.png)
GA 6NOV2014
| Bharti Airtel calls off Rs. 700-crore deal to acquire Loop Mobile Bharti Airtel did not renew its agreement to buy Loop Mobile due to delay in permission from the Department of Telecom (DoT). Bharti Telecom was supposed to purchase the crises-hit Loop Mobile’s Mumbai network but the definitive agreement signed between the two expired on October 30 and was not renewed leading to the Rs. 700-crore deal falling through. Only four weeks are left for Loop’s licence to expire. |
| 17 Indian firms join growth list Seventeen “fastest growing” Indian companies, including Avesthagen and Flipkart, have been invited to join the World Economic Forum Global Growth Companies (GGCs) community comprising 370 firms. The selected companies are: 4G Identity Solutions, ANI Technologies, Avest-hagen, Bandhan Financial Services, Centum Electronics, Finolex, Flipkart, Forbes Marshall, InterGlobe Enterprises, Justdial, MakeMyTrip, Nash Industries, Persistent Systems, Radikal Foo-ds, RBL Bank, Sobha, and Transasia Bio-Medicals. These companies were nominated on the strength of their ability to become future global leaders and represent a broad spectrum of sectors, including banking, retail, information technology, chemicals and energy. |
| RIL plans to divest its 49.9% in US shale JV Mukesh Ambani- promoted Reliance Industries was targeting to sell its 49.9% stake in the US-based Eagle Ford Shale Midstream (EFS Midstream) business, a joint venture with Dallas-based Pioneer Natural Resources Company. Pioneer holds the remaining 50.1% in the EFS Midstream business. Pioneer, which has about 230,000 acres in the Eagle Ford Basin according to its website, sold 45% interest in the property to the Ambani firm for $1.2 billion in 2010. |
| Mars rover Curiosity finds first mineral match on surface The Mars rover Curiosity has discovered the first mineral match from the Martian surface. The reddish powder from the hole drilled into a mountain yielded the mission's confirmation of a mineral mapped from orbit, the US space agency said. This can now help to guide investigations as we climb the slope and test hypotheses derived from the orbital mapping. The sample contained much more haematite than any rock or soil sample previously found during the two-year-old mission. Haematite is an iron-oxide mineral that gives clues about ancient environmental conditions from when it was formed. |
| Mahinda Rajapakse seeks Supreme Court opinion Sri Lanka’s President has asked an urgent Supreme Court ruling on whether he can seek a third term after the Opposition insisted his snap re-election bid was illegal. Mr Rajapakse removed the two-term limit on the presidency soon after winning re-election in 2010. But opponents argue the amended Constitution only applies to new Presidents and cannot be used retroactively. In an unusual move the Supreme Court has asked the influential Bar Association, with 11,000 lawyer members, to give a legal opinion within 48 hours. Mr Rajapakse won popularity among Sri Lanka’s majority Sinhalese community in 2009 by crushing Tamil Tiger rebels who had waged a 37-year war for a separate homeland for ethnic minority Tamils. |
| Indian-American Ro Khanna gives tough fight to Congressman Mike Honda Having earned the support of top Silicon Valley donors and corporate executives, young Indian-American Ro Khanna is trailing the incumbent Mike Honda by a little over 3,500 votes in the Congressional elections. Unseating a seven-term Congressman that too from his own party is a considered to be a daunting task — given that Mr. Honda has been endorsed by the U.S. President Barack Obama and top Democratic leadership including Nancy Pelosi. He would also be the first Hindu Indian-American to enter the House of Representatives. Born to migrant parents from Punjab, Mr. Khanna served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary in the U.S. Department of Commerce under Obama. His maternal grandfather, Amarnath Vidyalankar, was part of Gandhi’s independence movement working with Lala Lajpat Rai and spent years in jail. |
| Burkina Faso leaders agree power transition plan Burkina Faso's political parties have agreed that the country's political transition should last a year, followed by elections in November 2015. But the talks in the capital Ouagadougou ended without a deal on who would head a transitional government. The military leader Lt Col Isaac Zida has been in charge since President Blaise Compaore was forced to quit last week amid mass protests. The African Union (AU) on Monday gave the military two weeks to hand power to a civilian ruler or face sanctions. The presidents of Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal mediated the talks. Zida promised to comply with the deadline. He was previously second in command of the presidential guard. |
| PM drops Tata and Narain from Council on Climate Change ahead of UN meeting Ahead of a UN meet on global warming in Peru, Prime Minister Narendra Modi re-constituted a high-level advisory group on climate change. The TERI director general R.K. Pachauri, economist Nitin Desai and retired diplomat Chandrasekhar Dasgupta have been retained as non-government members of the 18-member PM’s Council on Climate Change, environmentalist Sunita Narain and industrialist Ratan Tata have been dropped from the group. The panel on climate change was constituted by the UPA government in 2007. Headed by Modi, the mandate of the new council is to coordinate National Action for Assessment, Adaption and Mitigation of Climate Change. The Council will evolve a coordinated response to issues related to climate change at the national level. The government has also inducted the urban development and coal ministers into the council. The council also has Ajay Mathur, chairperson of Bureau of Energy Efficiency and former bureaucrat J. M. Mouskar. |
| Barack Obama to Travel to Asia for Summits, Visits US President Barack Obama will travel to China, Myanmar and Australia between November 10-16 for a series of summits and bilateral talks. The president will be in China Nov 10-12 for the APEC Leaders' Meeting and APEC CEO summit and then a state visit to China by having talks with President Xi Jinping. While in Myanmar Nov 12-14, Obama will attend the East Asia Summit and the US-ASEAN Summit in Nay Pi Taw, and have a bilateral meeting with President Thein Sien. During his stay in Brisbane, Australia Nov. 15-16, the US leader will participate in a G20 summit and deliver a speech on US leadership in the Asia-Pacific region. |
0 comments: