Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday defended cutting of trees for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's poll rally, saying such a thing was done earlier too, but more trees were also planted.

The labour force participation of women in India is quite low and one of the reasons was insecurity among them in workplace, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has said.

A retired Supreme Court judge has alleged that the government was trampling on judicial independence through appointments. In an op-ed article published on Wednesday in The Indian Express, Justice Madan Lokur said the National Judicial Appointments Commission, a proposed reform to give the government more control over picking judges that was struck down as unconstitutional, is effectively in place anyhow because of the Centre’s behaviour.

A local Congress leader has been shot dead in Uttar Pradesh's Aligarh district over an alleged property dispute, police said on Wednesday. The men, who are yet to be identified, reached Mohamed Farouk's office near Shamshad market under Civil Lines police station limits on two motorcycles around 8 pm on Tuesday, said Superintendent of Police (City) Abhishek Kumar.

The Supreme Court Wednesday concluded hearing in the politically sensitive case of Ram Janmbhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute in Ayodhya and reserved its judgement.

Congress parliamentarian from Karnataka K C Ramamurthy on Wednesday tendered his resignation as a member of Rajya Sabha and is likely to join the BJP, sources said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday accused the Congress of seeing nationalism in "devotion to a family", and said the opposition party was taking its last breath.

 India's public sector banks had the "worst phase" under the "combination" of former prime minister Manmohan Singh and ex-RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, and giving the ailing banks a "lifeline" was her primary duty now, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said.