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A group of British defence companies are reportedly planning to boost tie-ups or make new investments in India as they look to diversify their supply chains. The UK seeks to deepen economic, defence and security ties with India.

This comes as the country seeks to build closer links with the Indo-Pacific region, and deeming China as an ‘epoch-defining challenge’ to the world order, as mentioned in a report in Reuters. 

UK-India Business Council (UKIBC) Chief Executive Richard McCallum told the agency that a group of 22 British defence companies with collective revenues of about $60 billion is really focussed on doing business with and in India. 

Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut on Friday said there will be change of power after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls with West Bengal, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh deciding the "destiny" of the country.

He also slammed the Union government for its "silence" on China despite the latter's "incursions".

"There will definitely be change of power in the country after 2024. I can say this very confidently," Raut, a key aide of former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, said while being interviewed at an event here.

Anil Antony, the son of Congress leader and former Union Minister AK Antony, joined the BJP today. Antony, who was a Congress leader from Kerala, quit the party in January following the row over BBC's documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

BJP leaders Piyush Goyal and V Murlidharan and the party's Kerala unit chief K Surendran welcomed the former Congress leader to their party at a formal event today.

"Every Congress worker believes they are working for a family. But I believe I am working for the country," Anil Antony told reporters today. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a very clear vision of putting India in a leading place in a multi-polar world," he said.

To realise Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision to end organised crime, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has been leading the crackdown on interstate gangs operating in Delhi-NCR and across the country that has resulted in bringing many dreaded criminals to justice, sources said on Wednesday.

Shah has also been advocating to make intelligence agencies such as the NIA and the ED stronger by giving them more powers to bring down criminal networks operating in and from outside the country, they said.

Shah has been holding regular review meetings and giving instructions to the police and other agencies from time to time, they said.

Senior lawyer Kapil Sibal has taken strong exception to a comment made by Madras High Court (Madurai bench) judge, Justice GR Swaminathan. Justice GR Swaminathan had said that the Constitution will cease to exist if the country's demographic profile is altered. Sibal reacted by saying that the Constitution might not survive if judges have such a mindset.

Taking to Twitter, he wrote, "Justice G R Swaminathan (Madras High Court): Constitution will cease to exist if country's "demographic profile" is altered…as a judge I cannot speak beyond this…I hope you understand. My take: The constitution may not survive if judges have such a mindset."