The Indian Institute of Information Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2017 passed in Rajya Sabha.

The poll to elect India's next vice president is scheduled for August 5. 

On Doklam Stand-off, Sushma Swaraj says, "We are not only negotiating on Doklam. We are talking of the bilateral relations with the country. Wisdom is to resolve issues diplomatically."

Aamir Khan @aamir_khan tweets: Shahrukh, Anushka, Imitiaz, all the very best for your release tomorrow! I'm sure it will rock!! Looking forward !!! Love. a.


Red Chillies Entertainment, 'Jab Harry Met Sejal' is directed by Imtiaz Ali. The film is all set to release on August 4

The mystery over incidents of women's hair being chopped in Delhi and other states continues even as another such case was reported from the Ranhola area in the city.

In the latest incident, a 46-year-old woman complained that her braid was cut off by an unidentified person last night.

At least six incidents of women's braids being mysteriously chopped off have so far been reported in different parts of the national capital. The police are trying to solve the cases with the help of psychiatrists from the Institute of Human Behavior and Allied Sciences (IBHAS) who have met the complainants.

Four such incidents were reported in the Chhawla area of south West Delhi on Sunday. Three women had claimed their braids were chopped off while they were home but could not say anything about suspects.

A 50-year-old woman from Palam had also filed a complaint with the police, alleging her braid was cut off. The matter has put the police in a piquant situation as they are grappling for clues.

"We have registered cases and a probe has been started. CCTV footage has not been of any help," said a senior police officer. IBHAS doctors who counseled the victims also ruled out that the women cut their own hair due to "some psychological or emotional issues", he said.

The help of experts has not yielded any clues about suspects. The women are traumatized and under stress, the official said. The police investigation did not find any signs of forced entry by outsiders in cases of women, who claimed that they were inside their homes and doors were locked. Police have also collected hair samples for some breakthrough clue.


Image: Braids of a woman and her three daughters were mysteriously chopped off in Mayapuri's Ramchandra.

The Income Tax department has seized over Rs 11 crore during the raids at various places belonging to Karnataka Power Minister DK Shivakumar.

According to IT sources, Rs 8.33 crore from Minister's Delhi house, Rs 2.5 crore from Bangaluru and Rs 60 lakh from Mysore addresses have been recovered.

The IT department on Wednesday first raided Shivakumar's residence and at a private resort in Bengaluru, where Congress' 44 MLAs from Gujarat are staying.

The IT Department earlier today started raiding Shivakumar's house in the Safdarjung area in Delhi.

Early morning today, the IT department also raided the house of the minister's father-in-law in Bengaluru.The IT raids have created a political furore in the country.

Congress has alleged that IT raids at a place where its 44 Gujarat MLAs are staying is just to thwart its senior leader Ahmed Patel's bid to get elected for Rajya Sabha. The grand old party forced the adjournment of Rajya Sabha on Wednesday on this issue.

An update on the condition of veteran Bollywood actor Dilip Kumar, who admitted to Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital yesterday. ANI quoting hospital sources said the creatinine level in Dilip Kumar's blood was rising. Creatinine is an indicator of kidney function. The 94-year-old actor was admitted on account of dehydration and urinary tract infection.

Ravishankar, CEO of the facility at Bandra West, told news agency IANS yesterday, that the actor was admitted with dehydration, but his condition was stable.

Dilip Kumar is completely stable and the only major issue was dehydration. Since dehydration also affects kidney and other organs momentarily he suffered minor urinary issues, otherwise, there is no major complication, said doctors from the hospital.

The veteran actor was shifted from ICU to a room after his condition was stable. But the doctors treating him also said that he will once again be shifted to the ICU for medication.

File pic.

J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti, Deputy CM N Singh and J Sandhu, GOC 15 Corps at the wreath-laying ceremony of Army personnel who lost their lives in the Shopian encounter.

Three Army personnel were martyred during an encounter with terrorists in south Kashmir's Shopian district on Thursday morning, police said.

