9th OCTOBER 2014

Kerala would become the first State to have high-speed Internet connecting all the panchayats in the State by March next year, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said here on Wednesday. Talking to the media after a meeting of the Cabinet, the Chief Minister said that remaining work on extending broadband connections to the panchayats as part of the National Optical Fibre Network would be completed in six months. Of the 800 km of cable needed for the project, 150 km had already been laid.

A few hill stations that were developed by the British but have little to show by way of development and infrastructure over the years will be part of the Centre’s ambitious smart city project. The Urban Development Ministry will identify and initiate the process with the help of private players.

Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday affirmed that the idyllic village of Jodeghat will be developed as a world class tourist destination located in 100 acres of land. The development will include construction of cottages for visitors besides laying a new double lane black topped road on the 22-km stretch between Hatti base camp and Jodeghat. Addressing a mammoth gathering of Adivasis at the 74th martyrdom anniversary of Gond leader Kumram Bheem, the Chief Minister also talked of establishing a tribal university and naming it after the martyr.

Two Americans and a German scientist won the Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for finding ways to make microscopes more powerful than previously thought possible, allowing scientists to see how diseases develop inside the tiniest cells. Working independently of each other, U.S. researchers Eric Betzig and William Moerner and Stefan Hell of Germany shattered previous limits on the resolution of optical microscopes by using glowing molecules to peer inside tiny components of life.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Centre and the States of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra on a batch of special leave petitions challenging the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal award. A Bench of Justices S.J. Mukhopadaya and P.C. Pant issued notice returnable in six weeks after hearing counsel for the States. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana pleaded for quashing the award on the ground that it was detrimental to them.

Actor Aamir Khan on Wednesday participated in a Unicef-initiated nutrition programme organised by a local women’s group at Kapilvastu in western Nepal Aamiris Unicef’s Ambassador promoting nutrition for children. During the visit, he will also be officially inducted as a regional goodwill ambassador for nutrition.

America’s prestigious Georgetown University has appointed its first Hindu priest to serve the religious needs of its Hindu students, whose numbers have increased in recent years. Pratima Dharm, who recently retired as the first Hindu chaplain in the U.S. Army, has been appointed as the first Hindu chaplain at the Georgetown University, a move welcomed by the Hindu students of this top private research university here.