Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday shredded Rahul Gandhi for his "habit of criticising India" abroad and said taking national politics out of the country is not in its interest. Mr Jaishankar also exuded confidence in the NDA retaining power in 2024 parliamentary elections. 

To a question at a press conference on the Congress leader's strong remarks in the US against the Modi government, Jaishankar said he does not have a problem with whatever is done within India, but asserted that taking internal issues aboard was not appropriate.

"Rahul Gandhi has a habit of criticising the country and making comments on our politics whenever he goes abroad. The world is looking at us and what the world is seeing. Elections are held in the country and sometimes one party wins and at times the other party wins," he said.

Rahul Gandhi addressed a community event at the Javits Centre organised by the American chapter of the Indian Overseas Congress and said that "Back home we have a problem, and I will tell you the problem. BJP and the RSS are incapable of looking at the future. They're incapable. 

The battle of Rs2000 note has reached the apex court. The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought a report from its registry on the issue of urgent listing of a plea challenging the notifications enabling the exchange of Rs 2,000 currency notes without any requisition slip and ID proof.

A vacation bench of justices Aniruddha Bose and Rajesh Bindal passed the order after petitioner advocate Ashwini Upadhyay mentioned the matter, seeking an urgent hearing. On June 1, the top court refused to list for an urgent hearing of Upadhyay's plea challenging the notifications and said it would not be taking up such pleas during the summer vacation.

Adv Ashwini Upadhyay today submitted that the issue is very important as Maoists, terrorists and separatists were exchanging money and there are media reports saying notes worth Rs 80,000 crore have been exchanged.

"We cannot go by media reports. You mention on Friday, meanwhile, let us see the registry report," the bench said. When the matter has already been mentioned, how can the case be mentioned again, the apex court asked.

The advocate petitions stated that the essence of the entire demonetization process will be defeated, seeking urgent listing of the plea, the lawyer had earlier said the Rs 2,000 banknotes were being exchanged by criminals and terrorists without any requisition slip and ID proof such as Aadhaar cards.

The Janata Dal Secular (JDS), stunned by its worst-ever performance in the recent Karnataka election, is leaning towards the BJP and has sent feelers for an alliance for the 2024 national election, sources say.

The JDS, which won only one of Karnataka's 28 Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 election, sent feelers to the BJP weeks after the assembly election verdict. There is likely arrangement wherein BJP may leave 4 seats for JDS IN 28 Parliamentary seats of Karnataka to retain all 28 seats in alliance. 

The Congress won a big victory in the Karnataka polls, unseating the ruling BJP and dashing the JDS' hopes of playing kingmaker. JDS won just 19 of 224 seats and was reduced to irrelevance because of a clear public mandate.

The CBI today started its investigation into alleged criminal negligence leading to the Balasore train accident which claimed 278 lives after registering an FIR, officials said. A team of CBI officials, along with forensic experts, has reached Balasore district in Odisha and started the probe immediately after the registration of the FIR Tuesday afternoon, they said.

The central probe agency was roped in by the Ministry of Railways after a preliminary inquiry flagged tampering with the electronic interlocking system, which detects the presence of trains, and officials suspected "sabotage" behind the Friday accident.

"The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a case on the request of the Ministry of Railways, consent of the Odisha government and further orders from DoPT (Govt. Of India) relating to the train accident involving Coromandel Express, Yashwantpur-Howrah Express and goods train at Bahanaga Bazar in the state of Odisha on 2nd June 2023," the CBI spokesperson said.

The agency, which has little expertise in dealing with the functioning of railways, may need the help of rail security and forensic experts to get to the bottom of the case, the officials said. The CBI is planning to integrate railways experts to make the investigation more professional. 

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will contest all future elections together, including civic polls.

Shinde, whose Shiv Sena shares power with the BJP in Maharashtra, in a tweet also informed that he and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi on Sunday night.

“During the meeting, it was decided that all future elections (including the Lok Sabha, Assembly and civic bodies) will be contested jointly by the Shiv Sena and BJP. We will contest and win the elections with a majority,” the CM tweeted along with a photograph of his meeting with Shah.

Shinde and Fadnavis went to Delhi on Sunday evening and held a meeting with Shah. The CM said issues related to agriculture and cooperation were discussed during the meeting with Shah.

Go Air liquidation, Spicejet management issues, and the peak summer season has led to tremendous stress on aviation fares. The civil aviation ministry will hold discussions with airlines later in the day on issues related to airfares, which have surged on certain routes in recent weeks, according to an official.

Airfares have jumped significantly on certain routes, especially in the wake of crisis-hit Go First suspending operations on May 3. The meeting with representatives of airlines is likely to be chaired by civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, the official said.

