The funeral of former President APJ Abdul Kalam is being held in Rameswaram today with full military honours. Prime minister Narendra Modi, Defence minister Manohar Parrikar and few chief ministers will be among those attending the last rites. The former president passed away after suffering a massive cardiac arrest while he was addressing students at IIM, Shillong on Monday evening. He was rushed to a hospital but failed to recover.

Yakub Memon hanged in Nagpur jail after SC hearing at 3 am
After an unprecedented Supreme Court order at 4 am on Thursday, the lone death row convict in the 1993 Mumbai blasts Yakub Memon was hanged in the Nagpur jail at 6.43 am. In a first, the Supreme Court was opened for judges to hear at 3 am, the final plea against the execution of Yakub. After about 90 minutes, the judges rejected Memon's appeal to stop his execution.

Lok Sabha Speaker convenes all-party meet today
Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan has called an all party meet in Parliament today to discuss repeated disruptions in the proceedings of the House. The monsoon session is witnessing a washout even in its second week.The session is to resume today after both the Houses were adjourned till Thursday as a mark of respect to late Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.

Alert sounded in Bengal and floods in Odisha due to depression
West Bengal Government has sounded a 'high alert' in south Bengal following forecast of strong wind today coupled with heavy to very heavy rain under the influence of deep depression over North East Bay of Bengal. The meteorological department has also predicted heavy rains in many parts of Odisha due to a deep depression over the Bay of Bengal. Incessant rains have triggered a flood threat in four districts of Odisha, forcing the government to take preventive measures on war footing

Govt extends e-Tourist Visa facility to China, Hong Kong & Macau from today
The Government will extend and implement the e-Tourist Visa facility to the passport holders of China, Hong Kong Administrative Region and Macau Special Administrative Region from today.

Government clears GST amendments, states to be compensated for 5 Years
The Cabinet on Wednesday approved amendments to the GST (Goods and Services Tax) Bill to compensate states for revenue loss for five years on introduction of the uniform nationwide indirect tax regime, as has been suggested by the Rajya Sabha Select Committee.

US Issues worldwide caution for Its citizens on terror threats
The US has issued a worldwide travel caution for its citizens including in India in the wake of the increased threat particularly from the expanding global presence of the Islamic State. In its advisory, the US has mentioned that terrorist organisations like the Lashkar-e-Taiba poses a major threat to India.

Airlines offer discounted tickets for monsoon season
The monsoon season is typically a lean period for airlines. So they come up promotional offers to lure flyers. Jet Airways has launched a promotional scheme on flights within India, offering tickets as low as Rs 1,257. SpiceJet has also come up with a limited period 'monsoon sale' offering one-way airfares starting from as low as Rs 999. AirAsia India is also offering a flat discount of 20 per cent on base fares for all flights.

Sensex surges, Nifty reclaims 8,400
The Sensex advanced over 150 points to 27,724 and Nifty jumped 46 points to 8,421 on the back of broad-based buying. Buying was visible across the board. Realty, auto, capital goods and banking indices were up 0.5-0.8 per cent each.

Facebook profit falls 9 Per Cent
Facebook Inc reported quarterly revenue that beat forecasts but its profit fell 9 per cent as the social media company sharply increased spending to boost mobile revenue and future growth. For the quarter, revenue jumped to $4.04 billion from $2.91 billion. Facebook, the world's largest social network, continued to expand its reach, hitting 1.49 billion monthly active users as of June 30.

Telangana to turn panchayats into mini banks
The Telangana government will convert about 8,650 panchayat offices in the State into mini banks and mini insurance service centres. Under Digital Telangana one person in each family will be made digitally literate and the government would start digital literacy activity right from Class VI.

Ola gets no relief from Delhi HC
Justice Manmohan of Delhi high court has directed the Delhi government and traffic police to "strictly enforce" their order of January 1, 2015, by which the operation of app-based cab services was banned until they complied with the guidelines of Radio Taxi Scheme of 2006 which was amended on December 26 last year. The court passed the interim order while issuing notices to the Centre, traffic police and Delhi government seeking their response to Ola's plea for lifting of the ban. Refusing immediate relief to Ola, which is the brand name of ANI Technologies Pvt Ltd, HC noted that its petition challenging the ban order was not only "inordinately delayed" by six months, but during the period it violated the ban with "impunity".

Plane debris in Indian Ocean same type as MH370
Air safety investigators have a "high degree of confidence" that aircraft debris found in the Indian Ocean is of a wing component unique to the Boeing 777, the same model as the Malaysia Airlines plane that disappeared last year, a U.S. official said on Wednesday. A French official close to an investigation of the debris confirmed Wednesday that French law enforcement is on site to examine a piece of airplane wing found on the French island of Reunion, in the western Indian Ocean