External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj Monday assured all help to the families of the four Indians killed in the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash and directed Indian missions in Ethiopia and Kenya to ensure assistance is provided to them.

Rural wages have grown 3.8 per cent year-on-year in December, the lowest ever for this month. Together with depressed farm prices — annual wholesale inflation in December was minus 0.07 per cent for “food” and 4.45 per cent for “non-food” articles — they point to an overall picture of rural stress going beyond agriculture ahead of the Lok Sabha elections starting next month.

March 8. A Friday evening. Ramdiha village in eastern Champaran. It has been more than 48 hours after Gufran’s death. Right outside his house around twenty-twenty five people have gathered and are whispering among themselves. Upon getting closer, one could discern that they were planning to go to Sitamarhi the next day. The villagers are miffed at the cold response of the local authorities, and now, they want to go to Sitamarhi to pressure the higher authorities.

New Delhi: Fifty-six of the 112 "inspiring" personalities, who were selected for this year's Padma awards, will be conferred the prestigious honour on Monday by President Ram Nath Kovind at a special function in Rashtrapati Bhavan, officials said.

Three militants were killed in an encounter with security forces in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday, a defence spokesman said.

The BJP will use leaflets to ask people whether they would vote for parties that questioned the valour of the country's armed forces in connection with the February 26 air strike and the aerial engagement with Pakistan fighter jets the next day.

 Social media platforms will deploy "appropriate fact checkers" to scan fake news and use of abusive language ahead of Lok Sabha polls, the Election Commission said Sunday.

The Election Commission on Sunday said the EVMs and postal ballot papers would carry photograph of all candidates to help voters identify the political leaders in the fray.