Scientific adviser Sathish adopts native village in Nellore

G. Satheesh Reddy, Scientific Advisor to the Union Defence Minister, adopted his native village, Mahimaluru, located in the Atmakur mandal.

One more dignitary has adopted his native village in Nellore District, increasing the list of such VIPs ever since the example shown by cricketer Sachin Tendulkar here last year.

G. Satheesh Reddy, Scientific Advisor to the Union Defence Minister, has joined this list of people and adopted his native village, Mahimaluru, located in the Atmakur mandal limits in Nellore District here on 4^th October.

DRDO sets up world\'s highest terrestrial centre in Ladakh

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) established the world\'s highest terrestrial centre at 17,600 feet above sea level at Changla near Pengong lake in Ladakh.
The centre will serve as a natural cold storage for preserving rare and endangered medical plants for generations to come.

The centre was inaugurated by Director General, DRDO Dr S Christopher. According to reports, the centre will act as an important utility for research work in frontal areas of food and agriculture and bio-medical sciences for well being of the soldiers deployed in high altitude cold desert.

A large number of Life Sciences activities are proposed to be undertaken at this centre.

Parliamentary panel on Lokpal gets third extension

The deadline for a Parliamentary panel examining the bill on anti-corruption watchdog Lokpal for submission of its report has been extended for a third time till November 15.

The 31-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, headed by Congress MP E.M. Sudarsana Natchiappan, is examining the Lokpal and Lokayuktas and Other Related Law (Amendment) Bill, 2014.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives for 3-day India visit

Expected to have high-level talks on defense, security and trade relations with PM Modi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed German Chancellor Angela Merkel as she arrived here on a three-day visit, saying he looked forward to strengthening the bilateral ties on 4^th October.

The two leaders will hold wide-ranging talks on Monday to significantly scale up bilateral relations in an array of key sectors with special focus on boosting trade, security and defence ties.

The talks are likely to focus on deepening bilateral engagement in defence, security, education, renewable energy, high technology, skill development, science and technology, railways, water and waste management, urban development and agriculture. India and Germany are strategic partners since 2001.

Merkel’s three-day visit here comes around six months after Modi’s visit to Germany and there have been expectations of “path-breaking results” from the summit-level Inter-Governmental Consultations (IGC) between the two leaders who have been pushing for unlocking the potential and taking the ties to higher trajectory.

SEBI wants mutual funds to lower costs

The watchdog also wants fund houses to improve their disclosure regime and make it simpler for investors by doing away with the current practice of having too many schemes.

To safeguard investors’ interest and help them maximise returns, markets regulator the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is set to tighten norms for mutual funds (MFs) by asking them to lower the cost of investments and be more vigilant about risky assets.

The watchdog also wants fund houses to improve their disclosure regime and make it simpler for investors by doing away with the current practice of having too many schemes.

A slew of proposals is being discussed in this regard by SEBI’s Advisory Committee on Mutual Funds and a final decision would be taken soon by the regulator on the basis of recommendations of this panel, a top official said.

The proposed measures assume significance in the wake of a major crisis that erupted recently on account of significant exposure of a small mutual fund to distressed debt securities of a listed company, while concerns have been raised about similar exposures of quite a few other MFs.

Flipkart appoints Sriram Venkataraman as CFO for commerce platform

Homegrown e-commerce giant Flipkart announced appointment of Sriram Venkataraman, as the CFO for its commerce platform and Pramod Jain as Vice President and Head of Taxation.

Mr.Venkataraman, as the finance lead for the commerce platform (CP), will head all aspects of the finance function for CP and will be responsible to drive the CP business to deliver its ambitions, the company said in a release.

He has over 19 years of experience in Unilever, handling a variety of leadership and operational responsibilities. His last role was Head of Sales Finance in Hindustan Unilever.

Govt to soon make PAN must for cash spending beyond a limit: FM

To check generation of domestic black money, the government will soon make it mandatory to furnish PAN card details for cash transactions beyond a certain threshold, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Sunday.

He said the monitoring regime of the income tax department has been strengthened and its capacity to access information and apply technology driven analytical tools to expose evasion, has been enhanced.

In 2015-16 Budget, the Finance Minister had proposed making quoting of Permanent Account Number (PAN) mandatory for all sale and purchase of over Rs. 1 lakh.

Thereafter, the government had received representations from various persons, including MPs, MLAs, trade and industry associations among others, against the proposed mandatory quoting of PAN for sale or purchase in excess of Rs. 1 lakh.

Apollo Hospital launches Homecare services

Having started nine hospitals already this year, Apollo Hospitals will also start operations in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Vizag soon, taking the total number of beds it has to about 10,000, said Dr. Prathap C. Reddy, chairman of the corporate chain, here on Saturday.

Launching the hospital’s Homecare operations here, Dr. Reddy said that the latest venture was initiated to take care of patients, post-surgery. “Also, bed occupation is going up to 80 per cent. What took us time (to start) was the IT, as we did not want software from America or Japan,” he mentioned, while unveiling the logo and website of Apollo Homecare.

Under Apollo Homecare, the hospital chain will provide post-operation care for patients to help them restore normalcy in their lives. Mr. Reddy also said that the cost of the new services were ‘reasonable’. “We are never cheap, we want to provide the best and there is a cost to it,” he further stated, adding that Homecare services would be launched in Hyderabad, Delhi and Chennai now, and would be extended to 13 more cities in the near future.