With a total of 348 non-captive mining leases expiring in 2020, the Centre has directed states to begin auction by next year so that successful bidders have sufficient time to seek necessary clearances before commencing operations.

“A total of 348 non-captive mining leases will expire on March 31, 2020…it would be appropriate for states to start auction of the mines by July 1, 2019,” the mines ministry said in a letter addressed to states like Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Jharkhand and Karnataka.

The mines ministry under Narendra Singh Tomar stated that the aim is to give successful bidders time to obtain various clearances before commencing mining operations.

“To ensure that there is no fall in production in the mineral sector it is important that there is orderly transition of these expiring leases to new leases by way of auctioning,” the ministry said.

It is therefore of utmost importance that an action plan for auctioning these mining leases is prepared at the earliest, the ministry said, adding that states may send the plan to the Centre.

“The action plan would require finalisation of exploration proposals, exploration within the lease hold area by the lessee, identification of agency for exploration outside of lease area (if required), finalisation of geological reports and carrying out of auction of the mines,” the Centre said.

The Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI) had earlier expressed concerns over the expiry of the existing mining leases in March 2020, which it said may affect availability of raw materials for the Indian mining industry if leases are not renewed in time.

The dusky Bengali beauty of Bollywood is a year older today. Bipasha Basu, who has been known for her work in horror movies and sizzling item songs, has been a part of the industry for 15 years now. She started her career with a negative role in Ajnabee and won the best debut award for the same. Thereon, she has been a part of many hit movies.

Not just her movies but controversies that she has been involved in have also created a lot of buzz. Maybe unintentionally but Bips has always found herself in middle of some controversy. Here is a list of five such incidents which became the talk of the town.

Kareena Bipasha cat-fight

A photo of Kareena Kapoor Khan and Bipasha was released which caught everyone’s eyes, in which it seemed as if they were kissing each other. But it was a misleading picture; actually both the leading actresses had a huge tiff back then. Due to which Kareena even referred to Bips as ‘Kalli Billi.’

Ronaldo and Bipasha’s alleged love affair

The ace football player was caught on camera while getting cozy with the actress. Though none of them ever cleared the air over the rumors, pictures that got circulated told a different story.

Controversial magazine cover

Bipasha posed with another Bollywood actress Ameesha Patel, and it became the next big headline. The closeness between them on the leading magazine cover was the topic of discussion.

Yes to child labor

A Twitter post by Bipasha that had two little girls tying her shoelaces took rounds on the internet. It offended many people and human rights activists went to put allegations of child labor on her.

Playgaurd condom ad

The most recent one was the condom ad that featured Bipasha and her spouse Karan Singh Grover together. The ad somehow got viral and many people did not think that a married couple promoting a condom brand was appreciable.

The official trailer of Trivikram’s ‘Agnyathavassi’, starring Pawa Kalyan, Keerthy Suresh and Anu Emmanmuel in lead roles has been released.

The trailer was released on January 6, 2018 and is already trending on the 43th place on Youtube with over 723,916 views and counting.

The worldwide release for the movie is set for January 10, 2018.

Check out the mind blowing trailer below:

As many as 1,463 entities account for bad loans of Rs 100 crore or more in 21 public sector banks (PSBs), finance ministry data showed.

In State Bank of India (SBI) alone, 265 accounts had bad loans of more than Rs 100 crore each, totalling Rs 77,538 crore, at the end of the September quarter.

Among the nationalised banks, Punjab National Bank topped the chart with 143 non-performing asset (NPA) accounts carrying over Rs 100 crore each. They collectively owed the Delhi-headquartered bank Rs 45,973 crore.

PNB was followed by Canara Bank with maximum number of accounts with NPAs of more than Rs 100 crore.

Among smaller PSU lenders, Union Bank had 79 such accounts, Oriental Bank 68 and UCO Bank 62, the finance ministry data revealed.

Gross non-performing assets of state-owned banks stood at Rs 7.34 lakh crore by the end of second quarter this fiscal.

The RBI has issued directions to certain banks for referring 12 accounts, with fund and non-fund based outstanding amount greater than Rs 5,000 crore and with 60 per cent or more classified as non-performing as of March 31, 2016, to initiate insolvency process under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.

Rising NPAs have curtailed the lending capacity of state-owned banks as they have make extra provisions for bad loans.

In order to strengthen them, the government has come out with a Rs 2.12 lakh crore recapitalisation plan and has already taken nod of Parliament to pump in Rs 80,000 crore through recapitalisation bonds in the current fiscal ending March, 2018.

The Delhi High Court has directed the AAP government to inquire whether there was any medical negligence by the Aruna Asaf Ali Hospital, accused of denying admission to a pregnant woman having labour pain that resulted in her giving birth in an autorickshaw while returning home.

Justice Vibhu Bakhru issued the direction to the Delhi government and its Department of Health and Family Welfare on the 25-year-old woman’s plea for Rs 5 lakh compensation on account of alleged negligence by the hospital in providing treatment to her.

The court said if the facts, as stated by the woman, are correct, “there is a good ground to conduct an inquiry” to determine whether there was any medical negligence.

“Respondent no 3 (Department of Health) is directed to institute a proper inquiry to determine whether there has been any medical negligence on the part of the attending doctor(s).

“The inquiry shall be completed within a period of twelve weeks from today. Needless to mention that if the said findings are indicative of medical negligence, a complaint would also be made to the Delhi Medical Council,” the court said and disposed of the woman’s plea.

It also directed that the amount of Rs 7,000 spent by the woman on a midwife, to assist with her delivery, and medicines be reimbursed to her.

In her plea, Pinki claimed that she had gone to the hospital around 9.30 am on November 17 after “experiencing labour pain along with the rupture of membranes”.

However, the doctor on duty refused to admit her and only gave injections to reduce the pain, saying that the cervix was not yet dilated and therefore delivery was not due, the petition, filed through advocates Sija Nair Pal and Deepak Kumar Singh, said.

With no other option, she took an auto to return home and on the way, near ISBT Kashmiri Gate Bus Station, she delivered the baby, the petition said and added that after reaching home a midwife was called “to perform the rest of the delivery”.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday reached Madhya Pradesh to address a two-day top-level police conference at the Border Security Force (BSF) Academy at Tekanpur in Gwalior.

PM Modi was received by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan on Sunday.

Reached Madhya Pradesh. Will join the Annual Conference of DGPs and IGPs at the BSF Academy, Tekanpur. Top police officials from all over India will attend this two day conference in which key security issues will be discussed. pic.x.com/yH9pAEk6S9

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 7, 2018

An official release had stated that “Annual Conference of Director General of Police (DGPs) and Inspector General of Police (IGPs) of states” is an event where top police officers share and discuss security related issues.

PM Modi had addressed the conference earlier in Guwahati, Assam in 2014, Dhordo, Rann of Kutch, Gujarat in 2015 and National Police Academy, Hyderabad in 2016.

Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has arrived in Gwalior on Sunday to take part in the annual conference.

Shamlee, better known as Baby Shamili, is an Indian actress who has worked in Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada and Telugu films. She is probably best known for her critically acclaimed performance as the mentally challenged child Anjali in the 1990 film Anjali, that fetched her the National Film Award for Best Child Artist.

She had started acting from the age of two in the Tamil cinema and continued her work till the year 2009 in which she starred as a female lead actress in Anand Ranga’s film ‘Oye!’.

After that the Shamili went off the radar to pursue her studies in Singapore she rejected all offers that came to her for films.

None the less the actress has come back to the industry and will be trying her luck in Tollywood once again in the film directed by Sundar Surya, titled ‘Ammama Gari Illu’.

The actress will be seen opposite the male lead Naga Shaurya and has a completely different role to play in the film that is sure to stun the audience with awe.

The film ‘Ammamma Gari Illu’ is set to release in the month of March.

Cheteshwar Pujara was all praises for all-rounder Hardik Pandya after he scored 93 and bailed out India from a precarious situation in the first innings of first Test against South Africa at Newlands on Saturday. Pandya with his outstanding performance helped India in crossing the of 200 runs when half of visitors side were sent back to pavilion before even scoring 100 runs.

While talking about Pandya, Pujara said, “Everyone believed he (Pandya) can play such an innings and he played his shots and the environment in the dressing room became quite positive. Those runs were very important for the team and they kept us in the game.”

“If he hadn’t scored those runs, we would have been in trouble. So I think he kept us in the game and got us two wickets also at the end of day’s play. So his performance was outstanding,” he added.

In Pandya’s all round performance, Pujara specially liked the character that Hardik had shown.

“He batted really well and showed a lot of character. He hasn’t played many Test matches away from home but this is the kind of innings (he played) we expected it from him if he played in the playing XI.”

“I think if someone who is very promising, he is batting well, bowling well, it makes a lot of difference to the team because when you have a very good all-rounder, it balances your team combination. I hope he continues with this,” Pujara added.

“It was a case of him playing his natural game. He is someone who likes to play his shots. That’s how he would bat in any situation. This was the ideal situation for him to express himself and the moment he tries playing his shots he has been successful.”

“We have seen that against Sri Lanka as well. When he started playing his shots, he was a different player altogether. That’s how he should be playing and this is what makes him a different player from a top order batsman,” Pujara said.

While talking about the first Test match, Pujara said India played well and a target of 350 runs can be achieved on Newlands track.

“Overall, I think we played well today and we are very much in the game. We got two wickets today and if we bowl well tomorrow, and if we are chasing somewhere around 350, I think, we are very much in the game,” Pujara concluded.

Kit Harington, best known who plays Jon Snow in “Game of Thrones”, was caught on video getting thrown out of a bar here after a dispute around a pool table.

The actor, who was “drunk and uncontrollable”, was at Barfly bar on Friday. He bellied up to the pool table for a game. He was not in his right mind and started banging on the table, grabbing at pool cues and getting in peoples’ faces, reports tmz.com.

A witness said he was told to leave and did but came back and finally was dragged out of the bar.

A Delhi court has imposed a cost of Rs 10,000 on AAP leader Ashutosh for “trying to derail the proceedings” in a criminal defamation case filed against him by Arun Jaitley by seeking re-recording of the senior BJP leader’s statement in Hindi.

The court said that the AAP leader moved the application even though he did not have even a “slight discomfiture in English”.

Jaitley had filed the criminal defamation case in 2015 against Ashutosh, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other AAP leaders — Kumar Vishwas, Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha and Deepak Bajpai — for allegedly making false statements accusing financial irregularities in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) of which the BJP leader was the president from 2000 to 2013.

While dismissing Ashutosh’s plea, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat said that the AAP leader’s application was “an attempt to derail the proceedings of the case and waste precious time of the court”.

“The present application seems to be nothing but an attempt to derail the proceedings of the case and waste precious time of the court having moved with no serious or real purpose. First of all, neither the applicant (Ashutosh) nor his pleader (advocate) can be said to be having even a slight discomfiture in English language.

“The applicant is author of well known book in English titled as ‘Anna: 13 Days That Awakened India’ and he can be seen giving interviews in English fay in and day out on English News Channels and elsewhere,” the court said.

It noted that the present application itself was written in English.

The court also noted that the recording of evidence in Hindi was not possible due to infrastructural and technical bottlenecks since the computers being used supported only English software.

“The application has been filed to protract the proceedings and is dismissed with a cost of Rs 10,000,” it said, directing to deposit the amount with the ‘Army Welfare Fund Battle Causalities’.

The application was opposed by senior advocate Sidharth Luthra and advocate Manoj Taneja on behalf of Jaitley.

Jaitley had earlier charged all the accused persons with making a series of false, scandalous and defamatory allegations, with regard to alleged controversy, claiming that it had adversely affected his reputation.

The AAP leaders had accused Jaitley of financial irregularities in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) of which he was the president from 2000 to 2013, leading the minister to lodge defamation cases against them.

All the six accused were on March 25, last year put on trial in the case. The notice was framed against the accused under section 500 (punishment for defamation) of the IPC to which they had pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.

Jaitley had filed the complaint alleging that the accused had defamed him.

A civil defamation suit was also filed by Jaitley before the Delhi High Court in the matter seeking Rs 10 crore as damages

The country’s judge-population ratio has gone up marginally in the past three years against the backdrop of increased sanctioned strength, latest data of the law ministry says.

Based on the 2011 census and sanctioned strength of judges of the Supreme Court, the 24 high courts and numerous subordinate courts, the ratio stands at 19.66 judges per million (10 lakh) people.

The ratio was 17.48 judges per million in 2014, according to ministry figures put in public domain.

The Supreme Court with a sanctioned strength of 31 is functioning with 25 judges, figures put out by the department of justice in the ministry say.

The 24 high courts have a sanctioned strength of 1,079 judges, but with 395 vacancies they are functioning with 684 judges. The sanctioned strength was 906 in June, 2014. While the sanctioned strength has gone up, the working or actual strength has not gone up considerably.

