FEATURE STORY
Sonia Gandhi has long occupied the centre of Indian politics while revealing little about herself. She has been most ubiquitous and elusive for three decades.
Ladakh’s newly created districts have finally received their own Autonomous Hill Development Councils—an institutional shift expected to bring governance and development closer to every remote corner of the Himalayan region. Until now, decentralised administration in Ladakh functioned only through the two principal councils based in Leh and Kargil. “With the extension of this framework to all seven districts, Ladakh enters a new phase of grassroots empowerment,” said an official.
Several states, part of phase three of Special Intensive Revision of voter list, have pushed forward dates from 11 to 28 days to publish their respective final electoral rolls citing various reasons.
The Election Commission of India has frozen the Trinamool Congress name and ‘Flowers & Grass’ symbol for the October 6 bypolls, assigning separate interim designations to factions led by Mamata Banerjee and Arup Roy. Amid an urgent Supreme Court challenge by the party supremo, an emerging Congress-Mamata alignment has prompted the resignation of Trinamool’s Nandigram nominee.
Dalal Street closed on a split note on Friday as an afternoon bounce lifted the Nifty 50 by 0.33% to 23,346, while the Sensex surrendered early gains in the final 30 minutes to settle marginally lower. With Brent crude still above $100, central banks turning hawkish, and a high-stakes governance battle erupting at Tata Sons, both indices logged their sixth consecutive weekly decline.
India completed a comprehensive 3-0 T20I series sweep over Afghanistan with a crushing 127-run victory at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. Powered by Abhishek Sharma’s historic 30-ball century and three-wicket hauls from Nitish Kumar Reddy and Ravi Bishnoi, the hosts bundled Afghanistan out for just 94 in 14.1 overs.