SUNDAY FOCUS

The government isn’t planning to undertake bilateral trade with Russia through a rupee-rouble payment mechanism in the wake of the Ukraine crisis, commerce secretary BVR Subrahmanyam said on Wednesday.

He, however, said the government is trying to ensure payments for exporters, who had supplied goods to Russia before the war broke out in late February, are not stuck.

“All we are trying to do is to facilitate the payment for our exporters. Even this is not being done through the rupee-rouble mechanism but by involving non-sanctioned (Russian) banks. The panel of secretaries that is looking into this issue, of which I am a member, isn’t considering any such proposal (rupee-rouble trade),” Subrahmanyam said, scotching reports in a section of media that India may get into such an arrangement with Russia.

Observing that the field of art should be non-conformist, inclusive and progressive in nature, the SC Tuesday said a student cannot be barred from taking admission in a film and television institute because of colour blindness and directed FTII Pune and other colleges to allow admission of such aspiring filmmakers.

A bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MM Sundresh passed the order after accepting recommendation of a court-appointed seven-member committee.

The SC order on Tuesday allowing opening of doors of film and television institutes to colour-blind people came on the plea of a student, whose admission in FTII Pune was cancelled in 2016 after he was found to be suffering from colour blindness.

Private weather forecasting agency Skymet on Tuesday predicted a 'normal' monsoon for India this year, indicating it to be the fourth consecutive year of 'normal' summer rains during June-September period. It said there is a 65% chance of normal rainfall in the country in 2022.

In what could be a positive signal for India's farm sector that performed quite well despite the challenges faced during the Covid-19 pandemic-hit years, the Skymet said, "Punjab, Haryana and UP, the agriculture bowl of north India, and rain-fed areas of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh will witness above normal rainfall."

The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has provisionally attached assets worth Rs 25 lakh of Asha Shaji, the wife of IUML leader and former legislator K M Shaji, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

The attached assets include a residential property in Kozhikode, said ED.

ED had initiated investigation on the basis of an FIR registered by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau against K M Shaji, who had been then a legislator representing Azhikode in Kannur district, in April, 2020.

West Bengal saw yet another intense clash between the Trinamool Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), amid voting for the Asansol and Ballygunge bypolls on Tuesday.

Till 5 pm, Asansol saw 64.03 per cent polling, whereas 41.10 per cent voter turnout was recorded in Ballygunge.

The results will be announced on April 16.