Shillong, April 24: Four major conglomerates saw their combined operating profit plunge 65 per cent last year, hit by sluggish sales amid an economic slowdown, a report showed on Wednesday. Some 306 affiliates of four conglomerates — Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motor and LG — posted a combined operating profit of 24.51 trillion won ($17.9 billion) in 2023, down from 71.91 trillion won a year earlier, according to the report by the Korea CXO Institute, a corporate data firm. Samsung Group, the country’s biggest conglomerate, suffered the biggest profit decline last year due to a poor performance by it ..read more

Shillong, April 24: Bollywood actress Kriti Sanon flaunted her perfect skin, which she revealed has “no filter.” Kriti took to Instagram stories, where she shared a video of her travelling in the car. In the clip, she is seen pouting and flaunting a “golden glow” as sun rays fall on her face. She captioned the clip: “Morning my sunshines! No filter, Sun plus sunscreen.” It seems the actress is out on a shoot as she shared a video with her make-up artist. In the boomerang clip, the two are seen making funny faces. She captioned the clip: “Lazzyy.” Kriti, who was recently seen in ‘Crew’ alongsid ..read more

Shillong, April 24: Taking on Google-owned YouTube, X social media platform will soon launch a dedicated TV app for users to upload high-quality videos, its CEO Linda Yaccarino has announced. The X TV app’s user interface looks quite similar to YouTube. In a post on the social media platform, Yaccarino said that from the small screen to the big screen, X is changing everything. “Soon we’ll bring real-time, engaging content to your smart TVs with the X TV App. This will be your go-to companion for a high-quality, immersive entertainment experience on a larger screen,” said the X CEO. Users can ..read more

Shillong, April 24: BSE Sensex gained more than 300 points on Wednesday to continue its bullish trajectory. BSE Sensex was trading at 74,093 points, up by 355 points. Metal stocks are leading the gains with JSW Steel up more than 2 per cent, Tata Steel up by 1.6 per cent. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said since the US 10-year bond yield continues to remain above 4.6 per cent, FIIs will remain sellers putting pressure on large caps like leading private sector banks. “For long-term investors, this segment is a buying opportunity,” he said. He added tha ..read more

Shillong, April 24: US President Joe Biden is set to sign a historic bill regarding a huge foreign aid package on Wednesday, that will also ban TikTok in the country if its China-based owner ByteDance doesn’t sell its stake within a year. The US Senate passed the bill 79-18 on Tuesday after the House passed it with an overwhelming majority last weekend. TikTok, which has more than 170 million American users, didn’t immediately comment but Michael Beckerman, its head of public policy for the Americas, said that the company plans to challenge the move in court. “The stage that the bill is signed ..read more

Shillong, April 24: The Supreme Court on Wednesday called for the presence of an Election Commission of India (ECI) official to clarify certain technical aspects pertaining to the functioning of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). Senior advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for the ECI, assured a bench presided over by Justice Sanjiv Khanna that the concerned official will remain available before the apex court at 2 p.m. The Bench, also comprising Justice Dipankar Datta, said that it directed the listing of the matter as it had certain factual and technical queries. Last week, the top court r ..read more

Shillong, April 24: Two soldiers were injured on Wednesday in an encounter between the security forces and the terrorists in J&K’s Bandipora district. Officials said that hiding terrorists fired at the security forces in the Renji forest area of the district after which an encounter started. In the initial firing by the terrorists, two soldiers were injured. “They have been shifted to hospital where attending doctors described their condition as stable,” officials said. Two days ago, terrorists killed an employee of the government social welfare department in Rajouri district after his bro ..read more

Shillong, April 24: AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh on Wednesday alleged that the BJP, which once opposed a first-come, first-served basis in spectrum allocation before coming into power, now wants the same policy to be implemented. Addressing a press conference here, the AAP leader said that in 2012 the Supreme Court delivered a historic judgement, stating that the spectrum allocation and licensing should be auctioned rather than distributed on a ‘first-come, first-served basis’. “But PM Modi and his government have now been exposed before the entire nation. When 150 MPs in 2023 were outside ..read more

Shillong, April 24: Prachi Nigam, who topped the Class 10 UP Board examinations this year by securing 98.5 per cent marks, has finally responded to trollers who have been trolling her for her facial hair. “Trollers can live with their mindset, I am happy that my success is now my identity,” she said on Wednesday. This is the first time that Prachi has responded to trollers. She said that all her attention was focused on her studies and no one ever pointed towards her excess facial hair. “My family, my teachers, my friends never criticised me for my appearance and I never bothered about it eith ..read more

Editor, The letter to the editor captioned, “The demagogue in a democracy” (ST 23rd April 2024) by C Lyngdoh made interesting reading. Throughout history, there have been several notable demagogues—individuals who appealed to emotions and prejudices to further their own political ends. Some classical demagogues include Cleon of Athens who nearly brought the city’s democracy to its knees and earned him the reputation of being the most brutal demagogues in history. Cleon advocated for executing not only the rebels but every male citizen of Mytilene. He argued that leniency would be a sign of wea ..read more