India

New Delhi, Dec 15: To promote digital payments post demonetisation, the government will give daily, weekly and mega cash awards totalling Rs 340 crore for consumers as well as merchants beginning the Christmas Day. Announcing 'Lucky Grahak Yojana' and 'Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojana', Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said both the schemes will cover small transactions between Rs 50 and Rs 3,000 to encourage

Chennai, Dec 15: The ruling AIADMK today strongly backed late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's close aide V K Sasikala to succeed her as party General Secretary, saying she qualifies to be elected "automatically" and "unanimously" to the post by virtue of being the departed leader's "conscience" for long. Party spokesperson C Ponnaiyan said while Jayalalithaa was the "conscience" of AIADMK founder

New Delhi, Dec 15: "I feel like resigning". An anguished BJP veteran L K Advani remarked in Lok Sabha on the penultimate day of the Winter Session of Parliament today, exasperated over its virtual washout on the note ban issue. The veteran parliamentarian gave vent to his pain and anguish soon after Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the House for the day amid trading of charges between the

New Delhi, Dec 15: The Centre will not extend the deadline of December 15 to use old 500 rupee notes for certain activities such as paying utility and hospital bills and purchasing cooking gas cylinders. "Exemptions for use of old Rs 500 notes will end on 15 Dec midnight," economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das tweeted. "There will be no extension," Das told TOI and said people can deposit the

New Delhi, Dec 14: After claiming that there will be an "earthquake" if he speaks, Rahul Gandhi today alleged that he has detailed information about "personal corruption" by Prime Minister Narendra Modi which he wants to present in Lok Sabha but is not being allowed to do so by the PM. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar rejected Gandhi's allegation as "false and baseless" and "very

New Delhi, Dec 14: Lok Sabha today continued to see ruckus with the Opposition training their guns on the government over the controversy involving Union Minister Kiren Rijiju and the demonetisation issue, forcing adjournment of the proceedings till noon. As soon as the House met for the day, Opposition members, including those from Congress, TMC and Left parties, were on their feet raising

Chennai, Dec 14: Life in Chennai and neighbouring districts remained crippled on Tuesday, a day after cyclone Vardah devastated the coast and left 18 dead. People are in shock at the scale of destruction as Vardah, the severest storm in 22 years, uprooted 5,000 trees and damaged several buildings, including some high-rises in Chennai. “Eighteen people were killed in rain-related incidents linked

Srinagar/jammu, Dec 14: more than a year after he was killed, reportedly in an encounter with the Army, the J&K government has decided to approve compensation for the family of Khalid Muzaffar Wani, the brother of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani who was killed by the armed forces on July 8. The move has sparked a political storm with the ruling PDP’s ally BJP saying that it opposes it.

New Delhi, Dec 13: Union Minister Kiren Rijiju was in the eye of a political storm today over an alleged Rs 450 crore scam in a power project in Arunachal Pradesh after he wrote a letter to the Power Ministry to clear the bills of contractors, provoking opposition demand for his ouster but he denied any wrongdoing. The controversy erupted over news reports that the Chief Vigilance Officer of North

Mumbai, Dec 13: RBI today said banks have garnered Rs 12.44 trillion (Rs 12.44 lakh crore) in banned notes till December 10, while they have issued Rs 4.61 trillion to them since the demonetisation drive began 35 days ago. "The old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, which have been returned to the Reserve Bank and the currency chest, amounted Rs to 12.44 trillion as of December 10," RBI Deputy Governor