Delhi

New Delhi, Mar 20 (PTI) Over 500 child marriages were reported in the country in 2018, with the maximum being from Assam, Union Women and Child Development minister Smriti Irani informed the Lok Sabha on Friday.

In a written reply to a question on whether the incidents of child marriages have increased over the years, the minister said the percentage of women (in the age group of 20-24 years), who were married before the age of 18, has reduced from 47.4 per cent in 2005-06 as per National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-3 to 26.8 per cent in 2015-16 as per the NFHS-4.

New Delhi, Mar 20 (PTI) The women protesters in Shaheen Bagh will continue with their protest on Sunday, the day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged people to remain inside their houses under a self-imposed curfew.

The women have been blocking a side of a road connecting southeast Delhi to Noida since mid-December to protest against the amended citizenship law.

New Delhi, Mar 20 (PTI) Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Friday that the global economic situation would affect all nations, but ruled out any impact on India's defence procurement.

Speaking at the launch of the draft Defence Procurement Procedure, 2020, Singh said the global economy could improve in the next two-five months.

New Delhi, Mar 20 (PTI) The Delhi High Court on Friday stayed a trial court order directing lodging of FIR against Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Alok Kumar for allegedly giving hate speech during a rally last year.

Justice Yogesh Khanna put on hold till May 12 the trial court order of February 18.

New Delhi, Mar 20 (PTI) The Jawaharlal Nehru University has asked it's students to vacate hostels amid the coronavirus pandemic and said mess facilities would only be available for the next 48 hours.

The directive came after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had on Thursday said Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal had asked all government departments, autonomous bodies and public sector units to segregate activities and suspend non-essential services.

New Delhi, Mar 19 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday made a fervent appeal to all Indians to stay indoors as much as possible to avoid getting infected by coronavirus, saying the world has never seen a danger as grave as this.

He called for 'Janta curfew' on March 22 from 7 am-9 pm, saying no citizen, barring those in essential services, should get out of house.

New Delhi, Mar 20 (PTI) The four men convicted of the gang rape and murder of a Delhi woman on December 16, 2012 were hanged in the darkness of pre-dawn on Friday, ending a horrific chapter in India's long history of sexual assault that had seared the nation's soul.

Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) were executed at 5.30 am for the savage assault in an empty moving bus on the 23-year-old physiotherapy intern who came to be known the world over as Nirbhaya, the fearless one.

New Delhi, Mar 19 (PTI) Seven years after the execution of Afzal Guru, Tihar Jail on Thursday prepared the ground to hang the four men convicted in the Nirbhaya gangrape-murder case after several dummy runs and officials brushing up on details specified in the jail manual.

Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) are scheduled to be hanged on Friday at 5.30 am for the savage gangrape and murder of a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern on the night of December 16, 2012.

New Delhi, May 19 (PTI) Mukesh Singh, one of the four death-row convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case, Thursday moved the Supreme Court, challenging a Delhi High Court order which rejected his claim that he was not in the national capital when the crime was committed on December 16, 2012.

The high court on Wednesday said there were no grounds to interfere in the detailed and reasoned order of the trial court. On Tuesday, the trial court dismissed Mukesh Singh's plea and asked the Bar Council of India to appropriately sensitise his counsel.

Mumbai, Mar 19 (PTI) The Indian rupee weakened further and fell below 75 level against the US dollar on Thursday amid sharp rise in coronavirus cases in the country and weak domestic equities.

Forex traders said market participants are concerned that rise in coronavirus cases, which has touched 169 in the country according to the Health Ministry, could weigh on the economy.