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Tuesday,03-June-2025
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Excise duty cut on petrol, diesel; subsidy announced for Ujjwala gas beneficiaries

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Amidst rising energy prices and inflation, the Central excise duty on petrol has been cut by Rs 8 per litre and on diesel by Rs 6 per litre, reducing the price of petrol by Rs 9.5 per litre and of diesel by Rs 7 per litre, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.

“Today, the world is passing through difficult times. Even as the world is recovering from Covid-19 pandemic, the Ukraine conflict has brought in supply chain problems and shortages of various goods. This is resulting in inflation & economic distress in a lot of countries,” she said in a series of tweets.

The duty cut will have revenue implication of around Rs 1 lakh crore per year for the government.

Sitharaman went on say that despite the challenging international situation, the government has ensured that there are no shortages or scarcity of essential goods. Even a few developed countries couldn’t escape some shortages or disruptions, she added.

The government is committed to ensuring that prices of essential items are kept under control, she said.

She said: “I wish to exhort all state governments, especially the states where reduction wasn’t done during the last round (November 2021), to also implement a similar cut and give relief to the common man.”

In yet another major move, the government has decided that this year it will give a subsidy of Rs 200 per gas cylinder (upto 12 cylinders) to over 9 crore beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana.

“This will help our mothers and sisters. This will have a revenue implication of around Rs 6,100 crore a year.”

Further, it is also reducing the customs duty on raw materials and intermediaries for plastic products where the country’s import dependence is high. It will result in reduction of cost of final products.

A notification with specific details on all these mention moves will be issued by the Centre within the next hours.

Business

ICEA launches industry-wide initiative to foster tech and AI innovation

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New Delhi, June 3: The India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) on Tuesday announced a unique industry-wide initiative to collaboratively foster tech and AI innovation for the benefit of India’s manufacturing sector.

The programme will connect companies with transformative innovations across domains such as advanced manufacturing, AI, IoT, energy efficiency, materials science, and more.

The ICEA launched Venture Access Labs — a technology innovation access programme in collaboration with venture capital fund Caret Capital.

This initiative aims to empower India’s electronics and appliances manufacturing companies by enabling them to discover, curate, and adopt cutting-edge technologies and innovations from across the world.

“Through Venture Access Labs, ICEA is proud to champion and unlock global innovation to strengthen India’s position as a global hub for manufacturing and electronics with a vision to build Indian Champions,” said Pankaj Mohindroo, Chairman, ICEA.

“By opening the door to international technological advancements and building an innovation pipeline, we aim to accelerate India’s electronics manufacturing capabilities and global competitiveness so as to capture a larger global market share,” he added.

The comprehensive programme will cover several functions including procurement, planning, manufacturing, supply chain, finance, HR, legal and ESG.

Through this programme, companies will benefit from innovation trend spotting, curated access to high-impact startups and Ips, strategic matchmaking and pilot opportunities, tailored adoption pathways for new technologies, and facilitated investments in strategically relevant, vetted high-potential startups.

“It is time for the Indian electronics and appliances manufacturing to transit to tech first-led global leadership,” said Salil Kapoor, Co-founder and Chief mentor of Venture Access Labs.

It will be the innovation catalyst and partner, scanning and curating the latest tech and game-changing startups from across the world for Indian manufacturing companies to engage with, at a fraction of the cost if they were to do it on their own,” he mentioned.

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National

Calcutta HC refuses ad-interim bail to law student held for hurting religious sentiments, seeks case diary

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Kolkata, June 3: The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday denied ad-interim bail to Sharmistha Panoli, the 22-year-old law student arrested recently by Kolkata Police on charges of hurting religious sentiments and promoting disharmony and hatred.

As her counsel approached the High Court, challenging the trial court’s order last week sending her to judicial custody till June 13, the matter came up for hearing before the vacation bench of Justice Partha Sarathi Chatterjee.

However, Justice Chatterjee denied any relief to Panoli, observing that the freedom of speech in the country does not allow anyone to hurt anyone’s religious sentiment.

An FIR was registered against Panoli at Garden Reach Police Station on May 15 for posting an Instagram video, where she made some comments on ‘Operation Sindoor’ that had reportedly hurt the religious sentiments of a particular community.

In the face of strong criticism, she deleted that video and also tendered a public apology for the matter. However, based on the FIR registered, the police first sent her a notice, which failed since she had gone into hiding in Gurugram by then.

Thereafter, an arrest warrant was issued against her, and finally, she was arrested from Gurugram by Kolkata Police on Saturday morning and was brought back to Kolkata on transit remand on the same day.

Rejecting the ad-interim bail, Justice Chatterjee observed that the video posted on social media had reportedly hurt the religious sentiments of a section of people. “We have freedom of speech, but that doesn’t mean you will go on to hurt others. Our country is diverse, with all people. We must be cautious,” he said.

He directed the police to submit the case diary in the matter by the next date of hearing on June 5.

The vacation bench also directed the state government to ensure that police do not pursue any other complaint filed against Panoli in any other police station. It also directed the police not to register any fresh complaints in the same matter.

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Bodies of three workers recovered from flooded illegal coal mine in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh

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Hazaribagh, June 3: Thirteen days after they were trapped, the bodies of three workers have been recovered from an illegal coal mine in Keredari block of Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh district, officials said on Tuesday.

The deceased, whose bodies were recovered late on Monday night, have been identified as Pramod Shah, 45, Umesh Kumar, 25, and Naushad Ansari, 24 — all residents of Kandaber village under the Keredari police station area.

The three men were reportedly swept into the mine on May 21, when heavy rainfall caused the Khawa River to swell.

Villagers said the strong current pushed the workers into one of the numerous illegal tunnels that dot the region, many of which are controlled by coal mafias and continue to operate despite the risks involved.

The mine shaft where they were trapped was more than 100 feet deep and quickly flooded, making rescue efforts extremely challenging.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) conducted a three-day operation to locate and retrieve the bodies but had to suspend efforts due to waterlogging.

Subsequently, the task of dewatering the mine was taken up by NTPC and a private company. After days of continuous pumping, the water level finally receded, which enabled local villagers to recover the bodies late on Monday night.

On Tuesday morning, police sent the bodies for autopsy to Sheikh Bhikhari Medical College and Hospital in Hazaribagh. After the post-mortem, the bodies were brought back to Kandaber and cremated on Tuesday afternoon.

The incident plunged the village into mourning, with relatives and neighbours breaking down as the news spread.

There were scenes of chaos and wailing as the bodies were brought into the village.

Following the recovery, villagers renewed calls for compensation and the provision of government jobs for one dependent of each deceased worker.

Despite repeated incidents, illegal mining continues unabated in the Khawa river belt of Keredari, drawing hundreds of locals desperate for work and vulnerable to exploitation.

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