KOttayAM l saturday l march 02, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Google removes popular apps from play store over fee row Ten companies avoided paying fees The search giant on Friday started removing a few Indian apps from its Play Store for not paying platform fees. Google did not name them Dark day for net, says matrimony.com Google said many well-established Indian companies avoided paying fees despite benefiting from the platform. It wants companies using its Play Store to use its billing facility and remove other third party payment services. Google charges between 11%-26% as fee. Earlier a few companies protested, went to the Supreme Court, but did not get interim relief | P10 ■ ■ Matrimony.com founder Murugavel Janakiraman said the move was a ‘dark day’ for Internet in India. Kuku FM co-founder Vinod Kumar Meena said that Google was behaving like a ‘monopoly’ Internet and Mobile Association of India said as the case is pending before the Supreme Court, Google should not take coercive action 2,00,000 indian developers use Google’s play store CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI sidharth’s death Indiranagar 19 students debarred for three years Hoodi Doddanekundi BENGALURU E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @Kalpetta Brookefield bomb explosion site The Rameswaram Cafe in Bengaluru moments after it was rocked by a low-intensity bomb explosion on Friday, as captured in CCTV | PTI Bomb explosion in popular B’luru cafe leaves 10 injured Low-intensity ied used suspect dropped bomb-laden bag in cafe and left multiple teams formed to catch the culprit P r av een K u m a r @ Bengaluru it crowd ping his bag and leaving. Alok Mohan, Director General & Inspector General of Police of Karnataka, said Central agencies including the National Investigation Agency and Intelligence Bureau have been roped in for the investigation. The explosion site was filled with nuts and bolts and blood stains as several were injured. The roof of the restaurant was completely damaged. Smoke was visible for 500 metres. A woman sustained severe burns in the blast. Two senior citizens sustained injuries after broken glass pieces of the restaurant hit them. A restaurant worker also sustained injuries. All the injured are undergoing treatment in nearby private hospitals. Ramesh, a security guard at the restaurant, told TNIE that the explosion was so loud that he lost hearing for some time. “The sound was unbearable. I saw people running helter-skelter. The blast happened near the wash basin area, behind P5 the hotel.” TEN persons were injured as a low-intensity improvised explosive device (IED) went off at The Rameshwaram Cafe, a popular restaurant located in Kundalahalli on the ITPL Main Road in Bengaluru, on Friday at around 1 pm. There were no fatalities, but an injured woman has sustained 40% burns. According to police, a person came to the restaurant carrying an IED-laden bag and dropped it there. The explosion happened an hour later. The device is said to have been kept in a tiffin carrier inside a bag. The suspect took the token from the cashier and ate in the restaurant. He, then, placed the bag near the wash basin area and left. An hour later, it exploded, leaving 10 people, including customers and restaurant staff, injured. Panic gripped Green Avenue opposite Kundalahalli Colony, where the restaurant is located, as people ran helter-skelter. The CCTV footage showed two explosions within a few seconds apart. Initially it was sus, pected to be a blast due to a leaking LPG cylinder. However, after a thorough examination of the blast site, experts from the Bomb Detection & Disposal Squad and the Forensic Science Laboratory declared it a bomb blast as all the LPG cylinders were intact. Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who visited the spot with Home Minister G Paramaeshwara, said the suspect, aged 30-35 years, came in a bus. He ordered a plate of Rava Idli and ate it, before drop- Expect warmer summer this year, says IMD At 13.8%, Kerala tops states in availing education loans On Friday, there was a smaller crowd at the restaurant compared to Saturdays and Sundays. Most customers were IT professionals who had come for lunch. The 46-year-old woman who got 40% burns, Swarnamba, is an employee of an IT firm in the city R a j e s h R av i @ K o c h i j i t en d r a c h o u b e y @ New Delhi Most parts of the country are likely to witness a warmer start to the summer this year because of El Niño, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicted on Friday . The country may witness above normal maximum and minimum temperatures in most parts between March and May, IMD Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said. Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, parts of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Odisha may witness more heatwaves and higher temperatures than normal. But heatwave conditions are not expected over north and central India in March, he said. El Niño refers to the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean. In India, El Niño is known for weaker monsoon. However, IMD expects a transition to neutral conditions from El Niño by the beginning of the monsoon season, which may bring more rains during the southwest monsoon. March will be hotter and is likely to receive above normal rainfall due to western disturbances. That could be a boon for the rabi wheat crop. A total of eight western disturbances—cyclonic storms originating in the Mediterranean region—brought rain and snow to the western Himalayan states for three days in the winter. Amid demands to improve the quality of higher education in Kerala, a finance ministry statement presented in parliament has revealed that the state leads the nation in availing education loans. The total value of loans availed by Kerala students from public sector banks (PSBs) has more than tripled in four years. Experts have observed a rise in the unit value of loans, primarily to accommodate the escalating expenses associated with funding migration and studies abroad. According to the finance ministry statement, the total education loans sanctioned by PSBs in the country for the fiscal year 2023-24 (up to December) amount to Rs 32,960.29 crore with Kerala accounting for a significant share of We have clues about the suspect and 7-8 Crime Branch teams have been formed. The culprit will be nabbed soon —D K Shivakumar, deputy CM No gas leak: Cafe Ruling out gas leak, the cafe’s MD Divya Raghavendra Rao said the cylinders are kept inside the kitchen. She said there was no lapse in security measures 13.8%, at Rs 4,545 crore. The data also reveals that the total value of education loans disbursed in the state has surged by 324%, from Rs 1,610.61 crore in FY21 to Rs 5,218.60 crore in FY23. The increase is also evident in the number of loan accounts, which -- at the end of Q3 of FY24 -- have risen to 34,398 from 14,971 in FY21. As of the third quarter of the current fiscal, the number of outstanding loan accounts in the state represents almost 9.4% of the total loan accounts nationally, amounting to 3,67,451. On a national scale, the outstanding portfolio under education loans by Indian banks, inclusive of all lending institutions including cooperative societies, saw a growth of 17% to Rs 96,847 crore in FY23 from Rs 82,723 crore in the previous year, as per Reserve Bank of ● More on P4 India data. Education Loans Sanctioned by Public Sector Banks FY2020-21 FY2021-22 A/C Kerala 14,971 1,610.61 cr Value(C) A/C Value (C) 27,235 3,047.48 cr FY2022-23 A/C Value (C) FY24 (Till Dec 31, 2023) A/C Value (C) 41,787 5,218.60 cr 34,398 4,544.49 cr India 1,19,888 13,239.05 cr 2,02,106 23,975.03 cr 3,50,767 38,321.51 cr 3,67,451 32,960.29 cr A/C - Total loan accounts Value - Total amount of loans availed Source: Rajya Sabha un-starred question express read IGST settlement: Centre disburses L4,122 cr to state T’Puram: An amount of J4,122 crore sanctioned by the Centre as tax devolution and IGST settlement has helped the state government weather the financial crisis, at least for the time being. It helped the government source money for disbursing salary and pension of employees. LS polls: Congress looks to cash in on anti-incumbency T’Puram: Congress poll strategist Sunil Kanugolu held talks with the party top brass on Friday amid uncertainty over finalisation of candidates in a couple of LS constituencies. Kanugolu urged leaders to highlight the anti-incumbency factor against LDF government. Amid the raging controversy over the mob trial and subsequent death of Sidharth J S, a student of the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences in Pookode, Wayanad, the antiragging committee of the veterinary university debarred 19 students, including SFI leaders, for three years. They were listed as accused by the police in connection with Sidharth’s suicide at the college hostel. College dean M K Narayanan said the antiragging committee of the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University has taken action against 31 students under various sections of the UGC Regulations on Curbing the Menace of Ragging. “Of the 31 students, 19 have been barred from taking admission in any educational institution in India for three years, while 10 others are debarred for a year,” he said. Two students have been ousted from the college hostel. Meanwhile, the police probing the case recorded the arrest of three more persons in the case on Friday taking the total number of ar, rests to 10. One of the accused, Malappuram native Ameen Akbar Ali who is a fourth-year student, surrendered before the Kalpetta JFCM court in the evening. The probe team led by Kalpetta DySP Sajeev T N recorded the arrests of SFI unit secretary Amal Ehsan, college union president K Arun and member Asif Khan. Asif was nabbed from his house in Varkala on Thursday, while Arun and Amal surrendered on the day ● More on P4 . Modi raps Mamata over Sandeshkhali P r a n a b M o n d a l @ Kolkata In a scathing attack on the ruling Trinamool Congress and its chief Mamata Banerjee at a rally on Friday Prime , Minister Narendra Modi alleged that they were insensitive to the atrocities and sexual assault on women in Sandeshkhali. “The entire nation is in dismay, in anger over what happened with our mothers and sisters in Sandeshkhali,” he said. Without naming TMC strongman Shahjahan Sheikh, who was arrested on Thursday, Modi indicated that the Sandeshkhali stir by the local women will be the BJP’s key poll plank for the Lok Sabha elections. Urging the women electorate across the state to respond decisively against the heinous acts by TMC leaders in the North 24 Parganas island, Modi said, “Every injury inflicted by TMC leaders in Sandeshkhali must be replied with a vote.” Later in the day, Mamata met Modi at Raj Bhavan. “I met the PM as part of protocol and courtesy she said af,” ter the meeting. In his rally at Arambagh in Hooghly Modi gave credit for , Sheikh’s arrest to the BJP’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during a public rally at Arambagh in Hooghly district on Friday | PTI functionaries in the state, saying they kept up pressure on the Bengal police. “For Didi (Mamata), political allegiance of certain individuals is more important than addressing the atrocities against women in Sandeshkhali,” Modi charged. Highlighting the alleged corruption in the recruitment in schools, municipalities and distribution in foodgrain, Modi assured that the looters would have to pay back. “Lootnewalo ko lautana parega, Modi chod ne wala nehi hai (Looters will have to refund, otherwise Modi will not spare them),” he war ned. Modi spent the night at Raj Bhavan as he is scheduled to address another rally in Krishnagar, Nadia, on Saturday .
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