With mercury dipping 6.4 degrees Celsius below normal in daytime in the state capital, all schools in Kamrup Metropolitan district of Assam have been closed for a week due to harsh winter, according to an official order.

Police in Maharashtra's Amravati district on Wednesday arrested a pastor hailing from Kerala, and seven others including four women, on the charge of hurting religious sentiments after a man accused them of offering money to people for conversion to Christianity, officials said.

Cold conditions gripped several parts of West Bengal on Wednesday with the minimum temperatures dipping to below 10 degrees Celsius, as the IMD said that the chill is likely to continue in the sub-Himalayan districts for the next one week.

 Food delivery platforms Zomato and Swiggy are offering more incentives to their delivery partners, a standard practice they follow on festive periods, to ensure minimal disruptions in services on New Year's Eve amid strike call by gig workers' unions.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday said saint and social reformer Sree Narayana Guru's philosophy remains a powerful answer to rising majoritarianism and social divisions in an India that boasts of economic progress even as unity weakens.

Students from the Northeast on Wednesday staged a protest at the Jantar Mantar here demanding justice for Tripura student Anjel Chakma, who died of a stab injury in Dehradun recently.

A leading Army hospital here has successfully conducted a "pioneering procedure" using a state-of-the-art 3D operating microscope, combining advanced imaging with minimally invasive glaucoma surgery, officials said on Wednesday.

 A group of people burnt alive a couple in a village in Karbi Anglong district of Assam, suspecting them to be involved in witchcraft, police said on Wednesday.