ASSEMBLY POLLS: EARLY RESULTS IN LINE WITH EXIT POLLS

Leads as of 0945 IST:

UP [321 / 403]

PARTY / LEADs

BJP      221

SP        87

BSP     6

Cong    5

OTH     2

PUNJAB [107 / 117]

PARTY / LEADs

AAP     78

INC      13

SAD     10

BJP      5

OTH     1

UTTARAKHAND [63 / 70]

PARTY / LEADs

BJP      41

INC      18

BSP     1

AAP     1

OTH     2

MANIPUR [39 / 60]

PARTY / LEADs

BJP      16

INC      8

JDU     5

NPP     5

OTH     5

GOA [29 / 40]

PARTY / LEADs

INC      18

BJP      4

AAP     2

TMC     2

OTH     3

CABINET CLEARS AGENCY TO MONETISE GOVT LAND

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the setting up of the National Land Monetization Corporation (NLMC) to monetise surplus land and building assets of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) and other agencies linked to the Govt.

“With monetisation of non-core assets, the Govt would be able to generate substantial revenues by monetising unused and under-used assets. At present, CPSEs hold considerable surplus, unused and under-used non-core assets in the nature of land and buildings,” the Govt said in a statement after a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In the Union Budget 2021-22, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced plans to set up a special purpose vehicle for this purpose.

Railways, Telecommunications and Defence are expected to be among key ministries holding the maximum surplus land, while parcels of several CPSEs are in prime areas with good potential.

According to the Govt statement, monetisation of land can be through direct sale or concession, or by similar means. Under the process, the Govt is essentially transferring revenue rights to private parties for a specified transaction period in return for upfront money, a revenue share, and commitment of investments in the assets.

EVM ROW: 4 UP POLL OFFICIALS REMOVED

With hours to go for the announcement of poll results in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa, the Election Commission last night removed Varanasi Additional District Magistrate NK Singh and three other officials from poll duty following Samajwadi Party’s allegations of EVM theft.

Although the EC vehemently rejected SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s accusations of EVM tampering to suit the ruling BJP in the state, it ordered action against NK Singh for transporting training-purpose EVMs in violation of protocol. Three other officers were stripped of poll duties amid the ongoing EVM row and were replaced on EC's orders. These included the nodal officer handling EVMs in Varanasi, a returning officer in Sonbhadra and an additional poll officer in Bareilly.

As per rules, NK Singh should have brought out the EVMs in a sealed vehicle and informed the contesting parties and local election authorities. He took out the EVMs ahead of scheduled time without intimating his superiors, sources said.

As PM Modi’s Lok Sabha segment Varanasi heated up on result day eve, the EC deputed Bihar CEO HR Srinivasa as special observer to oversee the counting process.

The BJP meanwhile approached the Election Commission to seek action against SP chief Akhilesh Yadav for allegedly trying to “incite anti-social elements” against the electoral process in UP.

The BJP said Akhilesh had attempted to spread disaffection and levelled brazen, unsubstantiated, frivolous and false charges against the EC and its officials.

The ruling BJP is defending its govts in UP, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa. The Congress would be fighting for electoral revival and AAP for expansion of political base beyond Delhi.

In Goa, the Congress shifted its candidates to a luxury resort saying they went voluntarily to celebrate a colleague’s birthday. Opinion polls have foreseen a hung house in Goa, triggering hectic parleys. The BJP spent a second day wooing MGP with Goa in-charge Devendra Fadnavis calling the outfit a “natural saffron ally”. The results would be make or break for the Congress, in power on its own only in Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.

GOVT MULLS RUSSIA’S CHEAPER CRUDE OFFER

The govt is considering if it should accept Russia’s offer for crude supply at a discounted rate. While the offer seems attractive at the time of a flareup in global crude prices, the govt is having to evaluate a whole range of factors as it finalises its response.

“There was an open offer over last two-three days that Russia was giving it (crude oil) at some sort of a discounted price. But we don’t know how it can be of effect because a whole lot of factors will have to be weighed in and we will have to get it from some port to ship it and then whether it can come to India, and whether it is workable,” a senior central govt functionary said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the war has also created a crisis scenario over the supply of sunflower oil, which is imported in large quantities from Ukraine. “The govt has already started looking from other places where, if not sunflower oil, any other oil which can come to India and is used in India,” finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in Bengaluru on Wednesday, adding that it may prove to be a challenge that needs to be addressed due to the war.

