15th Feb Daily Updates

India snaps Pakistan’s will, yet again

India pulled off a comprehensive 76-run victory over Pakistan to get its World Cup campaign off to a rousing start at Adelaide Oval here on Sunday.

Virat Kohli slammed his 22nd ODI hundred, first by an Indian against Pakistan in a World Cup match. He found able allies in Shikhar Dhawan (73) and Suresh Raina (74), as India ran up a total of 300.

From 103 for five at the half-way stage, there was clearly no way back for Misbah-ul-Haq’s men and, a defiant 76 from the skipper notwithstanding, they sank to 224 all out.

Mohammed Shami performed creditably, his four for 35 instrumental in Pakistan’s defeat. He was supported by the erratic if potent Umesh Yadav, who broke the back of the Pakistani middle order with two quick wickets.

The star of the evening was Kohli, who treated a crowd of 41,587 to a finely constructed hundred. His 129-run stand with Dhawan was knit with a great deal of common sense.

The result extended India’s winning streak over Pakistan in World Cups to six games out of six.

India next faces South Africa in Melbourne on February 22.

ISIS releases video showing beheading of a group of Egyptian Coptic Christians

CAIRO: A video purporting to show the mass beheading of Coptic Christian hostages has been released by militants in Libya claiming loyalty to the Islamic State group.
The video, released on late Sunday night, depicted several men in orange jumpsuits being led along a beach, each accompanied by a masked militant. The men are made to kneel and one militant, dressed differently that the others, addresses the camera in North American-accented English.
"All crusaders: safety for you will be only wishes, especially if you are fighting us all together. Therefore we will fight you all together," he said. "The sea you have hidden Sheikh Osama Bin Laden's body in, we swear to Allah we will mix it with your blood."

Nagesh Kukunoor’s film Dhanak honoured at 65th Berlin Film Festival

Filmmaker Nagesh Kukunoor’s film Dhanak has been honoured with The Grand Prix of the Generation Kplus International Jury for the best feature-length film at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival (also known as the Berlinale).The movie, which was premiered at the festival also has received a honour of special mention with the children’s jury at the festival.

Chhattisgarh government gets award for renewable power development

Chhattisgarh has won award for being one of the best-performing states in the renewable energy segment in India.

Principal Secretary of Chhattisgarh’s Energy department, Aman Singh was presented this award by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the first Renewable Energy Global Investors Meet (RE-Invest) 2015 held in New Delhi.

The state was adjudged this award on the basis of criteria fixed by 13th Finance Commission headed by Vijay Kelkar.

Renewable energy sector in Chhattisgarh

• Chhattisgarh has done commendable work in renewable energy sector.
• Currently, solar power is powering 600 primary health centre, 100 community health centre, 350 police stations, 1800 tribal hostels, 27 collectorates and 1,700 villages of the state.
• In addition, various villages in Chhattisgarh are using 3,000 solar power pumps for drinking water and 1,500 for irrigation purpose.
• State is generating 45 MW off grid solar power and 200 MW through rice husk.

     Hindalco bags Kathautia coal mine

On the second day of coal auction, Hindalco Industries on Sunday walked away with a coal mine in Jharkhand. Coal Secretary Anil Swarup confirmed the development saying that “Kathautia mine goes to Hindalco at Rs. 2,860 (per tonne).”

Kathautia closed at Rs. 2,860 which means Rs. 228 crore per annum and Rs. 6,800 crore for 30 years.

Companies like Monnet Ispat & Energy, Ultratech Cement and Rungta Mines were in the race for the mine.

GMR and Reliance Cement bagged one mine each on Saturday for an estimated Rs. 1,375 crore and Rs. 798 crore respectively.

“GMR Chhattisgarh Energy won the Talabira-1 coal block inOdisha,” Mr. Swarup has said. GMR pipped Adani Power, Essar Power, Sesa Sterlite and others by bidding at Rs. 478 per tonne to get the mine.

Anil Ambani-led Reliance Cement beat Hindustan Zinc (HZL) and OCL Iron & Steel to bag the Sial Ghoghri coal mine in Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh. After the Supreme Court cancelled allocation of 204 mines in September, the government decided to auction the blocks. It is putting up 19 blocks on sale in the first tranche.

After clearing the technical bidding stage, entities from Reliance, Adani, Essar, GMR, Vedanta and Aditya Birla groups became eligible to bid or two blocks — one in Odisha and the other one in Madhya Pradesh.