Mumbai, May 8 (IANS) Indian benchmark indices ended lower on Friday as renewed tensions between the United States and Iran dampened investor sentiment and triggered caution across sectors. The selloff was largely led by banking stocks, while gains in IT shares helped limit the downside.The Nifty ended 150.50 points or 0.62 per cent down at 24,176.15 and the Sensex ended 516.33 points or 0.66 per cent down at 77,328.19.Commenting on Nifty technical outlook, experts said that the 24,250–24,300 l…

Islamabad, May 8 (IANS) Pakistan’s reliance on proxy militant networks, its heavy-handed handling of local grievances, and its failure to respond to emerging militant alliances have fuelled the current crisis in Balochistan. Far from being a peripheral theatre, the province is turning into the epicentre of a multilayered insurgency shaped by decades of strategic miscalculations by Pakistani authorities, a report has detailed. According to a report in Eurasia Review, Balochistan has once again de…

New Delhi, May 8 (IANS) The Delhi High Court has acquitted a man convicted in a 2012 heroin recovery case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, holding that serious procedural lapses and inconsistencies in the prosecution case created reasonable doubt over the alleged recovery and safe custody of the contraband.A single-judge Bench of Justice Chandrasekharan Sudha, while allowing the appeal filed by Sunil alias Sunil Sharma, set aside the trial court’s judgment convi…

Panihati (West Bengal), May 8 (IANS) Ratna Debnath, BJP MLA-elect and mother of the trainee doctor who was sexually assaulted and murdered at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, on Friday alleged on Friday that certain activists from the Trinamool Congress are posing as BJP supporters and indulging in post-poll violence in West Bengal. She further asserted that no Trinamool activist will be allowed to be a part of the BJP.Speaking to IANS, Debnath, who won from the Panihati Assembly constituenc…

Patna, May 8 (IANS) Following the allocation of portfolios in the NDA government led by Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, newly appointed ministers began formally assuming charge of their respective departments on Friday.Several ministers outlined their priorities immediately after taking office, signalling the government’s focus on governance reforms and administrative accountability.Senior JD(U) leader Madan Sahani assumed charge of the Liquor Prohibition Department and issued a strong statem…

New Delhi, May 8 (IANS) Union Minister of State for Defence Sanjay Seth will inaugurate India’s first International Ophthalmology Research Conference being co-hosted by the Department of Ophthalmology at Army Hospital (Research & Referral), Delhi, on Saturday, an official said.The two-day event will bring together nearly 200 renowned ophthalmologists from across the country alongside the finest military eye specialists and aims to foster meaningful civil-military cooperation in ophthalmolo…

Hyderabad, May 8 (IANS) An engineering student was stabbed to death in Hyderabad for carrying on an alleged love affair despite warnings, police said on Friday.Yuvan, 23, was murdered in the Chilkalguda area in Hyderabad’s Secunderabad late on Thursday night.A resident of Jawaharnagar, he was a third-year engineering student of a private college.Yuvan had come to Indiranagar in Chilkaguda to meet a girl with whom he had been in a relationship for four years. The girl’s relatives had previously w…

Jaipur, May 8 (IANS) The Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC) has cancelled the Sub‑Inspector/Platoon Commander Recruitment Examination‑2021 and announced that the exam will be conducted afresh, following a recommendation by the state government.Commission Chairman Utkal Ranjan Sahoo stated that only 383,097 candidates will be eligible to appear in the examination, which will be re-conducted. These are the candidates who had appeared for both question papers of the written examination …

Jaipur, May 8 (IANS) In a striking example of responsive governance, Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma fulfilled a long-pending demand raised by schoolgirls from Jajod within hours of hearing it during a ‘Ratri Chaupal’ in Sikar district.The students of Government Senior Secondary School, Jajod, informed the Chief Minister that their school did not offer a Science stream, forcing many girls either to opt for subjects against their interests or travel long distances to pursue Science …

New Delhi, May 8 (IANS) Vowing to clean the Yamuna River, Lieutenant Governor T.S. Sandhu on Friday identified sustainability, inclusion, culture, innovation, economic growth and compassion as the five essential pillars of Delhi’s future development. Speaking at a felicitation programme organised at JNU’s School of International Studies (SIS), of which he is an alumnus, the Lieutenant Governor underlined that governance should be responsive, accessible and humane.Sandhu identified air pollut…