Here are the top 5 news updates of August 10, 2021:
The Bombay High Court today cancelled the Maharashtra government's Common Entrance Test (CET) for Class 11 admissions, while noting it was a case of "gross injustice" and would be a threat to the lives of students, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. "The state government does not have the power under law to issue such a notification and this court can intervene in an extreme case of gross injustice, such as this," a division bench of Justices R D Dhanuka and R I Chagla said. The court said even if a petition challenging the notification was not filed, this was a fit case for the court to take suo motu (on its own) notice. As per a govt notification issued in May this year, the CET was to be held physically on August 21 across the state for all Class 10 students before admission to the junior college.
Taking exception over "parallel proceedings and debates" on social media by some petitioners who have sought independent probe into the alleged Pegasus snooping issue, the Supreme Court today said there must be some discipline and they must have "some faith in the system". A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana, which said it would take a call on August 16 on whether to issue notice to the Centre on pleas seeking probe into the Pegasus row, said it is not against debate but when the matter is pending in the apex court it should be deliberated upon here. The bench, also comprising justices Vineet Saran and Surya Kant, said it expects that petitioners who are interested in the matter would answer whatever queries the court would put to them by way of proper debate "in the court and not outside".
India is evacuating its staff from its consulate in Afghanistan's Mazar-e-Sharif in view of the rapidly escalating violence by the Taliban around the capital city of Balkh province, people familiar with the development said today. The Indian-based staff of the consulate and a number of Indians residing in Mazar-e-Sharif are being evacuated due to the deteriorating security scenario in the city as well as areas around it, they said. It is learnt that a special aircraft of the Indian Air Force will evacuate the staff as well as the Indian citizens from the fourth-largest city of Afghanistan. It is also learnt that the consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif will continue to operate through the local staff members.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said it was unfortunate that people had to wait decades for basics like hospitals, roads and electricity, indirectly targeting the previous governments as he launched the second phase of the Ujjwala cooking gas scheme. "As we will be celebrating 75th year of Independence this year and look at the progress in the past seven-and-a-half decades, we feel that some situation and conditions should have changed decades ago," the prime minister said in his address. The prime minister formally launched the second phase of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) -- Ujjwala 2.0 -- by handing over virtually LPG connections to some beneficiaries in Mahoba in Uttar Pradesh. CM Yogi Adityanath who was present in the Mahoba event handed over the documents to the women on behalf of the PM.
Equity benchmark Sensex rose by 152 points to end at a record high today, tracking gains in index majors HDFC, Bharti Airtel and Infosys amid a largely positive trend in global markets. The 30-share index ends 151.81 points or 0.28 per cent higher at its lifetime peak of 54,554.66, while the broader NSE Nifty advanced 21.85 points or 0.13 per cent to 16,280.10. Bharti Airtel was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising around 4 per cent, followed by Tech Mahindra, HDFC, Kotak Bank, M&M and HCL Tech. On the other hand, Tata Steel, NTPC, ITC and PowerGrid were among the laggards.
