News LIVE: AAP to support joint oppn candidate Yashwant Sinha in Prez Poll

Live news updates: The Presidential poll is scheduled to be held on July 18 as the tenure of President Ram Nath Kovind ends on July 24

11:58 PM

CJI Ramana expresses concern on passing of bills without debates

Chief Justice of India Justice N.V. Ramana on Saturday expressed his concern over the decline in legislative performance and passing of bills without debates.

"The country is witnessing a decline in the quality of legislative performance. We have a form of government where the executive is accountable to the legislative. However, space for Leaders of opposition is diminishing in absence of thorough debate and politics has become acronymous. Political opposition should not transform into hostility which is being seen these days which are not signs of healthy democracy," he said.

11:39 PM

Bengal logs 2,839 new Covid-19 cases, six fresh fatalities

West Bengal's COVID-19 tally rose to 20,68,199 on Saturday as 2,839 more people tested positive for the infection, while six fresh fatalities pushed the toll to 21,271, a health bulletin said.

The state had recorded 3,067 cases on Friday, 3,029 on Thursday and 2,979 on Wednesday.

10:31 PM

Army holds pre-training for Agnipath aspirants in J-K's Poonch district

The Army has started pre-training for youths intending to join the armed forces under the Agnipath scheme in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, army officials said on Saturday.

Agnipath pre-training programme is being conducted by Ace of Spades Gunners in the Mendhar area of the district for a duration of 10 days to train the youths of remote and far-flung areas for recruitment in the armed forces, they said.

9:56 PM

J-K Cong to hold satyagraha on July 21 over misuse' of investigation agencies by govt

The Jammu and Kashmir Congress will hold a satyagraha on July 21 over the alleged misuse of investigation agencies, recruitment scams in the union territory and rising prices due to tax terrorism of the Centre, the party said on Saturday.

It said dharnas are being organised at all state headquarters against the vindictive politics of the Modi government against the Congress leadership.

9:48 PM

PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz tests positive for Covid-19

Senior Pakistani politician Maryam Nawaz said on Saturday that has tested positive for the coronavirus after back-to-back election rallies ahead of the Punjab by-elections to be held on Sunday.

Maryam, who is Vice President of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), made the announcement in a post on Twitter.

 

9:38 PM

PM Modi bringing a lot of revolutionary things: BJP MP Hema Malini

PM Modi is bringing different things. Our Presidential candidate is from the tribal community. He is bringing a lot of revolutionary things which everyone is appreciating, said BJP MP Hema Malini, ANI reported.

9:27 PM

Delhi reported 491 new cases, 2 deaths in 24 hours

9:13 PM

Political opposition is translating into hostility, not sign of healthy democracy: CJI

Chief Justice of India N V Ramana on Saturday said political opposition is translating into hostility which is not a sign of a healthy democracy and asserted that strong parliamentary democracy demands "strengthening the Opposition as well".

There used to be mutual respect between the government and the Opposition, but the space for opposition is diminishing and laws are being passed without detailed deliberation and scrutiny, he lamented at an event here.

The CJI said the people expect the court to stand as a counterweight to legislative and executive excess and this gains gravity, particularly whenever the Opposition is missing in action.

8:56 PM

Delhi govt's claims of monsoon preparedness exposed: Congress on waterlogging in city

The Congress on Saturday hit out at the Delhi government over waterlogging in several parts of the city following rains, saying its claims that it was fully prepared for the monsoon have been exposed.

Delhi Congress president Anil Kumar alleged that ever since the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came to power in the capital, desilting of drains has been rarely done.

Rains lashed Delhi on Saturday, bringing respite from the oppressive humidity and heat but led to waterlogging and traffic snarls at many places.

8:21 PM

Delhi govt's claim of free electricity supply propaganda: BJP MP Gautam Gambhir

BJP MP from East Delhi Gautam Gambhir slammed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the national capital on Saturday, alleging that its claim of free electricity supply is a "propaganda".

In a statement, the cricketer-turned-politician said after forming the government in Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his associates had claimed that with clean governance and administration, the electricity prices will reduce drastically.

"However, in the past eight years, the people of Delhi have just been at the receiving end of propaganda and hogwash. In reality, not a single person in Delhi gets electricity for free," he said.

8:00 PM

NDA's candidate for the post of Vice President of India to be Jagdeep Dhankhar: BJP chief JP Nadda

7:43 PM

Mamata calls meeting of party LS, RS MPs to discuss V-P elections

All India Trinamool Congress  leader and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee calls a meeting of party Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha MPs on July 21 to discuss the party’s plan of action regarding the upcoming Parliament session and Vice-President elections

7:00 PM

BJP parliamentary board meeting begins to pick VP candidate

A BJP parliamentary board meeting is underway here to pick the party's candidate for the vice presidential poll.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior Union ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, besides BJP chief JP Nadda are among those attending the meeting.

