Odisha, Boosting its air defence shield and revalidating operational efficacy, India today test fired successfully its indigenously-developed surface-to- air Akash missile from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, about 15 km from here. "The user-specific trial, which formed part of the country's routine air defence exercises, was successful," said a Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) official associated with the Akash missile project. To revalidate the technology and operational efficacy of the missile, defence forces conducted the trial with logistic support provided by the ITR, the official said. The Akash weapon system was inducted into the armed forces in 2008. The missile, which has a strike range of 25 km with a warhead of 60 kgs, was test fired from a mobile launcher from launch complex-III of the ITR at about 1108 hours, defence sources said. "During the trial, the missile was aimed at intercepting a floating object supported by a pilotless target aircraft, flown from launch complex-II, at a definite altitude over the sea," the sources said. Akash, an anti-aircraft defence system, can simultaneously engage several targets with Rajendra radar ...
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Hyderabad, The CBI Thursday arrested Andhra Pradesh excise minister Mopidevi Venkataramna in an illegal assets case linked to YSR Congress leader Y S Jaganmohan Reddy. Earlier, Minister for excise Mopidevi Venkatramna was questioned by CBI officials for over six hours at Dilkusha Guest House, the camp office of the investigating agency. The minister was questioned about the land allotments made to Vanpic company for a port project when he was minister for infrastructure and investment in the cabinet of Jaganmohan Reddy's father Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy. ...
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Peshawar, A Pakistani doctor accused of helping the CIA find Osama bin Laden has been jailed for 33 years for treason, television channels and a local government official said. The official said Shakil Afridi was accused of running a fake vaccination campaign believed to have helped the American intelligence agency track bin Laden in a Pakistani town, where he was killed in a US special forces raid last May. The imprisonment is likely to anger ally Washington at a sensitive time, with both sides engaged in difficult talks over re-opening NATO supply routes to US-led troops in Afghanistan. US officials had hoped Pakistan, a recipient of billions of dollars in American aid, would release Afridi, detained after the unilateral operation which killed bin Laden and strained ties with Islamabad. In January, US defense secretary Leon Panetta said in a television interview that Afridi and his team had been key in finding bin Laden, describing him as helpful and insisting the doctor had not committed treason or harmed ...
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Mumbai, Maharashtra BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari today told the visiting Pakistani journalist delegation that if the BJP-led NDA came to power in the next general elections, they would continue with the policies adopted by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee while dealing with Pakistan. 'We will continue the same policies which were in use from 1998 till 2004 but were backtracked by the UPA in last eight years,' Mr Bhandari told the delegation of journalists during an interaction. The 17-strong media delegation from Pakistan, made up of representatives of various main line newspaper and TV channels inlcuding Dawn, Jung, ARY TV and Geo TV, are visiting Mumbai and Pune between May 21 and 27. The visit by the Pakistan delegation reciprocates a visit of 23 Mumbai Press Club members to Karachi in November, last year. ...
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New Delhi, The government on Wednesday claimed that political parties were in the know of the move to refer the Lokpal bill to a select committee and that leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley was consulted on its composition. "The committee was drawn up after consultation," parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Bansal said. The government claimed that there might have been a gap in communication within BJP as party MPs protested the move while Jaitley sat without intervening. Jaitley contested the government's suggestion that he was on board, saying that he had only been informed about the move to refer the bill to a select committee. "I was not consulted, the ministers merely told me about the government's plan," he said. He also said that when Bansal met him, he had told the minister that he intended to "raise objections with relation to the incompetent amendment to refer the bill to a select committee". He pointed out that in the House, he had asked the government to be upfront about its intent rather than getting a Samajwadi Party MP to move the amendment. Speaking to the media, Bansal said all parties were consulted over the composition of the ...
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Mumbai, BJP leader Sanjay Joshi, bete noire of the Gujarat chief minister, on Thursday resigned ahead of the party national executive meeting beginning here, a move seen as an effort by the party president to buy peace with Narendra Modi. "Joshi, who was invitee member of the national executive, has in a letter to party president Nitin Gadkari said that he is relinquishing his post in the larger interest of the party," BJP sources said hours before the inauguration of the two day conclave. The move by Gadkari is significant as the shadow of Modi could have hung over the conclave as speculation had mounted over the Gujarat strongman's absence amid no official word from Gandhinagar. Modi had also not attended the last meeting of the National Executive held in Delhi in December apparently peeved over the induction of Joshi into Uttar Pradesh election campaign by Gadkari. He had also not campaigned in the UP polls. As per official programme, Modi will be in Udaipur in Rajasthan today to attend the birth centenary celebrations of Maharana Pratap and will be returning to Ahmedabad. As per his associates in Gandhinagar, Modi could make it to Mumbai tomorrow in view of the ...
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New Delhi, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has expressed herself against MPs' demand to sport red beacons atop their cars in Delhi. In a meeting of Congress parliamentary party executive, Gandhi made it clear that more red beacons in Delhi would create problems. However, she said it should be left to states to take a decision on the issue in their jurisdiction. The Congress president stated this when senior party MP P C Chacko raised the issue during the meeting seeking her view on the matter, sources said. Her remarks came close on the heels of a debate in the Lok Sabha last week which saw MPs from across the political spectrum making a strong demand for being given the right to sport red beacons atop their vehicle and said they would approach the Prime Minister in this regard. They had said that the privileges committee of the Lok Sabha had made recommendation to the effect and sought to know why the government was delaying the measure. Congress MP Abhishek Singhvi had also yesterday come out against red beacon lights on the cars of lawmakers saying in the current climate of cynicism, it could become the "butt of ridicule and derision" "The current climate of ...
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Chicago, U.S. President Barack Obama, during the NATO Summit in Chicago, made clear his frustration over Pakistan's adamancy over the reopening of NATO supply routes to Afghanistan. Obama expressed his frustration by publicly thanking Russia and other Central Asian countries for providing "critical transit" of war supplies into Afghanistan in the six months since Pakistan closed its ground routes following U.S. air strikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, reports the Los Angeles Times. Obama chose to ignore Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, who sat only a few feet away from him, and pointedly did not mention Pakistan and had initially refused to meet him one-on-one, the paper states. He also made no attempt to downplay the strained relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan which has been unstable since the U.S. raided the military garrison town of Abbottabad last May to kill Osama Bin Laden. "We need to work through some of the tensions (with Pakistan). I don't want to paper over real challenges," Obama was quoted, as saying. Obama said his staff members had known before they arrived in Chicago for the Summit that the dispute over access to supply lines would ...
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New Delhi, Army Chief General V.K. Singh has still not consented to attending the official farewell tea party hosted by the Ministry of Defence in order to avoid his brief profile being read out, including the controversial date of birth in front of Defence Minister A.K. Antony and other top officials. The organisers have contacted the Army Chief's office several times for his consent and are worried that delay is being done to avoid the official function that will start with mention of personal details, including the date of birth of General Singh on which he has been at loggerheads with the Ministry of Defence. The Joint Secretary (Establishment) as per the norms will read out General Singh's profile, provided by his office. It is followed by speeches from the Defence Minister, the Defence Secretary and other top officials of the ministry. The event used to end with the handing over of a plaque. The Army Chief claims that he was born on May 10, 1951, whereas the Ministry of Defence considers his year of birth to be 1950. The organisers are worried that the official farewell tea party to be held on General Singh's retirement date could be used by the Army Chief to ...
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New Delhi, With the government sending the controversial Lokpal Bill to a Rajya Sabha select committee for further scrutiny and discussion on Monday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has accused the former of not being sincere in its efforts to pass anti-graft proposal. "This has become quiet clear, that the intentions of the government over bringing the Ombudsman (Bill) were not correct since the very beginning. The government has once again exposed its corrupt face protecting corrupt people," Naqvi told media here. Expressing displeasure over sending the bill to a select committee, BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said: "Any search proposal for select committee can come only and only by the minister in charge who is in possession of the entire proposal. It could not have come from anyone else." "This kind of procedure was most unwarranted. We deeply regret it, and also condemn it. The present consideration is also permissible in terms of Article 252 of the Constitution, where such considerations are permissible only when two state assemblies empower the Rajya Sabha to consider such a proposal," he added. Communist Party of India (CPI) ...
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Washington, In a rebuff to Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari, US president Barack Obama did not meet him on the margins of the NATO Summit in Chicago as the two countries failed to strike a deal on reopening the NATO supply lines to Afghanistan. Zardari, who flew to Chicago with hopes of lifting his stature with a meeting with Obama, was preparing to leave empty-handed as the two countries continued to feel the repercussions of a NATO air strike last November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, an incident for which the US President has offered condolences but no apology. As the two-day NATO summit opened in Chicago last evening, Obama remained at loggerheads with Zardari, refusing even to meet him without a deal on the supply routes, which officials in both sides acknowledged would not be coming soon, US media reported on Monday. But White House deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes said that Obama could not meet Zardari as he had a "full slate of summit meetings to attend." "The two bilateral meetings, really, that he did, or President (Hamid) Karzai for obvious reasons given the focus on Afghanistan here, and the Secretary General of NATO given that it's ...
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Lucknow, In an apparent move to expand its base beyond the geographical and political boundaries of Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party is preparing to contest the Gujarat assembly elections, scheduled to be held later this year. The larger plan is to contest assembly elections in all the four states, where elections are to be held before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls to test the political waters in these states and also push for a national status for SP, which is still a state party. Eyeing on a substantial migrant population from Uttar Pradesh settled in the industrial belts of Bharuch and Vapi in south Gujarat apart from Ahmedabad and Vadodra in central Gujarat, SP national president Mulayam Singh Yadav is expected to address a meeting of the party workers in Ahmedabad on June 7. The party is expected to make the final announcement of its plans to contest the assembly elections in Gujarat at this meeting. According to party insiders, a host of senior SP leaders including chief minister Akhilesh Yadav will also hold meetings thereafter. South Gujarat general secretary of Samajwadi Party, Gulab Singh met Mulayam recently in Delhi, and it was decided that SP supremo will visit ...
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New Delhi, The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is probing the complaints of money laundering against Indian Premier League (IPL), Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told the Rajya Sabha Monday. Speaking during question hour, Mukherjee said: "There are certain irregularities which are being looked into, particularly relating to some complaints received that there are foreign investments in IPL." "Those are being looked into by the Enforcement Directorate because those are the criminal activities like money laundering," he said. Mukherjee said the IPL is a body of the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) and till 2006, the BCCI enjoyed income tax exemptions. He said the BCCI lost exemption registration in 2006 following the verdict of the Allahabad High Court and since then, it is subject to tax. "Tax demands were raised for the assessment years 2007-08 and 2008-09 amounting to Rs.118 crore and Rs.257 crore respectively. As much as Rs.249 crore has already been recovered from the BCCI," he said. The matter was also raised in the Lok Sabha and replying to queries, Sports Minister Ajay Maken said that the ministry has written to the ED to look into the money ...
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New Delhi, The government Monday released the much-awaited white paper on black money, which makes a strong pitch for setting up the Lokpal and Lokayuktas but carries no official estimate of the illicit money stashed by Indians abroad. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee tabled the white paper in the Lok Sabha. The paper carries no estimates on the quantum of money stashed abroad, but quotes figures released by different agencies. "There are no reliable estimates of black money generation or accumulation, neither is there an accurate well-accepted methodology for making such estimation," the paper said. It pointed out that among the estimates made so far, there is no uniformity, unanimity, or consensus about the best methodology or approach to be used for this purpose. "There have also been wide variations in the figures reported, which further serves to highlight the limitations of the different methods adopted." The paper made a strong pitch for setting up the Lokpal and Lokayuktas to effectively deal with the menace of black money and other corrupt practices. In the foreword to the report, Mukherjee pointed out that in this past year the government has ...
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New Delhi, Asserting that the Central Government is not serious about passing a strong Lokpal Bill, social activist Arvind Kejriwal has said Team Anna would decide its future course of action after the budget session of parliament ends. "We are waiting for the parliament session to get over. Our future strategy and agitation will be announced after that," Kejriwal told media here. "We do doubt their (government) intentions. When the budget session was so big then why did they not get the bill earlier? Why on the last day? They could have got it 15-30 days earlier, so defiantly there is a doubt over their intentions," he added. Earlier, former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer and Team Anna member Kiran Bedi has said the Central Government is not serious about endorsing an effective Lokpal Bill, since it would be like sounding the death knell for corrupt politicians. "The Lokpal Bill is a very tough law for people who are corrupt and they also happen to be in power. They also know that there is enough proof against them. It will be very difficult for them as they will be investigated and like former telecom minister A Raja they will go to jail because whistleblowers ...
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New Delhi, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has refused to endorse finance minister Pranab Mukherjee for the President's post, giving a twist to the race. Banerjee told a TV channel, "I love Meira Kumar, she is very soft spoken, Gopal Gandhi has done good work, Kalam was a good president. Pranab may be the son-of-the-world but if you ask me my choice, I will go with Kumar, Gandhi and Kalam. But if Congress wants to go with Pranab, its their choice." The comment puts a question mark on Mukherjee's bid to wade into the race. While Congress is still to announce its preference for the top post, there is also a section in Congress that feels Mukherjee cannot be spared for the for the President's post because he is crucial to the government. If the West Bengal CM vetoes the finance minister, it may be difficult for Congress to evolve a consensus around his ...
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New Delhi, Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday tabled a White Paper on black money in Parliament, providing information on black money parked abroad, as promised to the House during a debate on the Finance Bill last week. "I will try to give all the relevant and possible information," Mukherjee had said in the Lok Sabha, while promising to bring the White Paper in the on-going Budget Session. The Opposition, led by the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has been accusing the government of going slow on the black money probe. However, there are indications that the White Paper might not carry all the information about the unaccounted for money lying overseas, as the government appointed expert committees are expected to submit their reports in July or August. "In respect of estimates of black money, three institutions are studying it independently and they will give their reports at the end of an 18-month period, and that period is coming to a close around July or August," Mukherjee had said, while replying to the argument raised by senior BJP leader L K Advani the Lok Sabha last Tuesday. The White Paper, however, is likely to contain the report of an official ...
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Ingredients: • 5 Cup Cold Milk • 3 Cup Chocolate Ice-Cream • 6 Tsp Sweetened Cocoa Powder • Crushed Ice Method: • Blend all the Ingredients: in a mixer and add sugar if ...
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Ingredients: • 2 Cups Milk • 1 Ripe Banana • 3 Tblsp Sugar • ¼ Tsp Grinded Nutmeg Method: • Boil the milk to boiling point. • Allow it to cool. • Smash the banana into a smooth paste. • Add all the Ingredients: and serve chilled. ...
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Lucknow, Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee(PAC) of Parliamenty and former BJP president Dr Murli Manohar Joshi today held the Centre responsible for the devaluation of Indian currency and said the wrong policies of the UPA-II was leading the country into financial crisis. "The Centre has lost its path to control the financial crisis and the scams in the country are responsible for the devaluation of the Indian currency," he added. Addressing a press conference here, Dr Joshi said now Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was also holding the international financial crisis responsible for the devaluation of the currency after assuring the country for past six months that the situation in under control. "Government should discuss the financial situation of the country in Parliament and the people of the country should know the real fact behind the crisis," he said. Demanding that the exports of the country should increase as the foreign reserve of the country is fast decreasing, Dr Joshi said that in no way the farmers of the country should suffer due to the financial crisis in the country. Talking about the deteriorating law and order situation in Uttar ...
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