According to police, the three Armymen injured in the gunfight were airlifted to 92 military base hospital in Srinagar where Major Kamlesh Pandey and soldiers identified as Tenzin and Kripal Singh succumbed to bullet injuries.

Online filing of income tax (IT) returns recorded a surge of 20 percent, with about 2.33 crore people submitting their returns as on August 1 for the financial year 2016-17, a senior official from the Ministry of Finance told ANI.

Last year, around the same time, IT returns, excluding those filed by individuals manually were 1.92 crore.

The tax collection data for financial year 2013-14 showed that 3.91 crore individuals filed returns, out of which 1.85 crore did not pay any tax.

The deadline for filing IT returns was extended until August 5, in lieu of the difficulties faced by the taxpayers.

Sachin Tendulkar made a rare appearance in the Rajya Sabha today. As per the Parliament attendance record, Sachin has attended just 23 sittings of Parliament, while Rekha, another absentee MP has been present in only 18. the master blaster attended the House for around an hour. 

Anand Sharma says Prime Minister Modi has not uttered a word about the discussion he had with China President Xi Jinping. "Why is the Prime Minister Narendra Modi silent. NSA did not share what was discussed in meeting. What is China's intent? I am not questioning my government. Why did China deny any discussion with my government," asks Anand Sharma on India-China standoff.

EAM Sushma Swaraj, who will speak in the Upper House at 6 pm today, said the PM will not intervene in the matter. 

In the Rajya Sabha, Congress MP Anand Sharma kickstarts a discussion on India's foreign policy and engagement with strategic partners. Highlights of his statement in the Upper House.


"Our foreign policy is marked by strong national consensus irrespective of the government in power," says Sharma recalling the contribution of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in creating a road map for foreign policy.

"Our engagement with our neighbours is tensed. Managing the periphery comes first, rest comes later. We have rightful aspirations to play leadership roles. But unless we manage our neighbourhood well, it is impossible to play neither a regional nor global role, warns Anand Sharma.

He talks about India's relations with Pakistan, raises the issue of cross border attacks, terrorism and killing of soldiers. India had succeeded in de-hyphenating India and Pakistan. "The real concern is that the hyphenation is back, because many countries have commented their intent to mediate between us. China has made this statement," he says.

"Turkey has made a statement. These nations have never spoken before. We cannot change history or geography. The Prime Minister repeatedly says we have isolated Pakistan. A mature country doesn't make such statements," he  said.

"Isolation is factually incorrect. Pakistan has economic relations with China and Turkey. They have defence ties with Russia. Where is isolation? What is the roadmap of the government?"

Anand Sharma recalls how the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was ridiculed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi when a soldier was beheaded. The Prime Minister talks Mann ki Baat, but when he has to talk he is observing 'moun vrat,' says Sharma.

"During his visit to Washington, the PM said the world has recognised the prowess of India seeing the surgical strike. The world recognised it but our neighbour has not recognised it," says Sharma. "What happened in 1971 was surgical strike," he says referring to Bangladesh Liberation War.

"China's profile in Pakistan is increasing and it is our concern," says Sharma. "Our relationship with China is complex and uneasy. We are aware of the growing confrontation with China. There are India's security interest in Doklam. We stand with the government when it comes to India's national interest. China is being unusually aggressive, he says. What is India's response, he asks.

However, diplomacy should still be given a chance. That does not be retreat. It means a negotiation safeguarding India's interest, says Sharma.

File pic.

Imran Khan @ImranKhanPTI tweets: "My request to all PTI supporters is to immediately refrain from targeting Ayesha Gulalai's sister."

A petition has been filed in the Election Commission of Pakistan, seeking Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman, Imran Khan's disqualification on the basis of "shameful" allegations of harassment levelled against him by former PTI lawmaker Ayesha Gulalai

Ayesha Gulalai's sister Maria Toorpakai Wazir is a top ranked squash player in a region of the world where girls aren't allowed to participate in sports. To play, she disguised herself as a boy. Read her story here.

