India

New Delhi, Dec 30 (PTI) Kerala retained the top rank while Bihar was adjudged as the worst performer in Niti Aayog's SDG India Index 2019, which evaluates progress of States and Union Territories on social, economic and environmental parameters, as per a report released on Monday.

According to 'SDG India Index 2019', Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim have shown maximum improvement, but states like Gujarat have not shown any progress vis-a-vis 2018 rankings.

Bhubaneswar, Dec 30 (PTI) Anti-corruption vigilance sleuths on Monday arrested a senior IAS officer after he was caught red-handed while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 1 lakh, official sources said here.

The arrested bureaucrat was identified as Bijay Ketan Upadhaya, a 2009 batch IAS officer and working as the director of the Horticulture department here.

Shimla, Dec 30 (PTI) All states, including Punjab and West Bengal, are bound to implement provisions of the Citizenship Amendment Act, said Additional Solicitor General of India Satya Pal Jain here on Monday.

Talking to mediapersons, Jain said, "The CAA is a central act and all states, including Punjab and West Bengal, are bound to implement its provisions."

Also a member of the BJP's national executive and a former MP, Jain said the Union government had framed the CAA as per powers under Article 11 of the Constitution.

Chennai, Dec 30 (PTI) A Malaysia-based film distribution company has approached the Madras High Court seeking to stall release of superstar Rajinikanth's Tamil film 'Darbar' claiming the producer Lyca Productions owed it Rs 23.70 crore on account of business transactions.

When the civil suit filed by DMY Creations SDN BHD came up for hearing, vacation judge Justice M Govindaraj adjourned it to January 2 enabling the counsel for Lyca Productionsto get instructions.

Hyderabad, Dec 30 (PTI) The proposed National Population Register would be almost the same as the one in 2010, with some more details being sought to implement welfare measures, Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy said here on Monday.

"Almost the same. NPR means Census. Census means NPR. There are no changes. The usefulness in Census, (we are) taking some more details for welfare activity, he told reporters here in reply to a question.

Jammu, Dec 30 (PTI) Questioning the Jammu and Kashmir High Court's decision to throw open vacancies in the district courts of the Union territories of J&K and Ladakh to candidates from all over the country, the opposition parties here on Monday demanded reservation of government jobs for locals.

National Conference provincial president Devender Singh Rana demanded reservation of the J&K government jobs for locals, saying unemployment has alarmingly grown during the recent years.

New Delhi, Dec 30 (PTI) Four medium intensity tremors with magnitudes ranging between 4.7 and 5.5 hit Jammu and Kashmir in a span of less than two hours on Monday night, the National Centre for Seismology said.

The first quake with a magnitude of 4.7 hit at 10:42 pm, followed by one measuring 5.5 six minutes later.

The two occurred at a depth of 10 kilometres.

New Delhi, Dec 31 (PTI) Gen Manoj Mukund Naravane on Tuesday took charge as the Chief of Army Staff, succeeding Gen Bipin Rawat.

Gen Naravane served as vice chief of the Army before taking charge of the 1.3 million strong Army.

In his 37 years of service, Gen Naravane served in numerous command and staff appointments in peace, field and highly active counter-insurgency environments in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast.

New Delhi, Dec 31 (PTI) Indore was adjudged India's cleanest city for the fourth time in a row in the central government's cleanliness survey announced on Tuesday.

Bhopal stood second in first quarter results (April to June), while Rajkot grabbed the second spot in second quarter results (July-September).

The third position was grabbed by Surat in the first quarter and Navi Mumbai in the second quarter.

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 31 (PTI) The Kerala Assembly on Tuesday passed a resoultion demanding scrapping of the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), becoming the first state in the country to do so.

While Chief Ministers of non-BJP ruled states like Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal have announced that they would not implement CAA, CPI(M)-ruled Kerala was the first to take the legislature route to register its opposition to the law.