State-run BHEL on Tuesday said its largest power project order in the international market, valued at Rs.10,000 crore, in Bangladesh has taken off.

“Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL)'s largest ever export order, valued at Rs.10,000 crore, for setting up 1,320 MW (2×660 MW) Maitree Super Thermal Power Project in Bangladesh has taken off, following the issuance of the 'Notice To Proceed' by the developer,” the company said in a BSE filing.

The order has been secured from Bangladesh India Friendship Power Company Pvt Ltd (BIFPCL), a 50:50 JV company of NTPC and Bangladesh's BPDB.

“BHEL has arranged debt financing for the project from the EXIM Bank of India for which the loan agreement between EXIM Bank of India and BIFPCL has been signed in March, 2017,” the power equipment maker said.

Shares of BHEL were trading 2.33 per cent higher at Rs.180.30 apiece on BSE.

Full-service airline Jet Airways on April 24 said that it will add 42 weekly flights to meet an expected surge in demand during the summer holiday season.

According to the company, the introduction of additional frequencies and wide-body aircraft deployments between key metros will boost capacity on existing sectors during the summer season.

The airline will commence operations between Nagpur and New Delhi, Lucknow and Kolkata, and Kozhikode and Bengaluru as part of its broader strategy of connecting India's emerging cities with metros by direct flights.

It will also introduce additional frequencies on the highly travelled Delhi-Amritsar and Mumbai-Kolkata sectors and boost capacity on the New Delhi-Bengaluru and New Delhi-Bhopal routes with the introduction of the wide-body Airbus A330 and Boeing 737 services, respectively.

"Our summer schedule has been meticulously planned to meet the expected surge in demand over the holidays," said Jayaraj Shanmugam, Chief Commercial Officer of Jet Airways.

"New flights, additional frequencies, greater capacity including the introduction of wide-body services across more sectors are meant to offer our discerning guests greater choice, convenience, connectivity and added comfort."

The changes are part of Jet Airways' summer schedule which will see the airline operate up to 650 flights per day connecting 65 destinations in India and abroad.

Sunrisers Hyderabad Head Coach Tom Moody says the stunning collapse that Royal Challengers Bangalore suffered was a one-off thing and such a disastrous performance will not be repeated by the hosts.

RCB recorded the lowest total in IPL history as they were all out for 49 in 9.4 overs against Kolkata Knight Riders.

“There is no doubt that they boast some of the game's most destructive players. We all know and we have seen what they are capable of doing. You will be a fool to think that you can turn up tomorrow night and you are going to replay what happened in Kolkata. We are not paying attention to what happened there,” Moody said on the eve of match against RCB.

Moody said inspite of winning last two games against RCB at this venue they are focused on getting their right combination.

“That does not count. Firstly, we have to get the right combination tomorrow and we have to be on cue with every part of the game, for we know RCB is a very dangerous side,” he said.

Asked what could be good first innings score on this ground, Moody said the pitch is certainly not similar to last year and the team is preparing accordingly following the failure of any team to post 200 runs here.

Reacting to Muttiah Muralitharan's view that Bhuvneshwar Kumar is one of the best fast bowler in the history of IPL, Moody said, “Murali has seen lot of cricket, so he is a pretty good judge I would have thought.”

“There is no question that Bhuvi is having a very good year. He has been outstanding over the period of time. His greatest strength is his ability to strike in the initial stage of the game and towards end,” he said.

Moody said dew factor played a role in the match against Mumbai Indians and some decisions went against the team. However, Pune match should have been won but for Mahendra Singh Dhoni who played a gem of an innings, Moody said.

Asked what was the reason behind picking Siddarth Kaul over Moises Henrques for the last over, Moody said, “Henrquies does not bowl at the end. This role is not cut out for him.”

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday granted bail to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, one of the prime accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case, nearly nine years after her arrest.

She has been granted bail on a surety of Rs 500,000 after the National Investigation Agency(NIA) had granted a 'clean chit' to her in May 2016.

However, the court rejected an appeal filed by another co-accused in the same case, former army officer Lt. Col. Prasad Purohit, challenging a lower court rejecting his bail plea.

Six persons were killed in the blast in Malegaon, a Muslim-dominated powerloom town in Nashik district in September 2008.

Aiming to bring a billion people online and make the web more useful for them, Google India on Tuesday unveiled new products on advancement in machine learning for Indian languages.

Google also announced that the neural machine translation is now available for nine Indian languages — Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.

"Google wants to extend internet for every Indian. We have identified gaps that bar Indians from accessing the internet. There are 400 million internet users in India and the number is expected to reach 600 million by 2020," Rajan Anandan, Vice President, India and SouthEast Asia, Google, told reporters here.

He added that 300 million Indians access internet on smartphones. Anandan also spoke about Google's tie-up with RailTel to provide high-speed internet at Railway stations.

The neural machine translation is available in Chrome and Maps to make the translation process seamless and refined.

The company said it does one billion translations everyday and 95 per cent of Google Translate has its usage outside of the US.

"Of over 500 million people who use Google Translate, most of the users are in India, Indonesia, Brazil and Thailand," it said.

According to Google, neural networks initially took 10 seconds to translate but the company worked on it and brought down the time to 0.2 seconds in two months.

The company also launched "Gboard" in 22 scheduled languages in India. The users can now search words, meanings and even emojis in local language.

The keyboard now has a new feature by which text editing can be done on the go easily.

The new Gboard comes with a feature that makes it easy to resize and reposition the keyboard according to a user's need.

Goggle also unveiled Hindi dictionary in Google Search in collaboration with Oxford University Press.

It also shared findings from a new report by Google and KPMG India, titled "Indian Languages-Defining India's Internet". 

After suffering a three-run defeat to Rising Pune Supergiant on Monday, Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma's agony intensified as he was fined 50 per cent of his match fee for showing dissent at an umpire’s decision during the nail-biting clash.

“Sharma admitted to the Level 1 offence 2.1.5 of the IPL Code of Conduct for Players and Team Officials. This is Sharma’s second Level 1 offence this season,” the BCCI said in a statement on Tuesday.

Rohit struck his first half-century of the IPL 2017, though all his efforts went in vain as Mumbai lost their concentration in last few overs.

The final over of the match, bowled by Jaydev Unadkat, saw a heated conversation between Rohit and on-field umpire S Ravi.

Unadkat bowled the third delivery of the over wide and Rohit let it go. However, umpire Ravi didn't gave it a wide, subsequent to which, Rohit got into an altercation with Ravi.

RPS batsman Ajinkya Rahane called it a part and parcel of the game and justified Rohit's behavior on field.

“That was a right call by the umpire. As a batsman when you move and if the bowler bowls outside that area goes to the bowler. Rohit's behaviour at that point was natural. Somewhere as a captain, as a player you feel when the match is so close. I don't think there was any fault in Rohit's behavior,” Rahane said as quoted by PTI.

The Indian government has extended the Start-Ups Intellectual Property Protection (SIPP) scheme for three years till March 2020, in a bid to continue the protection of entrepreneurs' patents, trademark and designs.

The scheme, in force till March 31, 2017, is being "extended further for a period of three years", the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has announced through a circular.

"The scheme of SIPP aims to promote awareness and adoption of intellectual property rights (IPR) among start-ups. The scheme is inclined to nurture and mentor innovative and emerging technologies among start-ups and assist them in protecting and commercialise it by providing them access to high-quality IP services and resources," the DIPP said.

Start-ups covered under this scheme will not be required to get a A-certificate of an eligible business from the Inter-Ministerial Board of Certification, it said.

"However, start-ups will be required to give a self-declaration that they have not availed funds under any other government scheme for the purpose of paying the facilitator/patent agent/trademark agent for filing and prosecuting their IP application," DIPP added.

In 2016, the government announced several incentives, including tax benefits, under a Start-up India Action Plan.

