The Army’s Court of Inquiry (CoI) Monday issued orders to initiate disciplinary action against Major Leetul Gogoi after he was seen with a local Kashmiri woman in a Srinagar hotel earlier this year. The court held him accountable for “fraternising with locals inspite of instructions to the contrary and for being away from the place of duty while in operational area”.

After the Corps Commander’s approval of CoI’s findings, Army authorities will frame charges against the officer citing relevant provisions of the Army Act. They can then decide to either punish the officer or convene a court-martial to try the officer.

A Court of Inquiry had been ordered against Major Leetul Gogoi following an altercation at a Srinagar hotel where he had shown up with a young woman and a man. The trio had been questioned by Srinagar police in May this year after an argument erupted at the Hotel Grand Mamta where the staff refused to let the woman in.

Dutee Chand clinched silver in women's 100m on Sunday at the Asian Games 2018. It was India's first medal in 20 years in this event.

Running in lane number 7, Dutee clocked 11.32 seconds, a tad below her national record of 11.29 seconds.

Odiong Edidiong of Bahrain won the gold in 11.30 while Wei Yongli of China took the bronze in 11.33 in a close finish.

New Delhi: In a major decision, the Defence Ministry on Saturday gave its nod to acquisition of 111 utility helicopters for the Navy at a cost of over Rs 21,000 crores besides approving separate procurement proposals worth nearly Rs 25,000 crores, according to officials.

A meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), the ministry's highest decision-making body on procurement, cleared the proposals.

Facebook is testing a new feature, that will let users know what they have in common with strangers. Reported by CNET, this feature, dubbed as ‘things in common’, will help people know if strangers match up to them through a college, workplace or hometown. The social media company has said that the feature is testing it out as a label, that will appear on public comment sections.

As part of ‘things in common’, Facebook will create tags for users who comment on posts from a brand or a publisher page. As one notices comments from strangers, the feature will point out a similarity with every stranger, if any exists. For example, users will be able to note if the strangers they spot have also studied under Delhi University, or consider Mumbai to be their hometown.

IN A strongly worded letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has raised concerns over what he described as an “agenda” to “change the nature and character” of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) and the Teen Murti complex.

Stating that Jawaharlal Nehru belongs “not just to the Congress” but to the “entire nation,” Singh has asked that the Teen Murti complex be left “undisturbed”.

In the letter sent last week, Singh invoked former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and said that under Vajpayee’s six-year tenure as PM, “there was absolutely no attempt made to change the nature and character of the NMML and the Teen Murti complex in any way. But sadly, that seems to be part of the agenda of the Government of India now.”

Construction for the proposed Delhi-Mumbai expressway will be completed within three years with construction to begin in December this year, said Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari, according to a report by PTI. The ambitious project that was announced in April this year will be built at a cost of ₹ 1 trillion connecting the two major cities of the country. The expressway will cut the travel time by half between Delhi and Mumbai with the average time down from 24 hours to 12 hours for cars, and from 44 hours to 22 hours for trucks. The distance too will be reduced to 1250 km from 1450 km, the union minister said. Work will begin in 40 different locations simultaneously to aid faster construction.

"We will begin the work on the Rs 1 trillion Delhi-Mumbai expressway from end-December and it will be completed within 30-36 months. Money is not a problem at all. NHAI can raise plenty of cheap money from the market," Gadkari said.

Party General Secretary Ashok Gehlot, who announced the setting up of the committees, said that with this development, the party will go into election mode and start the work of putting up a manifesto, and draw strategy for publicity and coordination.

New Delhi: Former President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday launched Neta App, a technology platform that allows voters to rate their political representatives. The app’s makers say it would help “fostering political accountability by being an early indicator of how a leader’s performance is being perceived by the voters”.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, former election commissioners SY Quraishi and Nasim Zaidi; former union law minister Ashwini Kumar; veteran BJP leader and former union minister Murli Manohar Joshi; former union home minister Shri Shivraj Patil; and minister of state of social justice and empowerment Vijay Sampla were also present at the launch.

The Indian men's tennis pair of Rohan Bopanna-Divij Sharan outclassed Kazakhstan's Aleksandar Bublik and Denis Yevseyv 6-3, 6-4 in the men's doubles final to bag a gold medal in a match that lasted 52 minutes. Bopanna and Sharan added the sixth gold medal to the Indian contingent's medal tally. India, now have a total of 22 medals in their kitty -- consisting 6 gold, 4 silver and 12 bronze. Earlier in the semi-final, Rohan Bopanna and Sharan won 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 against Japan's Kaito Uesugi and Sho Shimabukoro in a three-set thriller which lasted for 72 minutes.

In the quarterfinals, which also went to three sets, Bopanna and Sharan edged past Chinese Taipei's Yang Tsung-Hua and Hsieh Chengpeng 6-3, 5-7, 10-1 in 76 minutes.

Former finance minister P Chidambaram on Saturday stepped up Congress’ attack on the Centre over the Rafale deal, demanding a public debate and a detailed inquiry. Addressing a press conference at the party office in Kolkata today, the senior Congress leader accused the Centre of ignoring the defence procurement procedure and “bypassing” several committees to secure the deal.

“We think that the matter is serious enough that there should be a public debate and there should be a detailed inquiry. Which is why the Congress President and the party has raised it,” he was quoted by ANI as saying.

Chidambaram further alleged that the Cabinet Committee on Security was not taken into confidence by the government before signing the deal. “Why was the defence procurement procedure ignored in the Rafale deal… and why were the Contract Negotiation Committee and the Price Negotiation Committee kept in the dark about it? The Cabinet Committee on Security was also not taken into confidence,” he said.