Prime Minister Narendra Modi has formed the Economic Advisory Council. Dr Bibek Debroy to be the Chairman of the council while other members of the Economic Advisory Council are: Surjit Bhalla, Rathin Roy, Ashima Goyal, Ratan Watal

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the Saubhagya Yojana & inaugurate the Deendayal Urja Bhawan at 6.30 pm today. 

Finance Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley briefs the media on the two-day national executive meeting being held in New Delhi. 

Hollywood star George Clooney is a vocal critic of President Donald Trump but in a new interview the actor has spoken about Hillary Clinton and how she was "not good at communicating things".


Clooney, who had organised a fundraiser for Clinton during the 2016 elections, said while she was "incredibly qualified for the job", her speeches did not click the way they should have with the voters.


"Hillary, for years and years and years, has been the presumptive nominee, and quite honestly, she was incredibly qualified for the job," Clooney told The Daily Beast.


"But being qualified for the job does not necessarily mean you're the right person to be president. Here's what I mean. She was more qualified than even her husband was when he was elected president, but she's not as good at communicating things. That's simply true. When she got up and gave a speech, it didn't soar.


"Now, that doesn't mean that she wouldn't have done a great job as president, and I supported her because by the time we did the fundraiser the primary was over at that point and it was time to get on with picking someone to move forward, and she was the right person to side with."

Central Hall of Parliament during inter-sessions is not as active as during Parliament, but there's always some gossip. This morning, at least 20 to 25 MPs and two ministers spent considerable time in Central Hall. Here's a summary of what was being said:

1) Trinamool Congress MP Mukul Roy resigned from the TMC membership and is planning to join the BJP


2) Narayan Rane, a former leader of the Congress party in Maharashtra, is meeting BJP president Amit Shah in New Delhi with a plan to launch a state party in Maharashtra. This is a great jolt to the Maharashtra Congress Committee.


3) Rahul Gandhi's tour to USA was being summarised by two of his close confidantes who also accompanied the Congress VP. At least 350 visiting cards, 2000 emails addresses have been collected during the visit and are now being sorted out. Gandhi wanted to send a "big-thanks" email to those who interacted with him. The PR have been taken over by a private company, which works from Nehru Place in New Delhi.

4) BSP chief Mayawati is gaining ground in Uttar Pradesh. There is unconfrimed news that Mayawati and Akhilesh had met two times and wanted to forge an alliance between her party and the SP for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Intermediaries from both political parties are active.

5) Murmurs have begun in the BJP that voters are angry and visiting parliamentary constituencies is becoming increasingly difficult with the rise in petrol prices, GST and the debacle of demonetisation. Few MPs openly spoke of this in the Central Hall of Parliament, a first for the government. 

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah today welcomed Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti for her first tweet, three years after joining the Twitter.

Mufti tweeted yesterday to share a short promotional film of the state's tourism department.

Today, Omar tweeted, "25,000 followers later @MehboobaMufti finally broke her silence on twitter with a tourism promotion video. Welcome to Twitter CM Sahiba."

The five-minute film titled 'Warmest Place on Earth', which aims to counter the negative perception about the Valley, has drawn over 1.6 million views in less than 48 hours after its release. The opposition leader, had hit out at the chief minister yesterday for terming the situation in Kashmir peaceful.

"There is something disconcerting about the CM claiming this just days after her minister survived an attack that killed 3 people!," Omar had tweeted.

He was reacting to a news report which quoted Mehbooba saying that the situation in Kashmir was peaceful and it was the media which was creating negative perception about the Valley.

The top priority for Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman this week is a meeting with US defence secretary Jim Mattis in New Delhi. This is the first Cabinet-level official's visit to India under the Trump administration. Mattis, is is believed, will emphasise that the United States views India as a valued and influential partner with broad mutual interests extending well beyond South Asia.

Sitharaman has been briefed on the situation at India's borders with seven visits to forward areas in six states. She has also been taking stock of border security from the three chiefs of staff. During such meetings, the preparedness for any eventualities are also discussed.


