Delhi

New Delhi, Mar 3 (PTI) The Supreme Court Thursday asked Attorney General K K Venugopal to use his office in helping evacuate some Indian medical students stranded in war-ravaged Ukraine near the Romania border.

A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana took note of the submissions of a lawyer that several students are stuck near the Romanian border in freezing cold and the government is not running flights from Romania.

New Delhi, Mar 3 (PTI) State Bank of India, the nation's largest lender, has stopped processing transactions of Russian entities that have been sanctioned by the West over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, sources said.

To effect this, SBI has issued a circular as it fears that any transaction with entities or sectors under sanction will invite sanction on it as well, sources said.

Islamabad, Mar 3 (PTI) India has agreed to provide additional data on several western hydropower projects to Pakistan during an annual meeting between the officials of the two countries held here under the Permanent Commission on Indus Waters (PCIW), a media report said on Thursday.

The three-day meeting between the two commissioners of PCIW completed discussions on all agenda items on Wednesday. The talks were held in a very cordial environment and the final outcome of crucial parleys is expected to be announced on Thursday.

New Delhi, Mar 3 (PTI) The ED on Thursday provisionally attached assets worth Rs 7.47 crore belonging to a former chief engineer of naval works and others in connection with a money laundering probe linked to alleged receipt of bribes for issuing civil contracts at the navy base in Kochi.

New Delhi, Mar 3 (PTI) Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Thursday that governments should work to make healthcare free for all and not just a select few.

Addressing the CII Delhi State Annual Session 2021-22, the minister said the Delhi government is working on the "largest healthcare expansion plan of the world" with the construction of 15,000 new beds, which will become functional in the next one and a half years.

He said governments should take care of both the taxpayers and the ones who cannot afford quality healthcare.

New Delhi, Mar 4 (PTI) An Indian student has reportedly been shot at and injured in Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Minister of State for Civil Aviation V K Singh said on Friday.

Singh is in Poland currently to facilitate the evacuation of Indians stranded in war-hit Ukraine.

"Today, we heard reports that a student leaving Kyiv was shot at. He was taken back to Kyiv. This will happen in a fighting," the minister told media persons.

New Delhi, Mar 3 (PTI) The Indian Air Force said its four evacuation flights with 798 Indians from the Romanian capital Bucharest, Hungary's Budapest and Polish city Rzeszow landed at the Hindon airbase on Thursday morning.

Its first flight carrying 200 people from Bucharest landed at 1.30 am. The second flight brought back 210 Indians from Budapest on Thursday morning.

A little while after the second, the IAF's third evacuation flight arrived at the airbase from Rzeszow with 208 Indians.

New Delhi, Mar 3 (PTI) Citing the academic journal Science, Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday said the official number of deaths due to COVID-19 in the country is suspect.

The reputed journal estimates that the Covid toll in India between "1-6-2020 and 1-7-2021 was 3,200,000 - eight times the official death toll of 400,000", Chidambaram said on Twitter.

"Of these deaths, 2,700,000 occurred in the months of April, May and June 2021," he added.

New Delhi, Mar 3 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said Make in India is the need of the hour and appealed to the industry to reduce dependence on imports and boost domestic manufacturing.

He urged the industry to take challenges and make efforts to cut imports of goods that can be manufactured in India.

"Today, the world is looking at India as a manufacturing powerhouse," Modi said while addressing DPIIT's webinar on 'Make in India for the World'.

New Delhi, Mar 2 (PTI) With the Russia-Ukraine war roiling financial markets globally, the government may defer the mega IPO of LIC and wait for an opportune time to get the maximum value of its holding in the state-owned insurance behemoth, sources said.

"It's a full blown war now so we will have to assess the situation for going ahead with the LIC IPO," a government source said.