MUMBAI: (Feb 3) Actors Madhuri Dixit and Triptii Dimri will headline Netflix’s upcoming comedy thriller film “Maa Behen”, which also features Ravi Kishan.
The movie was announced by Netflix on Tuesday during an event unveiling its India slate for 2026.
“Maa Behen” centres on Rekha and her two daughters, Jaya and Sushma, who find themselves at the centre of attention in their conservative neighbourhood after an unexpected incident leaves their neighbour’s dead body in their kitchen.
NEW DELHI: (Feb 3) US President Donald Trump’s decision to slash tariffs on Indian goods to 18 per cent augurs well for the country as it will boost exports, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Tuesday.
“So, actually our exports will pick up now, that is my expectation… along with having found new markets where they will continue to operate,” she said in an interview to PTI Videos.
“It is a good augury for them (exporters),” Sitharaman said.
Trump’s steep 50 per cent tariffs last year dented Indian exports by raising landed costs, squeezing exporter margins, and eroding competitiveness in the American market. Sectors such as steel, aluminium, textiles, engineering goods and some agricultural products were hit as higher duties led US buyers to shift orders to alternative suppliers.
On Monday, Trump agreed to slash US tariffs on Indian goods to 18 per cent from 50 per cent in exchange for India lowering trade barriers as well as stopping its purchases of Russian oil and instead buying oil from the US and potentially Venezuela.
On implementation, the deal would bring tariffs on India in line with most other Asian countries of around 15-19 per cent.
Sitharaman said while the details of the agreement will be announced soon, the cut in tariffs is a “good auguring” for exporters.
Taken together with the new markets exporters had tapped after becoming uncompetitive in the US, the “exports will pick up now,” she said.
Earlier punitive US tariffs caused India’s bilateral trade surplus with the US to shrink by USD 2.5 billion each month on average in September-December 2025 (versus the monthly average in January-August 2025), according to HSBC Global Investment Research.
There have also been USD 14 billion of equity outflows by foreign investors since July 2025 amid weak sentiment.
The new 18 per cent levy undercuts tariffs on key regional competitors such as Vietnam and Bangladesh, both facing duties of 20 per cent, restoring India’s price advantage in the US market. The move offers significant relief to a broad range of labour-intensive exports, including apparel, footwear and jewellery makers, which had been hit by punitive 50 per cent tariffs imposed in August, sharply denting competitiveness and order flows.
Earlier in the day, Sitharaman had in a post on X called the tariff reduction announcement “Good news for #MadeInIndia products. They will now face reduced tariff of 18%.”
Trump’s announcement via a social media post late Monday night is part of a general agreement under which India has apparently agreed to stop buying Russian oil, reduce “their tariffs and non-tariff barriers against the United States to zero”, and India buying an incremental USD 500 billion of “US energy, technology, agricultural, coal, and many other products” over the next five years.
The commitment to stop buying Russian oil nullifies the additional 25 per cent punitive tariff previously levied, and thereby reduces the effective applied tariff on Indian exports to the US to 18 per cent from 50 per cent.
MUMBAI: (Feb 2) Daughter of gangster Hussain Ustara on Monday sought a permanent injunction from a Mumbai civil court against the release of upcoming Hindi film “O’ Romeo”, claiming the movie was an unauthorized biopic of her late father and portrays his life falsely.
Sanober Shaikh, daughter Hussain Shaikh (popularly known as Hussain Ustara), has filed a civil suit against the producer of the film, Sajid Nadiadwala, its director Vishal Bhardwaj and journalist-author’s Hussain Zaidi before the civil court, which will hear the matter on February 6.
The film, starring Bollywood actor Shahid Kapoor in the role of Ustara, is based on Zaidi’s book “Mafia Queens of Mumbai”. The action thriller is slated to hit theatres on February 13.
NEW DELHI: (Feb 2) Suspended secretary general Kamlesh Mehta on Monday said he would approach the court as a last resort after being removed from his post during the annual general meeting of the Table Tennis Federation of India, describing the action as unfair and procedurally flawed.
Mehta was suspended as TTFI Secretary General during the federation’s annual general meeting (AGM) on January 28.
“It is deeply distressing to find oneself penalised simply for doing one’s job correctly, especially in a sport to which I have devoted my entire life,” Mehta, a former international, said in a statement.
NEW DELHI: (Feb 2) An Air India pilot on Monday reported a possible defect with the fuel control switch of a Boeing 787-8 plane, which has now been grounded for checks, and the incident comes amid the ongoing probe into the airline’s Dreamliner crash last June.
The aircraft operated the flight AI132 from London to Bengaluru, and it landed at Bengaluru on Monday morning. There were more than 200 people on board, according to sources.
Another source aware about the incident said the fuel control switch failed to be in the ‘RUN’ position and moved towards ‘CUT OFF’ position.
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: Their day started with breakfast at Prime Minister’s residence and ended among a sea of fans who brought the ‘Maximum City’ to a standstill as India’s T20 World Cup-winning cricketers beat the exhaustion of a 16-hour flight to enjoy a euphoric homecoming that resembled a giant street party.
Rohit Sharma and his men landed in the national capital on Thursday morning, expectedly weary as they were returning home five days after winning the trophy, thanks to a category 4 hurricane in Barbados.
But as they made their way out of the Indira Gandhi International Stadium in amid a steady monsoon drizzle, hundreds of fans were their to lift their spirits, chanting their names and waving the tri-colour.
Keir Starmer, the Labour Party leader on track to be the UK’s new prime minister, on Friday thanked voters and said the people of the country are “ready for change” and to “end the politics of performance”.
Starmer, 61, in his victory speech after winning from Holborn and St Pancras, said whether people voted for him or not, “I’ll serve every person in this constituency.”
According to the exit poll, which is often quite close to the final tally, Labour could win as many as 410 seats, comfortably crossing the half way 326 mark and notching up a 170-seat majority with the incumbent Tories led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak down to just 131 seats. pti
ALIGARH (UP): Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Friday met here the family members of those who lost their lives in the stampede in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras, according to Congress leaders.
Gandhi left from Delhi on Friday early morning by road for Hathras and was accompanied by state Congress chief Ajay Rai, state Congress in-charge Avinash Pande, party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate and other office bearers.
The senior Congress leader landed in Pilakhna village in Aligarh around 7.15 am after he left by road from Delhi. Later, Gandhi is scheduled to meet families of the stampede victims in Hathras’s Vibhav Nagar area.
A Delhi court on Monday sent three people arrested in a case related to alleged irregularities in the Delhi Waqf Board recruitment, also involving AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan, to the ED custody till Nov 16.
Special Judge Arvind Kumar sent the accused persons — Zeeshan Haider, Daud Nasir and Jawed Immam Siddiqui — to the custody of the Enforcement Directorate on an application moved by the central probe agency.
The application was opposed by Advocate Nitesh Rana, appearing for the accused, who claimed that their arrest was illegal. PTI.
Coordinated efforts are being made to evacuate the stranded workers at the earliest from the Silkyara tunnel collapse site in Uttarakhand, the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways said on Monday.
At least 40 workers got trapped after a portion of the tunnel under construction between Silkyara and Dandalgaon on the Brahmakhal-Yamunotri national highway collapsed in the early hours of Sunday.
As part of the Chardham Mahamarg Pariyojana, the road transport and highway ministry has taken up the construction of 4.531-kilometre two lane bi-directional tunnel at Silkyara to join Gangotri and Yamunotri axis under the Radi pass in Uttarakhand and sanctioned for TPC (total project cost) of Rs 1,383 crore on March 9, 2018 for implementation by its company National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL).
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