This is the first appointment made by President Wickremesinghe on his first day in office.
Cabinet had earlier this week deferred a decision on the much-discussed issue on this ground.
Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar on Tuesday directed the Committee of Secretaries to formulate a unified command for coastal districts to counter the terrorist threat from the sea.
Former prime minister Imran Khan got a major relief on Tuesday when an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan granted him bail till June 8 in eight cases related to violence that erupted at the Judicial Complex in Islamabad in March.
The results for bypolls to seven assembly seats in six states will be declared on Friday in what is being seen as a major test for the opposition's Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance ahead of the polls in five states later this year and Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
The death toll in Palestine due to Israeli airstrikes has reached 188 as the conflict entered its seventh day on Sunday.
The seven seats -- Bageshwar in Uttarakhand, Ghosi in Uttar Pradesh, Puthuppally in Kerala, Dhupguri in West Bengal, Dumri in Jharkhand, and Boxanagar and Dhanpur in Tripura -- went to poll on September 5.
In the backdrop of the Mumbai terror attacks, the Cabinet Committee on Security held a meeting on Tuesday to chalk out future plans for enhancing internal security through tough laws and establishment of a federal agency. The CCS meeting, held at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's residence, was attended by Home Minister P Chidamabaram, Defence Minister A K Antony, Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta and National Security Advisor M K Narayanan.
Odisha's Health and Family Welfare Minister Naba Kishore Das died of bullet injuries on Sunday, Apollo Hospital officials said.
August 15, 2023 became for me, an extraordinary Independence Day. I will remember it as the day the country's largest political party -- one that struts around like a colossus and tutors us in apt behaviour -- suddenly looked bankrupt in terms of ideas and had to take out a personal guarantee from the prime minister to underscore its capacity to deliver our future, observes Shyam G Menon.
The exit, widely rumoured for some time, became official when Tom Ridge formally submitted his papers to Bush Tuesday.
The two countries to resume a composite dialogue next month to resolve all outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir.
In a bold move, Devendra Fadnavis-led Bharatiya Janata Party government has decided to downgrade security of top politicians of Congress and Nationalist Congress Party and their kin, including former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and his then deputy Ajit Pawar.
A French secret agent planted a "bomb" at the French ambassador's residence in London in 1984 to test British security and the plot left Scotland Yard "extremely annoyed", according to declassified documents.
'Will Pakistan allow R&AW and Indian armed force officers access to roam around their strategic bases?' 'Is there any precedent anywhere in the world of such permissions being granted?'
There is, between Rao's tenure as PM and the current Modi regime, a powerful resonance of how transition can be managed. Rao's tenure saw many scams -- one where he was supposedly approached by Harshad Mehta with a bribe for making the securities scam go away. The Opposition insisted on a JPC. Despite knowing a JPC report would undermine him politically, Rao agreed to one, saying he had 'nothing to hide'.
'Look at the aggressive way in which a campaign against Friday namaz is going on in North Indian cities.' 'Even the Union home minister is part of this vicious campaign.'
The opposition has criticised the manner in which the drive against child marriage was being carried out, equating the police action with "terrorising people".
The defence ministry on Thursday accorded its approval to procure 30 MQ-9B Predator drones from the US to crank up the surveillance apparatus of the armed forces, especially along the frontier with China, people familiar with the development said.
According to defence ministry figures, infiltration attempts in Kashmir jumped to 83 during April, marking a four-fold increase.
Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishore on Tuesday said finishing touches are being given to the new Parliament building and the Lok Sabha Speaker will decide whether the forthcoming Winter Session will be held there or the existing building.
The decision was taken to ensure the betterment of the state and the party in the days to come, senior leader Ratan Lal Nath told reporters shortly after Saha, the state BJP president, took oath as the new chief minister.
The first on the list is Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy, a Bengali politician from then East Pakistan who served as the fifth prime minister. He was arrested in January 1962 and put in jail on bogus charges of "anti-state activities". His actual crime was his refusal to support military ruler General Ayub Khan.
The Naresh Chandra report is the result of the first-ever focused exercise since the Kargil Review Committee, headed by the late K Subrahmanyam, of 10 years ago after which no such holistic review of all aspects of national security was taken up, reports Sheela Bhatt
The Congress has pinned its hopes on many of the old-timers and also given representation to some new faces in its first list of candidates announced for the Chhattisgarh assembly polls scheduled next month.
Sacked Rajasthan minister Rajendra Gudha on Wednesday made public three pages of the purported "red diary" which he has claimed contains the details of financial misdeeds of the Congress government and cited their contents to allege corruption in Rajasthan Cricket Association election.
The Congress' chief whip Jairam Ramesh, said, 'Today, too, the INDIA parties demanded the prime minister's presence in the Rajya Sabha to make a statement on Manipur, to be followed by a discussion.'
Unorganised sector workers from over half a dozen states have formed an all-India organisation to demand early enactment of a law to provide them social security.
'The AMs are a different beast and reflect the political play within the government.' 'Prime Minister Modi does not need to assuage any interest group to take the final call on any decision that belongs rightfully to the Cabinet,' points out Subhomoy Bhattacharjee.
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit met Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Sunday and urged him to ensure rationalisation of police deployment, including for VIP security, and setting up a separate authority to look into complaints against personnel.
Besides his strategic and tactical acumen, it was his amazing personality, quick wit and ability to remain unflustered under any circumstances that stood him apart from almost any leader one has read about or known, recalls Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd).
The usually belligerent Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati appears to be coming to terms with harsh realities. And that was well demonstrated in Lucknow on Friday evening when she chose to surprise all by withdrawing the bill -- as well as a parallel ordinance -- for raising a special security force to guard her dream memorials and statues being erected in Lucknow and Noida at a whopping cost of nearly Rs 6,000 crores.
Taking to Twitter, Jawhar Sircar wrote, 'S Jaishankar's father, K Subramanyam said 'Dharma was killed in Gujarat (2002 Riots). Those who failed to protect innocent citizens are guilty of adharma. Rama...would have used his bow against the 'Asura' rulers of Gujarat.' Shame on son --serving Asura!'
The government also plans to build MPs' chambers that will come up on the land where the Transport Bhawan and Shram Shakti Bhawan are located.
'Because the economics of the Food Security Bill is not viable, poor people are not going to get it. Poor people are going to take it and sell it in the open market. How does migrant labour store rice securely,' asks RS Seshadri, an agro industry expert
Sulking over denial of weighty portfolio to separatist-turned-politican Sajjad Lone, his party People's Conference today issued a veiled threat that it may consider quitting the ruling coalition of Peoples Democratic Party-Bharatiya Janata Party in Jammu and Kashmir.
The National Food Security Bill was scuttled by Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar who threw the spanner with a dissent note in his capacity as the Union agriculture minister.
