Indian Sub-continent

SC Collegium brushes aside govt's reservation on Justice Joseph's name for elevation

New Delhi, Jul 20 (PTI); The Supreme Court Collegium has brushed aside the reservations of the government over its decision to elevate Uttarakhand Chief Justice K M Joseph to the apex court as a judge and reiterated his name along with two other recommendations.

The Collegium said "nothing adverse" regarding "suitability" of Justice Joseph has been pointed out in two letters of Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Hardly anything done to clean Ganga, situation extraordinarily bad: NGT

New Delhi, Jul 19 (PTI) Voicing dissatisfaction over the steps taken by the Uttarakhand government to clean the Ganga, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) today said the situation was extraordinarily bad and hardly anything effective has been done to clean the river.

A bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice A K Goel said despite claims by authorities, the work done on the ground for Ganga rejuvenation was not adequate and regular monitoring was required to improve the situation.

Indian govt concerned about additional duties by US

New Delhi, July 18 (PTI) The Government today said it is concerned about the imposition of additional duties by the US on items from India and has moved the WTO Appellate disputes settlement committee which will hear both sides on July 19 and 20.

Replying to supplementaries in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry C R Chaudhary said India as a retaliatory action to the US has also slapped additional duties of 10 to 20 per cent on as many as 29 items which would come into force on August 4.

Women have constitutional right to enter Sabarimala temple: SC

New Delhi, Jul 18 (PTI) The Supreme Court today said women have the constitutional right to enter Sabarimala temple in Kerala and pray like men without being discriminated against.

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, which is hearing a petition challenging the decision of the Devaswom board banning entry of women of age group 10-50 years, said that even if there was no law, the women cannot be discriminated against with regard to offering prayer in a temple.

"Horrendous acts of mobocracy" can not be allowed: Indian Supreme Court

PTI; New Delhi, Jul 17 : The Supreme Court today asked Parliament to consider enacting a new law to effectively deal with incidents of mob lynching, saying "horrendous acts of mobocracy" cannot be allowed to become a new norm.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra also passed a slew of directions to provide "preventive, remedial and punitive measures" to deal with offences like mob violence and cow vigilantism.

Supersonic cruise missile BrahMos successfully test fired

PTI; Balasore (Odisha), Jul 16 : Supersonic cruise missile BrahMos was today successfully test fired from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur.

The missile was launched at about 10.15 am from the launch complex three of the ITR and successfully flew in its pre-set trajectory meeting its mission objectives, Defence Research and Development (DRDO) sources said.

Two held for raping, burning woman alive in UP

PTI; Sambhal (UP), July 16 : Two of the five people accused of burning a woman alive after raping her in Rajpura area of Sambhal district have been arrested, the police said today.

The woman was allegedly burnt alive inside a temple premises after she was raped by the five people in her house on Saturday.

Superintendent of Police R M Bharadwaj said, "The prime accused in the case, Aram Singh and Bhona alias Kunwar Pal, have been arrested. Both of them are being interrogated."

India signs revised travel agreement with Bangladesh

PTI; Dhaka, Jul 15 : India today signed a revised travel agreement with Bangladesh to ease visa restrictions for citizens from the neighbouring country. The agreement was signed between the two countries in Dhaka in presence of visiting Home Minister Rajnath Singh and his counterpart Asaduzzaman Khan.

Singh is here on a three-day visit.

Under the Revised Travel Arrangement (RTA)-2018, freedom fighters and elderly Bangladeshi nationals will get five year multiple visa from India, Daily Star reported.

India’s trade deficit highest in 5 years

New Delhi, July 14 : India’s trade deficit widened to its highest in more than five years in June, the trade ministry said on Friday.

The deficit is claimed to have been caused by a surge in oil imports despite an increase in merchandise exports.

The trade deficit widened to $16.6 billion that surged 56.61 percent to $12.73 billion. In May the trade deficit stood at $14.62 billion the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a statement. India’s gold imports fell 2.8 percent year-on-year to $2.39 billion in June from a year ago, the statement said.

India inaugurates largest visa centre in Bangladesh

PTI; Dhaka, Jul 14 : India inaugurated its largest visa centre in the world in the Bangladeshi capital today to reduce the waiting time for applicants.

Bangladeshis constitute one of the largest number of visitors from a single country to India. Last year, India the country issued 1.4 million visas to Bangladeshi nationals, BD News reported.

Visiting Home Minister Rajanth Singh, who is here on a three-day visit inaugurated the centre along with his Bangladeshi counterpart Asaduzzaman Khan.

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