Neha Malhotra

India has been the fastest growing major economy in the world for the last ten years, with the latest data from the International Monetary Fund or IMF showing a staggering 105 per cent growth in the last decade. According to the IMF, India’s GDP currently stands at $4.3 trillion. It was $2.1 trillion in 2015, when Narendra Modi’s first term as prime minister was less than a year in office. Since then, India has more than doubled its economy in terms of Gross Domestic Product or GDP. India is on the cusp of overtaking Japan as the fourth-largest economy in…

In a significant development ahead of the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections, the Congress has officially announced its decision to contest the elections under the umbrella of the INDIA Bloc. The decision was made during a high-level meeting chaired by Congress National President Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday. Prominent leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and senior Congress members from Bihar, attended the meeting. Bihar Congress President Rajesh Kumar confirmed the party’s stance while addressing the media in New Delhi. “The Congress party will contest the Bihar Assembly elections under the INDIA Bloc. Unlike other states, the alliance is united in Bihar, and our…

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, while responding to the backlash over “bulldozer action” by his government, said that sometimes people need to be explained things in a “language” they understand. The Chief Minister further said that those who take the law into their own hands will face consequences within the legal framework. “Those who believe in justice, justice is done for them. Those who take justice and law into their own hands, they are taught a lesson in the framework of law. It should be explained in the language in which they understand it. If someone comes in front…

A female teacher of a government girls’ school has been booked on Tuesday for making a student slap her classmates who gave incorrect answers, police said. Based on the complaint of a 10-year-old student, a case has been registered under Section 115 (2) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (voluntarily causing hurt) and Section 75 of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (cruelty to children), police said. According to the complainant, on Monday afternoon, the teacher quizzed the class about meanings of Sanskrit words she had tasked them to memorise. The complainant, who was also the class monitor, gave…

Underlining a “total lack of sensitivity”, the Supreme Court today paused the Allahabad High Court ruling in a child abuse case, in which the judge had observed that the grabbing of breast and pulling the string of a pyjama don’t amount to a rape attempt. The bench of Justice BR Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih said it was pained to see some observations in the verdict and sought replies from the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh governments on the matter. “We are pained to state that it shows a total lack of sensitivity on the part of the author of…

Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Wednesday said the CBI conducted searches at his residence ahead of his scheduled visit to New Delhi for a Congress meeting. Teams of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday swooped down at the residences of Mr Baghel in Raipur and Bhilai as well as the residential premises of a senior police officer and a close associate of the former CM, officials said. The agency is tight-lipped about the matter in which the searches are taking place. Sources, however, said it is linked to Mahadev online betting app ‘scam’. Reacting to the…

AIADMK general secretary and former Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami met Union Home Minister Amit Shah at his residence on Tuesday, amid talks that his party might revive its alliance with the BJP ahead of the assembly polls in the state. Sources said the AIADMK leader discussed a host of issues, including the alleged imposition of Hindi in Tamil Nadu, with Shah and conveyed his party’s views on them. The AIADMK, the main opposition party in Tamil Nadu, snapped ties with the BJP in September 2023 in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls following some differences…

Mumbai Police on Monday arrested Shiv Sena functionary Rahool Kanal and 11 others for vandalising Habitat Studio, where stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra recorded his latest video in which he referred to Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde as a “gaddar” (traitor). A local court granted them bail the same day. Mr Kanal, a prominent youth leader, led the attack late Sunday night, allegedly in response to Kamra’s parody song mocking the Deputy Chief Minister. Defending his actions, Mr Kanal issued a warning to Mr Kamra. “This is just a trailer. If anybody says anything derogatory about our senior leader or our elders, we will…

Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday directed the Punjab government to file a detailed reply by March 28, asking it to explain the delay in the registration of an FIR in the army colonel assault case. The high court asked the government to name the officer who was informed by the petitioner about the incident and the reasons for the officer’s refusal to take action and register an FIR. An explanation for the delay in registering the FIR, despite the availability of medico-legal reports on record, along with detailed statement of the petitioner dated March 14, 2025, as well…

Cutting a large number of trees is worse than killing human beings, the Supreme Court has said, while fining a man Rs 1 lakh for each illegally cut tree. A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan made the observation while rejecting the plea of a man who had chopped down 454 trees in the protected Taj Trapezium Zone. “There should be no mercy in environmental case. Felling a large number of trees is worse than killing a human,” the bench said. The top court said it will take at least 100 years minimum to again regenerate or…