Reliance Industries said it will invest Rs 1.8 lakh crore across businesses in the next three years and launch the much-awaited 4G broadband services in India 2015
Trade between India and Australia has dipped sharply by nearly 14 per cent to 15.2 billion dollars in 2013 as compared to the previous year, according to official data.
In first high-level engagement between India and Russia after NDA government came to power, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Russian Dy Prime Minister Dmitry O Rogozin held extensive talks on crucial bilateral issues including trade and energy security.
Indian Army's Northern Command, the operational command of Jammu and Kashmir which is popularly known as 'Dhruva Command', on Wednesday celebrated its 43rd Raising Day.
The process for laying 15.054 km long railway tracks to connect Agartala with Akhaura in Bangladesh will start latest by January next.
New Delhi-born Pratishtha Khanna, who came to the US illegally at the age of 10, is one of 10 local "Champions of Change" honoured by the White House for their exemplary leadership in their communities.
At Airport Council International (ACI) World Annual General Assembly held in Seoul, Korea from 26-28 May, 2014, twenty officers from India achieved International Airport Professional (IAP) status.
India has lost the race for the post of Interpol Secretary General with its Executive Committee appointing Germany's Juergen Stock as the successor to present incumbent Ronald K Noble of the United States.
National:
India, Pakistan flavour to Man Booker shortlist
Two of the
biggest names in literature from India and Pakistan Kannada writer U.R.
Ananthamurthy and Urdu
novelist Intizar
Husain are among the 10 writers from around the world shortlisted for £60,000
Man Booker
International
Prize 2013. It is awarded every two years to a living author in recognition of
his or her
achievement in
fiction. Mr. Ananthamurthy, a Jnanpith awardee and regarded as one of the most
important
voices of the “new
movement” in Kannada, is also in the running for the $50,000 DSC Prize for
South Asian
Literature to be
announced at the Jaipur Literature Festival. Announcing the list, Christopher
Ricks, British
critic and writer
who chaired the Man Booker Prize jury, said that each writer was “astonishingly
different”
and that’s what
made the list so exciting. Other contenders are: Aharon Appelfeld (Israel),
Lydia Davis (the
United States),
Yan Lianke (China), Marie Ndiaye (France), Josip Novakovich (Canada), Marilynne
Robinson
(U.S.), Vladimir
Sorokin (Russia) and Peter Stamm (Switzerland). Previous winners include Philip
Roth, Alice
Munro, Chinua
Achebe and Ismail Kadaré.
Software for rapid diagnosis of dengue
A software tool
that can rapidly diagnose dengue fever based on symptoms and clinical
parameters has
been developed
and validated by scientists of the CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology
(IICT) in
Hyderabad. Dengue
fever is an infectious tropical disease and caused by the dengue virus. It is
estimated
that the
mosquito-borne pathogen infects approximately 50-100 million people every year.
The Dengue
Decision Support
System (DDSS) has been developed by U.S N. Murty, Chief Scientist and Head of
Biology
Division and his
group. Dr. Murty said the DDSS would help health authorities in finding out the
disease
within 10-15
minutes, which was vital in saving the life of the patient.
Malaria-causing parasite found in Andamans
Researchers have
located a new malaria-causing parasite 'Plasmodium Knowlesi' for the first time
in
humans in India.
A team of researchers, consisting of Manoj Kumar Das of the National Institute
of Malaria
Research (NIMR),
Shiv S. Singh of G.B. Pant Hospital, Port Blair, Rupesh K. Tyagi and Yagya D.
Sharma of
the All India
Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) located the plasmodium in tribal people
in the Andaman
and Nicobar
islands. Mr. Das said monkeys, especially crab-eating ones found in the
islands, served as
hosts for this
parasite. Mr. Das, who has 16 years of research at the malaria research centre
in Car Nicobar,
received the ICMR
award for senior bio-medical scientists for the year 2012-13 for his research.
From the
infected monkeys,
this parasite gets transmitted to humans through the Leucosphyrus group of
Anopheles
mosquitoes that
serve as vectors.The parasite may have migrated to the islands from the
south-east Asian
countries.
Poachers from Thailand and Indonesia are said to secretly visit the islands
.
Case filed against Kamal Nath in Switzerland
A Sikh rights
group has filed a criminal complaint with the Swiss Attorney General against
Urban
Development
Minister Kamal Nath, who is heading the Indian delegation at WEF in Davos. The
complaint
seeks his arrest
and prosecution for alleged conspiracy in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. The
Attorney General took
the complaint of
Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) which said he should be arrested and prosecuted for “conspiring,
directing,
inciting genocide of Sikhs during November 1984.”Federal Prosecutor Laurence
Boillat has
forwarded the
complaint to the State of Grison’s Office of Public Prosecutor.
Salim Khan demands Rs.6 crore from Zanjeer makers
The remake of
Amitabh Bachchan starrer 'Zanjeer' has landed in a controversy yet again as
original writer
Salim Khan has
demanded Rs. 6 crore as compensation since the makers did not take his
permission before
going ahead with
the movie. Khan had co-written the screenplay and dialogues for the 1973
original. The
remake version
had been in controversy over the copyright and royalty issue. Khan has demanded
Rs.3
crore each for
the Hindi and Telugu versions. The remake version is produced by Amit Mehra,
son of
Prakash Mehra,
the producer and director of the 1973 version.
