Month: February 2013

Baingan ka bharta tastes incredibly yummy.

Ingredients:

3 medium-sized brinjals (roughly 500gms/ 1 pound)
2 tbsps vegetable/ sunflower cooking oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 medium-sized onions chopped fine
1 tbsp garlic paste or garlic chopped very fine
1″ piece of ginger grated fine
2 green chillies (optional but they give the Bharta a nice kick!)
2 large tomatoes chopped fine
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp garam masala (see link below for recipe to make your own)
2 tbsps finely chopped fresh green coriander

Preparation:

Zlatan Ibrahimovic has admitted that Lionel Messi is the best player in world football as he prepares to face his former Barcelona team-mate when Sweden take on Argentina on Wednesday.

The Paris Saint-Germain forward spent two seasons at Camp Nou playing alongside the Argentina captain, and he pointed out that the playmaker wins so many award because he is the finest player currently on show.

“Leo is a fantastic player. At an individual level he is probably the best player in the world, so he wins all the awards,” he told reporters at a press conference.

Financial capitals of India and Pakistan – Mumbai and Karachi – were the cheapest cities in the world to live followed by New Delhi, according to a new survey.

Nepalese capital of Kathmandu and Algerian capital of Algiers were the other locations among the world’s five cheapest cities, the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) worldwide cost of living index found.

The EIU found that Mumbai shared the top ranking with Karachi in the survey based on costs of over 160 items ranging from transport, utilities, food and clothing.

Global investment banking major Goldman Sachs believes the long-term potential growth rate of the Indian economy is 7 percent and this could be notably higher provided the reform process gains momentum.

“Although we feel the current long-term potential growth rate of the economy is 7 percent, this could be notably higher if the reform process were to gain momentum,” Goldman Sachs said in a research note.

According to the research note, India is expected to clock 6.5 percent real growth in 2013, which would rise to 7.2 percent in 2014 and further to 7.5 percent in 2016.

In fresh trouble to Sahara group, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said that SEBI is free to freeze accounts and seize properties of its two companies for defying court orders by not refunding Rs 24,000 crore to investors.

The apex court also pulled up SEBI for not taking action against the companies–Sahara India Real Estate Corporation (SIREC) and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation (SHIC)–as per its August 31, 2012 order which had asked it to attach properties and freeze bank accounts of the companies.

Seeking to internationalise tensions along the Line of Control, Pakistan has called for an investigation into the recent incidents there by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

“We would also welcome an OIC fact-finding mission to investigate the recent incidents of ceasefire violations along the LoC,” Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said while addressing a meeting of the OIC contact group on Kashmir in Cairo yesterday.

Over 2,500 families have fled the restive Khyber tribal region in northwest Pakistan following deadly clashes between the Taliban and other militant groups, according to a media report on Wednesday.

The banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Islam and the pro-government Ansar-ul-Islam and Qamarkhel militia have been engaged in a turf war in Khyber Agency for almost two weeks.

Abbottabad, the Pakistani city where Osama Bin Laden was found and killed by US special forces, is building an amusement park in the hope of boosting tourism.

The park has no link to the al Qaeda leader, instead, it will boast a zoo, water sports, mini-golf, rock-climbing and a paragliding club, officials in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province said.

The officials said that the park will cost some 30 million dollars and take five years to build.

The Russian military has launched a probe into media reports that soldiers and officers based on the Kuril islands in the country’s far east were left to starve after being given rotten food.

The Eastern Military District Prosecutors’ Office, with the Military Prosecutor’s Office of Goryachiye Klyuchi garrison, has launched a check into foods supplies at the military unit on the Island of Kunashir, an official said.

Recent media reports claimed soldiers and officers in a military unit on the Kuril islands were fed food containing worms, forcing them to go hungry.

A senior opposition leader in Tunisia was assassinated Wednesday in the capital Tunis, media reports said.

Chokri Belaid, secretary general of the leftist Democratic Patriots Party, was shot in his head and neck on his way to work and died on the spot, Xinhua reported.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

This is the first major incident in the country since then President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was toppled in 2011.

BBC said Belaid was shot outside his home.

China should make North Korea pay a “heavy price” if it went ahead with its planned nuclear test, a state-run daily said today, expressing concern Pyongyang may even turn against Beijing, its main ally.

“If North Korea insists on a third nuclear test despite attempts to dissuade it, it must pay a heavy price. The assistance it will be able to receive from China should be reduced,” state-run Global Times said in an editorial.

A man has been detained in Egypt capital Cairo for trying to hit Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a shoe as he visited a mosque, BBC reported.

A video of the incident shows a man shouting “coward” at Ahmadinejad.

It was not clear what the motive was. Media reports suggested it was against Iran’s support for the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad.

Ahmadinejad is attending a summit of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation, a grouping of 57 mainly Muslim countries.

Tuesday’s incident occurred as Ahmadinejad was leaving Cairo’s al-Hussein mosque.

No timeframe can be determined on the conclusion of negotiations for the proposed civil nuclear agreement between India and Australia, a senior diplomat from that country said here.

Lachlan Strahan, Deputy Head of Mission at Australian High Commission in New Delhi, said, “a clear picture on the future course of direction emerges only after the first round of talks between the senior officials of both the governments scheduled to take place next month.”

There were “major concerns” relating to equity in education that need to be addressed even as access to primary education becomes “almost universal” with the Right to Education (RTE) Act, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Wednesday.

“Today, access to primary education in our country is almost universal. The Right to Education Act ensures that every child in our country has the right to eight years of elementary education,” Manmohan Singh said at the inaugural function of the golden jubilee celebrations of the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan.

The Improvised Explosive Device (IED), increasingly being used by Naxals and terrorists to kill and maim, is posing a formidable challenge for security agencies in the country, the chief of NSG said here today.

Arvind Ranjan, the Director General of National Security Guard (NSG), while addressing the country’s senior military, police and paramilitary officers said IED continues to be the choice of the purveyors of terror.

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s role in India’s freedom struggle is “unique” and he continues to inspire countrymen by his single-minded devotion to the cause, President Pranab Mukherjee said on Wednesday.

“Netaji’s role in India’s freedom struggle was unique. For him, the fight for India’s independence was also a part of a larger struggle against colonialism and imperialism and creation of a society that would usher in development of the masses in the widest possible sense.

“Netaji continues to inspire all Indians,” Mukherjee said at a function in Rashtrapati Bhavan here.

Onion prices will come down in the next few days on improved supply from Gujarat, Rajasthan and some parts of Maharashtra, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said on Wednesday.

“The onion issue will be addressed in the next few days. The stock is adequate in the country. Supply is expected to improve in the coming days,” Pawar said on the sidelines of a function here.

Arrival of new crop from Gujarat, Rajasthan and some parts of Maharashtra will start after February 15, he said.

Lokayukta police on Wednesday raided the residences of a senior forest official in the city and in Bhopal and found details of assets worth over Rs 50 crore disproportionate to his known sources of income.

The residences of state Chief Conservator of Forests Vasant Kumar Singh were raided at Kothi road here and at Chunabhatti in Bhopal where documents related to assets worth over Rs 50 crore were found, police said.

The figure could go up once all the seized documents are studied thoroughly, they said.

Scientists have used one of the simplest, ordinary materials on Earth to create the latest and flattest in electronics – paper.

Researchers at the University of Maryland in America have taken the first step towards green, flexible electronics by printing transparent electronics onto “nanopaper,” created from wood pulp treated with enzymes and mechanically beaten, the Daily Mail reported.

They developed the transistor on the surface of the nanopaper by printing three different inks on it.

With the growth of e-readers, tablet computers and print on demand technology, ebooks seem to be a popular trend.

At the ongoing World Book Fair here a special enclosure e-book publishers, developers and content providers showcasing their e-books and deliberating with publishers for developing e-books.

A host of publications are already available in English, and now vernacular language books are making their way onto the digital platform.

Combination of data from NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and observations by amateur astronomers has produced one of the best images yet of nearby spiral galaxy Messier 106.

Located a little over 20 million light-years away, practically a neighbor by cosmic standards, Messier 106 is one of the brightest and nearest spiral galaxies to our own.

Despite its appearance, which looks much like countless other galaxies, Messier 106 hides a number of secrets. Thanks to the new image, they are revealed as never before.

Social networking giant Facebook will release a new mobile app that will allow a user’s location to be tracked even when the phone is not being used.

The location app is designed to allow Facebook users to find friends in the area.

It will run even if the program isn’t open on a user’s handset.

Facebook already has a mobile “Find Friends” app, which allows users to let others know where they are by “checking in” at a bar, a library etc, the Telegraph reports.

Filmmaker Tigmanshu Dhulia says Soha Ali Khan fits the part perfectly in his film “Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster Returns”, thanks to her royal connection.

“We were toying with few names. Soha, because she is a royalty in reality, looks the part completely, without doing too much acting, without us making her wear clothes that she is not comfortable wearing, with kind of jewellery,” Tigmanshu told IANS in an interview.

“What Soha has done does not look fake, it looks effortless… that was one reason for choosing her,” he added.

Shane Watson’s brilliant comeback century helped Australia beat West Indies by 39 runs in the third one-day on a flat Manuka Oval deck in Canberra, as the hosts took an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series. Watson had not played an international match in six weeks since he broke down with a calf injury and he made an immediate impact when he smacked 122 runs off 111 balls, helping Australia reach 329 for seven wickets in their stipulated fifty overs, News.com.au reports. Phillip Hughes also chimed in with 86 off 93 balls to continue his summer renaissance.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said his party is committed to the construction of a Ram Temple at Ayodhya.

“BJP has been committed to these agendas from a very long. The culture and the Hindu religion that we all believe in, it is our deep desire that a temple should be constructed at the ”Ram Janmabhoomi”,” he told media here.

The BJP President further said that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad meeting on the sidelines of the Maha Kumbh in Allahabad should not be viewed politically.

-ANI