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Second major round of Lok Sabha polls today

April 24, 2014

New Delhi, April 24: Over 18 crore voters in 117 parliamentary constituencies spread across 11 states and 1 Union Territory are eligible to exercise their franchise in the sixth phase of polling scheduled on Thursday.

Lok_SabhaThe sixth phase happens to be the second most major round of polling after the fifth phase held last week in which 121 constituencies were involved.

All 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu, the lone seat in Puducherry, 19 seats in Maharashtra, 10 in Madhya Pradesh, 5 in Rajasthan, 7 each in Bihar and Chhattisgarh, 6 each in Assam and West Bengal, 4 in Jharkhand and 12 seats in Uttar Pradesh are involved in Thursday’s polling.

With the sixth phase, the polling process will be completed in Assam, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.

The stakes are high not only for the BJP and Congress but also for key regional parties like the AIADMK, DMK, Trinamool Congress, Nationalist Congress Party and the Shiv Sena.

Thursday’s polling will seal the fate of several top contenders, including BJP senior leader Sushma Swaraj (Vidisha), Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav (Mainpuri), actor-turned-politician Hema Malini (Mathura), former Union minister Dayanidhi Maran (Central Chennai), former telecom minister A Raja (Nilgiris), Finance Minister P Chidambaram's son Karti (Sivaganga), MDMK leader Vaiko (Virudunagar), Union minister Milind Deora (Mumbai-South), AAP candidates Medha Patkar (Mumbai North East) and Meera Sanyal (Mumbai-South), former cricketer Mohd Azharuddin (Tonk-Sawai Madhopur) and former Jharkhand chief minister Shibu Soren (Dumka).

In Bihar, BJP's Shahnawaz Hussain, party's lone Muslim face in the outgoing Lok Sabha (Bhagalpur), is in the fray.

Among the prominent candidates in Chhattisgarh is Karuna Shukla, niece of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Shukla, who is the Congress candidate from Bilaspur, had left the BJP a couple of months ago. President Pranab Mukherjee's son Abhijeet is contesting on a Congress ticket from Jangipur, West Bengal.

Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir also goes to polls on Thursday where the fate of 12 candidates, including National Conference leader Mehboob Beg and opposition People’s Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti would be decided.

With the sixth phase, the polling in 349 of the 543 seats would be completed. The polling in remaining seats will be held on April 30, May 7 and May 12.

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News Network
February 4,2020

New Delhi, Feb 4: The investigation into the incident of violence at Jamia Millia Islamia during an anti-citizenship law protest was at a crucial stage, the Centre told the Delhi High Court on Tuesday.

The submission before a bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar was made by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta while seeking more time to file a report regarding the probe.

Taking note of the submission, the bench granted the Centre time till April 29 to file a reply.

During the hearing, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for some students of Jamia, said 93 students and teachers filed complaints about alleged attacks on them by police but no FIR has been filed against the agency till date.

The other lawyers for the petitioners alleged that the government has not complied with the court order to file a response within four weeks of the last date of hearing on December 19.

The bench, however, declined to pass any interim order and granted time till April 29 to the government to file a reply.

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Agencies
July 30,2020

New Delhi, Jul 30: India's gold demand in 2020 is expected to fall to the lowest level in 26 years with domestic bullion prices hitting a record high and as falling disposable incomes could curtail retail purchases, the World Gold Council (WGC) said on Thursday.

Lower demand by the world's second-biggest bullion consumer could limit a rally in global prices, which hit a record high earlier this month, although it could also reduce India's trade deficit and support the ailing rupee.

"Fast rising gold prices could act as headwinds," said Somasundaram PR, the managing director of WGC's Indian operations.

Local gold futures have jumped 35% so far this year after rising a quarter in 2019.

India's gold consumption in the first half of 2020 plunged 56% on-year to 165.6 tonnes. Meanwhile, the coronavirus-triggered lockdown also slashed demand by 70% in the June quarter to 63.7 tonnes, the lowest in more than a decade, the WGC said in a report published on Thursday.

Millions of Indians have lost their jobs or taken a pay cut after the country imposed a lockdown on its 1.3 billion people to curb the spread of the virus that has infected more than 1.5 million Indians.

Consumption is generally high during the June quarter due to weddings and key festivals such as Akshaya Tritiya, but lockdown restrictions kept shoppers indoors this year.

The weak demand in the first half could drag down India's gold consumption in 2020 to the lowest since 1994, when demand stood at 415 tonnes, Somasundaram said, adding that it is still difficult to provide an estimate for full-year demand as the coronavirus crisis is still unfolding.

"Indian demand has previously jumped as much as 300 tonnes in a quarter. Latent demand could come out in the second half," Somasundaram said.

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News Network
May 30,2020

New Delhi, May 30: An Air India flight from Delhi to Moscow on Saturday had to return midway after the airline's ground team found out that one of the pilots had tested positive for novel coronavirus, officials said.

"When the A320 plane, which did not have any passengers as it was heading to Moscow to bring back stranded Indians under Vande Bharat Mission, had reached Uzbekistan's airspace, our team on ground realised that one of the pilots had tested COVID-positive," senior Air India officials said.

"The flight was immediately asked to return. It came back to Delhi at around 12.30 pm on Saturday," the officials said. The crew has been quarantined. Another plane would be sent to Moscow to bring back the stranded Indians, according to the officials.

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