Reminiscent of times when AIADMK MLAs thumped desks whenever Jayalalithaa was hailed in Tamil Nadu assembly, the session’s start this year saw treasury benches cheer vociferously each time Governor Banwarilal Purohit named Chief Minister K Palaniswami’s name in his maiden address.

It was usual for ruling party members to thump the benches when the name of Jayalalithaa was mentioned but the maiden address by Purohit to the House saw loud applause whenever there was a reference to Palaniswami by the Governor.

Purohit’s address came amidst an opposition boycott, besides 18 vacancies caused due to disqualification of that many AIADMK MLAs owing allegiance to sidelined party leader T T V Dhinakaran.

Though an opposition boycott of the Governor’s address has not been rare in the assembly over the past few years, the absence of the 18 MLAs is something the 234-member House has hardly been witness to in the recent past.

Speaker P Dhanapal had disqualified the MLAs last year after they informed the then Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao that they had lost confidence in Palaniswami, a day after he merged his led faction with that of then rebel leader and now Deputy Chief Minister, O Panneerselvam.

The Governor’s Tamil skills also came to the fore as he spoke in the language to request Leader of the Opposition M K Stalin to be seated and later extended his Pongal greetings to the members in Tamil.

Soon after he arrived, Purohit greeted all members of the House with ‘Vanakkam’ and began his address.

Even as he began his speech, Stalin (DMK) was on his feet trying to raise some issues.

The Governor paused for a moment and told Stalin ‘please utkkarunga’ (please take your seat) in Tamil, but to no avail.

A little later, Stalin led his party members and staged a walkout, followed by his party’s allies, Congress and IUML.

Later, after completing his address, the Governor greeted the members on Pongal, the Tamil harvest festival, being celebrated on January 14.

The Treasury benches and Dhinakaran, who won the December 21 RK Nagar bypoll as an indpendent against AIADMK’s E Madhusudhanan by 40,000 votes, besides the lone appointed member, were present when Purohit completed his address.

Purohit, hailing from Maharahstra, had earlier appointed a Tamil instructor to learn the language, after taking over in November.

Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday used Twitter to slam Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal for deaths due to cold in the national capital.

Kejriwal said LG Anil Baijal did not discuss with the government before appointing the CEO of Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), which takes care of night-shelters for the homeless in the city.

https://x.com/ArvindKejriwal/status/950302512766058496

In his Tweet, Kejriwal Said, “Media reporting 44 deaths of homeless due to cold. Am issuing a show-cause notice to CEO, DUSIB. Negligible deaths last year. This year, LG appointed a useless officer. LG refuses to consult us before appointing officers. How do we run govt like this?”

The country’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) plans to expand the sales network for its light commercial vehicle ‘Super Carry’ as it aims to be a significant player in the segment.

The company, which launched Super Carry in September 2016, is seeing good traction in the light commercial vehicle (LCV) segment that is dominated by players like Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra.

They however, did not share details on the number of sales outlets it plans to open going ahead. MSI rolls out Super Carry from its Gurgaon facility.

“The retail network is being rolled out in phases. Currently Super Carry is being retailed through 162 new commercial outlets in 140 cities across 25 states. It is our endeavour to reach closer to customers as much as possible,” an MSI spokesperson told PTI.

“We plan to be present across India at all potential locations…We will plan as we move ahead based on customers need and market requirements,” the spokesperson said. MSI has established a new commercial sales channel for the LCV business.

When asked about Super Carry’s sales performance, the spokesperson said the LCV’s current market share in the mini truck segment stood at around 5.5 percent, “while in the similar 700kgs payload segment, where it competes with Tata Ace, M&M Supro and Piaggio Porter, it is 8.7 percent till December 2017”.

“In the future, we plan to be a significant player in the segment,” the spokesperson added.
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MSI sold 900 units of Super Carry in 2016-17. In the April-December period of the current fiscal, it has already sold 5,958 units.

“More units of Super Carry have been sold than some of its competitors during the second and third quarters of 2017- 18,” the spokesperson said.

Asked if the company plans to hike production capacity, the spokesperson said: “The production capacity for Super Carry is currently sufficiently planned to meet the market requirements.”

Besides the domestic market, the company has also started exporting Super Carry to countries like South Africa, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Nepal and Bangladesh.

Equipped with a 793-cc diesel engine, Super Carry delivers a mileage of 22.07 km per litre.

Elvis was known as ‘The King’ and his talent, good looks, sensuality, charisma, and good humor endeared him to millions, as did the humility and human kindness he demonstrated throughout his life. Known the world over by his first name, he is regarded as one of the most important figures of twentieth century popular culture.

Here’s Elvis Presley’s top 10 biggest music hits:

#10. Are You Lonesome Tonight?
The Elvis classic ballad entered the Hot 100 at No. 35 on November 14, 1960 but in just two weeks it shot up to No.1 where it stayed for 6 weeks.

#9. It’s Now or Never
It was Elvis Presley’s biggest chart record of the 1960s. From July to November 1960, it spent 20 weeks on the Hot 100 and was on the No.1 position for 5 weeks during that time.

#8. I Want you, I Need you, I Love you
Elvis’s second RCA single is one of two records to make this top 10 list without reaching #1 on the Billboard chart. It peaked at #3 in July 1956, stayed in the top 10 for 10 weeks and then the top 100 for 24 weeks.

#7. Hound Dog
One of the more well known of all Elvis Presley songs it spent 28 weeks in the top 100, 11 weeks on the top 10 in 1956 but sadly couldn’t reach the number one mark. The reason could be because of the natural competition of Elvis’s counter song ‘Don’t be Cruel.

#6. Jailhouse Rock
The last of Elvis’s blockbuster trio of hits in the year 1957, Jailhouse rock spent round 27 weeks in the top 100 and had 14 of those weeks in top 10 including the 6 weeks it spent basking in the glory of the No.1 spot.

#5. Teddy Bear
Elvis Presley’s ‘Teddy Bear’ spent 25 weeks on the top 100 including 12 weeks in the top 5 and it shone at the top No.1 spot for an additional 7 weeks, which is one week more than ‘Jailhouse Rock’.

#4. Heartbreak Hotel
This was Elvis’s first RCA single in 1956 and it spent a total of 27 weeks in the Top 100 and 14 of those weeks were spent at the Top 5.

#3. Love Me Tender
This was the title song to Elvis Presley’s first movie and it entered the Top 100 at the No.12 position which is the second highest chart entry of any Elvis’s singles. The next the song jumped to the sixth position and stayed at the Top 10 for straight 14 weeks.

#2. All Shook Up
‘All Shook Up’ was beast on the Billboard’s Top 100 in 1957. That year the song’s stayed for 30 weeks on the chart, this was the longest run of any Elvis singles. Apart from that the songs also spent 8 weeks in the No.1 position.

#1. Don’t be Cruel
The 1956 chart performance stands out at the No.1 on this list . His biggest hit spent 27 weeks in the Top 100, 16 weeks in the top 10, and 7 weeks at #1.This was the most sought after song on the charts even after getting a stiff competition from ‘Hound Dog’ another song from Elvis’s arsenal.

These songs and many others kept generations entertained with the words of the “The King of Rock”.

The dreaded Islamic State is alarmingly increaing its foothold in Pakistan, a leading think-tank here has warned, negating the government’s stand that the terror outfit has no presence in the country.

The security report by Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS) yesterday stated that the IS, especially active in northern Sindh and Balochistan, was also behind the abduction and killing of two Chinese nationals last year, Dawn News reported.

The PIPS shared the findings of its security analysis titled Special Report 2017, providing an insight into security challenges of Pakistan.

Pakistan has been denying that ISIS had an organised presence in the country, however, even though the terrorist group has claimed responsibility for several attacks in the restive Balochistan province in recent years.

“Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Jamaatul Ahrar and others with similar objectives perpetrated 58 per cent attacks, while 37 per cent and 5 per cent of the attacks were carried out by nationalist insurgents and violent sectarian groups respectively,” it said.

Collaborating with long-time rival chip manufacturer AMD, Intel Corporation on Monday announced the 8th-generation Intel Core processor with Radeon RX Vega M Graphics that has special features for gamers, content creators and fans of Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR).

The new 8th-gen chipset will come in two configurations — one with “Radeon RX Vega M GL Graphics” (65W total package power) and the other with “RX Vega M GH Graphics” (100W total package power) which features an unlocked configuration.

“Our collaboration with Intel expands the installed base for AMD Radeon GPUs and brings to market a differentiated solution for high-performance graphics,” Scott Herkelman, Vice President and General Manager, AMD Radeon Technologies Group, said in a statement.

“Together, we are offering gamers and content creators the opportunity to have a thinner-and-lighter PC capable of delivering discrete performance-tier graphics experiences in AAA games and content creation applications,” Herkelman added.

Earlier in November, the chipset major first shared details about this new addition to the 8th-gen Intel Core processor family that brings together the Intel quad-core CPU, Radeon RX Vega M graphics and 4GB dedicated HBM2 using Intel’s “Embedded Multi-Die Interconnect Bridge” (EMIB) technology.

EMIB acts as a high-speed intelligent information bridge between the GPU and HBM2 and reduces the usual silicon footprint to less than half that of discrete components implemented separately, the company claimed.

Forthcoming devices that will feature this processor will include the thin and lightweight 2-in-1s from Dell and HP as well as the NUC that Intel had introduced.

The Intel NUC is a four-by-four inch mini PC with a customisable board that accepts a wide variety of memory, storage and operating systems.

Meanwhile, with 14.6 per cent market share, Samsung Electronics replaced chip maker giant Intel to become the top player in the global semiconductor industry in 2017, market research firm Gartner said.

This is the first time Intel has been toppled since 1992 as worldwide semiconductor revenue totalled $419.7 billion in 2017 — a 22.2 per cent increase from 2016.

Actress Deepika Padukone, who turned 32 on January 5, celebrated Christmas in Vienna and flew down to Colombo, Sri Lanka to ring in the New Year where Ranveer Singh joined her.

The much loved and talked couple rang in New Year in Sri Lanka and also celebrated Deepika’s birthday.

Untagged Hd PICs #19 Vacation done. Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone return to Mumbai. pic.x.com/z8RIq5Rb2s

— RanveeriansWorldwide (@RanveeriansFC) January 7, 2018

Speculations are rife nowadays that Ranveer and Deepika are been engaged on Deepika’s birthday, this Friday.

Both Deepika and Ranveer looked happy and cheerful as they marked their way from Mumbai Airport.

While Deepika looked stunning in a pale peach jumpsuit and denim jacket that was casually laid over her shoulder and Ranveer looked dapper in a casual white tee, grey sweats, denim jacket and a hat.

On the work front, both the actors will be seen in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmavat, which also stars Shahid Kapoor, and is all set to release worldwide on January 25.

 Anamika Khanna has been announced as the grand finale designer of Summer-Resort 2018 edition of Lakme Fashion Week (LFW). The designer, who is known for her rich craftsmanship that blends Indian colors with global contours, is going to reinvent nude with her finale collection.

The Lakmé Absolute Grand Finale promises to bring together the best of Khanna’s contemporary designs interspersed with the diverse nude palette that Lakmé will be introducing this season, a statement said.

Seeped in the heritage of craft and texture, her collection will take an extremely modern approach to unorthodox fashion.Alongside the breath-taking ensembles, Khanna will also work with the Lakmé makeup experts to create looks that promise to redefine nude trends across the country.

“It’s an absolute pleasure to be back at the Lakmé finale- a platform that gives us the opportunity to push boundaries and reinvent “diversity”. The nude makeup trend has been the talk of the town for a while but to see it through Lakmé’s eyes is very different.

“It’s about identifying every Indian woman’s nude palette. Our finale collection is finetuned to be in perfect symmetry with the season’s statement, and we hope to showcase how much variety nudes can bring when done right,” said Khanna

Talking about the association Purnima Lamba, Head of Innovation at Lakmé said, “Lakmé has always designed shades that suit the Indian woman. As our consumers played back their struggle with a pale international nude palette, we felt the time was right to introduce a richer Indian nude shade palette. Building on the diversity across India, we are excited to collaborate with Anamika to represent personal style at its best, as we reinvent the concept of nudes.”

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidates ND Gupta, Sushil Gupta and Sanjay Singh were elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

Three of them were given ‘Certificate of Election’ confirming their election to Rajya Sabha by Returning Officer Nidhi Srivastava.

Earlier, Congress had said that when the BJP-led central government and AAP were supporting ND Gupta’s candidature for the Rajya Sabha, then “who will reject the nomination”.

In a Tweet, Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken said, “ND Gupta going to Rajya Sabha was a foregone conclusion… But, we wanted to highlight how the AAP chose a BJP supporter and appointee to this plum Rs 1.74 lakh crore Trust, for Rajya Sabha?”

https://x.com/ajaymaken/status/950252809663889409

“When both BJP and AAP are supporting, who will reject the nomination?” Maken asked soon after AAP Rajya Sabha candidate ND Gupta’s candidature was approved.

Breaking the silence over potential security flaws in chips, Apple has admitted that all Mac systems and iOS devices are affected but are safe at the moment.

Security researchers have uncovered security issues in chips known as “Meltdown” and “Spectre”.

“These issues apply to all modern processors and affect nearly all computing devices and operating systems. All Mac systems and iOS devices are affected but there are no known exploits impacting customers at this time,” Apple said in a blog post late on Thursday.

“Since exploiting many of these issues requires a malicious app to be loaded on your Mac or iOS device, we recommend downloading software only from trusted sources such as the App Store,” the company added.

Apple has already released mitigations in iOS 11.2, macOS 10.13.2, and tvOS 11.2 to help defend against “Meltdown”.

“Apple Watch is not affected by ‘Meltdown’. In the coming days we plan to release mitigations in Safari to help defend against ‘Spectre’,” the iPhone maker added.

“Meltdown” and “Spectre” issues take advantage of a modern CPU performance feature called “speculative execution”.

“Speculative execution” improves speed by operating on multiple instructions at once – possibly in a different order than when they entered the CPU.

“Meltdown” and “Spectre” exploitation techniques abuse “speculative execution” to access privileged memory – including that of the kernel – from a less-privileged user process such as a malicious app running on a device, Apple said.

“We continue to develop and test further mitigations for these issues and will release them in upcoming updates of iOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS,” the company said.

Actress Sonam Kapoor, who is gearing up for the release of her forthcoming film Pad Man, says that she wants to do good work and be a part of good films.

Recipient of Special Mention Award at the 64th National Awards for her role in the 2016 film Neerja, Sonam was asked if she thinks Pad Man would help her achieve another National Award and she said: “I don’t do films for awards, I just want to do good work and be part of good films.”

Sonam, along with Akshay Kumar, was present on the set of Grand Finale of Zee Marathi’s Show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa on Sunday to promote Pad Man.

During the media interaction, Sonam also revealed that she will be shooting for Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s film after which she will start her next film Zoya factor.

“I am going to shoot in February, March and April for Vinod (Chopra) Uncle’s production. Then I will start preparing for Zoya Factor,” she said.

“Also there are three releases this year, first Pad Man this month, then Veere Di Wedding in May and then Dutt biopic, so I will be busy with films. So, there is no time for other plans.” said Sonam.

Talking about Marathi cinema, Sonam said she is glad that the industry is being recognised for its worth.

“Marathi films and songs have become very trendy right now. But people aren’t aware of the years of hard work and quality work that happened earlier. But I am so glad that it has become so popular now that even we have to come and promote our films on the Marathi platform,” she said.

Directed by R. Balki, Pad Man is scheduled to release worldwide on January 26.

The death of five employees in a bar-cum-restaurant blaze here on Monday stirred the civic body and police to crack down on all bars, pubs and eateries to ensure fire safety norms are followed, a top police official said.

“We have directed the BBMP and the police to inspect all bars, pubs, restaurants, hotels and eateries across the city to check for fire safety norms,” Karnataka Director General for Fire and Emergency Services M.N. Reddi told reporters here.

Reddi, who inspected the Kailash Bar and Restaurant where the fire broke out killing the five men trapped inside its compound and the Victoria Hospital, said prima facie the bar in the congested city centre had no fire extinguisher and did not follow the safety norms.

“The premises where the fire accident took place had no exit door, ventilation, exhaust fans or any escape route from behind,” said Reddi, an IPS rank officer.

Reddi, a former Bengaluru police chief, also said that preliminary inquiry revealed that the victims died due to asphyxia than severe burns as they suffocated to death due to lack of fresh air, ventilation and no exit point.

“The victims seem to have tried to escape from the dark premises but could not as they failed to break the iron grill windows. No fire precautionary measures were in place at the bar,” said Reddi.

Bars, pubs, restaurants and eateries across the city are required to follow safety norms by providing clearly marked exit doors in case of a fire along with fire fighting equipment, said Karnataka Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy.

“The premises where the fire accident took place didn’t even have a fire extinguisher. The police will be inspecting all bars, restaurants and eateries,” he told reporters.

The rules laid down by the civic body Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) state that public buildings should be provided with exits to allow safe escape of occupants in case of fire along with installation of alarm devices to alert people and that the buildings must be equipped with fire extinguishers.

After the deadly fire at a rooftop bar in Mumbai on December 29 claimed 14 lives, the BBMP has raided several bars, pubs, restaurants and eateries here.

According to Excise Department data as of March 2017, Bengaluru has a registered total of 866 liquor shops, 1,375 bar-cum-restaurants, 74 pubs and 189 hotels and boarding houses selling liquor.

The city has 3,130 registered liquor-selling outlets, including all the liquor shops, restaurants, pubs and hotels as per the Excise Department.

Last week, as many as 57 rooftop pubs and restaurants were served closure notices by the civic body for operating without required licenses.

Karnataka State Fire and Emergency Services Department had also issued notices to nearly 70 bars, pubs and eateries in the city for flouting the fire safety rules. The establishments were given a 15-day notice to comply with the norms.

Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) said its search facility for grievance redressal may have been misused but denied any breach or leak of Aadhaar data after a newspaper reported it bought unrestricted access to details of over one billion Aadhaar numbers – for just Rs. 500 and in 10 minutes.

The authority that collects and maintains biometric and other details for the unique ID holders called The Tribune report “a case of misreporting”. But the newspaper stood by its story, saying the UIDAI claiming no breach of Aadhaar data “flies in the face of that”.

“UIDAI assures that there has not been any Aadhaar data breach… The Aadhaar data including biometric information is fully safe and secure,” an UIDAI statement said, adding that the data was secure with a “robust uncompromised security”.

The authority said it had given search facility for the purpose of grievance redressal to designated personnel and state government officials to help residents. The search facility, the statement said, “gives only limited access to name and other details and has no access to biometric details.

“The reported case appears to be instance of misuse of the grievance redressal search facility. As UIDAI maintains complete log and traceability of the facility, the legal action including lodging of FIR against the persons involved in the instant case is being done.”

The Tribune report, widely shared on social media, claimed that it took just Rs 500 and 10 minutes for the newspaper to get access through an “agent” to every detail of any individual submitted to the UIDAI including name, address, postal code (PIN), photo, phone number and email.

The newspaper said it paid another Rs 300, for which the “agent” provided a software to facilitate the printing of the Aadhaar card after entering the Aadhaar number of any individual.

In its point-by-point response to UIDAI’s denial, the newspaper said UIDAI’s admission that the search facility on its website had been “misused” did not change the fact that the theft had taken taken place.

“Aadhaar data has been accessed by unauthorised people. The fact is that it has been misused to steal data – personal information such as name, date of birth, address, PIN, photo, phone number, e-mail – at will, for any Aadhaar number.”

The UIDAI said an Aadhaar number was not a secret number and needed to be shared with authorised agencies to avail certain service or benefit of government welfare schemes or other services and the proper use of Aadhaar number posed no security and financial threat as for a successful authentication fingerprint or iris of individual was required.

The newspaper said what it found in its investigation was that unauthorised persons have gained access to people’s personal information. “The Tribune correspondent was also able to enter biometric data of specific individuals who were available at hand – at an unauthorised location – to print out Aadhaar cards. That is a partial breach of the biometric data too, even if biometric data was not downloaded.”

South African pacer Dale Steyn was absent from international cricket for 14 months due to a career threatening shoulder injury against Australia in November 2016. The first Test of the three-match Test series against India at Newlands Cape Town was his first match after returning to the competitive cricket.

However, he again suffered an injury during the first Test against India and now has been ruled out from the series, which was confirmed by Cricket South Africa (CSA) on Monday.

Steyn injured his left heel in the last over before tea on the second day at Newlands. Because of the injury, he is having difficulty in moving his foot.

In the opening Test match Steyn had picked two wickets for 51 runs. The CSA will announce the replacement for Steyn at the conclusion of the match.

Delhi Police on Monday filed a status report in the case of Max Hospital wrongly declaring a live newborn dead — who later died — and mentioned that the time of death of the twins was missing from the hospital’s register.

In its status report filed before a magisterial court, it said that “during investigation, the police found out that in the death register of Max Hospital only the time of birth of twin babies was mentioned but not their time of death, despite both the babies being handed in two separate tightly wrapped packages”.

The investigating officer of the Crime Branch told Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Rajesh Malik that they were waiting for a response from Delhi Medical Council and they have already recorded the statement of the persons concerned.

The court directed the investigation officer to probe the matters from all angles expeditiously and listed the matter for February 26.

The case pertains to one of the premature twins wrongly declared dead last month at Max Hospital, Shalimar Bagh. He died during treatment at a nursing home in Pitampura a week later.

Both the babies were declared stillborn by the hospital and handed over to the family allegedly in a polythene bag.

But to their shock, the family, while on their way to perform the final rites, found that the boy was still alive.

The Delhi government has cancelled the licence of the hospital for alleged medical negligence.

The post mortem report has been obtained which mentions the “cause of death septicaemia in a preterm foetus associated with necrotising enterocolitis, intraventricular haemorrhage with pneumonitis”, police said in its status report.

However, it said that the final report regarding the cause of death will be ascertained after getting final opinion from the histopathology department of Safadarjung Hospital here.

The report was filed after the parents of the dead twins approached the court seeking status report of the case.