A three-hour heavy downpour accompanied by a dust storm hit Delhi-NCR early morning on Friday, causing flight delays and traffic disruptions as seven people were killed in rain-related incidents across north India.
A class 10 student gave birth to a baby at the hostel of a state-run residential school in Odisha's Malkangiri district, prompting an inquiry. The girl delivered a baby girl on Monday after returning to the hostel following board exams. The headmaster of the school, run by the ST & SC Development, Minorities & Backward Class Welfare Department, said that men are not allowed in the girl's hostel and that the incident suggests a lapse in health worker duties. Both the child and mother are stable. The girl's parents have questioned the school authorities about the pregnancy remaining undetected until labor. A departmental inquiry has been initiated, and a man suspected to be involved has been detained by the police.
Senior officials of India and the US will begin three-day talks on the proposed bilateral trade agreement in New Delhi on Wednesday amid threats of reciprocal tariffs from the Trump-administration, an official said. To formally start the negotiations on the pact, Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch, along with a team of officials, is in New Delhi.
The bodies of the last four of the trapped labourers were pulled out from the site of the avalanche-hit Border Roads Organisation (BRO) camp in Chamoli on Sunday, taking the death toll to eight as authorities ended the nearly 60-hour rescue operation.
Samsung India is willing to sign a long-term wage settlement and negotiate directly with its workers for an amicable resolution of the dispute, the company's lawyer said on Friday, terming the ongoing employees' strike at the Sriperumbudur plant "illegal". Lawyer Anand Gopalan, who is representing Samsung India in the high court of Chennai and the Kanchipuram District Court, said the company would only negotiate with its workers and not with any third-party leaders.
Sanjay Roy, convicted for the rape and murder of an on-duty doctor at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in August 2022, will initially work as a gardener at the Presidency Correctional Home where he is lodged. He will later be trained for other jobs such as tailoring, carpentry, or manufacturing of aluminium utensils. As an unskilled worker, Roy will be paid a daily wage of Rs 105.
An Indian official team is likely to visit Washington next week to iron out differences on certain issues before formally launching negotiations for the proposed India-US bilateral trade agreement (BTA), an official said. The visit, which comes within weeks of a high-level US team visiting India, indicates that the talks for the BTA are gaining momentum.
'A person is supposed to do 40 to 42 hours of work a week.' 'If a person is working more that, it is exploitation.' 'And it is because of this exploitation that employees experience stress which affects their mental health.' 'Sometimes it even leads to ending their lives. It is very unfortunate.'
Rescue efforts to reach eight people trapped inside a partially collapsed tunnel in Telangana have been intensified with an increased deployment of personnel and equipment. Scientists from the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) have located four of the trapped workers using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR). The damaged conveyor belt is expected to be repaired by Monday, allowing for easier removal of debris. The Chief Minister is scheduled to visit the site and hold a review meeting with officials. The condition of the four located workers is said to be grim.
Air India Express on Thursday cancelled 85 flights or around 23 per cent of the total daily capacity as the disruptions due to the cabin crew shortage continue and said Air India will operate services on 20 of its routes to minimise inconvenience to passengers.
Shiv Sena's Dadaji Bhuse is the new school education minister while Uday Samant continues to be the industries minister.
The newly-formed Delhi Cabinet in its first meeting approved the implementation of the Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme in the national capital. The cabinet also decided to present 14 pending CAG reports in the first session of the assembly. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said that the previous AAP government did not allow the health scheme in the city, preventing the people from availing its benefits.
It said Delhi is facing an unprecedented heatwave with temperatures hovering around 50 degrees Celsius in some parts for the first time in the city's history.
The Indian industry is paranoid about the USA's plan to impose reciprocal tariffs and wants early conclusion of a bilateral trade agreement, sources said on Wednesday. They said that the talks for the proposed bilateral trade agreement are going well.
States are mandated to develop and implement 'heat HAPs' for prevention of heat-induced diseases. But most do not go beyond standard advisory on heat prevention.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has distributed portfolios among the new ministers, keeping key departments such as Home, Personnel, and several others to himself. The Congress' Radhakrishna Kishore was given Finance, Commercial Tax, Planning and Development Department, and Parliamentary Affairs departments. JMM's Deepak Biruwa was allotted the departments of Revenue, Registration and Land Reforms (non-registration), and Transport. Chamra Linda, another JMM leader, was allotted the departments of Schedule Tribes, Scheduled Castes, Backward Classes (except Minority Welfare). RJD's Sanjay Prasad Yadav was given the departments of Industries, and Labour, Planning, Training and Skill Development. The Congress' Irfan Ansari got Health, Medical Education and Family Welfare, besides Food, Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs, and Disaster Management departments. The chief minister also kept to himself the departments of Cabinet Secretariat, Personnel, Administrative Reforms and Official Language, Road Construction, Building Construction, and those departments yet to be distributed to anyone. Among the other ministers, JMM's Ramdas Soren was given the School Education and Literacy, and Registration departments. Party colleague Hafizul Hasan was allotted the departments of Water Resources, and Minority Welfare Department. Panchayati Raj, Rural Works, and Rural Development departments were given to Congress MLA Deepika Pandey Singh. The CM gave Drinking Water and Sanitation, and Excise and Prohibition departments to JMM's Yogendra Prasad. JMM legislator Sudhivya Kumar became the minister for Urban Development and Housing, Higher and Technical Education, and Tourism, Art Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs departments. Shilpi Neha Tirkey of the Congress was allotted Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Cooperative Department. A total of 11 MLAs took oath as ministers in the Hemant Soren government in Jharkhand on Thursday.
