Rediff readers share their best photographs of India from their travels.
The prime minister also visited the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in New Delhi after the milestone was achieved and interacted with hospital officials.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi commissioned India's first indigenously designed and built aircraft carrier INS Vikrant in Kochi on Friday, that put India into a select league of countries with domestic capability to build such large war ships.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered the customary Independence Day address to the nation after unfurling the Tricolour at the Red Fort. India is marking its 74th Independence Day under the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic.
As many as 67,95,103 people have recuperated from the disease so far pushing the national recovery rate to 88.81 per cent while the case fatality rate due COVID-19 has dropped to 1.51 per cent.
IIM Lucknow has concluded its 2020-21 final placements.
Modi also invited suggestions from the people for inclusion in his Independence Day speech.
The key components of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission include a health ID for every citizen that will also work as their health account, to which personal health records can be linked and viewed with the help of a mobile application, a Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR) and Healthcare Facilities Registries (HFR) that will act as a repository of all healthcare providers across both modern and traditional systems of medicine.
The prime minister touched upon many issues including scrapping of Article 370, triple talaq and many more.
This will also be his first August 15 address after coming back to power with a huge mandate.
Modi told the leaders that Tomar was just a phone call away for protesting farmers and the agriculture minister had conveyed the same to farmer leaders earlier this month.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday offered prayers at the historic Jama Masjid and visited the Red Fort in Old Delhi area.
Congress legislators will spend Thursday night inside the Karnataka legislative assembly and council, demanding the sacking of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister K S Eshwarappa and also that he be booked for sedition for his statement about the national flag.
Recognising that peaceful protests are a hallmark of a thriving democracy, the United States has said that it encourages dialogue between the protesting farmers and the Indian government to resolve their differences.
Not carrying weapons, following fixed routes and entering Delhi with tractors sans trolleys, were among the several conditions set by farmer leaders and police that were violated by participants of the tractor parade in New Delhi on Tuesday.
The textile ministry had organised a show at Elephanta Caves in Mumbai to promote the artisans and revive arts and culture.
On August 15 last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced from the ramparts of the Red Fort that the Indian Railways would launch 75 Vande Bharat Express trains by August 2023. Later, in her 2022 Budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that 400 Vande Bharat trains will be manufactured in the next three years, which are expected to cost between Rs 40,000 crore and Rs 50,000 crore. Those upbeat announcements come after a series of cancelled tenders, vigilance actions against officials and interdepartmental rivalry that delayed the addition of these iconic trains developed entirely indigenously by the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the 24-hour average concentration of lung-damaging fine particles known as PM2.5 in Delhi-NCR shot up from 243 micrograms per cubic metre at 6 pm on Thursday (Diwali day) to 410 micrograms per cubic metre at 9 am on Friday, around seven times the safe limit of 60 micrograms per cubic metre.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday continued his 'turban tradition' as he opted for a predominate mix of orange and yellow coloured headgear for celebrations of the country's Independence Day.
Experts, however, feel that given the intensity of the second wave and the high single dose coverage, India is in a good position to avoid any drastic wave in the near future.
The Delhi police on Wednesday said Mohammad Ashraf alias Ali Ahmed Noorie, a Pakistani terrorist with ISI links who was living in India for over 10 years under a fake identity, had conducted a reconnaissance of the high court here ahead of the 2011 blast on the court premises.
If you are serious about countering the Chinese threat, then the best weapon is investing in real freedom, plurality, elections and democracy. Unfortunately, it isn't an approach all Indians currently seem to agree on, asserts Shyam G Menon.
Addressing the nation on the 71st Independence Day from the ramparts of the historic Red Fort, he asserted that his government is committed to restoring the lost glory of Kashmir and its status as 'heaven on earth'.
India's recently-enacted agri laws have the potential to increase farmers' income, but there is a need to provide a social safety net to the vulnerable cultivators, IMF's Chief Economist Gita Gopinath has said. Indian agriculture is in need of reforms, she said. There are multiple areas where the reforms are needed, including infrastructure, the chief economist of the Washington-based global financial institution said on Tuesday. The three agri laws, enacted in September last year, have been projected by the Indian government as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove middlemen and allow farmers to sell their produce anywhere in the country.
Varsha Nair and Vivek Wagh are painting India on whatever canvas is possible.
They are the first to be declared terrorists under the new anti-law, a home ministry official said.
The central government's Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi said a "significant improvement in air quality is not likely" owing to slow wind speed, particularly during night time, and contribution from farm fires.
Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa's aspirations to be prime minister seem entirely logical with more multi-cornered contests, uncertainty in Andhra Pradesh and the winner-takes-all history of elections in Tamil Nadu. Praveen Chakravarty explains.
He said the Centre was creating an environment in the Valley which gives people a chance to raise questions.
'Despite having majority governments, why did you allow it to remain temporary. You did not have the conviction or strength to bring reform'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday declared that he would like to run the country on the basis of consensus and not on majority in Parliament and called for a 10-year moratorium on caste and communal violence.
Though Covid cases are rising in Delhi and its satellite towns, the focus should be on hospital admissions that have remained the same or changed just marginally, say several scientists, underscoring that the uptick is not an indication of a fourth wave in the country at this point.
When the prime minister thanked his predecessor during his Independence Day speech, it was significant because it was Dr Singh's final acknowledgement that political support for reform is essential.
Expect Modi to speak about internal security, terrorism, agriculture, the Triple Talaq Bill, the SC/ST Bill and, of course, the controversial NRC.
BKU (Bhanu) president Thakur Bhanu Pratap Singh told reporters he was deeply pained by whatever happened during the tractor parade in Delhi on Republic Day.
The protests against farm laws saw a fair share of controversies as well with climate activist Greta Thunberg and pop sensation Rihanna making their way to India's prime time debates and terms such as 'toolkit' and 'andolanjeevi' entering the Indian political lexicon.
Right from teaching ABC to comparing Marwaris with Gujratis, Modi did all to bill the connect in Jaipur, reports Shahnawaz Akhtar
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his first Independence Day speech on Friday. In his 65-minute speech, Modi asked for a cleaner country and also said that it was time for the country to become digital.
From Agra Fort and Red Fort to Sabarmati Ashram, Jallianwala Bagh and Kirti Mandir, these sites have had played an important role in India's freedom struggle.
