NEW DELHI: Ten months after a controversial move to merge the National Crimes Records Bureau (NCRB) with the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD), the Centre has overturned its decision and de-merged the two organisations.

The ministry of home affairs has, in fact, referred the matter to the Madhukar Gupta Committee for examination and advice on the merger of central research and data collection organisations.

MHA had, in August 2017, merged the two organisations for better research and data collection related to crimes, police, paramilitary forces etc.

NCRB, which, over the years, has been the principal source of reference by policy makers, police, criminologists, researchers and media – both in India and abroad, was not happy with the decision.

BPRD was given charge of NCRB on the ground that there should be more research based and methodological data collection in future as data collection by NCRB as of now was mostly taken from states and is sometimes inaccurate.

The Election Commission of India today launched an online RTI portal to help applicants seeking information under the Right To Information Act. The portal can be accessed on the home page of the commission's website 'eci.nic.in', an official statement said.

There is also a gateway for making online payment of requisite fees under the RTI Act. The portal also facilitates online reply to applications and also for making first appeal and reply thereto.

There will be timely notification alerts to the RTI applicant via SMS and email, the statement said.

Malcolm Turnbull says he would welcome Facebook being compelled to testify in front of the Australian parliament’s intelligence and security committee and “would love to see the boss”, Mark Zuckerberg.

The deputy chairman of the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security, Labor MP Anthony Byrne, told The Australian last night Facebook and its 34-year-old founder owed answers to the social network’s 15 million ­Australian users, following revelations of its “backdoor deal” with Huawei, the Chinese technology giant with links to the Communist Party.

Mr Byrne has been backed by the Turnbull government’s chairman of the committee, Liberal MP ­Andrew Hastie, in a bipartisan ­response to revelations that Facebook had shared personal data with Huawei, which has been banned from government contracts in Aus­tralia, including the NBN, on the ­advice of ASIO.

Montreal: Lewis Hamilton will return to his happiest stomping ground this weekend when he seeks to extend his world championship lead with a record-equalling seventh triumph at the Canadian Grand Prix.

The defending four-time champion, who leads the nearest rival and fellow four-time champion Sebastian Vettel by 14 points after six races, claimed his maiden Formula One win at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in 2007. Since then Hamilton has added five more wins, including a hat-trick of Mercedes triumphs in 2015, 2016 and 2017 to move within reach of becoming the first man to secure four straight pole positions – he converted pole in each of those years – and four consecutive wins.

NEW DELHI: The World Bankhas approved India’s Rs 6,000 crore central scheme which aims to improve ground water management in priority areas in the country through community participation over a period of five years from 2018-19 to 2022-23, said the Union water resources ministry on Wednesday

The ministry will soon seek Cabinet approval for the scheme - called Atal Bhujal Yojana (ABHY). The priority areas identified under the scheme fall in Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

These states represent about 25% of the total number of over-exploited, critical and semi-critical blocks in terms of ground water availability in India.

 Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday hiked the repo rate and reverse repo rate at 6.25 percent and 6 percent respectively.

Maintaining a neutral stance, the central bank's six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), in its Monetary Policy Statement reiterated its commitment to achieving the medium-term target for headline inflation of 4 percent on a durable basis.

‘GDP growth is projected in the range of 7.5-7.6 percent in H1 and 7.3-7.4 percent in H2, with risks evenly balanced,’ stated the Monetary Policy statement.

A Pakistani journalist and rights activist who openly criticised the military and its alleged meddling in politics was freed early on Wednesday, several hours after being abducted, her family and colleagues said.

The journalist, Gul Bukhari, who is a dual Pakistani-British national, has been an unusually vocal critic of Pakistan`s powerful military on social media in the run-up to the July 25 general election. She has also defended Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party founder Nawaz Sharif, who has clashed with the military.

Bukhari was on her way to record a TV programme on Tuesday evening on the late-night Waqt news show when her vehicle was intercepted in the cantonment area of the eastern city of Lahore and she was taken away, her husband and two media colleagues said.

NEW DELHI: Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli's wax statue was unveiled at the Madame Tussauds museum in the capital on Wednesday.

Kohli is the latest sporting celebrity after Lionel Messi, Kapil Dev and Usian Bolt, who made it to the India branch of the iconic wax statue museum.

"I sincerely appreciate the efforts and incredible work undergone in making my figure. Thanks to Madame Tussauds for choosing me for this lifetime experience. I am grateful to my fans for their love and support.

The Centre has appointed MK Jain, Managing Director and CEO of IDBI Bank, as the RBI’s Deputy Governor.

Jain will fill a position that had been lying vacant since August 2017 after the retirement of SS Mundra.

With the appointment of Jain, the Centre has stuck to the tradition of having a commercial banker occupy this post of RBI Deputy Governor (reserved for bankers). The central bank now has four serving RBI Deputy Governors.

India on Monday received its cheapest LNG under a long-term deal as Russia began shipping natural gas at a delivered price of close to $7 per million British thermal unit.

At current oil prices, the Russian rate is $1.5 per mmBtu less than the price at which Qatar, India’s oldest supplier, delivered liquefied natural gas (LNG). Russian supplies are also cheaper by $1-1.5 per mmBtu than the LNG sourced from Australia and the U.S.

Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who flew in to Dahej to witnessed arrival of first LNG ship under a 20-year import deal with Gazprom, termed the event as Golden Day in the India’s energy pursuit.