31 OCTOBER 2014: Run 4 Unity @ Centre Split with Sena in MH

Ø  The Finance Ministry ordered a mandatory 10 per cent cut in the Centre’s non-Plan expenditure for 2014-15. The cut does not cover interest payment, repayment of debt, defence capital, salaries, pension or Finance Commission grants to States, says a circular. Subsidies will face the brunt of the cuts.

Ø  A day before taking oath as Maharashtra Chief Minister, Devendra Fadnavis met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari. Despite the suspense over the Shiv Sena sharing power, Mr. Fadnavis discussed government formation with the party leadership.

Ø  The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cautioned that the U.S. Fed’s taper will trigger some pullback of dollar-denoted capital from India to back home. As a result, New Delhi will have to find domestic sources for funding infrastructure for which the Modi government must align the policies that are holding up the project pipeline, especially in the energy sector.

Ø  President Pranab Mukherjee — as in the previous years and as his predecessors used to do — will start Friday morning by visiting Shakti Sthal, the memorial of Indira Gandhi here, to attend a function organised by the Congress on her 30th death anniversary. At 8.15 am, Mr. Mukherjee will flag off a “Run for Unity” for the residents of the President’s Estate from the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan to mark Sardar Patel’s birth anniversary, which falls on the same day. This is a departure from previous years, when both occasions were marked by quiet homage: leaders visited Shakti Sthal in the morning and then went to the Central Hall of Parliament to pay their tribute to Sardar Patel. This year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has no plans to go to Shakti Sthal.

30 October 2014: Malala for World Children Prize

• Champion for girls’ rights Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate in history, won the World’s Children’s Prize on , after a global vote involving millions of children. Nobody has ever received the Nobel Peace Prize and the World’s Children’s Prize, often dubbed the ‘Children’s Nobel Prize’ by the media, in the same year. The award was created in 2000 and is part a worldwide educational programme in which children learn about global issues, democracy and their own rights. The programme finishes with a global vote. This year’s honorary awards went to former Microsoft executive John Wood, founder of the Room to Read literacy group, and Indira Ranamagar from Nepal, for her work for the children of prisoners. Nelson Mandela, Graca Machel, Anne Frank and Kofi Annan have previously been honoured in the awards. Malala received the prize at a ceremony in Mariestad near Stockholm. This year’s laureates will share $100,000 to be used in their work for children’s rights. 

• An unmanned cargo rocket carrying supplies to the International Space Station exploded seconds after liftoff. The Antares rocket, carrying 5,055 pounds of supplies, science experiments and equipment, lifted off on schedule at 6.22 p.m. Eastern time from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia. No issues came up during the countdown. Orbital, a company based in Dulles, Virginia, first launched a 14-storey-tall Antares rocket on its maiden flight in April last year. It then conducted a demonstration flight to the space station to show NASA the capabilities of the rocket and the cargo spacecraft.

29 OCTOBER 2014: Cyclone Nilofar to affect Guj

Ø  Slamming the Centre for holding a protective umbrella over persons stashing black money in bank accounts abroad, the Supreme Court ordered the government to disclose all their names in a sealed cover by Wednesday. A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice H.L. Dattu and Justices Ranjana Desai and Madan B. Lokur rejected the argument of Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi for a modification of the order directing disclosure of all the names.

Ø  Cyclone Nilofar is set to make landfall at Naliya village in Kutch district, along the Gujarat coast, on Saturday, a day later than expected, says a revised weather forecast. The landfall was earlier forecast on Friday morning. The cyclone is now 1,110 kilometres from Naliya. Heavy rain will begin in Gujarat on Friday night and the sea is expected to be rough.

28 OCTOBER 2014: NCW 2 legalise CSW

Ø  The chairperson of the National Commission for Women (NCW), Lalitha Kumaramangalam, has advocated legalising sex work to regulate the trade and ensure better living conditions for women engaged in commercial sex work. Legalising the trade, she says, will also bring down trafficking in women and lower the incidence of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Ms. Kumaramangalam said she would put forth the proposal at the empowered committee meeting of the Cabinet on November 8.

NCW Chief

Ø  The government constituted a committee to examine the process of appointing top-level public sector bank executives for the year 2014-15. It consists of Secretary (Expenditure), Secretary (School Education) and Governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The committee will examine the selection process for the posts of CMDs/EDs. The government had decided to cancel the current selection process. As a result, eight posts of CMDs and fourteen posts of EDs would require to be filled up de novo.

Ø  The Gangotri glacier is rapidly disintegrating, according to recent observations of a team from the Almora-based G.B. Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development. The team, which has been monitoring the Himalayan glaciers, particularly the Gangotri, since 1999, visited the glacier between June and October.

Ø  Cyclone Nilofar, the second one to hit India after ‘Hudhud,’ has gained intensity and is expected to hit the Gujarat coast. 

27 OCTOBER 2014: PM of Vietnam comin India

Ø  The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) India Mission Chief has said that among emerging markets and BRICS countries, India stands out for accomplishing the sharpest turnaround in its macro economy since the U.S. Federal Reserve started reversing its zero-interest rates monetary policy. As a result, of all these economies, India is best prepared to deal with the Fed’s monetary policy actions. Earlier this month, the IMF raised its 2014 India growth forecast to 5.6 per cent as against its 5.4 per cent April projection while cutting its world Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth projection to 3.3 per cent. If the new government follows through with structural reforms India can see a growth of 7 per cent to 8 per cent, IMF India Mission Chief Paul A. Cashin told.

Vietnam PM Nguyen Tan Dung

Ø  Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung will arrive in India for a two-day visit, and the bilateral agenda will be seen as another strong assertion of India’s interests in the South China Sea. China will be closely watching the visit. India and Vietnam will sign three agreements, one an MoU on prospecting by OVL (ONGC Videsh Ltd.) in two more fields in the South China Sea. Discussions will be held on supplying naval vessels to Vietnam. Both issues had seen statements of concern from Beijing in the past. However, officials confirmed that the current blocks under discussion to be signed during this visit, part of a batch of five offered by Vietnam in November, are in Vietnamese territorial waters, and not disputed. The agreements, which will include oil exploration, economic and cultural cooperation, will be signed after meetings between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mr. Nguyen in Delhi. During President Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to Vietnam last month, India signed a defence agreement extending a $100-million line of credit to the country. The agreement, which came just ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to India, sparked off a Foreign Ministry statement in Beijing that China would not “support any agreement” that dealt with any “waters administered by China, or is not approved by China.” According to a source, Mr. Nguyen and his delegation will discuss placing orders for offshore patrol vehicles at Indian shipyards using the $100-million line of credit. India has been boosting Vietnamese naval capabilities in the contentious waters. India and Vietnam will announce new airlinks, with Jet Airways set to start direct flights connecting Delhi and Mumbai to Ho Chi Minh City on November 5, while Vietnam Airlines will commence operations between Hanoi and Delhi in 2015. Mr. Modi and Mr. Nguyen are likely to announce new target figures for trade and infrastructure investment. India has won bids for highway management and thermal power plants with the total investment in Vietnam totalling $1 billion.

Ø  Gujarat government is preparing to face Cyclone Nilofar, which has developed in the Arabian Sea and is likely to move towards the State’s coast, the Gujarat Meteorological Department said.

Ø  The Labour Ministry has proposed the Small Factories (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Services) Bill to govern wages and conditions of work in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The Bill envisages rules for wages, overtime hours, social security and appointment of factory inspectors in units employing fewer than 40 workers.

Ø  SpaceX’s unmanned Dragon spacecraft has splashed down in the Pacific Ocean carrying a heavy load of NASA cargo and scientific samples from the International Space Station that experts hope could yield significant results. Dragon also carried crew supplies, hardware and computer resources. The experiment results and other materials in the cargo could help develop more efficient solar cells and semiconductor-based electronics, as well as grow plants better suited for space and improve sustainable agriculture, according to NASA. 

