Mining mogul Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Ltd has asked the government to resolve retrospective tax issues to give comfort to foreign investors to invest in the almost stagnant domestic oil and gas exploration sector.

Vedanta, which in 2011 bought Cairn India to enter oil business, is facing a Rs 20,495 crore tax demand that was raised using a legislation that gave the tax department powers to raise tax demand retrospectively.

In a tabloid-sized flier titled ‘Exploration of Oil & Gas and Mining of Metals and Minerals – Nation’s Key to Prosperity’, it asked the government to “resolve retrospective tax issues to give comfort to foreign investors.”

Cairn India had in 2015 received an order from the Income Tax department for its alleged failure to deduct withholding tax on capital gains arising during 2006-07 in the hands of its erstwhile parent, Cairn Energy Plc.

The demand of Rs 20,495 crore comprises Rs 10,248 crore tax and interest of Rs 10,247 crore. The company has challenged the demand in an arbitration.

“India has over 75 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in-place resources, enough for our country’s requirement. We consume about 2 billion boe of oil and gas every year,” said the flier, which carried the signature “with compliments from Anil Agarwal”.

Stating that India’s demand for oil and gas will double in the next few years, it said the government should “focus on production over revenue and simplify policies, with highest governance and transparency.”

“This will make India the most attractive investment destination,” it said.

Also, it wanted cess on domestically produced crude oil to be cut. “Domestic crude oil attracts high cess rate of 20 per cent. Ironically, imported crude oil is not taxed. Reduce the cess rate to 8 per cent.”

Seeking simplification of processes, the company wanted self-certification model to avoid multiple approvals and pitched for exploration permits being granted on the same day.

“All contracts must be extended on timely basis and on same terms. This will enhance investors’ confidence,” it said.

Vedanta’s Rajasthan oilfield contract is expiring in 2020 but the government has conditioned extension of the licence to produce oil and gas from the fields on the company giving a higher revenue share to the government.

The company also wanted higher oil price for the Rajasthan crude. “Domestic crude is being sold at a 15 per cent discount,” it said, adding domestic refineries must pay a rate they would normally pay if the crude oil were to be imported.

“No investments will come if producers are to sell at a discount, to global price,” it said. “Global fair price for crude will benefit all stakeholders.”

Gurugram, Noida and Ghaziabad have emerged as the most fitness conscious cities in the country, with people burning up to 340 calories per day and working out at least 10 days a month, says a report.

On the other hand, Kolkata, Lucknow and Ahmedabad are the laziest cities, with those living there burning much lesser calories and working out less than four days a month on an average, according to the report by mobile health and fitness platform Healthifyme.

The study said more than 45 per cent people in Gurugram, Noida and Ghaziabad run daily, clocking over 4,700 steps each day, compared to sub-4,300 average for the rest of the cities.

“The data has been sourced from our 3.6 million users spread across over 220 cities in India and their 150 million food logs and 50 million workout logs,” Healthifyme Founder and CEO Tushar Vasisht said.

While the women in Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Lucknow are almost as active as the rest of the country, it is the men who pull these cities down, burning 35 per cent lesser calories than the national average, the report said.

In terms of gender divide, Indian men are more active than women, the report stated, adding that men are more persistent, working out for an average of 14 days a month while women work out for 11 days.

With regard to the pattern of exercise, while men prefer more intense workouts that burn more calories such as push-ups and bicycling, women opt for more passive workouts such as yoga and more specifically surya namaskar.

“Each year I continue to be amazed at the surge in passion for health and fitness when the new year dawns,” Vasisht said.

People from metro cities like Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai, among others, are a lot more active than the rest of the country, the report said.

It added that people in non-metros perform low intensity workouts such as walking while the metro citizens prefer intense workouts such as running, swimming and push-ups.

Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar knows much about the fast and bouncy pitches of South Africa and Australia, as he himself has faced some the world’s best bowlers on overseas tours. The Master Blaster has offered some tips to the Indian players to face South African in their backyard for the second and third Test matches.

“Batsmen should concentrate in the first 25 overs and look to accelerate after 50; bowlers should bowl in the right areas, and more importantly, remain positive as a team,” Sachin Tendulkar said.

Sachin also said that the Proteas team would be high on confidence with their win over visitors in the opening Test match.

“While I don’t think the team is mentally down after the Cape Town defeat, South Africa will have their tails up. This is going to be a huge test for the team management. What India do outside the field will be as important as on it,” he told Hindustan Times.

The government is planning to raise 15 new battalions in the country’s two important border guarding forces — the BSF and the ITBP — to fortify defence along the strategic frontiers with Pakistan, Bangladesh and China.

