The apex pay scale is granted to secretaries and DGs from various services, including the administrative, police and foreign services.

Party chief JP Nadda said the manifesto was centred around six As — anna (food security), akshara (quality education), arogya (affordable health), aadaya (assured income), abhaya (social justice for all), and abhivruddhi (development)

The Indian Army is set to merge civil areas at cantonments with municipal corporations and municipalities and designate them as military stations, shedding the colonial tag. The first cantonment to be renamed a military station is Yol in Himachal Pradesh, with Secunderabad and Nasirabad among the cantonments set to shrink. Not all cantonments will become military stations as some army and civilian pockets are intertwined. The move will benefit civilians who were not getting access to state government welfare schemes and enable the army to focus more on developing military stations.

A tiger from Ranthambore Reserve has entered Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, India, where three types of big cats now reside. The tiger had been attempting to make a home near the Chambal River in Sheopur district since November 2022. Half a dozen tigers from Ranthambore have entered Kuno at different times in the past eight years, but none have made it their home. The park has three cheetahs in the wild and 19 in an enclosure. The government of India started the National Cheetah Translocation Project to reintroduce cheetahs to the country.

Supreme Court can grant divorce in cases of "irretrievable breakdown" without sending the parties to a family court, according to a Constitution bench ruling.

Unpredictable weather has disrupted the Char Dham yatra pilgrimage in Uttarakhand, with rain and snow causing road closures and accidents. Three pilgrims from Gujarat were injured when their car fell into a gorge in Tehri district on Monday, while frequent rain and snow triggered a minor avalanche near Badrinath. The India Meteorological Department has forecast further light to moderate rain and thunderstorms across Uttarakhand, with snowfall expected at altitudes above 3,200 metres. District officials have urged caution for those undertaking the pilgrimage.

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen is facing eviction from his ancestral home in Santiniketan, West Bengal, over allegations of illegal occupation of public land. Sen, who has been living in the home since February, has been accused by Visva-Bharati University of occupying 13 decimals of land without permission. The university has issued an eviction order, with Sen?s lawyers filing a petition against it. Sen has claimed the move was politically motivated, with the ruling Trinamool Congress alleging the BJP was involved in the eviction bid.

The post was earlier held by Lieutenant General Ajai Singh, a fifth-generation army officer, who retired after four decades of military service.

The western coast of Karnataka with 21 assembly seats including the two from the hills of Kodagu, is where religion drives politics, and life.