Today’s Top News Headlines and Latest News at 8:30 pm on 24 April 2024

The Reserve Bank of India directed Kotak Mahindra Bank to stop onboarding of new customers through its online and mobile banking channels and also barred it from issuing fresh credit cards, with an immediate effect. The RBI said the bank was found to be deficient in its IT Risk and Information Security Governance for the years 2022 and 2023. These actions were based on significant concerns arising out of the RBI’s IT examination of the bank for 2022 and 2023 and the continued failure on part of the bank to address these concerns in a comprehensive and timely manner, the RBI said in a release.

The Supreme Court reserved judgment on a batch of petitions seeking 100 per cent cross-verification of vote count in electronic voting machines with voter verifiable paper audit trail paper slips. Earlier in the day, the court posed a set of queries to the Election Commission of India on the functioning of EVMs and sought the presence of an ECI official in the court at 2 pm to answer them. “The matter was listed for directions since we had some queries. The answers have been given. Judgment reserved,” the court was quoted as saying.

Moving on: A day after the chairman of Indian Overseas Congress Sam Pitroda was on the receiving end over his comments regarding the US inheritance tax, he issued a clarification saying that his statements were twisted and had nothing to do with the Congress party or their manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Sam Pitroda, during a recent interview, had said that the inheritance tax in America was an interesting law and could be issues that people could debate and discuss. “In America, there is an inheritance tax. If one has $100 million worth of wealth and when he dies, he can only transfer probably 45% to his children and 55% goes to the government. That’s an interesting law.”

Former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren again moved the Supreme Court challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate on money laundering charges, stating the Jharkhand High Court was yet to pronounce its decision on his petition, hearing on which was completed in February. Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal mentioned this before a bench presided by Justice Sanjiv Khanna, who asked him to communicate it to the CJI’s Secretariat. Sibal urged the court to hear it on April 26 but Justice Khanna said, “I am not saying anything. The Chief Justice’s secretariat will give the date”. The senior counsel pointed out that Soren had approached the Supreme Court soon after his arrest but was told to approach the Jharkhand High Court first.

Next up: An Instagram advertisement, coupled with the offer of a ‘trial seed fund’ of Rs 10,000 proved to be the bait that led a Pune woman to fall victim to an online share trading fraud, in which she lost Rs 3 crore from her life savings. A fraudulent application she was made to log on showed that she had earned profits of Rs 20 crore against her ‘investment’. An FIR in the case was registered last week by the woman, who is a resident of Mohammadwadi area and is in her late 50s. Between the first and last week of March, the woman was manipulated into making 30 transactions to 12 fraudulent bank accounts totalling Rs 3.04 crore.

The India Meteorological Department has predicted heat wave to severe heat wave conditions in parts of West Bengal and Odisha over the next five days. Heat wave conditions are also likely to prevail over Tamil Nadu on Wednesday, Konkan, parts of Karnataka, Rayalaseema, Sikkim, Jharkhand, Bihar, Telangana, west Uttar Pradesh and coastal Andhra Pradesh and Yanam in the upcoming five days. The weather department has also issued a heatwave alert for Maharashtra’s Thane, Raigad districts and parts of Mumbai from April 27 to 29. Meanwhile, Arunachal Pradesh is likely to receive heavy rainfall on Wednesday and the upcoming weekend.

In world news: Iran and Pakistan called on the United Nations Security Council in a joint statement issued to take action against Israel, saying it had “illegally” targeted neighbouring countries and foreign diplomatic facilities. The joint statement, released by Pakistan’s foreign ministry, followed a three-day visit to the country by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi at a time of heightened tensions in the Middle East. Explosions were heard last Friday over the Iranian city of Isfahan in what sources said was an Israeli attack. However, Tehran played down the incident and said it had no plans for retaliation.

Lastly: Smoke was seen coming from an All Nippon Airways plane as it landed safely at Shin Chitose airport in northern Japan, public broadcaster NHK reported. The ANA flight from Tokyo was carrying about 200 people and no injuries were reported, NHK said. The smoke, coming from the wing area, subsided when the engines stopped, it said. In January, a Japan Airlines flight and a coast guard plane collided and burst into flames at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.

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