Poet, writer and former IPS officer Keki N Daruwalla, whose magic with words gained him national and international repute, has died at a Delhi hospital after prolonged illness and a spell of pneumonia. He was 87.
Keeping up his tradition of celebrating the festival with soldiers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Sir Creek near the Indo-Pak border in Gujarat's Kutch district and offered sweets to jawans.
The Pakistan Marine Security Agency (PMSA) has arrested five fishermen and seized one fishing boat from the international waters near Jakhau of Kutch district, secretary of national fish forum claimed on Wednesday.
The incident took place on Wednesday evening, about 36 nautical miles off the Jhaku coast, when the Coast Guard during a patrol, caught a Pakistani boat in the Indian territory, they said.
The IMD said that rainfall over India in August and September would be around 106 percent of the long-period average of 422.8 mm.
The state government has begun preparations to deal with the fallout of the cyclone as it will bring very strong wind and heavy rainfall in the region, officials said.
They saluted 'the hands that weave timeless stories'.
11 fishermen who were on board the Pakistani boat have been detained.
'Areas within 100 km of the landfall could suffer catastrophic effect.'
The Pakistani fishing boat apprehended by the Indian Coast Guard on Monday from the Kori Creek area in Kutch district with eight fishermen on board have been handed over to the district police, an official release from the Defence PRO said. Out of the eight people on board the boat, three were teenagers aged between 10 and 16 years, the release said.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Tuesday visited actor Salman Khan's residence in Bandra in Mumbai's western suburbs and assured him of protection after two persons were arrested in connection with firing at his house.
The tremor, which measured 4.0 on the Richter scale, occurred at 0057 IST on Wednesday.
'Modi as chief minister did a superb job of rehabilitation after the Kutch earthquake of 2001. He can use that hard-earned expertise for the benefit of the people of Kashmir too -- but only if they let him do so,' says T V R Shenoy.
Explaining his vision for the region, Modi cited the example of Kutch district of Gujarat.
Officials in coastal Devbhumi Dwarka said around 1,300 people have been shifted to safer places so far.
Nima Acharya is the second MLA to quit the Congress for anti-party activities in the last few days ahead of the assembly polls.
A senior RIL executive confirmed this development, but refused to divulge further details. "There has been some research on producing ethanol from jethropa. However, the tests have not been confirmed," said a scientist who has been working with the Gujarat state government for studying crops in Kutch. Another view by the industry experts is that the sugar industry in South Gujarat is not finding enough takers for the ethanol produced.
Two men arrested for firing outside Bollywood superstar Salman Khan's residence in Mumbai had conducted a survey of his farm house at Panvel in adjoining Raigad district four days before the shooting incident, police said on Thursday.
After identifying the duo, the police used human and technical intelligence to track them.
A senior Gujarat police officer has said that Gupta and Pal were hired by the gang of incarcerated gangster Lawrence Bishnoi to open fire at Khan's house.
Congress Party may agree to form a coalition government in Gujarat, a senior leader tells Sheela Bhatt
The administration is geared up for more showers as the India meteorological department has warned of heavy to very heavy rains with isolated extremely heavy rains in several districts of the state till Thursday morning.
A Pakistani boat, which had intruded into Indian waters near Sir Creek area of Kutch, was seized by the Border Security Force on Friday, but its occupants managed to escape."During patrolling, a BSF team spotted a boat about 1.5 km from the Sir Creek area. On seeing the BSF patrol team, the occupants of the boat dived into the sea," BSF officials said. They said the team "seized the boat and started to track down the occupants."
Eighteen Hindu refugees from Pakistan residing in Ahmedabad have been granted Indian citizenship during a camp attended by Gujarat minister of state for home Harsh Sanghavi.
The cyclone is expected to make landfall on Thursday evening as a 'very severe cyclonic storm' with maximum wind speed reaching up to 150 kilometres per hour, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
The Mumbai police's crime branch has recovered two pistols, magazines and bullets from the Tapi river in Gujarat during a search operation to recover weapons allegedly used in the firing outside Bollywood superstar Salman Khan's residence, an official said on Tuesday.
Ravindra Jadeja and wife Rivaba visited the Ashapura temple in Mata no Madh village in Gujarat's Kutch district.
Relief Commissioner Alok Pandey told reporters that the government is constantly working to ensure that there is no loss of life due to the weather phenomenon.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Thursday unveiled the next phase of growth at Reliance Industries Ltd, with retail and telecom worth over $100 billion each, doubling revenues and pre-tax profit in 3-4 years, new energy business becoming profitable by 2031, and core oil and chemical business continuing to be the robust growth engine. The sprawling conglomerate with interests in refining, oil and gas, petrochemicals, telecom, retail, and media is on track to more than double in size before the end of the decade, Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance, told company shareholders.
In yet another mishap, a MiG-21 jet fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force crashed in the marshlands in Kutch near the Indo-Pak border on Friday. But the pilot bailed out safely.
While two lives were "tragically" lost before the landfall of the cyclone, not a single human life was lost post the landfall in Gujarat.
A total of 33 teams have been earmarked by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to undertake relief and rescue operations in Gujarat and Maharashtra ahead of the expected landfall of cyclone 'Biparjoy' near the Jakhau port in Kutch district, officials said on Wednesday.
Cyclone Biparjoy has left a trail of destruction in Gujarat's Kutch and Saurashtra regions as some 1,000 villages are still without power with hundreds of electric poles getting damaged, while several coastal villages were flooded due to heavy rains and incoming seawater, officials said on Friday, a day after the storm made landfall.
The India Meteorological Department has said that the landfall process of Cyclone 'Biparjoy' has started in Saurashtra and Kutch regions of Gujarat. The landfall process will carry on till midnight with wind speeds reaching a maximum of 140 kilometres per hour, the IMD said.
Based on the technical surveillance, they were apprehended on April 16 from a temple premises at Mata No Madh near Bhuj town in Gujarat by joint teams of the Mumbai and Kutch police.
"We had information that some people from across the border were trying to infiltrate in to Indian territory. So we conducted a special operation and apprehended nine men," a BSF spokesperson said.
