Top 10 stories of day: Markets' 10-day rally ends; India slams China for border remarks & more

India on Thursday slammed China for its remark on Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh, saying that the territories are an integral part of India and Beijing has no locus standi on it. "The union territories of Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir have been, are and would remain an integral part of India. China has no locus standi to comment on India's internal matter," said MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava.

Equity indices ended 10-day winning streak with the benchmark BSE sensex crashing over 1,000 points, dragged by losses in banking, financial and IT stocks amid weak cues from global markets.

The 30-share BSE index fell 1,066 points or 2.61% to close at 39,728; while the broader NSE Nifty settled 291 points or 2.43% lower at 11,680. Investors lost Rs 3.25 lakh crore in today's session.

The ministry of finance on Wednesday said that the Centre will borrow the estimated shortfall of Rs 1.1 lakh crore -- as part of a special window -- to meet the GST compensation shortfall of states. The amount to be borrowed will be passed on to the states as a back-to-back loan in lieu of GST compensation cess releases, the ministry said in an official statement.

National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah convened an all-party meeting at his home to chalk out the future course of action on "Gupkar Declaration" with regard to the special status of Jammu and Kashmir which was revoked by the Centre last year.


Abdullah announced the formation of an alliance with Mehbooba Mufti of People's Democratic Party, Sajjad Lone and other regional groups and said that the battle is a constitutional and demanded the government of India to return all rights of people of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh held before last year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for scaling up of Covid-19 testing and sero surveys and said the facility to get tested regularly and speedily at a low cost must be available to all at the earliest. The Prime Minister also reiterated the country's resolve to provide cost-effective, easily available, scalable solutions for Covid-19 testing, vaccination and medication to all.

India rubbished the claim by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's adviser on national security that New Delhi has sent a message to Islamabad indicating a desire for talks between the two countries. "As regards the purported message, let me make it clear that no such message was sent from our side," Spokesperson in the ministry of external affairs Anurag Srivastava said.

Following the fake TRP scam, the BARC announced a temporary suspension of weekly ratings of news channels across languages. The council intends to review and augment the current standards of measurement to improve on "statistical robustness", and the exercise will result in a "pause" in the weekly ratings for up to 12 weeks, an official statement said.

London, Europe's top financial centre with 9 million people, will enter a tighter Covid-19 lockdown from midnight on Friday as Prime Minister Boris Johnson seeks to tackle a swiftly accelerating second coronavirus wave.


The respiratory pandemic, which emerged in China last year and has killed over a million people worldwide, is spreading in most parts of the United Kingdom, whose official death toll of 43,155 is the highest in Europe.

Cinemas in several parts of the country opened after almost seven months on Thursday, ushering in a new era of ‘contactless' movie watching in the shadow of a pandemic with alternate seating, 50 per cent capacity and packaged snacks.


It was a quiet reopening with few people venturing warily to watch a mix of regional, English and Hindi reruns such as “Chhichhore”, “Thappad”, “Tanhaji” and “The Spy”.

Scientists from University of Oxford have developed a rapid Covid-19 test able to identify the coronavirus in less than five minutes, researchers said, adding it could be used in mass testing at airports and businesses. The university said it hoped to start product development of the testing device in early 2021 and have an approved device available six months afterwards.