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[ad_1] NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said initiatives undertaken during the last 11 years of his tenure have increased the prosperity of farmers and ensured an overall transformation of the farm sector, and promised that his govt's efforts towards farmer welfare will continue with "greater vigour" in the times to come.Ahead of 11th anniversary of his govt on June 9, the day he took oath for a third consecutive term in office last year, the Prime Minister posted on X a thread of a citizen engagement platform (MyGovIndia) that underlined how the farmers from being trapped in debt and uncertainty are now empowered with dignity, direct income support, better prices, modern infrastructure, and access to global markets through a massive 112% jump in agricultural export (from Rs 1.94 lakh crore in 2013-14 to Rs 4.12 lakh crore […]

[ad_1] GUWAHATI: Assam govt is preparing to use a 75-year-old previously overlooked law to pushback illegal migrants from the state without any judicial intervention immediately after their identification.CM Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday said a constitutional bench of the Supreme Court, while hearing a case on Section 6A of the Citizenship Act (October, 2024), had said there is no legal requirement for the Assam govt to always approach the judiciary to identify foreigners and "we are examining this"."There is an old law called the Immigrants Expulsion Order (1950), and during hearing on Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, the constitutional bench of the Supreme Court said this Act is still valid. Under its provisions, even a district commissioner can issue an order for immediate pushback of illegal immigrants," he added. "For whatever reason, our lawyers had not informed us about […]

[ad_1] KOTA: An ICICI Bank relationship manager in Rajasthan's Kota, Sakshi Gupta, has been arrested for allegedly siphoning off Rs 4.6 crore from 110 accounts of 41 customers from 2020 to 2023 for unauthorised stock market investments that turned into duds, reports Rajiv Saxena.Police said Sakshi concealed the unlawful cash pullouts by replacing registered mobile numbers in several accounts with those belonging to her relatives, ensuring that transaction alerts and OTPs were diverted from actual customers.In one instance, Sakshi used an elderly woman's account - without her knowledge - as a "pool account", shuffling over Rs 3 crore through it by Feb 15, 2023. Much of the unauthorised proceeds were transferred to demat accounts as part of an attempted cover-up for wagering on stock deals.ICICI Bank has suspended Sakshi, who was attached to its DCM branch in Kota, after her […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: Canadian PM Mark Carney defended the last-minute invitation to his counterpart Narendra Modi for the G7 summit, saying it made sense for Canada and other members to invite the "5th largest economy" and the most populous country in the world that's central to a number of supply chains.While Modi's travel programme is not finalised yet, he's expected to reach Alberta in time for the G7 outreach session on June 17.Other G7 members keen on seeing Modi's participation, hints Carney The G7 summit begins on June 15. Asked repeatedly about why Canada would have Modi over when the probe into the killing of Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar is still on, Canadian PM Mark Carney said there had been progress on law enforcement dialogue which "recognises issues of accountability".Carney's predecessor Justin Trudeau had wrecked the India-Canada relationship by […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: Pakistan's demands, as a non-permanent member of UN Security Council (UNSC), for leadership of four terrorism-related committees have been rebuffed by other members of the council, official sources here said. The country had to make do with chairship of only the 1988 Taliban Sanctions Committee.Pakistan had demanded chairships of the 1267 Sanctions Committee; 1540 (Non-Proliferation) Sanctions Committee; 1988 Taliban Committee; and 1373 Counter Terrorism Committee (CTC). Apart from the Taliban committee, it has also been allowed CTC's vice-chairship. India sees this as well short of its neighbour's "tall expectations and claims".Pakistan's demands caused a lack of consensus in UNSC, delaying the process of allocation of UN committees by about five months. "The allocation should have been undertaken by Jan 2025," said an official.'Other members weren't happy with Pak attitude' An official, who said Pakistan's demands had delayed […]

[ad_1] HYDERABAD: In a major breakthrough, Telangana Anti Narcotics Bureau's (TGANB) investigation to trace the inter-state hawala cash trail of international drug cartels ended in a washing machine in a Goa flat, from which it seized Rs 50 lakh a few days ago.TGANB director Sandeep Shandilya, said the money, collected over just two days, was moments away from being laundered to Nigeria. "Had we delayed the raid by an hour, the entire amount would have been transferred. It was neatly stashed inside the washing machine, ready for dispatch," he said.Following a month-long surveillance operation in Goa, TGANB --- assisted by Goa police --- zeroed in on hawala transactions being conducted from Sangeetha Mobile Shop in Mapusa and an apartment in Goa's Highland Park. 'Accused laundered over 2 crore of drug proceeds' The key accused, Uttam Singh, who runs the mobile […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday hit out at the Election Commission after the poll watchdog rejected his allegations of rigging in the 2024 Maharashtra assembly election. Reacting to the EC's refutation attributed to the commission officials who spoke on anonymity, Gandhi said, "Evasion won't protect your credibility. Telling the truth will".Also read: 'LOP's desperation over Congress losses on display,' says BJPSharing his op-ed published in 'The Indian Express', headlined "Match-fixing Maharashtra", on X, Rahul reiterated the allegations he has been making since the poll's result was announced. The 2024 Maharashtra assembly election was a "blueprint for rigging democracy", he said, alleging that this "match-fixing" would next happen in Bihar and "then anywhere BJP is losing".If you have nothing to hide, answer questions in my article and prove it by: publishing consolidated, digital, machine-readable voter rolls for […]

[ad_1] BENGALURU: Three days after a stampede outside M Chinnaswamy Stadium killed 11 peopleat RCB's IPL win celebration, it emerged that senior police officer MN Karibasavana Gowda had red-flagged the risks just before the event. His written warning to top bureaucrats on June 4, the day of the tragedy, also cautioned against the felicitation at Vidhana Soudha."Lakhs of cricket fans are likely to come to Vidhana Soudha. Since there is a shortage of security personnel, making bandobast will be a problem," Gowda, in-charge of security at the legislature, wrote to department of personnel and administrative reforms secretary G Sathyavathi.Sidda, DKS have blood on their hands, they're trying to wipe it on cops: BJP In the letter, which TOI is in possession of, Gowda also pointed to the venue's sensitive status and lack of adequate CCTV coverage.Hours before the surge, department […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: India's extreme poverty rate has fallen sharply over the past decade after the World Bank updated its international poverty line definition and included updated data in its June upgrade of the methodology.Based on the update, the latest World Bank data showed that the extreme poverty rate had declined from 27.1% in 2011-12 to 5.3% in 2022-23. The number of people living in extreme poverty also fell sharply during this period from 344.47 million in 2011-12 to 75.24 million in 2022-23. This would mean that nearly 270 million were lifted out of extreme poverty during the same period.In a blog, the World Bank said that the international poverty line for low-income countries has been raised to $3 per person per day from the existing $2.15 per person per day, and for lower middle-income countries it's changed from $3.65 […]

[ad_1] MUMBAI: In what it said was a peculiar case of a dispute arising over a reimbursement claim by a central govt employee for a "heart transplant" conducted at a private hospital, the Bombay high court on Friday held that the affected man, a pensioner, was entitled to decide on a private hospital for the procedure in the absence of timely availability of such facilities in all the empanelled hospitals under the govt health scheme for employees. The high court said he was entitled to full reimbursement of his "undisputed expenditure". It said that to make the man suffer for the refund was a glaring travesty of justice and violation of his fundamental rights.Anirudh Nansi, who took voluntary retirement in March 2008 as a central govt employee, is a Mumbai resident and petitioned the high court in 2022 over his […]