From The Newsroom: BARC pauses rating system; Sensex slides below 40,000

In your evening news brief, From The Newsroom, Moody's Investors Service says that government's second round of stimulus will spur consumer spending in the near term but support to economic growth will be minimal; Bengaluru's Central Crime Branch search actor Vivek Oberoi's house; Sensex slid back below the 40,000 mark; Broadcast Audience Research Council India decides to pause its rating system with immediate effect and undertake a review; Rajinikanth pays Rs 6.56 lakh property tax, and cinemas in several parts of the country open.

Here are the top news of October 15, 2020:

The government's second round of stimulus will spur consumer spending in the near term but support to economic growth will be minimal, Moody's Investors Service said on Thursday.

After a long clamour for fiscal stimulus, the government had on October 12 come up with measures with direct fiscal support to people and states and to generate demand.

These included a leave travel concession (LTC) cash voucher scheme and special festival advance for government employees and Rs 12,000 crore interest-free loan to states and Rs 25,000 crore additional capex.

Bengaluru's Central Crime Branch on Thursday searched actor Vivek Oberoi's house in connection with the Sandalwood drug case related to his brother-in-law Aditya Alva.

Aditya Alva was absconding in a drug case registered at Cottonpet police station in Bengaluru

More than 15 people have been arrested in this case including Kannada film actresses Ragini Dwivedi, Sanjjanaa Galrani, rave party organiser Viren Khanna, realtor Rahul Thonse, and a few Nigerians.

Indian equity benchmarks on Thursday fell by over 2% as Sensex slid back below the 40,000 mark. With this, the markets have snapped their best run of 10 consecutive days of gain in over 13 years.

The markets opened lower and the losses bulged in the afternoon as Western markets started opening up. At the time of filing this copy, Sensex was trading at 39,812.97, down 982 points (2.4%).

Similarly, the broader Index Nifty 50 was down 271 points (2.3%) at 11,700.

Rattled by the Mumbai Police probe that showed some TV news channels were manipulating TRPs, the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India has decided to pause rating system with immediate effect and undertake a review.

The BARC Board has stated that its Technical Committee would review and augment the current standards of measuring and reporting the data of niche genres to improve their statistical robustness and significantly thwart the potential attempts of infiltrating panel homes.

This exercise would cover all Hindi, Regional, English News and Business News channels, according to a press statement issued on Thursday.

Actor Rajinikanth on Thursday paid Rs 6.56 lakh property tax, including penalty, for his marriage hall and said an appeal should have been made to the city corporation and the "mistake" of rushing to court could have been avoided. Greater Chennai Corporation said the actor paid Rs 6,56,000 towards property tax for his marriage hall at Kodambakkam.

The Rs six lakh plus tax for 2020-21 first half year includes "late pay penalty" of Rs 9,386, the civic body said, adding it was paid by way of a cheque.

Cinemas in several parts of the country opened after almost seven months on Thursday, ushering in a new era of ‘contactless’ movie watching in the shadow of a pandemic with alternate seating, 50 per cent capacity and packaged snacks.

While theatres and multiplexes will remain closed in states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Chhattisgarh, they will open in several places, including Delhi and parts of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, with stringent dos and don’ts in keeping with the new Covid-19 normal.

That is it today, From The Newsroom. Tune in tomorrow morning for our feature show, The Lead.

Deccan Herald's podcasts are now available on your favourite podcast platforms including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and many more. Do subscribe to our Podcast there! Also, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. Do rate and review us.

If you liked this show, please share this podcast with your friends, family and on social media.

For latest news and top stories of the day, log on to www.deccanherald.com or visit the Deccan Herald app.

Subscribe to our Telegram channel at t.me/deccanheraldnews