COVID DASHBOARD – INDIA

As of 0800 IST / March 10

from mohfw.gov.in ,

New Cases on Wednesday 4,184

Active Cases 44,488 (-2,474)

Total Deaths (Deaths Yesterday) 5,15,459 (33)

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

======================

RUSSIA CLAIMS HEADWAY IN TALKS, DENIES BID TO TOPPLE KYIV GOVT

Moscow : Russia said on Wednesday that negotiations with Kyiv to resolve the Ukraine conflict were making headway and underscored that Moscow’s troops were not working to topple the Ukrainian govt. “Some progress has been made,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during a press briefing, referring to three rounds of talks with Kyiv.

Ukraine and Russia officials have been meeting on the Belarus-Poland border for talks to end fighting. Zakharova said another round of talks will be focused on humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians. She also said Moscow does not intend to occupy Ukraine or overthrow its govt. The army’s aim is “not to occupy Ukraine, or the destruction of its statehood, or the overthrow of the govt. It is not directed against the civilian population”, Zakharova said.

President Putin has earlier said he sent in troops to Ukraine to “deNazify” the country.

The Kremlin accused the US on Wednesday of declaring an economic war on Russia that was sowing mayhem through energy markets, and put Washington on notice it was considering its response to a ban on Russian oil and energy.

The director of the Russian foreign ministry’s department for economic cooperation, Dmitry Birichevsky, said it was working on a broad response to sanctions that would be swift and felt in the West’s most sensitive areas. “Russia’s reaction will be swift and sensitive for those it addresses,” he said.

Russia also demanded on Wednesday that the US explain to the world why it had supported what Moscow cast as a military biological programme in Ukraine involving deadly pathogens including plague and anthrax. Maria Zakharova demanded transparency from Washington over the allegation, which is denied by Kyiv and which a Pentagon spokesman has described as “absurd Russian misinformation”. She said evidence of the alleged programme had been uncovered by Russia during what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

RUSSIA BOMBED MATERNITY HOSPITAL: UKRAINE

Ukraine accused Russia on Wednesday of bombing a maternity hospital in the besieged port of Mariupol during an agreed ceasefire to enable civilians trapped in the city to escape. Russia had said it would hold fire to let thousands of civilians flee Mariupol and other besieged cities, but the city council said the hospital had been hit several times by an air strike. “The destruction is colossal,” it said. President Volodymyr Zelensky called it an “atrocity”. “Direct strike of Russian troops at the maternity hospital. People, children are under the wreckage,” he tweeted.

Ukraine’s top security official Oleksiy Danilov, meanwhile, said on 67 children had been killed since the Russian invasion began on February 24, and he urged Kyiv’s allies to enforce no-fly zone over the country. .

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “Russian forces do not fire on civilian targets. ”

The Ukrainian foreign ministry posted video footage of what it said was the hospital showing holes where windows should have been in a three-storey building. Huge piles of smouldering rubble littered the scene. Video shared by Zelensky showed cheerfully painted hallways strewn with twisted metal. The regional governor said 17 people were wounded, including women in labour. The reports could not immediately be verified. The extent of the casualties was not immediately clear. It was also not clear whether the hospital was operating at the time of the strike.

A senior US defence official said there were indications Russia’s military was using socalled “dumb” bombs that are not precision-guided and that Washington had observed “increasing damage to civilian infrastructure and civilian casualties”.

Russian and Ukrainian forces reached a tentative agreement to allow civilians to evacuate six cities in the east and south on Wednesday, but it was unclear how many were actually open besides one in Sumy, where a humanitarian corridor appeared to be holding for a second straight day.

THE REST

=========

SUMY STUDENTS IN POLAND, SET TO LAND IN INDIA TODAY

The Indian students evacuated from Sumy were brought to Poland late Wednesday on a special train from Lviv, and will be flown back to India on Thursday, according to the govt. The students, numbering around 700, were evacuated from the conflict zone on Tuesday in buses and taken to Poltava in central Ukraine through a circuitous but safe route.

