Amid lower opening of European markets, domestic benchmark indices gave up initial gains and closed last trading session of the week with declines. The BSE Sensex closed 57 points or 0.19 per cent up at 29,365 , on Friday, while the NSE Nifty ended 17 points or 0.19 per cent higher at 9,119.

However, broader markets continued their upward trend and ended in the positive zone. BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap indices rose 0.1 per cent and 0.3 per cent respectively.

Among BSE sectoral indices, Realty index registered the biggest gain with a jump of 2.4 per cent. Telecom (up 0.8 per cent), Power (up 0.3 per cent) and Capital Goods (up 0.2 per cent) were other notable gainers. FMCG index dropped 1 per cent.

On Thursday, the BSE Sensex closed 86 points or 0.29 per cent up at 29,422 while the NSE Nifty ended 33 points or 0.36 per cent higher at 9,136.

Top gainers in the Sensex-30 pack: HDFC Bank (up 2.4 per cent), Reliance Industries (up 2.2 per cent), NTPC (up 1.8 per cent), Asian Paints (up 0.4 per cent) and L&T (up 0.2 per cent).

Top losers in the Sensex-30 pack: Sun Pharma (down 2.4 per cent), Cipla (down 1.8 per cent), ITC (down 1.8 per cent), Adani Ports (down 1.7 per cent) and Power Grid (down 1.4 per cent).

The Rupee was trading four paise down at 64.60 against the US Dollar.

Actor-filmmaker Clint Eastwood has been roped in to direct a drama film based on the book The 15:17 To Paris: The True Story Of A Terrorist, A Train, And Three American Heroes, co-written by Alek Skarlatos, Anthony Sadler, Jeffrey E Stern and Spencer Stone.

The book is based on the real story of Sadler, Skarlatos and Stone — three Americans who found themselves on a train from Brussels to Paris, where they thwarted an attempted terrorist attack by overpowering the man armed with an AK-47, reports deadline.com.

The incident took place in August 2015.

The story was covered in news, where the three friends, one of which was in the Oregon National Guard and the other in the US Air Force, were lauded for their bravery. 

Further details about the film are yet to be revealed.

The water level of 91 major reservoirs in the country has gone down by two per cent, the Ministry of Water Resources said on Friday.

"The water storage available in 91 major reservoirs of the country for the week ending on April 20, 2017 was 46.02 billion cubic metres (BCM) which is 29 per cent of total storage capacity of these reservoirs. This percentage was at 31 for the week ending on April 13, 2017," the ministry said in an official statement.

It further said that the level of April 20, 2017 was 133 per cent of the storage of corresponding period of 2015-2016 and 106 per cent of storage of average of last ten years. 

The total storage capacity of these 91 reservoirs is 157.799 BCM which is about 62 per cent of the total storage capacity of 253.388 BCM which is estimated to have been created in the country. 

Thirty-seven reservoirs out of these 91 have hydropower benefit with installed capacity of more than 60 megawatt.

Storage in the northern region during current year is better than the states having better storage than last year are Punjab, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana.

States having lesser storage than last year are Himachal Pradesh, Tripura, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu.
 

India and South Korea signed an agreement on Friday to firm up bilateral cooperation in defence shipbuilding.

Under the MoU, conceived under the umbrella of the special strategic partnership, the two sides will nominate one shipyard each for this purpose.

India has already picked Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) while Korea will make the nomination soon, Secretary (Defence Production) Ashok Kumar Gupta said.

Gupta and Korea's Minister of Defence Acquisition and Programme Administration Chang Myong Jin signed the agreement here.

"It will enable HSL to upgrade and modernise its facilities so as to enable it to execute naval projects in a timely manner," Gupta said, adding the whole initiative was part of the Centre's 'Make in India' initiative.

Jin said the agreement will form the basis of defence cooperation between the two countries in shipbuilding.

Gupta also said that the agreement will be useful for the development of vendors for supply of material.

"That will generate huge employment and will also increase the turnover of HSL," he said.

Arguments on an appeal filed by the Rajasthan government in a sessions court in Jodhpur challenging the acquittal of actor Salman Khan by a trial court in a case against him under the Arms Act will begin on July 6.

In response to a notice issued by sessions judge Bhagwan Das Agarwal on March 7, counsels of Khan appeared in the court on Friday and submitted 'vakalatnama' (authorisation letter).

