MANDLA (MADHYA PRADESH): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the promulgation of an ordinance on rape demonstrated his government's determination to act on the issue, but stressed that people had to respect their daughters and make their sons more responsible for an atmosphere of safety. Modi also pitched for a social movement to ensure the safety of women and girls while addressing a rally here. "Shivraj ji (Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan) just referred to the capital punishment provided in the ordinance for rape against minors and I could see that it (the remark) received cheers from everyone present here," he said. "There is a government in Delhi which listens to your voice and takes decisions. So, the Centre has made a provision for capital punishment to the monstrous intent," he said while referring to the recent ordinance. The Union Cabinet on April 21 approved the ordinance under which the death penalty could be awarded to those convicted of raping girls below 12 years of age, amid a nationwide outrage over cases of sexual assault and murder of minors in Kathua + and Surat + and the rape of a teenager in Unnao.

NEW DELHI: In 15 months time, Survey of India, the country’s principal mapping agency, will map the entire stretch of the Ganga using geographic information system (GIS) technology and provide high-resolution maps to the government. It will help river cleaning authorities in getting minute details of sewage and effluent discharge outlets and identify pollution hot-spots up to 10 km on both sides of the river. “The high resolution map will help us in keeping tabs on sources of pollution and taking quick corrective measures. Such scientific map is necessary for effective execution and monitoring of the river cleaning works,” said Rajeev Ranjan Mishra, director general of the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG).

BEIJING: China failed to get India's support for its ambitious Belt and Road infrastructure project at the end of a foreign ministers' meeting of a major security bloc on Tuesday, ahead of an ice-breaking trip to China this week by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Belt and Road is Chinese President Xi Jinping's landmark scheme to build infrastructure to connect China to the rest of Asia and beyond, a giant reworking of its old Silk Road. India has not signed up to the initiative as parts of one key project, the $57 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, run through Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. Whether or not China will be able to win India round to the Belt and Road will likely be a key measure of the success of PM Modi's trip to China to meet Xi for an informal meeting on Friday and Saturday.

The centre of gravity of Fortune 500 companies is shifting to India. The future strategies of these companies are being invented here,” says Lalit Ahuja, a retired Navy man who runs Ansr, a venture in Bengaluru that helps multinational companies establish engineering and research and development centres — known as global inhouse centres or GICs — in India. Among the companies it’s worked with are Target, JCPenney, AB (Anheuser-Busch) Inbev, Saks Fifth Avenue and Grant Thornton.