Modi’s visit to Tamil Nadu raises expectation of alliance

Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Tirupur today, analysts expect a momentum in alliance formation in the run-up to the Lok Sabha poll. That Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami will share the stage with Mr. Modi has contributed to the rumour mills.

News analysis: Four reasons why the attacks on The Hindu’s Rafale story are shallow and self-implicating

The Hindu’s exclusive story on Friday, based on documents of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) established that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) was directly negotiating with French officials on the controversial Rafale fighter plane deal. The government, the BJP and a section of the media have sought to pick holes in the story.

Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar to be questioned again

Sleuths of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) questioned Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar for more than eight hours in connection with the Saradha chit fund scam at the agency’s office in Shillong on Tuesday. A CBI office said Mr. Kumar would be questioned again on Sunday along with Kunal Ghosh, a journalist-turned-politician and Trinamool Congress MP in the Rajya Sabha

Rafale row a non-issue for the voter, says Goyal

The controversies surrounding the Rafale deal is a non-issue for the Indian voter who is likely to retain full faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership in the upcoming Lok Sabha election, Finance, Corporate Affairs, Coal and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal said in the wake of the fresh revelations by The Hindu on “parallel negotiations” by the PMO in the €7.87 billion deal.

Human-elephant conflict kills 1,713 people, 373 pachyderms in 3 years

In the three years between 2015-2018, human-elephant conflict caused 1,713 human and 373 elephant deaths by unnatural causes, including electrocution and poaching. Experts say various factors, including habitat disturbance and urbanisation, could be the cause of the alarming rise in unnatural human and animal casualties.

As new cases rise, leprosy in spotlight

The rise in the number of recorded leprosy cases from 86,147 (in 2013-14) to 90,709 (2017-18), reported a decade and a half after India was declared leprosy-free in 2005, has turned the spotlight on the hotspots for the disease.

Business is thriving for Kashmir’s first woman bat manufacturer

A graduate of Srinagar’s Vishwa Bharati College of Education, Rifat Masoodi’s trajectory from ordinary housewife and mother of two until 2000 to expert bat-maker by 2019 tells a story of motivation and perseverance.