SUNDAY FEATURE

With Russia now shifting its forces to the east of Ukraine in an attempt to secure the Donbas region, Eduard Aleksandrovich Basurin, the official representative of the Donetsk region, recognised by Russia as Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), speaks exclusively to India Today's Geeta Mohan.

He not only highlighted the possibility of persisting tensions along the Ukraine-Russia border but also said that the West wanted to destroy Russia and would not stop at just that. It would go for India next.

The Congress has often complained about feeling like a third wheel to the Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra. And now, some Congress leaders have expressed unhappiness with the way their own party’s ministers in the MVA cabinet are representing them and fellow legislators in the alliance. They have asked for the party leadership to intervene.

On Tuesday, 28 Congress MLAs from Maharashtra met Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi, on the sidelines of a training programme for MLAs in Parliament.

The Congress has often complained about feeling like a third wheel to the Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra. And now, some Congress leaders have expressed unhappiness with the way their own party’s ministers in the MVA cabinet are representing them and fellow legislators in the alliance. They have asked for the party leadership to intervene.

On Tuesday, 28 Congress MLAs from Maharashtra met Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi, on the sidelines of a training programme for MLAs in Parliament.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Wednesday (April 6) urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw the 'regressive step' of making Common University Entrance Examination (CUET) mandatory for admissions to all central universities. 

In a letter to PM Modi, the Tamil Nadu CM argued that CUET will fail to provide equal opportunity to state boards educated students as well as "grossly undermine" the relevance of development-oriented learning in schools. 

Stalin, who has rallied against NEET exam for entrance to medical courses in the country, said, "There is no doubt that this CUET, similar to NEET will side-line the diverse school education systems across the country, grossly undermine the relevance of overall development oriented long-form learning in schools and make students rely upon coaching centres for improving their entrance examination scores."

AirAsia on Wednesday announced the resumption of its international flights from India to Malaysia and Thailand with flights now available from April and May onwards, its officials said.

Six new routes from India to Malaysia include Bengaluru to Kuala Lumpur (KL) and Chennai to Kuala Lumpur (commencing April 1), Tiruchirappalli to KL from April 5, Kochi - KL commencing April 18, Kolkata - KL commencing April 23 and Hyderabad - KL commencing from May 1.

Five new routes launching India to Thailand will include Bengaluru-Bangkok (Don Mueang) commenced on May 4, Chennai-Bangkok (Don Mueang) on May 4, Kolkata-Bangkok (Don Mueang) from May 2, Kochi-Bangkok (Don Mueang) from May 1 and Jaipur-Bangkok (Don Mueang) also from May 1 .