BEFORE 2014, the country was known for importing urea, and the shortage of fertilisers used to make headlines, but the situation has improved now, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday as he inaugurated a fertiliser plant here. Addressing a rally, Modi said his Government stopped misuse of urea, and issued soil health cards to farmers so that they know which type of fertiliser is needed. The Prime Minister said his Government also took steps to hike urea production by reviving closed fertiliser ..

RESEARCHERS from Andhra Pradesh’s National Institute of Technology have demonstrated how the nanotechnology can be used to develop food packaging materials which enhance the shelf-life, maintain quality, retain flavour and colour of packed food materials. The findings by researchers in collaboration with Mizoram University have been published in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal of European Food research and Technology. “The research emphasises the role of nanoparticles to provide mechanical stability ..

IN THE biggest ever drug haul in North-East India, the Assam Rifles and the police in Manipur have seized over 154 kg ‘methamphetamine’ tablets and more than 54 kg heroin worth over Rs 508 crore and arrested one Myanmar national, officials said on Tuesday. Vikramjit Singh, District Superintendent of Police, Tengnoupal, said that the Assam Rifles and the police in a joint operation seized heroin powder weighing 54.141 kg and methamphetamine tablets weighing 154.314 kg from a house at Sunrise Ground ..

A DEMAND for the restoration of full statehood of Jammu and Kashmir along with the provisions of Articles 370 and 35-A of the constitution were among the seven resolutions passed by the National Conference on Tuesday in a meeting here chaired by party President Farooq Abdullah. Its other demands included restoration of the ‘darbar move’ practice, special package..

INDIAN-ORIGIN Anil Menon, a Lieutenant Colonel with the US Air Force and SpaceX’s first flight surgeon, has been selected by NASA among the 10 new astronauts who could fly to the Moon someday. Born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Menon helped launch the Elon Musk-run SpaceX’s first humans to space during the ‘Demo-2’ mission and built a medical organisation to support the human system during future missions. He also spent a year in India as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar to study and support ..

THE Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of over 40 farm unions, on Tuesday said it has replied to the Government’s proposal seeking an end to its protest demanding clarification on certain points, including on the precondition set for withdrawal of “fake” cases against farmers. Farmer leaders said they will hold another meeting at 2 pm on Wednesday on the issue. The Government sent a proposal, it was discussed and presented before all members of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), farmer leader Balbir ..

OF THE nearly 44 crore Jan Dhan bank account holders in the country, more than 55 per cent are women account holders, the Finance Ministry informed Parliament on Monday. There are as many as 43.90 crore beneficiaries of the PMJDY (Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana) account holders in the country as of November 17, 2021, Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha. Of these, as many as 24.42 crore are female beneficiaries as informed by the banks, Karad said. , ..

INDIA currently has the fourth largest foreign exchange reserves in the world, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary told Lok Sabha on Monday. As on November 19, 2021, he said the forex reserve stood at USD 640.4 billion. Replying to another question, he said the details of the holders of P-Notes/ offshore derivative instruments (ODIs) as well as beneficial owners of holders of ODIs, identified in terms of Rule 9 of the Prevention of Money laundering (Maintenance of Records) Rules, 2005, ..

INDIA and Russia on Monday inked an agreement for joint production of over six lakh AK-203 assault rifles at a manufacturing facility in Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi besides firming up another pact on military cooperation for 10 years. The rifles will be manufactured for the Indian armed forces at a cost of around Rs 5000 crore. The agreements were signed at the 20th meeting of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military and Military-Technical Cooperation (IRIGC-M&MTC). The meeting, co-chaired ..

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin on Monday described India as a great power, a friendly nation and a time-tested friend and echoed common concerns over terrorism, drug trafficking and organised crime as he held wide-ranging talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Putin also expressed concern over the developments in Afghanistan and said India and Russia will continue to coordinate on major challenges facing the region. “We perceive India as a great power, a friendly nation and a time-tested friend. ..

THE Omicron variant, with more than 30 mutations on its spike protein, may not be as dangerous as the Delta and Alpha and other variants of coronavirus, which has so far claimed more than five millions lives across the world. However, the variant appears to be more contagious, said a scientist from Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Israel. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Omicron has spread to nearly 38 countries, but no deaths have yet been reported. “We have to say this ..

FROM a start-up aiming to make hybrid aerial vehicles to the ones working on converting waste to crude oil and efficient water transport solutions, faculty members at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras founded at least 94 enterprises having a combined valuation of over Rs 1,400 crore. According to officials, the IIT faculty members have founded, mentored or advised over 240 start-ups in the past decade which today have a combined valuation of Rs 11,500 crore...

