Some with direct connections to political dispensations could face heat; others considered close to the winning party could expect good times

DMDK's vote share plummeted to 2.4% in the 2016 Assembly polls from 7.88% in 2011, even as the party failed to return a single legislator

28 others, including her trusted lieutenant and Finance Minister in outgoing Cabinet O Panneerselvam, to also take oath

From the next financial year, the railways will not have to pay any dividend, which will save the carrier approximately Rs 10,000 cr

The ministry plans to achieve this target by doubling the current pace of electrification

The investors are looking for a safety fund for Railways

South India constitutes nearly 60% of India's plantation sector

Minister says UDAY scheme will itself help save Rs 1.8 lakh crore annually within next three years

Bahl's company has been in the middle of some firefighting over reports on how there are efforts to downsize as cash is depleting

Dr. Reddy's Laboratories jumped 4.84% to Rs 4020 after the company said its manufacturing plant at Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh received the Establishment Inspection Report (EIR) from US drug regulator.

The domestic equity barometers traded near the day's high in morning trade. The Nifty was trading above the 9300 mark. Buying in index major Reliance Industries (RIL) pushed the benchmarks higher. At 10:29 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 441.29 points or 1.40% at 31,884.67. The Nifty 50 index rose 122.10 points or 1.33% at 9,321.15.

Gillette India fell 1.13% to Rs 4,934.50 after net profit slumped 40.31% to Rs 52.38 crore on a 12.66% drop in net sales to Rs 406.57 crore in Q3 March 2020 over Q3 March 2019.

At 13:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 433.52 points or 1.38% at 31,876.29. The Nifty 50 index rose 120 points or 1.3% at 9,319.05

Procter & Gamble Hygiene & Health Care rose 0.27% to Rs 10190.15 after net profit rose 1.1% to Rs 91.10 crore on 6.2% decline in net sales to Rs 656.05 crore in Q3 March 2020 over Q3 March 2019.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.22% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index down 0.1%.

Healthcare Global Enterprises Ltd, Ganges Securities Ltd, Pritish Nandy Communications Ltd and The Byke Hospitality Ltd are among the other losers in the BSE's 'B' group today, 08 May 2020.

Laurus Labs Ltd, RBL Bank Ltd, Bandhan Bank Ltd and Torrent Power Ltd are among the other losers in the BSE's 'A' group today, 08 May 2020.

As per provisional closing, the barometer S&P BSE Sensex gained 199.32 points or 0.63% at 31,642.70. The Nifty 50 index gained 51.55 points or 0.56% at 9,250.60.

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FMCG major Hindustan Unilever (HUL) jumped 4.81% to end at Rs 2088.35 after a foreign brokerage reportedly maintained an 'outperform' rating on the stock with a target of Rs 2,400 per share.

As speculation grows over Joe Biden’s selection of a running mate, WSJ’s Gerald F. Seib looks at past picks for clues into what factors the former vice president will consider, and why this year’s choice is more important than ever. Photo: Getty Images

Sales rise 25.20% to Rs 3186.96 crore

The drug major on Friday (8 May 2020) informed that the inspection of its three units at Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh by the UK health regulator has been completed.

Swaraj Engines' net profit fell 4.9% to Rs 15.84 crore on a 8.5% decline in net sales to Rs 175.13 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019.

On a consolidated basis, Shree Cement's net profit jumped 57.6% to Rs 535.93 crore on 2.1% decline in net sales to Rs 3,415.14 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019.

Venezuela's chief prosecutor ordered the arrest Friday of a former Green Beret and two opposition figures living in the United States for their purported role in a botched operation aimed at removing Nicols Maduro from power. Tarek William Saab said Venezuela will seek the capture of Jordan Goudreau, a military veteran who has claimed responsibility for the attack, as well as Juan Jos Rendn and Sergio Vergara, two U.S.-based advisers to opposition leader Juan Guaid. They are living in impunity, Saab said. In tranquility over there. US law enforcement is investigating Goudreau, though it remains unclear if he will charged. President Donald Trump does not recognize Maduro's government, making it highly unlikely that his administration would accept any extradition request. The Trump administration has denied all responsibility in the armed raid, which resulted in the arrests of two Americans, Luke Denman and Airan Berry, who were purportedly hired by Goudreau's private firm to ...

