Virat Kohli promotes a healthy lifestyle; launches Stepathlon Kids

Virat Kohli promotes a healthy lifestyle; launches Stepathlon Kids

After launching his apparel line under the Wrogn brand name and investing in FC Goa in the (football) Indian Super League, Indian cricket Test captain Virat Kohli has now partnered with Stepathlon Lifestyle, a wellness-promoting entity, to launch Stepathlon Kids, a company dedicated to children's fitness programmes.

This venture will also mark Stepathlon’s entry into the business to consumer space. The company will also receive operational support from Cornerstone Sports and Entertainment, a sports celebrity management company.

The new firm, through an annual ‘30 Day Race’ around a virtual world, will urge children to take 15,000 steps a day, in a bid to have a healthy lifestyle and to create long-term positive behaviour. According to a study commissioned by the World Health Organization in 2014, as many as 22 per cent of children in India are obese and facing health issues. Stepathlon Kids will be focused on building children’s holistic health – encouraging of physical activity and educating them on nutrition, exercise, stress and more. Kohli will play a role in creating widespread awareness. Read more.

Black money window: FM Jaitley to meet industry chambers, CAs

Black money window: FM Jaitley to meet industry chambers, CAs

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will meet industry chambers, Chartered Accountants, and other professionals over the four-month window provided to holders of undeclared wealth to come clean.

According to reports, the Finance Minister will clear doubts about the four-month window provided to domestic blackmoney holders to pay their taxes and escape harsher penalties.

The Income Tax Department has already adopted a four-pronged strategy to ensure success of the scheme.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier warned the black money holders to take advantage of the scheme or face action.

This comes after the Prime Minister during his 'Mann ki Baat' address asked people to declare their undisclosed income by September 30, making it clear that this is the last chance to avoid problems that will follow after the window of opportunity closes.

"It will be better that you take advantage of the window provided and save yourself from the difficulties that you can face after September 30," he said.

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7th Pay Panel report to be approved soon: Here is how it will benefit govt employees

7th Pay Panel report to be approved soon: Here is how it will benefit govt employees

The government is likely to announce the implementation of the 7th Pay Commissionrecommendations soon.

A Committee of Secretaries headed by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha has submitted its report on the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission, which may be accepted, a financial ministry official said.

Based on the panel's report, the Finance Ministry is preparing a Cabinet note and the issue may come up for approval by the Cabinet as early as June 29.

The Commission has proposed a hefty 23.55% hike in salary, allowances and pension for 4.8 million government employees and 5.5 million pensioners.

The recommendations will lead to an additional burden of Rs 1.02 lakh crore or nearly 0.7% of the GDP.

Of the total financial impact, Rs 73,650 crore will be borne by the General Budget and Rs 28,450 crore by the Railway Budget.

Here is how government employees will benefit:

1) Entry-level employees: The entry level pay has been recommended to be raised to Rs 18,000 per month from current Rs 7,000.

2) Hike in allowances and salaries: The basic salary hike recommended is 16%, while that of housing rent allowance, other allowances and pensions are 138.71%, 49.79% and 23.63%, respectively.

3) Military personnel: The starting salary of a sepoy (the army's entry rank) has been raised from Rs 8,460 (plus grade pay and allowances) to Rs 21,700 a month. At the other end of the rank spectrum, a lieutenant general will now earn above Rs 2,00,000 per month.

New salaries in the lowest grades (Pay Band 1) will be 2.57 times higher than the existing base line salaries. This caters for a multiplier of 2.25 for merging Dearness Allowance (DA) into the salary.

According to the report, the sepoy's raised salary (2.57 times his current salary) "includes a factor of 2.25 to account for DA neutralisation, assuming that the rate of DA would be 125% at the time of implementation of the new pay as on January 1, 2016". Read more.

NIA officer murder case: Prime accused Muneer nabbed by UP STF

NIA officer murder case: Prime accused Muneer nabbed by UP STF

In a major breakthrough in the murder case of Deputy Superintendent of Police of NationalInvestigation Agency (NIA), Tanzeel Ahmed, the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) on Tuesday arrested Muneer, the prime accused in the case.

Muneer has been arrested from Noida and has been taken to an undisclosed location for questioning.

The Uttar Pradesh Police had announced a reward of Rs. 2 lakh on Muneer, who was absconding in the murder case of Tanzeel Ahmed.

The police had earlier said Muneer, who is the main accused of murder case, formed a gang along with his two associates and attacked Tanzeel Ahmed, when he was driving back home with his family from a wedding near his village Sahaspur in Bijnor.

According to reports, different investigative agencies along with the NIA are questioning Muneer. Read more

Asus ROG G551VW: A must-buy for hardcore gamers

Asus ROG G551VW: A must-buy for hardcore gamers

The running around involved in assembling a gaming rig has dissuaded many from PC gaming. But for a hardcore gamer who wants nothing less than a 60-frames-a-second (fps) rate, a good gaming laptop can do the trick.

Fortunately for me, I got my hands on Asus' ROG G551VW. Touted as a mean machine, the laptop claims to provide optimum gaming experience. Fitted with a Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M graphics card coupled with 4GB DDR5 graphics memory, the laptop runs graphic-heavy games with ease. Under the hood, it houses a quad core 6th Gen Intel i7 processor, which reduces the chance of a lag.

The 15.6-inch display and a 4K IPS panel makes it perfect for watching HD videos. I tried it out with my copy of The Great Gatsby and found the colours to be vibrant and sharp.

As it's a gaming laptop, it was natural for me to play as much as I could. It has a backlit keyboard so nocturnal gamers can rejoice. To begin with, I ran Far Cry Primal. Playing as Takkar in the Stone Age was not only immersing but the graphics card ensured there were no lags. Next, I ran Arkham Origins. The result was equally impressive - the creases on Batman's cape and distinct raindrops were a proof of how good the graphics card was. Interestingly, the laptop doesn't heat much, thus removing the need of a cooling pad.Read More.

Yashwant Sinha slams Modi govt on Pak, NSG

Yashwant Sinha slams Modi govt on Pak, NSG

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Sunday seemed to disagree with South Block's public comments on China blocking India's bid to enter the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). He advocated stronger India-China ties.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) senior leader Yashwant Sinha was more forthright in criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policies, both on NSG and Pakistan. Sinha termed the efforts to be an NSG member as "misguided". He criticised the PM's Pakistan policy in the light of the terrorist attack in Pampore. "I say this strongly that India should not accept the NSG membership. We should not go there as an applicant. Whatever we had to get, we have got it," 83-year-old Sinha said.

Meanwhile, South Block expressed hope that the nuclear export control group could take up the issue of India's membership at its proposed meeting by the end of the year.

Sinha, who has more than once criticised the PM and party president Amit Shah, said India has already got what it needed from NSG by the 2008 waiver and had more to lose than gain by now becoming a member.

On Modi's Pakistan policy, Sinha said "nothing" has come out, or will.

Returning to India after a six-day China tour, Chouhan said in Bhopal that dialogue with Beijing should continue, despite it having opposed India's NSG membership. "Dialogue with China should continue to strengthen economic ties. Both countries have their own nationalinterests," he said. Read more.