Google Chief Executive Officer Sunder Pichai's father-in-law, Olaram Haryani, remarried at the age of 70 in Kota today.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today removed Vice Chairmen of three development authorities for not carrying out development work as per the government guidelines.

Afghan forces have been battling Taliban fighters to retake the city of Kunduz, a day after it fell to the insurgents in their biggest victory since their removal from power in 2001.

Israel's prime minister said today he planned to use a speech at the UN to tell Palestinians to stop "incitement to violence" at a Jerusalem holy site shaken by clashes in recent weeks.

Three toddlers aged between 6 and 14 months have moved the Supreme Court seeking its intervention to stop the use of loud firecrackers during Dussehra and Diwali, asserting their right to be brought up in a pollution-free environment. 

NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden appears to have joined Twitter. A verified account tweeting under the handle @snowden tweeted: "Can you hear me now?"

The lawyer of Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh informed the police that he won't be able to appear before them tomorrow in connection with the state assembly appointments case, as he was in the US for the treatment of his daughter. 

Germany's cabinet has approved a new asylum law aimed at reducing the number of migrants arriving from the Balkans. 

A Chennai engineering college has banned birthday parties, use ofWhatsapp and girl students talking to boys, which has caused an uproar. A protesting student claimed that an 'unsigned' circular in this regard was put up on the college's notice board and withdrawn subsequently after the issue snowballed into an outrage. 

A FIR was lodged against RJD chief Lalu Prasad for his caste remark during his election campaign by the election commission, Additional Chief Electoral Officer R Lakshaman said. 

Just In: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has arrived in New York.

Just In: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has arrived in New York.

Just In: Jitu Rai wins bronze in 10M Air Pistol in Asian Air Gun Championships

Ex-Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti, arrested in alleged domestic violence and attempt to murder case, sent to 2-day police custody by cour

Tech giant Microsoft today launched commercial cloud services from its three data centres in India, giving companies an option to store their data locally. 

A headline in our Live commentary, which mentioned Andhra Bank becoming the first bank to cut its base rate following the RBI cutting repo rates, was published with a spelling error. The error was rectified immediately. 

We may not know where exactly Rahul Gandhi is, but we definitely know that he will be back by October 7.

The Congress vice president will address nearly a dozen rallies during the campaign for the grand Congress, JD-U and RJD alliance for the upcoming Bihar assembly polls.

Rahul will visit Bihar on October 7 to address three rallies in Begusarai Sheikhpura and Rohtas district, reports M I Khan from Patna.

He will address over half a dozen rallies on October 26 and 30. "He may visit Bihar in mid-October and early November to address five or six rallies," a senior party leader said. 

Just in: The State Bank of India has cut benchmark lending rate by 0.4 per cent to 9.3 per cent with effective from October 5.

The move comes after RBI cut rates to a four-year-low by 50 basis points.
Tuesday's repo rate cut is the biggest single monetary policy move taken by RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan and it takes the repo to its lowest since March 2011  

The Shiv Sena sought to play down the "praise" lavished on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over attracting foreign investments, saying the contributions of P V Narsimha Rao and Manmohan Singh towards bolstering India's economy cant be forgotten.

"Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi is immensely popular in foreign countries, people like Narsimha Rao and Manmohan Singh laid the foundation of India's economic progress and opened the countrys gates for other nations. How can we forget their contribution?" the Sena said in its mouthpiece Saamana.

An editorial added. "There is no doubt that Modi is very popular and everywhere he went (in the US) there were chants of 'Modi Modi', but so were Nehru and Indira, even at a time there was no social media like today."

Just in: Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Frankfurt, Germany, en route to New Delhi after concluding his two-nation visit to United States and Ireland.  

Film and Television Institute of India students held talks with Information and Broadcasting Ministry officials here today, but did not reach an consensus. The students demanded the removal of Gajendra Chauhan as the institute chief, but the government paid no need.

The students said they will continue the strike. Another round of talks is scheduled for Thursday.

The meeting took place at the office of the Films Division, Vikas Urs, spokesman of the FTII Students' Association said.

Public sector lender Andhra Bank today cut its base rate by 25 basis points to 9.75 percent with effect from today.

Base rate is the minimum rate below which a bank can't lend to consumers. The move comes on heels of the central bank Reserve Bank of India cutting repo rates by 50 bps, surprising economists and market watchers alike.

Andhra Bank is the first bank to cut its base rate.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi today said the Congress itself does not know where Rahul Gandhi is.

"The Congress should first ascertain his whereabouts and then let the people know," he said.
"The country doesn't have any interest in Gandhi's 'search serial'. Let his discovery drama go on, let the Congress find him, as nobody has anything to do with this. But, at least, the Congress should tell the truth, as it is unnecessarily creating doubts regarding Gandhi's whereabouts and the party itself," he added.

Yesterday, Indian National Overseas Congress president Juned Kazi resigned from his post, following an announcement by Congress leader Karan Singh that Kazi was no longer president.When asked about the whereabouts of Rahul Gandhi during an interview given to a television channel, Kazi said he had no intimation from Gandhi's office.

Resentment is reportedly brewing in the corridors of the ministry of external affairs over the elevation of Syed Akbaruddin, a fine diplomat, as India's permanent representative in the United Nations. 

The Union Cabinet, which will meet on Thursday morning after the return of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the US, has eight major items from the finance ministry among others on its agenda.   

President Pranab Mukherjee is unlikely to give his assent to the Gujarat anti-terror bill. 

A first information report was lodged against senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi for alluring Dalit voters during his election campaign, the police said.

"An FIR was lodged against Modi at the Bhabhua police station on charge of alluring voters on Monday at his public meeting in the Bhabhua assembly constituency. It is a clear case of violation of model code of conduct," a district official said.

Modi, who is seen as the chief ministerial candidate if the BJP-led NDA wins two third majority in the Bihar polls, had reportedly promised to a laptop, colour TV and saree to voters, reports MI Khan from Patna.

Justifying himself Modi said, "Yes, I promised Dalits to distribute laptops, colour TV and saree and dhoti to them if the BJP-led NDA came to power in Bihar."

Inspector General Border Security Force Rakesh Sharma today said that India was not constructing any wall along the Line of Control.

"No concrete wall being constructed anywhere by the Indian side on the International Border in Jammu and Kashmir," IG BSF told PTI.

Pakistan has complained to the United Nations Security Council alleging that India was building a wall along the International Border in violation of the world body's resolutions.

Pakistan's Ambassador to the United Nations Maleeha Lodhi has written two letters dated September 4 and 9 to the UNSC. In the September 9 letter to president of the Security Council, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, Lodhi expressed "deep concern" at the plan by India to construct a 10 meter-high and 135 feet-wide embankment (wall) along the 197-kilometre working boundary between Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan.

Gurgaon Joint Commissioner (traffic) Bharti Arora has accused Police Commissioner Navdeep Singh Virk of harassment and mental torture.

Arora, in her complaint letter to Haryana DGP Yashpal Singhal, has claimed that Virk is mentally torturing her and interfering in a rape case probe, India Today reports.

Arora, in her letter, expressed fear that Virk may harm her career and sought an immediate attention of the DGP into the issue.

"When I started investigation into the rape case I realised that the commissioner of police has falsely implicated en entire family in the case," she said. 

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ram Kapse passed away early this morning after prolonged illness.

Kapse, who was ailing for the last eight years, breathed his last at his Kalyan residence adjoining Thane district around 4 am.

His last rites will be performed in Kalyan today.

Kapse, born on December 1, 1933, was a former Lt. Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. He was a prominent leader of  the party in Maharashtra and represented Thane in the 9th and 10th Lok Sabha.

Former finance minister P Chidambaram today welcomed the 0.50 per cent cut in interest rate announced by the Reserve Bank of India saying it was overdue.

"I welcome the decision of RBI to reduce the repo rate by 50 basis points. This was perhaps overdue. Nevertheless, it signals a movement towards a lower interest rate regime and it is therefore welcome," he said.

He said more policy steps by RBI were possible if the government stayed firmly on path of fiscal consolidation. "If government stays firmly on the path of fiscal consolidation and fiscal prudence, we can look forward to more policy steps by the RBI," he said.

Mumbai Central will be the first railway station in India to get Google's high-speed public Wi-Fi connectivity, said a top executive at state-run RailTel Corporation.

It  has partnered with the internet major to install Wi-Fi hotspots at 400 stations in India. The service is expected to be ready for public use by mid-October, A Seshagiri Rao, director-network planning & marketing at RailTel, told The Economic Times.

The Wi-Fi will be free for the first 30 minutes over a 24-hour period. The project was announced by Google's India-born CEO Sundar Pichai on Sunday after his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

After reviewing the monetary policy, RBI governor Raghuram Rajan said, "The January 2016 target of 6 per cent inflation is likely to be achieved. Therefore, the focus now shifts to bringing inflation to around per cent by the end of fiscal 2015-16. The RBI will continue to be vigilant to keep economy on target disinflationary path," he said.   

With RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan cutting the repo rate to a four-year low it's good news for consumers. Home and car loan rates are expected to fall. 

After a surprise 50 basis points cut in repo rate, the Sensex bounces back. It recovers over 300 points.   

The RBI has cut the policy rate by 0.5 per cent to a four-year low of 6.75 per cent, reports PTI. It has cut FY16 real GDP growth estimate to 7.4 per cent  and expects pick up towards the latter part of the fiscal.

The RBI has said inflation is expected to reach 5.8 per cent in January 2016.

Just in: The Reserve Bank of India today has cut repo rate by 50 basis points. It keeps CRR unchanged at 4 per cent.   

In a setback to Ruias, the Supreme Court has dismissed their plea for CBI court jurisdiction in the 2G scam case. Essar Group's Anshuman and Ravi Ruia will have to face trial in 2G case, said the Supreme Court today.   

A bomb squad team has been deployed at the domestic and international terminals and the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai after the police received a call warning of a possible attack. The caller claims he heard someone plotting the attacks.   

Just in: Mumbai is on high alert today after the police received a call of a bomb threat at the Taj Mahal hotel, and domestic and international airports, reports India Today. Security has been beefed up across the city.

There's a threat of a possible attack. The caller claimed that he heard someone plotting the attack.

There is heavy deployment of police at the five-star hotel at Nariman Point.

During the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, the Taj Mahal Hotel was targeted. Hostages were taken during the attacks, and at least 167 people were killed, including many foreigners.

For the second time in a week Facebook users received an error message when trying to access their accounts last night.

A Facebook spokesperson said the outages were caused by a configuration issue. Service were soon restored.

"Were currently restoring Facebook services that people had trouble accessing earlier today due to a configuration issue. Were working to bring things back to normal for everyone. We apologise to those who have been inconvenienced, the statement said. 

British Premier David Cameron today told Prime Minister Narendra Modi he was looking forward to his UK visit and that only few leaders can fill up the Wembley Stadium in London.

"Cameron categorically said he was looking forward to the prime minister's UK visit. He even joked about the PM coming to the Wembley Stadium and said very few world leaders can fill a stadium of that size and he was very much looking forward to that particular event," Vikas Swarup, spokesman of the External Affairs Ministry told reporters after a meeting between the two leaders in New York.

It was a very good, useful discussion, he said, adding the "two leaders enjoy a lot of personal chemistry". "It was a very good meeting where they discussed bilateral issues, some of the regional issues and climate change," he said.

Modi is scheduled to visit Britain in November where he is expected to address the Indian diaspora at the prestigious Wembley Stadium.

Calling India and the US "natural partners", US President Barack Obama said the two countries have elevated their relationship and committed themselves to anew partnership. "We've elevated our ties. We've committed ourselves to anew partnership between our countries," Obama told Modi after the two leaders met for more than an hour at UN headquarters.   

"And there's been excellent follow-through on a whole range of issues," Obama added.   

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said the meeting was held in a "very very positive and cordial"atmosphere. There was a broad acknowledgement on both sides about the significant progress made in the implementation of the decisions taken in previous meetings, and of the substantial progress achieved in bilateral ties, Swarup told reporters last afternoon.   

"You can see the personal chemistry between the two leaders the way the embrace happened between them," he said. Those present at the meeting said Obama walked to Modi on the other side of the table and gave him a warm hug, informally addressing him as Modi and at times Narendra, his first name.

Modi left for home after concluding his two-nation tour of Ireland and
the US. "My USA trip demonstrates the extraordinary depth and diversity
of our relationship. A lot of ground has been covered in these few days (sic)," Modi tweeted before his departure.

"I got the opportunity to attend a widespread of programmes each of which generated many positive outcomes that will benefit India," he said in another tweet reflecting on the series of meetings he attended during his US visit.   

Just in:  Markets open in the red this morning. Sensex opens 290 points and Nifty opens 90 points down.

The Reserve Bank of India is expected to cut its key repo rate to a four-year low to help support the domestic economy at a time when consumer inflation is at a record low.

A Reuters poll last week showed 45 of 51 economists expect the RBI to cut the repo rate by 25 basis points to 7 per cent its lowest since May 2011. The RBI has already eased the policy rate by 75 bps so far this year.

Facebook founder-CEO Mark Zuckerberg says it is most important for India to get the Net neutrality debate right, as it has the most number of unconnected people.

"We don't want any terrorist content on Facebook. We spend a lot of investment in building tools on Facebook so that people report on harmful content. There is too much content for us every day to police it ourselves, but what we do is that we invest in tools that allow people to mark content that they think is important. There is a big team of community operations people who look into all that content that is flagged. We also work very closely with law enforcement [agencies] around the world to respond to what we think are legal requests that fit within the constitutional laws of the different countries.

"There is always more that we can do here. Every time someone sees content that is inappropriate, we have to do better, but when you have a community of 1.5 billion people, we have to put a lot of investment to ensure that people don't post content related to violence and terrorism and that's what we are trying to do," Zuckerberg added as he spoke to a select group of journalists at the Facebook headquarters.

We want everyone to be on the Internet, he said, a day after holding a Q&A with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Menlo Park office. 

Read the full report here

Pressing for the reforms of the United Nations Security Council, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said he regretted that nations contributing to peacekeeping operations have no say in decision-making as he asserted that success of such mission depends ultimately on the "moral force" of the world body.

Addressing the Leaders' Summit on Peacekeeping hosted by US President Barack Obama in New York, he said India remains committed to the peacekeeping efforts and announced contribution of one additional battalion of Indian troops comprising 850 soldiers, three police units and higher representation of women peacekeepers to such missions.

"Success of peacekeeping ultimately depends not on the weapons they (soldiers) carry but by the moral force of the UNSC," he told the gathering including President Obama, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and leaders from a large number of other countries.

"The problems arise to a large extent because troop contributing countries do not have a role in decision-making process," he added.

India is one of the largest contributors to the peacekeeping having provided 180000 soldiers to 48 of the 69 such missions.

Sepp Blatter says he will not stand down as Fifa president because of the criminal proceedings opened against him by Swiss investigators.

NASA on Monday announced the strongest evidence yet for liquid water on the red planet, increasing the possibility that astronauts journeying to Mars could someday rely on the planet's own water for their drinking needs.

British Premier David Cameron today told Prime Minister Narendra Modi he was looking forward to his UK visit and that only few leaders can fill up the Wembley Stadium in London.

Amid a chill in bilateral relations, waving at each other was all that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif did today as they attended the UN peacekeeping summit.

Divisions among world leaders on resolving the war in Syria have been laid bare in speeches at the UN General Assembly.

Bollywood superstar Salman Khan was today asked whether ex-girlfriend Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was appearing on popular reality show "Bigg Boss" hosted by him, to which he said, "jazbaati sawal...kar diya" (you have asked an emotional question).

Mukhtar Ahmad reports from Srinagar: Militants on late Monday evening shot at and injured a woman in south Kashmir Tral town.

The West Bengal government on Monday made public the cabinet papers for 10 years from 1938 to 1947, after declassifying 64 files on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose earlier this month.

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