A S Kashyap Many shops were closed in Darjeeling hills on Sunday, one day after the issuing of warrants of arrest by a court against Gorkha Janmukti Morcha President Bimal Gurung, his wife Asha, party MLA Harka Bahadur Chettri and 20 others.
In a major deal for Saharas, billionaire brothers David and Simon Reuben have acquired control of the crisis-hit Indian group’s iconic Grosvenor House hotel here and the two US properties — Plaza and Dream Downtown — in a US $850 million (Rs 5,500 crore) debt refinance deal, a media report said today.
There was no official word from Sahara Group on this and the emailed queries in this regard remained unanswered.
BCCI’s decision to appoint Rahul Dravid as India A and under-19 cricket coach is being lauded not just in the country but also far away in England, where maverick batsman Kevin Pietersen has termed it an “absolutely brilliant” move.
“BCCI appoint Rahul Dravid as U19 & A team coach! Absolutely brilliant! Imagine how those players will feel in a room & training with him!” Pietersen tweeted.
“Rahul Dravid – temperament king, in touch with the modern day game, scored runs all over the world & a very tough competitor! Well done, BCCI!” he added.
As it looks to further enhance its return on equity, ICICI Bank will focus on leveraging technology to deliver innovative banking solutions and on capitalising growth opportunities as the economy grows, Chief Chanda Kochhar has said.
She also said that the bank’s focus on improving the core operating parameters has helped it absorb the higher credit costs.
“Despite the higher credit costs, we were able to achieve an improvement of 10 basis points in the return on assets to 1.86% (in last fiscal ended March 31, 2015) compared to 1.76% in fiscal 2014,” Kochhar said.
With many states banning Maggi over mounting food safety concern, a BJP MLA has sought to blame “new generation mothers” for rise in its sale, saying they have become “lazy” and hence feed their children two-minute noodles.
“I don’t know why the mothers have become so lazy (that they feed their kids instant noodles)? Mothers of our generation used to serve homemade food like ‘paratha’, ‘halwa’ and ‘sivaia’ to their children,” Usha Thakur, a ruling party MLA from the city had on Saturday said while justifying the ban on sale of Maggi noodles.
Members of the Sikh community staged angry protests in front of Punjab Assembly in Lahore against the mass killing of Sikhs in India in 1984 following the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards.
The protesters presented a memorandum in Punjab Assembly urging the Pakistani government to raise voice against the atrocity in the United Nations, reported Geo TV.
Former England all-rounder Dimitri Mascarenhas has been appointed New Zealand ‘s bowling coach on a two-year contract after the stunning comeback staged by the Black Caps in the recent test match at Headingley.
Hired in an interim role following Shane Bond’s departure in April, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) offered Mascarenhas to stay with the team till 2017 after the Kiwi bowlers impressed during the drawn 1-1 series against England.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday met the top Bangladeshi commerce and industry chiefs in Dhaka to further strengthen business links between the two nations.
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) official spokesperson Vikas Swarup took to twitter to share the information.
“Strengthening business links. PM narendramodi meets Presidents of leading Chambers of Commerce and Industry,” he posted.
Angela Bassett has recently explained why her movie ‘Whitney’ solely centered on Whitney Houston’s marriage with Bobby Brown.
The 56-year-old said that Brown was the man that she fell in love with and they both understood each other, so they were more alike than they could imagine, Deadline.com reported.
For years the media painted Brown as the bad boy, who led Houston down a reckless path, however, the film shows a gentle side of the RandB rapper; that Houston was already self- destructive with cocaine before she even married Brown, she further added. (ANI)
Ashley Tisdale, whose upcoming flick ‘Clipped’ is set in a barbershop, has revealed that she could have been a great hairstylist if given chance.
The ‘High School Musical’ actress said that she felt like she was literally meant to do her upcoming sitcom as she has spent last 10 years in salons, Us Magazine has reported.
The 29-year-old American actress added that she reckons herself as a frustrated hairdresser who even loves doing her own hair. (ANI)
Kate Hudson might not say anything about her romance with Derek Hough but the ballroom dancer’s sister has spilled little details about the duo.
In a recent interview, when the 36-year-old actress was asked that how was her pal Hough doing, she remained tight lipped and replied, “Not the time and place,” E! Online reported.
Commenting on her brother’ love life, Julianne Hough said that the 30-year-old dancer doesn’t have a love life.
She added that she lives with him so there’s no way he could have one.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday alleged that the Janata Parivar is a confederation of losers and said that the ‘intelligent’ people of Bihar would give them a befitting reply in the years to come.
“Janata Parivar is a confederation of losers. Every second day, we hear of meeting and meeting. There is no conclusive logical end to any of these meetings. They have been talking about merger since long, but we have seen that this merger is leading nowhere,” said BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra.
Indian discus thrower Vikas Gowda and steeplechaser Lalita Babar bagged the top honours in their respective events on the penultimate day of the 21st Asian Athletics Championships in Wuhan, China.
While Gowda successfully retained his title from Pune as he hurled a 2 kilogram disc to a respectable 62.03 metres, Babar clinched her maiden Asian gold in the 3,000 metre steeplechase event.
Meanwhile, G. Lakshmanan won silver in the 10,000 metre race to add to
the 5,000 metre bronze he won earlier in the tournament. (ANI)
Indian test skipper Virat Kohli on Sunday opined that captaincy in test matches is completely different from that in limited over matches.
“Test matches are a whole different ball-game all together because in a one-day or a T20 game, you need a very short span of planning, unlike Tests, where you need to plan for a whole day,” Kohli said at a press conference here.
“If you are bowling for a day and a half, you need to plan for a day and a half and also need to manage your bowlers and accordingly manage the workload,” he added.
Indian cricket team director Ravi Shastri on Sunday welcomed the decision by Board of Control for Cricket in India ( BCCI) to appoint former skipper Rahul Dravid as the coach of the India ‘A’ and under-19 squads, saying that there is no better role-model for youngsters.
“There is no better news for Indian cricket than Dravid being in charge of youngsters. You cannot have a bigger role-model than that man. Just the way he has played his cricket and the dedication he has shown towards the game will help the youngsters, big time,” Shastri said at a press conference here.
Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar on Sunday welcomed the growing relationship between India and Bangladesh, hailing the historical Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) signed between the countries, as well as the bus service between Agartala and Kolkata, that will travel via Dhaka.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, currently on his two-day visit of Dhaka, met leaders across the Bangladeshi political spectrum here on Sunday.
Ministry of External Affairs official spokesperson Vikas Swarup shared the information on twitter.
“Reaching out across the political spectrum. PM @narendramodi meets Begum Raushan Ershad, Leader of Opposition,” he posted.
“Continuing outreach. PM @narendramodi meets leaders of Left Parties in Bangladesh,” he added.
Ariana Grande may be having “fun time” partying with Niall Horan, but she believes men are not the only thing that describes women.
The 21-year-old pop princess confessed that she found the 21-year-old One Direction star “super nice,” when one night she ended up at his Hertfordshire home and another night when he went back to her hotel, reported the mirror.
However, the Grande joked that since that evening some people have even suggested she could be pregnant with Horan’s twins.
Guns N’ Roses’ hit song ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ has been recently crowned by 2,000 music fans for having the greatest guitar riff ever played.
The iconic song that started out as a warm exercise by lead guitarist Slash, who hated the song, came to life when the fellow band members heard him playing the riff as he warmed up for a rehearsal session, reported the Mirror.
Also, Jimi Hendrix was named the greatest guitarist to have ever lived in the Sky Arts poll that was carried out to mark the launch of the show ‘Guitar Star.’
Tracy Morgan has revealed that his daughter was afraid of him after the fatal crash that left him temporarily in a wheelchair.
The 46-year-old said that Maven Sonae was only 10 months old when the accident occurred, and she was scared of the wheelchair, People Magazine reported.
Former ’30 Rock’ star further added that fiancee Megan Wollover and her mother guiding him during those difficult times and kept on saying that young Sonae will eventually come around, which she did later on.
World number one Serena Williams, who is a five-time Wimbledon champion, has surprisingly declared she “never really liked grass”.
The American, who will now look to win in England after defeating Czech Lucie Safarova in the French Open final, said she would never have expected at this time in her career to win three grand slams in a row, adding that it was unbelievable for her, Stuff.co.nz reported.
She also said that she doesn’t know how she has managed to do so well on a surface that she does not like.
However, Serena acknowledged that on this occasion, the monkey would
Days after reports claimed that 8 out of 10 convicted for attacking teenage activist, Malala Yousafzai, were freed only weeks after being jailed, the United States has reportedly urged Pakistan to ensure that all those responsible are brought to justice.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Marie Harf said that the country was trying to get more information on the case and “will have probably more to say” when it gets that information, reported the Dawn.
The arrests took place in September last year.
Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Coal Piyush Goyal on Sunday adopted the Golavali village in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra under the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana.
Goyal, via a series of tweets, shared the information.
“In Golavali, Maharashtra today for interaction with villagers. I have adopted the village for development under Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana”
“Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana plans to realize the vision of our Hon’ble PM Shri @narendramodi ji to develop rural India”
It was Draco Malfoy’s 35th birthday on 5th June, but JK Rowling gave it a miss and now, she explains why.
The 49-year-old author wrote on twitter that she won’t be attending the witty Malfoy’s birthday party, warning his female fans that they are misguided to fancy him, reported the Independent.
Talking about the girls who like the “snob, bigot and bully” Draco, the author said that it’s romantic but unhealthy and unfortunately all too common delusion.
Researchers were recently able to create aircraft wings with self-healing technology that can help them fix themselves after being damaged.
A team of British scientists describe it as “verging on science fiction,” and suggested that the self-healing technology will soon become commonplace providing solutions for producing self-healing nail polish and a cure for cracked mobile phone screens, the Independent reported.