26 October 2014: GSAT16 will be launched by French space agency!!!

• Overruling the National Conference government’s reservations, the Election Commission (EC) announced that Jammu and Kashmir, along with Jharkhand, will go to the polls in five phases — on November 25, and December 2, 9, 14 and 20. The counting of votes will take place on December 23 to enable the new governments in the two States to be sworn in before January 3 in Jharkhand and January 19 in Jammu and Kashmir. 
• The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) meeting, chaired by Defence Minister Mr. Arun Jaitley, cleared deals worth Rs. 78,000 crore and made allotments amounting to Rs. 47,000 crore for the three services. The lion’s share went to the Navy. For the Army, a long-pending deal for an anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) system has been cleared.Addressing the council, Mr. Jaitley said the nation’s security was of paramount concern for the government. He added that “necessary hurdles and bottlenecks in procurement process should be addressed expeditiously so that the pace of acquisition is not stymied.” In a major boost to the Navy, a sum of Rs. 19,000 crore has allotted for six conventional diesel-electric submarines under Project-75I.
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• GSAT-16, the next national communications satellite, reached French Guiana this week and is on its way to the space port near Kourou ahead of an early December flight, European launch service company Arianespace has said. The 3,150-kg satellite is scheduled to be flown on an Ariane-5 launcher numbered Flight VA221. Built at the ISRO Satellite Centre in Bangalore, GSAT-16 was sent on a chartered cargo plane to the French Guiana capital of Cayenne. Over the coming weeks, a team of ISRO engineers will routinely check, test and fully ready it for launch. The satellite carries C-band and Ku-band transponders which will support VSAT (very small aperture terminal) services, television services and emergency communications across the country. The GSAT-16 will be put in orbit along with DIRECTV-14, a satellite that will provide direct-to-home television broadcasts across the U.S. 
• Google executive Alan Eustace broke the sound barrier and set several skydiving records over the southern New Mexico desert early Friday after taking a big leap from the edge of space. Eustace’s supersonic jump was part of a project by Paragon Space Development Corp. and its Stratospheric Explorer team. The technology that has gone into developing the balloon, the spacesuit and the other systems that were used in Friday’s launch will be used to advance commercial space flight, namely efforts by Arizona-based World View Enterprises to take paying tourists up in a high-altitude balloon and luxury capsule starting in late 2016. 

22 OCTOBER 2014: Khattar 2 B New CM of Haryana

Ø  First-time legislator Manohar Lal Khattar, 61, is set to become the 21st Chief Minister of Haryana. Mr. Khattar, a Punjabi, pipped other aspirants to the post owing to his RSS background and proximity to top BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah. He was unanimously elected leader of the BJP’s 47-member legislature group on Tuesday, following which he and senior BJP leaders met Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki and apprised him of the decision. The swearing-in will be held at the Tau Devi Lal stadium in Panchkula on October 26. Mr. Khattar from Rohtak won the Karnal seat by a margin of 63,773 votes.

Ø  Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has rolled out reforms aimed at the efficient management of government expenditure through speedy project approvals, decentralisation of more financial powers to Ministries and reduced transaction costs. The Finance Ministry estimates that the resultant savings on time and cost overruns could lift the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth by 0.5-1 percentage point. The administrative Ministries are beginning to take advantage of the new rules that have been in place for about a month now. These Ministries have got a four-fold increase in the powers for approving expenditure without seeking the Finance Ministry’s nod. The Secretary of an administrative Ministry can now approve schemes and projects that cost up to Rs. 100 crore, up from the present Rs. 25 crore. The Union Cabinet’s approval will be needed only for those that cost more than Rs. 1,000 crore, not Rs. 300 crore.

Ø  India received the most number of votes in the Asia-Pacific group of the U.N. Human Rights Council, winning a second consecutive two-year term at the world body. Official sources said this was a reflection of India’s standing in the world. India was a committed supporter of the U.N. human rights system and would continue to work towards strengthening of the Council. 162 of 190 countries voted for India. Three other countries including Indonesia, Bangladesh and Qatar were elected.

Ø  Double-amputee Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius has been sentenced to five years in prison for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Ø  A web portal that will contain digitised content from museums across the country was launched on Tuesday by Shripad Naik, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Culture and Tourism. The Ministry of Culture plans to digitise the collections of all museums under its control as well as the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). 

21 OCTOBER 2014: Govt 4 coal sector reforms

Ø  The Union Cabinet recommended the promulgation of an Ordinance to acquire the land of 214 coal blocks mines whose allocations were quashed by the Supreme Court last month. It also approved a plan for e-auctioning the cancelled blocks to end-user private players of coal from the power, steel and cement sectors. Government entities, including public sector units such as NTPC and State Electricity Boards, however, will not have to go through the auction route as a pool of coal mines will be reserved for allocation to them from the cancelled blocks. 

20 OCTOBER 2014: Lotus revolution sweeps the nation

Ø  The BJP scripted a historic win in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha elections, notching up 47 seats to get a clear majority in the 90-member House. The party that has never got more than 10 per cent of the votes and played second fiddle to regional partners in the past, swept aside competition from the Congress and the Indian National Lok Dal to mop up 33.2 per cent of the votes.

19 OCTOBER 2014: Energy deregulations 2 fuel economy!

Ø  In the biggest wave of economic reforms since coming to power, the NDA government de-regulated the price of diesel and announced a new price for domestically produced natural gas. The government also announced the re-launch of the UPA’s flagship Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme for liquefied petroleum gas to benefit consumers denied subsidy for want of an Aadhaar number. 

17 OCTOBER 2014: Nribhay- A fear 4 enemy

Ø  Boosting India’s plan to enhance strategic deterrence capability, the first long-range sub-sonic cruise missile, Nirbhay, was test-fired for a range of over 1,000 km from the Integrated Test Range. The success came in the second flight trial as the first had to be terminated midway in March last year after it deviated from the pre-designated trajectory. The tree-top, low-altitude flying missile, which can evade radars, was fired from a canister-based mobile launcher from Launch Complex-3 here at 10.05 a.m. After it took off vertically like a rocket, the first-stage rocket booster got jettisoned within seconds at an altitude of 100 metres and the wings got deployed as the missile tilted horizontally.

Nirbhay Cruise Missile

Ø  The U.S.-based National Institutes of Health (NIH) will fund a study on providing better care for people suffering from diabetes and depression in India. The study will be carried out by the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation (MDRF), Chennai; the All India Institute of Medical Sciences; New Delhi; and the Endocrine and Diabetes Centre, Visakhapatnam. University of Washington Seattle and Emory University will be the partner institutions in the U.S.

Ø  Taking former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on her word that there will be no attempt to delay criminal appeal proceedings in the Karnataka High Court, the Supreme Court suspended her four-year sentence in the disproportionate assets case and granted her bail. 

16 OCTOBER 2014: ISRO launches PSLV C26 successfully

Ø  With the appointment of former IMF economist Arvind Subramanian as the Chief Economic Adviser and Rajasthan cadre IAS officer Rajiv Mehrishi as the finance secretary, the Narendra Modi government has brought in a new team to steer the economy, five months after it came to power. Mr. Subramanian, earlier a senior fellow at the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics, is pronouncedly pro-market. He has in the past argued for quicker subsidy reforms, fast introduction of GST, and faster deficit reduction than the temporal target set by the government. The medium term fiscal policy envisages a progressive reduction of the deficit to three per cent of the GDP by 2016-17.

Ø  on October 16, 2014, the PSLV-C26 lobbed the 1,425 kg Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS-1C) satellite into its precise orbit. This mission was ISRO’s twenty-seventh consecutively successful PSLV flight. The IRNSS-1C is the third among seven navigation satellites, with a wide range of applications from helping truck drivers to submarines, missiles and battle tanks locate their positions.

