NEWS

New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi took a dig on the BJP while tweeting that he along with her mother will be out of country. Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday evening took to Twitter to say that he would be leaving the country along with his mother Sonia Gandhi for the latter's "annual medical check-up".

"Will be out of India for a few days, accompanying Sonia ji to her annual medical check up. To my friends in the BJP social media troll army: don't get too worked up...I'll be back soon," Rahul tweeted.

While Rahul Gandhi will return within a week, reportedly Sonia Gandhi will stay abroad for a longer period.

New Delhi: The Union Labour Ministry has conveyed approval of the central government to credit 8.55% rate of interest for 2017-18 into PF accounts of members, according to an order issued by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to its more than 120 field offices. Retirement fund body has asked its field offices to credit 8.55% rate of interest for 2017-18, the lowest rate since 2012-13 fiscal, into the PF accounts of around 5 crore subscribers.

The finance ministry had ratified 8.55% rate of interest on EPF for the last fiscal. But it could not be implemented because of model code of conduct for Karnataka elections.

The labour ministry had sought Election Commission’s approval to notify rate of interest for crediting the same into members’ accounts by the EPFO in view of model code of conduct for Karnataka elections.

New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (EC) will need around 24 lakh EVMs, double the number required to hold only the Parliamentary polls if it intends to hold simultaneous elections of the Lok Sabha and state assemblies in 2019.

During their discussion with the Law Commission on May 16 on the issue of holding simultaneous polls, the EC officials had said they would need around Rs 4,500 crore to buy nearly 12 lakh additional electronic voting machines (EVMs) and an equal number voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines. The estimate was based on the current cost to procure the devices, sources privy to the deliberations said.

New Delhi: The meteorological centre said possible rain and thunderstorm on Wednesday could bring some relief. But before that, the maximum temperature could shoot up to 45 degrees Celsius over the weekend, resulting in a heatwave. At Palam, the mercury could touch 47 degrees on Sunday. Delhi sweltered under heatwave-like conditions for the fourth consecutive day with the temperature touching 43.6 degrees Celsius in the city and 45.4 degrees Celsius at the outskirts in Palam on Friday.

A heatwave is declared when the maximum temperature shoots up beyond 40°C and it is at least four degrees above normal. If the mercury crosses the 45°mark, the weather office automatically deems it a heatwave.