President's salary increased from 1.25 lakhs to 5 lakhs after budget 2018

Central government employees had high hopes from Budget 2018 in terms of salary hike. But, Finance Minister announced a hike in salaries of only President, Vice-President and Governors. The salaries of the President and the Vice President have been increased to Rs 5 lakh and Rs 4 lakh per month respectively, in a rectification of an anomaly.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announcing the hike in their salaries in his Budget speech said, “The emoluments of the President, the Vice President and the Governors were last revised with effect from January 1, 2006.” “These emoluments are proposed to be revised to Rs 5 lakh for the President, Rs 4 lakh for the Vice President and to Rs 3.5 lakh per month for the Governors,” he added, amidst thumping of desk by the members in the Lok Sabha.



Current salaries of President, Vice-President and Governors are Rs 1.50 lakh, Rs 1.25 lakh and Rs 1.10 lakh respectively.

These salaries are less as compared to the top bureaucrats and service chiefs since the laws were not amended to rectify an anomaly with the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission’s recommendations two years ago.

After the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission’s awards on January 1, 2016, the Cabinet Secretary, who is the top-most bureaucrat in the country, gets Rs 2.5 lakh per month and a Secretary in the Union government draws Rs 2.25 lakh per month.

The President is the supreme commander of all the three armed forces — the Army, Air Force, and Navy
but salary was less than the chiefs of the three armed forces.

President Ram Nath Kovind Awards Commando Who Died Fighting Terrorists

President Ram Nath Kovind was seen getting emotioanl at the Republic Day function today as he awarded the Ashok Chakra posthumously to Indian Air Force Garud Commando Jyoti Prakash Nirala. He got killed after shooting down three terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir last year.

After presenting the award to Corporal Nirala's wife Sushma and mother Malti Devi at Rajpath, President Kovind was seen dabbing his eyes with his handkerchief. Corporal Nirala was part of a Garud Special Forces Unit of the IAF, a team of which was attached to a Rashtriya Rifles battalion as part of 'Operation Rakshak'.



On November 18, an offensive was launched in a village in Bandipora based on specific intelligence. The Garud detachment covertly approached the target house where the terrorists were hiding and laid a close quarter ambush. Despite being hit by several bullets he kept on firing on the terrorists.

In an hour-long operation, the nephew of Lashkar-e-Taiba chief and 26/11 Mumbai terror mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi were shot dead.

Defence Ministry quoted in a statement "Corporal Nirala, displaying exceptional battle craft, positioned himself close to the approach of the hideout, thus cutting off all possibilities of an escape by the terrorists. Laying the ambush at such close quarters demanded a very high degree of courage and professional acumen,"

"Corporal Nirala exhibited most conspicuous gallantry in fighting with terrorists and made supreme sacrifice," it added.

Jyoti Prakash Nirala, a resident of Bihar's Rohtas district, had joined the Indian Air Force in 2005.

Major Vijayant Bisht of the Army, who led an ambush in Jammu and Kashmir's Uri district and killed two terrorists while saving the life of another soldier, received the Kirti Chakra, the second highest peacetime military award. 

Manushi Chhillar looking gorgeous in red gown at JIO Filfare awards

Miss World 2017 Manushi Chhillar took the red carpet look by storm when she appeared in red gown looking stunnig at the star sparkling event of 63rd Jio Filmfare awards held last night.
Later She shared the stage with Shah Rukh Khan and Ranveer Singh to entertain the audience.

Easy way to lose weight - Just change your meal schedule!

Did you ever imagine that losing weight could be so simple as just changing your eating schedule.

 “Eating only during a much smaller window of time than people are typically used to may help with weight loss,” said Courtney Peterson, an associate professor at University of Alabama at Birmingham in the US. “We found that eating between 8 am and 2 pm followed by an 18-hour daily fast kept appetite levels more even throughout the day, in comparison to eating between 8 am and 8 pm, which is what the average American does,” said Peterson.

The study is the first human test of early time- restricted feeding (eTRF). This meal-timing strategy reduced swings in hunger and altered fat and carbohydrate burning patterns, which may help with losing weight. With eTRF, people eat their last meal by the mid- afternoon and do not eat again until breakfast the next morning.

The research suggests that eating a very early dinner, or even skipping dinner, may have some benefits for losing weight, although further studies need to take place to confirm that theory. Previous animal studies showed that eTRF helped rodents burn more fat. The human body has an internal clock, and many aspects of metabolism is at their optimal functioning in the morning. Therefore, eating in alignment with the body’s circadian clock by eating earlier in the day may positively influence health. This first test of eTRF in humans follows rodent studies of this approach to weight loss, which previously found that eTRF reduced body fat and decreased the risk of chronic diseases in rodents.

During the human study, researchers followed 11 men and women with excess weight over four days of eating between 8 am and 2 pm, and four days of eating between 8 am and 8 pm. Researchers then tested the impact of eTRF on calories burned, fat burned and appetite. Participants tried both eating schedules, ate the same number of calories both times and completed all testing under supervision. Researchers found that, although eTRF did not affect how many total calories participants burned, it reduced daily
hunger swings and increased fat burning during several hours at night. It also improved metabolic flexibility, which is the body’s ability to switch between burning carbs and burning fats. Whether eTRF helps with long-term weight loss or improves other aspects of health is still unknown. A larger, more
comprehensive study will need to take place to find out, Peterson said.

Thalaivar Rajinikanth meets DMK supremo Karunanidhi and Stalin

Rajinikanth met DMK supremo Karunanidhi at his residence in Chennai today, raising the speculation of forming a new alliance with DMK. Stalin was seen welcoming thalaivar at the residence. Karunanidhi is the first political personality Rajinikanth has met after announcing his decision to enter into mainstream politics.

When asked about his meeting with Karunanidhi, Rajinikanth told the media, "He is the senior-most politician in the country. I respect him a lot. We have a very good friendship. I took his blessings as I am entering politics. I am feeling very happy after meeting him." He denied saying anything to Stalin, who said that Rajinikanth had asked Karunanidhi for his blessings to start a party.



"There are some people who think that by using Rajinikanth they can destroy the Dravidian party in Tamil Nadu, but that will never happen. I'll let you know about supporting Rajinikanth during the elections," Stalin told the media.

He announced his political debut on Sunday. Within days, thousands have signed up to be part of his new movement on a website and a mobile app.

The Kollywood legend, who has said he'll "push for spiritual politics without caste or religious leanings," intends to contest in the next Tamil Nadu assembly election.

Rajinikanth has always maintained a cordial relationship with Karunanidhi unlike Amma and has shown his support to DMK many times in the past.  A DMK leader recalled how Prime Minister Narendra Modi also made a surprise visit to Karunanidhi recently. "Everyone has realised the growing weakness of the AIADMK government," the DMK leader said. 

A DMK source said that ideologies could be different, but state-Centre relationship could be cordial if the DMK and the BJP are on the same wavelength. The BJP, which has been unable to make inroads into Tamil Nadu, is also trying to woo Rajinikanth, who has called for "a revolution" in the state. If the game changes in the state, the BJP could rely more on a DMK-Rajinikanth 'alliance' than TTV Dhinakaran, a political analyst said.

Xiaomi launching Redmi 5A at Rs 4999 - Limited Offer

The "Baap" of all the cheapest offerings is coming from Xiaomi in India and the price will be Rs 4,999. This is an introductory offer price only for the first 50 lakh units. The phone will have a starting price of Rs 5,999 after the scheme expires.

The Redmi devices have already registered over 10 lakh buyers for the device across Flipkart and Xiaomi's official website. The company will also sell the device from brick and mortar stores in the country. The offline retail partners comprise Sangeetha, Poorvika, UniverCell, E-Zone and more.


The company has introduced an 8-day battery life with the new Redmi 5A. Xiaomi claims that 3000mAh battery on the Redmi 5A is good for a standby time of 8 days, or 7 hours of video playback. One of the biggest gripe with Xiaomi devices this year has been the hybrid SIM slot. Xiaomi has taken care of it with the Redmi 5A, giving it a dedicated microSD card slot apart from the dualSIM slots.

As earlier indications suggested, Xiaomi redmi 5A will be 'Made in India' and will have some changes as compared to the version sold in China. Launched in October earlier this year, the Chinese model of the sports a hybrid SIM tray, where the Redmi 5A will ship with a dual SIM slots and a dedicated microSD card slot. Additionaly, Xiaomi is bringing a 3GB RAM/32GB ROM variant to India which is not available in China.


Processor

The Redmi 5A is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 quad-core chipset clocked at 1.4GHz. The device comes in two options, one with 2GB RAM, 16GB ROM, and another with 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage. The chipset will also be paired with Adreno 308 GPU.

Design

When it comes to design, the device looks similar to the previous iteration. However, even this time the company has used polycarbonate that was used in the Xiaomi Redmi 4A. Similar to other current generation Redmi phones, the antenna-lines have been pushed to the edges of the device, giving it a cleaner look altogether.

Similar to the previous iteration Xiaomi Redmi 4A, the company will be skipping on the fingerprint sensor for this budget oriented Redmi 5A.

Camera

The rear camera on the Redmi 5A sports a 13Megapixel module with an aperture of f/2.2. The camera comes with common features like HDR mode, panorama mode and burst mode. For the front camera, Xiaomi used a 5Megapixel sensor with an f/2.0 aperture.

Display

Redmi 5A features a 5-inch display with a resolution of 1280x720. The IPS LCD panel on the Redmi 5A is a multitouch display with a pixel density of 296ppi.

