Delhi Congress released its first list of 140 candidates for the upcoming civic polls on April 1 night.

Names of the rest of the candidates for the 272-member municipal corporations would be announced on Sunday, Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken tweeted.

Twenty-one out of the 140 candidates are sitting councillors.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, which is yet to declare its candidates, had announced that it would not give tickets to any of the sitting councillors.

The voting for the three municipal corporations — east, south and north Delhi — would be held on April 23 and the results would be declared on April 26.

The last date for filing nominations is April 3.

The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) administration has moved the Delhi High Court seeking direction to restrain its students from staging any demonstration within 100 metres of the administrative block.

The plea by the JNU administration was filed before Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva, who had recently asked the students to ensure the decibel levels were kept low during protests so that there was no disturbance in the functioning of the university.

The court had on March 17 modified its order restraining the students from protesting within 100 metres of the block and had directed that the protest, if any, should be peaceful and not block lanes or roads leading to the administrative block.

Alleging that the students of JNU have disobeyed the court's direction, despite assurance given by them before it, the plea has sought action against the ones who have violated the order.

The petition by JNU's counsel Monika Arora has sought "immediate indulgence of the court" while highlighting that on March 23 the students had staged a dharna, burnt the effigy of the Vice Chancellor right outside the administrative block and blocked entry and exit of university officials.

While seeking direction to the police to provide adequate security as and when requested, the plea sought direction that "no dharna/demonstration/street plays etc. will be allowed with or without noise making instruments within 100 metres of the administrative block" of the JNU.

The court has fixed the plea for hearing on April 12.

The court's earlier direction were issued on JNU's plea against the blocking of its administrative department by the agitating students.

Earlier, during hearing of the plea, the court had suggested the Jawaharlal University Students Union (JNUSU) President and the administration to have a meaningful dialogue among them, which may lead to resolution of several problems.

Angel Di Maria scored one goal and set up two more as Paris Saint-Germain thrashed Monaco 4-1 to lift the French League Cup for the fourth successive season.

Julian Draxler fired PSG ahead with just four minutes played in the final in Lyon, but Thomas Lemar levelled for Monaco before the half hour.

Argentine international Di Maria restored the lead for Unai Emery's side a minute before half-time and Edinson Cavani sealed a record seventh title for PSG with a clinical second-half brace.

"We've had some difficult times, but we haven't given up.

We've proved we're a great side. I think it's a deserved win and we can celebrate a bit," midfielder Marco Verratti told Canal+.

"In four years here we've won everything. We have a great team and this is a victory for everyone involved. The league title is our goal now and we'll give it our all until the finish."

After the shock of their Champions League last 16 collapse against Barcelona in the second leg, a third meeting with Ligue 1 leaders Monaco this season presented an opportunity for redemption for PSG.

Monaco's Radamel Falcao failed to shake off a nagging hip injury that has sidelined the Colombian since March 11, but Thiago Motta returned to the PSG line-up for his first start in six weeks.

PSG have dominated the competition in recent seasons — Monaco's last major trophy came when they won the 2003 final — and the holders stormed into an early lead albeit in controversial circumstances.

Verratti slipped Di Maria in behind the defence, with the Argentine electing to unselfishly slide the ball across for Draxler to tap home.

Replays showed the Germany international was marginally offside, although unlike in Tuesday's international between France and Spain where a video assistant referee was used in the country for the first time there was no such help available at Parc OL.

Towering Header

Monaco shrugged off that setback as Lemar replied with a fine equaliser on 27 minutes.

Bernardo Silva's chipped pass found Djibril Sidibe inside the area and the France full-back laid the ball back for Lemar to expertly sweep home from the edge of the box.

Cavani thought he had put PSG back in front as he reacted quickest to Thiago Silva's towering back-post header, but the Uruguayan's goal-bound flick was superbly kept out by Danijel Subasic before the Croat smothered the rebound.

However there was nothing the Monaco keeper could do as Di Maria stabbed low into the corner with half-time approaching after Draxler displayed remarkable balance to feed the unmarked Argentine.

Joao Moutinho fizzed a shot just over the crossbar following the interval, but PSG landed the fatal blow on 54 minutes as Cavani hammered past Subasic after a sublime floated cross from Verratti.

Benjamin Mendy went close to halving the deficit with a stinging effort, but Cavani should have netted his second and sealed the outcome when he steered wide from Di Maria's delivery from the left.

Substitute Irvin Cardona flashed a header just wide of Kevin Trapp's left-hand post, while Subasic dived at full-stretch to palm away a Di Maria effort with the outside of the boot.

But the Argentine combined with Cavani in the final minute to add a fourth for PSG as the Uruguayan powered home Di Maria's cross from close range to cap a convincing triumph.

The Indian women's team beat Uruguay 4-2 in the penalty shootout to begin their campaign in the Women's Hockey World League Round 2 on a winning note here.

Skipper Rani, Monika, Deepika and Navjot Kaur held their nerves to score in the tense penalty shootout that saw them through after the two sides were locked 2-2 at the end of the regulation time.

India got off to a good start and took the lead with skipper Rani scoring as early as in the sixth minute.

India held on to the lead till the third quarter but Uruguay struck their first goal in the 45th minute to equalise through Maria Teresa Viana Ache.

After a quick two-minute break before the final quarter began, a few key variations brought in by India chief coach Sjoerd Marijne saw Vandana Katariya convert a fine field goal in the 49th minute to take 2-1 lead.

But a defensive error in the striking circle in the 54th minute saw the Indian team concede a penalty stroke which was successfully converted by Uruguay's Manuela Vilar.

In the last six minutes, the Indian forwards made forays into the opposition striking circle but could not fetch a goal eventually leading the match to a penalty shootout.

With the experienced goalkeeper Savita producing a good show, India held their nerves to win 4-2 in the exciting penalty shootout.

The Supreme Court has dismissed a plea seeking to restrict lawmakers from practising any other profession, saying though the petitioner has a valid point the issue is beyond the realm of its jurisdiction.

"The prayers made in this petition do not fall within the realm of our jurisdiction under Article 32 of the Constitution of India. The writ petition is accordingly dismissed," said a bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud.

The bench observed that the petitioner in the matter has been affiliated to a political party and though he has a valid point, the court cannot frame policies in this regard.

"There are doctors who became IAS officers and engineers who are diplomats," the court told the petitioner, adding, "You also have a political affiliation."

The petitioner, advocate and BJP spokesperson Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, told the bench that the restriction imposed on judges and public servants against engaging in other professions should also be applied to the lawmakers.

"Today, I saw five MPs in the Supreme Court. They have come here after signing a register at 11 AM in Parliament," he told the court. To this, the bench said, "Your arguments make sense, but how can we frame policies?"

The petitioner had sought framing of a uniform policy to restrict the lawmakers from practising any other profession.

He had said in his plea that members of Parliament "must attend Parliament everyday and dedicate themselves full-time for the welfare of people" as they have a very important role in the federal system.

Education, healthcare and pilgrimages will continue to be out of service tax net even under the GST regime as the Centre is against giving any shock in the first year of the rollout by bringing in new services.

Besides making a strong case to the GST Council for not touching services that are out of tax net currently, the Centre will also pitch for keeping concessional rate for services like transport at the current level, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia told a in an interview.

The GST Council, headed by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and comprising representatives of all states, is scheduled to meet in Srinagar on May 18-19 to decide on rates various good and services will be charged in the new indirect tax regime that is being targeted for rollout from July 1.

Adhia said the endeavour would be to maintain the current tax incidence on a commodity or service at the same level in the new Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime.

GST will subsume central levies like excise duty on manufactured products and service tax on rendering of services as well as state VAT on sale, to make for a national sales tax that will be levied at the time of consumption of a product or service.

Adhia said the approach for the GST rollout would be to avoid any shock in the first year and any review for inclusion of a service or change in rate could be done in the second or third year of the implementation based on revenue realisation.

"Our entire purpose will be that we don't upset anything that is there now. We will try to do some smooth landing. So we will recommend to GST Council that whatever is the existing exemption list for service tax they should continue because we cannot do too many things at the same time," he said.

Currently, there are 17 items in negative list of services on which service tax is not levied.

On top of that there are over 60 services, like religious pilgrimage, healthcare, education, skill development, journalistic activities which are exempt from service tax.

Rajat Mohan, Director at tax consultant Nangia & Co, said: "GST is the biggest change that our country would see in last 50 years. I see that it was imperative that the government should continue exemptions on the current list of services which are tax neutral under the service tax regime." 

"I am ecstatic that there would be no levy of GST on services rendered by Government, Reserve Bank of India, public conveniences, educational institution, services relating to agriculture, transmission or distribution of electricity, renting of residential dwelling for use as a residence, burial, healthcare, specified schemes of general insurance etc," Mohan said.

Mohan, however, felt that this might lead to cascading effect of taxes, but by maintaining the status quo government has ensured that neither the consumer nor the small and medium-sized companies are not in a state of shock.

Asked if these services would be kept exempt from GST, Adhia said: "We presume so… We will recommend to the GST Council that whatever is in the exemption list they should continue in the first year." 

He said the main service tax rate will be standard rate of 18 per cent.

"But there may be items of services where abatement (concessional rate) is given for valid reasons. So those items, because there will be no provision for abatements (in GST), we will have to fit them in the rates closed to the present incidence," he said.

The GST Council has approved a four-rate tax structure of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent.

Adhia said transport sector, for example, currently gets abatement of 60 per cent and only 40 per cent of the present service tax rate of 15 per cent is being collected.

And so, the tax in the GST will be fixed in the closes bracket of 5 per cent, he said.

Asked if rates for certain services will go up because current tax rate is 15 per cent and the nearest bracket that would not upset the revenue collections is 18 per cent, he said, "some services may become a little more expensive." 

The exact ones that become expensive or cheaper will be decided by the GST Council, he said.

On the issue of crude oil, petrol, diesel, aviation turbine fuel (ATF) and natural gas being kept out of GST net for the time being by continuing with existing taxes of excise and VAT, Adhia said the GST Council decided that to give states comfort of revenue collections.

"For them it is some kind of a risk insurer. That 30 per cent income is already assured. Now 70 per cent (of products and services) they are putting it into the common kitty," he said.

States, he said, want to wait and see how much revenue is generated in the GST regime.

"So, after a year or two if they find that the buoyancy (in tax revenues) is good, they could very well like to bring it (petroleum products) in GST," Adhia added.

Retirement fund body EPFO is likely to raise this month the wage ceiling for mandatory coverage under its social security schemes to Rs.25,000 a month, from Rs.15,000 at present, bringing additional 1 crore formal sector workers in its net.

The proposal to increase the wage ceiling was listed for the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation's trustees' meet held last on March 30.

“The proposal was deferred due to paucity of time and would be taken up at another meeting being planned for later this month,” EPFO trustee D L Sachdev said.

Sachdev, who also All India Trade Union Secretary, said: “The back of the envelop calculations indicate that this move could bring in additional over one crore formal sector workers under the net of EPFO scheme in view of recent hike of minimum wages by states like Delhi breaching Rs.15,000 mark.”

According to the proposal tabled by the EPFO in its apex decision making body the Central Board of Trustees' meet last on March 30, the hike in the wage ceiling would mean additional burden of about Rs.2,700 for the central government.

The central government currently contributes 1.16 per cent of total basic wages of the EPFO subscribers towards the Employees' Pension Scheme 1995 which put an annual burden of around Rs.6,750 crore.

“The central government is contributing Rs.6,700 crore for around four crore contributing members of EPFO at the wage ceiling of Rs 15,000 per month. Thus, the additional burden estimate of Rs.2,700 crore on ceiling hike indicates clearly that this move should bring over one crore additional formal sectors under the EPFO coverage,” Sachdev said.

CBT has already decided to reduce the threshold for coverage under the EPFO scheme for employers to 10 workers from existing 20 workers but the amendment to this effect has not been made in EPF & MP Act, he added.

Once the Act is amended for reducing the threshold, around 60 lakh additional formal sector workers would be covered, he said.
EPFO runs three social security schemes — Employees Provident Fund Scheme 1952, Employees Pension Scheme 1995 and Employees Deposit Linked Scheme 1976.

It was a hot and sunny Sunday morning in the national capital with the minimum temperature recorded at 23.9 degrees Celsius, five notches above the season's average.

Saturday's maximum temperature inched closer to 40 degrees Celsius and was recorded 39.4 degrees Celsius, six notches above the season's average. 

The maximum temperature is likely to hover around 38 degrees Celsius on Sunday.

Meanwhile, parts of north, west and central India recorded temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius on Saturday due to heatwave conditions.

While Churu was hottest with 42 degrees Celsius, Jaipur recorded 40.3 degrees Celsius, Bikaner sizzled at 41.2 degrees Celsius, Ahmedabad at 40.1 degrees Celsius, Barmer witnessed 41.4 degrees Celsius and Agra recorded 40.9 degrees Celsius on Saturday.

Indian Metrological Department predicted similar conditions on Sunday with temperatures expected to rise by a notch at several places.

Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan finally received his Nobel Prize in literature at a private ceremony in Stockholm, according to a statement posted online by the head of the Swedish Academy.

The presentation on Saturday came five months after the academy announced Dylan, 75, was the winner and more than three months after the formal award ceremony, which Dylan didn't attend because of "pre-existing commitments", CNN reported.

But Dylan was in Stockholm this weekend to perform concerts and the private ceremony was arranged.

However, it was not not known what Dylan had to say about the award. Swedish media reported no cameras were present at the ceremony. 

There were no comments made to the media by Dylan, or any member of the academy, either before or after the event.

Upon the announcement of Dylan's award in October, the academy's permanent secretary, Sara Danius, said Dylan "is a great poet in the English-speaking tradition", drawing parallels between his work and that of ancient Greek poets.

Saturday, she issued the following statement on Dylan's receipt of the award, reports CNN.

"Earlier today (Saturday) the Swedish Academy met with Bob Dylan for a private ceremony in Stockholm, during which Dylan received his gold medal and diploma. Twelve members of the Academy were present. Spirits were high. Champagne was had."

Dylan — the first songwriter to win a Nobel Prize — was acknowledged by the Swedish Academy "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition."
 

Individuals who find it hard to fall asleep must wake up to the health problems that poor sleep poses. Researchers have found that suffering from insomnia may put people at increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

Women with insomnia symptoms may have a slightly higher risk of cardiovascular and stroke events than men, according to the study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

"Sleep is important for biological recovery and takes around a third of our lifetime, but in modern society more and more people complain of insomnia," said the study's first author Qiao He from China Medical University in Shenyang, China. 

"Researchers have found associations between insomnia and poor health outcomes. But the links between insomnia and heart disease or stroke have been inconsistent," she said.

To find out, the authors analysed 15 prospective cohort studies with a total of 160,867 participants.

The current analysis assessed the association between insomnia symptoms and incidence of death from cardiovascular disease (acute myocardial infarction, coronary heart disease, heart failure), stroke, or a combination of events. 

Insomnia symptoms included difficulty initiating sleep, difficulty maintaining sleep, early-morning awakening, and non-restorative sleep.

"We found that difficulty initiating sleep, difficulty maintaining sleep, or non-restorative sleep were associated with 27 per cent, 11 per cent, and 18 per cent higher risks of cardiovascular and stroke events, respectively," He said.

The underlying mechanisms for these links are not completely understood, she added.

"Previous studies have shown that insomnia may change metabolism and endocrine function, increase sympathetic activation, raise blood pressure, and elevate levels of proinflammatory and inflammatory cytokines – all of which are risk factors for cardiovascular disease and stroke," she explained. 
 

Researchers have developed a process to turn grass into biofuel that could one day be used to power aircraft.

