The Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) has formulated its new Group Housing Scheme-2017 (e-auction) for allotment of group housing plots available in various urban estates in the state.

An official spokesperson said that the available group housing plots at Ambala, Bahadurgarh, Dadri, Faridabad, Gurugram, Hisar, Jagadhri, Jind, Kaithal, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Panchkula, Pinjore, Panipat, Palwal, Rewari, Rohtak, Sirsa and Sonipat are likely to be allotted in near future through e-auction to the eligible registered Cooperative Group Housing Societies or Welfare Housing Organisations.

He said that e-auction of group housing sites by HUDA was likely to commence from June 15onwards. Interested persons and organisations may form Cooperative Group Housing Societies or Welfare Housing Organisations and register them with Registrar, Cooperative Societies or Registrar, Firms and Societies for becoming eligible to participate in the forthcoming e-auction scheme.

He said that Group Housing plots would be allotted on free hold basis through e-auction. The reserve price would be fixed as collector rates or 80 per cent of market rates, whichever is higher.

The bidder society or organization shall be required to follow the conditions of e-auction as prescribed on the portal https://huda.haryanaeprocurement.gov.in.

Four major private airports in the country will require an investment of Rs.27,000 crore in expanding the existing capacity, which has reached near optimum level, by 2021, a report said on Wednesday.

The four private airports-New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru-cater to nearly 55 per cent of the country's total air traffic.

These airports are operating at near-full capacity and will need to spend heavily on expansion through 2021, said the report by ratings firm Crisil.

“Because of surging footfalls and high capacity utilisation of over 90 per cent, we estimate the four airports would need to invest Rs.27,000 crore for expansion,” Crisil Ratings President Gurpreet Chhatwal said.

Yet, their credit quality will remain healthy because of business model strength backed by robust traffic growth and predictable cash flows under a regulated tariff framework, the rating outfit said.

According to the firm, air passenger traffic in the country grew 20 per cent in the last fiscal which was a big leap over the sedate 9 per cent average seen since 2011.

Bengaluru and Hyderabad airports have clocked even faster growth of over 24 per cent, the report said, adding rising private consumption and healthy economic growth would continue to provide tailwind to traffic growth at airports.

Of the four aerodromes, GMR group runs Delhi and Hyderabad airports, while GVK group operates Mumbai.
In the Bengaluru airport, India-born Canadian billionaire Prem Watsa's Fairfax holds 38 per cent, while Germany's Siemens Project Ventures GmbH has 26 per cent stake.

Besides, state-owned Airports Authority of India and Karnataka State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation hold 13 per cent each. The rest 10 per cent holding is with the GVK group.

Despite such massive funding requirement, credit quality of these airports will not suffer because of low implementation risk. As such expansions are brownfield and modular in nature and conducive tariff regulation, Chhtawal said.

Tariffs such as passenger user fee levied by airports is calculated in blocks of five years, called 'control periods', based on a fixed return on capex and base traffic growth assumption.This not only compensates for the risks taken, but also provides for adjustment in user fee on account of any large variation in traffic, capex plan in a control period, the report noted.

As per Crisil, as the traffic increase rapidly, aeronautical revenue streams from passenger user fees and landing and parking charges would also increase in the ongoing control period.

Significantly, India became the third largest aviation market in domestic traffic last year, unseating Japan. India's domestic air passenger traffic stood at 100 million in 2016 and was behind only the US (719 million) and China (436 million).

“While aeronautical revenues may moderate in the next control period due to adjustment in passenger user fee, rising footfalls can offset this through higher non-aeronautical revenue so its unlikely to curb the earnings momentum of these airports,” Manish Gupta, Director, Crisil Ratings, said.

The contribution from non-aeronautical revenue is expected to increase to over 50 per cent over the next four years from over 35 per cent now. Such unique characteristics make airports a prized infrastructure asset class that enjoys much lower risks compared with roads, power generation, and distribution, as per the report.

