February 2020

Christina Koch returns to Earth after a record 328 days in space After 328 days in space, NASA astronaut Christina Koch is back on Earth. She returns holding the record for the longest stay in space by a woman, and she has earned bragging rights for another major milestone: she and fellow NASA astronaut Jessica Meir completed the first all-female spacewalk during Koch’s extended stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Koch, along with European astronaut Luca Parmitano and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov, left ISS at 12:50AM ET. Around 4AM ET, their Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft touched down in Kazakhstan, and they were taken...

Cognizant’s co-founder to step down from board BENGALURU : Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. vice-chairman and co-founder Francisco D’Souza will exit the board on 31 March. D’Souza, who co-founded the company in 1994, was the longest-serving chief executive of the IT services firm from January 2007 through March 2019 when Brian Humphries took over. Cognizant has also appointed Vinita Bali to its board as an independent director, effective 24 February. Bali was the managing director and chief executive officer of Britannia Industries from 2005 to 2014. Source: Livemint

World Bank Chief Economist Pinelopi Goldberg Announces Resignation World Bank chief economist Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg has announced resignation in a letter written to her colleagues, international news agencies reported. Goldberg, who was appointed the chief economist at the World Bank in 2018, said in the letter that she wants to go back to teaching at Yale University and that she will put down her papers on March 1. According to media reports, Goldberg in her letter wrote that working at the World Bank has been a ‘rewarding experience’ for her as she deeply cares about the issues pertaining to create...

Vehicle scrappage policy in its final stage, says Nitin Gadkari NEW DELHI : The long-delayed vehicle scrappage policy is in its last lap and will be finalized soon, road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari said on Thursday. Gadkari was speaking at the Auto Expo 2020 in Greater Noida. The proposed policy that has been in works for over six months is seen as an attempt by the government to boost automobile demand, which has been hit by weak consumer demand amid a slowdown in the broader economy. It is also expected to remove old, polluted vehicles off the roads. Source:...

AirAsia probe: Payments in high-value deals not a bribe, says Mahathir Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Thursday payments received to offset the costs of a high-value order could not be constituted as a bribe. Mahathir was replying to questions by reporters on the controversial sponsorship deal that executives of Malaysia’s AirAsia Group Bhd struck with the budget carrier’s sole plane supplier Airbus. Source: Livemint

Philip Barton is new UK envoy to India Philip Barton, who served as the British high commissioner in Islamabad between 2014 and 2016, and held the post of private secretary to former prime ministers John Major and Tony Blair, has been appointed the new high commissioner to India. He replaces Dominic Asquith, the Foreign Office announced on Thursday. Asquith returns to London after a nearly four-year stint in New Delhi, during which he oversaw an exponential growth in the visas issued to Indian citizens, including students, whose numbers had declined since 2010. Source: Hindustan Times

Pompeo Condemns Violent Extremists Who Target Hindus in Pakistan, Muslims in Myanmar Washington: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has condemned terrorists and violent extremists who target religious minorities, including Hindus in Pakistan and Muslims in Myanmar. Pompeo made the comments on Wednesday while launching a 27-nation International Religious Freedom Alliance, which will try to adopt a collective approach in protecting and preserving religious freedom across the world. “We condemn terrorists and violent extremists who target religious minorities, whether they are Yezidis in Iraq, Hindus in Pakistan, Christians in northeast Nigeria, or Muslims in Burma,” Pompeo said. Source: News18.com

Steve Jobs’ personality changed after Apple’s success, Wozniak says Apple co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak may have built a technology empire now worth over $1 trillion, but they didn’t share quite the same opinions on money, Wozniak told former Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki in a podcast interview published Wednesday. Woz said that while he never really cared about money, Jobs was fixated on making it big. “Steve wanted to be important, and he had zero money,” Wozniak said. “So he was always looking for little ways to make a next step in money, [and] he wanted to be that important person in life. And this was his...

Opposition parties are misleading the public about CAA, NPR, says actor Rajinikanth Actor Rajinikanth on Wednesday said that the Opposition parties were misleading the public about the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Rajinikanth’s comments come weeks after widespread protests broke out across India against the CAA, National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR). Speaking to reporters, Rajinikanth said that the NPR “very essential”. “The Congress has done it in 2010 and also it was done in 2015. It needs to be done to identify those who are Indians/who are foreigners — which country they are from. Shouldn’t we...

Amitabh Bachchan’s melancholic post after recent deaths in family, talks of ‘levels of sadness within’ Amitabh Bachchan is one of the busiest actors in Bollywood and definitely the busiest among superstars of his generation. The septuagenarian actor, however, hinted about “the sadness within” as his thoughts were “plagued by the recent deaths in family and illnesses of others”. After sharing happy memories on son Abhishek Bachchan’s 44th birthday about how he used to suck his two fingers as a toddler, he opened up about the recent death of his daughter Shweta Bachchan’s mother-in-law Ritu Nanda and illnesses of others. He wrote, “…plagued by...