Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan on Thursday clarified that the Bharatiya Janata Party has not yet decided to nominate former Delhi Metro chief E Sreedharan, popularly known as 'Metro Man', as the chief ministerial candidate of the party for the upcoming Kerala assembly polls.
Byju's has rolled back the decision to relocate 140 employees at one of its offices in Kerala after founder Byju Raveendran's meeting with Chief Minister P Vijayan and announced plans to hire 600 people in the state. The edtech major gave an option to all its 140 staff working at TVM product development centre in Thiruvananthapuram to relocate to Bengaluru as it was planning to shut down the Thiruvananthapuram office as part of its cost optimisation strategy. All these employees were also offered an assured path to return to Byju's in case they are unable to find a job in the next 12 months.
The exit deadline for Pakistani nationals visiting India on SAARC visas ended on April 26, while for the rest, except those on medical visas, it is set to close on Sunday, April 27 amid escalating tensions between the two countries over the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people.
Sources close to the top BJP leadership tell me that Tharoor has already had secret meetings with the BJP's top brass and is waiting patiently to make his next move, reports Ramesh Menon.
Heavy rains in Maharashtra have caused floods, road blockages, and widespread damage, resulting in casualties and displacement. The state government is monitoring the situation and coordinating rescue efforts.
In a statement, it said 198 properties in the state were partially damaged and 30 houses completely destroyed in the rains from July 31 to till date.
Reiterating his support to Pala Bishop Joseph Kallarangatt, whose 'narcotic and love jihad' remarks had triggered a widespread controversy in the southern state, Gopi said the bishop had not spoken ill of any community.
Experts say the state's economy is grappling with hidden debt, rising welfare costs, and lack of transparency.
The state government said these bills had been pending with the governor for as long as about two years and his action "subverted" the functioning of the state legislature, rendering its very existence "ineffective and otiose".
The Jammu and Kashmir Assembly unanimously passed a resolution on Monday expressing shock and anguish over the Pahalgam terrorist attack and resolved to fight resolutely to defeat the nefarious designs to disturb communal harmony and hinder progress.
In her letter to her husband Sajeesh, Lini expressed her pain and anguish that she could not see him again.
Celebs and commoners cast their votes in the second phase of the Lok Sabha election on Friday, April 26, 2024
There are challenges galore before him, and it is not going to be easy. In the next four years, he has to conjure a system that changes the optics about him and the BJP both nationally and internationally so that he can ride back on his own, claim the top slot, and not have to lean on a coalition, asserts Ramesh Menon as Modi 3.0 completes a year in power.
The Kerala chief minister is killing our RSS workers who want to take this country forward, RSS functionary Kundan Chandravat said.
Several leaders of the BJP and its allies are of the view that the NDA this time is unlikely to follow the instincts that made it pick Dhankhar and will be more conventional in its search for his successor.
'Vijay should have stayed there for the night and in the morning he should have met the people.'
The Tamil Nadu government has said it was largely dependent on ground water to meet requirements till the onset of north east monsoon in October.
A moving goods train carrying diesel caught fire on Sunday at Tiruvallur in northern Tamil Nadu severely affecting train services on the arterial Chennai-Arakkonam rail route, which also links Chennai with Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, officials said.
Union Minister and Kerala Congress leader, Vayalar Ravi has reacted with shock at the death of former Kerala Chief Minister K Karunkaran. Ravi told rediff.com on phone from New Delhi that this is a great loss not only for Kerala but for the Congress as a whole.
'He was a tremendous artist of a very high order, gone too soon. He not only reshaped the visual language of Indian Cinema through his cinematography in Aravindan's films, Shaji sir gave us all a sense of direction through his mainstream work as a cameraman.'
Chaired by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha and attended by chiefs of the three services, secretaries of home, defence and others, the National Crisis Management Committee took stock of the prevailing situation in Kerala and directed all concerned to ensure continued assistance to the state government to meet the crisis, a home ministry spokesperson said.
The Centre has opposed the imposition of fixed timelines on governors and the President for decisions on bills passed by state legislatures, arguing that such constraints were intentionally omitted by the Constitution's framers.
The Supreme Court has scheduled hearings starting August 19 for the Presidential Reference concerning constitutional issues related to timelines for handling bills passed by state assemblies. The court has directed the Centre and states to submit written arguments by August 12.
With the standoff between Kerala and Tamil Nadu on the Mullaperiyar dam issue escalating, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday.
As the controversy over Bishop Joseph Kallarangatt's remarks refused to die down, the chief minister said the Kerala society as a whole has not agreed with the Bishop's statement and expressed hope that he would "respond", sensing the stand of the public on the issue.
Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran was to attend the United Nations World Tourism Organisation meet in Chengdu between September 11-16.
Given the possibilities that next year's assembly elections could throw up, Stalin told the state assembly that an interim report had to be submitted by January 2026. The outcomes may well find its way into the DMK's poll manifesto, thus seeking to keep the electoral focus still on the BJP-ruled Centre and Prime Minister Modi, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Kerala High Court has stayed all proceedings in a lower court against Yoga guru Baba Ramdev, his associate Acharya Balakrishna and their company Divya Pharmacy in a "misleading" advertisement case. The court found merit in their claim that cognisance of the offence was taken after the period of limitation.
The Election Commission has said it will allow suspected fake voters to cast their ballots in the Palakkad assembly by-poll, but will take action against them later. The CPI(M), Congress, and BJP have accused each other of enrolling fake voters. The by-poll is scheduled for November 20.
The apex doctors' organisation said it would knock the doors of the Supreme Court if the Kerala government does not enforce Covid-appropriate behaviour to curtail the rising menace of the viral disease by withdrawing this decision.
What some of our leaders were up to on Wednesday, April 12, 2023.
About 16,000 Indians, mostly students, are stranded in Ukraine as Russia's invasion of the east European country entered its second day on Friday. Of the students, many studying medicine in Kharkiv and Kyiv, about 2,500 are from Gujarat and 2,320 from Kerala.
Breaking his silence over the matter, Vijayan on Tuesday sounded tough and said a high-level probe by a top-ranking officer would be held into the charges raised by the MLA.
'Kerala will lose 6 seats, Tamil Nadu 9 seats, Telangana and Karnataka 2 seats each, Andhra Pradesh 5 seats.'
The chief minister and the party secretary were at logger heads for the past several years and Pinarayi Vijayan has successfully emerged as the most powerful leader of the CPI-M in Kerala for the past few years cutting to size Achuthanandan who had in fact promoted Vijayan into the higher echelons of CPI-M power ladder.
Justice Beevi was admitted to the private hospital a few days ago due to age-related ailments and breathed her last on Thursday afternoon around 12.15 pm, an official source said.
Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthananadan on Sunday hit back at Rahul Gandhi for his jibe at the Communist party of India-Marxist stalwart on his age, calling him an "Amul baby". Achuthananadan also countered Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his criticism that the Left rule had done serious damage to Kerala and West Bengal, asking him not to speak with "hangover of a former International Monetary Fund officer".
Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan, whose head may be on the chopping block, has decided to go hammer and tongs against his bitter rival in the Communist Party of India-Marxist, Pinarayi Vijayan. While answering questions on the party secretary's comment about the inclusion of a new nominee from the Janata Dal in to his cabinet, the Chief Minister said that it was not the party secretary (Vijayan) but the Left Democratic Front which is the ultimate decision maker.
Veteran Communist leader and former chief minister V S Achuthanandan, one of the most popular and crowd-puller leaders in the history of the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist in the state, turned 100 on Friday.
Over 150 people were injured, including eight seriously, in a fireworks accident during a temple festival near Neeleswaram in Kasaragod late Monday, police said.
