Former World No 1 Amelie Mauresmo becomes first woman captain of France's Davis Cup team
Paris: Former World No 1 Amelie Mauresmo on Saturday became the first woman appointed to captain France's Davis Cup team.
Mauresmo succeeds Yannick Noah next year, the French tennis federation (FFT) announced.
In contrast, Julien Benneteau, who retires after the US Open in September, will take the reins of France's side in the women's equivalent the Fed Cup.
Mauresmo, who turns 39 on 5 July, was captain of the Fed Cup team in 2015 and 2016, and led them from the second division to the final of the competition, which they lost to the Czech Republic in Strasbourg.
At a press conference to unveil the two captains, FFT president Bernard Giudicelli hailed a "completely groundbreaking choice" of putting "a woman in charge of French men's tennis."
Ministry of Women & Child Development receives the ‘Best Performing Social Sector Ministry’ SKOCH Award for its Achievements and Initiatives
Lauding the achievements of the Ministry of Women and Child Development in delivering the promises made and for its significant achievements and initiatives from the last 4 years, SKOCH has conferred the ‘Best performing Social Sector Ministry’ award on the Ministry of Women and Child Development. Minister for Women and Child Development Smt.Maneka Sanjay Gandhi has received the award on behalf of the Ministry in an event held in New Delhi today.
Outlining the achievements and initiatives of the Ministry, Smt.Maneka Sanjay Gandhi has said that under the leadership of the Prime Minister, flagship schemes like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao has achieved huge success within a very short period of time. Under this scheme, efforts were made at National, regional and local level which led to behaviour change which is reflecting in the improved sex ration at birth.
The Minister further shared the details on the achievements of the Ministry including 6 months maternity leave, Sexual Harassment at Work Place Act, SHe-box, One stop centres, Universal Women help line (181), 33 per cent reservation in police. The Minister also mentioned that a special division has been set up recently by Ministry of Home Affairs for women related issues, on the request of WCD Ministry. Stressing that forensic analysis plays a critical role in nabbing the culprits in sexual assault cases, the Minister has said that earlier this month, foundation of Sakhi Suraksha Advanced DNA Forensic Laboratory was laid in Chandigarh and added that 5 more advanced forensic labs would come up in Guwahati, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune and Bhopal. The Minister also said that special forensic kits for rape cases will be provided to all police stations and hospitals.The funds for these kits will be provided from Nirbhaya Fund.
Arijit Basu to be State Bank of India's new Managing Director
The government today appointed Arjit Basu as managing director of the country's largest lender State Bank of IndiaNSE 1.64 %. He will fill the position that fell vacant following the elevation of Rajnish Kumar as the chairman. Now, after this the SBI will have four managing directors. As per the SBI Act, the bank can have four managing directors.
According to a statement, the government has appointed deputy managing director Basu as managing director with effect from the date of taking over charge till his superannuation in October 2020.
Prior to becoming deputy managing director, he served as managing director of SBI Life Insurance. A graduate in Economics and a Master of Arts in History, Basu started his career with State Bank of India in 1983 as a probationary officer. Basu has held several key positions in various circles of SBI including the bank's office at Tokyo.
Seychelles parliament blocks treaty allowing India to build naval base on remote island
Seychelles parliament will not ratify a pact allowing India to build naval facilities on one of the archipelago's islands, a top foreign affairs ministry official said on Friday.
The two countries signed an agreement in January to build military facilities on the remote island of Assumption, but the project quickly attracted criticism from opposition members of the tiny Indian Ocean nation's parliament and lead to public protests.
Opposition lawmakers had argued that allowing India access to Assumption, which is near a busy shipping route, would be surrendering territory to another country and joint management of the facility with India undermined the 115-island nation's sovereignty.
"The government will not present the agreement to the National Assembly (parliament) for approval because opposition members (who are the majority) have already said they will not ratify it," Seychelles Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Barry Faure told Reuters by phone.
Indian scientists discover ‘sub-Saturn’ or ‘super-neptune’ size planet around Sun-like star
A team of scientists and engineers of Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad have discovered a sub-Saturn or super-neputune size planet around a Sun-like star. The planet discovered by the team led by Prof. Abhijit Chakraborty for PRL will be known as EPIC 211945201b or K2-236b. The mass of the new planet is about 27 Earth mass ; and its size about of six Earth radii.
The discovery gains significance as it helps the scientists to understand the formation mechanism of such super-Neptune or sub-Saturn kind of planets, that are too close to the host star and as well as planet formations
The official statement said that was made by measuring the mass of the planet using the indigenously designed “PRL Advance Radial-velocity Abu-sky Search” (PARAS) spectrograph integrated with 1.2m Telescope at PRL’s Gurushikhar Observatory in Mount Abu, India.
