The home portfolio of Bihar, which Chief Minister Nitish Kumar kept with himself all through his nearly 20-year-long tenure, has been given to his deputy, BJP leader Samrat Chowdhury, this time, according to an official notification issued on Friday.
India's only mud volcano at Baratang in Andaman and Nicobar Islands has erupted after being dormant for over two decades. The eruption, which occurred on October 2, has led to the formation of an earth mound and the spread of muddy soil over a large area. Tourist movement to the site has been suspended as a safety precaution.
A man died and his wife was severely injured after a mudslide levelled several houses in the Idukki district of Kerala. Residents allege unscientific road widening work was responsible for the tragedy.
Experts question whether a cloudburst caused the recent flash flood in Uttarkashi, India, citing insufficient rainfall and other potential factors like ice chunks, rockfalls, or landslides.
'The lakes up there were already at the brink due to accumulated rainwater, and then snowmelt occurred.' 'When one lake breached, it triggered a cascading effect -- other lakes breached subsequently.'
India is planning to amend the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act 2023 to specify the use of funds currently earmarked at 5,600 crore for exploring critical mineral mines overseas, according to a top official. The proposed amendments also aim to introduce a tailings policy and modify the royalty structure to facilitate the extraction of critical minerals from waste materials, the official added.
Mysterious underground sounds caused concern among local people residing in a tiny hamlet in Kottayam district of Kerala.
Vedanta Ltd on Friday said it has been declared as preferred bidder for a diamond mine in Madhya Pradesh. The company said it is the highest bidder with a final price offer of 1.10 per cent.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has received approval for the Chandrayaan-5 mission, which aims to study the Moon's surface using a 250kg rover. The mission will be conducted in collaboration with Japan. This follows the success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, which achieved a soft landing on the Moon's South Pole in August 2023. ISRO is also planning to establish a space station, Bharatiya Space Station, in the near future.
In a letter, dated February 16, 2024, issued by the Cabinet Secretariat department, headed by the CM, officials of the Health, Road Construction, Urban Development and Housing and Rural Works departments have been asked to review the decisions taken during the previous grand alliance government in the state.
Local officials said no casualties have been reported due to Wednesday's quake that hit the Madoi County in Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai province of northwest China at 3:44 pm (Beijing time), tremors for which were also felt in north-eastern Nepal.
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.
Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma retained the key departments for his National Peoples Party, and gave the lesser politically significant ones to alliance partners Bharatiya Janata Party, Hill State Peoples Democratic Party and United Democratic Party as he allocated portfolios on Thursday.
On Saturday, the quake measured 4.4 on the Richter scale in Vijayapura bordering Maharashtra, and there was another tremor of 1.8 this morning in south Karnataka.
'We have not even used 0.1% of the available resources.'
This is the third time that Tamil Nadu has supplied the necessary soil to the Bengaluru headquartered space agency for performing the tests for its ambitious Moon missions.
The complaint, to be registered by the Anti-Corruption Bureau of vigilance department, indirectly refers to Kamat, who was also the mines minister, as it will book former mines and geology department director Arvind Lolienkar, his superiors and subordinates for alleged illegal recruitment in the department, in December last year.
The study conducted by G C Chowdhary, former professor at the Geology Department of Banaras Hindu University and S K Agarwal, also a professor of Geology, has shown that the drinking water in the University premises some other places in the city contains radioactive Uranium more than the recommended limit.
Goa Congress today filed a police complaint against state Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar for allegedly abetting suicide of a suspended mines and geology department official.
The actor-turned-politician has been allotted Panchayat Raj and Rural Development, Environment, Forests, and Science and Technology portfolios.
The Goa government on Monday issued a notification asking all 90 mines in the state to suspend operations with immediate effect. The State Mines and Geology Department issued a notification directing the mines to stop their operations.
Goa Leader of Opposition Manohar Parrikar on Wednesday told the state legislative assembly that it can be 'inferred' that Chief Minister Digambar Kamat might have been involved in illegal mining activities.
The sob story of suspended Indian Administrative Service officer Y Srilakshmi on Friday took a turn for good for her as the Central Bureau of Investigation court in Hyderabad granted her conditional bail, and after completing the formalities, she was out of the jail by the evening.
Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat on Thursday said that the officials from state mines and geology department protecting illegal mines, will be dealt with stern punishment.
An earthquake of magnitude 4.8 struck 7 km north-northeast of Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, on Friday, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported.
'A person weighing 68 kilograms on the Earth would weigh only over 11 kg on the Moon'
In a step towards diversifying its resource base and securing green energy minerals, India is poised to launch its first-ever offshore mineral auction in the first quarter of 2024, announced Union Minister of Mines Pralhad Joshi during the launch event of the National Geoscience Data Repository portal. The government plans to hold auctions in March, offering 10-15 blocks for bidding. Meanwhile, the ministry of mines is currently developing rules and regulations for offshore mining.
The toll from the series of earthquakes that jolted Japan on New Year's Day rose to 48 on Tuesday, with several more injured, NHK World reported.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday termed as 'baseless', Union Home Minister Amit Shah's claim that the state government did not heed the Centre's warning regarding a possible natural calamity in Wayanad due to heavy rains.
Conceding illegal mining in Shivamogga, his native district, Yediyurappa said the quarry owner and two of his associates have been arrested for the explosion that occurred on Thursday night and he would inspect the blast site on Saturday.
The Uttarakhand high court on Monday sought replies from the state government and central agencies within 48 hours on the ongoing operation and measures taken to rescue 41 workers trapped inside a partially collapsed tunnel in Uttarkashi for more than a week.
'The larger story of systematic destruction, which can and has been quantified, goes mysteriously missing from any political and/or public discourse about the ongoing devastation in the Ghats,' notes Prem Panicker.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Saturday reviewed relief and rescue operations with senior officials of the government after returning to Dehradun from on-site inspection of Joshimath landslide area gave directions for forming a coordination committee immediately at the government level under the chairmanship of the Additional Chief Secretary and at the local level under the chairmanship of the Commissioner Garhwal.
"I have always felt that Lord Ram has been shielding me and my family from all the bad times and I strongly believe that it is him, who chose me for the auspicious task," Yogiraj, who has received effusive praise for his work, told PTI.
Samariya, the first Dalit to have been appointed to the post, was working as information commissioner in the transparency panel Central Information Commission (CIC). A 1985-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Telangana cadre, Samariya retired after serving as the labour and employment secretary in the Government of India. He was sworn in as the information commissioner on November 7, 2020.
The intensity was measured 7 on the Japanese scale -- which ranges from zero to seven -- on the Noto Peninsula, Ishikawa Prefecture, according to NHK.
Shivakumar has got the all-important Major and Medium Irrigation and Bengaluru City Development, including the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Bangalore Development Authority, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority and the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited.
Jharkhand mining secretary Pooja Singhal, earlier arrested and remanded to the custody of the ED in a suspected money laundering case, was suspended by the Jharkhand government on Thursday, an official said.
Faced with one setback after another in expanding the scope of mining in the country, almost all the major miners of the world have wound down their operations in India.
Which are India's most impressive lakes? Choose and journey there now!
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