Captain Gautam Gambhir scored an inspiring knock of 72 runs (not out) to lead Kolkata Knight Riders to a remarkable eight-wicket win over Kings XI Punjab in their first home match of the IPL 2017 on Thursday.

Gambhir hit 11 boundaries in his 49-ball knock to delight the crowd at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

Chasing a competitive target of 171 runs, Kolkata started strongly at home.

All-rounder Sunil Narine came to open KKR innings along with Gambhir. The opening pair established a 76-run partnership stand to built a strong foundation.

Narine contributed with 37 runs off 18 balls, besides the wicket of Marcus Stoinis (9) that he claimed earlier in KXIP innings.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Robin Uthappa and Manish Pandey strengthened KKR's middle-order and scored a causative 26 and 25 runs (not out) respectively.

For KXIP, who suffered their first defeat in the ongoing season, spinner Axar Patel and Varun Aaron were the only successful bowlers amid session highly-dominating by KKR.

Along with Gambhir, Indian star speedster Umesh Yadav gets a big share of Kolkata's thumping victory as he claimed four wickets to help KKR dominate KXIP at home.

In the end of 20 overs, Glenn Maxwell-led KXIP managed to put 170/9 runs on the scoreboard in the 11th match of the IPL 2017.

Yadav returned to the KKR squad after injury and exhibited best of his abilities to bag four big wickets.

Captain Maxwell (25), David Miller (28), wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha (25) and Axar Patel (0) were the victims of the 29-year-old Maharashtra-born bowler.

England fast bowler Chris Woakes struck late to claim two wickets in the shape of Mohit Sharma (10) and Varun Aaron (4) in the last over.

New Zealand all-rounder Colin de Grandhomme, who replaced injured Chris Lynn in the KKR squad, took the scalp of KXIP opener Hashim Amla (25) to mark a good start.

Spinners Sunil Narine and Piyush Chawla dismissed Marcus Stoinis (9) and Manan Vohra (28) respectively to help the pacers.

Click here for more stories related to IPL 2017

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that modern India can progress only if women are empowered, and that whenever given a chance, women have outperformed men.

He said his government is taking "progressive decisions" in this direction.

"Modern India can only progress if women are empowered. With this thinking, the government is taking several progressive decisions," Modi said, addressing 50 years celebrations of Indian Merchants Chamber (IMC) Ladies Wing in Mumbai through video conferencing.

"Where laws are needed to be amended, they are being amended and where new rules are needed, they are being made," he added, citing examples of a number of laws the government recently amended, including the Maternity Benefits Act, Factories Act and Disability Act.

"Recently, the Maternity Benefits Act was amended to increase maternity leave to 26 weeks from 12 weeks. Even very developed countries don't have such laws. Similarly Factories Act was amended to enable women to work in night shifts. The Disability Act was changed to give acid attack victims same assistance and reservation benefits as given to the disabled," Modi said.

In another important change in passport rules, Modi said, women now no longer have to produce certificate of their marriage or divorce.

"A woman may now choose to give the name of her father or mother in her passport," the Prime Minister said.

He said that Indian women are flying fighter planes, going to space (as astronauts) and winning medals in Olympics. He also acknowledged women's contribution in the agriculture sector.

"India's women are making their presence felt from panchayat to Parliament and from the village well to Silicon Valley. It's a myth that Indian women remain confined to the four walls of the house," Modi said.

He said that in the families which avail government welfare schemes, the government has decided to give first preference to the women in the households, such as under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, preference would be given to allot houses in women's name.

"Many brands have succeeded as they have women power behind them. Many successful enterprises are being run by women. Indian women have patience, capability as well as spirit to fight it out," Modi said.

He urged each of the audience to set a target for themselves for 2022 when India completes 75 years of independence.

"Is it not our responsibility to fulfil the dreams of the freedom fighters who laid down their lives or spent their youth in Andaman jail? During freedom struggle, everyone used to do their bit for the country's freedom. Can we do something to make our contribution towards the nation before we celebrate 75 years?" the Prime Minister said.

"We should have a dream and a roadmap for New India," he added.

