German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday warned countries against going it alone, saying the only way to solve global problems is to work together.

"In a year in which we see unimaginable challenges we can either work together or retreat to our individual roles. I hope that we will find a common position," Merkel told a security conference audience including US Vice President Mike Pence in Munich.

Pence is expected to spell out what US President Donald Trump's "America First" policy means for the rest of the world.

Gulzar advised the young generation of aspiring writers to "become their own critics" by emulating Mirza Ghalib's practise of repeatedly editing his own writings.

The award-winning lyricist-poet, who was speaking in a session titled, "Hum Sooratgaar Kuch Khwaabon Ke", said that it was imperative for young poets to "self-evaluate and self-edit".

"Ghalib used to edit his own poems and often reject the works he did not like. It is important for poets and writers today to know their shortcomings, and be able to edit their own work as well as reject them if they are not up to their standards," Gulzar said at the ongoing Urdu festival 'Jashn-e-Rekhta'.

In conversation with famous Urdu and Hindi screenwriter Javed Siddiqui, Gulzar also talked about the relevance of pioneers of Urdu poetry like Mir Taqi Mir and Faiz Ahmad Faiz among others.

Highlighting Faiz's literary contribution and its importance during India's freedom struggle, Gulzar asserted that poetry was not merely a reflection of an individual's grief but it should "reflect social consciousness".

"Poetry is not about personal pain or tragedy. It should resonate the society's grief. A social consciousness should be reflected in your poetry," he said.

Gulzar went on to recite one of Faiz's couplets – 'Maqaam Faiz koi raah me jacha hi nahi, jo ku-e-yaar se nikle to su-e-daar chale', which losely translates to 'No destination en route caught my fancy, as I left my beloved's house, I went straight to the gallows'.

When asked to explain another famous couplet by the revolutionary poet – 'Mujh se pehle si mohabbat mere mehboob na maang', the octogenarian writer took a humorous dig at the current era of smartphones where love is professed over messages and chats.

"There is pain of the society, of a career and money. I have to face several other issues, so don't expect from me the kind of love we shared earlier. Now, I don't have time to sit and text you anymore," he quipped.

As many as 1,09,520 candidates out of 1,42,970 applicants were offered jobs at week-long fairs organised by Gujarat government across 12 clusters, a senior official said on Saturday.

A total 2,184 job providers, including Indian and multi-national companies, participated in job fairs organised across 12 clusters covering 33 districts, chief secretary JN Singh told reporters here.

"To pass on job opportunities created following investments which came into the state through 'Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit' to youth, mega job fairs were organised in 12 clusters between February 11 and 17," Singh said.

"As many as 2,184 job providers participated in the mega fairs and offered jobs to 1,09,520 candidates out of 1,42,970 applicants," he said.

Job offers were made by companies from various sectors including automobiles, textiles, engineering, construction, pharmacy, food and beverages, power, cement, marketing/sales, banking, finance, hospitality, health care management, tele communications, among others, he said.

Among major job providing companies were L&T Limited, Ford India Limited, Suzuki Motors Gujarat Pvt Ltd., Honda Motors, Tata Motors, Vodafone, Pepsico, Adena Power, Essar Power, Reliance Industries, Welspun India Ltd., Arvind Mills, Sandhi Cement, Ambuja Cement, Eureka Forbes, Torrent Power, Tata Chemicals, Syntex Pvt. Ltd., Aegis Limited, Singh added.

"These companies offered jobs to skilled and semi-skilled workers, supervisors, engineers, managers, and customer care representatives, among others. As many as 1,09,520 youths, including 88,503 men and 21,017 women, were offered jobs through these fairs.

"As many as 144 differently-abled persons were also offered jobs. Of those who were offered jobs, many candidates were from SC, ST, and SEBC categories," the Chief Secretary said.

A further breakup shows that 56,742 candidates were offered jobs in manufacturing sector and 52,778 candidates were offered jobs in services sector.

As many as 5,555 apprentices including 384 women candidates were offered jobs by municipal corporations, municipalities, and different industrial units, Singh said.

Twelve clusters where job fairs were organised are Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Bharuch, Surat, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Godhra, Jamnagar, Morbi, Vapi, Mehsana and Gandhidham.

Hugh Jackman arrived at Berlin Film Festival for the premiere of Logan with a small bandage on his nose and assured that he is fine after being treated for skin cancer once again.

"It is fine, it is all done, all fixed, all out. Thank you for asking," he said on the red carpet, according to NBC.

Jackman, 48, had earlier revealed that he had another basal cell carcinoma on his nose, and tweeted out a picture of his bandaged nose, and urged people to wear sunscreen.

Logan is the third installment of the Wolverine spin-off series. It's competing at the Berlin Film Festival.

"I didn't want it to be seen as a comic book movie, I wanted it to be seen as a film on its own. I had no doubts whatsoever. When I began to understand some of the content of this film, I was all for it. The film is unusual, very different and I think remarkable," he said.

Warning that midterm assembly elections in Maharashtra were "inevitable", Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar on Saturday said there was no question of his party propping up the Bharatiya Janata Part-Shiv Sena alliance in the state.

Pawar told the media that he was even ready to put down his decision in writing and submit a copy to the state Governor.

"I can right now give a letter to this effect and forward to the Governor. But even Shiv Sena should submit a similar letter to the Governor and make it public," Pawar said, putting the ball in the Sena court over the fate of the government headed by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

The Shiv Sena in the past few weeks has bitterly criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party in the state and the Centre, saying the Maharashtra government was "on a notice period", indicating it may withdraw support after the outcome of the civic elections on February 23.

Soon after the 2014 October assembly elections, the NCP had extended outside support to the BJP's minority government as Shiv Sena sat in the opposition for a month.

Around a month later, the Sena left the opposition benches to join the BJP as an ally.

The NCP chief had then justified its decision to provide external support to the BJP "in the interest of political stability and to avoid a fresh round of elections".

In the last assembly elections, Maharashtra threw up a fractured house as all the main parties had contested separately and against each other.

Attacking the Centre for demonetisation, Pawar said the November 8 move had resulted in massive losses in the farming sector and rural areas, besides job losses in the economy.

Questioning Fadnavis' claims on the "transparency agenda", Pawar demanded to know how the BJP could spend so much money on advertisements and publicity for the ongoing civic elections in Maharashtra.

Referring to a demand by the BJP to ban the Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana Group of Publications for some days during the election period, Pawar said this indicated "dictatorial" attitude on the central government's part and expressed his opposition to it.

Although it crossed $1 billion in revenue in 2016 within the first two years of its operations in India, Xiaomi — once touted as the "Apple" of China — has slipped to fourth spot back home as the demand for its smartphones declined 22 per cent annually — eventually taking it to seventh spot in the global smartphone ranking with a 16 per cent drop in sales.

The decline came even as Hugo Barra, Xiaomi's high-profile head of international operations, left the company in January and joined Facebook to lead its virtual reality (VR) project.

According to the experts, the key reason for this decline is Xiaomi's rivals racing ahead with key features, better innovations, bigger marketing budgets and wider online and offline distribution channels.

"Until 2016, Xiaomi relied only on online channels for smartphone sales which contributes approximately 30 per cent of the total smartphones sales in China, leaving a huge chunk of the market untapped. Its competitors invested heavily in building strong offline channels, expanding their reach to tier-2 and tier-3 cities and moving ahead of Xiaomi," Shobhit Srivastava, Research Analyst, Mobile Devices and Ecosystems at market research firm Counterpoint Research, told IANS. 

Another reason for Xiaomi's slipping growth is the rising average selling price (ASP) of the maturing China smartphone market, experts noted. 

"Bulk of the sales in China is coming from upgrades where Huawei, OPPO and Vivo are gaining market share while Xiaomi remains in the below-$150 category. Xiaomi also lacks in research and development unlike its Chinese counterparts which are vertically integrated," Srivastava added. 

An email sent to the company for its reaction to the decline in global smartphone sales didn't elicit any response. 

Xiaomi's main markets have been China and India which combined get more than 95 per cent shipment share. While performance in India improved in 2016, the company lost market share in China resulting in the decline of overall global smartphone ranking.

Huawei, Oppo and Vivo have emerged as clear winners with Oppo and Vivo registering significant growth in China.

Shipping 44.9 million iPhones to China, even Apple has beaten Xiaomi that shipped 41.5 million smartphones in 2016, market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) revealed earlier this month.

According to IDC's "Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker" report, Apple dropped from 58.4 million iPhones in 2015 and Xiaomi from 64 million Mi phones — drops of 23 per cent and 36 per cent, respectively.

Amid the global gloom, it is the Indian smartphone market that has helped Xiaomi gain profits.

"They (Xiaomi) have already established their presence in India with a revenue of more than $1 billion in 2016 in the country. They will keep going as they have a strong management team," Jaideep Mehta, Managing Director, IDC South Asia, told IANS. 

"On Barra, I would say that a senior executive has just moved on. Of Course, he will be missed, but the company is bigger than one individual," he added. 

Coincidently, Xiaomi is not going to showcase any product at the upcoming Mobile World Congress (MWC), the telecom industry's largest event, in Barcelona, Spain, later this month. There are reports that Xiaomi doesn't have new devices to showcase during the MWC show. 

This indicates there is something wrong somewhere and the company needs to plug the problem fast before its global presence plunges further.

"To recover and sustain growth, Xiaomi will have to focus on building strong offline channels as it will open up a significant market for the company. It needs to concentrate more on its R&D and come up with a device in the higher-mid end segment for the increasing Chinese middle-class population with higher disposable incomes," Srivastava emphasised.

The transformation of the nearly 250-year old Barrackpore Trunk (BT) Road — one of India's oldest metalled roads — from an ancient neighbourhood to a modern one has been documented in a new coffee table book.

"Reinvention" captures the dramatic transformation of the BT Road that was built in the year 1775. It connects Barrackpore, in the suburbs, to Kolkata.

"We do books on countries, we do books on cities but we don't do books on neighbourhoods. The BT Road is passing through a dramatic transformation from a legacy, ancient neighbourhood to a modern one. And transformation doesn't mean that you will obliterate the ancient relics," Mudar Patherya, director TrisysCommunications, the agency responsible for writing and designing the book,said.

The route was once used by the British Empire to travel from their capital Calcutta (now Kolkata) to Barrackpore (the oldest Indian cantonment of the British).

"Trucks are getting off the road and decongestion is happening. So there is a need to rebrand it. The new is not taking over at the expense of the old. There is a co-existence," Patherya said referring to the book.

A team from the Export-Import Bank of India was in Sri Lanka to monitor the progress of projects under India's Lines of Credit (LoC) scheme, particularly in the railway sector, media reports said.

The team visited sites of the Northern Railway Rehabilitation Project, including Kankesanthurai Railway Line, Omanthai-Pallai railway line, etc., apart from evaluating the signalling and telecommunication systems installed under the LoC, Colombo Gazette cited a statement by the Indian High Commission here.

The Line of Credit (LOC) is a financing mechanism through which India's Exim (Export-Import) Bank extends support for export of goods and services from India. Between 2008-15 Exim Bank has disbursed $11,678 million as LOCs for various development related and capacity building projects across continents. 

India has provided concessionary credit facilities amounting to about $800 million to Sri Lanka to undertake the Northern Railway Rehabilitation Project. Engineering and construction company IRCON International implemented the project, including track upgradation and setting up of signalling and communication infrastructure.

The Exim Bank team also called on Sri Lanka Transport and Civil Aviation Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva and senior officials in several Sri Lankan ministries of such as Railways, Department of External Resources, Ministry of National Policies and Economic Affairs, etc.

The Indian High Commission said it remains committed to strengthening its bilateral relationship with Sri Lanka through closer economic ties, enhancing connectivity and continued development partnership. 

The Golden Bay Resort where more than 100 legislators of the ruling AIADMK supporting party General Secretary V K Sasikala were put up for over a week has closed its premises for "maintenance work".

"Resort under maintenance", said a notice pasted on the compound wall of the sprawling resort, located at Koovathur, about 80 km from here on the scenic East Coast Road.

The notice comes on a day when AIADMK MLAs, who have been stayed there since February 8, left the resort to take part in the floor test in the Tamil Nadu Assembly today.

Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal had convened the session for the taking up the vote of confidence.

Soon after Sasikala was convicted in a corruption case, dashing her hopes of becoming the Chief Minister, the Kancheepuram district administration had imposed prohibitory orders in Koovathur and neighouring localities, following which security personnel were deployed in large numbers in and around the resort.

Several party leaders had questioned the MLAs being housed in one place, with the main opposition party DMK saying they should visit their constituencies, get feedback from people and then only take part in the floor test.

US Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday said President Donald Trump would stand by the NATO transatlantic alliance and no one should doubt his commitment after sacrifices made to defend it.

"The president (Donald Trump) asked me to be here today to convey a message, a reassurance — the United States of America strongly supports NATO and we will be unwavering in our commitment to this transatlantic alliance," Pence told the Munich Security Conference.

"Let no one doubt our commitment," he said.

The Munich conference, attended by top leaders, officials and analysts from around the world, was watching Pence closely to see if he would reaffirm the central US role in world affairs after Trump's "America First" stance suggested Washington would strike out on its own.

Speaking just before Pence, German Chancellor Angela Merkel had warned countries against precisely that, saying the only way to solve global problems was to stick together.

"In a year in which we see unimaginable challenges we can either work together or retreat to our individual roles. I hope that we will find a common position," Merkel said. 

The Kerala tourism department will be organising a four-day-long travel and tourism event in Abu Dhabi from February 22, to promote the 'God's Own Country' in the Middle East tourism market.

India Tourism Dubai office, Tourism India and Brand Kerala Magazines are also part of the event, titled as 'Explore Kerala @ Abu Dhabi." 

Official logo of 'Explore Kerala' was unveiled by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the presence Ashraf Ali MA, Lulu Group Executive Director, Nandakumar, Chief Communication Officer, Biju Kottarathil, Media Secretary and other officials recently, a release said here today.

The event, organised in association with global retailer Lulu group, will be held from February 22 to 25 at Mushrif Mall in Abu Dhabi.

Several leading Hotels & Resorts, including The Raviz Hotels & Resorts, Uday Samudra Kovalam, Vythiri Village Wayanad, Somatheeram Ayurveda Resort and two leading tour operators, Gateway Malabar Holidays and The Blue Yonder from the state will showcase their products along with Kerala destination presentation, it said.

A colourful cultural performance showcasing the state's art forms including Kathakali, Mohiniyattom, Theyyam and Thayambaka will also be the part of the four-day event, it said.

"Keralites have always considered UAE as their second home and Kerala tourism identified the potential of the ever growing UAE tourism market.

Considering tourist arrivals to Kerala from the Middle East, UAE is the second biggest market after Saudi Arabia and followed by the Oman and Kuwait," state Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran said.

"In 2015, there were 71,500 tourists from Saudi Arabia (65048 in 2014 and 48,346 in 2013), 20,000 plus ( 18,264 in 2014 and 17,475 in 2013) from the UAE and 17,924 from Oman, who visited the state.

From the Middle East alone, we have more than one lakh visitors," he added.

The event would be officially inaugurated by Sultan Hamad Al Mutawa Al Dhaheri, Executive Director of Abu Dhabi Tourism.

Indian Ambassador to UAE, Navdeep Suri, Etihad Airways Senior Vice President, Harib Al Muhairi, India Tourism Director IRV Rao and many dignitaries would also be present during the function, the release added.

Tata Steel is looking at building a distribution network and its brands in the Business to Consumer (B2C) markets in Bangladesh and Myanmar, a company official said on Saturday.

"We have great success in developing brands and distribution network in B2C markets in India. Bangladesh and Myanmar are the two B2C markets which have similar profile as India. We are seeing opportunities there to build the brand and distribution network," said company's MD (India and South East Asia) T.V. Narendran.

Speaking at an event 'Metals 2017: Current Dynamics of steel in India' organised by Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry' here, Narendran said the country's steel industry has been spending less towards research and development (R&D) compared to global standards.

"Most industries and countries spend about two per cent (of the revenue) towards R&D but as an industry we are under-spending. Indian steel industry is spending less than 0.5 per cent on it. The government is providing incentives to the industry to invest more in R&D," he said.

"R&D expenditure is not about spending the money but having the right projects," he added.

The Managing Director also mentioned that steel processing facilities in India have not been keeping up for the high-end requirements of steel products in the automobile sector.

"As the steel industry invests to increase the capabilities to service the high-end requirements of the auto industry, the steel processing sector also needs to improve. Largely, steel processing sector is volume play than the value play," he said.

Speaking about anti-dumping measures, Narendran said, "All the countries have the policy in place to deal with anti-dumping. The government looks at the products. If they see the product is being sold in India at a price lower than in their home markets, the government then takes a call."

Candidates, who appeared for the Telangana State Police Constable Mains 2016, can check their results at the official website www.tslprb.in. The exam was conducted on October 23, 2016.

To check results, candidates need to log on to the official website www.tslprb.in and enter all the required details in a prescribed format in the space provided.

Candidates who have cleared the examinations successfully will be hired for the posts of constable. The board conducts different examinations for the recruitment in various police posts in the state.

Traders dealing with poll materials were badly hit by the ongoing economic blockade in Manipur and demonetisation due to dearth of raw materials.

"Every time during the elections, we bring in lot of raw materials for making poll materials but this time we could not do it firstly due to the blockade and secondly due to demonetization. we were short of cash initially so we could not buy poll materials," a trader dealing with poll material in Imphal said.

"Not only political parties wait for the poll season, but also traders dealing with campaign material eagerly wait for elections as it is a boom time for them. But demonetisation and dearth of raw materials due to the ongoing economic blockade have affected the traders who are in the business of campaign materials", another trader said.

Unlike in the previous elections, both orders and delivery of campaign materials have seen a great decline. Campaign materials like posters, flex, paper posters, flags, printed with party symbols have been top draws in elections.

In addition to demonetisation woes, business in the state was affected badly as traders could not get raw materials due to the economic blockade.

"The blockade started from November 1 but after the effect of demonetisation became quite normal in January, we could not get the raw materials due to the blockade," Melam, a trader, said.

Cutting across political lines, parties have also squeezed poll spending in this upcoming election following economic blockade and strict supervision of Election Commission.

(With inputs from Agencies)

Actor Neil Nitin Mukesh and his wife Rukmini Sahay gave major couple goals when they appeared nicely colour coordinated in green for their wedding reception on Friday in Mumbai.

Dressed in designer Manav Gangwani’s creation, Neil and Rukmini chose to be colour coordinated and looked every bit regal in the green ensemble.

The ceremony witnessed a galaxy of stars from Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Rekha to the 'monkey' couple Bipasha Basu and Karan Singh Grover, all made it a point to wish Neil on his special day.

Neil and Rukmini took wedding vows in a lavish ceremony in Udaipur on February 9.

Rukmini comes from an aviation industry while Neil is a Bollywood actor, whose family has been around for the last 50 years. The duo settled for an arranged marriage.

After much brouhaha, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami on Saturday won the vote of confidence in the state assembly, bringing an end to weeks of political uncertainty in the state.

Palaniswami, was on Thursday sworn in as Chief Minister and was given 15 days' time by Governor Vidyasagar Rao to prove majority on the floor of the house. He went for the test on Saturday and managed to win 122 voice votes.

Palaniswami belongs to the AIADMK faction led by party General Secretary VK Sasikala, who is in jail.

However, prior to the voting, the opposition led by DMK staged massive protests inside the Assembly as they tore papers, broke tables and even indulged in scuffles demanding a secret voting.

As tempers flared, Speaker P Dhanapal stalled the proceedings and was escorted out by marshals shortly after the House assembled to facilitate the floor test. 

When the house convened later, DMK legislators were evicted from the assembly.

Earlier in the day, AIADMK rebel O Panneerselvam got a boost when Coimbatore North MLA Arun Kumar announced his decision to abstain from voting after Friday's decision by Mylapore MLA and former DGP R Natraj to vote against the government.

With the decision of the two, the Palaniswami camp is left with 122 MLAs in the 234-member House with one vacancy.

Ailing DMK supremo M Karunanidhi was not present in the House.

In another development, the Panneerselvam camp appointed Semmalai as the party whip in the assembly and sent a letter to the Speaker to this effect.

(With inputs from agencies)

After much brouhaha, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami on Saturday won the vote of confidence in the state assembly, bringing an end to weeks of political uncertainty in the state.

Palaniswami, was on Thursday sworn in as Chief Minister and was given 15 days' time by Governor Vidyasagar Rao to prove majority on the floor of the house. He went for the test on Saturday and managed to win 122 voice votes.

Palaniswami belongs to the AIADMK faction led by party General Secretary VK Sasikala, who is in jail.

However, prior to the voting, the opposition led by DMK staged massive protests inside the Assembly as they tore papers, broke tables and even indulged in scuffles demanding a secret voting.

As tempers flared, Speaker P Dhanapal stalled the proceedings and was escorted out by marshals shortly after the House assembled to facilitate the floor test. 

When the house convened later, DMK legislators were evicted from the assembly.

Earlier in the day, AIADMK rebel O Panneerselvam got a boost when Coimbatore North MLA Arun Kumar announced his decision to abstain from voting after Friday's decision by Mylapore MLA and former DGP R Natraj to vote against the government.

With the decision of the two, the Palaniswami camp is left with 122 MLAs in the 234-member House with one vacancy.

Ailing DMK supremo M Karunanidhi was not present in the House.

In another development, the Panneerselvam camp appointed Semmalai as the party whip in the assembly and sent a letter to the Speaker to this effect.

(With inputs from agencies)