16 October 2014: Crude prices going down, thanx 2 Shale gas techno!

Ø  Haryana recorded its highest ever turnout of 73 per cent, marred by violence and allegations of booth-capturing at several places. According to Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha, there were a few sporadic incidents of violence and a re-poll in some polling stations could be ordered. Maharashtra recorded a turnout of 64 per cent, roughly four per cent higher than the 2009 assembly polls and the Lok Sabha polls in May. DEC Sudhir Tripathi said two incidents were reported from naxal-affected Gadchiroli district. In both States, there have been seizures of cash and liquor as well as cases of “paid” news, EC officials said.

Ø  As global oil prices continued to tumble owing to a supply glut fuelled by shale gas production in the U.S. and differences between oil producing countries over cutting production to stop the slide, oil companies in India cautioned against over-optimism. Brent crude recorded a new 47-month low, dipping to $83.37 a barrel but recovered later to above $85 a barrel, owing to a weak dollar.

Ø  Facebook and Apple are covering the costs for female employees to freeze their eggs to delay childbearing, which could hamper their careers. The companies are covering up to $20,000 for the procedure and annual storage costs, NBC said, citing sources at the Silicon Valley firms.  According to the online forum eggsurance.com, the procedure is gaining popularity as more women delay plans to start a family.

Ø  Canada wants to share its expertise and help India meet its target of ‘Housing for All by 2022.’ During a meeting with the Urban Development and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister M.Venkaiah Naidu, the visiting Canadian Minister of International Trade Ed Fast said Canada had expertise in wood-based housing technology that enables multi-story construction that India could consider to meet its ambitious housing targets. Mr. Fast said the life span of such houses was about 60 years and was amenable for renewal. He also offered technology for waste water recycling.

Ø  Loading of the 500 MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) with liquid sodium awaits clearance from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), said Prabhat Kumar, chairman and managing director, Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited (BHAVINI). BHAVINI, a public sector undertaking of the Department of Atomic Energy, has built the PFBR at Kalpakkam, 60 km from Chennai. The PFBR uses plutonium-uranium oxide as fuel and liquid sodium as coolant. Disclosing this to reporters at Kalpakkam, in the presence of AERB chairman S.S. Bajaj on Wednesday, the BHAVINI CMD said all the construction works on setting up of the PFBR had been completed. However, the AERB, which was more interested in ensuring environmental and public safety than the schedule for attaining criticality, had made few more suggestions and these would be complied with, Mr. Kumar said. Once the loading of liquid sodium was done, synchronisation of conventional auxiliary systems, switch yard for outgoing power transmission etc. could be carried out in a phased manner and criticality could be achieved in about six months, he said.

Ø  Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have questioned the technical feasibility of the ‘Mars One’ project that aims to establish the first human colony on the Red Planet by 2025. ‘Mars One’ is a non-profit organisation based in the Netherlands that has put forward conceptual plans to establish a permanent human colony on Mars. The mission plans to initially send four astronauts on a one-way trip to Mars where they would spend the rest of their lives building the first permanent human settlement.

15 OCTOBER 2014: India n Norway inks 13 Pacts

Ø  As many as 13 agreements were signed between Indian and Norwegian entities on the second and concluding day of President Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to this Scandinavian nation. The agreements, which range from a statement of intent between the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment and setting up a state-of-the-art fish farming unit outside Delhi, also had IIT-Kanpur, Hyderabad University and several other educational institutions reaching accord with their Norwegian counterparts. The President, in his address to a joint business gathering, announced that Norwegian tourists would soon be given the visa-on-arrival facility, even as Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said Oslo would open a new consulate in Mumbai. As Mr. Mukherjee suggested that Norway’s $900-billion pension fund would increase its exposure to India, given the new Narendra Modi government’s intent to create an enabling business climate, Ms. Solberg said pension fund decisions were made independently of the government. The President hoped that there would be an “early conclusion” to ongoing talks for a free trade and investment agreement between India and the four-nation European Free Trade Association, of which Norway is a key member. Referring to the Modi government’s pitch to “Make in India,” Mr. Mukherjee said, “the Indian government is committed to a business-friendly environment — impediment-free, predictable, facilitatory and transparent.” At a separate press briefing, Ms. Solberg said the Norwegian government did not direct private investment but played the role of a “service provider” to business ventures.