He said that democracy is a "constant contribution" and that government is not a contractor.

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday congratulated party workers and leaders on bagging three seats in assembly by-elections across eight states.

"Congratulations to all INC India workers, leaders and supporters on winning the Ater, Gundlupet and Nanjangud by-polls," Rahul tweeted.

In Madhya Pardesh's Ater assembly seat, the Congress' Hemant Katare defeated BJP's Arvind Singh Bhadoria by a little over 800 votes to retain the seat.

In Karnataka, the Congress retained Nanjangud and Gundlupet assembly constituencies defeating BJP candidates at both places.

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) on Thursday told the Law Commission that majority of Muslims do not want any interference in Shariah laws and that the constitution gives them right to follow Shariah laws.

The Muslim body also submitted to the Law Commission copies of 4.8 crore signatures, including those of women, and a hard disk containing all information about the signatories, who do not want government's interference in Shariah matters.

"A delegation of AIMPLB led by the its General Secretary Maulana Wali Rahmani met the Law Commission of India Chairman Justice Balbir Singh Chauhan and handed him over the scanned copies of crores of signatures favouring Shariah laws and opposing implementation of Uniform Civil Code," AIMPLB member Kamal Farooqui said in a statement.

"The Constitution of India gives freedom of religion and keeping this in mind the delegation of AIMPLB also made it clear that the Muslims do not want any kind of change in the Shariah laws like 'nikaah' (marriage), 'talaq' (divirce) etc., and they want to stick to the Shariah laws in any case," Farooqui said.

He said that the Board does not want the government to interfere in any Shariah or religious matter.

"A total of 48,347,596 of signatures were received from across the country covering almost every state of the country, which includes 27,356,934 signatures by Muslim women," he said.

Farooqui said that the delegation also handed over a hard disk to Justice Chauhan containing all information about the signatories.

Celebrating 70 years of friendship with Russia, India on Thursday kicked off year-long celebrations of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The celebrations would be taken to different cities and towns of the country through organised cultural events, business meetings and other activities.

During the launch function here, Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) President Lokesh Chandra said the last 70 years since independence had been of a "very close friendship", which actually dates back around 200 years.

"We hope that this friendship that we share would continue for years to come," he said.

Joint Secretary (Eurasia) G.V. Srinivas said India was ready to celebrate the festival of friendship in partnership with the Russian community and other stakeholders throughout the coming year.

The English Premier League is winding down and with plenty at stake, the matches are even more hotly contested than ever!

That could be bad news for millions of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers who would prefer to see straight results any day.

Worry not, as each week, thestatesman.com will help to make the right moves on the FPL with a comprehensive article on who to buy for the coming gameweek.

The indicators are:

Teams in BOLD are top 4 contenders.

Prices marked with a (+) indicate an increase in Base Price.
Prices marked with a (-) indicate a decrease in Base Price.

Goalkeepers

Wayne Hennessey
Team: Crystal Palace
Fixtures: Leicester (A), Liverpool (A)-Spurs (H), Burnley (H), Man City (A) and Hull (H)
Price: 4.3 (-)
Score: 76
Ownership: 2.7%

Why yes: Leicester are sure to prioritise their Champions League tie against Atletico next week. They are likely to field a depleted tie against Palace with their Premier League survival virtually assured. Hennessey has been in fine form in recent weeks and has a double fixture in Gameweek 34.

Why no: The Foxes managed to score even if they lose and Palace have some tough fixtures up ahead.

Defenders

Mason Holgate
Team: Everton
Fixtures: Burnley (H), West Ham (A), Chelsea (H), Swansea (A) and Watford (H)
Price: 4.1 (+)
Score: 39
Ownership: 6.6%

Why yes: Starting for the Toffees after Seamus Coleman’s unfortunate injury, Holgate is a must-have, especially if you consider his price. Against Burnley at home, Everton should be able to keep a clean sheet.

Why no: Should you have Joel Robles in goal or Leighton Baines in defence, Holgate can be skipped. Everton haven't kept a clean sheet in their last three games.

Jan Vertonghen
Team: Tottenham Hotspur
Fixtures: Bournemouth (H), Crystal Palace (A), Arsenal (H), West Ham (A) and Man Utd  (H)-Leicester (A)
Price: 5.7 (+)
Score: 96
Ownership: 5.7%

Why yes: Spurs are the in-form team in the league right now and should have no problems keeping a clean sheet against the Cherries at home. 

Why no: He is a mid-price Spurs defender and perhaps why not many people have him. The more expensive guys (Toby Aldrerweireldn and Kyle Walker) make more points and the cheaper ones (Ben Davies) look better value.

Midfielders
Wilfried Zaha
Team: Crystal Palace
Fixtures: Leicester (A), Liverpool (A)-Spurs (H), Burnley (H), Man City (A) and Hull (H)
Price: 5.9 (+)
Score: 131
Ownership: 11.6%

Why yes: Zaha is in top form and Palace as unit are doing extremely well too. So despite some tough fixtures ahead, Zaha should perform.

Why no: The fixtures are quite tough, there is no escaping that. And if you have Christian Benteke up top, Zaha can be skipped.

Eden Hazard
Team: Chelsea
Fixtures: Man Utd (A), Southampton (H), Everton (A), Middlesbrough (H) and West Brom (A)-Watford (H)
Price: 10.4 (+)
Score: 191
Ownership: 30.3%

Why yes: The Belgian winger is in fine fettle at present and against Manchester United, who will be tired after a Europa League clash against Anderlecht, could just run riot. Fixtures after United look quite easy and Chelsea have a double fixture in Gameweek 37.

Why no: Is mightily expensive and should you already have Costa, Hazard could be avoided.

Forwards

Harry Kane
Team: Tottenham Hotspur

Fixtures: Bournemouth (H), Crystal Palace (A), Arsenal (H), West Ham (A) and Man Utd (H)-Leicester (A)
Price: 11.3 (+)
Score: 153
Ownership: 10.6%

Why yes: Fully fit again and with Spurs not giving up on the title just yet, Kane currently has a pretty good differential potential as well. Maurico Pochettino’s men have a double fixture in Gameweek 37.

Why no: Spurs have plenty of options in midfield (Dele Alli, Heung Min-son) who are much cheaper. Also, it may take a game or two for Kane to start firing on all cylinders. 

Troy Deeney
Team: Watford
Fixtures: Swansea (H), Hull (A), Liverpool (H), Leicester (A) and Everton (A)-Chelsea (A)
Price: 6.9 (-)
Score: 120
Ownership: 7.1%

Why yes: Deeney has been in good form of late and, against struggling Swansea, should score. Watford have a double fixture in Gameweek 37.

Why no: At his price-point, players like Jermain Defoe, Divock Origi and Christian Benteke make for compelling buys as well. Most of the Hornets' upcoming fixtures look difficult.

PS: The Gameweek  deadline is 11.30 am GMT/4 pm IST.

The people of Andhra Pradesh can now directly reach out to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu through their smart phones by downloading a free app.

All they have to do is to install 'Kaizala', a free mobile chat app developed by Microsoft that enables interaction with a large number of people at the same time.

This app is being used exclusively by Chandrababu Naidu. Citizens can share their satisfaction levels with the government as well as offer suggestions and feedback for improvement of government programmes.

The app will be formally launched at the State Secretariat here on Friday.

This feedback will be reviewed by Naidu directly and based on the feedback analytics, government policies will suitably be improved for betterment of citizens, said a statement from the Chief Minister's office.

The CM will take feedback and inputs from citizens on the problems they are facing in their day to day life including pension, ration, water, climate or anything else. These inputs will be used to review the workings of that particular department.

The parents of students studying in private schools here strongly protested at the district headquarters against the sudden fee hike and submitted a memorandum to the District Magistrate (DM).

Leading the protest, Bahujan Samaj Party leader Satyapal Chaudhary said that private schools are violating the terms of No Objection Certificate (NOC), which clearly states that the schools cannot charge building, annual, activity fee and other donations. If schools are found charging such type of fees, the NOC is liable to be null and void.

Saying that the schools are continuously flouting the NOC under the nose of the district administration, Chaudhary demanded that the terms and conditions of the NOC must be displayed in the premises of all schools in bold letters.

Meanwhile, All School Parents Association President Sachin Soni announced that he will be on a dharna outside the office of the District Inspector of Schools (DIOS) on April 17.

Soni alleged that district officials are ignoring the issue and are not initiating any action against schools despite clear intensions of the Uttar Pradesh government.

During the protest, police stopped parents from entering the DM's chamber which lead to a scuffle. After about half an hour, DM Nidhi Kesarwani asked the police to allow a five-member delegation.

During talks, the matter was resolved after a memorandum was submitted to Kesarwani in which the parents demanded to enforce the terms of NOC.

Meanwhile, parents started sitting on a dharma outside other public schools, including DPS Ghaziabad Vasundhara, Children's Academy and Sun Valley at Indirapuram, demanding to withdraw the inappropriately hiked fee.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the Bandhavgarh assembly constituency and the Congress won from Ater in the Madhya Pradesh by-polls as ballot counting came to a close on Thursday.

According to Umaria district's Public Relations Officer C.L. Patel, BJP candidate Shivnarayan Singh has defeated Savitri Singh of the Congress by 25,476 votes in
Bandhavgarh.

Of the 135,304 votes polled, the BJP candidate garnered 54.95 per cent (74,356) while Savitri Singh polled 36.13 per cent (48,880 votes), he said.

In Bhind district's Ater, after initially tailing BJP candidate Arvind Singh Bhadoria, Congress' Hemat Katare won by a close margin of 867 votes.

Of the 123,368 votes polled, Bhadoria got 48.01 per cent (59,228) while Katare got 47.31 per cent (58,371).

There were 21 candidates in the fray in Ater, while five contested in Bandhavgarh.

Around 60 per cent voter turnout was reported in Ater during the polling on Sunday while the voting percentage was 65 in Bandhavgarh.

The Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) was used with the electronic voting machines (EVMs) in both the by-polls.

The Ater seat fell vacant following the death of incumbent Satyadev Katare of the Congress, while the by-poll in Bandhavgarh was necessitated after the BJP's Gyan Singh was elected to the Lok Sabha last November in by-election.

Indian star speedster Umesh Yadav made a dreamlike entry in the ongoing IPL 2017 as he claimed four wickets to help Kolkata Knight Riders dominate table-toppers Kings XI Punjab in their first home match at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Thursday.

In the end of 20 overs, Glenn Maxwell-led KXIP managed to put 170/9 runs on the scoreboard in the 11th match of the IPL 2017.

Yadav returned to the KKR squad after injury and exhibited best of his abilities to bag four big wickets.

Captain Maxwell (25), David Miller (28), wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha (25) and Axar Patel (0) were the victims of the 29-year-old Maharashtra-born bowler.

England fast bowler Chris Woakes struck late to claim two wickets in the shape of Mohit Sharma (10) and Varun Aaron (4) in the last over.

New Zealand all-rounder Colin de Grandhomme, who replaced injured Chris Lynn in the KKR squad, took the scalp of KXIP opener Hashim Amla (25) to mark a good start.

Spinners Sunil Narine and Piyush Chawla dismissed Marcus Stoinis (9) and Manan Vohra (28) respectively to help the pacers. 

Click here for more stories related to IPL 2017

A whopping 37,915 engineers left software major Infosys while its hiring plunged 65 per cent in fiscal 2016-17 thanks to increasing automation and thrust on artificial intelligence in its operations and projects.

According to the employee metrics the outsourcing firm disclosed on Thursday, 37,915 left the company and its subsidiaries worldwide during the fiscal under review (FY 2017) as against 34,688 in the previous fiscal (2015-16).

Though the city-based company hired (gross addition) 44,235 techies in FY 2017 as against 52,545 in FY 2016, the exodus led to the net addition slump to 6,320 for the year as against 17,857 in the previous year, a whopping 65 per cent decline.

