Month: August 2014

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Saturday said that though the economy has recently shown signs of recovery, inflation remains a major concern with the prices of vegetables and food items being affected by seasonal factors and the monsoon.

“Food inflation is a concern; normally at a time when prices of some fruits and vegetables are steep it is natural that there will be some inflation; inflation increases along with growth,” Jaitley said here on the occasion of the National Democratic Alliance government completing 100 days in office.

TRS MLC Ramulu Naik on Saturday informed that the TRS Government would soon introduced a Bill in the State Legislative Assembly to provide 12 per cent reservation for Scheduled Tribes in the Telangana State.

Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit on Saturday said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley should apologise to the nation for fooling them about inflation.

The Speaker of Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly Mubarak Gul today condemned the remarks of RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat that India is a Hindu nation and Hindutva is its identity.

Pacifying members in the House over the issue just before start of Question Hour in the Assembly, Gul said India is a secular country and it belongs to members of every faith or ideology.

“People of all sections — be it Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus or Parsis — have given sacrifices for the country and these statements create wedge between the communities,” he said.

India and the United States have notched up favourable ratings viz a viz Al Qaeda or the Taliban in a recent poll survey conducted in Pakistan.

About 12 percent of the Pakistanis view Al Qaeda favourably while the Taliban commands eight percent in the survey. Interestingly 14 and 13 percent view the United States and India in favourable light respectively, reported The Dawn.

Pew Research Centre, which has conducted the survey also shows that the price-hike has replaced energy shortage as the country’s number one problem.

Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) Executive Officer MG Gopal on Saturday released the wall posters of Sri Govinda Raja Swami vari Pavitrostavams which will commence on September 4.

The three days Pavithrotsavams in the famed temple of Sri Govindaraja Swamy will commence with Ankurarpanam on September 4. The other important days include Pavithra Prathista on September 5, Pavithra Samarpana on September 6 and Purnahuthi on September 7th.

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The Telangana unit of Communist Party of India on Saturday demanded that the State Government officially celebrate the Hyderabad Liberation Day on September 17.

BJP National Executive Member Nagam Janardhan Reddy on Saturday criticised the decision of TRS Government to increase the fee of medical students in Telangana State.

Addressing a press conference at the Telangana BJP office at Nampally here, Nagam said that fee structure in neighbouring States has remained unchanged. While the fee in Andhra Pradesh Rs 5.5 lakh, it is Rs 3.5 lakh in Karnataka. However, he alleged that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has given nod for the hike in medical fee after receiving kickbacks from managements of private medical colleges.

City football giants East Bengal Saturday became the first among the four clubs nominated by I-League outfit Pune FC to accept the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and in turn nominated Atletico de Kolkata, cricketer Sourav Ganguly and Shillong Lajong FC to follow suit.

The challenge was done at the East Bengal ground after Saturday’s training session.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu delivered the key note address at the Indian Exhibition Industry Association (IEIA) at HITEX Convention Centre on Saturday.

Malaysian World No.1 Lee Chong Wei secured his seat in the final of the World Badminton Championships after beating local shuttler Viktor Axelsen in straight games in the semi-final here Saturday.

Lee, geared up to clinch his first world title as his long-time rival Lin Dan of China is not playing in the tournament, achieved a one-sided 21-9, 21-7 men’s singles victory at the Ballerup Super Arena before an audience of over 3,000 people, reports Xinhua.

The counselling for admission to MBBS and BDS courses in colleges across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh for the academic year 2014-15 began at five centres on Saturday.

Pomegranate has many health benefits, and it can do wonders for one’s skin too.

From playing the role of powerful antioxidant to a product of anti-ageing, the fruit can help in many ways, suggests Wren Holmes, brand manager of natural ayurvedic skincare Urban Veda, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

Here’s how you can use the fruit for skin nourishment:

* Powerful antioxidant: Skin nutrition is vital at tackling one of the biggest causes of aging: free radical damage, and pomegranates are rightly known as superfoods for their antioxidant content.

A noted Muslim cleric in Kerala today issued a fatwa asking his community members to boycott the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and other terrorist organisations.

In his religious decree, General Secretary of All India Sunni Jam-e-yyathul Ulema, Shaikh Abu Bakr Ahmad said favouring the extremist organisations is antithetical to the Islamic Shariah.

Openers Akshat Reddy (99) and Tanmay Agarwal (54) shared a 125-run stand to help Hyderabad post a moderate 403 for six against TNCA President’s XI at close on the opening day of the final of the Buchi Babu Memorial Cricket tournament here today.

Put into bat, Reddy and Agarwal played with determination and brought up the 100-run stand in only 22.4 overs.

Agarwal was dismissed after scoring his half-century as Hyderabad took lunch at 133 for one in 36 overs. The visitors added another 105 runs losing two more wickets.

BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi today said a committee should be formed to find out foolproof definition of the words like “criminal and tainted” so that people with “vested interest” could not paste these labels on politicians.

“To stop selfish exploitation of the words– criminal and tainted– there is a need of forming experts committee to find out foolproof definitions of these words,” Naqvi said.

The party vice president demanded here that efforts should be made to draw a line between the role of the criminals and political or social activists.

More than 1.6 million people in Iraq have been displaced since the start of the year, a UN spokesperson said here Friday citing a report.

“It is estimated that over 600,000 people were displaced in August alone,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said quoting The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in a report.

The internally displaced people were living in over 1,500 locations across the country, often in extremely dire conditions, Xinhua quoted the official as saying.

With West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee indicating her Trinamool Congress was not averse to the idea of a tie-up with the CPI-M, the BJP Saturday claimed the swaying of minority voters towards it has led to the ruling party scurrying to its traditional foes for survival.

State Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rahul Sinha also claimed that the Trinamool was working towards a forgoing a formal alliance with former ally Congress and might have a tacit understanding with the Marxists for the 2016 Assembly polls to prevent BJP’s ascent.

People in Odisha Saturday celebrated the agricultural festival Nuakhai with enthusiasm, offering the first harvest of the season to god.

“The aim of the festival is to express man’s gratitude to nature and reverence to god for a good harvest,” Ranjan Panda, an activist based in Sambalpur told IANS.

People offered prayers at Samaleswari temple in the morning in the district headquarters town of Sambalpur, about 320 km from Bhubaneswar.

Similar offerings were made at Patmeswari temple in Bolangir district and Sureswari temple in Subarnapur.

The Visva Bharati University Saturday suspended three accused and lodged a police complaint following an internal probe into the sexual harassment of a student from the northeast.

The fine arts student from Sikkim was allegedly sexually assaulted earlier this week by some of her seniors, who even recorded the assault to blackmail her.

“As soon as the complaint was brought to the notice of the vice-chancellor, the internal complaints committee against sexual harassment was asked to investigate the incident.

In six years Lalit Modi rose to such heights in Indian cricket in the new millennium that no one thought his fall would be as meteoric. When he was thrown out of the Indian board, many had a sneaky suspicion that his tenaciousness was enough to come back and haunt those who hounded him out.

Modi, a former vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), was banned by the same board a year ago finding him guilty on eight counts of indiscipline and misconduct by its disciplinary committee after suspending him soon after the 2010 IPL final.

President Pranab Mukherjee Saturday greeted the people of Trinidad and Tobago on their national day which will be celebrated Sunday.

In his message to Anthony Carmona, president of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Mukherjee said: “On behalf of the government and people of India and on my own behalf, it gives me great pleasure to convey to your excellency warm greetings and felicitations on the occasion of national day of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.”

Former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi will be the face of the BJP in Bihar in the state assembly polls in 2015, said senior party leader and central Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh Saturday ending days of speculation.

“The BJP will fight the next state assembly polls under the leadership of Sushil Kumar Modi, who is a popular face and acceptable to all,” Singh, who is the Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Motihari, told mediapersons here.

Firebrand BJP leader Yogi Adityanath has attacked the minority community, saying riots happen wherever they are more than 10 percent in numbers while there is no place for non-Muslims where they are more than 35 percent.

Defending his provocative speeches, the Gorakhpur MP, who is among three party leaders entrusted with leading BJP campaign for the upcoming bye-elections in Uttar Pradesh, said Hindus will reply “in the same language” if they are subjected to attacks or forcible conversions.

England squandered away a good start as the Indian spinners restricted the hosts to 227 all out in 50 overs against India in the third one-day International, here today.

Put into bat, England started on a brisk note courtesy an 82-run opening partnership between Alastair Cook (44) and Alex Hales (42) but the spinners checked their surge by picking up wickets at regular intervals.

Hales, playing his first ODI in front of his home crowd, was caught behind off part-time spinner Suresh Raina (1-37) while Cook was stumped off the bowling of Ambati Rayudu (1-8).