Amaravati: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu will unveil the world's first-ever thermal battery in his Andhra Pradesh state on Monday.

Manufactured by the Bharat Energy Storage Technology Private Limited (BEST), the first-of-its-kind cell is aimed at boosting up renewable sources of energy production, instead of non-renewable fossil fuel-based energy generation.

The technology, which will help in mitigating carbon emissions, is best suited for grid balancing and stabilisations. It will also be used to store energy for telecommunication, commercial establishments, electric vehicles and highway charging stations. It can also be effectively used in remote locations, such as hilly terrains and islands.

The BEST also aims to set up a Greenfield Project in India, at an estimated cost of Rs. 660 crores, through which nearly 3000 jobs are expected to be created within three years' time.

The Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Shipping, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Shri Nitin Gadkari launched Bidder Information Management System (BIMS) and Bhoomi Rashi and PFMS linkage - two IT initiatives of the Road Transport & Highways Ministry that are aimed at expediting pre construction processes relating to bidding and land acquisition respectively. The Minister also announced institution of Annual Awards for Excellence in National Highways Projects from this year onwards.

BIMS is aimed at streamlining the process of pre-qualification of bidders for EPC Mode of contracts for National Highway works with enhanced transparency and objectivity. The portal will work as a data base of information about bidders, covering basic details, civil works experience, cash accruals and network, annual turnover etc. The pre-qualification of bidders can be assessed from data already stored in the portal, so that technical evaluation can be carried out much faster. BIMS will be used by all the project implementation agencies of the Ministry for maintenance of technical information of civil works of contractors/ concessionaires, and for online technical evaluation of civil works bids. The bidders would be responsible for ensuring that their latest details are available on the BIMS portal. These details will be used by bidders to apply for any RFP for civil works on EPC mode that has been floated by the Ministry and its implementation agencies on the Central Public Procurement Portal (CPPP). The BIMS portal will be operated in conjunction with the CPPP portal for invitation of bids for civil works for EPC mode. It is estimated that BIMS portal will significantly reduce the procurement time for projects through an objective and transparent online evaluation system thereby leading to accelerated project implementation.

Italian motorcycle-maker Benelli today signed an MoU with Telangana government and Adishwar Auto Ride International (AARI), a subsidiary of Mahavir Group, for setting a manufacturing facility here.

The group company would initially start assembling CKD (completely knocked down) kits of the bike here for Benelli and the partnership entitles Adishwar to assemble, manufacture bikes and import exclusive range of the bikes from Italy and SouthEast Asian regions, managing director of Benelli India Vikas Jhabakh said in a press conference.

Established in 1911, Benelli is one of the oldest Italian motorcycle-manufacturer and has presence in over 60 countries such as America, Africa, Europe and Asia Pacific regions.

"In 2005, Benelli became part of Qjian Jiang Group, China. As of now, we are selling about 2,500 bikes in India. We aim to assemble 10,000 units in the first phase. Once we reach that figure, we aim to go in for production here," he said.

Manama: Saudi Arabia said it was freezing all new trade and investment relations with Canada and declared the Canadian ambassador to Riyadh as persona non grata, giving him 24 hours to leave the kingdom, in response to Canada’s call for the release of anti-government activist Samar Badawi.
Riyadh also recalled its ambassador to Canada for consultations and stressed it retained its right to take further action, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Monday morning.

The Saudi decisions were in reaction to Canada’s "blatant and unacceptable interference" in the domestic affairs of the kingdom, the ministry explained.

New Delhi: Farm and construction equipment maker Escorts today appointed Nikhil Nanda as the chairman and managing director (MD) of the company to succeed his father Rajan Nanda who passed away earlier this week after a brief illness.

The company’s board unanimously appointed Nikhil as the chairman and MD to succeed his late father, Escorts said in a statement.

“I am aware that an enormous responsibility, with a great legacy, has been entrusted on me...I am confident that with board’s guidance and our engineering strength we will continue to live up to the expectations across stakeholders,” Nikhil said.

Escorts will create products and solutions which will transform agriculture by empowering farmers with mechanised, precision-based autonomous technology and partner nation to build smart and safe infrastructure, he added.

Nikhil, who is an alumnus of Wharton Business School, Philadelphia, has been a key member of the company’s board since 1997.

Rajan, who died at the age of 76, had joined Escorts in 1965 and took over the reins of the company when his father and founder chairman H P Nanda stepped down in 1994 after a 50-year long innings.

The iconic Mughalsarai Railway Junction in Uttar Pradesh has been renamed as Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Junction Railway station; BJP National President Amit Shah inaugurated the renamed station.

A goods train with an all-woman crew was also flagged off. A smart yard project was also launched on the ocassion.

The bi-weekly Ekatmata Express, train connecting Lucknow and Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction was also flagged off.

Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath were present on the occasion.

Netherlands were crowned Women's Hockey World Cup winners for a record eighth time as a crushing 6-0 victory ended Ireland's fairytale tournament.

Four goals in a seven-minute spell around the half-time break earned the Dutch an emphatic victory.

Ireland had won new fans on their unlikely road to the final, but had no answer to their opponents' intensity.

Their reward for reaching the final is an expected climb into the top 10 of the world rankings for the first time.

The 30-year-old posted a six-under 66 at Natadola Bay golf club to finish on 14 under, with a penultimate-hole eagle lifting him ahead of nearest challenger Anthony Quayle.

Quayle had fired a back-nine 29 to close a round-of-the-day 63 and set the clubhouse target, only for overnight leader Bhullar to edge back ahead and become the sixth Indian winner on the European Tour.