Delhi

Washington, Feb 13 (PTI) India, which has one per cent of the world's vehicles, accounts for 10 per cent of all road crash victims, the latest World Bank report on road safety said on Saturday.

Hartwig Schafer, World Bank's Vice President for South Asia, said the Indian government in recent years has taken significant steps to address the issues related to road safety.

New Delhi, Feb 14 (PTI) As part of its eighth and ninth phase of reopening, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has allowed final-year PhD students to return to the campus.

While the "9B students" (day-scholars), who have to submit their theses on or before June 30, are allowed to enter the campus from Monday, PhD scholars residing in the hostels will be allowed to return from February 22, a notification dated February 12 said.

The university has also allowed the reopening of the library canteen with immediate effect.

New Delhi, Feb 12 (PTI) Retail inflation eased to 4.06 per cent in January, mainly on account of a decline in vegetable prices, as per government data released on Friday.

The inflation based on Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 4.59 per cent in December 2020.

Mohali, Feb 12 (PTI) The country has turned bankrupt under the Modi government and its image has been dented on social, political and international fronts, Congress MP Manish Tewari alleged here on Friday.

Addressing a rally in support of party candidates for Mohali municipal body elections slated for February 14, he said there is a debt of Rs 18 lakh crore now on the central government.

"The country's economy that grew at 8 percent every year during Manmohan Singh as PM has now fallen to minus 7.7 percent," he said.

New Delhi, Feb 12 (PTI) Hitting out at the Congress and Left over its criticism of privatisation, BJP leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Friday said the government will not disinvest PSEs if these political parties which are "close to China" recover about Rs 18 lakh crore losses which India incurred due to COVID-19.

New Delhi, Feb 12 (PTI) The Lok Sabha on Friday passed a bill to amend the arbitration law, with Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad saying foreign arbitrators are welcome in India.

The bill seeks to ensure that all stakeholders get an opportunity to seek unconditional stay on enforcement of arbitral awards where the agreement or contract is "induced by fraud or corruption".

Prasad said the bill seeks to check fly-by-night operators who take advantage of the law to get favourable award by fraud.

New Delhi, Feb 12 (PTI) A high intensity earthquake hit Tajikistan on Friday night, tremors of which were felt in Delhi-NCR and several other parts of north India.

The seismology department at first erroneously gave the epicentre as Amritsar and put the quake's depth at 19 km. It later sent a revised statement to confirm the quake was in Tajikistan. It ascribed the error to a software mistake.

According to the National Centre for Seismology (NCS), the magnitude of the quake was 6.3.

New Delhi, Feb 13 (PTI) The Bahujan Samaj Party on Saturday supported the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha and lashed out at the Congress for its opposition to the government's measures that it said are in "support" of the poor, Dalits and other deprived communities in the union territory.

New Delhi Feb 13 (PTI) A bill to merge the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) cadre of all-India services officers with the Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre was passed by Lok Sabha on Saturday by a voice vote.

The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2021 has already been passed by Rajya Sabha.

The statutory resolution, opposing the ordinance which the bill has replaced, was rejected by the House. An amendment too was defeated by a voice vote.

New Delhi, Feb 13 (PTI) Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said the Union Budget 2021-122 has set the pace for India to become Aatmanirbhar.

Replying to debate on the Budget in Lok Sabha, the minister also said the challenges of pandemic did not deter government from undertaking reforms for maintaining long term goals of the country.

The reforms undertaken will lay the path for India to become one of those fastest-growing economies in the world, she said, adding the Budget has set the pace for India to become Aatmanirbhar or self-reliant.