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Ban on Pak Artists, Nation First: Mukesh Ambani

19Oct By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

INDIA

Ban on Pak Artists, Nation First: Mukesh Ambani

Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani on Monday joined issue with those opposing a ban on Pakistan artists in India, saying the nation should come first and not art and culture. "I am absolutely clear about one thing -- for me, it is always country first. I am not an intellectual, so I don't understand all these. But undoubtedly like for all Indians, India is the first for me," Ambani said in Mumbai on Monday. The billionaire businessman was answering questions from the audience on ban on Pakistan actors and other artists at the 'Off the Cuff' show organised by The Print, a digital media outfit owned by senior journalists Shekhar Gupta and Barkha Dutt. Asked whether he would join politics, Ambani replied in the negative, saying "I am not made for politics." The statement from the ri...

How Autonomous Technology Reduced Rajdhani, Shatabdi Travel Time

12Oct By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

INDIA

How Autonomous Technology Reduced Rajdhani, Shatabdi Travel Time

A signalling system upgrade on congested routes has helped the Indian Railways to reduce the travel time of 14 premier trains, including the Rajdhani Expresses from the national capital to Howrah and the Patna and Delhi-Amritsar Shatabdi. A total of 350 Mails/Expresses and 74 Superfast trains, including Rajdhanis and Shatabdis, are now reaching destinations 5-25 minutes before time because of removal of bottlenecks and rationalisation of timetable, said a senior railway ministry official. The journey time of Rajdhani services for Bhubaneswar, Sealdah and Dibrugarh and Chennai-Coimbatore and Howrah-Puri Shatabdi trains has come down due to the improvement in the signalling system. The official said the Route Relay Interlocking (RRI) system was installed on busy routes to ensure faster ...

6 Top Players Keen to Develop Ultra High-Speed Trains: Suresh Prabhu

6Oct By NitishNo Comments

INDIA

6 Top Players Keen to Develop Ultra High-Speed Trains: Suresh Prabhu

Six major global players have shown keen interest in developing ultra high-speed trains in the country, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said here on Thursday. "Using technology is... The next big thing, which is going to happen in the transportation sector... We just had a meeting in Delhi on September 2. We got six top global companies to come and talk about technological transportation technology that we will develop, co-develop, manufacture and use in India and then maybe, use outside the country," Prabhu said while addressing the India Economic Summit here. He spoke of the challenges of the 'Fourth Industrial Revolution', for which the need of the hour is "local solution with a global approach". Technology, Prabhu said, is something which is going to "revolutionise the entire stre...

2Oct By reutersNo Comments

INDIA

India Gets $8 Billion Worth Telecoms Spectrum Bids on Auction’s First Day

India started its biggest ever telecoms airwaves auction on Saturday, receiving 535.31 billion rupees ($8.04 billion) worth of bids on the first day of the sale, a senior government official said. Market leaders Bharti Airtel Ltd, Vodafone's local unit and Idea Cellular Ltd are pitted against new entrant Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd in the battle for airwaves to boost their high-speed data services in what is the world's second-biggest market by mobile phone subscriptions. The total value of the airwaves put on the block is estimated to be worth $84 billion based on the auction reserve price set by the government, although industry executives and analysts expect only part of it to be sold. Data released by the government's Department of Telecom (DoT) at the end of five rounds of bidd...

IIT Guwahati Gets State-of-The-Art Supercomputer “Param-Ishan”

20Sep By AdityaNo Comments

INDIA

IIT Guwahati Gets State-of-The-Art Supercomputer “Param-Ishan”

A state-of-the-art supercomputer, Param-Ishan, was today unveiled in IIT Guwahati by HRD minister Prakash Javadekar, as the government looks to give a push to research and innovation in Indian institutions. "It is a one of the glad moments to have the fastest and most powerful computer in northeastern, eastern and southern regions," Javadekar said after the launch. Calling IITs "modern temples for development", Javadekar said a nations potential for growth is evaluated on the quality of its research and development. Several technology areas will be positively affected through the introduction of the new supercomputer, he said. Officials said several institutions in the country will get supercomputers in the near future to boost innovation and research. "While some institutions ...

Startup Chhattisgarh Launched For Boosting Entrepreneurship

14Sep By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

INDIA

Startup Chhattisgarh Launched For Boosting Entrepreneurship

To give a fillip to Prime Ministers vision of Startup India, the state government today launched Startup Chhattisgarh initiative here to foster entrepreneurship and promote innovation. Youths have no dearth of ideas. Lots of creative ideas take shape in their mind. They should convert them into business ideas according to the need of market to provide facilities to people at lower rates in a convenient manner," Chief Minister Raman Singh said after the event. "They need to be fearless to bring their ideas into commercial products," he said. The function was held at Shri Shankaracharya Institute of Professional Management & Technology in Sejbahar area, which was attended by a large number of entrepreneurs and youths. As part of the initiative, 14 special camps will be set up in ...

