Timeline Refresh
This came after reports that samples of Maggi tested in Uttar Pradesh in a lab showed that it contains more than the permissible amount of monosodium glutamate (MSG) and lead, both hazardous to human health. It was found that Maggi contains 17 parts per million lead, while the permissible limit is only 0.01 ppm.
The UP Food Safety and Drug Administration is testing more batches of Maggi after ordering recall of a batch of about 2 lakh packs of the instant noodles.
The West Bengal Food Department has convened a high-level meeting tomorrow to take a view on the ongoing controversy surrounding Maggi noodles, the government said.
"Monsoon is likely to hit the Kerala coast on June 5," Union Minister of Earth Sciences Harsh Vardhan today said.
"Conditions are becoming favourable for the onset of southwest monsoon over Kerala around June 5," said an IMD statement. Last year too, monsoon was delayed and hit the Kerala coast on June 6.
"Tomorrow we have convened a high-level meeting of senior official of the food department with all the reports. After going through everything and discussing elaborately, we will take a call on the matter," state's Food Supplies minister Jyotirmoy Mullick said.
Asked if the state government was planning to send Maggi samples for laboratory testing, Mullick said, "The tests are not possible as Maggi doesn't have any manufacturing unit in Kolkata.
"All Maggi products come from other states, so we are seeing what can be done about the food that is already available in the market. We have to see how much can be done about the products found in private market".
The Union Consumer Affairs Ministry yesterday said the central food safety regulator (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) is testing samples from all states and that strict action will be taken for any violation. All test reports are expected to come within two to three
days.
The direction came after Sayeed held a meeting with senior civil and police officers to discuss the situation arising out of a series of attacks by militants targeting telecom facilities across Kashmir over the last few days.
The Chief Minister directed Director General of Police K Rajendra Kumar to take all possible steps to thwart any attempt to disrupt cellular networks in Valley and provide security to mobile tower installations and owners, an official spokesman said today.
He said the Chief Minister had called a high-level meeting of senior civil and police officers to review the security and law and order situation in the state in the wake of the spate of attacks on mobile service providers. In the meeting, the situation following the attacks in the Valley, in particular north and central Kashmir, was discussed, the spokesman said.
At least four people including a woman were killed today when a helicopter carrying relief materials crashed in one of the worst quake-hit mountainous regions in Nepal.
Nepal police said the chopper of Kathmandu-based Mountain Helicopters came down in a forested area north of the capital.
It was returning to Kathmandu when it crashed at Yamuna Balefi Village in Sindhupalchowk district.
Bodies of three men and a woman were recovered by Nepalese troops from the crash site. Rescuers were trying to take the bodies to Kathmandu, a senior official said. The chopper had caught fire. Another helicopter has been dispatched to the crash site.
This comes after Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan on Tuesday cut the key interest rate by 0.25 per cent, third time this year, meeting market and government expectations of boosting growth by lowering borrowing cost.
While the RBI cut the repo rate from 7.5 per cent to 7.25, it left all other policy tools like cash reserve requirement unchanged at 4 per cent and statutory liquidity ratio at 21.5 per cent.
Rajan also asked banks to pass on the rate cut to customers.
This mirrors his statement made on April 7, when he was severely critical of banks not passing interest rate cut to borrowers.He had said it was "nonsense' to assume that cost of funds has not fallen and nudged them to reduce rates.He further said that sooner the banks cut rate the better it would be for the economy. He was referring to the reluctance of banks to pass on the benefit of 0.50 per cent rate cut announced by the central bank since January.
By evening, State Bank of India reduced its base rate by 15 bps, followed by private sector lender HDFC Bank. Other banks towed the line in few days. The new base rate now stands at 9.85 per cent and is effective from April 10.
Food and Civil Supplies minister Anoop Jacob has directed civil supplies corporation to stop the sale Maggi noodles with immediate effect.
The corporation has intimated that the ban will continue till a clarity on the quality of the product is determined. The unsold stock will be returned to the company.
Nestl India Ltd. which owns the Maggi brand, has attempted to quell growing consumer fears over the safety of its Maggie 2-Minute Noodles, and said that it had tested samples from more than 1,000 batches of the popular snack and found them to contain acceptable levels of lead.
We could safely assume that neither Mr Clinton nor Ms Lewinsky,
a. has signed up for the ad.
b. it could earn the company a painful rap on the knuckles from either or both, if not more.
The ad which was features in a Hong Kong advertisement was shared by Gerry Doyle of the International New York Times on Monday and was reported by Vox.com.
The picture used in the ad is a graphic rendering of a photograph taken in 1995 showing Lewinsky, then a White House intern, meeting President Clinton. It was in fact submitted as evidence during the Ken Starr investigation.
So, what does the tag line of the ad read: "Once marked, forever remembered."
Kinda catchy.
According to K H Govindraj, Secretary - Relief and Rehabilitation department, the state government has floated tenders for cloud seeding, that will be kept ready if the monsoon fails or is below the required levels.
"According to the IMD prediction, rainfall will be more or less normal. But, if the monsoon fails, we need to have a contingency plan ready to make water available. Thus, we are not only looking at domestic but also international agencies that can help us with cloud seeding," Govindraj said.
He said that the El Nino, the warming of the central to eastern tropical Pacific that occurs every two to seven years on an average may result in long dry spells, that may eventually increase the drought problems already plaguing several regions in the state.
The step to relocate Nasreen has been taken in the wake of the murder of three secular bloggers, Avijit Roy, Washiqur Rahman, and Ananta Bijoy Das in Bangladesh.
The Center for Inquiry (CIF) was prompted to act after Nasreen was recently named as one of the next targets for murder by the extremists who killed the three bloggers.
However, the group said that her safety was only temporary if she cannot remain in the US, adding that they had set up an emergency fund to help her with food, housing and means for her to be safely settled.
An appeal will be sent out on Tuesday to CFI supporters, asking them to donate to this cause, the organisation said.
"Taslima is a truly international role model, as her work and her courage inspire people of all ages to question tradition, challenge dogma, and fight for human rights," said Ronald A Lindsay, president and CEO of the Center for Inquiry. "We could not stand by while her life was in danger, nor will we turn our backs on the other brave freethinkers in fear for their lives. I know our community will make a strong show of solidarity and give generously to this emergency fund," he added.
The CFI has established an emergency fund to assist freethought activists whose lives are under threat by Islamic radicals linked to Al Qaeda in countries such as Bangladesh, where three secular bloggers have been murdered since February.
No, it's not Dr Ambedkar's birth anniversary today. In fact, the Congress did kick off celebrations of Dr Ambedkar's 124th birth anniversary on April 14, but Rahul Gandhi was then on a sabbatical.
Now that he is back and in a new and energised version, the Congress is in a sense relaunching the party's year-long celebrations of Dr Ambedkar.
On this, day 100 years ago, Dr Ambedkar graduated from Columbia University in the US, no mean feat for a Dalit at the time.
Rahul began his visit at Mhow by paying tribute at the Ambedkar memorial, which will be followed up by a public meeting. After paying tributes at the statue of Ambedkar memorial in Kali Paltan area, Rahul meditated for nearly five minutes.
He also had a close look at the Dalit icon's photos displayed at the memorial. Rahul's visit is seen as part of his extensive countrywide drive to reach out to different sections of society, especially the less privileged.
This is one place he should probably not bring up the suit-boot bit.
Official Spokesperson in the External Affairs Ministry Vikas Swarup also expressed concern at the "continued efforts" by Pakistan to deny the people of the region their political rights and to absorb these territories.
"India's position is well known. The entire state of Jammu and Kashmir which includes the regions of Gilgit and Baltistan is an integral part of India. The election in Gilgit and Baltistan on June 8 under the so called 'Gilgit Baltistan Empowerment and Self Government Order' is an attempt by Pakistan to camouflage its forcible and illegal occupation of the regions.
