India

Ahmedabad, May 21: On the eve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day visit to his home state, Patidar quota stir leader Hardik Patel and 50 of his community youths tonsured their heads on Sunday to kick start Nyay Yatra. The two-day Nyay Yatra (march for justice) began from Lathidal in Botad and will cover 51 villages before concluding in Bhavnagar on Monday. “Nyay Yatra is for pressing our

New Delhi, May 21: The BJP is yet to take a decision on its candidate for the upcoming Presidential poll, even as the party virtually rejected Shiv Sena's proposal for RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat to be the ruling combine's nominee. Replying to a question on the BJP-led NDA's candidate for the Presidential polls in July as the opposition was already working on putting up a joint candidate, said BJP

Lucknow, May 21: The RSS's Muslim wing will organise iftars on Fridays in Uttar Pradesh this Ramzan and serve only cow milk and its products to drive home the message of 'save the cow' and that consumption of its meat invites diseases. Mahiraj Dhwaj Singh, national co-convenor (organisation) of Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM) for Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, said it is for the "first time" that

Dehradun, May 20: Of the around 2,000 people stranded after a landslide in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district, 800 have resumed their onward journey and work is on to clear the debris, officials said today. The Rishikesh-Badrinath National Highway was closed near Vishnuprayag, one of the five confluences of Alaknanda river, between Joshimath (also known as Jyotirmath) and Badrinath, the famous pilgrim

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