28th AUGUST, 2014

Bengal girl Rekha joins in Dutch book which is to be released in November in Amsterdam marking the 25th anniversary of the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child. Rekha resisted marriage when she was about 10 years old. Her resistance led to other girls in the area following in her footsteps. She, along with two other girls from the district, was conferred the National Bravery Award by then President Pratibha Devisingh Patil in 2010. The book is written by Dutch Newspaper NRC Handelsblad ’s correspondents who live and work in the countries of the children featured in the book. It profiles 20 children and the chapter on Rekha is written by journalist Aletta Andre.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to add a new disqualification in the Constitution for appointment as Ministers, saying it was the prerogative of the Prime Minister or the Chief Minister of a State to appoint Ministers of his/her choice. A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Justice R.M. Lodha, in its 123-page judgment on a public interest litigation petition filed in 2005 seeking the removal of tainted Ministers from the Cabinet, said, “We are of the convinced opinion that when there is no disqualification for a person against whom charges have been framed in respect of heinous or serious offences or offences relating to corruption to contest the election, by interpretative process, it is difficult to read the prohibition into Article 75(1) or, for that matter, into Article 164(1) to the powers of the Prime Minister or the Chief Minister in such a manner.”

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Wednesday announced that the State government would constitute a Flood and Erosion Protection Authority with funding of Rs. 1,000 crore on its own to strengthen the existing embankments and build new ones to replace the ones that had outlived their utility. He made the announcement after reviewing the flood situation in a meeting with officials of Dhemaji and Lakhimpur districts held at Lilabari Airport. Prior to the review meeting, Mr. Gogoi made an aerial survey of the flooded areas of Dhemaji and Lakhimpur districts, and Majuli river-island in Jorhat district.

The Commanding Officer-level meeting between the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Pakistan Rangers that took place on Wednesday was the first since firing at the border escalated. In New Delhi, BSF Director-General Devendra Kumar Pathak briefed Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on the ground situation. The BSF chief had visited the affected border areas on Tuesday. Mr. Pathak shared details on the magnitude of the damage caused to the assets of the force and civilians living close to the international border. “The Home Minister was apprised of the deaths and injuries caused to the BSF personnel and the civilians. Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami, Secretary (Border Management) Sneh Lata Kumar and other senior officers from the MHA and the BSF also attended the meeting. (do notice the highlighted portions)

The Reserve Bank of India, on Wednesday, eased norms to refinance external commercial borrowings (ECB), and allowed banks to approve even those cases where the average maturity period (AMP) of fresh borrowings exceeded the residual maturity of existing loan. However, borrowers would be required to follow certain conditions to avail themselves of a fresh ECB. “In a review, it has been decided to simplify the procedure by delegating powers to banks to approve even those cases where the AMP of the fresh ECB is exceeding the residual maturity of the existing ECB under the automatic route,” the RBI said in a notification.

Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, has made a personal investment in Indian online retailer Snapdeal. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. The investment comes a day after Snapdeal had tied up with Tata Value Homes to sell apartment units across five cities (Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai and Ahmedabad). “This is a proud and exciting moment for the entire Snapdeal family. An investment by a legendary and respected figure like Mr. Tata is an excellent validation of our focused strategy on building a long-term enterprise, and marks the start of a very important phase for the company,” Kunal Bahl, co-Founder of Snapdeal.com, said in a statement.

Google has announced that it has bought Zync Render, a service that trims costs of special effects by pushing the work into the Internet ‘cloud’. Google did not disclose financial terms of the deal to acquire the company whose technology was used in films such as ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ and ‘Looper’. Zync will become part of the Google Cloud Platform, product manager Belwadi Srikanth said in a blog post

Tejaswini bagged a double, winning the 100m (14.10) and 200m (30.60) events in the under-18 girls’ category of the Hyderabad district junior athletics meet at the GMC Balayogi Stadium here.