Sohrabuddin case: Vanzara says acquittal justifies him. Why did he drop the 2013 letter bomb then? Read the full story here.

National Congress Party workers on Thursday staged a protest outside the BJP headquarters over Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's comments on the tricolor and asked the saffron party to snap its alliance with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister had warned on July 28 that any change in Article 35(A) of the Constitution, which gives a special state provision to Jammu and Kashmir, was not acceptable, adding that it would invite repercussions.

"Any tempering with Article 35(A) won't be acceptable. I won't hesitate in saying that nobody will hold the tricolor in Kashmir, if it happens. Let me make it very clear," she said.

Article 35(A) of the Constitution empowers the state legislature to define permanent residents and accord special rights and privileges to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

She warned and cautioned that if special rights and privileges to the people of Jammu and Kashmir are tinkered with, then there would be no one in the state to hold the tricolor.She said, on the one hand, "we talk about resolving the Kashmir issue under the framework of the Constitution and on the other hand we flog it".

"Who is doing it? Why are they doing it? (challenging the Article 35A). Let me tell you that my party and other parties who carry the national flag there (in Jammu and Kashmir) despite all risks... I have no doubt in saying that there will be no one to hold it (national flag) (if it is tinkered)," she said at an event in New Delhi five days ago.

Mehbooba went on to add, "Let me be very clear. By doing all this (challenging Article 35A), you are not targeting the separatists. Their (separatists) agenda is different and it is totally secessionist."

"But, you are weakening those powers which are Indian and trust India and participate in elections and who fight to live a life honourably in Jammu and Kashmir. This is one of the problem," she said.

In 2014, an NGO had filed a writ petition seeking the striking down of Article 35 A. The case is pending in the Supreme Court.

Mehbooba said Kashmir is an idea of India."The basic question is how much is the idea of India ready to accommodate the idea of Kashmir? This is the basic crux," she said.

Rarely has a single Rajya Sabha seat been so fiercely contested. And rarely does the contest over a single seat in the upper house of Parliament demonstrate so much about Indian politics.

Ahmed Patels struggle for political survival in the face of the BJP onslaught and ambition to deprive him of a victory reveals the fragility of power; the expansionist urges of the ruling dispensation; the decay of the opposition; and the state of our institutions.  Read more

The Press Council of India has dismissed a complaint by Financial Technologies India (FTIL, now 63 Moons Technologies) and its founder Jignesh Shah against a Business Standard journalist.  Read the full report here.

Cricketers Cheteshwar Pujara and Harmanpreet Kaur, Paralympic medallists Mariyappan Thangavelu and Varun Bhati, and golfer SSP Chawrasia among 17 Arjuna awardees this year. The Arjuna Award is awarded for outstanding performance in sports and games in the Olympics, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, World Cup, World Championship disciplines and Cricket. Paralympian Devendra Jhajharia and Hockey player Sardar Singh to be awarded Khel Ratna. India women's cricket captain Mithali Raj, who led the team to the final of the ICC Women's World Cup for the second time, has not been nominated for the Khel Ratna by the BCCI.

So, IGIMS Patna removes the word 'virgin' from the marital status declaration form after controversy (please scroll down for the story) and issues a new form.

Interest rate sensitive stocks -- banking, realty and auto -- continued to fall for the second straight session, losing up to 3 per cent, as the RBI policy action failed to enthuse investors.

Among bank stocks, PNB was trading lower by 2.93 per cent, Yes Bank lost 1.90 per cent, ICICI Bank slipped 1.66 per cent, AXIS Bank (1.55 per cent), SBI (1.51 per cent), Bank of Baroda (1.38 per cent) and Kotak Mahindra Bank (1.08 per cent) on BSE. Led by the losses in these scrips, the BSE bank index was quoting 1.17 per cent down at 28,025.60 during the afternoon trade.