While the DIPP has empanelled several facilitators for providing IPR-related services to start-ups, the government has decided to bear the entire cost of facilitation for filing of patents, trademarks or designs.

Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian has expressed concern over the recent waiving of farmers' loans by state governments in India, saying it could increase the deficit by two per cent of the GDP if the practice is carried out nationwide.

"We've had a spate of announcements recently about agricultural loans being waived off. You know these could cost, if it were to spread, these could cost something like two per cent of GDP, adding to the deficit," Subramanian told an audience here last week.

"If these things spreads as is possible. So I think that's a kind of big challenge, he said in an apparent disagreement of the recent move by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to waive agricultural loans worth Rs 36,000 crore in the state.

In an interactive session at the prestigious Peterson Institute here last week on the sidelines of the annual Spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, Subramanian said actions like this pose a big challenge to the Centre's effort towards fiscal consolidation.

If the Centre achieves success, the state undoes that, he rued.

The government is grappling with the challenge of how to waive the debt of the private sector, which is a political issue now, he said.

"There are lots of discussions on how to deal with this.

But I think at the heart of the difficulty is it's very simple. How does a political system in which concerns about you know cronyism, crony capitalism are so strong? How does that system, how is it able to forgive — is the public sector tax payer on the hook and forgive private sector debts.

"I think that's the heart of the political problem and we are still kind of grappling with how to do that, Subramanian said.

Talking about the Centre's ambitious Goods and Services Tax (GST), he said it is a major development in India.

"It's the most ambitious tax reform. It is something that is simply inconceivable in the United States. It's just simply inconceivable, not just because it's a value added tax which you know people here on the left and right hate, but also because it's actually a tax that has to be coordinated between the Centre and the States, he asserted.

Noting that the GST will bring a uniform taxation system across the country, Subramanian said the benefits are going to be quite substantial.

"Firstly creating common market in India by eliminating barriers between states. Also the big benefit is kind of the compliance benefits that I envisage will happen, he said.

Responding to a question, Subramanian said the GST is going to be revenue neutral and it is unlikely to increase the prices of commodities.

He also talked about the increase in the US Federal reserve rates and said India is unlikely to be effected much by it.

"I worry less this time around for at least for India, he added.

"India was affected last time because then oil prices were very high, inflation was double digit, fiscal deficit was getting out of control and reserves were low. I also worry less about India is because our corporate sector then had a lot of foreign currency denominated borrowing this time around it's kind of much less. So interest rates go up, capital flows or exchange rates come down and you have these balance sheet effects," he said.

"That I think India is relatively a better cushioned against. But as far as other emerging markets concerned I just follow what the IMF says and they're always saying you know lots of foreign currency in other markets. India I think is relatively well cushioned on that," he added.

Responding to a question on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' scheme, Subramanian said it is an attempt to make up for missing the bus in the manufacturing sector decades ago, in which China has now taken the lead.

"…we missed the manufacturing work long ago. But what we need to do on services is to make sure that we don't reach the Lewis turning point in services for another 25-30 years.

China's Lewis turning point it turned after about 25-30 years of manufacturing. Can we do the same thing in services and that means you know just increasing the supply of you know medium skilled labor, the IT sector across the board I think that's what we need to do," the CEA said.

 Actress Neha Sharma says that it was great fun to work with actors Arjun and Anil Kapoor in their upcoming film Mubarakan.

"I am working with Anil Kapoor for the first time and it was a lot of fun to work with him and even Arjun. The shooting is finally done and I am very excited for the special appearance," said Neha. 

"Mubarakan is a fun film. A classic Anees Bazmee film. It has amazing comedy and it's got a gamut of stars," Neha said.

The actress was present for her app launch on Monday. She has now joined the list of stars like Salman Khan and Sunny Leone who have their own app.

Asked about the trend of celebrities having their own app, she said: "Whenever any new trend comes in town, it catches up like fire. Some fade out and some don't. It's very important to know what is interesting in your app… that it's going to stick around for long."

"The app which I am launching has amazing things in it and people are really going to enjoy it," added Neha. 

