Junior Digest

Kolkata: The Indian Institute of Management- Calcutta today said it has achieved 100 per cent final placements for the 2014-16 batch in less than three days.

“IIM-Calcutta saw great enthusiasm from the industry to recruit some of the brightest minds of the country. For the largest batch of 439 students among the older IIMs, a whopping total of almost 500 offers were made during the entire process, including 21 international offers,” the premier institute said in a statement.

IIM-Calcutta remained unchallenged as the Finance Campus of India, registering over 100 offers in the sector.

Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Citibank, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, JPMC, Avendus Capital, ICICI Securities, Kotak IBD, Edelweiss and other finance firms recruited students from the campus, while Blackrock and MasterCard were the first time recruiters for finance roles.

Consulting firms continued their dominance in the campus with over 20 per cent of the total offers, it said.

The major firms hiring in the consulting sector included Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Bain & Co., McKinsey, AT Kearney and Accenture Management Consulting, with Bain & Co. emerging as the largest recruiter, it said.

Sales and Marketing contributed 19 per cent of the offers.

Firms, which recruited students include Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Procter and Gamble (P&G), Reckitt Benckiser (RB), Johnson and Johnson (J&J), STAR India, Asian Paints, ITC, Phillips etc, the release said.

International offers in marketing were made by AdCuratio, a first time recruiter.

The steady growth of the e-Commerce sector, additionally fuelled by the Centre’s initiatives like Start-up India, was echoed in the placement statistics, it said.

Over 20 per cent of the offers were made by e-Commerce and web-based startups like Amazon, Snapdeal, Flipkart, PayTM, Olacabs, Uber, RedBus etc, the release added.

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Manchester (US): Speaking via Skype from Russia, Edward Snowden tells an audience of supporters in New Hampshire that he is willing to be extradited to the United States if the federal government could guarantee he would get a fair trial.
The former National Security Agency contractor in 2013 leaked details of a secret government eavesdropping programme and left the country. He faces US charges that could land him in prison for up to 30 years.

Snowden spoke yesterday at the New Hampshire Liberty Forum, heavily attended by libertarians. He has previously spoken of making offers to the government to return home and even go to jail.

Yesterday he said he asked for a guarantee of a fair trial where he can make “a public interest defense” then have jurors decide his case.

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Washington: Images from the New Horizon space probe suggest that Pluto’s moon Charon once had a sub-surface ocean that has since frozen and expanded, causing the surface to stretch and fracture, Nasa said on Friday.

Charon’s surface was photographed by the New Horizons’s Lorri (Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager) camera as the spacecraft flew past the moon in July 2015 at a distance of 48,900 miles (78,700 kilometers).

The detailed pictures show a system of “pull-apart” tectonic faults on the moon’s equator.

These faults and fractures run “at least 1,100 miles (about 1,800 kilometers) long and in places there are chasms 4.5 miles (7.5 kilometers) deep. By comparison, the Grand Canyon is 277 miles (446 kilometers) long and just over a mile (1.6 kilometers) deep,” Nasa said.

The chasms are the longest ever observed in the solar system, Nasa said.

Charon’s outer layer today is mainly water ice. But millions of years ago, when Charon was young, scientists believe that layer was kept warm “by heat provided by the decay of radioactive elements, as well as Charon’s own internal heat of formation.”

The moon could have been warm enough to cause the water ice to melt deep down, creating a subsurface ocean.

“But as Charon cooled over time, this ocean would have frozen and expanded (as happens when water freezes), lifting the outermost layers of the moon and producing the massive chasms we see today,” Nasa said.

Pluto, a dwarf planet in the far reaches of the solar system some 3.6 billion miles (5.8 billion kilometers) away from the sun, has five moons. Charon, with a diameter about half that of Pluto, is the largest of them.

Other moons in the solar system that are closer to the sun still have liquid oceans under their surface.

Experts believe that oceans on Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, and on two of Saturn’s moons, Ganymede and Enceladus, are the best places in the solar system to look for microbial life forms.

