vol 95 24th september 2015 to 30th september 2015

7/25/2019 Vol 95 24th September 2015 to 30th September 2015

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News from PIB & Various Sourcs

Census 2011 data on Households with or withoutEducational level of matriculation and above

The Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India today released the Census2011 data on Households with at least one member aged 15 years and above with orwithout Educational level matriculation and above by Household Size.

Out of about 248.3 million total households with at least one member of 15 years andabove in the country during 2011, around 122.9 million households (49.5%) have at leastone matriculate and above. One decade ago, the corresponding percentage of householdswith at least one matriculate and above was 39.4%. Similarly, the number of householdswith at least one graduate and above is 41.4 million (16.7%) in India during 2011 as against23.6 million (12.2%) such households in 2001.

During 2011, the number of households with at least one male matriculate and aboveis 104.7 million (42.2%) while 75.3 million (30.3%) households have at least one femalematriculate and above in the country. The last Census of 2011 has also recorded about 33.2million (13.4%) households with at least one male graduate and above and 21.9 million(8.8%) households with at least one female graduate.

Indo Sri Lanka Joint Exercise MITRA SHAKTI 2015 toCommence from 29 Sep

In continuation with the series of Joint Exercise between India and Sri Lanka to build

Military to Military co-operation and interoperability, Exercise MITRA SHAKTI-2015 willbe conducted shortly at Pune with the scheduled arrival of the Sri Lankan contingent atAundh Camp on 29 September 2015. This will be the third joint training exercise betweenthe two Armies.

The aim of the joint training is to share the best military practices and promotinghealthy military to military relations between the two Armies and developing joint strat-egies by sharing expertise of conducting operations. The idea is to tap the rich repositoryof experience of each other and extract maximum learning value from the joint training.Forming part of different levels of the military to military engagement across the entirespectrum of operations, this exercise will enrich the two contingents in further honing

basic military skills.The exercise is planned for a duration of 14 days with the basic objective of enhanc-ing confidence and trust between the two militaries, which are often called upon to en-gage in anti terrorism operations including those under the UN mandate. The conduct of

Joint Military Exercise is also an important step to uphold the values of Peace, Prosperityand Stability in the region. Senior military observers of both the countries will be attend-ing the Final Tactical Exercise scheduled to be held at Aundh Military Station on 10 and 11Oct 2015.

Exercise MITRA SHAKTI-2015 will contribute immensely in developing mutualunderstanding and respect for each others military.

Intervention by Environment Minister at the SecondMeeting of the Business Dialogue for COP 21
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The following is the text of the Intervention made by Union Minister of Environ-ment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Prakash Javadekar, at the Second Meeting of theBusiness Dialogue for COP-21 held at UNFCCC in New York yesterday:

The world must incentivize green growth activities as Green Credit instead ofCarbon Credit Mechanism, which provides a way out for the Emitter to get rid of the

blame of pollution by paying for the emissions. India has put forward new ideas andproposed debate on lifestyle issues, climate justice and green credit mechanism.

Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was a success for the first commitment pe-riod ending in 2012. Demand-supply mismatch and low ambition for emission reductionexpressed by developed countries under the Kyoto Protocol is a major cause for the slow-down of the well-established CDM market thereafter. In addition, the unilateral decisiontaken by some countries to restrict the benefits of CDM to Least Developed Countries(LDCs) only, and not to other developing countries like India, has further reduced theconfidence in the Market mechanism. At present, CDM is facing one of the most severecrises since its inception. Therefore, the world must discuss new ways to make it a suc-

cess, with newer concepts like green credit.Carbon pricing is a major issue but we should not forget that it is a function of

demand and supply. The world is now ready with respective Intended Nationally Deter-mined Contributions (INDCs), with the resolve of each country to work in the direction ofgreen growth. Thus, the signal for the industry is positive and they should invest moreand more for research and development.

Research and development must also become part of the business plan, which car-ries a certain risk, but also generates tremendous profits for the companies. The real issueis how to make available the critical technologies for the developing world at an afford-able cost. To this end, India is proposing that part of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) should

be used for this purpose, which will be a win-win proposal for all the stakeholders.

Ministry of Tourism launches several new initiatives onWorld Tourism Day

Med ica l and W el lness Tour ism Board cons t i t u t ed , Tour ism

Vision Docum ent 2 030 re leased

The Union Ministry of Tourism launched several new initiatives on the occasion ofWorld Tourism Day today.

The Union Minister of State for Tourism(Independent Charge) , Culture (Indepen-dent Charge), and Civil Aviation, Dr Mahesh Sharma announced the constitution of theMedical and Wellness Tourism Promotion Board at a function in New Delhi today. TheBoard has been formed to tap the potential and advantages that India has in the field ofmedical and wellness tourism. The Centre of Excellence in Hospitality Education to oper-ate from Hotel Samrat in New Delhi was also inaugurated at todays function. Release ofTourism Vision Document 2030, launch of the revamped website of Ministry of Tourismhttp:/ / tourism.gov.in/ which has now been made bilingual, release of Audio Visual Pre-sentation Introduction to India and a seminar on the theme of World Tourism Day 2015 One Billion Tourist, One Billion Opportunities were some of the other highlights of

todays function on the occasion of World Tourism Day.Speaking on the occasion, Dr Mahesh Sharma said that low cost medical facilities

are Indias strength and we must take advantage of the same for the purpose of promot-
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ing tourism. It is for this reason that the Government took the important decision of set-ting up the Medical and Wellness Tourism Promotion Board. The Board will have a cor-pus fund of Rs 2 crore initially, the Minister disclosed. Dr Mahesh Sharma said that theAYUSH facilities will be promoted along with regular medical facilities.

Dr Mahesh Sharma also announced that Discover India fares of Air India. Under thescheme, a tourist can discover India in one or two weeks at a reasonable travel cost. ATourist can buy 5 coupons for Rs 32,500 (15 days validity) or 10 coupons for Rs 60,000 (30days validity) for exciting Indian destinations, serviced by Air India & Alliance Air with-out worrying about ticket price fluctuation. In another initiative, Air India will introduceIncredible Air India holiday packages from 1st December, 2015. Air India will also launchDelhi-San Francisco flight from 2nd December, 2015 onwards which will fly thrice a week,Dr Mahesh Sharma announced.

Secretary, Tourism, Sh. Vinod Zutshi; CMD, ITDC Sh. Umang Kumar; CMD, AirIndia, Sh. Ashwani Lohani and other Senior Officials and members of the Travel IndustryStakeholders attended the function.

The details of some of the new initiatives launched today are as below:

Medical and Wellness Tourism Promotion Board: The Board will provide leader-ship of the Government within a framework of prudent and effective measures, therebyenabling promotion and positioning of India as a competent and credible medical andwellness tourism destination. The Board will be chaired by the Union Tourism Ministerand consists of members representing the related Government Departments, Tourism &Hospitality sector and experts in the Medical, Wellness and Yoga.

Ashok Institute of Hospitality & Tourism Management Centre of Excellence: TheAshok Institute of Hospitality & Tourism Management is part of the HRD division of

India Tourism Development Corporation Ltd.,(ITDC) a PSU under Ministry of Tourism,Govt. of India. As part of its contribution towards supplying trained manpower to theHospitality Industry, ITDC has envisioned to set up a Centre of Excellence in HospitalityEducation at Hotel Samrat, New Delhi. The courses offered by AIH&TM are a blend ofthe rich heritage and culture of India and hospitality management education system. Itprovides the students with a world class contemporary education to have an edge overothers in the field.

Tourism Vision Document 2030: The document goes into the challenges for the sec-tor and details the way towards Vision 2030. Tourism vision 2030 has been commis-sioned by the Experience India Society and prepared by KPMG.

Launch of Bi-Lingual Website of Ministry of Tourism: The official website of theMinistry http:/ / tourism.gov.in/ has been revamped and translated in Hindi. This Ad-ministrative website of the Ministry of Tourism contains the activities and information ofall the divisions of the Ministry including the web based E-Recognition System for recog-nition of Travel Trade Service Providers and Approval and Classification of Hotels.

Audio Visual Presentation Introduction to India : The Indian Association of TourOperators, the Apex Body of Tourism Industry and especially promoting inbound tour-ism to our country has produced a 6 minutes AV presentation depicting all tourism prod-ucts of India and a element of human engagement with the various tourism products .This video presentation is to be used by IATO in all its promotional activities including

Road Shows, international travel marts and other industry Interactions.

A seminar on the theme of World Tourism Day 2015 One Billion Tourist,OneBilion Opportunitieswas held, with Shri Vikram Oberoi, President Hotel Association of
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India, Shri Subhash Goyal, President Indian Association of India and Shri Atul Bhatnagar,Chief Operating Officer of National Skill Development Corporation as panellists.

Among other important events, a street play was also enacted today at the Dilli Hatt,INA Market by the Students of Institute of Hotel Management, PUSA, New Delhi on thetheme Swachh Bharat Abhiyan-Swachh Bharat Swachh Paryatan. Speaking on the oc-casion, the Tourism Minister, Dr Mahesh Sharma made an appeal to provide clean, safeand hospitable environment to the tourists. It is our moral responsibility to conduct our-selves properly with the tourists and especially foreign tourists, he added. The studentsperformed the play at regular intervals throughout the day to sensitize the tourists andvisitors to Dilli Haat about keeping India clean.

India looks forward to Active Cooperation inDevelopment of ICT in Africa

Launches the 1 s t I ndo -A f r i ca I CT Expo in Na i r ob i

Indian Government in conjunction with ICT Authority of Kenya, Indias TelecomExport Promotion Council (TEPC), and NASSCOM launched the 1stIndo-Africa ICT Expoin KICC, Nairobi. This event was inaugurated by Honble Minister, Mr. Najib Balala,Cabinet Secretary Government of Kenya and Mr. Rakesh Garg, Secretary Telecom Gov-ernment of India. Various senior Government officials and business leaders from India,Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda & Rwanda attended this event today. Over thousand partici-pant from various African countries are expected to attend this event. The kickoff meetingfor this event was done by Dr. Fred Matiangi, Cabinet Secretary in New Delhi on July 7,2015, in the presence of Honble Minister Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister ofCommunication & IT, Government of India.

Mr. Rakesh Garg, Secretary Government of India and Chairman of TEPC said, Weare leveraging the convergence of telecom and IT for launching a digital transformationthat will be used for the betterment of our lives in all aspects of human society. Due to thelarge scale and complexity, we have got a lot of experience in policies, networks/ technol-ogy, skill development and innovative solutions that we will like to share with Africa. Weare also impressed that Kenya has been creating innovative solutions using ICT for im-proving the lives of its people. Together, we see many opportunities for cooperation andour Government is keen to find ways to increase the business between India and Africa inICT sector.

There are over 100 technology companies who are showing their latest products and

solutions at the Indo-Africa ICT Expo cum Conference. Mr. Sanjay Nayak, Vice ChairmanTEPC and MD Tejas Networks, on behalf of the industry said- Africa is one of the fastestgrowing ICT markets in the world and we see tremendous need and opportunity to buildhigh-capacity and resilient broadband network infrastructure along with innovative ITsolutions. We believe that Indian companies have an advantage in emerging markets likeAfrica, since they already have the experience of successfully tackling similar businesschallenges, competitive pressures and harsh operating environments in India.

