Month: July 2014

The information and broadcasting ministry Thursday was allocated Rs.3,316 crore in the national budget for 2014-15, a 16.11 percent hike over last year.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told the Lok Sabha that there would be special focus on community radio, 24X7 television channel for the northeast and a TV channel for farmers.

The first budget of the Narendra Modi government focused on the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, and the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI), Kolkata.

Congress leaders criticised the Budget 2014-15 proposals presented here on Thursday by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, claiming it to be high on rhetoric and lacking in vision.

Congress leader Manish Tewari said that the new budget is high on rhetoric but short on delivery and it neither has a roadmap nor a vision.

The allocation for defence in fiscal 2014-15 has been raised to Rs 2, 29,000 crore.

Presenting the Union Budget in Lok Sabha today, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also proposed a further sum of Rs 1,000 crore to address the pension disparities while implementing the policy of “one rank one pension” for soldiers.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his maiden budget speech announced on Thursday that the pending Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill will immediately be brought for consideration before Parliament.

The Finance Minister said benefits of insurance in India have not reached to a large section of the people as insurance penetration and density are very low.

Jaitley assured that the government would work addressing this situation in multi-pronged manner with support of all stake holders concerned.

Ali Fazal has revealed that he is upset as his parents haven’t seen his latest flick ‘ Bobby Jasoos’ due to the ongoing season of Ramadan.

The ‘ Fukrey’ star, who stars opposite Vidya Balan in the film, and has received recognition and praises from the critics, said, “I am only a tad bit disappointed as my parents and close friends in Lucknow, who were excited to see the movie, haven’t got an opportunity to watch the film since Ramadan is going on”.

“I wish they could have seen the film as the movie celebrates Ramadan and the jashn of life”, he added. (ANI)

Ever wondered why some couples derive similar pleasure from sipping a fine wine or watching the sunset? They share the same patterns of brain activity!

Although feelings are personal and subjective, the human brain turns them into a standard code that objectively represents emotions across different senses, situations and even people, according to a new study.

Shiv Sena Member of Parliament (MP) Sanjay Raut today, condemned Congress President Sonia Gandhi for saying that a court summoning Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and herself in connection with the National Herald case, smacked of ‘political vindictiveness’ by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance Government.

Movement of electric train on Sultanpur-Varanasi section was today disrupted for two hours after a tree fell on a moving train near Muradganj railway crossing, railway officials said.

Due to incessant rains, a neem tree collapsed on the express train from Kota to Patna (13240) while it was passing through Muradganj railway crossing, Station Superintendent of Jaunpur D P Singh said.

The tree fell on the engine of the train injuring its driver, he said adding, the driver’s condition is stable.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson M J Akbar said here on Thursday that this year’s general budget proposals will generate more jobs for the youth.

“This budget will be a budget for jobs. It has started from today, and you will get the result within a year. We should welcome this budget,” said Akbar.

Criticising the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government for ruining the national treasury from past so many years, Akbar said that the government needs to make the budget keeping in mind this truth.

Calling Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s maiden budget ‘directionless’, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said there is nothing new in it.

“The whole budget is directionless,” said Kejriwal.

“For the last one year, the BJP and Narendra Modi had made several promises to the people if they are voted to power. So, people had hopes that something big is going to happen today. But today, there was nothing in the budget that was presented,” he added.

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi had a front row seat today for the presentation by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley of Narendra Modi government’s maiden budget.

Rahul, who had been among the backbenchers for some time, was asked to sit in the front row of the Opposition benches by his mother and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

When the Congress Vice President went to his mother during the five-minute break which Jaitley took in between presenting the budget, he was told by Sonia to sit by her side.

Rahul seemed initially reluctant, but soon relented.

A woman in New York actually spent three years living with her mother’s corpse.

Chava Stirn’s mother’s decaying dead body was recovered from the New York apartment, after the Police was informed by the neighbours about a foul smell and unexplained leak coming from the flat, the Daily Star reported.

Officers found of Susie Rosenthal’s skeleton stacked on a series of bin bags in the kitchen.

It is understood that Stirn had been living in the Brooklyn house before her mother died and did not leave after her death.

The second man to ever walk on Moon, Buzz Aldrin, recently revealed on his ‘Ask Me Anything’ session with online bulletin board site Reddit, that he was interested in composing a new song, entitled ‘get your ass to Mars!’ because he have heard Frank Sinatra sing Fly me to the Moon too many times.

Sixty-seven years after he led India to freedom from British rule, a statue of Mahatma Gandhi would be installed in Parliament Square in London by early next year.

