India has slammed Pakistan over the Pulwama terror attack carried out by Jaish-e-Mohammed and asked Islamabad to stop supporting terrorists and dismantle terror infrastructure operating from its soil.

The Ministry of External Affairs, MEA in a release also strongly reiterated its appeal to all members of the international community to support the proposal to list terrorists, including Jaish-e-Mohammed Chief Masood Azhar, as a designated terrorist under the 1267 Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council.

New Delhi said Masood Azhar has been given full freedom by the Pakistan government to operate and expand his terror infrastructure in territories under the control of Islamabad and to carry out attacks in India and elsewhere with impunity. It again appealed to ban terror groups operating from territories controlled by Pakistan.

Condemning the attack as cowardly, heinous and despicable, the MEA said, the government of India is firmly and resolutely committed to taking all necessary measures to safeguard national security. It said India is equally resolved to fight against the menace of terrorism.

The Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) on Tuesday told the Bombay High Court that it will consider an application of the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) seeking permission to remove mangroves in Thane, Navi Mumbai and Palghar districts to make way for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project.

The NHSRCL had approached the court after their proposal was rejected by MCZMA on December 22, 2018.

On Tuesday, MCZMA counsel Sharmila Deshmukh informed the court that they will consider the proposal and take a decision within four weeks.

Mild tremors were felt in Andaman islands in the early hours of Wednesday morning after an earthquake of 4.5 magnitude was reported in North North West of Bamboo Flat, according to United States Geological Survey.

On Tuesday, tremors were felt in Chennai, the capital city of Tamil Nadu, after a magnitude of 4.9 earthquake hit Bay of Bengal.

A major fire broke out at the tent city of Statue of Unity early Wednesday morning. The fire was reported at 2:30 am at a godown in tent city II.

Three fire tenders were immediately rushed to the spot to control the blaze from spreading to residential tents.

No casualties were reported from the spot. However, the officials are estimating the value of property loss that has been reported.

The godown is located to cluster G of the tent city with no tents nearby. At the time of the incident, three staff members were asleep inside the godown but managed to escape unhurt and also raised an alarm and informed the officials about the fire.

Around 50 tourists were also lodged at the tent city at the time of the incident

Andhra Pradesh government today became the first to include all tenant farmers in an investment support scheme announced today which promises a fixed sum of Rs 10,000 per annum to all farmers in the state, irrespective of the size of their land holding.

As many as 22 Myanmar nationals, including Rohingya, have been deported since August 2017, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has informed the Rajya Sabha.

The Home Ministry in August 2017 had come out with an advisory to identify and deport illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar.

According to government estimates, there are nearly 40,000 Rohingya Muslims across India with the highest number in Jammu and Kashmir. They were forced to leave their homes after a crackdown by the army in their home state of Rakhine in Myanmar.

Parliament has passed the Personal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2019 with Rajya Sabha approving it today without discussion. The Lok Sabha had passed the bill in the last session.

The Bill seeks to uphold the rights of people with leprosy as the disease is curable. It was to amend the Divorce Act 1869, the Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act 1939, the Special Marriage Act 1954, the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 and the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956 to end the discrimination against leprosy persons in these central laws.

The Rajya Sabha also passed the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Third Amendment) Bill 2019 without discussion.The National Institutes of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management Bill, 2019 was introduced in the House on the last day today.

The Indian Navy on Tuesday invited expressions of interest for strategic alliances between Indian and foreign companies to manufacture naval utility helicopters (NUH) in India, the defence ministry said. Separately, the Indian Army signed a contract with US’ Sig Sauer for 72,400 assault rifles.

The ministry said that 95 of the 111 helicopters should be manufactured in India by the Indian strategic partner. “The project is likely to provide a major boost to the government of India’s ‘Make in India’ initiative and give a fillip to manufacturing capability for helicopters in India," it added.

Lockheed Martin, Airbus Helicopters and Bell Helicopters are among those expected to participate in the bidding, the ministry said. Indian companies likely to participate in the bidding are Tata Advanced Systems, Mahindra Defence, Adani Defence, L&T, Bharat Forge and Reliance Infrastructure.

Foreign original equipment manufacturers “have been mandated to set up dedicated manufacturing lines, including design, integration and manufacturing processes for NUH in India and make the Indian manufacturing line a global exclusive facility for the NUH platform being offered," the ministry said.

The Bihar government Tuesday attached top priority to the education sector in its Budget for 2019-20 with a highest-ever allocation of Rs 34,798.69 crore with no new taxes for its citizens. Besides, the Budget also laid special emphasis on sectors like roads, health and energy.

Presenting the budget in the Legislative Assembly, Deputy Chief Minister-cum-Finance Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said the Budget of Rs 2,00,501.01 crore is Rs 23,510.74 crore more than the current 2018-19 year’s Budget of Rs 1,76,990.27 crore.

The size of the state’s budget has increased nine-fold to touch Rs 2,00,501 crore in 2019-20, from Rs 23,885 crore in 2004-05, Modi said while presenting his 10th budget in the Assembly. Except for the financial year 2012-13, the state has been presenting a revenue surplus budget consistently since 2008-09, he said adding that the state had a revenue surplus of Rs 14,823 crore in 2017-18 and Rs 21,311 crore in 2018-19 while it is expected to be Rs 21,516 crore in 2019-20.

Modi said the state government cannot impose any new taxes under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. “The increase in size of budget indicates that the state is witnessing high growth which is evident from the CRISIL report based on government data which said that Bihar registered the highest growth rate of 11.3 per cent among major states in the country in 2017-18. We expect that we will be able to maintain the high growth momentum in future too, Modi told reporters after the budget.

Reserve Bank has imposed monetary penalty of two million rupees each on HDFC Bank, IDBI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank for non-compliance of various Know Your Customer/ Anti-Money Laundering norms. 

In a statement issued from Mumbai yesterday, RBI informed that it has imposed monetary penalty of 1.5 Crore rupees each on Allahabad Bank, Bank of Maharashtra and Indian Overseas Bank for non-compliance of norms related to monitoring end use of funds, exchange of information, classification and reporting of frauds and on restructuring of accounts. 

A penalty of 1 crore rupees was imposed on Andhra Bank for the same reason. 

The central bank clarified that the action is purely based on deficiencies in regulatory compliance and is not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction by the banks with their customers.