DAILY EXCELSIOR, JAMMU THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2014 (PAGE 9) Prez releases commemorative stamps on 8 Indian music greats NEW DELHI, Sept 3: President Pranab Mukherjee today released a set of eight commemorative postage stamps featuring renowned Indian clas- sical musicians at a function at Rashtrapati Bhavan here. The set brought out by Postal Department features icons form the world of Indian classical music: Pandit Ravi Shankar, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, DK Pattammal, Pandit Mallikarjun Mansur, Gangubai Hangal, Pandit Kumar Gandharva, Ustad Vilayat Khan and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Press Secretary to the President, Venu Rajamony said. Speaking on the occasion, the President said that as we pay tribute to eight of the greatest music maestros of contempo- rary India, we celebrate their life and work and their match- less legacy. "These eight maestros are, without a doubt, among the tallest luminaries in the history of world music. They have not only achieved personal perfec- tion but also made extraordi- nary contributions in their respective fields for the devel- opment and evolution of the schools of music in which their talents were nurtured and honed," Mukherjee said.(PTI) PMO encourages people to contribute to National Relief Fund NEW DELHI, Sept 3: The Prime Minister's Office has asked Government depart- ments to publicise the scheme of 100 per cent tax exemption for contributions to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (PMNRF) in an exercise aimed at encouraging donations which can be used to help the needy. "All donations towards PMNRF are notified for 100 per cent deduction from taxable income under Section 80G of Income Tax Act, 1961," the PMO said in an official order. It has asked the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to make arrangements for display of the message on its website along with those of other departments. PMNRF was constituted in January, 1948, to assist dis- placed persons from Pakistan. The resources of PMNRF are now utilised mainly to render immediate relief to the affected families of those killed or injured in natural calamities like floods, cyclones, earthquakes, etc., or in major accidents or riots.(PTI) Lethal credit card stealing virus prowling in cyberspace NEW DELHI, Sept 3: A deadly virus which hacks and steals personal credit and debit card data is prowling in the Indian cyberspace. The virus, of the lethal 'Trojan' family, has been named "Backoff" and is being seen spreading through computer networks which use Windows as their operating systems. "It has been reported that variants of malware family dubbed as 'Backoff' targeting Point of Sale (POS) systems are spreading. The malware mainly infects windows based systems. The malware propagates by scanning for systems with remote desktop applications enabled. (PTI) Modi's 'secular friends' jibe 'shocking, unbecoming': Cong NEW DELHI, Sept 3: Congress today hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his dig at "secular friends" saying that the comments made on foreign soil were "shocking and ungracious" and had made India a "laughing stock" in Japan. "Shocking & unbecoming of a Prime Minister to mock secu- larism on foreign soil, when communal temperatures raised by his own party in India," Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha said in a tweet. Not mincing words, he said Modi was "beating the commu- nal drum-beat in Japan" and the "mocking" of a serious issue of secularism is "ungracious, unacceptable, unexpected". "The ferocious communal cat is out of the bag, officially! PM Modi ridicules secularists in India in Japan. We must be a laughing stock there," he tweet- ed. His tweets drew reactions from twitterati in support of the ruling party.(PTI)