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“The Name of the Rose” transformed him from academic to international celebrity, especially after the medieval thriller set in a monastery was made into a film starring Sean Connery in 1986. “The Name of the Rose” sold millions of copies, a feat for a narrative filled with partially translated Latin quotes and puzzling musings on the nature of symbols. But Eco talked about his inspiration with characteristic irony: “I began writing … prodded by a seminal idea: I felt like poisoning a monk.”

His second novel, the 1988 “Foucault’s Pendulum,” a byzantine tale of plotting publishers and secret sects also styled as a thriller, was successful, too —though it was so complicated that an annotated guide accompanied it to help the reader follow the plot. In 2000, when awarding Eco Spain’s prestigious Prince of Asturias Prize for communications, the jury praised his works “of universal distribution and profound effect that are already classics in contemporary thought.”

Eco was born Jan. 5, 1932 in Alessandria, a town east of Turin; he said the reserved culture there was a source for his “world vision: a skepticism and an aversion to rhetoric.” He received a university degree in philosophy from the University of Turin in 1954, beginning his fascination with the Middle Ages and the aesthetics of text. He later defined semiotics as “a philosophy of language.” He had always loved storytelling and as a teenager wrote comic books and fantasy novels. “I was a perfectionist and wanted to make them look as though they had been printed, so I wrote them in capital letters and made up title pages, summaries, illustrations,” he told The Paris Review in 1988. “It was so tiring that I never finished any of them. I was at that time a great writer of unaccomplished masterpieces.”

Eco remained involved with academia, becoming the first professor of semiotics at the University of Bologna in 1971. He also lectured at institutions worldwide and was a fellow at elite colleges like Oxford University and Columbia University. Twenty-three institutions had awarded him honorary degrees by 2000.

Eco was also able to bridge the gap between popular and intellectual culture, publishing his musings in daily newspapers and Italy’s leading weekly magazine L’Espresso. Eco started in journalism in the 1950s, working for the Italian state-owned television RAI. From the 1960s onwards, he wrote columns for several Italian dailies. He also wrote children’s books, including “The Bomb and the General” (“La Bomba e il Generale”). In 2003, Eco published a collection of lectures on translations, “Mouse or Rat? Translation as Negotiation,” and a year later he wrote the novel “The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana,” a story about an antiquarian book dealer who loses his memory. Recent works include “From the Tree to the Labyrinth,” an essay on semiology and language published in 2007 and “Turning Back the Clock,” a collection of essays on various subjects, ranging from the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, anti-Semitism and his staunch criticism of Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative government. His most recent novel, “Numero Zero,” came out last year and recalled a political scandal from the 1990s that helped lead to Berlusconi’s rise.

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Facebook has redesigned its popular Messenger app so several people can use it on the same smartphone or tablet without relinquishing their privacy.

The update announced Friday initially will only be available on devices running on Android, the world’s most popular mobile operating system. Facebook didn’t set a timetable for making similar changes to its Messenger app for Apple Inc.’s iPhone and iPad.  The new feature will accommodate multiple accounts without allowing people sharing the more versatile app to get into each other’s queue of messages. Facebook added the ability to switch accounts within the Messenger app after getting requests from people who share their smartphones and tablets with family and friends. More than 800 million people currently use Messenger.

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He made me wonder. He made me curious. He opened up new worlds to me. That is what a great teacher can do,” he said. In reference to the founder of the prize, Kerala-born entrepreneur Sunny Varkey, he added: “Thanks to Sunny Varkey, and the Varkey Foundation. We need great teachers to grow great minds, or we will never solve the world’s most pressing problems.”

The prize was created last year as a kind of Oscars for the teaching profession by the UK-based Varkey Foundation. The Indian nominee, Chaurasiya, refers to his students as “Krantikaries” (Revolutionaries), who are aged 12-20 and include victims of trafficking and daughters of sex workers.

They go on to become peer teachers and community leaders. Varkey said: “I want to congratulate Robin Chaurasiya for being selected as a top ten finalist from such a huge number of talented and dedicated teachers.”

“I hope her story will inspire those looking to enter the teaching profession and also shine a powerful spotlight on the incredible work teachers do all over India and throughout the world every day,” Varkey said.

“The thousands of nominations and applications we received from every corner of the planet is testimony to the achievements of teachers and the enormous impact they have on all of our lives,” said Varkey.

The top ten have been narrowed down from 8,000 nominations and applications from 148 countries from around the world. The prize will be announced at a ceremony in Dubai on March 13.

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Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni declared elected in the presidential elecction on Saturday. He is the ruling president of Uganda for the last  30-years.  International observers said the election lacked transparency.His main opponent, who was placed under house arrest, denounced the results.

One of Africa’s longest serving leaders, Museveni won 60.8 % of the vote, while main opposition candidate Kizza Besigye secured 35.4 %, according to the electoral commission. “We have just witnessed what must be the most fraudulent electoral process in Uganda,” Besigye said in a statement, calling for an independent audit of the results.

Besigye said he had been placed under house arrest. A Reuters reporter saw his house encircled by police in riot gear and media were barred from going near it. Museveni, 71, has presided over strong economic growth but faces mounting accusations at home and abroad of cracking down on dissent and failing to tackle rampant corruption in the nation of 37 million people

Museveni’s ruling National Resistance Movement party said the veteran leader’s victory showed “opponents failed to offer any alternative apart from empty promises”. Earlier, European and Commonwealth observers criticised the handling of the election.

The EU observer mission said Thursday’s election was conducted in an intimidating atmosphere, while Commonwealth observers said the poll “fell short of meeting some key democratic benchmarks”. Eduard Kukan, chief observer for the EU mission, told reporters in Kampala that the poll was undermined by a “lack of transparency and independence” at the Ugandan electoral commission.

“State actors created an intimidating atmosphere for both voters and candidates,” he added.

Museveni brought calm and stability to Uganda after decades of chaos at the hands of leaders Idi Amin and Milton Obote, but many opposition voters accuse the former guerrilla fighter of becoming increasingly autocratic and wanting to rule for life.

The opposition had tried to tap into mounting anger among young voters, especially in urban areas, where unemployment is high and many are frustrated by the poor state of schools and hospitals.

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Berlin: Malayalam film “Ottal” has been named the best children’s film at the Berlin International Film Festival and honoured with the Crystal Bear award in the ‘Generation KPlus’ section.

The film, directed by Jayaraj Rajasekharan Nair, is about the story of an old fisherman and his grandson. The movie is an adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s short story ‘Vanaka’.

Jayaraj is known for adapting literary classic into films. He has earlier made films based on Shakespeare’s works such as “Othello” and “Antony and Cleopatra”.

“GENERATION K+ Crystal Bears announced! Best Film: Ottal,” a post on the official Twitter account of Berlinale read.

This is the third year in a row that Indian films have triumphed. Earlier winners were “Killa” 2014 and “Dhanak” 2015.

“Ottal” bagged the National Award for best film on Environment Conservation/Preservation and it set a record at 20th International Film Festival Of Kerala by sweeping all the top awards.

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Washington: Nasa has received a record 18,300 resumes from people keen on becoming astronauts, the US space agency said on Friday.

The number of applications for a spot in Nasa’s 2017 class is almost triple the amount that came in during the last recruitment call for the 2012 class.

And it shatters the previous record of 8,000 in 1978.

“It’s not at all surprising to me that so many Americans from diverse backgrounds want to personally contribute to blazing the trail on our journey to Mars,” Nasa Administrator Charlie Bolden, a former astronaut, said in a statement.

But only a chosen few will actually see their galactic career goals realized.

Over the course of the next year and a half, a selection board will whittle down the applications and invite only the most highly qualified candidates for interviews at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

In the end, a mere eight to 14 lucky individuals will be asked to report for training.

Nasa expects to announce its new class in mid-2017.

The time frame for submitting applications opened on 14 December and closed on Thursday, with the space agency taking to social media to get the word out.

Training for the chosen candidates includes a focus on spacewalking and teamwork, as well as some command of Russian language.

Those who make it through will be given technical duties at Johnson’s Astronaut Office.

They will then be assigned to the International Space Station, the Orion spacecraft for deep space exploration or one of two commercial crew spacecraft currently in development — SpaceX’s Dragon crew capsule and Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner.

With the American spaceflight programme grounded since 2011 when the space shuttle was retired, Nasa’s current active corps currently comprises 47 members, down from 149 in 2000 at the peak of the space shuttle era.

In its call for recruits, Nasa encouraged pilots, engineers and other scientists to apply.

Qualified candidates need to be US citizens and have at least a bachelor’s degree in engineering, science, computer science or math, as well as three years of professional experience or at least 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command time in jet aircraft.

They also have to be physically fit and pass a “Nasa long-duration astronaut physical.”

More than 300 people have been hired as Nasa astronauts since the US space agency’s first corps of seven was selected in 1959 as part of Project Mercury, which sent men into orbit around the Earth.

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  Kalikho Pul, 46, was sworn in as the ninth Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh on Friday with the support of 18 rebel Congress MLAs, and two Independents and 11 BJP MLAs who gave outside support.

The Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee, meanwhile, claimed that Pul and 18 other dissidents were no longer its members. Pul’s swearing-in came a day after the Supreme Court vacated its interim order to maintain status quo in the Arunachal Pradesh assembly, paving the way for government formation. The Centre had revoked President’s Rule in the state before Governor J P Rajkhowa administered the oath of office to Pul around 9.30 pm.

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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday held comprehensive talks with his Nepalese counterpart K.P. Oli, who is on a six-day state visit to India, during which a range of issues of mutual interest, including trade and political situation in Nepal, figured.

In his first foreign trip after assuming charge of the top office in October last year, Oli, accompanied by a 77-member delegation, arrived New Delhi on Friday afternoon with a major focus on mending ties hit by issues relating to the Himalayan nation’s new Constitution.

Modi and Oli reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral relationship during the talks.

Earlier, Oli was accorded a ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhavan where Modi was also present. Before the PM-level talks, Sushma Swaraj called on Oli, during which he conveyed to her that Nepal is and will remain a “reliable” friend of India.

People familiar the matter said Oli told Swaraj that he wants to “move forward in the relationship which is not man-made but entirely natural and civilizational.” Swaraj said the visit will deepen the trust between the two countries.

Swaraj and Oli also discussed reconstruction efforts in Nepal which was hit by a devastating earthquake in April last year, sources said.

“They discussed political issues, reconstruction assistance, SAARC satellite and bilateral cooperation. Oli said he wants to move forward in the relationship which is not man-made but entirely natural and civilizational,” sources said.

It is expected that India will ask Nepal to complete the “unfinished task” of making the Constitution more inclusive to address the concerns of the Madhesi community which share close familial and cultural ties with Indians.

Ties between the two countries had soured in the wake of agitation by the Madhesi community opposing Nepal’s Constitution, saying it failed to address their concerns over representation and homeland.

The agitators had blocked the trading points for almost four months crippling supply of petroleum products, medicines and other commodities by India to Nepal. The blockade was lifted this month.

Oli is accompanied by wife Radhika Shakya, deputy prime minister and foreign minister Kamal Thapa, finance minister Bishnu Poudyal, energy minister Top Bahadur Rayamaji and home minister Shakti Basnet among others. The Nepalese Prime Minister will stay at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

@Agency report.

New Delhi: West Indies batting legend Vivian Richards has lauded  New Zealand batsman Brendon McCullum for posting the fastest ton in Test cricket off just 54 balls, bidding adieu to the game on an incredible high.
Richards, who held the record for the quickest hundred in Tests off 56 balls jointly with Pakistan’s Misbah-ul-Haq till McCullum broke it yesterday, was all praise for the Kiwi skipper for his record-breaking feat.

“Let me take this opportunity to congratulate Brendon…(I’ve) been a great fan of yours for many years.

Well done on your achievement,” said Richards in the video on Twitter, posted by Pakistan Super League (PSL) side Quetta Gladiators.

“And if there was going to be an individual who you would’ve liked to have surpassed whatever you would’ve achieved in life, certainly it would be you. You’re one of those individuals who help to put bums on seats. Long may that continue. Well done, man,” he added.

