Business

Group that owns Silicon Valley Bank seeks bankruptcy protection

admin 0

The parent of Silicon Valley Bank, seized last week by the U.S., is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection

Published Date – 09:45 PM, Fri – 17 March 23

Group that owns Silicon Valley Bank seeks bankruptcy protection

Washington: The parent of Silicon Valley Bank, seized last week by the U.S., is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

SVB Financial Group, along with its CEO and its chief financial officer, were targeted this week in a class action lawsuit that claims the company didn’t disclose the risks that future interest rate increases would have on its business.

SVB Financial Group is no longer affiliated with Silicon Valley Bank after its seizure by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Its collapse was the second biggest bank failure in U.S. history after the demise of Washington Mutual in 2008.

The bank’s successor, Silicon Valley Bridge Bank, is being run under the jurisdiction of the FDIC and is not included in the Chapter 11 filing.

“The Chapter 11 process will allow SVB Financial Group to preserve value as it evaluates strategic alternatives for its prized businesses and assets, especially SVB Capital and SVB Securities,” William Kosturos, Chief Restructuring Officer for SVB Financial Group, said in a statement on Friday.

Regulated broker-dealer SVB Securities and funds of venture capital and private credit fund platform SVB Capital and its general partner entities are not included in the Chapter 11 filing and continue to operate normally.

Funded debt for SVB Financial Group is about $3.3 billion in aggregate principal amount of unsecured notes. There is no claim against SVB Capital or SVB Securities. SVB Financial Group also has $3.7 billion of preferred equity outstanding.

SVB Financial Group believes it has approximately $2.2 billion of liquidity. The Santa Clara, California-based company said it also has other valuable investment securities accounts and other assets that it’s exploring strategic options for.

The shuttering of Silicon Valley Bank last Friday and of New York-based Signature Bank two days later has revived bad memories of the financial crisis that plunged the United States into the Great Recession of 2007-2009.

Over the weekend the federal government, determined to restore public confidence in the banking system, moved to protect all the banks’ deposits, even those that exceeded the FDIC’s $250,000 limit per individual account.

 

India

Rahul attends meeting of Parliament panel on external affairs, denies anti-India remarks

admin 0

The members of the ruling party objected to this, but Rahul was supported by the opposition members, sources said.

Updated On – 10:45 AM, Sun – 19 March 23

Rahul attends meeting of Parliament panel on external affairs, denies anti-India remarks

New Delhi:  After returning from London, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi attended the meeting of the parliamentary committee on external affairs where, sources said he responded to the BJP MPs without naming him about MPs going abroad and speaking against the country.

The meeting was held on Saturday.

Sources said Rahul Gandhi said that he has not spoken anything which is against the country. The members of the ruling party objected to this, but Rahul was supported by the opposition members, sources said. After which External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar intervened and said the members should speak on the subject.

Rahul has been insisting that he wants to speak in the House and met the Speaker a few days ago. He said four Ministers have raised allegations against him in Parliament House so he has the right to respond.

“It is my right to be allowed to speak on the floor of the House. I requested the speaker today. I went to his chamber and I requested him. I said – look, I would very much like to speak. I told him that people from the BJP have made allegations against me and as a Member of Parliament, it is my right to speak,” he said on Thursday.

The BJP has ceased the opportunity to target Rahul Gandhi, and BJP National President J.P. Nadda has said that Rahul Gandhi has become “a permanent part of this anti-nationalist toolkit”.

Nadda said: “It’s unfortunate that the Congress party is indulging in anti-national activities. After being repeatedly rejected by the nation, Rahul Gandhi has now become a permanent part of this anti-nationalist toolkit.”

Middle East

Iran top security official meets Iraqi counterpart in Baghdad

admin 0

The secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani, who just arrived at Baghdad airport, was welcomed by his Iraqi counterpart Qassim al-Araji.

Also, Shamkhani and his accompanying delegation paid tribute to the anti-terror martyrs, General Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis at the Baghdad airport.

Shamkhani is scheduled to meet and consult with the high-ranking political and economic officials of the Iraqi government.

During this visit, the joint security cooperation document, which has been discussed for several months, will also be signed by the officials of the two countries.

The signing of this document, which reinforces responsibility and mutual commitment to actively protect good neighborliness and protect the security of common borders, will play a decisive role in ending the illegal presence of terrorist and separatist elements affiliated with the Zionist regime in the northwestern borders of Iran.

RHM/

World

Raeisi: Enemies seek to instill despair, turn Iran’s strengths into weaknesses

admin 0

Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi has lauded the Islamic Republic’s achievements and progressive movement over the years, saying the enemies seek to induce despair among the people and turn the country’s strengths into weaknesses.

Raeisi made the remarks in an official ceremony to inaugurate the launch of several new urban railway routes in the capital Tehran on Saturday.

“Today, the enemies seek to instill despair, hopelessness and helplessness in the society, but we, the Iranian nation, believe in the culture of ‘we can’,” Raeisi said.

Underling the heartfelt cooperation between the Iranian government and nation, the president said a lot of work has been done in the country and a lot more is also underway, which will be accomplished through the efforts and perseverance of the country’s youths.

“Today, the atmosphere of work and effort prevails in the country, and such an atmosphere will surely bring about satisfaction and trust of the people, and generate strength for the country,” Raeisi noted.

“The enemy does not want the country to progress and the people to hear good news, so it tries to mask the strengths and magnify the weaknesses that exist in every corner,” he noted.

In a speech in November, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said arrogant powers are disgruntled by Iran’s scientific advances and tremendous achievements, adding that the West’s enmity towards Iran is rooted in the Islamic Republic’s continuous progress, which the West cannot stand.

“The enemy is trying to make not only the people and the youths, but also the officials lose hope, and unfortunately, the enemy has an internal extension that they are also trying to instill hopelessness and despair,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.

Touching upon some instances of progress and forward movements in Iran in recent weeks, the Leader recounted Iranian scientists’ new method to treat leukemia, localization of one of the oil and gas extraction equipment, opening of a railway line in a part of Sistan and Baluchistan Province, which is an important part of the North-South railway, opening several factories, setting up the first offshore refinery, operating 6 power plants, unveiling one of the largest telescopes in the world, launching a satellite-carrying rocket and unveiling a new rocket.

Ayatollah Khamenei said such achievements were obtained at a time that the enemy was trying to prevent this forward-heading movement with riots and by the imposition of draconian sanctions.

Hyderabad

Nearly 1.14 lakh devotees avail TSRTC’s ‘Balaji Darshan’ package

admin 0

Special Entry Darshan token available on the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation portal has been receiving quite a good response from devotees

Published Date – 11:07 PM, Sat – 18 March 23

Nearly 1.14 lakh devotees avail TSRTC’s ‘Balaji Darshan’ package

Hyderabad: The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Special Entry Darshan token available on the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) portal has been receiving quite a good response from devotes. Within eight months since its launch, as many as 1.14 lakh people booked bus tickets along with darshan tickets under ‘Balaji Darshan’ package.

Since the RTC with the support of the TTD authorities introduced Rs.300 special darshan tokens on its website (www.tsrtconline.in) in July this year, several passengers have been booking bus tickets with special darshan tokens on a daily basis. The RTC is given about 1,000 special darshan tickets on a regular basis.

TSRTC Chairman Bajireddy Govardhan took the special initiative with the support of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Board Chairman YV Subbareddy and entered into an agreement to provide Rs.300 Special Entry Darshan tickets along with the bus ticket to passengers traveling in TSRTC buses.

“It is a happy to know that about 1,14,565 passengers have been safely taken to Tirumala and brought back to their destinations in the last eight months from various parts of the State. Reservations for these buses have to be made at least a week in advance,” Bajireddy Govardhan said.

For bus package, citizens can logon on – www.tsrtconline.in online or visit ticket booking counters and avail it atleast a week in advance.

Top News

Putin Visits Mariupol As Part Of Surprise Tour Of Occupied Ukraine

admin 0

Putin Visits Mariupol As Part Of Surprise Tour Of Occupied Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to Mariupol, state media reported Sunday, his first to the city since it was captured after a lengthy siege at the start of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine.

The trip comes after an arrest warrant was issued for Putin by the International Criminal Court, over Russia’s alleged deportation of thousands of Ukrainian children during the conflict.

Russia besieged Mariupol at the start of its offensive last year, destroying the Azovstal steel works, the last holdout of Ukrainian forces in the city.

According to state news agency TASS on Sunday, Putin flew to Mariupol by helicopter on Saturday and took a tour of the city, at times driving a car.

He visited several sites and spoke with residents, and was presented with a report on the reconstruction work of the city.

Putin’s stop in Mariupol comes after his surprise visit to Crimea on Saturday to mark the ninth anniversary of the peninsula’s annexation.

Russian state TV showed him visiting the Black Sea port city of Sevastopol, accompanied by the local Moscow-appointed governor Mikhail Razvozhayev.

Razvozhayev said on the messaging app Telegram that Putin had been expected to take part in the opening of a children’s art school by video link.

“But Vladimir Vladimirovich came in person. Himself. Behind the wheel. Because on such a historic day, the president is always with Sevastopol and the people of Sevastopol,” he said.

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 following a referendum that was not recognised by Kyiv and the international community.

Addressing the World Economic Forum in Switzerland in January, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said he aimed to take back Crimea, though Moscow has refused to include it in possible peace talks.

– ‘Void’ ICC warrant –
Putin’s visit came after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him on Friday over the “deportation” of Ukrainian children.

Kyiv says more than 16,000 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia since the start of the conflict in February 2022, many of them placed in institutions and foster homes.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan told AFP that Putin was now liable for arrest if he set foot in any of the court’s more than 120 member states.

The 70-year-old Russian leader has not commented publicly on the warrant, but the Kremlin dismissed its validity as “void” since Russia did not recognise the ICC’s jurisdiction.

The Hague-based court’s decision came ahead of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow on Monday to sign accords touted as ushering in a new era of ties.

China, a major Russian ally, has sought to position itself as a neutral party in the Ukraine conflict, urging Moscow and Kyiv to open negotiations.

But Western leaders have repeatedly criticised Beijing for failing to condemn Russia’s offensive, accusing it of providing Moscow with diplomatic cover for its campaign.

– Grain deal extended –
In Ankara, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the two sides had agreed to extend a deal that has allowed Ukraine, a major grain exporter, to resume exports after its Black Sea ports were blocked by Russian warships.

But there was disagreement over the terms.

Ukraine’s infrastructure minister said the deal had been extended for 120 days, but a spokeswoman for Russia’s foreign ministry said Moscow had agreed to a 60-day extension.

The deal brokered by Turkey and the United Nations in July 2022 had allowed for the safe passage of exports, and had already been extended for 120 days in November.

The fighting is now concentrated in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, particularly the city of Bakhmut.

Russian strikes hit the nearby city of Kramatorsk on Saturday, killing two people and wounding 10, said regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko, who accused Moscow of using cluster bombs in the attack.

AFP journalists in Kramatorsk heard around 10 explosions go off nearly simultaneously just before 4:00 pm local time (1400 GMT) and saw smoke rise above a park in the southern part of the city.

A woman died at the scene from her wounds, they saw.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Top News

'Millet Man' PV Satheesh Dies At 77 After Prolonged Illness

admin 0

'Millet Man' PV Satheesh Dies At 77 After Prolonged Illness

PV Satheesh was one of the icons of civil society activism in India.

Hyderabad:

The man who deserves the honour of being called the Millet Man of India for pioneering work in demonstrating an alternate, ecologically sustainable agricultural food system, died in Hyderabad on Sunday morning after a prolonged illness.

PV Satheesh was founder and Executive Director of Deccan Development Society (DDS) that worked out of Pastapur village in Sangareddy district of Telangana, where last rites of the 77-year-old will take place on Monday at 10.30 am.

As DDS Board member Vinod Pavarala put it, Mr Satheesh was one of the icons of civil society activism in India. His Zaheerabad-based organisation in rural Telangana successfully championed issues of agri-biodiversity, food sovereignty, women’s empowerment, social justice, local knowledge systems, participatory development, and community media.

The women’s groups, called sanghams, of DDS, and their steadfast adherence to millet cultivation and organic agriculture, led the way nationally in offering demonstrable alternatives to the dominant agricultural paradigm.

cosvjkao

The recent efforts to incorporate millets into the public distribution system owes much to the work of DDS under his guidance. Years ago, Mr Sathesh had set up a local public distribution system, run by women farmers, solely based on millet crops.

Born on June 18, 1945, in Mysore, Periyapatna Venkatasubbaiah Satheesh was a graduate from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi, and started out as a journalist. He went on to work as a pioneering television producer for nearly two decades for Doordarshan, making programmes related to rural development and rural literacy in the then-united Andhra Pradesh. He played an important role in the historical Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) in the 1970s.

In the early 1980s, Mr Satheesh, along with a few friends, started the Deccan Development Society in the semi-arid Zaheerabad region by bringing together poor Dalit women in the villages, to rediscover their faith in traditional knowledge systems that helped challenge hunger, malnutrition, land degradation, loss of biodiversity, gender injustice, and social deprivation.

