The ED case of money laundering in the excise policy stems from a CBI FIR in which Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and some bureaucrats have been named as accused. The excise policy has been rolled back now.
While Maharashtra and Gujarat continue to top the nationwide tally, Tamil Nadu has now crossed the 5,000 mark. The death toll of the southern state has reached 37, with two more women succumbing to COVID-19 during the day.
The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to Uttarakhand and six other states for their alleged failure in implementing Disaster Management Act in order to handle natural catastrophe.
UP will be followed by Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.
Brisk polling began on Thursday morning in 91 constituencies spread across 18 states and two union territories in the first phase of Lok Sabha elections. As people queued up across the nation to cast their vote, there were some famous faces in the lines at different polling stations. Take a look.
The number of hotspot districts comes down to 129 from 170 in a fortnight. But the number of infection-free districts or green zones too decreased from 325 to 307. During this time, the number of non-hotspot districts, also known as orange zones, increased from 207 to 297.
Authorities across states have identified more than 6,000 people who attended the Nizamuddin Tablighi Jamaat congregation, the biggest COVID-19 hotspot in India.
India's COVID-19 recoveries have sprinted past 27 lakh, taking the recovery rate to 76.61 per cent, while the case fatality rate has further dropped to 1.79 per cent, the health ministry said on Sunday.
Counting of votes for the bypolls in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Tripura, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand will be taken up on Sunday.
The cost of debt-funds for the states has touched the highest level so far this fiscal with the weighted average cut-off crossing the 7.16 percentage points at the latest auctions, up 11 bps over the past week, reflecting the hardening yields even for the government securities. The hardening of the rates at the first auction of the quarter comes in the wake of the expected large supply of debt from the states, as indicated for Q4 at Rs 3.2 lakh crore, up by Rs 10,000 crore. Nine states on Tuesday raised Rs 18,900 crore at the latest auction of state development loans.
Petrol price on Thursday was hiked by 35 paise per litre and diesel by 15 paise, pushing rates to a new high across the country. Petrol in Delhi now costs Rs 101.54 a litre and diesel Rs 89.87 per litre, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers. The increase comes after rates stayed mute for three days. Petrol price was last hiked on July 12, on a day when diesel rates had seen its first reduction in almost three months. The increase on Thursday neutralised the 16 paise price cut in diesel on July 12.
The Centre advised nine states including Assam, Bihar, Telangana and Odisha to ramp up testing with special focus on containment zones, strictly implement containment plan, augment health infrastructure and ensure effective clinical management of COVID-19 cases.
The central government may, however, advise state authorities to continue with strict curbs in COVID-19 containment zones in the worst-affected 30 municipal areas that account for 80 per cent of the positive cases in the country. These 30 municipal areas are from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Odisha.
At its Jaipur meeting, the BJP will focus on this year's assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh while the Congress's Chintan Shivir in Udaipur will discuss how it can resurrect itself.
The first dry run of the vaccination drive took place across 125 districts covering all States/UTs on January 2. The dry run was also conducted to familiarise the state, district, block, and hospital-level officers on all aspects of the COVID-19 rollout.
In order to check the abnormal surge in edible oil prices during Diwali festivities, as many as 18 states are in the process of imposing stock holding limits on oilseeds and edible oils after being empowered by the Centre for doing so. Of the 18 states that are in the process of imposing stock limit on my edible oils apart from UP, include Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Odisha, Kerala, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and the Union Territory of Chandigarh. Of the 18, Uttar Pradesh, has already imposed stock limits on edible oils, the Centre was informed with as many as 23 states to discuss ways and means to ensure further easing of edible oil prices.
The Union home minister said he firmly believed that Article 370 that gave the special status to Jammu and Kashmir should be removed as it was not beneficial to the country.
The Group of Ministers on Telangana is set to discuss the draft bill for the creation of Telangana on Saturday.
By comparing I.N.D.IA. with banned terror outfits, Modi has exhibited the kind of nervousness never ever associated with him even at the height of the Gujarat riots, and certainly since his prime ministerial days, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
This may leave those not opting for any of the two options offered by the Centre before the GST Council meet scheduled for October 5 in the lurch. It is clear from the present situation that these states will have to wait till June 2022 to get their compensation, subject to the council extending the cess collection period beyond June 30, 2022.
Flagging higher fuel prices in many opposition-ruled states, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday called it "injustice" to people living there and urged the governments there to reduce VAT in "national interest" to benefit the common man. Modi raised the issue of many states not adhering to the Centre's call for reducing the Value Added Tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel after his government slashed excise duties on them in November last, and asked them to work in the spirit of cooperative federalism in this time of global crisis. Higher prices in some states were also harmful for neighbouring states, he added.
'Where is the spirit of Team India?' asks Chandrababu Naidu.
The government can verify 5 per cent of claims in four states -- Maharashtra, Kerala, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh -- where the gap between number of claims and recorded deaths was wide, said a bench of Justices M R Shah and B V Nagarathna.
Government is unlikely to set up another States Reorganisation Commission to look into the growing demands for creation of separate states in different parts of the country.
It has also been decided to suspend the interstate bus services till March 31, the officials said. The decisions have been taken at a high-level meeting attended by chief secretaries of all states and the cabinet secretary and the principal secretary to the prime minister.
Today, with the Lok Sabha polls only months away, any inter-state dispute over the Cauvery water dispute has the potential to take more political turns than otherwise, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
This is the sixth consecutive day that coronavirus infections have increased by more than 15,000. The country has seen a surge of 3,57,783 infections from June 1 till date.
Droupadi Murmu scripted history on Thursday by becoming India's first tribal President in the one-sided contest, defeating Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.
The Reproduction number or Rt refers to how many people an infected person infects on average. In other words, it can tell how efficiently a virus is spreading.
Officials said PFI has been under the radar of security agencies for its alleged role in violent protests in different parts of the country.
Singh held the day-long meeting to review the situation arising out of some Indian youths getting attracted towards the IS, also known as ISIL or DAESH, and how to deal with the emerging challenge.z
These 51 cases were detected from over 45,000 samples sequenced so far in the country.
The sharp spike in recent weeks continued unabated in the southern states.
Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, a strong political stakeholder in Hyderabad, has expressed apprehensions that the central government was contemplating giving the city the status of an Union Territory while creating Telangana state and warned that the party will fight tooth and nail against any such move.
With COVID cases declining, Delhi will see further relaxation in lockdown, including reopening of markets and malls and resumption of metro services, from June 7 while Maharashtra will implement a five-level plan to ease curbs based on weekly positivity rate and occupancy of oxygen beds in districts.
'As Bharat Jodo Yatra entered Delhi, on 24th December 2022, the security of the Bharat Jodo Yatra was compromised on multiple occasions'
The Centre has warned it is likely that the spread of the new variant will outpace the Delta variant where there is community transmission.
The number of active COVID-19 cases stands at 9,272 and as many as 1,189 people have been cured and discharged, and one has migrated, it said.
The idols of Lord Ganesh, the god of prosperity and wisdom and a slayer of obstacles ('vighna-harta'), will be installed in homes across the state with pomp and gaiety.
Deaths per million population in the country stand at a very low level of 88, it said. The ministry said 23 states and union territories in the country have a CFR lower than the national average, while 65 per cent of the total deaths so far were recorded in five states.