On comparing her app with the other existing apps, Neha said: "Every actor has a different personality. The way they interact with people is different and the content they put out is different. My app will be very much like me. What I like to watch and share is totally different from other actors'."

Neha was last seen in the 2016 film Tum Bin II, directed by Anubhav Sinha. 

"Every time there is a complaint that I rest more and do less films. But now I will be very busy doing a lot of films," she said. 

Her upcoming projects also include the third instalment of the film Hera Pheri. 
 

 Ace filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma on Tuesday said SS Rajamouli's magnum opus Baahubali 2: The Conclusion will make most filmmakers feel like amateurs.

"I have a strong feeling Rajamouli's Baahubali 2 will make rest of all filmmakers in the country feel like amateur TV serial directors," Varma tweeted.

The second part in the Baahubali franchise is slated for release on Friday.

The movie will finally shed the light on why Kattappa killed Baahubali, the question that has plagued film-goers for the last two years.

The film stars Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Tamannaah Bhatia, Anushka Shetty, Ramya Krishnan and Sathyaraj.

Meanwhile Varma is busy wrapping up Sarkar 3.

Star's editor-in-chief Datuk Leanne Goh of Malaysia has been appointed the Asia News Network chairperson for the period 2017/2018.

The appointment was made by the Executive Board of ANN, an alliance of 22 media from 21 countries over the weekend. 

She succeeds Zaffar Abbas, Editor of Dawn from Pakistan. 

Goh serves as a ANN Executive Board member and recently, received a lifetime achievement award in recognition of her leadership in media editorship and journalistic excellence from the World Chinese Economic Summit.

"I am honoured to be appointed by my ANN colleagues to chair the board which is pursuing a number of regional media initiatives in the coming years,” Goh said.

"At a time when the West is getting more inward looking, this regional network of media groups is vital to reflect the dynamism and growth in this part of the world. 

"We need to work together more closely than ever on our common ground, tell our stories from an insider perspective and hold sway at a time when fake news and unprofessional journalism are taking root," she added.

The ANN Executive Board convened for an annual meeting in Bangkok last week in collaboration with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Media Programme Asia.

The meeting was highlighted by a roundtable discussion with former Asean secretary-general, Dr Surin Pisuwan, on the fast changing Asia’s security and economic landscapes.

Surin called on Asean to strengthen its global leadership in order not to be left on the sideline of dictation by major global powers.

At the ANN annual meeting, the board members acknowledged the appointment of editorial staff in Delhi, Phnom Penh and Bangkok under newly-appointed managing editor, Cod Satrusayang.

Thai-born Cod was formerly senior correspondent of Reuters news agency and DPA. 

“He brings a wealth of experience in Asia reporting as we launch new services,” said Pana Janviroj, ANN’s executive editor.

The services will include state-of-the-art e-newsletter, website subscription and pan-Asia VDO series.

ANN members also discussed a number of initiatives, which they could exchange among members including new media strategy by Dawn and Jakarta Post, data syndication from Singapore’s Straits Times, video journalism from China Daily, and dealing with fake news and freedom of the press threats from Bangladesh’s Daily Star and Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Infosys Ltd has opened a delivery centre in Croatia to offer research and development (R&D) and engineering services to its global clients in Eastern Europe, said the software major on Tuesday.

"The delivery centre marks our expansion into Eastern Europe's heavy engineering sector, meet near-shoring requirements, support engineering clients worldwide and offer R&D services," said the IT major in a statement here.

The new facility at Karlovac is a part of the company's strategy to set up global competency centres, offer best talent in the market and make it available to customers worldwide.

"As part of our strategy to increase geo-capabilities, the new centre will deliver value to global clients, specifically in the Nordics," said Infosys Deputy Chief Operating Officer S Ravi Kumar on the occasion.

The centre will focus on consolidating consulting, IT and engineering skills in power generation, design and development of gas and steam turbines and digital solutions for service, maintenance and development of advanced engineering software tools.

