Month: July 2014

India’s industry Thursday commended the first budget of the Narendra Modi government as pragmatic which would lead to a quick turnaround in growth.

“Through this budget the Finance Minister has set the ground for repair of the economy. There has been a mix of both short term and long term measures geared towards boosting confidence of all key constituents”, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) president Sidharth Birla said in a statement here.

Introduction of e-Visa at nine airports across the country would boost inbound tourism in the upcoming season and attract more overseas tourists, a leading travel operator said Thursday.

“The budget announcement of e-Visas at nine airports reflects the pro-tourism vision of the new government and puts Destination India in spotlight,” Thomas Cook (India) Ltd managing director Madhavan Menon said in a statement here.

India added 83 runs in the morning session of the second day of the first cricket Test against England to go into lunch with the scoreboard reading 342/5 at Trent Bridge here Thursday.

Opener Murali Vijay, who scored his fourth Test century Wednesday, added another 24 runs to his tally before departing for a deserving 146. Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja were batting on 81 and 24, respectively, when lunch was called.

The CPI-M said Thursday that the selection of Amit Shah as the BJP president showed that the party will pursue “communal politics” that was practiced in Gujarat.

“The selection of Shah indicates the direction of politics the party intends to pursue,” the Communist Party of India-Marxist said.

It pointed out that Shah had been chargesheeted and was undergoing trial on murder charge “connected with false encounters when he was the home Minister in Gujarat”.

Kurdish ministers in Iraq’s capital Baghdad Thursday boycotted the country’s cabinet meetings, protesting remarks made earlier by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that accused the Kurdish region of being a “base for terrorism”, a Kurdish official said.

“We reject such provocative remarks by Maliki which are seen as a sort of threat, intimidation and hostility against part of the Iraqi people,” Deputy Prime Minister Roz Nuri Shawez told a news conference in Baghdad.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Thursday proposed infusion of an additional equity of Rs.6,500 crore in the cash-strapped national passenger carrier Air India for the current fiscal.

“Budgetary support of Rs.6,500.00 crore has been earmarked for equity infusion in Air India Limited,” said the expenditure budget document.

The national passenger carrier, which has an accumulated debt of around Rs.40,000 crore and losses estimated to be around Rs.6,000 crore for 2013-14, was given Rs.5,000 crore in the previous budget.

Organic farming, agricultural research, surface connectivity, sports and entertainment are set to get a boost in northeast India with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s first budget allocating funds for these purposes.

Renowned economist and Tripura University professor Indraneel Bhowmik said: “It is a practical budget in so far as making real estimates.”

“Northeast India appears to be gaining from the funds allocated for organic farming and development of rail connectivity,” Bhowmik told IANS.

Within a day of its launch, the trailer of “Finding Fanny”, an English language film by Indian director Homi Adajania, has found over a million views on YouTube. The movie’s makers are “very happy” with the response.

The trailer is said to have got one million views within 22 hours of being uploaded on the online video-sharing website.

“Harry Potter” star Daniel Radcliffe, who smokes as many as 20 cigarettes everyday, is reportedly going to rehab to kick the butt.

The 24-year-old is ready to visit a smoking treatment centre, reports dailystar.co.uk.

“It will be a kind of residential treatment programme, involving counselling, both individual and group, stress management and herbal treatments to help withdrawal symptoms,” said a source.

A 16-year-old boy from Delhi Public School (DPS) is a new entrant in the Limca Book of Records for being the youngest editor-in-chief of an art magazine.

Sahil Bansal, a class 11 student from DPS Mathura Road, has started an art magazine “Inkspire”.

“This magazine is for creative minds who needed a platform to showcase their talent,” said Bansal, founder of the magazine.

Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) chairman Vineet Joshi sent him a letter, congratulating him on his achievement.

An Indian man has been jailed for a year in Bahrain for stabbing his compatriot in a row over laundry, a media report said Thursday.

The unidentified Indian, 34, stabbed his compatriot roommate in the abdomen during an argument over who would dry their clothes first in their accommodation in Manama last month, the Gulf Daily News reported.

The police then came and arrested the Indian labourer, while his roommate was taken to the hospital.

The victim survived after undergoing surgery at the Salmaniya Medical Complex in Manama.

India went into lunch batting at 342/5 on Day 2 of the first Test against England at Trent Bridge here Thursday.

After resuming the day at 259/4, opener Murali Vijay was the only loss for the visitors when he was caught leg before wicket while batting at 146.

Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and allrounder Ravindra Jadeja were batting at 81 and 24 at the end of the first session.

The following is the scoreboard at lunch on the second day of the first Test between India and England being played at Trent Bridge here Thursday:

India (first innings) —

Murali Vijay lbw b Anderson 146

Actors beef up, tone up, tonsure and do more for their on-screen characters off and on. Now, it’s for actress Swara Bhaskar to gain weight for her role as a mother in “Nil Battey Sannaata”. She says it’s a “guilt-free binging opportunity”.

The “Raanjhanaa” actress, who is currently shooting for “Nil…”, directed by Ashwiny Iyer, has been asked to gain weight as she looked too young for the role of a mother to a teenager.

Alia Bhatt is not bothered about comparisons between her song in ‘Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania’ and her contemporary Shraddha Kapoor’s hit number from ‘Ek Villain’.

The 21-year-old star, who has earlier sung in ‘Highway’, has been appreciated for her voice in the unplugged version of ‘Samjhawan’ from her upcoming release.

“I always knew there would be comparisons. Karan (Johar) and I infact discussed it too. I told him that I don’t care because I am not comparing in my head.

An Agri-biotech cluster, National Waterways 1 project on river Ganga, and according Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI) national importance status are among the benefits dished out to West Bengal Thursday in the maiden budget of the Narendra Modi government.

Presenting the budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced that a new agri-biotech cluster would be established in Kolkata.

An Indian-origin woman in Australia died after being run over by a tipper truck, media reported Thursday.

Priya Muthu, 30, was hit when the truck, carrying soil and rocks, rolled backwards down her driveway at Wahroonga, suburb of Sydney, around 5 p.m. Wednesday, ABC News reported.

Muthu was trapped under the truck as she had her four-year-old son in her arms.

Paramedics tried to save her but she died at the scene.

Her son was taken to Royal North Shore Hospital with facial injuries. The boy has been released after some minor treatments.

Police are investigating the case.

The government Thursday announced a “rurban mission” for providing city-like facilities in rural areas, following a model adopted in Gujarat.

Named “Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission”, it will be launched to deliver “integrated project-based infrastructure in rural areas”.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, presenting the budget proposals, said people living in rural areas “can get efficient civic infrastructure and associate services” through this scheme.

He said it will also include development of economic activities and skill development.

In what could open a new chapter in the development of drugs for treating Alzheimer’s disease, for which currently there is no cure, researchers have discovered a new therapeutic target for tackling memory impairment.

Reactive astrocytes (the most abundant cell type of the human brain), which have been commonly observed in Alzheimer’s patients, aberrantly and abundantly produce the chief inhibitory neurotransmitter gamma-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) and release it through the Bestrophin-1 channel to suppress normal information flow.

The central government will review the scheme for modernisation of state police forces, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Thursday.

“The scheme for modernisation of state police forces would be reviewed.

“I propose to raise the allocation for modernisation of state police forces from Rs.1,847 crore in 2013-14 to Rs.3,000 crore in the current financial year,” Jaitley said in his budget speech.

The importance given to renewable energy and climate change adaptation in the union budget 2014-2015 has been welcomed by experts, but they feel the projects need to be executed in a proper manner.

Sectors like agriculture, the backbone of the masses’ economy in village, will receive an impetus as these areas experience the ravages of climate change first hand, they said.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Thursday announced the establishment of a ‘National Adaptation Fund’ for climate change. As an initial sum, an amount of Rs.100 crore will be transferred to the fund.

The union budget for the year 2014-15 presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Thursday was greeted with mixed response in Uttar Pradesh, a state that is politically important for the BJP.

While most people in the state said the budget was “in the right direction” and would “pay long-term dividends”, the opposition parties slammed the budget saying it had nothing for the common man.

Samajwadi Party general secretary and Rajya Sabha member Ram Gopal Yadav termed the budget “thoroughly disappointing and far away from reality”.

The private insurance sector was jubilant Thursday after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley proposed raising the foreign direct investment (FDI) cap to 49 percent.

“The Insurance sector is investment-starved. Several segments of the Insurance sector need an expansion. The composite cap in the Insurance sector is proposed to be increased up to 49 percent from the current level of 26 percent, with full Indian management and control, through the FIPB route,” Jaitley said presenting his maiden budget in parliament.

India Thursday hiked its defence budget by 12.43 percent, with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley allocating Rs.229,000 crore ($38.15 billion) in the budget proposals for 2014-15 that he presented in the Lok Sabha.

This is Rs.25,373 crore over the Rs.203,672 crore allocated for 2013-14 and Rs.5,000 crore over the Rs.224,000 crore allocated in the interim budget for 2014-15 presented ahead of the April-May general election.

The huge amount of money lying “unclaimed” in saving schemes will be utilized especially for the welfare of senior citizens, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Thursday.

“A large amount of money is estimated to be lying as unclaimed amounts with PPF (Public Provident Fund), post office, saving schemes etc. These are mostly out of investments belonging to the senior citizens and on their demise, remain unclaimed for want of relevant payment instructions,” Jaitley said while presenting his maiden budget.

Telangana Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao has expressed his dissatisfaction over the 2014-15 union budget.

Criticising the budget presented in the Parliament Thursday, he said that apart from a horticultural university, no other project has been given to Telangana.

“Horticultural university sanction issue was mentioned in State Reorganization Bill. It’s not a new thing,” the chief minister said in a statement.

The union budget simply mentioned that the commitments of the Reorganization Act will be fulfilled but no specific mention has been made, he added.
(IANS)