The government is currently finalising guidelines to export refurbished weapons and equipment to friendly foreign countries, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told a parliamentary committee meeting on Thursday.

The old weapons and equipment of the Indian armed forces will be first refurbished by the defence industry and then exported to friendly foreign countries, the minister said in Bengaluru during a meeting of Parliamentary Consultative Committee on Defence, according to officials.

In a meeting with World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the country's top vaccine manufacturers on Thursday raised concerns regarding excess capacity of Covid-19 jabs created during the pandemic.

With the outbreak of the pandemic, vaccine manufacturers have rapidly created capacities to meet demand. Going ahead, manufacturers are concerned about excess capacity and how it can be utilised, said a person in the know, adding that similar concerns have been raised by manufacturers of other countries as well.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Thursday approved Gati Shakti, or the national master plan for multimodal connectivity, which includes the institutional framework as well as the implementation.

There will be a three-tier system for monitoring: empowered group of secretaries (EGoS), network planning group (NPG) as well as a technical support unit (TSU). The approval comes a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the master plan in the national capital.

Shares of Asian Paint dipped 7 per cent, hitting an over two-month low of Rs 2,961 on the BSE in Thursday’s intra-day trade, after the company reported 28.2 per cent year on year (YoY) decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 595.96 crore in July-September quarter (Q2FY22), due to higher raw material cost. The company had posted a profit of Rs 830.37 crore in the year-ago quarter.

The stock of India's leading paint company was trading at its lowest level since August 12, 2021.

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala pruned exposure to Tata Motors ordinary share, while increasing holdings in shares with differential voting rights (DVR).

The billionaire investor’s holding in Tata Motors DVR has risen to 3.93 per cent during the September 2021 quarter from 1.97 per cent in the preceding quarter. On the other hand, his holding has declined slightly in Tata Motors ordinary shares to 1.11 per cent to 1.14 per cent for the period under consideration.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday conducted an aerial survey of rain-ravaged areas of Uttarakhand to asses the damage which the state government has pegged at Rs 7,000 crore.

Talking to reporters at the Jollygrant airport here after returning from the survey of affected areas in Kumaon region, Shah said that alertness of the central and state government agencies had helped contain the damage.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed for disbursal of over Rs 25 crore deposited with it five years ago by the Maharashtra government in the apex court registry towards educational expenses of children who have lost either or both parents during the COVID-19 pandemic in the state

Maharashtra, one of the worst affected states during the second wave of pandemic earlier this year, had deposited the money in the apex court registry in an old matter related to medical college admissions.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the scientists, health workers and citizens of India for equitable vaccine distribution as the total Covid vaccine doses administered in the country surpassed the 100-crore mark on Thursday.

India took 279 days to administer 100 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses.

In a major development, teams of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) are paying a 'visit' to the residences of Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan in Bandra West, actress Ananya Pande in Khar west, and raided a location in Andheri on Thursday as part of the ongoing probe into the October 2 luxury cruiser rave party.

The reasons for the raids at Khan's sea-facing bungalow, 'Mannat' were not immediately available, but took place shortly after the Bombay High Court this morning decided to take up his son Aryan Khan's bail plea on next Tuesday, October 26.

The Supreme Court on Thursday said farmers protesting at Delhi borders against the three farms laws have the right to agitate but they cannot block roads indefinitely.

A bench headed by Justice S K Kaul said it was not against the right to protest even when the legal challenge is pending but ultimately some solution has to be found.

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