India to host next IBSA summit

Posted on July 18, 2014 by Meghdut

India will host the 7th IBSA (India-Brazil-South Africa) summit in 2015. The announcement was made following a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South African President Jacob Zuma in Brasília on Wednesday.

The two leaders met at the sidelines of the interaction between the BRICS leadership and leaders from Latin American countries.

This will be the third time New Delhi will be hosting the IBSA summit since it started in 2006. While the inaugural edition of the summit was held in Brazil, India played host to the third edition in 2008 and the sixth in 2013. IBSA is a trilateral initiative between India, Brazil and South Africa “to promote, inter-alia, South-South cooperation and exchange.” The platform was announced, following a meeting of Foreign Ministers of the three countries in Brasilia in 2003, through the adoption of the Brasilia Declaration.

The IBSA summit involves consultations at the heads of state-level while meetings between Ministers and officials are held at the Trilateral Joint Commission and Focal Point levels respectively.

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Five new Governors has been appointed by the President of India

Posted on July 15, 2014 by Meghdut

 

The President has been pleased to appoint the following as Governors:-

1. Shri Ram Naik as the Governor of Uttar Pradesh
2. Shri Balramji Dass Tandon as the Governor of Chhattisgarh
3. Shri Keshari Nath Tripathi as the Governor of West Bengal
4. Shri Om Prakash Kohli as the Governor of Gujarat
5. Shri Padmanabha Balakrishna Acharya as the Governor of Nagaland

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Poverty, child, maternal deaths high in India: U.N. report

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Meghdut

India continues to battle poverty, child and maternal deaths, according to a United Nations report on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) that said while several key global targets have been met, more sustained effort is needed to cover disparities by the 2015 deadline.

The ‘Millennium Development Goals Report 2014’, launched by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon here on Monday, said many global MDG targets on reducing poverty, increasing access to improved drinking water sources, improving the lives of slum dwellers and achieving gender parity in primary schools have already been met.

Many more goals are within reach by their 2015 target date, the report said, adding that if current trends continue, the world will surpass MDG targets on malaria, tuberculosis and access to HIV treatment.

The report is the most up-to-date “global scorecard” on efforts to achieve the eight mostly anti-poverty goals agreed by world leaders at a UN summit in 2000.

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Srinivasan becomes first ICC chairman

Posted on June 26, 2014 by Meghdut

N. Srinivasan was on Thursday formally appointed the first chairman of the ICC after its 52-member council approved a controversial revamp of the body’s administrative structure.

The full council approved the amendments to the ICC’s Memorandum and Articles of Association at the Annual Conference, in Melbourne.

As was widely known before the conference, Srinivasan was elected the chairman despite being barred by the Supreme Court of India from carrying out his duties as BCCI president due to ongoing investigations into the match-fixing allegations relating to the 2013 edition of the IPL.

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Salman Rushdie wins Pen Pinter writing prize

Posted on June 21, 2014 by Meghdut

Indian-born Booker Prize winning author Salman Rushdie was on Friday named the winner of this year’s prestigious Pen Pinter prize for his outstanding literary output and support for freedom of expression.

The award was established in 2009 by writers’ charity English Pen in memory of famous British playwright and Nobel laureate Harold Pinter.

Maureen Freely, chair of the judging panel, said, “This prize is English Pen’s way of thanking Salman Rushdie not just for his books and his many years of speaking out for freedom of expression, but also for his countless private acts of kindness.

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Sanjaya Rajaram chosen for World Food Prize

Posted on June 20, 2014 by Meghdut

Sanjaya Rajaram, veteran plant scientist, has been chosen for this year’s World Food Prize for his “scientific research that led to a prodigious increase in world wheat production.”

Announcing this, M.S. Swaminathan, founder of the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) and chairman, global jury for selection of the Food Prize Laureate, told reporters on Wednesday that Dr Rajaram, now settled in Mexico, was selected for his “outstanding work in the improvement of wheat crop and wheat production in the world.”

Dr. Swaminathan, the first recipient of the Prize in 1987, said the selection of Dr. Rajaram was significant as this year marked the centenary year of Dr. Borlaug as well as the international year of family farming.

Regarded as the most prestigious award in the area of food and agriculture, the Prize, carrying a cash prize of $ 250,000, would be presented during the U.N. World Food Day on October 16.

#WorldFoodPrize
#WorldFoodDay

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Kolkata Airport Bags Service Quality Award

Posted on June 10, 2014 by Meghdut

Kolkata Airport has won the Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Award by Airport Council International (ACI) in the category of the best improved airport in Asia Pacific Region. This category includes airports which have experienced the biggest improvement in ASQ rating between 2012 and 2013 in their region. The ASQ Awards are presented in four categories: best airport by region, best airport by size, best small airport and best improvement.

The award was received by Dr. B.P. Sharma, Airport Director, Kolkata at the 9th ACI Asia Pacific Regional Assembly meeting in Seoul, Korea. He handed over the award to Shri Alok Sinha, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation and Chairman, Airports Authority of India (AAI) in the presence of Shri G.K. Chaukiyal, Member (Operations) in New Delhi.

Airport Service Quality survey is conducted at 11 major airports of AAI by Airport Council International including Ahmedabad, Calicut, Chennai, Goa, Guwahati, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Pune, Srinagar, Trivandrum. In respect of customer satisfaction airports managed by AAI scored an average ASQ rating of 4.14 which is above world average of 4.04 between 1st January and 31st March, this year.

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Senior advocate Ranjit Kumar will be the next Solicitor-General

Posted on May 30, 2014 by Meghdut

Senior advocate Ranjit Kumar will be the next Solicitor-General as Mohan Parasaran resigned following the change of government at the Centre.

Mr. Kumar had been counsel for the Gujarat government and amicus curiae in several cases in the Supreme Court. He had represented Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in the disproportionate assets case pending in a Bangalore court.

Top contenders for Additional Solicitors-General are the outgoing Additional Solicitor-General L. Nageswara Rao, senior advocates Maninder Singh, P.S. Narasimha, Neeraj Kishan Kaul and P.S. Patwalia, and Additional Advocate-General of Gujarat Tushar Mehta.

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15th PM of India and his Cabinet Minister

Posted on May 27, 2014 by Meghdut
Minister’s Name Portfolio
Cabinet Ministers
Mr. Narendra Damodar Das Modi Prime Minister of India
Mr. Rajnath Singh Home Minister
Mr. Arun Jaitley Finance, Corporate Affairs and Defence
Ms. Sushma Swaraj External Affairs Minister
M Venkaiah Naidu Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Parliamentary Affairs
Mr. Nitin Gatkari Road Transport and Highways, Shipping
D V Sadananda Gowda Railway Minister
Ms. Uma Bharti Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation
Najma A. Heptulla Minority Affairs
Gopinathrao Munde Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water and Sanitation
Ram Vilas Paswan Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
Kalraj Mishra Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
Ms. Maneka Gandhi Women and Child Development
Mr. Anant Kumar Chemicals and Fertilizers
Ravi Shankar Prasad Communications and Information Technology, Law and Justice
Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati Civil Aviation
Anant Geete Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises
Harsimrat Kaur Badal Food Processing Industries
Narendra Singh Tomar Mines, Steel, Labour and Employment
Jual Oram Tribal Affairs Minister
Radha Mohan Singh Agriculture Minister
Thaawar Chand Gehlot Social justice and Empowerment
Smriti Irani Human Resource Development
Harsh Vardhan Health and Family Welfare
Ministers of State (Independent Charge)
Gen (Retd) V K Singh Development of North Eastern Region (Independent Charge), External Affairs, Overseas Indian Affairs
Inderjit Singh Rao Planning (Independent Charge), Statistics and Programme Implementation (Independent Charge), Defence
Santosh Gangwar Textiles (Independent Charge), Parliamentary Affairs, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation
Shripad Yesso Naik Culture (Independent Charge), Tourism (Independent Charge)
Dharmendra Pradhan Petroleum and Natural Gas (Independent Charge)
Sarbananda Sonowal Skill Development, Entrepreneurship, Youth Affairs and Sports (Independent Charge)
Prakash Javadekar Information and Broadcasting (Independent Charge), Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Independent Charge), Parliamentary Affairs
Piyush Goyal Power (Independent  Charge), Coal (Independent Charge), New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge)
Jitendra Singh Science and Technology (Independent Charge), Earth Sciences (Independent Charge), Prime Minister Office, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space
Nirmala Sitharaman Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge), Finance, Corporate Affairs
Ministers of State
GM Siddeshwara Civil Aviation
Manoj Sinha Railways
Nihal Chand Chemicals and Fertilizers
Upendra Kushwaha Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water and Sanitation
Radhakrishnan P Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises
Kiren Rijiju Home Affairs
Krishan Pal Road Transport and Highways, Shipping
Sanjeev Kumar Balyan Agriculture, Food Processing Industries
Mansukhbhai Dhanjibhai Vasava Tribal Affairs
Raosaheb Dadarao Danve Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
Vishnu Deo Sai Mines, Steel, Labour and Employment
Sudarshan Bhagat Social Justice and Empowerment
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Ratan Tata gets honorary knighthood

Posted on May 6, 2014 by Meghdut

Former chairman of the Tata Group Ratan Tata has received an honorary knighthood in recognition of the company’s heavy British investments and philanthropy, a British High Commission statement said.

Tata, who retired in 2012 as head of the group, was awarded the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire, one of Britain’s highest civilian honours.

“Tata is the only Indian national to be given this particular award since India became a republic in 1950,” the High Commission added.Ratan Tata, who is now Tata Group chairman emeritus, was presented the award by British High Commissioner James Bevan.

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