India sets rules for new bank permits in rural push

MUMBAI : India on Friday unveiled rules for issuing new bank licences in a push to expand financial services into the country's rural hinterland where hundreds of thousands of villages have no banking outlets.

Ninety percent of India's 600,000 villages do not have banking facilities, the Reserve Bank of India says, while fewer than half of the country's 1.2 billion people have a bank account.

Private companies, public-sector groups and non-banking financial firms will be eligible to apply for licences for new banks by setting up financial holding companies, the central bank said in a statement.

Groups seeking to set up a bank "should have a past record of sound credentials and integrity, be financially sound with a successful track record of 10 years", the Reserve Bank said.

The minimum capital needed to set up a bank will five billion rupees (US$91 million).

Also, the new banks will have to open at least a quarter of their branches in rural areas with no such facilities, and foreign shareholdings in any new bank should not exceed 49 percent in the first five years.

The need to set up more banks, especially in rural areas, has become increasingly urgent as the government seeks to pay cash directly to India's poor to ensure more efficient distribution.

Indian conglomerates like the Tata Group and the Anil Ambani Reliance group, which already own financial businesses, have voiced interest in setting up banks.

The Reserve Bank is seeking to follow a path of "financial inclusion", embracing swathes of rural India which have little access to banking services, the bank's governor Duvvuri Subbarao said.

No new Indian bank has been set up since the private Yes Bank in 2004. Yes Bank now is a leading industry player.

India currently has just 26 state-run, 20 private and 40 foreign banks.

Another 2,200 rural and co-operative banks cover other parts of the country.

The Finance Ministry said it hopes the Reserve Bank will be able to start issuing licences for new banks by the end of the next financial year, which runs to March 2014.

"With all going well, with all clearances, by end of the (next) financial year we will see some success," Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Takru told reporters in New Delhi.

- AFP/ch

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2 more ministers resign, Jagadish Shettar govt safe for now

BANGALORE: With in a month after 12 of its MLAs resigned, the beleaguered ruling-BJP yet again received a jolt.

Joining the list of the ministers and MLAs to resign, forest minister CP Yogeshwar and small scale industries minister Narasimha Naik resigned from the ministry by handing the papers to chief minister Jagadish Shettar on Thursday.

As Speaker KG Bopaiah was out of the state, Yogeshwar and Naik are expected to resign their assembly membership on Friday. Both of them resigned from the ministry following assurance from Congress that they would be soon admitted to the party. With two more wickets likely to fall, the list of BJP MLAs who have resigned in last one month adds to 14. In January 12 MLAs, including ministers Shobha Karandlaje and CM Udasi, loyal to former chief minister and Karnataka Janata Party (KJP) supremo BS Yeddyurappa resigned their assembly membership.

Shettar is said to have given dressing down to Yogeshwar when he went to put his papers. Sources present in the spot told TOI that the CM expressed displeasure over MLA from Channapatana saying the BJP has given him every thing including best of the portfolios and the minister did not have gratitude. "The party was hoping that you (Yogeshwar) would be a leader in Mysore-Karnataka belt, but was quitting for the sake of chasing power," Shettar is said to have expressed. Sources said Naik too received some admonish.

Hurry to put in papers, the duo set the journey to Kodagu district, 250 km from Bangalore to reach Bopaiah. But Yogeshwar and Naik had to return midway from Mandya after Speaker communicated saying he was out of the state and could meet them only on Friday.

Reacting to resignations, Shettar said there is no loss to the party by the developments. "They utilized BJP for maximum extent and are quitting at the when elections are round the corner. There is no good future in politics for the turn coats," he said. KPCC chief G Parameshwara maintained that Congress has nothing to do with resignations of Yogeshwar and Naik. "The Pradesh unit has sent the list to high command of the people who wants to join Congress from other parties. Tickets will be given keeping in mind of the party leaders and local units," he said.

