India

New Delhi, Jun 5 (PTI) Adesh Kumar Gupta took charge as the Delhi BJP president at the party office here on Friday in the presence of senior leaders, including Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, and his predecessor Manoj Tiwari.

The BJP had on Tuesday appointed Gupta, a sitting councillor and former mayor of North Delhi, as its Delhi unit chief.

New Delhi, Jun 5 (PTI) The Congress on Friday dubbed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "vocal for local" call and the economic stimulus package to make the country self-reliant as yet another jumla to divert the attention of the people from "real issues".

Addressing a virtual press conference, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal asked how can India become self-reliant till it creates innovation and intellectual property in its universities.

"This is an act of self deception. This is another 'jumla' (rhetoric) that you sell to the people of the country," he said.

New Delhi, Jun 5 (PTI) Atlas Cycles - a name that became a synonym for bicycles in India - has shut its last manufacturing unit in Sahibabad, just outside the national capital, citing lack of funds to run the factory.

Its CEO N P Singh Rana, however, insists the shutdown is only temporary, and the company will resume operations once it is able to raise around Rs 50 crore by selling surplus land.

New Delhi, June 5 (PTI) India saw a record single-day jump of 9,851 coronavirus cases and 273 deaths on Friday, pushing the nationwide infection tally to 2,26,770 and the death toll to 6,348, according to the Union health ministry.?

India stood seventh among the nations worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic after the US, Brazil, Russia, the UK, Spain and Italy

The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 1,10,960 while 1,09,461 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, it said

New Delhi, Jun 4 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Thursday extended till June 12 its earlier order of May 15 asking the government not to take any coercive action against companies and employers for violation of Centre's March 29 circular for payment of full wages to employees for the lockdown period.

Muzaffarnagar (UP), June 4 (PTI) The brother of a BJP leader killed himself by shooting from his licensed pistol in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh, police said on Thursday.

The police said Ajay Kumar Agarwal, a transport financier, had been suffering from depression and shot himself dead with his pistol on Wednesday evening at his house in the North Civil Lines area.

Agarwal is the elder bother of Uttar Pradesh BJP leader Sanjay Agarwal.

New Delhi, Jun 3 (PTI) Student bodies across the country on Wednesday held virtual as well as symbolic protest demanding the release of activists arrested for protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, even as a scheduled demonstration at the Delhi University had to be cancelled after police denied permission.

Apart from the virtual protest, some students also held symbolic protests inside JNU and Jamia Millia Islamia campuses with some students holding placards.

Noida (UP), Jun 3 (PTI) A medium-intensity earthquake of magnitude 3.0 occurred near Noida in the national capital region (NCR) on Wednesday night, a central government agency said.

The epicentre of the quake was 19 km southeast of Noida in Gautam Buddh Nagar district of western Uttar Pradesh adjoining Delhi, the National Center for Seismology said.

The earthquake occurred at 10.42 pm at a depth of 4 km, it added.

There were no immediate reports of any loss of life or property.

New Delhi, Jun 3 (PTI) India's Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, following which the defence ministry carried out a massive contact-tracing exercise, official sources said.

Kumar's condition is stable and he is currently under home-quarantine, they said.

At least 35 officials working at the ministry's headquarters in South Block in the Raisina Hills have been sent on home quarantine after reports of Kumar testing positive for the infection emerged on Wednesday morning.

New Delhi, Jun 4 (PTI) Press Council of India (PCI) member B R Gupta has resigned from his post, saying he was unable to work individually or collectively for the media, which is in a "deep crisis".

"I have tendered my resignation as a Press Council of India member," Gupta told PTI.

He said the PCI had the responsibility to encourage media and media professionals constantly.