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New Delhi : The situation in Jammu and Kashmir, economic slowdown, unemployment and the government's plan to bring the Citizenship bill are some of the issues which are likely to emerge as flashpoints between the opposition and treasury benches in the Winter session of Parliament beginning Monday. Besides the passage of the Citizenship (amendment) bill, the government also plans to convert two crucial ordinances into law during the session. One ordinance reducing corporate tax rate for new and domestic manufacturing companies to arrest slowdown in the economy and boost growth was issued in September to give effect to amendments in the Income Tax Act, 1961 and Finance Act, 2019. File image of the Indian Parliament complex. Reuters The second ordinance, also issued in September, banned sale, manufacture and storage of e-cigarettes and similar products. This is the second Parliament session of the BJP-led NDA government which returned to power with a greater mandate in the Lok

After almost five consecutive days of choking on toxic air, Delhi and neighbouring National Capital Region on Sunday woke up to some respite with the Air Quality Index (AQI) improving to "poor" category from "severe" category on Saturday. The overall AQI in Delhi stood at 254 at 9 am on Sunday, rising to 'poor' category on Sunday, as compared to 412 on Saturday. The AQI in Faridabad was 228, Ghaziabad 241, Greater Noida 192, Noida 224 and Gurgaon 193. Representational image. PTI The AQI between the range of 51 to 100 is considered as satisfactory; 101-200 is moderate; 201-300 falls under the category of poor. While 300-400 is considered as 'very poor', levels between 401-500 fall under the 'hazardous category'. The AQI recorded in Lodhi Road in Delhi was 218 (PM 2.5) and 217 (PM 10) on Sunday morning. Mathura Road recorded a figure of 304, IIT Delhi docked at 324 and Airport Terminal 3 at 315. The National Capital recorded a minimum te

CBSE Recruitment 2019: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has released a notification to invite online applications for various posts of Group A, Group B and Group C. Interested and eligible students can apply by visiting the official website of the board at cbse.nic.in . All candidates must apply for the CBSE recruitment on or before 16 December 2019. The application process began on 15 November 2019. Representational image. Reuters As per the official notification, a total of 357 vacancies are available for the posts of Assistant Secretary, Assistant Secretary (IT), Analyst (IT), Junior Hindi Translator, Senior Assistant, Stenographer, Accountant, Junior Assistant, Junior Accountant. Interested candidates can follow the steps listed below to apply for the examination. Steps to apply for CBSE recruitment drive 2019: Step 1: Visit the official website— cbse.nic.in Step 2: On the home page, click on the link that reads, ‘CBSE Recruitment 2019 Advt Apply Online,’

New Delhi : A delegation of Congress leaders met the party's interim president Sonia Gandhi and submitted a ground report on the issue of National Register of Citizens (NRC) and Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB). FIle image of Congress president Sonia Gandhi. News18 The delegation including Jairam Ramesh, Mukul Wasnik, Bhawar Jitender Singh, Manickam Tagore, Ranjit Mukherjee, and Mohammed Khan met Sonia Gandhi on Saturday to submit the report. "There is a consensus among the people of North East States across all religions and castes that Citizenship Amendment Bill should not be passed which is already in the governments' agenda for this winter session," a Congress leader told ANI . A delegation of Congress MLAs from Manipur, headed by Ibobi Singh, also met Sonia Gandhi on Saturday. "All the MLAs from Manipur have come for two important issues to meet the Prime Minister and the Home Minister. Once this bill is passed, our apprehension is that those people wh

Shivamogga : Unseasonal rains have wreaked havoc in Karnataka by not only disturbing the daily life of the people but also destroying the maize farms, which is one of the major commercial crops of the state. The incessant rain in early harvesting season from September to November has caused severe damage which has made the yield per hectare nose dive and the remaining produce to be sold off at lower rates. Karnataka: Maize crops in Shivamogga district damaged due to incessant rainfall in the region. Prasanna, a farmer says, "Rains have devastated our lives, more than 50% of the maize crops have been damaged, prices have also dipped". (16.11.19) pic.twitter.com/O9rBLVcVnH — ANI (@ANI) November 17, 2019 "This year rain has really devastated our life, more than 50 per cent of the maize crop has been destroyed, the price also dipped, the clouds developing in the evening are threatening the farmers from harvesting. A few days back maize was being sold at Rs 2,600 per

