Centre inks peace accord with Naga insurgent outfit

The government signed a peace accord with the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah), one of the largest insurgent outfits, which has been demanding a unified Naga identity and a separate ‘Nagalim’ State for over six decades.

The details of the accord were not released by the government, and there is no clarity on the “sovereignty clause,” being demanded by the insurgent group.

Besides the IM faction, there are two more groups — Khole-Kitovi (KK) and Reformation (R) — which were not part of the accord.

They have signed a ceasefire agreement with the government till April 27, 2016.

In March this year, the Khaplang faction, led by S.S. Khaplang, broke the ceasefire with India and is suspected to be behind a series of violent attacks in Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh, where 18 personnel were killed in an attack on an Army convoy.

R.N. Ravi, the Naga interlocutor, signed the accord with the NSCN-IM at a much publicised ceremony at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence. Besides Mr. Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval were present.

NSA meet: India ready with water-tight case

Backed with forensic and electronic evidence, the government will be presenting a “water-tight” case before Pakistan at the National Security Adviser-level dialogue saying the three militants involved in the Gurdaspur attack came from across the border.

The talks are expected to be held in Delhi on August 23-24. A top government official confirmed on Monday that the last week’s strike would be taken up. While India has consciously decided not to blame Pakistan for the attacks, it will present before it corroborative evidence like GPS coordinates and forensic evidence extracted from soil samples of the shoes of the three fidayeen militants, a senior official said.

Only 8.15% of Indians are graduates, Census data show

Despite a big increase in college attendance, especially among women, fewer than one out of every 10 Indians is a graduate, new Census data show.

Over the weekend, the office of the Census Commissioner and Registrar-General of India released new numbers on the level of education achieved by Indians as of 2011.

They show that with 6.8 crore graduates and above, India still has more than six times as many illiterates.

While rural India accounts for only a third of all graduates, the rate of increase in graduates was faster in rural than in urban India over the last decade, and fastest of all among rural women. From 26 lakh graduates 10 years ago, nearly 67 lakh rural women are now graduates. Rural Indians are more likely to have non-technical graduate degrees than urban Indians, while urban India accounts for 80 per cent of all Indian technology and medicine graduates.

Among those with a graduate degree or above, the majority (over 60 per cent) are those who have a non-technical graduate degree.

Obama takes ‘biggest step’ to tackle climate change

President Barack Obama unveiled the final version of his plan to dramatically cut emissions from U.S. power plants, as he warned anew that climate change will threaten future generations if left unchecked.

Touting the plan at a White House event on Monday, Mr. Obama said the unprecedented carbon dioxide limits are “the single most important step” America has ever taken to fight climate change. He warned that because the problem is so large, if the world doesn’t get it right quickly, it may become impossible to reverse, leaving populations unable to adapt.

“There is such a thing as being too late when it comes to climate change,” Mr. Obama said.

The final version of Mr. Obama’s plan imposes stricter carbon dioxide limits on states than was previously expected - a 32 per cent cut by 2030, compared with 2005 levels, the White House said. Mr. Obama’s proposed version in 2014 called only for a 30 per cent cut.

It also gives states an additional two years until 2022 to comply, yielding to complaints that the original deadline was too soon. States will also have an additional year to submit their implementation plans to Washington.

Rebranding, a part of Nasscom strategy to develop BPM industry

The Business Process Management (BPM) industry has, since its earlier avatar as the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry, had an unfairly harsh reputation, according the Keshav R. Murugesh, Group CEO, WNS Global Services, and Chairman of the BPM Council of Nasscom, the national IT and BPM industry body.

In a recent interview with The Hindu, Mr. Murugesh, a chartered accountant-turned CEO, spoke of his experiences and challenges as the head of a firm with a market capitalisation of $1.4 billion and just 29,000 employees, as well as his goals and related challenges as a spokesperson and stakeholder for the BPM industry – in his role at Nasscom.

‘Your mess for less’, was the initial selling point of the outsourcing industry, which used to take on the low-end work of its international clientele located in high-cost countries, Mr. Murugesh said. However, the industry had morphed over the last five or so years, and the name BPM was invented to more accurately reflect this.

Recalling his own experience of re-strategising and re-working WNS’s offerings, Mr. Murugesh said he started offering end-to-end verticals (top to bottom services in a particular sector), and this required hiring ‘domain experts’, such as experts in the field of finance and accounting, or leisure and travel.

Unfortunately, according to Mr. Murugesh, the public’s perception of the BPM industry has not kept pace with the changes in the nature of the business and phrases like ‘low-end’, ‘health and safety hazards’, ‘night-shift’ were still being bandied about. In a study by marketing research firm AC Nielsen, the BPO industry ranked 75th out of 85 job choices. Consequently, under the aegis of Nasscom, Mr. Murugesh is launching a campaign — Being World Worthy.

Chinglensana, Sunil score as India beat France 2-0

Talented Chinglensana Singh and seasoned S.V. Sunil struck a goal apiece as Indian men’s hockey team started their tour of Europe on a bright note with a 2-0 win over hosts France.

The Sardar Singh-led team dominated the proceedings throughout in their opening game, held yesterday.

The Indians drew first blood in the 18th minute (3rd minute of second quarter) when the opportunistic Chinglensana capitalised on the defensive lapse to enter the D and the powerfully struck hit found the back of the net.

The favourites increased the pressure on the French side with repeated raids in the opposition attacking third, which resulted in the second goal by SV Sunil.

Sardar, SK Uthappa, Danish Mujtaba and Devinder Walmiki were instrumental in India enjoying the better of exchanges and ball possession. Sunil, Ramandeep Singh and Akashdeep Singh kept French defence on tenterhooks throughout the second quarter.

The highly skillful Sunil scored a brilliant field goal as he did the spadework dribbling past a host of French defenders before slotting the ball home in the 26th minute (11th minute of second quarter).

Indian team held onto their lead till the end of the game. France upped the ante in the third quarter but the India defence foiled their goal-scoring bid.

In the last few minutes of the third quarter, France earned a penalty corner, which was successfully thwarted by India goal-keeper PR Sreejesh.

The fourth quarter was a closely-fought battle as both the teams pushed each others to score more goals. French players played with more aggression and they managed to earn back-to-back penalty corners.

But both were brilliantly saved by Sreejesh before Indians went on the counter but could not increase the tally.

India will play their second and last match against France on Wednesday at the Wattigies Sports Centre.

Cricbuzz named title sponsor of India-Sri Lanka Test series

Cricbuzz, one of the leading cricket news and information destinations on web and mobile, was on Monday named as the title sponsor for the upcoming India-ri Lanka Test series.

This sponsorship marks a major investment by the cricket information platform as it looks to build its association with the sport through the much-awaited Test series, starting August 12 at Galle.

India’s 20-day tour includes three Test matches to be held in the cities of Galle and Colombo respectively.

The English feed will be shown live and exclusive on Sony SIX and Sony SIX HD while the Hindi feed will be on KIX.

Founded in 2004, Cricbuzz is a destination for cricket fans with the best in class match coverage, comprehensive tracking of all news from the world of cricket, and exclusive editorials.

Through this association, the platform showcases its steadfast commitment towards the sport as well as focused efforts in creating a successful digital cricket business.