Ø  Among the bills up for consideration in the winter session of Parliament is the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment (CLPRA) Bill, pending since December 2012. The proposed amendments to the Act will for the first time ban employment of children below 14 years in any occupation, bringing the law in consistency with the Right to Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009. The Bill prohibits employment of adolescents aged 14-18 years in hazardous occupations. The Ministry had sought public comments on the CLPRA Bill 2012 this June. A majority of the changes in the proposed Bill are the same as those in the Bill introduced in the Rajya Sabha by UPA Minister for Labour and Employment Mallikarjun Kharge in December 2012.

Ø  An inspector with the Jammu and Kashmir Police has bagged the International Female Police Peacekeeper Award 2014 instituted by the U.N. for her “exceptional achievements” while serving with the U.N. mission in Afghanistan. Shakti Devi, 38, currently deployed in the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), was also cited for her efforts towards helping victims of sexual and gender-based violence. The award is instituted by the U.N. Police Division.

14 OCTOBER 2014: Nobel economic prize 4 French

Ø  French economist Jean Tirole won the Nobel prize for economics for research on market power and regulation that has helped policy-makers understand how to deal with industries dominated by a few dominant companies.

Ø  As five Indian scientists from “Himadri,” India’s Arctic station at Svalbard, listened in by video link, a dire climate change warning that linked varying monsoon patterns in India with Arctic ice melts was presented to President Pranab Mukherjee. Jan-Gunnar Winther, director of the Norway Polar Institute, said at the Fram maritime museum that scientists had consistently underestimated the process of climate change. Sitting alongside Norwegian King Harald V, President Mukherjee asked the five scientists about the links they had managed to establish between Arctic ice melting and monsoon pattern changes in India.

Ø  The Indian Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft, two weeks old in its Martian orbit, is getting primed to glimpse a unique cosmic event. A little past midnight on October 20, MOM — millions of kilometres from its earthly home — will be privy to an astronomically significant fly-past of Comet Siding Spring. MOM will duck for cover behind Mars, like the NASA missions there; and if lucky, it may capture and send snapshots of those moments to us.

13 OCTOBER 2014: Pak goes UN on Kashmir

Ø  Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has given the go-ahead for a major overhaul of the current monetary policy framework wherein the Centre will specify ‘inflation targets’ for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to achieve. Under the proposed new regime, the RBI will set inflation as its top priority in its policy statements. The decision departs from the recommendation of an expert committee of the RBI, appointed to examine monetary policy. Headed by Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Urjit R. Patel, the committee had recommended that the monetary policy decision-making should be vested with a monetary policy committee, chaired by the RBI Governor. Other recommendations were that the apex bank adopt the new Consumer Price Index (CPI) as the measure of the nominal anchor for monetary policy. And that the RBI set the target CPI inflation level at 4 per cent (+/- 2 per cent) to be achieved through its monetary policy tools.

Ø  Stepping up its attempts to internationalise the Kashmir issue, Pakistan has written to U.N. Secretary-General Ban ki-moon on the security situation along the Line of Control and the International Border, and sought the world body’s intervention. 

12 OCTOBER 2014: Hudhud brings disaster in AP, Odisha

Ø  Ahead of Cyclone Hudhud, classified as very severe, more than 1.5 lakh people were evacuated to 370 relief camps and shelters from four districts of Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and East Godavari of Andhra Pradesh. With up to 45 cm of rainfall and wind speeds of 180 kmph expected, Hudhud is due to make landfall between Visakhapatnam and Kalingapatnam in Srikakulam district on Sunday morning.

Ø  Taking forward his announcement during his address to the nation on August 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a blueprint for the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) on Jayaprakash Narayan’s birth anniversary.

Ø  Novelist and short story writer K.R. Meera has been chosen for this year’s Vayalar Literary Award for her novel ‘Aaraachaar’ (Hangwoman).