Blog

17 Jun

Microsoft names CEO Satya Nadella as chairman

editor0 CommentsBusinessMicrosoft, Satya Nadella

Microsoft Corp on Wednesday named Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella as its new chairman, in place of John Thompson. Microsoft said Thompson, who took over as chairman from Bill Gates in 2014, will serve as lead independent director. Nadella has been instrumental in scaling up its business including billion-dollar acquisitions like LinkedIn, Nuance Communications, and ZeniMax. “In this role, Nadella will lead the work to set the agenda for the board, leveraging his deep understanding of the business to elevate the right strategic opportunities and identify key risks and mitigation approaches for the board’s review. As lead independent director, Thompson…

17 Jun

Miners in Africa find huge diamond, believed to be the third largest in the world

editor0 CommentsBusinessafrica, International, third largest diamond

A diamond believed to be the third largest ever found has been put on display in Botswana. The stone - weighing 1,098 carats - was shown to President Mokgweetsi Masisi, two weeks after the diamond firm, Debswana, unearthed it. The huge gem is only slightly less heavy than the world's second-largest diamond which was also found in Botswana in 2015. Botswana is Africa's largest producer of diamonds. "This is the largest diamond to be recovered by Debswana in its history of over 50 years in operation. From our preliminary analysis it could be the world's third largest gem quality stone."…

17 Jun

Ministry of Road Transport & Highways notifies common format for issuance of Pollution Control Certificate across India

editor0 CommentsSikkimIndia, pucc

Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has issued a notification dated 14 June 2021 for a common format of the PUC (Pollution Under Control) Certificate to be issued across the country, under Central Motor Vehicle Rules 1989. The salient features of the PUCC are as under: (a) Introduction of uniform Pollution Under Control Certificate (PUC) format across the country and linking the PUC database with the National Register. (b) The concept of Rejection slip is being introduced for the first time. A common format of rejection slip is to be given to the vehicle owner in case the test result…

17 Jun

Several parts of West Bengal to receive more rainfall over the next two days

editor0 CommentsSikkimclimate, India, rainfall, Weather, West Bengal

Kolkata and several parts of West Bengal received incessant rain on Wednesday and Thursday. According to reports, Bengal will continue to receive heavy rainfall along with thunderstorms over the next two days. In Kolkata, several arterial roads and alleys were seen to be submerged in water and large parts of the city remained waterlogged throughout the day, after overnight rainfall on Wednesday. The southern parts of Kolkata received more rainfall than the north, leaving streets and alleys waterlogged in Ballygunge Circular Road, Loudon Street, Southern Avenue and places in Kasba, Behala and Tollygunge. The weather department has predicted that West…

17 Jun

Delhi Police files complaint against Swara Bhaskar, Twitter India head and many others

editor0 CommentsSikkimDELHI, ghaziabad, India, police, swara bhaskar, twitter

Delhi Police have lodged complaint against multiple personalities over the Ghaziabad assault video. The names include actor Swara Bhaskar, Arfa Khanum Sherwani, Asif Khan of Twitter India and Manish Maheshwari, who is the Twitter India head. The complaint was lodged by advocate Amit Acharya at Delhi's Tilak Marg police station. Delhi Police has meanwhile launched a probe but an FIR is yet to be lodged over the fresh complaint. Earlier, an FIR had named Twitter Inc, Twitter Communications India and news website The Wire, journalists Mohammed Zubair and Rana Ayyub, Congress leaders Shama Mohamed, Salman Nizami, Maskoor Usmani and writer…

17 Jun

Modi calls for ‘repair and prepare’ as India emerges from pandemic

editor0 CommentsSikkimIndia, PM modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday called for focus on ‘repair and prepare’ as the nation emerges out of a devastating pandemic. “Over the past year, we have witnessed a lot of disruption in different sectors. Much of it is still there. Yet, disruption does not have to mean despair,” he said at VivaTech Summit. “Instead, we must keep the focus on the twin foundations of repair and prepare,” he said referring to the need to augment healthcare infrastructure in the country as well as prop up the economy. Indian economy suffered its worst contraction in decades in the fiscal…

17 Jun

China launches Shenzhou-12 shuttle carrying three astronauts, first crew to new space station

editor0 CommentsTechnologyChina, space, TECHNOLOGY

China launched aspacecraft on Thursday, June 17, 2021, carrying three astronauts to part of a space station still under construction for the longest stay in low Earth orbit by any Chinese national. A Long March 2F rocket transporting the Shenzhou-12, or Divine Vessel, bound for the space station module Tianhe blasted off at 9:22 a.m. Beijing time (0122 GMT) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern Gansu province. The launch time saw bright blue skies with near perfect visibility at the launch center on the edge of the Gobi Desert. Among the astronauts in China's space mission, Nie Haisheng…

17 Jun

Madhya Pradesh IAS Officer Gets Notice After Chat On Corruption Leaked

editor0 CommentsSikkim

A young Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS officer who recently travelled to some of the state's remotest villages to dispel myths about vaccination, has now applied for inter-cadre deputation to home state Maharashtra for taking care of his ailing grandfather and widowed mother. Interestingly, while 2014 batch bureaucrat Lokesh Jangid's application to the central government via the MP chief secretary for the three years inter-cadre deputation cites pressing family reasons as the reason, his recent posts/chats in a closed private signal app messaging group of MP cadre IAS officers points towards an entirely different possibility. An IAS officer in Madhya Pradesh…

17 Jun

CBSE submits Class 12 grading-plan in SC; results by 31 July

editor0 CommentsSikkimcbsc, India

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Thursday told the Supreme Court that for Class 12, the marks will be based on unit test/mid-term/pre-board exam and 40 per cent weightage will be given. The CBSE told the bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari that about 40 per cent of the marks will be based on Class 12 pre-board exams, 30 per cent on Class 11 final exam and 30 per cent marks will be based on best-of-three Class 10 marks, The 12-member committee constituted by CBSE also told the Supreme Court that the class 12 results will…

16 Jun

Congress leader alleges Covaxin of containing the serum of a calf

editor0 CommentsHealthcongress, covaxin, covid, health, India, POLITICS, vaccine

On Tuesday, Congress leader Gaurav Pandhi made some controversial claims about the component of Bharat Biotech and ICMR's Covaxin. Sharing an RTI document on his Twitter account, the Congress leader claimed that Covaxin contains the serum of a newborn calf. His claims were based on an RTI response from the Central Drugs Controller General to Vikas Patni, the man who filed the query. Gaurav Pandhi wrtes, "In an RTI response, the Modi Govt has admitted that Covaxin consists newborn calf serum .....which is a portion of clotted blood obtained from less than 20 days young cow-calves, after slaughtering them. THIS…