Athletes from Russia and Belarus were formally banned from the multi-sport European Championships in August.
Organizers of the Aug. 11-21 championships in Munich, Germany, said they supported decisions by officials from the nine individual sports not to invite Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials. They have followed guidance from the International Olympic Committee.
We are united in our condemnation of Russia’s war on Ukraine, organizing committee chairman Libor Varhank said.
The sports are canoeing, cycling, gymnastics, rowing, sport climbing, table tennis, track and field, triathlon and volleyball.
Though swimming is an exception among Olympic sports in trying to let Russians continue competing, it is not part of the collective European Championships format launched in 2018.
As NFTs are all the rage these days, Facebook chief executive officer (CEO) Mark Zuckerberg is planning to let Instagram users mint non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the social media platform.
As per The Verge, Mark made the announcement at the session at South By Southwest, but did not provide a specific date for when NFTs might drop on Instagram.
For the unversed, Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are a digital certificate of ownership of a piece of digital asset that can be bought and sold.
During his speech, Mark stated that he hopes one day that users will be able to mint the clothes of their digital avatars as NFTs, but admitted there is still work to do before that can happen.
Instagram won’t be the first major social network with an NFT integration. Earlier this year, Twitter introduced a feature that let some users set an NFT they own as their profile picture.
Ace Indian shuttlers P V Sindhu and Saina Nehwal began their All England Championships campaign with easy straight-game wins over their respective opponents in the women’s singles here on Wednesday.
Sixth seed Sindhu beat Zhi Yi Wang of China 21-18 21-13 in her first round match that lasted 42 minutes while Saina defeated Beatriz Corrales of Spain 21-17 21-19 in 38 minutes.
The world number 7 Sindhu will meet the winner of the first round match between Sayaka Takahashi of Japan and Supanida Katethong of Thailand in the second round.
Saina, who had reached the final here in 2015, will face the winner of the first round match between second seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan and Kristin Kuuba of Estonia in the second round.
If Sindhu and Saina win their respective second round matches, they will face each other in the quarterfinals.
In men’s singles, B Sai Praneeth lost to top seed and Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen 20-22 11-21 in the first round match that lasted 48 minutes.
H S Prannoy went down fighting to last week’s German Open winner Thai player Kunlavut Vitidsarn 15-21 22-24 in 56 minutes while Sameer Verma also lost to Mark Caljouw of the Netherlands 18-21 11-21 in a 41-minute opening match.
On March 11th, the Reserve Bank of India barred Paytm Payments Bank from onboarding new customers with immediate effect. Without elaborating, the RBI said it observed ‘material supervisory concerns’ in the bank.
The regulator also ordered a comprehensive audit of Paytm Payment Bank’s IT systems. Vijay Shekhar Sharma holds a 51% stake in the bank and One97 Communications 49%.The restrictions mean users cannot sign up for new Paytm wallets or Paytm Payments Bank savings and current accounts.Meanwhile, sources told Business Standard that RBI’s action was primarily owing to violations of KYC and anti-money laundering norms.The bank faced a similar action in 2018 after RBI found that it had violated KYC norms while onboarding users.Banking industry experts said the RBI had been strict in this regard in view of the Financial Action Task Force country review, which is coming up this year or early next year.Paytm has denied a news report from Bloomberg that said RBI found Paytm Payments Bank’s servers were sharing information with China-based entities that indirectly own a stake in the firm.In the past, RBI has levied monetary penalties on banks for non-compliance with KYC rules.
Earlier this month, three cooperatives faced penalties while in September 2021, Axis Bank was fined 25 lakh rupees.Recently, fraudsters used the PAN number of several people to avail instant loans from the Dhani app.
This has highlighted the need for stronger KYC checks.
Amazon.com Inc has gone on the attack in its bitter dispute with two Indian retailers, accusing them of fraud in Indian newspaper ads on Tuesday after Reliance Industries suddenly took over many of Future Retail stores.
Amazon has been contesting the planned $3.4 billion sale of Future Group’s retail assets to Reliance, first announced in 2020, and the case is currently before the Indian Supreme Court.
Reliance, India’s biggest conglomerate and retailer run by the country’s richest man, began taking over the prized real estate with utmost stealth on Feb.25 when its staff showed up at many of Future biggest stores to assume control, sources have told Reuters.
In ads headlined “PUBLIC NOTICE” in leading Indian newspapers on Tuesday, Amazon said: “these actions have been done in a clandestine manner by playing a fraud on the constitutional courts in India.”
Future and Reliance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Amazon’s public outcry comes even though on March 3 it offered to hold talks. The ongoing talks have raised hopes the dispute could be resolved. Future has said in filings this month that it could not pay rent at many outlets given its distressed financial situation and that Reliance, which had taken over many of its leases, had issued it with termination notices.
Amazon is concerned that Reliance is continuing to take over Future stores even as the talks continue, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter who was not authorised to speak to media and declined to be identified.
The newspaper ads were aimed at alerting all stakeholders, including Future’s lenders, that the transfer of assets to Reliance is legally prohibited, the source added.
India will issue at least 240 billion rupees ($3.3 billion) in sovereign green bonds as the country marks a shift towards a low-carbon economy, according to officials with knowledge of the matter.
The debut sale may take place in the first half of the fiscal year that starts on April 1, and a decision to sell more green debt will depend on the response to the initial issuance, the people said, requesting not to be identified as the information is private, said.
A finance ministry spokesman was not immediately available for a comment.
The South Asian country’s maiden foray into the green bond space comes as it plans to fund renewable energy projects that will help meet its goal of net-zero emissions by 2070.
The government is expecting lower yields on green bonds, as otherwise it sees little purpose in issuing them, the officials said. The yield on the 10-year sovereign bond closed at 6.85% on Monday.
The planned issuance comes amid a global boom in sustainable investments. India is the world’s third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases and plans to more than quadruple its renewable power generation capacity by 2030.
Indian renewable energy companies raised debt worth 17.6 billion rupees in February, the most in nearly a year, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
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Apple is reportedly working on a charger that can power multiple devices, an iPhone, AirPods, and Watch simultaneously.
In the latest edition of ‘Power On’ newsletter Mark Gurman revealed some interesting information about the company’s future wireless charging technology, reports MacRumors.
He writes, “I also believe Apple is working on short and long-distance wireless charging devices and that it imagines a future where all of Apple’s major devices can charge each other. Imagine an iPad charging an iPhone and then that iPhone charging AirPods or an Apple Watch.”
He further added that Apple is looking for both short and long distance wireless charging, which is quite a bit more advanced than its current induction charging based offerings.
“Imagine an iPad charging an iPhone and then that iPhone charging AirPods or an Apple Watch,” adds Gurman.
Currently, the iPhone maker sells the MagSafe Duo wireless charger that charges both the iPhone and Apple Watch/AirPods at the same time.
Twitter’s new CEO Parag Agrawal hopes to extend the social networking site’s reach under his tenure while making continued progress while providing exciting opportunities in challenging times.
“I’m grateful for the service that you built, the culture, soul, and purpose you fostered among us and for leading the company through really significant challenges,” Parag posted on Twitter thanking Jack Dorsey.
“The world is watching us right now, even more than they have before. Lots of people are going to have lots of different views about today’s news. It is because they care about Twitter and our future, and it’s a signal that the work we do matte. Let’s show the world Twitter’s full potential,” he further added.
Parag expressed his gratitude towards Jack Dorsey for his mentorship and friendship.
“The world is watching us right now, even more than they have before. Lots of People are going to have lots of different views and opinions about today’s news. It is because they care about Twitter and future, and it’s a signal that the wire we do here mater. Let’s show the world Twitter’s full potential,” he further started.
Parag, aged 37, is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology Mumbai where he did his Bachelors in Engineering in computer science. He moved to the US for further studies, with his doctorate coming from Stanford University based in California.
Singapore’s civil aviation regulator plans to progressively extend Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) flights to more cities in India.
India and Singapore agreed to resume passenger flights from November 29 under an air transport bubble agreement. Air India, IndiGo, Singapore Airlines and Vistara have announced flights between the two countries.
According to this agreement 6 daily VTL flights would be operated from Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai to Singapore allowing vaccinated passengers quarantine free travel. Passengers travelling from other cities on a non-VTL flight have to undergo a 7-day quarantine at the declared place of accommodation in Singapore.
“Singapore takes a cautious and step-by-step approach in reviving air travel. For India, we have launched a VTL for travellers from Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai for a start. Pre-COVID, these three cities presented strong travel demand. We will extend the VTL to more cities in India progressively,” Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore said in an email response.
“Regardless of their first point of departure, eligible travellers travelling on VTL flights and entering Singapore do not need to serve quarantine, as long as they meet the travel history requirement of the VTL,” CAAS added.
Singapore Airlines group is operating non-VTL flights to Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kochi and Trichy and these services will resume between November 30-December 2. Flights to Amritsar will start from January 31 and these would be operated by low cost arm Scoot.
Mansa 