The Indo-Africa ICT Expo 2015 is being organized for the first time, and is beingheld in Nairobi on 28-29 September 2015. This event will be attended by over 2000 visi-tors and over 300 conference delegates. Indo-Africa ICT Expo 2015 is a platform to build

synergy among India & African countries to showcase innovative & diversified Products& Services and to bring together thought leaders across the entire ICT value chain todiscuss solutions to regulatory and business. As digitalization and mobility continue to


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transform business operations and everyday life, Indo-Africa ICT Expo 2015 cum Con-ference presents the latest technologies that help companies in Africa to evolve and main-tain a competitive edge in the Communications and digital world. For more information,please visit http:/ / www.indoafrica-ictexpo.telecomepc.in/

In addition, TEPC also organizes a Buyer-Seller Meet in New Delhi each year inFebruary, where potential buyers from across the globe are invited to meet the telecomequipment and services suppliers of India to develop long term business relations. Formore information, please visit http:/ / www.telecomepc.in/

Organ ise r -Te lecom Equ ipm ent and Serv ices Exp or t

Prom ot ion Counc i l ( TEPC)

Telecom Equipment and Services Export Promotion Council (TEPC) has been set upby the Government of India to promote and develop export of Telecom Equipment andServices. TEPC as a Council plays a critical role in furtherance of Telecom export fromIndia and assist Indian member companies in easy facilitation of their respective exports.

The Council caters to the complete Telecom Ecosystem including Telecom HardwareManufacturing, Telecom Service Provision, Telecom Software, and Consultancy. TEPCrecognizes the strengths of building a design-led manufacturing ecosystem for telecomproducts and the Government is committed to further support the creation of domesticproducts and enable manufacturing with high domestic value-addition. India is poisedfor another digital revolution given the massive thrust on Make in India initiative &launch of Digital India campaign, which creates a large opportunity for innovativeproducts and services. For more information visit www.telecomepc.in

Co Org an iser NASSCOM I nd ia

NASSCOM is the premier trade body and the chamber of commerce of the IT-BPMindustries in India. NASSCOM is a global trade body with more than 1800+ members,which include both Indian and multinational companies that have a presence in India.NASSCOMs member and associate member companies are broadly in the business ofsoftware development, software services, software products, consulting services, BPMservices, e-commerce & web services, engineering services off shoring and animation andgaming. NASSCOMs membership base constitutes over 95% of the industry revenues inIndia and employs over 3.5 million professionals. Global Trade Development atNASSCOM: The focus of the Global Trade Development at NASSCOM is to engage withinternational stakeholders, the government, customers and associations to collaborate onissues related to international policy, visa/ work permit and business partnerships. For

more information visit www.nasscom.in

I CT Au th o r i t y o f Kenya

The Information and Communication Technology Authority is a State Corporationunder the Ministry of Information Communication and Technology. The corporation wasestablished in August 2013. The Authority is tasked with rationalising and streamliningthe management of all Government of Kenya ICT functions. Its broad mandate entailsenforcing ICT standards in Government and enhancing the supervision of its electroniccommunication. The Authority also promotes ICT literacy, capacity, innovation and en-terprise in line with the Kenya National ICT Master plan 2017. The Ministry of Informa-

tion, Communications and Technology was created in June 2004 with responsibility offormulating administering, managing and developing the Information, Broadcasting andCommunication policy. It was mandated to regulate the Information Communication sec-
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tor. The Ministry is guided by its mission, to develop Kenya as a globally competitive andprosperous nation by creating an enabling environment that encourages and enhancesthe development, expansion and use of Information Communications Technologies (ICTs).

Shri Nitin Gadkari to launch Green Highways Policy

Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Shri Nitin Gadkariwill release the Green Highways (Plantation, Transplantation, Beautification and Mainte-nance) Policy, 2015 at the National Conference in New Delhi tomorrow. Shri Pon.Radhakrishnan, Minister of State for Road Transport & Highways and Shipping will alsoaddress the conference.

At the National Conference, over thousand delegates from all over India will par-ticipate and deliberate upon various issues related to the development of Green High-ways in the country. The Conference will have technical sessions on various issues such asDesigning Green Belt-A Strategic Approach, Steps towards successful plantation alongNational Highways and Saving Trees through Transplanting.

The Green Highways Policy is a Policy to promote greening of Highway corridorswith participation of the community, farmers, private sector, NGOs, and government in-stitutions. After the implementation of the policy, the community will be benefitted interms of huge employment opportunities and entrepreneurship development. There will

be huge environmental benefits also. It will also contribute to economic development ofthe country.


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National News

Centre forms panel to review IAS exam pattern

An expert committee has been formed by the government to examine various issues

related to age relaxation, eligibility, syllabus and pattern of civil services examinationto select IAS and IPS officers.

Based on the report of the committee, further changes in the civil services exampattern will be contemplated with the primary objective of providing a level-playingfield to aspirants from diverse streams of curriculum like mathematics, engineering,medicine or humanities, he said.

Till such time as the recommendations of the committee are received and thegovernment subsequently takes a decision on the same, Singh said that the GeneralStudies Paper-II (also known as CSAT) in the civil services preliminary examination

will remain a qualifying paper with minimum qualifying marks fixed at 33 per cent. Meanwhile, the government's decision taken last year to exclude the English portion

consisting of 22 marks in the General Studies Paper-II of the civil services preliminaryexamination from tabulation also continues to remain in force, he told PTI here.

The panel has been formed as follow-up to the decision taken by the government inMay this year to form such a committee, said Singh, Minister of State for Personnel,Public Grievances and Pensions, said.

The panel will be headed by former Chhattisgarh-cadre IAS officer BS Baswan andconsist of leading academicians, technocrats and senior bureaucrats, officials said.

Government proposes panel to decide MPs pay andperks

Amid demands that MPs should not be allowed to decide their salaries, thegovernment has proposed to set up a three-member panel to recommend pay andperks of lawmakers.

The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs has proposed a three-member independentEmoluments Commission to recommend salaries and other allowances for theMembers of the Parliament. The proposal is part of the agenda notes prepared forthe two-day All India Whips Conference to be held at Visakhapatnam, next week.

The general principles suggested by the Ministry for determination of salary are:that it should not be so low as to deter suitable candidates or so high as to make paythe primary attraction for the job.

It says the salary should reflect the level of responsibility and those with outsideinterests should not be deterred from entering Parliament.

One of the principles suggested is that those who choose to make Parliament a full-time career should be adequately rewarded to reflect their responsibilities.

As per Article 106 of the Constitution, salaries of MPs are determined by an Act of1954, amended from time to time.

The last revision in salary of MPs was made in 2010 during UPA II rule and thelawmakers at present get a basic salary of Rs 50,000 per month. Salaries of Membersof State Legislatures are decided as per Article 195 of the Constitution.


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Mukesh Ambani tops for 9th year, Flipkart's Bansalsdebut at 86th slot, Forbes India rich list

Industrialist Mukesh Ambani has been named India's richest for ninth year in a rowwith a net worth of $18.9 billion even as his wealth dipped by $4.7 billion in a year,while ecommerce giant Flipkart's founders made their debut on the country's top100 rich list.

As per Forbes magazines latest India rich list released on Wednesday night, Ambaniwas followed by Sun Pharma's Dilip Shanghvi as the second richest with a net worthof $18 billion, while Wipro's Azim Premji retained his third place with $15.9 billion.

Flipkart's co-founders Sachin and Binni Bansals made their debut at 86th positionwith a net worth of $1.3 billion each. The combined wealth of India's 100 richestpersons remained largely unchanged at $345 billion, compared with $346 billion in2014, Forbes said.

The magazine said the Indian economy was estimated to grow 7 percent this year,

but the wealth of many of India's 100 richest has declined due to the fall in the stockmarkets and depreciation of the rupee over the past one year.

As many as 10 of them saw their net worth dip by over $1 billion each in one year,including Lakshmi Mittal, whose net worth dipped to $4.6 billion (ranked 8th with$11.2 billion). His rank also slipped three places.Agencies

At the same time, many of the billionaires also saw their net worth rise further. Thelist saw as many as 12 newcomers including Flipkart's founders and low-cost airlineIndiGo's co-founder Rakesh Gangwal who has debuted at 70th position with a networth of $1.6 billion ahead of his companys IPO.

Gangwal's partner Rahul Bhatia has moved up 12 positions to 38th with a net worth

of $2.4 billion. The biggest gainer was vaccine maker Serums Cyrus Poonawalla whose wealth rose

from $6.2 billion to $7.9 million, pushing his rank to the 9th position. Forbes said theminimum threshold for making it to the list has increased from $1 billion to $1.1

billion in 2015.

In the top ten, Hinduja brothers were ranked 4th with $15.9 billion, followed byPallonji Mistry at $14.7 billion, Shiv Nadar ($12. 9 billion), Godrej family ($11.4 billion),Lakshmi Mittal ($11.2 billion), Cyrus Poonawala ($7.9 billion) and Kumar MangalamBirla ($7.8 billion).

India launches ASTROSAT, 6 foreign crafts, including 4from US

Joining an elite group of nations, India on Monday successfully launched its firstspace research observatory ASTROSAT that will help in a detailed understanding ofthe universe and also put into orbit six foreign satellites including the first from theUS.

Taking another major step in its ambitious and low-cost space programme, ISRO'strusted workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), in its 31st flight, injectedASTROSAT and the six co-passengers into orbit about 25 minutes after a perfect lift-

off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre. Launched in its maiden attempt, ASTROSAT, which includes a telescope that uses x-

ray, has been dubbed as a mini-Hubble telescope launched by US' NASA in 1990 and


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a one-stop shop for studying astronomical sources. So far, only the US, Japan, Russiaand Europe have launched a space observatory.

"Well done @isro. This is one more grand accomplishment for Indian science & ourscientists," Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is now on a visit to the US, said in atweet.cope launched by US'

Declaring the launch successful amid cheers from the assembled scientists, a beamingISRO Chairman A S Kiran Kumar said PSLV had put in an astronomy mission whichis being looked at not only within the country but also globally to bring in newinformation to scientific community.

It was for the first time that India launched US satellites--four in all--belonging to aSan Francisco-based company, under an agreement signed with Antrix CorporationLtd, the commercial arm of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). With a lift-off mass of about 1,513 kg, ASTROSAT was first injected into a 650 km orbit byPSLV-C30, followed by the other six satellites in the space of about three minutes.International customer satellites that piggybacked the polr rocket were the LAPAN-

A2 of Indonesia meant for maritime surveillance using Automatic IdentificationSystem (AIS), and maritime monitoring nanosatellite from Canada, NLS-14 (Ev9),which uses 'next generation' AIS.

The rocket, one of world's most reliable launch vehicles which clocked its 30thsuccessful mission in a row today, also carried four identical LEMUR nano satellitesof a Spire Global Inc., San Fransisco, US, that were non-visual remote sensing satellites'focusing primarily on maritime intelligence through vessel tracking via' the AIS,ISRO said.

With this, a total of 51 satellites belonging to global customers from 20 countries,including Germany, France, Japan, Canada, U.K, have been launched successfully

by ISRO so far.

Mumbai Central to be first station to get Googles wi-finetwork

RailTel Corporation of India, a PSU under the Ministry of Railways, said that it haspartnered with Google to set up a high-speed Wi-Fi network at 400 stations acrossthe country.

As a part of this engagement, Mumbai Central is the first station where the Wi-Fidesign prototype is being set up and validated and is expected ready for public use

by mid October, RailTel said in a statement. The Wi-Fi will be free for first 30 minutes over a 24 hour period. The Wi-Fi will be a

high-speed network capable of delivering HD video streaming services andpassengers will be able to download a movie in 4 minutes before they embark onlong journeys, it added.

