India

New Delhi, May 20: Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa, the Chief of Air Staff, has written a personal letter to each officer in the Indian Air Force, asking them 'to be prepared for operations with our present holdings, at a very short notice'. Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa sent the letter on March 30 when the increasing number of terror attacks on military camps and the rising public unrest in Jammu and

Dehradun, May 20: Nearly 14,000 pilgrims were left stranded at various places in Chamoli district after a massive landslide blocked the Rishikesh-Badrinath highway on Friday afternoon. The landslide which occurred in Hathi Parvat near Vishnuprayag, 9-km from Joshimath, left 60 metres of the national highway damaged but there were no reports of injury to pilgrims. Confirming that the landslide had

New Delhi, May 20: two days after International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered a stay on former Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav’s death sentence, former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf reacted strongly against the court’s verdict. Speaking to Pakistan’s ARY news, Musharraf said that Jadhav is a bigger culprit than 2008 Mumbai attack terrorist Ajmal Kasab. “Kasab was just a pawn. Jadhav

New Delhi, May 20: The Election Commission of India is today holding a press conference to announce the dates of its 'EVM Challenge' and to offer a live demonstration of its Electronic Voting Machines and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines. The event will see the Election Commission exhibiting a four-minute short film on the features of its EVMs. Chief Election Commissioner Nasim

Srinagar, May 19: The all-powerful GST Council today finalised tax rates for services under the Goods and Service Tax (GST) regime, scheduled to kick-in from July 1. Healthcare and education would be exempt from GST. Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Issac said there will be four rates for services at 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent, similar to tax slabs for goods. The tax rate on gold has not been

New Delhi, May 19: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a money laundering case against Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister P Chidambaram, and others, taking cognisance of a recent CBI FIR against them. Officials said the central probe agency registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), ED's equivalent of a police FIR, against the accused named in the CBI

New Delhi, May 19: Suspended Aam Aadmi Party leader Kapil Mishra on Friday levelled new set of charges at Arvind Kejriwal and alleged that the Delhi Chief Minister had opposed the demonetisation move as it threatened to "derail" his "money laundering" attempts. "Why did he (Kejriwal) fiercely oppose demonetisation? Why did he travel across the country against the move? Because his men, who hoard

New Delhi, May 19: A Special court on Friday convicted former Coal Secretary H.C. Gupta and others in a coal block allocation case involving Kamal Sponge Steel and Power Limited (KSSPL). Central Bureau of Investigation special Judge Bharat Parashar convicted Gupta, two former coal ministry officials KS Kropha and KC Samria, accused firm KSSPL and its Managing Director Pawan Kumar Ahluwalia, under

New Delhi, May 19: Aadhaar-issuing authority UIDAI has asked research firm Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) to explain its sensational claim that 13 crore Aadhaar numbers were "leaked" and provide details of servers where they are stored. In a precursor to initiating a probe into the matter, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) also wants CIS to clarify just how much of such

New Delhi, May 19: The all-powerful Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council members will meet again meet in Srinagar on Friday take up the exemption of essential services. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley expressed hope to finalise list of exempted items today and will also discuss rate of tax on gold and bidi. Chaired by Jaitley, this is the first time that such an important national policy