2100 HRS

30^th October, 2013

THE HEADLINES:

• Centre hands over Patna Blast investigation to National Investigation Agency.

• Union Cabinet approves some amendments in the Food Security Bill including deadline for implementation from six months to one year.

• Centre to convene an All Party Meeting ahead of November 7, GoM meet on creation of Telangana.

• Sensex closes at all-time high of over 21,000.

• Iconic Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar bids farewell to domestic cricket with guiding Mumbai's win against Haryana.

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The Centre has handed over the Patna serial bomb blasts case  to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) following a request from Bihar government. This was stated by Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde after meeting the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in New Delhi this evening.

Talking to reporters, Mr. Nitish Kumar said that Bihar has to strengthen its anti-terror capabilities as it had not witnessed any such major incident.

Bihar Police has a low data base of terrorist cases.  NIA has more success in such cases.  In the wake of these things, our DGP has recommended that NIA should take the responsibility of investigation and Bihar Police Officers will be associated with NIA in the investigation.

The Chief Minister demanded forces and equipment for the proper investigation of the case. Mr. Kumar said the state government has also decided to set up an anti-terror squad.

Six people lost  their lives and over 80 others  were injured in the serial blasts at the  BJP  rally in Patna last Sunday.

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The Union Cabinet today approved some amendments made to the Food Security Bill including the extension of deadline for implementing the law to one year from six months. On the 28th of August, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had approved around nine amendments to the bill without a Cabinet nod as the Food Ministry had sought ex-post facto approval.

The  Cabinet  also approved the Pharmaceuticals Purchase Policy (PPP) for five years. The renewal of PPP aims at ensuring optimum utilization of the installed capacity of Pharma Central Public Sector Enterprises.

The Cabinet also gave its approval for declaring airports at Bhubaneswar in Odisha and Imphal in Manipur as International airports.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has reduced the minimum export price of wheat by 40 dollars to 260 dollars per tonne.

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In Uttar Pradesh, three  youth were killed in Mohammadpur Raising village of Bhorakalan police area of Muzaffarnagar district this evening. The district magistrate and SSP have rushed to the venue of the incident. The administration has sounded an alert in the entire district. The police said that a scuffle between villagers took a violent turn causing the death of three youth reported to be the natives of a nearby village Hussainpur.

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The Centre will convene an all-party meeting next week to discuss various issues concerning the creation of a separate Telangana. Stating this in New Delhi today, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said the meeting is likely to be held before the November 7 GOM meeting constituted to look into the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. Talking to reporters the Home Minister said the meeting will discuss various provisions of the terms of reference of the GoM and give suggestions.

The GoM headed by the Home Minister, which has met twice, has already held discussions regarding the sharing of river waters, power, distribution of assets and demarcation of boundaries and also  the approach and methodology to be adopted by it.

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Defence Minister has said India is committed to maintain peace and friendly relations with all its neighbours. Mr. A K Antony said Pakistan is indulging in unusual cease fire violations. He said this year, the violations are more on the International Border than along the Line of Control.

The Defence Minister said exploring regional perceptions is quite meaningful as New Delhi has assumed the responsibility to improve its relationship with neighbours over the years. Mr Antony was speaking at the Inaugural function of the 7th South Asia Conference in New Delhi this morning. He said in international relations perceptions often prove to be as important as reality and at times shape policies of the state.

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In Andhra Pradesh, the death toll rose to 45 in the bus fire accident in Mahabubnagar district this morning. Police recovered 45 bodies from the charred bus and shifted them to Hyderabad for identification. The Hyderabad bound private Volvo bus caught fire after it hit a culvert on the national highway  early this morning. Seven bodies have been handed over to relatives while DNA testing process is underway to identify the rest of the bodies.

Meanwhile, police have arrested the owner of the Bus and took the driver and cleaner into custody. A forensic team visited the accident site.

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The Election Commission today held a meeting to review the security and other poll arrangements in the five poll bound states. The meeting was attended by Chief Secretaries, Directors-General of Police and Chief Electoral Officers of the poll-bound states and their neighboring states. Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Mizoram and Delhi are going to polls between November 11 and December 4 this year.

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In Odisha ten Maoists, including three women, surrendered before the police in Malkangiri district today alleging humiliation and torture by senior cadre. They include hardcore Maoist Ramesh Madkami, who is involved in 14 criminal cases.

As many as 65 Maoists have surrendered before the police in Malkangiri district in the last three months.