From the realty pack, Unitech was trading 3.41 per cent lower, HDIL (0.93 per cent) and Godrej Properties (0.92 per cent). Auto stocks also faced selling pressure, with Tata Motors falling 1.38 per cent, Maruti Suzuki India (0.73 per cent) and TVS Motor Company (0.28 per cent).

The BSE auto index was quoting at 24,725.90, down 0.23 per cent. After a 10-month pause, the Reserve Bank yesterday cut benchmark lending rate by 0.25 per cent to over 6-year low. The repo rate, at which RBI lends to banks, is now down to 6 per cent.

Following the outcry over Patna's Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) marital status declaration form, asking if the person is a "bachelor/widower/virgin", Bihar Health Minister Mangal Pandey on Thursday said 'virgin' just means unmarried and there is nothing objectionable in it being written in the form.

"The word which is used is 'virgin'. It means unmarried girl, maiden. I don't think these words are not objectionable. But still this issue is being raised. I had a word with the officials of the IGIMS. They said that this is the format of AIIMS and since 1983, it is being used in every organisation of the country,' Pandey told ANI.

Pandey added that the declaration has been being used for 34 years the same way.

It was reported yesterday that the IGIMS has asked its employees to declare their virginity and number of wives in a marital status declaration form. Out of three such declarations, one reads: 'I am bachelor/widower/virgin'.

Earlier in the day, college medical superintendent Manish Mandal clarified the same and said the term 'virgin' does not have anything to do with virginity, but with marital status.

Representational image.

"There was a strong flash of light that left me unconscious. An hour later, I found that my hair had also been chopped off," says Sunita Devi, a 53-year-old housewife from the Bhimgarh Kheri area of Gurgaon district in Haryana.

The "attack" on Friday has left her traumatised.

"I am unable to sleep or concentrate on anything. I had read about such incidents taking place in Rajasthan, but never thought it would happen to me," she adds.

Read the report on phantom hair thieves here.

"Whilst the world recognises Chanakya's stature as a philosopher, he's nothing more than another example of how our nation (Pakistan) has made someone a pariah without realising what they stood for.

"Chanakya is damned for obvious reasons. He is presumed to be a representative of the Brahmin mindset and Hindu culture which we have parted from a long time ago. Merely this was enough to disqualify him from the stature of a learned philosopher of the soil.

"Hence, not a single reference of him is found in the country, whereas we already have buildings and campuses named after scientists and philosophers from different eras and places."

An interesting read in the Pakistani newspaper, Dawn. Take a look.

A petition has been filed in the Election Commission of Pakistan, seeking Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman, Imran Khan's disqualification on the basis of "shameful" allegations of harassment levelled against him by former PTI lawmaker Ayesha Gulalai. Read more

The second page of the PM's two-page letter to Pranab Mukherjee. 

Former president Pranab Mukherjee shared a letter he received from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his last day in office. Expressing his gratitude and admiration towards Pranab Mukherjee, the prime minister in his two-page letter dated 24 July, 2017, said that the former president has always been a father figure to him. Pranab Mukherjee's demitted office on July 25. 

The PM told Mukherjee he was more than moved that the two of them "were able to work together with synergy" despite different political ideologies having shaped them. Mukherjee, who said those words "touched" his "heart", has shared PM Modi's letter to him letter on Twitter.


Here's the full text of the letter.

Senior Lawyer Khawaja Haris is set to file a review petition against the Supreme Court's July 28 verdict regarding the disqualification of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and its direction asking the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to file references against him and his children.

Harris will be filing the review plea on behalf of the Sharif family as according to Supreme Court rules 1980, the family can file review petition within 30 days after receiving certified copy of the judgment.The legal team's member believes that Nawaz's disqualification under Article 62 (1) (f) of the Constitution is unreasonable and Nawaz has been disqualified on frivolous grounds.

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected Congress' plea against the use of None of the Above option in the upcoming Gujarat Rajya Sabha polls.

