The home ministry is “aware” of the presence of Hindu terror outfits and is looking into such cases. The Centre has written to the Madhya Pradesh government to transfer the probe involving one long-time former RSS pracharak, Sunil Joshi, who was recently murdered, to the CBI. Joshi is alleged to have planted bombs in 2007 at the Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad and the Ajmer Sharif dargah.

India and Pakistan can be expected to seek to put their bilateral relationship on an irreversible trajectory of growth when their foreign ministers meet in Islamabad on July 15.

Sanskriti Express, the exhibition train in memory of poet Rabindranath Tagore, drew hundreds of visitors on Monday. The train was inaugurated at the Bally station in the morning following its arrival from Asansol after travelling to other places, an Eastern Railway (ER) official informed. On May 9, railway minister Mamata Banerjee had flagged off the train on a nation-wide journey to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Tagore.

The state governments are failing to utilise the Central funds for development works, Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Friday. He reasoned that the fiscal deficit cannot be met by leaving the Central funds unpsent. “Any finance minister wants the Central funds he allots to be spent effectively. But in the year-end, it is found that the state governments fail to spend the funds. As a result, the funds are returned to the Centre,” Mr Mukherjee said.

BJP president Nitin Gadkari has done it again! After a profuse spree of apologising for describing Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav as “dogs... who lick the feet” of the Congress and its chief Sonia Gandhi, he created another flutter Thursday night by describing Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, now on death row, as the “Congress’ son-in-law”.

A week after the Board of Control for Cricket in India said it was mulling whether to take Lalit Modi to court or not, it’s the suspended IPL chairman who has instead fired the first salvo.

The possibility of the involvement of separatists in masterminding violence in the Kashmir Valley has become somewhat evident following the interception of a conversation between two senior office-bearers of the hardline faction of the Hurriyat Conference headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

Rear Admiral S.S. Jamwal, Chief of Staff, Southern Naval Command, Kochi, was killed in a mysterious firing incident on Wednesday morning. The Navy was initially tight-lipped about the incident but later Commodore M.R. Ajay Kumar, naval officer in charge of Kerala, told mediapersons that Jamwal, 51, was killed when a pistol he was handling at the firing range misfired and a bullet entered his head.

The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) on Wednesday decided to use the Army as a “deterrent” in the Kashmir Valley to prevent the law and order situation from spiralling out of control. Government sources said the security forces will ensure strict enforcement of curfew till such time the miscreants are arrested.

The nationwide bandh called by the NDA and Left parties over the recent fuel price hike disrupted normal life across India on Monday, but with the exception of Maharashtra and Rajasthan, its impact was felt mostly in states ruled by the NDA and Left parties.