The government on Thursday said it has formulated a scheme to provide incentives and concessions to loom weavers to utilise solar energy to increase production. Minister of State for Textiles Ajay Tamta said that for the development of the powerloom sector, the government has formulated the 'Solar Energy Scheme'.

“The scheme will come into force from April 1,” he said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

Under the scheme, the government will provide financial assistance and capital subsidy to the extent of 50 per cent, 75 per cent and 90 per cent of the basic cost of the solar energy plant to applicants. To a separate question, he said the government has conducted a study on the Scheme for Integrated Textiles Parks. The study has indicated that many of the parks have done well, but “the parks are yet to attain their planned investment levels due to lower occupancy rates”.

Actor Patrick Stewart has revealed that he uses medical marijuana daily to help him deal with symptoms of arthritis.

The veteran actor, 76, made the admission as he threw his support behind a Britain-first research initiative by Oxford University which aims to explore the benefits of cannabis-based medicines, reports dailymail.co.uk. 

The X-Men star said in a statement that he uses an ointment, spray and edible marijuana medicine to help him with his condition.

He said: "Two years ago, in Los Angeles, I was examined by a doctor and given a note which gave me legal permission to purchase, from a registered outlet, cannabis-based products, which I was advised might help the ortho-arthritis in both my hands.

"This, it would seem, is a genetically-based condition. My mother had badly distorted and painful hands. I purchased an ointment, spray and edibles. The ointment, while providing some relief from the discomfort, was too greasy to use during daytime and so I only use it at night.

"It helps with sleep as the pain was reduced. The spray, however, is much more usable and I spray my fingers and particularly my thumb joints several times a day."

The office of the Jute Commissioner has asked all the jute mills to submit documents or contracts of jute goods other than the government account after the overall supply of the jute industry to the government remained "unsatisfactory", an official said on Thursday.

The office issued Production Control cum Supply Order under the Jute and Jute Textile Control Order, 2016, to various jute mills for a total quantity of 10.22 lakh bales during November to March 2017. 

However, jute mills supplied 7.42 lakh bales as on Monday, leaving a backlog of around 2.80 lakh bales, 27.3 per cent of total quantity, the official said.

In addition to this backlog quantity, the jute mills are required to supply further quantity of around 2.95 lakh bales in the months of March and April, 2017.

In a letter to the jute mills on Wednesday, Deputy Jute Commissioner Dipankar Mahto said after reviewing the projected quantity and the trend of supply by jute mills, it was found that there would be a considerable shortfall in the supply of jute bags.

"In order to make arrangement for packaging materials, the central government has allowed dilution to the tune of five lakh bales of HDPE/PP bags so far. Even after granting dilution of five lakh bales, the overall supply performance of the jute industry remained unsatisfactory," the letter said.

The Jute Commissioner Office also alleged that jute mills were "selling jute sacking bags at a large scale in the open market" to realise "higher price" at the cost of supply to the government. 

"We feel that this is the most important reason for such under-performance of the jute industry," Mahto said in the letter.

"…jute mills are hereby directed under clause 9 of the Jute and Jute Textiles Order 2016 to henceforth submit copies of relevant papers/contract relating to all kind of sale of jute goods in the open market before effecting delivery to this office for permission," he added in the letter.

The office also alleged that jute industry committed supply 3.5 lakh bales in a month at the beginning of the season and later, it reduced it to three lakh bales.

"It has been observed that over the last four months, jute industry could never achieve the target of three lakh bales a month committed by the industry," he said, adding that the industry cannot justify the under-performance despite having large manufacturing capacity.

The office warned jute mills that if the "supply performance does not improve" immediately, "stern actions" will be initiated against the erring jute mills.

Union Health Minister JP Nadda on Thursday said the new Health Policy 2017 prioritises investments and financing of health services.

Nadda said that the policy seeks to reorient and strengthen the public health systems.

The policy looks at strengthening partnership with private sector. 