Net addition for the fourth quarter (January-March) was 601, while it was negative or minus 66 in the third quarter (October-December) and 661 in Q4 year ago.

Hiring of laterals (seniors with 10 or more years of experience) also declined to 18,979 in the fiscal under review (FY 2017) from 24,719 in FY 2016.

The company's total headcount for FY 2017 increased 6,320 to 200,364 from 194,044 in FY 2016.

As a result, attrition for the parent company (Infosys) increased to 15 per cent in FY 2017 from 13.6 per cent in FY 2016 on annualised basis.

On consolidated basis, annualised attrition of the parent company and its subsidiaries worldwide increased to 19.2 per cent in FY 2017 from 18.7 per cent in FY 2016.

"Attrition declined sequentially to 13.5 per cent in fourth quarter from 14.9 per cent in third quarter in the parent company, reflecting our focus on better employee engagement," said Chief Operating Officer (COO) U.B. Pravin Rao in a statement.

"Utilisation rate also reached 84 per cent, which is the higher in Q4 over the past several years," recalled Rao.

Consolidated attrition also declined to 17.1 per cent in Q4 from 18.4 per cent in Q3.

Catholic priests should not drone on in their sermons but should try and keep them short, Pope Francis said on Thursday.

"Give short sermons if possible," Francis told priests during a homily as he celebrated Chrism mass in St Peter's Basilica. The mass traditionally begins Holy Week leading up to Easter.

The stage is set for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national executive meeting here over the weekend, during which the party leadership is expected to strategise on further expanding its organisational base.

During the April 15-16 meeting, the party would focus on expanding its base especially in states where its performance in the last Lok Sabha and Assembly polls had been dismal.

The BJP leaders are upbeat about making its presence felt in Odisha and other areas, which were earlier seen as weak for the saffron outfit.

Following its spectacular performance in the panchayat polls in Odisha, the party is to strategise to dethrone the Naveen Patnaik government, which is in power since last 17 years, said a BJP leader.

The BJP leadership is also likely to deliberate on preparing a road-map for the 2019 general elections.

"We want to strengthen our base in Odisha as well as other states. The party will deliberate on this," said Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah, Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states and several senior party leaders would attend the executive meeting.

Modi is to felicitate members of 16 families associated with the Paika rebellion of 1817 during the meet. Paika rebellion is considered as the first armed mutiny against the British rule in the state. The move is expected to boost the BJP's standing in the state.

The capital city has been decked up for the meet with roads getting a facelift and hoardings, banners and flags seen all over.

Meanwhile, security has been beefed up across the city ahead of the two-day visit of the Prime Minister.

"A total of 100 platoons of police and two companies of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) will be deployed in the city. Besides, four IG rank officers will be in-charge of the five sectors in which Bhubaneswar has been divided for security reasons," said Director General of Police (DGP) K.B. Singh.

Special Protection Group (SPG) officers will also provide support to the four IG rank officers to provide security cover to the Prime Minister, he added.

The security personnel on Thursday carried out a dress rehearsal of the Prime Minister's convoy from the city airport to Raj Bhavan and to Janata Maidan, where the executive meeting will be held.

Taking strong umbrage to a CBSE text book holding "36-24-36 shape of females to be the best", Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar on Thursday directed action in the matter.

A portion of the book on health and physical education meant for Class 12 reads: "36-24-36 shape of females is considered to be the best".

Published by Delhi-based New Saraswati House, the book says that "even Miss World and Miss Universe beauty pageants take the 36-24-36 body shape into consideration while judging their contestants".

There has been outrage after the text book's contents went viral on social media.

Javadekar said officers concerned have been told to take appropriate action and said the government will ensure that CBSE schools follow books published only by the NCERT.

"Such sexist contents are absolutely unacceptable and highly condemnable. This is not a NCERT book, rather from a private publisher. That is why we have been asking CBSE schools not to use books by private publishers," he told the media here.

"Officers have been instructed to take take strict action against those behind this textbook," he said, adding the ministry may seek criminal action against the author and publisher of the book.

Unhappy even after meeting the President and five central ministers, Tamil Nadu farmers protesting in New Delhi for a month on Thursday expressed their anger against the BJP.

