President Pranab Mukherjee paid floral tributes to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel at the Rashtrapati Bhavan here on Friday on the occasion of his birth anniversary.
On the occasion, President Mukherjee also flagged off the ‘Run for Unity’ event at the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Around 2000 residents and staff of Rashtrapati Bhavan, the President’s Body Guard, the Army Guard, ITBP and the Delhi Police participated in the run.
The Congress and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) on Friday broke their alliance, citing issues pertaining to seat sharing as the cause, ahead of the legislative assembly polls in the state.
“Both parties were having problems with seat sharing, thus we have agreed to disagree. We broke the alliance after we were not able to come up with a workable solution,” Jharkhand Congress in-charge BK Hariprasad told ANI.
“We will fight the elections with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Janata Dal (United). Smaller parties have also approached us and we will take a decision on them,” he added.
Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray today agreed to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Devendra Fadnavis as Maharashtra Chief Minister after a last-minute call from BJP President Amit Shah inviting him to the event.
Reaching out to a sulking Shiv Sena, Shah’s call to Uddhav came a day after the Sena announced its boycott of the grand swearing-in ceremony of Fadnavis on grounds of its “constant humiliation” by BJP over government formation in Maharashtra.
Fadnavis is also understood to have called up Thackeray requesting his presence at the event this evening.
A Chinese court Friday upheld the death sentences of three men implicated in a terrorist attack that killed 31 people at a railway station in Kunming, the capital city of southwest China’s Yunnan Province, earlier this year.
Iskandar Ehet, Turgun Tohtunyaz and Hasayn Muhammad were sentenced to death Sep 12 for leading a terrorist organisation and for intentional homicide, Xinhua reported.
Investigators found that the three men had been training recruits for terrorist activities, including the attack at Kunming railway station, since December 2013.
The Congress on Friday termed as “disgusting” and “petty-minded” the way the Narendra Modi government marked the death anniversary of Indira Gandhi while the ruling BJP wondered if that party prefers to see history through the “perspective” of Nehru-Gandhi family.
“It is petty-minded, it is partisan and disrespectful to those who gave their lives to their country, particularly Indira Gandhi who gave hers for the unity of this country,” Deputy Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma said, adding, it showed Modi and BJP for what they are.
Fair trade watchdog, Competition Commission of India (CCI), has approved Adani Power’s Rs.6,000 crore purchase of Lanco Infratech’s 1,200 MW thermal plant in Udupi, Karnataka, setting at rest concerns on monopolising market share.
“Post combination the combined market share of the acquirer, both in terms of installed capacity and electricity generation, would not be significant enough to raise any competition concern,” CCI said in its order on the matter, released Thursday.
Shahi Imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, has kicked up a storm by snubbing Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his 19-year-old son’s investiture ceremony.
Bukhari recently named his son Shaban as his successor and said he will be anointed as the ‘Nayab Shahi Imam’ (Vice Imam) at a ceremony on November 22.
For the function, the Imam has sent out invitations to several Indian and foreign political leaders, nearly 1,000 religious leaders from across the world, and others.
A fifth standard student was allegedly slapped by an independent MLA and his wife over a school brawl involving him and their son, police said today.
According to the DIG Bareilly RKS Rathore, the 10-year-old boy, studying at a private school, entered into a scuffle with Bhojipura MLA Sahjil Islam’s son after which the two families were called for reconciliation on Tuesday.
It was during the meeting that the MLA and his wife Ayesha Islam slapped the student within the premises of Hartman’s School and College, he added.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the National Association of Theatre Owners have banned wearable technology such as Google Glass.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, moviegoers must turn off and put away any and all such devices, or risk being asked to leave and if theatre staff suspects that illegal recording is taking place, law enforcement authorities will be notified.
Normal life was partially hit in Assam on Friday during a 12-hour state-wide bandh called by Bajrang Dal. Around 70 Bajrang Dal supporters were arrested from all over the state for allegedly trying to damage property during the bandh, police officers said.
Guwahati Senior Superintendent of Police Anand Prakash Tiwari told PTI that 18 Bajrang Dal supporters were arrested from the city for trying to forcefully implement the bandh, which has been called to protest the alleged links between the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) and jihadis in Bangladesh.
Going ahead with its Operation Akarsh, the ruling TRS on Thursday managed for two more Congress MLAs and a former legislator into its fold.
The two Congress MLAs who met chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and reportedly held discussions with him, expressed their readiness to join the pink party. The two MLAs are K Yadaiah, who represents Chevella (SC) constituency in Ranga Reddy district, and senior Congress leader Redya Naik, who represents Dornakal in Warangal district.
Two students, including son of Vijayawada MLA Bonda Umamaheswara Rao ‘s son Siddhartha, were arrested by the Guntur police on Thursday in CONNECTION with the death of a youngster in a car race at Timmapur village on Guntur-Chilakaluripet national highway a few days ago.
Sub-Inspector said that cases were booked against the arrested Siddhartha and his friend Koppula Sivaram Sections 304-A and 337 of IPC.
