LIVE: Pranab Mukherjee was a towering statesman, says PM Modi

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7:19 PM

Chinese military says it strongly demands India withdraw its troops from China-India border to avoid escalation of tension

7:11 PM

Rahul Gandhi grieves the passing away of former president Pranab Mukherjee

7:03 PM

Security forces bust plan of Lashkar-e-Taiba to revive its network in Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi district

6:53 PM

Supreme Court directs Vijay Mallya to be present in person before it on October 5 at 2 pm

6:47 PM

Pranab Mukherjee: A man for all seasons

It was hot, that evening of May 22, 2004, a day before the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was to be sworn in. This was the first major tryst of the Congress with coalition politics in New Delhi. As television channels were going wild speculating about portfolios, Pranab Mukherjee was sitting quietly in his small study in his Talkatora Road residence, going through various reports on the functioning of the Union home ministry; a few friends had told him that in a few hours he would be India’s Union home minister. Kashmir had seen a terror attack and some news channels —confident that they were interviewing the next home minister — even aired some comments from Mukherjee on the attack.

 

Late in the evening, as those channels flashed the portfolios of the new ministers in Manmohan Singh’s council, against Mukherjee’s name the legend said: Defence minister. There was an air of disbelief at Talkatora Road. His close aides, under the mistaken impression that the defence ministry was a notch lower than the home ministry, were both shocked and indignant. READ MORE...

 

6:38 PM

Core sector output shrinks for fifth straight month in July, down 9.6%

The fall in the output of the eight core sectors of the economy further slowed in July as the economy reopened, but the year-on-year decline was still 9.6 per cent as industry battled demand slump, an acute liquidity crisis and labour shortages in the aftermath of the nationwide lockdown. In June, the core sector output had plunged 12.9 per cent.

 

Pace of contraction had reduced during the previous three months after crashing by 36 per cent in April. However, the updated figures released by the Commerce and Industry Ministry on Monday showed seven of the eight core sectors continued to contract in July, the third straight month of such a development. READ MORE...

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New to Delhi in 2014, I was blessed to have guidance, support of Mukherjee from day one; will always cherish our interactions: PM

6:25 PM

India grieves the passing away of Bharat Ratna Shri Pranab Mukherjee: PM Narendra Modi

6:22 PM

President Ram Nath Kovind condoles death of former President Pranab Mukherjee

6:19 PM

Former President Pranab Mukherjee passes away at 84

Former President Pranab Mukherjee died on Monday in Delhi’s Army’s Research and Referral (R&R) Hospital, where he had been admitted a few days ago for a brain surgery. He was 84. Mukherjee had tested positive for the coronavirus disease before undergoing a successful surgery to remove a brain clot.

 

Mukherjee, President of India from 2012 to 2017, had kept his public interactions minimal since the coronavirus pandemic struck the country in January. He had undergone an angioplasty, a procedure to open blocked or narrowed coronary arteries, at the same hospital in 2014, according to a Hindustan Times report. He had not contested the 2017 Presidential election citing “advanced age and failing health”.

 

Mukherjee was awarded the Bharat Ratna, the country’s highest civilian award, last year. READ MORE...

6:11 PM

First economic contraction in 4 decades: India's GDP shrinks 23.9% in Q1, FY21

India’s gross domestic product (GDP) contracted 23.9 per cent in the April-June quarter of 2020-21 from that in the same quarter last financial year, showed official data released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on Monday. This was mainly on account of limited economic activity in the country during the quarter amid lockdowns to control the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

 

This is the first instance of an economic contraction for the country in at least four decades, and also the first GDP decline since India began publishing quarterly numbers in 1996. In the January-March quarter of this year, the economy had grown by 3.1 per cent year-on-year — the lowest rate in over 17 years — and by 5.2 per cent in the June quarter of 2019-20. The rate of India's GDP growth had declined from 6.1 per cent in FY19 to 4.2 per cent in FY20, the slowest in 11 years. READ MORE...

6:09 PM

Home Minister Amit Shah condoles death of former President Pranab Mukherjee

5:51 PM

Indian economy contracts by 23.9% in April-June 2020: Govt data

5:50 PM

BREAKING: Former President Pranab Mukherjee passes away, announces his son Abhijit Mukherjee

5:33 PM

Will pay fine to SC, reserve right to file review plea against judgement in contempt case: Prashant Bhushan

Activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan said on Monday that he will submit the token fine of Re 1 imposed by the Supreme Court in the contempt case for his tweets against the judiciary, but also indicated he would file a review plea against the order. Bhushan said he has the greatest respect for the institution of the Supreme Court and judiciary and his tweets were not intended to disrespect the apex court, according to a PTI report.

 

"While I reserve the right to seek a review of the conviction and sentencing, by way of an appropriate legal remedy, I propose to submit myself to this order and will respectfully pay the fine, just as I would have submitted to any other lawful punishment," he said hours after the top court imposed the fine.

 

"I have had the greatest respect for the institution of the Supreme Court. I have always believed it to be the last bastion of hope, particularly for the weak and the oppressed who knock at its door for the protection of their rights, often against a powerful executive," Bhushan said at a press conference by CJAR (Campaign for Judicial Accountability & Reforms) and Swaraj Abhiyan.

 

He said the tweets were not intended in any way to disrespect the Supreme Court or the judiciary as a whole, but were merely meant to express his anguish which he felt, "was a deviation from its sterling past record".

 

The issue was never about "me versus the Judges, much less about me versus the Supreme Court", he said.