Carolina
Marin wins Women’s Singles Title in All England Open Badminton Championships
2015
Carolina Marin Martin of
Spain has won the prestigious Women’s Singles Title in the All England Open
Badminton Championships 2015. In the final match she defeated India’s Saina
Nehwal by score of 14-21, 21-16, 21-7. With this victory, Carolina Marin became
the first Spanish player to win this prestigious title. It should be noted that
Saina Nehwal is first Indian woman badminton player to reach finals of All
England Badminton Championship.
Veteran
journalist Vinod Mehta dies at 73
Vinod Mehta, the witty and
irreverent former editor of Outlook who passed away on Sunday in New Delhi. He
was 73. Mehta was editor of Outlook, the weekly news magazine owned by
businessman Rajan Raheja, for 17 years, before giving up his role as
editor-in-chief and taking charge of the largely ceremonial editorial
chairman’s position at the Outlook group in 2012. An influential, long-time
editor, Mehta was credited with starting a clutch of newspapers before
launching Outlook. He first landed the job of an editor in 1974 at Debonair, a
Mumbai-based men’s magazine. Later, he edited India’s first weekly paper,
Sunday Observer, followed by The Indian Post, The Independent and The Pioneer.
RBI
eases norms for home loans for up to Rs. 10 lakh
Giving a boost to affordable
housing, the RBI eased the norms for home loans for up to Rs. 10 lakh by
allowing banks to include stamp duty and registration charges to the cost of a
unit. These charges form around 15% of the cost of the house and place a burden
on borrowers. “With a view to encourage availability of affordable housing to
such borrowers, it has been decided that in cases where the cost of the house
does not exceed Rs. 10 lakh, banks may add stamp duty, registration and other
documentation charges to the cost of the unit for calculating LTV (loan to
value) ratio,” RBI said in a notification. As per the current practice, banks
do not include stamp duty, registration and other documentation charges in the
cost of housing property. “It has been brought to our notice that these amounts
form around 15% of the cost of the house and place a burden on the borrowers
from economically weaker sections (EWS) and low income groups (LIG),” RBI said
while easing the norms. The RBI also said that in cases of projects sponsored
by government, statutory authorities, banks may disburse the loans as per the
payment stages prescribed by such authorities, even where payments sought from
house buyers are not linked to the stages of construction.
News
Corp acquires VCCircle
New York-headquartered News
Corporation has signed a definitive agreement to acquire India’s VCCircle
Network for an undisclosed sum. The deal is expected to close in March. The
VCCircle network includes business news website covering developments in the
mergers and acquisition space VCCircle, financial data platform VCCEdge.com,
tech startup-focused news portal Techcircle.in and VCCircle Training. The deal
also includes premium-content-driven conference business, News Corp said in a
statement.
Kent
RO’s WASH campaign for rural areas
Kent RO System Ltd, one of
the largest water purifier brands in the country, will support about 8,500
rural population through a project called WASH — Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
— covering six States and eight villages. The project aims to help the children
and women from rural areas having negligible access to safe drinking water,
toilets and sanitation, says a company press release. Safe drinking water,
awareness about sanitation, hygiene practices, systematic disposal of garbage
and prevalence of water borne diseases are some of the thrust areas to be
addressed through the project. The six-month long campaign WASH will be
executed in association with the Art of Living in villages of Uttar Pradesh,
Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Kerala and Maharashtra. Kent RO and the
Art of Living have entered into a mutual agreement for the execution and
implementation of this campaign. Kent RO will spend Rs. 1 crore on providing
necessary drinking water, sanitation and toilet facilities to the villagers,
while Art of Living will help in making these facilities self sustained.
Apollo
Hospital opens 200-bedded hospital in Nellore
Apollo Hospitals has entered
the Tier II town of Andhra with the launch of a 200-bedded Apollo Specialty
Hospital (ASH) in Nellore. Andhra Pradesh N Chandrababu Naidu inaugurated the
facility, equipped with virtual ICU and Telemedicine Technology. It is expected
to function as a one-stop solution for advanced medical care benefiting people
in Nellore and nearby regions of Nellore, Prakasam, Kadapa and Chittoor.
Prathap C Reddy, Chairman and Founder, Apollo Group of Hospitals said, “While
there has been tremendous progress in healthcare administration in urban areas,
increasing penetration even in Tier II cities is a key task at hand and we are
very keen on realising this using all tools at our disposal. Our eICU and
digitised systems will play a crucial role in transforming rural healthcare and
we will continue to implement them in our future endeavours in the State.”
TCS
to construct 860 girls’ toilets in schools by 2015 end
Country’s largest software
exporter TCS said it has completed a survey of 1,100 schools allotted to it for
installing sanitation facilities for girls and will start the first phase of
construction by end of this month. Under the first phase, it will be building
toilets in 860 schools spread across five districts of Andhra Pradesh, eight of
Telangana and two of Bihar, the company said in a statement. The work will
finish by end of the year, it added. The company, which had committed Rs. 100
crore to construct toilets for girls under Prime Minister’s flagship ’Swachch
Bharat’ mission, said it has identified a modular superstructure design and
build for the toilet unit. For the maintenance of the toilets, it has tied up
with non governmental organisations and is also in advanced stages of
negotiations with consumer care companies to provide hand wash products and
sanitary napkins for personal hygiene and janitorial supplies for toilet
cleaning. TCS is one of the first companies, along with others like Bharti
Airtel, Vedanta and L&T, among others, to commit resources for Modi’s pet
project launched in August last year.
Kumar
Sangakkara announces retirement from Test cricket
Former Sri Lankan cricket
captain and ace batsman Kumar Sangakkara on 8 March 2015 announced that he will
retire from Test cricket after playing three-match series against India in
August 2015. Sangakkara already has retired from One-Day International (ODI)
and Twenty-20 cricket. He had retired from Twenty-20 cricket format after Sri
Lanka won the T20 World cup in 2014.
While, he had announced to retire from ODI cricket format after ongoing
ICC World Cup 2015. At present, Sangakkara is fifth highest run scorer in Test
cricket. He has scored 12,203 runs in 130 Test matches at an average of 58.66.
India
lowest among 16 Asia-Pacific countries in economic parity for women
According to the
Mastercard's latest Index of Women's Advancement, India is the lowest among 16
Asia Pacific countries in economic parity for women. Indian women stand even lower than their
counterparts from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the survey said. India (44.2),
Bangladesh (44.6) and Sri Lanka (46.2) had scores below 50, indicating that
much more needs to be done to achieve gender parity. Across the region, New
Zealand had the highest overall Index score of 77, followed by Australia (76),
the Philippines (72.6) and Singapore (70.5). A score under 100 indicates gender
inequality in favour of males while a score above 100 indicates inequality in
favour of females. A score of 100 indicates equality between the sexes.
Stree
Shakti Puraskar 2014
President of India Mr.
Pranab Mukherjee on 8 March 2015, awarded Stree Shakti Puraskar 2014 to six
illustrious women on International Women’s Day for their distinguished services
for the upliftment of women. The award was given in six categories named after
eminent women personalities in the Indian history. They are Kannagi, Rani
Gaidinliu Zaliang, Rani Ahilyabai Holkar, Rani Lakshmibai, Rani Rudramma Devi
and Mata Jijabai. These women are famous for their personal courage and
integrity.
Awardees of Stree Shakti
Puraskar 2014 are
1.
Rani Gaidinliu Zeliang Award: Sister Mariola
(Rajasthan).
2.
Rani Lakshmibai Award: Seema Prakash (Madhya
Pradesh).
3.
Rani Rudramma Devi Award: Astha Sansthan- NGO
(Rajasthan).
4.
Mata Jijabai Award: Chandraprabha Bokey
(Maharashtra).
5.
Kannagi Award: P. Bhanumati (Kerala).
6.
Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Award: Anay Rahit
Zindagi- NGO (Goa).
Haryana
Government launches Aapki Beti Humari Beti scheme
Haryana Government on the
eve of International Women’s Day i.e. 8 March launched ‘Aapki Beti Humari Beti’
Scheme. It was launched by Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar at
Panchkula district of state. This scheme aims to combat the problem of
declining child sex ratio in Haryana. It will be implemented in in both rural
and urban areas of the state. This scheme covers first-born girl child in
Scheduled Caste (SC) and Below Poverty Line (BPL) families on or after January
22, 2015. The girl child born in these families is eligible to receive Rs.
21,000. It also covers all second girl child born on or after January 22, 2015
of all families. In this case the girl child is eligible to receive Rs. 21,000.
While, in families where twin girls or multiple girls are born, each girl child
will get Rs. 21,000. Along with this scheme, Haryana Government also launched
‘Haryana Kanya Kosh’ for the welfare and development of girl child and women in
the state. Multi Sectoral Nutrition Programme was also launched to address the
maternal and child nutrition in five districts of state. They are Narnaul,
Palwal, Mewat, Kaithal and Fatehabad.
Muthoot
Finance bags award
Muthoot Finance has bagged
MoneyGram's 'Best Sub-Agent in South Asian Region' for the third consecutive
year. Muthoot Finance's money transfer service is recognised as the largest
payout centre in India with two million transfers being executed annually. With
20 lakh transactions worth Rs. 3,500 crore across all its branches last year,
the service continues to grow at a rapid rate, a statement issued here said.
Kathmandu-Varanasi
bus service launched
The Government of Nepal and
India has launched a direct bus service from Kathmandu and Varanasi. The bus
service was launched under the ambit of Motor Vehicle agreement between Nepal
and India signed during 18th SAARC summit. This will be the second bus service
between Nepal and India, after the one connected between Kathmandu and New
Delhi. Both the countries are also planning to launch another bus service
between Kathmandu and Patna in future.
NASA’s
Dawn space probe completes its orbit around dwarf planet Ceres
NASA’s
Dawn space probe has completed its orbit around dwarf planet Ceres which is the
largest object in the Solar System between Mars and Jupiter. With the
completion of orbit, Dawn probe has become first spacecraft to visit dwarf
planet. Dawn has taken 7.5 years to reach the orbit of Ceres. Scientists are
hoping to glean information from the Ceres which can tell them about the Solar
System’s beginnings after its formation four and a half billion ago. Earlier
during its journey from 2011 to 2012, the spacecraft also had explored and
surveyed the giant asteroid Vesta. It had delivered new insights and thousands
of images from the asteroid.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi named among 30 most influential
people on internet: Time Magazine
Time
Magazine has named Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi among the list of 30
most influential people on the internet. As per Time magazine PM Narendra Modi
has around 38 million followers on social networking sites Twitter and
Facebook. He is ardent user of social media and uses it to communicate and
reach to India’s 200 million-plus online population directly. However PM
Narendra Modi is behind US President Barack Obama who is also in the list and most-liked
world leader on Facebook and the most-followed on Twitter. The list also
includes British author J K Rowling of the Harry Potter series, singers Beyonce
and Taylor Swift. Time Magazine‘s 30 most influential people list on internet
was prepared by analyzing the social-media followings, site traffic and overall
ability to drive news of famous people.
"Shrimad
Bhagwad Gita" to be introduced in Haryana schools
The Haryana government is
planning to introduce "Shrimad Bhagwad Gita" for students of all classes
in schools after the recommendation of the State Council of Educational
Research and Training. The motive behind introducing Shrimad Bhagwad Gita"
in schools is to inculcate values among students and improve the education
system, said Haryana Chief Minister.
Prime
Minister inaugurates two 600 MW Thermal Power Units in Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh
Recently, Prime Minister
Narendra Modi inaugurated two units each of 600 Mega Watt (MW) capacity in
Shree Singaji Thermal Power Project in Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh.
Shree Singaji Thermal Power Plant is a coal-fired project. It is owned and
developed by Madhya Pradesh Power Generation Company Limited (MPPGCL). The two
units were inaugurated as part of the first phase of the project which added
additional 1200 MW power capacity. This additional power capacity will help to
increase the thermal power generation capacity of the State to 4500 MW and will
play key role state government’s Atal Jyoti Abhiyan which is aimed at providing
24 X 7 power supply. Apart from this inauguration, Prime Minister Narendra Modi
also laid the foundation stone of two units each of 660 MW of the same power
plant as part of second phase.
Kerala
Assembly speaker G Karthikeyan passes away
Senior Congress leader and
Kerala Assembly Speaker G Karthikeyan passed away in Bangalore, Karnataka. He
was 66. Karthikeyan died while he was undergoing treatment in Bangalore after
he was diagnosed with liver cancer.
