Daily News Dose: Kerala faces financial crisis as Centre denies nod for raising loans | May 12, 2022

Hello, this is your daily dose of news from Onmanorama. I'm your host, Ajish Jimmy George, and these are the major news stories of the day:

Kerala faces financial crisis as Centre denies nod for raising loans

Ranil Wickremesinghe is next Sri Lanka PM

Rajiv Kumar to replace Sushil Chandra as next Chief Election Commissioner on May 15

SC declines to grant interim relief in challenge to the LIC IPO

Xiaomi battles legal headaches in India

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Let's get into the details:

A month into the new financial year, Kerala is heading towards a severe economic crisis with the Centre rejecting its request to raise funds through loans.

Besides refusing approval for loans, the Centre has also asked the State for clarity in the statements of loans availed in the previous financial year.

A delay in receiving the Centre's nod may force the State to clamp financial restrictions. The State government has already imposed certain curbs on treasury transactions.

Sri Lanka's former prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has just one seat in the 225-member Parliament, is the next premier.

The decision was made during a closed-door meeting between him and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa last evening.

Meanwhile, a Sri Lankan court on Thursday imposed a travel ban on former prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, his son Namal Rajapaksa and 15 others in view of investigations against them for the deadly attack on anti-government protesters in Colombo this week.

Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar was on Thursday appointed as the next chief election commissioner. He will assume charge on May 15 after incumbent Sushil Chandra demits office on May 14, a notification issued by the Law Ministry said.

The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to grant interim relief to petitioners challenging the amendments to LIC Act by Finance Act of 2021, which facilitated the LIC IPO.

The top court declined to interfere with the LIC IPO process at this juncture. A bunch of policy holders had moved the apex court alleging violation of the LIC Act.

Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi faces legal headaches in India as the enforcement directorate and tax authorities investigate its business practices.

Xiaomi denies wrongdoing. But it recently hit the headlines with accusations that its executives faced intimidation from the enforcement officials, drawing public rebuttals from the agency and words of support from China.

Now let's check out the COVID numbers:

With 2,827 new coronavirus infections being reported in a day, India's tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 4,31,13,413, while the active cases dipped to 19,067.

The Union Health Ministry data released at 8 am also showed that 24 fatalities, including 17 from Kerala alone, were reported in a 24-hour span.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.60 per cent and the weekly positivity rate at 0.72 per cent.

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