Leander Paes: The oldest Grand Slam champion Age is just a number for Indian tennis great Leander Paes

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  The promise came from 14 banks and financial institutions, 8 PSUs and private manufacturers, and 15 private sector companies.
  
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  Re-invest 2015 was a global investors meet & expo aimed to attract foreign investment in the country in the renewable energy sector.
  
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  2800 delegates from 42 countries participated in the three day RE-INVEST 2015.
  

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  The UAV will survey the fields mapping the crop diseases to assist insurance companies in settling claims.
  
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  Weather forecaster 'Skymet', along with the AIC and Gujarat government, have already conducted a pilot operation last year on groundnut crop where it used satellite remote sensing technologies and drones across 10 villages in Morbi district of Gujarat.
  
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  The service may also be extended to the neighbouring state of Rajasthan.
  

 

Scientists have developed a digital Soil Testing Kit "Mridaparikshak" to help farmers figure out a way to improve crop productivity.

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  It can determines all important soil parameters like soil pH, organic carbon, available nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur and micronutrients like zinc, boron and iron.
  
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  Based on the above findings, it will provide vital information to farmers and suggest them right type of inputs to improve productivity and avoid losses.
  
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  The provided recommendations - like on crop and soil specific fertilizers - will directly reach the farmer's mobile through SMS.
  
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  The kit or the so called 'Mini-Lab' is also compatible with Soil Health Card.
  
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  It comes with soil sampling tools, GPS, balance, shaker, hot plate, and an instrument for determining the soil parameters and displaying of fertilizer nutrient recommendations.
  

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  Anyone with some school education can easily operate the device after a short training.
  

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  The development is an outcome of the initiative of ICAR and the concerted efforts by a team of scientists of ICAR-IISS, Bhopal in collaboration with M/s Nagarjuna Agrochemicals Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad.
  

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  The lucky ones are Ritika Singh, Shradha Prasad and Taranjeet Singh Bhatia.
  
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  Fifty men and fifty women have been selected from over 2 lakhs candidates globally to take this trip to Mars in 2024.
  
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  The Project aims to set up a permanent human colony on Mars. Crews of four - after extensive survival training - will depart every two years, starting in 2024. The mission, however, will launch an unmanned mission much earlier in 2018.
  

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  The Delhi Airport bags the annual Airport Service Quality (ASQ) award, which recognises and rewards the best airports in the world based on Geneva-based ACI's ASQ passenger satisfaction survey.
  
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  Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International (CSI) airports also finds its place in the top 5 list.
  

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  He holds the Guinness World Record for producing the highest number of films - over 150 films across several languages.
  
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  He also tried his hands in Hindi with films like 'Prem Qaidi' and 'Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain'.
  
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  Padma Bhushan and the Dadasaheb Phalke awards are few of the notable prizes won by him for his significant contribution to the industry.
  
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  He is the father of actor Venkatesh while Rana Daggubati is his grandson.
  

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  Gram Sachivalayas will bring Gram Panchayat and village-level functionaries of all departments under one roof for better functioning and coordination.
  
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  It will also ensure efficiency, transparency and accountability in the working of Gram Panchayat and other agencies engaged in the process of rural development.
  
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  All village secretariats will be set up within three years.
  

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  The train will be a weekly AC Express train (22411/22412) connecting Naharlagun with national capital.
  
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  The 21.75-km new rail line - connecting Itanagar with Harmuti in northern Assam - will also be dedicated to nation.
  

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  The six-man relay team, led by Wing Commander Paramvir Singh, swam from Goa to Mumbai covering a total distance of 433.11 kms in 156 hours.
  
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  The previous record belonged to an Israeli team which had clocked a total distance of 380 kms in 123.2 hrs.
  

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  Railways will also set up a commando training centre to provide specialised training to RPF personnel to be deployed in trains passing through Maoist-affected areas.
  
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  Railway will also provide trained security escorts on Maoist-infested regions.
  
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  To train the RPF manpower for this new role, the Public transporter is soon going to set up a commando training centre.
  
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  As for women, a separate Mahila Vahini will be created soon out of the women RPF personnels.
  

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  The panel will also give recommendations in regard to the implementation of the provisions relating to Hindi contained in the Constitution (Official Languages Act and Rules) and Policy decisions of the 'Kendriya Hindi Samiti' and instructions issued by the Home Ministry relating to Hindi.
  
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  The tenure of the members of the Samiti shall ordinarily be three years from the date of its constitution.
  

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  The movie was being screened in the theatre ever since October 19, 1995 - clocking a period of 1009 weeks to be exact.
  
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  It was becoming difficult for the uniplex theatre to accommodate multiple new releases every week with just 3 regular shows and that's why a new time slot from 9:15 AM was squeezed in to continue the DDLJ record breaking run.
  
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  However, the stretched workhour soon took a toll on the staffs and the move had to be scrapped.
  

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  A 'green-field facility' for manufacture of Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) and Naval Multi-role Helicopter (NMRH) in Timkur District, Karnataka is also in the pipeline.
  
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  These are some of the measures taken by DPSU to Boost HAL capability.
  

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  The lock-in is done to maintain the secrecy of the Budget preparation process as leakage of such sensitive information may be exploited by stakeholders.
  

 

Mathews Plamoottil - a zoology professor at Kollam's Baby John memorial government college - has discovered 4 new species of fish in Kerala.

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  The body and fins of this species are yellowish in colour.
  
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  The head is deeper, the snout is shorter and the mouth wider.
  
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  This species was discovered at Kallumkal in Thiruvalla, at the place where Pamba and Manimala rivers merge.
  

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  It was discovered at Mananthavady in the hilly Wayanad district.
  
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  Its dorsal fin is black in colour, the lateral line scales are greater than its closest relatives and its dorsal fin has more rays.
  

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  It was discovered from Keezhvaipur near Thiruvalla.
  
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  It is golden in coloured and its pectoral fin is greatly elongated.
  

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  It was discovered from Venpala, also near Thiruvalla.
  
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  Its fins are red in colour.
  

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  The findings are notable in the sense that a new species of the genus Systomus is being discovered after one-and-a-half century from Kerala.
  
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  All the four new species have received a Zoo bank register number from the International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature, the worldwide scientific authority for naming new animals.
  
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  The new fish have been deposited in the museum of the Zoological Survey of India at Kolkata and Kozhikode.
  
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  According to Kerala State Biodiversity Board, Kerala is home to 242 species of inland fish.
  

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  Bishen Singh Bedi, Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar are the other three to feature in this coveted list that includes cricketing greats of all time.
  
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  He will be felicitated and inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame during the World Cup match between India and South Africa in Melbourne on 22nd February.
  

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  The signed 'loan agreement' aims to build up the capacity of power generation and distribution systems to meet the growing energy demand in the state of Assam.
  
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  Over a third of households in the State face daily electricity cuts of 5 to 6 hours crippling normal life and businesses alike.
  
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  In peak periods, Assam has to buy up to 15% of its power from independent producers at very high cost.
  
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  The project will finance investments to augment and improve generation capacity through the replacement of an inefficient generating plant and construction of new hydropower plant.
  

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  The collaboration aims to improve people's access to health and education-related information from various innovative projects supported by UNICEF.
  
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  The partnership extends across 17 countries in Africa including: Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Chad, DRC, Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
  

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  Hazaribag, with the inauguration of its first ever railway station, has now come on the Railway map of India.
  
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  The project, which started 16 years ago, is the first stage of the Hazaribagh-Koderma- Barkakana-Ranchi railway line of the East-Central Railway.
  

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  Its to preserve and promote some 3000 mother tongues across the country.
  
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  All schools, colleges, universities and language-related institutions under both central and state governments would celebrate the occasion by holding seminars, workshops and special lectures on the importance of mother tongue .
  

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  The eminent scientist was earlier serving as the deputy Director of Microwave Remote Sensing Area of SAC, Ahmedabad.
  

The outfit - now known as 'Ranchi Rays' - defeated 'Punjab Warriors' in the final by a 3-2 scoreline in the penalty shootout after the regular time yielded a 2-2 tie.

The city franchise - earlier called 'Ranchi Rhinos' - had also grabbed the inaugural title in 2013.

Despite the overhaul in stakeholders, the team has almost maintained the same squad as earlier.

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  Defending champions Delhi Waveriders finished third after beating Uttar Pradesh Wizards 2-1 in the third-fourth place play-off match.
  
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  The annual competition is in the line of 'Indian Premier League' and is organised by the top governing body of the game 'Hockey India'.
  
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  So far, the championship feature only six teams namely: Ranchi Rays, Punjab Warriors, Uttar Pradesh Wizards, Delhi Waveriders, Kalinga Lancers and Dabang Mumbai.
  

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  Winning skipper 'Ashley Jackson' (England) is honoured with "Player of the Tournament" title while drag-flicker Harmanpreet Singh (Dabang Mumbai) became 'The Most Promising Player'.
  
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  Uttar Pradesh Wizards grabbed the 'Fair Play' title.
  
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  PR Sreejesh (UP Wizards) won the 'Dhruv Batra Motivator of the Tournament Award'.
  

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  The drug, captured by 'Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI)' is worth almost Rs 30 crore in the world market.
  
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  This is also one of the biggest seizures of a psychotropic substance in recent times.
  
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  The drug goes around in the market with its street name 'Meow Meow' - taken from its chemical name 4-methylmethcathinone, or M-CAT.
  

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  The Sun Pharma's founder and MD, is worth about Rs 1.46 lakh crore thanks to his 63 per cent stake in three group companies - Sun Pharma, Sun Pharma Advanced Research and Ranbaxy Laboratories.
  
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  Mukesh Ambani, on the other hand, holds a total of 45 per cent stake in RIL and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure, accounting for a wealth of Rs 1.32 lakh crore as per BSE.
  
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  The turnaround is majorly due to the rising stock value of Sun Pharma companies in the market.
  

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  The Virus belongs to a family of viruses known as coronaviruses which include both the common cold and SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome.
  

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  The scope included sharing experience in counter terrorism and conduct of joint counter insurgency training at platoon level aimed at neutralizing of terrorist threat.
  
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  The exercise aim to bolster bilateral military relations between the armies of the two nations.
  

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  The doubles crown went to the pair of Egor Gerasimov and Alexander Kudryavtsev who beat Riccardo Ghedin and Toshihide Matsui in the final.
  

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  The system is designed as a self-service digital platform to deliver various services to current and prospective trainees of the vocational training system, apprenticeship trainees, employers/establishments, ITIs and other institutions, as well as States/UTs.
  
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  The portal "www.ncvtmis.gov.in" is part of the Digital India Initiative and seek to improve the governance of vocational training across the field institutions of DGE&T by providing high degree of transparency, better analytics for decision making, and improved access to citizen services.
  

ts raining laurels for Indian-American scientists these days.

And it is the turn of another researcher - developer of an environment friendly field analyser for checking toxic arsenic levels in water - to be honoured this time.

Purnendu Dasgupta - a chemistry professor at the University of Texas - has bagged the coveted J Calvin Giddings Award 2015 for his contribution in the field of analytical chemistry.

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  The annual national award is given by the American Chemical Society (ACS) Division of Analytical Chemistry.
  
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  It honors a scientist who has enhanced the personal and professional development of analytical chemistry students by publishing influential textbooks, designing new approaches to analytical chemistry, mentoring students, developing and publishing innovative experiments, or designing improved equipment.
  

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  He - author of over 400 scientific papers - holds 25 research patents in US that earns him over $18 million in research grants.
  
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  His notable work includes methods for environment-friendly analysis of arsenic in drinking water, rapid analysis of trace heavy metals in the atmosphere, and the development of a NASA-funded ion chromatograph for testing extraterrestrial soil - such as on Mars. 
  

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  Recently, $500000 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award was given to 2 Indian researchers - Srikanth Jagabathula and Gurpreet Singh.
  

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  All documents related to budget estimates would be made available online and only around 10 budget copies would be printed for record.
  
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  Being the country's first green assembly the state save Rs 15 crore and 6000-odd trees every year due to paperless day-to-day functioning.
  

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  The focus of the drill is to practice Counter Insurgency and Counter Terrorist Operations in mountainous and jungle terrain.
  
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  The training also include facets of Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief measures to be taken during Pandemic, Epidemic and various other calamities.
  
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  Aviation aspects and environmental conservation are also included in the scope of this exercise.
  

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  He had to step down in 2012 in a coup after mass protests broke out over his order to arrest a prominent judge Abdulla Mohamed.
  

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  Both MLAs belong to the ruling party AAP who swept to power in Delhi winning overwhelming 67 out of 70 seats.
  

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  The National Pension System Trust has been set-up and constituted by Pension Fund Regulatory Development Authority (PFRDA) for taking care of the assets and funds under the National Pension System (NPS) in the interest of the beneficiaries (subscribers).
  

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  It makes it quick and easier to evict unauthorized occupants from public properties like those under Metro Rail Corporations, Public Transport Companies, Municipalities' assets etc.
  
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  The Amendment Bill will empower those entities with Centre and States owning more than 51 % of their Paid Up capital under the definition of public premises.
  
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  The move will enable quick execution of infrastructure projects by imposing stricter time frames for completing eviction proceedings.
  
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  Eviction of unauthorized occupants of government bungalows will also be streamlined.
  
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  At present, Lengthy legal procedure allow unauthorized occupants to continue to use the government accommodation by paying paltry amount either by way of rent or penalty.