Overseas investors have pulled out more than Rs 7,600 crore ($1.35 billion) from the Indian debt market in the first week of this month owing to weakness in the rupee.

During June 3-7, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were gross buyers of debt securities worth Rs 2,487 crore, while they sold bonds amounting to Rs 10,162 crore translating into a net outflow of Rs 7,675 crore ($1.35 billion), as per data available with market regulator SEBI.

Market experts attributed the huge outflow from the debt market to depreciating Indian currency against the US dollar.

The rupee, on Friday, closed below the key 57-mark against US dollar for the first time in a year sliding by 22 paise to 57.06. The rupee lost nearly 1 per cent during the week.

FIIs have been aggressive buyers of bonds since the beginning of 2013 on account of higher yields offered by the government and corporate debt with a net investment of Rs 16,372 crore ($3.2 billion) so far this year.

Besides, steps taken by the government to ease FII investment rules by doing away with sub-limits and reducing the withholding tax on debt investments have also helped the segment.

Tribal Affairs Minister V Kishore Chandra Deo says the Naxal problem shouldn't be seen as a "mere law-and-order problem" and why when he says tribals need roads and electricity, he is not "diluting" the Forest Rights Act. 

In an interview with Indian Express Senior Editor D K Singh, Deo says: "I have no say when Environment Ministry gives clearances for mining rights. When the clearance is given by the Environment Ministry, they don't require any kind of certification by my ministry or my officials."

Pakistan may face suspension from the International Olympic Council like neighbours India due to a conflict between the national Olympic Association and a newly formed interim-committee, backed by the government. 

The Pakistan Sports Board has appointed an interim committee to run the POA affairs but Lt General (retd) Arif Hasan, who has been heading the POA as President for seven years, claims that the committee is illegal and not recognised by the IOC.

The PSB, a government body, has said that it had appointed the interim committee after the Supreme Court approved the new sports policy for all sports bodies and under it no official could be elected for a third term. 

Ironically the ruling came after Arif Hasan was elected as POA President for a third term last December and it has challenged the decision. 

On Saturday Hasan-led POA held a meeting in Lahore and 24 hours later the interim committee headed by Asif Bajwa announced it was banning all those federations and bodies that attended the 'illegal' POA meeting for five years. 

In his first address to party workers after being anointed BJP's poll campaign chairman, Narendra Modi says he is grateful to Rajnath Singh for trusting him to lead BJP's poll campaign for 2014 Lok Sabha elections. 

"People of the country have lost trust in the government. Raj Bhavan has been turned into 'Congress Bhavan'. Central government is not serious. They have taken the people for granted." 

It is BJP's responsibility to save the country from an "insensitive" government, he says.

"Our agenda is to build the nation; getting the chair is not on BJP's agenda." 

Modi ends his acceptance speech by shouting slogans of "Congress bhagao". 

Often pitted to counter Narendra Modi, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Sunday said the decision to hand over the reins of the BJP poll campaign to the Gujarat Chief Minister would benefit not only the party but the entire country. 

"I am confident that not only the party but the entire country would benefit by the decision taken by the BJP President under the guidance of L K Advani and in consultation with senior party leaders," Chouhan told reporters in Panaji. 

Only last week Advani, who is strongly opposed to the elevation of Modi in the party hierarchy, had heaped praise on Chouhan and compared him with former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

"I congratulate him (Modi). We all will work tirelessly to ensure that BJP forms the government at the Centre in 2014," Chouhan said reacting to Modi's appointment as Chairman of BJP's Campaign Committee for 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

He said Advani's blessings would always be with Modi and other leaders of the party. 

"Vajpayeeji and Advaniji are personalities who have taken the BJP to great heights. We have grown up under the guidance and affection and their blessings are always with us," Chouhan said. 

The Delhi Police has written to the Enforcement Directorate for a probe into alleged hawala transactions in the IPL spot-fixing case, including by underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. 

A senior police official said that details have been provided to ED about 27 people arrested in connection with the scandal as well as that about Dawood and Chota Shakeel. 

"We have written to ED. There has been hawala transactions not alone in India but abroad also like in Karachi and Dubai in connection with the case. They (ED) have the expertise in investigating this angle," he said, referring to the letter.

He said establishing the money trail in the case is "very important".

The official also said they were questioning Ramesh Vyas, arrested by the Mumbai Police recently in a betting case. The Delhi Police have been allowed by a court here to question him till June 18.

North and South Korea held their first official talks for more than two years today, seeking to set up a high-level meeting in Seoul after months of tensions and threats of nuclear war. 

