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In the wake of a biker’s death by falling into a dug-up road in Janakpuri, the Public Works Department (PWD) has issued fresh instructions to its staff to be followed while carrying out building and other construction work in Delhi.

Under the new directive, all ongoing and future foundation excavation and construction works must be properly barricaded round-the-clock.

Reflective signage, warning boards, blinkers, and caution tapes are to be installed strictly and “no trench, pit, or dug-up portion shall be left open without proper protection under any circumstances”, it said.

Responsibility for compliance has been fixed on executive engineers, assistant engineers, and junior engineers overseeing the works.

In addition to construction sites, the PWD has ordered a comprehensive inspection of campus roadside drains, safety tanks, underground water tanks, and rainwater harvesting covers across its jurisdiction.

The department has warned that any deviation from the prescribed safety measures will be viewed seriously and may attract disciplinary action.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday appeared before a court at Bhiwandi in the district in a defamation case filed by an RSS activist, and presented his party’s Maharashtra unit chief Harshwardhan Sapkal as his new “surety” or guarantor for bail.

As he travelled to Bhiwandi by road after landing in Mumbai, BJP workers showed him black flags at Mulund toll plaza and shouted slogans, accusing the Congress of maligning India's image through the Youth Congress's protest at the AI summit in Delhi.

The magistrate court had asked the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha to appear in person and provide a new surety following the death of previous guarantor, former Union Minister Shivraj Patil Chakurkar, in December last year. Chakurkar had stood surety when the court granted bail to the Congress leader in 2016 upon his appearance.

Sapkal on Saturday filed an application before the magistrate requesting permission to stand as surety for the accused. After the verification of his affidavits and other documents, the court granted the plea.

Joint Civil Judge and Judicial Magistrate (First Class) P M Kolse then adjourned the case to April 4 when the recording of the testimony of witnesses will continue.

Union Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Saturday said the Centre would strive to achieve the target of creating six crore “Lakhpati Didis” under the rural livelihoods mission by 2029-30.

He said the previous target set by PM Modi to create three crore “Lakhpati Didis” by end of 2027 was achieved by 2025 with the contribution of rural development ministry's team, bankers and also state governments.

Chouhan was speaking during the Central Level Coordination Committee (CLCC) meeting and the National Launch event under DAY-NRLM (Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Rural Livelihoods Mission in Hyderabad.

“Lakhpati Didi” refers to a woman whose net income per year is Rs 1 lakh or more. To date, 3.01 crore women have reportedly achieved this milestone.

The half-burnt body of a Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) worker was found in Giridih district on Saturday (February 21).

The deceased has been identified as 45-year-old Rakesh Mahto, a former zilla parishad chairman. His body was found in a deserted place near Ghutvali in Nimiyaghat police station area, PTI reported.

Nimiyaghat police station officer in-charge Suman Kumar said, “Prima facie, it seems the man, identified as Rakesh Mahto, a JMM worker and former ZP chairman, was beaten to death and then the body was set ablaze to destroy evidence. A forensic team will collect evidence from the spot. The body will be sent for post-mortem examination.”

A murder case will be registered against unidentified persons, he said, adding that further investigation is underway.

The operator of the India-Bangladesh bus service connecting Agartala with Kolkata via Dhaka, which has been suspended for a year following political turmoil in Bangladesh, began a trial run on Saturday (February 21) for the resumption of the service, an official said.

No fresh permission is needed to recommence the service as the agreement between the governments has not been cancelled, Manoranjan Debnath, the manager of the international bus service operator, said.

The Royal-Maitri international bus service has been suspended for the past year due to political turmoil in Bangladesh, resulting in visa issues and a sharp decline in the number of passengers. With the situation improving, the operator now seeks to recommence the service and initiated a trial run.

The fare of the around 500 km journey from Agartala to Kolkata via Dhaka is Rs 2800. A train from Agartala needs to travel 1567 km to reach Kolkata via Guwahati.

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha welcomed the initiative to resume the India-Bangladesh bus service.

