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In a major initiative taken by Speaker Meira Kumar, the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Lok Sabha and Directions by the presiding officer are being made gender neutral. This is part of an effort to promote gender equality.

For years now China has been the world’s manufacturing powerhouse, leveraging its cheap labour and much else to dominate global trade in general and developing country exports in particular.

The brash and unthinking endangerment of antiquity on the altars of cultural resistance against the Taliban is a fine illustration of Pakistan’s conundrums The logo chosen by the government of Sindh in Pakistan for the Sindh Cultural Festival is immediately familiar — an “S” encased in a diamond; it is the logo for “Superman,” the hero who has delighted audiences around the world for decades. To indigenise this borrowed bit, the insides of the Sindh Festival’s “S” are filled in with burgundy and black in the traditional block print design of the Sindhi  ajrak pattern.

President Barack Obama’s recent statement of his Afghanistan policy has again revealed the intractable situation the United States has faced since it led the invasion of that country in 2001. In his State of the Union address to Congress on January 28, Mr. Obama said the mission there would be completed by the end of the year, and that thereafter the U.S. and its allies would support a “unified Afghanistan” as it took responsibility for itself.

The visit is deemed important from the point of view of India and Germany’s growing involvement on the world stage German President Joachim Gauck obliges teachers and students with photographs as he leaves aftera special lecture at Jawaharlal Nehru Universityin New Delhi on Thursday.— Photo: PTI As did Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who went out of his way to squeeze in a visit to India despite a packed calendar, German President Joachim Gauck also decided to visit New Delhi after cancelling his trip to Russia for the Sochi Winter Olympics.

Directs Law, Industries and Home Secretaries to submit their views on Sivakasi fireworks factories issue The Madras High Court Bench here on Thursday directed the Law, Industries and Home Department Secretaries to file their replies to a public interest litigation (PIL) petition, taken up by the court suo motu, seeking stringent punishment for fireworks manufacturers defying safety norms in Sivakasi in Virudhunagar district.

The Union government, on Thursday, constituted a committee to look into the problems faced by people from the Northeast living in other parts of the country, especially in metropolitan cities, and suggest remedial measures. The committee has been asked to submit its report within two months, an official order issued by the Union Home Ministry says.

Seacom Skills varsity Bill to be introduced West Bengal Speaker Biman Banerjee (left) meets leaders of political parties ahead of the budget session, at Assembly House in Kolkata on Thursday.— PHOTO: PTI The budget session of the West Bengal Assembly will start from February 10 and the State government’s Annual Financial Statement 2014-15, will be tabled by Finance Minister Amit Mitra on February 17, Speaker Biman Banerjee told journalists here on Thursday.

Former CM, Cabinet colleague accused of making illegal gains The Delhi Anti-Corruption Branch on Thursday lodged an FIR against the former Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, in a street light project scam that occurred ahead of the 2010 Commonwealth Games.