The Kashmiri separatists  could be detained on arrival at the Delhi airport. They are coming  to the capital to meet Pakistan's national security advisor Sartaj Aziz. Even though effort would be to keep the separatists from leaving Srinagar for Delhi, the People's Democratic Party of Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has reportedly refused to arrest or detain them in the state capital. The PDP has argued that no state government has ever disallowed the separatists from meeting visiting Pakistani leaders in Delhi. Separatists Yasin Malik, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq were placed under house arrest in Srinagar yesterday, but were released within two hours.
The crucial talks, scheduled to be held on Sunday and Monday, were precariously positioned on Friday with India warning that any meeting between the Kashmiri separatists and the Pakistani delegation is unacceptable. Pakistan has asserted that it will not cancel a meeting with the separatists.

Dawood Ibrahim's recent picture part of fresh evidence of presence in Pakistan
On the eve of Pakistani diplomat's visit, India has bared proof that Dawood Ibrahim, the man wanted for the 1993 blasts in Mumbai, is in Pakistan. The Hindustan Times on Saturday published a recent picture of Dawood Ibrahim, 59, and reports that Indian intelligence agencies have documentary evidence that the terrorist, along with his wife and children, has been living in Karachi's Clifton Road, an upscale neighbourhood. The evidence reportedly includes a telephone bill in the name of Dawood's wife, which has their home address. Pakistan has always denied shielding the terrorist.India reportedly intends to confront Pakistan's National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz with these documents. Aziz is to arrive on Sunday for talks with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval.

Fuel prices may drop as oil market slides
International crude oil prices slid towards the $40 barrel mark, amid growing worries about the health of the Chinese economy, and raised the prospects of a fresh round of cuts in kitchen and auto fuel prices in India in the coming weeks. The sharp slide in oil prices also spells good news for government finances since it reduces the outgo on subsidy.The impact on prices will also create the headroom for the central bank to cut interest rates at a time when economic revival has been slow.

More good news: Crop cultivation up despite average monsoon
Sowing of kharif crops has reached 89% of the total arable land, an increase of 1% over the previous year, even after the weather office predicted the monsoon would be below average. Season's rain deficit was 9% as of Friday. The total area sown was 93.84 million hectares as of yesterday, compared with 92.95 million hectares at the same time last year, the agriculture ministry said. Rainfall over the past week helped increase area under kharif crops, according to official data. Planting of pulses rose 10% to 10.2 million hectares, coarse cereals by 3% to 16.77 million hectares and sugarcane by 4% to 4.88 million hectares. Planting of oilseeds fell 1% to 16.83 million hectares from a year earlier.

Taking weather forecast to the farmers through net
Skymet, a private weather forecaster, has started a social media campaign called #HelpTheFarmer, asking social media users to spread monsoon forecast to farmers who may not have access to the internet. It has also prepared a video about farmer suicides that has received over a million views.

NPAs at 'unacceptable' level for public sector banks: FM
Finance minister Arun Jaitley said bad loans of state-run banks have reached "unacceptable" levels and expressed hope that the situation would improve in the coming quarters following steps taken by the government to lower the levels of these non-performing assets (NPAs). The gross non-performing loans of state-run banks rose to 5.2% of their advances at the end of March from 4.72% a year ago, according to the Reserve Bank of India.

The government last week announced a seven-pronged revamp plan for state-run banks, including a comprehensive scheme to deal with NPAs.

IRDAI warns Star Health Insurance for misleading advertisement
IRDAI has warned Star Health Insurance Co for publishing a misleading advertisement and asked it to comply with regulatory provisions.In an advertisement the company had claimed itself to be the number one in India. The IRDAI circular of 2007 says: "No claim of ranking by an insurance company as regards its position in the insurance market based on any criteria (like premium income or number of policies or branches or claims settlements etc) is permissible in any of the advertisements."

Online facility to open pension scheme accounts likely
Pension fund regulator PFRDA is set to launch an online facility for opening of accounts under the National Pension System (NPS) to net in prospective customers. The Pension Funds Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has also sought clarification from the government whether the pension products being run by various fund houses and life insurers can be regulated by it. Meanwhiel,  the NPS corpus has already crossed Rs 94,000 crore so far, which includes Rs 7,000 crore from the Atal Pension Yojana.

India Inc should offer ideas to create jobs: Arvind Panagariya
Endorsing the government's labour law reforms, NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya on Friday said India Inc needs to step up to create jobs and offer inputs to the government on boosting employment at good wages. Speaking at at the 18th JRD Tata Memorial Lecture he asked "where is the passion for hiring workers in the industry here?.. you need to lobby to the government to bring more employment."

Mamata shown black flags at Presidency University, V-C gheraoed
It was her first visit but was not pleasant. Trouble broke out in Kolkata during chief minister Mamata Banerjee's maiden visit to the Presidency University on Friday when students waved black flags at her and raised slogans like 'Presidency does not welcome you, CM’ and ‘You are not welcome, CM’. The students were protesting the April 2, 2013 incident where SFI leader Sudipta Gupta allegedly died in police custody after a protest rally. Later the students gheraoed their vice chancellor, Anuradha Lohia, demanding her immediate resignation after several students were allegedly manhandled on campus by the police during the chief minister's visit.