"As a crucial component, it proposes raising public health expenditure to 2.5 per cent of the GDP in a time-bound manner. The policy advocates a progressively incremental assurances based approach," said Nadda while making a policy statement in Parliament. 

Stating that the policy envisages providing larger package of assured comprehensive primary health care through the health and wellness centres, Nadda said the policy denotes important change from very selective to comprehensive primary health care packages.

These, he said, include care for major non-communicable diseases, mental health, geriatric health care palliative care and rehabilitation care services. 

"In order to provide access to financial protection, it proposes free drugs, free diagnostics, and free emergency and essential healthcare in all public hospitals," Nadda added. 

Lok Sabha on Thursday witnessed noisy scenes during the Question Hour as the opposition sought data on the rulling NDA's performance in last two-and-half years and the government hitting back with the "list" of Congress' "failure" in the past.

The vociferous scenes arose on the issue of power generation in the country when Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge asked Power Minister Piyush Goyal to inform the House the power projects initiated by the Modi government ever since it assumed office in May 2014 and how much power they were generating now.

Goyal said when he took charge of the Power Ministry two-and-half years ago, the power situation in the country was dismal, there were many incomplete projects and no electricity connection to seven crore households.

The reply was received with vociferous protests by the Congress members led by Kharge, as they sought statistics about the NDA government's performance and claiming that the Minister was avoiding a reply.

Amid heated exchanges, the Congress members also alleged that the government was trying to take credit for the power projects initiated by the previous governments and there was nothing to show about the Modi government's performance.

BJP MPs said they had prepared a "list" of the Congress' "failure" in the past.

Goyal forcefully contended that several stalled projects, including the 1200 MW Teesta hydro-electric project in Sikkim, Subansiri hydro-electric project in the Northeast, were started by the present government.

While the land acquisition process for new projects has been streamlined, electricity connection has been given to seven crore households in the country, he claimed.

Replying a supplementary, the Minister said in 2014, the total power generated from solar energy was 2631 MW which has now increased to 10,000 MW and the price of solar power has declined now to Rs.2.97 per unit.

The newly appointed Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Thursday initiated the process to lift the over four-month long economic blockade in the state, a BJP leader said.

The chief minister in a special meeting with cabinet ministers and several MLAs agreed to take up measures to lift the blockade, BJP Media Secretary L Basanta Sharma said in a release.

The move comes a day after N Biren Singh took oath as the first BJP chief minister of the state.

The United Naga Council (UNC) has blocked the national highways 2 and 37 since November 1, 2016 to protest the creation of 7 new districts by the then Congress government in October, 2016.

The BJP top brass set the tone for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls at its Parliamentary Party meeting on Thursday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking party leaders to reach out to youths. BJP chief Amit Shah said the parliamentary elections are the next big challenge for the party following its win in the recently concluded state polls.

The first BJP Parliamentary Party meeting after the announcement of the assembly polls results was an occasion for celebration, thanksgiving and mapping out the path ahead for the party.

Keeping up with its outreach to Dalits, a substantial chunk of whom is believed to have voted for the BJP in the Uttar Pradesh polls, it has decided to launch various week-long events from Bhim Rao Ambedkar’s birth anniversary on April 14.
The party will observe the week-long exercise in every panchayat and ward. It will also celebrate its foundation day on April 6 during which its leaders and workers will take part in ‘swachh Bharat’ campaign.

Modi asked party leaders to work during the week to give a boost to the use of BHIM app, a digital payment application, by educating the masses about it and helping them download it, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar told reporters after the meeting.

They were also asked to publicise Ambedkar’s works and contributions. The Prime Minister said youth should be made “ambassadors” of the Union government’s public welfare works and good governance.

Modi said youngsters depend on mobile phones more than on newspapers and TV channels to get information and stressed on the need to use this medium of communication to tap them. He also asked the party leaders to contact them while they are in Class XII.

Shah said the party’s win in the recently concluded assembly polls was an outcome of people’s vote against casteism, family rule and corruption and in favour of Modi’s leadership under which public welfare and good governance is the agenda.

Noting that the five-state elections were cited as the BJP’s biggest electoral challenge following 2014 Lok Sabha polls victory, he asserted that the next parliamentary elections in 2019 is the next big challenge and asked the party leaders to make preparation for it.

The BJP’s win underlined people’s support for the welfare schemes launched by the Central government and a brave decision like demonetisation, Shah claimed.

The BJP Parliamentary Party also passed a resolution thanking voters for their support and also party’s workers for their efforts under the leadership of Modi and Shah.

It also expressed hope that the BJP governments in these states will provide good governance and run public welfare programmes.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh proposed the resolution and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley supported it, which was passed unanimously, Kumar said.

The party leaders were also distributed ‘prasad’ of the Tirupati temple.

Union Health Minister JP Nadda on Thursday said the new Health Policy 2017 prioritises investments and financing of health services.

Nadda said that the policy seeks to reorient and strengthen the public health systems.

The policy looks at strengthening partnership with private sector.

"As a crucial component, it proposes raising public health expenditure to 2.5 per cent of the GDP in a time-bound manner. The policy advocates a progressively incremental assurances based approach," said Nadda while making a policy statement in Parliament.

Stating that the policy envisages providing larger package of assured comprehensive primary health care through the health and wellness centres, Nadda said the policy denotes important change from very selective to comprehensive primary health care packages.

These, he said, include care for major non-communicable diseases, mental health, geriatric health care palliative care and rehabilitation care services.

"In order to provide access to financial protection, it proposes free drugs, free diagnostics, and free emergency and essential healthcare in all public hospitals," Nadda added.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola cited a poor first half performance as the reason for his side's Champions League round of 16 exit at the hands of AS Monaco.

"Forty five minutes," Guardiola told BT Sport when asked what had gone wrong.

"We played an exceptional second half, but the first one we forgot to be there. We are a team that wanted to defend aggressive without the ball, with the ball, and the second half was much much better but it wasn't enough.

"The opening was there, and we will learn. We have a team with not a lot of experience in this kind of competition and it doesn't matter when we play home or away, at that level, when you concede," he added.

"But the second half we had the chances, we had the chances to score a lot, a lot of goals, and we didn't, and that's why we're out."

City went into the game 5-3 up from the first leg but fell to two quick strikes from the hosts in the opening 29 minutes. 

Leroy Sane pulled one back in the second half but Tiemoue Bakayoko headed home a free kick to send the Ligue 1 side through on away goals after a 6-6 verdict on aggregate.

Asked if porous defending was the reason behind the loss, Guardiola reiterated that the first session poor show resulted in their decline.

"That's not the reason why," he said. "Of course, we are out for that goal. But it's in the first half, in the first 45 minutes, we were like how we are. That is my only sad thing.

"You can play and the opponent can beat you, but we were not there at the right moment when we should be there."

Guardiola though backed his side to improve.

"I think we'll improve," he added. "We're going to try, of course, to try to improve but this competition is so demanding for the big teams.

"Sometimes you have to be lucky in that moment, but we were not so we will prepare now for the Premier League and the (FA) Cup and think about next season."

Completing his 5000 Test runs in flying colours, Australian skipper Steve Smith struck unbeaten 80 runs to help the visitors reach 194/4 at Tea on the first day of the third Test at JSCA International Stadium Complex, Ranchi on Thursday.

Putting an unbeaten 54-run partnership with Glenn Maxwell, Smith steadied Australian innings after early jolts on the opening day.

Indian spearhead Umesh Yadav was the only successful bowler in the session post Lunch as he dismissed Peter Handscomb cheaply for 19 runs, to celebrate his second wicket. Earlier the 29-year-old bowler dismissed Matt Renshaw (44) to bring India to the driver’s seat. 

Earlier on Lunch, the visitors were at 109/3 with Indian tweaker Ravindra Jadeja and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin having one wicket each their his kitty.

However, Indian captain Virat Kohli had to leave the session midway as he suffer a shoulder injury while fielding during the second Test session.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday said India is taking up the issue of fishermen with the Sri Lankan government through diplomatic channels.