Noting that the risks are also lower because of pricing power emanating from operational exclusivities, low complexity of operations, and ability to raise resources by monetising contiguous land parcels, Crisil said liquidity retention will be essential to offset any sharp fall in cash flows most likely from macroeconomic shocks.

Another key risk is timeliness in the tariff setting process and increasing regulatory scrutiny around expenditure, it said, adding the differences in recognising capital costs could potentially lower tariffs and hence returns.

Defence Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday commended the Indian Air Force (IAF) for successfully conducting various military exercises and emphasised on the challenges to Defence forces due to the rapidly changing geo-political situation in the world and the uncertainties existing in the region.

Inaugurating the three-day Commanders Conference of the IAF, he appreciated their operations towards humanitarian assistance and disaster relief both within and outside the country. Acknowledging IAF's capability as the first responder, especially in the face of a natural calamity, he emphasised the resolve of the government in expediting approved modernisation programmes of the service.

The Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal B S Dhanoa, spoke of the operational status of IAF and the progress on infrastructure development. He highlighted the efforts made to enhance aircraft serviceability towards maintaining operational readiness.

The Air Chief also outlined the achievements during the recently conducted pan-IAF and international exercises with friendly foreign countries and elaborated the actions initiated for enhancing operational effectiveness and the future roadmap of IAF.

During the conference, the senior leadership of the IAF would deliberate on issues pertaining to enhancement of combat effectiveness and development of human resources and infrastructure.

To encourage indigenisation and enhance self-reliance in defence manufacturing a day-long interactive session has been planned with delegations from HAL, BEL and other Defence PSUs.

The CAS would also present trophies for excellence in various domains including cyber, communication, sports and welfare activities.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat has condoled the death in Nerwa bus accident in Himachal Pradesh.

The private bus from Uttarakhand was heading for Tyuni and rolled down into Tons river on Wednesday morning killing 43 passengers on board. The Uttarakhand government rushed a medical team for Nerwa.

Uttarakhand CM has announced ex-gratia of Rs.1 lakh each for the families of deceased persons, Rs.50,000 each for the seriously injured and Rs.25,000 for other injured in the tragedy.

Ace drag-flicker Rupinder Pal Singh believes that the youngsters in the Indian squad have matured a lot during the 40-day national camp that will keep them in good stead when they will compete in the 26th Sultan of Azlan Shah Cup in Ipoh, Malaysia.

Rupinder on Tuesday asserted that the youngsters in the team are well-prepared to take on the challenge against top teams like Malaysia, Australia, Great Britain, New Zealand and Japan in the tournament, scheduled to be held from April 29 to May 6.

Defender Gurinder Singh, midfielders Sumit and Manpreet and goalkeeper Suraj Karkera will have a chance to make their debut for the senior India team in Malaysia.

"The 40-day camp here in Bengaluru involved a lot of hard work and mental conditioning. We have a new Analytical Coach (Hans Streeder) who has brought in some key changes in strategies. We worked a lot on specific areas and tried out new combinations during match practice," Rupinder said in a release.

"There has been a lot of emphasis on strong defence and I believe it will come down to how we implement these strategies in Malaysia that will help us win matches." stated Rupinder. 

The 27-year-old will be leading India's defence along with Harmanpreet Singh, Gurinder Singh, Pardeep Mor and Surender Kumar. 

Being the senior most in the back line, Rupinder will have to shoulder the responsibility of guiding these youngsters through the tournament, a role he is happy to take on. "Yes I do have an added responsibility of guiding these youngsters but I also believe they are ready to take on individual responsibilities. 

"Each of them know what they exactly need to do and how they need to execute the plans we have against each team. I think they are ready to take on big teams," expressed a confident Rupinder.

Ahead of the start of the 40-day camp, India chief coach Roelant Oltmans had emphasised on penalty corners and improvising on the team's conversation rate. 

Rupinder along with the talented Harmanpreet Singh will be India's dragflick experts in Malaysia and the team will be banking on them to convert the chances created. 

Rupinder is confident they will live up to the billing. "We spend one hour everyday between 3:00 pm and 4:00 pm specifically for drag flicks. We are also joined by former India drag-flicker Jugraj Singh who is part of the coaching staff. Jugraj has been my idol and he was also the one to introduce me to drag-flick when I began my career so working with him has been great. 

"He has been able to help us with finer details which we would otherwise miss. Having a specific coach for drag flicking while chief coach Oltmans is also around has been beneficial and I am confident we will do well in Malaysia," he concluded.

A digital microscope to see cells in 3-D, a helmet whose strap tightens with the click of a button and components which make buildings earthquake resistant — are among the many projects IIT-Delhi has put on display on Wednesday, three days ahead of its 13th Open House.

The innovative projects on show are near completion and some of them have even been patented and are now being used by the industries.

"Our goal has always been to make IIT conducive for research for students… We have executed 40 projects since last year," S. Basu, Assistant Dean, Research and Development, Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi, said at the event.

To make research a continuous affair, the IIT-D has launched a plan that "involves students from all four years" so that the research doesn't die with the passing out of the student, but makes itself available to be taken over by the juniors, he said.

Basu apprised the media about the institute's collaboration with Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO), wherein the former will receive Rs 230 crore over five years to build technologies to thwart mine attacks, assess their impact, and to build a "spy-balloon" — conceptualized as a drone — among others.

He also said the institute last year received a funding of Rs 170-180 crore, a marked improvement from a usual Rs 100-120 crore.

"We are proud to step into another edition of Open House and like every year we look forward to provide opportunity to our visitors to experience the state-of-the-art innovations of our students and faculty at IIT-Delhi," IIT-D Director Ramgopal Rao said in a statement.

The Open House will be held on the IIT-D campus on April 22 where a wide array of projects and innovations will be shown to public.

A mobile application — Open House App — will also be launched on the same day, which will be a repository of all the cutting edge technologies the institute has produced.

The government on Wednesday decided to extend stock limits on sugar traders by another six months till October 2017 to check sweetener prices that are ruling at Rs.42-44 per kg.

A decision in this regard was taken at the Cabinet meet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"The Union Cabinet has given its approval for extending the validity of the existing Central Order in respect of sugar for a further period of six months from April 29 to October 28, 2017," an official statement said.

The move will enable state governments to impose stock limits and licensing requirements in respect of sugar, if needed, it said.

The government feels that "despite adequate availability of stocks for consumption in the current season, hoarding and consequent profiteering is anticipated due to drop in production over the previous year".

Stating that the price rise appeared to be more on sentiment than actual shortage, the government said fixing of appropriate stock limit on need basis was essential to regulate supply of sugar and address speculative prices.

The move is expected to help improve the availability of these commodities to general public at reasonable rates and control the tendencies of hoarding and profiteering, the statement added.

Currently, there is a stock limit of 500 tonnes and turnover limit of 30 days for sugar traders in the country other than those in West Bengal. The stock limit for traders in West Bengal is 1,000 tonnes.

The country's sugar output is estimated to fall for the second consecutive year to around 20 million tonnes in 2016-17 season (October-September), much lower than the annual demand of 24-25 mt.

To boost domestic supply, the government has allowed duty free import of 5,00,000 tonnes of raw sugar till June.

Domestic rating agency Icra on Wednesday welcomed the Reserve Bank's recent revision in the prompt corrective action (PCA) framework for the banks and said it would be positive for lenders.

Last week, RBI had revised the PCA framework for banks, effective from April 1, 2017, based on financials of the lenders for the year ended March 31, 2017.

“Based on the revised PCA framework, a total of 16 PSBs out of 21 (excluding SBI associates) and two out of 16 private banks will require taking mandatory corrective actions such as raising capital levels, restricting the dividend payments, branch expansions or face restrictions on management compensation to come out of the PCA framework,” Icra group head, (financial sector ratings), Karthik Srinivasan, said in a note here on Wednesday.

RBI has brought down the net NPA levels required to include the bank under PCA framework to a level of six per cent now as against 10 per cent earlier.

This will make mandatory for the banks to increase the provision coverage on the NPAs for remaining outside the PCA framework.

“We expect overall these steps will strengthen the banking system over the medium term. While it will allow the stronger and well managed banks to grow; the onus of improving the systems and procedures will be more on the weaker banks and their promoters or management,” Srinivasan said.

The revision in PCA has also increased the required overall capital levels and also introduced the minimum core equity (CET) capital levels required to be maintained by the bank so as to avoid its inclusion under the PCA framework, the rating agency said.

It expects a further weakening in asset quality during the financial year 2017-18 and consequently pressure on internal capital generation and increasing capital requirements under the Basel III capital adequacy framework.

The capital requirement for banks for public sector banks (PSBs) during the financial year 2017-18 and 2018-19 is estimated at Rs.1.25-1.35 trillion of which Rs80,000-85,000 crore has to be by way of core equity capital, Icra said.

Flamboyant all-rounder Glenn Maxwell on Tuesday hoped for a repeat of his performance at the Ranchi Test against India, if he gets a game in the Ashes series against England later this year.

Maxwell, who is currently leading the Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League (IPL), scored his maiden Test century at Ranchi before following it up with a top-score of 45 in Australia's second innings of the fourth Test in Dharamsala.

Maxwell, however seemed clueless on the composition of the Australia squad for the Ashes, starting with the first Test at the Gabba this year.

The Victorian acknowledged that given Australia's tendency to opt for a seam-bowling allrounder in the top six for Tests on home soil, his spot is far from secure. 

"I'd love to say that I'd be a good chance, but I have absolutely no idea," Maxwell was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au. 

"I don't know which way they're thinking. We've seen in the past that they like to have a medium-pace all-rounder at No.6 and if they were to go that way in the first Test, I think that'd be fine."

"But if I was to get an opportunity to play a Test at home, I'd love to take it the same way I did in Ranchi and make the most of it. 

"But I'm not trying to get my hopes up too much. If it happens, it happens," he added.

The dashing right-hander further said he would not take undue pressure on himself to get back to the side.

"I'll still train and work as hard as I can to play, but I'm probably not putting as much pressure on myself as I probably did in previous years," he said.

The Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday gave a total financial assistance of Rs.90 lakh to 18 fishermen whose damaged boats, earlier seized by the Sri Lankan navy, became unusable.

The fishermen hailing from various districts of Tamil Nadu were attacked by Sri Lankan Navy while fishing, a state government release said.

It said that the boats, which were in the custody of Sri Lanka were released through a series of initiatives taken by late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.

The Tamil Nadu government had formed teams to repair the 64 boats, which suffered minor damages.

"The Government had borne the total cost involved to repair the boats. However, 18 boats that were extensively damaged sunk in the Bay of Bengal", it said.

Considering the livelihood of the 18 fishermen who lost their boats, Chief Minister K Palaniswami directed officials to disburse Rs.90 lakh to the families from the Chief Minister's Public Relief Fund.

Palaniswami handed over cheques of Rs.5 lakh each to the families at an event at the Secretariat on Wednesday, the release added.

Actress Bipasha Basu, who is about to complete a year of marriage with actor Karan Singh Grover, says wedding are beautiful when you marry your best friend.

Bipasha and Karan tied the knot in April 2016. The No Entry actress took to Instagram to share a throwback photograph of her marriage. 

"It's going to be a year soon of us being married. Marriages are beautiful when you are married to your best friend… your soulmate. I miss you Karan Singh Grover. Counting days to come back to you," Bipasha captioned the image. 

The pair was last seen together in the 2015 horror film Alone. Bipasha currently has no films in her kitty. 

Karan will next be seen in 3 Dev, which is the story of a couple where the wife is extremely religious and the husband is not. 

They rent out their house to three youngsters and certain situations lead to the three being termed 'God', leading to hilarious situations of lies, mistaken identity and chaos.

The film also stars Tisca Chopra, Kay Kay Menon, Kunal Roy Kapur and TV actor Ravi Dubey, who marks his big screen debut with the film. 

Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi is all set to launch its season eight. This time the show will be shot in Spain and will hit the TV screens by the end of May 2017.

The participating celebrities might include Hina Khan, Jamai Raja fame Nia Sharma, Ravi Dubey, Rithvik Dhanjani, wrestler Geeta Phogat, Bigg Boss 10 winner Manveer Gurjar, Bollywood actress Rimi Sen, Karan Wahi and actor-dancer Shantanu Maheshwari.

Reportedly, Pardes Mein Hai Mera Dil actress Additi Gupta, Jamai Raja actress Shiny Doshi and Pardes actress Mahima Chaudhry are in talks with the makers for the show.

The latest to join the list of these celebreties is Bigg Boss 6 contestant, Elli Avram.

According to sources, "Talks are on with Elli and she is quite keen to participate in the show. Dates and monetary contracts are being worked upon and if thing set in place, she will be on board."

The actress has worked in films like Mickey Virus and Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon. She has been approached for the reality show quite a number of times earlier as well, the sources added.

Poor sleep may hamper the ability to see things in positive light, especially in people suffering from depression and anxiety, researchers including one of Indian origin have found.

Researchers from University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) in the US, used functional MRI to measure the activity in different regions of the brain as subjects were challenged with an emotion-regulation task.

They studied about 78 patients, 18 to 65 years of age, who had been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, a major depressive disorder, or both.

The participants were given a questionnaire to assess their sleep over the previous month.

They were shown disturbing images of violence – from war or accidents and were asked to simply look at the images and not to try to control their reaction or to “reappraise” what they saw in a more positive light.

An example of reappraisal would be to see an image of a woman with a badly bruised face and imagine her as an actress in makeup for a role, rather than as a survivor of violence, said researchers.

A motion-sensing device called an actigraph measured their awake time in bed, or “sleep efficiency,” over a six-day period.

Researchers, including Anand Kumar from University of Illinois at Chicago, found that participants who reported poorer sleep on the questionnaire were seen to have less brain activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex during the reappraisal (DACC) task, while those with lower sleep efficiency based on the actigraph data had higher activity in the DACC.

The questionnaire results indicated that three out of four participants met criteria for significant sleep disturbance, and the actigraph results suggested the majority had insomnia, researchers said.

“Since the questionnaire and actigraph measure different aspects of the sleep experience, it is not surprising that brain activity also differed between these measures,” said Heide Klumpp, assistant professor of psychiatry at UIC.

“The questionnaire asks about sleep over the previous month and answers can be impacted by current mood,” Klumpp said.

“Plus, respondents may not be able to accurately remember how they slept a month ago. The actigraph objectively measures current sleep, so the results from both measurements may not match,” she said.

“Higher DACC activity in participants with lower levels of sleep efficiency could mean the DACC is working harder to carry out the demanding work of reappraisal,” Klumpp said.

“Our research indicates sleep might play an important role in the ability to regulate negative emotions in people who suffer from anxiety or depression,” she said.

The BSP on Wednesday decided to contest the upcoming urban body elections on the party symbol after a gap of more than two decades and stressed on dealing with fresh challenges through a new strategy.

At a meeting of party leaders of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand convened by party chief Mayawati, detailed discussions were held on the issue of upcoming urban body elections in the state, and it was decided that they will be contested on the party symbol, said a statement issued here.

Though the BSP's base is not as strong in urban areas (as in rural areas), the decision has been taken in view of the growth in people's support in urban areas as well, the release said.

"The party will try to give good results with the help of sarv samaj (entire society)," it said quoting the party chief.

The BSP has not fought the urban body polls on party ticket after 1995 but today's decision was taken following a demand to this effect from its leaders who felt it was time to make the party's presence felt in the state, especially after the debacle in the recent assembly polls, party insiders said.

Reviewing the present political situation, Mayawati directed the leaders to increase the BSP's support base among the sarv samaj while facing new challenges, the release said.

"There is a need to work with renewed vigour and missionary zeal through a new strategy to deal with new challenges before the BSP movement," she said.

"Although the BSP movement is on a solid footing in the state but ever since the Assembly poll results which have not been in keeping with our hopes and preparations, casteist and communal forces are upbeat and are spreading rumours to demoralise our party workers," the BSP chief said.

"To divert attention from EVM tampering, they are trying to mislead the people through false propaganda," she said, adding the manner in which the BJP is working with the support of the RSS poses a risk to democracy.

"If the Constitution and democracy are not kept alive in true spirit, the doors to power will be closed for Dalits and backwards, and they will remain deprived forever," she said.

Employees in India, 62 per cent, are far more satisfied with their work conditions compared to those in Asia Pacific, as per a survey.

The 'Michael Page's 'Job Confidence Index Q1 2017' (January-March period), revealed that 62 per cent Indian employees are 'satisfied or very satisfied' with their working conditions compared to 53 per cent of employees in Asia Pacific.

However, in a city to city comparison in India, a number of major cities, including Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Mumbai, slipped in their work satisfaction rating during the first quarter this year compared to the last quarter of 2016, it said.

The Job Confidence Index Q1 2017, analysed the responses of 650 professionals in India and 4,700 across Asia Pacific.

It revealed that the three chief objectives for seeking employment in India remained unchanged, where 48 per cent of individuals aspire to acquire new skills, 39 per cent yearn for better work-life balance and 34 per cent consider income a significant factor.

Employees in India were more positive about work-life balance in the next 12 months (56 per cent compared to 55 per cent in Q4 2016) and development of new skills (85 per cent compared to 81 per cent in Q4 2016), it said.

While job hunting in India, better work-life balance (39 per cent) has surpassed salary (34 per cent) as the second most important factor.

“The Indian government has taken numerous initiatives to accelerate the economy through various sector focused initiatives. A robust demand for qualified professionals in a competitive market has resulted in the importance of skill enhancement among millennials,” Michael Page India Managing Director Nicolas Dumoulin said.

He said, on the backdrop of an improved economic environment and adaptation to global culture, Indian professionals have a positive outlook towards a rise in job opportunities, wage growth and a better work life balance.

AP EAMCET 2017 admit card/hall ticket is now available online at sche.ap.gov.in, http://sche.ap.gov.in/APSCHEHome.aspx. 
Candidates wanted to get their AP EAMCET 2017 admit card have to enter the APEAMCET official website and enter the required information including registration number and date of birth.

In relation to this information official website said, Halltickets for APEAMCET-2017 are available for download

Along with this AP EAMCET candidates can also get their AP EAMCET 2017 Hall ticket directly at http://sche.ap.gov.in/EAMCET/Eamcet/EAMCET_GetDownloadHallTicket_Live2017.aspx

Due to the candidates the official website is facing issue in loading but the candidates are advise to stay calm and try to refresh the AP EAMCET admit card official link in a short interval of time.

In case of any issue AP EAMCET candidates can get in touch with the officials over a call at 0884-2340535, 2356255 or may reach the officials via Mail at onlineapeamcet2017@gmail.com.

Grand celebrations is in the air for soap opera Kumkum Bhagya as the show completed three years.

Produced by Ekta Kapoor, the show completed three years on 15 April. Ekta along with the star cast, celebrated the third anniversary.

The show revolves around the story of Punjabi matriarch, Sarla Arora (Supriya Shukla), who runs a marriage hall and her two daughters Pragya and Bulbul.

Arjit, Mrunal and Charu Mehra got nostalgic as the show completed three years.

Arjit took to social media and shared a celebration picture which he captioned as "Happy Birthday to one of the best things that ever happened to me! The First show is always special and so are you!#3YearsOfKumKumBhagya"

Charu Mehra wrote: Charu Mehra Welcomed By KB Team "KumKum Bhagya completes it's three years and coincidentally I have to visit the sets of kkb today. I don't know how the entire team manages to be so welcoming and warm all the time.."