Delhi

New Delhi/Jammu, Jun 29 (PTI) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) Tuesday took over the charge of investigation into the recent drone attack on the Indian Force station located at the Jammu airport, an official said.

The decision to hand over the probe into the first-of-its-kind terror attack at the Indian Air Force station in the early hours of Sunday was taken by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

In pursuance of the Home Ministry order, the NIA said it has re-registered the case of Police Station Satwari dated June 27.

New Delhi, Jun 28 (PTI) Vaccine major Serum Institute of India chief executive officer Adar Poonawalla on Monday said he has taken up the issues faced by Indians who have taken the Covishield jab travelling to the European Union at highest levels and hoped to resolve them soon.

Covishield is the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured in India by the Pune-based vaccine maker.

New Delhi, Jun 29 (PTI) A day after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a package to support the pandemic-hit economy, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Tuesday said the answer to this "crisis" is to spur demand by putting money in the hands of the people, especially the poor and the lower middle classes.

New Delhi, Jun 28 (PTI) The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet gave a one-year extension to Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha on Monday.

Sinha is a former Uttar Pradesh-cadre IAS officer.

As the seniormost deputy election commissioner, he is heading various committees in the Election Commission dealing with different subjects.

Sinha has been given an extension till June 30, 2022, a notification said.

New Delhi, Jun 29 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed states and union territories to implement the 'one nation, one ration card scheme' till July 31, while asking the Centre to provide dry ration for free distribution among migrant workers till the COVID-19 situation continues.

New Delhi, June 28 (PTI) India has overtaken the US in the total number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered so far, the Union Health Ministry said on Monday.

While India launched the COVID-19 vaccination drive on January 16, and has administered over 32.36 crore doses till date, the US which started its inoculation drive on December 14, 2020 has given over 32.33 crore doses.

"India achieves another milestone in COVID-19 vaccination and overtakes USA in total number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered," the ministry said.

New Delhi, Jun 27 (PTI) Twitter's interim resident grievance officer for India has stepped down, leaving the micro-blogging site without a grievance official as mandated by the new IT rules to address complaints from Indian subscribers, according to a source.

The source said that Dharmendra Chatur, who was recently appointed as interim resident grievance officer for India by Twitter, has quit from the post.

New Delhi, Jun 27 (PTI) After Air India, Britain's Cairn Energy PLC plans to target assets of state-owned firms and banks in countries from the US to Singapore as it looks to ramp up efforts to recover the amount due from the Indian government after winning an arbitration against levy of retrospective taxes.

A lawyer representing the company said Cairn will bring lawsuits in several countries to make state-owned firms liable to pay the USD 1.2 billion plus interest and penalties that are due from the Indian government.

New Delhi, Jun 25 (PTI) After Prime Minister Narendra Modi recalled the "dark days" of Emergency and called for strengthening the country's democratic spirit, the Congress hit back alleging India is under "Modi-gency" for seven years where institutions have been undermined and democracy trampled.

Congress general secretary and chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala also said the time has come when people rise in unison to assess the "annihilation of the very foundation of democracy in India by an arbitrary Modi regime".

New Delhi, Jun 26 (PTI) Senior BJP leaders, including Union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh and party president J P Nadda, held a meeting here on Saturday.

The meeting, held at the party headquarters, was attended by several other senior leaders, including those handling organisational charges, sources said.

The ruling party leaders have been holding deliberations for some time over a number of issues, ranging from the COVID-19 vaccination exercise to various governance and political matters.