The working-level discussions -- weighed down, as always, by decades of mutual distrust -- were held in the border truce village of Panmunjom where the armistice ending the 1950-53 Koran War was signed. 

"The overall atmosphere was... calm and the discussion proceeded with no major debate," the South's Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-Seok said after the morning session between the two, three-person delegations. 

In the afternoon, the two heads of delegation held further rounds of discussions. The talks were aimed at agreeing a framework for what would be the rivals' first ministerial-level meeting since 2007 -- tentatively scheduled to be held in Seoul on Wednesday.

The game of cricket is too good to be spoilt and it is actually time to weed out some "bad" players from the sport, says Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar whose team is aiming to file the charge sheet in the IPL spot-fixing scandal before he hangs his boots end of next month.

59-year-old Kumar, who has been engaged in several high profile cases in his career spanning over three decades, feels that the spot-fixing scandal was a murder of faith of millions of cricket lovers.

"After this case surfaced I actually started getting into the history of this game and came across what Australian captain Bill Woodfull told English Team Manager Pelham Warner in 1932 when bodyline attack was the order of the day between the two arch rivals. 

"This game is too good to be spoilt. It's time some people got out of it," Kumar quoted Woodfull and added, "similarly, I echo the same view that the game is too good to be spoilt and it is actually time to weed out some bad players from the game."

"Senior leaders have reposed faith in me. We will leave no stone unturned for Congress Mukt Bharat Nirman. Thanks for support & blessings."

Former South African President Nelson Mandela has spent a second day in hospital in a "serious but stable" condition with a renewed lung infection that has triggered worldwide concern for the anti-apartheid icon.

Doctors say there has been little change in the condition of the 94-year-old leader, and he continues to be in a serious but stable state.

Mandela was on Saturday rushed to a Pretoria hospital, after his health took a turn for the worse at his Johannesburg home, where he was recovering from a lung infection after being released from hospital on April 6. 

This is Mandela's third hospital visit in seven months. 

Indian airlines can now operate flights to Myanmar as the country has granted traffic rights to India-based carriers paving the way for air connectivity between the nations. 

"Yes, we (Indian airlines) got the fifth freedom rights which is a major concession," Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said in Yangon. 

The fifth freedom rights allow an airline carry revenue traffic between countries as a part of services connecting the airline's own country. 

At present, there is no direct air connectivity between India and Myanmar. 

Indian private carrier SpiceJet has expressed interest to fly from Delhi to Dhaka, continuing on to Yangon. 

"SpiceJet has appiled to fly on this route under the fifth freedom rights," an official said adding the regulatory approval is awaited for the same. 

Legendary singer Manna Dey is in a critical but stable condition after being admitted to a hospital in Bengaluru due to chest infection. 

The 94-year-old singer was taken to the hospital on Saturday after his health deteriorated. 

"No change at all (in his condition). He is stable," a senior doctor at Narayana Hrudayalaya, told PTI. 

Born in Kolkata, the Dadasaheb Phalke awardee currently resides in Bangalore after spending more than fifty years in

Mumbai.

Having recorded more than 3,500 songs in a number of languages including Hindi and Bengali, he regaled generations of listeners with his romantic ballads, intricate raga-based songs, Qawwalis and fast-paced modern numbers, lending his voice to a number of Hindi and Bengali film stars. 

His popular tracks include 'Poocho Na Kaise Maine' (Meri Surat Teri Aankhen), 'Ae Meri Zohra Jabeen' (Waqt), 'Zindagi Kaisi Hai Paheli' (Anand), 'Yeh Dosti' (Sholay) and 'Ek Chatur Naar' (Padosan).

Dey was being treated at his home for the past couple of weeks. 

Private carrier Jet Airways has hiked the salaries of its pilots, acceding to their long pending demand, even as its 24 per cent stake sale deal with Etihad Airways awaits regulatory approvals. 

"The airline has hiked its pilots' wages by up to 18 per cent in staggered manner with retrospective effect from 2010-11," sources close to the development said in Mumbai. 

The maximum hike stands at 6 per cent per year based on the pay scales of the pilots.

Jet Airways has about 13,000 employees on its roll, of which about 1,100 are pilots. 

Earlier in January, the carrier had announced a wage hike of up to Rs 18,000 for its around 7,500 ground staff. 

Jet had signed a wage revision with employees for three years -- FY11-13 in 2010. However, it failed to honour the agreement citing recession. 

The airline, which reported higher quarterly losses at Rs 495.53 crore in the January-March quarter of last fiscal, has signed a 24 per cent stake sale deal with Gulf carrier Etihad for Rs 2,058 crore.

Two workers of a coal transport company were killed and 16 others, including six police personnel, injured in a clash at Belpahar in Odisha's Jharsuguda district, police said today. 

