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The Hindu April 29,2018 Russian Twitter accounts pumped out messages in support of the opposition Labour party in an attempt to influence last year's British election, according to new research. The research by Swansea University and The Sunday Times found about 6,500 automated accounts sent messages praising the opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and his policies in the closing stages of the election. They also attacked Prime Minister Theresa May for refusing to take part in televised election debates and criticised her for cutting police numbers in the wake of the Manchester bombing. The study found nine out of 10 messages from the accounts about Labour backed the party. In contrast, nine out of 10 tweets about the Conservatives were hostile. “These new revelations are extremely concerning,” the culture minister Matt Hancock said in a statement. “It is absolutely unacceptable for any nation to attempt to interfere in the democratic elections of another

The Hindu April 30,2018 Paddy farmers of the East Godavari district are up in arms against the “Seismic Data Acquisition” being conducted by the government-owned oil and natural gas major Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) as the paddy fields at the harvesting stage are getting damaged. The data acquisition is going on actively in the villages surrounding Ravulapalem, Alamuru and Mandapeta towns where the paddy harvesting is scheduled for the next fortnight. A surveying agency appointed by the ONGC has deputed 2,000 men from north India for the job. “We are not against the survey but the standing crop is getting trampled by the surveying staff. Since language is the major barrier, they are unable to understand the precautions issued by us to reduce the crop loss,” says Santhi Swaroop, sarpach of Navabupeta village in Alamuru mandal. As part of the survey wiring is done in the fields and bores would be dug at every 40 meters. Once the drilling is over, bombing would be u

The Hindu April 30, 2018 Rejects idea to replace ready-to-eat food rations with energy-dense nutrient packets for beneficiaries The National Council on Nutrition (NCN) has unanimously rejected Union Minister for Women and Child Development (WCD) Maneka Gandhi’s proposal to replace ready-to-eat food as take-home dry ration with energy-dense nutrient packets which could be mixed with food for anganwadi beneficiaries. The council has also directed that pilot projects be conducted in 10 select districts on cash transfers instead of take-home rations — Ms. Gandhi has opposed the idea on the grounds that there is no guarantee that beneficiaries would use the money for food. The National Council on India’s Nutrition Challenges, headed by Vice-Chairman of the NITI Aayog Rajiv Kumar, was constituted in January to provide policy directions to address nutritional challenges in the country and review programmes on a quarterly basis. It held its first meeting on April 18. Accord

The Economic Times  April 29, 2018 To ensure unhindered access of 'stem cell therapy' for treatment by physicians, the Union Health Ministry has proposed to statutory distinguish it from 'stem cell drugs,' making the latter alone liable to the usual screening and trial runs stipulated for new drugs.  Apprising an international conference on stem cells of the government's move, Drug Controller General of India S Eswara Reddy today said the Union Health Ministry has proposed amendments in the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 to regulate the Stem Cell-based drugs.  The proposed amendments would demarcate 'stem cell- based drugs' from the 'stem cell therapy' and ensure that the physicians using the latest medical technique in treatment is not legally inconvenienced.  Reddy was speaking at the 4th international conference SCSICON 2018 organised by the Stem Cell Society of India.  The proposed amendments to the Drugs and Cosmetics Ru

LiveMint May 01, 2018 If you want to open a new savings bank account, you need to produce your Aadhaar as well as PAN (permanent account number) or Form 60, according to the updated know-your-customer (KYC) guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 20 April. The new norms are, however, subject to the final Supreme Court judgment on Aadhaar, the RBI said in its circular. “The government had under Prevention of Money Laundering (PML) rules mandated linking of existing bank accounts with Aadhaar, but Supreme Court had extended the deadline. The RBI has now clearly set out that a new bank account can’t be opened without Aadhaar,” said Shilpa Mankar Ahluwalia, partner, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co., a legal firm. Individuals eligible for enrolling in Aadhaar have to submit the number, or proof of application for Aadhaar enrolment, which should not be older than six months.  Other officially valid documents such as passport, driving licence and voter

The Economic Times April 29, 2018 Greenpeace India has termed the recent move by the environment ministry declaring all protected areas in the country 'plastic-free zones' as a "symbolic initiative" and said production of plastics should be controlled to achieve real reduction in such wastes.  Ahead of World Environment Day on June 5, the environment ministry had recently banned plastics in all protected areas across the country, thus declaring them "plastic free zones".  It has directed states and Union territories to organise awareness campaigns to sensitise people about the issue.  Greenpeace India said although banning plastic in protected areas is a "good move", the solution is to "turn off the plastic tap" and decisively end non-essential, single-use applications of the material.  "It's a symbolic initiative, as 'protected areas' cover only 5 per cent of land area. Plastic consumption needs t

The Economic Times April 30, 2018 As many as 356 infrastructure projects, each worth Rs 150 crore or above, have shown cost overrun of Rs 2.19 lakh crore owing to delays and other reasons, a report said.  Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation monitors infrastructure NSE 0.74 % projects worth Rs 150 crore and above.  "Total original cost of implementation of 1,304 projects was Rs 16.21 lakh crore and their anticipated completion cost is Rs 18.41 lakh crore, which reflects overall cost overrun of Rs 2.19 lakh crore (13.56 per cent of original cost)," the ministry's latest report for January 2018 said.  Of these 1,304 projects, 356 reported cost overrun and 258 times escalation.  According to the report, the expenditure incurred on these projects till January 2018 is Rs 6.61 lakh crore, which is 35.92 per cent of the anticipated cost of the projects.  Of the 1,304 projects, 6 have reported completion and 9 new projects have been init

The Times of India May 01, 2018 After the massive Facebook data scandal, a report in the Sunday Telegraph claimed that micro-blogging platform Twitter had also sold users' data to a Cambridge Analytica (CA) researcher who collected the data of 87 million Facebook users without their knowledge — a charge that Twitter denied on Monday. According to the report, Twitter sold public data access "for one day" in 2015 to Aleksandr Kogan, then a psychology researcher with University of Cambridge, and his company Global Science Research (GSR). Kogan created tools for CA that allowed the political consultancy to psychologically profile and target voters. Kogan bought tweets, usernames, photos, profile pictures and location data from Twitter over a five-month period between December 2014 and April 2015 through GSR, the report said. Kogan said the Twitter data had only been used to create "brand reports" and "survey extender tools" and that he had

The Economic Times April 29, 2018 India and China, along with six other countries, have criticised the European Union’s decision to initiate a safeguard investigation on imports of certain steel products, saying it adds to the problem of growing protectionism worldwide.  Safeguard measures — a procedure compliant with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules — are put in place to protect a specific industry from an unexpected build-up of imports.  The EU, while initiating the move on March 26, however, failed to cite a “sharp and significant increase in the targeted products” and resultant “injury to domestic producers” to justify the launch of an investigation, these countries argued at a meeting in WTO last week. Korea, Turkey, Argentina, Egypt, Vietnam and Chile are the other countries that disapproved the EU’s move.  “The EU has initiated an investigation to impose a safeguard duty on some of our products because they feel excessive imports from India are threat

The Times of India April 29, 2018  Pakistan's interior ministry has abruptly removed the chief prosecutor from the Mumbai terror attack case for "not taking the government line", an official said on Sunday, in a major setback to India's efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice. Ten Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists had sailed into Mumbai from Karachi and carried out coordinated attacks, killing 166 people and injuring over 300 in November 2008. "The Interior Ministry has removed Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Special Prosecutor Chaudhry Azhar, who had been representing as chief of prosecution in the Mumbai attack case since 2009, from the high-profile case," an official of the FIA privy to the development told PTI. Azhar has been told that his services in the Mumbai attack case are no more required, he said. "Azhar has only been separated from the Mumbai attack case. However, he will continue to representing the state in o

Business Standard April 30, 2018 Many cotton farmers are reportedly looking to shift to soybean during the coming kharif sowing season, as the oilseed fetched a better return last year. During most of the 2017-18 cotton season (July 1 to June 30), prices have, barring a couple of short-term ripples, remained lower than the minimum support price (MSP) fixed by the government. It was only towards the end of the supply season, that prices moved above the MSP of Rs 4,020 a quintal for medium staple and Rs 4,320 a qtl for long staple in the Gujarat spot market, thanks to aggressive procurement by government-owned Cotton Corporation of India (CCI). In contrast, soybean is trading at a 25 per cent premium to the MSP, after initially slipping below the government’s threshold procurement price of Rs 2,850 a qtl. The government recently raised the import duty on edible oils to enable a price increase in oilseeds and edible oils. “We expect at least 15 per cent of cotton farme

The Print  April 30, 2018  The Modi government has tasked NITI Aayog to play peacemaker in the GM controversy amid opposing viewpoints on the use of this technology to boost farm productivity, The Print has learnt. The idea is to bring supporters and opponents into the same room and sort their differences out, sources said. This includes groups such as the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, an RSS affiliate, which has been leading the opposition to GM technology. The invitees also include farm experts such as Kapil Bhai Saha who is opposed to GM and scientists such as Dr K.C. Bansal and Dr Deepak Pental who support GM. A first meeting scheduled for 26 April was cancelled at the last moment as NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar was not available. A new date is yet to be set. “GM technology is the need of the hour. One can’t wish it away,” one of the invitees to the meeting told ThePrint, speaking on condition of anonymity. “But unfortunately there are so many misgiving

The Hindu April 29,2018 Rabies is caused by a dangerous virus. A bite or even a scratch from an infected animal — 99% of the time, it is a dog — and the victim will, after an incubation period of anywhere between a week and a year, develop the disease’s tell-tale symptoms: fever, headache, nausea and death. Despite rabies being 100% preventable on the one hand and South East Asia’s substantial progress in driving down the disease’s burden in recent years on the other, it still remains an issue. More than 26,000 people in the region die of rabies every year. Eight of the 11 countries in the region account for around 45% of the world’s rabies burden, with over 1.5 billion people at risk of exposure. More than 6 million patients receive at least one dose of the rabies vaccine every year. Targeted and diverse initiatives have achieved strong results. For example, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Thailand have sharply cut rabies-related infection and mortality using mass canine vaccination

The Tribune May 01, 2018 When Facebook admitted its users’ data was breached, Mark Zuckerberg appeared before the US congress. On the other hand, when users of ride-hailing app Careem fell victim to a “cyber incident” – the company found a softer way of saying data breach – its CEO shied away from answering the phone. Close to three out of every four users that have Careem installed on their phones were affected. It is a big deal. It becomes a bigger deal when stolen data could possibly include customers’ names, email addresses, phone numbers, trip data as well as credit card information and passwords. Imagine the treasure trove the hacker must have landed, and the amount firms would be willing to pay for the data that has the potential to track a user’s movement, time table, office-and-home schedules as well as bank details. If this wasn’t enough, it has been over three months since the data breach – not “cyber incident” – occurred. Careem, in a publi

The Indian Express May 01, 2018 Following A fresh directive from the Finance Ministry, public sector banks have started conducting forensic audits on all loan accounts above Rs 50 crore for any possible fraud, industry sources told The Indian Express. After completion of the audits, the banks will prepare details of accounts that could potentially turn into non performing assets (NPAs), which will then be shared with the Government and investigative agencies for further action. Accounts where any fraud is detected will be referred to the CBI after consultations with the chief vigilance officers of banks, sources said. “We are undertaking this challenging task of auditing all accounts above Rs 50 crore. These are forensic audits being done in line with the Government’s initiative to detect frauds. For any account that is turning into NPA, we are seeking a borrower status report from the Central Economic Intelligence Bureau. This will help us identify whether the NPA