After accepting the documents, Agarwal listed the matter for arguments on July 6.

Khan had been acquitted by the trial court in a case against him for alleged possession and use of arms after expiry of its licence.

The state government had filed the appeal in the sessions court challenging the acquittal on March 7, following which the sessions court had issued notice to Khan.

Reality TV star Kim Kardashian has received backlash online after transforming into Virgin Mary for the newest Kimoji.

For the Kimoji, Kim has transformed into The Virgin Mary and each of the animated image becomes blurred when it's played, indicating that this Kimoji was made to "celebrate" 420 a.k.a. Weed Day.

The caption of one of the images read, "420 DROP NOW AVAILABLE." Another image was captioned with "WHEN KIM BLESSES YOU WITH THAT 420 DROP." 

Fans immediately left harsh comments on Kimoji's Instagram, saying that this act is beyond disrespectful and offensive, reported Ace Showbiz.

One commenter said, "This is beyond disrespectful!! What does this even have to do with 4/20 ? Just some pathetic idea but mostly… Disrespectful to God." 

Another pointed out that Virgin Mary is a sacred figure.

"This is shameful. Remove this image our blessed Mother Mary is irreplaceabley sacred. We will not stand for this mockery," the commenter said.

Many people have demanded Kim to take down the images.

Not only used as emojis, but the Virgin Mary Kimoji is sold as a candle.

This candle is sold for USD 18 on Kimoji's official website, causing people to label Kim "disgusting." 

One comment read, "You are disgusting! You should be ashamed of yourself!" while the others told her to "have some respect.

Actor-filmmaker Farhan Akhtar stressed the importance of water conversation, saying humankind won't be able to survive without it. 

He tweeted: "I've got 140 characters to explain why saving water is important… can do it in just 22 though: "No one survives without it". Wake up.

The actor was last seen in Rock On. 

A top Thai official said on Friday that street food, an important part of daily life in Bangkok, will not be banned in the city.

"I can assure you that there is no ban on street food vendors, street food is part of us and part of life," Tourism and Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul said at a press conference.

Earlier, reports said Thai authorities had already removed street vendors from 431 locations around Bangkok to facilitate traffic flow and improve the city's cleanliness while street food vendors on the famous Yaowarat Road or Chinatown and Khao San will have to improve their standards, Xinhua news agency reported.

Thai media said that the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) was going to ban street food vendors in all 50 districts of Bangkok this year to maintain the capital city's cleanliness and safety.

"The BMA just removed some street vendors in some certain areas, which is their consistent policy," said Kobkarn, adding that it is necessary for some street food vendors to improve their hygiene standards.

Some of them pour dirty water onto the street, some do not wear gloves, so the city is asking them to adjust, she said.

During the press conference about the Michelin Guide Bangkok on Friday, both Michelin and the Tourism Authority of Thailand said street food is one of Bangkok's attractions.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand also confirmed to reporters that Bangkok remains a top destination for street food.

BM said it will be providing support and advice to the city's street food vendors to help them raise hygiene standards, improve food safety and adhere to proper waste management procedures.

Bangkok's street food, cheap compared to restaurants, is famous among both locals and tourists. 

US President Donald Trump is planning to order a review of key financial rules on Friday, according to a White House official.

Trump will sign two presidential memos in this regard, Politico news reported. 

One will direct Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to examine the government's so-called orderly liquidation authority to wind down failing megabanks outside of bankruptcy court, the official said on Thursday.

The second memo will examine the risks of placing "systemically important" non-bank financial firms under the oversight of the Federal Reserve, which subjects them to stricter regulation.

According to the official, both memos appear to be more specific extensions of the financial regulatory review that Trump on February 3 ordered Treasury to conduct, to determine how rules governing banks, insurers and other financial firms can be improved.

The President will also sign an executive order directing Mnuchin to examine if any significant tax rules impose an undue burden on US taxpayers, add unnecessary complexity or exceed statutory authority.

Actress-entrepreneur Shilpa Shetty says she suffered from a severe cervical disc injury 15 years ago, and her will power helped her overcome it. 

The actress feels will power is like a muscle "the more you use it the stronger it gets". 

She tweeted: "Will power is like a muscle the more you use it the stronger it gets. Suffered a severe cervical disc injury 15 years ago… Made up my mind to do a headstand…today I did it…Please don't try this exercise all of a sudden… it's taken me a lot of core/postural strengthening to reach here"

On the work front, Shilpa was last seen in the movie Dhishkyaoon in an item number "Tu mere type ka nahi hai". She is seen judging reality shows like Nach Baliye and Super Dancer on the small screen.
 

With more and more trains running late in the country, a slew of measures is being taken to curb delays.

The Railways' punctuality rate in the April 1-16 period was 5 per cent lower than that in the corresponding period last year, down from 84 per cent to 79 per cent.

"The Railways accord a very high priority to the punctual running of trains. Improving train operations is a continuous endeavour and several initiatives are being undertaken to improve timings," Railway Board Member Mohammed Jamshed said.

Capacity constraints and adverse weather conditions are some of the reasons for the delays. About 15,000 trains were affected because of fog from November last year to February, 2017.

"The entire northern belt was under the grip of an intense fog during this period throwing train operations off gear in 10 zonal railways," Jamshed said.

Though most trains continued to run despite the fog, about 3700 trains were cancelled in 2016-17.

The new measures include capacity enhancement projects, including construction of additional loop lines at stations (so that more trains have parking space) and doubling or trebling of track lines.

Steps are being taken to remove bottlenecks, with the help of automatic signalling, construction of low height subways replacing level crossings, rail underbridges and overbridges.

A performance analysis of zonal railways reveals that punctuality registered a sharp drop in the North Eastern Railways (down by 11 per cent, when compared to the corresponding period last year), South East Central Railway (- 11 per cent), East Central Railway (-10 per cent), Eastern Railway (-8.9 per cent), West Central Railway (-8 per cent) and Konkan Railway (-6.9 per cent).

Another reason for the delays is congestion, for while traffic has increased considerably over the years, track lines haven't. As compared to 1950-51, the running track kilometres had increased only about 1.5 times, whereas the freight and passenger traffic had grown almost 15 times since then.

The situation has been exacerbated by an imbalanced distribution of trains over networks and the fact that freight and coaching trains run on the same track.

Jamshed said speed restrictions and cautions imposed because of construction activities along the tracks also adversely affected timings.

He said trains traversing through quadrilateral routes such as the Delhi-Howrah, Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Chennai and Howrah-Mumbai corridors have been adversely impacted as these sectors face severe capacity constraints because of the lines' inability to handle any more traffic.

Some IT measures have also been initiated to ensure punctuality.

"We have put in place an IT enabled Integrated Coaching Management System which helps the on line monitoring of punctuality of passenger-carrying trains. This module continuously monitors the running of trains, enabling zonal railways and their divisional controls to take prompt decisions in according priorities to train movement," he said.

Actress Blake Lively says she considers a project only by looking at her role in it rather than its budget.

"I don't look at movies by the budget. I look at movies by the character. What was neat about The Shallows, it was really low budget. It was a $17 million movie and we did over $120 million worldwide," Lively told variety.com.

"It's cool to do that with a story about a woman. It's (a) proof (that) people want to see movies about women. It doesn't (mean that) all have to be Nicholas Sparks-type films. When you look at the ‘Star Wars' franchise now versus the ‘Star Wars' franchise then, there are women at the centre," she added.

Lively said that she is not ready to be a part of The Shallows sequel.

"I don't know what would happen. I hope not; I'm not ready to go work out like that again. I'm about to do a movie in a couple months where I'm playing a woman who is a fighter," she said.

Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan inaugurated the new office of the Consulate General of Canada here on Friday and said nations do not build relationships, people do.

"I am very proud of the work being done by the Consulate-General of Canada in Chandigarh in strengthening people-to-people ties between Punjab and Canada. Nations do not build a relationship, people do," he said.

Amid tight security arrangements, Sajjan reached the Elante office complex here shortly after 9 AM and inaugurated the new office of the consulate, which offers a wide range of services, including assistance to the Canadians, helping companies to do business with Canada, visa services.

The Indian-born Canadian defence minister who is on a seven-day visit to India from April 17, later held a meeting with Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar at Chandigarh airport, officials here said.

Yesterday, Sajjan had paid obeisance at the Golden Temple in Amritsar and also visited the All India Pingalwara Charitable Society on the outskirts of the city, where he met under-privileged children. Later that afternoon, he visited a girls' orphanage in Jalandhar.

Sajjan also went to his native village of Bambeli in Hoshiarpur district of Punjab where he was accorded a warm welcome by the villagers.