"Until now, grass has mainly served as feed for animals. But apart from that, grass can also be used as biofuel. Due to its vast abundance, grass is the perfect source of energy," said scientist Way Cern Khor from Ghent University in Belgium.

Khor investigated methods that can disintegrate and treat grass until it can be used as a fuel.

To improve its biodegradability, the grass was pretreated at first and then bacteria were added. They convert the sugars in the grass into lactic acid and its derivatives.

This lactic acid can serve as an intermediate chemical to produce other compounds such as biodegradable plastics (PLA) or fuels.

The lactic acid then was converted into caproic acid, which was further converted into decane which can be used in aviation fuel.

Although it might sound revolutionary, the scientists cautioned that there is still a lot to do before this becomes reality.

Right now the amount of biofuel that can be made from grass is still limited to a few drops. The current process is very expensive, and engines should be adapted to this new kind of fuel.

"If we can keep working on optimising this process in cooperation with the business world, we can come down on the price. And maybe in a few years we can all fly on grass!," Khor said in a statement released by Ghent University.
 

Former One Direction star Harry Styles officially confirmed his solo debut through an Instagram post.

The 23-year-old singer also revealed the release date of the single in the same post.

"SIGN OF THE TIMES // 7 APRIL 17 //," the caption read.

The post was accompanied by what appears to be artwork for the single.

Styles was long expected to be the first One Directioner to break off into his own project, before Zayn Malik unexpectedly quit in 2015 to embark on his own solo career.

Meanwhile, soon after the single is released, Styles will be taking his new music to the stage.

The country added over 5,400 MW of wind energy capacity in 2016-17, beating its own target of 4,000 MW.
“Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has set another record in the wind power capacity addition by adding over 5,400 MW in 2016-17 against the target of 4,000 MW,” the ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

According to the statement, this surpassed the previous higher capacity addition of 3,423 MW achieved in 2015-16.
The leading states in wind power capacity addition during 2016-17 were Andhra Pradesh (2,190 MW), Gujarat (1,275 MW) and Karnataka (882 MW).

Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Telangana and Kerala reported 357 MW, 288 MW, 262 MW, 118 MW, 23 MW and 8 MW wind power capacity addition respectively during 2016-17. These figures are tentative, the statement added.

During 2016-17, MNRE took various policy initiatives in the wind energy sector, including introduction of bidding, re-powering policy, draft wind-solar hybrid policy and new guidelines for development of wind power projects.

Leander Paes on Sunday won his first title of the season, combining with Canadian Adil Shamasdin to lift the Leon Challenger Tour tennis tournament's men's doubles trophy after a straight-set triumph here.

Paes, who was named a reserve in India's Davis Cup team for the Uzbekistan tie, and Shamasdin defeated Luca Margaroli (Switzerland) and Caro Zampieri (Brazil) 6-1 6-4 in the title clash at the USD 75,000 hard court event.

With this win, Paes clinched his 20th ATP Challenger title. Paes has now won at least one title every year for the past 26 years.

This was Paes' first final this season. He had earlier reached the semi-finals of Dubai Championships and Delray Beach Open.

The last title Paes won on the ATP World Tour was in 2015 when he triumphed at Auckland with South African Raven Klaasen.

Paes' last Grand Slam in the men's doubles event came in 2013 with Radek Stepanek at the US Open while in mixed doubles, he is still a force, winning three titles with Martina Hingis in 2015 and the French Open last season.

Paes was named a reserve along with Rohan Bopanna by new non-playing captain Mahesh Bhupathi, who picked four singles players in the squad.

Bhupathi has said that he may pick either Paes or Bopanna, if required, as a doubles specialist in the tie, slated for April 7-9 in Bengaluru.

HRD Ministry's ambitious project –National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF)–has garnered cold response from higher educational institutions this year with around 800 less participants than last year.

NIRF, a methodology adopted by the ministry to rank all institutions of higher education in the country, was launched in September 2015 with the first edition of the rankings being announced in 2016.

Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar will announce result of the second edition of the rankings tomorrow.

According to a source, 2,735 institutions have participated in this year's ranking as against last year's 3,563 participants.

However, there are over 800 new participants under the new category introduced from this year onwards, which includes institutions of medical and law.

The NIRF outlines a methodology to rank institutions across the country. The methodology draws from the overall recommendations and broad understanding arrived at by a Core Committee set up by MHRD, to identify the broad parameters for ranking various universities and institutions.

The parameters broadly cover "Teaching, Learning and Resources", "Research and Professional Practices", "Graduation Outcomes", "Outreach and Inclusivity" and "Perception".

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Christian Democratic Union party are drafting a concrete plan to combat fake news in the country and the potential effect it could have for the upcoming general elections in September.

Simon Hegelich, professor of political science at the Technical University of Munich and who was asked by Merkel to brief the CDU executive committee on the fake news movement, told Xinhua news agency that fake news became high priority for German politicians after the US elections.

Hegelich believes if fake news is distributed in high frequency, say, by social bots, trolls or algorithms, it could change public perception of a topic for a short amount of time, and that high-frequency fake news before the election or at times of strategical importance could be dangerous.

"Overtime, fake news contributes to an atmosphere of uncertainty and angst, which could help populist parties," said Hegelich.

Subsequently, Merkel and her party plan to deal with social bots and Internet trolls, which they deem as "the biggest threat to disseminating high frequency fake news".

To help combat open misinformation channels on social media sites, Merkel and her CDU party plan to give Facebook and other social platforms users more flexibility in registering complaints about fake news and any offensive content.

Any victims of fake news would also have the right to know who wrote the source material. To ensure the action plan is followed, any news portals who do not comply with the proposed terms will be fined — the current suggested amount is 500,000 euros.

Companies such as Facebook and Google have already started to clamp down on fake news. However, Facebook continues to be heavily criticised in Berlin, for failing to deal with racist hate speech on its news feeds.

In response, the social media giant is implementing new filtering tools tailored specifically for Germany, which include using a third-party fact checker.

Nadine Schoen, a senior CDU MP and one of the politicians directly involved in the CDU fake news action plan, does not think that companies like Facebook go far enough.

"The platform operators have simply not established the necessary mechanisms that allow for fake news stories to be investigated promptly and to help those affected find legal redress,"she said.

A fake news white paper published by news aktuell earlier this week showed that 68 per cent of Germans have come across fake news from traditional media or social media in the last 12 months, and 63 per cent of Germans use the Internet as a main source for the news.

The paper also raises concerns about the speed at which news can be shared on social media through likes and shares, without any barriers or application of traditional journalism standards. 

It warns that any solution to curbing fake news must be rigorously tested to be able to effectively control the pandemic.

The former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief and Shimla MLA, Suresh Bhardwaj on Saturday sought chief minister Virbhadra Singh’s resignation on moral grounds.

Talking to mediapersons, the BJP leader said, “Following Delhi High Court’s verdict quashing Virbhadra’s plea and also the CBI charge sheeting him in disproportionate assets (DA), he should step down on moral grounds as the prima facia case is against him. The CBI court will take cognizance of it.”

Bhardwaj, who is also the chief whip of the BJP Legislature Party, advised the CM that instead of looking for options of double bench or Supreme Court he should present himself before the CBI court.

“Whatever may be the court’s options, looking at his stature of being a longest serving chief minister and former union minister of steel he should step down till he comes clean out of it,” he said.

He said that although the Congress party has issued statement that party is standing firmly with Virbhadra Singh, however, it should instead make him resign to save the remaining grace of the party. Bhardwaj said that the BJP had even before the assembly elections and after the Congress government had assumed power raised corruption charges against him in DA case.

The BJP has already raised a state-wide campaign against 'corruption and mafiasim' against Congress government and will continue so, he added.

The music of political vendetta with the investigation agencies taking action under pressure of BJP that the Congress is harping is baseless as now the court has given a verdict vacating stay, he said.

The statement of CM showing faith in the judiciary should also pay heed to the Delhi HC quashing his plea. Replying to a question on early elections in the state, Bhardwaj said that the state will function as per the constitution.