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Foreign secretary Vikram Misri along with other senior officials from the Ministry of External Affairs briefed the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs on the Indo-Bangladesh relations. The panel is chaired by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. Officials are also learnt to have expressed concern that the Bangladesh government has «not only not acknowledged the systematic persecution of minorities but has sought to downplay the scale and nature of violence against Hindus since 2024», sources said. The officials also apparently referred to the statement of Mohammed Yunus, chief adviser to the interim government in Bangladesh, where he termed the atrocities against minorities in Bangladesh as media exaggeration. Officials also expressed concern that persecution against minorities has been characterised as «political killings» of Awami League members rather than communal violence. When asked about the Bangladesh Army, it was suggested that they are out of barracks to take control of the law and order in the neighbouring nation. Officials suggested that India is interested in advancing mutual interests and priorities with Bangladesh, sources said.

China as «sources of precursors and equipment for drug traffickers» and the primary source country for illicit fentanyl precursor chemicals and pill pressing equipment." The '2025 Annual Threat Assessment (ATA)', released on Tuesday, is the Intelligence Community's (IC) official, coordinated evaluation of an array of threats to US citizens, the homeland, and US interests in the world. Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids remain the most lethal drugs trafficked into the United States, causing more than 52,000 US deaths in a 12-month period ending in October 2024, it said. Fentanyl is a potent opioid drug that is blamed for widespread drug addiction in the US. The Trump administration has initiated a crackdown on illegal import of fentanyl and also linked it with tariffs adjustments in case of some countries. The report said some transnational criminal organisations (TCOs) are producing and trafficking large amounts of illicit drugs, imperiling American lives and livelihoods.

They told ET in an interview that macroeconomic uncertainty, potential tariff wars and inflation concerns may slow down global real estate recovery, but India's strong fundamentals continue to attract long-term investors. «We think 2025 will continue to be a little bit more choppy, just because of the potential tariff wars. But as that gets resolved, we expect strong growth heading into 2026,» Robinson said.

Justice Yashwant Varma, from whose residence burnt cash was allegedly found, met a team of lawyers on Wednesday, ahead of his appearance before an in-house inquiry committee. According to sources, the high court judge sought legal opinion from senior advocates Siddharth Aggarwal, Maneka Guruswamy, Arundhati Katju and advocate Tara Narula who visited his Lutyens' Delhi residence. The three-member in-house committee appointed by the Supreme Court is expected to meet Justice Varma this week. The committee visited Justice Varma's 30, Tughlak Crescent residence here on Tuesday as it commenced its inquiry into the allegations against him. Chief Justice Sheel Nagu of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana, Chief Justice G S Sandhawalia of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka High Court Justice Anu Sivaraman were inside Justice Varma's residence for around 30-35 minutes. The findings of the crucial inquiry will decide the fate of Justice Varma who is facing allegations that «four to five semi-burnt sacks of Indian currency notes» were found at his home following a fire on March 14.

Timothée Chalamet had enough of Kylie Jenner’s over-the-top affection? That’s the burning question swirling around Hollywood as insiders claim the Oscar-nominated actor is putting a hard stop to their high-profile public displays of affection. While their whirlwind romance had tongues wagging at major award shows, recent sightings suggest the heat has cooled—at least on Chalamet’s side. His cold shoulder at a recent tennis match has fueled speculation that the Dune star is growing increasingly wary of how his connection to the Kardashian empire is shaping his reputation.

Canada's Liberal Party revoked Indian-origin MP Chandra Arya's bid to run for the party leadership and his nomination in his own Ottawa Nepean constituency over his alleged ties to the Indian government, a media report said on Wednesday. Citing a source with top-secret clearance, the Globe and Mail daily reported that Arya, who visited India last August and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had not informed the government of that trip even though bilateral relations are in a deep freeze. The Liberals have never revealed why they barred the three-term Liberal MP from the party's recent leadership race or from running again in Nepean constituency, the paper said. Citing the source, the daily reported that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service had briefed the government about Arya's «alleged close ties to the government of India, including its High Commission in Ottawa». Liberal Party officials who have security clearances and had received a general CSIS briefing on foreign interference also had concerns about Arya, a Liberal source said. The decisions to remove Arya as a candidate for the leadership and Nepean nomination were solely made by the Liberal Party and were not on the advice of CSIS, sources said.