British Foreign Minister William Hague and Chancellor of Exchequer George Osborne, who are on a visit here, today announced the plan for the statue of Gandhi, the inspiration for non-violent civil rights movements around the world.

Nagpur residents on Thursday expressed their satisfaction with the maiden general budget proposals of the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government, which was presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

The Budget proposed four more AIIMS to be set up in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Vidharbha and Purvanchal with allocation of Rs 500 crore.

A low-intensity blast took place in front of a police station in central Pune on Thursday.

Two people are believed to have sustained injuries in the blast outside Faraskhana police station.

According to reports, explosives were planted on a two-wheeler parked inside a parking lot. Police have cordoned off the site.

In the meantime, Satish Mathur, the Commissioner of Police, Pune, said police are are checking whether CCTVs were installed in the area. He added that a probe is on whether an IED was used in the blast.

More details are awaited.

Director Homi Adajania, whose `Finding Fanny` trailer has garnered over a million views in just 22 hours, says he shot the quirky story in just 36 days.

The film stars Deepika Padukone, Arjun Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah, Dimple Kapadia and Pankaj Kapur. Adajania enjoyed working with a bunch of talented performers in the film, which is set in a sleepy Goan village.

A new survey has revealed that trusting co-workers would be a tough task after knowing that 53 per cent people said that they would sacrifice a work friendship if it meant getting a promotion.

According to the research ‘Relationships@ Work’ conducted by LinkedIn 80 per cent of people aged between 18 to 24 years would sacrifice a workplace friendship, compared to the more loyal young boomers, of which only 37 per cent would not betray their colleagues, News.com.au reported.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today spared the common man from price hikes by keeping duties on commonly used day-to-day items unchanged but made it costlier for smokers and tobacco consumers with a steep increase in excise rate in tax proposals in Budget 2014-15.

Following is a list of what will be cheaper and costlier:

CHEAPER

> CRT television

> LED/LCD TVs especially below 19 inch

> Footwear priced between Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 per pair

> Soaps

> E-book readers

> Desktop, laptops and tablets

> RO based water purifiers

> LED Lights, fixtures and lamps

At least 20 Palestinians were killed today in fresh Israeli air strikes targeting over 300 Hamas positions, taking the death toll to 64 in the deadliest escalation in the region since November 2012.

Gaza medical officials claimed that half of the total casualties in three days of offensive were civilians, including women and children.

Eight Palestinians were killed in an air raid on a house near the southern town of Khan Younis early today, the Palestinian health ministry said.

After matching steps with Salman Khan in a special song from the upcoming film `Kick`, model-actress Nargis Fakhri says she was bowled over by the superstar`s personality and energy.

The 34-year-old beauty said she was nervous initially to shake a leg with the `Dabangg` star. “It was ecstatic to work with Salman but at the same time I was nervous because he is one of the biggest stars of the industry and I thought I would mess-up everything on the set.

US Secretary of State John Kerry today said that the United States and China had a frank exchange on the issue of cyberhacking during this week’s “Strategic and Economic Dialogue” in Beijing.

Kerry said the loss of intellectual property through hacking has had a “chilling effect on innovation and investment,” and said such activity is hurting US companies.

He made no mention of a New York Times report suggesting significant Chinese hacking of information about US government personnel.

When L.K. Advani was dragged kicking and screaming from the post of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president in 2005 under orders from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a diplomatic cable from the US embassy in Delhi to Washington stated that the event “demonstrated the power of the RSS … and will likely increase the party’s (the BJP’s) political decline”.

A spokesman for Iraqi Kurdish president Massud Barzani said today national premier Nuri al-Maliki had “become hysterical” and should step down after he accused the autonomous region of harbouring militants.

Maliki “has become hysterical and has lost his balance,” said the statement, published on the Kurdish regional presidency website in English.

Addressing the premier, it continued: “You must apologise to the Iraqi people and step down. You have destroyed the country and someone who has destroyed the country cannot save the country from crises.”

The following are the highlights of the general budget for 2014-15 presented Thursday by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Lok Sabha:

* IT exemption limit for those below 60 raised from Rs.2 lakh to Rs.2.5 lakh; from Rs.2.5 lakh to Rs.3 lakh for senior citizens

* Investment limit under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act raised to Rs.1.5 lakh.

* Deduction limit on account of interest on loan in respect of self-occupied house property raised from Rs.1.5 lakh to Rs.2 lakh.

* No change in surcharge for corporates; education cess to continue