Quicktakes

Rating threat

MUMBAI: International rating agencies have expressed disappointment over lack of private investment stimulants and measures to reduce fiscal deficit in the budget, with one hinting at a possible downgrade of India’s foreign currency rating.

Arms smugglers

PORT BLAIR: The Indian Navy and the Coast Guard arrested 26 armed smugglers in the Andaman Seas about 360 km from here on May 31. The operation was conducted based on a tip off that two trawlers with thai registration carrying arms, ammunition andexplosives from the Myanmar-Thailand border were bound for Bangladesh.

Photographer dead

CHANDIGARH: Rana Jaspal Singh, a news photographer with The Indian Express, died on Thursday after a fall in a para-sailing demonstration at army station Khasa, about 10 km from Amritsar. The end came when Rana could not control the parachute which was being lifted by a jeep.

Heat claims groom

NASHIK: A bridegroom died of sunstroke in village Dhanori in Ahmednagar district taking the death toll this summer due to heat wave in Vidarbha and north Maharashtra region to 30. Arjun lande (30), had been exposed to scorching heat as he distributed wedding cards and died on the day of marriage after developing high fever, a delayed report said.

Medical varsity

MUMBAI: Governor P C Alexander on Thursday promulgated an ordinance for setting up the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences at Nashik, notwithstanding protests lodged by elected representatives.