After having five children in her just 17 years on earth, April the giraffe is ready to go on birth control.
The famous giraffe from Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville, New York will also be moved to a barn where she'll be provided with senior care. Giraffes typically live up to 25 years in the wild and even more in captivity. Zookeepers were concerned that having another baby might negatively impact April's health.
April will still remain a popular exhibit at the zoo.
In the spring of 2017, the park decided to film April's pregnancy and subsequent birth of her fourth child. The giraffe went viral, and understandably so. Read more...
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is giving fans plenty to be excited about this weekend — but nothing has us jumping up and down, scanning our environments, and crawling aboard Jedi shoulders quite like the introduction of BD-1.
The breakout star of Fallen Order's newly released trailer and 15-minute gameplaypreview, both debuted as part of EA Play 2019, "Buddy Droid 1" is the cutest robot walking around this, or any, galaxy. (Note: BB-8 rolls and R2-D2 traversesCritical distinctions.)
"There are a lot of cute droids in Star Wars," Kasumi Shishido, a senior producer for Respawn working on Fallen Order, tells Mashable. "We took inspiration from BB-8, R2-D2, and this droid called Chopper from the animated series, who has a little bit of attitude, [to make BD-1]." Read more...
Every day of Pride Month, Mashable will be sharing illuminating conversations with members of the LGBTQ community who are making history right now.
It might sound reductive or even eking on offensive, but in his own words, Robert Yang makes "obscenely gay" art games.
By design, the homosexuality drips off the screen in his most well-known games, played by millions despite being indie, NSFW, and often banned by platforms like Twitch. Whether it's a game about "pleasuring a gay car" or a simulation of historic police entrapments targeting gay men in public bathrooms (but replacing penises with flesh-colored guns in an attempt to circumvent the Twitch ban), Yang's work balances the seriousness of its subject matter with a joyousness of play and humor, never sacrificing depth in the process. Read more...
A week from now will be Father's Day, so you better get moving if you haven't got him a gift yet. If your struggling with gift ideas, we've got your back, as we have picked out the best deals around.
Starting with this iPad Pro that usually retails for $799, but for a limited time only, you can save 15% off at Amazon, or upgrade his stone-age laptop with this Dell Inspiron 15 3000 Intel Core i5 laptop for $407.99 after coupon code.
If he is into gaming, now is the perfect time to get him something, as E3 is around the corner. Meaning all the top companies will have their mini sales. For example, you can save $50 off a PlayStation 4 Pro console, or 33% off PlayStation Plus 12-month membership. Read more...
TL;DR: You can get a lifetime subscription to the advanced FastestVPN bundle at a price you choose.
It's common knowledge that you need to protect your internet connection when you surf the web. You don't need a complicated mess of anti-virus solutions, anti-malware products, and industrial-grade VPNs, though.
Something like The FastestVPN bundle makes it easy to keep your data safe from hackers, spies, and viruses: it includes a lifetime subscription to FastestVPN and Cylance Smart Antivirus.
The trouble with a lot of VPNs is that even though they encrypt your traffic and location, they can make your browsing speed agonizingly slow. Where you win on protection, you lose on productivity. That's not the case with FastestVPN — it operates at a blazing fast 99.9 percent uptime, and features P2P optimized servers, so you can stream even HD content anonymously and quickly (it also unlocks geo-restricted content for you). Not only does it utilize military-grade 256-bit AES encryption to make your connection and data un-hackable, it also includes a NAT firewall and internet kill switch to prevent any accidental data leakage if you lose service. Read more...
For some, gaming is life. (Xbox body wash, anyone?) If that includes you, why not make it your primary source of income, too?
An online course is a great way to test the waters and you'll definitely know if game creation is the path for you after completing the Zero to Hero HTML5 Game Developer Bundle. It packs enough educational content to train you to build immersive games and you can enroll during this sale that's 97% off, or just $25.
Whether you're an avid gamer with a pipe dream, an aspiring game developer, or an experienced programmer looking to pivot to game development, this eight-course bundle is designed to arm you with the skills you need to get on the path to becoming a pro. Read more...
If you were recently inspired to purge all the little things that don't "spark joy" (thanks Marie Kondo), you're not alone. As a result, you likely have quite a bit of newfound space in your home — and there's nothing better than filling those empty drawers and sparkling surfaces with new things that you *do* love. Case in point, check out these 24 must-have items that improve your life in all sorts of random ways.
Perfect for hiking, camping, and emergency preparation, this 3-in-1 lantern also doubles as a wide-angle flashlight. Mount it to use it as a bright area light or a mood-setting flickering flame — and collapse it for easy carrying when you're done. Read more...
TL;DR: This beginner-friendly online class will teach you the ins and outs of data science, and it's on sale for just $9.99.
In this gig economy era of side hustles and contractor positions that are really just full-time jobs sans health insurance, a profession that offers job stability, a decent base salary, and long-term career satisfaction can seem like a unicorn (but more rare).
And then there's data science. As companies spanning size and industry have grown to rely on big data analysis as part of their day-to-day business decisions, the demand for data scientists has ballooned in recent years, and their earnings reflect it. What's more, a recent Indeed report claims these "skilled digital data jockeys" will become even more sought-after in the years to come. Read more...
TL;DR: There's 10 percent off absolutely everything on Lovehoney, to mark National Sex Day in the UK. (But hurry, the offer is just for June 9.)
June 9 is National Sex Day in the UK, but of course you already knew that, didn't you?
We can't think of a better way to celebrate this momentous occasion that by saving on a wide range of Lovehoney products. OK, maybe we can think of one better way, but we're talking about deals here, guys.
Lovehoney has cut the price of its entire stock by an extra 10 percent for one day only. Yep, so if you are in the market for a new sex toy, lingerie set, or sex swing, you need to make your purchase before midnight on June 9 to save. There's no need to panic though, because the process couldn't be any easier. You just need to head to the store, make your selection, and your 10 percent discount will be automatically applied when you add anything to your basket. Read more...
WNBA star Brittney Sykes made one young fan's dream come true with a heartwarming gesture that left the girl — and us — in tears.
After Sykes' Atlanta Dream team lost to Las Vegas on Thursday night, she went over to the stands. She then handed her autographed sneakers to 9-year-old superfan Mya Danielle Nelson. The young girl was so overcome with excitement that she broke down crying, as seen in the video captured by videographer Wayne Gethers (via Deadspin).
To English ears, the French language can sound beautiful and flowing — if a bit difficult pronounce. But, thanks to this video from French Morning, we can now rest easy knowing the the people of France have their own issues with pronouncing English words.
Enjoy as various French people struggle their way through pronouncing such difficult English words as "hedgehog," Massachusetts," and "jeweler." This is the best cultural exchange we could hope for this side of the Trump-Macronhandshakestand-off. Read more...
Remember that dramatic spinning helicopter rescue? Well, it turns out it was as terrifying as it looked.
Katalin Metro, the poor hiker who was spun around uncontrollably while she was being rescued, "thought she was going to die" during the incident, according to her husband.
WILD HELICOPTER RESCUE: Firefighters say a 74-year-old woman had to be flown off of Piestewa Peak this morning after she suffered an injury while hiking.
No forking shirt, The Good Place will permanently move on to the afterlife after its upcoming fourth season, which debuts sometime this fall.
The announcement was made Friday night by series creator Mike Schur (who's also responsible for Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Parks & Rec). He shared a statement to Twitter, in which he says, "Making this show is a rare, creatively fulfilling joy, and at the end of the day, we don't want to tread water just because the water is so warm and pleasant."
Beware the seagulls of Maine for they take what they want — especially if it's a lobster roll.
That was the lesson learned by Alicia Jessop, who was simply trying to take a photo of a delicious lobster roll she was eating for lunch during a visit to Maine. A thieving-ass seagull had other ideas and swooped in to nab the sandwich away from her. Well, at least she got one hell of a photo for her troubles.
This is why we can’t have nice things. I was trying to take a picture of the lobster roll I ordered in Maine and well, this happened 😂🤦🏻♀️ pic.twitter.com/N601vpQ41h
YouTuber Ozzy Man scored an interview with Chris Hemsworth, so he took the opportunity to quiz him on Australian slang. Of course, Hemsworth is Australian, so he had to play the expert version.
He does pretty well, though he does stumble on the phrase "do a Harold Holt," which apparently refers to when someone goes missing, never to be seen again. (This happened to the former Australian prime minister of the same name.)
In the end, his score is solid enough to win him a pair of "budgie smugglers" — an Aussie term for a Speedo. The dream! Read more...
You've gotta love the idea at the heart of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Be your own Jedi! Kick the Empire's ass! Use a lightsaber and Force powers while you're doing it!
Respawn Entertainment shared a world first look at the Nov. 15 Star Wars game during Electronic Arts' annual EA Play showcase. And hey, it looks wild. Would you expect less from the studio behind Titanfall 2 and Apex Legends?
This 15-minute slice of game showcases the vibe of Respawn's single-player, story-driven adventure. There's lots of lightsaber action, Force powers galore, a Wookiee, and what I believe was the voice of Forest Whitaker reprising his Saw Gerrara role from Rogue One. Read more...
This isOne Good Thing, a weekly column where we tell you about one of the few nice things that happened this week.
Toddlers and babies speak a language all their own. I mean, that was the premise of Boss Baby, right? Rugrats? It's practically its own genre at this point.
But in real life, it's harder to get inside the mind of these little bundles of joy. Their brains are developing, and they when they do respond to the world around them, it's not always clear what they're saying. Frazzled parents often have to rely on context clues to decipher whether or not their baby is uncomfortable in a particular onesie, or if they just don't like when you tune in to The Bachelor. Read more...
London celebrated Queen Elizabeth's 93rd birthday with Trooping the Colour, her annual birthday parade, on Saturday. Prince Louis, however, was the real star of the show.
This was the prince's first public appearance at the parade, which makes sense because he was one month old when the last one happened. By the looks of the photos, he spent the day experiencing the full range of human emotion, from extremely grumpy to absolutely thrilled. (Again, he is one year old, so this checks out.)
It seems like he had the most fun waving at the crowd.
Twitter is a bad place to do a lot of things, like "have a nice conversation" and "not get harassed." But it remains a good place to make corny jokes, especially if they are about Keanu Reeves.
In the past few days, people have started tweeting out all kinds of riffs on Keanu's name, which is easy to do because "Reeves" rhymes (and almost rhymes) with a lot of words. It's the latest meme to arise from his well-deserved resurgence in internet culture, and it probably won't be the last. The "Keanu walking to music" meme is really hard to beat, though.
Anyway, here are a bunch of Keanu Reeves jokes. Enjoy them! Read more...
The latest episode of Broken Ground explores the Laurys' story of stepping up to defend their farm and neighbors when pipeline developers won't back down from a risky, polluting project.
HBO's Emmy-winning limited series based on the novel by Liane Moriarty is back (so, uh, no longer "limited"). Does the show offer more than a stellar cast, with the addition of Meryl Streep, to keep viewers hooked? Here's what reviews of the first three episodes say.
Since German reunification, millions of people have left the East, triggering a demographic crisis. Data now shows exactly what happened — and why there's cause for hope.
If Dad loves a nice timepiece, these watches from Momentum are a no brainer. With appealing designs and sturdy builds, Momentum watches make for a smart gift for Father's Day.
Essentially, it's a market simulator. You play against our automatic pricing agent. Both of you will be selling a product at a specific starting price that you adjust throughout the game according to how well the product sells at each price level.
Nix cable clutter and power your wireless devices faster than ever with this AirBase 3-in-1 Fast Charging Dock — easily juice up your smartphone, smartwatch, earbuds, and other compatible devices for just $39.99 (that's 73% off the regular price).
Caleb Cain was a college dropout lookingfor direction. He turned to YouTube. Soon, he was pulled into a far-right universe,watching thousands of videos filled withconspiracy theories, misogyny and racism.
Archaeologists have exhumed a 1,000-year-old sarcophagus in Mainz, Germany, uncovering the decomposed remains of what could be a former Archbishop who died in the 11th century.
The latest episode of Broken Ground explores the Laurys' story of stepping up to defend their farm and neighbors when pipeline developers won't back down from a risky, polluting project.
Excited about playing upcoming titles like "The Last of Us Part 2" and "Death Stranding" on your 4K TV? Get the most out of your experiences by upgrading to the PS4 Pro for $349.99 for a limited time.
They all went to the same high school in Huntington Beach, California, in the late 1980s. While no one is quite sure when this exact group began playing together, they have two campaigns that have been going continuously since the early '90s, with the same characters.
I quit the industry because AdTech sucks. And AdTech will continue to suck for the foreseeable future. The reasons for this are not primarily technical, but systemic.
Pure ray-tracing is too demanding for modern games, but a title like "Quake II" makes a perfect showcase for RTX given its low polycounts and simple world geometry.
In previous years, making a top 50 list might have been a stretch. In 2019, we could have easily justified a top 100. Women's soccer has never been more competitive, and the Golden Ball race has never been more wide open.
Not far from the sprawling Googleplex in Mountain View, California, lies another, less assuming address of Big Tech. This is Google Building 900 — and the internet giant just dropped almost $139 million for it.
Thirty years before the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl exploded, in what became one of the most devastating nuclear accidents in history, there was another major mishap at yet another Soviet nuclear power plant. It was hushed up by officials for more than three decades.
Once humans had emptied the Gaewern slate mine in Ceredigion, Wales of everything they wanted, they filled it with everything they didn't: broken washing machines, shot microwaves and dozens of rusty, old cars.
It's an internet fight and only the funniest meme will emerge victorious. This week's challengers? SpongeBob in drag, Me and the Boys, the cheese grater Mac Pro and more.
A Potter Valley rancher working on a hot day in a bed of waist-high cured grassland drove a stake into the ground and created a spark that grew into the 410,000-acre Ranch fire
A former Army staff sergeant who took on enemy fighters at close range, first with an M249 light machine gun and then with a knife, will be the first living veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom to receive the Medal of Honor, Military.com has learned.
David S. Bellavia, 43, of Batavia, New York, will have his Silver Star upgraded to the highest military award for valor in a June 25 ceremony at the White House, a source close to Bellavia confirmed to Military.com. The news of the award was first posted at the American Legion's Burn Pit blog Thursday and then confirmed by Army Times. The White House is expected to announce the award next week.
Kelvin Wong, a defense analyst for Jane's, poses in front of an attack helicopter during training for the Singapore Armed Forces in Queensland, Australia. (Singaporean Ministry of Defense)
The Asia-Pacific region is one of the fastest-growing markets for arms dealers.
Economic growth, territorial disputes and long-sought military modernizations there propelled a 52% increase in defense spending over the last decade to $392 billion in 2018, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
The region accounts for more than a fifth of the global defense budget and is expected to grow. That was underscored this week by news of Taiwan's bid to strike a $2-billion deal to purchase U.S. tanks and missiles.
The biggest driver in arms purchases, however, is China — responsible for 64% of military spending in the region. With a defense budget that is second only to the U.S., China is amassing a navy that can circle the globe and developing state-of-the-art autonomous drones. The buildup is motivating surrounding countries to bolster their armed forces too — good news for purveyors of submarines, unmanned vehicles and warplanes.
Chinese and Thai marines take part in the opening ceremony for a joint military exercise in Sattahip Naval Base, Chon Buri province, Thailand, on May 21, 2016. Thai and Chinese marine corps held an opening ceremony for a joint military exercise codenamed Blue Strike 2016 here on Saturday. (Xinhua/Li Mangmang)
* Beijing has filled a void in Thailand's arms imports since Washington scaled back cooperation after the country's 2014 military coup * But the United States remains Bangkok's most important security partner and Thailand is keen to strike a balance between the two powers to meet its needs
In Southeast Asia, Washington's loss is often Beijing's gain, and the Thai military might be seen as the latest example. Since the country's 2014 coup, Thai-China military ties have gone from strength to strength. America's negative response to the armed takeover saw the administration of former US president Barack Obama cut US$4.8 million in financing for Bangkok's acquisition of US defence equipment, services and training. Washington also cancelled or downsized joint military exercises.
Amid the cooling ties, Thailand's ruling junta sought out China to fill the void. Sensing an opportunity to increase its influence in the kingdom and undermine the US-Thai alliance, China responded positively, just as it has done with many other nations in similar situations.
PARIS (Reuters) - Prospects for talks between authorities and separatist movements to end escalating violence in Cameroon's English-speaking region are slim, a senior human rights official said on Friday, dismissing assertions by both sides to be open to dialogue.
A separatist insurgency broke out in 2017 following a government crackdown on peaceful protests in the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest, which complain of being marginalized by the French-speaking majority.
Prime Minister Joseph Ngute has said the government would be willing to talk to the rebels, but would not consider their demand for secession - a position hardline separatists have said they will never accept.
Eleven movements representing Anglophone Cameroon, including the main armed factions, last month said they were willing to enter mediated discussions with the state.
WNU Editor: The government is also moving to shut down the counry's main opposition party who are claiming that last year's election was stolen from them .... Hundreds of opposition members arrested in Cameroon (The Guardian).
Protest leaders Mohamed Esmat and Ismail Jalab arrested shortly after meeting mediator, Ethiopia's PM Abiy Ahmed.
Sudanese security forces have arrested two opposition leaders shortly after they met with Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed during reconciliation talks in Sudan's capital, Khartoum.
Abiy, who has emerged as a key regional leader, met representatives of both sides on Friday in a bid to revive talks between Sudan's ruling generals and protest leaders after the military launched a brutal crackdown on protesters that killed dozens of people this week.
Among the protest movement delegates he met were opposition politician Mohamed Esmat and a leader of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), Ismail Jalab.
NEW ORLEANS — All his life, Joseph Griesser hungered to hear the story of his father's Army service in World War II.
What he had were vague outlines: that Lt. Frank Griesser had splashed onto Omaha Beach on D-Day; that his lifelong pronounced limp had come from an artillery blast. But the details? They remained largely unspoken until the day his father died in 1999, leaving Mr. Griesser wishing he knew more.
"He never talked about it; I just knew he was injured in the war," said Mr. Griesser, who lives in Stone Harbor, N.J. "We went to see the movie 'The Longest Day' together, but that was pretty much the extent of our conversation about the war. I think he just wanted to put it behind him."
Many of the Americans who fought to crush the Axis in World War II came home feeling the same way — so many, in fact, that those lauded as the Greatest Generation might just as easily be called the Quietest.
Where did they serve? What did they do and see? Spouses and children often learned not to ask. And by now, most no longer have the chance: Fewer than 3 percent of the 16 million American veterans of the war are still alive, and all are in their 90s or beyond.
But that has not kept their children and grandchildren from wanting to know their stories, especially as the 75th anniversaries of the D-Day invasion and the other triumphs of the war's final year have neared. And a growing number of them are turning to experts to help glean what they can from cryptic, yellowed military records.
WNU Editor: War is a very personal experience. In my case I was fortunate. My father talked about the war only when he was drunk with his war buddies, and when he did I always kept my ears open. Sighhhh .... war makes people do terrible things. I made a request a year ago for my father's service file when he was in the Soviet military during the war. I am still waiting, but I feel confident that if I pull a string or two I will eventually get it.
A Huawei production line in the southern Chinese city of Dongguan. The Trump administration has banned sales of key American technology to the company.Credit Jason Lee/Reuters
SAN FRANCISCO — The Chinese government this past week summoned major tech companies including Microsoft and Dell from the United States and Samsung of South Korea, to warn that they could face dire consequences if they cooperate with the Trump administration's ban on sales of key American technology to Chinese companies, according to people familiar with the meetings.
Held on Tuesday and Wednesday, the meetings came soon after Beijing's announcement that it was assembling a list of "unreliable" companies and individuals.
That list was widely seen as a way of hitting back at the Trump administration for its decision to cut off Huawei, the Chinese electronics giant, from sales of American technology. The United States has accused Huawei of stealing trade secrets and conducting surveillance on behalf of Beijing.
Details about the meetings, the latest move in two weeks of high-stakes economic brinkmanship between the United States and China, were shared by two people familiar with them, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to discuss them and could face retribution.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Chairwoman of Germany's Christian Democratic Union party (CDU) attend a party meeting in Berlin, Germany June 2, 2019. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke/File Photo
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives slumped to a record low and fell further behind the resurgent opposition Greens in a survey published on Saturday, reflecting growing disillusionment with the ruling coalition.
Doubts are mounting that Merkel's right-left alliance can last its full term until 2021, largely due to disarray within her Social Democrat (SPD) partners, and many experts now see increasing chances of a federal election next year.
The Forsa poll put the conservative bloc on 24%, down two points from a week ago.
The Social Democrats (SPD) remained stuck at their low of 12% - level with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) - a week after their leader quit because of a dismal performance in regional and European elections. Many members want to quit government and rebuild in opposition.
The Greens, buoyed by growing concern across Europe about climate change, which helped propel them to second place in European Parliament elections, remained the most popular party, on 27%.
WNU Editor: In the U.K. everyone is waiting for Prime Minister Theresa May to go away. One can say the same thing about Angela Merkel and how many Germans now view here. But the real story in Germany is the collapse of the Social Democrats. They are now at a historical low of 12%.
This is possible due to the fact the F-15EX has a lot of similarities with the F-15QA Advanced Eagle that is in production for Qatar.
Boeing says it can deliver the U.S. Air Force (USAF) at least two engineering, versions manufacturing and development (EMD) F-15EX fighters as early as 2020.
This is possible due to the fact the F-15EX has a lot of similarities with the F-15QA Advanced Eagle that is in production for Qatar. So there is a possibility that some aircraft destined for Qatar could be rerouted to the USAF. The EX can be seen as a modified version of the QA of which Qatar ordered 36 (with an option on another 36) in a USD 6,2 billion contract signed in 2017. According to Scramble Facebook News Magazine, Qatar expects six F-15QA's will be delivered to its air force by March 2021. And these first deliveries follow the final deliveries of the last of 84 F-15SAs to Saudi Arabia by the end of 2019. It is also possible that Israel will buy additional Eagles, so the Eagle production line will be running for many years to come.
In previous years, Putin has used the "boost" of a successful economic forum to assert Russia's position in the world. But that wasn't the case this year.
bserving the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum from afar, the adjective I keep returning to is "lackluster." The event was supposed to showcase a Russia that had beaten back Western sanctions; it was supposed to dangle before European and American businesses a wide range of opportunities in the greater Eurasian space that would be denied to them so long as their governments continued to mount pressure campaigns on the Kremlin. At the same time, this event was meant to highlight the Asian and Arab suitors who would show the West that their cash was not needed. That remains the theme—but so far, the results have been a bit skimpy.
* Vladimir Putin slammed moves by the US to ban the Chinese tech giant Huawei * He said 'push' of Huawei from global markets was the 'start of a technology war' * US imposed bans on Huawei last month and has pressured allies to do the same * Countries fearful of using tech firm over equipment being 'used for espionage'
Russian President Vladimir Putin has slammed attempts to 'push' Huawei from global markets as the 'start of a technology war'.
Putin made the remarks about US moves against the Chinese tech giant on Friday.
Speaking at an economic forum also attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping, Putin denounced 'unceremonious attempts at pushing Huawei from the international market.'
Huawei was hit by US-imposed bans in May. America has also been putting pressure on its Western allies to stop using the Chinese company's equipment.
WNU Editor: President Trump wants to change the status quo, especially in trade and technology, and everyone is reacting accordingly. But in my opinion U.S. dominance in technology is going to face tough competition. Countries like China graduate far more university students in the sciences and engineering than the U.S., and they want to be world leaders in developing and manufacturing new technologies. We are in a multi-polar world, where market forces will determine who will dominate certain fields in technology. As for Huawei, they do develop and manufacture some cutting edge technologies, and there is a huge market and interest for what they are offering. Can U.S. companies compete? We shall see.
President Xi Jinping's meeting with Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg happens at a critical moment in the relations between the two countries.
The last few years made possible a significant rapprochement, but the potential for sudden shifts cannot be excluded.
Everything seems in flux at the moment. Will the two countries move even closer together — is an Eastern Alliance possible? — or will China's rise face new resistance in this area as well — problems it is now facing almost everywhere?
Beijing has been extraordinarily successful in managing Russia, perhaps the most brilliant success of Chinese foreign policy in recent years. But in the recent Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, president Putin poured some cold water on the Eastern Alliance.
WNU editor: Moscow's policy towards China has been consistent under Putin for the decade or two. Sell China energy and other resources. Sell some military weapon systems. Negotiate investments in large resource projects. Find some common ground to circumvent U.S. dominance in financial networks, and to counterbalance U.S. dominance on geopolitical issues. And that is about it. There is no interest in Russia to form a deeper alliance with China.,
The 2017 nuclear test was up to two thirds more powerful than the U.S. intelligence community estimated.
North Korea's most recent nuclear test was far more powerful than the U.S. government claimed. A new analysis of the 2017 test reveals it had an explosive yield of approximately 250 kilotons, or about fifteen times greater than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The new estimate is dramatically bigger than previous North Korean nuclear tests, lending credence to claims that a thermonuclear device was tested.
The 2017 device was part of a escalating series of nuclear tests, with each more powerful than the last. North Korea's first nuclear test took place in 2006 and had a estimated yield of .7 to 2 kilotons. The fifth test had an estimated yield of between 15 and 25 kilotons. The device, tested on September 3rd, 2017, caused a magnitude 6.3 earthquake and shifted the mountain, Mt. Mantap, the bomb was tested under.
WNU Editor: Estimates that this was an explosion with a range of 148 and 328 kilotons, with a likely yield of 250 kilotons, is enough proof to me that this was probably a thermonuclear explosion.
A man weighs coffee beans, given as a means of payment, in a hardware store in Guarico, Venezuela April 24, 2019. Picture taken April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Manaure Quintero
PATANEMO, Venezuela (Reuters) - At the once-busy beach resort of Patanemo, tourism has evaporated over the last two years as Venezuela's economic crisis has deepened and deteriorating cellphone service left visitors too afraid of robbery to brave the isolated roads.
Gone are the vendors who once walked the sands of the crescent-shaped beach hawking bathing suits and empanadas - a traditional savory pastry.
These days, its Caribbean shoreline flanked by forested hills receives a different type of visitor: people who walk 10 minutes from a nearby town carrying rice, plantains or bananas in hopes of exchanging them for the fishermen's latest catch.
With bank notes made useless by hyperinflation, and no easy access to the debit card terminals widely used to conduct transactions in urban areas, residents of Patanemo rely mainly on barter.
It is just one of a growing number of rural towns slipping into isolation as Venezuela's economy implodes amid a long-running political crisis.
* A Russian destroyer sailed dangerously close to a US Navy guided-missile cruiser in the Philippine Sea on Friday. * US Navy videos of the "unsafe and unprofessional" encounter appear to show Russian sailors sunbathing on the helicopter pad. * Their presence could be seen as a potential taunt, though neither the Navy or the Department of Defense would speculate about exactly what the Russians were doing.
A Russian destroyer and a US Navy cruiser nearly collided at sea on Friday. Videos released by the Navy appear to show Russian sailors sunbathing shirtless on the back of their warship during this close encounter.
The Russian destroyer Admiral Vinogradov engaged in "unsafe and unprofessional" behavior by sailing dangerously close to the US Navy Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Chancellorsville, the US 7th Fleet said in a statement accompanied by photos and videos of the incident.
BEIJING could "end up facing disaster" if they do not trim the sails on their global aspirations including the South China Sea, according to an expert.
THE Christian holy day of Pentecost has arrived and will be celebrated across the nation today. Here's how to celebrate Pentecost with the best wishes, greetings and messages.
WARSAW, Poland — The largest gay pride parade in central and eastern Europe brought thousands of people to the streets of Warsaw on Saturday at a time when Poland’s LGBT rights movement is the target of a government campaign depicting it as a threat.
Diplomats from the United States, Canada and other Western countries continued a recent tradition of joining the festive Equality Parade to show support for a community experiencing leaps of progress and a backlash around the world.
In a first, the Polish capital’s mayor also participated. Opening the parade, Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski noted that it is now common for cities across Europe to support LGBT pride marches.
“Not everyone has to go to the Equality Parade but everyone should respect minority rights,” Trzaskowski told the crowd from a parade float. “It’s really important for me that Warsaw be open, that Warsaw be tolerant.”
While many Poles in Warsaw and other cities have increasingly grown supportive of gay rights, a backlash is also underway. In recent months, officials from Poland’s right-wing ruling party have portrayed the LGBT rights movement, citing in particular the movement’s calls for sex education that stresses tolerance of minorities, as a threat to families, children and society.
Law and Justice party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski recently called the LGBT rights movement a foreign import that threatened the nation’s identity. In conservative areas, town councils have been declaring their municipalities “LGBT free.”
And on the eve of the parade, a far-right journalist on public television, Rafal Ziemkiewicz, sent chills down the spines of the LGBT community.
In a tweet, he said “one must shoot at LGBT” people, before adding “not in the literal sense of course — but these are not people of good will or defenders of anybody’s rights, (the movement is) a new mutation of Bolsheviks and Nazis.”
Slava Melnyk, head of the Campaign Against Homophobia, warned about the possible consequences of such provocative language.
“His words are read by hundreds of thousands of people,” he said. “It’s possible that one of those people will take his word about shooting at LGBT people literally.”
Uschi Pawlik, who was marching with her LGBT Christian group, Faith and Rainbow, described feeling excluded in the conservative and mostly Roman Catholic nation.
“We feel that the government has made a scapegoat of us. Many of us feel excluded by our own country and our own church,” Pawlik, 40, said. “So it is painful, but many of us think this is a reason to fight, and not the moment to give up.”
Hubert Sobecki, head of Love Does Not Exclude, a group seeking marriage equality, said the situation is particularly frightening for those young people struggling with their sexual identity. He said some are afraid to come out and some straight kids are being bullied because they are perceived as gay.
Call centers have been working to prevent suicides, but they don’t always succeed, he said.
Last month a transgender girl killed herself by jumping from a bridge in Warsaw. When a group of people went later with a rainbow flag to the bridge to honor her, they were assaulted.
“There is lots of hate in the public media and by the ruling party, but you also have a growing movement of people realizing we are fighting for our lives,” Sobecki said. “This movement is not about luxury or privilege, it’s about the privilege of staying alive when you are a teenager. It’s about survival.”
LGBT rights became a key topic of public debate earlier this year when Trzaskowski, from the centrist opposition party Civic Platform, issued an LGBT rights declaration. In one point, it set out the city’s commitment to try and help find shelter for gay youth rejected by their parents. In another, he promised to incorporate World Health Organization guidelines on sex and tolerance education into Warsaw’s school system.
Poland’s education minister, who was sworn in Tuesday, described the LGBT rights declaration as an attempt to groom children for pedophiles and said sex education is the responsibility of families only.
By seizing on the issue, the ruling conservatives have managed to energize their base and divide the political opposition.
Law and Justice won an overwhelming victory in elections to the European Parliament last month.
Many in the opposition have concluded that supporting LGBT rights did not help them and are now seeking to back away from that issue ahead of national elections in the fall.
In neighboring Lithuania, an estimated 10,000 people joined a pride parade in the capital, Vilnius. The event took place without incident, a change from the city’s first parade in 2008, which included brick throwing and mounted police using tear gas.
In Warsaw, protesters blared loud church music as the parade passed by, but it too, went off without incident.
Warsaw’s pride parade is also being answered Sunday with a “March for Life and the Family” in 130 Polish towns. The anti-abortion event will open Sunday with a Mass for children, and the theme this year is protecting children from premature sexualization.
LONDON — Police in London have arrested a fifth suspect on suspicion of punching two women on a bus because they are lesbians.
Authorities didn’t identify the victims in the May 30 attack. But Melania Geymonat posted an image on her Facebook page showing her bloodied face and that of her girlfriend’s.
Geymonat said in the post that they were on the upper deck of the bus when a gang of “hooligans” demanded that they kiss. The women tried to reason with them, but the incident escalated.
Police said Saturday all of suspects are between 15 and 18 years old.
Detective Superintendent Andy Cox says that while attacks like this are rare on London buses, extra uniformed and plain clothes officers will be out on patrol this weekend to offer reassurance.
CÚCUTA, Colombia — Thousands crossed into Colombia on Saturday to buy food and medicine after Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro reopened a border that had been shut down for the past four months.
Long lines of Venezuelans stood at two international bridges near the city of Cúcuta waiting to have their documents checked by Colombian officials, with some carrying children on their shoulders. Venezuelan border guards dressed in green uniforms helped to control the crowd.
The South American nation’s socialist government ordered the borders with Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Brazil and Colombia closed in February as the opposition tried to deliver food and medical supplies into the country.
Most of the aid was provided largely by the United States, a key ally of opposition leader Juan Guaidó who declared himself to be Venezuela’s rightful president in January. But Maduro dismissed the aid as an infringement on Venezuela’s sovereignty and prohibited it from entering.
In May, the government reopened borders with Aruba and Brazil, but the Simon Bolivar International Bridge and the Francisco de Paula Santander International Bridge with Colombia have remained closed up until now.
With the reopening, a flood of people seized on the opportunity to enter into the neighboring country and secure items that are all but unattainable in Venezuela.
The once-wealthy oil nation is now facing severe shortages of basic goods and hyperinflation that is expected to surpass 10 million percent this year, according to a recent IMF estimate. The chaos has been further aggravated by U.S. sanctions on Venezuelan oil exports and has forced an estimated 5,000 people to leave the country each day, according to the United Nation’s refugee agency.
On Saturday, UNHCR’s special envoy Angelina Jolie was visiting another portion of the Colombia-Venezuela border to learn more about the conditions faced by migrants and refugees and raise awareness about their needs. The Hollywood actress is scheduled to meet with aid workers and Venezuelans and tour a tent village built by the U.N. in the region of La Guajira.
UNHCR said Friday that 4 million Venezuelans, or almost 15% of the population, have left the country to escape its economic and political crisis.
The agency also said the number of Venezuelan refugees and migrants rose by 1 million after November, indicating a rapid escalation as conditions deteriorated and a conflict between the government of Maduro and opposition intensified this year.
— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) June 8, 2019
The couple appeared together for the first major public event since Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor’s birth on May 6. Though the one-month-old royal baby stayed home during the event, the Duke and Duchess joined Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s 93rd birthday.
The Duchess of Cornwall, The Duchess of Cambridge and The Duke and Duchess of Sussex travel along the Mall to Trooping the Colour, The Queen's Birthday Parade #TroopingtheColourpic.twitter.com/UYIYv8SKeG
— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) June 8, 2019
Meghan smiled as she rode in the processional carriage with her husband, Kate Middleton, and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall before overlooking the celebrations from the Buckingham Palace balcony. According to People, Meghan wore a navy blue dress by Clare Waight Keller, her wedding gown designer, and a hat by Noel Stewart.
Samir Hussein—WireImage/Getty ImagesPrince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex ride by carriage down the Mall during Trooping The Colour, the Queen’s annual birthday parade, on June 8, 2019 in London, England.
The annual Trooping of the Colour, which is the queen’s birthday parade, features military units waving their flags (colours) while marching (trooping) in London. Royal Air Force planes also fly above the spectacle.
Queen Elizabeth was born on April 21, 1926, but the royal family has a tradition of celebrating a monarch’s birthday with this special parade at the start of summer. The queen first attended the Trooping the Colour in 1947, according to the royal family’s Twitter.
The Queen (then Princess Elizabeth) took part in her first #TroopingTheColour parade in 1947.
During her reign The Queen has attended Trooping the Colour every year except 1955 when it was cancelled because of the general strike. pic.twitter.com/rSrgpMAbQr
Mark Cuthbert—UK Press/Getty ImagesMeghan, Duchess of Sussex during Trooping The Colour 2018 on June 9, 2018 in London, England.
At last June’s event, just one month after the Duke and Duchess’ wedding, Meghan stepped out in a pink off-the-shoulder Carolina Herrera dress and matching Philip Treacy hat to celebrate the birthday of her grandmother-in-law.
James Devaney—FilmMagicMeghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex stand on the balcony of Buckingham Palace during the Trooping the Colour parade on June 9, 2018 in London, England.
MOSCOW (AP) — A prominent investigative journalist who was detained on drug-dealing charges in Russia is being taken to the hospital after complaining of feeling poorly in police custody.
The Moscow police department said Saturday that an emergency medical squad was called for Ivan Golunov and determined he should be taken a hospital for examination.
It did not specify Golunov’s medical problem. The head of human rights organization Agora, Pavel Chikov, told Russian news agencies Golunov was suspected to have a concussion and a broken rib.
Golunov’s publication, the independent website Meduza, said he allegedly was beaten after his Thursday arrest.
Police are alleging four grams of a synthetic stimulant were found in his backpack. But many journalists suspect the arrest was retribution for Golunov’s investigative work.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced late Friday that he had suspended plans to impose tariffs on Mexico, tweeting that the country “has agreed to take strong measures” to stem the flow of Central American migrants into the United States. But the deal the two neighbors agreed to falls short of some of the dramatic overhauls the U.S. had pushed for.
A “U.S.-Mexico Joint Declaration” released by the State Department said the U.S. “will immediately expand the implementation” of a program that returns asylum-seekers who cross the southern border to Mexico while their claims are adjudicated. Mexico will “offer jobs, healthcare and education” to those people, the agreement stated.
Mexico has also agreed, it said, to take “unprecedented steps to increase enforcement to curb irregular migration,” including the deployment of the Mexican National Guard throughout the country, especially on its southern border with Guatemala. And Mexico is taking “decisive action to dismantle human smuggling and trafficking organizations as well as their illicit financial and transportation networks,” the State Department said.
The move puts to an end — for now — a threat that had sparked dire warnings from members of Trump’s own party, who warned the tariffs would damage the economy, drive up prices for consumers and imperil an updated North American trade pact. Trump’s Friday night tweet marked a sharp reversal from earlier in the day, when his spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters: “Our position has not changed. The tariffs are going forward as of Monday.”
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador tweeted, “Thanks to the support of all Mexicans, the imposition of tariffs on Mexican products exported to the USA has been avoided.” He called for a gathering to celebrate in Tijuana Saturday.
The changes, in part, continue steps the Trump administration was already taking. The U.S. announced in December that it would make some asylum seekers wait in Mexico while their cases were being proceeded — a begrudging agreement with Mexico that has taken months to scale and that has been plagued with glitches, including wrong court dates, travel problems and issues with lawyers reaching their clients.
Homeland Security officials have been ramping up slowly, and were already working to spread the program along the border before the latest blowup. About 10,000 people have been returned to Mexico to wait out the processing of their immigration cases since the program began Jan. 29. More than 100,000 migrants are currently crossing the U.S. border each month, but not everyone claims asylum and migrants can wait an entire year before making a claim.
Any sizable increase may also be difficult to achieve. At the San Ysidro crossing alone, Mexico had been prepared to accept up to 120 asylum seekers per week, but for the first six weeks only 40 people per week were returned.
Trump had announced the tariff plan last week, declaring in a tweet that, on June 10, the U.S. would “impose a 5% Tariff on all goods coming into our Country from Mexico, until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP.” U.S. officials had laid out steps Mexico could take to prevent the tariffs, but many had doubts that even those steps would be enough to satisfy Trump on illegal immigration, a signature issue of his presidency and one that he sees as crucial to his 2020 re-election campaign.
After returning from Europe Friday, though, Trump tweeted, “I am pleased to inform you that The United States of America has reached a signed agreement with Mexico.” He wrote that the “Tariffs scheduled to be implemented by the U.S. on Monday, against Mexico, are hereby indefinitely suspended.”
He said Mexico has agreed to work to “stem the tide of Migration through Mexico, and to our Southern Border” and said those steps would “greatly reduce, or eliminate, Illegal Immigration coming from Mexico and into the United States.”
The 5% tax on all Mexican goods , which would increase every month up to 25% under Trump’s plan, would have had enormous economic implications for both countries. Americans bought $378 billion worth of Mexican imports last year, led by cars and auto parts. Many members of Trump’s Republican Party and business allies had urged him to reconsider — or at least postpone actually implementing the tariffs as talks continue — citing the potential harm to American consumers and manufactures.
From the moment Trump announced the tariff threat, observers wondered whether he would pull the trigger, noting his habit of creating problems and then claiming credit when he rushes in to solve them.
In late March, Trump threatened to shut the entire U.S.-Mexico border if Mexico didn’t immediately halt illegal immigration. Just a few days later, he backed off that threat, saying he was pleased with steps Mexico had taken. It was unclear, however, what — if anything — Mexico had changed.
U.S. and Mexican officials met for more than 10 hours Friday during a third day of talks at the U.S. State Department trying to hash out a deal that would satisfy Trump’s demand that Mexico dramatically increase its efforts to crack down on migrants.
The talks had been focused, in part, on attempting to reach a compromise on changes that would make it harder for migrants who pass through Mexico from other countries to claim asylum in the U.S., those monitoring the situation said. Mexico has long opposed such a change but appeared open to considering a potential compromise that could include exceptions or waivers for different types of cases. The joint declaration, however makes no mention of the issue.
Leaving the State Department Friday night, Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said he thought the deal struck “a fair balance” because the U.S. “had more drastic proposals and measures at the start.”
But Leticia Calderón Cheluis, a migration expert at the Mora Institute in Mexico City, said the agreement is essentially a series of compromises solely by Mexico, which she said committed to “a double clamp at both borders.”
Trump in recent months has embraced tariffs as a political tool he can use to force countries to comply with his demands — in this case on his signature issue of immigration. Beyond Trump and several White House advisers, though, few in his administration had believed the tariffs were a good idea, according to officials familiar with internal deliberations. Those people had worried about the negative economic consequences for Americans and argued that tariffs — which would likely spark retaliatory taxes on U.S. exports — would also hurt the administration politically.
Republicans in Congress had also warned the White House that they were ready to stand up to the president to try to block his tariffs, which they worried would spike costs to U.S. consumers, harm the economy and imperil a major pending U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal .
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., greeted Friday night’s news with sarcasm. “This is an historic night!” he tweeted. “Now that that problem is solved, I’m sure we won’t be hearing any more about it in the future.”
___
Associated Press writers Zeke Miller, Colleen Long, Paul Wiseman, Lisa Mascaro, Darlene Superville and Padmananda Rama in Washington and Jonathan Lemire in Shannon, Ireland contributed to this report.
You are subscribed to email updates from World – TIME. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.
Email delivery powered by Google
Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States
The SEC's new Regulation Best Interest has been criticized by many for not going far enough, and lauded by legacy money managers who think it's sufficient.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
There are both good and bad reasons to refinance, and they are not just based on interest rates. Find out when refinancing makes the most sense and when it could be a bad move.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Learn how the stock market works, what it means to own stocks and shares, how shares are classified, why companies issue shares, and the pros and cons of an exchange listing.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Since investors haven't seen inflation or significant price rises in years, it's worth brushing up on the most common effects of inflation. Is inflation ever good? If you like your job it is.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Learn which countries rank as being one of the top 20 economies in the world. The United States has been the global leader since 1871, but China may soon position it as the world leader with its amazing growth.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
The prisoner's dilemma provides a strategy or framework for understanding how to strike a balance between cooperation and competition and is useful in business and in viewing the economy.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
SIMPLE IRAs and traditional IRAs are retirement savings vehicles that differ in their early distribution penalties and in who can participate in each type of plan.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
If you are self-employed, you can set up a solo 401(k) if certain requirements are met. This type of plan offers several benefits over other types of retirement accounts.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Bank savings accounts are the most basic way to save for the future. Here is everything you need to know about how savings accounts work, where to open one and more. If the only type of bank account you have is a checking account, you're missing out.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Mutual funds and ETFs both consist of a mix of many different assets and represent a common way for investors to diversify. Learn what makes the similar and what sets them apart.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
View current daily average mortgage rates for fixed and adjustable rate loans. Learn more about mortgage rates and how we can help you reach your home ownership goal.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
From the minimum amount of money needed to open an account to what types of investments to choose, this guide will get you started down the path of investing. In most cases, you can get started with as little as $1,000, and we'll help you understand the best way to allocate those funds.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Read these insightful tips on how to get a picture-perfect summer rental home at a great price. Summer only happens once a year, don't miss out on the fun by leasing the wrong type of accommodations.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
The most striking difference between the Canada Pension Plan and Social Security is how sustainable the CPP is compared to the troubled Social Security system.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Learn about costly mistakes you can make when setting up a 529 Plan and how to avoid making them. A 529 Plan can go a long way to easing the burden of college education, as long as you start saving as soon as possible after your child is born.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Lehman Brothers survived many financial crises in its long history until it was driven into bankruptcy. Learn more about the history behind this famous scandal.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Buying a home remotely can be a good option for a variety of reasons, learn the best way to go about finding a good real estate agent whom you can trust and buying a property.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Find out how to avoid the costly mistakes made in bond portfolios everywhere. Learn to minimize the risk of suffering low or negative returns when trading.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
You are subscribed to email updates from rss_headline. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.
Email delivery powered by Google
Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States
Uttarakhand DCB Clerk Admit Card 2019 : Uttarakhand District Cooperative Bank Admit Card has been released in the Official Website. The Board has already declared the recruitment notification in order to recruit Clerk cum Cashier, Junior Branch Manager, Senior Branch Manager Posts. And for the selection process for such posts has been explained. Hence, the Admit Card is must for all the selection rounds. So, the Candidates can download the Uttarakhand Call Letter in the below-given Link.
Uttarakhand DCB Clerk Admit Card 2019
The Uttarakhand DCB Call Letter has been released on the Date of 01st June 2019. In order to download the Uttarakhand District Cooperative Bank Admit Card 2019 candidates would require to furnish their registration ID and password and other credentials on the portal. Candidates can download the admit card till 19 June 2019.
Candidates who are supposed to download the Admit Card for the Uttarakhand DCB Group 1,2,3 Exams can get the direct link of the Admit Card to proceed for the selection process. Those who have applied for the post of Clerk, Junior Manager, Senior Manager can view the Admiit Card details in our page. Moreover, Uttarakhand Call Letter is the important factor for the candidates for every candidates who are looking for the UttaraKhand DCB Group 1,2,3 Exams. The listed information areavailable in the Admit Card issued by the Bank and fill it properly to get the valid Hall Ticket.
Candidate’s Name
Date of Birth
Exam Venue and Address
Exam Timing
Date of examinations
UttaraKhand DCB Group 1,2,3 Exam Pattern 2019
UttaraKhand DCB will release the exam date in soon. Although, the Candidates who are looking forward for the Examination can get the Exam Pattern in the below section and start preparation according to that. Likewise, Examiners do check the Official Website of the reputed Bank for the Examination Date.
Post Name
Exam Pattern
Subject Name
Number Of Question
Max. Marks
Clerk-cum-Cashier (Group-3)
Reasoning
40
40
Numerical Ability
40
40
General Awareness
60
60
English Language
20
20
Hindi Language
20
20
Computer Knowledge
20
20
Total
200
200
Junior Branch Manager (Group-2)
Reasoning
40
40
Quantitative Aptitude
40
40
General Awareness
60
60
English Language
20
20
Hindi Language
20
20
Computer Knowledge
20
20
Total
200
200
Senior Branch Manager (Group-1)
Reasoning
40
40
Quantitative Aptitude & Data Interpretation
40
40
General Awareness
60
60
English Language
20
20
Hindi Language
20
20
Computer Knowledge
20
20
Total
200
200
Deputy General Manager
Reasoning
40
40
Quantitative Aptitude & Data Interpretation
40
40
Financial Awareness
60
60
English Language
20
20
Hindi Language
20
20
Computer Knowledge
20
20
Total
200
200
The Time duration for the examination will be 2 hours for each Posts.
All the section will be in Bilingual Except Language Test.
There will be penalty marks for each wrong Answers in the Objective Test.
For each question for which a wrong answer has been given by the candidate one fourth or 0.25 of the marks assigned to that question will be deducted as penalty to arrive at corrected score.
Candidates have to qualify in each of the six tests by securing minimum cut-off marks.
Adequate number of candidates in each category as decided by IBPS depending upon requirements will be shortlisted for final selection and subsequent verification.
Download UttaraKhand DCB Clerk Admit Card 2019
Download the Hall Ticket which has been in the end of this page. The Candidates can start collecting your admit card for UttaraKhand DCB Group Examination. So, Contenders are advised to collect it before the link deactivates. Likewise, All the examiners should carry the followed requirements to enter the examination hall.
Aadhar Card
Uttarakhand DCB Clerk PTI Admit Card
College ID
Ration Card
Driving License
PAN Card
Voter ID
Any Valid ID Proof Issued By Gazetted Officer
Bank Passbook
Passport
How to Download UttaraKhand DCB Clerk Admit Card 2019
Visit the Uttarakhand DCB Clerk Admit Card Link given below.
An Online Call Letter Page opens in a new window.
Enter the Login Credentials and select the language in it.
Press on Login Button once to get the Admit Card.
Enter all the valid details in that.
Check once for the clear view of the details you entered.
Now go to the Download option to get the Admit Card.
Take a photo copy of it.
Direct Links to Download Uttrakhand DCB Admit Card 2019
WBPSC Previous Papers for Female Supervisor & other posts recruitment test conducted by the board is available here. Applicants of Miscellaneous Services Recruitment Exam, Accountant, SI, JE, Fire operator, Motor Vehicle Inspector, Groups, etc might be searching for previous year question paper with answers pdf. Hence, we upload the WBPSC model question paper pdf free download link in this article.
WBPSC Previous Question Paper
Aspirants who applied for the WBPSC Miscellaneous Services jobs 2019 can find the related previous year question papers on our page. To make it easy for the visitors of our page, we given the previous papers in pdf format.
Hence, find the direct link for the respective WBPSC exam previous year question paper pdf in the section below. For more latest West Bengal Public Service Commission jobs visit our WBPSC Recruitment 2019 page.
Candidates are advised to refer the complete WBPSC syllabus and exam pattern details before going to previous question papers. Knowledge of syllabus and exam pattern helps the applicants in understanding the way question and answers are given. Also, improves the scope of scoring marks and time management during the main examinations.
WBPSC Miscellaneous Previous Year Question Papers Pdf
West Bengal Public Service Commission has given the notification to fill various Miscellaneous Services Vacancies this year i.e. 2019. Applicants can fill their application forms from 10th June 2019. Candidates who are interested in this sector and are applying for the post can find previous exam papers in this section. Hence, find the WBPSC previous year question papers for the written test in the below table and start your preparation.
It is Stated that the Preliminary exam will be conducted in the month of September 2019 (Tentatively). or much more details related to exam visit the official site of WBPSC.
West Bengal PSC has given the notification to fill 74 Motor Vehicle Inspector (Non-Technical) in the month of Feb 2019. However, the board has now given the exam date for the written test as 07th April 2019. Hence, find the WBPSC previous year question papers for the written test below and start your preparation.
Applied for the Account WB PSC Recruitment 2018. Then here the Account Exam Model Question Papers for the purpose of practice. Aspirants who are going to appear for accountant written examination this month can download the pdf below. Hope our material will help you in your preparation and in scoring the marks.
Description
Details
Post Name
Accountant
No of Vacancies
200
Category
Previous Papers
Official Website
www.pscwbonline.gov.in
WBPSC Previous Year Question Papers Pdf – Download
The West Bengal Public Service Commission announced the SI Vacancies 2018. Hence, here are the WBPSC Previous Years Questions Papers and Study material for the post of Sub-Inspector Written Examination. The Aspirants who appearing the SI written Examination can check the WB PSC Old Papers with Answers below. Also, download the free PSC WB Question Papers for Sub Inspector Exams below.
Description
Details
Post Name
Sub-Inspector
No of Vacancies
957
Category
Previous Papers
Exam Date
27th January 2019
Download West Bengal PSC SI Old Question Papers Pdf
The applicants of WBPSC Jobs can check the WBPSC Previous Papers of Fire Operator. We have updated the direct links to download the West Bengal PSC Fire Operator Question Papers in the Pdf format. Hence, candidates are requested to check the WB PSC Previous Year Question Papers and prepare accordingly. Also, refer to the WBPSC Fire Operator Sample Papers uploaded here.
Have you applied for WBPSC Jobs? Are you preparing for the Govt Jobs? Then, you must be looking for WBPSC Forest Services Question Paper with Solution. So, here in this article, you can find the complete study material for WBPSC Exam. Therefore, read the following article carefully. The WBPSC Previous Question Paper can help the candidates with question topic, important topics, time management, etc. Hence, it is advised to all the contenders to practice all the provided WBPSC Model Question Papers for the better preparation.
WBPSC Civil Judges Previous Papers are provided here to download. Hence the candidates who applied for the Civil Judges Exam can refer the WBPSC Previous Papers for better preparation. Download the WBPSC Civil Judges Exam Question Papers for free of cost from the below links. Also, refer the official website of the West Bengal PSC i.e. www.pscwb.org.in for more details about the Civil Judges Exam.
The WB PSC Veterinary Officer Previous Papers is uploaded here. Hence, applicants looking for the papers can check here. The WBPSC Previous Papers Pdf is important for the aspirants who have applied for the West Bengal PSC Veterinary Officer Jobs. Go through the following article and download the WB PSC Model Question Papers Pdf. Interested and eligible applicants can also visit the official website of West Bengal Public Service Commission @ pscwbonline.gov.in for detailed WB Public Service Commission Previous Papers with Solutions. Also, check WBPSC Exam Pattern 2018 here.
Description
Details
Total Vacancies
156
Name of the Posts
Veterinary Officer
Category
Previous Papers
Download WB Public Service Commission Model Papers
West Bengal PSC Veterinary Officer Previous Papers
WBPSC Asst Director of Agriculture Previous Papers
Are you searching for WBPSC Previous Papers, then you reached the right page. Therefore, click on the given links and download the WB PSC Assistant Director of Agriculture Papers. Eligible candidates are requested to go through the entire page to get detailed information about the test papers. Here, we have updated WBPSC Previous Question Papers for your reference. Also, you can refer the official website to check the West Bengal PSC Syllabus & Exam Pattern 2018 @ pscwbonline.gov.in.
AP Village Volunteer Recruitment 2019 – 4 Lakh Vacancies
AP Village Volunteer Recruitment 2019 – Apply Online for 4,33,126 APGV/APVV Job Vacancies. The most expected AP Grama Volunteer Recruitment 2019 Notification is out now. This latest job notice by Andhra Pradesh Government has 4 Lakh vacancies for Village/Grama Volunteer posts. Interested candidates can start submitting your application forms from 8th June 2019 through online mode. The main motive is to work hard for the empowerment of villages. Hurry up, apply before the due date i.e. 31st July 2019. So, submit your application forms at the earliest to be a part of AP govt jobs.
As stated by CM of AP Mr. YS Jagan Mohan, 01 volunteers per 50 Families in each village will be selected for the AP Grama Volunteer Jobs. These 4 Lakh vacancies will be filled before 15th August 2019. However, as per AP Grama Volunteer notification, only 10th pass/12th pass candidates will be eligible to apply. Selected candidates for APGC Jobs will get a salary of Rs.5,000/- per month. Exam Dates or selection criteria has not been revealed yet. We will keep you updated once it is officially released. Please stay connected with us.
Overview of AP Grama Volunteer Recruitment 2019
Name of the Organization
Andhra Pradesh State Government
Name of the Post
Village Volunteer (Grama Volunteer)
Number of Vacancies
4,33,126
Educational Qualification
10th Class/12th Class
Apply Mode
Apply Online
Job Category
AP Govt Jobs
Starting Date to Apply
8th June 2019
Last Date to submit AP Grama Volunteer Application Form
“By August 15, we will provide 4 lakh jobs to the villagers, with a salary of Rs 5,000. There will be a volunteer for 50 families and it will be a transparent and non-corrupt mechanism. We will establish village secretariats by October 2, creating 1.45 lakh jobs. “Once you have submitted an application to the village secretariat, it will be resolved or sanctioned within 72 hours,” said Jagan.”
