NEW DELHI: Women prisoners, constituting 4.3% of the total prison population, face systemic barriers including overcrowded facilities and inadequate health services. Concerned with their condition, the National Commission for Women (NCW) plans to hold a national consultation on laws governing women in Indian jails. The national consultation will be held on Saturday in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to identify urgent reforms needed to strengthen the rights, welfare, and dignity of women inmates

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission of India (ECI) is planning to deploy Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to identify duplicate voters as part of the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in the second phase of the exercise, sources said on Friday. According to them the AI tools will be used for facial recognition to detect voters with duplicate photographs. The AI-based software, through the face recognition feature, will identify the voters and de-duplicate them, a source said. Accord

GUWAHATI: The Sangai Festival in Manipur began on Friday amid a protest even as the states Rajya Sabha member and titular king Leishemba Sanajaoba accused an IPS officer of barging into his residential compound, a charge dismissed by the police. A section of people is opposing the festival , stating that authorities should have prioritised resolving the ethnic conflict and resettling the internally displaced persons (IDPs) over the tourism festival. When the protestors, including IDPs, was headi

SRINAGAR: As installation of smart meters and failure to provide 200 free power units were major factors in NCs loss from its strong bastion in Budgam bypolls, the Omar Abdullah government is now facing fresh public anger over proposed move of 20 percent surcharge on base electricity tariff for consumption during designated peak hours in the Valley. The Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation Limited (KPDCL), which handles electricity distribution in the Valley, has sought approval from Joint Ele

The Assam BJP will contest the upcoming state Assembly polls with its alliance partners, the party's core committee decided on Friday. The party also set a target for the alliance to win 103 out of the 126 seats. The core committeee meeting which was attended by BJP national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and state party president Dilip Saikia, also decided that the BJP would contest the elections on 'issues of all-round development of the state

DEHRADUN: A statewide review of potentially fraudulent domicile certificates in Uttarakhand has led to the cancellation of 48 bogus documents in Haldwani, following a directive from Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami to examine all such certificates issued over the past three years. The action stems from an ongoing investigation into forged documents after an initial gang involved in creating fake paperwork was exposed. The first phase of the inquiry, conducted by the Nainital District Magistrat

RANCHI: A joint team of the Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR) and the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau has seized snake venom worth approximately 80 crore in the international market. According to PTR officials, they recovered a total of 1.2 kg of snake venom, collected locally and prepared for smuggling abroad. The team also recovered 2.5 kg of pangolin scales during the operation. PTR officials stated that the operation was conducted on the basis of a tip-off received about the illegal trade of snake ve

PATNA: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday allocated portfolios to newly inducted ministers, a day after they were sworn in at a mega event held at the historic Gandhi Maidan in Patna. Home Department, which had been held by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar even since he took reins of the State in 2005, has now gone to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after several rounds of discussions among NDA partners over portfolio allocation. Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary has been assigned the Home

RAIPUR: The Chhattisgarh government has mandated the Aadhaar-enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) for all departments in the state secretariat to boost transparency, punctuality and administrative efficiency. The system will be implemented from December 1, a senior official in the CM secretariat said. Secretaries of all departments were given a live demonstration of the new system, including facial authenticationbased attendance and wall-mounted Aadhaar-enabled biometric devices. The test

DEHRADUN: A shocking case of land grabbing has surfaced in Dehradun involving an 80-year-old Non-Resident Indian (NRI) woman. A land mafia allegedly forged documents to seize her six-bigha ancestral property in Bharuwala Grant and sold it to multiple buyers. The woman, Neelam Misal, discovered the fraud after noticing construction activity on her land. She subsequently filed a police complaint, leading to the registration of a case against 27 accused individuals. Misal learned that her six bigha

After relatives of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and two other ministers in the state government were elected unopposed in the local body polls, the Opposition has alleged that the BJP used money power and threats to get other candidates to withdraw from the fray. Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnaviss cousin Alhad Kaloti was elected unopposed in the Chikhaldara Nagar Panchayat elections. Surprisingly, not one, but all nine opposition candidates withdrew their nomination at

Donald Trump Jr., on a private visit to India with his girlfriend, spent Thursday touring Vantara wildlife rescue and conservation center located in Jamnagar, offering prayers at a Lord Ganesha temple there, and attending a private dandiya night hosted by Anant Ambani. The couple, according to reports, visited Gujarat as a guest of the Ambani family. Videos of Trump Jr quickly went viral showing him enthusiastically joining Gujarati dance and praying at the Ganpati Temple in the Vantara complex.

With only 187 (excluding postal votes) of the total 1,701 (including service voters) registered electors having cast their vote in the recently held Bihar Assembly polls, the representation of third genders in the electoral process remains dismally low. The lone trans gender candidate contested the poll, only to lose deposit, Election Commission data revealed. Less than 200 trans genders voters participating in an election that concluded with a historic voter turnout of 67.13%in Bihar since1951,

LUCKNOW : Congress poor performance in the Bihar Assembly elections has prompted its INDI Alliance partner, the Samajwadi Party(SP), to reassess the partys electoral viability ahead of the crucial Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections in 2027. Much like Bihar, the Grand Alliance in UP is positioning itself against the BJP-led NDA, but Congress weak showing in the neighbouring state has raised concerns within the SP. Contrary voices have begun emerging from the Samajwadi Party and Congress camps in UP

MUMBAI: Parents who have lost their young son in a railway accident will not use such a tragic incident to make a false claim of compensation, the Bombay High Court said on Friday, granting relief to a bereaved couple. Justice Jitendra Jain granted compensation to the parents of 17-year-old Jaideep Tambe who died in a railway accident in the city in 2008. The HC quashed a January 2016 order of the Railways Claims Tribunal which had rejected the claim for compensation on the ground that there was

The Congress accused the BJP of 'systematically' planning to terminate reservations and orchestrating a tribal crisis, following the demand for a high-level probe as to why 'no' tribal person was selected in the Madhya Pradesh Civil Judge Exam 2022 despite the prevailing quota. The party also strongly demanded the withdrawal of the 2022 Civil Judge exam. Chairman of Adivasi Congress, Vikrant Bhuria, said, In this exam, 121 seats were reserved for tribals, but not even one was selected. As per th

NEW DELHI: India will soon restart air cargo services with Afghanistan, a move New Delhi sees as unlocking long-stalled trade channels and giving a renewed fillip to bilateral engagement. The announcement was made on Friday during the visit of Afghanistans Taliban Commerce and Industry Minister, Nooruddin Azizi, who is seeking expanded access to Indian markets as Afghanistan grapples with the closure of its border with Pakistan following military clashes. Anand Prakash, Joint Secretary in Indias

NEW DELHI: Amit Malviya, the BJPs in-charge of the National Information and Technology Department, has questioned the Congress on the rationale behind honouring Michelle Bachelet with the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament, and Development. The decision to award the prize to Bachelet, the former President of Chile and ex-UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, drew criticism from the BJP soon after Sonia Gandhi, the Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson, presented the award during a ce

CHANDIGARH: Himachal Pradesh Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla today took a dig at the Congress-led state government over the ongoing face-off between the government and the State Election Commission (SEC) regarding the timely conduct of the panchayat elections. He asked the government to decide if the minister is bigger or the bureaucrat. Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the Audit Week launch in Shimla, the Governor said that holding panchayat elections is a constitutional arrangement and ev

NEW DELHI: Antimicrobial resistance is allegedly leading to over a million deaths every year worldwide, a number the World Health Organisation (WHO) warns could rise sharply in the coming decades unless urgent action is taken. On World AMR Awareness Week, the WHO urged nations to Act Now: Protect Our Present, Secure Our Future. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threatens the very foundations of modern medicine, jeopardising decades of medical progress, as around the world and particularly in South

CHANDIGARH: After the November 10 Red Fort blast that killed 15 people and the exposure of a Faridabad white-collar terror module linked to the attack, the Haryana Police has revived and fast-tracked its long-pending plan to set up an Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) focused on Islamic extremist factions and Khalistani separatist networks. The ATS will prioritise counter-terror operations across the National Capital Region (NCR), covering fourteen Haryana districts, including Gurugram, Faridabad, So