But in cases of the lower courts, the sanctioned strength of judicial officers has gone up and the vacancies have gone down since 2014. In 2014, the sanctioned strength of the lower courts was 20,214 judicial officers/judges.

In 2017, it rose to 22,677. The working strength in 2017 was registered at 16,693, whereas, in 2014, it was was 15,634.

At the end of 2017, the subordinate courts had 5,984 vacancies.

The issue of judge-population ratio came to the fore in April, 2016 when then Chief Justice of India T S Thakur lamented the executive’s inaction in at least doubling the number of judges to handle the “avalanche” of litigations, prompting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to assure him of the government’s resolve in finding a solution jointly with the judiciary.

“… It is not only in the name of a litigant or people languishing in jails but also in the name of development of the country, its progress that I beseech you to rise to the occasion and realise that it is not enough to criticise. You cannot shift the entire burden on the judiciary,” the Chief Justice of India had said in a choking voice while addressing the inaugural session of a joint conference of chief ministers and chief justices of high courts.

Cab-hailing major Uber is re- launching its ‘AUTO’ service in India, almost two years after shutting down the offering in March 2016, starting with Bengaluru and Pune.

The US-based company, which is locked in an intense battle with homegrown player Ola, will allow customers to book autorickshaw rides through ‘AUTO’ option on its platform later this month in these two cities.

Ola, which also allows booking autorickshaw rides under ‘Auto’ service, had launched the offering in Bengaluru and Chennai in 2014. Ola Auto is currently operational across 73 cities with over 1.2 lakh autos associated with the company.

An Uber spokesperson said the company had “paused” the service “to see how that side of India’s transport ecosystem evolves”.

“Auto rickshaws are ubiquitous to mobility options in many Indian cities. To expand transportation choices for our riders, we are excited to launch AUTO in Bengaluru and Pune,” the spokesperson told PTI.

In its previous attempt, Uber’s AUTO offering was available in New Delhi, Coimbatore, Indore and Bhubaneshwar.

“We are re-launching AUTO starting with two cities.

Gradual geographical expansion like this is common to how we operate in cities around the world and it is something that we are looking at very closely,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added that AUTO will include all safety features available for Uber cab rides and riders will be able to pay via cash, Paytm and debit/credit cards.

Uber will only on-board licensed, existing auto-drivers who have been screened and accredited by the authorities and every driver partner on AUTO will be required to submit valid government documents before they are given access to the Uber app, the spokesperson said.

For Uber, India is one of its largest markets where it has seen strong growth.

Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, which is also an investor in Ola, has recently committed investing over USD 1 billion in the US-based ride-sharing platform.

Thirty-two crew members, including 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis, have gone missing after an oil tanker collided with a cargo ship off the coast of east China.

The Panama-registered oil tanker, carrying 136,000 tonnes of oil condensate, caught fire after it collided with a Hong Kong-registered bulk freighter at around 8 pm on Saturday, the transport ministry said.

The collision took place in waters about 160 sea miles east of the Yangtze River’s estuary.

The 32 missing crew members were all from the oil tanker.

All the 21 crew members of the bulk freighter have been rescued, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Chinese maritime authorities have dispatched eight vessels for search and rescue.

After the coordination of China Maritime Search and Rescue Centre, South Korea has dispatched a coast guard ship and a fixed-wing aircraft to assist in the rescue operation, the report said.

Hrithik Roshan-backed fashion brand HRX is eyeing Rs 500-crore turnover by 2020 from its apparels and footwear section, fuelled by expansion in product categories and offline presence this year.

Besides, the company, which is co-owned by Hrithik Roshan and Exceed Entertainment, is looking to foray into personal care, sunglasses and backpack categories.

HRX has an exclusive association with Myntra for its range of products and had a revenue of about Rs 100 crore last year.

“We are aiming at Rs 500 crore turnover in the next three years from the apparels and footwear section. We are in between plans to expand the product categories and offer more in the space of active wear,” Exceed Entertainment Managing Director and HRX co-founder Asfar Zaidi said.

The company which sells its products online is chalking out its calendar to expand in the offline space through multi brand outlets (MBOs) and exclusive brand outlets (EBOs).

“The process of identifying the right retail partners for MBOs and availability of the right locations EBOs has begun.

We are targeting the festive season of 2018,” Zaidi said.

The company recently launched HRX workout and MI HRX fitness band marking its entry into the physical fitness space and is exploring to enter into various new categories to augment its brand.

“As we progress, we are looking at personal care, sunglasses and HRX backpacks as categories to explore,” Zaidi said.

The company last year signed a Rs 100-crore deal with health and wellness startup Cure.fit, which included the actor’s stake in the company and HRX’s specialised workout plan introduced across Cult fitness centres operated by Cure.fit.

Zaidi said the company has received encouraging response to its Cult programmes and is looking to expand pan-India by setting up more than 500 Cult centers across 15 key markets.

About seven will be launched by the end of this year.

In order to ensure safety of students, the Delhi Commission For Protection Of Child Rights (DCPCR) has directed education department, all civic bodies and Delhi Cantonment Board to examine life and fire safety provisions in schools under their jurisdiction.

The Commission has asked all agencies concerned to submit a status report on the issue to it by January 15.

Apart from this, the DCPCR has recommended to the education directorate to rectify the loophole and issue explicit instructions regarding shifting of buildings of schools that National Building Code (2005) must be applied on all schools.

The move is aimed at ensuring all fire norms in place in all schools running in the national capital in view of the students’ safety.

“This commission directs the fire services department, directorate of education, East Delhi Municipal Corporation, South Delhi Municipal Corporation, North Delhi Municipal Corporation,

“New Delhi Municipal Council and Delhi Cantonment Board over students’ safety to ensure that all schools are rigorously examined with regard to life and fire safety provision and file a status report to this Commission on or before January 15, 2018,” the Commission in its recent order.

It also stated that the Commission may begin the exercise of reviewing these provisions for all schools in Delhi thereafter.

In another order, the DCPCR also said, “Further, as recommended in its previous directions, this Commission recommends to the directorate of education to rectify the loophole and issue explicit instructions regarding shifting of buildings of schools that National Building Code, 2005 must be applied on all schools even in cases where school that has been in existence prior to 2011 shifts to any other building whether new or old.”

The DCPCR has sought the compliance report from directorate of education in this regard on or before January 31.

Regulator TRAI will by the middle of this year recommend measures to make telecom and broadcasting services more accessible for the differently- abled, its Chairman R S Sharma has said.

Sharma said service providers and other stakeholders must respond to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) recent discussion paper on the issue with constructive suggestions to brainstorm solutions, aids and assistive devices that would make telecom and broadcasting services more “inclusive”.

“We should be able to come out with the recommendations on this consultation paper by May or June this year. By March, hopefully, we will have an open house discussion with stakeholders,” Sharma told PTI.

Sharma said finding solutions that would make information and communications technology (ICT) accessible for the differently-abled was of utmost importance given the fact that mobile phones and devices have become “ubiquitous and universal”.

“The percentage of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) in the total population has grown to 2.21 per cent in 2011, with 2.68 crore PwDs in the country,” the TRAI chief said.

Last month, the regulator, through a new consultation paper began a dialogue on making ICT accessible for the differently-abled, saying more policy interventions were needed in this area where benefits of technology have not been fully realised.

It has sought industry views on whether handset makers should be mandated to manufacture at least one model for such individuals with assistive technology features such as hearing, visual aids and emergency buttons. TRAI had also asked if information on billing and pricing needs to be provided in a more accessible form for them.

The consultation paper has also sought the industry’s comments on disabilities that need to be included in the enabling framework, reasons for benefits not reaching PwDs and corrective measures that need to be undertaken.

Sharma said sometimes the argument is given that making solutions more accessible for the differently-abled will increase costs. He, however, emphasised that these would not be universal solutions applicable to all, but rather tailor- made for such individuals.

Ultimately, the “benefits of inclusion” will outweigh the cost that will be infused to make systems inclusive, Sharma argued.

TRAI’s consultation paper had expressed concern that differently-abled individuals were “often not able to access these ICT services on account of lack of necessary accessibility features or unaffordable prices of the equipment or due to unavailability of required services”.

TRAI is of the view that the additional policy interventions need to be “explored and implemented to address the unique challenges” faced by them.

In this regard, the consultation paper aims to identify key areas that require policy intervention and understand barriers being faced by such individuals in accessing telecom and broadcasting services. This will help in working out affirmative actions at the policy level, says the consultation paper.