Advani, Amitabh, Ramdev, Rajnikant may receive Padma awards on Republic Day

New Delhi : Days after honouring former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee with Bharat Ratna, the Narendra Modi-led BJP government is reportedly mulling to confer Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award in the country, on former deputy PM Lal Krishna Advani.

According to the Zee Media sources, Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan, noted yoga guru Baba Ramdev, southern superstar Rajnikant and Shiromani Akali Dal patron and Chief Minister of Punjab Parkash Singh Badal may also be honoured with Padma awards this year.

Besides the above-mentioned celebrities, Hindi cinema veteran Dilip Kumar, noted film director-producer Sanjay Leela Bhansali, script writer and lyricist Salim Khan and renowned ad film-maker Prasoon Joshi’s names also figures in the list of 148 hopefuls for this year’s Padma awards, the sources said.

From the sports world, the names of hockey team captain Sardara Singh, badminton player PV Sindhu, chess grandmaster Sasikiran Krishnan, wrestler Sushil Kumar, his coach Satpal and Arunima Sinha – the first women amputee mountaineer to climb Mount Everest – are being considered.

Renowned economist Bibek Debroy, who is also a member of NITI Aayog, journalist and India TV chairperson Rajat Sharma, Swapan Dasgupta, Hari Shankar Vyas, late actor Pran have also been nominated for the award.

Obama to conclude India visit today with address to youth

New Delhi : US President Barack Obama will conclude his three-day-long visit to India on Tuesday.

Prior to leaving for Saudi Arabia in the afternoon, Obama will address a select gathering that will include young Indians, at south Delhi’s Siri Fort Auditorium.

During the address, Obama is expected to stress on the shared values of the world’s largest democracies and speak on how to tap the energy of the people of India and the US, and to turn that into positive progress on the issues that matter in people’s lives.

“The President will want to speak to how do we tap into the energy and the support in both countries for the relationship and turn that into positive progress on the issues that matter in people’s lives.

“When you look at energy, counter-terrorism, defence cooperation, efforts to create economic growth, these are things that have a direct bearing on the well-being of US and Indian citizens,” Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes had said last week.

Ranbir Kapoor inspires me: Mrinal Dutt

Mumbai: Bollywood heartthrob Ranbir Kapoor’s style and charm has a fan in TV actor Mrinal Dutt.

Mrinal, who is seen as the male lead in TV show “Private Investigator”, has shot a few advertisements with the “Barfi!” star, and Ranbir became his inspiration during one such shoot. 

“I have worked with several Bollywood celebrities — from Ranbir Kapoor to Kareena Kapoor to Nargis Fakhri to Ali Zafar. But I guess Ranbir is someone who has left an everlasting impression on my mind,” Mrinal said in a statement.

US win Basketball World Cup

Madrid: The US retained their title as world basketball champions Sunday with a crushing 129-92 win over Serbia in the final held in Madrid’s Palacio de Deportes, Xinhua reported.

The Americans may have ended eight points short of the world record score of 137 in the 1994 World Championship final and the Serbs can also be proud of a display which could possibly have given them the title against any other team in the world, but nobody can question the merit of the win.

Many have said this American side is not as good as other ‘Dream Teams’ of recent years and the US came to Spain missing some star names such as Kevin Durant, but the fact is they have rarely looked in any trouble en-route to their title, winning all nine of the games they have played over the past fortnight and with almost insulting margins of victory in the knockout stages.

Asian Games: Gowda bags silver, Sarita forced to settle for bronze

Incheon: Discus thrower Vikas Gowda won the silver but his compatriot and boxer Sarita Devi was robbed of what could have been at least a silver, if not a possible gold, as India won four medals, including three bronze medals, on day 11 of the 17th Asian Games here Tuesday.

Sarita, a former world champion, endured a controversial loss in the controversial 57-60 kg category semi-final bout and settled for the bronze medal while the other two came from her fellow boxer Pooja Rani and from the sailors, Varsha Gautham and Aishwarya Nedunchezhiyan, who won the bronze medal in the 29er – women’s two person dinghy.

But there could be good news for India as Olympic bronze medal winning boxer M.C. Mary Kom secured a berth in the women’s 48-51 kg final while Satish Kumar and Vikas Krishan assured India of two more medals from the discipline after they reached the men’s semi-finals in their respective categories.

The men’s hockey team also made it to the final after 12 years and will be up against arch-rivals and defending champions Pakistan in Thursday’s title clash. 

Messi, Aguero in Argentine squad for friendlies in China

Buenos Aires: Lionel Messi will captain the Argentina national football team, which also includes prolific striker Sergio Aguero, for friendlies in China against Brazil and Hong Kong.

Head coach Gerardo Martino called on goalkeeper Agustin Marchesin and midfielders Leonel Vangioni and Fernando Gago, all of whom play for Argentine clubs, to round-off the 22-man lineup, reports Xinhua.

Argentina will play Brazil at Beijing’s National Stadium Oct 11 and Hong Kong Oct 14.

Bharat Forge keen to invest in Andhra Pradesh

Hyderabad: Bharat Forge is keen to invest in Andhra Pradesh in defence technologies, renewable energy and automobile forging, the company’s chairman Baba N. Kalyani said as he met the state’s Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in Davos.

Naidu, who is in Davos to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) summit, met some top business leaders. He told them about single-desk initiative of his government and assured of industrial approvals within 21 days.

The chief minister suggested that Anantapur or Kurnool would be suitable for defence technologies, Krishnapatnam-Yerpedu-Tirupati for investments in auto components manufacturing since it has a port and an ecosystem of auto manufacturers in Sri City and Chennai.

BRICS on growth track through planned reform: Experts

Davos (Switzerland): The economies of BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — are constantly growing through planned structural reforms, experts said at the 45th World Economic Forum annual meeting here Thursday.

In a session debating the economic outlook for BRICS countries, speakers showed optimism over their potentials.

India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that India intended to return to an eight-nine percent growth rate, and that the recent change in government had led to greater clarity regarding the path forward and a changed mindset, inside and outside the country.

Sensex, Nifty scale new peaks

Mumbai: A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Friday scaled a new peak and was trading at 346.31 points or 1.19 percent up.

All the sectors were trading in green. The rally was led by the banking, auto, capital goods, health care and metal sectors.

The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 29,189.45 points, was trading at 29,352.33 points (at 09.24 a.m.) in the early session, up 346.31 points or 1.19 percent from the previous day’s close at 29,006.02 points.

BJP releases final list of four candidates

New Delhi: The BJP Tuesday released its final list of four candidates for the Feb 7 Delhi assembly polls.

The Bharatiya Janata Party selected Sanjay Singh for Vikaspuri, Sarita Chadhury for Mehrauli, Rakesh Gulia for Greater Kailash and Nandini Sharma for Malviya Nagar.

The BJP had named 62 candidates Monday night. It was followed by a list of four candidates released by its ally Shiromani Akali Dal Tuesday evening.

The results of the assembly polls will be declared Feb 10.

Source : IBN7