News Digest: Centre, state governments failed to curb atrocities against SCs, STs: Supreme Court

		THE TIMES OF INDIA
		Sunday, December 18, 2016
		Today's Headlines

		India
		Centre, state governments failed to curb atrocities against SCs, STs: Supreme Court Expressing concern over Scheduled Casts and Scheduled Tribes still facing discrimination and atrocities, the Supreme Court has slammed the Centre and state governments for their failure to protect these communities and bring them into the national mainstream. 'Rising threat from China, Pakistan influenced choice' The government stuck to the seniority principle in appointment of the next IAF chief on Saturday by announcing that Air Marshal Birendra Singh Dhanoa will replace Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha on December 31. Rajasthan high court asks Robert Vadra's company executive to appear before ED The Rajasthan high court on Friday asked a representative of Skylight Hospitality Pvt Ltd, a company linked to Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra, to appear before the Enforcement Directorate for questioning. More India News»

		Business
		Political resistance won't delay GST rollout, says Arun Jaitley Political resistance of "some parties" will not delay the goods and service tax as a "constitutional embargo" means the tax reform will have to roll out by September next year, finance minister Arun Jaitley has said. RBI has pumped in Rs 5.5 lakh crore in markets: Shaktikanta Das "So far 5.5 lakh crore fresh currency notes have been infused in the market, because old notes of worth Rs 5.50 lakh crore have come back to RBI," Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said. In the last five weeks, the situation has improved everywhere, he added. Sensex struggle to stay adrift, fall 258 points for the week More Business News»

		Environment
		China on red alert as Beijing, 23 cities hit by high pollution 23 cities in China including capital Beijing have activated red alerts and enforced odd-even rules to restrict traffic as the country tries to address severe pollution after the sky turned grey across much of northern part of the country on Saturday. Many studies on genetic modification biased: Report Out of the 579 published studies on GM crops that were analysed, about 40 per cent showed conflict of interest, mostly because of having an employee of a GM producing company as one of the authors or having received funding from the company. No turning back on climate change pact: Ban Ki-moon UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon has said the world needs to press ahead in the struggle against climate change. In his final press conference as secretary general, Ban Ki-moon on Friday said that the UN must maintain the impetus that resulted in the signing of the Paris Agreement on climate change. More Environment News»

		World
		Protesters storm pro-Kurdish party local HQ after attack Dozens of nationalist protestors on Saturday stormed the headquarters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in the central Turkish city of Kayseri after an attack that left 13 soldiers dead, images showed. New deal reached to secure Aleppo evacuation A new deal has been reached to complete the evacuation of rebel-held areas of Syria's east Aleppo which ground to a halt on Friday over demands from pro-government forces that people also be moved out of two villages besieged by rebels. China on red alert as Beijing, 23 cities hit by high pollution 23 cities in China including capital Beijing have activated red alerts and enforced odd-even rules to restrict traffic as the country tries to address severe pollution after the sky turned grey across much of northern part of the country on Saturday. More World News»

		Entertainment
		PIC: Varun bonds with Aditya-Shraddha Look who had a happy reunion of sorts at Karan Johar’s Dharma office – Varun Dhawan with ‘OK Jaanu’ stars Aditya Roy Kapur and Shraddha Kapoor! Lisa Haydon's hottest bikini pictures When it comes to rocking a bikini, very few can do it better than Lisa Haydon. Kangana felt 'naked when letters were exposed' The 29-year-old began by saying, "The world knows me as an achiever.I think a lot of importance given to the worldly achievements. More Entertainment News»

		Science
		'Apollo 11 lunar sample belongs to buyer, not Nasa' A mistakenly sold bag containing samples from the first manned mission to the moon belongs to the woman who bought it in a sale "conducted according to law", a US district court judge has ruled. China opens 1st fully-owned satellite ground station The facility, located in Sweden about 200 kms north of the Arctic Circle, would allow China to collect satellite data anywhere on Earth at speeds that were more than twice as fast as before, said the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the academic governing body that built and runs the station. Scientists develop new method to double number of known black holes Researchers from the University of Waterloo in Canada came up with the method that has implications for the emerging field of gravitational wave astronomy and the way in which we search for black holes and other dark objects in space. More Science News»

		Sports
		Vijender knocks out Cheka to defend WBO Asia Pacific title Star Indian boxer Vijender Singh defended his WBO Asia Pacific super middleweight title in style with a knock-out win over challenger and former world champion Francis Cheka on Saturday. BWF Finals: PV Sindhu bows out, loses to Sung in semis It was a contest between Sindhu's power and Sung Ji's precision and unfortunately the Indian failed to break the Korean's impregnable defence and went down fighting 15-21 21-18 16-21 in a thrilling 76-minute contest. India 60/0 in reply to England's 477 on Day 2 From 321 for seven, England went on to post 477 runs, courtesy, a 108-run stand for the eighth wicket Rashid (60) and Dawson (66*). In reply, India reached 60/0 with KL Rahul (30*) and Parthiv Patel (28*) in the middle. More Sports News»

		Technology
		Cyrus Mistry removed as director from Tata Teleservices Board Mistry said in a letter to the board last month that the business was "continuously haemorrhaging" and had even questioned the alliance in his statements to the group. Yahoo hit by world's biggest hacking attack Yahoo has warned that it had uncovered yet another massive cyberattack, saying data from more than 1 billion user accounts was compromised in August 2013, making it the largest breach in history. Wipro creates independent India unit Effective April, the India and Middle East unit will be reorganized into two separate businesses, signalling the increasing opportunities in the domestic market as the government embarks on large-scale digital transformation projects. More Technology News»

		Education
		President Pranab Mukherjee to preside over Army College of Dental Sciences convocation President Pranab Mukherjee would preside over the convocation ceremony of Army College of Dental Sciences (ACDS), Secunderabad here on December 23. NEET super specialty exam to be held on June 10, 2017 "The examination being conducted by the National Board of Examinations, shall be held as a computer-based test and shall comprise of 200 multiple choice questions from the MD/MS curriculum followed at medical colleges in India duly prescribed /adopted by Medical Council of India with prior approval of the Health Ministry," said the statement. Prakash Javadekar confident X Boards will be reintroduced from 2017-18 "This month there will be a CBSE Board meeting, in which there will be a resolution (for compulsory class X board exams). So, I am very sure from academic session 2017-18, Board examination will be mandatory for all students," Javadekar told PTI. More Education News»

		Mumbai
		Strawberry biz wilts due to cash crunch 'A musician looks for beauty where fanatics see violence' Man wanted for Kandivli murder poisons self in Gujarat More Mumbai News»

		Delhi
		'Govt school vacancies DSSSB fault' Delhi Commission for Women asks for Sushma Swaraj's help to get Delhi man's body from Japan 1,613 acres of land slip out of DDA hand More Delhi News»

		Bangalore
		They add colours to the dreams of rural entrepreneurs and students Take ownership of city's problems, schoolkids tell citizens Trio supplied ganja to convicts in mosambi and biryani packets, held More Bangalore News»

		Hyderabad
		Weekend bike ride proves fatal for 2 TCS employees Education institutions up, enrolment down in Telangana Rs 2,700 crore worth gold landed in Hyderabad in less than a month: Enforcement Directorate Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigations revealed that gold biscuits worth Rs 2,700cr in cash was bought with demonitised notes in November 2016 in Hyderabad alone. The persons who did the purchase went underground thereafter. ED sources told STOI that 8,000kgs of gold was imported into Hyderabad between November 8 and 30, the period post demonitisation. More Hyderabad News»

		Chennai
		Dialysis centre to be inaugurated Crawl your way to fitness Rock and roll with the raga riff More Chennai News»

		Ahmedabad
		Cashless push trips as servers crash The government’s huge push behind going cashless and adopting digital financial transactions has exponentially increased cashless transactions overnight. But the servers supporting point-of-sale machines (PoS) at retail outlets are playing spoilsport. It seems cashless transactions are failing often due to server crashes, though businesses are trying to go for cashless transac BJP president Amit Shah arrives for chintan shibir BJP national president Amit Shah will address the Gujarat BJP during the two-day chintan shibir (brainstorming session) on December 18 and 19, and discuss strategy for the 2017 state assembly elections. The shibir will be held at a luxurious private club near Sanand. Shah arrived in Ahmedabad on Saturday evening. Despite misgivings, Vadodara jail to be shifted The move to shift Vadodara Central Jail to near Pasva village, some 30 km from the centre of the cultural capital of the state, has raised eyebrows in the power corridors. It has emerged that the jail authorities raised strong objections to the move, even as the state government sanctioned Rs 180 crore for the project. More Ahmedabad News»

		Allahabad
		HC declines plea of Cong leader for probe of cases Land allotted to seers washed away PCS to be conducted online, on par with UPSC exam More Allahabad News»

		Bhubaneswar
		Awareness on digital payment soon In sync with the Narendra Modi government's digital push, the Naveen Patnaik-led government in Odisha will soon launch a state-wide awareness campaign on digital payment at the grassroots level. Bhubaneswar plans smart card for various utility payments Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) has taken up an initiative in an apparent bid to help denizens shed some weight from their wallets. Odisha govt plans state-wide campaign on digital payment using students More Bhubaneswar News»

		Bhopal
		Demonetisation: Give 50 days for normalisation, says SP leader Amar Singh Not everybody affluent like BJD MP Jay Panda, say Madhya Pradesh MPs Narmada conservation my brainchild, says BJP veteran Babulal Gaur More Bhopal News»

		Chandigarh
		AAP candidate makes poll issue out of amphibious bus An Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate has made an election issue out of the new amphibious bus launched by the SAD-BJP government on Monday. Attacked by classmates, student battles for life Efforts to strike a peace deal between his friend and other classmates proved costly for a class X boy who was attacked and critically injured by the rival group. High court stays appointment of 668 panchayat secretaries in Punjab The Punjab and Haryana high court on Saturday stayed the appointment of 668 panchayat secretaries by the Punjab department of rural development and panchayats, for which an advertisement was issued on August 4. More Chandigarh News»

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