Olympics Day1: Heartbreak for Leander; Cheers for hockey

  After the glittering opening ceremony of the olympics was over, it was time to get back to the action on the field. The Indian men's hockey team began their campaign with a morale boosting 3-2 win against Ireland in their opening pool encounter. Dattu Baban Bhokanal produced a pleasant surprise in the men's single sculls event as he reached the quarter-finals after finishing third in his heat. In the first heat of the day, the 25-year-old from the Indian Army finished the 2000-metre race in seven minutes and 21.67 seconds at the Lagoa Stadium.   With nine first-round exits, India's campaign on day one of the 2016 Rio Olympics was a not a great one. Leander Paes was not Bopanna's partner of choice and the duo clearly did not enjoy the best camaraderie in the run up to the Olympics. That clearly reflected in their on-court performance as the Indians went down 4-6, 6-7 (6) to 's Lukasz Kubot and Marcin Matkowski of Poland. It was Paes' record-setting seventh Olympic appearance, which ended on a disappointing note for the veteran star. The day continues to go downhill for Indian tennis. Doubles pair of Sania Mirza and Prarthana Thombare make first round exit, losing 6(6)-7, 7-5, 5-7 to Chinese Shuai Peng and Zhang Shuai. Mixed doubles hope still alive for Sania. Indian challenge in TT ends as all four competitors fall in the 1st round. Later in the day, medal hope Jitu Rai finished eighth in the men's 10 metre Air Pistol event. Jitu produced a string of poor shots for a total score of 78.7 and was the first to be eliminated from the eight-man final.

Dir sentenced for rape; Wife says he is innocent

  A court on Thursday sentenced Mahmood Farooqui, co-director of Hindi film Peepli Live, to seven years jail after finding him guilty of raping an American woman and also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on Farooqui, who was convicted on July 30 of raping a 35-year-old woman from Columbia University who was in India for research on her doctoral thesis. But his wife says the judgement is unjust. In a Facebook post, Anusha Rizvi, the wife said, "Independent record makes the charge of 'forced oral sex' against Mahmood Farooqui simply impossible. The conviction is unjust for it ignores irrefutable evidence on the most flimsy grounds. "Indeed, it appears that the Judge has given more than the benefit of the doubt to the prosecution but has expected the defence to prove it's case beyond reasonable doubt.   We shall appeal the judgment." she said. She added: "Lives and reputations are irretrievably lost when there is denial of justice, but our fight for rightful exoneration continues. I firmly believe that we will secure justice in the High Court." Rizvi co-directed the critically acclaimed movie "Peepli Live" with her husband. The American woman, who moved to Delhi in June 2014, was looking for contacts for her work in Gorakhpur and came in contact with Farooqui through a common friend. The incident occurred on March 28, 2015 when Farooqui invited her for dinner at his house. While in court Farooqui denied the allegations, and claimed he was falsely implicated.

Apple iPhone sales drop by 35% in India

  Apple, which is planning to make it big in India in the coming time has got a big jolt with its recent sales figures according to a report by an analytics firm. Apple iPhone shipments fell 35 per cent annually at 0.8 million smartphones in India in the second quarter of 2016.  The company shipped 800,000 smartphones in India in Q2 2016, this compares to 1.2 million smartphones it shipped during the same quarter last year. Apple's smartphone marketshare halved from 4.5 per cent to just 2.4 per cent in India during the past year. "Apple iOS will need to reduce iPhone pricing to cheaper levels, attract more operator subsidies and enlarge its retail presence through Apple stores or online channels if it wants to regrow significantly in the future ", said the head of the firm which gave the report.    This sure seems to be a worry for the giant who is planning to open its company-owned stores in India. At its recent earnings call, CEO Tim Cook said, "In the first three quarters of this fiscal year, our iPhone sales in India were up 51 per cent year-on-year. We are looking forward to opening retail stores in India down the road and we see huge potential for that vibrant country,". While Android dominates the India smartphone market and looks unbeatable right now for its extensive distribution channels, and a wide range of low-cost apps. India is currently the world's third largest smartphone market, after China and the US. India is growing quickly due to low smartphone penetration rates, an expanding middle class with more disposable income, and intense competition among major vendors, retailers and operators says an official.

Soon Milk mafia could be given life sentence

  In view of the rampant adulteration of milk being taken place in the country these days the Supreme court has taken a note of this and has asked the government to look into the matter seriously. The Supreme Court on Friday said that offenders found guilty of adulterating milk with harmful chemicals should spend their life behind bars and directed the central government to raise the penalty to deal with the menace adding that the present six-month imprisonment "was" hardly a deterrent". "Since in India traditionally infants/children are fed milk, adulteration of milk and its products is a concern and stringent measures need to be taken to combat it. The consumption of adulterated milk and adulterated milk products is hazardous to human health," said the apex court. "As observed by this court earlier, it will be in order if the central government considers making suitable amendments in the penal provisions at par with the provisions contained in the State amendments to the Indian Penal Code.   It is also desirable that Union of India revisits the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 to revise the punishment for adulteration making it more deterrent in cases where the adulterant can have an adverse impact on health," said the three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur, which was acting on a petition filed by religious guru, Swami Achyutanand Tirth of Haridwar, four years ago. The court had earlier also pointed out this issue and said, "The poisoning in the body is gradual and once it happens people think they are afflicted with cancer and nobody blames milk. Are you waiting for them to add cyanide in milk? Only then instant death will be caused for you to take action," the court had said.

5000 cops for Modi's security in Telangana

  Prime Minister Narendra Modi's maiden visit to Telangana on August 7 will see over 5,000 police personnel deployed as part of the security arrangement. The foundation stone for the first phase of NTPC's Telangana Super Thermal Power Project (STPP) will be laid by Prime Minister on Sunday. The AP Reorganisation Act 2014 mandates that NTPC shall establish a 4000MW power facility for the newly carved-out state of Telangana. Around 1.5 lakh turnout of people is expected at the joint public meeting to be addressed by Modi and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao at Gajwel in Medak district. "Our priority is to maintain peace and security during the Prime Minster's visit.   As many as 5,000 police personnel will be deployed during his visit. We have identified four specific locations where security will be atits peak. Security on the way from Hyderabad to Gajwel will be tightened," Deputy Inspector General of Police (Hyderabad range), Akun Sabharwal said. "The ground where the public meeting will be held has a capacity of 2.5 lakh. We expect the crowd to be around 1.5 lakh for the meeting," he said. The officer said a total of 50 fixed metal detectors will be installed at all important entry points of the public meeting. During his visit, Modi is scheduled to launch 'Mission Bhagiratha' at Komatibanda in Gajwel mandal. The mission is the water grid project which aims at providing safe drinking water to every household across Telangana in the coming four years.

PM to address first ever Town Hall today

  Prime minister Narendra Modi will be going the Barrack Obama way today. Modi will interact with citizens at an indoor stadium in his first-ever 'townhall' style event on Saturday evening in true Obama style. The townhall to be held at the Indira Gandhi Stadium Complex in New Delhi will be preceded by a series of panel discussions and sessions in keeping with the Do, Discuss and Disseminate theme of MyGov and will culminate in the first ever townhall address by the Prime Minister. A new PMO app to enable mobile users to connectwith the PM's website will also be launched at the mega event.  The event is expected to see participation of various ministers and senior government officials, which will be inaugurated by IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and will have four sessions. "The Prime Minister will talk about the concept of citizen engagement, MyGov, the response to this participative governance initiative and how he sees the platform evolving," MyGov Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Gaurav Dwivedi said. The event marks two years of MyGov and PM Modi's session is scheduled between 5 and 6 pm. Those who would be short-lististed from among the regular users of MyGov, based on their ideas, level of engagement, questions and suggestions, will get to interact with Modi.   The townhall address will also see launch of new MyGov initiatives and distribution of awards to winners of MyGov contests - Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat, Duties of a Citizen, Governance Quiz and India Africa Quiz.

Vijay Rupani is the new Gujarat CM

  After various names being in the fray for the position of the next Gujarat Chief Minister, Vijay Rupali seems to have come out victorious.  Vijay Rupani will take over the top job of the state from Anandiben Patel who recently submitted her resignation.Nitin Patel will be the deputy chief minister of Gujarat. Rupani was picked for the state's top job by party MLAs at a meeting on Friday. The meeting saw the participation of BJP president Amit Shah and senior leader Nitin Gadkari as observers. The oath taking ceremony will take place on Sunday, 7 August, 2016. Rupani was considered the most non-controversial prospect as her successor , and enjoys wide acceptance among party cadre. Vijay Rupani is the state president of the BJP and was the minister for transport, water supply, labor and employment in Anandiben's cabinet.   He was elected an MLA for the first time in 2014, winning the Rajkot West seat vacated by Vajubhai Vala, who went on to become Karnataka Goveror. Anandiben Patel tendered her resignation to Governor OP Kohli on Wednesday evening, hours after it was accepted by theBJP's parliamentary board. Patel had been at the receiving end of a string of high-pressure crises in Gujarat. Also according to reports, Anandiben was pushing for Nitin Patel to be the next CM. She was not ready to listen to any argument against the Patel leader. She apparently said in a meeting that no candidate of Amit Shah should be the Gujarat chief minister.

Shabby, Unfurnished rooms for Olympic athletes

  The Indian Hockey team which landed in the olympic village to play their best game in the upcoming matches in the olympics was greeted with a shock. While every other team practises their hardest in the few hours left for the greatest opening of the year the Rio Olympics 2016 the Indian Hockey Team was left assembling chairs. The bright and spirited team landed in Rio with their head in the game, only to reach their guest quarters to be greeted by a barren room, save four bean-bags and two chairs.  “Hanging in these bean-seats will lead to injuries on the long-term. Apart from 2 chairs and the 4 bean-seaters, there is nothing in the living room, nothing to hang clothes also,” wrote Oltmans. “For athletes who have to perform at top-level during a longer period of the Olympics, we need proper chairs and tables in the apartments for 6 persons.   Actually there are only 2 chairs in each apartment.” Both men and women teams weren’t given the basic necessities that were provided to all the other teams, their Coach Roelant Oltmans wrote to the Chef de Mission, Rakesh Gupta, complaining about the shortage of chairs and television sets at the Games Village and the player’s apartments not being properly furnished. The team also has decided to skip the opening ceremony of the olympics due to the lack of official kit for the ceremony.  "The kit that was handed to the players has not fit most of them. The players didn't have the time to check the fittings since they reached Rio quite late and were given the kit on the day they started their trip," a source said.

Muslim couple removed from plan for saying 'Allah'

  A muslim couple were deplaned for allegedly "sweating" and saying the word "Allah" in a US bound plane. Pakistani-American couple has claimed that they were removed from a US-bound flight as an on board crew member felt "uncomfortable" after noticing that they were "sweating", saying "Allah" and texting. Faisal Ali and Nazia Ali were waiting for about 45 minutes on a Delta Air Lines flight in Paris to fly back to Cincinnati, Ohio when a Delta employee asked the couple to exit the aircraft as he needed to ask them questions. "We asked if we should get our stuff and he said, 'Yes, take all of your stuff as you won't be on that flight'," Ms Ali said. "That was really alarming." A French police officer was waiting outside the gate. "I was scared because it looked like some random guy was taking pictures of our passports on his personal phone," she said.   Nazia, 34, had removed her sneakers, finished sending a text message to her parents and was putting on headphones and settling into her seat for the nine-hour flight from Paris to Cincinnati when a Delta Air Lines crew member approached her and husband, Faisal. A flight crew member had complained to the pilot that she was uncomfortable with the Muslim couple a report said. The woman was wearing a head scarf and using a phone, and the man was sweating, she allegedly told the pilot. The couple, who have three young children under the age of five, were booked into a hotel by the airline overnight. "I told my four year old that you'll see me tomorrow, in another nine hours," she said. "But that didn't happen."