On Thursday, the arrest of four Intelligence Bureau operatives outside the official residence of CBI Director Alok Verma, whom the government has “divested” of his powers, triggered allegations of snooping. The Home Ministry, however, has defended the four men by maintaining that they were on “routine, covert” duties in the high-security area of Janpath.

Janpath had witnessed a high-profile precedent 27 years ago, one that would lead to huge repercussions. In March 1991, two Haryana policemen were found sipping tea near the residence of then Leader of Opposition Rajiv Gandhi at 10 Janpath; this eventually led to the fall of the then Chandra Shekhar government.

The Congress alleged that the two plainclothes police personnel, belonging to the Haryana CID, had been snooping on Rajiv Gandhi. This soured relations to the extent that the Congress decided not to support Chandra Shekhar’s government in a confidence motion in Lok Sabha.

At least 24 operational creditors of debt-ridden Reliance Communications and Reliance Telecom have moved various benches of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in Mumbai against the two firms of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group, to recover dues, under Section 9 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), according to Tribunal records.

Of the creditors that have moved court, at least 11 firms have settled or are in the process of settling the dispute with Anil Ambani’s firms through NCLT. The disputes of the remaining 13 firms with RCom and Reliance Telecom are yet to be resolved.

Some of the operational creditors that have moved NCLT against RCom and Reliance Telecom for recovery of dues include Paytm’s parent firm One 97Communications, logistics firm GATI Ltd, Ascend Telecom Infrastructure Pvt.Ltd, Bangalore International Airport Ltd, Handygo Technologies Pvt Ltd, communications firm Laqshya Media Ltd, Wallop Advertising Pvt. Ltd, Evolve Digital Solutions Pvt Ltd, Enhance Software Solution Pvt Ltd, Syscom Corporation Ltd, Xportsoft Technologies, Navya Industries Pvt Ltd and Abhitech Energycon Ltd.

The amount that the creditors have sought to recover from the two firms range from a few lakhs to crores. For instance, while One 97Communications is seeking to recover dues of about Rs 20 crore from RCom, Ascend Telecom, a telecom infrastructure provider, has filed three separate petitions against RCom and Reliance Telecom to recover over Rs 23 crore.

Paytm Payments Bank on Thursday announced the appointment of Satish Kumar Gupta as its managing director and CEO. Gupta brings over 35 years of leadership experience to Paytm Payments Bank, with prior senior roles at SBI and NPCI, the company said in a statement.

Speaking on the appointment, Paytm's Founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said: "...Gupta comes with over 35 years of experience in the field of Banking & I am extremely delighted to welcome him as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Paytm Payments Bank.

His expertise will help us realise the vision that we have set out for our Payments Bank".

Thirty-eight pacts worth $5 billion were signed among 20 technology providers, capital goods manufacturers and steel producers, which will give impetus to the manufacturing of capital goods for iron and steel industry. Of the 20 companies who exchanged the MoUs on Tuesday, about 12 are foreign players.

The MoUs were signed at a conclave on Capital Goods for Steel Sector: Manufacture in India, organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) jointly with Mecon and Steel Ministry.

Some of the companies that signed the pacts were China-based ACRE, Italy-based CSM, Luxemburg headquartered Paul Wurth, Danieli Corus — supplier of tailor-made solutions for the primary metals industry — and domestic steel makers and heavy equipment manufacturers, including SAIL, JSW, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, MECON Limited, Heavy Engineering Corporation Limited.

The pacts were signed for coke oven, agglomeration, blast furnaces, steel making, rolling mills, waste to energy and iron ore crusher and beneficiation. India has set a target to increase its crude steel capacity to 300 million tonnes by 2030-31 from about 134 million tonnes at present.

All-rounder Dwayne Bravo announced his retirement from international cricket on Wednesday (October 24). The 35-year-old, who last represented the Windies in September 2016, played a grand total of 270 internationals (40 Tests, 164 ODIs, 66 T20Is) between 2004 and 2016 and played a starring role in each of their two World T20 triumphs in 2012 and 2016.

"Today I want to confirm to the cricket world that I have officially retired from international cricket in all formats of the game. After 14 years when I made my debut for the West Indies, I still remember that moment I received the maroon cap before walking onto the Lord's Cricket Ground against England in July 2004. The enthusiasm and passion I felt then, I have kept with me throughout my career," Bravo said in his retirement note.

"However, I must accept that for me to preserve my longevity as a professional cricketer, I must do as others before have done, leave the international arena for the next generation of players."

Bravo made his maiden appearance for West Indies in April, 2004 in the Georgetown ODI against England, claiming the wickets of Marcus Trescothick and Andrew Strauss. Three months later, he was handed a Test debut at Lord's in West Indies' tour of England.

New Delhi: The government has constituted a Group of Ministers (GoM), headed by home minister Rajnath Singh, to strengthen the legal and institutional frameworks to deal with and prevent sexual harassment at the workplace.

Other members of the GoM include road transport minister Nitin Gadkari, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman and women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi, a home ministry official said.

The GoM will examine existing legal and institutional frameworks for dealing with matters of sexual harassment of women at the workplace. It will also recommend action required for effective implementation of existing provisions and strengthening existing legal and institutional frameworks to address issues related to sexual harassment at the workplace, the official said.

The GoM has been set up in the wake of the recent #MeToo movement in the country.Former editor M.J. Akbar had to resign as minister of state for external affairs following allegations of sexual harassment against him by former colleagues.

The Supreme Court Wednesday said that no Bharat Stage IV vehicle shall be sold across the country with effect from April 1, 2020.

The Bharat stage emission standards are standards instituted by the government to regulate output of air pollutants from motor vehicles.

The Bharat Stage VI (or BS-VI) emission norm would come into force from April 1, 2020 across the country.

A three judge bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur made it clear that only BS VI compliant vehicle shall be sold in the country from that date.

The bench said the need of the hour was to move to a cleaner fuel.

BS IV norms have been enforced across the country since April 2017.

In 2016, the Centre had announced that the country would skip BS-V norms altogether and adopt BS-VI norms by 2020.

Virat Kohli became only the fourth batsman to score 10,000 ODI runs for India and in the process, he also broke Sachin Tendulkar's record to become the fastest to reach the milestone.

Before the start of the second ODI against West Indies in Vizag, Kohli needed 81 to reach the coveted landmark. After his stroke-filled 140 in the first ODI on Sunday, there was little doubt Kohli would get to 10K on Wednesday.

He got off the mark with a boundary off Kemar Roach, who had just dismissed Rohit Sharma cheaply. Thereafter, Kohli went about building his innings like he has done so often over the last decade.

The event was organised by UNICEF in association with BRAC, a Bangladesh based international organisation. The basic aim of the challenge was to identify innovative solutions to promote the practice of hand washing with soap.

More than 700 teams from South Asia had submitted their ideas about how to get everyone to wash their hands with soap. In the final held on Monday, 12 teams presented their ideas. Two teams from Bangladesh and one from Pakistan got top three places. Encouraging the young innovators to keep trying hard, Sachin said that they have taken a big step towards making a massive contribution in doing something good for the planet.

He said prevention is better than cure and everyone is trying to find ways to prevent water related diseases, which end up taking so many innocent lives. Sachin also met Chief Advisor of the Interim Government of Bhutan and discussed various hand sanitation awareness initiatives. He also interacted with the members of Bhutan’s National Cricket team.

Established on October 24, in the year 1945, United Nations (UN) replaced the League of Nations after World War II. It took the role of peacekeeper of the world and assumed necessary powers to avoid conflicts resulting in a world war.

Currently, the UN has 193 countries as its members and its headquarter is in New York, USA.

The UN not only focuses on peace but also aims at promoting sustainable development, upholding international laws and protecting human rights.