New Delhi, Jun 30 (PTI) India has hardened its position on agricultural duty concessions to America as negotiations with the US team in Washington for the proposed trade pact have entered a crucial stage, an official said on Monday. The official also said that the stay of the Indian team, headed by special secretary in the department of commerce Rajesh Agrawal, is expected to be extended further. The team is in Washington for negotiations on an interim trade agreement with the US. Both sides a...Read More
Kendrapara (Odisha), Jun 30 (PTI) Launching a crackdown on illegal immigrants, Odisha police on Monday detained around 18 suspected Bangladeshi nationals, residing illegally at different locations of coastal Kendrapara district. As part of the drive to identify foreign nationals infiltrating into the district, at least 18 individuals were found staying illegally in Rajendranarayanpur, Rangani, Kereragada and Gopalpur villages, said Bimal Kumar Mallick, the inspector-in-charge (IIC) of Talachua ...Read More
Thiruvananthapuram, Jun 30 (PTI) Opposition Congress-led UDF on Monday set up a five-member commission to study the issues being faced by the state health sector, two days after a senior doctor made shocking revelations about the shortcomings at the Government Medical College here. The Commission, led by Congress leader and public health expert Dr S S Lal, would study the "complex and serious problems" that have arisen in the state's health sector and suggest solutions with a long-term perspect...Read More
Puri/Bhubaneswar, Jun 30 (PTI) A day after the stampede in Puri in which three persons were killed and 50 others injured, Odisha's Development Commissioner (DC) Anu Garg on Monday started the administrative probe into the incident. Garg, who is also the Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) has been entrusted with the inquiry into the stampede tragedy near Shree Gundicha Temple in Puri during the Rath Yatra. She visited Puri and inspected the place of tragedy where the stampede took place. "Today, ...Read More
Shimla, Jun 30 (PTI) The 90th birthday celebrations of Tibetan spiritual leader, the 14th Dalai Lama commenced at the Tsuglagkhang temple in Mcleodganj near Dharamshala on Sunday, with the Dalai Lama himself attending the event organised by the Domey (Amdo) community. As per the Gregorian calendar, the Dalai Lama's birthday falls on July 6. However, according to the Tibetan lunar calendar, it is observed on the fifth day of the fifth month, which this year corresponds to June 30. The week-long...Read More
Chandigarh, Jun 30 (PTI) The Punjab Vigilance Bureau Monday took Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia to Himachal Pradesh in connection with a disproportionate assets (DA) case registered against the former minister, said sources. The Punjab Vigilance Bureau on June 25 arrested Majithia in a disproportionate assets case allegedly involving laundering of Rs 540 crore of "drug money". Majithia, who is the brother-in-law of SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, is learnt to have be...Read More
New Delhi, Jun 30 (PTI) India and Bhutan on Monday carried out a "full spectrum" review of projects being implemented with New Delhi's support of Rs 10,000 crore during 2024-2029. A total of 10 projects worth Rs 1,113 crore, covering sectors such as healthcare, connectivity and urban infrastructure in Bhutan, were also approved at the India-Bhutan Development Cooperation Talks held in New Delhi, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. It said India and Bhutan share an "exemplary partnersh...Read More
Guwahati, Jun 30 (PTI) Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday unveiled several projects, including a newly constructed stadium at a school in Assam's Golaghat district. Inaugurating the newly constructed stadium of the historic Golaghat Government Bezbaruah Higher Secondary School, Sarma said that the school occupies a distinguished place in Assam's educational landscape. "The school has, for generations, sustained the tradition of imparting education through the medium of the moth...Read More
Khandwa (MP), Jun 30 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday praised the 'Jal Ganga Samvardhan Abhiyan' in Madhya Pradesh and termed the works done under the water conservation campaign with people's participation as 'historic'. He emphasised on the need for water conservation, noting it will bring relief to farmers and also help in running industries. The three-month-long campaign has been an 'inspiring' effort towards creating awareness among people to make rivers clean, uninterrupted a...Read More
New Delhi, Jun 30 (PTI) Rear Admiral V Ganapathy, an accomplished flag officer of the Indian Navy, has assumed the command of the Military Institute of Technology (MILIT), Pune, officials on Monday said. The prestigious institution comes under the Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff. "Rear Admiral V Ganapathy, an accomplished Flag Officer of the Indian Navy, has assumed the command of the Military Institute of Technology (MILIT), Pune," the Defence Ministry said in a statement. Rear Admiral...Read More
Kolkata, Jun 30 (PTI) The 'fact-finding team' constituted by the BJP in connection with the alleged gang rape at a law college in Kolkata last week said on Monday that despite Kolkata Police Commissioner's assurance of strict action against the accused the panel couldn't trust the police to conduct a proper investigation which the case merits. The team, comprising Satpal Singh, Meenakshi Lekhi, Biplab Kumar Deb and Manan Kumar Mishra, which arrived in Kolkata on Monday morning and met the city ...Read More
Mumbai, Jun 30 (PTI) Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday said a committee will decide whether a third language, including Hindi, should be introduced from Class I in state schools and asserted the decision will taken keeping in mind interest of students and not under political pressure. The state government had, on Sunday, withdrawn two GRs on the introduction of Hindi and the three-language policy in Classes 1 to 5 in English and Marathi medium schools amid strident protests...Read More
Guwahati, Jun 30 (PTI) Opposition Congress workers on Monday waved black flags at Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's convoy in Golaghat district as they were protesting the alleged sale of 90 Gir cows, which were procured by the government, to individuals including a minister's wife. Four people were detained in connection with this incident, the police said. The Congress party had launched protests in all district headquarters against the alleged sale of the cows procured during the 2...Read More
Guwahati, Jun 30 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Numaligarh in Assam's Golaghat district to dedicate to the nation the first bio-ethanol plant, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Monday. ''Ushering in a dawn of industrial development in Assam. Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi ji will visit Numaligarh to dedicate the nation's first Bio Ethanol plant,'' Sarma said in a post on X. Though the CM did not share the date of Modi's visit, Sarma had earlier said that the ...Read More
New Delhi, Jun 30 (PTI) In a "special gesture", Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a joint session of Trinidad and Tobago's Parliament during his official visit to the island nation in July, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Monday. Secretary (South) in the MEA Neena Malhotra, at a special briefing here, also said that the speaker's chair in Trinidad and Tobago's Parliament was gifted by India, which is again a "symbolic reminder of the strong democratic and parliamentary tr...Read More
Shimla, Jun 30 (PTI) Heavy rains led to building collapses, landslides and road blockades in Himachal Pradesh on Monday. According to the state emergency operation centre, 259 roads including 129 in Mandi and 92 in Sirmaur district were closed in the state following cloudbursts, flash floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains and 614 transformers and 130 water supply schemes have been disrupted. Since the onset of monsoon on June 20 to date, rain-related incidents have claimed 23 lives in...Read More
New Delhi, Jun 30 (PTI) The coast guards of India, Japan, the US and Australia have launched the first-ever "Quad-at-sea" mission to boost operational coordination and interoperability in the Indo-Pacific. The decision to launch the mission was taken at the four-nation's grouping annual summit in Wilmington in September last year that was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other Quad leaders. "In a significant stride toward strengthening maritime security and interoperability in the ...Read More
Bhubaneswar, Jun 30 (PTI) Concerned over the death of three persons and injury of about 50 people in a stampede during the Rath Yatra festival in Puri, the Odisha Human Rights Commission (OHRC) on Monday asked the district administration and the police to take appropriate measures to prevent occurrence of similar incidents in the future. While taking up a petition pertaining to the tragic incident that sparked a statewide outrage, the rights panel served notices on the Puri District Collector a...Read More
Noida, Jun 30 (PTI) The Gautam Buddh Nagar administration on Monday said that the probe into Anand Niketan Vridha Ashram --" a privately run old-age home in Noida's Sector 55 --" will take two more days, as officials await compliance from the management, which has so far allegedly failed to produce any registration documents. District Magistrate Manish Kumar Verma told PTI, "The investigation is going on in this case and it will take two days more. Action on Anand Niketan Vridha Ashram will be ...Read More
Aizawl, Jun 30 (PTI) Mizo National Front (MNF) president Zoramthanga on Monday asserted that the Mizo peace accord signed between the Centre and erstwhile underground MNF in 1986 was not only an accord between the MNF and the Union government but it represents the entire Mizo people. The 39th anniversary of the Mizo peace accord was celebrated by the MNF across the state on Monday. However, there were no official functions to mark the peace accord day. "Some vested interests say and devalue t...Read More
Guwahati, Jun 30 (PTI) The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) on Monday launched an online portal with an aim to address the grievances of people and promote social justice. The public outreach move came ahead of the Assam assembly elections due next year. The objective behind the portal, 'Assam Justice', was to strengthen public communication and ensure accountability of the state government, the leader of the opposition Debabrata Saikia said. Citizens across the state will be able to r...Read More
New Delhi, Jun 30 (PTI) The BRICS leaders' declaration to be unveiled at the grouping's annual summit in Rio de Janeiro is set to forcefully denounce the dastardly Pahalgam terror attack and call for a firm approach to unitedly confront the challenge of terrorism in line with India's expectation. The formulations in the declaration in reference to terrorism is going to be to our "satisfaction", Dammu Ravi, secretary (economic relations) in the external affairs ministry said on Monday. Prime Mi...Read More
New Delhi, Jun 30 (PTI) Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla is set to interact with school students and scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) from his orbital post on the International Space Station via ham radio on Friday evening. The interaction is planned via a telebridge set up at the U R Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru, said the Amateur Radio on International Space Station (ARISS), which facilitates interaction of school students with astronauts on the orbital laboratory. ...Read More
New Delhi,Jun 30 (PTI) India will work with ASEAN to develop cruise tourism circuits in the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean, Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal said on Monday. Sonowal inaugurated first ever ASEAN-India Cruise Dialogue here on Monday, according to a statement. The meet hosted by India is being attended by all the member nations of ASEAN; i.e. Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam along with Timor Leste. "In...Read More
New Delhi, Jun 30 (PTI) The national capital witnessed a significant dip in temperatures on Monday as light rainfall was logged across Delhi-NCR, bringing much-needed relief from the scorching summer heat. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), maximum and minimum temperatures remained well below the seasonal average. Safdarjung, the city's base observatory, recorded a maximum temperature of 30.6 degrees Celsius -- 6.8 degrees below normal -- and a minimum of 24 degrees Celsiu...Read More
Bengaluru: The Congress brass on Monday asserted matters like leadership change will be decided by party high command, comments that came amid the "CM change" chorus from a section of party leaders in Karnataka, while it reached out to 'disgruntled' MLAs in the southern state. AICC General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka, Randeep Singh Surjewala, began meetings with MLAs to sort out things. Separately, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge asserted that it is up to the party high command to d...Read More
Bhubaneswar, Jun 30 (PTI) Senior Odisha Administrative Service (OAS) officer and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) Additional Commissioner Ratnakar Sahoo was allegedly dragged from his office and assaulted by a group of miscreants on Monday, police said. Sahoo has lodged an FIR at Kharvelnagar police station. "An FIR has been registered at the Kharvel Nagar police station by the officer. We have arrested three persons so far," Bhubaneswar DCP Jagmohan Meena told PTI. The police have so ...Read More
Mumbai, Jun 30 (PTI) The rupee pared initial gains and settled for the day in the negative territory, down 26 paise at 85.76 against the US dollar on Monday, on weak domestic equities and a bounce back in crude oil prices. Forex traders said the rupee opened in the positive on improved global risk sentiments, however, a negative trend in domestic equities dented investor sentiments and dragged down the local unit. At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 85.48 against the US doll...Read More
Ahmedabad, Jun 30 (PTI) The Gujarat government has decided to waive 80 per cent of the payable stamp duty for property transfers that are done by allotment letters or share certificates by housing societies, associations and non-trading corporations, a move it said will help middle-income families. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Monday took the decision to grant the relief which has been given under Section 9(a) of the Gujarat Stamp Act, 1958. The decision has been taken "to provide substan...Read More
Ranchi, Jun 30 (PTI) Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Monday said the continuing rainfall in the state was a matter of concern, and the government is closely monitoring the situation. The eastern state has been receiving moderate to heavy rainfall since the onset of monsoon, which led to a flood-like situation in many parts of Jharkhand, officials said. "The continuous rainfall at the start of the monsoon is a matter of concern. The state government is closely monitoring the situation....Read More