Security has been increased in Uttar Pradesh districts bordering Nepal following violent protests in Nepal over a ban on social media. Authorities are monitoring the situation and have increased patrols and surveillance.
Competition from Nepalese teas -- which has duty free access to the Indian market -- has emerged as a lower-cost alternative to Darjeeling tea, challenging its viability.
Following the encounter of three Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF) terrorists in Pilibhit, security agencies are intensifying their search for their local helpers in the Terai region.
'BSP will remain a player, but only a marginal player, as long as the BJP is extremely dominant in North India politics.'
Asking India to continue its developmental assistance to Nepal, a senior United Nations official has said New Delhi could help check the groups with suspected links in India that are fomenting unrest in the Terai region.
The winners of Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year 2024 have been revealed.
The monsoon spelt mayhem in several parts of the country on Monday, particularly Mumbai where local train services and flight operations were hit and everyday life disrupted as well as Assam that was grappling with floods yet again.
The BJP has fielded Uttar Pradesh Public Works Minister Jitin Prasada from Pilibhit replacing Gandhi.
Voting was underway on Friday in 102 Lok Sabha seats spread across 21 states and Union territories in the first of the seven phases of the world's largest electoral exercise, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging voters to exercise their franchise in record numbers.
The tea industry's cup of woes brimmeth - scanty rainfall and pest attacks have dragged down production in May, prices are lower than last year, and demand from some export markets is muted. Production in North Bengal - comprising the Dooars, Terai, and Darjeeling - is majorly affected; parts of Assam are also hit. Arijit Raha, secretary general, Indian Tea Association (ITA), said that the Tea Board numbers for April show a crop loss of about 9 per cent for North Bengal, compared to last year.
'I somehow felt that Muzaffar Ali was in Aligarh to feel the pulse of the Muslim youth, especially in the darker and harsher times that India is passing through,' notes Mohammad Sajjad.
Most importantly, and most prominently, is the name of Serena's three-year-old daughter Olympia.
Anupriya Patel, Pankaj Chaudhary and B L Verma are from the Other Backward Classes, which BJP leader in UP say make up 50 per cent of voters in the state. Three others -- Kaushal Kishore, Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma and S P Singh Baghel -- are from the Scheduled Castes category. Ajay Kumar is the lone Brahmin in this batch of ministers from the state.
Largest in area among the 75 UP districts, Lakhimpur Kheri, known for sugarcane cultivation, with nine sugar mills in the district, is home to three or four lakh Sikhs.
The MEA said at Lumbini, the prime minister will visit the sacred Mayadevi temple to offer prayers.
Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday unveiled a 'development-oriented' manifesto for the upcoming assembly polls in West Bengal, promising an income scheme for all families, a student credit card and constitution of a task force to examine the inclusion of several communities under the OBC category.
The government has mobilized army, police and Red Cross volunteers to carry out rescue works and relief activities in the districts with the help of six helicopters, the officials said.
Modi, who is in the Himalayan nation at the invitation of Deuba, is paying a day-long visit to Lumbini on the occasion of Buddha Purnima.
The weekend attack was condemned by the United Nations and major political parties, including the Maoists who termed it as an attempt to disrupt the Constituent Assembly polls to be held in November and derail the peace process.
Koirala said the government will immediately amend the Constitution to fulfil the genuine demands of the Terai people.
They alleged that while the two main political parties in the state -- the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party -- have 'cheated' them, the other parties are 'ineffective'.
A statement issued on Monday by the umbrella body of farmers' unions protesting against the central farm laws, reiterated earlier 'ultimatum about October 11 being the deadline for the sacking and arrest of Ajay Mishra Teni'.
'...if elections were to be held today.' 'The problem is Akhilesh is not very aggressive.' 'Had he started his campaign aggressively six months ago, the picture in UP would have been very different.'
Critics who cannot stop gloating, pronouncing Modi to be a lame-duck prime minister, may be making a huge mistake, predicts Virendra Kapoor.
Police resorted to firing late Saturday night after they were attacked with petrol bombs and bricks when they tried to evict cadres of United Democratic Madhesi Front from blocking the East-West Highway of Saptari district.
'From the very start, PM Modi was insistent that visiting foreign leaders should be exposed to an India beyond its capital.' 'Through these experiences, he felt that the full Indian narrative would be much better understood across the world,' explains External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. A riveting excerpt from Bluekraft Digital Foundation's Modi@20: Dreams Meet Delivery.
The meeting came days after Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli telephoned his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to greet him on India's 74th Independence Day, in the first high-level contact after bilateral ties came under severe strain following issuance of a new political map by Nepal in May.
The Justice Shyamal Sen Committee has been urged to submit its report -- on the issue of the inclusion of Dooars and Terai areas in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration -- by early June, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha said on Saturday. "A resolution to this effect has been passed after a meeting between a seven-member Gorkha Janmukti Morcha delegation led by its president Bimal Gurung and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee," GJM general secretary Roshan Giri said.
The Sikhs, especially in Punjab, are already angry and frustrated, cautions Shekhar Gupta.
Congressmen allege Verma has ignored loyal Congressmen and given tickets to his cronies for the first phase of the Uttar Pradesh election on Wednesday.
The United Democratic Madhesi Front said that in view of the severe shortage the country is facing, the blockade has been called off. However, the agitation will continue.
Maoist leader Dr Baburam Bhattarai was on Sunday elected Nepal's new prime minister defeating his Nepali Congress rival R C Poudyal, with the Terai-based Madhesi alliance extending crucial support to the former rebel leader.
'Keeping its financial interests in mind, China wants no enmity with the Nepalese government.'
The historic tripartite agreement for the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) was on Monday signed to resolve the vexed Darjeeling problem amidst protests and bandhs in the Terai and Dooars areas.
Mystery shrouds the death of three tigers in a row in the Terai forests of Uttar Pradesh over the past few days.
It is, now, more or less certain that in the ongoing election the SP is emerging as the main challenger to Mayawati's power in Lucknow. The combination of an experienced Mulayam Singh Yadav and his young, untested son Akhilesh Yadav is working, reports Sheela Bhatt from Lucknow
Release of water from the overflowing dams in Nepal has not only flooded large parts of the terai belt in Uttar Pradesh, but it has inundated certain areas of the Dudhwa National Park, which remains the state's largest and richest wildlife reserve.
Within the SAARC framework, says Rajeev Sharma, Nepal's strategic importance cannot be overestimated as Nepal is a key member of the sub-SAARC group India has created to bypass Pakistan.
The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha today rejected West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's offer of more autonomy, power and funds for Darjeeling hills, saying it would not rest till its demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland is met.
Two senior Nepalese leaders, including the chief of the ruling party, on Tuesday left for India, where they are set to meet the Indian leadership, as the political crisis in Nepal deepened with the Maoists stepping up their protests to destabilise the government.
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