GOVT REVOKES BAN ON TWO NEWS CHANNELS, BLAMES MINISTRY OFFICIALSRevoking the 48-hour ban imposed on Friday evening on two Malayalam newschannels - Asianet News and Media One News - for their coverage of the Delhiriots, the government said on Saturday that it "values press freedom" andindicated that its officials may have erred in drafting the notices.While Asianet News was back on air at 1 am Saturday, Media One News resumedtelecast at 9.30 am.Union I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar said the two television channels hadviolated the broadcasting code of conduct, but the notices issued to themwere not properly worded.The two separate orders, citing alleged violations of the Cable TV Network(Regulations) Act, 1995, had listed "siding towards a particular community"and being "critical towards Delhi Police and RSS" among the reasons. "Wehave now asked the officers concerned how this happened. The notice sent tothe two media channels should have restricted itself to only mentioning thatthe code of conduct was not followed. There is a code of conduct for newschannels which expects them not to disclose names of places of worship(during riots)," Javadekar said.Jaavadekar said the PM had also expressed concern over the ban order, andpromised to take "essential corrective" steps if a wrongdoing was found.SHOW ME ONE COUNTRY THAT WELCOMES ALL: EXTERNAL AFFAIRS MINISTER S JAISHANKARNo country in the world says everybody is welcome, External Affairs MinisterS Jaishankar said on Saturday, hitting out at those criticising India overthe Citizenship (Amendment) Act."We have tried to reduce the number of stateless people through thislegislation. That should be appreciated," he said when asked about the CAAat the ET Global Business Summit. "We have done it in a way that we do notcreate a bigger problem for ourselves.""Everybody, when they look at citizenship, have a context and has acriterion. Show me a country in the world which says everybody in the worldis welcome. Nobody says that," the minister said.Asked about the UNHRC director not agreeing with India on the Kashmir issue,Jaishankar said: "UNHRC director has been wrong before. "UNHRC skirts aroundcross-border terrorism as if it has nothing to do with country next door.Please understand where they are coming from; look at UNHRC's record howthey handled Kashmir issue in past," he added.SBI READIES RS 10,000-CRORE WARCHEST TO RESCUE YES BANKThe public sector State Bank of India is preparing to invest as much as Rs10,000 crore for a 49 per cent stake in the struggling Yes Bank under abailout plan prepared by the Central Government.Addressing a press conference on Saturday, SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar saidhis bank would initially invest Rs 2,450 crore for the 49 per cent stake.Admitting that the funds infused by SBI would not be adequate to cover thelosses of Yes Bank, Kumar said the state-owned bank was in touch with otherinvestors to pump funds into the struggling lender. ".... 23 potentialinvestors have approached us to invest....," Kumar told reporters.The SBI chairman added that the capital required by Yes Bank may go upsubstantially. "Assuming Yes Bank issues 2,000 crore shares each at Rs 10each to raise Rs 20,000 crore we will have to put in about Rs 10,000 crore,"Kumar said. Since the government-owned bank's stake in Yes Bank cannot gobelow 26 per cent over the next three years under RBI's reconstruction planSBI would have to invest at least Rs 5,500 crore, Kumar added.The SBI Bank chairman added that his team was carrying out due diligence ofYes Bank's books and a rescue plan would be ready by Monday.Responding to questions by reporters that SBI was being pressured by thegovernment to carry out a rescue of Yes Bank, Kumar said the private bankneeded to survive. "The failure of Yes Bank would have consequences for theIndian economy," Kumar said.He ruled out merging Yes Bank with the State Bank of India.'PARTED WAYS WITH BJP, NOT HINDUTVA,' SAYS UDDHAV THACKERAY IN AYODHYAMaharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday visited Ayodhya andannounced an aid of Rs 1 crore for the construction of Ram Temple whilestressing that his party, the Shiv Sena, is committed to Hindutva eventhough it has broken ties with the BJP.Thackeray, on his first visit to Ayodhya after becoming CM last November andcompleting 100 days in office on Friday, also said the aid will be given onbehalf of a trust and not the Maharashtra government.He was accompanied by his wife Rashmi, son and Maharashtra tourism ministerAaditya Thackeray and another minister and Congress leader Sunil Kedar. "InMarathi, there is a phrase 'phool na phoolachi paakli' (one should offer apetal if not the whole flower). So I am humbly announcing Rs 1 croreassistance for temple construction, not on behalf of the (Maharashtra)government, but our trust," Thackeray said.Asked about the BJP's criticism that the Sena turned its back on theHindutva ideology after joining hands with the NCP and Congress to formgovernment in Maharashtra, Thackeray said the Sena still espouses Hindutva."I have perhaps parted ways with the BJP (but) not with Hindutva. The BJPand Hindutva are different. BJP does not mean Hindutva," he said.YES BANK RESCUE PLAN "BIZARRE", HUGE LOAN SPIKE ALLOWED: P CHIDAMBARAMCongress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday said the government's bailout planfor the crisis-hit Yes Bank was "bizarre", targeting the BJP-ledadministration over a massive oversight failure that allowed a 35 per centper year jump in its loan book since 2014."The plan appears to be that SBI will invest Rs 2,450 crore to pick up a 49per cent stake in the restructured capital of the bank at a price of notless than Rs 10 per share, face value Rs 2. This is bizarre when the networth of the bank is zero," Chidambaram said. "I don't get the impressionthat SBI was a volunteer in the rescue act. Just as LIC wasn't for IDBI.These are command performances," the former finance minister added.Outlining a restructuring plan for Yes Bank after restrictions imposed bythe RBI, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday had lashed out atopposition criticism, claiming that the crisis originated on Congress watch.She also mocked Chidambaram as a "self-appointed competent doctor" andquestioned his track record.On Saturday, Chidambaram countered her, saying, "Sometimes when I listen tothe Finance Minister, I feel the UPA is still in power, I am still thefinance minister and she is the opposition."Laying the blame squarely on the BJP-led government at the centre for astunning jump in Yes Bank's outstanding loans from Rs 55,633 crore in 2014to Rs 2,41,499 crore in 2019, the Congress leader said, "Obviously if youmismanage, you will lurch from one crisis to another.""Who authorised the grant of new loans after March 2014? Were the RBI andthe government not aware that Yes Bank was in a loan-giving spree? It wasnot banking but buccaneering. Did no one at the government or the RBI readthe balance sheet of the bank at the end of every year? Why did the alarmbells not ring when Yes Bank reported its first quarterly loss in March2019?" the Congress leader said.RANA KAPOOR QUESTIONED ON DHFL FIRM'S LOAN TO FAMILY COMPANYA day after conducting searches at premises associated with Rana Kapoor,including his residence, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturdayquestioned the Yes Bank promoter the whole day.Kapoor is being questioned over a Rs 600-crore loan from a non-bankingfinancial company (NBFC), which is an associate company of Dewan HousingFinance Limited (DHFL), to DoIT Urban Ventures (India) Private Ltd, acompany owned by Kapoor's family, at a time when Yes Bank had loan exposureof over Rs 3,000 crore to DHFL. Rana Kapoor was the MD and CEO of Yes Banktill January 2019.Documents available with the Registrar of Companies under the Ministry ofCorporate Affairs show that DoIT was incorporated in 2012 with Rana Kapoor'swife Bindu as its director. The company has no employees and in the yearended March 2019, it incurred a loss of over Rs 48 crore on a revenue of Rs59.36 crore."We suspect this entire transaction was done to offset any pressure from YesBank to DHFL over its loan exposure. It is a clear case of quid pro quo," anED official said.CENTRE MOVES ON PRIVATISATION OF BPCL, INVITES BIDSThe govt has invited Expressions of Interest (EoI) from interested partieswith a net worth of at least $10 billion for the strategic sale of BharatPetroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) - one of the largest oil marketing and oilrefining companies in India with a refining capacity of 38.3 million metrictonnes per annum or about 15% of the total refining capacity in the country.Divestment of the government's 52.98% equity stake in BPCL will form a keypart of its Rs 2.1 lakh crore disinvestment target for the next fiscal. Thegovernment has, however, excluded BPCL's stake in the Numaligarh refinery,which has a refining capacity of 3 million metric tonnes per