Piyush Goyal Wednesday said that the time taken to implement trademarks and copyrights needs to be compressed and any delays done away with. “Our trademark filings are the sixth largest in the world today. Our patent grants last year was about 100,000, maybe slightly less, because last year we were able to take off, shed off a lot of the backlog,” Goyal said at the National Intellectual Property (IPR) awards. He said as people are getting confidence that patents are being sorted out and granted in a record time, the enthusiasm to file patents in India is also improving and increasing. He said that the government is trying to encourage the IPR ecosystem to develop in India but trademark is still one area which takes “pretty long”.

According to reports, US President Donald Trump has said that automobile tariffs will be coming soon even as he indicated that some countries may get an exemption from reciprocal tariffs to be imposed on April 2. Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said that India certainly deserves an exemption or waiver from reciprocal tariffs as it is constructively engaged with America at different levels and also for a Bilateral Trade Agreement. «The Mission 500 to take bilateral trade from the current level of about USD 200 billion to USD 500 billion requires a greater push for seamless trade, which the exemption will further facilitate,» FIEO Director General Ajay Sahai said. Another exporter said that the exemption to India would remove tariff uncertainties and will help further increase exports to the US.

AI-powered creator discovery and content recommendation features, along with enhanced creator insights for businesses on Instagram’s creator marketplace, designed to support brands working with creators. With millions of creators available through Instagram's marketplace, the potential to connect with creators who align with a brand’s narrative has grown significantly. India stands out as the largest community of Instagram creators, also leading globally in the production of Reels.

Indian Railways' network with an endeavour to ensure smooth and uninterrupted services, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Vaishnaw responded to questions raised by parliamentarians on complaints filed by MPs, MLAs, ministers and public representatives against corruption in the award of contracts for base kitchens by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) and issues related to that. «On an average, 16 lakh meals are served per day on the Indian Railways' network. It is the endeavour of Indian Railways to ensure smooth and uninterrupted services of such a large volume of meals to passengers. Further, necessary measures are put in place from time to time to improve overall services to passengers,» Railway Minister said. He added that with the objective to bring improvement in the quality and hygiene of food in trains, the Railway Ministry issued instructions for the stipulation of supply of meals in trains only from designated base kitchens.

reservation for Muslims in public contracts valued up to ₹2 cr, and goods and services contracts up to ₹1 cr, a long-pending demand. Karnataka reserves 24% of civil works contracts for SC/STs, 4% for OBCs in Category-1, and 15% for Category-2A. BJP termed the Bill an 'unconstitutional misadventure'. For a country born from the cauldron of religion-based violence, such quotas were contentious even before the 42nd Amendment of 1976 added 'secular' to the Preamble.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi: Bengaluru-based Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts Pvt Ltd has become the first component manufacturer and the fourth overall company to receive incentives under the production-linked scheme for automobiles and auto components, as per the ministry of heavy industry on Wednesday. The ministry posted an infographic on its official handle on X about the PLI Auto scheme, and mentioned Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts (TKAP) alongside Tata Motors Ltd, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, and Ola Electric Technologies Ltd, all entities which have received PLIs under the ₹25,938-crore scheme to promote domestic auto manufacturing.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. India-US trade discussions that kicked off on Wednesday focused on reducing India's tariff levels on goods imported from the US to the same levels as what US levies on such imports from India, two people aware of the talks said. The effort aims to avert US reciprocal tariffs that US president Donald Trump has promised to roll out on 2 April.

NPCI) has addressed the UPI outage issue, calling it a “partial decline” caused by technical issues. Further, it confirmed that the issue has been resolved.

Ajay Devgn. The Bollywood superstar, known for his intense roles, set a new benchmark by becoming India's highest-paid OTT actor.

IT services company Happiest Minds Technologies announced strategic changes to strengthen products, software-as-a-service (SaaS) and a soon-to-be launched healthcare-as-a-service (HaaS) solutions. On Wednesday, shares of Happiest Minds Technologies touched a 52-week low for the second consecutive day to reach Rs 620.20 on the BSE, before ending slightly higher at Rs 624.10 per share. At a press conference around a month before its fourth quarter and full year earnings the Bengaluru-headquartered company said it has drawn up plans to expand its business to the private equity (PE) ecosystem, global capability centres (GCCs) and a strategy to focus on high potential large accounts.

Supreme Court on Wednesday directed all states and union territories to set up a grievance redressal mechanism for addressing complaints against misleading advertisements that «can cause great harm to society.” A Bench comprising Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan said that the 1954 Act against misleading advertisements of medicinal or other such products is more than 70 years old, it is yet to be properly implemented in its „letter and spirit“. It asked the state governments to create grievance redressal mechanisms in two months so that members of the public can lodge complaints about the objectionable advertisements prohibited under the Act, the court said, adding the grievance mechanism may provide for making complaints either on a toll free number or by email. “As soon as complaints are received, the same shall be immediately forwarded to the concerned officers to take action under the said provision. If the officer finds that there is a contravention, he shall lodge a complaint with the jurisdictional police station so that FIR is registered and criminal law is set in motion,” the court said. It asked the states to appoint in one month an adequate number of gazetted officers that have the power to search and seize any advertisements which have contravened provisions of the 1954 Act, which prohibits misleading advertisements.

There were 2.83 lakh Indians who can be tagged as UHNIs in 2023, with each having a net worth of over Rs 25 crore and their aggregate wealth was pegged at Rs 2.83 lakh crore. The same is expected to grow to 4.3 lakh individuals possessing a wealth of Rs 359 lakh crore by 2028, as per the survey. Kotak Mahindra Bank's president Gautami Gavankar, however, said the decision to migrate should not be seen as a flight of capital out of the country, pointing out that the caps on such activities ensure that the money does not flow out even if a person changes residency.

“This initiative reflects the government’s commitment to leveraging HPV vaccination to eliminate cervical cancer, the second most common cancer among women after breast cancer,” Rao said at an event, Cervical Cancer Elimination Movement: From Awareness to Action, held in Bengaluru. The programme is being carried out in collaboration with Artist for Her, HDR Healthcare Foundation, HealthCare Sector Skill Council, ECHO India, Association of Healthcare Providers and the Karnataka State Obstetrics and Gynaecology Association. Rao said the state government is considering a proposal submitted by Artist for Her and others to expand the vaccination drive to Chikkaballapur district. “Those screened and diagnosed will receive a 90% treatment success rate.

Kunal Kamra has lashed out at T-Series after the music label reportedly blocked visibility and monetisation of his stand-up special, Naya Bharat: A Comedy Special, on YouTube. Kamra took to X (formerly Twitter) to criticise the company, accusing it of misusing copyright laws. «Hello @TSeries, stop being a stooge. Parody and satire come under fair use legally. I haven’t used the lyrics or the original instrumental of the song. If you take this video down, every cover song and dance video can be taken down. Creators, please take a note of it,» he wrote. He further added, «Having said that, every monopoly in India is nothing short of the Mafia, so please watch/download this special before it’s taken down.»

This marks legendary player Messi's return to subcontinent after 14 years. Notably, in November last year, Kerala Sports Minister V Abdurahiman had announced the news of Argentina visiting the southern state and playing two friendly matches in Kochi. The visit comes as part of a newly announced partnership between the Argentine Football Association (AFA) and HSBC, covering India and Singapore. The one-year agreement, signed ahead of Argentina’s 2026 World Cup qualification final matches, makes HSBC the official banking partner of the Argentina National Team in both countries. As part of the deal, HSBC will hold branding and activation rights while offering its customers exclusive benefits such as match tickets, fan experiences, and meet-and-greet opportunities with Argentine football stars.