Breaking News, September 7

The Mizoram government will soon notify rules for processing locally grown grapes to make wine in the state, a minister said.
The state council of ministers had recently approved the draft rules.

Replying to a question from VL Zaithanzama of Zoram People's Movement (ZPM), Excise Minister K Beichhua told the assembly on Tuesday that the draft rules have been sent to the law department for vetting and would be notified soon.

Excise duty will be charged on the locally processed grape wine, he said.

Manufacture and sale of wine from grapes grown outside the state would not be allowed under the rules, the minister said.

The CBI on Wednesday morning raided several residences of West Bengal minister Moloy Ghatak in connection with its probe into a coal smuggling scam, an officer said. Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths conducted raids at three houses of Ghatak in Asansol in Paschim Bardhaman district and one in Lake Gardens area of Kolkata.

The income tax department on Wednesday launched raids in multiple states as part of a tax evasion probe against registered unrecognised political parties (RUPP) and their alleged dubious funding, official sources said. The searches are being conducted in Gujarat, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Haryana and some other states, they said.

In an attempt to deepen the partnership between India and the US, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal expressed a desire to collaborate with Stanford University on Tuesday. During his visit to Stanford University, the Union Minister expressed India's desire to collaborate with Stanford's newly launched Doerr School of Sustainability, the University's new hub for research and innovation focused on advancing the long-term prosperity of the planet.

Ahead of starting the much-hyped 'Bharat Jodo Yatra', Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday attended a prayer meeting at the Rajiv Gandhi Memorial in Sriperumbudur on Wednesday. Rahul Gandhi paid floral tribute at his father's memorial. Sriperumbudur is where his father Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in a bomb blast on May 21, 1991, while campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls.

An illegal telephone exchange operating from Noida and causing revenue loss to the central government was busted and two persons allegedly involved in it were arrested, police said on Tuesday. The exchange, which converted foreign calls to domestic ones, was set up in Sector 63, under Central Noida police limits, and is estimated to have caused Rs 30 crore loss in revenue so far, they said.

Three people were arrested on Tuesday as the Gurugram Police busted a gang of fraudsters who posed as commandos of the National Security Guard (NSG) to dupe many on the pretext of selling furniture, police said on Wednesday. The gang members were targeting people through direct calling instead of posting any online advertisement, they said. According to the police, Rambir, a resident of Dhana village, filed a complaint against the fraudsters. He said that on August 18, he received a call from a number and the caller claimed to be an NSG commando.

Karnataka Minister Umesh Katti died due to cardiac arrest at a private hospital here on Tuesday night, official sources said. The minister for food, civil supplies and consumer affairs and forest was 61-years-old. He is survived by his wife, son and daughter. According to sources, Katti collapsed in the bathroom of his Dollar's Colony residence here and was rushed to the hospital.