At least 10 people were killed when two powerful blasts tore through a metro train in the Russian city of St Petersburg on Monday, the media reported.

RT Online quoted Transit Systems management as saying that evacuation of passengers was on after the explosions at the Sennaya Square station. TASS quoted emergency services as saying that 10 people had been killed.

The door of a train coach was blown off by the impact of the explosions. Russian President Vladimir Putin said law enforcement agencies were trying to determine the circumstances of the incident.

Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission has finally declared the APPSC results 2017 for Group 2 services screening test on the official website psc.ap.gov.in. 

Candidates trying to get their APPSC main results 2017 have to enter the official website i.e. psc.ap.gov.in and fill the blank space with the required information including roll number, registration number and other required information.

Huge number of candidates are trying to get their APPSC results 2017 so the candidates may face issues in reaching the result website so the candidates are advised to stay calm and refresh the result page in case the webpage is not loading.

APPSC candidates are advised to keep a print out of the exam results 2017 for future purpose.

Doctor Gulati is not only mashoor but also appears to be lucky since his split with comedian Kapil Sharma. Actor-comedian Sunil Grover has been in news after he quit The Kapil Sharma Show.

Grover continues to make news with his various activities here and there. Recently, his live show titled ‘Comedy Clinic’ was full-house in New Delhi where he played live with his fans on stage and danced in female getup to find a perfect match for Gutthi, one of his most popular roles.

Sunil's various looks had the crowds in splits.

Comedian Kiku Sharda and a cast of other well-known actors also joined him in this show.

Recently Sunil Grover tweeted that he was nervous about his future ventures. However, he also said that he had made up his mind to surrender himself to 'good work and good people'.

The Kapil Sharma Show has been reportedly affected after Kapil Sharma and Sunil Grover recently had an altercation in a flight. While Kapil has allegedly expressed his interest in bringing Sunil back to the show, Grover continues to show his reluctance.

The Gujarat government on Monday told the Supreme Court that Director General of Police P P Pandey’s request to step down will be accepted immediately after the apex court allowed the state to accept Pandey's offer of relinquishing his office forthwith.

A bench of Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud were also told that the notification of three months extension granted to him till 30 April too would be resolved. Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Gujarat government, said the state government would accept Pandey's offer to step down after the bench asked him to either make a statement that Pandey would go forthwith or they would pass an order.

Recording the submission of Mehta that the top police officer has himself written a letter expressing willingness to step down forthwith if the government so desired,  the bench said, "In view of determination of the state government, we are of the view that the main petition has been rendered infructous."

Pandey, who is one of the accused in the killing of Ishrat Jahan and three others, is on an extension till 30 April this year. 

Initially asking the court to let Pandey complete his extended term and retire gracefully, Mehta told the court that he (Pandey) was in no position to influence the case as charges had not been framed.

Pandey's appointment and extension as DGP and IGP were challenged through a PIL.

The apex court had on 31 March asked Gujarat government to file its response to a plea against promotion and three-month extension to Pandey, who is out on bail in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case.

After being released on bail, Pandey was taken back into service in February 2015 and appointed the Director of the state's Anti-Corruption Bureau. On 16 April last year, Pandey was appointed the in-charge DGP of Gujarat.

The Centre's Appointments Committee of the Cabinet had granted the three-month extension to Pandey, who was to retire on 31 January. Pandey was heading the state crime branch when Ishrat, a 19-year-old girl based in Mumbra near Mumbai, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in an alleged encounter with the police on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on 15 June, 2004.

Gujarat police had claimed they had terror links and had plotted to kill the then Chief Minister, Narendra Modi. An SIT constituted by the high court to investigate the case had concluded that it was a fake encounter, following which the HC had transferred the case to the CBI.

Confronting the hardliners, spiritual head at the shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer has invoked the Muslim community to step forth to shun cow slaughter and triple talaq. He said that Muslims should avoid consumption of beef in favour of communal harmony while the contemporary practice of triple talaq is not in accordance to Shariyat.

Deewan Syed Zainul Abaedeem Ali made the statement while addressing a gathering of spiritual heads and Sufi clerics on the conclusion day of the 805th annual Urs celebrations of Khwaja in Ajmer. 

