Timeline Refresh
Noting their achievements in the area of poll management, EC has decided to confer upon these four states the 'Award of Excellence' as part of the National Awards, 2013.
The award will be presented by the President as part of a National Voters' Day function tomorrow.
The 2013 Assembly polls saw an increase of 14.54 per cent in the voter turnout in Delhi whereas other states which went to polls, such as Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan recorded an increase of 4.12, 9.54, 11.95 per cent, respectively.
"I am going to contest Lok Sabha election from Chandni Chowk, let anybody be in the fray," he told reporters on the sidelines of an event. Sibal, a staunch critic of the Delhi chief minister, however, said he was not averse to subsidies like those effected in the national capital by the Aam Aadmi Party government with regard to power and water tariff.
"See the point is we are in the election mode... and naturally we all look at the aam aadmi." he said. "As a govt, we have been doing this all along for the last 10 years for the common man. I think that though any subsidy which has a very negative long term implication for the economy is not something which is welcome but, at the same time, we must realise that there are certain sections of our country who need subsidies and therefore those issues need to be addressed," Sibal said.
"If they (Africans) are moving out of the locality, then it should not happen. I would request the residents of Khirki Extension to not leave the place," Education and Urban Development Minister Manish Sisodia told reporters.
Sisodia, however, claimed that the sex and drug racket did exist in the area with residents long having complained about the menace.
Bharti has been facing severe criticism after he allegedly led a group of AAP workers last week in a raid at the houses of some African nationals.
After his arrest, Vedpal was produced before Chief Judicial Magistrate Narender Kumar, who sent him to 14 days judicial custody.
The accused was arrested from Phugana village of the district. Meanwhile, SIT, which is probing the riot cases, has approached the court seeking to declare the remaining 21 accused, who are on the run, as "absconders".
On January 21, a local court had issued non-bailable warrant against the 22 persons.
"I think there is one word that applies to Indian economy, the real economy, it is bottleneck...there are bottlenecks in many corners...I would say addressing bottlenecks of Indian economy should be priority," IMF Managing Director Lagarde told NDTV.
She also said fighting corruption is important in all the countries where the menace exists. Suggesting steps to boost the Indian economy, the IMF chief further said the government should focus on fiscal consolidation.
"Members of public may initiate the process of exchanging notes at bank branches at their convenience," the RBI said in a statement today.
The removal of older currency notes from circulation is a standard international practice, the RBI said.
Apart from Pawar, NCP's second candidate advocate Majid Memon also filed his papers.
They were accompanied by Union Minister Praful Patel, senior NCP leader D P Tripathi and state NCP chief Bhaskar Jadhav on the occasion. Pawar and Memon replace retiring NCP members Y P Trivedi and Janardhan Waghmare.
On his way to the house of elders, 73-year-old Pawar said, "I accept that I have aged. It was a conscious decision."
Shinde has written to Maharashtra's Home Minister RR Patil, asking for "swift action" and the identification of the killers of Esther Anuhya, a 23-year-old working with software major TCS.
Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi said that any such incident will not be tolerated.
"As per the arrangements, India is to release 59 Sri Lankans and three trawlers. Sri Lanka would release 61 Indian fishermen and 15 boats," Fisheries Ministry spokesman Narendra Sri Rajapaksa said.
The development came following direct talks between Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Sri Lankan Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Rajitha Senaratne in New Delhi last week.
Senaratne was in India for talks on the recurring problem of arrests of each other's fishermen.
The ad featuring the Congress vice president starred in today's newspapers with the phrase 'Main Nahin, Hum' (Not I, we), which, the BJP immediately pointed out, had been coined and used by Modi in 2011.
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Rafael Nadal has taken a 2-0 lead against Roger Federer in the second men's singles semi-final at the Australian Open after winning the second set 6-3 in 47 minutes.
The Spaniard effected the all-important break in the sixth game to go up 4-2. He then held serve and served out the set after trailing 0-30. The first set, which lasted 59 minutes, went the distance, with the Nadal winning the tie-break 7-4.
Terming the Aam Aadmi Party's upsurge in Delhi a "localised storm", Union Minister Anand Sharma has said it was following a populist agenda that was pushing the society towards anarchy.
Speaking here on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum annual meet, Sharma said the AAP's success in Delhi does not mean it would be replicated elsewhere in India.
Asked whether AAP was adding to uncertainties, Sharma said there may not be a need to worry as this was like a "localised storm" and Delhi is a city state. "It is true that they did well...that does not mean that it would be replicated elsewhere in the country. Also, what they are doing is populism of absurd extremes which is pushing the society towards anarchy," he added.
On investor sentiment, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said India's economic potential and policies continue to attract businesses.
After India scrapped a contract for procuring VVIP choppers from AgustaWestland, American firm Textron today said it is ready to offer its unique V-22 Osprey helicopter to India for ferrying its dignitaries.
"We are ready to offer to India the V-22 Osprey in the VIP configuration through the Foreign Military Sales route. It is a unique and competitive product," Textron India President and Managing Director Inderjit Sial told PTI.
He was asked about the possibility of offering any chopper of Bell Helicopters, an arm of Textron, for meeting the VVIP chopper requirements of the IAF.
The government scrapped the contract with AgustaWestland, accusing it of breaching a pre-contract integrity pact and other contractual obligations in the Rs 3,600 crore contract.
Spain's Rafael Nadal leads Switzerland's Roger Federer by one set to love in the second men's singles semi-final at the Australian Open.
Federer saved two break-points in the seventh game before holding serve and was 30-40 in ninth game, but held. After games went with serve, Nadal took the tie-breaker 7-4 to win the first set in 59 minutes.
Dentist couple Rajesh and Nupur Talwar on Wednesday moved the Allahabad High Court against a CBI court order awarding them life sentence for the murder of their 14-year-old daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj.
The petition filed by the couple is likely to come up before a bench for hearing on Thursday. The couple had been sentenced to life imprisonment by a special CBI court at Ghaziabad on November 26, 2013.
Aarushi was found dead, with her throat slit, inside the Talwars' Noida residence in May, 2008. Hemraj, who had gone missing, was initially suspected of being involved in the crime until his body was recovered from the terrace a day later.
DMK chief and former Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi's son M K Alagiri, a former Union minister, has been suspended from all party posts, reports suggest. A DMK statement notes that Alagiri has been suspended due to 'anti-party activites'
Karunanidhi had earlier issued a veiled warning to his son and rebel leader Alagiri for his interview to a Tamil channel against his younger brother MK Stalin, reports CNN IBN
Karunanidhi had also recently suspending five supporters of Alagiri's Madurai unit for putting up posters supporting him. Thereafter, in a statement had said that anyone flouting party discipline will face an expulsion from primary membership adding that this had been the "rule in DMK yesterday, today and tomorrow".
Eight people, including six women, were killed and four others injured when their SUV fell into a rivulet in Chhattisgarh's Korba district, police said today. The mishap took place near Korkoma village under Balco Nagar police station limits when the victims were returning after attending the last rites of a relative in Narayanpur area of neighbouring Jashpur district late last night, Korba Superintendent of Police Ratanlal Dangi said.
While their car was crossing Bulsihdih nullah bridge, the driver, who was reportedly in an inebriated state, lost control over the vehicle following which the SUV plunged into the rivulet after breaking the railings, he said.
A police team along with medical aid rushed to the spot on getting news of the accident. Those killed were identified as -- Bhagat, Sagar, Amrautin Bai, Shabina Markam, Sukwara Bai, Ramayan Bai, Laxmin and Sonkunwar -- who hailed from Pathharripara, Naktikhar and Kudri villages of Korba.
The four others injured, including the driver, were admitted to the district hospital in Korba, the SP said.
Actor Salman Khan, who recently met Gujarat Chief Minister and BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi during the kite flying festival in Ahmadabad, has been criticised by Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi. Unhappy with Salman meeting Modi where he referred to Modi as a good man, Owaisi has now urged his supporters to not watch his film 'Jai Ho'.
Reacting to this, Salman said that he did nothing wrong by going to Gujarat. "What can I say to that, if as a Muslim I have gone there to see that my Muslims brothers are doing well, I don't think there is anything wrong. I am half Hindu and half Muslim. So, I have closeness to both the communities. My mother is Hindu, my father is Muslim and there is nothing else, I would want to have them together," Salman said.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has expressed disappointment over army's decision to give clean chit to six of its personnel in the 200o Pathribal fake encounter case. "Will ask law department and advocate general to examine options," Omar said.
"Pathribal case is a serious case. It can't be closed or washed away," the chief minister said.
The benchmark BSE Sensex slipped from its record closing high by losing over 82 points in early trade today as funds and retail investors booked profits after recent gains amid a weak trend in the Asian region.
