The much-talked about pact on the Kathmandu-Kerung rail project, a cross-border rail network between Nepal and China, is in the final stage of signature, said Nepal's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Krishna Bahadur Mahara.

Speaking at a programme organised by the China Study Centre and the Nepal Institute for Strategic Centre on "One Belt One Road Initiative and South Asia" in the capital on Friday, Mahara said Nepal would sign the pact with China.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' had assured the Chinese side that Nepal would sign an agreement to extend the rail network from Kerung to Kathmandu, Pokhara and Lumbni, he said.

"As per the PM's proposal, we are making preparations to sign the agreement with China soon," Mahara said.

While it is uncertain whether Nepal would be part of "One Belt One Road" (OBOR), Mahara, who is set to lead Nepal at the OBOR conference in Beijing next month, said that Nepal wanted to take advantage of the plan, reported the Kathmandu Post.

"We have taken it as an opportunity to expand economic cooperation," he said, adding, "Nepal is at a final stage to sign the initiative to which the government has accorded the highest priority."

"We are sure a country like Nepal will be helped by this initiative which is expected to bring together many countries, including those in South Asia," Mahara said.

Though top Nepali officials, including Prachanda, have been insisting on Nepal's participation at the OBOR conference, sources privy to the development said negotiations and consultations with the Chinese side are underway and no concrete decision has been made yet, the daily reported.

During his recent visit to China, the Prime Minister had assured the Chinese leaders that Nepal would be the signatory of the initiative by April 20. 

But Nepal could not meet the deadline because a text for the agreement was not ready, said an official.
 

It started with a Twitter face-off between actress Sonakshi Sinha and singer Armaan Malik with the latter vehemently opposing the idea of actors singing for themselves on screen. But now the issue has acquired far-reaching ramifications.

He said: "It takes years and years of devotion to be able to sing and pursue music to reach a professional level. Leave music and singing, any art for that matter requires that. Millions of singers are finding opportunities to work. Imagine how crushed they would feel when they see non-singers getting that chance?!"

So is Armaan calling the stars-turned-singers non singers?

"All I believe in is putting the truth out there. When these actors sing their own songs the average middle class movie going public thinks, 'If they can sing, we can also sing'.The standard of music and singing in our cinema has fallen so long because anybody can sing these days. 

"Aspiring singers will stop putting efforts in learning music, ragas, classical music and others," he said.

Playback singer Alka Yagnik, however disagrees with Armaan. 

"Why not? Why shouldn't actors sing? In any case anybody can be made to sound like a singer these days, what with the help of advanced technology like auto-tuning," said Yagnik.

Ace composer Amit Trivedi agrees with Yagnik.

"As long as the actors sing really well, it's all really good. I don't have a problem with actors singing. Alia Bhatt and Diljit Dosanjh have sung for me," he said.

A former driver Kanakaraj, employed in late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa's Kodanad Estate, died in a road accident on Saturday morning in Salem district, police said.

According to the police, a car hit Kanakaraj who was riding a two-wheeler. He was taken to the hospital where he died.

The death of Kanakaraj has deepened the mystery of the murder of the Nilgiris district's Kodanad Estate's security guard a couple of days back.

The police were on the lookout for two persons — Kanakaraj and Syan.

Curiously Syan while travelling in a car with his family in Palakkad in Kerala met with an accident and was in a critical condition.

His wife and five-year-old daughter died in the accident. Their car had rammed against a stationary lorry.
 

Olympique Lyon climbed to the fourth position in the French football league with a 2-1 away victory over French Cup finalists Angers SCO at the Stade Raymond Kopa here.

Lyon, who will face Ajax in next week's Europa League semi-finals first leg, warmed up quicker than their tough opponents in their Ligue 1 match here on Friday evening.

Mathieu Valbuena put the ball into the net after Maxime Gonalons forced a save from Angers goalkeeper Alexandre Letellier in the 17th minute, reports Xinhua news agency.

Without injured attackers Alexandre Lacazette and Memphis Depay, Lyon were served well by Nabil Fekir who doubled their lead through a free-kick in the 42nd minute.

Angers, who entered the French Cup final for the first time in the past six decades on Tuesday, pulled one back four minutes after the restart.

Cheikh N'Doye beat Lyon defenders Mouctar Diakhaby and Jeremy Morel to convert a corner from Thomas Mangani.

However, the hosts could not add another to their scoring account, which was worsened by Mateo Pavlovic's red card for a bad foul on Corentin Tolisso with less than 15 minutes to go.

Lyon provisionally went past Bordeaux to be placed fourth with 57 points. Angers remained 14th with 39 points.

Paris Saint-Germain and Nice are set to meet in a high profile clash on Sunday, which may be decisive to the title race this season.

Paris Saint-Germain are currently second with 80 points from 34 matches. They have the same number of points as league leaders AS Monaco, but trail due to an inferior goal difference.

Nice, six points adrift, are placed third.

A man was shot dead in the Rohini Courts complex on Saturday while being brought for court hearing, police said.

"Rajesh, a notorious criminal, has been shot dead outside Rohini Court by Mohit, resident of Jhajjar district Haryana, while he was being brought by Haryana Police," Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Rishi Pal said. 

The police has arrested Mohit.

Rajesh was arrested in a murder case in December 2016 and was undergoing judicial custody in Haryana.
 

A Hindu temple in Pakistan has been vandalised in the southern Sindh province and a case of blasphemy and terrorism has been registered against three unidentified persons, police said on Saturday.

Police said idols of deities were damaged and some of the broken parts were found in a nearby sewerage line. The incident occurred on Friday in Thatta district's Gharo town.

A case of blasphemy and terrorism has been registered.

Police also registered a FIR against three persons for desecrating the deities, Dawn reported.

"Investigation is going on but so far no arrests have been made," police officer Fida Hussain Mastoi said.

Mastoi was quoted by BBC Urdu that the case would be investigated from all aspects, though according to preliminary probe, the footprints found near the temple seem to belong to a young boy around the age of 12.

Local Hindu councillor Lal Meheshwri said that he had been working late at the temple for a monthly religious service.

"Someone seems to have entered the temple between 1:00 am and 5:00 am. When worshippers came in the morning for prayers, the idols were missing. This is the first time that that such a thing has happened in the temple's history," he was quoted by the report.

Adviser to the Sindh Chief Minister on Minority Affairs Dr Khatto Mal said that attackers would be arrested soon.

Gharo is situated along the National Highway some 60 kilometres from Karachi. About 2,000 families, who are mostly Hindus, live in Gharo.

Singer Ronan Keating and his wife Storm have named their new baby son Cooper Archer.

The 40-year-old pop star and his wife, 35, welcomed their first child together earlier this week and Storm has now taken to Instagram to reveal that the tot is called Cooper.

Sharing a picture of her, Ronan and Cooper with his children – Jack, 18, Missy, 16, and Ali, 11, from his first marriage to Yvonne Connolly – Storm wrote, "We've finally all agreed on a name. Introducing: Cooper Archer Uechtritz KEATING #CooperKeating (sic)." 

Jack posted a picture of him and Cooper on his own page and wrote, "Welcome to the family bro (sic)", while Missy added a picture of the four siblings together and captioned it "Welcoming the newest Keating X (sic).

Vice President Hamid Ansari on Saturday described terrorism as “pandemic” and said it affected every country and society.

Every nation faced the problem of terrorism to a “greater or lesser” degree, Ansari told the media as he wound up a visit to Armenia and Poland.

“But some countries come up with legal technicalities in defining terrorism as an excuse to try to avoid committing themselves (to fighting terrorism),” he said aboard Air India One Special Aircraft on his way back to India.

Replying to a question on adopting the India-led Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT), he referred to the time when he was the permanent representative of India to UN, and India had introduced a proposal on CCIT.

It was struck down because there were differences on the definition of a terrorist, he said.

“Those who do not want this to make progress come up with legal technicalities,” he said.

“It is an excuse on part of some countries to try to avoid committing themselves,” he added.

Speaking about the two-nation visit, the vice president said it had been “productive”.

“Armenia and Poland are friendly countries and we were able to regenerate interest in mutual cooperation,” he said.

To a question on whether India was exploring the potential of working with Armenian innovative projects, the vice president said, “We need to see where and what the innovation is and where it will fit into our requirements.” Armenia has been making a mark in areas such as renewable energy and development of vaccines and drugs.

On Poland, Ansari said Warsaw had “done its own homework” in identifying India's rising profile and becoming its major trading partner.

Poland, he pointed out, had the largest economy in Central Europe.

“With the Polish president and prime minister, we were able to identify some specific areas where cooperation between these two countries is either starting or can start very soon,” he said.

The two countries focused on three particular areas of interest: clean coal mining technology, agricultural products and techniques and defence cooperation, he said.

The vice president said he had suggested that Poland join the Make in India programme. Instead of being a seller, it could become an India-based seller, which would give it additional advantages.

The Polish side reacted “very positively” to the suggestion, he said, adding that there would be “substantial progress” in the coming day when the Polish President visited India.

Poland had identified some markets in Asia as priority markets, and India was one of them, he said.

Reacting to a question on India's image abroad, the vice president said multiple images are a fact of life.

In this context, he referred to India's Mars mission and launch of satellites for other countries.

“A common man looks at our strengths in Information Technology. Indian IT professionals are present all over the world…We have to take note what ISRO is doing, what IT is doing and what Indian scientific research is doing,” he said.

Ansari added that India, on the other hand, had to also deal with poverty and inequality.

“But despite all this, we have been able to, for seven decades, run a democratic system on a monumental scale,” he added.

Ansari, who reached Yerevan, the Armenian capital, on April 24, met the top leadership of the country, including the president and the prime minister.

Three agreements were signed in cultural cooperation, youth affairs and the peaceful use of space.

In Warsaw, Poland communicated to India that it supported India's permanent membership at the expanded UN Security Council.

Ansari met the Indian community in Poland and encouraged them to bring more business and investments into India. An MoU was signed in the field of agriculture and he inaugurated a new embassy complex in Warsaw.

PTI DR

BDS

04291229

NNN

Guido Burgstaller's brace helped FC Schalke 04 upset Bayer Leverkusen 4-1 in their German football league match at the Bay Arena Stadium here.

Schalke have now jumped from the 11th to the eighth place for the moment whereas Leverkusen remain at the 12th place in the German top division standings.

Bayer Leverkusen started strongly in Friday's Bundesliga game but three goals within 16 minutes by clinical Schalke turned the game upside down, reports Xinhua news agency.

Leverkusen's Julian Brandt had a chance to open the scoring just 38 seconds into the game but Schalke goalkeeper Ralf Faehrmann was on guard to deny his attempt.

Leverkusen continued to play an attacking game and worked out another opportunity, as Kevin Volland pulled wide from a promising position just five minutes later.

However, the opener was scored at the other end of the pitch after Leon Goretzka's square pass found Guido Burgstaller, who tapped home into the empty net with six minutes played.

The hosts wobbled and had to swallow another setback just four minutes later as Schalke doubled the lead out of the blue when Benedikt Hoewedes headed home.

Things went from bad to worse for Leverkusen as they were unable to put up resistance allowing the visitors to increase the lead through Alessandro Schoepf, who slotted home a rebound from Goretzka in the 16th minute.

The hosts got a chance to reduce the deficit after the restart but Karim Bellarabi's effort narrowly missed the target.

Schalke remained unfazed and started where they left off as Guido Burgstaller volleyed home Schoepf' s free-kick to put the result beyond doubt in the 50th minute.

Leverkusen were able to score their consolation goal after Stefan Kiessling nodded home Bellarabi's cross to make it 4-1.

Violence rocked the Allahabad University campus here after the arrest of four students for allegedly disrupting a meeting and violating prohibitory orders.

A group of students, led by office bearers of the students' union surrounded the university's guest house in the noon, where the executive council meeting was underway and shouted slogans demanding action against alleged financial irregularities in the institute, SSP Shalabh Mathur said.

"Prohibitory orders had been clamped in the area a few days back in view of unrest caused by a drive to evict unlawful occupants from university hostels following an order of the Allahabad High Court.

"Upon receiving information that a large number of students had gathered at the guest house without permission, a police party rushed to the spot. Most of the agitators ran away but four of them were arrested," the SSP said.

The students resented the arrests and despite efforts to explain that the same were made on account of violation of prohibitory orders, some of them turned violent and allegedly hurled stones at the police personnel, damaging a number of vehicles parked nearby and smashing window panes, Mathur said.

They allegedly torched a bus parked near a hostel and set fire to a pile of old tyres on one of the roads, bringing traffic to a standstill.

The agitators were chased away with the help of the Rapid Action Force and the Provincial Armed Constabulary, the officer said.

"The situation is now under control," he said.

Devotees from across the globe have gathered at ISKCON Mayapur on Saturday to commence celebrations of the ‘Chandan Yatra’ festival at the Sridam Mayapur Chandradaya temple.

For the next three weeks, large processions, carrying deities on a palanquin will be taken out within the campus in the evening amidst singing and dancing by thousands of devotees who will also grind chandan (sandalwood) to smear the paste over Radha Madhav.

The deities will be placed on a decorated boat and will be taken out for a ride in the pond.

During this time various pastimes of Krishna Rasa Leela, Govardhan Leela, Aghasura Vad, Gajendra Uddhara and others will be depicted in the temple. 

Large quantities of delicious prasadam like cakes, sweet rice, laddoos, halua, pakoras will be distributed everyday, it said.

As per the Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy, Chandan yatra is being celebrated for almost 700 years when Krishna in Vrindavan instructed his devotee Madhvendra Puri to fetch Malaya Chandan, make paste of it and smear it over the deity of Gopal to get relief from the heat.

(With inputs from agencies)

Sharply critical of the existing corporate governance practices, Sebi chief Ajay Tyagi on Friday said "independent directors are not independent" and audit committees are not working but admitted he does not have a solution to fix the lacunae.

Pitching for a "common stewardship code" for institutional investors, he said the worrying part is that there is no such code for these entities once they become significant shareholders in companies.

Tyagi, who took over the reins as markets regulator last month, said there are too many lacunae with respect to the concept of independent directors with many having "no commitment to any cause".

"I must admit I have no solutions on what should be done but it will be anyone's case that existing system has lot of lacunae," he said here.

Mincing no words, Tyagi said, some independent directors are appointed at the mercy of promoters "(with) no prescribed qualifications or procedures, favouritism, (many are from) closed clubs (such as) only those people being in all boards, no commitment to any cause".

There are people appointing friends just to "fulfil the requirement of Companies Act (and) Sebi's listing regulations is not at all working… One needs to really think through these", he noted.

Taking a strong note of independent directors resigning from boards of companies without giving proper reasons, the Sebi chief said some of the reasons given are actually fake.

"Many times they conveniently resign, independent directors just resign and I mean that is very odd… You should give reason as to why you are resigning and people say health reasons. Some of the reasons are fake reasons actually," he said at an event organised by industry body CII.

Touching upon the area of auditors, Sebi chairman said the SRO (Self Regulatory Organisation) structure is not working for them.

"With due respect, I know that auditors have SRO structure but the same is not working. I will say that…

Auditors committee is not working, independent directors are not independent and there is no stewardship code, then definitely there are serious issues," he said.

