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In a startling incident, a two-month-old Labrador puppy was abducted by two goons in Bengaluru, while it was being walked by its owner. Reportedly, he was threatened by two unknown persons with a knife who then took off with the puppy. Ironically, the local police are refusing to take him seriously and file a complaint regarding the same.
Apple on Wednesday announced it has ditched the headphone jack in the latest iPhone model, the iPhone 7 ― a move tech industry watchers had widely predicted. The controversial move to eliminate the 3.5 mm headphone jack is aimed at speeding the adoption of high-end Bluetooth technology but could instead turn off many existing or potential Apple customers. iPhone 7 phones will be connectible to either Bluetooth headphones or wired headphones that fit Apple's proprietary Lightning port (the latter will come packaged with the new phones).
Aamir Khan announced that he is teaming up with Amitabh Bachchan for the first time in his career for a Yash Raj Films' project tentatively titled Thugs of Hindostan and directed by Vijay Krishna Acharya. While the male leads are out, the name of the leading lady has been kept under wraps. However, two sources told HuffPost India that Vaani Kapoor will be starring opposite Khan in the upcoming film.
According to recent reports, the US ride-hailing firm Uber, which folded its operations in China said that it will now allow it to invest more in India, where it has recorded rapid growth this year. The stakes for ride-hailing firms are particularly high in India, already one of the world's fastest growing taxi markets, as choking cities leave fewer Indians the room or appetite to buy their own cars.
India on Wednesday summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit to lodge a strong protest over the "discourtesy" shown by him to India's envoy to Pakistan Gautam Bambawale. Basit was conveyed India's view on the discourtesy towards Bambawale by Karachi Chamber of Commerce that cancelled an event at the last minute. Bambawale was scheduled to speak at the event, invite for which was received and accepted by him a couple of weeks ago.
Hundreds of BJP activists took to the streets of Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday in protest against the attack on the State party office. The demonstration, which was taken out to the Secretariat, was inaugurated by O Rajagopal, MLA. He alleged that over 300 cases of violence had been reported in the State since the Pinarayi Vijayan government came into power.
80-year-old Tara Balgopal, one of the most well-known dancers of Kathak, Kathakali and Bharatanatyam in India, had once been the jewel of the nation, is now waiting for help from External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj. Once closely associated with the Gandhi-Nehru family, especially with Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Indira Gandhi, Balgopal also taught actress-turned-politician Hema Malini how to dance. Balgopal, whose condition was brought to notice of Swaraj via Twitter, has now been waiting for help from the Government for quite a few weeks now.
In a bid to check road mishaps in rural area during night hours, Madhya Pradesh police is pasting neon stickers on the horns of stray bovines. The neon strips will reflect light and alert the vehicle drivers.
As a piece of unpleasant news this festive season, the Railways Ministry has decided to put in place the flexi fare system for premier trains — Rajdhani, Duronto and Shatabdi from 9 September. According to the new system, the base fares of these trains will increase by 10 per cent with every 10 per cent of berths sold subject to a prescribed ceiling limit. This means with the rising demands of tickets, the price will automatically increase.
Purvi Patel, the 33-year-old woman of Indian origin in the US who had been sentenced to 20 years in prison on the counts of foeticide and neglect of dependent, has finally been released from Indiana State Prison after serving a term of a little over a year. Despite her conviction being overturned, the presence and reach of several foetal protection laws expose the vulnerable status of pregnant women in the US, writes Shruthi Ramakrishnan in The Hindu. "While foetal protection is no doubt an important concern for a state, policing pregnant women through medical personnel only makes women more cautious about seeking medical care, which may have adverse effects on the health of a foetus. With hospitals acting as agents of the state, pregnant women, particularly those with a history of substance abuse, may be forced to withhold important information from their health-care providers or even opt out of pre-natal care in order to escape criminal prosecutions," she says.
Incumbents such as Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular face a difficult time, but it won't be easy going for Reliance Jio either, says an editorial in Mint. "Aggressive pricing means that break-even will get delayed. On the launch day, RIL's share price also dropped by close to 3%. Clearly, shareholders of existing operators are not the only worried lot. Jio is a huge diversification bet and its success will be critical for RIL and its shareholders," it says.
The sharp increase in nominal GVA growth — at a time of relatively stable inflation — is an unambiguously welcome development, both for what it signals about the improvement in underlying real economic activity and the hope it holds out for the health of the corporate and banking sectors, writes Arvind Subramanian in The Indian Express. "If agricultural growth improves as expected with the favourable monsoon, and if the drag from exports of the last two years has bottomed, as the latest numbers suggest, and if construction can perk up as a result of the recent reform measures, one can be cautiously optimistic about rising growth over the next few quarters," he says.
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