Pakistani troops today violated ceasefire in the Uri sector of Jammu and Kashmir by firing towards Indian posts, officials said.

They said the Pakistani forces fired towards Indian positions first in the afternoon following which the Indian Army retaliated.

After a lull of nearly six hours, Pakistani troops resorted to fresh firing that lasted nearly 30 minutes, they officials said.

The firing had stopped now, they said.

There was no damage reported in the firing so far, they added.

Earlier in the day, the Indian Army noticed suspicious movement along the LoC in Uri sector and challenged the intruders.

The alert jawans opened speculative firing, forcing the intruders to retreat back to PoK, an Army official said.  -- PTI

Mystery shrouds the death of a 29-year old software engineer from Andhra Pradesh who fell from an elevated ramp at the domestic airport in Chennai today.

Chaitanya, hailing from Vijayawada, fell from the ramp near gate no 4 of the domestic departure terminal and rushed to a government hospital where he was declared brought dead, police said.

The elevated ramp is used especially by vehicles to reach the departure lounge situated at the second floor level to the ground area.

The victim was said to have an e-booking for his travel to Bengaluru this morning and police were verifying it.

The man was employed with a software company in Bengaluru and he had spoken to someone over phone before he fell from the ramp, they said.

To a question whether suicide was suspected, a senior police officer told PTI 'investigation is on', adding the man sustained grievous injuries in the incident as he fell from an height of approximately 50 feet.

Asked if the CCTV footages gave any clue to the death and final moments of the man, he said, "I am yet to go through the footages completely. Only after the completion of probe a could comment."

A senior doctor at the Chrompet Government Hospital where the body was rushed immediately said: "Autopsy will be done tomorrow. The man was brought dead. We have been told that his kin are on the way to Chennai."

The incident shocked morning passengers and visitors to the airport which is under multi-layer security cover. While the outer precincts are guarded by Tamil Nadu police, the inner areas and the airport terminals come under the ambit of the Central Police forces. -- PTI

Image for representation only.

The National Investigation Agency has taken over the probe into a case of alleged forcible conversion of a Kerala woman and attempts to take her to Syria after her marriage with a Muslim man to be sold off to Islamic State terrorists.

The central government made the submission in an affidavit filed before the Kerala high court today.

It said given the seriousness of the alleged offence, the government suo motu entrusted the investigation into the case with the NIA.

The Centre also informed the court that the NIA had filed an FIR before the NIA Special Court, Ernakulam against nine persons under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

They have also been charged under various Indian Penal Code sections for offences including rape, forgery and forced religious conversion, it said.

The Centre filed the affidavit in response to a petition filed by the victim woman, hailing from Pathanamthitta district of Kerala and settled in Gujarat, seeking NIA probe into the alleged forceful religious conversion and attempt to traffic her to Syria after marriage.

Earlier this month, the Ernakulam Rural police had arrested two persons in connection with the case.

In her petition to the police, the woman had alleged that one Muhammed Riyaz from Thalassery in Kannur district pretended to be in love with her when she was studying in Bengaluru in 2014 and forced her to convert to Islam and married her.

She has also alleged that her marriage was registered using forged documents.  -- PTI

Breaking from past, the Economic Survey for 2017-18 was printed in pink colour as it waded into problem of gender bias prevalent in India and underscored the importance of gender issues to the economy.

The pre-Budget annual document detailing state of economy was in the past presented in multiple hues of blue, green and yellow but the Survey 2017-18 sported a pink cover 'chosen as a symbol of support for the growing movement to end violence against women which spans continents'.

The survey report's author, Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian said the document's cover was deliberately kept in pink colour to show the government's support to the movement 'in favour of women and women's empowerment'.

The survey has a whole chapter on gender.

In his fourth Economic Survey, Subramanian evokes poet T S Eliot to warn against the danger of staleness in penning the document year after year.

"For last year's words belong to last year's language. And the next year's words await another voice," he quotes Eliot.

From William Shakespeare to Rabindranath Tagore, and from John Keats to Keynes, most of the chapter of the Survey starts with famous quotes of either of noted poets, novelists, economists or noble laureates.

Be it Bollywood yesteryear actor Manoj Kumar's song 'mere desh ki dharti sona ugle, ugle heerey moti' in a chapter on agriculture and climate change, to Sunny Deol's famous 'tarikh par tarik, tarikh par tarikh' dialogue to jumpstart the chapter on judicial delays -- the survey is punctuated with doses of Indian cinema as well.

Quote from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland figured in the survey to suggest that India must continue in the high growth path to avoid falling into the slowdown trap.

'My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere, you must run twice as fast as that,' goes the quote from popular children's tale.

Tamil writer and poet Subramaniam Bharati is quoted in the chapter on gender bias as the Chief Economic Advisor in the Finance Ministry sought to highlight societal and economic challenges like son meta-preference and empowerment of women.

Also two-word hashtag '#Me Too' that denotes sexual harassment and assault too finds a mention in the gender chapter.

Many twitterati, however, were not amused with the choice of the pink colour of the survey.

One Twitter user referred to the choice as 'pathetic, patriarchal, shallow symbolism', while another said it 'contributes to stereotyping'.  -- PTI

Photograph: Manvender Vashist/PTI Photo

In a major development in poll-bound Nagaland, 11 parties including the ruling Naga People's Front today decided not to contest the February 27 elections, agreeing to the demand of tribal bodies and civil society groups to resolve the protracted Naga political problem first.

The decision came at a meeting called by the core committee of Nagaland Tribal Hohos and Civil Organisations (CCNTHCO) and attended by representatives of 11 parties.

'It is the unanimous view of the Naga people that the political solution or Naga peace accord is more important than elections and therefore, it has become imperative that the elections to the legislative assembly of Nagaland be deferred for peace and tranquillity,' read a joint declaration signed by the parties.

The parties are -- Naga People's Front, Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party, Nationalist Democratic Peoples' Party, Nagaland Congress, United Nagaland Democratic Party, Aam Admi Party, Nationalist Congress Party, Lok Jan Party, Janata Dal-United and National People's Party.

"We, on behalf of all the political parties and the intending candidates, have in compliance with the wishes of the people decided not to go ahead with the issuance of partytickets or filing of nominations," it read.

A copy of the joint declaration was given to the media by the convenor of the CCNTHCO, Theja Therie, at a press briefing in Kohima.

The Naga Hoho, an apex Naga tribal body, had earlier this month sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's help in postponing the elections, saying the vexed issue should be resolved first.

Civil society groups in Nagaland have also launched a campaign 'Solution before Election'.  -- PTI

Image only for representation. Photograph: Utpal Baruah/Reuters

Right-wing leader Milind Ekbote, booked for allegedly inciting violence on January 1 during an event to commemorate the bicentenary of Bhima-Koregaon battle, has approached the Bombay high court for anticipatory bail.

The leader submitted his plea before a bench led by Justice B R Gavai today after a Pune sessions court refused to grant him any interim protection from arrest last week.

A case was registered against Ekbote and Sambhaji Bhide, who head the Hindu Ekta Aghadi and Shivraj Pratishthan respectively, for allegedly 'inciting' violence that left a man dead.

Subsequent protests against the incident had disrupted normal life in Mumbai.

The two organisations had opposed the celebration of the 'British victory' in the battle between the armies of the East India Company and the Peshwa.

People belonging to the Mahar community among Dalits had fought for the British, while the Peshwas were Brahmins.

Dalit organisations celebrate the victory as a symbol of their resurgence.

While the police have charged Ekbote of inciting violence and attempt to murder, the accused, in his petition, has denied the charges.

He has claimed that he could not have been present at the time of the clashes as he had been under police protection at the time.

The Pune court, however, had rejected his anticipatory bail plea after observing that serious charges were levelled against Ekbote.

The high court is likely to hear his plea on January 31.  -- PTI

The Indian Parliamentary Group has decided to confer the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award on the following:  

'All around the world, governments and would-be governments appear overwhelmed by complexity and are blindly unleashing the power of fission, championing quests for the pure. In India a politics of Hindu purity is wrenching open deep and bloody fissures in a diverse society. In Myanmar a politics of Buddhist purity is massacring and expelling the Rohingya. In the United States a politics of white purity is marching in white hoods and red baseball caps, demonising Muslims and Hispanic people, killing and brutalising black people, jeering at intellectuals, and spitting in the face of climate science,' writes Mohsin Hamid in The Guardian, the UK, here, in a piece adapted from his speech at the PEN International Free the World! at Winternachten 2018.

More on Budget 2018: On Saturday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley sat in his chambers in North Block with five or six notebooks in which he has been taking notes for the government's most important financial document, after consultations with various stake-holders. Soon he turned to the shredder and, with assistance from his private secretary Saurabh Shukla, fed the notes into the machine, leaving no trace of the thought processes and suggestions that went into the final document.    

The 2018 Union Budget, which will be presented to Parliament in 3 days, has been printed. Only Part B, which contains the taxation proposals, are being given final touches by the PMO and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley; once that is done, it will be printed tonight.   

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley during the President's address to the joint session of Parliament. 

Sensex hits all-time high of 36,284.11, Nifty at new peak of 11,123.40 in opening trade as February series begins on a bullish note.

The 84-year-old farmer, who had consumed a poisonous chemical at the Maharashtra secretariat in Mumbai on January 22 seeking adequate compensation for his plot of land, died at JJ Hospital last night, the police said.   

An 18-year-old woman was allegedly molested on Sunday night on a Mumbai-bound express train, the Railway Police said.