On the occasion of 11th Civil Services Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday asked bureaucrats to stop being regulators and start being enablers.

"From being a regulator, we need to be an enabling entity," the prime minister told the bureaucrats.

The prime minister said that there is a need to bring a qualitative change in the functioning of civil services.

”Changing trends in the last 15-20 years have altered the dynamics. Competition can play a big role in bringing a qualitative change,” he said.

PM Modi advised officers to use social media to reach out to people.

“E-governance, M-governance, social media- these are good means to reach out to the people and for their benefits," he said.

PM Modi conferred the Prime Minister’s awards for excellence in public administration to districts and other Central and state organisations for effective implementation of programmes and innovation.

Hollywood star Sylvester Stallone's daughter Sophia has revealed that she and her sisters stole Liam Hemsworth's number from their father's phone.
The sibling trio – Sophia, 20, Sistine, 18, and Scarlet, 14 – has confessed to nabbing the Hunger Games star's digits
from their father but said nothing ever worked out from it, reported Harper's Bazaar.

"When I was little I use to go through my dad's phone and take numbers," Sophia said.
 Whilst Sistine added, "I called him. He never answered."
And Liam isn't the only celebrity the girls have got starstruck around. Sophie said she was "really bumbly" with
Ryan Reynolds, while Sistine's "heart skipped a beat" when Leonardo DiCaprio remembered meeting her. Scarlet said she "fainted a little" on coming face to face with Ryan Gosling.

Film: 'Noor'

Director: Suhnil Sippy

Starring: Sonakshi Sinha, Purab Kohli, Kannan Gill, M.K. Raina, Smita Tambe

Rating: ****

Though I couldn't relate to her endless boozing and snoozing, Noor Roy Choudhary as played by Sonakshi Sinha, is someone I've known in passing. And that's I would keep her if I met her. At a safe distance.

Noor is not one of the best films on journalistic ethics. It doesn't do to the contemporary Mumbai media world what the Paul Newman-Sally Field starrer Absence Of Malice did 30 years ago. It pricks at the conscience in a rather undemanding way. Noor takes sly and slender satirical swipes at sensationalism in journalism, more delectable for its many jibes than the actual prick at the conscience.

The prick, when it comes, is not as solidly impact-filled as it should be. But by then, Noor has established her credentials for being an aimless adrift television journalist looking for a sense of purpose. That purpose' kind of falls into her lap with a gentle thud. Of course Noor messes it up. This is her prized USP, the ability to be absolutely and candidly self-serving without being apologetic about. She messes up and moves on.

Director Suhnil Sippy whose last feature film, the snappy and slick Snip came 17 years ago, doesn't skip a beat. He allows his vision to meander with Noor's sense of aimlessness, trailing her through endless drinking binges and a never-ending quota of bacchanalia with her two friends Saad(Kannan Gill) and Zara(Shibani Dandekar).

While Kannan Gill definitely needs elocution classes, Dandekar is delightfully saucy specially in the scene where she walks in to a bar to slap a man who has betrayed her best friend. I wanted to see more of her. More of Noor's editor's no-nonsense socialite wife played by Suchitra Pillai. And yes , more of Noor's boss played by the ever-excellent Manish Choudhary. The last time I saw a female journalist share such tactile vibes with her boss it was in Rajkumar Gupta's No One Killed Jessica.

Sonakshi Sinha gamely plunges into the mediaperson's home 'groan' zone, mining into Noor's insecurities and inadequacies to come up with a character who is as real as any neo-realistic urban character, like, say Alia Bhatt in Gauri Shinde's Dear Zindagi. Like Alia, Sonakshi is not afraid to address her character's uncertainties about her body and sexual activities.

This is a coming-of-age yarn that joyfully gets into the head and bed of its heroine, deconstructs the hoary Hindi Film Heroine, highlighting her appetites, culinary or otherwise, in ways that were considered inappropriate until a decade ago. Whatever Noor does, she does with an unabashed ebullience where she can and often does, trip and fall on her nose.

And when Noor falls in love she really falls. The segment showing her growing attraction to a rakish photojournalist (played with splendid suaveness by Purab Kohli) is brief and brilliant. The fit of heated passion subsides quickly. This is one of the film's prominent attributes. It rakes up issues and then quickly moves to something else.

Perhaps this mood swing in the narrative replicates the film's protagonist's restless energy which is killing her professional skills while destroying her personal relationships.

Sonakshi Sinha kills it, even as her character claims Mumbai is killing her. Her monologue on the smog, smut, corruption and heartbreak of Mumbai is indeed a highlight. Sonakshi throws in her weight with her character's fight to float above the metropolis' rising sewage level of moral turpitude.

