Four people including a child are dead after a suspect shot three victims inside a home and then was killed by police after opening fire on officers responding to a domestic violence report early on Apr 9.

The suspect also died after being transported to a hospital, police said.

The identifies of the suspect, the victims and the officers were not immediately released.

China on Apr 8  began military exercises around Taiwan to test the capabilities of its forces to "seize control of the sea, air and information," days after a meeting between the US House Speaker and the President of the self-ruled island in defiance of repeated threats by Beijing.

China views Taiwan as a breakaway province. Beijing has not ruled out the possible use of force to reunify the self-ruled island with the mainland.

The multi-day exercises coincided with the return of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen to Taipei after her high-profile visit to the US earlier this week when she met US House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, a move denounced by Beijing.

China on Apr 6  slapped sanctions on two American organisations that hosted Tsai besides Asia-based groups --The Prospect Foundation and the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats -- for their involvement in promoting Taiwan's independence.

The aggressive exercises were launched after French President Emmanuel Macron concluded his high-profile visit to China on Apr 7 , during which he held wide-range talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, prodding him to use his friendship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to end the ongoing war in Ukraine.

The government has specified the retail sale price-based GST cess rate that would be levied on pan masala and tobacco manufacturers with effect from April 1.

This is a departure from the earlier regime that imposed cess, over and above the 28 per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST) rate on ad-valorem basis.

As per a finance ministry notification dated March 31, the GST cess rate that would be applicable on pan masala is 0.32 times the retail sale price (RSP) of the pan masala pouch.

Pan masala, containing tobacco gutkha, now has a cess rate of 0.61 times the RSP, while the rate for smoking mixtures for pipes and cigarettes is 0.69 times.

Chewing tobacco, filter khaini, and jarda scented tobacco attract a cess of 0.56 times the RSP, and the rate for branded unmanufactured tobacco and hookah or gudaku is 0.36 times the RSP.

The new rates are applicable from April 1, 2023.

Moving to RSP-based levy would mean that manufacturers would now have to pay the cess on the final retail price of masala and chewing tobacco at the time it crosses the factory gate.

This would help curb tax evasion as the cess would be collected at the first point itself.

The banking sector is likely to post good numbers in the fourth quarter ended March 2023, and the total profit of public sector banks (PSBs) is expected to touch a record high of Rs 1 lakh crore in FY23, aided by the decline in bad loans and healthy loan growth.

The country's biggest lender State Bank of India (SBI) expected to earn a profit above Rs 40,000 crore in the financial year ended March 2023.

In the first nine months of the previous financial year, the bank's bottomline stood at Rs 33,538 crore, higher than Rs 31,675.98 crore recorded in FY22.

Similarly, other public sector lenders are also likely to report encouraging numbers, helped by a decline in non-performing assets (NPAs), moderation in slippages, double-digit credit growth and rising interest rate.

For the first nine months of 2022-23, all 12 PSBs have earned a cumulative profit of Rs 70,166 crore compared to Rs 48,983 crore in the year-ago period, an increase of 43 per cent.

The PSBs had earned a cumulative profit of about Rs 15,306 crore in the first quarter, which increased to Rs 25,685 crore in the September quarter and Rs 29,175 crore in the three months to December.

All public sector banks, barring Punjab National Bank (PNB), registered an increase in net profit in the December quarter.

PNB's net profit for the third quarter was down 44 per cent to Rs 628 crore due to higher provisioning. SBI recorded the highest net profit of Rs 14,205 crore, an increase of 68 per cent.

Private banks increased their profit by 33 per cent to Rs 36,512 crore in Q3 from Rs 27,370 crore in the previous year.

Except for Bandhan Bank and Yes Bank, all private lenders too reported an increase in net profit in Q3.

HDFC Bank's net profit of Rs 12,259 crore accounted for 45 per cent of the private banks' profit.

Five-time winner Tiger Woods, who limped through the start of a rain-halted third round of the Masters, pulled out of the tournament with a fitness issue.

Woods is still recovering from severe leg injuries suffered in a 2021 car crash. He made his return at last year's Masters, where he shared 47th and spoke of walking 72 holes on the hilly layout as a victory of sorts.

The road transport and highways sector has the maximum number of delayed projects at 407, followed by railways at 114 and the petroleum industry at 86, showed a government report.

In the road transport and highways sector, 407 out of 717 projects are delayed.

For railways, out of 173 projects, 114 are delayed, while in the petroleum sector, 86 out of 146 projects are running behind schedule, as per the latest flash report on infrastructure projects for February 2023.

The Infrastructure and Project Monitoring Division (IPMD) is mandated to monitor central sector infrastructure projects costing Rs 150 crore and above based on the information provided on the Online Computerised Monitoring System (OCMS) by the project implementing agencies.

The IPMD comes under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. The report showed that the Muneerabad-Mahaboobnagar rail project is the most delayed. It is delayed by 276 months.

The second-most delayed project is the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail project, which is delayed by 247 months.

The third-most delayed project, Belapur-Seawood-Urban Electrified Double Line, is running 228 months behind schedule.

The Flash Report for February 2023 contains information on the status of the 1,418 Central Sector Infrastructure Projects costing Rs 150 crore and above.

As many as 823 projects are delayed, 346 projects reported cost overrun and 242 projects reported both times and cost overrun with respect to their original project implementation schedules.

A total of 823 projects are delayed with respect to their original schedules and 159 projects have reported additional delays vis-a-vis their date of completion reported in the previous month.

Of these 159 projects, 38 are mega projects costing Rs 1,000 crore and above.

About the road transport and highways sector, the report stated that the total original cost of implementation of 717 projects, when sanctioned, was Rs 3,97,255.47 crore but this was subsequently estimated to be Rs 4,14,400.44 crore, implying a cost overrun of 4.3 per cent.

The expenditure incurred on these projects till February 2023 is Rs 2,33,007.06 crore, which is 56.2 per cent of the anticipated cost of the projects.

Similarly, in railways, the total original cost of implementation of 173 projects, when sanctioned, was Rs 37,2761.45 crore but this was subsequently anticipated to be Rs 6,26,632.52 crore, implying a cost overrun of 68.1 per cent.

The expenditure incurred on these projects till February 2023 is Rs 3,79,380.95 crore, which is 60.5 per cent of the anticipated cost of the projects.

About the petroleum sector, it said, the total original cost of implementation of 146 projects, when sanctioned, was Rs 3,67,615.67 crore but this was subsequently anticipated to be Rs 3,85,117.08 crore, implying a cost overrun of 4.8 per cent.

The expenditure incurred on these projects till February 2023 is Rs 1,44,162. 3 crore, which is 37.4 per cent of the anticipated cost of the projects.

Adani group's corporate brand custodian and head of corporate affairs Aman Kumar Singh, who is facing a corruption charge in Chhattisgarh, has resigned from the board of NDTV Ltd due to other preoccupations.

Singh, a former Indian Revenue Service Officer, was a powerful bureaucrat in the Raman Singh-led BJP government in Chhattisgarh and was the principal secretary to the chief minister.

He resigned from service and joined the Adani group in November 2022 as the Corporate Brand Custodian and Corporate Affairs head.

And when Adani took control of NDTV, Singh was one of the directors the Adani group appointed to the board of the news broadcaster.

In February 2020, the economic offences wing (EOW) of Chhattisgarh registered an FIR against Singh and his wife Yasmeen Singh in an alleged disproportionate assets case.

The High Court quashed the FIR, but the Supreme Court last month set aside the HC order, saying it was desirable that the High Courts do not quash corruption case FIRs at the investigation stage, even if it is suspected that the case has been registered by a new government against officers of the previous government.

After the Supreme Court order, Aman Singh appeared before the EOW on March 6.

A week later, his plea for anticipatory bail was rejected by an additional district and sessions judge court in Raipur.

Singh is the second nominee of the Adani group to have resigned from the NDTV board.

On March 9, NDTV, in a stock exchange filing, stated that Sunil Kumar has resigned as an additional non-executive independent director of the company.

Kumar, a 1979-batch IAS officer, was chief secretary of Chhattisgarh from 2012 to 2014.

Mumbai Police have registered a case against rapper Umesh Khade for his song allegedly against the government and the administrative system.

With this, the Maharashtra Police have registered cases against two different rappers in a week for allegedly targeting the government.

In the latest case, a complaint was filed by an official of the Mumbai Police's Crime Intelligence Unit.

Based on the complaint, an FIR was registered against rapper Umesh Khade, who stays in Wadala area of Mumbai, for his song "Bhongli keli janata" (referring to sufferings faced by people) .

Khade had uploaded the song on a social media platform having the account name Shambho, and the song went viral .

The case was registered against Khade under Sections 504 (intentional insult to provoke breach of peace), 505(2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill will between classes) of the Indian Penal Code, and Section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 .

Earlier, the Ambernath police in neighbouring Thane district  has registered a case against rapper Raj Mungse for his song which allegedly targeted the Shiv Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra using derogatory language without naming anyone.