The farmers, who have been protesting at Jantar Mantar here, have been demanding loan waivers, drought relief packages and formation of a Cauvery management board to resolve their irrigation issues.

"The BJP is completely against farmers and is pro-corporate. They can waive of lakhs of crores of loans of the corporates but not farmers," said P. Ayyakannu, President of the National-South Indian Rivers Linking Farmers Association.

Tamil Nadu is facing a severe drought. In January, the state government declared Tamil Nadu drought-hit after over 100 farmers allegedly committed suicide.

Claiming that nothing has grown over 29 lakh hectare in Cauvery delta since 2016 due to lack of water, the protesting farmers said the BJP and its central government were apathetic to their suffering.

"Only President Pranab Mukherjee seemed serious about our issues, but none of the five ministers we met seemed really concerned," he said.

"Worse is that the Prime Minister is not even ready to meet us though we farmers stripped ourselves outside his office. Our action was meant to say we have nothing… We will continue our agitation."

The farmers had met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley thrice. He gave them assurances but the farmers don't see their demands being met yet.

Earlier this month, the central government approved Rs 1,712 crore under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) for Tamil Nadu.

But the state government has sought a relief package of Rs 40,000 crore.

In a bid to promote the ‘Make in India’ drive, the Union Government has announced increasing the target of domestic procurement by public sector companies working in the oil and gas sector.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which on Thursday approved incentivising domestic production by providing purchase preference to oil and gas service providers who meet local procurement targets.

The new policy would be applicable for five years and a steering committee would be constituted to oversee its implementation and carry out annual review, said Petroleum Secretary K D Tripathi.

He said the government intends to have different slabs under local content requirement for different goods and services in the upstream and downstream segments. And the targets would be increased subsequently to keep the momentum going. He added that the targets would progressively increase to keep the momentum going.

“The service provider who meets local content targets and whose quoted price is within 10 per cent of lowest price bid, would be eligible for 10 per cent purchase preference for a stipulated portion of the purchase order, on matching the lowest price,” Mr Tripathi said.

The policy will apply to all public sector enterprises and their wholly owned subsidiaries, joint ventures that have 51 per cent or more equity by one or more public sector enterprises, the Petroleum Ministry said.

TV-film producer Ekta Kapoor is the queen of long-running family soap operas but with her digital foray, she is planning to come up with shows that are edgy as she believes “non-offensive, non-questionable” content is not always good.

The 41-year-old media mogul, who was in the capital to discuss her new foray into the online streaming service called ALT Balaji, says it is time individual preferences of a viewer are addressed.

“Hopefully, ALT has something for everyone. There is a big world between Narcos and Naagin and we hope to capture that. Overall non-offensive or non-questionable content is not always a good thing. We started with Love Sex aur Dhoka, which was completely in contrast to whatever we have been doing before.

“Last year we did Udta Punjab and Naagin in the same stretch. These were two types of content that cannot be ever thought to made and promoted under the same banner. That's what we want ALT Balaji to stand for.”

Ekta says it is a relief to do something that is limited to just 20 episodes after being a part of long-running soap operas.

“There are maximum 20 episodes in one web series. Most of the shows have ten episodes and this is my biggest source of relief and enjoyment. I'm getting a chance to do a 20 episode-show for the first time in my life. I used to feel tired doing 1,000 episodes per show,” Ekta told reporters here.

The producer is not worried about the competition from international online streaming services like Netflix and Amazon, which are gaining popularity in the Indian market.

Ekta feels the digital space is the future as there are shows that people would prefer to watch alone rather than with their families.

“This medium is special as it has stories which are more relatable to us as people. Every person has individual tastes. They won't be comfortable watching the type of shows they like with their parents or family. They would prefer to watch some content alone. Even today, I get embarrassed if a kissing scene comes up if my father is sitting around,” Ekta says.

ALT Balaji plans to bring out 35 shows in Hindi in its first year targeting the audience demographic of 19-30 years, while also launching 5-6 shows in regional languages like Tamil, Bengali and Gujarati.