CP Chandrasekhar, a Jawaharlal University professor, has resigned from the Standing Committee on Economic Statistics (SCES), which was formed recently by the government to review India's economic data. Prof Chandrasekhar's resignation came a day after the violence at the JNU campus left 24 students injured. "It's hard to work with a government in which you have lost faith," Prof Chandrasekhar told Business Standard, adding the JNU incident had shown that "we are now living in a different world".

The Centre last month formed a 28-member panel to review India's statistical system. The decision to constitute the panel to look into statistics related to economic activity was taken in wake of widespread criticism of the Narendra Modi government over shelving reports on economic activity and credibility of the official data. The panel will hold its first meeting review meeting on the IIP (Index of Industrial Production) data for November 2019 under former chief statistician Pronab Sen today.

In an email, Chandrasekhar informed all the committee members that he would not be able to serve on the panel anymore. "...I feel that, under current conditions, this committee is unlikely to be able to restore the credibility of the statistical system, which has been undermined in the recent past," he said, reported the daily. Interestingly, Chandrasekhar was also among 108 academicians who signed a joint statement in March 2019, flagging serious concerns over increasing "political interference" in the handling of economic data.

Violence broke out inside the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Sunday night as masked men armed with sticks and rods attacked students and teachers and damaged property on the campus.

At least 28 people, including JNU Students' Union (JNUSU) president Aishe Ghosh, were injured. The Left-backed JNUSU and the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) have blamed each other for the violence that continued for nearly two hours.

The SCES has representation from various quarters. Apart from Sen as its Chairman, the panel comprises representatives from the United Nations, Reserve Bank of India, Finance Ministry, NITI Aayog, industry chambers, Tata Trust, and economists and statisticians from educational institutions. So far, only the Advisory Committee on National Accounts Statistics (ACNAS) has such a widespread representation.

The key responsibilities of the panel include a review of periodic labour force survey, annual surveys of industries, services and unorganised sectors, time use survey, index of service production, IIP, economic census, among others.

A Delhi court on Tuesday issued death warrants against four convicts in the 2012 Delhi gangrape and murder case. Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora pronounced the order today after hearing of a plea seeking the issuance of 'black warrant' against the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case. The convicts will be hanged on January 22 at 7am.

Earlier in December, the Supreme Court (SC) had dismissed Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case convict Akshay Kumar Singh's review plea, one of the four men convicted in 2012 gangrape and murder case. The top court had said that there were no grounds to reconsider his death penalty.

The apex court had already rejected the review pleas filed by the other three convicts -- Mukesh (32), Pawan Gupta (25) and Vinay Sharma (26) -- in the case, saying no grounds have been made out by them for the review. The apex court had said that it found "no error" on the face of the main judgement requiring any review.

With the December 18 verdict, the review petitions of all the four death row convicts stood dismissed. Ram Singh, one of the other accused in the case, allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail in New Delhi.

Nirbhaya is the changed name of the December 2012 gang rape-cum-murder victim. The 23-year-old physiotherapy intern was gangraped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a moving bus in South Delhi by six people. She died on December 29, 2012 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.

Traffic Police in Noida fined neary 2,000 people each day in 2019. More than Rs 14 crore was recovered in penalties, marking a 532 per cent increase in revenue as compared to the previous year, as mentioned by official data.

The police said that Rs 14.76 crore were recovered in penalties in 2019, which is a significant increase in collections from 2018 when Rs 2.77 crore were recovered in dues.  

The police issued 6,99,708 challans to vehicle owners from January till December last year, the Noida Traffic Police stated. The number of challans issued in 2019 was 22.56 per cent more than 2018, when 5,70,908 vehicle owners were booked for violations, the police data said.

In 2016, fines were issued to 1,47,143 vehicles and in 2017, 1,58,849 were booked for violations, the police said.

The revenue collection from challans in 2016 was Rs 1.86 crore, while it stood at Rs 2.77 crore in 2017, according to the data.

The government had also increased the traffic violation penalties from September 1 last year. The government passed the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2019 to tighten traffic regulations. Drunken driving, over-speeding, overloading, no seat belt, no helmet are some of the violations that saw a spike in their penalties.

Maharashtra Police force will be provided all modernised weapons and quality training required to fight the enemy, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said today.

The police force has big challenges, but the state government is committed to provide it the best training, weapons and quality standard of living, Thackeray said. He was speaking at Maharashtra Police's Raising Day parade at the Marol Police Training Centre in Andheri.

"The world is moving forward, challenges before the police force are big and the enemy, which is in front of us, has weapons and training. To tackle such challenges, whatever is best in the world, that will be provided to the Maharashtra Police force," Mr Thackeray said.

"Our police force should be a step ahead of the enemy," he said.

The chief minister lauded the contribution of the police force in making people feel safe and secure.

"While on duty, a policeman forgets whatever pressures and work stress he has, and he remains committed towards maintaining law and order for the safety of all," he said.

Apart from training, weapons and various other facilities, the most important thing required by the police force is "courage", he said. "And I can proudly say that Maharashtra Police force fully has it," the chief minister said.

The state government will take all steps to provide good quality houses and other required facilities to the police personnel, he said. After the parade, Thackeray also attended the "bhoomi pujan" of a building in Marol area for providing houses to police personnel.

State Director General of Police Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Barve, Director General of Police (Housing) Bipin Bihari and other senior police officers were present at the function.

Since the inception of Maharashtra Police force, this was the first time that the Raising Day parade was held at the Marol Police Training Centre in suburban Andheri. It used to be earlier held at Naigaon in Dadar area of central Mumbai.

Heavy fog disrupted flight operations at the Delhi airport on Monday with 20 flights diverted, four cancelled, and around 530 delayed till 12.52 pm, an official said.

Flights are operating at the airport under CAT III B conditions, which means the runway visual range (RVR) is between 50 metres and 175 metres.

Giving an update on flight operations at 12.52 pm, the official said 16 flights have been diverted and four cancelled as of now.

"Around 530 flights - which includes 320 departures as well as 210 arrivals approximately - have been delayed on Monday till 12.52 pm," the official added.

In a statement, IndiGo airline said,"Owing to dense fog in north India our flights have been impacted across India. We will continue to review the situation and provide real time updates on our social platforms."

The airline also requested passengers to check flight status before leaving home and reach out to its customer care.

Vistara airline said on Twitter that its Delhi-Mumbai flight UK933 as well as Mumbai-Delhi flight UK996 stands cancelled due to poor visibility in Delhi.

Vistara along with GoAir, SpiceJet, AirAsia India stated on Twitter that due to dense fog and poor visibility in Delhi, their flight operations might be impacted, and advised passengers to check flight status before leaving for the airport.