The flow of conversational energy is the key to the narrative's efficacy. Ishita Moitra's dialogues add ample zest warmth and humour to Saba Imtiaz's skimpy novel about the socio-political awakening of an aimless reporter. In director Sunhil Sippy's hands, Noor is a lot more. It's about the media and sensationalism, the city and the singelgirl. 

It's about Noor and her friends and her father(played by veteran M K Raina, delightful) and her cat, and her conscience. Sunhil Sippy packs it all in , leaving enough breathing space for the characters to acquire a life of their own.

The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed a plea advocating exemption for Hindu women married to Muslim men from triple talaq.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Anu Malhotra said it was not inclined to go into the issue as the Supreme Court is already seized of the triple talaq matter related to changes in the muslim personal law.

It said there is no dispute that a Constitution bench has been formed to hear the issue. So, the law laid down by it will be applicable to all women and children of the society.

The high court further noted that "all women are entitled to equal protection under the law." 

"In view of it (Supreme Court seized of the issue) we are not inclined to hear the issue. The petition is dismissed," the bench said.

The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) by advocate Vijay Kumar Shukla had highlighted the plight of Hindu women affected by triple talaq.

It had also sought directions to the Centre for making registration of inter-caste marriages compulsory under the Special Marriage Act or Compulsory Registration of Marriage Act with a clause on imposition of penalty in case an inter- caste marriage is not registered.

A Constitution bench of the Supreme Court will be hearing from May 11 a batch of petitions challenging the practice of triple talaq and polygamy as unconstitutional and discriminatory towards women.

Muslim practices of triple talaq, nikah halala and polygamy are issues that are "very important" and involve "sentiments", the apex court had observed.
 

(With inputs from agencies)

Nicotine is a harmful addictive substance, which upon entering your blood stream, reaches the brain within six to eight seconds and severely affects the overall health of an individual. One of the most poisonous toxins, its cleansing from the body must be taken up on priority to stay healthy and live longer.

The first step to detoxify your body of nicotine is to quit smoking. If you are a smoker, get your body over this hurdle with a positive mind. Although the human body does not produce nicotine, it has the nicotine receptors to which when it comes in contact, nicotine binds and produces its harmful effects.

Easy to do things to rid your body of nicotine and other toxins:

Give your body a rest for few days from anything toxic – tobacco, alcohol, artificial sweeteners and additives, saturated fats, caffeinated beverages, pollutants, pesticides and artificial food ingredients. Stay away from it all.

Eat right. Reduce the toxic load off your body with the right choice of food. Follow vegetable and fruit diet for three to five days. Don’t eat anything else. Drink fresh vegetable and fruits juices as much as you want. Snack on raw fruits, vegetables, broccoli sprouts, moong beans when hungry. The detox vegetable broth is also easy on your stomach providing the body much needed vitamins and minerals while detoxification. Sip it hot throughout the day as an alternative to tea and coffee. Include garlic, ginger, mushrooms and turmeric as star ingredients in your veg diet. Eat a lot of leafy greens, zucchinis, egg plants, carrots and cucumbers. It may decrease nicotine dependence. Avoid sweet vegetables as they stimulate carving for nicotine. Fruits like orange and kiwi clear nicotine faster. These food are good in making tobacco taste bad, eliminate nicotine, keep metabolism high and replenish vitamins and minerals.

Drink plenty of water. Nicotine dehydrates the body. Hydrate and purify it with water. Drink 10-12 glasses of water daily to flush out nicotine. Try adding lemon and cucumber to the water. Being rich in antioxidants and vitamin C, it supports detoxification.

Sweat out toxin by following a healthy exercise regimen that suits your body condition. Exercise regularly. Relax your mind and maintain a healthy body through meditation.

Milk thistle is a powerful herb that works well in cleansing nicotine from the body.

Freshen up the room: Use a high-quality air purification device to keep your indoor air clean, fresh and toxin-free. If you don’t have a big budget for the purifier, keep some house plants instead. They are natural air filters.

Engage in a healthy lifestyle and cleanse and detoxify your body regularly for speedy healing and good health.

In order to mitigate the hardship faced by students while running from ‘pillar to post’ for hostel admissions, the Delhi University (DU) will now provide all the information regarding hostels on its admission portal for the upcoming academic session (2017-18).

The DU’s endeavor to make a single window for all hostel related information will definately prove to be helpful for students thinking of applying for the hostels.

“Now the students can have access to all the information at one place contrary to earlier when students have to run from one hostel to another and pillar to post for getting the information related to the hostels,” said a university official.

