Amitabh Bachchan, Prince Karim Aga Khan get Padma Vibhushan
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New Delhi: Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan and Prince Karim Aga Khan were among the eminent personalities awarded the Padma Vibhushan, country's second highest civilian honour, by President Pranab Mukherjee here on Wednesday.
- New Delhi: Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan and Prince Karim Aga Khan were among the eminent personalities awarded the Padma Vibhushan, country's second highest civilian honour, by President Pranab Mukherjee here on Wednesday.Besides them, senior Supreme Court advocate Kottayan K Venugopal and D Veerendra Heggade of the famous Dharmasthala Jain temple in Karnataka were also conferred the Padma Vibhushan.Renowned Assamese Filmmaker Jahnu Barua and computer scientist Vijay Bhatkar were given the Padma Bhushan, third highest civilian honour, during the civil investiture ceremony held at the majestic Durbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan.Hockey player Saba Anjum, women cricketer Mithali Raj, economist Bibek Debroy, IT honcho T V Mohandas Pai and musician Ravindra Jain were given Padma Shri.Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal were among the prominent dignitaries present during the event.Amitabh's son Abhishek Bachchan, daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and daughter Shweta Nanda were also present at the ceremony.The Padma awards were announced on the eve of Republic Day this year. It included nine Padma Vibhushan, 20 Padma Bhushan and 75 Padma Shri.17 recipients were women and as many in the categories of foreigners, NRIs and PIOs while there were four posthumous awardees..
Government wants meaningful dialogue among nations possessing nuclear weapons
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UNITED NATIONS: India has suggested a "meaningful dialogue" among all nations possessing nuclear weapons to build trust and confidence and to reduce the salience of atomic weapons in security doctrines.
Varma said that India participated in the Vienna Conference on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons in the expectation that the renewed attention on the most serious threat to the survival of mankind posed by the use of nuclear weapons would help generate momentum for restraints on its use and correct an imbalance in the international legal discourse that has focussed exclusively on restraints on possession.
- UNITED NATIONS: India has suggested a "meaningful dialogue" among all nations possessing nuclear weapons to build trust and confidence and to reduce the salience of atomic weapons in security doctrines.
India's Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament Ambassador DB Venkatesh Varma yesterday said India has supported the proposal put forward by the Non-Aligned Movement for the Conference on Disarmament to commence talks on a Comprehensive Nuclear Weapons Convention.
"We have called for a meaningful dialogue amongst all states possessing nuclear weapons to build trust and confidence and for reducing the salience of nuclear weapons in international affairs and security doctrines," Varma said at a session of the UN Disarmament Commission (UNDC) here.
"India attaches the highest priority to global, non- discriminatory, verifiable nuclear disarmament and the complete elimination of nuclear weapons in a time bound manner," he said.He said the initiation and adoption of Confidence Building Measures must remain the prerogative of states concerned and subject to their consent and must be implemented in a manner that relevant states are comfortable with.
Varma said that India participated in the Vienna Conference on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons in the expectation that the renewed attention on the most serious threat to the survival of mankind posed by the use of nuclear weapons would help generate momentum for restraints on its use and correct an imbalance in the international legal discourse that has focussed exclusively on restraints on possession.
Axis Bank cuts base rate by 0.20 per cent to 9.95 per cent
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MUMBAI: Country's third-largest private sector lender Axis Bank today cut its base rate or the minimum rate of lending by 0.20 per cent to 9.95 per cent, following its larger peers who also cut their offerings yesterday after Reserve Bank governor Raghuram Rajan's hard talk.
"Axis Bank has revised its base rate from 10.15 per cent per annum to 9.95 per cent per annum," a bank statement said, adding that the cut is effective from April 13.
The Shikha Sharma-led bank has also cut its deposit rate offerings by 0.25 per cent across multiple maturities, a senior official of the bank said.
- MUMBAI: Country's third-largest private sector lender Axis Bank today cut its base rate or the minimum rate of lending by 0.20 per cent to 9.95 per cent, following its larger peers who also cut their offerings yesterday after Reserve Bank governor Raghuram Rajan's hard talk.
"Axis Bank has revised its base rate from 10.15 per cent per annum to 9.95 per cent per annum," a bank statement said, adding that the cut is effective from April 13.
The Shikha Sharma-led bank has also cut its deposit rate offerings by 0.25 per cent across multiple maturities, a senior official of the bank said.
Voting underway in 40 Bodoland constituencies of Assam
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Polling started for 40 constituencies of Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) in Assam from 8 am on Wednesday.
Two times BTC Chief Hagrama Mohilary after casting his vote said, "This time also BPF (Bodo People's Front) will form government in BTC. Till now the situation is under control and voting is going on peacefully. BPF will not get less than 30 seats. Both Congress and BJP will get four seats each."
Incidents of boycott and theft of ballot papers have been reported in many polling centres.
Reports of boycotting of vote in many constituencies are pouring in since the start of the polling. In Botj 756 Khatalpara LP School and Baksa Bakulguri School, the voters have boycotted the polls as they were angry due to change of constituency in the last minute.
The 756 Khatalpara polling centre, which was earlier included in 13th Chirang constituency, has been changed to 15th Kajalgaon constituency in the last minute.
Likewise, the polling centre of Baksa Bakulguri LP School, which was earlier included in Goreswar constituency, has now been included in Suklai Cherphung constituency.
Also, voters of Kasukata Bodo LP school refrained from casting vote as 40 ballot papers were allegedly got stolen from the centre.
Likewise in Khoirabari constituency, 750 voters refused to cast vote due to anomolies in names.
Two times BTC Chief Hagrama Mohilary after casting his vote said, "This time also BPF (Bodo People's Front) will form government in BTC. Till now the situation is under control and voting is going on peacefully. BPF will not get less than 30 seats. Both Congress and BJP will get four seats each."
H1-B visa application cap reached within 5 days
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NEW YORK: The US said it has reached the cap for the much-coveted H-1B work visas for 2016 within the first five days for the third consecutive year and will now conduct a lottery system to allocate the visas highly popular among IT professionals from countries like India.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said it has reached the congressionally mandated H-1B cap for fiscal year 2016, besides receiving more than the limit of 20,000 H-1B petitions filed under the US advanced degree exemption.
The agency will first randomly select petitions for 20,000 visas allocated to foreign nationals with advanced degrees from U S universities.
All unselected advanced degree petitions will then become part of the random selection process for the 65,000 general limit.
"Before running the lottery, USCIS will complete initial intake for all filings received during the filing period, which ended April 7. Due to the high number of petitions, USCIS is not yet able to announce the date it will conduct the random selection process," it said.
NEW YORK: The US said it has reached the cap for the much-coveted H-1B work visas for 2016 within the first five days for the third consecutive year and will now conduct a lottery system to allocate the visas highly popular among IT professionals from countries like India.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said it has reached the congressionally mandated H-1B cap for fiscal year 2016, besides receiving more than the limit of 20,000 H-1B petitions filed under the US advanced degree exemption.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said it has reached the congressionally mandated H-1B cap for fiscal year 2016, besides receiving more than the limit of 20,000 H-1B petitions filed under the US advanced degree exemption.
USCIS will now use the computer-generated process, also known as the lottery, to randomly select the petitions needed to meet the caps of 65,000 visas for the general category and 20,000 for the advanced degree exemption.
The agency will first randomly select petitions for 20,000 visas allocated to foreign nationals with advanced degrees from U S universities.
All unselected advanced degree petitions will then become part of the random selection process for the 65,000 general limit.
"Before running the lottery, USCIS will complete initial intake for all filings received during the filing period, which ended April 7. Due to the high number of petitions, USCIS is not yet able to announce the date it will conduct the random selection process," it said.
The agency will first randomly select petitions for 20,000 visas allocated to foreign nationals with advanced degrees from U S universities.
All unselected advanced degree petitions will then become part of the random selection process for the 65,000 general limit.
"Before running the lottery, USCIS will complete initial intake for all filings received during the filing period, which ended April 7. Due to the high number of petitions, USCIS is not yet able to announce the date it will conduct the random selection process," it said.
U.S. regulator upgrades India's aviation safety rating
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(Reuters) - The U.S Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has upgraded India's aviation safety rating, in a boost for Indian airlines which can now increase the number of flights they operate to the United States.
The upgraded rating is expected to help Jet Airways (JET.NS) and state-owned Air India [AIRID.UL], the two Indian airlines which currently fly to the United States. The downgrade had meant both carriers could not increase flights to the United States and faced extra checks for existing ones.
"The United States Government commends the Government of India for taking corrective action to address the safety oversight issues identified during the IASA (International Aviation Safety Assessment) process," Foxx said in the statement.
(Reuters) - The U.S Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has upgraded India's aviation safety rating, in a boost for Indian airlines which can now increase the number of flights they operate to the United States.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement on Wednesday that India had taken corrective action to address the FAA's concerns after the aviation regulator downgraded India's rating to category 2 from category 1 in January last year, citing a lack of safety oversight.
The decision, which takes the rating back to category 1, was not unexpected as India's aviation authorities have said they were working hard to win back the higher rating.
The upgraded rating is expected to help Jet Airways (JET.NS) and state-owned Air India [AIRID.UL], the two Indian airlines which currently fly to the United States. The downgrade had meant both carriers could not increase flights to the United States and faced extra checks for existing ones.
"The United States Government commends the Government of India for taking corrective action to address the safety oversight issues identified during the IASA (International Aviation Safety Assessment) process," Foxx said in the statement.
Coal scam case: Court fixes July 15 for hearing
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A special court today fixed July 15 for hearing a coal block allocation scam case in which the Supreme Court had on April 1 stayed the summons issued against former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and others.
- A special court today fixed July 15 for hearing a coal block allocation scam case in which the Supreme Court had on April 1 stayed the summons issued against former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and others.Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar, who had on March 11 summoned Singh and others as accused for today, deferred the hearing, observing that the operations of the order passed by him have been stayed by the apex court.“In terms of order dated April 1, 2015 of the Supreme Court, the operation of orders dated December 16, 2014 and March 11, 2015 have been stayed. Accordingly the matter be now put up on July 15,” the judge said.The special court had on December 16, last year refused to accept the CBI’s closure report filed in the case and had directed the agency to further investigate the matter and examine Manmohan Singh and other PMO officials.The CBI had later filed its supplementary final report in the court, which had on March 11 summoned Singh, Birla, former Coal Secretary P C Parakh, Hindalco Industries Ltd and its two top officials Shubhendu Amitabh and D Bhattacharya in the case pertaining to allocation of Talabira-II coal block in Odisha in 2005.On April 1, the apex court had stayed the trial court order summoning them as accused and the proceedings before it.
CERN’s Much Improved Large Hadron Collider, Back in action this 2015
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In September 2008, the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator, called the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was built as an additional accelerator complex in the CERN’s laboratory. CERN is the European Organization for Nuclear Research where physicists and engineers work towards a common goal that is to study and prove the fundamental structure of the universe.
This particle accelerator is made up of a 27-kilometer ring of superconducting magnets together with a number of accelerating structures which enhance the energy of the particles along the way. Two years ago, the LHC was shut down for planned maintenance. Fortunately, it will now be back on action and is ready once again for the arrival of particle beams after the team have finally solved the problem with the accelerator.
The team performed several tests to ensure that the upcoming startup of the accelerator will run as smoothly as possible. This weekend, they tested the injection systems via two tests without the beam and the Director for Accelerators and Technology at CERN, Frederick Bordry, confidently said that that they will be able to restart the machine as all tests performed so far have been successful.
Scientists are expecting the LHC to provide almost double the collision energy (13 TeV) compared to its previous runs. This enormous amount of energy will allow physicists to study further previously untestable theories and will give them the chance to explore new frontiers in particle physics. “It’s important to stress that after the long shutdown, the LHC is essentially a new machine,” said CERN Director-General Rolf Heuer.
According to Joerg Wenninger, the accelerator’s Coordinator of Operations, all the instruments and all the systems will still be conditioned before they finally use it for its first stable collisions for the experiments. The Coordinator added that this will take about six weeks to two months.
This particle accelerator is made up of a 27-kilometer ring of superconducting magnets together with a number of accelerating structures which enhance the energy of the particles along the way. Two years ago, the LHC was shut down for planned maintenance. Fortunately, it will now be back on action and is ready once again for the arrival of particle beams after the team have finally solved the problem with the accelerator.
The team performed several tests to ensure that the upcoming startup of the accelerator will run as smoothly as possible. This weekend, they tested the injection systems via two tests without the beam and the Director for Accelerators and Technology at CERN, Frederick Bordry, confidently said that that they will be able to restart the machine as all tests performed so far have been successful.
Scientists are expecting the LHC to provide almost double the collision energy (13 TeV) compared to its previous runs. This enormous amount of energy will allow physicists to study further previously untestable theories and will give them the chance to explore new frontiers in particle physics. “It’s important to stress that after the long shutdown, the LHC is essentially a new machine,” said CERN Director-General Rolf Heuer.
According to Joerg Wenninger, the accelerator’s Coordinator of Operations, all the instruments and all the systems will still be conditioned before they finally use it for its first stable collisions for the experiments. The Coordinator added that this will take about six weeks to two months.
India sets sights on becoming manufacturing power
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India expressed its intent to become a founding member of the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as early as July 2014, hoping that it might become an effective channel to obtain financing for infrastructure projects and the country's manufacturing sector.
The country's prime minister, Narendra Modi, sees manufacturing as an important part of India's economy, and he initiated a "Make in India Campaign" in September 2014 to promote products manufactured in the country. The government has been aggressively promoting investing in India since then.
Amitabh Kant, deputy minister of commerce and industry, pitched his country's investment environment in Shanghai on April 3, saying that the Modi administration's efforts will give Chinese investors better returns on their investments in India than in Europe or the United States.
India's consul general in Shanghai, Naveen Srivastava, said that after Chinese president Xi Jinping's visit to India last year, there was a new round of Chinese investment fever in the country. Modi will also visit China next month to promote investment.
China-India trade totaled US$70 billion in 2014, or 70 times that of a decade ago. It hopes bilateral trade can hit US$100 billion this year.
But much of that trade was tilted in China's favor, with India running a US$50 billion trade deficit last year. Getting Chinese enterprises to go to India to manufacture goods there could effectively address the trade deficit.
India's manufacturing sector is its Achilles heel, said the news report. For years, India's IT and outsourcing services have enjoyed fame in the world, but its manufacturing sector has lagged behind.
Although India's GDP rose 4.9% from 2012 to 2013, manufacturing output grew only 1.1% over that time. GDP growth slowed to 4.5% in 2014, and the output of the manufacturing sector fell 0.2%.
Yet India, with its large number of young people, stable political system and robust demand, has the right stuff to become a manufacturing giant.
The Modi administration reaffirmed its determination early this year to develop India into a manufacturing giant on par with China through his "Make in India Campaign."
Srivastava said the Modi government wants the ratio of manufacturing as a percentage of GDP to increase in the coming years and has set the industrial output target at US$500 billion by 2020.
- India expressed its intent to become a founding member of the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as early as July 2014, hoping that it might become an effective channel to obtain financing for infrastructure projects and the country's manufacturing sector.The country's prime minister, Narendra Modi, sees manufacturing as an important part of India's economy, and he initiated a "Make in India Campaign" in September 2014 to promote products manufactured in the country. The government has been aggressively promoting investing in India since then.Amitabh Kant, deputy minister of commerce and industry, pitched his country's investment environment in Shanghai on April 3, saying that the Modi administration's efforts will give Chinese investors better returns on their investments in India than in Europe or the United States.India's consul general in Shanghai, Naveen Srivastava, said that after Chinese president Xi Jinping's visit to India last year, there was a new round of Chinese investment fever in the country. Modi will also visit China next month to promote investment.China-India trade totaled US$70 billion in 2014, or 70 times that of a decade ago. It hopes bilateral trade can hit US$100 billion this year.But much of that trade was tilted in China's favor, with India running a US$50 billion trade deficit last year. Getting Chinese enterprises to go to India to manufacture goods there could effectively address the trade deficit.India's manufacturing sector is its Achilles heel, said the news report. For years, India's IT and outsourcing services have enjoyed fame in the world, but its manufacturing sector has lagged behind.Although India's GDP rose 4.9% from 2012 to 2013, manufacturing output grew only 1.1% over that time. GDP growth slowed to 4.5% in 2014, and the output of the manufacturing sector fell 0.2%.Yet India, with its large number of young people, stable political system and robust demand, has the right stuff to become a manufacturing giant.The Modi administration reaffirmed its determination early this year to develop India into a manufacturing giant on par with China through his "Make in India Campaign."Srivastava said the Modi government wants the ratio of manufacturing as a percentage of GDP to increase in the coming years and has set the industrial output target at US$500 billion by 2020.
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