A senior official in the Union Home Ministry told PTI that it is “actively considering” raising six fresh battalions in the Border Security Force (BSF) and nine in the Indo- Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) force.

Each battalion of these forces comprises about 1,000 operational jawans and officers.

Sources in the BSF said the force has projected enhancing manpower by sanctioning of new units so that they can be deployed in the Assam and West Bengal flanks of the Indo- Bangladesh border even as a similar addition in numbers is required to effectively guard the Indo-Pak International Border (IB), especially in Punjab and Jammu regions, in the near future.

“The exact locations for the new battalions could be gauged as and when they are raised but a few areas along Bangladesh and Pakistan will remain a priority owing to their vulnerability profile such as infiltration, drugs smuggling, human trafficking and illegal migration,” a senior BSF officer said.

Similarly, the ITBP has been trying to reduce the inter- BoP (border outpost) distance at the 3,488-km long icy frontier that it is tasked with guarding.

“The original projection was to have 12 fresh battalions for the ITBP but the force requires nine such units in the near future,” a senior ITBP officer said.

The frequent instances of transgressions and confrontations with the Chinese army at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) are being seen as the major reason for the ITBP to enhance its numbers.

The mountain-trained force has recently got sanctions to set up at least 47 new BoPs along the border for effective control of the Himalayan border area.

The home ministry official said the new battalions would also help the two border guarding forces better rotate troops from forwarding locations to units in the mainland.

While most of the BoPs of the ITBP are in highly arduous terrain and it is difficult and time-taking to reach them, many of the BSF locations at the two borders are also in high-altitude and harsh climate regions.

While the BSF is the country’s largest border guarding force with a strength of about 2.5 lakh, the ITBP is about 90,000-personnel strong.

The home ministry has three such forces under its command, the third being the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) that is tasked with guarding Indian borders with Nepal and Bhutan.

Saif Ali Khan starrer Kaalakaandi collected Rs 2.45 crore on the first two days of its release.

According to film critic and trade analyst Taran Adarsh, Kaalakaandi collected Rs 1.25 crore on Friday, while on Saturday, it could garner only Rs 1.20 crore, summing up the total collection to Rs 2.45 crore on two days.

He tweeted, “#Kaalakaandi Fri 1.25 cr, Sat 1.20 cr. Total: ₹ 2.45 cr. India biz.

#Kaalakaandi Fri 1.25 cr, Sat 1.20 cr. Total: ₹ 2.45 cr. India biz.

— taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) January 14, 2018

Though the movie is expected to witness an escalation of earnings on Sunday but trade analysts are skeptic about it.

It is quite possible for Kaalakaandi to bounce back in the coming days because it has been rated an average watch by most critics.

Though the critics have praised its lead actor Saif Ali Khan for his acting, the movie is losing is said to be average in its script and direction.

According to early forecast, it was being projected that the movie could make anything between Rs 3-4 crore due to star charisma and exciting trailer.

However, the film failed to match the prediction and started off sluggishly.

The film is based on a man (Saif Ali Khan) who deals with a distressing situation when one day he is diagnosed with stomach cancer. The situations he faced are all what the film is about. The film also features Deepak Dobriyal, Kunal Roy Kapur, Sobhita Dhulipala.

If the movie fails to earn the expected returns, then it will be marked as the third back-to-back flop in Saif’s after Rangoon and Chef.

It seems like this Akshat Verma directorial is doing no good for the actor as the audience were expecting much more from him after he had worked as the scriptwriter for the movie Delhi Belly.

Slow and steady wins the race is Diana Penty’s mantra in life and the actor says she prefers waiting for “quality” work rather than picking anything and everything that comes her way.

The 32-year-old actor, who made her Bollywood debut in 2012 with Cocktail, said she never gives her nod to a project if she is unsure about the part offered.

“I don’t want to be in films just to look good. I want to contribute as an actor towards quality cinema.

“I do wait for the correct offer to come my way. It takes a long time but till the time I am not 100 per cent sure about doing it, I don’t do it. One has to be patient in waiting for good offers,” Diana said.

The actor said she feels blessed that she is getting opportunities to play different characters.

“Personally, you have these little goals for yourself as an actor to keep on reinventing yourself with every film and it feels good when people notice it,” she added.

Diana will next be seen in Parmanu – The Story Of Pokhran and Happy Bhaag Jayegi sequel.

In Parmanu – The Story Of Pokhran, the actor plays the role of an Army officer. The film also stars John Abraham.

Meanwhile, Diana recently unveiled Gigi Hadid x Maybelline limited edition signature collection here.