The official also said that airfares are deregulated and the meeting is for monitoring and facilitation purposes. Amid a rise in airfares on certain routes, Scindia, last week, said the ministry was doing an analysis of routes that have been affected by the suspension of flights by Go First.

Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu today met BJP president JP Nadda and Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi to discuss an alliance ahead of the Telangana assembly election later this year and general elections next year. The meeting lasted for about half an hour. BJP and TDP may have an alliance for the Telangana assembly elections to be held this year, sources said.

TDP was a part of NDA in 2014 but quit the ruling alliance in March 2018 before the 2019 elections on the issue of special status to Andhra Pradesh.  However, both parties came together after the recent municipal elections in Port Blair.

This turn round came after PM Modi remembered NT Rama Rao, TDP founder and Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh for seven years over three terms, on his birth anniversary in his radio program Mann Ki Baat last month.

After a crash involving three trains killed more than 230 people in Odisha last evening, questions are being raised about possible operational lapses that could have contributed to the tragedy. Between 6.50 pm and 7.10 pm on Friday, two collisions took place at Odisha's Balasore between three trains, leaving a mass of wrecked compartments and coaches on top of one another.

A passenger train, the Coromandel Shalimar Express, derailed after hitting a parked goods train and another train, the Yesvantpur-Howrah Superfast, crashed into the derailed coaches.

The impact was so hard that coaches were lifted high into the air before they smashed onto the tracks. One coach was tossed on its roof. Seventeen coaches of the two trains were severely damaged.

The Railways Ministry has ordered a probe into what may have caused the crash. PM Narendra Modi is likely to visit the accident site today. 

On the poll promises made by Rahul Gandhi, the Karnataka Cabinet on Friday decided to implement the ruling Congress's five guarantees, without any discrimination of caste or religion, within this financial year, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said.

The Cabinet held a detailed discussion regarding the five guarantees and their implementation, and has arrived at decisions, Siddaramaiah who headed the meeting told reporters.

The Congress had promised to implement the ‘guarantees' - 200 units of free power to all households (Gruha Jyoti), Rs 2,000 monthly assistance to the woman head of every family (Gruha Lakshmi), 10 kg of rice free to every member of a BPL household (Anna Bhagya), Rs 3,000 every month for unemployed graduate youth and Rs 1,500 for unemployed diploma holders (both in the age group of 18-25) (YuvaNidhi), and free travel for women in public transport buses (Shakti) on coming to power.

The Gruha Jyothi scheme to provide 200 units of free electricity per month to every household will be implemented from July 1, Siddaramaiah said. However, the arrears have to be paid by the customers. Speaking about the Gruha Lakshmi scheme that provides Rs 2,000 per month to women heads of the family, also known as 'kartha', the CM said it will be implemented from August 15.

He said the application can be submitted for this, even online, from June 15 to July 15, and the applicants who want to be beneficiaries under the scheme will have to submit their Aadhaar and bank account details along with their applications.

Karnataka government is looking to ease the financial burden of implementing the promises of better tax collection. 

In a continued drive against corruption, the CBI has filed a case against IL&FS Transportation Network Ltd and its directors for allegedly defrauding 19 banks of ? 6,524 crore between 2016 and 2018.

All the banks that the company allegedly cheated on include Punjab National Bank, Bank of India, State Bank of India, Axis Bank and Yes Bank, among others.

IL&FS Transportation Network is a subsidiary of IL&FS, which filed for bankruptcy in 2018.

In an effort to improve the bilateral relationship between the two countries, India and Nepal will strive to take their bilateral ties to Himalayan heights and resolve all matters, including the boundary issue, in this spirit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday after holding wide-ranging talks with his Nepalese counterpart Pushpakamal Dahal 'Prachanda'.

In his media statement after the meeting, Modi said he and Prachanda have taken many important decisions to make the partnership between the two countries a "super hit" in the future.

Following the talks, Modi and Prachanda jointly launched several infrastructure projects. The two sides also signed seven agreements to boost cooperation in several areas including trade and energy.

The two leaders virtually inaugurated integrated check posts at Rupaidiha in India and Nepalgunj in Nepal. They also virtually flagged off a cargo train from Bathnaha in Bihar to Nepal custom yard. "We will continue to strive to take our relationship to Himalayan heights. And in this spirit, we will resolve all the issues, be it boundary related or any other issue," Modi said in the presence of Prachanda.

To further strengthen cultural and religious ties, PM Prachanda and I decided that projects related to the Ramayana circuit should be expedited, he added. Nepal is important for India in the context of its overall strategic interests in the region, and the leaders of the two countries have often noted the age-old "Roti Beti" relationship which refers to cross-border marriages between people of the two countries.

The country shares a border of over 1,850 km with five Indian states – Sikkim, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Land-locked Nepal relies heavily on India for the transportation of goods and services.