Australia wins Azlan Shah Cup for sixth time

Australia have won the Sultan Azlan Shah hockey tournament for the sixth time. In the final at Ipoh in Malaysia on Sunday, the World Champions defeated Asian champions Pakistan by a narrow margin of three goals to two. Earlier yesterday, India finished sixth in the seven-nation tournament when they lost to South Korea 1-2, in the play-off match to decide the fifth spot. At half-time, the winners led Two-nil. Both the goals were scored by Nam Hyun-Woo by converting penalty corners. India's lone goal came in the second half through Vikram Pillay's field goal.

Courtesy : AIR

Union Finance Minister Welcomes Substantial Decline in Core Inflation; Hopeful that Recent Monetary Announcements Would Help in Addressing These Concerns

Union Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee has welcomed the substantial decline in core inflation from 9.19 per cent in March 2011 to 7.97 per cent, along with drop in inflation for food articles from 9.47 per cent in March to 8.71 per cent in April 2011. Beside it, the Finance Minister said that there is decline in year-on-year overall inflation to 8.66 per cent from 9.04 per cent in March 2011. Shri Mukherjee said that these are welcome trends. However, Shri Mukherjee said that these are not the kind of inflation figures that he is comfortable with. The Finance Minister said that there will be some impact on overall inflation due to the adjustment in the petrol prices effected by the Oil Marketing Companies in the coming months. Shri Mukherjee said that the international scenario on commodity prices also does not appear good at present. Union Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee said that we will continue to monitor the situation and take necessary measures to address the inflationary pressures in the economy.

CBI team in Denmark, India hopes Kim Davy will be extradited

A CBI team reached Denmark on Monday to assist local authorities in the case against Purulia arms drop case prime accused Kim Davy in the Danish High Court which is expected to pronounce its verdict on Thursday on extradition of Kim Davy to India to face trial.Ahead of the verdict, the Indian Government is hopeful that the High Court will clear the decks for Davy’s extradition to India.A two-member team of CBI is in Copenhagen to assist authorities there with the facts and evidence collected against Davy. Though India is not a party to the case in the Danish court, the role of the team is limited to helping the prosecutors there with necessary material evidence.

CBI says Kalmadi tarnished country’s image

“Suresh Kalmadi’s conduct has tarnished the image of the country,” was how CBI described him while opposing the bail plea of the former CWG Organising Committee chief arrested on charges of cheating, conspiracy and corruption in the award of games related contracts.“We are opposing the bail plea (of Kalmadi) as other co-accused in this case had already been denied bail by this court. Investigation is going on. Kalmadi’s conduct has tarnished the image of the country,” CBI prosecutor told Special CBI Judge Talwant Singh.

Government distances itself from decision to hike petrol prices

Amid protests from political parties over the hike in petrol prices, the government said the product was deregulated and the revision in the fuel rate was done by the oil marketing companies (OMCs).It, however, admitted that the hike would have “some impact” on overall inflation.

In China, a rediscovery of Sanskrit

Almost two millennia after the language first came to China through Buddhist scriptures, renewed interest in Buddhist studies and recent discoveries of long-forgotten manuscripts in Tibet have sparked a revival of the study of the ancient language among Chinese scholars.Beijing’s Peking University has now launched an ambitious programme to train more than 60 Chinese students in Sanskrit, with the hope of creating a team of researchers to help translate hundreds of manuscripts containing scriptures that have been found in Tibet and other centres of Buddhism, such as Hangzhou in China’s east.

2G: Supreme Court pulls up IT dept

The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the Income Tax department for not taking timely action against the companies involved in the 2G spectrum scam and said had it not intervened, the officials would have “slept over it” and the oversees probe would not have proceeded.

Oil firms slash jet fuel price by over 2.9 per cent

In the first reduction in more than seven months, state-owned oil companies on Sunday cut jet fuel price by over 2.9 per cent after international oil rates cooled off from two-year high.Oil companies reduced ATF (air turbine fuel) price by Rs 1,766 per kilolitre or 2.9 per cent, to Rs 58,794 per kilolitre in Delhi, an official of Indian Oil Corporation said here, adding prices are effective from midnight on Sunday.

“Private non-minority colleges cannot have 100% reservation”

Private non-minority unaided professional educational institutions cannot have 100 per cent quota or the right to admit students of their choice from only a particular social group, excluding all other students from being considered for admission, the Supreme Court has held.A Bench of Justices B. Sudershan Reddy and S.S. Nijjar was setting aside the policy of the Army College of Medical Sciences (ACMS), New Delhi, to allot all seats to wards of current and retired Army personnel and widows of Army personnel, provided they qualified in the Common Entrance Test conduct by appropriate authorities for admission to medical colleges in the National Capital Territory of Delhi.

How the process started - Deregulation of interest rates

The process of deregulation of interest rates was resumed in April 1992 when the existing maturity-wise prescriptions were replaced by a single ceiling rate of 13 per cent for all deposits above 46 days.The ceiling rate was brought down to 10 per cent in November 1994, but was raised to 12 per cent in April 1995. Banks were allowed to fix the interest rates on deposits with maturity of over two years in October 1995, which was further relaxed to maturity of over one year in July 1996.

New ways to exploit raw data may bring surge of innovation

Math majors, rejoice. Businesses are going to need tens of thousands of you in the coming years as companies grapple with a growing mountain of data.Data is a vital raw material of the information economy, much as coal and iron ore were in the Industrial Revolution. But the business world is just beginning to learn how to process it all.

Facebook-Google rivalry intensifies with PR fiasco

The intense rivalry between Facebook and Google just got juicier.In a twist seemingly out of a Hollywood thriller, Facebook hired a prominent public relations firm to try to plant stories harshly criticizing Google’s privacy practices in leading news outlets. The efforts backfired when the firm approached a blogger who not only declined the assignment, but also went public with the offer.

Big push to deregulation of savings rate

Freeing savings bank rate is a complex issue in India. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently launched a debate on this issue by presenting a discussion paper prior to its Annual Monetary Policy for 2011-12.While announcing the policy, the RBI has also raised the savings bank rate from 3.5 per cent fixed in 2003 to 4 per cent. The spread between savings deposit and term deposit rates has widened significantly in recent times. This was why the RBI raised the savings bank rate, while a decision on freeing these rates was pending before the central bank for a final decision.

Afghanistan may join SCO

Afghanistan may join the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation as an observer at the group's 10th jubilee summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, next month, said Russia's Foreign Minister.The SCO will also consider the applications of India and Pakistan to join as full members, said Sergei Lavrov.

Medicine borrows lessons, devices from IT

Necessity may be the mother of invention, but it is creativity that brought information technology into medicine.While some advances such as telemedicine, and electronic medical records are now used widely, it is still the gadget-friendly specialists who have slowly brought these devices by the hand into medicine, realising the enormous advantage they have for the patient.

Raman Singh government to skip all panel meetings

The nomination of rights activist Binayak Sen as a member of the Planning Commission's Steering Committee on Health has not gone down well with the Chhattisgarh government, which on Sunday announced that its ministers would “skip” all meetings of the panel in protest of the move.