Neighbours remember affable nature of security officer Jadhav, victim of Baramati air crash
Thane (PTI): Shock and grief swept through Vitawa locality in Thane's Kalwa area as news broke that Vidip Jadhav, a Personal Security Officer (PSO) to Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, was among the five people killed in a plane crash in Baramati on Wednesday morning.
The aircraft carrying Pawar crashed at 8.50 am. There were no survivors.
Jadhav, a long-time resident of Vitawa, is survived by his parents, a 14-year-old daughter, and a nine-year-old son. His parents were away at their native place when the tragedy struck, and the family has since rushed to Baramati.
In the lane leading to Krishna Vihar, Jadhav's residence, shocked neighbours struggled to come to terms with the sudden death of a man they described as "warm and deeply respectful."
"I saw him leave for work around 6.30 am. Barely two hours later, we heard he was no more. I never thought this would happen," said , a neighbor.
Another resident, who had known Jadhav for nearly three decades, recalled their final encounter from Wednesday morning. "He waved in his usual friendly manner as he left for duty. It never crossed our minds that it would be the last time we saw him," the neighbour said.
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RBI keeps policy rate unchanged amid inflationary pressure
Mumbai (PTI): The Reserve Bank on Wednesday expectedly kept interest rates unchanged amid hopes of a global recovery on the back of ceasefire in the six-week-long US/Israel-Iran conflict.
The policy decision comes as a month and a-half-long West Asia conflict has disrupted energy supplies, shot up crude oil prices and created fiscal and inflationary pressures for import-dependent nations like India.
This is the first monetary policy review after the government announced a fresh inflation target for the RBI last month. The government has asked the RBI to maintain retail inflation at 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on either side for another five years ending March 2031.
Announcing the first bi-monthly monetary policy for the current fiscal, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has unanimously decided to retain short-term lending rate or repo rate at 5.25 per cent with a neutral stance.
The rate cut pause comes on the back of the consumer price index (CPI) based headline retail inflation that moved closer to the RBI's medium-term target of 4 per cent at 3.21 per cent in February.
Additionally, the rupee has depreciated by over 4 per cent since the war, which has consequences for pushing up import inflation.
However, the rupee has appreciated by 50 paise to 92.56 against US dollar following announcement of the ceasefire by the US and Iran.
Based on the recommendation of the MPC, the RBI reduced the repo rate by 25 bps each in February, April, and December 2025 and 50 basis points in June amidst easing retail inflation.
India's retail inflation dropped to a historic low of 0.25 per cent in October 2025, marking the lowest level since the Consumer Price Index (CPI) series was introduced.
However, the rupee declined to historic low and crossed 95 against a dollar last month making imports costlier, raising fears of rise in inflation. Rupee touched a record low of 95.21 on March 30, 2026.