Despite the daily trickle of BJP MLAs resigning, the Jagadish Shettar government has managed to keep its head above water and is surviving. More wickets are likely to fall in the coming days. So far the resignations tally of BJP MLAs stands at 14 apart from two others, whose papers are yet to be accepted by the Speaker. The other two ministers who resigned were Shobha Karandlaje and CM Udasi.

As of now, BJP's total strength in the House of 225 with 15 vacancies is 106 including Independent member Varthur R Prakash, speaker and nominated MLA. The combined strength of the Congress and JD(S) is 96.

Polls to 208 urban local bodies including seven city corporations, which is almost the pre-finals to the assembly elections due in May are said to be the reason for those wanting to come out of the BJP hurrying up. These members are also in haste to be rehabilitated in other parties with Congress and not former CM BS Yeddyurappa's KJP being the destination. Reason being they prefer to have a say in the selection of candidates for the civic polls who in turn will support them during the assembly elections.

Neither Yeddyurappa, who had taken a vow to topple the Shettar government nor the Congress or JD(S) are interested in unseating the BJP government. It is dying a slow death by the day. Yeddyurappa backed out of the idea after the BJP central leadership announced that Shettar would lead the party in the polls. Toppling a Lingayat headed government would have only earned him the ire of the community, whose hold he is trying to retain. The Congress did not venture as it would have led to governor HR Bhardwaj's intervention and ultimately President's rule. The JD(S) with its 25 MLAs just does not have the numbers to even consider the idea.

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Lead Pistorius Cop Facing Attempted Murder Charge

The South African Police Service said today that Hilton Botha, the lead investigator in the Oscar Pistorius murder case, will no longer be part of the investigation after this week's bail hearing ends.

The decision comes in light of the revelation that the detective is facing his own attempted murder charges in connection to a 2011 shooting.

"We became aware of the allegations that surfaced yesterday against the investigating officer in the Oscar Pistorius case," Police Chief Reah Piyega said at a news conference today.

Botha and other police officers allegedly fired at passengers in a vehicle two years ago.

"We were aware of the matter, it was in court, it was withdrawn and yesterday we got the decision of the NPA [National Prosecuting Authority]," she said. "At this point in time, it is premature for anyone of us to pre-judge this case."

PHOTOS: Paralympic Champion Charged in Killing

Botha will be allowed to finish the Pistorius bail application that ended its third day in court this afternoon.

Whether Pistorius is granted bail or not, Botha will not be part of the investigation team as it prepares for the Olympic sprinter's trial.

Piyega said Botha is "highly experienced" after 22 years of service and the matter "doesn't take away that experience."

Oscar Pistorius: Investigator Faces Attempted Murder Charges Watch Video

Oscar Pistorius's Bail Hearing: Prosecutors Argue Premeditated Murder Watch Video

Oscar Pistorius Bail Hearing: New Evidence Revealed Watch Video

A decision in Pistorius' bail application is expected Friday.

"With that part over, Botha has done what he was supposed to do and now we are going into the long haul of the investigation," Piyega said.

Botha is scheduled to appear in court in May on seven counts of attempted murder in connection to the October 2011 incident in which he and two other officers allegedly fired shots at a minibus they were attempting to stop. It's unclear whether any of the passengers were injured.

Botha has been outlining details this week at the Olympic runner's bail hearing of his investigation into the Feb. 14 shooting death of Reeva Steenkamp at Pistorius' home in Pretoria, South Africa. Botha was one of the first officers to arrive at the scene, where Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model, was found fatally shot three times.

Pistorius, a double-amputee who walks on carbon fiber blades, says he killed his girlfriend accidentally.

Prosecutors say they were unaware of the charges against the detective when he took the stand this week, according to The Associated Press.

"The prosecutors were not aware of those charges [against Botha]," Medupe Simasiku of the National Prosecution Agency said. "We are calling up the information so we can get the details of the case. From there, we can take action and see if we remove him from the investigation or if he stays."

FULL COVERAGE: Oscar Pistorius Case

Botha muddled testimony and eventually admitted Wednesday at Pistorius' bail hearing that the suspect's account of the Valentine's Day shooting did not contradict the police's version of events.

A spokesman for the NPA admitted today that charges pending against Botha were not helpful for the credibility of the prosecution's case, but that the case would hinge on forensic evidence, not the testimony of a police officer.

Pistorius has argued in court that he was closing his balcony doors when he heard a noise from the bathroom. Fearing an intruder, and without his prosthetic legs on, he grabbed a gun from under his bed and fired through the closed bathroom door, he told the court.

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Cycling: Giro d'Italia to start in Belfast next year

BELFAST, United Kingdom: Another of cycling's biggest races will start in Britain next year after organisers announced on Thursday that the Giro d'Italia will be flagged off in Northern Ireland.

The 2014 edition of one of the sport's three Grand Tour races will begin in Belfast on May 10, kicking off three days of action that will also include a stage finishing in Dublin, capital of the Republic of Ireland.

Michele Acquarone, head of the Giro and managing director of Italian race organiser RCS Sport, said: "Belfast will provide spectacular backdrops for the 2014 Grand Partenza (Big Start) and will add something very special into the history of this great cycling event."

Northern Ireland tourism minister Arlene Foster added: "Plans are already in motion to make the occasion a fabulous celebration worthy of Italian cycling traditions and the maglia rosa (pink jersey) itself."

The news comes after it was annonced in December that the first three stages of the 2014 Tour de France will be in England, with two in the northern county of Yorkshire and the third finishing in London.

Traditionally, Italy's Giro - in common with the Tour de France - never strayed beyond its own national borders.

But recently both races have opted for starts abroad, with the 104-year-old Giro launched from outside Italy every two years, latterly in Denmark in 2012.

Cycling star Bradley Wiggins, who last year became the first British winner of the Tour de France and also won Olympic time-trial gold, confirmed the Giro's prestige by declaring that he wants to win this year's edition above defending his Tour title.

Ireland cycling great Stephen Roche, who won the Giro back in 1987, was present for Thursday's announcement at the Titanic Belfast visitors' centre.

"The Giro is maybe distinctive in that it is probably the second biggest event for me, in my opinion (after the Tour de France)," he said.

"When you consider the passion these people have, the passion these people have shown to us this morning, it is duplicated throughout the whole Italian nation."

He recalled that in 1987 the crowds were warm and enthusiastic.

"When you see all the people on the roadsides of Italy, the enthusiasm of poor and rich, they all come together for this event," Roche said, adding that the support he received during the Giro spurred him to success in the Tour de France.

"It gave me a lot of extra confidence for the Tour," he said. "Then you are surfing the wave and you become, I would not say unbeatable, but the fact that you have one big win under your belt, it makes the rest much more possible."

- AFP/de

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Major challenge before nation is to create jobs: Anand Sharma

MUMBAI: Commerce & industry minister Anand Sharma has admitted that the creation of jobs is a major challenge before the nation.

It is necessary to go back to a high rate of economic growth rate of around 9 per cent per annum, he added.

Speaking on the issue of corruption and scams, the minister claimed India has in place an "effective mechanism in the form of free judiciary to fix the problem".

Citing the example of the Satyam scam, Sharma said the government had facilitated the transfer of ownership in a transparent manner, at the same time protecting over 20,000 jobs. He said, "Unfortunately, only the negatives get magnified and the positives are not reported by the media."

Sharma was speaking at a CII interaction titled 'Transforming India: Role of Youth' before 500 students of St Xavier's College in Mumbai. "High growth is not an option but an imperative. The larger issue is not just numbers but the social dimension. If we fail to address the issue of job creation, the social cost will be unbearable," he warned.

In order to generate more employment, he said that the share of manufacturing in the GDP must climb up to 26 per cent from the current 16 per cent. Sharma believes the National Manufacturing Policy is one of the key instruments to achieve this goal. He briefed students about the National Skill Development Mission which has set an ambitious target of imparting job skills to 500 million persons by the year 2022.

Claiming that the Centre is serious about making India a major manufacturing hub, Sharma said the government is in the process of establishing 12 stand-alone world class industrial townships across the country. Terming the upcoming Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor as the biggest industrial infrastructure project in the world at this time, Sharma said that nine of the 12 industrial townships fall under DMIC, with the 900 sq km Dholera Industrial Centre in Gujarat being the largest.

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Future science: Using 3D worlds to visualize data

CHICAGO (AP) — Take a walk through a human brain? Fly over the surface of Mars? Computer scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago are pushing science fiction closer to reality with a wraparound virtual world where a researcher wearing 3D glasses can do all that and more.

In the system, known as CAVE2, an 8-foot-high screen encircles the viewer 320 degrees. A panorama of images springs from 72 stereoscopic liquid crystal display panels, conveying a dizzying sense of being able to touch what's not really there.

As far back as 1950, sci-fi author Ray Bradbury imagined a children's nursery that could make bedtime stories disturbingly real. "Star Trek" fans might remember the holodeck as the virtual playground where the fictional Enterprise crew relaxed in fantasy worlds.

The Illinois computer scientists have more serious matters in mind when they hand visitors 3D glasses and a controller called a "wand." Scientists in many fields today share a common challenge: How to truly understand overwhelming amounts of data. Jason Leigh, co-inventor of the CAVE2 virtual reality system, believes this technology answers that challenge.

"In the next five years, we anticipate using the CAVE to look at really large-scale data to help scientists make sense of that information. CAVEs are essentially fantastic lenses for bringing data into focus," Leigh said.

The CAVE2 virtual world could change the way doctors are trained and improve patient care, Leigh said. Pharmaceutical researchers could use it to model the way new drugs bind to proteins in the human body. Car designers could virtually "drive" their new vehicle designs.

Imagine turning massive amounts of data — the forces behind a hurricane, for example — into a simulation that a weather researcher could enlarge and explore from the inside. Architects could walk through their skyscrapers before they are built. Surgeons could rehearse a procedure using data from an individual patient.

But the size and expense of room-based virtual reality systems may prove insurmountable barriers to widespread use, said Henry Fuchs, a computer science professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who is familiar with the CAVE technology but wasn't involved in its development.

While he calls the CAVE2 "a national treasure," Fuchs predicts a smaller technology such as Google's Internet-connected eyeglasses will do more to revolutionize medicine than the CAVE. Still, he says large displays are the best way today for people to interact and collaborate.

Believers include the people at Marshalltown, Iowa-based Mechdyne Corp., which has licensed the CAVE2 technology for three years and plans to market it to hospitals, the military and in the oil and gas industry, said Kurt Hoffmeister of Mechdyne.

In Chicago, researchers and graduate students are creating virtual scenarios for testing in the CAVE2. The Mars flyover is created from real NASA data. The brain tour is based on the layout of blood vessels in a real patient.

Brain surgeon Ali Alaraj remembered the first time he viewed the brain using the CAVE2.

"You can walk between the blood vessels," said the University of Illinois College of Medicine neurosurgeon. "You can look at the arteries from below. You can look at the arteries from the side.... That was science fiction for me."

Would doctors process information faster with fewer errors using CAVE2? That's the question behind a proposed study that would compare CAVE2 to conventional methods of detecting brain aneurysms and determining proper treatment, said Andreas Linninger, UIC professor of bioengineering, chemical engineering and computer science.

But it's not all serious business at the lab.

In his spare time during the past two years, research assistant Arthur Nishimoto has been programming the CAVE2 computer with the specifications for the fictional Starship Enterprise. He now can walk around his life-size recreation of the TV spacecraft.

The original technology, introduced in the early 1990s, was called CAVE, which stood for Cave Automatic Virtual Environment and also cleverly referred to Plato's cave, the philosopher's analogy about shadows and reality. It was named by former lab co-directors Tom DeFanti and Dan Sandin.

The second generation of the CAVE, invented by Leigh and his collaborator Andy Johnson, has higher resolution. The project was funded by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.

"It's fantastic to come to work. Every day is like getting to live a science fiction dream," Leigh said. "To do science in this kind of environment is absolutely amazing."

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AP Medical Writer Carla K. Johnson can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/CarlaKJohnson.

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Pistorius Shots Said to Come From High Angle

At the second day of a bail hearing for Olympian Oscar Pistorius, a South African investigator who arrived at the scene of the Feb. 14 fatal shooting said that Reeva Steenkamp was shot from a high angle, which prosecutors say contradicts the runner's account that he was not wearing his prosthetics when he shot his girlfriend to death.

Pistorius, a double-amputee who runs on carbon-fiber blades, appeared in court for the second day in a row after his arrest in the death of girlfriend Steenkamp at his gated home in Pretoria, South Africa.

Read Oscar Pistorius' Full Statement to the Court

PHOTOS: Paralympic Champion Charged in Killing

Arresting officer Hilton Botha told the court today that the 26-year-old was standing in the master bathroom when he shot the supermodel, who was crouched in a defensive position behind a locked door in a smaller powder room. He also said that the bullets that were fired had been fired from high up, and the bullets seemed to be coming in a downward direction.

"[The angle] seems to me down. Fired down," Botha told the court.

Pistorius said Tuesday that he went to the bathroom and fired through the door before putting on his prosthetic legs.

Oscar Pistorius: Defense Presents New Evidence Watch Video

'Blade Runner' Appears in Court to Hear Murder Charges Watch Video

He said he mistakenly shot his girlfriend, thinking she was an intruder.

Prosecutors also said that they found two boxes of testosterone in the bedroom, although the defense disputes that, saying it's just herbal supplements.

The court also heard that a witness, someone about 2,000 feet away from Pistorius' home, heard nonstop fighting the morning of the shooting.

"We have a witness who says she heard non-stop shouting and fighting between 2 and 3 a.m.," said prosecutor Gerrie Nel, who added that another witness saw lights on at the time of the gunshots.

Pistorius says he spent a quiet night with Steenkamp before the shooting.

Nel said that Pistorius' actions and phone calls on the night indicate pre-planning, and that there was a "deliberate aiming of shots at the toilet from about 1.5 meters [about 5 feet]."

He says Steenkamp was shot on the right side of her body.

Officer Botha also said Pistorius should be considered a flight risk because investigators discovered that he has offshore bank accounts and a house in Italy.

"I think it would be hard to get him back," Botha told the court. "This is a very serious crime, shooting an unarmed woman behind closed door."

Prosecutors also say they may file more charges for unlicensed ammunition, after a special-caliber .38 round was found in a safe in Pistorius' home.

Botha told the court today that he arrived at Pistorius' home at 4:15 a.m. Valentine's Day to find Steenkamp already dead, dressed in a white shorts and a black vest, and covered in towels. The only thing that Pistorius said was, 'I thought it was a burglar,'" according to Botha.

The 26-year-old sprinter Tuesday denied that he willfully killed Steenkamp, telling the court that he shot the woman through his bathroom door because he believed she was an intruder.

Botha said today that he attended Steenkamp's postmortem, and that she had three entrance wounds: one on the head, one in the elbow and one in the hip.

Describing the scene to the court, Botha said that the shots fired into the bathroom were aimed at the toilet bowl.

The shooter "would have to walk into the bathroom and turn directly at the door to shoot at the toilet the way the bullets went," he said.

