Month: July 2014

Goa’s Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza apologized on Monday for his comment that India was already a Hindu nation.

“My opinion could be wrong for others. I accept it. I don’t say it is the most correct opinion. You might say I am wrong. If anyone’s sentiment is hurt, I apologise,” Mr D’Souza said.

“Hindu is my culture, Christianity is my religion. When I say Hindu, it means culture and not religion. Hindu culture is 5,000 years old and my religion is 2,000 years old,” Mr D’Souza said.

Telangana CM KCR seems to be rolling ahead of his AP counterpart N Chandrababu in using IT revolution for effective governance, for the time being.

A day after the Telangana CMO handle and page was created on social networking sites such as FB and twitter respectively, they received over 20,000 ‘likes’ on the first day, Sunday, itself.

Floated by the success of the CMO’s entry into the social networking sites, the TS regime has now begun putting efforts to launch a website of Telangana CMO to make the netizens access government programmes.

Individuals of companies which are interested in owning a website with domain name in Hindi language would be able to book the name in Hindi script from next month.

“Domain (website) name booking in Hindi script is proposed to be launched from August 15 subject to approval from higher authorities. Each domain name will cost Rs 350 and the TLD(top level domain) will be .Bharat (in Hindi script),” National Internet Exchange of India CEO Govind told PTI.

The name would have ‘.Bharat’ in Hindi script as its extension instead of commonly top level domains such as .Com, .Net or .In.

The police action against Marathi-speaking people at Yellur in Karnataka has prompted protests by political parties in Maharashtra, with the Shiv Sena calling it as an act of “terror” and seeking Centre’s intervention in the “disputed” region.

“It is the reign of goondas. Even we can do this goondagiri but we won’t do that. We demand that the Centre immediately declare the border area in Karnataka where 20 lakh Marathi-speaking people live, as Centrally administered region and appoint a Central representative as administrator,” Sena spokesman Sanjay Raut told reporters.

Extending losses for the second day, equity benchmarks closed at one-week lows with the Sensex ending below the 26,000 mark and the Nifty ending at 7,748.70 as investors booked profits in recent out-performers in sectors including realty, metals, oil & gas.

The BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty were seen trading with negative bias ahead of tomorrow’s trading holiday and July F&O expiry on Thursday. Market breadth was largely negative. Small-cap and mid-cap indices fell due to persistent selling pressure from retail investors.

Former Union Minister Sarve Satyanarayana on Monday claimed that lack of sufficient funds was one of the reason why he lost last election from the Malkajgiri constituency.

The MANUU CSE Residential Coaching Academy has announced the conduct of three Practice Tests on 3rd, 10th and 13 August for the forthcoming UPSC Civil Services (2014) Preliminary Examination to be held in August 2014 for the interested candidates.

The MANUU CSE Residential Coaching Academy has announced the conduct of three Practice Tests on 3rd, 10th and 13 August for the forthcoming UPSC Civil Services (2014) Preliminary Examination to be held in August 2014 for the interested candidates.

State Board of Technical Education and Training Secretary D Venkateswarlu has informed that the Typewriting Examinations scheduled to be held on 9th and 10th of August have been postponed to 23rd and 24th of August with same timings.

The candidates can get more details from the websites http://apsbtet.net/twshportal and http://www.sbtetap.gov.in. (INN)

Maulana Azad National Urdu University is restarting the process of admission into a few courses for the vacant seats for the academic year 2014-15 at various cities.

Goa’s Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza Monday apologized for his comment that India was already a Hindu nation.

“My opinion could be wrong for others. I accept it. I don’t say it is the most correct opinion. You might say I am wrong. If anyone’s sentiment is hurt, I apologise,” D’Souza said.

“Hindu is my culture, Christianity is my religion. When I say Hindu, it means culture and not religion. Hindu culture is 5,000 years old and my religion is 2,000 years old,” D’Souza said.

Former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju Monday again complained of interferences in the appointment of judges, saying former chief justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan tried his best to elevate a judge to the apex court despite allegations of corruption against him.

Katju said in his blog post that he told Justice Kapadia that the said judge had a “very bad reputation about his integrity”.

“I told Justice Kapadia that a chief justice of a high court, who had earlier been a judge of the Madras High Court, had a very bad reputation about his integrity,” Katju wrote in his blog.

Hyderabad-based non-government organisations (NGOs) which work for the rehabilitation of people and children living on the streets conducted a survey and it revealed that most of the beggars in the city are seasonal beggars.

With the GHMC help, the NGOs found that many beggars migrate to the city from different parts of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and other states during important festivals like Ramzan, Christmas, Dasara and others.

According to sources confirmed to the media, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has prepared a file to be handed over to Sri Lankan officials with details of an official in the Pakistan High Commission in Colombo, suspected of being involved in a terror plot to target Israeli and U.S. consulates in Bangalore and Chennai.

Trees are saving more than 850 human lives a year and preventing 670,000 incidences of acute respiratory symptoms in the US, a new study has found.

While trees’ pollution removal equated to an average air quality improvement of less than 1 per cent, the impacts of that improvement are substantial.

Researchers valued the human health effects of the reduced air pollution at nearly USD 7 billion every year.

The Centre today said the situation in violence-hit Saharanpur is fully under control and it is keeping close eye on it.

“Saharanpur situation is fully under control. We are keeping a close vigil,” Home Minister Rajnath Singh told reporters here.

Singh’s comments came a day after he briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the situation in the Uttar Pradesh town.

The Home Ministry has already sent 600 paramilitary personnel to assist the state administration in maintaining law and order situation there.

Thousands of people took part in the funeral of a 27-year-old Indian-origin Israeli soldier killed after being hit by a mortar shell near the Gaza Strip border while Israel was holding fire under a UN-brokered humanitarian truce.

Barak Refael Degorker, killed on Saturday night, was laid to rest yesterday in a military cemetery in his hometown of Gan Yavne.

The bereaved family, parents Ora and Moshe and two younger brothers, while inconsolable at their loss spoke about “kind hearted” Degorker whose death has left a “permanent void” in their lives.

India’s bowling coach Joe Dawes was apprehensive about Ishant Sharma’s fitness, saying the pace spearhead will undergo tests in the next few days after missing out on the second test due to a sore leg.

Tall fast bowler Pankaj Singh replaced Ishant in the Indian squad.

“Ishant has a sore leg. We need to do a few more tests but we have 11 days before for the next Test, so we will watch him carefully,” Dawes said after the day’s play.

US President Barack Obama greeted the Muslim community across the world on the occasion of Eid-al-Fitr stating that the festival celebrates the common values that unite humanity and reinforces the obligations that people of all faiths have to each other.

“As Muslims throughout the United States and around the world celebrate Eid-al-Fitr, Michelle and I extend our warmest wishes to them and their families,” Obama said in statement.

“This last month has been a time of fasting, reflection, spiritual renewal, and service to the less fortunate,” he said.

A team of Dutch and Australian police will today again attempt to reach the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, a senior Australian official said, although he warned the situation was volatile.

An unarmed team of Dutch and Australian officers was forced to drop their plans to visit the site in eastern Ukraine yesterday as heavy bombardments rocked towns close to the area where the plane was shot down, killing all 298 on board.

Nearly a hundred people gathered on a ferry off the coast of American Samoa during a memorial service honoring the US teenager who died and his father who is missing after their plane crashed during an attempt to circumnavigate the world.

The body of 17-year-old Haris Suleman was found shortly after his plane crashed in the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday after leaving Pago Pago. US Coast Guard officials yesterday said they were suspending the search for 58-year-old Babar Suleman.

An Abu Dhabi-bound flight with around 117 passengers and crew on board aborted take-off this morning following a ‘technical problem’, airport officials said.

The pilot of the Etihad airlines flight noticed the problem while preparing for take-off at the airport here, officials said.

Passengers have been provided accommodation, they added.

Uttar Pradesh government today recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe in the Mohanlalganj rape and murder case.

Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Naresh Agarwal told ANI, “According to me the UP police was conducting a good investigation, however, the family members of the Mohanlalganj victim had asked for a CBI investigation, so it has been recommended.”

Chief of Staff, Eastern Naval Command Vice Admiral Bimal Verma today inaugurated a Naval Selection Board (NSB) for the induction of trainees into the officer cadre of the Indian Navy.

This is the fourth NSB of the Navy, with other three boards operational at Coimbatore, Bangalore and Bhopal, an official release said here today.

The NSB here is located in Navshakti Nagar.

“The board is expected to mitigate the shortfall in induction of officers into the force, and also motivate more youth to join the naval force,” the release added.

Condemning the violence in Saharanpur, the state unit of BJP here has said that monetary compensation cannot heal the wounds caused by violence.

“We condemn incident of the Saharanpur violence. Monetary compensation cannot heal the wounds caused by violence, atrocities, injuries, destructions and deaths”, co-incharge of BJP State unit, Sardar R P Singh told reporters here last evening.

Singh further alleged that the incidents were a pre-planned conspiracy to harm a particular community and Akhilesh Yadav government cannot shed its responsibility.