India will reopen for tourists from October 15 after being closed for more than a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the government said yesterday.

India today said it would start granting fresh tourist visas to foreigners coming by chartered flights from October 15 and foreign tourists coming by non-chartered flights from November 15.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was sworn in as a member of the state legislative assembly today, a week after she won the by-poll in the Bhabanipur constituency in south Kolkata by a record margin.

India’s Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari plans to make it mandatory for ambulances across the country have instrumental sounds instead of wailing sirens.

In a departure from tradition, West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar will administer the oath to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as a member of the state legislative assembly in Kolkata today.

India’s school closures and its children’s lack of smartphone and internet facilities amidst the Covid-19 pandemic have worsened an educational divide, the UN cultural agency said, flagging risks to young people’s futures.

1737 - A cyclone causes 40 foot waves that are believed to have killed 300,000 in Kolkata, India.

The Gauhati High Court has taken cognisance of the eviction drive at Dhalpur in Assam’s Darrang district that claimed two lives on September 23.

French clergy sexually abused more than 200,000 children over the past 70 years, a major investigation released yesterday found, and its authors said the Catholic Church had turned a blind eye to the ‘scourge’ for too long.

The Assam Congress yesterday suspended its MLA, Sherman Ali Ahmed, days after he was arrested for making provocative statements on an eviction drive around 40 years ago. In a one-line statement, Congress said that it has suspended Ahmed with immediate effect for repeatedly violating party discipline.

Demonstrators torched a police vehicle in India yesterday as tensions boiled over after clashes involving protesting farmers killed at least nine people.

India today said it would investigate cases regarding “Pandora Papers” papers that exposed how the wealthy in over 200 countries tried to protect their assets from the scanner at home.

Six people were killed when violence broke out in India's Uttar Pradesh state on Sunday after a car linked to a federal minister ran over two farmers taking part in a protest against controversial farm laws.

Mamata Banerjee yesterday cemented her position as Chief Minister of West Bengal for the third consecutive time by winning the bypoll in Bhabanipur assembly constituency in Kolkata by a record margin, five months after a stunning defeat in the assembly elections in Nandigram.

India’s army chief has said China is sending troops to their disputed border in “considerable numbers”, prompting a matching deployment by New Delhi in a development he called a “concern”.

More than five months after leading her party Trinamool Congress to a landslide victory in the state assembly polls, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee roared back in style today.

Deftly parrying her son with a bamboo cane, Meenakshi Amma belies her 78 years with her prowess at kalari, thought to be India’s oldest martial art. 

In a retaliatory move, India has decided to impose a mandatory 10-day home quarantine for all British nationals, irrespective of vaccination status, arriving in the country from October 4.

By-polls for Bhabanipur, Jangipur, Samserganj constituencies in West Bengal took place yesterday.

The stage is set for today’s assembly by-polls in south Kolkata’s high-profile Bhabanipur constituency where West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is seeking the people’s mandate to enter the state legislature in order to retain her post.