Every year hundreds of thousands of devotees arrive in Ajmer for the Urs, this is also an occasions for discussions on contemporary issues of spiritual and religious concern. This year the issues of 'beef ban' and 'triple talaq' reflected in the discussions.

"On the occasion of 805th Urs, I and my family has decided to shun consumption of beef in every form and appeal to the community to do so. Cow is revered for our fellow Hindus and we can do so for restoration of communal harmony" said Syeed Zainul, as he demanded a blanket ban on beef across the country. 

The deewan is descendant of Khwaja Moinuddin and is spiritual head at the shrine. His message holds influence over millions of his followers.

"Khwaja had embrace culture of the country in accordance to values of Islam, we too should follow his lead," he said. 

Raising the issue of triple talaq, he said that Shariyat denounces use of all three talaq simultaneously and asked Muslims to avoid the same.

"The practice of announcing triple talaq at one go is unislamic and deteriorating for self respect of muslim women and it should be avoided," he said.  

The Ajmer Dargah is a shrine revered by millions beyond borders of religion and country and as the spiritual head of the shrine speaks from its dias, his message is expected to be well received by followers.

Long-serving national squash coach Cyrus Poncha has been chosen to receive the 2016 Asian Squash Federation 'Coach of the Year' award.

Poncha has been chosen from a list of 13 nominations from seven countries. He is the only Indian in this year's list of awards, players and officials together, announced today.

The ASF has lauded Poncha's role in the good results delivered by the country's senior and junior players last year.

The highlights include the world doubles tourney in Australia where Saurav Ghosal and Dipika Pallikal Karthik won a silver in the mixed doubles. Joshna Chinappa had combined to win bronze medals with Dipika and Harinder Pal Sandhu in the women's doubles and mixed doubles events.

Also, in the Asian Team Championship in Chinese Taipei, India had won a silver medal in the women's section and bronze in the men's section.

In the South Asian Federation Games in Guwahati in February, India came back with a rich haul of four medals, including three gold and one bronze.

Chennai-lad Velavan Senthilkumar's rise to become the Asian U-19 gold medal winner was another highlight of Poncha's coaching career.

Previously, he had won the ASF Coach of the Year award in 2004, 2009, 2012 and in 2014 as team coach (a distinction was brought because there was a separate award for individual coach that year).

Squash Rackets Federation of India (SRFI) President Debendranath Sarangi, while congratulating Poncha, said, "He is an excellent coach, consistent in his approach."

The awards, four for players and an equal number for coaches, will be presented at the forthcoming Asian Individual Championship scheduled to be held here later this month. 

The new Punjab government has decided to review the ongoing projects during the past eight years, many such projects are likely to face an action in the future. Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh led Congress government has maintained that the eleven projects scheduled for completion between 2008-09 and 2015-16 are yet to see the light of the day will be reviewed.

According to records, the government has incurred an expenditure of Rs.446.75 Crore on these incomplete projects which is yet to yield the intended benefits. Similarly, nine major projects further causing a loss of Rs.394.76 Crore to the government during 2015-16. Among such projects, five star hotel-cum-convention centre in Ludhiana, Bathinda and Amritsar, three star hotel in the new city centre at Amritsar are major projects which were initiated by Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB).

It may also include the Rs.700 Crore budgeted Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Inter State Bus Terminus (ISBT) at Mohali, which was inaugurated in December, 2016. The first terminal of the ISBT was inaugurated, but other two terminals are yet to be completed and likely face a review by the government. Cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu has also declared about the review of Rs.600 Crore Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) project in Amritsar.

Another project includes the development of Mother and Child Hospital at Fatehgarh Sahib and setting up of diagnostic centres in Punjab. "The list is long of the incomplete projects. Those are on the verge of completion will be considered. Those which are still on papers may face action," senior officer of the government said.

Sources further said that the government is making efforts to deal with debts by cutting down the expenses of the state exchequer. They also said that the liabilities towards enhanced land compensation, arbitration and awards will also be reviewed.

As per the recently tabled report of Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) on Punjab's finances, it was stated that the return on investment from Co-operative Banks and Societies and Statutory Corporations, joint stock companies and government companies was only between 0.01 and 0.05 per cent during 2011-16 while the average rate of interest paid by the government of Punjab on its borrowings ranged between 7.79 and 8.35 per cent during the same period.

The CAG report further stated that the total debt, including other liabilities, increased from Rs.64,161 Crore in 2010-11 to Rs.1,03,195 Crore in 2015-16.

India's only individual Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra will present a lecture on the state of high performance of sport and the way forward looking into 2020 Tokyo Olympics here on April 29.

As a member of the Prime Minister's task force formed after Rio Olympics debacle, Bindra, who also heads the TOPS Committee, is responsible for charting the way forward for Olympic sport, something he will throw insight into at the inaugural Routledge Lecture of the Fanattic Sports Museum in New Town.

"Having established the first high performance centre in Mohali, Bindra is equipped to speak about the way forward for Olympic sport," the curator of FSM, Boria Majumdar, said.

Bindra, who has donated his gloves he wore during the gold medal winning feat in Beijing 2008, had inaugurated the museum along with Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tednulkar, Devendra Jhajharia and Deepa Malik in January earlier this year.

Earlier, the first ever KKR Gallery was unveiled at FSM in the presence of Yusuf Pathan, Manish Pandey, Chris Lynn and assistant coach Simon Katich.

The Gallery will exclusively showcase the sporting gears of the players that include bats, helmets and match balls.

"KKR is integral to Kolkata and it's our endeavour to bring as many fans to celebrate the sport of cricket," Majumdar said.

The museum prominently displays Sachin Tendulkar's gloves which he wore while scoring his 100th century, bat, sweater and jersey, along with a host of other artifacts from various sports personalities.

The FSM is not just filled with Indian sports history.

Besides memorabilia from international cricket history, football lovers can see Lionel Messi's autographed boots and legend Diego Maradona's T-shirt.

Some of the other things at display are the spikes of Usain Bolt and signed personal collections of Rafal Nadal and Roger Federer.

Former Australia captain Michael Clarke recently added to the museum's collection by presenting his 2015 World Cup-winning jersey signed by his teammates.

India's only individual Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra will present a lecture on the state of high performance of sport and the way forward looking into 2020 Tokyo Olympics here on April 29.

As a member of the Prime Minister's task force formed after Rio Olympics debacle, Bindra, who also heads the TOPS Committee, is responsible for charting the way forward for Olympic sport, something he will throw insight into at the inaugural Routledge Lecture of the Fanattic Sports Museum in New Town.

"Having established the first high performance centre in Mohali, Bindra is equipped to speak about the way forward for Olympic sport," the curator of FSM, Boria Majumdar, said.

Bindra, who has donated his gloves he wore during the gold medal winning feat in Beijing 2008, had inaugurated the museum along with Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tednulkar, Devendra Jhajharia and Deepa Malik in January earlier this year.

Earlier, the first ever KKR Gallery was unveiled at FSM in the presence of Yusuf Pathan, Manish Pandey, Chris Lynn and assistant coach Simon Katich.

The Gallery will exclusively showcase the sporting gears of the players that include bats, helmets and match balls.

"KKR is integral to Kolkata and it's our endeavour to bring as many fans to celebrate the sport of cricket," Majumdar said.

The museum prominently displays Sachin Tendulkar's gloves which he wore while scoring his 100th century, bat, sweater and jersey, along with a host of other artifacts from various sports personalities.

The FSM is not just filled with Indian sports history.

Besides memorabilia from international cricket history, football lovers can see Lionel Messi's autographed boots and legend Diego Maradona's T-shirt.

Some of the other things at display are the spikes of Usain Bolt and signed personal collections of Rafal Nadal and Roger Federer.

Former Australia captain Michael Clarke recently added to the museum's collection by presenting his 2015 World Cup-winning jersey signed by his teammates.

The first ever, Himachali commercial feature film ‘Saanjh’ is all set to be screened pan-India in theatres on April 14. The film director, producer, cast and crew released the poster and trailer of the film in Shimla.

Talking to mediapersons, producer and director of the film Ajay Saklani who hails from Mandi district in Himachal Pradesh said, “The film has already been screened at several American film festivals. The film has bagged Best Feature at the Borrego Springs Film Festival 2017 and award of merit at the Accolade Global Film Competition in California, USA. We are hoping that our film earns appreciation in our country as well.”

Shot in the Kullu valley, the idea of coming up with a Himachali film is to promote the state’s rich culture and also to take to the masses the local dialect through cinema, he said.

