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UPSC results 2015 declared; four women in top five

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upsc

New Delhi: Women candidates have bagged all the three top slots in the prestigious Civil Services examination to select IAS and IPS officers among others.

Ira Singhal has topped the examination followed by Renu Raj and Nidhi Gupta, who have secured second and third positions respectively, according to the results announced by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on Saturday.

Ira and Nidhi, who hail from Delhi, are Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise) officers whereas, Renu Raj is a doctor by profession. She hails from Kerala.

“I am really very happy. I can’t believe this. I just prepared for the examination,” Ira said.

Ira topped the exam in general category despite being physically handicapped. “I want to be an IAS officer. I want to do something for the benefit of physically-handicapped people,” she said.

Renu Raj got the second rank in her first attempt. “I am extremely happy to know the result. I have been preparing for the exam for the last one year,” she told PTI from Thiruvananthapuram.

Renu Raj, who works in a hospital in Kollam in Kerala, hails from Kottayam.

Third rank holder Nidhi said it is a proud moment for her to get selected in the examination. “It is really a proud moment. I put in lot of hard work and finally it paid,” she said. Nidhi is presently Assistant Commissioner of Customs and Central Excise.

A total number of 1,236 candidates, including 590 in General category, 354 belonging to Other Backward Class, 194 from Scheduled Caste and 98 from Scheduled Tribe, have been recommended for appointment to various central government services, the UPSC said.

A total of 1,364 posts are to be filled through the civil services examination.There are 254 other candidates in the waiting list. It is the first time that the Commission has declared the final results on the fourth day of the closing date for the personality tests or interviews, a senior UPSC official said.

The civil services examination is conducted by the UPSC annually in three stages — preliminary, mains and interviews — to select candidates for the elite Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Police Service (IPS), among others.

The civil services preliminary examination was conducted on August 24 last year at 2,137 venues in 59 centres across the country. About 9.45 lakh candidates had applied for it but approximately 4.51 lakh appeared for the examination.

Of these, 16,933 were declared qualified for the main examination, the official said. The main examination was held in December last year and, out of the 16,933 candidates, 16,286 appeared for it, he said.

The result of civil services main examination was declared on March 13, this year. 3,308 candidates were declared qualified for the personality test. Of these, 3,303 appeared for the personality test, which were held from April 27 to June 30, the official said.

“In terms of the number of candidates and number of centres or sub-centres, this was the biggest examination ever conducted by the Commission,” he said

The candidates can check their results on upsc.gov.in.

(Agencies)

Impossible for Yasin Bhatkal to smuggle mobile into jail, says Telangana DG Prisons

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Yasin Bhatkal

New Delhi: Telangana Director General (Prisons) V.K. Singh on Saturday said that the call made by Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhatkal was made by an official telephone in the Cherlapally Jail, adding that it is impossible for him to smuggle a mobile phone into the high security prison.

Singh was referring to media reports, which claimed that Bhatkal made calls to his wife via a mobile phone smuggled into the jail. The reports further stated that he had ‘hinted’ to his wife that he would be out of jail soon, possibly with help from Damascus, which led to speculations of the IM having links to dreaded terror group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

“To smuggle a mobile phone into the jail is impossible. However, they have the facility to talk to family members via official telephones. Yasin Bhatkal was also granted this facility on the orders of the court. These conversations are all recorded and these recordings are shared with investigative agencies,” Singh told ANI in a telephonic interview.

“All these calls are recorded and this is a routine exercise, and all the prisoners are aware of such a procedure. We cannot comment on the call. We have shared all the information with the concerned agencies and they will decide on the issue. This is a high security prison and proper checks are carried out on a routine basis,” he added.

Bhatkal had reportedly undertaken training in arms and explosives in Pakistan to launch terror attacks in India. He was on the NIA most wanted list before being arrested at the Indo-Nepal border in 2013.

(ANI)

Sania Mirza-Martina Hingis cruise to third round at Wimbledon

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Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis were ruthless from the very beginning and dominated the contest throughout, winning 56 of the 81 points played in the match, double faulting only twice and forcing their opponents into six unforced errors.

Sania and Martina will next take on Kimiko Date-Krumm and Francesca Schiavone. Photo: Wimbledon

Sania and Martina will next take on Kimiko Date-Krumm and Francesca Schiavone. Photo: Wimbledon

Wimbledon: The Indo-Swiss pair of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis cruised to the third round of the women’s doubles event, handing a 6-0, 6-1 thrashing to Japanese-Italian pair of Kimiko Date-Krumm and Francesca Schiavone at the Wimbldon tennis championships here.

The top-seeded duo took just 45 minutes at Court 12 to advance to the next round on Friday.

The Indo-Swiss duo were ruthless from the very beginning and dominated the contest throughout, winning 56 of the 81 points played in the match, double faulting only twice and forcing their opponents into six unforced errors.

“We’re playing really well, so I was confident going into the match,” Hingis said after the match on Friday.

“I’ve known Kimiko and Francesca for a long time and we knew it could be difficult, but we started well and kept our level up for the whole match.”

They defeated unseeded opponents Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan and Zheng Saisai of China 6-2, 6-2 in the first round on Thursday.

In the third round, Sania-Martina will meet the winning pair in a match between New Zealand-English duo of Marina Erakovic-Heather Watson and Spanish duo of Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra Santonja.

(IANS)

Met Dawood Ibrahim in London, he wanted to return to India: Ram Jethmalani

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Ram Jethmalani

New Delhi: Senior advocate Ram Jethmalani on Saturday claimed to have met Dawood Ibrahim in London, where the underworld don had told him that he was willing to return to India.

Speaking to news agency ANI, Jethmalani rejected a newspaper report, which claimed that he had met Dawood’s close associate Chhota Shakeel in London.

The senior Supreme Court lawyer maintained that Dawood had offered to surrender to Indian authorities, but the then Maharashtra chief minister Sharad Pawar had rejected the offer.

However, Jethmalani said that saying no to Dawood’s proposal wasn’t only Pawar’s decision, but the UPA government was also a part of it.

While recalling his encounter with the underworld don, Jethamalani said that Dawood was ready to return to India and be placed under house arrest during the trial, as he feared he would be bumped off in jail.

Jethamalani further said that Dawood told him that he was not involved in 1993 Mumbai serial blasts and wanted a guarantee from Indian authorities for his return that he will not be subjected to third-degree torture by the police during his detention.

The senior lawyer’s claim comes after Dawood’s trusted aide Chhota Shakeel in an interview to The Times of India, said that the underworld don had wished to return to India after the Mumbai blasts and had even spoken to Jethmalani in London, but the Indian government refused.

The newspaper reported that Shakeel had met Jethmalani in London and put forward Dawood’s proposal for the Indian authorities.

(Agencies)

Socio-economic census paints a grim picture of rural India

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rural India

New Delhi: The Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 has painted a grim picture of rural India, indicating that one out of three families living in villages is landless and depends on manual labour for livelihood.

The SECC 2011, also the first paperless census conducted on hand-held electronic devices by the government, said 23.52 per cent rural families have no literate adult above 25 years, suggesting a poor state of education among rural masses.

The census, carried out in 640 districts under the aegis of the Rural Development Ministry, was released jointly by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Rural Development Minister Chaudhary Birendra Singh here.

According to the census, there are a total number of 24.39 crore households in the country, of which 17.91 crore live in villages. Of these, 10.69 crore households are considered as deprived.

The deprivation data reveal that 5.37 crore (29.97 per cent) households in rural areas are “landless deriving a major part of their income from manual labour”. As many as 2.37 crore (13.25 per cent) families in villages live in houses of one room with ‘kaccha’ walls and roof.

It further said 21.53 per cent, or 3.86 crore, families living in villages belong to SC/ST categories.

Releasing the census, Jaitley said, “It’s after seven-eight decades that we have this document after 1932 of the caste census… It’s going to be very important document for all policy makers both at central and state governments… this document will help us target groups for support in terms of policy planning.”

The data, Singh said, “addresses the multi-dimensionality of poverty and provides a unique opportunity for a convergent, evidence based planning with a Gram Panchayat as unit”.

Singh added a caveat, saying though the name of the census suggests caste, it does not include castes.

“The name of the report indicates (caste), but caste is not reflected in our data … still the name is Socio Economic and Caste Census,” he said.

“We are now on the cusp of a huge development shift that will move the numbers of poverty to the names of the village that needs government intervention. The idea is to deal with all aspects of the family simultaneously,” Singh said.

The census further said just 4.6 per cent of all rural households in the country pay income tax.

As for sources of income, 9.16 crore households (51.14 per cent) depend on manual casual labour followed by cultivation (30.10 per cent).

It further said 2.5 crore (14.01 per cent) rural families are dependent on income from other sources which include government service, private sector and PSUs.

Besides, 4.08 lakh households fall back on ragpicking while 6.68 lakh depend on begging and charity alms.

“It’s also a document which contains various details with regard to the specifics of regions, communities, caste groups, economic groups and give us an opportunity to measure the progress which households in India have made.

“Who are the ones who have qualitatively moved up in terms of quality of life and who are the ones in terms of geographical regions, social groupings which in future planning need to be targeted,” Jaitley said.

“The data is an opportunity to make evidence-based selection, prioritisation and targeting of beneficiaries in different programmes,” Singh added.

The Rural Development Ministry has taken a decision to use the SECC data in all its programmes.

“SECC data would have meaningful use in housing for all, education and skills thrust, MGNREGA, the National Food Security Act, interventions for differently-abled, interventions for women-led households, and targeting of households/individual entitlements on evidence of deprivation, etc,” he said.

It paves the way for a Mission Antyodaya to work simultaneously in addressing the poverty of households through a Gram Panchayat Poverty Reduction Plan, he added.

The basic idea, the Minister said, is to implement a convergent, integrated poverty reduction plan, with Gram Panchayats and deprived households as a priority.

(PTI)

SC gives Karnataka eight more weeks for Bengaluru civic polls

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Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday gave the Karnataka government and the State Election Commission eight more weeks to hold the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palika (BBMP) polls, declining the state’s plea for more time for delimitation of wards on the basis of 2011 Census.

A bench of Chief Justice H.L. Dattu, Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Amitava Roy said it may give more time for the conduct of the election but would not change a word from its May 5 order.

The court’s assertion came as a battery of lawyers representing the Karnataka government and other parties sought modification of the May 5 order directing the State Election Commission to complete the election process within three months by August 5.

The government requested postponement of the polls to help complete the delimitation exercise.

The eight weeks allowed on Friday are in addition to the three months the apex court gave by the May 5 order, which recorded the Karnataka government’s submission that it had “no objection if the election for the BBMP is held”.

The parties opposing the Karnataka government plea for postponement of the polls recalled the submission it made during the earlier hearing.

(Agencies)

Sand mafia chops off woman’s hand in Bengaluru

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Sand mafia chops off woman hand

Bengaluru: In a gruesome incident, three members of a sand mafia chopped off the hand of a housewife after they allegedly mistook her for the wife of their rival at Herohalli, Tavarekere, on the outskirts of the city.

The victim, Mangala Gowri (38), is now undergoing treatment at a private hospital. Though the police have surgically joined her severed left hand, which was chopped off, the victim needs to wait for a week to ascertain whether she can regain movement.

The incident has shocked the IT Capital of the nation because the rowdies dared to barge into the house of the victim and slashed her family members with swords.

Around 8 p.m. on Thursday, three persons involved in sand mining barged into a house, and on spotting Mrs Gowri, attacked her. While the men were in search of Nanje Gowda, who runs a sand-mining business, they mistook Mangala – who owns the house – as his wife and chopped her left hand, said Tavarekere Police.

The assailants — Krishna of Kunigal, Sandeep of Bhattarahalli and Kumar, who run a sand-transportation business — had an argument with Nanje Gowda over a consignment which wasn’t delivered on Wednesday.

The three had earlier on Thursday come to threaten Nanje Gowda, who lives in a rented house. However, they met the house owner Raghavendra who asked them to go away.

Later in the evening, armed with knives and machetes, they entered the house where they spotted Ms. Gowri who was oblivious to the threats, said the police.

Taverekere police registered a case of attempt to murder and a search is on to find the accused.

(Agencies)

‘Girl could’ve been saved if taken to hospital with Hema Malini,’ relatives say

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Sonam

Jaipur: Relatives of the four-year-old girl, killed in a car crash with Hema Malini’s Mercedes, have alleged that the child was lying at the accident spot for nearly 20 minutes and could have been saved had she been taken to the hospital along with the BJP MP.

“Hema Malini was taken to a hospital in Dausa by a doctor immediately after the incident. He then took her to Fortis hospital while Sonam was lying at the spot for 15-20 minutes. Nobody asked about her,” alleged Shirish Gupta, uncle of Sonam who succumbed to her injuries on way to hospital in Dausa last night.

“Had she (Sonam) been taken to the hospital along with Hema Malini, she would have been saved,” Gupta said.

Sonam’s father Hanuman Mahajan, his wife Shikha (35), Somil and Seema were shifted to the SMS hospital here.

Mahajan has filed a complaint with the Kotwali police station in Dausa against Ramesh Chand Thakur, who was driving Hema’s car when it met with the accident in Dausa, 60 km from here.

Thakur was arrested at Kotwali Thana in Dausa. Gupta said Sonam and others were taken to hospital by police.

The 66-year-old actress-turned politician underwent a surgery for her wounds at Fortis hospital here and was doing fine, doctors attending to her said. She was also treated for a minor fracture on her nose.

(PTI)

#SelfieWithDaughter: Shruti Seth Pens Moving Open Letter to Modi

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Shruti Seth

by Shruti Seth

A little note to India,

I write this to an entire nation because no one individual can be held responsible for bringing about change in the mindset of a billion odd people. Change can only happen if there is awareness at an individual level.

On the morning of June 28, I made the grave mistake of expressing my views on an initiative called #SelfieWithDaughter which had been blessed by our PM. Most people found it to be a sweet gesture and a means to create awareness about female infanticide. I, sadly, didn’t find the idea very palatable. Keep in mind that I have an 11-month daughter of my own. But I expect more from the man who’s supposed to usher in a new era of change, not just tenuous surface-level initiatives.

I then made a graver mistake of posting this opinion on Twitter. So not only did I dare to think, I also dared to place my thoughts in the public domain.

And then, at the risk of sounding overly-Shakespearean, the floodgates of hell opened. I was subjected to a tsunami of hate tweets. 48 hours of non stop trolling. The tweets were targeted at me, my family, my ‘Muslim’ husband, my eleven-month-old daughter and, of course, my non-existent, dwindling, no-good career as an actor.

I had made an unsavoury comment about our Prime Minister by calling him – *gasp* – #SelfieObsessed and asking him to choose reform over gimmickry. Was I wrong? Was I too harsh? Apparently, for those who support him and the ruling government, unquestioningly so. I, as a member of the tax-paying electorate of India, did not have the right to comment on his policy. I had dared to challenge his authority. I had abused the highest office of the country (which is the President, by the way).

And so I deserved to be punished. And punished In a manner commensurate with the vitriol that the anonymity & access of Twitter so easily provide.

Men and women alike said the most vile things about me, stripping me of all my dignity as someone’s daughter, wife and mother and most importantly a woman. Men who were busy hash-tagging their selfies with their daughters one minute called me slanderous names the next. Asked me if I knew who my real father was. Questioned if I had been sexually abused as a child and hence was opposed to the idea of a selfie with my father. And these are the relatively polite ones. Well done, gentlemen. Your daughters must be so proud.

Women, who are meant to empower each other, asked me if I was a prostitute and if I was planning on doing the same with my daughter. Whether I was trying to gain some fame and resurrect my failed career by using the prime minister’s name. I shudder to think of the deep respect your sons will have for the opposite sex.

So here’s the thing. What is the point of taking selfies with your girls when you’re also responsible for creating the most toxic environment for them to grow up in? How will taking a photograph nullify the misogyny and patriarchy that is so deeply entrenched in our society? Why bother to increase the number of girls being born when you choose to treat them with such indignity and disrespect?

All those who trolled me incessantly for forty eight hours, did you for once stop and think that I, too, am someone’s daughter? Did you ever ask yourselves how you’d feel if it were your daughter at the receiving end of all that hate? I’m guessing the answer is a big, resounding “No”. Because, you know, you were too busy pouting for the camera and getting ‘likes’ and ‘RT’s to your #SelfieWithDaughter. As for our esteemed PM, I have this to say to him:

Dear Sir,

If you truly wish to empower women, I urge you to condemn this kind of hatred being spread in your name.

Regretfully, I deleted my initial tweet because of the backlash. But I stand by what I said and I’ll reiterate it here: “Selfies don’t bring about change, reform does. So please try and be bigger than a photograph. Come on!”

And as for my initial reservation about the initiative being nothing more than eyewash, I am deeply saddened to see that, in the end, I was proved right.

(The article first appeared here.)

France rejects asylum request from WikiLeaks’ Assange

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President’s office says WikiLeaks founder did not face “immediate danger”, in response to Assange’s request for asylum.

Julian Assange faces allegations by two women of rape and sexual assault, which he denies [AP]

Julian Assange faces allegations by two women of rape and sexual assault, which he denies [AP]

by Al Jazeera

The French government has rejected an asylum request from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, saying he did not face “immediate danger”.

In a letter to the French President, Assange described himself as a “journalist pursued and threatened with death by the United States’ authorities as a result of my professional activities”.

He asked in the letter, published on Friday in Le Monde newspaper, to be granted asylum by France.

Hours later, the office of President Francois Hollande responded in a statement that read: “France cannot act on his request”.

“The situation of Mr Assange does not present an immediate danger. Furthermore, he is subject to a European arrest warrant,” Hollande’s office said.

Assange, who turned 44 on Friday, has spent over three years holed up in Ecuador’s embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faces allegations by two women, one of rape and one of sexual assault, which he denies.

The former computer hacker fears extradition to Sweden could lead to him being transferred to the US to face trial over WikiLeaks’ publication of classified US military and diplomatic documents.

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