The 30-share barometer, which had gained over 310 points in the previous four sessions, lost 82.20 points, or 0.38 per cent, to 21,291.46, with banking, metal, healthcare and realty sector stocks leading the fall.
Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty declined 27.15 points, or 0.43 per cent, to 6,318.50. Brokers said besides profit-booking by funds and retail investors at record level, a weak trend on other Asian bourses tracking overnight falls on Wall Street mainly influenced the sentiment here.
In the Asian region, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell by 0.93 per cent while Japan's Nikkei by 1.54 per cent in early trade today.
The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended lower by 1.07 per cent in yesterday's trade.
Has the new year been too cold for comfort? Yes, so say the records '" this January is turning out to be one of the coldest since 1947, according to the meteorological department.
"Going by our records, January 2014 is the third coldest ever since 1947, with 2003 being the coldest,' said RK Jenamani, chief of the met unit at the Indira Gandhi International Airport. The sun virtually disappeared for days, particularly between January 16 and January 23, following two consecutive spells of dense fog and low clouds. Hide and seek continued, with city getting good amount of rain on January 18, January 21 and 22, Jenamani said.
January has been consistently getting colder since late 1990s due to prolonged dense-fog hours, smog or low-cloud cover during the day blocking out the sun. "Increased pollution and many other meteorological reasons are responsible for this. The trends have been emerging from 1990s and require further studies,' he said.
With another homeless person found dead in Kashmere Gate area on Wednesday, the toll of destitutes shivering to death across the city has reached 174 since January 1.
The government is yet to come up with a policy to protect them.Earlier this month, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had promised to set up porta cabins at 45 locations. But the ground reality is that plastic shelters have been put up and they are in bad shape.NGOs working for the homeless said the city government opted e-tendering for making the process transparent.
"But it's a lengthy procedure," said a social worker. "It has delayed the whole process of setting up porta cabins."Since December 1, 2013 a total of 395 unidentified bodies have been found across the city. Some 1,127 homeless people were found dead from November 1, 2012 to March 31, 2013.The most number of deaths have been reported from Kashmere Gate area.
The Aam Aadmi Party has backed its Law Minister Somnath Bharti, saying there was no evidence to suggest that he made racist comments or misbehaved with African women during a controversial midnight raid that he led at a south Delhi locality last week. The party, while ruling out his resignation, said that Mr Bharti should in fact be "lauded for his efforts to address people's grievances." The Law Minister has been asked to depose before the Delhi Women's Commission today.
A severely disillusioned S J S Prasad, father of 23-year-old Esther Anuhya, whose burnt body was found off the Eastern Express Highway on the outskirts of Mumbai, said on Thursday that he did not expect police to ever catch his daughter's killers.
"I hope no parent has to cry in the wilderness the way I did,' Prasad said, as he recounted the ordeal of running from pillar to post from the time his daughter went missing to when her body was found in Bhandup. Esther, who worked for an IT firm in Mumbai, arrived at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus from her native Hyderabad at 5 am on January 5, and was last seen leaving the station to take an autorickshaw to her hostel in Andheri.
She never reached the hostel, and her mutilated, burnt and decomposed body was found off the Mumbai-Thane highway on January 16. Police have no clues or suspects so far, only several questions and a few theories of the murder.
When Esther's relatives in Mumbai approached them on January 6, the MIDC police in Andheri told them to go to the Kurla railway police, who told them to go to the Vijayawada railway police because there was no evidence until then to show that she had actually reached Mumbai.
NDTV: The Taj Mahal will be thrown open for public on Fridays, but the visitors will have to shell out a hefty Rs. 5,000 for a special ticket, which will cost 100 USD for a foreign tourist.
This was decided at a meeting chaired by Divisional Commissioner of Agra Pradeep Bhatnagar.Visitors will be allowed in the world-famous monument of love from 7 am to 12 noon on Fridays, Bhatnagar said, adding the decision will be implemented soon.Earlier, the 17th century wonder of the world used to remain closed for public on Fridays.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and BJP Vice President Prabhat Jha started the campaign in the state capital. As part of the campaign, BJP leaders took an urn in their hands and appealed to the people aaking them to give "Ek Note aur Ek Vote" (a currency note and a vote) to the BJP.
The campaign will be go upto the village level until February 11. Swaraj and Jha told reporters here that the aim of the campaign is to establish contact with the people on a door-to-door basis so that they can donate, from Re 1 to Rs 1000.
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