Top five news stories to watch out for on May 8, 2019

Finance Commission meeting with RBI Governor: The 15 Finance Commission will hold meetings with the RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das and representatives of banks and financial institutions on May 8 and 9. The meeting will focus on issues concerning macroeconomics, financial stability and cost of borrowing of the State and Centre. It will be chaired by N K Singh and issues related to bank recapitalisation and Bimal Jalan Committee report are also expected to be discussed in today’s meeting. All the heads of the major banks, both private and public, are expected to attend the meeting.

South Africa national elections: South Africa will hold parliamentary elections for 400 seats on May 8. The country will go to polls amidst worst unemployment levels. This will be the sixth national elections in the country post the end of apartheid since 1994. 48 parties are contesting the elections, with the major political parties in the fray are Democratic Alliance, African National Congress, and Economic Freedom Fighters. The other issues concerning the 26.7 million voters are corruption and weak GDP.

IPL eliminator: The IPL 2019 eliminator match between Delhi Capitals and Sunrisers Hyderabad in Visakhapatnam. While the Delhi Capitals is on the third spot in the points table with 18 points, SRH have 12 points in their kitty on the fourth position. This is the first time Delhi Capitals have reached the playoffs since 2012, where as Sunrisers had won the IPL title in 2016 and is the fourth consecutive season to enter the playoffs.

Goolge Pixel 3a India launch: Google is likely to launch its Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL in India on Wednesday. It made its global debut on May 7 at the Google I/O 2019 conference. The latest midrange smartphones will be Flipkart exclusive and is expected to be priced around Rs 30,000. The phones are expected to be equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 chipset and full HD+ display.

Nirav Modi bail plea: Fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi will file another bail plea on May 8 at the UK court where is undergoing extradition process in the $2 billion PNB fraud and money laundering cases. His bail applications were rejected twice after he was arrested by Scotland Yard police on March 19. He is remanded under judicial custody till May 24.