Here are the top 5 news updates of June 4, 2021:
1. Defence Ministry clears Navy proposal to issue Rs 50,000 cr tender for submarines
The Indian Navy will soon issue a tender worth around Rs 50,000 cr to build six new advanced conventional submarines with the Defence Ministry clearing a proposal for the same at the Defence Acquisition Council meeting today. The project named P-75 India has been in the making for a long time now and would be the successor to the Scorpene or Kalvari class submarines being built at the Mazagon Dockyards Limited in partnership with France. The Navy has identified and cleared MDL and Larsen and Toubro as the strategic partners who can tie up with five global manufacturers including French Naval Group, German TKMS, South Korean Daewoo, Spanish Navantia and Russian Rosoborboexport, they said.
2. PM Modi lauds scientists for developing made-in-India COVID-19 vaccines
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today lauded Indian scientists and said that India used to wait for years for innovations achieved abroad but now researchers are working shoulder to shoulder with their international counterparts. "They are working at the same quick pace," PM Modi said. Addressing a meeting of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Society via video conferencing, PM Modi lauded Indian scientists developing made-in-India vaccine against COVID-19 and boosting other measures to fight the pandemic within a year of its outbreak.
3. Indian team sent to bring back Mehul Choksi leaves Dominica, heads home
India's multi-agency team that had gone to Dominica to bring back Mehul Choksi is headed back home on a Qatar Airways private jet after the island nation's high court adjourned the hearing on the fugitive diamantaire's habeas corpus petition, sources said. Publicly available flight data showed that the jet took off from the Melville Hall Airport in Dominica at 8.09 PM (local time) on June 3 and is travelling towards Madrid. The multi-agency team of officials is also returning, the sources said. The team led by CBI DIG Sharda Raut was stationed in Dominica for nearly seven days to bring back Choksi, who is wanted in the Rs 13,500-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, to India.
4. RBI slashes GDP growth forecast for FY22 to 9.5%
The Reserve Bank today lowered the country's growth forecast for the current financial year by a percentage point to 9.5 per cent in view of the uncertainties created by the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. Observing that unlike the first wave, the impact of the second wave of COVID-19 is likely to be relatively contained, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said that taking several factors into consideration, "real GDP growth is now projected at 9.5 per cent in 2021-22 consisting of 18.5 per cent in Q1; 7.9 per cent in Q2; 7.2 per cent in Q3; and 6.6 per cent in Q4 of 2021-22."
5. Sensex drops 132 points after RBI policy outcome; banking stocks drag
Equity benchmark Sensex declined 132 points today, led by profit-booking in banking stocks after the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy announcements. The 30-share BSE index ended 132.38 points or 0.25 per cent lower at 52,100.05, while the broader NSE Nifty slipped 20.10 points or 0.13 per cent to 15,670.25. Nestle India was the top laggard in the Sensex pack, shedding around 2 per cent, followed by SBI, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, HUL and Dr Reddy's. On the other hand, Bajaj Finserv, ONGC, L&T, Bajaj Finance and HDFC were among the gainers.