RANCHI: Marking the beginning of e-mobility in the state, Chief Minister Raghubar Das on Wednesday flagged off electric vehicles at Jharkhand Secretariat in the presence of senior government officials. Initially, 20 vehicles were handed over to Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited (JBVNL), with the remaining 30 to be given in the next two weeks.

Twelve charging stations have been set up at four offices of JBVNL, including its corporate office in Ranchi, for creating a supporting infrastructure, which is crucial for the promotion of e-mobility.

"Electric mobility is an attractive, sustainable and profitable solution to mitigate climate change and the threat to public health caused by vehicular emissions. Today's event is an important milestone for ushering in an era of clean, green and future-oriented technologies in Jharkhand. We are glad to join the Government of India's mission of rapid adoption of e-mobility in the country and we would like to see our state at the forefront of this revolution," said the chief minister. This initiative is expected to help JBVNL save more than 1.20 lakh litres of fuel every year and reduce CO2 emissions by over 1,400 tonnes annually. In addition, the JBVNL will make monetary savings in maintenance as the operating cost of the electric vehicles is one-fourth of that of vehicles with an internal combustion engine.

The electric vehicles were provided to JBVNL following an agreement with Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), under the Ministry of Power, Government of India, for the deployment of 50 electric vehicles at various JBVNL offices in Ranchi.

Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi today launched the country's first National Scholarship Portal Mobile App in New Delhi.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Navqi said, this Portal will ensure a smooth, accessible and hassle-free scholarship system for students belonging to poor and weaker sections.

He said all the scholarships are being directly transferred into bank accounts of the needy students under Director Benefit Transfer mode, which has prevented duplication and leakage.

Mr Naqvi said this portal will prove beneficial for students and will help in strengthening a transparent mechanism for the scholarships.

The Minister said during the last four years, about three crore students belonging to poor and weaker sections of minorities have been benefited from various scholarship programmes.

The beneficiaries include about one crore 63 lakh girls

Speaking on this occasion Chaudhary Birender Singh said secondary steel sector contributes to more than half of the total steel production in the country. In order to enhance their global competitiveness, the awardhas been constituted. The Minister further added that in the context of India’s aim to create a globally competitive steel industry the secondary steel sector has to play an important role along with integrated steel players in order to achieve 300 million tonne capacity by the year 2030-31. At present India has 134 MT capacity. Secretary Steel, Binoy Kumar, said this recognition will encourage the secondary steel sector to strive for improving performance as well as quality of production. He said the consumption of steel in India has almost touched 70 kg per capita.

The secondary steel sector is a critical and important segment of the market spanning from construction, machine tools, cold rolled products, pipes, stainless steel, galvanized and color coated steel as well as exports. Nearly 150 units had applied for the awards, of which 82 units were inspected by the selection committee and the awardees were selected based on well-defined criteria.

President Ram Nath Kovind Thursday appointed Justice Ranjan Gogoi as the next Chief Justice of India, the law ministry confirmed in a notification. Taking the baton from CJI Dipak Misra, Justice Gogoi will assume office on October 3, 2018, as the 46th CJI. His tenure will end in November 2019.

Read: Challenges for the next CJI

CJI Misra on September 4 had recommended Justice Ranjan Gogoi, the senior most judge present in the Supreme Court, as his successor. The recommendation was processed to President Kovind to issue the warrant of appointment, which was confirmed on Thursday.

Earlier, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar had said that government’s intention on the appointment of the next CJI should not be questioned and that the executive would take a call.

The Haryana Vidhan Sabha has passed the Haryana State Commission for Scheduled Castes Bill, 2018, for development and safeguarding the interests of people belonging to the community.

This Bill was passed Tuesday, which was the last day of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha session.

The Haryana State Commission for Scheduled Castes Bill, 2018, has been passed to provide for the constitution of Commission for Scheduled Castes in the state for the overall development and welfare of scheduled castes and safeguard their interests as per the Bill.

Besides, the commission would also check and curb the trocities being committed on the Scheduled Castes.

The commission will investigate and examine the working of various safeguards provided in the Constitution or under any other law for the time being in force or under any order of the government for the

BENGALURU: Looking to further cement its position in India, South Korean tech major Samsung on Tuesday set up what is arguably the world's largest mobile experience centre in Bengaluru, barely two months after it opened its biggest mobile factory in Noida.
According to Mohandeep Singh, Senior Vice President, Mobile Business, Samsung India, the tech major is looking to become a part of the larger communtiy in Bengaluru and this (experience centre) is an extension of the firm's "Make for India" endeavour.

"We are looking at more number of such experience centres in the country. We are looking at covering all the big cities in India over a period of time with such centres," Mr Singh told news agency IANS.

However, he did not mention a timeline for the launch of other such centres in India.

Bengaluru's iconic Opera House on Brigade Road was given a facelift to turn it into "Samsung Opera House" that brings together technology, lifestyle and innovation to offer unique experience to users and prospective buyers.

The centre would offer Virtual Reality (VR), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) experiences and for the first time in India, enthusiasts would be able to enjoy VR

Padma Bhushan awardee and noted agricultural economist Vijay Shankar Vyas passed away on Wednesday here after a brief illness, a family member said. He was 87. The last rites will be performed at the Lal Kothi crematorium, his elder son Vikram Vyas said. He had held several C, professional and leadership positions in national and international organizations. The economist was the director of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Jaipur.

He was also a senior advisor in the World Bank’s agriculture and rural development department. Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and former chief minister Ashok Gehlot condoled Vyas’s demise. “Deeply saddened by the demise of noted agricultural economist and Padma Bhushan Vijay Shankar Vyas. His work was acclaimed world over.

“With his passing Rajasthan and especially Bikaner has lost one of its leading sources of inspiration. My condolences to the family,” Raje said in a tweet. Gehlot said Vyas contribution in forming the state’s and country’s economic and public welfare policy was immense. He was the vice president of the state planning board during my tenure as CM and will be remembered for his talent, Gehlot said in his condolence message.

We now have three years of global hunger or chronic deprivation”, Cindy Holleman, Senior Economist at FAO, told UN News in an interview on Tuesday. “Many governments and organisations had made a lot of achievements in reducing hunger and it had been falling for 10-15 years,” she said, adding that “the levels of hunger are now where they were, almost a decade ago.”

Noting that “this is an alarming signal,” she explained that the increase is mostly due to three drivers across the world: the intensification of conflict, an economic downturn and the effects of climate change.

The report emphasizes that climate variability and extremes are already undermining food production in some regions and, if action to mitigate disaster risk reduction and preparedness is not taken, the situation will only get worse as temperatures are expected to continue to rise and become more extreme.

“We must also keep in mind that the underlying factors or causes of hunger are also poverty, and inequalities and marginalization”, Ms. Holleman added, stressing that, as the world works to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals, addressing these root causes will be as critical as implementing peace and climate resilience initiatives.

China on Wednesday said it was "pleased" to see infrastructure cooperation among countries in the region, when asked about today's launching of work on India's first high-speed rail or bullet train project by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Ahmedabad.

Beijing also said it "stands ready" to take forward cooperation with India, with China already carrying out feasibility studies for two high-speed rail (HSR) or bullet-train projects in India, between Chennai and New Delhi and from New Delhi to Nagpur.

The launching of work on the 500-km Mumbai-Ahmedabad line, India's first HSR line set to be completed by 2023, is the highlight of the Japanese PM's India visit, which kicks off in Gujarat today.

China and Japan are currently the biggest exporters of HSR technology, with Beijing scoring over Tokyo in securing projects in Indonesia and Thailand. While Japan's famed shinkansen bullet train network long predates China's, Beijing has since 2008 rapidly gone forward with installing more than 20,000 km of HSR track, which is today the world's longest bullet train network.

Russia launches a week of massive military exercises in the far east of the country this week and the Pentagon will be watching the "war games" very closely, experts told CNBC.

As many as 300,000 Russian troops are expected to take part in large-scale military drills as part of "Vostok 2018," Russia's annual military training exercises taking place between September 11-17.

Aside from personnel, up to 36,000 tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, armoured personnel carriers and other vehicles will be involved, Russia's Ministry of Defence said in a statement on their website on Tuesday. In addition, over 1,000 aircraft, helicopters and drones, and 80 ships and supply vessels will take part. Vostok 2018 will also see the Russian military practice massive airstrikes and measures against cruise missiles.

This year's military exercises, widely known as "war games," are set to be the biggest to take place since 1981 when the Cold War overshadowed international relations.