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An expert group on pricing methodology has recommended increasing the diesel price by five rupees per litre and that of kerosene by four rupees a litre. It has also recommended a hike in the price of LPG by 250 rupees per cylinder. The expert group, headed by Dr. Kirit S. Parikh, submitted its report to Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister M Veerappa Moily in New Delhi today. It suggested reduction of the limit for subsidized cooking gas cylinders from the present nine to six per annum and recommended that the balance subsidy on the domestic LPG to be phased out over the next two years through gradual price increase. Mr Moily said his ministry will examine the suggestions of the Expert Group and consult the finance ministry.

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Seventeen political parties across the country today asked the secular and democratic forces to unitedly counter to  fight against the threat from fascist and communal forces. At a convention in New Delhi the senior leaders of the parties including Left, JD(U), SP, AIADMK, BJD and NCP in a resolution said, the communal forces are once again raising their heads ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in 2014.

Addressing the Convention, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Samajwadi Party Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, called to join hands to defeat the communal forces. CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat also echoed similar views.

Our correspondent reports that the convention is being seen as an attempt to forge a conglomerate of non-Congress and non-BJP parties ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. Leaders of several other parties participated in the convention.

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BUSINESS WORLD

The Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange rose 105 points, or 0.5 percent, to an all-time closing high of 21,034. The Nifty gained 31 points, to 6,252.  We asked stock analyst, Puneet Jain what was driving the market rally.

"Stock Market touched all time closing high today driven largely by very large investments by FIIs after the US Federal Reserve decided that they don't want to withdraw the stimulus in a hurry,  there has been a surge of investments in emerging markets and India is really benefiting from that inflow of Foreign money largely this market has been driven by valuations in IT stocks, FMCG stocks, Pharmaceutical stocks. Consequently we have seen markets touching all time high. "

Stock markets in Japan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore gained between 0.4 percent and 2 percent. 

The rupee appreciated 8 paise, to an over 2-week high of 61.23 against the dollar. Gold dropped 220 rupees, to 31,710 rupees per ten grams in Delhi. But silver gained 510 rupees, to 50,100 rupees per kilo.And Brent crude oil futures dropped below 109 dollars a barrel, while US crude fell 80 cents, to 97.40 dollars a barrel. Pradeep Kumar AIR News)

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In Assam, indefinite curfew has been imposed at Mushalpur area and Simla police station area in Baksa district after bandh supporters clashed with local people. State Home Secretary G D Tripathi said that one person was killed and several injured. He said that additional security forces have been deployed and the army has been kept on high alert.

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The Supreme Court today refused to pass any interim order for allowing Sahara chief Subrata Roy to go abroad before his group files a review petition seeking to modify the court's earlier order restraining him from leaving.

A division bench of the Apex Court was hearing the case after it was mentioned by Sahara's counsel. The Court asked the group to file a review plea if it wants modification in the earlier order.

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In Chhattisgarh, a fast track court today sentenced 3 persons for life time imprisonment for sexually assaulting 15 minor girls at a tribal girls hostel in Jhaliamari village of Kanker district. Our Correspondent reports that the District and Session Judge also ordered a compensation of 7 lakh rupeeseach to the victims.

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India were 330 for 4 in 48 overs in reply to Australia's mammoth score of 350 for 6 in the Nagpur ODI a short while ago. Shikhar Dhwan and Rohit Sharma posted 178 run for first wicket partnership with Dhawan scoring 100 while Sharma made 79.

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Legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar's farewell game in domestic cricket ended in a manner today befitting his iconic stature. The retiring legend single handedly guided Mumbai to a four-wicket win over Haryana in the Ranji Trophy match at Chaudhary Bansi Lal Cricket Stadium at Lahli in Haryana. Requiring 39 more runs to win with four wickets in hand on the fourth and final day, Tendulkar went on to make a calculated 175-ball unbeaten 79.

Expressing happiness over his performance Tendulkar hoped to to play good cricket in the forthcoming test series against West Indies .

240 was a big total to chase with outfield a little bit on slower side so though it looked 240 on the board may be it was about 280 runs to chase.  It will be a good series.  They are a good side and something that I will be looking forward to my last couple of test matches.  So we all hope to produce good cricket and live up to the expectations of all our well wishers

We spoke to former Test Player Madanlal on the cricket journey of Master Blaster.

Sachin has done very well in Cricket and for the country.  He has played for 23 years and he won lot of matches.  I think for the past two decades, he has been the legend for Indian Cricket and in the world. Now he has taken a decision to retire from all forms of the game, I think that is his own decision because I believe this sort of decision sometimes becomes very difficult to take but still end of the day, it is sports, you have to take a decision and we should appreciate that whatever he has done for the country and for the game.

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The centre of the Norwagian town of Rjukan is basking in winter sunshine for the first time ever, thanks to three giant mirrors erected on a mountain top. The town lies in a deep valley and during the six winter months, the surrounding mountain casts a shadow over it, even at noon.