"We will also look for partnering with local academic institutions, co-innovate with clients and nurture a partner ecosystem to help develop skilled workforce to deliver next-generation services," added Kumar.

Terming the outsourcing firm's expanding presence in the region as a testimony to local expertise, Croatia's Secretary of State Mario Antonic said the delivery centre would contribute to the growth of R&D in the Nordic country.

The Karlovac facility is the company's 16th location in Europe for client servicing and local job creation

The US has said that it greatly values investments by Indian companies and wants to see bilateral business ties remain strong, days after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley raised the issue of tightening of the H-1B visa regime with his American counterpart Steven Mnuchin.

"We want to see US-India business-to-business ties remain strong," State Department Acting Spokesman Mark Toner told reporters at his daily news conference.

He was responding to questions on the ongoing review of H-1B visas by the Trump Administration and its impact on the Indian IT companies, who are heavily dependent on it.

"We greatly value Indian companies' continued investment in the US economy, which also, of course, supports thousands of US jobs," Toner said.

"With respect to any new requirements on visas, I'd have to check and see if that's been updated," he said, adding that under the current government, the US has been looking at ways to strengthen the processes like visa interview and admission processes.

Toner said that this had been the case from the beginning of the Trump administration and certainly with respect to immigration and with refugee flows.

"Those processes are ongoing," he said.

On being asked about the visa review process, Toner said, "It's important to remember that this is always a part of how our consular bureau works and our consular officers work overseas, and our embassies and missions work overseas, and that is we're always reviewing the processes that are in place to issue these visas and finding ways to strengthen them, because we want to ensure the security of the American people." 

During his US visit, Jaitley on Saturday had raised the H-1B visa issue with Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and highlighted the contribution Indian companies and professionals were making to the US economy. He had also raised the issue with US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross earlier.

President Donald Trump had signed an executive order earlier this month for tightening the rules of the H-1B visa programme to stop its 'abuse', a decision that would impact India's USD 150 billion IT industry.

The Indian IT industry had expressed serious concerns over this as these visas were mainly used by domestic IT professionals for short-term work in America.

The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise in specialised fields. Indian technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year for their US operations.

The US market accounts for about 60 per cent of the revenue of the Indian IT industry.

Reforming the H-1B visa system was one of the major election promises of Trump. As per several US reports, a majority of the H-1B visas every year are grabbed by Indian IT professionals.

India accounts for the highest pool of qualified IT professionals, whose services go a long way in making American companies globally competitive.

The US had earlier this month also accused top Indian IT firms TCS and Infosys of unfairly cornering the lion's share of H-1B visas by putting extra tickets in the lottery system.

A US guided-missile submarine arrived in South Korea on Tuesday and envoys from the US, Japan and South Korea met in Tokyo, as North Korea prepared to mark the anniversary of the founding of its military.

Although a major event around the anniversary was viewed as possible, the morning came and went without any nuclear tests or ballistic missile launches. All that was publicly scheduled for the day were gatherings for mass dancing, a common celebration on major North Korean holidays.

At a “national meeting” of thousands of senior military and civilian officials the day before, North Korea's Minister of Defense Gen Pak Yong Sik reiterated that the country is ready to use pre-emptive strikes or any other measures it deems necessary to defend itself against the “US imperialists.”

“The situation prevailing on the Korean peninsula is so tense that a nuclear war may break out due to the frantic war drills of the US imperialists and their vassal forces for aggression,” he told the gathering.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did not attend. It was not known how he was marking Tuesday's anniversary.

North Korea often marks significant dates by displaying its military capability and has conducted five nuclear tests.

Pyongyang launched a missile one day after the 105th birthday of late founder Kim Il Sung on April 15.

Such a move could test the developing North Korea policies of President Donald Trump, who has reportedly settled on a strategy that emphasizes increased pressure on North Korea with the help of China, the North's only major ally, instead of military options or trying to overthrow North Korea's government.

