Guwahati, Jul 16 (PTI) Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi will be visiting Assam on Wednesday, during which they will interact with party functionaries in the state. This will be the first visit of the party's top leaders since Gaurav Gogoi took over as the state president, ahead of next year's assembly election. Kharge and Gandhi are scheduled to attend two meetings, including one at Chaygaon -- about 40 km from Guwahati, during the day-lo...Read More
Kolkata, Jul 16 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will lead a protest march in Kolkata on Wednesday over alleged harassment of Bengali-speaking people in BJP-ruled states. The march will begin at College Square around 1 pm and conclude at Dharmatala in the heart of the city. Senior leaders of the party, including TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, will join the march. With less than a year left for the assembly elections in West Bengal, the TMC is raising its pit...Read More
Chandigarh, Jul 16 (PTI) The driver of the SUV that ran over and killed Fauja Singh, the world's oldest marathoner, has been arrested, a senior police official said on Wednesday. According to the official, Amritpal Singh Dhillon (26), a resident of Dasupur in Kartarpur in Jalandhar district, was arrested on Tuesday night, and his vehicle has also been seized. He was driving from Bhogpur to Kishahgarh on Monday when he allegedly hit Singh (114) on the highway in the veteran runner's native vill...Read More
Dehradun, Jul 16 (PTI) The Uttarakhand Police have claimed to have busted an international drugs gang after it raided a factory engaged in making MDMA in the Nanakmatta area of the Udham Singh Nagar district and arrested a man operating it, officials said. State police chief Deepam Seth told reporters here on Tuesday that the raid was conducted by a joint team of the Kumaon unit of the STF's Anti-Narcotics Task Force and Pithoragarh, Champawat, and Udham Singh Nagar police. In the raid carried...Read More
Mumbai, Jul 16 (PTI) A 19-year-old woman gave birth to a baby on board a running sleeper coach bus in Maharashtra's Parbhani, but she and a man claiming to be her husband threw the newborn out of the window, leading to the child's death, police have said. The incident occurred around 6.30 am on Tuesday on the Pathri-Selu Road and came to light after an alert citizen spotted that something was thrown out of the bus in a wrapped cloth, an official said. "A woman, identified as Ritika Dhere, was ...Read More
Mumbai: A 40-year-old man has been arrested in Mumbai for allegedly strangling his five-year-old stepdaughter and dumping her body in the Arabian Sea. The body was discovered floating near Sassoon Dock in Colaba on Tuesday morning, leading to the swift arrest of the accused.According to the police, the child had been reported missing from the Antop Hill area in Central Mumbai a day earlier. Her mother, Nazia, who works as a housemaid, and Imran Shaikh, the accused, had approached the Antop Hill ...Read More
New Delhi, Jul 16 (PTI) Three private equity firms have sought approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to acquire a stake in Mumbai-based bakery chain Theobroma. At least two private equity firms -- Infinity Partners and Atreides Investments BV -- are affiliates of ChrysCapital. Another PE firm Aqua Investments Ltd will also be acquiring a stake in Theobroma Foods. The development came following reports that homegrown PE major ChrysCapital is set to acquire a 90 per cent stake ...Read More
New Delhi, Jul 16 (PTI) A bomb threat sent panic across two private schools in Delhi, prompting authorities to immediately evacuate the premises for a thorough check, officials said on Wednesday. This was the third consecutive day that education institutes in the national capital were targeted with bomb threats, which, in the past two days, turned out to be hoaxes. An email threatening to blow up St Thomas School in Dwarka was received at 5.26 am, while Vasant Valley School got a similar threa...Read More
New Delhi: The death sentence of Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya, who was sentenced to death in Yemen, has been postponed for the time being. She was to be executed by shooting today, July 16. According to media reports, activist groups and influential religious leaders intervened in the matter, after which the death sentence of Nimisha Priya was postponed. Earlier, many efforts were also made at the diplomatic level to save Nimisha from the death penalty. There is also news that the victim's family...Read More
Chandigarh, Jul 15 (PTI) Haryana Urban Local Bodies Minister Vipul Goel on Tuesday said Karnal and Sonipat will be honoured for their cleanliness at the upcoming 'Swachh Survekshan 2024-25 Awards'. President Droupadi Murmu will present the awards on July 17, marking the 9th edition of the annual urban cleanliness survey. According to an official statement issued here, Haryana will be represented by Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini and Minister Vipul Goel at the award ceremony. Goel said Karna...Read More
