In major relief for India, the International Court of Justice on Thursday ordered Pakistan not to execute alleged spy Kulbhushan Jadhav till a final decision is taken.
Judge Ronny Abraham, President of the court, reading out the court verdict also asked Pakistan to inform it of all the measures it has taken to implement the order.
India on Monday had sought the court’s intervention for an immediate suspension of Jadhav’s death sentence, fearing that the Indian national may be executed even before the ICJ decided the case.

NEW DELHI : Union Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave died on Thursday. He was 61
Dave has been a member of the Rajya Sabha since 2009. He was sworn in as a Minister of State with independent charge of environment, forest and climate change in 2016. 
He was born in Badnagar in Madhya Pradesh. 
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday condoled the sudden demise of Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave, saying that it was a personal loss.
“Absolutely shocked by the sudden demise of my friend and a very respected colleague, Environment Minister Anil Madhav Daveji. My condolences,” Modi tweeted. 
“He will be remembered as a devoted public servant. He was tremendously passionate towards conserving the environment,” said Modi.
“I was with Anil Madhav Daveji till late last evening, discussing key policy issues. This demise is a personal loss,” he added.
Bharatiya Janata Party leaders on Thursday condoled the sudden demise of Environment, Forest and Climate change Minister Anil Madhav Dave.
 Dave, Minister of State for independent charge passed away at his official residence here. The exact time is not yet known. The incident came to light at around 7.30 a.m., when his staff tried to wake him up.  Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said: “Deeply shocked and saddened at the sudden demise of my dear colleague, Anil Madhav Daveji. My sincere condolences.”  “Shocked and extremely sad to know the sudden demise of my colleague Anil Madhav Dave,… My heartfelt condolences,” Union Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said in a tweet.  Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju said that the late BJP leader was the “perfect definition of a gentleman and good human being. I’ll forever miss his smiling character. May his soul RIP.”  Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said: “It is shocking and unbelievable that one of our most smiling, charming and youngest at heart colleague, Anil Madhav Daveji is no more with us.”  Dave’s death was confirmed by family friend, Meena Agarwal. She said: “His body will be taken to All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for embalming. Later, the body will be taken to Indore.”  Dave was sworn in as minister on July 6, 2016 following a reshuffle in the Modi cabinet.   He was born in Badnagar in Madhya Pradesh. He has been a member of the Rajya Sabha since 2009.  

Recently the world has witnessed the largest cyber-attack in the history named WannaCry ransomware attack which according to Wikipedia started on Friday, 12 May 2017 and affected more than 230,000 computers over 150 countries, the worst-hit countries are reported to be Russia, Ukraine, India and Taiwan. It is reported that the attack infects a computer when a user opens a phishing email which then hijacks their system and encrypts the files, in return the hackers demand to be paid in Bitcoins to decrypt the infected files and, although such emails have been alleged to be used to infect machines with WannaCry, this method of attack has not been confirmed. Once installed, WannaCry uses the EternalBlue exploit developed by the U.S. 
National Security Agency (NSA) which was leaked by Wikileaks two months before to spread through local networks and remote hosts, that have not been updated with the most recent security updates, to directly infect any exposed systems. A “critical” patch had been issued by Microsoft on 14 March 2017 to remove the underlying vulnerability for supported systems, nearly two months before the attack, but many organizations had not yet applied it. Shortly after the attack began, a web security researcher who blogs as “MalwareTech” unknowingly flipped an effective kill switch by registering a domain name he found in the code of the ransomware. This slowed the spread of infection, but new versions have now been detected that lack the kill switch. 
This does not end here, it is reported that the related attack, which installs a currency “miner” that generates digital cash, began infecting machines in late April or early May but had not been previously discovered because it allows computers to operate while creating or mining of a cryptocurrency called “Monero” in the background. Bitcoin is by far the largest crypto-currency, but the new mining program is not aimed at Bitcoin. Rather it targeted a newer and completely anonymous crypto-currency, Monero, those experts say has been pursued recently by North Korean-linked hackers.
These are some facts which are available on the internet widely, however according to Yoshi Solutions, India’s first and only Cryptocurrency Advisory firm that the cyber-attack is not the threat we are under, there is a lot more that meets the eye. According to Vishal Shori of Yoshi Solutions, the ransomware attack is not just about being up-to-date with windows update or antivirus signatures. It is about upgradation to the next technology, which is Blockchain and not Bitcoin. The difference between Bitcoin and Blockchain needs to be understood in order to understand the potential of the technology which is going to shape the future. This has been covered with utmost simplicity for understanding of a layman in the article “Blockchain – Internet 2.0” by Madhur Prabhakar, a cryptocurrency enthusiast who has been following Bitcoin, Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technology since 2013. He points out a food for thought for all the security experts and heads of the world to find the reason why the hackers demanded Bitcoins as ransom money, with such advanced hacking & cyber warfare tools why didn’t the hackers hack Bitcoin itself, which according to the governments is supporting illegal causes. 
The answer is very simple; Bitcoin or more importantly Blockchain cannot be hacked. This is the technology the world needs to adopt. Instead of criticizing Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies, India should study them and use the technology to stay one step ahead of these cyber-terrorists. 

