President’s rule in Jammu and Kashmir to be imposed from midnight

President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday signed a proclamation ordering imposition of central rule in Jammu and Kashmir starting midnight. The Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the decision on Monday after Governor Satya Pal Malik sent a report recommending the imposition of president’s rule.

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Loan waiver is not a solution to farm distress, helps only a fraction of farmers, says NITI Aayog

The NITI Aayog on Wednesday said waiving farm loans is not a solution to the agrarian distress as it benefits only a fraction of farmers. “Farm loan waiver is not a solution to farm sector distress,” Vice Chairperson Rajiv Kumar said. “It is not a solution but is a palliative.”

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Tamil Nadu: AIADMK revokes primary membership of deputy CM O Panneerselvam’s brother

The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Wednesday said it had withdrawn the primary membership of O Raja, the brother of deputy Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, for alleged “anti-party activities”. The party’s statement was signed by Panneerselvam and Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami.

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Bihar: BJP ally Lok Janshakti Party demands seats in Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh

A senior leader of the Lok Janshakti Party in Bihar on Wednesday said the National Democratic Alliance should allocate the party seats in Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh as well because it has a vote bank there. The party is a coalition partner of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA at the Centre and in Bihar, and has six MPs in the Lok Sabha.

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Sriharikota: ISRO launches communication satellite GSAT-7A

The Indian Space Research Organisation on Wednesday launched the GSAT-7A, a geostationary communication satellite, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota. The satellite was launched at 4.10 pm, carried by the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle GSLV-F11.

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Maratha quotas: Maharashtra tells court it won’t make appointments under new law till January 23

The Maharashtra government on Wednesday told the Bombay High Court that it will not make appointments in any of its departments under a new legislation providing reservations to the Maratha community until the court takes up the petitions against it.

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Rahul Gandhi claims credit for farm loan waiver in Assam, unpaid power bill write-off in Gujarat

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said his party has managed to wake up the chief ministers of Assam and Gujarat “from their deep slumber” and will do the same to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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Rafale deal: BJP workers stage protest against Rahul Gandhi for ‘spreading lies’

Workers and leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday staged a protest against Congress President Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi for allegedly “spreading lies” about the Rafale deal. BJP Delhi President Manoj Tiwari led the protestors in a demonstration outside the Opposition party’s headquarters.

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Five IIT Roorkee professors accused of sexually harassing three women

Five professors at the Indian Institute of Technology in Roorkee, Uttarakhand, have been accused of sexually harassing two students and an American scholar. Last week, a research student accused two professors of harassing her. In her complaint to the police, she accused the director of the institution and the dean of not taking action against the accused.

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Malayalam actress assault case: Actor Dileep’s plea for CBI inquiry rejected by Kerala High Court

The Kerala High Court on Wednesday dismissed Malayalam actor Dileep’s petition for a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the alleged abduction and assault of an actress. Dileep is accused of plotting the assault, which took place on February 17, 2017, near Angamaly in Ernakulam.

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AgustaWestland deal: Delhi court reserves verdict on Christian Michel’s bail plea till Saturday

The Patiala House Court in Delhi on Wednesday reserved its order on the bail plea of Christian Michel, the alleged middleman in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal, reported PTI. The court will give its order on Saturday. Michel’s counsel, Aljo K Joseph, told the court that he was not required for custodial interrogation.

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Pulwama killings: J&K governor asks security forces to avoid civilian casualties

Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik on Tuesday reviewed the security situation in the state after the recent civilian deaths in Pulwama and directed security forces to adhere to the Standard Operating Procedure to avoid civilian casualties.

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Delhi High Court quashes summons issued to Smriti Irani in defamation case filed by Congress’ Sanjay Nirupam

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday quashed the summons issued to Union minister Smriti Irani in a defamation case filed by Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam had filed against her. But Justice RK Gauba dismissed a petition filed by Nirupam to set aside the summons issued to him in a cross-defamation suit brought by Irani. He said Nirupam’s trial will continue.

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Parliament: Rajya Sabha adjourned for the day over Rafale row

The Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day on Wednesday after ruckus over the Rafale deal between India and France, and the Cauvery dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The Lok Sabha resumed proceedings after being adjourned till noon as the Congress, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Telugu Desam Party MPs kept protesting.

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Rajasthan: Congress government transfers 40 IAS officers in first major reshuffle

The Congress government in Rajasthan on Tuesday carried out its first reshuffle in the state bureaucracy, just two days after Ashok Gehlot took oath as chief minister. Forty Indian Administrative Service officers and eight Rajasthan Administrative Service officers were transferred.

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2019 elections: Amit Shah says grand alliance of Opposition parties is only an ‘illusion’

Bharatiya Janata Party National President Amit Shah on Wednesday claimed that the mahagathbandhan, or grand alliance, of Opposition parties is an illusion. “The reality of the opposition ‘mahagathbandhan’ is different,” he said at the Republic Summit in Mumbai, PTI reported. “It doesn’t exist and is a ‘bhranti’ [illusion].”

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INX Media case: P Chidambaram summoned for questioning by Enforcement Directorate

The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday summoned former Union minister P Chidambaram to its headquaters in New Delhi for questioning in the INX Media case. Last month, the Delhi High Court extended till January 15 the interim protection from arrest granted to the Congress leader.

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Rs 15 lakh promised by Narendra Modi will be deposited, but slowly, claims Union minister Athawale

Union minister and Republican Party of India President Ramdas Athawale has said that people will slowly get Rs 15 lakh in their bank accounts, as promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the 2014 General Elections campaign. Modi had made the promise after claiming he would bring back black money stashed abroad.

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Cold wave likely in Delhi from December 20 to 22, says IMD

The national capital is expected to experience a cold wave for three days starting Thursday, the India Meteorological Department said on Tuesday. The temperature in New Delhi dipped to 5.1°C on Tuesday, three degrees below normal.

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Rare disease treatment: Rs 100-crore fund not set up despite earlier claim, Centre tells Delhi HC

The Centre has told the Delhi High Court that it did not allocate an initial corpus for treatment of life-threatening diseases under the National Policy on Treatment of Rare Diseases despite telling the court earlier that a Rs 100-crore corpus was created for the purpose. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare told Justice Manmohan that it has decided to reframe the policy after realising that health is a state subject and that permission of most states had not been obtained before drawing up the policy.

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Apollo Hospital bill shows Jayalalithaa’s stay cost Rs 6.86 crore, Rs 44 lakh still pending

Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s treatment at Apollo Hospital in Chennai cost Rs 6.86 crore, of which Rs 44 lakh is still pending to the hospital, according to a document submitted by the hospital to an inquiry commission. Jayalalithaa was admitted to the hospital with severe dehydration on September 22, 2016. She died of cardiac arrest on December 5.

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Swachh Bharat cess being levied even after introduction of GST, reveals RTI query: The Wire

The Centre continued to levy the Swacch Bharat cess even after it had been abolished following the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax regime on July 1, 2017, a Right to Information query has revealed. The cess, first imposed in 2015, was collected as 0.5% surcharge on services.

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Replace Narendra Modi with Nitin Gadkari for 2019 polls, says Maharashtra leader

Kishore Tiwari, the head of a Maharashtra government organisation, has demanded that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh replace Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Union minister Nitin Gadkari for the top post if the Bharatiya Janata Party “wishes to win the 2019 Lok Sabha elections”.

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Enforcement Directorate is probing 1,326 firms for alleged money laundering: Centre to Rajya Sabha

The Centre told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that the Enforcement Directorate is investigating 1,326 companies for allegedly violating money laundering laws. Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla was responding to a question by Bharatiya Janata Party MP Harshvardhan Singh Dungarpur,

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RBI and government should work in harmony, says former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said the government and the Reserve Bank of India should work in harmony and likened their relationship to that of a husband and wife. “There will be hiccups, there will be difference of opinion, but ultimately these must be harmonised in a manner that these two great institutions can work in harmony,” said Singh.

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Mumbai hospital fire: Human rights panel issues notice to Maharashtra government, Centre

The National Human Rights Commission on Tuesday issued notices to the Maharashtra government and the Centre in connection with the fire that broke out at a hospital in Mumbai, in which eight people were killed.

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MK Stalin’s endorsement of Rahul Gandhi for PM’s post is only ‘one person’s opinion’: Akhilesh Yadav

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said on Tuesday that Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam President MK Stalin’s proposal to pitch Congress chief Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate of the Opposition for the 2019 General Elections is the opinion of one person, and not all alliance partners.

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Bulandshahr: Police arrest three people for alleged cow slaughter and two for violence that followed

The Uttar Pradesh Police on Tuesday arrested three more people in connection with the cow slaughter case that had led to violence in the state’s Bulandshahr district on December 3, claiming two lives. With this, the total number of arrests in the cow slaughter case went up to seven.

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Trinamool Congress leader rules out pre-election alliance with Congress

Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal minister Subrata Mukherjee on Tuesday ruled out forming an alliance with the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Mukherjee, however, said the party would keep all post-poll options open.

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Gujarat government waives power bill dues worth Rs 645 crore of over 6 lakh rural residents

The Bharatiya Janata Party government in Gujarat on Tuesday waived unpaid electricity dues worth Rs 625 crore of more than 6 lakh people in rural areas. This is part of a one-time settlement scheme. The announcement came a day after the Congress announced loan waivers for farmers in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh within hours of forming the government.

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Meghalaya: Six days on, people in Saipung coal mine still trapped; rescue operations continue

Rescue operations to help at least 14 miners trapped in a flooded coal mine in Meghalaya entered the sixth day on Tuesday with rains hindering efforts. The mine in East Jaintia Hills district’s Saipung area is reportedly illegal. National Disaster Response Force and State Disaster Response Force personnel are attempting to rescue the miners. Water entering the mine from a number of places is adding to their challenges, rescue officials said.

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