As the year 2023 comes to an end, a look at some newsy events that shaped the world in the first half of the year.
Severe cyclonic storm Phailin, which forced the evacuation of over 8 lakh people, left a trail of destruction in coastal areas of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh and disrupted communication lines before weakening considerably on Sunday.
'When I talk to my colleagues in the Railways, they say 'aadmi toh bohot hai, lekin matlab ka aadmi ek bhi nahi hai (the Railways has a bloated workforce, but doesn't have employees with have the skillsets that matter)'.'
At least 115 child rape cases have been registered in 59 days, in January and February this year, in Odisha, the state assembly was informed on Thursday.
Floods: 90,000 affected in Orissa; situation critical in Sangli, Kolhapur
Railway officials also indicated that possible 'sabotage' and tampering with the electronic interlocking system, which detects the presence of trains, led to the Friday accident.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled central government alleging that there were attempts to suppress the cause of the train accident in Odisha.
At least 29 people were killed after being struck by lightning in different parts of Odisha.
The 51-year-old BJP leader Vaishnaw, born in Rajasthan's Jodhpur, is a suave and former Odisha cadre IAS officer from the 1994 batch. He managed to wrangle support from the ruling BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik despite being in the rival camp.
The ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal demanded Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw's resignation over the horrific triple train crash in neighbouring Odisha.
This is the first cyclone in the Bay of Bengal this pre-monsoon season.
Preliminary investigations have revealed that a signal was given to Coromandel Express to enter the main line but it was taken off and the train entered the loop line, where it crashed into a goods train parked there.
The quick reaction surface-to-air-missile missile developed by DRDO was test launched from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur near here at about 3.08 pm from a vertical launcher against an electronic target at a very low altitude.
Fresh floods hit at least six districts of northern Orissa on Monday affecting over 13 lakh people as major rivers in the region were rising alarmingly following heavy rains caused by depression.
There was no casualty or damage to property, Superintendent of Police Niti Sekhar said.
IMD Director General Dr Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said that 'Yaas' is likely to intensify into a Very Severe Cyclonic Storm by Tuesday evening and Chandbali is likely to witness the maximum damage caused by it.
Odisha government has declared lightning as a state-specific disaster.
Some of his well-known disciples include internationally-acclaimed Sonal Mansingh, Madhavi Mudgal, Radha Reddy and Yamini Krishnamurty, besides his daughter Kabita Dwibedi.
As rigor mortis had set in, the workers broke the body at the hip, wrapped it in an old sheet, tied it to a bamboo pole, and carried it to the railway station from where it was taken to Balasore by train.
On both the occasions, the missiles intercepted the simulated targets with pinpoint accuracy. The missiles were tested for minimum and maximum range.
A deep depression over the Bay of Bengal intensified into a cyclonic storm, named Remal, on Saturday evening and is likely to turn severe before making landfall between the coasts of West Bengal and Bangladesh on Sunday midnight, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
Das said since the accident, he has not able to eat properly.
Five days after the tragic triple train accident near this station, it was business as usual in Bahanaga Bazar with a handful passengers, including a few sightseers thronging the tiny way station.
Naseer Khan, the blind actor and co-producer of Shadow, was arrested for his alleged involvement in a multi-crore chit fund scam in Balasore district.
'To avoid accountability and cover the mismanagement of the head of the department, they create this kind of sabotage theory.' 'If it's a sabotage theory, then the higher-level officials can go scot-free.'
'Imagine what will happen when a train running at 128 kmph moves onto a track that is meant to have only a speed less than 30 kmph!' 'Naturally, it will derail, and the coaches will go for a tailspin.'
Bawali's grandsons pestered him for getting national flags on Independence Day. The labourer drew the tricolour on papers, which the kids took out.
The IMD has also issued a red-coded warning alert to the Odisha and West Bengal coasts.
As relatives continue to search for their loved ones among the bodies of the victims of the Odisha train tragedy, the Bhubaneswar municipal corporation has said that it will send 30 DNA samples collected from visitors to All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi.
Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik had on Tuesday sent a letter to the Election Commission requesting withdrawal of the MCC from all coastal districts to make it easier for the government to handle the impending cyclonic storm "Fani" in the state.
India has tested a 1,000 kg indigenously-developed glide bomb, which successfully hit a target 100 km away, in the Bay of Bengal off the Odisha coast, making the country self-reliant in guided precision bombs.
West Bengal and Odisha have evacuated lakhs of people from vulnerable areas to safety as severe cyclonic storm 'Yaas' is nearing the coast and is expected to make landfall near Dhamra Port in Bhadrak district early on Wednesday morning.
In his letter to Modi, Kharge hit out at the railway minister for seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation probe, saying the law enforcement agency is meant to investigate crimes, not railway accidents.
The demolition was being carried out in presence of the school managing committee (SMC) members and Public Works Department officials.
In a bid to galvanise its air defence capabilities, India on Tuesday successfully test fired a new, long range surface-to-air missile jointly developed with Israel from a defence base off Odisha coast.
According to a 2021 Redseer report, India's overseas education market is estimated to more than double to $80 billion by 2024.
As the train which started from Howrah slowed down as a mark of caution running across freshly repaired tracks, a few muttered 'Jagannath, Jagannath', the name of the presiding deity of Puri, the destination of the train, but most were too stunned to speak.
The Opposition party asked whether the prime minister will take responsibility for the 'deadliest rail tragedy' of this century.
India on Friday successfully test-fired the new surface-to-air missile, developed jointly with Israel, with a strike range upto 70 km, from a defence base off Odisha coast, a day after two similar trials were conducted.
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