CBI on Thursday strongly refuted allegations by Rajendra Kumar, the former Principal Secretary to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, that he was "threatened" by its officers to implicate the Aam Aadmi Party Chief.

Kumar, who has been chargesheeted by the agency in a graft case, made the allegations in his letter to Delhi Chief Secretary seeking voluntary retirement.

CBI said making such "absolutely baseless allegations" after filing of charge sheet "is only an attempt to influence the matter which is subjudice".

"Central Bureau of Investigation strongly denies statement/news item published/telecast in certain sections of the media being attributed to Shri Rajender Kumar, IAS," CBI Spokesperson R K Gaur said.

"The allegation of Rajendra Kumar, which has incidentally come up after filing of the charge sheet, that witnesses/ accused in this case were threatened by CBI officers to implicate a political functionary, is absolutely baseless and denied," he said.

Gaur said the accused had the opportunity to bring before the court any instance of alleged physical assault when they were produced before judge but no such allegation was made.

"No such allegation was made at the relevant time, except one person, who also filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court, but had to withdraw the same after the court observed that he is trying to spoil the system and scaring away the probe agency which was widely reported in the media on May 3, 2016," he said.

Gaur said making such baseless allegations at this moment, is only an attempt to influence the matter which is subjudice.

His reaction came after Kumar sought voluntary retirement alleging that he was repeatedly told by CBI interrogators to implicate Chief Minister Kejriwal.

In his letter to Delhi Chief Secretary, Kumar, a 1989 batch IAS officer, said, "I was repeatedly told that I would be let free if I implicate Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal." 

Gaur said the allegations of Kumar helping M/s Endeavour System Pvt Ltd (ESPL) in getting IT related contracts from various Delhi Government Departments, wherever he was posted, were in public domain since June, 2015 and were made by then Secretary, Delhi Dialogue Commission.

He said CBI registered the case in December, 2015 against Shri Rajendra Kumar and others under Prevention of Corruption Act, after due diligence.

"After investigating the case thoroughly for over a year, filed charge sheet against him and others in the court of Special Judge, Patiala House Court on 03.12.2016. All the evidence gathered during the course of investigation against Rajendra Kumar and others have been put before the court," Gaur said.

President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday said demonetisation will be beneficial in immobilizing black money but may also slow down the economy temporarily.

“Demonetisation, while immobilising black money and fighting corruption, may lead to temporary slowdown of the economy,” Mukherjee, a renowned economist who was the Finance Minister in the previous UPA regime said.

“We all will have to be extra careful to alleviate the suffering of the poor which might become unavoidable for the expected progress in the long term,” he added.

President Mukherjee had welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement of demonetisation of Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 500 notes on November 8 and had termed it a bold move.

With inputs from agencies

India appears to be much better placed with improved macro-economic fundamentals, as measures to eliminate shadow economy and tax evasion are expected to have positive impact on GDP, the all-powerful FSDC — headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley — said on Thursday.

The Council, at its 16th meeting, reviewed the major issues and challenges facing the economy. "World economy is quite fragile, yet India is much better placed today due to improvement in its macro-economic fundamentals," Jaitley said.

With all secretaries in the Finance Ministry as well as Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel and other financial regulators in attendance, the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) also reviewed the present status of NPAs in banks.

It noted that "India appears to be much better placed today on back of improvement in its macro-economic fundamentals," an official statement said.

"The Council also noted that the government's measures to eliminate the shadow economy and tax evasion are expected to have a positive impact on both GDP and fiscal consolidation in the long run," it said.

At the meeting, Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian made a presentation on the state of economy.

"The Council reviewed the major issues and challenges facing the economy and noted that India appears to be much better placed today on the back of improvement in its macro-economic fundamentals," it said.

Also, the regulators offered their suggestions/ proposal for the upcoming Budget for 2017-18, which were deliberated upon by the Council.

"The Council also reviewed the present status of NPAs in banks and measures taken by the government and RBI for dealing with the stressed assets and discussed on further action in this regard," it said.

Besides Patel, those present at the meeting included Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das, Financial Services Secretary Anjuly Chib Duggal, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia, Disinvestment Secretary Neeraj Kumar Gupta, SEBI Chairman U K Sinha, IRDAI Chairman T S Vijayan and PFRDA Chairman Hemant G Contractor.

"FSDC discussed about the various initiatives taken by the government and regulators for promoting financial inclusion/ financial literacy efforts and discussed further measures for promoting the same," the statement said.

