IPL Season 9 : Sunrisers Hyderabad Emerges As The Winner

Bangalore: Sunrisers Hyderabad won the ninth season of Indian Premier League (IPL) after defeating Royal Challengers Bangalore by eight runs at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore in Bangalore on Sunday.

Sunday’s win was Sunrisers Hyderabad’s first win in their four-year-old IPL career. They made their debut in season six of IPL in 2013. This is also the first time that they made it into the finals. On the other hand, Royal Challengers Bangalore, who have been playing since season one in 2008, have made it to the finals three times, including this year, but have lost in the finals all three times.

On Sunday, Sunrisers Hyderabad won the toss and elected to bat first. David Warner was Sunrisers Hyderabad’s highest scorer with 69 runs. He was followed by Ben Cutting (39 runs), Yuvraj Singh (38 runs) and Shikhar Dhawan (28 runs). Cutting remained not out. Chris Jordan was Royal Challenger Bangalore’s best bowler of the day as he took three wickets off 45 runs from four overs. At the end of the first innings, Sunrisers Hyderebad scored 162 runs off seven wickets.

In the second innings, Chris Gayle was Sunrisers Hyderabad’s highest scorer with 76 runs. He was followed by Virat Kohli (54 runs), Sachin Baby (18 runs) and Shane Watson (11 runs) and Lokesh Rahul (11 runs). Cutting was Royal Challenger Bangalore’s best bowler was he took two wickets off 35 runs from four overs. At the end of 20 overs, Royal Challengers Bangalore could score only 200 runs off seven wickets, thereby losing the match by eight runs.

Cutting was named ‘Player Of The Match’.

Kohli was named ‘Player Of The Series’. He also won the Orange Cup for scoring the most runs in this season of IPL – 973 runs. Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Bhuvneshwar Kumar won the Purple Cap for taking the most number of wickets in this season of IPL – 23 wickets.

Sunrisers Hyderabad became the sixth overall team to win the IPL.

Abdul Mannan Named Congress Legislature Party Leader

Kolkata: On Monday, Abdul Mannan was named the leader of the Congress Legislature Party. This means that he is likely to become the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly.

As Congress with 44 seats is the second largest party in the Assembly after Trinamool Congress, the mantle of the Opposition Leader will very likely fall on Mannan, who won from Champdani constituency in Hooghly district.

Mannan was chosen as the CLP leader over Abu Hena and Manas Bhunia, after 39 newly-elected Congress MLAs submitted their individual preferences in a secret ballot to senior leaders C P Joshi and Ambika Soni at the party meeting at Bidhan Bhavan on Friday.

Five other MLAs, who were absent in the meeting, were said to have made their choices known to the leadership over phone.

Bhunia, who was elected from Sabang in West Medinipur, was skipped for the position because of his initial opposition to the alliance with Left Front and the public declaration of his policy of ‘ekla chalo’ (walk alone), political analysts said.

With Mannan’s election, the Congress high command has sent out a signal in favour of the alliance with the Left Front as he had been one of the first leaders to favor the tie-up and spoke about putting up a united fight against the Trinamool government, according to analysts.
Meanwhile, Congress state president Adhir Chowdhury said he had recommended Mannan’s name for the position of Leader of Opposition to the central leadership. “He has been an apt parliamentarian and an uncompromising leader and he is the right choice for the Leader of Opposition,” Chowdhury said.

Pakistani-British Singer Salma Agha To Get Overseas Citizen Of India Card

New Delhi: Pakistan-born Bollywood singer and actor Salma Agha will get an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card that will offer her multiple-entry, multi-purpose life-long visa to visit India and exemption from reporting to police.

As the Home Ministry took the decision to grant her OCI card, Agha met Home Minister Rajnath Singh, apparently to express her gratitude for the gesture. Agha had applied for the OCI card a few days ago and her application was approved after taking into consideration various aspects, officials said.

The 59-year-old artiste is a citizen of UK. She had given her voice to few Bollywood films and acted in some of them including Nikaah. Agha had won Filmfare Best Female Playback Singer award in 1982 for her rendition of Dil Ke armaan aansuon me beh gaye in Nikaah.

Agha has applied for the card that gives multiple entry, multi-purpose life-long visa to visit India and exemption from reporting to police authorities for any length of stay in the country. The OCI card gives parity to an individual with NRIs in financial, economic and educational fields except in the acquisition of agricultural or plantation properties. As per rules, a foreign national who is a child, grandchild or a great grandchild of Indian citizen is eligible for registration as OCI card holder. There are few other conditions to get OCI card.

However, no person, who or either of whose parents, grandparents or great grandparents is or had been a citizen of Pakistan and Bangladesh shall be eligible for registration as an OCI card holder.