She also added that the Sri Lankan government has assured probe into the killing of an Indian fisherman allegedly by the Lankan Navy.

Making a statement in the Lok Sabha, the External Affairs Minister said Sri Lanka has, however, denied the role of its navy in the killing.

"We have taken up the issue of our fishermen with Sri Lankan government to ensure that our fishermen are treated in a humane manner," the minister said.

"A fishing vessel from Tamil Nadu was fired upon allegedly by the Sri Lankan Navy, leading to the death of an Indian fisherman. The government took up the matter… and expressed our strong concern over the incident," she said.

"Our High Commissioner personally spoke to Sri Lankan Prime Minister and Navy commander on this matter. They maintained their patrol boats are not authorised to fire at Indian fishermen," the minister said.

Six fishermen from Thangachimadam in Ramanathapuram district were fishing near the Katchatheevu islet in the narrow sea dividing the two countries when they were fired at on the night of March 6, Indian officials said.

One fisherman, K. Britjo, was killed while another was injured. The others escaped without injuries.

February 2017 was the second warmest February in 137 years of modern record-keeping, scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York have found.

Last month was 1.1 degrees Celsius warmer than the mean February temperature from 1951-1980, according to the monthly analysis of global temperatures by the GISS team.

Overall, February 2016 was the hottest ever on record, at 1.3 degrees Celsius warmer than the February mean temperature, NASA said in a statement on Wednesday.

February 2017's temperature was 0.20 degree Celsius cooler than February 2016.

The monthly analysis is assembled from publicly available data acquired by about 6,300 meteorological stations around the world, ship- and buoy-based instruments measuring sea surface temperature, and Antarctic research stations.

The modern global temperature record begins around 1880 because previous observations did not cover enough of the planet. 

The Uttar Pradesh verdict underlines the need for "a clear cut alternative political and ideological platform to the BJP and the RSS", the CPI-M has said.

"This requires both a political alternative to the Hindu communal agenda and an alternative policy platform to the neo-liberal policies," said an editorial in the CPI-M journal "People's Democracy". 

"The muscular Hindu nationalism has to be countered by a firm secular, anti-imperialist nationalism. The victory of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh marks the continuation of the rightwing offensive which began in the country after the Lok Sabha election," the Communist Party of India-Marxist said.

"The fusion of neo-liberalism and Hindutva will get further cemented.

"This presages more attacks on secular values, freedom of expression and democratic rights. The growing authoritarianism will need to be resisted and fought back through united movements in all spheres." 

The Bharatiya Janata Party with its smaller allies won 325 of the 403 seats and polled 41.4 percent of the vote, just fractionally lower than the percentage polled in the Lok Sabha election.

"The fact that (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi and (BJP President) Amit Shah could replicate the sweep of the victory in the Lok Sabha election in both scale and intensity shows that the Hindu communal consolidation combined with a wide ranging caste coalition which was cemented with a communal nationalist appeal, has worked this time too," the CPI-M said.

"Modi continues to retain his appeal as a strong Hindu nationalist leader who can deliver on development. But this latter aspect is also coded with a majoritarian appeal."

It said that though the Samajwadi Party and the BSP were essentially regional parties of Uttar Pradesh, they have no regional identity and there was no regionalized politics in the state. 

"People of UP see themselves not as part of any distinct regional-state identity but in national terms. They are thus more susceptible to the national appeal.

"In this case, the communal message was embedded within a nationalist appeal.

"The main non-BJP parties – SP and BSP who have together more than 44 percent of the vote – had no counter to this communal-nationalist platform and to Modi's economic policies.

"The narrow caste identity politics and their competitive wooing of the Muslim vote could not match the overarching appeal of Hindu nationalism which cut across caste lines," the editorial said.

Actress-singer Amanda Seyfried has become the latest victim of Hollywood's hacking scandal after some of her nude and intimate photographs were leaked online.

Seyfried, who is expecting her first child with fiance Thomas Sadoski, has asked her legal team to take action against a website called Celeb Jihad after it published leaked, private images of her, reports aceshowbiz.

Seyfried's attorney sent a letter to Celeb Jihad on Wednesday.

In the letter, her attorney stated that the photographs featured the 31-year-old "either in various states of nudity" or "in intimate moments with her former boyfriend".

"These photographs are believed to have been leaked, wrongfully obtained by a third party or parties without Ms. Seyfried's knowledge or consent. Your unauthorised use and distribution of the Seyfried Photographs constitutes, at a minimum, copyright infringement, violation of Ms. Seyfried's right of privacy under applicable law, and tortious conduct under state and common law," the letter further read.

As per reports, her former boyfriend featured in the leaked photographs is Justin Long, whom she dated from 2013 to 2015.

Actress Mischa Barton is planning to take legal action after she became a victim of "revenge pornography".

It was reported earlier this week that a sex tape involving Barton was being shopped around at various porn outlets. 

Barton on Wednesday responded to those reports with the help of attorney Lisa Bloom during a press conference, saying that they will now take a legal action against the tape peddler, reports variety.com.

"I've been put through an incredibly hard and trying time. This is a painful situation, and my absolute worst fear was realised when I learned that someone I thought I loved and trusted was filming my most intimate and private moments, without my consent with hidden cameras," Barton said in a statement.

"Then I learned something even worse: that someone is trying to sell these videos and make them public. I came forward to fight this not only for myself but for all the women out there," she added.

Barton said that she is taking legal action to protect herself "from the pain and humiliation I've had to go through".

"No woman should have to go through this. It is a very hard thing to do but I am glad that I am finally standing up for myself," she concluded.

While she did not reveal the name of the person who is shopping the sexually explicit images, Bloom said that Barton has been granted an immediate domestic violence restraining order against the person. 

With an aim to tackle the parking problem in the state, the Haryana government has formulated a policy for use of vacant plots as temporary parking lots within the municipal limits.

Urban Local Bodies minister Kavita Jain said that as per the policy parameters, the size of the plot should not be less than 500 square meter. However, clubbing of plots of less than 500 square meter under the same ownership or different ownership, with an undertaking of consent, would be allowed to make the minimum area of 500 square meter provided the plots are adjacent and contiguous to each other.

Permission under the policy would be granted subject to the payment of a licence fee of Rs 100 per square meter per year. The parking charges or fee for the vehicles would be decided by the concerned municipality that is Municipal Corporation, Municipal Council and Municipal Committee. Any person who desires to utilise his plot for providing parking space would submit an application to the Commissioner or Executive Officer or Secretary along with the revenue documents of the plot, she added.

The Minister said that only surface parking would be allowed and the site should be leveled. No permanent construction would be allowed except washroom and ticket room or guard-room of not more than 50 square feet each. Permission issued should not be considered as change of land use or any of the permanent permissions. She said that it is only temporary permission for providing service of parking. It should be issued for one year and renewed every calendar year as per the need of the area. The renewal would be allowed subject to the payment of the licence fee paid for permission.

She said that the owners of the parking lot would ensure that there is no public inconvenience caused due to this facility otherwise permission can be revoked by the municipality at any time without any notice. The owner of the parking lot would ensure that no vehicle is parked on the road within the influence zone of the parking lots. The influence zone would be decided on the basis of the capacity of the parking lots. The owner of the plot would put up a sign board regarding use of the site and display the rates.

After facing a humiliating poll debacle in the recently held UP and Uttarakhand Assembly elections, voices within the Congress are now increasingly demanding a change in the leadership with party veteran Mani Shankar Aiyar demanding to bring change in the leadership.

"There is a need to bring change in Congress leadership," Aiyar said after the Congress failed to win a floor test in Goa.

Expressing deep concern over the poor performance of the party following a series of electoral setbacks, Aiyar said that the 131-year-old party is losing its relevance and shrinking national presence.

"Our position in national politics is shrinking," he said adding,“The general secretaries need to be young people and the old experienced people should be in the Congress working committee.”