Month: April 2025

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: Over the past decade, India has significantly reduced poverty with extreme poverty declining from 16.2% in 2011-12 to 2.3% in 2022-23, lifting 171 million people above the poverty line, a World Bank report said on Friday.Rural extreme poverty dropped from 18.4% to 2.8% and urban from 10.7% to 1.1%, narrowing the rural-urban gap from 7.7 to 1.7 percentage points - a 16% annual decline, according to the multilateral agency's Poverty and Equity Brief."India also transitioned into the lower-middle-income category. Using the $3.65 per day LMIC (lower middle income country) poverty line, poverty fell from 61.8% to 28.1%, lifting 378 million people out of poverty," said the report.It said rural poverty dropped from 69% to 32.5%, and urban poverty from 43.5% to 17.2%, reducing the rural-urban gap from 25 to 15 percentage points with a 7% annual decline.The […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: India on Friday announced the suspension of visa services to Pakistani nationals with immediate effect, along with revocation of all existing valid visas issued to Pakistanis, barring long-term visas, diplomatic visas and official visas.While Saarc visas expire on April 26, medical visas will cease to be valid after April 29. Visas of all other categories will not be recognised after April 27. In case Pakistani citizens fail to leave India by specified deadlines, they will be considered as overstaying foreign nationals.Pakistanis failing to leave India to face action under lawIn case Pakistani citizens fail to leave India by specified deadlines, they will be considered as overstaying foreign nationals and face suitable legal action under provisions of newly enacted Immigration & Foreigners Act, 2025.An order issued by the home ministry’s foreigners division — as part of harsh diplomatic […]

[ad_1] S Jaishankar (File photo) NEW DELHI: India continued to turn the diplomatic heat on Pakistan, reaching out to the international community and mobilising support to pin Islamabad down on the issue of cross-border terrorism. The ministry of external affairs continued to brief foreign envoys about the Pahalgam attackers' links with Pakistan, and PM Narendra Modi and foreign minister S Jaishankar engaged with their counterparts from across the world.US director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said the US stood in solidarity with India, as India hunts down the perpetrators. The leaders of Denmark and the Netherlands also called the PM to express solidarity.Jaishankar also spoke to his Saudi Arabia counterpart Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and briefed him about the cross-border linkages of the Pahalgam attack. Support from Riyadh, as indeed from the UAE, will be crucial in case of […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: Blaming "security lapses and intelligence failure" for the Pahalgam attack, Congress Thursday said the deliberate targeting of Hindus in the heinous act "masterminded by Pakistan" is designed to inflame passions across India, even as it accused the governing BJP of exploiting the tragedy by using social media to sow discord and create polarisation. Congress warned Modi govt that counter measures announced against Pakistan should not be "symbolic".The Congress Working Committee meeting, attended by party president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi underlined that the terror-hit area is protected by a three-tier security arrangement and falls under the purview of Union home ministry. It demanded a comprehensive analysis of the "failures"."These questions must be raised in the larger public interest. This is the only way justice can truly be seen to be served for the families whose […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: After travelling across three states and an international border, the body of Sudeep Neupane, 27, the only foreign national killed in the terror attack on tourists in Pahalgam, reached his home in Kalikanagar, a neighbourhood in Butwal, western Nepal, draped in the national flag. He was cremated around noon.Sudeep, his family said, was shot immediately after he identified himself as a Hindu and had no time to explain that he was not from India. Butwal, a city in Lumbini province, sits just 25km north of the Indian border at Sunauli, close enough for shared economies and quiet daily crossings. It is not the kind of place where news arrives quickly, and yet by the time the ambulance reached Sudeep's home, the neighbours had already gathered.Sudeep had travelled to Kashmir with his mother Reema, sister Sushma, and brother-in-law […]

[ad_1] PATNA: Bihar Police's special task force, in a joint operation with the economic offences unit (EOU), arrested Sanjeev Mukhia, the alleged mastermind behind the NEET-UG 2024 paper leak, from an apartment in Danapur in Patna late Thursday.Mukhia had been absconding since the medical entrance exam was held in May last year. The police headquarters had announced a reward of Rs 3 lakh for any information leading to his capture.Investigators found Mukhia's network active in Rajasthan, Bihar, UP, Haryana, and Punjab, linked to leaks in recruitment exams for veterinary doctors, English teachers, and others. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] MEERUT: Supreme Court has ordered a fresh probe into the 2022 killing of a 20-year-old man in UP's Saharanpur, setting aside the orders of Allahabad high court and a lower court that applied the lesser charge of "culpable homicide not amounting to murder".Ziaul Rahman, 20, was allegedly beaten to death on November 1 that year by the family of his partner, 19-year-old Tanu Saini, who died by suicide 10 hours later. Ziaul's father, Ayyub Rahman, later approached the apex court after HC upheld the application of the "lesser charge".Calling it a "clear case of killing", the apex court directly cited the autopsy report that showed "14 injuries on Ziaul's body". SC gives UP 6 weeks to complete trial The court stated: "In this case, on the basis of the facts noted above, we find the charge should be framed […]