The number of people in Italy who've died with COVID-19 infections has topped 30,000. The Health Ministry registered 243 deaths on Friday, bringing the total of those who died in the country to 30,201. Italy was the first country in Europe with a major outbreak of the coronavirus. Authorities say many more likely died with the infection at home or in nursing homes without being diagnosed. With 1,327 more cases registered in the 24-hour period ending Friday evening, Italy now tallies 217,185 confirmed coronavirus infections. Some 11,000 more people have recovered from the illness than are currently positive for the infection. Lombardy in the north continues to be the hardest-hit region, accounting for nearly one-half of the latest cases registered on Friday. Health and government authorities are concerned that partial easing earlier in the week of some lockdown measures, such as re-opening of public parks and gardens, could see an uptick in contagion if people ignore safety-distance ...

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday that although a market in the Chinese city of Wuhan selling live animals likely played a significant role in the emergence of the new coronavirus, it does not recommend that such markets be shut down globally. In a press briefing, WHO food safety and animal diseases expert Peter Ben Embarek said live animal markets are critical to providing food and livelihoods for millions of people globally and that authorities should focus on improving them rather than outlawing them -- even though they can sometimes spark epidemics in humans. "Food safety in these environments is rather difficult and therefore, it is not surprising that sometimes we also have these events happening within markets," Ben Embarek said. He said reducing the risk of disease transmission from animals to humans in these often overcrowded markets could be addressed in many cases by improving hygiene and food safety standards, including separating live animals from ...

Three sisters who worked in Mexico's government hospital system were found murdered by strangling, authorities in the northern border state of Coahuila announced on Friday, stirring new alarm in a country where attacks on healthcare workers have occurred across the nation amid the coronavirus outbreak. Two of the sisters were nurses for the Mexican Social Security Institute and the third was a hospital administrator, but there was no immediate evidence the attack was related to their work. The state prosecutor told local media the motive might have been robbery. State police said the bodies were found in a house in the city of Torreon. The Social Security Institute said they were killed on Thursday. The National Union of Social Security Employees called the killings "outrageous and incomprehensible". In other parts of Mexico, nurses have had been hit, kicked off public transport or had cleaning fluids poured on them amid fears they might spread the coronavirus. Mexican health ...

US Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary has the coronavirus, the White House said on Friday, making her the second person who works at the White House complex known to test positive for the virus this week. President Donald Trump, who publicly identified the affected Pence aide, said he was "not worried" about the virus spreading in the White House. Nonetheless, officials said they were stepping up safety protocols for the complex. Pence spokeswoman Katie Miller, who tested positive on Friday, had been in recent contact with Pence but not with the president. She is married to Stephen Miller, a top Trump adviser. The White House had no immediate comment on whether Stephen Miller had been tested or if he was still working out of the White House. Katie Miller had tested negative on Thursday, a day before her positive result. "This is why the whole concept of tests are not necessarily great," Trump said. "The tests are perfect but something can happen between a test where it is ...

Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates has predicted that next year's coronavirus-delayed Tokyo Games may ultimately be amongst the great games ever, if not the greatest. The Sydney-born Coates, who oversees planning for the Tokyo Olympics for the International Olympic Committee, told the AOC's annual general meeting on Saturday that he would put aside any of his parochialism while hoping that Tokyo would supplant Sydney as the best ever. At the closing ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Games, then IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch described the Australian event as the best Olympic Games ever during the closing ceremony. The best-ever"claims for Tokyo by Coates, who did not go into further details, come despite spiraling costs for the Japan games, which will now begin on June 23, 2021. Japan is officially spending $12.6 billion to organize the Olympics, but a government audit report last year said it was at least twice that much. It's all public money except for $5.6 billion .

American stock car auto racing's comeback later this month from the coronavirus pandemic will cost three tracks their 2020 season races with more schedule adjustments coming soon. That was the word Friday from the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), the closed-cockpit series that is the most popular form of US auto racing. Races at Sonoma, California; Joliet, Illinois and Richmond, Virginia were named those moved to ovals without spectators this month to jumpstart the US revival of sport in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic shutdown. Sonoma Raceway officials said the road course tried to find a new date to replace June 14 but couldn't "given the ongoing uncertainty around large events in California." It will be staged instead on May 27 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, which will host a regularly scheduled race three days earlier in what will essentially be made-for-television events. A planned June 21 race at Chicagoland will be the May 17 comeback event at ...

Real Madrid attacker Luka Jovic has fracture his right heel, the La Liga giants have announced. In a statement, Real said the 22-year-old's injury had been diagnosed during tests at the club's medical centre, but didn't say how long they expect him to be out of action. According to Spanish media, Serbia's Jovic picked up the injury while training at home shortly after returning to Spain from his home country at the start of the week. Jovic caused controversy in March when he left for Serbia while Real were in quarantine after some of the club's basketball players tested positive for coronavirus. He subsequently explained his test for the virus was negative. He arrived at Real last summer from Eintracht Frankfurt for a reported fee of 60 million euros ($65.1 million). Before the season was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he had played 22 times for the capital city club in all competitions, scoring twice.

Tyson Fury is mentally stronger than Anthony Joshua and would overcome his British rival in similarly commanding fashion to how he defeated Deontay Wilder, according to the WBC heavyweight champion's coach Andy Lee. Fury got his hands on one of the four major world belts again when he ended Wilder's long reign as champion, knocking the previously unbeaten American down twice on the way to a seventh-round stoppage in February. While he is contractually obliged to face Wilder for a third time and Joshua is scheduled to take on Kubrat Pulev next, the outbreak of coronavirus and subsequent suspension of major boxing shows has clouded the issue. Speculation is rife that a domestic bout could take priority but Lee can only see one outcome in a fight that would determine the undisputed world heavyweight champion. "I think (Joshua) is still an improving fighter," Lee told Sky Sports. "A little bit of inexperience and mentally he's not as strong as Tyson. "I think Tyson would beat him in eight

Indian Olympic Association President Narinder Batra's tenure as the chief of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) has been extended till May next year after its annual congress was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision to postpone the Congress, which was earlier scheduled to begin in New Delhi on October 28, was taken at an online meeting of the FIH Executive Board on Friday. "I'm looking forward to the numerous tournaments and competitions ahead of us, which we are preparing with full dedication and passion with all National Associations involved," Batra said. The exact date of the postponed congress will be confirmed as soon as possible, the FIH said in a statement. "This decision, made due to the current uncertainties following the global COVID-19 pandemic, is based on Art. 12.1 of the FIH Statutes, covering cases of force majeure," it added. The postponement means the tenures of all the current FIH office-bearers get extension until next year's ...

"Little Women" star Eliza Scanlen and "Jojo Rabbit" breakout Thomasin McKenzie are among the actors in negotiations for M Night Shyamalan's next directorial feature. According to Variety, Aaron Pierre, Alex Wolff and Vicky Krieps are also in discussions for the filmmaker's top-secret project, which he will write, direct and produce. Though the details of the plot have been kept under wraps, it is rumoured that the movie might be connected with some of the other films by the director. The yet-to-be-titled feature will be released by Universal Picture. Scanlen, 21, is best known for starring in TV series "Sharp Objects" and Greta Gerwig's "Little Women" adaptation, while 19-year-old McKenzie broke out with Taika Waititi's Oscar-winning satirical feature "Jojo Rabbit". Krieps, 36, became popular after she starred in Paul Thomas Anderson's romance drama "Phantom Thread", opposite Daniel Day Lewis. Wolff, 22, is best-known for starring in movies such as Ari Aster's "Hereditary" and the two

Amazon Prime Video has given a second season order for Greg Daniels' show "Upload". The season two renewal comes just a week after the show premiered on Amazon Prime Video, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The single-camera sitcom, featuring Robbie Amell and Andy Allo, takes place in the near future, where people who are near death can be "uploaded" into a virtual afterlife of their choice. "I am thrilled to continue a great relationship with Amazon Studios and this wonderful cast and find out what happens next to Nora and Nathan and Ingrid and their 2033 world. With this news I can stop drawing my season 2 flip book," Daniels said in a statement. "Upload" is executive produced by Daniels and his producing partner Howard Klein.

Filmmaker Mike Flanagan is set to tackle the film adaptation of yet another book from celebrated author Stephen King. Flanagan, who previously helmed the film version of King's novel"Doctor Sleep", is now adapting a scrip from the author's 2014 book "Revival". The filmmaker also has the option to direct the movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The project has been set up at Warner Bros and will be produced by Flanagan and Trevor Macy through their banner Intrepid Pictures. "Revival" centres around the relationship between a heroin-addicted musician and a dubious faith healer with a hidden agenda. The minister is obsessed with trying to find a way to communicate with his departed wife and child but ends up connecting to a Lovecraftian horror. Flanagan and Macy have earlier teamed for the 2017 adaptation of King's novel "Gerald's Game", which released on Netflix. They also collaborated on the 2018 Netflix series "The Haunting of Hill House".

