Compress big files

Online food delivery platform Zomato Ltd. on Friday said it will acquire Blink Commerce Pvt. Ltd. (formerly known as Grofers) for ₹4,447.48 crore in a share-swap deal as part of its strategy of investing in quick commerce business. The company's board at a meeting held on Friday has approved the acquisition of up to 33,018 equity shares of Blink Commerce Pvt. Ltd. from its shareholders for a total purchase consideration of ₹4,447.48 crore at a price of ₹13.45 lakh per equity share, Zomato said in a regulatory filing. Blink Commerce Pvt. Ltd. (BCPL) runs the online quick commerce service under the Blinkit brand. It was formerly known as Grofers. This transaction will be carried out through issuance and allotment of up to 62.85 crore fully paid-up equity shares of Zomato, having face value of ₹1 each at a price of ₹70.76 per equity share on a preferential basis, it added. The company already holds 1 equity share and 3,248 preference shares presently in BCPL, the filing said. … [Read more...] about Food delivery platform Zomato to acquire Blinkit in ₹4,447-cr. deal

An entity linked to billionaire Bill Gates has reportedly purchased 2,100 acres of potato farmland in northern North Dakota angering local residents. The state is investigating the purchase of potato farmland by the Gates-linked trust, with the state’s Attorney General writing in a letter that it was “prohibited from owning or leasing farmland or ranchland in the state of North Dakota.” The New York Post reports that public records recently cited by AgWeek reveal that an entity called Red River Trust with links to billionaire Bill Gates recently purchased 2,100 acres of potato farmland in northern North Dakota, prompting state officials to intervene after complaints from local residents. (screenshot/CNBC) K Neville / iStock / Getty Images Plus The land was purchased from the owners of Campbell Farms, a potato farming group headquartered in Grafton, North Dakota, approximately 50 miles from the Canadian border. North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring … [Read more...] about North Dakota Investigates Farmland Purchases by Trust Linked to Bill Gates

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - The U.S. Supreme Court's abortion decision is expected to make Florida an epicenter of the state-by-state fight over the issue in the coming months, raising the stakes for abortion rights advocates in the November election and complicating effortsw by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to manage both his statewide and national political fortunes. Within hours of the court's decision, access to abortion emerged as a major fault line in America's divisive cultural battles. Thirteen conservative states with "trigger bans" will outlaw abortion within 30 days - and the procedure could soon be prohibited in several others. Lawmakers in heavily Democratic northern and western states are promising to become safe havens for women who want an abortion but are banned from receiving one at home. But in Florida, where residents in a half-dozen relatively liberal urban counties are continually locked in political duels with the conservatives who dominate much of the rest of … [Read more...] about Florida emerges as key battleground in state-by-state abortion fight

The story so far: Maharashtra is in the throes of a constitutional crisis . Many ruling Shiv Sena legislators who seem to have revolted against the leadership of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray are now holed up in a hotel in distant Guwahati to keep out of the reach of party leaders. Their travel to Guwahati, via Surat, seems to have been facilitated by the BJP, the ruling party in Gujarat and Assam. All indications are that there is a planned mass defection underway so that an alternative regime that includes the BJP is formed in the State. Isn’t there a law against such defection? The Tenth Schedule of the Constitution , commonly known as the anti-defection law, was introduced in 1985 with a view to curb the tendency among legislators to switch loyalties from one party to another and facilitate the toppling of regimes and formation of new ones. It provides for the Presiding Officer of the legislature to disqualify any defector on a petition by another member. The law … [Read more...] about Explained | Has the anti-defection law failed?

Nine persons were arrested for poaching wild animals in Kowthimalai reserve forest (RF) in Tiruvannamalai on Friday. Forest officials said a countrymade gun, explosives, meat, three two-wheelers, nets, torch lights and batteries were seized from them. It was during a routine patrol in the forest, a team of forest officials found a group of men, mostly in their early 20s, inside the reserve forest, a prohibited area, at around 1.30 a.m. on Friday. Once they saw the forest team on a jeep, they tried to escape on their two-wheelers, leaving behind their things. However, the team divided into small groups and rounded the suspects in the forest. “They have been poaching in the area regularly as they had come prepared with all basic things needed to hunt and cook the meat in the forest. Unlike earlier, the team on Friday was a big group,” N. Srinivasan, Forest Range Officer, Tiruvannamalai range, told The Hindu . Initial inquiries revealed that K. Annamalai, 33, S. Pachaiappan, 27, K. … [Read more...] about Nine persons arrested for poaching in Tiruvannamalai

WhatsApp users will soon be able to hide the ‘last seen’ status from a particular contact. The feature is helpful for those who don’t want others to know when they last read chats on WhatsApp. Currently, the option is limited to all contacts or just some numbers available through your contact list. But hiding the last seen status to a particular person is being tested by WhatsApp on both Android and iOS beta versions. WABetaInfo says users can select the individual from whom you want to hide the last seen status. Also Read: iPhone 14 Could Let You Send Text Without Having Network: What It Means Similarly, WhatsApp is testing the ability to restrict viewing of Profile Photo and About to select users, which is a big privacy measure that many people have requested the platform for sometime. Since the last seen status is being tested in beta versions, we can’t say for certain about its public release. But going by usual update timelines, we believe WhatsApp could offer the new … [Read more...] about WhatsApp Could Soon Let You Hide ‘Last Seen’ From One Person