The Union government has designated the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) as the new safety regulator for over 250 maritime facilities in the country. The move is aimed at strengthening security across major and minor Indian seaports. The recent measure is also considered as a significant reform and a breakthrough in enhancing security measures. CISF Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Ajay Dahiya said, The designation of the central paramilitary force under the Union Home Ministry has been do

AHMEDABAD: Shock and anger gripped Gir Somnath district on Friday after 40-year-old teacher and Booth Level Officer (BLO) Arvind Mulji Vadher died by suicide in his native Devli village, leaving behind a devastating note that directly blamed the crushing workload of SIR ( Special Intensive Revision ) and rising mental stress. What began as a routine morning in the village quickly spiralled into a district-wide storm, exposing the pressure-ridden machinery operating behind BLO duties. According t

AHMEDABAD: Shock and anger gripped Gir Somnath district on 21 November after 40-year-old teacher and Booth Level Officer (BLO) Arvind Mulji Vadher died by suicide in his native Devli village, leaving behind a devastating note that directly blamed the crushing workload of SIR (Systematic Information Review) and rising mental stress. What began as a routine morning in the village quickly spiralled into a district-wide storm, exposing the pressure-ridden machinery operating behind BLO duties. Accor

PATNA: Union minister Chirag Paswan on Friday asserted that he did not wish to come across as greedy by demanding the deputy chief ministers post, as he thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for allocating two berths to his Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) in the new Bihar cabinet. Addressing a press conference here, Paswan also said he wished to expand the partys footprint beyond Bihar as an NDA partner in states like West Bengal, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh. Our party won 19 seats out of the 29 we

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said that the BJP-led NDAs sweeping victory in the Bihar assembly elections reflected a strong public mandate against infiltrators, and accused Opposition parties of shielding illegal immigrants by resisting the Election Commissions Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Speaking at the BSFs 61st Raising Day celebrations in Bhuj, Kutch, Shah said parties opposing the SIR exercise want to ensure that names of infiltrators remain on the voters

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider a new set of petitions challenging the Election Commission of Indias (ECI) ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in multiple states, including Kerala and Uttar Pradesh. A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant, SVN Bhatti and Joymalya Bagchi issued notices to the ECI on all the newly filed petitions submitted by various political leaders. These petitions question the legality and timing of the SIR exercise on different grounds ac

GODHRA: Four members of a family died from suffocation after inhaling smoke from a fire in their house in Godhra town, police said on Friday. The incident occurred in Gangotri Nagar between Thursday night and Friday. The victims were Kamal Doshi (50), a jeweller, his wife Devalben (45), and their sons Dev (24) and Raj (22). They died in their sleep, said A Division police station officer RM Vasaiya. Doshi's family was preparing for the engagement of one of his sons, and they were supposed to lea

SHIMLA: A labourer died and three were injured when the shuttering of an under-construction indoor stadium collapsed in Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh, police said on Friday. The deceased was identified as Tarkeshwar (34) from Kishanganj district in Bihar, they said. The shuttering of the stadium collapsed on the four labourers at the construction site in the Bargaha area on Thursday night. Other labourers immediately swung into action and pulled them out, but Tarkeshwar died, police said.

BETTIAH: Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor on Friday alleged that the new cabinet of the Nitish Kumar government was full of corrupt and criminal leaders. Speaking to reporters after a day-long silent fast at Gandhi Ashram in West Champaran, Kishor also said his party will launch the 'Bihar Navnirman Sankalp Yatra' on January 15, during which Jan Suraaj Party workers will visit all houses in the state. The new cabinet of Nitish Kumar, which took oath on Thursday, is full of corrupts and c

NEW DELHI: India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru's writings are not just history, they are a record of India's evolving conscience, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Friday, asserting that for anyone seeking to understand the nation's democratic journey, his words remain a powerful compass. Gandhi's remarks came over the completion of the digitisation of 'Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru'. The 'Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru' is now online with an entire set of 100 volumes, cont

