India

Dehradun, Feb 1 (PTI) Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and his Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday launched the BJP's election campaign in the state, going door-to-door to meet voters and addressing public meetings in Garhwal and Kumaon regions respectively.

Though the BJP has been conducting door-to-door campaigns and virtual poll meetings in Uttarakhand for quite some time, the party's state election in-charge Pralhad Joshi had said at a press conference here on January 30 that it would formally begin its poll campaign from February 1.

New Delhi, Feb 1 (PTI) Invoking a verse from the epic Mahabharata, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday announced steps to further simplify the tax system and promote voluntary compliance.

Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge also invoked the Mahabharata to hit out at Sitharaman and claimed that the budget was not meant for 'Eklavya', the prince of Nishadha, a confederation of jungle tribes.

Bhadohi (UP) Feb 1 (PTI) A 24-year-old man belonging to Varanasi has been arrested on charges of abducting a minor girl and raping her repeatedly in his captivity, police said on Tuesday.

After securing the girl from the youth's captivity in the Aurai police station area of the Bhadohi district, the police sent her for medical examination.

SHO Ajay Kumar Seth of the Aurai police station said the man belonging to the Mirzamurad police station area of Varanasi had abducted the girl on January 24 from a village and raped her several times at an unknown place.

New Delhi, Feb 1 (PTI) As India prepares for its maiden human spaceflight, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday allocated Rs 13,700 crore to the Department of Space in the Union Budget.

The allocation was an increase of Rs 1,058 crore over the revised estimate of Rs 12,642 crore in the previous budget.

A giant share of the allocation - Rs 10,534 crore - has been made under the head of space technology that covers most of the centres of ISRO.

ISRO plans to launch India first unmanned space mission under Gaganyaan later this year.

Ahmedabad, Feb 2 (PTI) On a high after beating England in a T20I rubber, the visiting West Indies team arrived here this morning for its upcoming limited overs series against India.

The 'Men in Maroon' will be playing three ODIs at the Narendra Modi Stadium here, beginning February 6, followed by three T20 Internationals at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

Kanpur: "My sister is wedding," reacted the student at the subject teacher's ire for being irregular at an online class at a posh school here.

She countered, was the wedding continuing for the whole month?

His reply was a little bit unusual for the teacher so she told him to discuss the long absence with the class teacher. 

She was quite perplexed at the student's quick use of peculiar utterance at the time.

New Delhi, Feb 1 (PTI) The defence budget was on Tuesday increased to Rs 5.25 lakh crore for 2022-23 from last year's allocation of Rs 4.78 lakh crore with a major push on ensuring self-reliance in manufacturing of military platforms.

In the Union Budget presented in Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, a total of Rs 1,52,369 crore has been set aside for capital expenditure that includes purchasing new weapons, aircraft, warships and other military hardware.

Bahraich (UP), Feb 1 (PTI) A human trafficking racket was busted and five people were arrested while a woman held by them was freed in the Nanpara area here, police said on Tuesday.

Bahraich Senior Superintendent of Police Keshav Choudhary said a joint operation was launched on Monday evening by the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and the Uttar Pradesh Police with the help of an NGO after learning about the activities of the gang.

New Delhi, Feb 1 (PTI) Skier Arif Khan, the only athlete representing India at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, left for the Games in the Chinese capital along with Chef De Mission Harjinder Singh and support staff.

Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Narinder Batra wished the contingent luck before its departure for the Games on Monday.

Arif, who will participate in two events, is aiming a modest top-30 finish in the showpiece which begins on Friday.

The Indian team will return on February 19, Batra said.

Mumbai, Jan 31 (PTI) A court here on Monday remanded Neeraj Bishnoi, the prime accused in the Bulli Bai app case wherein photos of some Muslim women were posted online for 'auction', to judicial custody for two weeks.

Bishnoi, the alleged creator of the mobile application, was arrested earlier this month by the Delhi Police in a similar case. Mumbai Police later took his custody for investigating the Bulli Bai app case.

A Metropolitan Magistrate's court in Mumbai on Monday remanded Bishnoi to judicial custody.