THE Supreme Court-appointed inquiry commission probing the alleged encounter killing of four suspects in the gangrape and murder of a woman veterinarian, on Sunday inspected Chatanpally where the accused were gunned down by police two years ago. The three-member judicial commission, whose probe is said to be in the final stage, visited Chatanpally near Shadnagar town, about 50 km from Hyderabad. V S Sirpurkar Commission chairman and members Justice Rekha P Sondur Baldota and Dr D R Kaarthikeyan ..

SECURITY forces opened fire on civilians killing 14 and injuring 11 more in Nagaland’s Mon district in three consecutive incidents of firing the first of which was possibly a case of mistaken identity, police said on Sunday. One soldier also died in rioting which followed. The first firing which killed six civilians, occurred when army personnel mistook coal mine workers returning home in a pick-up van singing songs on Saturday evening, to be insurgents belonging to the Yung Aung faction of the banned ..

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin has said that he intends to discuss with Prime Minister Narendra Modi new “large-scale” initiatives on further developing “specially privileged” Russian-Indian relations. “This partnership brings real mutual benefit to both States. Bilateral trade shows good dynamics; ties are actively developing in the energy sector, innovation, space, and the production of coronavirus vaccines and medicines,” said Putin during the ceremony of receiving credentials from foreign ambassadors ..

THE Finance Ministry on Sunday said over three crore Income Tax Returns have been filed for the financial year 2020-21 so far and advised taxpayers who are yet to file their return to do so at the earliest. The number of ITRs filed per day is over four lakh and increasing everyday as the extended due date of December 31 is approaching, an official statement said...

NEW Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal has begun restructuring the company and two senior executives have already stepped down as part of the reorganisation plan. According to a report in The Washington Post citing an internal email, Twitter’s Chief Design Officer Dantley Davis, who joined the company in 2019, and Head of Engineering Michael Montano, who joined in 2011, have quit. “Dantley’s departure is singularly focused around shifting our organisational model around a structure that has one lead manager ..

India’s East coast is unlikely to face the fury of cyclonic storm ‘Jawad’ which has weakened into a deep depression before reaching the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh coast but thousands of people living along the sea have been evacuated as a precautionary measure, officials said on Saturday. However, a teenager was killed in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh after a tree came crashing down on him in heavy rain under the influence of the tempest. People of Odisha, already battered by cyclone ‘Gulab’ and ..

PRESIDENT Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday stressed the importance of Parliamentary Committees in general and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), saying the committee ensures “administrative accountability of the executive towards the legislature”...

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi gifted development projects worth more than Rs 18,000 crore to poll-bound Uttarakhand on Saturday and said his Government believes in the development of all and not in serving a particular community, caste or religion and using them as a “vote bank”. The Prime Minister alleged that the ten years of rule by the Congress-led UPA were a “waste” for Uttarakhand and the country, and said his Government is making up for the lost time by doubling the speed of infrastructure and ..

THE Central Government has approved a plan to produce over five lakh AK-203 assault rifles at Korwa in Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi, in what official sources described as an endeavour to provide a big boost to self-reliance in defence manufacturing. Uttar Pradesh is on way to become a defence manufacturing hub of India, they said. A source said “It reflects the ever increasing paradigm shift in defence acquisition from buy (global) to Make in India. This endeavour will be done in partnership with Russia ..

IN A bid to resolve the ongoing stand-off on the Line of Actual Control (LAC), India and China are likely to hold the 14th round of corps commander talks in the second half of December. “The invitation for the 14th round of talks has to come from the Chinese side. It is likely that the talks would be held in the second half of December,” Government sources told ANI. The sources said the timing would be suitable for India as the armed force would be busy with the celebrations as it is the golden jubilee ..

THE Andhra Pradesh Government on Thursday sounded an alert in view of the cyclone threat to north coastal Andhra region. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has said that the cyclonic storm is likely to form over central Bay of Bengal on December 3. The cyclonic storm likely to move Northwestwards, intensify further and reach near north Andhra Pradesh and Odisha coasts around December 4 morning. It has forecast light to moderate rainfall at many places with heavy rainfall at isolated places ..

AMID continued disruption in the Rajya Sabha over the suspension of 12 MPs, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday said “disapproval of undemocratic conduct in the House cannot be decried as undemocratic”, and urged the ruling and Opposition benches to resolve the impasse. Twelve Opposition MPs were suspended from the Rajya Sabha on Monday for the Winter Session of Parliament for their “unruly” conduct in the previous session. The Opposition has described the suspension as “undemocratic and in violation ..

THE space represented by the Congress is vital but its leadership is not the “divine right of an individual” particularly when it has lost 90 per cent elections in the last 10 years, poll strategist Prashant Kishor said on Thursday in an apparent swipe at Rahul Gandhi. A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s comment that there was no UPA anymore, Kishor, who has earlier been political advisor to various parties, also called for democratically electing the opposition leadership. His ..

INDIA has achieved the target of 40 per cent of its installed electricity generation capacity being from non-fossil energy sources, an official statement said on Thursday. “At COP 21, as part of its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), India had committed to achieving 40 per cent of its installed electricity capacity from non-fossil energy sources by 2030. “The country has achieved this target in November 2021 itself,” the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy said. According to the statement, ..

THE secret of the locked vault of one of the India’s greatest scientists Jagdish Chandra Bose in his house in Jharkhand’s Giridhi still remains to be unravelled even 84 years after he passed away on November 23, 1937. The content of the vault has been a matter of speculation among the locals as well as intellectuals and leading scientists. Several discussions were held at the district administration level to open the vault, even a plan was made to invite former President of India A P J Abdul Kalam ..

THE Army secured a major breakthrough on Wednesday when it killed Yasir Parray, an IED expert of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group, and a foreign militant in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district, officials said. The nerve-wracking operation began at Parray’s home village, Qasabyar, at 11 pm on Tuesday after the Army received an input from police about presence of terrorists in the locality. Colonel A K Singh, Commanding Officer of the 44 Rashtriya Rifles, led the operation and ensured that there ..

TAKING a broad swipe at the Congress, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said that there is no UPA left now but called upon all the like-minded Opposition parties to unitedly fight the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. At her much-anticipated meeting with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) President Sharad Pawar, Banerjee discussed the strategy for all Opposition parties to take on the BJP unitedly in the next elections. Pawar, who met Banerjee along with ..

PARAG Agrawal, who has recently been named as the CEO of microblogging platform Twitter, will receive an annual salary of USD 1 million along with other perks and bonuses. The India-born executive - who succeeds Jack Dorsey in this role - served as Twitter’s Chief Technology Officer since 2017, and has been responsible for the company’s technical strategy...

THE Government has not taken any decision yet to prepare a nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC), the Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday. Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai also said that The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) was notified on December 12, 2019 and had come into force on January 10, 2020 and the people covered under the CAA may apply for citizenship after the rules are notified...

THE Indian economy remained on track to post the fastest growth among major economies this year as its GDP expanded by a better-than-expected 8.4 per cent in the July-September quarter to cross pre-pandemic levels. The GDP growth in the second quarter of the current fiscal (2021-22) was slower than the 20.1 per cent expansion in the previous quarter -- which largely reflected a bounce back from last year’s crash -- but was better than the contraction of 7.4 per cent in July-September 2020, official ..

ADMIRAL R Hari Kumar on Tuesday took charge as the new chief of the Indian Navy after incumbent Admiral Karambir Singh retired from service. Admiral Kumar was serving as the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Western Naval Command before taking the reins of the force. Born on April 12, 1962, Admiral Kumar was commissioned on January 1, 1983, into the executive branch of the Indian Navy. During his long and distinguished service spanning nearly 39 years, the Admiral has served in a variety of ..

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday held a meeting with top ministers in Parliament to discuss strategy for the ongoing Winter Session. The meeting was joined by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, Minister for Commerce and Industry..

THE Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain an application which had raised issues about a notification by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) regarding CA exams scheduled next month, saying “we are not here to regulate everything.” A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and C T Ravikumar also questioned the applicant as to why he has filed a miscellaneous application (MA) in a writ petition which was disposed of earlier by the apex court. “We decline to entertain this application. ..

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that in a bid to bring relief to over 80 crore people during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government is running Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana to provide free grains and the scheme has been extended till March 2022. “We are running the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana to provide free grains to more than 80 crore people of the country so that they don’t face more problems...

RESEARCHERS from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Jodhpur and the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), Jodhpur have developed low-cost “talking gloves” for people with speech disability. The patented device costs less than Rs 5,000 and it uses principles of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to automatically generate speech that will be language-independent and facilitate communication between mute people and non-disabled people. The device can help individuals ..

INDIAN-ORIGIN technology executive Parag Agrawal has been appointed as the new CEO of Twitter after the social media giant’s co-founder Jack Dorsey stepped down on Monday. In a message posted on Twitter, Dorsey said: “After almost 16 years of having a role at our company… from co-founder to CEO to Chair to Exec Chair to interim-CEO to CEO… I decided it’s finally time for me to leave. Why? “There’s a lot of talk about the importance of a company being “founder-led”. “Ultimately, I believe that’s ..

