Dera chief Ram Rahim's 'daughter' Honeypreet arrested by Haryana Police

Honeypreet said she had slipped into depression after Ram Rahim's conviction

After a month-long search for jailed Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim's "adopted" daughter Honeypreet Insan, Haryana Police on Tuesday arrested her.

Honeypreet, along with another woman, was arrested by the Haryana Police from the Zirakpur-Patiala road in Punjab, said Panchkula Police Commissioner A S Chawla.

Honeypreet tops the list of 43 people 'wanted' by the Haryana Police in connection with the incidents of violence that left 41 people dead and several injured following Gurmeet Ram Rahim's conviction in rape cases.

Also Read : Honeypreet Insan held after 38 days on run, to be produced in court today

Talking to media persons at Panchkula, Chawla said, "She has been taken into custody by SIT in-charge (Mukesh Kumar) from Zirakpur-Patiala road in Punjab. She is being brought to Panchkula for questioning in connection with the incidents of violence".

"Her role in the violence (after Ram Rahim's conviction on August 25) will be probed...who provided her shelter or support during her run from police will also be produced. She will be produced before a court (in Panchkula) tomorrow and we will seek her police remand," Chawla said.

Chawla also said that another woman who was accompanying her was also taken into custody. Read Full Article

Taj Mahal dropped from UP tourism booklet? Here's why the controversy erupted

The Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of the world does not excite the imagination of Yogi Adityanath's administration

The Taj Mahal may be one of the ‘seven wonders of the world,’ attracting millions of tourists each year, but it has failed to feature in Uttar Pradesh’s latest tourism booklet.

The 32-page booklet, which has the famed Ganga aarti as its cover image, has been printed to promote the tourist spots in Uttar Pradesh, but surprisingly the most prominent and popular one is missing.

Latest Current Affairs : Titled Apaar Sambhavnaye or ‘Boundless Possibilities’, the brochure released by the Uttar Pradesh Tourism Department displays most of the other cultural and heritage sites in the State, particularly those associated with the Hindu religious tourism. Earlier, it was also reported that the BJP Government in the state had not included Taj Mahal as part of Uttar Pradesh's "cultural heritage".

Taj Mahal irrelevant to Indian culture - UP CM

Yogi Adityanath, earlier this year, said that Taj Mahal and other minarets - monuments made during the medieval and Mughal era - were not reflective of Indian culture.

Last month, Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister made the controversial statement that Mughals were "plunderers" and not "our ancestors" as depicted in Indian history.

He also called Shah Jahan "barbaric" for amputating the hands of the artisans who constructing the Taj Mahal."The Taj Mahal is an outstanding monument depicting Indian craftsmanship but Shahjahan amputated the hands of artisans who made the Taj. This is not Indian culture and shows he was barbaric.

The deputy chief minister's remarks come about three months after his boss, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Read More

SBI Life Insurance lists at 5% premium to IPO price of Rs 700

The stock listed at Rs 735, a 5% premium against its initial public offer price of Rs 700 per share on the National Stock Exchange.

SBI Life Insurance Company made a quite debut by listing at Rs 735, a 5% premium against its initial public offer (IPO) price of Rs 700 per share on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

At 10:02 AM; the stock was trading at Rs 734 on the NSE. It hit a high of Rs 740 and low of Rs 730 so far. A combined 11.5 million shares exchanged hands on the NSE and BSE.

The company’s Rs 8,400 crore IPO was subscribed 3.587 times. The portion meant for qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) was oversubscribed 12.56 times, while that of non-institutional investors received 70% subscriptions and retail investors 85%, data available with the NSE showed.

SBI Life is a joint venture between India’s largest lender State Bank of India and BNP Paribas Cardif, the insurance holding company of France.

SBI Life Insurance IPO is the largest private insurer in terms of new business premium (NBP) generated with 20.04% market share and has assets under management (AUM) of Rs 97,700 crore. The company is riding on ULIP business (71% APE mix) which has lower regulatory risk, lower capital requirement and long term opex benefit, but also has lower margins and is highly dependent on capital market performance.