World Cup winning-Australia captain Meg Lanning has used the extra time in hand amid the COIVD-19 pandemic to provide a virtual batting class to Ireland women's cricket squad. Lanning was joined by former Ireland skipper Isobel Joyce in the initiative that took place this week to help the players keep their skills sharp during the forced break from cricket. The duo touched upon a number of topics, including the mental preparation going into a big game, shot selection and an analysis of the Australian captain's T20I century against England last year. The session was chaired by Irish women's team head coach Ed Joyce and also featured Australia boss Matthew Mott. "Any time you can pick the brains of experienced cricketers such as Meg and Isobel is valuable, and I know that our entire squad enjoyed this unique opportunity," Ireland skipper Laura Delany said. "People often underestimate the mental aspect of the game, and both players spoke about the importance of mental preparation before .

Temuera Morrison will be making a return to the "Star Wars" universe as the actor is set to play Boba Fett in the second season of Disney Plus series "The Mandalorian". Morrison, 59, had earlier played the role of Jango Fett, the father of Boba Fett, in George Lucas' 2002 movie"Star Wars: Attack of the Clones". Boba Fett is a famed bounty hunter who first appeared on the big screen in 1980's"Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back" and later in "Return of the Jedi". Jeremy Bulloch had essayed the role in the original films. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Morrison will have a small role as Boba Fett. The character also had a cameo appearance in the first season of "The Mandalorian". The show takes place after the events of "Return of the Jedi",in which fans saw Boba Fett die in sarlacc pit. "The Mandalorian" is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. The series depicts a lone bounty hunter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority .

The US women's national team has filed an appeal against a legal setback in their equal pay lawsuit, saying they are being paid less than the men even though they win twice as much. In dismissing their equal pay claim last Friday, Judge Gary Klausner said the case was unwarranted because they had previously turned down an offer in the Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations to be paid along the lines of the US men's team. "The argument that women gave up a right to equal pay by accepting the best collective bargaining agreement possible in response to the Federation's refusal to put equal pay on the table is not a legitimate reason for continuing to discriminate against them," said USWNT spokesperson Molly Levinson on Friday night. She listed a series of grievances in the motion to appeal which was filed in a federal district court in California and is part of a larger lawsuit for equal pay. Levinson said the women are being discriminated against because they are not getting as ..

President Donald Trump says he's in no rush to negotiate another financial rescue bill, even as the government reported that more than 20 million Americans lost their jobs last month due to economic upheaval caused by the coronavirus. The president's low-key approach came Friday as the Labor Department reported the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression and as Democrats prepared to unveil what Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer calls a Rooseveltian-style aid package to shore up the economy and address the health crisis. Some congressional conservatives, meanwhile, who set aside long-held opposition to deficits to pass more than USD 2 trillion in relief so far, have expressed reservations about another massive spending package. We've kind of paused as far as formal negotiations go, Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council told reporters Friday. He said the administration wanted to let the last round of recovery funding kick in before committing to ..

Ivanka Trump's personal assistant has tested positive for the deadly coronavirus, making her the third White House staff member to be infected from COVID-19, a media report said on Saturday. The assistant, who works in a personal capacity for US President Donald Trump's daughter, has not been around her in several weeks, the CNN reported. She has been teleworking for nearly two months and was tested out of caution, the report quoted a source as saying. She was not symptomatic. Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner both tested negative on Friday, the person familiar with the matter told the US news channel. The development comes a day after President Trump confirmed that Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary Katie Miller had tested positive for the coronavirus. "She's a wonderful young woman, Katie, she tested very good for a long period of time and then all of a sudden today she tested positive," Trump said during a meeting at the White House. He said Miller had not come into ...

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on Saturday approved amendments to the country's state of emergency that grant him and security agencies additional powers, which the government says are needed to combat the coronavirus outbreak. An international rights group condemned the amendments, saying the government has used the global pandemic to expand, not reform, Egypt's abusive Emergency Law. The new amendments allow the president to to take measures to contain the virus, such as suspending classes at schools and universities and quarantining those returning from abroad. But they also include expanded powers to ban public and private meetings, protests, celebrations and other forms of assembly. The government has waged an unprecedented crackdown on dissent since 2013, when el-Sissi rose to power, and unauthorized protests have been banned for years. The amendments also allow military prosecutors to investigate incidents when army officers are tasked with law enforcement or when the .

From resounding applause to ostracization and isolation. That's essentially the journey Lt. Cmdr. Robert Embleton, who served 34 years in Britain's Royal Navy, took by ambulance when discharged from Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, southwestern England, on April 8 following his near-month sickness with COVID-19. Arriving at his retirement home, he immediately went into self-isolation with his wife of 55 years, Jean, who has shown no symptoms of the virus. Soon after, Embleton realized he was carrying some new baggage the stigma of the virus. He even considered buying a bell to warn of his presence. I was regarded as a sort of leper, a plague carrier. Some people when they spotted me, they recoiled, the 79-year-old told The Associated Press. I was particularly regarded as a menace. That's some contrast to his final moments at Derriford Hospital, when the somewhat embarrassed Embleton received a round of applause from all the front-line staff from the cleaners to the doctors. Embleton ..

A new series based on actor Hilary Duff's character from "Younger" is in works at ViacomCBS. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the company is working with "Younger" creator Darren Star on the spin-off show that will see Duff returning as Kelsey Peters. The new show could be headed to Paramount Network, where the original series was slated to move for its sixth season. But the plans were shelved and the show remained in its original home on TV Land, which is owned ViacomCBS. "Younger", which started in 2015, features Sutton Foster as Liza Miller, a 40-year-old divorcee who has to manage her career in a publishing company having faked her identity as a younger woman to get her job, while her romantic and professional lives are measured against ups and comings. Duff's Kelsey Peters is a book editor at Empirical Press who befriends Liza after they start working together. The show also stars Nico Tortorella, Peter Hermann, Miriam Shor, Debi Mazar, Molly Bernard and Charles Michael

The WHO and the UN's postal agency have released a commemorative postage stamp on the 40th anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, with the head of the global health body expressing gratitude to a top Indian-origin UN official. In May 1980, the 33rd World Health Assembly issued its official declaration that "the world and all its peoples have won freedom from smallpox." It was ended on the back of a 10-year WHO-spearheaded global effort that involved thousands of health workers around the world to administer half a billion vaccinations to stamp out smallpox. "When WHO's smallpox eradication campaign was launched in 1967, one of the ways countries raised awareness about smallpox was through postage stamps when social media like Twitter and Facebook was not even on the horizon," World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. "I especially want to thank my friend Mr Atul Khare, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Operational Support, for ...

Nepal has reported seven new coronavirus cases, taking the number of infections in the country to 109, the health ministry said on Saturday. Nepal is among the nations that has the least number of cases of the deadly coronavirus. The new cases involve three women and four men aged between 17 and 65 years. The women belonged to Udayapur district, while three men are from Kapilavastu district and one from Parsa district. With this, the total number of infections in the Himalayan nation has reached 109, it said. So far, 30 people have recovered from the disease, the ministry said. According to the Johns Hopkins University data, the virus has infected over 3.9 million people and claimed over 270,000 people worldwide.

Pop star Taylor Swift has announced an hour-long concert special "City of Lover" which will air on ABC. The announcement comes weeks after Swift was forced to cancel all of her 2020 live appearances and performances, including "Lover Fest East" and "Lover Fest West" , due to coronavirus pandemic. The special, which will air on May 17, was filmed in September at the L'Olympia Theater in Paris, where she performed in front of audiences from 37 countries. It will be available for streaming on Disney Plus and Hulu on May 18. "Excited to announce the City of Lover Concert! We filmed my show in Paris in September and thought it'd be fun to share it with you. May 17 at 10p ET on @abcnetwork and available the next day on @hulu and @disneyplus !#TaylorSwiftCityOfLover" the 30-year-old singer tweeted on Friday. The musical event gives fans unprecedented access to behind-the-scenes moments with the artist and marks her only concert performance this year, ABC Network said in a press ...

Luke Greenfield, the director of films such as "The Girl Next Door" and "Something Borrowed", will helm STXfilms' upcoming movie "We Are Untouchable". The director will also co-write the action-thriller in collaboration with Captain Mauzner, reported Deadline. The screenplay has been penned by Oritte Bendory and Aaron Feldman with revisions by Michael Diliberti and by Anthony Drazan. The story is about a group of international college grads working in Mexico City at their respective diplomatic embassies. "By day, they're slaving away as mailroom assistants getting abused by their bosses. But when they find out they have diplomatic immunity and they can't get arrested for anything they do they go wild with it and live out their fantasies. "Soon they're living double lives in the ultimate wish-fulfillment...until it isn't. They gradually fall into serious danger when they get entangled with a violent and savage group who extort them for their 'get out of jail free' cards," the ...