UPSC NDA 2019 |  The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) is set to hold the National Defence Academy (NDA) and Naval Academy Examination (II) 2019 on 17  November (Sunday). The paper will be held in offline mode and two parts - Mathematics and General Ability Test. Representational image. Getty Paper I is out of 300 marks and students will get 150 minutes to complete this section. Paper-II is on English competency and it is a general aptitude test that is out of 600 marks, which is also to be completed in 150 minutes. According to NDTV , both question papers will be set in Hindi and English . Candidates selected through the recruitment process will be trained to serve the Indian Naval Academy (INA), Air Force Academy (AFA), Indian Military Academy (IMA) and Officer’s Training Academy (OTA). All students appearing for the written examination on Sunday are required to bring a printout of their e-Admit card, along with an original photo identity card, whose number is mentioned i

To make sense of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in the Ayodhya case, one needs to focus on what happened outside the courtroom and then use that as a way of seeing what happened inside . The un-happening of riots, bloodshed and violence has somehow refracted our attention, and analysis of the judgment seems to be centered on what happened inside the courtroom, the contents of the 1,045-page judgement. This article tries to shift the optics outside, to the everydayness of the landmark event of 9 November 2019. A key event that impacted the ‘everydayness’ was the surveillance of the digital space — WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms. Group admins were asked to report any post that may be suspected of inciting violence. “Did that include dissenting posts that were calling for peaceful protests as a rightful act of citizenship?” One doesn’t know. The Muslim groups I am part of, were silent out of fear. Another youth group that I’m included in had nothing t

Balasore: India, on Saturday, successfully conducted the first night trial of 'Agni-II', its versatile surface-to-surface medium range nuclear capable missile from Dr Abdul Kalam Island off the  Odisha coast, defence sources said. The missile has a strike range of 2000 kilometres (km), the sources said soon after it blasted off from a mobile launcher at the Launch Complex-4 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR). Representational image. Wikimedia Commons 'Agni-II', an intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) has already been inducted into the armed forces. A defence official said this was the first time that the sophisticated missile was test-fired at night. The entire trajectory of the trial was tracked by a battery of sophisticated radars, telemetry observation stations, electro-optic instruments and two naval ships located near the impact point in the down range area of Bay of Bengal, DRDO sources said. The 20-metre long two stage ballistic missile has a launc

The Lord Ayyappa Temple in Sabarimala was thrown open to devotees at 5 pm on Saturday for the Mandala Pooja festival amid heavy security. #WATCH Kerala: Priests open the sanctum sanctorum of the #SabarimalaTemple . pic.twitter.com/wOhQiv1ErZ — ANI (@ANI) November 16, 2019 Earlier, police had sent back 10 women aged anywhere between 10 to 50 from Pamba, reported ANI . The women had come from Andhra Pradesh to offer their prayers, even as confusion over the Supreme Court verdict on allowing entry to women of menstruating ages continued. #SabarimalaTemple : Police has sent back 10 women from Pamba. The women (between the age of 10 to 50) had come from Andhra Pradesh to offer prayers at the temple. The temple is schedule to open today in the evening for the Mandala Pooja festival. #Kerala pic.twitter.com/YM17JC5Ogp — ANI (@ANI) November 16, 2019 Devotees had started arriving at Nilakkal and Pamba from various parts of Kerala and neighbouring states on Saturday morning, but

