A US-brokered 72-hour ceasefire between Sudan's warring generals officially came into effect  on Apr 25   after 10 days of urban combat killed hundreds, wounded thousands and sparked a mass exodus of foreigners.

The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) agreed to the ceasefire "following intense negotiations", Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement shortly before the truce took effect at midnight.

Previous bids to pause the conflict failed to take hold, but both sides confirmed they had agreed to the three-day halt. In a statement on Facebook, the SAF said it would also abide by the ceasefire on condition its rivals did so.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned earlier that Sudan was on "the edge of the abyss" and that the violence "could engulf the whole region and beyond".

The fighting has pitted forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against those of his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the RSF.

The RSF emerged from the Janjaweed militia that then-president Omar al-Bashir unleashed in Darfur, leading to war crimes charges against Bashir and others.

The Forces of Freedom and Change, the main civilian bloc which the two generals ousted from power in a 2021 coup, said the truce would allow for "dialogue on the modalities of a permanent ceasefire."

At least 427 people have been killed and more than 3,700 wounded, according to UN agencies.

The military toppled Bashir in April 2019 following mass citizen protests that raised hopes for a transition to democracy.

The two generals seized power in the 2021 coup, but later fell out, most recently over the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army.

Balesh Dhankhar, a prominent member of the Indian community in Australia, was found guilty of raping five Korean women in Sydney after drugging them, a media report said on Apr 24  which described him as "one of the worst rapists" in the city's recent history.

A District Court jury in Sydney's Downing Centre on Apr 24   found the "politically connected predator" lured five Korean women into a web of lies, paralysed them with drugs and hoarded trophies of his callous assaults, the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported.

It also reported that he was the former chief of the 'Overseas Friends of the BJP' in Australia.

When Alessandra Korap was born in the mid-1980s, her Indigenous village nestled in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil was a haven of seclusion. But as she grew up, the nearby city of Itaituba, with its bustling streets and commercial activity, crept closer and closer.

It wasn't just her village feeling the encroachment of non-Indigenous outsiders. Two major federal highways paved the way for tens of thousands of settlers, illegal gold miners and loggers into the region's vast Indigenous territories, which cover a forested area roughly the size of Belgium.

The influx posed a grave threat to Korap's Munduruku people, 14,000-strong and spread throughout the Tapajos River Basin, in Para and Mato Grosso states. Soon illegal mining, hydroelectric dams, a major railway and river ports for soybean exports choked their lands — lands they were still struggling to have recognized.

Korap and other Munduruku women took up the responsibility of defending their people, overturning the traditionally all-male leadership. Organizing in their communities, they orchestrated demonstrations, presented compelling evidence of environmental crime to the Federal Attorney General and Federal Police, and vehemently opposed illicit agreements and incentives offered to the Munduruku by unscrupulous miners, loggers, corporations, and politicians seeking access to their land.

Korap's defense of her ancestral territory was recognized with the Goldman Environmental Prize on Apr 25  . The award honors grassroots activists around the world who are dedicated to protecting the environment and promoting sustainability.

Udai Tambar, an Indian-origin CEO involved in youth development services in the US, is among 15 experts appointed as members of the newly-formed racial justice advisory board in New York City.

Tambar, the CEO and President of New York Junior Tennis and Learning (NYJTL) was named as a member of the advisory board on implementation of the Racial Justice Charter Amendments, launched last week by Mayor Eric Adams and Mayor's Office of Equity Commissioner Sideya Sherman.

The board will help ensure that New York City continues to lead the nation in innovative, racial equity work and carries out the city's newly enshrined charter changes, according to a statement by the Mayor's office.

In its ongoing efforts to evacuate Indians stranded in strife-torn Sudan, the government has launched a rescue operation called Operation Kaveri. Naval ship INS Sumedha has been moved to a port in Sudan and will be used to bring these Indians back.

India has also parked two Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft (C130J) in Jeddah for early evacuation.

Meanwhile, France has helped evacuate a few Indians out of Sudan.

It is learnt that France has evacuated five Indians. Some Indians have been evacuated by the US too, but most of them need to be brought back.

India is in touch with the UN, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt and the US to help in evacuation.

Nearly 3000 Indian nationals are stranded in Sudan.

The situation became tense in Sudan on April 15 after the country’s army clashed with a powerful paramilitary force which claimed to have taken control of the airport and the presidential palace in the capital Khartoum.

This happened after failed negotiations between the army, paramilitary and civilian groups over a long-awaited power deal following a coup in 2021. The army is headed by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (who became President after a coup in October 2021) and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (known as Hemeti) who is Sudan’s vice-president and commander of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The violence comes as a setback in a much delayed transition to a civilian government that followed the ousting of dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019, after months of street protests. It is understood that there is a disagreement between the General and Hemeti over command and integration of the paramilitary force into the army.

UBS said on Apr 25  it would likely complete its takeover of stricken rival Credit Suisse in the second quarter, as the bank posted an underwhelming first-quarter net profit of USD 1.0 billion.

All eyes were on what shape Switzerland's biggest bank is in as it prepares to carry out its forced alliance with Credit Suisse.

Analysts polled by the Swiss financial newswire AWP expected UBS's first-quarter net profit to tick in at around USD 1.7 billion, down from USD 2.1 billion a year ago.

Though it managed to rack up a $1.0 billion net profit for the first three months of 2023, UBS said it had seen strong client inflows, as it prepared to integrate the country's second-largest bank.

Net income for the first quarter was reduced by an increase in litigation provisions of $665 million to settle an old dispute linked to the subprime crisis in the United States.

The bank said it was in advanced discussions with the US Department of Justice and reported progress towards settling the case.

UBS said it saw a net inflow of new money into its global wealth management division of USD 28 billion, of which USD 7 billion came in the last 10 days of March, following the takeover announcement.

Q2 takeover target

Credit Suisse revealed that nearly USD 70 billion had been withdrawn from the bank in the first three months of 2023 alone, publishing perhaps its final quarterly results ahead of the merger.

Most of the withdrawals were made in panic around the March 19 announcement that UBS had been strongarmed by Swiss authorities into a USD 3.25-billion shotgun marriage to ensure its smaller, but still "too-big-to-fail" rival, did not go bankrupt.

Credit Suisse on the slide

UBS has created a special risk management post focused exclusively on the merger and said that its current head of overall risk management would prolong his mandate to help usher through the extremely delicate operation.

Infosys has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Aramco, the Saudi-based world's largest oil producer, to collaborate on accelerating their HR technology and enhancing employee experience through artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.

It plans to embed digital transformation practices and tools into Aramco’s HR platform, enhancing the overall digital experience for employees to engage more productively. 

The PM CARES Fund, which was formed at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, collected Rs 12,700 crore in the three-year period till FY22. At the end of March 2022, the fund had a balance of Rs 5,416 crore, according to the audited statement of the PM Cares Fund. The PM Cares Fund is audited by New Delhi-based audit firm SARC & Associates.

Out of the total of 12,700 crores, Rs 7,739 crore was spent on buying ventilators, supporting migrants, creating make-shift hospitals, installation of oxygen generation plants, etc.

According to the website of PM Cares Fund, the fund consists entirely of voluntary contributions from individuals/organizations and does not get any budgetary support.

To encourage contribution from individuals and institutions, donations to the PM CARES Fund have been made eligible for 100% exemption under the Section 80G benefits of the Income Tax Act, 1961. The contribution made by companies towards PM Cares Fund is also eligible for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) expenditure under the Companies Act, 2013.

Under CSR, a company having Rs 500 crore net worth, Rs 1,000 crore turnover and Rs 5 crore net profit in the preceding financial year has to spend a minimum 2% of the average net profits made during the 3 immediately preceding financial years.

Donations to Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF), which precedes the PM Cares Fund, are also qualified as CSR funds. However, donations made to CM relief funds in states do not have that eligibility.

PM Cares Fund also gets exemptions under the Foreign Currency Regulation Act (FCRA), and is allowed to receive foreign donations.

According to the PM CARES Fund website, the FCRA exemption is consistent with respect to PMNRF.

Though it was instituted to generate funds for Covid-19 relief works, the PM CARES Fund now has a larger vision of undertaking and support relief or assistance of any kind relating to a public health emergency or any other kind of emergency, calamity or distress, either man-made or natural, including the creation or upgradation of healthcare or pharmaceutical facilities, other necessary infrastructure, funding relevant research or any other type of support.

The Prime Minister is the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the PM CARES Fund, and it has three members including veteran industrialist Ratan Tata.