Official sources said 17 foreign nationals, including a Pakistani and 13 Bangladeshis, were among those evacuated and brought to Lviv. Official sources also said the govt will operate its last evacuation flights under Operation Ganga on Thursday. Those who choose to stay behind will now have to find their own way out and take a commercial flight to India.

PM Narendra Modi made every possible effort by speaking to world leaders on 11 occasions, chairing eight high-level meetings, and even speaking to heads of NGOs of religious sects, contacts in the industry to seek their help in the evacuation efforts, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said, addressing a media conference.

Goyal slammed the Congress and other parties for “politicising the operations and criticising Russia at a time when India was reaching out to every country to move Indian students to safety”.

He said there was no parallel Indian rescue operations as even the US and China had not succeeded in evacuating their nationals.

BJP SWEEPS ASSAM CIVIC POLLS, WINS 75 OF 80 BOARDS

BJP and its ally AGP swept the Assam civic polls on Wednesday, winning 77 of 80 municipal boards. BJP won 75 and AGP took two, while Congress managed a single win and Independents got the majority in two municipal boards in the state’s first local body elections in which EVMs were used.

CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said BJP won 742 of the 977 wards across 80 boards, while AGP took 65. Congress won in 71 wards, others triumphed in 99. Candidates won uncontested in 57 wards.

PM Narendra Modi, BJP national president JP Nadda, home minister Amit Shah and CM Sarma congratulated the people for the landslide victory. “Gratitude to the people of Assam for blessing BJP and our allies in the recently concluded municipal elections. This shows their faith in our Party’s development agenda. I applaud our hardworking Karyakartas for their efforts and service among people,” Modi tweeted.

MAHARASHTRA: ‘WILL ASK CENTRE TO REQUEST RUSSIA, OTHER NATIONS TO ACCOMMODATE UKRAINE-RETURNED STUDENTS’

Maharashtra govt will ask the Centre to reach out to Russia and other Eastern European countries close to Ukraine with a request to accommodate Indian medical students in their universities to enable the war-affected students to complete their course.

The decision in the regard was taken at a meeting held by Maharashtra Medical Education Minister Amit Deshmukh with Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) vice chancellor Dr Madhuri Kanitkar and other stakeholders on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the ministry is planning to provide a stopgap help to the affected students in Maharashtra in the form of extending theory lessons online and allowing library access in medical colleges across state.

RAJIV GANDHI ASSASSINATION: SC GRANTS BAIL TO CONVICT AFTER 32 YEARS IN JAIL

The Supreme Court yesterday granted bail to the 1991 Rajiv Gandhi assassination case convict AG Perarivalan who has been in jail for 32 years.

“Taking into account that the applicant has spent 32 years in prison, we are of the considered view that he is entitled to be released on bail,” a Bench led by Justice LN Rao said.

Overruling the Centre’s opposition to his release on bail, the Bench noted that he has been released on parole thrice and there has been no complaint about his conduct. “Perarivalan will have to fulfil the bail conditions imposed by the trial court and report to the CBI on the first day of every month,” the Bench said.

SENSEX REBOUNDS 1200 PTS

With global markets showing a smart rebound, the sensex extended its Tuesday’s gains to Wednesday’s session too, closing 1,223 points — or 2. 3% — up at 54,647. In late trades, short covering by speculators who wanted to cut their losses added to the gains, brokers said.

However, with foreign funds continuing to take money out from the domestic stock market, brokers and analysts are not yet ready to call this up move a reversal trend, mainly because of uncertainties relating to the Russia-Ukraine war.

Market players also pointed out that FPIs were again going long through derivatives route, showing bullish sentiment.

In the short term, however, rising prices of commodities and inflation were bothering traders.

Since the conflict in Europe started on February 24, stocks of companies dealing in metals, coal, crude oil, etc, have rallied since prices of these commodities have run up due to war-related uncertainties. Market players now expect the companies that use these commodities as raw materials to be impacted due to higher inputs costs.

In Wednesday’s market, Reliance Industries led the rally on reports that the company was planning to export diesel from its refineries to Europe.

ENDURANCE IS FOUND 107 YRS AFTER ANTARCTIC SHIPWRECK

Endurance, the lost vessel of the famous Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton, has been found at the bottom of the Weddell Sea in Antarctica 107 years after it sank.

