Breaking News, June 30

Amritsar airport authorities Thursday suspended flight operations for some time after they received a call from an unidentified person that a bomb was in a plane that landed here from Singapore. A thorough search operation was carried out in the plane by the CISF personnel, officials said, adding nothing objectionable was found from the plane. Police said the hoax bomb call was received by the airport director at around 5 pm.  The flight that landed Thursday at the airport was scheduled to take off again at 7.40 pm for Singapore. The airport director said after receiving the call, a comprehensive search operation was launched and nothing objectionable was found from the plane. The flight is cleared for takeoff to Singapore, he stated.

 Asserting that the JNU campus remains "inaccessible" for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs), the All India Students' Association (AISA) on Thursday urged Vice-Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit to resolve the long-pending issue. In the letter to Pandit, AISA mentioned an incident wherein a wheelchair-bound student fell on the road behind the School of Social Sciences on June 22. "Sourya Sood had repeatedly approached the Vice-Chancellor's office regarding the lack of accessibility in many places on campus. However, the Vice-Chancellor has not yet acted on the issues raised by him," claimed AISA. AISA said it conducted a survey and it showed that PwD students face several problems on the campus.

"JNU campus is still inaccessible for persons with disabilities. These issues become a barrier to living a dignified life and accessing equal opportunities," the AISA said in the letter. The AISA said some of the elevators in the School of International Studies-I don't go to the basement where the canteens are located and some of the prime locations like Central Library and Stadium Road still don't have a tactile path. "The laptops which the library gives to students with special needs are extremely outdated. There is no provision for Braille newspaper even in the library," the letter read. "There used to be a dedicated worker for PwD students in the mess but this also has been stopped. Further none of the tables in any hostel's mess are wheelchair-friendly," it said.

A young man was found on the tracks of Moolchand Station of Delhi Metro's Violet Line on Thursday leading to very brief delay in services, officials said.
Violet Line connects Kashmere Gate in Delhi and Raja Nagar Singh (Ballabgarh) in Haryana. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) had tweeted to alert commuters in the evening, "Delay in services from Kashmere Gate to Badarpur Border due to a passenger on track at Moolchand. Normal service on all other lines." A senior official said the passenger was a youth, and he was sent to a hospital. Normal services resumed later. Further details are awaited from the Delhi Police.

Property transactions in the city will become costlier as the Delhi government has decided to discontinue the 20 per cent rebate on circle rates from July 1, officials said on Thursday.
The decision was taken by the government as as the impact of the Covid pandemic has subsided and the economy of the city is recovering fast, they said.
"The competent authority has decided to discontinue the relaxation of 20 percent in cricle rates beyond June 30. The circle rates notified on September 20, 2014 will be applicable from July 1," said an order issued by the revenue department of Delhi government.
The Arvind Kejriwal government had introduced the rebate scheme in February 2021 to revive the economy and help people hit by the impact of the Covid lockdown.
The scheme was extended till June 30 by the government in December last year.
According to revenue department officials, properties in Delhi are divided into eight categories from 'A' to 'H'. While posh areas fall under the 'A' category, the least developed areas come under the 'H' category.
Under the government's rebate scheme, the existing circle rate of land in 'A' category areas had gone down from Rs 7.74 lakh per square metre to Rs 6.19 lakh, the officials said.

Capital markets regulator regulator Sebi on Thursday imposed penalties totalling Rs 11 crore on 8 entities, including National Stock Exchange (NSE) and its former chiefs Chitra Ramkrishna and Ravi Narain, in a case pertaining to software related to algorithmic trading. The regulator has levied a fine of Rs 1 crore each on NSE, Ramkrishna and Narain. Also, a fine of Rs 1 crore has been imposed on Suprabhat Lal, who was a NSE official at the time of violation.

Also, the regulator slapped a penalty of Rs 3 crore on Ajay Shah, who was on the board of NSE's subsidiary NSSCL, Rs 2 crore on Infotech Financial Services Ltd, a company which was in the business of developing algorithmic software and selling it to market participants.

A fine of Rs 1 crore each has been imposed on the latter's directors -- Sunita Thomas and Krishna Dagli. Thomas is the wife of Suprabhat Lal and sister-in-law of Ajay Shah.

The case relates to NSE not awarding the contract for computing Liquidity Index (LIX) to its own specialised subsidiary, IISL.

The contract was awarded to Infotech indicating the undue support provided by the exchange to Infotech and Ajay Shah, as per Sebi.

Sebi said that NSE and its then officials -- Narain and Ramkrishna -- are certainly liable for not taking any precaution or checking the antecedents of Infotech as algo software vendor in the securities market and failed to look at the possible conflict of interest with respect to Ajay Shah, Sunita Thomas, Suprabhat Lala and Infotech at the time of awarding the contract.

"Ajay Shah, Infotech, Sunita Thomas and Krishna Dagli have collusively worked to fulfil their commercial goals by fraudulently using the data that was obtained by them from NSE to develop algo trading software," Sebi said in its 82-page order.

The algorithmic trading software so developed from LIX data was meant to be sold to the traders or brokers in the market to induce them to trade in securities with better trading results, on the strength that the algo trading software was prepared out of such exclusive data not ordinarily available to other market participants, it added.

Further, the regulator said that Ajay Shah and Infotech along with its directors made huge unfair gains by preparing software related to algorithmic trading at the cost of other investors who did not have the access to such softwares developed on the basis of confidential data shared by NSE.

Sebi on receipt of various complaints alleging irregularities in the matter of co-location and corporate governance at NSE initiated examination with respect to members of board of directors of the exchange and its senior management in relation to their dealings with Ajay Shah and others for the period 2009 to 2016.

On Tuesday, Sebi slapped a penalty of Rs 7 crore on the NSE for irregularities in the dark fibre (server co-location) case. In total, 18 entities were fined with the aggregate amount at Rs 44 crore in the case. 

Qatar has donated $60 million to the Lebanese army, hard hit by the Mediterranean nation's unprecedented economic meltdown, Qatar News Agency reported Thursday. The announcement came shortly after Qatar's Foreign Minister Mohammad bin Abdulrahman Al Thani arrived in Beirut, where he is expected to meet senior Lebanese officials. Lebanon's nearly three-year crisis has put unprecedented pressure on the U.S.-backed army's operational abilities, wiping out soldiers' salaries and wrecking morale. The overall deterioration puts at risk one of the few forces unifying Lebanon — the military. Over the past years, the army has been receiving assistance, including food supplies, from friendly countries.

Al Thani, who is also Qatar's deputy prime minister, is in Lebanon to attend the Arab Foreign Ministers Consultative Meeting, the report said.

Since the crisis erupted in October 2019, the Lebanese pound has lost more than 90% of its value, tens of thousands have become jobless and three quarters of the population of 6 million, including 1 million Syrian refugees, now lives in poverty.

The economic crisis is rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by the ruling class, which has been running the country since the end of the 1975-90 civil war.

The report said Qatar announced in July last year that the Gulf Arab sheikhdom would support the Lebanese army with 70 tons of food every month for a year

Two people allegedly posing as MLAs of the ruling BJP and extorting money from truck drivers were arrested, police said on Thursday. Accused Aniruddha Singh and Nirbhay Singh, residents of Kanpur, had an SUV with a small BJP flag on its bonnet. They had 'Vidhayak' (MLA) printed on the car, Hamirpur Superintendent of Police Shubham Patel said. On Wednesday night, a police team reached the spot under Kotwali police station limits where the accused were extorting money from truck drivers ferrying construction material. On seeing them, the two tried to flee, but were arrested, the SP added. "We have recovered two country-made pistols and some cash which they had extorted," he said. 

Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) on Thursday reported an 87 per cent rise in domestic wholesales to 16,500 units last month. The company had sold 8,801 units in June last year. "June witnessed huge growth in terms of wholesales, thanks to the very promising booking orders that most of our models enjoy," TKM associate vice president (Sales, and Strategic Marketing) Atul Sood said in a statement. The new Glanza has received a tremendous response from customers and continues to clock very promising booking orders, he added. "Both our self-charging hybrid electric vehicles, the Camry Hybrid and the Vellfire, have also received tremendous appreciation and a true testimony to that are our half yearly cumulative sales that have been the best in the last four years," Sood said. Besides, segment leaders like Crysta and Fortuner continue to peak demand, and customer orders are on the rise, he noted. "The Legender too, which has by now created a niche of its own in the SUV segment, continues to garner robust booking orders. Toyota is known for its SUVs worldwide and we at TKM are very excited about our upcoming foray into the popular B SUV segment in India," Sood stated.

Thousands of people took out a march in Udaipur and shopkeepers downed shutters in Jaipur on Thursday, protesting over the recent murder of a tailor by men who said they were avenging an insult to Islam.

