NEWS

New Delhi: Ceasefire violations by Pakistan along the LoC and international border (IB) in Jammu & Kashmir have witnessed a sharp rise this year with a total 633 instances reported in the first two months alone, against 860 violations in whole of 2017.

Union minister of state for home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, in written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha said that 12 civilians, 6 Army personnel and 4 BSF personnel were killed until February this year on account of ceasefire violations and cross-border firing. In 2017, 12 civilians, 15 Army personnel and 4 BSF personnel were killed in similar circumstances.

While 432 instances of cross-border firing/ceasefire violations were reported till February on LoC manned by the Army, international border under operational control of BSF witnessed 201 such incidents.

New Delhi: External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj will visit China next month to participate in the foreign ministers meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), ahead of its summit that is expected to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Chinese city of Qingdao in June.

Swaraj's visit also comes in the backdrop of efforts being made by India and China to move forward after last year's military stand-off in Doklam, which still remains an area of monitoring and strategic significance for New Delhi amidst China building infrastructure for its troops there.

New Delhi: Fugitive jeweller Nirav Modi had obtained his first fraudulent guarantee from PNB's Brady House branch in Mumbai on March 10, 2011 and managed to get 1,212 more such guarantees over the next 74 months, according to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley

Companies linked to Nirav Modi obtained Letters of Undertaking (LoUs), which were used to get loans from overseas branches of Indian banks, up to five guarantees on a single day, with the help of rogue employees of the country's second biggest state-run bank.

In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Jaitley said the last fraudulent LoU was issued on May 23, 2017. During these six years, 53 genuine (non-fraudulent) LoUs were also issued to Nirav Modi Group - the first being on March 5, 2011 and last on November 6, 2017, he said.

New Delhi: Actor and Samajwadi Party MP from Uttar Pradesh Jaya Bachchan could race ahead of Ravindra Kishore Sinha, BJP MP in Rajya Sabha, as the richest parliamentarian. 

Sinha, who declared assets worth Rs 800 crore in 2014 when he entered the upper House, has been upstaged by Jaya, who declared assets of Rs 1,000 crore.

Jaya, who filed her nomination as an SP candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls, had declared assets worth Rs 493 crore in 2012. According to the affidavit, Jaya and her husband Amitabh have immovable assets worth more than Rs 460 crore, which is over twice of what they owned in 2012 — Rs 152 crore. The worth of movable assets too rose from around Rs 343 crore in 2012 to around Rs 540 crore.