The recommendation is being forwarded to the Union government.
The officials said they had no information other than that Azhar was undergoing treatment at an army hospital after suffering renal failure.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and Information and Broadcasting Minister Venkaiah Naidu were among those who attended the meeting, sources said.
The EC's actions remain to be seen on 'money-hoarding and transportation' for poll-time use. The question remains if the polity in the state would push the EC so far as to use the countermanding option. Even then EC would have to push its constitutional powers to find a way to prevent 'money-power' in the state's elections, says N Sathiya Moorthy
Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das tells Anup Roy, Raghu Mohan and Niraj Bhatt that it is time for banks to lower interest rates and start lending to cash-starved finance companies after due credit appraisal and proper risk assessment.
Aparna Kumar fought pneumonia and extreme weather conditions to make history.
'Vajpayee was predictable in his ways.' 'Modi is a schemer, possessed of a shrewdness that can be rewarding in the chaotic world of politics.' 'His political journey gives reason to believe that 2019 will be another milestone in his private project,' notes Vikram Johri.
Bodies of three men, including that of an alleged militant, were found on Monday about 30 kms from here in Baramulla district, triggering protests by locals even though police said the deaths appeared to be a result of fight between two militant groups.
Two days after he was shunted from the post of Mumbai Police Commissioner, Rakesh Maria's supervisory role in the Sheena Bora murder case remained clouded in uncertainty and the Maharashtra government was working on legal procedures to soon give him statutory powers.
After an hour-long deliberation, the five-member collegium unanimously decided that Justice Joseph's name should be accompanied with the recommendation of names of other Chief Justices of high courts for elevation as judges of the Supreme Court.
Party sources indicated that there were "some ticklish issues" that were to be addressed by both groups, but declined to elaborate further.
'They don't have a political strategy so they are going to try to deal with it purely as a law and order problem.' 'They will try to use the same strategy they have repeatedly used since 2014 in Kashmir.' 'Mr Modi has landed in a situation where he faces the possible prospect of not only being unable to Indianise Kashmir, but his actions may end up making the rest of India a virtual carbon copy of Kashmir.'
B L Agrawal, a principal secretary in the Chhattisgarh government, was arrested for allegedly bribing people to help him wriggle out of corruption cases pending against him, while J P Singh, a former joint director of in Enforcement Directorate, was held for accepting illegal gratification to favour the accused in the Indian Premiere League betting scam.
For now, Edappadi K Palaniswami is in the saddle in Tamil Nadu, and firmly so. Both inside the party and the government, he has made OPS a yes-man, as the latter used to be under Jayalalithaa, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'The saffron party is under pressure from RSS and other Hindutva quarters to move swiftly on construction of Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya.'
With the supplementary chargesheet in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case finalised, the Central Bureau of Investigation has sought the opinion of the law ministry on whether sanction is needed to prosecute Intelligence Bureau officers in the conspiracy in which Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's aide Amit Shah may not be named.
'Shivraj Singh Chouhan gave an affidavit in the Supreme Court that his government will give reservation in promotions which resulted in a powerful reaction by the youth.' 'These youth used to vote for the BJP, but will not vote for it in this election.' 'Even if the Congress does not make any gains, the BJP is losing voters in the current situation. It is losing farmers, OBC votes.'
The chief said that the reason for the fall is because of the combined efforts of NIA, state police and security forces.
From banking to teaching, the list covers all.
'My passion is dancing and music. What is wrong with that?'
'The Army must always be balanced in response.' 'Rabble rousers will demand that it be given a free hand against anti-national elements in the streets. That is exactly what the adversaries want.' 'Burning the Kashmir Valley through the summer is their desire; the Army will never contribute to enhancing their aim,' says Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd), who served as the General Officer Commanding 15 Corps in Kashmir.
In a veiled reference to Narendra Modi, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Monday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party's only goal is to grab the Prime Minister's chair for which it was "misleading people" and shedding crocodile tears.
'The fact that a rural Kashmiri boy was brainwashed into killing himself and others means there is an active programme that exists which does such recruiting and there will potentially be other such individuals out there,' warns Aakar Patel.
TTV Dinakaran could be in more trouble as I-T officials have found a connection between him and Jaya TV and other Jayalalithaa companies, reports Aditi Phadnis.
Akhilesh said that the defeat of the Dalit candidate would cement his party's relations with Mayawati-led BSP.
A simple look at the prices of 10 media stocks during the tenure of the current government tells an interesting tale, says N Sundaresha Subramanian.
'How many Indian parents, still alive, really have documents of, their parents's date and place of birth? Not more than 27% of still alive Indians have got birth certificates,' points out Mohammad Sajjad.
The tough question before the DMK and its leader MK Stalin now is, what should their response be if sounded out for an alliance by the BJP for or after the next parliamentary polls, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The increase in home-grown radicalised Islamic groups and the rise of Islamic State and Al Qaeda in Bangladesh should be a matter of worry for India, which shares a 4,100 km border with its eastern neighbour, says Rajeev Sharma.
How could India@75 improve law and order, courts, social, physical and soft infrastructure, efficient cities, e-governance, ease of doing business and other essential state functions by 2022, asks Shailesh Pathak.
Jaitley's team presents a quintessential mix of foreign-educated, intellectual technocrats and seasoned bureaucrats
'Those who foment trouble in the valley have been told to lie low till a new elected government takes shape in the state.'
At places in the border districts of Barmer and Jaisalmer, people walked miles through the desert to cast their votes.
Bharatiya Janata Party has issued a whip to its members in the Lok Sabha to support a Bill to amend the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, which seeks to remove a legal hurdle in the appointment of former TRAI chairman Nripendra Misra as principal secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The court had on Wednesday held that the previous SIT had not carried out further probe into these 186 cases in which closure reports were filed
'Officers have been made the scapegoat for political failure.' 'No effort has been made to find out who scuttled the prime minister's decision to introduce competitive bidding and why and at whose instance.'
'Probably only Sonia-ji knows the extent of what he is doing.'
Even with the elevation of Nirmala Sitharaman to the post of defence minister, the party still needs to redress the gender imbalance and fill the 33 per cent quota in posts.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Pravin Togadia on Tuesday said the outfit's controversial yatra would continue as planned.
A R Rahman performed on the second day of the three-day bash to celebrate the 76th birthday of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav.