Junior Digest

Professor Singh, who also holds the post of Vice President of Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), has seven published books to her credit besides several articles in research journals. Some of the distinguished administrative positions she has held include: President of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, and Chairperson, Department of English, Osmania University. She also made it to the 100 Most Influential Vice Chancellors 2016 list at the World Education Congress. Nalanda University, which came into existence in September 2014, has 130 students and 25 faculty members in its three schools at present.

In a statement, Opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “Reports suggest the ongoing incident in Westminster this afternoon is extremely serious.

“Our thoughts are with the victims of this horrific attack, (their) families and friends. The police and security staff have taken swift action to ensure the safety of the public, MPs and staff, and we are grateful to them.”

London mayor Sadiq Khan said his thoughts were with those affected and expressed his gratitude to the city’s police and emergency services who “work so hard to keep us safe and show tremendous bravery in exceptionally difficult circumstances .

Republican leaders of the House of Representatives pulled the legislation due to a shortage of votes despite desperate lobbying by the White House and its allies in Congress. They had planned a vote on the measure after Trump cut off negotiations with Republicans who had balked at the plan and issued an ultimatum to vote on Friday, win or lose. Republican moderates as well as the most conservative lawmakers had objected to the legislation. The White House and House leaders were unable to come up with a plan that satisfied both moderates and conservatives. Trump told the Washington Post: “We just pulled it.”

Amid a chaotic scramble for votes, House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, who has championed the bill, met with Trump at the White House before the bill was pulled from the House floor after hours of debate. Ryan said he recommended that the legislation be withdrawn from the House floor because he did not have the votes to pass it, and that Trump agreed. Friday’s events cast doubt on whether Ryan can get major legislation approved by fractious Republican lawmakers. “I will not sugarcoat this. This is a disappointing day for us,” Ryan said at a news conference, adding that his fellow Republicans are experiencing what he called “growing pains” transitioning from an opposition party to a governing party. “Doing big things is hard,” Ryan added, noting that he got close but failed to muster the 216 votes needed to pass it.

Ryan said he did not know what the next steps would be on healthcare, but called Obamacare so flawed that it would be hard to prop up.

Trump told the Washington Post the healthcare bill would not be coming up again in the near future and that he wanted to see if Democrats who uniformly objected to the Republican plan would come to him to work on healthcare legislation, a Washington Post reporter said on MSNBC. Without the bill’s passage in Congress, Democratic former President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement, the 2010 Affordable Care Act – known as Obamacare – would remain in place despite seven years of Republican promises to dismantle it. Repealing and replacing Obamacare was a top campaign promise by Trump in the 2016 presidential election, as well as by most Republican candidates, “from dog-catcher on up,” as White House spokesman Sean Spicer put it during a briefing on Friday.

The House failure to pass the measure called into question Trump’s ability to get other key parts of his agenda, including tax cuts and a boost in infrastructure spending, through a Congress controlled by his own party.

News that the bill had been pulled before a final vote was greeted initially with a small sigh of relief by U.S. equity investors, who earlier in the week had been fretful that an outright defeat would damage Trump’s other priorities, such as tax cuts and infrastructure spending.

Benchmark U.S. stock market indexes ended the session mixed after rallying back from session lows following the news. The S&P 500 Index ended fractionally lower, the blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped about 0.3 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose about 0.2 percent. The dollar also strengthened modestly on the news and U.S. Treasury bond yields edged up from session lows.

“There’s nobody that objectively can look at this effort and say the president didn’t do every single thing he possibly could with this team to get every vote possible,” Spicer told reporters before the legislation was pulled.

Trump already has been stymied by federal courts that blocked his executive actions barring entry into the United States of people from several Muslim-majority nations. Some Republicans worry a defeat on the healthcare legislation could cripple his presidency just two months after the wealthy New York real estate mogul took office.

In a blow to the bill’s prospects, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen announced his opposition, expressing concern about reductions in coverage under the Medicaid insurance program for the poor and the retraction of “essential” health benefits that insurers must cover. “We need to get this right for all Americans,” Frelinghuysen said.

A South Korean court on Friday approved a warrant to arrest ousted president Park Geun-hye, the country’s first democratically elected leader to be thrown out of office, on accusations of bribery and abuse of power.

Park can be held in a cell for up to 20 days while she is investigated over allegations that she colluded with a friend, Choi Soon-sil, to pressure big businesses to contribute to now-defunct foundations set up to back her policy initiatives.

A judge at the Seoul Central District Court said in a statement that “the cause and the need for the warrant are recognised as the main charges against her have been verified and as evidence could be destroyed.”

Park gave about eight hours of testimony at the same court on Thursday and was held at the prosecutors’ office next door while the judge studied the evidence and arguments to decide on whether to issue the arrest warrant.

On Thursday, Park, 65, arrived expressionless at the court to plead her case that she should not be arrested or held while prosecutors investigate the scandal.

Park argues that she does not pose a flight risk and will not try to tamper with evidence.

She and Choi have both denied any wrongdoing.

Park’s removal from office capped months of paralysis and turmoil over the corruption scandal that also landed the head of the Samsung conglomerate in detention and on trial.

Her impeachment this month has left a political vacuum, with only an interim president pending a May 9 election, at a time of rising tensions with North Korea over its weapons programme and with China, which is angry over South Korea’s decision to host a U.S. anti-missile system.

Prosecutors said on Monday that Park was accused of soliciting companies for m

oney and infringing upon the freedom of corporate management by using her power as the president. Park was questioned for 14 hours by prosecutors last week.

She could face more than 10 years in jail if convicted of receiving bribes from bosses of big conglomerates, including Samsung Group [SAGR.UL] chief Jay Y. Lee, in return for favours.

Lee, who denies charges that he provided bribes in return for favours for Samsung, and Choi are both in detention and on trial separately.

Lee’s trial, for which so far only preliminary hearings have been held, will begin on April 7 when he is expected to appear, court records showed.

Park may be given a bigger cell than other inmates in a Seoul detention facility, but she would be subject to the same rules on everything from meals to room inspections, former prosecution and correctional officials have said.

She was removed from office when a constitutional court upheld her impeachment by parliament. The ruling sparked protests by hundreds of her supporters, two of whom were killed in clashes with police outside the court, and a festive rally by those who had demanded she be removed from office.

New Delhi, Mar 28 :  Students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University today staged a protest outside the UGC office here against the recent amendments leading to massive seat cut and other changes in the admission policy of the university.

Police had a hard time controlling the protesters, who raised slogans against the University Grants Commission and demanded a rollback of the decision, and restore traffic on the road.

“We have been raising the issue ever since the new gazette notification was issued by the UGC in 2016, directing the universities to bring in changes in the admission and recruitment process. Our vice-chancellor kept assuring us that this will not have a negative impact on the students, but the results are now there for everyone to see,” JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) president Mohit Pandey said.

The university released its prospectus last week effecting seat cuts in the MPhil and PhD programmes across the courses.

The Delhi High Court had dismissed the plea of certain students challenging JNU’s admission policy for MPhil and PhD courses.

The court had said the UGC guidelines were binding on all the universities, paving the way for JNU to start its admission process.

As per the new prospectus, there would be no admission for research this year in centres such as the Centre for Sociology, Centre for Political Science, Centre for History, Centre for Indian Languages etc. The number of seats has been slashed in many other important centres as well.

JNU’s oldest school, the School of International Studies, will offer MPhil and PhD seats in only three of its 13 centres.

Three schools — School of Physical Sciences, School of Computational and School of Integrative Sciences and Biotechnology — and two special centres — Centre for Law and Governance and Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies — have no seats for the integrated MPhil-PhD programme.

While the JNUSU had observed a three-day strike last week against the decision, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar had defended the move saying it was in accordance with the UGC norms.

In a boost to India’s martime prowess, the Navy has successfully conducted the maiden trial firing of newly installed surface-to-air Barak missile system from its aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya.

During the firing carried out in the Arabian Sea, the missile was fired against a live low flying high speed target. The target was successfully engaged and destroyed, a Navy official said.

The firing was conducted as part of the ‘Operational Readiness Inspection’ of the Western Fleet by Vice Admiral Girish Luthra, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Western Naval Command, from 21 to 23 March.

The missile marks a significant milestone in providing air interception and defence capabilities and enhanced operational capabilities of the Navy’s aircraft carrier and the flee, said the official.

India does not believe in imposing its views on anyone, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said today while underlining the country’s rich tapestry of diversity.

In an address to a convention of the spiritual organisation Brahma Kumaris here via video conferencing, Modi also said the central theme of India’s tradition is that God is one . He said in India, God is not different for the Hindus, Muslims and for Parsis. The truth is one, only different people may express it differently, he said.

We are such a country which does not believe in imposing our views on anyone. We are such people who believe that knowledge has no limits, knowledge has no timing, knowledge is not bound by anything, knowledge does not need any passport, knowledge does not need a visa , the Prime Minister said. He also talked about India’s tradition of preserving nature and referred to the initiatives of his government to reduce dependence on fossil fuel and increase the use of renewable energy sources like solar power.

There is a great challenge of global warming. India has pledged that by the year 2030, which means 13 years from now, our total energy generation from non-fossil fuel sources will be 40 per cent, he said.

By the year 2020, when the country celebrates 75 years of Independence, we will generate 175 giga watts of energy from renewable sources, the Prime Minister said. He said the more energy India produces from renewable energy, the more the world will benefit. While talking about the initiatives in the renewable energy field, Modi said 22 crore energy efficient LED bulbs had been distributed under the government’s UJALA programme and that it has saved Rs 11,000 crore for the country.

He said if dependence on fossil fuels like kerosene, petrol and diesel is reduced, the country will save crores of rupees which could be utilized for the welfare of the poor people.

Referring to demonetization, the Prime Minister said the fight against corruption has become decisive . He advocated maximum expansion of digital transactions and minimising cash transactions. In this regard, he wanted Brahma Kumaris organization, which has lakhs of members, to spread awareness.

Modi also urged the organization to help in the government’s ‘Indradhanush’ vaccination programme for new-born children as lakhs of them suffer from diseases or die for lack of it. While hailing the social and spiritual work done by the Brahma Kumaris organisation, which is marking its 80th anniversary, he urged its volunteers to also spread awareness about proper nutrition.

Modi said his government has taken several steps for the empowerment of women, and in this context referred to increasing maternity leave from 12 weeks to 26 weeks (from 3 months to 6-and-a-half months), assistance of Rs 6000 to pregnant women and replacing firewood-based kitchen with LPG for two crore poor households. He also talked about the Swachh Bharat campaign as part of efforts to fulfil the dreams of Mahatma Gandhi by the year 2019, when the country would be celebrating 150th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation.

Modi had previously visited the NGO in 2006, 2011, 2012 and 2013 as the then chief minister of Gujarat. “We will work like your right-hand, we assure you,” said Rajyogi BK Nirwair, secretary general of the Brahma Kumaris. Recalling Modi’s efforts in promoting yoga at the UN, Nirwair requested him to make its study compulsory in schools and colleges.

“It is commendable the way you took up the cause of Yoga at the United Nations. We believe if spirituality is given due prominence, India would once again become the World leader.

Starting yoga in schools and colleges at an official level would be a step in this direction. Yoga would make the youth soul-conscious and make them strong,” Nirwair said. Dadi Janki, the 101-year-old chief of the organisation, conveyed gratitude to the Prime Minister.

The research also cites South Korea as a case-in-point: Children in the country – one of the most technologically advanced societies in the world – prefer to read paper books as a result of “perceiving fatiguing effects of screen-based reading, particularly In relation to eye strain.”

Another reason the study identifies children possibly preferring paper books is that they provide no distractions – devices often have an internet connection, which makes it difficult for children to stay on task.

There’s one thing that could unseat a supermassive black hole in this manner, the researchers say: gravitational waves.

First predicted by Albert Einstein more than 100 years ago, gravitational waves are ripples in space-time caused by the universe’s most cataclysmic events – just as concentric circles form on the surface of a pond after you toss in a heavy rock. Last year, researchers at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) showed that this phenomenon exists when they detected gravitational waves produced by the merger of two black holes.

In a paper that will publish next week in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, Marco Chiaberge and his colleagues say that the weird behaviour of the black hole in galaxy 3C 186 is likely the result of gravitational waves from another pair of colliding black holes.

The roving black hole was detected in an image taken by Nasa’s Hubble Space Telescope. The fuzzy splotch that was galaxy 3C 186 contained an incredibly bright spot, a quasar. This wasn’t unusual: a quasar is the nucleus of a galaxy, and it’s bright because of the disk of gas that surrounds the black hole at its centre.

What caught Chiaberge’s eye was the quasar’s location, 35,000 light-years from the centre of its galaxy.

“I thought we were seeing something very peculiar,” he said in a Nasa news release.

Mr Chiaberge, who works at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and Johns Hopkins University, asked fellow astronomers for their observations from a range of other instruments, including the Chandra space observatory and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey’s telescope in New Mexico. The former measures X-rays, the latter specialises in detecting redshift, the stretching of light that is detected as something travels through space.

Their observations confirmed the Hubble finding. They also helped pin down the black hole’s mass (equal to that of a billion suns) and the speed at which the gas around it was travelling (4.7 million mph).

Meanwhile, the Hubble image offered a clue about what dislodged the black hole from its galaxy’s centre. The host galaxy bore faint, arc-shaped features called tidal tales, which are produced by the gravitational tug-of-war that takes place when two galaxies collide. This suggested that galaxy 3C 186 had recently merged with another system, and perhaps their black holes merged too.

What happened next, scientists can only theorise. Chiaberge and his colleagues suggest that as the galaxies collided, their black holes began to circle each other, flinging out gravity waves “like water from a lawn sprinkler”, as Nasa described it. If the black holes had unequal masses and spin rates, they might have sent more gravitational waves in one direction than the other. When the collision was complete, the newly merged black hole would have then recoiled from the strongest gravitational waves, shooting off in the opposite direction.

The Supreme Court will go “paperless” within six to seven months, Chief Justice JS Khehar said on Thursday.

The observation on the issue of digitisation of the top court was made when senior advocate Indira Jaising, who has filed a PIL seeking uniform guidelines on designating lawyers as senior, sought expeditious disposal of her plea by a larger bench. “Within six to seven months you will not file any paper. We will electronically pick it up trial court and high court records and there will be no need of case records being filed afresh in SC,” the bench comprising the CJI and Justices DY Chandrachud and SK Kaul said.

Justice Khehar said the court will soon dispense with the need of filing voluminous documents and paperbooks as it is in the process of digitising the entire court records across the country. He said the apex court will collect all the records electronically from the lower courts and the high courts so that there is no need to file hard copies.

The court has set up a three-judge bench to hear petitions seeking framing of uniform guidelines for designating lawyers as senior by the apex court and the high courts across the country.

Rekindling the process of consultations with state governments, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has written to all six Western Ghats states, asking them to submit their views on how much of the eco-sensitive area they want to retain in the ecologically fragile Ghats. Senior officials from the ministry confirmed that they have written to chief secretaries of all states.

The letter comes after the ministry republished the draft notification on Western Ghats earlier this month, that identifies 56,825 sq km as ecologically sensitive area (ESA) across Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The draft notification is based on the report of the K Kasturirangan led High-Level Working Group.

The republished draft notification reiterated the ban on all mining, new thermal plants, and the red category of severely polluting industries. It also said that hydropower projects will be allowed subject to specific conditions such as maintaining a minimum water flow in the rivers.

“We have sought their views once again as the draft notification was republished,” said Amita Prasad, additional secretary, MoEF. Even as the states have sought a fresh round of views from the states, all of them, except Tamil Nadu, have already done ground truthing of the ESA’s and submitted their reports to the ministry. DNA had reported in December 2015 in the ground truthing reports, Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka and Goa had rejected most findings and recommendations of the K Kasturirangan report, pushing for opening the Ghats to development and commercial activities.

In their ground truthing reports, prepared after reaching out to many of the Gram Sabhas across ESA’s, the states told the Centre that they recommended retaining only 19,702 sq km as ESA and open up the remaining 36,285 sq km for development. “Tamil Nadu is the only one yet to send its ground truthing report. Even though others have sent in their reports earlier, we need to sit down and discuss their recommendations. If need be, we will also reach out to chief ministers soon,” Prasad added.

The 1,600 km-long Western Ghats mountain chain is a UNESCO heritage site as it is home to hundreds of endemic animals and plants. It covers approximately 1,40,000 sq km.

They are not man’s best friend, a source of food or even a provider of pest control. In fact, they are more like the pests.

But the house mouse now has a claim to be the oldest ‘domesticated’ animal after scientists discovered they have been living in our homes for some 15,000 years, rivalling dogs for the longevity of their association with humans.

It had been thought that house mice evolved from their wild cousins after humans began farming and creating the enticingly large stores of food about 12,000 years ago.

However, new research has found evidence that hunter-gatherers of the Natufian culture in the Jordan Valley area of the Middle East put down roots for long enough to attract the rodents’ attention.

While they may have chosen a degree of domestication – rather than being selected by humans – they have since become pets and, famously or infamously, used as laboratory test subject in medical trials.

One of the researchers, Professor Fiona Marshall, of Washington University in St Louis, said wild mice had worked out that humans had something to offer – food and shelter – much earlier than previously thought.

A team of scientists, from the US, Israel, France and Aberdeen University in the UK, studied the remains of fossilised teeth left by the house mouse (Mus musculus domesticus) and a short-tailed field mouse (Mus macedonicus) over thousands of years and how numbers of the two different types changed over time.

“The research provides the first evidence that, as early as 15,000 years ago, humans were living in one place long enough to impact local animal communities – resulting in the dominant presence of house mice,” Professor Marshall said.

“It’s clear that the permanent occupation of these settlements had far-reaching consequences for local ecologies, animal domestication and human societies.”

The house mouse’s early relationship with humans is described as commensalism, an early phase in the domestication process in which an animal realises that contacts with humans can be beneficial.

The earliest confirmed date for a mutually beneficial relationship between humans and dogs is also about 15,000 years ago, although there are much earlier cases where there was a possible link.

Another of the researchers, Dr Lior Weissbrod, of Haifa University in Israel, said house mice and wild mice populations had fluctuated with more of the latter when humans were forced to keep moving during dry periods and more of the former when they were able to set up reasonably permanent settlements.

“These findings suggest that hunter-gatherers of the Natufian culture, rather than later Neolithic farmers, were the first to adopt a sedentary way of life and unintentionally initiated a new type of ecological interaction – close coexistence with commensal species such as the house mouse,” he said

“The human dynamic of shifts between mobile and sedentary existence was unravelled in unprecedented detail in the record of fluctuations in proportions of the two species through time.”

The research was described in a paper in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Gwalior : Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said a new roadmap is afoot to strengthen the border security and seal firmly the International Border with Bangladesh and Pakistan.

“The Centre has chalked out a new roadmap to strengthen the border security and plans to seal the International Borders with Bangladesh and Pakistan,” Singh said, addressing the Passing Out Parade of the BSF assistant commandants at the BSF Academy at Tekanpur near here.

The parade also saw the first woman assistant commandant of India’s border guarding force, Tanushree Pareek, passing out with Home Minister Singh registering his praise for the BSF’s first woman field officer.

An official release here quoted the Union Home Minister Singh as saying that the BSF had changed the rules of engagement on the International Border and now it was a “known force” even in the neighbouring countries.

The BSF built 73 Border Out Posts (BOPs) recently, and three more will be added soon, he added.

“We are also planning an effective grievance redressal mechanism in the forces,” the Home Minister said.

The Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) were setting up such a mechanism, the release added.

BSF was the only force after the Indian Army to operate on land, water and air, he said.

It is not only the “first line of defence” but also the “first wall of defence,” he added.

“Display courage in the face of professional challenges, (show) compassion to the troops under command and (observe) integrity of highest order,” Singh said while addressing the passing out Assistant Commandants, according to the release.

Tanushree Pareek on Saturday became the first woman combat officer to be commissioned in the 51-year history of the Border Security Force (BSF), the country’s largest border guarding force.

Pareek (25) also led the passing out parade of 67 trainee officers that was reviewed by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh at the Border Security Force camp at Tekanpur near here.

Pareek, a resident of Rajasthan’s Bikaner, is the first woman to join the force in the officer rank after she was selected in the all-India exam conducted by the UPSC in 2014. The Home Minister himself put the rank stars on the shoulders of Pareek during the piping ceremony. The force had begun induction of woman officers in 2013.

She will now be posted to command a unit along the India-Pakistan border in Punjab.

While praising the first woman “field officer” of the 2.5-lakh-strong force, Singh said the Centre has chalked out a new roadmap to strengthen border security and it plans to seal Indian borders with Bangladesh and Pakistan. He added the BSF has built 73 border outposts, out of 76 such border structures constructed in recent times.

Lauding the force raised in 1965, Singh said BSF has changed the rules of engagement at the international borders and now it is a “known entity” in the neighbouring countries.

While paying his tributes to the personnel of the force killed in the line of duty, the minister said government is planning for an effective grievance redressal mechanism in the forces. “The forces are coming forward with such mechanisms,” he said.

He praised the BSF saying it is the only force after the Indian military which operates on land, water and air as it has a dedicated air and water wing apart from foot soldiers. “BSF is not only the first line of defence but also the first wall of defence,” he said.

The trainee officers, who passed out on Saturday, have undergone 52-week training in battle craft, intelligence gathering and other border guarding tasks before being commissioned into the force in the entry rank of Assistant Commandant. Out of 67, 51 are direct entry officers while 16 have joined the officer ranks on promotion.

During his visit to the Tekanpur camp, Singh also watched a demonstration of PAVA shell firing at the Tear Smoke Unit (TSU) of the force. The shells were prepared at the TSU and sent to Kashmir Valley for security forces as an alternative to pellet guns to control protests and stone pelters.

The BSF is primarily tasked to guard two of the most sensitive Indian frontiers with Pakistan and Bangladesh while it is extensively deployed for conducting anti-Naxal operations and rendering other duties in the internal security domain.

New Delhi : The Supreme Court today directed the Centre to prepare a fresh memorandum of guidelines for the police to brief the media by keeping in mind the protection of rights of both the accused and the victims of crime.

A bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar gave six weeks to the Centre to prepare the draft memorandum of the guidelines by examining the various suggestions submitted in the apex court.

“We, thereby, direct the Centre to prepare a fresh memorandum of police guidelines on media by taking into consideration the rights of the accused so that their rights are not prejudiced during trial and also the sensitive rights of victims,” the bench, also comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and S K Kaul, said.

The court was of the view that the last such office memorandum by the Centre was issued on April 1, 2010 and since then much deliberation has taken place and the subject has been examined from various angles particularly keeping in mind the protection of rights of the accused as well as the protection of the rights of the sufferer.

The bench noted that advocate Gopal Shankar Narayan, who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the matter, has prepared documents by compiling the practices prevalent in other countries and has also examined the guidelines laid down in the CBI manual and the advisory of the Union Ministry of Home.

He had examined the guidelines of the police forces of New York, Los Angeles, London and Dorset (UK).

The advocate, appearing for the Centre, said, “We will apply our mind to the entire input and prepare an appropriate guideline.”

The bench made it clear that at this stage it was not going into any other issue including the media and was only on the issue of the police as to what are the issues that have to be taken into consideration about their briefing.

The issue of police briefing to the media has been dealt with by the apex court and it has passed several directions on a petition filed by the NGO People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL).

The apex court on Septemeber 23, 2014 had passed a slew of directions for framing guidelines in encounter cases after it was alleged by the PUCL that 99 encounters took place in Mumbai resulting in death of about 135 persons between 1995 and 1997.

Bambolim, Mar 26 : West Bengal today lifted the Santosh Trophy for the 32nd time after Manvir Singh struck in the 119th minute for a 1-0 win over Goa, extending their domination in the premier domestic football tournament.

After playing out a goalless 90 minutes, Manvir finally came good in the dying moments of extra time to leave the home crowd shocked at the GMC Stadium.

Entering the title clash on the back of some impressive outings, Manvir was kept quite for a major part of the match but, with barely seconds to go for the final whistle, he found the target with a stunning left-footer, having received a pass from Shaikhom Ronald on the left.

Playing in front of a vociferous home crowd, five-time winners Goa tried their best and controlled the match, but ran out of steam in the extra time. The hosts had their chances to score but the rival keeper pulled off some great saves.

West Bengal, thus, ended a six-year wait having last won the title in 2011. Goa last won it in 2009.

Goa, who had host the tournament thrice, lost to West Bengal in the semifinal in 1972 and the final in 1996, while winning against Kerala in 1990.

Goa’s Liston Colaco, who scored a brace against Kerala in their semifinal, had the first try at the goal but his well- directed shot missed the target narrowly.

Aaren D’Silva, who was a constant threat for the rival defense with his deceptive play, too missed out on a goal as early as the sixth minute.

Six minutes later, he had a glorious chance to score from inside the box but could not connect the ball cleanly.

Thereafter, it was a cagey affair with both teams almost going through the motion. Bengal defended resolutely and tried to attack on the counter, but the Goan defence was equal to the task.

A speedy Basanta Singh took a shot at the goal but Bruno Colaco did well to collect it and, on another occasion, he was pulled up by the referee for handling the ball after putting one in.

The story was quite similar in the extra time as the teams failed to break the deadlock till Manvir’s effort.

New Delhi : Chief Justice J S Khehar today rejected the suggestion of Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi that the government, judiciary and other stakeholders should evolve a mechanism to clear eco-sensitive projects at the outset.

Referring to the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) framed in 1991, the Attorney General said tourism industry has taken a hit as existing laws do not allow construction within the periphery of 500 metres along seashores while countries like the Maldives have constructed hotels on the beaches.

He suggested that governments, judiciary, civil society and other stakeholders should come together and evolve a mechanism to ensure that eco-sensitive projects are cleared at the start and they should not remain stuck for decades during the construction stage or after completion.

The CJI, however, said when any project is formulated by the government, it is the duty of the administration to think of environment and ecology and courts cannot interfere unless the existing environment is changed.

Justice Khehar did not agree to the suggestion that there should not be a prolonged litigation after a project is either conceived or under implementation or has been completed.

“When the Attorney General referred to the CRZ and the comparison with tourist spots in India and other countries, it seemed as if we were competing with somebody. Environment is not a matter of competition and encompasses humanity at large.

When a programme is sponsored by the government it is well within the framework to draw a policy which will protect the environment. You may construct hotels, you may construct whatever you wish to, but have regulations for environmental protection and no court can ever interfere.

“The possibility of interference is when the existing environment is altered or when townships are raised without dealing with sewerage and water that is when the problem arises. The problem emerges when we allow industrialisation without any quick measures. The policy of the government in India and elsewhere has to be to allow development in industry but with by taking due care of environment. That’s the way forward,” the CJI said.

New Delhi : The historic Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime today came a step closer to meet its July 1 target of rollout, with the Lok Sabha approving four supplementary legislations.

The Central GST Bill, 2017; The Integrated GST Bill, 2017; The GST (Compensation to States) Bill, 2017; and The Union Territory GST Bill, 2017 were passed after negation of a host of amendments moved by the opposition parties.

Replying to the seven-hour-long debate, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the GST, which will usher in a uniform indirect tax regime in the country, will make commodities “slightly cheaper”.

He said the GST rates would depend upon whether the commodity is used by a rich person or a common man.

Jaitley said once the new regime is implemented, the harassment of businesses by different authorities will end and India will be one rate for one commodity throughout the country.

He said the GST Council, comprising Finance Ministers of Union and states, had agreed to take a decision on bringing real estate within the ambit of the new tax regime within a year of its rollout.

On the impact of GST on prices, Jaitley said: “Today you have tax on tax, you have cascading effect. When all of that is removed, goods will become slightly cheaper”.

On why the Council has decided on multiple GST rates, Jaitley said one rate would be “highly regressive” as “hawai chappal and BMW cannot be taxed at the same rate”.

He said currently food articles are not taxed and those will continue to be zero rated under the GST. All other commodities would be fitted into the nearest tax bracket.

The GST Council has recommended a four-tier tax structure — 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent. On top of the highest slab, a cess will be imposed on luxury and demerit goods to compensate the states for revenue loss in the first five years of GST implementation.

However, the Central GST (CGST) law has pegged the peak rate at 20 per cent and a similar rate has been prescribed in the State GST (SGST) law, which takes the peak rate to 40 per cent which will come into force only in financial exigencies.

Jaitley said the cess would be transient for a period of 5 years so that the proceeds can be utilised to compensate the states.

Touted as the biggest taxation reform since Independence, GST will subsume central excise, service tax, VAT and other local levies to create an uniform market. GST is expected to boost GDP growth by about 2 per cent and check tax evasion.