Footwear major Bata India is planning to open around 100 outlets during this financial year despite the COVID-19 outbreak, an official said on Wednesday.

The shoemaker, which currently has around 1,500 stores across India, plans to add 500 outlets by 2023 to strengthen its network in semi-urban and rural markets, he said.

The rupee appreciated 7 paise to 74.26 against the US dollar in early trade on Wednesday supported by foreign fund inflows and optimism surrounding trade the deal between the US and China.

The local unit opened at 74.34 against the US dollar, then gained ground and touched 74.26, up 7 paise over its previous close, even as the domestic equity market was trading in the negative territory.

With more than 67,000 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 count on Wednesday crossed the 32 lakh-mark, while the death toll is nearing the 60,000-mark as well.

At 9:30 AM on this day, the COVID-19 tally in the country has reached 32,34,475 cases, which include 7,07,267 active cases; 24,67,759 cured, discharged, or migrated patients, and 59,449 deaths.

A petition has been moved in the Supreme Court seeking a direction for the appointment of a government nominee to the Ayodhya mosque trust constituted for the construction of the mosque.

The petition was filed by one of the lawyers from Hindu side in the Ayodhya case, Karunesh Shukla, through his lawyer, Vishnu Jain.

With coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases on the rise once again in the national capital, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday called for a review meeting to discuss the coronavirus situation in the national capital.

Delhi government Health Minister, Chief Secretary, and all top officials of the Health Department will be present at the meeting.

The central government on Tuesday said that Punjab National Bank (PNB) has informed the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) that it has received USD 3.25 million (the equivalent of Rs. 24.33 crores) as the first tranche of recoveries in fugitive Nirav Modi case from the USA.

Upon liquidation of the debtors' assets by the US Chapter 11 Trustee, a sum of $ 11.04 million (equivalent of Rs. 82.66 crore) is available for distribution to unsecured creditors including PNB. Further recovery therefrom is subject to other expenses and settlement of claims of other claimants, MCA said in a release.

High drama was witnessed at the secretariat in Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday after a minor fire broke out at the protocol department, with Opposition Congress and BJP alleging that important files relating to the gold smuggling case were destroyed, while the Kerala government suspected a 'conspiracy' by both parties. The incident happened on the second floor of the North Sandwich Block where certain sections of the General Administration and the tourism department are functioning.

The death toll in the building collapse incident in Maharashtra`s Raigad district rose to 14, it was reported on Wednesday, as the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) continues its search and rescue operation which has been going on for more than 36 hours now.

The five-storey residential building collapsed in Maharashtra's Raigad district on Monday evening. Following the incident, Maharashtra Minister Vijay Wadettiwar on Tuesday announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 5 lakh to the family of each person killed in the Raigad building collapse incident.

Amid the growing demand for postponement of NEET, JEE exams 2020, National Testing Agency (NTA) on Tuesday confirmed that the exams will take place on the dates announced earlier.

JEE Mains exam 2020 will be held from September 1 to 6, while the NEET (UG) exam 2020 will be held on September 13.

The bidding process for the Private Player Train project will be extended for a month. The project will now invite bids from private players till October 7.

Previously, the bids were supposed to be handed over by September 8.

On August 12, The private companies involved in the bidding process had asked for more time and requested to extend the date of bidding from September 8.

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