Baleshwar/Nayagada: More than 30 villages in Baleshwar's Bhograi block remained waterlogged Wednesday, while three days of incessant rain inundated agricultural fields in Nayagada, damaging paddy, vegetables and other crops and adding to the woes of residents and farmers, sources said. In Bhograi, more than 30 villages under 10 gram panchayats continued to remain inundated despite a gradual...

New Delhi: INDIA bloc Wednesday finalised a joint action plan over the SIR row, including holding rallies and 'save democracy marches', with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge asserting that all parties agreed that elections should be held through ballot papers instead of EVMs. The Opposition grouping made the assertion after a three-and-a-half hour meeting of its leaders, including...

Mumbai: Filmmaker-host Karan Johar Wednesday announced that he is ending his popular celebrity chat show, "Koffee With Karan", with its upcoming ninth season, set to premiere on JioHotstar October 14. Johar, who began the show in 2004 and invited a host of prominent celebrities from Hindi cinema over the course of 161 episodes in eight seasons, said...

Kathmandu: Prime Minister Balendra Shah will make a "meaningful" and "result-oriented" visit to India at an appropriate time, although no date has been finalised, Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said Wednesday. Speaking to reporters upon his arrival at Tribhuvan International Airport after attending the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Khanal said both...

New Delhi: Observing that total ban on firecrackers will hurt sentiments, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said it will neither impose complete prohibition, nor allow round-the-clock fireworks. A bench of Justices MM Sundresh and PB Varale said a middle ground was needed to be found by specifying hours during which firecrackers could be used. "We will make...

New Delhi: "Sengol", installed in the new Parliament building in 2023, is now part of NCERT's Class 9 Social Science textbook, which describes it as a "cultural marker of rulership and good governance" and links its tradition to the Chola period. The book titled "Understanding Society India and Beyond-Part 2" was released Tuesday, six months after the...

Guwahati: India opted to bowl against the West Indies in the second ODI Wednesday. Pacer Auqib Nabi was handed his debut cap for India. He made the playing eleven in place of Nitish Reddy. The West Indies made as many as four changes. India led the three-match series 1-0. Teams: West Indies: John Campbell, Keacy Carty, Shai...

Bhubaneswar: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has flagged several "financial irregularities and deficiencies" in the implementation of the 5T High School Transformation Programme (HSTP) of the previous BJD government in Odisha. The BJD government's School and Mass Education (SME) Department introduced the programme in 2021 to transform infrastructure in schools and make them better...

Tel Aviv: A commercial plane traveling from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to Israel was forced to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia Wednesday, briefly raising concerns about a possible hijacking and prompting Israel to scramble warplanes. Israeli media, citing security officials, said the incident stemmed from a feud between the plane's two pilots, and...

New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge Wednesday batted for the pre-SIR electoral roll to be used for future elections and voting through ballots instead of EVMs, as he stressed on unity in the opposition INDIA bloc with a joint action plan. In his opening remarks at the INDIA bloc meeting, Kharge asserted that the opposition group will...