Connectivity

For connectivity, Xiaomi has placed a dual SIM tray which can either store two SIMs, along with a dedicated slot for a microSD card upto 128GB.  The device comes equipped with Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1 and GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, and a 3.5mm audio jack. The array of sensors on the device include an acccelerometer, a proximity sensor and ambient light sensor.

The Xiaomi Redmi 5A will also come with an IR blaster which can turn the device into a universal remote with the Mi Remote app.

Software

On the software front, the device will ship with MIUI 9 based on Android Nougat out of the box.

Battery

One of the biggest USP's of the previous Redmi 5A was its lasting battery and this time the company claims to have radically improved on that end. Xiaomi claims that the Redmi 5A can give a battery-life of eight days. Although the device sports a smaller 3000mAh battery, running MIUI9 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 helps the Xiaomi Redmi 5A with battery life.

Price

The Xiaomi Redmi 5A has been launched in Indian with a introductory price of Rs 4,999 for the  2GB/16GB variant, making it the cheapest smartphone Xiaomi markets in India. The offer stands for the first 50 lakh customers only. After the introductory scheme expires, Xiaomi will sell the device at Rs 5,999 for the base variant and Rs 6,999 for the higher 3GB/32GB variant.

Holiday pics of Tiger Shroff and Disha Patani In Sri Lanka

Tiger Shroff, 27, and Disha Patani, 25, have been rumoured to be dating for over a year now.
Tiger Shroff and Disha Patani celebrated the new year 2018 on the beautiful beaches of Sri Lanka. Both the stars have posted pictures from their Sri Lankan vacation on social media. A shirtless picture showing his well-toned body of Tiger is the Internet's favourite.

Disha in a white swimwear looks stunning and it is also being loved on social media by thousands of netizens. "Disha Patani, why you are so beautiful," commented a user on Disha's post.



They began shooting for Baaghi 2, their first film together, last September. They have earlier co-starred in Befikra, a music video.

Producer Sajid Nadiadwala earlier said, "When we did the look test of both of them together, we were convinced with their chemistry and about Disha being the perfect choice for the role."

Earlier, several media outlets reported that Tiger and Disha would be moving in together at the actresses' new apartment in Bandra. However, Tiger's parents Jackie Shroff and Ayesha denied such reports.

"I don't think he has any plans to move out. At least, he hasn't told me. Everyone finds a life partner, gets married and decides to settle down. If Tiger plans to move out and stay independently, I don't have any issues with it. But knowing my children, they won't do that," Jackie Shroff told mid-day.

Finance minister of india calls Bitcoin as Ponzi Scheme

A statement from Finance Ministry said there was a high risk of an investment bubble in crypto currencies of the kind seen in “ponzi schemes”. The Ministry cautioned people on the risks of investing in these currencies like Bitcoin, which are not regulated by the government, calling them “ponzi” schemes.

“There has been a phenomenal increase in recent times in the price of these ‘Currencies’ (VCs), including Bitcoin, in India and globally. The VCs don’t have any intrinsic value and are not backed by any kind of assets. The price of Bitcoin and other VCs therefore is entirely a matter of mere speculation resulting in spurt and volatility in their prices,” said the ministry said in a statement.


The statement said there was a real and heightened risk of an investment bubble in virtual currencies of the kind seen in “ponzi schemes”, which can result in sudden and prolonged crash, exposing investors, especially retail consumers, to losing their hard-earned money.

“Consumers need to be alert and extremely cautious as to avoid getting trapped in such Ponzi schemes,” it added.

Virtual currencies are stored in digital/electronic format, making them vulnerable to hacking, loss of password, malware attack etc., which may also result in permanent loss of money, the ministry said.

“As transactions of VCs are encrypted, they are also likely being used to carry out illegal/subversive activities, such as, terror funding, smuggling, drug trafficking and other money-laundering Acts,” it warned.

India has exchanges such as Zebpay, where users can buy and sell Bitcoins. Other forms of cryptocurrencies include ethereum and litecoin, which are yet to find prominence in India.

The finance ministry said that the users, holders and traders of virtual currencies have already been cautioned three times — December 2013, February 2017 and December 2017 — by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) about the potential financial, operational, legal, customer protection and security-related risks that they are exposing themselves to by investing in Bitcoins and others such currencies.

“The RBI has also clarified that it has not given any licence/ authorization to any entity/ company to operate such schemes or deal with Bitcoin or any virtual currency. The Government also makes it clear that VCs are not legal tender and such VCs do not have any regulatory permission or protection in India. The investors and other participants therefore deal with these VCs entirely at their risk and should best avoid participating therein,” it added.

The Income Tax Department had recently conducted survey operations at major Bitcoin exchanges across the country on alleged suspicion of tax evasion. They said various teams, under the command of the Bengaluru investigation wing, visited the premises of nine such exchanges in the country including in Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kochi and Gurugram.

Currently, the value of Bitcoin is around $13,000.