India

New Delhi, Feb 24 (PTI) The Indian government has paid Cairn Energy Plc Rs 7,900 crore to refund taxes it had collected to enforce a retrospective tax demand, ending a seven-year-old dispute that had tarred the country's image as an investment destination.

The company, which is now known as Capricorn Energy PLC, in a statement said it has received "net proceeds of USD 1.06 billion", of which nearly 70 per cent will be returned to the shareholders.

New Delhi, Feb 24 (PTI) US aerospace major Boeing on Thursday said it has delivered the 12th Poseidon-8I maritime patrol aircraft to India.

The fleet is being operated by the Indian Navy primarily to carry out surveillance in the Indian Ocean region.

Boeing said the aircraft delivered on Wednesday was the fourth of the four additional aircraft contract for which was signed in 2016.

Hyderabad, Feb 24 (PTI) Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates on Thursday said the world may see another pandemic, likely a respiratory virus, even as he emphasised on strengthening diagnostics, therapeutics, vaccines and R &D.

The last gigantic pandemic was almost 100 years ago but it won't be that long into the next one strikes, he said, in a virtual fireside chat with Telangana Industries Minister K T Rama Rao as part of 'BioAsisa-2022', the state government's flagship annual life sciences convention.

Mumbai, Feb 24 (PTI) Mumbai Police on Thursday prohibited the gathering of more than five persons for participation in rallies, demonstrations and protest marches till March 8.

The prohibitory orders issued under section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure by Deputy Commissioner of Police (Operations) did not mention the reason.

But sources said the protests and counter-protests by political parties over NCP leader Nawab Malik's arrest by the Enforcement Directorate prompted the issuance of this order.

Mumbai/New Delhi, Feb 25 (PTI) The Income Tax department on Friday conducted searches at the premises of Shiv Sena corporator Yashwant Jadhav in Mumbai on charges of tax evasion, officials said.

A team of tax department officials is undertaking the raids against Jadhav, also the chairman of the BMC standing committee, since early morning, they said.

His wife Yamini Jadhav is the party MLA from the Byculla seat.

New Delhi, Feb 25 (PTI) In a first, a union law secretary has been appointed as a judge of a high court.

According to the Department of Justice in the Law Ministry, Union Law Secretary Anoop Kumar Mendiratta has been elevated as a judge of the Delhi High Court.

Mendiratta was appointed as judge based on his seniority as a judicial officer, sources in the government said.

Kanpur: Several students of this city went to study in Ukraine but now they are stuck due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Akshra, a resident of Kanpur who went to study medicine in Ukraine, made it clear that she, along with 100 students from India, are stuck in the college basement.

Another student named Pranjule is also  stuck in Ukraine with Akshara and her brother Aarav. Both are the students of Ukraine's Kharkiv National Medical University.

A large number of Indian students stranded in the country turned up outside the Indian Embassy in Kyiv.

Kanpur: The National Sugar Institute has developed a smarter means to catalyse the process of sugarcane juice with the help of a specially designed reactor, aerator and floatation clarifier.

The technology has been successfully tried in the Experimental Sugar Factor of the famed institute.

This feat was reported to be done in direct collaboration with The Sugar Technologists Association of India and M/s Chemical System Technologies, New Delhi.

MUMBAI, Feb 24 (Reuters) - India is focusing on evacuating its 16,000 nationals still stuck in Ukraine, Foreign Minister Harsh Vardhan Shringlasaid late on Thursday, after Russian forces mounted a mass assault by land, air and sea on the former Soviet republic.

Teams of Indian foreign ministry officials have been sent to Ukraine's land borders with Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Romania to provide assistance to any fleeing Indian nationals, Shringla told a press briefing.

Mumbai, Feb 23 (PTI) An FIR has been registered against actor-director Mahesh Manjrekar for allegedly showing obscene scenes involving minor children in his latest Marathi film 'Nay Varan Bhat Loncha, Kon Nay Koncha', police said on Wednesday.