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

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  The charges have entirely been eliminated for landlines.
  
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  If customer of a service provider 'A' makes a call to someone using the services of another provider 'B'; 'A' is required to pay interconnection usage charge to 'B'.
  
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  These charges seem to benefit a provider with greater network base whereas those with small subscriber volume often end up paying money to the former.
  

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  Centre has accepted the proposal submitted by the panel - headed by former RBI Governor YV Reddy - for the 5 year period from 2015-16 to 2019-20.
  
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  At present, states get 32 percent of the central tax revenue.
  

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  The mobile app will scan the unique barcode present on every liquor bottle to prove its authenticity to the consumer, apart from revealing other information like the brand name and size.
  
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  It will help the authorities to better control the sale of illicit liquor in the city.
  

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  He has been accused of the same by a 29-year-old female researcher of TERI.
  

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  Its been established under the NERTPS (North East Region Textile Promotion Scheme) which is an umbrella scheme for the development of various segments of textiles like silk, handlooms, handicrafts and apparels & garments.
  
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  For local entrepreneurs with requisite background, required facilities to start a unit will be provided in ‘plug and play’ mode here.
  
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  Once such entrepreneurs get established, they can set up their own units, allowing the facility to be provided to new entrepreneurs.
  
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  Each state will get one such centre with three units. 
  
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  The program aims to boost the textile industry in the North East region. 
  

Year 2015 is going to be celebrated as the 'Year of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients' in a reformative step to make India self-sufficient in Bulk Drugs.

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  A 'Bulk-Drug' or API is the chemical element of a medicine which lend the product power to heal ailments.
  
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  Since the ingredient is biologically active, any anomalies in its quality may also have negative side-effects on the user; thats why it come under tight regulations.
  
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  Poorly manufactured and contaminated API (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients) may also lead to death in extreme cases.
  

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  India is overly dependent on import from a single source for basic chemicals, intermediates and APIs for many commonly used medicines.
  
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  To avoid the price and supply risks and ensure sustained availability of APIs, we need to be self- sufficient in the manufacturing of this vital component.
  
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  This also is in tune with our ambitious 'Make in India' project.
  

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  Bulk Drugs constitute the backbone of the Pharmaceutical Industry and the sector needs to be incentivized so as to take on the challenge from cheap imports.
  
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  In the same regard, Government had set up Katoch Committee to look into various issues concerning the bulk drugs. 
  
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  Now the recommendations forwarded by the Committee is due for Cabinet's approval. 
  

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  IIM Bihar will come up near Bodh Gaya under the mentorship of IIM Indore.
  
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  IIM Odisha will come up near Bhubaneswar under the mentorship of IIM Calcutta.
  
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  IIM Maharashtra will come up near Nagpur under the mentorship of IIM Ahmedabad.
  
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  IIM Punjab will come up near Amritsar under the mentorship of IIM Kozhikode.
  
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  IIM Himachal Pradesh will come up near Sirmaur under the mentorship of IIM Lucknow.
  
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  IIM Andhra Pradesh will come up near Visakhapatnam under the mentorship of IIM Bangalore
  

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  Its notable that the entire areas of the States of Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland have been excluded from the Protected Area Permit (PAP) regime till Dec 31, 2015 for foreign tourists subject to certain conditions.
  
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  The PAP Act requires foreigners to obtain a Protected Area Permit (PAP) to visit certain security-sensitive areas in India.
  
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  Even Indian citizens - not residents of those areas - require an Inner Line Permit (ILP) to enter these places.
  
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  However that is relatively easier to get as compared to PAP. Certain relaxations have also been allowed in PAP regime in Arunachal Pradesh.
  

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  Centre will construct them under the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Abhiyan scheme.
  
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  Each complex will come up over a 6-7 acres area with an approx cost of Rs 1.6 crore (80 lakh each for indoor and outdoor).
  
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  There is also provision of providing Sports Equipments worth Rs 15 lakh by the union Sports Ministry.
  
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  Selection of the blocks is to be done by the respective State Government.
  

 

It will be done through NTPC/ NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited (NVVN) in three tranches as following...

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  3000 MW under Tranche-l under mechanism of Bundling with Unallocated Coal based Thermal Power and fixed levellised tariffs.
  
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  5000 MW under Tranche-ll with some support from government to be decided after getting some experience while implementing Tranche-l.
  
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  7000 MW under Tranche-Ill without any financial support from the centre.
  

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  As per Right to Information Act, 2005, the RTI applications and first appeals are required to be mandatorily disposed off within 30 days of their receipt.
  
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  However, no time limit has been prescribed for disposal of 2nd appeal/complaint by the Central Information Commission.
  

Rail budget this year, like always, is a mixed bag with several hits and few misses.

While the "No Hike" in Passenger Fares brings reprieve, no proposal of new trains leave some disappointed.

Here we list the major points that directly impact the public !

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  More General class coaches will be added in identified trains.
  
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  Passenger and Freight carrying capacity to be expanded to accomodate the growing demand.
  

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  Train Protection Warning System and Train Collision Avoidance System to be installed on select routes.
  

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  200 more stations to come under Adarsh Station scheme; Wi-Fi to be provided at all B category stations. (The facility already exists or is in the process of being extended to all ‘A1’ and ‘A’ category stations.) 
  
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  This move will extend the wi-fi coverage to over 400 railway stations in the country. 
  

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  Mobile phone charging facilities would be provided in general class coaches and the number of charging facilities would be increased in sleeper class coaches.
  
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  Indian Railways' Delhi Division is taking up a project for introducing on-board entertainment on select Shatabdi trains on license fee basis.
  
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  Depending on the response, the facility will be extended on all Shatabdi trains.
  

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  Successful experiment of training of auto-rickshaw and taxi operators as tourist-guides on Konkan Railway will be replicated at major tourist stations.
  
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  Possibility of offering some coaches in select trains connecting major tourist destinations to travel agencies on a revenue sharing model will also be explored.
  
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  Centre will promote the Gandhi circuit to attract tourists.
  
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  IRCTC will work on Kisan Yatra, a special travel scheme to help farmers to learn about new farming and marketing technique.
  

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  Hand-held terminals will be provided to Travelling Ticket Examiners (TTEs), which can be used for verification of passengers and downloading charts.
  
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  This digital and environment-friendly move will not only save tons of paper, but also ease up the complicated process ticketing and charting.
  
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  It will also enable TTEs to settle claims of refund on tickets quickly.
  

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  "Operation Five Minutes" to ensure "purchase of tickets" within 5-minutes for unreserved class Passengers.
  
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  These tickets can be obtained from to-be-installed modified 'hot-buttons', coin vending machines and 'single destination teller' windows. 
  

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  For the differently-abled travellers, a special initiative is being launched whereby they can purchase concessional e-tickets after one-time registration. 
  

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  An Integrated Portal is to be launched to make it easy for the customers to access different services with a single interface.
  
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  Railways is also planning to move towards crediting all refunds through the banking system. 
  

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  "SMS Alert" service to inform passengers in advance about the updated arrival/departure time of trains at starting or destination stations.
  
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  The alert would reach passengers some 15/30 minutes before.
  

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  Pan-India round-the-clock helpline number "138" to redress customers grievances.
  
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  Railways intends to start this facility on a pilot project basis on Northern Railway from 1st March 2015.
  
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  Another toll-free number "182" for receiving security related complaints.
  

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  Inter-metro journeys like Delhi-Kolkata and Delhi-Mumbai can be completed overnight.
  
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  To make it a reality; Speed of nine railway corridors will be increased from the existing 110 and 130 kmph to 160 and 200 kmph respectively.
  

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  Railways is in the process of setting up a full-fledged Railway University during 2015-16.
  

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  To ensure better emergency care of the accident victims, three pilot projects has been launched one each on Gurgaon-Jaipur section of NH-8, Vadodara-Mumbai stretch of NH-8, and Ranchi-Mahulia of NH-33 for providing cashless treatment to road accident victims for 48 hours at expenditure up to a limit of Rs. 30000.
  
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  GPS enabled ambulances connected with a central control room through a toll-free number 1033, are stationed at intervals of 20 km to transport the injured to the hospitals for treatment within an hour.
  
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  As per Rule 10 of Rules Regulations, 1989 under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, every driver shall, on the approach of a fire service vehicle or of an ambulance allow it free passage by drawing to the side of the road.
  
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  Implementations of provisions of Motor Vehicles Act and Central Motor Vehicles Rules come under State Government.
  

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  One community toilet seat per 25 women and one public community toilet seat per 50 women will be built under the Mission as against one seat per 35 and 100 men respectively.
  
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  There are 44 lakh Public Toilets in the Country as per 2011 Census.
  
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  Maharashtra tops the list with 22 lakh public toilets followed by Tamil Nadu with 7 lakhs, and Karnataka with 2.26 lakhs.
  
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  Swachh Bharat Mission aims to build 1.04 crore household toilets and five lakh community and public toilet seats by 2019.
  

List of countries India has signed agreement for peaceful uses of space technology. 

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  Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Mongolia, Myanmar, Peru, Republic of Korea, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Syria, Thailand, The Netherlands, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States of America and Venezuela.
  
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  These pacts cover Research and Development (R&D) in space science, technology and applications.
  

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  AFMC Lucknow become the 2nd Best Service Hospital.
  
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  The Raksha Mantri's Trophy was instituted in 1989 to create a healthy competition among the Command Hospitals of the Army and its equivalent Hospitals in the Navy and Air Force.
  

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  It states that Indian economy appears to have now gone past the economic slowdown, persistent inflation, elevated fiscal deficit, slackening domestic demand, external account imbalances and oscillating value of the rupee.
  

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  As per the Economic Survey 2014-15 report, IT and IT-enabled Services makes up the single largest contributor to India's Services exports directly employing nearly 35 lakh people.
  

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  The purpose of setting up these units is to coordinate and to upgrade police treatment of the juveniles and the children.
  

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  These are: Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Rajasthan.
  
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  The Act covers upto 75% of the rural population and upto 50% of the urban population of the country for receiving foodgrains at subsidized prices under Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS).
  
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  This Coverage has been delinked from poverty estimates and is large enough to include all the needy households.
  

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  In addition, vaccination against Japanese Encephalitis and Haemophilus influenza type B will be provided in selected districts/states of the country.
  
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  Vaccination against tetanus will be provided to the pregnant women.
  
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  Four special vaccination campaigns will be conducted between March and June 2015 and this will cover all children under two years of age and pregnant women for tetanus toxoid vaccine.
  
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  The nationwide scheme was launched in December 2014, with an aim to cover all those children who are partially vaccinated or unvaccinated
  

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  National Science Day (NSD) is celebrated every year on 28th February to mark the discovery of the ‘Raman Effect’, for which a Nobel Prize winning research paper submitted by CV Raman was accepted on that day.
  
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  National awards for the year 2014 for Science & Technology popularization will also be bestowed on the occasion.
  

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  The exercise involved large scale naval manoeuvres in all three dimensions viz. surface, air and underwater, across the Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.
  
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  The month long exercise was aimed to assess the operational readiness of naval units, validate the Navy's war fighting doctrine and integrate newly included capabilities in its 'Concept of Operations'.
  
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  The exercise also provided the Indian Navy with an opportunity to validate its network centric warfare capabilities, with effective utilisation of the recently launched Indian Navy's Satellite, GSAT 7.