In her application, Agha is said to have referred to her Indian roots in her maternal grandfather Jugal Kishore Mehra. Mehra was a noted actor and his wife and Agha’s grandmother, Anwari Begum, was a star singer in the 1930s and 1940s. Agha’s mother Nasreen was cast opposite KL Saigal in Shahjehan (1946). Agha, in her request, had also claimed that though she was born in Pakistan, she is a British citizen and hence, her request should be looked into.

Pakistani singer Adnan Sami was in January given Indian citizenship. Among others who have been staying in India and working on employment visa are Katrina Kaif (UK citizen), Deepti Naval (US citizen) and Yana Gupta (Czech citizen).

JNU To Reconsider Yoga And Culture Courses

New Delhi: After six months, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNUs) has decided to reconsider its junked proposal of introducing short-term courses in Indian culture and yoga in the varsity to propagate spiritual and mythological traditions and establish Indian values.

A decision in this regard was taken last week at a meeting of the university’s academic council, its statutory decision-making body. “A draft of the proposed course structure was rejected in the academic council last year. The matter was again raised in the recent meeting. There was opposition from certain teachers while some favored it. Ultimately it was decided to reconsider the same,” a council member said. “Vice-chancellor Jagadesh Kumar has directed the departments to rework on the proposed course structure and place the same before the academic council,” he added.

Last year, the proposal to introduce three short-term courses in these subjects had come against the backdrop of right-wing organizations, including the BJP’s ideological mentor RSS, insisting on propagation of culture in educational campuses to promote India’s rich heritage and restore its cultural identity.

Following various communications from the HRD ministry and the UGC, the varsity had last year circulated a draft of three courses among various schools and departments for feedback. However, the academic council rejected the proposal in November.

According to the earlier draft, the course on Indian culture aimed at expounding the importance of the country’s culture as well as exploring the etymological, social, spiritual, cultural and mythological aspects and establishing Indian values in the world.

“The course will contain the texts, thoughts and traditions of different cultures and include things like religious systems in Indian culture among others. Besides, it will have portions from Vedas and selections from epics and Jatakas and suggestions on readings of Hindu epics like the Ramayana,” the draft read.

It also said that there would be a basic study of Indian culture to establish Indian rituals and values in the world and derive ways from these sources to make human life better.

While suggesting Ramayana and the Bhagvad Gita from Gita Press Gorakhpur and Tulsi Ram’s Vedas must be read by all, the document added, “Indian culture couldn’t be understood without the help of Indian literature, which are generally written by sages.”

Afghanistan: More Than 50 Police Killed In Helmand

Helmand: More than 50 Afghan police officers have been killed over the past two days in heavy fighting around the capital of the southern province of Helmand, officials say.

Helmand, with its strategic location, has been the scene of major attacks by the Taliban over the past year. As many as 24 officers were killed on Monday, and another 33 on Sunday, regional police commander Esmatullah Dawlatzai told Reuters news agency. Nearly 40 others were injured, he added. Taliban fighters have managed to enter the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital, and residents could hear the sound of heavy gunfire and artillery throughout the night.

Mohammed Kareem Atal, Helmand member of parliament, said, “The situation is not good, we can hear the sound of guns just outside the city, and Taliban now operate within two kms of the city.” He said four government posts have fallen to the Taliban, as the fighters are trying to cut off the main road to the capital Kabul and the neighboring province of Kandahar. “The army is using helicopter gunships to support the ground forces. They have so far managed to retake one fallen post, and we are waiting for reinforcement to arrive from Kabul,” Kareem Atal added.

The areas hit by the latest fighting are Greshk, Nad Ali, and Nahr-e Saraj, which neighbor the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah to the north and west. A charity hospital in Lashkar Gah said it had treated at least 40 injured, among them 30 civilians and 10 security forces. Afghan officials have taken steps to recapture the lost areas, said Omar Zwak, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

Domestic Turnaround, Jaguar Land Rover Boosts Tata Motors Net Profit 3-Fold

Mumbai: A remarkable turnaround of its struggling domestic unit, and record high volumes and margin improvements at its marquee British business have boosted Tata Motors Group net profit by three-fold to Rs 5,177 crore in the three months to March from over Rs 1,717 crore a year ago.

Profit at its British unit Jaguar Land Rover, which has been its cash machine for many years now, soared 56.3 percent to 472 million pounds from 302 million pounds a year ago, driven by record sales across its key markets of Europe, China and the US.

While JLR’s retail sales in Europe soared 55 percent in the quarter under review, its deliveries in China climbed 19 percent, driven by the local production of the Land Rover Discovery Sport SUV and the ramp up of the Jaguar XE sedan.

The city-based company’s consolidated sales grew 18.76 percent to Rs 79,926 crore during the reporting quarter.

On a standalone basis, Tata Motors India reported a net profit of Rs 465 crore for the fourth quarter against a net loss of Rs 1,164.25 crore a year ago.

For the full year, the domestic unit posted a net profit of Rs 234.23 crore as against a whopping net loss of

Sales, including exports, of commercial and passenger vehicles for the quarter stood at 1,44,507 units, representing a growth of 3.9 percent and taking the revenues for the quarter to Rs 12,570 crore, up from Rs 10,786 crore last year.

Fire At India’s Biggest Ammunition Depot In Maharashtra’s Pulgaon, 17 Dead

Nagpur: A fire at a massive military ammunition depot in Pulgaon in Maharashtra has killed at least 17 army personnel and injured 19 others.

The blaze began at 1:30 AM at the depot in Pulgaon, near Nagpur, with television footage showing flames lighting up the night sky.

“17 people have died. Another 19 are injured but are out of danger,” said Smita Patil, superintendent of Wardha district police. “An operation is in progress and the fire has been brought under control,” she added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar will visit the depot today.  At 11 AM, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that he has been informed that the fire has been contained. Ammunitions expert Brigadier Sandeep Bhalla said that among the 17 who died were two army officers who tried to keep crucial explosives from blowing up. The injured reportedly include the Commanding Officer of the depot who was leading efforts to protect the ammunition. 

Thousands of families living in nearby towns and villages have been evacuated from around the depot, the largest ammunition centre in India and the second-largest in Asia.

The army has ordered a Court of Inquiry or investigation; sources said they cannot confirm if the fire was an accident or sabotage. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is expected to visit the Pulgaon depot in a few hours.

Firefighters using 10 fire engines worked through the night to contain the blaze, said Ramesh Barde, a fire officer with the Nagpur fire department.

1 Held As Police Raided Port Area House, Unearthed Bomb Factory

Kidderpore: On Monday, the Kolkata police busted an alleged bomb-making factory — being run from a house — at Kidderpore in Kolkata. One person was arrested in connection with the incident.

While preliminary investigations have ruled out the possibility of the incident involving a terror angle, the location of the factory — near the port area — has the police worried, said sources.

Following a tip-off, police said officers from Watgunj police station were dispatched to raid the house at Manastala Row early Monday. “The raid led to the recovery of an active hand-made bomb, 300 grams of gun powder and a black bag that contained a few mobile chips and circuits,” Deputy Commissioner (Port) Sudip Sarkar said. “We have arrested one suspect, identified as Samir Hossain. He has been booked under sections three and five of the Explosives Substances Act of IPC… The incident has no terror links,” he added.

However, with the factory being located near the port, police are worried as it had easy access to the rest of the state and eventually, the Bay of Bengal. “While we have cracked down on smuggling, it still continues. It looks like the bombs and gun powder were stored for the purpose of robbery,” said a senior officer.

Sources, however, claimed the seizure of a bomb, mobile circuits, remote control, chips and gunpowder hinted at the possibility of something much more sinister than a robbery. “Something like this happening in Kolkata and that too near the port is very worrying. We are trying to track the others associated with this factory… In the coming days, more arrests will be made,” said an officer.

Meanwhile on Monday, a four-member National Investigation Agency team visited the spot. Following investigation, the team confirmed that no IED was found at the factory, sources said. The house, where the factory was being run, has been sealed.

Tata Enters Online With Tata Cliq

Mumbai: Indian business conglomerate Tata Group on Friday has launched their e-commerce marketplace Tata CliQ. The $109 billion group, with this, has entered into the ‘e-commerce bandwagon.’ Reports are that Tata CliQ has asserted that their primary focus is to sell apparel, footwear and electronics across brands. The initial intention of Tata CliQ is also to accelerate the purchasing power in order to stand out among the ‘international retailers and startups backed by global tech investors’.

Tata Sons Chairman Cyrus P. Mistry inaugurated their trendsetter ‘phygital’ platform by ordering at TataCliQ.com and picked the order at a Westside store in Mumbai. “At the Tata group, we have a rich heritage of pioneering initiatives. TataCLiQ.com brings to India a smart combination of the reassurance and in-store experience of a large on-ground network with the convenience of online shopping, bringing the best of both worlds together. TataCLiQ is also symbolic of the customer focus, technology orientation and collaboration across the Tata group,” Mistry asserted.

According to reports, Tata CliQ will be a ‘phygital’ marketplace- a combination of physical and digital marketplaces- with facilities for the customers to purchase using the website or mobile app. Also a customer can pick his ordered product from a partner store or delivered it at home. Tata said that using CliQ will also facilitate a customer to exchange or return his ordered product from the nearby partner store. Tata said their services will be available at over 500 stores of 12 partner brands.

Meanwhile, Tata’s online venture through CliQ is ‘lined up with a second phase’ of Indian ecommerce development as Flipkart and Snapdeal have already established in the industry occupying the first phase of growth.

CBFC Made 40 Cuts in Udta Punjab, Demands to Remove Cuss Words

Mumbai: Udta Punjab, all set to release by the end of next month, was censored by the Central Boards for Film Certification (CBFC). The film have apparently run to face trouble as the CBFC had cut as many as 40 scenes of the film and requested the makers of the film to edit all the obscene comments. Reports are a member of the Udta Punjab production team has confirmed that the censor board has not agreed to produce an all-clear certificate to the film.

Meanwhile director Abhishek Chaubey, the producers Phantom Films and Balaji Films and CBFC chairperson Pahlaj Nihalani denied commenting in this issue. However, makers of the film have asked for an adult certification for Udta Punjab.  

Interestingly, the trailer of the movie was released with no problem from the censor board. Following the trailer release, Udta Punjab had started promoting the film too. However, latest controversy raised the issue of CBFC being acting as moral police.

Udta Punjab is based on the drug issues those are grasping the northern state of the country. Drug problems at Punjab are so huge that some has asserted that as an endemic. According to reports, four out of ten men are addicted to some or other type of drug and up to 50 percent of the people are young and belongs to a farmer family. 15 percent of Punjabis are addicted to poppy husk and 20 percent to synthetic drugs churned out by pharmaceutical companies in Himachal Pradesh.

The film addresses the endemic issue and casts Kareena Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and Diljit Dosanjh. “The film is based on the drug problem in Punjab, the character played by Shahid Kapoor that of a musician is liberal with expletives. Cutting those out will take away from the narrative,” said a production member of the film. 

Teenage girl gang raped in Rio; Brazilians shocked with brutality, social media outrageous in protest

Rio de Janeiro: Gang rape of a teenage girl, allegedly committed by more than 30 men and boys at Brazil’s national capital Rio de Janeiro, has released a 40-minute video on Twitter from Friday. The Rio police officials asserted that an investigation against all 30 people is under process at the upcoming Olympic host city.  Protests and outrages across the Brazil have been accelerated in both online and offline platforms.

Reports are that the crime came into notice after one of the suspects posted a Twitter video of a semi-conscious teenage girl, showing faces of few of the criminals. The video was also seen insulting the girl and heard saying: “More than 30 impregnated her!” Police have suspended the video as well as the twitter account after that. The video by then had received almost 500 likes.

The 16-year-old girl, who is in fear for her life, returned home wearing men’s clothes a day later. She told the investigating police officers that she visited her boyfriend and woke up on Saturday   naked, amid dozens of unknown men holding guns. The girl did not disclose a single word about her torment to the family.

Following the incidences, Fernando Veloso, head of Rio de Janeiro’s Civil Police Department, conducted a press conference on Friday and said: “There are all the indications that this rape did in fact happen, but we still have to investigate further before we can absolutely confirm it.” Veloso also said that his department has indentified around four people who were part of the crime.

According to reports, the Brazilian government has called for an emergency meeting of public security chiefs to discuss measures to combat violence against women. Social media active Brazilian people took to online platforms to generate a huge response against the act. Twitter was seen full with hash tags comments like #EstuproNaoÉCulpaDaVitima, which stands ‘rape is not the victim's fault’ in Portuguese.

Facebook users from Brazil, including President Dilma Rousseff, have changed their profile pictures to protest the rape incident. The Brazilians have changed their profile pictures to the Venus gender symbol with ‘culture of rape’ written in it.

Rio, the Brazilian capital, already in a bleak condition for continuous assault against minors, has added another chapter in the brutality shaking the citizens. The national capital will host Olympic Games in August. 

Missing Climbers’ Body Traced, Search Interrupted Due To Weather Conditions

Kolkata: In a recent development of the sorrowful incident that Bengal climbers went missing and then dead on their way to climb the Mount Everest, a six-member search team that went to bring the bodies down, are stuck a kilometer away on the upper reaches of Everest.

Reports are that bad weather it is getting difficult for the Sherpas to bring down the bodies of Subhas Paul and Paresh Nath. The search team, also comprising climber Goutam Ghosh from West Bengal, has reported that they were able to trace the bodies but is unable to reach the point.

Sources said that Loben Expeditions, which had organized the trekking program for Paul and Nath, has asserted: “Nath's body was found at an altitude of around 8,000m, near the South Col. But it was so windy that the Sherpas could not bring him down.” Loben expeditions also added that Paul’s body was found between Camp III (7,200m) and Camp IV (7,950m) on Friday and had been brought down to Camp II (6,400m).

Also, all the routes to Mt. Everest will be closed on Sunday for the season because of the Kumbhu Icefall. This makes Saturday the last option available for the search team to find the bodies and bring them back.

Verappan

Director: Ram Gopal Varma

Cast: Sandeep Bhardwaj, Sachiin Joshi, Usha Jadhav, Lisa Ray

A sandalwood and ivory smuggler, Verappan, who have terrorized  the  police, civilians, task force and armed forces for almost 20 years seemed to fascinate director Ram Gopal Verma that ended into making same story of the slain daku in two different languages.

Based on the Ram Gopal Verma’s Kannada film Killing Veerappan (2016), the Hindi version of the film revolves around the life of Verappan, played by Sandeep Bhardwaj. The film starts a few months ago Verappan was trapped and killed using the Operating Cocoon.

Sachiin Joshi played a police officer who leads Operation Cocoon during which Koose Muniswamy Veerappan was killed. Lisa Ray played a supporting but important role in the film. Ray was seen as a widow, who with Verappan’s wife Muthulakshmi and with the cops hatches a plan to rip off Verappan. Almost forgotten Zareen Khan was found dancing hysterically in an item number in Verappan. Some even found it sizzling!

Finding an actor who closely looks like the bandit himself is difficult. However, a weak script and an equally poor acting took Bhardwaj’s Verappan deep into the black hole. Even the actors were so gritty that they seem like they are facing the camera for the first time. The story of Verappan revolves around depicting the bandit’s cold-blooded crimes and killing of civilians and cops. He knew the jungle like the palm of his hand and nobody ever managed to meet him until he wanted the same.

The background score tortured the eardrums and lacked a single scene that is fascinating enough to engage the audience. The 126-minute movie does not attract or even cares to show Verappan’s rise to power. Verma was busy with showcasing Operating Cocoon.

Supersonic Cruise Missile System Brahmos Successfully Launched By IAF

New Delhi: An advanced BrahMos version of land-attack supersonic cruise missile system was successfully test fired at the desert of Rajasthan, at the Pokhran range on Friday at 12 noon. The blast was conducted by the Indian Air Force (IAF). Reports are that the missile boarded its flight on Friday, in the firing range in the western sector and had met all the mission parameters in a ‘copybook manner.’

The IAF officials have confirmed that BrahMos had met all the parameters, successfully hit and annihilated the designated target. BrahMos is a joint venture of India and Russia. Reports are that ‘all three armed forces have raised or are raising BrahMos Missile regiments. But the IAF is expecting that an air-launched version of the missile that has been in development will arm its Sukhoi 30Mki fighter aircraft shortly.’

Sudhir Mishra, CEO and MD of BrahMos Aerospace, said: “I congratulate the Indian Air force for successfully accomplishing such a complex mission. BrahMos has proved its mettle once again as the best supersonic cruise missile system in the world.”

Following the accuracy of BhahMos, the missile’s capacity was also extensively elaborated by IAF officials. BrahMos is empowered with all three wings of armed forces-land, air and water- with ‘impeccable’ anti-ship and land attack capabilities. 

Rafael Nadal Excluded From French Open with Wrist Injury

Paris: Nine times French open champion Rafael Nadal on Friday was said to be pulling out of this year’s tournament due an injury in his left wrist. The tennis star disclosed the injury yesterday at a press meet and cited wrist injury as the reason of his exclusion from the famed tennis tournament.

An unexpected outcome indeed, Nadal, addressing the press meet had said: “I have a problem with my wrist... on Thursday, I played with an injection, I could play but yesterday night I started to feel more and more pain. On Friday, I felt I could not move my wrist.”

The 29-year-old Spanish tennis player is going through an ‘injury-plagued’ period since 2009. His recent wrist injury is followed by two other wounds he had during 2009 and 2012 Wimbledon and London games respectively. In Wimbledon tournament 2009, Nadal was prevented to perform due to a knee injury. In 2012, he missed London games for another injury.

Reports are that on Thursday, he also became the eighth player in the tennis history to record 200^th Grand Slam match wins. Nadal played with a painkiller injection yesterday and won against Facundo Bagnis with 6-3, 6-0, 6-3. However, Nadal is hoped to be fit and able to play at the Wimbledon tournament starting next month.

Septuagenarian Delhi Man Removed Teeth and Inked 500-Plus Tattoos to Set Guinness World Record

A 74-year-old Indian man from the national capital New Delhi, calling himself Guinness Rishi, has claimed that he have collected as many as 20 world records to his name. He had removed all his teeth to put nearly 500 drinking straws and more than 50 burning candles in his mouth. “I am the world record holder of 496 straws in my mouth ... For that record, I needed space, I had to remove every tooth so that I could put maximum straws in my mouth,” Rishi asserted.

Recently, Guinness Rishi is getting images tattooed of global leaders and famed politicians on his body. He has got 366 flags tattooed on his whole body already. Therefore, the list includes the 500-plus tattoos he already holds. He had inked images of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, U.S. President Barack Obama, Britain's Queen Elizabeth and Mahatma Gandhi in his body. Obsessed with his records, Har Prakash Rishi.

Rishi was born in a cinema hall in New Delhi in 1942. Reports are that he is so passionate about collecting new records that he continues to do bizarre acts like delivering pizza from Delhi to San Francisco, riding scooter for more than 1000 hours continuously or drinking a full bottle of tomato ketchup within four minutes. 

Basically, Rishi won his very first Guinness world record in 1990 for riding a scooter for continuous 1001 hours. He also have a fascinating wife indeed, Bimla Rishi, who also won a Guinness record for writing world’s shortest will- ‘All to son,’ in 1991.

Good News for State Government Employees, Didi Promised 10% Hike on Salaries from July

Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress after taking an oath on Friday has decided to make a 10 percent hike in the salaries of the State government employees. Reports are that the initiative by the West Bengal government was said as an ‘attempt to mollify’ the State government employees who are already in a miserable mode following a 50 percent gap of dearness allowance with the central government employees.

“We have decided to give some relief to the state government employees. It might be a small one for the employees but it would cost the state exchequer about Rs 3,000 crore,” said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in her first press conference at Nabanna on Friday. West Bengal have around 8 lakh state employees.

According to sources, finance Minister Amit Mitra, who is in the chair for the second time, announced to give 10 percent ‘of the band pay as additional payment’ to the employees, starting from July 1 and to be continued each month after that. Mitra also assured about pay commission which was subjected to implement in September 2015.

Swarm Of Bees Follows Woman’s Car For Two Days To Rescue Queen

New York: When Carol Howarth parked her Mitsubishi in the town of Haverfordwest, Wales, to do some shopping, little did she know the mayhem that would ensue. While she attended to her errands, a swarm of 20,000 bees was drawn to her car. A local man, Tom Moses, saw the buzzing hubbub, got concerned that the bees might be poorly handled, and called in a team of beekeepers.

“It was spectacular. I was driving through when I spotted the big brown splodge,” he said. “A lot of people were really amazed by it, cars were slowing down and people were taking pictures of it.” “I was a little bit concerned, with it being in the middle of town outside a pub, that someone might do something stupid and get hurt or do something stupid and hurt the bees,” he said.

With the beekeepers on the job, by the time Howarth returned the situation appeared to be resolved. But, no! The swarm kept her in their sights and managed to track her down.

“The next day I realized that some of the bees had followed me home,” she said. So she summoned the beekeepers, who arrived ready for rescue.

“We think the queen bee had been attracted to something in the car, perhaps something sweet, and had got into a gap on the boot’s wiper blade or perhaps the hinge,” says Roger Burns of Pembrokeshire Beekeepers. “The swarm of around 20,000 had followed her and sat around on the boot of the car.”

In the end, the adventurous queen and her subjects were reunited without harm.

                               

Burns says that it was the strangest bee-thing he’d seen in three decades of beekeeping. “It is natural for them to follow the queen but it is a strange thing to see and quite surprising to have a car followed for two days. It was quite amusing.”

The Jungle Book Become The First Hollywood Film To Enter Rs 200 Crore Club In India

Mumbai: Hollywood filmmaker Jon Favreaus film The Jungle Book with Indian-American actor Neel Sethi playing the role of Mowgli has resonated well with the Indian audiences. In the 50 days since its release in India on Friday, the film has inched closer to the Rs 200 crore club.

                              

Disney’s The Jungle Book, which brings an enchanting story of a boy straight from an Indian jungle, has minted over Rs 180 crore till now.

According to a statement from Disney, The Jungle Book amassed Rs 2.56 crore in its seventh week, taking the cumulative total to Rs 183.94 crore (net box office collection).

The numbers are “truly encouraging”, says Amrita Pandey, vice president - studios, Disney India. “This phenomenon reminds one of the golden era, back in the 1970s and 1980s, when Hindi movies had silver (25 weeks) and golden (50 weeks) jubilees at the box office. The Jungle Book has truly created new benchmarks for the performance of English movies in India,” Pandey said. She added, “It has surpassed age, regions and even languages in a place as diverse as India and has been dearly loved and appreciated all across the country. “We take immense pride in the way our little Mowgli has made India one of the top four internationally performing markets for the movie. It is truly a testament of the love of the audience for the movie and that a timeless tale, when told well, will always win over the audience,” she further added.

Trade expert Taran Adarsh is also impressed with the business. He tweeted, “While most Hindi films struggle to complete three or four weeks, The Jungle Book enters week eight today. Completes 50 glorious days... Solid content plus Disney India’s smart strategy has paid rich dividends.”

Iron Man fame director Favreau took a basic structure of Rudyard Kipling’s timeless classic and charged it up with the power of the 1967 animation film to bring forth an advanced version of the story backed with technology.

Released in India in four languages - English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu - the film was released in India on April 8, a week before its release in the US.

Along with Neel Sethi, the Hollywood film is supported by Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong'o, Scarlett Johansson and Christopher Walken.

Bollywood actors Irrfan Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Nana Patekar, Shefali Shah and Om Puri have lent their voices for the Hindi version of The Jungle Book.

IPL Season 9 : Sunrisers Hyderabad Beats Gujarat Lions To Reach Finals

New Delhi: In the second qualifier match of 2016 Indian premier League (IPL), Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Gujarat Lions by four wickets on Friday at Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi, to reach the finals.

                           

Winning the toss, Sunrisers Hyderabad elected to field first. In the first innings, Aaron Finch was Gujarat Lions’ highest scorer with 50 runs. He was followed by Brendon McCullum (32 runs), Dinesh Karthik (26 runs), Dwayne Bravo (20 runs) and Ravindra Jadeja (19 runs). Jadeja remained not out. Ben Cutting was Sunrisers Hyderabad’s best bowler of the day as he took two wickets off 20 runs from three overs. Bharat Kumar also took two wickets off 27 runs from four overs. At the end of the innings, Gujarat Lions scored 162 runs off eight wickets.

In the second innings, David Warner was Sunrisers Hyderabad’s highest scorer with 93 runs. He was followed by Bipul Sharma (27 runs), Moises Henriques (11 runs) and Naman Ojha (10 runs). Warner and Sharma remained not out. Shivil Kaushik was Gujarat Lions’ best bowler of the day, as he took two wickets off 22 runs from four overs. Bravo also took two wickets off 32 runs from four overs. Sunrisers Hyderabad grabbed victory when they scored 163 runs off six wickets in 19.2 overs.

Warner was named ‘Player Of The Match’.

Sunrisers Hyderabad will now face Royal Challenger Bangalore in the finals on May 29 in Bangalore. Sunrisers Hyderabad who debuted in IPL season six (2013), has made it to the finals for the first time, thus ensuring their best performance in IPL history yet. Royal Challengers Bangalore who have been playing since season one in 2008, have made it to the finals thrice before, but have failed to win every time. Whatever the result is, season nine of IPL is going to produce a new winner.

BJP Aims To Emerge As Principal Opposition Party In West Bengal: Arun Jaitley

Kolkata: On Friday, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that a historic opportunity had emerged for the BJP to replace the Left in West Bengal as the principal opposition party after the Left parties fell out of favor with the people. 

                                

“There is this historic opportunity to occupy the space of the anti-Left feeling and our long-term strategy will be towards that,” Jaitley, who came here to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the Mamata Banerjee-led government, said.  “This time it is a hat-trick of anti-Left voting. No doubt in our mind that our primary objective in the long run is to occupy the space of the Left and become principal opposition party in the state. The footprint has been registered by us,” he further added.

In the just-concluded state Assembly polls, the BJP secured three seats while the GJM, which had supported the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, secured three seats. In the 2011 Assembly polls, the BJP failed to secure any seat.

Jaitley described his party’s inroads into the Left dominated states of West Bengal and Kerala his party’s inroads into the Left dominated states of West Bengal and Kerala as a “success story” and asserted that it was spreading fast into the parts of the country where it had no presence in the past. 

Jaitley made it clear that in accordance with the obligations of the federal structure of the Constitution, the Centre would continue to support West Bengal when it came to clearing any project or for any other support under the government-to-government relationship.

However, there was no scope of an out-of-turn fiscal assistance for West Bengal, which Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had repeatedly sought in the past. 

Phobia

Director: Pavan Kripalani

Cast: Radhika Apte, Satyadeep Mishra, Ankur Vikal, Yashaswini Dayama

A horror flick set in an empty apartment in which things go bump, using standard, familiar tropes, and still able to create freshness? It is a tough ask, but Phobia pulls it off with a bang, helped by a crackerjack plot and performances.

                           

A flat with an eerily locked room, a cracked mirror, an about-to-be-bloodied bath-tub, a black cat and fleeting apparitions. And a young woman suffering from trauma which has led to agoraphobia : Mehek (Radhika Apte) cannot step out, because there lurks evil. But, and this is what the film asks, as every similar film does, what if the danger is inside?

Kripalani, who had helmed the scary Ragini MMS, delivers a smart, intelligent spook-fest which keeps us on the edge. His leading lady knows exactly what to do: Radhika Apte doesn’t put a foot wrong as she goes about scaling it up gradually– being alarmed, scared, petrified, and outright panicked-with-blind-terror.

Part of the skill-set required to do an effective film in this genre is to know when to ratchet up the tension, and when to let it go. The inclusion of other characters in this chamber drama does exactly that— Satyadeep Mishra as the pal who wants to be more, Ankur Vikal as the creepy neighbor under suspicion for having done away with his lady love, Yahaswini Dayama as a friendly, inquisitive girl who keeps showing up even when she’s not wanted, an older sister who may or not be a loving sibling, and a therapist who wants to help Mehek get past her phobia.

Apte keeps you reeled in. She’s consistently been doing interesting work. With this one she has staked fair claim to be one of the best acts in town. Phobia is a genuine frightener, so far away from those unintentionally comic monstrosities Bollywood keeps slinging out that you feel like cheering.

Ethiopian Children Still Missing After Cross-Border Raid

Addis Ababa: Dozens of children are still missing after a cross-border raid on villages in the Gambela region of western Ethiopia by South Sudanese tribesmen.

                            

Attackers from South Sudan’s Merle tribe killed 208 Ethiopian villagers, abducted 133 children and stole more than 1,000 cattle last month. Around 50 of the children have been released after negotiations with the tribesmen by the South Sudanese government but securing the release of the others is proving difficult.

The Ethiopian government has already conducted a cross-border military operation to free the remaining children. The government officials said that they may conduct further military operations if the abducted children are not released.

Ten-year-old Gache Debol was trying to rescue his younger sister when he was taken. His sister is still missing. “I thought they were going to kill me,” he told Al Jazeera. “I tried to escape a few times but they caught me and they beat me. I thought I would never see my family again,” the kid added.

Villagers are still asking exactly who was responsible for the attacks, carried out by about 2,000 armed men.

The Merle tribesmen are feared for their cattle raids against other tribes in the area.  But the Ethiopian government has said that this time the attackers from the tribe were wearing South Sudanese military uniforms and carrying what looked like new AK-47 rifles. The South Sudanese government has denied any responsibility and is working with Ethiopia to rescue the dozens of children still missing.

SBI’s Profit Slumps 66% As Bad Loans Jump To A Whopping Rs 1 Lakh Crore

Mumbai: State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s biggest lender, posted a massive 66 percent fall in its net profit in the March quarter, weighed down by higher provisions for bad loans, which jumped to a staggering Rs 1 lakh crore.

SBI’s bad loans are nearly four times that of its private sector counterpart ICICI Bank, which had reported non-performing loans worth Rs 26,000 crore at the end of the March quarter. SBI set aside Rs 12,140 crore as provisions for bad loans in Q4, leading to a sharp drop in its profitability at Rs 1,264 crore as compared to Rs 3,742 crore in the year-ago period. SBI’s profit drop was higher than analysts’ expectations.

Siddharth Purohit, senior equity analyst at Angel Broking said SBI's bottom line was supported by higher other income, while asset quality further deteriorated. “Gross slippages for the quarter stood at more than Rs 30,000 crore which is higher than what the Street and we were expecting,” he added.

However, SBI’s numbers were better than its other state-run peers, most of which have reported huge losses in the March quarter. So far, 13 state-run banks have posted combined losses of around Rs 25,000 crore in Q4 due to a surge in provisions for bad debt after a clean-up ordered by their regulator, Reserve Bank of India.

Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairman and managing director of SBI, assured investors that the entire impact of asset quality review ordered by RBI has been accounted for in the previous two quarters. This means that the worst of asset quality problems may be behind SBI, analysts said. SBI shares closed 6.4 percent higher at Rs 195.90, outperforming the 1.1 percent gain in the broader Nifty.

Anti-Corruption Bureau Files Case Against Chhagan Bhujbal & 11 Others

Mumbai: Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has filed a fresh case against former Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and 11 others, including his four family members, for allegedly amassing Rs 203 crore disproportionate to known sources of his income, a police officer said today. 

The FIR was filed by ACB yesterday, in which Bhujbal, his wife Meena, son Pankaj, daughter-in-law Vishakha and nephew Sameer, have been named as accused, the officer said. 

Chartered accountants Sunil Naik and Chandrashekar Sarda, hawala operator Suresh Jajodia, directors of Bhujbal’s companies Pravinkumar Jain and Jagdishprasad Purohit, financial advisor Sanjeev Jain, and chief managing director of Snehal Cooperative Ltd Kapil Puri have also been named as other accused in the FIR, he said.  While investigating the alleged offences of cheating, forgery and corruption against Chhagan Bhujbal in two cases — Central Library land scam and Maharashtra Sadan scam — ACB further found “ill-gotten” wealth, after which the fresh FIR was filed. 

In the FIR, the anti-graft agency said that the amassed assets were beyond the known income sources. The official said ACB had carried out searches at Chhagan Bhujbal’s houses and offices and recovered documents showing properties at several places in the city, satellite cities of Mumbai as well as at Pune, Lonavala and Nashik. 

According to the investigators, Bhujbal, along with Pankaj, Sameer and Naik, had allegedly opened bogus companies for money laundering, police said.  In February this year, ACB had filed a charge sheet against Bhujbal and his kin in the multi-crore rupee Maharashtra Sadan construction scam. Subsequently, Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested the Chhagan Bhujbal, the senior NCP leader, and Sameer in a money laundering case connected to the scam. Both of them are currently lodged at the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai.