28 NOVEMBER 2014: Keshari Nath- New governor of Bihar

Ø  Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif shook hands at the closing ceremony of the 18th SAARC summit. Pakistan also withdrew its objection, paving the way for the signing of an energy cooperation pact. Officials made it clear there had been no dialogue, nor even any substantial conversation between the two leaders at the retreat meeting in Dhulikhel on Thursday, or at anytime during the summit. Even so, when Mr. Modi and Mr. Sharif moved towards each other for a handshake, at the instance of Nepal’s Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, the audience of mainly SAARC country officials, greeted it with applause.

Ø  To ease visa processing and help increase tourist inflow, the Union government rolled out the much-awaited electronic visa system for visitors from 43 countries, including the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Germany, Japan and Russia. A tourist from these countries can now apply for an e-visa through the designated website and pay the fee online to get an electronic travel authorisation within 72 hours. The facility will be available initially at nine airports — Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad and Goa. It will be extended to citizens of more countries soon. An e-visa will be valid for 30 days and a tourist can take it twice a year.

Ø  West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi was sworn in as the Governor of Bihar. 

Ø  Tapan Raychaudhuri, a distinguished historian of modern India’s economic and intellectual history, passed away at his home in Oxford. He was 90 and had suffered a stroke a year ago from which he never fully recovered. Professor Raychaudhuri was Reader in Modern South Asian History at St. Antony’s College, Oxford, from 1973 to 1992, when he was given an Ad Hominem Chair as Professor of Indian History and Civilisation. He retired from Oxford in 1993, but continued to lecture, travel and write till a year before his death.

Ø  Having lost a contract in Mexico that was supposedly in the bag, China is keeping its fingers crossed for a bullet-train deal along the 1,754-km Delhi-Chennai high-speed rail corridor. A commentary said a partnership between India and China in the high-speed rail domain “has not yet been well-received by the Indian public.” “Japan, which is also eyeing the market and has pledged to offer a more attractive funding scheme, is a serious rival in the sector,” it said. The daily hoped that if China won its first rail project after President Xi Jinping’s September visit to India, it could become a game-changer, yielding “untold dividends for both sides.” 

Ø  The European Parliament voted overwhelmingly for the break-up of Google in a largely symbolic vote that nevertheless cast another blow in the four-year standoff between Brussels and the U.S. Internet giant. In a direct challenge to Google, MEPs assembled in Strasbourg approved a resolution calling on the EU to consider ordering search engines to separate their commercial services from their businesses. While Google is not directly mentioned in the proposal, the California-based search engine is clearly the target. The resolution passed with 384 in favour and only 174 votes against.