Month: July 2014

France today hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “bold plan” for a “saffron revolution” aimed at making India a solar energy hub and offered its cooperation in the renewable energy sector.

“France warmly welcomes Prime Minister Modi’s announcement of what he calls a saffron revolution to provide solar power to 400 million Indians,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said here.

Fabius, who is in India on a four-day visit, said “this bold plan” embodies the solutions that France is promoting in the run up to the crucial UN Climate Conference at the end of next year in Paris.

Actor Shia LaBeouf is reportedly seeking treatment in a rehab here following his arrest in New York last week.

“Shia was nervous, he didn’t look good all morning. He was looking down and wasn’t even talking to his driver. It looked like he didn’t want to do it (rehab), but he knew he had to,” a photographer from X17.com was quoted by femalefirst.co.uk as saying.

The news that the “Transformers” star is seeking professional help comes just days after the 28-year-old was arrested at a Broadway theatre for using offensive language and slapping people’s bottoms in New York.

Movie buffs in the capital are gearing up to catch a glimpse of Anurag Kashyap’s yet to release dark drama “Ugly”, which will open the fifth edition of the Jagran Film Festival (JFF) here Saturday.

“Ugly”, a thriller and emotional drama starring Ronit Roy, Rahul Bhat, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Vinit Kumar Singh, Surveen Chawla and Vipin Sharma, has already been screened at the Cannes International Film Festival and the New York Indian Film Festival.

The movie, the Asia premiere of which was recently held at the Ladakh International Film Festival, is officially scheduled to release Sep 19.

The Supreme Court Tuesday granted bail to Tehelka founder editor Tarun Tejpal in a sexual assault case.

Tejpal was arrested in Goa in November last year after a woman colleague accused him of sexually assaulting her in a hotel there that month.

Granting bail, a bench of Justice H.L.Dattu and Justice S.A. Bobde said: “In the facts and circumstances of the case, we are of the opinion that petitioner (Tejpal) is entitled for regular bail.”

Theatre actor Aahana Kumra, who will be seen as Amitabh Bachchan’s onscreen daughter in TV show “Yudh”, says working with the megastar has been like going on a pilgrimage.

Aahana has earlier worked in films like Anup Kurian’s “The Blueberry Hunt” and Makarand Deshpande’s “Sona Spa”. With Sony channel’s “Yudh”, she is making her debut on television.

A number of five-star hotels have taken the lesson to heart and are investing in their own kitchen gardens -not only do they get to ensure the optimum farming standards, they also save a lot of money, means saving on the very high prices they need to pay for imports.

And it’s not only exotic varieties –these five-star rated hotels are tilling the land and growing pumpkins and tomatoes in their own farms, in their own backyards.
Four Seasons Hotel in Mumbai has made a purchase of use of a farmland near Mumbai, where it grows vegetables such as heirloom tomatoes.

According to sources, depending on water and land availability in Krishna and Guntur district, Capital structures, an administrative town-ship and industrial hubs will come up in the Vijayawada-Guntur-Tenali-Mangalgiri Urban Development Authority near the proposed Outer Ring Road.

Revenue officers started fencing government lands in Guntur and are also preparing proper documentation for revenue lands.

First they refused to move, and now they are all queuing up to `get out’ of Telangana as fast as possible. A week after CM Chandrababu Naidu increased the retirement age of government employees to 60; all of a sudden hundreds of Andhra-origin employees, who have about two years of service left, have expressed their desire to work in residuary Andhra Pradesh.

Iraq’s newly-elected parliament failed Tuesday to agree on electing a new speaker and two deputies.

The acting speaker had to adjourn the session after many lawmakers walked out of the house, Xinhua reported.

The next session will be held in a week if there is an agreement amongst the political blocs, said Mahdi al-Hafidh, a senior lawmaker who chaired the first session of the new parliament.

The Congress will present a mini-skirt to Goa’s Public Works Department Minister Sudin Dhavalikar, who wants a ban on girls from wearing short skirts to nightclubs, as, he says, they are a threat to the “Goan culture”.

The Congress would formally send Dhavalikar a mini-skirt to prove that popular party clothes have very little to do with disrespect to one’s culture, party spokesperson Durgadas Kamat told reporters here Tuesday.

“Let him see for himself. We are sending him a brand new mini-skirt,” Kamat said.

A United States citizen has been sentenced to serve 13 years in prison for planning to give training in weapons to Al Qaeda terrorists, after fighting in Syria, said prosecutors.

Sinh Vinh Ngo Nguyen had committed a very serious offense and deserves a longer sentence period, said U.S. District Judge John Walter .

Nguyen, 25, based outside Los Angeles, has admitted in a statement that he had travelled to Syria in late 2012 and had fought against the President Bashar al-Assad.

Nguyen also said he had planned to train Al Qaeda, but they had refused his offer.

The ICC today launched the tender process for sale of media rights for ICC events for the next eight years.

This process offers television and digital broadcasters, content delivery platforms and media conglomerates the opportunity to own an attractive media rights package, either globally or by territory, for ICC events which includes two editions of the ICC Cricket World Cup, the second largest single sport event in the world, and two ICC World Twenty20 tournaments, the pinnacle event for one of the fastest growing sports formats in the world.

The benchmark Sensex today rose for the third straight session and closed 103 points up at a two-week high on good buying in bluechips after an uptick in manufacturing sector growth and signs of pickup in auto sales.

Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors and Hindalco shares led the rally on sustained capital inflows, said dealers.

The decision to hike diesel, petrol and non-subsidised LPG prices was interpreted by investors as the government’s resolve to take tough decisions, they added.

Outstation students and their parents on Tuesday heaved a sigh of relief as the undergraduate admission process at Delhi University finally kicked off, ending an agonising, week-long wait.

With the first cut-off list out for most DU colleges, students from various parts of the country and even abroad are lining up for admission in the prestigious university. Aspirants included state toppers from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, among others.

In an enticing offer, an entire US town complete with a bar, workshop, three trailers, single house and 6.16 acres of prime prairie real estate, is up for sale for about USD 400,000.

Lance Benson, the sole owner of Swett, an unincorporated hamlet in Bennett County, South Dakota, about two hours southeast of Rapid City, is putting the whole town up for grabs.

Benson, the owner of a travelling concession business, said that while he would love to keep the town, he wanted to focus on his core business.

Telangana Dalits would have 3 acres each from August 15, according to Telangana Rashtra Samithi leader and Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao.

On Monday, addressing party workers at Telangana Bhavan here, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi leader said the government would distribute land to Dalits from that day to help them lead a life of nobility.

The irrigation minister said the TRS government is committed to the wellbeing of farmers in the state. Although it is tough, the government would fulfill its promise of debt waiver for farmers, he said.

South African cricket Test skipper Hashim Amla has said that it would be very important for his side to first find a winning formula to defeat the Sri Lankans in a forthcoming test series, rather than thinking about regaining the number one world ranking in Test Cricket.

Speaking ahead of his side’s two Test series against Sri Lanka, he said that Sri Lanka is a tough place to tour, and that ICC rankings was not at the forefront of the team’s objectives.

Marriages may be made in heaven, but the thriving matrimonial markets between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have driven a wedge, thanks to bifurcation.

After 56 years of living as one, the acrimonious divorce between Telugus has led to a fall in the number of marriage matches between the people of the two states.

But one thing has remained unchanged. Hyderabad, even post bifurcation, remains the key deciding factor in the marriage market when it comes to matches between Telanganaites and Andhraites. This has led to a peculiar problem.

Scientists have found that antihistamines, which is mainly used to treat allergies, runny noses, itching and insect bites and stings, may play a role in warding off tumors as well.

A new research report suggests that the drug may have significant anti-cancer properties as they interfere with the function of myeloid derived suppressor cell that is known to reduce the body’s ability to fight tumors by interfering with the activity of cells.

Air India on Tuesday filed a police complaint in connection with the bomb threat call received Monday following which its Kochi-Delhi flight with 164 people on board, was asked to land at Bangalore airport in full emergency.

The national carrier in the complaint, narrated the sequence of events after they received the call at 9 PM yesterday, Spokesperson of Air India, Kochi, told PTI.

The Airport police at nearby Nedumbassery said they had received the complaint. The mobile number of the person, purported to have made the call, had been given, Circle Inspector of the station said.

Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, the two new States have launched campaigns to attract investments into the IT industry in the respective states.

Three days after Telangana IT Minister K Taraka Rama Rao held a meeting with the representatives of the industry, Palla Raghunatha Reddy, his counterpart of Andhra Pradesh, made a presentation to the industry, detailing the plans of his Government on Monday evening.

Obviously, Andhra Pradesh is in a disadvantageous position with a share of 1-2 per cent share in the Rs 64,000-crore IT export revenues of the undivided state.

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi and Congress are heading for a tough contest to win the post of Chairman of Telangana State Legislative Council.

Deviating from the tradition of unanimous election for the post, both TRS and Congress have fielded their candidates for the post. While MLC Swamy Goud submitted his papers at 10.30 AM and even claimed that he was getting elected unopposed, about an hour later Congress MLC Farooq Hussain filed the nomination for the post.

Trinamool Congress MP Tapas Pal’s controversial comments rocked the West Bengal Assembly on Tuesday with Congress staging a walk-out after the Speaker disallowed its adjournment motion demanding Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s statement and the MP’s immediate arrest.

Immediately after the Question Hour, Speaker Biman Banerjee took up the adjournment motion and disallowed it.

The Congress members then walked out shouting slogans demanding action against Tapas Pal, who is a two-time Trinamool Congress MP from Krishnagar.

About four lakh Telangana employees will receive their first salary in T-state on Tuesday.

Employees who played a vital role in achieving T-state by actively participating in several protest programmes, going on general strikes, particularly the 43-day-old Sakala Janata Samme and stay away from duties during the last five years, are excited to receive their salary in their own state for the first time.

According to them, their decades-long dream of working for T-government and receiving salary for the same has been realized and their happiness cannot be expressed in words.

G. Jagadeeshwar Reddy, the Telangana education minister on Monday said the T-government will not pay the fee arrears of Seemandhra students, who took admissions in Telangana during previous academic years and are currently in various stages of completion of their courses.

He stated that either AP or the Centre will have to bear their fees, amounting to nearly 0.800 crore .on Monday, the managements of engineering and other professional colleges sought payment of arrears of the academic year 2013-19 amounting to nearly! 3,000 crore.