The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas today announced a dedicated grievance redressal platform ~ E-SEVA ~ for addressing petroleum and gas related complaints.

The portal E-SEVA is an integrated grievances redressal platform across social media for addressing all oil & gas-related service issues. It will be a single point interface for all customers to reach out to the government for addressing their feedback or grievances, said the Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr Dharmendra Pradhan.

To begin with, the portal would serve as a single point for queries on Twitter and Facebook, later other social media platforms would also join, said a senior officer of the Ministry. For quick intervention and resolution of complaints, consumers can send their feedback or queries with compulsory information (Full Name, Consumer ID, Location, Service Agency, Petrol Pump / Depot / Company Details), he said.

Union Health Minister J P Nadda today introduced the Mental Healthcare Bill, 2016, in the Lok Sabha that would make provision to protect, promote and fulfill the rights of persons suffering from mental illness.

The Bill, which was cleared last year by the Rajya Sabha, is crucial as it would not only decriminalise suicide, but also ensure right to better healthcare for people suffering from mental illness.

Introducing the Bill, Mr Nadda said it was progressive and patient-centric. “The purpose of the bill is to give treatment at community level….the society should give an environment in which we should see maximum mental healthcare is community based,” the minister said.

Later initiating the debate in support of the Bill, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said mental patients are treated worse than animals and they are termed ‘lunatics’. He said it is time to replace the term ‘mentally ill’ with ‘person with mental illness’ and ensure self respect and dignity to such people. He said educational institutions should also hire professionals to improve the mental health of students. Half the medical students in India suffer from depression and anxiety, Tharoor added.

BJP member, Dr Heena Gavit, called the Bill a revolutionary one and said it would give dignity to people suffering from mental illness. She also lauded the decriminalisation of suicide. The discussion on the Bill would continue on Monday as it remained inconclusive.

A suicide bomber was killed in a blast in front of a police box near Dhaka airport on Friday, media reports said.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (Airport) Ruhul Amin Shagor said a suicide bomber attempted to attack the police box overlooking the airport intersection at 7 p.m., Dhaka Tribune reported.

He confirmed the attacker has been killed, and no other casualties were reported.

The attacker, an adult man dressed in jeans and a shirt tried to blow up the outpost with explosives in his pocket or tied around his waist. 

According to a witness, the bomber was not carrying anything in his hands, but looked like a drug addict.

Talking to media, Police Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia said the attacker, in his early 30s, was also hauling a luggage which is being inspected by the Bomb Disposal Unit.

He also said it may not have been a suicide attack, but a lethal slip when the terrorist was spooked out and detonated the charges early.

The suicide attack comes exactly a week after another bomb attack on the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) camp — an anti-crime, anti-terrorism unit of the Bangladesh Police — at the city's Ashkona area, barely half a kilometre away from the airport blast site.

Disadvantaged regions like Bihar and Jharkhand require a strategy for development that can harness productive forces of the economy and not just blindly follow path of industrialisation, President Pranab Mukherjee said on Friday.

"We need to realise that for seriously disadvantaged regions like Bihar and Jharkhand, a strategy of development requires policy makers to unleash the productive forces of economy, and not just unquestionably follow a path of industrialisation, as was done by countries or regions which had developed earlier," Mukherjee said.

The President said that the enormous gap between the potential and reality of development in Bihar and Jharkhand, the former having plenty of fertile land and the latter endowed with abundant mineral resources, had attracted the attention of many scholars.

"Despite the region being a land of rich mineral resources and fertile soil, relative economic progress and development could not take place," Mukherjee observed while inaugurating a conference here organised by the Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI).

"It is here that one requires directed research which can identify appropriate policies that best suit the interests of the regions," he said. 

He said one should consider the immense potential of human development for promoting economic development in regions like Bihar and Jharkhand. 

The international experience shows that for specially disadvantaged regions, human development could be an alternative development strategy, he said. 

Mukherjee, however, observed that of late, both states had started doing well, particularly Bihar had shown the way in implementation of many social development schemes. 

"The growth performance of Bihar's economy has been steady over the past one decade, registering an annual growth rate at 10.5 per cent. This is a remarkable achievement," he said.

The President said that while Bihar still remained a largely agricultural state, Jharkhand was "slowly transforming itself into an economy with larger share of service sector".

The Meghalaya Assembly on Friday passed the annual state Budget of over Rs 13,048 crore for the year 2017-2018 by a voice vote.

On March 15, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma had presented a Rs 1,236-crore deficit Budget for 2017-18, which is around 3.8 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product.

Sangma had estimated the total expenditure at Rs 12,873 crore during 2017-18, of which revenue expenditure was estimated at Rs 10,648 crore and capital expenditure at Rs 2,225 crore. Excluding repayment of loans, the estimated total expenditure would be Rs 12,538 crore

The Budget also indicated that interest payment during 2017-18 was estimated at Rs 589 crore and pensions at Rs 730 crore.

For 2017-18, the total revenue has been projected at Rs 2,072 crore, of which the state's own tax revenue estimated at Rs 1,559 crore and state's own non-tax revenue estimated at Rs 513 crore.

Sangma, who presented the last Budget of the Congress-led Meghalaya United Alliance government as the state goes to polls next year, accorded the highest importance to community and rural development, allocating Rs 1,731.57 crore and earmarked a plan outlay of Rs 909.94 crore for the Education Department.

An amount of Rs 712.80 crore was allocated for infrastructure like roads and bridges, Rs 420.93 crore for Health and Family Welfare, and Rs 285.94 crore for Agriculture and Horticulture.

Pledging a development outlay of Rs 9.80 crore for Information and Public Relations, the Chief Minister proposed to constitute a Meghalaya Media Society to look into the welfare of journalists, besides proposing a new scheme to provide accommodation facility for the senior accredited journalists of the state. 

The Indian Women's Press Corps (IWPC) has urged Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E. Palaniswami to punish those harassing Chennai-based journalist Sandhya Ravishankar for writing about sand mafia.

The grouping said Ravishankar was facing "threats and abuses" and the IWPC was "deeply disturbed by the harassment".

"We condemn the trolling and pressure put on her by interested parties so that she does not raise the issues of illegal mining and corruption," the IWPC said in a statement on Friday. 

It urged the Chief Minister to protect the journalist, have the matter probed and "ensure that the culprits behind her harassment are identified and punished. 

"The state should ensure her safety and well being as also her right to continue to work fearlessly and independently," said the letter to the Chief Minister from IWPC President Sushma Ramachandran.

 State Bank of India (SBI) chief Arundhati Bhattacharya has been ranked 26th in the Fortune's top 50 greatest leaders. She is the only Indian corporate leader in the list.

"Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairman, SBI, has been ranked 26th in the fourth edition of Fortune's World 50 Greatest Leaders list. By this, Arundhati Bhattacharya becomes the only Indian corporate leader to be featured in the list," the public lender said in a statement here on Friday.

Bhattacharya is the first-ever woman to chair the country's largest lender. 

The leaders in this Fortune list excel at leading effectively in today's challenging business environment.

Bhattacharya has steered the SBI through an ongoing battle with bad loans, surprise demonetisation move and will be overseeing the upcoming six-bank merger, the statement said. 

"She has led the 211-year-old institution into the digital era. She has been well recognised and granted a rare extension in her three-year term at the SBI," it said.

 State Bank of India (SBI) chief Arundhati Bhattacharya has been ranked 26th in the Fortune's top 50 greatest leaders. She is the only Indian corporate leader in the list.

"Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairman, SBI, has been ranked 26th in the fourth edition of Fortune's World 50 Greatest Leaders list. By this, Arundhati Bhattacharya becomes the only Indian corporate leader to be featured in the list," the public lender said in a statement here on Friday.

Bhattacharya is the first-ever woman to chair the country's largest lender. 

The leaders in this Fortune list excel at leading effectively in today's challenging business environment.

Bhattacharya has steered the SBI through an ongoing battle with bad loans, surprise demonetisation move and will be overseeing the upcoming six-bank merger, the statement said. 

"She has led the 211-year-old institution into the digital era. She has been well recognised and granted a rare extension in her three-year term at the SBI," it said.

The Shiv Sena on Friday appeared sympathetic to its MP Ravindra Gaikwad – charged with assaulting an Air India staffer – saying while it did not endorse his action it wanted to know why the situation was allowed to escalate to this level.

"The speed at which our party MP has been banned from flights, if Air India had similarly ordered an improvement in its services, it would have been better," Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP and spokesman Sanjay Raut said.

Raut said although his party had no agenda for violence, "if provoked the party would hit back appropriately.

"The question does not concern only one MP, but the common masses in the country also who have to suffer due to the service of Air India," Raut said, appearing to defend Gaikwad.

He alleged that when passengers were being "looted" in airports at Mumbai and New Delhi, why such promptness was lacking on improving Air India's service.

Raut said rather than the party taking any action, it would let the law would take its own course in the matter.

Meanwhile, Harshal Pradhan, the media advisor to Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray, said Gaikwad had submitted his explanation to the party, but declined to reveal details.

He termed the issue as "minor" but blown out of proportions by the government to divert attention from major issues like farmers suicides in the country.

The party has been under fire from all quarters with Mumbai Congress President Sanjay Nirupam demanding that the Sena should sack its "goonda MP".

Osmanabad MP Gaikwad admitted to having assaulted an Air India staffer "25 times" with his slipper and even tried to push him out of the aircraft in Delhi on Thursday.

Earlier, Air India and all private airlines blacklisted Gaikwad and cancelled his tickets, leaving him with limited travel options to and from New Delhi and his constituency.

A teenage boy, along with a friend, was arrested for allegedly strangling his mother as she refused to heed his demand for extra pocket money in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district, police said on Friday.

"Rahul Haldar (17), a resident of Diamond Harbour in South 24 Parganas district, first sedated his mother by giving her sleeping pills. When the woman became drowsy, Haldar strangled her with a nylon rope with the help of his friend, Suman Sanki (17)," a senior officer from Diamond Harbour police station said.

"Both the boys were apprehended and shifted to the Juvenile Justice Board in South 24 Parganas district's Garia," the officer said.

According to police, the boy was addicted to marijuana and often fell out with his mother over extra pocket money.

"The boy confessed he was addicted and bore a grudge against his mother as she did not give him extra pocket money. The boy and his friend have been slapped with charges of murder and conspiracy, under various sections of the IPC," the officer added.

Concerned over the ”decline in productivity of Parliament due to disruption of sittings,” an Akali Dal member, Mr Naresh Gujral, today introduced in the Rajya Sabha a private member’s Bill providing that both Houses of Parliament have four sessions in a year, in place of the existing three, running for not less than a total of 100 days.

The Bill titled “The Parliament (Enhancement of Productivity) Bill, 2017,” says the additional Special Session shall be of minimum 15 days, and should deliberate on at least two most urgent matters of public importance, and no other business, including government legislative business, shall be conducted.

To compensate for the number of hours “unutilised” due to disruptions, the Bill proposes extending each session by as many hours at the sitting” as were adjourned due to disruptions. Explaining this, the Bill says a “productive” day in Parliament shall be of at least seven hours. The number of adjourned hours can be converted into the additional days for which the Houses should sit, after adjusting the hours when the Houses sit beyond seven hours.

Normally, the Bill says, the Government “overshadows” the selection of the topics for discussion in Parliament. To avoid logjams and to prevent total washout of sessions, the Bill suggests that the Opposition should also get “equal and adequate voice in Parliament”.

The Bill suggests that the agenda for the Special Session may be decided by all political parties represented in each House of Parliament, and each party can submit at least two matters of intended discussion for the session to the Business Advisory Committee (BAC).

“The parties may also seek suggestions from public to decide the subject matter for discussion,” the Bill says. The BAC shall allocate “at least half of the total speaking time to the members of the non-ruling parties, irrespective of the strength of the parties in the House,” the Bill says.

Since the Bill advocates adding one more session of Parliament each year, its Financial Memorandum says “the Bill, if enacted, would involve expenditure from the Consolidated Fund of India,” and estimates it to be Rs 120 crores every year.

Defining “disruption,” the Bill says it means shouting of slogans, coming to the well of the House, and such other action as may be specified by the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Rajya Sabha Chairman.

Explaining the Objects and Reasons of the Bill, Mr Gujral says in the Bill that Parliament used to sit for 120 days in the Fifties. Over decades, the number of days got reduced to 70 to 80 days. The disruptions not only delayed the decision-making but are making people lose “faith in the relevance of the supreme law-making institution”.

Reflecting deep concern and conviction of MPs, the private member Bills are non-official legislative proposals on important issues, and they rarely get approved by Parliament, despite some historic exceptions. The Bills, discussed over the week-end on Fridays, generate lively debates, but are withdrawn in the end by their movers on assurances that the Government would keep their sentiments in view while proceeding on the issue in future.

The decision to pick Hindutva leader Yogi Adityanath as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh shows the BJP thinks "nothing stands in the way of transforming a secular republic into a Hindu state", the New York Times said on Friday.

In a hard-hitting editorial, the daily said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had played a cagey game since taking power in 2014, appeasing his party's hard-line Hindu base while promoting secular goals of economic growth.

"Despite worrying signs that he was willing to humour Hindu extremists, Modi refrained from overtly approving violence against the nation's Muslim minority," the editorial said.

But Modi, it said, finally revealed his hand. 

"Emboldened by a landslide victory in Uttar Pradesh, his party named a firebrand Hindu cleric, Adityanath, as the state's leader. 

"The move is a shocking rebuke to religious minorities, and a sign that cold political calculations ahead of national elections in 2019 have led Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party to believe that nothing stands in the way of realizing its long-held dream of transforming a secular republic into a Hindu state."

The Times said Adityanath had made a political career of demonizing Muslims, he had defended a Hindu mob that murdered a Muslim man in 2015 on suspicion that his family was eating beef, and had said Muslims who balked at performing a yoga salutation to the sun should "drown themselves in the sea".

The daily said Uttar Pradesh, home to more than 200 million people, badly needed development, "not ideological showmanship". 

"The state has the highest infant mortality rate in the country. Nearly half of its children are stunted. Educational outcomes are dismal. Youth unemployment is high."

While Adityanath has made the right notes, the daily said his appointment showed that Modi sees no contradiction between economic development and a muscular Hindu nationalism that feeds on stoking anti-Muslim passions. 

"Modi's economic policies have delivered growth, but not jobs. India needs to generate a million new jobs every month to meet employment demand.

"Should Adityanath fail to deliver, there is every fear that he – and Modi's party – will resort to deadly Muslim-baiting to stay in power, turning Modi's dreamland into a nightmare for India's minorities, and threatening the progress that Modi has promised to all of its citizens."

The West Bengal Health Regulatory Commission, set up to monitor private hospitals, will start functioning within a week and a website will be in place for lodging online complaints, one of its members said on Friday.

"It will start working in a week. We will also consider online complaints," panel member M.L. Saha said.

Senior Calcutta High Court Justice Ashim Kumar Roy will officiate as chairman of the 13-member high-powered commission that has the status of a civil court. It is empowered to issue summons in case of a dispute.

Consumer Affairs Department Secretary Anil Verma will be its Vice-Chairman.

Apart from the Chairman and the Vice-Chairman, the other 11 members include renowned doctors, a representative of nurses, Director of Medical Education, a nominee of Health Department, and two police officers. Politicians have not been included.

The commission, was proposed to be set up through The West Bengal Clinical Establishments (Registration, Regulation and Transparency) Bill, 2017. 

The Act, passed by the assembly on March 3, aims to bring in transparency, end harassment of patients and check medical negligence in private hospitals and nursing homes. 

All other private medical set-ups – irrespective of whether they are registered or not — come under its ambit.

The penal measures range between compensation and scrapping licences of erring physicians/hospitals. 

The commission may also put the offender behind bars for up to three years. It can also order trying the offender under the Indian Penal Code, including under sections pertaining to culpable homicide in case a patient dies due to severe negligence.

No FIR has been registered in the assault case of the Air India staffer by a Shiv Sena MP, Ravindra Gaikwad, according to the AI Cabin Crew Association.

The Association lamented that the Chairman and Managing Director of Air India, Ashwani Lohani, was not present in support of the staff.  

"The CMD should have himself gone and asked the police to file an FIR," said KVJ Rao, General Secretary of Air India Cabin Crew Association. Two complaints have been lodged by the police on the statements of the airport manager and the staffer. "Statements of both the airport manager and the staffer were recorded by the police and two complaints were registered. One of the complaints was related to the assault on the staffer and the other was of delaying the Air India flight," said Rao.   

He said the two complaints have not yet been converted into an FIR. "The police gives lots of excuses when a VIP is involved for not filing an FIR," said Rao. The contractual employee, a part of the commercial staff, was in the airport premises. "He went inside the flight to ask the MP to deboard as the flight did not have a business seat. That is when the altercation took place. And the MP beat him up," said Rao.  

Air India in an official statement yesterday said two FIRs have been filed in the case. One FIR is for assaulting the employee and the second is for delaying the flight for 40 minutes.

 Rao said there is a Supreme Court ruling that in cognizable offences, the police has to file an FIR. "In the Lalita Kumari Vs Union of India case, the SC has given this ruling," he said. 

He also cited the case of three air hostesses with Air India, who were abused in 2009 on a New York-Mumbai flight. "Even then it was the air hostesses who had to personally file the FIR. The whole crew including the Commander had gone to file the FIR," said Rao. 

According to a source in Air India, there are 250 retired employees working on the staff of Air India as contractual employees. Sukumar, the 61-year-old contract employee, is likely to have been a retired Air India employee. 

