23rd SEPTEMBER 2014

Pakistan on Monday named Rizwan Akhtar as the new head for its main intelligence agency, considered the second most powerful military official after the Army Chief.

The directors of IIT-Madras and IIT-Kanpur are preparing a framework for a new ranking system for universities in the country. The rough framework for the India-centric ranking system, which will have a set of parameters, will be ready by December, the Union HRD Secretary Ashok Thakur said.The IITs are currently working with Central universities.

While officials in India and Pakistan insist there is no proposal for a meeting between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in New York this week, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will interact with her Pakistani counterpart Sartaj Aziz during a SAARC multilateral meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Friday.

China has continued to remain upbeat about the future of India-China ties, pointing out that the “important consensus” that had recently been reached between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will keep the borders calm, and drive the relationship forward. Brushing aside apprehensions that persisting tensions along the Sino-Indian frontier in Ladakh could undermine the gains of Mr. Xi’s visit, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying, in response to a question, asserted that “this is [a] totally unnecessary suspicion.”

The test-firing of the propulsion system on India’s spacecraft to Mars for four seconds on Monday (September 22, 2014) turned out to be an unalloyed success. What buoyed up the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) engineers was that the propulsion system, called 440 Newton engine or the Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM), ignited after it had remained idle for the last 300 days during the voyage of India’s orbiter to Mars. The LAM was last fired on December 1, 2013 when the spacecraft was slung-shot from its earth-orbit into sun-centric orbit and its odyssey through space to Mars began.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) submitted a confusing affidavit to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday, saying State governments in the Western Ghats region may, after undertaking demarcation of Eco-sensitive Areas (ESA) by physical verification, propose the exclusion/inclusion of certain areas in the draft notification dated March 10, 2014.

Automobili Lamborghini, on Monday, launched all-new Huracan in the domestic market. Priced at a whopping Rs.3.43 crore (ex-showroom Delhi), Huracan LP 610-4 replaces the Italian sports car major’s earlier successful model Gallardo. Huracan LP made its global debut at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show in March. The car boasts a naturally aspirated V10 engine with 5.2 litre displacement. This allows it to accelerate from 0-100 kilometres per hour (kmph) in a jaw-dropping 3.2 seconds and touch a maximum speed of 325 kmph.

The Indian trio of Rahi Sarnobat, Anisa Sayyed and Heena Sidhu won the women’s 25m pistol team bronze in the 17th Asian Games at the Ongnyeon Shooting Range on Monday. The women finished behind South Korea and China and Sarnobat could manage only a seventh place in the individual event. Ayonika Paul, the Commonwealth Games silver medallist, also could finish only seventh in the 10m rifle event.

The Union Minister of State for Sports and Youth Affairs Sarbanand Sonowal inaugurated the National academy in athletics (sprints and jumps) — a new initiative of the Sports Authority of India — at the Lakshmibai National College of Physical Education, Kariyavattom on Monday. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Sonowal said the academy was being established with the intention to create a long-term training programme in athletics and unearthing future champions.