5:55 PM

Maharashtra reports 2,382 Covid-19 cases, 8 deaths

5:54 PM

Alt News co-founder Zubair's bail plea rejected by sessions court in Lakhimpur Kheri

Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair's bail plea rejected by Mohammadi's sessions court in Lakhimpur Kheri.

Hearing on police custody remand will be held on July 20, confirmed Mohd Zubair's advocate Harjit Singh, ANI reported.

5:51 PM

Lok Sabha Speaker Birla chairs meeting of leaders of all political parties ahead of Monsoon Session

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla chairs the meeting of leaders of all political parties, ahead of the commencement of Monsoon Session of Parliament on July 18.

 

"I have appealed to all party leaders to hold discussions on key issues currently facing us, in the interest of the country," said Birla.

4:35 PM

Mettur Dam reaches full capacity of 120 feet

The water-level in the Stanley Reservorir in Mettur, Salem district, touched its capacity of 120 feet for the 42nd time in its 88-year-old history.

This necessitated issuing a flood alert to the people living in low-lying area of the delta districts in the Cauvery basin. With over 1.18 lakh cusecs of water being received by the dam from both Krishnaraj Sagar and Kabini in Karnataka, the level increased in the last four days resulting in touching 120 feet, its maximum storage height, PTI reported.

4:18 PM

Traders hold protest against GST on food items, grain markets remain closed

Wholesale and retail grain markets in the city remained closed on Saturday due to a protest by traders against the GST Council's decision to levy a 5 per cent GST on pre-packed and labelled food items.

Wholesale grain markets at Narela, Bawana and other parts of the city wore a deserted look due to the market bandh called by traders. Many retail grain markets in the city were also closed.

Delhi Grain Merchant Association President Naresh Kumar Gupta said that this is for the first time when non-branded food items are being brought under the GST and claimed that the decision was not in favour of the general public and traders.

4:03 PM

Goa govt working to 'decriminalise' old laws related to industries: CM Sawant

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Friday said the state government is working towards the "decriminalisation" of some outdated laws related to industries.

"It is a national policy to decriminalise the laws that are outdated and not in use. On those lines, we will be decriminalising the laws which are related to industries," he said while addressing the Annual General Meeting of Goa State Industries Association in Panaji.

3:30 PM

Garuda Aerospace to assist NDRF in flood affected Gujarat, Andhra

Drone start-up Garuda Aerospace has offered its assistance to National Disaster Response Force in tackling the flood situations in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, the city-based company said on Saturday.

The drones would be deployed to deliver food and necessary medicines to people affected by the floods in Vadodara (Gujarat) and in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh.

"After successful implementation of drones to support flood victims in Assam, NDRF has deployed two more Garuda Aerospace teams to tackle the flood situations in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh to support NDRF officials...," company founder-CEO Agnishwar Jayaprakash said in a company statement.

2:59 PM

AAP to support joint oppn candidate Yashwant Sinha in Presidential Poll

Aam Admi Party will support joint opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha in the presidential poll.

 

The Presidential poll is scheduled to be held on July 18 as the tenure of President Ram Nath Kovind ends on July 24.

 

The decision was taken in party's top-most national-level body Political Affairs Committee meeting held at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence on Saturday.

 

"AAP will support Opposition's Presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha. We respect Draupadi Murmu but we will vote for Yashwant Sinha," said AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh.

 

2:42 PM

Still a lot of cricket left in Virat; he has to create path for that: Kapil

Since November 2019, Virat Kohli hasn't scored a century in international cricket and has been in a prolonged lean patch across all formats. With every low score coming off his bat, the debate on Kohli's poor form climbs up with the Men's T20 World Cup in Australia just three months away.

Now, legendary all-rounder and 1983 World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev feels that Kohli has still got a lot of cricket left in him and pointed out that the talismanic batter has to himself create a way for getting back amongst the runs.

"It's not like India haven't played without Virat in the last five to six years, but I want such a player to be back in form. Yes, he's been dropped or rested but there's still a lot of cricket left in him. And he has to create the path for that.

2:39 PM

Chidambaram blames handling of economy for falling rupee

Former finance minister P Chidambaram has launched a scathing attack on the central government, blaming its handling of a host of issues including falling rupee, employment generation and LPG price rise.

In an email interview with PTI, he said the currency's decline was "inevitable" due to India's current account deficit as well as other factors like high inflation.

The rupee, which on Thursday closed at an all-time low of Rs 79.99 to a US dollar, recovered 8 paise to settle at 79.91 on Friday.

Chidambaram said the depreciating rupee can also be attributed to fall in exports, high inflation rate and outflow of foreign portfolio investments.

"The fall in the dollar-rupee rate is inevitable given our current account deficit, inflation, increase in interest rates domestically and in the US, outflow of foreign portfolio investments and decline in exports.

2:36 PM

Wickremesinghe, Premadasa among four leaders to contest presidential election in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka's acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe, main Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa are among the four leaders who have joined the race to become the country's next President as the lawmakers met on Saturday to start the process of electing a new president to succeed Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who resigned after unprecedented protests against his government over the country's economic collapse.

Besides Wickremesinghe and Premadasa, Marxist JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Dullas Alahapperuma, a breakaway SLPP candidate, are the other two leaders who have so far announced their candidacy to contest the July 20 vote in Parliament to succeed Rajapaksa for the rest of his term until November 2024 after he resigned on Thursday.

Parliament met for a brief special session on Saturday to announce the vacancy in the presidency following the resignation of Rajapaksa.

2:34 PM

Microsoft may unveil much-awaited 'Windows 12' in 2024

Tech giant Microsoft is likely changing how it releases significant versions of Windows again, which could mean the company may release Windows 12 in 2024.

 

Microsoft is shifting back to a three-year release cycle for Windows, which means the next major version of Windows is now due in 2024. It is another big change to how Microsoft develops Windows, reports The Verge.

 

The company initially moved away from its three-year cycle with the release of Windows 10 in 2015, prioritising the idea of Windows as a service.

 

Instead of a significant release of features every three years in a new Windows release, Windows 10 was updated twice a year with big new features.

2:34 PM

Sri Lanka parliament to begin process of electing new president

Sri Lanka's parliament was due to meet on Saturday to begin the process of electing a new president, as a shipment of fuel arrived to provide some relief to the crisis-hit nation.

 

The resignation of former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa was accepted by parliament on Friday, after he fled to Singapore to escape anti-government protesters who had occupied his official residence and offices.

 

Over 100 police and security personnel with assault rifles were deployed on the approach road to parliament on Saturday, manning barricades and a water cannon to prevent any unrest.

2:34 PM

Russian civil society will remain crippled for generations, says Zelensky

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has insited that his country will restore all educational institutions destroyed in Russian strikes but the Russian society will remain crippled for generations to come.

In a video address late Friday, the Ukraine President said, two universities - the pedagogical and shipbuilding - were destroyed in the Russian strikes.

"There are no such words in normal human language that can describe the condition to which the Russian state has degraded. It is a double crime - to destroy pedagogical universities so that there won't be educational institutions and new educators cannot be trained… But let the terrorists not hope that it will give them anything," Ukrainska Pravda quoted President Zelenskyy as saying.

"We will definitely restore everything that they destroyed, each of the more than 2,000 educational institutions, all kindergartens, all schools, institutes, universities. And most importantly, we will preserve our humanity and our civility. But Russian society, with so many murderers and executioners, will remain crippled for generations, and through its own fault," he claimed.

1:35 PM

Shinde, Fadnavis uphold renaming of Aurangabad, Osmanabad

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis approved the decision to rename Aurangabad, Osmanabad and the Navi Mumbai International Airport, here on Saturday.

Briefing the media after a cabinet meeting, Shinde said that Aurangabad will be renamed as 'Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar' and Osmanabad shall be rechristened as 'Dharashiv'.

The upcoming new international airport shall be renamed after D. B. Patil, a prominent leader from Konkan, he added.

1:35 PM

Palaniswami to undertake state tour against DMK's misrule

The newly anointed general secretary of the AIADMK, Edappadi K. Palaniswami will soon be undertaking a statewide yatra against the 'misrule' of the DMK government.

While the announcement has not come in the open, sources in the opposition party told IANS that the EPS has decided to undertake the yatra from July end and would be attacking the DMK government.

It is to be noted that Palaniswami has emerged as the single leader of the AIADMK after the party general council meeting on July 11 had appointed him as the interim general secretary of the party. This has brought to an end the dual leadership of the party led by Palaniswami and O. Panneerselvam after the demise of party supremo and former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa.

1:34 PM

Collective water stock in Maharashtra dams doubles in fortnight after good rainfall in July

After a dry spell in June, heavy rainfall in most parts of Maharashtra in July has more than doubled the collective water stock in dams across the state within a span of a fortnight.

While the water stock in the dams recorded on July 1 was 24.07 per cent of the total storage capacity, it increased to 53.73 per cent on Friday evening, as per the data provided by the state water resources department.

Heavy showers in Konkan, most parts of western Maharashtra, Marathwada, Vidarbha and other regions of the state have increased the water stock in dams with many small reservoirs even overflowing.