Emphasising that corporate governance is a serious issue that is engaging the attention of Sebi, Tyagi said the regulator would come out with more discussions on it soon.

His candid remarks also come against the backdrop of rising concerns over corporate governance practices, especially in the wake of recent boardroom battle at Tata group and the controversy surrounding the reported differences between some promoters and the top management at Infosys.

According to Tyagi, the worrying part is that there is no code of conduct for the institutional investors which are regulated by Sebi, IRDA and PFRDA as to what are their responsibilities once they are significant shareholders in a company.

"Our experience is that in many companies promoters prefer having such institutions which have passive interest and have no active interest on how the board is working or how the company is working. That is actually a sad part," he said.

Emphasising the need for having a common stewardship code, Tyagi said just by increasing the institutional investment share in the companies with no code of conduct does not really serve any purpose.

In India, ownership pattern of equities is still about 50 per cent by the promoters but encouragingly, institutional investments have been increasing, he added.

There are lot of "prescriptions" provided in the Companies Act rules and Sebi regulations for corporate governance, Tyagi said even as he admitted that majority of people might not satisfied with the way things are working.

"If you ask rationally and think yourself is the system working really satisfactorily, I think majority of people say no. That is what is the answer," Tyagi said.

Under the existing norms for companies, there are various requirements that need to be fulfilled with respect to board composition, independent directors and audit committee, among others.

Tyagi said the topic of corporate governance is very interesting, intriguing and also an area where "much needs to be done".

Stating that corporate governance is a topic that never goes out of fashion, he observed that there is always a debate on whether it should be based on principles or rules.

"It (corporate governance) is a global issue. It is a issue not only in India although in India there are specific reasons," he added.

A hamlet in Satara district of Maharashtra, popular for its strawberries is all set to embrace the tag of India's first 'village of books', a concept inspired by Britain's Hay-on-Wye, a Welsh town known for its book stores and literature festivals.

Bhilar village located near picturesque hill station Panchagani will see this state government initiative being inaugurated by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on May 4.

Led by Education minister Vinod Tawde, this project was undertaken by the Marathi Bhasha department wherein 25 artistically decorated locations around the village will turn into reader hot spots with display of books ranging from literature, poetry, religion, women and children, history, environment, folk literature, biographies and autobiographies to festival specials.

"Around 15,000 books (in Marathi) would be made available in the village premises. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will inaugurate the initiative 'pustakanche gaon' on May 4," Tawde told reporters here yesterday.

Also, the state has provided several facilities such as chairs, tables, decorated umbrellas and glass cupboards to local villagers to help them enhance the reading experience of literary connoisseurs visiting there, he said.

The state government had announced its plans to launch such a book village and literary festivals concept in Maharashtra two years back on February 27, 2015 – Marathi Language Day.

"Now we are opening it to all who have a love for language and literature. All these books are going to be available free of cost to the readers," Tawde said.

Anybody can pick up a book of his/her choice, read for as long as they want and keep it back for others, he said.

The minister said that the government is also planning to hold literary festivals in the village in the summers since a lot of tourists visit Panchgani and neighbouring destinations for vacationing during this time.

These festivals will comprise talk with authors, poets, reading sessions, presentation of essays, teaching workshops, exhibitions etc where people can participate freely, he added.

Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday again questioned the credibility of electronic voting machines (EVMs) after the state police found a chip-like device used in stealing petrol.

"When petrol can be stolen with the help of a remote through a chip without any internet connection then EVMs too. Need to stop the wrong use of technology," the Samajwadi Party President tweeted.

Yadav's remarks came two days after the Special Task Force (STF) in Lucknow raided several petrol pumps and found them using a chip board like device inside the dispensing machines for petrol theft.

The chorus against EVMs has gained momentum after the recently held assembly elections in five states, with Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) spearheading a campaign on the issue. 

The Election Commission, however, has said the machines can't be tampered with.

