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One of the co-founders of the Internet giant, Google, is to take over the running of the company from April. Larry Page will replace Eric Schmidt as Chief Executive. Mr. Schmidt had been brought in to provide greater management experience to Google. After stepping down, Schmidt said, day to day supervision is no longer needed.

The Supreme Court today directed the CBI to go ahead with the probe into the 2G spectrum scam without being influenced by anybody’s statement. The Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguli described the Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal’s statements undermining the CAG report on the scam as unfortunate.

The CAG has estimated a loss of 1.76 lakh crore rupees to the exchequer in allocation of 2G spectrum during the tenure of former Telecom Minister A Raja. Mr. Sibal had termed as utterly erroneous and without any basis the estimated loss arrived at by the CAG on account of allocation of 2G spectrum to telecom operators.

National Advisory Council (NAC) is now meeting to discuss the recommendations of the Rangarajan panel on draft food security bill. The Committee has suggested excluding above poverty line category from the Legal entitlement of the proposed Act. It also recommended that ten thousand crore rupee subsidy is required to provide foodgrain on subsidised price to 75 per cent of the population besides incresing the production. AIR correspondent reports, the NAC had recommended 35 Kilogram of food grains per family at subsidised prices for 75 percent of the population and 20 kilogram per family for remaining 25 per cent of the above poverty line population. Officials in the NAC, said amendments to the right information act will also come up for discussion besides observations of the tribal affairs ministry about amendments in the forest rights act.

The Supreme Court today refused to ban asbestos, considered a health hazard. Instead it directed the Union and state governments to put in place a body to regulate its use and manufacturing. bench of Chief Justice S H Kapadia also asked various state governments to follow a 1995 ruling of the apex court, spelling out the guidelines and frameworks for the use of the building material, generally used for erecting temporary shades and walls.
The bench gave the order while dismissing a public interest lawsuit filed by an NGO which had moved the court in 2004 seeking its ban on the grounds that it poses serious health problems for the people living under roofs made up of asbestos.

In a setback to CBI, the Supreme Court today dismissed its plea for death penalty to Dara Singh, convicted for burning alive Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons in January 1999. It however upholds the life sentence given to him by the Orissa High Court. A bench comprising justices P Sathasivam and B S Chauhan said, the death penalty can be imposed only in the “rarest of rare” cases depending upon the facts and situation of each case. In the present case, the apex court said, the offence committed by the convicts, though highly condemnable, does not fall in the category of rarest of rare to warrant death sentence.
Dara Singh and Mahendra Hembrom were found guilty of burning to death Staines and his sons, who were sleeping inside a van outside a church, at Manoharpur village in Koenjhar district of Orissa on January 22, 1999.
The bench had on December 15 last year reserved its judgement after hearing at length the arguments of CBI’s counsel and Additional Solicitor General Vivek Tankha and counsel for the convicts.

The Group of Ministers on FM Radio Phase-III has finalised an e-auction model for its roll out. Official sources said that the GoM, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee decided against the conventional open auction model and instead chose the e-auction method. While over 200 private FM Radio stations are already in operation, the third phase may allow another 700. The third phase will also focus on smaller cities and towns, where private FM radio is absent till now.

Education Ministers from different states have agreed to set up a National Vocational Education Qualifications Framework, NVEQF to meet the shortage of skilled manpower at home and abroad. A Human Resource Development Ministry statement said that Education Ministers from 17 States favoured to put in place the framework at a conference chaired by HRD Minister Kapil Sibal in New Delhi last evening. Addressing the conference, Sibal said, India will need 200 million graduates and 500 million skilled persons by 2022 to sustain its double digit growth. The need to strengthen vocational education at all stages was also underscored by participants citing technological and demographic changes, global shortage of skilled manpower, skill deficit in various sectors and mismatch of demand and supply of skill.

HRD Ministry statement said, the Framework will be especially useful to promote the creative genius of every child including children with special needs. It said, the Framework will set common principles and guidelines for a nationally recognised qualification system, covering schools, vocational education institutes and institutes of higher education with qualifications ranging from secondary to doctorate level. Sector Skill Councils and Industry will collaborate in the development of quality standards, competencies, model curricula, assessment standards and testing procedures.

In Iraq, death toll has gone upto 51 in two bomb blasts in the holy city of Karbala on Thursday evening. 183 people were also injured in these blasts. Quoting the head of the Karbala Provincial Council, Mohammed Hamid al-Moussawi, an Iraqi news agency reported that terrorists exploded two car bombs targeting convoys of pilgrims. Al-Moussawi said a number of women and children are among the dead and injured. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has blamed Al-Qaeda militants for the attack

Indians were off to a winning start in the Australian open tennis men’s doubles with Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi rallying to beat Ivo Karlovic of Croatia and Dusan Vemic of Serbia 5-7, 6-3, 6-0 in the first round on Thursday. India’s Rohan Bopanna and Pakistan’s Aisam-Ul-Haq-Qureshi had it easy against Brazilian pair Franco Ferreiro and Andre Sa at 6-3, 6-0. The 11th-seeded Bopanna and Qureshi, the runners-up at 2010 US Open, next play Frenchmen Jeremy Chardy and Arnaud Clement.

The third-seeded Paes and Bhupathi now await the winner of the match between Spain’s Feliciano Lopez and Juan Monaco of Argentina and the Australian pair of Marinko Matosevic and John Millman.

Paes and Bhupathi, a former World No.1 team, are playing together in a Grand Slam after nine years in their bid to complete a career slam. In the singles event 3rd seeded Kim Clijsters of Belgium demolished Carla Surerez Navarro in straight sets to enter the third round.

In men’s singles top seeded Rafael Nadal defeated American Ryan Sweeting 6-2,6-1,6-1 to book a place in the third round.

India’s Mithali Raj continues to dominate the ICC ODI rankings chart for women cricketers. She managed an aggregate of 171 runs including an unbeaten ton at Rajkot during the recently-concluded ODI series against West Indies. In the ICC women’s one day international ranking issued by ICC, India, however, have lost their grip in one-day bowling rankings with skipper Jhulan Goswami slipping from the top three for the first time since January 2006. She is on fourth position with 705 points.

India’s Mithali Raj continues to dominate the ICC ODI rankings chart for women cricketers while West Indian Stafanie Taylor rises to second spot in the table with a consistent all round performance. Mithali Raj, who managed an aggregate of 171 runs including an unbeaten ton at Rajkot during the recently-concluded ODI series against West Indies, continues to hold the top rung with 796 points, followed by Taylor with 743 points.

In the ICC women’s one day international ranking issued by ICC, India, however, have lost their grip in one-day bowling rankings with skipper Jhulan Goswami slipping from the top three for the first time since January 2006. She is on fourth position with 705 points. The Indian fast bowler’s downslide has enabled Shelley of Australia reclaim the number one spot with 740 points, followed closely by teammate Lisa with 724 points.

The 22-year-old Gouther Sultana, has meanwhile, climbed seven places to be ranked 13, while veteran Rumeli Dhar has gone down a spot to be placed at number six.