Ahead of the Canadian defence minister's visit, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had said he would not meet Sajjan and described him as a "Khalistani sympathiser".

Sajjan, however, rubbished Amarinder's allegation that he is "pro-Khalistani" and said he would not get into any petty politics with the Chief Minister.

He also downplayed the Ontario legislative assembly recently passing a motion describing the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as "genocide" in India.

Singer Taylor Swift has written a heart-warming note to friend and fellow singer Ed Sheeran in Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World issue.

The 27-year-old songstress has praised the Shape of You and called him as being destined to achieve greater heights as an artist, reported Billboard.

“Whether by choice or an unconscious evolution, when he decided on his musical ambitions, Ed became less of a boy and more of a tank. He is protected by an impenetrable and ever- present armour of enthusiasm that has helped him endure any setback, letdown or underestimation.

“His reaction to any idea that fails is to almost immediately come up with a new one. He's like a fighter who pops back up on his feet before you even noticed he'd been knocked down,” wrote Taylor.

The I Don't Wanna Live Forever singer added how Sheeran had asked to listen to his song Thinking Out Loud before it won the Grammy.

“It was a few weeks later when he met me in a dance-shoe store in London, where I was picking out rehearsal outfits, and said, You have to hear this'. It was a song he'd just finished called Thinking Out Loud, which went on to win Song of the Year at the Grammy Awards in 2016,” she wrote.

The ruling TRS in Telangana on Friday passed a resolution at its plenary meeting here urging the Centre to link the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) with agriculture.

Farmers were facing shortage of labourers due to NREGA during the agricultural season, TRS president and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said.

"We see a situation today that workers are not available for farming during season. NREGA scheme, though it helped the poor to some extent, is causing some inconvenience. Farmers are facing trouble during agricultural season because of NREGA," said Rao, who moved the resolution.

"I will emphatically convey this to the Prime Minister at NITI Ayog meeting on April 23," he said.

In his opening speech at the day-long meeting, Rao announced a new scheme where the state government would give Rs.4,000 per acre to farmers during Kharif and Rabi seasons.

Noting that 97 per cent of farmers hold less than 10 acres of land, he said the scheme would be extended to all the farmers in the state.

Observing that there are associations for other professionals or tradesmen but not for farmers, Rao said the state government would organise farmers into `societies'.

Farmers' societies would be formed at the village, mandal, district and state level, he said.

The state-level farmers' federation would be provided with seed capital of Rs.500 crore in the next budget, he said.

"One or two rupees" would be collected from farmers and together with the funds provided by the government, the total fund should be to the tune of Rs.2,000 crore in two or three years, he said.

Farmers' societies would negotiate with traders for selling the farm produce, and the farmers need not sell their produce individually, he said.

The federation of farmers would look into cultivation of crops and the quantity to be produced so that there is no excess production, Rao said, adding his goal was to "make farmer the king".

Actress Richa Chadha's maiden Punjabi production Khoon Aali Chithi is slated to hit the screens on April 25.

Digital platform titled Royal Stag Barrel Large Short Films is all set to release the film. Khoon Aali Chithi talks about an innocent love story of a young boy who's motive to write a letter in blood to his love is taken away in tragic circumstances set in the 1980s Punjab. 

"The film is about the human casualty of conflict and basically about people who have nothing at all to do with violence or politics, people who don't even watch the news maybe who don't know why they are suffering," Richa said in a statement.

The short, which is directed by Richa's friend Rupinder Inderjit, was premiered at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne in 2016.

The digital platform has previously released short films including Sujoy Ghosh's Ahalya, Jaydeep Sarkar's Nayantaras Necklace, Neeraj Pandey's Ouch, Jyothi Kapur Das's Chutney, Vikram Bhatt's Let's Play and many more.

An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Lakshya of the Indian Air Force crashlanded in Odisha's Balasore district on Friday.

The UAV crashlanded in an agricultural field at Chandamuhi village in Baliapal block.

"There may be some technical reason behind the accident. A team of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) rushed to the spot after the incident. There was no loss of life and property," said Balasore Superintendent of Police (SP) Niti Shekhar.

DRDO sources said a technical glitch may have scuttled the flight of Lakshya and brought it down to the ground.

According to locals, they heard a loud noise while working in the fields. Later, they found the aircraft in a field.