Breaking News Live: President Droupadi Murmu addresses nation on R-Day eve

‘From poor and illiterate to a confident nation’: President praises the constitution makers for guiding India’s path

President Droupadi Murmu praised the makers of the Indian constitution and credited their collective wisdom for guiding India. In addition to being made up of 15 women, she stated that the assembly’s members represented all of India’s communities and regions.

Remembering the role of jurist BN Rau and Dr B R Ambedkar, the President said, “Their vision, as enshrined in the Constitution, has been continuously guiding our Republic. During this period, India has been transformed from a largely poor and illiterate nation into a confident nation marching on the world stage. This would not have been possible but for the collective wisdom of the Constitution-makers guiding our path.”

President Murmu calls G20 presidency an opportunity to promote democracy and multilateralism

President Murmu hailed India’s G20 presidency and called it perfect forum for discussing and identifying solutions to major global issues like climate change.

She also said that the G20 presidency is an opportunity to promote democracy and multilateralism to shape a better world.

India among fastest growing economies, gender equality no longer mere slogans: President Murmu says on RDay eve

President Droupadi Murmu made her first speech on Republic Day eve. She praised the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ imitative staying that India is one of the fastest- growing economies. 

Shew also said that India has made great progress in terms of gender equality and women empowerment in recent times.

Watch: President Droupadi Murmu addresses nation on Republic Day eve

Data predicts economic crisis in China

Data about China’s growth and the image the country is trying to portray on the international forums are contrary. On one hand, the data on employment and GDP point towards a crisis. But Chinese authorities are still trying to put up a positive image on international forums, The Singapore Post reported.

The report said that China’s economic growth fell from 3.9 per cent in the third quarter to just 2.9 per cent in the final quarter. As a result of this, China’s annual growth rate was a mere 2.2 per cent in 2022. This was the second lowest since 1976 and 2020 when China was suffering from Covid’s economic dip.

The National Bureau of Statistics figures shows that retail sales had fallen by 1.8 per cent in December 2022 compared to the figures from the previous year. Overall the country’s retail sales have fallen by 0.2 per cent, the report by The Singapore Post claimed.

Nasdaq misses quarterly profit estimates over subdued IPO market

Exchange operator Nasdaq Inc missed Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter profit on Wednesday, hit by a slowdown in initial public offerings and higher business expenses.

The U.S. market for IPOs has been ravaged over the past year as investor sentiment suffered from concerns around a looming recession, rising interest rates and stock volatility.

The Nasdaq stock exchange hosted only 18 IPOs in the fourth quarter, compared with 195 a year earlier.

Operating expenses in the quarter rose nearly 3% to $557 million from a year earlier, as the company spent more on employees and business-related expenses.

Setback for UK post-study work dreams, govt may reduce stay: report

UK media reports suggest British Home Secretary Suella Braverman is at loggerheads with country’s education departments over her plans to cut period of stay allowed for overseas students under a post-study visa route.

The new Graduate Visa route, which allows foreign graduates – including Indians – the chance to stay on to job hunt and gain work experience for up to two years without the requirement of a specific job offer, is expected to be cut under Braverman’s proposed review.

According to ‘The Times’, the Indian-origin home secretary has drawn up a plan to “reform” the Graduate Visa route requiring students to obtain a work visa by getting a skilled job or leave the UK after six months. The newspaper refers to leaked advice to say that the UK Department for Education (DfE) is attempting to block the changes as they fear it would harm the UK’s attractiveness to international students.

According to a government source quoted in reports the Graduate Visa was being increasingly used by students on short courses at “less respectable universities”.

“It’s being used as a backdoor immigration route,” the newspaper quoted the source as saying.

Sania-Bopanna pair reaches Australian Open mixed doubles final

Playing the last Grand Slam tournament of her career, Sania Mirza earned the chance to win her seventh major title by reaching the Australian Open mixed doubles final with compatriot Rohan Bopanna here on Wednesday.

The unseeded Indian pair knocked out third seeds Desirae Krawczyk and Neal Skupski 7-6(5) 6-7(5) 10-6 in the semifinal that lasted one hour and 52 minutes.

After splitting a set each, the Indians raced to a commanding lead in the Super Tie-breaker. Sania found a stunning backhand winner to earn three match point and sealed the contest with a drive volley that Krawczyk could not return.

“It was an amazing match, there was a lot of nerves. It’s my last slam and it’s so special to play with Rohan. He was my first mixed doubles partner when I was 14 and today I’m 36 and he is 42 and we are still playing, we have a solid relationship,” Sania said after the match.

“I’m not a crier but I’m almost there right now, I feel the love for the last 18 years I have been coming here. It feels like home for me, I have a family here, I eat at home and I have so many Indians supporting me,” said Sania, who won her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in 2009, winning the title with compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi.

Suryakumar Yadav named ICC Men’s T20I Cricketer of the Year

India’s Suryakumar Yadav named ICC Men’s T20I Cricketer of the Year for 2022 ICC Awards.

A look at the Five franchises with ownership rights for WPL

View Full Image

BCCI announcs successful bidders for WPL

BCCI on Wednesday announced the successful bidders for Women’s Premier League. The combined bid valuation is around ₹4669.99 crore.

Microsoft Teams down: 6 alternatives you can try

Here are some popular alternatives that you can consider

Click for more

Meme fest erupts on Twitter as Microsoft outage impacts corporates globally

In the age of the internet, communication services are driving the business of many companies. The employees of the companies use many internet-based applications to communicate or even assign and complete their job. Two platforms of Microsoft- Teams, and Outlook are used by millions of such companies to ensure efficient functioning. But, on Wednesday both Teams and Outlook were down globally affecting the communication system of companies. The ordeal started a meme fest on social media.Read More

Microsoft confirms receiving outage reports from across the world

In a statement released by the tech firm it confirms receiving reports that following services have been impacted: 

-Microsoft Teams

-Exchange Online

-Outlook

-SharePoint Online

-OneDrive for Business

-Microsoft Graph

It claims to have identified a potential networking issue and is reviewing telemetry to determine the next troubleshooting steps.

Microsoft responds to outage: Identified networking issue

Microsoft Outage: 3,900 incidents in India and over 900 in Japan

Microsoft did not disclose the number of users affected by the disruption, but data from outage tracking website Downdetector showed more than 3,900 incidents in India and over 900 in Japan. Outage reports also spiked in Australia, Britain and the United Arab Emirates.

Microsoft says it’s investigating issues

Microsoft Teams down for thousands of users in India

Microsoft Corp’s Teams app was down for thousands of users in India on Wednesday, according to outage tracking website Downdetector.com.

The website, which tracks outages through a range of sources including user reports, showed there were more than 1,800 incidents of people reporting issues with Microsoft Teams in India.

Jal Jeevan Mission crosses 11 crore taps milestone, PM Modi lauds efforts 

India’s JSW Steel to Favor Rupee Bond Market Over Dollar Debt

Tycoon Sajjan Jindal-controlled JSW Steel Ltd. plans to take advantage of lower rupee borrowing costs to refinance its offshore borrowings, as it pushes to increase capacity with a $6 billion capital expenditure plan.

The rupee loan market is looking “attractive” for India’s largest steel company by market value, said Seshagiri Rao, joint managing director and group chief financial officer. The firm’s proportion of rupee debt will grow to half its 700 billion rupees ($8.6 billion) of borrowings over the next year, from about 45% at the end of December, he said.

JSW Steel’s plans underline a trend for Asian companies to favor local issuance due to unfavorable exchange rates and a rapid rise in US borrowing costs. Overseas debt sales in dollars, euros and yen by entities in Asia outside Japan plummeted more than 50% last year, Bloomberg-compiled data show.

N. Korea locks down capital over ‘respiratory illness’

North Korea has ordered a five-day lockdown in the capital over “respiratory illness”, a report said Wednesday, in what appears to be the first citywide restrictions since the country declared victory over Covid-19 in August 2022.

Residents of Pyongyang have been ordered to stay in their homes from Wednesday to Sunday and must submit to multiple temperature checks each day, Seoul-based specialist site NK News reported, citing a government notice.

The notice did not mention Covid but said that the illnesses currently spreading in the capital included the common cold, the report said.

Philippine plane crash kills 2, another carrying 6 missing

A Philippine air force plane crashed Wednesday on a farm northwest of Manila, killing the two people on board, while a search was continuing for a private aircraft carrying six people that went missing the previous day in the mountainous north.

The SF-260 plane was on a training flight from Sangley airport in Cavite province south of Manila when it plummeted into a rice field in Bataan province, air force spokesperson Col. Maria Consuelo Castillo said.

Amid storm over BBC documentary Mahua Moitra shares another link

Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra suspended due to poor weather

Lakhimpur Kheri violence case: Ashish Mishra gets bail

Supreme Court has granted interim bail for eight weeks to Ashish Mishra in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case with conditions.

The Uttar Pradesh government had opposed the bail plea of Ashish Mishra and during the hearing in the Supreme Court last week, Uttar Pradesh government told the bench that the alleged offences against Mishra were grave in nature and granting bail in such matters may impact the society adversely.

Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for petitioner Ashish Mishra, said his client is not a danger to society and insisted on granting bail to Mishra.

Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for the complainant, told the Supreme Court if Mishra is out on bail then it will send a terrible message.

Ashish Mishra, the son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra, moved Supreme Court challenging Allahabad High Court which denied bail to him in connection with the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case

After layoffs Microsoft posts 12% drop in quarterly profit

Microsoft Corporation has announced that its profit went down 12% year-on-year to USD 16.4 billion during the quarter ended December 2022 and that its revenue rose 2 per cent y-o-y to USD 52.7 billion in the reviewed period.

The company said in a statement that its operating income was USD 20.4 billion during the quarter, which is a decline of 8 per cent y-o-y over the figure in the corresponding quarter the previous year.

Diluted earnings per share was USD 2.20, a drop of 11 per cent.

SC judgments to be available in 4 languages

The judgments delivered by the Supreme Court will now be translated into four languages —Hindi, Tamil, Gujarati and Odia — Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud said on Tuesday, while remarking that English is “not a comprehensible language to 99.99% of the citizens” in the country.

“A very important initiative which we have adopted recently is translation of judgments of the Supreme Court in regional languages. Because we must understand that the language which we use namely English, is a language which is not comprehensible, particularly in its legal avatar, to 99.9% of our citizens, in which case really access to justice cannot be meaningful, unless citizens are able to access and understand in a language which they speak and comprehend, the judgments which we deliver whether in the high courts or in the Supreme Courts,” said the CJI.

Drunk passenger creates ruckus on Chennai-Mumbai flight, arrested

A drunk passenger on board an Indigo Airlines Chennai-Mumbai flight was arrested by the Sahar police in the early hours of Monday after the crew lodged a complaint against him for creating a ruckus during take-off.

According to the crew, the passenger, identified as Darshan Parekh, 35, was drunk and refused to follow safety instructions when the flight was about to take off from Chennai airport.

The passenger identified as Darshan Parekh (35) is a small-time businessman from Mumbai and was returning from Chennai when the incident took place.

Braves honoured ahead of Republic day 

901 Police personnel awarded Police Medals on the occasion of Republic Day 2023

140 awarded Police Medal for Gallantry(PMG), 93 awarded President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service(PPM) & 668 awarded Police Medal for Meritorious Service(PM)

BBC documentary row: Delhi Police starts probe into complaint of stone pelting at JNU campus

Delhi Police on Wednesday said it has begun an inquiry on the complaint lodged by students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) against the alleged stone pelting and “deliberate” power outage that took place while they were watching a controversial BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on their media devices on the varsity campus.

“No FIR has been filed yet. They (the students) have given a complaint and we are enquiring into it,” Delhi Police officials told ANI.

Cong Leader AK Antony’s son resigns from party over BBC documentary row

AK Antony’s son Anil Antony has resigned from Congress after he vociferously aired his views regarding condemning BBC for its documentary on Gujarat riots claiming, “Despite large differences with BJP, I think those in (India) placing views of BBC, a (Britain’s) state sponsored channel with a long history of (India) prejudices, and of Jack Straw, the brain behind the Iraq war, over (India) institutions is setting a dangerous precedence will undermine our sovereignty.’

Fire breaks out in Mumbai high-rise; 4 people hospitalised

A fire broke out in a 29-floor residential building in Mumbai on Wednesday, following which four people suffered from suffocation and were hospitalised, officials said. The blaze erupted at around 1.45 am in a common passage on the 24th floor of Shivshakti building in Lokhandwala complex in suburban Andheri and caused thick smoke, they said.

Ship sinks between S. Korea and Japan; 11 found unconscious

Ships searching in wind-whipped waters between South Korea and Japan have picked up at least 12 of the 22 crewmembers from a cargo ship that sank early Wednesday. Officials said only one of them remained conscious, but they did not immediately confirm any deaths.

South Korean and Japanese coast guard vessels and aircraft as well as two commercial cargo ships were continuing to search for the 10 missing crewmembers but the efforts were being slowed by strong winds and waves, South Korean officials said.

Gold holds tight range ahead of US economic data

Gold prices traded in a tight range on Wednesday as investors stayed away from taking big bets ahead of U.S. economic growth data this week, while expectations of slower interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve kept bullion’s outlook brightGold prices traded in a tight range on Wednesday as investors stayed away from taking big bets ahead of U.S. economic growth data this week, while expectations of slower interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve kept bullion’s outlook bright

Indian shares set to open lower on growth fears

Indian stocks were poised to open lower on Wednesday, on weak economic data from the U.S., which hinted at rising fears of recession, and weak growth outlook from companies.

India’s NSE stock futures listed on the Singapore exchange were down 0.19% at 18,099.50, as of 07:37 a.m. IST.

Ad spending on Twitter falls by over 70% in Dec – data

Advertising spend on Twitter Inc dropped by 71% in December, data from an advertising research firm showed, as top advertisers slashed their spending on the social-media platform after Elon Musk’s takeover.

SBM Bank says engaging with RBI to address “supervisory concerns”

SBM Bank (India) is engaging with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to address “supervisory concerns”, the lender said in an email to a customer reviewed by Reuters, days after the regulator barred it from some transactions.