KOLKATA: Seven Booth Level Officers (BLOs) of the Beliaghata constituency in Kolkata have been issued show-cause notices by the Election Commission (EC), citing lapses in the digitisation process of SIR enumeration forms, an official said. The complaint concerns improper and incomplete digitisation of collected enumeration forms, he said. The BLOs have been instructed to explain, by Friday afternoon, why they failed to carry out the assigned tasks properly, he said. Disciplinary action may be ta

Tremors were felt across WesT Bengal, including Kolkata and parts of North East on Friday morning after a 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck Bangladeshs Narsingdi district, the IMD reported. The quake occurred at 10:08 am, with its epicentre located about 13 km south-southwest of Narsingdi at a depth of 10 km. Several people in West Bengal and the northeast, including Kolkata and Assam's Guwahati, were seen coming out on the streets as a precautionary measure. No immediate reports of damage or inju

CHANDIGARH: Police in Haryana on Thursday arrested a man and three of his associates for allegedly murdering his 23-year-old sister over inter-caste marraige, and for reportedly planning to kill her husband next. The arrests were made after an encounter on the Ladhot-Bohar road in Rohtak. The victim, 23-year-old woman Sapna, was allegedly shot dead by her brother and his friends at her in-laws house at Kahni village in Rohtak on Wednesday night. Her brother-in-law, Sahil, sustained bullet injuri

Reliance Industries Ltd has said it has halted the use of Russian crude at its export-only refinery in Jamnagar, Gujarat, as the company moves to comply with European Union sanctions. Reliance is India's largest buyer of Russian oil, which it processes and turns into fuel, such as petrol and diesel, at its giant oil refining complex at Jamnagar. The complex is made up of two refineries - one SEZ unit from which fuels are exported to the European Union, the US and other markets, and an older unit

IMPHAL: Manipur Congress president Keisham Meghachandra Singh on Friday said the involvement of the RSS will solve the crisis in the state, as it requires a government-led political solution and confidence-building measures. Reacting to the three-day tour of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat , he said any visit that prioritises strengthening organisational growth over the suffering of the people sends a wrong message. The Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee takes note of the visit of RSS Sarsanghchalak Moh

Enforcement Directorate officials on Friday carried out searches at more than 40 locations across Jharkhand and West Bengal in connection with a money laundering probe involving the coal mafia network. The cases together point to large-scale coal pilferage, causing an estimated loss of hundreds of crores to the government. In Jharkhand, the agency is searching around 18 locations as part of its probe. In West Bengal, the EDs Kolkata unit is conducting searches at 24 premises across Durgapur, Pur

JAMNAGAR: Donald Trump Jr, son of US President Donald Trump, visited Vantara, a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centre at Jamnagar in Gujarat, on Thursday. According to sources, Donald Trump Jr visited Vantara, the brainchild of Reliance Industries director Anant Ambani, on the invitation of the Ambani family. He took a round of the sprawling wildlife facility with Anant Ambani and also visited a few temples in the area, sources added. Earlier during the day, Donald Trump Jr visited the Taj M

NEW DELHI: Nitish Kumar took oath as Bihars Chief Minister with a 26-member Cabinet crafted to carefully balance caste groups an exercise in social engineering that continues to shape the states governance. The lineup includes one Muslim, one Yadav, and three women, reinforcing the NDAs commitment to broad social representation. The central feature of the new Cabinet is its careful blend of senior leaders and 10 first-time ministers, making clear that caste equationsmore than overt development a

PATNA: Shreyasi Singh, 34, is an Olympian shooter and one of Indias leading sportswomen who has now become the youngest minister in the Nitish Kumar cabinet. The two-term MLA from Jamui joins the Bihar government carrying both her sporting laurels and a rising political profile. She is the youngest daughter of the late Digvijay Singh, a former Union minister in the Chandra Shekhar government, and of former MP Putul Kumari. However, her first stage was not a political rally; it was the shooting r

BHOPAL: The first Indian-born cheetah, Mukhi, has given birth to five cubs at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, which was described as a breakthrough for Indias cheetah reintroduction initiated three years ago. The 33-month-old Mukhi, who was the lone surviving among the four cubs born to Namibian cheetah Siyaya in March 2023, was abandoned by the mother after birth and she grew up in the care of vets and other staff at KNP. Union environment minister said on X: This is the first time in rec

LUCKNOW: The Vedic rituals for the Dharm Dhwajaarohan (flag-hoisting) ceremony at the Ayodhya Temple will commence on Friday. The main ceremony will take place in Abhijit Muhurat between 11.58 am and 1 pm. The temple flag will be raised on the main 161-ft high spire of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya next Tuesday, on November 25. As per sources in the Shree Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, PM Narendra Modi will hoist the flag by pressing a button in the presence of dignitaries invited from across

BHOPAL: Three government school teachers in Madhya Pradesh were recently sent show-cause notices for missing e-attendance. Theyll never respondbecause the teachers are dead. This unusual set of notices was reported in the Mauganj district, Madhya Pradesh. The families of Devta Deen Kol, who passed away in April 2023; Ramgarib Dipankar, who died on February 13, 2025; and Chotelal Saket, who passed in May 2025, were surprised to receive official reminders demanding that the deceased justify their

SRINAGAR: Police and security agencies have expanded their crackdown on the interstate white-collar terror module linked to the Delhi blast by launching extensive search operations across hospitals, fertiliser and hardware stores, and multiple prisons in J&K to dismantle emerging militant modules and prevent radicalisation. The Counter Intelligence Kashmir (CIK) unit of J&K Police has carried out raids and searches at several major prisons, including Central Jail Srinagar, District Jail Kupwara,

LUCKNOW / JAIPUR: Donald Trump Jr, son of US President Donald Trump, on Thursday visited the Taj Mahal in Agra. A group of 126 special guests from nearly 40 countries accompanied him during the tour of the 17th-century marvel. In view of the high-profile visit, the authorities had tightened security and spruced up the arrangements. According to sources, around 200 police personnel were deployed across key locations in the city and the security detail included officers of ACP and ADC rank. This i

India has achieved record total food production for the year 2024-25 compared to the previous year. This increase in production is primarily due to a significant rise in rice production, along with a moderate increase in wheat and coarse grains, while other major food categories, such as pulses and oilseeds, saw only minor increases. Overall, there was a 7.65% increase in food production compared to last year. Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, released the

NEW DELHI: Indian Navy is shaping its future asset inductions in line with plans to counter such threats as arising consequent to the Chinese made weapons and systems, warships and Submarines being supplied to Pakistan, said the Vice Chief of Naval Staff (VCNS) on Thursday. Vice Admiral Sanjay Vatsayan, VCNS said, We are aware that China is supplying ships and submarines to Pakistan. We are monitoring everything closely and working on strengthening the defence. We Know what kind of anti-submarin

CHANDIGARH: Police in Punjab's Ludhiana on Thursday claimed they have busted a multi-state gangster-terror module, allegedly backed by Pakistan's spy agency ISI, following an exchange of fire in which two accused were injured. One of the accused was critically injured, officials said. Ludhiana Police Commissioner Swapan Sharma said the two had opened fire when they were intercepted in Ludhiana following information that they were roaming in the area. Two grenades and five sophisticated pistols w

GUWAHATI: Ahead of the winter session of Parliament, the tribal autonomous councils of the Northeast on Thursday stepped up the demand for reforms of the Constitutions Sixth Schedule. Additionally, Assams Bodo leaders raised the pitch for complete implementation of the historic Bodo Peace Accord of 2020 signed with the Centre. The Northeast has ten tribal autonomous councils three each in Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and one in Tripura under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. A national sem

NEW DELHI: Hosting his Australian counterpart Penny Wong for the 16th India-Australia Foreign Ministers Dialogue on Thursday External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that India and Australia carry greater responsibility in the prevailing global environment. The current complex geopolitical situation, I think its evident that democracies like India and Australia carry greater responsibility, Jaishankar said, emphasising that both nations confront a shared set of challenges. There are common ch