While Mr Satheesh led the organisation for nearly four decades to make it an internationally acclaimed NGO, and an inspiring example that has motivated similar experiments in millet revival and promotion across the country, what he also did effectively was to create powerful leaders from among the illiterate women, from the most marginalised communities, who became empowered ambassadors of change.

As the director of DDS, PV Satheesh’s long-standing efforts resulted in improving the livelihoods of thousands of poor women across 75 villages in Telangana. He also led several national and international networks like Millet Network of India (MINI), South Against Genetic Engineering (SAGE), AP Coalition in Defence of Diversity, and was also the India Coordinator for SANFEC, the South Asian Network for Food, Ecology, and Culture, a five-country South Asian network with over 200 ecological groups.

He was formerly Board Member, Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN), Barcelona, Spain, and was also a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), Brussels, Belgium.

Mr Satheesh also used his experience in the media to start India’s first Community Media Trust, a grassroots media centre where illiterate Dalit women were trained in film-making, to democratise media spaces, and also followed it up with the launch of India’s first rural, civil society-led community radio station, Sangham Radio.

He was a tireless worker and leader in the NGO sector who remained committed to his principles and was a generous mentor to many young people. He was recently honoured in Delhi by the People’s Convention on Millets by RRA (Revitalising Rainfed Agriculture) Network for his lifetime contributions in making millets a people’s agenda.

Hyderabad

Telangana: Impostor posing as Army man held for threatening people with toy gun

admin 0

Several people were seen running away as he threatened with the fake gun.

Updated On – 03:40 PM, Sun – 19 March 23

Telangana: Impostor posing as Army man held for threatening people with toy gun

Medak: An impostor clad in fatigues and posing as an army man was seen threatening the people with a fake gun and toy wireless set on National Highway-44 near Toopran in the early hours of Sunday. He was identified as Mohammad Nawaz (26) of Toopran town.

The incident created a flutter in the area. Several people were seen running away as he threatened with the fake gun. Following information from locals, the Toopran Police have taken Nawaz into custody. He is being questioned by the Police.

World

12 people killed after magnitude 6.8 hits Ecuador

admin 0

“Notable quake, preliminary info: M 6.7 – 6 km NNE of Balao, Ecuador,” United States Geological Survey Earthquake tweeted.

Updated On – 10:17 AM, Sun – 19 March 23

12 people killed after magnitude 6.8 hits Ecuador
Residents recover belongings from the debris of their collapsed homes after an earthquake shook Machala, Ecuador. Photo: AP/PTI

Quito: After the 6.8 magnitude quake hit southern Ecuador on Saturday afternoon, leaving at least 12 people dead, CNN reported citing government officials.

“Notable quake, preliminary info: M 6.7 – 6 km NNE of Balao, Ecuador,” United States Geological Survey Earthquake tweeted.

According to Ecuador’s communications department for President, 11 people were killed in the province of El Oro and one person died in the province of Azuay.

In an earlier statement, authorities said the person in Azuay was killed when a wall collapsed onto a car and that at least three of the victims in El Oro died when a security camera tower came down, reported CNN.

People who were injured were being treated at hospitals, the Presidency added, but did not provide further details.

The USGS gave the tremor an “orange alert”, saying “significant casualties are likely and the disaster is potentially widespread.” “Past events with this alert level have required a regional or national level response,” the USGS added. It also estimated damage and economic losses were possible, as per the report in CNN.

Sports

Islamic Countries Championship: Iran women's ice hockey team beat Saudi Arabia to reach final

admin 0

The Iranian women’s ice hockey team has beaten Saudi Arabia to advance to the final stage of the Islamic countries tournament hosted by the Republic of Tatarstan.

The Iranian women’s team had a tie during the Monday match, but outperformed its Saudi Arabian rival 3-1 on penalty shootouts, getting qualified to book a place in the final round of the Islamic Countries Ice Hockey Championship 2023 in Tatarstan’s capital, Kazan.

Earlier in the international tournament, the Iranian girls had won their games against the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Bahrain while losing to the host country’s team.

Iran’s female players are scheduled to face Tatarstan in their final match on Tuesday.

Over 300 hockey players from 14 Islamic countries are taking part in the international tournament in Tatarstan from January 14 to 17.

The event has brought together 12 men’s and five women’s teams from Islamic countries.