National

Reaffirming India’s stand that Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) is an integral part of India, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that this is not just the Bharatiya Janata Party’s position but that of the whole country.He further said that the prime concern regarding Pakistan is that of terrorism, and if anything unruly happens, it will be given a firm response.“On the issue of PoK, there is a national position and not the party’s position. The Parliament of India has taken a united stand and every political party in the country has supported that stand. We will never accept that the PoK is not a part of India. It’s a united stand, it remains our stand,” Jaishankar said addressing a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday.“The central issue where Pakistan is concerned is...

New Delhi: Venture capital (VC) firm Centre Court Capital (CCC) on Thursday launched a Rs 350 crore fund to revolutionise the country’s sports and gaming landscape.According to the company, the fund will back founders bringing innovative tech and push the boundaries of the sports and gaming ecosystem.Founded by Mustafa Ghouse, former CEO of JSW Sports, along with Alok Samtaney, who was a former Investment Director with TVS Capital and Sabre Partners, the fund has the Sajjan Jindal Family Trust as anchor investor, with Parth Jindal at the helm.“With 396 million gamers, we’re the second largest population of gamers in the world and the gaming sector is poised to grow at a 5-year CAGR of 21 per cent,” Ghouse said in a statement.“We firmly believe in the potential of the space and are focussed...

New Delhi: Elon Musk on Thursday said that his X platform has activated the Community Notes feature — a user-based fact-checking programme — in India, as the country prepares for general elections.Musk-owned social media platform also welcomed new contributors in India for its community notes feature.“Community Notes now active in India,” wrote the Tesla and SpaceX CEO.The company said that its first contributors in the country “are joining today, and we’ll be expanding over time”.“As always, we’ll monitor quality to ensure that notes are found helpful by people from different points of view,” said the X platform.Community Notes now has contributors in 69 countries around the world.“We’re adding more regularly,” said the Musk-run platform.In December 2022, the company first enabled the abi...

  Astana (Kazakhstan), Apr 3:  Perpetrators of terrorism should be effectively and expeditiously dealt with including those involved in cross-border terrorist activities, NSA Ajit Doval said on Wednesday, condemning the barbaric terror attack at Crocus City Hall in Moscow and calling for shunning double standards in combating the menace.    In an address at a security conclave of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Astana, he also said that connectivity projects must be fully respectful of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of member states of the grouping, in remarks that came amid concerns over China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).    Highlighting the challenge of terrorism, Doval underlined the need for holding accountable the sponsors, financiers, and facilitators o...

New Delhi Election Commission of India today directed states/UTs to ensure that every voter can exercise their right to vote without fear or intimidation.CEC  Rajiv Kumar called on all states/UTs and agencies to convert their ‘resolve’ into concrete ‘actions’ for free, fair, peaceful, and intimidation-free elections.ECI convened a crucial meeting with all States/UTs to review and assess the law and order situation, prevention of illicit activities, seizures, and strict vigil across inter-state and international borders in the ongoing General Elections to Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies 2024 for a free, fair, peaceful and inducement free elections. The purpose of the combined review was to bring all concerned stakeholders together on the same platform for seamless coordination an...

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court granted divorce to celebrity chef Kunal Kapur on Tuesday on the grounds of cruelty meted out to him by his estranged wife, saying the woman’s conduct towards him was devoid of dignity and empathy.The high court allowed Kunal Kapur’s appeal challenging a family court’s order denying him divorce and said it is a settled position of law that making reckless, defamatory, humiliating and unsubstantiated allegations against a spouse in public amounts to cruelty.“In the light of the aforenoted facts of the present case, we find that the conduct of the respondent (wife) towards the appellant (husband) has been such that it is devoid of dignity and empathy towards him.“When such is the nature of one spouse towards the other, it brings disgrace to the very essence of ...

New Delhi: At least 38 Vistara flights originating from key cities were cancelled this morning as the airline reeled under non-availability of pilots. As many as 15 flights taking off from Mumbai, 12 from Delhi and 11 from Bengaluru were among those cancelled.This comes after more than 50 Vistara flights were cancelled yesterday and about 160 delayed. Speaking to NDTV, passengers had yesterday complained of poor communication and hours-long wait at the airport and slammed the airline for harassing passengers.Vistara said in a statement yesterday that they have faced a “significant number” of flight cancellations and delays in the past few days “due to various reasons including crew unavailability”.“We acknowledge and are deeply concerned about the inconvenience this has caused to our custo...

Rudrapur: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday launched a blistering attack on Rahul Gandhi for his remark suggesting there would be a “conflagration” in the country if the BJP gets a third term.Kick-starting his Lok Sabha campaign in Uttarakhand from Rudrapur in Udham Singh Nagar district, he said staying out of power has made the Congress desperate and asked the people to wipe out the party from everywhere.“Congress’ shehzada has threatened, there will be fire if Modi gets another term in office. Staying out of power has made them so desperate that they are now talking about setting things on fire. Would you let them do it? Wouldn’t you punish them?” Modi said while accusing the party of trying to push the country towards instability and anarchy.At a rally in Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan on...

 “Today, India is becoming the engine of global growth with a 15 percent share in global GDP growth”,   PM Modi remarked.He emphasized the efforts to make Rupee more accessible and acceptable throughout the world. He also touched upon the rising trends of excessive economic expansion and increasing debt and pointed out the private sector debt of many countries has doubled their GDP. Debt levels of many countries are also creating a negative impact on the world, he said. The Prime Minister suggested RBI conduct a study on this keeping in mind the prospects and potential of India’s growth.He was addressing the opening ceremony of RBI@90, a program marking 90 years of the Reserve Bank of India, in Mumbai, Maharashtra today.   Modi also released a commemorative coin to mark 90 years of RBI. Th...

New Delhi: Sheyphali B. Sharan today assumed charge as the Principal Director General, Press Information Bureau upon superannuation of Manish Desai yesterday. Sharan is an officer of the 1990 batch of Indian Information Service.During an illustrious career spanning over three decades, she has held cadre portfolios largely looking after media publicity work as a Press Information Bureau officer for Ministries such as Finance, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. She has also served as the Spokesperson for the Election Commission of India.In addition, she has worked on Central Staffing Scheme Deputations as Director in Ministry of Health (Department of Traditional Systems of Medicine/AYUSH (2002-2007)) and Ministry of Finance (Department of Economi...