Breaking News, August 14 | HIGHLIGHTS

India's exports contracted by 15.88 per cent to USD 32.25 billion in July this year from USD 38.34 billion in the same month last year, the government data showed on Monday. Imports during the month also declined by 17 per cent to USD 52.92 billion from USD 63.77 billion in July 2022. During April-July this fiscal, the exports dipped by 14.5 per cent to USD 136.22 billion.

The Chardham Yatra was on Monday suspended for two days as torrential rains triggered landslides that breached the national highways to Badrinath, Kedarnath and Gangotri shrines, officials said. As heavy rains pounded the Himalayan state causing house collapses and landslides, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami held a meeting with senior officials to review the situation. The pilgrimage to Chardham -- Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath - was suspended for two days in view of the rains and landslides blocking major highways, officials said.

A three-tier security blanket involving helicopter reconnaissance and drone surveillance has been planned to ensure smooth and peaceful Independence Day celebrations in Kashmir, officials said on Monday. Authorities have said internet services will not be suspended during the celebrations as used to be done until a few years ago. Elite SOG personnel of Jammu and Kashmir Police assisted by other security forces have started carrying out area domination exercises around city centre Lal Chowk and Bakshi stadium, the venue of the main Independence Day function in the valley, officials said.

Eight people have been booked for allegedly making an inflammatory post and spreading it on social media in Bareilly district of Uttar Pradesh, police said on Monday.

The Navi Mumbai police returned stolen valuables worth Rs 5.41 crore recovered in 248 cases of thefts and robberies at a programme in Vashi, an official said on Monday. As per an official release, the valuables were stolen in thefts and robberies that took place between January 2022 and July 2023.

India's ambitious third Moon mission's spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 on Monday underwent another maneuver, bringing it even closer to the Lunar surface, ISRO said. The national space agency headquartered here said the spacecraft has now achieved a "near-circular orbit" around the moon. Post its launch on July 14, Chandrayaan-3 entered into the lunar orbit on August 5, following which two orbit reduction maneuvers were carried out on August 6 and 9.

India will be truly successful only when women occupy equal space in the society, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Monday. Gandhi also said women must take their rightful place in politics and shape India's destiny. The former Congress chief also shared a link for applying for the Indira Fellowship named after former prime minister Indira Gandhi.

India logged 39 fresh coronavirus infections in a day while the number of active cases was recorded at 1,472, according to Union Health Ministry data on Monday. The death toll stood at 5,31,921, the data updated at 8 am stated. The country's COVID-19 case tally was 4.49 crore.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren is unlikely to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) here on Monday in connection with a money laundering case, a source said. The ED had on August 8 summoned Soren to depose on August 14 at the federal agency's office here and record his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. "The chief minister is unlikely to appear before the ED today in view of his busy schedule. He may request for another date from the agency," the source said. Soren was to be questioned in an alleged defence land scam case.

A man was apprehended by security forces after a pistol was recovered from his possession in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district on Monday, police officials said. He was identified as Mohd Shabir Anjum of village Bhatidhar of Mendhar tehil. During a routine checking at Kunaiyan area near SK bridge, security personnel of CRPF and Special Operation Group (SOG) noticed movement of a suspicious person, they said.

At least 16 people were killed in landslides that buried a temple and several houses in two Shimla localities and in a cloudburst in Solan as rain wreaked havoc in several places in Himachal Pradesh on Monday. Many more people were buried under the debris. Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said nine bodies have been pulled out of the debris from a Shiv temple in the Summer Hill area that collapsed and the other site in the Fagli area where several houses were buried under mud and slush.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar on Monday said there is no confusion within the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance over his meeting with nephew and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in Pune. “The MVA is united and we will successfully organise the next meeting of opposition bloc INDIA in Mumbai on August 31 and September 1,” Pawar told reporters in Baramati.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said the partition of the country on the basis of religion is a dark chapter in history and many people are still facing the brunt of the 1947 horror. Paying homage to those who lost their lives during partition, he also said that the country had to pay a heavy price for it.

The defence college building in Uttarakhand's Maldevta collapsed on Monday as torrential rains pounded the state, flooding major rivers and their tributaries and causing landslides along the national highways to Badrinath, Kedarnath and Gangotri shrines, officials said. Several people are feared to be buried in landslides triggered by heavy rains in the state.

Seven members of a family were killed in a cloudburst in Himachal Pradesh's Solan district while 15 to 20 people were feared buried in two landslides in Shimla city as rain wreaked havoc in the state. Two houses in Solan were washed away following the cloudburst on Sunday night. While six people were rescued, seven others were killed in Jadon village, a police official said.

Aditya-L1, the first space-based Indian observatory to study the Sun, is getting ready for its launch soon, ISRO said on Monday. The satellite, realised at U R Rao Satellite Centre here, has arrived at the ISRO's spaceport in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, the Bengaluru-headquartered national space agency said in an update on the mission. "Mostly September first week," an ISRO official told PTI when asked about the date of the launch. The spacecraft is expected to be placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrange point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system, which is about 1.5 million kilometres from the Earth.

