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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...

Vijay Mallya let his 17-bedroom French island mansion rot; bank lists it for sale Former liquor baron Vijay Mallya’s 17-bedroom mansion on a French island is rotting, a bank has said. A bank that has sued Vijay Mallya for the unpaid debt has alleged that the 1.3-hectare property on the French island Ile Sainte Marguerite, which has a cinema, helipad, and its own nightclub, was left to fall into disrepair, a report in Bloomberg has said. As per the report, Mallya bought the mansion using a $30 million loan from Ansbacher & Co, a unit of Qatar National Bank SAQ....

Jack Dorsey Asks Elon Musk How to Fix Twitter Elon Musk’s suggestion for how to fix Twitter? Identify the bots. Musk, the SpaceX and Tesla Inc. chief executive officer, was asked Thursday by Twitter Inc. CEO Jack Dorsey how he would fix the social network, where Musk has almost 31 million followers. “Give us some direct feedback,” said Dorsey, who spoke to Musk via a video call from a company meeting in Houston. Musk was projected onto a giant screen as thousands of Twitter employees watched the two executives chat. “If you were running Twitter,“ Dorsey continued, “what would you do?” “I think it...

Piramal sells DRG business to Clarivate Analytics for USD 950 mn Ajay Piramal-led Piramal Enterprises has signed an agreement for sale of its Decision Resources Group (DRG) business to US-headquartered Clarivate Analytics for USD 950 million (over Rs 6,745 crore), and will use the money to reduce debt and to explore organic and inorganic growth opportunities. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of February 2020, Piramal Enterprises Limited (PEL) said in a statement. PEL DRG Dutch HoldCo BV, a 100 per cent subsidiary of PEL and the holding company for DRG, has signed a definitive agreement for sale of DRG to...

ED summons Air Asia CEO Tony Fernandes, top management on Jan 20 The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned the entire top management of AirAsia, including its Malaysia-based CEO Tony Fernandes, in connection with a scam. Officials said while Fernandes has been summoned on January 20, few others have also been asked to depose for questioning in the following days. The fresh summons have been issued to take the probe forward, they added. The case relates to an alleged violation of norms by Group President Tharumalingam Kanagalingam also known as Bo Lingam, Arun Bhatia who held substantial stake in the airline, former...

Google introduces online coding course ‘Python’ to train workers San Francisco: The US based tech Google has introduced a new “Google IT Automation with Python Professional Certificate” a program which is designed to provide job-ready skills in Python, Git and IT automation in under six months. “Python is now the most in-demand programming language, and more than 530,000 U.S. jobs, including 75,000 entry-level jobs require Python proficiency. With this new certificate, you can learn Python, Git and IT automation within six months,” Natalie Van Kleef Conley Product Lead, Grow with Google, said in a statement on Thursday. The program includes...