On his arrival, Xi will be welcomed by traditional peformances including 'tappu' folk drum art display at the airport by about 500 artistes.
Normal life remained disrupted for the 24th consecutive day due to the strike call given by separatists against civilian deaths during the protests.
While the number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 7,409, as many as 764 people have been cured and discharged, and one had migrated, it said. Of the total 273 deaths, Maharashtra tops the tally with 127 fatalities, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 36, Gujarat at 22 and Delhi at 19.
During the three-day mourning period, the national flag will fly at half-mast and there will be no public entertainment, a notification issued by the Assam government said.
Threats were often communicated to Pandit homes through notes tied to stones chucked through a window, or a notice pasted on a wall. Those sometimes came from neighbours eyeing that Pandit family's property. Those threats often worked in the atmosphere of terror during that awful season of vacuous exercise of State authority, writes David Devadas, longtime Kashmir watcher and author of two books on the Valley.
I got to know that every referred case for angiography and angioplasty got a kickback of Rs 5,000 and Rs 15,000 respectively. Seeing this trend, doctors started paying referring doctors Rs 1 lakh in advance and adjusting it as and when patients came in. This menace slowly spread its tentacles all over the medical field, including radiological diagnostics and biochemistry laboratories. For every test ordered, 20 per cent of the bill was given back to the referring doctor. This led to doctors recommending unnecessary tests. The pharmaceutical companies also saw burgeoning business. Acclaimed doctors were given televisions sets, refrigerators, air conditioners and cars depending upon the prescriptions. General practitioners would prescribe unnecessary drugs, and were given returns in cash. A fascinating excerpt from Dr Upendra Kaul's When The Heart Speaks.
Mobile services were partially restored in the Valley which has been rocked by violence since July 8.
Amidst a resurgent COVID-19 pandemic, nearly 100 million people have already cast their ballots in early voting, putting the country on course for its highest turnout in a century. Some 239 million people are eligible to vote this year.
The incoming facility on prepaid connections has also been restored, but the outgoing calls are barred.
The ongoing tussle between the Andhra Pradesh government and a legislator of Opposition Telugu Desam TV Rama Rao over his alleged involvement in a case of sexual abuse took a curious turn on Saturday with five girls appearing before the state home minister and giving a statement against the MLA.
A vacation bench of Justices Vineet Saran and BR Gavai said that the directions of high court passed on May 17 shall not be treated as directives but an advice to Uttar Pradesh government.
'Ishaan Khattar, with the please-fall-in-love-with-me looks in his eyes, carries the first episode,' observes Aseem Chhabra.
Kishore Singh draws up a list of terms he never wants to hear or read again.
Restrictions on assembly of four or more people were in force in rest of the Valley as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order.
The Maharashtra government announced categorisation of various areas into red and non-red zones
The NDA candidate tells the Election Commission that the Maoists plan to kidnap him.
'Villagers are people without masks.' 'That is why I call them genuine human beings.' 'As an actor, I have been inspired by many such genuine characters.'
On a day Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh was in the Kashmir Valley where life remained paralysed for the 47th consecutive day, a youth died in a clash with security forces while 18 security personnel, including three officers, were injured in a terrorist attack.
At least nine persons, including five women, were killed and 24 injured when a bus in which they were travelling fell into a roadside ditch at Uluani in Nagaon district on Sunday.
Curfew continued for the second day in Bihar's Nawada town on Tuesday after a violent clash between two communities that claimed two lives and left over half a dozen seriously injured, police said.
The lawsuit seeks an injunction to stop the entire rule from going into effect.
The teenager was injured in clashes between protesters and security forces in Harwan on Friday.
Barring parts of Srinagar city, Anantnag and Pampore towns, curfew was on Saturday lifted from Kashmir even as normal life remained disrupted due to the strike called by separatists.
The reason behind the suicide was yet to be ascertained as no suicide note was found, police said.
Keya Sarkar outlines some of the challenges faced by a low-income father determined to educate his daughter.
Undoubtedly, the Modi government's biggest challenge is to generate jobs for the 1 million Indians joining the work force every month. So, has 'achche din' arrived for all those young Indians eager to find jobs?
'The SIT quizzed me for about 11 hours. I have told them about the rape. Even after telling them everything, they have not arrested Chinmayanand yet
Curfew remained in force in entire Srinagar district and Anantnag town while restrictions were in place in the rest of the Valley as normal life remained paralysed for the 39th consecutive day.
'If you look at the deaths that are occurring across the state or country, I think out of these 25 not even one required ICU care. That's what we are proud of.'
Most of those who tested positive either recently arrived from African countries or were in contact with such people.
One of prominent religious leaders of South India, the 88-year old Swamiji was admitted to a hospital at Manipal a few days ago for breathing difficulty and his end came on Sunday morning, they said.
The athletes were unable to enter Australia due to government restrictions on foreign nationals travelling from China.
In the wake of Fathima Lateef's tragic suicide at IIT-Madras, A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com speaks to students and professors to find out if one of India's leading educational institutions has a dark side to it.
What has really alarmed the police, and also the families of young drug abusers, is the entry of "chitta" -- a highly refined white powdery semi-synthetic substance (mainly heroine) -- into the drug scene and has spread like wildfire among the state's youth. Ashwani Sharma reports.
Four people have died including one each in Delhi, Karnataka, Punjab and Maharashtra.
This time round, even 'petrol coupons' were reportedly distributed for those attending campaign rallies, especially those addressed by top leaders, cutting across party lines. If this owed to the rising cost of petrol and diesel -- which is a poll issue this time -- there were the customary coupons for 'quarter' (liquor bottle size) and non-vegetarian biryani. Some media reports claimed that some of these 'crowds' attended more than one political rally on the same day in the last week, and at times for rival political parties in adjoining constituencies or districts, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The wave of enthusiasm for digital technology had faded as we'd grown more and more worried about what smartphones and social media were doing to society and to us as individuals. Now that switchback ride between hopes for the technology and fear of it seemed to have taken us on another upward path, as the virus made us fall back in love with it. Read on for an intriguing excerpt from Rory Cellan-Jones's Always On: Hope And Fear In The Social Smartphone Era.
The vehicle was on its way to Ramban town from Banihal when the accident occurred around 9.55 am. The driver lost control over the "overcrowded" vehicle which rolled down the deep gorge at Kela Morh near Maroof, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Doda-Kishtwar-Ramban range, Rafiq-ul-Hassan, said.
A time has thus come when state encouragement for rural students led to empowerment of the socio-economically marginalised sections of the population. It included women. Today, with greater exposure and consequent enlightenment, it has gone beyond 'empowerment' to become 'entitlement', says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Pakistani troops heavily shelled 15 border outposts and hamlets along the international border overnight, leaving three persons injured, one of them seriously in Jammu district.