The Defence Minister has initiated these interactions on instructions from  the Prime Minister.


The Chief of Army Staff has also reportedly taken the defence minister to the top secret location where the 'nuclear button'. in a manner of speaking, is kept. The location is also known to the Prime Minister.


Since assuming office, Sitharaman  has been spending five hours every day on briefings and at least eight to 10 hours on studying defence-related documents.


Up ahead, probably before Dussehra, is an exam. The defence minister will be briefing the PM on China. 

Peepli Live co-director Mahmood Farooqui, convicted of rape, has been  acquitted by the Delhi High court. The court pronounced its judgement on an appeal of Mahmood Farooqui, against his seven-year jail term for raping a US researcher.


Justice Ashutosh Kumar had reserved the verdict on September 1 after hearing arguments of the counsel for the State and Farooqui.


Farooqui has challenged his conviction and the sentence given by the trial court.


During the arguments, Farooqui's lawyer had denied the allegation of rape levelled by the woman and said "no such incident took place on that day'.


His counsel had referred to messages exchanged between his client and the woman before the lodging of the case and contended that the two were in a "relationship' since January 2015.


"In a relationship when people are attracted to each other, things do happen. But it does not mean it's rape,' he had said, adding that the "woman's version is also contradictory to the documentary evidence'.


This argument was opposed by Delhi Police's counsel who had said the rape had taken place and the trial court had given reasons while convicting and sentencing 45-year-old Farooqui. A trial court had on August 4 last year sent him to jail for seven years, observing that he had taken advantage of the situation when the victim was alone in his house.


The court, which on July 30, 2016 had held Farooqui guilty of raping the American woman in 2015 in a drunken state, had also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on him.


The police had on June 19, 2015, lodged the FIR against Farooqui on the woman's complaint after which he was arrested.

A British freelance writer and photographer currently based in Pakistan has questioned Islamabad's hypocrisy over the Rohingya issue and said that the crisis in Myanmar has brought into focus the deplorable plight of Pakistan's own Rohingya population.


"Most Rohingyas in Pakistan have been unable to obtain citizenship and many do not even have a national identity card, preventing them from access to public schools, government run healthcare and such everyday things as opening a bank account," Usman Ahmad said in an opinion piece published in The Diplomat.


Explaining about Rohingyas living in Pakistan, he said an estimated to number 500,000 Rohingya families first settled in the port city of Karachi in 1962 after the coup d'etat which marked the beginning of authoritarian rule in the country and their numbers increased during the 1980s as the military regime of General Zia ul Haq brought them over to study in madrassas and participate in the Afghan jihad. -- ANI

Update: Eman Ahmed passed away due to compilations from underlying co-morbid conditions including heart disease and kidney dysfunction: Burjeel Hospital, Abu Dhabi, said in a statement. 

BJP chief Amit Shah today criticised Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi over his remarks on dynastic politics and said the BJP believes in the politics of performance while the Congress banks on the "politics of appeasement and dynasty".


In his inaugural address at the BJP national executive, Shah said the current president, vice president and the prime minister had reached their position due to their work, despite their humble origins.


Shah said the economy was stronger under this government than it was under the UPA and cited figures to make his point, Union minister Piyush Goyal told reporters while briefing them on the party president's speech. Shah's comments came amid the opposition's criticism of the government's handling of the economy.


He praised the government over its handling of Naxalism and terrorism, saying more terrorists were killed in its three years of rule than any other spell of three years. Shah also attacked the TMC government in West Bengal and the Left government in Kerala for alleged political violence targeting BJP workers, Goyal said.

World's heaviest woman Eman Ahmed, who underwent weight-loss treatment in Mumbai as well, passes away at Abu Dhabi's Burjeel Hospital.


The Egyptian national, who was until recently believed to be the worlds heaviest woman, was discharged in May from Mumbai's Saifee Hospital, where she underwent treatment for severe obesity.


