Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday vowed to thwart alleged attempts to rob Dalits and backward classes of reservations by the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) which he accused of 'enslavement' and performing 'mujra' for Muslim vote bank.
Senior state leaders of the two parties pointed to propping up of the "new set of leaders not having much political stature" and lack of communication for the failure to reconcile differences.
Intense heat swept through east India and parts of the southern peninsular region on Thursday, testing power grids and prompting the Kerala government to order closure of educational institutions till May 6.
Thakur, popularly known as 'jannayak', served as chief minister from December 1970 to June 1971 and from December 1977 to April 1979.
At the core of Nitish Kumar's decision was a cold political calculation. He assessed that the RJD's support base was unlikely to vote for JD-U candidates in the Lok Sabha polls. He was unsure of winning even half a dozen if he stayed with the RJD and the Congress.
Bihar has fertile grounds for caste to emerge as an electoral issue.
'This is going to generate a new debate on reservation because the quota for Economically Weaker Sections is 10%, and that is for nearly 16% of the population.' 'For 16% you are giving 10%. This is set to raise eyebrows among the OBCs after the caste survey.'
A peek into the life of a public-sector banker who did well professionally, but paid a price for it, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'it's not just youth in India who are left behind because of their inability to find jobs; nearly two-thirds of Indian women of working ages do not participate at all in the paid labour force.'
President Droupadi Murmu on Saturday conferred Bharat Ratna, the country's highest civilian honour, on former prime ministers P V Narasimha Rao and Chaudhary Charan Singh, agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan and two-time former Bihar chief minister Karpoori Thakur, posthumously at a ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.
Heatwave conditions are expected over northwest India during the next five days, with Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi predicted to bear the maximum impact, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Thursday.
Akash was standing near the boundary ropes having finished his spell during Bengal's Ranji Trophy match against Kerala in Thumba. Applause from his Bengal team-mates gave him the news he had been waiting for -- his maiden Test call-up.
A SIT has begun process to freeze bank accounts of arrested accused in the Bihar toppers scam. M I Khan/Rediff.com reports from Patna.
The ongoing Ranji Trophy season marks the end of an era in domestic cricket with five heavyweights bidding adieu to the game, leaving a huge void to fill.
This is the first protest in Bihar against the state government order directing schools, colleges and coaching institutes to remain closed till April 11 following a rise in COVID-19 cases.
More than 80 per cent of Indians live in districts vulnerable to climate risks. Among these, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Bihar are the most vulnerable states to extreme climate events.
The Met office has issued a "red" warning for Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and west Rajasthan, stressing the need for "extreme care for vulnerable people".
In a poor village of daily wage earners in Siwan, Bihar, people speak about their hard lives and why they vote.
They have sought a direction from the top court to the Union education ministry to probe, identify and take strict action against students and others who indulged in unfair practices like paper leak and impersonation in the NEET-UG exam conducted on May 5 this year.
The stakes are significant for the BJP in this round as the party had in 2019 won an overwhelming majority of these seats, including all in Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, that will go to polls on May 7.
In the letter to the Bihar CM, the Bharatiya Janata Party MP and rural development minister said, 'Things which have no connection with Islam are being Islamised. Some institutions have become self-proclaimed in giving halal certificate and are giving halal certificate to companies manufacturing goods by paying huge sums of money.'
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday announced his intent to raise quotas for Other Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the state, saying a legislation to the effect is likely to be brought in the ongoing assembly session.
'Nobody accepted me when I was a boy, but now people ask me to bless them.'
Ahead of the assembly polls in Rajasthan, the Congress government on Saturday night issued an order for the conduct of a caste survey in the state.
A substantial number of castes and groups are already placed in the reserved category, getting about 52 per cent of reservations altogether. It would be completely inequitable to place the Maratha community in the Other Backward Class (OBC) category, it said.
'What's sad today is that there are so many people who cannot find work, not because the country is devoid of that opportunity, but because we are not doing enough in the country.'
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The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that it will hear on October 6 pleas challenging the Patna high court's August 1 order giving the go-ahead for a caste survey in Bihar.
Akhilesh Yadav's stock rose dramatically on Tuesday with his Samajwadi Party cutting the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party down to size in Uttar Pradesh.
Akash Deep had just finished his spell and was manning the boundary when he heard everyone in the Bengal dressing room clapping in unison and congratulating him.
'During the election period, Modi did not refer to the government as 'Government of India'...it used to be called Modi Sarkar, Modi's guarantee. Today that Modi guarantee is no longer there'
Nearly 300 persons were arrested in the anti-cheating operations across Bihar, even as Chief Minister Nitish Kumar admitted that reports of rampant use of unfair means in the ongoing matriculation examination had sullied the image of the state.
'The lack of a majority isn't the issue. He has enough in 240, especially as none of his allies can pull down his coalition.' 'That's why he's started as if this were just another, normal term. That pretence is vital for him.' 'The change for Modi 3.0 comes not from numbers, but from the new environment of contestation,' points out Shekhar Gupta.
Cyber criminals are using apps and young women to trap people through mobile phone calls and video chats.
Saurashtra's middle-order batter Sheldon Jackson followed in senior teammate Cheteshwar Pujara's footsteps, completing his century on day two of their Ranji Trophy Group A tie against Rajasthan to guide the defending champions to a 300-plus total in Jaipur on Saturday.
Will a caste census make tens of millions desert Mr Modi?, asks Shekhar Gupta.
Along with Modi, senior BJP leaders including Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar, all ministers in Modi 2.0 Cabinet, took oath as cabinet ministers at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. In all, 71 ministers were sworn-in along with Modi, taking the strength of the Union council to 72.
Kamat is the second minister in Nitish Kumar's cabinet to succumb to the infection this week.
>Deep was picked ahead of Bengal team-mate Mukesh Kumar after his impressive performances for India 'A' against England Lions, when he took 13 wickets in three games and for his consistent performances for Bengal in domestic cricket.
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