India, Japan, U.S. plan to push ties to next level

India, the U.S. and Japan are set to raise their trilateral engagement to the ministerial level, with a meeting of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry planned on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. Officials of the three countries meet twice a year, but the elevation of the engagement to the political level will mark a new beginning in the cooperation, with potential implications for the Indian Ocean region.

The ministerial meeting will fulfil a promise made in the India-U.S. joint statement of September 30, 2014, after a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Barack Obama.

Veteran Leftist Sadhan Gupta passes away

He was Independent India’s first visually-challenged MP.

Independent India’s first visually-challenged MP Sadhan Gupta has died following age-related illness.

The veteran Communist and eminent lawyer died late on 19^th September night, Communist Party of India (Marxist) party officials said. He was 98 and is survived by four daughters and a son.

SC launches portal on pendency of cases

The pendency statistics would be updated by district court complexes on a daily basis.

Inviting the public to keep tabs on the burgeoning case pendency rates in their local courts, the Supreme Court on Saturday launched the public access portal of the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) district courts in a step towards demystification of the judicial process for the ordinary citizen.

With this, the ambitious effort to digitise court system through the eCourts Project has reached the public, encouraging the litigants and the general public to watch the pendency graphs and, may be in the future, suggest solutions against delayed justice.

The NJDG already has information of 1.94 crore pending cases out of about 2.7 crore cases in district courts, except those in Madhya Pradesh and Delhi, where case data is being migrated to national version of case information software.

The public access portal, designed under the guidance of Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu and inaugurated by Justice Madan B. Lokur, who is the apex court\'s eCommittee chief, will disseminate for the public national, State, district and court-wise information about institution and disposal of cases on a monthly basis. It would also separately provide data and details of cases filed by senior citizen and women.

9 kabaddi players die in road mishap

Nine kabaddi players died and 10 others critically injured when a mini-truck carrying them plunged off a bridge in Odisha’s Sundargarh district.

While eight persons died soon after the accident, one more succumbed to injuries on Sunday. The victim, Sudarshan Kalo (24), was undergoing treatment at Ispat General Hospital at Rourkela.

Most of victims were from Sendhapur village. The players had gone to take part in a kabaddi tournament in Dhudigaon village. At Suarapalli square, the driver of the truck lost control as a result of which the vehicle overturned. The police aided by locals immediately started shifting the injured ones to hospitals.

Three persons were declared brought dead at Lahunipara Health Center. Five others succumbed to their injuries later.

Government releases kharif crops production estimates

The cumulative rainfall during the current monsoon season has been deficient by 15 per cent (higher than rainfall deficit of 12 per cent in 2014-15). However, on account of timely onset of monsoon as well as Government’s multiple interventions with contingency plans, timely advisories and regular monitoring of seed and fertilizer availability, estimated production of most of the crops during current kharif season has been higher in comparison to the first advance estimates for 2014-15, according to the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare.

The government has released the first advance estimates of production of major kharif crops for 2015-16. As per these preliminary estimates, total production of kharif foodgrains is put at 124.05 million tonnes, which is higher by 3.78 million tonnes compared to production of 120.27 million tonnes of foodgrains as per first advance estimates for 2014-15.

Production of kharif rice estimated at 90.61 million tonnes is higher by 2.59 million tonnes. Total production of kharif coarse cereals is estimated at 27.88 million tonnes, which is higher by 0.83 million tonnes compared to production of 27.05 million tonnes of kharif coarse cereals estimated in 2014-15. However, the production estimate for maize is marginally lower this year as compared to the corresponding period.

Increase in area under urad and moong has led to increase in production of kharif pulses estimated at 5.56 million tonnes against their production of 5.20 million tonnes. Among pulses, production of tur is estimated to decline by 0.13 million tonnes compared to the previous year.

As per first advance estimates for 2015-16, production of kharif oilseeds is 19.89 million tonnes, compared to production of 19.66 million tonnes.

Production of sugarcane, estimated at 341.43 million tonnes, is lower by 1.36 million tonnes. The output of cotton estimated at 33.51 million bales (of 170 kg each) is also lower by 1.12 million bales. Production of jute, estimated at 10.28 million bales (of 180 kg each), is marginally lower than in 2014-15.

IT dept to use email for issuing notices

The Central Board of Direct Taxes is working on a strategy to create the required processes and capacity in this regard.

In what is seen as welcome news for taxpayers, the IT department has decided to launch a new system of issuing email notices to which an assessee can respond electronically, obviating the need for a physical interface with the taxman which often led to complaints about harassment.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes, the apex policy-making body of the IT department, is working on a strategy to create the required processes and capacity in this regard.

Bharti Airtel announces launch of 4G services in Arunachal

Bharti Airtel Limited, the third largest mobile services provider globally with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, on 19^th September, announced the commercial launch of its high speed 4G services (also called LTE) in Itanagar.

Nepal adopts first democratic Constitution

On 20^th September, Nepal adopted its first democratic Constitution, a historic step for a nation that has seen war, a palace massacre and devastating earthquakes since a campaign to create a modern state began more than 65 years ago.

President Ram Baran Yadav promulgated the charter intended to unite the country, but it has already exacerbated divisions in some places with 40 people killed in protests against it in recent weeks.

‘Hollywood Wives’ novelist Jackie Collins dies

Jackie Collins, the bestselling author of dozens of novels including Hollywood Wives that dramatised the lives of the rich and treacherous, died.

Collins died of breast cancer in Los Angeles, publicist Melody Korenbrot told The Associated Press. She was 77.

Here are the 17 new UN development goals for 2030

The 193 member states of the United Nations in the coming days will adopt 17 new development goals to be achieved by 2030. The goals will be added to the world agenda at a global summit just before the annual gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly.

The new goals replace the eight Millennium Development Goals adopted at a summit in 2000. Those expire at the end of 2015.

Radhika Thilak is dead

Noted singer Radhika Thilak died here on 20^th September  night after battling cancer for over a year. She was 45. The death occurred around 8.30 p.m. at a private hospital in the city where she had been under treatment. She is survived by her husband Suresh, and daughter Devika. The cremation will be held on 21^st September.

A natural singer who made her way to tinsel town through hard work and perseverance, Radhika gave her voice to nearly 55 films in an active career spanning over a decade and more. Her playback debut was Pachilathoni Thuzhanju composed by Berny Ignatius.

Jagmohan Dalmiya, BCCI chief, passes away

Dalmiya was involved with the BCCI for more than three decades, starting his journey as its treasurer in 1983.

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Jagmohan Dalmiya, 75, passed away at a hospital here on 20^th September. The end came around 9 p.m.

He was involved with the BCCI for more than three decades, starting his journey as its treasurer in 1983 before becoming its secretary.

He became president of the International Cricket Council in 1997 and held the post till 2000. He became BCCI president in 2001 and continued till 2004. He was instrumental in organising the World Cups in 1987 and 1996. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who visited the hospital, said he would be given a state funeral.

Four new isotopes discovered

The burgeoning periodic table will see four more isotopes being added to its fag end.

H. M. Devaraja from the Manipal Centre of Natural Sciences at Manipal University, Karnataka — who was a part of an international collaboration — has, in a paper published in the journal Physics Letters B,  claimed to have discovered four new atomic nuclei.  These are one isotope each of the heavy elements berkelium (Bk, atomic number 97) and neptunium (Np, 93) and two isotopes of the element americium (Am, 95).

 The researchers observed the deep inelastic multinucleon transfer reactions of Calcium 48, and Curium 248. The multinucleon reactions occur in collision of two complex nuclei. The resulting reaction sees intense dissipation of energy as well as mass distributions of the products of which neutron rich and neutron deficient products are of interest to physicists. Current techniques make it difficult to produce isotopes greater than atomic number 92.

 A beam of Ca48 was projected on to a 300-nanometer-thick foil of Cu248 at GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Germany’s linear accelerator UNILAC (Universal Linear Accelerator — which can accelerate ions up to 60,000 kmps — or 20 per cent the speed of light). The collision threw up over 100 residual nuclei with proton numbers between 82 and 100. Of these particles, four new neutron-deficient isotopes were found, and were confirmed by studying their decay chains: 216U (the previous lowest neutron deficient isotope of Uranium discovered was 217U) that decayed within 5.5 milli seconds (ms) to Thorium; 223Am which decayed within 7.5 ms to Protactinium; 233Bk which decayed in 30s to the new-isotope 229Am, which further decayed into Neptunium.

 The decay chain of the fifth isotope 219Np could not be observed as researchers believe it decayed faster than their system, whose smallest measure is 5 micro-seconds (0.000005 seconds). The known Periodic Table currently comprises over 3,000 isotopes of 114 chemical elements; while another 4,000 undiscovered isotopes are theoretically believed to exist. These isotopes, however, have far eluded experimental physicists.