Bengaluru/Lucknow: A special investigation team (SIT) will arrive Bengaluru today from Uttar Pradesh to investigate the mysterious death of Karnataka cadre IAS officer Anurag Tiwari (36) earlier this week in Lucknow. Anurag Tiwari was posted as commissioner at Karnataka state department of food, civil supplies and consumer affairs in Bengaluru. He was found dead under mysterious circumstances when he was on his visit to Lucknow earlier this week.

Meanwhile, speaking to the media persons on Thursday, Karnataka chief minister extended his support to the investigation team from Uttar Pradesh rejecting the reports that the deceased was murdered as he was to expose a big scam in his department by his superiors. Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath also assured Karnataka government and Tiwari’s family members that his government will move forward with all possible efforts to crack case to identify the reason for the mysterious death.

(Agencies)

Jharkhand: Four persons were killed and six persons injured in a shootout allgedly by accomplices of a sand contractor and a retaliatory attack by a mob in Garwah district today, police said.

The shootout ensued after villagers resisted the contractor from lifting sand from a ghat, killing a man and his two sons.

The villagers also lynched an employee of the contractor in retaliation, according to a report received from Medininagar, Palamau district, DIG (Palamau) Vipul Shukla.

As a fallout, irate villagers set ablaze 21 vehicles, including 15 trucks at PipriJadpura Balu Ghat under Bishunpura police station limits in the district, the police said.

The incident occurred when the villagers were preventing the contractor from lifting sand from near Samshan Ghat in the village, the police said.

Enraged aides of the contractor opened fire killing Uday Yadav (55), his two sons Niranjan (35) and Vimlesh (30) on the spot.

A relative of the victim Arun Yadav was seriously injured, the police said.

Following the incident, the villagers assembled at the spot in large numbers and went to one Nanak Yadav’s house, and dragged out one of the staff of the accused contractor, who was a tenant in Nanak’s house, before beating him to death.

The villagers also torched 15 trucks, two earth moving equipment, three motorcycles and one car in protest against the killing.
The Superintendent of Police along with adequate force rushed to the spot to maintain law and order.

Shukla said the Garwah Superintendent of Police, Priyadarshi Alok is camping at the spot along with adequate force to maintain law and order.

(Agencies)

Srinagar: The all-powerful GST Council today finalised tax rates for services under the Goods and Service Tax (GST) regime, scheduled to kick-in from July 1.

Healthcare and education would be exempt from GST.

Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Issac said there will be four rates for services at 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent, similar to tax slabs for goods. The tax rate on gold has not been finalised yet, he said, adding that the Council will meet again on June 3.

Restaurants with turnover of Rs 50 lakh or below to face 5% tax under GST; non-AC restaurant at 12%, AC restaurants and those with liquor licence to charge 18% GST; 5-star hotels to levy 28%; hotels with tariff of Rs 1,000-2,500 to pay 12% rate. Telecom, financial services to attract GST of 18 per cent; 28% tax for race club, betting and cinema halls.

(PTI)

Indian scientist Shrinivas Kulkarni has won the prestigious Dan David prize for his contribution in the field of astronomy.

Kulkarni is a professor of astrophysics and planetary science at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

He is a pioneer and leading figure in time-domain astrophysics across the electromagnetic spectrum who built and conducted the Palomar Transient Factory, a large-area survey of the night sky in search of variable and transient phenomena.

The survey has turned up thousands of stellar explosions, transforming our knowledge of the transient sky.

The USD 1 million prize is a joint international enterprise endowed by the Dan David Foundation headquartered at Tel Aviv University.

Kulkarni, with this honour, joins other prominent Indian laureates of the Dan David prize including author Amitav Ghosh, music conductor Zubin Mehta and renowned chemist CNR Rao.

The honour will be conferred at a festive awards ceremony here on May 21 in the presence of the laureates.

Three Dan David prizes of USD 1 million each are given every year in the categories of “Past”, “Present” and “Future” to people around the world who have made outstanding contributions to humanity in the sciences, humanities, or through their work in civil society.

The recipients in the “Past” category are generally drawn from the field of history, archaeology, paleontology, biography, etc; the “Present” from arts, media, policy, economics, etc; and the “Future” from one of the exact or natural sciences.

The “Future” category this year is dedicated to astronomy and will be shared by Kulkarni, Andrej Udalski of the University of Warsaw and Neil Gehrels of NASA for their discoveries on time-domain astrophysics.

The prize, now in its 16th year, was established by the late Dan David, an international businessman and philanthropist who envisioned a project that would extend beyond traditional academic categorisations.

This vision is fulfilled by a “roving” formula that seeks to reward achievements in all fields of human endeavour rather than in a fixed set of categories.

In order to encourage and foster new generations of scholars, the laureates are required to donate 10 per cent of their prize money towards scholarships for graduate or post- graduate researchers in their respective fields.

(Agencies)

Bengaluru: Sivantos India Pvt. Ltd., Formerly Siemens Hearing Instruments Pvt. Ltd,a leading hearing care company, today announced the milestone of opening of the 100th BestSound Center by Aanvii Hearing Care in Koramangala, Bengaluru. The concept store was a revolutionizing step in bringing hearing solutions closer to the Indian needs and lifestyle. The German company responsible for 1 in 4 hearing aids sold worldwide thus adopted a leadership role in not just bringing precision in hearing care solutions, by enhancing the technology knowhow in India, but keenly bridging the awareness and accessibility of most advanced products to Indians. Sivantos India with its 54% market share has been leading the industry with many such innovations.

Speaking at the launch of the 100th BestSound Center Mr. Ignacio Martinez, Global CEO, Sivantos Group, said “Sivantos worldwide strives to deliver technology advancement in hearing care by providing latest innovations and solutions. Our concept stores were a strategic decision to meet the Indian consumer plagued with hearing impairments troubled with both low awareness levels and accessibility issues. The BestSound Center are a direct answer to the need for quality hearing care in India and was introduced as a strategic measure to improve the standards of hearing instrument dispensing too. The stores thus conceived have evolved to be a one stop shop for world class hearing solution in India. This has been a great contributing factor in revolutionizing the hearing aid business in India for us and paved way for new advanced technology solution like 3D printers for custom hearing instrumentswhich has been introduced for the first time in India by us”.

Sivantos Group is the manufacturer of hearing instruments under the Siemens brand, which is among the top 50 brands in the world and has universal recognition with young and old alike. The core strength of the company lies in being able to provide a better “quality of life” with advanced “technology solutions” based on innovations in “audiology” and a “trust” in partnership with local entrepreneurs for dispensing the same with BestSound Centers.

Mr. Bernd Wagner, CEO & Managing Director, Sivantos India Pvt. Ltd. further added that “The 100th BestSound Center is a testimony of our trust in the concept and marks the organic evolution of this concept as a high quality hearing solutions under one roof; to us it’s an inspiring landmark that defines the future of hearing solution dispensing in India. We plan to add 100+ more in less than half the time we took to reach our first 100. We are sure it will add to our online marketing efforts too. Our aim is to become the largest retail network for hearing care in India before the end of 2018.”
The BestSound Center Concept was introduced in 2012 to provide a global outlook with a local touch to hearing care in India. The BestSound Center Concept provides an opportunity for business partners in the hearing health care industry to partner with Sivantos India Pvt. Ltd. in establishing a network of independently owned and operated exclusive hearing care outlets. Conceived to be the modern day hearing care center, the BestSound Center concept is tailored to help Sivantos India Pvt. Ltd. business partners deliver core values and professional services to the end-user while focusing on providingworld class customer care to its users. The domain hear.com, which is now owned by the Sivantos group, creates additional trust among end-users and attracts younger customers.

Mr. Vishal Shah, Managing Partner, Aanvii Hearing Care adds “The BestSound Centers work in dispelling the stigma attached to a use of hearing aid. They are aesthetically designed to be inviting and loaded on information to win consumer trust and confidence. State-of-the-art technology products with world class customer care backed by online reach is a winning combination for the youth to test and try the hearing solutions much earlier now. The general average to imbibing a hearing solution across hearing impaired is expected to be 10 to 15 years in India. With such concept stores the gap is sure to be bridged and surely life will sound brilliant.”

New Delhi: Environment Minister Anil Dave passed away here today.

60-year-old Dave complained of uneasiness at his home this morning and was rushed to AIIMS where he passed away, according to official sources.

He was a member of the Rajya Sabha since 2009. Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the death of Dave.

“Absolutely shocked by the sudden demise of my friend & a very respected colleague, Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave ji. My condolences,” he said in a tweet.

The Prime Minister said Dave will be remembered as a devoted public servant who was tremendously passionate towards conserving the environment.

“I was with Anil Madhav Dave ji till late last evening, discussing key policy issues. This demise is a personal loss,” he said in another tweet.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: Online restaurant guide and food ordering app Zomato today said about 17 million user records have been stolen from its database.

The stolen information contains user email addresses and ‘hashed’ passwords but no payment information or credit card data has been stolen/leaked, Zomato said in a blogpost on its website.

The startup’s disclosure comes at a time when the world is grappling with the cyber attack by ransomware ‘WannaCry’, which has impacted IT networks in over 150 countries.

Zomato said the data theft was discovered recently by its security team, without indicating the exact time or if it was related to the ‘WannaCry’ ransomware attack.

“Our team is actively scanning all possible breach vectors and closing any gaps in our environment. So far, it looks like an internal (human) security breach – some employee’s development account got compromised,” it said.

Assuring its users that their credit card information on Zomato is fully secure, the company said “payment related information on Zomato is stored separately from this (stolen) data in a highly secure PCI Data Security Standard (DSS) compliant vault”.

As a precaution, Zomato said it has reset passwords for all affected users and logged them out of its app and website and all of the user accounts were secure.

It, however, encouraged users to change password for any other services where they were using the same password.

Zomato said over 120 million users visit its site every month.

The company said it will be actively working to plug any more security gaps in its systems.

(PTI)