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35-year-old rapper Balen Shah sworn in as Nepal PM
KATHMANDU: Nepal’s rapperturned-politician Balendra Shah was sworn in as Prime Minister on Friday after sweeping the first election since deadly anti-corruption protests toppled the government last year. The 35-year-old reformist and his Rastriya...
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14 charred to death in Andhra bus inferno
HYDERABAD: Fourteen passengers died and 27 others were injured on Thursday when the private bus they were travelling in collided with a tipper-truck, triggering a massive fire, in Markapuram district of Andhra Pradesh, police said. According to...
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‘Collegium has failed to protect judges in past’
Supreme Court judge justice Dipankar Datta on Saturday said the top court’s Collegium has, in the past, failed to stand by judges who acted with courage and integrity, warning that such instances may discourage judges from prioritising ethics over...
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Iran threatens world tourism spots as more leaders killed
Iran threatened to target recreational and tourist sites worldwide and insisted it was still building missiles. Its supreme leader issued another defiant statement on Friday, nearly three weeks into US-Israeli strikes that have killed a slew of...
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Gulf petrochem sites attacked; US eyes waiver for Iranian oil
Iran intensified its attacks on oil and natural gas facilities around the Gulf on Thursday, raising the stakes in a war that is sending shock waves through the global economy. The strikes, in retaliation for an Israeli attack on a key Iranian gas...
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US embassy hit as Iran strikes back over bombing on island
President Donald Trump’s administration has rebuffed efforts by West Asian allies to start diplomatic negotiations aimed at ending the Iran war, news agency Reuters reported on Saturday, as the conflict spiralled after the US struck military sites on a...
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Self-identification not part of new trans definition bill
The Union government on Friday introduced a bill in the Lok Sabha that significantly narrows the definition of transgender persons, removes the right to self-identification, introduces medical boards for certification, and prescribes punishments up to...
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Uproar over bid to kill Farooq; waited 20 years, says attacker
Leaders cutting across party lines on Thursday expressed concern over an assassination attempt on National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah in Jammu, with the opposition and Union government trading barbs in Parliament over the incident, even as a...
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Delhi’s max crosses 35°C, earliest in at least 15 yrs, says IMD data
The temperature in Delhi soared past 35°C on Saturday, the earliest it has crossed this threshold in at least 15 years, data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) showed, as Delhi checked off another grim touchpoint in an unusually hot...
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Farm loan waiver, infra push key to Maha budget
Farm loan waivers and a big push for urban infrastructure were the twin planks of the ₹7,69,467 crore budget presented by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday. Fadnavis, who took over as the state’s finance minister after the death of Ajit Pawar...
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Israel pounds Tehran; Gulf cities under fresh Iran fire
DUBAI/WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump claimed the right to join Iran in deciding its next leader on Thursday as the war escalated further, with US and Israeli jets hitting areas across the country and Gulf cities coming under renewed...
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War engulfs West Asia as US, Israel strike Iran
The US and Israel launched a major attack on Iran on Saturday, and President Donald Trump urged the Iranian public to “seize control of your destiny” by rising up against the Islamic leadership that has ruled the nation since 1979. Iranian state...
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Pak declares ‘open war’ with Afghanistan, clashes escalate
Pakistan and Afghanistan exchanged crossborder attacks overnight in a dramatic escalation of tensions that led Pakistan’s defence minister to say on Friday that the two countries are in a state of “open war.” Afghanistan launched a crossborder attack...
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India, Israel elevate ties; trade deal on anvil: PM
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said India and Israel have elevated their bilateral relationship to the status of a special strategic partnership, adding that the “historic decision” reflects the aspirations of the people of the two countries...
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From 10 to 15%: Trump raises US global tariffs
US President Donald Trump raised his newly imposed global tariff to 15% on Saturday, maxing out the statutory ceiling of the legal provision he had invoked just a day earlier — and signalling that steeper levies were on the way. In a post on Truth...
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SC orders deployment of district court judges to oversee Bengal SIR
The Supreme Court on Friday directed the deployment of serving and retired district court judges in West Bengal to adjudicate disputed voter claims in the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral roll, in an unprecedented exercise of its...
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Providing Access to Opportunity
From helping job seekers prep for interviews in loca ll anguages to developing critical AI safety benchmarks, our partners, Entri and CeRAI are using Google AI to ensure technology empowers every India n,s afely, responsibly and in their own...
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Assam gets key project, Modi sharpens poll pitch
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday stepped up the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) campaign for a third consecutive term in Assam with a sharp political attack on the Congress, while the Union cabinet in New Delhi separately cleared a ₹18,662crore...
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India-Pak game on? PCB reaches out to ICC for talks
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has formally approached the International Cricket Council (ICC) to initiate dialogue over the T20 World Cup group match against India, a week after its government said the team won’t play the game scheduled for February...
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U-19 CWC: India’s young stars shine on world stage
The Indian team celebrates after winning the Under-19 World Cup in Harare, Zimbabwe on Friday. India scored 411/9 in the first innings of the final and dismissed England for 311 to win the tournament for a sixth time, the most for any country.
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Modi praises trade deals, slams Oppn in RS speech
A raft of recent trade deals will open a world of new opportunities for the youth and prove that the world is tilting towards India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday, hitting out at the Opposition for sullying the image of the country on...
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Scrutiny mounts on AAIB as 2023 crash report stuck
NEW DELHI: The civil aviation ministry’s 2024-25 annual report states that of 104 accidents, investigations into 91 had been completed by December 31, 2024, with 88 final reports made public. As per International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)...
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Sunetra Pawar to take oath as deputy CM
: Rajya Sabha member Sunetra Pawar is set to take oath as the first woman deputy chief minister of Maharashtra on Saturday, taking over the position from her late husband Ajit Pawar who died in a tragic plane crash two days ago. Sunetra, who...
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Eco Survey: India to grow by up to 7.2% next fiscal
The Economic Survey, unlike the Union Budget which will be presented on Sunday, is not a binding document for the government. It is best read and understood as a glimpse into the overall philosophy which guides economic policy making of which the...
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Heavy snowfall brings hills to a standstill
Hundreds of tourists and local commuters were stranded in Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand as heavy snowfall blanketed the regions. Many were forced to abandon their vehicles or spend the night in them, as rescue teams navigated...
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‘Armada on way’: US renews threat to Iran
President Donald Trump said a US “armada” was heading toward the Gulf and that Washington was watching Iran closely, even after downplaying the prospect of imminent military action and saying Tehran appeared interested in talks. Trump has repeatedly...
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Inflexible Bangladesh all set to miss T20 WC
Bangladesh’s participation in the upcoming T20 World Cup appears unlikely after the interim government reiterated on Thursday its decision not to travel to India due to security concerns. Asif Nazrul, the Bangladesh government’s sports adviser, met...
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IndiGo hit with record ₹22cr fine for Dec chaos
India’s aviation regulator on Saturday imposed a record ₹22.2 crore penalty on IndiGo and issued warnings to six senior executives, including the chief operating officer, after its inquiry found the airline’s “overriding focus on maximising...
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Exports brave US tariffs, global churn to log rise
Defying global headwinds and hefty US tariffs, India’s merchandise exports increased 1.9% to $38.51 billion in December from $37.8 billion a year earlier, and 2.44% to $330.29 billion in the first nine months of fiscal 2026, which was primarily driven...
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ED vs Bengal fight over raids reaches top court
The tussle between the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Trinamool Congress-led West Bengal government over controversial raids linked to political consultancy firm I-PAC reached the Supreme Court on Saturday, with both sides separately moving the...
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SIT arrests Sabarimala chief priest in gold case
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Sabarimala gold misappropriation case has arrested the temple’s chief priest over his alleged “close links” with the prime accused in the case, people aware of the matter said on Friday. Kandararu...
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US spirits away Maduro
US special forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from his bedroom early Saturday in an operation without modern precedent, plucking a sitting head of state from sovereign territory to face American criminal charges. President Donald...
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Uproar as 68 Mahayuti candidates win unopposed
As many as 68 candidates from the three major ruling parties in the Mahayuti alliance in the state are set to be elected unopposed in crucial elections to 29 municipal corporations in Maharashtra. Opposition parties are crying foul, alleging that the...
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Cigarettes set to get costlier from Feb 1 as excise duty hiked
The government has imposed a new excise duty on cigarettes ranging from ₹2,050 to ₹8,500 per 1,000 sticks, a move that sent tobacco company shares plummeting on Thursday and is expected to significantly raise prices for the country’s approximately 100...
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4% of Assam voters marked for deletion
The Election Commission (EC) has marked 1.06 million names for deletion from the electoral rolls of Assam following a special revision exercise that involved house-tohouse verification across the state, officials announced on Saturday with the release...
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‘Can’t be brushed aside’: India on B’desh attacks
India on Friday expressed grave concern at the “unremitting hostility” against minority communities in Bangladesh and reiterated its call for those responsible for the lynching of a Hindu man named Dipu Chandra Das to be brought to justice, reflecting...
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Rahman ends exile, seeks ‘safe, peaceful’ Bangladesh
Aspiring prime minister and political heavyweight Tarique Rahman returned to Bangladesh on Thursday, ending 17 years in self-imposed exile with a promise to deliver safety and justice if his party wins the general elections scheduled for February...
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Cold snap, dense fog paralyse north India
Air pollution surged into the severe category in Delhi on Saturday while blinding fog and frigid temperatures swept much of northern India and disrupted air, road and rail traffic across 10 states as authorities issued red and orange alerts for swathes...
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Unrest returns in B’desh, Indian missions on edge
Bangladesh continued to be on edge on Friday, after protests near the Indian high commission in Dhaka and assistant high commissions in Chittagong, Khulna and Rajshahi, attacks on the offices of several newspapers including the influential The Daily...
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Kokate resigns, Nashik police set to arrest him
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) minister Manikrao Kokate has resigned from the Maharashtra cabinet, party president and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar confirmed on Thursday, a day after a trial court in Nashik issued an arrest warrant against the...
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20 US states sue Trump govt over H-1B visa hike
Twenty US states have sued the Trump administration for what they said was the “unlawful” introduction of a $100,000 visa fee for H-1B visa applications. The lawsuits -- filed by the Democratic Party’s AttorneysGeneral in these states -- argue that...
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India eases visa rules as Chinese applicants rise
India has tweaked visa rules to address the issue of a growing number of applications from Chinese nationals coming to the country for short periods for business activities without changing vetting procedures, people familiar with the matter said on...
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Bollywood? Now, love actually: Hugh Grant
NEW DELHI: Perhaps we love villains the way we do because people are inherently evil, Hollywood star Hugh Grant said, with a twinkle and a grin, speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit on Saturday. It seemed a fitting combination of the two...
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2026 exciting year for Indian equities: Desai
Indian markets have already turned around from the worst period of dollar returns in over two decades, and 2026 will be an “exciting year” for domestic stocks, according to Morgan Stanley managing director Ridham Desai. In 2025 so far, Nifty 50 and...
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TRANSFORMING TOMORROW
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be sharing his views on the road ahead for India at the 23rd Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.
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Putin to visit India on Dec 4-5, ties in focus
NEW DELHI: President Vladimir Putin will make a state visit to New Delhi during December 4-5 for the annual India-Russia summit, the external affairs ministry announced on Friday, with the trip setting up an opportunity to reinvigorate bilateral ties...
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Foes Trump, Mamdani strike an affable chord
After months of trading insults, US President Donald Trump and incoming New York mayor Zohran Mamdani smiled at each other, swapped compliments and pledged to collaborate on tackling crime and affordability in the nation’s biggest city at an...
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Winter session from Dec 1, Oppn hits out at ‘curtailed sitting’
The winter session of Parliament is set to take place from December 1 to 19, parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju said on Saturday, setting the stage for truncated but likely stormy proceedings. Last year, the winter session ran from November...
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Remove strays from public places, says SC
The Supreme Court on Friday directed all states and Union territories (UTs) to ensure the removal of stray dogs from educational institutions, hospitals, sports complexes, bus depots and railway stations, and ruled that they cannot be released back in...
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Historic polling in Ph 1 of Bihar elections: EC
PATNA/NEW DELHI: The highstakes assembly elections in Bihar kicked off on Thursday with the first phase recording a provisional turnout till 6pm of 64.66%, a figure the Election Commission of India described as the “highest ever” in the eastern...
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Indo-Pacific must be free, open: Rajnath at ASEAN
Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday put the spotlight on the Indo-Pacific region and said it must remain free from coercion, reiterating India’s position that a rulesbased international order is a must for peace, prosperity and stability in the...
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Modi honours Patel’s legacy, attacks Nehru
India’s first home minister Vallabhbhai Patel wanted to integrate the entirety of Kashmir into India just as he had done with the princely states but was prevented from doing so by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said...
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Man holds 17 kids hostage; shot dead
Seventeen children between the ages of 12 and 15 were rescued from an audition theatre at Powai in Mumbai on Thursday following a dramatic three-and-a-half hour-long siege in which a lone man, identified as 50-year-old Rohit Arya, carrying an airgun...
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Shah: Infiltrators to be deleted from voter lists
Union home minister Amit Shah on Saturday said that every infiltrator would be detected, deleted from voter lists and deported to their countries, as he slammed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and the INDIA bloc for “protecting” illegal immigrants in...
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20 killed as bus bursts into flames after bike collision
HYDERABAD: Twenty people were killed and several injured when a sleeper bus heading from Hyderabad to Bengaluru went up in flames after hitting a motorcycle on the outskirts of Kurnool district in Andhra Pradesh early on Friday, said police. Most of...
