Rishi Sunak tops first round of voting in Tory leadership contest
Former finance minister Rishi Sunak led the field of Conservative MPs bidding to become Britain’s next Prime Minister in the first ballot of Tory lawmakers on Wednesday, as the race narrowed to six with the elimination of two candidates. Mr. Sunak, an early frontrunner who quit as finance minister last week to help trigger outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s downfall, topped the contest with 88 votes, followed by former defence minister Penny Mordaunt, on 67.
India has achieved clean energy targets before deadline, says R. K. Singh
India has achieved clean energy targets nine years ahead of schedule Power Minister R.K. Singh said at the Sydney Energy Forum in Sydney, Australia, on July 13. India has installed 162 GW (1 GW is a 1000 MW) of renewable energy capacity which is 41% of the 402 GW of electricity installed.
Modi government distances itself from Rajapaksas in latest twist to see-saw relationship
Distancing itself from the Rajapaksa family that has been pushed out of power by angry protestors in Sri Lanka, the government made it clear that it has not offered outgoing President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, his brother and former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa, and others who may wish to flee Sri Lanka, any support. New Delhi is watching the situation in Colombo closely, even as efforts get underway for the Sri Lanka Parliament to elect the next President next week.
A local court in Ahmedabad on Wednesday remanded former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in police custody till July 20 in the forgery and evidence fabrication case related to the 2002 riots in Gujarat. Mr. Bhatt was arrested through transfer warrant on Tuesday and produced before the additional chief metropolitan magistrate on Wednesday.
Transgender trainee-pilot Adam Harry told to reapply for medical test
In a temporary win for transgender trainee-pilot Adam Harry, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has requested him to submit a new application for medical assessment required for further training to become an airline pilot two years after he was told that a hormone therapy he was undergoing for gender transition rendered him “unfit” to fly. The DGCA has also clarified that there were no restrictions on transgender people seeking pilot’s licence and a hormone therapy alone will not preclude anyone from flying.
SpiceJet pilots give call for ‘mass sick leave’
A section of SpiceJet pilots have given a call for a “mass sick leave” on July 14 to protest against pay cuts at the airline in the past two years. Pilot sources said that they were unhappy over massive pay cuts the airline continued to impose which amounted to a deduction equivalent of “70%” of their pre-pandemic salary. Pilots also claim that the airline has been deducting contributions towards employee’s provident fund and tax deducted at source but was not depositing them with the Employee’s Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and Income Tax department.
Gyanvapi dispute | Now, masjid panel too seeks removal of Vishnu Shankar Jain over ‘conflict’
As the district court in Varanasi continued hearing the ongoing Gyanvapi mosque-Kashi Vishwanath temple civil dispute, the Muslim side on Wednesday filed an application seeking that advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, one of the lawyers leading the Hindu side, should be barred from appearing for the plaintiffs given his conflict of interest because of his position as Standing Counsel for U.P. government in the Supreme Court.
Congress questions Finance Minister’s interest in tackling inflation
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is more interested in Uranus and Pluto than tackling inflationary trends, the Congress said on Wednesday. Addressing a press conference a day after the government released the latest inflation figures, party spokesperson Gourav Vallabh took a dig at Ms. Sitharaman for tweeting pictures of the galaxy taken by NASA’s James Webb telescope instead of sharing her plan for containing inflation.
Islamic State-linked ‘Amaq’ releases video of Srinagar attack
Amaq, an online propaganda portal linked to the Islamic State (IS), on July 13 released a purported video online where an attacker aims at policemen from a close range apparently in Srinagar’s Lal Bazaar area. A militant attack left one police officer dead and two others injured on Tuesday (July 12) evening.
Congress leader’s comments on Droupadi Murmu triggers war of words with BJP
Congress leader Ajoy Kumar triggered a a controversy on Wednesday after he described the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) Presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu as a “decent person” but representing an “evil philosophy of India”. Hitting back at the Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders tweeted that the comment against Ms. Murmu represented “Congress’ evil philosophy of entitlement”.
Couple held for smuggling 45 hand guns at Delhi airport: Customs
The Customs Department arrested an Indian couple at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on July 13 on the charge of attempting to smuggle in 45 guns brought from France. Those arrested have been identified as Jagjit Singh and Jaswinder Kaur, residents of Defence Colony in Haryana’s Gurugram. They arrived at the IGI Airport’s Terminal-3 on July 11 from Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam by flight no.VJ 895. During interrogation, the accused told the agency they had earlier smuggled in 25 such guns valued at ₹12.50 lakh from Turkey.
James Webb Space Telescope’s first images show stunning range
In the order in which they were released, the five images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope were the following: a deep field picture in which the telescope gazed into a galaxy cluster that is about 13.1 billion light years away; a hot gaseous exoplanet that is about 1,000 light years away — a spectrum of its atmosphere which carried the chemical fingerprint of water vapour; a violent explosion that marked the death of a massive star, known as the Southern Ring; a group picture of five galaxies — Stephan’s Quintet, about 300 million light years away and a picture of Carina nebula, which is 7,600 light years away, showing crops of new stars being born.
Consistency is the target, result will follow: Neeraj Chopra
With the World Athletics Championships just two days away, Neeraj Chopra is gradually getting into the competition zone. The Olympic champion has had a good beginning to his 2022 season and is inching closer to the elusive 90m mark. But the pressure of it is clearly more on those following him than the man himself, going by his interaction with select media ahead of the event.
Mehuli Ghosh, Shahu Mane win mixed rifle gold
It was another golden day for Indian shooting as Mehuli Ghosh and Shahu Tushar Mane combined to beat Eszter Meszaros and Istvan Peni of Hungary 17-13 for the mixed air rifle gold in the shooting World Cup in Changwon, Korea, on Wednesday. The Indian pair, which had topped qualification with 634.3, asserted itself in the gold match against a top class opposition.
