India

NEW DELHI, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Indian government Monday appointed Pradeep Kumar Rawat, now the ambassador to the Netherlands, as the next ambassador of India to China.

Rawat is expected to take up the assignment shortly, according to the Ministry of External Affairs.

"Shri Pradeep Kumar Rawat presently ambassador of India to the Kingdom of the Netherlands has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the People's Republic of China," reads a ministry statement .

New Delhi, Dec 19 (PTI) The sea trials of the Indian Navy's indigenously built stealth destroyer, Mormugao, began in the Arabian Sea on Sunday.

The maiden sea voyage of the warship, built under the project P-15B, coincides with the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Goa from Portuguese rule.

Mormugao is the second indigenous stealth destroyer to be built under project P-15B and it is planned to be commissioned in mid-2022.

Gurugram, Dec 19 (PTI) A right-wing group disrupting Friday namaz being held in the open here on Sunday asked Muslims to "reconvert" and pray in Hindu temples.

Ancestors of a majority of Haryana Muslims belonged to Hindu community, said Mahaveer Bhardwaj, chairman of the Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti, a body of 32 right-wing Hindu outfits.

"We can organise a mass 'ghar wapsi' in Leisure Valley here and they will be taken back in their castes and accepted with open arms," Bharadwaj said.

New Delhi, Dec 19 (PTI) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said those who have belief in Hindutva feel all Indians have the same DNA but those who are Hindus believe every persons has a unique DNA.

The Congress leader's remark has come after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said the DNA of all Indians is the same for 40,000 years.

"Hindus believe that every person's DNA is different and unique. Those who have belief in Hindutva believe that all Indians have the same DNA,"Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi.

New Delhi, Dec 20 (PTI) A bill to link electoral rolls with the Aadhaar ecosystem to weed out duplication was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

Introducing The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said the legislation will end bogus voting in the country and make the electoral process more credible.

The bill seeks to allow electoral registration officers seek the Aadhaar number of people who want to register as voters "for the purpose of establishing the identity".

The Kanpur administration has directed the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board to close tanneries and factories situated on the banks of Ganga in Jajmau amidst the upcoming Magh Mela in Prayagraj.

The Control Board's regional office has written letters to the Tannery Associations. It has wanting them to shut the tanneries for two-three days prior to different bathing dates. So that the bathing festivals should be followed in clean water.

In case of closed tanneries the discharge will not be generated inside the tanneries.

NEW DELHI (AP) — A man was beaten to death in the northern Indian city of Amritsar after he allegedly attempted to commit a sacrilegious act inside the historic Golden Temple, one of Sikhs’ most revered shrines.

The incident occurred during the daily evening prayer on Saturday, media reported, after the man jumped over a railing inside the inner sanctum and attempted to grab a sword that was kept near the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy book.

TV footage showed people inside the temple rushing to stop him.

New Delhi, Dec 18(PTI) Delhi government is ready to tackle the Omicron variant of COVID, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Saturday.

He advised people not to panic saying even though the variant was said to spread faster than the previous ones, its symptoms were mild.

He said Delhi might not face another wave of infections, since according to the sero survey conducted by the Delhi government, 96 per cent of the state population was found to have antibodies and a majority of them were vaccinated.

Kolkata, Dec 18 (PTI) The VHP will launch a campaign against religious conversion from December 20 to 31 in the country, its national joint general secretary Surendra Jian sid on Saturday.

Jain, who was speaking to reporters, demanded a law against forced interfaith marriages and for denying benefits due to Dalits and Hindu tribals who convert to other faiths.

He claimed that large-scale conversion had taken place during the outbreak of the COVID pandemic.

Alappuzha, Dec 19 (PTI) Kerala's coastal Alappuzha district was rocked by back-to-back killings of two party leaders, the first belonging to the SDPI and the second to the BJP, leading to clamping of prohibitory order by police on Sunday.

Following the killing of an SDPI state secretary, a BJP leader was hacked to death subsequently in 12 hours and prohibitory order under CrPC section 144 was imposed in the entire Alappuzha district on Sunday, district officials said.