Breaking News, September 20 | HIGHLIGHTS

Democracy is facing a crisis situation in the country and it is the duty of the media, the fourth pillar of democracy to protect it, DMK President and Chief Minister M K Stalin said here on Wednesday. In his address at a book release event, Stalin urged the media to support good schemes. "Write supporting wholeheartedly the good schemes implemented by a regime. Only when you do so, there will be true value and respect when you make criticisms."

President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and others on Wednesday greeted people on the occasion of Nuakhai, an agrarian festival mostly celebrated in the western part of the state.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday expressed delight at the passage of the women's reservation bill in the Lok Sabha and thanked MPs from across party lines for support. "The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam is a historic legislation which will further boost women empowerment and will enable even greater participation of women in our political process," he said on X.

The Indian Air Force proudly says it is "gender agnostic" and in the officer's cadre, every branch, every stream, every substream has got women officers now, IAF chief Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari said on Wednesday. He said this in his address during an event held at Subroto Park here. "The India Air Force proudly... we say we are gender agnostic. In the officer's cadre, every branch, every stream, every substream has got women officers now. We have had the first woman CO (commanding officer) of our combat squadron," he said.

The Himachal Pradesh Assembly on Wednesday adopted a resolution by voice vote urging the Centre to declare the recent calamity caused by heavy rains in the state a national disaster. The resolution also sought a special relief package of Rs 12,000 crore from the Union government.

The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed a bill granting reservation to women on one-third seats in Lok Sabha and state assemblies with near unanimity amid demands from the opposition to extend similar benefits to Other Backward Classes and immediate implementation of the measure before the elections next year.

The Noida Metro Rail Corporation will increase frequency of trains on the Aqua Line during the Uttar Pradesh International Trade Show from September 21 to 25. The first edition of the UP ITS will be held at the India Expo Centre and Mart in Greater Noida. President Droupadi Murmu is scheduled to inaugurate the event. Entry for general public is free from 3 pm to 8 pm, Rakesh Kumar, chairman of India Expo Centre and Mart said.

The upcoming session of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly, which begins on Thursday is expected to witness heated discussions and debates on various issues, including the arrest of TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu in the Skill Deveopment Corporation scam.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the two-day ‘International Lawyers Conference 2023’ organised by the Bar Council of India (BCI) on September 23 here at Vigyan Bhavan. During the inauguration ceremony on Saturday, Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud will be the chief guest while Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice of the United Kingdom Alex Chalk KC will be the guests of honour, the BCI said.

Nearly 7,000 Ganesh idols were immersed in Mumbai till 6 pm on Wednesday, the second day of the 10-day festival dedicated to the elephant-headed god, officials said. Several devotees bid farewell to Lord Ganesh after worshipping the idols placed at homes and in pandals for one-and-a-half days. People took out processions of idols with many devotees dancing their way to the sites of immersion.

People in Jalna city of Maharashtra are flocking to a pandal to take darshan of Lord Ganesh's idol which is made up of 107 kg silver. The idol, installed at a public pandal near the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue, is crafted in pure silver and stands five-and-a-half feet tall, an office-bearer of the organiser mandal said, adding that it costs Rs 90 lakh.

With two days to go for Delhi University elections, students' groups at the varsity held full fledged campaigns, with the silence period to begin at 12 pm on September 21 as per the code of conduct. The Congress-affiliated National Students Union of India (NSUI) held campaigns at Vishwavidyalaya Metro Station, Khalsa College, Miranda House College, Ramjas College, Hansraj and Hindu College among others. Voting for the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) will be held on September 22.

The Allahabad High Court has granted bail to four men sentenced to life imprisonment in connection to a terrorist attack at the Ram Janmabhoomi site in Ayodhya 18 years ago.

Two persons died and four others were injured in a blast in a plastic factory in Bawana area here on Wednesday, officials said. Fire officials said they got a call at 4.44 pm about a fire in a factory in Sector-3 of the Bawana industrial area and rushed six fire tenders to the spot. They said the fire resulted in a blast at 5.10 pm in which five to six people got seriously injured.

Three fishermen, who went missing after their boat capsized in Odisha’s Paradip, are yet to be traced, an official said on Wednesday.

An 85-year-old man succumbed to severe burn injuries suffered in an acid attack carried out after he was accused by two persons of practicing black magic against them in a village in Jalna district of Maharashtra, police said on Wednesday. The deceased, identified as Shrirang Shejul, was a resident of Mhasrul village under Jafrabad tehsil.

President Droupadi Murmu will visit Greater Noida on Thursday to inaugurate the first Uttar Pradesh International Trade Show. The trade show is to be held from September 21 to 25.

A tanker transporting oil was gutted in a major fire in Bhiwandi taluka of Maharashtra's Thane district on Wednesday, but nobody was injured in it, police said. The incident occurred on the Bhiwandi-Nashik bypass road around 10.30 am, they said.

Several trains under the purview of SER and ECoR were cancelled or diverted on Wednesday, including the premium Rajdhani Express and Vande Bharat Express, owing to the blockade by members of the Kurmi community in Jharkhand and Odisha, officials said. A total of seven trains were cancelled and nine others diverted, the South Eastern Railway (SER) said in a release.

Congress leader Sachin Pilot on Wednesday called the introduction of the women's reservation bill a "shugufa" -- suggesting that it was a "stunt" meant to mislead.

A 16-year-old boy died after his motorcycle was hit by a bus here on Wednesday morning, police said. Tejpal, a resident of Badia in CBganj police station area, was returning home after visiting his relatives when he was hit by a bus in front of Parrakh Kheda police outpost, SHO CBganj Ashok Kumar Kamboj said.

Amid deteriorating diplomatic ties between India and Canada, NCP leader Supriya Sule on Wednesday asked the government to hold a discussion on the matter during the ongoing special session of Parliament. India on Tuesday had rejected as "absurd" and "motivated" Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's allegations of a "potential" involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Khalistani separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June and kicked out a senior Canadian diplomat in a tit-for-tat move to Ottawa's expulsion of an Indian official over the case.

An illegal arms factory was busted in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district and one person was arrested, police said on Wednesday.

A sessions court here on Wednesday dismissed the bail petition filed by DMK minister V Senthil Balaji, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering case. Principal Sessions Judge S Alli dismissed Balaji's plea for relief.

Shiromani Akali Dal leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Wednesday launched a sharp attack on the ruling BJP in Lok Sabha, accusing it of misleading women of the country by bringing a reservation bill for them that will take a long time to come into effect. 

The Indian Army will host a two-day conference of Army chiefs of the Indo-Pacific nations next week with an aim to evolve a common strategy to ensure peace, prosperity and stability against the backdrop of growing global concerns over China's increasing military muscle-flexing in the region. Fifteen Army chiefs and delegations from 22 countries will attend the event to be held in Delhi on September 26 and 27, officials said. The US Army is co-hosting the conference.

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia along with CM Pema Khandu will inaugurate the newly-developed infrastructure at the Tezu Airport in Lohit district of Arunachal Pradesh on September 24.

Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh on Wednesday accused the previous Congress governments of "regimenting" the space department and debarring the common man and industry from it, while asserting that the Modi government has created an enabling atmosphere for the success of the country's space programme.
Participating in the debate on 'India's Glorious Space Journey Marked By Successful Soft Landing of Chandrayaan-3", he said there are 150 startups in the space sector today against only four prior to 2014 which was "embarrassing".

The BJP in Himachal Pradesh has said it will gherao the state assembly on September 25 to protest the closure of institutions, law-and-order situation, fuel inflation, alleged nepotism in relief distribution and the non-implementation of poll guarantees.

Normal life was hit across Manipur's Imphal valley districts on Wednesday, the second day of the 48-hour statewide shutdown called by Meira Paibis, a collective of Meitei women, and five local clubs, demanding unconditional release of five "village defence volunteers" arrested by police, officials said.

President Droupadi Murmu, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Union ministers and others on Wednesday greeted people on the occasion of Nuakhai, an agrarian festival mostly celebrated in western Odisha. President Murmu, who hails from Odisha, said the Nuakhai is an occasion of brotherhood and mutual harmony. She prayed for the happiness and prosperity of the people of the country. Taking to X, Shah said, "My heartfelt greetings to the sisters and brothers of Odisha on the auspicious occasion of Nuakhai. May the blessings of Maa Samaleswari bring us peace and prosperity."

Lawyers in Lucknow and Hapur kept away from judicial work on Wednesday in protest against the alleged lathicharge on advocates in Hapur last month. Although the Uttar Pradesh Bar Council called off its strike on the issue on September 14 after talks with the chief secretary here, the Lucknow Bar Association decided to continue to abstain from work and lawyers in Ghaziabad joined them Monday.

President Droupadi Murmu has appointed Air Chief Marshal (Retd) Arup Raha as the Chancellor of Assam University for a period of five years. Raha has been appointed with effect from September 15 as per the provisions of Statute 1 of Assam University Act, 1989, according to a notice issued by its registrar Pradosh Kiran Nath on Wednesday.

As the initial phase of the ambitious international seaport coming up at Vizhinjam is nearing completion, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan unveiled its logo and identity at a function held here on Wednesday. The port will be known as Vizhinjam International Seaport, Thiruvananthapuram.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday asserted that he was in support of women’s reservation in Parliament and state assemblies though there must be provisions for adequate representation of SCs, STs, OBCs and EBCs. Speaking to reporters, he urged the Centre to move fast on implementing the proposals in the women's reservation bill by conducting the census, and consider his long-standing demand for a caste census.

Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Wednesday alleged that the Madhya Pradesh government was diverting public funds for the "election agenda" of the ruling BJP, and accused officials of damaging the already weak financial condition of the state through manipulation of figures. He also warned that if the Congress comes to power in the state after the upcoming assembly polls, strict action will be taken against the erring officials irrespective of their seniority. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan hit back at Singh over his allegations and for "threatening" officials.

OBC women should also get reservation in the bill, said Mayawati in a press conference today. 

A newly married woman was strangled to death allegedly by her husband near Kottathara in Kerala's northern Wayanad district, police said on Wednesday. The shocking incident happened on Tuesday night and the accused himself informed the police about the cruelty, Kamabalakkad police said. The deceased woman, Anisha (34), was married to Mukesh (33), a daily wage labourer here, six months ago, a police officer told media.

Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Wednesday alleged that the words "secular" and "socialist" were missing from the Preamble in the copies of the Constitution given to lawmakers on the opening day of the new Parliament building. However, Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said the copies carried the original version of the Preamble of the Constitution and that these words were added later to it after constitutional amendments. 

Two women Naxalites were killed in an encounter with security personnel in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district on Wednesday, the police said. The gunfight took place around 7 am in the forest of Aranpur police station limits when a team of District Reserve Guard (DRG), a unit of state police, was out on an anti-Naxalite operation, a senior police official told media.

The Indian economy has started doing well even in an unsupportive global environment, as the Modi-led government implemented various reforms in the last nine years, resulting in improvements in key macroeconomic indicators, according to RBI Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) Member Ashima Goyal. But, there is still a long way to go to realise India's full potential, Goyal added. "The UPA government inherited a strong economy and benefitted from a high growth period.

The rupee strengthened by 6 paise to 83.26 against the US dollar in early trade on Wednesday on easing global crude oil prices and rising appetite for riskier assets. However, a sell-off in the domestic equity markets and a strong American currency against major rivals overseas restricted the rupee's rise, traders said. At the interbank foreign exchange, the domestic unit opened at 83.22 against the dollar and then slipped to 83.26, registering a gain of 6 paise over its previous close.

Two newborn baby girls were found abandoned in separate places in the city and one of them was later declared dead, officials said on Wednesday. They said one of them was found with her umbilical cord still attached at a washroom of the surgical ward of the Babu Ishwar Sharan district hospital by a sanitation worker on Tuesday. The baby was later admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), where she is undergoing treatment, Chief Medical Superintendent Dr VK Gupta said. Her condition is stated to be out of danger, the official added.

Indian Railways has earned an additional revenue of more than Rs 2,800 crore from child travellers in the last seven years by revising child travel fare norms, an RTI response has found. The response from the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) under the Right to Information (RTI) Act further indicates that the financial year of 2022-23 alone earned Rs 560 crore due to the amended norms making it the most profitable year.

Singapore's lawmakers have rejected a motion by an opposition party to suspend Transport Minister S Iswaran, under investigation for graft charges, from parliament and voted instead to consider the matter when the probes against him conclude. During a two-hour debate on Tuesday, Leader of the House Indranee Rajah said the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) would consider a clawback of Iswaran's MP allowance if justified, such as if he is given criminal charges. The Progress Singapore Party's (PSP) motion had called for Iswaran to be suspended as an MP for the remainder of the current session of parliament.

The Congress was never serious about providing reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, the BJP alleged on Tuesday after the government introduced a bill in this regard in the Lower House of Parliament. The government introduced a constitutional amendment bill to reserve one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women, reviving the concept of women's reservation pending for 27 years for want of consensus among parties.

Batting for the `one nation, one election' proposal, BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya on Tuesday asked if festivals like Diwali can be celebrated at the same time across the country, why can not there be simultaneous polls. He was replying to the question whether it was practically possible to hold simultaneous elections in view of different weather conditions in different parts of the country. "We celebrate Diwali together across the country. The festivals of Christmas and Eid are also celebrated together all over the country....so why can not we celebrate the election-day together,” he said.

At least six people, including three of a family, were killed and 19 others injured in four separate accidents in Odisha on Tuesday, police said. Three died, seven injured in a road accident in Kalahandi district while two persons were killed in another road mishap in Keonjhar district, police said. Three members of a family died and seven others were critically injured when a truck hit their auto-rickshaw from behind near Dasigaon village in Junagarh-Kalampur road in Kalahandi district on Tuesday afternoon, a senior officer said. The deceased have been identified as Padusar Naik, Krushna Naik and Amruta Naik.

A 79-year-old woman was found dead inside her house in southwest Delhi's Jia Sarai area with an injury on her neck, police said on Tuesday. On Sunday around 11 pm, a PCR call was received at Kishangarh police station about the incident, a senior police officer said. After police reached the spot, they found that the body of a woman -- identified as Krishna Devi -- was lying in a pool of blood. The front side of her neck had a deep wound, police said. According to police, one Mamta, who runs a small kitchen for students, used to provide food to Krishna Devi.

A US expert has termed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's claim of a "potential link" between Indian government agents and the killing of a Khalistani leader a "shameless and cynical action" and urged the United States not be part of it. Participating in a panel discussion at the Hudson Institute think-tank, Michael Rubin, Senior Fellow at American Enterprise Institute, claimed Trudeau is playing into the hands of people who are looking at the Khalistani movement as a movement of ego and profit.

Two Indian nationals have been sentenced to 41 months in prison for their role in a conspiracy to commit wire fraud by accepting illegally obtained USD 1.2 million in wire transfers from victims across the United States, a US attorney said. Arushobike Mitra (29) and Garbita Mitra (25) had previously pleaded guilty before US District Judge Esther Salas to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced on Tuesday.