News and Views

Thiruvananthapuram: The Bharatiya Janata Party has drawn up its first list of 22 candidates for the Assembly elections. This list is subject to approval by the Central leadership.

Party State president Kummanam Rajasekharan said in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday that the party would finalising its candidates in three stages. Next list will be drawn up in the next few days and third list within a week.

Kerala Chief Minister’s office has denied reports that the printing of Kerala lottery tickets had been diverted from government printing presses to a private printing press.

The office said in a press release that the government had decided to increase the number of tickets being printed from 60 lakhs to 90 lakhs a day. However, two government presses could not print that many tickets per day. Hence, it was decided, in principle, that a third press with equity participation of State Small Industries Development Corporation could be considered for carrying out the printing.

Summer rain lashed many parts of South Kerala on Friday and Saturday.

Most parts of Kottayam district including Palai and Kanjirapally and some parts of Idukki district received copious rain on Friday afternoon on both days. It rained also in Thiruvananthapuram, Pathanamthitta and Alappuzha districts. Rain occurred in some parts of Kollam district too.

The Lok Sabha on Friday passed the Aadhar Bill with voice vote. The Bill seeks to make use of aadhar card compulsory for obtaining various subsidies and benefits from government.

The Congress demanded that the Bill should be referred to the standing committee of the House. It said that though the party was not opposed to the Bill, it needed further scrutiny because there are certain differences between the old and new Bill.

ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C32, successfully injected the 1425 kg IRNSS-1F navigation satellite into orbit on Thursday afternoon.

This is the thirty third consecutively successful mission of PSLV and the twelfth of its 'XL' configuration. The satellite is the sixth of the seven satellites to form the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS).