Budget 2018-19

  Andhra Pradesh has suffered agricultural and infrastructural damages worth Rs 8,084 crore in the recent heavy rains and floods Andhra Pradesh has suffered agricultural and infrastructural damages worth Rs 8,084 crore in the recent heavy rains and floods. “The estimated loss is about Rs 8,084 crore, of which Rs 5,000 crore occurred due to infrastructure damages. Also, agriculture and allied sectors suffered flood damage of Rs 3,000 crore as incessant rains occurred right before the harvesting period,” said a government statement. On Wednesday, the Central government team which visited five districts to assess flood damages in the southern state called on Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. For the last two days, the team toured  Andhra Pradesh flood -affected East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur and Anantapur districts. On a request from Reddy, the team visited Anantapur, considering the groundnut crop was extensively damaged. Reddy requested the team to help as m...

  Twitter removed former Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad’s tweet, for violating its rules banning the glorification of violence, shortly after a violent knife attack in Nice, which left three people dead Social networking platform Twitter on Thursday removed former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s tweet, for violating its rules banning the glorification of violence, shortly after a violent knife attack in Nice, which left three people dead. In a series of tweets, Mahathir Mohamad had said that “Muslims have a right to be angry and kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past”. It sparked an angry outburst on social media with many users calling out the former Malaysian prime minister. Cedric O, France’s Secretary for Digital Sector also condemned the post and urged Twitter to suspend the account of the former Malaysian prime minister and said in a tweet: “If not, Twitter would be an accomplice to a formal call for murder.” “I just spoke with the Managing Di...

  Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday spoke to his Bhutanese counterpart Lotay Tshering and underscored the importance Pakistan attaches to its ties with Bhutan Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday spoke to his Bhutanese counterpart Lotay Tshering and underscored the importance Pakistan attaches to its ties with Bhutan. Khan highlighted the significance of regular bilateral contacts and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries. The two leaders discussed matters of mutual interest, including COVID-19, according to a statement by the PM Office.  Imran Khan  also extended an invitation to the Bhutanese prime minister to visit Pakistan. He commended measures taken by the leadership of Bhutan to contain the coronavirus pandemic. He highlighted the adverse economic impact of COVID-19 on the developing countries, for which he had also called for the Global Initiative on Debt Relief. Appreciating the Bhutanese model of tourism promotion and conser...

  Pakistan is unlikely to exit the Financial Action Task Forces (FATF) grey list as it has been unable to comply with six of the 27 points in the global watchdogs action plan, according to reports The FATF had given Pakistan a total of 27 action plan obligations for completely checking terror financing of which so far it has cleared 21 but has failed in some of the key tasks. The obligations included action against two of India’s most wanted terrorists Maulana Masood Azhar and Hafiz Saeed. Besides, FATF has strongly noted the fact that there was sudden disappearance of the names of more than 4,000 terrorists from its original list of 7,600 under Schedule IV of its Anti Terrorism Act. The Paris-based global watchdog is holding its virtual plenary session on October 21-23. It will take the final call on  Pakistan’ s continuation on its grey list after a thorough review of Islamabad’s performance in fulfilling the global commitments and standards in the fight against money launde...

Of late, BJP and party chief Amit Shah's cloak of invincibility has been perceived to be slipping The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) celebrations over winning Tripura, and forming coalition governments through the back door in Meghalaya and Nagaland, continued at its parliamentary party meeting on Tuesday morning. BJP Members of Parliament (MPs) distributed sweets, and raised slogans that now it was the party’s turn to win Karnataka. Yes, the BJP won Tripura handsomely. But it won neither Meghalaya, where it got two of the 60 seats, nor Nagaland. The Congress was decimated in Tripura and Nagaland, and emerged the single-largest party in Meghalaya. Together, the three states send five MPs to the Lok Sabha – Tripura and Meghalaya send two each and Nagaland sends one. The BJP has put some thought into its strategy to continue celebrating its Tripura win, and form coalition governments in Meghalaya and Nagaland. It needs to restore the impression of invinc...

The parties charged Bhagwat with "insulting" the armed forces after RSS leader's remark on Army The Opposition on Monday latched on to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat 's reported remarks on the Army, demanding that he apologise to the nation and Prime Minister Narendra Modi clarify if he was in favour of a "private militia" guarding India's borders. The parties charged Bhagwat with "insulting" the armed forces and the country by claiming that in the eventuality of a battle to be fought, the RSS could mobilise itself in three days while the Indian Army would take six to seven months to do so. Leading the charge, Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeted that Bhagwat's remark insulted the Indian tricolour. "The RSS Chief's speech is an insult to every Indian, because it disrespects those who have died for our nation. It is an insult to our flag because it insults every soldier who ever saluted it. Shame on you Mr Bhagwa...