Junior Digest

The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday appointed former CAG Vinod Rai to head the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) along with Ramachandra Guha and Vikram Limaye. SC also decided that Diana Edulji will be a member of the BCCI administrative board. The Apex Court declined the Centre’s request to appoint secretary of sports ministry as member of the committee.

Earlier, the Amicus Curiae’s – Gopal Subramanian and Anil Diwan – had submitted nine names to the Apex court for the appointment of administrators in the cricketing body.

The Apex Court in its order had asked the BCCI to implement the Justice Lodha panel recommendations into the game. It had recommended a slew of majors in the gentleman’s game.

The Supreme Court last week sought response from the Centre on a petition seeking to form a Lodha Panel-like committee, in order to look into the irregularities in other sports across the country.

The petition, which was heard by a three-judge bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice of India Jagdish Singh Khehar, sought the intervention of the Supreme Court for a direction to the Centre to constitute a Lodha Panel-like committee.

The new committee will look and probe if there is any kind of corruption and irregularities by anyone in any sport in the country.

Following allegations of corruption, match fixing and betting scandals in cricket in the country, the Supreme Court appointed a three-member panel led by Justice R.M Lodha in January 2015 to look into the functioning of the BCCI and suggest reforms.

New Delhi, Jan 31 :  Sounding a note of caution on government’s digital push, the Economic Survey today said that digitalisation is “not a panacea” and cash is not all bad and stressed the need to forge a balance between both forms of payments.

The Survey, tabled by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Parliament, said transition to digitalisation should be gradual after taking full account of the digitally deprived.

“In the medium term, the impetus provided to digitalisation must continue…Digitalisation is not a panacea, nor is cash all bad. Public policy must balance benefits and costs of both forms of payments.

“…the transition to digitalisation must be gradual, take full account of the digitally deprived, respect rather than dictate choice and be inclusive rather than controlled,” it said.

The Survey also emphasised that success of digitalisation would depend considerably on inter-operability of the payments system, and advised banks to facilitate and “not thwart” inter-operability.

“The success of digitalisation will depend considerably on the inter-operability of the payments system. The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) created by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is the technology platform that will be the basis for ensuring interoperability,” it said.

The Survey further said: “But to ensure this, individual banks should facilitate not thwart inter-operability.”

In a bid to curb corruption, the government has been pushing for greater adoption of digital payment mechanisms like debit/credit cards and mobile wallets in the country.

Estimates suggest that cash accounts for about 78 per cent of all consumer payments.

“By facilitating inter-operability (between payment systems), it will unleash the power of mobile phones in achieving digitalisation of payments and financial inclusion, and making the ‘M’ an integral part of the government’s flagship ‘Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, Mobile’ (JAM) initiative,” it said.

Based on data provided by NPCI, the Survey noted that the ‘decline rates of transactions’ for Aadhaar-enabled payments as of mid-January 2016 were nearly 56 per cent in case of transactions involving different banks. This is almost double that for transactions that involve the same issuing and remitting bank, it added.

It said a plausible reason for this differential could be that larger banks are declining transactions involving smaller remitting banks, while ensuring that transactions involving themselves are honoured.

“There could be valid reasons for this. But such problems will need to be addressed, since payments banks, telecommunications companies, and small banks are in the vanguard of financial inclusion. So their access to the UPI platform will be critical for advancing digitalisation, especially for the poor,” it said.

A dental student from Paris, Iris Mittenaere beat 85 other hopefuls in the finale in the Philippines in the 65th edition of the three-hour show that focused on diversity and empowering women to overcome the struggles of life. “I was very surprised I won, I feel blessed,” said the 24-year-old, whose competition profile had described her goal as advocating for dental and oral hygiene if she won.

Having clinched the crown, Mittenaere said she wanted to go beyond that and promote education for children and young women.
“Miss Universe was a dream, every girl wants to be Miss Universe … the stage is amazing, everything is amazing,” she said, beaming throughout her victory news conference.
“I want to help people, I want to understand people, I want to meet people, that’s why this is a dream for me.”

Haiti’s Raquel Pelissier was the first runner-up, while Andrea Tovar of Colombia placed second runner-up.

New Delhi, Jan 31 : Lauding the demonetisation decision and the surgical strikes across Line of Control (LoC) as “bold” decisions in the interest of the country, President Pranab Mukherjee today favoured a constructive debate on simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and Assemblies and funding of polls to eradicate money power.

The Government, he said, is committed to combating the “grave challenge” of terrorism and to ensure that perpetrators of such acts are brought to justice.

In his address to the joint session of both the Houses of Parliament, marking the opening of the Budget session, Mukherjee spoke about a host of government schemes and initiatives covering aspects like housing, LPG connections, electrification, healthcare, education, farmers’ welfare, welfare of the specially-abled, rural development and urban development.

When he referred to the demonetisation decision to fight blackmoney and corruption as also the surgical strikes across the LoC as “bold” decisions, there was thumping of desks by the members of the ruling alliance.

“My government has taken decisive steps to give a fitting reply to the repeated incursions on our territorial sovereignty,” Mukherjee said.

“On 29th September 2016, our defence forces successfully conducted surgical strikes at several launch pads along the Line of Control to prevent infiltration by terrorists,” he added.

The strikes were conducted in the wake of terror attack on army camp in Uri in Kashmir in which 17 soldiers were killed.

The mention about the surgical strikes in the President’s address assumes significance as some quarters had questioned whether the action had actually taken place. There were also demands for showing proof in this regard.

“We are proud of the exemplary courage and valour displayed by our defence personnel and owe a debt of the gratitude to them,” the President said.

He also talked about the issue of holding of joint elections to the Lok Sabha and Assemblies, favouring a debate on it.

“Frequent elections put on hold development programmes, disrupt normal public life and impact essential services and burden human resource with prolonged period of election duty.

“My government welcomes a constructive debate on simultaneous conduct of elections to Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies. Funding of elections to eradicate misuse of money power also needs to be debated,” he said.

In the speech, the President said Government would welcome any decision taken by Election Commission in this regard after consultations.

On combatting the “grave challenge” of terrorism which India has been facing for the last four decades, he said the scourge poses a “serious danger to the global community”.

India, he said, will “actively collaborate with other nations in decisively defeating these forces”.

The President asserted that the government is committed to combatting terrorism and to ensure that the perpetrators of such acts are brought to justice.

Naxals allegedly damaged a 1000-year-old idol of Lord Ganesha located atop a densely forested Dholkal mountain in Chhattisgarh’s insurgency-hit Dantewada district, police said. The vandalised idol was found at the bottom of the hill on Friday, they said.

Police suspect involvement of naxals in vandalising the idol citing that ultras were frustrated with the frequent movement of tourists and devotees to the place.

“We have started a probe in the case,” Dantewada Superintendent of Police Kamlochan Kashyap said.

After some locals who had gone on Thursday to visit the place reported that the idol was missing, a team of police and district administration rushed to the area. Kashyap along with Dantewada Collector Saurabh Kumar reached there for investigation.

“During the search, the broken idol was found lying at around 1,000 feet down the hilltop. Probably it was pushed down from it’s place,” he said.

Prima facie it appears that naxals were involved in the incident as according to villagers their movement was witnessed a few days back on the mountain range.

Even the informers had tipped off that ultras were frustrated with the frequent visit of tourists and devotees to the place, the officer said.

The SP ruled out any attempt to steal the idol citing that the 4-feet idol was placed on a steep vertical hill and it was not possible for some persons to lift it from there.

It is presumed that the idol was made during the time of Nagvanshi dynasty in the 9th or 10th century on a ‘dhol’ shaped mountain range. The mountain range lies 14 kms deep inside forest from Faraspal police station of the district, around 450 kms away from Raipur. One has to reach to the place on foot through forest route as no road is available there.

Meanwhile, the state s Tourism and Culture Minister Dayaldas Baghel said an inquiry has been initiated into the incident.

Prime facie it appears that the crime has been committed by some anti-social elements, said the minister, adding, archaeological department and district administration has launched probe into the matter. The state government is developing Dholkal mountain as a trekking spot since large number of tourists visit there.

Chidambaram said the economy will suffer a setback of Rs 1.5 lakh crore as 80% of the Small and Medium Enterprises had closed down.

Terming the demonetization as “ill-conceived”, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Sunday said the economy won’t grow at more than 6 to 6.5% for the next two fiscals due to the damage caused by the move. Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan had categorically rejected the idea of demonetization, he claimed, adding that NDA government “must have consulted some RSS pracharak” before taking the decision.

Speaking at the second anniversary function of Telugu daily ‘Mana Telangana’ in Mumbai, Chidambaram said the economy will suffer a setback of Rs 1.5 lakh crore as 80% of the Small and Medium Enterprises had closed down. “If 10% of bank officers were dishonest earlier, thanks to demonetization, 50% of the bank officers became dishonest. So the very exercise generated more corruption, not less corruption. So they changed the narration to cashless economy now,” he said. “…you take it from me, the economy will not grow at more than 6 and 6.5% in 2017-18 and 2018-19. It will take two years for the economy to recover. People have lost confidence in currency. People are not spending. “You have unnecessarily interrupted the economic story of this country by this thoughtless, ill-conceived demonetization,” Chidambaram said.

Earlier, addressing a meeting of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee, the senior Congress leader said those who should have been consulted were not consulted before taking the decision. “The finance secretary was not consulted, the banking secretary was not consulted and the Chief Economic Adviser was not consulted, and then who was consulted? They must have consulted some RSS pracharak,” he alleged. Several past RBI governors had disapproved of the idea, he said.

“We had Raghuram Rajan as Governor for three years, he did not think demonetization was the answer and he categorically told the Government no, don’t do demonetization. Then a new Governor comes and in 64 days he agrees for demonetization.” As much as 2,400 crore notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, worth Rs 15.44 lakh crore, were rendered invalid, and with the capacity of all four printing facilities if they operated round-the-clock being 300 crore pieces a month, to replace all 2,400 crore notes, it will take eight months, he said.

At the end of three months post-demonetization, half of the ATMs were not working and “most ATMs don’t have currency,” Chidambaram alleged, adding that everyday 11 crore people were standing in queues for hours to withdraw their own money. As to government’s aim of having a 100% cashless economy, he said 80% of transactions in Germany and Austria still take place in cash, 60% in Australia, 56% in Canada and 46% in the US.

“History books will record along with Zimbabwe, North Korea, Libya…India demonetised its currency…It is a shame…May be this government thought these are the most prosperous countries in the world,” he added. “First they talked about demonetization and now they are saying remonetisation. Of the Rs 15.44 lakh crore worth of money demonetised every rupee has come back to RBI. Now you are remonetising….this is not ‘notebandi’ but ‘notebadli’,” Chidambaram said. He said would have resigned as Finance Minister had the Prime Minister of the day insisted on demonetization. “They (Government) said this is to put an end to corruption. I looked at the new notes, has it been written (on them) not valid for bribe giving?” Chidambaram quipped. “We delivered 7.5% average growth over 10 years (during UPA rule). Here they (NDA) have impacted India’s growth,” the former finance minister said.

Mikhail Gorbachev has urged Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump to strongly denounce nuclear war in the face of the “militarisation of politics and the new arms race”.

The 85-year-old, who was the eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union and its Communist Party, said he believed it looked “as if the world is preparing for war”.

The Cold War-era politician responsible for glasnost made the comments in a piece for Time magazine ahead of Theresa May’s first meeting with Mr Trump .

“The world today is overwhelmed with problems. Policymakers seem to be confused and at a loss,” he begins.

“But no problem is more urgent today than the militarisation of politics and the new arms race. Stopping and reversing this ruinous race must be our top priority.

“The current situation is too dangerous.”

The Russian-Ukrainian describes how troops, tanks and armoured personnel carriers are being brought to Europe.

He also writes about how Nato and Russian forces and weapons, once deployed at a distance, are now at “point-blank” range to one another.

The frequently vocal critic, once a sceptic of Boris Yeltsin’s presidency, also said state budgets were struggling to fund people’s essential social needs, but that military spending is growing.

He talks of submarines whose “single salvo” is capable of devastating half a continent.

“Politicians and military leaders sound increasingly belligerent and defence doctrines more dangerous,” said Mr Gorbachev.

“Commentators and TV personalities are joining the bellicose chorus. It all looks as if the world is preparing for war.”

Mr Gorbachev, who is credited with aiding the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Cold War, played a part in nuclear disarmament in the 1980s.

Eighty per cent of nuclear weapons accumulated during the Cold War years have apparently been decommissioned and destroyed.

Mr Gorbachev also called for a repeat of the November 1985 summit between he and Ronald Reagan in Geneva, which concluded that “nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought”.

According to a BBC article, in September 2016, the US had 1,367 strategic nuclear warheads, Russia had 1,796 and the UK had 120.

“I think the initiative to adopt such a resolution should come from Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin – the Presidents of two nations that hold over 90 per cent of the world’s nuclear arsenals and therefore bear a special responsibility,” he said, before quoting President Franklin D Roosevelt.

“The time to decide and act is now.”

Mr Gorbachev’s comments follow two US congressmen submitting a bill restricting Mr Trump’s ability to launch a first nuclear strike, and details of a failed UK nuclear test.

Unconfirmed reports also say China has moved long-range missiles to the Russian border.

Washington, Jan 28 : US President Donald Trump has said that he had an hour-long phone conversation with his Mexican counterpart Enrique Pena Nieto on bilateral trade and the contentious wall issue, a day after the two had a blowup over who would foot the bill for the proposed border .

“I will say that we had a very good call. I have been very strong on Mexico. I have great respect for Mexico. I love the Mexican people. I work with the Mexican people all the time. Great relationships. But Mexico has outnegotiated us and beat us to a pulp through our past leaders,” Trump told reporters yesterday at a joint news conference with visiting British Prime Minister Theresa May.

“They’ve made us look foolish. We have a trade deficit of USD 60 billion with Mexico. On top of that, the border is soft and weak, drugs are pouring in, and I’m not going to let that happen,” he said, adding that he talked with his Mexican counterpart for about an hour this morning.

“We are going to be working on a fair relationship and a new relationship. But the United States cannot continue to lose vast amounts of business, vast amounts of companies, and millions and millions of people losing their jobs. That won’t happen with me. We’re no longer going to be the country that doesn’t know what it’s doing,” Trump said in response to a question.

“We are going to renegotiate our trade deals and we are going to renegotiate other aspects of our relationship with Mexico, and in the end, I think it’ll be good for both countries,” he asserted.

Trump described the call as “very, very friendly”, and said he looks forward to the negotiations over the coming months.

“But I’m representing the people of the United States and I’m going to represent them as somebody should represent them, not how they’ve been represented in the past where we lose to every single country,” Trump said.

Meanwhile, the Mexican government said that President Pena Nieto and Trump had agreed to stop making public statements about the US leader’s border wall plan and will seek to resolve differences as part of bilateral talks.

“With regard to the payment of the border wall, both Presidents acknowledged their clear and very public differences in position on this sensitive issue,” the Mexican statement said.

“The Presidents also agreed at this point not to speak publicly about this controversial issue,” it added.

The White House statement included near identical language on the border wall, but didn’t mention a pledge not to speak publicly about the issue.

On Thursday, Trump had tweeted that If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting between him and Pena Nieto.

The Mexican President reacted, saying, “I’ve said time and again: Mexico won’t pay for any wall.” He later canceled his trip to Washington planned for January 31.

The actor John Hurt has died aged 77. In a wide-ranging and diverse career, Hurt played roles in a number of blockbuster films, including Elephant Man, Alien and Harry Potter.

He also appears in the film Jackie, a biopic about the widow of John F Kennedy, which is currently in cinemas.

He had previously suffered from pancreatic cancer but was given the all-clear in 2015.

The Chesterfield-born actor is survived by his wife Anwen Rees-Myers, to whom he was married for 12 years.

Hurt, who is known for his role as Mr Ollivander in the Harry Potter films, and has also starred in Hellboy and Doctor Who. In one of his best-known scenes, filmed for the 1979 Ridley Scott horror Alien, Hurt died on-screen after an alien erupted from his chest. He was also lauded for his portrayal of Quentin Crisp in

He first revealed his diagnosis in June 2015. In October of that year he revealed doctors had successfully treated the cancer, saying he was “thrilled” at his recovery.

He has previously said he was not concerned at the prospect of dying.

“I’m can’t say I worry about mortality, but it’s impossible to get to my age and not have a little contemplation of it,” he told Radio Times in August 2015.

“We’re all just passing time, and occupy our chair very briefly. But my treatment is going terrifically well, so I’m optimistic.”

Hurt, who was knighted, received two Academy Award nominations, a Golden Globe and four Bafta awards, including in 2012 receiving the award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema.

Serena Williams pushed sentiments aside in an emotion-charged 6-4 6-4 defeat of sister Venus to win the Australian Open on Saturday and a record 23rd grand slam title in the professional era. Tortured by nerves in a tense family affair, Serena had to produce some of her best tennis to overcome Venus who won the crowd at Rod Laver Arena by scrapping hard to the end.

The American’s seventh title at Melbourne Park was won with an aggressive charge to the net and a desperate defensive backhand from Venus that floated into the tramlines. Williams slumped to the ground, with hands in the air and eyes wide with joyous disbelief, before congratulating her sister for inspiring her run in Melbourne.

“She’s an amazing person, there’s no way I would be at 23 without her,” the second seed Serena said, cradling the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup at the trophy ceremony. “There’s no way I would have anything without her. She’s the only reason the Williams sisters exist, so thank you for inspiring me to be the best that I can be.”

The win moved her past Steffi Graf on the list of all-time slam winners and she now sits just one shy of Margaret Court’s long-standing record of 24. The victory also wrested back the world number one ranking from Angelique Kerber who swiped it away during her winning run to the U.S. Open championship.

“Serena Williams, that’s my little sister, guys,” she said beaming. “Congratulations Serena on number 23, I’ve been right there with you, some of them I’ve lost with you. Your win has always been my win, you know that. I’m enormously proud of you, you mean the world to me.”

At 35, an age at which most former champions have enjoyed life after tennis for several years, Serena’s powers appear undiminished and she will now train her sights on Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 major titles.

Rightly or wrongly, many will feel Serena’s top ranking in history is already assured, with Court’s haul split between the amateur and professional eras and the American’s silverware amassed despite numerous physical setbacks.

In the ultimate throwback tournament, Serena met her sister on the same Rod Laver Arena court where 14 years before she had edged her in three sets to claim her first Melbourne Park crown. Eight years had passed since their last grand slam decider at Wimbledon in 2009, and their combined ages in Melbourne added up to the ‘oldest’ major final ever contested.

They walked down the corridor silently prior to the match, with Serena tuned into headphones and Venus focusing only ahead. It was a tense start and neither player was able to hold serve until Venus took the fifth game. Serena was the worst afflicted by the nerves, and she smashed her racket in a rage in just the third game after she slipped behind the baseline when chasing down a ball.

She double-faulted three times to be broken a second time, causing a gasp from the crowd. But galvanised by her serve, Serena soon settled and the blistering groundstrokes from the baseline began to find their mark as she surged to a 5-3 lead before sealing the set by thumping a pair of aces.

With Serena renowned as one of the best front-runners in the game, Venus showed her readiness to scrap, and she saved three break points to hold in the third game. But she was never on safe ground, with Serena feasting on her second serve.

Serena pounced in the seventh game, firing a searing backhand return to break and served out to love to come within a game of the title. Having dragged Serena to 15-30 at 5-4 on her serve, Venus dropped her racket in despair as she hammered a forehand into the net to give up match point. Serena needed no further reason and after a furious exchange of shots, she charged in to the net swinging to claim yet another major title.

Toyota has relinquished the title of the world’s biggest automaker, reporting that it sold 10.175 million vehicles worldwide in 2016, fewer than Volkswagen’s 10.31 million.

General Motors reports its tally next week. If GM’s number falls short, it will be the first time the German automaker has become No. 1.

It’s a milestone achievement despite the taint to VW’s reputation from a huge scandal over cheating on emissions tests. Booming China sales helped offset that damage.

Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp. has held the global auto crown for the past four years, although it fell behind General Motors in 2011, when production was hit by a quake and tsunami in northeastern Japan.

Detroit-based GM was the top-selling automaker for more than seven decades until Toyota, which makes the Camry sedan, Prius hybrid and Lexus luxury models, surpassed it in 2008.

Toyota’s global sales last year were slightly better than in 2015, up 0.2 per cent, but not good enough to beat Volkswagen, which has the Audi, Porsche and Skoda brands, and boosted its global sales 3.8 per cent from the year before. GM makes the Cadillac and Opel cars.

In 2015, Toyota sold 10.15 million vehicles while Volkswagen was second with 9.93 million and GM third with 9.8 million.

Toyota officials have repeatedly said they are not concerned with being No. 1 and just want to make good cars.

Volkswagen was keen to dethrone Toyota but disavowed that goal after CEO Martin Winterkorn lost his job over the emissions scandal.

(This article has not been edited by DNA’s editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)

Lucknow : Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu and National champion Sameer Verma began the new season on a resounding note by winning the women’s and men’s singles crowns respectively at the USD 120,000 Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament here today.

In fact, India scooped up three titles out of the five events in the tournament.

Top seed Sindhu, who has been in rampaging form last season, brushed aside Indonesia’s Gregoria Mariska in the summit clash, while Sameer, who had reached the finals of Hong Kong Super Series, defeated compatriot B Sai Praneeth 21-19 21-16 in a 44-minute final.

Second seeds Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy, who had won Grand Prix titles at Brazil and Russia, also lay claim to their maiden GPG title in mixed doubles after beating compatriots Ashwini Ponnappa and B Sumeeth Reddy, seventh seeds, 22-20 21-10 in the finals.

In the women’s singles final, Sindhu didn’t break any sweat as she took just 30 minutes to outplay Mariska for her maiden Syed Modi title. She had lost the finals to former World No. 1 Saina Nehwal in 2014 edition.

The girl from Hyderabad led right from the start and never allowed her younger opponent to pose any threat. She entered the break at 11-5 and 11-6 in the first and second games respectively and never looked back.

In the end, it was a couple of returns going to net from the Indonesian which sealed the issue for Sindhu.

Sameer, on the other hand, fought back from 5-11 down in both the games to outwit fellow Indian Praneeth, who looked slightly in discomfort with his right shoulder and also committed too many unforced errors to hand over the match, despite earning early leads.

In the first game, Sameer erased a deficit of 10-15 to eventually edge out Praneeth, who succumbed to his rivals brilliant smashes and accurate placements.

In the second game, Praneeth once again zoomed to a 6-3 lead after Sameer kept hitting the shuttle out.

The Madhya Pradesh shuttler tried to gather a couple of points at his opponent’s forecourt but he committed a few unforced errors and Praneeth also dominated the net play to move into the break at 11-5 advantage.

However, just like in the opening game, Sameer once again scripted a comeback and levelled the scores when his rival hit wide. He then produced a cross court smash to take the lead.

Praneeth seemed off colour after that as his shots went wide and long and also he failed to retrieve some of the returns of Sameer, who sealed the match with a cross court smash.

The Election Commission had requested the RBI to increase the weekly withdrawal limit from Rs 24,000 to Rs 2 lakh.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has rejected the request of the Election Commission to enhance the weekly cash-withdrawal limit, imposed after demonetization, for those contesting Assembly elections in five states, prompting an angry reaction from the poll panel.

The Commission had on Wednesday requested RBI to enhance the withdrawal limit of candidates to Rs 2 lakh from Rs 24,000 per week imposed post demonetization as the nominees would find it difficult to meet their campaign expenditure.

But RBI said that it was not possible for it to hike the limit at this stage.

An apparently peeved Commission has now written back to RBI Governor Urjit Patel expressing “serious concern about the cursory manner in which the issue has been dealt with”.

“…(It) appears that the RBI has not realised the gravity of the situation…It is reiterated that it is the constitutional mandate of the Commission to conduct free and fair elections and to provide level-playing field to all candidates…in order to facilitate proper conduct of elections, it is imperative that directions issued by the Commission are complied with,” the poll panel said.

It urged the central bank to reconsider the proposal.

On Wednesday, the Commission had told RBI that it has been apprised of the problems candidates were facing due to withdrawal limits imposed after the note ban.

It said the returning officer of the constituency would issue certificate that the person was a candidate in the fray and the contestant be allowed to withdraw Rs 2 lakh cash per week from the bank account opened especially to meet poll expenses.

The EC said the facility be extended till March 11, the day of counting. Candidates are bound to open an election account for meeting poll-related expenditure which is monitored by the EC.

The Commission said that with a weekly withdrawal limit of Rs 24,000, a candidate would be able to withdraw Rs 96,000 in cash during the election process which lasts three to four weeks.

It reminded the central bank that as per law, candidates contesting Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab can spend Rs 28 lakh each for electioneering.

The limit in Goa and Manipur is Rs 20 lakh each. The poll panel said despite paying amounts through cheques, candidates still need hard cash for petty expenses. Also the issue is further adversely effected in rural areas where banking facilities are negligible.

There is as much evidence for the holographic universe as there is for traditional explanations, researchers said.

The universe might just be one “vast and complex hologram”. And our vision of life as being in 3D may just be an illusion.

That’s according to astrophysicists who have studied the cosmic microwave background, or the afterglow that is left over from the Big Bang. After doing so, they have found substantial evidence that our universe is holographic, they said.

There is at least as much evidence for the strange theory as there is for the traditional idea of the structure of our universe, according to the astrophysicists from the University of Southampton, who worked with colleagues in Canada and Italy.

What we see of the universe might be compared with what it’s like to watch a 3D film at a cinema, even though those are not made with holograms. Just like those films, we experience the depth of the image – even though we know that it really all comes from a flat screen.

Our universe may just be a more convincing version of the same thing – meaning that we can touch the objects and they look and behave as if they are real.

The idea that our universe is a hologram was first proposed in the 90s. It suggests that all of the information – what we think is our 3D reality, and time – is actually just contained on a flat surface on its boundaries.

“Imagine that everything you see, feel and hear in three dimensions (and your perception of time) in fact emanates from a flat two-dimensional field,” said Kostas Skenderis,  a professor of mathematical sciences at the University of Southampton. “The idea is similar to that of ordinary holograms where a three-dimensional image is encoded in a two-dimensional surface, such as in the hologram on a credit card.

“However, this time, the entire universe is encoded.”

The research could unify two of the most central parts of our understanding of physics – general relativity, which explains it at the biggest scale, and quantum theory, which explains it at its very smallest.

“Holography is a huge leap forward in the way we think about the structure and creation of the universe,” said Professor Skenderis. “Einstein’s theory of general relativity explains almost everything large scale in the universe very well, but starts to unravel when examining its origins and mechanisms at quantum level.

“Scientists have been working for decades to combine Einstein’s theory of gravity and quantum theory. Some believe the concept of a holographic universe has the potential to reconcile the two. I hope our research takes us another step towards this.”

Independent report.