TWELVE Opposition members in Rajya Sabha, including Congress MP Chhaya Verma, Shiv Sena’s Priyanka Chaturvedi and TMC’s Dola Sen were on Monday suspended for the remaining part of the Winter Session for their misconduct and unruly behaviour during the last session. Among the suspended members, six are from the Congress, two each from the TMC and Shiv Sena and one each from the CPM and the CPI. The Upper House had witnessed ugly scenes when the Opposition members were protesting against the three farm ..

THE World Health Organisation on Monday is pushing for an international accord to help prevent and fight future pandemics amid the emergence of a worrying new omicron COVID-19 variant. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also said many uncertainties remain about just how transmissible and severe infection by the highly mutated omicron might be. Tedros joined leaders like outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chilean President Sebastian Pinera for a long-planned and largely virtual ..

AN RPG launcher and shell, an M-16 UBGL and various AK variants were among a huge cache of arms and ammunition seized in Manipur’s Imphal East district on Sunday, police said. A UNLF militant and two others were arrested for allegedly concealing the weapons inside a 500-litre water tank buried underneath a cowshed, a police officer said. Acting on a tip-off, police commandos conducted a door-to-door search in Huikap Awang Leikai Chonga Loukol in Andro police station area in the afternoon, when one ..

THE stir-hit Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) on Sunday suspended 93 staffers, taking the total number of employees who have faced this action so far to 6,497, while the services of 1,525 daily wage workers were terminated. An MSRTC spokesperson said operations resumed at 50 out of 250 bus depots in the State, comprising 20 depots in Mumbai, 22 in Pune, three each in Aurangabad and Nashik and two in Nagpur. He added that, as on Sunday evening, not a single depot out of the 33 located ..

NATIONAL Democratic Alliance (NDA) leaders held a meeting on Sunday before the beginning of the Winter Session of Parliament on Monday and chalked out the strategy to pass the 26 bills listed for this session and counter Opposition in both Houses of Parliament. Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and Culture, Arjun Ram Meghwal said, “Government is ready to discuss on all issues in the Parliament and the allies of NDA stand united.” National People’s Party’s Agatha Sangma Lok Sabha ..

NEARLY all the terrorists involved in the killings of civilians in Jammu and Kashmir last month have been neutralised and the Armed Forces are now focussing on Intelligence-based “surgical operations” involving smaller teams to deal with terror activities in the Union Territory, sources in the security establishment said on Sunday. They said a “refined” approach to deal with terrorism has been put in place under a more nuanced framework of better coordination among the Jammu and Kashmir police, the ..

TRIPURA’S ruling BJP pulverised Mamata Banerjee’s TMC and the Left on Sunday, capturing with surprising ease the Agartala Municipal Corporation and 13 other civic bodies where it now has 329 of the 334 seats. Contesting its first civic polls after it stormed to power in the Northeastern State in 2018, the BJP steamrollered a feeble challenge from the Opposition after a vitriol-filled campaign marked by communal tension, clashes and court battles that forced the Supreme Court to intervene and order ..

UNION Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday said that about Rs 64,000 crore will be invested by the Centre in creating health infrastructure in the country over the next five years. The Union Minister, who was on a day-long tour to Tawang district in Arunachal Pradesh, while interacting with healthcare workers at Khandro Drowa Zangmo District Hospital, said that the Central Government is working to provide health security to all through various health welfare schemes...

WITH each passing hour, new restrictions were being slapped on travel from countries in southern Africa as the world scurried on Saturday to contain a new variant of the coronavirus that has the potential to be more resistant to the protection offered by vaccines. A host of countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada Iran, Japan, Thailand and the United States,..

THE Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Maharashtra has asked former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh to appear before it next week to record his statement in connection with two extortion cases registered against him and being probed by it, an official said on Saturday. The CID has issued a notice to the senior IPS officer asking him to appear before it, he said. Singh is most likely to appear before the CID at its office in Navi Mumbai’s Belapur on Monday and Tuesday, the official ..

TO repeal the three contentious farm laws, the Government on Monday will introduce in Lok Sabha a new bill, which states that though “only a small group of farmers are protesting” against these legislations, the need of the hour is to take along everyone for inclusive growth. ..

APPEALING protesting farmers to end their agitation, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Saturday said the Centre has agreed to their demand of decriminalising stubble burning. Tomar, in an official statement, said the other demand of farmers was to have a discussion on the minimum support price (MSP) and crop diversification. This demand will also be fulfilled with the setting up of a panel as announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 19 on the day of Gurupurab. “The farmers’ ..