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Farmers to continue protests
India's farmers will continue their protests even after Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to repeal controversial farm laws, and their demands include price guarantees for their crops, Mr Vijoo Krishnan, joint secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha, said on Monday.
That is something the government has deemed unfeasible. It currently purchases about two dozen agricultural commodities, including food grains, pulses and oilseeds, at pre-determined prices for its welfare programmes.
Heavy rain batters south India, killing at least 35
At least 35 people were killed and dozens more remain missing after heavy rain battered parts of southern India, destroying houses and flooding roads, officials said on Monday.
Flash floods triggered by the rain killed at least 32 people in Andhra Pradesh, said the state government.
The rainfall began late last week, submerging highways and roads, while completely isolating some villages and blocking access to food and water.
Delhi to reopen schools as smog goes from worse to bad
India's polluted capital will reopen schools on Monday, one week after it announced a partial shutdown over dangerous air pollution levels.
Delhi's Environment Minister Gopal Rai said on Wednesday that pollution levels in the city had "improved in the last three days" and some of the restrictions would be relaxed. But levels of PM 2.5, the most harmful particulate matter that is responsible for chronic lung and heart disease, were still around 120 micrograms per cubic metre - eight times the World Health Organisation limit.
Indore cleanest city for fifth year
Indore has been ranked India's cleanest city for the fifth year in a row by Swachh Survekshan 2021, the Central government's annual cleanliness survey to promote sanitation in urban centres under the Swachh Bharat Mission.
Surat and Vijayawada were ranked second and third cleanest respectively in the category of cities with over one million population.
Among the states with over 100 urban local bodies, Chattisgarh was ranked on top for the third consecutive year, followed by Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
Kashmiri activist arrested under India's anti-terrorism law
Kashmiri human rights activist Khurram Parvez was arrested by security forces on Monday and charged under an anti-terrorism law.
His brother, Sheikh Shariyar said the authorities carried out a four-hour search of their home and a mobile phone, laptop and books.
Police charge Amazon executives over online drug sales
Indian police have charged executives from Amazon's local arm over claims the United States retail behemoth's online portal was used to smuggle and sell marijuana.
Two men were arrested last week with 21kg of the drug in Madhya Pradesh and told officers they were using Amazon's India platform to ship their goods to other places in the country. They admitted to shipping their crop by falsely marketing it as stevia leaves, a natural sweetener.
India's most common password is... password
New research from NordPass reveals that the most commonly used password in India is "password".
It is followed by 12345, 123456, 123456789, 12345678, india123, 1234567890, 1234567, qwerty and abc123.
All of these passwords, with the exception of india123, can be cracked in less than one second, said NordPass.
Tadoba tigress kills forest guard
A woman forest guard was mauled to death by a tigress in the core area of the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) in Maharashtra last Saturday.
Authorities said 46-year-old Swati Dhumane was doing a survey with three labourers when she was attacked and killed by Maya, a 10-year-old tigress that is popular in the park.
Wanted former Mumbai police commissioner in Chandigarh
Former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh, who has been declared a "proclaimed offender" by a court, said on Wednesday that he is in Chandigarh and would visit Mumbai soon.
The Indian Police Service officer, who is facing several extortion cases in Maharashtra, also told news channels that he is yet to decide whether he will surrender before the police or court.
Comedian will continue writing love letters to India
Stand-up comic Vir Das, facing a huge backlash over his viral "Two Indias" monologue in Washington DC recently, says it is his job to put out satire and he will continue to write "love letters to my country" as long as he is able to do comedy.
He also stressed that he believes any Indian who has a sense of humour knows that what he said in the United States capital was satire.
Wedding music blamed for death of 63 chickens
A traditional Indian wedding procession with loud music, fireworks, dancing and a marching brass band in shiny jackets has been blamed for the death of 63 chickens.
Mr Ranjit Kumar Parida said the party was blasting out "ear-splitting noise" as it passed his poultry farm in Odisha shortly before midnight last Sunday."I asked the band operators to lower the volume as the music was too noisy and terrifying the chickens. But they did not listen and the groom's friends shouted at me," he said,
A vet told Mr Parida the chickens died of heart attack and he filed a police complaint after the wedding organisers refused to compensate him.
Car 'clue' to models' death
Finding an unidentified vehicle could be the turning point in the case related to the death of two young Kerala models in a high-speed car crash.
The Police Crime Branch, probing the Nov 1 road accident, has received information that a car had been following one of them for a few days before the crash.
Investigators say the models, Ansi Kabeer and Anjana Shajan, left the party at No 18 Hotel in Kochi after seeing the same car on its premises. Police suspect it was an escape bid that led to the car crash.
Fall in Covid-19 testing worrying
An alarming fall in testing for Covid-19 threatens to undermine India's efforts to contain the pandemic, the Union health ministry said on Wednesday in a letter to state governments, as worries grow over fresh waves of infections abroad.
India reported 9,283 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, a day after recording 7,579 infections - the lowest in 543 days. But testing has hovered around one million per day for the past few weeks, less than half the capacity.
