A S Kashyap The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Rajiv Mehrishi, as Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance vice Arvind Mayaram, on his relinquishing the charge of the post. Mayaram will take over as Union Tourism Secretary on November 1. He will replace Parvez Dewan, who superannuates on October 31.
Afghan professionals are getting trained in development of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial skills through ITEC fellowship programme in National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (NIESBUD), sponsored by the Ministry of External Affairs.
The programme undertakes and enhances management skills in project development, gender development and planning.
The gender development planning will help in improving economic, social and physiological status of Afghan women.
Terming the Asian Games gold as the best moment of his playing career, the Indian men’s hockey team skipper Sardar Singh said that the yellow metal at Incheon was a culmination of two years of hard work, plan and strategy.
“After we finished last in the 2012 Olympics, we put in all our plans and efforts to win Asian Games and qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics. And when the time arrived, we delivered our best to achieve the goal,” Sardar told IANS in an interview.
Winning the Asiad gold made India the first country to qualify for the men’s hockey tournament at the 2016 Olympics.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday unveiled some key labour reforms that rely on trust and promote the ease of doing business, and said the measures will go a long way in changing India’s work culture, promoting social security and skilling the youth.
The prime minister also unveiled the Shram Suvidha portal, a Labour Inspection Scheme, as also the portability of social security through a Universal Account Number for Employees Provident Fund at an event in Vigyan Bhavan conference complex here. He also launched Apprentice Protsahan Yojana of the labour ministry.
The India eCommerce market will reach $6 billion in 2015, a 70 percent increase over 2014 revenue of $3.5 billion, Gartner Inc. said here Thursday.
“Digital commerce is at a nascent stage in India. However, India is one of the fastest-growing eCommerce markets in Asia/Pacific,” Praveen Sengar, research director at the research firm, said.
Transport bottlenecks have forced India’s northeastern states to procure much needed rice from neighbouring Myanmar and Bangladesh.
The Indian government has floated bids to import rice from Myanmar for Manipur and Mizoram. The Food Corporation of India (FCI) is ferrying rice from other parts of India via Bangladesh for Tripura.
The poor transport connectivity in some northeastern states worsened after train services from the rest of India were halted in southern Assam Oct 1, snapping rail connection to Tripura, Manipur and Mizoram.
A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Thursday provisionally closed the day’s trade 350 points or 1.33 percent down, as consumer durables, automobile, capital goods, metal and banks stocks plunged.
All sector-based indices of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) ended in red.
The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P BSE, which opened at 26,260.35 points, ended at 25,999.34 points, down 349.99 points or 1.33 percent from the previous day’s close at 26,349.33 points.
The Sensex touched a high of 26,462.08 points and a low of 25,933.98 points in the intra-trade.
A 24-year-old youth succumbed to dengue in Pakistan, making it the first death this year due to the tropical disease, media reported Thursday.
The youth, named Owais, was admitted to a hospital in Lahore Oct 7 where he died the following day. However, the news of his death was disclosed Thursday, Dawn online reported.
Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has taken notice of the incident.
Some 26 more people had tested positive for dengue in the last two days across Punjab.
Astronomers have discovered that our nearest galactic neighbours, the spheroidal dwarf galaxies, are devoid of star-forming gas and the Milky Way Galaxy is to blame for it.
Using the US National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia, along with data from other large radio telescopes, new observations reveal that within a well-defined boundary around our galaxy, dwarf galaxies are completely devoid of hydrogen gas.
Beyond this point, dwarf galaxies are teeming with star-forming material.
The Indian space agency has lined up a series of satellite launches, including the experimental flight of its heavy rocket GSLV-Mark III, before the end of this calendar year, officials said here.
“The experimental mission of GSLV Mark III (geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle) with crew module will be launched in 45 days. In December communication satellite GSAT-16 with 48 transponders will be launched by Ariane rocket from French Guiana,” Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K. Radhakrishnan said here.
Better physical health and higher levels of sexual frequency among people above age 65 are linked to higher levels of marital satisfaction, according to a recent study.
The sexual encounters in older adults should not be limited to vaginal intercourse and orgasm. Any type of sexual touching and pleasure counts toward sexual frequency among older couples, researchers from the Johns Hopkins University in the US showed.
To reach this conclusion, the team examined data from 732 couples aged 65 to 74.
Once known as “kala pani” where government employees were sent on punishment postings, Rajasthan’s Barmer district situated along the India-Pakistan border and part of Thar desert is today witnessing transformational changes.
The discovery of hydrocarbon reserves and the fastest growing production profile have catapulted Barmer to among the state’s front-runner districts.
Females have been known to be naturally more resistant to respiratory infections than males. Now, scientists have shown that the increased resistance to bacterial pneumonia in female mice is linked to an enzyme that is activated by the release of the female sex hormone oestrogen.