“SBI Life is increasingly focusing to improve protection business share which is high margin and have moderate opex. Hence, we believe Operating RoEV to remain stable at 23% currently and improve post over‐run margins to around 18% by FY19 from currently 15%. At the upper band of Rs 700, the company would trade at 3.18x Sep‐19 EV which we believe is fully priced and hence we recommend to Subscribe for long term gains,” analysts at Prabhudas Lilladher said in IPO note. Read Full Article

Over 18 guns, explosives found at house of Las Vegas gunman who killed 59

The arsenal uncovered in Mesquite comes on top of at least 16 firearms discovered in the Vegas hotel room

Authorities have said they had recovered a weapons cache including firearms, explosives, and ammunition from a house owned by Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock, as they upped the death toll from the attack to 59.

Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said officers searching the house in Mesquite, Nevada recovered "in excess of 18 additional firearms, some explosives and several thousand rounds of ammo, along with some electronic devices we're evaluating at this point."

Lombardo said the death toll from the Sunday night assault on an open-air concert on the Vegas Strip had risen to 59, while 527 people had been injured.

ALSO READ: At least 58 dead, more than 500 hurt in Las Vegas shooting; gunman killed

He said law enforcement were working four separate crime scenes: Paddock's room at the Mandalay Bay hotel, the concert venue, the gunman's house in Mesquite, and another house he owns in northern Nevada which a SWAT team was poised to raid.

The arsenal uncovered in Mesquite comes on top of at least 16 firearms discovered in the Vegas hotel room, from which Paddock launched the deadly assault before killing himself. Read Full Story >>>

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner dead at 91

Hefner died at his home of natural causes last night surrounded by family

Playboy magazine founder and sexual revolution symbol Hugh Hefner has died. He was 91.

The magazine released a statement saying Hefner died at his home of natural causes last night surrounded by family.

Founding the magazine in 1953, Hefner built a brand that defined the sexual culture of the second half of the 20th century.

Playboy's buxom models were the objects of millions of men's fantasies as Hefner challenged what he derided as America's "Puritanical" attitudes toward sex.

For decades, he was the pipe-smoking, silk-pajama-wearing center of a constant fantasy party at Playboy mansions in Chicago and then in Los Angeles.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. Photo: Reuters

Govt to create Rs 500-cr fund for R&D in 5G

India looking to position itself as a leader in 5G technology

As India aims to become a leader in 5G In India , the government is working on to create a Rs 500-crore fund for development of the technology and it has also created a high-level committee to work on a roadmap for the roll-out of 5G by 2020.

As per officials, India doesn't want to miss the opportunity this time like in case of 2G and 3G, where it lagged behind other countries. For 5G, India wants to become a leader and have its own standards and IPR that will become part of the 5G global standards.

"We want to make sure that standard essential patents, among other things, also have an Indian IPR," Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan told Business Standard.

India is looking at 5G technology as a major opportunity in terms of offering services tailored for rural India like telehealth, tele-education and bandwidth-heavy applications that can drive development in these regions. The 5G technology is expected to play a big role in this regard.

"We have created a high-level 5G committee that will work on the vision, mission and goals related to the building of a 5G network. When the world will roll out 5G in 2020, I believe India will be at par with them," Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha said.

According to the government, 5G provides an opportunity to the domestic industry to reach out to global markets and consumers to gain with the economics of scale. Read More

Flipkart, Amazon create 42,000 temporary jobs this festive season

Temporary employment opportunities are up 25% over last year as firms staff-up to meet festive season demand

There's good news for job seekers amid the economic slowdown. According to reports, temporary employment opportunities are up 25 per cent over last year as companies rushed to staff-up for the festive season.

According to the Economic Times, demand for temporary staff has been pushed by online sales and festive shopping. Citing staffing firms and e-commerce companies, the financial daily reported that temporary jobs, mainly in delivery and logistics, had reached a new high.

Quoting Yeshab Giri, head of IT staffing & specialties at Randstad India, an HR service provider, the report said that nearly 130,000 seasonal jobs could be created during the festive period in 2017. In fact, according to the report, e-commerce majors Flipkart and Amazon alone created over 42,000 temporary jobs during their festive season sales. While Flipkart hired over 20,000 temporary staff as its festive sale approached, Amazon was said to be adding over 22,000 temporary staff, the financial daily added.

