Kriti Sanon, Rajkummar Rao get candid about on-screen chemistry

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Kriti Sanon, Rajkummar Rao get candid about on-screen chemistry

Actors Rajkummar Rao and Kriti Sanon, who are gearing up for the release of there upcoming family entertainer ‘Hum Do Hamare Do’, have talked about their on-screen chemistry in the movie.

Kriti said: “Raj is a very giving actor, and that is his best quality as a co-star. When your fellow actor gives a spellbinding performance, where they literally tear up even when the camera is placed at you and not them, it means they think of the whole film and not just their role, which is something I really appreciate”.

‘Hum Do Hamare Do’ is a wholesome family comedy about a man who goes to hilarious lengths for love, as he ends up adopting a “mum and dad”.

Rajkummar revealed: “Over the years Kriti has grown by leaps and bounds as a performer. She is very confident of her craft now, and that shows on screen. I remember Kriti flawlessly nailing even the most intense of scenes during shoot, which is a great sign of being an actor”.

Dinesh Vijan presents ‘Hum Do Hamare Do’, also stars Paresh Rawal, Ratna Pathak Shah and Aparshakti Khurana, directed by Abhishek Jain, produced by Dinesh Vijan, a Maddock Original film, starts streaming from October 29 on Disney+ Hotstar.

Great that Stokes will be on the plane: Smith on Ashes series

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Great that Stokes will be on the plane: Smith on Ashes series

Australian batter Steve Smith has given his thumbs up to England all-rounder Ben Stokes for making a successful return to the side for the Ashes tour beginning next month, saying it’s great to “have him on the plane” after taking time off to focus on mental health.

Stokes had taken an indefinite break to focus on his mental health and also tend to an injured finger. But recently, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced that that charismatic all-rounder would be available for the full Ashes tour, which begins with The Gabba Test on December 8.

While Stokes’ inclusion will make the touring party much stronger, Smith said it’s always good to play against “quality performers”.

“I think it (Stokes’ inclusion) is great,” Smith said on SEN 1170 Drive on Wednesday. “Obviously, he took a step back and was struggling with a few things mentally. Credit to him for being able to step away from the game and ensure he gets that right.

“I think it’s great that he’s on the plane, you want to be coming up against quality performers and ‘Stokesy’ is certainly that. We only have to look back to Headingley a few years ago, that knock was simply outstanding. It’s great to see him on the plane, yeah, I’m glad he’s going okay,” added Smith.

Stokes had rattled Australia during the 2019 Ashes series, scoring two hundreds and averaging 55.12 with the bat. He also took eight wickets.

YouTube crosses 50 mn music, premium subscribers with 2 mn creators

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YouTube crosses 50 mn music, premium subscribers with 2 mn creators

YouTube continues to pen a success story for Google and according to Sundar Pichai, it has surpassed 50 million music and premium subscribers, including those in trial, and short-video making app YouTube Shorts (launched first in India last year) continues to see higher adoption rates.

“In the past year, the average number of daily first-time creators more than doubled. There’s a lot more to come, including tapping into commerce on YouTube,” Alphabet and Google CEO Pichai said during the company’s earnings call late on Tuesday.

“From shoppable live stream experiments with retailers like Sephora, Target and Walmart, to pilots that view us by directly from their favourite creators videos, we’re still in the early innings of what’s possible,” he added.

In the July-September quarter, YouTube recorded advertising revenues of $7.2 billion — up 43 per cent due to strength in both direct response and brand advertising.

Over 2 million creators are now making money and building their businesses on YouTube via YouTube partner programme with 10 different ways to monetise — their content from Super Chat to BrandConnect.

Google said that YouTube’s reach is becoming increasingly incremental to TV.

“Connected TV is driving part of this growth. It’s our fastest-growing screen. Advertisers can now drive conversions on the big screen, which brings me to brands of all sizes continue to buy YouTube at both ends of the funnel to create future demand while they convert existing demand,” said Philipp Schindler, Senior Vice President/Chief Business Officer.

For Pichai, YouTube is unique in the sense that it’s a true video — native video first product from day one.

“Content responsibility has been our most important focus for the past many years. And beyond that, I think we worked hard to make sure both creators can do well, and it’s a great platform for advertisers. We’ve had strengthened brand. We’ve built on it with robust momentum in direct response,” Pichai said.

Google logs record $18.9 bn profit, Search and YouTube soar

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Google logs record $18.9 bn profit, Search and YouTube soar

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has posted an all-time record revenue of $61.9 billion for the July-September quarter, along with record profits at $18.9 billion.

Google Services revenues were $59.9 billion, up 41 per cent, and Google Search and other advertising revenues of $37.9 million in the quarter were up 44 per cent.

The company said in a statement late on Tuesday that YouTube advertising revenues of $7.2 billion were up 43 per cent due to strength in both direct response and brand advertising.

“Our long-term investments in AI and Google Cloud are helping us drive significant improvements in everyone’s digital experience,” said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and Google.

“Search remains the heart of what we do. We have made remarkable advances over the past 23 years that benefits Search and related products like Google Assistant, which just celebrated five years,” he added.

For Google Cloud, the revenues were $5 billion for the third quarter, up 45 per cent.

“Google Cloud Platform’s (GCP) revenue growth was again above cloud overall, reflecting significant growth in both infrastructure and platform services,” said Ruth Porat, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

At the Alphabet level, headcount grew by nearly 6,000 in the third quarter, including seasonal campus hires.

“We expect robust headcount growth in Q4 for both Google Services and Google Cloud,” the company said.

Alphabet said that with respect to foreign exchange impact on reported revenues, it expects virtually no impact in Q4 in contrast to a 1.5 per cent tailwind in Q3 and 4 per cent in its Q2.

Petrol, diesel rates raised again by 35 paise/ltr

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Petrol, diesel rates raised again by 35 paise/ltr

Petrol and diesel prices increased again on Wednesday after a two-day break as global oil prices failed to relent and continued to remain firm.

Accordingly, the pump price of petrol in Delhi increased by 35 paise per litre to jump to Rs 107.94 a litre while diesel prices also increased by the same margin to reach Rs 96.67 a litre, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers.

In the financial capital Mumbai, petrol prices have now risen to Rs 113.80 per litre while diesel to Rs 104.8 5 a litre, the highest among all metros.

Across the country as well petrol and diesel prices increased between 35-40 paise per litre, but their retail rates varied depending on the level of local taxes on petroleum products.

The fuel prices remained static last week on Monday and Tuesday, but had risen for four straight days by 35 paise per litre previously before again rising for five consecutive days between Wednesday and Sunday. It remained static again on Monday and Tuesday before rising again on Wednesday. There was no change in rates on October 12 and 13.

Diesel prices have now increased for 25 of the last 33 days taking up its retail price by Rs 8.15 per litre in Delhi.

With diesel prices rising sharply, the fuel is now available at over Rs 100 a litre in several parts of the country. This dubious distinction was earlier available to petrol that had crossed Rs 100 a litre-mark across the country a few months earlier.

Petrol prices had maintained stability since September 5, but oil companies finally raised the pump prices last week and this week given a spurt in the product prices lately. Petrol prices have also risen on 22 of the previous 29 days taking up its pump price by Rs 6.75 per litre.

Crude prices have been on a surge rising over three year high level of over $ 86 a barrel now as global demand remains firm while OPEC+ continues to move slowly on increasing production. Since September 5, when both petrol and diesel prices were revised, the price of petrol and diesel in the international market is higher by around $9-10 per barrel as compared to average prices during August.

Turkish Parliament ratifies motion on launching cross-border operations in Iraq, Syria

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Turkish Parliament ratifies motion on launching cross-border operations in Iraq, Syria

Turkish Parliament has ratified a motion extending authorisation for the government to launch cross-border operations in northern Iraq and Syria for two more years.

The motion, passed on Tuesday, will authorise cross-border operations to be carried out in Iraq and Syria from October 30, 2021 to October 30, 2023, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The previous cross-border motions were only for one-year duty.

The motion also allowed the deployment of foreign armed forces in Turkey with the principles to be determined by the president.

The Turkish army launched Operation Euphrates Shield in 2016, Operation Olive Branch in 2018, Operation Peace Spring in 2019, and Operation Spring Shield in 2020 in northern Syria in order to create a zone free of the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) along its border within the neighbouring country.

Turkey sees the YPG group as the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Turkish forces frequently carry out ground operations, airstrikes and artillery bombardments against the PKK positions in northern Iraq, especially the Qandil Mountains, the main base of the group, and have been keeping troops in the region.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and the EU, has been rebelling against the Turkish government for over 30 years.