annum, from thedivestment process as it intends to sell it to another PSU.The Union Cabinet had approved the strategic sale of BPCL, stake sales inContainer Corporation of India and Shipping Corporation of India lastNovember.Oil PSU unions have opposed the proposed strategic sale of BPCL, arguingthat the government should seek to divest its stake in loss making PSUsinstead - BPCL has a consistent record of profitability.With plans in the works for privatisation of BPCL, Container Corporation ofIndia, Shipping Corporation of India and Air India, the coming year is goingto see the government sell its equity in several state-owned companies on anunprecedented scale.Besides these companies, the government has also announced plans to sell itsstake in LIC, the country's largest insurer, through an IPO, and proposed tosell its equity in the stressed IDBI Bank to private, retail andinstitutional investors through the stock exchange.INDIGO WAIVES CANCELLATION, RESCHEDULING CHARGES TILL MARCH 31Budget carrier IndiGo on Saturday announced waiving of cancellation andrescheduling charges on flight bookings till March 31 due to the situationarising out of the coronavirus outbreak.The cancellation fee has been waived off on existing and new domestic andinternational bookings made between March 12 and March 31, IndiGo said in astatement.Also, there will be no fee charged for date change for flights bookedbetween March 12 to March 31, it said."We understand that some passengers are concerned about committing totravel, given the current coronavirus issue. To take this anxiety away andmake their travel hassel-free, we are waiving our normal change fee on alltravel during the next two weeks and for all new bookings made in thatperiod," IndiGo Chief Commercial Officer William Boulter said in thestatement. This will enable IndiGo fliers to book their flights at"affordable" fares with flexibility of rescheduling without change fee, ifneeded, he said.STAGE SET FOR BLOCKBUSTER FINALE OF WOMEN'S T20 WORLD CUPTournament organisers have been handed their dream final, between theworld's No. 1 team and hosts Australia, and the world's mightiest and mostpopulous cricket nation, India. An enormous crowd is expected at the MCG,with the ICC releasing extra standing room tickets on Saturday to cope withdemand. With Katy Perry performing either side of a contest on InternationalWomen's Day, it shapes as one of the seminal events in the history of sportin Australia, and of women's sport around the globe.Grappling with a pair of ruinous injuries, Australia have had the rockiestpossible road to the final. They have not played their best cricket, butinstead shown forbearance, determination and big-match temperament to forgethrough what have effectively been four successive elimination matches afterthey lost the opening game of the tournament to India.India, meanwhile, have more or less ridden the wave they caught in defeatingAustralia at the Sydney Showgrounds on opening night, neither beaten norparticularly troubled at any point in their next three group matches, thenenjoying the benefit of a free pass to the final over England due to theirhigher better qualifying position. Shafali Verma has been the tournament'sundisputed batting star, consistently rocketing her team to rapid starts,while Harmanpreet Kaur has marshalled her spin bowlers and the mediums ofShikha Pandey adroitly.If there are any question marks over India, they are matters of belief,having never played in a T20 World Cup final before, let alone won one, andalso sharpness: in a tightly scheduled tournament, their draw and the Sydneyrain has meant that they have not played a match in more than a week.Australia, in the meantime, have played twice.THOUGHT FOR THE DAYA competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything.Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity. - Robert A.HeinleinOFF TRACKOne of Microsoft's finest technicans was drafted and sent to boot camp. Atthe rifle range, he was given some instruction, a rifle, and bullets.He fired several shots at the target. The report came from the target areathat all attempts had completely missed the target.The technician looked at his rifle, and then at the target. He looked at therifle again, and then at the target again.He put his finger over the end of the rifle barrel and squeezed the triggerwith his other hand.The end of his finger was blown off, whereupon he yelled toward the targetarea, "It's leaving here just fine, the trouble must be at your end!"