McCullum came to bat when New Zealand were struggling at 32 for three on the opening day of the first Test against Australia at Christchurch.

McCullum smashed 100 runs off just 54 deliveries to pull New Zealand out of trouble and in the process also broke Richards’ record set against England in 1986.

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Guwahati: The Centre has already announced setting up an AIIMS in Assam and work on it will start soon, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare J P Nadda said here today.

“A new AIIMS has been announced for Assam by our government and very soon the work on the project will start,” Nadda said after laying the foundation of a super speciality block under PMSSY at the Guwahati Medical College.

“Our government has also decided to upgrade the district hospitals at Nagaon, North Lakhimpur and Dhubri to the status of medical colleges,” the Minister said.

He said Rs 189 crore would be sanctioned for each of these colleges and as a first instalment Rs 22 crore had already been given to the state government.

Since May 2014, more than Rs 1,567 crore had been released for Assam under the National Health Mission (NHM).

The Minister said under the upgradation project of the Guwahati Medical College, Super Speciality Department of Pediatrics Surgery, Haematology, Gastroenterology, Gastrointestinal (GI) Surgery, Endocrinology and Burns and Plastic Surgery would be created.

This would add 190 beds, 60 ICU beds, 6 OTs to the institute at an approved cost of Rs 150 crore.

The foundation stone of a similar project had also been laid at the Assam Medical College, Dibrugarh, on February 12 last and tertiary care facilities would thus get a boost with all these projects coming up, the Minister said.

“Assam has shown progress on all fronts and I believe that these new initiatives shall improve healthcare facilities in the state,” he said.

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Chandigarh: Haryana was on the edge today as fresh incidents of arson and violence shook the state with a ninth town being brought under curfew as the Jat agitation for quota under OBC entered the eighth day so far claiming 10 lives.

The Jat stir also hit Delhi with the Arvind Kejriwal government announcing closure of schools tomorrow as part of water rationing after supply from Haryana was disrupted. The national capital also witnessed big traffic jams in some parts.

Ten persons have been killed and about 150 injured during the ongoing Jat stir, Haryana DGP Yashpal Singhal said even as claimed that steps were being taken to restore water supply to Delhi and clear road and rail blockades.

“According to the information we have so far, in the entire state 10 people have been killed and about 150 injured,” he said.

As the situation turned volatile, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh appealed for calm. “I appeal to all to maintain peace and ensure that there are no untoward incidents,” he said.

The Home Minister met a delegation comprising Minister of State for Agriculture Sanjeev Kumar Balyan, BJP MP and former Mumbai Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh and Haryana Minister Abhimanyu rs to find a way to resolve the situation.

With violent protests by Jats escalating, Haryana Minister Anil Vij today made it clear that talks cannot be held with a “mob” and said Jats should form a committee to hold parleys with the state government.

He said the agitation has become leaderless and “mobocracy” was prevailing.

Road and rail traffic through Haryana destined for North India from Delhi side remained disrupted with bus and train services remaining suspended. In the wake of shooting air fares airlines announced additional flights to Chandigarh and Amritsar today.

Curfew was imposed in Kaithal city in the wake of ongoing Jat agitation after tension erupted in the town due to protests by Jats and tussle between Jats and non-Jats.

With this, now Kaithal has become ninth city where curfew has been clamped after Rohtak, Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Jind, Hisar, Hansi, Sonipat and Gohana town of Sonipat district.

While several roads have been blocked in Kaithal, protesting Jats have put up a tent in the middle of Hissar- Chandigarh national highway to express their anger for not being included in OBC category.

Markets, shops and commercial establishments remained shut in the wake of violent protest unleashed by agitating Jats.

The protesters are adamant on their main demand of OBC quota in government jobs and rejected Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s announcement of enhancement of the quota of reservation for Economically Backward Classes in the state from 10 to 20 per cent.

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“Mockingbird,” which was published in 1960, was drawn from elements of Lee’s childhood in Monroeville. In steady prose shaded by memory and lyricism, she describes how an impulsive girl, Scout Finch, her older brother, Jem, their friend Dill and a variety of other townspeople get caught up in the case of Tom Robinson, a black man who’s been accused of rape in the Depression-era town of Maycomb, Alabama.