Central Bank of India’s Q2FY22 YoY net profit up 55.28%

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Central Bank of India’s Q2FY22 YoY net profit up 55.28%

State-run Central Bank of India on Tuesday reported a rise of 55.28 per cent in its net profit for the second quarter of the current fiscal on a year-on-year basis.

The bank’s net profit rose to Rs 250 crore compared to net profit of Rs 161 crore on YoY basis.

Besides, the bank’s net interest income improved by 5.99 per cent to Rs 2,354 crore to Rs 2,495 crore on a YoY basis.

The net interest margin improved from 3.21 per cent to 3.36 per cent, on a YoY basis.

Furthermore, the bank’s net NPA on a YoY basis reduced from 5.60 per cent to 4.51 per cent.

Additionally, gross NPA reduced from 17.36 per cent to 15.52 per cent on a YoY basis registering an improvement of 184 bps.

“Provision Coverage Ratio (PCR) improved from 82.24 per cent to 85.86 per cent on YoY basis registering an improvement of 302 bps and from 84.28 per cent to 85.86 per cent on QoQ basis, registering an improvement of 158 bps,” the bank said in a statement.

“Slippage ratio stood at 1.45 per cent as against 0.08 per cent during Q2 20 21, as there was moratorium granted by the RBI due to Covid-19 pandemic.”

At least 15 houses gutted in Himachal’s Malana village

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At least 15 houses gutted in Himachal’s Malana village

At least 15 wooden houses in Malana, the ancient Himalayan village where the legend of Alexander the Great lives on in the Kullu valley of Himachal Pradesh, were burnt down in a massive fire on early Wednesday, though there was no loss of life, police said.

The fire started at around 1.30 a.m. and the highly inflammable wooden houses and stored dry grass caught the fire.

The flames were brought under control by Wednesday morning by the fire department and locals and 15-odd houses gutted, officials said in Shimla.

Malana, one of the largest villages in Kullu district with a population of about 2,350 where the banned cannabis is the source of prime livelihood, is located amid high mountains, some 350 km from the state capital here.

In 2008, almost half of Malana, known for Malana Cream, the most sought-after forms of hashish across the globe, was wiped out in the massive fire.

Malana village, surrounded by snow-capped mountains, is located 45 km from Kullu town. Its nearest road is seven km down the hill that was constructed in 2007.

Kate Bosworth, Thomas Kretschmann sci-fi thriller ‘Sentinel’ wraps production

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Kate Bosworth, Thomas Kretschmann sci-fi thriller ‘Sentinel’ wraps production

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Tanel Toom has wrapped production in Estonia on sci-fi thriller ‘Sentinel’ starring Kate Bosworth and Thomas Kretschmann.

The film also stars Lucien Laviscount and Martin McCann.

Written by Malachi Smyth, it is set in the future on a war-ravaged Earth where four soldiers man Sentinel — a remote military base in a vast ocean that separates two warring continents. While they await their relief or the enemy, the simmering tension amongst them escalates when a mysterious boat drifts into range.

Toom said: “It has been an honour to work with such a great ensemble of actors in Kate Bosworth, Thomas Krestschmann, Lucien Laviscount and Martin McCann. I have carried this film with me for so long and am now truly happy to see that we will be able to bring it to audiences soon.”

‘Sentinel’ is presented by Altitude Film Entertainment in association with Head Gear Film and Metrol Technology in association with BR/ARTE, Tallifornia, Ichiban Films, Sentinel Entertainment and Vertical Entertainment.

The film is produced by Ben Pullen, Ivo Felt, Jorg Bundschuh, Pippa Cross and Matthew James Wilkinson.

Jobless youths send thousands of letters to Yogi

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Jobless youths send thousands of letters to Yogi

Thousands of letters are being posted to Uttar Prdesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, urging him to immediately fill up vacancies for 1,37,500 assistant teachers in schools across the state.

Some of the aspirants who are waiting for jobs, have written letters in blood.

Since July of this year, these candidates have been protesting at the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) office in Lucknow, alleging partiality in recruitment against them by the state government.

They claim that the government supports upper caste candidates while ignoring candidates from marginalised communities.

On October 21, the agitating candidates were brutally lathi-charged and dispersed by the police. The police have arrested 61 candidates so far and sent them to jail.

The protesters have also written letters to the President and Governor saying that ending their lives by suicide would be the only option left for them if they did not get the jobs.

The BJP came to power in Uttar Pradesh in 2017 with a thumping majority, promising jobs, and better socio-economic development in the state.

Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav have supported the demands of the youths by tweeting in their favour.

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