Friday, 29 July 2016

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SBI has engaged Indian Oil Corporation’s Kisan Seva Kendras as banking correspondents to extend banking facilities to farmers across the country. The MoU was signed by K M Trivedi, CGM-Rural Business, SBI and Sivasis Dey, GM – Retail Sales, IOC. State Bank of India (SBI) has signed an MoU with IOC as part of its financial inclusion programme that will help the lender further its services to the farming

American author James Alan McPherson passed away on 27 July 2016 in Iowa City, U.S. He was 72. McPherson was the first black author to receive the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1978. Born on 16 September 1943, James Alan McPherson was an American short story writer and essayist.  In 1978, he won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his short story collection Elbow Room, becoming the first African-American to

Government to create buffer stock of 20 lakh tonne of pulses to meet shortfall; Food and Public District Minister Ram Vilas Paswan urged states to play their role in curbing price rise. Food and Public Distribution Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has said that prices of all essential commodities other than pulses are under control. eplying to a short duration discussion in the Rajya Sabha, Paswan said, government has taken

India has launched 13 indigenously made satellites during the last two years since April 2014 to June 2016. These satellites include six navigational satellites, three communication satellites, one earth observation satellite, one space science satellite and two University/academic institute’s satellites. Replying to question in Rajya Sabha on Thursday, Union Minister of State, Dr Jitendra Singh said, Indian Space Research

Flood situation deteriorates in several states; Over 17 lakh affected in Assam, Chief Minister Sarbhanand Sonowal directs Ministers to visit affected areas; Forecast of heavy rain in Uttarakhand in the next 48 hours; UP, Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir also reeling after the impact of floods. Heavy rains and rising water levels have created flood like situation in many states. Worst hit are JK, Assam, Uttarakhand, UP, Bihar, while

India and Bangladesh have agreed to enhance cooperation on anti-terror efforts with Dhaka saying that New Delhi will be "side-by-side" with it in fighting terrorists. Both leaders concurred on the need to immediately operationalise the Agreement on Combating Terrorism and Organised Crime and Illicit Drug Trafficking between the two countries. During the Home Minister-level bilateral talks between India and Bangladesh in

Turkey has said it was discharging 149 generals and ordering the closure of dozens of media outlets in the next phase of its controversial crackdown in the wake of the failed coup. Eighty seven land army generals, 30 air force generals, and 32 admirals were being dis-honourably discharged from the military over their complicity in the coup bid. Meanwhile the closure was ordered of three news agencies, 16 television stations,

A new class of antibiotics has been discovered by analysing the bacterial warfare taking place up people's noses, scientists report. Tests reported in the journal Nature found the resulting drug, lugdunin, could treat superbug infections.The researchers, at the University of Tubingen in Germany, say the human body is an untapped source of new drugs.The last new class of the drugs to reach patients was discovered in the 1980s.

NEW DELHI, July 28:  Multilateral funding agency Asian Development Bank (ADB) has raised Rs 5 billion, or around Rs 500 crore, by issuing five-year offshore Indian rupee-linked bonds. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has raised Rs 5 billion (about USD 74 million) from its issuance of 5-year offshore Indian rupee (INR) linked bonds, ” it said in a release today. This was, ADB said, its third bond issue in the offshore

New Delhi: India saw a record 53 per cent increase in FDI in last two years as the investment climate brightened due to steps taken to foster growth, price stability and fiscal prudence which also improved the overall macroeconomic stability, government said on Friday. Emphasising that investments are not made for "charity", Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told the Lok Sabha that improving the ease of doing business was a

The Centre today announced the formation of District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee (DDCMC) to be named “Disha” for effective development coordination of almost all the programmes of Central Government, whether it is for infrastructure development or Social and human resource development. Making a suo-motu statement in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of Rural

Shambhu Singh Yadav, a retired IAS officer and secretary to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav was today appointed as the Deputy Lokayukta of the state. “The governor today appointed Shambhu Singh Yadav as the new Deputy Lokayukta (Up-Lokayukta) of the state,” a Raj Bhawan release said. On joint recommendation of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Lokayukta Justice Sanjay Misra, a letter was sent to

He was extremely prolific, with a substantial body of work in television and appearing in popular advertisements as well. eteran Marathi theatre actor Nandu Pol, who was a founder-member of the prestigious city-based ‘Theatre Academy’, passed away on Thursday at a private hospital here following a prolonged illness, family sources said. He was 68. Short in stature and endowed with an eternally jovial look,

New Delhi, July 27 (IBNS): The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has released a new study report which shatters the myth of star-rated ACs. “We wanted to find out how AC units perform under different outdoor temperature conditions and how that affects the energy savings from the star labeling programme of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE),” said Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director-

New age e-passports in the offing will come with enhanced security features such as biometrics, a move that will help the government secure data and curb the menace of fake passports, the government has informed Parliament. Replying to a question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh said the government was in the process of procuring devices for e-passport. An e-Passport contains an electronic

A new measure introduced by some private banks makes the process of authentication adopted for phone banking much easier for users. In what will come as a major relief for users who frequently use phone banking, banks have now introduced a voice recognition process which acts as a quicker way of authentication. The development could come in handy for customers in an emergency to report loss or theft

Even as India is making last ditch effort to save Indian national Gurdip Singh from execution, Indonesia today rejected appeals of international community to halt the execution of 14 drug convicts hailing from different countries including India and Pakistan. The group, including Gurdip Singh, Pakistani national Zulfiqar Ali and citizens of Nigeria and Zimbabwe as well as Indonesia, have been placed in isolation on a prison island

Patna High court today revoked the membership of Bharatiya Janata Party MP Chhedi Paswan for concealing information in his affidavit to the election commission. The honourable court acted upon a petition filed by one Ganga Mishra who had alleged that the Sasaram lawmaker concealed his criminal record in his affidavit to the election commission resulting in his nomination. This was Paswan's third term as MP as he has

In a step taking forward, India can become a country to mark its biggest achievement by starting mining in the space.“Earth's resources are finite and there is a shortage of minerals. The next best opportunity is to trap resources lying in the objects near the earth," eminent nuclear scientist Anil Kakodkar told reporters in Kolkata. He said besides we can take steps to tap some asteroids in the outer space for mining. Even the

The Congress has paved the way for the government to take up the GST Bill in the Rajya Sabha early next week with party president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi indicating to the government that the outcome of negotiations on the legislation has been ‘positive’. This was told by the Congress leadership during an informal interaction with the media in Parliament’s Central Hall yesterday.The change in Congress

he Rajya Sabha passed the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill, 2015, on Thursday permitting the Centre to return Rs 36,125 crore to states that had lost forest cover to industrialisation and growth since 2006. The passage of the Bill would also ensure an annual fund flow to states, estimated at Rs 2,000-Rs 4,000 crore. Union environment, forests and climate change minister Anil Madhav Dave told the House the rights of tribals

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday allowed demat account-holders with depositories to bid for trades in the online anonymous bond trading platform of the central bank.The platform so far was available only for institutional investors, but the central bank had announced in the first bi-monthly monetary policy in April that it would allow individual investors to use the platform too in order to increase retail participation in

T Nanda Kumar has resigned as chairman of Gujarat-based National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) from August 1, about 30 months ahead of the end of his tenure. In his parting letter to colleagues, Nanda Kumar wrote, “I took over as chairman on March 3, 2014, amid apprehensions about the wisdom of posting a retired IAS officer to a job so far held by just two tall leaders of the dairy industry and that too for

Sunil Kant Munjal has decided to bow out as the joint managing director of Hero MotoCorp, the country’s largest two wheeler maker, five years after he was appointed to the post. In 2011, after Hero and its Japanese partner, Honda, parted ways, he was elevated to this position. Till then, he was a non-executive director on the board of Hero Honda. Munjal, now 55, will pursue new business interests and lead Hero

Create a new architecture of policy making that anticipates problems and suggests remedies, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the NITI Aayog on Thursday. This was his second visit to the policy-making think tank he established in January 2015, after scrapping the historic Planning Commission. On Thursday, officials said Modi, who is also the chairman, gave last-minute directions to NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind

Uttarakhand will soon begin a multi-million dollar search in the Himalayas for the mythical Sanjeevani Booti plant believed to hold life-saving properties, a minister told news agency AFP today. Uttarakhand will spend Rs. 25 crore of tax-payers money to hunt for the herb, referred to in the Ramayana. While many wild plants with medicinal properties grow in the Himalayas, there is scant evidence that the plant ever existed, with

Agra: Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in a reply to an RTI query filed by TOI has surprisingly said that the parliamentary standing committee "had not asked for any conservation work" at the Taj monument complex. As reported earlier, committee members had visited the monument in April 2015 and criticized the archaeological body for dark spots on the minarets of the white marble mausoleum. Subsequently, ASI had

ITANAGAR, Jul 28: State Legislative Assembly speaker T N Thongdok has constituted an Adhoc committee to examine the grievances of Former Legislator’s Welfare Association regarding enhancement of pension amount and medical allowances of Ex-Legislators. Consisting of former Chief Minister Kalikho Pul as the chairman and MLAs Tamiyo Taga, Tumke Bagra, Pasang Dorjee Sona and Tapuk Taku as members,

Ms. Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, Ministry of Steel, has been appointed as Secretary, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology. An official press release said Ms. Sundararajan, an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 1982 batch (Kerala cadre), would succeed Ms. Aruna Sharma, IAS (MP 82), who will take her place in the Ministry of Steel. The release said the Appointments Committee

Philadelphia, July 28 (Reuters): US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said on Thursday Americans faced challenges at home and abroad that demand steady leadership and a collective spirit, and attacked Republican Donald Trump for sowing fear and divisiveness. In the biggest speech of her more than 25 year old career in the public eye, Hillary accepted the Democratic presidential nomination for the Nov. 8 election

The Air Odisha Aviation Pvt. Ltd (AOAPL) has decided to start an inter-State flight service from August 15. The company has obtained permission of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to commence flights from Bhubaneswar to three cities, Ranchi, Raipur and Nagpur. As there are no direct flight services from Bhubaneswar to these three cities, the initiative of the Air Odisha would come as a big help for the

Indian and US officials will meet at Washington on Thursday for the 14th US-India counter-terrorism Joint Working Group, an official statement said. “The United States looks forward to continued counter terrorism exchanges with India to broaden and deepen the partnership between the two countries,” the State Department said in a statement on Wednesday. The American delegation would be led by the acting

Britain has reacted frostily to the naming of Michel Barnier, the former French foreign minister and scourge of the City of London, as the European Commission’s chief Brexit negotiator. The surprise nomination places an architect of Europe’s post-crisis financial regulation at the helm of the technical talks for Britain to leave the EU. Jean-Claude Juncker, the commission president, said he wanted an “experienced politician for this

Director Chaitanya Tamhane, whose debut feature film Court premiered at the 71st Venice Film Festival and also won the Venice Lion of the Future two years ago, has been named one of the jury members for the 73rd edition of the international event. He will be a part of the Horizons section, which is dedicated to cutting-edge fare, reported The Variety. This section is headed by French director Robert Guédiguian.

Kolkata: Eminent author and social activist Mahasweta Devi, whose writings focused on the marginalised communities in the country and served as the voice of the oppressed, died here on Thursday after a multi-organ failure. She was 91. P Tandon, CEO of Belle Vue nursing home, where she was admitted since 22 May, said she was suffering from multi-organ failure and died at 3.16pm. She suffered a cardiac arrest

The Union Cabinet has given its approval for raising foreign shareholding limit from current 5% to 15% in Indian Stock Exchanges. The decision brings the investment limit of foreign entities at par with that of domestic institutions. This enhanced limit is for a stock exchange, depository, banking company, insurance company and commodity derivative exchange. Additionally, the Union Cabinet also gave its approval for

The Union Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) has announced that India Meteorological Department (IMD) will use supercomputer to forecast India’s annual summer monsoon. The forecast made by a supercomputer will be based on a dynamical monsoon model and will be operational from year 2017. This model will be used along with the present traditional ensemble model. The dynamical monsoon model works by simulating

India on 27 July 2016 signed a one-billion dollar deal with the US defence and aerospace major Boeing for procuring four long-range maritime surveillance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft, Poseidon-8I. First of the four new P-8I aircraft will be delivered in 50 months. Incidentally, India is P-8I's first international customer and was also Boeing's first military sale to India.  The contract was inked during the on-going visit of the US

As per the report published by US Geological Survey on 19 July 2016, Joint expedition titled Indian National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 02 by India and the United States (US) have resulted in the discovery of large, highly enriched accumulations of natural gas hydrate (an icy form of the fuel) in Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean.  The international team of scientists was led by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation

International Tiger Day was observed on 29 July 2016. The day is held annually on 29th July to give worldwide attention to the reservation of tigers. The goal of the day is to promote a global system for protecting the natural habitats of tigers and to raise public awareness and support for tiger conservation issues.  It was founded in 2010 at the St. Petersburg Tiger Summit, with the aim to double the big cat

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