Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday said “Skill India Mission” is just a hollow slogan, claiming that in the name of skilled workers, the government has pushed the youth towards becoming delivery persons.

Opposing the Union Budget 2025-26 during a discussion in Lok Sabha, the Kannauj MP said there is an absence of appropriated environment for investment that is the only key for true “Vikas”.

Raising issues like the drop in the country’s position in the hunger index and cut in the education budget, Yadav said the government is dreaming of making India the food basket of the world but it will remain to be ‘jumlebazi’ (hollow slogan) unless it first feeds the hungry in the country.

“The hunger index figures are exposing the hollow progress being claimed by the government,” he said, hitting out at the lack of efforts to control price rise.

Communities near two bushfires in the northwest of the Australian island state of Tasmania have been ordered to evacuate.

Authorities on Tuesday afternoon issued emergency warnings for residents of and visitors to, the communities of Sandy Cape and Corinna due to threats posed by nearby out-of-control bushfires.

The TasAlert warnings for both communities said that the bushfires are "expected to put lives in danger."

Real estate developer Signature Global has reported an increase in its total expenses to Rs 835.89 crore during the third quarter of the financial year 2025 (Q3 FY25), up by 6.54 per cent from Rs 784.60 crore in Q2.

The company’s expenses rose by nearly 179 per cent from Rs 299.70 crore in the year-ago period (Q3 FY24).

According to its stock exchange filing, the jump in total expenses was due to a higher cost associated with project execution and completion.

At the same time, the company’s total liabilities saw a steep rise to Rs 11,525.72 crore in Q3, compared to Rs 9,852 crore in Q2 and Rs 7,181 crore in the year-ago period.

A Class 9 student who was assaulted by his classmate inside their school bus in Salem’s Edappadi passed away on Tuesday.

The police have filed a case against the accused schoolboy and an enquiry is underway.

According to Salem police, the deceased boy has been identified as Saravanan (14), the son of a railway employee in Edappadi’s Vellandivalasu area.

The classmate who has been accused of perpetrating the grievous attack is also from the same neighbourhood.

The smuggling of drugs from Myanmar into India's northeastern states continues unabated, with Tripura Police seizing narcotics worth over Rs 30 crore in the past 48 hours and arresting three drug peddlers, officials said on Tuesday.

An official stated that police in Dhalai district intercepted a truck carrying 9.24 lakh Yaba tablets worth Rs 28 crore and arrested the driver and his assistant, both residents of Assam.

Dhalai Superintendent of Police Mihir Lal Das said the Agartala-bound truck, coming from Assam, was stopped at a checkpoint in Ambassa. Upon inspection, the highly addictive Yaba tablets, also known as methamphetamine pills, were found concealed inside the truck’s oil tanker. The arrested individuals are being interrogated to identify the key figures behind the drug trafficking network, he added.

Earlier on Monday, Tripura Police had intercepted another vehicle in North Tripura district, recovering 50,000 Yaba tablets worth Rs 2.5 crore from a hidden compartment and arresting the driver.

On the occasion of Safer Internet Day, Bollywood actor Ayushmann Khurrana has joined hands with UNICEF India to raise awareness about online safety.

Taking to his Instagram handle, the 'Bala' actor shared a video wherein he is seen interacting with a group of children to better understand the online world. The actor is also seen playing educative and engaging games with children on the topic of digital safety, raising awareness for internet safety for children.

Sharing the clip, Ayushmann wrote, “t’s #SaferInternetDay, and I teamed up with UNICEF India to meet with this amazing group of children to learn more about the online world. Let’s see what they have to say….”

Talking about a safer internet world, Khurrana said, “In today’s world, people of all ages, right from children aged 5-6 years to elder people are using the internet for their ease and convenience. In such situations, it is very important to educate first time users of the internet – that is children about the perils of the internet as well as ways to stay safe online. This year for the occasion of Safer Internet Day I visited an NGO called PRATYeK with UNICEF where along with the children, even I learnt about some important safety rules of the internet.”

The number of electric vehicles (EVs) registered on the e-Vahan portal of the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has gone up to 56.75 lakh as of February 8 this year, while the total registered vehicles are 3,897.71 lakhs, Minister of State for Heavy Industries Bhupathiraju Srinivasa Varma informed the Lok Sabha on Monday.

The Rs 10,900 crore PM E-DRIVE scheme ensures accessibility and affordability of electric vehicles (EVs) through targeted subsidies and demand incentives for e-2Ws and e-3Ws on a pan-India basis including rural and semi-urban areas. The scheme also has an allocation of Rs 2,000 crore for installation of EV charging infrastructure across the country and addressing the issue of range anxiety among EV buyers, the minister said in a written reply to a question.

The emphasis of the PM E-DRIVE Scheme, which is available till March 31, 2026, is on providing affordable and environment-friendly public transportation options for the masses. The scheme applies mainly to vehicles used for public transport or those registered for commercial purposes in e-3W, e-trucks and other new emerging EV categories on a pan-India basis including Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, he explained.

Prioritising EVs for public transport and commercial use aims to provide environmentally friendly transportation options for the masses, thereby reducing overall emissions. By promoting electric mobility, the scheme intends to decrease dependence on fossil fuels and lower emissions from the transportation sector, the minister said.

Eight devotees from Hyderabad, who were returning home from Kumbh Mela in Uttar Pradesh, were killed in a road accident on Tuesday.

A minibus in which the devotees were traveling was hit by a truck near Sihora in Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh.

According to reports reaching here, seven devotees died on the spot while another person succumbed while undergoing treatment at a hospital.

One person was injured in the accident, which reportedly occurred when the truck laden with cement bags was coming in the wrong route.

A tragic road accident in Rajasthan's Dudu claimed eight lives and left six others injured as a Roadways bus lost control due to a tyre burst and collided with a car which was coming from the other side, an official said on Thursday. The accident occurred on Thursday in Mokhampura on the Jaipur-Ajmer highway when a bus jumped off the divider after losing control due to tyre burst and crashed into the car coming from the opposite side.

A day after multiple Exit polls predicted a resounding victory for the BJP in the Delhi Assembly elections, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal has labelled these surveys as fake, claiming they are part of a strategy to disrupt his party's momentum. In a post on X, Kejriwal expressed his disapproval of the results and shed light on why he believes these surveys are being manipulated.