20000 Crore Alloted For R&D at IITs, IIMs and Other Higher Education

12Sep By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

INDIA

20000 Crore Alloted For R&D at IITs, IIMs and Other Higher Education

In a bid to boost innovation at premier institutions, an agency will soon be set by the government to provide funds up to Rs 20,000 crore for building research-oriented infrastructure at IITs, IIMs and other centres of higher education. The HRD Ministrys proposal to this effect was cleared at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi today. Announcing the decision, HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said a Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) would be jointly promoted by an identified promoter and his ministry with an authorised capital of Rs 2,000 crore of which government equity would be Rs 1,000 crore. The HEFA would be formed as a Special Project Vehicle (SPV) with a PSU Bank/Government-owned NBFC as promoter and it would leverage the equity to raise u...

Bihar Govt Approves Start Up Policy For Entrepreneurs

7Sep By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

INDIA, News

Bihar Govt Approves Start Up Policy For Entrepreneurs

The Bihar government today gave its nod for the launch of a Start Up venture capital fund which will encourage young entrepreneurs in the state to start new ventures. The approval to the Start Up policy, 2016 was given at a meeting of the cabinet presided over by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The Start Up venture capital of Rs 5,000 crore formed part of the CMs seven resolves, which the grand secular alliance government has adopted as policy of governance for the next five years. The cabinet gave its nod to 31 proposals of different departments at the meeting this evening, Principal Secretary Cabinet Coordination department Brajesh Mehrotra told reporters. The state cabinet gave its go ahead to Information and Public Relations Department proposal to revise advertisement rates as par...

Online Vendors Meet Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on AskMe Payment Issue

6Sep By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

INDIA, News

Online Vendors Meet Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on AskMe Payment Issue

Corporate Affairs Ministry has assured Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman of taking up the pending payment issue of cash-strapped e-commerce firm AskMe on priority basis. Representatives of All India Online Vendors Association (AIOVA) today met Sitharaman on the issue of pending payment from askmebazaar.com. Since the issue raised by AIOVA pertained to Ministry of Corporate affairs, Sitharaman spoke to Corporate Affairs Secretary. "Corporate Affairs (Secretary) assured Sitharaman that he shall take up the issues raised by AIOVA on a priority basis," the commerce and industry ministry said in a tweet. Hit by a cash crunch, e-commerce company AskMe has decided to shut shop, leaving 4,000 staffers jobless.

IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad Faces Flak Over Twitter To Rope in Pvt Cloud Firms

6Sep By AdityaNo Comments

INDIA

IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad Faces Flak Over Twitter To Rope in Pvt Cloud Firms

IT Ministry reported plan to rope in private companies like Microsoft and IBM for providing cloud computing services to government departments has come under flak from cyber security experts. "I think by using cloud services of foreign companies like Microsoft and IBM, IT Ministry has decided to throw all Data and National Security concerns into a dustbin. What has happened to the National Cloud Project of government? We appeal the Prime Minister to intervene and stop this else this will send a wrong message," Indian Infosec Consortium (IIC) CEO Jiten Jain said. IIC is Indias cyber security group which has around 4,000 members. "If the worlds software super power (India) does not have the capacity to even build its own Indigenous cloud infrastructure then where is Make in India," Jain s...

Rajasthan Partners With Cisco For Connected Learning Solution

5Sep By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

INDIA

Rajasthan Partners With Cisco For Connected Learning Solution

Rajasthan education department has partnered with US-based technology firm Cisco to promote digital learning across the state using virtual digital room solutions. "This initiative aims to enhance the quality of education through digital learning for academia to connect, collaborate, create and share content across 12 centres of State Institute for Education Management and Training (SIEMAT) in the state," Cisco said in a statement. The financial details of the partnership were, however, not disclosed. Under this association, Cisco and SIEMAT have committed to 50,000 manhours of training annually through the virtual digital classrooms. Cisco has partnered with the Rajasthan government to establish Digital Learning Solution Rooms (DLSRs) which will deploy virtual digital classroo...

Finance Ministry Will Challenge Delhi High Court Order to Refund The Service Tax of Travel Portals MakeMyTrip, Ibibo and Ebiz

4Sep By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

INDIA, News

Finance Ministry Will Challenge Delhi High Court Order to Refund The Service Tax of Travel Portals MakeMyTrip, Ibibo and Ebiz

A recent High Court verdict directing the central revenue authorities to refund service tax collected from three travel portals including MakeMyTrip may be challenged in Supreme Court by the government. Officials sources today said legal experts are going through the High Court order and an appeal challenging the verdict is likely to be filed in Supreme Court. Delhi High Court had on Thursday ordered Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI), an intelligence arm under the Finance Ministry to refund the service tax collected from travel portals-- MakeMyTrip, Ibibo and Ebiz, saying the payment made by them "was not voluntary but under coercion and duress". The court had also pulled up the DGCEI for "unwarranted" arrest of a senior official each from MakeMyTrip and Ebi...