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Tuesday,20-October-2026
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Bank strike: Customers urged to finish key transactions before 3-day nationwide protest

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New Delhi, Sep 26: Customers of several public sector and old-generation private sector banks have been advised to complete important banking transactions in advance as bank employees’ unions prepare for a three-day nationwide strike starting September 28. The proposed strike is expected to disrupt branch operations across many banks and coincides with the sector’s crucial half-yearly closing period.

The strike has been called by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), which claims to represent nearly 90 per cent of the country’s banking workforce.

The unions are pressing for the implementation of a five-day banking week, along with pension-related reforms and other employee welfare measures.

In a bid to reduce inconvenience to customers, the government has directed public sector banks to remain open on Sunday, September 27, enabling customers to complete urgent transactions before the strike begins.

State Bank of India (SBI) has issued an advisory stating that while it will make efforts to maintain essential services at branches and offices, some banking operations could be affected during the strike period.

The bank has urged customers to complete critical transactions ahead of time and make use of digital banking channels, including YONO, internet banking, mobile banking, UPI, ATMs and cash deposit machines, wherever possible.

Bank of India has also alerted customers about the planned strike and advised them to rely on the bank’s round-the-clock digital platforms such as internet banking, mobile banking, ATMs, business correspondent points and UPI services for their banking requirements.

Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) are also expected to participate in the agitation, potentially widening the impact on banking services across the country.

However, new-generation private sector banks such as ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and IndusInd Bank are expected to continue normal operations, offering customers an alternative for routine banking services during the strike period.

Earlier this week, the Finance Ministry appealed to bank employees’ unions to avoid the strike and resolve pending issues through dialogue. The ministry maintained that a majority of the concerns raised by the unions have already been substantially addressed.

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Tesla shareholders to vote on Musk board seat and $158 billion pay award on Dec 3

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Tesla has scheduled its annual shareholder meeting for December 3, where investors will vote on the re-election of Chief Executive Elon Musk and other directors, along with an advisory resolution on executive compensation and the appointment of the company’s auditor.

According to a proxy filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Tesla has nominated Musk, Chair Robyn Denholm and director JB Straubel for new three-year terms on the board.

Shareholders will also be asked to approve, on a non-binding basis, executive compensation for 2025 and ratify PricewaterhouseCoopers as Tesla’s independent auditor for the fiscal year ending December 31.

Moreover, the proxy statement disclosed executive compensation attributed to Musk for 2025 of about $158.36 billion, consisting entirely of stock-based awards.

The figure reflects the accounting value assigned to performance-linked equity grants and does not represent cash compensation received by the billionaire entrepreneur.

Tesla said the awards remain contingent on the achievement of specified market capitalisation and operational targets.

The company previously reported in May that Musk’s realised compensation for 2025 was zero with none of the 12 tranches tied to the incentive program having been earned.

The equity package comprises roughly 423.7 million restricted shares that vest only after predetermined milestones are met.

In addition, any earned shares are generally subject to a five-year holding requirement, with limited exceptions.

The annual meeting will be held at Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas facility in Austin at 3 pm. However, Central Time and will also be accessible online.

Additionally, the filing highlighted several board-level links between Tesla and SpaceX.

However, the proxy statement did not reference any potential merger involving Tesla and SpaceX.

Apart from that, Elon Musk-backed SpaceX is scheduled to announce its third-quarter results on Tuesday after its shares fell nearly 35 per cent from their post-listing high.

This will be the company’s second quarterly earnings report since going public in June, following a volatile stretch for the stock.

The stock has dropped around 35 per cent from the record high it hit soon after its debut.

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Oversight Board criticises Meta over election-related moderation errors

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The independent Oversight Board on Tuesday criticised Meta, saying the social media firm must improve the transparency and consistency of its election-related enforcement after a series of moderation failures involving political accounts in the United States and Brazil.

In a statement, the Board said it remained concerned by what it described as recurring shortcomings in Meta’s election integrity efforts and warned that mistakes in content moderation risk either suppressing legitimate political speech or undermining public confidence in electoral processes.

It pointed to the removal of political activist accounts linked to the ‘No Kings’ movement in the United States and restrictions placed on accounts associated with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva during election periods as examples of enforcement actions that fuelled concerns about electoral interference.

According to the Board, the erroneous action against the No Kings Instagram account should have been detected by Meta’s safeguards designed to prevent moderation mistakes.

Meanwhile, it also questioned why the accounts were not included in Meta’s Cross-Check program which provides additional human review for high-profile civic and political entities before actions are taken that could affect participation in major public events.

The Board said Meta’s enforcement of fraud-related policies against ad accounts linked to Lula during Brazil’s presidential election campaign similarly represented a failure that should have been escalated to specialist reviewers.

The comments revisit concerns raised by the board following Brazil’s 2022 presidential election, when it called on Meta to establish measurable benchmarks for assessing the effectiveness of its election integrity programs and to publish relevant performance data.

While Meta regularly discloses broad statistics such as the number of advertisements archived or accounts removed, the Board said the company has yet to provide public metrics that adequately measure the effectiveness of its enforcement systems or identify significant shortcomings.

Moreover, the Board also warned that the wrongful removal of political content ahead of elections could have a chilling effect on political participation and potentially undermine electoral integrity.

“Automated enforcement tools must take language, nuance, and political context into account to better protect political speech that does not incite violence,” according to Oversight Board.

Meta had pledged in 2025 to reduce moderation errors while allowing greater freedom of expression around elections and political debate.

The Board said recent incidents suggest further improvements are needed for the company to meet that commitment.

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Indian stock markets closed on account of Dussehra

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Indian stock markets will remain closed on Tuesday on account of Dussehra with trading suspended across major segments on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE).

Trading in equities, equity derivatives, securities lending and borrowing (SLB), currency derivatives and interest rate derivatives will remain closed for the day on both exchanges, according to them.

Notably, normal trading on NSE and BSE will resume on Wednesday.

However, the commodity derivatives segment will follow a different schedule. Trading will remain suspended during morning session from 9 am to 5 pm before resuming in evening. The session will continue till 11:30 pm or 11:55 pm depending on contract.

Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) will not remain closed for entire day. Exchange will suspend trading during morning session from 9 am to 5 pm and reopen for evening session from 5 pm.

Investors will be able to trade commodities such as gold, silver, crude oil and base metals during evening session.

Meanwhile, National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) will remain closed for both sessions on account of Dussehra.

Following Dussehra holiday, three regular trading holidays remain on NSE and BSE calendars for rest of 2026 — November 10, Tuesday, Diwali-Balipratipada; November 24, Tuesday, Prakash Gurpurb Sri Guru Nanak Dev; and December 25, Friday, Christmas.

In addition, exchanges have also scheduled a special Muhurat Trading session for November 8, 2026 on occasion of Diwali Laxmi Pujan. Timings for special session will be announced separately.

Notably, in the last session equity benchmarks closed in negative territory amid selling pressure in the banking and information technology (IT) sector stocks.

Sensex decreased over 850 points or 1 per cent to settle at 73,852.90 on Monday. Similarly, Nifty closed 257.20 points or 1.11 per cent lower at 22,888.95.

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