A brief report on the activities undertaken by the FSDC sub-committee, chaired by RBI Governor Urjit Patel, was placed before the FSDC. The Council also undertook a comprehensive review of the action taken by members on the decisions taken in earlier meetings of the Council.

"The Council also discussed issues pertaining to Fintech, digital innovations and cyber security. The Council took note of the initiatives taken in this regard by the government and the regulators and discussed on further steps to be taken," it added.

Aiming to find important clues to the earliest history of the solar system, NASA has announced two missions — one to explore Jupiter's mysterious Trojan asteroids and the other to study a unique metal asteroid.

The missions, known as Lucy and Psyche, were chosen from five finalists and will proceed to mission formulation, with the goal of launching in 2021 and 2023, respectively, NASA said in a statement on Wednesday.

"Lucy will visit a target-rich environment of Jupiter's mysterious Trojan asteroids, while Psyche will study a unique metal asteroid that's never been visited before," said Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. 

"This is what Discovery Program missions are all about – boldly going to places we've never been to enable groundbreaking science," Zurbuchen added.

Lucy, a robotic spacecraft, is scheduled for October 2021 launch. It is slated to arrive at its first destination, a main belt asteroid, in 2025. 

From 2027 to 2033, Lucy will explore six Jupiter Trojan asteroids. 

These asteroids are trapped by Jupiter's gravity in two swarms that share the planet's orbit, one leading and one trailing Jupiter in its 12-year circuit around the sun. 

The Trojans are thought to be relics of a much earlier era in the history of the solar system, and may have formed far beyond Jupiter's current orbit.

"This is a unique opportunity," said Harold Levison, Principal Investigator of the Lucy mission from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. 

"Because the Trojans are remnants of the primordial material that formed the outer planets, they hold vital clues to deciphering the history of the solar system. Lucy, like the human fossil for which it is named, will revolutionize the understanding of our origins," Levison noted.

The Psyche mission will explore one of the most intriguing targets in the main asteroid belt – a giant metal asteroid, known as 16 Psyche, about three times farther away from the sun than is the Earth. 

This asteroid measures about 130 miles (210 kilometers) in diameter and, unlike most other asteroids that are rocky or icy bodies, is thought to be comprised mostly of metallic iron and nickel, similar to Earth's core. 

The mission will help scientists understand how planets and other bodies separated into their layers – including cores, mantles and crusts – early in their histories.

Psyche, also a robotic mission, is targeted to launch in October of 2023, arriving at the asteroid in 2030, following an Earth gravity assist spacecraft maneuvre in 2024 and a Mars flyby in 2025.

On his maiden visit to Jammu and Kashmir after taking charge, new Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat today visited Udhampur-based Northern Command and reviewed the security situation and operational preparedness of the force.

Gen Rawat was received by top army officials and briefed by Commander Lt Gen Devraj Anbu. He flew to 16 Corps headquarters based in Nagrota and is likely to visit some forwards areas in Akhnoor and Rajouri sectors and interact with troops.

"The army chief chief reviewed the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir and also operational preparedness of Northern Command at a high-level meeting," officials said.

Northern command looks after the operational command of Jammu and Kashmir and Line of Control (LoC), Acutual Ground Position Level (AGPL) with Pakistan and Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China in Ladakh.

Gen Rawat took charge on December 31, succeeding Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag, who retired after 42 years of service.

Gen Rawat was commissioned in the 5th Battalion of the 11 Gorkha Rifles in December 1978 from the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun and has vast experience in high altitude warfare and counter-insurgency operations.

He commanded an infantry battalion along the Line of Actual Control in the Eastern Sector, a Rashtriya Rifles Sector and an infantry division in the Kashmir Valley, a Corps in the eastern theatre and the Southern Command.

Gen Rawat has held important staff appointments at Directorate General of Military Operations and Military Secretary's Branch at Army headquarters.

Indices closed at their highest level since early November as strong overseas cues helped local bulls to pump up mid caps, auto companies, metal shares and pharma stocks on heavy volumes.

The Nifty closed 83 points, or 1 per cent, higher at 8,274 points, a shade below its intra-day high. The gains came on the back of highest traded volumes in the past five sessions, perhaps, pointing to more pent up demand ahead. Local bulls took heart from reasonably strong gains in some Asian markets and from a modest uptick in European equities.

Meanwhile, here are the major events of the trading day:

* The Nifty was the 2nd best performing major index in Asia on Thursday. The index closed at its highest level since November 11.

* Adani Ports, Yes Bank, Tata Motors and Tata Steel rose between 3.7-4.9 per cent and were among 44 stocks that advanced on the Nifty.

* Tech Mahindra, TCS, Bharti Infratel, HCL Technologies and Infosys lost between 0.4-2.7 per cent and were among 7 shares that lost ground on the Nifty.

* Just Dial, Yes Bank and Jubilant Lifesciences were the top traded stocks by value on the NSE.

* The Sensex notched up gains of 245 points to 26,878 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

* Real Estate stocks dominated the most active list for the second day. JP Associates, HDIL and Jindal Steel & Power were on the list where hectic trade was witnessed.

* Wider benchmarks were thick in action on the buy side. Strong and widespread buying, gains were seen on Nifty 100, 200 and 500 indices, along with the mid cap and the small cap shares.

* All sectoral indices, apart from the software benchmark, rose between 0.7-3.2 per cent; The IT index slipped 0.9 per cent; Metals, Auto and Pharma shares saw robust buying.

* Piramal Enterprises, Vedanta, Hindustan Zinc, IDFC and Cairn were the other winners in the day.

* MindTree Consulting, NIIT Technologies, Apollo Hospitals and Grasim lost ground.

* The trend was extremely bullish in the derivatives space where 157 futures rose versus 21 that fell.

* Overall, the bulls were in command on Dalal Street where 1963 stocks advanced compared with 886 that fell.

Chinese scientists are drawing a 1:2.5 million scale geological map of the Moon, a media report said on Thursday.

Ouyang Ziyuan, first chief scientist of China's lunar exploration programme, said five universities and research institutes have set standards for digital mapping and drawing of the Moon's geological structure.

A sketch version of the map, 4.36 metres by 2.2 metres, would be finished by 2018, and released by 2020, Xinhua news agency reported.

The map would provide information on geology, structure and rock types and would reflect the timeline of the Moon's evolution.

Chen Shengbo, a geologist with Jilin University in China, and his team are responsible for drawing the lunar structure outline, which was just one part of the work. 

He said the map would clearly show lunar geography, such as geographic fractures and the size, appearance, and the structure of craters.

Chen said mapping depends on data and images sent by circumlunar satellites from home and abroad. 

Lunar map making was not like drawing a map of the Earth, where scientists can go to the scene in person if they were not sure of their information.

China's satellites have captured images of the Moon, which contribute to the precision of lunar maps. 

Admitting that he used to bunk classes during his engineering days at IIT Kharagpur, Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Thursday expressed surprise to find young IITians aiming to get into IIMs even as he stressed on the importance of getting real world experience.

"There is a lot of pressure to follow a set of rules throughout your career (in India). When you are in high school you think of college. I get very surprised that people get into the IITs and immediately they are thinking about IIMs and so on. It is so important to get real world experience," Pichai said at an interactive session with IITians here on Thursday.

Back to the campus 23 years after completing B.Tech in 1993, he said students spend a lot of time on books and learning academically.

On a nostalgic trip to relive his campus days, he went to his hostel room, met teachers and interacted with students.

"Of course," was his answer when asked whether he bunked classes.

"We used to stay up late at night and in the morning missed classes," he recalled.

Pichai said he gets shocked on hearing that some eighth-grade student has started preparing for IITs.

"During my time, lot of people said this person didn't get into this college and that's the end of the road for him," he recalled.

He advised students of his alma mater to try out different things, take risks, be well-rounded and follow their passion.

India, however, he said, has a strong foundation in education as parents talk about it all the time.

In America, Pichai said, at Stanford for example, students choose majors only when they are in their last year.

Senior US intelligence officials face questions at a Senate hearing that will be dominated by the intelligence community's assessment that Russia meddled in the presidential election to help Donald Trump win.

The Armed Services Committee's cyber threats hearing on Thursday comes a day before the president-elect is to be briefed by the CIA and FBI directors along with the director of national intelligence on the investigation into Russia's alleged hacking efforts.

Trump has been deeply critical of their findings, even appearing to back controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's contention that Russia did not provide him with hacked Democratic emails.

The committee's session is the first in a series aimed at investigating purported Russian cyber-attacks against US interests and developing defenses sturdy enough to blunt future intrusions.

"We will obviously be talking about the hacking, but the main thing is the whole issue of cybersecurity," the committee's Republican chairman, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, said ahead of the hearing. "Right now we have no policy, no strategy to counter cyberattacks." 

Slated to appear before the Armed Services Committee are James Clapper, the national intelligence director; Marcel Lettre, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence; and Michael Rogers, National Security Agency chief and the top officer at the US Cyber Command.

Accusations Russia interfered in the 2016 election by hacking Democratic email accounts have roiled Washington for weeks. President Barack Obama struck back at Moscow in late December with a sweeping set of sanctions targeting Russia's leading spy agencies the GRU and FSB that the US said were involved. The GRU is Russia's military intelligence agency.

The FSB is the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB.

But the sanctions against both Russian intelligence agencies could easily be rescinded by Trump, who has so far publicly refused to accept the conclusion that Russia is responsible for the attacks.

Trump earlier this week escalated his criticism of US intelligence professionals, such as Clapper by tweeting, without evidence, that an upcoming briefing on the suspected Russian hacking had been delayed until Friday, and said, "perhaps more time needed to build a case".

Intelligence officials said there had been no delay.

Trump also suggested on Wednesday in a tweet that one of Russia's primary targets, the Democratic National Committee, could be to blame for being "so careless.

Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan believes he can do everything that he wants to do.

At the song launch of his upcoming film "Kaabil" here, the 42-year-old actor said: "I think I am capable of doing everything that I want to do in my life. I think we all should have the same thought process because that is the starting point.

"If you don't believe you can do it, you can't. I truly believe that we all are capable of doing much more than what we think we can."

About his upcoming film, which is produced by his father Rakesh Roshan, Hrithik said: "'Kaabil' is something very challenging for me. This is the role for which I had to give maximum time and maximum effort. 

"As an actor, I realise that it takes time to play a blind person — how to get the body language right or how to react, makes even tougher. In this regard, it (the role) is different. This is the most difficult role I've done."

Hrithik also said that his intent is always to pick roles which "spread some light into the world".

Directed by Sanjay Gupta, "Kaabil" features Hrithik with Yami Gautam. The film is set for a worldwide release on January 25.

Anguished over the Modi government’s complete lack of concern for their welfare, the Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement, which hit the limelight recently over its prolonged protest at Jantar Mantar on the OROP issue, has extended its support to the Congress in Punjab, as well as the other poll-bound states and Himachal Pradesh.

The IESM members, led by its chairman Major General Satbir Singh, were welcomed at the AICC office here by senior party leaders, including Punjab Congress President Captain Amarinder Singh, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat, along with AICC general secretary in-charge of Punjab affairs Asha Kumari, MP Ambika Soni, PPCC vice president Sunil Jakhar, and Randeep Surjewala. Retired defence officers General SP Grewal and Lt. General Tajinder Shergill also graced the occasion.

With more than 800 Indian and 20 foreign publishers, the 44th edition of the World Book Fair will begin here on Saturday.

To be held at the Pragati Maidan, the fair, one of the largest in Afro-Asian countries, is set to host more than 2,500 stalls.

This year the major focus would be on women authors and writings on women and their fight for emancipation under the theme ‘Manushi'.

"The basic idea is to show and project the diversity of writings by women writers and to bust the homogeneity of ‘women writers'," Rita Chowdhary, Director, World Book Fair said.

"There will also be a display of portraits of 12 representative women scholars from ancient and medieval India developed for the calender by NBT (National Book Trust)," she said.

There will be a Children's Pavilion where seminars, story-telling sessions, workshops on creative writing would be organised.

There will also be an Authors Corner where book lovers can get an opportunity to interact with eminent authors and literary personalities.

"Books have remained an integral part of our lives and our aim is to promote reading culture in India. Every year the book fair draws an immense crowd and this year too we are expecting a huge footfall," said Chowdhary. 

"We try to provide all sorts of book in multiple languages under one roof in cheap price," National Book Trust Director Baldeo Bhai Sharma said.

This year's edition marks the 60th year of the NBT and a special exhibit will showcase its journey of promoting reading.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday said the world needs to tell India "enough is enough" vis-a-vis its policy towards Jammu and Kashmir.

Sharif was addressing an International Parliamentary Seminar on Kashmir here.

"Seventy years of brutal repression and Kashmiri struggle in the face of that oppression have shown cries of freedom cannot be stifled by sounds of bullets," he said.

He called for an end to the "continued suffering" in Kashmir, where a separatist campaign which New Delhi says is armed and financed by Islamabad has left thousands dead.

Sharif called militant Burhan Wani, whose killing in July last year triggered widespread unrest in the Kashmir Valley, as a "vibrant and charismatic leader" who "has become a rallying point" for Kashmiris.

He said India and Pakistan had promised to recognise the Kashmiri people's right to self-determination.

Sharif said Pakistan would continue to support the separatist struggle in Jammu and Kashmir.

Jeanette Epps will become the first African-American space station crew member when she launches on her first spaceflight in May 2018, NASA said.

The New York native spent seven years as a CIA technical intelligence officer before being selected as a member of the 2009 astronaut class, the US space agency said in a statement on Wednesday.

Her training included scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in International Space Station systems and spacewalk training.

NASA has also assigned veteran astronaut Andrew Feustel to missions aboard the International Space Station in 2018.

Feustel will launch in March 2018 for his first long-duration mission, serving as a flight engineer on Expedition 55, and later as commander of Expedition 56. 

Epps will join Feustel as a flight engineer on Expedition 56, and remain on board for Expedition 57.

"Each space station crew brings something different to the table, and Drew and Jeanette both have a lot to offer," said Chris Cassidy, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. 

Epps holds a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland.

"The space station will benefit from having them on board," Cassidy said.

A native of Lake Orion, Michigan, Feustel was selected as part of the 2000 astronaut class and, in 2009, flew on the space shuttle Atlantis for the final servicing mission of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. 

He made his first trip to the space station in 2011 as a member of the STS-134 crew on space shuttle Endeavour's final mission.

In 1995, he completed his doctorate in geological sciences, with a specialisation in seismology, from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

More than 200 astronauts have visited the space station so far.

Using a model similar to what meteorologists use to forecast weather and a computer simulation of the physics of evaporating ices, scientists have found evidence of snow and ice features, known as "penitentes", on Pluto. Until now, these had only been seen on the Earth.

Penitentes are snow and ice features formed by erosion that, on the Earth, are characterised by bowl-shaped depressions with blade-like spires around the edge that rise up to several metres.

Until now no penitentes have been identified conclusively on planetary bodies other than the Earth.

The new research, published in the journal Nature, indicates that these icy features may also exist on other planets where environmental conditions are similar.

"This test of our terrestrial models for penitentes suggests that we may find these features elsewhere in the solar system, and in other solar systems, where the conditions are right," said lead researcher John Moores of York University, Toronto, Canada.

Though Pluto's environment is very different from the Earth's — it is much colder, the air much thinner, the sun much dimmer and the snow and ice on the surface are made from methane and nitrogen instead of water — the same laws of nature apply, Moores said.

The identification of these ridges in Pluto's informally named Tartarus Dorsa area suggests that the presence of an atmosphere is necessary for the formation of penitentes, which would explain why they have not previously been seen on other airless icy satellites or dwarf planets, Moores said.

The research team compared its model to ridges on Pluto imaged by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft in 2015. 

Pluto's ridges are much larger — about 500 metres tall and separated by about three to five kilometres — than their earthly counterparts. 

"This gargantuan size is predicted by the same theory that explains the formation of these features on the Earth," Moores said. 

"In fact, we were able to match the size and separation, the direction of the ridges, as well as their age: three pieces of evidence that support our identification of these ridges as penitentes," Moores noted.

The research was done in collaboration with scientists at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

China on Thursday launched its longest high-speed train service.

The train, named "Shangri-la of the World", left Kunming at 11.05 am on a 2,760-km trip to Beijing, which takes about 13 hours, Xinhua news agency reported. 

The train's name highlights the famous resort in Shangri-la of Yunnan, a name first appearing in British novelist James Hilton's "Lost Horizon".

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Jitendra Singh on Thursday condoled the death of North Eastern Council (NEC) member Professor Gangmumei Kamei.

"Prof Gangmumei Kamei’s contribution to the Northeastern region will always be remembered" Singh said.

Singh said he will not only be remembered as a professor, but also as a writer and historian of Northeast in general and Manipur in particular.

"He will not only be remembered as a professor, but also as a writer and historian whose area of specialisation was regional history of Northeast India and history of Manipur. He wrote extensively on history, culture and contemporary issues of the region" Singh said.

Singh also said that Kamei’s death left a vacuum but his contribution to the region will be an inspiration.

“The passing away of Professor Kamei leaves a vacuum for us, but at the same time his contribution to the Northeast region will keep inspiring us for times to come,” Singh added.

Born in Imphal, Kamei was the president of the Northeast India History. He published a number of research papers and books, including A history of Modern Manipur (1826-2000), A history of Manipur: pre-colonial period and History of Zeliangrong Nagas: From Makhel to Rani Gaidinliu. He was awarded the Platinum Jubilee Samman by the Manipuri Sahitya Parishad, for his contribution to history and tribal culture in 2010. He was also awarded a National Fellowship by the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla (2010-2012).