The frequent meetings between NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar are tarnishing the image of senior Pawar, the Shiv Sena (UBT) claimed on Monday. It is "amusing" to see Ajit Pawar is frequently meeting (his uncle) Sharad Pawar and the latter is also not avoiding it, an editorial in the Sena (UBT) mouthpiece 'Saamana' said. "There is a hunch that BJP's 'Chanakya' is trying to create some confusion by sending Ajit to meet senior Pawar. However, such meetings tarnish the image of Sharad Pawar and it is not good,” it said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday paid tributes to those who lost their lives during India's partition and recalled the sufferings of people in that period on the occasion of the Partition Horrors Remembrance Day. He said it is an occasion to remember the Indians who lost their lives during the partition, a reference to the large-scale communal violence at that time.

Two middle-aged men have been arrested for placing electric fences on their land that led to the death of an elephant inside Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR) here, forest officials said. The Kadambur forest officials on Sunday evening arrested Kondan (53) and Mohan (57) from Chinna Kundry forest area within STR for the electrocution of the male elephant a couple of days back.

Accusing the Rajasthan government of being the "most corrupt", the BJP's election in-charge for the state Pralhad Joshi has claimed that new scams and rape cases come to the fore every day under the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress dispensation. Sixteen per cent of the cases of atrocities and murders registered in the country are from Rajasthan, the Union minister alleged. He was in Jaipur for a meeting with party workers for the assembly elections due later this year.

A 21-year-old man was shot at allegedly by two motorcycle-borne assailants at his jewellery shop in Rajasthan's Jhunjhunu district after he declined to pay Rs 30 lakh in ransom, police said on Sunday. The incident occurred in the Sahad village. The victim, identified as Rahul Soni, first refused the demand for ransom over a phone call, they said.

A 70-year-old woman died and her husband was injured after their mouths were taped and hands tied allegedly by three robbers inside their flat at Tardeo in south Mumbai on Sunday before the accused decamped with gold and other valuables, police said. The incident took place in Yusuf Manzil building, an official said. The victims - Surekha Agarwal and her 75-year-old husband Madan Mohan Agarwal - were the only residents of the flat, he said.

In a dig at Congress, Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Sunday said the launch of Rahul Gandhi has failed once again as Prime Minister Narendra Modi put forth all facts regarding Manipur in Parliament. He also said the Centre was extending all possible help to the affected people in Manipur and peace will be restored in the restive north-eastern state soon. Tomar, the convener of the BJP Election Management Committee for MP, alleged the Congress was playing "dirty politics" and was trying to defame the BJP in Madhya Pradesh with a fake letter regarding "50 per cent commission". "This time also the launch of Rahul Gandhi has failed,” Tomar told reporters here when asked about PM Modi's long speech in Parliament in reply to the no-confidence motion debate recently.

Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi on Sunday said the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) will work towards removing "mini garbage mountains" and beautifying those areas. The MCD has started a cleanliness campaign to clean all the 250 wards of the city, she told a press conference and added that in the coming years, "you would find Delhi as neat and tidy as London and New York are". Oberoi said that "at some places, mini garbage mountains come up as people throw garbage there". "We will remove those mountains and beautify those areas," she added.

A boulder fell on top of a car that was stopped alongside the Kuttikkanam- Valanjaganam road in this hilly region on Sunday evening, resulting in the death of one woman passenger, police said. However, five others, including two minor children, survived the accident, police added. Idukki resident Somini (66) lost her life when the boulder fell on the car along with slush when the vehicle she was travelling in with another family was stopped along the route, a police official said.

Seven people – including a 23-day-old baby girl – were killed in Russian shelling in Ukraine's southern Kherson region on Sunday, the country's Internal Affairs Ministry said. Artillery shelling in the village of Shiroka Balka, on the banks of the Dnieper River killed a family — a husband, wife, 12-year-old boy and 23-day-old girl — and another resident. Two men were killed in the neighbouring village of Stanislav, where a woman was also wounded.

The Samajwadi Party (SP) on Sunday announced the formation of its new Uttar Pradesh state executive unit, which was dissolved after the 2022 assembly elections by party president Akhilesh Yadav. Senior SP member Mohammad Azam Khan's son Abdullah Azam Khan has been made the party's state secretary in the new panel, the party's chief spokesperson Rajendra Chowdhury said. He also said the new unit will have Irfanul Haq, C L Verma, Shyampal Bind and R S Bind as its vice presidents, and Rajkumar Mishra as treasurer. It will have 61 secretaries, 48 members and 62 special invitee members besides others, Chowdhury added.

Heavy rains in Himachal Pradesh in the past 24 hours triggered landslides, blocking several roads, including the key Shimla-Chandigarh road which was closed for buses and trucks. Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, in view of the incessant rains, announced the closure of all schools and colleges in the state till August 14, according to a statement issued here on Sunday.

Delhi is likely to receive very light rain or thundershowers on Monday as well as Tuesday, when India will celebrate its 77th Independence Day. On Sunday, Delhi recorded a high of 35.3 degrees Celsius, a notch above the season's average. The minimum temperature settled at 26.9 degrees Celsius, normal for this time of the year.