On April 15, Yadav also demanded an answer from the EC over the controversy on tampering of EVMs.

A retired Indian Army Brigadier has penned a fascinating love story that traverse between India and Pakistan in the backdrop of the divisive politics that has plagued the sub-continent for decades.

Brig. Baqir Shameem, the author of "The Chenab Connection" served in the Indian Army for over three decades and witnessed the growing cross-border conflict from close quarters.

"The Chenab Connection" is a fictional love story about an Indian boy and a Pakistani girl falling in love and managing to settle down and starting a family under the looming shadow of hatred that has grown stronger over the last seven decades.

It looks at the crisis and its nuances through the eyes of people who are in love; because sometimes all it takes is love to conquer all. In the case of Ravi, love makes him cross one of the most hostile borders in the world to be one with Shaheen.

The book is as much a love story as much as it is a look at the divisive politics that has plagued the sub-continent for decades, where terror and subversion have become second nature for hawks who find more comfort in conflict than in peace and harmony. 

The book release was followed by a conversation with the author and journalist Tina Sharma Tiwari on the topic "Can Chenab connect the hearts and minds of the people like it connects the land?"

"Reading the book, for the first time I realised that an army man feels the same way a common man does. Everyone wants peace between the two nations and that can only be achieved through love, not war," said veteran Theatre personality Rama Pandey, who graced the launch event. 

"The Chenab Connection" is the author's fifth novel. He has previously written four books on different subjects, including "The Final Option," "The Simmering Sands," "The Slender Trail," and "The Wishbone". 

Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha on Saturday exuded confidence that India's growing data consumption will lead to revival of the debt-laden industry, but asserted that the government will not hesitate to intervene, if needed.

"There is nothing to worry… The sector has seen ups and downs… in 2000 also, there was a similar situation," Sinha told reporters here.

The minister pointed out that the telecom market in India – the world's second largest in terms of the subscriber base – has the lowest telecom tariffs.

"We have a huge subscriber base… the way the data requirements are expanding, I am sure that in coming days, the financial health… the telecom service providers will recover… and, if needed, the government will certainly intervene at the right stage," he added.

Noting that the telecom operators were under a heavy debt burden, the minister said his task is to balance the interest of consumers as well as that of the telcos.

"I am not minister of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (the state owned telecom corporation) only. I am the minister of telecom, so I have to take care of telecom operators also. They are under heavy debt," he said.

He expressed satisfaction that the consumers had benefited from cheaper tariffs and the competition in the sector.

"I have to take care of the government revenue and consumer interest also. I cannot stand on one side," he made it clear.

The minister expressed hope that the Cabinet nod for the second phase of the rural broadband project – Bharat Net – will come soon. The second phase entails broadband connectivity for the remaining 1.5 lakh gram panchayats by December 2018.

Meanwhile, a tripartite memorandum of understanding was signed today between Bharat Broadband Network Limited, Department of Posts and BSNL for providing broadband connectivity to post offices in rural areas.

The MoU, signed in the presence of the minister, will provide broadband connectivity to about 1.3 lakh post offices in rural areas and 25,000 sub-post offices, thus taking high speed connectivity to rural masses.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday inaugurated the Basava Jayanti programme and said the issue of triple talaq should not be seen from political prism.

"Triple talaq issue should not be seen from political prism," PM Modi said while addressing a gathering on the occasion of Basava Jayanti.

"I request the Muslim community not to politicise the issue of triple talaq, instead, I request the leaders of the community to come forward and find a solution to the issue of our daughters' rights," he added.

He further said that India's history is not only about defeat, poverty or colonialism but the country also gave the message of good governance, non-violence and Satyagraha.

The prime minister unveiled the translated volumes of Vachana, penned by 12th-century social reformer Basavanna and other saints in 23 Indian languages on the social reformer's birth anniversary.

He also released the digital version of the work during the celebration of Basava Jayanti.