The flood situation in Assam deteriorated drastically on Thursday with one person losing his life and nearly five lakh people reeling under the deluge across 12 districts, an official bulletin said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that he will hand over his social media accounts to women achievers from different walks of life to mark International Women's Day on March 8. In his monthly "Mann Ki Baat" address, Modi said these successful women will talk about their work and experience on his social media accounts. He also renewed his appeal to people to take measures to deal with the growing problem of obesity and encouraged people to visit research laboratories or planetariums to mark National Science Day on February 28. Modi highlighted India's progress in space science and artificial intelligence, and emphasized the importance of celebrating and respecting the indomitable spirit of women. He also spoke about the diversity of India's wildlife and the importance of conservation efforts.
The counting of votes for the bypolls to 46 assembly seats in 13 states and in the Lok Sabha segments of Nanded in Maharashtra and Wayanad in Kerala, a crucial electoral exercise since the parliamentary polls in April-May, will begin at 8 am on Saturday.
After a gap of 75 days, the North East Frontier Railway has decided to resume passenger train service along the Lumding-Badarpur hill section that passes through the insurgency ravaged North Cachar Hill district after Assam government assured proper security along the route.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his cabinet colleagues Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh, chief ministers of Nationalist Democratic Alliance-ruled states and prominent personalities from industry and Bollywood on Thursday attended the grand swearing-in of Devendra Fadnavis as Maharashtra Chief Minister in Mumbai.
A civic volunteer, identified as Chandan Das (31), died on the spot when he allegedly touched a live wire in Bud Bud in Purba Bardhaman district. The incident happened when he was out with a police team, they said.
Unidentified gunmen abducted two railway drivers from a hilly area near Bairabi Railway station in remote Kolasib district in Mizoram late on Thursday. The abduction sparked mass protests by the railway staff in south Assam on Friday, paralysing railway services in Silchar-Badarpur section.
In what has turned out to be an embarrassment for the ruling Congress party in Assam, three absconding persons accused in June 30 mob attack on Congress Member of Legislative Assembly Rumi Nath, 33, and her second husband Zakir in a Karimganj hotel in South Assam, were arrested from the official residence of another Congress MLA in the state assembly complex in Guwahati on Thursday night.
Major rivers of the state, including the Brahmaputra, were flowing above the danger level at different places.
India has lodged a strong protest with Bangladesh over a now-deleted social media post by a key aide of Bangladesh's interim government that claimed certain areas of Indian territory should be part of that country. The post, which included a map showing parts of West Bengal, Tripura, and Assam as belonging to Bangladesh, was made by Mahfuz Alam, a de facto minister in the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government. The post sparked backlash and was subsequently deleted. India's External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal reminded all concerned to be "mindful" of their public comments and emphasized the need for responsibility in public articulation.
Ruling parties held sway in most of the 13 states in the assembly byelection results declared on Saturday, with the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies wresting seats in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan and the Trinamool Congress sweeping West Bengal.
Bypolls will be held on Wednesday in 31 assembly seats spread across 10 states and Kerala's Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, from where Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is making her electoral debut. Though these bye-elections are not going to have any bearing on the governments, they are seen as a big test for the Congress and the INDIA bloc which failed to put up a united show in the recent Haryana assembly polls. Most of these seats fell vacant after the sitting MLAs contested the Lok Sabha elections and won while in some constituencies, the bypolls are being held due to death of the representatives. The Wayanad seat was vacated by Rahul Gandhi, who also won from the Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency which he kept. Voting will be held in seven seats in Rajasthan, six in West Bengal, five in Assam, four seats in Bihar, three in Karnataka, two seats in Madhya Pradesh, and one seat each in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala and Meghalaya. Votes will be counted on November 23.
Rabindra Kumar Sinha had been woken up from his sleep and called out of his quarter at the farm of R&K Fishing and Agriculture Private Limited at around 2 am on Wednesday by unidentified persons before he went untraced.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is visiting Karnataka, said he intended to shut all the madrasas (Muslim religious schools) in his state, as they were not needed in "New India".
Four persons, including a forest guard, were killed in violence at the Assam-Meghalaya border in West Karbi Anglong district in the early hours of Tuesday after a truck transporting illegal timber was intercepted, officials said.
The Assam government on Wednesday constituted a one-man inquiry committee headed by the Additional Chief Secretary P P Verma to probe into the incident of mob assault on Rumi Nath, ruling Congress MLA of Borkhola LAC, in South Assam, on the night of June 29 last inside a hotel at Karimganj town. The committee will submit its report within 15 days.
India batter Ishan Kishan on Wednesday returned to the Jharkhand Ranji team as its captain, following his controversial pullout last season
Tribal militants from the anti-peace talk faction of Dima Halam Daogah called Black Widow, abducted three employees of a Delhi-based construction company from a place called Muktacherra in Cachar district of South Assam on Friday.
Several rebel Maharashtra MLAs are currently camping in the Radisson Blu Hotel in Guwahati.
The drive met with opposition in Tinsukia in upper Assam leading to lathicharge by the security forces, while in Sonitpur the alleged illegal settlers claimed that it was launched about a week before the stipulated date.
Tata Sons will likely choose Singapore as a "key partner" for its semiconductor plans, a senior minister from the city-state said on Friday. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran earlier in the day, Singapore's minister for home affairs and law K Shanmugam said semiconductors was a "big discussion" point during the meeting. "If they (Tatas) want to, they can do business with anybody in the world.
A round-up of the Ranji Trophy matches played on Saturday.
Ratra, a former Indian wicketkeeper-batter, brings with him a wealth of experience and an impressive track record in both domestic and international cricket.
The Assam government has arranged for a free ride in a special train from Guwahati to Chennai and Bengaluru on September 20 to woo those from the state -- who had fled southern states in August after threats of ethnic violence -- to return to their place of work and study.
Each of Assam's border disputes has its own legacy of claims and counter-claims:
The statement comes a day after claims by locals that one of the bombs dropped in Mizoram's Champai district during the attack.
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.
At least 30 persons, including two police officers and four constables, were injured in a clash between protesters and security forces who fired in the air in south Assam's Cachar district on Wednesday night, police said.
'It is in the interest of China and Pakistan to give a bad name to the Indian Army and remove AFSPA 'completely' from the north east.' 'Hopefully, better sense will prevail and the ground realities of the army countering insurgency in the north east acknowledged,' asserts Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (retd).
The Assam cabinet on Monday decided to book men who marry girls below 14 years in the state under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
A sudden downpour in Delhi caught citizens off guard and caused heavy waterlogging and traffic jams on Tuesday while Mumbai breathed a sigh of relief as showers stopped a day after heavy rain brought the metropolis to its knees.
The UNICEF said an estimated 2.4 million children have been affected by the recent floods in the country.
This is the first cyclone in the Bay of Bengal this pre-monsoon season.
'As long as Amul was coming in with products it was not a problem because it was something value added and with a shelf life.' 'When it gets into the local market by procuring locally, it cuts into the market-share of local cooperatives.'
The visit of a high-level delegation of revenue officials from Bangladesh to India-Bangladesh border areas in Dhubri sector in western Assam has triggered sharp protests by political and non-political groups in Assam.
On May 15, the weather office had announced the onset of monsoon over Kerala by May 31.
Protests raging in Assam against lynching of rape accused Farid Khan in Dimapur in Nagaland on March 5
Bodies of the two naval officers from Assam who were in the Indian Navy's kilo-class submarine INS Sindhurakshak which sank at the naval dockyard in Mumbai after explosion were brought to their home state in Guwahati on Wednesday.