Through it all, no character is more indelible than that of Scout’s widower father, Atticus Finch. The scrupulous, fair-minded lawyer who defends the falsely accused Robinson in a racist courtroom set a standard for goodness and bravery that still resonates more than 50 years later.

The book won the Pulitzer Prize, and Gregory Peck, who played Atticus in the acclaimed 1962 movie, earned an Oscar for best actor. Finch was named the greatest hero in movie history in a 2003 American Film Institute survey.

An earlier draft of the book, titled “Go Set a Watchman,” was published in 2015. The book was criticized for a different portrayal of Atticus, who voices racist sentiments, and questions arose as to whether Lee actually wanted it released.

“Mockingbird” was published in July 1960 and became an immediate best-seller. Indeed, it’s never stopped selling; as of 2006, it had sold 30 million copies and moves a million more each year.The book won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was optioned for a movie. The movie has been called “the best-ever book-to-screen adaptation.”

Lee never married and had no children.

New Delhi: As the Jat agitation turned violent, the Centre on Friday rushed 1,000 paramilitary personnel to Haryana even as Home Minister Rajnath Singh assured the state government of all assistance to control the volatile situation.

The paramilitary personnel have been sent to assist the state government in maintaining law and order as there been several incidents of violence in Haryana following the Jat agitation demanding quota, a Home Ministry official said.

Concerned over the volatile situation, Home Minister Rajnath Singh called up Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who briefed him about the prevailing situation in the state.

The Home Minister also assured the Chief Minister all possible help to the state government in controlling the situation, the official said.

Curfew was imposed tonight in Rohtak and Bhiwani city limit areas and army was being rushed there in view of worsening situation with Jats agitating over reservation issue going on rampage there.

Army was deployed in eight districts of Haryana after one person was killed and 21 were injured in police action as Jat stir turned violent and the rampaging mobs set ablaze the house of state’s Finance Minister besides several government and private properties.

@Agency report.

New Delhi:  The international Yoga Day will be celebrated on a “grand scale” this year with the government issuing an “improved” common protocol of asanas, besides holding other events to attract people specially students.

Ayush Minister Shripad Yesso Naik today said the Ministry of Human Resources Development has also been asked to organise a Yoga Olympiad to popularise the practice among students.

“The Ayush Ministry has decided to celebrate the International Yoga Day on a grand scale as compared to last year. A 45-minute common yoga protocol has been developed by experts committee of the yoga gurus, which is an improved version of last year’s event.

He was addressing the ministers and senior bureaucrats of states and Union Territories.

June 21 is celebrated as the World Yoga day.

“In addition, we have also requested Ministry of Human Resources Development to organise a Yoga Olympiad involving school children,” Mr Naik said.

Anil Kumar Ganeriwala, Joint Secretary in the Ministry, said “we are requesting important yoga institutions to provide technical guidelines to a group of states within their states so that there will be collaboration between the state governments and yoga institutions.”

The Centre for Support for Yoga and Naturopathy will give funds to NGOs in each district of the country to organise a one-month training programme.

@Agency news.

New Delhi: Vietnam has given a fresh push to its proposal to India to erect a statue of its former Prime Minister Ho Chi Minh in New Delhi. It said the Communist revolutionary leader was a “great friend” of Indian people and it will be an “excellent symbol” of Indo-Vietnam friendship.
“We expect that the government of India will accept our proposal to erect a statue of Ho Chi Minh in Delhi. He was father of Vietnamese people and a great friend of Indian people. And, also father of Indo-Vietnam relations together with Jawaharlal Nehru. The statue will be an excellent symbol of our friendship,” Vietnam Ambassador to India Ton Sinh Thanh said.

The Ambassador was speaking yesterday at the opening of two-day-long international seminar on ‘Indo-Vietnam Cultural Relations: Retrospect and Prospect’ organised by ICCR here.

“The proposal has been floating for the last couple of years and since we have a statue of Nehru installed in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City, we thought Delhi could also have it, to signify the friendship between the two leaders and the bond they forged between the two countries,” Thanh told PTI.