"We are concerned at the continued efforts by Pakistan to deny the people of the region their political rights, and the efforts being made to absorb these territories. The fact that a Federal Minister of Pakistan is also the 'Governor of Gilgit Baltistan' speaks for itself," the Spokesperson said.
He noted that "unfortunately, in recent times the people of the region have also become victims of sectarian conflict, terrorism and extreme economic hardship due to Pakistan's occupationary policies."
Read: The region India can no longer ignore
Union Science and Technology Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan informed that the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has revised its rainfall forecast from 93 to 88 percent, i.e. from "below normal" to "deficient".
This means India will be experiencing two consecutive years of "deficient' rains as 2014 too had turned out be a drought year.
Drought is when India experiences monsoon rains below 90 percent of the long-period average (LPA). LPA is the average annual rainfall (89 cm) recorded between 1951 and 2000.
Harsh Vardhan said the north-west region which includes Delhi NCR, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan will be affected as per the forecast.
The Southwest Monsoon has already missed its date with Kerala and is now expected to hit the southern state three days late on June 4. The IMD, in its preliminary forecast, had said that the Southwest Monsoon rains will hit the Kerala coast on May 30.
In its initial annual forecast of rainfall, the IMD had in April predicted the chances of a normal Monsoon at just 28%. The revision of forecast deals a blow to the farm sector which has seen poor back-to-back kharif and rabi seasons.
RBI governor Raghuram Rajan today said the risks to inflation identified
in April could cloud the picture with below par monsoons forecast for the second successive year.
"Our initial target is that all schools, particularly where the girl child goes, by June, that is this month, we should have a 100 per cent rate of toilets.
"It has been included as a part of the CSR (corporate social responsibility) programme. A lot of incentives in our fiscal policy have also been announced," Jaitley said at the Swachh Bharat programme adopted by Jubilant FoodWorks, the owner of the famous fast food chain Domino's Pizza. He termed Swachh Bharat as "a preventive health care programme".
Pic: President Mukherjee's second day in Sweden concluded with a grand banquet hosted by the King and Queen.
The telecom minister further added that spectrum sharing and trading policy will go to cabinet this month adding that payment bank licence to Postal Department is expected from RBI by July or August.
BSNL last month introduced an unlimited free calling scheme during night hours to revive its landline business.
Under the scheme, effective May 1, BSNL allowed calls free of cost to any operator, including mobile phones, anywhere in the country between 9 PM and 7 am and covers all types of connections.
According to the latest TRAI data, BSNL, which dominates the landline space, was the biggest loser of fixed-line customers in February whereas Airtel emerged as the top gainer.
The company had over 1.66 crore landlines at the end of February. Even after losing 1,62,556 landline customers in February, the company ruled the market, with a 62.26 percent share
That's the reason Jenner broke the world record for the fastest growing Twitter account.
After only two tweets, "Caitlyn Jenner" began trending on Twitter and her followers quickly rose past 1 million. The tweets revealed her new name and her Vanity Fair cover photo. She quickly broke the record in only four hours.
Read
The driver reportedly has a valid public service vehicle badge and commercial licence issued in Delhi.
The Gurgaon police on Monday evening received a complaint from the woman over an email, narrating the incident.
"In the complaint, the woman has alleged that she took an Uber cab from Pacific Mall in Delhi to Suncity in Gurgaon during which the incident took place', said Rajesh Kumar, ACP (crime).
The harassed woman further alleged that after she got off the cab around 10.40 pm, the accused driver forcibly kissed her hand, Kumar said. An FIR has been lodged at Sector 56 police station.
The accused driver has been identified as Vinod, aged between 40 and 45. He is a resident of Delhi and lives there with his wife and daughter.
According to police, the woman had gone to meet her friends in C-block of Suncity. Her friends are said to have witnessed the incident.
Police said when the car reached the destination, the driver too got off the cab and expressed his desire to shake hands with the woman passenger.
He wanted to shake hands with her and she offered her hand. He shook it and kissed it as well. However, when she tried to withdraw and pick up her bag, he tried to pull her towards him, an official said.
The rights organisation at a briefing in Kathmandu last night called on Nepalese authorities and the international community to put human rights at the core of the earthquake response.
An Amnesty International delegation that visited Nepal in the aftermath of the massive 7.9-magnitude April 25 earthquake found that groups who are often the target of discriminatory treatment in Nepal included women, dalits, indigenous people or people with disabilities. They are facing increased challenges when accessing urgently needed relief, it said.
"The devastating earthquake that hit Nepal has killed thousands and left hundreds of thousands in dire need of aid. Nepali and international actors -- including civil society -- have responded to this humanitarian crisis heroically, but there are some serious issues brewing that need to be addressed urgently," said Richard Bennett, Amnesty International's Asia Pacific Director.
"Survivors report that in some communities the aid effort has been politically manipulated. Those with 'muscle' -- political connections -- end up claiming desperately needed supplies meant for everyone," Amnesty said.
At least 400 people, mostly the elderly, are missing after a ship capsized on the Yangtze river in southern China after being caught in a cyclone, with strong winds and heavy rains hindering the rescue efforts.
"The Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) Delhi, being a police station, functions under the authority, control and supervision of the Lt. Governor, a position that has also been clarified by the Ministry of Home Affairs, vide Notification No 1368 (E), dated May 21," a release from the Raj Niwas stated.
"The office of the Lt. Governor has so far not received any proposal for the deputation of such personnel from outside Delhi police. The matter will be duly examined as and when the Lt. Governor receives the formal proposal from the Vigilance department of Delhi government," it added.
The Delhi government has 'hired' six police officers for the ACB, with reports stating that one Deputy Superintendent of Police and five inspectors and sub-inspectors will be joining the body soon.
The RBI governor Raghuram Rajan said he has decided to front-load the monetary policy easing. "We felt it was better to front-load the rate cut and then wait for data even as there are mixed indicators of economic recovery and growth was subdued in investment and trading," he said.
The 30-share index, which gained 53.54 points in the opening trade, fell by 347.03 points or 1.24 per cent to 27,501.96 at 1130 hrs. The barometer had gained 342.28 points in the previous two sessions.
The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty dipped below the crucial 8,400-mark by plunging 93.5 points, or 1.11 per cent, to trade at 8,339.90 points. No change in Cash Reserve Ration (CRR) in its policy by the RBI also accelerated selling, they said.
-- Global crude prices are a risk to inflation
-- FY16 GDP growth target cut to 7.6% from 7.8%
-- Volatility in external environment can affect inflation.
-- Today's policy is neither aggressive nor conservative. It is a "goldilocks" policy.
-- Banks have started passing through some of the past rate cuts, but should pass on the rate cut.
-- Mixed signs of recovery in the economy
-- Monsoon is the biggest uncertainty right now. A good monsoon will be important in keeping a lid on prices.
-- Impact of unseasonal rain moderate so far.
He had said it was "nonsense' to assume that cost of funds has not fallen and nudged them to reduce rates.He further said that sooner the banks cut rate the better it would be for the economy. He was referring to the reluctance of banks to pass on the benefit of 0.50 per cent rate cut announced by the central bank since January.
By evening, State Bank of India reduced its base rate by 15 bps, followed by private sector lender HDFC Bank. Other banks towed the line in few days. The new base rate now stands at 9.85 per cent and is effective from April 10.
The RBI said it has been decided to reduce policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility by 25 basis points. CRR of scheduled banks remains unchanged at 4.0 per cent of net demand and time liabilities.
Maggi noodle sales have been hit hard ever since it was revealed that a sample tested for quality by a government agency about two weeks back contained monosodium glutamate and lead beyond permissible levels. The brand from Swiss foods major Nestle, which is synonymous with noodles in India, has therefore also witnessed a severe dent in its popularity and image.
Modern retailers say the impact could be in the range of 15-20% in large metros, but what makes matters worse for Nestle is that the general trade appears to be against stocking the brand given the decline in sales from regular consumers.
The officers were reacting to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's assertion that the government will not purchase more than 36 Rafale fighter jets and will fill the remaining gaps with indigenous Light Combat Aircraft.
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