Petrol, diesel prices today: Fuel rates go up on 30 March; total hike now at Rs 5.60, diesel crosses Rs 100 in Mumbai

Petrol and diesel prices were on Wednesday hiked by 80 paise a litre each, taking the total increase in rates in the last nine days to Rs 5.60 per litre.

Petrol in Delhi will now cost Rs 101.01 per litre as against Rs 100.21 previously while diesel rates have gone up from Rs 91.47 per litre to Rs 92.27 according to a price notification of state fuel retailers.

Rates have been increased across the country and vary from state to state depending upon the incidence of local taxation.

This is the ninth increase in prices since the ending of a four-and-half-month long hiatus in rate revision on 22 March. On the first four occasions, prices were increased by 80 paise a litre - the steepest single-day rise since the daily price revision was introduced in June 2017. On the following days, petrol price went up by 50 paise and 30 paise a litre while diesel rose by 55 paise and 35 paise a litre. Petrol price was on Tuesday hiked by 80 paise a litre and diesel by 70 paise.

In all, petrol and diesel rices have gone up by Rs 5.60 per litre each.

Prices had been on a freeze since 4 November ahead of the Assembly elections in states like Uttar Pradesh and Punjab — a period during which the cost of raw material (crude oil) soared by about $30 per barrel.

The rate revision was expected soon after counting of votes on 10 March but it was put off by a couple of weeks.

The increase in retail price warranted by crude oil prices rising during the 137-day hiatus from around $82 per barrel to $120 is huge but state-owned fuel retailers Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) are passing on the required increase in stages.

Moody's Investors Services last week stated that state retailers together lost around $2.25 billion (Rs 19,000 crore) in revenue for keeping petrol and diesel prices on hold during the election period.

Oil companies "will need to raise diesel prices by Rs 13.1-24.9 per litre and Rs 10.6-22.3 a litre on gasoline (petrol) at an underlying crude price of $100-120 per barrel," according to Kotak Institutional Equities.

CRISIL Research said a Rs 9-12 per litre increase in retail price will be required for a full pass-through of an average $100 per barrel crude oil and Rs 15-20 a litre hike if the average crude oil price rises to $110-120.

India is 85 per cent dependent on imports for meeting its oil needs and so retail rates adjust accordingly to the global movement.

With inputs from agencies

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'Call It Out': Network18 and Truecaller to host event on women’s online safety today

Days after the successful launch of the ItsNotOk campaign on Women’s Day to generate awareness of women’s harassment, Network18 and Truecaller are now set to host an event named ‘The Call It Out Conclave’ on March 29 in New Delhi.

The event which is being held at the Oberoi Hotel will be addressing issues pertaining to online safety and security in today’s digital world and take into account the steps taken toward making the online space safer for women and building a safe environment for them where they can report harassment.

It will be attended by dignitaries including, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Bollywood star Raveena Tandon, Special Commissioner, Delhi Police, Shalini Singh, among others. There will also be a special address by Devusinh Chauhan, Minister of State for the Ministry of Communications. Rakesh Asthana, Police Commissioner of Delhi, will also be giving a special address.

Besides enlightening the audience on tips to create cyber security awareness, speakers will also talk about cyber laws (for women against harassment) and the recourse available to report cases of harassment and future discourse with regards to women’s safety.

The attendees will also get to witness an elaborate discussion between Shereen Bhan, Managing Editor, CNBC-TV18 and Alan Mamedi, Co-Founder & CEO, Truecaller on what led to the campaign and how they are bringing all the stakeholders of the society together to build a safer environment for women where they can voice out their issues without any concern. The conversations will take a global turn with a dialogue between Sweden Ambassador Klas Molin and Annika Poutiainen, Board of Director, Truecaller on personal stories and lessons from around the world.

The other eminent personalities to be a part of ‘The Call It Out Conclave’ event include political activist and MLA, Atishi, designer and politician Shaina NC, Social Activist & Director, Centre for Social Research, Dr. Ranjana Kumari, lawyer Puneet Bhasin, DCP (IFSO), Delhi Police, KPS Malhotra, Founder and Director, Digital Empowerment Foundation, and Osama Manzer, Founder and Director, Digital Empowerment Foundation.

The event will start at 6 pm and will be live-streamed across CNN- News18 & CNBC-TV18 site and social media channels on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

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Petrol, diesel prices today: Fuel rates raised on 29 March; petrol crosses Rs 100 in Delhi

Petrol price on Tuesday crossed Rs 100 a litre mark after rates were hiked by 80 paise a litre and 70 paise in case of diesel, taking the total increase in rates in one week to Rs 4.80 per litre.

Petrol in Delhi will now cost Rs 100.21 per litre as against Rs 99.41 previously while diesel rates have gone up from Rs 90.77 per litre to Rs 91.47, according to a price notification of state fuel retailers.

Rates have been increased across the country and vary from state to state depending upon the incidence of local taxation.

This is the seventh increase in prices since the ending of a four-and-half-month long hiatus in rate revision on 22 March. On the first four occasions, prices were increased by 80 paise a litre - the steepest single-day rise since the daily price revision was introduced in June 2017. On the following days, petrol price went up by 50 paise and 30 paise a litre while diesel rose by 55 paise and 35 paise a litre.

In all, petrol and diesel prices have gone up by Rs 4.80 per litre.

Prices had been on a freeze since 4 November ahead of the Assembly elections in states like Uttar Pradesh and Punjab — a period during which the cost of raw material (crude oil) soared by about $30 per barrel.

The rate revision was expected soon after counting of votes on 10 March but it was put off by a couple of weeks.

The increase in retail price warranted by crude oil prices rising during the 137-day hiatus from around $82 per barrel to $120 is huge but state-owned fuel retailers Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) are passing on the required increase in stages.

Moody's Investors Services last week stated that state retailers together lost around $2.25 billion (Rs 19,000 crore) in revenue for keeping petrol and diesel prices on hold during the election period.

Oil companies "will need to raise diesel prices by Rs 13.1-24.9 per litre and Rs 10.6-22.3 a litre on gasoline (petrol) at an underlying crude price of $100-120 per barrel," according to Kotak Institutional Equities.

CRISIL Research said a Rs 9-12 per litre increase in retail price will be required for a full pass-through of an average $100 per barrel crude oil and Rs 15-20 a litre hike if the average crude oil price rises to $110-120.

India is 85 per cent dependent on imports for meeting its oil needs and so retail rates adjust accordingly to the global movement.

With inputs from agencies

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US president Joe Biden proposes $1.8 billion for Indo-Pacific Strategy

Washington: US President Joe Biden on Monday proposed $1.8 billion to support his Indo-Pacific Strategy along with another USD 400 million to counter the malign Chinese behaviour.

Both are part of the USD 773 billion annual defence budget of the US for the year 2023, which was submitted by the White House to Congress as part of its annual budgetary proposals.

In the Indo-Pacific, America is strengthening its role and expanding its cooperation with longtime allies and partners, including new diplomatic, defence and security, critical and emerging technology and supply chain, and climate and global health initiatives, while supporting stronger ties between our European and Indo Pacific allies, Biden said.

The President has prioritized strategic competition with China and worked with allies and partners to resist coercion and deter aggression from Beijing and Moscow, and has ended America's 20-year war in Afghanistan while removing all US troops, the White House said.

The budget, the White House said, promotes integrated deterrence in the Indo-Pacific and globally. To sustain and strengthen deterrence, the budget prioritizes China as the Department's pacing challenge.

To support American leadership in defending democracy, freedom, and security worldwide, the Budget includes nearly $1.8 billion to support a free and open, connected, secure, and resilient Indo-Pacific Region and the Indo-Pacific Strategy, and USD 400 million for the Chinese Malign Influence Fund.

In addition, the Budget provides USD 682 million for Ukraine, an increase of $219 million above the 2021 enacted level, to counter Russian malign influence and to meet emerging needs related to security, energy, cybersecurity issues, disinformation, macroeconomic stabilization, and civil society resilience.

According to the White House, Department Of Defence's 2023 Pacific Deterrence Initiative highlights some of the key investments the Department is making that are focused on strengthening deterrence in the Indo-Pacific region.

The Department is building the concepts, capabilities, and posture necessary to meet these challenges, working in concert with the interagency and US allies and partners to ensure US deterrence is integrated across domains, theaters, and the spectrum of conflict, it said.

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Rang Teras 2022: Here's everything you need to know about the festival

The festival of Rang Taras is celebrated on Trayodashi or the 13th day during the Krishna Paksha in the month of Chaitra, according to the Hindu Calendar. Rang Teras is also known as Rang Trayodashi. Rang Teras is celebrated in other regions in the Krishna Paksha in the month of Phalgun, according to the gregorian calendar.

This year, the festival of Rang Teras will be celebrated on 30 March. The festival is observed and celebrated in states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan to name a few. It is celebrated with utmost joy and fervour and in the same spirit as that of Holi.

Here are some of the important timings that one must keep in mind for the festival of Rang Teras:

1. Sunrise - 6:25 am, 30 March
2. Sunset - 6:37 pm, 30 March
3. Trayodashi tithi begins - 2:38 pm, 29 March
4. Trayodashi tithi ends - 1:19 pm, 30 March

Here are some of the things you should know about the festival of Rang Teras.

Celebrations

The festival of Rang Teras is celebrated with great joy in parts of Northern India. People worship and offer their prayers to Lord Krishna, who is worshipped as "Srinathji". The celebrations are even grand at places where Lord Krishna is worshipped as Srinathji, including Nathdwara in Rajasthan. Thousands of devotees throng to the Shrinathji temple to seek blessings from Lord Krishna. Tribal fairs are also organised in Mewar to celebrate the festival.

Significance

The festival is celebrated as a way of thanking farmers. On the occasion of Rang Teras, farmers pay tribute to Mother Earth for providing all essentials including food. Women observe a fast and follow the rituals associated with Rang Teras.

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Petrol, diesel prices today: Fuel rates raised on 29 March, check here to know rates in your city

Petrol price on Tuesday crossed Rs 100 a litre mark after rates were hiked by 80 paise a litre and 70 paise in case of diesel, taking the total increase in rates in one week to Rs 4.80 per litre.

Petrol in Delhi will now cost Rs 100.21 per litre as against Rs 99.41 previously while diesel rates have gone up from Rs 90.77 per litre to Rs 91.47, according to a price notification of state fuel retailers.

Rates have been increased across the country and vary from state to state depending upon the incidence of local taxation.

This is the seventh increase in prices since the ending of a four-and-half-month long hiatus in rate revision on 22 March. On the first four occasions, prices were increased by 80 paise a litre - the steepest single-day rise since the daily price revision was introduced in June 2017. On the following days, petrol price went up by 50 paise and 30 paise a litre while diesel rose by 55 paise and 35 paise a litre.

In all, petrol and diesel prices have gone up by Rs 4.80 per litre.

Prices had been on a freeze since 4 November ahead of the Assembly elections in states like Uttar Pradesh and Punjab — a period during which the cost of raw material (crude oil) soared by about $30 per barrel.

The rate revision was expected soon after counting of votes on 10 March but it was put off by a couple of weeks.

The increase in retail price warranted by crude oil prices rising during the 137-day hiatus from around $82 per barrel to $120 is huge but state-owned fuel retailers Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) are passing on the required increase in stages.

Moody's Investors Services last week stated that state retailers together lost around $2.25 billion (Rs 19,000 crore) in revenue for keeping petrol and diesel prices on hold during the election period.

Oil companies "will need to raise diesel prices by Rs 13.1-24.9 per litre and Rs 10.6-22.3 a litre on gasoline (petrol) at an underlying crude price of $100-120 per barrel," according to Kotak Institutional Equities.

CRISIL Research said a Rs 9-12 per litre increase in retail price will be required for a full pass-through of an average $100 per barrel crude oil and Rs 15-20 a litre hike if the average crude oil price rises to $110-120.

India is 85 per cent dependent on imports for meeting its oil needs and so retail rates adjust accordingly to the global movement.

With inputs from agencies

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Uttar Pradesh poll results: How the margin of victories calls the EVM manipulation bluff

The results of 18^th Assembly election of Uttar Pradesh have bulldozed numerous tall claims, and hence, to justify them several conspiracy theories have been floated up. The concealment of mandate through EVM manipulation has been dominated since the 2017 election, but this time tampering in the electoral roll has been added. It is alleged that locally names of supporters of Opposition parties were strategically eliminated from the electoral roll, and hence, the Opposition parties lost many seats with narrow margins. To support this, numerous images have been circulated on social media claiming that the margin of victory between the incumbent BJP and the challenger SP has been below 2,000 votes on so many seats. The claims about the number of such seats have been varying.

Although the electoral roll tampering allegation cannot be verified at this stage, claims about the margin of victories can be analysed easily. Based on the constituency wise trend of election result data of the Election Commission of India (ECI), I analyse the margin of votes of various parties.

Margin of Victory Below 2,000

Figure 1 shows the party-wise margin of victory of candidates. There are 29 candidates who have won the election with a margin below 2,000, out of which 18 candidates have been from the BJP and its allies whereas 10 candidates have been from the SP and its allies. One candidate has been from the Congress.

Figure 1: Party-Wise Victory Margin of Candidates

Table 1 provides information about the top 10 candidates who have won the election by a narrow margin. Among all candidates Ashok Kumar Rana of the BJP has defeated Naimul Hasan of the SP with a narrowed margin of votes (203) in the Dhampur constituency of Bijour district, followed by Sakendra Pratap of the BJP in the Kursi constituency of Barabanki district. Pratap has defeated Rakesh Kumar Verma of the SP; Rakesh is son of late Beni Prasad Verma, the stalwart Kurmi leader of Uttar Pradesh.

Table-1: Top 10 Candidates Winning with Narrowest Margin of Votes

Constituency	Const. No.	Winner Candidate	Winner Party	Runner Candidate	Runner Party	Margin
Dhampur	20	ASHOK KUMAR RANA	BJP	NAIM UL HASAN	SP	203
Kursi	266	Sakendra Pratap	BJP	Rakesh Kumar Verma	SP	217
Chandpur	23	SWAMI OMVESH	SP	KAMLESH SAINI	BJP	234
Nehtaur	21	OMKUMAR	BJP	MUNSHIRAM	RLD	258
Ram Nagar	267	FAREED MAHFOOZ KIDWAI	SP	SHARAD KUMAR AWASTHI	BJP	261
Isauli	187	MOHD TAHIR KHAN	SP	OM PRAKASH PANDEY	BJP	269
Bilaspur	36	Baldev Singh Aulakh	BJP	Amarjeet Singh	SP	307
Baraut	51	KRISHAN PAL MALIK	BJP	JAIVEER	RLD	315
Nakur	2	MUKESH CHOUDHARY	BJP	DR. DHARAM SINGH SAINI	SP	315

Margin of Victory Above 1 lakh Vote

Figure 1 further reveals that there are 11 Assembly constituencies where the margin of victory has been more than one lakh votes. All such constituencies have been won by the BJP candidates. Table 1 provides further description about such candidates. Sunil Kumar Sharma of the BJP has defeated his rival Amarpal Sharma of the SP with the highest margin of votes (214,835) in the Sahibabad constituency of Ghaziabad district. Pankaj Singh, son of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, is at the second position defeating his rival with the highest number of votes. The name of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also figures in this list, and his name is at the 10^th position.

Table 2: Winning Candidates with Victory Margin of More than 1 Lakh

Constituency	Const. No	Winner Candidate	Winner Party	Runner Candidate	Runner Party	Margin
Sahibabad	55	SUNIL KUMAR SHARMA	BJP	AMARPAL SHARMA	SP	214835
Noida	61	Pankaj Singh	BJP	Sunil Choudhary	SP	181513
Dadri	62	TEJPAL SINGH NAGAR	BJP	RAJKUMAR BHATI	SP	138218
Meerut Cantt.	47	AMIT AGARWAL	BJP	MANISHA AHLAWAT	Rashtriya Lok Dal	118072
Agra North	89	PURUSHOTTAM KHANDELWAL	BJP	SHABBIR ABBAS	Bahujan Samaj Party	112370
Mehroni	227	Manohar Lal	BJP	Kiran Ramesh Khatik	Bahujan Samaj Party	110451
Mathura	84	SHRIKANT SHARMA	BJP	PRADEEP MATHUR	Indian National Congress	109803
Lalitpur	226	Ramratan Kushwaha	BJP	Chandra Bhusan Singh Bundela (Guddu Raja)	Bahujan Samaj Party	107215
Ghaziabad	56	Atul Garg	BJP	Vishal Verma	SP	105537
Gorakhpur Urban	322	ADITYANATH	BJP	SUBHAWATI UPENDRA DUTT SHUKLA	SP	103390
Hathras	78	ANJULA SINGH MAHAUR	BJP	SANJEEV KUMAR	Bahujan Samaj Party	100856

Battle for the Second Position

Figure 2 provides a description about the number of seats each political party acquired at the second position. The figure reveals that the SP candidates acquired the highest number (223) at the second position in the electoral contest, followed by the BJP candidates (115). The most interesting revelation is about the BSP which trails RLD even at the second position. Nineteen RLD and 18 BSP candidates are at the second position.

Figure 2: Political Parties at the Second Position

 

The analysis of the margin of votes of winners and runners-up reveal that the name of BJP candidates not only figure in the list of candidates winning with narrowest margin of votes, but also highest margin of votes. The Opposition needs to work not only in those constituencies where the victory margin is narrow, but also where the victory margin is widest.

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