Month: July 2014

Railway Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda’s Tuesday proposal to begin special pilgrimage and eco-tourism services will boost domestic tourism and encourage private participation in the sector, stakeholders say.

Presenting the 2014-15 railway budget, he said specially packaged trains for pilgrim circuits like Devi Circuit, Jyotirling Circuit, Jain Circuit, Christian Circuit, Muslim/Sufi Circuit, Sikh Circuit, Buddhist Circuit, Famous Temple Circuit will be introduced.

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets plunged 517.97 points or 1.98 percent Tuesday after the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government presented its maiden Railway Budget.

All sectoral indices closed in the red taking the benchmark index to one of its lowest levels in the past 10 months.

Heavy selling pressure was seen in capital goods, metal, consumer durables, oil and gas, auto, banking, realty, IT and healthcare sectors.

The index of Indian equities markets hit a new high of 26,190.44 points during the morning session.

The CBI is likely to question Andhra Pradesh Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan “very soon” in connection with alleged graft in the procurement of AgustaWestland VVIP choppers for 556.262 million euros (Rs.3,726.96 crore), officials said Tuesday.

Narasimhan, 68, will be the third governor to be quizzed in the case by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which previously questioned former Goa governor B.V. Wanchoo and former West Bengal governor M.K. Narayanan.

The agency interrogated Narayanan and Wanchoo last week as witnesses and they resigned soon after.

A new-look India will be eager to get their first overseas Test win in three years when they take on England in the first match of their five-Test series, starting here at Trent Bridge Wednesday.

The 0-4 whitewash they suffered on their last tour, just after their 2011 World Cup triumph, is still fresh in the minds of the Indians. This time they are without legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and V.V.S. Laxman, but the young Indian team is better equipped to challenge the Englishmen in their backyard.

Nigerian military has commenced air and ground bombardment of Boko Haram camps in the West African country’s northeastern state of Borno, killing over 44 terrorists, the authorities said.

Chris Olukolade, spokesperson of the Nigerian military headquarters, said in a statement reaching Xinhua Monday that troops have cleared and taken over Balmo forest in a military operation that lasted throughout the weekend.

A fungus strain responsible for an outbreak of contaminated Greek yoghurt last year has the ability to cause serious gastrointestinal (GI) problems, according to new research.

In September 2013, customers of “Chobani” brand Greek yoghurt complained of gastrointestinal (GI) problems after consuming products manufactured in the company’s Idaho plant in the US.

It was believed at the time that the fungal contaminant Murcor circinelloides was only a potential danger to immuno-compromised individuals.

At least 30 Palestinians were injured overnight as Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) launched a new military operation dubbed “Protective Edge” to stop rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip against Israel.

Nine of the injured were in a house that was struck in an air raid on the southern city of Khan Younis, said Asraf al Qedra, emergencies’ spokesman in the Gaza Strip.

“The Israeli Defence Forces have launched Operation Protective Edge against Hamas in Gaza to stop the terror that Israeli citizens face each day,” said an IDF spokesperson on his official Twitter account late Monday.

Railway Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda, who Tuesday announced a bullet train in his maiden budget, read his speech at a fast pace which prompted a member to urge him to slow down.

“Don’t read so fast,” Saugata Roy of Trinamool Congress quipped as the minister read out one paragraph after the other without a break.

Gowda responded by saying that the members seemed to like his speech.

“I think you are all pleased by my budget,” he said.

Gowda quoted from Kautilya’s “Arthashastra” in his over hour-long speech with his new initiatives drawing cheers from the treasury benches.

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The Congress in Goa has demanded to know whether a feasibility study was carried out for a high-speed train on the treacherous, accident-prone Konkan Railway route connecting Mumbai and Goa.

The state BJP Tuesday welcomed Railway Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda’s announcement of the high-speed train on the route in the course of his maiden Railway Budget.

“Goa-Mumbai high speed train is a welcome step,” South Goa BJP MP Narendra Savoikar said, calling Gowda’s budget “holistic” in its approach.

For your knowledge, our cells can change into an invasive, liquid-like state to readily navigate the narrow channels in our body.

This transformation is triggered by chemical signals that, if blocked, can stop cancer cells from spreading.

This fresh insight into how cells move through the body could lead to innovative techniques to stop cancer cells from spreading and causing secondary tumours, researchers from University of California, Los Angeles, have claimed.

The Lok Sabha witnessed unruly scenes Tuesday as members of the Trinamool Congress and the BJP got into a spat inside the house over a protest against the Railway Budget.

As soon as the house met in the afternoon for a scheduled discussion on price rise, the Trinamool Congress MPs trooped near the speaker’s podium and started shouting slogans against the Railway Budget, which was presented earlier in the day.

The TMC members were claiming that the rail budget had ignored the state of West Bengal and demanded that the budget be taken back.

Iraq’s parliament Tuesday set July 13 for its next session, changing the earlier decision to convene Aug 12, the acting parliament speaker said.

“Adhering to the constitutional contexts and in order to preserve and continue the process of building democracy, and after further consultation with the heads of the parliamentary blocs, we’ve decided to change the date of the previous call for parliament to convene to be Sunday, July 13,” Mahdi al-Hafidh said in a statement issued on the parliament’s official website.

The Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) killed a commander of a rival jihadi group in the eastern countryside of Syria’s capital Damascus, media reported Tuesday.

The commander was killed when the ISIS blew up his car in the al-Ghouta countryside of Damascus, Xinhua reported citing the pro-government al-Khabar TV.

The victim, Harun, was the head of the Badr Brigade, a faction of the so-called Islam Army, which has been deadlocked in battles with the ISIS over control of rebel-held areas on the eastern edge of Damascus.

South African great Jacques Kallis has said that it would be nice if he could end his international career with a World Cup victory, with him as part of the winning side.

A motivated Kallis, who would be playing for the Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League later this year, has achieved a lot of prizes in nearly two decades in the game, except for the Cricket World Cup.

Israel has launched more airstrikes on the Gaza Strip after rocket firing carried out by Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement.

The strikes reportedly injured at least 15 Palestinians, including two women and a child, said Palestinian medics.

Hamas justified the action by saying that the attack had been a response to Zionist aggression, and added that five Palestinians fighters had been killed. However, Israel denied the claim.

Israeli offensive was a part of a campaign making Hamas militants its main target, claims the Israeli military.

Myanmar’s reformist president has warned that newly-won media freedoms could be curtailed if stability is threatened by religious bloodshed shaking the former military-ruled country.

Thein Sein, whose administration has been accused of failing to stem two years of sporadic anti-Muslim violence, vowed “zero tolerance” against the perpetrators of fighting in the second largest city Mandalay that left two dead last week.

But he also fired a shot across the bows of the media, after inflammatory material posted online was blamed for stoking the unrest.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas today demanded Israel immediately halt its latest offencive against Gaza following a night of air strikes and militant rocket fire on the Israeli south.

“Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas demanded Israel immediately stop its escalation and the raids on Gaza,” said a statement from his office published shortly after midnight 0230 IST by the official WAFA news agency.

He also asked the international community “to immediately intervene to halt this dangerous escalation which would lead the region to more destruction and instability.”

The benchmark BSE Sensex retreated from record highs by falling 202 points to dip below the 26,000 mark in mid-session trade today after the rail budget failed to impress investors.

Besides a weak Asian trend and lower opening in Europe further influenced the trading sentiment, brokers said.

The BSE 30-share Sensex after hitting a new record high of 26,190.44 points in opening trade, retreated to 25,897.33, showing a fall of 202.75 points, or 0.77 per cent.

General Motors on Monday launched special editions of its hatchback models Beat and Sail in India to mark its partnership with popular English football club Manchester United.

The launch of Manchester United limited editions of Chevrolet Beat and SAIL hatchbacks comes at a time when the Chevrolet brand is making debut on the club’s jersey.

The special edition models come with various features including Manchester United decals, alloy wheels, special seat covers, and roof rails.

Two-wheeler major Hero MotoCorp Monday said it had forayed into South American country Colombia by commencing construction of its fully-owned manufacturing plant in the country.

“Today, we laid the foundation stone of our manufacturing plant at Villa Rica in Colombia, the first full-fledged plant by an Indian two-wheeler manufacturer in Latin America,” said Pawan Munjal, managing director and chief executive, Hero MotoCorp.

The Google search engine has come to the rescue of would-be moms. According to researchers, more and more first-time mothers are using the internet to seek answers to their queries related to pregnancies.

“We found that first-time moms were upset that their first prenatal visit did not occur until eight weeks into pregnancy,” said Jennifer L. Kraschnewski, an assistant professor of medicine at Penn State University’s college of medicine.

New research by academics at the University of Sheffield has solved a long-standing mystery surrounding the evolution of galaxies, deepening our understanding of the future of the Milky Way.

The supermassive black holes in the cores of some galaxies drive massive outflows of molecular hydrogen gas. As a result, most of the cold gas is expelled from the galaxies. Since cold gas is required to form new stars, this directly affects the galaxies’ evolution.

A new study claims that human skin has olfactory receptors that can ‘sniff’ out the odors.

According to the scientists, human skin could smell itself as well as other scents, and could also pinpoint a common and pleasant scent, which promoted healing of the skin.

Chemist Peter Schieberle from the Technical University of Munich, who discovered that the human heart, blood and lungs possess olfactory receptors, told Discovery News that it was possible for odors to have less important functions in the human body.

A new study has revealed that allowing employees to take smartphone microbreaks may be a benefit rather than a disruption for businesses.

Sooyeol Kim, through a study of 72 full-time workers from various industries, discovered that employees only spend an average of 22 minutes out of an eight-hour workday playing on their smartphones.

The study found that employees who take smartphone breaks throughout the day are happier at the end of the workday and a smartphone microbreak can be beneficial for both the employee and the organization.

Everyone wants to look stylish and comfortable at the workplace. Soft flowing blouses, wide legged pants and draped jackets can help in achieving the desired look.

Femalefirst.co.uk suggests a few fashion tips to help professionals.

* Tops: Avoid shirts in the high heat, soft flowing blouses are a lot more comfortable and will allow your skin to breathe.