India

Chennai, Nov 29 (PTI) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Monday urged the Centre to remove 11 per cent import duty levied on cotton, rework terms for e-auction of cotton to help Micro Small and Medium Enterprises and extend 5 per cent interest subvention to spinning mills for procurement.

New Delhi, Nov 29 (PTI) The government has no proposal to recognise Bitcoin as a currency in the country, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told the Lok Sabha on Monday.

She also informed the House that the government does not collect data on Bitcoin transactions.

Replying to a question on whether the government has any proposal to recognise Bitcoin as a currency in the country, the finance minister said, "No, sir".

New Delhi, Nov 29 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi may visit the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in January that could be his first trip abroad in 2022, people familiar with the development said on Monday.

Both sides are having talks to firm up the visit which is likely to be focussed largely around the ongoing Dubai Expo.

The India pavilion at the Expo has drawn a huge crowd.

The people cited above said the dates for the proposed visit are yet to be finalised.

Lucknow, Nov 29 (PTI) Attacking the rival political parties in Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday said that in 70 years, the state had only two zoological gardens, while in the last five years, a zoological garden has been set up in Gorakhpur.

Lauding the efforts of the forest department, he said 100 crore saplings were planted in the last five years in Uttar Pradesh.

New Delhi, Nov 29 (PTI) The suspension of 12 MPs from Rajya Sabha on Monday for the entire Winter Session of Parliament for their "unruly" conduct in the previous session in August is the biggest such action in the history of the Upper House.

Mandi (HP), Nov 30 (PTI) Himachal Pradesh government has dismissed a senior civil judge from the state judicial services on the recommendations of the high court after corruption charges levelled against him were found to be true, a notification issued by the state home department stated.

Gaurav Sharma was posted as the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) of Sundernagar in Mandi district when he was caught red-handed while taking Rs 40,000 as bribe from a local resident Ashwani Saini four years ago.

Kanpur: An undergraduate student of the Indian Institute of Technology, died after slipping and falling into the current of Ganga at Ganga Barrage here.

She was striving to take a selfie as a way to the present day trend.

The deceased, Sejal Jain, was a second year BS student in the Department of Earth Sciences at the IIT- Kanpur.

Institute spokesperson, Girish Pant said, in a statement, "During the initial investigation, it was learnt that Sejal Jain had gone to the Ganga Barrage along with seven other students.

Mumbai, Nov 28 (PTI) Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait on Sunday demanded that the Centre bring a law to guarantee Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops to protect the interest of farmers in the country.

In Mumbai to participate in the 'kisan mahapanchayat' (farmers' mega conclave) at the Azad Maidan under the Samyukta Shetkari Kamgar Morcha (SSKM) banner, Tikait said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a supporter of the MSP when he was the chief minister of Gujarat and wanted a nationwide law to ensure farmers' interests were guaranteed.

Agartala, Nov 28 (PTI) The ruling BJP on Sunday swept the civic body elections in Tripura, having won all the seats of the 51-member Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC) and clinching several other urban local bodies.

The opposition TMC and CPI(M) failed to open their account in the AMC.

The saffron party secured all the wards in the 15-member Khowai Municipal Council, 17-seat Belonia Municipal Council, 15-member Kumarghat Municipal Council and nine-member Sabroom Nagar Panchayat, state election commission officials said.

Pune, Nov 28 (PTI) Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Sunday accused the BJP of dividing the people of the country on religious lines like the British rulers.

He also slammed the BJP-led central government for "ignoring" Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's warnings on the coronavirus pandemic and said that had it acted on his suggestions, the lives of many people could have been saved.