Couple receives petrol as wedding present

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

CUDDALORE, SEPTEMBER 18, 2018 00:00 IST



A can of petrol being given to the couple at their wedding reception held at Kumaratchi on Sunday. 

The guest who gave the gift says he wanted to sensitise people about rising fuel prices

In an incident that has fuelled intrigue , a couple who tied the knot at Kumaratchi near Cuddalore got an unique wedding present — a can of petrol. An apt gift from the thoughtful guest, given the skyrocketing fuel prices .

The gift was presented at the reception of , Ilanchezhiyan and Kanimozhi, on Sunday.

K. Prabhu alias Prabhakaran, hailing from Kumbakonam, presented the couple with a five-litre can of petrol. This was a pleasant surprise and drew the attention of the guests, the groom said.

Prabhakaran is the District Committee Member of the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artists Association and a M.Phil student of Tamil Nadu Music and Fine Arts University, Chennai. Ilanchezhiyan was his junior. He said that he came to know that the price of petrol in Cuddalore was higher compared to other areas.

“We were waiting at a retail petrol bunk outlet to fill fuel. I was moved by the plight of the people reeling under the skyrocketing fuel prices. We immediately decided to gift a can of petrol to the couple,” he said.

Prabhakaran said he had wanted to sensitise people about the fuel issue. He added that he had immediately filled the tank of the two-wheeler which had been gifted to the groom.

Merger of BoB, Vijaya & Dena banks proposed

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 18, 2018 00:00 IST

The Centre on Monday proposed the amalgamation of state-owned Bank of Baroda, Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank to create India’s third-largest bank.

The decision was taken at the meeting of a ministerial panel, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, which oversees merger proposals of state-owned banks.

The other members of the panel include Railways Minister Piyush Goyal and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

“This major decision was taken by Alternative Mechanism today to amalgamate Bank of Baroda, Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank. While making this suggestion, we have borne in mind that we don’t want a merger of what are relatively weak banks,” Mr. Jaitley said, adding, “You can have two well-performing banks absorbing a weak one in the amalgamation process and hopefully creating a mega bank which will be sustainable, whose lending ability which will be far higher.”

On the choice of banks, Mr. Jaitley said it was the government’s assessment because one of the banks [Dena Bank] had been placed under the prompt corrective action framework. “We want to save all the banks. When you make a merger, you want to make sure the merged entity is a stronger entity.” Therefore, our capacity to subsume that weaker bank into the merged entity, which will be a stronger bank, is the principal factor that weighs with the government. Of course, we see the all India expanse and so on…”

SC overturns govt drug ban, allows sale of three FDCs

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:18.09.2018

The Supreme Court on Monday allowed sale of Saridon, Piriton Expectorant and Dart — three fixed dose combination (FDCs) drugs — recently been banned by the Centre along with 325 other drugs and permitted pharmaceutical companies to manufacture and sell the medicines.

Agreeing to hear the plea of pharma majors which approached the apex court challenging the Centre’s decision to ban the drugs, a bench of Justices R F Nariman and Indu Malhotra issued notice to the Centre and stayed the government decision with regard to the three drugs.

The government took the decision on the basis of recommendation of a panel constituted by the Centre on the SC’s direction to review safety, efficacy and therapeutic justification of FDC drugs. Hearing a batch of petitions challenging the Centre’s 2015 ban on some FDC drugs, the court in December referred the issue to the Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) for a fresh view before recommending any action. FDCs are combinations of two or more drugs in a single dosage.

The review was ordered after the Centre challenged the Delhi high court order quashing its March 10, 2016, notification banning 344 FDC drugs citing health risks and lack of therapeutic justification. The ban on FDC drugs was enforced following a report by a six-member committee headed by Chandrakant Kokate, which in January 2015 termed 963 FDCs “irrational”, posing health threats. The court, however, said its Monday order will be applicable to FDCs given licence prior to 1988.

A sub-committee of DTAB submitted its report on 349 FDC drugs saying there is no therapeutic justification for ingredients in 328 FDCs and these can be a risk to people. The board recommended banning these drugs and the health ministry prohibited their manufacture, sale and distribution with immediate effect and restricted another

six. Challenging the Centre’s decision, manufacturing companies — Piramal Healthcare, GlaxoSmith-Kline and Juggat Pharma — filed an application before the court saying the order is illegal and arbitrary. Senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Shyam Divan contended the three FDCs were given licence before 1988 and the panel was not allowed to examine their safety and efficacy as per the court order.

Additional solicitor general Pinky Anand, appearing for the Centre, contested the arguments of the companies that drugs were given licence before 1988 and told the bench she would file response on behalf of the government.

Recording the statement of the companies, the bench allowed them to continue to manufacture the drugs and asked the Centre to file response.


AVAILABLE AGAIN:Saridon, Piriton Expectorant and Dart were banned along with 325 other drugs

Engineers’ Day celebrated at Vellore Institute of Technology

Vellore:18.09.2018

With many countries facing a shortage of engineers, India is in a position to contribute highly qualified technical manpower to them, said Dr G Viswanathan, chancellor of Vellore Institute of Technology, on Monday.

Presiding over the Engineers’ Day celebration and the inaugural function of the Students’ Council at the VIT premises, Viswanathan said the population is declining in about 50 countries, as a result of which they will have to look towards India or China to increase the workforce.

Denying the claim that employment opportunities were declining for engineers, he said that engineers can always survive. TNN

State govt workers’ DA hiked by 2%

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:18.09.2018

The Tamil Nadu government on Monday gave a festival bonanza to its employees by increasing the dearness allowance (DA) by 2%. Government employees used to get 7% DA, which has been hiked to 9% from July 1.

“The minimum increase in salary for government employees will be ₹314 and maximum will be ₹4,500 per month. Similarly for pensioners, the minimum increase will be ₹157 and maximum ₹2,250,” said chief minister K Palaniswami in a press release.

Apart from government employees, teachers, officials in local bodies and several others — amounting to a total of 18 lakh employees — will benefit from the DA increase.

“The increase is expected to raise the salary and pension expenditure by ₹1,157 crore. All employees will get the arrears from July in their September salary,” said the chief minister.

Government calls striking doctors for discussions today

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:18.09.2018

The health department has called representatives of striking government doctors for talks on Tuesday at the secretariat, three days ahead of their proposed boycott of all patient services barring emergencies, demanding higher pay.

On Monday, the joint action committee of Government Doctors Association chairman Dr K Senthil told the media that nearly 20,000 government doctors working in three wings will boycott work on Friday in government and private hospitals demanding pay parity with their counterparts at the Centre. “We will not sign attendance, see patients in OP wards or do elective surgeries,” he said. However, the committee has formed teams that will attend emergencies, he said.

Minutes after the announcement officials at the health department said they will be holding talks with the doctors. “We are trying to settle the issue amicably. We want to ensure that people don’t suffer,” said health secretary J Radhakrishnan.

Meanwhile, the directorate of medical education has sought permission from the government to initiate disciplinary action against government doctors who did not appear before then two-member MCI team at the two medical colleges.

“We have been asking for a pay hike for 10 years now. This time we gave the strike notice also ahead of time. If the talks fail, we are left with no option but to go on strike,” said Dr A Ramalingam. “Still if nothing happens, we will increase the strike period,” he said.

New banking giant: Govt to merge BoB, Dena & Vijaya
‘Our Banks Must Be Globally Competitive’

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:

The government on Monday announced the merger of three state run banks — Bank of Baroda, Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank — to create the country’s third largest lender, setting off consolidation in the nationalised banking space after years of discussion.

The decision was taken by a ministerial panel comprising finance minister Arun Jaitley, railway minister Piyush Goyal and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman late Monday afternoon and announced less than an hour later.

“Aspirations of the fastest growing economy have to be supported by stronger and globally competitive banks, with increased choices to the stakeholders. The boards of Vijaya Bank, Dena Bank and Bank of Baroda have been advised by the Alternate Mechanism (the ministerial panel) to consider the proposal (for consolidation),” financial services secretary Rajiv Kumar said at a press conference.

The dates for the board meetings have not been fixed yet as the banks will await a formal communication from the government. But officials said the process will take six months or so including shareholder, regulatory and government approvals.

The board approvals are seen as a formality after which the details of the share swap ratio will be worked out. The financial services secretary also assured the banks of providing capital till the deal was completed. The name of the new entity is yet to be decided, Jaitley said.

Jobs of employees will be protected: Jaitley

This is the fourth major restructuring in the financial sector initiated by the Narendra Modi government. It kicked off with the merger of State Bank of India’s five associate banks with their parent along with the Bharatiya Mahila Bank. Then, the government announced the merger of three state-run general insurers, while allowing LIC to acquire a majority stake in troubled lender IDBI Bank. While announcing the amalgamation of BoB, Dena and Vijaya Bank, Jaitley sought to assure employees that their jobs will be protected and service conditions won’t be diluted. “No employee will face a service condition that is in any way adverse to his present ones. On the contrary, the SBI experience has been that among the merging and new entities, the best of the service conditions continue to apply to all of them,” the minister said. The government believes that the merger will improve the operational synergy of the three banks and is part of a plan to create larger Indian lenders instead of smaller entities vying for the same business. Public sector players have been grappling with a mounting pile of NPAs or bad loans and several of them are in the red and have seen massive doses of equity infusion from the Centre to stay afloat. In fact, Dena Bank is amongst the weakest in the country with its fragile financial position forcing RBI to impose restrictions on its lending. The announcement comes at a time when the Indian economy is facing global headwinds with a weak rupee and higher oil prices impacting the current account deficit. Asked about the timing of the consolidation move, Jaitley said: “If you have a global challenges relating to crude oil prices or strengthening of the dollar, business as usual in other areas of governance doesn’t come to a standstill.”