India

NEW DELHI, July 14 (Xinhua) -- The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said on Sunday that it was all set to launch second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2.

The heavy-lift rocket GSLV-Mark-3 carrying Chandrayaan-2 will be launched from Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, off the Bay of Bengal coast in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, at 2:51 a.m. local time on Monday.

New Delhi, Jul 13 (PTI) Congress accused the BJP government of complete insensitivity and apathy towards children safety Saturday and said the Supreme Court has been forced to take suo motu notice of increasing child rape cases in the country.

Congress Chief Spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala alleged that the BJP government's 'Beti Bachao' campaign is merely a lip service as it spends only "five paisa per girl child in the country."

Chandigarh, Jul 14 (PTI) Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu, who has been at loggerheads with Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and was stripped off key portfolios in the cabinet reshuffle in June, has resigned from the state cabinet.

The 55-year-old Sidhu took to Twitter on Sunday, making public his resignation letter, which was sent just four days after his portfolio was changed.

The resignation letter dated June 10 was addressed to Congress President Rahul Gandhi.

Mumbai, Jul 13 (PTI) Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy said Saturday that looking at "what is happening in different parts of the country today", the youth need to state bluntly that this was not the country for which our forefathers got freedom.

Talking about his spat with Vishal Sikka, Infosys' first non-promoter chief executive who quit in 2017, he said he had to speak up when he saw core values of the IT giant being thrown into the "dustbin".

Dantewada, Jul 14 (PTI) Two Naxals, including a woman, were killed in an encounter with security forces in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh on Sunday morning, police said.

The gunbattle broke out in a forest near Gumiyapal village, located around 400 km from Raipur, when a District Reserve Guard team was out on an anti-Naxal operation, Dantewada Superintendent of Police Abhishek Pallava told PTI.

There was a heated exchange of fire when the security personnel tried to zero-in on the rebels, following which the latter escaped into the forest, he said.

New Delhi, Jul 14 (PTI) The Aam Aadmi Party government has decided to grant ownership rights to around 7,200 families that got agricultural land in the mid-70s under a programme for landless people.

Under the "20-point programme", launched during former prime minister Indira Gandhi's tenure in 1975-76, around 12,500 landless families in Delhi got land for cultivation, according to officials.

Kanpur: The UP minister's review meeting was disrupted owing to the discontent of the BJP Corporator. They were raising as their annoyance at the officers' apathy towards the problems being faced by the residents of the Wards they represent. 

New Delhi, Jul 13 (PTI) Balasaheb Thorat was Saturday appointed president of the Congress's Maharashtra unit.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi reconstituted the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee and also appointed five working presidents -- Nitin Raut, Baswaraj M Patil, Vishwajeet Kadam, Yashomati Chandrakant Thakur and Muzaffer Hussain.

"Congress president has approved the proposal of appointment of Balasaheb Thorat as president of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee," a communication from AICC general secretary organisation K C Venugopal said.

Dantewada (Chhattisgarh), Jul 12; GANASHAKTI:  A Naxal, allegedly involved in the killings of BJP MLA Bhima Mandavi and four policemen in April, was gunned down in an encounter with security forces in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district on Friday, police said.

He was carrying a reward of Rs 5 lakh on his head, they said.

Ahmedabad, Jul 12 (PTI) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was on Friday granted bail by a court here after he pleaded not guilty in a criminal defamation suit filed by Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank, in which Union Home Minister Amit Shah is one of the directors, and its chairman Ajay Patel.

The defamation suit was filed by the bank against Gandhi after he alleged that it had swapped Rs 750 crore in scrapped currency with valid notes within five days of announcement of demonetisation on November 8, 2016.