0815 HRS.

7^th November, 2013

THE HEADLINES:

• Indian Mujahideen involved in Patna and Bodhgaya serial blasts case, claims Bihar Police.
• In Chhattisgarh, 169 polling stations of Bastar region shifted to safer places.
• RBI permits foreign banks' subsidiaries to acquire domestic private sector banks.
• In Maldives, presidential elections to be held on 9th November.
• India to resume play at 37 for no loss in their first innings against West Indies in the first Test match in Kolkata.

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Bihar police claimed that the Indian Mujahideen, was involved in the Patna and Bodhgaya serial blasts case. Addressing a press conference in Patna yesterday evening, Bihar Director General of Police Abhyanand said that the modus operandi of serial blasts in Mahabodhi Temple premises of Bodghgaya on July the 7th and Gandhi Maidan of Patna on the 27th October this year were the same and the terror outfit IM was involved in both the incidents.

The Bihar police chief Abhyanand said that strong evidence recovered during the investigation has almost proved the involvement of IM in it. He said that two cases were registered in connection with the blasts. The first case was handed over to the NIA on Monday and the second was given to it on Wednesday. The DGP said that 3 persons were arrested in connection with the blasts. These include Imtiyaz Ansari, Tarique and Arshad and are being interrogated to draw out more information. Bihar government has already tighten security and sounded alert in wake of Chhath Puja. Diwakar Kumar, AIR News, Patna.

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In Chhattisgarh, elaborate arrangements are being made in Maoist affected tribal Bastar region to ensure free and fair elections. First phase of polling is scheduled on November 11 in 18 constituencies of the state including 12 seats of Bastar division. More from our correspondent:

In the wake of security concerns, 169 polling stations have been shifted elsewhere in the Maoist affected Bastar region. These polling stations will be re-located at safer places like weekly markets, Schools and Police stations. Some of these polling stations will be located at those places where the voters will have to walk down a distance of 25 to 40 kilometres. Polling parties will be airlifted by helicopter to more than 300 polling stations in different constituencies in the region. Videographers and micro observers have been deployed in more than 2000 polling stations of Bastar region. Vikalp Shukla, AIR News, Raipur.

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In Madhya Pradesh, BJP and Congress released their third lists of candidates for the upcoming state legislative assembly last night. Our correspondent reports that Congress has changed six candidates declared in earlier lists.

Congress has fielded former union minister and former state Congress president Suresh Pachori from Bhojpur. Party has replaced its earlier declared candidates in Pawai, Damoh, Chanderi, Dhauhani, Rampur Baghelan and Ashoknagar segments. The BJP's third list of eight candidates includes the name of Rajya Sabha MP Maya Singh. She will contest from Gwalior East. Now BJP has declared 218 candidates for the 230 member state assembly while Congress has declared 217 candidates. Meanwhile state congress vice-president Manak Agarwal has resigned from his post after denial of congress ticket. Shariq Noor, AIR News, Bhopal.

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The BJP has released the first list of its 62 candidates for the forthcoming Assembly polls in Delhi. Party Chief Ministerial candidate Dr Harsh Vardhan will contest from Krishna Nagar and former State President Vijendra Gupta will contest from the New Delhi constituency which is represented by Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit . The elections to the 70 member Assembly will be held on the 4th of next month.
In Rajasthan, Congress has declared 42 more candidates for assembly election. In this second list 13 MLAs have been given a ticket again while 7 sitting MLAs have been dropped. The Congress has declared 105 candidates so far.

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The Supreme Court will lay down the law on whether an employer can withhold the gratuity of an employee after retirement if a departmental proceeding is pending against him. Holding that there is no authoritative judgement on the issue, the Court referred the issue to a three-judge bench which will also decide on whether a retired employee can be penalised with retrospective termination of service which is a condition for the forfeiture of gratuity.
It passed the order on an appeal filed by Chairman-cum- Managing Director of Mahanadi Coalfield Ltd challenging a high court order restraining him from withholding the gratuity of an employee, saying the question of imposing a penalty of removal or dismissal from service would not arise after his retirement.

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The Reserve Bank has permitted wholly-owned subsidiaries, of foreign banks to acquire domestic private sector banks as well as set up branches anywhere in the country. In certain sensitive locations, RBI's permission will be required to open branches. It has also allowed foreign bank subsidiaries to list on the localstock exchanges. However, foreign bank subsidiaries will not be allowed tohold more than 74 per cent in the private banks that they may acquire.
An RBI press release stated that foreign banks that commenced banking business in India before August 2010 will be given an opportunity to convert into a wholly owned subsidiary.

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Home, auto and consumer loans may become costlier with the country's largest lender the State Bank of India, raising its lending rates by 0.20 per cent with effect from today.The bank has revised the base rate or the minimum lending rate to 10 per cent from 9.80 per cent. At the same time, the Benchmark Prime Lending Rate has also been raised by 0.20 per cent from 14.55 per cent to 14.75 per cent.The decision comes after HDFC Bank raised the base rate by 0.20 per cent to 10 per cent.

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In a major crackdown, market regulator SEBI has barred 35 entities from accessing the securities market. In a press release issued from Mumbai yesterday, SEBI gave the information that it has prohibited Rajesh Mangilal Ranka, SMS Techsoft (India) Limited, its 3 promoters, 3 independent directors and 28 other entities from buying, selling or dealing in securities in any manner. This action was initiated after an investigation found that the entities were fraudulently luring investors through SMSes.

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CBI has filed a charge sheet against Asaram in Jodhpur court. Asaram is in Jodhpur Jail since last 2 months for alleged rape charges against a minor girl. CBI filed its charge sheet which includes names of 140 witnesses and evidences. CBI produced Asaram and the co-accused in the court yesterday. The court has extended the judicial custody of Asaram till the 16th of this month.

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A Special Investigation Squad of Goa Police have arrested one person, Surendra Pal, along with others for hacking a Nigerian National Obodo Uzoma Simeon to death at Parra Village last week. Police said Pal was arrested from Chapora, a beach side village in North Goa. Simeon was found dead with stab injuries last week and his murder had led to protests by Nigerians who blocked the National Highway.

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BSP MP Dhananjay Singh and his wife Jagriti were arrested in connection with the murder of their maid yesterday, and remanded to five days in police custody by a Delhi court.

Dhananjay, who is an MP from Jaunpur constituency in Uttar Pradesh, and Jagriti is a dental surgeon at the RML hospital in New Delhi, were produced before Metropolitan Magistrate following their arrest yesterday.

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In the Maldives, the three candidates for the country's controversy-ridden presidential election have reached a consensus on holding the poll on November the 9th. This was communicated by the Maldivian President Mohammed Waheed after a closed-door meeting with the three candidates, including former president Mohamed Nasheed. Here's more from our correspondent

Abdulla Yamin of Progressive Party of Maldives, and Gasim Ibrahim of Jumhooree Party sent their representatives to sign the voter lists while Maldivian Democratic Party candidate, former President Mohamed Nasheed, went to the EC to sign the lists after a meeting with the President. Obtaining the approval of candidates for the voter lists was among the 16-point guidelines imposed by the Supreme Court when it annulled the September 7 election. International pressure was mounted by India, UN and the European Union to hold the elections before the constitutionally mandated cutoff date of 11th November. A team of Indian diplomats from New Delhi and a senior UN official are in Male to ensure that the twice postponed elections are finally held this time. Abhishek Dayal, AIR News.

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The UN nuclear watchdog, International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA will resume talks with Iran over its controversial nuclear program in Geneva today. Iran has invited the IAEA Chief Yukia Amano to Teheran on November the 11th. More from our West Asia Correspondent:

The International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran have held several rounds of talks without any breakthrough so far. The UN nuclear watchdog wants to probe the military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program by setting up an inspection regime. The western nations allege that Iran is trying to acquire nuclear weapons capability under the cover of its nuclear program. IAEA wants access to sites, officials and documents in Iran including the Parchin military base, where it believes nuclear-related explosive tests might have been undertaken. Iran denies these allegations and says its nuclear programme is only for civil atomic energy purposes. Atul K Tiwary, AIR News, Dubai.

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Former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf was freed yesterday after spending nearly six months in house arrest as he has been granted bail in four major cases registered against him, including the one over the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
The cases were filed against him after he returned to Pakistan from self-exile in March to revive his political career. However, a court has barred him from contesting polls for life.

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India will resume second day's play at 37 for no loss in their first innings against West Indies in the first Test match at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.Shikhar Dhawan with 21 and Murali Vijay on 16 were at the crease for India when stumps were drawn for the day. West Indies had won the toss and opted to bat first. For West Indies, Marlon Samuels top scored with 65, helping the visitors to score 234 runs.This is Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar's penultimate Test match. He will retire from first class cricket after playing his 200th Test in Mumbai which starts on the 14th of this month.

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NEWSPAPER HEADLINES

• Most Newspapers this morning have photographs of Prince Charles and Camilla parker taking part in the Aarti ceremony on the banks of the Ganges at Rishikesh on the first day of their official visit to India.
• Indian billionaires are the 6th largest group in the rich world according to the world billionaires census 2013 released recently. The Times of Indiawrites that the census has thrown up an interesting trend found no where else in the world that Indian Billionaires remained where they were raised holding on to their roots.
• Celebrated chef and cookbook author Tarla Dalal passed away in Mumbai yesterday. She leaves behind a legacy of a 100 cookbooks and thousands of recipes. The Padma Shri awardee was a household name for her vegetarian cuisine. The Hindustan Times, Hindu and most other papers have covered this story.
• The Hindustan Times writes that in an initiative to make getting to the united kingdom easier, Britain announced a plan to introduce a mobile visa service in India that will allow VIP's to have their biometrics data and photo's taken at their place of work there by not deterring high value in individuals from coming to the UK.
• "Eden erupts in joy as it gets a Sachin moment", writes the Asian Age,with a front page photograph of Sachin Tendulkar and captain Dhoni. Tendulkar delegated fans by bowling out Shillingford.
• And Finally The world metrological organization's annual green house gas bulletin released yesterday in Geneva, has said , that greenhouse gases reached a record high in 2012 with carbon dioxide and methane levels touching a new high. reports the Indian express. In a related story The Times of India writes that after the Diwali festivals high levels of particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide, caused the dense smog in Delhi. "Brace for health disaster" green body tells govt- writes to the Hindustan Times. The center for science and environment has done an assessment of the post Diwali smog asking the government to take specific steps to prevent a possible public health disaster as several localities have unacceptable levels of carbon monoxide and benzene in the air.