Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said peace was returning to the strife-torn north-eastern state of Manipur, where at least 180 people have been killed and tens of thousands forced out of their homes in sectarian clashes since May.
Modi says peace returning to strife-torn Manipur
The Central government has deployed security forces to the hilly state bordering Myanmar governed by Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party to quell the violence, which comes as he is looking to secure a third term in a general election due by May 2024.
“For some days now, we are getting reports of extended peace. The country is with the people of Manipur. The country wants the people of Manipur to hold on to the peace of the last few days and take it forward,” Mr Modi said in an Independence Day speech at New Delhi’s Red Fort.
Men who raped and hanged two sisters get life sentence
Nearly a year after the gruesome rape and murder of two sisters who were found hanging from a tree in a village in Uttar Pradesh, two men were on Monday sentenced to life imprisonment, local media reported.
The men were convicted last Friday by a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences court. The bodies of the girls, aged 17 and 15, had been found on Sept 14, 2022.
Police investigations concluded that six suspects had abducted the sisters from their home hours before raping and strangling them, then hanging their bodies from a tree to make it look like they had killed themselves.
Assets of late mining tycoon seized after probe prompted by leaks
Indian authorities have seized the entire shareholding of the late mining tycoon Anil Vassudeva Salgaocar’s estate, after opening an investigation on the basis of information disclosed in the Panama and Pandora papers.
The move comes months after his widow Lakshmi, who is the estate’s administrator, won a protracted case in Singapore’s High Court that involved assets implicated in the Indian investigation.
Mr Salgaocar, who died in Singapore in 2016, is suspected of violating foreign exchange laws and not declaring millions of dollars in profits.
The assets seized, according to an Enforcement Directorate statement on Aug 9, include shares in 33 companies, which own 441 properties in Goa and Karnataka, as well as in Mumbai.
$9.5 billion plan for electric buses in 169 cities approved
The Central government on Wednesday approved plans to deploy 10,000 electric buses in 169 cities, along with charging and associated infrastructure facilities, at an estimated cost of nearly Rs580 billion ($9.53 billion) for a decade.
The federal government will fund Rs200 billion of the cost of the scheme, based on a public-private partnership model, but it was not immediately clear if the rest would come from state governments or private companies.
Shares of companies expected to benefit from the plan rose, including those of electric bus makers Olectra Greentech and JBM Auto.
Burger King tomatoes on ‘vacation’ as India battles food inflation
Burger King has scrapped tomatoes from its wraps and burgers in many Indian outlets after prices more than quadrupled, the latest sign of surging food inflation in the world’s most populous nation.
“Even tomatoes need a vacation... we are unable to add tomatoes to our food,” read notices at two Burger King India outlets. The chain cited quality issues in explaining the shortfall.
The burger chain, one of India’s biggest with nearly 400 outlets, joins McDonald’s and Subway restaurants that have removed tomatoes from menus as India’s food inflation this week hit its highest since January 2020.
Three killed as car plunges six metres into canal in Tamil Nadu
Three people were killed on Wednesday when the car they were travelling in fell six metres into a canal. They were heading towards Chennai from Ramanathapuram.
The vehicle toppled into the canal near Madhuranthagam on the Trichy-Chennai highway.
A preliminary investigation revealed that the driver had lost control. Police and a fire and rescue team removed the bodies and sent them for autopsy.
Alleged victim of medical neglect takes her fight to Kerala capital
Ms Harshina Malayil Kulangara, who has been demonstrating against the alleged negligence of doctors at Kozhikode Medical College Hospital, took her protest to the Kerala secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday.
She wants the government to take action against the doctors who allegedly left a pair of scissors in her stomach during a C-section in 2017.
Ms Harshina, who earlier held protests in front of the Kozhikode Medical College for 87 days, said the government was ignoring her demand.
India, China agree to maintain peace on border
India and China have agreed to maintain peace and tranquillity on the ground in border areas, China’s Defence Ministry said in a joint statement on the 19th round of the China-India Corps Commander Level Meeting on Tuesday.
The two sides had a positive, constructive and in-depth discussion on the resolution of the remaining issues along the line of actual control, or LAC, in the western sector, the ministry said.
They also agreed to resolve the remaining issues in an “expeditious manner” and maintain the momentum of dialogue and negotiations through military and diplomatic channels.
SpiceJet chief faces contempt case over unpaid dues
The Supreme Court has asked Indian airline SpiceJet’s managing director Ajay Singh to respond to a contempt case by Credit Suisse within four weeks, reported Reuters.
Credit Suisse in March approached the top court seeking to initiate contempt proceedings against Singh and SpiceJet over “a wilful and intentional disobedience” of court orders and failure to pay dues of US$3.9 million as per a settlement between the two sides, a court filing shows.
Credit Suisse and SpiceJet have been engaged in a legal dispute since 2015 over Credit Suisse’s claim of unpaid dues of around US$24 million, which led to the Madras High Court’s order that the airline be wound up in 2021.
SpiceJet in a statement said the debt is an “old one and predates the current promoter taking over the company,” and that it intends to pay the amount.
Wrestler Phogat out of Asian Games with injury
Wrestler Vinesh Phogat, who helped lead protests demanding the sport’s national chief step down over sexual harassment allegations, has pulled out of next month’s Asian Games with a knee injury.
Phogat, who won gold in the women’s 50kg freestyle in the last edition of the Asian Games, injured herself during training and underwent surgery on Thursday.
“It was my dream to retain my Asian Games gold medal for India which I won in 2018 in Jakarta,” Phogat, 28, wrote in a post on social media. “But unfortunately, this injury has ruled out my participation now.”