The incident took place after drivers and helpers, who were agitating for pay hike, allegedly attacked the transport firm office and tried to set it on fire, Deputy Superintendent of Police Anthony Tirkey said.

The protesters, who had gathered at the company office premises, suddenly turned violent as negotiation for their pay hike reportedly failed and also pelted stones at policemen deployed at the site as a precautionary measure, he said. 

As the workers turned violent, the police opened fire, Tirkey said, adding one person was killed at the site while another succumbed to injury at Hospital. 

At least 16 persons, including six police personnel, were injured during the clash and several of them were undergoing treatment at VSS Medical College and Hospital at Burla, he said. 

Three security personnel were killed and six more injured in three bomb attacks in Pakistan's restive northwest and the adjoining tribal belt today, officials said.

In the first attack, a security forces convoy going from Razmak in North Waziristan tribal region to Bannu in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province was targeted with a roadside bomb. 

Militants also fired rockets at the convoy, security officials were quoted as saying by TV news channels. 

Three soldiers were killed and as many injured in the attack, the officials said.

Narendra Modi while speaking at BJP's National Executive meeting says we need an India free from Congress rule. 

"People of country are angry of Congress rule," says Modi.

"Statue of Sardar Patel should be bigger than Statue of Liberty," he says

Increased efforts to check revenue leakage by the Finance Ministry have resulted in detection of over Rs 4,500 crore in service tax, excise and customs duty evasion during last year.

Out of the total Rs 4,744.92 crore of indirect tax evasion detected during April and December last year, officials made a recovery of Rs 531 crore, according to official data. 

As many as 592 cases involving service tax evasion of Rs 3,055 crore were detected during 2012-13 up to December. Sustained investigation via issuance of show cause notices among others had resulted in recovery of Rs 435 crore, it said.

The Finance Ministry officials had registered 321 cases of central excise duty evasion involving an amount of Rs 571 crore during the same period of last fiscal, it said. 

The officials also made recovery of Rs 96 crore being evaded as excise duty after due investigation into the matter, the data said.

Slamming the Centre for being "insensitive" on the issue of training Sri Lankan defence personnel, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today asked it not to train them until Colombo takes satisfactory and credible action to end human rights violations against Tamils. 

"Despite the overwhelming groundswell of public opinion in Tamil Nadu against continuing atrocities upon the civilian Tamil population in Sri Lanka by Sri Lankan Government, the Government of India has, in an act of astounding insensitivity, again invited two defence personnel to join a training programme at the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, The Nilgiris, in Tamil Nadu," Jayalalithaa said. 

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, she said two Lankan officers--Wing Commander MS Bandara Dassanayke and Major CS Harishchandra Hettiarachchige--were undergoing training at Wellington, which, she said, was a matter of "grave import that greatly offends the sensitivities and sentiments of people of Tamil Nadu."

BJP's Shahnawaz Khan addressing media persons, "UPA's 4 years are the darkest hours of the country. Congress should have apologised for the corruption instead of celebrating."

"The government has 2 power centres -- One run by the Manmohan Singh government and the other at 10, Janpath. The country is bearing the brunt of the inefficient and corrupt government."

"Congress is scared of the BJP. Congress sees Modi as a serious threat. That's why Congressmen are scared of him, afterall he has made them bite the dust in many state elections."

On Modi's role: "We cannot ignore the party workers' expectations. We will soon make an announcement before meet end. The announcement will be made in a few minutes"

The announcement, which saw the party's top leadership including patriarch LK Advani go into a sulk and stay away from the party conclave, is expected to be made at the party press conference at noon. 

Despite the opposition from a section of the leadership, the decision has the strong support from its rank and file.

Under the project being undertaken by DRDO, robots would be developed with very high level of intelligence to enable them to differentiate between a threat and a friend. These can then be deployed in difficult warfare zones, like the Line of Control, a step that would help avert the loss of human lives. 

"We are going to work for robotic soldiers. We are going to look for very high level of intelligence in it than what we are talking today... It is a new programme and a number of labs are already working in a big way on robotics," DRDO chief Avinash Chander has said.

This information has been made public by the Prime Minister's Office as part of obligations under the mandatory proactive disclosure clause of the Right to Information Act. 

The information reveals that Singh undertook 67 travels since 2004 when he took over as PM, of which bills of five have not been received. The bills received from the other 62 visits show that Rs 642.45 crore was spent on air travel. 

The Central Information Commission, in a recent order, had directed the Cabinet Secretariat to make public expenses incurred on the travel of ministers and VVIPs because of "large public interest" in the matter.