Cop on Duty for PM Modi's Rally in Rohtak Found Murdered: Police

New Delhi, Feb 18: India emerged as the world's fifth-largest economy by overtaking the UK and France in 2019, says a report.

A US-based think tank World Population Review in its report said that India is developing into an open-market economy from its previous autarkic policies.

"India's economy is the fifth-largest in the world with a GDP of $2.94 trillion, overtaking the UK and France in 2019 to take the fifth spot," it said.

The size of the UK economy is $2.83 trillion and that of France is $2.71 trillion.

The report further said that in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms, India's GDP (PPP) is $10.51 trillion, exceeding that of Japan and Germany. Due to India's high population, India's GDP per capita is $2,170 (for comparison, the US is $62,794).

India's real GDP growth, however, it said is expected to weaken for the third straight year from 7.5 per cent to 5 per cent.

The report observed that India's economic liberalisation began in the early 1990s and included industrial deregulation, reduced control on foreign trade and investment, and privatisation of state-owned enterprises.

"These measures have helped India accelerate economic growth," it said.

India's service sector is the fast-growing sector in the world accounting for 60 per cent of the economy and 28 per of employment, the report said, adding that manufacturing and agriculture are two other significant sectors of the economy.

The US-based World Population Review is an independent organisation without any political affiliations.

Bareilly, May 31: The Bareilly couple who had made headlines in July last year when they eloped and apprehended a threat to their life from the girl's father who is a BJP MLA in UP, is back in the news.

Ajitesh, now son-in-law of BJP MLA Rajesh Mishra, and his friend were arrested on Saturday for allegedly thrashing a youth and snatching his cell phone after a minor road mishap in Prem Nagar area of Bareilly district.

Ajitesh is married to Sakshi, daughter of the MLA and the couple had eloped last year and got married.

According to police, the youth was on his way home after buying medicines for his friend's father when his bike hit Ajitesh's SUV. Ajitesh and his friend thrashed the youth and snatched his cell phone.

Police said Ajitesh and his friend Vaibhav Gangwar were booked under IPC section 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery) and other relevant sections.

Both have been sent to jail.

The complainant Deepanshu Maheshwari said, "When I overtook Ajitesh's car, he chased and waylaid me in the middle of the road. Thereafter, he and his friend thrashed me and snatched my phone. SHO Balbir Singh and his team rescued me."

The SHO told reporters, "We checked CCTV footage and spoke to witnesses only to find that Ajitesh and his friend had thrashed the youth. A case was registered under relevant sections and both were sent to jail after being produced before a magistrate on Saturday. The youth has been admitted to a hospital and his condition is stable."

The BJP MLA, incidentally, had snapped all his ties with his daughter Sakshi after she eloped and married Ajitesh.

Rome, Mar 21: Italy on Friday reported a record 627 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, taking its overall toll past 4,000 as the pandemic gathered pace despite government efforts to halt its spread.

The total number of deaths was 4,032, with the number of infections reaching 47,021.

Italy's previous one-day record death toll was 475 on Wednesday.

The nation of 60 million now accounts for 36.6 percent of the world's coronavirus deaths.

Italy has seen more than 1,500 deaths from COVID-19 in the past three days alone.

Its current daily death rate is higher than that officially reported by China at the peak of its outbreak around Wuhan's Hubei province.