Pune: The ongoing pre-non-interlocking and non-interlocking works to develop the Hadapsar railway station would affect trains' movement in the Daund-Pune section this week from Thursday till Sunday. A total of 17 trains, including DEMUs from Pune to Daund and Baramati to Pune, Pune-Harangul Express (01487), Harangul-Pune Express (01488), Solapur-Pune Intercity Superfast Express (12169) and Pune-Solapur Intercity Express (12170), would remain cancelled on Sunday (July 20), a railway official said...Read More
Chandigarh, Jul 15 (PTI) The Punjab Assembly on Tuesday descended into chaos after a confrontation between Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema and Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa during a discussion on an anti-drug drive. Participating in a debate on the concluding day of the special session of the Punjab Assembly here, Cheema lashed out at the previous SAD-BJP and Congress governments, accusing them of failing to wipe out the scourge of drugs. Cheema credited the Bhagwant Mann govern...Read More
New Delhi, Jul 15 (PTI) Two people died and four others were injured after a fire broke out at a house in east Delhi's Old Govindpura area on Tuesday evening, an official said. Police have identified the deceased as Tanveer (28) and Nusrat. A call was received at Jagatpuri police station at 8.46 pm regarding a fire incident at Band Gali, Old Govindpura, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara) Prashant Gautam said. When a police team reached the spot, it found that 10 people were trapped insi...Read More
Jaipur, Jul 15 (PTI) Normal life was thrown out of gear across Rajasthan as heavy rainfall pounded the state for the second consecutive day on Tuesday, officials said. The downpour left several areas in Jaipur, Churu, Pali, Bikaner, Sri Ganganagar, and Hanumangarh inundated, they said. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the maximum rainfall was recorded in Bijolia in Bhilwara, followed by Bhainsrorgarh in Chittorgarh, Makrana in Nagaur, Niwai in Tonk, Mandana in Kota, and ...Read More
Mumbai, Jul 15 (PTI) A 40-year-old man allegedly killed his five-year-old stepdaughter in Mumbai by strangulating her and dumped the body in the Arabian Sea, police said on Tuesday. The accused, Imran Shaikh, has been apprehended, they said. The incident came to light when the girl's body was found floating in the sea near Sassoon Dock in south Mumbai by Colaba police officials on Tuesday morning, they said. A motive was not immediately clear. The girl had gone missing from Antop Hill area i...Read More
Chennai: Madras high court has clarified that private self-financing medical colleges are required to pay only a stipend, and not a full salary, to in-service govt doctors pursuing postgraduate or super-specialty courses under the govt quota.A division bench of Justice R Subramanian and Justice K Surender passed the order while partly allowing a batch of appeals moved by Karpaga Vinayaga Medical College and others. They challenged a single judge's order that directed private colleges to pay sala...Read More
New Delhi, Jul 15 (PTI) South Asia has achieved its highest-ever immunization coverage for children, with notable progress in India and Nepal, according to new data released on Tuesday by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF for 2024. India reduced its number of zero-dose children -- those who have not received a single vaccine -- by 43 per cent, from 1.6 million in 2023 to 0.9 million in 2024. Nepal achieved a 52 per cent reduction, from 23,000 to 11,000, a WHO statement said. Pakis...Read More
Mumbai, Jul 15 (PTI) Shashikant Shinde, who was appointed the state unit chief of the Nationalist Congress Party (SP), on Tuesday said he would work day and night to bring the party back to power in the state by focusing on strengthening its base. He would soon conduct an extensive tour of the state, Shinde said, adding that he would target the government over its wrong policies. Shinde, a former Maharashtra minister and MLC, was on Tuesday named the new president of the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (...Read More
Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Friday asked the state govt for its stand on grant of heritage status to Savarkar Sadan building at Shivaji Park, Dadar (W), where late Vinayak Damodar Savarkar resided.Chief Justice Alokh Aradhe and Justice Sandeep Marne heard a PIL by Abhinav Bharat Congress through its president Pankaj Phadnis. It expressed apprehension that prior to the ground-plus-4-storey building being bestowed heritage status, it is likely to be demolished. In Feb 2009, the Mumbai Heritag...Read More
New Delhi, Jul 15 (PTI) India on Tuesday called on Bangladesh to reconsider its decision to demolish the ancestral property of noted filmmaker Satyajit Ray and offered help to preserve the iconic building as it symbolises Bangla cultural "renaissance". Describing the move to demolish the "landmark" building in Mymensingh as a matter of "profound regret", New Delhi also urged Dhaka to convert it into a museum symbolising shared culture of the two countries and pledged to extend cooperation for i...Read More
New Delhi, Jul 15 (PTI) The world's merchandise trade grew by 5.3 per cent year-on-year in the January-March quarter of 2025 as imports surged in North America in anticipation of higher tariffs in the US, the WTO said in a statement on Tuesday. Sequentially, global goods trade rose by 3.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2025. Merchandise trade volume growth in the first quarter was stronger than the WTO's most recent forecast, but its economists expect the pace of expansion to slow later in t...Read More
New Delhi, Jul 15 (PTI) Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Tuesday met Union Home Minister Amit Shah here and demanded enhanced central aid for the state badly affected by flash floods and cloudbursts during the monsoon season. Sukhu also called on Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari and sought support for the reconstruction of damaged roads in the state. During the meeting with Shah, the chief minister sought more funds for restoration of damage...Read More
Kolkata, Jul 15 (PTI) Concerned with media reports that the ancestral house of eminent children's writer Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury in Bangladesh's Mymensingh city is being demolished, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday sought the intervention of the governments of India and the neighbouring nation. Upendrakishore, a prominent 19th-century litterateur in his own right besides being a painter and publisher, was the father of celebrated poet Sukumar Ray and grandfather of fil...Read More
Bengaluru, Jul 15 (PTI) Karnataka Minister Eshwar Khandre on Tuesday said the state government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to use modern technology for conserving elephant corridors and habitats, aiming to reduce rising human-elephant conflict and protect crops of farmers living near forest fringes. The Forest Department, in collaboration with the IISC, is set to implement a five-year collaborative project titled "Landscape-Level Manage...Read More
New Delhi, Jul 15 (PTI) State-run telecom firm MTNL has defaulted on bank loans worth Rs 8,585 crore from seven public sector banks, the company said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday. The loss-making public sector telecom firm's total debt obligations reached Rs 34,484 crore as on June 30, 2025 comprising bank loan of Rs 8,585 crore, sovereign guarantee bond Rs 24,071 crore and loan for DoT for paying Sovereign Guarantee Bond interest Rs 1,828 crore, according to the filing. The total loan de...Read More
Mumbai, Jul 15 (PTI) Mumbai has recorded an increase in malaria and chikungunya cases between January and July 2025 (till July 14) as compared to the same period of the previous year, the city civic body said on Tuesday. However, a decline was noticed in cases of leptospirosis and other water-borne diseases, including gastroenteritis and hepatitis, during the period under review, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said in its report - Monsoon-Related Diseases. "The early onset of mon...Read More
New Delhi, Jul 15 (PTI) About 1.4 lakh new Jan Dhan accounts have been opened in the past fortnight under the nationwide financial inclusion saturation campaign, the finance ministry said on Tuesday. The Department of Financial Services (DFS), under the finance ministry, has launched a three-month nationwide saturation campaign, effective from July 1 to September 30, 2025, to bolster the outreach of flagship schemes, such as Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bi...Read More
Dehradun: One shloka from the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita will be recited in all government schools across Uttarakhand during prayer meetings, according to an order issued on Monday. The directive, issued by Director of Secondary Education Dr Mukul Kumar Sati to all Chief Education Officers, states that students should also be informed about the meaning and scientific relevance of the shloka recited each day. The move aims to blend modern education with traditional Indian knowledge systems and inculc...Read More
Chandigarh, Jul 15 (PTI) The Punjab assembly on Tuesday decided to constitute a committee to find out a missing portion of an action-taken report on the 1986 Nakodar sacrilege and police firing incidents. The matter was taken up by Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on the concluding day of the special session of the assembly as members of the House discussed the Punjab Prevention of Offences Against Holy Scripture(s) Bill, 2025 here. During the then Shiromani Akali Dal regime, five s...Read More
Bengaluru, Jul 15 (PTI) Nina Kutina, the 40-year-old Russian woman who was rescued from a remote cave near Gokarna in Karnataka's Uttara Kannada district, on Tuesday said she spent her days painting, singing, reading books, and living peacefully with her two young children. Kutina (40) and her two young children, Preya (6) and Ama (4) were found on July 11 living in a secluded cave in the Ramatirtha hills of Kumta taluk, where they had stayed in complete isolation for nearly two weeks. She had...Read More