Junior Digest

British actor Alan Rickman, the screen villain in the Harry Potter saga and other films, has died. He was 69.

Rickman’s family said on Thursday that the actor had died after a battle with cancer.

Millions know him from the Potter films, in which he played the Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher Severus Snape, who was either a nemesis or an ally — possibly both — to the titular teenage wizard.

Born to a working-class London family in 1946 and trained at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Rickman was often cast as the bad guy; with his rich, languid voice he could invest evil with wicked, irresistible relish.

Film roles included the psychopathic villain Hans Gruber who tormented Bruce Willis in Die Hard in 1988; a deceased lover who consoles his bereaved partner in 1990’s Truly Madly Deeply; the wicked Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood- Prince of Thieves in 1991; and a wayward husband in 2003 romantic comedy Love Actually.

Rickman’s villains were memorable, and included an Emmy-winning turn as “mad monk” Rasputin in a 1996 TV biopic.

But Rickman’s screen roles were remarkably varied, and included the upright Col. Brandon in Ang Lee’s 1995 film version of Sense and Sensibility and Irish politician Eamon de Valera in 1996 historical drama Michael Collins.

Rickman was also a filmmaker, directing and co-starring opposite Kate Winslet in 2014 costume drama A Little Chaos. Seventeen years earlier, he’d directed Emma Thompson and her mother Phyllida Law in The Winter Guest.

Frequently charming in person, Rickman was, by his own account, uncompromising as an actor. During the filming of Harry Potter, he maintained Snape’s air of haughty disdain even off-camera.

“The animal in me takes over,” Rickman told The Associated Press in 2011 when he appeared on Broadway in Theresa Rebeck’s play Seminar.

“You’re as polite as possible, but it’s not always possible.”

Rickman is survived by his partner of 50 years, Rima Horton, whom he married in 2012.

Agency news

Kathmandu: The Nepalese government has proposed formation of a four-member Eminent Persons’ Group (EPG) to review the existing bilateral agreements with India including the strategic Peace and Friendship Treaty of 1950.

The government has proposed names of four persons to form the Eminent Persons’ Group (EPG), during the cabinet meeting yesterday though no formal decision was taken to this effect, minister for Information and Communication Sherdhan Rai said.
The next cabinet meeting will take a formal decision in this regard, said Rai.
The 1950 India-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship allows free movement of people and goods between the two nations and a close relationship and collaboration on matters of defense and foreign policy.
The proposal to form the EPG comes as the government prepares for Prime Minister’s visit to India scheduled for the second week of February.
Oli’s maiden visit to India comes amid great unease in bilateral relations, owing to months-long blockade of the land-locked country enforced by Indian-origin Madhesi people who are protesting Nepal’s new constitution.
The Third Joint Commission Meeting of Nepal and India that was held here in July 2014 had decided to set up the EPG with four members from each side at the request of Nepal.
The decision was also endorsed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Nepal last year. The EPG will be authorised to look into the entire gamut of Nepal-India relations.

The Nepalese Prime Minister K P Oli’s  maiden visit to India  will take place in the next month.

  Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala government today made it clear that it would not interfere in the customs and traditions of Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala where entry of women in the age group of 10 to 50 are banned.
“Government has a declared stand on matters like this. It will not interfere on issues of customs and beliefs,” Chief Minister Oommen Chandy told reporters after a cabinet meeting.
“This is the state government stand and it will be conveyed to Supreme court,” Mr.Chandy added.
Chandy was reacting to the Supreme court observation that practice of banning entry of women and girls was not supported by the constitutional scheme. The apex court had also directed the state government to file an affidavit in the case.
Yesterday, the Travancore Devaswom Board that manages the temple had stated that the restriction was part of custom and traditions of the shrine and wanted it to continue.
On January 11,the apex court had questioned the ban on the entry of women of menstrual age group at the Lord Ayyappa temple,while hearing a PIL filed by the Young Lawyers Association, seeking entry for all women and girls in the shrine.

Agency news.

NEW DELHI:  The government wants to increase the level of mandatory blending of ethanol with petrol to 10 per cent. The current ceiling of blending is fixed at 5 per cent but availability of ethanol and pricing issues have come in the way of achieving the target.

Gadkari said the new policy will seek to address a wider source of ethanol, including bio-wastes, over and above the main source sugar.

In December 2014, the Cabinet had approved usage of non-food feed stocks besides molasses as source of ethanol to be used for blending in fuel.
Stressing on the significance of promoting ethanol blending, the minister said: “One lakh buses can run on alternative fuel in the country.  A large number of buses can run on ethanol in Delhi, UP and Bihar.

 

Bollywood actor Rajesh Vivek, mainly known for his roles in hits like ‘Lagaan’ and ‘Swades’, died due to a heart attack in Hyderabad on Thursday (January 14). The 66-year-old actor was a part of many hit films including Shah Rukh Khan’s Swades, Aamir Khan starrer Lagaan, Veerana, Jodha Akbar and many more during the course of his Bollywood career.

Vivek, was first introduced by Shyam Benegal in his film ‘Junoon’ (1978)

Basically a theatre actor, he had also acted in popular television series ‘Mahabharata’, ‘Bharat Ek Khoj’ and in ‘Aghori’.

Bengaluru: Infosys Ltd today reported a  6.6 per cent rise in its third quarter net profit .It raised its annual revenue growth forecast by  5 per cent.

Consolidated net profit rose to Rs 3,465 crore, or Rs 15.16 per share, in October-December as compared to Rs 3,250 crore, or Rs 14.22 a share, in the same period a year ago, Infosys said in a statement.

India’s second-largest software service exporter also raised its annual revenue growth forecast on stronger demand for high-margin automation and other services.

  Sydney: Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza, along with her Swiss partner Martina Hingis on Thursday defeated Yaroslava Shevedova and Raluca Olaru to advance into the final of Sydney International winning 29th match in a row.

The World No. 1 pair defeated Yaroslava Shevedova and Raluca Olaru 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 in a rain-interrupted semi-final.

With this win, they have surpassed record of Puerto Rican Gigi Fernandez and Belarus’ Natasha Zvereva in 1994 of winning 28 matches in a row.

The star pair has now begun to chase an even bigger record. Back in 1990, the dynamic duo of Jana Novotna and Helena Sukova won a whopping 44 matches in a row.

Agency news.

  Today India and Pakistan mutually agreed to a short deferment of Foreign Secretary-level talks . Meantime  India gave a  go-ahead to the visit of a Pakistan SIT  that probe Pathankot terror attack.

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, who would have been in Islamabad today for the talks, and his counterpart Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhary spoke to each other and it was agreed that their parleys would be rescheduled to the “very near future”.

In a break from the past, the two governments appeared to have coordinated their strategy with Islamabad not going into a denial mode with regard to involvement of Pakistani elements in the attack and apprehending JeM members. India on its part, did not call-off the talks.

Agency news.

 New Delhi:  The National Green Tribunal ( NGT ) has directed Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand government to identify seriously polluting industries located on the banks of Ganga and apprise it about “quantity and quality” of discharge generated by them in the river.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar directed both state governments to inform it about the number of teams required for inspecting these “seriously polluting” industries from Haridwar to Kanpur.

The green panel also ordered a joint inspection by a team consisting officials from Central Pollution Control Board, UPPCB, UPCB and a representative from Environment Ministry at points where tributaries of river Ganga from Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh meet the Ganga.

It directed Uttarakhand government to take a clear stand on industrial pockets located at Haridwar within two weeks.

New Delhi: Once a public interest litigation (PIL) is filed and heard, it cannot be allowed to be withdrawn, the Supreme Court said today.
“Let people know this that once a public interest litigation (PIL) is filed and entertained, you cannot withdraw it,” a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and N V Ramana said.

 United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), has downgraded its GDP growth forecast for India for 2016 to 7.5% from 8.2% estimated earlier.

ESCAP  said the main reason is related to “delays in implementation of reform policies proposed by the new administration”.

In 2015, India saw better growth compared to China, but the higher rate was due to a change in the methodology of computing GDP in recent years rather than an increase in the growth rate.

“Instead of any significant acceleration, India is forecast to record growth that is largely unchanged from that recorded in 2014,” the year-end update of the flagship report of the United Nations added.

“While the government eased restrictions on foreign direct investment and introduced online services to enhance the business environment, there have been delays in instituting some major reforms which had been expected,” it said.

These include reform of land acquisition and  labour laws and establishment of a nationwide goods and services tax, measures which were not enacted due to legislative hurdles and opposition from sections of the public.

“Implementation of such reforms can lead to significant growth acceleration in India,” ESCAP said.

The report noted that despite expectations of expedient implementation by new administrations, India has already undertaken a number of significant economic reforms.

ESCAP economists believe, China is expected to grow at 6.5% in 2016, lower from 6.8% estimated earlier.

  St Stephen’s College students have  adopted the odd-even formula for the usage of cell phones saying the devices are “lethal” for health as well as intellectual life.

Following the Delhi Government’s 15-day trial for restricting the plying of vehicles in the national capital as per odd and even numbers, the students have decided to attempt the same for mobile phones.

The decision was taken at an assembly meeting at the college where over 70 per cent students voted in favour of the idea.

However, the implementation of the scheme is voluntary and no student will be penalised for not following the rule.

“I had given up using my cell phone last July. This is the best that I have done for myself in the recent years. It has reduced my distractions by 95 per cent, my vexation by 96.5 per cent and my headache by 99.66 per cent. The quality of my concentration has improved,” college Principal Valson Thampu said.

“Cell phones are as lethal a pollutant of our inner/ intellectual life as vehicles are of our roads or outdoor life,” he added.

Aiming to cut down air pollution in the city, the Arvind Kejriwal-led government has implemented a 15-day-long odd-even scheme, which came into force on January 1.

Agency news

  New Delhi: Cooperation in defence and counter-terrorism will be among the top priorities of external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj’s visit to Israel next week, Israeli Ambassador to India Daniel Carmon said on Wednesday.

He said Israeli defence manufacturing companies were interested in India’s ‘Make in India” campaign.

As for cooperation in counter-terrorism activities, he said: “We should do more and go beyond the established fields.”The other areas of bilateral cooperation, according to Carmon, are agriculture and water management, academia, cyber and innovation.

Sushma Swaraj will meet Israel’s top leadership during her visit on 17-18 January.

Agency news.

Washington: Indian-American professor Dr Rakesh K. Jain and 16 other scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and innovators will receive the National Medals of Science and Technology and Innovation from President Barack Obama on January 22.

Jain, a B. Tech in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, and a professor at Harvard Medical School and director of tumor biology laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital will receive the National Medal of Science.

Awarded annually, the Medal of Science recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to science, engineering, and mathematics.

Jain is regarded as a pioneer in the area of tumor micro-environment and widely recognized for his seminal discoveries in tumor biology, drug delivery, in vivo imaging, bio-engineering, and bench-to-bedside translation.

These include uncovering the barriers to the delivery and efficacy of molecular and nano-medicines in tumors; developing new strategies to overcome these barriers; and then translating these strategies from bench to bedside.

A mentor to more than 200 master’s, doctoral and postdoctoral students from over a dozen different disciplines, he has received more than 75 awards from engineering and medical professional societies/institutions.

Jain is a member of all three branches of the US National Academies – the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences – and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In 2014, he was chosen as one of 50 Oncology Luminaries on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

In 2015, he received honorary doctorates from Duke University, KU Leuven, Belgium and IIT-Kanpur, India.

Jain received his bachelor’s degree in 1972 from IIT, Kanpur, and his MS and PhD degrees in 1974 and 1976 from the University of Delaware, all in chemical engineering.

Agency news

 

Ouagadougou:  At least 20 people have been killed and another 15 wounded in an ongoing Al-Qaeda attack on a hotel in the capital of Burkina Faso popular with United Nations staff and westerners.

Gunshots and explosions rocked Ouagadougou’s four-star Splendid hotel and the nearby “Cappuccino” restaurant last night as Burkinabe forces prepared an assault to rescue hostages still trapped inside the hotel.

Officials said French forces could join a counter-assault on the hotel, where assailants were apparently still holed up more than three hours after the attack began.

The attack comes less than two months after a jihadist hostage siege at the luxury Radisson Blu Hotel in the Malian capital Bamako in November, in which 20 people died including 14 foreigners.

Sierra Leone officials have confirmed a death from Ebola, hours after the World Health Organization declared the latest West Africa outbreak over.

The country was declared free of the virus on 7 November, and the region as a whole was cleared when Liberia was pronounced Ebola-free on Thursday.

Tests on a person who died in northern Sierra Leone proved positive

The WHO has warned, however, that more flare-ups are expected.

Close to 4,000 people have died of Ebola in Sierra Leone, and 11,000 people across the region, since December 2013

 

  NEW DELHI: The government is set to reduce interest rates on small savings products such as public provident fund and National Savings Certificate .
The new formula will see small savings rates linked to returns on government securities of comparable maturity, with the reduction expected to be up to 50 basis points (100 basis points equal a percentage point). There are indications that senior citizens and women will be protected with some special category schemes.

Banks are expected to follow the small savings rate cut with lower fixed deposit rates.

The Reserve Bank of India and banks have been seeking a reduction in small savings rates, arguing that PPF and other products offered higher returns when compared with fixed deposits, resulting in a flight of funds to the government schemes.

The move may trigger a fall in returns on  savings. It is seen as a reform move by the government, which recently announced a plan to end subsidies to the high-income segment.

 A report by the National Science Foundation of the United States indicate that the number of  Indian-origin scientists and engineers in the U.S. are nearing to one million. The increase is of 85% between 2003 and 2013, says the report. The National Science Foundation,is a key funder of research in the United States as well as a monitor of demographic change among scientists and technologists.

The 950,000 scientists and engineers of Indian origin in 2013 — the latest year for which the foundation has data — suggest that India’s rise far outstrips that of the Philippines and China, whose share of immigrants rose 53% and 34% in the same period and contributed 465,000 and 438,000 workers respectively. In 2003, Indian-origin researchers were 2.5% of the U.S. research workforce and as of 2013, made up 3.3%.

Immigrants, according to the report, include naturalised citizens, permanent residents and temporary visa holders.

The report, “Immigrants’ Growing Presence in the U.S. Science and Engineering Workforce: Education and Employment Characteristics in 2013,” goes on to add that Indians “continue to be the single largest source of such professionals populating the American workforce” even as the number of scientists and engineers residing in the United States rose from 21.6 million to 29 million. The most common fields of study for immigrant scientist and engineers in 2013 were engineering, computer and mathematical sciences and social and related sciences and over 80 per cent of the immigrant scientists and engineers were employed in 2013, the same percentage as their U.S.-born counterparts.

The rapid rise in the number of expatriate Indian technologists comes in the decade when India—concerned about ‘brain-drain’—has launched a plethora of schemes to attract highly-qualified scientists back to India. According to a report by the U.N., Indians make up the largest diaspora in the world, with 16 million of them scattered across the world. This is partly due to its sizable population of 1.2 billion and a large proportion of youth. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been seeking to convince this massive diaspora to engage more with India as well as invest in the country.

Based on a report in THE HINDU.

To attract more  worshipers and tourists a slipper shaped Church was built in Taiwan.

This Cinderella-inspired Church having 16m-high (55ft) height and 36 feet width was located next to the sea in Budai Town, on the east coast of Taiwan. The whole Church was built out of 320 pieces of blue-tinted glass. The building cost about T$23m (US$686,000 £477,000).

It’s set to open its doors to the public on 8 February, just in time for Chinese New Year.

“It will be tailored to women, especially female tourists visiting the area.”

It was designed to conduct weddings and provide opportunities for taking photographs.

It is the creation of local government officials in the Southwest Coast National Scenic Area, a prominent tourist area in Taiwan, which decided to build it last June.

The church will not be used for regular services, but pre-wedding photo shoots and wedding ceremonies.

The shoe was inspired by a local story. According to officials in the 1960s, a 24-year-old girl surnamed Wang from the impoverished region suffered from Blackfoot disease. Both of her legs had to be amputated, leading to the cancellation of her wedding. She remained unmarried and spent the rest of her life at a church.

The high heel is intended to honour her memory. This does appear to be the reason behind the design.

There would be one hundred female-oriented features in the Church like maple leaves, chairs for “lovers”, biscuits and cakes, added Zheng Rongfeng, a spokesperson of the area where the Church located.

The church will not be used for regular services, but pre-wedding photo shoots and wedding ceremonies.

Agency news.