Reading bedtime stories is a positive way to interact with your kids, but it would not influence children’s intelligence later in life, said a research.
The findings support the argument that intelligence is passed down from parent to children genetically, not socially.
“The way you parent a child is not going to have a detectable effect on their IQ as long as that parenting is within normal bounds,” said researcher Kevin Beaver, professor at Florida State University in the US.
Two stretches were selected by the civic body in the west and south zone for LED installation, as a pilot project.
Streets connecting Falaknuma and Madina as well as the STRETCH from the Charminar to HICC, as well as its surrounding areas were lit up by new LED streetlights.
LED lights are energy efficient and can reduce total energy consumption by 65-67 per cen, according to the GHMC authorities.
Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday said that Maharashtra will regain its position as the best state in the country under the leadership of Devendra Fadnavis, who is due to be sworn-in as the first Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Chief Minister of the state later in the day.
“Today, the new government is taking oath and I am sure that under the leadership of Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra will be the number one state once again,” said Gadkari, while launching the Electronic Toll Collection system for the Delhi-Mumbai Highway here.
Former Telecom Minister A Raja, MP Kanimozhi, DMK supremo M Karunanidhi’s wife Dayalu Ammal and 16 others were today put on trial in a 2G scam related case by a special court which observed that charges of money laundering are prima facie made out against all of them.
Special CBI Judge O P Saini framed charges under section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and under the provision of the Money Laundering Act against 19 accused, including 10 individuals and nine companies, who were charge sheeted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the case.
Twenty one Islamic State (IS) militants were killed in US-led airstrikes against the Sunni radical group’s positions in the predominantly Kurdish town of Kobane on the Syrian-Turkish border, a monitoring group said Friday.
An IS commander and a Danish IS fighter were among those killed, Xinhua reported citing the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The US-led anti-terror coalition has recently focused its strikes against the IS positions in Kobane, also known as Ayn al-Arab, to keep the group from capturing that strategic city on the Syrian-Turkish border.
A team of scientists have discovered pulmonary hypertension’s links with diabetes and cancer.
Researchers discovered that a protein that plays a critical role in metabolism, the process by which the cell generates energy from foods, is important for the development of pulmonary hypertension, a deadly disease.
At least 15 people were killed and 28 injured in a road accident in Turkey Friday.
The mishap occurred in Isparta province, Hurriyet news reported.
The bus was carrying a group of workers, mostly women, employed in an apple plantation near Yalvac district, officials said.
Many of the injured are in serious condition.
According to investigators, the accident is believed to have been caused by brake failure.
The bus first crashed into a wall on the roadside before falling into a ditch.
–IANS
When it comes to fantasising about sex, men have more vivid and weird fantasies than women and want them to come true in real life, reveals a research.
It also tells us that a significant proportion of women evoke fantasies associated with submission (being tied up, spanked, forced to have sex) but they do not want these to be realised in actual life.
Importantly, unlike men, women in general clearly distinguish between fantasy and desire.
Mahatma Gandhi seemed incomplete without Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as he played an integral role in the freedom struggle launched by the father of the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said here Friday.
“Sardar Patel joined Mahatma Gandhi in the integration of farmers in the freedom struggle. He (Patel) played an integral role in the Dandi yatra,” Mr. Modi said while addressing the nation on the birth anniversary of Sardar Patel being observed as ‘Rashtriya Ekta Diwas’
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today skipped the event commemorating the death anniversary of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi at the Shakti Sthal memorial where President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari and top leaders of the Congress paid floral tributes to her.
The dignitaries including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi drove to the memorial where they placed floral wreaths at the spot where she was laid to rest even as Modi flagged off a ‘Unity Run’ to mark 139th birth anniversary of Sardar Patel.
A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Friday touched a record high of 27,762.13 points, surpassing previous high of 27,390.60 points hit Thursday.
Good buying was observed in capital goods, auto, banking, metal, oil and gas and IT sectors; while selling pressure was seen in consumer durables sector.
The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 27,439.06 points, was trading at 27,751.75 points (at 01.05 p.m.) in the afternoon session, up 405.42 points or 1.48 percent from the previous day’s close at 27,346.33 points.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today raked up the anti-Sikh violence that followed the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi this day 30 years ago and said it was a “dagger” in the centuries-old fabric of India’s unity as he dedicated the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as National Unity Day.
Got up as an event to accord Sardar Patel, the ‘Iron Man of India’, his place in history, the Government said it was not an attempt to belittle the contribution of any other leader.
An Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorist, wanted in connection with the 1992 attack at a PAC camp in Meerut, was arrested by a joint operation of Muzaffarnagar police and Anti-Terrorist Squad, police said on Friday.
Saleem alias Patla was arrested last night from Khatoli town here, they said.
“Saleem was wanted in connection with the attack at a PAC camp in Meerut in 1992 and was absconding since then,” SSP H N Singh told PTI.
A probe into the matter is on, he said.
–PTI