The two accused, Riaz Akhtari and Ghouse Mohammad, were sent to judicial custody for 13 days and will be asked to take part in an identification parade, a lawyer said.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot visited the tailor’s family and told reporters that he wanted the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to file the charge sheet in a fast-track court as soon as possible, so that the culprits are brought to justice.

Kanhaiya Lal was killed Tuesday afternoon by two cleaver-wielding men, who posted a grisly video of the crime online claiming responsibility for the “beheading”.

Eight people died in floods in Assam in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll due to floods and landslides in the state to 159 this year so far.

For the first time, AIADMK's influential leader Edappadi K Palaniswami on Thursday bluntly told his rival O Panneerselvam that he is not the party's Coordinator anymore and slammed him for trying to scuttle the June 23 General Council meet convened by both of them. Writing to Panneerselvam (OPS), Palaniswami (EPS) said the GC meet held here days ago did not endorse the amendments made to party bylaws made on December 1, 2021 and hence his post of Coordinator ceased to exist. This is the first time EPS has openly said that his rival does not hold the top party post.

Following the GC meet held here amid chaos, EPS camp had declared that the top two party posts of Coordinator (OPS) and Joint Coordinator (EPS) had become defunct since it was not recognised by the General Council. OPS and EPS continued to hold on to their posts of treasurer and headquarters secretary alone, the Palaniswami camp had said.

After tweaking party bylaws, OPS and EPS were last year elected unopposed as party's Coordinator and Joint Coordinator respectively. EPS's letterhead mentioned his post as 'party headquarters secretary'. EPS in his letter addressed OPS as party's 'treasurer'.

Citing OPS's letter dated June 29, asking him to send the nomination papers of party nominees for local polls so that he could counter-sign them, EPS pointed out that the last date to file papers was June 27. Polls are scheduled to be held next month to fill casual vacancies in a clutch of local bodies.

Though OPS was duly apprised of the June 27 meeting of top office-bearers, he 'ignored' the meeting. Hence, OPS's letter was not acceptable, Palaniswami, who heads the dominant party faction told his rival in the letter.

Pointing to OPS writing to police and approaching courts to stop the June 23 AIADMK GC meet, Palaniswami said in view of such activities to hamper the party's functioning, Panneerselvam's letter was unacceptable. EPS underscored that the GC meet had been convened by them together. 

Delhi University has received over 12,500 applications for the "centenary" chance examination, which will allow final year drop-outs to complete their degrees, announced a varsity official on Thursday. The drop-out students have been given this one-time chance in view of the DU’s year-long centenary celebrations that started on May 1. “We have received 12,677 registrations for the centenary chance examination," DU's dean of examination D S Rawat said. June 30 was the last date for registration.

Of the 9,331 candidates who have completed the forms, 8,095 have made the payments as well, he added.In May, the DU announced that those who dropped out of college in the final year can register for a one-time chance to appear in examinations and complete their degree. Eligible candidates can appear for a maximum of four papers in the annual mode and up to eight papers for semester-wise tests. 

The examination will be conducted tentatively during October this year and March next year through physical mode. It will be held for theory and practical examination, and not for internal assessment, the university stated. In March, Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh announced that DU students who dropped out would be given a "centenary chance" to complete their studies and get their degrees. A proposal for this was approved at a special Executive Council meeting on January 28 held to discuss the centenary celebrations of the university.

Europe prepared to lead the world in regulating the freewheeling cryptocurrency industry at a time when prices have plunged, wiping out fortunes, fueling skepticism and sparking calls for tighter scrutiny. The European Union took a first step late Wednesday by agreeing on new rules subjecting cryptocurrency transfers to the same money-laundering rules as traditional banking transfers.

A much bigger move was expected as EU negotiators hammer out the final details late Thursday on a sweeping package of crypto regulations for the bloc's 27 nations, known as Markets in Crypto Assets, or MiCA.

Like the EU's trendsetting data privacy policy, which became the de facto global standard, and its recent landmark law targeting harmful content on digital platforms, the crypto regulations are expected to be highly influential worldwide.

The EU rules are “really the first comprehensive piece of crypto regulation in the world,” said Patrick Hansen, crypto venture adviser at Presight Capital, a venture capital fund.

“I think there will be a lot of jurisdictions that will look closely into how the EU has dealt with it since the EU is first here,” Hansen said. He expected authorities in other places, especially smaller countries that don't have the resources to draw up their own rules from scratch, to adopt ones similar to the EU's, though “they might change a few details.”

The Supreme Court has refused to entertain a plea filed by a man alleging harassment by the police of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana and seeking protection for the life and property of his family members. A vacation bench of Justices A S Oka and M M Sundresh said the petitioner, who hails from the Moradabad district of Uttar Pradesh and is presently staying in Delhi, can approach the high court. “This is not a fit case to entertain a petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India. However, the petitioner can always approach the high court by invoking Article 226 of the Constitution of India,” the bench said. “If the petitioner approaches the high court, we are sure that the high court will take up the matter as expeditiously as possible. Subject to what is observed above, the writ petition is disposed of,” the top court said in its order passed on Wednesday. The petitioner said that there is an allegation against one of his sons of the kidnapping of a woman, who is a resident of Jind district in Haryana, and a complaint has been filed in this regard at Faridabad.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Thursday ordered attachment of bank accounts as well as share and mutual fund accounts of an individual to recover investors' dues totalling Rs 73.58 lakh in the matter related to trading in Acclaim Industries shares. The recovery proceedings against Abhishek Mehta for Rs 73.58 lakh includes interest of 12 per cent per annum i.e Rs 38.82 lakh (August 2012 to November 2021), all costs, charges and expenses, Sebi said. In its notice, Sebi asked banks, depositories and mutual funds not to allow any debit from the accounts of Mehta. However, credits have been permitted. Further, the markets watchdog has directed all banks to attach all accounts including lockers held by the defaulters. There is sufficient reason to believe that the defaulter may dispose of the securities in the account held by you and realisation of amount due under the certificate would in consequence be delayed or obstructed, Sebi said. In order to protect the interest of investors, it is necessary to attach the assets of the defaulters, including bank, demat accounts and mutual fund investments, to prevent any alienation of the same, it added.

Officers fatally shot a patient at a Dallas-area hospital who had a gun in an emergency room, authorities said. A nurse called police on Wednesday night after she saw that the 34-year-old patient had a gun at Baylor Scott and White Medical Centre in Irving, said city police spokesman Robert Reeves.
A hospital officer and an Irving police officer confronted the man, who opened fire, Reeves said. The officers fired back, killing him.
No one else was hurt. Authorities didn't immediately release the man's name. They haven't said why he was at the hospital or why he might have opened fire

NATO faced rebukes from Moscow and Beijing on Thursday after it declared Russia a “direct threat” and said China posed “serious challenges ” to global stability. The Western military alliance was wrapping up a summit in Madrid, where it issued a stark warning that the world has been plunged into a dangerous phase of big-power competition and myriad threats, from cyberattacks to climate change. NATO leaders also formally invited Finland and Sweden to join the alliance, after overcoming opposition from Turkey. If the Nordic nations' accession is approved by the 30 member nations, it will give NATO a new 800-mile (1,300 kilometer) border with Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned he would respond in kind if the Nordic pair allowed NATO troops and military infrastructure onto their territory. He said Russia will have to “create the same threats for the territory from which threats against us are created.” Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said Putin's threats were “nothing new.”

BJP president JP Nadda reached out to estranged former ally Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal to seek support for NDA's presidential nominee Droupadi Murmu, sources in the saffron party said on Thursday. Nadda has been calling various non-NDA parties to elicit support for Murmu's candidature. Badal, sources said, told Nadda he will get back to him after consulting other Akali Dal leaders. Akali Dal may announce its support to Murmu, they said. The decades old alliance between the BJP and Akali Dal broke down on the issue of the three farm laws which the Modi government later annulled. The estrangement had resulted in SAD leader and Badal's wife Harsimrat Kaur resigning from the Union Cabinet. Both parties contested the Punjab assembly polls held earlier this year without much success.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said his government is taking measures to help small businesses increase exports and is framing new policies that will help the sector realise its potential. Launching several key initiatives for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) at the 'Udyami Bharat' programme, the Prime Minister emphasised that it is important for India's MSME sector to be strong for increasing India's exports and for India's products to reach new markets. "Our government is taking decisions and making new policies keeping in mind your ability and the immense potential of this sector", he added.

Amid the rupee declining against the US dollar, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said the Indian currency is relatively better placed than other global currencies against the greenback. Emerging market currencies have been falling against dollar amid geopolitical tensions in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war, concerns over growth, high global crude prices, sustained inflation and central banks worldwide adopting hawkish monetary policy approach. "We are relatively better placed. We are not a closed economy. We are part of the globalised world. So, we will be impacted (by global developments)," the finance minister said on the sidelines of an event here. She was responding to a question on the movement of rupee against the dollar. The rupee breached the psychologically significant level of 79 per dollar level for the first time ever on Wednesday and has also hit a series of lifetime lows this month.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday spoke to Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh and Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw following a landslide near a railway construction site in the Northeastern state. The home minister said a team of the National Disaster Response Force has reached the landslide site while two more teams are on their way. “Spoke to CM Shri @NBirenSingh and Shri @AshwiniVaishnaw in the wake of a landslide near the Tupul railway station in Manipur. Rescue operations are in full swing. A team of NDRF has already reached the spot and joined the rescue operations. 2 more teams are on their way to Tupul,” Shah tweeted. Two persons were killed and dozens, including locals and army personnel, were missing after a massive landslide occurred at a railway construction site in Manipur's Noney district. The incident took place at Tupul yard railway construction camp on Wednesday night. Two bodies were retrieved and around 50 people were feared trapped under the debris, officials said.

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Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya will interact and felicitate top 25 rank holders in the NEET PG exam of both medicine and dental courses. This is first time that an Union Health minister will felicitate top rank holders of the entrance exam, officials said. The NEET PG-2022 results were declared on June 1. Mandaviya will also host a dinner for the top rank holders. Senior Health ministry officials will also be present on the occasion, they said. The event comes on the eve of the National Doctors' Day which will be observed in all medical and dental colleges across the country, including all the AIIMS. At the central level, eminent doctors will be felicitated at an event to be held on July 1 at Lady Hardinge Medical College. Reacting to the health minister's felicitation ceremony, a doctor said, "The initiative will motivate young and budding post graduate specialists for serving the country." 

NDA's presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu will visit Lucknow on July 8 to muster electoral support from the country's largest state. According to sources, Draupadi Murmu will meet the MLAs and MPs of BJP as well as allies here. Apart from this, she will also seek support from non-BJP parties. Being the largest province of the country, Uttar Pradesh will play a key role in the presidential election. The value of one vote of an MLA is 208 and that of one MP is 700. The value of votes of 273 MLAs of the BJP and its allies and 66 Lok Sabha and 25 Rajya Sabha MPs is about 1.21 lakhs.

Uproar over Agnipath by the opposition caused adjournment of the Bihar assembly within minutes of commencement of proceedings on the final day of the monsoon session on Thursday. Deputy Speaker Maheshwar Hazari made fervent pleas for cooperation, pointing out that this was “the first occasion during the current session” when he was in the Chair. However, opposition MLAs remained unpacified and continued shouting slogans seeking a rollback of the new scheme of recruitment in armed forces and withdrawal of cases lodged against those who took part in the subsequent protests across Bihar. As the slogans veered from “Agnipath is a scheme, must be withdrawn” towards “down with Prime Minister”, Deputy Chief Minister Tarkishor Prasad, who is also the BJP's leader in the House, rose in his chair to express objection.

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The CISF has apprehended four people and seized foreign currency worth Rs 59 lakh from them at the Delhi international airport. The interception of three passengers and an accompanying visitor at the terminal-3 of the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport was done on June 28, a senior CISF officer said. A total of 2,19,740 Saudi Riyals and USD 15,200 worth about Rs 59 lakh was recovered from a tiffin box kept in the registered baggage of the passengers who were travelling to Dubai. The four were later handed over to customs officials for further investigation, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) officer said. 

A elderly couple died after a wall of their under-construction house collapsed on them in a village here, police said on Thursday. Nebulal (75) and his wife Rajmati (72) were sleeping inside their house in Narkatha village when the wall collapsed on Wednesday evening, Station Officer (Paniyra) Satya Prakash Singh said. The couple was rushed to the district hospital where the doctors declared them dead, Singh added.

India's biggest tax reform, the Goods and Services Tax (GST), completes its half-a-decade journey on June 30, with many hits and some misses, and also brought about a paradigm shift in use of technology to bring about tax compliance and making over Rs 1 lakh crore revenue collection every month 'a new normal'. A nationwide Goods and Services Tax (GST), which subsumed 17 local levies like excise duty, service tax and VAT and 13 cesses, was rolled out at the stroke of midnight on July 1, 2017.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to begin a two-day visit to Hong Kong to mark the 25th anniversary of the city's handover to mainland China, with a raft of heightened security measures and thousands of guests put into quarantine ahead of the celebrations. Xi, who has not left mainland China since the pandemic began 2 1/2 years ago, will attend a ceremony marking Hong Kong's return to Chinese rule on July 1, 1997 and officiate an inauguration ceremony for the new government led by incoming leader John Lee on Friday. Xi is expected to arrive in the city by high-speed train with his wife, Peng Liyuan, on Thursday afternoon, according to local newspaper South China Morning Post.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot will meet family members of Kanhaiya Lal, who was brutally murdered in Udaipur on Tuesday, even as the curfew continued in the city on Thursday. Mobile internet services also remained suspended. The chief minister is scheduled to arrive in Udaipur in a special plane at 1 pm. He will meet the family members, official sources said. Gehlot will be accompanied by the minister of state for home Rajendra Yadav, chief secretary Usha Sharma, DGP ML Lather and other senior officials, the sources said.

The Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands reported eight new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, four less than the previous day, pushing the tally to 10,157, a health department official said. Five patients have travel history while three infections were detected during contact tracing, the official said. The archipelago now has 42 active COVID-19 cases, while 9,986 people have recovered from the disease, including four in the last 24 hours, he said. A total of 129 patients have succumbed to COVID-19 till date. The union territory administration has so far tested 7,53,930 samples for COVID-19 and the cumulative test positivity rate is 1.35 per cent. A total of 3,41,144 people have been inoculated with both doses of the vaccine so far, the official added. 

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A day after Uddhav Thackeray resigned as Maharashtra chief minister, all eyes are on Raj Bhavan to see when does Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari invite the BJP to form the next government in the state. The process for the change of regime in the state, which began with the rebellion of around 40 of 55 Shiv Sena MLAs under Eknath Shinde’s leadership, got a boost after BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis met Koshyari on Tuesday night and asked him to order a floor test of the Thackeray government, claiming it had lost majority. Thackeray (62) resigned Wednesday night, minutes after Supreme Court refused to stay Governor Koshyari's direction to his government to take a floor test in the Assembly on Thursday.

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The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has started a new programme to make students of its schools aware of waste management through artificial intelligence, officials said on Wednesday. The programme has been started in 25 smart schools in the Keshavpuram Zone, the civic body said in a statement. "Aiming to make its school children aware of technology-driven activities, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has launched a program to educate them about waste management through artificial intelligence. "It has started the initiative in collaboration with ITC WOW and Sultan Chand Publication," the statement said.

Varanasi will receive 13 new projects worth Rs 1,200 crore when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits his parliamentary constituency in July. Modi will also inaugurate around 33 ready projects worth Rs 600 crore during his visit. Divisional commissioner Deepak Agrawal and district magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma said that the final date for the Prime Minister's proposed visit has not been received from the PMO so far, but there is a possibility of his coming to Varanasi between July 7 and 10. The officials are finalising the list of projects ready for inauguration by the Prime Minister. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed officials that only the projects which would start operating immediately after inauguration, should be included in the list. Among 33 ready projects worth Rs 600 crore, maximum 11 are of urban development department and being executed by Smart City Limited.

Religious leaders and others in Savannah, Georgia's oldest city, called Wednesday for the police chief's resignation and a federal investigation into local officer-involved shootings, including one last week that left a Black man dead. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said it is independently investigating Friday's fatal shooting of a man who officers spotted walking around midday in the middle of a street. The man, Saudi Arai Lee, 31, of Savannah, lived in the neighbourhood where the shooting occurred. "Family after family are crying because of sons or their daughters shot down by this police department and it must stop," Elder James Johnson, founder of the activist group Racial Justice Network, said at a news conference Wednesday.

Two Indian-Americans have pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to commit fraud by obtaining USD 1.2 million in wire transfers from victims across the country, a US attorney said. Arushobike Mitra (27) and Garbita Mitra (24) were part of an international fraud under which India-based call centres targeted US residents, particularly the elderly, through robocalls, according to a media release. Elaborating on the racket's mode of operation, US attorney Philip R Sellinger said that after contacting the victims through automated calls, other members of the racket would coerce or trick them into sending large sums of money either physically or through wire transfers.

A nomination for the presidential poll will be rejected if it is not backed by 50 proposers and 50 seconders from the electoral college made up of members of Parliament and legislative assemblies. The nomination will also be rejected if an aspirant does not pay Rs 15,000 in cash or present a receipt showing such an amount deposited in the Reserve Bank of India or a government treasury. Cheques and demand drafts are not acceptable means of paying security deposit.

The annual Amarnath Yatra began on Thursday as a batch of about 2,750 pilgrims left the base camp here for the cave shrine housing the naturally formed ice-lingam in the south Kashmir Himalayas. The pilgrimage was flagged off by Deputy Commissioner Piyush Singla at the Nunwan base camp in the Anantnag district's Pahalgam. The journey -- most of it on foot -- takes about three days with night halts at Sheeshnag and Panchtarni along the route.

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Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi has won the Democratic primary from Illinois with a decisive mandate, successfully overcoming a highly communal campaign run by his opponent Junaid Ahmed. Krishnamoorthi, who is very popular in the eighth Congressional District of Illinois, defeated Ahmed with over 71 per cent of the votes.

The UN Security Council voted Wednesday to maintain the U.N. peacekeeping mission in turmoil-wracked Mali, while condemning the West African nation's military rulers for using mercenaries that commit human rights and humanitarian violations. The council also expressed "grave concern" at the deteriorating political and security situation in the West African nation. Russia and China abstained on the French-drafted resolution that extends the mandate of the mission until June 30, 2023, with its current ceiling of 13,289 military personnel and 1,920 international police. Mali has been in turmoil since a 2012 uprising prompted mutinous soldiers to overthrow the president. The power vacuum that resulted ultimately led to an Islamic insurgency and a French-led war that ousted the jihadists from power in 2013.

Russian forces battled Wednesday to surround the Ukrainian military's last stronghold in a long-contested eastern province, as shock reverberated from a Russian airstrike on a shopping mall that killed at least 18 in the centre of the country two days earlier. Moscow's battle to wrest the entire Donbas region from Ukraine saw Russian forces pushing toward two villages south of Lysychansk while Ukrainian troops fought to prevent their encirclement. Britain's defense ministry said Russian forces were making "incremental advances" in their offensive to capture Lysychansk, the last city in the Luhansk province under Ukrainian control following the retreat of Ukraine's forces from the neighbouring city of Sievierodonetsk.

US health officials said Wednesday they have agreed to purchase another 105 million doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine in anticipation of a fall booster campaign. The USD 3.2 billion deal announced by the Biden administration comes as federal scientists consider how to update the vaccines to better protect Americans from the rapidly evolving virus. Federal officials said the purchase agreement includes the option to purchase a total of 300 million doses, including a mix of doses for both adults and children. The first shots would be delivered by early fall, pending a decision by the Food and Drug Administration to authorize new versions of the shots. A decision is expected from the FDA in the coming days following a Tuesday meeting in which outside advisers recommended modifying the vaccines to better target the omicron variant.

Evidence suggests twin Russian airstrikes deliberately targeted a theater being used as a shelter in the besieged city of Mariupol, the rights group Amnesty International said in a report released Thursday. The report condemned the attack as a war crime. Amnesty said there was no evidence that the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater was a base of operations for Ukrainian soldiers and every indication that it was a haven for civilians seeking protection from weeks of relentless shellings and airstrikes. The March 16 airstrike devastated the building, collapsing its rear and side walls directly onto a field kitchen used as a community gathering space for food, water and scarce news about evacuations and the war.

A special court in Kairana in Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh dealing with cases registered under the POCSO Act has sentenced a man to life imprisonment for sexually assaulting a seven-year-old boy. The judgment was delivered on Wednesday, within nine days of the first hearing in the matter. Judge Mumtaz Ali also slapped a fine of Rs 45,000 on the convict, Wasil (21), after holding him guilty under sections 377 (unnatural offences) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sections 5 and 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

With India consistently reporting more than 10,000 Covid cases over the past few days, the Centre Wednesday asked states and Union Territories to ensure a random RT-PCR screening of about two per cent passengers in each incoming flight, and send all positive specimens for genomic sequencing. Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan issued the advisory through a letter to states and UTs, referring to the 'Operational Guidelines for Revised Surveillance Strategy in context of COVID-19' issued by the Centre on June 9. Bhushan asked them to implement the revised strategy which focuses on early detection and timely management of suspected and confirmed cases, and the containment of outbreaks of new coronavirus variants.