The polls will be held with NOTA option now.

The SC asked Gujarat Congress that why is it so late in raising the question as the Election Commission issued notification to this effect in January 2014?

The Congress had filed the plea on Wednesday.

The petition alleged that use of the option would be violative of the provisions of the Representation of People's Act, 1951 and the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961.

"Without a corresponding amendment in the Act and the Rules any purported administrative action of the Election Commission of India to introduce NOTA is ex-facie illegal, arbitrary and in fact tainted with malafide," it claimed.

The Bharatiya Janata Party also approached the Election Commission seeking removal of the NOTA option in the Rajya Sabha election in Gujarat. -- ANI, PTI

M I Khan reports from Patna:

Three persons, including a truck driver, were badly beaten by a mob for allegedly carrying beef in Bihar's Bhojpur district on Thursday, police said.

A mob of local people, led by a few cow vigilantes, in Shahpur in Bhojpur stopped a truck on suspicion of carrying beef and beaten the driver and two others.

The victims pleaded for mercy but the attackers refused to relent.

A team of Shahpur police rescued the three but arrested them for carrying beef in the truck.

However, angry locals demanded the police to handover the accused to them. When the police refused they blocked Ara-Buxar road in protest.

Protesters accused the police of 'saving the accused'.

"It was us who caught the truck loaded with beef, not the police. They came later after being informed and rescued the three accused," a local Bajrang Dal leader Arjun Singh said.

According to police, the beef-loaded truck was on way from Shahpur to Muzaffarpur district.

A 62-year-old mentally-challenged woman was beaten to death allegedly by a group of people at a village in Agra who suspected her to be a 'witch', police said.

The incident occurred Tuesday night when Maan Devi went outside her house to relieve herself.

She lost her way in the darkness and reached a nearby colony, they said.

A girl sleeping outside her house got scared on seeing Devi, who was wearing a white saree, and raised alarm, the police said.

Soon locals gathered at the spot suspecting Devi was a witch and started beating her up, the police said, adding that by the time some women identified her, she was severely injured.

Her family members rushed her to an Agra hospital from where she was released after first-aid but she died on the way home.

Inspector D P Sharma of Doki police station said the woman was mentally-challenged.

She received an injury on her head.

The body has been sent for postmortem, he said, adding a case of murder has been registered against two persons in the matter.  -- PTI

Income Tax department on Thursday morning started raiding house of Karnataka Power Minister D K Shivakumar's father-in-law.

Raids also continued at premises owned by Shivakumar in Delhi's Safdarjung area.

The I-T department on Wednesday had raided Shivakumar's residence and at a private resort in Bengaluru where 44 Congress lawmakers from Gujarat are staying.

More details awaited.  -- ANI

Four persons were allegedly thrashed by a vigilante group on the suspicion of being cow smugglers in a remote tribal village in Betul district, with the video of the incident going viral on social media.

The alleged cow smugglers were arrested but the assailants were absconding, police said.

After a video of the incident, which reportedly took place last week, went viral on social media, police registered separate cases against the assailants as well as the alleged cow smugglers.

The video showed the four youths tied up and being beaten brutally in front of a crowd at the village, about 110 km from Betul district headquarters.

Sub Divisional Officer of Police Prem Singh Thakur said yesterday that, "A case was registered against Shyam, Manak, Sundar Parate and others (part of the cow vigilante group) for assault."

All of them were absconding.

Also, another case was registered against the four persons, all residents of Rehatgao in neighbouring Harda district, for alleged cow smuggling, he said.

"These cow smugglers have been arrested. We are investigating the video clip, and will take further action accordingly," the police officer said.  -- PTI

Image for representation only.

Bollywood actress Koena Mitra has lodged a complaint against an unidentified man for harassing her by making lewd calls on her phone, the Mumbai police have said.   

China has again extended by three months its technical hold on the United States, France and United Kingdom-backed proposal to list Jaish-e-Mohammed chief and Pathankot terror attack mastermind Masood Azhar as a designated terrorist by the United Nations.

China had in February this year blocked the US move to designate Azhar as a global terrorist at UN.

The deadline for China to take action on its technical hold was till August 2.

If China would not have extended the technical hold, Azhar would have automatically been designated under the UN as a terrorist.

Sources told PTI here that just before the deadline lapsed, China once again sought a three-month extension until November 2 on its technical hold on the proposal.

A veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council, Beijing has repeatedly blocked India's move to put a ban on the Jaish-e-Mohammed leader under the Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the Council.

Last year in March, China was the sole member in the 15- nation UN organ to put a hold on India's application with all other 14 members of the Council supporting New Delhi's bid to place Azhar on the 1267 sanctions list that would subject him to an assets freeze and travel ban.

The six-month validity of that technical hold lapsed in September and Beijing then extended it by three more months.

In December last year, after China blocked India's proposal to list the JeM chief, Indian diplomatic sources here had said that the pursuit of terrorism was not a 'one-shot affair' for India and that it will continue to pursue issues of terrorism 'through all available mechanisms'.

Sources had said that the block would not prevent India from pursuing at the world body issues of terrorism and sanctioning of leaders of terror outfits. -- PTI

The rupee strengthened by 5 paise to trade at a fresh two-year high of 63.65 against the dollar, buoyed by hopes of more capital inflows, coupled with more selling of the American currency by banks and exporters.

The dollar's muted show against other currencies overseas added to the rupee value, dealers said.

Yesterday, the rupee had surged 37 paise in its best single-day show this year to breach the psychological 64- level, ending at a fresh two-year high of 63.70.

This followed the Reserve Bank of India lowering the repo rate by 0.25 per cent.

Meanwhile, the benchmark BSE Sensex dropped by 78.64 points, or 0.24 per cent, to 32,398.10 in early session.  -- PTI

The Goa Cabinet has approved an amendment to re-classify the coconut as a tree.   

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday attacked the Congress party for referring to the recent Income Tax raids at Karnataka Minister's house as a 'witch-hunt' and said the grand old party is doing nothing, but shaming itself by standing up on this matter, rather than supporting the government.

"There can be no protection, no insulation against the corrupt. The more the Congress tries to use its muscle and strength in the Parliament on such issues, it paints its face black every time, it shames itself," BJP leader G V L Narasimha Rao told ANI.

Rao said the Karnataka minister has been under the radar for quite a long time and the I-T raids were not sudden.

"The Congress minister, who is being raided in Karnataka, was already under probe. Rather than coming clean on these charges of corruption and black money, Rahul Gandhi is giving out a message to fight. And fight for what, to protect their illegal wealth?," he asked.

Rao said the ruling government would not spare anyone involved in such activities be it from the Congress or the BJP.

Another BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain said the raid was conducted after proper probe conducted by the I-T department and on the basis of the evidences received against him.

"So much money has been recovered from these people. The Congress should first answer how the money is being recovered," Hussain said.  -- ANI

JUST IN: Two Army personnel, including an officer, have succumbed to the injuries sustained during the encounter underway in Shopian district, police said.

Earlier, it was reported that three personnel have been injured in the encounter with terrorists in the South Kashmir district.

At least two to three terrorists are believed to have been trapped in the area. -- PTI, ANI

Image for representation only.

Two terrorists are believed to have been killed in a brief gunfight with the security forces in South Kashmir's Kulgam district last night.

In another incident, an encounter is underway between the security forces and terrorists at the Imam Sahab area of South Kashmir's Shopian district.

Three Army personnel have been injured in the encounter.

At least two to three terrorists are believed to have been trapped in the area.

Further details are awaited.

Earlier on Wednesday, suspecting presence of terrorists, the Indian Army and the police launched a cordon and search operation at the Sugan village of Shopian district. -- ANI

Representative image.

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