The availability of high-speed connectivity can also spur the vendors in the Railwaystations to offer new services and also create the possibility of building an IOT (Internetof Things) ecosystem in the Railway station paving the way for Railways to automateoperations like monitoring of rolling stock, efficient use of electrical lighting systemsetc., the statement added.

HRD Ministry will now rank top engineering,management institutes


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The days of ranking Indian educational institutions by private agencies might soonbecome history as the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) came outwith an indigenous ranking framework for engineering and management instituteson Tuesday.

The first ranking list which will cover government as well as private institutes wouldbe completed by early April next year.

Mail Today was the first to report that the MHRD had decided to rank educationalinstitutions in the country.

Irani had earlier told Mail Today that a ranking system for Indian institutions ofhigher learning is significant as it would empower students as well as parents tomake a conscious choice-based on the rankings, removed from the hubris surroundingthese institutions.

The ranking system has been opened to institutions in the private sector too, thoughparticipation has been kept voluntary.

The system itself would put pressure on educational institutions to perform welland provide what they promise in their prospectus, Irani had told Mail Today. Whileranking methods have been worked out for engineering and management institutions,those for other domains, including pharmacy, architecture and universities, could

be announced in the next one month.

The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) outlines a methodology torank institutions across the country. The methodology had been prepared by a corecommittee set up by the ministry to identify the broad parameters for ranking.

The parameters broadly cover 'Teaching, Learning and Resources,' 'Research,Professional Practices and Collaborative Performance (RPC)', 'Graduation

Outcomes(GO)', 'Outreach and Inclusivity (OI)', and 'Perception'.


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International News

Key Croatia-Serbia border crossing reopens after spatover migrants

Traffic began flowing through the major Serbia-Croatia border crossing at Bajakovoon Wednesday after a two-days blockade imposed to stem the flow of migrants acrossthe two ex-Yugoslav republics' frontier, Croatian state radio reported.

Croatia imposed the blockade for cargo on Monday in retaliation for Serbia directinga flow of migrants across the border. On Tuesday Zagreb agreed to allow in truckswith perishable goods but their drivers refused to budge until all traffic resumed.

EU leaders pledge 1bn to aid Syrian refugees

EU leaders pledged at least 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) for Syrian refugees in the

Middle East and closer cooperation to stem migrant flows into Europe at a summitdescribed as less tense than feared after weeks of feuding.

He heard "very substantial and energetic" exchanges between the Austrian andHungarian leaders, whose common border was among those disrupted by chaoticcrowds of migrants this summer, but not the mutual recrimination that has threatenedto tear apart the bloc's cherished passport-free Schengen zone.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, criticised by some eastern neighbours for whatthey saw as actions that have fuelled the influx of people trying to reach Germany,voiced satisfaction:

China to launch 'national system to limit greenhousegases'

China will announce plans to launch a national system to limit greenhouse gasesand force industries to purchase pollution credits on Friday, USofficials have said.

Beijing plans to put the system known as cap-and-trade into place in 2017 as part ofmeasures aimed to address climate change in cooperation with the US and others,officials said.

A statement to be released following Friday's summit between President Barack

Obama and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping aims to flesh out how their twocountries plan to achieve targets for cutting emissions set at a bilateral summit inBeijing last year.

The officials said it was hoped the announcement will give impetus to a broaderglobal treaty on climate change in December.

Mr Obama and Mr Xi are expected to release a joint statement on climate changefleshing out how they plan to achieve targets for cutting carbon emissions set at a

bilateral summit in Beijing last year.

Climate change is one of the few areas where bilateral cooperation has proceededsmoothly in recent months, largely because Beijing has struggled to contain heavyair, water and soil pollution that has destroyed farmland, sent cancer rates soaringand left its cities cloaked in dense smog


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U.S. moots Sri Lankan judicial mechanism with foreignjudges

A draft resolution, submitted by four countries, including the U.S. and the U.K., inthe United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has mooted the participationof Commonwealth and other foreign judges in a Sri Lankan judicial mechanism toprobe allegations of war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law.

Sri Lanka has co-sponsored the resolution. The proposed mechanism includes theSpecial Counsels office, according to the draft, which has been hosted on the extranetof the UNHRC.

The text of an old draft had called upon the Sri Lankan government to involveinternational investigators, prosecutors and judges in Sri Lankas justice processes.

Jehan Perera, executive director of the National Peace Council and a law alumnus ofthe Harvard University, says the earlier version on the nature of judicial mechanismwas ambiguous whereas the revised text is more specific and it reiterates the

governments position, which is for a domestic mechanism. Dr. Perera says the role of the foreign judges is likely to be more in the form of

advisory as otherwise there will have to be amendments to the existing laws.

Another significant feature of the resolution is that the reputation of those, includingwithin the military, who conducted themselves in an appropriate manner with honourand professionalism would be safeguarded even as a credible accountabilityprocess will be in place for those most responsible for violations and abuses.

The document also talks of the need for a process of accountability and reconciliationfor violations and abuses committed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

NASA finds evidence of liquid water on Mars

Mars appears to have flowing streams of salty water, at least in the summer, scientistsreported Monday in a finding that could have major implications for the possibilityof life on the planet.

Scientists in 2008 confirmed the existence of frozen water on Mars. But the latestobservations from an instrument aboard NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbitersupport the long-time theory that salt water in liquid form flows down certain Martianslopes each summer, according to the researchers.

Mars just got more interesting, NASA said via Twitter. The space agency called theresults a major science finding.


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16/26



Business and Economy

RBI draft proposes allowing cos to tap SWFs, pensionfunds for external debt

In order to encourage overseas funding, the RBI on Wednesday proposed to allowdomestic companies to borrow money from pension funds, sovereign wealth funds(SWFs) and insurance funds as part of the ECBs.

The draft framework on External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs), however, proposedto lower the all-in cost borrowing by 0.50 percent to ensure that the funds are borrowedfrom abroad at a reasonable interest rate.

The modification in the ECB guidelines on which the RBI has invited comments tillOctober 1 are aimed at replacing the ECB policy with a more rational and liberalframework, keeping in view the evolving domestic as well as global macroeconomic

and financial conditions, challenges faced in external sector management and theexperience gained so far, the draft guidelines added.

The basic thrust of the revised framework, the RBI said, is to retain more qualitativeparameters for the normal (foreign currency-denominated) ECB and to provide moreliberal dispensation for long-term borrowings in foreign currency.

According to the draft guidelines, there will only be a small negative list whichinclude stock market operations, real estate activity and purchase of land. They willnot be allowed to raise resources through ECBs and rupee-denominated borrowing.

The framework for the rupee-denominated bonds will be announced separately, it

said, adding the real estate investment trust and Infrastructure Investment Trust willbe permitted to raise funds through these instruments.

The currency risk with regard to the rupee denominated ECB lies with the lender orinvestor and hence the modified framework provides for minimal control for these

borrowings.

The RBI proposed to expand the list of recognised ECB lenders by including overseasregulated financial entities, pension funds, insurance funds, sovereign wealth fundsand similar other long-term investors.

India set to amend Income-Tax Act 1961, w.e.f. April 1,

2001 After due consideration of various aspects of the matter, the government has decided

that with effect from April 1, 2001, the provisions of Section 115JB of the Income TaxAct, 1961, shall not be applicable to a foreign company if

The foreign company is a resident of a country having DTAA with India and suchforeign company does not have a permanent establishment within the definition ofthe term in the relevant DTAA

The foreign company is a resident of a country which does not have a DTAA withIndia and such foreign company is not required to seek registration under Section592 of the Companies Act 1956 or Section 380 of the Companies Act 2013.

An appropriate amendment to the Income-tax Act in this regard will be carried out.


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Earlier, the issues relating to taxation of foreign companies, having no permanentestablishment in India, have been under consideration of the Government. In thisregard, the Centre has already clarified the inapplicability of MAT provisions toFIIs/ FPIs.

Chinese Taipei has dragged India to WTO

Chinese Taipei has dragged India to WTOagainst imposition of anti-dumping dutyon imports of USB flash drives or pen drives as known in common parlance.

On May 22, India had imposed anti-dumping duty on the imports of 'USB FlashDrives' from China and Chinese Taipei ($3.06, $3.12 a piece). The duty is for fiveyears.

The request for consultations formally initiates a dispute in the WTO. Consultationsgive the parties an opportunity to discuss the matter and to find a satisfactory solutionwithout proceeding further with litigation.

After 60 days, if consultations have failed to resolve the dispute, the complainant

may request adjudication by a panel.

USB Flash Drives in the market parlance are also known by various other namessuch as pendrive, keychain drives, key drives, USB sticks, flash sticks, jump sticks,USB keys or memory keys.

The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) in the Finance Ministry had imposedthe anti-dumping duty on recommendations of Directorate General of Anti-Dumping& Allied Duties (DGAD).

All you need to know about the marriage between Sebi

and FMC The amalgamation of Forward Markets Commission (FMC), the erstwhile

commodities regulatory body, with capital markets watchdog Securities and ExchangeBoard of India (Sebi) came into effect today, marking the first major case of tworegulators being merged.

Although, the merger of these two independent regulatory bodies was underdiscussion for long time, the move gathered pace, especially, after the commoditymarket was rocked by the outbreak of a multi-crore scam at National Spot Exchange(NSEL) unearthed two years back.

Now that the merger has been done with, below is the draw down of the journey ofthe commodities regulatory body and what led to the eventual covergence with thecapital markets regulator Sebi.

1) History of the two regulatory bodies: The Forward Markets Commission regulatedcommodities market since 1953, while the Securities and Exchange Board of Indiawas set up in 1988 as a non-statutory body for regulating the securities markets and

became an autonomous body in 1992 with full independent powers. Currently, Indiaboasts of three national and six regional bourses for commodity futures in the country.The persisting global economic slowdown coupled with slackening growth in Chinafuelled a sharp fall in commodity prices over the past year or so. So much so that the

consolidated turnover of all the exchanges put together fell to nearly Rs 60 lakh crorein 2014-15 from over Rs 101 lakh crore in the preceding financial year.

2) Issues stifling commodities markets: FMC oversaw the commodities market for over


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60 years, but it lacked powers which led to wild fluctuations and alleged irregularitiesremaining untamed in this market segment. Also, the commodities market facedchallenges with respect to speculative activities and illegal activities like 'dabbatrading' flourishing in this segment.

3) Talks of merger: The merger talks between the two regulatory bodies was first mootedin 2003, and continued in next few years before the Rajan committee in 2009 reiteratedconsolidation of all financial sector regulators under one umbrella. In the events

before the outbreak of NSEL crisis came to light, Justice BN Srikrishna-led FSLRCrecommended unified regulation. But the fallout of NSEL prompted finance ministryto bring FMC under its fold in that same year. Finally, in his budget speech this yearin February, finance minister Arun Jaitley announced the merger of FMC with Sebi.

4) What merger aims to achieve: The merger is aimed at streamlining the regulationsand curb wild speculations in the commodities market, while facilitating furthergrowth there. Cautioning small investors, Sebi chairman UK Sinha had said, "If youput your hard-earned money into this market, it may not be ultimately good for you.The commodities market is for those who are experts in this space. For non-experts,it is a risky area."

5) Measures by Sebi: Sebi has also created a separate Commodity Cell and has set upnew departments for regulation of commodities derivatives market. Sebi has formeda Commodity Cell by posting its senior officials, while two internal departmentalcommittees (one each in Integrated Surveillance Department and MarketIntermediaries Regulation and Supervision Department) have been set up. The marketregulator has also sought help from the Agriculture Ministry with regard to the datasources for the prices and to improve the methodology for determination of finalsettlement price.

Foreign investors get relief from controversial MAT With the government deciding to exempt the foreign companies that have no

permanent establishment in India from the 18.5 per cent minimum alternate taxdemands, all foreign investors have got full relief from the controversial MAT.

The finance ministry's clarification this week puts the MAT controversy to rest as allforeign investors without business presence in India foreign portfolio investorsand companies are now exempt from MAT, irrespective of whether tax treatiesexist between India and other countries where these firms may be domiciled.

Technically, the ministry of finance has decided to amend the Income Tax Act, 1961,

with effect from April 1, 2001, in a manner that provisions of Section 115JB shall notapply to a foreign company if it is a resident of a country which has a double taxationavoidance accord with India.

Chinese Taipei has dragged India to WTO

Chinese Taipei has dragged India to WTOagainst imposition of anti-dumping dutyon imports of USB flash drives or pen drives as known in common parlance.

On May 22, India had imposed anti-dumping duty on the imports of 'USB FlashDrives' from China and Chinese Taipei ($3.06, $3.12 a piece). The duty is for fiveyears.

The request for consultations formally initiates a dispute in the WTO. Consultationsgive the parties an opportunity to discuss the matter and to find a satisfactory solutionwithout proceeding further with litigation.


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After 60 days, if consultations have failed to resolve the dispute, the complainantmay request adjudication by a panel.

USB Flash Drives in the market parlance are also known by various other namessuch as pendrive, keychain drives, key drives, USB sticks, flash sticks, jump sticks,USB keys or memory keys.

The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) in the Finance Ministry had imposedthe anti-dumping duty on recommendations of Directorate General of Anti-Dumping& Allied Duties (DGAD).


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21/26



Sports

Ganguly looks set to replace Dalmiya as CAB boss The race to succeed Jagmohan Dalmiya at the helm of Cricket Association of Bengal

(CAB) gathered momentum on Wednesday with Sourav Ganguly and Dalmiya'sson Avishek calling on chief minister Mamata Banerjee at Nabanna.

Sourav and Avishek insisted that it was a courtesy call to discuss the arrangementsfor the former BCCI chief's 'shraddh' ceremony to be held on October 2.

"To discuss something like this three days after his (Dalmiya's) death is not right.Speculation will be on, someone will run CAB.

It's too early to say anything," Ganguly said after emerging from the meeting thatwas also attended by three senior state ministers.

There was no official line on the succession issue at CAB, but according to a well-placed source, the chief minister is well aware of the factionalism in the CAB, and

wants the members to sort out their differences and elect a candidate who is acceptableto all factions.

Swiss target world soccer chief Blatter in criminal probe Swiss prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into Sepp Blatter, the head

of world soccer body FIFA, on suspicion of criminal mismanagement andmisappropriation of funds, the Swiss attorney general's office said on Friday.

It said Blatter was interrogated after a meeting of FIFA's executive committee inZurich, and authorities carried out a search at the organisation's headquarters onFriday.

It was the first time that authorities investigating corruption in the world's mostpopular sport had pointed the finger directly at Blatter, the 79-year-old Swiss whohas run its powerful governing body for the past 17 years.

He has denied wrongdoing and his U.S. attorney said he was cooperating with theSwiss probe.

A source close to FIFA said that as Blatter has not been arrested, charged or indicted,it would probably be for him to decide whether he stays in his post until February,when he is due to step down.

Pankaj Advani wins World Billiards Championship

Pankaj Advani outplayed Peter Gilchrist of Singapore to win the World BilliardsChampionship on Sunday.

This was Advanis 14th world title.

Advani left the spectators spellbound with his prolific display as he downed hisopponent by 1168 points after the match ended after the maximum allotted time of300 minutes.

Sundays victory also came as sweet revenge for Advani as he had lost the final ofthe point format championship to Gilchrist last week.

Abhinav Bindra wins gold in Asian Air Gun Champion-

ships Beijing Olympics champion Abhinav Bindra produced some excellent shooting to

clinch the gold while London Games bronze medallist Gagan Narang failed to finish


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on the podium in the men's 10m Air Rifle event of the Asian Air Gun Championshipson Sunday.

32-year-old Bindra, who won gold in 2008 Olympics in 10m Air Rifle event, shot208.3 to bag the top prize ahead of Kazakhstan's world number eight Yurkov Yuriy(206.6) and Korea's Yu Jaechul (185.3) on the first day of competition at the Dr KarniSingh Shooting Range.in Newunday. PTI

Narang, who won a bronze in the same event in 2012 London Olympics, finishedfourth with a score of 164.5 while another Indian, Chain Singh was two places belowat seventh after notching up 122.7.

Narang started on a good note, shooting 10.6 and 10.6, but fell behind in the followingattempts while Chain Singh was out after a shoot-off with Korea's Kim Dajin.

West Indies fail to qualify for ICC Champions Trophy2017

In what can be termed as the lowest ebb in islands cricket history, the West Indieshave failed to qualify for the 2017 Champions Trophy in England as they were not

among the top eight ODI teams as per ICC rankings on September 30, 2015, pavingthe way for Bangladeshs entry.

It will be the first time since its inception year in 1998 (when Champions Trophyused to be known as Mini World Cup) that assortment of Caribbean nations will not

be a part of a premier event. Bangladesh will return to the Champions Trophy for the first time since 2006 after

the eight sides were confirmed for the 2017 tournament, which will be hosted by theEngland and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) from June 1 to 18.

The eight sides to play in the short and sharp, nation-versus-nation ICC ChampionsTrophy 2017 are (in rankings order): world champions Australia, defending

champions India, 1998 winner South Africa, 2000 champion New Zealand, 2002 co-winner Sri Lanka, hosts England, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Bangladeshs last participation in the ICC Champions Trophy was in India, when itfeatured in the qualifying round. It lost to Sri Lanka (by 37 runs) and the West Indies(by 10 wickets). Its only victory was against Zimbabwe by 101 runs.

Since the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, Bangladesh cricket team has been on a highand has produced very strong performances. It won ODI series against Pakistan,India and South Africa, which has helped it jump from ninth to seventh in the ICCODI Team Rankings.

The Champions Trophy 2017 will be a 15-match tournament, with teams split into

two groups of four, with the top two teams in each group progressing to the semi-finals. The groups and the schedule for the ICC Champions Trophy will be announcedin due course.

With the sides for the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 now confirmed, the next importantqualification date in the diaries of the 12 teams on the ICC ODI Team Rankings will

be September 30, 2017. That is the date when the top eight ranked sides on the ICC ODI Team Rankings will

earn direct qualification for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 to be hosted by theECB.

The bottom four sides will get a second chance to complete the 10-team line-up inthe ICC Cricket World Cup when they will be joined by teams from the ICC WorldCricket League Championship and the ICC World Cricket League Division 2 in theICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018.


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Science & Tech

90 percent of the viruses in the soft palate had thereverted form of the virus.

Flu viruses come in many strains, and some are better equipped than others to spreadfrom person to person.

Scientists from MIT and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases(NIAID) have now discovered that the soft palate -- the soft tissue at the back of theroof of the mouth -- plays a key role in viruses' ability to travel through the air fromone person to another.

The findings should help scientists better understand how the flu virus evolvesairborne transmissibility and assist them in monitoring the emergence of strains withpotential to cause global outbreaks.

Researchers made the surprising finding while examining the H1N1 flu strain, whichcaused a 2009 pandemic that killed more than 250,000 people.

Ram Sasi sekharan, one of the study's senior authors, has previously shown thatairborne transmissibility depends on whether a virus' hem agglutinin (HA) proteincan bind to a specific type of receptor on the surface of human respiratory cells.

Some flu viruses bind better to alpha 2-6 glycan receptors, which are found primarilyin humans and other mammals, while other viruses are better adapted to alpha 2-3glycan receptors, found predominantly in birds.

The 2009 strain was very good at binding to human alpha 2-6 receptors. In the new

study, the researchers made four mutations in the HA molecule of this virus, whichmade it better suited to bind alpha 2-3 receptors instead of alpha 2-6.

They then used it to infect ferrets, which are often used to model human influenzainfection.

The researchers believed the mutated virus would not spread, but to their surprise,it traveled through the air just as well as the original version of the virus. Aftersequencing the virus' genetic material, they found that it had

3rd World Tea & Coffee Expo to in Mumbai from October

1 Enhancing business opportunities in the Tea & Coffee sectors, the World Tea & Coffee

Expo is to be held at Bombay Exhibition Centre, Mumbai India from October 1- 3,2015.

This three-day trade fair will provide the perfect environment for the hot beverageindustry to meet face-to-face and develop real business opportunities.

The Current edition has 50 plus exhibitors from six countries including pavilionsfrom Tea Board of India and Sri Lanka Tea Board as also participation from CoffeeBoard of India.

On display are new-age tea and coffee products and brands, vending solutions,premixes, machineries, retail chains, technologies, accessories, ingredients,certifications etc


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Modi brings net neutrality into focus

Ever since Mark Zuckerberg changed his Facebook profile picture to a tricolour shadein support of the Modi-governments Digital India initiative, the social networksusers in the country have been split down the middle on the issue, with many sayingthe gesture indirectly promotes Internet.org, which allegedly violates net neutrality.

While several changed their pictures, including PM Modi, many others didn't. This has restarted the debate on net neutrality an whether or not platforms such as

Facebook's internet.org should be allowed -- an issue that the Modi-governmentappointed expert panel has also looked into. The telecom regulator TRAI is expectedto submit a report on net neutrality in a couple of months.

Internet.org, recently rebranded as Free Basics by Facebook, aims to bring Internetservices to areas that are still not connected in partnership with tech giants likeSamsung and Qualcomm. However, it has been widely criticised for violating netneutrality principles and favouring Facebooks own services over its rivals.

In India, which has the largest Facebook user base outside the U.S., Facebookpartnered with Reliance Communications to provide free access to select websites.In the wake of the controversy over the initiative, a lot of these websites such asCleartrip, Times Group, Flipkart and Ndtv opted out of Internet.org to voice theirsupport for net neutrality.

Questions are also being raised on why Facebook did not take up the issue of netneutrality during its 45-minute townhall Q&A with Prime Minister Narendra Modi,despite a lot of users posting questions on the subject on Mr. Zuckerbergs homepage.

India's deadliest warship - INS Kochi - set to join fleettoday

Naval warship INS Kochi, the stealth guided missile destroyers, will be commissionedby Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai onWednesday.

The warship is designed by the Navy's in-house organisation, Directorate of NavalDesign, and it is constructed by Mazagon Dock Ship builders Ltd in Mumbai. It hasdisplacement of 7,500 tons and it is 164 metres in length and 17 metres at the beam.

The ship is propelled by four gas turbines and designed to achieve speeds in excess

of 30 knots. The ship has a complement of about 40 officers and 350 sailors. INS Kochi is packed with an array of state-of-the-art weapons and sensors, with a

significant indigenous component. The ship has many lethal weapons to its creditwhich include the successful fitment of vertically launched missile system for longdistance engagement of shore and sea-based targets.


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