Heavy showers lashed the national capital and adjoining suburbs of Noida and Gurgaon on Friday, leading to
water-logging at several places and traffic snarls.

Since early morning, Delhi received frequent spells of rains, flooding roads and slowing down traffic at many places, motorists and officials said.

Delhi Traffic Police reported traffic jams from many parts of the city, including Mahipalpur near the Indira Gandhi International Airport and ITO junction in the heart of the capital.

Vast areas in east Delhi virtually went under water. Two-wheeler riders took refuge under flyovers and foot-over-bridges here to escape the rains, adding to the woes of other motorists as the scooters and motorcycles blocked a portion of the roads.

Delhi received 1.2 mm of rainfall till 8.30 a.m. on Friday, the India Meteorological Department said, forecasting more rains through the day.

The day’s maximum temperature is likely to hover around 32 degrees Celsius. The showers brought relief from Thursday’s muggy weather.

"I hope the weather stays pleasant over the weekend as well," said Rupam Malhotra, a resident of west Delhi.

Fridays’ minimum temperature settled slightly below the season’s average at 26.2 degrees Celsius. Humidity at 8.30 a.m. was recorded at 89 percent. Thursday’s maximum temperature settled one notch below the season’s average at 34 degrees Celsius while the minimum settled two notches below the season’s average at 25.2 degrees Celsius.

Tata Motors on Monday said it has bagged an order for supplying 1,200 multi-axle trucks to the Indian Army.

It is the single largest order awarded to an Indian company in land systems by the Indian army and comprises 1,200 units of high-mobility 6X6 multi-axle trucks, Tata Motors said in a statement.

The trucks will be used for loading-unloading and transportation of ammunition pallets, spares and other operational equipment, it added.

Developed indigenously, the Tata 6X6 high mobility all- terrain all-wheel drive vehicle, has completed a total trial duration of 25 months, demonstrating maximum performance in the most demanding conditions, the company said.

"We at Tata Motors are extremely proud to have bagged the single largest order, among Indian OEM’s from the Indian army, for the most technologically advanced high mobility load carrier system ever built here in India," Tata Motors, Vice President, Defence & Government Business, Vernon Noronha said.

The order is a validation of Tata Motor’s strategy and growth potential, he added.

"As leading suppliers of mobility solutions to the country’s security forces, we will shortly commence delivery of these high-mobility vehicles," Noronha said.

Tata Motors stock was trading at Rs.401, up 0.72 per cent, on the BSE.

A barometer index of Indian equities was trading flat during the mid-afternoon trade session on Friday.

The Indian equity markets were impacted by investor anxiety over upcoming key macro-economic data, ongoing first-quarter results season, efforts to stabilise the Chinese markets and the stalemate in the Greek debt crisis.

The benchmark index of the Indian equity markets, the 30-scrip BSE Sensitive Index (Sensex), was trading flat — up only 26 points or 0.09 per cent during the mid-afternoon session.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was also trading flat — it was marginally higher by 2.30 points or 0.03 per cent at 8,330.85 points.

The Sensex of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 27,705.36 points, was trading at 27,599.55 points (at 1.45 p.m.) in the mid-afternoon session, up 25.89 points or 0.09 per cent from the previous day’s close at 27,573.66 points.

The Sensex so far touched a high of 27,729.46 points and a low of 27,530.90 points in the intra-day trade.

Analysts pointed out that investor confidence was shaken after two sessions of heavy sell-offs. The barometer index lost 484 points on Wednesday and 114 points on Thursday due to fears of a Chinese stock markets meltdown and the stalemate in the Greek debt crisis.

"Investors are a bit wary due to two sessions of continuous fall. Hopes of healthy first quarter (Q1) results, good monsoon progress and the positive US Fed’s FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) minutes are being belied by the fears of Chinese stock markets crash and the Greece issue," Anand James, co-head, technical research desk, Geojit BNP Paribas, told IANS.

"The investors are also anxious about the upcoming release of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data on Friday and Consumer Price Index (CPI) data on Monday," James said.

According to James, these data points, coupled with good monsoon progress, will be the undercurrent of market sentiments for sometime, as they will determine any chances of a future rate-cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

However, the main trigger for now will be the first quarterly earnings results, Gaurav Jain, director with Hem Securities, said.

"The first quarter results and the upcoming parliament session are the main concerns right now. The Chinese market lows and the efforts to stabilise it and the stalemate in the Greece issue will be short-lived triggers," Jain said.

During Friday’s intra-day trade, healthy buying was observed in capital goods, banks and healthcare stocks. 

However, the consumer durables, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and automobile scrip came under intense selling pressure.

The S&P BSE capital goods index augmented by 179.84 points, bank index extended gains by 157.84 points and healthcare index rose by 81.56 points.

However, the S&P BSE consumer durables index dropped 88.71 points, FMCG index shed by 84.72 points and automobile index was down by 34.67 points.

Close proximity of a staircase to an escalator that seems so much faster and more convenient discourage people from making the healthy decision of taking the stairs, says a study.

To make sure that people take the stairs while shopping in a mall or in the metro station, you just have to make sure that the stairs are far, far away from the escalator, said the study published in the journal Environment and Behaviour.

The study by researchers from Concordia University in Canada and Peking University in China looked at how location, height and traffic volume dictate pedestrian choices.

"Environmental factors have been explicitly identified as having an impact on stair-climbing, including the visibility of the stairway and its width," said study senior author John Zacharias from the University of Peking.

"This study shows that staircase location is just as important, and should be factored in when planning new buildings."

The researchers monitored 13 stairways and 12 pairs of escalators in seven connected shopping centres in Montreal Canada.

A total of 33,793 pedestrians were counted ascending or descending over 35 days.

When the researchers examined the data, they found that increasing the distance between a stairway and an escalator by 100 percent accounted for 71 percent of variance when shoppers were going up, and 21 percent of variance when they were going down.

Overall, that is a 95 percent increase in stair use, the study said.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday appealed to Delhi residents to use recycling technology for conserving water so that there is reduced dependency on neighbouring states for water supply in the national capital.

"Delhi is dependent on neighbouring states like Haryana and Uttar Pradesh for water. It is very important for us that conservation efforts are made and I appeal to all to make use of recycling technology to conserve water," he said at the inauguration of a newly-commissioned electric sub-station in Sarojini Nagar.

The chief minister cited the example of Rashtrapati Bhawan, which has introduced the said technology.
Earlier, Kejriwal, who is also a member of New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), inaugurated another electric sub-station at the junction of Ali Ganj and Jor Bagh.

"The 33-kV electric sub-station, set up at a cost of Rs 5.5 crore, has been completed in two years. Consumers in Aliganj-Jor Bagh and surrounding areas will benefit through its commissioning.

"With this, whereas the transformation capacity in NDMC supply system would increase to 1400 MVA, the number of 33-kV grid sub-stations would go up to 25," NDMC Chairman Naresh Kumar said at the inauguration.

The Sarojini Nagar sub-station has been completed within six months at a cost of Rs 2.28 crores, he added. It is an 11- kV sub-station which would enhance the distribution capacity in the Sarojini Nagar area from 18 MVA to 20 MVA.

The civic body believes that capacity addition would help reduce outages due to cable faults and over-loading.
The newly inaugurated sub-stations are indoor facilities with the entire cabling network being underground and connected in a Ring Main supply system to facilitate transfer of power from one source to other in case of emergencies.

Delhi Chief Secretary KK Sharma said that the new technology provided by NDMC will also be extended to other parts of the city.

Other members of NDMC, including MP Meenakshi Lekhi, AAP MLA Surender Singh, BS Bhati, Abdul Rasheed Ansari and Anita Arya, were also present on the occasion.

An Assistant Revenue Inspector was arrested by anti-corruption vigilance wing in Odisha for allegedly accepting bribe from a man for demarcation of his parental land in Subarnapur district.

Jogamaya Giri, Assistant RI in Subalaya Circle under Birmaharajpur Tehsil of the district, was arrested on Thursday by Vigilance Officers of Sambalpur Division for demanding and accepting bribe of Rs.1,500 from complainant Surendra Naik, a vigilance release said.

The complainant of Tebhapadar village in Subalaya area had alleged that he had applied for demarcation of his paternal land located at Rajbahadurpali mouza and requested Jogamaya Giri for the work, it said.

He reported the matter to the Vigilance when Giri demanded Rs.1,500.

During the course of investigation a trap was laid  and the Assistant RI was caught when she received the bribe money of Rs.1,500 from the complainant, the release said

Investigation is in progress.

‘Twilight‘ star Robert Pattinson has been roped in to star in the neo-grindhouse caper ‘Good Time’, which will be directed by Josh and Benny Safdie.

The indie film is about a bank robber’s flailing efforts to evade the dragnet closing in on him. Pattinson will play the role of Connie, reports hollywoodreporter.com.

Josh Safdie and Ronald Bronstein wrote the script for the film, which will be produced by Sebastian Bear-MCclard of Elara Pictures.

The Safdie brothers are indie filmmakers whose last project ‘Heaven Knows What’ is currently running at theatres in the US. The critically acclaimed film follows a young heroin addict (Arielle Holmes) who finds love on the streets of New York. 

Since starring in the vampire franchise ‘Twilight’, Pattinson has focused on interesting indie roles. He has worked with esteemed directors including David Michod (‘The Rover’), David Cronenberg (‘Cosmopolis’, ‘Maps to the Stars’) and Werner Herzog (‘Queen of the Desert’). His upcoming films include ‘The Childhood of a Leader’ and ‘The Lost City of Z’.

Tech giant IBM has announced it has developed a new microchip for computers that is about four times more powerful that those currently in the market.

The firm said in a communique on Thursday that it was able to manufacture chips with components just seven nanometres wide — 1,000 times smaller than a red blood cell, Efe news agency reported.

The smallest components in computer chips to date are 14 nm in size, although the industry has already begun the transition to producing 10-nm chips.

Each new generation of chips is defined by the smaller size of its basic components.

IBM has manufactured the first prototypes of the chips in a laboratory and is currently exploring ways to produce them in its factories.

The firm said the new advances will enable it to produce chips containing 20 billion transistors, or switches, compared to the 1.9 billion on the Intel’s most advanced 14-nm chips.

The firm is making a big push to reduce the size of transistors and other microscopic components on its fingernail-sized chips, following a trend of increasing computer power — known as Moore’s Law.

The law — or, better said, observation — bears the name of Gordon Moore, one of the pioneers in developing silicon chips and the co-founder of Intel, and holds that, over the history of computing hardware, the number of transistors in a densely integrated circuit has doubled approximately every two years.

The announcement made on Thursday by IBM means that the past exponential increase in computational power will continue apace for the next few years.

IBM said it was able to resolve development problems for the new chip by using silicon germanium — rather than just silicon — in key parts of the chip, something which makes it possible for even smaller elements in the chip to operate properly.

"For business and society to get the most out of tomorrow’s computers and devices, scaling to seven nm and beyond is essential," said Arvind Krishna, senior vice-president and director of IBM Research.

IBM and its partners, including Samsung, are planning to invest some $3 billion in a New York state manufacturing plant to produce the tiny seven-nm chips, making them available for installation in computers and other tech devices by 2017.

Socialite Paris Hilton has found her "soulmate" in Swiss businessman Thomas Gross.

The 34-year-old hotel heiress appears to be much in love with her new beau after she shared a glamorous snap of the pair on photo-sharing website Instagram, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

With the photograph, she simply wrote: "Soulmates. (sic)"

Meanwhile, a source previously revealed that Hilton has already taken her boyfriend to meet her parents, Richard and Kathy, who are glad the pair are "such a great match".

The source said: "They had dinner with her family in Los Angeles last week. Her mother Kathy really liked him and was telling everyone that she is happy her daughter has met such a great match.

In the age of smartphones and e-books, megastar Amitabh Bachchan — son of legendary writer-poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan — who is quite abreast with technology, says books should be retained for their "magical quality" of being a trove of knowledge.

"Books…they shall never be shelved away…they shall remain…there is a magical quality about them… yes I could keep them ‘kindled’ but somehow the charm of holding the pages of a freshly printed book, the writing of our name for its possession, the almost divine manner in which they are kept not too far away from us…ah…such a remarkable habit…such attachment and such wealth…with us," Big B posted on his official blog.

The 72-year-old went on to add that books are not only valuable assets, but hold the key of their owner’s personality. 

"A home without the exhibition of valuable books seems so bare and ignorant…they convey the character of those that abide in the home…their nature, habits, conversation, likes and dislikes.. all….If music, as I said yesterday, be the soul of our being, books, are the educators of our soul," he shared.

The ‘Paa’ star also dispelled the misconception that he is an avid reader.

"There is belief among many that I read a lot…nonsense…I do not…I merely respect those that do and live in their reflected glory…that too is a limitless attribute…so long as knowledge keeps swimming about you in waves, soft and gentle…life is calm and ethereal," he posted. 

On the professional front, the cine icon is gearing up for ‘Wazir’ this year.