1.Railways fires food contractor after MP raises issue in Rajya Sabha :-
Indian Railways has dismissed the catering contractor for the premium Swarna Jayanti Ahmedabad Rajdhani in the wake of several complaints about the quality of food over the last few months. The move comes after a BJP MP from Gujarat raised the issue in the Rajya Sabha.
2.TN leads MHRD’s top-100 colleges list with 37 :-
A whopping 37 colleges in Tamil Nadu have made it to the rankings released by the Ministry of Human Resource Development on Monday, with three TN colleges coming in the top-ten list.
Chennai’s Loyola College came in the number two spot, while Tiruchirapalli’s Bishop Heber College and Chennai’s Women’s Christian College are No.4 and No. 10 respectively.
3.IT firms get set to pamper moms-to-be :-
Leading IT services companies and BPOs have initiated steps to implement policies compliant with the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill.
This follows the President giving his nod for the legislation which provides 26 weeks of paid maternity leave for women employees.
4.Pranab hopeful of reviving Vikramshila University :-
President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday visited the excavated ruins of Vikramshila University here in Bihar and said he would talk to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the revival of the ancient seat of Buddhist learning.
5.SBI expects no bad loan surprise after merger :-
State Bank of India expects no nasty surprises on bad loans after merging five subsidiary banks with itself at the weekend in a deal that will help it save costs and gain scale, senior executives said.
6.‘SASEC Group can add $70 bn. to GDP’ :-
Finance Ministers of the member-countries of the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) grouping said the growing cooperation between them could generate an incremental $70 billion in GDP and additional employment of 20 million annually by 2025.
7.JNU rejoices national ranking, students slam fellowship delay :-
JNU administration and students rejoiced over the improved rank of the varsity in the national rankings even as the student community slammed the delay in fellowships and other grants to the university.
8.Ajmer dargah head backs ban on beef, cow slaughter :-
The spiritual head of the Ajmer Dargah, Dargah Diwan Syed Zainul Abedin Ali Khan, on Monday came out in support of banning beef consumption, saying that a uniform ban imposed by the Centre on consumption and sale of all bovine species was the only means to end the growing “unpleasantness” between two communities.
9.Vande Mataram made mandatory at Varanasi, Gorakhpur civic meetings :-
After Meerut and Moradabad, BJP-affiliated mayors of Varanasi and Gorakhpur have announced that ‘Vande Mataram’ will be sung at every meeting of the municipal corporations. Several Muslim and non-Muslim corporators from opposition parties objected to “the new tradition”, which started at meetings of the two municipal corporations on Saturday. In Varanasi, BJP corporator Ajay Gupta put forth a proposal that ‘Vande Mataram’ must be sung before House proceedings.
10.MS Dhoni checks in as CEO of Gulf Oil India :-
MS Dhoni was unveiled as the new CEO of the Gulf Oil India. But the former Indian captain held that position only for a day. It was something that was kept under the wraps by the company and Dhoni himself and so, it was a surprise for the employees when he walked in as their new CEO.