For this purpose the websites of all the hostels maintained by the university would now be integrated and linked with the admission portal of DU, so that students can easily have an access to all information about all the hostels by just clicking at the link- ‘hostel’-on the admission window.

All the relevant information about DU hostels like map, its distance from the colleges, faculties covered by the hostel,facilities avaliable, fees structure, contact details, admission details, etc. would now be made available at one place and would be just a click away.

DU maintains about 18 hostels with 7 female hostels among them.

Hostels maintained by University are mostly for PG and research students while hostels maintained by colleges are mainly for the Undergraduate students.

Students will have to apply for hostels on their individual website

Veteran actress Moushumi Chatterjee has received the lifetime achievement award, while actor Ashish Vidyarthi was honoured for his contribution to Indian Cinema at the 80th Bengal Film Journalists' Association (BFJA) awards.

A galaxy of seasoned directors – Kaushik Ganguly (Cinemawala – 2016), Shiboprasad Mukherjee-Nandita Roy (Belaseshe – 2015), Aniruddha Roychowdhury (Buno Haans 2014), Srijit Mukherjee (Rajkahini – 2015) and Goutam Ghosh (Sankhachil – 2015) – were honoured with best direction trophies for their works at a function here last night.

“With the BFJA award not taking place in the past couple of years we included all the representative works during the time (2014-16),” a BFJA spokesman said promising that the award will be an annual occasion from now on.

The BFJA, the oldest association of film scribes in the country was founded in 1937.

Bengali film superstar Prosenjit Chatterjee was given the best actor award for his role in “Sankhachil”, while Rituparna Sengupta was given the best actress crown for her role in Rajkahini along with Paoli Dam for Natoker Moto (2015).

Prosenjit shared the honour with actor Chiranjeet Chakraborty for “Chotushkone”.

Rituparna said, “I feel honoured to be chosen by BFJA, which has such an illustrious past. This happens to be my 4th BFJA award. Two of the past three awards were for films by Tarun Majumder and Rituparno Ghosh. So, I dedicate this fourth award to late Ritu da.”

Music composers Anupam Roy, Kabir Suman, Neel Dutta were awarded for their works in Zulfiqar (2016), Jaatishwar (2014), Byomkesh Bakshi (2016) respectively.

Kaushik Ganguly, Aniruddha (who was also felicitated for Pink getting the National award) were among those present at the ceremony.

The AIADMK Amma faction today went into a huddle under Chief Minister K Palaniswami, a day after the O Panneerselvam camp set formal removal of party General Secretary V K Sasikala and her deputy TTV Dinakaran as conditions for merger talks.

Palaniswami was joined by his cabinet colleagues D Jayakumar, C Ve Shanmugham, S P Velumani, Rajya Sabha MP R Vaithilingam among others at party headquarters.

Hardening its stance for merger talks, the Panneerselvam camp had yesterday demanded that the faction led by Palaniswami formally expel Sasikala and Dinakaran besides about 30 other members of their family from the party.

Following the cabinet's revolt against him early this week, Dinakaran had said he was "stepping aside" in the interest of the party.

A top leader in the Panneerselvam camp, KP Munusamy, had yesterday said the first demand was getting the resignation of Sasikala and Dinakaran and later their formal expulsion along with 30 other members of their family.

The Panneerselvam camp has also sought a CBI probe into the circumstances leading to former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's death on December 5 last year.

Singer Cuba Gooding Sr was found dead in his car here. He was 72.

The soul singer was found slumped over inside his car in Woodland Hills, California at 12:58 p.m. on Thursday, but he could not be revived by cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), reports variety.com.

A spokesperson with the Los Angeles Fire Department confirmed that they responded to a call on Ventura Boulevard and determined the death of an adult male at that same time.

Gooding Sr was famous for his 1972 hit "Everybody plays the fool", as the lead singer of the band The Main Ingredient.

The police is investigating the cause of death.

With just a couple of days to go for the high-stakes municipal polls in Delhi, Ward no 60, Rohini, is abuzz with activity as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Swaraj India are going all out to win the election with new faces who are confident of victory.

Debutant Swaraj India Party has fielded Dr Savita Mukhi who has a punishing campaign schedule.

“As a social worker I will help citizens get their rights and not let them be deprived of any basic amenities,”she told The Statesman.

BJP candidate Ritu Goel, a resident of Rohini for the last 25 years, is confident of winning.

“I will work at the ground level to solve the problems of senior citizens in the area,” she said adding that she plans to set up community centres for senior citizens. She has been running an NGO called ‘Disha’ from 2001 which helps people fight for their rights.

