KAMAL NATH'S MP GOVT SURVIVES 'POACHING' BIDThere was high drama outside a five-star Manesar resort (in Haryana) asCongress leader Digvijaya Singh landed there with son Jaivardhan SinghTuesday midnight and reportedly "rescued" six of the eight Madhya PradeshMLAs "forcibly" lodged there.Accusing the BJP of trying to bring down an elected government, the Congresssaid it was hopeful of the SC taking cognisance of the matter. "BJP leadersin Madhya Pradesh have allegedly taken eight MLAs to a hotel in Haryana aspart of a conspiracy to topple the state government," said Patwari. CM Nathclaimed "things are under control"Former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, of the BJP, refuted charges, attributingthe ongoing political drama in the state to "internal rife anddifferences/issues" within the grand old party.INTERNET BACK IN J&K, SLOW BUT MUCH MORE SURESeven months after Internet restrictions were imposed in the then state ofJammu and Kashmir on the eve of the abrogation of Article 370, the J&Kadministration Wednesday removed curbs on use of social media across theUnion Territory. Mobile Internet will, however, remain restricted to 2Gspeed. A review is scheduled for March 17.By late evening, Internet was restored on majority mobile phone networksacross Kashmir.For fixed line services, there will not be any speed restriction althoughInternet services will be made available with Mac-IP binding (ensuring aclient machine works from a particular IP address and Mac address).The order issued Wednesday, comes without the requisite "whitelist" ofwebsites. Until now, Internet access on mobile and fixed line services waslimited to 1674 websites "whitelisted" by the administration, up from theinitial 153 websites-limit.J&K DGP Dilbag Singh said: "Social media monitoring will continue andanybody resorting to any misuse will be booked under law."LOOKING AT TAPPING BLOCKCHAIN, LASERS FOR MILITARY USE: GEN MM NARAVANEIndia is looking at technologies like Blockchain and lasers, among others,as part of its arsenal as previous iconic equipment like the tank andfighter jets may be on their way to becoming obsolete, Army chief General MMNaravane said on Wednesday.Speaking at a seminar in Delhi, Naravane said "warfare evolves faster thanwar fighters do", and added that "icons of the 20th century battlefield -the main battle tank, the large surface combatant, and the modern aircraft -are on the way out", comparing them to the Sony Walkman" - a portable musicplayer that was popular nearly two decades ago.He also mentioned that India was building capacities in space, cyber, andelectronic warfare.Citing the example of the Balakot airstrikes conducted by the Indian AirForce last year, he said, "The Balakot airstrike saw these short, intense,escalatory cycles, of military activity, in full media glare, wheresophisticated information narratives played an equally important role."

SC QUASHES RBI BAN, CLEARS WAY FOR VIRTUAL CURRENCY OPERATIONSThe Supreme Court Wednesday set aside an April 2018 circular of the RBIwhich had said that all entities regulated by it "shall not deal in virtualcurrencies (VCs) or provide services for facilitating any person or entityin dealing with or settling VCs".A three-judge bench of Justices Rohinton Fali Nariman, Aniruddha Bose, and VRamasubramanian, ruled that the RBI's blanket ban prohibiting banks dealingwith VC holders or exchanges did not pass the test of "proportionality".In its 180-page judgment, the bench held that while RBI had very wide"preventive as well as curative" powers to regulate entities under itsambit, "the availability of power is different from the manner and extent towhich it can be exercised"The court has not explicitly mentioned whether lenders will henceforth beable to trade in VCs or not. Experts, however, hoped that the ruling willmake the banking regulator reconsider its approach on VC and come up with anew, calibrated framework or regulation for the same.With the order, resumption of operations at cryptocurrency exchanges andbackward linkages with the banking sector is likely. The ruling also meansthat people holding bitcoins and other virtual currencies would be able toplace these as collateral or obtain loans, provided the country's lendersagree to accepting them.NIRVHAYA CASE: PREZ REJECTS CONVICT'S PLEAPresident Ram Nath Kovind rejected the mercy petition of Pawan Kumar Gupta,one of the four men facing the gallows in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape andmurder case, officials in the MHA said today.The Delhi Government moved a court seeking a fresh date for the execution offour convicts in the case, saying their all legal remedies have beenexhausted. Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana issued a notice to theconvicts and directed them to file their response by Thursday (today).TAX DISPUTE SETTLING BILL OKAYEDThe Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed a new Bill that proposes to settle pendingdisputes related to direct taxes. Lakhs of disputes are pending. The DirectTax 'Vivad Se Vishwas Bill, 2020' was tabled before the Parliament on March2.The Bill will provide taxpayers an opportunity to settle direct tax disputeswithin the current financial year by waiving interest and penalty on theirpending taxes.The Vivad Se Vishwas Bill aims to resolve 4.83 lakh direct tax cases worthRs 9.32 lakh crore that are currently locked up in various appellate forums.Under it, taxpayers shall be allowed a complete waiver of interest andpenalty if they pay the entire amount of tax in dispute by March 31,2020.Beyond this date, a 10 per cent additional disputed tax shall have to bepaid over and above the tax liability.The Vivad se Vishwas scheme would remain open till June 30, 2020.GOVT PERMITS NRIs TO OWN UP TO 100% STAKE IN AIR INDIAWith an aim to fetch better value in strategic sale of Air India, thegovernment today tweaked the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy to allowNon Resident Indians (NRIs) to control up to 100 per cent stake in thenational carrier.Informing about the decision of the Union Cabinet, which was chaired byPrime Minister Narendra Modi, I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar said, "FDIPolicy has been amended to permit foreign investments in Air India by NRIsup to 100 per cent under automatic route. Earlier, it was only 49 per centavailable for sale to NRIs in the national carrier. Now they can purchase100 per cent."The decision comes at a time when the government is looking to sell 100 percent stake sale in the national carrier.Globally, the airline industry is governed by the norms, which state that acarrier with overseas operations should have a substantial domesticownership.INDICATORSSensex 38,409 (-214), Nifty 11,251 (-52), Trading Value NSE (Rs.crores)47,151Nasdaq 9,018 (+334) Dow 27,091 (+1173), S&P 3,130 (+127)US$-Rs. 73.50 GBP-Rs. 94.26, Euro-Rs. 81.92, UAE Dhm-Rs.20.01, Can$-Rs.54.96, Aus$- Rs. 48.59GBP 0.77 /US$, Euro 0.89 /US$, Jap.Yen 107.43 /US$, Aus$ 1.51 /US$, Sing1.38 /US$, Bang Taka 83.16 /US$, Can$ 1.33 /US$, Mal Ring 4.18 /US$,Pak Re 153.52 /US$, Phil Peso 50.58 /US$, Russian Rouble 66.02 /US$, NZ$1.59 /US$, Thai Baht 31.30 /US$, Ukraine Hryvnia 24.65 /US$, Norway NOK 9.25/US$Bitcoin - USD 8,766Dollar Index 97.27 Brent Crude 51.87 BDI 549Gold world Spot Price USD/aoz 1,640 India (Rs. per gm 24k/22k) 4,340 /4,240, Silver (Rs. Per KG) 50,100THOUGHT FOR THE DAYOne ship sails East, And another West, By the self-same winds that blow, Tisthe set of the sails, And not the gales, That tells the way we go. - EllaWheeler WilcoxOFF TRACKOn their 50th wedding anniversary, a couple summed up the reason for theirlong and happy marriage.The husband said, "I have tried never to be selfish. After all, there is no"I" in the word 'marriage.'"'The wife said, "For my part, I have never corrected my husband's spelling."