A look at the headlines right now:

  1. Centre announces major healthcare scheme in Budget, promises farmers an increase in crop prices: The government left income tax unchanged, while introducing Standard Deduction for salaried class. 
  2. Congress wins Rajasthan’s Mandalgarh seat in bye-poll elections; TMC wins Naopara and Uluberia in West Bengal: In a blow to the BJP government in Rajasthan, the Congress was also headed for a win in two Lok Sabha seats – Ajmer and Alwar.
  3. Chief justice introduces new subject-wise roster system in Supreme Court, will hear PILs himself: Four senior top court judges had claimed that Dipak Misra had assigned important cases arbitrarily.
  4. Arun Jaitley pegs fiscal deficit at 3.3% of GDP, after breaching 2017-’18 target: During the Budget speech, he announced a crackdown on cryptocurrency, and a new ‘Gobar Dhan’ scheme to help farmers manage and reuse cattle dung.
  5. Congress demands special investigation team probe in Judge Loya’s death: Pointing to ‘mysterious’ deaths of two of Loya’s friends and discrepancies in medical reports, the Congress said ‘circumstances are telling their own story’. 
  6. Ex-Himachal CM Virbhadra Singh, wife named as accused in chargesheet: The Enforcement Directorate had earlier claimed that it had recorded the statements of several witnesses and had investigated bank transactions. 
  7. 12-hour bandh in Nagaland underway after EC issues notification for Assembly polls: The bandh was near-total in Dimapur but failed to elicit much of a response in state capital Kohima.   
  8. Petrol bomb thrown at de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s house in Myanmar: The leader was not at her house at the time of the incident. The bomb caused minor damage to the lakeside property.
  9. Seventy-one schools shut in Jammu and Kashmir’s Nowshera as Pakistan violates ceasefire, say officials: Heavy shelling was reported in Kampla, Lam and Anwas Bhandar areas of Rajouri district’s Nowshera town. 
  10. Kochi college suspends classes after north Indian students claim they were tricked into eating beef: Some students have claimed that they were told that the beef cutlets being served at a college event were a vegetarian dish.