16 injured in bomb blast near K'taka BJP office in B'lore

Apr 17,  2:28 PM A high intensity bomb blast near Karnataka BJP office in Bangalore has injured at least 16 people, including eight police personnel. The incident happened at around 10.20 am. The City Police Commissioner Raghavendra Auradkar told media persons that it is too early to say it was a terrorist attack and investigations have begun. The Director General of Police Lalrokhuma Pachau has however onfirmed that explosive was used in the blast. It is suspected that timer was used to trigger the explosion in a bike parked between cars, two wheelers and a police van. The Home Ministry today rushed a team of the National Investigation Agency to the Bangalore blast site and offered all help to the Karnataka government in its investigation. Talking to reporters in New Delhi, Minister of State for Home, R P N Singh said, the Centre is in constant touch with the State government and will extend all help to the Police in the case. The Minister appealed to everyone to maintain peace and not to indulge in rumour mongering. He said, the nature of the blast and the materials used to carry out the explosion were not so far clear and investigators were looking into all possibilities as nothing can be ruled out.  SC grants four weeks time to actor Sanjay Dutt to surrender Apr 17,  1:41 PM Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt was today granted a further four weeks' time on humanitarian grounds to surrender before jail authorities to undergo the 42-month remaining sentence in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case. Dutt had sought six months time to surrender to complete his seven movies in which producers have invested over 278 crore rupees. The apex court accepted the plea on humanitarian grounds raised by him for extending the time for surrender which was to expire tomorrow but made it clear that no further extension will be granted to him. India calls for evolving workable solutions for promoting energy efficiency at Delhi CEM4 Apr 17,  1:48 PM India today called for evolving workable solutions for promoting energy efficiency and ensure cost effectiveness of clean energy inititiatives for faster transition to global green economy. Inaugurating the 4th Clean Energy Ministerial in New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh termed as painfully slow, the progress of discussions on climate change negotiations at the United Nations Framework on Climate Change. He said, historically industrialized countries are responsible for the bulk of Green House Gas emissions suggesting greater responsibility for developed nations. Dr. Singh urged the international community to work towards acceptable outcomes at the UNFCC and said, individual countries have to take action to increase energy efficiency and also promote clean energy. Dr. Singh said, a global strategy must be based on equitable sharing of the burden of mitigation and adjustment. Dr. Singh said, developing countries need vast sources of energy to support their economic growth and the cost of expansion of new energy sources is constrained by exorbitant costs than conventional energy. He stressed on policy initiatives by governments, sharing of technology and reducing costs to promote clean energy initiatives. Saying India offers tremendous potential for alternate energy, Prime minister Manmohan Singh invited global investments to set up solar energy manufacturing units in India. He said India will set up a National Institute of Solar Energy by 2015 for research and development on solar energy. Dr. Singh said, India is actively pursuing clean energy initiative and the 12th five year plan includes low carbon strategy for the nation. He said, efforts are on to expand solar and wind energy project and the country envisages to achieve 22 thousand megawat solar energy capacity by 2022 under Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission. He said, 1500 megawat solar capacity has already been installed and another 10,000 megawat will be added by 2017. He also said, India aims to double renewable energy capacity from 25000 MW to 55000 by 2017.