Latest LIVE: Chennai court grants 8 days custody of Senthil Balaji to ED

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Chennai local court on Friday granted the Enforcement Directorate 8 days custody of arrested TN minister Senthil Balaji. Tamil Governor RN Ravi refused to allow V Senthil Balaji to continue any longer as a Member of the Council of Ministers on Friday, as he is facing criminal proceedings for moral turpitude and is currently in judicial custody. The portfolio held by him has been allocated to ministers S Muthusamy and Thangam Thennarasu in addition to the subjects already held by them. 

India's forex reserves dropped by $1.318 billion to $593.749 billion for the week ended June 9, the Reserve Bank of India said on Friday. The overall reserves had jumped by $5.93 billion to $595.067 billion for the previous reporting week. It can be noted that in October 2021, the country's forex kitty had reached an all-time high of $645 billion. The reserves have been declining as the central bank deploys the kitty to defend the rupee amid pressures caused majorly by global developments.

Delhi on Friday witnessed a sudden change in weather as the heavy rains lashed parts of NCR under the influence of cyclone Biparjoy. India Meteorological department earlier sounded an 'Orange alert' for parts of Rajasthan -- Barmer, Jalore, Jaisalmer, Sirohi, Jodhpur, Pali and nearby places -- and predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall on Friday. IMD officials said that the 'severe' cyclonic storm Biparjoy lay centred over the Saurashtra-Kutch region and is expected to move northeastwards, adding that heavy rains are expected in Rajasthan on Friday.

In a historic commemoration, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lead a yoga session for the first time at UN Headquarters here on the 9th International Day of Yoga to be celebrated on June 21.

The consular teams of the US have been making a "huge push" to process as many visa applications as possible in India, US Department of State official spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a press briefing on Thursday (local time). He called it a "top priority" for the US government and acknowledged that "there is more that can be done."

11:07 PM

BJP has realised that an impending defeat stares them in the face: Tmali Nadu CM MK Stalin

10:43 PM

Cyclone Biparjoy to weaken further into deep depression around midnight : IMD

10:42 PM

Case registered against building, coaching centre owners in Mukherjee Nagar fire incident

9:30 PM

Planning saved lives, says Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel on impact of cyclone Biparjoy

More than 1,000 teams are working across eight districts of Gujarat to restore power in the aftermath of cyclone Biparjoy, a state government release said here on Friday evening. Advance planning and evacuation of more than one lakh persons helped the state achieve ''zero casualties" as the cyclone battered Kutch and Saurashtra regions, the release quoted Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel as saying.

9:01 PM

Mumbai logs 6 Covid-19 cases, no death; active tally 44 as five recover

Mumbai on Friday reported six COVID-19 cases, which took the tally to 1,163,900, while the death toll stood unchanged at 19,773, a civic official said. It was a rise from the four cases reported on Thursday, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation official added. The recovery count increased by five to touch 11,44,083, leaving the city with an active caseload of 44, he said.

8:37 PM

Manipur is burning, says Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel

8:28 PM

NIA chargesheets 13 in India-Sri Lanka drugs, arms trade for LTTE revival case

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a chargesheet against 13 persons, including three Indian and 10 Lankan nationals, in the India-Sri Lanka illegal drugs and arms trade case relating to attempts to revive the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a militant organization which once sought to create an independent Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka.

The chargesheeted men had conspired with the accused in the Vizhinjam Arms case for exploiting the illegal drugs trade in India and Sri Lanka for funding, amassing and stashing weapons for the revival of LTTE in India and Sri Lanka, the NIA said.

7:55 PM

Controversy around NCERT textbooks' rationalisation 'unwarranted': JNU VC

The recent controversy around the rationalisation of NCERT textbooks is "unwarranted", said JNU vice-chancellor Santishree D Pandit on Friday, asserting that the revised syllabus must include new "discoveries and knowledge". Her remarks come a day after a group of academicians, who were part of the textbook development committees of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), wrote to the council demanding that their names be dropped from books as their "collective effort is in jeopardy".

The recent developments after the rationalisation are part of the cancel culture where a section believes that what they say should be the last word and nobody else have the right to have an opinion, Pandit told PTI Video.

7:50 PM

Saurabh Bharadwaj writes to Delhi LG for support for Delhi govt's demand for additional water allocation

7:36 PM

Why can't we leave the past in the past: Shashi Tharoor on renaming Nehru Memorial

7:05 PM

ED summons Tamil Nadu Minister Senthil Balaji's brother RV Ashok Kumar, others for questioning

Enforcement Directorate summons Tamil Nadu Minister Senthil Balaji's brother RV Ashok Kumar, others for questioning next week in money laundering case

6:48 PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit USA, Egypt from 20 to 25 June: PMO

6:31 PM

Double-engine govt failing people of Manipur, says Congress

The Congress on Friday hit out at the "double engine" BJP governments in Manipur and at the Centre and asked when will Prime Minister Narendra Modi speak out on the situation in the violence-hit state and make an appeal for peace. Congress leader P Chidambaram said the double-engine formula failed in Karnataka and the BJP was shown the door by the people of the southern state and "the double-engine government is failing the people of Manipur".

 

6:25 PM

Theatres in Kathmandu halt 'Adipurush' screening, say 'Sita' was born in Nepal's Janakpur

Screening of mythological film "Adipurush" has been put on hold in cinema halls across Kathmandu after City Mayor Balendra Shah asked the makers to rectify the mistake about the birthplace of Sita. "Adipurush', starring Prabhas as Raghav, Kriti Sanon as Janki, Sunny Singh as Shesh, and Saif Ali Khan as Lankesh, is directed by Om Raut and produced by T-Series. "Until the line 'Janaki is a daughter of India' contained in the South Indian film 'Adipurush' is removed not just in Nepal but also in India, no Hindi films will be allowed to run in Kathmandu Metropolitan City (sic)," Mayor Shah wrote on Facebook on Thursday.

5:42 PM

Classic example of political indigestion: Nadda hits back at Congress on Nehru Library renaming issue

BJP president JP Nadda on Friday slammed the Congress over its remarks on the renaming of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, saying its inability to accept that there are leaders beyond "one dynasty" is a classic example of "political indigestion". The government renaming the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library Society (NMML) here as the Prime Ministers' Museum and Library Society has drawn sharp reaction from the Congress that called it a "petty act" while asserting that legacies do not get erased by renaming buildings.