India

New Delhi, Mar 21 (PTI) Several parliamentary constituencies are set to witness high-profile contest this election with the BJP announcing its first list of candidates and fielding Union minister Smriti Irani against Congress president Rahul Gandhi in Amethi.

Irani had lost to Gandhi in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls but was seen to have put up a spirited fight.

The Congress has earlier announced the candidature of Gandhi from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.

In 2014, Gandhi (4,08,651 votes) defeated Irani (3,00,748) by 1,07,903 votes.

Lucknow, Mar 21 (PTI) The BJP on Thursday denied tickets to its six sitting MPs from Uttar Pradesh, including Union minister Krishna Raj and National Commission for Scheduled Castes chairman Ram Shankar Katheria.

The BJP Thursday announced its first list of 184 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, fielding Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh from Lucknow.

New Delhi, Mar 22 (PTI) Fitch Ratings Friday cut India's economic growth forecast for the next financial year starting April 1, to 6.8 per cent from its previous estimate of 7 per cent, on weaker than expected momentum in the economy.

"While we have cut our growth forecasts for the next fiscal year (FY20, ending in March 2020) on weaker-than-expected momentum, we still see Indian GDP growth to hold up reasonably well, at 6.8 per cent, followed by 7.1 per cent in FY21," Fitch said in its Global Economic Outlook.

New Delhi, Mar 22 (PTI) The government Friday decided to boycott the Pakistan National Day event to be held at its high commission here as Kashmiri separatist leaders were also invited, an official said.

Indian government officials will stay away from the reception scheduled on the eve of Pakistan National Day, which is celebrated on March 23, the official said.

New Delhi, Mar 20 (PTI) The Delhi state consumer commission has observed that claimants are made to run from pillar to post to get medical reimbursement from insurance companies and it would be "extremely tenuous" to expect a layman to read each and every clause of an insurance document before signing it.

On most occasions, a person who intends to obtain insurance has no choice to say no to a clause in an insurance policy, the commission said.

New Delhi, Mar 19 (PTI) Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Tuesday dubbed the "108 purported economists" alleging government interference in statistical data as a "fake campaign", saying these compulsive contrarians have repeatedly signed memorandums of manufactured political issues against the present regime.

Beijing, Mar 20 (PTI) India on Wednesday signalled that it will boycott China's second Belt and Road Forum for a second time, saying no country can participate in an initiative that ignores its core concerns on sovereignty and territorial integrity.

India boycotted the first Belt and Road Forum (BRF) in 2017 after protesting to Beijing over the controversial China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which is being laid through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) overriding New Delhi's sovereignty concerns.

Thane, Mar 20 (PTI) A 24-year-old man has been sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment by a court in Thane district of Maharashtra for kidnapping and molesting a girl.

Special POCSO court Judge P P Jadhav, in his order issued last week, also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on Sandeep Vitthal Umap.

According to the prosecution, on January 13, 2017, the girl, then aged 17 years, left her home in Lokmanya Nagar here for her classes but did not return.

New Delhi, Mar 20 (PTI) In a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue of jobs, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday alleged that his policies destroyed one crore jobs last year and said "India's PM is a joke".

Gandhi's criticism of Modi came over a media report which claimed that the actual size of India's male workforce, or men who are working, has shrunk for the first time since 1993-94.

Silchar (Assam), Mar 20 (PTI) A BJP panchayat president in Assam has been shot dead and another party worker critically injured by unidentified gunmen in Cachar district ahead of the three-phase Lok Sabha polls in the state next month, police said on Wednesday.

Unidentifed gunmen opened fire on Sukhendu Das, the president of Borkhola Hatichora panchayat, in front of his residence in the village on Tuesday night in which he and another person was grievously injured.