ICDS Question Paper for Female Supervisor, Anganwadi (Assistant & Helper), Coordinator, project assistant is available here. Candidates who applied for ICDS recruitment can find the Female Supervisor previous year question papers, interview question & answers pdf. Aspirants can download ICDS previous papers, interview questions pdf for free of cost on our page. Find the exam pattern and personal interview date 2019 in the sections below.
ICDS Exam Question Paper Download
Integrated Child Developer Services (ICDS) has released the notification for Female Supervisor, Project Officers, Worker, Stenographer, Accountant, Assistant and helper positions. Since ICDS West Bengal had announced Female Supervisor exam date, other posts exam date will be released soon. Keep checking as we will update the details soon the board releases the notification. However, the applicants of ICDS Anganwadi supervisor, assistant and helper post can find the interview question paper with answers in the section below.
Have you applied for Integrated Child Developer Service (ICDS) Anganwadi Supervisor, Accountant, Assistant & Helper exam 2019? Searching for ICDS Supervisor previous year question papers West Bengal And didn’t find them yet? If your answer is yes, then you are in the right place to get the ICDS Anganwadi exam question paper download. These previous papers are very useful while preparing for any kind of competitive or entrance exam. Individuals can download the previous papers from this page at free of cost. Get more similar jobs like ICDS Recruitment in Central Government Jobs
ICDS exam date 2019 for Supervisor is announced and it is on 11th August 2019. The ICDS will conduct the personal interview round for the applicants of Anganwadi asst and helper vacancies. However, applicants can keep checking our page for more updates. Find the details regarding the selection process and interview rounds in the section below.
West Bengal ICDS Supervisor Previous Year Question Papers Pdf
West Bengal Integrated Child Developer Services (WB ICDS) has declared the exam date for Supervisor post as 11th August 2019. However, the candidates who are appearing for Supervisor Prelims exam can check the exam date, exam pattern, and model papers in the below sections of the article. Later download the WB ICDS Model exam question papers with answers pdf from the direct links given in the below table.
ICDS Supervisor Solved Practice Papers | Exam Paper Pattern 2019
Part – I: Preliminary Screening Test Pattern 2019
Exam Type
No. of Questions
Marks
Objective Type Questions
100
100
Each question carries 1 mark.
Duration of Exam is 1 Hour.
Negative marking will be there for the exam.
Part – II: Mains Written Examination Pattern 2019
Paper Name
Subject
Marks
Paper I
English
100
Paper II
Bengali/Urdu/Nepali/Santali
100
Paper III
General Studies & Current Affair
100
Paper IV
Arithmetic
100
Each Paper exam duration will be 90 Minutes.
There will be Descriptive/Conventional type of questions.
The candidates who qualify on the basis of merit in prelims will only be called for the written exam.
Part – III: Viva-Voce Test
The applicants who are qualified in both Prelims & Mains will be called for Viva-Voce Test which is of 50 marks.
Direct Links to Download ICDS Supervisor Exam Previous Question Papers Pdf – Click Here
ICDS Exam Model Question Paper Pattern 2019
Integrated Child Developer Services (ICDS) – Jammu & Kashmir, West Bengal, Bihar, and other states generally conduct the interview for the applicants. If they receive more applications, then the respective state ICDS boards will shortlist the candidates for interview based on their performance in basic objective type written the test. However, find the complete selection process and marks for each section details in our ICDS Syllabus page.
Find the expected exam pattern details for the ICDS basic objective written test 2019. The below details are not official and will be updated if the board announces any official details. Hence, go through the details and find the ICDS West Bengal & other question paper below. Aspirants can download the ICDS Anganwadi Supervisor, Assistant & helper interview question & answer pdf in the section following.
Aspirants who are going to appear for the written test and personal interview rounds of ICDS recruitment can find the exam question paper with answers here. ICDS question paper download given below is only for reference purpose. Hence, aspirants can download the pdf for free of cost and start your preparation.
Refer all the papers for better understanding and prepare well. Find the FAQ about ICDS and general ICDS interview question paper pdf for आंगनवाड़ी सेविका और आंगनवाड़ी सहायिका & other posts below. Hope these help you in the preparation. Aspirants can comment in the section below regarding the update over ICDS exam 2019.
Integrated Child Developer Services Exam Old Question Papers Pdf
TNPSC Group 4 Previous Papers Pdf is available to download for free on our page. Job Seekers who applied for the Tamil Nadu PSC group 4 vacancies can find the exam question paper on our page. We have given the direct link in the section below. Also, check the exam pattern and exam date details in the article below. Interested aspirants can also, check the official TNPSC website for more details.
TNPSC Group 4 Previous Question Papers Pdf
TNPSC previous year question paper with answers in Tamil is given in the section below. Referring to the old question paper helps the applicants in understanding the way the question and answers are given in the examination. Also. helps in scoring marks in the written test. However, to help the applicants of Tamil Nadu group 4 vacancies, we have given the official group 4 previous year paper at one place.
Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission releases the notification to fill vacancies under group 4 every year. A huge number of job seekers who are eagerly waiting for the group’s notification will apply. There will a tough competition between the contenders of group 4 examination every year. It is expected the competition will be increasing this year as the number of unemployees is increasing. However, to overcome your competitors and to score marks in examination, the previous year question paper will help a lot.
TNPSC Group IV Previous Year Question Papers in Hindi Pdf Download
Tamil Nadu PSC announces the exam date and other related details in its official websites. Aspirants can keep checking our page as we update the details immediately when the board announces. Check the complete exam pattern details for TNPSC group 4 examination 2019 below.
TNPSC Group 4 Exam Question Paper Pattern 2019
Tamil Nadu PSC selects the applicants based on their performance in the written examination. Hence, we advise the applicants to check the exam pattern before starting your preparation. Knowledge of question paper pattern helps to understand the way paper is going to be. List out the sections need to concentrate to score marks.
Written examination of TNPSC group 4 will be having objective type questions. Where the applicants need to answer 300 questions in a time duration of 3 hrs. Check the complete exam pattern details in the tabular section below. Later, find the direct download links for the previous question papers in the section below. Comment in the section below for any queries regarding the exam pattern. Aspirants can find the complete topic wise syllabus in our TNPSC group 4 syllabus page.
TNPSC Group 4 Exam Pattern Details 2019
Subjects
No. of Questions
Marks
General Studies
75
150
Aptitude & Mental Ability
25
General Tamil / Gen. English
100
150
Total
200
300
The exam is of objective type questions.
The exam will be of S.S.L.C Std.
The duration of the exam will be 3 hours.
TNPSC Group 4 last 5 years Question Paper with Answers in Tamil Pdf
Direct download link for TNPSC group 4 last 5 years question paper with answers in Tamil is given below. Aspirants who are looking for question paper with answers can download from the table below, and start practicing. These are the official TNPSC previous year question papers with answers pdf. But don’t expect the same question to come in the examination.
Practice more TNPSC group 4 previous papers for scoring good marks in the examination. Only those who are in the merit list are shortlisted in the final selection list. Hence, practice more and share the page URL with your friends who are looking for group 4 previous papers. With a just one click, you can get these papers in your hands. So don’t waste your time and start your preparation for cracking the exam.
Download TNPSC Group 4 Exam Previous Question Papers in Tamil Pdf
Are you searching for TSPSC Group 4 Previous Papers? Then, you have reached the right destination for your search. Here we have given TPSC Group 4 previous year question papers pdf with its direct download links to download free of cost. thus, go through the entire article and find exam dates, exam pattern, vacancies along with sample papers pdf.
TSPSC Group 4 Previous Papers PDF
Download Telangana PSC Group IV Services Old Question Papers Pdf for Free of cost. Also get TSPSC Group 4 Exam 2019 Study Material, Preparation tips along with Previous Year Question Papers. Aspirants can check the Telangana Public Service Commission Group IV Services Model Papers in both Telugu and English. Download Telangana state Group iv services Model Papers along with answers.
TS Public Service Commission Group 4 Exam Previous Question Papers contain the previously asked questions. Hence Aspirants may practice the TSPSC Group 4 Model Papers to get the experience and can improve time management which is very important for every competitive exam.
Candidates applied for the various Telangana State Public Service Commission Exam 2o18 need to undergo the following recruitment process,
Written Examination
Document Verification
Personal Interview
Telangana State PSC Group IV Exam Pattern 2019
The TSPSC Recruitment Board conducts online CBRT or offline OMR based Examination 2019. Thus, the TSPSC Exam pattern for Group-IV Services is updated in the tables given below. However, check the details and download the TSPSC Group-IV model exam question papers with solution Pdf from the link given below. Furthermore, for more details check the Official Telangana State PSC Website.
TSPSC Group 4 Question Paper Pattern in Telugu Medium
Paper
Subject Name
I
General Knowledge
II
Secretarial Abilities
Questions: Objective Type Multiple Choice Questions.
Each Paper having 150 Questions.
Maximum Marks for Each paper is 150 Marks.
Questions will be in Telugu, Urdu and English Languages.
Download TSPSC Group IV Exam Papers Pdf
In this section, Telangana PSC Group IV Previous Question Papers Free pdf is available. Applicants can download TSPSC Group 4 Model Papers from the below attachments. The competition for Group IV Services is very high. Hence the applicants need to prepare well to face this huge competition and to get the TSPSC Jobs.
You can also get solutions for the TSPSC Gr 4 Exam Question Papers provided below. Hope the information Provided below regarding Telangana PSC Group 4 Exam Previous Papers will helpful for the candidates to crack the exam easily. Also, check the official site attached below for further more TSPSC Group IV Old Question Papers.
Direct Links to Download TS Public Service Commission Group IV Solved Papers Pdf
Preparation Tips: Telangana State PSC Practice Papers
The TSPSC Group 4 Exam selection process will be based on the performance in written examination and personal interview.
Candidates who will gain qualifying marks in the written examination are only eligible for interview. Hence, we are providing TSPSC Group 4 Preparation Tips.
Check the TSPSC Group IV Previous Papers for preparation and those are helpful to get the better marks in the written Examination.
Candidate can use this information and practice model papers it will be very helpful to the candidates and get good rank in this TSPSC Group 4 examination.
ASRLMS Recruitment 2019 – Apply Online for 370 Block Coordinator, MIS Assistant cum Accountant & Other Vacancies: Assam State Rural Livelihood Mission Society hires 370 eligible aspirants to fill up Block Coordinator, MIS Assistant cum Accountant & Other posts. Candidates who satisfy the below provided educational qualification and age limit can apply for www.asrlms.assam.gov.in jobs from 08h June 2019. However, the mode of application is finalized to be online. Last Date to apply for ASRLMS Block Coordinator Jobs is 30th June 2019. Check eligibility, age limit, selection procedure and other details related to ASRLMS Assam Careers in the following sections.
ASRLMS Recruitment 2019 – Job Highlights
Name of the Board
Assam State Rural Livelihood Mission Society (ASRLMS)
Number of Vacancies
280
Name of the Post
Project Manager, Expert, Block Coordinator & Other
For District Functional Expert (Livelihoods & Marketing).
08.
District Functional Expert (FI).
07.
For District Functional Expert (Skills).
01.
District Accounts Manager.
02.
District MIS Manager.
15.
Block Project Manager.
02.
Block Coordinator.
141.
For Block Coordinator (MSKP).
05.
Block Coordinator (SVEP AAP).
03.
MIS Assistant cum Accountant.
04.
Project Manager – Digital Finance.
01.
Project Manager – Value Chain and Forward Linkage.
01.
For Project Manager – Enterprise Promotion (Non-Farm).
01.
Young Professional.
20.
Block Coordinator – Financial Inclusion.
20.
For Block Coordinator Forward Linkage.
20.
Block Coordinator Non-farm.
20.
Total
280
Eligibility Criteria for ASRLMS Recruitment 2019
All aspirants applying for ASRLM Recruitment 2019 should fulfill the educational qualification, age limit and other eligibility conditions given below.
Educational Qualification:
Block Coordinator – Candidates should have completed with Graduation (Relevant Disciplines)
Project Manager – Aspirants should have done with PG Degree or MBA
District MIS Manager – Applicants should have completed with MCA/MSc-IT.
For detailed information check out the Official Notification.
Age Limit:
Name of the Post
Age Limit (as on 01st April 2019)
State Project Manager.
32-45 Years.
Project Manager (HR).
30-40 Years.
For Project Executive – Finance & Accounts.
30-40 Years.
Project Assistant.
23-40 Years.
District Project Manager.
30-40 Years.
For District Functional Expert (SM, IB & CB).
25-40 Years.
District Functional Expert (Livelihoods & Marketing).
District Functional Expert (FI).
For District Functional Expert (Skills).
District Accounts Manager.
District MIS Manager.
25-40 Years.
Block Project Manager.
25-40 Years.
For Block Coordinator.
23-40 Years.
Block Coordinator (MSKP).
Block Coordinator (SVEP AAP).
MIS Assistant cum Accountant.
Project Manager – Digital Finance.
30 – 40 Years.
Project Manager – Value Chain and Forward Linkage.
There is no application fee for all the candidates.
How to Apply for ASRLMS Recruitment 2019
Download the Official Notification and read all the instructions properly. Once you get to know that you are under the eligibility criteria you can apply for the vacancy. Do follow the below-given steps to get your application filled properly.
1 Step: How to fill Online Application
Firstly, click on apply online link provided below
An ASRLM Online application form will be displayed on the screen
If you are a new user go for New Registration
Register in the site to get login details
Get your Registration ID and Password for login
Then Login to webpage and register for the post
2 Step: Attach necessary documents
Attach the photograph and necessary documents that are asked.
Make sure the details you upload are scanned copies and they do not form any error of it.
3 Step: Final Submission
Recheck the filled information.
Pay the prescribed Application Fee.
Click on the Submit button.
Take a print out of the completed application for future reference.
Important Dates for ASRLMS Block Coordinator Jobs 2019
About Assam State Rural Livelihood Mission Society (ASRLMS):
The NRLM is currently being implemented in Assam by the Assam Livelihoods Missions Society (ASRLMS), with the aim of strengthening the social and economic empowerment of the rural poor in Assam. It is an independent and autonomous body governed by Law No. XXI of 1860 on the registration of the company. It was established on November 11, 2011 by the Department of Panchayat and Rural Development of the Government of Assam. ASRLMS is led by its Board of Directors (GB) to provide general guidance to the Company. The Chief Minister, Assam, President and Chief Secretary of the Government Department of the Government of Assam, Panchayat and Rural Development, is the President.
The executive function of the Society is exercised by the Executive Committee (EC), the Principal Secretary, the Government of Assam, acting as President and Director of the State Mission, which is its member. The Director of the State Mission and its functional teams at the state level carry out the daily tasks of the Society. Unit of Management of the Mission of the State (SMMU). At the district level, district administration units (SMMUs) are directed by the district project manager under the overall direction and supervision of the project manager, DRDA and, at the block level, the unit of administration. The Bulk Mission (BMMU) is directed by the Block Project Manager under the general direction and supervision of the Block Development Officer.
Himachal Pradesh announced recruitment notification to fill 757 Gramin Dak Sevaks Posts. Interested candidates apply for HP Postal Circle Recruitment 2019. The notification released on 8th June 2019. Candidates looking for Government jobs in Himachal Pradesh utilize the opportunity. These 757 posts are divided into various areas of Himachal Pradesh. The mode of application for Gramin Dak Sevaks is Online. Applications submissions are started. The closing date to submit application forms is 5th July 2019. Matriculation completes candidates are eligible to apply for HP postal GDS Jobs. For more information refer official website www.hppostalcircle.gov.in
HP Postal Circle Recruitment 2019
Himachal Pradesh Postal Circle Recruitment 2019 released notification. Job seekers looking for Himachal Pradesh Govt Jobs apply for HP Postal Circle Recruitment 2019. Himachal Pradesh is looking for efficient members to work for their organization. Matriculation completed candidates are eligible to apply for HP postal GDS jobs. The minimum age limit is 18 years, and the maximum age limit is 40 years for postal jobs as per the rules of Himachal Pradesh Government. Aspirants can check more Employment News on our page. Age relaxation is applicable. For more details on age limit, educational qualification check official website www.hppostalcircle.gov.in. Postal jobs have more demanding these days. So eligible candidates apply before the last date.
Himachal Pradesh Postal Circle Notification 2019 @hppostalcircle.gov.in
As the mode of application for HP Postal Circle Gramin Dak Sevaks is Online. Candidates need to download the application form from the official website. The Application fee is 100/- for General category candidates. And there is no fee for the reserved category candidates. The applicants of the HP Postal circle Gramin Dak Sevaks posts will be selected based on their performance in written test and interview. Selected aspirants will receive a high paid salary of Rs.21,700 – 69,100/-. Job searchers can find latest and upcoming job notification on our site Sarkari Naukri. Shortlisted candidates in aptitude test attend the interview round with the required documents. Postal jobs are in various areas of Himachal Pradesh.
Candidates shortlisted in the written examination are called to attend for interview round conducted by Himachal Pradesh Postal Circle Board.
Pay Scale:
Selected candidates for HP Postal Circle Recruitment will receive a paid salary of Rs.21,700 – 69,100/-
Application Fee:
Application fee is not refundable.
For SC/ST category candidates: No fee
For OBC category Candidates application fee is Rs. 100/-.
HP Postman GDS Application form @ hppostalcircle.gov.in
Candidates interested and eligible to apply for HP Postal Circle recruitment should download the application form from the official website hppostalcircle.gov.in. Fill the application form and send it to the given address. In order to obtain a job submit the application form before the last date 02/05/2019
How to apply for Himachal Pradesh Gramin Dak Sevaks posts?
Read the official Notification pdf provided below.
If eligible, visit the official website www.hppostalcircle.gov.in.
Click on the apply online link given below.
Fill the application form with the required details like name, age, qualification, address.
Upload your recent photograph
Attach scanned copies of necessary documents
Pay prescribed application fee
Finally, hit on submit button to complete the recruitment process.
The Bommasandra-Jigani link road near Bengaluru's Electronic City is dotted with sleek, glass-fronted offices of pharmaceutical, manufacturing and technology companies.But swerve into one of the smaller roads and you will be faced with an all-too familiar sight: an unofficial landfill spread out over an acre and rising several metres high, its base strewn with recently-discarded plastic cups, polybags, wrappers, packaging material and other detritus of our daily lives. This plastic pile, like other similar piles lying by our roadsides or accumulating in empty lots or choking up water bodies, thumbing its nose at India's ambitious intent to phase single-use plastic like straws and cups by 2022, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on World Environment Day a year ago.Recently, this gap between intent reality was underlined all over again. National Green Tribunal rapped 25 states and union territories for not following its orders on submitting a plan by April 30, 2019, on how they would comply with the Plastic Waste Management Rules of 2016. 69706911 Except for Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, West Bengal and Puducherry, all the other states face the prospect of having to pay Rs 1 crore for each month of delay. "We will submit a compiled report on the lack of action plans and the NGT will then issue its order," says SK Nigam, the former additional director of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) responsible for moving court against the errant states.More Plastic Per Person Like much of the world, India is struggling to dispose its growing quantities of plastic waste given how ubiquitous it has become — from our tooth brushes to debit cards. India generates close to 26,000 tonnes of plastic a day, according to a CPCB estimate from 2012. Worse, a little over 10,000 tonnes a day of plastic waste remains uncollected.Uncollected plastic waste eventually ends up in the natural environment — in our seas and oceans or piling up on our lands. By 2050, the amount of plastic in seas and oceans across the world will weigh more than the fishes, says a headline-grabbing estimate by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. At less than 11 kg, India's per capita plastic consumption is nearly a tenth of the US, at 109 kg. 69706917 "But India's systems and processes are such that we cannot afford to let our guard down. Also, countries should not be competing about this, saying we are not consuming so much, give us some leeway to consume more [plastic]," says Wilma Rodrigues, founder and CEO of Saahas Zero Waste, a waste management social enterprise based in Bengaluru.And our plastic consumption is increasing. The plastic processing industry is estimated to grow to 22 million tonnes (MT) a year by 2020 from 13.4 MT in 2015 and nearly half of this is single-use plastic, according to a Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry study.The 2016 Plastic Waste Management Rules were an attempt to improve legislation, and state that every local body has to be responsible for setting up infrastructure for segregation, collection, processing and disposal of plastic waste. Additionally, the rules, amended in 2018, introduced the concept of extended producer responsibility, according to which the producers (manufacturers, importers and those using plastic in packaging) as well as brand owners would be held responsible for collecting the waste their products generate. A new national framework on plastic waste management is in the works, which will have more stringent targets on extended producer responsibility for brand owners and producers, and norms on traceability of plastic waste. It will also introduce third-party audits as part of the monitoring mechanism.Online Delivery Problem Apart from the plastic we consume through traditional retail, the popularity of online retail and food delivery apps, though restricted to big cities, is contributing to the rise in plastic waste, say waste management experts. "There is no data on this yet but the kind of packaging generated with every food order is huge, considering these apps allow you to even order a single gulab jamun," says Swati Singh Sambyal, programme manager of municipal solid waste at Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a New Delhi-based think tank. India's biggest online delivery startups Swiggy and Zomato are each reportedly delivering about 28 million orders a month. But the companies declined to reveal how much packaging they are currently using. Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal, in a September 2018 blog, estimated that orders through food delivery aggregators was adding up to "22,000 tonnes of plastic waste created every month in India". Back then, his company was delivering 16.5 million orders a month. While there are no updated and accurate numbers on the quantity of plastic waste generated through online food delivery, the grim situation in China might serve as a warning. When online food orders in China jumped to 4.6 billion in the first half of 2017, total plastic waste also rose to 1.5 million tonnes (MT) in 2017 from 0.2 MT in 2015, according to researchers at Shenzhen University and University of Michigan. E-commerce companies too have come under fire for excess use of plastic packaging. "Online companies should be held responsible for the plastic waste they generate. Otherwise, it will just keep adding to the gargantuan problem of plastic disposal," says Sambyal of CSE. The internet companies, on their part, say they are working towards reducing plastic packaging. Last week, Amazon India said it was expanding packaging-free shipment to nine cities, under which orders would be shipped without additional packaging. "Air inside the Amazon boxes reduced by 30% across Amazon India's fulfilment centres in 2018. Also, we no longer place invoices in plastic pouches for 95% of Amazon India's order deliveries," says an Amazon India spokesperson. As a result, the use of plastic and corrugated boxes has fallen by 15% each, the company said. Flipkart's chief corporate affairs officer Rajneesh Kumar told ET Magazine that the company had launched several steps to reduce plastic use, including leveraging tech to optimise the type and volume of packaging and introducing the "no package shipping" for certain deliveries. Swiggy is also in the process of rolling out a feature for users to opt out of receiving disposable plastic cutlery along with their orders, said a company spokesperson. This is apart from a marketplace it introduced for the restaurants on its platform to access ecofriendly packaging options, though the company did not reveal how many restaurants were using this option. Nigam says these internet companies will also come within the purview of the extended producer responsibility norms of Plastic Waste Management Rules. But like the case is with all our legislation on plastic, the effectiveness will depend on execution and monitoring. The mixed results of plastic bans introduced by different states over the years are a good example. 69706931 Sikkim was a pioneer in banning plastic bags as far back as 1998. Others followed, and so far, around 22 states and UTs have bans in place, says Nigam. "But merely announcing a ban will not solve the problem of plastic disposal. It has to be regulated at all points, strictly enforced and monitored." Due to ineffective monitoring, "everybody flouts the rules so the ban does not serve the purpose," says Rodrigues of Saahas. In Maharashtra, for example, the ban on single use disposable plastic was strictly enforced initially. But now it's back to square one. CSE's Sambyal lists another challenge. "When you are banning plastic, you are not taking into account the entire scenario that has to change with it. All the different stakeholders need to work together." So instead of closing down plastic manufacturing and trading units and rendering lakhs jobless, they should have been nudged to produce alternatives, she says. 69706936 Plastic users should be provided with feasible alternatives, which are not costly and made aware of these options. Industry should also be pushed to work on R&D to work on packaging alternatives, provided with time to work on this and given targets to phase out different types of plastic, says Sambyal. Rather than a sudden blanket ban, she suggests phasing out single-use plastic according to whether these are high priority items that need to be replaced immediately and for which alternatives are available, and those that require more time to be phased out. The forthcoming norms on extended producer responsibilities, if stringent in execution, hold out hope for India's attempts at reducing plastic waste, provided all stakeholders, including consumers, step up. Otherwise, as Rodrigues points out, we need to be ready to live in a world where there is plastic in our food, our water and our bodies.
