School bus driver using bamboo stick as gear hits car, held
Mumbai, Feb 7: A 22-year-old driver, who was operating a bus using a bamboo stick as gear lever, was arrested after his vehicle carrying school students hit a car in Mumbai, a police official said on Thursday.
No injury or casualty was reported in the mishap.
Raj Kumar was driving the bus to Podar International School located in Khar suburb on Wednesday when the vehicle hit the high-end car of a businessman, the official said.
The angry businessman then confronted the driver for causing damage to his car.
When two policemen arrived at the spot, Kumar blamed the steering wheel of his bus for the mishap, he said.
The car owner and the policemen then went inside the bus and they were shocked to see the bamboo stick in place of the gear lever, he said.
Kumar, who was subsequently arrested for negligent driving, told the police that the bus gear knob had broken some days back and since then he was using the bamboo stick as gear lever, the official said.
"All the students inside the bus were safe," he said.
The driver was later produced in a local court which granted him bail, he said, adding that a probe was underway into the incident.
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Rupee hits all-time low for second time in a week
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee depreciated 31 paise to settle at 91.99 against the US dollar on Wednesday, touching the lowest closing level for the second time in less than a week, amid increased month-end demand for the greenback.
Forex traders said the rupee opened higher as the US dollar index softened and a long-awaited trade breakthrough with Europe offered quiet reassurance. However, increased month-end demand for the American currency as well as the ongoing geopolitical tensions dented investors' sentiments.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 91.60 and touched an early high of 91.50, but pared all the gains to touch an intra-day low of 91.99 against the greenback.
The domestic unit settled 31 paise down, revisiting its lowest-ever closing level of 91.99 against the greenback. The Indian currency previously ended at this level on January 23 when it also hit its all-time intraday low of 92 against the US dollar.
On Tuesday, the rupee rebounded from its all-time low levels and gained 22 paise to close at 91.68 against the US dollar.
Analysts said the rupee opened higher as the US dollar index softened and a long-awaited trade breakthrough with Europe bolstered investor sentiment.
India and the European Union on Tuesday announced the conclusion of negotiations for the free trade agreement (FTA), under which a number of domestic sectors such as apparel, chemicals and footwear will get duty-free entry into the 27-nation bloc, while the EU will get access to the Indian market at concessional duty for cars and wines, an official said.
The deal has been dubbed the "mother of all deals" as it will create a market of about 2 billion people.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.07 per cent lower at 96.14.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading 0.43 per cent lower at USD 67.28 per barrel in futures trade.
On the domestic equity market front, Sensex jumped 487.20 points to settle at 82,344.68, while Nifty surged 167.35 points to 25,342.75.
Foreign Institutional Investors turned net buyers and purchased equities worth Rs 480.26 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.
