Mr. Goyal has already earmarked Rs. 20,000 crore for disbursal among 12 crore farmers under the scheme in the current financial year. “It has been decided to implement the scheme with effect from December 1, 2018. The allocation of Rs. 20,000 crore, required for the current fiscal, has been made …

Greenpeace has been forced to close two of its regional offices and “considerably” reduce its staff in India because of a government crackdown on allegedly unlawful foreign funding of NGOs. The organisation has been campaigning on environmental issues in India for nearly two decades but has clashed in recent years …

The CBI is ready to move the Supreme Court against the West Bengal government and its police for impeding an ongoing court-ordered investigation into multi-crore chit fund cases, including the Saradha scam. It is learnt that the matter would be mentioned on Monday for urgent hearing by Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta …

Unlike other municipal primary schools in Maharashtra’s Badnera town, the one in Waruda has ‘three teachers’ for its 42 students studying from Classes I to IV. For a similar school, the ratio may have been only two teachers. In Waruda, besides teacher Amol Bhuyar and headmistress Sushma Kapse, there is …

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Sunday said that the government was speaking to all parties, both within the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and outside, in the wake of the controversy in the northeast over the Citizenship Amendment Bill, and trying to evolve a consensus. “Home Minister Rajnath …

A sessions court here has issued non-bailable warrants against Pakistani Army officials Major Abdul Rehman Pasha and Major Iqbal in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks case. While Major Pasha has retired, the prosecution believes Major Iqbal is still serving as an ISI official in Pakistan, as disclosed by U.S.-born Lashkar-e-Taiba …

In a first, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) questioned an Indian couple currently in Yemen through the messaging platform WhatsApp. Shirin Shahana and Fasal Musthafa, who allegedly persuaded Hadiya (Akhila Asokan), a homeopathy student from Kerala, to convert to Islam, were recently sent questions by the agency. A senior NIA …

The high drama over the CBI’s move to question Kolkata Police Commissioner on Sunday in the chit fund scam cases raises questions about the agency’s jurisdiction in a State which has already withdrawn “general consent” for its investigations . The CBI has been investigating the Saradha scam after the Supreme …

Terming the surgical strikes “India’s new policy on terrorism”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the Citizenship Amendment Bill was aimed at “standing by all children of Mother India”. “There are many natives of Mother India who have faced oppression in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh for their religious beliefs. …

Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens in Mysuru has successfully translocated 52 spotted deer that were in surplus in its collection to Arabithittu wildlife sanctuary near here and all the animals were said to have accustom-ed to the new habitat. Source :  https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/52-surplus-deer-moved-to-arabithittu-forests/article26171780.ece

Several lakhs of grief-stricken men and women from all over the State to-day [February 3] made a pilgrimage to the Government Estate to pay their last respects to Mr. C.N. Annadurai. It was a vast surging humanity jampacking all the approach roads to the Government Estate, demonstrating the fact that …

A news ombudsman is in a bind when his criticism of journalism is proved right. While there is an element of personal satisfaction, there is also the pain of witnessing professional shortcomings. In my column, “Discussing an editorial” (Dec. 3, 2018), I had expressed my reservations about the editorial “Number …

Afghanistan is seeing growing national, regional and global attempts to seek a peaceful settlement to the conflict. The U.S. is desperate to extricate itself from the war, heightened by an unpredictable President and an ambitious negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad. This desperation is matched by growing fears in Afghanistan that the Taliban …

The caricaturing of scientific inquiry at the recent Indian Science Congress (ISC) is only symptomatic of the larger ideological thrust through which institutions of higher education in India are now sought to be governed. Further, the choice of venue for the ISC this year — a private university in Punjab …

The doctrine may be derived from the abstract. But it exists within the Constitution itself It has now been more than 45 years since the Supreme Court ruled in Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala that Parliament’s power to amend the Constitution was not unlimited, that the Constitution’s basic structure …

If you want to form good habits — such as going to the gym and eating healthy — then you need to train your brain by repeating actions until they stick, says a study. Researchers created a model for the study, published in Psychological Review Source : https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-life/train-your-brain-to-form-good-habits-through-repetition/article26170557.ece

The Hubble Space Telescope has made an unexpected discovery of a never-before-seen dwarf galaxy in our cosmic backyard, located just 30 million light-years away. An international team of astronomers used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to study white dwarf stars within the globular cluster NGC 6752. Source : https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-life/hubble-discovers-dwarf-galaxy-in-cosmic-neighbourhood/article26170555.ece

Scientists, including one of Indian origin, have identified a gene that makes a person sleepy when they are sick. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania found that a single gene, called nemuri, fights germs with its inherent antimicrobial activity and drives prolonged, deep sleep after an infection. “Our study directly …

A German First World War hand grenade was found among a shipment of French potatoes imported for a Hong Kong crisp factory, police said. The grenade was safely destroyed after it was discovered at the Calbee snacks factory on Saturday. “The grenade was in an unstable condition because it has …

They can help meet the labour shortage caused by a rapidly ageing population The paperwork never ends for Yoshiko Nishimasa. There are the meticulous logs she must fill out every day, not to mention the pages of work she carefully checks and approves. She even keeps daily records of conversations, …