NEWS

While acknowledging India's trade ties with China, foreign secretary Harsh Shringla said on Wednesday that there were outstanding issues related to the military standoff in eastern Ladakh that needed to be addressed before the two countries could get back into a "normal relationship mode". Shringla also said the government was carefully examining options related to India's trade and investment ties with China to ensure India's security and integrity remained intact.

"Trade continues, there are investment ties that continue but all of this has to be examined very carefully and the government is examining all these options very, very carefully to ensure that our integrity and security remain intact," he said.

The Tamil Nadu government will procure tonnes of vegetables, especially tomatoes, every day and retail them in farm-fresh outlets across select districts to combat the vegetable price inflation on the back of heavy rains in the state.

The state wil buy 15 metric tonnes of tomato, which has been the worst hit as incessant rainfall and subsequent flooding hit supply at the retailers’ ends.

In a press release, the government said that cooperative departments would be deployed to procure all vegetables and sell them through the 65 farm fresh outlets across districts.

COVID-19 cases across the country are currently on a steady decline and people can be seen roaming streets without their masks once again. The wedding season in India is upon us and crowds of people in functions and marketplaces can be seen flouting the COVID-19 norms.

It seems like the worst is over when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic, but as the precautionary measures are reducing each day, the concerns of the third wave of the pandemic hitting the country are rising among the masses.

Addressing the concerns of the impending third wave, experts have stated that during the winter season in India, it is expected that the COVID-19 cases rise again marginally, but the severity and the impact of the virus on the country is expected to be milder than before.

Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw today announced the introduction of theme-based tourist circuit trains ”Bharat Gaurav Trains”.

Speaking to the media, he said that these trains will help realise the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to showcase India’s rich cultural heritage and magnificent historical places to the people of India and the world.

He further added that the core strength of the professionals of the tourism sector would be leveraged to develop/identify tourist circuits and run theme-based trains to tap the vast tourism potential of India.

Following are some of the features of the train service: