National: International

12 January 2014 National: Chennai in NYT’s ‘52 places to go in 2014’ list Chennai has been chosen as one of the 52 places in the world worth a visit this year. In a list drawn up by the New York Times, ‘52 places to go in 2014,’ Chennai, capital of Tamil Nadu, has been placed at number 26. Chennai had been long considered a getaway to popular South Indian travel destinations like Kerala but was overlooked as an attraction in itself. The city boasts of being a national cultural capital and home to several dance and music schools. Featuring at the top of NYT’s list is Cape Town, South Africa, which has continued to attract tourists from across the globe for its amazing beaches and nightlife. Other places include Downtown in Los Angeles, Namibia, Seychelles, Ecuador, Arctic Circle, Nepal, and Niagara Falls. CRPF deploys 200 CoBRA commandos in Bihar for anti-Naxal operations In the backdrop of the Union Home Ministry recently pulling up Bihar for its “failure” in controlling Naxal violence, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has now deployed close to 200 commandos of its special Commando Battalion for Resoloute Action (CoBRA) battalion to bring lethality in its offensives in the State. The anti-Naxal warfare trained commandos will now not only assist about 5,000 troops of the CRPF already deployed and tasked for these operations in the State, but also carry out specific intelligence inputs based strikes. The unit of the 207th battalion of the CoBRA has been based in Jamui, after taking them out from West Bengal where the Naxal situation is under control. U.P. to provide ‘Z’ security to Kejriwal Notwithstanding Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s stand against taking security cover, the Ghaziabad Police have decided to provide ‘Z’ category protection to him. The Uttar Pradesh Government had decided that security was to be provided to Mr. Kejriwal regardless of his refusal to accept the same. International: About seven lakh Indian tourists visited Nepal in 2012 Unfazed by the political uncertainty in Nepal, nearly 7 lakh Indians visited the country in 2012, constituting more than half of the total number of foreign tourists. A total of 694,136 Indians visited Nepal in 2012 via air and land routes. According to the Nepal Tourism Statistics 2012, released by the Tourism Ministry, India ranked as one of the leading sources of tourists with 21 per cent of arrivals, followed by China, the U.S. and the U.K. Mountain that eats men’ could sink city Thousands of men and teenage boys make their way towards the cone-shaped peak that looms over the Bolivian city of Potosi. El Cerro Rico, the rich hill, stands above what was once the largest silver deposit in the world: veins of precious metals so bountiful they bankrolled the Spanish empire and changed history. Even today, a booming commodities market means the mountain continues to drive the local economy: about 15 per cent of Potosi’s men work in mining. But 470 years of digging have left the mountain so riddled with tunnels and sinkholes that geologists say parts of the peak risk collapse. The government is racing to implement an ambitious $2.4m plan to stabilize the summit by filling in a 700 sq m sinkhole, which appeared in 2011. 12 January 2014 Dark side of Moon is turquoise In a demonstration of the power of science to ruin a perfectly respectable work of art, researchers have discovered the colour of the dark side of the Moon. Measurements from a telescope in Hawaii mean that pedants may now argue that, technically speaking, if one wanted to be entirely accurate, the side of the moon referred to in Pink Floyd’s 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon should really be described as “turquoise”. The revelation comes from two years of measurements by an international team of astronomers who installed a telescope and a sensitive camera at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, run by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The dark side of the moon is not the same as the far side, which gets as much sunlight as the side facing us. The dark side is not lit directly by sunlight, but by light reflected from Earth. It is much fainter, and best seen around the time of the new moon. Business & Economy: Centre yet to decide on retrospective taxation The Central Government is yet to decide on the retrospective taxation issue, Parthasarathi Shome, adviser to the Finance Minister, said. The government has accepted most of the recommendations on General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR) suggested by the panel. But the government is yet to accept the issue on retrospective taxation. Dr. Shome told an interactive session organized by the Calcutta Chamber of Commerce. He said that since India followed the source-based taxation rule, it was imperative that transfer of shares of a company abroad with assets in India be taxed, like what happened in the Vodafone and IBM cases. The government was also planning to include Controlled Foreign Companies (CFCs) within the Direct Taxes Code (DTC) where Indian subsidiaries were operating abroad in low-tax jurisdictions. Also, thinly capitalised companies, having more debt than equity, would be brought under GAAR. GAAR would not be used as a tax generation tool, but to prevent erosion of the tax base by avoidance. BSE to launch IRF trading on Jan 28 BSE said live trading in new interest rate futures (IRF), in long tenure 10-year government bonds, would begin on its platform on January 28. Dr. Reddy’s to market Optidoz, an anti-hypertension drug Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories has announced that its drug Optidoz, for the treatment of hypertension, has been approved and is available for the Indian market. Optidoz is a single pill combination of three drugs — Amlodipine, Telmisartan and Hydrochrothiazide — with optimal dose of individual drugs. A pack of 10 tablets is priced at Rs.80. The company claims that the drug controls hypertension faster with lesser side effects compared to double dose combinations. 12 January 2014 Sports: Kapil Dev lights up the stage Kapil Dev and M.S. Dhoni, two of India’s World Cup winning skippers, posed together with their historic trophies at the BCCI seventh annual awards function in Mumbai. Kapil was earlier honoured by the Board with the C.K. Nayudu Trophy for Lifetime Achievement. R. Ashwin stepped on stage to receive the Polly Umrigar Trophy from BCCI president N. Srinivasan. The awardees: C.K. Nayudu Trophy for Lifetime Achievement: Kapil Dev. Polly Umrigar Award for Best International Cricket 2012-13: R. Ashwin. Best Woman Cricketer: M.D. Thirushkamini. Lala Amarnath Award for Best Ranji all-rounder 2012-13: Abhishek Nayar (Mumbai). Highest Ranji run-getter: Jiwanjot Singh Chouhan (Punjab); Highest Ranji wicket-taker: Ishwar Pandey (Madhya Pradesh). Best U-25 cricketer in C.K. Nayudu Trophy: Karn Sharma (Railways). Best U-19 cricketer at Cooch Behar Trophy: Aksar Patel (Gujarat). Best U-16 cricketer in Vijay Merchant Trophy: Arman Jaffer (Mumbai). Best umpire in domestic cricket: C. Shamsuddin. Best Overall Performance: Mumbai Cricket Association. Best India Player in 2013-14 Test series vs West Indies: Rohit Sharma. .

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