The nuclear-powered USS Michigan submarine arrived at Busan in what was described as a routine port visit to rest the crew and load supplies. Commander Jang Wook from the South Korean navy public affairs office said there is no plan for any drill.

The submarine's arrival comes as the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier heads toward the Korean Peninsula in a show of force.

In Tokyo, US representative for North Korea Policy Joseph Yun was meeting Tuesday with his Japanese counterpart Kenji Kanasugi and Kim Hong-kyun of South Korea. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters that the three envoys were to deepen cooperation and stay on the same page amid growing tension.

Japan's Foreign Ministry also announced that China's envoy for North Korea, Wu Dawei, will visit Tokyo on Tuesday for talks with Kanasugi, which may take place later this week. Trump spoke by phone with both the Japanese and Chinese leaders yesterday.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV quoted President Xi Jinping as telling Trump that China strongly opposes North Korea's nuclear weapons program and hopes “all parties will exercise restraint and avoid aggravating the situation.” 

Manchester United midfielder has stoked the fires ahead of the Red Devils' visit to the Etihad Stadium on Thursday, terming the Manchester Derby the “game of the season”, according to a statement on the club website.

United are fifth in the English Premier League table, a point behind City and should they beat their arch-rivals on Thursday, will leapfrog them into fourth place.

Champions League qualification is on the line and United’s tenacious midfielder feels the game could prove crucial in securing that final spot.

"It's going to be the game of the season,” Herrera said, adding, "We are one point behind them and if we win, we have the chance to finish in the top four, but if they win, it will be very difficult for us.

"I don't know the 'winner takes all' expression but it's going to be a massive game. If one of us wins it, we are not going to lose a lot of games or make mistakes after that. It will be key."

United have won their last three games on the trot, the highlight being a 2-0 win over league leaders Chelsea but Herrera doesn't want to get carried away as he stresses: "We are in a very good moment, on a very good run and we respect them, but we are doing a lot of good things and we have to show it on Thursday.”

The 27-year-old also has one eye on next week's Europa League semi-final against Celta Vigo, which he is desperate to win after missing out on the trophy during his time at Athletic Bilbao, who were beaten by Atletico Madrid in the 2012 final.

"We also have the Europa League, which is a competition that makes me very excited because I lost the final three or four years ago and I want to take that knife from my back," he continued.

"So hopefully we can fight for that title as well, but I know Celta Vigo are very good. They are a very difficult team," Herrera added.

(All quotes are from www.manutd.com)

Actress Erin Moran, best known for her role as Joanie Cunningham on the American sitcom Happy Days, spent her final days reportedly broke and homeless.

Moran died of a suspected heroin overdose at the age of 56 in Indiana on April 22, reports dailymail.co.uk. 

A report in dailymail.co.uk claims that she had squandered her money and was without a permanent place to live.

Actor Henry Winkler even tried to help Moran get a spot on his show "Arrested Development" as it emerged that she had been bouncing around motels after a drunken brawl with her mother-in-law in 2012.

Child actor advocate Paul Petersen said that his team did its best with the actress but she 'ran from the help'.

According to dailymail.co.uk, Moran was seen looking worse outside a Holiday Inn in fall 2012, after reportedly being kicked out of the trailer she lived in with her husband Steve Fleischmann.

The National Enquirer had claimed that Moran was bouncing from motel to motel and that she was on the verge of a split from her husband, who she married in 1993. 

In compliance of a National Green Tribunal (NGT) directive, the authorities here have ordered sealing of 15 factories in Rampark colony area of Loni for polluting environment.

The sub divisional magistrate (SDM) has issued the orders to the pollution control board, the electricity department and the municipality in this regard, officials said.

SDM Prem Singh Ranjan said around 15 metal glass melting units have been sealed as they were polluting the environment and public was facing health problems.

So far more than hundred factories have been sealed here and in case such factories operate again, the police outpost in charge of the area would be held responsible and departmental action will be initiated against him, the SDM said.

Police have lodged FIRs against the owners of the 15 factories and in case any factory is found operating stealthily, their owner would be punished, the SDM added.