Punjab Mahila Congress Committee president Balvir Rani Sodhi resigned from her post, citing family circumstances .
She sent her resignation letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday.

Kindly relieve me from the post as I am unable to continue due to unavoidable compulsions of my family circumstances, Sodhi wrote in the letter.

However, the Congress leader assured that she will remain loyal to the party.

The copies of the letter were also sent to party leader Rahul Gandhi and All India Mahila Congress Committee working president Neeta D’Souza.

Her resignation comes ahead of the launch of the Congress party’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ across the country on September 7.

When asked whether she had any differences with Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, Sodhi denied it.

I have no differences with Raja Warring and have resigned only due to my family compulsions , said the women’s wing chief of the party’s state unit.

She also brushed aside a query about the possibility of her quitting the party too.

I am a loyal soldier of the party and will perform any duty assigned to me by the party leadership , she stressed.

The Sensex and Nifty closed modestly lower on Tuesday after investors offloaded FMCG, IT and banking stocks in the last hour of trade amid mixed global cues.

The selling pressure emerged towards the fag-end of the session.

After rising over 320 points in intra-day trade, the 30-share BSE Sensex pared all gains to settle 48.99 points or 0.08 per cent lower at 59,196.99. During the day, it hit a high of 59,566.67 and a low of 58,974.26.

The NSE Nifty also slipped 10.20 points or 0.06 per cent to 17,655.60.

From the Sensex pack, Bajaj Finserv, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Finance and Nestle were among the major laggards.

On the other hand, Bharti Airtel, NTPC, Tata Steel, Reliance Industries and Power Grid were among the major gainers.

Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Seoul, Tokyo and Shanghai ended in the green, while Hong Kong settled lower.

Equities in Europe were trading higher during the mid-session deals. The US markets were closed on Monday.

“Domestic indices wiped out its early gains to close flat, tracking mixed global cues,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Meanwhile, the international oil benchmark Brent crude declined 2.37 per cent to USD 93.47 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded shares worth Rs 811.75 crore on Monday, as per the exchange data.

“Nifty failed to capitalise on the early gain as profit-taking happened,” said Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities.

President Droupadi Murmu on Monday emphasised that talent development in science, literature and social sciences can be more effective if taught in one’s mother tongue.

She was addressing the gathering at National Teachers Awards ceremony where she recalled the contribution of her school teachers due to which she became the first girl from her village to go to college.

“Talent development in science, literature and social sciences can be more effective if taught in mother tongue,” she said.

Murmu also noted that India’s school education is counted among the world’s largest education systems.

She presented the National Awards to Teachers, 2022 to 46 select awardees to honour their unique contribution to school education.

The Ministry of Education has been organising a function at Vigyan Bhawan on Teachers’ Day on September 5 every year to confer the awards to best teachers of the country, selected through a rigorous transparent and online three-stage selection process.

Seven people were killed after two cars veered off a mountain road and plunged into a stream in separate incidents in Jammu and Kashmir’s Doda district on Monday, police said.

One more person was injured in the two accidents that occurred on the Doda-Bhaderwah road within a span of six hours, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Doda, Abdul Qayoom said, adding that the victims included two married couples.

Around 6.30 am, a car plunged into the Neeru stream, near Galgandhar, after rolling down about 400 feet, resulting in the death of four people on the spot and critical injuries to another who died later, the officer said.

The deceased were identified as Naseeb Singh (62), his wife Satya Devi (58), son Vikram Singh (22), Lekh Raj (63) and his wife Satisha Devi (60), all residents of Shiva village, who were on their way to Bhaderwah as part of a marriage procession, he said.

Earlier, another private car fell into the stream from a height of about 300 feet at Mughal Market, two km from the site of the second accident.

The accident occurred around 12.30 am and the bodies of Sajad Ahmad (38) of Tangorna-Bhaderwah and Ravinder Kumar (33) of Himote-Bhaderwah were retrieved from the vehicle, the SSP, who supervised both the rescue operations, said.

Piyush Kumar of Chinta was rescued in a critical condition, he added.

The latest deaths in road accidents came just a week after eight residents of Bonda village were killed when their taxi plunged into a 300-foot gorge in the Chatroo area of adjoining Kishtwar district.

Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha expressed grief over the loss of lives in the two accidents.

“The two unfortunate road accidents in Doda are deeply distressing. Extremely pained over the loss of lives. Condolences to families of the deceased. My prayers with the injured. Directed district administration to ensure best possible treatment to the injured,” Sinha said in a tweet.

Union minister Jitendra Singh, a member of the Lok Sabha from the Udhampur constituency, which also covers Doda and Kishtwar districts, has assured the victims’ families of full assistance.

Jharkhand Assembly on Monday passed the confidence motion tabled by Chief Minister Hemant Soren amid a walkout staged by BJP legislators.

As many as 48 MLAs voted in favour of the confidence motion in the 81-member Assembly.

Speaking during the one-day special session, Soren said the need for trust vote was felt as BJP was “attempting to destabilise democratically elected governments” in non-BJP ruled states, including Jharkhand.

He alleged that the BJP was trying to create a “civil war-like situation in country by fuelling riots to win elections”. Shortly after, the assembly was adjourned sine-die.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday reached the national capital where he is likely to meet several Opposition leaders.

Sources said the JD(U) leader may meet former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal later in the day.

They said he is also expected to meet NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy and others.

Kumar is also likely to meet SP chief Akhilesh Yadav.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday said that employees of state road transport authority, KSRTC, would be paid their salary arrears before Onam.

The decision was taken in a meeting held by Vijayan with representatives of the various labour unions of the KSRTC employees, a statement issued by the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said.

