Cabinet approves scrapping of no-detention policy in schools.

Two Navy sailors awarded 12 to 15 years rigorous imprisonment by a military court for raping a minor girl.

Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis held a meeting today to speed up the construction of the memorial to Shiv Sena chief, the late Bal Thackeray.

Tweeting this picture with Shiv Sena senior leader Subhash Desai, Fadnavis posted, "chaired a meeting to speed up process of construction of Late Balasaheb Thackeray Memorial. Minister @Subhash_Desai present."


Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had announced the Thackeray memorial at the mayor's bungalow at Mumbai's Shivaji Park in November 2015. A committee led by the then chief secretary Swadheen Kshatriya was constituted to look into sites for the memorial. After a preliminary study, the committee gave the nod for the bungalow as a suitable site. Uddhav Thackeray, Shiv Sena president, heads the Bal Thackeray Memorial Public Trust with members such as Sena leader and Industries Minister Subhash Desai, BJP MP Poonam Mahajan, Sena youth wing president Aaditya Thackeray, officials from the state government among others.

The Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, has received 50 proposals from different academic and research institutes to study the benefits of cow urine (gau mutra) and milk under the SVAROP programme, the government said today.


In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Y S Chowdary, the Minister of State in the Science and Technology Ministry, said that at a brainstorming-cum-consultative workshop held at the IIT, concept ideas/proposals related to the SVAROP programme, including the research and development (R&D) component on cow derivatives, were discussed.

SVAROP is acronym for Scientific Validation And Research On 'Panchgavya' (concoction of cow dung, cow urine, milk, curd and ghee). "Consequently, about 50 Research and Development (R&D) proposals have been received by IIT-D from various academic and research institutes besides voluntary organisations," the minister said. The government has constituted a national steering committee (NSC) to initiate the SVAROP programme.


The committee comprises secretaries of scientific departments, senior scientists and three members linked to the RSS and VHP. Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan is the chairman of the NSC and Vijay Bhatkar is the co-chairman. Known as an architect of the Param supercomputer series, Bhatkar is also linked to the RSS-affiliated Vijyan Bharti.

India and Pakistan will hold another round of talks in Washington next month on water issues, said the World Bank, which also issued a fact sheet giving its stated position on the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) under which India is allowed to construct hydroelectric facilities on the shared Indo-Pak rivers.

The World Bank's statement came after India and Pakistan concluded the secretary-level talks over the 1960 IWT this week, with the global lender maintaining that it was held in a spirit of "goodwill and cooperation".


"The parties have agreed to continue discussions and reconvene in September in Washington, DC," the World Bank said in a brief statement issued at the conclusion of the talks.

Naweed Ali (29), Khobaib Hussain (25), and Mohibur Rahman (33), who called themselves the 'Three Musketeers' , were today found guilty of  plotting a terror attack on police or military targets in the UK, reports BBC.   

Congress MLAs from Gujarat on Wednesday alleged the Bharatiya Janata Party is threatening them.

The allegation came after the Income Tax officials on Wednesday morning raided Karnataka Power Minister D K Shivakumar's residence and at a private resort in Bengaluru where 44 Congress lawmakers from Gujarat are staying.

Gujarat MLA and national spokesperson AICC (All India Congress Committee) Shaktisinh Gohil said, "They are threatening our MLAs. Income Tax (IT) raids are not procedural, look at the timing. They have raided our minister D K Shivakumar, who has given shelter to us."

Speaking to the media here Gohil said, "Our morale has become strong now and our only plan is to vote for Ahmed Patel in Rajya Sabha election on August 8."

He has also urged Supreme Court to intervene.

"We are afraid, but we will not let democracy die. I urge Supreme Court to intervene," said Gohil.

"We are not enjoying or partying here, if we had to party we would have taken Rs. 15 crore as offered by the BJP," he added.

Refuting Congress Party's claim, IT department has denied that its raid at Shivakumar's residence and a private resort has anything to do with the Gujarat's Congress MLAs. -- ANI

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader TTV Dinakaran, who is out on bail in a case of alleged bribery, isa at the Parappana Agrahara jail in Bengaluru to meet his aunt and party chief VK Sasikala.

Dinakaran last met Sasikala on June 15. Sasikala was sentenced to a four-year jail term since February in a disproportionate assets case.

Dinakaran, who was arrested in the Election Commission bribery case, spent close to two months in Delhi's Tihar jail.

Dinakaran who was arrested on April 25 by the Delhi Police Crime Branch on allegations of attempting to bribe the Election Commission officials to get the two leaves symbol allotted illegally to his faction, has so far met Sasikala twice in jail.

File picture.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the murder of senior CPI (M) leader Govind Pansare announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh for giving information about Sanatan Sanstha activists Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar. The SIT suspects both Akolkar and Pawar were involved in killing senior leftist leader in February 2015 when he was returning home along with his wife from morning walk near his home in Kolhapur.

The Consumer price index commonly referred to as retail inflation that the RBI tracks moderated sharply to 1.54 percent in June, the lowest since the index was re-based to 2012 in a new data series. The RBI and the government had set a retail inflation target of four percent for next five years with an upper tolerance level of six percent and lower limit of two percent.

RBI Governor Urjit Patel addressing a press conference immediately after the rate cut was announced said growth forecast remains unchanged at 7.3 per cent for the current fiscal. Inflation has fallen significantly in last three months due to implementation of GST and good monsoon. The RBI governor also credited the implementation of the GST with allowing policy change.

NDTV reports that the finance ministry is unhappy with the rate cut, saying it expected a much larger rate cut of 50 basis points.

The RBI today cut the repo rate or its key lending rate by 25 basis points to 6 per cent, a seven-year low. Forty of 56 economists polled by Reuters, reports NDTV, had expected the RBI to cut its repo rate by a quarter percentage point to 6 per cent on Wednesday. The interest at which banks borrow funds from RBI by selling their securities and bonds is called Repo Rate. Banks are expected to lower their lending rates, making loans cheaper.

Just in: RBI cuts key repo rate by 0.25 per cent. The repo rate has been cut to 6 per cent.  The repo rate is the rate at which banks borrow money from the RBI.

The Monetary Policy Committee, headed by Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel, announced the rate cut today after a two-day meeting. The repo rate is the lowest since November 2010.

The six-member Monetary Policy Committee's two-day deliberations lived up to expectations of a 0.25% cut in the key lending rate as inflation has cooled to record low levels.

Reverse repo rate under stands adjusted to 5.75 %, and the marginal standing facility rate and Bank Rate to 6.25 %. 

Economist Meghnad Desai met President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan today. Kovind assumed office on July 25. 

The Jammu and Kashmir police will approach the Pakistan High Commission via the Union home ministry to take the body of Abu Dujana, the Lashkar-e-Taiba commander gunned down in south Kashmir, a senior police official said today.

It will be the first time that the Pakistan High Commission is asked to claim the body of a militant killed in Kashmir Valley.

Inspector General of Police (Kashmir range) Munir Khan told PTI he would be writing a letter to his police headquarters, which in turn would approach the Union home ministry to take up the matter with the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.

"We will ask the Pakistan High Commission in India to take back the body of Abu Dujana, who was a Pakistani national," Khan said.

Dujana, believed to be in his late 20s, was killed yesterday in a well-planned operation by a joint team of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, Army and CRPF in Pulwama district of south Kashmir. The inmates of the house where he was holed up had told police that he claimed to be from Karachi.


Image: Security forces in Kashmir have been engaged in sustained cordon and search operations based on specific intelligence inputs about the presence of terrorists.

Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, asks employees to declare their virginity and number of wives in a marital status declaration form. Details awaited. 

The US Senate has overwhelmingly confirmed Christopher Wray as the new FBI director, replacing James Comey who was abruptly fired by President Donald Trump amid a probe into the Trump campaign's alleged collusion with Russia to influence the last year's presidential election. Wray, 50, received a bipartisan support of 92-5 votes on the Senate floor.

A case has been registered against the 'Narmada Bachao Andolan' workers here on Tuesday by the administration for keeping a team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) in captivity for three hours.

The people are protesting after the government had closed the gates of Sardar Sarovar Dam on Narmada River, due to which houses of 40,000 families are facing submergence.

The administration has alleged that the workers protesting there held a team of NDRF under captivity for three hours.

Refuting the allegations Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar said, "The government is making false cases to defame the movement after the administration is has imposed a case."Patkar's health is deteriorating, who is been fasting from past seven days in protest on Narmada bank in Dhar district's Chikhalda village. -- ANI

File picture.

BJP president Amit Shah today began his Haryana visit from Bahadurgarh and is slated to hold a series of meetings and review works undertaken by the M L Khattar government during his three-day stay. Shah will be camping in Rohtak as the BJP is eyeing political gains from the district, which is considered as the nerve centre of the state's politics.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley is now speaking in the Lok Sabha on the income tax raids on Karnataka Energy minister D K Shivakumar and his aides today.  

Jaitley reiterated what he said in the Upper House that no raids were conducted at the resort on anyone else staying there. "There were no raids on the Gujarat MLAs staying at the resort. Yes, there have been income tax raids on a Karnataka minister and his aides at 39 places across the country. The minister was at the resort when the raids were taking place across 39 locations in India. His room was searched and even torn bits of paper were seized by the department.

"Do not connect the raids with any polls in Gujarat, it has entirely to do with income tax fraud. None of the other MLAs or anyone else staying at the resort were raided," Jaitley told the Lok Sabha.

Shivkumar was taken away from the resort and taken to his residence in Bengaluru this morning by income tax officials.

To keep you abreast with the big story today, the income tax Department conducted searches at multiple locations in Karnataka and Delhi related to Karnataka Energy minister D K Shivakumar, who is hosting 44 Congress MLAs from Gujarat at a resort near Bengaluru, in connection with a tax evasion probe case.

I-T officials said Rs 5 crore cash was recovered from the Delhi residence of Shivakumar.

Earlier, officials privy to the early morning raids said a team of I-T sleuths has reached the Eagleton resort near Bengaluru to question the minister, who was staying at the resort for the night.

"The resort is not being raided," the officials said.

A total of 39 premises of the minister and his family are being raised by a team of about 120 Income Tax Department officials with the aid of central paramilitary forces, they said.

The department is also investigating charges of alleged role of money power and huge transfer of illegal funds for these polls.

Shivakumar, is hosting his party's MLAs from Gujarat who have been brought to the Bengaluru resort till the day of the Rajya Sabha elections on August 8.

Six of the 57 Congress MLAs in Gujarat, from where senior party leader Ahmed Patel is contesting for the Rajya Sabha, resigned from the party in the last few days with three joining the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday last ahead of the Rajya Sabha poll.

The party has apprehensions over Patel's election prospects, if more MLAs defect.

The BJP has fielded three members including party president Amit Shah, union minister Smriti Irani and a rebel Congress MLA for the election.

Patel, Congress president Sonia Gandhi's political adviser, is seeking re-election.

In the Rajya Sabha today, Opposition members storm the well of the House to protest against income tax raids on Karnataka energy Minister DK Shivakumar's residence in Kanakapura.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is present in the Lok Sabha today.

The Income Tax department conducted searches at multiple locations in Karnataka and Delhi related to the minister. who is hosting 44 Congress MLAs from Gujarat at a resort near Bengaluru.

The raids are being conducted in connection with a tax evasion probe case. I-T officials said Rs 5 crore cash was recovered from the Delhi residence of Shivakumar.

Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress MP in the Rajya Sabha, lashed out against the BJP saying it should conduct raids on residences of those people from the BJP who are offering Rs 15 crore.
 
Congress MP Anand Sharma said the Shivakumar and his brother, an elected representative, were coordinating the stay of the Gujarat MLAs and that is why it is a targeted timing. "It is now becoming a trend to blatantly misuse powers of the state," Sharma said.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley told the House, "No MLA was searched, only one particular Karnataka minister was searched."

Ahmed Patel accused the BJP of indulging in an unprecedented witch-hunt to win one Rajya Sabha seat. Patel, who is contesting the Rajya Sabha polls from Gujarat, said the I-T raids on the Congress minister, at whose guest house the Congress MLAs from Gujarat are staying, shows the utter desperation and frustration of BJP. Patel, who is also Congress President Sonia Gandhi's political secretary, is re-contesting the Rajya Sabha election from Gujarat.

A statement by the income tax department said the timing of the search was decided well in advance and had nothing to do with the Gujarat MLAs staying at the resort. Astrologer Dwarakanath, the minister's brother have also been raided.

