Kamal Haasan has been invited as one of the key speakers at the India Conference 2016, at the Harvard University. The conference, which focuses on the topic India in Transition — Opportunities and Challenges, is scheduled for Feb 6-7, and will be hosted at the Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School by the graduate students of Harvard.

Perhaps the first south Indian actor to speak at the prestigious Harvard University, Kamal is set to address the audience on Feb 6, in the evening. His keynote address will be on India’s Softpower. There are other Indians who will also be speaking at the conference, including Shashi Tharoor, Nirupama Rao, Preetha Reddy and Chanda Kochhar.

  THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Vice-President Hamid Ansari will officially declare the 100% primary education status achieved by Kerala here on Wednesday.

“Kerala has become the first state in the country to achieve total primary education. This has been achieved through the primary education equivalency drive of the state literacy mission — Athulyam. The equivalency programmes have proved a huge success and the ultimate objective is to achieve total Plus-Two education in the state,” education minister P K Abdu Rabb said here on Monday.

The second phase of Athulyam was carried out across the state as part of the Mission 676 of the government, launched to mark its third anniversary. The programme offers a chance for those who failed to get primary education due to various reasons to achieve the education qualification equivalent to fourth standard.

Those aged 15 to 50 were beneficiaries of the programme and were identified through family registries prepared by anganwadis under the social justice department and also through ward-level surveys carried out by instructors in continuing education programmes.

The declaration will be made at a function at Kerala University Senate Hall.

NEW DELHI:  The SC on Monday agreed to hear on January 12 a batch of petitions led by the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI), seeking to quash a January 7, 2016 notification issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, allowing the exhibition and use of bulls as performing animals for jallikattu and bullock-cart races.

A bench led by Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur agreed to hear the petitions on an urgent basis on January 12.

The petitions contended that the January 7 notification circumvents the May 7, 2014 Supreme Court judgment by introducing several regulations meant to protect bulls, all the while glossing over the fact that the very act of jallikattu is “inherently cruel” and blatantly violates several provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act, 1960 as interpreted by the apex court two years ago.

They questioned the notification’s justification to allow the return of jallikattu for cultural and traditional reasons, especially when the Supreme Court judgment had extensively discussed and concluded that the “sport” was a gross insult to the Tamil culture and tradition to “embrace bulls and not over-powering the bull, to show human bravery.”

The petitions said it was time Parliament elevated the rights of animals to that of constitutional rights, as done by many of the countries around the world, so as to protect their dignity and honour.

A British website, set up to describe the last days of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, has released what it claims are eyewitness accounts of the day he was reportedly killed in a plane crash in Taiwan on August 18, 1945.

www.bosefiles.info cites four separate reports, each corroborating the other, as constituting irresistible evidence that the crash might have killed Bose.

The latest set of documents quote several people who were reportedly involved in the matter related to the accident as well as two British intelligence reports that revisited the crash site to establish the facts.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The first-of-its-kind board in the country,Kerala will set up a justice board for transgenders aimed at ensuring justice and equality for members of the community.

Kerala state announced it’s transgender policy  two months ago.The board will hear the transgenders exclusively and take steps to bring them into the mainstream.

Also, it will provide free legal aid to check growing discrimination and violence against them.

After the Supreme Court recognised transgenders as a third gender in 2014, many people from this community came out openly to claim their rights. But violent incidents against them also increased subsequently.

The board will set up a 24×7 helpline, issue ID cards and ensure hassle-free arrangements to mark their status in all records.

It will help arrange home stay facilities for those ostracised by their families. Besides, necessary steps will be taken to make educational institutions transgender-friendly.

Lionel Messi has won the FIFA world player of the year award for a record fifth time.

The Barcelona forward regained the prize after his club won five major titles last year, leaving Ronaldo’s Real Madrid with nothing.

Ronaldo ended up in second place, with Barcelona striker Neymar in third.

Voting was by national team captains and coaches, plus invited journalists, from FIFA member countries.

United States World Cup-winning captain Carli Lloyd has won the FIFA women’s world player of the year award for 2015. Lloyd dominated a worldwide vote and collected the award at FIFA’s annual awards ceremony in Zurich.

She stood out by scoring six World Cup goals, including a stunning hat trick in the opening 16 minutes of a 5-2 rout of Japan in the final.

Spain’s Princess Cristina and her husband go on trial Monday  in a landmark corruption case . The trial of the princess and the 17 other accused, including her husband, former Olympic handball player Inaki Urdangarin began today at a court in Palma on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca. Cristina, a 50-year-old will be the first Spanish royal to face criminal charges in court since the monarchy was reinstated following the 1975 death of dictator General Francisco Franco.

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s new government on Saturday presented its plan for a new constitution .President Maithripala Sirisena,who  contested poll last year, promised a new constitution to strengthen democracy and fundamental rights.

According to the document presented to parliament on Saturday, the government intends to strengthen democratic rights, promote national reconciliation and establish a political culture that respects the rule of law.

The new constitution will also guarantee fundamental rights and freedoms that assure human dignity and promote responsible and accountable government, the document said.

This proposal is a part of President Maithripala Sirisena administration’s  steps to promote post-conflict reconciliation and address alleged war crimes committed during the 26-year conflict between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels.

  Telangana has become the first State to introduce compulsory gender education at the graduate level. A text book titled  ‘Towards a World of Equals.’  has been prescribed as the textbook for the newly introduced mandatory course on Gender Sensitization .

From information on unacknowledged women writers of  Telangana to problems of sex selection and women’s work in politics and economics, the book attempts to cover it all.

It also touches upon complex subjects like female centric history and male-female relationships.

Structured in simple language and form to suit under-graduates, the book discusses different strands of women’s movements across the world, introducing students to political movements of Afro-American, Caribbean, African, Dalit and minority women.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Pathankot on Saturday morning to take stock of the situation in the aftermath of the terror attack at the air base last Saturday.

Security forces had declared the sprawling Air Force station fully sanitised on Friday after a massive combing operation spanning over three days.

Suspected Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists carried out the attack at the Pathankot air base last Saturday. The siege continued for three days ending with the security forces killing all the six terrorists. Seven security personnel were also martyred in the operation.

During his visit, the prime minister is also likely to undertake an aerial survey of the India-Pakistan border areas, official sources said.

Reliance Group chairman Anil Ambani, who announced this during the CII Investor Partnership Summit, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Andhra Pradesh government in this regard. “Reliance Defence, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Infrastructure, will implement this project. This represents the single-largest investment by any company at one location anywhere in Andhra Pradesh,” Ambani said.

The unit will generate thousands of skilled jobs. It would also lead to creation of a multi-tier array of  defence ancillaries with further investments of Rs 5,000-10,000 crore and thousands of skilled jobs, Ambani said.
The Vizag naval facility  will complement Reliance group’s existing facility at Pipavav in Gujarat with a clear focus on building strategic assets for the Navy.

NEW YORK: Kepler mission has found more than 100 confirmed planets orbiting other stars.

The information about the planets, some of which are very different from what the spacecraft observed during its original mission, was shared by University of Arizona’s Ian Crossfield at a conference of the American Astronomical Society, National Geographic reported.

According to the report, many newly-found planets are in multi-planet systems and orbit stars that are brighter and hotter than the stars in the original Kepler field.

It has also found a system with three planets that are bigger than Earth, spotted a planet in the Hyades star cluster — the nearest open star cluster to Earth — and discovered a planet being ripped apart as it orbits a white dwarf star.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena marked his first year in office on Friday by pardoning a Tamil Tiger rebel convicted of plotting to murder him.

Sivarajah Jeneevan was sentenced last January to 10 years in jail for conspiring to murder Sirisena when he was irrigation minister in 2005.

The president welcomed Jeneevan onto the stage where he was making a speech to mark the anniversary, shaking hands with the former rebel and blessing him by touching him on his head.

Sirisena came to power promising “compassionate rule and stable country”, and has already released a number of hard core rebels from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who fought for secession for more than 25 years until their defeat in 2009 under Sirisena’s predecessor, Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Sirisena has also promised to end corruption, rebalance foreign policy by reducing Rajapaksa’s focus on China, and ensure the independence of the judiciary and civil service.

A new study led by a Michigan State University (MSU) cybercrime expert is one of the first to examine the factors of online child sexual victimisation.

Girls, and kids with low self-control, were more likely to be sexually harassed online. But the biggest surprise was the finding that 24 percent of study participants were sexually harassed over the internet.

“This is not to downplay the danger of paedophiles acting online, but it does draw attention to the potential threat of child sexual victimisation by the people our kids are closest to, the people they spend the greatest amount of time with online,” said Thomas J Holt, associate professor of criminal justice from MSU.

The children said they were pressured by their friends online to talk about sex when they did not want to, according to the study involving 439 middle- and high-school students aged 12-16.

Parental-filtering software or keeping the computer in an open space such as the family living room did not seem to reduce the problem.

“But parents need to have that talk with their kids about what they are doing online and what people are asking them to do online,” Holt said, adding “That kind of open dialogue is one of the best things they can do to minimise the risk.”

The study recently appeared online in the Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice.

NEW DELHI: The HRD ministry has notified the guide lines for its new initiative under Pradhan Mantri Kaushalya Vikas Yojna (PMKVY) .The programme aims to encourage the institutions for making the best use of available infrastructure of higher education system during ‘off hours’ for skill training. This is to provide employable and certifiable skills based on National Occupational Standards (NOS) with necessary soft skills to school dropouts who want to pursue higher order skills and living in the vicinity of college.

Over the next three years, 10 lakh youths will be trained in engineering skills in AICTE approved engineering colleges and polytechnics.

Residents of Vanuatu are taking shelter as a category four cyclone brings heavy rain and strong winds to the same area devastated by the largest cyclone in the South Pacific island nation’s history last year, aid workers said on Sunday.Winds expected to reach up to 165 kmph, besides flash-flooding, landslips and storm surges.

Last March, tropical cyclone Pam, a category 5 storm, the highest classification, wiped out more than 90 percent of Vanuatu’s crops, tore up homes and power networks, killed 11 and disrupted the lives of most of its 252,800 people.

Golden Globes awards declared and Leonardo DiCaprio has bagged the award for Best Actor for his performance in ‘The Reverant’. Best actress award goes to Brie Larson, for her performance in’Room’.  ‘The Reverant’ turned out to be the highest winner as it also won awards for Best Director (Alejandro G Inarritu) and Best Film (Drama).

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday questioned the legality of Travancore Devaswom Board’s decision to ban entry of women between 10 and 50 years into Lord Ayyappa Temple at Sabarimala in Kerala. The matter was posted for detailed hearing on February 8.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday charge sheeted former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran, his entrepreneur brother Kalanithi and four others in its money-laundering probe related to the Aircel-Maxis deal.

Dayanidhi, as telecom minister, is accused of coercing Chennai-based entrepreneur C Sivasankaran into selling his stake in Aircel to Malaysia-based Maxis in 2006.

The ED’s money-laundering probe had examined allegations that there was a receipt of illegal gratification amounting to Rs 742.58 crores by Dayanidhi as part of the deal.

LONDON:A 11-year-old Indian-origin girl in the UK has achieved the top possible score of 162 on a IQ test of Mensa, becoming one of the youngest brainiest students in the country. Mumbai-born Kashmea Wahi achieved the top score of 162 out of 162, putting her in the league of scientists Albert Einstein and Steven Hawking and in the top 1 per cent of the country’s brightest.

Kashmea is the daughter of IT management consultants, Vikas and Pooja Wahi, at Deutsche Bank in London .

The Cattell III B Mensa test is a well-known international evaluation process.Cattell III B has 150 questions, often assessing comprehension through passages of texts, while the maximum score that can be achieved is 161 for adults, and 162 for under-18s.

Mensa is believed to be the largest and oldest high IQ society in the world. Membership is open to anyone who can demonstrate an IQ in the top 2 per cent of the population, measured by a recognised or approved IQ testing process.

The student of Notting Hill and Ealing Junior School, in west London, was instrumental in her school team making it to third place in the Oxford Maths challenge last year, loves net ball, plays competitive lawn tennis and has competed in national level chess tournaments, winning medals and trophies.

The Hindu reports that ISRO conceives two ‘space parks’ to engage domestic firms in launch vehicles.First, ISRO wants to groom and engage domestic industry in the launch vehicles area from integrating sub-systems up to assembling, and even launching the PSLV.This well-established rocket has put Indian and foreign satellites of up to 1,600 kg into space.

Eventually the future consortium will be fully responsible for building and launching the light-lift PSLV rocket.

Currently industries such as Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, Godrej & Boyce, Larsen & Toubro, MTAR and Walchandnagar Industries produce 80 per cent of the launch vehicle parts and sub-units.

These production works are scattered across their respective locations. The launch industry initiative must be close to ISRO’s launch complex, the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, at the 145-sq km Sriharikota range, on the lines of the launch complex of Europe’s Arianespace in French Guiana.