To reduce liabilities on the airline, the recruitment policy of Air India has shifted to hiring employees on contract. At present there are 1800 contractual cabin crew and 980 contractual pilots. "Contractual employees are also part of the staff of the airline. They must be treated at par," said Rao. 

Spanish tennis star Garbiñe Muguruza got off to a rocky start at the Miami Open and currently trails American Christina McHale 0-6, 2-3 in second-round action, although a rain delay may have given her a new lease of life.

The world No. 6 double-faulted four times in the first set of Thursday's match and was also unable to make any impression on the service games of the 46th-ranked McHale, who won 16 of her 19 service points en route to the "bagel," reports Efe.

The 2016 French Open champion was better on return at the start of the second set, although she lost her serve two more times and was down a service break when heavy rain postponed the action until Friday.

McHale's domination of the baseline rallies was reflected in the players' winning percentage on second-serve points, with the American capturing 80 percent of those points and Muguruza just 33 percent through a set and a half.

That match at this elite hard court event will resume early Friday afternoon on Stadium court after the completion of a contest pitting Romanian world No. 5 Simona Halep against promising Japanese teenager Naomi Osaka. 

Scientists have identified a vitamin that plays a key role in repairing damaged DNA and may lead to the development of a drug that can reverse ageing, fight cancer as well as help in space travel.

The study, published in the journal Science, identified how a vitamin called NAD+ — naturally present in every cell of our body — was regulating the interactions that control DNA repair.

Treating mice with a NAD+ precursor, or "booster", called NMN improved their cells' ability to repair DNA damage caused by radiation exposure or old age.

"The cells of the old mice were indistinguishable from the young mice, after just one week of treatment," said lead author David Sinclair, who is a professor at University of New South Wales in Australia.

The findings may lead to drugs to treat cancer, Alzheimer's, protect astronauts from radiation during their various missions to space, as well as mitigate any effects of DNA damage for frequent flyers, the researchers said.

In addition, scientists have established that NAD+ could be useful for treating various diseases of ageing, female infertility and also treating side effects of chemotherapy.

Human trials of NMN therapy will begin within six months.

"This is the closest we are to a safe and effective anti-ageing drug that's perhaps only three to five years away from being on the market if the trials go well," Sinclair added. 

When doing the quintessential heroine roles didn't work in her favour, Taapsee Pannu decided to turn the tables with heroic characters in content-driven films.

She says those who were once her detractors have now stood in line to get her dates and her time for double the price.

At the India Today Woman Summit and Awards here on Friday, Taapsee spoke fearlessly about the ways of the film industry towards women.

She narrated: "I have been asked to slash my rates because the hero's last film didn't do well and the budget was limited, or the producer's last film didn't do well. So, I was told, 'Either you walk out or slash your price'.

"How I worked around it was when I started with Hindi films, I made sure I am going to do whatever it takes to be not-replaceable. How?

"Have a name for yourself, do the kind of films you want to and do it in a way that they have no other way but to notice. And when you go back, the same people will wait in a queue to get you at double the price probably."

It's a reality that happened with Taapsee.

"Without taking names, tables have turned and I have gone to the same people at double the price, and they stood in a line waiting for my dates, only because I decided to fight like a girl," added the actress, unwilling to "compromise" for anything to get what she wants.

Her sentiment, she said, were in tune with the event presenter Vivel's campaign 'Ab Samjhauta Nahin', which inspires women to question the social fabric that tends to stereotype and at times impede their lifestyle choices.

Taapsee says now she just smiles at the people who first turned her down.

"I am warm and welcoming, and I have even invited them to my next film's premiere," she said, ahead of the release of her new film "Naam Shabana".

Having featured in a string of films in Tamil and Telugu, Taapsee's noticeable role in Hindi films came with Baby. Naam Shabana is a spin-off of that 2015 film, and Taapsee will be seen in some daring action scenes.

In between, she has garnered acclaimed for "Pink" — the movie with a powerful message on how when women say no, they mean strictly no.

At this point, she says she won't mind doing "girly" roles.

"I like dressing up. Doing brave-girl, hard roles was my way of getting them to notice me. Now, they look at me and think, 'Oh, she's a pretty face, she can dress up too'," she quipped.

Also, she has overcome a "fear of being stereotyped".

"In Bollywood, they're seeing me as the girl next door, and I love that tag. But I'm trying to balance it out with my choice of roles. I'm really looking forward to playing a psycho-trippy woman, maybe with a split personality," she added.