Neeru Aggarwal, the AAP candidate, has been reaching out to slum dwellers and ragpickers. She said people are fed up of the Congress and BJP and will pick Arvind Kejriwal’s alternative politics. She said she is running an NGO ‘Kilkari’ where children of ragpickers and slumdwellers are given education.

The Congress has fielded Seema Kaushik as their candidate. She was, however, unavailable for comment.

Apple and Nike are working to expand their smartwatch series partnership for the Apple Watch 2 with a new limited edition NikeLab offering.

"NikeLab will feature a simple face to focus on fitness and will go on sale April 27, but will only be available through Nike's website and at an Apple pop up shop in Tokyo," US-based new service thestreet.com reported on Friday. 

Last year, Apple released Apple Watch Nike+ that features built-in GPS to track users' pace, distance and route — even if they don't have iPhone with them. 

Apple Watch Nike+ is water resistant (50 metres). Training data including pace, distance and heart rate are available at a glance and through shared run summaries.

New genetic evidence confirms a long-held hypothesis that our earliest mammalian ancestors indeed had powerful night-time vision.

The findings published in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that adapting to life in the dark helped the early mammals find food and avoid reptilian predators that hunted by day. 

The research team examined genes involved in night vision in animals throughout the evolutionary tree, looking for places where those genes became enhanced.

"This method is like using the genome as a fossil record, and with it we've shown when genes involved in night vision appear," said lead researcher Liz Hadly, Professor of Biology at Stanford University in the US.

"It's a very powerful way of corroborating a story that has been, up to now, only hypothesized," Hadly said.

Mammals and reptiles share a common ancestor, with the earliest mammal-like animals appearing in the Late Triassic about 200 million years ago. 

Fossil evidence suggests that early mammals had excellent hearing and sense of smell and were likely also warm-blooded. 

All of these features are common in their descendants, the living mammals, most of whom are nocturnal. 

Therefore, experts have hypothesised that early mammals were also nocturnal. 

This study offers direct, genetic evidence for that hypothesis.

To trace the evolution of nocturnality, the researchers studied genes that the researchers had previously found associated with night vision in certain birds, such as owls. 

The team members examined those night-vision genes in many mammals and reptiles, including snakes, alligators, mice, platypuses and humans.

Using what they know about how those animals are related, they figured out when in their evolutionary histories, if ever, the function of these genes was enhanced.

From this, they deduced that the earliest common ancestor did not have good night vision and was instead active during the day. 

However, soon after the split, mammals began enhancing their night vision genes, allowing them to begin to roam at night, thus avoiding the reptiles that hunted during the day, the study said.

The researchers said thatr in the millions of years that have elapsed since mammals and reptiles diverged, natural selection and evolution haven't stopped. 

Not all mammals are still nocturnal. Some groups of mammals have reoccupied the day, adapting in various ways to daylight activity. 

These animals include cheetahs, camels, elephants, and, of course, humans.

Delhi’s municipal elections are going to be held on 23 April even as the controversy over alleged tampering of electronic voting machines (EVMs) rages on.

The Delhi Election Commission is, however, confident of holding free and fair polls with the machines available with it. The Commission has made all kinds of arrangements to ensure a level-playing field.

In an exclusive interview to TheStatesman, Delhi State Election Commissioner S K Srivastava spoke of the challenges and the preparations of the poll panel.

Following are the excerpts of the ineterview:

Q: What are the major challenges that you face in holding free and fair elections?

A: One of the major challenges before the State Election Commission is appointing the staff for conducting the elections. We always try to ensure a level-playing field and see that the model code of conduct is implemented properly.

Q: Is it possible to revert to the ballot paper system?

A: This is a governmentlevel decision. The government has decided to go for EVMs (electronic voting machines). It should have enough reason to go for reversion. The EVM system is working very well.

Q: Till date, we have known that the election process in India is fair and transparent. Will the controversy over EVMs hamper that perception?

A: The change from ballot papers to EVMs has been widely accepted, except in the case of some panchayat elections. The EVM system has been found to be a very well handled one, smooth and transparent.

Q: The polls for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD)are being held for the second time after the trifurcation of the MCD. How have you been able to manage it under the changed circumstances?

A: After trifurcation, this is the second election and we are used to the system. There is not much of a change for us because whether we are conducting one MCD poll or three MCD polls it is the same thing for us.

Q: Some political parties have raised the issue of tampering of EVMs. Is there any substance in their complaints?

A: Let them prove it. The Election Commission of India is the custodian of the election system in the country as well as the machines which we are using. Tampering is only being talked about. Let them prove it. No one has been able to prove it.

