New Delhi: The Law Commission has said over Rs 4,500 crore will be needed to buy new EVMs and paper trail machines for "imminent" simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.

In its draft report on simultaneous polls issued last week, the law panel quoted the Election Commission as saying that around 10,60,000 polling stations will be set up for the 2019 general elections.

India and Pakistan have agreed to undertake the Indus Waters Treaty mandated tours by their Commissioners in the Indus basin on both sides to resolve issues on the various hydroelectric projects, including the Pakal Dul and Lower Kalnai in Jammu and Kashmir.
After the conclusion of the two-day high-level bilateral talks on the Indus Waters Treaty in Lahore, the first official engagement between India and Pakistan since Imran Khan became Prime Minister on August 18, the External Affairs Ministry said deliberations were held on further strengthening the role of the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) for matters under the 1960 Treaty.

As per the provisions of the treaty, technical discussions were held on implementation of various hydroelectric projects under the provisions of Indus Waters Treaty including Pakal Dul (1000 MW) and Lower Kalnai(48 MW) in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Both the countries agreed to undertake the Treaty mandated tours of both the Indus Commissioners in the Indus basin on both sides, the ministry said in a statement in New Delhi.

It was agreed to hold the next meeting of the PIC in India on mutually convenient dates.

Achievements over the past two weeks, in the world's second biggest multi-sport event, matched India's aspirations and set the country on a road that appears far more promising than the path it has been on for decades. The best-ever medal haul at the 2018 Asian Games is a leap forward for Indian sport after the Commonwealth Games medal spurt. In pursuit of excellence in the sporting arena and creating a niche for itself, India never had it so good in the continental showpiece that is considered next only to the Olympic Games. Even as the medallists come back with a feeling of accomplishment from Jakarta and Palembang, the surge in podium finishes could trigger new passion for Olympic sports in a country so obsessed with cricket.

From teenager Saurabh Chaudhary to 60-year-old Pranab Bardhan, an assortment of athletes combined to produce a top show even as the country endured shocking results in kabaddi and hockey. With 15 gold, 24 silver and 30 bronze, India's medal tally stood at 69, a step up from Incheon four years ago when they won 65.

A court in Myanmar sentenced two journalists from news agency Reuters to seven years of imprisonment amid mounting international criticism. The ruling came under the official secrets law for illegal possession of official documents.

Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, and Wa Lone, 32, the two journalists contending that they were framed by the police had pleaded not guilty to the colonial era law. The two reporters have been reporting on brutal crackdown and alleged ethnic cleansing in the Rakhine state of Myanmar against the Rohingya by the Myanmar Army.

Google is removing over 100 scam advertisements every second for violating its policies and will soon implement a verification programme to further weed out bad actors from its platform.

After The Wall Street Journal reported that scammers were purchasing search ads and "masquerading as authorised service agents for companies such as Apple", Google said on Saturday it is taking action against such scam artists.

"Just last year alone, we took down more than 3.2 billion ads that violated our advertising policies - that's more than 100 bad ads per second," said David Graff, Director, Global Product Policy at Google.

"We're taking another step. We've seen a rise in misleading ad experiences stemming from third-party technical support providers and have decided to begin restricting ads in this category globally," said Graff.

In the coming months, Google will roll out a verification programme to ensure that only legitimate providers of third-party tech support can use its platform to reach consumers.

"One of our top priorities is to maintain a healthy advertising ecosystem, and that means protecting people from misleading, inappropriate and harmful ads," Google said.

The move came after scammers were found using Google's advertising system to create misleading ads.

India and Nepal on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding to build a strategic broad-gauge railway line between Kathmandu and the border town of Raxaul in Bihar, PTI reported.

The agreement was signed after talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Nepalese counterpart KP Oli at the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation summit, or BIMSTEC, in Kathmandu. The two leaders agreed to boost regional connectivity and bilateral ties during their meeting.

Karnataka urban local body election 2018 LIVE: Counting is underway for the 105 urban local bodies across Karnataka that went to polls on August 31. The polls registered a record turnout of 68 per cent for elections to the 2,662 civic wards spanning 29 city municipalities, 53 town municipalities, 23 town panchayats and 135 wards at Mysuru, Shivamogga and Tumakuru city corporations.

A total of 8,340 candidates, including 2,306 from the Congress, 2,203 from the BJP and 1,397 from the JD-S contested in the urban local body elections. The Congress and JD (S) did not rule out on forming a post-poll alliance to keep the BJP out of power. “In the event of either party not getting majority on its own in the ULB elections, we will have post-poll alliance to rule the local bodies as we did to form the coalition government in the state after the May 12 assembly election threw a hung House with a split verdict,” a JD(S) official told IANS on Saturday.

In the 2013 urban local bodies elections held in 4,976 seats, the Congress had won 1,960 seats, while the BJP and the JD-S had won 905 seats each, and Independents had bagged the remaining 1,206 seats. The full list of results is expected to be declared by night.

NEW DELHI:  Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched India Post Payments Bank or IPPB -- the largest payments bank in the country by network size -- in New Delhi today. A payments bank operates on a small scale; it carries out most banking operations, but cannot give loans or issue credit cards directly. The IPPB's full services will be made operational at 650 branches the moment PM Modi inaugurates the facility. The new bank will leverage the postal department's vast network across India and help people in previously unbanked rural locations to use banking services easily, the Prime Minister's Office tweeted. The payments bank sector in India grew and expanded in lightning speed after the Reserve Bank of India approved several applicants in 2015.

A special home to house around 1,000 widows will be inaugurated at Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh on Friday by Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, official sources said.

'Krishna Kutir' -- said to be largest such facility constructed by a government -- was constructed on 1.4 hectares at a cost of 57.48 crore," an official statement said.

It was constructed by the Ministry of Women and Child Development under its "Swadhar Greh scheme" through National Building Construction Corporation.

New Delhi: The Uttarakhand High Court on Thursday banned religious bodies and statutory panchayat and any group of people from issuing any fatwas in the state saying they (the fatwas) are “unconstitutional and illegal”. The decision was taken since the fatwas violate statutory rights, fundamental rights, dignity, status, honour, and obligation of individuals, the HC said.

Taking cognizance of a newspaper report that the panchayat had issued a fatwa for externment of the family of a rape victim in Laksar as a matter of PIL, the division bench of Acting Chief Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Sharad Kumar Sharma held that the fatwa was against the letter and spirit of the Constitution.

The declaration came after the HC declared a fatwa banishing the family of a rape victim from their village illegal. Instead of sympathising with the rape victim, the panchayat had the audacity to extern the family from the village, the court said.

“Fatwa is nothing but extra-constitutional adventurism, not permissible under the Constitution. The constitution of Panchayats is provided under Article 243 of the Constitution of India. These are created under the Panchayati Raj Act,” the court said.

“The panchayats are only required to discharge the duties and functions enshrined under the law. Issuing fatwas is not part of their statutory duties and functions. The fatwas cause immense agony and devastation to the victim, even if the same has been issued by the local panchayat like ‘Khap Panchayat’,” the court added.

With PTI inputs