Underlining the importance of having a chief election commissioner who is "independent and a man of character", the Supreme Court on Wednesday wondered will it not be a case of "complete breakdown of system" if the CEC does not act against the prime minister in case there are allegations against him.
The order has been issued by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet that is headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has home minister Amit Shah as its member.
Each person in the immunisation list would be linked with their Aadhaar cards to avoid duplication and to track beneficiaries.
The 27-year-old Rohini resident, who had tested Covid positive after returning to Delhi from Dubai, said, even after the home isolation restrictions are lifted, 'I have been told that I will be under 14-day observation at home, and doctors will check on me intermittently'.
Sitharaman, who became the first full-time woman defence minister in the first tenure of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government -- will also head the Corporate Affairs ministry in the new cabinet.
Modi said the newly-sworn in government took four major decisions related to farmers' and traders welfare in the first meeting of the Union Cabinet.
Mishra and Doval hold the rank of a Cabinet minister.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar briefed the leaders on the latest situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban captured power there last week.
According to health ministry officials, over 92 per cent of the adult population have received at least one dose while over 68 per cent have been fully vaccinated.
The rate of doubling of COVID-19 cases has increased to 12.6 days
Delhi police inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, who was killed during the 2008 Batla House encounter, has been awarded a gallantry medal posthumously for the seventh time as the Centre declared bravery medals on the eve of Independence day. CRPF Assistant Commandant Naresh Kumar also won the bravery medal for the seventh time for undertaking counter-terrorist operations in the Kashmir valley.
The officials said the jawan was the youngest to die among the CAPFs. All other fatalities were over 45 years, they said.
A head constable was among four people killed and at least 50 others, including several paramilitary and Delhi Police personnel, were injured as violence spiralled over the amended citizenship law in northeast Delhi on Monday.
Indo-Tibetan Border Police director general S S Deswal said that the force is putting together the manpower for the facility that was first operationalised in June-July last year when COVID-19 cases in Delhi were witnessing a steep rise.
Making a statement in the House "regarding an avalanche in Chamoli District of Uttarakhand", the Union minister said these inputs were based on the information received till Monday 5 pm from the state government.
In a letter to the chief minister, Dhankhar urged Banerjee to take appropriate steps urgently and address the issue in public and national interest.
Earlier this week, the Centre cleared the decks for people from across the country to buy land in the union territory by amending several laws. Most shops, petrol pumps and other business establishments were shut in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, the officials said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday mooted the idea of "One Nation, One Uniform" for the police, saying it is just a suggestion for consideration and he is not trying to impose it on the states.
There has been a spike of 1,813 cases since Tuesday evening. The number of active COVID-19 cases stand at 22,982, while 7,796 people have recovered, and one patient has migrated, the health ministry said.
'Dr Shah Faesal had informed state executive members that he is not in a position to continue with political activities and wants to be freed from the responsibilities of the organisation'
As the Indian Army reported its first case of the infection with a 34-year-old soldier testing positive in Leh, the Army said it has taken a series of precautionary measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus among the forces such as checking flu symptoms among soldiers on their return from leave and cancelling non-essential travel, conferences and recruitment drives.
'We have highlighted our concerns at unprovoked ceasefire violations by Pakistan forces, including in support of cross border terrorist infiltration, and targeting of Indian civilians and border posts by them'
The enhanced allowance will be applicable to all paramilitary personnel deployed in Jammu and Kashmir and Naxal-hit areas.
The coronavirus caseload surged to 56,46,010, while the death toll climbed to 90,020 with 1,085 people succumbing to the disease in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.
The new government order to review the service record of employees who have completed 30 years in the job to identify inefficient or corrupt staff and retire them prematurely has invited the ire of labour unions, who believe that this is a step towards privatisation.
The Centre has started the process of identifying around 30 crore priority beneficiaries who will be given vaccine in the initial phase. The Centre will procure the vaccine directly and make it available free-of-cost for the priority beneficiaries.
Maharashtra Director General of Police Subodh Kumar Jaiswal said that the attack was not a result of intelligence failure.
Vardhan said the ICMR is actively researching on reports of COVID-19 reinfection and although the number of such cases is negligible at this moment, the government is fully seized of the importance of the matter, the health ministry said in a statement.
US noted that India has described the actions in J&K as "strictly an internal matter".
Maheshwari, 59, the chief of the country's largest paramilitary force with a strength of about 3.25 lakh personnel, his predecessor and senior security advisor in the Union Home Ministry K Vijay Kumar, 67, and about two dozen officials in this chain have gone into self-quarantine after the doctor was found infected on April 2.
The same testing technique would also be used for monitoring in green zones districts which have reported no cases till now or in the last 21 days, the Union health ministry said while issuing 'Guidelines for RT-PCR based pooled sampling for migrants/returnees from abroad/green zones'.
In his first visit to BSF HQ after taking over as home minister, Shah was given a presentation on BSF deployment along Pak, Bangladesh borders.
Three entities are at the centre of this controversy: The Brazilian government, Bharat Biotech and a Singapore-based company called Madison Biotech.
Director of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Dr Sujeet Kumar Singh said the remaining 77 per cent are still vulnerable to the viral disease and containment measures need to continue with the same rigour.
Sources in the security establishment said the force is also set to get sanctions from the Union Home ministry to raise at least nine fresh battalions soon. They said in order to bolster troop numbers along the 3,488 km long Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China, as many as 60 companies have been ordered to move towards the front in various areas like Ladakh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
The run-up to the polls, which should have been a humdrum affair, became a cause celebre after it was marred by violence, arrests, sit-ins in far-away Delhi and a Supreme Court intervention asking officials to ensure peaceful polling.
West Bengal government is gearing up to launch full-fledged operations against Maoists and has sought 2,000 additional paramilitary personnel from the Centre.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh likely to visit Jammu and Kashmir tomorrow.
As the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Thursday sent a general advisory to all the states and Union territories asking them to deploy adequate security personnel at all sensitive places, political leaders made fresh calls to people not to indulge in making provocative remarks or spreading rumours.
Concerned over violence in Jammu and Kashmir in last four days, the Centre on Saturday decided to rush 3,600 additional paramilitary personnel to the Valley and asked the state government to ensure that there is no further loss of lives.
