13th OCTOBER 2014

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. 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.

After nearly two years, when licences had been stalled, new mechanised trawlers can start operations in the coast soon. K. Abhayachandra Jain, Minister of State for Fisheries, said here on Sunday that the government will start issuing feasibility certificates — which are pre-requisites for issuing new licences — within two weeks. “Within 15 days we will start issuing certificates in coastal Karnataka. Though the move has been met with opposition by fishermen of Uttara Kannada, the government will go ahead with it,” said Mr. Jain, at the inauguration of a fish processing unit here. The feasibility certificate is given after a study of marine life in the region, and the profitability of other fishermen after the introduction of new boats.

More than 100 years after Rabindranath Tagore was awarded the Nobel for Literature in 1913, India’s quest for the Nobel Prize has attained a certain philosophical completeness under all categories for which it is awarded, with Kailash Satyarthi of India being chosen along with Malala of Pakistan on Friday for the Nobel Peace Prize 2014.

While C.V. Raman won the Nobel for Physics in 1930, Har Gobind Khorana bagged it under the category of Medicine in 1968. Khorana shared his prize with Robert W. Holley and Marshall W. Nirenberg.

The Albanian-born Mother Teresa who later worked out her spiritual destiny in Calcutta was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, even as India was again crowned with the Nobel Physics in 1983 in the hands of Subrahmanyam Chandrasekhar. He shared it with William Alfred Fowler.

If in 1998 Amartya Sen won extraordinary laurels for India by winning the prize for Economics “for his contributions to Welfare Economics,” it was then followed by Venkatraman Ramakrishnan chosen for the Nobel Chemistry in 2009. Dr. Ramakrishnan shared it with Thomas A Steitz and Ada E. Yonath.

Masterpieces by Leonardo da Vinci and Vincent van Gogh will be among 300 works displayed at the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the Emirate said on Sunday, as it aims to become a leader in fine art. The museum, built at a cost of €500 million and set to open in December 2015, will feature paintings and sculptures from 13 of France’s most renowned collections spanning from pre-Bronze Age to Pop Art

Colegio Estadul Santo Antonio (Brazil) struck 15 goals for the second game in a row as it handed a 15-1 thrashing to NG Town High School (Odisha) in a group H encounter of the 55th Subroto Cup junior boys (under-17) football tournament at the Ambedkar Stadium on Sunday.