“Only 23 such planetary systems (including this discovery) are known to this date with masses between 10 and 70 Earth mass and size of 4 to 8 Earth radii with such precise measurement of mass,” the statement said.
With this discovery, India has joined a handful of countries, which have discovered planets around stars beyond our solar system. Further, PARAS is the first of its kind spectrograph in Asia, which can measure the mass of a planet going around a star. Very few spectrographs exist around the world that can do such precise measurements, the statement added.
Modi lays foundation stone of paperless office for Commerce Ministry
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday laid the foundation stone of Vanijya Bhawan, a new office complex here for the department of commerce that is to be built at an estimated cost of Rs 226 crore.
Located near India Gate, the complex is being built on a plot of 4.33 acres, belonging to erstwhile Directorate General of Supplies and Disposals (DGS&D), the commerce ministry said in a statement.
It will be a completely paperless office with modern facilities such as smart access control, video conferencing and completely networked systems. The statement said that over 56 per cent of the 214 trees on the plot are either being left untouched or are being replanted on the same plot.
Adressing the media at the event Prime minister Narendra Modi said, India has moved away from culture of delaying work. He added that, GST is transforming business in the country, 54 lakh new indirect tax payers have registered after GST to take total base to over 1 crore.
GST fails its biggest promise of economy formalisation: HSBC
A year into implementation, goods and services tax (GST) has not delivered on the promised formalisation of the economy as yet, while the glitches in the one-nation-one-tax regime has increased the demand for cash, says a foreign brokerage report.
"The GST regime was originally associated with formality. But so far, in our view, it has not been able to live up to that promise. nor has it brought down the demand for cash which has in fact only gone up," British brokerage HSBC said in a report today.
The report, however, noted that over the long-term, GST will lead to more formalisation of the economy.
B Sriram, SBI's MD, Appointed As IDBI Bank's CEO
New Delhi: State Bank of India's (SBI) Managing Director B Sriram was appointed as the IDBI Bank's CEO and managing director for a temporary period of three months, according to an official order. He has been appointed in place of incumbent Mahesh Kumar Jain who was recently named Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Sriram as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of IDBI Bank for a temporary period of three months with effect from Jain's demitting office, the order issued by the Personnel Ministry said.
Sriram has been working as the MD (Corporate and Global Banking) in SBI since July 2014. He had been Managing Director of State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur. Sriram joined the government-run bank in 1981 as a Probationary Officer.
During over three-decade-long career, he held several positions and also had a stint at SBI's Singapore office. His appointment signals the government's efforts to ensure that the bank does not remain headless after Jain's appointment in the central bank.
ICICI Bank looks to appoint M.D. Mallya as new chairman
Mumbai/Bengaluru: ICICI Bank Ltd has sought the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) approval to name independent director M.D. Mallya as the next chairman of India’s second largest private bank, whose board has been criticized for letting a crisis at the bank fester.
Mallya, a former chairman of Bank of Baroda, joined the ICICI Bank board on 29 May, and the lender sent his name to RBI in the first week of June, an executive familiar with the development said, requesting anonymity. The term of current chairman M.K. Sharma ends on 30 June.
“I believe the proposal was sent to RBI after discussing with the board,” said the executive. “The majority of the board is in favour of Mallya as the chairman. The RBI decision has to concur with board’s proposal in such matters. (Still) the bank is yet to hear from RBI.”
In retaliation to Donald Trump's tariffs war, India to hike import duty on certain US products from 4 August onwards
New Delhi: In a retaliatory move, India has hiked customs duty on several goods, including Bengal gram, lentils and artemia, imported from the US.
The import duty hike would be effective from 4 August, the Finance ministry said in a notification.
The import duty on chickpeas and Bengal gram has been increased to 60 percent, while that on lentils has been hiked to 30 percent.
Duty on artemia, a kind of shrimp, has been hiked to 15 percent.
The other products on which duties have been hiked include certain kind of nuts, iron and steel products, apples, pears, flat rolled products of stainless steel, other alloy steel, tube and pipe fittings, and screws, bolts and rivets.
However, there was no duty hike on motorcycles imported from the US.
Last week, India had submitted to the WTO a revised list of 30 items on which it proposed to raise customs duties by up to 50 percent.
The move was in retaliation to the duty hike by the US on certain steel and aluminium products which had tariff implication of $241 million on India.
The duty hike by India would have an equivalent tariff implications for the US.