In a significant development in its ties with India that saw a low after the fall of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in 2024, Bangladesh on Friday (February 20) took a stance to loosen its visa and consular services at its missions located in India, including in New Delhi, Siliguri and Agartala.

The services, which were put under strong restrictions since late December 2025 amid concerns over security and protests near the diplomatic premises, saw the unloosing three days after Tarique Rahman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) took over as the new prime minister after his party swept the much-anticipated general elections in the country on February 12.

If reports are to be believed, Dhaka is moving towards normalising visa facilities for Indian nationals. However, Bangladeshi authorities are yet to issue an official notification on the matter.

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The ECI on Saturday (February 21) published the final electoral roll in Kerala after the SIR exercise, with around nine lakh names removed from the list.

The total number of voters in the state now stands at over 2.69 crore.

According to data released by the ECI, the revised electoral roll has 2,69,53,644 voters, compared to 2,78,50,855 before the Special Intensive Revision began in October last year. As many as 8,97,211 voters were removed following the SIR exercise, the ECI said.

In the revised list, male voters number 1,31,26,048, female voters 1,38,27,319, and transgender voters 277, officials said.

India's first registry of childhood cancer survivors shows a 94.5 per cent rate of five-year overall survival and nearly 90 per cent event-free survival, according to a study published in The Lancet Regional Health Southeast Asia journal.

The Indian Childhood Cancer Survivorship (C2S) study, initiated in 2016, is among the world's first registry from a resource-limited setting, researchers said.

The team, including researchers from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute and Research Centre, New Delhi, looked at 5,419 children diagnosed with cancer before turning age 18 and in remission post-treatment from 20 centres across the country. Survival data was available for 5,140 participants.

Acute leukaemia was found to be the most common diagnosis (40.9 per cent), while common therapeutic strategies included chemotherapy for 94.7 per cent of the participants, surgery for 30 per cent and radiotherapy for 26.3 per cent.

A five-year overall survival rate is the percentage of patients who are alive five years after their initial diagnosis or start of treatment, whereas event-free survival rate is the number of patients who remain free of certain complications after their primary treatment for cancer ends.

For 2,266 of the survivors who were followed up for at least two years post-treatment, the five-year overall survival rate was found to be 98.2 per cent and event-free survival rate 95.7 per cent.

MDMK chief Vaiko, an ally of the ruling DMK, on Saturday (February 21) claimed that expelled AIADMK leader O Panneerselvam has given the signal to join the DMK alliance.

This was evident in his meeting with Chief Minister M K Stalin in Chennai on February 20, Vaiko said. "He joined yesterday," Vaiko said in a lighter vein when reporters sought to know from him if the former chief minister would join the DMK alliance.

After meeting Stalin, Panneerselvam, who recently quit the NDA, had said that DMK has a chance to win the upcoming Assembly election and return to power.

There was a general feeling among the people that Stalin would become chief minister for the second term, Panneerselvam had said.

A quirky Manipuri comedy-drama "Boong" and a true crime documentary "The Perfect Neighbour" directed by Geeta Gandbhir, were in the spotlight at a first-of-its-kind South Asian celebration in London, ahead of the 2026 British Academy Film and Television Arts (BAFTAs).

"Boong", backed by Farhan Akhtar’s Excel Entertainment and directed by debutant Lakshmipriya Devi, is in the race for an award in the BAFTA Best Children's & Family Film category. An Indian American director Geeta Gandbhir is shortlisted for a Best Documentary BAFTA for her film "The Perfect Neighbour", also nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars next month.

The inaugural celebration ahead of the official BAFTA ceremony was designed as a dedicated space within the awards season to showcase the expanding international presence of South Asian storytelling and foster meaningful industry connections. The event was co-organised by Society O, a UK-based cultural platform dedicated to spotlighting South Asian achievements, and Product of Culture, a women-led strategy outlet amplifying underrepresented voices from the global South Asian diaspora.

The 79th annual BAFTA Awards will take place at the Royal Festival Hall in London on Sunday.