More than 1,500 people claim asylum in the UK each year, claiming that they are persecuted for being gay. But it's not an easy thing to prove.

A four-way conference call between us, Sharon Isbin, and Ayaan and Amaan Ali Bangash makes one thing crystal clear. The two sarod-playing brothers have unfettered respect for the Grammy-winning American guitarist, since they consider it an "honour" to be collaborating with her for an unusual concert slated for later this week. It's a word they use multiple times during the phone call. And Isbin, on her part, tells us from Kolkata that she's as enthused about the performance as anyone else.

The gig is unusual because it isn't everyday in our country that the worlds of Indian and western classical music collide on stage. Isbin is one of the world's leading lights in the latter genre. But her introduction to western classical music was wholly by accident. "We were living in Italy for a year when I was nine years old, and my older brother asked for guitar lessons. But he didn't want to study classical. He wanted to be Elvis Presley. So, I volunteered to take his place and raised my hand out of family duty," she reveals, adding that while her father was a nuclear scientist, it was her mother who ensured that she received a solid musical education.

It's a different story for the Bangash brothers, of course. It's almost as if it was preordained that they would take to the sarod, considering that their father, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, is one of the world's most prolific practitioners of the instrument. But even though they have collaborated with many different musicians — including with Derek Trucks of the rock band Allman Brothers — this is the first time that they will be playing in India with Isbin, who they have known for years.

Ayaan and Amaan Ali Bangash

Ayaan says, "Sharon and we have had mutual admiration for each other's cultures, and I think it's really important to connect with the individual with whom you'll be performing. Also, since we have known each other for a long time, it was easier to develop the music. It's taken us around six years to compose this piece, and I'm glad that everything has fallen into place for us to perform it in India for the first time."

And Isbin adds that her affinity for Indian string instruments began when she was in college. "I loved listening to the sitar, sarod and the tabla back then, and would go to raga concerts because I found them to be meditative. I have also studied transcendental meditation, which of course originated in India, and have been practising it since my teens. That's every single day for many years. So, I have a certain spiritual attraction to the culture and the music here," she says.

Amaan, meanwhile, points out how the sarod and classical guitar have a shared commonality, in that they belong to the larger family of string instruments. Think about it. The guitar, in India, has had a profile that's associated more with jazz, rock 'n' roll and electronic music. Rarely, if ever, has the western classical guitar been heard here in this kind of a collaboration, which also features tabla player Vijay Ghate and mridangam exponent Sridhar Parthasarthy. "We have never played these pieces with a guitar before. But both are string instruments. One is played with the fingertip and the other is played with the finger nails. So, the technical approach isn't wholly different," he tells us, while Ayaan adds that playing this composition will be different for the brothers because they are sticking to a written score.

He further says, "I think everyone's music is a reflection of who they are as individuals. Their soul comes out through their music. And all of us have come out of our comfort zones here to reach a meeting point. Eventually, though, things just happen on stage, you know? You might rehearse all you want, but at the end of the day, what the piece shapes us as is something that has some kind of energy and universal blessing, and we hope to reach that final destination with dignity and grace."

ON February 21, 8 pm
AT Royal Opera House, Girgaum.
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Share price of SBI Cards and Payment Services gained 2.44% to Rs 587.80 compared to the previous close of Rs 573.80 on BSE

The CBI had recently booked Ram Dev International and its directors Naresh Kumar, Suresh Kumar and Sangita, for defrauding Rs 414 crore

SBI FD interest rates for senior citizens have been slashed by 20 bps as well. For tenor 7 days to 45 days, State Bank of India has changed the rates from 4 per cent to 3.80 per cent, while it has been changed to 4.80 per cent from 5 per cent for 46 days to 179 days tenor

INTERIM DIVIDEND

The company had three rice milling plants, besides eight sorting and grading units in Karnal district with offices in Saudi Arabia and Dubai for trading purposes, the SBI complaint said.

The SBITOP decreased 130 points or 13.95% since the beginning of 2020, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks this benchmark index from Slovenia. Historically, the Slovenia Stock Market (SBITOP) reached an all time high of 2675.70 in September of 2007. Slovenian Blue Chip Index SBI Top is a major stock market index which tracks the performance of the most liquid shares traded on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange. It is a free float, capitalization weighted index. The index has a base value of 1000 as of 31 March, 2006. .

1. Bank defaulters flee country, CBI files case following SBI complaint after 4 yrs  Hindustan Times
2. Another Bank Defaulter Flees Country, SBI Complains To CBI After 4 Years  NDTV
3. CBI books directors of Ram Dev International for loan default  The New Indian Express
4. SBI complains to CBI after ₹411 crore loan defaulters flee country  The Hindu
5. Rs 411 crore loan defaulters flee country, SBI complains to CBI after four years  Daijiworld.com
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This is the first earnings report released by SBI Cards and Payment Services since it was listed on the bourses in March 2020.In Q4 2020, SBI Cards’ profits fell by 66% compared to the same period last year, to ₹83.5 crore from ₹249 crore.The company also created a provision of ₹489 crore to account for the economic concerns arising due to the Covid-19 pandemic.On the flip side, SBI Cards’ asset quality improved, with its non-performing assets declining to 2.01% from 2.44% a year earlier.SBI Cards and Payment Services today posted its Q4 earnings (January-March 2020), revealing a fall of 66% in its profits to ₹83.5 crore, while its bad debts and impairment losses rose by 138% to ₹838 crore on a year-on-year basis. “Considering the possible effects from the pandemic relating to COVID-19, the

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State Bank of India’s (SBI) shares fell by as much as 6% today while HDFC Bank dipped by more than 7%.Yet, there is a sharp difference in the market capitalization between the State Bank of India (SBI) and HDFC Bank.This despite the former having 10 times as many customers and four times the balance sheet.With the coronavirus pandemic, it’s the beginning of another cycle of non-performing assets for banks, according to Siddharth Purohit, a banking analyst with Angel Broking.The State Bank of India (SBI), the largest bank in India, is only worth one-third of HDFC Bank, which in its own right, is the largest private sector bank in the country. This is despite the fact that SBI’s balance sheet is four times larger than HDFC Bank, has 10 times more customers, and is owned by the government of

Bank of America has downgraded the ratings for four of India’s largest banks — the State bank of India (SBI), Bank of Baroda, IndusInd Bank and ICICI Bank. The emerging cycle of non-performing assets will be the ‘biggest nightmare of 2020’ according to Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma.Bank of America’s downgrade follows in the footsteps of UBS and CLSA, who also slashed their expectations from banks.According to Sharma, the rise of bad loans is likely to spillover beyond banks to the fintech sector where a large number of startups have been giving out small unsecured loans.Indian banks had barely cleaned up the massive pile of unpaid loans from the country’s corporates, the coronavirus pandemic is barrelling into an economic crisis that may bring a fresh wave of non-performing assets (NPA)

SBI also introduced special deposit scheme for senior citizens with higher interest rate.

Kat Buchanan, 33, and her fiancee Taryn Cumming, 31, live in Auckland, New Zealand with five cats. They knew they wanted children from the beginning of their two-year relationship.

Stern had asked her point-blank to deny it: 'Raise your right hand-you've never had a lesbian affair.' Mrs. Clinton screamed: 'Never! Never! Never!'

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Receives bids for 3.94 crore shares