Apple iPhone maker Foxconn has informed the government that 25 per cent of its new hires are married women and its safety protocol, which requires all employees to avoid wearing metal irrespective of gender or religion, is not discriminatory, sources said. In an informal note shared with the government after reports suggested it is not hiring married women, Foxconn stated that such stipulations are not part of its policy and these claims may have been made by those individuals who were not hired, sources said.
Seeing a certain tousle-headed gentleman standing in the queue, I was both astonished and elated. My happiness radiated on my face and words suddenly deserted me.
Amid rising tensions between India and Pakistan, the US has called on both countries "not to escalate" the conflict. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to speak with the foreign ministers of Pakistan and India as early as today or tomorrow. The US State Department said Washington is reaching out to both India and Pakistan "regarding the Kashmir situation" and telling them "not to escalate the situation."
India and the US will sit together in the next couple of weeks to decide on the nature of the proposed trade agreement and finalise its broad contours, a senior official said on Monday. During the recent visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Washington, India and the US announced to more than double the two-way commerce to $500 billion by 2030 and negotiate the first tranche of a mutually beneficial, multi-sector bilateral trade agreement (BTA) by fall of 2025.
Maruti Suzuki India chairman R C Bhargava few days back had termed the labour unrest as 'political issue'.
The UK Home Office has announced a crackdown on illegal working across the country, targeting restaurants, nail bars, convenience stores, and car washes. In January, Immigration Enforcement teams conducted record-breaking raids, arresting 609 individuals, a 73% increase from the previous year. The crackdown comes as the government introduces new legislation aimed at tackling criminal gangs that facilitate illegal immigration. The Home Office highlights the dangers of illegal migration and the exploitation of vulnerable individuals while emphasizing its commitment to safeguarding workers and removing foreign criminals.
The body of one of the nine workers trapped inside a coal mine in Assam's Dima Hasao district was recovered by army divers on Wednesday on the third day of the rescue operations, officials said.
With an urge to get employment, thousands of workers from across the country boarded trains to Lucknow to try their luck in the recruitment drive taking place in Lucknow, to work in war-torned Israel.
The forest department has launched an investigation into the reported death of 18 to 19 monkeys in a village in Chhattisgarh's Bemetara district and recovered four rotten carcasses, a senior official said.
While the capital spending is being maintained at 3.1 per cent of the GDP, a little more would have boosted economic growth even further, suggests Rajiv Memani.
The latest biopic on Jyotibai Phule has come at a time when the Department of Taking Offence is super-active. Utkarsh Mishra feels it will be interesting to see if it portrays his attack on Brahminism in the same 'no holds barred' manner-- and, if it does, what reaction it provokes.
'The overwhelming evidence from various studies and reports indicates that the current work culture in the IT sector, characterised by excessive hours, has severe consequences for health, productivity, and overall quality of life.'
'Many of these issues will be resolved within 6 months because the US economy has started unravelling.'
'The US has agreed to negotiate with us a mutually beneficial bilateral trade agreement, which will go for reduction of tariffs on both sides so that our trade can grow.'
India remains the largest growing economy in the world, a senior official from the International Monetary Fund said, observing that the country's macroeconomic fundamentals are good. "India is said to remain the largest growing economy in the world. We project growth at seven per cent in FY24-25, supported by recovery in rural consumption, as there have been favourable harvests.
A major divide has emerged within Donald Trump's MAGA team in the United States, as Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy who advocated for the expansion of the visa program for 'highly skilled workers' faced heavy backlash from within President-elect's base, CNN reported.
Indian-origin tech companies cornered a fifth of all H-1B visas issued by the US with Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services leading the pack, an analysis of data from the US immigration department showed. According to data from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, in April-September 2024 period, out of the total 1.3 lakh H-1B visas issued to different employers, about 24,766 visas were issued to Indian-origin companies.
'Parents are forced to provide their children to Russian re-education camps in occupied territories and in different parts of Russia, for example, in Chechnya, where Ukrainian children wearing military uniform are taught to use weapons.'
"The US Labour Department has contributed $20 million to the INDUS project, the largest programme ever supported by the department outside the United States, which aims to ensure child labour elimination from hazardous industries in 21 districts," he said while inaugurating a seminar in Kolkata on Monday. Jardine said the districts selected for the project were spread across Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and NCT Delhi.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said the government will arrange identity cards and registration on the e-Shram portal to assist 1 crore gig workers. Presenting the Union Budget 2025-26, the finance minister also said a scheme for the socio-economic upliftment of urban workers will be implemented.
'It showed me that this man had courage. He makes his own decisions, but he also trusted me enough in that moment to walk with me into the crowd,' Modi tells Lex Fridman on his podcast.
This is the story of a man who fought racism and casteism throughout his life to become a professor of Bharata Natyam at the premier centre for performing arts in India, the Kerala Kalamandalam.
Telangana Minister J Krishna Rao told reporters that the chances of survival under the circumstances are "not that good."
Train services on the Central Railway's main and harbour lines were disrupted on Sunday morning due to an extended mega block for a bridge girder launch, causing inconvenience to local and long distance travellers. As many as 11 long distance trains that depart from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) in south Mumbai have been rescheduled and nine trains which arrive at CSMT have been short-terminated due to the block. There were also reports of a labourer getting injured during the girder launch. The six-hour-long mega block conducted for launching the girder of the under-construction Carnac Bridge was initially scheduled to end at 5.30 am but was delayed. The Central Railway's local train operations were cancelled between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and Byculla and between CSMT and Wadala stations on the main and harbour lines due to the mega block.
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