Asian News International

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Gold imports down 74 per cent to $1.75 billion in April

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Gold imports declined over 74 per cent to US $ 1.75 billion in April due to restrictions imposed by the government on inbound shipments of the precious metal to narrow the current account deficit.

Imports of gold in April 2013 stood at US $ 6.78 billion. In March, the imports of the precious metals were down by 17.27 per cent to US $ 2.75 billion from US $ 3.33 billion in the same month previous year. Lower imports helped to narrow the trade deficit to US $ 10 billion in the first month of the current fiscal (2014-15).

Cotton yarn exports in FY14 estimated at $4.70 billion

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Country’s cotton yarn exports for 2013-14 are expected to be around 1,350 million kgs valued at $4.70 billion.

A study conducted by the Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (Texprocil) has said that India’s cotton yarn exports are meeting their targets, in spite of seasonal fluctuations generally witnessed every April and high raw cotton prices.

Narendra Modi travelled over 3 lakh kms during his campaign: BJP

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As the campaign for the Lok Sabha elections ended, Narendra Modi seems to have created a record of sorts by travelling over 3,00,000 kms and holding 5827 public meetings, mixing traditional methods of holding rallies with innovative use of technology, the party claimed.

Termed by the BJP as “one of the largest” mass outreach in India’s electoral history, Modi addressed 437 public meetings in 25 states besides 1350 3-D rallies since September 15, when he held his public rally after being declared as the party’s Prime Ministerial candidate.

New govt unlikely to be positive for retail industry: Experts

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A new government is unlikely to bring any cheers to the domestic retail industry unless it spells out its foreign direct investment policy for the sector in which investors are holding back investments due to lack of clarity, industry experts have said.

“Everyone is talking about a stable government and growth prospects of the country. But I do not feel there is any good news for the retail sector, especially when there is no clarity on foreign direct investment in the sector,” DTZ India Chief Executive Anshul Jain said.

RIL says gas price revision delay may stall $4 bn investment

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With the Oil Ministry indicating that a new gas price may be delayed by a quarter, Reliance Industries has said the postponement may stall USD 4 billion of investment in KG-D6 block’s second-biggest gas field.

RIL and partner BP plc of UK had completed front-end engineering design (FEED) for development of D-34 or R-Series gas field in the Krishna Godavari basin KG-D6 block in the Bay of Bengal.

Market cap of top seven Sensex cos advance by Rs 84,494 cr

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The market valuation of top seven Sensex firms advanced by Rs 84,494.52 crore last week, in line with an overall strong stock market with RIL and ONGC emerging as the biggest gainers.

The list of gainers include ITC, CIL, HDFC Bank, SBI and ICICI Bank, while those who suffered losses in their market capitalisation (m-cap) were TCS, Infosys and HDFC.

The m-cap of RIL surged Rs 22,319.67 crore to Rs 3,22,369.67 crore, becoming the top gainer among the country’s 10 most valued firms.

Lack of dedication marred Himesh’s acting career

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Composer-singer Himesh Reshammiya says he failed as an actor because he was not dedicated to the craft. However, he is confident about his forthcoming thriller “The Xposé”.

“I failed because I was not dedicated as an actor. The kind of dedication, which was needed, was missing in all my films,” Reshammiya told IANS.

From his debut movie “Aap Kaa Surroor – The Real Luv Story” to “Karzzzz” – none could create a buzz at the box office.

Motorola’s upcoming smartphone Moto E photos leaked

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Leaked images of Motorola’s upcoming smartphone Moto E are reportedly doing the rounds on the Internet.

While the company is expected to formally announce the smartphone on Tuesday in London, the phone marks Motorola’s first new device since Google announced in January that it was selling the smartphone unit to Lenovo, The Verge reports.

The images, reportedly been leaked by Brazilian retailer Fast Shop , shows that the phone is likely to have a 4.3-inch screen, 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, 1GB of RAM, and 4GB of storage (expandable).

Meet couple who created their own solar panel driveway

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A US couple has covered their office driveway with impact-resistant, honeycomb-shaped solar cells to make it environment friendly.

Julie Brusaw and Scott Brusaw, from Idaho, started the ‘Indiegogo campaign’ with a vision to wrap the roads across America with solar cells so they started with their surroundings first, Wired news reported.

The prototype shows the panels with heating elements to melt snow and ice with five-color LED lighting to create road lines and corridors for storing stormwater.

The textured glass surface can withstand 250,000 pounds.

Govt may request SC for review of selection procedure in CBI

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The CBI is likely to request Supreme Court to review the selection procedure for senior-level appointments in the probe agency in its response to a notice in the case relating to a woman IPS officer being picked as its Additional Director.

The CBI was impleaded in the case on Friday on request of Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran, who was appearing on behalf of the Government in a matter related to appointment of Archana Ramasundaram, a 1980 IPS batch officer of Tamil Nadu cadre, as Additional Director in the agency.

Post ‘3 Idiots’, I was offered only pregnant woman’s role: Mona Singh

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She had a sizeable role in Rajkumar Hirani’s 2009 box office biggie “3 Idiots”, but after that actress Mona Singh wasn’t too active on the big screen and the small screen star blames it on stereotype offers.

Mona, who was seen as Kareena Kapoor’s character’s pregnant elder sister in “3 Idiots”, talked about her absence from the big screen and said: “Post ‘3 Idiots’ I was only getting offers of pregnant women, which really surprised me and I said no to all of them.”

Four killed in Afghanistan car bomb explosion

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At least four people were killed and 22 injured Sunday when a car bomb went off in Afghanistan, an official said.

“A car bomb placed by militants went off next to a clinic in Kandahar province when Afghan and foreign forces were distributing humanitarian assistance to the needy people there,” a police spokesman told Xinhua.