“We also have a park in Hanoi named after former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and a bust is also installed in the centre.

“We would love to have Minh’s bust installed in the Nehru Park given their historic ties, or somewhere else in the heart of the city as it is in Kolkata,” he said.

A bust of the former Vietnamese Prime Minister was installed at a main street intersection in Kolkata in 1990 by the Indo-Vietnam Solidarity Committee (West Bengal Chapter) to mark Minh’s birth centenary.

The Harrington Street was also rechristened to Ho Chi Minh Sarani in his honour.

Sources in the Ministry of External Affairs said the MEA is fine with the proposal and would like to facilitate it, but eventually the decision is to be taken by Urban Development Ministry and the civic bodies.

“The MEA is ok with the proposal but the decision to get a statue installed in the city will ultimately hinge on the Urban Development Ministry and the municipal body concerned.

“But, having said that, one has to see the rules, a lot of which have changed, that is whether such things can be done anymore or not,” a source said.

The Ambassador also said, “We welcome Indian cultural centre in Hanoi, and we hope there will be a Vietnam cultural centre in New Delhi in the future.”

“India and Vietnam, besides thousands of years of cultural linkages, also share same anti-colonial struggle history and the current environment, I would say is more favourable for greater cultural cooperation,” Thanh said.

Nehru had visited Vietnam in 1954, and Minh came on a state visit to India in February 1958, when the two shared a warm hug that continues to represent the cordial ties between the two countries.

Delhi already has a Ho Chi Minh Road near Nehru Place.

@Agency report.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of Britain’s strongest allies in Europe, said: “We believe that with this we have given David Cameron a package with which he can campaign in Britain for Britain to stay in the European Union.” The agreement delivered victory to Cameron on several of the key demands on which he chose to fight for what he called “a new settlement” with Europe. He won a commitment to change the bloc’s governing treaties in future to recognise that Britain was not bound to any political union and would have safeguards against financial regulation being imposed on the City of London by the euro zone. Facing an uphill political battle at home, Cameron was concerned to show Britons that he had won concessions that he believes can reduce an influx of EU migrant workers and keep Britain out of any future political integration. In hours of wrangling with central and east European countries that provide many of Britain’s low-paid immigrant workers, he secured the right to curb in-work benefits for up to four years and scale back child benefit for workers whose children remain abroad. HIGH STAKES East European countries were only partially successful in restricting Cameron’s welfare cuts to new arrivals rather than the more than 1 million European migrant workers already in the UK. In the end, both sides emerged with something to show for their negotiations.

The Visegrad Group, comprising Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, said the deal reflected their key demands. A compromise largely favourable to Britain was found for French concerns about differential treatment for London banks outside the euro zone as well as to Belgian grumbles about Britain setting a precedent for states to snub EU integration. Belgium did also secure what EU officials called a “self-destruct” clause whereby that the entire deal would be null and void if Britain votes to leave the EU. That would to preclude any second renegotiation. Cameron was also at pains to dismiss arguments by some British eurosceptics that a “leave” vote would lead to a better deal. “The idea that a vote to leave the European Union would lead to a whole new renegotiation is for the birds,” he said.

The risks of Cameron’s strategy were highlighted on Friday when an opinion poll showed the campaign to leave the bloc had a two-percent lead with 36 percent support. The TNS poll showed 34 percent of British voters wanted to stay in the bloc, 7 percent would not vote and 23 percent were undecided. But the 49-year-old British leader, a former PR executive, is a formidable campaigner who confounded pollsters and pundits by winning an outright general election victory last year. Perhaps the biggest threat to his campaign could come from charismatic London mayor Boris Johnson, a eurosceptic former Brussels journalist, who has yet to disclose which side he will take in a battle that could also involve Cameron’s succession.

