Month: February 2013

Taking on the Congress party and Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde over his ‘saffron terror’ remark, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Murli Manohar Joshi on Tuesday said that the statement was a well-planned conspiracy to distract the people’s attention from their failures.

Talking to mediapersons here at a press conference, Joshi said that Shinde has insulted the entire nation, culture and tradition of the country by his comment.

Terming time slippages as a “real problem” for the defence forces, Defence Minister AK Antony on Tuesday pulled up the DRDO for “delays in delivery” of military projects and said he was “impatient” to see completion of LCA project.

“I am happy for your achievements of DRDO but not fully happy. Delay in delivery is a real problem… Try to speed up your process and reduce time for research, development and production. Delays should be avoided,” he said while addressing an international seminar here.

Regretting that none of the Indian universities figures among the top 200 in the world, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said the focus henceforth would be on giving “over-riding emphasis on quality”.

“In recognition of the fact that expansion without quality improvement serves little purpose, we will now give over-riding emphasis on quality. We must recognise that too many of our higher educational institutions are simply not up to the mark,” he told a conference here of vice chancellors of central universities.

A man in Agra has been arrested for “communal and inflammatory” posts on social networking site Facebook targeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, union Communications Minister Kapil Sibal and Uttar Pradesh’s ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, police said Tuesday.

Sanjay Chowdhary, a resident of the Dayalbagh suburb of Agra, was arrested late Monday and his laptop, sim card and data card impounded.

The ongoing Maha Kumbh Mela described often as the “greatest show on earth” across the world has been a magnet for tourists, especially from outside India, who travel to witness the mega gathering of humanity on the banks of the Ganges in Allahabad.

The amazing convergence of humanity also provide infinite opportunities for photographers and video enthusiasts who want to capture for posterity this once-in-twelve-year extraordinary spectacle.

Among that group is one from far away Colombia, who are producing a documentary, which seeks to give a comprehensive presentation of the Ganga.

Pakistan is a “fake” country which was created artificially by the Britishers who started the “bogus two-nation theory”, Press Council of India Chairman
Justice (retd) Markandey Katju said here today.

The former Supreme Court Judge was confident that in next 15-20 years India and Pakistan would reunite and a strong, powerful, secular and modern minded government would come to power.

He condemned the recent war hysteria created by media in the wake of beheading of an Indian soldier by Pakistanis troops in a cross LoC attack in Jammu and Kashmir.

Taking on the Congress party and Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde over his ‘saffron terror’ remark, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Murli Manohar Joshi on Tuesday said that the statement was a well-planned conspiracy to distract the people’s attention from their failures.

Talking to mediapersons here at a press conference, Joshi said that Shinde has insulted the entire nation, culture and tradition of the country by his comment.

India is witnessing a decline in standards in the quality of higher education and the trend needs to be reversed, President Pranab Mukherjee said Tuesday.

Addressing a conference of vice-chancellors of central universities, Mukherjee also said that universities should not only provide knowledge and skills but also inculcate values of humanity and virtue.

“We are witnessing declining standards in the quality of higher education in our country,” the president warned.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and senior Congress leaders Tuesday amid intensified consultations by the party leadership to find a solution to the Telangana issue.

The chief minister spent a busy day meeting the prime minister, union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and other senior leaders. He is believed to have apprised Manmohan Singh of the political situation in the state.

New inductions in the IAF such as Apache attack helicopters will be in support of operational plans of the Army, which is raising a new Strike Corps along the borders with China in the northeastern sector, Air Chief Marshal N A K Browne said here today.

“Whatever inductions are taking place in the IAF, they will fully support the Army’s plans. All the strike helicopters like the Apache…They will all support the Army?s plans,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar here.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who some party colleagues want to see as prime ministerial candidate, will speak at a leading Delhi University college Wednesday.

He will address students and the faculty of Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), which has produced a string of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, including Arun Jaitley, Vijay Goel, Jagdish Mukhi and Vijay Jolly.

Modi will speak around 4 p.m. as as part of “our Business Conclave 2013”, SRCC principal P.C. Jain told IANS.

Modi’s talk will be on Emerging Business Models in the Global Scenario.

The much-delayed indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas aircraft is expected to be ready for induction into operational service by 2015, IAF chief Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne said on Tuesday.

Talking to reporters, the IAF chief said the indigenous aircraft will have to be modified further for operating in high-altitude areas as recently during trials in Leh, its engine “did not work”.

Mobile service provider Airtel Tuesday launched operations in Jammu and Kashmir’s isolated Kargil area, which remains cut off from the rest of the country during winter months.

“Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa now provides seamless voice and data connectivity to its customers in Kargil, reinforcing Airtel’s pan-India coverage strength,” Jagbir Singh of the Bharti Airtel group said while launching the service in Kargil.

Now, Airtel has become the only private mobile company to provide services in Kargil.

National Investigation Agency,probing the 2008 Malegaon bomb blasts case, today told the Bombay High Court that it was opposing the bail plea of prime accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur who has sought the relief on medical ground.

Sadhvi who was diagnosed with cancer last year had sought bail on medical ground to undergo treatment.

The high court had earlier asked NIA and Sadhvi to consider working out a solution amicably.

Alleging that Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde’s Hindu terror remarks were a ploy to deflect attention from the failures of the government, BJP today said Congress will have to “bear the consequences” of this “insult” inside and outside Parliament.

The party said it will bring up this issue in Parliament in the forthcoming Budget Session and boycott of Shinde is one of the proposals it is “seriously thinking about”.

Amid high drama, Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan and other members of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) were on Tuesday “released” by a Delhi court after they appeared before it following summonses for alleged involvement in rioting cases here last year.

The court released Kejriwal, Bhushan, Manish Sisodia and 23 others on an undertaking that they will appear before it to face trial in the case after they refused to seek bail before it.

With the rainy weather showing no signs of abating, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh postponed their trips to Uttar Pradesh Tuesday, party leaders said.

While a major road show had been planned for Rajnath Singh on his maiden visit to the state capital after becoming the party chief again, Rahul Gandhi, also making his first visit after becoming party no.2, was to arrive at Amethi, his parliamentary constituency, for a two-day stay.

A 42-year-old Malaysian man was on Tuesday sentenced to a total of 115 years in jail and 50 lashes after he pleaded guilty to four counts of rape and one count of sodomy.

Rabidin Satir, from Sabah, was sentenced by a sessions court in Raub here.

The accused had pleaded guilty to three counts to raping a 17-year-old girl and an eight-year-old girl in two separate incidents last year.

Two other charges were over raping and sodomising a 16-year-old girl, news reports said.

The rapist used a knife to threaten his victims, Star newspaper said.

“Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster Returns”, second instalment of 2011 talked-about crime drama “Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster”, is yet to hit the screens and the makers are already planning part three of the series.

Tigmanshu Dhulia, the creative brain behind both the movies, wasn’t keen to comment upon the plans, but when probed, the director said: “I can’t talk much, but maybe we go for part three as well.”

When asked Rahul Mittra, co-producer of the film, he toed the same line.

A video on North Korea’s official webpage shows the bone-chilling sight of a US city under missile attack, with a Korean boy smiling and thinking that his dream will “surely come true”, a media report said.

With Michael Jackson’s peace anthem “We Are the World” playing in the background, the three-and-a-half minute video comes as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un prepares for a nuclear weapon test, The Sun reported.

The video depicts a smiling boy dreaming of a rocket being launched into the air and travelling to the US.

The trial in the Delhi gang-rape case formally began against the five accused in a fast track court here Tuesday with the 28-year-old male friend of the victim testifying in court and police filing the woman’s autopsy report.

The witness, a software engineer, came to court on a wheelchair, accompanied by his father.

The fast track court of Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna started day-to-day trial in the case after it framed charges of murder, gang-rape and kidnapping, among others, under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against five of the six accused.

Indian-American Governor of Louisiana Bobby Jindal has said Republicans thinking about the 2016 presidential race need to get their “head examined” as the party must win the “debate of ideas” after losing two consecutive bids to the White House.

“Anybody on the Republican side even thinking or talking about running for president in 2016, I’ve said needs to get their head examined and the reason I say that is we’ve lost two presidential elections in a row. We need to be winning the debate of ideas then we’ll win elections,” Jindal said on Fox News’s ‘Fox & Friends’.

A member of a hugely popular Japanese girl band has shaved her head and issued a tearful videotaped apology for violating the megagroup’s no-dating rule.

The spectacle has sparked debate in Japan over whether the band AKB48 exerts too much control over its performers.

Minami Minegishi made the video, posted on AKB48’s website, after the 20-year-old was caught by a gossip magazine coming out of her boyfriend’s apartment.

AKB48 says it forbids its members from dating to project a clean image and signal their devotion to the group and their mostly male fans.

France’s interior minister says police have detained four people in a counter-terrorist operation targeting those suspected of trying to join Islamist extremists abroad.

Manuel Valls said on France’s BFM television today that an operation is under way in the Paris region, linked to the arrest of a French citizen in recent months on the Mali-Niger border. No details were immediately available.

Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Tuesday requested the Centre to extend two months’ time for Aadhar-linked subsidy cylinders in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad and Ranga Reddy district.

A favourable decision is expected from Petroleum Ministry today evening or tomorrow, a press release from the Chief Minister’s Office said.