As reported earlier, the festive season, which lasts nearly five months starting from Ganesh puja till New Year, requires additional staff to handle the spike in orders and deliveries. The demand is especially high for e-commerce companies, logistics, FMCG, hospitality, retail, supply chain, and transport.

Companies in these industries report almost 40-50 per cent of their total business during the festive period such as Diwali and Christmas and hire a lot of temporary resources, including interns and youngsters from colleges and academic institutions.

Apart from Flipkart and Amazon, demand for temporary workers has surged at companies like Samsung and a number of financial technology companies like Paytm, Mobikwik, and Aditya Birla Money, the Economic Times report said while citing staffing firms. Read More

Disqualified Dhinakaran faction AIADMK MLAs approach HC; hearing tomorrow

On Monday, the Speaker disqualified 18 MLAs who had said they no longer trusted CM Palaniswami

A day after Speaker P Dhanapal disqualified 18 All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) supporting T T V Dhinakaran, a family member of V K Sasikala, the dissenting MLAs approached the Madras High Court on Tuesday. The court has permitted the filing of the petition and allowed a hearing on Wednesday.

The dissenting MLAs, who earlier submitted letters to Acting Governor C Vidyasagar Rao that they have lost their trust in Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, would put forward their arguments against the Speaker's decision in the Court on Wednesday, said sources.

Acting Governor Rao is expected to reach Chennai on Tuesday amid the tussle in the ruling party. On Monday, he met President Ram Nath Kovind and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. Reports said that he discussed the political situation in Tamil Nadu during the meeting, though this was not confirmed by the Raj Bhavan.

ALSO READ: Tamil Nadu MLAs' disqualification: 'Theatre of absurd', says Chidambaram

Another petition from the Opposition party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), seeking directions to the government to summon an Assembly session for a trust vote is also scheduled for hearing on Wednesday. In an earlier hearing, where T T V Dhinakaran-led faction MLA P Vetrivel has sought the court's interference with the expected action against the 18 MLAs by the Speaker, the court directed the government not to conduct a trust vote before September 20. Read More

Will iPhone X hurt iPhone 8 and 8 Plus sale? Here's what experts say

Apple unveiled both iPhone X and iPhone 8 models, with the "super-premium" iPhone X starting at $999

As Apple gets ready to ship iPhone 8 and 8 Plus before it opens iPhone X for pre-orders, a top analyst with Taiwanese business group KGI Securities has warned that iPhone X will cannibalise iPhone 8 orders.

According to Ming-Chi Kuo, the most famous analyst with KGI Securities when it comes to Apple, it is very likely that iPhone X demand will cannibalise iPhone 8 pre-orders.

"While it takes three to six weeks or more to ship new iPhone models after they are available for preorder, they see the iPhone 8 taking less than one to two weeks. This is due to the iPhone X cannibalisation," StreetInsider.com quoted the analyst as saying late on Monday.

Apple unveiled both iPhone X and iPhone 8 models, with the "super-premium" iPhone X starting at $999.

Ming, however, said the new Apple Watch Series 3's (GPS + Cellular version) could be a runaway hit.

"We estimate the preorder weighting of the GPS + Cellular version is 80-90 per cent. While not available in all countries, most users have pre-ordered the GPS + Cellular version because it offers phone and internet access functions without an iPhone and given the low premium of $70 over the GPS version," the analyst predicted. Read More

Dawood Ibrahim's brother Iqbal Ibrahim Kaskar arrested in South Mumbai

Kaskar was picked up from his south Mumbai residence in connection with an extortion case

Police in Maharashtra's Thane have detained Iqbal Ibrahim Kaskar, brother of absconding mafia don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, for questioning in an extortion case, official sources said late on Monday.

Kaskar was picked up from his south Mumbai residence by a team of Thane Anti-Extortion Cell headed by former 'encounter specialist' Pradeep Sharma.

The action follows a complaint by a city businessman alleging he had been getting extortion calls from some mafia gangsters owing allegiance to Iqbal Kaskar.

Acting on the complaint, Sharma picked up Kaskar, who is presently being questioned by sleuths, the sources said.