Delhi

New Delhi, Jul 3 (PTI) The government is committed to the disinvestment of national carrier Air India and the plan is to make it more operationally viable before disinvesting it, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told the Rajya Sabha Wednesday.

Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour, the minister said there has been a steady improvement in finances of Air India and the airline is set to make profit during the current financial year.

He said Air India is currently making a revenue of Rs 15 crore everyday.

New Delhi, Jul 3 (PTI) The Union Cabinet gave its approval on Wednesday to the proposals for leasing out three major airports -- Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Mangaluru -- of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) through public-private partnership (PPP), an official spokesperson said.

Earlier this year, the Adani group had won the bids to operate the three airports for a period of 50 years.

The Adani group had also won the bids to operate the Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram airports, owned by the AAI.

New Delhi, Jul 3 (PTI) Trinamool Congress lawmaker Mahua Moitra, whose maiden speech in the Parliament on "seven signs of fascism" went viral last week, has expressed dismay over the plagiarism charges levelled against her and blamed the BJP's "troll army" for the accusation.

New Delhi, Jul 2 (PTI) In the first BJP parliamentary party meeting after he came back to power, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday pulled up party MPs for their poor attendance in Parliament, and asked them to be present during legislative proceedings.

According to sources, the Prime Minister expressed displeasure over the absence of party MPs from Parliament and gave examples to drive his message home.

New Delhi, Jul 2; GANASHAKTI - UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi Tuesday raised in the Lok Sabha the issue of corporatisation of railway's Modern Coach Factory in her Rae Bareli constituency and accused the government of selling the country's assets to private players at a throwaway price.

This was a rare instance when Gandhi raised an issue during the Zero Hour.

She said the government has decided to corporatise six railway production units and the Modern Coach Factory is one of them.

New Delhi, Jul 1 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea seeking a direction to the Centre to frame appropriate guidelines for registration of FIR for marital rape and frame laws for making it a ground of divorce.

A bench of Justices S A Bobde and B R Gavai asked the petitioner advocate Anuja Kapur to approach the high court for the relief. Kapur then withdrew her plea.

New Delhi, Jul 1 (PTI) Supreme Court judge Justice Indu Malhotra Monday recused herself from hearing a batch of appeals and cross-appeals challenging a Bombay High Court verdict which held that mere possession of beef of animals slaughtered outside the state cannot invite criminal action.

A bench headed by Justice A M Sapre said that Justice Malhotra was recusing herself from the hearing as she had earlier appeared as a lawyer in the case.

New Delhi, Jul 1 (PTI) State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has discovered over 230 million tonnes of in-place oil reserves in the last three years, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said Monday.

In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, he said India's top oil and gas producer ONGC as on April 1, 2019, has in place oil reserves of 459.84 million tonnes.

These reserves are spread over 16 assets it currently extracts oil from, he said.

"ONGC has established 230.29 million tones of oil initial-in-place during the last three years," he added.

New Delhi, Jul 1 (PTI) All private and special category schools are mandated to admit in Class 1 or below at least 25 per cent students belonging to weaker sections and disadvantaged groups, Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' said in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

Pokhriyal said the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act came into effect from April 1, 2010 and the Act makes elementary education a fundamental right of all children in the age group of 6-14 years.

New Delhi, Jul 1 (PTI) India and Pakistan Monday exchanged lists of civilian prisoners and fishermen in their respective custody as per provision of a 2008 agreement.

The lists of prisoners were exchanged through diplomatic channels simultaneously at New Delhi and Islamabad, the External Affairs Ministry said.

"India handed over lists of 256 Pakistan civilian prisoners and 99 fishermen in India's custody to Pakistan. Pakistan has shared lists of 209 fishermen and 52 prisoners in its custody, who are Indians or believed-to-be Indians," the MEA said.