Breaking News, March 27

Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Anurag Thakur, on second day of his visit to Dubai, met CEO of e-Vision, Olivier Bramly and invited his company to India, assuring policy support if required.

The Central government has told the Supreme Court that state governments, where Hindus or other communities are less in number, can declare them a minority community within their territory.

Tension prevailed in Kushinagar on Sunday when the body of Babar, who had allegedly been killed by members of his own community for celebrating BJP's win in elections, was brought to his home.

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai will meet the Union water resources minister in the first week of April to discuss the inter-state water disputes it has with other states.

Amar Nath Yarta will start from 30 June this year and will go on for 43 days with proper security arrangements.

To improve the ease of living for the common man, the government is working on a proposal to launch a common portal for various schemes run by different ministries and departments. As part of the Narendra Modi government's vision of minimum government maximum governance, the new portal will initially onboard 15 credit-linked government schemes, sources said. The offerings will be gradually expanded, depending on compatibility, as some of the Centrally Sponsored Schemes have involvement from multiple agencies, they added. For example, schemes like Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and Credit Linked Capital Subsidy Scheme (CLCSS) are being administered by different ministries. The proposed portal intends to bring these schemes on a single platform so that they can be accessed by the beneficiaries without much hassle. Pilot testing is being done and loose ends are being tied up before the actual launch takes place, the sources said, adding State Bank of India (SBI) and other lenders doing the testing.

Sleuths of the CBI, which is probing the Birbhum killings in West Bengal, will on Sunday visit a hospital to interact with those who were injured in the violence, an official of the agency said. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officers will also talk to local people in connection with the probe, he said. "We will talk to a woman and three others, who were injured in the violence and are now undergoing treatment in a hospital, to get their version. We will also interact with local people in Bogtui village. The Central Forensic Science Laboratory personnel will continue their examinations," the CBI official told news agency PTI. Unidentified people had on March 21 set ablaze 10 houses in the village near Rampurhat town, killing at least eight people, including women and children. “A list of the villagers has been prepared so that our officials can interact with them. We have requested the administration to find out those who fled the village,” the CBI official said.

The brother of a special police officer (SPO), who was injured in firing by terrorists in Budgam district of Jammu and Kashmir, succumbed to injuries at a hospital here on Sunday, officials said. Terrorists on Saturday shot dead SPO Ishfaq Ahmad near his residence at Chadbugh in Budgam. In the firing incident, Ahmad's brother Umar Jan also received bullet injuries. Jan was taken to SKIMS Hospital in Bemina where he succumbed on Sunday, they said.

A teenage girl was allegedly raped and killed by a 23-year-old man in Chhattisgarh's Surajpur district and the latter tried to pass it off as a case of suicide, police said on Sunday. The incident took place on March 24 and during a probe into it, the police on Saturday arrested the man, identified as Sabir Ali alias Baba Khan, who allegedly strangled the victim to death and then hanged the body from a ceiling fan at her house in Bhatgaon police station limits, Surajpur Additional Superintendent of Police Harish Rathore said. As per preliminary investigation, the victim, a Class 12 student, appeared for her practical exam on Thursday and then returned home in Surajpur, located around 300 km from the state capital Raipur.

Three-time MLA Pramod Sawant, who led the BJP to win 20 seats in the recently concluded elections to the 40-member Goa Assembly, will be sworn as the state's chief minister for the second time on Monday in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other dignitaries, an official said on Sunday. The swearing-in ceremony would be held at Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee stadium near here at 11 am. Prime Minister Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh would be present at the function, a government spokesperson said. More than 10,000 people are likely to attend the event at the stadium, and the swearing-in ceremony will also be broadcast across the coastal state through various news channels. The BJP has so far been silent on the number of other cabinet ministers to be sworn in on Monday.

Delhi recorded a minimum temperature of 20.4 degrees Celsius on Sunday, two notches above the season''s average, the India Meteorological Department said. The humidity was 46 per cent at 8.30 am. The city's air quality was recorded in the ''poor'' category in the morning with the AQI clocking 205 at 9 am, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data showed.

Thane has reported 15 new cases of coronavirus, taking the infection count in the Maharashtra district to 7,08,744, an official said on Sunday. These new cases were recorded on Saturday, he said. The death toll remained unchanged at 11,880, he said, adding that the COVID-19 mortality rate in the district is 1.67 per cent. In neighbouring Palghar district, the COVID-19 case count has gone up to 1,63,587, while the death toll stands at 3,407, another official said.

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A 61-year-old man was killed in an attack by a tiger in Mailani range of forests in the Dudhwa buffer zone of Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri district. Sanjay Pathak, Field Director, Dudhwa Tiger Reserve, said the deceased has been identified as Sharafat of Parvatpur village. "His body was recovered from inside the forest on Saturday evening. His family members said that he had gone into the forest to graze cattle on Friday but did not return home. The family searched for Sharafat but did not find him," the official added. On Saturday, some locals saw the deceased victim's partially eaten body and informed his family. Forest officials rushed to the spot and carried out preliminary investigations. The body has been sent for post-mortem and residents of local villages in the area have been asked not to venture out alone.

Of the 45 newly sworn-in Uttar Pradesh ministers, 22 have declared criminal cases against themselves and most of them face serious charges, poll rights body ADR said on Saturday. Uttar Pradesh Election Watch and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 45 of the total 53 ministers, including the chief minister. The affidavits of Sanjay Nishad and Jitin Prasada were unavailable for analysis on the election commission's website at the time of bringing out this report, while details of ministers JPS Rathore, Narendra Kashyap, Dinesh Pratap Singh, Dayashankar Mishra Dayalu, Jaswant Saini and Danish Azad Ansari were not analysed as they are currently not members of either the state assembly or the legislative council. According to the ADR report, 22 (49 per cent) ministers have declared criminal cases against themselves and 20 (44 per cent) ministers have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

An alleged fraudster was arrested for preparing and selling fake qualification certificates here on Saturday, police said. Ravi Kumar, a resident of Kotli Gala Bana, was caught along with 100 fake degrees and diplomas from his hideout in R S Pura area on the outskirts of Jammu, a police spokesperson said. Kumar was arrested on a complaint lodged by one Sunny of Nai Basti, he said. The spokesperson said a case was registered against the accused under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code. The accused used to sell fake degrees, marksheets and diploma certificates in order to earn money illegally, he said.

Since the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has ruled for eight years at the Centre, but there has not been a single rehabilitation under their government, said Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday while slamming the BJP during a post-budget press briefing. Kejriwal once again demanded that the film 'The Kashmir Files' should be uploaded on YouTube and the earned money from it must be spent on the welfare of Kashmiri Pandits. He had also suggested to upload the film on YouTube during the state Assembly session on Thursday on the demand of making the film tax-free. "BJP is doing politics over the issue. We demand 'The Kashmir Files' film to be uploaded on YouTube. The money earned from it should be spent on welfare of Kashmiri Pandits," said the Chief Minister. Kejriwal attacked the BJP for the delay in holding MCD elections. He claimed that the MCD bill was tabled in the Parliament to postpone the civic body election. He said there is no logic in reducing the number of municipal wards from 272 to 250. "Now there will be delimitation exercises which will delay the election. Now the entire MCD will be run by the Centre which is unconstitutional, we will study it and go to court if needed," the Chief Minister added.

A 19-year-old man died of a bullet injury following a scuffle in Delhi's Dwarka on Saturday, police said. Sahil (19), who lives in Nangli Dairy area, has been arrested for the alleged murder of Khurshid, they said. According to police, the duo had a fight near Kakrola village and Sahil shot at Khurshid. Khurshid, a resident of sector 16-A in Dwarka, succumbed to the gunshot injury, they said.

A 24-year-old man was arrested following an incident of road rage in south Delhi’s Saket on Saturday, police said. The complainant, a 33-year-old Sikh man, alleged that his turban fell off his head as he was assaulted by three people during a confrontation. Narender Singh, a resident of Khanpur, told the police that he was riding his scooter from Vasant Kunj towards Saket. Near Saket Metro station, a car hit his scooter. As he asked the people in the car to stop, there was a heated exchange of argument between the two parties, a police officer said. This turned into a physical assault and Singh’s turban allegedly fell off. Soon, the three people in the car ran away from the spot leaving their vehicle behind.