearing for State Bank of India, argued for rejection of Reliance Communications’ appeal, contending that it will lead to outgo of public money for settling payment of a private party.

He said Reliance Communications asset monetisation deal failed because RJio refused to take responsibility of past dues of the Anil Ambani-led firm before the department of telecommunications and hence, it is not liable to make payment on behalf of Reliance Communications.

India and the US said they have agreed to build six American nuclear power plants in India, in a boost to bilateral civil nuclear energy cooperation.

The two countries said this in a joint statement issued at the conclusion of the 9th round of India-US Strategic Security Dialogue, co-chaired by Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale and Andrea Thompson, the US under secretary of state for arms control and international security, on Wednesday.

"They committed to strengthening bilateral security and civil nuclear cooperation, including the establishment of six U.S. nuclear power plants in India," the joint statement said.

Joining an ever-growing list of countries, India has decided to ban Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes following the Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed 157 people. Current Indian airlines that operate these aircraft are SpiceJet that has twelve of these planes in its fleet and Jet Airways that has five. "DGCA has taken the decision to ground the Boeing 737-MAX planes immediately. These planes will be grounded till appropriate modifications and safety measures are undertaken to ensure their safe operations," the Ministry of Civil Aviation said in a tweet.

"As always, passenger safety remains our top priority. We continue to consult closely with regulators around the world, airlines, and aircraft manufacturers to ensure passenger safety," it added.

On Sunday, a 737 MAX 8 aircraft operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed near Addis Ababa killing 157 people, including four Indians. This was the second such major crash in less than five months involving a 737 MAX 8. An aircraft operated by Lion Air crashed in Indonesia killing over 180 people.

The indigenously developed Pinaka guided rocket system was successfully test fired on Monday at Pokhran desert in Rajasthan, in a boost to artillery capability of the Army, the defense ministry said.

The weapon system is equipped with state-of-the-art guidance kit comprising of an advanced navigation and control system.

"The indigenously developed guided Pinaka, developed by DRDO, will significantly boost the capability of the artillery to make precision hits," the defence ministry said.

About the tests, it said the weapon systems impacted the intended targets with high precision and achieved desired accuracies.

After eight years of holding the position of the largest importer of weapons, India has been superseded by Saudi Arabia and dropped down to become the second largest importer of weapons in the world, a report said on Monday.

According to the annual report released by the Swedish-based think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), titled ‘Trends in International Arms Transfers-2018’, “India was the world’s second largest importer of major arms in 2014-18 and accounted for 9.5 per cent of the global total.”

The assessment was done for a five-year period (2014-2018). Last year (for the period 2013-17), India accounted for 13 per cent of all imports and was the world’s largest importer, The Tribune reported. 

SIRPI attributed to the gradual lowering of imports by India to delayed deliveries. “Imports decreased by 24 per cent between 2009-13 and 2014-18 (two five-year blocks), partly due to delays in deliveries of arms produced under licence from foreign suppliers, such as combat aircraft ordered from Russia in 2001 and submarines ordered from France in 2008,” the report said.

Scientists, using NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), have observed water molecules moving around the dayside of the Moon, the US space agency said, an advance that could help us learn about the accessibility of water that can be used by humans in future lunar missions.

Measurements from the Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) instrument aboard the LRO of the sparse layer of molecules temporarily stuck to the surface helped characterise lunar hydration changes over the course of a day, according to the study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Up until the last decade, scientists thought the Moon was arid, with any water existing mainly as pockets of ice in permanently shaded craters near the poles.

More recently, scientists have identified surface water in sparse populations of molecules bound to the lunar soil, or regolith, NASA said in a statement.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina, Monday jointly unveiled e-plaques for development projects in Bangladesh, through video conferencing. 

Both the leaders unveiled e-plaques for the supply of buses and trucks, the inauguration of 36 community clinics, 11 water treatment plants, and extension of National Knowledge Network to Bangladesh. 

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Modi said Ms. Hasina’s vision is the biggest inspiration for stronger connectivity between India and Bangladesh. He said today’s unveilings will boost not just transport connectivity, but also knowledge connectivity. 

Mr Modi said the National Knowledge Network will connect scholars and research institutes in Bangladesh, to India and the world. 

He said the buses and trucks would assist the efforts towards affordable public transportation; water treatment plants will help supply clean water; and community clinics will benefit about two lakh people, in Bangladesh. Mr Modi said these projects show that the India-Bangladesh relations are playing a key role in improving the quality of life of people. 

Google on Tuesday celebrated 30 years of World Wide Web (WWW) with a doodle. English scientist Tim Berners-Lee invented the WWW in 1989 and wrote the first web browser in 1990.

Working at CERN, Switzerland, Berners-Lee laid out the basic concepts of the WWW in a proposal which included ideas like HTML, URL and HTTP.

In a document titled "Information management: a proposal", he envisioned the use of hypertext to link documents.

The first web browser was released in 1991 -- first to the research institutions and then to the general public on the Internet in the same year.

The WWW is the primary tool billions of people today use to interact on the Internet.

In addition to text, web pages may contain images, video, audio and software components that are rendered in the user's web browser as coherent pages of multimedia content.

Before the WWW, remote computers communicated directly for the first time in 1969 and in 1983, TCP/IP standard was adopted.

Zinedine Zidane has been re-appointed as the coach of Spanish football club Real Madrid till 2022. The Frenchman replaces Santiago Solari, who was sacked after less than five months in charge. Former Real midfielder Zidane had resigned from the club after leading it to three consecutive Champions League titles.

Real Madrid is going through a rouch patch this season with nothing left to play for other than qualification match into next season's premier European competition. 

Real Madrid's Champions League challenge came to an end last week after the defending champions were stunned by Ajax in the Round-of-16.

The 34th edition of AAHAR - the International Food and Hospitality fair - begins at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi today. Our correspondent reports that Minister for Commerce and Industry Suresh Prabhu will inaugurate the fair.

The fair will feature a wide range of food products, machinery, hospitality and Decoration and Confectionery items from over 560 participants from India and abroad. Around 20 countries, including US, Russia, China, UK, Germany, Italy and Singapore will participate in the five-day fair. 

The fair which will showcase new trends in food and beverage, hospitality, culinary technology, retail and new innovations. It will also offer an insight into the operational and food safety concerns and innovations to become energy-efficient, finding budget-friendly raw materials for boosting productivity while still aiming for greater profitability.