Even as it is known that hypertension affects a large numbers of people in India, very few people actually acknowledge that they have high blood pressure. Fewer among them get their blood pressure checked regularly, a new study says.

The study, “Control of Hypertension in Rural India” aims to estimate prevalence, awareness and treatment of hypertension and identify barriers to hypertension control in rural communities in India. It is funded by the Global Alliance for Chronic Disease (GACD) and the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) and aims to develop strategies to better manage hypertension in rural communities.

Research done earlier by The George Institute for Global Health in rural Andhra Pradesh found that 29% of the adult population had hypertension and of these only 44% were being treated. 

Hypertension is a condition in which the blood pressure is elevated to a level at or above 140/90 mmHg. This medical condition is called a silent killer as it does not show any clear symptoms, however, severe hypertension shows some symptoms such as headaches, sleepiness, palpitations, blurred vision, fatigue, dizziness, confusion, ringing sensation in the ears, breathing difficulty, or irregular heartbeat which may lead to even stroke.

“Very little is known about the emergence of hypertension  in rural India, where 70% of the Indian population still resides,’’ says Dr Pallab Maulik, Deputy Director, Research and Development at the George Institute for Global Health India, in a statement issued to mark the World Hypertension Day. Dr Maulik recommends that while people should get their blood pressure checked regularly and wonders what prevents them from doing so.

There is some evidence that barriers to hypertension control differ according to the stage of transition of the population.  “An improved understanding of the awareness of hypertension in different settings and the barriers to prevention, diagnosis and treatment will provide the critical knowledge base we need to overcome these barriers in these differing settings,’’ Dr Maulik adds.

The study is part of a larger co-ordinated funding effort by member organizations of the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD) on hypertension prevention and control in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) that focuses on implementing effective approaches to control high blood pressure through community-based research projects. 

Government funded agencies including the Indian Council of Medical Research, is a member of the GACD. Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council, one of the member organizations of GACD, is supporting five of these projects, the statement says.

Each research project is conducted through a partnership between investigators in a high-income country institution and investigators in LMIC.

The study is being done in collaboration with Monash University, The George Institute for Global Health India and Australia, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Rishi Valley Rural Health Centre and Christian Medical College Vellore. It is being conducted in areas around Trivandrum and rural communities in Chittoor and West Godavari districts in Andhra Pradesh. The study in the West Godavari area is being led by The George Institute.

If you thought hypertension is a condition that affects only the adults and the elderly, you are totally mistaken. Pediatric hypertension is well on the rise.
  Primary hypertension is predominantly associated with a positive family history of hypertension, obesity, and life-style factors. And among the pediatric population it could be due to the well-established childhood obesity epidemic.   Identifying children with hypertension and successfully treating it should have an important impact on long-term outcomes of heart diseases.   One of the most important components of the successful management of childhood hypertension is determining whether or not there is an underlying cause that is amenable to treatment.   There are increasing evidences that adult hypertension has its antecedents during childhood, as childhood blood pressure (BP) predicts adult BP.  Children with hypertension are largely susceptible to cardiovascular risk factors. Although death and cardiovascular disability do not occur in hypertensive children, organ damage, such as left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), thickening of the carotid vessel wall, retinal vascular changes, and even subtle cognitive changes are detectable in children and adolescents with high BP.  Left ventricular hypertrophy occurs commonly in children and adolescents with high BP.   Among children and adolescents with primary hypertension, the presence of obesity could be associated with marked LVH. Carotid artery intimal medial thickness (CIMT), assessed by ultrasound, has been found to be greater in young adults who had had multiple risk factors since childhood.   It is also important to note that secondary causes of hypertension are more common in younger people with hypertension.   For these reasons, referral for more specialised evaluation should be considered.  Secondary hypertension (high BP caused by another medical condition) should, in particular, be suspected if patients do not respond to the initial treatment recommendations for younger patients.   Considering the rates of verified hypertension and pre-hypertension in asymptomatic children and adolescents, it is important to consider high BP as a common long-term health problem in childhood.   Prehypertension means that you do not have high blood pressure now but are likely to develop it in the future. Boys who are initially heavier (as measured by body mass index) and continue to gain weight may be at an increased risk of progressing to hypertension, compared with their thinner counterparts.   This condition also increases your risk of developing the known complications of high blood pressure — namely heart disease and stroke.   For both clinical and public health benefit, identification, examination, and treatment of children with high risk BP is an important step in reducing the excessive burden of cardiovascular disease.   Teenagers who know they have prehypertension or even high blood pressure can most likely avoid needing to take medication and developing complications of high blood pressure if they make some changes to their diet and lifestyle.   Regular physical activity is important and so is watching the amount of salt in the diet. A low-salt diet might help lower blood pressure.   The most important thing preteens can do is learn about which foods are salty and which are not. Weight loss and limiting the saturated fat in their diet can also help these children improve their heart disease risk factors.

NEW YORK : Forbes magazine has named Reliance Industries (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani as the topmost among its “Global Game Changers” who are transforming their industries and changing the lives of billions around the world.  Ambani features at the top of the Forbes’ second annual Global Game Changers’ list of 25 “intrepid business leaders unsatisfied with the status quo” who are “transforming their industries and changing the lives of billions of people around the globe.”   The American magazine referred to the Ambani-led Reliance Jio mobile network’s efforts to spread internet penetration in India.  “Oil and gas tycoon entered the country’s telecom market with a bang, offering fast internet at dirt-cheap prices. Gained 100 million customers in six months and set off a wave of consolidation in the market,” Forbes said.   “While plenty of corporate functionaries make headlines for successful turnarounds or record profits, we sought to identify true movers and shakers who are determining the course of the future for more than just their own shareholders or employees,” it said.  Forbes said those on the latest game changers’ list are re-imagining the many facets of everyday life, from health to money transfers through digital means.  The list includes home appliances company Dyson’s founder James Dyson, US investment management company BlackRock co-founder Larry Fink, Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, social media platform Snap co-founder Evan Spiegel and Chinese ride-sharing giant Didi Chuxing founder Cheng Wei.

(With Inputs from IANS)

The Hague : The International Court of Justice will announce its verdict on Thursday on India’s appeal against the death sentence awarded by a Pakistani court to alleged spy Kulbhushan Jadhav.

 The verdict is set to be announced at 3.30 p.m. IST. The verdict comes after India and Pakistan clashed on Monday at the ICJ over Jadhav with New Delhi invoking the court’s jurisdiction to see that the death sentence against him is annulled immediately.   Pakistan has said that India had no right to invoke the jurisdiction of the court because the Vienna Convention does not provide for matters relating to spies, terrorists and those who indulge in espionage.

NEW DELHI : In a major decision to fast-track Indias domestic nuclear power programme, the union cabinet on Wednesday approved construction of 10 units of indigenous Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR).

“The cabinet has approved installation of 10 indigenously built PWHRs of 700 MW each,” Union Minister Piyush Goyal said at a media briefing after meeting of the Cabinet presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Goyal, who is union Minister for Power and Coal, said the decision will result in significant augmentation of the country’s nuclear power generation capacity. 

He said India’s installed nuclear power capacity is 6,780 MW from 22 operational plants, and another 6,700 MW is expected to to be generated by 2021-22 through projects under construction. 

The government had in July 2014 set a target of taking nuclear power capacity to over 14,000 MW by 2024. 

The decision on construction 10 PHWRs comes days before the Modi government completes three years in office. 

Goyal said the move will give manufacturing orders to domestic industry to the tune of nearly Rs 70,000 crore and is expected to generate more than 33,400 jobs in direct and indirect employment. 

“As the government marks three years of its people centric-governance, in a first of its kind project for India’s nuclear power sector, the 10 new units will come up as a fully homegrown initiative,” Goyal said.

He said it would be one of the flagship “Make in India” projects in the nuclear power sector. 

The Minister said the project will help transform the Indian nuclear industry by linking the goal of a strong nuclear power sector with the country’s indigenous industrial capacities in high-end technologies.

“With manufacturing orders to domestic industry, it will be a major step towards strengthening India’s credentials as a major nuclear manufacturing powerhouse,” Goyal said.

He also linked the decision to the government’s clean energy goals and low-carbon growth strategy.

“It supports India’s commitment to sustainable development, energy self-sufficiency and bolsters global efforts to combat climate change,” he said. 

An official release later said that the project will bring about substantial economies of scale and maximise cost and time efficiencies by adopting fleet mode for execution. 

It said the 10 reactors will be part of India’s latest design of 700 MW PHWR fleet and will have state-of-art technology that will meet the highest standards of safety. 

The release said the approval marks a statement of strong belief in the capability of “India’s scientific community to build our technological capacities”. 

“It underscores the mastery our nuclear scientists have attained over all aspects of indigenous PHWR technology. India’s record of building and operating PHWR reactors over the last nearly 40 years is globally acclaimed,” the release said.

(With Inputs from IANS)

NEW DELHI : The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday approved the new coal linkage policy — Shakti — for the power sector.
 The CCEA said that Shakti — Scheme for Harnessing and Allocating of Koyala (coal) Transparently in India — has been envisaged to make optimal allocation of coal across power units.  According to CCEA, under the new policy, coal will be made available to all power plants in “transparent and objective” manner through the auction route.  The new policy mandates that coal supply auction be made on the basis of “linkage allocations to IPPs (independent power producers)”, which will result in “cheaper and affordable” power.  The earlier New Coal Distribution Policy (NCDP), 2007, had introduced a system of issuance of LoA (Letter of Assurance) wherein requests for linkage were forwarded to the Ministry of Power for its recommendations.   “Allocation of linkages for power sector shall be based on auction of linkages or through Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) based on competitive bidding of tariffs, except for the state and the central power generating companies and the exceptions provided in Tariff Policy, 2016,” an official statement said.  “Approved framework ensures that all projects with linkages are supplied coal as per their entitlement; ensures rights of coal supplies for FSA holders and signing of FSA with LoA holders.” 

(With Inputs from IANS)

NEW DELHI : The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the All India Muslim Personal Law Board if it was possible to give the woman the option, before she gives her consent to nikaah, that the marriage she was entering into would not be dissolved through instant triple talaq.
  The top court constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar suggested that a clause can be added on the Nikaah Nama to say that the marriage can’t be dissolved by the husband by pronouncing instant triple talaq.   The bench asked whether it was possible for the AIMPLB to do that and whether their advisory would be followed by the Qazis at the ground. You can incorporate this option in the Nikaah Nama before she gives consent to Nikaah to say no to triple talaq, Chief Justice Khehar asked the AIMPLB.   Responding to the suggestion, Senior counsel Yusuf Hatim Muchchala said that the advisory of the AIMPLB is not binding on the Qazis to follow on the ground.   However, Muchchala, who is also a member of the Executive Committee of the AIMPLB, referred to the recent resolution passed by the AIMPLB conclave at Lucknow wherein the Board has asked the community to boycott the men who take recourse to instant triple talaq to dissolved their marriages. The conclave took place on April 14, 2017.   He told the bench that they would consider the suggestion in all humility and would look at it. The suggestion to AIMPLB by the court came in the course of the hearing of a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of triple talaq.   AIMPLB, has in the course of its submissions while saying that triple talaq was permissible, described it as a “sin” and “undesirable”. The AIMPLB has said that the community needed time to change and reform itself on its own without any outside interference or dictate.

(With Inputs from IANS)