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Costas Simitis, former prime minister of Greece and the architect of the country's joining the common European currency, the euro, has died at age 88, state TV ERT reported. Simitis was taken to a hospital in the city of Corinth early Sunday morning from his holiday home west of Athens, unconscious and without a pulse, the hospital's director was quoted as saying by Greek media. An autopsy will be performed to determine the cause of death. Simitis, a co-founder of the Socialist PASOK party in 1974, eventually became the successor to the party's founding leader, Andreas Papandreou, with whom he had an often contentious relationship that shaped the party's nature. Simitis was a low-key pragmatist where Papandreou was a charismatic, fiery populist. He was also a committed pro-European, while Papandreou banked on strong opposition to Greece's joining what was then the European Economic Community in the 1970s, before changing tack once he became prime minister. When the profligate first
A high-level meeting held at the Prime Minister's Office on Monday stressed the urgent need to transition to electric vehicles and develop charging infrastructure in the NCR region to combat air pollution. Chairing the meeting of the task force, P K Mishra, the principal secretary to the prime minister, called for strict and timely implementation of the Graded Response Action Plan -- a set of anti-pollution measures enforced during winter -- by all relevant agencies to manage air quality effectively, a statement said. Mishra instructed the chief secretaries of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to rigorously enforce action plans to prevent stubble burning, ensure full utilization of crop residue management machines and support small industries in the economic use of paddy straw, it said. He stressed the importance of shifting to electric vehicles and expanding EV charging infrastructure in NCR areas. According to the statement, Mishra also encouraged states to increase their e-bus .
President Emmanuel Macron named Michel Barnier as France's new prime minister on Thursday, hoping the Brexit negotiator and veteran conservative can work with the country's bitterly divided legislature to end political turmoil that has roiled Macron's presidency. Barnier, 73, is the oldest of the 26 prime ministers that have served modern France's Fifth Republic. He replaces the youngest, Gabriel Attal, who was 34 when he was appointed just eight months ago. Attal was also France's first openly gay prime minister. French media and some of Macron's political opponents, who immediately criticized Barnier's appointment, quickly dug up that, when serving in parliament in 1981, the new prime minister had been among 155 lawmakers who voted against a law that decriminalized homosexuality. Barnier's appointment ends more than 50 days of a caretaker government in France, but offers no guarantee of a return to political calm. Barnier faces the tough task of having to work with the acrimonious
The Centre on Tuesday announced it will offload an additional 20 lakh tonnes of wheat in the open market to bring down the prices of wheat and wheat flour. On January 25, the Centre had announced sale of 30 lakh tonnes of wheat in the open market from its buffer stock to check rise in prices of wheat and wheat flour (atta). According to an official statement, the government has decided that state-owned Food Corporation of India (FCI) will offload an additional quantity of 20 lakh tonnes of wheat in open market under the Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS). The stocks will be for sale through e-auction to flour mills/private traders/bulk buyers/manufactures of wheat products. The proposal to sell stocks in the open market was taken by a group of ministers, sources said. "So far, 50 lakh tonnes (30+20 lakh tonnes) of wheat have been decided to be offloaded under the OMSS. The reduction in reserve price along with additional offloading of 20 lakh tonnes of wheat will collectively help in