The Public Accounts Committee of the Lok Sabha has recommended greater recourse to private printers as one of the measures to reduce wasteful expenditure on Government publications. In its report laid on the table of the House to-day [November 11, New Delhi], the committee has also urged that the expenditure …

A forthcoming paper on the detectionof gravitational waves will be illuminating On September 14, 2015, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) made the Nobel prize winning detection of gravitational waves. These waves are ripples in the fabric of space-time, arising from the merger of a pair of black holes in …

Dissolution of Sri Lanka’s Parliament negates the letter and spirit of constitutional reforms Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has dissolved Parliament after it became evident that Mahinda Rajapaksa, who he had appointed Prime Minister two weeks ago, did not enjoy a legislative majority. It is an act of desperation to …

Data on the various themes dealt with in this column Since the release of Akira Kurosawa’s iconic film, Rashomon , in 1950, the term Rashomon effect has come to denote a range of ideas in politics, economics, psychology and the arts. The broad consensus about the meaning of this term …

Long-lost interviews reveal the true feelings of India’s veterans of the First World War A total of 1.5 million Indian troops served in the Indian Army during the First World War. Sailing away from the great seaports of India from 1914 under the British, for four years they fought for …

It’s highly unlikely that Iran will give up its forward defence doctrine in the wake of U.S. sanctions On November 5, nearly six months after the U.S. pulled out of the multilateral Iran nuclear deal, all the American sanctions that had been in place before the 2015 agreement were reimposed …

The December election will decide whether Bangladesh can protect its socio-economic advance, democratically From the outside, Bangladesh appears a country where democratic stability has ushered economic progress and shed the ‘basket case’ tag carried since its birth in 1971. Bangladesh no longer makes news for mass deaths from famines, cyclones …

Rising rupee, GST receipts lift mood Foreign investors have pumped in almost Rs. 4,800 crore into the Indian capital markets in the last five trading sessions, after pulling out large sums in October, amid cooling global crude oil prices and rising rupee. The recent infusion comes following a net outflow …

CCI presence in market also keeping prices above MSP The cotton season has commenced this year with an unusual trend — prices are up despite new arrivals. The price of the widely-used Shankar 6 variety is Rs. 130.42 a kg against Rs. 105.34 a kg last November. Since October 1, …

State to focus on food processing, IT/ITES, automobile, auto parts, among others Claiming to have achieved all-round development over the last 20 years, Odisha has invited global investors to invest in the eastern State and benefit. Inaugurating the five-day second edition of the Make In Odisha Conclave in Bhubaneswar, Chief …

The rankings serve as a trusted ready-reckoner for foreign investors looking to invest in a country India’s leap in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings this year has slipped under the radar, in the cacophony over demonetisation and the RBI-Centre spat. The country has, in fact, been one …

Free trade advocate T.N. Srinivasan passes away at 85 On Sunday in Chennai, India lost one of its notable economists with the passing of T.N. Srinivasan. Indian economists around the world joined the chorus of tributes and praise for the academic, whose publications and teachings made inroads into several important …

‘It is the primary responsibility of the public sector banks, as also infra creation’ Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday asked public sector banks to step up lending to the industrial sector as it is their ‘primary responsibility,’ besides ‘partnering infrastructure creation’. Mr. Jaitley, who was addressing the Union Bank …

From an accountant’s perspective, the govt. can rightfully stake a claim to the central bank’s surplus “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s,” said Jesus. The Judean population of the time were evidently satisfied with the answer. But the RBI and …

Mars sunrise recreated with musical piece Scientists have created the soundtrack of the 5,000th Mars sunrise captured by NASA’s rover, Opportunity, using data sonification techniques. Researchers from the Anglia Ruskin University and the University of Exeter in the U.K. created the two-minute piece of music, titled Mars Soundscapes. It will …

Pedal desks can help sedentary employees achieve their health goals, and lower the risk of diseases linked to physical inactivity, such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease, a study has found. Researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in U.S. found that pedalling while conducting work tasks improved insulin responses …

The world’s largest supercomputer designed to work in the same way as the human brain has been switched on for the first time. The Spiking Neural Network Architecture machine is capable of completing more than 200 million million actions per second, with each of its chips having 100 million transistors. …

What struck British Deputy High Commissioner Bruce Bucknell on his visit to the Bhawanipore War Cemetery in Kolkata on Sunday was the age of the fallen soldiers of the First and Second World Wars. “In most of the war cemeteries I have visited across the world there is one thing …

Egyptian archaeologists also found painted wooden cobra and crocodile sarcophagi Archaeologists in Egypt said they had discovered a rare collection of mummified scarab beetles, as well as an apparently pristine Fifth Dynasty tomb that they plan to open in the coming weeks. The mummified beetles were among artefacts found in …

Sri Lanka’s Speaker on Sunday accused President Maithripala Sirisena of “usurping” the rights of legislators and asked public servants not to carry out his “illegal orders”. Karu Jayasuriya said Mr. Sirisena’s actions since October 26 undermined the freedoms of the people. “I have watched over the last two weeks as …