AIMPLB to decide on Ayodhya verdict review in 11 am meeting All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) is slated to meet at 11 am on Sunday to take a final call on filing a petition seeking a review of the Supreme Verdict in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute. The body is also likely to address the media at 3.30 pm after discussing in the meeting of they will accept the 5 acres of land offered to them to build a mosque in Ayodhya. File image of the site that was at the centre of the Ayodhya dispute. Getty images The AIMPLB on Saturday held a brainstorming session here with different Muslim parties over the Supreme Court verdict. AIMPLB secretary Zafaryab Jilani said the Muslim parties were of the view that the five-acre land for a mosque in Ayodhya as proposed by the Supreme Court should not be taken. Shiv Sena to not attend NDA meet; Sharad Pawar, Sonia Gandhi likely to meet Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari postponed a meeting with leaders from the Shiv Sena,

Bhubaneswar: Facing widespread criticism over an official booklet describing Mahatma Gandhi's death as an "accident", the Odisha government on Saturday said it was an inadvertent mistake and there was no intention to feed wrong information to the children or twist the sequence of events. File image of MK Gandhi. School and Mass Education Minister Samir Ranjan Dash came out with the government response to the controversy in the state Assembly following a direction from Speaker SN Patro in this regard on Friday. Dash said the government has already withdrawn the booklet. An official has been disengaged and two others have been asked to give explanation about the error, he added. A two-page government booklet " Aama Bapuji: Eka Jhalaka " (Our Bapuji: A Glimpse) — published on the occasion of 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi — presented a brief account of his teachings, works and links with Odisha, while also stating that he "died due to accident

Lucknow:  Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday asked for an inquiry report on a purported audio clip in which state minister Swati Singh allegedly threatened a police officer. "A report in this connection has been sought from the SSP, Lucknow and will be submitted to the chief minister at the earliest," state DGP OP Singh said. File image of Swati Singh. PTI In the audio clip that surfaced on social media, the minister is heard directly questioning Circle Officer, Lucknow Cant., Binu Singh about an FIR filed against Ansal Developers and expressing displeasure over it. Opposition parties, including Samajwadi Party and Congress, have attacked the Adityanath government over the clip, questioning its claim of zero tolerance on corruption. In the audio, the minister is allegedly telling the CO that a 'fake case' had been filed and that there were orders from the higher-ups that a case will not be registered against the Ansals. Singh is also appar

New Delhi's Kashmir move dealt a massive blow to Pakistan's sabotage-machinery-strategy, key actors, and the long-term plans. Hence, Pakistan's decades of investments in building high-capability assets in politics, media, and militancy have hit rock bottom. It faces the most challenging policy crises on Kashmir. It stands at the risk of losing the trust of the people of Kashmir, who, for years, were fed with convenient lies of Pakistan being a champion of their cause and Islam. Pakistan's loss of goodwill among the people has been brewing up for some time now. Representational image. AP Recently, Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri accused Pakistan of using Kashmir’s people for its strategic interests . Post-370, the dominant sentiment among the separatist/pro-Pakistan constituency is that this is the time for Pakistan to teach a lesson to India and do something for its supporters as the abrogation of Article 370 is a fatal blow to the separatist movement, annualising

Representational image. Reuters New Delhi : Aviation regulator DGCA has suspended two pilots of IndiGo airline for not heeding the instructions of Air Traffic Controller which caused a runway incursion incident at Chennai airport on 14 July, an official said on Saturday. "Captain Elitom Tadeu Soos, pilot-in-command, and Captain Aniket Sunil Joshi, first officer — who were planning to take off their A320 plane for Ahmedabad airport —  did not adhere to the instructions by SMC (Surface Movement Control) Controller to hold at holding point 'A' at RWY30 at Chennai airport," the official said. "They did not pay heed to the holding instructions and moved toward RWY25, which resulted in runway incursion incident. This jeopardised the safety of the aircraft and the passengers," the official added. Moreover, after SMC Controller changed the frequency to "Tower Frequency", the pilots failed to contact at this frequency, the official said. The pilots we

