Month: April 2025

[ad_1] Raj BJP chief reprimands MLA over raising slogans in mosqueJAIPUR: Rajasthan BJP president Madan Rathore reprimanded Sunday party MLA and Hathoj Dham mahant (head priest) Balmukundacharya after he and his supporters raised slogans and stuck posters inside Jaipur's Jama Masjid before Friday prayers, triggering tensions in the city's walled area."Those who deliberately provoke unrest have no place in BJP. Such acts are a betrayal of our principles and will be dealt with strictly," Rathore said, adding that he had instructed all party members to uphold communal harmony and warned against actions damaging public trust.Tensions escalated after Jaipur's Hawa Mahal MLA Balmukundacharya and his supporters stepped onto the first stair of the mosque on April 25. A large gathering of Muslims formed soon after, leading to unrest. An FIR was filed against Balmukundacharya at a Jaipur police station on charges […]

[ad_1] RBI governor Sanjay Malhotra (File photo) MUMBAI: Despite rising protectionism around the world, India remains committed to market reforms, according to Sanjay Malhotra, governor of the Reserve Bank of India. Speaking at an event organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the US India Strategic Partnership Forum on Friday, Malhotra pointed to the new liberalisation measures in defence, insurance, petroleum, telecom, and space.Stating that market-oriented policies had been a consistent theme across successive Indian governments, Malhotra said, "While the pace and specific focus of reforms may have varied from time to time, the commitment to a more market-oriented economic structure has not changed." The governor said that almost all sectors have been opened up to 100% foreign direct investment in a phased manner. "Almost 90% of the FDI is now under the automatic route," he added.Malhotra painted a […]

[ad_1] Happy developers: iOS stores facilitate Rs 45k crore sales in 2024NEW DELHI: It's not just the multi-billion-dollar sale of iPhones and lucrative exports, the world's biggest electronics company Apple has also hit a jackpot in developer billings and sales on the iOS app ecosystem in India.The Cupertino-headquartered company has reaped in a rich engagement through its app ecosystem in India, raking in $5.3 billion (around Rs 44,447 crore) last year.This has opened a whole new frontier for the company in India, and has seen Apple's business engagement cross nearly $27 billion (Rs 2.3 lakh crore) in 2024, sources told TOI. This includes around $8 billion of sales of iPhones and other products such as Air Pods, MacBooks and iPads in the local market, $14 billion of exports (a large part to the US), and $5-billion-plus of app store transactions.Such […]

[ad_1] S Jaishankar (File photo) NEW DELHI: India's efforts to sensitise the international community about Pakistan's role in the Pahalgam attack continued Sunday with external affairs minister S Jaishankar taking up the cross-border terrorist attack with his UK counterpart David Lammy. On X, Jaishankar said that he underlined the importance of zero-tolerance for terrorism in the talks.As he leads India's diplomatic response to the attack, Jaishankar has stayed put in India skipping participation in the Brics foreign ministers' meeting in Brazil. As tensions soar with Pakistan, uncertainty looms over the proposed foreign visits in the next few weeks of other key players like NSA Ajit Doval and defence minister Rajnath Singh.Doval is also unlikely to travel to Brazil later this week for a Brics security meeting. While Singh is supposed to represent India at the Russian Victory Day parade in […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: National Testing Agency (NTA) will conduct NEET (Undergraduate) 2025 on Sunday at around 5,500 exam centres across India and abroad, marking a sharp increase from last year's 4,750 centres spread over 571 cities. This year, the test will be held across 552 cities in India and 14 international locations.Monitored by the education ministry, 180 central institutions have been entrusted to verify the preparedness of the centres. In some states, such as Assam, following a request from CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, all centres are located in govt-run institutions.Candidates have been allotted centres based primarily on their first-choice preferences, leading to expansion in several cities. Nearly 90% of the centers are located in govt-run institutions, including Kendriya Vidyalayas, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas, and state govt schools, according to NTA officials.Meanwhile, the datesheet for CUET-UG 2025, scheduled to commence on May […]

[ad_1] Representative image (AI-generated) BALASORE: "If we have done anything wrong, let the govt shoot us. But don't throw us out of the country," pleaded 72-year-old Rezia Sultana of Soro town in Odisha's Balasore district, who has lived in India since she was four. She is one of the many Pakistani nationals who have been served notice to leave India in the aftermath of the terror attack at Pahalgam. To make matters worse, Rezia is battling kidney-related issues and has a critical medical appointment in Bhubaneswar on May 10. Her family has appealed to the government to reconsider the decision and withdraw the deportation notice. Rezia's father, Haider Ali, originally from Bihar, had migrated after Partition to Bangladesh and later Pakistan, where she was born in 1953.Four years later, Haider returned to India. Since then, Rezia has built her life […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: In a first in the history of Supreme Court, an incumbent CJI did not attend to judicial work for a week to participate in a conference abroad and will resume work on Monday.CJI Sanjiv Khanna left for China on Monday last week to attend the conference of Chief Justices of Supreme Courts of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) countries being held in Hangzhou. Several CJIs told TOI that they would attend the SCO conference only when the court was on vacation. If such conferences clashed with the working of SC, then a senior judge was assigned to attend it, they said. Even when India hosted the SCO CJs conference in 2023, the then CJI did not not miss judicial work in the courtroom even for a day. SC had a five-day holiday from April 10 to 14, during […]