THE HEADLINES:
- Newly appointed Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar takes charge; Replaces Sujatha Singh.
- Tearful farewell to this year's gallantry award winner Colonel M N Rai martyred in an encounter in Jammu & Kashmir on Tuesday.
- Sports Ministry enhances award money for medal winners in international events; Revised Scheme of Special Awards.
- Cuba demands US to hand back Guantanamo Bay.
- Serena Williams to take on Maria Sharapova in Australian Open final.
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Subrahmanyam Jaishankar today took charge as the new Foreign Secretary. Mr Jaishankar replaced Sujatha Singh whose tenure was abruptly curtailed by the government late last night. The decision to appoint Mr Jaishankar was taken by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Talking to reporters after assuming the charge, the 1977-batch IFS officer described his new position as a big responsibility.
"I am very honoured that I have been assigned this responsibility and I look forward to working with all of you."
Sujatha Singh was not present when Jaishankar took charge at the South Block office. As per rules, he will have a two-year tenure. Before his appointment as Foreign Secretary, the diplomat was India's Ambassador to the United States. Mr Jaishankar was a key member of the Indian team which negotiated the landmark Indo-US nuclear deal.
Mr Jaishankar played a key role during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US in September and US President Barack Obama's recent visit to India. He had also served as Ambassador to China, Singapore and the Czech Republic.
Sujatha Singh had taken over as the third woman Foreign Secretary in August, 2013 and had nearly seven more months to serve.
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Reacting to the sudden curtailment of Sujatha Singh's tenure as Foreign Secretary, Congress spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala told AIR that the government must give reason and intent for the sudden removal of Ms Singh.
"Removal of a senior officer of the level of Foreign Secretary mid term after the successful visit of a foreign dignitary is in itself puts cloud & question on the intent as also the objective that the government is trying to meet with."
On the other hand, the BJP said that the Congress is trying to politicize an executive decision involving bureaucratic responsibility. Talking to AIR, party spokesman Nalin Kohli said, it is the government who decides what responsibility it wants to give any bureaucrat.
"The government is within its right to decide what responsibility they would like to assign to any bureaucrat and who would be best person to do that responsibility."
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Tearful farewell was given to Colonel Munindra Nath Rai today, who lost his life in an encounter with Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists in Tral area of south Kashmir's Pulwama district on Tuesday. The last rites of the martyr were performed in the national capital with full state honours after wreath laying ceremony in Delhi Cantonment.
Army Chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag paid homage to the brave soldier and met Col Rai's widow and children. He described Rai as a brave officer, who showed great leadership.
Col Rai was awarded the Yudh Seva Medal on Republic Day for killing a terrorist in a close encounter last year.
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Meanwhile Security forces have recovered large quantity of arms, ammunition and explosives in Kishtwar and Samba district of Jammu and Kashmir. Defence sources said troops of Army and Police yesterday carried out a joint search operation in Sarthal area of Kishtwar district and destroyed a hideout of Hizbul Mujahideen outfit. A large quantity of arms and ammunition were recovered from the hideout, which included AK-56 rifle, Under Barrel Grenade Launcher, rifles and grenades. Meanwhile, in Samba district a large quantity of arms and ammunition were recovered which were dated back to the 1971 war.
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Minster of State for Finance Jayant Sinha has said, India needs a simple and transparent tax regime which will help in restoring confidence in the foreign and Indian investors. When asked about the Cabinet decision on Vodafone tax case in which the government has decided to not challenge a Bombay High Court ruling, Mr Sinha said one should not generalize Cabinet's decision as every case has to be looked at differently. He also said that there are many cases which are sub-judice right now and every case has to be handled its own merits.
On the issue of fiscal deficit target, Mr Sinha said the government is following prudent fiscal policies and expressed hope that it will meet the target of 4.1 percent of the GDP in the current fiscal year.
"The honourable Finance Minister has said very clearly that we are following very prudent fiscal policy and we are quite confident that we will infact meet our numbers for this year. So I don't anticipate that there should be any challenge or issues there."
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Addressing the inaugural function on the implementation of National Pension System,NPS in Central Government Sector in New Delhi Minster of State for Finance today said, NPS will play an important role in dealing with pension liability in the coming years. Mr Sinha said, India has massive pension liability, because of large number of work force in the government departments and there is need to think in a fiscally prudent way to meet those challenges.
The Minister said, NPS already has 84 lakh subscribers with 73,000 crore rupee funds which is an extraordinary foundation to deal with pension liability.
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Union Minister for Urban development and Parliamentary Affairs Mr. Venkaiah Naidu today said that implementation of projects on smart cities would be taken up after finalisation of talks with the state and central departments in a day or two. Addressing the conference of Smart Cities in Chennai, the Minister said that the selection would be done in consultation with the local and urban bodies also. Complimenting Tamil Nadu for its urban development programs, the Minister said that Kanchipuram and Velankanni were selected for the purpose of heritage cities.
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The Sports Ministry has enhanced the award money for medal winners in international events and their coaches. An official release said the Ministry has revised the Scheme of Special Awards. Gold medalists in both summer and winter Olympic Games, who earlier received 50 lakh, will now get 75 lakh rupees. Silver medalists will get 50 lakh and bronze medalists 30 lakh rupees. The amount of award money for gold medal winners in Asian Games and Commonwealth Games has been enhanced from existing 20 lakh to 30 lakh rupees. Silver medallists will take home 20 lakh and bronze winners will get 10 lakh rupees.
In the category of the World Championships, Asian Championships and Commonwealth Championships, three separate categories of award money have been provided depending on whether the championship is held once in four years, once in two years or annually.
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After a weak opening, the Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange remained subdued, and had declined 46 points, to 29,513 in afternoon trade, a short while ago. Earlier in the morning, the Sensex had fallen 153 points. Similarly, the Nifty at the National Stock Exchange had slipped 15 points, to 8,899 a short while ago. Shares of Coal India Limited had fallen 2.8 percent a day ahead of stake sale in the PSU to raise about 24,000 crore rupees. The disinvestment is expected to help government meet half of the 43,425 crore rupees revenue target from stake sale in public sector companies.
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Odisha is likely to get more Central assistance during the 2015-16 fiscal based on the recommendation of the 14th Finance Commission. The state government will get an additional 6000 crore rupees from the enhanced state share in Central taxes, Central assistance and Centrally sponsored schemes.
The 14th Finance Commission has recommended disbursement of 50 percent of Central revenue to states from the current fiscal as against the 42 percent earlier. A total of 48 percent of Odisha’s annual budget comes from the Central assistance.
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The World Bank Report 'Scaling the Heights: Social inclusion and sustainable development" on Himachal Pradesh has been released by Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Dhani Ram Shandil in Shimla. Our correspondent reports that the report is the first of its kind prepared by the World Bank for Himachal. The report reveals that the state has effectively balanced economic growth with social inclusion.
"Report says that the Himachal has emerged as one of the states with the best human development outcomes in the country. The performance in poverty reduction, education, women employment and health sectors was much better as compared to other states. The state had also taken lead in implementation of various national programmes and had given special emphasis on infrastructural development. The state had prepared a plan to mitigate the natural disasters which had been well appreciated by the government of India. SHISHU SHARMA SHANTAL, AIR NEWS, SHIMLA"
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The Sri Lankan government has said that it will rely on political engagement with the minorities and not rely on the military to achieve national security and prevent future insurrections.
Speaking to Foreign journalists in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s Cabinet spokesman, Rajitha Senaratne listed the steps the new government will take to establish confidence in the people of Tamil majority region.
On the question of having a credible inquiry into the allegations of war crimes, Mr Senaratne said that the new government is engaged with the United Nations and will set up a domestic inquiry that will satisfy international standards.
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In Pakistan, eleven people died due to suffocation caused by gas emission in Kali Karbala area of Balochistan's Pishin district today. Official sources said that all victims that included women as well as children were members of the same family and had left the gas generator turned on before going to bed. The bodies were shifted to Civil Hospital Pishin for postmortem.
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Cuba has demanded the US hand back the Guantanamo Bay military base before relations with Washington are normalised. In a speech, President Raul Castro also called for the lifting of the US trade embargo and Cuba's removal from a terror list.
Last month the two countries announced a thaw in relations, agreeing to restore diplomatic ties. They were severed in 1961. High-level talks were held last week.
Meanwhile, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro appeared to signal his approval for the political rapprochement.
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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that Tokyo was analysing the authenticity of a fresh message from Islamic militants threatening to kill Japanese and Jordanian hostages unless an imprisoned jihadist is released. He said this during a parliamentary session today.
Tokyo is pleading to Amman to help rescue Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, who has been taken hostage by the Islamic State group.
In a fresh online message posted yesterday, the militants demanded that Amman hand over by evening female jihadist Sajida al-Rishawi, who is on death row in Jordan for her role in 2006 triple hotel bombings in Amman that killed 60 people.
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In Australian Open Tennis tournament, Serena Williams will face Maria Sharapova in the final after the pair won their Women Singles semi-finals in straight sets in Melbourne. Earlier, Serena Williams, the top seed, converted her ninth match point to beat fellow American Madison Keys 7-6(7-5) 6-2, while world number two Sharapova beat Ekaterina Makarova 6-3, 6-2.
In the Men's Singles, World number six Briton Andy Murray will play Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic in the first men's semi finals today.
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In Assam, Longai area of Cachar district in the Barak Valley and the hilly forested areas of Karbi Anglong district can emerge as the places in the world after Kenya to become a producer of health-rich purple tea.
"According to the scientist and Researchers of Assam, the purple tea of Kenya was originally from Assam. So that Assam has tremendous potential to produce purple tea. Purple tea is also known as future tea as far as its health benefits are concerned. It contains lower caffeine and high in antioxidants. It will also improve vision and lowers cholesterol. Currently, Kenya is the only country that produces purple tea which is three to four times expensive in comparison to black tea. SANJEEV SHARMA, AIR NEWS, SILCHAR."
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Scientists have developed a new way of monitoring how much ices is being lost as global temperature rise by listening to icebergs. The researchers from Poland and Britain found that different types of iceberg generate unique sounds as they breakaway from glaciers into the sea. The scientists say, listening for acoustic signals could help detect the formation of smaller icebergs.
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