'The government only wakes up after devastation.' 'The government does not understand the gravity of the situation nor they do not want to understand the gravity of the situation.'
The Gujarat legislative assembly was adjourned for 15 minutes on Thursday following chaos in the House as the opposition Congress strongly objected to Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former deputy chief minister Nitin Patel's remark on India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
There are some apparent paradoxes visible in the data from the first quarter of 2025-26 (Q1FY26). The gross domestic product (GDP) delivered a positive surprise with 7.8 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth.
Heavy rains in Maharashtra's Nanded district have left five people missing and several others stranded. Rescue operations are underway with NDRF, military, and police teams coordinating efforts.
The Army unit deployed in Ashti successfully evacuated 40 people with the help of an NDRF team and other agencies.
A comprehensive risk assessment warns that Kishtwar district in Jammu and Kashmir faces a serious threat from glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), endangering lives, infrastructure, and the ecosystem. The report calls for immediate mitigation measures and long-term strategies to build resilience.
India has stopped releasing water from the Baglihar Dam on the Chenab River and is planning similar measures at the Kishanganga Dam on the Jhelum River, following a recent terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir. These hydroelectric dams offer India the ability to regulate water releases. This decision potentially affects the Indus Waters Treaty, a decades-old agreement between India and Pakistan governing the use of the Indus River and its tributaries. The Baglihar and Kishanganga dams have been points of contention between the two nations in the past.
The BJP-led NDA government's decision to facilitate resumption of stalled work at 2000 MW Lower Subansiri Hydro Power Project being constructed by the National Hydro-Power Corporation at Gerukamukh along the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh boundary has not gone down well with many anti-dam organisations in Assam. They fear a catastrophic downstream impact by the mega dam project.
Floodwaters from the Ravi River have inundated the Kartarpur Corridor in Pakistan, including Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, stranding over 100 people. Rescue operations are underway as thousands are evacuated from flooded areas.
The panel, headed by Congress MP Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka, had called Patkar to hear her views on the implementation and effectiveness of the land acquisition law enacted by Parliament when the Congress-led UPA government was in power in 2013.
Gurajat is planning to build an over the sea dam in the northern portion of the Gulf of Khambat (Cambay).
'Pakistan wanted India out of Afghanistan to which again the Taliban told Pakistan to take a walk.' 'Six months after they came back to power in 2021 India was back in Afghanistan at the request of the Taliban.' 'The Taliban realised that India has no agenda of its own in Afghanistan.'
'What we are witnessing is not a freak incidence or a freak occurrence, but a new climate reality where warming oceans, monsoon variability and local geography are combining to produce extreme events.'
Residents of several villages in Maharashtra Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan's home district Satara are on a 'jal satyagraha', demanding rehabilitation of those affected by Wang-Marathwadi dam project.
'India is planning to construct a multipurpose reservoir.' 'It will be a 10,000 MW hydropower project to offset the impact of the hydropower project by China.'
Since the onset of monsoon on June 20 to date, rain-related incidents have claimed 23 lives in the state, according to the state emergency operation centre.
Narmada Bachao Movement leader Medha Patkar led a massive protest rally in Guwahati on Wednesday demanding shelving of dam projects in ecologically fragile and tectonically highly sensitive Northeastern region especially in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh in order to safeguard interests of masses in the region.
The states will have to look again into the relief and rehabilitation work they carried out before raising the dam height.
The Maharashtra government, which is finding difficult to get investors for irrigation projects in the state, has now decided to rope in the International Finance Corporation (IFC), World Bank's lending arm for the private sector.
India's measures announced against Pakistan on April 23 will remain effective, the sources said.
The union has sought clarification on the environmental impact of the project in the nearby areas of neighbouring Assam.
The visit comes two days after Pakistan officials shared with the Chinese embassy the preliminary findings of their investigation into the attack.
The giant statue of Sardar Vallabhai Patel is most impressive and a trip to the viewing gallery on top is the high point of a trip to Kevadia, Gujarat.
"The reservoir capacity of the project is less than 0.02 per cent of the average annual runoff of the Yarlung Zangbo-Brahmaputra. It cannot have an adverse impact on the downstream," Chinese foreign ministry said to a question on concerns over the dam.
'We have been appealing to various governments for so many years that there should be no dams in the Himalayas, but no one listens.' 'Nature responded in its own way.'
Himachal Pradesh has been severely affected by flash floods, cloudbursts, and landslides since the monsoon began. At least 52 people have died, and search operations are underway for those missing.
India has accused Pakistan of violating the spirit of the Indus Waters Treaty by engaging in acts of terrorism and refusing to modify the treaty. India's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish, addressed the UN Security Council, highlighting Pakistan's disinformation regarding the treaty and its continued support for cross-border terrorism. He stated that India has always acted responsibly as an upper riparian state and that Pakistan's actions have jeopardized civilian lives, religious harmony, and economic prosperity. India has suspended the treaty until Pakistan ends its support for terrorism.
The MEA said that Pakistan had been stonewalling India's requests for a government-to-government negotiation over the treaty due to changes in the ground situation since it was signed.
'Militarily, it risks escalating tensions with Pakistan, potentially triggering conflict due to Pakistan's heavy reliance on the Indus.'
In a major boost to Gujarat which has been regularly facing water woes due to deficient rains, Chief Minister Anandiben Patel on Thursday announced that they have got approval to raise the height of Narmada dam to 138.72 metres (455 feet).
Since Tibet's occupation, China has disrupted the natural flow of rivers by pursuing a series of ill-conceived environmental and developmental policies such as the Great Leap Forward, the South-North Water Diversion Project, etc, the report said, adding that, this has led to a dam-building spree on the Tibetan plateau with disastrous impacts on Asia's major rivers.
China has said the dam being built by it on river Brahmaputra will have no impact on the downstream flow of the river into India, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd made a number of electoral bond purchases close to the date of bagging crucial projects, including the all-weather Zojila tunnel that is being constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 4,500 crore in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Indus system of rivers comprises the main river -- the Indus -- along with its five left bank tributaries, namely, the Ravi, the Beas, the Sutlej, the Jhelum and the Chenab. The right bank tributary, the Kabul, does not flow through India.
The Centre is planning to undertake a study to look into ways to maximise the use of the quantum of water from the three rivers that Pakistan had earlier used under the Indus Water Treaty, now that the agreement has been suspended, officials said.
Pakistan's ambassador to Russia, Muhammad Khalid Jamali, has warned that Pakistan will respond with "full spectrum of force", including nuclear, if it is attacked or its vital water flow is disrupted. The warning comes amid heightened tensions between Pakistan and India following a terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir. Jamali also reiterated Pakistan's stance on the Indus Water Treaty, saying any attempt to stop or divert water flow would be considered an act of war. He urged de-escalation, emphasizing the potential danger given both countries possess nuclear weapons. Jamali further called for a neutral investigation into the Kashmir attack, suggesting the involvement of China and Russia. He also highlighted the need to address the root causes of the conflict, pointing to the unresolved Kashmir issue and its potential for resentment.
Afghanistan is part of Modi's five-nation trip beginning June 4 which will also cover Qatar, Switzerland, the United States and Mexico.
AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami has asserted that alliances are formed only at the time of elections and declined to categorically say if his party would align with the BJP for the 2026 Assembly polls. Palaniswami met with Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday and brought to his attention several issues faced by Tamil Nadu, including the need for funds release, the implementation of the Godavari-Cauvery river linking plan, and a probe into the "TASMAC scam." He said that while the party would decide on an alliance at the time of the election, he did not rule out a tie-up with the BJP.
Army spokesman Lt Gen Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry in a media interaction said at least 26 people were killed and 46 injured in the missile strikes on cities in Punjab and PoK. "The six locations that India attacked last night... Pakistan lost 26 people and 46 were injured," he said.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com tracks Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi's project-launching spree with just about three months to go for the assembly election in India's most populous state.
