GOOGLE on Wednesday clarified that users in India will not have to pay any fee for money transfers on its payment platform, and that the charges are for users in the US. Last week, Google had announced that it is launching a redesigned Google Pay app next year on Android and iOS, starting with the US, and that users will not be able to use the service on a web browser. Reports had said that Google Pay will also add a fee on instant money transfers. “These charges and fees ar..

FROM January 15, callers will have to dial numbers with prefix ‘0’ for making calls from landline to mobile phone. Announcing the decision, the communications ministry said the move would free up sufficient numbering resources for future use, and nearly 2,539 million numbering series are expected to be generated as a result. There will be no change with respect to dialling numbers for fixed-to fixed, mobile-to-fixed, and mobile-to-mobile calls...

MALAYALAM feature “Jallikattu”, directed by Lijo Jose Pellissery, has been selected as India’s official entry for the International Feature Film category at the 93rd Academy Awards, the Film Federation of India (FFI) announced on Wednesday. “Jallikattu”, which was unanimously chosen from 27 entries across Hindi, Marathi and other languages, is about a tribe of men coming together to stop a bull that has run amok in their village. “There were a total of 27 films that had entered the race from Hindi, ..

THE Government on Wednesday approved merger of crisis-ridden Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) with DBS Bank India Ltd (DBIL) and removed restrictions on withdrawal of deposits by depositors. The Union Cabinet has approved the merger of the LVB with DBS Bank India Limited, Union Minister Prakash Javdekar told reporters, adding that the decision will provide comfort to 20 lakh depositors and protect the services of 4,000 employees...

SENIOR Congress leader and the party’s top strategist Ahmed Patel died in a Gurugram hospital on Wednesday due to multi-organ failure. He was suffering from complications related to COVID-19. Patel (71), who was critical for a few days, was admitted to the Medanta hospital in Gurugram on November 15 after he developed complications. His son Faisal said he died at 3.30 am...

INDIA on Tuesday announced a new phase of over 100 high-impact community projects in Afghanistan worth USD 80 million (Rs 592 crore) as the country’s development portfolio in the war-ravaged nation has reached over USD 3 billion (Rs 22,200 crore) so far...

FORMER Minister M J Akbar and journalist Priya Ramani on Tuesday refused any settlement between them in a criminal defamation complaint filed by him against her. Senior advocate Geeta Luthra, appearing for Akbar, said that if Ramani was apologetic for her allegations, she would ask him to consider closing the complaint. Ramani’s counsel, Bhavook Chauhan, said however that she stood by her statement and if Akbar wanted to withdraw the complaint, he may do so...

THE deep depression over Bay of Bengal intensified into a cyclone and is likely to cross the coast between Tamil Nadu and Puducherry as a severe storm on Wednesday. The official machinery has been put on high alert in Tamil Nadu and the neighbouring Union Territory of Puducherry and extensive precautionary measures, including evacuation of people from vulnerable areas, taken, the Governments said. The cyclone christened ‘Nivar’ was very likely to cross the coast between Karaikal in Puducherry and ..

INDIA on Tuesday blocked 43 more Chinese mobile apps, including Alibaba Group Holding’s e-commerce app AliExpress, in a fresh wave of web sanctions amid its border standoff with China. The banned applications, which include a few dating apps, were a threat to the “sovereignty and integrity of India”, an official statement said. The Ministry of Electronics and IT issued the order for blocking the access of these apps by users in India based on the comprehensive reports received from Indian Cyber Crime ..

NOTING that alertness has given way to “widespread” negligence about COVID-19 among people, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said a few States have seen a surge in the infection in the same way as many countries witnessed after an earlier decline and asked Chief Ministers to focus on bringing down positivity and fatality rates by curbing the virus transmission. India has come out of the “deep sea” of this crisis after the world had though..

THE first Americans to receive a COVID-19 vaccine could be as early as the second week of December, according to the White House vaccine czar. American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech submitted an application to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on November 20 for emergency use authorisation for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate...

THE pandemic situation in Delhi has “worsened” and it has gone “out of control” in Gujarat, the Supreme Court said on Monday while expressing concern over the surge in number of COVID-19 cases across the country. The apex court, which asked the Centre and all States to file within two days status reports detailing the steps taken to deal with the situation, said there is spike in COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra and authorities have to take steps and “prepare for th..

WITH an efficacy of around 90 per cent positive results from an interim analysis of clinical trials of AZD1222 in the UK and Brazil the vaccine has proved to be highly effective in preventing COVID-19, said AstraZeneca on Monday. One dosing regimen shows the vaccine efficacy of 90 per cent when AZD1222 was given as a half dose, followed b..

THE Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Monday released the tentative dates for the Class 12th Board practical exams 2020-21 amid the speculation of postponing or cancellation of the exams in the wake of ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The Board will conduct practical exams for Class 12th from January 1 till February 8 as per tentative dates. CBSE has clarified that the exact dates for the exams would be notified later. Though, the final notific..

TV ACTOR Leena Acharya, who featured on shows like “Class of 2020” and “Seth Ji”, passed away following a kidney ailment, according to actor Rohan Mehraa. She was in her late 30s. Mehraa, who co-starred with Acharya in “Class of 2020”, told PTI that the actor breathed her last in Delhi on Saturday. Actor Ayush Anand, who worked with Acharya on “Perfect Pati” in 2018-2019, said the actor never mentioned about her kidney ailment...

EIGHT newly-elected Members of the Bihar Legislative Council were on Sunday administered the oath of office by acting chairman Awadhesh Narain Singh. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Deputy CM Tar Kishore Prasad and Pro-tem Speaker of the Assembly Jitan Ram Manjhi were among those present at the swearing-in ceremony. Devesh Chandra Thakur and Neeraj Kumar of the JD(U), BJP’s Nawal Kishore Yadav and NK Yadav, CPI’s Sanjay Kumar Singh and..

THE Indian Navy is participating in the two-day trilateral maritime exercise SITMEX-20 in the Andaman sea along with the navies of Singapore and Thailand, senior military officials said on Sunday. Indian naval ships, including indigenously-built anti-submarine warfare corvette Kamorta and missile corvette Karmuk, are participating in the 2nd edition of the trilateral exercise to be held on Sunday and Monday...

A MASSIVE operation is underway near the International border in Samba sector to unearth an underground tunnel which was suspected to have been used by four Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists to sneak into the country from Pakistan, said officials on Sunday...

IN A first among central banks, the Reserve Bank of India has become the first monetary authority in the world to have more than 1 million followers on its official Twitter handle. Despite much less monetary firepower, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has beaten the world’s most powerful central banks -- the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank -- on Twitter by a wide margin, emerging as the most popular central bank on the microblogging site with over 1 million followers...

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday bemoaned the lack of development in UP’s Vindhyachal for decades after Independence and said despite resources, the region faced scarcity. The scarcity forced many people to migrate from the region, he said after laying the foundation stone of rural drinking water supply projects in Mirzapur and Sonbhadra districts of the Vindhyachal region via video conferencing. Modi also interacted with village water and sanitation committee members during the event...

THE Bombay High Court has said that when the Government exercises its power of acquiring land for public purposes, it also has the obligation of ensuring that the land owners are paid compensation. A single bench of Justice Milind Jadhav on November 17 dismissed a petition filed by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), challenging an arbitral award to pay compensation. The court directed the NHAI to deposit the compensation amount awarded to two women, whose land was acquired for public ..

PAKISTANI spy agency ISI had given the task of carrying out a suicide attack on the scale of Pulwama attack to the Jaish-e-Mohammed for which four terrorists were infiltrated into India from Samba sector on November 18/19 soon after which they were killed in an encounter by security forces near Nagrota in Jammu sector. Senior Government sources said that the charge of carrying out a Pulwama scale terror attack bigger was given to the J..

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the country was moving forward with the goal of reducing its carbon footprint by 30 to 35 per cent. He also said that efforts were on to increase the use of natural gas by four times in this decade and to double the oil refining capacity in the next five years. The Prime Minister said this while addressing the eighth convocation of Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU) here via video conference...

THE Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Saturday arrested comedian Bharti Singh following seizure of ganja (cannabis) from her house in suburban Andheri, an official said. The NCB searched Singh’s house and office in the morning as part of its probe into alleged drug use in the Hindi film industry...

AMID rising COVID-19 cases, inadequate beds in Government hospitals and absence of specific guidelines for COVID treatment resulted in private hospitals charging exorbitant fees, a parliamentary panel on Saturday said, asserting that a sustainable pricing model could have averted many deaths. Chairperson of the parliamentary standing committee on health Ram Gopal Yadav submitted the report on ‘Outbreak of Pandemic COVID-19 and its Ma..

MARKETS regulator Sebi has moved the Supreme Court seeking direction to two Sahara firms to pay Rs 62,602.90 crore in compliance with the court’s earlier orders, failing which the group’s chief Subrata Roy be taken into custody. Sebi said the contemnors, Roy and his two firms-- Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd. (SIRECL) and Sahara ..

INDIA’S COVID-19 caseload surpassed the 90-lakh mark on Friday with 45,882 new cases, while the recoveries surged to 84.28 lakh pushing the national recovery rate to 93.6 per cent, according to the Union Health Ministry data. The total coronavirus cases mounted to 90,04,365 and the death toll climbed to 1,32,162 with the novel coronavirus virus claiming 584 lives in a span of 24 hours in the country, the data updated at 8 am showed. The COVID-19 case fatality rate has further declined to 1.46 per ..

THE concept of Indo-Pacific is a rejection of the spheres of influence and a reiteration that the world cannot be frozen for the benefit of a few even if that is the case with the United Nations, External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar said on Friday. Addressing a global town hall event via video-conferencing, Jaishankar also said that the Indo-Pacific was an indication of a future not a throwback to the past and “only those harbouring a Cold War mindset will see such intentions”. ..

BIHAR Education Minister Mewa Lal Chaudhary, whose appointment to the post had triggered a controversy on account of a corruption taint, on Thursday tendered his resignation, barely three days after being sworn in as a member of the Nitish Kumar Cabinet. Chaudhary, who was allocated the portfolio on Tuesday, a day after taking oath, sent his resignation immediately after assuming charge at 1 P.M., informed sources said. Chaudhary, who belongs to the JD(U) headed by th..

SOLICITOR General Tushar Mehta on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that Rs 5,270 crore has been credited to 13.12 crore accounts in the interest waiver plan so far. The Centre has subsidised compound interest for a 6-month moratorium for all loans up to Rs 2 crore. Mehta submitted before a bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan that the Government is on top of the matter and it is taking all the necessary steps...

HEAD Constable Seema Dhaka, posted at Samaypur Badli Police station, has become the first Delhi Police officer to get an out-of-turn (OTP) promotion for tracing missing children under the incentive scheme announced by Delhi Police. As per the official statement by Delhi Police, Dhaka has traced as many as 76 missing children and 56 of them are below the age of 14 years...

FOUR suspected Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists were killed and two policemen were injured in a gunbattle on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway after a truck carrying a group of freshly-infiltrated militants was intercepted by security forces on the outskirts of Jammu city on Thursday, top police officials said. The terrorists had come to execute a “big plan” which has now been foiled, Inspector General of Police (IGP), Jammu, Mukesh Singh, said. In Srinag..

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said it is time for tech solutions that are designed in India but deployed for the world, and declared that the country is uniquely positioned to leap ahead in the information era. He also called on the industry to make a conscious attempt to take product-level innovations to the next level. “India as a country is uniquely positioned to leap ahead in the information era. We have the best minds as well as the biggest market...

TWITTER is launching tweets that disappear in 24 hours called “Fleets” globally, echoing social media sites like Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram that already have disappearing posts. The company says the ephemeral tweets, which it calls “fleets” because of their fleeting nature, are designed to allay the concerns of new users who might be turned off by the public and permanent nature of normal tweets...

T N MANOHARAN, the RBI-appointed administrator of Lakshmi Vilas Bank, on Wednesday said that depositors’ money is safe and expressed confidence of completing the lender’s merger with DBS Bank India within the deadline set by the regulator. On Tuesday, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) appointed former non-executive chairman of Canara Bank T N Manoharan as the administrator of Lakshmi Vilas Bank after superseding the board of the crippled private sector lender...

AT LEAST 11 people died and 16 others were injured when a mini-truck in which they were travelling rammed into another truck on the outskirts of Gujarat’s Vadodara city early on Wednesday morning, police said. The accident took place at Waghodia circle near the city around 2.45 am when the victims were heading towards Pavagadh in Panchmahal district, Vadodara Deputy Commissioner of Police Karanraj Vaghela said...

PFIZER and its German partner BioNTech released a second batch of interim results on Wednesday, saying their two-dose coronavirus vaccine candidate is 95 per cent effective and also protects the most vulnerable people in older age groups from the risk of falling prey to the virus. The company said that no serious side effects have shown up. The most common complaint was fatigue after the second vaccine dose, affecting about 4 per cent of the participants w..

UNDER an UN initiative, over 100 scientists have joined hands to tackle the issue of misinformation around COVID-19 vaccines and build confidence by busting myths and sharing information on the safety and effectiveness of vaccines via the social media. The UN has collaborated with The Vaccine Confidence Project at the University of London to undertake Team Halo, an initiative which aims to counter the misinformation around COVID-19 vaccines...

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to spiritual leaders to help popularise his Government’s ‘vocal for local’ campaign for ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ has prompted many of them to pledge their support to the cause. An official statement on Tuesday noted the public support offered by spiritual leaders such as Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Swami Awadheshanand and Devaki Nandan Thakur, besides yoga guru Ramdev, to Modi’s call...

UNION Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday termed the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), a conglomerate of political parties in Jammu and Kashmir, an “unholy global alliance” and alleged that it, along with the Congress, wants to take Jammu and Kashmir back to the era of terror and turmoil. In a series of tweets, Shah alleged that the “Gupkar Gang is going global” and wants foreign forces to intervene in Jammu and Kashmir. The conglomerate of regional and national political parties in ..

PORTFOLIOS were allocated among members of the Nitish Kumar Cabinet in Bihar on Tuesday with the Chief Minister retaining key Departments like Home which he had held in the previous Government. Other portfolios remaining with the Chief Minister are General Administration, Cabinet Secretariat and Election besides “any other department not allocated among other members of the Council of Ministers”, according to a notification issued by Raj Bhawan. Deputy Chief Minister Tarkishore Prasad was given Finance, ..

AFTER remaining shut for nearly eight months, places of religious worship reopened in Maharashtra on Monday with COVID-19 prevention protocols in place. Devotees were seen visiting the famous Siddhivinayak temple and the Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai, and some of the other prominent religious places in the State. The reopening of the places of worship coincided with the Diwali ‘Padwa’, which is an important festival in the State...

OVER a month after a video of 5-year-old Nawang Namgyal saluting Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) soldiers in Ladakh was shared widely on the Internet, the paramilitary force shared another inspiring video of the boy on Sunday...

VICE Admiral John Thomas Goslin Pereira (retd), Indian Navy’s former Chief of Materials, died here on Monday after a brief illness, family sources said. The 97-year-old was among the last surviving naval officers who served during the Second World War, Vice Adm I C Rao (retd), who served with him on board warship INS Delhi in 1958, told PTI...

JANATA Dal (United) president Nitish Kumar took oath as the Chief Minister of Bihar for the fourth straight term on Monday afternoon after closely-fought legislative assembly elections in the State. Notably, it is the seventh time when Nitish Kumar is being sworn in as Chief Minister of Bihar. Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP President Jagat Prakash Nadda attended the oath-taking ceremony of JD(U) chief as the new Chief Minister of the State. BJP’s Bihar in-charge Devendra Fadnavis also participated ..

THE second phase of the Malabar Naval exercise including Australia, Japan and the US, is scheduled to be held in the Arabian Sea on Tuesday and will continue till Friday. INS Vikramaditya, along with the Navy’s Carrier Battle Group, will participate in the war games with US’ Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, warships of Australia and Japan, informed Indian Navy spokesperson...

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that India has always shown the path of peace, humanity, non-violence and fraternity to the whole world, which is now again looking towards our country for this guidance. “India has always shown the whole world the path of peace, non-violence and fraternity. These are the messages for which the world gets inspiration from India. For this guidance, the world is once again looking towards India,” Mod..

HE was the actor who epitomised the best of world cinema, transcending the boundaries of country, state and language to give expression to Satyajit Ray’s cinematic vision and get framed in celluloid greatness. But the legacy of Soumitra Chatterjee, who died on Sunday at the age of 85, is not limited to the Ray firmament, just as he was never only a Bengali star of Bengali cinema...

PLACES of religious worship in Maharashtra, which have been shut since the COVID-19 lockdown in March, will reopen from Diwali ‘Padwa’ on Monday, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray announced on Saturday. As per the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) released by the State Government, religious places located out of COVID-19 containment zones will be allowed to remain open as per the timings decided by authorities, and devotees will be allowed inside in a staggered manner. Extending greetings to people ..

IN AN oblique message to China, India on Sunday expressed concern over “actions and incidents” that “erode” trust in the South China Sea, and underlined the importance of adhering to international law, respecting territorial integrity and sovereignty. In an address at the 15th East Asia Summit (EAS), External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also talked about the Indo-Pacific and noted the growing interest in the region as an integrated and organic maritime space with 10-nation ASEAN at its centre...