The big news: Government confident of winning no-confidence vote on Friday, and 9 other top stories
Other headlines: Fourteen people died after a state-run bus fell into a gorge in Uttarakhand, and the toll in Greater Noida building collapse rose to nine.
A look at the headlines right now.
- Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar reiterates that government will win Friday’s no-trust vote: The Opposition staged a walkout after Rajnath Singh blamed fake news for incidents of lynching.
- At least 14 die after state transport corporation bus falls into gorge in Uttarakhand: Search and rescue operations are on, the government has also ordered a magisterial inquiry into the matter.
- Greater Noida building collapse toll rises to nine, search operation underway: Dozens of construction workers are still believed to be trapped under the rubble.
- Opposition parties say they will stop Centre from amending the RTI Act: The amendments propose that the term of the chief information commissioner and other commissioners be fixed by the government, among other things.
- Note ban reduced GDP growth in certain districts by up to 7.3 percentage points, shows World Bank study: A research working paper published by the international organisation says that districts where informal activities are most prevalent were affected the most.
- Kerala government says it supports entry of women into Sabarimala temple: ‘Nobody can guarantee that a person can live till 50 or 55...so effectively lot of women will be barred from going to temple,’ said the state’s counsel.
- Human Rights Council is the greatest failure of the United Nations, says US envoy to UN Nikki Haley: It has taken the idea of human dignity and reduced it to an instrument of international politics, she said, while defending US’ decision to quit the council.
- Security forces kill eight suspected Maoists in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district, say police: The operation is still under way in a forest along the border of Bijapur and Dantewada districts.
- Verify cross-LoC traders in a month, deregister those without documents, says Governor: NN Vohra reviewed cross-Line of Control trade and asked authorities to prevent the smuggling of narcotics and banned substances.
- Latest phase in Earth’s history named after Indian state Meghalaya, began 4,200 years ago: The Meghalayan Age is part of a longer period known as the Holocene Epoch, which began about 11,700 years ago.