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Japan probe finds Dreamliner battery improperly wired

TOKYO: Japanese officials probing the emergency landing of a Boeing Dreamliner said on Wednesday that the plane's battery pack was improperly wired, but added this was unlikely to have caused it to overheat.

A series of problems with Boeing's next-generation aircraft sparked multiple probes around the world and the grounding of the entire Dreamliner fleet last month after the domestic All Nippon Airways (ANA) flight was forced to land.

Japanese investigators have focused on the ANA Dreamliner's main lithium-ion battery, which was severely damaged by what they believe to have been a build up of heat that resulted in uncontrollably high temperatures.

Japan's Transport Safety Board said on Wednesday it had discovered that the circuit wiring of the burned battery and another one were connected, even though this is not typical in airplanes.

However, investigators added that the battery system has a system to block a reverse current and it had remained intact so the "unusual" wiring was an unlikely culprit for the overheating.

Investigators said they would now expand the scope of their search to include the aircraft's circuit wiring.

"We have been investigating what happened, but as we haven't got to a point where we can say why it happened yet, we can't say we've made progress," Norihiro Goto, chairman of the Japan Transport Safety Board, told a press briefing.

The unusual circuit wiring may have affected the digital flight data recorder's measuring of voltage in the burned battery, investigators added.

ANA and Japan Airlines (JAL), major customers of the aircraft with more than 100 combined orders, have been hit hard by the grounding, slashing hundreds of flights, affecting tens of thousands of passengers.

- AFP/de

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Russia should induct BrahMos missile: Antony

NEW DELHI: Russia should induct the joint venture BrahMos supersonic cruise missile to fully appreciate its tie up with India for developing the weapon system, defence minister AK Antony said on Tuesday.

"Russia should induct BrahMos in their fleet so that the success achieved in the joint venture will be fully appreciated," he said here.

The missile is yet to be inducted into the Russian armed forces. BrahMos has been pushing for the induction of the missile on under-construction Russian warships which are similar to Indian Navy's Talwar Class frigates.

The minister was addressing a gathering on the 'Partnership Day'' marking the 15th anniversary of the signing of inter-governmental agreement (IGA) between India and Russia for the setting up of the BrahMos joint venture.

Antony said IAF will soon have BrahMos both, on land and air platforms, making it a real force multiplier for all the wings of the Indian armed forces.

"Army, Navy and Air Force consider BrahMos to be an important weapon due to its speed, precision and power. The government has also decided to expand the infrastructure at multiple centres to cater to larger production requirement of BrahMos missiles and systems," he said.

Antony said cooperation between the scientists and scientific expertise of DRDO and NPOM and many other organisations from India and Russia have proved that there is a way to do things faster and take the lead in the world.

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UK patient dies from SARS-like coronavirus

LONDON (AP) — A patient being treated for a mysterious SARS-like virus has died, a British hospital said Tuesday.

Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, central England, said the coronavirus victim was also being treated for "a long-term, complex unrelated health problem" and already had a compromised immune system.

A total of 12 people worldwide have been diagnosed with the disease, six of whom have died.

The virus was first identified last year in the Middle East. Most of those infected had traveled to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan or Pakistan, but the person who just died is believed to have caught it from a relative in Britain, where there have been four confirmed cases.

The new coronavirus is part of a family of viruses that cause ailments including the common cold and SARS. In 2003, a global outbreak of SARS killed about 800 people worldwide.

Health experts still aren't sure exactly how humans are being infected. The new coronavirus is most closely related to a bat virus and scientists are considering whether bats or other animals like goats or camels are a possible source of infection.

Britain's Health Protection Agency has said while it appears the virus can spread from person to person, "the risk of infection in contacts in most circumstances is still considered to be low."

Officials at the World Health Organization said the new virus has probably already spread between humans in some instances. In Saudi Arabia last year, four members of the same family fell ill and two died. And in a cluster of about a dozen people in Jordan, the virus may have spread at a hospital's intensive care unit.

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