Secretary General of World Sindhi Congress Lakhu Luhana has blamed Pakistan for supporting and financing religious extremism in Sindh, which has been in the news for targeted killings and sectarian violence.
Mr S. Gopalakrishnan (Kris), Co-Founder and Executive Co-Chairman, Infosys Technologies Limited, has been elected as the President of CII for the year 2013-14. He succeeds Mr Adi Godrej as the new President.
Mr S. Gopalakrishnan along with Mr N.R. Narayana Murthy and five others, founded Infosys in 1981. Kris served as Director (Technical) and his initial responsibilities included the management of design, development, implementation, and support of information systems for clients in the consumer products industry in the U.S.
In what could be a serious problem for Google, the most used search engine on the World Wide Web, Delhi Police has begun a probe into its map contest held in February-March this year following a formal complaint by the Survey of India.
The Survey of India in its complaint filed at the RK Puram police station on March 25, 2013, wrote: “Mapathon 2013 activity is likely to jeopardise national security interest and violates the National Map Policy. Citizens of the country, who are ignorant of the legal consequences, are likely to violate the law of the land.”
Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari on Friday downplayed Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi”s remark that it was time for him to repay his ”debt to Mother India”.
“As someone who believes in the idea of India, who believes in the plurality of Indian ethos, who is committed to the founding values of the Indian constitution, I often worry about the statements of the chief minister of Gujarat. I hope he does not want to do in the rest of India, in the other parts of India, what he did in Gujarat in 2002,” he told mediapersons here.
Vinay Sharma, one of the five adult men accused of raping a physiotherapy student on a moving bus in the national capital in December last year, was produced at the fast track court hearing the case with a fractured right hand on Friday.
Sharma”s defence counsel, A P Singh, informed that his client was physically assaulted by other inmates and police officials at Delhi”s Tihar Jail.
Designer Agnimitra Paul is a huge fan of Indian Premeir League (IPL) team Kolkata Knight Riders, but says she will miss its owner Shah Rukh Khan’s presence at the forthcoming matches in the city.
“Of course, I am aware of the IPL and I even saw the first match on television. And I am crazy for KKR,” Paul told IANS on the sidelines of a fashion exhibition at a five-star hotel here Friday.
Paul said she finds the IPL matches thoroughly enjoyable and would even like to watch one of them at the Eden Gardens.
Actor Abir Chatterjee, who played Vidya Balan’s husband in “Kahaani”, Friday said T20 cricket matches are not his cup of tea.
“Look, to be very honest T20 is not my ballroom. But I don’t have any, any, any problem with IPL (Indian Premier League),” Chatterjee told IANS on the sidelines of an exhibition here.
Asked whether he would go to watch any of the matches, the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) supporter said: “Let’s see, I haven’t decided anything yet, maybe I’ll go.”
Former beauty queen and actress Neha Dhupia, who is geared up for the release of her first Punjabi film “Rangeelay”, feels regional movies have got a wider audience across the globe. She wonders why she wasn’t doing them earlier!
“I am excited for my first Punjabi film and I can really feel the buzz here as the city has got a huge audience. Punjabi films are really appreciated in Canada, so we are doing lot of promotions for my film here. I still remember when I was coming down, people were shouting my name,” she told IANS.
A day after Rahul Gandhi shared his views with industry leaders on development, the Congress Friday said he has given a direction to progress.
“Rahul Gandhi has given a direction. His speech was thoughtful and farsighted. We hope the government will take note of it,” Congress spokesperson Rashid Alvi told reporters.
He said Rahul Gandhi, who was made Congress vice president at the Jaipur conclave in January, has taken his ideas on politics and development forward.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday dismissed the debate over two power centres as “useless” even as he did not rule out his accepting the third term.
“This is the creation of the media. It is a useless debate,” he told the reporters when asked about the issue of two power centres coming into focus after senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh raked it up recently.
Digvijaya Singh had said the two power centres — one the Congress President Sonia Gandhi and another the Prime Minister — had not worked well and should not be repeated.
A Gulf-based labour welfare organisation has urged the Kerala and central governments to introduce some kind of a pension scheme for those Indians returning to India unexpectedly without much savings.
KV Shamsudheen, Chairman of Pravasi Bandhu Welfare Trust, said the body has been demanding such a scheme for a long time but there has been no progress.
Amid fears of delay in the 126 combat aircraft deal, Defence Ministry and French Dassault Rafale will hold talks today to iron out differences between them over the responsibilities to be given to the state-run HAL in the contract estimated to be worth USD 15 billion.
Soon after the Rafale fighter jet was shortlisted by the IAF in 2012, its maker Dassault Aviation has been raising questions about the capabilities and the role of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in the contract for 126 Medium-Multirole Combat Aircraft (M-MRCA).
Perturbed over grim power situation in Bihar due to conflict among warring public sector undertakings, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday slammed the Centre saying it is suffering from “policy paralysis” which has been known to everybody.
It will be a dream come true for Lt Commander Abhilash Tomy when President Pranab Mukherjee felicitates the naval officer in Mumbai on Saturday for his feat in completing a non-stop solo circumnavigation of the globe under sails in 150 days.
34-year-old Tomy will be the cynosure of all eyes during the visit of Mukherjee for the concluding ceremony of accomplishment of Sagar Parikrama-II–Solo Non-Stop Unassisted Circumnavigation.
AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal will break his indefinite fast against “inflated” power and water bills on Saturday on the 15th day of his protest after launching the second phase of ‘Civil Disobedience Movement’.
Announcing his plans today, Kejriwal invoked Anna Hazare in his speech and expressed his wish to break the fast after receiving a glass of juice from the 74-year-old activist with whom he had split last September on the question of the anti- corruption movement taking a political plunge.
First lady Michelle Obama mistakenly called herself a “busy single mother” in an interview with CBS affiliate WCAX on Thursday.
Discussing the struggle many parents face in balancing work and home life, she said, “Believe me, as a busy single mother…or, I shouldn’t say ‘single’ – as a busy mother.”
She seemed to catch her mistake almost immediately, saying that when a person has got a husband who’s a President, it can feel a little single, CBS News reported.
US President Barack Obama has said that he is “very optimistic” on having a comprehensive immigration reform passed by the Congress and then signed into law by him in the next few months.
“I am very optimistic that we get immigration reform done in the next few months. The reason I’m optimistic is because people spoke out through the ballot box, and that’s breaking gridlock,” Obama said at a Democratic Party fundraiser event in California.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has declared China to be ‘pivotal to her country’s political, strategic and economic interests’.
Gillard arrived on the Chinese resort island of Hainan ahead of trade and security talks, including her first official meeting with new Chinese President Xi Jinping, on Sunday.
The visit comes as North Korea reportedly moved a missile capable of hitting South Korea and Japan, an action that drew condemnation as being provocative.
Gaza’s Hamas rulers on Friday urged the United Nations to reconsider its suspension of food aid for Palestinian refugees, imposed after protesters stormed a UN depot.
The UN Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, stopped food deliveries after dozens of Gazans forced their way into the field office on Thursday, demanding reinstatement of a monthly cash allowance to poor families which was halted from April 01 due to budget cuts.
“This is an unjustified step from UNRWA,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told a news agency.
Chinese sailor Guo Chuan on Friday became the first sailor from the country to complete a non-stop solo circumnavigation of the globe.
Aboard a 40-foot (12.2 meters) monohull, the 48-year old returned to the northeastern port city of Qingdao, his home town, after a gruelling 138-day, 21,600-nautical-mile voyage.
Guo jumped into the sea for celebration before his yacht pulled over, and swam towards the dock to meet his wife and sons, who joined hundreds of local citizens and sports officials at a welcome ceremony.
North Korea has suggested to Russia that it should consider evacuating its embassy in Pyongyang due to the upsurge of tensions on the Korean peninsula, a Russian diplomat said on Friday.
“A representative of the North Korean foreign ministry suggested that the Russian side examine the question of evacuating the employees of the Russian embassy,” embassy spokesman Denis Samsonov told Russian news agencies.
North Korea has moved a second mid-range missile to its east coast and loaded both on mobile launchers, a report said on Friday, fuelling fears of an imminent firing that will further ramp up tensions.
Yonhap news agency, citing a top South Korean official, said two intermediate Musudan missiles had been transported by train earlier in the week and “loaded on vehicles equipped with launch pads”.
The Defence Ministry, which on Thursday had confirmed the movement of one missile with “considerable range”, declined to comment on the new report.
Terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) recruits from Pakistan’s elite, contradicting “a lingering belief that Islamist terrorists are the product of low or no education or are produced in madrassas”, a media report said on Friday quoting an exhaustive study.
Lashkar is “a group whose well-educated recruits defy the idea that poverty and ignorance breed extremism. A group whose fighters include relatives of a politician, a senior army officer and a director of Pakistan’s Atomic Energy Commission”, said ProPublica, an investigative news site, citing the study.
Pakistan’s anti-corruption watchdog has objected to the candidature of former premier Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif in the upcoming General Election, saying they had defaulted on a bank loan worth Rs 3.48 billion.
The National Accountability Bureau yesterday raised the issue in an official communication sent to the Election Commission.
Three graft cases against the Sharifs and their relatives are currently pending in an anti-corruption court in Rawalpindi, NAB officials told the media.
Pakistan’s Election Commission on Friday did a flip-flop on a move to give people the choice of not voting for any of the candidates in the fray for the General Election, saying its proposal for a “none of the above” option in ballots had been put off.
The Election Commission’s decision to include the “none of the above” option in ballot papers had been postponed “due to legal implications”, state-run Radio Pakistan reported.
The decision came after the proposal was widely criticised by leading political parties, including the Pakistan People’s Party and the PML-N.