SEMI-DETACHED Britain is already the EU’s most semi-detached member, having opted out of joining the euro single currency, the Schengen zone of passport-free travel and many areas of police and judicial cooperation. Summit chairman Donald Tusk said Britain had long had a special status inside the bloc. Many leaders said they felt they were at a historic turning point for European integration. No country has ever voted to leave the Union. Britain is the EU’s second-largest economy and one of its two permanent members on the UN Security Council. Its exit would end the vision of the EU as the natural home for European democracies and reverse the continent’s post-World War Two march toward “ever closer union”. The EU issue has divided Cameron’s Conservative Party for decades, crippling his 1990s predecessor John Major and bringing down his hero Margaret Thatcher.

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Houston: A natural extract derived from the neem tree, commonly found in India, could potentially be used to treat pancreatic cancer without harming normal, healthy cells, a new study has claimed.

Scientists tested nimbolide, a compound found in neem leaves, against pancreatic cancer in cell lines and mice. The results showed that nimbolide can stop pancreatic cancer’s growth and metastasis without harming normal, healthy cells.

“The promise nimbolide has shown is amazing, and the specificity of the treatment towards cancer cells over normal cells is very intriguing,” said Rajkumar Lakshmanaswamy from the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso (TTUHSC El Paso).

Researchers observed that nimbolide was able to reduce the migration and invasion capabilities of pancreatic cancer cells by 70%; meaning the cancerous cells did not become aggressive and spread.

According to researchers, that is promising. In humans, this migration and invasion-or metastasis-of pancreatic cancer to other regions of the body is the chief cause of mortality. Nimbolide treatments also induced cancer cell death, causing the size and number of pancreatic cancer cell colonies to drop by 80%.

“Nimbolide seems to attack pancreatic cancer from all angles,” said Lakshmanaswamy. One of the most important findings is that nimbolide did not harm healthy cells in both the in vitro and in vivo experiments, researchers said.

Pancreatic cancer has the highest mortality rate of all cancers with 94% of patients dying within five years of diagnosis. The cancer grows quickly and there are currently no effective treatments available, underscoring the importance of finding new therapies.

“Many people in India actually eat neem and it does not have harmful side effects, which suggests that using nimbolide for pancreatic cancer will not cause adverse effects like chemotherapy and radiation typically do,” said Ramadevi Subramani from TTUHSC El Paso.

The findings were published in the journal Scientific Reports.

@Agency report.

Washington: With the Indian government giving in-principle approval for establishing a state-of- the-art LIGO interferometer in the country, a top US scientist has said it is “technically feasible” for the project to be operational by the end of 2023.

“It is technically feasible for LIGO-India to go online by the end of 2023,” said Fred Raab, head of the LIGO Hanford Observatory and LIGO Laboratory liaison for LIGO-India.

Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) scientists have made dozens of trips to India to work with Indian colleagues, especially with the three nodal institutes that would have primary responsibility for construction and operation of LIGO India — Institute of Plasma Research (IPR) Gandhinagar, Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune, and Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT), Indore.

“Together, we have identified an excellent site for the facilities and have transferred detailed LIGO drawings of the facilities and vacuum system to IPR, after adapting them for conditions in India,” he said.

The Union Cabinet on February 17, gave its approval in the wake of the announcement of LIGO’s detection of gravitational waves earlier this month.

“This is the step that we’ve been waiting for. It will allow funding for the LIGO-India project to begin, and commence a number of critical path activities toward getting a detector built in India,” said LIGO Laboratory Executive Director David Reitze.

“Coming on the heels of the Discovery announcement, this has truly been an historic week for LIGO and for the field of gravitational wave astronomy,” he said.

The project will build an Advanced LIGO Observatory in India, a move that will significantly improve the ability of scientists to pinpoint the sources of gravitational waves and analyze the signals, a statement said.

Gravitational waves ripples in the fabric of space and time, produced by dramatic events in the universe such as merging black holes and predicted as a consequence of Albert Einstein’s 1915 general theory of relativity, carry information about their origins and about the nature of gravity that cannot otherwise be obtained.

With their first direct detection, announced on February 11, scientists opened a new window onto the cosmos.

The twin LIGO Observatories at Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana, are funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF), and were conceived, built, and are operated by Caltech and MIT.

Advanced LIGO — a major upgrade to the sensitivity of the instruments compared to the first generation LIGO detectors — began scientific operations in September 2015.

@Agency news.