India

Nepal seeks India’s approval for biometric National Identity card as travel document (ANI image) Nepal has formally requested India’s approval to recognise its biometric National Identity (NID) card as an official travel document for cross-border journeys, alongside passports and citizenship certificates.At present, Nepali citizens travelling to India, particularly by air, must carry either a valid…

Gen V P Malik meeting frontline troops in Kargil in 1999. CHANDIGARH: Twenty-seven years after leading the Army during the 1999 Kargil War, former Army chief General VP Malik (retd) said the conflict’s hard lessons – from equipment shortages and intelligence gaps to the need for self-reliance – transformed India’s military capabilities, enabling the precision…

Protesters at Jantar Mantar celebrate news of Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation NEW DELHI: Dharmendra Pradhan, who earned his early spurs by leading a protest against a Class 12 question paper leak in Odisha in 1996 as an ABVP national secretary, was forced to resign Saturday as Union education minister, in the face of unrelenting protests fuelled…

When the Left-aligned student groups joined the CJP-led protest, they were drawn into the fold organically, said parties’ functionaries NEW DELHI: It must qualify as a striking case of maximising one’s returns on meagre capital. Disproportionate to its marginal presence in Parliament and anaemic strength on the ground, Left parties successfully leveraged AISA, SFI and…

The architect of BJP’s maiden victory in Odisha was first catapulted into the limelight while leadingan ABVP-backed agitation in 1996 NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR: Dharmendra Pradhan‘s resignation Saturday marks an unusual stumble in a political career that appeared to be headed towards more important destinations.The architect of BJP’s maiden victory in Odisha and facilitator of a series…

Opposition react to Pradhan’s exit NEW DELHI: Following Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation, opposition parties Saturday said this marked a victory of democracy and said Modi govt had to “bow before the collective struggle” of the country’s youth.Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said the youth compelled BJP to bow before their pressure, and also started the countdown…

NEW DELHI: India’s ancient Buddhist site of Sarnath in Uttar Pradesh was inscribed on the Unesco World Heritage List Saturday, becoming India’s 45th site to receive this recognition. India ranks sixth globally and second in Asia Pacific Region for the most number of ‘World Heritage Sites’.Sarnath was included in the tentative list in 1998. The…

The app allows anonymous communication without mandatory user registration, phone number verification or centralised logging of messages NEW DELHI: Digital rights advocacy group Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) has termed govt’s order directing GitHub to remove the source code repositories of Bluetooth-based messaging app BitChat “unconstitutional and authoritarian”.In a statement Friday, IFF said the order, issued…

Rahul Gandhi said “past can never fight the future”. NEW DELHI: Asserting that “time has come to remove this govt”, Congress‘s Rahul Gandhi said PM Narendra Modi is India’s past while the protesting youth are the country’s future. He added that the “past can never fight the future”. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge called education minister…

Protests end at Jantar Mantar NEW DELHI: If the students’ protest held the Modi govt hostage for a week, its potency was amplified by the political class that blockaded the Parliament alongside.But the symphony was not perfect from the start as the anti-BJP bloc had two opposing streams. The one led by Congress viewed CJP…