Talks for a BRICS foreign ministers’ joint statement seemed balanced on a knife-edge on the first day of the meeting, with a consensus on the West Asia situation remaining uncertain. Diplomatic sources said efforts to find common ground between the UAE and Iran were still on, even as the 2 countries held on to their … Read more
NEW DELHI: After 10 days of intense consultations, lobbying and internal churning, Congress on Thursday finally ended suspense over Kerala’s chief ministerial face by picking VD Satheesan for the top post.Satheesan emerged victorious in a closely watched leadership battle against senior leaders KC Venugopal and Ramesh Chennithala after the Congress high command weighed alliance equations, … Read more
Judging excellence in maternal healthcare is not like judging most things. The numbers, whether around delivery volumes, success rates, bed counts, etc., are the starting point, far from the verdict. When the jury members for the Times Future of Maternity Awards 2026 convened for final evaluation of nominees across 13 categories, the tougher questions were … Read more
Kalyan Banerjee (Image/PTI) NEW DELHI: Former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday appointed Kalyan Banerjee as the new Chief whip of the Trinamool Congress in Lok Sabha replacing Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar. The announcement was made during an internal meeting of party MPs held at Mamata Banerjee’s residence in Kalighat as the party leadership … Read more
NEW DELHI: The Calcutta high court on Thursday instructed the newly-elected BJP governmemt in West Bengal to “strictly maintain law and order at the ground level”. The order came after Mamata Banerjee told the court that the police had remained inactive during the post-poll violence, while also asserting that “Bengal is not a bulldozer state” … Read more
NEET-UG paper leak: CBI arrests two more accused in Maharashtra; tally rises to 7 (Image credit: PTI) NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested two more accused persons and conducted searches at 14 locations across the country in the last 24 hours in connection with alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak.The … Read more
NEW DELHI: Delhi high court judge Swarana Kanta Sharma on Thursday said that she had decided to initiate contempt proceedings against some of the discharged accused in the excise policy case for posting “vilifying” and defamatory material against her. The court was hearing a petition filed by the CBI challenging the trial court’s decision to … Read more
NEW DELHI: The Congress finally ended Kerala’s suspense on Wednesday. Ten days after the UDF’s historic mandate, VD Satheesan was named chief minister. For a party that had just won 63 seats, with the UDF alliance winning 102, the delay was not about numbers or coalition arithmetic. It was about the Congress being unable to … Read more
NEW DELHI: Do fractured mandates fracture parties? The crack in AIADMK in Tamil Nadu, much like the splits in Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, suggests they often do.In June 2022, Eknath Shinde led a rebellion in Shiv Sena and took away two-thirds of the party’s MLAs, toppling the Maha Vikas Aghadi government. The coup vertically split … Read more
VD Satheesan and Shehzad Poonawalla (Image/PTI) NEW DELHI: Hours after the Congress announced VD Satheesan as Kerala’s next chief minister, the BJP launched a sharp attack on the party, alleging that the decision was influenced by the Indian Union Muslim League and accusing the Congress of surrendering to its alliance partner.Soon after the announcement, BJP … Read more