The rupee Thursday weakened by 24 paise to hit another low of 74.45 against the US dollar on strong demand for the American currency from importers amid unabated foreign fund outflows and a sharp losses in the domestic equity market.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (forex) market, the domestic currency opened weak at 74.37 and slipped further to quote at an all-time low of 74.45, depreciating 24 paise against the US dollar in the early trade.

Forex dealers said besides strong demand for the American currency from importers, concerns of fears of rising fiscal deficit and capital outflows weighed on the domestic currency.

On Wednesday, the rupee snapped its six-session losing streak to end 18 paise higher at 74.21 against the US dollar after the American currency weakened overseas.

Investors remained concerned over sustained foreign capital outflows.

Meanwhile, the BSE benchmark Sensex crashed 1,030.40 points, or 2.95 per cent, to hit 33,730.49 in opening trade. Nifty below 10,200 on global sell-off.

UNICEF and NASSCOM Foundation Monday signed an agreement to strengthen child rights through "meaningful business interventions", an official statement said.

With this Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the two organisations will work collaboratively on two key areas including national sensitisation on 'child online protection' and 'encouraging innovations for child rights' in the country, a statement by UNICEF said.

"Cyber offences against children are spreading and diversifying across India as new methods are used to harass, abuse and exploit children," it said.

This year Goa International Film Festival from 20th to 28th of November will have Jharkhand as a partner state. The decision was taken yesterday in meeting between Secretary of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting ,Mr. Amit Khare and Chief Secretary of Jharkhand, Sudhir Tripathy at Ranchi.

This will allow Jharkhand to showcase its culture and favourable film making incentives announed by the state government. It was decided to open community radio station at every districts of Jharkhand.

It was also decided to organize Jharkhand Film Festival, under Indian Panorama, in two towns of Jharkhand in the first month of next year.

BHUBANESWAR: Odisha is going to have a Second Generation (2G) Ethanol Bio-Refinery, first in the country to produce ethanol from rice straw, in Bargarh district. The facility, which is expecting its mechanical commissioning in the next two years, is one among 12 refineries planned in 11 States in the country. To be set up at Baulsingha village under Bhatli tehsil by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) at an estimated cost of Rs1000 crore, the bio-refinery will produce three crore litre of fuel-grade ethanol annually using rice straw as feedstock.

Governor Prof Ganeshi Lal is slated to lay the foundation stone for the plant in presence of Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan on October 10. Briefing newsmen, CGM (Biofuels) of BPCL Sanjeeb Paul said the bio-refinery will be set up in an area of 58 acres provided by the State Government. Ethanol produced from the plant will be blended with petrol, he said.

“Apart from Odisha, BPCL is setting up bio-refineries in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. But the Bargarh plant will be the first in the country to start construction work. Commercial production will start after the mechanical commissioning in December 2020,” Paul informed. Biofuels have assumed importance due to growing energy security needs and environmental concerns. An estimate stated that India has surplus biomass availability of about 160 MMT annually which if converted has the potential to yield 3000 crore litre of ethanol.

The Indian Under-19 boys registered a comfortable victory over Sri Lanka in the final to win the U-19 Asia Cup for the sixth time.

India thrashed Sri Lanka by 144 runs in the summit clash in Dhaka thanks to spinner Harsh Tyagi's six-wicket haul.

Chasing a mammoth 305 for a victory, Sri Lanka kept losing wickets and crumbled for 160 in 38.4 overs as Tyagi finished with an impressive figures of 6/38.

Earlier, India rode on half-centuries from Yashasvi Jaiswal (85), stand-in skipper PrabhSimran Singh (65 not out), Anuj Rawat (57) and Ayush Badoni (unbeaten 52) to post 304/3 in their 50 overs.

Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari will lay the foundation stone for widening and improvement of 1224 crore rupees worth of National Highways works in Uttar Pradesh tomorrow. The projects include widening and improvement of Ramjanaki Marg in National Highways 227A from Ayodhya Cantt to Rampur 55 kilometres at a cost of 315 crore rupees and 35 km from Rampur to Sikriganj at a cost of 250 crore rupees.

Mr Gadkari will also lay the foundation for the 14 kilometre long Basti Ring Road Phase 1 which is to be constructed at a cost of 450 crore rupees and the widening and improvement of the 35 km long Badhni -Shoratganj section of NH-730 is to be undertaken for a cost of 200 crore rupees.

Mr Gadkari will also lay the foundation stone for the development of 354 kilometre long section of River Ghaghra (National Waterway-40 ) from Faizabad to Manjhighat.

The functions will be held at Kisan College, Civil Lines, Basti and Shivpati Degree College Hostel Ground, Chhatehri, District Siddarthnagar in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

President Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki R. Haley, said on Tuesday that she would resign at the end of the year, marking the departure of one of the few high-profile women in the Trump administration.

Ms. Haley, a former Republican governor of South Carolina, had been an early and frequent critic of Mr. Trump, but he named her to the United Nations job weeks after his election. As ambassador, Ms. Haley has been an outspoken and often forceful envoy — someone whom foreign diplomats looked to for guidance from an administration known for haphazard and inconsistent policy positions — who emerged as something of a star amid the dysfunction of the president’s first national security team.

“It was a blessing to go into the U.N. with body armor every day and defend America,” Ms. Haley, seated next to Mr. Trump in the Oval Office, told reporters. “I’ll never truly step aside from fighting for our country. But I will tell you that I think it’s time.”

White House staff members were caught off guard by the announcement, which Ms. Haley and Mr. Trump had kept closely under wraps. But the president said Ms. Haley had informed him roughly six months ago that she wanted to take a break by the time his administration reached its second anniversary. He said that he hoped Ms. Haley would return in a different role, and that he would name her successor in the coming weeks.

Manu first shot a solid 576 to top the qualification round and then was best out of the blocks in the final with four shots out of the first five in the 10s or above, which was unmatched by the field. She was 0.6 ahead of Iana and Anja Prezelj of Slovakia, who were in second and third respectively at that stage. After the second five shot series, Manu’s lead over the Russian was cut to 0.2 while the Thai girl Kanyakorn displaced the Slovak in third place.

Amazingly all three leaders shot a 9.8 for their 11th shot and all three again shot in the 9s for their 12th at which stage the Lithuanian Greta Rankelyte was the first to be eliminated in eighth place.

Manu then after being 1.5 clear at the top after the 14th shot had a series of seven scores in the 9s from the 11th to the 20th shot, to lose the lead to the fast improving Georgian Nino Khutsiberidze after the 20th shot by 0.1. But a poor 21st and 22nd shot by Nino meant that Manu went into the final two shots, 1.5 ahead of the Russian Iana, who after looking as if she would be eliminated without a medal, had fought back brilliantly.

For the first time ever an Asian country has the most powerful passport in the world. It is a testament of Singapore's inclusive diplomatic relations and effective foreign policy," said Philippe May, managing director of Arton Capital's Singapore office.

India, which was listed 78th last year, has improved its ranking, figuring at 75th position with a visa-free score of 51.

Coming in at last place on the list is Afghanistan, ranked 94 with a score of 22, followed by Pakistan and Iraq at 93 with a score of 26, Syria at 92, having a score of 29 and Somalia at 91 with a score 34.

"Visa-free global mobility has become an important factor in today's world," said founder and president of Arton Capital Armand Arton at the recently held Global Citizen Forum in Montenegro.

"More and more people every year invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in a second passport to offer better opportunity and security for their families," Arton added.

While Singapore quietly climbed the ranks, the US passport has fallen down since President Donald Trump took office. Most recently Turkey and the Central African Republic revoked their visa-free status to US passport holders, the statement said.

Passport Index has become the most popular interactive online tool to display, sort and rank the world's passports.

The index ranks national passports by the cross-border access they bring, assigning a "visa-free score" according to the number of countries a passport holder can visit visa-free or with visa on arrival.

On the occasion of its 85th anniversary, the Indian Air Force has launched an innovative mobile health App named `MedWatch' in keeping with the Prime Minister's vision of ‘Digital India'. The concept and content of the App is by the Directorate General of Medical Services (Air) and it has been developed in-house with zero financial outlay by the Directorate of Information Technology (DIT).

‘MedWatch’, available on the IAF's AFCEL network, comprises a host of features that will provide authentic health information to all IAF personnel. A Reminder Tool to enable timely immunization for the children of all Air Warriors is an important component of the App. This will directly enable 'Mission Indradhanush' of the Govt of India.

‘MedWatch’, the first mobile health app in the three Armed Services, was launched by Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa PVSM AVSM YSM VM ADC, Chief of the Air Staff, during the Air Force Commanders' Conference at New Delhi on 11 Oct 17.