Three children and a woman were among the injured.

The bomb was detonated by a remote device.IANS

Nitish laughs away BJP’s ‘prediction’ on collapse of his govt

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Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday laughed away BJP’s claim about collapse of his government after Lok Sabha polls and said for him the bigger challenge was to protect the country and not the chair.

“They (BJP) leaders are even predicting date on which my government will collapse in Bihar…I really feel like laughing at them,” Kumar said addressing an election rally at Chakia in Purvi Champaran Lok Sabha seat.

Chelsea Clinton awarded with Oxford University doctorate

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Bill Clinton’s daughter Chelsea Clinton was recently awarded with a doctorate in international relations from Oxford University.

The former US President tweeted that he “couldn’t be prouder” of his daughter, Sky News reported.

He also posted a pic of him with wife Hillary, his daughter and her husband Marc Mezvinsky. (ANI)

How plants survive ‘salt’ pain

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Plants are using a “calcium wave” to survive in the increasingly salty or saline soils that have become a problem the world over, research suggests.

Increasing salinity in soil poses a significant problem as salt is toxic to plants.

Recent research by Won-Gyu Choi and his colleagues at University of Wisconsin-Madison has found that calcium plays a key element in plants’ initial response to salt.

When plants sense salt they respond by creating a “calcium wave”, an elevated concentration of calcium ions that passes in a ripple from the point of salt perception, throughout the plant.

China planning to build undersea train line to US

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China is reportedly planning to build a high speed undersea train line connecting Beijing to the US.

According to the Washington Times and as reported in the Beijing Times, an expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering said that Chinese officials are considering a route that would start in the country’s northeast, thread through eastern Siberia and cross the Bering Strait via a 125-mile long underwater tunnel into Alaska.

Wang Mengshu, the engineer, said that talks are on at the moment and Russia has already been thinking about this for many years.

Landmine kills five policemen in Maharashtra

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At least five policemen were killed Sunday when suspected Maoists blew up their van in the forests of Gadchiroli in Maharashtra, police said.

The incident occurred around 9.30 a.m. near Murmuri village, around 35 km from here.

According to preliminary information, several others were also injured in the blast.IANS

Security tightened in Varanasi ahead of last phase of LS elections

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Elaborate security arrangements have been made in Varanasi ahead of the last phase of Lok Sabha elections.

Varanasi is one of the 41 constituencies that will go to the polls in the ninth and final phase of voting on Monday.

According to reports, Central Para Military forces have reached at most of the poll areas and flag marches are being conducted in sensitive localities in Varanasi.

Inter state and inter districts borders have been sealed. Barriers have been erected to check the unauthorised movement of vehicles and persons.

Can puppy love heal cancer?

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The unconditional and unflinching love dogs shower on humans might be useful in curing various ailments including cancer, says a study.

A new research titled ‘Canines and Childhood Cancer Study’ is analysing the effect of animal-assisted therapy on children diagnosed with cancer.

“It is important to bring evidence-based science and rigorous data to what we already know…,” said Robin Ganzert, president of the American Humane Association.

Children will be enrolled during the next 15 months and the study will review the child-animal bond, she added.

‘Exit polls, election outcome may trigger volatility in mkts’

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Indian indices may see high volatility this week amid exit polls and election outcome, experts said. “… focus will be firmly on the exit polls due on Monday evening as well as on the final election results on Friday. A decisive verdict from the elections will be a long-term positive for the markets,” said Sanjeev Zarbade, Vice President, Private Client Group Research, Kotak Securities.

Calcium supplements not linked to heart disease in women

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You can probably pop those calcium supplement pills for bones without worrying much about how they would affect your heart. A new study shows that calcium supplement intake need not necessarily increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases in women.

Previous studies had suggested that calcium supplements may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease but the data has been inconsistent.

Researchers examined supplemental calcium use and incidents of cardiovascular disease in a prospective cohort study of 74,245 women.

App to monitor chronic lung and heart diseases

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Suffering from chronic lung and heart diseases? If scientists have their way, you may soon turn your cell phone into a sophisticated medical device to monitor your condition with an app.

The GaitTrack app can keep track of a patient’s heart and lungs by analysing the way he/she walks.

GaitTrack uses eight motion parameters to perform a detailed analysis of a person’s walking pattern, which can tell physicians much about a patient’s cardiopulmonary, muscular and neurological health.

19 seats and 93 crorepatis in abjected eastern Uttar Pradesh

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In 18 seats of UP’s impecunious eastern part will go to polls in the last phase on May 12, and there are 93 crorepati candidates, which comes out to be five crorepatis in every constituency.

In comparison, according to UP planning commission, the average per capita income of the districts in the region is meagre Rs 9,228 per annum and average net district domestic product is Rs 71,580, among lowest in the state and the country.

There are a total of 328 candidates in the fray, of which the Association of Democratic Reforms ( ADR) analyzed affidavits on assets of 325 candidates.

Cautious about TDP-BJP, Muslims look to YSR Congress

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Seemandhra Muslims seem to have rallied behind the YSRCP in large numbers, as observed by the analysts, after completion of polling in 175 Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha constituencies across the region.

With Congress party to a great extent weakened in the region after their decision to bifurcate the state, Muslims at the present time see the YSRCP as an alternative, experts said.

Raids in old city areas, 669 cases of meter tampering detected

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Raids were conducted by the Central Power Distribution Company (CPDCL) across Old City to check pilferage between March and May and at least 669 cases of meter tampering and dozens of thefts were detected, officials said.

“The drive is a result of a high court order issued on February 24 that has directed us to take steps to combat power theft in the area. The drive will continue indefinitely till theft is minimised,” said CPDCL chief vigilance officer Muralidhar Rao.