India to present Dornier-228 aircraft to Seychelles
India is going to
transfer a Dornier-228 maritime reconnaissance aircraft to Seychelles to help
the country
keep its
Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) under better surveillance as well as guard against
terrorism and
piracy. Defence
minister A K Antony will present the Dornier aircraft, manufactured by defence
PSU
Hindustan
Aeronautics, to Seychelles President James Michel at a function here on January
31. Earlier,
Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh had announced $5 million assistance for Seychelles, in keeping
with India's
overall policy to
provide economic and military aid to Indian Ocean Region (IOR) countries to
counter China's
inroads into the
region. Navy has been regularly deploying Dorniers and helicopters in
Seychelles as well as
stepping up the
visits of its warships to the region to help in anti-piracy operations.
International:
U.N. probe into U.S. drone attacks
A British human
rights lawyer is to lead a U.N. inquiry into the legality of American drone
attacks and their
impact on
civilians in Pakistan, Afghanistan and several other countries. Ben Emmerson,
QC, who will head
a team of
international experts in his capacity as a U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human
Rights and Counterterrorism,
said that the “exponential’’
rise in the use of drone technology represented “a real challenge to the
framework of
international law”. The inquiry, which will examine 25 attacks in Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Yemen,
the Palestinian
territories and Somalia, follows anger over the loss of innocent civilian
lives. Critics have
called them “extra-judicial’’
killings. According to the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism,
American drone
attacks in Pakistan since 2004 had killed up to 3,461 people, including nearly
900 civilians.
Pentagon lifts ban on women in combat roles
The Pentagon has
lifted its ban on women in front-line combat roles, a move hailed by supporters
as a
historic step
toward gender equality in US armed forces after 11 years of non-stop war. There
are important
caveats, and
change will not happen overnight for women who have already been serving and
dying in the
past decade of
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where nearly 300,000 of them have deployed. But
the decision
by Defence
Secretary Leon Panetta, with the support of President Barack Obama, sets into
motion a process
that will open
thousands of jobs to women in America's armed forces and an expand
opportunities for career
advancement. The
military services will have until May 15 to submit a plan on how they will
comply by 2016.
That plan will
guide how quickly the new combat jobs open up and whether the services will
seek
exemptions to
keep some closed to women.
Sri Lanka to ban women from being maids abroad
Sri Lanka said it
would bar women of all ages from travelling abroad to work in menial jobs,
following an
international
outcry over the beheading of a young Sri Lankan nanny in Saudi Arabia.
Information Minister
Keheliya Rambukwella
announced that women under 25 were now banned from going to the Arab state to
work as maids, it
was the first step towards a worldwide travel ban for low-paying jobs. The move
was in
response to the
execution earlier at a prison in Riyadh of Sri Lankan maid Rizana Nafik, who
was only 17
when she was
charged with smothering a four-month-old baby in Saudi Arabia in 2005. Nafik
was beheaded
after she was
found guilty of smothering an infant in her care after an argument with the
child's mother. The
US and the United
Nations led international condemnation of the Saudi authorities over the
January 9
execution. Nearly
1.7 million Sri Lankans are employed abroad and the USD 6 billion they sent
home last
year is a key
source of foreign exchange for the government.
Headley gets 35 years in jail
Pakistani-American
David Coleman Headley was sentenced to 35 years in prison by a U.S. court for
masterminding the
2008 Mumbai terror attacks. The sentence will be followed by five years
supervised
release. While
the U.S. government admitted the “deplorable” nature of his role in the 26/11
attacks, the
prosecution had
pressed for a sentence of 30-35 years under a plea bargain with Headley in
return for his
cooperation. The
death penalty and extradition options were dropped. U.S. federal district court
judge Harry
Leinenweber said
he had to consider that Headley had committed numerous crimes in the past,
confessed to
them and received
lenient sentences.
Business & Economy:26 january news
Reserve Bank eases rules for FII investment in debt
The Reserve Bank
of India (RBI), has notified the enhanced limit of investing in government
securities (GSecs)
by foreign
institutional investors (FIIs) and long-term investors by $5 billion to $25
billion from $20
billion. It also
hiked the investment limit in corporate bonds by these entities by $5 billion
$50 billion from $45
billion.
Long-term investors include SEBI-registered sovereign wealth funds (SWFs),
multilateral agencies,
endowment funds,
insurance funds, pension funds and foreign central banks. The RBI also relaxed
some
investment rules
by removing the maturity restrictions for first time foreign investors on dated
G-Secs. Earlier
it was mandated
that the first time foreign investors of G-Secs must buy securities with at
least three-year
residual
maturity.
