The Finance Ministry on Friday sought Parliament's nod to spend an additional Rs 25,500 crore in the current fiscal, nearly half of which will be spent on capital infusion into state-owned banks to help them overcome the high bad loans situation. The ministry plans to infuse Rs 12,110 crore as capital in state-owned banks struggling with highest levels of bad debts in 13 years. This is on top of Rs 7,940 crore provided by Jaitley in the Budget for 2015-16."Bank recapitalisation plan is comprehensive. We have put in four years plan to push growth and tackle NPA," finance minister Arun Jaitley said.

Sensex ends 409 points up, Nifty at 8,533
The S&P BSE Sensex closed the session up 409.21 points, or 1.48 per cent, at 28,114.56. The sentiment was lifted by a surge in banking shares on better-than-expected June quarter results by ICICI Bank and the government's plan to infuse Rs 70,000 crore in public sector banks over four years. The broader 50-share Nifty index jumped 111.05 points, or 1.32 per cent, to settle the day at 8,532.85.

India set to become water scarce in next ten years
India is faced with the alarming prospect of becoming water scarce in 10 years' time, or by 2025, the government has said citing a study by a consulting firm in the water sector. In his reply to a question in Lok Sabha, minister of state for water resources Sanwar Lal Jat yesterday said that consulting firm 'Everything About Water' (EA Water) has concluded that India's demand for water is expected to exceed all current sources of supply and the country is set to become water scarce  ..

Four Indians abducted in Libya worked at a university
Three of the four Indian nationals, who have been kidnapped by militants in Libya, are teachers by profession and are employed at the Sirte University. The fourth one was working at the Sirte University branch at Jufra. The four Indians were abducted near Sirte. The kidnapping comes even as the fate of 39 Indians kidnapped in June 2014 from Mosul in Iraq remains unknown.

Three special trains for Kawad Yatra
The Northern Railway on Friday announced that it would run three special trains for Kawad Yatra which is slated to begin on August 1. Two trains would run daily from Delhi to Haridwar via Shamli while another special train would run daily via Hapur from August 1 to August 12. Kawadias are Lord Shiva devotees who gather at Haridwar every year to take a dip and collect water of river Ganga to offer to Lord Shiva.

Karnataka's new law gives govt more power to remove lokayukta
The Karnataka assembly and council on Friday passed amendment to the lokayukta act, giving the government more powers to remove the lokayukta. According to the new law, the lokayukta can be removed if allegations against him are proved. It says that the process of removal should be completed with 90 days. The amendments also empower the assembly speaker and council chairperson to recommend the Chief Justice of the state to probe lokayukta facing allegations of corruption.

Over 9,700 women rights violation cases since April
More than 9,700 cases of atrocities against women, including domestic violence and rape, have been registered since April one this year, with Uttar Pradesh seeing the highest number of such cases, the government said on Friday. These many cases have been registered with the National Commission for Women so far this financial year. The reasons for violation of women rights include domestic violence, outraging the modesty of women, dowry harassment, property dispute, rape.

India, US in process of signing pact for next-gen soldier wear
The government today said it is in the process of signing an agreement with the US to collaborate on the next-generation lightweight, protective clothing for soldiers. "The objective of the agreement is to test analyse and compare Chemical Biological (CB) Protection Technologies to facilitate development of requirements for a wearable protective ensemble capability with the view towards cooperatively developing mutually identified technologies subject to a separate agreement," defence minister Manohar Parrikar said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.

NGT seeks Centre's reply on RO filters in residential areas
An NGO's plea against installation of reverse osmosis (RO) water purifiers in residential societies and villages on the ground that it leads to wastage of water has prompted National Green Tribunal to seek response from the Centre. A bench headed by NGT chairperson Swatanter Kumar issued notice to the ministry of water resources and sought its reply before the next date of hearing, August 4.