The demand for public services will cost the Indian government an additional Rs 3.2 trillion by the year 2025, according to an Accenture report.
According to the report, costs primarily associated with increased spending on citizens for healthcare and growth of the ageing population are estimated to require the Indian government – at the central, state and local levels – to spend an additional Rs 3.2 trillion (1.5 per cent of GDP) by 2025.
Observing that India’s education policy has remained out of synch with the time, Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shashi Tharoor Monday called for reforms in the sector, critical to the country’s growth needs.
“We will work towards putting our reform agenda back on track,” Tharoor told a higher education summit here, adding that as India aims to grow at 8.2 to 8.5 percent, the country needs to invest in education and help improve the quality of education.
The Delhi High Court on Monday referred to another bench the plea of a youth for launch of contempt proceedings against ND Tiwari for not depositing a fine of Rs 25,000 and the expenses incurred by him on the leader’s DNA test despite court orders.
“Let the matter be heard by concerned bench of Justice Rajiv Shakdher on November 7,” Justice Reva Khetrapal said adding the particular court was authorised to hear such pleas.
The plea for launch of contempt proceedings was filed by Rohit Shekhar, 32, who claims to be biological son of 86-year-old veteran Congress leader.
Enforcement Directorate today questioned financial adviser of jailed YSR Congress chief Jaganmohan Reddy with regard to a money laundering case it is probing against the politician.
Jagan’s financial adviser and Chartered Accountant V Vijay Sai Reddy was questioned here by ED sleuths about the
financial approvals he made on behalf of the Kadapa MP and the business dealings he did during the regime of Jagan’s father — former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.
Vijay Sai Reddy is an important person in the case, the investigators said, and his statements are crucial.
Anna Hazare is likely to announce a coordination panel by Saturday to take his apolitical anti-corruption movement forward.
Hazare, who arrived here this afternoon, said he will hold a series of discussions with his associates in the next two days and visit a couple of places which have been shortlisted to house the movement’s office in Delhi.
The anti-graft crusader said he has decided to set up a coordination panel consisting of around a dozen associates.
Malaysia is working to introduce a unique biometric tracking system, that it says will more effectively allow its Immigration Department to track foreigners who overstay.
Many foreigners misuse their social visit passes and stay on in Malaysia to work illegally, including taking part in activities of vice.
In the past, Malaysia has said that thousands of Indian nationals had stayed back in the country long after the expiry of their visas.
A Western diplomat says the exhumation of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s remains will take place on November 26.
He says a Swiss team has arrived in the West Bank ahead of the planned exhumation. The team will assess the grave site and plan how best to dig up the remains.
The Swiss team will be joined by French investigators. The two teams, who are set to conduct parallel probes into Arafat’s death, will only be allowed one chance to draw samples.
The diplomat spoke today on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
An Israeli news programme claims that Israel’s premier told his military to prepare for a strike on Iranian nuclear sites in 2010, but it was not ready.
Defence Minister Ehud Barak says in excerpts aired today that “at the moment of truth, the answer given was that the ability didn’t exist.”
It quotes former Mossad chief Meir Dagan as telling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the order was illegal, as it needed Cabinet approval.
The full programme is scheduled for broadcast tomorrow.
Tulsi Gabbard, who appears all set to become the first Hindu to be elected to the US House of Representatives, has said her faith would be an asset in the Congress as it would help enhance mutual understanding between America and India.
“It is clear that there needs to be a closer working relationship between the United States and India. How can we have a close relationship if decision-makers in Washington know very little, if anything, about the religious beliefs, values, and practices of India’s 800 million Hindus?” Gabbard asked.
While the eyes of the world are on the closely-fought US presidential elections, some three million Indian Americans are watching with interest the fortunes of five from their community vying for a seat in the US Congress.
Besides four Democrats and a lone Republican hoping to repeat the feats of Dalip Singh Saund and current Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, the only two Indian-Americans to win a seat in the US House of Representatives, a Democratic woman is also poised to become the first Hindu to enter the Congress.
One of the world’s largest electoral exercises in the world after India, the world’s largest democracy, gets underway Tuesday when 169 million American voters go to the polls to chose a president, a new House of Representatives, 33 senators and thousands of local officials at a whopping cost of $6 billion.
Key facts:
. There are169 million registered voters, 86 million Democrat and 55 million Republican and 28 million others.
. They include about a half million voters from the 3.12 million strong Indian American community.
Pakistan has suffered more than any other country from terrorism, President Asif Ali Zardari said at a SAARC conference here.
Terrorism has claimed 40,000 lives in Pakistan and also caused economic loss of $80 billion, he said at the 6th meeting of SAARC speakers and parliamentarians Sunday.
Durable peace in the region was in the interest of all, he said, and urged the SAARC nations to join hands to fight extremism and terrorism.
Eight people were killed in Pakistan Sunday night when their bus plunged into a ravine, a media report said.
Three children and three women were among the dead.
The accident took place in the mountainous area of Talmar, Geo TV reported. The injured were shifted to hospital.
IANS
Gunmen stormed an office of a charitable organisation in Pakistan Sunday night, killing at least three people and injuring six others.
The attack took place around 10.30 p.m. at the office of Ghosia Foundation in Hyderabad city, senior police superintendent Pir Fareed said.
Four gunmen entered the office and opened fire, Fareed said. The assailants fled the scene after the attack.
The foundation in Hyder Chowk is owned by a religious group.
Police have detained eight suspects, Xinhua reported.
Scores of Hindus participated in a special ceremony held at the historic Katasraj Temple in Pakistan’s Punjab province following the restoration of its holy pond, which had begun drying up due to excessive use of groundwater by a nearby cement factory.
A total of 115 Hindus from cities across Pakistan visited the temple in Chakwal district on Saturday.
Shri Amar Kund, the sacred pond, was showered with rose petals and pilgrims drank its water and filled bottles to take home.
The Punjab government took steps to revive the pond after it dried up this summer.
Hours before former President APJ Abdul Kalam was to visit China’s top aviation body, he was told of a change in plans. He would visit the China Academy of Space Technology instead. The last minute change has sparked off speculation whether the cancellation was linked to China’s wariness over its new stealth fighter, the J-31, launched just ahead of Kalam’s visit.
The Sri Lankan Army said Monday it was still investigating allegations of atrocities during the war against the Tamil Tigers that ended in 2009.
According to army spokesperson Ruwan Wanigasooriya, a court of inquiry was on to record statements from witnesses and others, Xinhua reported.
A five-member probe was appointed in January based on the recommendations of a war commission known as the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).
China does not have the cultural ground and political conditions to conduct Western-style elections as such a political transformation would be “highly risky” in a country with 1.3 billion people, said a state-run daily Monday, just three days ahead of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
An article in the Global Times said that the national congress is bound to be successful at this crucial period of time.
The daily compared the US election with the scenario in the country.
Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna clinched the Paris Master, their second title of the year, after scoring a hard-fought win over Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi and Jean-Julien Rojer on Sunday.
The fifth seed Indian pair struggled past the Pakistan-Dutch combination 7-6 (6) 6-3 in the summit clash, lasting one hour and 24 minutes.
Bhupathi and Bopanna had won the Dubai ATP event and ended runners-up at Cincinnati and Shanghai.
The Indians could not convert a single breakpoint of the six chances in the opening set but held nerves in the tiebreaker to take the lead.
Yuvraj Singh staged a remarkable comeback to the Test fold, while struggling off-spinner Harbhajan Singh also returned from wilderness as India named a 15-member squad on Monday for the first two Tests against England starting November 15.
The 30-year-old, who fought back after being diagnosed with a rare germ cell cancer last year, forced his way back into the squad after commendable performances in the domestic circuit.
Harbhajan also got the nod from the new selection panel headed by former Test cricketer Sandeep Patil more than a year after his last appearance in a five-day game.
Facebook users, rejoice! Your days of repeatedly asking for Wi-Fi passwords at coffee-shops may soon be over.
The social networking website is testing a new Wi-Fi hot spot service for local businesses that grants users free Internet access if they do a Facebook check-in.
Businesses would provide the access via a Facebook router that directs customers to its Facebook page once users check in, the ‘Discovery News’ reported.
A day after the Congress at a rally here sent out a strong signal about implementing FDI in retail, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit Monday hit out at the opposition, saying confusion is being created to mislead people.
“It seems that a false propaganda is being nurtured by the major opposition parties in the country. They are adopting unusual manners to express their opposition on this issue,” Dikshit said without naming the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The BJP has vehemently opposed foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail.
UFO enthusiasts in the UK have admitted that aliens may not exist after all, citing the declining number of ‘flying saucer’ sightings and lack of “compelling evidence” to prove the existence of extraterrestrial life.
Enthusiasts admit that a continued failure to provide proof and a decline in the number of ‘flying saucer’ sightings suggests that aliens do not exist after all and this could mean the end of ‘Ufology’ the study of UFOs (unidentified flying objects) within the next decade.
A 1400-year-old vampire skeleton with metal spikes through its shoulders, heart and ankles, has been discovered in Britain, a new report has claimed.
The skeleton dating from 550-700 AD found buried in the ancient minster town of Southwell, Nottinghamshire has shed light on rare ‘vampire’ burials in Britain.
Long dismissed as myth and legend, the vampire is associated with spooky stories.
It is believed to be a “deviant burial”, where people considered the ‘dangerous dead’, such as vampires, were interred to prevent them rising from their graves to plague the living.
Nordmann’s Greenshank, a beautiful Russian shorebird which migrates annually to many south Asian countries, including India, is listed as ‘endangered’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
The key threat to the bird is the rapid rate of reclamation and development of coastal wetlands throughout Asia for industry, infrastructure and aquaculture, said the International Union for Conservation of Nature, world’s oldest and largest global environmental organisation.