TODAYS
SPECIAL-DAILY-NEWS-20-08-2016
19 August: World Humanitarian Day
World Humanitarian Day was observed on 19 August
2016 with the theme One Humanity. The theme explains how our shared human experiences
bind us across divides, and create a common responsibility to demand action for
the most vulnerable and at risk of being left behind. The digital
GOVERNMENT SCHEME-ACTION-DAILY-NEWS-20-08-2016
New Delhi: The Digital India
initiative may be aiming to make all government services electronically
available, but a recent study has found 10 government websites in Delhi lacking
in several transparency parameters. The study, published in Delhi Citizen's Handbook
2016, audited the websites against predefined parameters of Section 4 of Right
to Information (RTI) Act that sets
The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority
(NPPA) has revised the prices of 22 scheduled drugs. These drugs are for
treating malaria, HIV, asthma, breast cancer, among others. The drugs include
tablets such as Efavirenz, Ibuprofen, Tamoxifen and Salbutamol, Phenobarbitone
injection and Rifampicin capsule. All the existing manufacturers of scheduled
formulations, selling the
To boost usage by marginal consumers and attract
first-time internet users, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on
Friday allowed the telecom operators to offer data packs with the validity of
365 days, extending the maximum permitted time period for such offers from 90
days.The move will benefit the entry level users, who go for cheaper data plans
with longer validity
LEGAL-COURT BILL-ACT-DAILY-NEWS-20-08-2016
CHANDIGARH: The Haryana state
election commission has decided to take action against 1,134 candidates who had
recently contested municipalities' polls in the state and have failed to submit
election expenditure. Initially, the commission has issued notice to the
candidates from Faridabad, Panchkula, Ambala and Panipat districts. Stating
this, state election commissioner Dalip Singh said
The Allahabad High Court today
adjourned its hearing till September 30 on a petition challenging the election
of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency.
Appearing on behalf of Modi, Additional Solicitor General of India Satya
Pal Jain submitted that the allegations levelled by the petitioner Ajay Rai
"lacked critical and material facts" and hence the election petition
The CRPF has informed Jammu
and Kashmir High Court that if pellet guns are banned as a crowd control
measure, its personnel will be forced to fire bullets in extreme situations,
which can cause more fatalities. "In case, this (pellet gun) is withdrawn
from the options available with the CRPF, CRPF personnel would have no recourse
in extreme situations but to open fire with rifles, which
A special court on Friday framed various charges
including cheating and criminal conspiracy against former coal secretary H C
Gupta, two public servants, private firm Vikash Metals and Power Ltd and its
two officials in a coal blocks allocation scam case. The court put on trial all
the accused in the case in which the CBI's closure report was earlier rejected
by the court, asking the probe
The Union health ministry is working on a second
draft of a legislation to regulate sale of medical devices. The first one was
withdrawn, after resentment from the industry. Officials declined to say when
the draft would be finalised or when it could go to Parliament. The industry
had a meeting with officials in the Prime Minister's Office recently. There
were discussions on readying the final
US based new research has
found out that that Zika virus may damage brain cells not just in newborns but
also in adults. However, this research is still in the early stages. In this
study, researchers have focused on neural progenitor cells. These cells are the
stem cells of the brain. They grow and divide in fetuses to create neurons,
which are what carry information throughout
WASHINGTON: NASA's Curiosity
Mars rover has captured a stunning 360-degree panoramic view of features called
'Murray Buttes', combining more than 130 images taken on the fourth anniversary
of probe's landing on the red planet. The image was acquired by the Mast Camera
(Mastcam) on as the rover neared on lower Mount Sharp on Mars, during the
afternoon of the
Wild bees that forage from
oilseed rape crops treated with. . . neonicotinoids are more likely to undergo
long-term population declines than bees that forage from other sources,
according to the findings of an 18-year study. Going back to data from
1994 up to 2011, the scientists analyzed how large-scale applications of
neonicotinoids to oilseed rape crops influenced bee population
WASHINGTON: A large
number of ancient spherical stone artifacts found at a major archaeological
site in South Africa served as weapons for defence and hunting, and not as
tools as previously thought, according to a new study. The research combines
knowledge about how modern humans perceive an object's "throwing
affordance" with mathematical analysis and
Scientists claim to have developed a new drug
that is less risky and addictive than morphine, but has the same painkilling
power. Initial tests on mice revealed that the new compound activates nerve
cell surface receptors responsible for morphine’s painkilling effects.
The compound is so new it doesn’t have a name, just a number. It’s only
been tested in mice, and it needs years of
APPOINTMENT-DAILY-NEWS-20-08-2016
Anand Krishnamurthy, managing director and chief
executive of Catholic Syrian Bank, has resigned, a year after taking over the
posts. Calls to his office remained unanswered. Sources in the bank confirmed
he had resigned last week due to financial performance over the last one year.
The bank reported a loss of Rs 149.72 crore in 2015-16. Percentage of gross
non-performing assets had
ECONOMICAL-DAILY-NEWS-20-08-2016
Sowing of pulses has seen a jump of 35 per cent
to 13.6 million hectares so far, in the ongoing kharif season on good rains and
higher market price. The pulses acreage this year is not only the highest in
the last five years, but also among the best in recent times. If weather
remains good, pulses production this year could reach 20 mn tonnes, which would
be highest ever and also help in
North Korea confirmed the production of
plutonium has been restarted in the country after speculations that it reopened
its Yongbyon nuclear facility earlier this month . it will continue conducting
nuclear tests till perceived threats from U.S. remain. The Yongbyon reactor was
closed down in July 2007. However, North Korean government officials said in
September 2015 that the
POLITICAL-DAILY-NEWS-20-08-2016
Panaji: The Nationalist
Congress Party (NCP) on Thursday said that it is ready to take the lead and
form a pre-poll alliance with secular political parties in Goa including the
Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and the Goa Vikas Party (GVP) for the 2017
state elections. Throwing down an open challenge to the Congress, which has repeatedly
brushed aside calls for a pre-poll
New Delhi: Prospects of the
Union government meeting its 1 April 2017 implementation deadline for the goods
and services tax (GST) look bright as states across the political spectrum are
moving swiftly to ratify the seminal tax reform. At least 11 states, including
those governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and opposition political
parties, are in the process of ratifying the
AWARD AND HONOUR -DAILY-NEWS-20-08-2016
CHENNAI: After a three year research,
32-year-old Sathasivam Kannupayan, who was disabled by a polio attack as a
child, found that lack of information was the biggest hurdle faced by
differently abled people. That led him to launch a website (www.enabled.in) - a
resource portal with news, government policies, jobs and assistive
technologies. Kannupayan was honoured with this year's
SPORT-DAILY-NEWS-20-08-2016
Jamaican sprinter on 19 August
2016 won gold in 4x100m relay final at the Rio Olympics. He combined with Asafa
Powell, Yohan Blake and Nickel Ashmeade to finish in 37.27 seconds. With this,
Bolt obtained three sprinting gold medals in three consecutive Olympics, and
finished his Olympic career with a 100% win record in finals. Japan won the
silver and Canada lifted the
The US Olympic Committee (USOC) has publicly
acknowledged that four of its swimmers made a false police report and created a
story of being held at gunpoint and later apologised to the organisation of the
Olympic Games and Brazil for the swimmers' behaviour. "The behaviour of
these athletes is not acceptable, nor does it represent the values of Team USA
or the conduct of the
RIO DE JANEIRO: Croatian Sara Kolak won the
Olympic women's javelin final, dashing Czech Barbora Spotakova's dreams of
becoming the first woman to win three consecutive gold medals in the same
individual athletics event. The 21-year-old Croat set a personal best and a
national record with her fourth attempt of 66.18 metres. Kolak, who also broke
the national record in the qualifying
Badminton player P V Sindhu on 18 August 2016
won historic silver medal in women’s singles badminton event at Rio Olympics.
With this, Sindhu became the first Indian woman to clinch a silver medal in
Olympics. She also became the fourth Indian to win a silver at the Olympics
after shooters Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (2004, Athens) and Vijay Kumar (2012,
London) and
BOOK IN NEWS--20-08-2016
Author Chetan Bhagat on Friday
announced his new book One Indian Girl. The book – the writer's first from a
woman's point of view – tells the story of a girl who finds it "difficult
to get love" because she is "intelligent and successful". It
hopes to "question society, which judges women achievers". Bhagat said
on his website, "I have wanted to write in female first person for the past
New Delhi: India and Nepal on
Friday discussed the exchange of high-level visits of the president and prime
minister, days after a new government took office in Kathmandu following months
of acrimony between the two neighbours over Nepal’s new constitution. Nepal’s
deputy prime minister and minister for home affairs Bimalendra Nidhi, who
arrived in New Delhi on Thursday,
CHANDIGARH: The Punjab
government has approved two new varieties of wheat and celery for general
cultivation in the state. The State Variety Approval Committee approved the
varieties developed by Punjab Agriculture University Ludhiana. The decision in
this regard was taken by the committee under the chairmanship of Jasbir Singh
Bains, director of agriculture, Punjab. A
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Facing
flak from all quarters over its plan to start online liquor sales during the
Onam festival, the CPI-M led LDF government in Kerala has dropped the move.
Putting to rest the row over the proposed move to introduce online foreign
liquor trade, government made it clear that no such decision has been taken.
Tourism and Cooperation Minister A C Moideen said
DEFENCE -DAILY-NEWS-20-08-2016
RIYADH: The US military has
slashed the number of intelligence advisers directly supporting the Saudi-led
coalition's air war in Yemen, the US Navy said on Saturday. The reassignment of
personnel, around June, occurred because "there was not the same sort of
requests coming in for
India has moved closer to
self-dependence in precision-guided ‘smart glide bombs’ as it conducted covert
trials of these bombs successfully at Pokhran firing range in Jaisalmer on
Friday.Christened as ‘Garuthmaa’ and ‘Garudaa’, the ‘glide bombs’ are being
indigenously developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
Of these two drop trials, the test of Garudaa,
SURVEY AND REPORT-NEWS-20-08-2016
MUMBAI: The real estate and
construction sector in India is expected to be the third largest globally by
2030, contributing over 15% to Indian GDP and emerging as the largest employer
in India providing employment opportunities to over 75 million people. A recent
background paper by KPMG in India and the National Real Estate Development
Council (NAREDCO) provides an
Islamic State terrorists had “studied” the 26/11
Mumbai terror attack and similar “active shooter scenarios” to maximise
confusion and casualties before hitting multiple locations in Paris in
November, UN member- states have said. The 18th report of the Analytical
Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team submitted to the UN Security Council’s
1267 ISIS, Al-Qaida Sanctions
Real estate and construction sector in India is
expected to be the third largest globally by 2030, contributing over 15 per
cent to Indian GDP and emerging as the largest employer in India providing
employment opportunities to over 75 million people, a background paper by
consultancy firm KPMG in India and the National Real Estate Development Council
(NAREDCO) said. The
PASSES AWAY-DAILY-NEWS-20-08-2016
Award-winning Malayalam
screenwriter TA Razzaq passed away in Kochi. Razzaq,age at 58, had been in
hospital for over a month as he was seeking treatment for a liver-related
ailment. Razzaq’s film career began in the late 1980s, when he started work as
an assistant director on the film Dhwani. As a scriptwriter his notable films
include Kanakinavu, Ghazal, Perumazhakalam,
MISCELLANEOUS-DAILY-NEWS-20-08-2016
Sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali
Khan was today granted visa by the UK, a week after his application for the
same was rejected apparently due to incomplete information. "Yes,
the visa for my UK concert has been granted to me, finally. I am grateful to Mr
Keith Vaz (British MP) and Shrimati Sushma Sawaraj (External Affairs Minister)
for their initiative," a much relieved Khan
AGREEMENT-DAILY-NEWS-20-08-2016
KOCHI: In its efforts to
provide cashless transactions to its customers through digital technology,
Federal Bank has announced its partnership with Chillr, a round-the-clock
mobile banking application that connects directly to a person's bank account and
enables instant money transfers, bill payments, phone recharge and e-commerce
payments in a very secure environment. Chillr
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