January 2020

Morgan Stanley starts cost-cutting plan with CEO, slashes Gorman’s salary by 7% Morgan Stanley just had its most profitable year on record. It wasn’t enough for its chief to land a raise. James Gorman’s compensation fell as the firm announced he will receive $27 million for 2019, according to a regulatory filing Friday. That’s a 6.9% decline from the prior year and on par with the package the chief executive officer received in 2017. The move is another signal that the New York-based bank is focused on keeping costs down. It recently embarked on a plan to cut 2% of its global...

Successful disinvestment of BPCL, CONCOR to lay path for ambitious stake sales in future: Garg New Delhi: Successful disinvestment of Bharat Petroleum, Container Corporation of India and Shipping Corporation will lay the foundation of a much ambitious programme for stake sale in the central public sector undertakings, Former Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said on Friday. From the perspective of non-tax income and receipts, 2019-20 will be an eventful year witnessing some extra-ordinarily positive events and a few misses, Garg said in a blog. “Initiation of strategic stake sale in BPCL, CONCOR and SCI was a path-breaking measure and if carried to...

CAA should make an exception for free-thinker Muslims, says Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen While terming the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) “very good” and “generous”, Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen on Friday said that the law should make an exception for Muslim “free-thinkers, feminists, and secularists” from the neighbouring countries. “It is nice to hear the religious persecuted minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan will get citizenship (of India). It is a very good idea and very generous one. But I think that there are people like me from the Muslim community, free thinkers and atheists, who too are persecuted in Pakistan, Bangladesh...

A man challenged Tulsi Gabbard to a push-up contest, and he lost Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard got into an impromptu push-up challenge during a Town Hall meeting recently and emerged victorious. The representative from Hawaii was taking questions from attendees in New Hampshire, when a man asked her if she could take on Joe Biden in push-ups. “Former Vice President Biden has randomly challenged people in the audience to a push-up contest even if they’re in walkers. Do you think you could take him?” the man asked referencing when former US vice-president challenged an 83-year-old retired farmer to do...

Former principle secretary to PM, Nripendra Mishra made chairman of NMML executive council Former principal secretary to the Prime Minister, Nripendra Misra, has been appointed chairperson of the executive council of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML), the latest in a string of appointments in the last six months. In November last year, the government reconstituted the NMML society removing Congress’ Mallikarjun Kharge, Jairam Ramesh and Karan Singh as its members and inducting television journalist Rajat Sharma and adman Prasoon Joshi among others. Source: MoneyControl

KV Kamath, Swapan Dasgupta likely to be inducted in Modi govt BRICS Bank Chairman KV Kamath and BJP Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta are among the technocrats likely to be inducted into the council of ministers by Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon. According to highly-placed sources, veteran banker Kamath is likely to be inducted as Minister of State in the Finance Ministry and he may over time grow in the role. Kamath has been the Chairman of ICICI BankNSE -0.95 % and Infosys and is well networked in India Inc. Source: The Economic Times

HDFC Bank to seek RBI approval for Aditya Puri’s successor by July-August Private sector lender HDFC Bank Ltd is likely to send a shortlist of candidates to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) by July-August, seeking approval for a replacement of outgoing managing director Aditya Puri, said a senior bank official on Saturday. Speaking to analysts after the bank’s December quarter results, Sashidhar Jagdishan, executive director, HDFC Bank, said that the board of directors on Saturday has agreed upon the search firm that is going to help in the process. He declined to name the firm but said, there are...

Downing of Ukraine airliner a bitter tragedy: Khamenei Iran’s Supreme Leader said on Friday that demonstrations at home over its accidental downing of a Ukrainian airliner were unrepresentative of the Iranian people and accused the country’s enemies of exploiting it for propaganda purposes. Leading the main weekly Muslim prayers in Tehran for the first time since 2012, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the January 8 downing was a “bitter” tragedy but should not be allowed to overshadow the “sacrifice” of one of Iran’s most storied commanders, assassinated in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad. Source: The Hindu

13-Year-Old’s Emotional Speech about Father Who Died in Iran Plane Crash Will Break Your Heart 13-year-old Ryan Pourjam lost his father, Mansour, a few days ago in a plane crash after Iran’s government shot down a Ukrainian Boeing 737, killing all 176 on board the flight. Most of the passengers belonged to either Canada or Iran. Initially, the Iran government had blamed technical issues for the crash but later released a statement saying that “human error” had caused the plane to be shot down. Ryan gave an emotional speech at Carlton University, where a memorial service had been held on...

Ukraine PM offers resignation after leaked recording on President Zelensky Ukraine’s prime minister offered his resignation on Friday after audio was leaked of him reportedly criticising President Volodomyr Zelensky’s understanding of the economy. “To remove any doubts about our respect for and trust in the president, I have written a resignation letter and handed it over to the president,” Oleksiy Goncharuk wrote on his official Facebook page. He said the audio “artificially created an impression that my team and I do not respect the president”. “This is not true,” he said. “I came to this post to carry out the...