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Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate, a delegation of leaders of the INDIA bloc parties approached the Election Commission of India alleging «unrelenting, blatant and illegal deployment of Central Agencies» by the ruling BJP to stifle the opposition parties. In a memorandum submitted to the EC, the INDIA party leaders submitted a list of recent instances of central agencies targeting opposition parties and alleged an absence of a level playing field for the opposition. The leaders also suggested that the poll panel should change the heads of the probe agencies during the election to ensure a fair play. Speaking to the media after the meeting, Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, «We pointed out this is not a normal complaint, it is a larger issue of effecting, impairing, undermining, and sabotaging the basic structure of the Indian constitution.

Pocket FM scooped up 46% of the $223 million in startup funding this week — pushing up the share of dealmaking in the late-stage category, as per Tracxn data. Growth-stage deals commanded 79%, followed by the early stage at 11.2%. The latest week’s number was a 67% drop from the year-ago total of $670 million. During the same period last year – March 16th to 22, 2023 – omnichannel eyewear retailer Lenskart had raised $500 million from Abu Dhabi Investment Authority in exchange for a 10% stake.

Bondex, the crowdsourced recruitment app, is initiating a community sale of its native cryptocurrency, $BDXN, on CoinList, the premiere token launch platform. Since its 2021 debut, Bondex has dramatically surpassed its goals, rocketing past 3 million app downloads and engaging over 700,000 monthly users on its beta app, marking a groundbreaking success in the digital landscape.

Espresso Systems recently secured $28 million in a Series B funding round, aiming to bolster Ethereum‘s Layer 2 solutions.

Elvish Yadav, a YouTuber and winner of Bigg Boss OTT 2, has been granted bail by the court, according to his lawyer Prashant Rathi.«The court has approved his bail on two sureties of Rs 50,000 each,» his lawyer told ANI. Denying the allegations against Yadav, Rathi assured that once the formalities are completed, Yadav will be released from jail. The arrest of Elvish Yadav occurred on Sunday by the Noida Police in connection with a case related to the Wildlife Protection Act. Subsequently, he was presented before a local court. Yadav was among six individuals named in a police report filed on November 3 last year at Sector 49 police station. While the other five were arrested earlier, they are currently out on bail. The case pertains to violations of wildlife protection laws and allegations of criminal conspiracy. The investigation was later transferred from Sector 49 to Sector 20 police station, where Yadav was arrested by the Sector 20 police team. Yadav has denied any involvement in the case.

CSK Vs RCB IPL 2024: MS Dhoni stepping down from the captaincy of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) marks the end of an era. After a successful run as the Indian skipper, MS Dhoni led the IPL franchise to monumental glory and won the championship five times. CSK coach Stephen Fleming described the “emotional" moment in dressing room when MS Dhoni announced that he was handing over the baton to young Ruturaj Gaikwad.

A handy, AI-powered assistant to guide you if you’re ever lost in a new country — a clip-on accessory that can identify the right path by scanning your surroundings and sharing instructions in real-time. These aren’t just flights of fancy, but real inventions debuted at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2024 in Barcelona, Spain. Together they showcase the remarkable speed at which technology has developed. Keeping this in mind, five bosses share with ET Panache what inventions they would like to see developed in the next five years.

Shashank Srivastava, Senior Executive Officer (Marketing and Sales), Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, says: “We could expect the month to end around the 375,000 mark for the industry, that should be about 11% growth over last year. March being the last month of the financial year, we are expecting industry sales to be about 42,35,000 or thereabouts which should be a growth of about 8.8% over last year's figure of Rs 38.9 lakh.” Just going by the kind of comments that we have got from the Minister Nitin Gadkari on lower tax on hybrid vehicles, how are you looking at that getting cheaper soon? What would that potentially mean? Shashank Srivastava: We will have to wait and see how it pans out. At the moment, hybrids are doing pretty well. The duty on hybrids is 43% compared to 5% on EVs. But despite that, hybrids have been doing pretty well. In the last six months, hybrids have been outselling EVs. A total of 52,500 approximately in the last six months against 48,300 for EVs. One of the big reasons why hybrids have been doing well is that there is no range anxiety associated with it.

By Sinead Cruise and Alexander Marrow

(Reuters) — Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said expectations of interest rate cuts this year were not «unreasonable» and he struck an optimistic tone about the UK economy, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

Gautam Duggad, Head Of Research — Institutional Equities, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, says that while valuations are expensive for mid and smallcaps, it is not correct to say that the entire mid and smallcap basket is frothy. The midcap index right now is trading at around 30% premium to Nifty. Nifty is trading at close to 19-19.5 times one year forward now and midcap index is trading at somewhere about 27 times which obviously is very expensive. Smallcaps are also trading at expensive valuation at an index level. Versus Nifty, on a 10-year basis, the long-period discount for smallcaps is 24%. Today it is trading at a 10% premium to largecap. Duggad also says the market has respected the underlying earnings growth. When earnings were tepid for 10 years between FY10 and FY20, the market was also tepid. In last four years, earnings have done well, so markets have also done well. You have a very wide universe of stocks which you track among all the brokerages and it is only becoming wider. A lot of midcap and smallcap stocks are represented in your universe. The entire argument that smallcap, midcap rally so far was not broadly justified and there was frothy valuations and earnings. What is the reality of the earnings? What part of the smallcap, midcaps are showing strength in earnings and which part is actually falling back? Gautam Duggad: It is always very simplistic to paint the market or any segment of the market with one brush.

Microsoft will be paying artificial intelligence (AI) startup Inflection $650 million to licence its software, a week after it roped in the company's two cofounders and most of its staff, as per a Bloomberg report. Let's look at the key details of this deal.

Nadella, made during the November 2023 controversy surrounding OpenAI. Nadella reportedly remarked that it would not matter if OpenAI ceased to exist, emphasizing Microsoft's possession of intellectual property rights, computational resources, and data necessary for AI development. “We have all the IP rights and all the capability.

Arvind Kejriwal's arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in an excise policy-linked money laundering case on Thursday, calling it 'violative of the spirit of democracy". Congress leader Shashi Tharoor called upon to take suo moto cognizance of Kejriwal's arrest by the ED in excise policy case. “The court has every right to take imminent action against anything that has a material effect on the elections…," he told ANI. He also said, “This is fundamentally violative of the political rights of every Indian citizen...

It’s a dog-eat-dog world for financial advisors, at least when it comes to client retention and loyalty. Several advisors say conversations and regular guidance should always be top of mind when it comes to maintaining relationships with clients.

On Thursday, India’s Supreme Court stayed the government’s notification on setting up a fact-checking unit under the Press Information Bureau with the power to flag what it deems as false information related to the central government and its agencies on social media platforms. The Centre had justified the idea as a regulatory move, effected through amended IT rules for digital intermediaries, against the menace of fake news.

Golden Visa program, aimed at addressing the pressure on the country's property market. Investors seeking residency rights will now need to invest a minimum of €800,000 ($873,280) in popular areas like Athens, Thessaloniki, Mykonos, Santorini, and other islands with a population exceeding 3,100 inhabitants, according to a statement from the Finance Ministry. This adjustment follows a previous doubling of the required investment amount in popular areas, raising it to €500,000 in August. Additionally, in other parts of the country, the minimum investment threshold will rise to €400,000 from €250,000. Investors are limited to purchasing a single property with a minimum surface area of 120 square meters (1291.7 square feet), which cannot be utilized for short-term rental purposes. Effective from March 31, the revised investment thresholds aim to bolster the supply of long-term rental housing and mitigate the impact of the Golden Visa program on housing costs, as per the ministry's statement.

Dividend stocks: Shares of Power Finance Corporation Ltd, Bharat Electronics Ltd, Mishra Dhatu Nigam Ltd, Refex Industries Limited, and TIL Ltd will be in focus when the stock market opens on March 22 (Friday). The Board of Directors of the 5 companies have declared interim dividend, stock split, and rights issue for their eligible shareholders. The record date by the 5 companies to ascertain the eligibility of shareholders for their respective issues has been fixed on March 22.

Osaic is broadening its national wealth management footprint as it welcomes a father-daughter duo, Kings Mill Wealth Advisors, into its network.

Bellator 302 is all set to be held in Northern Ireland on Friday night. Bellator MMA's return to Belfast is significant as it will be first since Bellator 173 in February 2017. Corey Anderson will fight Karl Moore for light heavyweight championship. Fabian Edwards will take on Aaron Jeffery in middleweights category. Jeremy Kennedy will fight Patricio Pitbull in featherweight championship. James Gallagher will fight Leandro Higo in featherweights category. Manouel Sousa versus Tim Wilde fight will take place for lightweights category.

Karnataka's reservation policy for backward classes has come under the scanner with the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) red-flagging Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation given to Muslims on the basis of religion. NCBC has raised objections following a field visit in July 2023 and detailed examination of Karnataka's reservation policy for OBCs in educational institutions and government jobs. According to Karnataka government's reservation policy (based on the order issued in March 2002), backward classes are grouped as Category I, Category IIA, Category IIB, Category IIIA and Category IIIB and provided 32% reservation. The entire Muslim community is treated as socially and educationally backward under Category IIB. At the same time, the state government is providing reservation to 17 socially and educationally backward communities of Muslims under Category I and 19 communities under Category IIA. NCBC has flagged that if the entire Muslim community is provided reservation under Category IIB, why are certain communities being provided in the other two categories.