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Defence Minister Rajnath Singh today exhorted US companies to take advantage of the policy initiatives taken by the Modi government in India and carry out joint R&D, manufacturing and maintenance of defence equipment to achieve the vision of ‘Make in India, Make for the World’.

He was addressing the members of American Chamber of Commerce in India (AMCHAM India) through video conferencing during its 30th Annual General Meeting. He invited the US companies to undertake co-production, co-development, investment promotion and development of Maintenance Repair and Overhaul facilities in India.

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A fourth of India’s power generation capacity shut, mainly due to lack of fuel

At a time when India’s electricity demand is seen rising at the fastest pace in decades, almost a fourth of its total thermal, nuclear, and hydropower installed capacity is shut down.

According to the Central Electricity Authority’s operation performance monitoring report, 72,074.14 megawatts (MW) that comprise thermal, nuclear, and hydropower were shut down as of April 20. This accounts for almost 25% of the total monitored capacity of 289,581.24 MW. CEA’s monitored capacity includes thermal, hydro, and nuclear power units, but excludes 110 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy.

At the beginning of April, the total capacity that was shut down was 66,534.31 MW, but the lack of fuel has tripped more units.

Two Congress chief ministers — Rajasthan's Ashok Gehlot and Chhattisgarh's Bhupesh Baghel — joined a group of party leaders on Wednesday and sat through a presentation by election strategist Prashant Kishor to fine-tune his proposals to make the party battle-ready for 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

The two leaders posed several questions to Kishor, including on his bottom-up design to strengthen the party organisation.

Given that both have extensive organisational experience in their previous roles as state Congress presidents and AICC in-charge of states, they are learnt to have focused on Kishor's emphasis on preparing the party cadre at the booth level, besides improving its communication strategy, refurbishing its image and political messaging, choice of alliances and tactics, including creating divisions in BJP states where Congress is strong.

The C-Block of Jahangirpuri in north-west Delhi, where a Hanuman Jayanti procession last Saturday had led to communal riots, faced the wrath of the north corporation’s bulldozers on Wednesday. Responding to Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta’s letter on Tuesday calling for action against illegal constructions of the riot accused in the area, the civic body sent in nine demolition machines early in the morning and began clearing a street under the watchful eyes of over 1,500 policemen and paramilitary forces.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday (April 20), said that the state will work on eight pillars of development going ahead, including infrastructure, education, social security, skill development and ease-of-doing-business.

While addressing a large gathering of industry tycoons at the Bengal Global Business Summit, Banerjee said the state government has brought down man-days lost in the state due to strikes and disruptions to zero from 75 lakh per year during the erstwhile Left regime. 

"We lost 75 lakh man-days every year during the Left Front rule, but now no man-days are lost," Banerjee added.