For this, the team from Harvard University’s School of Public Health introduced Streptococcus pneumoniae into the lungs of mice to mimic the inhalation of bacteria that occurs naturally as we breathe.
France is keen to invest in urban services, renewable energy and tourism in Himachal Pradesh, its ambassador to India Francois Richier said here Thursday.
“We can provide solution to Himachal Pradesh in urban infrastructure, especially urban transport, water and waste management and urban lighting,” Richier told reporters.
The French envoy was here along with a 15-member delegation of business, specialising in urban infrastructure development.
At least one student was Thursday killed and 23 others were injured when a mud wall adjacent to a school collapsed in Noida, Delhi’s suburb in Uttar Pradesh, police said.
The mud wall, positioned adjacent to the RCV Junior High School in Barola locality in Noida’s Sector 49, was owned by a man named Praveen, police said.
Sandeep, a nine-year-old boy, died of his injuries in a hospital while 23 other students were admitted to Prayag Hospital and a district hospital.
Google has announced that its new Android operating system, Lollipop, is set for release Friday, and also presented new models of Nexus products to compete with Apple.
The new operating system represents a big step forward on account of its new design and characteristics, the company said Wednesday.
“Lollipop is our largest, most ambitious release on Android,” Google affirmed, adding that the latest upgrade of Android has been designed to be flexible and work in all different devices.
I-League club Mumbai FC Thursday added centre back Meldon D’Silva to their squad.
“I am very happy to sign for Mumbai FC. This club has some excellent players along with an excellent coach in Khalid Jamil. I am looking forward to playing in the I-League and the Federation Cup and want to win every game with this club,” said the 19-year-old.
Meldon has previously played in the youth teams of Dempo SC, Salgaocar Juniors and Wilred Leisure SC (of the Goa Professional League).
After the devastation caused by the worst floods in 50 years in Jammu and Kashmir, can assembly elections be held this year on schedule? Will it be politically wise and administratively prudent?
The country’s only Muslim-majority state, yet to recover from the terrible all-round destruction, appears to be divided across the spectrum on this issue. All mainstream political parties favour elections this year, the sole exception being the ruling National Conference.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday sought to expand the political capital of his government by reaching out to vast sections of people, including the poor and the industrialists, in a speech that laid stress on dignity of labour, ending “inspector raj” and skilling of youth.
Modi, who launched the Deendayal Upadhyaya Shramev Jayate programme here, voiced his concern at workers facing difficulty in accessing their funds from previous provident fund accounts.
Ratings agency Fitch Thursday said that it expected India to have a more positive growth story, as the economy gains momentum over the next two years.
Fitch’s statement on the prospects of the India economy came up during questions asked by US investors on the financial health of banking institutions in emerging markets.
“The (Indian) banking system has two main challenges, asset quality and capitalisation, with the largest issues residing with the state-owned banks,” Fitch said.
After years of incurring huge losses by selling diesel below cost, the government is finally making a profit on its sales at a rate that is doubling per fortnight even as international crude rates plunge.
“The over-recovery (or profit) on High Speed Diesel (HSD) applicable for the 2nd fortnight of October effective 16.10.2014 is now Rs.3.56 per litre. The over-recovery was Rs.1.90 per litre during 1st fortnight of October 2014,” the petroleum ministry said in a release here.
President Pranab Mukherjee said Thursday India was “committed to working closely with Afghanistan” and wanted it to act as a bridge between south and central Asia and beyond.
Conveying his best wishes to Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai on assuming office as the Afghan president, Mukherjee said in his message: “India remains committed to working closely with your government as you set out to rebuild a stable, progressive and prosperous Afghanistan.”
He’s young, creative and not afraid to take risks. Independent filmmaker Agneya Singh, whose debut work “M Cream”, a “socio-political commentary on contemporary India”, is doing the festival rounds, says cinema must, once again, be used to bring about a revolution in the country.
“I think that we need to bring cinema back into the socio-political sphere and wield it once again as a weapon of the revolution. ‘M Cream’ is our very own protest against the rising tide of conformity,” the capital-based Agneya Singh told IANS in an interview.
Scottish disc jockey and music producer Hudson Mohawke will embark on his debut tour in India with a three-city tour, encompassing New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai next month. He says he’ll take fans on a memorable “music journey”.
“India has been on my bucket list for many years, never would’ve thought I’d be asked to come and perform there.
India’s well-known musicians like Vishal Dadlani, Shekhar Ravjiani, Papon, Arijit Singh, Indian Ocean and Benny Dayal will come together for a fundraiser gig to be held here Sunday to help flood victims of Assam.
Spearheaded by Papon and Dadlani, the line-up also includes Shilpa Rao, Neeti Mohan and Harshdeep Kaur.
They will perform at Blue Frog here Sunday to help generate funds for the people who have been ravaged by the recent floods in the state.