The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Thursday refused to lift the suspension on the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), in force since December last year, and gave the Indian body a new deadline to set its house in order, asking it to seize the golden opportunity to implement the basic principles of good governance, ethics and integrity.At its executive board meeting in Buenos Aires, IOC asked the Indian body to meet before October 31 and suitably amend its constitution. The parent body wants IOA to frame rules that would disqualify any person charged in court for a criminal or corruption-related case, from running for office. Once this revised constitution is approved, the world body said IOA could go for elections before December 15.
The Land Acquisition Bill, which seeks to provide just and fair compensation to farmers while ensuring that no land can be acquired forcibly, has been passed by the Lok Sabha with amendments while the Rajya Sabha passed the Judicial Appointment Bill. The Upper House passed Constitutional Amendment Bill that paves way for setting up of Judicial Appointments Commission amid BJP walkout. The Land Bill legislation was on Wednesday passed by the Rajya Sabha. The bill was later taken up in the Lok Sabha for approval of the new amendments, which include dilution of retrospective clause with regard to acquisition of land for irrigation projects.
Technology and IT company Intex launched Aqua i7 with 5 inch HD display and 13 mega pixel camera for Rs21,900. The launch event was in Mumbai and the phone was unveiled by Farhan Akhtar, the brand ambassador for its mobile division. The phone comes with a FHD corning Gorilla glass for better display. It runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and has a 1.5GHz quad core processor. The phone has a 5 mega pixel front camera for video calling. The phone is loaded with a 2GB RAM and a mammoth 32GB worth of internal memory. It also has an additional storage space of 5GB -on Intex cloud. There is no slot for external memory on this dual-sim phone. The phone will be available in markets across the country from September 9.
Gold yesterday fell by Rs. 1,250 per 10 grams in the national capital on heavy sell-off by stockists as the rupee recovered after RBI’s fresh measures amid a weakening trend overseas. This is the second biggest fall this week after August 29, when it lost Rs. 1,575. In the national capital, gold prices plunged by Rs. 1,250 to Rs. 30,950 per 10 grams, while in Mumbai the yellow metal fell by Rs. 380 to Rs. 31,560 per 10 grams. Gold lost Rs. 1,085 to Rs. 32,575 per 10 grams in Kolkata, but in Chennai it managed to close Rs. 130 higher at Rs. 30,305 per 10 grams. Bullion traders attributed the sharp fall in the precious metal prices to fast recovery in the rupee against the dollar after the new RBI chief announced measures to boost economic growth.
Deepak Sandhu, who has been an information commissioner for the last four years, on Thursday became the first woman Chief Information Commissioner of the country. A former Indian Information Service officer of 1971 batch, she was administered the oath of office by President Pranab Mukherjee at a function in Rashtrapati Bhavan, attended among others by Vice President Hamid Ansari. Ms. Sandhu had served in many key positions such as Principal Director General (Media and Communications) in the Press Information Bureau, Director General of DD (News), Director General (News) All India Radio before taking over as Information Commissioner in 2009.
