Britain confirmed as the first co-chair of the Governing Council on the India-led global Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI). The coalition was established by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and is a voluntary international grouping, linking governments, UN agencies, banks, private sector groups, and academia to develop the resilience of infrastructure systems to climate and disaster risks. The Governing Council is the highest policy-making body of the CDRI. It is co-chaired by India and a representative of another national government nominated by rotation every two years. Britain was represented at the first council meeting by its Secretary of State for…
Author: Our Correspondent
In a crackdown against hoarding during the coronavirus outbreak, masks and adulterated hand sanitisers worth Rs 7 lakh were seized from a shop in Maharashtra’s Jalna city, police said on Friday. In a joint operation, officials of the food supply office, Food and Drug Administration and the local crime branch raided Kalpana Emporium in New Jalna on Thursday night, crime branch chief Rajendra Singh Gour said. As many as 730 bottles of fake hand sanitisers and 18,900 masks valued at Rs 7 lakh were recovered, he said. A case has been registered against shop owner Hastimal Bamb for allegedly hoarding…
After Akshay Kumar’s “Sooryavanshi”, Ranveer Singh-starrer cricket drama “83” is the the latest Bollywood film to indefinitely postpone its release due to coronavirus pandemic. Ranveer took to his Twitter to share the news with his fans, saying “health and safety of the nation” came first. The film, directed by Kabir Khan, was set to be released April 10 but it will now arrive in theatres at a later date. “In the wake of the risks posed by the recent outbreak of Covid-19 and the growing health concerns, the release of ’83’ has been put on hold. We will take a…
Barely two months after it was partially opened to a 24×7 lifestyle, the country’s financial capital Mumbai is now headed for a lockdown amidst the Coronavirus scourge that has afflicted 52 persons in the state as of Friday. Tightening the clampdown screws, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday ordered all private offices, shops and commercial establishments to be shut in Mumbai besides Pune and Nagpur, slashing attendance in government offices from 50 percent to 25 percent, and cancelling all Class 1-8 school exams this year. Government offices have also been directed not to switch on air-conditioners. For the present, the…
Tirumala Hills, which is the abode of Lord Venkateswara, which normally sees tens of thousands of devotees from different parts of the world, on Friday wore a deserted look owing to the outbreak of COVID-19, a temple official said. The entry of devotees into the shrine of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala has been banned temporarily for seven days since Friday afternoon in the wake of the virus scare, the official said. After allowing those who had already reached the hills on Thursday into the shrine until afternoon, the gates of all queue lines leading to the shrine have been shut,…
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Friday that the global economic situation would affect all nations, but ruled out any impact on India’s defence procurement. Speaking at the launch of the draft Defence Procurement Procedure, 2020, Singh said the global economy could improve in the next two-five months. “There would certainly be impact of global economy’s condition on all nations. I feel there would be hardly any impact of global economy’s condition on India’s defence procurement,” Singh said when asked if the global economy’s condition and the coronavirus pandemic would affect Indian defence procurement. “We can’t rule out a possibility…
Madhya Pradesh Governor Lalji Tandon on Friday accepted the resignation of Chief Minister Kamal Nath. Nath had submitted his resignation to the governor at the Raj Bhawan here around 1 pm on Friday. “The governor accepted the resignation of Kamal Nath and asked him to continue as the caretaker chief minister till the new CM takes charge,” a Raj Bhawan official told PTI. Nath’s move of stepping down as the CM came a day after the Supreme Court directed that a floor test be conducted in Madhya Pradesh Assembly to prove that the Congress government led by him enjoys majority…
A racket involving sending people from Gujarat to United Kingdom on fake passports was busted by Mumbai Crime Branch after a couple was detained at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport on February 26, said an official on Friday. The couple was going to the United Arab Emirates, he said. “Their passports were fake. An offence was registered with Sahar police station and Unit VII of the Crime Branch began parallel probe. The probe revealed that the man’s rel name was Hitesh Patel and the woman’s Mitaben Patel,” he said. “They were told by the accused that getting a visa for…
Rain accompanied by strong winds and hail hit Kallam tehsil of Osmanabad in Maharashtra on Friday, damaging grape and mango plantations, and rabi crops like jowar, wheat and gram, officials said. Local farmers said the administration must assess crop damage quickly and provide compensation.
Quick action of the Delhi Police led to nabbing of all the culprits within three days of the gruesome ‘Nirbhaya’ rape, but the world changed for us, recall the younger daughter and wife of former police chief Neeraj Kumar. Talking to PTI, Ankita, now in her late 20s and a pianist by profession, says she was dumbfounded after her father briefly mentioned the gruesome rape of the physiotherapy intern on December 16, 2012. She says memories of that night sends shivers down her spine even today. Expressing relief at the outcome of the case, Ankita and her mother, Mala Kumar,…