The actor said Hadid is an inspiration and an icon for the current generation.

The Tamil movie Pathungi Paayanyum Thala has finally released its trailer for the public. The movie has been released through the official account of the actor, singer and songwriter Premgi, who is also known for his comic roles in the films such as Venkat Prabhu films Chennai 600028, Saroja, Goa and Mankatha.

Happy to launch the commercial teaser of #PathungiPayanumThala starring @michael_chennai. Wishes for the team 👍👍👍 https://t.co/BTbtG9ZXXy

— PREMGI (@Premgiamaren) January 13, 2018

Pathungi Paayanyum Thala is directed by SP Moses Muthupandi and stars many fantastic Tamil comic artists, including Micheal, MS Bhaskar, Singam Puli, Rahul Thatha, Singapore Seepan and many more.

Pathungi Paayanyum Thala is based on the comedy genre and has received many praises once its trailer released on different platforms and social media sites. The producers of the film are also happy by the entertainment the film provides in such a short amount of time and are waiting for the film to hit the screens soon.

Trade Unions want the government to allocate more funds in the Union Budget for employment generation and claimed that opening up the retail market to foreign players would lead to further loss of jobs.

Though Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said suggestions made by TU leaders during a pre-budget consultation meet last month would be considered, the leaders felt the government’s economic exercise was only meant to benefit corporate house.

The leaders of two major central unions claimed thousands of people had lost their jobs because the government’s demonetisation decision had adversely affected small and medium industries, forcing them to either shut down or sack workers.

“We want the government to spend the maximum in job creation. We think after such a big loss of jobs in India because of demonetisation, the government should bring back jobs lost and generate more jobs,” All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) general secretary Amarjit Kaur told PTI.

AITUC and the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) also attacked the government’s recent decision to open up the retail market to foreign players.

“This will only uproot the existing jobs available in the sector,” CITU general secretary Tapan Sen told PTI.

The TU leaders said though the government always claimed foreign investment would lead to the creation of jobs, there was no guarantee it would. Foreign investors would like to keep labour costs to a minimum, they held.

“So we think the attempt of the government even before the budget is to further attack those sectors which generate jobs. The decision for 100 per cent FDI in retail will again affect the job market,” Kaur said.

The decision would not only affect retail traders but also workers who produced material for trade, she said.

The TUs alleged that while the issue of job loss had been brought to the notice of the government several times, it had no solutions to offer.

Sen also criticised the government’s approach towards employment generation.

“The government must consider its capacity to generate productive employment. But its approach is to create more entrepreneurs. The government forgets that the workers’ numbers are much higher than those of entrepreneurs,” Sen said.

They also claimed the government’s skill development projects were not job oriented.

“You need trained people for jobs. We want the government to start vocational trainings in schools. That is where the government should invest,” Kaur said.

The TU leaders attacked the government for doing away with wealth tax and said the government should bring the policy back so that the money generated could be utilised for the social sector and job creation.

They also suggested that the government reduce indirect taxes and collect unpaid taxes from corporate houses for use in the social sector.

Minister Jaitley, who met a group of trade unions including CITU and AITUC for pre-Budget consultations on December 5, had said the Central government was committed to safeguarding the interests of workers.

The Union Budget will be presented on February 1.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday made it clear that the southern state was “not in a position” to release Cauvery water to neighbouring Tamil Nadu, even as he hoped for a “favourable order” on the long-pending dispute next month.

His remarks come in the wake of a letter written to him by his Tamil Nadu counterpart Edappadi K Palaniswamy demanding the immediate release of 7 tmc feet of water to the state as per the final order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal.

“We do not have water. How can we supply to them? It is not possible to release water to Tamil Nadu,” the Karnataka chief minister said in response to the letter.

“We expect a favourable order,” he said on the hearing of the Cauvery water dispute next month.

Siddaramaiah was in the national capital to attend a meeting called by Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

Last week, the Supreme Court had indicated that it would deliver within a month its verdict on the decades-old water dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, saying enough confusion had been created on it for over two decades.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud had said that any forum could touch the matter relating to the Cauvery basin only after it gave the verdict in four weeks.

On the Mahadayi river dispute, Siddharmaiah said a meeting would be called to resolve the matter at the earliest. The affected states will also be invited, he said.

The dispute over the sharing of water of the Mahadayi or Mandovi river between the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa is over 30 years old.

The rising Delhi wicketkeeper-batsman, Rishabh Pant, wrote history by scoring an unbeaten 116 runs off 38 deliveries against Himachal in a North Zone T20 League (Syed Mustaq Ali Trophy) match on Sunday. With the help of Pant’s knock, Delhi defeated Himachal by 10 wickets.