New Delhi:  Strong winds on Saturday abated the smog lingering over Delhi-NCR for the last four days, resulting in a decline in pollution levels. The air quality index of the National Capital read 357 at 4 pm on Saturday, around 100 notches less than Friday's AQI. The suburbs of Ghaziabad (347), Greater Noida (309), Gurgaon (360), Faridabad (358) and Noida (338) also recorded a dip in pollution levels. Representational image. PTI "Strong surface winds, gusting up to 25 kilometers per hour, blew in the region, reducing the smog and bringing slight relief. "Windy conditions are expected on Sunday as well and the air quality will improve further in the next two days," Kuldeep Srivastava, a senior scientist at the India Meteorological Department, said. Schools in Delhi and neighbouring Ghaziabad, Noida and Greater Noida also reopened on Saturday after remaining shut for two days in view of a harmful spike in air pollution. The System of Air Quality and Weather Forec

Islamabad:  An air traffic controller from Pakistan's Civil Aviation Authority saved a plane flying from Jaipur to Muscat, the capital city of Oman, after its pilot sounded alert due to bad weather. Sources in the aviation authority have said that the plane encountered abnormal weather conditions near the Chor area of the southern Sindh province. Representational image. CNN-News 18 According to a report in The News International , the plane, carrying 150 passengers, was flying over Karachi region on Thursday when it got caught in the middle of lightning and dropped down from an altitude of 36,000 feet to 34,000 feet almost immediately. As a result, the pilot initiated emergency protocol and broadcast "Mayday" to nearby stations. The air traffic controller from Pakistan responded to the call of pilot and directed it through the dense air traffic in the vicinity for the remaining journey in the Pakistani airspace. Pakistan on 16 July opened its airspace for India after

Bhopal : Social activist Abdul Jabbar, who worked tirelessly for the victims and survivors of the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy, died of a cardiac arrest at a private hospital in Bhopal on Thursday night, family sources said on Friday. He was 62. File image of Abdul Jabbar. Twitter@ANI Jabbar is survived by his wife and three children. Fondly known as 'Jabbar bhai', the activist was ailing and being treated for high blood sugar and foot infection for the last couple of months, a source from the family said. Jabbar lived just two kilometres from the now-abandoned Union Carbide plant, where, in December 1984, a deadly gas leak, killing thousands of people and rendering more than one lakh others disabled. On the fateful night, Jabbar rushed his neighbours and other victims from the locality to hospitals without regard for his own safety, an acquaintance recalled. Jabbar, who was himself a survivor of the world's worst industrial disaster, later emerged as one of the leading fi

New Delhi:  The Delhi unit of Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday protested near the Aam Aadmi Party office against the "baseless allegations" levelled by the party in the Rafale jet deal, two days after the Supreme Court rejected pleas to review its judgment giving clean chit to the Modi government. File image of a Rafale jet. Wikimedia Commons Led by Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari, the party workers raised slogans against the AAP and demanded an apology from it for trying to "malign the image" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On Friday, the Delhi BJP protested had near the Congress headquarters demanding an apology from it over the issue. It said in a statement it organised the protests against the "malicious and baseless allegations" of corruption levelled in the Rafale deal. In February, Delhi chief minister and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal demanded that an "independent" CBI raid the PMO, seize files and make arrests in connection with the con

Motihari : Three persons were killed and three others injured when the boiler of a plant exploded in Bihar's East Champaran district on Saturday, police said. The boiler of the cooking plant of an NGO at Bangra Nagar panchayat area exploded when labourers were preparing mid-day meal to be supplied to schools, Sugauli Police Station SHO, Rohit Kumar said. Representational image. Reuters Three labourers were killed in the boiler explosion and three others were injured, the SHO said. Sugauli Circle Officer (CO), Gyan Prakash said an NGO was supplying mid-day meal in government schools of the Sugauli block after preparing the food at its centralised cooking plant. The CO said police have sent all the three bodies for post mortem at Motihari Sadar hospital. The three injured persons were admitted to the local primary health centre. One seriously injured person was referred to Motihari first and from there to Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH), Patna, the CO added. from Fi