The Congress had rushed the lawmakers to Bengaluru late on Friday night after six MLAs quit the party in Gujarat ahead of the Rajya Sabha election and the state polls later this year.


Image: I-T raids underway at Karnataka energy Minister DK Shivakumar's residence in Kanakapura, Sadashivanagar.

The Gujarat unit of the Congress on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court, challenging the None of the Above, or Nota, option being introduced for the Rajya Sabha elections in the state. The apex court is likely to hear the plea tomorrow.

The Election Commission had granted Gujarat MLAs the Nota provision on Tuesday as per a previous Supreme Court order.

After Congress MPs opposed the move in the Rajya Sabha, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley pointed out that the top court verdict was passed several years before the NDA government came to power.

Congress MP Anand Sharma protested in the Upper House against the Nota option. It vitiates the election, he said. The Constitution has not been amended...The Representation of People Act has not been amended.

The bjp has fielded party National President Amit Shah, Union minister Smriti Irani and Balwantsinh Rajput for the three seats to the Upper House from Gujarat. Ahmed Patel is going to contest the polls for a fifth term for the Congress.

Rajput was the Congress chief whip in the Gujarat Assembly. He had quit the party and joined the BJP on July 27.

More news from Pakistan: Senior PML-N (Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz) leaders from Punjab are advising Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif against taking the 'risky decision' of contesting the seat left vacant by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, where he is likely to face a tough competition from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate.

Pakistan will hold polling on September 17 for the Lahore parliamentary seat in Punjab Province and the leaders believe that an adverse outcome of the by-election at NA-120 seat could damage the party position in the upcoming 2018 general elections, the Express Tribune reported.

Sharif's brother and Punjab Province Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif has been chosen by the PML-N party to contest from the NA-120 Constituency in Lahore, which fell vacant after the Prime Minister was disqualified on July 28. -- ANI

A former woman lawmaker of Pakistan's Tehreek-e-Insaf on Tuesday accused party chief and former cricket captain Imran Khan of sending obscene text messages and harassing women leaders in the party. Ayesha Gulalai, who hails from South Waziristan tribal region, in a press conference alleged that the honour of women affiliated with the PTI was not safe.

Announcing her decision to quit the party, she said, My integrity matters to me the most and I cannot compromise when it comes to my honour and dignity. She also accused Khan of sending obscene text messages to women leaders of the party. She refused to share the messages but said that they were so mean that nobody can tolerate them.

Taking a jibe at Khan, she said he suffered from psychological problems and gets jealous of, people who are better than him. She also leveled charges of corruption against PTI government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and its Chief Minister Pervez Khattak who she alleged was acting like mafia boss.

Gulalai was elected to the National Assembly on a reserved seat for women from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), and has been a staunch and vocal supporter of the PTI and Khan. She resigned from both her party membership and NA seat.

She rejected reports that she was joining the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) of Nawaz Sharif but praised Sharif for respecting women.

No matter what the charges against him but Nawaz Sharif knows how to respect women, she said. Rejecting the allegations, PTI spokesman Fawad Chaudhry said that Gulalai had sold her soul to PMLN for money. -- PTI

Delhi: A fire broke out at the residence of former Delhi CM Sheila Dixit in Nizamuddin; two fire tenders on the spot. Details awaited.

Sanjaya Baru, who had earlier been media advisor to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has become the new secretary-general of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci).
 
He was confirmed to the position on Tuesday by the Ficci board. He will replace A Didar Singh, who had served in the role for 5 years.
 
While Baru would take charge from September 1, the current secretary-general, who wanted to take on a lighter responsibility, would continue at the body as a strategic advisor to the President of the organisation, Ficci President Pankaj Patel told Business Standard.
 
With A Dildar Singhs personal efforts, Ficci has shaped up extremely well in the past five years and has been extremely resilient in dealing with domestic and global challenges, as well as in supporting Indian industry in capitalising on new emerging opportunities, Patel added.

Baru had become Manmohan Singh's media advisor and chief spokesperson, a role in which he served from May 2004 until August 2008. In April 2014, his book The Accidental Prime Minister, a detailed memoir about his time serving the PM, was published by Penguin India. After taking up the role of the PM's media advisor, Baru was the Editor of Business Standard from January 2010 to October 2011.  -- Subhayan Chakraborty/Business Standard


Image: Sanjaya Baru (left) with former home minister P Chidambaram

BJP: Hitting out at RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav for calling Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar a 'turncoat', the BJP on Wednesday said that the former is frustrated as people of Bihar are supporting the Chief Minister.

"Lalu Yadav is letting out his frustration on Nitish Kumar. He is blaming Kumar for no reason. As the public is supporting Nitish Kumar, therefore Lalu is having problems with him," BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain told ANI.

People of Bihar will always have faith in Nitish Kumar. He will take the state to new heights of developments," Hussain said.

Congress: Supporting RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav's 'turncoat' remark on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the Congress on Wednesday said that the sudden decision taken by the latter shows his opportunist behaviour.

"Whatever happened in Bihar in the last few weeks is unfortunate. Nitish Kumar along with Lalu Yadav and the Congress contested the election in Bihar and defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He broke an alliance on a baseless issue and within 12 hours, joined hands with the saffron party. This indicates nothing but Nitish Kumar's opportunist behaviour," Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam told ANI.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has said he is very "bullish" and "optimistic" about India, a market where the company is bringing all of its "energies" to expand footprint.

"We are investing in India...we've already launched an app accelerator center. That's on top of working with the channel and looking at expanding our go-to-market in general," Cook said during the company's third quarter earnings call yesterday.

In response to a question on the company's thoughts about India, Cook said Apple has begun to produce the iPhone SE in India during the quarter and "we're really happy with how that's going". 

"And so we're bringing all of our energies to bear there...And so I'm very, very bullish and very, very optimistic about India," he said.

Cook said he sees a lot of similarities between where the Indian market is now and where China was several years ago. Apple had in May said that it began initial production of a "small number" of iPhone SE in Bengaluru and would start shipping to domestic customers.

The Karnataka government had in February announced Apple Inc's proposal to commence initial manufacturing operations in Bengaluru. The phones will be manufactured by Wistron, a Taiwanese OEM for Apple.

The Monetary Policy Committee, headed by Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel, is expected to announce a rate cut today. The RBI is expected to announce its decision at 2:30 pm today.

The six-member Monetary Policy Committee started two-day deliberations amid expectations of at least 0.25% cut in the key lending rate as inflation has cooled to record low levels.

Home loan takers may expect a fall in the home loan rates. Even though RBI had not cut the repo rate at its April meeting, few prominent lending institutions had reduced their home loan interest rates in May. If the repo rate is indeed cut, home loan rates are likely to fall as well.

Home loan rates are linked to bank's MCLR - marginal cost of funds based lending rate.

The meeting's outcome is being keenly awaited by all stakeholders including industry and stock markets.

Encouraged by significant price improvement, bankers expect the RBI to change its monetary stance and cut benchmark lending rate by at least 0.25%.

Some expect that the central bank may go for an even more aggressive rate cut as the retail inflation touched historic low of 1.54% in June.

The panel, in its previous bi-monthly review in June, had retained the repo rate at 6.25% for the fourth straight time citing risk to inflation.

"The MPC will meet on 1 and 2 August 2017 for the Third Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement for 2017-18. The resolution of the MPC will be placed on the website at 2.30 pm on 2 August 2017," the central bank had said last month.

Commenting on the retail inflation data, chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian had said the "paradigm shift" in inflationary process has been missed by all, who have made "systematic inflation forecast error", apparently referring to the RBI.

In the last MPC, Patel had argued for avoiding "premature policy action" and waiting for more inflation data. "Incoming data is expected to provide greater clarity on the durability of recent food and non-food disinflation," he had opined.

One of the MPC members, Ravindra Dholakia, however, had advocated a 50 basis point cut in the repo rate, saying several noteworthy developments recently on prices and output fronts warrant a decisive policy action.

In a significant move, country's largest lender and market leader SBI had yesterday reduced interest rate on savings bank deposits by 50 basis points, a development which will have implications of the interest rate regime. -- PTI

At least 14 wagons of a goods train were derailed on Kaimur-Gaya Mughalsarai railway line on Wednesday.

The incident took place at 3:45 am.

The derailment has affected the movements of other trains on the route.

Any official statement about the cause of the derailment has not been released.

More details are awaited. -- ANI

Just In: Sensex climbs to life high of 32,686.48 in opening trade; Nifty scales new peak at 10,137.85. 

JUST IN: Income Tax Department raids Karnataka energy minister D K Shivakumar's residence and Eagleton Golf Resort where Gujarat Congress MLAs are staying.

The raids are underway at Shivakumar's residence in Kanakapura, Sadashivanagar and Congress MLAs rooms in Eagleton Golf Resort.

The raids began at 7 am on Wednesday. Shivakumar was in-charge of hospitality for Gujarat party MLAs in Bengaluru.

More details awaited. -- ANI

Under the Indus Waters Treaty, India is permitted to construct hydroelectric power facilities on tributaries of the Jhelum and Chenab rivers with certain restrictions, the World Bank has said.

Pakistan opposes the construction of the Kishanganga (330 megawatts) and Ratle (850 megawatts) hydroelectric power plants being built by India, it said in a fact sheet issued yesterday at the conclusion of secretary-level talks between the two countries over the Indus Waters Treaty.

Noting that the two countries disagree over whether the technical design features of the two hydroelectric plants contravene the treaty, the World Bank said the IWT designates these two rivers as well as the Indus as the 'Western Rivers' to which Pakistan has unrestricted use.

'Among other uses, India is permitted to construct hydroelectric power facilities on these rivers subject to constraints specified in Annexures to the treaty,' the Bank said in its fact sheet as it noted that the secretary-level discussions between Indian and Pakistan on the technical issues of the IWT took place this week 'in a spirit of goodwill and cooperation'.

The parties have agreed to continue discussions and reconvene in September in Washington, DC, it said in a separate statement.

In the lengthy fact sheet, the World Bank said Pakistan asked it to facilitate the setting up of a Court of Arbitration to look into its concerns about the designs of the two hydroelectric power projects.

On the other hand, India had asked for the appointment of a neutral expert to look into the issues, contending the concerns Pakistan raised were 'technical' ones.

The IWT was signed in 1960 after nine years of negotiations between India and Pakistan with the help of the World Bank, which is also a signatory.

The World Bank's role in relation to 'differences' and 'disputes' is limited to the designation of people to fulfill certain roles when requested by either or both of the parties, the fact sheet said.  -- PTI

Elephant and tiger attacks have claimed around 1,144 lives in the last three years, according to government data shared in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

The figure, which is the summation of deaths between April 2014 and May 2017, means one person was killed per day.

Till May 18 this year, 13 deaths have occurred due to tiger attacks.

The corresponding figures for the year 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2017-18 are 34, 31 and 14 respectively, the government said, replying to a written question.

There has been 245 cases of deaths caused by elephants in 2016-17, as per data available till February 9.

The corresponding figures were 392 and 415 in 2014-15 and 2015-16 respectively.

Asked whether there has been any rise in human-wildlife conflicts during the last few years, the government replied: "The information available with the ministry indicates a fluctuating statistic in the incidences of human-wildlife conflict in the country."

Out of the 13 deaths caused by tigers this year so far, Uttar Pradesh recorded the maximum at 7, followed by Maharashtra with four deaths.

At 69, Assam recorded the maximum number of fatalities caused by elephants in 2016-17, followed by Chhattisgarh with 67 and West Bengal with 65.

According to official statistics, India is house to 2,226 tigers and around 30,000 elephants.  -- PTI

Senior Congress leader and former union finance minister P Chidambaram took a dig at Arvind Panagariya, who earlier resigned as the NITI Aayog vice-chairman, saying his resignation was a 'wise decision' as it was taken well before he's proved wrong for predicting that growth in Q4 of 2017-18 will touch 8 per cent.

'After predicting that growth in Q4 of 2017-18 will touch 8%, Mr Panagariya has wisely resigned before proved wrong,' the Congress leader tweeted on late Tuesday night.

Panagariya resigned from his post on Tuesday, and will hand over charge of his office on August 31.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had appointed him as the first vice-chairman of NITI Aayog on January 5, 2015.

He said that about two months ago he had expressed his desire to Prime Minister Modi to be relieved by August 31.

Panagariya had gained a prominence in the central government and is considered by some as the 'government's man'.

He had, many times, praised the Bharatiya Janata Party government for putting 'the economy back on track'.

The Indian American economist is reportedly returning to the United States to resume his academics. -- ANI

- At least 20 killed in Shiite mosque attack in Afghanistan