NEWS

Results of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) class 12th have been declared. Pass percentage fell by more than one per cent to 82 from 83.05 per cent last year.

Raksha Gopal from Noida has topped the exam with 99.6 per cent marks. Bhumi Sawant is at the second position with 99.4 per cent. Aditya Jain and Mannat Luthra have secured third rank, with 99.2 per cent. All the three students are from Chandigarh.

Human Resources Development Minister Prakash Javadekar called the top four students and congratulated them.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has favoured disinvestment of the loss-making Air India, the flag carrier airline of India. The minister said, the airline's market share is just around 14 per cent whereas the debt burden is 50,000 crore rupees. It indicates possible stake sale in Air India, which is staying afloat on taxpayers' money.
Jaitley, at DD News programme, said, to run Air India, around 50,000 crore rupees have been put in and that money could have been used for promoting education.

US officials alleged that a US Navy surveillance plane was intercepted by two Chinese fighter jets over the South China Sea. 
Initial reports showed that US P-3 Orion surveillance plane was 240 km southeast of Hong Kong in international airspace when the Chinese aircraft carried out the unsafe intercept, they added. 

Government today said more than one third of the villages in the country have been declared open defecation free (ODF). Of the total six lakh five thousand eight hundred, over two lakh villages spread over 139 districts have become open defecation free. A total of 300 districts are targeted to be made ODF by December 2017.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi today on the achievements of his Ministry during the last three years, Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said maximum number of 26 ODF districts are in Gujarat.