Monday, 9 February 2015

News and Updates - February 09, 2015

Two Indians win Grammy this year
India-based Ricky Kej’s collaborated album Winds Of Samsara won the Best New Age Album trophy at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards. Ricky teamed up with South African musician Wouter Kellerman for the album, which symbolises peace and harmony. Another Indian artist to make it big at the awards this year was Neela Vaswani. She won the trophy in the Best Children’s Album category for I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up For Education and Changed the World (Malala Yousafzai). Vaswani narrated the audio version of the book. However, sitarist and daughter of the late sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, Anoushka, who was nominated for her album Traces of You in the Best World Music Album category lost out to Angelique Kidjo’s album Eve.

‘Boyhood’, ‘Grand Budapest Hotel’ big winners at BAFTA
 Coming-of-age drama Boyhood won three of the biggest awards at the BAFTA 2015 but it was Wes Anderson’s whimsical drama The Grand Budapest Hotel that dominated the ceremony by taking home five trophies. Boyhood, a moving, groundbreaking film about growing up, was shot with the same actors for over 12 years, bagged the best film, best director for Richard Linklater while Patricia Arquette won the best supporting actress for the portrayal of a doting divorced mother of two kids. The award for leading actress went to Julianne Moore for her unbearably moving role of a woman succumbing to Alzheimer’s in Still Alice. Eddie Redmayne triumphed in the best actor category for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything after beating Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game), Ralph Fiennes (Budapest), Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler), Michael Keaton (Birdman). The biopic also won best adapted screenplay and outstanding British film. The Grand Budapest Hotel, which dominated the craft categories, won best original music, makeup and hair, costume design, production design, as well as best original screenplay for its absent director Anderson. Whiplash, a film written and directed by Damien Chazelle based on his experiences in the Princeton High School Studio Band, came away with three awards including best editing, best sound and best supporting actor award for JK Simmons as the tyrannical and ruthless music teacher Terence Fletcher.

Nimrat Kaur's 'The Lunchbox' loses out at BAFTAs
Internationally acclaimed Indian film 'The Lunchbox' which was was nominated for the Film Not in the English Language category of the British Academy Film Awards 2015 couldn't win the honour. Polish-Danish drama film 'Ida' won the award. "The Lunchbox", starring Nimrat Kaur and Irrfan Khan was pitted against Polish-Danish drama film "Ida", Russian drama "Leviathan", Brazilian-British adventure drama thriller film "Trash", and Belgian drama "Two Days, One Night".

Zoe Konstantopoulou, Youngest President of Greek Parliament with Record 235 Votes
Zoe Konstantopoulou will be the new President of the Greek Parliament after receiving a record 235 votes. Konstantopoulou will be the second woman to preside over the Greek House after Anna Psarouda-Benaki in 2004. She is also the youngest ever elected as President of the Greek Parliament. The new president of the House broke the record held by the previous House president, New Democracy’s Evangelos Meimarakis, who was elected with 223 votes. Now she has the record of more votes a president of parliament received after the restoration of democracy in Greece in 1974.

Ratan Tata invests in auto classifieds portal CarDekho
Ratan Tata has made a personal investment in auto classifieds portal CarDekho, once again reaffirming his bullishness around India's rapidly growing digital consumption story. Last year, Tata took a wager on Delhi-based e-commerce biggie Snapdeal followed by jewellery e-tailer Bluestone and online furniture retailer Urban Ladder amid a rush of funds into the thriving consumer internet sector. The 76-year-old chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, the holding company of the $100 billion steel-to-software conglomerate Tata Group, has subscribed to fresh shares of the Jaipur-based GirnarSoft which owns and operates CarDekho.com, BikeDekho.com and PriceDekho.com.

Google acquires content app Odysee for plus team
Google has acquired Odysee, an app that lets users back up and access content captured on their mobile or tablet cameras from their PCs, for their Google+ service. A message posted on the app's website says that the Odysee Platform team will be joining the Google+ team. The company has also informed existing users that the app service will be discontinued from February 23rd and post that date, all the existing users' photos and videos will be available as a downloadable archive.

Uttarakhand transport minister Surendra Rakesh dies of cancer at 48
Uttarakhand’s Transport Minister Surendra Rakesh, who was elected to the state assembly from Bhgawanpur seat (Hardwar district) as BSP nominee, died in a hospital in Gurgaon on Saturday. Rakesh was suffering from cancer in his lungs. Earlier in March 2014, Rakesh was suspended from the BSP. However, he continued to support Harish Rawat-headed Congress government in Uttarakhand and subsequently remained a minister. After his death, BSP has two MLAs in Uttarakhand assembly and they are supporting the Congress government.

JD(U) expels Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi; Nitish Kumar set to stake claim
Even as the political crisis in Bihar escalated, JD(U) on Monday expelled Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi from the party's primary membership. "JD(U) President Sharad Yadav has dismissed Jitan Manjhi from party's primary membership due to indiscipline," said party general secretary KC Tyagi. "Never does a CM running a minority government have the kind of attitude Manjhi, had following his meet with the PM," Tyagi said. Jitan Ram Manjhi met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Sunday, sparking speculation of his potential entry into BJP before the state goes to polls later this year.

Two Ghats in Varanasi equipped with WiFi facility
Under the Prime Minister's dream of 'Digital India', Dashashwamedha and Sheetala the two main ghats of Ganga in Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) are now equipped with WiFi facility.Tourist visitors and people can now access free WiFi connectivity in the surrounding area of around seven hundred metres.Union IT and Telecommunication Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that eight more Ghats of the city will be equipped with WiFi connectivity in the coming months, who launched Wifi facility in the two ghats yesterday. He also announced that Taj Mahal of Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Khajuraho, Konark, Hampi, Mahabalipuram and other famous tourist places across India will be provided with WiFi facility in the near future.

 Anirban Lahiri clinches Malaysian Open title
Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri defeated Austrian Bernd Wiesberger in the final to win the maiden Malaysian Open title. This is the first European tour title of Anirban Lahiri.

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