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Sanctions force refiner retreat on Russian oil
The US late on Wednesday announced sanctions on Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil, the Trump administration’s strongest bid yet to pressure President Vladimir Putin into negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine, a move that could force Indian...
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Fresh strikes by Pak cloud Afghan peace talks in Doha
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani and Afghan officials were due to meet in Qatar to seek a path back to calm, a day after Islamabad launched air strikes that killed at least 10 Afghanis following a brief truce. Kabul accused Islamabad of violating the 48-hour...
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Court in Belgium clears Choksi’s extradition
An Antwerp court has ordered fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi’s extradition to India and termed his arrest by the Belgian authorities based on India’s request as valid, a development which brings New Delhi a step closer to bringing him back, people...
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21st century belongs to 1.4bn Indians: PM
HYDERABAD: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that the 21st century belongs to 1.4 billion Indians and that the country will become “Viksit Bharat” (Developed India) by 2047 even as he attacked the Congress and hailed the recent goods and...
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Indian wolf finds place on IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species; only 3,000 left in the wild
In a first-ever global assessment, the Indian wolf (Canis lupus pallipes), one of the most ancient and elusive wolf lineages in the world, has officially entered the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Red List of Threatened Species...
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Israel, Hamas agree to 1st phase of Gaza peace plan
Israel has begun implementing a ceasefire deal in Gaza, after it reached an agreement with Hamas for the Palestinian militant group to release all the hostages it holds. It is the first diplomatic breakthrough after months of failed attempts at...
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Gill appointed ODI captain; Rohit, Kohli part of squad
AHMEDABAD: Test skipper Shubman Gill was named India’s one-day international (ODI) captain on Saturday ahead of the upcoming series against Australia, ending Rohit Sharma’s four-year tenure at the helm and signalling the beginning of a new phase in...
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Rajnath warns Pak over any Sir Creek ‘mischief’
NEW DELHI/AHMEDABAD: Union defence minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday warned Islamabad of an overwhelming response if it attempted any mischief in the Sir Creek sector separating Gujarat from Pakistan’s Sindh province, his comments coming against the...
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PM launches BSNL’s fully India-made 4G infra stack
BHUBANESWAR/ NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched state telecoms giant BSNL’s homegrown 4G technology stack, catapulting India into an exclusive group of five nations capable of manufacturing and deploying their own telecom...
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Goregaon flyover demolition stalled
MUMBAI: Having faced much opposition to its plan to demolish the seven-year-old Veer Savarkar flyover extension, locally known as the MTNL flyover, which was getting in the way of the connector between the Coastal Road’s north stretch and the...
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US ends sanctions waiver on Chabahar port in Iran
The US will revoke a 2018 sanctions waiver that allowed India to develop the Chabahar Port in Iran, a strategically important facility that is seen as providing vital access to Afghanistan and Central Asia. The US State Department said in a statement...
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PM pushes to bridge ethnic divide in strife-torn Manipur
CHURACHANDPUR/IMPHAL: Peace is essential for development and the government is making every effort to restore normalcy in Manipur, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday as he attempted to provide a healing touch to the strife-torn state where...
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British-era Elphinstone Bridge finally shut for demolition
RESIDENTS’ PROTESTS GO IN VAIN Residents of affected building and shopkeepers, having been served notices warning of legal action if they impeded the MMRDA’s work, had no choice but to accept defeat.
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India, Mauritius boost ties
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his Mauritius counterpart Navinchandra Ramgoolam during a bilateral meeting in Varanasi on Thursday. India unveiled an economic assistance package of $680 million for Mauritius as the two sides pledged to work together...
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Didn’t intervene in cop’s law enforcement, clarifies Ajit
A day after a video clip of deputy chief minister and president of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Ajit Pawar reprimanding probationary IPS officer Anjana Krishna on a video call went viral, he clarified that his act was not in any way meant to...
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Peace hopes rise as key Manipur pact signed, NH opened
The Centre on Thursday signed a landmark tripartite agreement with Kuki-Zo insurgent groups and the Manipur government, and convinced protesters to restart traffic on an arterial highway that was blocked for two years, potentially setting the stage for...
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Global tariffs levied by Trump illegal: US court
A federal appeals court in the US has ruled that President Donald Trump’s global tariffs, including the 50% duties imposed on India, were illegally applied, dealing a major blow to the administration’s trade strategy while casting uncertainty over...
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Jarange-Patil on strike as supporters pour in
Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil began his indefinite hunger strike at Azad Maidan on Friday, vowing not to end his fast till the community’s demand for reservation in Maharashtra’s OBC category is fulfilled. As Jarange-Patil remained...
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