Washington : A federal US commission on international religious freedom has alleged that National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam is a tool to "target religious minorities and to render Muslims stateless". File image of an NRC centre in Assam. Reuters Observing that the final NRC list, which validates bonafide Indian citizens of Assam, has excluded 19 lakh residents, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) on Friday said that a number of domestic and international organisations have expressed concern that the NRC is a "targeted mechanism to disenfranchise Assam's Bengali Muslim community, implicitly establishing a religious requirement for citizenship and potentially rendering large numbers of Muslims stateless." The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a register containing names of all genuine Indian citizens. The process to update the register in Assam began following a Supreme Court order in 2013, with the state's nearly

Dabolim: A MiG-29K fighter aircraft crashed in South Goa's Dabolim on Saturday soon after it took off for a training mission, Indian Navy said. Both the pilots have managed to eject safely. The aircraft involved in the crash was a trainer version of the fighter jet, the Indian Navy added. Navy Spokesperson Commander Vivek Madhwal tweeted, "The MiG-29K trainer aircraft suffered an engine fire. The pilots Captain M Sheokhand and Lt Commander Deepak Yadav ejected safely." A MiG-29K fighter aircraft crashed in Goa soon after it took off for a training mission, earlier today. Both the pilots managed to eject safely. The aircraft involved in the crash was a trainer version of the fighter jet. pic.twitter.com/nUdsyWx1qs — ANI (@ANI) November 16, 2019 Sharing further details, Goa Airport sources said that the Navy aircraft crashed in South Goa at around 12 noon, shortly after the aircraft took off from the Dabolim International Airport. MiG-29K trainer aircraft was flyi

Kolkata: The West Bengal government will soon set up two detention centres to house foreign nationals arrested on various criminal charges, and these camps have "absolutely no connection" with the National Register of Citizens (NRC), a state minister said on Saturday. The Mamata Banerjee-led state government has already finalised a piece of land in New Town area, West Bengal Correctional Services Minister Ujjwal Biswas told PTI . The process of scouting for land in Bongaon in North 24 Parganas district for the second detention centre is also underway, Biswas said. He said an existing government building in Bongaon could be converted as the second camp to temporarily house the foreign nationals, till the piece of land is identified. "These detention camps are being constructed adhering to Supreme Court directives, according to which foreign nationals under trial and those convicted should not be kept with local inmates," he said. "This has absolutely no conn

Banihal : The Jammu-Srinagar national highway remained closed for the third day on Saturday as heavy rains hampered the operation to clear the debris brought on the arterial road by a massive landslide in Ramban district, officials said. Representational image. PTI The closure of the highway left thousands of vehicles, including trucks carrying essential commodities to Kashmir, stranded, traffic department officials said. A massive landslide struck the highway, the only all-weather road linking Kashmir with rest of the country, at Digdole around 9 pm on Thursday, forcing closure of the road. Road clearance operation was launched immediately but intermittent rains disrupted the work, especially since Friday night, the officials said, adding shooting of stones from the hillocks overlooking the highway were also reported from several places, including Maroog, on Saturday morning. The road is likely to be cleared of debris by this evening. Over 1,500 trucks and 600 light motor vehicl

New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah directed the CRPF to undertake "effective and decisive action" against urban Naxals as well as terrorists operating in Jammu and Kashmir as he made his maiden visit to the headquarters of the paramilitary force on Friday, officials said. He reviewed the overall preparedness and deployment of the over three-lakh-strong force during the more-than-two-hour-long meeting at the CGO Complex on Lodhi Road, they said. Shah directed the force "to carry out an effective and decisive campaign against Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) operatives in the next six months", they said. He also asked the force to take action "against urban Naxals and their facilitators", they said. File image of Amit Shah. While discussing the security scenario in the newly created Union Territory of Jammu-Kashmir, Shah asked the CRPF to undertake civic action programmes besides organising sports and tours for locals and youngsters. CRPF should also