The CBI has arrested a Hyderabad-based chartered accountant Butchibabu Gorantla,  for his alleged role in formulation and implementation of the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 which caused wrongful gain to Hyderabad-based wholesale and retail licensees and their beneficial owners under the Delhi Excise Policy resulting in huge losses to the Delhi exchequer.

According to CBI Gorantla, a CA earlier associated with K Kavitha, daughter of Telangana CM KC Rao, will be produced in the special court at Rouse Avenue on  Feb 8 and the agency will seek his remand for questioning in custody.

The CBI has already filed its first chargesheet on the matter in which investigations are still on and a special Court has taken cogisance of it. Through the agency had named Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia, responsible for the implementation of the Excise policy,   along with 14 others, he was not named in the chargesheet. The agency had reached his office on January 14 to collect more information.

India has slammed Pakistan for raking up the Kashmir issue in the UN, saying Islamabad harbours a deep sense of insecurity and orchestrated hatred for India and its secular credentials.

Responding to Pakistan's raising of the Kashmir issue during a UN General Assembly (UNGA) meeting, Counsellor in India's Permanent Mission to the UN, Rajesh Parihar, said on Feb 6 that Islamabad repeatedly utters falsehoods about India.

Parihar said irrespective of what the representative of Pakistan believes or covets, the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh were, are and will always be an "integral and inalienable" part of India.

 Heartrending scenes of a newborn plucked alive from the rubble and a broken father clutching his dead daughter's hand have laid bare the human cost of the earthquake in Syria and Turkey that by  Feb 8 had claimed over 9,500 lives.

For two days and nights since the 7.8 magnitude quake, an impromptu army of rescuers have worked in freezing temperatures to find those still entombed among ruins in several cities on either side of the border.

Officially, the death toll from the disaster now stands at 6,957 people dead in Turkey and 2,547 in Syria, bringing the total to 9,504 -- But that could yet double if the worst fears of experts are realised. The World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that time is running out for the thousands injured and those still feared trapped.

International response

Dozens of nations including the United States, China and the Gulf States have pledged to help, and search teams, as well as relief supplies, have begun to arrive by air. 

About a million Tibetan children in China have been separated from their families and placed into government-run boarding schools, with UN human rights experts voicing alarm over this policy of "forced assimilation" of the Tibetan identity into the dominant majority through a series of oppressive actions.

Around a million children of the Tibetan minority were being affected by Chinese government policies aimed at assimilating Tibetan people culturally, religiously, and linguistically through a residential school system.

The experts are UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues Fernand de Varennes, Special Rapporteur on the right to education Farida Shaheed and Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights Alexandra Xanthaki.

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said on  Feb 8 that India's banking and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFC) sector will not be affected by the Adani Group controversy.

The crash in the share prices of crisis-ridden Adani group will not impact as banks and NBFCs do not give loans on the basis of market captialisation. They lend to companies on the basis of cash flow, project analysis and other relevant factors. The lending against shares to the Adani Group is insignificant.

addressing a press conference in Mumbai after announcing a 25 basis points hike in repo rate.

The Governor said that the central bank has taken several steps to regulate banks and minimise lending risks.

Deputy Governor MK Jain said the exposure of Indian banks and NBFCs to Adani Group is insignificant. The banking sector regulator's assurance comes amid a massive fall in the shares of Adani Group companies after US-based Hindenburg Research levelled allegations of irregularities against the conglomerate.

Drone delivery company Skye Air Mobility has come out with an unmanned air traffic management system that will provide situational awareness, autonomous navigation and risk assessment to all drone and other aerial mobility operators.

The system -- Skye UTM -- was unveiled by Union Minister for Road and Highways, Nitin Gadkari here on Feb 7.

Australia's most successful T20 International batter and captain Aaron Finch, who led the country to its maiden shortest format World Cup triumph in 2021, announced his retirement from international cricket on Feb 8 .

The 36-year-old will, however, continue to play for the Renegades in the Big Bash League and would consider domestic T20 opportunities in other countries.

Finch's retirement from international cricket was on expected lines.

Ghana national player and former Newcastle midfielder Christian Atsu has been found alive in the rubble of an earthquake that killed more than 4,800 people in Turkey and neighbouring Syria, Ghana’s ambassador to Turkey said  on Feb 7.

Atsu, 31, joined Turkish Super Lig side Hatayspor in September, based in the southern province of Hatay near the epicentre of massive quake.