It was discovered under the Weddell Sea to the south of South America, at a depth of 3,008 metres.

The ship was part of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, which set out to make the first land crossing of Antarctica.

It sank in 1915 after it was surrounded by ice and ultimately crushed by it, forcing its crew of 28 men and one cat to make a series of daring exploits for survival over several months.

The wreck is protected as a historic site and monument under the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, “ensuring that whilst the wreck is being surveyed and filmed it will not be touched or disturbed in any way”.

Endurance is a legendary ship known for one of the greatest stories of human survival through the ages of exploration of uncharted territories. It set sail from Britain in August 1914, arriving in Antarctica in December. In October 1915, the crew abandoned the ship due to increasing danger as it keeled over on the ice. They continued to camp on ice from October through March, before land could be sighted. The 28 men repurposed a lifeboat for a 1,300-km journey to reach the remote Elephant Island in April 1916.

Shackleton’s party then split up, with another group going forward to look for rescue.  In August 1916, the entire crew — and their cat — was rescued. Meanwhile, the ship had sunk into the Weddell Sea, one of the coldest places on Earth, waiting to be discovered over a century later, by Saab’s hybrid undersea Sabertooth vehicle.

MCC AMENDS SEVERAL CRICKET LAWS

Custodian of cricket laws, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), has decided to move the law relating to run-outs at non-striker's end from its "unfair play" section besides completely banning the use of saliva to shine the ball in amendments to its 2022 code that will come into effect in October.

Run-outs at non-striker's end when batters back up too far have often triggered heated debates on spirit of the game and several players like India's premier off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin have advocated for it as a fair mode of dismissal. "Law 41.16 – running out the non-striker – has been moved from Law 41 (Unfair play) to Law 38 (Run out). The wording of the Law remains the same," the MCC said in a media statement late on Tuesday.

The MCC also said that using saliva to shine the ball would be treated as an unfair practice. Saliva application was barred by the ICC in view of the Covid pandemic and the MCC said its research found that applying saliva had no impact on the ball's movement.

Another change is that when a batter is out caught, the "new batter shall come in at the end the striker was at, ie, to face the next ball (unless it is the end of an over)."

For judging a Wide, an amendment takes into account movement of a batter before the ball is bowled. The law has been amended so that a wide will apply to where the batter is standing, where the striker has stood at any point since the bowler began their run-up, and which would also have passed wide of the striker in a normal batting position.

Until now, any member of the fielding side who moved unfairly, was punished only with a dead ball...Given the action is both unfair and deliberate, it will now see the batting side awarded 5 penalty runs.

INDICATORS

Sensex 54,647 (+1223), Nifty 16,345 (+332), Trading Value NSE (Rs.crores) 69,213

Nasdaq 13,255 (+460) Dow 33,286 (+654), S&P 4,278 (+107)

US$-Rs. 76.50 GBP-Rs. 100.56, Euro-Rs. 84.07, UAE Dhm-Rs.20.82, Can$-Rs. 59.57, Aus$- Rs. 55.90

GBP 0.76 /US$, Euro 0.90 /US$, Jap.Yen 115.82 /US$, Aus$ 1.36 /US$, Sing 1.36 /US$, Bang Taka 84.26 /US$, Can$ 1.28 /US$, Mal Ring 4.18 /US$,

Pak Re 178.34 /US$, Phil Peso 52.10 /US$, Russian Rouble 129.07 /US$, NZ$ 1.46 /US$, Thai Baht 33.04 /US$, Ukraine Hryvnia 29.75 /US$

Bitcoin - USD 40,870

Dollar Index 98.17 Brent Crude 110.64 BDI 2,558

Gold world Spot Price USD/aoz 1,974 India (Rs. per gm 24k/22k) 5,433 / 4,980, Silver (Rs. Per KG) 77,600

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself. - Jalal ad-Din Rumi

OFF TRACK

A student returned two books to the library that were way overdue and threw a fit over the "outrageous" $2 fee that she was asked to pay.

The librarian tried to explain to the student how much she owed for each day, but she insisted she should be exempt. "You don't understand," she blurted out. "I didn't even read them!"