Centre will introduce bill against NRI men deserting wives during Winter Session, says Sushma Swaraj

Union Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday said the Centre, during the Winter Session of Parliament, will introduce a bill to prevent Non-Resident Indian men from deserting their wives abroad. The Winter Session will be held between December 11 and January 8.

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Maharashtra: Fire breaks out in slum in Pune, no casualties

A fire broke out in a slum in Pune’s Shivajinagar on Wednesday. No casualties have been reported. Fire brigade officials estimated that at least 100 huts were destroyed in the blaze.

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Green tribunal fines West Bengal for failing to comply with directives to improve air quality

The National Green Tribunal on Tuesday ordered West Bengal to pay a fine of Rs 5 crore for failing to comply with its two-year-old directive to improve air quality in Kolkata and Howrah. The tribunal ordered the state government to pay the fine within two weeks to the Central Pollution Control Board.

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CBI row: Delhi High Court allows Alok Verma to inspect file relating to Rakesh Asthana case

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday allowed Central Bureau of Investigation Director Alok Verma and Joint Director AK Sharma to inspect the case file relating to the bribery case involving the agency’s Special Director Rakesh Asthana. The case file is being kept at the Central Vigilance Commission’s office.

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Kartarpur corridor: Pakistan PM Imran Khan lays foundation stone, Indian ministers attend event

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday laid the foundation of a corridor that will connect Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur area of the country’s Narowal district, where the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, died in 1539, to Dera Baba Nanak in India’s Punjab state, Dawn reported.

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Air India’s ground handling firm to be sold to pay national carrier’s debt, says Centre

A ministerial panel led by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday decided to sell Air India’s ground handling firm and use the proceeds to pay off part of the airline’s debt.

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‘Rajasthan polls are a contest between naamdar and kaamdar’: PM Modi takes jibe at Rahul Gandhi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday took a jibe at Congress President Rahul Gandhi by stating that the Rajasthan Assembly elections are a fight between the “naamdar [dynast] and the kaamdar [worker]”.

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Telangana: Trainer aircraft crashes in Bahupet, pilot sustains leg injury

An Indian Air Force Station trainer aircraft crashed in Bahupet village in Telangana’s Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district on Wednesday, after it took off from Hakimpet, PTI reported.

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1984 riots: Delhi High Court upholds five-year jail sentence of 88 convicts

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday upheld the five-year jail sentence a lower court had granted to 88 people convicted of involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, News18 reported.

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Bihar: SC asks CBI to take over investigation of sexual abuse allegations at 16 more shelter homes

The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to take over the inquiries into allegations of physical and sexual abuse of inmates at 16 shelter homes in Bihar, PTI reported.

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SAARC: Sushma Swaraj says India will not attend summit till Pakistan stops terrorism

Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Wednesday that India will not respond to Pakistan’s invitation to attend the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit in Islamabad, ANI reported. She said India will not attend the event till Pakistan stops cross-border terrorism.

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Sterlite: Decision to shut down plant in Thoothukudi is ‘not sustainable’, says NGT-appointed panel

A three-member panel formed to look into the closure of the Sterlite copper plant in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi on Wednesday said that the state’s decision to shut down the plant is “not sustainable”.

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CPI (Maoist) appoints military strategist Basavraju as its next general secretary

The Communist Party of India (Maoist) has appointed Nambala Keshav Rao – the leader of its Central Military Commission who is known by the nom de guerre Basavraju – as its next leader, the party’s Central Committee said.

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Jammu & Kashmir: Editor Shujaat Bukhari’s suspected killer gunned down in Budgam, say police

Lashkar-e-Taiba militant Naveed Jatt, who was accused of assassinating senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari, was gunned down in Jammu and Kashmir’s Budgam district in an encounter on Wednesday morning. Another suspected militant was killed and three Army personnel were injured in the gunfight in Chatergam.

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2016 Una flogging incident: Dalit victim writes to president, asks for mercy killing

A member of the Dalit community flogged by upper-caste men in Gujarat’s Una city in 2016 on Tuesday wrote to President Ram Nath Kovind, seeking permission for mercy killing. Vashram Sarvaiya, writing on behalf of his family, said former Chief Minister Anandiben Patel had failed to keep the promises she made to them in 2016 following the incident.

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Bihar: One arrested after police find 16 human skulls, 34 skeletal remains in Chhapra

The police in Chhapra city of Bihar arrested a person after they found a huge quantity of human skulls and skeletal remains at the railway junction.The team also found Bhutanese currency, ATM cards of many countries and a foreign SIM card.

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Sabarimala: Opposition leaders protest in Kerala Assembly, demand withdrawal of prohibitory orders

The Kerala Assembly witnessed an uproar on Wednesday after members of the opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front and the Bharatiya Janata Party raked up the Sabarimala temple row.

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Sensex, Nifty rise in early morning trade on global cues

Indian markets rose on Wednesday morning, helped by positive cues from global markets ahead of meetings of the G-20 and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. The BSE Sensex was trading 172.31 points up at 35,685.45 at 10.35 am. The National Stock Exchange Nifty was 38.75 points ahead at 10,724.35.

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TN wants Centre to withdraw preliminary approval to Karnataka for Mekedatu project

The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday demanded that the Centre withdraw the permission granted to Karnataka to prepare a Detailed Project Report for a proposal for a balancing reservoir-cum-drinking water project in Mekedatu area across the Cauvery river.

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Agriculture ministry withdraws report that said demonetisation adversely affected farmers

The Ministry of Agriculture has withdrawn a report that said demonetisation affected millions of farmers in the country. The ministry cited a “compilation error” in the document.

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Teenager from Assam praised for correcting Donald Trump on climate change

A teenager from Jorhat city in Assam has criticised United States President Donald Trump for mocking global warming. Trump, in a tweet on November 21 in response to the temperature dropping to minus two degrees Celsius in Washington DC, had said: “Brutal and Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS Whatever happened to Global Warming?”

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Assembly polls underway in Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram; Modi urges people to come out and vote

After a high-decibel election campaign by both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, voting began in Mizoram and Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday morning. While Mizoram is voting to elect voting 40 constituencies, Madhya Pradesh will elect a 230-member assembly. Votes will be counted on December 11.

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Pellet gun injury to baby: J&K human rights panel seeks report from police, administration

Doctors at the Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital in Srinagar had said Hiba Nisar, who was hit in the eye on Sunday during clashes between security forces and locals in Shopian district, may lose sight in one eye.

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G20 summit: Narendra Modi to meet US President Donald Trump and Japan PM Shinzo Abe

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet United States President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Argentina’s Buenos Aires on November 30 and December 1, PTI reported. The trilateral meeting was announced by the White House on Tuesday.

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Kartarpur corridor: Navjot Sidhu’s visit to Pakistan is not an official one, says Amarinder Singh

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday said state minister Navjot Singh Sidhu’s visit to Pakistan was a private one and that he had asked the Congress leader to reconsider it, PTI reported. Sidhu is currently in Pakistan to attend the foundation-laying ceremony for the construction of the Kartarpur corridor on the Pakistani side on Wednesday.