By Taponeel MukherjeeThe Reserve Bank of India rate cut is expected to provide a boost to the economy. Lower interest rates will help in providing support to the economy but are not the sole elixir that India needs. The focus must not be just on the immediate economic issues but on the broader target of implementing changes that have a long-lasting positive impact on the economy.Two issues that merit significant attention are: (1) Further boosting liquidity and depth of the government bond futures market and (2) Consolidation of the public sector banks in India. Indian policymakers and the central bank need to start creating a roadmap for greater participation of investors to develop further liquidity in the government bond futures market in India. Further development of the market involves complicated intricacies such as a better market design that allows greater participation by a variety of investors including foreign ones. However, in the long-run the government bond futures market is indispensable to India's financial market development.Issues such as illiquid mispriced loans, incorrect pricing of credit risk, and an over-dependence on bank loans versus corporate bonds have plagued the Indian credit markets. At a fundamental level, resolving these issues requires further improvement in the liquidity of the benchmark government bond future that can effectively form the base of the market. Solutions to tide over the current credit issues are critical, but it is imperative that structural problems in the credit markets are addressed.The primary advantage of a liquid and deep government bond futures market with increased participation by both domestic and foreign investors will be the provision of liquidity to the benchmark government bond curve, which in turn will allow other fixed-income instruments to be priced as a spread to it. Building liquidity in the benchmark government bond curve, especially in the longer end of the curve is essential to creating robust lending markets in India.Higher liquidity in the government bond futures market will allow the development of the long-end lending instruments so crucial to infrastructure investments in India. One of the primary reasons as to why long-term lending is challenging in India is the lack of liquid interest rate hedging instruments in the longer tenures. A more robust benchmark government bond market will also expedite the development of a liquid corporate bond market. This liquid corporate bond market with active price discovery is the vital base required for better pricing of credit risk by market players. Not creating structural changes leaves us exposed to repeating the mistakes of the past.As is clearly illustrated, the greater focus on the government bond futures market will significantly assist in achieving the targets of greater long-term infrastructure, and more liquid corporate bond markets -- the two objectives that are high on the priority list. The consolidation in the Public Sector Banks (PSBs) through the mergers last year is another vital issue that the government needs to continue to focus on. A multitude of government-backed banks, all of which have similar roles has been one factor that has led to significant credit problems in the economy. A look at the list of creditors in the bankruptcy courts in India throws up a myriad of PSBs, all of which mostly have the same credit exposure. The PSBs should be aggregated to avoid situations whereby lending continues unabated even as the credit quality of the borrower declines. Bank mergers are not a simple and easy process but are a must towards ensuring that poor lending practices of the past are not repeated in the future.That said, PSB mergers must always be done to create an organisation that is larger than the sum of the parts. For instance, regional synergies and diversity in the type of clients on the loan books (corporate versus retail) must all be considered to create larger, more successful PSBs. Time devoted to creating robust organisations is well worth the effort.The changes regarding creating a more liquid and functional government bond futures market and larger PSBs are all long-term changes that will deliver returns in terms of a stronger financial foundation on which to build India's economic growth story. The government and the various stakeholders together would do well to start creating a roadmap for the efficient implementation of the much-needed changes. That said, patience will be of the essence to eventually deliver these changes.(The views expressed in this article are personal and that of the author. The author heads Development Tracks, an infrastructure advisory firm. You can contact him at taponeel.mukherjee@development-tracks.com or @Taponeel on Twitter)
By Arati R JerathThe Congress is in a curious place. Its president Rahul Gandhi has quit. He walked out of a working committee meeting in a huff on May 25, refused to reconsider his resignation despite pleas and tears (even the usually inscrutable P Chidambaram started crying) and has been incommunicado since.Two weeks have passed. A new president has not been appointed. No one in the party knows who's in charge. Meanwhile, state units all over the country are imploding and the Congress is in serious danger of losing at least three of its governments — in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Karnataka — as factionalism and infighting spiral out of control.Strangely, Rahul doesn't seem to care. Despite a pep talk to newly elected Congress MPs at the first meeting of the parliamentary party where he vowed to fight the BJP everyday with 52 members in the Lok Sabha, he has shown no inclination to douse the flames raging in his backyard. It's almost as if he's decided to let them consume the party, reduce it to cinders and then, maybe then, he will step in hoping to make it rise again like a phoenix from the ashes.Since no one has access to him, one can only guess what's going through his mind. It's possible he's turned to his grandmother Indira Gandhi for inspiration. She split the Congress twice, once after it lost elections in six major states, including UP, in 1967 despite winning the general election that year but with a vastly reduced margin and the second time after she was swept out of power in 1977 in an election in which she herself was defeated in her fiefdom of Rae Bareli.The splits were deliberate and strategic. Each time, she offloaded members of the old guard and other deadwood and injected new blood in the form of younger people with fresh ideas. It worked like a charm. She led her faction of the Congress to spectacular victories in 1971 and 1980, leaving behind a legacy which her family has been living off ever since. As his party lurches from crisis to crisis, Rahul may well have decided to take a leaf out of his grandmother's book. Certainly, his unexpected attack on senior leaders Kamal Nath, Ashok Gehlot and Chidambaram on that stormy May 25 meeting for virtually blackmailing the party into giving their sons tickets to contest the Lok Sabha election suggests that he wants the old guard out.The chasm between the old (the Sonia Congress) and the young (the Rahul Congress) is wide open now. It is interesting that after Rahul's tongue-lashing, younger leaders, who have been chafing at the bit because of dominating seniors, are also speaking up. This may cost the Congress their governments but Sachin Pilot in Rajasthan and Jyotiraditya Scindia in Madhya Pradesh seem to have decided not to hold themselves back any longer. Through their supporters, both are rocking the boat hard in a determined bid to oust the elders. Rahul is taking no notice and even Sonia Gandhi seems to have decided to sit back and let the situation play itself out.Historically, Indira rejuvenated her political fortunes by splitting the Congress. But is Rahul made of the same stuff as his grandmother? Indira was a master politician who readily hit the streets with cleverly choreographed outreach events. She crafted slogans and political planks that reflected her times and, consequently, proved to be a hit with voters. Indira instinctively understood her times and tailored her politics accordingly with the help of a team of shrewd political aides.Times are much tougher for Rahul. In Narendra Modi, he is up against a leader who is as formidable and sharp as his grandmother was. Rahul has not displayed great political acumen so far, either in terms of coming up with a narrative to suit his era or in choosing advisors with grassroots experience. His aides come with foreign degrees and an NGO approach. Nice guys but poor politicians.And then there is the important issue of organisational strength. Despite the splits, Indira retained the better part of the Congress organisation which was still robust and rooted. Rahul's Congress has virtually disappeared from key states like UP, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal.There are pockets where it is still alive and kicking, like in Karnataka where the party swept the local elections that were held just days after it received a drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls. The contrasting verdicts suggest that voters opted for Modi¡¦s strong decisive leadership at the Centre but the Congress is still the preferred choice in the state.If Rahul hopes to follow in Indira's footsteps, he has to have a strategy, look decisive and act. A split is quite different from disintegration. Rahul has an existential crisis on his hands. There¡¦s not much left of the Congress today. And the way things are going, it may simply vanish in the blink of an eye. The writer is a political commentator.
There is an air of familiarity around Prabhu Stores, a small grocer on the fringes of Malleswaram, a Bengaluru neighbourhood. It is nearly 5 pm on a Friday evening and as the evening rush hour begins to build, Nagesh Prabhu, whose family has owned the store for the better part of five decades, is getting set for business.Along with his wife, Prabhu operates the store from early in the morning to late evening, providing for small purchases of regular customers, ranging from one-off items such as a bar of soap to extensive monthly grocery lists. Over time, Prabhu Stores has become something of a landmark, with locals happy to point you in its direction.Until 12 months ago, the store, which is around 100 square feet and stocks under 1,000 items, typified the mom-and-pop store that's ubiquitous around India. The interiors were dim and disorganised, billing was ad-hoc and most transactions were in cash. The Prabhus, who live right next to their store, take turns minding the till. The business wasn't exactly booming, but just like the old neighbourhood, coasting along happily. 69707083 Over the past year, the store has undergone a transformation, rendering it nearly unrecognisable for long-time customers. Even as the Prabhus have tried to keep pace with change (they visited German retailer Metro Cash and Carry's India store the day it opened its first India store in Bengaluru, 18 years ago, and source from there regularly), it is the more recent actions that have turned heads. First, in mid-2019, Prabhu decided to sign up with Metro for its point of sale, or PoS, machine to hand out digital bills and better manage the inventory.This also helped piece together a list of some 800 customers to whom he could push special offers. Later, the store itself was overhauled and remodelled, bringing in fresh design and pleasing lighting, effectively opening up the store, making it more accessible to customers and store help alike. (Another unintended consequence: newly installed cameras detected a helper was pilfering groceries.) "The store has completely transformed in the past 12 months, but we have retained old customers and brought in new ones," says Prabhu. With the addition of a range of digital payment options and the slow adoption of apps to manage suppliers, certain change is in the air.There are an estimated 12 million small retailers such as Prabhu Stores, meeting customer needs in every nook and cranny of the country. They are now the focus of two transformational forces — one that seeks to modernise such stores, using technology to bestow the efficiencies and tactics of modern retail, and another that seeks to make them the pulsating nerve centres of a coming ecommerce and digital payments revolution focussed on smaller cities and beyond, by hooking them up to virtual hubs of demand, supply and transactions.Fintech companies such as Paytm, PhonePe and Google Pay all jostling to become the payments bridge between the store and the customer. While store owners pay some of these companies a fee to receive payments, they also get commissions as volumes grow, opening up a new avenue for earnings. Companies such as Reliance, Metro and Amazon have offered glimpses of plans to make the kirana store a big part of their groceries and daily needs ecommerce play and also as delivery hubs and pick-up points for other goods. They have made a beginning by helping such stores better manage their inventory, refurbish thepremises with cheap credit and gain more business. 69707133 Catching the Corner StoreAway from the visible consumer-facing side of the business, a range of supply chain tech upgrades are underway, with everyone from Udaan to Ninjacart looking to get a kirana owner's attention. Then, a bunch of startups in catalogue management and inventory, including the likes of Store King and Snapbizz, are helping kirana owners sort their stock and better understand their business.While tech companies get a chance to wire up a new set of customers (and hope to grow in parallel with them), consumer goods firms, including Hindustan Unilever and Future Group, are hoping to benefit from accessing tonnes of customer purchase data."Kirana stores are fast evolving with the adoption of technology to serve changing shopper aspirations and needs. HUL is experimenting with different business models in collaboration with retail partners," an HUL representative said. Historically, companies have struggled to prise business out of India's small retailers. Bogged down by limited funds (mostly focused on meeting working capital needs), they have struggled to modernise their businesses.However, over the past two or three years, a range of businesses, ranging from fledgling ventures such as Perpule, a provider of self-check-out technology, to global retail bellwether Walmart, wants a piece of this action. "We believe kiranas' success is our business … We understand their needs and know the existential dilemma they are facing in the current competitive environment," says Arvind Mediratta, MD & CEO, Metro Cash & Carry India.Metro provides a PoS solution (available on monthly instalments) to small retailers, enabling kiranas to track their inventory, sales and revenue; they can refer to the dashboard wherein they can track slow- and fastmoving items like any modern retailer. 69707139 They can run special promotions for high-value consumers and even send text messages and emails for promotions to their customers. They can also print GST-compliant invoices. Metro is also offering interest-free credit solutions for traders & kiranas, helping them optimise their working capital. Metro has also extended the reach of its 27 stores with a new offering whereby small store owners can order products on the fly from visiting sales staff.Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani signalled the ambitious plans for his group at the firm's annual general meeting last year. "We shall create this (technology platform) by integrating and synergising the power of Reliance Retail's physical marketplace with the fabulous strengths of Jio's digital infrastructure and services… The 35 crore and growing customer footfalls at Reliance Retail stores... The 21.5 crore and growing Jio connectivity customers … The targeted 5 crore Jio Giga-Homes; and all the 3 crore small merchants and shopkeepers all over India who provide the last-mile physical market connectivity," he announced.Reliance's focus on small retailers is part of its broader strategy that encompasses its retail, telecom and diverse tech interests. For example, it has piloted its mPoS solution across Gujarat and will soon try it in other states, too, before a national rollout. The firm wants to reach five million retailers by 2025.India's richest man can expect some stiff competition in the race to woo India's small retailers. The world's largest retailer, Walmart, thinks it has the secret sauce to crack the market. The retail giant is offering small retailers a combination of store modernisation and its own PoS offering, to woo mom-and-pop stores keen for a tech upgrade. "With our knowledge of the country, retail expertise and because of our decadelong work with kiranas, we are in a unique position to understand their pain points." Krish Iyer, chief executive, Walmart India, told ET in May this year.In HSR Layout, on Bengaluru's eastern periphery, Srihari Srinivasan is keeping his options open. Over the past six years, his store Eezy Kart has grown ten-fold in size from a 100 sq ft outlet. Along the way, he has also used a combination of customer feedback and technology to tweak what he sells — Uncle Chipps was a smash hit with his customers as were Dove's products for men — even as he has added multiple digital payment options and apps to manage his supply chain. 69707143 If Bengaluru is arguably India's startup capital, then HSR is emerging as the laboratory for retail innovations. Retailers tend to offer more payment options, easier home delivery (on WhatsApp) and are more open to trial new products."Technology has completely changed both the customer-facing operations and the back-end function of my business," says Srinivasan, proprietor of Eezy Kart, on a slow Friday afternoon. He is supervising a fresh consignment of 15-litre mineral water bottles that has just arrived, as he waits for business to pick up. Today, twothirds of his transactions take place digitally and supplies are sourced using a combination of apps, including Amazon, Ninjacart and Udaan.Despite this, he's cautious about the sweeping plans of the likes of Reliance. "I want to be able to have the choice — and give my customers the choice — of what products to have on my shelves," he says. "Reliance private labels, Jio mobile and an mPoS also from them narrow these choices."Having these options suits companies such as PhonePe just fine. The payment solution of the Flipkart-owned company, which is inching towards becoming India's next unicorn (a company valued at a billion dollars or more), is used by over five million small businesses of all hues, with small retailers leading the way. "We plan to work with seven million small businesses by the end of the year and retailers are a key target as they become tech-savvy and push for more incremental business from newage tech solutions," says Yuvraj Singh Shekhawat, head, offline business growth, PhonePe. Beyond digital payments, PhonePe now offers a platform for small retailers to manage their entire digital identity.In February 2019, payments startup BharatPe announced it had bagged $17 million in its Series A (first institutional round) funding, led by Sequoia Capital and Beenext, reportedly the largest amount raised at this juncture. This money will come in handy for the fastgrowing firm. It already has signed up 800,000 small retailers for its business and thousands more are in the queue. CEO Ashneer Grover says business is on a tear - BharatPe signed up barely 70,000 of them as of December 2018. "We expect 3-4 times growth in all our metrics in the next 12 months as this digitisation wave grows," he says. Rather than just add more businesses to its roster, he wants the company to do more with them - graduate from lowmargin (or no-margin) payments to becoming a lender of small amounts of capital to retailers, before an NBFC application is processed and hopefully approved. India's kirana stores are suddenly finding themselves in great demand.
There is an air of familiarity around Prabhu Stores, a small grocer on the fringes of Malleswaram, a Bengaluru neighbourhood. It is nearly 5 pm on a Friday evening and as the evening rush hour begins to build, Nagesh Prabhu, whose family has owned the store for the better part of five decades, is getting set for business.Along with his wife, Prabhu operates the store from early in the morning to late evening, providing for small purchases of regular customers, ranging from one-off items such as a bar of soap to extensive monthly grocery lists. Over time, Prabhu Stores has become something of a landmark, with locals happy to point you in its direction.Until 12 months ago, the store, which is around 100 square feet and stocks under 1,000 items, typified the mom-and-pop store that's ubiquitous around India. The interiors were dim and disorganised, billing was ad-hoc and most transactions were in cash. The Prabhus, who live right next to their store, take turns minding the till. The business wasn't exactly booming, but just like the old neighbourhood, coasting along happily. 69707083 Over the past year, the store has undergone a transformation, rendering it nearly unrecognisable for long-time customers. Even as the Prabhus have tried to keep pace with change (they visited German retailer Metro Cash and Carry's India store the day it opened its first India store in Bengaluru, 18 years ago, and source from there regularly), it is the more recent actions that have turned heads. First, in mid-2019, Prabhu decided to sign up with Metro for its point of sale, or PoS, machine to hand out digital bills and better manage the inventory.This also helped piece together a list of some 800 customers to whom he could push special offers. Later, the store itself was overhauled and remodelled, bringing in fresh design and pleasing lighting, effectively opening up the store, making it more accessible to customers and store help alike. (Another unintended consequence: newly installed cameras detected a helper was pilfering groceries.) "The store has completely transformed in the past 12 months, but we have retained old customers and brought in new ones," says Prabhu. With the addition of a range of digital payment options and the slow adoption of apps to manage suppliers, certain change is in the air.There are an estimated 12 million small retailers such as Prabhu Stores, meeting customer needs in every nook and cranny of the country. They are now the focus of two transformational forces — one that seeks to modernise such stores, using technology to bestow the efficiencies and tactics of modern retail, and another that seeks to make them the pulsating nerve centres of a coming ecommerce and digital payments revolution focussed on smaller cities and beyond, by hooking them up to virtual hubs of demand, supply and transactions.Fintech companies such as Paytm, PhonePe and Google Pay all jostling to become the payments bridge between the store and the customer. While store owners pay some of these companies a fee to receive payments, they also get commissions as volumes grow, opening up a new avenue for earnings. Companies such as Reliance, Metro and Amazon have offered glimpses of plans to make the kirana store a big part of their groceries and daily needs ecommerce play and also as delivery hubs and pick-up points for other goods. They have made a beginning by helping such stores better manage their inventory, refurbish thepremises with cheap credit and gain more business. 69707133 Catching the Corner StoreAway from the visible consumer-facing side of the business, a range of supply chain tech upgrades are underway, with everyone from Udaan to Ninjacart looking to get a kirana owner's attention. Then, a bunch of startups in catalogue management and inventory, including the likes of Store King and Snapbizz, are helping kirana owners sort their stock and better understand their business.While tech companies get a chance to wire up a new set of customers (and hope to grow in parallel with them), consumer goods firms, including Hindustan Unilever and Future Group, are hoping to benefit from accessing tonnes of customer purchase data."Kirana stores are fast evolving with the adoption of technology to serve changing shopper aspirations and needs. HUL is experimenting with different business models in collaboration with retail partners," an HUL representative said. Historically, companies have struggled to prise business out of India's small retailers. Bogged down by limited funds (mostly focused on meeting working capital needs), they have struggled to modernise their businesses.However, over the past two or three years, a range of businesses, ranging from fledgling ventures such as Perpule, a provider of self-check-out technology, to global retail bellwether Walmart, wants a piece of this action. "We believe kiranas' success is our business … We understand their needs and know the existential dilemma they are facing in the current competitive environment," says Arvind Mediratta, MD & CEO, Metro Cash & Carry India.Metro provides a PoS solution (available on monthly instalments) to small retailers, enabling kiranas to track their inventory, sales and revenue; they can refer to the dashboard wherein they can track slow- and fastmoving items like any modern retailer. 69707139 They can run special promotions for high-value consumers and even send text messages and emails for promotions to their customers. They can also print GST-compliant invoices. Metro is also offering interest-free credit solutions for traders & kiranas, helping them optimise their working capital. Metro has also extended the reach of its 27 stores with a new offering whereby small store owners can order products on the fly from visiting sales staff.Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani signalled the ambitious plans for his group at the firm's annual general meeting last year. "We shall create this (technology platform) by integrating and synergising the power of Reliance Retail's physical marketplace with the fabulous strengths of Jio's digital infrastructure and services… The 35 crore and growing customer footfalls at Reliance Retail stores... The 21.5 crore and growing Jio connectivity customers … The targeted 5 crore Jio Giga-Homes; and all the 3 crore small merchants and shopkeepers all over India who provide the last-mile physical market connectivity," he announced.Reliance's focus on small retailers is part of its broader strategy that encompasses its retail, telecom and diverse tech interests. For example, it has piloted its mPoS solution across Gujarat and will soon try it in other states, too, before a national rollout. The firm wants to reach five million retailers by 2025.India's richest man can expect some stiff competition in the race to woo India's small retailers. The world's largest retailer, Walmart, thinks it has the secret sauce to crack the market. The retail giant is offering small retailers a combination of store modernisation and its own PoS offering, to woo mom-and-pop stores keen for a tech upgrade. "With our knowledge of the country, retail expertise and because of our decadelong work with kiranas, we are in a unique position to understand their pain points." Krish Iyer, chief executive, Walmart India, told ET in May this year.In HSR Layout, on Bengaluru's eastern periphery, Srihari Srinivasan is keeping his options open. Over the past six years, his store Eezy Kart has grown ten-fold in size from a 100 sq ft outlet. Along the way, he has also used a combination of customer feedback and technology to tweak what he sells — Uncle Chipps was a smash hit with his customers as were Dove's products for men — even as he has added multiple digital payment options and apps to manage his supply chain. 69707143 If Bengaluru is arguably India's startup capital, then HSR is emerging as the laboratory for retail innovations. Retailers tend to offer more payment options, easier home delivery (on WhatsApp) and are more open to trial new products."Technology has completely changed both the customer-facing operations and the back-end function of my business," says Srinivasan, proprietor of Eezy Kart, on a slow Friday afternoon. He is supervising a fresh consignment of 15-litre mineral water bottles that has just arrived, as he waits for business to pick up. Today, twothirds of his transactions take place digitally and supplies are sourced using a combination of apps, including Amazon, Ninjacart and Udaan.Despite this, he's cautious about the sweeping plans of the likes of Reliance. "I want to be able to have the choice — and give my customers the choice — of what products to have on my shelves," he says. "Reliance private labels, Jio mobile and an mPoS also from them narrow these choices."Having these options suits companies such as PhonePe just fine. The payment solution of the Flipkart-owned company, which is inching towards becoming India's next unicorn (a company valued at a billion dollars or more), is used by over five million small businesses of all hues, with small retailers leading the way. "We plan to work with seven million small businesses by the end of the year and retailers are a key target as they become tech-savvy and push for more incremental business from newage tech solutions," says Yuvraj Singh Shekhawat, head, offline business growth, PhonePe. Beyond digital payments, PhonePe now offers a platform for small retailers to manage their entire digital identity.In February 2019, payments startup BharatPe announced it had bagged $17 million in its Series A (first institutional round) funding, led by Sequoia Capital and Beenext, reportedly the largest amount raised at this juncture. This money will come in handy for the fastgrowing firm. It already has signed up 800,000 small retailers for its business and thousands more are in the queue. CEO Ashneer Grover says business is on a tear - BharatPe signed up barely 70,000 of them as of December 2018. "We expect 3-4 times growth in all our metrics in the next 12 months as this digitisation wave grows," he says. Rather than just add more businesses to its roster, he wants the company to do more with them - graduate from lowmargin (or no-margin) payments to becoming a lender of small amounts of capital to retailers, before an NBFC application is processed and hopefully approved. India's kirana stores are suddenly finding themselves in great demand.
By Anirudha TapariaThe outcome of the 2019 general elections marked the end of the first act for the BJP-led NDA. It is now time for the main performance, and the general expectation is that Modi government 2.0 will deliver another superb innings.With this victory, the BJP government has created history by being the only non-Congress government to be elected to power for a consecutive second term. The decisive win has strong ramifications for the economy as well as the markets.Promises to be keptThe market is looking at the second term of the Modi government to build on the foundation laid in the previous term. In last five years, the BJP government took myriad steps and introduced several ground-breaking reforms that have put the country on the path to faster growth and ensured financial inclusion. Much was done to improve India's productivity and growth profile with the implementation of GST, insolvency law and JAM (Jan Dhan-Adhaar-Mobile) trinity, improving of the ease of doing business and opening up the economy for more FDI. However, many of the policies that have been implemented are yet to fructify.While a large portion of the benefits from these reforms will increasingly play out in the years ahead, the government needs to further implement key productivity-boosting reforms, especially in land and labour markets. From that perspective, a continuity in government and policies is crucial to ensuring that India not only remains on its high growth trajectory but also potentially moves into a higher growth orbit.Marching forwardA continuity in government implies continuity of policy, which bodes well for all stakeholders in the ecosystem. It indicates continued focus on execution of government projects as well as a thrust on further reform measures, which can augur well for investors making greenfield investments and nudge those sitting on the fence due to political uncertainty to finally take the leap. The government's focus on reducing rural distress and RBI's dovish stance on interest rates may fuel consumption in the economy.Additionally, the process of cleaning up bank balance sheets is likely to continue and lead to a healthier financial intermediation with more appetite for credit. This will give a further boost to consumption and accelerate growth.The decisive mandate is also good news for debt markets. In last five years, the NDA government has largely been fiscally prudent, and the election manifesto is comparatively less fiscally profligate. This means supply of government papers will not be larger than anticipated. It is expected that the credit side landscape of the debt market may improve as political certainty will accelerate more deal making in stressed companies and assets.Investor perspectiveWith the political stage now set, the market's attention is likely to revert to growth cycle. We remain constructive on the outlook for the market, assuming that the growth cycle will indeed revive, leading to a more sustainable earnings cycle. Corporate India has spent much of the last few years recovering from the highs of the last cycle. We believe earnings are likely to pick up this financial year driven by a strong growth in corporate lending due to a drop in provisions.We also expect an increase in foreign institutional investor (FII) inflow post the decisive mandate, which is likely to support the market at current levels. Our favoured valuation metric for a market that has undergone an extended earnings slowdown over the past several years remains price to book, basis which we are still in line with long-term averages.However, liquidity concerns are a big challenge for the government currently and it needs to take measures on a priority basis to address these concerns. Additionally, the government needs to put job creation on top of its agenda since that will help kickstart the economy.Tough policy actions and reforms taken during the last term will continue to deliver benefits and should be augmented by new initiatives, which can stimulate the economy going forward.Domestic policy stability and an uncertain global environment should encourage foreign investors to positively reappraise their India positions following many years of reduced allocations, albeit in a more measured manner than we saw following the previous election. We are optimistic on India's growth outlook and believe the country remains an attractive destination for the long-term investors.(Anirudha Taparia is Executive Director at IIFL Wealth Management. Views are his own)
The plot thickens around top-notch audit firm Deloitte and its once-prized client IFIN, the company at the centre of the IL&FS fiasco.Deloitte, according to the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), had disregarded the Reserve Bank of India's regulations, turned a blind eye to IFIN's 'evergreening' of loans, and never cross-checked any of the 'tutored end-use certificates' the company used to mislead lenders.The allegations — based on emails, depositions, fund-flow information and interrogations of persons linked to IFIN — are part of the agency's investigation report, sources told ET.IGNORING NORMSIn his statement recorded on oath, Rakesh Jain, senior manager at Deloitte, told SFIO that the RBI circular was never referred to him or any of his team members by seniors and partners of Deloitte. The RBI master circular restricts a non-banking financial company (such as IFIN) from taking bank loans to fund activities like inter-corporate deposits and lending to subsidiaries. "I am not aware of the circular referred above… The compliance to said RBI master circular was not part of audit plan," said Jain.Since bank term sheets or loan agreements take into account the conditions imposed by RBI, auditors, according to SFIO, are required to cross-check whether a company has used bank borrowings to fund restricted businesses.Deloitte was the sole auditor of IFIN for about a decade till 2016-17. In 2017-18, the company was jointly audited by Deloitte and BSR, an affiliate of another Big 4 firm KPMG.Loan EvergreeningA Deloitte spokesman declined to comment on the allegations and findings as the firm has not been served the chargesheet by SFIO.While scanning records in the course of the investigation, the SFIO team found a document in the email server of IL&FS prepared by the Deloitte engagement team, identifying the funding of borrowers for paying principal and interest. It forms the basis of the SFIO allegation that Deloitte was aware of IFIN's loan evergreening — a ploy to mask defaults and losses by giving new loans to delinquent borrowers for servicing old borrowings. Deloitte, said the agency report, was aware of the "modus operandi of funding the defaulting borrowers for payment of interest and principal in a fraudulent manner by the management again and again to window dress the asset book of the company for several years".When asked about the email, Deloitte partner Udayan Sen denied knowledge of the document, saying that it was an "interim work paper and not to be relied upon". However, the report observes, that Sen "had not stated about the manner in which doubts raised over the lending accounts of IFIN were dispelled before issuing an unqualified opinion on the financial statements". 69698174 Rakesh Jain in his statement to SFIO admitted that "over the years or in a particular year (based on sample-based audit) there were a few borrower groups such as SKIL, Flemingo, Varun, Parsvnath, KVK, Adhunik, lnd Bharat, Unitech, Kohinoor, HDIL, DB realty etc in which the above mentioned self-funding of interest was observed. These observations were discussed with seniors and partners in Deloitte and subsequently the same was discussed by them with the management of IFIN (sic)." The IFIN management, in turn, defended its stand by telling the auditor that the new loans given to the same group were extended to different companies in accordance with the credit policy of IFIN and was within the NBFC prudential framework.TUTORED CERTIFICATES & WHISTLEBLOWERSSince 2009-10, IFIN obtained 'tutored enduse certificates' from chartered accountants AP Shah & Associates to present a deceptive picture to lending banks.When questioned by the agency, Alay P Shah, partner of the CA firm, said, "The certificates were sent on email and based on their assurance, I used to certify the same… Since the company was a reputed one and they had reputed auditors where we used to see the audited balance sheet on year-to-year basis, we had no question of doubting the integrity of the documents and so the certification was given on good faith with the assurance that the documents would be available whenever required (sic)."Many of these sharp practices authorised by Ramesh Bawa, the then CEO of IFIN, were pointed out in two whistleblower letters to RBI, the IFIN audit committee and auditors, among others. While the IFIN board had taken cognisance of the letters and appointed CA firm Khandelwal Jain & Associates to report on the issues, the scope was to verify whether procedural issues of giving loans as laid down in the policies were followed or not. "It is noteworthy that the review did not focus on lending to the borrowers again and again for repayment etc," said the SFIO report.Bawa was part of the group led by Ravi Parthasarathy, ex-chairman of IFIN. Emails scanned by SFIO reveal that the group concealed adverse information relating to the performance of IFIN and how they misused their positions. SFIO has given a clean chit to credit rating agencies as they were relying on audited reports.
He himself will explain, says Nitish Kumar on Prashant Kishor's Mamata Banerjee ties Caught In Row: 'Election strategist' will attend the national executive meeting of Janata Dal(U) on Sunday
Leave you must, name successor: Veerappa Moily to Rahul Gandhi Moily's statement comes after Gandhi offered his resignation at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting in Delhi on May 25 following the debacle in Lok Sabha elections.
Fuel tank falls from MiG-29K at Goa airstrip, flights disrupted The Indian Navy stated that while taking off for an operational mission from Dabolim airfield at about 1 pm, the external fuel tank of a MiG-29K aircraft got jettisoned inadvertently on the runway.
5 DyCMs, Dalit woman as Home Minister: YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's on a roll The YSRCP leader was welcomed by the employees of various departments in the Secretariat who stood in queues and welcomed him with garlands and bouquets.
India key for peace and stability in Indian Ocean: Abdulla Shahid, Maldives Foreign Minister In the exclusive interview, Abdulla Shahid called PM's visit to his country a great honour.
