Noted Scottish-born travel writer Bill Aitken, known for his writings on Indian mountains, rivers, and railways, died in Dehradun at the age of 90. Aitken, who arrived in India in the late 1950s, traveled extensively throughout the country, especially in and around the Himalayan ashrams of Kausani and Mirtola. He lived between Delhi and Mussoorie since the 1970s. In over two dozen travel books, Aitken explored India's religious and natural landscapes, wrote intimately about its people and their beliefs, and had a keen interest in Indian railways. Some of his noted works include "Seven Sacred Rivers," "Divining the Deccan - A Motorbike to the Heart of India," "Footloose in the Himalaya," and "Exploring Indian Railways."
Telugu Desam Party supremo N Chandrababu Naidu will be sworn in as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh for the third time on June 12, party sources said on Friday.
While data can empower communities, it reinforces identities, making local politics more caste-centric, with decisions increasingly contested on the grounds of representation.
Such dynamics could lead to shifting alliances and, in the worst case, local governance getting paralysed as each group demands proportional power-sharing, explain Amitabh Kundu and Mehebub Rahaman.
The actor-turned-politician has been allotted Panchayat Raj and Rural Development, Environment, Forests, and Science and Technology portfolios.
If it was Andhra Pradesh last Budget, it's poll-bound Bihar that has now turned to Centre with a list of demands. How the NDA government is delivering on promises.
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has announced the formation of a special CoBRA battalion for counter-terrorist operations in Jammu and Kashmir. This decision comes 17 years after the jungle warfare unit was established to combat Naxal insurgency. The new battalion, directed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, will be deployed in forested areas of Jammu and Kashmir, including the Jammu region, where recent terrorist incidents have occurred. CoBRA units are known for their specialized jungle warfare and guerilla tactics training, and the new battalion will be equipped with modern weaponry, communication, and surveillance equipment.
The Sena-UBT pointed out that the Congress only spoke about itself in the Ahmedabad meet, and INDIA or Bharat was nowhere in the discussion.
ACA stated that it had received a complaint from the junior player about Vihari at that time.
Hanuma Vihari said he will never play for Andhra again after the state association 'humiliated' him by stripping him of captaincy mid-season for shouting at a reserve player.
India has extended duty-free imports of urad for another year until March 31, 2026, according to a government notification. The provision was earlier in place until the end of March this year.
Barring a few, such as Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu (74), Union Minister C R Patil (69) and Uttar Pradesh Finance Minister Suresh Khanna (71), most other ministers attending the WEF represent the next generation of India's politicians.
In a recent letter to TRAI, Reddy claimed the Andhra Pradesh Cable TV Operators Association took these four channels off air due to alleged coercion by the TDP-led government in the state.
Nitish will join the SRH squad soon as they will open their IPL 2025 campaign on March 23 against Rajasthan Royals at Hyderabad.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance was surging ahead in two southern states -- Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka -- while the respective blocs led by the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu and Congress in Kerala were on their way for another excellent show, going by the latest trends emerging from the counting of voted polled in the just concluded Lok Sabha polls.
'Kerala will lose 6 seats, Tamil Nadu 9 seats, Telangana and Karnataka 2 seats each, Andhra Pradesh 5 seats.'
Four men were arrested in Visakhapatnam for allegedly gang-raping a law student and blackmailing her with some intimate videos, police said.
Success has put India in the exclusive and limited club of nations that possess the high-power Laser-DEW.
Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday issued a three-line whip to all of its Lok Sabha MPs asking them to be present in the House for the passing of the Union Budget 2025-26.
A new report, "India Justice Report 2025", highlights the stark gender disparity in India's police force, with less than 1,000 women holding senior positions like Director-Generals and Superintendents of Police. Despite growing awareness about the need for gender diversity in law enforcement, not a single state or Union Territory has met its target for women's representation in the police force. The report also emphasizes the significant challenges faced by the justice system as a whole, including infrastructural deficiencies, overcrowding in prisons, and inadequate staffing levels. The report calls for systemic reforms to address these issues and ensure a more equitable and accessible justice system for all.
Mother Dairy is targeting a revenue of Rs 20,000 crore by financial year 2026 (FY27) as it continues to identify white spaces and introduce new products, the company said. On Wednesday, it launched a new "pro" range of products enriched with protein, starting with milk enriched with 30 per cent more protein than regular milk.
In Rajasthan, Pilani recorded 44.9 degrees Celsius, Phalodi and Churu touched 43.8 degrees Celsius and 43.5 degrees Celsius respectively, while Bikaner and Jaipur registered 43.4 degrees Celsius and 43 degrees Celsius.
Hundreds of students have been staging protests at S R Gudlavalleru Engineering College in Krishna district since Thursday night over the alleged incident. Demanding justice at any cost, the students vowed not to attend classes until then, while the minister said that truth would come out and the culprits would be punished.
The Pushpa actor waved to a large crowd from a balcony with the YSRCP candidate and also posted a message on 'X' in his favour.
'There will be no change of seats for Delhi, Assam and Maharashtra.' 'Andhra, J&K, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, West Bengal and Telangana will lose seats while there will be an increase for MP, UP, Bihar, Haryana, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh.' 'It is a big mistake if you make it a north-south issue.'
Interestingly, eager to play under domestic coach Chandrakant Pandit to revive his international career, Vihari was mulling a move to Madhya Pradesh before the start of the season.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has accused the Border Security Force (BSF), central agencies, and the BJP of fanning tension in Murshidabad by allegedly facilitating cross-border influx from Bangladesh. She also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to keep the Union Home Ministry under control. Banerjee has announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh each for the families of three people killed during the violence and directed the state chief secretary to initiate a probe into the role of the BSF.
India is expected to experience hotter-than-usual temperatures from April to June, with more heatwave days in central and eastern India and the northwestern plains, the IMD said. Most parts of the country will see higher-than-normal maximum temperatures, except for some areas in western and eastern India where the temperatures are expected to be normal. Minimum temperatures will also be above normal in most regions. The IMD has warned that landslides could occur in parts of Kerala and Karnataka in the Western Ghats and that northeastern states might face flooding in April.
A round-up of the Ranji Trophy quarter-final matches played on Monday.
Twelve of the 16 Naxalites killed in an encounter in Chhattisgarh's Gariaband district have been identified as dreaded ultras carrying a cumulative bounty of Rs 3.13 crore, including a central committee member of the outlawed movement, a police official said. Among them was Chalpathi alias Jairam, a member of the central committee and Odisha state committee of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), who had a collective bounty of Rs 90 lakh on his head in Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. It was the first time someone from the central committee, the main governing body of the proscribed outfit, has been eliminated in an encounter in Chhattisgarh. The encounter, which lasted three days, involved personnel from E-30 (a Gariaband district police unit), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), its elite unit CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action) and Odisha police's Special Operation Group (SOG).
The Kerala police were the most sensitised to the rights of those arrested while that of Jharkhand and Gujarat the least.
Those arrested have been identified as Vipin Jain and Pomil Jain, former directors of Bhole Baba Dairy, Apoorva Chawda from Vaishnavi Dairy and Raju Rajasekharan from AR Dairy, they said.
The Telangana High Court upheld a trial court's verdict handing out death penalty to five senior operatives of banned terror outfit, Indian Mujahideen, involved in a bomb blast that left 18 people killed in 2013. The court dismissed the criminal revision appeal filed by the IM operatives while upholding the NIA court's judgment. The five members, including IM co-founder Mohd Ahmed Sidibapa alias Yasin Bhatkal, Pakistani national Zia-ur-Rahman alias Waqas, Asadullah Akhtar alias Haddi, Tahaseen Akhtar alias Monu and Ajaz Shaikh, were convicted in 2016. The special court for NIA cases here awarded capital punishment to five convicts treating it as a rarest of the rare case. The high court, after conducting a detailed hearing in the appeals filed by the convicts, confirmed the death sentence of the five IM operatives.
If as critics point out, the environmental impact assessment study was commissioned only after the auction process got underway with not all the stakeholders getting to know of it, then the government has already compromised the trust it could have enjoyed with Kerala's public including its coastal communities, points out Shyam G Menon.
A piquant curry to jazz up steamed rice. Have it with papad.
Police in Thane, Maharashtra, have increased security at the Irani locality following the killing of a robber from an Irani gang based there in an encounter with police in Chennai. Jaffer Gulam Hussein Irani was shot dead by police after allegedly opening fire on them in Chennai. The Irani Basti has been known as a base for chain-snatchers and motorbike thieves. Police have stepped up security in the locality to prevent any law and order issues. The incident comes after a series of chain-snatching incidents in Chennai, which led to the arrest of two other members of the Irani gang. The gang is known for its involvement in crimes across India, including chain snatching and "attention diversion crimes."
TTD Board member Bhanu Prakash Reddy has apologiesed for the incident and stated that the trust would conduct an inquiry in this regard and take appropriate action.
The birth anniversary of Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, whose political influence has surged with the passage of time, on Monday was marked by bitter trading of charges between the ruling BJP and opposition parties as they fought for his legacy.
Asian Games champion shuttler Satwiksairaj Rankireddy's father R Kasi Viswanatham died of cardiac arrest on Thursday morning.
The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), the custodian of Lord Venkateswara Swamy temple, has barred 18 employees from participating in all religious activities for allegedly partaking in non-Hindu activities. The decision has been defended by the Andhra Pradesh government, citing the need to protect the religious sentiments of Hindu devotees. The move has sparked debate, with some supporting the TTD's stance and others criticizing it as discriminatory.
In 2024 alone, South India saw the highest rise in sales in the luxury segment, with Tamil Nadu reportedly registering a 19.3 per cent increase in premium car registrations from 2022-23
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