HP having been a favourite destination for Bollywood film producers, however, local films have never been given due respect and much needed support, he added.

added that the film in HP theatres will be in local dialect, while outside the state it will be dubbed in Hindi.

Dedicated to grandmother and grand daughter relationship, the film revolves around a young city dweller, Sanju who is forced to move in with her grandmother in a rural village following her implication in the social media scandal.

The bonding between the duo evolves, rebuilding inter-generational relationships, he said.

Saanjh’s has predominantly Himachali cast and crew that include lead actress Aditi Charka, who hails from district Chamba, lead actor Vishal Parpagga from Mandi and Rupeshwari Sharma, also from Mandi, who plays Sanju’s grandmother.

Besides, the film has two Bollywood actors, star Asif Basra portraying Sanju’s father and Taranjit Kaur, of Aankhon Dekhi fame, playing the role of her mother.

Celebrated Bollywood playback singer Mohit Chauhan, has lent his voice to two of the songs, while the soundtrack is by Gaurav Guleria from Dharamshala.

Tree trunks in upland forests actually emit methane rather than storing it, say scientists who claim to have found a new, previously unaccounted source of this powerful greenhouse gas.

Researchers from University of Delaware (UD) in the US found that upland forest soils usually take up and store methane, but this effect can be counteracted by methane emissions from tree trunks.

They tested a cluster of trees, soil and coarse woody debris (CWD) – dead wood lying on the forest floor in various stages of decomposition – to measure fluxes of methane and carbon dioxide.

The team used a state-of-the-art greenhouse gas analyser based on laser absorption technology, called Off-Axis Integrated Cavity Output Spectroscopy (OA-ICOS).

They visited the site over the course of one growing season – April to December.

Researchers measured the carbon dioxide and methane fluxes of the soil, tree trunks and CWD to determine whether those three components were sources or sinks of these greenhouse gases.

"We believe our work can help fill in some gaps in methane budgets and environmental processes in global ecosystem models," said Rodrigo Vargas assistant professor in UD.

"What we have found in this study is that some coarse woody debris act kind of like the soil and consume methane while other pieces of coarse woody debris emit small amounts of methane, which is also what we saw with living tree trunks," said Daniel Warner of UD.

"The tree trunks constantly have low but detectable emissions of methane," said Vargas.

"Soils are providing an environmental service of sequestering this potent greenhouse gas, but the trunks are releasing methane equivalent to 4 per cent of what could be captured by CWD and soils at the ecosystem scale," he said.

Overall, the tree trunks acted as a source of carbon dioxide and as a small source of methane, but the magnitude of gases emitted varied with the species, researchers said.

"At this moment, the mechanisms of methane production in upland forests are not clear. Methane can be either transported from the soils upward inside the stem and diffused to the atmosphere or produced inside the stem by fungi or archaea – single-celled microorganisms," Vargas said.

The study was published in the journal Ecosystems.

If rumours are to be believed, TV show Koi Laut Ke Aaya Hai may bring in a change.

Actress Ankita Lokhande is all set to replace female lead Surbhi Jyoti in the show.

A replacement was being considered for Surbhi and Ankita Lokhande, who was last seen in Pavitra Rishta, has been finalised, according to sources.

The sources also said that Surbhi was getting bigger projects so she was unable to give time to the show.

Surbhi, however, rubbished the news.

“It's rubbish. I am very much a part of the show and am not quitting it," she said.

Shoaib Ibrahim, Surbhi Jyoti and Sharad Kelkar play the lead role in Koi Laut Ke Aaya Hai.

Surbhi debuted in the television show Qubool Hai.
 

Italy, Israel, Greece and Cyprus pledged on Monday to move ahead with the world's longest undersea gas pipeline from the eastern Mediterranean to southern Europe, with support from the European Union.

If carried out as planned, the long-discussed USD 6.2 billion pipeline would take gas from Israel and Cyprus's recently discovered offshore gas reserves to Europe and could help reduce the continent's dependence on Russian energy at a time of ongoing tensions.

In a joint news conference in the Israeli commercial capital Tel Aviv, energy ministers from the four nations, as well as the EU's Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Canete, pledged their commitment to the project.

Feasibility studies had been completed, the ministers said, but work on developing it would not begin for several years – with current expectations for it to go online in 2025.

"This is going to be the longest and deepest sub-sea gas pipeline in the world," said Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz.

Gas prices have fallen, however, and the project's financial feasibility is based on expectations they will rise again, Elio Ruggeri, chief executive of IGI Poseidon – one of the companies developing the plan – told AFP.

Both Israel and Cyprus have started to extract gas from their offshore fields in recent years, with far larger fields expected to come online in the future.

Officials from the countries have sought to market the gas to Europe as an alternative to dependence on Russian imports, and Canete admitted it would help limit reliance on the Nord Stream pipeline via Russia.

"The north stream is a pipeline (which) adds nothing to the security of supply," he said.

"Cyprus and Israel are very reliable suppliers." 

"We highly value gas supply from the region as a vital source of our gas supply that can make a valuable contribution to our strategy to diversify sources, routes and suppliers," said Canete.

"This is a pipe that unites and will have the full support of all the members of the European Union." 

The four ministers agreed to meet every six months for the coming years

Backing Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy's view that pay hike to COO UB Pravin Rao was "not proper," the company's ex-director TV Mohandas Pai on Monday said the salary in this case is "spectacular" but performance is not.

Alleging that Infosys' board was "misguided", Pai said the ""fundamental problem" was the pay hike given earlier to CEO Vishal Sikka "without any justification", because of which other executives were also expecting higher pay.

He said salary levels in India cannot be compared with that in the US.

"I totally agree with Murthy that it was not proper. We should have Indian norm for compensation; we can't follow American norm, we (Infosys) are not an American company," Pai, who was also formerly Chief Finance Officer of Infosys, told PTI in a telephonic interview.

The comments come at a time when a row has erupted again between some founders and the current management of the firm.

Pai argued that at a time when the salary for entry level software engineers had not been raised in the IT industry in India for the past seven years, it is totally wrong to hike the compensation for top-level executives.

"The starting salary for software engineers has not gone up for the past seven years; and the inflation in the last seven years is about 60 per cent," he said.

The salary of Chief Operating Officer (of Infosys) three-four years ago was Rs 3.5 crore or Rs 4 crore. Now, it has gone up to Rs 12 crore, according to the Chairman of Manipal Global Education Services and Aarin Capital.

"I think unless people at the bottom (software engineers) get good, regular hike, paying people at the top for doing nothing…for long period of time is totally wrong," Pai said.

Without naming Rao, he said, "That too we have been paying (compensation hike) for a person who has been in the company for 30 years."

"If somebody has done spectacularly well, then it's okay. Performance is not spectacular. Salary is spectacular," he said.

"I think the Board was misguided. You hired a CEO (Vishal Sikka). You are forced by the CEO to increase (his) salary from USD 7 million to 11 million. There was no justification," he said.

"When you see CEO getting so much, then COO will say: what about me? I cannot be paid one-tenth of what CEO is being paid," he said.

"The fundamental error was increasing CEO's salary from USD 7 million to 11 million without any justification," Pai further said.

Raising the CEO's salary was the "fundamental problem," and it could now lead to top-level executives and executive committee members seeking a pay hike, he said.

"You can't compare compensation levels with that in the US because employees (of Indian companies) are all here. A software engineer is paid Rs.3.5 lakh. A person who is COO gets paid Rs.12 crore or Rs.13 crore. 400 times. You have not raised the software engineer's salary for 7 years," he said.

Murthy had yesterday said the compensation hike to Rao approved by the board in February was not "proper" and "will likely erode the trust and faith of the employees in the management and the board."

"Giving nearly 60 to 70 per cent increase in compensation for a top level person (even including performance-based variable pay) when the compensation for most of the employees in the company was increased by just 6 to 8 per cent is, in my opinion, not proper," Murthy had said.

The Air India board has approved a proposal seeking to induct the wide-bodied Boeing 787-9 aircraft in the fleet as it plans to expand operations to the US besides launching services to Canada.

Air India will lease seven B787-900 planes, the higher range of B787-8 aircraft, for which the Board has given its go-ahead, Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Lohani said.

"The board's approval for leasing of seven B787-900 planes has come by," Lohani said.

The airline currently has 23 B787-800 planes among others in its fleet, and four more of these aircraft are expected to be delivered to it between July and October this year.

Air India has proposed a host of international destinations for launch this year as part of its overseas expansion plans.

The national carrier is looking to launch one more destination in the US this year in addition to Washington DC, which will commence operations from July, Lohani said.

At present Los Angeles, Dallas and Houston are being explored and air services to one of them could start later this year, he said.

Air India is also mulling launching flights to either Vancouver or Toronto in Canada from New Delhi going forward, according to Lohani.

Plans are also afoot to increase frequency to Australia and to look at routes in Africa by connecting Mumbai with Mauritius or Nairobi, he added.

The Air India CMD also said that flight services to the Danish capital Copenhagen are now likely to start from August instead of May.

Air India will also be commencing operations directly to Israel next month.

Malayalam actor-director Sreenivasan’s youngest son, Dhyan Sreenivasan, got engaged to Arpita Sebastian on Sunday in Thiruvananthapuram.

The ceremony was a hush hush event as it was attended by a handful of Mollywood celebrities, including Madhu.

The celebrity couple will tie the knot on April 7 in Kannur. The wedding reception will be held in Kochi on April 10, specially organised for members of the Malayalam film fraternity.

Sreenivasan told the media that he has no uneasinesss over his son marrying a girl from other religion. In fact, he supports Dhyan’s decision.

Arpita does not belong to the film fraternity and reportedly works at Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram.

A couple of months ago it was rumoured that Dhyan will marry actor Namitha Pramod. The rumour spread like wildfire and made the father of the actress issue a clarification that his daughter was not getting married to the Adi Kapyare Koottamani actor.

Dhyan made his acting debut with the 2013 film Thira, which was directed by his brother Vineeth Sreenivasan.

He is also set to act alongside his father Sreenivasan in an untitled film which will be directed by Rajesh Nair.

The two-wheeler industry would have lost Rs.600 crore due to the discount sales and incentives offered to meet the apex court ban on selling BS- III models from the new financial year, says a report.

The impact is comparatively low as many of the companies like Bajaj Auto, Yamaha and Eicher had already upgraded to BS-IV from January 2017, while market leader Hero MotoCorp, and the No 2 Honda and also TVS Motors have upgraded most of their model before the ban set in, says a Crisil report on the impact on the Supreme Court ban.

When the ruling came the two-wheeler industry had an inventory of 6,70,000 units of BS-III models, amounting to Rs 3,800 crore which is half of monthly sales of the industry.

But 10-30 per cent discounts and freebies helped the dealers clear most of the stock in the last three days of March.

"Total discounts offered work out to be around Rs 600 crore, of which the two-wheeler makers would be sharing over 70 per cent of the incentives, taking a total hit of Rs 460- 480 crore, while the remaining losses would be absorbed by the dealers," says the Crisil report.

This will lead to a 150-200 bps erosion in the aggregate fourth-quarter Ebitda margin of listed players (Hero, Bajaj and TVS) in fiscal 2017, with the industry leader Hero taking a higher impact due to its large BS-III inventory.

Impact on Bajaj's profitability will be much lower due to its lower inventory and lower discounts offered considering the export option. Relative to annual revenues, this works out to 50 bps impact in fiscal 2017 Ebidta margins on Bajaj.

As the Ebidta margins of listed two-wheeler players trended 40 bps higher than last fiscal on YTD basis, there is likely to be a 10 bps dip to 15.9 per cent in fiscal 2017.

On the positive side the wholesale deliveries for the industry will remain steady unlike the truck and bus makers, which are expected to fall due to the price hike on new models. This is also because the two-wheeler makers did not replenish channel inventory in the last three days of March, except in a few states like Punjab where 30 per cent of the sales were billed to dealers.

Channel inventory at end March was trending at 25 days' sales (lower by 5-10 days from annual average) and is expected to be replenished gradually over the next few months.

"We, however, expect the gradual inventory build-up to be offset by slower retail sales momentum as much of the demand got pre-poned to March," says the report.

Meanwhile the report said carmakers are largely unscathed, while there will be a marginal hit on the three- wheeler makers. For car companies, with the BS-III inventory at just 16,000 units, the impact is marginal. On top of it, given the steep discounts offered in the last three days March, much of this stock is expected to have been cleared.

For three-wheelers, since BS-III inventory could not be cleared due to limited number of permits, there will be a marginal impact for Piaggio and TVS while Bajaj will be unscathed as it had already transitioned to BS-IV.