Cabinet gives nod for Walmart probe panel
The Union
Cabinet, has gave approval to the constitution of a one-man committee to look
into the bribery
allegations and
lobbying activities against retail giant Walmart. The committee will submit its
report within
three months
time. The terms of reference of the Committee include: (i) To inquire into
recent media reports
on disclosures of
Walmart before the US Senate regarding its lobbying activities and details;
(ii) Whether
Walmart undertook
any activities in India in contravention of any Indian law; (iii) Any other
matter relevant or
incidental to the
above.
RBI revises rules for bulk deposits
The Reserve Bank
of India has revised the rules for bulk deposits, offering differential
interest rates, which
would be
applicable with effect from April 1. The RBI said that a bank, on request from
a depositor, would
allow withdrawal
of a term-deposit before completion of the period of the deposit agreed upon at
the time of
making a deposit.
The bank shall have the freedom to determine its own penal interest rate of
premature
withdrawal of
term deposits. The bank shall ensure that the depositors are made aware of the
applicable
penal rate along
with the deposit rate. The permission to offer varying rates of interest for
deposits of the
same maturity
would apply to single rupee term deposits of Rs.1 crore and above. Banks can
charge
different rates
of interest only on bulk deposits of above Rs.1 crore and above compared to the
previous limit
of Rs.15 lakh and
above.
Reliance Life Insurance launches super endowment plan
Reliance Life
Insurance, a part of Reliance Capital, has announced a new plan that offers
guaranteed life
cover and
maturity benefits. The plan Reliance Life Insurance Super Endowment Plan would
provide life
insurance
coverage for the full policy term by paying for just half of the selected
policy period. The new plan
is available for
customers in the age group 8-60 years with a minimum sum assured of Rs 1 lakh.
The
policyholder can
opt for two policy terms 14 years or 20 years. Reliance Life Insurance is one
of India's top
private sector
life insurance companies with business premium, including renewal premium of
over Rs 5,498
crore for the
year ended March 31, 2012.
Technology:
NASA testing vintage engine from Apollo 11 rocket
A vintage rocket
engine built to blast the first U.S. lunar mission into Earth's orbit more than
40 years ago is
again rumbling
across the Southern landscape. The engine, known to NASA engineers as No.
F-6049, was
supposed to help
propel Apollo 11 into orbit in 1969, when NASA sent Neil Armstrong and two
other
astronauts to the
moon for the first time. Now, young engineers who weren't even born when
Armstrong took
his one small
step are using the bell-shaped motor in tests to determine if technology from
Apollo's reliable
Saturn V design
can be improved for the next generation of U.S. missions back to the moon and
beyond by
the 2020s. Nick
Case and other at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center has completed a series of
11 testfirings
of the F-6049's
gas generator, a jet-like rocket which produces 30,000 pounds (13,600
kilograms) of
thrust and was
used as a starter for the engine. They are trying to see whether a
second-generation version
of the Apollo
engine could produce even more thrust and be operated with a throttle for deep-space
exploration.
Sport:
India retain third spot in T20 rankings, Kohli 5th among batsmen
At fifth, Virat
Kohli is the highest placed Indian in the ICC rankings for Twenty20 batsmen,
while India have
managed to retain
their third position in the team rankings issued. With 730 points in his kitty,
Kohli has
equalled his
highest rating points. Apart from Kohli, the other Indian batsman to feature in
the top-10 list for
Twenty20 batsmen
is Suresh Raina, who is placed ninth with 718 points. Other Indians in the
top-20 list
includes Yuvraj
Singh (13) and opener Gautam Gambhir at the 17 position. Australia's Shane
Watson leads
the T20 batting
chart with 798 points, followed by destructive West Indian opener Chris Gayle
(792), Kiwi
Brendon McCullum
(787) and Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardene (759). Among T20 teams, India, despite
losing one rating
point, have maintained their third position with 119 points while leaders Sri
Lanka stand firm
at the top with
127 points, followed by reigning T20 World champions West Indies at 122 points.
Pakistan's
Saeed Ajmal leads
the bowlers' table with 756 points followed by Ajantha Mendis of Sri Lanka
(746) and
England's Graeme
Swann (720).
Davis Cup award for eight Indians
The cream of
Indian tennis, spanning about 60 years, will be presented Davis Cup Commitment
awards
instituted by the
International Tennis Federation (ITF) as part of the centenary celebrations.
Ramanathan
Krishnan, Jaidip
Mukerjea, Premjit Lall, Vijay Amritraj, Anand Amritraj, Ramesh Krishnan,
Leander Paes and
Mahesh Bhupathi
figure in the ITF honours list among Indians in an overall compilation of 299
players from
80 countries. The
criteria for selection was that a player should have competed in a minimum of
20 home or
away ties, or 50
ties at any level including zonal competition in their career.
Bhupathi, Sania pairs exit from mixed doubles
It was all over
for India at the Australian Open after Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi crashed
out after
losing their
respective mixed doubles quarterfinal matches. Sania and her American partner
Bob Bryan,
seeded third,
were stunned 5-7, 4-6 by the unseeded Czech duo of Lucie Hradecka and Frantisek
Cermak.
Fifth seeds
Bhupathi and his Russian partner Nadia Petrova lost 3-5, 6-3, 11-13 to the
Australian combine of
Jarmila Gajdosova and Matthew Ebden.
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