It was also decided in the meeting that besides salary arrears, other concerns of the employees would also be addressed, the statement said.

The other decisions that were taken included directions to KSRTC management to pay salary by 5th of every month, take steps to employ the daily wage earners who are presently laid off, redeployment of mechanical, ministerial and other staff and timely payment of allowances and incentives to the drivers and conductors, the CMO statement said.

The much debated single duty system would also be implemented and duties would be assigned on rotation on a zonal basis, it further said.

Constitution of an advisory committee to monitor matters related to KSRTC and make recommendations was another decision taken in the meeting.

The statement said that union representatives lauded the steps taken by the government to keep KSRTC in the public sector and welcomed the proposals put forward by the CM.

The delay in payment of salaries and pensions of KSRTC employees was raised in the state assembly last week with both the ruling LDF and opposition UDF blaming each other for the present plight of the public transportation body.

The National Restaurant Association of India has written an advisory to its members against Zomato Pay and Swiggy Diner discount programmes saying these are against the interest of restaurant owners.

The advisory alleges that ‘middlemen’ Zomato and Swiggy are making money at the cost of restaurants, who sign up to be on the Zomato Pay and Swiggy Diner programmes by making them compulsorily offer discounts and also pay commission fee on every transaction on these platforms.

“Zomato Pay and Swiggy Diner both operate broadly on the same construct — no cost/subscription fee to the customer to participate; restaurants must compulsorily offer a discount in the range of 15-40 per cent to be part of the program,” NRAI wrote to its members.

Further, it said, “Restaurants must also compulsorily pay a commission in the range of 4-12 per cent on every transaction made via the respective payment gateway to Zomato or Swiggy”, while competing payment gateway charges are 1-1.5 per cent only.

NRAI alleged that restaurants must offer the discount to “anyone who wishes to pay vide Zomato Pay or Swiggy Diner irrespective of the fact of whether the customer discovered the restaurant on Zomato/Swiggy or just walked in on his own” and the payouts are on a weekly basis.

“The fundamental question here is why should a restaurant pay a commission to a middle man to offer a discount to its own customer?” NRAI asked.

Zomato Pay is a payment service offered by Zomato through an electronic payment mechanism through which its customers can pay for an order to the merchant through the Zomato platform.

On the other hand, Swiggy Diner is an offering in the dine-in segment from Swiggy, that allows its customers to place dining out table reservations with offers for discounts.

When contacted, a Zomato spokesperson did not comment on the specific issues raised by NRAI but said, “With our new dining product, now live in Hyderabad for a few weeks with great results, we are confident that we will create tremendous value and growth for the industry.”

The spokesperson further said, “We are looking forward to working with progressive restaurants who see the bigger picture.”Swiggy did not comment when reached out for its response.

New Delhi:  Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Thursday clarified his reason for meeting ex-Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Prithviraj Chavan, Anand Sharma and Bhupinder Singh Hooda had on Tuesday met Azad, who has resigned from the party and is set to hold his first public meeting in Jammu on September 4.

Terming it a “courtesy” call, Hooda said they all met as they have been party colleagues for years and had raised certain issues about party polls.

“We asked him why he quit when his demands were met, ” he stated.

The process for the Congress President’s election has come into the spotlight after few leaders questioned the non-availability of electoral rolls in the public domain.

Two Congress leaders, Manish Tewari and Karti Chidambaram, on Wednesday urged the Central Election Authority, headed by Madhusudan Mistry, to make the electoral rolls public and available on the Congress website.

However, the CEA said that these rolls will be made available to candidates contesting elections.

Tewari and Karti Chidambaram had raised concerns over the manner in which the presidential poll in the party was being held.

In a tweet Chidambaram had said: “Every election needs a well defined & clear electoral college. The process of forming the electoral college must also be clear, well defined & transparent. An ad hoc electoral college is no electoral college.”

Anandpur Sahib MP Tewari too has raised doubts over the electoral rolls ahead of the party’s presidential poll, saying these should be made public to ensure a free and fair election process.

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said the agriculture sector must turn towards oilseed production to reduce edible oil imports and to make the country ‘atmanirbhar’ (self reliant).

He was speaking at an event organised by Agrowan, a publication of the Sakal media group dedicated to agriculture.

“We are spending Rs 1.5 lakh crore every year on import of edible oil. To reduce the dependency on imported oil, the agricultural sector now needs to turn to oilseeds production to make country self-reliant and also to increase farm income. This is because crops like rice, wheat, sugar are getting lower prices every passing day,” a release quoted Gadkari as saying.

Moreover, prices of agricultural products depend on global conditions, and there would be difficulty finding takers for Indian wheat if Australian wheat is sold at Rs 6.50 per kilogram, he claimed.

Agriculture growth needs to be 20 per cent instead of the current 12 per cent for elimination of poverty and unemployment, he said.

“India is importing fuel worth Rs 16 lakh crore annually. If just Rs 5 lakh crore is diverted to the agriculture sector, then it will not take long for our farmers to become Urjaadaata (energy providers) and Annadaata (food providers),” he added.

The minister said that the country’s sugar requirement is 280 lakh tonnes but sugar production is over 360 lakh tonnes. Asserting that demand for ethanol is very high, Gadkari said it is better to focus on ethanol production rather than sugar.

“Last year, India’s ethanol production capacity was 400 crore litres. We have taken many measures to increase the production of ethanol. Now is the time to plan to meet the demand for ethanol using technologies like power generators that run on bioethanol,” he opined.

Observing that India is at least ten years behind in developing seeds compared to the rest of the world, he said that there is a need to increase income by reducing the cost of seeds, fertilizers as well as fuel for agricultural equipment.

Meanwhile, Gadkari and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis inaugurated the Pune Festival organised by former Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi.