15th OCTOBER 2014

Inquiry Commissioner and Special Judge S. Soman has ordered a preliminary inquiry against Agriculture Minister K.P. Mohanan and five officials of Kerala State Horticultural Products Development Corporation Ltd. (Hortcorp) in the alleged corruption in the institution.

The government has sent more than one lakh food packets, vegetables, milk and water packets and biscuits to flood-hit areas in north Andhra districts. Besides, several NGOs and philanthropists have come forward to help the flood-affected families. As many as six Deputy Collectors, 44 teams and 220 ‘Mavuru’ teams from Krishna district have been deputed to assist the relief and rescue operations in the Hudhud-affected districts. Apart from Ministers, MPs, MLAs and MLCs and bureaucrats, including the Collector, Joint Collector, Additional Joint Collector, Revenue Divisional Officers and all district officers, are engaged in monitoring relief operations in the devastated areas.

Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize recipient and an icon of education rights, will soon come closer home. Her memoir I am Malala: the girl who stood up for education and was shot by the Taliban , is being translated into four Indian languages — Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and Marathi. While the Kannada version published by Akruthi Books will be released on Sunday, the book in the other three languages will hit the stands soon.

Australian writer Peter Carey, twice winner of the Booker prize, has criticised the decision to open up the award to Americans for the first time, claiming that the old Commonwealth-only version had a “particular cultural flavour” that would now be lost. The winner of the 2014 Man Booker prize will be unveiled in London on Tuesday night (early Wednesday for India). Two American authors have made the shortlist: Karen Joy Fowler for We are All Completely Beside Ourselves and Joshua Ferris with To Rise Again at a Decent Hour .

Ever since Canada-born Indian actress Lisa Ray battled multiple myeloma, a form of cancer, she has campaigned for the cause and spoken widely of it to spread awareness. Now, she plans to open her own research institute for cancer in India. 

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.

A Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C26) carrying the 1,425-kg Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS-1C) will be launched from Sriharikota at 1.32 a.m. on Thursday. The countdown is progressing smoothly and the vehicle’s fourth stage has been filled with liquid propellants. The PSLV-C26 is a four-stage vehicle, with the first and third stages using solid propellants and the second and fourth, liquid fuel.

Gautham Roy has been appointed as the Managing Director of Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd (CPCL), the company said in a filing to stock exchanges. Mr. Roy assumed charge on Tuesday. He has been appointed in place of A. S. Basu, who retired on May 31. Since then, the charge of Managing Director was with S. Venkataramana, Director (Operations), CPCL.