Senior bureaucrat Pramod Chandra Mody was on Thursday appointed as chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), a top policy making body for income tax department, according to a Personnel Ministry order.

Mody, a 1982 batch Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax cadre), has been appointed in place of Sushil Chandra, who earlier Thursday appointed as an Election Commissioner ahead of the Lok Sabha polls due this summer.

Mody is at present member of CBDT.

India-US CEOs Forum Thursday decided to set up working groups on financial services, healthcare and defence with a view to accelerate trade and investments between the two countries.

The three working groups will be in addition to four such groups, which were established to deal with issues concerning energy, water and environment; ICT, emerging technologies and digital infrastructure; entrepreneurship, inclusive growth, and promoting small business; and infrastructure and manufacturing.

These issues, among others, were discussed during the India-US CEO Forum meeting, along with the India-US Commercial dialogue, attended by Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu and US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster.

US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross participated through telephone as his flight got cancelled due to bad weather conditions.

Issues like data localisation, e-commerce and the generalised system of preferences (GSP) were not discussed during the commercial dialogue.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Ramesh Abhishek said that four working groups are established and three more would be set up.

The CEOs of both the sides gave some report, but "they are not detailed and comprehensive as such. We would like to have CEOs from both the sides in each of these groups. They will work on more detail," he said.

CBDT Chairman Sushil Chandra was on Thursday appointed as an Election Commissioner, the Law Ministry said.

Chandra, an IIT graduate, is a 1980 batch officer of the Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax cadre).

With his appointment, the EC now has Sunil Arora as the Chief Election Commissioner and Ashok Lavasa and Chandra as fellow commissioners.

The Supreme Court on Thursday grilled Amrapali Group CMD Anil Kumar Sharma for Rs 94 crore of homebuyers' money being shown in his bank account and also warned that it would send him to jail for his "reluctance" in disclosing the identity of a person, who had bought company's shares worth Rs 140 crore from the multi-national firm JP Morgan.

The top court gave Sharma one last opportunity to return Rs 6.55 crore of homebuyers' money, which he had transferred to his daughter, by February 28 and sought explanation of Rs 94 crore shown in his bank account. 

It also appointed a valuer to ascertain the exact value of 5,229 unsold flats including those booked by Amrapali for just Rs 1, Rs 11 and Rs 12 and asked the valuer to submit its report by the next date of hearing.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and U U Lalit also brought 'The Royal Golf Link City Projects Pvt Ltd' under its scanner and sought its share holding pattern, names of promoters and balancesheet.

The court was informed by the forensic auditors that land for the project were purchased by Amrapali and in all possibility it appears to be a front company of the embattled real estate firm.

India has said, it will take care of its commercial considerations with regard to import of oil from Venezuela.

Responding to a media query, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson on Thursday said, New Delhi is monitoring the evolving situation in that country. 
The spokesperson said, India is in favour of constructive dialogue process to solve the situation in Venezuela. 

India has slammed Pakistan over the Pulwama terror attack carried out by Jaish-e-Mohammed and asked Islamabad to stop supporting terrorists and dismantle terror infrastructure operating from its soil.

The Ministry of External Affairs, MEA in a release also strongly reiterated its appeal to all members of the international community to support the proposal to list terrorists, including Jaish-e-Mohammed Chief Masood Azhar, as a designated terrorist under the 1267 Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council.

New Delhi said Masood Azhar has been given full freedom by the Pakistan government to operate and expand his terror infrastructure in territories under the control of Islamabad and to carry out attacks in India and elsewhere with impunity. It again appealed to ban terror groups operating from territories controlled by Pakistan.

Condemning the attack as cowardly, heinous and despicable, the MEA said, the government of India is firmly and resolutely committed to taking all necessary measures to safeguard national security. It said India is equally resolved to fight against the menace of terrorism.

The Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) on Tuesday told the Bombay High Court that it will consider an application of the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) seeking permission to remove mangroves in Thane, Navi Mumbai and Palghar districts to make way for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project.

The NHSRCL had approached the court after their proposal was rejected by MCZMA on December 22, 2018.

On Tuesday, MCZMA counsel Sharmila Deshmukh informed the court that they will consider the proposal and take a decision within four weeks.

Mild tremors were felt in Andaman islands in the early hours of Wednesday morning after an earthquake of 4.5 magnitude was reported in North North West of Bamboo Flat, according to United States Geological Survey.

On Tuesday, tremors were felt in Chennai, the capital city of Tamil Nadu, after a magnitude of 4.9 earthquake hit Bay of Bengal.

A major fire broke out at the tent city of Statue of Unity early Wednesday morning. The fire was reported at 2:30 am at a godown in tent city II.

Three fire tenders were immediately rushed to the spot to control the blaze from spreading to residential tents.

No casualties were reported from the spot. However, the officials are estimating the value of property loss that has been reported.

The godown is located to cluster G of the tent city with no tents nearby. At the time of the incident, three staff members were asleep inside the godown but managed to escape unhurt and also raised an alarm and informed the officials about the fire.

Around 50 tourists were also lodged at the tent city at the time of the incident

Andhra Pradesh government today became the first to include all tenant farmers in an investment support scheme announced today which promises a fixed sum of Rs 10,000 per annum to all farmers in the state, irrespective of the size of their land holding.