Smriti Mandhana is set to become the first Indian to appear in the Kia Super League in England this summer after being signed by defending champions Western Storm. Mandhana will be Storm's second overseas player this season. India's T20 captain Harmanpreet Kaur had been signed by Surrey Stars last year but she had to pull out because of a shoulder injury.

"I am very excited to be playing for the Kia Super League champions," Mandhana was quoted by the Storm website. "To be the first Indian player to appear in the tournament is a real honour and I hope that I can help Western Storm to more success."

Mandhana, who will turn 22 next month, is one of the most sought-after Indian players apart from Harmanpreet. Mandhana has already represented Brisbane Heat in the Women's Big Bash League. More recently, she also led the Trailblazers side in the women's IPL exhibition match played in Mumbai last month.

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin declared the FIFA World Cup open after a colourful opening ceremony at the 81,000-seater Luzhniki Stadium here on Thursday.

"The love of football unites the world in one team, independent of language or ideology," the Russian president stated during his speech, as reported by Sputnik news agency.

Putin said he hoped fans, players and officials enjoy their stay in Russia during the World Cup, reports Xinhua news agency.

"Football is truly loved here and it is called love at first sight, since our first official match here in 1897," Putin said.

"I hope fans and teams enjoy their stay in Russia, an open, hospitable and friendly country with people who have the shared values. Football brings us altogether in one team, we are united by this spectacular game," he added.
FIFA chief Gianni Infantino also addressed the gathering.

Artistic performances from UK singer Robbie Williams and Russian operatic soprano Aida Garifullina were the highlights of the opening ceremony.

IT giant Tata Consultancy ServicesNSE 2.94 % on Friday became the first Indian company to close above the Rs 7 lakh crore mark in terms of market capitalisation. The shares of the company ended at a fresh lifetime high of Rs 1,841.50 after its board approved a share buyback of up to Rs 16,000 crore.

On the BSE, 7.66 lakh shares of the company were traded and over 91 lakh shares changed hands at the NSE during the day. On May 25, 2018, TCS’ market valuation had briefly crossed the Rs 7- ..

AMMAN (Reuters) - Jordan’s King Abdullah on Thursday swore in a new government led by a former World Bank economist and mandated to review a disputed tax system after widespread protests against IMF-driven austerity measures.

A government official said the new cabinet decided at a meeting after the swearing-in ceremony decided to withdraw a contentious personal and corporate tax bill which the previous government had sent to parliament and triggered the protests.

Abdullah, a relatively secure U.S. ally in a conflict-ridden Middle East, appointed Omar al-Razzaz, a Harvard-educated economist outside the ranks of the traditional political elite, as prime minister last week.

Razzaz replaces Hani Mulki, a business-friendly politician who was dismissed to defuse public anger that triggered some of the largest popular protests in years.

MOSCOW — The prime minister of Georgia resigned on Wednesday, citing disagreements with Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder of the governing party and the country’s richest man.

The resignation of Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili was announced in the wake of a series of antigovernment protests that have disrupted Tbilisi, the capital.

“We have had a number of fundamental disagreements with the party’s leader over the past months,” Mr. Kvirikashvili, who has headed the government since 2015, said in a televised briefing, without going into details. “Today is the moment when the party’s chairman should have the opportunity to form a team on the basis of his own views.”

Continuing towards digitalization and moving towards becoming a cashless economy, the initiative of faster and more techno-advanced transactions in Indian Railways is being taken up, the Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS) has developed a mobile based application ‘utsonmobile’. This application has the following features:

1. The ‘utsonmobile’ application enables booking and cancellation of unreserved tickets, issue and renewal of season and platform tickets, check and load R-wallet balance and helps maintain user profile management and booking history.
2. The ‘utsonmobile’ application is very handy, free and is available for both Android and Windows smart phone. Users can download this app from Google Play Store or Windows store free of cost.
3. First the passenger will get registered by providing his/her mobile number, name, city, default booking train type, class, ticket type, number of passenger and frequently travelling routes.
4. Upon successful registration, Railway Wallet (R-Wallet) will be created automatically with zero balance to the passenger. There will be no extra cost for creating R-Wallet.
5. The Railway Wallet (R-Wallet) can be recharged either at any of the UTS Counter or through recharge option available in the https://www.utsonmobile.indianrail.gov.in 

General Motors Co said on Wednesday Dhivya Suryadevara, currently vice president of corporate finance, will succeed Chuck Stevens on Sept. 1 as Chief Financial Officer of the No. 1 US automaker.

Suryadevara, 39, has played an integral role in some significant deals GM has made as it has restructured operations over the past several years, including the divestiture of the company's European arm Opel and the acquisition of self-driving vehicle startup Cruise. She played a role in securing earlier this month a $2.25 billion investment in GM Cruise by Japanese tech giant SoftBank Group Corp, GM said in a statement.

Inflation based on wholesale prices shot up to a 14-month high of 4.43 per cent in May on increasing prices of petrol and diesel as well as vegetables.

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation stood at 3.18 per cent in April and 2.26 per cent in May last year.

According to government data released on Thursday, inflation in food articles was at 1.60 per cent in May 2018, against 0.87 per cent in the preceding month.

Inflation in vegetables climbed to 2.51 per cent in May, while in the previous month it was (-)0.89 per cent.

Inflation in ‘fuel and power’ basket rose sharply to 11.22 per cent in May from 7.85 per cent in April as prices of domestic fuel increased in line with rising global crude oil rates.

Potato inflation was at a peak of 81.93 per cent, against 67.94 per cent in April.

Price rise in fruits was in double digits at 15.40 per cent, while pulses saw a deflation of 21.13 per cent.

The WPI inflation for March was revised upwards to 2.74 per cent from the provisional estimate of 2.47 per cent.

May inflation at 4.43 per cent was a 14-month peak. The previous high was in March 2017, when the WPI inflation stood at 5.11 per cen