Ukraine and Separatists to Strive for Full Ceasefire
Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists, in a gesture to shore up a tenuous ceasefire, agreed to strive for an end to all truce violations from 1st September.
In February, the two sides agreed to a ceasefire between their forces in eastern Ukraine in parallel to a political process, including plans for local elections and establishment of a special self-management status for separatist-minded regions.
World's Largest Extinction Events Triggered by Metal Pollution
New research suggests, metal poisoning caused the malformation observed in fossil remains of marine plankton from the late Silurian (415 million years ago) and may have contributed to their extinction and that of many other species.
Several Palaeozoic mass extinction events during the Ordovician and Silurian periods shaped the evolution of life on our planet.
As per researchers, the malformed fossil remains of marine plankton from the late Silurian contain highly elevated concentrations of heavy metals, such as iron, lead, and arsenic.
ICICI Launches Loan Product with Mortgage Guarantee
In the extremely competitive home finance market, ICICI Bank launched a mortgage product backed with a guarantee to help the borrower avail more credit and also extended the tenure, for an upfront fee of 2 percent of the loan amount.
The new offering will help customers raise the eligible amount by up to 20 percent and increase the tenure by up to seven years, for an upfront fee of 2 percent of the new loan amount.
The product is targeted at customers in the 40-plus age bracket as they are one of the largest segments of home buyers.
The product christened ICICI Bank Extraa Home Loans has been launched in association with India Mortgage Guarantee Corporation (IMGC).
IFFCO Launches Joint Venture with Mitsubishi Corp
Fertilizer cooperative IFFCO formally launched a joint venture with Japanese firm Mitsubishi Corp for manufacturing agrochemicals in India that will start operation in this Rabi season starting October.
In the shareholding pact signed last month, IFFCO holds 51% stake and the rest is held by Mitsubishi in the joint venture IFFCO-MC Crop Science Private Ltd.
IFFCO-MC will come up with 20 different products across various product ranges of agrochemicals.
NASA's Dawn spacecraft has delivered the closest-yet views of the dwarf planet Ceres.
The latest pictures provided by Dawn show the small world's features in unprecedented detail, including Ceres' tall, conical mountain, crater formation features and narrow, braided fractures.
Dawn takes 11 days to capture and return images of Ceres.
Dawn is the first mission to visit a dwarf planet, and the first to orbit two distinct solar system targets. It orbited protoplanet Vesta for 14 months in 2011 and 2012, and arrived at Ceres on March 6, 2015.
The Cabinet extended the term of the Seventh Pay Commission by four months, which was set up in February 2014 to revise remuneration of some 48 lakh central government employees and 55 lakh pensioners.
The Commission will now have time until 31st December to submit its report.
The government constitutes the Pay Commission almost every 10 years to revise the pay scale of its employees and often these are adopted by states after some modifications.