Dr Muffazal Lakdawala, bariatric surgeon who led the team of doctors treating Eman at the city hospital, said she weighed around 498 kg on arrival, but her weight reduced to 177 kg.


Emans sister, in an online video had then alleged that the doctors at Saifee, made false claims about Emans complete recovery and weight loss of 262 kg.

Police have arrested the third militant, who was part of the terror module involved in the deadly attack on the SSB party in Banihal belt of Jammu and Kashmir last week.


With his arrest, the three-member terror module has been wiped out within days of the attack on the SSB party in Ramban district, the police said.


On September 22, two militants of the module involved in the deadly terror attack were arrested. "We have arrested the third militant involved in the terror attack yesterday and recovered a pistol", SSP Ramban, Mohan Lal said today.


The arrested militant has been identified as Aquib Wahid, a BSc student at the Degree College in Anantnag, he said. -- PTI

Islamic State has challenged Prince Harry to fight the jihadis in a disturbing new extremist video. 


In the English-language clip a man who has been identified as Abu Uqayl from Singapore takes issue with the royal - who during his visit to the country spoke about terror attacks in London.


He says: 'Why don't you come here and fight us if you're man enough, so that we can send you and your Apaches to hellfire?'


Prince Harry formerly served in the British Army and flew Apache attack helicopters in Afghanistan.


Read more here

Pakistan's ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif today returned to the country from the United Kingdom to face corruption and money laundering charges in the Panama Papers scandal.

He was in London to be with his ailing wife Kulsoom who is undergoing treatment for throat cancer.

Sharif, 67, decided to return after consultations with senior party leaders including his younger brother and Punjab province Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif in London, party officials said.

The aircraft carrying him landed in Islamabad at around 7.30 am and a confident Sharif came out, waved to his supporters and left in official protocol, TV news reports showed.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz officials said that he would stay in Punjab House in Islamabad and hold meetings with party leaders today and tomorrow.

"He (Sharif) would appear before the accountability court tomorrow (September 26) to defend himself in three corruptioncases," the officials said.

Sharif stepped down after the Supreme Court disqualified him on July 28 from continuing in his office for dishonesty and ruled that corruption cases be filed against him and his children.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has filed three cases of corruption and money laundering against Sharif, hissons -- Hassan and Hussain, daughter -- Maryam, son-in-law --Safdar, and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in the Accountability Court in Islamabad and Rawalpindi recently. -- PTI

Samajwadi Party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav has said that he will not form a new party for now.

Addressing a press conference in Lucknow on Monday, Mulayam said he has differences with his son and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.

"My blessings are with him (Akhilesh) as he is my son, though I don't agree with his decisions," Mulayam said, adding, "I am not forming any new party as of now."

Attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government, he said, "None of the promises made by the government were fulfilled in three years of its governance. Petrol-diesel prices skyrocketed."

He also expressed concern at the developments in Banaras Hindu University and said 'girls are not safe in BHU, there's no rule of law in UP'.  -- PTI, ANI

Trinamool Congress party senior leader Mukul Roy has announced that he has resigned from the party. He also resigned from the working committee of the party.


In a short press conference held now, Roy announced with a "heavy heart" that he has been "forced to quit the party".


This comes in the back of Roy's meetings with senior BJP leaders in Delhi last week. The Bengal BJP on Saturday hailed Roy as a leader of "great stature" and said he was in contact with several central BJP veterans.

Roy said he will quit as a member of the Rajya Sabha after Durga puja. TMC was set to suspend Roy after he fell out of favour with TMC chief and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee.  


In the year 2015, Roy was removed from the post of all India general secretary of the Trinamool Congress for his alleged role in the Saradha chit fund scam. 

The people of Assam deserve our congratulations for calling out a truth that many others are too meek to utter. A number of groups in the northeastern state vociferously protested against the move by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government to name several new district-level colleges after the ruling party's current favourite icon - Deendayal Upadhyaya.  Read more

Hindustan Times (HT) proprietor Shobhana Bhartia's decision to announce the abrupt exit of Bobby Ghosh as editor was preceded by a personal meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and objections raised by top-level government and Bharatiya Janata Party officials to editorial decisions taken during Ghosh's tenure. Read more

Just in: Indian shuttler PV Sindhu recommended for Padma Bhushan by Sports Ministry. Sindhu has already been conferred India's fourth highest civilian honour - the Padma Shri -- after she returned from the Rio Olympics with a silver medal. She had said the award will motivate her to do better in the future.

Nine days after Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg dismissed as "crazy' the idea that fake news on his company's social network played a key role in the US election, President Barack Obama pulled the youthful tech billionaire aside and delivered what he hoped would be a wake-up call.  Read more

Shahid Kapoor unveiled his first look from the upcoming film "Padmavati" as the royal and brave Chittor ruler Maharawal Ratan Singh.


The 36-year-old actor, who will be seen portraying Queen Padmavati's (played by Deepika Padukone) consort, in the Sanjay Leela Bhansali-directed magnum opus, took to Twitter to release the poster. "MahaRawal Ratan Singh. The embodiment of courage, strength and respect," Shahid wrote in Hindi, alongside the photograph.

Rajiv Mehrishi takes over as the Comptroller and Auditor General. He takes over from Shashi Kant Sharma, who retired today. In his earlier appointment, Mehrishi was the Union home secretary.  

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi is set to kick off his party's campaign in Gujarat, riding a bullock cart while embarking on a three-day yatra beginning with offering prayers at Dwarkadhish Temple, reports the Hindu.


Local authorities declined permission to hold the road show in an open jeep in this historical town, so Rahul choose to ride a traditional bullock cart in a village while interacting with farmers OBC-dominated Dwarka district.


Gandhi will have brief halts for interactions and meetings with farmers, fishermen, and party workers around a dozen places during the day, covering two districts, Devbhumi Dwarka and Jamnagar, with seven assembly segments.


In Dwarka, he will be given a traditional welcome by women dressed in local traditional attire of Ahir and Rabari pastoral communities.

Sensex drops 287.50 points to 31,634.94 in opening trade; Nifty cracks below the 9,900-mark

Merits a re-post. Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj gives final touches to her statement at the UNGA on Saturday. In her address to the 72nd UN General Assembly session, Swaraj launched a stinging attack on Pakistan and asked its neigbour's politicians to introspect as to why India is recognised as a global IT superpower while Pakistan is infamous as the "pre-eminent export factory for terror'.


Pic courtesy:  Syed Akbaruddin,  India's permanent representative at the United Nations. He was MEA spokesperson earlier.

The Congress Party on Monday said the BJP is "rattled" with Congress' recent victory in the Delhi University.


"BJP is already rattled with the kind of results that are coming out of universities," Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan told ANI.


He added that 2019 is not too far saying that BJP's preparation is missing. "You can't sustain propaganda without action, planned at the ground and when you fail on the economic front, have not delivered the job you have talked about, the black money has not arrived, these become very serious issues, and people are going to ask you questions and you will have to answer them."


He said that promises have not been delivered and BJP has to now set its agenda to tell people why it was so.


Speaking on the upcoming Gujarat elections and the preparations, Congress leader Shakeel Ahmad said that people of India have uneasiness towards BJP.

-- ANI


IMAGE: Congress president Sonia Gandhi meets NSUI's winning candidates of DUSU elections 2017.

BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy on Monday termed the protest in Banaras Hindu University (BHU) at Varanasi a "naxalite movement."


"I support the vice chancellor in this matter because it looks like a naxalite movement, which means they wanted to enter the vice chancellor's office and there they would have conducted violence," Swamy told ANI.


He also said that he supports Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and that he is doing the right thing by asking for comprehensive report on the same.


"This looks like a contrived thing because they say there was eve teasing, while we have no clear identity as to who did it and how these students came to know and did the girl make an immediate report or not," said Swamy.


The Uttar Pradesh Police on Saturday lathi-charged the BHU students, who were protesting since three days against alleged molestation of a University girl.It has been reported that the protesting students tried to enter the residence of the Vice Chancellor and when the deployed security forces tried to stop them, students became violent; it is then when the security forces used lathi-charged to disperse them.


The students alleged that the police thrashed them and dragged them through hair, but DM Varanasi, who was present on the spot, denied all such claims.

-- ANI

Well-known journalist and writer Arun Sadhu passed away at the age of 76 in Mumbai today. He was suffering from an existing condition of Cardiomyopathy since long.

Yesterday, Sadhu was admitted in Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital (Sion hospital) at around 10 am.

Known for his work in Mumbai Dinank, Sadhu wrote many more novels in Hindi, English and Marathi.This well-known writer won the Sahitya Academy award and also several awards such as Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad, NC Kelkar and Acharya Atre award.

Pakistan has made a fool out of itself and one should laugh at it, said former diplomat Nagendra Nath Jha, while discussing about Pakistan's Ambassador to the United Nations Maleeha Lodhi's showing pictures of Palestinian victims and trying to pass them off as 'evidence' of atrocities on Kashmiris.


"Pakistan has made a fool of itself and to all the rubbish they have said against Prime Minister Modi and India, I hope our representatives at the UN give a good answer to them in due course," Jha told ANI.


He also mentioned that Pakistani diplomat Maleeha Lodhi's was very "keen" to make a statement against Minister of External Affairs Susham Swaraj, who had given a convincing and successful speech at the UN, adding, "So, whatever information Lodhi could get her hands on she tried to put it as Indian atrocity."Jha also said that nobody believes Pakistan, coming from the fact that they hid Osama Bin Laden and kept denying about it."Pakistan tries to keep fooling the world and gets caught every time," Jha said.


Speaking on the same note, former diplomat Ashok Sajjanhar said, "This is a travesty of facts and I think the whole world recognises that India, who has been a victim of terrorism, has zero tolerance towards it."He added that it is Pakistan, who organise terrorist attacks, not only against India, but also against Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

Days after a number of women students and two journalists were injured in a lathi-charge by the police in the Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, a few policemen and administrators have been axed.

Station House Officer Lanka, Circle Officer Bhelupur and one Additional City Magistrate have been removed prima facie on charges of 'mishandling the issue'.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has sought a report on the issue from the administration.

The university students, meanwhile, continued their protest against an alleged eve-teasing incident inside the campus.

Theyre demand better on campus security. -- Agencies

IMAGE: Students and police in a standoff at the main gate of the Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, late on Saturday night. Female students at the prestigious university were protesting against the administrations alleged victim-shaming after one of them reported an incident of molestation on Thursday. Photograph: PTI Photo

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has secured her fourth term by winning the general elections, according to the exit polls.

The 63-year-old German leader scored around 33.5 per cent of the vote with her conservative Christian Union (CDU/CSU) bloc, according to CNN.

This puts her on track to match the post-war record of 16 years in office held by late Helmut Kohl.

The Social Democrats and its candidate Martin Schulz, was seen trailing far behind, with 20-21 per cent support.

The anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) won 13 per cent of the vote; this may come out with a result that will bring a far-right party into parliament for the first time in more than half a century.

Merkel has pledged to reduce Germany's already low unemployment, and is offering modest tax cuts.

She also defended her 2015 'open door' policy that led to more than a million refugees entering the country and stated that the events of that year must not be repeated.

On that note, Merkel stayed away from making big election promises, leading to accusation of 'sleepwalking' through the campaign, by the German media.

Once the final results is out, coalition talks will begin.

To form a government, the parties involved must have a combined total of at least 50 per cent of the seats in Parliament.

Parliament will reconvene on October 24, with the new government in place. -- ANI

IMAGE: Christian Democratic Union party leader and German Chancellor Angela Merkel reacts after winning the German general election (Bundestagswahl) in Berlin, on Sunday. Photograph: Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters