New Delhi: The government will make skills certification essential by 2020 before a person can apply for a public-sector or government job, a decision that could be difficult to implement.

“To get a government job, it is very important to have a NSQF (national skill qualification framework) certification and this is how the government is planning to move,” skills minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy said on Thursday.

Government on Friday moved the Supreme Court seeking removal of foreign arbitrator appointed by Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) over its dispute over the Panna, Mukta and Tapti oil and gas fields.

It sought removal of Peter Leaver QC, who was appointed the arbitrator after May 28, 2014, order of the apex court setting aside a Delhi High Court order by which it had agreed to hear the government’s plea against the arbitration proceedings in London.

Finnish telecom equipment maker Nokia has identified a “serious” buyer for its manufacturing plant in Chennai, a top Tamil Nadu government official said today.

“Nokia has been telling us that they have identified a very serious buyer, but due to their non-disclosure agreement they are not willing to give out their name,” Tamil Nadu Additional Chief Secretary C V Shankar told reporters here.

The benchmark BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty rallied for the second week in a row by over 2.0 percent buoyed by across-the-board buying, Moody’s raising country’s credit outlook and speculations that the US Fed may keep interest rates low after weak jobs data.

However, Reserve Bank of India, in its monetary policy on April 7, left the short-term lending rate or repo rate unchanged and also kept the cash reserve ratio and the statutory liquidity ratio static, which weighed on the markets as Sensex closed almost flat on Tuesday.

To deepen the securitisation market, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has made it easier for banks and public financial institutions to act as trustees, while a new code of conduct has been put in place to safeguard investors’ interest.

Amending its Securitised Debt Instruments Regulations, Sebi said the move would further develop the market and “rationalise and clarify the role and responsibilities of trustee”.

After the lending rate cuts by banks, India's top mortgage lender, HDFC, has cut its home loan rate by 20 basis points (bps) to 9.9 per cent with effect from Monday. With this, the gap between the rates offered by HDFC and State Bank of India (SBI) on home loans has widened.

Earlier HDFC gave home loans at 10.10 per cent, while SBI charged 10.15 per cent. The country's largest bank is now offering home loans at 9.95 per cent for women customers and 10 per cent for others.

Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Raghuram Rajan hinted that in the next two years, the apex bank might issue licenses for setting up of payment banks, small finance banks and possibly a postal bank. Rajan who was speaking at the 11th convocation of the National Institute of Bank Management (NIBM) in Pune also said the existing public sector banks would under go changes.

“The banking sector in the country is full of opportunities and in the next two years we will see a number of changes. We are going to have a whole set of institutions, payment banks, small finance banks and possibly a postal bank. The public sector banks will so undergo tremendous change,” he said. The derivatives market and IT used in banking and by banking correspondents he said will also see a lot of change.

SINGAPORE: An NRI has been appointed as the chief executive officer of the digital division of Singapore-based telecom giant Singtel.

Samba Natarajan, 49, has been appointed the chief executive officer of Group Digital Life, Singtel. Natarajan is currently the Managing Director of Digital Enterprise.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Friday rejected the report submitted by the state Director General of Police JV Ramudu, and directed him to appear in the court later on Friday.

Meanwhile, counsel for the petitioner V Ragunath raised questions about the legality of the FIR which was registered by the Andhra Police. "The court raised two questions. Firstly, how lawful is an FIR registered against a dead person? And secondly which agency is investigating the case. When the DGP himself is a party to the Task Force, how can the investigation be handled by the SDPO?" Raghunath said.

A Pakistani court on Friday freed Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, accused of being the mastermind in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks in 2008 that killed 166 people.

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had condemned the prospect of release for the LeT operations commander, while Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said that Lakhvi's release would be an "unfortunate and disappointing" development. "India wants talks with Pakistan but the present development (release of Lakhvi) is unfortunate and disappointing," he told reporters.

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