26th SEPTEMBER 2014

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected in New York, for a five-day visit which is likely to focus on boosting the Indian economy. Calling the U.S. “a vital partner for our national development” as he left for his tour, Mr. Modi said he hopes to “draw especially on the rich possibilities of partnership in education, skills, research, technology and innovation.” However, no big announcement is expected out of the visit and meeting with U.S. President Obama, as even the State Department’s point-person Nisha Biswal commented that the two sides are not looking for any “transformational initiative” during this visit

The Railway Ministry started e-catering service in select trains on the Delhi-Amritsar section on a trial basis on Thursday. Under the scheme, a passenger will be able to place an order to be served at his seat en route, through a phone call or an SMS.

For promoting apples and apple-made products by the locals the State Tourism Department on Thursday organised an apple festival for tourists coming to the hill State. The festival coincides with the start of Navratras and Durga Puja holidays.

The flush of the successful Indian Mars manoeuvre will take a while to wear off. Team ISRO has, meanwhile, got down to brass tacks and expects to get one of its biggest projects off the mark this calendar year — GSLV-Mark III. Success of this heavy-lift, four-tonne satellite launcher is imperative to make India capable of launching its future communication satellites from its soil. “We are preparing for the GSLV-MkIII experimental mission,” ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan recently said.

Eric Holder, the first ever African-American Attorney General of the U.S., was on Thursday set to resign from his role after nearly six tumultuous years as the Obama administration’s top legal official, a tenure that won him both rare approbation from liberal quarters and severe criticism from opponents across the aisle.

Egyptian courts sentenced nearly 100 people to prison for up to 25 years on Thursday after finding them guilty of violence during protests in support of ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsy. Hundreds of Morsy supporters have been handed lengthy jail terms and death sentences after speedy trials amid a brutal crackdown by the authorities since the Islamist’s overthrow in July last year.

The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) has announced six new sub-licences with Aurobindo, Cipla, Emcure, Hetero Labs, Laurus Labs and Desano to allow generic manufacture of anti-AIDS drug tenofovir alafenamide (TAF). This follows MPP’s signing a licence with U.S. pharmaceutical major Gilead Sciences Inc. for the company’s TAF, which is a novel investigational medicine. A statement from MPP said the announcement comes a day after Gilead released positive results on two of its TAF Phase III studies which suggest that the medicine has the potential to play a large role in the international community’s efforts to scale up HIV treatment. The sub-licence is for the generic manufacturers to make the generic versions of TAF for 112 developing countries.

For the first time, the 100 richest tycoons in India are all billionaires with Mukesh Ambani topping the league for the eighth consecutive year, according to Forbes . With a net worth of $23.6 billion, up $2.6 billion from last year, RIL Chief Mukesh Ambani topped the list for the eighth consecutive year. Mr. Ambani was followed by Dilip Shanghvi, who got richer this year by $4.1 billion. Mr. Shanghvi is the new No. 2, after he displaced steel baron Lakshmi Mittal ($15.8 billion), who slipped to the fifth place. Wipro’s Azim Premji moved up one notch to the number three position as his net wealth increased to $16.4 billion from $13.8 billion previously. Pallonji Mistry of construction giant Shapoorji Pallonji Group, which is the biggest shareholder in Tata Sons, with a new worth of $15.9 billion, was placed in the fourth place.

Emami Biotech, the edible oil and bio-diesel arm of the Rs.8,000-crore Emami Group, has entered into an agreement with Kolkata-based Rasoi Limited, the edible oil arm of Rasoi Group, to acquire ‘RASOI’, a brand with a 50-year legacy. The agreement was signed on September 25.