89-year-old temple bell discovered

Municipal workers engaged in removing silt in a drainage canal in Nellithope stumbled upon an ancient metallic bell dating back to 89 years on Wednesday. The bell has been handed over to the police. The workers attached to Puducherry Municipality were engaged in clearing accumulated silt in a drainage canal when they stumbled upon a hard object covered in a gunny bag. They immediately cleared the silt and pulled out the bag to find a large...

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Tata Steel puts U.K. operations on the market

With Tata Steel rejecting a two-year £100-million rescue plan proposed by steel unions to save Port Talbot, the biggest of its steel manufacturing plants in the United Kingdom, and deciding instead to put its entire U.K. steel operation on the market, the country’s beleaguered steel industry has been plunged into crisis. Thousands of workers at Port Talbot, and in plants at Rotherham, Corby and Shotton face imminent job losses should the company...

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Vijay Mallya offers to repay Rs. 4,000 crore to banks by September

Businessman Vijay Mallya on Wednesday offered his debtor banks Rs. 4000 crore as partial settlement of his dues, even as he confirmed in the Supreme Court that he does not want to come home yet due to "surcharged atmosphere" against him fuelled by media reports. In a proposal handed over to a Bench of Justices Kurian Joseph and Rohinton Nariman, Mr. Mallya and Kingfisher Airlines said they would part with Rs. 4,000 crore by September 2016 as...

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EgyptAir hijack drama: How it unfolded

An EgyptAir plane flying from Alexandria to Cairo was hijacked and forced to land in Cyprus on Tuesday but the passengers and crew were freed unharmed and the hijacker, whose motives remained a mystery, was arrested after giving himself up. This is how the drama unfolded: 5.36 pm: Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said the hijacker was an Egyptian national who had asked to meet European Union officials or to fly on to another airport....

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ISRO set to launch 22 satellites on one rocket

When the PSLV C34 rocket blasts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Srikarikota in May this year, it will signal another giant leap for India’s space mission. The trusted launch vehicle will inject 22 satellites into orbit, a first in the history of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Apart from the Indian remote sensing satellite, Cartosat 2C, which constitutes the primary payload, the rocket will carry on board four micro-satellites...

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Pathankot authorities struggle to preserve terrorists’ remains

It is 80 days now, but constable Dalbir Singh cannot afford to lower his guard even for a minute. His job, along with 11 of his colleagues, is to protect a morgue in the only government hospital in Pathankot. Also referred to as the “Dead House” by local policemen, the morgue can be tracked from a distance because of the unbearable stench emanating from it. It has been provided security since the bodies of the four terrorists killed at the...

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Pak. team denied access to airbase

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Monday that no permission was granted to the Pakistani joint investigation team to visit the Pathankot airbase, which was attacked by terrorists in January. Answering a question at a press conference at the DefExpo 2016, he said the Ministry had denied the team permission to go anywhere in the airbase. The site where the attack took place had been handed over to the National Investigation Agency, and...

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Indian Air Force facing capacity crisis: U.S. expert

Even as India mulls over what fighter aircraft to invest in following Prime Minister Modi’s purchase of 36 French Rafale jets in January, a U.S. expert on India’s air capabilities has said that the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) “falling end strength and problematic force structure, combined with its troubled acquisition and development programs, threaten India’s air superiority over its rapidly modernising rivals, China and Pakistan.” In a report...

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‘Pakistan policy to liberate Kashmir with jihadis has backfired’

Pakistan’s involvement with jihadi groups at the highest level aimed at “liberation” of Jammu and Kashmir has backfired, ex-diplomat Husain Haqqani said on Tuesday following the deadly terror attack in Lahore. And even as its decades-old policy has backfired, the Pakistani establishment is reluctant to declare an all-out war against terrorist groups, Mr. Haqqani, the country’s former envoy to the U.S., told PBS in an interview. “Pakistan’s...

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Alaska volcano ash cloud covers 400 miles; flights cancelled

Strong winds have pushed an ash cloud from an Alaska volcano into the heart of the state, grounding flights and limiting travel to western and northern communities off the road system. Pavlof Volcano, one of Alaska’s most active volcanoes, is 625 miles southwest of Anchorage on the Alaska Peninsula, the finger of land that sticks out from mainland Alaska toward the Aleutian Islands. The volcano in the 8,261-foot mountain erupted about 4 pm...

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India to take up UK visa law with British authorities

India will convey its concerns to the UK authorities about the new British immigration law that will impact professionals earning below 35,000 pounds annually. Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, “We will take it (new UK visa law) up” with the British authorities. According to the new rule, which will come into effect from April, professionals living and working in Britain on a Tier-2 visa who earn less than 35,000 pounds...

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Airlines question fuel price hike, cite drop in crude rates

Four major domestic airlines have escalated their protest over the 12 per cent increase in aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices effected this month, refusing to pay the revised prices and seeking a Rs. 2,500-crore refund from oil marketing companies for failing to pass on the benefits of falling crude oil prices since 2014. “Without prejudice…kindly note that the payments that are being currently made are to be treated as ‘under protest’ and...

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Dalai Lama “making a fool” of Buddhism: Chinese official

Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama is “making a fool” of Tibetan Buddhism with suggestions he may not reincarnate, or reincarnate as something inappropriate, and the faithful are not buying it, a Chinese official wrote on Monday. China says the Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in India after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, is a violent separatist. He denies espousing violence and says he only wants genuine autonomy...

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Suicide blast in Lahore park kills 72 people

A blast killed over 72 people outside a public park in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Sunday, rescue officials said, striking at the heart of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's political heartland of Punjab. The blast occurred in the parking area of Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, just outside the exit gate and a few feet away from children's swings. A large number of people including Christians were present in the Gulshan—e—Iqbal Park in Iqbal Town...

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Taliban faction carried out Lahore park attack

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a Taliban faction, has claimed responsibility for the suicide bomb attack in Lahore on Sunday that killed at least 65 people, saying its target was the country’s small Christian minority. “The target was Christians,” said Ehsanullah Ehsan, a spokesman for the faction. “We want to send this message to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that we have entered Lahore. He can do what he wants but he won’t be able to stop us. Our suicide...

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Focus on local demand to win WTO solar dispute, says Timothy Meyer

India may succeed in its solar dispute with the U.S. at the World Trade Organisation if it takes steps to develop its manufacturing capacity to serve domestic demand which is not addressed by global companies, according to Vanderbilt University Law School Professor, Timothy Meyer. Last month, WTO Dispute Settlement Panel ruled India’s requirement for companies that sell solar power to the government use only locally-made parts and components...

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Rupee sinks 24 paise vs dollar in early trade

The rupee weakened by 24 paise to quote at 66.88 against the dollar in early trade on Monday at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market on month-end demand for the American currency from importers and banks. The dollar was firm against some global currencies, boosted by optimism over the US economy after GDP figures were revised upwards which also weighed on the rupee, dealers said. However, they said a higher opening of the domestic equity...

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Rise, and rise, of the women who code

After Jyoti Singh finished school, she wanted to work in the field of Physics. Her parents and teachers encouraged her to enrol in the computer science stream, though she was not interested in it initially. But when she was introduced to fields such as artificial intelligence, the simulation of human intelligence processes by computer systems and machine learning, which gives computers the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed,...

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Public sector bank consolidation: A painful journey ahead

The government has raked up the issue of merger between public sector banks, after a long gap. First, finance minister Arun Jaitley said in his budget speech that a roadmap for consolidation will be spelt out, which was followed up by the announcement to set up an expert panel to look into the issue of consolidation. Consolidation among public sector banks was also in the agenda of the previous United Progressive Alliance government’s finance...

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‘Daughterly guilt’ haunts Indian working women

Recruiters are finding it difficult to meet client requirements that mandate filling corporate positions with women employees. This trend follows research that has historically placed India at the bottom rung in Asia when it comes to women’s representation in white-collar jobs across all levels of experience. “For seven out of ten recruitment mandates we receive from our corporate clients to fulfil positions, there are no women candidates for...

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Embracing America’s war machines – F16 may roll out of an Indian factory

India has been up in arms, so to speak, over last month’s announcement that the U.S. proposed to sell eight F-16 combat aircraft to Pakistan. Yet less than one week from that announcement, New Delhi got a hint that it might have a great opportunity to undercut Pakistan’s F-16 force posture – an offer from F-16 producer Lockheed Martin to add its prized fourth-generation fighter to the list of Make in India products. Now discussions seem to...

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Tax panel wants 6-8% levy on most digital services

A high-level government committee has recommended a 6-8 per cent tax on several online services such as online advertising, cloud computing, website-hosting, digital platforms for sale of goods and services or download of software and applications, provided by a company not resident in India. Committee on Taxation of E-Commerce, set up by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), recommended that payments of over Rs.1 lakh made by a resident...

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