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The work order for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet project 'Statue of Unity' - the world's tallest statue of India's first home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, was issued by the Gujarat government on Monday, to leading engineering company Larsen and Toubro (L&T). Work on the 182-metre tall statue of Sardar Patel is to be completed at a cost of Rs 2,979 crore, said Gujarat Chief Minister Anandi Patel who presided over the function of handing over the work order. "This huge construction work will be completed in four years at a cost of Rs 2,979 crore. The contract has been given to the country's leading construction company Larsen and Toubro," Patel said in her address, while giving the contract order to L&T. Rs 1,347 crore will be spent on the main statue, Rs 235 crore will be spent on the exhibition hall and convention centre, while Rs 83 crore will be spent on the bridge connecting the memorial to the main land and Rs 657 crore woul...

Cyclone Nilofar is expected to hit the Gujarat coast on Friday. The Met department has said that there will be heavy rainfall in coastal Saurashtra and Kutch on October 30 and 31. The Met department has said that the very severe cyclonic storm, 'Nilofar' over westcentral Arabian Sea has moved north-northwestwards and lay centred at 0230 hours IST of 28th October, 2014 near latitude 15.60 N and longitude 61.80 E, about 1120 km southwest of Naliya (Gujarat), 1170 km south-southwest of Karachi (Pakistan) and 840 km east-southeast of Salalah (Oman). However, it is expected that as the system would come closer to Gujarat coast, it would weaken and cross the coast as a severe cyclonic storm. Under the influence of the system, rainfall has been predicted at most places. Isolated heavy to very heavy falls are likely to commence along coastal districts of Saurashtra and Kutch from October 30 morning. The fishermen have been advised not to venture into the sea. Sea condition along and...

The BJP's victories in Haryana and Maharashtra mark the dramatic advent of a new political reality in these two states, but their consequences are likely to be felt across India in the months and years ahead. True, the BJP may not have managed a majority of its own in Maharashtra but the shift it has effected there, and in Haryana, is nothing less than tectonic. In both states, the party took a bold gamble in deciding to fight alone. The break with the Haryana Janhit Congress - which made impossible demands -- came soon after the BJP's poor performance in the Bihar by-elections and seemed counter-intuitive at the time. The end of the alliance with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra also had its immediate origins in the Sena's unrealistic assessment of its own strength. In both cases, however, the BJP decided to gamble on the Modi wave and a strong anti-incumbency trend coming together to put the party in a commanding position. There was both a tactical and a strategic elemen...

Islamabad may not be awed but it certainly is shocked by the ferocity and volume of the Indian response to ceasefire violations along the International Border in Jammu and Kashmir. Given complete freedom to act by the government, the Indian Army and Border Security Force are firing back at will from every spot the Pakistanis have targeted. The volume and intensity of India's return fire is much higher than the usual calibrated response the Pakistanis have come to expect. Top government sources told Mail Today that Indian forces are systematically targeting infrastructure and force deployment nodes on the other side. The damage on the other side is so high that Pakistan is, according to an internal report sent to South Block by the Indian mission in Islamabad, "ducking for cover" (see accompanying report). A media blackout of sorts is in place in Pakistan's affected areas so as to keep a lid on the extent of damage suffered; Pakistan's military establishment is...

The cyclone is expected to make landfall around Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday before noon, according to the Meteorological department. Evacuations have not started yet in Odisha, where 16 teams of the National Disaster Relief Force have been deployed. 300 temporary centres have also been set up while all local schools have been shut. In Andhra Pradesh, the three northern coastal districts of Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam are expected to be the worst hit. But authorities in East and West Godavari districts - apprehensive that the cyclone could result in flooding - are drawing up a plan to tackle such an eventuality. Nearly four and a half lakh people from 500 villages in the five coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh will be evacuated and moved to local relief camps. Fishermen have already been told to suspend fishing operations from Saturday morning. 30 teams of the Indian Navy, along with teams of the NDRF and two columns of the Army have been kept on stand...

He belongs to Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh. Trained as an electrical engineer, he turned into an activist for children's rights at the age of 26. As a boy, he was moved by other children who had to work, and whose parents were too poor to send them to school. He started a football club with membership fees paying the school fees of needy children. He and a friend collected donations of 2,000 schoolbooks in a single day, a project that eventually became a book bank in his home town. "If not now, then when? If not you, then who? If we are able to answer these fundamental questions, then perhaps we can wipe away the blot of human slavery," Mr Satyarthi has said, summing up his philosophy. In 1983, he founded the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Movement) to fight child labour. His efforts have helped rescue thousands of children from bondage, trafficking and exploitative labour. With the help of NGOs and activists, he has organized hundreds of raids on factories...

After the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli, Mahendra Singh Dhoni has become the latest cricketer to own a football team in the high-profile Indian Super League, investing in the Chennaiyin FC ahead of the event starting October 12. Dhoni, the current Indian cricket captain, has pencilled a deal to be a co-owner of Chennaiyin FC along with Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan. "Dhoni has signed a deal to become a co-owner of Chennaiyin FC," a source from IMG-Reliance, the organisers of the much-anticipated league told PTI. Last month, Dhoni's deputy in the Indian cricket team was announced as co-owner of ISL team FC Goa. Tendulkar is a co-owner of Kerala Blasters while ex-cricket captain Sourav Ganguly is a co-owner of Atletico de Kolkata. The ISL kicks off on October 12 in Kolkata while the final will be held on December 20.

Suresh Raina on Saturday hit a blistering century pulverising Kolkata Knight Riders into submission as Chennai Super Kings exacted a sweet revenge clinching the Champions League T20 in style with a eight-wicket victory in a thoroughly one-sided final. (Highlights | Scorecard | Pics) Chasing a competitive total of 181, Raina smashed the daylights out of a depleted KKR attack without Sunil Narine, scoring a breathtaking 109 off 62 balls with the help of six fours and eight sixes. His century came off only 59 balls. Fitting enough, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni finished the match with a flourish as he hit successive sixes off Yusuf Pathan as CSK won with nine balls to spare. (Gambhir Proud of Record-Breaking KKR) This was CSK's first trophy in three years having last won the IPL and CLT20 in South Africa, back in 2011. CSK lost the IPL final to KKR in 2012 and also lost twice to them in IPL this year. Raina, one of the finest players of the shorter format made mincemeat of a KKR atta...

In a get-to-know-you visit fraught with awkward undertones, President Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India sought to repair a strained relationship between their nations on Tuesday, emerging with expressions of good will but little in the way of concrete deals. At an Oval Office meeting and during a stroll around the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, Mr. Obama and Mr. Modi emphasized what they had in common as democratic leaders who overcame personal obstacles, campaigned as outsiders and embraced technology as a vital tool in politics and governing. But their talks yielded no resolutions to thorny disputes over taxes, trade and civilian nuclear energy cooperation that have divided the United States and India in recent years. And there was little sign that human rights — a particularly sensitive topic for Mr. Modi, who has been accused of being complicit in deadly anti-Muslim riots — was a major item on the agenda. Over 19,000 people at Madison Square Garden in New...

All accusations and charges levelled against Jayalalitha that ultimately led to her conviction have now been proved false. The judges who re-examined the case, heard her argument and examined evidences concluded that charges were baseless and freed her with immediate effect. Following are the details of the development. jaya There is not a single proper pair of footwear. Having been upset with her advocates for not representing her case correctly, Jayalalitha fired them. She decided to go it alone and appealed to the court to retry the case. Each of the charges against her was deftly countered by her to the satisfaction of the judge. 10500 witnesses lined up at a witness camp organized near the court and each one signed an affidavit that he or she presented Amma a saree on her birthday, which resulted in her having that many sarees. Amma then informed the court that each of the footwear found in her house was either of the left foot or the right foot and there was not even a single p...

Microsoft is trying to soften an unpopular redesign of Windows by reviving features from older versions while still attempting to nudge desktop users into a world of touch screens and mobile devices. The company on Tuesday gave an early preview of the new Windows 10 software, which it aims to begin selling by the middle of next year. Although the current version is called Windows 8, Microsoft says it's skipping ahead to Windows 10 to emphasise its effort to move forward. "Windows 10 represents the first step in a whole new generation of Windows," said Terry Myerson, executive vice president of Microsoft's operating systems group. Windows 8 was introduced two years ago as an answer to the growing demand for mobile devices. But many users hated it because its tablet-like design and controls weren't a good fit for many devices using keyboards and mice. Sales of personal computers continued to fall. With Windows 10, Microsoft is trying to regain the loyalty of lo...