Delhi

New Delhi, Mar 27 (PTI) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi urged voters on Saturday to cast their ballots against "divisive forces" to strengthen democracy as polling began for the first phase of the Assembly elections in West Bengal and Assam.

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who has been campaigning for the Assam polls, urged people to vote for progress and the golden future of the state.

In a Facebook post in Hindi, she urged the people of Assam, especially youngsters and women, to vote in large numbers.

Mumbai, Mar 26 (PTI) The country's foreign exchange (forex) kitty rose USD 233 million to USD 582.271 billion in the week to March 19, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Friday.

The overall reserves had risen USD 1.74 billion to USD 582.04 billion in the previous reporting week.

The increase in the overall reserves during the reporting week was largely on account of a swelling of the foreign currency assets, which rose USD 157 million to USD 541.18 billion.

New Delhi, Mar 26 (PTI) The 12-hour 'Bharat bandh' called by farmers protesting the three agri laws was a "big success", the Samkyukta Kisan Morcha said on Friday, and claimed that shutdown was observed in many parts of the country, including Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Bihar.

However, there was minimal impact in Delhi with no report of disturbance in the metro and road transport services, and major markets of the city remaining open during the day.

New Delhi, Mar 26 (PTI) The Delhi police on Friday fined over 800 people for not wearing face masks at public places amid the rising coronavirus cases in the national capital.

Officials said the police have been asked by the Lieutenant Governor to intensify the drive against violations of COVID norms.

A police official said 813 challans were issued to people for not wearing face masks while five people were fined for not adhering to the social distancing norm.

New Delhi, Mar 27 (PTI) Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Saturday dismissed any possibility of imposing another lockdown in Delhi, saying it was not a solution to check the spread of the coronavirus that is again surging rapidly.

Jain said there was a logic behind the lockdown enforced earlier as nobody knew then how the virus propagates.

"It follows a 14-day cycle -- between a person catching the infection and recovering from it. Experts said the virus will die if a lockdown is imposed for 21 days," Jain told reporters.

New Delhi, Mar 26 (PTI) Protesters squatted on railway tracks at 44 locations across Punjab and Haryana on Friday as part of the Bharat Bandh called by farmer unions protesting against agri laws, leading to disruption of rail traffic.

A railway spokesperson said four Shatabdi trains have been cancelled, 35 other passenger trains were detained and the movement of 40 goods trains was affected by the protests.

New Delhi Mar 26 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi left for Bangladesh on Friday on a two-day visit during which he will take part in a wide range of programmes aimed at furthering cooperation between the two countries.

"PM @narendramodi emplanes for Dhaka. During his Bangladesh visit he will take part in a wide range of programmes aimed at furthering cooperation with our friendly neighbour," the PMO tweeted, sharing a picture of Modi boarding the aircraft.

New Delhi, Mar 26 (PTI) India saw 59,118 new coronavirus infections in a day, the highest single day rise so far this year, taking the nationwide COVID-19 tally to 11,846,652, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday

The active caseload breached the 4 lakh-mark again after around three-and-half months

Registering an increase for the 16th day in row, the active cases have increased to 421,066 comprising 3.55 per cent of the total infections, while the recovery rate has further dropped to 95.09 per cent, the data stated

New Delhi, Mar 24 (PTI) As many as 261,406 Indians went abroad for studies last year as compared to 588,931 in 2019, according to government data.

In written response to a question in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said that according to data provided by the Bureau of Immigration, 371,506 people went abroad for studies in 2016; 456,823 in 2017; 520,342 in 2018; 588,931 in 2019; and 261,406 in 2020.

New Delhi, Mar 24 (PTI) The AAP will move the Supreme Court if the GNCTD bill is passed by Parliament, the party's Rajya Sabha MP N D Gupta said.

The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which was passed in Lok Sabha on Monday, seeks to make it clear that the "government" in Delhi means the "Lieutenant Governor".

The bill also makes it mandatory for the Delhi government to take the opinion of the L-G before any executive action.