Q: One political party has raised the issue of generation- 1 EVMs being used by the Delhi State Election Commission. What improvement do you think is possible so that no questions are raised regarding the fairness of elections?

A: Generation-1 was used in the last election also in 2012. The by-election was held with the help of the same machines. The old generation machine is an old machine but it is working well. We have to use it till we get new machines.

Q:What is the strength of your manpower for the MCD polls and how many EVMs will you press into service?

A: We have got around 13,141 polling stations. We have deployed around 80,000 to 1 lakh people. We have also taken the help of staff from the central government.

Q: What preparations have you done to attract voters to the pooling booths?

A:We have written to the vice-chancellors of universities, heads of technical institutions and college principals about it. We have also put up posters at metro stations and crossings. We have made a small film which is being shown in cinema halls that every vote is important. 

Google Home, a voice-activated speaker powered by the Google Assistant for home automation now has the ability for up to six people to connect their account to one speaker and can recognise who is talking to it.

When you connect your account on a Google Home, Google asks you to say the phrases "Ok Google" and "Hey Google" two times each. 

Those phrases are then analysed by a neural network, which can detect certain characteristics of a person's voice. 

From that point on, any time you say "Ok Google" or "Hey Google" to your Google Home, the neural network will compare the sound of your voice to its previous analysis so it can understand if it is you speaking or not. This comparison takes place only on your device, in a matter of milliseconds.

"The feature will start rolling out for Google Home users in the US and will be expand to Britain in the coming months," said Yury Pinsky, Product Manager, Google Assistant, in a blog post. 

To get started, first make sure that you have the latest Google Home app. Then, look for a card that says "multi-user is available" when you open the app. 

If you don't see a card, click on the icon in the top right to see all of your connected devices. Once you see your Google Home in the list, select "Link your account." 

From there, you will teach your Assistant to understand it's you, not your partner, family member or roommate and vice versa, based on who is speaking. For certain features, like personalised music and commute, you will also need to set up your preferences within the app, Pinsky noted. 

If looks could kill, she nailed it. Debuted in Heropanti, actress Kriti Sanon has always been loved for stylish yet elegant sense of style. Be it the red carpets or the looks she has donned in the movies, she has always managed to fit in the Bollywood's stylish zone.

Rumoured to be dating actor Sushant Singh Rajput, Kriti is all set to make Raabta a treat for all her fans with the multiple looks that she is going to flaunt in the movie.

According to the pictures revealed by inside sources, Kriti is seen sporting a casual look in some places while she also dons the traditional look with as much grace.
 
In one of the pictures revealed by the sources, the Dilwale actress is also seen flaunting an Arabian veil. She would be seen in that look in one of the dance numbers in the film.

Raabta helmed by director Dinesh Vijan also stars Sushant Singh Rajput. The film is all set to hit theatres in June this year.

It is also this year's most anticipated film of the year. Seems like the controversies have worked well in favour of the film!
 

Microsoft on Friday announced new Azure migration tools and resources to help organisations utilise the power of hybrid cloud.

Hybrid cloud is a computing environment which uses a mix of on-premises, private cloud and third-party public cloud services with orchestration between the two platforms.

The new tools and resources announced include free Cloud migration assessment, Azure hybrid use benefit and Azure site recovery. 

"A free Cloud migration assessment will help organisations discover the servers across their IT environment, analyse their hardware configurations and provides a detailed report including the estimated cost benefits of moving to Microsoft Azure," the company said in a statement. 

Now organisations can activate their "Azure hybrid use benefit" directly in the Azure management portal, simplifying their path to the Cloud in the most cost effective way possible. With the "Azure hybrid use benefit" they can save up to 40 per cent with Windows Server licenses that include software assurance. 

Organisations can use "Azure site recovery" to migrate virtual machines to Azure and helps in moving applications whether they are running on AWS, VMware, Hyper-V or on physical servers.

The Supreme Court on Friday said it could not pass an order for reclaiming the Kohinoor from the United Kingdom or to stop it from being auctioned.

Disposing of a plea seeking directions to bring the treasured diamond back to India, a bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar said it could not ask a foreign government not to auction a property.

The court made it clear it could not pass an order with regard to a property which was in another country.

"We are quite surprised that such petitions are filed for properties which are in the USA and the UK. What kind of a writ petition is this," the bench, also comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and S K Kaul, said.

The apex court referred to an affidavit filed by the Centre and said, "The government of India continues to explore ways and means with the UK government on the issue." 

The petitions, filed by an NGO, the All India Human Rights and Social Justice Front, and Heritage Bengal, a registered organisation, were tagged together by the court last year.