Rear Admiral killed in ‘accidental firing’

Rear Admiral killed in ‘accidental firing’

Kochi/New Delhi, July 7: One of the seniormost commanders of the Indian Navy, Rear Admiral SS Jamwal, was killed in ‘accidental firing’ on Wednesday in a gunnery school close to the headquarters of the Southern Naval Command in Kerala’s Kochi city, an officer said.

“I regret to inform that Chief of Staff, Southern Naval Command, Rear Admiral SS Jamwal, died in accidental firing at INS Dronacharya today (Wednesday),” navy spokesman Commander PVS Satish told IANS in New Delhi.

Satish said the circumstances leading to the accidental firing during a small arms training session on a firing range and the death of the 51-year-old officer were being investigated. In Kochi, Commodore MR Ajaya Kumar, naval officer in charge Kerala, told reporters that a bullet from Jamwal’s pistol hit him at around 10.30 am when he was training a batch of 24 trainers.

Monsoon covers country, 10 days early

PUNE: Making rapid progress, monsoon covered the entire country on Tuesday — 10 days earlier than usual. Last year too, monsoon had covered the whole country in advance — on July 3. India Meteorological Department said monsoon had been advancing rapidly for the last five days.

Weather conditions have been ‘‘very favourable’’ for the progress of monsoon, especially in the northern regions, A B Mazumdar, deputy director general, meteorology, told TOI. He said these conditions, including a strong wind flow, led to good showers in parts of north India for the last two days.

This year, monsoon had reached Bay of Bengal three days earlier than normal and had set in over Kerala on May 31 and over Mumbai on June 11 (both close to normal date). Although it covered north-eastern states slightly before usual, it reached Kolkata on June 13, a week later than usual.

South-west monsoon normally sets in over Bay of Bengal on May 20 and over Kerala on June 1. It covers most parts of peninsular India up to Mumbai and north-eastern states by June 10 and most parts of central and east India by June 15. It reaches Delhi around June 29 and covers the entire country by July 15.

IMD data for the last 30 years revealed the arrival of monsoon in Kerala was advanced by 14 days to May 18 in 2004 and delayed by 11 days to June 12 in 1983.

TOI

Facebook goes free for Airtel users

NEW DELHI: Leading telecom operator Bharti Airtel has made access to online social networking site Facebook free for its over 130 million subscribers, the company said.

The offer will, however, be available only for two months till August 31.

The Facebook site will be available in English, Hindi and five more Indian languages -- Punjabi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, and Malayalam.

"For the two-month period, the partnership enables Airtel customers to access Facebook’s full mobile site faster and at no data cost from their Airtel mobiles via m.facebook.com," said an Airtel statement.

Customers, accessing mobile Internet for the first time need to SMS ‘FACEBOOK’ to 54321 to take advantage of this offer.

Sensex down on selling pressure

MUMBAI: The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex dipped by 20.86 points in early trade on Monday on fresh selling in banking sector stocks after a hike in interest rates.

The Sensex, which had lost 48.38 points in the previous session, fell by 20.86 points to 17,440.09 points in the first five minutes of trading as some of the leading banking stocks declined.

Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange Nifty declined by 11.25 points to 5,225.85 points.

On Friday, the RBI raised short-term lending and borrowing rates by 25 basis points to 5.50 per cent and 4 per cent, respectively.

Volatile trade in Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group stocks after the merger of Reliance Natural Resources Ltd with Reliance Power influenced the trading sentiment as well. While Reliance Natural Resources' scrip fell by 25.92 per cent to Rs 47.15, Reliance Power gained 4.68 per cent to Rs 183.35.

TOI