Recently Rishabh was sacked from Delhi’s captaincy after leading his team to the finals of Ranji Trophy.

While following the target of 144 runs, Pant reached hundred facing just 32 balls and by doing so he became the second fastest in the history of T20 to score the quickest century.

The record of the fastest century is still held by West Indies’s explosive batsman Chris Gayle. In 2013, during a match of Indian Premier League between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Pune Warriors, Gayle had scored 100 runs just in 30 deliveries.

Meanwhile, during his explosive innings, Rishabh hit eight fours and 12 sixes.

From Himachal side, opener Prashant Chopra scored 30 off 33 and Nikhil Gangta scored 40 runs.

Delhi captain Pradeep Sangawan claimed two wickets and Navdeep Saini, Pawan Negi, Kulwant Khejroliya, Subodh Bhati and Lalit Yadav got one wicket each.

Salman Khan-starrer Tiger Zinda Hai continues to rule at the box office even in its 4th week, as even after three releases on Friday, Tiger Zinda Hai stayed strong at the box office.

The spy-thriller, which also stars his former real-life ladylove Katrina Kaif, has now entered the super-league consisting of top six highest grossing films in the history of Bollywood.

The film is all set to cross lifetime business of Bajrangi Bhaijaan, which made Rs. 320.34 crore. On Friday, the film made 3.72 crore, Saturday 5.62 crore, Sunday 8.27 crore, Monday 2.72 crore, Tuesday 2.56 crore, Wednesday 2.30 crore, Thursday 2.12 crore and a total of Rs 318.86 crore.”

‪#Updated TOP 6: HIGHEST GROSSING FILMS‬ ‪1 #Baahubali2 [dubbed Hindi version]‬ ‪2 #Dangal‬ ‪3 #PK‬ ‪4 #TigerZindaHai‬ ‪5 #BajrangiBhaijaan‬ ‪6 #Sultan‬ ‪Note: ₹ 300 cr and above grossers have been included in this list.‬ ‪NettBOC… India biz.‬

A post shared by Taran Adarsh (@taranadarsh) on Jan 13, 2018 at 7:06am PST

Even 22 days after its release, the movie directed by Ali Abbas Zafar continues to set the box office ringing. Meanwhile, Salman Khan is the only actor to have three 300-crore films and continues to dominate the list of highest grosser.

#TigerZindaHai reaches *lifetime biz* of #BajrangiBhaijaan [₹ 320.34 cr]… Will be Salman’s HIGHEST GROSSER today [Sat]… [Week 4] Fri 1.46 cr. Total: ₹ 320.32 cr. India biz. BLOCKBUSTER. #TZH

A post shared by Taran Adarsh (@taranadarsh) on Jan 13, 2018 at 12:19am PST

This spy-thriller will continue to enjoy a good run at the box office since there are no big films releasing till January 25, 2018.

Let’s see if the film breaks the records of other highest grossing films in the coming weeks.

Three Bangladeshi inmates have allegedly fled the Alipore Central Correctional Home, where they were imprisoned for the past three years for various offences, a senior jail official said on Sunday.

The matter surfaced this morning during the counting of the inmates, following which two jail wardens were suspended for “dereliction of duty”, a senior officer of West Bengal Correctional Services told PTI today.

“Farooq Howaldar, Iman Chaudhuri and Firdos Shiekh were found missing from the Alipore Central Correctional Home this morning when the regular counting was completed,” the officer said.

The jail authorities brought sniffer dogs to the correctional home to investigate the manner in which the trio managed to “escape”.

“Going by our initial probe, it seems, they have used bed sheets as ropes to climb up the huge boundary walls of the jail to flee,” he said.

Howaldar was jailed because of his involvement in a dacoity case, Chaudhuri for a kidnapping case and Sheikh for illegally infiltrating into India, another source in the prison said.

“We are looking into the matter. The photographs of the three prisoners have been sent to all police stations in and the around the city. Police deployed at the borders of the state have been alerted. Hopefully they will be nabbed soon,” the senior officer added.

Australian tennis player Bernard Tomic will miss his home Grand Slam for the first time in a decade after failing to qualify on Sunday.

Tomic, 25, went down in his final qualifying match on Sunday, losing 1-6, 7-6, 4-6 to Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego, reports Xinhua news agency.

It will be the first time the controversial tennis player has missed the Australian Open since 2008, when he was just 15 years old, and the first Grand Slam he will miss in seven years.

He had to go through qualifying for the tournament after his ranking of 142 was not good enough to warrant automatic qualification and Tennis Australia declined to hand him a wildcard spot.

Tomic, who reached a career-high ranking of 17 after making the fourth round of the Australian Open, will now fall outside the top 150 in the world as he faces questions over his future in the sport.

Asked on Sunday whether the loss brought his career to a crossroads, Tomic responded sarcastically. “I just count money, that’s all I do. I count my millions,” he said. “You go do what I did. Bye bye.”

The failure to qualify is the latest in a string of controversies which have followed Tomic since he entered the national spotlight, including allegations of tanking matches and multiple incidents involving Australian police.

He told Australian media in July that he has never loved tennis and simply treated it as a job.

Tomic has slipped to Australia’s fifth-ranked male player behind Nick Kyrgios, to whom he has often been compared, Matthew Ebden, Jordan Thompson and John Millman with 18-year-old Alex de Minaur only a few places behind.

After leading from the front in the Gujarat Assembly polls that saw his party improving its show, Congress president Rahul Gandhi is now focusing on Uttar Pradesh to galvanise party cadres in the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

First time after donning the mantle of the party chief, Gandhi is all set to pay a two-day visit to his Lok Sabha constituency Amethi from Monday.

Though party workers are excited by his anointment and have planned a grand reception in Amethi, they are aware that the path for their young leader will not be easy in Uttar Pradesh where its electoral foray in the assembly polls had been anything but encouraging.

The 47-year-old Congress leader is likely to hold road shows at nearly seven places in Amethi.

He will reach Salon via Rae Bareli at around 12.30 pm and address the public at Salon Nagar Panchayat. From Salon, he will proceed to Amethi, and then go to Munshiganj guest house, according to senior UP Congress leader Akhilesh Singh.

On January 16, at around 10.30 am, Rahul is likely to interact with the public at Musafirkhana, and then proceed to Jais, Jagdishpur and Mohanganj.

“People of Amethi are quite excited about the visit of Rahul Gandhi. This is the first Amethi visit of Rahul Gandhi after he became the Congress president. People are looking forward to welcome him,” Singh said.

Congress spokesman Amar Nath told PTI that the new party president knows the state well.

“He has a personal rapport with party leaders and workers in Uttar Pradesh… we are ready to work hard with him in the field,” he said.

“The Congress will definitely work out ways and means to galvanise the party in Uttar Pradesh in order to make a big impact in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls,” he added.

The Uttar Pradesh Assembly has 403 seats.

In the last assembly elections, the Congress managed to win just seven seats, its lowest ever in the state.

But what came as a bigger shock was its dismal show in Amethi and Rae Bareli, which had long been nurtured by the Gandhi family.

The Modi wave stormed into Amethi and Rae Bareli, and Congress was routed in eight of the 10 Assembly seats there.

The BJP won six seats in Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi’s parliamentary constituencies with two seats going to the Samajwadi Party.

In a major embarrassment to the senior leadership of the party, the Congress could manage victory in only two of the 10 prestigious seats.

The party lost all five seats in Amethi, and barely saved face by winning in just two of the five seats in Sonia Gandhi’s Rae Bareli constituency.

India bowled out South Africa for 335 in their first innings before reaching 4/0 till lunch on the second day of the second cricket Test at the SuperSport Park here on Sunday.

Captain Faf du Plessis (63) registered his 17th fifty in Test cricket as South Africa added 66 runs to their overnight score of 269/6.

Du Plessis, who was unbeaten on 24 on Saturday, drove the hosts forward in the morning even though he didn’t get convincing support from the other end. His juducious shot selection helped him negotiate the Indian bowlers.

Seamer Mohammed Shami removed overnight batsman Keshav Maharaj (18) early. He edged to wicket-keeper Parthiv Patel.

Kagiso Rabada (11) hooked a rising delivery from Ishant Sharma for a catch to Hardik Pandya who had to run forward from deep square leg. But South Africa had already reached 324/8 by this time thanks to du Plessis.

Du Plessis, later, missed the line of an Ishant delivery as the ball crashed his stumps to fall the ninth wicket of the hosts.

Morne Morkel swivelled one full-toss from off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin to the hands of Murali Vijay at deep cover to bring an end to the first innings of South Africa.

Only one over of India’s first innings was possible before the umpires called for the end of the first session.

Vijay (4 batting) and Lokesh Rahul (0 batting) were unbeaten for India.

Brief scores: South Africa first innings: 335 all out (Aiden Markram 94, Hashim Amla 82, Faf du Plessis 63; Ravichandran Ashwin 4/113, Ishant Sharma 3/46) vs India: 4/0 in first innings till lunch on Day 2.