Sachin Tendulkar receives Rajiv Gandhi Award; Nation pays tributes to former PM Rajiv Gandhi; Bihar Governor withdraws his adviser's powers; BSF, BDR exchange fire again in Bengal's Malda District; World Bank to give three billion dollar aid for 'Bharat Nirman'; Modi government functioning well: Advani; Tamil Nadu woman with two uteruses delivers two boys; Forex reserves rise by $1.738 b to $144.37 b; Jen's 'bras' and 'thongs' being guarded round-the-clock; 'Desperate Housewife' Hatcher desperate for a gigolo; PETA flays Paris for dumping pooch 'Tinkerbell'; Jessica Alba has a crush on Sean Connery; 'The Raj' is almost over at London's West End; Courtney Love ordered back to rehab; Sienna Miller finally 'dumps' Jude Law; Pamela Anderson rocks a duet with Bryan Adams; Of Scarlett Johansson, the paparazzi, and a car smash; Could Kirsten Dunst possibly be pregnant?; India Travel Times, Indian News, Tourism, Hotels, Airlines, Tour, Travel, Ayurveda, Yoga, Festival, Hindu, Taj Mahal, Kathakali, Dance,

Home Contact Us Dateline New Delhi, Saturday, Aug 20, 2005

Sachin Tendulkar receives Rajiv Gandhi Award

Mumbai: Indian cricket star Sachin Tendulkar and Bollywood actors Kareena Kapoor and Suniel Shetty were honoured with Rajiv Gandhi Awards in Mumbai on Friday evening. The awards, now in the eighth year, are conferred on people with exemplary achievement in their respective fields. Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, federal ministers Kamal Nath and senior Congress party leader Margaret Alva attended the function. Kapoor said she felt honoured to receive the award. "I have been honoured with this award and it's something I am going to proudly keep by my side, as I know that I have done something for my country and have made my country proud and have been recongnised for it. I am feeling absolutely amazed," said a jubilant Kapoor after receiving the award. The annual awards are named after former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi whose widow Sonia heads the Congress Party. A human bomb killed Rajiv 14 years ago in southern Sriperumbudur city. The assassination by the Sri Lankan Tamil was said to have been in revenge for his decision to send Indian troops to the island nation in 1987 as part of a peace-keeping accord between Colombo and Tamil separatists brokered by New Delhi.

Nation pays tributes to former PM Rajiv Gandhi (Go To Top)

New Delhi: The country today celebrated the 61st birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was India's youngest ever Prime Minister. Congress President and Rajiv's widow Sonia Gandhi along with her daughter Priyanka Vadra and her grand children was among the first to pay floral tribute at Veer Bhumi, Rajiv Gandhi's memorial. Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, his cabinet colleagues and several Congress party workers also paid their respects to the late leader and attended a special prayer meeting there. Delhi's Lt Governor B L Joshi, Union Ministers Shivraj Patil, K Natwar Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Meira Kumar and Kapil Sibal and Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit were also present on the occasion. A large number of parliamentarians, including main opposition Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) President Lal Krishna Advani paid floral tribute at Gandhi's portrait in the Central Hall of Parliament. A number of cultural and government-sponsored programmes are likely to be kicked off today in Rajiv Gandhi's honour. They include the launching of the Rajiv Gandhi Akshay Urja Diwas 2005, a program to promote the active use of renewable energy. Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu by Sri Lankan Tamil separatists, LTTE while campaigning for general elections in the state.

Bihar Governor withdraws his adviser's powers (Go To Top)

Patna: Bihar Governor Buta Singh has withdrawn all the nine departments, allotted to his controversial advisor Arun Pathak, on Friday night. The powers have been transferred to State's Chief Secretary G S Kang. "His (Arun Pathak's) powers and duties have now been trusted to the Chief Secretary G. S. Kang," Governor's secretary RJM. Pillai announced here. Retired Indian Administrative Service officer Pathak, who had been appointed as Singh's advisor after President's rule was imposed in the state, is considered close to railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. Buta Singh is currently enmeshed in a controversy over a recommendary letter in which he had requested Yadav to clean the posting of two railway officers. The opposition National Democratic Alliance, which has been demanding Governor Singh's recall after he had ordered the random transfer of 17 senior police officers in the state last month, has termed it as "immoral and a denigration of the post and prestige of the office of the Governor." Meanwhile, Singh maintains that he did not commit any crime by requesting Yadav to transfer the two railway officials to their desired stations. "There is nothing unusual about writing a letter to a Central Minister. I have done it in the past and will do it again if needed. I was only trying to help a Scheduled Caste officer," Singh said. Yadav also dismissed the issue as nonsense, saying: "there was nothing wrong in the Bihar Governor seeking the relocation of a railway official in the South Eastern Railway."

BSF, BDR exchange fire again in Bengal's Malda District (Go To Top)

Malda District (Bangladesh): An exchange of fire again took place between the Border Security Force (BSF) and Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) at the Adampur and Muchia outposts in West Bengal's Malda District today. BSF sources said the BDR resumed heavy firing from around 8 a.m. today morning after deployment of two companies of Bangladesh. The BSF had been put on alert since Friday following unprovoked firing by the BDR. Additional forces has been deployed by BSF at the firing site. People living in border villages have been evacuated to a safe places. The firing sparked off by a dispute over the ongoing bank river embankment work to stop large-scale erosion by the Mahananda river, which serves as a demarcating line between the two countries. Malda Superintendent of Police Dilip Mandal said it was decided the two sides would undertake the work simultaneously. But, the BSF was forced to begin the work from Friday as the Muchia outpost, located three kilometres from Adampur, was threatened by large-scale erosion. North Bengal Inspector-General of Police K L Meena said the work was undertaken in the stipulated 150 yards from zero line on the Indian side. "Therefore, no objection can be raised by the BDR as far as international border rules are concerned," he said. The District Administration has promulgated prohibitory orders after since serial bomb blasts across Bangladesh on August 17, which killed two people and left approximately 200 people injured. Official sources said that the prohibitory orders would remain enforced till further order.

World Bank to give three billion dollar aid for 'Bharat Nirman' (Go To Top)
by Vrishti Beniwal

New Delhi: The World Bank is ready to grant three billion dollars worth of aid for India's Bharat Nirman Programme over the next three years, said Paul Wolfowitz, the President of the Bank, at the conclusion of his four-day maiden visit to India. Addressing a press conference here today, Wolfowitz said that the grant would be given for strengthening India's infrastructural facilities and would be used for building roads, provision of drinking water, and establishing irrigation facilities in villages. "Infrastructure constraints are an impediment to growth. The government has rightly made provision of rural infrastructure and investments in hard infrastructure a priority," said Wolfowitz. He said that apart from the government, which would initiate the programme through state level projects, private investors would also have access to this fund on a competitive basis for meeting the financing needs in infrastructure projects with potentially low revenues. While agreeing that India's growth was impressive, he said that a lot of work still required to be done for distributing the benefits of growth more evenly among the different sections of society. "India is making rapid strides, but it has an unfinished agenda. It is still home to a quarter of the world's poor people, most of whom reside in the rural areas," he added. Under Bharat Nirman programme, the government plans to make a major investment in rural infrastructure in six areas, namely, irrigation, drinking water, roads, electricity, telecommunication and housing. The project will use labour from the recently introduced rural employment guarantee scheme to build infrastructure, roads and irrigation facilities.

Modi government functioning well: Advani (Go To Top)

Ahmedabad: BJP president Lal Krishna Advani today said that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was doing a good job and his government was functioning very well. "As per my knowledge, Modi government is functioning very well and it is a good example of sound governance. I have been hearing only good news about the state and the government is a good example of sound administration that works for the people," Advani said after his visit to the city. He also did not say anything about the dissident activity in Gujarat and the anti-Modi campaign in the state by rebel leaders. Advani, who has so far remained non-committal about the rebellion arrived at Gujarat a day after four ministers of the Modi-led government met rebel leader and former Gujarat chief minister Keshubhai Patel at his house in Gandhinagar. Keshubhai also returned to Gujarat after meeting senior party leaders in New Delhi, where he is believed to have apprised them of Modi's dictatorial style of functioning. Although the rebel leaders met senior party leader and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, they are yet to meet Advani in this regard. It is also to be seen whether Advani meets the anti-Modi group given the fact that the rebel leaders snubbed him during their visit to Delhi where they met the central leadership to complain about Modi's high-handedness.

Tamil Nadu woman with two uteruses delivers two boys by Jehovah G (Go To Top)

Chennai: In a rare medical case, a 27-year-old woman, married for five years with hardly any hope of concieving due to the presence of two uteruses in her body, recently delivered two baby boys through a caesarean operation held at a fertility centre in Palani near Chennai. Kavita (name changed) was informed by some doctors that there was no chance of her becoming pregnant because of the presence of two uteruses. She also was affected by a rare congenital anomaly called uterus didelphus in which two cervix and two vaginal introitus is present. Kavita approached Dr.S.Chandralekha with her case and after regular treatment for two months, the latter decided to take the test tube route. Dr.Chandralekha conducted the operation at the Iswarya Fertility Centre by transferring the two embryos to a woman with unusual uterine cavities. "Kaviita and her husband came to our Centre with a problem of not having a child.We went through their records and found that this lady had two uterus, which is abnormal. After a check up, we found the reason for the infertility was not only the double uterus,but also some sperm factors. So, we decided to go for a test tube baby," Dr. Chandralekha said. The two male babies are healthy, with each weighing 2.5 kg and 2.7 kg, respectively. The Iswarya Fertility Centre has facilitated the birth of a record 200 children through assisted reproductive techniques.

Forex reserves rise by $1.738 b to $144.37 b (Go To Top)

New Delhi: Pulled by continued flow of money in the equity markets from the Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and revaluation of the Chinese currency Yuan, India's foreign exchange (forex) reserves has risen to an all time high at 144.375 billion dollars registering a net rise of 1.738 billion dollar during the week ended on August 12. According to the weekly statistical report released here today by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) the country's forex reserves has risen to 144.375 billion dollars on the week ended August 12 as compared to 142.637 billion dollars during the previous week. During the reporting foreign currency assets had gone up by 1.858 billion dollar to 138.524 billion dollars. However, the Reserve Tranche Position (RTP) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) went down by 120 million dollars to 1.452 billion dollar. The gold reserves remained unchanged at 4.395 billion dollars. While the Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) rose to Rs 19 crore during the reporting week as compared to Rs 18 crore last week.

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