Hardik Patel, leader of the Patel quota agitation in Gujarat, on Thursday said he will start meeting MLAs of his community from Friday to know their stand on the reservation issue, which sparked violence across the state claiming ten lives last week. "We will start meeting Patel MLAs from Friday and ask them to clarify their stand on whether they are with Patels on the issue of inclusion of community in OBC category or with their respective parties," Hardik, the convener of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti, told reporters. Hardik was here to attend a condolence meeting of 32-year-old Swetang Patel, who allegedly died in police custody in Bapunagar area of the city.

Pakistan ready for short or long war: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif
Pakistan is ready for a short or long conflict and will inflict heavy losses on India in case "war hysteria" overcomes Indian leadership, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has said. Commenting on Indian army chief's remarks, he said, "Pakistan is fully prepared to give a befitting response if India imposed short or prolonged war." Army chief Gen Dalbir Singh had said recently that India is prepared for "swift and short" wars in the future.

IAS officer incharge of Swachh Bharat mission has quit
Vijaylakshmi Joshi, a Gujarat cadre IAS officer, who has been incharge of prime minister Narendra Modi's "Swachh Bharat" or Clean India mission has quit abruptly, even before the project could complete a year. She  has taken voluntary retirement citing "personal reasons". Joshi, a 1980-batch Indian Administrative Service officer, was in charge of the Swachh Bharat campaign that was launched last year with massive fanfare on Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary on October 2.

Smriti Irani invites suggestions on new education policy
HRD Minister Smriti Irani today invited suggestions from teachers and students of CBSE schools on the new national education policy, the draft of which is expected to be prepared by the year end. The new education policy seeks to involve stakeholders from cross sections of the society including the teachers and students, the consultation process of which has began from January this year. The inputs should be collected by November 15,she said at the award function Delhi.

Australian PM says IS militants worse than Nazis
The Australian leader, who is considering extending Australia's air campaign against IS in Iraq into Syria following a request by the United States, made the comments after describing the jihadist group's actions as "unspeakable evil" and "medieval barbarity". "I mean, the Nazis did terrible evil but they had sufficient sense of shame to try to hide it. These people boast about their evil," Abbott told Sydney commercial radio station 2GB.

Indian origin girl beats Einstein and Stephen Hawking’s Mensa score
She is just all of 12 years old but has a score of 162 on the Mensa test. Lydia Sebastian beat the IQ scores of Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking much to the astonishment of her parents after she wrote the Cattell III B paper​ supervised by the society, at Birkbeck College, London. Cattell III B has 150 questions. The maximum score achieved by adults is 161 while the maximum score for those under 18 years of age is 162. Only 1% of those who attempt Mensa's entry test have achieved Lydia's feat.

J&K High Court orders CBI probe into multi-crore JKCA scam
The Jammu and Kashmir High Court today ordered a CBI probe into the multi-crore scam in the state's cricket association. A division bench of the court, comprising Chief Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar and Justice Bansi Lal Bhat, pronounced the order on a PIL filed by two cricketers Majid Yaqoob Dar and Nissar Ahmad Khan into the scam in Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) that had surfaced in 2012.

Sensex surges over 300 points, Nifty ends above 7800
BSE Sensex and Nifty gained over 1 per cent on Thursday, tracking higher gains. The BSE Sensex ended 311 points higher at 25,764 while Nifty settled 106 points higher at 7,823. Global markets rose today, lifted by the strong rally on Wall Street overnight.  Most of the Asian markets ended higher today with Japan's Nikkei rising 0.50 per cent. Chinese share markets are closed today for a holiday. Overnight, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 293.03 points, or 1.82 per cent while S&P 500 gained 35.01 points, or 1.83 per cent.  Major European markets were over 1.5 per cent higher today ahead of the European Central Bank's (ECB) monetary policy decision.

Investment proposals in electronics sector cross Rs 1 lakh crore
Government has received investment proposals worth over Rs 1 lakh crore for manufacturing in the electronics sector, telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said today."We are promoting electronic cluster in a big way since last 14 months. We have received investment proposals of Rs 1.07 lakh crore till now on which we are going to give lot of incentives under MSIPS," Prasad said at the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of EEPC India.

The MSIPS that the minister mentioned is Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme and it provides subsidy for investments in capital expenditure which is 20 per cent for investments in special economic zones (SEZs) and 25 per cent in non-SEZs. Under it there is reimbursement of countervailing duty or excise for capital equipment for the non-SEZ units.

Ola to run only CNG cabs in Delhi, makes changes in its app
Ola Cabs made changes to its app and submitted an affidavit that it will ply from immediate effect only CNG cabs on the capital's roads. Senior advocate P Chidambaram assured the Delhi high court that Ola will roll back all diesel taxis in Delhi within two weeks. The court admitted the affidavit and later said that the company can run only CNG based cabs in the city, as per a Supreme Court ruling of 2001. The tweaked mobile application of Ola now asks a passenger whether he or she wants to ride to a destination within Delhi or outside. If destination selected is within Delhi, only a CNG cab will arrive. The company also sent messages to its registered customers about these changes.

Kashmir Economic Alliance calls for bandh on September 7
The Kashmir Economic Alliance (KEA), a conglomerate of trade unions on Wednesday announced to observe September 7 as a ‘black day’ against the centre for failing to rehabilitate the flood victims in the valley. The body has also called Kashmir Bandh on September 7, the day when floods had hit the state last year. “The traders will observe September 7 as a black day against the Central government and there will be a Kashmir bandh as well,” KEA Chairman, Showkat Chaudhary said at a press conference in Srinagar

Injectable polio vaccine to be used from November
India is all set to introduce injectable polio vaccine (IPV) in its universal immunisation programme (UIP) in a phased manner from November. India eliminated wild polio virus infection in January last year. In the first phase of IPV introduction, 17 high-risk states and four Union Territories will be covered. These are Bihar, Chandigarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar islands, Lakshadweep, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.