Polling begins in Delhi for seven LS seats

April 10, 2014

New Delhi, Apr 10: Polling began today for the seven Lok Sabha constituencies in the country's capital where BJP, Congress and newbie AAP are engaged in a three-cornered electoral battle.

The voting began at 7 AM at over 11,500 polling stations out of which 327 have been declared critical and 90 hyper critical.

A total of 1.27 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise which include over 3.37 lakh first-timers. A total of 150 candidates are in the fray.

Polling_begins_in_DelhiThe Congress had won all seven seats in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.

The prominent contenders in the fray include Union Ministers Kapil Sibal and Krishna Tirath, Delhi BJP Chief Harsh Vardhan, Congress General Secretary Ajay Maken, journalist-turned-politician Ashutosh, Sandeep Dikshit, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, Rajmohan Gandhi, and BJP's Meenakshi Lekhi.

Nearly 50,000 security personnel, apart from 161 flying squads of police and video surveillance teams have been deployed as part of arrangements to ensure fair and peaceful polls.

In a bid to boost voter turnout, a number of 'model' polling stations with spruced-up infrastructure have been set up for the first time.

In 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the overall voting percentage stood at 52.3 per cent, which increased to 66 per cent in the 2013 Delhi assembly election.

Delhi's Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Dev has said he was hopeful of even a better polling percentage in this election and appealed to Delhi voters to come out and vote.

The entry of Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP has changed the dimension of the elections as almost all constituencies are likely to witness a three-cornered fight.

For AAP, the election assumes a greater significance as it will be an acid test for the new party's perceived erosion of support base.

AAP created history in the December 4 assembly polls here, wresting 28 of the 70 seats and formed the government.

Kejriwal had faced severe criticism for quiting from the government after remaining in power for 49 days. Both Congress and BJP had mounted a shrill attack on Kejriwal accusing him of running away from responsibilities.

BJP's campaign was centred around Narendra Modi and the election will determine whether the 'Modi wave' had any impact or not. If the party performs well, then it may press for early assembly polls. The BJP had won 31 seats in the assembly polls but refused to form the government.

After its massive defeat in the assembly polls in December last year, Congress through its campaign tried hard to win back support of the people through rallies and house-to-house contact programme.

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News Network
February 19,2020

London, Feb 19: Indian universities had a good performance year within the emerging economies of the world as a record 11 made it to the top 100 Times Higher Education's (THE) Emerging Economies University Rankings 2020.

Only China has more universities than India in the top 100 at 30 from a total of 47 countries and territories included in the analysis released in London on Tuesday evening.

A total of 56 Indian universities appear in the full ranking of a total of 533 universities across emerging economies of the world.

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc), ranked 16th, is India’s top-ranked institution followed by the Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs).

"There has long been a debate about the success of Indian universities in world rankings, and for too long they have been seen as underperforming on the global stage," notes Phil Baty, Chief Knowledge Officer for the THE.

"The Emerging Economies University Rankings 2020 suggests that real progress is being made by a number of institutions in a number of metrics across our robust methodology, and could mark an exciting turning point for Indian higher education, enabled in part by the Institutes of Eminence scheme," he said.

The Indian government’s Institutes of Eminence scheme was established in 2017 and one of its participating universities, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, has entered the top 100 for the first time, moving up a huge 51 places from joint 141st in 2019.

The other universities included in the Institutes of Eminence scheme that appear in the top 100 mark the biggest improvers in the ranking with IIT Kharagpur moving up 23 places to 32nd, IIT Delhi improving by 28 places to joint 38th and IIT Madras climbing 12 places to joint 63rd.

The Institutes of Eminence scheme provides participating universities with government funding and greater autonomy with the aim of moving them into the top 100 of the world university rankings, including Times Higher Education’s World University Ranking, over time.

The expectation is that this will be achieved through a number of changes including an increase in foreign students and staff, offering online courses and encouraging academic collaboration with other top universities around the world.

This year marks only the second time that 11 Indian institutions have held top 100 positions since the ranking began in 2014, when much fewer universities took part in the ranking globally.

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News Network
April 1,2020

New Delhi, Apr 1: The number of COVID-19 cases climbed to 1,637 in the country on Wednesday while the death toll rose to 38, according to the Union Health Ministry.

The number of active COVID-19 cases stands at 1,466, while 132 people were either cured or discharged and one had migrated to another country, the ministry stated.

As per the health ministry's updated data at 9 AM, three fresh deaths were reported since the last update on Tuesday. However, it could not be known from which parts of the country these three fatalities were reported.

Till Tuesday night, Maharashtra had reported the most deaths (9) in the country so far, followed by Gujarat (6), Karnataka (3) Madhya Pradesh (3), Punjab (3), Delhi (2), West Bengal (2) and Jammu and Kashmir (2). 

Kerala, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Himachal Pradesh have reported a death each.

The state-wise breakup of the cases was also not available immediately.

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Agencies
February 11,2020

New Delhi, Feb 11: With Election Commission">Election Commission's trends indicating a landslide victory for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), party chief Arvind Kejriwal expressed his gratitude towards the people of the national capital and said that this is the victory of the people who consider him as their son.

Making his first public appearance after the day's results, Kejriwal made a brief address to supporters in which, AAP chief thanked supporters, outlined his personal connection with citizens and party workers as well as credited his family for their continued support.

"I thank people of Delhi for reposing their faith in AAP for the third time. This is not my personal victory, this is the victory of Delhiites. This the victory of the people who consider me as their son and voted for us," Kejriwal said at party office here.

He also referred to the trends of the assembly polls, as the beginning of a new kind of politics.

"This is the beginning of a new kind of politics. This is a new sign. Only the party will get vote who will built mohalla clinics and good schools... This is the victory of mother India and India. Today is Tuesday, Hanuman-ji's day. Hanumanji ji blessed Delhi today, I thank him. We pray that Hanuman Ji keeps showing the right path to us so that we continue to serve people for the next five years," he said.

According to Election Commission", AAP won 5 seats while the party is leading on 58 seats in 70-member Delhi Assembly. 

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