NEW DELHI, APRIL 13 (IANS): The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed state governments to apprise it on the condition of migrant children and also data on their numbers, on a petition seeking protection of fundamental rights of children in the backdrop of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. A bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde asked all state governments, which have been party in the case, to submit their response. Senior advocate Jayna Kothari appeared for the petitioners before the

New Delhi, April 13 (PTI): The new privacy policy of WhatsApp would lead to excessive data collection and "stalking" of consumers for targeted advertising to bring in more users and is therefore, an alleged abuse of dominant position, competition regulator CCI told the Delhi High Court on Tuesday. The submission was made before Justice Navin Chawla by senior advocate Aman Lekhi on behalf of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in defence of its order directing an inve

LUCKNOW, APRIL 13 (IANS): The Uttar Pradesh government has converted 15,000 primary and upper primary schools into English medium, with a view to modernise the education system. The move is aimed at honing English speaking skills of children studying in the government schools, right from the beginning, so that they can compete with missionary and convent school students. Nearly 1.83 crore children are studying in more than 1.5 lakh primary and upper primary schools in the state.

BAREILLY, April 13 (IANS): 45-year-old man allegedly committed suicide after a police official asked him for a bribe of Rs 1 lakh to trace his missing 22-year-old daughter. According to the family members of deceased Shishupal, Ramnagar police outpost in-charge Ram Ratan Singh demanded the money from him. Ram Ratan Singh reportedly reached where Shishupal had ended his life and tore up the suicide note when he found it. Villagers later caught hold of him and handed him over to

NEW DELHI, APRIL 13 (IANS): After Covishield and Covaxin, India on Tuesday granted permission to inject the third Covid-19 vaccine 'Gam-COVID-Vac' combined vector vaccine, popularly called Sputnik-V, in emergency situations. The Drugs Controller General India (DCGI) gave its nod for the emergency use of the vaccine based on recommendations of the the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) and careful consideration, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHF) said on Tuesday. &qu

PATNA, APRIL 13 (IANS): Cyber criminals allegedly made a fake Facebook account in the name of Bihar's Cabinet Minister Subhash Singh and demanded money from his supporters, an official said on Tuesday. The incident came to light when one of the victims Nilesh Kumar Mishra, a resident of Tiwari Mathania village of Bihar's Gopalganj district was asked to pay Rs 50,000 through the Facebook account of Subhash Singh. "We immediately contacted the office employees of the c

MUZAFFARNAGAR, April 13 (IANS): In a shocking incident, a family lined up outside a window to shoot a video even as their daughter-in-law hanged herself to death inside. The family even shared the video on the social media to 'absolve' themselves of any complicity in the crime. The parents of the deceased, Komal, have alleged that her husband's family had been hounding her for dowry, which forced her to take the drastic step. The woman's father-in-law and mothe

New Delhi, April 13 (PTI) A total of 1,61,736 new coronavirus infections have been reported in a day pushing India's tally of cases to 1,36,89,453, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate dropped further to 89.51 per cent, according to data updated by the Union Health Ministry on Monday. The death toll increased to 1,71,058 with 879 new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed. Registering a steady increase for the 34th day in a row, the number of active cases rose to 12

New Delhi, April 12 (PTI): The Election Commission on Monday barred West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee from campaigning for 24 hours for her remarks against central forces and a statement which had alleged religious overtones. "Commission hereby condemns such statements potent with serious law and order problems across the state(s) and sternly warns Mamata Banerjee and advises her to desist from using such statements while making public utt

New Delhi, April 12 (PTI): India and the European Union on Monday reiterated their commitment to the shared principles and values of democracy, freedom, rule of law and respect for human rights, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. The two sides exchanged views on the issues at the ninth India-EU human rights dialogue which was held in the national capital in pursuance of a decision taken at the summit talks between the two sides in July last. The MEA said the European Un

New Delhi, April 12 (IANS): The Power Ministry has set up an expert panel to prepare the Draft National Electricity Policy 2021. The Central government, from time to time, in consultation with states, reviews and revises the National Electricity Policy and Tariff Policy under the Electricity Act, 2003. The government had notified the National Electricity Policy in February 2005. The Working Group on Power for the 12th Plan had made recommendation for amendment in National Electricit

Hyderabad, April 12 (IANS): Amid reports that the subject expert committee (SEC) has approved Dr. Reddy's Laboratories' (DRL) application for the Russian vaccine candidate Sputnik V to tackle Coronavirus pandemic, the city-based company is yet to receive official communication about the approval. "There is no approval received yet. We are still awaiting the statement from the SEC. Once we get something, we will release a statement," a DRL official told IANS on Mond

New Delhi, April 12 (PTI): A Delhi court on Monday reserved its order on the issue of framing of charges against Congress leader Shashi Tharoor in a case related to his wife Sunanda Pushkar's death in a luxury hotel here. Special Judge Geetanjli Goel, who is likely to pronounce order on April 29, heard arguments from the counsel appearing for Delhi Police as well as Tharoor. During the arguments, while police sought framing of various charges, including 306 (abetment of suici

Patna, April 12 (PTI): The incident took place at Patna Medical College and Hospital on Sunday. A state-run hospital in Bihar's capital has courted controversy by declaring an alive COVID patient dead and handing over another person's body to his kin, prompting an inquiry into the incident. The incident took place at Patna Medical College and Hospital on Sunday. The hospital authorities declared Chunnu Kumar, a resident of Mahmadpur village in the Barh sub-division in

Thiruvananthapuram, April 12 (IANS): Ranjith Ramachandran, an Assistant Professor at IIM Ranchi, is a role model today. His struggle to get a get a good education and the fight to sustain himself to see his dream getting realised is being regarded as an inspiration to the society. Ranjith lived in a dilapidated single room mud hut and worked as a night watchman for survival. His father is a tailor and mother a daily wage earner under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment

Jhansi (Uttar Pradesh), April 12 (IANS): The police in Jhansi, for a change, helped a young couple get married at the police station and ward off parental pressure. According to reports, a young couple, Surendra and Nandini, arrived at the Kotwali police station and claimed that they were both adults but their parents were opposing their relationship and had even threatened them. The couple said that they had already got married at a local Arya Samaj temple. After verifying th

NEW DELHI, APRIL 12: India reported 1,68,912 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, setting another grim one-day record as the overall tally reached 1,35,27,717 so far. The health ministry data said here on Monday. With this, India has once again taken its spot as the second-worst hit nation in terms of infections after the US. As many as 904 deaths were reported taking the total Covid related deaths in the country to 1,70,179 so far. India is now the fourth-wors

New Delhi, April 11 (PTI): Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra is set to become the next chief election commissioner, sources said on Sunday. Going by the convention of appointing the senior-most election commissioner as the CEC, the government is learnt to have cleared his name for the top post at Nirvachan Sadan. The order of his elevation maybe issued anytime, the sources said. Chandra will assume charge on April 13, a day after incumbent Sunil Arora demits office. Chan

NEW DELHI, APRIL 11 (IANS): A vaccine has been prepared to protect pigs from classical swine fever for which rabbits would no longer be slaughtered because a vaccine developed by indigenous technology is going to hit the market very soon. Developed by cell culture method, this vaccine would also be much cheaper. An Ahmedabad-based company has recently got the rights to commercially produce classical swine fever vaccine developed by scientists in the country as well as Sheep pox vaccine

New Delhi, April 11 (IANS): Announcing that a four-day countrywide 'Tika Utsav' (inoculation festival) is being started from Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged people to abide by four things that include wearing of masks as well as motivating others to follow the norm in the fight against Covid-19 pandemic. The initiative, which will continue till April 14, is called by the Centre a second major war against the deadly virus which registered the highest single-day spi